Luminara

We're going to stream it on Twatch.

/cleartray

Worry not, my fellow conspirators, I've taken steps to ensure that they cannot read this. We may speak freely. Now, down to business. As you will all recall, some years ago, a concern about undesirable elements was raised, that they might disrupt our plans for a New World Order. After prolonged discussion, we agreed that the best approach would be to welcome them, embrace them like brothers and sisters, and make them feel comfortable in our regime... only to lower their guards so we could implement a years-long insidious plot to drive them away. It would require patience, perseverance, cunning and deception the likes of which many cannot imagine possible, but nothing which was not within our capabilities. From the outset, we would adopt and maintain identities as "the HC team", each of us posing as different members of a fictional development organization, so none of what we were doing could be traced back to us. Under the guise of "the HC team", we would garner "donations", which we would pocket (faith, comrades, in another century or two, we'll all be millionaires). We would implement minute adjustments and alterations to the game, specifically targeted at them, designed to frustrate and anger them, to make their experience in the game, their approaches to playing, so infuriating that they would leave. My loyal friends, I am pleased to report that the plan about which I just diabolically monologued is working. They are displeased. In another decade or three, they will all become so irritated that they will abandon the game, spending the rest of their lives wishing they had never picked it up again. However, some have asked why we did not simply refuse their petitions to join us. Why we did not take the expedient route of shutting off all XP and inf* in Architect content and implement timers to everything which could be farmed. Why we could not just as easily make badges unobtainable. Why we bothered to create a thriving and stable economy when we could have turned it into a hyper-inflated mess right away. Why we improve powers and sets when we should be nerfing. Why, essentially, we did not make them unwelcome in the first place, ban them, destroy what they loved and deny them the happiness they sought, rather than bother with a plan which would take decades to reach culmination and take up so much of our infinitely valuable free time. Well, the people who asked those questions are buried in our mango grove in Antarctica, because they were stupid questions. We are an Evil Organization, we use obscenely intricate plans with numerous failure points to create schemes which otherwise would only exist in fiction. This is how we do things. Remember that, or you, too, will disappear to become mango mulch. It has, however, come to my attention that some of them have begun to see through our clever plot and question the validity of our fictional personas, their motives and, surprisingly, even suspect that there might be a secret organization behind all of their misery. Go out, then, and sow discord amongst them. Keep them rattled by comforting and reassuring them, even as you scheme and plot behind their backs. Shake the very foundations of their belief in reality, so they may never know our true sinister purpose. Stay the course. And if anyone blabs, I'll eat your babies. As ever, Your Evil Overlord

You omitted a critical detail, that the feedback thread was inundated by people saying "Y U NO MAKE FF MY WAY DEVS?!?!?!", which was the reason the thread was reined in, and PK's posts were purged because they were part of that derailment. It had nothing to do with him, personally, he wasn't targeted, and it wasn't disrespectful, it was enforcement of the rules. Rules apply to everyone, big name or first-time poster. No favoritism or bias, not even for those of us who have been around "forever".

