Solarverse

I love mine the way it is. In fact, using my Terminator Plasma Rifle Mod with this makes sense to the way it looks. If nothing else, make it a pulse full auto beam instead of a constant beam and give it similar mechanics to full auto, just less damage and I think it's golden.

I ditto this.

It's just something in case of power creep being a further issue and trying to cover that point before it's made an issue. Either way. I would have zero issues with any of these.

Power Creep probably wouldn't be such an issue if we confined the use of extra Enhancement Slots to Incarnate content.

No, people keep going back to that and I am just trying to keep things updated. Don't take offense to it, no offense is intentional. To be quite honest, I like you as a forum poster, we usually agree on things and see eye to eye, it just so happens we have bumped heads a bit in this thread. And to answer your question on how I am reading this thread, I just woke up and had a LOT of posts to read through, I have just been responding to them as I read them so that I don't lose track of which post I last read.

Or if we even grey out those enhancement slots and they only unlock when playing Incarnate Task Forces? There are ways around the balancing issues I think.

Now we're on to something!

I stand corrected.

Okay, I'll meet you half way there and say it was harder then, but not hard core. I agree with your point.

What about new enhancement slots?

I thought we have moved past the costumes as being an option for gated items? Pretty sure we have moved on from that and are now seeking alternatives.

Nobody said that...

I think he is referring to me. He has been trying to engage in to conversation with me over the past couple of weeks now and I simply won't respond to him no matter what he says about me, even if it means that I do not defend myself against his false claims. I just let him say whatever and ignore him. He has a bad habit of making false accusations and argues with strawman tactics. I have learned that I simply cannot hold a conversation of any kind with him because of this, so now I let him say whatever he pleases about me and simply refuse to respond. He has a bad reputation of doing this on these forums and his opinion of our community and the HC Devs have been made clear. Simply put, I have absolutely nothing to say to the guy.

This right here. Well said, Lockpick. Another option for progression could be that every so many Vet Levels we unlock 1 new Enhancement Slot. Or even perhaps tie an Enhancement Slot to a Task Force, or a New Task Force. There are many ways to help us feel rewarded and achieving something, it does not have to be costumes. If players are willing to compromise but want costumes a no-go zone, I am okay with this, there are other ways we can go about it.

Scroll back through the conversations and you will see how this was covered and why that is just a horrible solution.

Not just the gated content, you have to remember the Debt system basically getting removed, it's so pathetic now I am not even sure why we even have a Debt system anymore. It's so trivial now it's pointless. I can't say for certain it had anything to do with unlocking costume pieces, but just how the game was made easier and easier over time. For an example, let's take a look at Star Wars Galaxies....remember what happened after CU? Here, let this ring a bit of what happened and then what the company said after they had lost a good portion of their playerbase after making the game easier. Media outlets criticized the changes of the "Combat Upgrade"while subscription cancellations rose. After the New Game Enhancements were implemented in November 2005, sparking huge demonstrations in-game from the majority of players, various media outlets criticized the reduced depth and complexity of the game, but John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, defended the decision claiming it necessary to revamp the game in order to reverse the deterioration they were seeing in the subscriber base. SOE offered refunds on the Trials of Obi-Wan expansion due to it being released two days before the New Game Enhancement was announced. The development team affirmed this was their desired direction for the game and that they would modify parameters to address player's concerns. Features such as expertise trees were later added to the game to add complexity and differentiation to characters. After the announcement that SOE had acquired the game Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Smedley addressed that game's players about the perceived threat of major changes to the game: "We've learned a thing or two with our experiences with the NGE and don't plan on repeating mistakes from the past and not listening to the players." This all happened because this game was not meant for the causal player. Sure, a casual player could play the game, but a casual player was not going to progress in the game as fast as the dedicated player would. This game was made for the hard core player who wanted a challenge, who wanted a game that challenged them in many various different ways. This is what MMOs were all about in those days. Casual player seen the games, loved the concept of them, but did not like the difficulty of them, so they took to the forums and became very loud about wanting the games changed to be made for the casual players. The players who loved the game as is fought back, but sadly lost that battle. SOE caved in to the casual player and added CU, which caused a lot of players to leave the game. It hurt them, it hurt them bad. However, SOE thought that in time, they would get enough casual players to try the game out and in time would cover the loss from the players leaving in mass droves. Then SOE once again ignored their hard core playerbase and came out with NGE. After that, they lost more players than they bargained for and it hit them hard in the wallet after those players left in mass exodus. They never recovered after that and was forced to shut down. In the end, the developers finally admitted that they made a huge mistake listening to the casual player and alienating their hard core fan base and said they would never do that again. With City of Heroes, I cannot pin it all on one change, it was many negative changes (for the hard core fan base) that caused the hard cores to leave the game. However, I don't think the changes to costumes had anything to do with that. I am just saying adding new costumes to gated content (at least for a short period of time) could give players like me that sense of working toward a goal...and it doesn't have to be costumes, it can be anything really.

If you are giving something that used to require work to obtain for free, that does indeed make it easier. Let's not go round and round about that, please?

Costumes have nothing to do with the difficulty of the game. That was not the only thing that I said changed since the times of the old. Not sure what gave you the idea that I thought costumes had anything to do with difficulty. I understand people don't want to wait for cosmetics. To that end, people don't want to seem to wait for anything these days, but I digress. However, that is why I offered a solution to those who do not wish to wait for a specific costume piece that has not even been created yet. Even more so, a way to get it now instead of wait and actually unlock it account wide...but even that doesn't seem to be good enough for people. Like I said, nobody wants to compromise. Having said all that, it does not have to be a cosmetic item, however, I suspect no matter what we decide to place behind a gated wall, even if trivial, people will still be upset about it. On the contrary, they are of the same mindset. Let's say that you are correct though, it still doesn't matter because they both still represent the opposing views of this thread, therefore even arguing that is mere semantics.

