AquaJAWS

Quick correction...
Paragon points are just points to buy stuff at the store. Anyone, free, premium, or VIP can buy and use them. Reward Tokens are what are rewarded to VIPs for each month and for roughly every $15 worth of paragon points you purchase, and can be used on the Paragon Rewards Program stuff.

But that just adds to your point about the number of currencies and complexity of it all.

Put me down for merging threads and shards at this point. The original purpose behind the division was to prevent people who stockpiled threads from getting the new slots too quickly. I think we're past that point now.

While you're at it, do we really need 8 common salvage types, and 4 of the uncommon, rare, and very rare types? Can we get that down to maybe 2-4 common (or maybe even just one?), and one of each of the other levels? The division made a little sense when it was JUST shard-based components so people would run different things. The way the thread-based components are rewarded though, it just adds unneeded annoyance and complexity to an already annoying and complex system for a casual player.

They do that, and it also goes a long way to opening up nearly everything in the game for the end-game solo progression at least some.

Quick summary.

OP suggested an idea.
Idea has been suggested many times before.
Long-time forum posters, who have seen aforementioned suggestion before explained why it probably won't happen with several reasons and explanations that have been presented in those previous threads describing the problems and dangers of implementing the suggestion.
OP didn't like that and started arguing with long-time forum posters about it.
Tangents and name calling started.

See William_Valence's post just before this for a summary of the name calling, arguing, and tangents.

It's not a guarantee but an outer space related zone that isn't the moon zone we've been wanting for years...then throw in the coming storm stuff...and they seem to be in a zone revamp mood lately...at least that's where I would go if I were a dev. At least I'm sure this is on their list of things to do in the game somewhere and its just a matter of time and resources before it does happen.

I agree with your reasoning for not wanting him to use it and how you handled it, but in the interest from correctness, the team TP prompt is a setting from people's option screen, not NULL the gull. Anyone can change that quickly on the options screen (its like 3rd or 4th from the top) at any time. People who didn't want it should have had ample time to change it if so desired.

True, they are working on them, but they haven't made it through beta yet. There's always a chance that the changes won't come through for some reason, or that the changes may not be significant enough in the minds of "the-powers-that-be" to warrant a freespec.

I'm not saying they won't from the changes, in fact I expect there to be some kind of respec that comes through at least for stalkers (hoping they just go ahead and change the system to use the new email system put in for Freedom so they can stack instead of the old existing system).

My intended point was that a new issue doesn't always mean a new freespec grant so that we don't get new players interpreting that is way it works and then be disappointed in a future issue where we don't get one that they may have expected.

When scheduling, make sure to account for NOT getting any new freespecs. Freespecs are usually only given out if there are significant changes to existing powers/power sets. Just because there is a new issue doesn't mean we will get a freespec.

Also, bought and earned respecs don't affect and aren't affected by getting freespecs either. If you've bought and earned respecs, they won't stop you from getting a freespec (if you don't already have one previously), and they won't take the bought and earned respecs away. Once you have them, you have them. Freespecs don't stack because the system they've historically used to grant them doesn't handle that, and the intention is to correct build issues caused by changes they've made to the game. If you have a freespec that hasn't been used, then you apparently don't have any issues from the changes from before.

Note that I didn't say it was the only consideration, but a piece of it.

So, without insider knowledge and studying the details of the animations I was going by what I've seen in the set and my knowledge of it, which isn't extremely extensive and I do make mistakes and misjudgments, but I do try and pay attention to stuff like that in game.

My understanding of how the game works is that most things grant a 'power' on something to facilitate an effect. HoT would be grant a power that adds so many hit points per second to a character. Stuff like beam rifle with stuff like the disintegrate effect would have to grant the power between NPCs in close range. From a programming standpoint, I could see how that would be technically more difficult and more expensive to implement properly than a 'power' that is stationary singular character like HoT, which as others have pointed out, is very similar to other things already in game.

