Andora

Huh. I followed the link just fine. Virtueverse was having some issues earlier with the domain name, so maybe that's what the issue was? I'm not sure, but I'll try it again tomorrow. Thanks!

Hey, another update! Titan Industries is still open for recruitment. We've gotten some great members in the last month, but we're always looking for more. If you have any questions or would like to chat about the group, please feel free to send a tell to @Andy. I'm usually in-game after about 8-9 pm CST.

To the OP, I tend to sell craft and then sell whatever high-end recipes I come across. I do this because - generally speaking - if I'm patient enough, I can get the recipe on the market at a price that's low enough to warrant selling what I picked up as a drop. And if it turns out to be a bad idea? Ah well, I'll just squish some more mobs till I can afford what I want again!

Update! We're still recruiting and have built a very steady, strong base of players in the last month. Running missions, forum stories, Mission Architect arcs, and just regular old roleplay are making for some excellent times.

Check out our website or Virtueverse! You can also pm me @Andy for more information in-game.

Who Dat?!

Name: Titan Industries

Currently Recruiting: Yes!

RP Level: Moderate to heavy. This is an rp vg; our members are generally looking to share stories together, both in-game and on the forums. We have an OOC channel, but teams and sg chat should be considered IC unless indicated otherwise.

PvP Level:Player's choice. The group doesn't pvp, but individual members are free to pursue it as they like.

Theme/Concept: Established in 2009 by Brooklyn Cale, Titan Industries is an acquisitions and problem-solving firm. The company operates out of a secure facility in St. Martial in the Etoile Isles and specializes in the quick, discreet resolution of problems. Employees are free to pursue their own interests, cultivate their own clients, and work on their own agendas. In order to find and perform jobs, each operative has access to the human, electronic, and financial networks provided by the company. In exchange, employees give a small percentage of their incomes to Titan Industries and occasionally carry out an assignment given to them by the firm. Jobs assigned to operatives by the company pay extremely well once they are successfully completed. Good performance and loyal service tend to result in better assignments, bigger paychecks, and more perks.

Most backgrounds and all origins are welcome. There's a few concepts that probably wouldn't fit in too well. (For example, Arachnos loyalists or anyone under the age of 18.) Also, characters are recruited into the group, so there's no IC way to apply. Players are welcome to inquire about membership though! A captain and the applicant will decide together how Titan Industries has heard about the character.

Activity: We're just getting started, but we currently have a nice group of experienced roleplayers. We tend to be active after 7 or 8 PM, EST. We have in-game teaming and rp, as well as forum-based rp. Members are not required to use the forums for storytelling, but they are certainly encouraged to do so.

Requirements for Membership: There is no minimum level to join, but anyone who's interested in applying will need to fill out an application at our website. We expect members to be mature, thoughtful, and active.

Leadership: Titan Girl (Brooklyn Cale) - Director; Suspense - Captain.

In-Game Contact(s): @Andy or @Crashed

Out-of-Game Contact(s): You can pm Andora on the main CoH forums. You can also pm @Andy or @Crashed on the sg's forums or just leave a post in the "An Open Invitation" section of our website.

URL: www.titanindustries.guildportal.com

You can also check out our Virtueverse page here.

Tired of soloing? Are you looking for some partners in crime? Perhaps a place to share your creativity and interact with others who want to do the same? If so, then have we got an opportunity for you! A new villain group on Virtue is looking for members to join with us as we cause chaos and wreak havoc on the Isles.

Okay, maybe not chaos and havoc exactly, but there's certainly going to be a lot of fun. And we want you to join with us. There will be stories, missions, teaming, and maybe even a walk on a moonlit beach. (Or a blitz through a couple of banks, take your pick.)

The Basics:

Group Name: Titan Industries
Roleplay? Yes!
Recruiting? Yes!
Contacts: @Andy, @Anhedonia1, @DevilTiger, or @Kalen

The Summary:

Established by Brooklyn Cale in 2009, Titan Industries is a mercenary venture based in St. Martial in the Etoile Isles. Operatives are free to pursue their own agendas for the most part and have full access to their employer's extensive network of resources. In exchange, employees are expected to give a cut of their incomes to the company and occasionally perform jobs assigned to them by Titan Girl. Though eliminating a troublesome competitor is not unheard of, most of Brooklyn's tasks involve the acquisition of advanced technologies. No one is exactly sure what she does with the items she procures, but one thing is clear - Titan Girl pays extremely well.

