Ukase

I appreciate the link. I remember reading it somewhat recently. In fact, I tried a couple of times to click on what was in different color text in that previous post, and nothing happened. I figured you were trying to cite a source. As I said, I don't disagree with the logic trail. I just have never considered the influence I have to garner me any favor with any npcs. I can't get Yin to wear a decent costume. I can't get Manticore to cut his hair, no matter how much influence I offer him. I guess he's got his own stack already. I can't get Swan to eat a candy bar. Probably wouldn't do much good, she'd just throw it up. Damn girl is seriously unhealthy; will probably dry up and blow away. I can garner favor with other players, I suppose. Give out a few hundred million here and there. And that only gives me a thank you about 40% of the time. So, um, no. Influence is loot. It doesn't garner any influence. It's simply in-game currency. Now, that may not be what ol' Jackie Emmert was trying for, but that's the end result.

I used to chase reward merits, because I can exchange them for converters, which are the key to influence generation. And, when leveling, it makes sense to me to pursue story arcs, primarily due to the mission completion bonus. In some cases, it's only a bar of XP, in others it's up to 5 bars (with 2xp temp running). There's also a pro-tip where once the arc is over, before you call the contact to close it out, you boost your diff to +4 and get more of a bonus than if you left it at something less than +4. As far as getting more folks to do gold side, my best advice is to simply ask for commitment from other players to join you there for a specific time on a specific day and hope for the best. The SG I'm in, I've led gold side "crawls", where we only speed when the mission has a timer or something. And we sometimes turn off xp to complete all the arcs in the zone. I've also done the same for blue and red side. The downside seems to be that folks want to meet up more than once a week. Some folks, when they start a character and begin to enjoy it, they don't want to park it for a week until the next session. That was my biggest headache, really. One week, I'm level 7, and the next week two players are level 50 and need to be exemped. It's not a real big deal, but often these players are no longer challenged due to the extra slots they have. It can be hard to keep the interest of some people. And, sometimes, atrocious puns get out, and the groaning really starts. It would be nice for gold side to get a task force, though.

I promise you - I know mine are trash. I've only tried to do anything special with one - a play on Grod, called Thong Kong, an electric/psi tank. I had to get help on the costume.

What I'm after is information. I know that costume appreciation is subjective. I see people getting praised for a costume, and I look at it, and I'm asking myself, "What is so great about that? Looks like crap, to me". Sometimes, I see a costume and I think, "nice enough", although more often than not, I can't even see costumes. All the buffs and stuff going on, I never really notice them. And, during idle times, I'm far more likely to look at builds and badge counts. I see some of the pics in this forum section of various costumes, read the praise...and I am left wondering -- what is it that made player X think that was a good costume? Most aren't hideous, but I see nothing particularly special about them to be worthy of praise. How many colors is too many? Are there some rules of thumb that all of you go by that the rest of us are unaware of? Should the belt buckle match the boot color? Or should the belt itself match the boot color? Or neither? Should it match anything? Is the origin of the character supposed to have any bearing on the costume? Is an archery defender supposed to be natural origin? or Tech? I wouldn't think origin matters. But my thinking has never been seen as typical. Is a fire character supposed to use a chest symbol that's associated with fire? And the fire stripes for shirt and pants? Is a cape supposed to be shorter for certain body types? Larger? Can a costume be made to look like a naked mole rat? Should a costume be made to look like a naked mole rat? What makes a player think their costume is "good"?

Before this patch, I would have debated that. But, they did listen to my (and others) issue about the removal of vet level rewards while running AE content. I really can't express how that felt, to actually feel as if they listened. Prior to that, I would have said they never read a word. It may or may not have been the right move for the game. It may be too soon to tell. And, sometimes, even hindsight isn't 20/20. Sometimes, there is no good choice. But it was certainly my preference to keep the vet levels while running AE.

