And the mask comes off.

[LaughingAlex]

You never put a katana on your back it was worn on your left side (Katana is a right handed art) and your blade is facing up in the sheath (curve side is up) There is an entire art just on drawing the sword as a strike. You can actually do a partial draw and block the other guys sword draw; then finish the draw cutting him dead. I had a Katana/sr and sometimes I would laugh at my toons attack. Funny stuff for sure

I know you would never put a blade on the back silly I actually posted something earlier about that.  I honestly laughed at a lot of melee attacks though.  As I said, only enjoyed claws/titan weapons/staff fighting, even then I thought a few moves were at best impractical.

[LaughingAlex]

in a game that I am arresting purse snatchers with radiation poisoning, excessive force doesnt seem to be a problem. having my demons restore the "peace" with hellfire is right there next to that.

We are talking about the practicality of things actually, like animations.

[Arcana]

We are talking about the practicality of things actually, like animations.

Some of us are.

The point is that while its perfectly acceptable to point out that the martial and melee weapon techniques are not realistic in depiction, its also equally valid to point out that's not a fair criticism for a game in which the devs had no intention of making them realistic and actively strove to make them not realistic, by attempting to make them over-the-top visually interesting instead.  Also because the devs felt realism in that area was a triviality given the fact that there exists no practical katana technique that counters being incinerated, electrocuted, or brainfried.  Accounting for the accurate physics of wielding extremely large objects as melee weapons would be an odd priority when those same laws of physics are ignored when wielding lightning.

There's no such thing as the correct technique to wield a broadsword against a giant robot with a flame thrower and force fields.  The correct technique in that situation uses your feet, not your arms, and involves running very fast in the opposite direction.

Some players prioritized certain things over other things, like the technique of martial arts kicks, and believed other things like the mechanics of warhulks or the physics of radiation blasts were things you were supposed to punt to the devs.  But other players felt differently, and the devs squared that circle by not caring about any of it, to any serious degree except where designers voluntarily chose to selectively use it to guide style.

[thunderforce]

Some players prioritized certain things over other things, like the technique of martial arts kicks, and believed other things like the mechanics of warhulks or the physics of radiation blasts were things you were supposed to punt to the devs.

(I completely agree with what you wrote, I'm just overanalysing).

I think what always struck me about Martial Arts, especially before the release of alternative power animations, was that it was a sort of cousin of Irish dancing; all blows were delivered with the legs, with the arms as useless appendages.

(Someone's going to say, "Cobra Strike", but back in the day (as doubtless Arcana knows) Cobra Strike did piddly damage (less than Brawl) and, with Stamina and its prerequisites and a travel power and its prerequisites to fit into the early picks, it was pretty hard to fit it in. Amusingly, the last vestige of this is that Cobra Strike "deals high damage, but has a great chance of Disorienting your target."

"But"? "And", surely? That "but" is left over from when it "deals minor damage, but has a great chance ...")

[Arcana]

I think what always struck me about Martial Arts, especially before the release of alternative power animations, was that it was a sort of cousin of Irish dancing; all blows were delivered with the legs, with the arms as useless appendages.

I suspect that's because when they were first designing the sets, Dark Melee became the all punch set so MA became the (mostly) all kick set. 

(Someone's going to say, "Cobra Strike", but back in the day (as doubtless Arcana knows) Cobra Strike did piddly damage (less than Brawl) and, with Stamina and its prerequisites and a travel power and its prerequisites to fit into the early picks, it was pretty hard to fit it in. Amusingly, the last vestige of this is that Cobra Strike "deals high damage, but has a great chance of Disorienting your target."

Cobra Strike was awful.  It used to do Scale 0.25 damage (yep, that is in fact lower than Brawl: 0.36 scale) and 11.92 seconds of stun (at level 50: that scaled from 8 seconds at level 1), with recharge of 20 seconds and 1.67 seconds of cast time (it is literally burned into my memory).  Many MA took Cobra Strike because they thought it was a better power than it actually was (wishful thinking) and many because for a long time MA was so bad, Cobra Strike wasn't all that weird compared to the other options. 

MA was a beautiful looking set (at least to me) but it was originally a kind of awful that players who were not around at release cannot fathom.

[Thunder Glove]

I always loved the Eagle Claw animation. I never managed to get a MA character high enough to learn it, though.  (The closest I ever came was a MA/SR Scrapper, but he was only level 20-ish when the game went down)

Once you accept that even the "normal" powersets aren't supposed to have realistic animations or effects, it's easier to take.

[thunderforce]

Many MA took Cobra Strike because they thought it was a better power than it actually was (wishful thinking) and many because for a long time MA was so bad, Cobra Strike wasn't all that weird compared to the other options.  MA was a beautiful looking set (at least to me) but it was originally a kind of awful that players who were not around at release cannot fathom.

I played from EU release (ie, issue 3), and surely Cobra Strike was that weird, compared to the other options. Thunder/Storm/Crane Kick, Dragon's Tail, and Eagle's Claw all do proper damage, and the Build Up makes six powers better than Cobra Strike (and IIRC even Crippling Axe Kick is slightly less ineffectual than Cobra Strike, and the Taunt at least has some situational uses...)

