Blackbird71

Neither does pigeonholing ATs that serve multiple roles into single-role categories, especially some that are poor fits compared to the AT's actual function.

Open a thesaurus. Call it a "versatility" bonus, a "variety" bonus, a "complimentary" bonus, whatever. I think the immediate "thumbs down" reactions on my other post emphasizes just how controversial and divisive the suggested terms are.

There were already good suggestions made of simply requiring five different ATs in a group to get the bonus.

No it doesn't. People can still earn the pets by doing the Giant Monster content; that's the purpose of the feature as you stated. Just because it could be earned through other means does not negate that it would still fill the intended role. If it's true that Giant Monsters are one of the most popular activities in the game (and I believe you that it is), then using a unique currency to encourage people to do it should be unnecessary, as people are already doing the content in significant numbers. Therefore, by your own logic, using a pre-existing currency as a reward and avoiding currency bloat should not have a negative impact on Giant Monster activity, and players engaging in Giant Monster content would still receive an additional reward for doing so.

Sorry for the double-post, but given the subject matter I thought this deserved to be kept separate from other thoughts: I think that HC would do well to follow it's own rules and avoid "controversial political content." In modern political parlance, the words "diversity" and "inclusivity" both carry heavy political connotations primarily used by one side of the political spectrum as a positive, and by the other as a negative. These are "charged" words in the current environment, and if HC wants to truly avoid controversial subjects, they should be avoided. What's more, they are current "buzzwords," and are likely to fall out of fashion in time, and when that happens any reference using them will appear dated.

I understand the intent, however I believe the execution is misguided. I think this system will actually cause more confusion for new players, reducing understanding of the various ATs, as it will lead them to believe each AT is pigeonholed into a specific role, when in fact most ATs can fill multiple roles depending on power sets/build.

So what? I'm not saying that to be flippant, but I genuinely don't understand what it would harm if some can already purchase these pets. If you want to encourage people to do content, make that content enjoyable. Pushing them to do content through bribery will only make that content popular temporarily, until players have amassed lots of Unstable Aether. And if you follow the same design for future content updates, you will have to keep making new currencies to encourage players to engage with each one.

You're not alone feeling this way. I'd recommend putting this in the Focused Feedback for the Giant Monster Balancing Pass, since that's the category in which Unstable Aether was introduced.

That doesn't change the fact that it is Yet Another Currency, and an unnecessary one at that. Instead of dropping 1-3 Unstable Aethers, of which 3 can convert to Prismatic Aether, why not just drop 1 Prismatic Aether and tweaking the drop rate slightly, and using Prismatic Aether to purchase these pets? (I challenge the need for Prismatic Aether entirely, but as long as you have it, might as well expand its use a little rather then inventing Yet Another Currency) It's good to know at least that HC finally listened on this one, so thanks for that. These patch notes are very long and I'm afraid that tidbit got lost in the noise.

It is indeed a good guideline, and one which HC has repeatedly ignored and trampled. If it were followed, it should not be necessary to reslot, rebuild, and respec multiple characters with every page update just to keep them playable. Optional, yes, but not necessary.

Consistency would be not changing names that have been around for quite some time.

Do we really need another currency? Especially if its one that converts directly to a currency we already have, and is used at the same vendor? Why not just have these drop Prismatic Aether Particles instead? (while we're at it, can we do something about the name of Prismaic Aether Particles? "PAP" as an abbreviation just carries unpleasant connotations.)

Just looking for clarification here. Does this mean "modeled" after PPD Awakened in terms of powers/mechanics, or in terms of theme/costuming? I ask because my first thought on reading this was that this meant Warshades in PPD uniforms running around with the Council groups, and that doesn't seem right.

Is this really necessary? The old names are fine; do we really need change for change's sake?

Initial thoughts (there's a ton of stuff in this Page, so still digesting a lot of this): I hope that the information on identifying these pylons is available in-game somehow, ideally through an NPC or info terminal of some sort, rather than expecting players to dig up a specific set of patch notes to discover how to identify and use them. "Show, don't tell," as they say. Why? Is it really necessary to sow confusion by changing names that players have become accustomed to? This smacks of change for change's sake. No. Please no. Please, please, stop changing the primary functions of powers. Time Bomb was never a buff/support power, and it's not what it was intended to be. Also, adding a "temporal bubble" is more thematically narrow for character concepts. This may not be the most egregious example in the past couple of years (and may not be the only example in this Page; as I said, there's a lot to digest), but it's one more example showing that the Cottage Rule means nothing to the HC team and they will continue to change powers to be significantly different from their original versions to suit their own whim. Power balance changes in general should NOT require redesigning builds or relearning how to play a particular powerset in order to be effective at the game. When you've don that, it's NOT a "balance," it's a revamp and a replacement. By "modeled as Warshade versions of PPD Awakened," does this mean "modeled" after their power builds, or "modeled" thematically? I'm hoping the former, as having Warshade PPD running around in Council groups doesn't exactly feel on-theme. Edit: Oh, and did we really need another currency? It's starting to feel like a gacha game in here.

