A peak into the hive mind, what are your thoughts? Community Insight Poll Request

[Sir Myshkin]

It keeps coming up, we know it, we see it, there's a thread just one or two notches ☝️ or 👇 right now talking about "why doesn't this exist somewhere?!" And okay, we all get tired of seeing them. Royal "we", not everyone, but you get the idea, it can get frustrating. But I responded to a statement about folks trying to bury the idea altogether and it really stuck in my head of are some of us, any of us, all of us trying to bury that idea because "it already exists?" or because "we don't play that way"?

 

Would it be fair, or better if the option just flat out existed from the get-go anyway? The resources do exist, but there may be some extra back-end necessity to maintain it, or at the least keep one variant of it running slightly separately from the others, but they do have this functioning for the Beta client, so it made me wonder... Why not? What would it take?

 

Well, really, not much. Take out the P2W* vendor, flat out just remove it (your loss, back to basics, travel old school my friends). Remove Null The Gull out of Pocket D, no more fast-switching. Want to cross the border? Earn it. No more farming in AE. This isn't a punishment, this is a guarantee that the server truly becomes "classic old-school grind." Want to farm? Sure, do it the old way, in a mission. Don't click the glowie! Oops...

 

It would still keep Auction House access, it would have to, they're a merged point, but the influx of farming influence wouldn't be the same, there's no fast track leveling so the speed to inf gain isn't going to be the same either, development would be slower for most who don't (won't, or can't) game the market. That means it'd be just like the old days. Broke, poor, pan handling.

 

But what about the folks on that server now? Well, that is the poll, they have a voice too. Ideally my personal first thought is to move them up one block to the next least-populated server and merge them into it. both get a nice populous boost of friends, but the game otherwise moves about life as-is, except now Homecoming has the option of promoting a more "Classic" server.

 

Spiel over, lets--as a community--put data on the sheet, create fact from opinion, and make a stake in this claim. What's your thought?

 

*With the adjustment of power selection, it may be a possibility that the 1-25 range could still level a bit aggressively even without 2XP and make need to have a limiter on XP gain for a portion of this range to help curve it out. Who knows.

[Greycat]

Congrats. You've now forked the codebase Homecoming has to deal with. Which makes all future work harder. And as far as "just move the people there already?" Hell no. People go to the (let's use shard instead of server for clarity) they want to go to. They've built up bases, they have their characters, names, maybe they like it JUST where they are. Why should they be forced to move?

 

There are other servers that already do this. If that's the gameplay desired, people can visit there - or even spin up their own. (Getting it started, honestly, is quite easy. Modding, I don't know.)

[MoonSheep]

i’d be interested in an early issue shard, e.g one that’s held at issue 3. i imagine it would be a lot of work to roll back so many changes though

[Sir Myshkin]

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

Congrats. You've now forked the codebase Homecoming has to deal with.

 

In the interest of continuing to play Devil's Advocate: Not really. Specifically on the aspect of having the shard exist, the only variance is a few contacts not existing/functioning, and that's it. They're really the only thing that stands between what we consider "normal" now, and "classic" in a virtual sense of what most folks have been generally asking for. This is functionally no different a task than what the Devs do now when it comes to the Beta server and swapping out functionality of pop menus and the P2W and Merit Vendors between testing and staged builds (they turn them off/on as needed).

 

Bases are stored uniquely as I understand it and should be something that can be pulled and loaded into the [shard] without much hassle (time, but not exactly hassle).

 

And as for moving folks, we're talking the entire group... just onto a new shard, and realistically we're probably looking at Torchbearer and Indomitable as the two this would happen to. It's not like anyone's getting split up, just ... merged, like a deck of cards, shuffled together to make a larger playerbase on two already low-pop servers.

 

Remember, I'm only speaking to the argument, not saying I am trying to sway towards it, just evaluating it for the theory and thought-science of it.

[SeraphimKensai]

Having my own small private server, the only way I could see it working would be that Homecoming would have to run them as separate shards as influence/IOs can be emailed in game across servers and the AH is pooled and merged together. As @Greycatsaid it would fork the development efforts of the small team HC has in place. Pragmatism would suffice to say that although an interesting idea, given limited resources it's likely a nonstarter.

 

Addendum: another situation would be be preventing server transfers to the special server, which is another related issue to the problem.

Edited December 22, 2022 by SeraphimKensai

[Scarlet Shocker]

I like the idea a lot but it would need to be firewalled - is that technically doable?