This is not what happened on the original servers. What happened on the original servers was the market was dumped on a population with trillions upon trillions of currency gathering dust simultaneously with the release of a brand new enhancement system (Inventions) with low drop rates on the most desired recipes, leading to immediate price spikes and runaway inflation before most players woke up to log in the next day. There was no economy on the original servers until Issue 9, because there was nothing to spend inf* on, and when Issue 9 did finally create an economy, that economy instantly went into hyper-inflation. Not eventually, instantly. In contrast, the HC market was set up with those lessons firmly in mind. Drop rates were increased across the board. Salvage, recipes, everything that can drop drops more frequently now. PvP recipes drop in PvE content. Merit rewards have been increased, expanded to a wider variety of content, and made easier to acquire. Merit prices for goods were slashed. The reward merit price for converters was changed from 10 merits for a single converter to 3 converters for a single reward merit... and converters can drop from critters now, even -49 critters. ATOs were made available to everyone, rather than only top tier customers. Salvage was seeded on the market, and pooled so no single salvage can be driven to a price above that of any other within its category. Influence sinks were added and made attractive enough to justify purchases. And abnormal influence gain via critter defeats has been addressed twice. Consequently, prices here started low and have only minimally increased over the years. There are currently two uncontrolled market areas, HOs and variants thereof, and Aethers, and even those aren't showing signs of rampant inflation. Despite the enormous amount of inf* currently floating around in the game, and more being generated at a pace and in amounts which would make Cryptic and Paragon freak out, inflation has still been so slow that it's almost imperceptible. We're playing in an economic golden age on these servers, in which everyone can have everything they want and still be richer than they imagined possible, and the impact on the market is so minute that it can't even be tracked without a spreadsheet covering more than a year. The HC server economy will never approach the economy on the original servers because it never started in the situation which was on the original servers. Whatever you think you recall about the original server's economy, or you believe someone once told you about it, this ain't that and it can't become that. Period. Lastly, one data point, taken when a Page was recently released and a holiday event is in progress, isn't even remotely sufficient to indicate anything. And using the threat of inflation to justify a "refund policy" is panic-mongering, playing on peoples' fears to achieve a goal. Don't do that. Just don't. We have enough FUD around here right now, we don't need more.

They can't. There are controls in place to prevent it. You've noted a miniscule temporary increase in the Buy Now price for rare salvage and turned it into a panic thread about rapid, rampant inflation spiraling out of control. Relax, Chicken Little, the sky's firmly nailed overhead.

When I started on HC a year before you did, rare salvage was selling for ~450,000 inf*, and I've never had bids fill for less than 325,000 inf*, no matter how long I left them. 500,000 inf* is perfectly reasonable and in line with my experience. And I did play on the original servers, for years. I remember the market situation painfully well. What we have on the HC servers is not experiencing the inflationary trends shown on the original servers. You're over-reacting to a minor fluctuation.

I'm seeing hyperbole. I've had to cut my prices on LotGs just to get them out of my inventory. Orange salvage prices went up slightly not long after a new Page was released, drawing players back and new players in? And that's indicative of spiraling inflation? Definitely hyperbole.

Why should you stop being you for the sake of a non-existent corporate entity that you don't represent and aren't employed by? Is this going on your CV? "Maintained a professional demeanor during interactions on a video game forum, despite being belittled, reviled and the subject of numerous conspiracy theories by bat-shit crazy motherfuckers who thought they were 'all that and a side of chips'"? Are you the person Karen is finally going to speak to, after all of these years? No? Then keep being you. Reminders that the HC team are people, too, are necessary, even in the best of times.

The same player who jumped to a conclusion, leveled a cockamamie accusation at the HC team, based entirely on wild conspiracy theories and rampant inflated egos? Start shit, get shit. And your expectation that the mods and developers should be required to take shit constantly and not fire back is... fucking stupid. They're not obligated to sit there and take it up the ass simply because you think they should have to. This isn't their job, no, you cannot speak with their manager, no you cannot get them fired, no, no-one is going to give a flying fuck if you leave the store in a huff. This is their hobby, they're doing this because they choose to, and they have as much right to stand up for themselves as anyone else here does. Get the fuck over it.

I love how so many people seem to think everything the developers and moderators do is all about them lately. I'm surrounded by people who are so full of their own bullshit that they've forgotten that they're not the center of the universe, nor the reason any member of the HC team does anything. The ego-tripping, self-absorbed nonsense is incredibly entertaining. I'm sure it'll continue to be hilarious when the HC team throws their hands up in the air, says, "Fuck it", and walks away.

