Cathulhu

Protector Server here. I have done several hundred I-Trials and my experiences match this.

Almost every ITrial has been open to all.

Of the remainder I have seen unshifted people excluded only once and that was when greater then 25% of the participants were unshifted on a UG.

I have seen a few trials held up for 5-15 minutes, or people voluntarily switch when we were TOTALLY lacking in an AT/build that the leader felt would greatly help, but have never seen any AT excluded. As an example one leader likes to have 4 "taunters" for TPN, but this has included Kheldians and Controllers who know how to pull and survive the terminals.

Likewise a few trials have been held up or cancelled due to lack of certain incarnate powers, Clarion on a UG as an example.

The question is a good one, though I would say that criticism of the Devs concerning this specific issue might best be with withheld since they may already have the answers in Chapter 7. After all they have not said she is perma-dead, which was the complaint with Statesman's death.

Some possibilities are...

This was all a trap for Wade to let Psyche mind ride him.
Her spirit/personality was destroyed in the ritual.
They use a ritual and do bring her back.
They use any of a dozen other comic book plots.



As for why techniques characters have to bring her back are not working the answer is simple. Throughout the history of CoH our resurection powers can and do fail, so this is just another instance where they do fail and there is nothing inconsistent in such.

I have tried to raise player characters who have not been reviveable. Out of character I know some of the reasons were they either decided to quit playing for the night, decided to quit playing that lame build and reroll, simply disconnected and were unable to resolve the tech problem, or were Roleplaying their characters death.

Likewise there are dead NPC's galore who can't be raised.

At this point we need to wait to find out the answer, but yes the question should be answered in the next story since it is obviously a question our characters would ask.

Observer bias was the case with me but for a totally different reason. When one subjectively compares leveling speed solo vs team they are most like going to notice the difference in the individual character. In other words the Blaster seems to do as well on a team or solo, the Defender does better on the team so it is noticed.

My first character was a Defender and I hated soloing. Leveling seemed to take forever compared to when I was on a team. Practically any team allowed me to level a lot faster. My second character was a Blaster and I did not notice the same difference between soloing and teaming, sure some teams would really click and I would speed along, but often I would join a team and we would plod along only slightly faster. I didn't read the forums, nor take measurements so this was based on my playing perception.

The reason for this perception is simple in hind sight. On a scale of 1-10 my Blaster soloed at a 3 and on a team a 4, My defender was a 4 solo, but on a team it was 8.
Whenever I stopped teaming I couldn't help but notice the difference on my Defender, but not the Blaster thus my perception.

Most on here know that Defenders are synergistic.

When my blaster joined a team with problems there was little chance I could make it perform much better. When my defender joined it was a different story. Controller mezed=Clear mind, Tanker bites off too much-Fort & heals, Blaster dies-Rez & Fort, Team needs to rest for endurance - "Not on my team" Recovery Aura and kick it into overdrive, I want my XP now before I go back to slow soloing.

The fact that I was playing a Defender skewed my perception since MOST teams I was on were rated at 5-10 on a leveling scale, since by being on the team I could probably improve performance. My blaster had teams ranging from 1-10 and my very presence eliminated a space that another synergistic build could take thus making the chance of a great team a bit less.

In the end my Defender was my first 50 and 7 years later my poor Blaster still sits at 35. Funny how my faster solo leveling Blaster failed to level to 50

Most stories have flaws but the problem is the level of these flaws. A reader will over look flaws until they reach a certain level. Thats why I compared them side by side so we can see that the obvious flaws in the showdown rank 10 in WWD#5 while they are a 1 in DKR

Lets put your objections side by side.

Based on what? What evidence is there to make Superman think Batman will try to KILL him?

Relationship. Which relationship suggests a Deathtrap.
Batman is Superman's best friend.
Wade is a Villain who has killed Statesman's daughter.


Who has a history and background likely to TRY to kill the Hero?
Batman through out the story is involved in dozens of confrontations many where his own life is at stake yet Batman avoids killing anyone. It is implied in the story, no need to look outside of it, that this is the way Batman has always been and Superman knows it.

