Decorum

Renowned
  • Posts

    2569
  • Joined

  1. I will whole-heartedly agree with your desire for AWESOME, sir!

    **crosses fingers** IhopeIhopeIhopeIhope...
  2. I've noticed no change, but as mentioned, maybe turn the settings down? I always have my lowbies at default.

    If you are already...maybe just an unlucky streak?

    Or possibly you just forgot what level 6 is like?
  3. It hits like that sometimes. My Headlong, a super-speedster based on Impulse, turned out to be my quickest 50 by half, because he was just so much fun to play, and could dish it out AND take it pretty well (DM/WP scrapper).
  4. One general point...I'm sure NCSoft will be just as happy to have anyone's money three-four months from now as today.
  5. Quote:
    Shadow Wail wonders why:

    Instead of pulling the slot because there wasn't much to do with them and that the devs didn't like the way it worked with the players...why not add 50+ content for i18??
    Tick tock. If they didn't have it planned already, there's no way they'd get anything worthwhile out in a month.

    Quote:
    I am always confuzzled by the dev interest in 1-20 content? Everything the devs know bout 1-20 contradicts their attempts to make 1-20 content. A year or so they bumped the rate at which we level in the 1-20 range...I would think that if they want to showcase their awesome work with GR they would make leveling in that area as hard as possible but not impossible so the hypothetical new customers can see what the devs have done and to keep an interest going.
    I still love the lowbie game.
  6. That would be BAD! It has to be a separate, optional system.
  7. Largest...city...in...America? Where'd that come from? It doesn't look it, and is likely Providence. If Paragon is supposed to be bigger than L.A. or N.Y., it sure doesn't show it.
  8. Quote:
    Rubberlad turns out the lights:

    Its not just the cost of objects; its the cost of upgrading base plots just to squeeze in more rooms to work with. Having energy, control and defense items mean little without base raiding turned on (and most folks outside of the PvP community don't care about base raids).
    Well, energy and control at the very least keep your teleporters running.
  9. Quote:
    Carnifax_NA counting:

    Mousedroid makes a good point in terms of the side-shifting content but it's totally unknown so far as to how many different "change of alignment" type missions there will be embedded with the Tips system and how many different ones per level range / side.
    WarWitch did say there were literally hundreds of new missions, but that's GR as a whole and, yeah, no details.
  10. Quote:
    Diggis shows a poor one:

    And Virtue is a server.
    And it keeps screwing up my drink order! No tip for Virtue!
  11. Quote:
    Slashman plays there:

    OK...I play on 3 lower pop servers(Infinity, Victory and Justice). I play on those, not because they are lower pop, but because they were my servers of choice to start with.

    When I started playing on them and years into the game, they did not feel empty. There were costume contests a plenty in Atlas. There were people all over the place. Heck, I used to curse Atlas and started in Galaxy for a lot of my toons because I found the Broadcast annoying at times.

    I haven't seen any of that on those servers for a long time. Maybe my timing is off, I dunno.
    I will certainly agree here. The visible population is down. The whole "hang out under Atlas" thing seems to have gone out of vogue on the lower pop servers a couple of years ago. I would contend that people left are more playing the game than just hanging out somewhere.

    Quote:
    So what I'm saying now is: Why is it that all of a sudden, low pop servers are a selling point for this game? Because that's what Decorum is trying to make it out to be.
    Ehhhhh, ssssssort of. I'm not really claiming it's a selling point, because I don't think either one really is. I'd say having a variety of population servers is a good thing, but I wouldn't advertise either one.

    Quote:
    There isn't any inherent advantage in a lower pop server aside from network lag.
    Inherent? No, I'd agree there. It's more a preference thing. It's easier to be a big fish in the small pond, for instance. Some people don't like the constant Broadcast babble. Some don't like the constant blind invites to teams and SGs. Everyone's different. Myself, I was more intimidated than excited my first time logging into Virtue. "Other people" were a low thing on my list, as I'd just started and hadn't even really figured out how to play yet. It was a while before I wanted to team.

    Quote:
    And even that is more because the two main servers are overbloated with people compared to the others.
    Point, noting that "busy/quiet" are relative to each other.

    Quote:
    There is no advantage to having 2 servers full of people, while the rest are noticeably emptier. We can quibble at 'empty' versus 'almost empty', but in the end, the result is the same.
    The advantage is in variety of choices.

    Quote:
    The structure of this game lends itself to a player being able to solo at will even on the most populated server. So the only 'advantage' to an almost empty server is that you don't see people. Are we really saying that having under-utilized servers is to facilitate the kind of people who absolutely don't want to see anyone around them anyway?
    To a degree, but exaggerated. Not "no one". Just not large crowds.

