_eeek_

I hope and pray they do not.

The result will be like it was when they changed the cap previously. The price on everything just shot straight up.

Another way to look at is that people are not precisely saying they will spend over 2 billion for a PvP recipe. The other way to look at it is that they (the purchasers of these items) have decided that a PvP recipe is worth 10% over the influence cap.

I am certain this will still be the case, regardless of what that cap may be. If I am correct, this means that the result of raising the influence cap is that the influence you and I now own will be worth much less.

I am hoping that the male hat is one of the things they port over for females. It would make the greatest ever bug head in the world! My bug toon could be like the Grand Vizier of the entire bug world!!

And before anyone says it, yes I HAVE looked at all the fake bug heads in the world. I can thus confidently make this assertion.

Great job as usual, VK! Thank you!

And amazing job on those Chinese costumes, WOW!!

I am often stumped for costume ideas. Sometimes I go to high traffic areas like the AH or the trainers, but it's rare that I see anything that gets the ol' creative juices flowing. Even costume contests seem to generally lack creativity. The best source for interesting costumes is, oddly enough, the forums. When new costume bundles are being tested on beta, or when forumites start threads discussing the new costume packs, I'll see several wonderful, creative pictures that make me rush to the costume creator to play.

I would love to see an area in the forums devoted to costumes, and in particular, new costume sets. I would love to see how people are incorporating new pieces with existing pieces to come up with something new and wonderful.

I should think this would be good for costume sales as well. Seeing how costume pieces A and C could be used to create an effect for something that might be quite different in style, would almost certainly spur people to buy things they would normally pass on. (As an example, I have no characters who are gunslingers or saloon girls, nor, I believe, will I ever. But in a flash of inspiration one night, I was able to successfully incorporate several of the Gunslinger pack pieces to on my little depressive- Goth girl's costumes. Who knew??)

I think a such a showcase area would be quite well recieved.

Thank you.

Like others posting, I like the ones that fit my character. My characters all tend to be pretty quirky though, so it can be pretty tough to find something that's a good fit. The ones I like best are:

*Cause for Concern (on my Disney-esque punk fairy, and my depressive/goth dark defender)

*Warrior Princess (on kid toon who thinks she's pretty darned tough. Is emp defender and does truly pitiful damage. She often offers to tank for tankless teams, too.)

*Battery Operated (on now-sentient robot maid)

My suggestion for badge I'd like to see:

-Incarnate Trail (hey, they have a Going Rouge badge, right?)

When I was a new player and started soloing, the missions had such urgency, like "QUICK! Disarm/rescue/stop the____!" and so on, which I took to mean I should accomplish the mission objective just as quickly as possible. So, I was doing "speed runs" without even knowing that's what I was doing. I remember being especially proud of myself when I could complete a mission without any bloodshed at all! (I thought my contacts would be quite proud of me, too) Teams, on the other hand, seemed to want to bash everything in sight, which was good for the exp., but gosh, I thought that was a bit of a.... well, exploit. What kind of a hero LOOKS for people to beat on?

Now, years later, I know that the intent of the missions/TF's is to clear them, or mostly clear them, but I am pretty solidly neutral on the whole thing. To this day, there are some arcs I really enjoy playing, and part of the joy of these is racing through at a manic pace, trying to click things before I'm spotted, racing past spawns hoping they won't attack, and so on. I'd never subject a team to that, but boy is it fun!

I don't like "clear all" missions. Not only because there is always one guy hiding behind duct work in the ceiling, either. It often seems like the writers just know this is a really boring "filler" mission, and the only way you're going to do it "properly" is if they force you to do so. (Paragon Protectors I'm looking at you!)

Now, am I "right" about any of the above? Certainly not. But I don't believe I'm "wrong" either. A speed TF isn't "wrong". Neither is a steamrolling shard/exp run. It's about having fun without hurting anyone else (which includes exploits, which DO hurt others, albeit in the long run). I do have pity for the OP who got on a team with 50+3's who incarnated (can I use that as a verb??) everything, leaving the rest of the team to the tedium of having no purpose whatsoever. But those kinds of TF's are really, really few and far between. +3's aren't looking for shards or exp., and they've done the ITF for the badges and armor long ago - so what's the point for them? Merit hunting? Even with the WTF 2x merits, it's nowhere near as fast at merit nabbing as doing SSA's.