The only death that Superman might think Batman committed is Jokers. Even there the known evidence is that The Joker was in the middle of killing hundreds of children, having just killed AT LEAST 16 cub scouts. Batman chases the murderer who is shooting at Batman and catches him, A struggle ensues where the Joker pulls a knife and stabs Batman and Batman breaks the Jokers neck. Does this sound like the sort of person who Superman fears will TRY to kill him?

Wade meanwhile has been involved in an attack on a peace conference, threatening Statesman's city with nuclear destruction, kidnapped Statesman's daughter and then butchering her.

Right off the bat there is no indication that Batman will try to kill Superman so no reason for superman to take any actions based on such. Statesman by contrast has every reason to assume Wade will try to kill him.

I never mentioned time travel since it tends to be a huge flaw in any universe it exists in. Unless it is part of the story being judged I ignore such criticism. In this case time travel is not shown as a possibility in either WWD or DKR. IF you want to debate this then within the Batman portion of the DC universe time travel is quite rare compared to the CoH universe so at best they both FAIL equally.

The reason is given in the panels next to the one where Superman challenges Batman. The media is reporting that because of Batman's vigilantism that there is no rioting in Gotham while rioting is exploding in every other city in the US. Past panels have shown that The President wants Batman taken in preferably in a splashy way so as to remove him as a symbol to others. The fact that this information is placed at the very point where the challenge is issued answers the question loud and clear. Furthermore within the rest of the book it is clear that the President, who is not necessarily all there and is playing to the media and Superman tends to follow his orders. So the answer is "Superman can't wait or else other cities may start to follow suit."

Notice how this point is answered by the artist and requires no guess work.

Now lets compare this to WWD when I ask a similar question "Why Statesman can't wait a few minutes for backup to arrive." There is no clear answer. We can guess that maybe he was feeling so broken up that he didn't think straight, but theres lots of counter evidence in the same panels (He was thinking straight enough to not want to kill Wade and to somehow track him down.) Worse still it makes Statesman look like an Emo nube.

The answers that applies to all of these questions except the "Ollie" one is "Because none of these are real threats to Superman."

All evidence says these are not a real threat to Superman. Batman says as much and the art shows the same. The missiles kick him around a bit and a tank shell knocks him back, then he picks up the taxi tank, Rips the door off and with not a scratch on him and says with a smirk "Isn't tonight a school night?" to young robin. The gun and suit manage to give him a nose bleed, but he handily rips those apart and while Batman gets a few good blows in it's nothing Superman can't handle. This is all shown by the art and dialogue. All evidence says that these things are not a threat to a Superhero who can survive a megaton nuclear explosion.

Notice there is no need to guess this. We see these answers in the story.

You might say that "Even if none of these are real threats to him why wouldn't Supes still use these tactics."

Once again the answers are in the story repeated over and over.

Superman is a boy scout. He lives by the classic ideals. He plays by the rules. Likewise it is implied in several places that this will be a media event, Olie says as much. The government wants to use this as an example. This would be like a runner for the US Olympic team challenging someone in a wheelchair to a race, then yanking the wheelchair away right as the race begins.

You also say that it is a noob move for Superman to use X-Ray vision to scan, but in the very same panel Batman implies that these are rare custom devices. Superman may never have encountered this tactic before. Even if he has you don't ditch one of your best detection systems just because the enemy might have a counter measure.

Just as important though he wants to talk to Batman. To reason with him. To show him that he should give up. He uses only as much force as is needed since there is NO EVIDENCE that there is a threat here.


OLIE

Olie is the only thing that might tip off Superman and it is a slight flaw that they don't explicitly state his abilities in DKR. However it is clear he used to be a super hero as Batman admits as much, and is still skilled and determined enough to take out a "nuclear powered Submarine and leave no trace." The range of a non superhero longbow is hundreds of yards and in a Super hero comic book that should be the least that he could accomplish. So the writers have setup a Super powered Robin hood. Now how does he get there.

The military has left a "hole in the cordon big enough for a tank to get through." and like wise the sewers are shown to be lightly covered. So there are at least two ways that the writers have put in front of the reader that Olie could sneak in through.

