Ukase

Wait - these voices are AI? That's pretty cool.

Is it rude to not play at some notion of better than average level? For my money, that depends. There are a collection of ...well...reasons people have for not being very good. Goals: "It's not my desire to whip out my e-peen for all to see. I'm just here to unwind after work". If I'm being honest, I do grasp the mental energy drain some parts of this game can have while playing. The ITF, with all that senseless screaming, can take me from being able to mow my grass, row 10k in 36 minutes, and a load of laundry to pulling out a tub of ice cream instead. The ITF is arguably my least desired activity in game because of that stupid screaming. Probably why they do it. I can't imagine it would be fun in real life to fight with people screaming like that, let alone in game. Still, unless I'm up for it, I avoid it. It's only a common courtesy for players who are just looking to "unwind" to not put themselves in situations where reading comprehension and fast key strokes are going to be recommended for best results. So, if you're wanting to unwind, and asking for an invite on an MoLRSF, you might be rude - if you're not going to look at the activity as something that deserves your energy. Badges are important to some folks. Strangely, very important to some folks. If you sign up for one and don't take your character's survival seriously, you are being rude. Granted, nobody wants to be the player that screws up. It's a mistake, after all. But, some folks while they don't want to screw up, take the mindset, "it's just a game". And while that's true, it's also time spent that went for nothing because someone couldn't be bothered to pay closer attention. That is time nobody can ever get back. That's even worse than wasting 10 bucks on a cup of coffee when you could have made it at home for 35 cents. I can always earn more money. I cannot get the time back. It's too early for a wall of text. I could come up with 5 or 6 more cases where people are probably being rude by being too cavalier about how their play impacts my play. (and it's certainly possible for the opposite to be true) Short answer, in some cases, yes, it's rude to not be a competent player. But not all cases.

I'm not at all saying Fire isn't awesome. It is. But, having played thousands of hours of fire and ice, I promise you, the mitigation from having a hold (freeze ray) that has a 1 second activation time trumps the very minor damage advantage fire has. We cannot just look at damage. We have to look at survivability. The ability to get through missions, quickly, efficiently. And while fire is capable, it lacks mitigation, unlike ice and water. We cannot just say "Fire is objectively best" without taking into account a character's ability to handle the various challenges on standard game play. Ice>Fire. Water>Fire. Fire is great. But it is NOT the objective best because we cannot assess a character's ability solely on dpa or dps. There are other metrics to be considered, such as survivability. And sorry, the mitigation potential of water and ice primaries outclass the fire primary, making fire great, but not best. Remember, skill levels of players come into play, too. We can't judge these based solely on numbers. Performance matters. So, I dispute this insanity claim. My claim says to think for a moment fire is best is discounting things like KB and holds as a very real lever to surpass dps. Opinions are going to vary. Mine says ice and water are better than fire.

Meta. What a stupid word to describe what is essentially more players preferred powerset choices. I mean, it's really a stupid word. It's so over-used and incorrectly used, it doesn't really have any accurate meaning. Kind of like meme. Those darn M words. What is the "best"? Subjective. What is most popular? While one of the GMs or devs could data mine and report which is most often chosen, what's not clear is if some of those selections were played for any duration, or just made and parked. It's not clear how much fun a given player is having with their choices. Ultimately, what's "meta" is meaningless. Because what's "meta" for one task may not be "meta" for another. Folks talk about "S-Class", and give these ATs rankings. It's enough to get a rise of bile in the back of my throat. This game is made up of a combination of Rock, paper and scissors, if I'm going to use an analogy. In some cases, you want an ice/cold corr, not an ice/fire blaster. In some cases, you may want a fire/fire blaster and not a dark/natty corr. In some cases, a Dark would be better. In some cases, maybe a kheldian is your best bet. There is no one best answer. Sorry - there's not. There are some ATs that are going to shine in a lot of circumstances, built properly, and played by someone with an IQ over 120. There are some that might require more ingenuity and experience to shine. Only a very few are so poor that they need a genius to shine. The problem is when you have 8 shiny lights, none of them really stand out. People are shy of time and as a result, they want the most dps with the most survivable combinations. I get it - but we need to stop trying to label what those are, and let folks figure out which of the hundreds of potential combos will work for them in a pleasing way. In some cases, the dps of fire is called for. In others, the mitigation of ice or water would be a smarter choice. For some folks, the natural transition to melee of a rad/mental blaster may not be OP, but might be more fun. And shouldn't fun be your metric? Enough with rankings! We have 1000 slots, make them all!

If it helps, I've never heard of you, and I'm on the forums quite a bit. But then again, I rarely look at names. or post counts. just the content of the post.

Well, Willpower is kind of like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. Start small. Little victories add up.

Wait - you're pedaling while you play? That's great!

