Greycat

On occasion, the request to open Prestige up again comes up. I'm going to be honest, I hate prestige as it was. It was a frankly useless system, other than needing it to build SG bases on live. It led to abuses of SG members in some SGs, and "ooh bigger number" didn't mean anything - it said *nothing* about the players or the SG. Frankly, it left a *very* bad taste in my mouth, and I'm happy to see it gone, other than a legacy listing in the SG registrar. So, while I'm not particularly big on having it come back, I started wondering how to make it actually useful - have it actually represent (loosely) a SG's "prestige." How active they are, what they do, etc. On top of it, having the prestige also be "sticky" for the people who earned it would probably be a good idea. So, what if activities and actions are what awarded prestige? OK, right at the offset, some of it's going to be hard to track. I don't know how to award prestige to the base builder who's spent hours to weeks on a base, for instance, or who sets up RP events, or creates AE missions for the group (without some sort of additional overhaul to AE, and a link between the systems.) This shouldn't be a system that would end up with millions of prestige in a month, and there'd likely be some sort of timers in place to dampen gaming the system. But, some of the possible examples: - Found a SG - 1 prestige. Anyone can do this. Every SG will basically have 1. - Create a functional base - 1 prestige, one time grant. "Functional" being the key. Small room, at least one working teleporter with linked destinations, workbench, med 'porter, one storage item, one helper NPC (trainer/tailor/etc.) - Invite other accounts - 5 prestige once you hit 10. (Numbers can be tweaked on all of these.) One time grant. It should indicate *some* degree of social interaction possibilities inside the group. - Lead a team (at least 4 people, at least 10 minutes - given how fast some things can go) - 1 prestige Also adds a point of personal prestige, which follows you instead of the SG. Personal prestige doesn't stick with the SG. - Lead a league (at least 3 teams of 4 people each) - at least 15 minutes (?) - 3 Prestige, 3 personal. Since it's a bit harder to organize. - Lead a SG team (You're the lead, you have at least 3 other SG members in the team, 10 min) - 2 prestige/1 personal. Trying to indicate more "SG Activity" here with the SG prestige boost. The numbers and actions are pretty much examples - but should not be high. A SG that leads 3 raids a day, every day, each week would - at the end of the year - end up with 1092 Prestige from that, for instance. An SG has a weekly TF they run? 52ish prestige a year. And the actions should be based on - let's call it "involvement." Personal activity, SG activity, actually doing "stuff." On the plus side, you don't have to be in SG mode or anything - it's just earned for doing what you do (or don't) do. So what would you do with this prestige, and/or what would it earn you? Not a darn thing. I want absolutely zero incentive to farm this. No badges, no "it unlocks...," no anything. No reason to, bluntly, be an ass to anyone over it, no inviting lowbies to grind then kick at some level, no INF penalties for having it on. If you want a bigger number, do more stuff. Yes, it would end up awarding prestige to people farming in AE if they're also PLing folks, but at kind of a slow rate - it's not perfect, but at least it'd also reward people creating AE arcs for their SG, and wouldn't necessarily incentivize "grinding it out." And it'd mean looking at Prestige would have some degree of meaning as far as how active the SG is. Potentially a breakdown of how the prestige was earned (basic SG setup, arcs, team/league leadership, how many people are earning what, etc.) might be useful to see, as well. (And yes. There's a whole host of other SG things I'd like to see done to make that SG lookup window useful. But this just touches on one thing people do ask for. Plus, hey, it's the perfect suggestion, to me. I don't actually care if it comes back, so if it did this way, great, my suggestion ws heard, if it never comes back, I'm still happy! 😄 )

... I feel I should point out that, while it's not *popular* and it is rather segregated, they were talking about having PVP well before release. (Even at that point it was in arenas, though.)

*nods* The main issue being the "it didn't make the cut," though it does give a different meaning to "failed" implementation (IE, they didn't get a super soldier, they got a beast.) And it starts the whole "So why does the 5th still have access to them if the Nictus split off into the Council?" rabbit hole. Though, granted, they likely weren't planning a split into council/column (or a rename even, for that matter) at the time it was written, and everything lore-wise it would potentially affect. (Some folks have a... let's say outsized reaction to even mentioning anything in that document, as well. Don't ask.) ... also, personally, at the time that would have happened, Rudolfo et al would be working for Il Duce. I really kind of wish they'd used an Italian name for them. Though I guess people would have more of a reaction to "Nacht Wolves" than "Lupi Notturni." (Even the German's off a bit, but ... umlauts.)

I'd lump this back in with "Stuff for the character select screen that would be searchable," personally, rather than a command.

I really kind of hope they do, and release the number. Not least because I'm curious how much that "1.6 million" number has dropped since the announcement.