Maybe you can help me "get" something too. When this game came out, it came out being a certain way. Things were locked behind level gated missions, debt was an actual thing to worry about, missions were harder because you couldn't just turn the level down to 0 or -1, certain costume parts were either level gated or later became gated behind Task Forces, the game came out this way. So why stay and continue to play a game that had so many aspects about it that you used to find so annoying? To me I would think that you would have simply left the game since it was something that annoyed you. It may have not been you specifically, but it was people who shared your view who came to the forums and very loudly demanded this game be made easier and gated things in this game be lifted. We, the opposing view to them, could not understand why they would continue to play a game that annoyed them so much, and could not understand why they would even stay here if it was not their cup of tea, instead of trying to get it changed and ruin the experience for those of us who actually enjoyed every aspect of the game, including the game's difficulty and the minor gated system that was in place. I think City of Heroes being the only superhero MMO in those days may have had something to do with it. However, Matrix Online was the only MMO that had Matrix in it as well, yet I did not go to their forums and demand changes that would ruin the game for everyone else. What I did instead was simply stop playing the game, even though I absolutely loved The Matrix. So now, here we are, years later after all these aspects of the game was changed in a negative way for people who share my views to make it more enjoyable to people who share your views. However, most of us get it and we understand, that is why instead of demanding the game fit our views, the way the opposing view did all those years ago, we are simply looking for some middle ground somewhere and looking for a compromise that is acceptable to everyone...and telling us to self impose these things on us is just not going to cut it...not even a little bit. You need to remember a lot of us back then loved it...sadly, a lot of those "lot" ended up leaving the game after people complained enough to get those gates removed. So those "lot" are no longer here to add to our point of view. I have played games before, loved the concept but hated certain things about the game that caused me to leave them. I did not go to the forums and complain until they were changed from their original setting, I instead left the games because they weren't my cup of tea. If I complained about anything at all, it was usually a complaint that was designed to get the game back on track, not a complaint that would deviate the game from its original course. Well, now here we are, the game has changed from its original state and the only thing a few of us are asking for, is just a small part of that back. Yet by doing so we are being treated as though our requests are completely unreasonable. In my view, it was the people who instead of leaving this game in favor of something more to their likings but rather came to the forums and demanded things be changed, were the ones who were truly unreasonable. These same people call that a game growing...but growing for who exactly? Sure, it grew in some ways, but it deeply sacrificed other aspects of the game while doing so. That is not how a game should be "growing," you don't cut out one half of your population in favor of the other, you find a good compromise and you grow like that. The original Devs made a huge mistake by catering to just one aspect of their player base. Let's take a look at WoW for an example. Sure, they give things away for free, but they still have a ton of stuff to work for and achieve that you cannot get for free, you have to work for it. They have a good balance there and it's been working extremely well for them. We have no balance here, instead the game was changed to fit a single type of player and that is the casual player-base. What truly annoys me is that I am not even asking for a balance of the two like what WoW has going on but rather instead I am just asking for a small taste of it. A mission here, a Task Force there, nothing more, yet I am still being treated like my request is just sooooo unreasonable. I am not being treated this by everyone, but by enough. There are a few who have expressed interest in at least hearing us out an perhaps entertaining a few ideas. That's a good place to start IMO and I thank them for doing so.

I see potential to add Warshades and Peacebringers in this. Warsahdes with AoE Shield Buffs, Recharge Debuffs, AoE Heals/AoE Endurance and +AoE Damage Boosts while Peacebringers Unity having AoE Shield Buffs, -Defense Debuffs, Single Target Heals and AoE Accuracy Boosts as Primaries. Secondaries would combine Melee and Ranged like the others.

One particular idea I have seen somebody come up with was higher quantity of merits for running Task Forces on Max Difficulty. Maybe more for imposing time limits, buffed mobs, so on and so forth. Maybe more for clearing maps that would otherwise be skipped straight to the boss room. Those could be very rewarding accomplishments and rewards. Maybe creating content that has new costume styles or pieces behind gated missions, but after 6 months becomes free to all without gated content (I know, that is a stretch) Maybe have a Task Force that grants the user an extra aura to add on top of the aura you currently have but again is unlocked for all after 6 months or so. Perhaps a one time Task Force that unlocks a Power Set that is tied behind the story line of the Task Force that once is done by a single character, unlocks account wide? I am open to further suggestions.

Here is the problem, I have given my reasons in great detail all throughout this thread. It's never good enough, people will not accept my reasons. I can never give you a reason that you will agree with because you simply do not agree. I can't give you any more reasons than what I already have. The reasons why I feel this is fun is irrelevant. The only thing that should matter is that I do indeed feel it is fun. The problem is that no matter what reason I give, you will not be able to relate to them and those reasons will never be good enough...as this thread has shown. I have given my reasons. I do not owe any further explanation. Hell, I even wrote damn near an whole post on why this is fun to players like me. I don't know if you skipped it or felt it wasn't good enough, regardless it is irrelevant. I'm not the one who started the "your team" somebody else did that. So since it has now been broken down in to "teams" I am simply following suit. Sorry, not gonna pin that on me. You should have said that to the person who started that whole thing to begin with. You have challenged irrelevance. There is nothing rational about that. I have not asked you why you feel having everything pretty much handed to you is fun, because no matter what reason you give I will never be able to relate to. Same thing here.

That would be the players, Troo. 😄

I know, which is why I changed my tone. I was very heated. Thank you for recognizing that and not taking it personal. You get a like for that and a bit of respect.

Agreed. 100% agree.