Best posts made by Tempest

@ThugHeaven

Yeah, that was a huge source of drama when the game 'rebooted' a while back now. (2 years? Idk.)

They had rather strict guidelines for what was 'acceptable' for people to app their characters in as when the game first started (mind you, this is the game where you could get denied for being 3 inches too tall or having hair that was too long), and they approved a couple of concept that were /way/ different than what the rest of the playerbase was told they had to play.

People weren't happy. Surprise.

SoI went very quickly from 40~ people on each night, down to 15~, and around that time, staff apparently decided the problem was that people could complain about stuff on the game's forums, so they completely shut those down (later to return with like, only the Announcement board enabled), and of course now the game is down to less than 5 people being logged on at any given time. (I personally find it very amusing when these games decide to axe player freedom of speech by doing stuff like shutting down forums or changing forum rules to remove stuff like a 'general discussion' board. I've seen it happen elsewhere, and it is always the death knell.)

@sunny said in Genosha (Interest Poll):

@tempest

PLENTY of games have had a 1 year+ lead time where people knew about them, were off and on excited about them, and so on...and went on to be very successful.

Can you name any, besides <insert generic multisphere WoD>?

Straying further away from the preference discussion....I feel like it's worth repeating that X-Sphere in particular has a number of advantages that I'm not sure any other Comic sphere would have.

2 separate groups that are both at odds but also in a way working for the same goal and struggling with the same basic problem.

Briefly back closer to discussing the preference of small/wide focus...In a way, this kind of reminds me of how in nWoD, Vampire tends to be the most 'self-sustaining' splat because the players interacting with each other can basically be plot in and of itself if they want.

If you did Gotham only or Justice League only or something like that, I get the feeling it'd just be a string of plots with people possibly not really connecting in the same way.

Also @Chet , I've played Villains on comic games before, and the usual problem I see is that they only ever get brought out for some plot once a month or whatever. Which isn't really worth being a Player Character.

The SW Saga edition games tend to have this +map system that I always thought was fucking AMAZING. You can make a grid in the MU and put markers on it to represent trees or walls and leave a spot open to mark a doorway, etc, and then players can put their chip on it to represent their character and move it around/etc.

It's been a while since I've messed with it, so I don't remember all the details, but I remember falling in love with it.

I'm with @Derp. Not that it really matters, either way, I imagine we'll all get used to the new format quickly enough.

Rabblerabble change! And all that.

Answer #1 : Players need to be on relatively even terms. Disparities in XP levels just breeds saltiness. And at some point somewhere, there should be an xp cap. 900xp is just insane. Like, for me, that's not even from a "omg so strong mechanically!!!!!" kind of angle. It's just...goddamn, you can literally buy every fucking thing imaginable with 900 xp. Your character is a mary sue on steroids who can do everything. That game isn't going to be fun.

Give people enough xp to be AMAZING at their thing. 400, 500, 600? Who cares, go for it. Don't give them enough xp to be amazing at every fucking thing.

Answer #2: All you need is Staff who is willing to tell people NO when they want to do something that isn't done with people's fun in mind. If some 900 xp mage gets mad at a 900 xp werewolf, if the mage shows up to a scene and goes "i atomize the werewolf", you just say no. Find another way to work it out.

If there is some retarded nonsense going on like the mage wants to kill the werewolf because the werewolf tasted the mage's girlfriend's breastmilk or some crazy shit (thanks, Fallout MU), you just siteban all 3 people on the spot and move on.

The problem with a game like Fallcoast and obnoxiously high XP, is that there might as well be 0 oversight. Staff on TR and FC actively does not WANT to be involved in their game. They want everybody to STFU and go play in their corner and leave staff alone so they can go play in their corner. Like, dating back to when I actually played TR, you had Shane (vampire) running around with some silly effect 24/7 and going "HAHAHA I CAN'T DIE! MY HEART IS CUT OUT AND IN A BOX SOMEHWERE!!!! FUCKYEAH KINDRED VODOUN!!!!!" and people making Septemi characters specifically to kill him (being the vampire bloodline with a "dispel magic" power), people starting fights in Elysium with 0 consequences, people unfreezing coteries and instantly being given Prince, etc, etc, etc.

The answer is always going to be "is your staff any good?" XP tiers are irrelevant. With 10xp or 1000xp bad staff is bad staff and bad game culture is bad game culture.

Just because people "can" theoretically do things, doesn't mean staff should let them, on the game. And no, staff doesn't need to specifically HR out every little thing, they just need to be paying attention and willing to say no in specific cases, and not be afraid of temporarily upsetting players.

TL;DR Make xp tiers available to everybody. The only requirement should be "hey, can you like...put a little more effort into your character's story, and make sure they make sense? No 18 year old mages with 500 xp and a mastery, please." And please, put an actual hard cap somewhere.

IMO, the only 'beneficial' reason to why, is I think to prevent Shenanigans.

Monday, Jim is on Planet Exdee doing Z. Tuesday, he's halfway across the universe PKing Jane with his friend because something happened while he was doing Z and she HAS TO DIE RIGHT NOW.

It's a bad example, but I think everybody knows what I mean.

Overall, I think we all know there's not really any good reason for it (unless you're a serious stick in the mud, not necessarily a bad thing, but being a stickler on some stuff is just boring), but it's kind of 'left in place' because a lot of MUers have no real 'filter' when it comes to stuff.

