Samuel_Tow

Not something the engine can do currently. There has been talk of "updating" some of the graphical aspects of the game, and with a new expansion coming our way, one would expect that.

Nevertheless, sure, why not? I'd just like them to start using all the cool features the engine already has, rather than just sticking to boring old specular shaders and bump maps.

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This thread is still here?

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I'm as surprised as you are, especially since its cross-post in Suggestions also seems to still be right there.

Why do we even have an official powerlevelling thread?

Now, we've probably all seen the many arguments and suggestions over the Devices powerset for Blasters and heard all the complaints and sides. Myself, I've been trying to make it work for the past five years and have had enough success to be content with it, yet we all know that many people hate many different aspects and powers.

About the one single thing most often cited as a problem with Devices is lack of damage buff due to the lack of Build Up and Trip Mines and Time Bombs being largely impractical in most situations (read: on a team). There was once a plan to add some kind of Stealth Strike to Cloaking Device, and it carried a description that said that there was for years, and we've seen suggestions of a damage buff to Targeting Drone.

Playing around with my AR/Dev/Munitions Blaster today, however, I got a rather more interesting idea. You know how Devices tends to have those big damage bonuses for its summons? 40-something% for Auto Turret is the one that looks the most easily replicatable to me, and I've used it in conjunction with Survaillance and Sniper Rifle's damage buff from Targeting Drone a lot. But still, it's very, very strongly behind what Build Up does.

So I got to thinking... Well, why not retain the damage buff for the entire duration the Gun Drone is out? I mean, plenty of people complained Auto Turret was useless, and changing it to Gun Drone didn't really help all that much. It costs a mountain, takes bloody ages to set up, only lasts a minute and doesn't do all that much damage. So, what if it gave a damage buff to the user while it was alive? Call it a Defiance buff or give the Turret itself a caster-only AoE damage buff, it's all the same to me. The point is that while the Gun Drone is up, I think it might be swell to have a damage buff to go with it.

The point of the Drone, as far as I can tell, is to have something maybe occasionally get hit instead of you (though it is NOT as sturdy as some suggest) and to boost your outgoing damage. Wouldn't it be right in line with that, then, if it provided its 40% damage bonus for the entire duration of its short life? I can certainly say that a bit of damage buff would help Devices and especially Assault Rifle/Devices, both in survivability/killing power and in terms of speed of progression. Between Devices' control and the SLOOOOOW mines and bombs, as well as its lack of a damage buff, a Devices Blaster can feel rather more sluggish than a Blaster really should be, being that they are all about massive damage on target RIGHT NOW.

I'm not really looking to "fix" the set, as I'm frankly not good enough at it, but I do think this would be a change that would be overall quite cool, would make what is otherwise a... Pretty painful power to have into more of a draw, and shouldn't cause any catastrophic problems that I can see.

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I don't really have a problem with that, but there should be a massive reduction in merits if you're fighting EBs and the entire TF is spawned for 1 person.

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I've seen this suggested before, have suggested it myself, have agreed with it and will continue to do so. As far as I'm concerned, I'm prepared to give up ALL merits for a TF done solo and scaled as described. I'm interested in seeing the content and maybe pretending I were a unique snowflake hero for just a while. If that means I have to give up the true rewards of the encounter, then so be it. People mostly do TFs for the merits these days anyway, and since merits would only drop from classic, forced-teaming TFs, I don't see this having too much of an adverse effect on them.

The rare few occasions I've done TFs, myself, have been either gunning for an unlock, like the Romulus Broadsword, or just looking for some fast experience when the opportunity presents itself. This would not change with an addition like this, as the rewards and the big team experience would still be in the team TFs.

And I'm perfectly fine with keeping the Statesman and Recluse ones team-only.

