FoxyPrime

Annoying Annoying. The self-res just makes them more tedious to fight. The gimmick got old very fast.

I like a good story arc. Gets me more into what I'm doing when the context clicks with me and it becomes more fun.

Logged in today to find out I can't access the Settings menu without the game crashing. Not sure what's going on. Edit: Nevermind. Problem seems to have resolved itself, but now I got some troubleshooting to do.

I was on Virtue.

Could we get one of these "last objective" markers for this Dr Calvin guy? I'm flying around spamming the search macro and still can't find him. This guy is always such a pain...

Robots: The ability to recolor them and their attacks. Thugs, Mercs, and Ninjas: Female variants and maybe style variants (like more armored mercs and different gang themes for thugs like Resistance or Cyberpunk and maybe medieval highway men look for ninjas) Demons: The ability to recolor their flames because I really want them to match better. Beasts: The option to replace the dire wolf with a bear or something different, or the option to replace the lions with more wolves. Necromancy: A sword for the MM themselves for that Death Knight look, but maybe also Vahzilok-like zombies for a mad-scientist approach. Btw, has anyone ever been on an all Thug Mastermind team and everyone used Gang War at the same time? I've always wanted to see what kind of chaos would ensue from that.

Having options was always City of Heroes' main appeal to me. WoW always felt annoyingly restrictive in various ways, but it always came down to what looked like creative build options would often turn out to be a big fat lie, and they gradually took those options away. Also, for the longest time, my biggest gripe with "required" multiplayer is how unreliable it ultimately is. People have conflicting schedules, people come and go, and my experience with randos in PuGs is often terrible*. To depend solely on multiplayer to even play means being unable to play whenever one of the myriad reasons comes up that a group is either not available or not working out. Therefore, I've always felt a solo option should always be available to provide the necessary flexibility to prevent people getting stalled out. This was especially bad back when we had to pay a subscription to play: paying 15 bucks a month just to have time wasted because of random happenstance and scheduling conflicts is horrid. MMOs make grouping more readily available (that's the whole point), but despite that it's still not something that can be taken for granted. * Most of my PuG experience across various games is I often run into people who are pushy, bossy, rude, or just plain griefers. Not worth the headache of dealing with. CoH Homecoming has been something of a noteworthy exception...some of the time. For the majority of Task Force Commander, I've actually had decent groups and no issues. Posi 1 is sometimes problematic so I find it's easier to just solo that one. Maria Jenkins runs for the Praetorians is another bad one because people's high tendency to be rush happy results in me not getting credit for the Praetorian KOs, which makes it another one I prefer to solo...which is admittedly a bit hard when I'm playing a squishy character.

Yes.

I really don't think there's any dissonance at all. You go through the quest to see the story. In order to do so, you play the game, using the mechanics to overcome the challenge in the quest in order to advance the story. How is that not game design and narrative literally working in tandem?

When I was younger, I had more of a determined, persistent attitude, but also still a sense of frustration and feeling something was amiss. Massive grinds went from absurd bonus quests in a select few games to widely prevalent and a core aspect of game design. World of Warcraft was my first major exposure to it and after twice having spent literal months to get an armor set only for it to be worthless almost immediately after was an enormous wake up call and pretty much killed what was left of that youthful determination. All that time, effort, and money (subscriptions) for literally nothing but the expectation that I'd do it all over again instead of quitting. After having seen this sort of thing only get worse and worse over the years, I am firmly against having my time wasted since the entire point of playing a game is to be entertained.

I'm afraid I'm not understanding where the problem is. Something level 20-30 doesn't sound like anything people would linger on either way. What does it mean to play it more regularly and why is that necessary to begin with?

Oh cool. Thanks for informing me.

As things are now, I keep seeing consistent prices for everything, so I'm not sure if inflation is an issue. If it does become one, however, I also don't think trying to delay it will fix it, or if it's worth combating it at the expense of the rest of the game. I'm not really sure what rewards you speak of as I've seen none that aren't acquirable over time alone. None are attached to specific quests or content so the only motivation I've ever had to do content is simply for its own sake. And as a player, content is far more enjoyable when I can play it for its own sake rather than having to repeat it over and over as part of a tedious farm. I think good game content should be able to stand on its own as being worth playing because it's good, not something you have to repeat because it's required for a reward. The best games I've ever played are often of a "short and sweet" nature, were as the worst were full of grind as a substitute for content. Short and sweet > tedious and empty. In my experience, the longer a reward takes to get, the more likely something new and better will come along before you ever get it. Plus the sheer frustration and tediousness takes away any joy I could have ever derived so I think mandatory repetition and delays are more toxic than anything else.

I never felt any sense of accomplishment from "earning" anything when it was really just waiting for the game to let me have it due to arbitrary time gates, RNG, or grinding. I've only grown to detest time wasting game design more and more over the years and I do not agree with any argument that supports such designs. The game honestly feels better now than it did back in the day, with quests that feel engaging, stories that draw me in, and wrapped up with a boss fight that feels epic, all with a character set up the way I like it attained in a reasonable time. That actually feels like a triumph and it isn't undermined by frustration and boredom from tedious padding. I can go in and enjoy things at my own pace. MUCH better than street sweeping, cleaning out substations, and putting up with an unreliable mess of a team full of selfish elitists. I feel like my time is well spent and respected, not wasted.

I'm probably missing a lot here, but one thing that always confused me is why farming faster is bad, but essentially farming slower is good. The only difference between PI council runs and AE farming that I've ever noticed is AE is faster. Also what about the fire/kin controller warrior farms of the past? Are those any different than the AE? It's still one guy going around farming xp for a group of other people. It even still involves a specific build vs a specific type of opponent. I don't think this discussion, or this community, benefits from anyone copping an elitist "play my way or play something else" attitude.