Ciera

First, if you read the EULA then you'll find they are libel if they break the contract agreement. It states cases for a user breaking the contract and spells out their responsibility to provide the game environment.

In our case since they have chosen not to support or provide continued service they are in breach of the EULA and are libel. They may provide options, but if you demand monetary credit back to a bank/credit card then they can be found libel for that refund. If they provide credits for other games you can choose that option waiving right to monetary refunds.

At this point in time you can contact your financial institution and stop payment/request reversal of payment, then it's a matter for them to address with NCsoft. This stop payment should not require terminating your account as it would be just like your account dropping back to either VIP or F2P by the NCsoft system.

A class action would be valid in this case since they are in breach of their part of the agreement by suspending support of the game. However CAs are notoriously slow and monetarily you may never see much of your money returned depending on the size of the suit.

"Originally Posted by Tunnel Rat
In other news, I expressed on the last Ustream marathon that I believed Granite Armor could be made customizable. I'll be devoting some of my free time to exploring this possibility. The trade-off would be that the Devouring Earth model is done away with, and replaced with a more generic-looking model that is placed over the character's body, similar to the rest of the Stone Armor powers.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this trade-off. Thanks to those who have already posted their opinions!"

OK, I really do understand the transforming aspect of granite... I used it in my concept too knowing what was coming with granite armor.

But after 4 years of turning into "big pile o generic rocks that move" it's time to get some options there!

Definitely would like to see some of the concepts you can come up with based on a revised model.
Definitely need the basic categories of color differentiation and material differentiation.

I like the idea of being able to be a Magma Lord concept.

If the option were to be made available, perhaps a special character body type respec could be made available for purchase on the market? I've always wondered why we could replace the entire costume, even to the point of turning a human into a monster or robot, but we couldn't change size.

TR thanks for taking my question on today's USTREAM.

Alot of us Granite form Stone Tankers have wanted customization of Granite for a long time.

You mentioned that it is now possible to customize Granite with the caveat that it may change the look. Can you discuss this?

My vote is for the customization! I'm tired of the same old form I've had for years.

Same for me.... timer is set.... hoping that they meet the 6hr window!

Two advantages of Spines over most Stalker sets:

Ranged attack great to bring down fliers to melee range.
Toxic damage isn't resisted well so is better than simple smashing/lethal damage types.

OK, now this is annoying, over the 2hr window and the status page shows up then down then up and down.... would some Tech please get their butt in gear and make up the system's mind as to if it's going up or down.

Sorry for not rounding out the OP, as I had intended to add a second post to look at solutions, because I believe it could be possible to save the "civilization"

For those who laugh at the Roman analogy I think it is quite appropriate considering recent releases.

Now back to the problem as I see it. As I stated in the OP it appears the current leadership's vision has been to assuage the masses rather than expand and cause the empire to flourish.

Lets look at some solutions shall we?

First and perhaps most important is a revealed and truthful vision for the game going forward. With player numbers somewhere in the 100K-200k(estimated) the game has stable income to keep it going for at least a couple more years without major fauxpauxs curtailing true gaming(as I believe AE does in it's current configuration). I believe a real vision and plan aught to be laid out before the whole CoX community. With 6 years under it's belt, CoX isn't about having to establish itself, it's about continuing to build upon past successes.

Therefore I believe that the lead developers should give us a true vision of where they are leading the game. Ideas on future content and meaning to the game, not just information on the next issue, but REAL VISION. That has really been lost I believe and now what we get from the Developers is snippets here and there but not with a broad vision for the future.

If CoX's current Ceaser got up and said "In the next 3 years we plan to increase the content by 50% and create 4 new ATs and expand to a real PvP servers." and then on a regular basis give the CoX community an update on the progress toward those long term goals, that would be meat we players could sink our teeth into. That is feeling we early CoH players had, that the future was bright and promising, we really had something to look forward to!
Onward....

As we know the AE implementation is extremely flawed because it totally negates the rest of the game content. So what to do?

