Eva Destruction

That's funny. You're funny. That's like saying "idiot-proof."

Incidentally, searching the word "farm" with the "challenge" tag brings back 12 pages. Rolling up a Fire Armor brute, copying a build from the forums, filling your tray with purples and spamming Burn is HARD, people.

Yeah, add another thing to the pile of "stuff a lot of us would do if we thought there was actually any point." Since there isn't, we complain. It leads to the exact same results as doing anything constructive, but takes less effort.

I've been on those Keyes runs where most of the terminals were charged before he got there. That still left me standing around and picking my nose while people dragged him to the rest of the terminals. Clearing a mob around a terminal is a job for three people, if you're feeling generous. Everybody else still gets to stand around and pick their noses.

That's another thing that really needs to change if they're going to keep using these area effects targeted on a player. It's just annoying, especially when you have a flying target that melees have to jump or fly to reach.

But those new storylines need all new maps, and new enemies, and about five gameplay gimmicks per arc, two of which will be buggy and at least one of which will be overpowered for the level range. This is to distract everyone from the gaping plot holes and the fact that the story itself is overpowered for its level range.

What, you really think they'll be sending level 40-50s to deal with a bunch of gods so scary even the other gods decided they should just be sealed away for the rest of time? HA! That's level 20-30 work.

If by "effort" you mean "send a tell to the guy forming the trial, watch Simpsons reruns for twenty minutes, mash buttons while half-watching Simpsons reruns for another ten minutes, pay attention during the prisoner phase, then back to half-watching Simpsons while mashing buttons" then I guess it is. Or, in the case of a TF, "press W while mashing buttons for an hour. While still watching the Simpsons."

Forming a team isn't a gameplay challenge, it's a social challenge for one person. In that sense, it's like a farmer clearing a map while everybody else doorsits.

If a task takes me 30 minutes to solo, and adding a team of eight still makes it take 30 minutes, there is something wrong with my team. And by "something wrong" I mean "my team is a bunch of doorsitting mooches."

Then I don't think you were paying attention to the original discussions. Not that I blame you.

Chainmail bikini. Me want. Preferably with texture mapping that suggests "Broadsword Scrapper" rather than "Gravity Controller." Me no want puny girl arms and vast tracts of cleavage.

I'm hoping those aren't boots, just bottoms or bottoms with skin worn with standard boots. Barbarian high heels make no sense, but the character depicted doesn't look like a barbarian.

...you get to witness the awesome.

Not really, since "makes melee useless" refers to the intent and "people ignore it" refers to reality. Not that I think making melee useless was the actual intent, it is just an unavoidable side-effect of forcing people to spread out while fighting a single target.

It would get rid of one more obnoxious graphical effect. It would get rid of one more obnoxious pop-up. It would get rid of one more countdown. It would be one less thing the server has to keep track of, and one less thing my crappy graphics card has to render.

The better question would be, why did they put the time and effort into designing and implementing it if people are to be able to ignore it? Minor nuisances are reduced to might-as-well-not-exist with all the buffs flying around on an incarnate trial. As for flavor, Anti-Matter has four other "special tricks," aside from his regular powers. He doesn't need five. Besides, the red and blue bubbles don't match his other powers. Thematically, that bugs me.

From Recluse himself:

Yeah, there should really be a tip mission where you get to beat the crap out of that guy. Of course, it would contardict half the level 40-50 arcs but.... Basically if you're only doing something because a jumped-up bureaucrat tells you to, you shouldn't be doing it. I'm a villain! I spit upon your petty bureaucracy! Or better still, I create some sort of half-Arachnoid half-snake half-Coralax abomination to spit upon it for me!

Except it doesn't force people to spread out. People just ignore it. Given the choice between ignoring it and moving away on my Scrapper with no ranged attacks, guess what I'm going to do. Since ignoring it has yet to get me killed, I'm going to continue ignoring it, as does pretty much everyone else from what I've seen. So why have it at all, if people keep ignoring it?

Well yeah, they help against the enemies, but not against the pulse. Your complaint was specifically that the pulse is unfair to squishies with no shields. My point is that it penalizes everyone equally.

No, there's enough crap on my screen already. There is currently one excuse for not receiving instructions, and that is "I don't know where League chat is." The solution would be to add it to the chat window by default instead of the global window where it's pushed off immediately with the default tab settings.

Otherwise, the people who don't want to pay attention won't, the people who do want to pay attention already can.

You keep mentioning "no shields" as if they'd actually help.

Funny that, my Scrapper also gets hit for about 50% of my hit points. And another funny thing, said Scrapper somehow manages to be healed often, despite spending a lot of time running around doing Scrapper things.

I'd like that. Maybe then people would actually use said powers. It would also allow people to get Vengeance off, when everyone isn't teleporting to the hospital the instant they're defeated.

Honestly, I don't think so. I think Westin Phipps was an honest attempt to let us "be more evil." I think we're supposed to enjoy poisoning children and kicking puppies for teh evulz. Unfortunately they completely missed the point; I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly don't want to do that stuff for teh evulz. Sure, I have villains who would do it for the right reasons, but none that would giggle along with Westin as that impoverished mother begs him to help her blind children. They have greater goals. I don't dislike him because he's vile, I dislike him because he's beneath us.