I like my fire/natty. And my ice/cold. They both are good with dps and have serviceable buffs and debuffs. The natty, at least the way I have mine built, is more capable of taking in damage, simply because it can accept all the buffs it gives. The cold can't put any shields on itself or frostwork on itself, so it has a rougher time of things, and the build requires a little more attention to defense because of that. Just anecdotally, when I was going for the spirit masks (Banisher badge), each character made the attempt to use Unai Kemen's initial mission set to 0/8. While the cold could handle it, I had to make a bit more liberal use of inspirations. The natty didn't have to do much but use it's own buffs, which were strong enough to not need any inspirations at all, except for the occasional break-free. Both are good in their own way, but I think the natty is better.

So, here's the thing about using Decimation in Fire Blast: Fire blast has a 4 second base recharge without putting any recharge in it. According to @bopper's PPM list, the Decimation:Chance for Build Up has a PPM of 1. With just the proc, and relying solely on global recharge, it has a chance to fire 8.67% of the time. Each time. So, odds are sooner or later it might hit, but I think you'd get much more mileage out of a damage enhancement. Or a better damage proc, but I'd not go that route for the same reasons - just not a very big chance to fire. Decimation is also a set that tops out at 40. You'd get about 7 pts of damage more from a level 50 set if the decimation build up doesn't fire. If it does, you get 10 seconds of more damage. But again, over the course of a minute, the math says it might fire once. That's your call. Some folks might be okay with that. I would go with the apoc in Fire blast, or one of the ATO sets. Mainly because Fire blast is one of the earlier attacks chosen, and when you exemp, you might want that faster global recharge.

How much I pay attention depends on my role. If I'm DPS, I tend to look mainly at what the de-facto aggro management characters are doing. Sometimes, on speedy runs, the only thing I'm looking at is the map until I get where I'm going, and then the target. If I'm on your traditional kill what's in the way, I will keep the corner of my eye on the team list to see if someone is taking more aggro than they should and try to assist by targeting through them instead of just tabbing to the next target. If I'm the tank, I'm mainly watching the hitpoints of everyone to see if I need to be taunting more. If I'm on a character with buffs, I try to do this before the action, covering as many folks as I can. But, I'm not going to chase anyone around a corner. If I'm on a dom - which is rare, I might look for the one with buffs in case I need them. And call me strange if you must, but when I'm teamed with an emp, I keep the team buffs display up so I can see who's getting the AB and Fort love. I know AB in particular doesn't recharge super fast, so I like to see who they give it to. I got in the habit of doing that because an emp/elec defender was my first 50 on retail. Took me about 540 hours, lol. And I wasn't a very good one. Great at heal other...but beyond that, fairly useless. So - don't panic - if I play one, I play it better than I used to. But I still like to see how much better/different other emps play when I'm teamed with one. And, if I'm on a league and not the lead, the only thing I'm doing besides mashing buttons is trying to keep an eye on the chat to see if I need to do something different. But, if you're asking if I notice when a blaster uses a blast...maybe if I'm looking in that direction. I don't think anything of it. Do I notice when dark defenders debuff? Nope. Do I notice Tar Patch? Yeah. Do I think, "My teammate cast tar patch!". Nope. I tend to take all those things for granted. I'm just trying to complete the mission objectives and observing these things is done just as a matter of course; not really going out of my way to watch.

