Tigraine

It also does not help when they drop in to effectively say, "We don't like the feedback you're giving; tell us what we want to hear or we won't ask for feedback anymore." At that point, is there really any purpose in offering feedback?

To be blunt, this comes off as a message of "We don't like the feedback you're giving, so you'd better tell us what we want to hear or we'll stop listening," which of course isn't really listening at all. It makes me worry that you (the collective "you") are ignoring a lot of perfectly valid points and concerns just because there have been some responses that you didn't like. If you wonder why players feel that devs don't listen, this is why. I sincerely hope this isn't the case and that you are not ignoring the forest for the trees, so to speak, but it's the impression given by the responses so far.

I can't help but think of this: 😜

If a power is changed to the point that it takes different enhancements (and doesn't take ones that previously slotted in it), that's a pretty clear violation of the cottage rule. It indicates that the power has moved into a completely different category than it was previously, or has gained or lost significant key mechanics.

Or you know, they could adhere to the cottage rule and not change the fundamental function of powers, and then there would be no need to re-slot because the powers should accept the same enhancements.

These changes aren't going to alter that perspective; there are people who treat every MMO this way, and they're not going to magically disappear just because some enemy groups are a bit tougher than they were. All that these changes are going to do is push more of those people to doing AE farms instead of PI radios. At the same time, the changes create a greater annoyance for other players who preferred a more casual/less stressful experience at those levels (particularly solo players).

If high level teams are "steamrolling" Council, and solo play is "no different," then what exactly is the point of this update? It seems that the overall effect is to just introduce new annoyances and tedium.

I have. Less so on HC with the reduction of Kheldian-specific enemy spawns, but it still happens.

I already regularly run at lower difficulties. What do you suggest I do after these changes? You can only scale down so far.

I don't think one game making bad design decisions is justification for another game making the same mistakes.

Huh. Weird that it didn't make it into the Build 2 specific change notes. Thanks for posting the info. Anyway, good to see that at least some of the concerns regarding MMs are being addressed. I'm still concerned about the impact of the self-rez in general, particularly solo play. A lot of the feedback I've seen so far has been for teams. Unfortunately it will be a while before I can test this out for myself, possibly not until after this page is out of beta (dealing with an injury making prolonged mouse use difficult). So I'd appreciate info on anyone else's experiences running solo against Council with these changes. Are they as/more annoying than Freakshow?

OK, but where is that in the Build 2 Changes notes? I'm specifically looking at the expanded section under this: There's not even a section for Council changes under there, unless I'm completely blind and am just missing it?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a hallmark of bad currency design and currency bloat is having single-purpose currencies. That includes currencies that can be converted into other currencies. The conversion doesn't count as an additional purpose, it's just another layer of tedium. Renaming "Unstable Aether" to "Monstrous Aether" would seem to indicate that this currency will not be used for any other purpose, and appears to be a step in the wrong direction. So for now I'll agree with others that a new currency is unnecessary and should not have been used here.

I don't actually see anything in the Build 2 Changes notes that affects Council at all? Am I missing something?

Just going to say that I absolutely loathe playing missions against Freakshow, specifically because of the self-rez. There is nothing worse than burning down all your endurance and getting your health reduced to just a sliver, using the last of your inspirations, all to barely take down a boss, only to have it pop right back up again and smash you. It turns that hard-fought feeling of victory into the disappointment of defeat and the frustration of a hospital run. As a result, I avoid Freakshow missions and arcs like the plague and only run them when I have no alternative. Council were always the enemy to go against when I just needed some relaxing or cathartic mob-smashing. With this change, adding not only a self-rez, but a self-rez with an AoE? It's enough for me to put Council in my Freakshow category, and if the overall impact on my gameplay experience is bad enough, might push me from the game altogether. Considering how much the Council are a part of mission arcs I enjoy, it just might.

We normally refer to that as "Hasten." 😉

To clarify, are you suggesting that if these changes were made, the powers should go back to being mutually exclusive, i.e., you can only have one running at a time? Or just that with these changes, you would only need to have one running at a time, but could still potentially activate more than one?

While I'm not crazy overall about HC's changes to the travel powers, one thing I will give them is that they at least seem to have made any reslotting unnecessary. Any of the new powers seem to be able to take the same slotting as the ones they are replacing.

There's a difference between "enjoying the game" and "balancing the game around purchasable temporary boosts."

What about the changes in i27 (Page 1 or Page 2) makes you think that the HC team has any priority for preserving nostalgia or the cottage rule? Powers have been fundamentally changed to do things never intended, some powers being completely replaced with totally new powers and functions. And this is not about one or two critically "broken" powers, but large numbers of whole categories. No, the cottage rule is out the window, and anyone looking for nostalgia should be looking at a certain other server, I'm sorry to say.

And I'd rather have Afterburner have its functionality restored, even with all its original requirements.

That's disappointing. Having a tray pop up for a single power is annoying, and something I'd want to turn off. But I don't necessarily want to shut off the Kheldian form trays.

Unfortunately I can't get on beta at this time. But I'd like to know how the devs intend it to work (and have been asking such for some time, and instead got told "you can't use these powers while in Kheldian form," which was so not what I asked!).