I'm not going to disagree with this logic trail. And it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if the dialogue were to occur if my farm brute tried to start a Hess TF. "Who are you? Get lost. You bother me." But then, I should be able to burn him for his disrespect. And you're right - I do see it as just a currency, because that's all it is. I can't use my billions of influence to curry favor with Cole in the magisterium, nor Dr. Aeon, or any other NPC. Now, I can purchase certain things from p2w and minor things from certain other npcs, but despite my saving Tina McIntyre from the Rikti, she's not going to leave her post outside of Portal Corp and stand in Kallisti Wharf if I ask her to - as if I could actually ask her to do something. Inf has never had anything to do with a player's reputation in this game. Never. That may be the lore, but that's not the in-game reality. If it were, I'd have all kinds of influence over the npcs due to my very large stacks of influence. But someone with 20 inf carries the same reputation I do. There's never been any suggestion that influence has any bearing on this willingness of others to do things to support you that I'm aware of. So, I'm not at all sure where you get that from, other than maybe the actual definition of the word. But that's not what it means in this game. It's just synonymous with dollar, or bitcoin or gold or euro or any other currency. Exception being it has no real world value. (outside of nefarious transactions against the TOS)

Thing is - I'm just frustrated that the tether isn't larger. As I pull rikti from the upper tiers into the bowl, I've often seen Rikti returning to their spawn points. Not mine, mind you. I turn off SS and sprint, ensure they each get a tick of damage or two and lead them into the bowl, if they live that long. I usually give them a good foot stomp once I get them to the ramp, then off for the next bunch. Now, it could be that I just had a team of crappy people who weren't doing much of anything. That can certainly happen. It was doubly disappointing because my thinking has always been 35+ in MSR would get more vg merits than a team that had some lower level characters, simply because they die more often, and often just sit there as if it were a fire farm. I generally get 1200 vg merits. On my spines brutes, I tend to get more, closer to 1400. I think my best was 1450 or so. But 800...that's really a poor result. Not like it's the end of the world, but I expected more, given the sheer number I damaged. But, apparently, when I leave the bowl, there's no vg merits. Still get xp, which is fine, but not why I'm there. Need a longer leash, or what motivation does any tank have to do an msr?

So, I thought to myself, I said, "Self, what's your next alt going to be?" And Self said, "Why I think it should be a tank. Haven't done one in a while. An Elec/SS tank." So, I made one. It's level 42 now. I just finished an MSR. So far, the build is pretty good, decent dps for a tank, I suppose. But, I attended an "instanced MSR" and I didn't go afk and let my HVAS do my playing for me. After all, I'm on a tank, so it's incumbent upon me to lead the rikti into the bowl. So, I did. This is what I experienced. When I'm out of the bowl, I get no vg merits. None. In the bowl - while doing nothing but waiting for some heals and buffs, then I get the vg merits. VG merits are the only reason to do an MSR for me. But, if I'm only going to get 2/3 of what I would ordinarily get, why would I bring a tank? I can bring a blaster and just convert the vg merits to reward merits and send them over to the alt. (If the alt didn't have enough) I do sometimes use them for a gr'ai matter, and in those instances, I'd be stuck doing it on my tank, but I know I can't be the only person that's experienced this. And what kills me, is I remember having this issue a couple of years ago, and it's why I stopped playing a tank. I'd forgotten all about this issue. I hate it when I realize something I already knew but forgot. Still - how can this still be a thing? In the back of my mind, I was thinking the HC devs did do something to address this. But, I guess in my chronic sleep-deprived state, I'm not real sure. A damn shame. Full team, all over level 35, and I would have sworn this team would have out-earned a team that was non-instanced, as the non-instanced MSRs tend to let lowbies in as low as level 1. (though level 12 is the lowest I've seen in recent memory.) But there's something rotten with the msr if the characters that are bringing the rikti into the bowl - despite damaging all of them with foot stomp and damage aura - isn't getting the proper amount of vg merits. I didn't notice it until the latter part of the raid - no splash "Vanguard Merit Earned" (or whatever that message is) unless I was in the bowl. On the platform above it - near the grates - zero vg merits earned. It ain't right. Not the end of the world, but now I know why folks go afk. They get more merits.

