Cryptic, stop disabling our travel powers for stupid reasons.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

We now have 2 alerts that have places where we can't move fast enough. Whiteout 2 has it, and now that n00bs complained about Ascension, those who were smart enough to use it get penalized just for being clever, and they don't even get the healing buff because Cryptic implemented a stupid patch just to shut people up.

The whole point of the game is to be a superhero and use the powers you wanted. See, this is why they're in the situation they're in now. They didn't demonstrate that they could make a quality game because of stupid game mechanics like this; they've shown a lack of ingenuity and this game has lacked quality in several areas since launch.

Now, before some of you laugh and say "omg yu need ascension," I don't care either way, and most people know better but they only speak up when it suits them. I just think it's stupid to have an innate ability be taken away just because of bad level design and dumb AI. Don't lie to me; I know a few of you keep saying this, and I know who says it and who doesn't.

I doubt anything good will come out of such a simple complaint, but I figure I might as well try. :P

If you think walking around is fun, fine. I just think it's boring to play as a superhero fighting lame enemies while handicapped. Talking about how much you enjoy being nerfed and saying I should play it 'as is' is a stupid argument. :P You're welcome to post valid points about why such a nerf should be used, whiteout notwithstanding. I'll be more than happy to listen to good reasons why this should be used, if they exist.

flamingbunnyman · March 2013

I don't have a problem with travel powers being shut off in Whiteout. That makes sense. There's a freakin' blizzard, running would be hard, flying and super jumping near impossible. Take it from someone who's BEEN in a blizzard: it's hard to even stand in one.

For the alerts, I assume you mean Hi Pan and Warlord. Hi Pan, I understand. It's to stop flyers from skipping the whole alert. A better solution, IMO, would have been to wrap the level in invisible walls. Warlord, however, was a WTF moment when I realized my travel was shut off. Why? So that on my first run, I could get stuck in napalm, die, and then watch the fight from behind a force field? (thanks for the warning about THAT, by the way).

In short, agreed. Only turn our travel powerzs off when there's a good, story-based reason.

flyingfinn · March 2013

I can fly in space wearing only my leot...superhero tights.
Why would a mere snowstorm stop me from flying?

I jumped from asteroid to asteroid from the other side of the Milkyway to get to Earth.
Why would mere snowstorm stop me from jumping?

I teleported from the sun to Earth. FROM. THE. SUN.
Why would mere snowstorm stop me from teleporting?

I traveled from the Atlantis to Millennium City by superspeed.
Why would mere snowstorm prevent me using superspeed?

Because Cryptic!!!

Curse yous Cryptic!!!

EDIT*
And i thought i had though my replie enough...
But i see why it's in 'Hi Pan and the Celestial Dragoon'. It would take whole different approach to stop ranged flyers making easy to even more easier. It's not like you have to run really far.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

Guys, start giving thoughtful replies. Don't just reply with something silly like you're trying to annoy me.

flamingbunnyman wrote: »

I don't have a problem with travel powers being shut off in Whiteout. That makes sense. There's a freakin' blizzard, running would be hard, flying and super jumping near impossible. Take it from someone who's BEEN in a blizzard: it's hard to even stand in one.

For the alerts, I assume you mean Hi Pan and Warlord. Hi Pan, I understand. It's to stop flyers from skipping the whole alert. A better solution, IMO, would have been to wrap the level in invisible walls. Warlord, however, was a WTF moment when I realized my travel was shut off. Why? So that on my first run, I could get stuck in napalm, die, and then watch the fight from behind a force field? (thanks for the warning about THAT, by the way).

In short, agreed. Only turn our travel powerzs off when there's a good, story-based reason.

Yup, I agree. That's why I said here that whiteout is an exception to this rule.

tilarta · March 2013

Well, let's see, my first character has a power armor suit that runs off a minature sun.
Also, the suit is designed to fly great distances with powerful jetboots.

My Technosword character has armor designed to resist cold, since the armor generates freezing temperatures.

My Electric based character is immune to cold and wind effects (minor abilities to manipulate the weather).

My Tank character is composed of superheated rock and lava.
Also, they have high molecular density and superhuman strength.

