ClawsandEffect

*G.I.R.L.s just wanna have fu-un!

(*Guy In Real Life)

Yep, the way they're doing it is a double-edged sword.

You can have 8-man spawns in your missions, but it gives the devs another datamining tool to use to find the exploiters.

If you're doing this in normal content or extremely difficult AE content they won't care, because that's why they did it, to give players a way to make stuff harder.

If you use it to exploit AE content they can find you and punish you for it easier.

It's called "giving them just enough rope to hang themselves with". And it's a stroke of genius disguised as giving in to the farmers.

I love it.

Interesting idea.

Amy Jonnson was bugged for a while to where if you were on a mixed team she would spawn as rogue and would heal, buff, and attack everyone on the team equally.

But that was a bug and NOT intended to happen.

The problem I see with this idea is the relative strength of the risky summoning. If the demon is too powerful you run the risk of being defeated by your own power. If the demon is not powerful enough then there is really no point to it turning hostile at all, and would make it a gimped power to boot.

I agree that demon summoning should have a risk factor involved, but I'm not convinced this is the best way to do it.

Nope, if you didn't email them the code then there is no way for the GMs to know that you referred them.

You could say it all day long, but saying it and proving it are 2 different things.

Edit: I believe you really did refer them to the game, but the GMs are not as likely to be as trusting as I am when it comes to giving game time away.

[ QUOTE ]
This is sounding more like something for the suggestion forum

[/ QUOTE ]

Not really, the replies have been a lot more polite here than they usually are there.

I thought it was pretty reasonable actually.

Say it is 3 questions any time you reach a level that grants a badge title. That's 15 questions throughout the course of your character's 1-50 career. None of the questions would require any information that isn't easily obtainable through normal gameplay. You wouldn't need to know everything about the game to answer them, and if you get it wrong all you have to do is pick a different answer.

People would learn just by answering questions. In an example I listed above I suggested a question of: "How many levels above you can an enhancement be to be usable by you?"

That would pre-empt questions like "What are enhancements?" and "Why can't I equip this level 34 enhancement? I'm level 29."

Questions like:

"Which zone does the yellow line NOT go to?"
A)Steel Canyon
B)Kings Row
C)Talos Island
D)Atlas Park

-OR-

"Who is the first contact you meet in The Hollows?"
A)Gordon Stacy
B)David Wincott
C)Flux
D)Talshak the Mystic

Those questions should be answerable by anyone who has reached level 10. And if they don't know they can always ask someone, or guess until they get it right. It would NOT prevent you from gaining that level.

In the case of the first multiple choice example I gave, in answering the question newbies would learn that they can get to Steel Canyon, Kings Row, and back to Atlas if they use the yellow line, but cannot get to Talos Island that way.

In the second one, you learn that you talk to David Wincott first in The Hollows, which you would know if you had ever been there or tried to get a mission from your second contact.

I'm not asking people to know everything about the game by level 10, which is why I said that the questions should be level appropriate.

I probably flew off the handle a little in my last post, for which I apologize, but it really seemed like people were discarding the idea out of hand without even giving it any thought.

In our society (In the US anyway) it is entirely possible to graduate from high school while having difficulty reading above a 3rd grade level due to the "no child left behind" mentality. That is apparently the result of the perception that it would damage a child's self-esteem to be held back a grade. They won't even allow a child's parents to request that they be held back, because they know what's best, apparently.

Speaking for myself, my self esteem would be damaged more by the realization that I was incapable of simple reading comprehension or basic math than by being held back a grade.

I dropped out of high school and got my G.E.D. within a month of quitting because the curriculum was so dumbed down to keep kids moving along. I made it to 9th grade and wasn't taught anything new for 2 years. Teachers seemed more interested in keeping their students grades up by giving them stuff they already knew than they were in actually teaching them. From everything I have seen it is more difficult nowadays to get a G.E.D. than a high school diploma. The G.E.D. requires you to take a test to get, a diploma just requires you to show up. That bothers me, because people look down on someone with a G.E.D., when most of the time they worked harder to get it than a high school graduate did.