Even if one discounts those and thinks that Olie was hiding there all along, the writers have covered that. The military pilot says that Batman is jamming there sensors, and when Superman tries to use his X-Ray vision he gets kicked around by missile fire. You claim it is a noob move for him to even have tried to use Xray vision, so then he sure as heck won't keep trying. I would contend that he might try, but after the first set of missiles Kicks him around some he is unlikely to keep doing something that causes pain unless he has reason to think there is still something out there.

So we have a superhuman Robinhood with no evedince that the military or Superman knows he is in the area. We have Batman jamming non super human means of locating him, and giving a plausible reason for even Superman to not keep trying to find something he doesn't know exists.

To top it off, there is no evidence in the comic to suggest his X-Ray vision could locate and identify a skilled superhero Robin hood hiding hundreds or even a thousand yards away in a city. We could speculate that maybe this Xray vision could find him but then i could just as easily speculate that some common substance like lead might prevent such detection.

Yes the writing is bit weak here, but compared to WWD #5 it is flawless Shakespeare.


Superman wants his friend to surrender and be brought in alive. The story shows time and again that they can't capture Batman alive. Can you honestly say that Superman would risk letting government stooges with guns go in and try to apprehend his friend?

As I pointed out the death occurred under circumstances that even on the surface should not cause Superman to assume Batman had given up his code to kill. Every action since Jokers death, from him escaping officers using lethal force to his dealing with hundreds of rioters has shown that Batman still isn't killing, let alone has any intention or chance of killing Superman. For Superman all evidence says Batman will fight back and fail.

I meant to have "Worst Serial Killer" sorry for the confusion.



"out of all the comic book characters" No not even close.

You might be right and I won't debate the point if you meant to say "out of all the comic book HEROES in the DC UNIVERSE..."

I am saying that there are many lines Batman wont cross and ample evidence to support this, There are few if any lines Wade wont cross to obtain his goal. My point was to compare Wade and Bats and what extreme they would go to against there respective opponents. Wade would be willing to hide a Nuke to win. Batman never would. Wade would slaughter groups of people, Batman would not. The list is huge.




But theres the problem. You admit "We don't know". As i have just demonstrated the answers to the same questions in DKR are right there on the pages. No need to guess, let alone say "We don't know." and at least the writers of DKR are willing to tell you and let you decide if it makes sense.

Your own explanation points to the problem caused when a story leaves critical questions unanswered.The reader has to guess, then guess more, and weave a weird tapestry to try to cover all the errors each guess creates. You are starting to do that exact same thing.

You say "His investigations would probably take him to the Rogue Isles and Wade has probably left clues pointing to where he could be found."

You mean like the evidence we found? Like the clues we found detailing his plan to use a ritual to steal Statesmans powers and that it would take place at the temple? Like the Rularu we found? Are you sugesting Statesman found all this and could't see this was a trap? Or will you now try to reweave the tapestry that the worlds greatest hero with 80 years more experience fail to find and notice what us 5 year veteran heroes saw? How does Statesman, who has access at the snap of his fingers to intelligence sources, brainpower and detection devices both technological and magical that we can only dream of, fail to do what little old us can? Give me a break. His hide out was at a location that Wade and Malaise met at. If we can find this out why can't Statesman?

Can you answer these questions using the information given in the story?


We can keep playing "Maybe" and "What If" games all night long, but thats the point. WWD requires that game and that is what weakens it compared to DKR

Better count again. 3 in the first shot. 3 in another scene watching the fight and 2 more within a matter of seconds are seen engaging Oliver. Likewise 3 infantry men are standing on top of the tank, with who knows how many more nearby. If this what you see in just those scenes how many more are implied to be in the area. Yep its always possible that those 3 helicopters managed to be in every location and there were no others. It's possible that the only three infantry men in the entire area happened to be just where the tank was. Does this sound reasonable to you?


And theres the problem. You say "You don't think" and "I doubt" because it is so unclear and arguments can easily be made counter to all that.



"He can probably count "
"I'm not even sure how much he knows "
"It might have looked like "
"Probably the ideal place "
"It might have occurred "
"Wade could have fled to "

Notice how many "Might and Maybes" you need to use just to answer one point. DKR doesn't require 1/10th as many.

IS DKR perfect? No. But WWD is far beneath DKR quality.