Looking for a Few Good Members:

Or a lot of good members! All origins/AT's are welcome, and most backgrounds would work with our concept. Titan Industries is basically a merc firm with a slight twist, so the primary motivator of most characters would probably be a desire to make money. Other inspirations and motivations could certainly work though, and we're more than happy to accommodate creativity. Computer specialists, doctors, mages, security consultants, ex-military operatives, super-spies, or even just people who like to beat up other people are all viable. We're looking to tell stories together and individually, through teaming, strike forces, and forum-based writing. We're just getting started, but we already have a nice group of mature, experienced roleplayers. Come join the fun!

For more information, you can check out our page on Virtueverse or our forums over on Guildportal.

Questions can be sent to @Andy, @Anhedonia1, @DevilTiger, or @Kalen. Also feel free to drop a line to us on our forums.

I just started one. No idea how it gets stickied though!

Okay, I don't see a vg directory for the current cycle so I'm just gonna start one. If it's unnecessary, my apologies. I think we know the drill by now, so the template's listed below. Also, sticky? Can we get one? Please?

(Template copied from Grae_Knight's layout for Feb. '08 - June '08)

Name: SG Name

Currently Recruiting: you are / are not accepting new members, not recruiting new members but looking for other players/SGs interested in RP, not looking for anyone new in any way but wanting to let others know you exist, etc.

RP Level: RP-friendly, RP-intensive, RP-lite, nonRP, /sg IC, 100% IC spatial, etc., what degree of immersion do you expect or require?

PvP Level: Casual, hard-core, arena, zone, etc..

Theme/Concept: Briefly describe your SG's theme and/or concept (Longbow or other NPC-oriented group, Single Origin, Single Archetype, etc.) or general raison d'être

Activity: how many unique members do you have, what times (of which time zones) are your members active, which days of the week do you see the most log on - when is your "prime time" (so to speak)

Requirements for Membership: must be at least level #, out-of-game communication on guild forums (please also list URL forums if different from website), no alts in other SGs, no villains on Virtue, daily log-in, etc.

Leadership: character name(s)

In-Game Contact(s): Global @<name> for in-game contact(s)

Out-of-Game Contact(s): CoH's Virtue Forum handle(s) for PMs or email address(es) for those interested to seek more information when not logged in

URL: the group's website

Coalition(s): If you wish to reveal them here -you might also describe the nature of it - alliance, RP adversarial, functional, alt overflow, etc., or whether it is an IC or OOC associate.

Other Details: feel free to add any other important information like base setup, frequency of TF/SF scheduling, prestige generation expectations / goals, or anything else of general but significant appeal.

Am I completely blind or is there not a thread for current vg listings? Don't wanna post unnecessary threads!

Very nice, stacker. I really like your trophy room. What'd you use to make the patterns in the floors on the second level? They look circular.

Holy ambulatory powers, Batman. Yay for walking!

This is unexpected! And exciting! Now I just have to figure out how to avoid going to a football game so I can game.

Thanks for your work over the years, Ex. Best of luck to you wherever you go!

This is a FANTASTIC pack. I absolutely love everything. The costumes, the emotes, the fortune telling power. It's wonderful. Thank you so much! Totally worth the $10!

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What about this then, as sort of a compromise? How about letting us finally get account based storage like all the other MMO's have. Do this for salvage, enhancements, recipes so we dont have to form personal super groups or get a second account to get the most out of the invention system. Any chance we can get this?

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You already have it, it is called a Solo Base. (well except for the recipies but you just build those into IOs)

[/ QUOTE ]Didnt you read where I said personal SG. People shouldnt have to do this to get IOs.

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While I can understand that you already pointed out the workaround, it seems to me it's more of the way the feature is supposed to work than a workaround. In other words, I kind of see what you're saying as "I want to be able to use the Internet without buying a computer." That's sort of what a computer is FOR.

Sure, it could be easier to create a personal SG than it currently is, but obviously the devs make that fairly difficult because they DON'T want inter-account trading. Questioning whether or not that's easy with the tools available doesn't address the simple fact that the devs don't want you to do it.