There's stuff a lot of us will go 'uh yeah that makes no sense, stop that', but there's always the handful of people who will (ab)use things to the utmost limit possibly imaginable and for anti-fun things if there's not actual rules telling them to knock it off.

Basically, the same reason a lot of rules/etc get implemented. Some small handful of people fucked everything up for the rest of us and it's easier to have broad rules than have to deal with every specific situation as staff.

@Social-Diseases said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:

I just want a canon Marvel game set on Utopia and in San Francisco.

I dunno what that has never happened.

Too many MUers are hipsters who hate canon or just think telling somebody 'no' or limiting concepts/character options is a grievous crime. You're not allowed in MUing to tell other people their ideas are fucking retarded, or you're the ' wrong fun police'.

What do you mean I can't play Batman but as a woman who is gay and makes sure EVERYBODY knows that ALL THE TIME. In fact, being gay is the focal point of my Batman's entire character. It's what she fights for. Also her parents didn't die, because she saved them at the age of 5. But she's still Batman.

No, not Batwoman. Brucilla Wayne, Batman.

@sunny said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@tempest

Those people still aren't hurting anything, and it's best to keep your mouth shut rather than going to those games' development threads to poo all over everything.

I would argue that it is a form of predatory behavior, after a certain point, when it's clear they're not doing it for the sake of enjoying making the game (and then losing interest), but for the attention that comes with it (and then tossing the game when they no longer have that 'owner of the shiny new WoD game' tag), but...I'll save that for another day and won't post about that again here.

Again, Cobalt isn't on that list for me.

I can't imagine ever playing on a Sailor Moon-only game, even though I actually liked it (in the day). A game where Sailor-fu is part of the setting/theme, sure. But Scouts and only scouts? Too many other anime-y things I'd rather play with. Gimme a Fate Stay Night/etc themed game.

Does Utopia mean no cancerous horde of teenage OC brats wanting to go to mutant high school and making whoever apped X-Men want to blow their brains out?

Despite playing/staffing on multiple hero games, I've never been the biggest actual comic nerd, so I don't know all the details of every bit of canon. (I read /some/ utopia stuff, I think. AvX crap. Been years.)

The 'gamer' in me thinks magic jewelry that boosted stats or a ring of temporary invisibility, etc kind of stuff would be awesome for that more....D&D-esque sort of feel.

But god that'd be a trainwreck.

Every archetype of character would be scrambling to collect the specific set that maximizes what they can do.

Maybe if there was some sort of...'you can only wear one magic artifact, because magic interference' or some shit.

@icanbeyourmuse said:

Okay! @Bobotron and I have the server for the SM place set up for anyone who wants to connect and help out or just be there for the building process.

107.191.119.85 port 2015

Dang, ya'll.

I legit laughed at this. The style/role thing got me.

@Insomnia said in General Video Game Thread:

@Jaded said in General Video Game Thread:

@Arkandel
If you like JRPGs Trails in the Sky is damn good.

The entire Legend of Heroes series is good. The most recent one out on Steam is Trails of Cold Steel, with 2 on the way soon and 3 in development. Cold Steel is the 11th game in the series, although they can all be played separately, or within their own trilogies. There's a couple of Legends of Heroes games that haven't made it over here though.

Trails of Cold Steel Is also new, but not; came out on Steam in August, but was originally a 360 and PS3 game. It's a good port though.

Be prepared if you pick up any of the Legends of Heroes though to spend a LOT of time in game (main story of Cold Steel and extras clocks in at 84.5 hours, completionist says 111 hours), and lots of anime cut scenes.

Trails of Cold Steel is definitely fun if you like JRPGs. It's very Persona 4-ish (or was 3 the one where you did 'school stuff' between Persona-stuff. I forget).

Recently played through about half of it (if it's actually 85 hours maybe uhh less than half. Was at the visit to the Great Plains place) before my attention drifted. Kind of a recurring thing with me when it comes to video games, nothing against the game itself. The only minor complaint I have was the constant inability to select your party. It made sense in the story, but still bleh.

I got the previous 'trilogy' of Legend of Heroes too, but haven't touched that yet.

Pastebin, AKA ghetto googledocs.

@Ominous said in Eliminating social stats:

Random crazy thought: what if instead of +vote giving xp, it gave social points that are public knowledge, so that naturally sociable and enjoyable players ended up with characters that have a high social stat as it were. Maybe let these points be used in some auction system during a social contest with the highest bidder winning.

Another random crazy thought: what there was +upvote code much like what this forum has, only you can be upvoting only one person at a given time. It would represent who the crowd thinks is the most dominant presence in the scene. This would only be helpful in larger scenes, but the more upvotes a character has, the greater the bonus to social rolls they have.

This just changes the issue.

Just because you go do a lot of bar rp every day and get a bunch of +votes does not mean you are socially savvy or have a lot of influence.

Did anybody play that Southpark game yet?

Haven't watched the show in yeeeaaars, but it's mildly tempting to pick it up. I have fond memories.

@Roz said:

If you like robots in your sci-fi, I staff on Transformers: Lost and Found which will, in fact, eventually have Firan's combat system installed (with permission). Our code-wiz Pax (Sparks on here) has just been crazed with RL.

I would love to get to play a fireball-throwing witch somewhere.

Or female-Bronn. Probably female-Bronn.

Tenebrae is the only place I know, also.

I actually considered looking at Blood of Dragons enough that I actually went to their wiki. I immediately recovered from my temporary psychotic break.