I've been thinking a lot about this want/need for levels in AE. (or anywhere else that's as fast/easy) I've seen it requested - an instant-50. Whether it's from p2w as an inf sink, or just an option that's available. We know it's possible, as it can be done on Brainstorm. The question is - would it be good for the game? I can't definitively answer that question, because I'm just one guy with my own perspective, and my own preferred way to play. I've never cared how folks get to 50, as long as they're someone knowledgeable about playing their characters. I can run (barely) with the speedy folks, or I can chill out in a crawl/kill through team. All depends on my mood, I guess. But this is what I think: insta-50 would remove motivation for a fairly high percentage of players that are in AE for levels. I can think of 25 players off the top of my head who not only have no interest in sub-50 content, they would much prefer it if there were some way to run a positron at level 50, as well as the rest of the tfs. Not saying they should be easy - only that the mobs should scale up to 50, with all the extra hp/regen/debuffs/recharge/nifty powers/mechanics that would go with those NPCs. So what would that mean for the game? I think it would be less stress on the servers. It's my understanding that AE farms put a stress on the servers. No idea why, I guess it's kind of like an MSR, A lot of npcs in a small area, with a large number of powers going off at the same time. I'm sure there would still be farmers who would keep farming for whatever their reasons. I'm also sure that an insta-50 would probably leave at least a few folks wanting to get to vet level 9 or so, to t-3 most of the incarnate powers. So, not real convinced it would be any real solution, unless the option to get some vet levels came with it. And that leaves me with this question of where should the line be drawn? Candidly, for me, if I could give a character those 9 vet levels just by spending some inf through p2w, I'm almost positive I would, on just about every character. And I do understand, that's just me. No idea what the rest would do. And...once I did that, what next? Just make characters to instantly get them to vet level 9, try it out and then roll another alt? So, just speaking for me, I don't think it would be good to have the option. I'd likely end up getting stuck trying to come up with the next name, and leaving most characters "incomplete" without their t-4s. I think having the option to skip a few levels in an AE farm is probably the easiest and simplest solution - at least until there's a ton of new content to do across all levels. I should also add that I think the post 50 crowd needs content as much or more than any other level range, but that's just my two cents. We all know opinions will vary.

For me, I have really enjoyed leveling spines/fire and SS/fire. Of the two, I think the proc potential of SS in Foot Stomp and haymaker overcame the rage crash easily enough, and it was a faster leveling process. Part of that is because footstomp knocks 'em down, mitigating incoming damage so I could tackle higher level foes. I did try SS/Dark - it was, of course, good in the lower levels, but getting to 38 wasn't as smooth for me as fire. I have an SS/Bio brute...it's very good, very effective through the entire leveling process. Bio's adapative selection - offensive, with Rage is quite complimentary. I think SS is my preferred primary on the brute. And it's really hard to dismiss fire as the secondary. My biggest issue, however, is boosted ranged and AoE defense, without sacrificing S/L resistance. Fire's just not that great for that, and I do miss the lack of defense debuff resistance. And..another thing...I'm always reluctant to take a fire brute into iTrials other than BAF or Lambda. Granted, Healing flames is up in 6 seconds, so no real concern, but occasionally, without timely inspiration use, bad things happen, and that's a message to me that I need to focus more on durability, less on dps. Or run with 2 builds, which I'd prefer not to do. I hate that waiting for the longer recharge powers.

I'm aware of the origin of Blapper. I maintain that it's not properly used. What do you call a blaster that attacks in melee - a blaster. There's no need to make the distinction. Heck, I remember someone on the live forums that wanted to make a "tankmage", as if that were actually a thing. You're either a tank, or you're not a tank. No such thing. I can't understand some folks wanting to create a new label when the label we already have defines it perfectly. With regards to blasters, there's nothing at all unusual about a blaster being in melee, which is why the blapper term is so annoying to me. Obviously, it's certainly nothing to cry about. It's just a peeve of mine. I have a clear memory of needing to defeat Positron in RV about 3 years ago. Maybe a little less. It was the last pvp badge I needed. A fairly easy thing to do with a team, but I was solo. Not multiboxing either. Only had one account at the time. I brought out my wolf from Tobias, the heavy from RV, the HVAS temp from VG merit exchange, Katie Hannon temp, Knight Errant, Snow Beast, a Shivan, the Tsoo Sorceror temp and I think I brought out the 3 tiny gears from Penny Yin, too. (Needed all of them, too! Barely beat him. He had my powers with such -recharge, I could barely see them in the tray they were so small! ) At no time did I even think of myself as a blastermind or a blastroller. Still a blaster, regardless of attack position. Regardless of temp pets being called out. Oh - forgot, I even had the three tiny spiders from the epic pool, too. That damn Posi in RV was tough for my mediocre blaster!