And I don't believe anyone has said that it is impossible to craft IOs without trading between characters on your account.


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If the developers didn't want ANY inter-account trading, then nothing would be tradeable. Because we can trade recipes, influence, and salvage, it seems to me that the developers (who are fairly smart people) would have figured that at some point I'd be passing influence or recipes from my level 50 to my level 5. I'll just be using someone to play middle man. Or if the developers really, truly believed that no one should be able to "gift" items from one alt to another, then wouldn't they have put some kind of limit on how many times an item could be traded? It seems more reasonable to think that personal storage units aren't account wide because there's been a lack of funding, time, or technology to implement that kind of system. Not because the developers think no one should ever gift any item from one alt to another.

Also, until recently, the prices of bases were too expensive for anyone to rationally think that a lot of players could devote the time and resources into building a functional base with just ONE player. Oh, the player can put all his alts in that ONE sg? That's not possible unless he's got a friend in the sg who can invite the alts or owns a second account. (Because you can't invite players who are offline.) And if he owns a second account, he can just use that to trade instead of building a base. Saying that bases are "working as intended" versus "a workaround" as a personal storage method doesn't make much sense to me, given the expense and hassle that a single person would have creating a functional base. (Even with the recent price reductions, a single player base still seems out of reach for most players.)

On the MA tickets and merits, I will have far less of an issue with these things not being tradeable if the drop pools were reworked or eliminated completely. The drop pools kinda made sense when merits weren't around, but now they seem far more detrimental than helpful to the IO system.

The tight leather option is still missing from the female>lower body>pants>tight pants section.

Thanks for letting us know you're listening, Synapse. I applaud the idea and effort behind the merit system, but I have some concerns about its implementation. I'm echoing some of the other comments here, but I feel they're important enough to repeat.

Objective-ish:

1) The lack of strikeforces villainside compared to heroes limits my options for merit earning.

2) The timer on merit rewards for task forces and strike forces is too long. It should really be 18-20 hours I think to allow people to run the same TF every night in a row if they choose.

Subjective:

1) My biggest problem with the merit system is the reward pools. I understand by limiting certain recipes to drop less frequently and only after accomplishing certain tasks, you increase the value of that recipe. But I really, really don't understand why things like Malaise: Chance for Psi Damage ended up in the same pool as Miracle: Recovery. There are what, 3 powersets in the entire game that can make use of Confuse recipes? That does not create substantial demand.

I suggest that the pools be cleaned up, reworked, or eliminated completely with the Merit system. I would think Miracle: Recovery and Numina's: Regen/Recovery would cost the most since *everyone* can feasibly use them. But Glimpse of the Abyss? Not even close to the same level of demand. I can't tell you how frustrated I am that I've been waiting for weeks now to get a level 40 Malaise: Chance for Psi damage on one of my characters. I put the bid up on the market a few days before I13 launched and it's still sitting there. And I don't think it'll ever get filled.

2) Which brings me to my next point. I can understand why you don't want merits to be tradeable, which means it really makes the most sense to run merit-reward content on a single character. Which discourages me from playing alts. Which is one of CoH's most positive aspects in my opinion.

I'm not really sure how you could counter this problem other than to either a) just allow them to be tradeable and live with the consequences (something I'm sure a lot of people would be unhappy with) or b) implement some kind of system that allows the exchange of merits between characters on the same global account. But that's probably not in the scope of solutions either. (Sidenote: I'd still love a global mail/banking system that lets me trade influence, etc., between characters!)

3) Related to points 1 and 2 is the problem of supply on the markets. I haven't checked in a few days, but last time I looked there was exactly ONE Positron: Chance for Energy Damage for sale on Wentworth's. ONE. Are there enough people who will take random rolls to make up for this immediate shortage in supply? I don't know. Only time will tell, but from the sounds of it a lot of people are doing what I'm doing - playing one character to earn merits for specific recipes.

