Ukase

You're probably right. And, just the way you've phrased that helps me wrap my head around everything a bit better. (I am subject to being obtuse, in case you were unaware)

I know you're joking. I'm sure I've irritated a couple of them with my lack of a filter in various posts, but overall, the devs have shown me nothing but kindness and consideration. But, to be fair, they DID turn me into a trash can during a hami raid. They OWE me some kindness.

You may be too young...but there was a film I saw in my formative years, starring John Wayne. Not John Wayne Bobbit - that gent is famous for something entirely different. But John Wayne, up until his death was considered to be a man's man, someone to be admired and looked up to. In the list of folks a young boy my age would want to be if he had the ability to morph into someone else, Spider Man, Superman, Thor, Captain Marvel and John Wayne would have made that short list. And watching one of his movies, this attractive woman asks him to dance. He says, "I don't dance. I don't trust men who do and I don't trust women who don't." Of course, now that I'm older, I'm not so sure what was so brilliant about it, but back then...that got me through Prom without having to dance once, and got me and my date into the back seat of my Dad's Cadillac that much sooner. So, uh, no to any kind of dance off. I worked too hard for that 500B to just give it away in such a frivolous fashion. Especially now since the HC devs seem to be conspiring to prevent my earning of such a sum in the future. No, I believe I'll hoard my goods. In fact, do you recall when they seeded the salvage? THAT was the point where I realized things could change in a moment with these HC devs! That was the sole motivation behind my building the farmer in the first place! Because I felt like I'd better make the inf while I could, because they could change things in a flash. And now that I think of it, with my 1000+ purples stashed in a couple of bases...I wonder what impact this change will have on those purples...fewer afk farms would mean fewer purples...Me thinks it may be time to bid low on certain recipes...

I disagree that the policy would be difficult to enforce is the issue. If it were, we would already have an issue with folks violating the 3 accounts per shard at one time rule. As far as I know, we don't have that issue. I mean, it's pretty clear. They catch you once, they warn you. They catch you twice, they ban you. So, the egregious afk farmers are likely filtered out by now. I have only seen 3 instances of this in the past 3 years. They were reported by me (except one, which was reported by someone else I know, as they pointed it out to me). Haven't seen either of them on since. If what you say is true, that this is an attempt to inhibit AFK-farming, why don't they just say so? I'm left wondering why it's such a bad thing. Stress on the servers? Sure. But so is active farming. I suspect your random team just doing missions in AE is also a stress, as are the MSRs and the Hami Raids. I can't believe that the stress on the equipment is behind it, because thus far, the servers don't shut down because of too many farmers. They seem to be incredibly stable, except for Excelsior lately. And I imagine those that farm did not move their characters to Excelsior to farm. For me, it's been the opposite. My farmers are on Indomitable. (although I have some farmers on Excelsior, they only do specific tasks, like help a lowbie get vamps and wolves.) I wish I could find the post where Jimmy the GM stated something positive about farmers, but concern about the AFK farmer, but I can't find it to determine what the concern was. I want to say it's about risk vs. reward. Fair enough, I guess. I would still appreciate the HC devs sharing the specifics of their reasoning. It's hard to get behind a change just for the sake of change and be left guessing as to why.

I guess what I'm trying to understand is how afk-farmers are stalling this "better game later". How does my afk-farming prevent the game from being better later? I thought I was doing a pretty good job of making the game better right now, by tediously crafting various IOs that the player base must want, because they certainly buy them all in almost an instant. If we all stop doing this, how much will they cost your average player later? More? I would think so. Certainly not less. And when you say "better", better for who? If I have all the resources I need to create and play my next 800 characters, then I don't think more reward merits are going to prod my play in any direction. I will do what I feel like, in that moment, whether it be an iTrial, a speed Kahn or a solo DiB. Or an afk farm outside of AE. But I'm just one guy, and I certainly don't expect decisions made to revolve around me. As much as I might enjoy that, it wouldn't do much good for those who lack the resources I already have. I'm just asking, not trying to be rude, nor discount your view - better for who? and how would it be better?

