Greycat

Ugh. Yeah, that pretty much would have killed the game for me. I was always glad the game grew "wider, not taller" - we got new zones, new abilities, new missions, but 50 was the cap. I wasn't *thrilled* with Incarnates, but with them stopping where they had, eh, fine, it's a bit more endgame stuff. That description sounds like "Typical MMO gear grind," which ... is why I didn't tend to play other MMOs. "Welp, you were level 70, now everything's up at level 80. Three months? It'll be level 90. We expect you to need level 200 soon..."

I can! (Yes, I am just being contrary here. 🙂 )

Well, the second part kind of is related to the first. 🙂 If I'm saying it, how many people aren't and would be skipping even more TFs? (Not to mention people reacting ... *poorly* to a failed run.) Granted, probably overstressing on it. It's more just putting that POV out there.

No they don't! 😉 As it is... I don't think moving the two would be a positive change. Tweaking them, sure. On the Mastermind side, you can after all still "attack" (though you can't control minions) while in it, so the "only affecting self" on everything else with it has been superceded a bit. Lower the defense a little (it should still be high defense) and allow attacks to get through - but at a reduced power (say, 15%) due to having to get through the FF. Powers that just affect yourself are obviously not affected. Force bubble ... I don't see people complaining about *when used properly,* but the higher radius does make that more difficult. You run forward to keep someone under dispersion, and enemies get pushed back ahead of that. Dropping the radius to the same as Dispersion bubble should make it easier to keep track of.

They're already available in DFBs, so it's not like this would be introducing something new. Plus, yes, follow those patch notes. 🙂

We've already got other powers with alternate animations, I would not object in the slightest to this being put in as an option.

My main concern with doing something like this is that it would push people to *just* do, or at least strongly perfer, Master runs. Personally, I tend *not* to like MO* runs, since for me they tend to add stress to what should be fun - one person dies (depending on the master requirements,) the whole team is screwed out of it, even if it's not something that person could have helped (say, ambush spawns in *right behind* someone and focuses them down before they notice.) I don't begrudge the people running them, they're just not something I like.

So there's a (rather annoying) event in St. Martial where you plow through a pile of longbow, plow through a bunch of family inside a building, then fight the longbow outside again (now with double EBs! Hope you brought someone sturdy.) Which, fine, I can bypass it... ... except that apparently they're using a location that's a valid mission door, as I found out when I tried to do my villain alignment mission. Clearing out the event did nothing - all you got to do was go back into the (now empty, then once more with longbow outside) building and back out. I'd logged out, played another character for a bit, logged back in, chose another mission, the works and it was still at that location. Finally had to abandon the mission and re-accept it. Can we mark this door as "not valid for missions" so nobody has to go through that again?

How to fix this: When you see people in help saying "I don't bother slotting til 25 or 30," say "No." 🙂

Development is not and should not be a democracy. Especially of the playerbase. They can (and do) take suggestions into consideration, but at the end, it's their call on what can and should be done. They have access to more information and a broader view. They'll buff what they think needs buffing, tone down what they think needs toning down. IOW, I might not *like* getting shots, being told to exercise more, change my diet, but given I'll live longer and have a better life as a result, I'll listen for my health. I'll discuss tweaks and preferences with my doctor, but in the end, they can see what's going on better than I can. If the health of the game requires soemthing to be nerfed? I'll take a healthy game over one that's broken.

But I wanted to suggest comic sans! 🙂

*chuckle* It wouldn't. It could be 72 point, Bold, underlined and Red and people would still get annoyed when something didn't come through or got changed that was "promised."

"How did you end up with 1328 free tailor sessions?" "Well, you see..." 🙂

Eh, Rikti aren't needed there. And all the way back to live, I've had a wish for Boomtown (when we had regular issues) to be progressively reclaimed. Yes, it means a lot of work, some of which would be temporary. Like construction crews (there now) get partway in, we have missions and repeatables to protect them, investigate things, etc. Then 2-3 issues later, they're further in, with the area by the door cleaned up. 2-3 issues later, we have contacts and "life" in the first area, the second area's a cleaner but not fully "live" zone with some repeatables, and the reclamation zone has the "guard the workers" and "investigate uncovered lair" type missions that were initially in the first zone, until eventually we have a usable, mission filled zone, with only the fringes still in "hazard zone" status.

*wonders how many people will ignore this and/or get angry when something massively changes or gets scrapped.* That said, I think the game's in good hands here, and look forward to what you guys do.

Were you around on live when the live devs decided to replace powers in the Patron pools that "nobody used?" There was *definitely* not a reduction in intensity of complaints. In the end, we got 5 powers per pool. Sadly that left us with a few tons of feathers and ... I think 2700 gallons of boiling tar we had nothing to use on.

Richter or poorer, he's dead.

You can always go to the auction house and look for sets if you're wondering about the levels they start or stop at. Just search on them. You can also purchase the recipes (or enhancements) for the sets you *want* to use in the future. Nothing prevents a level 1 from purchasing a level 50 IO. Unlike TOs/DOs/SOs, IOs don't expire. If you buy a low level LOTG, it will keep working from whatever its level is onward. You don't have to keep re-buying the IO. (They can also be catalyzed.)

Forming... the Hambringer! Mmmm. Ham.