And I'd bet that, based on my grammar and spelling, most of you would never have guessed that I'm a high school dropout. Having a piece of paper does not automatically mean you learned anything, just as NOT having a piece of paper does not mean you didn't.

I can't do anything about the real life school issue, but here I can make suggestions to repair or prevent a perceived problem, that most agree IS a problem.

If anyone has any better ideas to do something about it, please share them.


EDIT: Happy Birthday Rebel!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For those wondering, /sr will be the ideal for Claws. One, because Claws is end friendly. Two, because /sr really doesn't care if you knock stuff around like Shockwave will do. I pretty much locked into playing a Claws/sr brute a number of issues ago. I'm currently soloing a Claws/sr scrapper and working on the Hollows zone arcs. I'm almost done with them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm actually thinking about making a Claws/Dark. Already have an SR brute and I don't like doubling powersets within ATs.

Claws/Fire will probably be pretty sick too.

[/ QUOTE ]

Outside of /sr, /dark would be my next pick. If I could find room and time to level a Claws/dark, I would.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I'm not saying that Claws/SR wouln't be awesome on a brute, just that I already have a DM/SR brute and I don't like doubling powersets in an AT. The only exception to that is the two fire blasters I have, and one of them is on the delete bubble if I come up with a concept I really like.

Okay, I guess people would rather have a game full of players who have no idea what they're doing than spend 15 seconds answering a couple questions every 10 levels. Not even hard questions, it's not like I'm suggesting you pass the SAT or write a college term paper.

One can safely assume that the trainers would require some form of test to be passed before they give you your shiny new title. Currently we don't see that test. I figured it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to make it part of the leveling process.

Seems like no one cares if new players play the game, never leave Atlas park and then badmouth the game to their friends because they didn't know anything else about it. That kind of thing gives the game a lot of negative word of mouth publicity, and people tend to believe what their friends tell them over what a game box says.

I started playing because a friend of mine told me about this really cool superhero game you play on your computer. Had he told me that there's a superhero game in which you go into one building and fight stuff that doesn't fight back until you get to the highest level, I never even would have given it a chance.

That's the kind of thing that the AE babies are telling people, I've seen it all over the internet when MMOs are brought up.

That kind of negative publicity leads to a lot of people who may have tried the game and enjoyed it not even giving it a chance because they are being told it has no depth.

My suggestion was an attempt to let new players know there is more out there than what they are seeing in AE.

Questions like "What is the minimum level to enter the Shadow Shard?" would have players going "Shadow Shard? That sounds kind of cool, maybe I'll go check that out." Since the game doesn't ever really tell you it's there it would be a good way to let people know about things.

But people seem to be equating answering a couple simple questions with going to school and being unnecessarily annoyed.

Since no one wants the new players to learn anything I'll just let them badmouth the game I enjoy playing and stop making suggestions to attempt to prevent it.

Later on

Claws

[ QUOTE ]
MM - Kinetics would have been my choice. Although flaming zombies seems amusing.

[/ QUOTE ]

In all likelyhood, Masterminds got Thermal to thematically pair with the Demon Summoning set that is coming with Going Rogue. The demons are almost definitely going to be fire-based and BaBs said something about a Hellfire Whip involved somehow.

So it makes perfect sense to give Masterminds Thermal now rather than cramming it in later.

I am also willing to bet that Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning will be released with whatever issue Going Rogue is going to coincide with, I just don't see them not allowing people who didn't buy the expansion access to those two sets.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Archery is quite fun if you are Blaster. Build Up + Aim + Rain of Arrow + Explosion is great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Which is why I would love to see Archery and Trick Arrow ported to Corruptors.

YEah it's not Build Up+Aim but I think it will be tons of fun and won't have the damage issue that TA/A does.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ask and you shall receive! Archery and Trick Arrow are coming to Corruptors in Issue 16!