Say wut? Nobody ever entered my missions, and I wish I'd known about that FEATURE before it got shut down. That would have been fun! Just popping into some level 10's mission and causing havoc? That actually happened to me once on live. I was level 8 and a level 12 was in my mission, and not on my team. I just left, because all the mobs were +4. I do wish I'd known about it, and I am struggling to know how someone else discovered you could do that. My best guess is a player who became a GM saw something and told someone else and then the secret was out to a few folks. It certainly wasn't widespread, because this is the first I'm hearing of it. And I get around! I know people! Now, I get that some folks might be irritated if you're doing pvp and they just zone out with the macro. Hard to believe there wasn't a way to disable it in pvp land and let it fly everywhere else. As for the master badge runs...I get that some folks work real hard on those and would be a bit irked if someone avoided defeat using it, but honestly - that kind of thing is none of my business. I remember being on a master lady grey and a dominator still blew it not using the macro when it was available. Wouldn't have hurt my feelings if they'd used it then, and wouldn't now, even if I wasn't on the team. Still, I liked it. And I never used it in a master run or pvp. Didn't seem sporting. But then, nothing seems sporting in pvp with all the changes going on there. PvP is just putrid in concept and execution. You cannot expect people to pvp when the rules change in pvp zones. You level a character to 50, recognizing it's strengths and weaknesses, only to change zones and really not know what your character can do. You don't know how your endurance works there, you don't know how your regen works there, you don't know how your defense works there or any other attribute. You spend time making your character at the resist cap and the defense soft cap, only to enter a zone and lose 1/3 of your resistance. That's just stupid. No other word for it. Stupid. You cannot expect people to play one way for 50 levels, and then change the rules in a pvp zone and be any good at it. Now, if you leveled up for 50 levels with those restrictions, then maybe you'd have something. But the way it is now, stupid and putrid. Oops, I digressed a lot! Please never say things like "It HAD to go". Because honestly, they could have left that in, and nothing would have happened. Sure, some dope doing pvp might not get ganked. Sure, some idiot on his level 1 might get the valet badge in market crash. At the end of the day, it didn't HAVE to go. It could have stayed. Sure, some folks might have been upset with it staying. But probably more are upset about it going. To the HC Devs credit, if it was going to go, they did soften the blow with the lrtp. It's a nice feature, and they should really sell all the zone unlocks as another inf sink. Again, it really didn't HAVE to go. I mean, it was with us for quite some time, and the servers didn't shut down, no real negative impact from it. At least, not from where I sat.

You're not playing it wrong, just differently. Historically, I will chime in and rebuke those who use the word "blapper" to refer to playing a blaster in melee. It's ludicrous, as blasters very often go into melee, particularly a fire/fire blaster. Firesword circle - melee burn - melee Inferno - melee Fire sword - melee hotfeet - melee Combustion - melee Consume - melee These attacks do not make the blaster a new AT. No, they are simply a way you need to play it to make use of many of the attacks you get. It can take some familiarity with your character, and some defensive stats to be comfortable playing in melee. You get used to it. Of course, you can always "joust" your melee attacks and only be in melee for a fraction of a second. It's all a matter of playstyle, and working with what the powerset gives you. And what's fun for you, of course. I know a number of folks who love their blasters but despise being in melee. That's why Rune of Protection was so great for some of my characters. I could use that to drop inferno without having to worry about a mez or a stun or kb. And yeah, I'm well aware of how awesome blasters still are, despite this change. So, no, you're not playing wrong, just differently. But it's still the same AT. It doesn't need a new name to make the distinction. A spines scrapper doesn't get called a blapper because it has impale and throw spines. And it's not playing wrong for being at range when it uses them.