First and foremost institute a usage limit of AE facilities including the following:

a)Minimum level 20 usage, so it isn't a direct "Farm/PL" methodology, instead players will have to use other means to reach 20 then they may gain access to AE.

b)Put a counter limit on all AE missions. No AE mission can be run by more than 7 groups in a 24hr period. This would reduce running content for "farming/PL"

c)We already have precedent in the reward limitations for TFs, a similar idea could be used for AE. The same AE rerun in a 24hr time period would gain no tickets. If this is implimented then the rewards could be recalculated upwards.

d) Cap the total number of AE missions/arc an account can run in 24hr period. This would dampen the spirits of the AE only crowd who don't explore the rest of the CoX landscape. The idea is to promote CoX gaming not farm/PL playing.

e) Revamp the AE ticket reward structure to provide more specific AE rewards rather than entire gamechanging rewards. With PvP IOs now available, why not AE IOs? AE is supposed to be a total fabrication so allow players to have extra special AE powers, Super Taunt, Super Damage, Super Health, etc.

I had great hopes for AE when it was announced and I believe those hopes could be rekindled, but not without the developers seriously restricting it's usage so that it doesn't take away from the rest of the game but instead adds a continuing dimension.

I seriously believe that "Going Rogue" will have a great effect on this game if it is truly instituted gamewide to flip existing characters. That effect will be felt greatest in PvP zone gameplay and will shake up PvP forever. Will it be AE like in implementation? I certainly hope it will be far better for the game!

As I approach my 60 month vetran reward I have begun to review my opinion of the game today compared to the previous 5 years.

My overall opinion is that the game has lost alot of the lustre and promise of the early days.

In the early days CoH was a game about creating a unique Hero and going out and thrashing the bad guys. And CoV when it was released was similar on the villian side of the equation.

The Nerf bat was weilded in more sense or perhaps with more explanation.

New issues introduced new content, new adversaries, new abilities.

All these things somehow managed to come together and create a more interesting, challenging, and improved gaming experience.

Yet now I am left cold with the release of AE and the preceeding issue, and the resulting effect on gameplay as a whole. Instead of promoting and expanding the existing gameplay issues have destroyed the continuity that once existed.

As an old Vetran I have run alot of the content out there, have learned through that content how to play the different ATs, and in general enjoyed exploring over and over the many different nuances of the zones, TFs, and challenges that different builds face in CoX.

Now, with AE in place, I find that much of the preceeding content is being skipped by "new" players and they are more and more ignoring the aspects of the game which made it unique and interesting. Instead of AE bringing a whole new level of interesting content to the playerbase, it's implementation has brought "instant leveling gratification". A new player can in very short order skip all the content of the last 6 years to achieve what goal? To become a level 50 and not know how to play it? To constantly have to ask basic questions that the typical 12mos vet knows because they actually ran content?

I shake my head every time I enter Atlas and Cap zones, so many "players" but so few Heroes and Villians. The content of the game now is just so much window dressing and wallpaper, nice to see it hangs around, but in function having no pressing effect.

What is the sense of having so many zones if there is no pressing reason to go into them?

I can recall the first time I got into Founders Falls, having SK'd my 12 Controller to a 38 Tank and joining them on one of their missions. The new zone, the different mission content, it was all exciting and had purpose and meaning.

But now AE has made such things meaningless. You simply enter the building, click, and viola you're teleported inside one of thousands of missions which weren't created as real arcs, but as power leveling methods.

Just like PvP, AE implementation was thoughtless in it's outcome. Instead of becoming shining stars of achievement in a great game, they are flawed models whose implementation does not build on the rest of the content. PvP isn't universal in access to success and AE is universal in it's access to excess.

Like the debauchery that brought Rome to it's knees, it appears that CoX has run the same course. Whoever the current Ceaser and Senators of the game are, they have lost the path and created a Colliseum to entertain the masses while the rest of the Empire collapses in disuse. Sit and watch the games, watch the slaughter of the Christians, the sea battles, etc. Don't worry about the rest of the Empire.

