Itikar

I see people doing this all the time in game, actually. Except they do it with badges. Even setting aside all the opposition among the playerbase to have unlockable costume parts that do the same, badges are in comparison a more efficient way to achieve what you want. Badges are easier to implement, they need simply a 2d icon, whereas a costume part requires a 3d model, sometimes even a dynamic one, for 3 body types. Otherwise it would not be very nice to unlock a hat which you cannot use because your character has body type huge and the hat is available only for male and female. On top of that badges can be seen by anybody who checks your character's profile, instead of only by those who see you wearing the part. If you want people to notice your achievement immediately you can set the badge as your title too, and as a bonus you do not have to change your costume in any way, you only need to make a click. And in fact we have already seen several new badges being implemented while we have received much fewer costume parts, in comparison. So it is safe to assume that badges are a more efficient way to provide achievements and that these achievements have a more long-lasting potential than costume part unlocks. The real question here, a question you should ask yourself really, is why you can find drive primarily with costume part unlocks and not with badges or with the other unlockables already provided by the server. Both of these have plenty of content that does not really require grind, but rather encourages quantitatively much more variety than costume parts unlocks will ever be able to achieve. What do unlockable costume parts have that badges cannot do? Even the "I have a hat they do not have" here falls apart, since there is formally very little difference between that and "I have a badge they do not have".

Bane spiders are linked together in a psychic network, if one of them breaks free from that network Arachnos does not let the thing happen without a reaction. There is in fact a rogue alignment mission that involves helping, for money, one of these Bane spiders flee to Paragon City with the aid of Longbow. They are a bit like the Seers from Praetoria in that regard. As for the stealth power they get it is called "cloaking device" so I believe it is some sort of technological instrument, at least in the developers' intentions.

Don't have any issue with that either.

Same stance as me.

I find the question a little too abstract to be really interesting. But no, I have played plenty of games where you unlock costume parts via grind. If I want that, and a whole new game that can be fun too, instead of just a costume, I can find it elsewhere already. If there are really modders who are so restrictive about distributing the content they have created, and it would not be the first time I hear about something like this, I would rather let them keep their content.

And this makes three strawmen.

"We already have titles. You know the ones attached to badges?" 😄 No, seriously, it sounds good, but I am not the one bothered by not having drive or unlockable content, so I don't know how much it is for me to call. Personally also I hide all player tags unless I hover over them with my cursor, and I am really bothered by not being able to do the same for pets. I do enjoy to check the badges screen of characters I come across and would probably enjoy seeing which titles people get or set to themselves, though.

And another strawman there.

The status quo would be altered. And, again, it would take away from me the possibility to see people express their creativity at its fullest, without the need to grind. I actually like that the game, at least on Homecoming, has two aspects that live together seamlessly and pretty well. On one hand you have a very flexible costume creator that lets you create an impressive amount of costumes, without requiring anything to unlock them. On the other you have a game with a lot of unlockable rewards which, for once, do not impair the first aspect in any way. What's better than that, seriously? You can have cake and eat it. So, again, by changing this status quo you would take away from me a unique experience which I have not found elsewhere. So, no. Feel free to go make your own server with unlockable swords, given the difference of positions in this thread, it really seems the smartest solution. But I sure would not put my electronic foot in there as long as I have a place like Homecoming. And I am glad it stays as it is.

And what did I write precisely in my very first post here? It's you who have been arguing about unlocking sword skins or costume pieces for the last six pages. I actually believe my message you quoted was not completely clear. When I mean "any kind of content currently unlocked" I mean any kind of costume part, powerset or archetype, which is the kind of content which is currently unlocked. Everything else, stuff that is not automatically unlocked as a general rule, badges, accolades, full costume changes, powers, enhancements, etc. I have never expressed having issues with them being locked behind some content. That's how the server currently works after all.

I can answer for myself, but that would be over the line, consistently with what I have written so far. However, I would not be against locking the permanent full costume change, like those we got for Halloween, behind some content of sort, if it is of any worth to you. First because a full costume change, while it might limit some people, is not a limit to their creativity, the costume is already finished and cannot be modified. And second because currently other full costume changes already require unlocking, so it is not a change to the status quo other people may be fine with. So, I can sum up my position in being in favor of adding more unlockable content of the same kind which is already present, but in being against making any kind of content which is currently unlocked for everybody unlockable, in any form or quantity.

