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Posts
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Over the past week, I've noticed what I can envision will be an increasing problem: Noncompatible gaming experiences between VIP and Premium/Free players.
Some examples:
- My friend's two accounts (he forgot the password to his original and made the second one at one point) reactivated last week. We celebrated by planning to do an Incarnate Trial, as he had quit during Alpha Strike and wanted to revisit the system now that he was able. However, as I found out by asking the forums throughout the day, he wasn't able, so that plan was shot.
So, instead we rolled up new alts, with the intention being that I'd show him the new Sewer Trial. We get there and I have him check if he can access the LFG tab correctly. He said there was an error about "no available trials," or something, so I assume that Premium players can't use the LFG tab for non-Incarnate content as well (but I need some clarification on this, as I've heard otherwise since). We ended up just playing through the 1-5 content; he was unimpressed, as it's only slightly different from what he's already seen, and he hasn't logged back on since. - I formed a team in Cap doing some missions. It took about 10 minutes to get three people to join (because the Rogue Isles are dead on my server (Infinity)). After a few missions, I propose doing the Signature Story Arc. Everyone agrees, I try to begin it... No dice. Someone asks if there is a Rogue on the team, but I know from experience that Alignment isn't a factor, having done it as a Vigilante already. So I deduce that perhaps someone was Premium or Free, ask as much, to which a level 25 Corruptor said they had just come back to the game. So there's our flaw, and I recognize it and am typing to propose that we just do some papers in St. Martial when he apologizes for being free and quits the team. I felt bad, because from his perspective, I basically forced him off the team because he didn't pay $15/month.
- A player is forming up some Incarnate Trials in RWZ. I join the team, and he's talking about how excited he is, because it will be his first time doing any incarnate stuff aside from Alpha (which is just the normal TFs). We all offer friendly advice and pointers while he attempts to scrounge together a League (slightly off-peak time on the server). When we decide to start a Lambda with only 10, he asks where to begin it, to which point we explain the LFG Queue and he says that isn't available to him, and then we discover that he's a free player. So he did all of the work of forming the team, then just had to quit unceremoniously.
I knew there would be adjustments with this gameplay model, hence why the Exalted server was born - VIPs who didn't want to deal with free player restrictions.
However, I think a few things could be done that could make many of these false-starts more avoidable:
- Color-coded players to differentiate VIP, Free, and Premium - I mean within the name/UI, similar to the system used for "Help Me!" and "Helper" currently. In fact, perhaps all Free Players could be permenantly set to Help Me (and the color) by default. VIPs could become the Helper color, and a third could be added for Premiums.
Pros: Know everyone's gameplay capabilities and limitations just by looking rather than needing trial and error falsestarts or an extensive interview before deciding what the team will do.
Cons: Odd color-coded segregation fears make me uncomfortable. :/ - Make the Tiered/Chart of VIP vs. Premium vs. Free a default in-game Pop-Up - As is, I think only frequent Forum-goers fully understand the capabilities of each playtype, because it isn't made available in-game.
Pros: KNOWLEDGE!
Cons: Ya just know that everyone will automatically click it closed after seeing it once. - Better/Updated Mission Description Text that explains what the problem is - If Alastor had said immediately, "Not all players can participate in this content because not all players are VIPs," it would have shaved off a few seconds in my SSA experience enumerated above.
I think that's all I've got for now. What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Have other suggestions or experiences that show that some changes should be implemented? - My friend's two accounts (he forgot the password to his original and made the second one at one point) reactivated last week. We celebrated by planning to do an Incarnate Trial, as he had quit during Alpha Strike and wanted to revisit the system now that he was able. However, as I found out by asking the forums throughout the day, he wasn't able, so that plan was shot.
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Hmm. Are you sure that free players can join the trial? A friend of mine was playing as premium and said his LFG tab told him that there weren't any qualifying trials or something like that.
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Also looking for an updated build.
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Maybe a more descriptive title is in order. "Let's talk about the Free/VIP Experience"?
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Now that Premium and Free-to-Play is officially live, what experiences have you had with the non-subscribers?
Mine have been only negative, unfortunately.
First, a friend came back to his T3 Premium account. We looked into the Incarnate content, found out he couldn't access it, so we began new characters in Atlas with the intent of doing the new Sewer Trial. Well, apparently Premiums can't use the LFG tab... For some reason. No idea why.
