Herotu

This is what happens when we tell people to just enjoy the game and don't worry about your build. They get frustrated because we didn't give them an easier way to understand the enhancement system. Then we have to do all this remedial work on the symptom of the issue instead of fixing the cause of the problem.

Does Foot Stomp count as a kick?

You can say that about any public/community relations exercise. These forums themselves are nice but impractical.

Are you among the "Do your own thing, but not if it ruins my fun" hypocrites?

Looking forward to the IT vs IF spin-off.

Do we have to sign this? Is it a petition or something?

I appreciate a good wizard, and this looks like a good wizard, right here!

The USA is up against one of the best teams in the world: India. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2024/jun/12/usa-v-india-t20-cricket-world-cup-live

I Googled (DuckDuckGo'd) your definition ... please note the circled words.

Before I begin, I know there will be legions of pedants lining up to tell me there's no objective "Best". Okay I've covered my arse, you can go home now. Now they've gone, I know that you know there are lots of "better" story arcs around! Come on, let me in on the secret, which are they? Here's some info in case you want to suggest something to suit my particular taste: I don't usually play far beyond level 30. I'm generally in decision hell at that point, with epic pools to choose from in addition to pool powers and the end of obvious archetype power choices. Additionally, the missions seem a little dull and don't grab me in the same way I'm used to. So that you might get a grasp of what kind of arc I enjoy, here are some of my go-to contacts; Matthew Habashi Sondra Costel Aaron Thiery Field Agent Kieth Nance Jenny Adair Roy Cooling All the Faultline Arc(s) I'm also interested in what happened with Statesman and the surviving eight, so if I've missed low level stories about them, I'd be interested in playing those. Thanks for helping me! 😄

Thanks for helping with the issue, that's good infos. I think, however, the point was that the hump is something the devs could/should flatten out i.e. that the hump itself should not exist.

See? This is another example of the secret stuff I mentioned in the "How do we fail new players" thread. We need this information foremost for players somehow. All these niggly things that make a difference should either be; 1. entirely eradicated from the game or 2. much more prominent so we all know about them. There should be no build-oriented secrets.

I hate popup boxes as much as the next bot, but ... Streamlined as in creating story arcs that introduce new players to elements of the game? - people complain about Twinshot, but that's exactly what that is. How else could it be streamlined?

I'm looking forward to watching Paragon Squares...

Well that's BS ofc. People can do what they want, BUT if new players aren't being sufficiently informed that they have options, that's a different story.

Hey! I did a blue character recently, too! Thin Sky Blue King You can do anything but lay off of my sky blue suede shoes.

What's wrong with powerlevelling to 50 then doing all the skipped content through Ouroboros?

I'm sorry. I'm just going to refer you to the text you quoted. As you see, you never pre-determined the group size as the determining factor, but you could have done. You don't limit yourself to just Training Enhancements. These are limits you *could* place on yourselves. The freedom to NOT impose them means they don't get imposed. I once heard of a group that wanted to try levelling with just SOs. A special, one-off group that disappeared after a time (perhaps they were ninjas). The problem being that people bump up against the limitations placed upon them by the developers. Absolute freedom for freedom's sake is not desirable. Changes to the game that improve things by imposing some kind of restriction aren't necessarily bad.

I refer the honourable gentleperson to the answer I gave yesterday. I am going to state WHY we're talking about this again because it seems off-topic when it's not. My point is that freedom isn't always desirable. People are defending a lack of change by claiming freedom is always best, when it's not. "Self-appointed dictator"? Is that what you call the Developers?

I am a big fan of the "feeling" you get from some powersets, and I did notice this with Dark. I wondered why I stopped playing it, and you've taught me!

My point is that when you don't fill a group, it's not because to decided that you'd place a predetermined arbitrary cap on the number of members, although you are FREE to do so.

I appreciate that your sub-8-person group was a thing, but they're not relevant to the example. I'm sure that if you could have got 8 within a reasonable timespan, you would have. Unless you decided to take 4 specific friends. I'd be extremely surprised if you said "I'm taking 3 of the guild to DFB, who's coming?". Far more likely, you say 3 friends online and made a group with those. the point being that if you had more friends online, they'd come too. The point I'm trying to make is: There was no self-imposed cap.

Those aren't good examples. Firstly, the example of SSB is a cap imposed by the mechanics, as you state, so it's not an appropriate example. Secondly, a small group of friends is cool and all, but it's again, not relevant to the circumstance I am describing above: NOBODY teams with a specifically self-imposed cap of less than 8. The point being that although we are FREE to do so, we don't. That's why I believe things like the SSB player requirement would be good in other areas of the game. It might even be good to reduce the regular cap of 8 to 5. There must be a reason newer games have smaller group caps, and I believe it's because you get more intimacy with smaller groups. Boom chicka wa wa. But it ain't going to happen unless it's mandated.

There is a difference between looking good and looking accurate.

1. There is a lot of information about enhancements, the emphasis on their importance is great, but it's all over the place and not concise enough. There are enhancement secrets that only come out through chat: Secret #1. You can only have 5 of the same enhancement bonus. e.g. 5% Accuracy to All Powers. Secret #2. Enhancements with the word "Global" on them don't even need to be activated. Secret #3. There are ATO enhancements that are perhaps worth buying (though they are very expensive) for your journey up to 50, when you can replace them with their L50 equivalents. Secret #4. Procs kinda work in Auto powers. Secret #5. It's advisable to get either +End procs in Health and Stamina and/or End Mods in Stamina. Secret #6. You probably need as many Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharges in your build as you can (max 5 - see Secret #1). I can't think of more, but I know they exist. Please enlighten me! 2. New players aren't encouraged into the stories, content is rushed. There are many reasons, from Brute archetype having to remain in combat for it's core mechanic to powercreep to the problem of people not wanting to read text themselves, to groups not wanting to wait for someone to read text. Good luck with this Gordian Knot. 3. Some contacts are objectively more interesting than others. Perhaps new players should be gently pointed towards the better ones? In regard to some of the replies we've had above, I see a lot of people pushing back on changes to the game and always the same response, "I want choice, don't make the game more restrictive". I want to counter these opinions in the following manner: Groups of 8 ALWAYS fill. Nobody ever says "we are a 5 player group". Sure, we all have the option of maxing at 5, that's an option, but nobody ever EVER takes it. My point is that choice isn't taken when it's obviously sub-optimal. Who restricts themselves to Dual-Origin enhancements these days? That's why when I see, "I want freedom", I read something else.