Luminara

Teams are a social experience. I have social anxiety disorder. Oil and water.

I sincerely hope the HC team wouldn't be foolish enough to spend anything on Gremlins. They were terrible.

Menu > Options > Window (last tab) > Reticle (right under User Interface) > Player Health Bars > click until it says Show Always.

Miss streaks, endurance issues, gradually worse damage as one increases in level (powers don't deal less damage, but critter HP and mitigation increases while unslotted or poorly slotted damage remains consistent), limited access to powers due to lack of sufficient recharge buffs/enhancements, slow movement speeds, dislike of the feeling of being "weak" after having played a character at 50+, lack of interest in lowest level content, impatience (either played through the low level content hundreds of times, or new and wanting to run with the big dogs rather than be stuck at the bottom for weeks)... any or all of the above. I don't power-level my characters, I don't team, I don't farm, I usually don't twink (have on a couple of occasions) and I don't use the P2W buffs, so I'm pretty intimate with the shortcomings of the low level game. It's frustrating, it feels underwhelming and for some people, it's not enjoyable (this is a combat-oriented action MMORPG. sucking at combat shouldn't even be a possibility, much less so assured that there are mechanics in place (Beginner's Luck) and P2W buffs to fix that problem). That's why I play the market with every character, to make enough inf* to plug the holes on low level characters.

Don't tell me you lost your last pair of panties again. What, do we have to RFID tag these things for you? ❤️

Short term fluctuations are short term. If the prices remain high for a few weeks, then everyone can throw their panties in the air and run around like panicky NPCs (evidence of such behavior will be required in photographic format). Until then, go about your business as usual. 😛

So do I. I abide by a lot of restrictions I set for myself, leveling characters without hand-me-downs or inheritances, but not using merits or the AH is just out of the question. I earned the merits, I earned the inf*, I'm damn well going to put them to use making the game less frustrating by hitting the AH and fixing the problems I encounter (like missing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... fuck that noise, i'm not playing to test my patience, i can do that on the forums).

Which is why we all refer to you as Cuddles.

Now I can't stop imagining Shivans performing Guns In the Sky.

Gold retriever ≠ golden retriever. Man... I let that sit for FOUR PAGES, waiting for someone else to jump on it. Slackers.

That is an impressive use of the thumbtack feature. 👍

I'm just starting to work on a cup of coffee, so my brain is mush at the moment, but some form of lateral progression might address some of the issues you've raised, @Monos King. We already have lateral progression in a few ways. Badge collecting. Completing all of the story arcs, side missions (the detective and Madame Bellerose stuff) and personal stories in Dark Astoria. It's a different grind, one which players tend to be more open to accepting, and which feels rewarding when it's completed. More lateral progression of that sort might be an answer, at least for some players. An example jumping around in my addled skull (i'm really not worth a wet sock until the caffeine kicks in) is going back through old story arcs and adding... I don't know, 50, or 100 extra glowies, one per mission, something like the Letter Writer glowies in the Ouroboros arcs. Players would have to revisit these missions, or play them on new characters, in order to find them. Locating all of them unlocks... a unique souvenir (the badge list is apparently teetering under its own weight, rather not make it worse), or an otherwise inaccessible emote. Obviously, this wouldn't be feasible on that scale. They don't have the resources, that's just the way it is. But the idea of lateral progression has been working to provide a degree of satisfaction to a lot of players for as long as the game's been playable, so brainstorming something that's possible within the HC team's resource budget (meaning, something that won't make @Piecemeal or @Cobalt Arachne hate life) should be within the ken of the forum regulars. Just not me right now. Brain mush hurts, needs more caffeine.

You promised that to me... After everything we haven't shared, all we've never been through together, the good times and memories that don't exist, you betray me like this?! I feel so dirty. Do it again.

I thought it was a euphemism for cannibalism.

Ah. I typically let my AoEs handle that aspect.

/bind b "powexec_location target Oil Slick Arrow" I'd also recommend against slotting the Overwhelming Force KB>KD IO in OSA, or Bonfire. It's known to be finicky if more than one source of KB activates, and both of those powers deal KB. You'll have critters randomly bouncing out of the KB patches in various directions. Use the Sudden Acceleration KB>KD IO.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. No. If one more critter with Blind is added to the game, I'll hit someone with my shoe. Fuckers aren't difficult, they're just time-outs. If there's one thing we don't need, it's more time-outs.

AG! How long have you been lurking? 😄

The cats I have now won't even touch my food. And I try! I offer them bites of everything, they just give me that "This isn't up to my standards, you unrefined cretin" look. I can pick up a food bowl and crinkle the bag of dry food and Jessica goes into meerkat mode, even if the food bowl was full, but she refuses to touch cheese, or milk, or bits of meat. And May only eats what Jessica eat... usually when Jessica is trying to eat it, but, fortunately, they're not combative over food. Now Ivan... he loved eating my food. Didn't matter what I was eating, he wanted it. And he didn't want it because it was tasty, he wanted it because... he loved me. If I was eating it, he wanted to share the experience. Plums. Granny Smith apples. Pistachios! I shelled and fed him half a bag of pistachios once, and he had the biggest, most adorable smile the whole time. If I tried to eat one, he'd reach out with a paw and divert my hand to his mouth. I miss him. It's been over 10 years and I still miss him. It's good to remember the better times, like this, though, all of the ways he wormed into my heart and made me happy. Thanks for bringing those memories to the surface. They're what keep him close, even now.

Until more content was released. Content has to be created. Creating content takes time. Time spent doing nothing leads to players complaining (or leaving). Thus, grind is traditionally included in content, which gives development teams time to create more content (with more grind) before players complain about a lack of content (or leave due to lack of content). The vicious circle I spoke of previously. Some grind slows down progression. The gear grind, for example. Games with gear grind typically require players to run through the recently released content numerous times in order to acquire all of the new gear. There are other types of grind, which don't delay progression. Let's imagine that @Piecemeal releases a new story arc tomorrow, and in that arc, there are five different endings, each with a different badge, plus a super special, really difficult to figure out sixth ending which unlocks a future story arc if you do everything exactly right. That's grind, but it's not progression-delaying grind. That's the purpose of grind. That's all it's for. It's a mechanic intended to give developers the time they need to make more content. Sometimes it delays progression, sometimes it doesn't. Grind never prevents players from complaining about a lack of content, because no amount of grind can do that. Players always finish content before the next update, no matter how competent, well funded and expertly run the development team is. A little well-placed and carefully designed grind can make the difference between players complaining the day after the content is released, or several weeks after. Excessive grind also leads to complaints, so it's a narrow path to walk.

It didn't prevent complaints, it delayed them. That's all the grind ever accomplishes, or is intended to accomplish, a respite. That's already in the game, in the Praetorian (gold-side) content, and it achieves all of the goals you've outlined in those two sentences. It's also the least played content. Correlation, or causation?