Dante

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for making us aware.

WARNING: Incoming Wall of Text…

In the wake of the player meet and my colossal embarrassment, I have come back to this discussion with my tail between my legs. I must admit, I am very, very pleased to know that the EU has a marketing manager and had I of known he was going to disappear so soon at the weekend I would have bugged him a lot more.

Certainly a lot of my frustration over this subject comes down to lack of communication. Since the Brighton offices were downgraded (not shut as I erroneously presumed) we have heard very little about what the future holds for the EU crowd. And in the dearth of information, rumour and gossip run rife and I’m as guilty of that as the next person. So to be a bit more constructive, I’ve done what I can to state my concerns for the future.

1) Disparity of servers. We pay approximately the same price for access to the game as the US players. However, whereas they get something like 10 servers to play on, we get four, sometimes less than that depending on what language skills you have. This means that there’s less choice, less slots for the same money paid. Sometimes I like a quiet server, sometimes I like it busy. With the US, you can choose to go to Freedom or to play on one of the less populated servers. No such option exists on the EU servers. Also, freebies such as server transfers have less value.

In short, there’s no advantage to play on the EU servers aside from the localisation of language which I’m sure our French and German friends appreciate. But there are many people on these boards who live in Europe but choose to play on the US servers. Why would they choose to play on the EU servers? What advantage is there?


2) Continued viability of the EU servers. Now this is one I’m sure NCSoft are watching closely. With the launch of GR, we watched our server numbers turn red for the first time in years. Since then I’ve not seen any more reds but a fairly consistent yellow on Union at least. While this is very positive, we’ll probably never know what the real numbers are so we can only speculate on what our server populations are really like. Eventually, our servers will close, no game runs forever but before GR came out, some of us were convinced it was fairly imminent, especially as marketing for GR in Europe seemed particularly sparse. With the decimation of the EU offices followed by the merger of our message boards, it felt as if we were moving closer and closer to being absorbed into the US server list. However, this hasn’t happened, as much as some of us wish we would be (myself included).


Now I’m sure this has changed but when and if the EU servers close, I think we’d like to know that we weren’t going to get the ‘Korean Treatment’ – i.e. thanks for playing, here’s some free time on the US servers where you’ll have to reroll and re-buy everything.


3) Meet and Greets. This one always bugs me. I’m a big fan of meet and greets, even if it inevitably means that I embarrass the hell out of myself at them in some way. But back when we had a larger marketing team in the EU, we had visits from War Witch and Noble Savage, and attendance at conventions, all events that were very much appreciated and looked forward to. Since then, all we’ve had were unofficial events although the label of ‘unofficial’ seems dubious after the last weekend. It would be foolish to expect to see the Devs come to every country but some more events for EU players would be great, even if it was a virtual meet and greet on the Test Server. This game has always been amazing for the level of interaction it allows with the game developers so maybe we’ve become spoilt. We’ve already seen exclusive competitions and events for the EU (many thanks!) so I hope that this weekend just gone was only a hint of what to expect in the future.


4) Representation. This one might be ignorance on my part so please correct me if I’m wrong. Back when we had the EU boards, we knew who to PM or talk to if we had a concern about certain topics. These days, I’m less sure. Is there a moderator or community representative responsible for the EU? In short, when we have worries over things like this, who should we be asking?


TL;DR version: There are no advantages to playing on the EU servers over the US short of language difference. We seem to get less value for money, less events and less representation.


There you go, there’s my thoughts on the matter, minus my customary cynicism. If we can get any thoughts on these, official and unofficial, that would be a step forward.

Thanks

Did you ever have one of those days when you just want to disappear under a rock for a bit?

Frail? Not really. Not unless you insist on having everything on max settings and have poor slotting.

Fire Armour is more squishy than other sets but the amount of damage it puts out is its mitigation. Why bother about how much damage you can take when everything around you is dead within a few seconds? I do agree though that it follows the Blaster mantra of kill faster than they can kill you.