[Snarky]

There are (probably?) a few players on the least populated server.  Think about this.  Cancelled game, rediscovered.  You find Homecoming.  You CHOOSE a lower population server.  You STAY there.  Then the game changes your server to not have what the larger population servers get?  

 

This is a stupid out of it's mind charlie sheen tiger blood type of dumb.

[JasperStone]

50 minutes ago, Snarky said:

There are (probably?) a few players on the least populated server.  Think about this.  Cancelled game, rediscovered.  You find Homecoming.  You CHOOSE a lower population server.  You STAY there.  Then the game changes your server to not have what the larger population servers get?  

 

This is a stupid out of it's mind charlie sheen tiger blood type of dumb.

Rare that I say hard pass no.

But in this case. Yes, I will.

 

Seems like a lot of work to make happen what is already feasible in the game.

 

I quoted @Snarky and highlighted a section. When I rediscovered the game and joined HC all the servers were in yellow. Indom was at the top, so I joined. Only to watch its population dwindle, yet I stayed.

Mostly.

I worked too hard on that base to leave outright. I am slowly migrating to Excel, but I consider Indom my home. 

Change it to what is being proposed and I am out of that shard completely

 

I do like @MoonSheep idea. I joined around 2 or 3, can't honestly remember.

During that time you had to make choices, sometimes hard choices in your build. 

That was/is the beauty of this game.

Outside of Min/Max builds, your character - your choice.

Fitness is inherent now, and you used to have to plan for it.

Got a base? You needed prestige to run, not now. The SG I was on during Live had a prestige night. Fun and Games!

ETC. (all the free stuff at P2W)

*I used to plan for Double Xp weekend and was pi$$ed when I missed it.

 

It could be fun as a one-shot, for a short time every now and then.

"COME PLAY ISSUE 1" 

 

But a permanent change.

No thank you.

 

[Bionic_Flea]

Hard pass no as described.  I don't think any player should have his or her home destroyed for an experiment.

 

That said, I would be interested in seeing a separate server that ran "old school" sponsored by HC or someone else.

[tidge]

...and then presumably the players who play on the "classic build server" would be restricted to only posting in a single "classic build shard" sub-forum, because there would be no reason for them to engage with any discussions outside of their frozen-in-amber code base.

 

Hard No (for many reasons, not just my response above).

[Glacier Peak]

Thanks for polling the forum community! At the very least we can point to this poll to show other forum posters that its a Hard No on classic style.

[UltraAlt]

8 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

It keeps coming up, we know it, we see it, there's a thread just one or two notches ☝️ or 👇 right now talking about "why doesn't this exist somewhere?!" And okay, we all get tired of seeing them. Royal "we", not everyone, but you get the idea, it can get frustrating. But I responded to a statement about folks trying to bury the idea altogether and it really stuck in my head of are some of us, any of us, all of us trying to bury that idea because "it already exists?" or because "we don't play that way"?

 

I think you kind of nailed it there ::

 

8 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

because "it already exists?"

 

No one is is forcing you to use the P2W, Null the Gull, or the AE.

 

I ran into new players within 12 hours that didn't know what the P2W was.

I'm assuming if that is the case, then they have no idea what Null the Gull is either.

AE? There has been a lot less /lfg about AE farms lately.

 

If this is the way you want to play, you can do it without changing any server or forcing other people to play the way that you want to play.

 

Heck, you want to get back to the basics then don't use any IOs or IO sets and don't use the auction house at all. If you want trade, there is a chat for that or hang out at Wentworth and post in /LFG that you are meeting up to trade items ...  I mean if you are trying to play "Classic" then why not go all the way?

 

That's your decision.

It doesn't need to be forced on another server and the people that already play there.

 

8 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

or because "we don't play that way"?

 

I don't play farms.

I rarely use the AE, but one of the first things I do when I make a new character is to go to the P2W and Null the Gull.

 

The P2W is both good and bad.

I don't know if you played when the safest way across the hollows was on unslotted hover. You could pretty much make a meal and eat it by the time you made it to the mission door on the far side of the map.

Even without x2 XP, it is still easy to outlevel contacts now that we can change the difficulty and have the ability to run content at higher difficulties (often due to being able to slot SOs if not IO's or IO sets ... I remember when I couldn't scrap enough influence together to fill my slots with training enhancements pre-Auction House).

 

Heck, why not force full Classic on players. No 2nd Tier travel powers until level 14. No SG bases. A much smaller selection of costume parts. No power customization. No Rogue Isles. No Praetoria. No Hollows. No Striga .... no content that wasn't in the original game so that means no characters over level 40.

