Zhanate

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As I learn more about how Invul is designed, the more bizarre it becomes.

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But this isn't about how the set was designed, it's about how it was redesigned; the defense debuff wasn't in the original power that was called Unyielding Stance.

So yeah, you could say it was a bizarre redesign. Or you could just say that calling it a redesign is giving it too much credit and call it a hack job, like with a machete. So with this change they're adding one stitch to reduce one excess cut.

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Nobody believe that the Devs are nerfing things IN ORDER to lessen the enjoyment ...

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I do. It helps keep my blood pressure down.

They've consistently lowered the overall amount of fun in the gameplay for more than a year now.

I really can't believe people who are intelligent enough to make the game could do this accidently. So I have to assume they're doing it intentionally. If I thought they were doing it accidently I'd have to spend too much energy in a futile campaign to make them see what they're really doing and I'd just end up with a heart attack or stroke or something.

They probably have some research that somehow is interpretted as saying people play more consistently if you tease them with only occasional fun than if you just give them lots of it. Or maybe it says that people get more committed when you anger them than when you please them.

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1. People liked the PvP events on test and this is the live compromise.
2. To balance the Cathedral of Pain trial with villains.
3. To recover from the PR disaster the layoffs were.
4. To compensate for the global bugs.
5. To try to retain some players over the weekend during Comic Con, most likely the BIGGEST convention that would hit our playerbase all year.


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6. To generally bump up subscriptions, and to re-capture departed subscribers.
...


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Question: Is there such a thing as MMO sweeps weeks, when some organization determines official player figures? Maybe it's that week.

Anyway, I gotta think this was NCSoft-driven and the devs are cursing them out up one side and down the other. After all they've gone through in their quest to balance the game, they're going to break it for a weekend.

The main thing this will really accomplish is buffing player numbers for the weekend. It'll affect leveling rates in the lower levels, but because levels take longer as you go up, it won't affect the higher levels as much -- or am I missing something in the way it works?

Will it, in fact, do much to increase the number of characters that get to 50? It'll reduce people's time by two days of weekend play. I wonder.

Nonetheless, it seems like it'll be fun.

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Personally, I hate the word, and try never to use it when talking about the game to players. It carries a very negative stigma that I like to avoid whenever possible.

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Well, I really don't think you need to worry about whether you use the word "nerf" or any other phrase. It's the reduction in power that causes the negative reaction, not the wording. You can say "we're drastically reducing this" or you can say "we're doing a major nerf on this" and the players are going to react exactly the same either way.

The only thing that can make the reaction worse is when you say something like "a little nerf" and then you make a major reduction. Then the reaction will be worse. Not because of the word, but because of the perceived attempt to spin or flat out deceive.

This thread is surreal. Statesman has never "gotten it" from the player's point of view. Adding to the surrealism is that he once actually acknowledged that he probably didn't see the game from a player's point of view, but that insight apparently was never allowed to inform his subsequent approach to the game.

You'd think that with the difficulty slider disputes over the difficulty of the game would be seriously reduced. But, no, even the easy setting has to have frustrating "challenges", making that experience at moments stunningly unbalanced.

The game was wildly fun in it's earlier days. You could work your way up and feel like a superhero. That exuberrant, laugh-out-loud aspect is gone and it's a real loss. Sadly, I don't think the developers understand that at all, not at all. Buried in their numbers and visions and fears of imbalance, it's as if they're worried that their developer buddies won't take them seriously if the game isn't difficult enough and the players aren't being abused enough.

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... Perez Park, reducing level 50's to level 10 frustration status since 2004. ...


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It's even worse at 50: you can't die to get out, which you can do at 10.

The zone is good but some tweaks are needed.

It does seem like the pace needs to be slowed, as has been mentioned. While I was there, the heroes took over all the pillboxes and the zone immediately reset to all gray. Seems like the winning side should get a few minutes to enjoy the victory -- but then someone mentioned a 10-minute double prestige period. Is the timer bad or does that take place after the pillboxes reset? I'm not entirely clear on how all this is supposed to work.

Ghost Widow put in an appearance. She was ridiculous. There was at least handful of us beating on her (5? I didn't take the time to look around and count) and we couldn't make a dent. Not a dent after several minutes. If that's what's planned, I'm not even interested in that fight. A long fight is one thing, but that was just pointless. And giant fights that require too many heroes/villains aren't that much fun -- you lose any sense of making a contribution.

The power she has to make you float in the air looks cool.

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Don't send a tell consisting only of the word "tell" with an invite right behind it when someone has in their search comment "PST".

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Hey, you said, "Please send tell" and they sent a "tell".

I'd love that message, though I'd still have to chat a bit with the sender before I decided on joining the team. I think that's funny as heck.

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DO NOT...
...refer to other teammates by some obscure voice-based nicknames left over from WoW, and then expect everyone to know who that is. Or care who that is.

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My SG is guilty of that, myself included. We call our fellow SG members by abbreviated versions of their main's name no matter what character we are currently playing. I'll be playing as Frozen son and they still call me Lux. :-P

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Same here.

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Yeah, we do it too. I don't think it's that confusing, but I can see how some people might feel left out. But anybody can call me Primary or even PU. I don't care. No secret initiation required.

What not to do:

--Start chatting about how a random team member's AT or powerset needs to be nerfed, particularly when you're relying on that AT or powerset to help keep you alive.
--Go to the hospital when your sidekick is still alive. (I still carry guilt. ...)