My Wind character, well, they're a shapeshifter and can also influence the weather, so won't be stopped either.

Do you think any of those concept frameworks can be stopped by snow and wind?
Not likely!

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

Exactly. It's a silly game mechanic that should never be an absolute exception, but rather than improve the game, Cryptic implements a substandard fix just to shut people up.

sekimen · March 2013

Using Ascension to bypass limitations was as clever as using UR to cancel Legendary boss attacks (so, not that clever, just an exploit).

I don't mind limitations when they make sense. The Blizzard in Whiteout made sense IMO and the Hi-Pan alert was pushing it, but still fine by me. I agree the Warlord one was bull. They should have given him just AA Missiles that have NttG instead of shutting off travel powers completely.

Also, my character is a Soviet Bear and is used to Soviet Snowstorms, so he should be able to do what he wants in this game. Just saying.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

Yes, I had already mentioned the Ascension exploit three times now, and no, it is clever to find a way around things. Let's move on with the discussion and talk about the core issue here instead of repeating what I just said.

flamingbunnyman · March 2013

Hi Pan: Surround the platforms and walkways with storm clouds. Make them function like the generators in Serpent Lantern, ie, get too close, get fried and knocked around. Bypassing the mobs becomes possible, but dangerous.

Warlord: Mount turrets in the walls. Anything flying above a certain height takes a full auto barrage from all of them, quickly turning into red paste on the floor. Flying above the napalm is possible, but again, dangerous.

Whiteout: Characters with a certain level of Knock resistance (via Strength or other sources) can keep their travel power, otherwise it shuts off.

Not like any of tho would happen, but does that sound better than the current system?

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

Hi-Pan they should've just made the entire map bigger so people would have to move fast and so I could kite around unnecessarily. :P Increasing the level size also increases the 'wow factor' while moving fast along those floating platforms in the sky.

There are plenty of ways to make warlord harder and more enjoyable without nerfing people, and not all the solutions have to be creative ones.

Whiteout I don't even feel like thinking through whether it needs to be changed or not. I know Ascension does.

Cryptic doesn't seem to like to impress potential customers... there are plenty of ways to make this game much more awesome but when they had the time to do it, they never tried.

pallihwtf · March 2013

sekimen wrote: »

Using Ascension to bypass limitations was as clever as using UR to cancel Legendary boss attacks (so, not that clever, just an exploit).

Ice-cage's advantage still interrupts most of the bosses, like Gravitar. Wouldn't call it an exploit tho.

I understand the travel power limitation in Hi-Pan alert, because of the instance's layout. The place actually looks nice, and we wanna see it right? :biggrin: Remember, OPPRESSIVE MAGICS, or something like that.

sekimen · March 2013

pallihwtf wrote: »

Ice-cage's advantage still interrupts most of the bosses, like Gravitar. Wouldn't call it an exploit tho.

I understand the travel power limitation in Hi-Pan alert, because of the instance's layout. The place actually looks nice, and we wanna see it right? :biggrin: Remember, OPPRESSIVE MAGICS, or something like that.

UR used to cancel Therakiel's Hold and Shadow D's transformation. I'd call that an exploit :P

I have to wonder whether this complaint-thread would have even existed if Ascension still worked as an exploit to bypass no-TP areas.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

LOL

Now I'm starting to wonder why you keep mentioning Ascension like that's some sort of thoughtful response. You're starting to become quite disruptive with a somewhat unrelated topic. Maybe I'll mention some better ideas on how to fix Ascension in another thread. This is the second time I've had to ask you to stop.

Ice-cage's advantage still interrupts most of the bosses, like Gravitar. Wouldn't call it an exploit tho.

I understand the travel power limitation in Hi-Pan alert, because of the instance's layout. The place actually looks nice, and we wanna see it right? Remember, OPPRESSIVE MAGICS, or something like that.

LOL This reminds me of the advantage on ice sheath that doesn't work anymore. xD

I don't think players should be punished for exploiting bugs just because they're connecting to a private server; I think game development companies should be fully staffed and quick to fix problems with the game, but that is another topic for another day...

