Greycat

It's a really nifty base. I like the "ads" on the sides 😄

Isn't that typically just called a Huntsman build? Seem to recall that on live. And it's what I do most often with Soldiers. As far as the OP... I used to find whatever the FOTM was and do something with it... like, flip the power sets (Ice/Elec blasters were big for a while on live... so make elec/ice,) or use the same powersets on a different AT (Yes, I *am* a fire/kin... fire armor kinetics melee....) It's really hard not to make something "effective," unless your definition of effective is "solo at the highest difficulty x8 with your eyes closed."

I've never feared Widower. Widower's a myth, like honest politicians and jumbo shrimp.

And yet there's a *HUGE* gap between "Oh, this looks different" and "This will obviously spawn a GM and pile of adds *right on top of you.*" What else could a suspicious package do? Drop some new winter tip to a new mission? Temp power? What in the name "Suspicious package" says "Obvious GM instaspawn?" There's plenty of "suspicious" XYZ in the game that does nothing like this. And who thought it was a good idea to have these in low-mid level zones, where even tanks, brutes, etc. do not have their full powers, decent slotting, etc? Again, the most notice I see of *anything* different going on with the "suspicious package" tends to be the LFG chat saying "There's one here, grab it if you want the badge." Repeatedly. Yes, the players doing so should say "and prepare for a winter lord if you haven't done this already." Or... you know, put it in game. Again: - Not mentioned on the launcher, where at least there'd be an indication to check past "oh, look, it's the winter event." - Most changes do not result in something that's going to kill you *right now.* Oh, you know where ELSE changes can be mentioned? The GMOTD that would pop up! Maybe there's mention there... Nope. Doesn't even mention the winter event starting. So what - in something *pushed right in the character's face they have to dismiss when updated* - indicates there are patch notes, especially and specifically about winter event changes, since the last issue release that should be read? Say it with me. *Nothing.* So we have someone who: - Apparently hasn't had much time to be on and wanted to enjoy a little bit of the winter event - Is used to just clicking presents, maybe having - I'm going to assume "a manageable" here - spawn drop, or getting a present or candy cane or whatnot. - Sees one that's a little weird but is otherwise another present, - Has no warning in the GMOTD or launcher, where there's zero mention of the winter event itself, much less *any* changes to it or mention of anything past the Page 2 release (and so would not have popped up,) - Probably has people in LFG mentioning a badge, depending on the server. - From the sound of it is playing solo (since they'd have to get a team together and maybe that wasn't feasable on their server at that time of night, ignoring any other situations that might keep them solo) ... who has a GM and good size spawn that can hit pretty decently and slows the character drop right on top of them with no other warning. Which sounds like it was frustrating enough it "ruined the event" for them. And the main reaction is "Noob, shoulda read the patch notes," when there are NO mentions of changes to the winter event - the Dec 1 patch notes related to this *aren't even in the launcher,* where they'd be visible, and at least would give the "should have checked" crowd SOME ground to stand on, nor in the GMOTD, which if this is the first time the OP has signed in would *also* have popped up (before or after the standard "Father time needs your help" popup) to say there's something to check out. Christ. This needed to be handled MUCH better. Not have the suspicious packages in lower level zones. As otherwise mentioned, had the WL spawn off somewhere and/or on a timer, or put in a message, similar to when you enter a PVP zone, that "The Winter Lord and his horde are coming!" with, say, a ten second countdown as they rush to the area. And yes, mention IN THE LAUNCHER that EVERYONE SEES EVERY TIME that something changed, and yes, an update in the GMOTD to make sure. All things that are readily available and used elsewhere in the game. Because if one person decided to come *here* and mention how it soured them on the event... wonder how many others decided not to deal with the "lulz noob" crowd and just logged off to do something else instead.

I don't know the last time I heard someone tell someone to level primarily through newspaper missions. Probably back on live, and specifically playing a stalker. Honestly, I think the biggest "50 and broke" complaint comes from 2xp on a farm. That said, I don't think this'd be game breaking or anything. I don't know about 10-15 per, but I've got enough across various characters I know it skews my perception (that and knowing a typical everlasting dual hami raid gives a ton with no real time investment by comparison.)

"F you noob lulz u gotz bage." Best MMO community, wasn't it... If "Okay" means "Yep, this bit you were enjoying, you no longer do" then mission accomplished, it sounds like. That what you're after?

Again, how many people do you think *actually do?* Especially when no mention of a change is made in the launcher? There are *no* mention of Dec. 1 patch notes in the launcher, which is when this change was made, and it sounds like they came on with (it's the holidays, so probably understandably) limited time. Does that sound like "Oh, reading patch notes is what I want to do right now!" time? "Patch notes" might as well be "Side mention made at 2 AM on a college radio station" for all the attention they get, especially when something like this isn't mentioned in the launcher. And a change to WL spawns like this should *at least* have deserved mention there, if nothing else. Which also tells you to read the TOS and EULA. do you do that before every single play session? And if there was a popup - hell if I remember seeing one - given it would be at the same time the winter "stuff" was turned on, what would indicate to anyone to expect more than "The winter event's on, same as last year?"

