Techbot Alpha

Originally Posted by Mandu

The people who have a knee jerk negative reaction to knockback are the same types who have a knee jerk reaction to confuse. And they are the same types who will kick team members if they click the glowies in the TV respec. They think they know how to play the game, they make assumptions, and they have never bothered to actually observe to see if their belief is founded on reality. I don't consider being kicked from teams like that bad. I consider it a helpful gesture on their part to point out to me that they don't know how to play and would make bad team mates.

Originally Posted by Castle

Incorrect. We've made three passes on that to alleviate the lag. While server side lag is still significant in that location, it is an order of magnitude better than it was at launch. At this point, there is nothing we can do without a massive redesign of that Task Force.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

See, that would shut me up in an instant. I would be prepared to bust my whiny *** for as long as it takes to unlock all costume pieces, whether I expressly need them at the moment or not. Once. But right now, I have to unlock them many, many times over, once per character more or less. True, not all of my characters would need all unlockable pieces... But I can't know that until I try them on, can I? And even sticking to just the ones I know would benefit from them, that's still dozens of times unlocking the same thing over and over again.

100 Overseers once is boring but doable. 100 Overseers a dozen times is rage-inducing.

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project

I disagree. The only "criticism" he's received is about how he tried to blame the failure of all the other threads on the people that pointed out that the devs have flat out told us they won't consider total/ultimate respec suggestions.

No one has made any personal attacks. Even Sharker and Je_Saist have been restrained. I think the worst thing said was my stating using badges as the reason for change was lame, because making unique badges account based is much easier. And that was intended to be directed more at the previous threads than the OP.


Edit: And for the record, I have at least one character I'd love to do a total respec on if I could, but I understand why the devs continue to refuse the idea.

Originally Posted by firespray

The only part of your idea that I really disagree with is giving the newly respec'd character double xp on their trip back to 50. I wouldn't make use of the option if it were available (I don't care about badges, origin, or backstory too much to be honest), but I can't really say I have a problem with it.

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

And since there is no such thing as a hopeless character / powerset combination, there's no need for this. I've run across some I don't personally *like* (Illusion/anything, Bots/FF) but that doesn't make them hopeless. And with 11 servers with 12-36 slots each (except for the EU,) you've got plenty of chances to roll something else you DO like for general playing, while keeping your badger around for the new shinies.

Originally Posted by Crazy_Dragon

This I can live with.

(Maybe it'll convince Tech to get his own damn photobucket account instead of using the Handbook to hold his bug/griefer shots. )

Originally Posted by Anti_Proton

Simple solution: Police Drones cancel dueling.

Originally Posted by Lothic

Like I said you clearly don't like the requirements to get these things and that's fine.
Obviously you're suggesting some kind of shortcut method to get these things. More power to you.

I realize you're going to think the Devs are pretty twisted and mean after I say this but I suspect part of the reason why the Devs made these items rewards for completing these tasks is precisely because many of the tasks in question are boring and tedious. It's quite possible if there was no bonus reward then NO ONE would do them. Chicken, meet egg.

Now obviously you could counter that point by blaming the Devs for making sucky content to begin with. True, many of these TFs/missions could be vastly improved to make them more interesting. But here's the rub: No matter what the Devs do to make their game more fun to play there's always going to be some part of it that everyone thinks is the most boring/sucky part. And guess what: whatever that part is will likely have a bonus reward like a costume item attached to it to make people want to run it.

You can either let this issue continue to frustrate you or just let it go.
The choice is ultimately yours.

P.S. I've had all these things unlocked for years on many alts so I hardly give them a second thought even if it was a BAD idea... *shrugs*

Originally Posted by Lothic

Clearly you hate the things that the game currently "forces" you to do to get these costume items.
That's fine - you're free to have your own opinion on that.

But all I see with the suggestion to make these things available via A-merits it yet ANOTHER restriction on them: You have to be a certain alignment to have A-merits to begin with. As the classic line goes: "Two wrongs don't make a right."

If the Devs ever provide any other way to get these things they should be via a way that is open to everyone regardless of AT or alignment (such as regular Merits or INF).

Originally Posted by Lothic

Yes things like the witch hat and the plain epaulets were technically restricted to certain ATs (hero ATs specifically) but now I18/GR has removed that restriction by allowing villains to crossover and earn those items as well.

Originally Posted by Vr2LRose

I think the thing getting him is less of a rp issue and more of thats 20 levels of waisted prestige his friend could have goten from his preaetorian. They should make SG/VG
1. neutral in the new system,
2. let people check boxes as to permitions
3. base it on leader alignment
(hero- good =hero/vig
villian- bad = vill/rogue
rogue/vig/prae- neutral = vig or rogue

Originally Posted by SenseiBlur

I must admit. That is quite bad ***.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

It'd take more than that to convince me picking Devices was not a mistake, but that's neither here nor there.

I agree with you that Time Bomb is very rarely taken and even more rarely actually used. At 9 seconds of setup and 15 seconds of countdown, that's longer than some entire spawns last, and that's IF you manage to tag enough NPCs with it, which is far from guaranteed. Solo, it works for toe-bombing as a quasi-nuke... Kind of. It still takes two other powers and bloody ages. On a team, no-one in their right mind is going to sit on their hands for 24 seconds when a good Blaster can spawn-kill most things with direct damage. Fire/Fire comes to mind, just off the top of my head, and Ice/Ice doesn't do too bad, either.

Tripmine's design is questionable, but at least it works more often than not. It really doesn't matter what you do to Time Bomb. As long as it remains the boat anchor of the set, people will skip it and people will forget they took it. I love the damn thing and I keep forgetting I have it on anything but AR/Dev. On my Archery/Devices, I'm better off just using Rain of Arrows + Explosive arrow. It does about as much damage for much less hassle.

So, yeah - give me Orbital Lance even if it hits less hard. I know people would complain about the downturn, especially those who do what I do and toe-bomb, but seriously - as situational and slow to recharge that power is, I dare say those would be few indeed.