The E in EAT stands for Epic - and when the devs used that terminology, they were using it in the sense of "Epic of Gilgamesh," tying those ATs to some specific bit of lore or story. Given the Kheldian war and Project Destiny storylines have nothing to do with Praetoria, they're not able to be created there. There's no version of Arachnos in Praetoria since Tyrant killed Marcus Richter (Recluse.) For the Khelds, we don't know what happened. Given history's "the same" up to about the Korean War (though, technically not since Cole had already been wellified,) it's likely neither the Path of the Dark nor the Warshades ever came out of hiding, possibly wiped out by Cole or Hamidon before the Peacebringers arrived to continue the Kheldian war on Earth - or the PBs saw what Hamidon was doing, said "nope" and left.

Hmmmm. Vanguard merits are in an odd place, as far as currencies. They did make some sense when introduced (though, yeah, it was "another new currency,") though I hated having costume bits locked behind them. Right now, there's just not much, though. There are a few one-shot items (salvage increase, for instance,) a few items you probably won't use often (Nectembo's curse breaker, psi shield, psi bomb) and the HVAS for 250. It's pretty much heading towards "depreciated." I don't think they're that *in*accessible, either. Get the vanguard recruit badge, get merits for anything involving defeating Rikti. Get the day job, get V-merits at the end of any mission (not many - it's 1 or 2 - but they add up.) And let's not forget you're raking them in in the RWZ missions and mothership raids. I'm somewhat of a lorehound, so to me just throwing merits at people doesn't really *do* much but dilute Vanguard. And for the temp powers... when I can already buy raptor packs, rezzes, etc. cheaply (or get a permanent power,) why would I burn V-merits on temporary versions? Getting back to the lorehound bit. 🙂 I don't think we should dilute their purpose, but the Vanguard scout being around that *early* does work - after all, we start getting introduced to the Lost just before then blueside (Perez/Hollows.) Having some "related" arcs pop up with this guy as a contact not explaining why they're interested could be fun. Interaction with Kheldians could be ... interesting, as well. (And yes. That can be done redside, too. There are Khelds over there.) We could even get other "alien/dimensional incursions" that they're looking into and containing. More story arcs, more one offs, reinforcing what Vanguard's role is. Which still leaves the question of what to *do* with the merits. Costume pieces are free (and should be.) I'm just not on board with the safeguard/mayhem mission thing, for reasons previously mentioned, plus... honestly I don't think too many people would be excited about them, generally. Plus, personally, I think I'd want to see the rewards stay "vanguard-themed" and varied. Say... - Vanguard jetpack. We have the costume piece. This one's an actual jetpack. (Plus, it's small, so those who don't want the large jetpacks can use this one too.) 1 hour, up to 8 stacked. - Vanguard reinforcement. Similar to the "summon reinforcement" power you can get at P2W, but with Vanguard NPCs. (Melee/Ranged/Support options.) 5 uses. - Target dummy. Because, why not. (OK, granted, people could get obnoxious with this, but they do with other things like Ouro portals, too.) Targetable, use outside of missions. Short term, despawns after 1-2 minutes. 5 uses. - Mini nova/dwarf pet. Vanguard deals with aliens. It fits. (Standard temp pet sizes.) Maybe a mini-Rikti too. - Vanguard rifle/wand/blade temp powers. We'd probably want bigger-ticket items (temporary and permanent,) too - though eventually it'd still get to the point where it's just a matter of "I've got everything, I'm converting to reward merits.") Maybe unique Vanguard-themed IO sets (or vanguard-themed single IO procs/effects?) Pull an AE-ticket-counter and throw a Vanguard merit badge in for 1000? (which is one rikti raid, generally.) For me it's a question of "what would people want that's vanguard themed?"

Eh. I don't mind the alpha +1 everywhere - it's sort of a nice "you made it, have a cookie." The rest? Given they kept cranking levels up in the incarnate content, I don't mind that the shifts we have only show up there past alpha. And +3 as the cap for that... fine. The powers, though, those (IMHO) should only have full potency in incarnate content, if they have any availability. Judgement? Max 5 targets. Lore? Strong as patron pets. Just so they don't overwhelm the AT-specific powers.

I don't count T4s, etc. for "finished." "Finished" is when their story is completely done and I have nothing else I feel I can do with them besides, say, sit in one of the club bases and drink. At that metric... 0% 🙂

I just ... don't do Mids, generally. I figure I"m playing a game, not a spreadsheet. 🙂 Depending on what you're trying to do with the respec, though, you can always use your second or third build (with cheap common IOs, SOs, etc.) to see if you like the baseline, then transfer what you did to the main build before really investing.

Imagine this - Someone asks what I mentioned. Answer one - "Go load up the test server. Go to the forum. Do a server transfer. Once your character shows up, do this command, go here, get this, get that, craft this, craft that." Likely response: "Nevermind, then." Optional answer two with this suggestion: "Head to Icon, see the guy at the back, go in and take a look." Likely response: "OK, thanks" from a happy player who gets to check things out with an easy way in game. We can already preview what our primary and secondary look like on creation. We don't have to wait until we have each power to see it and customize it. We don't have to load up (or do an initial load of) the test server and do the whole runaround to check that out. This is an extension of that. We have "test dummies" in game already, so there's not exactly work there. The powers already exist. There's a little work to make temp versions people can check out. I'm purely suggesting this as a "this would be nice." (Also, for the record, I'm aware of - and on - the test server, and know this can be done there, but that's also not a particularly convenient solution for someone who wants to just check the powers out quickly.)