Eh, I mentioned it in the very first post, that apart from powersets, archetypes and character editor options, the game does have unlockable content aplenty. Can it be increased? Absolutely. Badges are the prime example of unlockable content in the game, and they can come with nifty options, such as powers and other stuff. Think for example of the gladiator badges that unlock special gladiators in the arena. There is so much other stuff other than hats and that can be done without hampering the creativity of players that enjoy things as they are. Apparently, however, OP cares for costume options primarily, given their replies.

Yeah, maybe selfish too. In my opinion however you are more selfish than I am, but that's just my opinion. As for thinking my way is better and your is, let's say, worse (I don't really like to call it wrong), well, I would not hold such opinion if I did not think it was indeed better than yours.

I see it now. Weird though, I swear when I read it the first time, the first quote was missing. Guess it might be some sort of glitch. Well, sorry about that, we cleared that out at least.

Hey, I was replying to Munkilord, not to you. 😛

You are implying about my words things I did not say. In no way I implied or thought it is elitist. My only view of it is pretty simple: bad. No more, no less. On top of that, my position is not any more selfish than that of OP. Actually, since I do not want to impose limits on anybody, while they do, I believe I am way less selfish than they are. It can be argued that not having a limit is a limit in itself, even if it's a pretty fallacious argument, but the fact remains the OP and like-minded individuals can set themselves arbitrary goals. On the other hand a hard limit would remove any agency on the players who do not enjoy them, so it is still not on the same level. And that's why, personally, I do not feel like giving even a crumb would be worthwhile in this particular case. Just because a minority wants even a crumb it does not always mean it is a good idea to give them that crumb. This might be more obvious for stuff such as mature or generally unplesant content, but in this case, even if this request is relatively innocuous, in my opinion the loss for the whole community would surpass any benefit for the minority. And that's why I hold such position. And if you deem it selfish and petty, so be it. I beg to differ, but that's not really pertinent to this discussion.

Even apart from my negative judgement on the matter, what you are proposing is that there should be only one way to play class number 17: going through whatever content it requires for unlocking it. I can even concede that this could actually not be so bad for some classes, think of those blueside arachnos soldiers and widows with no clues about redside for example. But it is still a limit you are proposing, not an option. No, I am not telling you that, and this is why your argument is a strawman. What I told you is that there are other options than those you assume, and that is not really the same thing as wanting to force your way on others. You, on the other hand, are far beyond "telling", since you are proposing your way be forced on everybody, even for just a minor amount of content, whether they like it or not.

Yes, I am frankly unwilling to compromise on a topic whose (supposed) benefits I do not deem worth even the minor loss they imply. As for the grind, for those who enjoy it, the game already provides plenty of content, and very tangible reward in many forms.

This is a strawman argument.

This is not what you are proposing, again. What you want to propose is forcing other people to go through the arbitrary osbstacles you would like. If you want to enjoy the obstacles made by someone else you still have many options to do so. I actually do not see how removing options would be any better than having them. The moment you sit down and play a video game, you have already decided to go through a self-imposed series of obstacles. If you can do that, then certainly you can do the same within the game itself. And I say this as someone who goes through self-imposed obstacles in this game quite often. If I can do that, why cannot you do the same? I have rarely gone through AE farms, I have done a single DFB run, mostly out of curiosity, and yet I would not like to prevent other people from leveling faster, through DFB, AE farms or anything else. Why do you want to force your way of playing on other people? What makes it better than theirs? They play the game, they simply do not play the game your way and do not enjoy it in the same way you do. I don't see why you, or I for that matter, should feel entitled to decide what is better for them. Very well put. I really cannot quote this more. 🙂 No, not necessarily bad by default, okay. But still not worth the rather minor benefit in my humble opinion. And honestly, I struggle to even see this truly as a benefit, personally. I can see why a restriction, such as making a costume in Halloween theme, could have benefits in the global result of everybody making a Halloween themed costume, but I do not see how locking X hat behind killing 100 hellions does. The first is self-imposed, one can choose not to take part in the contest if they do not enjoy it, the second is not, as if one likes X hat, they will still have to kill the 100 hellions, regardless if it is a chore for them or not.