Like I said, I think the Hi-Pan map should've been bigger so that Cryptic wouldn't feel the need to disable things that made this game good in the first place.

sekimen · March 2013

You're the first one who brought it up and complained about it being nerfed/fixed/changed unjustly and patting yourself on the back for using a "clever" bug to your advantage. I don't really see how you can expect to say something like that and then when someone wants to argue the point, you go "Don't talk about that, it's not the point of this thread and I am right".

So yea, sorry, if you didn't want it to be a part of the discussion, you shouldn't have mentioned it yourself.

I agree that they should put more thought in the forced travel-power removals, but then again, you can't account for every variable. I mean, why is no one complaining about Lemurians calling everyone mammals, regardless of their costume? It's the same inaccuracy as the snowstorm thing. Most heroes will be affected by it, but not all of them.

I'm willing to let slide some of the uses that don't affect the gameplay too much, like the Whiteout Snowstorm and even the Hi Pan alert (the only thing allowing travel powers would do there is to bypass content. It's a really rough solution, but ultimately, not that big of a deal, especially since you have enough time to know "hey, travel powers don't work here").

The Warlord one is an actual issue since it offers no notification or even half-assed reasoning, while keeping a severe death penalty when you can easily die due to your TP not working all of a sudden.

fantasycharacter · March 2013

flamingbunnyman wrote: »

For the alerts, I assume you mean Hi Pan and Warlord. Hi Pan, I understand. It's to stop flyers from skipping the whole alert.

Why not make it a kill all mission? Or put a force field around hipan that drops when the last henchman is killed?

sekimen · March 2013

fantasycharacter wrote: »

Why not make it a kill all mission? Or put a force field around hipan that drops when the last henchman is killed?

Then people would bypass it by KBing everything into the Abyss.

fantasycharacter · March 2013

sekimen wrote: »

Then people would bypass it by KBing everything into the Abyss.

I am having trouble understanding how facing each opponent and dealing with them (whether that be melting them or kbing them the abyss), is bypassing anything.

jellycupsowbug · March 2013

If you just knock them, they come back. You might as well be running past them. (I've seen this sort of thing done before, too.)

In a weaker group, this becomes a difficulty multiplier, because the people that go down while fighting Hi Pan will not be able to return in a timely manner. Fewer players in the fight increases the likely hood of Hi Pan's health resetting because he is "out of combat".

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

This is now the third time you've talked about just one aspect of the subject of not disabling travel powers to try to keep players bounded within a desired game experience.

....you've missed the point 3 times now and you're acting like I have some kind of hidden agenda against fixing exploits with Ascension.

If you like, you can talk about how changes to Ascension will affect these parts of the game or why it shouldn't be changed, but instead of doing something along those lines, you decided to post a disrespectful reply while bringing up a specific power when this thread is not even about just that.

I'm not here to tell you how to talk, but I can't tell you how to understand what I'm trying to talk about here either. Now this discussion is becoming completely disrupted just because of your paranoia.

sekimen wrote: »

You're the first one who brought it up and complained about it being nerfed/fixed/changed unjustly and patting yourself on the back for using a "clever" bug to your advantage. I don't really see how you can expect to say something like that and then when someone wants to argue the point, you go "Don't talk about that, it's not the point of this thread and I am right".

So yea, sorry, if you didn't want it to be a part of the discussion, you shouldn't have mentioned it yourself.

I agree that they should put more thought in the forced travel-power removals, but then again, you can't account for every variable. I mean, why is no one complaining about Lemurians calling everyone mammals, regardless of their costume? It's the same inaccuracy as the snowstorm thing. Most heroes will be affected by it, but not all of them.

I'm willing to let slide some of the uses that don't affect the gameplay too much, like the Whiteout Snowstorm and even the Hi Pan alert (the only thing allowing travel powers would do there is to bypass content. It's a really rough solution, but ultimately, not that big of a deal, especially since you have enough time to know "hey, travel powers don't work here").

The Warlord one is an actual issue since it offers no notification or even half-assed reasoning, while keeping a severe death penalty when you can easily die due to your TP not working all of a sudden.

roughbearmattach · March 2013

Ascension still works in Hi-Pan alert.
So does Vapor Form.

