Greycat

I RP. Content's always fresh. As far as dealing strictly with what's in game? I have a variety of characters, so I try to take a variety of paths. About the only common thing I'll try to do is run magic-themed (not necessarily origin) characters through Croatoa. (Also part of why I don't do redside much. Always going to the same place in the same order, even if you're trying to skip around different contacts.) Once in a while I'll hit a bunch of MSRs and/or Hami raids, but that usually runs in streaks.

Yes.

There's zero reason for NC to have held on to the old code. I *believe* we were even told on live that some reversions to "how X was a few years/issues ago" wasn't possible because of this (not to mention everything else dependent on whatever changed at that point.) Besides, the code as it was was *probably* more under the care of Cryptic/Paragon than NCSoft. NC was just the distributor (basically,) taking care of billing, not advertising and hosting (in essence.) They'd have no reason to have the game code. (As opposed to, say, Blizzard and WOW, which both owns and develops the game and is its own "publisher.") If NC had control of it, we probably *wouldn't* have what we have right now.

We had an SG a while back that was emulating, as close as possible, release/early issues. Including taking (but not using) pool powers to simulate using power picks to take the fitness pool and sticking to the old leveling restrictions (no travel power before 14, for instance.) It's doable as is. Yes, you still get some boost from it, but nothing's making you slot/enhance it right away. You could, I suppose, even take a toggle power of some sort to burn some of that extra END. But it's doable "enough" right now, given all the other changes that have been implemented, both live and here. Rolling back or modifying for such a niche reason (and I say that as someone who played in that SG under those rules) ... just isn't realistic. Besides, how far back would you want to go? For instance, I *can't* play my electric/electric blaster like I did back in issue 3. Caps have changed, powers have changed - even ignoring the levels you can get them at now, Defiance exists (after multiple changes on live,) and I can't "toggle off" its effects, etc.

No. GMs are just boring bags of hitpoints people take down in a minute for some merits. Sometimes they wait for a team. There's nothing interesting about them.

Prestige can go die in a fire. Any and all references to it should be removed.

There's nothing left of that horse to beat. Even the ground it was on has long since filled in with water and become a nice little lake.

Swear people don't know how to use sleeps with all the "worst in the game" talk. They're damn useful. Yes, even if damage breaks a sleep right away, when the sleep htis (the current issue, with it not taking effect) knocks off some otherwise problematic powers/armors. And they do *not* get to turn them back on right away. Sleep is often a notable weakness for enemies, even before it was autohiit. Though, yes, I can see the argument for swapping with the hold as the T2 for early containment setup for controllers. I don't think it particularly needs "more" added to it - I mean, it's autohit. Took a level 1 dom in to Brickstown and... 100% hit rate on stuff 30+ levels over me. Granted, it had little to no effect (especially with the sleep not taking hold - which it looks like is known, after all,) but - autohit, knocks off armors/-tohit powers/toggles with a momentary sleep (once fixed,) takes ranged and sleep sets... even a non-"build" user like me is thinking "... so what procs can this take, and how many, and how silly abusable will this be?"

Was working fine the other night on Everlasting. Which server are you on? Though you shouldn't have to go to a central point. Go anywhere that isn't sheltered (IE, not under a building eave, overpass, etc.) and they should start teleporting right by you. Sometimes slowly, but they'll do it.

By default, no thanks As an option at character creation? Sure.

See "Why would SuperGuy just ignore Villaindude running around?" Some of us *do* care about that sort of thing.

I don't think this would really do anything other than turn redside into farmside. Especially for those of us who just don't find it enjoyable for all the reasons listed. AE's farming is more a question... yes, of rewards, since inf/drops/optimized builds and farms... but of people having seen all the content and/or coming from places that have the "the game begins at max level" mentality, or just wanting to handle everything at max power versus "i have two slots in this power and one SO." Doing some sort of "redside XP boost" doesn't mean people will be playing redside, or enjoy redside. They'll see the gull in Pocket D and get farmed up, just like they do when they want the patron pool powers - hop over, get what they need, hop back. Those are tourists, not redsiders.