The risks were always in play, and yes, some potential legal repercussions. Any of the rogue servers faced those same issues. However, I'm specifically referring to new repercussions for breach of the license agreement; those did not exist prior to an agreement being in place, and are now unique to HC and any other server that signs on to the terms of the agreement.

I'm at least taking the FAQ at face value. Your claim requires assuming it is incorrect or a lie.

No assumptions necessary, unless you think the FAQ is lying? There are zero qualifiers given there; it's all according to NCSoft's whim. All the license does (as stated in the FAQ) is give a framework to attempt to not run afoul of that whim. But claiming that "NCSoft cannot arbitrarily shut them down" is literally incorrect as per the information we've been given.

No, that's not how it works. The company holding the license has all the power, and can revoke it at any time. Or they can leverage the license to force an action from the licensed entity. The FAQ even clearly states that even with the license, NCSoft can still arbitrarily shut them down, so that claim is simply false. Before the agreement, NCSoft would have to send a legal Cease and Desist letter, which if HC chose to challenge the validity of (not saying they would, but it's still a risk NCSoft would have to consider), would have to be backed up with court filings, etc., creating more expense for no profit. Now with the license in place, NCSoft can just say "Stop," and if HC refuses they will be in violation of the license agreement, which opens them to legal repercussions that weren't necessarily in play before.

Claiming people are shard-hopping because they are "community-minded" is either false or delusional. You said it yourself, they're chasing the XP boosts; it's a self-serving choice. Assuming any other motivation is disingenuous. If they were doing this because they were being "community-minded," no XP bonus would have been necessary to entice them. Meanwhile, there are those who have established and built communities with the game, often at great effort and investment of personal time. These are communities that welcome new players, that help people learn how to play, and which keep people playing through interest in connections formed with others. To call them not "community-minded" because they refuse to abandon those groups and instead remain with them and maintain them at the sacrifice of the XP bonus is a gross insult.

That's being awfully condescending towards those who choose not to leave their preferred shard because it's where their friends and SGs are. Frankly, this whole thing comes across as a great big "screw you" to those players, and referring to them as not being "community-minded" only reinforces that. That was rude and uncalled for.

Again, players can power-level a character in a few hours, so that's all the boost buys you, a few hours on another shard. This is a temporary fix at best; when it's done you'll have the same imbalance and problems that were there before. And again, it comes at the cost of feeling exclusionary, cutting players out of the celebration, or sending the message that they are not as valued as others. That's not a great PR move, and the timing and communication could have been a lot better.

Because previously HC and the other servers were acting in defiance of NCSoft, and were showing at least some willpower to do so. Now that there is a licensing agreement, HC has stepped away from that defiance and into deference, and whereas previously shutting HC down would have likely required some effort and expense from NCSoft, now in theory all it would take is NCSoft asking for the game to be shut down. In the end would it have made much difference either way? I don't know; probably not. But it does create a perception that HC is now directly under NCSoft's thumb and willing to comply with whatever NCSoft wants them to do, as opposed to continuing to find ways to resist and keep running in spite of NCSoft. For obvious reasons, this game is full of a lot of superhero fans. One thing you learn from the genre is that when the hero and the villain set aside their differences to work together, you should always keep one eye on the villain and watch for the inevitable betrayal. Whether or not that truly applies in this case, the mentality is kind of programmed into the player base, so you can't blame them for the suspicion. This is honestly my big fear in this situation, that other servers will either be forced to come under the HC license umbrella or be shut down, and the variety and options in the CoH community will be reduced. I don't agree with all of HC's decisions and direction for the game, and having other alternatives available has always been reassuring.

That doesn't really track. With the XP boost, nothing is preventing characters from transferring after they've power leveled, so it's the same issue. As noted before, established players are less likely to shard-hop away from groups they're used to playing with. I'm sure some will just to take advantage of the XP boost, and then they'll be right back with their groups once the boost is gone or they've reached their desired levels. This shard-specific boost just seems to punish those who have ties keeping them to a particular shard. If you really want to try to even out the shard numbers, first thing you are going to have to do is either limit shard transfers based on shard pop, or shut them off partially for certain shards (can only transfer into low-pop shards and/or out of high-pop shards). Without that, you'll run into the same problems just as soon as the XP boost is gone. I'm not saying this is a good idea, only that it's necessary to controlling shard pop. If you want people to stick around on a shard and build it up, you can't make it inconsequentially easy to change. Where the shard-based XP boost really feels bad is that in the past, XP boosts have often been turned on as part of a celebration of some milestone or other event. As these boosts came in the wake of the licensing agreement announcement, it really felt like players on some shards were being left out of the celebration of that announcement.

Still stinks if you play on those shards. Everlasting even got cut out completely of the first round of boosts. Feels very anti-RPers. I assume these boosts are targeted towards new players rather than the existing players, as established players generally aren't going to swap shards just for an XP boost when they have their SGs, friends, etc. on their home shard. If that's the case, why not just give the patrol XP power charges to new characters on those servers? It would be more targeted and less of a finger in the eye to players on certain shards.