I never took Cobra Strike on the MA/Regen Thunderforce (and Quick Recovery masked some of MA's deficiencies, slotting for recharge more than end redux so the attacks one did have could cycle a bit quicker); I rerolled her as MA/Willpower shortly after issue 11, realising Willpower was the set Regen wanted to be, but the same was true of Quick Recovery. I don't remember when after issue 18 I realised Cobra Strike was now Crane Kick in a different hat and not useless at all, but with Inherent Fitness it was easy to fit it in...

[ivanhedgehog]

I know radiation blast's damage wasn't very high, but I think its exaggerating a bit to claim that your blasts took several hours to bring down a minion.  Ice melee sometimes brought down critters by ultimately giving them pneumonia, but that was before the buffs to Frozen Aura.

you misunderstand what I was saying. I liked rad blast. I just thought giving someone radiation poisoning and leukemia(possibly) for purse snatching was a tad bit extreme. punching them , yes...burning their face off, not so much.

[Techbot Alpha]

If we do get CoH back, and there ever is the chance to work on it more, then anyone in charge of animation would do well to look at Dark Souls and especially Dark Souls 2 when it comes to Titan Weapons done in a semi-realistic way without being too visually boring. While I dislike a lot of the changes to DS2, I can't fault them for making giant, eff-off swords and the like look visually powerful.

[Peryton]

There's no such thing as the correct technique to wield a broadsword against a giant robot with a flame thrower and force fields.

This is my new favorite quote.

[primeknight]

you misunderstand what I was saying. I liked rad blast. I just thought giving someone radiation poisoning and leukemia(possibly) for purse snatching was a tad bit extreme. punching them , yes...burning their face off, not so much.

In a world where bullets are more like slaps to the face, and you can fling fireballs at a person just as easily as making the ground quake and enclosing someone in rock,  punching someone in the face so hard they fly vs giving someone radiation poisoning temporarily all seems to fit nicely in to this strangely violent world.  I mean, this is a world that is one bugs bunny cartoon away from arresting villains by dropping anvils on their heads.   Gravity Controllers were basically there: what's the real difference between flinging a forklift vs and anvil: at that point it's basically tomato tomaatoo potato potaato. 

In City of Heroes the police would have clapped and cheered as Captain Anvil dropped cast iron justice from the sky just for the crime of intimidating a pedestrian, while in reality (our reality) that same hero would probably go to jail for um...life. 

It's all just cupcakes.  (e.i. unimportant details, and nothing to get worked up about)

[BadWolf]

I think what always struck me about Martial Arts, especially before the release of alternative power animations, was that it was a sort of cousin of Irish dancing; all blows were delivered with the legs, with the arms as useless appendages.

Little known fact: The ancient masters who taught martial arts to the heroes of Paragon City were 90% T-Rexes by demographic.

[Medispider Reznov]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I understand it's this.

1. CoX will be back online if the deal doesn't go south
2. The game is on a shackle from NCsoft
3. The game will never receive an update.
4. We have to shill out a load of money yet again to buy the stuff we paid for before, and have to wait for X months to get back our Loyalty rewards?

Is that correct?

[Power Gamer]

We neither confirm nor deny anything, Medispider! 

[Ironwolf]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I understand it's this.

1. CoX will be back online if the deal doesn't go south
2. The game is on a shackle from NCsoft
3. The game will never receive an update.
4. We have to shill out a load of money yet again to buy the stuff we paid for before, and have to wait for X months to get back our Loyalty rewards?

Is that correct?

Sort of:

1. Yes, the game will be back unless something goes drastically wrong - doubtful since they are taking things very slowly and making NCSoft happy.
2. The game code is not for sale - just a purchase of the IP by a Holding company who will oversee leases for other uses
3. The game "could" receive an update if someone were to be reverse engineering the game and was capable of doing it - or was inclined to do it. Someone once said - its just code - code can be changed.
4. No idea how it will work for money yet - however there currently is no game. The folks working on this have never had a dime of cash and yet must somehow pay for servers and to run and support the game. You can look at it like you lost something - or you can look at it like you found a way to buy a ticket home.

[MM3squints]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I understand it's this.

1. CoX will be back online if the deal doesn't go south
2. The game is on a shackle from NCsoft
3. The game will never receive an update.
4. We have to shill out a load of money yet again to buy the stuff we paid for before, and have to wait for X months to get back our Loyalty rewards?

Is that correct?

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

[Medispider Reznov]

Also all I could hear in my head while reading was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hKPWrX85U8

[Pyromantic]

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

What about unknown knowns?  Things that we know but don't know that we know?

[Medispider Reznov]

Just to clarify I am in no way shape or form disgruntled about the lose of data - because pitching everything up for sale is surely a way to rent out servers and possibly hire people to work the code over.

and dose "Shut up, and take my money!" even has to be said at this point?

[MM3squints]

What about unknown knowns?  Things that we know but don't know that we know?

The unknown knowns are the the knowns which are known, but due to no hard information knowning the knowns we have to assume they are unknown.