A number of the ITF's I've done in the last few months have been a bit dicey in terms of whether or not we'd even succeed, because sometimes the majority of the team are nowhere near 50. People who do the ITF now seem to be: 1) people who have characters 35-49 looking for exp., 2) 50's who don't like i-trials, looking for shards, and 3) people who just think it's a lot of fun, and aren't all about the rewards.

-Eeek

PS The ITF is "high level content"??

Just personal experience here: I made an rad/arch defender, and thought I was going to die of boredom. Doing anything was so tedious! I only got in the 30's somewhere before I moved it to the oblivion of another server. I really liked the character though, so remade it as a corruptor (arch/rad).

The corruptor version isn't bad. Occasionally I will complain about her lack of damage to friends I'm teaming with, and what I invariably hear a) laughter, and b) "are you kidding? You're wiping them out!". Apparently I'm too accustomed to my blaster. Also, am not accustomed to the bulk of my damage being at the tail end of any encounter, so it doesn't really register to me that I'm doing a whole lot.

So basically (and remember this is purely subjective), the defender version is really low damage, and it stays really low damage. The corruptor version is not "leading man/leading lady" material like a blaster is, but it does pretty good damage for a "support only" toon.
If I were to remake it again, though, I'd probably make something different - great as archery is on a blaster, it's a bit underwhelming on a defender or a corruptor.

The first time I tried Afterburner, the skies opened up, rainbows appeared, and a heavenly choir could be heard singing the Hallelujah Chorus. Well, in my own head, anyway (Which might tell you something about the state of my head, but we won't go there just now).

I don't love it for the extra speed, that's just a happy coincidence to my way of thinking. I love it for the control. I am actually peeved every time I log onto a flying character who hasn't respecc'd into it yet. It "feels" like a really fast hover - I have that much control.

So, naturally, I tend to leave my new best friend Afterburner on, then wonder why I'm blasting or punching away, and my foe remains in perfect health. And I do this EACH AND EVERY time I am in a mission and turn the thing on to cover some long stretch.

This power is available at the same time ninja run, beast run, the steampunk jumpy thing is, as well as any of the available travel powers of your choice. At level 4. In addition, you can't do anything at all while on the magic carpet. It shuts off all your powers, just like being in the AH in Praetoria. Not only does it shut them all off, this cuts off your toggles, too, so you have to redo these every time you land. If you are in a mission, and the Rikti see you, o suddenly stealthless one, you have nothing at all to protect you. No armor, no combat jumping, zip, nada.

In what possible way would this be a "purchased advantage"?? Because they don't have to take 1 whole power, with its one whole included slot? The one you can currently pass up because you have half a dozen others that do much the same thing? Which have been out for a couple years now? Or, that people have been skipping entirely since I've been playing these last 5 1/2 years even when they didn't have half a dozen alternatives because "travel powers just don't fit my concept"?

On this thread, people suddenly have complaints that this is somehow unfair, and those with cash in hand are the only ones who get this great and mighty perk. On the beta thread, everyone is saying they like the concept, gosh, how cute, but would never purchase it because it's just a vanity item, with no practical application, at least ninja run lets you keep your powers on.

Clearly, we need to have something to complain about, doggone it! We are mad as hell and we are not going to take it any more! Let's all get together and decide what the complaint is actually going to be, since they are mutually exclusive complaints.

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR THE REASON MAGIC CARPETS ARE HORRIBLE HERE:

1) It's silly and a waste of my hard-earned money! You devs need to give us something useful for our purchases, not just this cute, fluffy stuff!

2) It's silly and a waste of hard-earned power choices! You devs need to give us stuff that is only cute and fluffy and stop skewing the game for those who have deep pockets!

3) I have no idea what I am complaining about, but doggone it, devs, I WANTS IT NAO!!

I would like some skulls or some ghosts, or some other way of visually conveying a supernatural origin, please.

I know there is a ghostly aura, which is the same as the fear effect in a few powers. But it's quite indistinct in the purchased ghostly aura. I would love to see something really spooky. Ghosts (like the white-sheet kind). Skulls that are more distinct than the screaming-fear deal that already exists. Or maybe something entirely different that I can't think of?

I have a few supernatural types for whom none of the existing auras really work. The magic runes, ghosts, etc. don't really convey any spooky supernatural origin to me.

Thank you!

