Bad_Influence

....And why the hell do for post-40 Freaks deserve to get less xp? Post-40 Freaks are an exploit...? Who the hell knew.

Yeah, well had I been taking anyone in the entire EU to task, this might be relevant. As things stand now, it's rather.... not.

Telling people to quit the game [as the OP was invited to do by several people due to the fact that he was concerned about losing his characters due to a merge with the NA servers] is just plain not cool. You can call that a "flame" all you want: the facts stand unchanged.

'Ave a nice day, mate.

Awwwwww. I feel so much empathy for those benighted souls FORCED to read yet another thread they don't like about stuff that they hate, like people being concerned about a potential server-merge. Lord knows, they have guns to their heads in case they miss a single word they can flame!

Hostility is hostility. I don't care about these qualifiers of yours; nothing justifies "Don't like it? Cancel your sub and GET OUT!!" its just plain rude, and its a disservice to the game. If the developers want to kick some one out of the game, they will do so without directives from people posting on these forums. I would bet money on it.

I'm right here in the USA. Buying it in Europe is not an issue for me. [You're saying "you" without a qualifying "general," so what else am I to think....]

These are forums devoted to the game; I fail to see anything inappropriate about people posting ideas, feedback or asking questions in them. I know, I know: this is inappropriate of me. I SHOULD be a forum-nazi simply waiting to pounce whenever anyone, anywhere posts anything whatsoever in what I consider the dreaded "WRONG FORUM!!"

I just don't have it down to a science yet.

And despite the rampant "TOO BAD FOR YOU, DON'T LIKE IT? LEAVE THE GAME" crap in here, this is very valid.

I can only *imagine* how I would feel if I were told that I had to leave all of my old characters behind in order to merge servers with the EU. I would go ballistic, and so would every last person in this thread - although of course you could not get that admission out of them with a red-hot hammer and tongs.

I think offering the EU people a free transfer of their characters would be a very nice and classy thing to do, as well as retaining a few players.

But eh, the hell with that! Let's just tell them they're "whining" and the sooner they quit, the better. Right?

NASA is one of the few institutions I find worthwhile to fund, because as I say to all "we need that money here on earth!" dissenters, this planet has finite resources, yanno. I would DEFINITELY rather send them money than about 95% of stuff my tax dollar actually goes to.

The only thing that worries me is that pretty soon we will have 0 manufacturing capability in the US and so all the sensitive stuff will get outsourced to China for manufacture. And you know how they are about cutting corners... dangerous. I would not want to be an astronaut on an all-Chinese-built ship. That is just me.

Plus I dont think they deserve that if ONLY for the pictures we saw on the evening news of people in tears as their homes were bulldozed to make way for some stupid Olympic arena.... and was the gov't relocating them? Nope. Detestable conduct. For shame!

edit for clarity: I have absolutely no problem with Chinese PEOPLE, they come from an ancient and proud society and I consider them very intelligent and worthwhile denizens of the planet. But their government, well.... kinda sucks. Did your kid get killed in a terrorist attack at school?..? Upset about it? Too bad. Shut up about it in the news or we send in the tanks....! *disgust at such shenanigans*

/end threadjack

Well, everyone over here has Monstrous hands, because I hate the "oven mitt" look.

As far as an actual "most abused" costume piece, not sure what its called, but its a female "tights" option pattern on the plain tights that makes it look like female characters have a bad case of Plumber's Butt. I know guys think this is the end-all ['scuse the pun] be-all of Sexy, but to me it just looks stupid. So I deem this the actual Most Abused Costume Piece.

Interesting.

Unfortunately, I stopped fighting them over that missile-swarm business and I really don't miss 'em enough to go test this.

My ignoring it does not make a given system have value or add to the general intelligence-level of these boards. And both systems in question are like something thought up by the lowest common-denominator that used to haunt the PWNz forum [with apologies to Reiraku and Xury, who are exempt from that comment].

Bah. *waves the concept away dismissively*

.... in short, very junior-high, just like the appallingly junior-high concept of rating other users. Its just like we got zapped back to 7th grade. "Inane" is a very apt word for the whole stupid concept.