And how many players do you think read the patch notes before each and every play session? I'm a *more* than experienced player and I sure as hell don't. How many players visit the forums? Or Discord? I know while I'm on Discord, I almost never look in there. (And Discord is NOT a good support resource.) I *know* you know full well it's only a small number of players. Sounds like they just hopped on in some time they had to play, which is probably more in line with "I finally had time" versus "yay, I went scouring for patch notes!" It appears these were in December 1 patch notes. Know what doesn't appear in the launcher you see on every single game launch? That there are *any* patch notes for december 1. Or that "Hey, the Suspicious Gift will spawn a Winter Lord and grant a badge." We have October - "Dobule XP enabled!," November 28 "Issue x page y is live!" (note this is before that change,) and dec 16 "Post release update" which "brings a number of tweaks." Note that's after Dec 1. Nothing about "Winter Lord spawning has changed." Do YOU go check the patch notes whenever you're about to play the game? Every game you play, every single time, especially if you don't have a bunch of time to play? I kind of doubt it, so that's not really anything but a smug middle finger to the OP.

"Term alignment" or whatever you want to call it seems to be a project that gets taken up every once in a while, some of the work gets done, then I imagine whatever poor intern or dev it's been over the years gets overwhelmed and takes on something else. Been that way with ... what was it, snare/immobilize, for instance, I want to say sleeps, fears, quite a few things. And of course some don't get changed I'd assume because they're the "internal" vs "external" (player/UI facing) name and probably sneak through there. Honestly I'd put it less towards "the original devs tried to obscure" and more towards "the original devs weren't an experienced team and all it would take is two different people naming things without a standard in place." The "Low/medium/high" vague damage ratings were intentional obfuscation, the different names? Less inclined to put towards that - if anything, more of a flavor choice on an individual power. But, yeah. Unify the names and what things mean.

On the one hand, not every power needs to be "up" every battle/mob - and in any case, how many "battles" later it is really is going to depend on the character, what they're fighting and how many, so you can't really say "it's only up x many later." I think "I need to be able to use every single power every single spawn" is not a goal to chase. On the other, I usually grab it if it fits a character and I find it rather fun. While the recharge hasn't bothered me at all, I wouldn't argue with it being reduced.

Which would probably be better presented (heh) in game. I don't remember any sort of - anything? in game saying that. Maybe having the first one someone tries to open warn "this will spawn a Winter Lord GM and horde, are you sure you want to open it?" would be a good idea. Especially after having been "trained," as it were, from prior years about how winter lords spawned. Sure, it ruins the... "surprise," but not all surprises are good. I do know the mention I've seen of it in game by other players tends to simply be "Hey, Suspicious Gift in (zone) at (loc,) grab it if you want your badge." If that's all someone sees? Getting a surprise WL and horde they can't handle would be unpleasant.

Melee attacks can also stun, which is a mez. They may have other effects.

Just make all badges available for 10 inf. No, not each.

Or as I made ages ago...

I vaguely remember Kinetics being involved... I think both for speed boost and increase density. Been a while though. Either that or well timed teleport chains.

If it shuts Chaz up, ASAP.

Assuming you mean the attempted attachment - check *all* the attachments you have. You have limited storage on the forums, and if you've got less than 52k left? Yep, too large. You'll want ot host stuff externally (or delete old stuff you've attached.) Click on your name/profile image in the upper right, click "My attachments." It will tell you how much space you've used up.

While ... rather less than what I had on live, and even considering duplicates (for multi-character availability during RP,) when it comes to summaries of them all? I believe the phrase is... "Ain't nobody got time for that." 😄

Back on live, yeah, I'd grab AE tickets when I could. Some of the salvage and stuff was just stupidly expensive and it was a nice alternative for something I was doing anyway. Converting threads or whatnot to it? Ehhh...

Still have a few COV Collector boxes and COH boxes around with them, yeah.

I do not need an interpreter, thank you, nor did I mention anything being "time limited." I'd think context would have made the meaning clear, but since not: "Holiday" in this context is to illustrate something not common or by default happening every day. (Thus the "It turns it from "holiday" to "everyday." ) People do, in fact, run those task forces with the goal of triggering invasions. (Making it something "not everyday," similar to a holiday.) Moving it to a special "invasion zone" makes it everyday and removes a reason for people to run those events (or join those that want to run them.)

Generally against "let's make semi-special things not special any more by doing them year round," TBH. It turns it from "holiday" to "everyday."

*looks up at "Double XP is active on all shards."* ... yep. Would love it.

I get sick of those events *really* fast. Continual events? No F'ing Thanks. Even the people that love them would probably be sick of them before six months were out. Besides, it'd pretty much just be a sign of "we have no ideas for anything new."

... for starters, there are clubs open throughout the week. Multiple ones. People go there for someplace not-Pocket D to RP. Black Cat, RIsing Phoenix, Afterhours and others are regular destinations. (I tend to find BarP boring, so not really my thing unless someone sounds like they have an interesting DJ, but they're open nightly or weekly.) Or, you can hang out in PD for a bit and wait for one of the many RP SGs to advertise. (They'll also advertise in Atlas, or just in LFG. Maybe in General, don't know, I delete that tab immediately.) Krimson *does* have a point about what ToT does to stuff, too. MSRs are half-ToT it feels like during the month, not to mention the mob (that occasionally chases GMs) at "Hotel Hell."