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I will continue to back this idea and say that Magic is a part of this game wether you like it or not. There are magic origins, magic enemies, and magic organizations and storylines like the Midnighters. There is nothing wrong with building on that with a new powerset like this. If you have some kind of personal pet peev against magic, single hand wands, or any wands in general, then keep it to yourself please. Comparing this to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings is very narrow minded, and it only illustrates the conformity that I want to get away from. This has a lot of possibilities if you broaden your horizons a little. There could be many different types of wands, not just your little Potter sticks. You could have an athame (magic knife) wand, bone wand, tech or tech/magic combo wand, energy wands, metal wands, wooden wands, so please stop trying to turn this into Harry Potter.

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That's a really rotten attitude to take on the subject. "I'll keep backing up my idea, and if you don't like it, go away." You make a suggestion, you receive feedback. No, I am bloody well NOT going to keep it to myself if I think it is relevant, and as this is an open forum, I do not appreciate being told what to post or not to post. I like to reserve that honour for the moderator staff, so I trust I will be forgiven if I do not choose to obey being told to not post.

I'm trying to be as constructive in my responses as I can, given that I completely disagree with your idea. I've stated several reasons and several problems that I see. If your response is going to be that I'm narrow-minded and I should keep it to myself, then perhaps I should have just given you a /jranger and be done with it? Would THAT have been more constructive?

Look at magic users in this very game. Fire Thorn Casters use Fire Blast, Fiery Melee and Fire Control. Earth Thorn Casters use Earth Control, Stone Melee and Stone Armour. Ice Thorn Casters use Ice Blast, Ice Control and Electrical Blast. Death Mages use Dark Blast and Dark Miasma. Bat/Zul and his minions use Fire Blast, Fiery Melee, Fiery Aura and Fire Control. the Legacy Chain use, in addition to swords and shuriken, a modified Energy Blast/Melee, Fire Blast/Melee/Control and Plant Control. Infernal uses an axe while his demons use the standard Fire Blast/Melee/Control combo. Banished Pantheon shamen use Dark Blast, Earth Control and Storm Summoning, and their masks use what looks like Psi Blast, Radiation Blast, Dark Blast and... What else?

Literally all of the game's "sorcerers" (which reminds me - Tsoo Sorcerers use Storm Summoning, Dark Miasma and Electrical Blast) do just fine using magic without needing a stage magician's wand. A few do, admittedly. Circle of Thorns Energy and Nature Mages use staves and all of the low-grade midnighters each have a single staff blast attack. But most do just fine with the much of the same powers we already that are somehow neither said to be magic nor designed to look magic. The benefit of this? The same powers cane be reused for plenty of stuff that's NOT magic-based. For instance, Anti-Matter uses a lot of the same power as a Banished Pantheon spirit, while Neuron shares powers with a Tsoo Sorcerer. Crey Cryo Tanks share powers CoT Ice Thorn Casters while Crey Voltaic Tanks share powers with Storm Shamen. Council Vampyri, despite not being magical in the slightest (just very grotesque super soldiers) share a lot of powers with both Death and Life mages. The Wailer Demons, a purely magical group of beings, shares much of the same powers with the Goldbrickers, a science and technology based group of thieves.

Need I go on?

The point is, and I cannot emphasise this strongly enough, that almost all contemporary powersets would be just as at home on a gadgeteer tech user as they would be on a skirt-wearing bearded wizard. A wand does NOT fit that description in the slightest, not even by a longshot. Yes, there are magical characters in the game. There are also Tech, Science, Mutation and Natural characters, yet I can't remember the last time we've gotten a set for one of them. People have suggested Power Armour, Cybernetic Transformation and so forth, yet none of them have ever happened. Instead, we get, say, genetic invulnerability which, with the right costume, can pass for very convincing power armour. Then again, so can Willpower and Shield defence and Energy Aura and... Well, once concept, many sets. One set, many concepts. In a game that covers so, so many concepts, one item filling many roles is kind of the hill. That's why Shield Defence has selections ranging from medieval and tribal shields to technological shields and forcefields, to elemental shields that could very easily pass for magical, to glowy shiny stuff like the Nictus Romulus Shield. True, we don't yet have glowing or flaming swords (though with shields being elemental, I'd say it's high time) yet we have plenty that could pass for magical with absolutely no need to compromise. Not unless you want a talking sword you could let loose to fight without you like that smart-mouth one from Baldur's Gate 2.