Metaphorically speaking, I was glad to get out of junior high and have no desire to revisit it.... even on a message board.

Because concerning this issue more than any other, the developers have a tendency to give with one hand and take with the other.

My guess [I SAID "GUESS," PLEASE NOTE THIS O YE WHO ARE READING-IMPAIRED - I have to include this disclaimer every time I use the word "guess" or certain people go ballistic, sorry folks]... my guess is that pre-20 is getting a boost to get people to Stamina faster. There are many of us who feel that running pre-Stamina is like trying to climb Everest wearing rubber flip-flops and a pair of shorts, and we're PLing our way past those levels. The developers may want to change this perception of levels 1-19 "ugh, not this grindy slog again...." resignation, but that is a GUESS on my part. Please see above disclaimer.

Perhaps not, but my underlying point was that you were saying that as long as Musashi was not powerleveling new people, the devs don't care what he does.

I think from the amount of tinkering they do regarding how fast people level, its obvious that they spend a great deal of time worrying about it. Maybe even a little too much time worrying, but that is just my take.

What I find puzzling is this worried tinkering set besides upcoming new abilities to create solo 8-man maps. What the hell....?! See, when people actually do that, smart money says they're going to be all aghast and out will come some version of the nerf-bat to fix the "exploit." When the entire thing could be avoided by just not doing it in the first place.

... except that well, they sorta DO care.

If they didn't care how fast people leveled, this thread and others like it would not exist.

... There was a Family nerf?! Missed that.... probably because I refuse to run Family missions unless forced. I don't run those because Family bosses also run. Between bosses running like so many hyperactive little screaming girls and them Sniping my level 10 melee-character from a half-mile away/through walls, yeah.... I don't bother with them anymore.

See, its that risk/nuisance/reward thing again.

Not too long ago I took my SoA through that 'capture Crimson" mission. It is well known that Crimson runs, and I had no intention of trying to catch him; but this time he ran straight through a solid wall. I laughed out loud and waited for him to hit the outer door.

They've changed it to where he no longer does that, so the mission no longer auto-fails. So what did i do? Did I dutifully go chase him as he ran like an Olympic sprinter through what felt like 50 miles of sewer? Nope. I exited and dropped.

People like me are going to take a knife to that Gordian knot every time something borks the risk/reward/nuisance ratio. Every time.

I realize that hyperbole is Teh Debbil to most people out here; but this does not affect the soundness of his foundation argument.

We got a lot of buffs recently. Then came the ban-hammer if people leveled too fast, and now comes an xp nerf to one of the most popular enemy groups in the game. I really would rather not have buffs if they are going to be stealth-rescinded later on. My guess [I SAID "GUESS," FOR THE READING-IMPAIRED. COGNITION, PLEASE] is that this Freakshow nerf will be followed hard and fast by several other nerfs to other enemy NPC groups, xp-wise. I will be extremely surprised if this does not happen.

I'd much rather they spend their time doing more useful stuff; but this is just me. Just take Freakshow out of MA missions, problem solved, next please. They took mitos out, they could take Freaks out. Do it and leave the xp alone. I am extremely opposed to regular-content players being punished for what people do in MA - sort of like how I don't like PvE being punished for the sins of PvP.

Thank you.

I can't tell you how many blueside contacts I drop at the beginning because their 1st mission is Go Talk To This Hazard-Zone Contact.

As soon as I talk to the contact, I know they are going to send me on a defeat-all or Kill X Number Of Those Guys.

*gets out police scanner instead*

What "doom"? A minority of us [or so it feels] are not waving pom-poms and cheering about how great it is that we're getting yet another nerf, and this is "crying doom"? If ever I cry doom, you and everyone else will know it. I am not "crying doom." I am remarking that if Freaks become worth less than other groups to fight, I am picking up my toys and moving over to Council missions, or whatever. Council bore me but I refuse to play for reduced rewards if there is any way around it.

