Foxy_Phoenix

Constructive post is Constructive

And no PSL....I am NOT clicking that link! lol

Before posting here on the message boards, I polled one of the main global channels on my server, and absolutely noone disagreed with me, so here we go....

With the fact that the devs have now released on us FOUR Incarnate Slots all at once....I think now is a very opportune time for them to do something that alot of people have been asking for anyway. And this poses my question to you, my fellow forumites:

If the devs spent ONE Issue working on nothing other than revamping old content and fixing stuff that they've been putting off fixing, what would you guys say? Let's also say that the price for doing this means ABSOLUTELY NO NEW CONTENT for one Issue. (Well, maybe some new costume pieces....gotta keep Jay in a job!)

To quote one of the channel members when I raised this idea to them... "The new content looks so great and is so much better it makes the rest of the game look like clown shoes in comparison". And unfortunately....I cannot disagree at all.

There's also the problem that this game is probably running on AT LEAST 3 generations of code...just simply optimizing the code of this game would go a long way.

So....what do you guys say? One Issue of nothing but fixes and revamps in exchange for no new content for one Issue.

I didn't ask why shards couldn't be used....I asked why there was no use put into the new slots for the Notice/Favor of the Well salvage.

Edit, I do see that Notice/Favor do break down into shards, which can then be converted into threads....seems a little out of the way for me tho. Notice/Favor of the Well were put into the game to put a time limit on how quickly someone could achieve rare and very rare enhancements....that (afaik) wasn't build into the new slots. Just the large influence cost barrier.

So, I can kind of understand why all the regular salvage from the alpha slot was not used. However, I do have to ask why I20 does not take advantage at all of the WTF and the Notice/Favor of the Well salvages?

"Oh, people may have already had some build up" the devs may say. That's fine, but you still had a mechanism in place to slow progress (one Notice per week) while still making it fun.

Now, every mechanism that was introduced with the alpha slot has been tossed to the side in favor of 2 trials. The trials are fun, I like them....but certain things should have been integrated more effectively, don't you think?

It seems like the new slots were used simply as a way to introduce WoW type raiding, and also to finally introduced large influence sinks that are big enough to affect the games economy. (Because half a mil a pop to craft 50 IO's didn't really do anything to the economy...)

I have never, solo or on a team, sucessfully completed skipper legranges last mish. (Stop Fir Bolgs from entering door). We even loaded a team up controller heavy and couldn't do it. But, I digress....I just hate that mish. BUT, I'd rather lose out on the XP from the mission, than lose out on the giant arc completion bonus if I fail the mish.

Yes, Striga is definitely important, and I mentioned Striga in the guide. Admittedly, as a afterthought. I tend to prefer the newer content, so I opt more for the Mirror Arcs, Mercedes Sheldon, and those new Medi-Porter arcs than older content. Striga is my next choice after all the new content tho.

And...Julius and Talshak...as for them, I'd rather come back later, ex'ed down through Ouro with all my extra slots and at least SO's to run them. You can unlock Karsis and Hess through Ouro anyway. (Also, for certain temp powers that give you an "echo" version if you've gotten them already, even through Ouro the first time you obtain them you get the actual power and not the echo version)

I will update the guide a bit tho.

A: I specified this was hero side only as I'm not familiar with villy side really.
B: Praetoria is so linear....do you really need a guide?
C: Yes, it could be a "General Guide to 50"...but I view it more as a "I've made it to 50, have become an altaholic, and would like a clean cut way to 50 for my alts that minimizes the headaches."

Hey guys, just wanted to get this out there. The name is Justice, but thanks to global e-mail it doesn't matter what server you're on.

The general idea is this. So many items get simply vendored or deleted it's horrible. And of course, one man's trash is another treasure. I simply want to try keeping more items IN the economy and more easily accessible, since (imo) the market is completely borked.

Alot of people just give stuff away on the channel too. So type /chan_join "Justice Flea Market" and help out your fellow players! Over 100 people in the channel already, so we're off to a good start.