I've also gathered that new animations in general are more expensive on the development side, from what Tunnel Rat, BaBs, Castle and various others have talked about. For example, they couldn't to power proliferation if it required new animations, indicating that somehow they are more expensive, or the stories of BaBs playing around with a whip in the parking lot trying to get the animations right for the Demon Summoning set right. While they may be new animations, they are nothing to the scale of new animations required for melee sets, like Titan Weapons and Staff Melee. Time manipulation COULD have been done with the stock animations already done. (by animations, i'm refering to the character movements, not the VFX tied to a particular power, I know those were all new for Time Manip).

I also said that cost wasn't the only factor...like a power set filling a gaping hole in the player themes, like controllers and dominators needing a dark-elemental set, or just wanting something for VIPs to get for free, like Time Manip. I just said it was A consideration. Given the sets introduced since the freedom model went into effect, I'd imagine the Dark Control/affinity and Time Manip were the cheapest of them all (though hard to say without seeing anything for the dark powers yet). I'd imagine that the art and animation assets put into street justice, titan weapons, and beam rifle were expensive as well as useful for many things down the line in the future.

Again, I'll state my issue currently isn't with that it is going to happen...its that after promoting these as a big story with a climax some of us were excited to find out in game, kinda like being excited for a new movie coming out. How it would happen and what could possibly lead up to it is part of it too, yes, which is all part of the excitement...

But it takes away from those a lot by revealing who before it actually does...could it have hurt to keep this as secretive as what the staff fighting animations would look like or what is in closed beta?

It feels like you guys have voluntarily spoiled a big part of the ending of some of the more interesting new content you are putting out.

******Harry Potter spoiler example below if you haven't seen it and you wanna keep it not spoiled******










Its like if JK Rowling had told everyone that she was going to kill Dumbledoor at the end of book 6 while on tour for the book 5 release. Is it the point of the series...no...but its a big plot point that knowing ahead of time takes away a lot of the impact of getting to it.

That's all well and good, but seriously...one of the biggest events in the game's lore ever and you guys spoil it early. That kinda irks me a bit

I'd wager most people were expecting to have to wait until SSA part 7 to find out. All those questions and the impact of the event would have been SOOO much more with the surprise and impact-full of it happening in SSA part 5 without a warning of when and who.

Cool event, and I'm sure there's more after and thats all great and everything...but seriously! This announcement could have waited until like the week after the arc was out to not spoil the surprise WAY ahead of time like this? Its kinda like them revealing that...

...sorry first...

SPOILER ALERT

Darth is Lukes father during the opening word crawl of A New Hope

Bruce Willis died in the first scene of 6th Sense

Who the mother is on How I Met Your Mother in the first episode

/SPOILER ALERT

I was really looking forward to seeing it happen and having that impact of it happen within the game! Granted I could have avoided reading this thread, but no way it could have been kept hidden for the next monthish from others in the forums or through chat in game...so by revealing it ahead of time shoots any chances of it happening as a surprise out of the sky. At least letting it get revealed naturally, the people waiting to play the arcs all at once (like me) could have had a chance of getting that surprise.

EDIT: ok so the third example isn't a spoiler...but was meant to be a joke anyways

From what I understand of how you revised the animations, it doesn't remove the difficulty that exists with a flowing whip-like device animating and having it look right.

While it may be made of 2D panels for the chain links, it doesn't change that those 2D panels have to flow in a 3D space fluidly and appropriately so it looks right moving from any angle. Flinging a chain is going to look differently from the top than it will from the side. That's the issue with animating a whip as well. Not to mention that from a distance that most people are in the game, most people in the game won't be able to make out individual chain links to merit spending the time to break out even that much detail...unless those are some HUGE links. At the speed most things go in this game it would be impractical to go that route since VERY few people would even notice or be able to make it out.