I don't mind the way we look overall. Yep, the neck seam bugs me, and uggg, the feet! Another irksome thing is the white skin. It has odd, tan shading, which looks awful. Now, my white colored characters are trying to look awful. They're usually dead. Possibly undead. But it's another kind of awful altogether. Looks like a white-skinned creature used bronzer up and down her arms and legs. Now, I can get by with the body by using "tights" white, and using one of the painted-on prints, to look like my toon is wearing, say, a belly shirt, but sans the peculiar bronzer-on-the-stomach look. But I can't do that for the face! And the face just looks bad. the way the pale skinned males look, with muscles painted on with more bronzer, that looks horrible too. There must be a better way to do that.

I like the way we look, overall. I would not (NOT!!) want to look like something from someone else's game. I want us to look like US. That said, if we could look like we do, but with more texture, less "flatness" (and far less bronzer) - that would be something I'd love to see!

So listed above, these are the things that annoy me. Samuel, if this is an issue you feel has enough support to warrant a potential change, why don't you ask a red name if this is even feasible? No point in getting hopes up for something that just cannot realistically happen.

Second, I am guessing that the art department is more interested in (and believes WE are more interested in) costumes. In particular, costumes we would pay for. What if this were put up as something purchasable? Would we be willing to PAY for upgraded bodies? Is there a market for this?


(To answer my own question, yep, if it was a good job, I'd definitely be interested, if they cannot undertake a job that size without charging us for it.)

I really liked First Ward. I loved the content, and the ambiance of the place. I didn't care for the huge counter that popped up whenever I had to cross the water, which I couldn't move enough for it not to be an annoyance, I'll grant you that. Grr! And there were issues of needless running back and forth, which I really thought they'd said they were getting away from.

But loved the content! Enough that my villain-turned-rogue (only to find teams) actually turned into a hero! "Sticking up for your friends, and mashing d-bags is what heroes do?! I thought they just flew around in ugly red and white jumpsuits shooting everyone for spits and giggles?"

Then I tried to run it on my next up and comer, and found that the poor troller she is, couldn't solo the material (till I passed out from boredom in the attempt, anyway). Almost impossible to find teams there, and the one time I did, I had NO idea what was going on.
I quit the team and went to Talos.

Finding I wouldn't have gotten any merits there anyway makes me certain I won't team there. Missing the content AND the rewards?? That's nuts!

Too bad. I found it really interesting content, and occasionally hysterically funny.

That's what I was thinking too - who is going to come in early from vacation to pull a few switches, ow whatever it is they do to get stuff up? But just noticed that the Magic Carpets are available at the store, so now am at a loss.

Wow, I thought I was the only arch/rad - I've never seen one about before! Mine's only 44, so I can't give you any final build advice, or anything. Just a couple things I noticed, though...

For myself, I respecc'd out of stunning arrow. It's not a bad power, but unless you solo a lot, you won't really need both the stun AND explosive arrow for mitigation, and EA does decent damage (plus KB), where SA doesn't. I found I never used SA, much as I really do love stuns.

Lingering rad doesn't need too many slots, unless you're after set bonuses. It comes up fast, and it's claim to fame isn't so much a slow, as a big, honking debuff, esp for AV's. On the other hand, EM Pulse has a long recharge time. I'd use some of the slots from LR for some recharge reduction IO's in EMP.

As much as I like the ranged defense, I would personally take out the t-strikes from blazing arrow, and use 4) devastations plus 2) centriole hami's, or just 2) common ranged IO's, due to the much shorter range on BA. It's really annoying to have to move forward to be able to use BA - I try to add enough range so it's on par with my other attacks, allowing for a smooth attack chain without having to reposition. (NOTE: centrioles are dirt cheap. I just bought 5 of them for under half a million each, though had to wait a few days for them to all come in. They do 33% damage, 20% range. A common range IO does 25% range increase.)

Good luck and happy shooting!

Complexity is a bad thing in a group of 24 players.

It works in a group of 1. Sometimes. If you're not cooking dinner, replying to tells, or asking your teenager what time they're coming home tonight, and reminding them to call if they're going to be late.

Personally, I dislike anything in the game in which I'm not given instructions in the game. Cutscenes could be used to visually explain what needs to be done, rather than explain about why it's being done (insert bosom joke here). Instead, maps could be utilized, with pulsing stars showing where the mission objectives are, and what they look like. Sutter does this in the ship portion of the TF, and it's well done, and much appreciated. Especially when I can go back and refer to my own map.

