jubakumbi

Yes, you are. Because pretendy fun time games. So, you outright judge others and belittle them, because some people happen to enjoy gaming in a serious way or as a dedicated hobby, rather than your lackadaisical and carefree attitude towards the game? I don't understand how you can take this stance. Don't you see your hypocrisy? You criticize me for not "being a good sport" presumably and grouping with "casual players" (I don't like that term as I have no stigma towards casual players, but regardless) but then you say it's outright wrong to play in a manner where someone might care about efficiency. Your main example is one where you use the DPS meter tool to kick a player. This is fundamentally at odds with the general CoH community. In general, the players in this community are relaxed and enjoy a less job focused playstyle. As you can see from sheer numbers here in this thread alone, the popularity of such DPS elitism is simply unwanted here in this community. You call us all the names you like, from lackadaisical to carebears to filthy casuals to hypocrites. The fundamental use you have for the tool, to use it to beat other players with, to shame them and kick them, is what we fight against. Not becoming better players. Not analyzing our own DPS. Not learning to use powers better. The use you propose, from your first post, is to use the tool as a weapon against other players. For this community, we see that as elitist, exclusionist and just plain old mean, jerk behaviour. Why should we treat people who are being jerks like anything other than jerks?

A lessoned learned in not getting caught up in game hype. Even today I see so many players think that a new game is going to live up to the unreachable hype that has been built around it. Thankfully, I could see Mr. Emmert from a mile away and I did not believe his words. Like many here, I wanted CO to be good, but when I heard the screams on day 1 ... I learned my lesson on buying lifetime in pre-order on Secret World. Got my value, but it is a totally different game now...

As the new servers have become more known/popular, the misinformation has gathered at a similar rate. More people, more whacky misinformation. Funny and sad all at once.

Play a DP/Martial/Fire blaster and you will never stand at the back again. Teaming as a blaster is only easy and boring if you make a conscious effort to play the game in an easy and boring manner. On Little Bird, I make it a point to open with Bonfire -> Burst of Speed -> Hail of Bullets, right there in the middle of every pack before the tank can even run in. It's fun, although a handful of people who hate fun tend to get pissed when you don't play it safe. (But that's what Rise of the Phoenix is for.) Hm. I went with DP/Martial/Force, but I think I might have to reconsider now...been doing Burst->Dragons Tail->Hail to get aggro. The -Res PvP proc in Burst works well to soften the crowd. WIth no Rise, I bring extra BFs.

No worries, my best man hit the 2B cap back in the day in less than a month. He had to trick out all of his characters with the best bling just to have room to bleed off the inf eventually. He loved it. I just want people to know all you really have to do is 'play as you would' in the current HC server versions and you will get enough resources to build what you need to beat the content. Many of these discussions lead people to think there is only one way to a goal, just lending my viewpoint. I read the forums a ton and glean a lot of information that in turn allows me to spend less /ah time in game, because I know what will/won't sell, etc. already. I know _how_ to make the 'big money', but from my PoV there is little _need_ to do so, thankfully. WIth MMOs in the state they are now, new MMO players often literally think the _only_ 'viable' way to play the game is to rush toward the kind of min/maxed builds we talk about and therefore a burning _need_ to gain these items, when in CoH, things work differently, IMO. The game affords us the luxury of getting to 50 on what we find and/or tricking out to our desired power level, yet never forcing much of it all. Even at 50, a good player beats a good build IMO. :)

While I sense your PoV, the question posed is around practicality. In a very real sense, it is practical to slot IOs past the point they start to hit the diminishing returns. That diverged as to _how_ the _most efficient_ and _cost effective_ way to hit diminishing returns might be, from my PoV. :) From a practical standpoint, 3 Damage works fine and I can get to the point of diminishing returns with just 'plain' IOs. The side bar about the most efficient way to hit diminishing returns is a different thing, and immediately hit the whole 'well you just' about using /ah. Very engaging and interesting for anyone wanting to use the /ah effectively, IMO.