And? If you're playing a single character, that's it, then you can run every TF - on hard mode - and have *all* the rewards concentrated on *one* character. MSRs? Every V-merit (and thus Reward merit) gets concentrated on ONE character. TFs? Concentrated. Every GM kill? One character gets the merits. Sounds like it's already being "rewarded" to me... one event being potentially farmed doesn't really offset the rest of the year, content, etc.

Mm. That's one of the other things. OK, so COV had a storyline (sort of) where Arachnos busted you out - now you have to "prove yourself." And you start off essentially "owing" Arachnos (whether you did Breakout or not.) What about the 'home grown' villains? Or the ones that made their own way there and already have a rep? The closest we have to those (other than just ... ignoring it as you play) are VEATs. And I severely dislike the VEAT storylines and the forced respec at 24... but one touch I *really* wish they had was having the world react to you. Make a Kheld? You get Quantums and Voids coming after you. You are *noticed* and people are trying to do something about you. VEATs? You're a rogue (essentially) Arachnos soldier/widow - and depending on what path you take you're supposedly psychically linked to the others like you... but nobody reacts to you. Nobody tries to make *their* name making a special effort to stop you - or to join you. You're just another schlub, you just have a slightly more special outfit.

Mmm... I'm not sure I agree. Though I suspect a lot would go more "antihero" than actual villain, really. (I've made, and enjoyed playing, villains that *everyone* hated by the time I was done. It's a weird feeling to feel successful because everyone wants to kill your character...)

So... eesh. Trying to compile everything in here... I do play *some* redside, not much though. In part that's just from being kind of RP heavy these days and not having things take me over there. For me though... In part, some of the "strengths" of redside are what make me not like it. "The writing is stronger." Is it? Most of it ends up with your character doing things *you* may not want them to (I have few redsiders who'd turn someone over to be experimented on, for instance) or coming out as at *least* just a lackey, if not incompetent. (This goes for alignment missions as well as story missions - I recall one where you end up facing yourself at three different points in the future because you decided to betray Frostfire... and yet in that situation, many of my characters wouldn't have to begin with. But I *had* to to do the alignment thing.) I really hate having my characters told "this is what you do" no matter what. Plus, of course... well, it is flat out harder to write for villains. Heroes look for cats to rescue from trees. Villains put them there in the first place. Or, heroes tend to be *re*active, villains tend to act. And very little 'til near the end made me feel like I was the instigator of anything. (Near the end... well, they were trying by changing the voice.) Redside basically had to be a bunch of AEs so *you* could be the one plotting and carrying things out.... the way you would. Newspapers were about the only way to plot your own disjointed path outside of that. Which blends somewhat into the next two points. One, the arcs could vary wildly in tone, and it's hard to tell which would really suit. In one you're a bumbling lackey. Next arc you're murdering people left and right, directly or indirectly but with full knowledge. (And as an aside there, I really wish we'd have the *option* not to hurt civilians in mayhem missions. Most of my villains are not psychopathic mass murderers.) There's no indicator, there's no competent-in-between. The other point is related to something I'd brought up recently. One of the "strengths" mentioned for redside is fewer zones (... followed by complaints of not enough zones, so...) and that they're so "compact." Know what else that leads to? Burnout of seeing the same thing in the same order over and over. Blueside, I can go from atlas to the hollows to Skyway to Indy, deal with Faultline or not, deal with Striga or not, or Croatoa, depending on what my character would do and what fits them. Redside just becomes "meh, did it already." Also, the "compact" zones... ok, some are ok. Mercy, Oakes, Sharkhead (somewhat,) Nerva kind of make sense. Others? St Martial is schizophrenic. This should be the big, shiny, touristy place, but we go from some casinos into broken freeways into woods into carnies? (With, as I recall, burning garbage to the side.) This needed to be bigger - or be more than one zone. It doesn't really have a consistent identity. And Grandville looks... awful, to me. Doesn't look like a capitol, doesn't look like a technopolis, it looks thrown together. Plus, frankly, redside quite often just looks *dingy.* Which is not particularly fun to play in. (Just as an aside... this isn't just redside, but I'd love to see Mercy reverted and Arachnos kicked out of Atlas. It's completely nonsensical for them to be there and *taking over territory.* Agent here or there? OK, fine...ish. But "We've taken over one of your islands/part of your city?" No.) What I think would help would be ... well, yes, more bespoke redside zones, for variety. And... giving your character more agency. It'd probably have to adopt the sort of system goldside has as far as giving choices. And a more ... antihero path wouldn't hurt. Having actual, easy to follow *paths* for those who want to be that sociopath/hardcore sort, versus lackey trying to make it, versus... whatever else would make it less jarring, too.