    Quote:
    I play alone most of the time, but that doesn't mean that I like to see servers that appear empty. It's a City of Heroes/Villains, there should be quite a few of those running around even if I choose not to interact with them.
    And that comes down to "What's 'quite a few'?" is variable between people. I'm not saying at all that it would be bad to see some more capes fluttering in the wind, but I'm also saying not seeing it isn't cause for doom.
  12. There's a lot of t-shirt shops that will put whatever image you can give them on a computer disc on a shirt. They'd be hard pressed to back such an endeavor as cheaply as a local shop can.
  13. I don't recall saying no one listens to us.

    Thinking it, maybe.
  14. Quote:
    Dr_HR uses the wrong word:

    Ahh fair enough. Sounds about right as well tbh. Tho i do wonder then what will happen when they bring back base raiding.
    "If" not "when". Doesn't even appear to be on their radar at the moment.
  15. Quote:
    mousedroid is there and not:

    I could be completely off-base here, but I don't understand why everyone is saying that since the single level of Incarnate play was removed from GR, all it is now is a 1-20 game.

    The Devs have said repeatedly that you can't change your alignment until after level 20, and since we don't currently have a mechanism in the game to change your alignment, it's pretty obvious to me that there is going to be new 21-50 content in GR.
    Well, first it's the internet, where reductionism and ignoring large parts of things is sadly par for the course.

    And second, Praetoria only has 1-20 content (so far). The 20-50 side changing stuff takes place in Paragon and the Isles, but you are correct that it's all part of GR.
  16. Quote:
    Smurch goes to the dictionary:

    But it still holds itself as an MMO. A Massively Multiplayer Online Game.

    Or are you seriously contending that one of CoX's differentiators and thus selling points is that more than half it's servers have almost no people in them?
    Again, "almost no people" is an exaggeration. And I will contend that "we have busy servers for those who want them and quiet ones for those who want them" IS a selling point. Versatility is always a selling point.

    Quote:
    "we have a low population because we like it that way" is probably not a viable business model for a subscription based service.
    We really don't have a low SUBSCRIPTION population, just a low population on some servers.

    Quote:
    Look at it from the perspective of a business owner instead of that of a player with a vested emotional interest and you'll see things differently.
    No I won't. I don't put emotion into these things at all (aside from, y'know, being a terminal wise-*** ). The business owners are doing just fine, thanks. They just had direct competition come out that has been roundly hailed as, if not a failure, certainly no threat. We'll see what DCUO has up its sleeve for round two.

    Quote:
    Tell me, do you honestly feel, in your best estimation, that an accountant from NCSoft would be equally exuberant?
    The accountants couldn't care less if the servers are busy or not. They only care about subscription, box, and peripheral moneys.

    Quote:

    He'd have told me they're all on other servers?
    I doubt it.
    Why not? No skin of their nose to say "this is one of the slower servers and it's early in the morning U.S. If you're looking for crowds of people, they're usually on Virtue or Freedom." People do that all the time.

    Quote:
    Which, if it even hints at changing to another server, will be equally bashed.
    Where are you seeing this stuff? I've never seen anyone new bashed for moving to another server that I can remember. In fact, starting a new character on Freedom or Virtue is almost always mentioned in those threads. Those threads usually break out into fights further on, but it's almost always vets vs. vets.



    Quote:
    Yes, I've exaggerated the population disparity. Ok. I admit it. I personally crashed victory to make only 2 people (including me) logged in and I created dozens of new accounts on Freedom just to prove a point.

    And yeah, I personally made TR and DR go away due to low populations in anticipation of this moment.

    And yeah, every other MMO that had server closures due to low population? I made those up. I fooled the entire MMO community just because I wanted to screw with your head.

    You found me out. Good job.
    See previous post for what I was saying was exaggerated. It wasn't any of that.

    TR? DR? EDIT: Sorry, too me a minute to get that was Tabula Rasa and Dungeon Runners (and DR was awful, and an unwise idea to compete directly in the general fantasy MMO arena anyway).
  17. Quote:
    Smurch jumps:

    I jump-packed to the main hubs (wents, the statue, the monorail station, etc).
    So...two, three minutes, maybe?

    Quote:
    Meanwhile, I just made a character on Freedom. There are SIXTY people in Atlas Park and I see a BUNCH of people right there under the statue as soon as I log in.

    Sixty people on Freedom. Two on Victory. Which do you think makes a better impression on a new MMO player seeing the game for the first time (and be honest)?
    Depends on what one is looking for.

    Quote:
    But yeah, the population disparity? Totally exaggerated. I mean two is almost sixty if you add just 58.
    No one, but no one ever claimed there was no population disparity nor that the lesser populated servers were lesser populated. "Empty" is a far different story than "lesser populated". And the disparity was not what I was saying was exaggerated. "Empty" was one part of the exaggeration. "People seeing other people in the game right off the bat is the most important thing" (never stated, very much implied) was also.