Any - and I mean ANY - TF or Trial in which you need to have done it a dozen times before you understand what on earth you're supposed to do, is a fail in my book. BAF would be a pass, because it's easy to understand, filled with action, and the action changes quickly enough to avoid tedium. LAM is fail, because you do have to know which way to go for acids, which way for grenades, where to dig for them if they're not in your tray (in my POWERS?! Seriously??), you have to know where they are on the map, and you need to have the +'s on your level 50 (yes, those very +'s that you are running this trial in order to get), in order to survive it. Yes, it does show you where the portals are and what they look like. But it doesn't show you where the timer is, and that you'd better wait until it hits 18 or the entire team will yell at you. Plus, I find it sort of tedious drudge work up until you fight the Big Guy (which I have to say, is a WHOLE lot of fun!).

I do like a challenge. I like the STF (regardless of any level-boost), for example. Challenge isn't the issue. The issue is the TYPE of challenge. A challenge of skill is great! A challenge that requires a high level of experience in order to succeed, and requires that every single teammate has that level of experience, is a challenge that is not great. Topping it off and saying that you need 18-24 of these experienced people who have nothing else going on in their home/sg/phone/doorbell/dog or personal bladder imperatives/etc., and can thus commit 100% of their energy into completing the objective in order to be likely to succeed?

Yeah, right,

I do wish the creators of the Trials would look at which TF's and Trials people actually enjoy doing, and ask "why" (besides the rewards) a bit more. I mean, ask us, the players. Positron has stated that people do the BAF because it's easy. I think that may be mistaken. At least, I know it's not my reason. First, it's not easy - at least it's not easy for lvl 50's without any pluses. It's just easy to figure out. User-friendly (The BAF is the I-Pod of TF's!). Those new to the Trial can be given a few simple instructions, and you still have a good chance of success, even with new 50's. It's action-filled, which keeps it exciting. And it it does not, in general, feel like herding cats, even if I'm one of the cats.

Ask: why does everyone do the ITF? What makes THAT fun, even though we've done it a zillion times? Why does NO one do the Cathedral of Pain? Why is that UN-fun?

Complexity, cat-herding, and one guy who who just got their first toon to lvl 50 and doesn't understand what to do destroying an entire Trial = bad Trial.

Action-packed, swift-moving, skill-based challenge which can include some brand new 50's just learning the Trial and still have a reasonable chance of success = fun Trial

PS These are just my own opinions. There is no intent whatsoever to put down anyone, or what anyone enjoys doing. I word things strongly when I feel strongly, But my feelings are certainly not facts, so there can be no "right" or "wrong" about them.

I'm sorry for your friend, but I can't see why CS would get involved in that situation. I don't see how any rules were broken. Being a ****** isn't against the rules.

My advice is to tell your friend to drop the SG asap, put the offending person/persons on global ignore, and get far, FAR away from the drama. Round up some of his real friends in the game, maybe a chunk of that 98% who were kicked, and start a new SG. Drama, negativity, getting caught up in lunatic power plays is a recipe for finding another game where people are nicer.

But, see, this is CoX, and there isn't anywhere with nicer players. There are handful of 14 year old jerks (sadly, sometimes these types come in a 45 year old body) who just don't realize this isn't the game for them. Yet. The only thing to do is get as far away from them as possible. Immediately, if not sooner.

SG's have changed a lot in the last few years, and there is no earthly reason to pour blood, sweat and tears into one. Just play the game as one normally would, and don't worry about anything but having good times with good people. Prestige builds quickly. Now, a large roster of players is meaningless. A huge base filled with zillions of rooms isn't needed (unless someone in the group enjoys base building, God bless 'em.). Find a nice group to COA with, and use the coalies teleporters until they can build their own.

What you need to make a good SG is a few good people. That's it.

I've had a number friends say that I'm one of the nicest people they know on the game. I don't know about that, but I try very, very hard to be considerate and assume the best about a player, unless I find out otherwise. And if I find out otherwise, I just go somewhere else. It's so easy to take offense at things, and life it just too short, people have their own troubles, and the game is somewhere to forget about troubles for awhile, and go have some fun.

That said, I'm stunned when people ask to join my "team," when I have not broadcast, put up a flag, or otherwise indicated I'm looking to team with others. Unless I'm standing next to an SSA contact, or something (and even then it's a bit pushy), it's just not an okay thing to do.

If someone wants to aggressively search for a team, by all means, great! GO START ONE!

Then you could invite me, if you were so inclined. THAT is polite (unless a blind invite). I will definitely send a polite reply. But if you're trying to invite yourself along, I won't respond. It's like not answering junk mail.

If a stranger were to ask for help on a tricky mission, or "touch 2 glowies at once" or something, that's entirely different, and I'd be happy to help if I could.

