Posts made by Arkandel

@ThatOneDude I don't agree with that estimate. Sure, if we're starving XP across the board other spheres can have an advantage simply because their power curve climbs at a faster rate, but especially for MU* where you pretty much need some sort of progression to maintain player interest it's a very artificial way of looking at it.

Even in 2.0 if we're into the 60+ post-CGen XP ranges and assuming equal player competence I'd take a Mage built toward a certain job (combat, investigative, whatever) than any other class. I've found those who disagree base their objections on mages who are completely bad or unprepared at what they're supposed to be doing, yet the other class isn't; for example who don't realise they are being targeted by Vampires (but the Kindred know about Mages and their own weaknesses), or who are caught flat-footed and have nothing ready for the occasion (but the attacker is ready to go), etc.

@Cupcake That's what I mean. One of my dogs is just...messed up - she's lovely with people including kids (my niece and her friends used to basically treat her like a doll when she was a puppy, carrying her around everywhere and she loved it). Even bigger dogs are fine in her books, she gets along with them famously.

Any fluffy cute thing though (she's a fluffy cute thing herself) just puts her in a white hot rage if they try to sniff her butt too long, or seem reserved about her sniffing their butt or... anything. She hasn't bitten any dogs but I've no doubt she would if she was allowed so quite often I just pick her up if there are other fluffballs around or just allow her no possibility of contact with them.

Dogs don't need to be perfect but we do, else it's on us. We can't expect everyone to love them, and we damn well can't expect them to get bitten and shrug it off.

A coworker is waiting for the elevator in his building this morning when its doors open and this shiba dog comes flying out and bites him on the foot, through the jeans, breaking the skin.

The woman who owns the dog yells at him denying the dog bit him (despite, y'know, the blood and actual bite on his foot, which he took pictures of since just in case); her daughter comes out of her apartment and yells at him some more ('why do you hate dogs?!'). Oh, and it's apparently the second time there's been a bite incident with that one.

People like that are giving all pet owners a bad name.

@Insomnia Yeah. The real XP comes from tagging though - you still get some for just being there but ... each tagged boss is worth 50k XP, that's huge.

Edit: You can use group-finder to get an invasion on a PvE server... donefixed.

@Apu So some results:

My warlock was level 22 on Friday night when I started leveling him up just 'cause. He's 92 as of this morning.

His last quest was somewhere in Tanaris, he still wears level 40ish gear - at some point I realized it was stupid queuing for 5-mans when I could do invasions instead. He's never even stepped foot in Outlands, Pandaria or Northrend (I need to go get some flight paths at some point though!).

If I'm invested in it a level takes about 10 minutes past 60. What I do is farm the same invasion by relogging after phase 2 until it has about 15 minutes to finish, then I actually do it all the way for the chest. making sure to kill the bosses in phase 3 since they give massive XP when they die (but don't be dead when they do or you get nothing, just tag and stay way back if needed).

The plan is to hit 100 tonight then open about, dunno, a zillion chests to fully gear up to 700+ in about a minute after.

@Insomnia There's a flipside to it though and it's...well, it's just ranting online. It doesn't mean anything if a tiny little (albeit very vocal) subgroup is 'very mad'. Who cares?

If they cross into real life, doxxing, stalking then yes - it's a police matter. But those are, even for the lofty standards of those over-entitled people, way on the extreme side; the vast majority of it is just talk.

I dunno. I get celebrities these days need to have a 'social network presence' {tm} but they could hand it out to a professional to handle on their behalf and separate themselves from the toxicity. Then if that crazy-ass lady is cursing their man-bits to rot and fall off because the last product they put out didn't match her expectations, well, okay!

@Taika What I dislike about Mage:

1. It encourages people who know the system better than others (it intimidates the fuck out of many players) to try and do all the things in any given situation. They just take over entire scenes while others watch not knowing how to use their Spirit 3 or if they can really do this thing with Fate, does it work like that?

2. It really really turns characters into power-bots and plots into problems to solve. Very often it devolves from "what would my character do now" to "what power should I use now".