    And, hey, I mentioned earlier that I see the problem, I just don't see it as being anywhere near as bad as you and Frosty do, nor as important. It'd be nice to see more people sometimes, but I still contend that it's not as important to player retention as is being claimed.
  18. Quote:
    BrandX shifts ownership:

    He was playing around with someone elses base.
    Then they had enough.
  19. Quote:
    Smurch wants assessments:

    Can you please make up your mind how you feel about the level of intelligence of other people?
    It is now, and has always been "it varies wildly, with most people in the middle and tapering off towards the endpoints".

    Quote:
    Really.
    Oh, one need not be unintelligent to say stupid or ill-informed things. Hell, I'll admit to it from time to time and I have a near-genius IQ (not that that's really an indicator).
  20. Quote:
    Smurch goes to check:

    As of right now, there are two people in Atlas Park in Victory.

    And I'm one of them. I have no idea where the other guy is.
    This is probably the slowest time of day for Victory. And there's still someone there. And how long did you wait around to see if anyone crossed your field of vision?
  21. Quote:
    Smurch goes on:

    MMOs are a highly competitive market. You need to outshine the other guys and you generally have a brief window in which to do it. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
    Meh, CoX has always proudly held itself up as not like the other MMOs (and they're not). I mentioned two things earlier. CoX draws a bit of a different crowd than most MMOs. And it's all about expectations. The expectations that keep being held up here are going to be from gamers that have played other MMOs, I think. While this likely is a sizable portion of our playerbase, it's hardly a majority by itself. They're also usually more well-informed than the straight on MMO newb, and would more likely have the attitude of "Where is everyone?" rather than "There's no one here, I quit." People keep trying to attribute attitudes of new players, and usually without the "likely", "mostly" "somewhat" kind of qualifiers (EDIT: Even me, but I fixed ).

    Quote:
    Or, on more populated servers, you'll enter the game next to several someones right in the tutorial.
    Oh, hey, many many times on the lower populated ones, too. I was positing an "at worst" scenario.

    Quote:
    Funny, I logged in one of my old characters on Protector the other night just to see, and did a /whoall in Mercy. There were THREE people listed. THREE. I SS'd around the zone and spotted one of them.
    So, what you're saying is that people were there and you saw one. Mission accomplished! Maybe you should have asked him where the people were. He's have probably told you.

    Quote:
    You mean the same people who, when they DO find their way to the forums, yell at them and tell them it's all their fault for not properly using the various team locating tools they had no way of knowing about and generally making them feel stupid for asking in the first place?

    Yeah, that will garner tons of subscriptions!
    I spend a lot of time on these forums. For every person that acts like you describe, there will be 4-5 giving polite, helpful, solid advice. There's dinks everywhere, it really can't be escaped, only countered.

    Quote:
    Good job with the head in the sand approach, by the way.
    It's not "head in the sand", it's "you're focused on something that you've mostly exaggerated to fit your doom".
  22. I sincerely doubt that, unless a gamer's inherent is "Three's Company stupidity".
  23. Heh, them's the breaks. He obviously had enough to do those.
  24. I'm missing the connection. They need to change the prestige rate because your friend has good creativity?
  25. Quote:
    Smurch has communication issues?:

    How did they know to choose Virtue or Freedom?
    Ask someone?

    Quote:
    When I was a new player, I chose "Protector" because I liked the name. I didn't know anything else about the servers. My first impressions of the game, and my decision to subscribe, were based on my early experiences on that server back in 2006.

    Very very few players ever look at the forums. Many will just log in, see no one around, and assume the game is dead and not subscribe.
    To me, this just sounds strange. It's like you're saying they're going to quit if in the first glance around in the first five minutes they don't see anyone. I'd counter that people with that level of impatience probably won't stick with the game no matter what. If you look around to different zones and wait 15 minutes or so you WILL see at least someone (EU servers excepted, because I don't know from personal experience and they have their own separate but equal issues that don't apply to the NA servers and vice versa). Victory is hardly the top of the heap, but I see people in the mainly traveled zones (Atlas, Steel, Talos, PI) at all hours of the day and night.

    Quote:
    They might be, but there then needs to be some way to communicate that to new players who download the game and log in without coming here to the forums to find out which servers actually have a population.
    Like I said, they can ask the people they see. They can ask in Broadcast. Anyone who would log in, not see a lot of people and base things entirely on that seem like very stupid people indeed to me. Not because I'm so familiar with the game but because people who wouldn't ask questions in that scenario just makes no sense.