I can't believe I missed this topic. (until now) So, I have to step out of this and look at it from a different perspective. Personally, I do not see how the current emp to reward merit conversion is hurting anyone. If I put 2 and 2 together and maybe I get 4, maybe I get 22. I'm just not sure what our HC devs are after. It seems to be they do not want the afk farmer to recycle their brutes every 24-48 vet levels and use those emps to get reward merits to then get converters or boosters, or whatever it is they get with them. That seems to be what they want to prevent. But who knows? Our HC devs seem to want to keep this something to discuss rather than just state it. So what are the negative impacts from a farmer using emp merits to get reward merits? Is it because it's easy for them to do and other than the build, doesn't require much effort? What is it they want from the afk farmer? To stop using the server resources? All they have to do is say so, and set a policy of "no afk-farming if the server load is greater than 250" or some arbitrary figure. I don't think they need to discourage play by folks who use those emp merits that they get from running content that's outside of farms. I do think that the afk farmer that is in the habit of recycling their character (for those that don't know, I do this. On my farm account, I will level a farmer to vet level 48, because at that point, the emps diminish to 10 emps at vet level 51. And another 10 at VL 54. Six vet levels for 20 emps? I can pl another character to 50 and then vet level 3 for 20 emps faster than I can PL for 6 vet levels. So, that's the reason behind recycling them. I would often run two accounts, while I played on a third. The two accounts would take the emp merits and convert them to reward merits and then get converters. This allowed me to list IOs for sale more cheaply. Take this away, and you essentially add 70k (for one converter) times 30 (number of converters on average used) to the cost of the better IOs, depending on the RNG. I guess I'm not sure why passing on these savings is bad for the game. Maybe the other farmers are upset because they don't want to respec twice after the vet level 48 is reached. Those 280 emp merits, which become 2800 reward merits, which become 8400 converters. Any idea how long it takes to go through 8400 converters? Longer than most want to spend. I usually use half of them on the drops that the farmer got, and the rest are sent to my primary account so they can avoid buying converters. If the change goes through, It will save me some time. I won't be farming on the alt accounts. I'll just make marketers out of them, or do nothing with them, except stash more inf in their email. But how does this change impact other folks who haven't been as industrious? How are they going to cope with having to essentially farm to get the resources they need? Is that what our HC devs want? They want our casual player to farm more? Because I think that's where this is heading. It could be the additional merit rewards for iTrials and such might prevent that, so that's a positive step. I just don't know if it's enough. I simply suggest our HC devs state clearly what they're after. Then we can try to intelligently discuss how to get there from here.

I just can't string enough exasperation expressions together! I have failed in all those words to explain what you wanted to learn. It's my fault. I should probably spell it out. It doesn't matter if you can see why it's fun, or if we all agree that it's not fun. It's what some folks want to do! That is all you need to know. The reason I do it (Farm afk-style) is because I can earn influence easily and quickly while I enjoy the game with my other account. The better question is why aren't you doing it? You don't have to suffer through it. Just park your alt in there, log in on the other account and enjoy the game the way you wish.

It's an adequate enough analogy. I liken it to rental property. You still have to make sure the property is okay, but you get paid routinely. Or like a slew of vending machines. You make a deal with a land-owner, plug it in, and routinely come back and re-stock and remove the bills, but be sure there's enough change to give folks change if they put in more than the price.