Granted, we don't have many ranged weapons to choose from that aren't bows or rifles, but... That's because there AREN'T that many classes of ranged weapons that aren't bows or rifles. Look at WoW, the veritable "everything" game when it comes to these things, and all they have for range are bows, crossbows, rifles and... Well, your bare hands. I'm not sure if they have throwing stuff, though. So, we're missing a crossbow set. Honestly, I'd like to see one. We're also missing a handgun(s) set, and I'd like to see one of those, too. But beyond that, I don't find wands to be one of the things the game is "missing," at least no more so than it's missing Ring Blast or Gauntlet Blast or Pendant Blast or Shoulder Cannon Blast. Yes, technically all of those would be cool, but when it comes to closely specific, they are even worse than Dual Blades, the much criticised "yet another sword" set.

You say forget Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but the simple fact is that, without them, you really have very little ground left, no more so than I would have if I suggested T1000 metal melee as a Scrapper powerset (note: I have and it's not in the game yet). About the only reason you can convince people to go for something that isn't mainstream (swords, maces, guns, etc.) but is so niche, is if you happen to find something in that niche they like. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and the Dresden Files are pretty much your niche. Without them, you have "just wands out of nowhere," which, frankly, I don't find exciting enough to consider. If I had to choose, I'd pick hand guns and crossbows over it every time, just to name a couple of easy examples.

If you can find a good way for this to not be so stringently geared towards magical characters (and before you go on, I have many, myself), then I'm afraid there is no way for me to get over my dislike and say "Eh, why not?"

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As far as the consequences of a body type change I'd think it'd be a given that regardless of being able to change costume slots individually or not the costume items of any affected slots would get automatically "generic'd" by the game to apply to the new body type. Being forced to have to recreate a new costume for the new body type would be a small price to pay for the ability to change body types in the first place.

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One thing to note about multiple models for the same character is how costumes are saved. Granted, how they're saved to .costume files doesn't HAVE to be representative of how they're stored server-side, but I'd bet you dollars to doughnuts that they're very, very close. Character model is mentioned once, then every piece thereafter is loaded for that model. Piece names that don't exist for the given model (or aren't unlocked) cause an error that prevents the costume from loading. So much so, in fact, that while the game can attempt and alter the costume file, it is literally UNABLE to load a costume file that has items it cannot load. Whether that's a limitation or a safety feature (used to have pieces that were there in name, but didn't have anything to them, leading to invisible torsos and so on) I cannot say, but that's very likely part of what's keeping this.

Now, it could be argued that the model could simply be written into every costume slot, but one has to remember that just because something is saved to a .costume file, it doesn't mean it's actually ever loaded. One model's costume will fail to load on another model. Height is always saved, but never loaded. The fact of the matter is that, from the looks of things, where our costume definitions are saved, model and height simply aren't part of the data, and are instead saved in a completely different place where they can be referenced by a whole host of different systems. I've no doubt at least SOME part of the animations system references character height (or rather, scale) and it's more than obvious that both the badge system and the $ variable system reference character model. It's also been said that while the Male model has its own pigg file, both females and huge share the same pigg file when it comes to costume items.

All of these assumptions and suppositions are why I'd really like BABs to come and set us all straight.

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It follows the same logical thought processes as saying, for instance, that stealing is bad. Now, people steal because they want money. And people want money because they want to raise families. Therefore, in order to end stealing, all children should be confiscated by the government.

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Or we could just take all the money from every person in the world, so there'll be nothing to steal, right? RIGHT?!? In the meantime, if you need a place to keep it all, I'd be more than happy to hold it for you.

If they are still banning people over that, then I must say I agree rather completely.

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The books are much better than the TV series (as usual for adaptations).