Now Vernon Von Grun, comedy aside....yeah, I just might laugh along with him.

I'd still rather have a well-developed antagonist. See, when the Freddy or Jason or whoever doesn't die at the end, I'm annoyed. They're only there to be defeated, so when they come back for the sequel, it's almost cheating. But the Doctor Doom? Hahahaha, pathetic heroes, you really thought you had defeated DOOM?

I think you could do it, but you'd have to be very very careful in how you presented the character. The examples you mentioned are blatant and childish, whereas this kind of character would actually fall under the actual definition of "mature RP." I'd also make sure to write the bio in the third person and in such a way that makes it clear that you, the player, do not condone the views and actions of the character.

I like villains I can at least be entertained by, even if they're totally despicable. The complete psychopath type of villain just bores me. It doesn't help that they rarely get much character development. On the other hand, the most ruthless, amoral villain can be interesting if they're written well.

As for villains I can actually like, those tend to fall into either the Rogue category or the over-the-top comic book supervillainy, with death rays and space lasers and such. In the first case, nobody who doesn't deserve it gets hurt too badly, and in the second case the actual living human beings getting vaporized by the death ray are glossed over because the death ray is just so freaking cool.

Honestly, I wish Westin Phipps would stop being held up as an example of the ultimate "despicable" villain. When he was a kid he was a wannabe bully who wasn't big enough to take anyone's lunch money so he blackmailed the bigger kids into doing it for him. He's pathetic. If he lost his cushy job he'd be huddling in a corner going "not in the face, not in the face." Peter Themari is a better villain, IMO.

Maybe not "like" as in "I wanna be this guy's friend" (although I do like villains who would be cool to hang out with if not for that whole world domination thing), but at least "like" as in "I don't want this guy to lose! I want to read more about him!" I don't want to give Ghost Widow her body back so we can do our nails and talk about boys, I want to do it to see what she'll do next.
Yeah, those are cool for a bit, but in the long run? Nah. In a simplistic sense, sure, the Rikti as evil alien invaders are fun to beat the tar out of, but their story would get really boring really fast if there wasn't a C'Kelkah among them to show that there's more to the race (and before the RWZ "the Rikti" as a group was the villain) than just "destroy all humans."

Only NPCs get to do that stuff.

Opinions are one thing, acting on them is another. If I think you're weak, and don't deserve to live as such, and Cosmic Burst you in the face, figuring it'll either kill you because you were too weak to live or make you stronger, would you agree with my right to do so?
Or this character has become so cynical due to his time as a villain that even knowing the truth of the incident that originally turned him to villainy won't help. Maybe he won't believe you. Or maybe he will, but he no longer cares. If you give him an opportunity to save a city or two, maybe he'll say "screw them, they're jerks anyway."

I'll agree the potential to reform exists, but that doesn't mean every villain will necessarily act on it.

I think the difference here is one of scale. "I'm going to point a gun at your head and take your wallet" and "I'm going to build a death ray and hold a major city hostage for one hundred billion dollars" both have the same purpose. Both of these acts come down to greed. But one villain is cool and awesome and the other is just a common thug. The guy who goes around shooting random people in the head could, with a wider worldview, decide he wants to destroy all humans.

Speaking of...hey, look over there! *yoink*

This really depends on the strength of said villain's convictions. For instance, I have a villain that truly believes that humanity is doomed through its weakness, and in order for the human race to survive the weakness must be burned out of us. The weak must be culled and the strong made stronger. Yeah, sure, if you convinced her she was wrong she'd probably try a kinder, gentler approach...but the point is that you never will.

I actually find perfectly rational, logical individuals who fully understand the consequences of their actions, know what their alternative is and choose to do them anyway to be the most despicable. They can theoretically be redeemed, or at least reformed, but they make a deliberate and conscious choice not to be.

Vigilantes are portrayed as trigger-happy morons, for the most part.

Your experiment is skewed by lowbies. When you put a PuG together for regular missions, do you invite "anyone," regardless of level? If you're going to be running with a team full of lowbies, you're going to have to avoid arcs geared toward higher level teams, period. Even Standard enemies will be a "challenge" for such a team, unless you have a 50 who can solo everything for you...and where's the fun in that?

That's probably what you should be looking for, really, if you want to avoid "challenge" arcs. The only other thing that would really "optimize" rewards without the "for a purpled out Fire Armor Brute" caveat would be decent-sized maps without any backtracking or combat-lite missions.

Well Sister Psyche did foil one of his big plots, and she is effectively immortal....

Edit: So is Lady Grey, but the face is all wrong.

Tell me, how long does it take you to outlevel the ability to generate Steadfast Protection, or Reactive Armor, or any of the other desirable pool A recipes that cap out below level 50? With tickets, you never outlevel the ability to generate them, and you roll them at their level cap.

As for the uncommons that do cap out at 50, many of them are dirt cheap, and they weren't that expensive even before AE. I think it's a safe bet that the market isn't depending on AE for those. Gold recipes aren't an efficient use of tickets, and I'm guessing much of the supply comes from alignment and reward merit rolls.

As for salvage, we've had this conversation in the market forum. If you have a problem with the supply and price of Circuit Boards, go log in a mid-level character and beat up some Freaks until one drops. If you're not willing to do that, you don't get to complain about the supply of mid-level salvage.