I do admit that some folks door sit. I also recognize that a fair number of folks actively solicit a spot on someone's farm to do just that. I get a minor tic when I return to my keyboard in the morning and realize that I forgot to /ghide and disallow PMs from some of these more bold beggars. But, the thing is - how is it not fun to get that xp when you're a lowbie, don't have but a few attacks? The endorphin rush when you level is real. When you see that row of pink XP fill the bar every bit as fast an an empath's Absorb Pain....that's endorphin heaven for some folks. It may not suit you. I certainly get no joy out of it, which is why I do that kind of thing by myself, afk-style. I would suggest you consider what my father told me once, when I saw a neighbor kid, a year younger than me, at 16, while I was 17, get a new car for his birthday. Not just a new car, but a Camaro! Two of the 5 girlfriends I had dumped me to date guys with Camaros. Hate those bastards! Anyway, I complained to my dad about it. He told me that what other people did was none of my business. So, when someone begs on the LFG channel for a farm, I don't cuss under my breath, or even aloud. I just keep on minding my own business. Now, I completely understand why some folks don't like folks who get PL'd, particularly when they don't know how to get to point B from point A, or have no idea what it is they're doing because they've never actually played. I can stomach it from a low level character, but a level 50? No; these types of players are folks I will cross the street to avoid. But, it's their time, their character and their business. Doesn't matter to me if sitting in that farm was boring or fun for them. I don't care. What's puzzling me is why everyone is so concerned about it. It's none of their business. It has no impact on them, unless they choose to let it impact them. You don't see me fussing at people for doing TF after TF, do you? How is that fun for them? Subjecting themselves to the whims of the RNG amongst all those NPCs? That damn ITF, with those stupid Legionarii screaming like a drunken banshee...that is NOT fun for me. I detest it. It's the one mission/TF where I will turn down game sound and let my own audio (Clark Howard, Mind Pump, Ben Greenfield, Found My Fitness, The Drive with Peter Attia) distract me from the tedious nature of ITF, which I generally only do when it's the weekly. How is that TF fun for anyone? Sheesh. For that matter, how is playing a mind dominator fun for anyone? And don't even get me started on a Widow. Those damn things should just get deleted from the code. They're pure trash. Nobody could have fun with those. Right? See what I'm saying now? Do ya smell what I'm cooking? It doesn't matter if it's fun or not if it's how they want to spend their time. It has a negligible impact on the rest of us.

Okay - for one, let me say I enjoyed your "bloviating", whatever it may mean. But there's a thing I feel compelled to point out: For most IOs and recipes that the farmer, at level 50 drops in the market, our sage HC devs have allowed a bid on a level 25 IO be bought if that same IO at level 50 is for sale. The only hassle is when the IOs in question stop at a given level, like the Steadfast Protection set - it stops at 30. So, no level 50 farmer is going to see those unless they use the AE tickets, or farm while exemplared. And most don't do that, at least not at level 30 because their build isn't as solid as it is at 50. Back a year or so ago, I thought about doing just that, but the demand for those few IOs that are in higher demand, like the Steadfast Protection 3% def(All) and the Achille's Heel debuff, and the Kismet 6% - it's just not high enough to be worth the time for me. You generally burn through a fair number of converters getting those unless the recipe that dropped was in set. And I suspect that this is a niche that may be underserved; so someone will likely fill this need - today! But likely not everyday, as it's not that lucrative overall.