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he said it is hard to fix NPCs....

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What? Wait....they're the ones who CHANGED the NPCs, revision backwards is all that's needed.

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Is it just me, or has Flight become really popular all of a sudden? More popular than Super Speed, Super Jump and Teleport?

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It's just you, and the fact that currently some of the more effective toons prefer to use Fly vs. SJ, namely Ranged attack builds like Corr/Def/Blaster/Doms. All the rest still use SJ as the main backed up with a Flightpack temp.

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It really is weird playing my therm. Now when I get attacked I just run until phase is up. If I use my heal I'll be dead...

BTW...how does teleport work in the zones?

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TP self is fine out of combat, but in combat it's totally gone... My stone tank is cursing the devs daily for that little nerf!

TP foe is still OK if opponent isn't slotted with the new -TP PvP IO.

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Threadjack!

Anyone tried running CoH on a widescreen LCD TV with a PC input? I'd like to hear specifically if anyone has done it on a 37 or 42" widescreen, and if they thought it was worth it or not. I bet the resolution gets very pixelated at that big of a size. Thanks!

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I've run it on 32" just fine. The larger screens are going to have the drawback of finding a comfortable distance to play from. At 32" screen and 3ft distance I started noticing I was looking to the left and right much more with my whole head vs just eye-scanning. At 37" and above this would be more pronounced so you will need to sit back from the screen maybe 5ft.

Personally I think if you're going to set at a desk then about 27" would be optimal, large enough for good viewing at 3ft but not so large as to require extra effort.

Remember you'll probably want to fiddle around with font setting as well, you may find at the larger screen sizes and viewing distances that some fonts won't work as well as on smaller screens.

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I'm not griping about this, it just struck me as strange that I could acquire it but not be able to use it until 25. I think both Tealeaf and ClawsandEffect have a lot of good ideas about why it might have been this way.

Also, I guess the missions concerned were in the game already set to their appropriate level ranges and so in adding the ability to learn about time-travel to those missions that contain a time travel element seemed like a good fit even if you couldn't use it until later.

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I believe there is possibly another reason for the level restriction, and that is Oroboros is often used as a quick method to travel fast to another zone without having to resort to ferries/trains. Since O-portals can put you in some not so convenient places in zones you might get into trouble as a sub 25.

Actually the portal brings another issue to my mind. On the villian side the portal will take you to all the zones except MI & PO, and on the heroside it only goes to AP/IP/Talos/FF/PI. If they can send a portal to anyplace in time/place then why are the locations being artificially limited?

1. Yes, my 50 can solo or team
2. As good as non-petted def/controller for the most part
3. Look at the Tanker build section, even the old builds are fine for PvE today.
4. If soloing it can be since you are attacking, but you'll find it easy to convert any 3insps as you need to. Plus when you are in Granite you will recover decently. However you have no Endurance sucking powers like some other Tanks.

As a Stone/SS you can opt for a speed build (see the Tanker guide for specifics) or just us TP self to move while Rooted.

Stone/SS and Fire/Fire would be good. With Granite running the Stone will dominate the aggro while the Fire/Fire burns down the group. Since the tank has Healing Flames he can keep ahead of any basic damage.

But since you mentioned filling holes, a Shield/Fire would be reasonable alternate. A shield tank is going to fill more holes than alot of other options. I teamed my Stone/SS with a Shield/BS on an AE against 54s and we alternated pulling mobs to the rest of the group with high success. Remember that with 2 tanks you can herd 2x the baddies increasing overall XP/Inf earning potential.

My 2cents worth...

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I'm predicting that, for purposes of balance, they might just create 1 new PvP zone where the rogue rules apply. Otherwise, when you walk into any of the 'normal' zones, you'll temporarily be sided with your faction.

It doesn't make much thematic sense, but I can't see the devs letting Blaster/Stalker/Brute chaos happen, with the current condition of PvP.