Just a few thoughts...

Note that Blaze and Fire Breath both have a significantly shorter range than your other blast powers. You can use 4) Devastations (for the bonuses), or 4) Thunderstrikes (so you don't lose all your ranged defense) and add either 2) range IO's, or 2) Centriole hami's. The Hami's have almost as much range as the IO's, plus 33% damage each, which means you can use the proc in Devastation if you choose that option. Also, those Hami's are dirt cheap.

I went with cardiac alpha on my fire blaster. Tier 4 gives 20% extra range, and helpful with endurance. Agree with Necro - if you aren't going to be in melee range, for heaven's sakes, don't take the melee attacks! (Power thrust is the exception. You have to take it, but it's also a really fun "outta my FACE!" power. You don't need to add any slots for it to be very useful at face-moving, either).

I don't have my notes handy, but don't Conserve Power and Boost Range have about the same recharge? I seem to recall them coming back up at the same time, but might be misremembering. With 2) recharges in each of the Boost powers, they were all perma for me, but I was chasing after recharge, not defense.

BTW: your secondary effects include all of your boosts.

Good luck on your blaster - should be loads of fun!

A new item for the Paragon market! An Interrupt De-Hancer! Lowers your interrupt time on all powers with interrupt by 50%! Purchasable twice, unless you're really desperate.

Umm... after writing this as a joke, I realized I was only half-way joking.

As I've written about elsewhere, my experience has been that when I ran more of i-trials (when they first came out), I found myself almost dreading to log into the game. It took awhile to realize that it was the i-trials. What I love about the game is, well, the game, actually... but even more than that, I love the people.

Leagues are too big to feel that sense of community, or sense of accomplishment and "yay, we did it!" when one completes challenging objectives. In large leagues, I feel isolated. It doesn't just lack positives for me, it's an actually negative experience.

But that's just my experience, I certainly do not mean to denigrate the experience anyone else has. I know other people really enjoy the i-trials, and that's great!

I would love incarnate content for smaller groups. I enjoy 6-8 person teams, personally. The Apex and Tin Mage are somewhat difficult (maybe not if you're +3, I don't know), and can take awhile, but the incarnate rewards are only shards, unless they've changed that.

For myself, I really wish they would switch the rewards on TF's to include the incarnate salvage tables, along with astral and emp. merits. I think what I hear from the devs is that if they give the same i-rewards to other content, then no one would do the i-trials.

But... shouldn't that tell them something?

thanks for the responses!

Yup, everyone has hurdle (inherent) with a jump IO in it, and their slotting is similar.

It might just be the space bar. I never EVER thought of that, since I hold it the same. But if I'm not pressing hard enough... that would explain it.

Thank you again!

I have a weird question: Why do some characters just soar over medium-sized walls, or across 20ft. spans, and others with the same slotting can't? Why can I make a jump sometimes on a character, and can't make the same jump the next time on the same character?

To clarify, my characters who have Super Speed also have Combat Jumping, because, well, CJ makes life worth living for SS, you know? But here's the thing - regardless of slotting (usually the 2 movement BotZ's in CJ, and a Jump IO in the inherent power), some can jump a 12-15ft.* wall with ease, and some can't. It seems like some scrappers, and definitely my tank cannot make the upward jump, while the Trollers have no problem with it at all. Why?

Even weirder, the jumping across mechanics seem to have no logic at all. The jumping up I can at least rationalize ("durrr, maybe that armor weighs more?"), and the jump ability/inability remains consistent. The jump across mechanics are not consistent. When making a long jump, 20-30 feet* across, sometimes a character can leap with aplomb, looking graceful, and well.. super! Sometimes - EVEN ON THE SAME CHARACTER!! - I'll leap gracefully half the way across, then just drop like a rock.

I'm not doing anything differently with the keys. Have been noticing this for over a month now, and am quite conscious of what I'm doing, just because it's driving me nuts. These are all level 50 characters, too. I run toward the edge holding the "W" key down with 3rd finger, left hand, then hit the space bar when I get to the edge of whatever it is I'm trying to jump across, and let go of the space bar when I begin the falling descent and I realize the space bar is no longer necessary.

Does anyone understand this, or do I need to continue to speak forcefully at my characters and tell them they better lay off the Christmas cookies, or next thing they know, they won't be able to fit in doors, either?

Thanks for your help!
-Eeek

*distances are very approximate, as I am terrible at judging distances.**
**insert your own dirty joke silently, we are T for Teen here!