Emphasis added by me. There are different sorts of farmers. Some are actively farming, and some are passively farming. I'm what you would call a passive farmer. I let the farmer on one or two accounts do what they do, while I play on my primary account. I started off just doing my primary account, actually leveling a fire/fire brute because at the time, I had no idea what spines/fire was. That is, I'd never thought of it. Eventually, I just got on the band wagon. Some folks liked the rad/fire better, praising irradiated ground. I made one of those and liked spines/fire better. Or, it could just be my build for spines was just better than the build for rad. The fire builds were identical. But, I digress. For me, actively farming is worse than being on a bad team, really, as far as boredom goes. I don't enjoy it. I'll do it to get a specific goal, but more often than not, I've determined other easier, faster ways to reach those goals than farming. For example: farming for inf is for folks who like to farm. If I want inf, I will market. Using AH tends to give damn near exponential returns compared to farming. Buy some of these recipes, craft, convert, sell. Simple. A monkey could do it, if given the motivation. But passive farming, once you settle on the right build, particularly if it's on a second or third (or even 8th account!) brings in the recipes and other drops, in addition to emp merits and all the other goodies in scale. The more farmers you have running, the more loot you get. So, before folks scream about that 8th account in parenthesis, don't panic. I do not do this and don't have 8 accounts. I just have 4. Some of you are of the understanding that multi-boxing is against the rules. It isn't. For your convenience, here's the policy, found on these very forums: So, we are allowed to play 3 accounts on each shard. In theory, I suppose if one had the inclination and the time, they could play on 15 accounts at the same time, 3 per server. When I got my first 50 and began the incarnate path, I screwed up a number of times, not realizing emp merits could be used to create rare and very rare components. I went about the other way, costing myself 25M twice, not even realizing it had a cost! I even sent in a petition over losing the 25M, having no realization of the cost of the conversion, because, well, reading is hard, I guess, lol. What's worse, a week later, I did it again on the very rare, and cost myself 100M after selling 20 catalysts for 5M each! (tells you how long ago that was! ) Seems like I was always broke, making stupid mistake after stupid mistake. So, I farmed. But I found farming boring and a chap named @payload told me about afk-farming and opened my eyes. I would not only just do the afk farm thing, but I would also use the drops and craft/convert/sell everything except the commons. Then, when I learned from @dahle that I could have more than a few accounts, the inf flood gates opened for me. So, yeah, different types of farmers. For me, farming is dull work. Very dull. But afk farming is just a matter of skipping the dull stuff and just counting the loot, crafting, converting and selling. For a while, it was the only interesting thing the game had to offer. Then I got into badging, made 4 characters with all the badges (except legatus) and about 5 more straggling far behind. Playing on one, farming with the others. Then silly Yomo conned me into taking a tally of where I was. So, now I realize I don't need to farm anymore, except for emp merits. If I could buy those, I wouldn't farm at all. For some reason, a different AT/Powerset leveling through the same content is different for me than it is doing the same iTrials with different characters. The iTrials pretty much bore me, except for Underground. But I can choose so many different leveling paths, switching alignments back and forth that even though the content is familiar, the only arc I'm just tired of is Maria Jenkins, because I have to suffer through that to get Portal Jockey. That's a lot. But that may explain why farming isn't as dull as repeating other content.

To my understanding, that's only in PvP zones, and those characters can't access non-pvp zones. Not like anyone uses the pvp zones for anything other than the occasional pill box and hero/villain badges. So, unless something has changed, I have no idea what you're talking about. Should they allow an instant 50 (sans incarnate stuff) or even with free incarnate stuff - why not? Some folks will still play content all the way through from level 1. Other folks can then stop spending time in the afk farms and do what they wanted to do already, a few itrial and tf trains. I don't see the harm.

So, ran through the actual new arc Valeria instead of Airlia like before. (Silly me) My only issue was when I was in disguise, and then I chose an answer they didn't like, my disguise didn't work, and I was untoggled. Call me crazy, but I just don't like that. I can't stand having to activate toggles. They should really never turn off.

