What to do with Empyrean Merits in the future...

[Astralock]

12 minutes ago, arcane said:

I’ve explicitly asked you multiple times to leave me alone, and I’ve tried to respond to you in particular less in the last month, but damn you are persistent.  And so I have failed at ignoring your posts entirely, yes. 
 

I may honestly have to figure out where this mythical ignore button is because I don’t believe you have any intentions of letting off the constant barrage of belittling and abuse. I find your need for constant conflict pretty stressful tbh.

 

Go to your name on the upper right hand corner of the page, click it.  Just above "Sign Out," you'll see "Ignored Users."  Click that.  Then at the top, start typing the name of the person that you wish to ignore.

[arcane]

2 minutes ago, Astralock said:

 

Go to your name on the upper right hand corner of the page, click it.  Just above "Sign Out," you'll see "Ignored Users."  Click that.  Then at the top, start typing the name of the person that you wish to ignore.

It was in a different place on the phone version but I just found it. Thanks 🙂 

[Erratic1]

40 minutes ago, Astralock said:

 

Go to your name on the upper right hand corner of the page, click it.  Just above "Sign Out," you'll see "Ignored Users."  Click that.  Then at the top, start typing the name of the person that you wish to ignore.

 

36 minutes ago, arcane said:

It was in a different place on the phone version but I just found it. Thanks 🙂 

 

Faster method is to highlight the person's avatar (next to thier post) by hovering over it. Bottom right corner has [Ignore]. Click on it.

[blue4333]

23 hours ago, arcane said:

it seems we will part ways and have to miss you when you move to Thunderspy

 

2 hours ago, arcane said:

Am I saying all this just to farm thumbs down emojis that I now cherish as a badge of honor ever since I realized they all come from the same 5 trolls? Maybe 🙂 

 

1 hour ago, arcane said:

If you are one of the few actual trolls in question, you’ve already pulled far too much insulting bullshit for me to care to turn around and placate you now. 

1 hour ago, arcane said:

The result? I could care less what I say to 4 particular people in this thread because, frankly, fuck them.

Why is everyone babying the person who started the antagonistic behaviour first?

Edited August 20, 2022 by blue4333

[Erratic1]

8 minutes ago, blue4333 said:

 

 

Why is everyone babying the person who started the antagonistic behaviour first?

 

Not sure if that is directed to me or not. All I have done is provide information on how to use the forum interface more effectively than how they were instructed. 

 

I have no horse in this race.

[arcane]

32 minutes ago, blue4333 said:

 

 

Why is everyone babying the person who started the antagonistic behaviour first?

If you are feeling babied, we can talk about it.

 

I ignored battlewraith, thank jesus. You seem to be lobbying to be my 2nd ignore, but I’m just not sure I’m there yet boo.

Edited August 20, 2022 by arcane

[JasperStone]

On 8/19/2022 at 10:24 AM, Seed22 said:

Every time.

 

Person A: *States…something economics related or what have you*

 

Person B: Akshuly *Post something as if they work on their respective State University’s economic department*
 

Person C : *Chews popcorn* I mean, but they both understand this is a video game right? Like it’s not real and neither of their opinions matter in the slightest? 

 

Person D : Shh this is some good entertainment! 

Can't decide if I am C or D 

...

But I do have a delicious bowl  of popcorn 

[Bill Z Bubba]

4 hours ago, Seed22 said:

That would be nice wouldn't it?

 

I don't think this is passion though. Passion still allows for civil debate, this is both sides trying to get the other to acquiesce to their BS

 

It appears you fail to understand the baser form of human interaction. Passion when backed by ignorance is an incredibly powerful thing. One needs only look at American politics to see the truth of that. Passion negates logic. This is a bad thing.

[Bill Z Bubba]

2 hours ago, Starforge said:

The good news is thankfully a small fraction of the playerbase uses the forums to begin with. Good call.

 

Citation needed.

[Bill Z Bubba]

18 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Citation needed.

 

 

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

[MoonSheep]

6 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

 

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

what?!

 

you mean, there’s a city of heroes game you can log into!? i thought forum arguments *was* the CoH experience 

[Starforge]

14 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

 

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

So out of 252555 members, only 1601 are in game and only 164 are currently reading the forums.

 

I fail to see how 10% of the playing population is a "small fraction."

 

I also fail to see how anything the devs have done has been beneficial to the playing population. Perhaps it's entirely out of their hands.

[Ruin Mage]

1 minute ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

I also fail to see how anything the devs have done has been beneficial to the playing population. Perhaps it's entirely out of their hands.

It doesn't have to be, given we just play here. None of us, thankfully, have much say in the direction of the server.

Nothing will be 100% beneficial to the playing population, and its better that they do it this way - where they deliver their vision and sometimes walk back ideas based on Constructive Criticism & Proper Feedback (i.e testing the change out and not going "it's a shitty change" like what happens with stuff like the Attack Type Changes)

[Grouchybeast]

24 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

So out of 252555 members, only 1601 are in game and only 164 are currently reading the forums.

 

I have the forums permanently open in a tab.  I've probably been counted as currently reading them for the last two and a half years.