Also, the capes are static animations based on the characters stances. They aren't calculated as you're thinking...and it doesn't always look quite right. For instance...you fly straight up and stop...relative to the character you're looking forward and the cape goes down your back, but relative to the world you're looking up and the cape should be going with gravity and falling behind you. It is a mesh of canned animations relative to the player, not the world. Unfortunatly it doesn't work well for a super hero game to not have capes...whips we can live without for the most part...and they are fairly resource intensive...which is why they only let us have one cape/trenchcoat/borelo. MAYBE they could have the whip coiled in their hand instead of dangling as a compromise, but at this stage they wouldn't want to introduce more weird animation stuff like that unless necessary.

Its also very hard to get a consistent contact between a player and an enemy to look right. Even in melee range there's a variable distance between them. Nearly any other game i've seen attempt something like that, there's a jump between the deployment animation and the animation of actually having the contact between them. Even in this game, punches don't actually connect directly with the bad guy...a spark effect of some sort fires off on a specific part of a bad guy or at the end of your fist indicating contact. Having a fixed line of objects between them would be very difficult to get to look right.

Is it possible...well...yes...given enough time and money, technically anything is possible in the world of computers...but there's a limit somewhere in there practically, especially for a semi-niche weapon...which is why I suggested a general whip over just a chain...in my opinion, slightly less niche and everything works for both for the most part. I like the idea of it, and i'm not saying its a bad idea in concept and I hate poo-pooing it. Just saying I doubt its going to happen too soon due to the complexities of getting it to look good that the devs have already said.

1. For that reason it is also just as easy to move him to be the replacement contact for whoever does die. There would be very little impact of just removing him from that spot, which is kinda out of the way anyways.

2. Players have been clamoring for a rework to several of the low-end signature task forces Hero side, like Citidel, Synapse, and Sister Psyche (at least the 3 I've heard complaints about the most). They could very likely be revamping their task forces like they did with Posi's a while back, to make compensation for a change like the starting contact being replaced by someone like BaBs.

3. I'd imagine that with this phasing tech, they've also put in the ability to change what contacts you need to talk to from one to another, or at least they are in the process of doing so.

6. Maybe they are slating another zone for a major revamp too by then, say with Issue 22, which is likely coming out right about the time this story arc comes out. So, that would means it would be a zone with one of these contacts. Also, who says the phasing tech needs to be in from the ground up? Mercy isn't COMPLETELY redone, but it has phasing tech. The phasing tech wasn't really put into place until issue 22 for Freedom. Going Rogue had the ability to phase just contacts in issue 18.

For the sake of argument, Issue 22 has another large zone change also: Dark Astoria...who's only entrance is currently Talos...which is also the first entry point from Praetoria. Maybe they are updating Talos as well to fit more with the Praetorian look as well as to deal with the changes needed for the new Dark Astoria.

As for removing the characters from the actual missions...notice how the signature story arcs are increasing in level...meaning they could have the last chapter be level 50 only. If the phasing tech is used to remove the characters, then players won't be able to actually run the last chapter until they've run the regular missions with the characters. Most of the surviving 8 only appear at level 50 accessible content that are the high level task forces, which they are their only story line, so they could argue that that task force occurs before the signature story arc. The only exception is Synapse and Citidel (according to the wiki, and with a fairly brief scan so admittedly this could be wrong), which they are still level 46+ missions and the same argument could still apply. The rest have to be completed before level 50, and would only be accessible through Ouroborus, which would explain why they are still alive.

Now, I really have no idea who is going to die. I'm happy waiting to find out. And I could be wrong. But I don't see how your examples point directly to BaBs being the only possibility. Personally my money is on Citidel. They redo Talos, if needed, to handle whatever phasing they need (since they are going to have to do something with the Dark Astoria entrance area anyways...they said they are closing off that entrance at the summit), they update his current task force to work just as well for it being BaBs as the contact, when the story is done, they phase BaBs out of AP and into Citidel's spot in Talos and give him the task force, say his existance in the LRSF or any other missions is a robotic duplicate of Citidel, but not Citidel...or replace him with Lumina...or Seige...or another Hero/AV in those missions.