I am not a lawyer but I can't see anyway that other publishers would have legal standing to bring that sort of case. It would be like Valve suing Blizzard on the grounds that Overwatch makes TF2 less valuable (or vice versa). 'Frivolous lawsuits' can do plenty of damage, both reputationally and fiscally, and do not have to have much basis in reality to be harmful, that was my only point. :) Still, the BS about loot boxes being gambling and 'preying on the children' has taken traction, so what do I know? I thought that was totally frivolous... :)

Bingo. While the forums seem to 'revolve' around soft-capped, min-maxed builds, in reality, even way back on Live, they were not _that_ common. Bubbles, IMO, are never a bad thing, unless of course, they give you a headache some such. :) My only bubble issue is that I have never been able to make one I stuck with...

Sure, if I find them I craft appropriate sets for bonuses. While leveling, and realy in general, I want to type '/ah' as few times as I can. :) Played plenty, tricked out plenty of characters back in the day. I am one of those players that would never look at an MMO market interface again if I could. :) I would be fine and happy with all recipes being in the workbench and having to get components through focused hunting, for example. I would be fine and happy with all enhancements just dropping, so you knew to farm X to get Y IO even. To re-iterate as well, I just don't _care_ how much inf I spend on doing these things easily w/o have to make a list, leave the base, buy the things and come home to cook...that's just not my thing...I build what I have and use it, making an accounting task in the middle of playtime is not my thing... After playing the game, I get more stuff and I can make more things, repeat. It's all just ephemeral points in pretendy funtime. If I play a character to 50 and I really like it, then I will sit down for a weekend and make a 'final' build. Did that for a half a dozen characters on Live after years of playing, had 30+ 50s. The more sublte point I guess I am trying to make is that while interesting to a degree, gaining that extra % to feel uber just took me a weekend I could have been killing pixels...or leveling the next idea...

Hey now a good deep purple is perfectly acceptable as well! Having recently, as in when I started on HC, I tried the D3 as I never did on Live. Prteey hooked, is my 'main' for most things now. Just has something for every situation, I still have to play and drive well or I I will die, just my kind of chracter. For powers, I have been experiementing and leveling, Black Hole for me is the only worthless power. Torrent can have it's uses but there are better mitigation tools, IMO, so unneeded. Al the rest have been handy to have leveling so far. I think he will be my first IOed 50 on HC.

Wait, we have healers? The rest sounds about right... :)

This is also, lest we forget, 'playing a ehole separate game'. :) Nothing wring with it, but that is not why I play CoH, to be super-shopper, I play to be a Super. :) So I just use what I have without worrying over 'buying is cheaper than building' etc., as I want to just kill more pixels, not be a mini stockbroker. So yeah, there are those of us that just use 'plain' IOs, and buy the recipes from the crafting table, because it's easy and quick and the game gives us enough resources to do it w/o having to play the market game. IMO, if I have Inf, then I am doing something wrong, because there is someplace I could spend it to get better or to pass to another character so they can, etc. Just a few pennies from the more casual min/maxer.

Except it is trivial to get to level 50. So the implicaiton here is that someone would would level to 50 just to camp a name? Really? I know better than to post about it, but really, that's what it sounds like this idea implies. Jerks are going to be jerks I guess, that seems like some dedicated jerkery to me...

This. In STO, the mere fact I ran a parser so I could see how my abilities combined for interesting stuff, I was often immediately a 'bad guy' because the assumption was the only reason I would run it was to shame others, when unless asked, I never posted results. I had fllet members ask me to run the parser so they could shame others, I left the fleet. These were the same 'relaxed, casual' players I had been playing with for a few months, turned into DPS dictators the moment the numbers arrived. Data can be used as a weapon just as easily as it can be used as a tool...

How about n+1 of the (super) hero games about to hit the market do so and then band toegether to claim rouge servers directly impact thier market? That's a nice expensive one right there to have to deal with from my PoV. How about NCSoft waits a year or more, watching the freely available numbers, then sues for all of the 'lost subscription revenue'. There is another financial torpedo. Really, it's just idle speculation at this point based on few facts. What we do know, as mentioned, is that the big corporation allows similar MMO rogue servers to stay running. That is a precedent. If they go after one, typically they have to go after all of them or get ripped apart in the legal process. Trademarks are really what have to be zealously defended. No one here is diluting the trademarks, we are celebrating them in the open for the most part, giving them fan advertising. Until a rogue starts trying to dillute a coporate trademark for profit, there is little to defend. So, we can speculate until the Rikti invade for realz, but the current data at hand says playing the game has better ROI, IMO, if that sort of thing interests you. :)

1-4 players is the most fun I have in the game. Playing with RL friends is where it's at IMO as well. RL breaks and needs 'slowing down' playtime among RL friends is so much better. I will say PuGs in CoH are a tad more forgiving of RL IME, but most still don't 'feel complete' it would seem, w/o 8 players, as many won't even budge until full, IME as well...