 

 

1

"Through the Looking Glass"

Raised the level cap from 40 to 50, introduced new high level enemy groups and zones for these levels, and added a tailor feature allowing players to alter character costumes.

June 9, 2004

Edited December 22, 2022 by UltraAlt

[TerroirNoir2]

There's a few SGs that exist to run stuff in a "classic" style.  Finding one and joining it is is a much easier ask than getting an entire shard, whatever the population, converted, or even spinning up a new one.

 

I mean you can do it yourself but finding one of those SGs means you get to team.  Or if you can't find one, start one. 

[Nyghtmaire]

4 minutes ago, TerroirNoir2 said:

There's a few SGs that exist to run stuff in a "classic" style.  Finding one and joining it is is a much easier ask than getting an entire shard, whatever the population, converted, or even spinning up a new one.

 

I mean you can do it yourself but finding one of those SGs means you get to team.  Or if you can't find one, start one. 

I'm all for players having a wide and deep toolkit that provides ownership and agency over their idea of “fun” in this game. And finding like-minded participants is part of that toolkit. Intensely opposed to pushing the “fun” responsibility onto volunteer developers (with attendant increase in operating costs and time) as well as other players who do not share in that outlook. 

[TerroirNoir2]

Would that involve rebuilding Galaxy City and unwinding all the migrations of its contacts and so on into Atlas Park?  The return of Sister Psyche and Statesman to IP to run their TFs?  Old Calvin Scott TF back in place? Whatever about the last three, that first one is a big ask if the code that allowed that isn't there. How do you roll back to an issue you probably don't have?

 

Now personally I'd love to see Psyche and Statesman in IP NOW, and they only get changed out for you when you've done Who Will Die?  But even that is fiddly because I've heard phasing is kinda buggy.

 

Still a no thanks though.

Edited December 22, 2022 by TerroirNoir2

[High_Beam]

I chose the second option of sure as long as it didn't impact the majority of Homecoming.  I have a private server running at home that me and my nephew (when he visits) play on occasionally, its the OuroDev version (i25 I think its called) so if I really want to go as old school as possible I can.  The appeal of it wears off pretty quick though, especially certain QoL aspects in HC that aren't there as well as certain powers.  But, if they could make one a patient zero server that exists in a static warp bubble and has zero to very very little impact on the rest of HC then sure, there is a market for just about everything.

[DoctorHugh]

I chose Hard Pass, No. Not because I'm against it, but because the only other option for 'no' included "I like the idea".

 

I already play without boosts or speedups because I prefer develop my contacts as I level. I'm not against a "stripped-down" server, but on the other hand I see nothing there that wouldn't be as well served by a Supergroup of alts dedicated to not using features X, Y and Z.

 

Maybe if Homecoming was a full commercial game with ten thousand players online, and there weren't easy email/market/character transfer ways around it; it might be interesting.

 

As it is, it would only lead to everyone else with a "Gee I would like a server for my own favorite ruleset and i-edition too" FOTM asking for their own server too.

 

 

[Luminara]

12 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

What's your thought?

 

It's peek, not peak.

[Doomguide2005]

No.

• Do not want to transition an existing server and disrupt players there.
• There are SG's and other ways to roll back the clock.  Little trickier with some things than others.  Skipping p2w and travel powers until 14 straightforward.  Working around inherent Fitness less so.   
• I like IOs.
• Maybe no Redside, or Gold side or possible the ability to switch.  Some ATs go bye bye.  Same TF/SF, no ITF for instance.  No cooperative zones or at least no meaning to such.

All the above points to how to decide where, how and what to include or exclude in this option.  Guessing there's a whole range of things if folks picked "a la carte" CoX.  It's not like this truly boils down to one set of options everyone wants or even a few.

 

[TheZag]

U got half a team worth of 'yes',  10 if you count the yes disguised as a no.  Too bad the poll is anonymous,  they could have gotten together for some missions.

[drdread]

For those 8 percenterish, don't despair!

 

[Bionic_Flea]

4 hours ago, Luminara said:

It's peek, not peak.

Don't have a fit of pique!

[tidge]

4 hours ago, Luminara said:

It's peek, not peak.

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

I have to admit, the idea of being able to craft the rules for what *I* think is ideal game play for me, then getting Homecoming to host and maintain it for free is pretty enticing.  

 

But, nah, hardly seems just.  I'm gonna let those tank-loving, AFK-farming-hating, power-creeping crazy-ass kids do what they want to do.  

[Luminara]

37 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

 

Ooo, cleavage.  Interest piqued.