Are we talking about the same Statesman who stands on a ship in IP sending 8 unknown heroes into deathtraps where they fight Statesmans equal, Lord Recluse and his army on Recluse's home turf?

Are we talking about the same Statesman who sent heroes to certain death in the Rikti War?

That's the problem with this story. The actions of the characters are not consistent with who they are supposed to be both in past actions and in what one would expect from the best Paragon has to offer. To buy this story means believing that many of the characters and possibly the readers own characters have been struck by the stupid ray.

Compare this to the final showdown in the Dark Knight which answers the same sorts of questions which have been asked of WWD#5.

Actually Dark Knight does not fall into those same traps.

Simply put.

In Dark Knight Superman is the only one who can do the mission (Bring a friend to justice alive), has little reason to suspect a death trap (Friend has code against killing) and no evidence that the showdown will result in anything worse then a nose bleed no matter what scans or investigations are done.

By comparison Statesman is not the only one who can bring Wade to justice. In fact Statesman should know that since this is personal he is a bad choice to attempt such. He has every reason to suspect a death trap aimed specifically at him, and yet he still brings no backup what so ever.

Heres a more detailed breakdown of the above.


The enemy and reason for going in.
In DK Superman goes into the showdown to try to talk to and take in alive one of his best friends Batman. He is probably the only person who can do so. Likewise the enemy has a code against and avoided killing. The only exception might be the joker but even if Supes believes Batman killed him he can also see that the Joker is the worst killer in history and the killing took place only after an extraordinary circumstances.

By comparison Statesman goes after a villain who he knows is underhanded, has killed daughter, has Allies, access to nuclear weapons and is not above kidnapping family and friends and holding them hostage. This is the sort of scum that is willing to do anything and may well have hostages, death traps, innocent bystanders, and who knows what else at his disposal. His goal is to talk to such scum and take him in alive because killing scum is bad.

Backup.
In Dark Knight it is clear that there are no Supers left to back up Superman. He does how ever bring in literally a small army as backup just in case things go real bad, cant be much more prepared then that.

Statesman brings in nobody as backup even though Wade has shown every indication that he is not above using hostages, nuclear weapons and forced choice plots (Arrest me or save the hostage) where a bit of backup would help. Likewise Statesman having a friend along to talk him out of killing Wade if he says the wrong thing would be good. He apparently fails to bring anybody because he's emo and incompetent.



Obviouse Trap?
Batman lures Supes to ground which is symbolic to Batman but has no magical connection. Researching and scanning the area using even the best methods reveals nothing that will do more then give supes a nose bleed. The trap is in the form of another person who is some distance from the fight, and could initially been miles away and snuck in through the hole big enough to drive a tank through. Even with all this it is still shown that Supes is about to catch wind of the plot and Bats has to take action to distract him for 5 more seconds.

Wade lures Statesman to ground that is magical and symbolic to Statesman. A first year mage would know this is dangerous and a scan of the area would reveal potent magical threats.

As you note below the medium limits certain styles of story telling. The players character is not "permanently" killed off because doing so eliminates your audience from viewing the rest of your work. If this is Wades only known failure in chapter 5 then I would say Venture in the spirit of this debate is correct. Wade according to the evidence in chapter 5 succeeds on all fronts that the chosen medium allows for.



This is spot on. It's not this story arc but EVERY story arc that I have seen in CoH that would have my table top players feeling railroaded. The RPG in MMORPG is comparable to Table Top RPGs in the same way that Artificially flavored Orange Power drinks are comparable to an Apple.

Unless this thread is about how all CoH stories railroad people then it is unfair to compare it to another medium. Compare it, as some have, to those CoH Story Arcs you feel are good. If you don't think there are any good CoH story arcs then that suggests your problem is with the medium, not the storytelling.

This question could be the key.

I have been away from the low level part of the game for several years, but I recall that some missions mobs were set at a certain minimum level, but you could pick them up even if you were below that level.

As an example a new contact might be available at level 8 and give you a mission with level 10 5th column. I have NO IDEA if this is still the case or related to your issues.

The reason that "resurrection powers" (Empathy, Dark, etc) didn't work on Statesman is simple.