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I'm really just not a fan of the basic concept on one hand, and not a fan of very specific powers on the other. The odd temporary power using a wand, sure, that I can live with. But a whole powerset of them is a bit much, specifically since temp powers come in addition to my powersets.

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I never said that it wasn't legal theft. I never stated that they didn't have the right to steal from us. I'm just calling a rose a rose.

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Let me put it this way - I wouldn't call it theft in ANY sense or context of the word. That doesn't mean I agree with it (I don't), but I'd rather call it a mistake, which it obviously is, without going further and into challengeable territory.

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this thread is staying here ............... im tired of moving this idea just because some dork keeps saying "THERES AN OFFICIAL THREAD for that ................ im done moving it ......... either agree or disagree or ignore it ......
one

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The official thread is there for a reason. It's to keep people from flooding the forums with the same thing over and over again.

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But to be honest, I do have to point out to Sam that there is at least one popular series of books out right now where a modern day younger man is out waving a wand (albeit a "blasting stick" similar to a hockey stick) using verbal trigger words. I recommend reading Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden novels to anyone who has even a slight interest in modern fantasy.

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I'm aware of the concept, though I've only seen a televised series called "The Dresden File" (I think) which I didn't really like much. The point is, it's not just magic, it's a very small subset of magic. Shooting fire from your hands, however, works perfectly fine for a magical user, and it doesn't really require a specific fantasy magic style. Until/unless we get power customization, allowing us to pick if we shoot fire from our hands, from our feet, from our backs or from our wands, I'd rather keep powersets as generic as possible.

So, while I'm all for a mixed-damage-type powerset, and have suggested as much before, I don't want it to be fired out of a stage magician's wand, speak chants or display complicated spells and rituals. Because, at the end of the day, I might want to put this powerset on my power-armour-wearing guy, my scientifically created monster or space alien from outer space. Most sets fit most concepts, and the ones that do still tend to leave room for others for token effort. Technological swords, magical guns and mutants with gadgets. It's still easy enough to fit in. Easier than technological spells and incantations.

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I like the notion that Heroes, like anyone else, might age, or move on, or just die.

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I like the notion itself as well. HOWEVER, this is also a GAME. And you'd be removing a resource that I spent a huge amount of time investing in. Is it any wonder knives are coming out from under togas for this, and an "et'tu Brute?" is hovering on your lips?

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I, on the other hand, do not like the notion of heroes ageing and dying. Why? Let's see, how old is Galactus now? Think he's ready for his disability check yet? Maybe he should change to diet planets or something?

Off the characters I have:

One is close to three hundred years old and not ageing in the slightest.
Two are cyborgs and, as such, practically ageless.
Two are aliens that are already several BILLION years old and empowered by the energies of creation. A few more years aren't going to register.
One is plain immortal and cannot be killed. Ever.
One is a couple of thousand years old and sustaining his life through necromantic energies.
One has a body entirely made up of nano machines, and as such age simply does not apply to him.
One is an alien from another planet who has already lived for thousands of years and has thousands of years more to live before "age" ever becomes relevant.
A couple are already dead and back to life through magical means, so age doesn't really apply to them any more.
One is a spirit occupying an artificial body, which can be repaired quite easily.

The notion that all heroes age and retire is silly. Some may. Many do not. In fact, to assume a hero would eventually step down and retire after reaching the pinnacle of his power, or indeed EVER, is false. On the contrary, for a hero to retire, I would personally require a VERY good reason. Such has not been provided, beyond "because that's what I want," which doesn't really cut it.