I formed up a mid-30s team in Cap Au Diable to do some missions, and then we decided we would do the Signature Story Arc. After trying to start it and being unable to do so, I had to ask if anyone was on a free account. Someone was, so as I was typing, "Okay, well we can just go to St. Martial and do some Paper missions," they beat me and typed, "Okay, thanks for team," and quit. I felt bad, as by their perspective, I basically forced them off of the team.
Then just yesterday, a player formed up an Incarnate Trial in RWZ, got us all ready to go... And couldn't begin the queue because he was Free.
So, what have your experiences been like? I've gotta think there are some positive experiences out there - It seems like there is a larger population from the Server Select screen - It's medium load consistently, and it's getting there earlier in the day than usual, but I haven't seen where the boom is happening. Is Atlas booming? -
Universe Man has been released back into the wild.
I was thinking Time when I made it, if you wanted to go that direction.
"He's got a watch with a minute hand, millennium hand, and eon hand." -
Quote:Yeah, unfortunately I just grabbed random power sets on a lot of my characters figuring that I'd take the time to reroll them during a quiet time after the mad rush had died down. Of course at that time, I wasn't aware of the fact that you could reserve the name at origin screen and thus proceed a little less frantically.
Fortunately, with this one exception, I've rerolled most of the characters with names I really wanted with no glitches.Quote:Twice I've received the little green check mark when seeing if a name was available on Exalted but when I got to the very end of the character creator to enter the game or tutorial, it said the name was already taken.
Thankfully, I was able remake Maverick with no issues. I also joined a fun Sewer Trial right away... Quite an active community on Exalted (at least low-level), I may hang around more often. -
Oh, can I do the Theoden Signature missions as a Vigilante? Will I have the same reward table, just no option for an Alignment merit?
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Yeah, Vigilante. My plan is Hero > Vigilante > Villain > Rogue > Hero.
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Oh, Auction houses don't differ depending on alignment, do they? I won't lose my inventory from a hero auction or anything crazy like that, will I?
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Great. Thanks for the quick response, guys.
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I'm about to take my Sword/Regen Scrapper Rogue then villain in an attempt to add Shadowmeld to his build.
As I'm one Alignment mission away from going Rogue, I'm getting cold feet. I started worry about my other contacts... And I had some more questions. If these don't occur at Rogue but DO occur at villain, please indicate.
1. Will all of my current open hero arcs simply be forced shut?
- If so, can I resume then when I make my way back to hero?
2. What about missions in co-op zones? Will those force close?
3. Will I be kicked from my Super Group?
4. If I'm Rogue and enter a PvP zone... Whose side am I on? Does it just depend on what zone I enter Siren's Call (for instance) from?
... I think that's it. For now. Alleviate my concerns, please! -
I watched for the first time prior to the i21 launch. They also had appearances from Beastyle, Tunnel Rat, and... some dude who works on animations... Can't remember his name... The guy who made the Rocket board. We'll call him Marty. McFly.
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Crap. Sounds like I need to make sure I actually have the name I was most excited about.
Almost makes you just want to play the guy in the black spandex until you can get to a trainer to customize the appearance. So if you never delete it of your own accord and someone else does have the exact same name... What happens then? -
I must've combined the Fire Gausian +Build Up thing into my entire notion of Targeting Drone. /Devices should be given that!
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I don't know recharge and potential recharge for Aim, but even if, would it be so bad if it was permanent? Or switch it and make Build Up actually "build... up," like Blaster defiance, where you activate it and the damage buff raises over time (would have to start at the same value or slightly less and exceed the current value to actually be a buff).
As far as Pistols and Rifle go, you'd have to do something a bit ham-fisted like the Targeting Drone thing (unless I'm misremembering, doesn't it have it's own pseudo damage buff integrated?), and I guess something with Swap Ammo.
If the point of Blasters was to do more damage, let's do more damage! If we value living long enough to do that damage over simply more damage, maybe integrating a mini-MoG into Aim or BU would be more appropriate. -
That's another! Robo/Traps, my only Mastermind. Great concept, but Masterminds are just too hands off. He wasn't so great to play, but I kept at it, and that was during when most Masterminds were still expected to "tank" for their teams.
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I'm just poking in here at the end, but here's something I've often considered: What about making Aim (in most Blaster primaries) have a much longer duration? Like 40 seconds?
One blaster benefit that remains is the value of +ToHit they can achieve - While everyone else is whiffing at that MoG'd Paragon Protector, the blaster is hitting it, albeit for 13 points of damage each time.
So. What if Aim received a boost? Maybe PvE gets a treatment like PvP did (if I'm remembering correctly), and more damage was made irresistable?
