Blackbird71

I'd literally quoted my own suggestion in the post of mine that you quoted and responded to. You didn't need to dig back through pages of my previous posts to find it; it was literally right in front of you. Can you see why it feels like these suggestions are being flat-out ignored? No, it's not. It's a solution that allows what is needed without unnecessary complications or obstructions, and which should avoid any of the problematic issues with the /ebfp command as it existed before. It also still required earning through Day Jobs or a P2W purchase. The cooldown of LRTP is still a problem though.

Suggestions have been made, mine included (just a few posts above on this very page), if you care to discuss it. It seems like you're trying to ignore that myself and others have already made several suggestions for compromise.

This is great for those looking to get from zone to zone. Less so for those looking for quick and frequent access to bases. For those, the cooldown on the Base Teleporter (and charge requirements on Day Job versions) is a significant obstacle and an unnecessary pain.

Some of both, as well as popping out of one base, traveling to a location in the game, then needing to go to the same or a different base. So no, just using /ebfp from within the base does not fill the need. I've described exactly what I'm looking for and the most simple and straightforward solution.

Boldface added for emphasis. I read what you said just fine. You may not have said what you meant, but I read exactly what you said.

So they are in fact separate powers; I'm glad we agree. Clearly not "everything" has to come with some kind of cost. There are many things provided in HC at no or minimal cost because they are considered QoL improvements (see P2W vendor for a myriad of examples of free powers, etc.). By allowing the Ouro portal to be obtained at level 1 simply by someone else opening a portal for you, this has been provided at no practical cost. So I'm afraid that the argument that "everything is supposed to come with some kind of cost" holds little water. Do many things need a cost to be rewarding? Absolutely. But the question needs to be asked of why a particular thing has a cost, or what the cost is supposed to achieve. If the cost is only there for the sake of having a cost, and it provides an unnecessary barrier to a QoL improvement, then I question the logic of the cost. I enjoy having frequent, easy, and unrestricted access to SG bases, without the need to acquire multiple powers to do it. Keep it simple in one power, done. This could be achieved through removing the need for charges from one of the day job base portal powers, or by reducing the recharge on the P2W Base Transporter power to 30s-90s.

One button (which then leads to multiple more buttons) does not equal one power. They have to be earned or purchased separately, they have different cool down times and timers, some require charges, etc. There is absolutely no way to justify calling all the different powers in the travel menu "one power."

Claiming several separate and distinct powers are only one power with a "context" menu is oversimplifying. Scratch that; it's a denial of reality. Not even the devs are claiming they are all one power.

That's an oversimplification to the point of absurdity. Yes, it is more than one power. They are each acquired separately and through different means and with different costs, and they have different activations, cooldowns, and effects.

"YMMV" is the important part here. I'm often jumping locations three times in under five minutes. Needing to juggle more than one power to do this is an unnecessary inconvenience.

That's a matter of opinion; many have expressed that they preferred the old drop-off points, or at least having the variety of drop-off points for different transport methods. Just as one example, one of my frequent destinations was Steel Canyon. The base teleport dropoff was near the North Tram station. Between the locations near that dropoff, and what I could easily get to by taking the Tram to the South end, I could get to all of my most common destinations faster than I can now with the dropoff at the center of the map. At least for SC, the current situation is less convenient.

I think the flaw here is basing your numbers off of level 50 characters. Personally, my under-50 characters vastly outnumber my level 50's - out of over 100 characters, only five have gotten to 50. I put a lot more playtime into my sub-50 characters, and generally once a character hits 50, my time on it drops dramatically as I move on to new alts. I realize my experience may not be representative of most players, but I think it's a solid example of why basing decisions solely or even primarily off of the stats of level 50 characters presents a skewed perspective and may be the cause of much of the player dissatisfaction with these changes.

It absolutely is, and in the feedback threads the devs expressed the intention that it be acquired in exactly that manner. So no, there is no required investment to get access to Ouro or travel through it.

Making the Ouro portal available at level 1 really destroys the argument that there needs to be a significant cost/barrier to fast travel.

I'm opposed to the principle of paying for recharges or any similar item in order to regain what was lost. I don't need to test this to hold that view. And I have repeatedly stated my proposed solution; I have not changed that position. That may be your intent, but I do not believe it is the effect. Fewer people will speak their opinions if they think they will be jumped on by forum warriors, and your posts frequently give that impression. Let the devs speak for themselves; you don't have to continually white-knight for them.

Others likewise tire of your complaining and white-knighting, and your posts do no less to "drown out" opinions than any others. Are your complaints about people providing feedback really the best way to encourage communication? Frankly I think posts like this do more to discourage others from posting their views, and so you will get less people willing to speak up rather than more.