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LOL, doubtful as that's more work, creating a whole new zone.

I for one think the rogue factor is going to finally balance PvP gameplay if it's a true cross-over of powers. A Hero Stalker will be unseen by most villians who haven't needed perception up to this point, and they'll pay the price.

Personally I think the Heroside is getting the better deal especially for zones like Sirens Call where they will finally have the ability to deal with the Stalkers/Brutes which have continued to stymie all but teams and Purpled out heroes. Two Fire/SS Brutes going at it! Hero Stalkers wiping out villians in 2-3 hits. Yeah, I believe there is some justice coming down the pipe..

Hmm, have a 50 MA/SR but haven't tried it since Mission Architect came out. SR took a hit to elusivity, so I think build will have to change a bit to adjust for this. I myself was running only basic IO sets with a couple LoTGs. With the intro of the new PvP IOs though I think any previous Mids is going to be only a baseline.

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Lord Recluse releases a toxic chemical into Paragon City's air and causes a hero civil war. Squishies vs Non-squishies!

<ul type="square">Squishies: Blasters, Controllers, Defenders, and Nova form Kheldians.

Non-squishies: Tanks, Scrappers, and Dwarfed Kheldians.[/list]
I'd put my money on the squishies simply because the Controllers/Defenders would provide all buffs alongside debuffs, combine that with the highest damaging AT, the blaster, and the non-squishies would just be owned.

My question to you all is, who'd win?

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Ah, the answer depends on if PvP rules exist in this make believe world.

If PvP rules are in effect the Non-squishies have the upper hand because they can only be held for short bursts, and in the meantime the flying scrappers will be taking out the airborn competition or having them fall to the ground where the tanks and Dwarfs will have their way with them.

If PvP rules do not exist then things get more interesting. /SR based scrappers and Stone Tanks will avoid/absorb most attacks and will take out alot of competition, and it will come down to which side can team spike their opponents faster. With Taunt being used I believe the Non-squishies will prevail, not allowing their teammates to be targetted long enough for death strikes.

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I'm a new player so I know little about pvp. Is it balanced?

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No.

Unfortunately the approach in PvP wasn't to even out on a 1v1 basis so that on any given encounter either of the combatants might win. Instead the route taken was to "promote" teaming just like in PvE. The result is that certain builds can kill almost anything in 2-4 hits. Further, other builds are unkillable in solo combat by typical opponents.

A moronic approach to AT vs Ability is in place where low HP builds with mostly Hold/DoT have no chance of holding opponents long enough to do substantial damage, yet they can be killed in very short order, being held by a single hit by their opponent (aka SS knockout blow type powers having a 'hold' component).

With the introduction of IOs PvP slid even further out of balance so that individuals with bottomless pockets can afford to slot Purple level IOs for extra damage types, resistance, defense, etc and battle using lvl 50 characters in level 30 PvP zones with even greater success.

Just because you may have a killer PvE build, don't expect it to be anything in PvP. For example, a Stone/SS Tank is near impenetrable in PvE, but PvP wise he's dust and a sitting duck. TP self has been gimped with Travel Suppression so that the Stone Tank has no means of escape if he's being team [censored].

Sadly, either you have to build one of the few specific builds which can take/dish out punishment or expect an inordinate amount of death. Even playing in team, there is no balance, since you don't often find team vs team gameplay, but rather singling out for team spikes. And they single out the low HP which tend to drop in 10second battles essentially massacring opponents. This is true regardless of side you play.

No balance exists in PvP, just alot of problems that you have to contend with. If you don't mind contending with them, revisiting the hospital regularly, then by all means come join us on the battlefield.

You just need to know it's not a cakewalk like PvE. Note my signature, the true balance which aught to exist.

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With his past commentary on PvP, most wonder if he PvP'd even before i12.

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You can disagree with any of my posts, that's fine, just don't be disagreeable!

Now look for PvP to really get interesting!