*nod* I can verify the option itself works (on a Windows machine) as of last night, and there haven't been patches or announcements of any sort regarding it since.

As in live accounts or former homecoming account? Live account is a no go. Full stop. As far as accounts here? If you have the old installation around somewhere, the account name should actually show up in a folder under "Accounts." (If you don't, well... I'm sure a GM would be along - or click "Support" up top to put in a request.)

Do this - and stick to it. Some people have set this up in the past - I'm sure there are threads. But get a set of die, or a random number generator. First number? AT. (Skip Kheldians and VEATs - well, don't *skip* them, give them a try, just don't use them for this.) Second number? Depends on how many choices there are for the AT, but primary powerset. Third number? Secondary powerset. Don't look up builds or anything. But commit to playing this to at least 35 (though 50's ideal.) Some will be *really* rough, some will be incredibly easy. Alternately? Give yourself a "One of every #####" challenge - one of every melee primary, but using different ATs. One of every some-power-type - say, electric (control, melee, armor, blast, support....) - paired with like powers or not. Or something like one of every control set to 50 (got through all the Control sets on live once... then they introduced ELectric. I *did* get that to 50 too...) On live, I used to do reverse-"flavor of the month" or "right FOTM, wrong AT." For instance, fire/kin controllers were a thing. Well, I had a fire/kin... corrupter. Or play a kin/fire tank. Energy/Ice was a FOTM blaster (dont' recall if that was just PVP or not,) I ran Ice/Energy just because. Or just come up with your own little challenge. Powers are whatever you want them to be. And sometimes what you recolor them to be. I've seen Dark Armor, for instance, get recolored to be "Sand." Go Desert power. Yeah, it's one "lore-bit" I wish they'd remove - "Dark gets its power from the netherworld" in some descriptions, since I've seen it also IC explained as, say, clouds of nanites for bots/dark MMs (for instance.) Your powers are whatever you decide they are.

Depends on the character. Sometimes the AT. Blueside? I typically skip DFBs these days, one run at most. Hit Habashy's arc, get the teleporter by getting all the Atlas explore badges (and hit the plaques while I'm at it,) grab an ouro portal to get the echo:atlas badges - either then or some other time, honestly. Then it depends on the character... part of why I like blueside and all the "duplicate" zones is that I can pick my own path. Hollows? Sure! Beat stuff up in Perez? Sure. Hit the arcs in KR? Might just fit! Each character gets their own progression with what feels right, contact wise. The only real major "Do I run this..." I can think of is running Magic characters through Croatoa. Which gets them to 32 or 33, typically. With that nice story zone bonus at the end. Other than that, my characters could be anywhere. Redside... eh. Since it doesn't really have that, and I don't care for a lot of the "You're a lackey, you're an idiot" writing, or the environment, I don't play it much. I have redsiders, but the sameness just leads to burnout quickly. I will tend to run Radio, though. And I've enjoyed Efficiency Expert Pither's challenges... Goldside... mostly just cry as the 50th ambush comes for my level 4 whatever... or grumble as I'm told to pick flowers for whatserface. Khelds, I'm often doing the Kheldian War arc on top of everything else. VEATS... I'm doing their arc to level 10 to get the costume slot, then probably getting them farmed past that stupid level 24 forced-respec, if not farther. I don't like the forced respec, and don't like their story arcs past... eh-20ish. (I *have* played them, yes. It's why this is now almost guaranteed to be a farmed character to some degree... that plus the mid to later arcs just felt thrown together.)