I offer these suggestions to raise damage because that's the point of the AT, and I wouldn't hold my breath on Blasters being given greater defense or damage resistance numbers; but if they were, I like the idea of tying a temporary defense boost to Build Up/Aim, with the theory that the Blaster will at least stay alive through their attack chain. -
it's not an accomplishment if you don't have any competition!
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Quote:I know what you mean about the low HP. I tried seriously playing my Energy/Regen Stalker for the first time since the Energy Transfer change. I can't Build Up/Assassin's Strike/Energy Transfer anymore - ET's animation is just too long now. I died to that dumb minotaur Elite Boss in the Alpha Slot-unlocking Ouroboros arc about 4 times before I realized that, despite how awesome AS to ET is, I have to go AS to Dull Pain, wasting part of my Build Up, just to survive any counter attacks. I wish I had realized this prior to spending 150 million on buying him Set IOs.My first, second and third Peacebringer. But with the recent changes, the fourth is actually taking root.
I've also given up on a ton of stalkers. Claws/Ninjitsu had no AoE. Elec/Energy had great AoE, but EA sucked back then. Elec/Regen was fun but I was too annoyed by the low HP cap that also made it weak. Ninja Blade/Dark Armor was powerful, but the area damage just was not enough. I've got a Spines/Dark now that's still low level. This one should be a keeper.
I just recently threw out a SS/WP character that I just could not enjoy.
Quote:From reading what you wrote, the following stands out:
- You spend a lot of time investing into character theme, concept and backstory. Costume is also very important for you.
- You keep abandoning characters, and it often (not always) seems to be for mechanical/play based reasons (excluding the VEATs, who are high performers).
- You don't seem to like support sets that are support intensive (read: buff/heal focused).
My advice would be to let the concept portion of the character be more flexible and to wrap it around powersets that work together very well.
In essence you need a more balance approach when picking both your concept attributes as well as the mechanical side (powersets).
One good example is your Fire/Storm Controller (who you really liked) - Fire/Storm is a strong combination mechanically and also is not a support (buff) heavy powerset (instead you debuff and then kill stuff)
I would suggest for "support ATs" you stick to Controllers and also add some more Corrs and stick to secondaries like Storm, Dark, Rad and maybe even Time.
For other ATs, well only you know your preferred playstyle - just be sure to pick combinations that have a solid to very high level of performance.
I have 30 characters, with about 5 of them in single digits and 14 or 15 level 50s in the mix (not to mention the characters who were deleted either at 50 or prior). These days I wish I had just stuck with a handful that I really enjoyed. -
Quote:You may just be thinking of Goddess, but it looks like you could also be right with Kismet, since I decided to look it up before posting this. It looks like she is indeed the female counterpart of Adam (who is an artificially created man referred to as "Him"), in that she was constructed and is referred to as "Her".That one was probably blocked...
She's a Marvel character. (Warlock's female counterpart, I think?)
So... Good call! I've never heard of her, and I'm a bit of a self-professed Marvel fanboy, so that's saying something.
Quote:Well....wow.
There was a name that I asked for ingame, as the person who has it doesn't come to the forums at all, so they never saw this thread.
I was rather polite when asking for it, but got a less than stellar response, which pretty much in a shell was telling me to have children with myself.
I realize for super specific names, maybe it's more than coincedence, but for anything other than that, it's just... Entitlement? I don't know; I really want the name Hollywood, but I don't feel comfortable /getglobalname'ing whoever has it and pestering them. If I did, the only way to ask without feeling like a tool is with a whole lot of disclaimers. "Hey, you know that name you got? Well, if you're not playing it, and if you're not too attached to it, and if you would be so kind, I'd like to pay you influence for the name, or maybe offer another name that I have that you would be interested in - ohgodpleasedon'thateme." And that's still pretty toolish. -
/Elec is my favorite secondary for blasters. /Energy has more tools, but I don't value them as highly as I do those in /Elec (though most will probably tell you that /Energy is still the way to go).
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My favorite characters are a Stone/Willpower Brute and an Ice/Electric Blaster. So maybe combine them together and I'll have something.
I wish I had done this though... Rather than Altaholic all over the place, i wish I had played one or two strong characters extensively. As is, I have like 15 level 50s and half of them are half-baked, missing enhancements, let alone Incarnate powers. -
it's the base raiding that the Earth/Sonic would have been good for. Too much of an easy target in more open settings.
But yeah, I do probably need to transfer some characters since it doesn't look like Infinity PvP will ever rise from the grave. Too bad I missed the server transfer sale.