I have toons with each of those powers, because they have superspeed and acrobatics, and occasionally need to fly. In fact, last time Hi-Pan was around, I flew over the temple building and found some unfinished graphics, "White Box". You can fly over to the little islands here and there.

Also, you can fight Hi-Pan by simply knocking all his minions off the ledge, and then walking to Hi-Pan.

Anyway . . .

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

Guys, I'm simply reminding you politely that this thread isn't about Ascension or this power or that power. I don't mind people bringing up such and such a power or whatever component of this game they need to talk about to discuss why disabling travel powers is good or bad, but this is really starting to get out of hand. The worst part about this is I'm usually the one who always ends up with most if not all of the blame...

It's impractical to act like I have some kind of hidden agenda about some random power or feature of the game for no real reason.

I mean, you can talk about powers if you like, but if you change the subject I'll just have to abandon this discussion and wonder if a thread about substandard fixes will lead back to this topic.

crypticbuxom · March 2013

Whiteout's blizzard was definitely a nice add on that made the mission even more immersive. But looking back those kind of mechanics need a way to work around. Maybe based on what travel power you have or your primary super stat. Strength unlocks ground travel, dexterity unlocks flight, intelligence or ego unlocks teleport, and tunneling is like "screw you blizzard".

Cryptic isn't innovative or clever enough to expand on mechanics to invoke true immersion though. We get what we can.

jonesing4 · March 2013

Ascension, Ascension, Ascension

What was the point of the thread? You seem really upset that people aren't conforming to the lofty intellectual standards you had for this discussion... but it seems pretty much like a vanilla complaint thread. So you just wanted a legion of people shuffling in and agreeing with you about something pretty obvious? That's... weird, I think. But, whatever blows your whistle.

Yes, against all previously known scientific discovery, we have now determined that locking out travel powers is a moderate annoyance. Glad someone had the courage to reveal the truth publicly.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

LOL

Do I really need to explain the point of this thread? The fact that you would even say you consider my intellectual expectation of you as lofty is an insult to you. Am I overestimating you now?

I already answered your question before you asked it in post #19. I consider the previous sentence an insult to your intellectual capacity, but you just told me that's too lofty.

.....anyway, I'm not sure if whiteout needs a workaround or not, but...

.....going to leave most of any redesign up to Cryptic and everyone else here. I do know that Cryptic tends to accept bad ideas.

cryptickalidor · March 2013

Hi Pan is interesting because none of those floating islands are actually solid. I have a pseudo travel power that I can fly with in there and I tried landing on them and just fell through it as if it weren't even there.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

I'd like to hear what people would think about a similar map with a faster pace (i.e., travel powers).

thatcursedwolf · March 2013

lucyinspacewithdiamonds wrote: »

I'd like to hear what people would think about a similar map with a faster pace (i.e., travel powers).

Fly up and over and right to Hi Pan, no thanks, I can handle the half minute it takes to walk between the three pulls to get to him.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

Oh, and teleporting to the end of Harmon Labs is okay, right?

thatcursedwolf · March 2013

lucyinspacewithdiamonds wrote: »

Oh, and teleporting to the end of Harmon Labs is okay, right?

Didn't know you can do that. That power should probably be suppressed too.

cyraxis · March 2013

This thread has no point. Whiteouts tp disable is for thematic reasons. It is a way to set the story. Deal with it.

Hi Pan is also not a serious problem. they put it in there for a reason.

Warlord caught me off guard the FIRST TIME I DID IT. Then I learned from that.

Lucy are you seriously complaining about these issues or do you just like creating conflict? Please stop attacking ANYONE with a different opinion.

inb4 I get attacked by lucy for not agreeing with her.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

LOL

Great, another biased jerk who hates me. Thanks for the lulz in the maze looking for the elusive purpose of this thread. Several others have obviously beaten you before you started.

Dumping this one guys... sorry.

chalupaoffury · March 2013

Yeah, I'd rather they disabled teleport in the warlord map. I'm getting sick of that specific troll.

As for them disabling the rest of em? Eh, it's one map for like 10 minutes. That really bugs you? I mean, hell, if it does? I really can't see how having to kill everyone to make hi pan accessible is a bad idea. I wish they'd do that in warlord, too, because I'm sick of being b***hed at for actually wanting to clear out the mission. I collect weapon boxes, so it's kinda necessary, and a few of my toons are serious knockers. Can't be helped, force is impossible without accidentally drawing some extra mobs.