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I laughed about bannings because I believed Positron was blowing smoke.
Then I heard about a character lock. I laughed about that, assuming everyone that got a character locked/deleted would be able to laugh it off as easy come/easy go.
And then I started hearing about reports of folks getting both. Not just a small handful of people here or there, but large numbers of people. Apparently some who shouldn't have been tagged.
The laughter became a chuckle. That nervous chuckle of a man realizing that his favorite dev team had fallen off into the deep end.
And then one of my longest term running buddies sends me a tell explaining that he'd been banned for the last 3 days and had a character deleted. He then informed me this was the final straw for him and his sub was already canceled. He won't be back, and I can't blame him.
If it had just been a character deletion, he probably would have laughed it off.
I told him I understood why he was pissed. I understood why I would be pissed were I banned from logging in for any period of time.
It's called theft. We pay for the service in advance. When you're banned from logging in, the money used for that time period is theft. You're not locked out for maintenance. You're not locked out for throwing around racial slurs.
You're locked out because you leveled too fast.
The bannings should not have happened. I will miss running around in game with my friend. He's a good person. His wife played for several years as well. He wouldn't be in my ever decreasing circle of in game running buddies if he wasn't.
Oh well... just another 4-5 year vet gone.
As Statesman said, "It's an MMO, people come and people go."
It's too bad that the devs decided to help speed up that going process.

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I would not call it theft, as PlayNC always reserved the right to stop the service they provide, either temporarily or permanently, with no explanation or prior warning, so that's actually part of the rules of the service. What I WILL call it, however, is extremely bad business. I honestly expected this to be more a threat than a policy of action, as I see no point in fixing the farms AND locking characters who can't participate in them any more any way, and especially temp-banning people for it. So I'm going to agree. It's an incredibly bad choice to do that.

I still maintain that what can constitute an "offence" is fairly obvious, however, though I also maintain that, of the things left that can be used, very, very little actually fits those terms. With the Comm Officer farms gone and no-ranged enemies no longer existing, what is there left to be banned for? I'd say not much, but if anyone DOES get banned for something stupid, do let us know. Really, what's left in the Architect, at least from what I know, is no worse than what can be done in regular missions.

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My bad.
I fell for it.
Nope, no definitive definition of exploitive here.
Move along please.

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As far as I can tell there isn't one anywhere. That is a problem.

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Um... Don't make and play Mieow farms or whatever the makers rename them to? Isn't that a definitive definition? And don't tell me they're not obvious. They are.

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I highly suspect that IF model changes end up happening, they'll be a total conversion, meaning you can't have one slot be Huge, another Male and another Female. You just do a full switch. At least, that's how I see it.

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Would be kind of a waste to do, then.

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Which is likely why it hasn't happened. Not much point to making it, as people don't often get their gender wrong at character creation. Full model swaps are one thing, but they don't alter the record of your character in the database. If we haven't been allowed to do it yet, then I'd say altering it is not a trivial matter.

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Again, I'm not opposed to the idea. I like more options, so /signed.
But why is this a big deal? It takes only a few minutes of time.

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It takes more than a few minutes if you level out of the Hollows. Then you get saddled with Jim Temblor, the Bloody Bay liaison, the King's Row Hero Corps Field Analyst and the Skyway City Security Chief. That takes rather more than 5 minutes, and it's even worse if you have a lower-level sidekick who's waiting for you to get a real mission.

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At first glance, I really don't think the devs want to tie any powersets as closely to Origins as this set is.
Assault Rifle can be a high-tech gun, natural skill, or a magic morphing gun. Something explicitly described as 'Magic Wand' is rather limiting.

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How do you see a magic morphing gun when you look at the Franken gun, or any of the Weapon Customization options?

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Someone once played an AR/Fire Blaster, with a backstory about how his rifle was possessed by a fire demon. Hellboy is largely magical, being a demon and all, yet he still uses a giant six-shooter. I'm pretty sure Hellsing's guns are blessed and at least slightly magical. There are ways around.

The one BIG thing I would say against this idea, and there's really nothing else I can comment on it until it is addressed, is that I am severely bothered by what feels like either Harry Potter or, at most, a high-fantasy high mage casting things with a wand. Personally, I DESPISE the one-handed one twirling, and it's made watching Harry Potter movies almost impossible for me for that reason alone. Weapons I can get, as most are used in fairly direct ways - draw weapon and either hit things with it or shoot bullets out of it. I have a VERY hard time imagining how waving a wand and making stuff happen would be COOL, and that's a big thing for me. I would quite literally rather shoot fire from my hands than do it out of a wand.