And therefore my reading comprehension is just fine. I could well remark that perhaps you need to adjust yours, because you [and a few others] are reading me say one thing and understanding that as another. "Reduced xp for Freaks? Fine... no more Freaks then" DOES NOT = DOOM.

Well, at last an excellent suggestion from you. I would FAR RATHER precious developer time and resources be poured into making the game new again than in these ridiculous nerfs to six-year-old issues that almost nobody complained about in the first place [except for Catwhoorg's buddies.... I guess they don't like Freak xp, but that's literally the 1st time I have ever heard anyone complain, lol. Takes all kinds.]

The Citadel TF where you fight the SAME Council on the SAME DAMN MAP for what? 15 missions? [sure feels like 15] is an example of STUPID [yes I said stupid] developer content. Why not fix this?! Would not this be more welcome than a nerf?

Not to mention, the developers send very mixed signals. First they add modifiers to allow one to level faster depending on where you are. Or they create Mission Architect. THEN, its "OMG they're leveling too fast!! Quick, nerf something!!!!" and I say, either allow people to level fast or keep things at the crawl they used to be before they decided to modify leveling speed. But quit flip-flopping.

"TA-DA! here's the MIssion Architect, have fun people!"

*a million people gain a million fast levels*

"OMG! They're leveling too fast DOOOOO SOMETHING!" *ban-hammer*

Its really ridiculous if you stop and think about it.

You are a villain; I know you are tough enough to handle it.

No one in these forums or playing the game has complete chat logs from every server, nor have they read every single post on these forums [nor do all people have access to all possible Ventrilo channels]. Only the developers have access to that stuff, as should go without saying, Vent to the side. Knowing all possible information as the basis for logical dissention on these type of issues is therefore not a reasonable expectation. You know that already.

I find this concept in general to be hair-splitting for the sake of someone looking for a fight. Not to mention, we have only your word for this: for the sake of argument, I could say you are lying simply for the fun of being oppositional. "No, U!" you might shout in return, and the chase would be on.

Prominent problems in the game are repeatedly discussed in these forums - often to the point of dead-horsedom. This repetitive rehashing of an issue, often over literally years may denote an actual serious problem. However your supposition that someone mentioning something somewhere in the dead of night in a thread few people see, lends legitimacy to a nerf that affects everyone, I find to be specious. I do not feel that one person's complaint should lead to a nerf for all.

Besides, even if you did hear one person in Vent complain that Freakshow xp is an exploit, [for instance], maybe another person somewhere disagreed and said Freaks give too little xp because of rez/Dull Pain issues.... or over another unrelated issue. How do you know this didn't happen? Which one of them should get their way in changing the game for all of us? Rhetorical question only.

Let's work on the actual problems in the game *before* we continue the seemingly endless stream of nuisance nerfs. Y'know, these problems that we see thread after thread after thread about, with people begging for fixes that somehow never materialize. It is not about to happen, yet hope springs eternal. I will give the developers credit for good fixes they have actually implemented such as fixing the Personal Info biography tab. Let's see more useful stuff like that and set aside these stupid nerfs.

Let's clear this up. I was not here for Enhancement Diversity, so I am leaving that out of the equation. Here is what torques my gears when we see a new nerf:

*The "problem" is 4+ years old, but only now do we see a "fix" for the alleged exploit. If the alleged exploit is that bad, would they wait 4+ years to fix it? Nope. So this means the "exploit" was pretty small potatos.

Why annoy people with a nerf over small potatos? Would not more customer goodwill be generated/maintained by just leaving the "problem" alone? This is specifically in reference to the Hover nerf, although this Freak thing is similar.

*The "problem" has never once been mentioned on the forums or in the game as an exploit or a problem, but the minute a nerf is announced The Usual Suspects begin high-fiving each other like their favorite candidate just won Class President or something. I find this behavior childish in the extreme.

*Some things that actually need fixing in the game [need I mention the bugged LRSF tech and the bugged Arachnos Repairmen in the STF?] never, ever get fixed, but by gorry we nailed those Freakshow to the yardarm, mateys! I find this more annoying than I can say.