No need. I remember it. It's simply that my opinion is different. It doesn't make me right, but I would offer that it doesn't make me wrong. Further, it doesn't mean they're right, either. I remember the burn nerf - when they put fear into it. A fire tank, with fear in fire powers. What a colossal goof by the Paragon devs. So, I got a respec when they put the fear in burn, and I got another one when they took it out. Again, don't change powers. I mean, why would they? Just because some HC dev believes a squishy shouldn't have near perma status protection? The ONLY thing that makes that opinion better than mine is their ability to make the change in the game. If I'd been paying attention to what was going on in the beta threads, I promise you, I would have debated that view quite assertively. They have a right to that view - but it doesn't mean that my own view doesn't also have merit. And frankly, their logic is flawed. They should have left it alone. Now I have to spend hours figuring out how to respec this dozen characters. Which I still haven't done, because it's my hope that the change will be reverted back - because it was wrong. At least, that's my view. Don't worry, I'm not going to hold my breath. And really, this is a bit off point. I just think any changes in powers need to be considered for quite some time. More effort should be made (like pop up screens when we log in) that bring attention to these proposed changes when they hit beta, not when the patch drops.

I snipped a lot out of the post so it doesn't take a lot of room, but this is confusing to me. Are you afk farming? If so, how can you possibly know what your clear time is? You're not there. You're afk. You tab out - do something else, play, watch netflix, whatever. And you come back whenever. You have no idea when it's completed, and who would care? I mean, if it's an asteroid map, it makes no difference to an afk-er if it takes 3 minutes or 30 minutes.

I can't disagree with the latter part of this comment, as I recall reading Jimmy's comment on the subject. But, let us consider if that's actually still true. If they are indeed trying to do away with afk-farming, what do you make of America's Angel, the pvp community rep sharing afk farm builds? That's inconsistent with this statement, if it's still accurate. So, I would submit that they are not trying to do away with AFK farming, just trying to level the playing field a bit. I can't remember when the change to Sorcery pool took effect, but I know I've yet to respec the dozen characters that took it. That change totally screwed up a couple of characters whose build revolved around Rune of Protection being as close to perma as I could possibly get it. Respecs are annoying, and I detest them. It's almost easier to just camp the character and re-roll. Any change that requires a respec should just never happen, period. Never. Better to not be so quick to make changes and ensure things are done properly in the first place. As I learned in college working for UPS - "measure twice, cut once". And sometimes, you need to measure things more than twice. Granted, sorcery pool was out of the bag before the HC devs came along, but there was no pressing need to change it. They just felt like it. I'm just a guest here, but if they'd asked me, I'd have told them there were better things to pay attention to. It wasn't broken, so there was no need to fix it. (at least, it wasn't broken for me) Now, purists will chime in how blasters should never have status protection because of their dps, and I would counter - what of the scrapper and it's status protection and dps? A blaster plays in melee every bit as much as a scrapper, so that argument falls short on merit. It's preposterous to say such a thing, in my opinion. Other opinions are also valid, but my point also remains. A respec should never feel necessary. It should be an option to fine-tune, or perhaps acquire a given power earlier to exemplar more easily, resolving a player's mistake. It should never be used to remedy a development change.

Time will tell on the stable price of these, but at the beginning, my forecast was 10m-25m. It's at about 24M, last I looked. I expect it to drop down to 10m, pick back up on the next costume patch, then drop again. There are still plenty of us lunatic badgers out there that have a lot of what are now considered "lowball" bids on these items. They should eventually fill, depending on the bid. So, about the influence. Honestly, I would give 20 Billion to you, if I could afford to give 20 Billion to everyone that would chime in and want the same. But, it wouldn't take long before my big stack became smaller than the stack you would have once I gave it all away. And, with the changes to Afk farming, it would take me longer to recoup the loss. All I can do is tell you that if you've the desire to put in the time, the influence is there to grab. It's the simplest thing, once you know how. The downside of that is there are dozens, if not more, other players who are already competing for that influence. Which is great for the casual player, as competition drives down the prices. I mean...the LotG 7.5% has dropped from 7-8M to 5-6m in the past three months. Just the volume of those for sale has increased by over 25% in the past 3 months. I rather thought all the new alts would have depleted a lot of that supply, but the folks that are working in that niche must have been accumulating a lot of emp merits and made the exchange at the merit vendor before the patch. Or, they're being clever and efficient about it in the other common ways we use to create them. Just makes everyone else's influence go further, so it's a win for everyone. Just my two inf about influence: You can have too much. When you have too much, you begin to get picky about what you do in game. You turn down opportunities that you would otherwise accept. On the plus side, what you do end up doing is probably what you're interested in and more fun, but I can't help thinking I miss out on some good times by turning down pug recruiting offers. Easy for me to say, obviously. But, there it is for what it's worth.