You've got tons of characters. So many that you have some in all level ranges, and are completely versatile in being able to join any team. However, also nowadays it seems teams (outside of TF's) are getting harder to find. This is for hero side only, as I have limited experience with the "evil" side of things.

Here's my suggested trip to 50, this may not be the fastest, but I believe it is one of the funnest. (i.e. not pulling out your hair running bad contacts or just running radios over and over and OVER). This trip will also make sure that when you hit 50, you will have alot of the accolades you need.

Levels 1-5. This is a no brainer. You'll spend this time in AP or Galaxy, depending on what your starting zone was.

Level 5-8. Kings Row. Run radios and do your first safeguard to get the jet pack. (For all the safeguards, make sure to grab the badge in these zones too)

Level 8-12. Hollows. Run Wincott and Flux. I suggest stopping at Flux, as Julius and Talshak are NOT fun. (Note, not doing Julius and Talshak now means you won't unlock the Cavern of Transcendence trial, and would have to unlock it later through Ouro) Also, when done with Flux, hop back to KR, do radios and a safeguard to get your jump jet.

Level 13-15. Positron TF Part 1 & 2

Level 15-20. First two contacts in Faultline. Run radios and get your third safeguard mish, and the badge/temp power. Also, be sure to run Synapse for that final push to 20.

The next few categories you have a few options here. As the devs have quite literally PACKED levels 20-30 with content, you can pretty much pick and choose your path.

Levels 20-25. 4th Safeguard. Second 2 Faultline contacts. Run the first half (Agent Keith Nance) of the I17 Mirror Arc. If still not 25, run Sister Psyche.

Levels 26-30. 5th Safeguard. Run the second Mirror Arc contact (Jenny Adair) Run the Citadel TF. Start the Croatoa arcs. (Note, autocomplete the last mission from Skipper LeGrange. That mish is very hard to complete and you lose out on the arc completion XP if you fail it.)

*Note: Also during levels 23-30, if you have extra time or need more xp, you can go to Striga and do the arcs there, (The Striga arcs unlock the Hess TF, and give you two really nice temp powers) or do the Midnight Squad intro arc and take some more missions from Mercedes Sheldon. This level range is full of xp tho, so just do what you can. Also, the new Medi-Porter arcs from Issue 19 are in this level range.

Levels 31-35. Run 6th Safeguard. Finish the Croatoa story arcs. Run Manticore. If in need of extra XP to get to 35, also run the Moonfire and Hess TF's.

Levels 36-40. This is probably the hardest level range to get through, as all the old contacts in the range dont give very fun missions. Anton Sampson and Gordon Stacy have relatively decent arcs tho. Run 7th Safeguard. Run Numina and the Eden Trial. (Score TF Commander Accolade) If you didn't run Moonfire and Hess before, do them now. Do the first two arcs from Levantera in RWZ. The good benefit to this level range tho is you can now start joining ITF's.

Levels 41-45. Run 8th Safeguard. Run Tina McIntrye's arc. Run Serpent Drummers arc. Team and use ITF to get to 45

Levels 46-50. Run final Safeguard. Run Maria Jenkin's arc. (*note, I came across an issue a while back where blazing through Maria's arc and defeating Tyrant too far before level 50 can keep you from getting the badge...so you might want save Maria for later) Run Gaussian and Dark Watchers arc. Run LGTF and Statesman TF. Recommend running Unai Kemen as well.

This is very task force heavy of course, but it gets you to 50 pretty quickly, and by the time you hit 50 as long as you do a little extra badge hunting you can have all 4 major accolades by the time you hit level 50. You also wont have to worry about hunting up those safeguard badges you missed.

This is just a suggestion, take it or leave it. It works quite well for me tho.

Hopefully this means that you're going on to a bigger and better job opportunity. I wish they would have let BAB's do a good bye post.

Anyway, you will definitely be missed! You've been around so long it will be hard to think of the game without thinking of you as one of the developers.

*facepalm* LOL!

Just one more week! ....hopefully.

SO looking forward to this!

Congrats! This is a massive improvement over anything we've had so far!

