Wither

Dragonkat, I have disagreed with almost everything else you've had to say on the boards, but for this post you just made I gave you 5 stars. Well said.

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If the changes on test go live, it just got alot harder for the casual player to earn hamidons, but alot easier for them to get them for just being there.

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NOTE: this is based on one guy being teamed, but "at the gate" doing nothing.

A lot of people ran around squawking on the boards "omg people can just be in the hive and get a hami enhancer."

If I were one of the devs, I would be coding it so that the empaths and/or whatever support staff on a team who never made an attack or never hit with an attack get their reward for participating. So it looks to me like that guy got his drop for being on a team.

They could do a range check to be tougher about it, so that you have to be at least on a team and within visual sight of hami when he goes down. Anyway, even that is a major change for the better compared to the situation of some guys getting 8 drops on one Hamidon death.

The flip side of course is that it widens the gap between the haves and the have nots. Guys who raked in 50 of these on 10 raids now have to be matched by someone in PvP who is going to have to run 50 raids.

Just more insanity brought to PvP by Hamidon.

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for the challenge?

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I enjoy fighting Mike Tyson for the challenge too.

Once.

Then with my face broken, I go back to picking on people my own size.

If HOs are optional and not forced down our throats I am 100% sure that there will be crossover where people will venture in for the challenge or for some who really don't care or some who want to be the guy who brings the knife to the gunfight and wins.

Going to the arena which is sure to be camped out day and night by a handful of guys with 40 HOs slotted though prevents a lot of us from enjoying our L50s.

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The supply of HOs in one of my toons (Ive left my other 'main' clear, to provide a non-HO opponent for people who dont have the opportunity to get them) is a result of nothing more or less than a lot of hard work, planning, and careful thought and effort on my part and the part of my Supergroup. To suggest that any success I should have is somehow lessened or tainted because I chose to work hard at being successful seems very strange to me.

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Think of it like this.

You and I are going to take our cars to the racetrack.

You work hard, 60 hours a week, you started your own business and are a self-made millionaire. This racing hobby is a passion, so you bought a Ferrari 360 Challenge, and you made mods on top of it to make it the best possible racecar you could want. You do deserve this because you worked for it. Kudos and hats off to you for such hard work.

I have got a Toyota Corolla because it is all I can afford.

I say, Dude, you've got a frickin Ferrari. Of course you're going to kick my [censored]. You say, "Friend, it is all about the sport of racing. It requires an excellent driver with good instincts and skills, it is very difficult to go through a course fast, and the most important element in the equation is the driver. So it is the best driver that wins."

Then we go out on the course and you kick my [censored].

Every time.

This is the same thing... you should NOT be denied your right to leverage your hard work. But just like with race cars, in order to have a competitive event you need a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. That is, your right to have your Ferrari and race it does not include forcing ME to race against YOU because I don't have the same level of equipment. Your reward should not be my punishment. That is, you kicking the crap out of me and being gleeful about it and then reflecting on your own "skill" from the results of the battle is great for you, but it makes me into a serf who is there to lose and give you a reward.

I do not want to fight you and your 40-50 hamidon enhancements because it is like racing my Toyota vs. your custom Ferrari. You can point out until the cows come home that you can make a mistake and go off the track, but we're not using the same equipment.

It's like a heavyweight taking on a middleweight.

It's like a pro hockey player taking on a kid in highschool.

Sure, there is always a chance the middleweight might get a lucky punch and get a knockout, or that the highschool kid might slip a goal in on the pro...

But there is a REASON why sports events sort out into classes: because when one side just has too much raw power there is no challenge. It is someone who is bigger, stronger, richer, rolling over someone weaker.

For you an your Hamidon enhancements: yes, use them, but use them in the "open class" where there are no restrictions. Those of us without, we want a closed class that will exclude you and your uber loot unless you want to set it aside and join us.

This is the way the world of competitive sporting events works. It is tried and true. It is there for a reason: if your sport is involving some kind of loot (which might be sheer muscle mass even), then you need to sort it out into loot classes for things to be competitive.

Bullies do find it fun to pick on weaker people, and there is always this aspect to games that make people want to cheat or find some kind of leverage so that they have the power to roll people over. It makes them feel good. But it's only fun for the team with the power. The situation will quickly boil down to some people playing not at all.

My only complaint here is that it is a have/have not change. Whatever is the decision it should be uniform for the whole player base. Allowing leet SGs their PL-ing while new people coming up cannot have them creates two classes. Bad idea.

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To everyone else: Kheldians are NOT as gimped as people say. Mine is very good, sometimes outperforming others, often filling in and saving the day. They're harder sure, and maybe weaker, but with these changes they'll be graet. Normally I try to stay out of debates like this, but wanted to give a warning to new Kheldians, and reassurances to States that not everyone disagrees.

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To everyone else:

Don't lump PBs with WSs. PBs are in much better shape, with a better thought out power selection and implementation.... with far fewer dumb ideas like corpse targetting with no real controls available to select corpses.