Because any one who has used "resurrection powers" in the game knows they sometimes fail, Thus for them to fail on this occasion is perfectly consistent with how the powers work. If resurrection always worked it would be a valid complaint, but in this case it is not.

Do you expect the Devs to explain why resurrection didn't, and also why it did work, every time it is used?


<Edit added this>

Add in the fact that Wade wanted to make sure he killed Statesman and used exotic rituals to pull it off.

This would be analogous to a murder mystery set in our world where a hit man shoots the victim in the head then the doctor fails to save the character. Since doctors often fail to save head shot victims it is a given that the doctor failing in this case is reasonable and needs no further elaboration.

You are essential asking “Why could the doctor not save the hit mans victim?”

I am unclear on what you mean by this. I thought you simply set yourself to league chat mode instead of team chat mode and you have the same functionality as the team channel. Is there something that can't be done in league chat that can be done in team chat?

I returned to the game after a long absence and noticed that at least some of the TFs have been upgraded and improved (New art, better mission flow) and with the number of arcs you might very well be able to go from 0-50 on TFs alone.

Might want to make sure level pacts can be made. As far as I know making level pacts was disabled with Freedoms release. I think, but I may be wrong, because the Devs could not quickly fix issues involving pacts where 1 player became a non paying premium.

Best of luck on your teaming

As a long time player I would say it is in part because of all the griefing that was done with TP and the lack of such from group fly. Just a FEW of the misuses of TP that occurred in the past are listed below.

TPing a level 8 off the edge of a sky scraper in Steel Canyon which puts the level 8 in a Hospital surrounded by lv 12-14 villains. I TPed my fair share of players back to the train station from that hospital.

TPing a player into a bunch of +8 villains.

TPing a player deep into +5 villain mission with prisons (Dying and "Going to Hospital" just takes you back into the missions prison) and then leaving.

TPing a character into the sealed Watch Towers in Portal Corp or the Lab rooms in the basement of Atlas Park (Yes, people would be forced to call out in broadcast for someone to TP them out.)

I saw TP used in cases that while not Dev defined griefing upset the player including...
TPing a player who is taking "to long" training, buying or selling to the mission door.
TPing a Tank who was AFK into mobs and continuing the mission without permission

Then there are the countless times a well meaning player uses TP at the wrong time. They think "someone" is in trouble and TPs them to safety when in reality "someone" was walking the edge but had it under control. Yea I've done that one.

Likewise TP Friend was available at level 6 and I doubt there is a week I have played that it was not used on me. My main who has TP Friend uses it on almost every team I join. By contrast Group Fly was a level 20 power that few took and that outside of the Hami Drop team I have never had used on me or even offered.


Another possibility is that the power could not easily be disabled without a major rewrite to the code. Since so few players had the power used on them, and fewer still had complaints it was probably put on the back burner. Keep in mind that Speed Boost a power that had huge threads full of complaints still took years to fix.

Did you read the post I was responding to? In the context he wrote, it seemed he was wondering why it was FOR SALE for a limited time. My response was in regards to such a question. I'm sorry if this confused you. In my origional post, simply replace my use of the phrase "limited time" with "for sale for a limited time" if it is unclear to you.

If your just venting, I understand.

But the answer to your question is they do "limited time" offers because they think it will make them more money. Considering the number of companies, the wealth of these companies and the number of decades it has been used it probably is a good idea for certain types of products and/or customers.

As for why it makes more money, my own personal experience owning a comic/game store is that many people will shell out BIG bucks fast for something that is limited time/limited quantity. They shell out the dollars for many reasons, 3 of which I list below since they apply to CoH.

1) Collector. Must have them ALL and since it is limited time I MUST BY IT NOW!
2) Bragging rights. "I have something you don't have!"
3) Don't want to miss the fun. "It LOOKS good so I had better get it now before it disappears."

If the item was not limited time then you loose the sales made to the first 2 types of buyers. Likewise the third sort of buyer would wait to see weather it truly was good or needed before buying. When I owned my comic and game store I had dozens of customers pre-order CCGs, I had never heard of, sight unseen so they wouldn't miss out. Many of these would fail to reach critical mass and wind up sitting in their closet unplayed and sometimes even unopened. In this case some are buying these costume pieces even though they have no concept of a character for it just in CASE they may need it.