I do have 2 questions tho. Any possibility of adding Badge Hunter reporting? And also...based on what you're now able to track, is there a possibility you'd ever be able to track things like salvage, recipes, etc?

Eliminating the need to "toon hop" to see what toon a particular salvage/recipe is on would be GREAT!

If you can't, that's perfectly fine too. Just a wishful suggestion.

Well, Je-saist, thanks for what was mostly a quality reply. While I used the term "QoL" I will admit that some of my suggestions may not have fit that EXACT description.

There is a couple things tho, that I think you misunderstood.

As far as Ouroboros is concerned. I'm currently doing my badging in Ouro. Getting all the badges for running with the limitations set.

Now, here's where it IS a Quality of Life feature. As it is right now, it REQUIRES you to do outside research to find out what arcs award which badges. Simply reorganizing the arcs to the badges that they give, OR adjusting the badges given to the level range their already in is, imo, a very good suggestion.

As far as the 30-39 content. I'm not saying there's a LACK of content persay. What I AM saying is that most NEW content gets made for 20-29 or 40-50. As a matter of fact, the only NEW content (if memory serves me) other than the default contacts in Founders and Bricks that has been added to the game is Croatoa (30-35) and RWZ (1 contact, 35-40) and Cimerora.

Examples of 20-29 new content. (Note: When I say new, I'm referring to content after all the original contacts were put in the game, and then PI was added. All those contacts introduced a base system of contacts and a leveling structure.

So....Faultline (15-25) Striga (20-30) Croatoa (25-35) Midnighter Squad arcs (20-30) Mirror Arcs (20-30) new 20-30 content for Praetorians in Issue 19. Now, there is some overlap here, but keep in mind this is also new content on top of the existing contacts.

So, 35-40 actually becomes the bigger hole. In 35 to 40 you have only original contacts and 1 contact (Levantera) in RWZ and some stuff in Cimerora. (edit: Forget Borea, whom iirc is the RWZ version of Meg Mason in the hollows and gives repeatable mishes. So there's one other option, assuming you can start working with her at level 35)

40-50 Peregrine Island, RWZ, Cimerora, Shadow Shard. This is a shorter list, however more than enough missions in these level ranges to get you to 50. Also, 40-50 is prolly the place where alot of people start going back and doing all the TF's they haven't done yet, so once again, plenty of xp here.

Essentially, my point being this. I started a new elec/shield scrapper recently, with a pre-planned leveling path. Doing all the stuff I wanted to do even between 10-19 was HARD, however 20-30, without turning off xp right before you ding 30 is impossible, even when solo'ing. And that's without touching ANY of the original contacts (Talos and IP). I dinged 30 and still hadn't down alot of the NEW 20-30 content. Said toon is level 39 now, and after doing RWZ and Cim and a Numina and tip missions, it has without a debt been a very slow 4 levels since hitting 35. (And Croatoa is the only thing that makes 30-35 alot more reasonable). So, this is the first level range this new toon has encountered where I'm FORCED to rely on radios/tips/tf's to level. (Admitting this is my choice to avoid Founders/Bricks contacts, but again, I'm sure alot of people avoid these as well, as again IMO the old contacts REALLY need to be reworked.)

This also links into my previous point about reworking the original 1-40 contacts. Unfortunately, most people don't want to touch them with a 10 foot pole. They're full of hunts, fedex's, ALOT of traveling, and crap. And just on the NEW content alone, 20-29 is bloated, 40-50 is comfortable, and 30-39 is lacking. So, one of two things here. If, as the devs have said, they want to focus on NEW content, then add some to the 30-39 section. Or if, as I have suggested, they want to rework old content, then I'd suggest starting with 30-39 FIRST.

Ok, so over time as playing I've been keeping a little text file with suggestions I've come up with as I've played the game (only for the last couple weeks or so...it's not a LONG list).