For all people truly playing a particular AT:

- some believe themselves to be too powerful and need to be nerfed
- some believe everything is OK, even when it isn't
- some believe things need help, when they're fine
- some believe truly that a broken thing is broken when it is
- some believe that the previous people are whiners
- some believe they are entitled to step up to the plate and classify everyone else as full of crap, and that their subjective observations reveal the Real Truth and now everyone can go home

So can we just let off on these "don't believe what the naysayers are saying, everything is fine with all Kheldians in all ways because I happen to like my peacebringiner" posts?

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I believe I speak for a plurality of Illusion controllers when I say that *any* scattering is going to be too much.

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Haha, well for one I do agree with you but on the other hand you're spoiled as you have the tools to deal with it.

Join the ice blaster and storm defender world for a while if you want to see the true face of scattering.

ALL SCATTERING IS BAD

It just made me laugh though as it would if a Ferrari owner were complaining that his car isn't fast enough while here I am on my rollerskates trying to keep up.

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In general would it not be to create an environment where there are more subscribers? The servers were yellow during the WL event and now they are not.

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The problem with this theory is that people come back for challenges. The WL was like getting crack injected into your eyeballs. It was just an XP frenzy. There is a game for this, it's called "Progress Quest."

If the WL was here all the time, sure we'd be yellow dotted. And it would last a month then everyone would get bored and quit. Then there would be fewer subscribers than before, because some of those that became XP addicts might otherwise have enjoyed the game for its gameplay which is good and the content which is getting better.

PL events do not help the game. They help more experienced players level up alts and so maybe cause a return of some interest on their parts, but there are better ways of doing this.

I suggested some playtime rewards. If you hit a certain number of hours played, you could receive a bonus of starting a toon at L14 with your travel power. Another level hit, you could start at L22 and have access to SOs. Another level hit and start one at L27.

This way now it is considered a reward, and by doing it in a way that it is rewarding playtime, you have experienced players who are not going to be screwups getting access to a pre-levelled toon. Now you have the beneficial side of an XP event like this without the drawback site, which is saturating the servers with players who don't know how to play.... no doubt players who will soon become frustrated both at the pace of progress because they used to have it easy, and now this "sucks" and players who don't know how to handle difficult villain groups because they never cut their teeth on skulls to learn the basics. Players who would otherwise be the experienced and dependable players who love the game in their 30s, now have quit to find something else.

That's why it's bad.

Not because a dude with a L50 used it to skip some boring levels that he's seen 10x already, and moved his Kheldian in a position to play with friends in his SG. That is beneficial to him and keeps his interest in the game.

There is some pro and con here, and it would be nice if the devs explained what they were trying to achieve with this, what went right and what went wrong, and how they can do it better in the future.

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OP quit whining, there will be noobs no matter what level you are. I apologize ahead of time that everyone can not meet your impeccable level of gameplay. How dare they try and compare to your flawless style.

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You quit whining about other people whining.

The boards are for feedback. He's giving it. I want to read it. So do others.

When you take it apong yourself to speak for everyone to tell him to "shut up", you're being far more arrogant than you're claiming he is being.

Then you dish out a series of insults to him for making his complaint.

This is no contribution here at all. Just a waste of time.

Part of his point is that these people would know how to play the right game if they had the right game handed to them. These people know how to play the game that the WL was, and now this is taken away and they are in our midst.

This is a fair complaint, as the devs had a good system in place to make people learn the game, and then they broke it for a period of a few weeks. Ramifications are still being felt.

I really have to wonder at you people who cannot stand to read the criticism without breaking out this emotional [censored] and going on the personal attack.

I can't believe you people are defending WL PLed toons. Really, I think half of you just want to jump on anyone who makes a complaint.

I had to explain to a L39 tanker the other day that one slotting all of his primaries, and none of those slots with resist or defense buff, was not a good idea as a tanker.

Yes, he's entitled to play the game as he sees fit, but for him, he built his tanker for one thing: killing winter lords. His idea of tanking was that he needs all his slots for his secondary, so he can do as much damage on a winter lord as is possible, so that he can get as much XP as possible.

He needs help. I gave him some. Dunno if he'll listen.

If he had done all of this with a goal of a certain playstyle in mind, that's cool. But the problem is that he did all this because he thinks the WL is the game, and this is the fault of the design of the WL event. It's made a lot of broken players at high levels, who need respec and are not capable of it.

You've got bubblers with six slotted attacks and no bubbles to give anyone, because WL didn't need bubbles but it needed sniping. These guys let their teams down and cause a lot of wasted time on trials. You have tankers who are as fragile as a blaster, and don't know what tanking actually is, and they're all hitting level 40 right now, bright and ready for PI.

This is wrong. It hurts the game to rush a bunch of newbie players with no clue into the endgame content.

