Rudra

Edit: My completed level 50s are typically broke, so yes, any new characters I make and try leveling do not have the benefit of a cash cow character providing funds. No player has to figure out how to exchange reward merits into converters and sell them on the AH, or try to auction their salvage or DOs/SOs or recipes on the AH, or even interact with the AH at all to work with the enhancement system and figure out how it works. If they want to keep all their enhancement slots full with the newest DOs/SOs available to them at all times? Then yes, they will. Just playing with DOs/SOs? They can play the game just fine without interacting with the market. The game will get tougher as they go because they won't be able to slot too many enhancements unless they fortuitously drop from mobs until they hit a plateau where the challenge caps out for not doing so, but they can still do so just fine. And there is even a tutorial in the game that pretends to just be a story arc from auto-assigned contacts at level 6 that tells these players about the AH and that players use it to make money, so it isn't like the game doesn't provide them that information at all. No, you're misinterpreting how I used that term. I was using it to refer to the players I described in the preceding sentence, that being players who, for whatever reason, aren't inclined to reach out broadly for help. Here is an interesting (in my opinion) little bit of information. When I first started playing? I actively stayed out of chat and didn't even pay attention to it. Not because I wanted to figure things out like my friends do, but because I did not like interacting with others. (Yeah, yeah, not something anyone would ever think the way I post on the forums, but it's been a really long time getting to this point.) And for those players like me? The game has progressed well beyond what it used to be. The information that I didn't start getting until I finally started watching chat for when other players asked the questions I also had but didn't want to ask? The game tells the player most of that information now. Whether through Twinshot's arcs or Dr. Graves' arcs. It isn't as well defined as what those players will get if they actually ask more experienced players or look up a game guide, but the base information is still there and presented to players even if they choose not to engage with other players.

Nowhere am I calling a player that chooses to not engage in chat an asshole. So I very much do not appreciate you saying I am. What I am saying is that the information is available for the asking and the players that choose not to ask have their reasons for not doing so. And the people that I know and play with (in many games) do so because they want to figure things out for themselves. So they specifically avoid looking up game guides and they specifically avoid asking others for tips/advice. And as those are the only people I have ever met that are so adverse to asking for help or looking anything up, that is the type of person I expect to not ask for help in game or go looking for the information that we already have available to us. Also, bear in mind that I am a solo-oriented player and always have been since before I even came across this game and started playing it back on Live. And as a solo-oriented player, I am still willing to reach out to others for tips and advice. The insinuation that just because a player is more solo-oriented and prefers to keep to themselves in game and so is unwilling to even ask for help or advice, or go looking for information, is downright insulting to me.

You're right, we are coming at this from different perspectives. Because for me, even when I was a new player and during the times I was assisting new players, enhancements and figuring out what to enhance when, what to prioritize for my play style, especially knowing that I was obviously not getting enough enhancements just from drops or influence from defeats/mission awards to buy enhancements to keep my character slotted; that was as much part of playing and enjoying the game as figuring out how to manage my endurance, how to utilize my powers, and how to tackle the different factions I was encountering as I progressed. Even now, as a veteran player, because I don't typically interact with the market system and because I don't use merits the way others recommend to make inf' to get enhancements, even at level 50, my characters have huge gaps in their enhancement slotting. (Yes, I have completed, fully incarnated 50s that can provide funds to my other characters, but that is a very limited supply. I am not awash in money in the game. Just like a new player, when I make a new character, I have to be choosy about my enhancements. To me, that is very much part of playing the game.) I only ever had 1 character that always had enhancements slotted in every power. And that character always had the highest level enhancements available for the character slotted. (Well, almost. Sometimes I couldn't afford to replace all my enhancements when I got to within 3 of the next SO, just most.) And this was before there were IOs and before ED. How? I was playing a Dark Melee/Dark Armor Scrapper. I couldn't use more than one of my armors at a time. Even with multiple accuracy enhancements slotted, I almost never hit same level minions (or even -1 minions), and so I was defeated a lot. I had roughly 5 levels of debt accumulated and I couldn't reduce that. (Which can't happen any more because of the debt cap the Live devs added to the game.) Because I had so much debt, my leveling was severely stunted. Because my leveling was severely stunted, I was amassing lots of influence for each time I leveled up so I could just go buy new SOs each time I got within 3 levels of them. (Not something I would recommend putting new players through. However, it does serve to illustrate how learning for your own play style what enhancements are your priorities for your priority powers is very much part of playing the game to me.) (Bear in mind, I finally encountered someone who told me I was running a Dark Melee wrong, and following his advice, I stopped losing. The advice? Slot my attacks with 5 red enhancements and forget accuracy. Suddenly, even +3 mobs were just curling up and dying. Then ED hit and that strategy for enhancing went out the window.) Yes, I'm sure new players to the game would appreciate being able to just slot enhancements as they go, but if that was possible, then why even have the enhancement system in the first place? Someone earlier in the thread said this wasn't like a Mario game. And I agree. Nothing, not even enhancements, should be an immediate "Here you go, just keep slotting these" because at least to me, that very much undercuts the whole reason of having the systems the game has in the first place. New players will get enough DOs to interact with the enhancement system and learn it just from drops. They also have immediate access to 5 varieties of damage/recharge/damage proc enhancements for free to give them an extra leg up on the game. And the tutorials explain to them what enhancements are, what they do, and how to slot them. They may not be able to maximize their powers, but at least to me, figuring out what to prioritize and managing your power enhancements is very much part of playing and enjoying the game. Edit: As for new players that don't think to ask for help from the other players they can see running around in the game and know are out there because they chose to download and play an MMO, and because there are chat channels immediately on their screen that with any amount of investigation shows there is a Help channel? I see no reason to bend over backwards to cater to them. To me at least, they obviously don't want the help because they are confident they can figure it out for themselves. So in my opinion? Let them.