Funny thing is, it has almost every utility you could ask for in an armour set. Fast heal? Check. Endurance recovery? Check. Self Resurrect? Check. I don't think I've had a Brute get back into the fight faster than my SS/Fire who is built for general PvE rather than farming. If you want a Brute that never dies and doesn't get debt, this is not the set for you. There's a good reason why there's a rez rather than a god mode and it comes in very handy. Every time I fall in battle, it's just another chance to hit RotP and blow everyone to smithereens.

As for the psi hole, I don't find it lacking. Carnies melt in my wake and Consume and Healing Flames mean their attacks barely even scratch me. After Footstomp, Burn and Fire Ball, there's nothing really left standing except bosses. How it fares with other sets though, I can't say.

In all, it's not uber but by the gods, is it fun!

And so I return home, shame faced and suitable humble, making a mental note never to open my big mouth on the forums again. That said, didn't I say I'd find some way to embarrass the hell out of myself at this meet?

Even so, I am overjoyed to know that there is still a marketing presence in the EU still and feel very reassured by some of the things that were discussed. I can also say that all of the good natured embarrassment was well worth it for the signed copy of the GR Complete Collection.

So thank you very much to Kallandra, EB and Gangrel for all their hard work and to everyone supporting the event from afar. It was an excellent time and I look forward to the next one.*




*No guarantees I'm going to do something stupid at the next one though. Sometimes I only open my mouth to change feet...

Yes, yes and yes again. I'd love to see these added.

Just one condition: don't try charging us for them. Thank you.

All being well I shall be catching a stupidly early train tomorrow morning to be with you. This is entirely dependent on whether my family is over the latest round of flu bug and I feel happy leaving them for the weekend.

Hopefully see you up there around 11ish. Have fun those who are going tonight.

Having created a Praetorian version of my Sonic/En Blaster, I can say that KM does a fine job recreating the shockwaves of Sonic in melee style. Plus you get a ranged burst of sound, a shockwave like effect and Burst which works well as a wave expanding from yourself.

No idea what it's like for Tanks though.

I have a DP/Dev Blaster with the Leaping pool. But when he uses Superjump, rather than just jumping high, he uses grappling hooks and ropes to swing through the city. If you can rationalise it that way, Superjump would be my choice. Either that or give her a pair of Piston Boots and use those.

Plus, Combat Jumping adds some defence and resistance to immobilize (sometimes as fatal as a hold for a squishy), Jump Kick is an acrobatic attack in keeping with the character (even if it is an incredibly naff power) and Acrobatics prevents Knockback (again, fatal to squishies sometimes) and a bit of resistance to Holds. All in all, the Leaping pool is a good choice for a Blaster I feel.

Excellent news.

I do frequently in RP but there was one the other night that stands out.

I was soloing a tip mission on my Sonic/Em Blaster when that glorious idiot Flambeaux turns up (I swear she's Fusionette's evil sister). We duke it out and she Infernos just as I'm about to get my last shot it. She decides to finish our battle by jeering:

"In your face! No, in your STUPID face!"

Feeling a bit annoyed, I rez, break free and shove on PFF. Once I've healed and toggled up in front of her, I hit Build Up, drop the forcefield and let rip. Once I've Shockwaved her across the room, followed up by some more blasts, I finished off with Total Focus. As it was animating, I rapidly typed:

"No, in YOUR STUID FACE! Moron!"

Something about that girl irritates me...

Hmmm, tricky…

Before I try to answer the OP, I will just state that:

A few choice ones from My Food Looks Funny:

Yarrrr! Tis a fine day to be a pirate it is. Much drinking of rum and laughing with busty wenches! Yarrr!

Time to hoist the midden and keelhaul any landlubbers we see. Yaarrrr!!!!

So once again, another event and exclusive giveaways for NA subscribers and a big two fingers to anyone outside. Not even a virtual meet and greet on the Test Server.

I don't think I have any words left to describe my frustration in a polite manner over this.

Thanks Z, that's perfect.

Didn't want to dig up the 'Shafted' thread again but if this is the place for general disgruntlement for EU treatment then I think this announcement on Facebook pretty much fits the pattern of things:

Go for it I say. It's not the most original concept in the world but it works well given the background we're given for Praetorian characters. Already we've got some disagreements on police brutality and some nice character interaction going.

Best of luck with it!