Lastly limited time doesn't mean that they won't offer these items again in the future, so they will get even more sales later. Just look at Disney's success with "limited time", back in the vault, rinse/repeat.

While I find it annoying that they use these "limited time offers", I fully understand why NC does it. It would be stupid for them not to.

The number of people who have a negative association with the name Statesman appears to out number those with a positive one. Thousands of people quit the game because of Statesman so it would appear that the name Statesman may well have been holding them back.

Thousands of people quit playing CoH because Statesman nerfed their character when he instituted ED, and who knows how many more quit because of his other nerfs and statements. It is significant enough that 4 years after ED and 2 years after he left CoH he was still being asked by the major online game mags about it.

You can try to claim that this was all done by Jack Emmert, but notice that the name is so closely associated with Jack that even you had to say “Statesman, the character.” It is so closely tied that you also say that the “the only apparent reason was that <Statesman> represented Jack Emmert and, by extension, his legacy.” You acknowledge this connection.

For more evidence of both that negativity and the association with the name just check out this thread where practically everyone calls him Statesman and he garners a LOT of hate and criticism over ED. Keep in mind that many posts that were even more hate filled were removed.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...265#post137265



But of course one must weigh this against the thousands of angry posts against the “Death of Statesman” and all the hundreds of players threatening to quit.

OK so I can’t find anyone who has threatened to quit and we have less than a thousand posts with the title Statesman many of them supporting this decision and one even started by Statesman fans bemoaning the fact of “all the 'yay, Statesman's dying, he's (insert your derogatory thought or comment here)' posts on the forums.”

When thousands if not tens of thousands have a negative association with a company Icon, and only a few hundred seem to care about its removal then I would say that is a good business reason to get rid of it. No malice is necessary, nor have you shown a single quote from the Devs showing such malice. If you do have a quote or real evidence of such please present it as I would find it quite interesting.

You responed with
I think the reason that people are objecting to your statement is because "malice" is a very negative term with definitions such as

"desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness: the malice and spite of a lifelong enemy."

"evil intent on the part of a person who commits a wrongful act injurious to others."

and so far no evidence of malice has been presented.

The term "left the nest" means growing and moving on, as in "My kids have left the nest." No malice would be attributed to that statement. Likewise the other statements and actions, as you acknowledge, show a business attitude with no malice involved.

Fictional characters are killed off all the time with no malice involved and one needs look no further then the genre the game is based on to see that this is the case.

Very Nice Major T. A Thread Necro that was actually decent and worth doing. Thank You.

I understand your feelings for Statesman, The Heroic/Tragic Fictional Character. But that is only one side of the coin. Statesman was also an extension of Jack Emmert. Jack Emmert created the character, used it as his avatar in the game and as his mouth piece on the forums. To expect people not to intertwine the two is unrealistic.

It is well known that actors can cause the popularity of characters they play to plummet because of their Out of Character personal actions (See Paul Reubens). It's worse in this case since there is no clear line as to what is OOC since Emmert used the name "Statesman" when he made unpopular statements. Then he made more, and still more unpopular statements while wearing the name.

Imagine if Danniel Radcliff-"Harry Potter" had said bad things about the Queen of England. Now imagine if he did it WHILE dressed as Harry Potter. Now imagine he did this once a week for over a year with the blessings of Rowling. Do you think people would intermix the negative feelings with Harry Potter and that Harry Potter would be hated by many?

Thats the CoH equivalent of what happened, and at this point a certain percentage of players are happy to see Harry Potter the Queen Hater die.

It was Not a single post by a single Redname as you seem to think but multiple posts by multiple Rednames.


And not just any old Redname adopted it but The Head Redname, the most influential person in the game at the time, Jack Emmert.


To top it off it was used near the beginning of the game “In the days of alpha going into beta before release” a time when terminology has a high chance of being adopted.


Do you really think that the use of a term by multiple Red Names and the adoption of the word by the head of the company in the early days had no impact on weather the word was used and accepted by at least some of the players?