So anyway, here they are in no particular order except the first:

1. Offline SG invites. I know this has been discussed to death, but it's still at the top of the list.

2. The ability to better control access to base storage. Such as: The ability to type in a toon name or global name to have access to said storage regardless of if they're in the SG. (I.E. Having a toon run a "bank sg" while the rest of your toons are in your main sg, but can still access via coalition) The alternative here is that many people have taken to running "single player sg's" which I feel hurts the game, as it is not a single player game, and I don't think it was the devs goal for that to happen either.

3. An in-game build editor similar to Mid's. Create your builds, modify, tweak, etc...then load up the respec screen and simply hit "apply build"

4. More slots! WE don't even get HALF of the total amount of possible slots we could potentially use. If it were changed to simply getting 3 slots at ALL slot levels, that would be a very welcome increase, and not game breaking either. (I believe this would only result in 15 extra slots) Or maybe give us a way to EARN more slots? That would help the game in more ways than one. (It would get people out of AE, which would also result in more drops/more items on the market)

5. For the love of god, can you PLEASE rework all the level 1-40 Hero side contacts? (except hollows, fault, striga, croatoa, rwz, and PI) Bring them up to par with at least CoV contacts, if not even Praetorian contacts? I would love to play the games content, but as it is right now, the hazard zones and tf's hero side are pretty much the best story arcs and leveling. As a matter of fact, I don't think a lot of people would complain if you devoted an entire issue to reworking some of the old stuff in the game and making it into new content. Or maybe, for the next few issues going forward, one hero zone per issue could get a contacts revamp? That wouldn't be so hard, right?

6. Increase Titan-O's to dropping at the characters level range. As it stands right now, limiting them to level 40 has made them worthless. Or make them like IO's, so that they can't be outleveled. And on that note, maybe also make it so you don't have to be between levels 39-41 to start the Eden Trial?

7. Deleted due to valid reason of why it shouldn't be in the game (Wings with Trenchcoats - bandwidth/cpu reason)

8. Global storage! (And more than 30 pieces of storage in SG salvage racks!)

9. The ability to log in and STAY logged in while browsing the forums with Firefox.

10. NO MORE EMOTE ONLY BOOSTERS!

11. Give us a reason to go to Boomtown, Dark Astoria, Terra Volta and Eden! Other than GM's and the Eden/Respec Trials. Personally, I think boomtown could use the Faultline treatment.

12. What ever happened to the WoW Armory type service that the devs were gonna give us?

13. More costumes! Especially animal type costume pieces (Bird head, cat head/face, etc)

14. Make the anniversary badges (Celebrant, etc) account level!

15. Longbow and Vanguard Epic Archetypes.

16. Reorganize the arcs in the Ouroboros Crystals so that the arcs are in the same level range as the badges they award. (Example: Ouroboros Initiation. Listed 46-50, awards 35-49) Conversely, also fix the badges awarded to some arcs to the level range the arc SHOULD be at, and are actually listed at. (Example, Jenny Adair's arcs are listed properly at 25-29, but award the 20-24 badges)

17. Give us a UI with LUA scripting. You know how much people love user created addons?

18. PLEASE stop packing so much new content into the 20-29 and 40-50 level ranges! Give 30-39 some more lovin, please???

19. Please move all arcs in Ouroboros into the level range that they award the badges for. For instance, Jenny Adair's arc awards the 20-24 badges, but is in the 25-29 range. Ouroboros Initiation is in the 46-50 range, but awards the 35-39 badges. I would also suggest that some arcs (like welcome to vanguard) be moved into the level range that they can be ACQUIRED at. Just because you can run it all the way up to 50 doesn't mean that it has to be in the 46-50 range. Also, some more content in the 40-45 range would be GREAT. (Because running Division:Line at level 40-45 and grinding those badges out is extremely laughable considering you can do "Welcome to Vanguard" for the 46-50 badges.)

20: Allow multiple auto powers. For example: Hasten, Secondary Mutation, and Practiced Brawler

21: Access to Safeguards/Mayhems via Ouro

22: (Suggestion may be met with I19, not sure yet) Add a way to acquire all Praetorian Badges through Ouro.

23: Rename SG option. (Even if it's a paid feature)