CapnBarcode

Zowie -- I have been scribbling down lots and lots of arc numbers from this thread. I hope to run them soon, either as lowbies or auto-exemped just to try them out.

The two arcs in my sig right now are 1-54, though a couple mishes in the second arc are 5-54. They should be do-able for lowbies, but they are chock-full of customs, so likely not ideal for, say, a level 5 soloing them. There are no stealthed customs, but some have buffs/debuffs. It's kinda hard to balance an arc well enough to work for that many levels, but I wanted them to be accessible.

Anyway, the first arc is very short (1 mish, so not really an arc as such) and shouldn't be too uber, though there is an EB at the end that will scale down to boss for a small team/soloist. The second arc is very long (all 5 mishes) and is a wee bit harder, with a few CoT cameos and a final mish with 2 Bosses and an AV.

Once I've tried some more peoples' arcs, I can post about them in here. Looking forward to that.

One disadvantage of revising an existing arc is that the people who have run the previous arc won't know it's new -- it won't even show up when they browse unless they untick the 'show me only arcs I haven't run yet' thingie. The only way they'll see it is if they're trying to find arcs they've already run or your arc specifically, in which case they may be disappointed to discover that it's different. Since these folks already ran your first arc, you could consider them 'returning customers' who would have an interest in a new arc you make even though it has a different number.

I don't actually try and remember arc numbers -- pen and paper are my friends.

[ QUOTE ]
My idea would be to give an SG leader or SG creator a special power when they sign up to create their base or something. They use this power to click on a door somewhere that afterwards serves as the doorway to their base.


[/ QUOTE ]

I like this idea a lot! (I haven't read the rest of the thread yet, so I don't know if the idea has been shot down, wreathed in flames, but it sounds reasonable to someone who has no idea what the codebase looks like.)

[ QUOTE ]
3) Are bases a failure? They were designed for the long-haul. Even a year after their implementation, the SGs that I'm familiar with that have been the most dedicated towards Prestige acquisition are just now approaching the 50M mark. The most expensive plot off the top of my head costs 136M. Rent mechanics (and their impending changes) notwithstanding -- these SGs are looking to max out their


[/ QUOTE ]

I got the impression (I was there to see most of his speech) that Jack and the rest of the Cryptic staff were happy about the costs; that they were structured to suck cash away from groups who had accumulated a big pile of it at least as much as they were structured to fit the game world. He didn't go into a great deal of detail about it, since most of the audience wasn't familiar with CoX and he had a lot of ground to cover, but it was clear that (in his opinion) this feature of the game was way over-designed and missed its mark with players.

I think there are a lot of reasons why bases are mostly abandoned, and self-expression is only part of it. Cost is another -- my SG on Freedom is having trouble making rent this month (somewhere around a quarter million prestige), and it isn't really all that big a base. We have teleporters, sure, and some people use them; we have crafting tables, but we can't afford to make and place items so the bins sit there jammed full of stuff. And we still have to have our SG meetings in secluded spots of the normal playing world because not everybody can get into the base.

Bases have/had some promise, but how many people want to pay taxes to equip a temple they don't worship at?

[ QUOTE ]
6 +2's?

[/ QUOTE ]

I know. How we mighty have fallen. Of course, that's in PvE. In PvP you can't tank that many, especially against status effects (like Freeze Ray or Terrorize) that slice through Unyielding without stopping and perma-hold you. So villains should have a field day against Statesman and crew tonight.

[ QUOTE ]
I hate to proclaim Dooooooom, but seriously now I think that removal of stores, without some kind of fixes to drops and how contacts handle enhancments, would be a complete disaster. Can we say.. Nail in the coffin? Not speaking for everyone, but I certainly would be gone.

End of Doom post. I realy hope this doesn't happen.. ever. If it does I hope something reasonable is done to compensate. I am suprised more people aren't freaking out about this.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just have trouble believing that they would implement such a drastic move. I can understand not having stores, if they had done it at the beginning. It makes the quality drops worth much more and makes enhancements feel like real advancement rather than required upgrades. But it would be a major change to remove stores now.

And when he talks about removing stores, I assume that also means the origin-specific contacts that sell enhancements; Serafina is a store as much as Pandora's Box is, as far as the game is concerned, except you have to do a mission ahead of time. (The mission can be done by anybody, not just magic origin heroes, so she makes a convenient store.)

I think the thing that would bother me most about removing stores is the resulting need to trade for enhancements. I'm thinking of the horrible horrible flea market in the Hive after every Hami raid. That was the real capper on top of that already annoying lagfest, and a major disincentive to going on a raid. I refuse to haggle on a regular basis. It's not an enjoyable part of the game for me.

Molly Hackett, Freedom server.

Molly on display
Bring it on!

Cry Hottie!