*Misreads request, implements /czechname, which provides the Czech equivalent of the requested name.*

Honestly... city of villains just never could do anything but kind of railroad you along a path. Early on, it felt like your choices were "dupe" or "psycho." It did try branching out a little, even without the morality system. But yes, as you mentioned, it just can't let you be any of a host of other sorts of villains. Where's the master schemer, rule the world type? Yes, you can run a villain group - but the game doesn't care that you're actually the leader of this group of minions. It doesn't really empower you to create plans and try to carry them out - AE's "sort of" this, but also not - and again, the rest of the game doesn't care. COV doesn't react to you, past very generic dialog. Not even with VEATs - which I still think is a missed opportunity. Khelds get custom enemies. VEATs should be getting more recognition, at least from Arachnos troops - both positive and negative. Get some followers. Get some people who want to make a name taking you down. Yes, it (kind of) happens a little in a VEAT arc or two, but it's barely done - and it's not seen in the world at large. Being a villain of any depth really requires a sit down, who brought the nachos, bring your dice RPG to do properly. Doesn't mean I don't want to improve the choices redside, though.

Again. Villain does not mean psychopath. Villain does not mean mass murder. Can those be aspects of a villain? Sure. And you have choices if that's what you want to pursue. I am looking for a choice that does NOT mean that. Yes, Krylov has an arc, blah blah blah. Mr. Bocor has you kidnapping people he can use. You can run those arcs - or not. That is *a* type of villainy. Much like buying a car does not mean you're buying a Tesla or a Corvette. In my stable of villains, I have people who are in it for world domination. Or letting someone else do the world-dominating, as long as they get to actually pull the strings. I have information brokers. Arms dealers. People in it for revenge. People in it for the money. People doing it because it's all they know. Assassins - which, no, is not "mass murder of random groups of civilians." In fact, they'd want to avoid that because it would draw attention. Corporate villains, getting control while maintaining a friendly, "helpful" public face. Pity you have such a narrow view of "Villain = kill everyone in sight mindlessly," apparently. At least given how you're arguing, that's the only conclusion I can come to. And yet, my suggestion... wouldn't take that away from you. You can still go into a bank mission and murder everything in sight, if that's what you want to do. No. This thread's theme is "Make room for villains who don't see the need to be brainless murder machines." And I gave example reasons as to why a *villain* - even in the middle of *actively robbing a bank* - might have this mindset. It has nothing to do with "Let me be a hero redside." It says nothing about that at all. I even clarified that in a later post. That's you reading that in and getting hung up on it. For clarity, I've even gone through and colored *everything that deals with redside* red so as to reduce confusion.

Again. "Villain," pure or otherwise, does not mean "mass murder." And anything like this going in would probably be enough to move my last few redsiders out of redside.

"Villain" is not the same as "mass murderer" or "Psychopath." A person stealing money supposedly going to a charity in order to line their own bank account is a villain without so much as speaking slightly loudly to someone. There are many, many sorts of villainy that don't involve whipping out a machine gun and mowing down civilians. You want to kill everything in sight? Go for it. My villains typically don't. And frankly, *given it takes extra effort thanks to prior decisions,* I'd like to see that recognized as well.

... I've worked in tech support and/or customer support for most of the last 30 years, I can say that's *patently* not true. 😄

If you have *that* many level 1s - and I say this as an RPer with several low level characters who do serve various purposes - that it's an actual *issue,* perhaps you should look into if you actually are planning to *play* them at any point. Perhaps trim them down to just a few you *really* want to play. Otherwise you're just hoarding. (And no, I highly doubt anyone's going to want the names I have on those lowbies - I have no idea why someone would want to copy a base code or designation, and highly doubt someone would *have* to have a person-name-and/or-nickname combination type name I have on the others.)

... the name is now available and you can get it, where you couldn't before? You have 1000 slots per server, surely if you REALLY want the name, you can create a new character for five seconds. Then delete them and rename the existing character. Rather silly question.

Are you *asking* for those to be confirmed? Asking for information? 1. Yes. True. You can only get a "freed" name by making a new character. You can, however, immediately delete that character (as the name is held for a few minutes) and rename an existing one. 2. True. 3. What you're describing, for clarity if anyone's wondering, is the effect of the manually-run-on-live script, which had all of those side effects (removing from SG, losing email, friends list, etc.) because it archived the character. The new process is essentially an "always on" monitor of the database. The character's not archived, so none of this needs to be broken. As far as other things to be aware of? If "your name" is taken, you'll end up with a number appended to (or if the name's at full length, replacing the last character of) your name. So Superdudeguy will be Superdudeguy 1. Ihaveareallylongnamemanman (if that were the at the limit) would be ihaveareallylongnamemanma1. I'd have to look at what I asked in the announcement thread for any other nuances.