This hits me kind of hard. Now I feel badly. I have always tried to remind myself the player behind the keyboard could very well be a 9 year old kid. It's ridiculous of me to expect people to think the way I would. (and lord help 'em if they did - it hasn't always done me favors, lol) Still, is the onus of leadership to literally have to spell things out for players? Sure, some details. Like where it is. If it is true that most folks don't read patch notes, the only reason they even might be aware of the labyrinth is from word of mouth. So, I would think it a fair question to ask how they get there. The event itself is not intuitive. My first time in there, I'm looking for these historical plaques, and was ignorant of the fact they were in this "core", a separate room accessed by a special tp macro you get when obtaining the Conqueror of the Labyrinth accolade. (or using the follow to someone who's already there) I think the biggest issue with the entire labyrinth feature is that someone who's never done it before would fare much better with a primer on how things work. Or at least, how they can work. Stealth. Cobalt has (and correctly, imo) made some adjustments to allow for people without stealth to at least get some measure of it. Like an idiot, I always assume every single player uses superspeed with a celerity stealth in sprint. I can't think of but maybe 2 characters of my hundreds that don't. It's such a no-brainer for me, but then again - people don't think and play like me. At least, certainly not all of them. There are still some players trying to experience a lot of content just using SOs. I see players in this trial die repeatedly, and I know it's because they don't have stealth, OR, they see they're level shifted, target a mob and see them con grey, but miss the EBs hiding in the crowd and get slammed as a result. There's definitely a learning curve. And as painful as that curve may be for the first timers, if the people they team with are interesting/fun enough, they can push past the curve and get at least somewhat of an idea what is going on. And, sadly, for some folks, the awkwardness of that learning curve, particularly when it seems like everyone but you has already mastered things, it can be daunting. It's like you've gone from a Senior in high school to a freshman in college overnight. You're unsure, don't know where to go, and your league leader is just telling you it's normal to be confused and feel lost. Small consolation when you want to understand what's going on. Kill fogs? why? For me, the level shifts are meaningless. I want the reward merits! It's why I'm there. The level shifts are just a by-product. The HC Wiki says each fog gives 50 points progress on some level shift bar, which I'm far too obtuse to have noticed. Still, to kill fogs is how the level shifts are most easily acquired so that's what we do. For a player new to the trial, killing something that can't hurt you, doesn't regen, and is just sitting there...well, where's the fun in that? I can see where someone who doesn't get what's going on would be questioning things. Still, for me, as someone who was just as lost as anyone else the first time, (and I was reading the patch notes - but damnit, they're long. It's a lot to take in and absorb) I finally get it. I'm still trying to figure out how to hide behind a pillar and still be anchored to the mythic fog. But, thanks to lemming and the goddess, I've learned to place the mark and recall at the proper spot to get the league to "Uncle Touchy" (that's so hilarious). It was damned rough, I tell you. But we did finally get our 75 merits. I think it's kind of fun...and I promise you, it wasn't fun for me at first either. But I got there. As for those who may be functionally illiterate? It hurts me, but we cannot be expected to teach people to read. And to give the OP their due respect, clearly they can read and write at a level high enough to comprehend anything I've ever written, except maybe one of my papers in Quantitative Analysis. And even that wasn't too hard, I don't think.

That's some serious search-fu. The only time pvpers annoy me is when I'm trying to get the nuke. I do not want my codes stolen after all that hassle. Fortunately, while I don't like pvp, most of my characters are somewhat suited for it. The problem is usually only having one travel power.

Oh yeah: It is mind boggling to me how many people enter the labyrinth and never take the time or trouble to right click on these black icons to see what they're about. They just ask for tp. Lazy! On the one hand, I get it, but on the other hand, lazy! Reading is a skill, too. So is reading comprehension. I'm still trying to master that one.

So, I have to call BS on this. There is skill involved. Skill in developing the build. Skill in using the tools at our disposal - such as, Popmenus provided to us by other players. Skill in navigating the maps and recognizing patterns. Skill in recognizing positional awareness. If there were so very little skill involved, then the group of us that got clobbered by "the suck" (despite my best efforts to hide behind a pillar) have less than very little skill. And I just don't buy that. You'll never persuade me that speeders have very little skill. I get it, zipping around, ensuring you have an active stealth empowerment buff from the buff station that's across the hall from the labyrinth entry point, and using a draught of fog inspiration to get even more stealth so pretty much 90% of the bad guys in there can't see you - that kind of thing isn't for everyone. And it doesn't have to be! We had an MM in the labyrinth tonight. And when we were finally able to convey how to use Follow through the Fog, the malevolent fog was defeated and we went looking for more. I suspect this player was expecting to be with the league as a whole - not running off on their own looking for something they'd never seen before. (Malevolent Fogs) Now, we could easily have each team sticking together looking for fogs, but here's some issues with that: 1. a number of folks are looking for motes, and only shout out fogs if they see one. I get it. Initially, I confused the motes for the history plaques and thought I'd get a badge once I got all of them. Now I've learned they give tiny buffs. Nifty, but not necessary. It slows things down. I completely understand that some folks like a slower pace. But that can be done after the mino is killed. (and you're not worried about him clobbering you) 2. Time. To be fair, I don't think it's been tried yet, so not real sure how much longer it would take. As it is, when the fogs are announced, players port to the fog and help clobber it. The result is more fogs are beaten in a shorter span of time. At least, that's how it seems to me. When you have 8 players on a team, all with varying travel powers, their ability to traverse through various maps is going to change. Add to that - not all doors are going to lead to the same place for everyone. They're random. So, it would be pretty rough to keep the team together without using Follow through the Fog. And since we'd need to use that anyway, might as well have everyone run off and look, right? 3. Given the temporary nature of the buffs, it makes sense to get them as fast as you can and clobber the mito before they wear off. Being leisurely in this trial doesn't align very well with a smooth run. At least, I don't see how being leisurely could work out well.

Had some insomnia, and pretended to be oblivious to the minotaur and followed instructions, and found the "block"....if my cursor hadn't accidentally been upon it, I probably would have completely overlooked it! Much appreciated.