I wrote a lot of silly banter below, but ultimately it's just hard to trust the direction when they don't tell you the direction they want to go before they do the work. I visit the forums fairly often. Aeon and it's changes may have been on the test server for quite some time. All that work, all that effort, and we don't learn about it until it's on test - after hundreds of hours of effort go in creating it. If they're going to be transparent, they should share this direction before they do the work. What's the hoped for outcome? How do they see this bit of work aiding to move in that direction. And is that direction the player base wants to go towards? Can they really trust the voice of 10% of the population that visits the forums? ****************************** Silly banter below: That's impossible, I think. We're all too different, as partially evidenced by the explosion in the AE feedback thread. Some folks just want AE to be razed. Removed. They feel the "product" from AE, typically level 50 players doesn't measure up in "common game knowledge" - how to get to PI, Cimerora, etc. Some folks don't so much mind AE, but they would rather the folks that farm a great deal stop farming so much and team with them in mainstream content. One could make the argument that if 10% of the farmers were to show up for a given iTrial, you could then form additional leagues. (that may be an exaggeration) Unlike me, (and I'm super happy if you're not like me, because I can be a real grumpy fellow) some folks only log in specifically to team up. They have more patience than I do, they never met a character with a horrible name or an ugly costume. Whereas I am always judging everyone for their badge count (or lack of) their naming convention or lack of, build, powersets/AT chosen, and typing skills. I'm just really horrible, right? And yeah, I'm kidding, but only a little bit. I never look at costumes because even with my new graphics card, all the costumes look about the same when I'm zoomed out. Some folks would prefer to never leave AE. A Malta Sapper draining their endurance bar isn't their idea of fun. Having to retoggle? That just sucks. I get it. The Tsoo siphoning all your speed...where's the fun in that? You just want to burn stuff, and maybe smash it with a giant sword to the noggin! And some folks....very few folks...well maybe just me... I have a hard time trusting people I don't know. I have an even harder time trusting people who want me to avoid conversations about politics, Covid - all the fun stuff! How am I supposed to determine who I'm going to enjoy playing with if I can't have real conversations and everything has to be superficial? I fully understand that some folks can't discuss these things without getting super-heated and upset. And because of folks like that, our devs chose to limit these outbursts. I get it - but it makes it hard to know who they are and who everyone else really is. Conservative? Liberal? It's an opportunity to learn other perspectives I might not ever come across, given the vast cultural diversity we have in this game. Add to that, there can be no mistake - at least one GM thinks if you have pineapple on a pizza, your character avatar shall be remade in the image of a trash can. The only reason my avatar was restored was because it was discovered that the trashcan form was impervious to harm. Or so the story goes. ************************ So, yeah, I'd love to trust that they know best. They certainly know code better than me. But I don't think they know what I want in game better than me. Further, they certainly don't seem to care about what I don't want in game. And that is because, it shouldn't matter solely about what I don't want. The game doesn't revolve around me. I just want to be heard, ultimately, and more importantly, if the direction goes in a path I did not foresee, nor immediately appreciate, I want to know why. I want to understand what the objective was, and if much thought went into other ways of gaining the same outcome.

In that context, I agree - except for the part about teaming. Teaming has its place in this game, of course. But if you do nothing but team, you never really know how your character is. End troubles are hard to notice if you're getting speed boost or AM or RA. Accuracy troubles are hard to notice if you're getting fort, or basking in the aura of several Tactics running. I would try to team more if I got paid the same rewards as the team lead. Unless you're in Ouro, only the team lead gets those merits, unless you're collaboratively completing the missions as you go. And that just doesn't happen very often for me, if ever, unless I set it up with my SG in advance. And half of those folks find it too troublesome or complicated to bother with it. There are so many reasons to not team up, and I'm hard pressed to find many reasons TO team up. That's just me and my circumstances - of course, yours and many others will be different. But my circumstances are every bit as relevant to me as yours are to you. Soloing is critical for my play, and my fun. And, during the week, I go afk so often, it would be rude for me to even try to team. So, yeah, let me drink that OJ right before bed, figuratively speaking, of course. Orange Juice is gross, I'd rather just have an orange. At least then there's some pith and fiber to slow down the sugar absorption. But that's another topic for another day.

I see nothing wrong with this. In fact, I see that as an excellent and praiseworthy thing. Why should folks spend hours upon hours, grinding away to get this? It makes sense in a pay for play scenario. The folks investing their cash want profit for their investment. The more they can prolong your journey, the more money they make. In the context of this flavor of CoH, you can offer the argument that things could be even cheaper, with more items in the AH seeded at a price lower than what we see routinely now. I do understand there should be some effort - after all, if it's just given away, it's not valuable. But in context, I'd say things are at a pretty good spot now. Just my opinion, and we all have one we're entitled to, including you. I was just curious how you felt the removal of the vet levels from AE play was going to do anything positive for the game regarding balance that you mentioned.

What does that have to do with the previous removal of vet levels and the thread/emp bonuses? Every AT and powerset can earn those in AE, so it's an even field. It doesn't blur the lines of any AT or powerset. There is no possible way to create balance amongst all ATs and powersets. It is literally impossible. Why? Because one player can create a build and make it shine with clever IO slotting (and player skill) while another player will struggle to do so. As long as there are invention set bonuses, there will not be balance. How could it exist?