*A majority of players are hit with a nerf generated by a relatively few players. Need I mention "fixes" related to PvP? Someone whines about getting Assassin-Strike'd in Warburg and *POOF!* everyone gets nerfed. Wow. Some kinda fair. This is less an issue nowadays, but the ill-will it generated in days of yore will linger in the memory a very long time.

*A fun SF/TF that I love to run is totally robbed of fun for me over someone else's "abuse" of the system. Rewards are removed or reduced to all but nothing. That's one less fun thing for my level 50's to do, and I don't like it. Especially when I did nothing wrong in the first place: in a perfect world, evildoers would get smacked with the Punishment Stick and those of us who enjoy fun and rewards could keep doing what we do, guilt-free.

These reasons and more are why the mere mention of the word "nerf" raises many hackles. As these small issues pile up, they create increasing ill-will and I consider this accumulating ill-will dangerous for the long-term stability of the game. This is an unpopular view amongst those who view all nerfs as good nerfs, but there you have it.

Please post a link to my "screaming" anywheres in this thread. To be honest, I seem considerably less exercised than yourself or a few other people in here, who fly off the handle at opinions which do not march in lockstep with your own.

Can't handle dissention? Take it somewheres else, this drama gives me a headache.

I really expect more from you than this sort of drivel.

And hate to break it to ya.... I'm going No. and Where, in that order. Here to stay. Start dealing, because this is Rumor Control and that is a fact that you cannot do a single, solitary thing about. Cya, troll.

Thank heaven for small favors, O Ye Of The Unusual Business-Model.

p.s. I have not called anyone any names, which is more than I can say for you and Bill. "Hypocrisy"? Whatev.

.... You know what I find truly idiotic, is all this dramatic namecalling and ad-homineming over the mere idea of someone having a different opinion than your own - and who was not even addressing you, to boot.

Its not changing any minds, but go on with your bad self.

Ah, so ever-declining subscriptions mean a "healthy" MMORPG.

*laughs out loud* I think this is the only business I have ever heard of where less money/decreased interest in the target customer is tied to a perceived positive outcome. This is a most interesting point of view.

A CRAZY p.o.v., true. But interesting too. Lawl!

Here's my take, which no doubt will induce more flaming rants: if it gives less xp than comparable groups, or the risk/reward/blue bar ratio is too extremely borked, I will avoid that enemy group - much as I avoid CoT solo now. If you love "getting paid" less for doing the same job, you keep right on doing it. Me.... I'll go do something else for a decent "wage." Everybody happy.

....You sure are flapping and squawking over a "groundless argument."

No Sam, these are not "[MY]" problems. I don't run NCSoft or any portion of the development company: I do not get any of the proceeds from subscription revenue. And so, these are not my problems. They're the game's problem and NCSoft's problem.

We call it "inductive reasoning" where I come from. It is a concept [believe it or not!] used by more people than just me. I didn't create it. You'll see it used in many places, and it is a useful forecasting tool.

My prior posts were posted in a "panic"? Wow. I had no idea you could read minds!

Do YOU have any "facts"? All I see here is your opinion. I dont see a single fact except that my prior post got your knickers in a twist for some reason.

S'funny. My opinion is all I posted, too.

Awwwwwww. Like anyone asked you to give a damn.

Let's yank the argument back on track, sans ad hominems: the bedrock argument being discussed here is not whether you, Razoras or anyone else thinks people do not have a right to express opinions over negative changes to gameplay - this is a forum staple, the idea that only the opinions of certain people matter... said opinons being those of our various Dev Cheerleaders. [I swear, we have people here who would cheer if the developers detonated a suitcase nuke in Times Square. "YAAAAAY! Take that cheating New Yorkers, you exploiters! Now you are BALANCED!!! You had it coming!! YAAAAAY!!"]

The argument here is really: are sub numbers up or down? It looks to many of us like they are down significantly.

Do you think this is good for the game, if true? Do you "give a damn" about that? I do. If you don't, good on you. Your opinion is not my problem.