Two-handed staffs I can kind of see, but for the life of me I can't see them actually being USED with two hands, which ends up making them into a glorified Nemesis Staff. Even Force Mages use theirs one-handed, and it's an animation very much akin to lower-tier Blaster blasts, but customized. If anyone can come up with a COOL way to use a two-handed staff with two hands to cast spells ASIDE from striking it into the ground and shouting the gramatically incorrect "You shall not pass!" then I might concede, but I'm just not seeing it.

Personally, I'm not against a set that does a variety of damage types or has lots of tricks and doodads. I am squarely against doing this out of a wand and chanting Latin at the same time. I understand we sort of moved past that, but I'd still like to say I want to keep the names English, or at the very least pick a language that's not as overused in this area. The next-gen Prince of Persia did a very good job of using Arabic, I think, for the spells Elika uses, even though a setting is never directly named.

This brings in the other problem with one-handed wand waving - yes, you can technically turn it into a microwave on a stick ala the Tech Mace, but the fact remains that the character is waving it and chanting. This is pretty far removed from something... Well, anyone but a bearded wizard or a glasses-wearing kid would do, and the polar opposite of a technologist who, silly fiction aside, doesn't need to chant to his equipment.

The whole thing actually reminds me of the final confrontation in Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, where he had to hold King Morpheus' staff and chant off what felt like two paragraphs of text while the evil kind of the darkness... Thing was trying to suck him out of his flying bed. It's interesting as an idea, but it only really works in a mystical setting.

Just as a data point, today I logged into my level 50 AR/Dev/Munitions Blaster and gave him a respec to switch Sleep Gas Grenade for Survaillance and play him a little bit more. I had a lot of fun with him yesterday, and I intend to do the same today. I would be bothered if he were taken away from me because someone else would prefer I didn't exist if I wouldn't team with them.

Ignoring the rest of the thread, yes, it is well worth coming back. The game is better than it ever was, and despite the Architect seemingly not offering anything that isn't bad in more ways than it is good, it's still a major improvement in ever way. For me, if I had to list the good stuff that happened since CoV launched, I'd have to say Mayhem and Safeguard missions, the Blaster, Stalker and Kheldian improvements, and I'd probably say the upcoming Dominator improvements, proliferation of old powersets to new ATs. New content, plenty of new costume pieces, several new powersets, and even Inventions. There's a lot of stuff to do and a lot of stuff that's better, and despite what people say, nothing that's actually gotten worse that I've seen. Well, except the Matla group who only ever seem to get worse and worse.

ZOMG Mr_Samoa! Anti-Cat, is that really you? Woah! Nice to see you again!

I don't want to make a big deal out of it, because I got gangbanged last time I mentioned it, but I'm really trying to avoid using Sets and other high-order enhancements and stick to just basic Commons. Call it personal preference. So, for the moment, the best I can do with three slots is accuracy, endurance reduction and recharge. I should have really left it at four slots, but I don't really have any to spare, and I looked hard. Ideally, I'd like to have at least three more from somewhere, but no place to pull them from.

If you're really curious, I can even show you the build For the moment, though, I'm sticking to the three slots mentioned and I'll just have to use it less often. Might end up doing another respec at some point, but eh. We'll see how it goes for the moment.

I highly suspect that IF model changes end up happening, they'll be a total conversion, meaning you can't have one slot be Huge, another Male and another Female. You just do a full switch. At least, that's how I see it.

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We had ranged weapons added to every group in MA because hoverblasting mobs that couldn't hit back was aberrant play.
I'd call that sensible play.

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I call it "Welcome to five years ago." Ranged attacks were added to all developer-made NPCs shortly after the game went live, before I1, because many did not have them. Banished Pantheon Totems lacked ranged attacks until about I3, when they got their odd scatter attack. The range on enemy ranged attacks was increased several times, to the point where many enemies can shoot from out of Snipe range.

This has been the case for five years. You're a little too late to be surprised about this.