Because some people might not be able to even have a chance to unlock them, and in my humble opinion that would be a limit to the creativity of the playerbase that would not be worth any of the benefits, if any, provided by having them being unlockable. It was pretty fun, for example, to see the creation of the Halloween contest during the event. And some characters that won were very low level, and possibly made by players that who were new. I don't see how having clothing options being unlockable would have benefited the game in such a situation and I am pretty glad the Homecoming Team had taken the decision to leave complete freedom to the creativity of the playerbase. This was precisely one of the main factors that made me choose Homecoming over the other private servers out there in fact. Most successful MMOs are ran by companies that need to make a profit, so the comparison is moot. The reason for which I believe Homecoming should not have unlockable of that nature is that they are really not good in the first place for a non-profit free MMO, if anything, precisely to distinguish itself from the commercial ones that put stuff behind grindwall, paywall or both. This is not about being faithful to the original game, especially since there you could unlock a good bunch of that stuff with money, this is about choosing what is best for the majority of users. And I dare say, the fact Homecoming is the most populated server while the servers that have unlockables of the kind you want have very few players, perhaps points at the playerbase of Homecoming actually enjoying stuff the way it is. Otherwise they would play elsewhere, wouldn't they? Then of course I am aware there are other factors, such as more players attracting even more players, or some of the modifications and other improvements. But on the whole I have seen among people who decided to play on Homecoming the freedom of creativity being quoted as one of the main reasons.

I think there is a certain inconsistency in the argument. This kind of proposals are not really in the direction of letting the authors earn their creativity, because, as stated in the other thread, if they really wanted to do so, they can already earn their creativity through self-discipline. What is truly bad about these proposals is instead that the authors want to restrict the creativity of other people, who might on the other hand not be so happy to "earn" their creativity. Furthermore, since the answer to the above was that "breaking your own leg is not good" how would "breaking a legs of everybody" be any better? Fundamentally, for this proposal to be credible, those who support it should at the very least show that they are capable of self-restraint even before the proposal is implemented. But if they were able to do that, then the proposal would be moot. On top of that, since the other often mentioned reason for this kind of proposal is that it kills the drive to play, I counter that if a game requires a carrot on a stick to keep people glued to it, then it means that the game has much bigger issues than content that requires unlocking. And in that case those issues are worth fixing, not delaying the moment in which the player realizes the game has issues to when they have finally caught the aforementioned carrot. And lastly, one cannot even assume that a game can keep people glued to it at all times, it is just normal that one gets bored of playing the same game over and over again. Now, if this was a commercial MMO, that needs to profit from its users, carrots on sticks might have a sense, but on a private non-profit server? Not even remotely to the same degree. So my position remains the same of the other thread, as long as this unlockable stuff limits the creativity of the average user, I believe the idea is bad. However as long as the unlockable content does NOT include: - clothing options - archetypes - primary and secondary powersets I don't see unlockable content as bad, actually it can be interesting and I think the proposal in this thread has been phrased in a much more sensible way than in the other. The issue here however is that there is already a lot of content like that and it seems reasonable there will be more content like that to come. There are already contacts whose story arcs can be played only after obtaining certain badges, sometimes even badges that require quite a bit of work. These are particularly common on redside, Viridian is a good example of this, so perhaps they could be extended to blueside too. There are already accolades that unlock special powers, and there are story arcs and missions that also give you interesting and often very useful temporary powers. Finally all the incarnate content unlocks only at level 50, and there is a lot to be explored and gained in that too.

Honestly I have soloed my defender through Praetoria just fine. Damage was a little low, compared to other archetypes, but eventually I managed to solo any mission that was thrown at me, including those with elite bosses, up to level 23. Looking forward to other content, but if anything the character feels stronger as I level. My powersets are force fields and energy blast. The enemies that gave me a harder time, so far, were only the advanced clockworks and to a lesser extent resistance members. I also tried to solo a controller, although at a relatively low level so far, and even going against enemies with mez protection (Arachnos lieutenants) I would not call the experience really hard. I just kept in mind my immobilize and single target hold were also my main attacks. The one archetype that gave me a little trouble, or rather more trouble than I would have expected, was corruptor. But eventually even on that, once I got some key powers from my secondary, the experience improved dramatically. In my experience so far all archetypes can solo, some better than others of course, but still all can solo. What I have noticed, even for "good" archetypes at times, is that some people team-up pretty early with their character, often skipping the early levels, or they straight up powerlevel their character through various means, and then they are often not really prepared to use their character's powers to their advantage when facing solo content.

There is also the lack of difference between the various percentages of endurance drain across various archetypes, specifically defenders and corruptors, which stands out in comparison to all other debuffs from ranged powersets.

Well, my second toon was a force fields/energy defender, and I enjoy knockback greatly with all the strategies associated with it. So neither do I.