There were a lot of complaints about the markets in CoH before I13 went live, and the people who were complaining generally railed against the extremely high prices of certain items. They applauded the introduction of the merit system because it allows them to earn these fancy items without having to play the market. While I'm happy they can play how they want to now and earn the rewards they're most interested in, playing the game the way *I* want to is now much more difficult. I don't want to grind TF's every night to buy a Positron: Chance for Energy Damage. I don't want to play the same character over and over again because that's my "Merit Person." The supply on the market could possibly correct itself given enough time, but I'm very skeptical that some of the less flashy recipes will stabilize. (I'm thinking Celerity: Stealth for example.) I don't have a problem with making merits the only rewards given at the end of TFs, but there needs to be a more dynamic recipe-dropping system. Someone suggested earlier that *all* recipes get moved into the same pool and have a chance to drop from mobs. That's a pretty good idea. Perhaps there should be a few exceptions - Numina's Regen/Recovery for example would still only be available via the market or merits, but allowing even a small chance that recipes like Positron: Chance for Energy Damage would drop through non-TF gameplay seems to be a good alternative to compensate for the sharp reduction in supply.

Of course, I understand you probably wouldn't want to implement anything like that for a few months at least, but I hope it's something you would consider if the supply on the markets remains so limited. Because I really dread the idea of having to grind through TF's on a single character to get an IO for a character I won't be playing much...because I'll be grinding on my "Merit Person."

4) Which brings me to my next point. I find the merit vendor interface to be really confusing. Also, can I still not pick a Miracle: Recovery recipe when I'm level 50? Does that mean I *still* have to be the range of the recipe? While this wasn't a big deal with the random drop rewards, this is a huge problem with the new system. That means my "Merit Person" who is level 50 can't get recipes for my characters who want level 40 sets.

Waiting for someone to put the recipe on the market that I need - which probably won't be a Numina's or LoTG: Recharge - may mean I'll be waiting for what I want for a very, very, very long time. Or wait till my character hits 47 and buy that recipe with my "Merit Person." Only I like slotting IO sets between 35-40.

I really do applaud the effort and idea behind the merit system, but its current implementation could use some tweaking I think.

Thanks for listening!

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How about instead of focus on the negative we do something positive like brainstorm names for issue 14 after they tell us Architect is too hard to do again.

How about...
Issue 14 - Go Play Champions!
or
Issue 14 - You're not getting the hint, we want you all to leave!
What names can you come up with?

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I like

"Issue 14: Since you think it's so easy to do without ever running into unanticipated problems, why don't YOU make a MMORPG and run it flawlessly?"

or maybe

"Issue 14: Good Luck, Champions, Apparently the Angry Whiny People Are Coming Your Way."

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HAHAHAHA! *deep breath* HAHAHA!

Ahem.

Seriously. I love how suddenly *everyone* hates this issue and *everyone* is going to play other MMO's now because the devs suck and they screwed *everything* up.

First, show me the scientific survey that says every single CoH subscriber said this issue is completely horrible and should be totally scrapped. Second, not everything goes according to plan. Cut them some slack. They had a hotfix up within HOURS of the the issue going live. Things go wrong. It happens.

An official welcome, Sunstorm! Glad to have you around.

Best wishes and good luck, Lighthouse. Thanks for all your work!

Wooo! Thanks!

OMGS SHIELDS WANT. And to think I was very "meh" about the powerset until recently. Now it's the thing I'm looking forward to the most!

I say yay. More options is a good thing. They give us TONS of opportunities to respec anyway, and this is just one more choice.

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(And I'd love to see vets get a jinglejet at some point, just not with this degree of entitlement that I've been reading here.)

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Quoted for truth.

Jeez, I want a jetpack too, but telling the dev team (which works their butts off to give us awesome stuff) that it's an INSULT to give something cool to new customers? Really, no offense, but maybe we should re-examine our priorities. An insult is when someone calls you fat or stupid or slaps you across the face. Not when they use a neat marketing ploy to bring in NEW customers. New customers which will generate more income...which will give longterm players even cooler stuff than we already have.

Lighthouse has said he's passing the feedback along, so I'm sure that means he's letting the correct people know. After playing this game for 48 months, I feel pretty confident that NCNC is going to do what they can to make more options available for its current (and longterm) subscribers. But maybe instead of saying "Give it to me now because I pay 15 bucks a month, darn it," we could try "Hey, I really want this. Anyway to make it available permanently for vets?"

Honestly, I don't get this attitude that seems to exist on the boards that somehow NCSoft doesn't care about its players. Despte the mountain of evidence to the contrary.