As I mentioned in another thread, if we are going to just start speculating, hold on to your hat, because I come up with 'worst case scenarios' all about 'business risk' for a living... :) With no information available, the human psyche just starts inventing things, because we are puzzle seeking/solving creatures. How about we just play the game and have fun? :)

My what a big gun you have there... :)

Lets just say I do know and I am not shocked so much as amazed we are all still alive. :) The kicker now is that _no one_ has the skills to the fix some of it as well, the programming lauguages are in essence, all but lost. The assumption that 'big companies' and 'the government' run anything modern is ... naive at best. :)

This is the part I should have quoted and addressed directly. As you can see, others already have the outlook that the very thing you think of as a positive apsect to this idea is, to many CoH players, a very negative thing. The whole idea behind these types of meters and logs is to encourage shame other players into playing the 'right' way the DPSers want. As a personal tool to improve/test/experiemnt, I think these things are terrific. The moment you can tell another player they are not doing enough damage, the tool becomes a weapon, IMO. You want to be more effective in CoH? Get more debuffers. :)

*Raises hand* I don't _plan_ it that way all the time or anything, but it happens/happened often. I just make what I have and use it for the most part until 50. If I get lucky and I get a set drop that works, I might build it, like a LoTG or something. The enemies 1-50 IMO are cake with 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 0-1 End Red, 0-2 Recharge for damage powers, IME. When you play many characters, level fast, etc. like I do, then I just don't bother to min/max each power slotting until I know the character will even get played past 40+. I just do not see the need to min/max each level, but to each thier own. Just plain old IOs/SOs at 50 will do just fine for the content, IME.

I get that a lot of poeple love these, I use one in STO. However, the main fear in CoH has always been, rightly so IMO, that players will get taken to task over performance if these things are used. So, it is a very sensitive subject to many people. The MMO DPS crowd, IME, has a hard time 'living with' players that just like to play and not make the game a job. DPS parsers and meters are a main tool used to suck the fun right out of many otherwise enjoyable games for a lot of players. So, go carefully, IMO.

Range was never enough of an anything to justify melee hitting harder. It's a mild QoL improvement, meaning you have to fine-tune your little steps here and there less than the other guy, but that is all. And these were meant purely as examples as I stated, nothing to rules-lawyer over. :) Playing the 'specifics game' is just not even viable at this point w/o code diving. And, one persons QOL is another persons OP, just look at some of the hate for the blaster toggles. (This is the reason I typically never put words around +/- indicators in MMO forums, not interested in arguing over opinions debating the minutae.)

Bringing logic and reason to an emotional showdown is like bringing a gun to a nuclear missle contest. In a more negative tone, if you fight with the pigs you get shit on you. This one is hilarious. We heard for years that 'all the good names were taken' yet we continued to make fun names until Live was no more. Will there be jerks that make accounts just to camp names? Sure, jerks will be jerks. The HC server runners have already done some data diving so they know how the lay of the land. At last published count that I saw, one player had 277 characters, the highest single number. Don't get me wrong, I lost a couple new-to-me cool names when I moved servers here already, I am not immune. I get that it is a bummer to have a concept someone else beat you at making. Like others, I simply changed them a little and like mine better now. In the end though, this is a purely emotional thing and you can never please all of the people.

Different opinions is the ticket! Even the language you use shows me that we just play differently, it's interesting to examine. You refer to 'jobs' that must be done 'in order', etc. IMO, CoH does not have things like healers, for example, that's for other MMOs. :) Teams that just follow a recipe over and over with no risk are like watching the game play itself, I may as well watch TV (eww). The majority seem to want to play every encounter like it's a progession raiding step, full of caution and risk-averse, gather for buffs, etc. That's fine by me, it just means I solo more and don't hang around many teams for very long. To me, it is just a video game and pixels can never really die, taking chances and trying crazy things is the fun of a video game where you cannot die. CoH is a sandbox in which many different delusions can be realized. :)