Surely there were many sources of the word but the adoption by not one but MULTIPLE Devs of the word “Toon” when commenting in MULTIPLE Posts should not just be hand waved away. Without at least some counter evidence this appears to be at least ONE of the answers to the question “How the word Toon migrated to CoH”




Here is the complete quote once again courtesy of Lulipop

The OPs Question was at the time I posted and still is...

"What I meant, and what people seem to have missed, is how it became a relevant term to this game, or alternatively to whatever other game it may have spawned from, and how it migrated to us."

Notice it is a multi part question one part being "and how it migrated to us."

My response was in reference to Lolipup who posted a private message from the Devs informing us as to where they think the name came from and why. Do you feel that information from developers of the game in question on the subject in question is not relevant or is incorrect in answering that part of the question?

Post from Lolipup

'Super side kicking' may have reduced the need for it but Incarnate has increased the need. Possibly far more since Incarnates create a wall that can separate characters like nothing I have previously seen in the game.

I introduced a friend to the game a few months ago and me and 2 other friends are having a blast doing missions with her and seeing the world through her eyes. The only problem is that one has been working lots of holiday overtime and is only level 47, the other had family commitments and went home for 10 days of Christmas and is level 40. She and I are now both level 50 and she has finally succumbed to the lure of Incarnate Trials. The other 2 are disappointed that they couldn't join in. I will be doing some "AE" missions with one of my friends to get them to 50, something I seldom do. The other is languishing at 40 and is starting to loose interest.

We have started a team of characters on villain side but already the same thing is starting to happen where the two of us are pulling ahead.

If the Devs can't get this fixed in a few months to work with VIP I hope they consider just making it a feature available to all.

Thank you for taking the time to research and give us the likely answer to the initial question. We now return to our regularly scheduled debate "Is Toon a Derogatory Term."

Don't know if this is a major factor but on Protector I know of one regular Trial Leader who has admitted they are the last one to click and delays in order to give friends and others a chance to Hop in the Que.

If I understand your suggestion...
A) A Channel/Tab would be created that the Gold Sellers would be allowed to advertise on.
B) Advertisement outside this channel would continue to remain as it is (Not Allowed/Banned)
c) Players would be able to choose to have the Advert Channel on or Off.

Now if this is your suggestion then unless you can solve the problems listed below it looks like it will fail.

1) From my understanding most people avoid repeated advertisements for the same general service. After just one day of this system what percentage of the players do you honestly think will keep a channel open that advertises Gold/PLing 24 hours a day? 1%, 5%, 10%, 50%, 75%?

2) Even if you limit the adverts to one per account per hour the Gold sellers will create multiple accounts and domain names to increase there exposure on the Advert Channel. After all if I advertise 6 times an hour under various websites/names and my competition with the same service and price advertises once an hour, I am likely to get 6 times the business. (This is a common practice in our local yellow pages for Locksmiths since 2-3 calls from a desperate locked out homeowner pays more then the cost of an extra advert and real service cost.) Pretty soon all the RMTers will be doing it and you wind up with 100's of adverts an hour from the same 20 companies. One week after this system is in place with 100's of Adds an hour on this Avdvert Channel what percentage of the players do you think listen to the Advert channel? 1%, 5%, 10%, 50%, 75%?


3) Since advertisers will spend thousands of dollars to reach less then 1% of a population, assuming you did not answer 100% to both questions 1 and 2 , Why would a RMT be foolish enough to NOT use a (Free to Play) FtP account costing $0 to spam the local/help channels, just as they currently are, so they can reach the 25%, 50%, 90% or 99% of the players who have turned off Advert Channel?

4a) If your answer is that the advertised RMTer would be banned/sanctioned, than what is to stop RMT #1 who wants to eliminate the competition from RMT#2 or a player who didn't like RMT#2 from setting up an FtP account and advertising RMT#2 thus getting them banned?

4b) If your answer is to punish all RMTers (Ex. "No one can use Advert Chanel for 1 hour because an advert in local was done in RMT#2's name!") for the actions of one, Then what is to stop a Griefer/Disgruntled player from setting up an FTP account and advertising a RMT# thus getting them ALL banned and leading right back to the current system? "Biggest CoH Grief ever for Epic Win!" Did I say that right