I have done this challenge before, with a couple of differences: If you get defeated, you get deleted. No buying anything. You have to rely on your drops. No merit vendor, no AH, and no accepting gifts from well-intentioned players. I've never succeeded, and the biggest reason why is for whatever reason, end mod enhancements and recipes just don't drop very often. No endurance, you just can't defeat mobs very easily. I tried Bio armor, and I got to level 17. I went a different route with a dark/rad corruptor and got level 23. Tried a dark/dark defender, got to 27. I still have a couple of characters that are in the challenge, but I haven't logged them in for quite some time. They were all painful to play. The fun part was when something dropped. I got happier about an end mod DO then I would about a purple/very rare. (And anecdotally, I think end mod drops are more rare than a purple recipe.) As for a suggestion, I'd go with Bio anything, simply because of the adaptive ability to be efficient and use less endurance, or if melee isn't your style, while Rad does offer AM, it's easier to manage endurance, but you will suffer if you try to make effective use of Radiation infection or Enervating Field. Dark was the easiest due to the -toHit from just about every attack. I rarely took damage. I was in First Ward and was trying to get away from an Ambush but failed, lol. For whatever reason, there was an elite boss in the finale of a story arc that just clobbered me. I do still remember the slow pace of having to rest between every other mob. Still, it was viable. Not sure how viable it would be in the 30's against something like Freakshow with their end draining abilities. So, if ranged, go with dark, Maybe dark/cold, dark/rad corruptor.

So, the powers that be seem to have altered their course a bit. It seems they're going with additional rewards for completing iTrials. I can only presume this is an effort to incentivize iTrials with a bit more payoff. So, I can no longer cry dooooooom, lol. And, I'm so thankful. I was getting weary of panic emp-farming. Instead, I had to panic emp-reward merit convert on my farm account. The other accounts will keep them for incarnate materials.

I've talked to more than a few folks about hopping on Brainstorm to try things out. There's like a mental block for some of them in just figuring out how get on brainstorm. I try to break it down, step by step over Discord and I eventually just get the idea they don't want to understand how easy it is to get on Brainstorm and kit out a new character, or copy one they already have. As for moving AE out of Atlas and Mercy, I get what they're doing, but it's just stupid. It won't resolve but maybe .05% of folks who are just not smart enough to ask how to get to Pocket D or another AE building. It's not going to solve the minor problem of folks PLing before they know how to play their character. Might slow 'em down a few minutes, but it won't stop 'em.

As I've shared in this forum section before (pretty sure I have), I am one who farms for emp merits via vet level bonuses. One of the perks of vet levels, regardless of how you get them is the amassing of incarnate threads. Obviously, threads are not transferrable. The only thing to do with surplus threads once you've made all the incarnate pieces you like are super inspirations. So, historically, I've gotten all my supers from my solo SG base, stashed by my farmers. I tend to visit Luna when the thread count is around 8-9k, lest I forget how high they are and get capped without realizing it. If you haven't tried your afk-farmer on test yet, you might want to do so. There are subtle differences in how much damage your brute may be able to handle. Some of your builds will be okay in Briggs. Some of your builds will die within the first couple of minutes. It just depends on your build. Still, since it seems we won't be awarded vet levels and such, one has to decide if continuing to afk farm without those is worth it. We'll still get those incarnate threads that drop from kills randomly, and they do add up after a time. So, the big question is, will the drop in afk farming (if folks don't figure out a work-around that's not a glitch, exploit or some "unfair" advantage) impact those super inspirations? On one hand, I'd say no; most of the newer "hard mode" content disallows the use of Supers, so who's going to want them? Anecdotally, I know Cosmic Council on Excelsior still hosts runs of Really Hard Way weekly on Saturday nights. On Everlasting, @Sundew will also host a run on Everlasting. Odds are that these are run on the other servers as well, though I'm not sure how often or when. At a minimum, there's a couple of leagues worth of demand per week that I know of. But even those are often subsidized by players who have afk farmers who donate those inspirations. But, if the AFK-ers drop their generation of these threads, it stands to reason that the supply of these inspirations will drop. And when that happens, odds are the price will go up. Obviously, opinions will vary, and I could have it completely wrong. It may be that just the sheer drop of players from the game just on principal may reduce demand so much that you won't be able to give them away (Yes, I said Dooooooooooooom! It's a bit tongue-in-cheek; I've no idea how the player base as a whole will handle these changes). Either way, something to think about.