I'd go off on the "if I attack you ***** at me for knocking, but if I don't you ***** at me for leeching" rant, but that's another topic entirely.

bioshrike · March 2013

If you could fly during the warlord fight, it'd kinda remove the threat of his burn patches.

The disable in Hi Pan is to force you to fight your way to him.

I don't mind travel power lockouts as long as they're *reasonable*

towershield · March 2013

Did there really need to be a thread made about this? The bottom line is: If you can't handle not being without your travel powers for those few brief instances they're disabled for then simply don't do that content ever again; Cryptic isn't going to change things around to suit your pet peeves.

A few minutes of quiet critical thinking and deductive reasoning would have led to the same conclusion.

fantasycharacter · March 2013

jellycupsowbug wrote: »

If you just knock them, they come back. You might as well be running past them. (I've seen this sort of thing done before, too.)

In a weaker group, this becomes a difficulty multiplier, because the people that go down while fighting Hi Pan will not be able to return in a timely manner. Fewer players in the fight increases the likely hood of Hi Pan's health resetting because he is "out of combat".

Yes I have seen that.

What i meant was why not make the kb into the abyss count as a death? Require players to kill all henchmen (whether melting or kb off the cliff), then have the cinematic kick in for hipan upon the last henchman's death, then go fight him.

I think the real reason is not for the bypassing, because if you made it kill all that problem is solved. I think the real reason is for the yin/yang mechanic.

roughbearmattach · March 2013

So why exactly do certain players get banned a lot?

Hmm.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

`There are too many ridiculous replies from people who don't even know why I'm talking about missions that I find extremely easy. The ones who do get it can now see why this thread will get 0wned. The fact that the clueless ones don't cringe when I have to point out to other people that they just insulted their own intelligence is very disturbing at best.

darqaura · March 2013

lucyinspacewithdiamonds wrote: »

`There are too many ridiculous replies from people who don't even know why I'm talking about missions that I find extremely easy. The ones who do get it can now see why this thread will get 0wned. The fact that the clueless ones don't cringe when I have to point out to other people that they just insulted their own intelligence is very disturbing at best.

Yeah I can see why you get chat banned alot.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

Yup, because getting silenced 20 times isn't annoying. Thanks for the heads up.

I guess I was being too naive expecting a thoughtful reply.

taintedmess · March 2013

sekimen wrote: »

Then people would bypass it by KBing everything into the Abyss.

I don't think that actually counts as a kill as they just re-spawn so KB into the abyss would just make the mish take longer

lucyinspacewithdiamonds · March 2013

I need a drink.....

cryptickalidor · March 2013

In Bleak Harbinger they give you a free travel power though, so there's that.

thatcursedwolf · March 2013

cryptickalidor wrote: »

In Bleak Harbinger they give you a free travel power though, so there's that.

One that's actually superior to the normal travel power version.

towershield · March 2013

cryptickalidor wrote: »

In Bleak Harbinger they give you a free travel power though, so there's that.

Isn't that the same disc you get in Sky Command as well?

chalupaoffury · March 2013

lucyinspacewithdiamonds wrote: »

`There are too many ridiculous replies from people who don't even know why I'm talking about missions that I find extremely easy. The ones who do get it can now see why this thread will get 0wned. The fact that the clueless ones don't cringe when I have to point out to other people that they just insulted their own intelligence is very disturbing at best.

Does it hurt being that much of a pretentious *****? I bet it does.

Hey, can we get a forum ignore feature in here? I heard em mentioned, and this is exactly why we need them.

Get over yourself lucy. Just because people disagree with you, doesn't mean they don't understand you. God, with all the ******** you do about this game, why not go play something else? We're sick of hearing you anyway, as is evidenced by the everyone who's telling you that they can see why you get chat banned. Chill the hell out, already. Jeez.

Can we get a smackwell to lock this thread? It's obviously just here so she can feel superior about herself, and seems far past a troll thread.

Cryptic, stop disabling our travel powers for stupid reasons.

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