My usual path is Habashy, Sondra Costel, Aaron Thiery, and the hollows contacts. Unlike most folks, I speed through Frostfire. If I don't, I outlevel Julius. Then it's off to Faultline. I can generally get to Striga and start Peebles, then finish the Faultline arcs, then go back to striga. Fitting Croatoa in is fairly easy at that point. Then it's off to Bricks or whereever until 35, then off to rwz.

So, I have the /loc for the "Murder room", but thus far, I've only ever used Follow through the fog, or been incan'd there. When I use the /loc from inside the arena where the mino was clobbered, the way point directs me to a path - but I get the message that I can't enter. Is there something simple that I need to do? Is there some pre-requisite to get there? Just a bit ago, we clobbered the mino, but nobody knew how to get to the murder room. Seems like it has to be somewhat simple as it usually only takes about 90 seconds to get there after the mino is downed.

You're probably on to something here. If the game had various contacts listed in the same category as SSA, perhaps the newer players would more easily find them.

The bypass codes, as far as I know are seeded by the devs, and listed in the AH under special salvage. Last I looked, they were 250-500k.

This is just my anecdotal evidence; nothing scientific. When the recruitment message conveys that you have some kind of silly or fun personality, people respond more quickly. Well...maybe silly people respond more quickly. That can be a double-edged sword. Nothing against silly people, but if they're typing out "Paper Roses" by Marie Osmond instead of leading an npc to the door, it can be a little grating. The best way to get people to lead more TFs is for you (each of you and me) to lead more TFs. I have long suggested that our league leaders get a little something extra for the hassle of building pop-menus and dealing with all the personalities in "Tell Hell". Unfortunately, I think the adoration of the player base is all the reward they're going to get. Oh, if you cannot lead, or simply will not lead - the best thing you can do is to join someone else's team as soon as you can. The waiting is probably the biggest turn off from the leadership position. I do not want to wait 10 minutes for someone to wrap something up before they join. The older I get, the less patient I become.

I can't say. I'm one of those that does "normal content". The only TFs I do are generally in pursuit of an accolade or because it's the weekly. DFB doesn't pay reward merits, so I only rarely do those. Once SOs became available at a vendor for level 2 characters, I no longer feel a reason to run it. People that do TFs tend to get less merits than people that don't - because often, a GM will give an alert, and if you're on a tf, it's a bit unlikely your teammates are going to be okay with you taking time out to kill a few Kronos. Now, the merits for the story arcs in atlas are low; but when you do all the arcs, you get a 20 reward merit bonus. Same for the hollows, faultline, Striga, croatoa and RWZ. The only way to fit all the stuff organically is to avoid tfs. Now, running solo is generally going to take longer, but depending on build, some players will keep up with someone doing TFs. Just depends on their teams and dps. I certainly wouldn't mind more incentive to do general content. But I think there's incentive enough. The only reason most folks do TFs is for badges, and 7 other people that are more likely to team with them for a certain number of missions, instead of folks bailing after the first one or two. The TFs tend to keep a team going for 30 minutes to an hour. And I think that's all that most folks are after - a team.

It could just be the teams I'm on - but after having done Posi 1 more times than I care to think about, I have yet to run into a doppelganger that has adequate KB protection. Nemesis Staff for the win! It's the single most effective tactic I can think of due to it's range and inherent kb. Mind you, one or two might miss...but it's a huge advantage. I can't be the only person that does this. There is no npc that attacks while trying to stand up as far as I can tell.

This was wonderfully done. I appreciate it very much! It just never occurred to me to stash the new stuff up top. I was so concerned about putting each one in the proper category and screwing up the formatting somehow. For others that may be also awaiting an update, I wasn't sure if the popmenu from CityModder would conflict, as the title of the popmenu is the same. So I uninstalled ATCs outdated one from citymodder, and placed this one in the usual spot (data/text/English/menu) and this one works perfectly!

My understanding is ATC is fairly occupied with real life and when he gets around to it, he'll get around to it. I know I'm not alone in waiting for that moment, however. I've thought about grabbing his older pop-menu, before the pigg file version and just updating it myself. But..one look at the formatting kind of scared me off. I also thought about just making a smaller one just for the newest badges. But so far, my needs for it haven't been heavy enough to take the time. And really, this is why I often look at things like our Fast Travel pop menu and wonder why HC doesn't just come up with HC's version of a badger pop-menu. On the one hand, I get that it's completely a volunteer staff. On the other, I'm thinking QoL stuff like this is probably in higher demand that many things they are working on.

Well, I certainly see the issue. I just now went to the Mids Reborn discord and just asked them to have an option to toggle the UI to look like it does in-game. Whether that will do anything, who knows. But, doesn't hurt to ask.