@Apu If you just AFK the invasion then the XP is dramatically cut, though. Those big elites are giving me 40k XP each once tagged at 66ish.

If you have characters to level now is the time!

Invasions give insane XP if you participate. Now that credit is shared for mobs there's no contest... just remember a few things:

1. Get in a vehicle, it's going to save you a lot on repair bills... and you get to AoE tag, which some classes can't do at lower levels.

2. It's phases 1-2 which yield the more XP/hour by a fair bit.

3. If you want gear at 100, save your chests and open them when you ding max (pre-Legion) level since that's when their contents are determined.

4. Don't waste time traveling (especially before you have flying/flight paths). Either join a looking-for-group group to let them phase you into where you already are, or log out after phase 2 to re-start the event.

I was getting a level every about 5-7 minutes with just heirlooms pre-60 so... it's pretty decent.

Happy hunting!

"I paid $20 to buy your product, that means I own you."

Updated with the stuff!

Friday.

@Insomnia ... What a time to be alive.

Even if he played sports or sang songs or whatever makes you famous these days... it's a consequence of it, not a natural extension. We've the right to buy t-shirts and tickets, not show up at these guys' door.

@Roz If a friend of yours owes you so much money they haven't paid back in a reasonable amount of time then you basically have every right under the sun to do them no further favors ever. If they were decent people they'd try to make it up to you - if not financially if they simply can't then in any other way possible, not ask for more breaks.

@Thenomain said in Good or New Movies Review:

See, the problem I have with the entirety of nerd arguments is they usually boil down to: This is not what I understand and/or prefer, therefore it is wrong. As long as there is the acceptance that the argument is over opinion, then the arguments can be pretty interesting.

In a similar vein the problem I have with the majority of such arguments is that they're entirely subjective and nearly always a matter of preference. There's no way to prove anything either way since it usually refers to fictional characters and situations so unless everyone involves likes chatting about it even if they disagree it's just not productive.

Who is the 'best cold villain'? Who'd win in a fight, Superman or Batman? Best author, Martin or Tolkien?

My first inclination was to say they should have scaled it up, allowed more modular options to ease players into it, etc...

... Then I realized they've already exceeded their goal, so ... I dunno. I wonder how many of those copies will actually get played, as opposed to sitting on shelves by the people who can afford $200 for a single RPG - but I'd probably be wrong about that, too.

Although I can understand why they had to cover their asses with "you're going too fast! are you a passenger?" the implementation leaves something to be desired.

I've been told I'm going too fast on the following occasions:

• Stopped at the traffic lights... as a pedestrian.
• On the bench between sets at the gym
• On the toilet (don't judge me)

Come on, Niantic!

@Lotherio said in Historical MU*s:

@Arkandel said in Historical MU*s:

Players should provide the majority of Things To Do. But it's still staff's responsibility - on historical MU* and otherwise - to facilitate, encourage and get out of the way of them doing so.

Agreed, completely.

I'm okay talking about Things To Do on historical mu*s and pondering ideas for staff meta on such places, just not as defense of my own interest.

Historical Mu*s have the advantage of more real challenges to groups and communities. Its not played up nearly enough though.

That's very interesting, thanks for posting it.

I had a question though - the fact the majority of players won't be nearly as versed as you are in the setting's history also reflects a different one; neither will most of your Storytellers. What are your thoughts about that other than pointing them to posts such as this one or (presumably) more detailed ones on a MU*'s wiki?

While we're at it, even modern day games have had the blues about their players misinrepreting theme or simply using what's familiar to them instead of reflecting on the real thing; for instance St. Petersburg (set in Russia, obviously) often featured what I could only describe as the same kind of thing you'd run into any major US-metropolis based MU*, only with more vodka and different names. Is that something that would/could frustrate you as a game-runner?

@Coin https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/montecookgames/invisible-sun/#project_faq_180803

But yes, $200 is a lot for an new RPG product. It certainly cuts most people without disposable income right out including students and teenagers.