Propel has standard base hit chance, which, as with thousands of other powers in this game, works out to 75% chance to hit a +0 critter. One -1 Accuracy SO takes it above the 95% cap versus +0 critters. If you want to fight foes above +0, yes, you have to slot it with more Accuracy (two +0 Accuracy SOs will bring it to 93.88% hit chance versus +3 enemies) or use ToHit buff powers (Tactics, for instance), and that's not out of the ordinary for this game. Propel's animation time is 2.244 seconds. While that isn't the fastest animation in the game, it is quite reasonable. It's not Lift fast, but it's not Wormhole slow, either. For that 2.244 seconds of time spent, the power deals considerable damage (especially for a controller, which gains the benefit of double damage on controlled foes (and it applies a small bonus on top of that if the control used is Gravity Distortion)) and AoE soft control. The KB/KD is a secondary effect, the excellent damage is the primary effect, and only the primary target is knocked back, all other enemies affected are knocked down. If you would like the primary target to be knocked down, slot a Sudden Acceleration KB->KD IO or Overwhelming Force Damage/Chance for Knockdown/KB->KD IO. The AoE Immobilize power is Crushing Field. Crushing Field has an 8 second recharge time. I'm going to guess that you've been referring to Dimension Shift as "the mass immobilization". Dimension Shift is not "the mass immobilization" power of the set, that's Crushing Field. Dimension Shift is a phasing power, which can be best regarded as an AoE Hold With A Twist (you can't deal damage to enemies unless you're inside the AoE, nor can they deal damage to you unless you're inside the AoE). If you simply want to Immobilize a group, use Crushing Field, which has an 8 second recharge time. If you want an AoE Hold on an 8 second recharge time, that's as unlikely to happen as Propel being replaced with an AoE blast. You don't appear to be terribly familiar with Gravity Control. Perhaps playing it before calling for changes would be a wiser approach.

In concert with the reduced animation times. With shorter animation times, there are fewer Recovery ticks during any given attack chain. If, for instance, the attack chain consists of 5 attacks with a total of 10 seconds of animation time, and the animation times are cut to an average of 1.33 seconds, the player is then using the same 5 attacks in 6.65 seconds. Same endurance used for the attacks, but 3.35 seconds less time for Recovery to do it's thing.

Shit. I just realized I have to start over with Buttlefish. Buttlefish needs a Buttle Axe. HATE THIS PAGE SO MUCH NOW.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=controller_control.gravity_control.gravity_distortion&at=controller https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=controller_control.gravity_control.gravity_distortion_field&at=controller https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=controller_control.gravity_control.crushing_field&at=controller 8 seconds isn't long. Propel is a signature power of Gravity Control. Like Wormhole, it's what sets it apart from other control sets. It's highly unlikely that any development team running any of the Co* server groups would ever remove it from the set, and even less likely that it would be replaced by a "group damage power".

3 inside (Jessica, May and Bunny), 15 outside (Arthur, Bonnie, Naomi, Emily, Sara, Jasper, Mr. Fade, Noel, Kal, Tucker and Violette, and Sara had four kittens a few weeks ago) and more on the way (Naomi's going to pop any day now). Yeah, I have too many cats. I can't turn a stray away. I have a friend of a friend who's going to help me get all of the outside cats fixed and some of them re-homed.

I know how to make Brunswick stew.

I think it was a dog's eyes pasted in. But I don't care, because it's the the funniest thing I've ever seen. I laugh until I can't breathe every time I look at it. Because they don't have those eyes. Duh.

That's a relief. I thought the squirrels were throwing acorns at my roof because they were angry at me for having so many cats.

I'm on the closed forum, have been since the TA changes were a whisper in the distant breeze. Patches and updates sent to the closed test server aren't being revised to satisfy the players there, it's only used to isolate critical bugs and ensure that nothing causes the magical smoke to be released from the hardware before it's published on the beta server. The HC team doesn't pay any more or less attention to the beta testers than they do the closed testers. You can request access and verify that yourself.

It is an emu, but since I like posting the Popcorn Ostrich, it's an ostrich when I need it to be an ostrich.

*is roused*

That sounds suspiciously like... testing. What do you think this is, a beta? Do you really expect people to test things? Good grief, man, don't you realize that they might come to a valid and reasonable conclusion, even if it means having to swallow their pride and admit that they were in error? Madness. MADNESS, I SAY!