Sorry, but I'm still not seeing the problem. Except for buffs/debuffs, armors/shields, and heals; a damage/recharge/damage proc can be slotted into any character's starting powers. Even Controller and Dominator starting primary powers inflict damage and can accept the enhancements. (With Dominators being able to slot them into their secondaries as well.) Shields like Cold Domination's Ice Shield and the various armors can't use them, sure, but at low levels you aren't really hurting by not getting free enhancements for those. Particularly with the armor sets as their cumulative END costs don't start being noticeable until you have several running at once. Same with heals, buffs, and debuffs. Those aren't in any real need for being enhanced at low levels because their base amounts are more than enough to make low level mobs near ineffective. By the time a player's character gets high enough in level to start having enough powers those free enhancements are not really helping any more, the inf' saved by not having to procure those free enhancements (pretty much ever until you're ready and situated to replace them) coupled with just mob dropped DOs (and occasional SO), mob awarded inf', mission/arc awarded inf', arc awarded merits, salvage and recipe drops (at least when you get above level 6 for recipes), and merits gained for exploring the zones; players should be able to get either some basic IOs crafted at the universities or DOs to keep them afloat. (Edit: Especially if the concern is getting new players familiar with the enhancement system. The crutches available to us now for low level characters is absolutely amazing.) Edit again: I'm fine with finding ways to make the information more available to new players, but other than overhauling the tutorials and again forcing players through them, I don't really see a way to do so. I mean, that's why game guides exist in the first place. Whether MMO or stand alone. To give players more access to game information than what can be crammed into a tutorial. And that is the biggest advantage of playing a MMO like CoX. New players can ask other players for tips, tricks, and other guidance.

They are told by the game to interact with the enhancement system. And there are free enhancements that grant a damage/recharge bonus with a damage proc that they can just walk up to the vendor and grab to slot in their powers. Using those enhancements is interacting with the enhancement system. And even better for the new players? They are absolutely free with no apparent limit to how many they can grab. (They just can't sell them.) Edit: DOs drop randomly from enemies starting at level 1. The tutorials give players two free level 1 enhancements and tell them how to slot and use them. P2W gives players an unlimited number of free damage/recharge/damage proc enhancements until level 19-20. How are new players not interacting with the enhancement system? And why are free IOs only a band-aid to learning the system?

I'm not understanding how they wouldn't be aware there is a red side though. The game lists villains as available to play on the very first page of character creation. And when you finish character creation, if you choose to skip the tutorials, it flat out asks you if you are a hero or a villain. And if you choose to go through the tutorials, there are three different tutorials with a handy guide right there explaining one is a hero tutorial and one is a villain tutorial. If they choose neither of those tutorials and go with the third? They get flat out asked in the tutorial if they choose to be a hero or a villain. So how is there a lack of awareness of red side?

There are 5 free enhancements that players can grab starting at level 1, are listed as some of the best enhancements available in the game up to level 21, can be grabbed as often as the character wants without limit up to level 20(?), and the bonuses never degrade as you level up. Problem of low level enhancements solved. Just need a way to let new players know to talk to the P2W vendor and grab them. (Edit: I mean besides using the Help channel, using Broadcast, or just in general asking others for help that I wonder why they aren't options to expect new players to use.)

Jason Maxwell is always at the start of the map. He is the collapsed figure on the ground. However, if there is no collapsed figure near the entrance doors guarded by a couple of PPD, then yeah, there is an issue. (Edit: And I think he can despawn if ignored for too long because he dies. I'm not certain this is the case, but I believe it is.)

Our red side characters, even the VEATs to an extent, are not part of Arachnos. Arachnos maintains lots of secret bases, even in the Rogue Isles, but characters are not made privy to them because they exist for specific purposes for Arachnos, which our characters are not part of. Same thing with the Longbow presence in the Isles. Our blue side characters are not part of Longbow. And though Longbow is willing to work with our characters as they deem necessary, their bases/facilities are not made available to blue side characters to use because they are for specific Longbow operations of which our characters have no involvement.

The Suggestion Engine, of which you can only keep the projector and Arachnos gets the engine itself, is not a confusion ability or other form of mind control. It is strictly a persuasion enhancement device. So if the target is hostile to you and already attacking, it isn't going to help you. You need time to talk to the target to convince the target of what you want. So it isn't a combat usable device. (Edit: Well, I guess you get the Suggestion Engine itself and it is the power supply for it you don't. So, my mistake. It still isn't mind control though. So not a confusion ability.)