Wouldn't hold my breath.

So a few thoughts on this: With the last point first, "that doesn't matter when you can't afford to buy them?" Well, they ... drop. As you play the game. If a new player gets sucked into a DFB instead of running missions? They drop as a reward there, too. And... sell for more than TOs did, which will help later affordability (even ignoring non obvious things like "use those first merits to buy converters to drop on the AH for the first several hundred thousand to million inf," which no, no new player should be expected to know about.) Also, we outpaced TOs to where they felt like a hinderance and drop-trash *really* quickly on live... and we outpace them even *faster* here, even without XP boosts on servers, 2xp and the like. Which might seem like an argument *for* TOs - it doesn't "hurt" as much financially when you see you have a bunch of grey TOs - but those grey DOs and SOs still sell for more. As far as clearly saying what they do? I hover over it, it says whatever-the-name, (what it does.) Xenon Exposure (Damage.) Amulet (Recharge.) No digging. And by hovering over it, it ALSO has in bright red text a warning you can't use it if the origin doesn't match - IE, "Hey, sell me for money to buy what you need!" The stores? Unless you explicitly tell it otherwise, they don't *show* you enhancements you can't use. And, I'd argue, having the SOs available from level 1, even if you can't buy them, means the player gets used to *what does what* for their character. They don't *have* to go from "Training: Accuracy" to "I'm looking for a Visor now" to "Wait, it's called Insight of Grey now?" They can see that in the store right away. Which I'd argue makes it *easier* for a new player. There's also "you can quickly find out it's not for you" - you're not necessarily going to know *right off the bat* that a hold enhancement, *whatever* it's called, isn't for you. Until you go to slot it and see nothing lighting up that takes it. And that'll happen regardless of if it's called Hold or Stickiness of Frank or whatever. (And a Tank, for instance, *can* use a hold. For instance, Super Strength - Knockout Blow - not a power most SS users would skip - takes Hold enhancements. Ice tanks have holds. And so forth.) Visor (Accuracy) is the very first thing listed - it's the only thing you see in the store, none of the flavor text, and it's the very topmost line if you hover over it - you don't have to dig through flavor text. Or dragging another example from an in game character right now - "Xenon Exposure (Damage) Enhances Damage (in case the "Damage" at the end didn't give that away first.) Experiment (Science) Exposure to Xenon gas has enabled you to augment the damage of one of your attack powers. Increases damage by 33.3%. You cannot use this enhancement because of your Magic origin." You see the name, what it does. A second line saying basically what it does. A line giving origin. As far as "flavor text," it's ... one sentence. Then *again* saying what it does with more detail. And then a line that only shows up if you *can't* use it, and why. Now, arguably, that "you cannot use" line should show up earlier, but... I don't see what would be confusing about this to a new player. And as they look, oh, it's red. They have others that are red and do the same thing. Red must increase damage! Honestly, I'd say calling this such a big problem for new players is doing new players a disservice.

I'm not referring to badges at all - honestly wouldn't care. Just a counterpoint to any idea of tying powers/benefits (like the END, hold, etc.) to it.

Part of the issue with this is that we have tons of ckaracters created now, and unlike slots, pools or power selections in a set, origin is baked in and cannot be changed. I wouldnt mind seeing more done with origins, but it would likely be more like origin specific contacts, arcs or dialog.