Me? I play my 50s all the time. Sometimes when I've had a stressful work day I'll log into my main character (who I can almost play blindfolded by this point) and just slaughter stuff.

There's no real point, no particular goal. Sometimes I just wanna kill stuff.

Other times I'll log a 50 in just to hang out with some of the friends I've made in-game.

All I can say is if you're that bored with the game and see no reason to continue playing, just quit and play something you aren't bored with.

It's not the game's fault. Maybe it's just not the game for you.

*shrug*

[ QUOTE ]
For those wondering, /sr will be the ideal for Claws. One, because Claws is end friendly. Two, because /sr really doesn't care if you knock stuff around like Shockwave will do. I pretty much locked into playing a Claws/sr brute a number of issues ago. I'm currently soloing a Claws/sr scrapper and working on the Hollows zone arcs. I'm almost done with them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm actually thinking about making a Claws/Dark. Already have an SR brute and I don't like doubling powersets within ATs.

Claws/Fire will probably be pretty sick too.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Because everyone else is doing it is the best reason not to.

[/ QUOTE ]

But, but, but, everyone else is breathing and I've gotten sort of kind of use to it myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol

That's the first time anyone has responded to my signature quote.

My Dominator is Gravity/Ice. I had one power that got nerfed out of my secondary. Ice Sword Circle now does slightly less damage than it did, which wasn't that big of a deal because overall damage was increased. It also got it's radius increased from 8 or 10 feet to 15 feet. I do less damage, but I can hit more targets with it. Technically a nerf, but it has a very even trade-off to make up for it.

[ QUOTE ]
What sort of questions were you thinking of? They'd have to be pretty simple to have an unqualified answer.

[/ QUOTE ]

How many levels above you can an enhancement be in order to be used?

What is the base defense of Focused Fighting? (powerset specific, someone playing a non-SR scrapper would get a different question, and you can get the answer just by opening your enhancement screen)

Which zone does NOT connect to Perez Park?

Stuff like that. All stuff that has a definite, indisputable answer. No questions that the player would not have the information to answer yet. Like, no Shadow Shard questions at level 10 heroside, or at all villainside.

No questions that have more than one answer. Any veteran player would likely spend no more than 10-20 seconds answering the 3 questions. And new players would learn something about the game while they are playing.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ticket Rolls are weighted, though. The Merits are not.

[/ QUOTE ]

Merit Rolls are indeed weighted. The newly combined Pool C+D is on a weighted table and the Merit Roll, Gold Ticket Roll, and Boss-kill drops all use the same weighted table.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ayup. I don't generally get a lot of high-dollar items when i random roll, but I DO tend to get stuff I can actually USE now.

Instead of getting a Trap of the Hunter on a chacter that doesn't even have access to an immobilize, I might get a Crushing Impact now. Not exactly cause for a party, but I can at least utilize it.

I think the patron arc that unlocks the patron pool will always be excluded from Ouroboros, because I think you're only allowed to have one of the four badges on any given character.

But I agree that the other 3 should be accessable from Ouro.

Or possibly if you respec into a different patron pool it gives you access to that patron's arcs. I could live with that as well.

I'm thinking it is going to be set up kind of like the mission creation screen in MA. You can either do every thing in order like we do now, or you can skip back and forth through it.

It will be pretty cool to come up with a cool costume idea and then decide what AT and powerset you think it fits the best, instead of backing up to change things and having to start all over.

I just got an idea while reading another "Do something about AE!" thread.

The only real problem I have with AE isn't the fact that people can level stupid fast in it. It's the fact that new players level stupid fast and learn nothing about the game, resulting in hordes of clueless n00bs being churned out on a daily basis.

Had an interesting idea to combat the ignorance that some of these players are displaying:

When you go to train to certain levels, like multiples of 10 maybe, have the trainer ask some basic gameplay questions relating to stuff you should have learned in the last ten levels. You cannot gain your level until you answer the questions correctly. Would be best to make it multiple choice.