While I am in the same figurative boat as you in this regard, try to realize that there really are some people who genuinely get a kick out of this. In fact, I'm one who generally uses the RNG costume generator, and then will generally replace the head and remove the tail, and maybe change the colors. These new costume things might just save me some time. Maybe not. I just know that even though it's not for me, there are plenty of people absolutely thrilled about it. I'm just happy that they didn't yank vet rewards from AE. They actually read/listened. I reserve the right to be disappointed about other things, but I'll always be happy about that.

I can't speak for them, but my takeaway is they are doing it in the way they think is best. And as much as they'd love to have a few hundred new folks, they also recognize the burden that would put on their server (s). A higher population requires greater resources. Nobody there is getting paid, either. There will be ebb and flow, I'm sure, just like there is here. I think of it like CoH is a soft drink. Rebirth is just a different flavor. Still has the bubbles, and probably the sugar, but maybe not as much caffeine. (or vice-versa)

My thought was, if it's overly difficult/time consuming, maybe just "re-make" it, as the story is already written. Seems like it would be tedious, certainly. But, and I'm no expert, I would think the creation of the story itself would be the hardest thing to come up with. I've no idea how complex it is to make an arc outside of AE, but if the story is written already, would the rest be overly challenging?

No argument about the numbers - and I could be wrong, but I suspect a lot of us on HC joined the Rebirth Discord when it opened because we really couldn't be sure how long HC would last - at least, that's my position. I pretty much try to remember to log in there once a week for the tier rewards. Last Summer, I played over there to set up shop. The players there are quite competent, and as friendly as you'd expect from a CoH community. Interestingly enough, speed runners are given a nice gift of...I think it's 2000 AE tickets if you get the fastest time of their weekly tf. I won it once, and it came as a surprise. I do know on weekends, you can potentially see 100 players, roughly.

Flea - you do realize that's in a pvp thread, right? Guess who doesn't pvp since they put in travel suppression? This guy. I'd never see anything in there.

I just finished my row and was about to re-read "the tin". But thanks for saving me the time. It's one of the reasons why I really wish you guys would aim for much smaller patches, because "patch notes" are a misnomer with you guys. What you mean is "Patch Tome". They are huge. I can barely remember how much protein I'm supposed to eat in a day. I surely can't remember what's on page 3 of a zillion page set of patch notes. See? I'm never happy, am I? And, candidly, I'm only slightly teasing about the length of the patch notes. I remain grateful to be able to play and thank you for your efforts on our behalf.

Sir...please don't do that. You can test what I say - when you turn xp off, you do NOT get extra funds. They changed that...like 2 years ago.

Wait...what? America's Angel works for the HC Team? Must have missed that. So, I guess I need to re-read some patch notes. Darn. I'd really rather not. It sounds then, that these changes to aggro were more for the Hard Mode TFs, and the end result is the farmers have to make some adjustments to do what they were doing before. Do I have that right? Probably not entirely. Still, it tells me that they could have just put in the Sister Valeria arc and the two arcs that give badges. They needn't have bothered with these silly prismatics or the HM stuff, until they figured out how to change things in that content, and leave the rest of it alone. It made sense if they were trying to reduce afk farming. But if they are going to make these changes and then show how to mitigate the changes, then why make the changes at all? Damn, I gotta read now. It'll have to wait. Dr. Gupta has confirmed that we should all be exercising 75 vigorous minutes a week, at a minimum. So, maybe I can squeeze in a 1/2 marathon in 80 minutes. Completely logged out. No farms running. I did, however, earn 205 reward merits on my 3 primary accounts for the next alts that are coming up the ranks. So, I am very grateful for that. Nobody wants a grumpy Ukase in their iTrials.