[MoonSheep]

10 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

 

I have the forums permanently open in a tab.  I've probably been counted as currently reading them for the last two and a half years.

 

two years reading the same thread, he’s a slow one 😉

[RCU7115]

On 8/18/2022 at 10:02 PM, MoonSheep said:

 

why would you need to repeat it? a no-xp AFK timer would simply deactivate rewards for idol characters, not log them off

Same thing applies if on a TF with 7 other players. I could see say a 10-15 minutes timer but a 1 minute timer leaves nothing really nice to say.

[Yomo Kimyata]

36 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

So out of 252555 members, only 1601 are in game and only 164 are currently reading the forums.

 

I fail to see how 10% of the playing population is a "small fraction."

 

I also fail to see how anything the devs have done has been beneficial to the playing population. Perhaps it's entirely out of their hands.

 

Totally curious.  How are you estimating the playing population (I'd say that is number of unique active accounts)?  

 

I'd personally guesstimate that total number of unique active accounts is something between 2 and 10 thousand, and I would make the over/under at 8 thousand +/-5.

 

There's a reason that they haven't updated user stats in almost 2 1/2 years.

[MoonSheep]

1 minute ago, RCU7115 said:

Same thing applies if on a TF with 7 other players. I could see say a 10-15 minutes timer but a 1 minute timer leaves nothing really nice to say.

 

alright, if alt stands still for longer than 10 seconds the character gets deleted. got to be permanently moving at all times

 

/em dance is on everyone’s hotkeys, all heroes in paragon city are permanently moving night and day, sweaty, exhausted, dull and desaturated from the relentless need to constantly dance and move

[Neiska]

29 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

So out of 252555 members, only 1601 are in game and only 164 are currently reading the forums.

 

I fail to see how 10% of the playing population is a "small fraction."

 

I also fail to see how anything the devs have done has been beneficial to the playing population. Perhaps it's entirely out of their hands.

 

I would first like to say normally I agree with you on a lot of things Bill, but I think the active population thing isn't so simple and clear cut as that.

 

1. First off, COVID. For a year most of the planet was locked indoors, which I suspect led to a lot of people playing computer games more than normal. Now that life has returned to normal, at least in some parts of the world, that might be easing up and people doing other things.

 

2. The "omg its back!" factor has worn off. HC has been around for a little bit now and the zerg rush to enjoy nolstalga has worn off for most I suspect. Some came back, played, had a good time, and moved on. Some might return, some may be gone for good. Normal activity I'd say.

 

3. More games have come out, such as Elden Ring that had something like 12 million copies sold in its initial quarter or something like that. I would wager that a good chunk of the players who were here are now moving onto other things, whatever new game attracts them.

 

4. I do agree with what I believe your general point has been, more nerfs than buffs. And it would be disingenuous for someone to claim that won't affect player population. Some can go "it's for balance purposes" which to me the "why" is irrelevant, when you speak about people leaving. I do hasten to add we can't prove this, it's just a hunch or theory. But I would bet that over-correction has played a part, even if a smaller (or larger) role than some might think. I mean, look at titan weapons - once the most popular set. Now? I rarely see one at all. I have not the head to claim if it is balanced now or not, but I do think it's pretty telling when a set goes from the most popular, to one of the least played with a single change.

 

So, it's kind of a multi-sided issue to my mind. But from where I sit, we have lost more than we have gained. True, we did get a new electrical set, and several updates and changes. But I think we lost more than we gained overall. And these tests of further removing inf gain, or tweaking the merit system, certainly doesn't help matters. Personally, I go by "if it's not broke, don't fix it."

 

So what if some things are over-tuned? Game balance? In CoH? Kind of a moot point to my mind. And we have far more things that "underperform" than "overperform." And we aren't playing for money, titles, championships, so on. For good or bad, changes for the sake of change rarely has a positive effect on a community. And I for one wish they would do their "balancing" in the other direction, as in propping up the weaker sets/ats/powers, instead of bringing down the top things. That doesn't balance anything, that just changes what the next OP thing is. I mean, I can't recall where they took a set that was bad, like mercs, and turned them into something not necessarily the new top pick, but at least viable or competitive. 

 

My thoughts about it.

[Astralock]

24 minutes ago, Neiska said:

4. I do agree with what I believe your general point has been, more nerfs than buffs. And it would be disingenuous for someone to claim that won't affect player population. Some can go "it's for balance purposes" which to me the "why" is irrelevant, when you speak about people leaving. I do hasten to add we can't prove this, it's just a hunch or theory. But I would bet that over-correction has played a part, even if a smaller (or larger) role than some might think. I mean, look at titan weapons - once the most popular set. Now? I rarely see one at all. I have not the head to claim if it is balanced now or not, but I do think it's pretty telling when a set goes from the most popular, to one of the least played with a single change.