Okay, so first, this really needs to be on the Website Suggestions and Feedback forum here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/63-website-suggestions-feedback/ Second? My recommendation is to ask for the SG thread for each server to be pinned for ready access on their respective forum.

I just tested on Everlasting on a level 50+3 in Peregrine Island. Went out and got stomped by a few monsters out north, and was able to rez at my base normally. Do you have any other information to maybe help troubleshoot what happened to you?

I stay off the beta forums since I don't spend any time on the beta server (which I don't even have access enabled for), so all I have available for reference is this thread. And the very first post on this thread is a complete power set being pitched by the OP asking for feedback. If the author posted actual data for the devs? Great. The fact the set still made it to open beta still tells me either more feedback approved of the set as is or the dissenters failed to include relevant information to sway the devs. Like I said to @Lockely, I avoid the beta forums most times because I don't have a beta presence. And the only feedback I've seen, which I admit is just this thread, is destructive, not constructive.

Here is the thing about this thread and anything players want changed: This thread is all about how the author would have made the set different followed by a request for feedback on what the author created. (Which is why this was moved to the Suggestions and Feedback forum instead of staying where it was. It doesn't address the set as is and may or may not need to be done and why, just what the author wants instead.) The author spends a lot of time on this thread being disparaging about the set. 'Arse this', 'arse that', 'wet, smelly arse'. That is a sure fire way to turn off the author's main targets for influencing: the devs. The author gives just his/her/their opinions on the set, but no reference-able, replicable, actionable data. Without actual data, the devs have no reason to consider what is being said. The set made it to open beta for fine tuning. So either the majority of the testers were pleased with the set, or the majority dissenters failed to provide any data for the devs to review and act on. Things like "this power works well at the availability it is at because testing against these foes in these missions at this difficulty resulted in this outcome" or "this power does not work well at this availability with this configuration because testing against these foes in these missions at this difficulty resulted in this outcome" is much more valuable feedback to the devs and much more likely to get a change implemented than "I would rather have", "I prefer", "I think", "I believe", "I want", or any other iterations of said comments.

*SNIPPED* Looking at this thread in itself: when content gets to the open beta, the devs are looking for fine tuning of what they made. They won't overhaul a set unless it really, really, really needs it. Looking at the comments: I'm not seeing a wide variety of people involved in this thread, and of those I see, there are a surprising number of comments that look to be in agreement with the OP, but more seem focused on sleep effects themselves rather than the set. Looking at my own response: I see statements saying they like the set. There is a good chance there are others that do too, especially if the set got through closed beta and development to get to open beta and fine tuning. Disregarding those comments because they don't line up is also disrespectful and cringe. (Also, please note when I actually joined this conversation. I haven't tried the set so I have no opinion on it. However, the fact it got as far as it did tells me something.)

I don't know if this is doable, but it sure sounds good to me.

Each time you open the editor, the count goes up, then you close it at the new count, re-open it and it goes up again ad infinitum? Then yeah, I sit corrected. That isn't the same thing as what I am used to.

I'm not inclined to get into another 'what constitutes a bug' argument. So all I will say is that the game is designed with a text editor that does not process special characters very well, and using special characters inflates the character count in game text. (Edit: And that players including me have asked for the text editor to get replaced with something more capable.)

That isn't a bug and it isn't limited to double spaces or line breaks. What is going on is that any special characters you use in your bio takes multiple characters for the code for that character. So like a line break takes up four characters for the <br> command. There have been requests to have the format for the bios changed to correct that, but it isn't a bug. (Edit: So what you see when you type in your text is the text you type, but in the background the special characters are being tracked by their commands. Then when you go back into it to edit it, or if you jump around in the bio, or sometimes when you have to shift the display to see the rest of what you are typing, it shows the count including the full command entries; which can seem like artificial increases in character count.) (Edit again: If you do anything in AE, you will see the exact same thing happen in those text blocks too. And is a likely cause of the NPC comments that are cut off when they say them.)

I'm in favor of proliferation of existing alternate animations between same sets. And if Tankers have it, the other melees can too.

When on the beta forums, the devs are looking for feedback on what was done, not what others wished had been done instead. And the quote you cited that you say is 'a way of saying the devs don't want feedback that isn't congratulatory' completely ignores the quote for what it says, like "or I hate X because...".

Take Dark Blast and choose No Skull option, then color it in brighter colors. Now you have a light-looking attack that debuffs the target's ToHit. Go Radiation Blast and color it light, and now you have a light looking attack that is an energy attack that debuffs the target's defense. Same thing with melee options.

Dark Melee and Dark Blast have their equal and opposite reactions. Dark Melee is opposed by Energy Melee and Dark Blast is opposed by Energy Blast. Radiation Melee and Radiation Blast as alternate energy sets also work, and very much look like what I keep hearing players describe for their light sets when they color them in light colors.

Just so you know, you can filter by AT and powers already if you want. Not arguing against the ability to sort, just saying you can search by AT or powers (or name) currently.

I thought it actually could not be done?