Statesman's very own design goals were this:

Level 1-20 not much differentiation between the ATs. You're supposed to start getting a taste of teamwork, and getting familiar with your base powers, and then start diverging.

L20-30 you start to blossom into your role, having learned it in the first 20 levels, now you start getting more powerful in it.

L30-40 you have your high game content where success depends on mastering your role and having selected your powers well.

L40+ is tacked on, this I don't know what the plan was but it seems more as just fun time with challenges where you get to use all of your fully slotted powers.

People have entirely skipped the learning process. The WL destroyed all of Statesman's design goals for people playing this game. It was counter to everything that the devs did.... nerfing underlings so that they're annoying to fight, nerfing prisoners so that nobody bothers even touching them, this is removal of content to prevent the VERY thing that they then served up on a silver platter.

Yes, I think the devs should make a comment and explain why they took so much away from us, nerfed all these powers and broke a lot of builds, gave us entire classes of enemies that people won't fight or bother with that sit there doing nothing... all in the name of something that they dropped on Paragon City like a big giant turd and leaving us all who learned to play the game the hard way to deal with the big messy poop stained all over the place.

That's not a bad thing to ask for. Explain why you did this. Was it an oversight? Was it by design? When it got out of hand why did it take so long to shut it down?

(Note, with thousands of hours of playtime it was nice to have a vehicle to advance some underused alts, this aspect of it was very nice... but guys at level 30 with two days of playtime under their belts is the problem).

And it's just stupid to pile on to someone who is just asking for this. "What, do you want an apology?" Please, do not be an utter moron if you have nothing to contribute. It may make you feel better to write a sarcastic flame as your only contribution, but it makes you look like an idiot.

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What can a Warshade do? Dish out masive amounts of AOE in nova and with pets, and then unlike the AOE blaster, switch in to dwarf mode to survive the retaliation = lots of damage done to mobs, most initial agro is shared between the tank and the warshade/dwarf leaving the squishes safe. Once the tank grabs the agro back, switch to nova and finish the mobs in a couple of AOEs.

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During the Eden trial yesterday, we had to herd and nuke about 25 times.

Not *once* did a squishy blaster die because of retaliation. Ran the trial 5 times now, and the only guy who died after a nuke was a PB.

Why? Because the rest of the team did their job as they were supposed to. Tanks held agro. Defenders supplied defense. Controllers controlled. In this environment a blaster can do their job and not get squished.

Furthermore, a real blaster will nuke a heck of a lot better than you can with your nuke. If I'm looking for someone to fill that role on my team, it will be a real blaster over your warshade any day of the week. If I can't find one, then I'll look for a PB or Warshade...

*However* I don't know if that PB or Warshade has a Dwarf. I don't know if they didn't slot their nuke because they have so few slots for the powers. I do not know what the heck they decided to do with their toon. It's not reliable when you invite a Kheldian, you don't know what to expect at all. Maybe they decided they're completely a tank and you're hoping for some damage.

That said, if you're a reliable player and I know what you contribute with your idea of a build, then I would rather have you on my team than an unknown I'm inviting for the first time.

It's all about what to expect, and again: it's better to have a guy behind the controls of his Kheldian who can operate it properly than a guy who doesn't know what he's doing behind his real AT. This is all about the *player* though and wanting that *player* on your team because he is good. Has nothing to do with the AT, which in general does not compare to proper ATs.

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Because Lord knows, all the people who are happy with their kheldians and say they are successful and versatile cannot sway your opinion.

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There are also electric blasters out there with three slots of accuracy and one damage who say they are hitting hard and cannot be talked into more slots of damage. Them saying they are successful and useful to the group also doesn't sway my opinion.

I would rather have a L50 (who earned it) behind his peacebringer than a L40 blaster who got powerlevelled there. But a real L40 blaster, give me him over the peacebringer any day. I don't care how versitile you are, I want someone who can fill their ROLE. You have no role. Versatility is not a role. I don't need you to be versatile unless I have a bunch of PLed newbies on my team who don't know what to do.... *then* your versatility has a role because you get to run around wiping their butts and flushing their toilets when they fail to do their job.

Also PB > Warshade. PB can get by because you can build it as a fairly successful blapper. Warshade you cannot even come within 10 miles of being a fairly successful defender or controller. Not even close. Hell, you don't even have the versatility of an Illusion / Radiation controller... they can tank, supply damage, debuff, hold, slow, buff damage and end. This is versatility that is useful. Not what a warshade brings to the table.

But again, all of us saying that a real AT is better than you will not sway your opinion because you love your toon.

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I thought Cajun was like louisiana way correct me if i'm wrong, i prefer being right.

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Yes, they are from that way.

These people originally come from a french area of Canada, outside of Quebec, called Acadia.

Acadians -> Cajuns.

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Where is the outrage at the Italian flag on The Family badge?

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Uh, I don't know squat about badges.

Is this a joke or did they do that?

Because that will seriously piss off a lot more people :-).

Would you like some Freedom Fries with your badge?