 

That's because there are a lot of people who chase the meta.  Titan Weapons is still very good now.  It's just no longer brokenly overpowered.  You know what is overpowered now?  Energy Melee.  So the people who played Titan Weapons back in 2019 and 2020 are playing Energy Melee now.  Not because Titan Weapons is bad now, but because Energy Melee is the new overpowered meta.  They'll always chase the most minmax option.  I mean, you have people who (wrongly), claim that any Advanced Difficulty TF or SF simply cannot be done without at least one (preferably two) Cold Domination characters on the team.  Why?  Because Cold Domination is overpowered.  Nerf it to just very good (which should have been done years ago), and they'd just glomp on to whatever the next overpowered support set is.

 

So that people are no longer playing Titan Weapons isn't really a condemnation of the rework done to it, it's more a sideeffect of the "must be overpowered" mentality at work.  I.e., many people weren't playing Titan Weapons because they liked it.  They played it because it was overpowered.  Now they play the new overpowered power set, until the next overpowered power set comes along.

[Yomo Kimyata]

34 minutes ago, Neiska said:

 

 

So what if some things are over-tuned? Game balance? In CoH? Kind of a moot point to my mind.

 

That's why I feel that all this head-banging over minutia is pretty much like pulling a knife on someone because their lifeboat on the Titanic is a prettier color than yours.  This isn't setting out a constitution and framework for a game and a series of games that will spread throughout the universe spreading peace and love.  This is a small town, with a small number of officials who will do what they want.  People might move here because they like the school district, but everyone seems to be angry at someone else who isn't following the HOA rules.

 

I've mixed too many metaphors.  I'm gonna lie down for a bit.

[Astralock]

45 minutes ago, Neiska said:

So what if some things are over-tuned? Game balance? In CoH? Kind of a moot point to my mind. And we have far more things that "underperform" than "overperform." And we aren't playing for money, titles, championships, so on. For good or bad, changes for the sake of change rarely has a positive effect on a community. And I for one wish they would do their "balancing" in the other direction, as in propping up the weaker sets/ats/powers, instead of bringing down the top things. That doesn't balance anything, that just changes what the next OP thing is. I mean, I can't recall where they took a set that was bad, like mercs, and turned them into something not necessarily the new top pick, but at least viable or competitive. 

 

My thoughts about it.

 

Things can be overtuned, but not overtuned to the point that it overshadows everything else (like Titan Weapons, Mission Architect, and arguably Cold Domination).  Then you're eventually either ostracized or "strongly encouraged" into playing them.

 

Also, Homecoming never took a bad set and revamped it into something good?  Energy Melee, Electrical Blast, Stone Armor, Trick Arrow, and I'd argue Sonic Attack would like a word.

[Seed22]

3 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

It appears you fail to understand the baser form of human interaction. Passion when backed by ignorance is an incredibly powerful thing. One needs only look at American politics to see the truth of that. Passion negates logic. This is a bad thing.

You’re right.

 

But it ‘s not that I dont understand folks. I’ve interacted with enough people to understand them at least to a good extent.

 

Problem is: I have never interacted with the forum pop, preshutdown or now, this much and to this degree. Now that I have? Yeaahhh 

[Neiska]

1 hour ago, Astralock said:

 

Things can be overtuned, but not overtuned to the point that it overshadows everything else (like Titan Weapons, Mission Architect, and arguably Cold Domination).  Then you're eventually either ostracized or "strongly encouraged" into playing them.

 

Also, Homecoming never took a bad set and revamped it into something good?  Energy Melee, Electrical Blast, Stone Armor, Trick Arrow, and I'd argue Sonic Attack would like a word.

 

So going by your logic ITFs are over tuned because people are ostracized or strongly encouraged into playing them. Not that I actually believe this is true, just pointing out the fallacy here. And I have yet to see anything that encourages AE. If anything, this thread and others like it discourages its use by the "nerf it" crowd at large.

 

Energy Melee is good for ST, and ST only. The rest? middle of the pack I would say, not so good that they are OP. VS things like, oh I don't know, the RoP, TW, sentinel max target reduction, loss of the teleport code, and so on. Meanwhile, there are sets like Dark Armor that are almost unplayable without Incarnates. Doable? Yes. But it requires popping blue inspirations like candy. And I wouldn't call having to rely on outside tools or measures a good way to "balance" a set. This is doubly true when you assume someone is "old world leveling" their way up entirely through story arc's and contact missions. I would call many sets quite difficult to level in that circumstance. And I hope you and I would both agree that many sets are subpar, only until the very end of character development. I mean, how many builds here on the forums are "once you have Ageless you will be fine"?

 

And yet I have never heard calls to nerf, oh I don't know, Fire Blast, Time Manipulation, Invulnerability, Illusion, Domination, or even the before mentioned Energy Melee. Funny that. Seems to me that some things are perfectly fine to be permitted to be overturned to the point where other builds are (achm) discouraged, by your definition.

 

Lastly, what precisely do you mean by "overtuned?" I mean there are many, many powersets that are capable of things that sets like TW never could do, yet they remain untouched. I mean if we are going by "anyone who can solo an AV/GM" as the goalpost here, TW was hardly unique in that capability and only doable in certain situations. 

 

And I am sorry, but I had to laugh when you highlighted TW and said "this deserves commendation" when very few play it now. In your mind, that is a noteworthy feat? To make a set undesirable to play? That's the goal here? Call me skeptical.

Edited August 20, 2022 by Neiska