Ugh; no thank you. I've already said that the need for charges is a detriment to frequent use of these powers. Why would I want to have to purchase "batteries" instead? It's an obstacle for the sake of being an obstacle.

The problem is that due to cooldowns/charge use/etc., multiple of these powers need to be used when one should suffice. I'm aware of this. I didn't say I was always teleporting from within a base; just a need to get into multiple bases often within short time frames.

Whether what we have now is better is a matter of opinion, subject entirely to your primary usage. Not everyone uses the command and powers in the same way. As I pointed out to Jimmy previously, you are assuming the base is the transit point and not the destination. My playstyle is such that I'd rather be able to travel to multiple bases within the space of a few minutes, without having to acquire and use several different powers to do it or worrying about whether I have enough charges, than I would want the ability to instantly teleport directly to any zone. But there is no reason we can't have both. It should be simple to have the LRTP as has been implemented, and also modify one of the existing base teleport powers to serve these needs. The two are not mutually exclusive.

You are conflating two separate pieces of feedback that were given, and perhaps this misunderstanding is at the core of the situation we are now in. Largely for sentimental reasons, people generally did not want classic, unique travel powers (such as the Pocket D teleport) to be rolled into LRTP, so in that sense, yes, people wanted to keep the variety. However, my observation was that there was a significant consensus that adding two new powers (and to an extent, even LRTP) on top of the already existing base teleportation powers created an unwieldy mess and was completely unnecessary. It has created a situation where to regain the same frequency of base hops that were possible before requires at least three or more powers to be used in conjunction with each other, instead of just being able to pick one that best suits our needs. What was largely wanted (and repeatedly asked for) was for one base teleport power to have a reasonable activation time (long enough to be interruptible and prevent mission abuse, etc.), a short cooldown (60s-90s seems to have been preferred), with no other restrictions on the frequency of use (such as needing to recharge). A single power that met these would have solved all practical arguments over this issue.

They don't let you reach the base as quickly or as frequently as could be done previously, ergo, the new method is not faster. My arguments have always been about the complexity and implementation; if you reread the feedback threads you will see that. Yet you came at me with an accusation of wanting to "cheat." That was rude and insulting, and completely unhelpful. So far as discussing in good faith, I could make the same comments about you, especially given these recent aspersions. Just because you disagree with my opinions does not mean I am not arguing in good faith.

You're assuming the base is a transit point and not the destination. Reducing feedback and complaints about the complexity of the multiple powers now required to maintain close to the same rate of travel as "I want to cheat," is not only unhelpful to the discussion, but is also just plain rude. By this logic, you should split the trams back into the green and yellow lines. The fact is, a certain level of travel is part of the game, and a certain part is tedium for tedium's sake. We agree on that, or else you wouldn't have implemented several of the changes you did. Where we disagree is where to draw the line. Personally, I think travel within a zone is a significant part of the game. Travel between zones, or more importantly, travel to bases, is tedium and should be reduced as much as possible. This is not accomplished by requiring a plethora of powers for regular interzone travel at reasonable speeds. Just in the past 20 minutes, I had to use three separate powers to change between zones because of parts of a mission chain I was sent to (the actual travel took place in under 5 minutes, as speaking to one contact sent me to another and another before finally going to a third zone for a mission. Why should I have to maintain 3, 4, or more powers to quickly get around between zones so that I can actually play the content?

Yes I did. Which is still not faster than the previously available option. Faster than other options, yes, but not faster than the fastest option we used to have. Did you read what you quoted? That statement was specifically in response to a comment about the Day Job powers, and I was pointing out the drawbacks to those powers specifically. So far as "mixing and matching," the need to do so is what makes this such a complicated and unnecessary mess. Plus, it seems to be contradictory to this:

False. You can get around faster than you could before when using these P2W powers. You cannot get around faster than you could before unilaterally, as even with the improved cast times and cooldowns, these powers are still slower than the previously available options. It's an example of feedback being listened to and completely misunderstood. The feedback was "there are now too many powers to do the same thing, and it's a complicated mess; please consolidate some of these." Instead, they kept all the powers (including new ones added or repurposes specifically in for this Page) and just lumped them into a menu. It reduces the need for tray slots, but it does not reduce the mess that has been created. The day job also requires the use of charges at a rate that, based on common use of these powers, will require characters to sacrifice progress on other day jobs just to keep these powers usable. And the 10-minute cooldown on the "infinite charge" versions is far too long for several activities and common use situations.

Just the other day I was looking for a way to make a character with a magically-charged staff. Absolutely +1 to this.