1. They do. It's called "your own creativity." Located in the squishy mass between your ears. 2. No. Not only do we not need 24/7 AFK farming, but there are server load reasons. 3. Eh. 4. No. It takes someone half a second if something comes up to say "Kid's on fire, afk a minute." People do so all the time. If you want to just AFK and soak up XP and rewards in the TOT league - no. 5. No. They have to actually *maintain the game.* This means balance and adjustments. If you don't *like* it, go to ourodev, download a copy of the (at-shutdown or at-HC-launch) server. Takes maybe an hour to set up. You can do all you want there. 6. Meh. 7A. They are bringing in new powers. You may have noticed Symphony Control, Marine Affinity, Storm Blast... 7B. Assuming you're meaning things like genesis, mind, vitae, etc - they don't HAVE the "full incarnate tree." There was, in fact, no "full incarnate tree." It would have just kept going - *including* making prior Incarnate powers obsolete. The only ones we have information on, I have listed in my "Out to EAT" guide (see signature) and frankly the things they were proposing were OP and kind of ridiculous. On top of it, content for them (also increasingly ridiculous) would have to be generated. 8. Level pacting was broken and removed because of it. It wasn't a power. 9. There's plenty of solo content. It's the majority of the game. And it's rewarding just fine for the levels it's at. Sounds like most of these are a whole load of "I don't want to play the game, I just want to soak up rewards for doing nothing," quite frankly.

Given you have to go *out of your way* to not kill them now...

Going to stop right there, as re-reading what I posted, I wasn't that clear. When I'm talking about *rescuing* civilians, I'm talking open-world on the street. Basically first two paragraphs = bank missions, last one, open world (muggings, etc.) I *do* want the option/ reward/ etc. for not being a mass murderer in the bank missions, though.

So, some time ago it was set up to where, on redside bank missions, you could target and kill the civilians. (Believe there's even a badge for doing so.) Given the majority of my villains aren't sociopaths, and/or are aware enough that "hey, if I happen to get caught, murdering all these people probably won't help my case," I'd love to find a way to either turn that off - or, better yet, have an either/or badge for NOT killing them. (Say, if you get within 100 feet of a bunch of civilians to scare them / chase them off, but don't attack, it counts. I don't know if that's trackable, though.) Granted this would probably have to be individually trackable to keep someone from accidentally or intentionally keeping you from getting the badge - or you'd have to solo a lot of bank missions - but I'd *really* appreciate the option. (Edit, since this APPARENTLY NEEDS MORE CLARIFICATION, the FIRST TWO paragraphs were dealing with bank missions/redside. The FOLLOWING one deals with BLUESIDE... thus the "Blueside" tag it was given to begin with. I have colored the redside suggestion red to make this EVEN MORE CLEAR.) Blueside... we (sometimes) get a pittance of INF for assisting civilians - if they don't run off. I've generally been surprised we haven't gotten a badge or badges for this - this seems like something that would've had some sort of recognition early on. Having some for rescuing X number of civilians on the street - even tiered like some other badge sets - might be nice. (And could be reflected redside, yes, since people are getting mugged there, too.) Even having one or two for some specific groups (save 100 civilians from COT rituals = "Broke the Circle" or "Thorn in the side" or something, for instance) might be nice as well.

Going to give the same general response I give to a lot of this. *Please overhaul the entire character select screen with more information and utility.* SG name, level range sorting, better sorting in general, better searching, possibly a popout window (say, a little "i" in the corner) that gives more details that may not generally be wanted on the main character select screen (I tend to put things like INF amount here when I think about it - also sortable,) etc. It'd be a good bit of work I'm sure, but it's long past due for an overhaul.

Positron has two because he used to have one *extremely long* one that was split up. Not "let's just give posi two."

I'd say it is a comment on the idea, frankly. It sounds like someone who's barely familiar with the game had an AI generator create ... this.

Granted, you can through a slash command (/playernote, as I recall) but yeah, that'd be useful.

1-20... depends on what side I'm on. Blueside... I don't know, there's not really one that stands out as 'oh, god, not them." Redside, Arachnos, specifically for the times you hit mobs with a *bunch* of Mu who drain you of what little END you have and nuke your recovery when you just don't have the tools to deal with them. (for some reason, clockwork don't seem to affect me as much blueside? *shrug*)

Just noticed this. You shouldn't be double clicking that file. You're not opening it or trying to run it - so Windows is trying to figure out what to do with it and has .mmu files asssociated with Adobe. Look at the first post:

I'm of two minds about this. On the one side, yeah. Same with the lost curing wand. It's there for one mission, it's got a limited use, and I don't *believe* the divining rod gives XP for what it hits (same with the lost curing wand.) But I don't recall 100% on that. On the other, it's not needed to complete the mission. You can just wipe out all the enemies with your regular powers and still succeed, so it doesn't actually matter if it hits or not, or even if you *try* to use it. (It has to be that way, after all, if you run it with a team they could kill off everything before you zapped them with the rod.) Making it auto-hit wouldn't really change anything, but flavor wise it'd be a plus. (Or at least giving it higher accuracy.)