So, an SG mate shared some notes of his about how the new changes actually impact the effectiveness and efficiency of farming. So, I took a break from my panic-mode emp farming to take a peek. It's not that bad, and AFK will not go the way of the dodo, at least it wouldn't for me, if there were something to farm for. Since there will be no emps, there's no further point to it. At least, not in AE. But for those that aren't sweating vet levels and such, you may need to either beef up your regen, hitpoints or AoE defense a bit. Just depends on where you're at. If you're not afk, I suspect you'll barely notice a difference, but that depends on your build and your playstyle, I suppose. I say that to say this: IF the objective was to penalize afk farming, and corral folks like myself out of AE and into the mainstream content, this approach was close, but missed the mark. Simply have the npcs dish out some type of unresistable damage. The farmers that are actively playing can easily mitigate this with team/incarnate buffs/heals, whereas the afk farmer wouldn't be able to. Problem solved. This approach mucks it up for those that are simply doing player created missions. It's just a bad idea. So many different ways to approach this, and you can tell by the 20 pages that 95% of pertain to rage about this change that it's the wrong way to approach this victimless crime you think is happening. It's time to rethink it.

With regards to a couple of these, some additional details might be useful. Some may choose to test these out in the organic level range, as opposed to doing so exemplared from 50. Pecking Order - Complete the badge mission "Lost Motivation", listed as arc 0.42 under 'Champion (Level 25-29)' bracket in Ouroboros. For those that want to know: Contact name: Eliza Thorpe, Talos Island, /thumbtack -3090 110 9065 and if you can't tell from the category label of "Champion", you'll need to be Hero/Vigilante to initiate this. Traditionalist Foil - Complete the badge mission "Revelation: Rikti Factions", listed as arc 0.43 under 'Vindicator (Level 35-39)' bracket in Ouroboros. Contact Name: Steve Sheridan, Bricks, /thumbtack 255 0 1425 and again, gotta be hero/vig to start it.

I value rewards above actual stories because the stories don't have any value. They don't make my character stronger. They don't help my character buy anything. They are just filler; call it ambience if you must. But I would venture at least half our player base read the stuff the first dozen times through and now no longer read any of it. The new stuff, yeah, we'll give it a cursory glance. As an example, Becky's dialogue in Aeon SF certainly caught my attention. I read it. Once. And I doubt I'll read it again until another year or two passes. And "A healthy game shouldn't"? You're entitled to your views, of course. But I encourage you to not discount my views. And my view is that the stories aren't entertaining to a point where reading them adds to the fun for me. Completing a mission in a timely fashion is fun for me. Getting to 50, slotting only from items that drop, without getting defeated. That's fun for me. Reading some story aimed at a much younger audience? Not my thing. And it's not a thing for hundreds of other players. That doesn't make folks like me the absolute authority, but it does mean our views shouldn't be easily dismissed or ignored. And..honestly, I have never played this game because of costume customization. I play it because of all the options. I don't need to use my mouse to move. I can use the much more intuitive arrow keys. I can resize the view. I can zoom in, zoom out. I can use macros. I can use binds. I can fly or I can jump or I can run damned fast, or teleport. Or I can hop in what I call a Paragon Quinjet to my next mission. And I can also market easily and equip a brand new character with no help from any alts with the best IOs available and acquire a billion influence in a day if I choose to spend the time marketing. (not every day, but on a given day, yeah. ) When you take away options, that's never a good idea. Never.

Interesting, right? Or am I the only one seeing double? I was going to give some items to my alt...and "trade failed", lol. I was able to give the items on the right, but not the left. And the "Mirage/twin" items remain as if I still have them. No doubt this is some kind of refresh issue on my end, but just in case, figured I'd share the image.