There would be nothing preventing players from asking other people for the answers, and players leveling in AE would actually learn something about the game while they are leveling. You could also just guess until you got it right, but once you get it right, you might remember what the answer was and, voila, you learned something!

I was thinking make it 3 questions relating to basic gameplay, the AT that you are playing as, and maybe the specific powerset you are using. New players would learn more about the powers they have and their AT, and experienced players might learn something they didn't know as well.

As you level higher, the questions would get slightly more difficult, but not to the point where only the most hardcore players would know the answer.

There you go, my idea to combat the lack of general knowledge of the game displayed by so many AE leveled players.

If you limit AE to 38+ NCSoft would get sued by some enterprising lawyer for false advertising and/or bait and switch tactics.

The brand spanking new box on store shelves says right on it that AE offers an alternate leveling path from 1-50. If the developers deviate from that they will be guilty of false advertising, which IS an actionable offense. And, believe me, someone WILL sue them over it.

In a country where a woman gets a 1.2 million dollar settlement from a moterhome company after she set her cruise control and got up to make a sandwich, (causing the vehicle to crash because there was no one steering it) I guarantee someone will sue because a game box lied to them. And they will probably win, costing NCSoft a LOT of money one way or another. Either they will have to pay a settlement out, or they will have to recall and reprint every single box, or both. That will be an expensive thing to have happen, and would slow or stop development of the game for a while.

Do you want that to happen?

I don't.

But what about a situation where I want to create a group of clones and make them all absolutely identical AND all EBs, and have the mission filled with nothing but them?

Impossible to do if I MUST have a minion, LT and Boss in every group. It wouldn't be much of a farm either, as it would be INSANELY difficult the way I would do it.

Imagine a group of nothing but EBs on Extreme, with both Illusion and Mind Control sets. Yeah.....farm THAT mission

Eh, I still need the accolade on a few characters, so I'm cool with it. I'm not going to be following the invasions around though, mostly because I'd rather not have my graphics card melt.

More Vanguard Merits would be an interesting addition, but I don't see the devs taking the time to code something for one week that only part of the playerbase would get any benefit from. Anyone under level 35 or who has not been to RWZ would get zero benefit from double Vanguard merits.

Decent idea, but don't get your hopes up.

Personally I will be highly amused the first time an invasion hits Atlas Park and the AE Babies start dropping in droves because the Rikti actually fight back.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Took Ice Slash from Icey Assault to add in (getting rid of the atrocity known as Frozen Aura) and moved Greater Ice Sword to the tier 9 position. Also added Ice Sword Circle from Icey Assault.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're not a fan of the frozen Footstomp? Personally, I've found it to be one of the more valuable powers within the set.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've never had an Ice Melee character high enough to have it. I was under the impression that it was a fairly low damage AoE sleep power, which I couldn't see being very useful to a scrapper.

I will stand corrected if that is not the case, but if it IS the case I would expect it to be the single most skipped power in the set if ported to scrappers.

I wanted to tweak it for damage output, as a low damage controllery set would kind of be at odds with a scrapper's general purpose, but I also wanted to leave some of the control powers in there because scrappers really don't have anything like that.
Frozen Aura was the power I picked to axe.

I have never bought a server transfer and probably never will. I don't see myself playing anywhere but Pinnacle, ever. I just like the server too much.

If I were ever forced to transfer a character off of Pinnacle for any reason I would be canceling my subscription immediately.

The devs offered us server transfers for a fee. If they wanted us doing it en masse, or for free, it probably would already be that way.

Yes, I agree with this one. Good idea. I have wasted quite a bit of influence over the years on Ghost Falcon because I bought the wrong SOs by mistake.

Even a simple box to click that toggles Can use/Can't use on and off would work for this. And since every character would have the same option available it won't hurt the interface.