GreenFIame

Originally Posted by GreySquirrel

Its getting harder and harder to get names that don't require odd punctuation or deliberate misspellings and the like. I know in one channel I'm in I've heard no less than twenty people complaining about it this week alone. The game has been around for 6 years now. Thing is, the vast majority of the good names were taken within the first two. Now, of course, first come, first serve is fair, but I think its about time to release some of the older names that aren't played anymore.

Right now the policy is: "Names for characters below level 6 on game retail accounts that were inactive* for over 90 days were changed to unreserved status. This means that those names became available for new character names if picked by an active (subscribed) player."

We've had two rounds of temporary availability (if I recall correctly) and the last one was just shortly after I started playing, about 3 years ago. EDIT: Apparently the forums have informed me that I joined in October of 2006, so it was about a year after I joined. I hate time.

So I'm just interested in what others think on this subject. Personally, I'd like to see all names inactive for 2 years or more, regardless of the level, become available for current subscribers. Two years is more than enough time, I think for someone to decide to come back, and if they haven't, I think that's a good indication that NCSoft should be catering to current subscribers rather than past ones.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

I apologise for starting a new thread about this. I promise I'll take my ball and go home after this one. But I am so confused that it's confusing...

I was happily doing the Tina McIntyre arc when I came upon a weird sight - Clockwork fighting Carnival of Light Strong Men. Remembering what the arc was, I remembered the scenario: Anti-Matter's Clockwork mistook the Carnival of Shadows for the Carnival of Light, and because on Praetorian Earth everything was backwards, they were the good guys and so enemies of the evil Anti-Matter. Afterwards, I went to question the Carnival of Shadows to find out what happened. So I wondered how they'd have adapted this for the new Praetoria and... I don't think they did a good job of it.

First of all, what Carnival of Light? I went through Praetoria three times already, and I have seen neither sight nor mention of a Carnival of Light. I've seen Vanessa DeVore, yes, but she didn't have a "Carnival" with her. She was just working with the Resistance, mostly hiding their presance, from what I heard. What is this Carnival of Light? Did she form that after I left? Mind you, this is a Praetorian character that's doing this arc.

Secondly, even if we assume there's a Carnival of Light, how could the Clockwork mistake them for our Carnival? Are there jesters and strong men and circuses and carnivals and basically the travelling sideshow of last century in the new-age, tightly controlled Praetoria? Because I didn't see any, even in the resistance. And no, the Resistance "clowns" don't really count. So whatever this "Carnival" is, it shouldn't look anything like our Carnival of Shadows. So how did these robots make that mistake?

Lastly, why am I going to question the Carnival? Tina already knows that the Clockowrk thought they were attacking the Carnival of Light when they were, in fact, attacking the Carnival of Shadows (which only works if the two worlds knew nothing about each other, which they obviously do by the 50s). Calvin Scott told her so. And then she sends me to question the Carnival anyway. Why? What are they going to tell me? That they don't know why they were attacked? Because we already KNOW they don't know why they were attacked. Which is precisely what Vanessa tells me.

Speaking of which... VANESSA? The hell? This arc is 40-45, as far as I know, which puts it in the level range BEFORE the story arc where Vanessa DeVore's true identity is revealed. So why is she showing herself to me? But, apparently, I already know about her. How? Why? From where? But OK, I'm from Praetoria. I know about that world's Vanessa DeVore. So why does TINA talk about it like it's common knowledge? OK, so, we all know that the Carnival of Shadows is Vanessa's posse. So what's the point of that arc that reveals it? Am I supposed to act dumbfounded when she invites me into a trap? Am I supposed to be dumb enough to walk into it? Should I act surprise when I read her letter? What the hell, man? What the hell?

You know, I hate it when big mysteries like this get dropped whole-sale entire level ranges before they were revealed. Daedalus just... Tells you to go check up on the Malta Group and you go straight to Crimson. How did you know the Malta Group even existed when they're this clandestine secret organisation that no-one knows about? Is Crimson's identity public knowledge? Because he's supposed to be a secret agent on the order of James Bond, only he's not. And now the Carnival. We could have had some suspense there, but no. Everyone already knows. How? Why? We just do. We know all the game's secrets pretty much as soon as we make our characters at level one. There's nothing to discover.

The Oranbegans' true identity? We know. The Rikti are humans? Yeah, we knew that, but the Dark Watcher made sure we know before we got the Omega Clearance just in case we didn't. The Malta Group? Yeah, they exist and everybody knows it. Hell, they post challenges to heroes in the wanted ads in the papers. Praetorian Earth? Yeah, I know all about it. I mean, I read the Going Rogue site. Didn't you?

I hope I'm wrong about this, but... Can someone please explain all of that stuff to me, because from where I'm sitting, it looks like a gigantic mess.

Originally Posted by Major Deej

I'm there!

Woot! First after Avatea!

Originally Posted by Schismatrix

That's completely reasonable.
...
No, wait, i meant silly.
Personally i think it's because they didn't know about the farms until i19 was pretty much committed for release in the near future and the predownload was already in place. i don't know what the exact technical reasons for it would be, but i've noticed that the Devs do not release any patches to the live client when they're preparing to release a new issue in the very near future. They effectively freeze the live client at whatever the current version is when the update is nearly ready for release. This has been the general pattern since Issue 1.

Or... Yeah, sure, they want a bunch of unskilled, inexperienced 50s bumbling their way onto Incarnate TF teams to raise everyone's frustration levels during the TF. Pure genius.

Not that it's that hard to get to 50 anymore if you're really intent on doing so. Pick an alt to focus on, join some active global channels or active SG coalitions and focus on teaming with experienced players and running TFs, and you can hit 50 in less than a month without ever being in a farm. If someone's really that interested in reaching the new "endgame" they can get there quickly enough.

Originally Posted by Jerikko

I am looking for a few good men and women who want to assist in getting the following badges!

Oppressor
Destroyer
Dead-eye
Interrogator
Breakneck
Uppercut
Blackguard

This is a secret mission and will not list date and times for this on this page; however go ahead and post here if you will.

I have not done this in a while but the last time we used 3 teams of 8, I assume it can be done with 2 teams. I may even set up a chat channel just for this purpose. So if your interested, post here or send me in-game tell. Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by Mirai

Although I'm interested in picking up these new slots, I'm not encouraged with the hints about the related story content. Lots of TFs and trials. I don't do those. Normally I'm pretty much done with a character at 50. Playing solo friendly content related to the Incarnate system would be fun. Playing ordinary content at level 50 to get the slots (and stuff to put in the slots) just so I could do ordinary content slightly faster doesn't sound like much fun.

So I'm not getting my hopes up. But as usual I'll ask for the new TF maps and NPCs to be added to the Mission Architect, so I can make my own missions using them.

Originally Posted by Mister_Mystical

AE is most certainly still broken. I joined a team the other day with my level 4. I did so because there were no sewer teams available. I haven't been in the game a while and didn't know AE farming was still going on, I figured it was just some RPers I was joining.

About eight to ten minutes later I was level 23.

I was leveling so fast I wasn't even sure it was me that was leveling. I figured it was my teammates I kept seeing ding. You can powerlevel in there probably about 3 times as fast as people did doing the Winterlords a few years ago.

Just FYI...

Originally Posted by Flints

specifically, how much defense would you give up for offense and vice versa? Or how much defense/offense would you give up for team support?

Obviously the "Perfect" tanker would be a synergy of all 3 with no conflicts/restraints, every build has personal preferences, and every powerset has its weaknesses.

For example, my 2 Ice/ Tankers (One at 50 IO'd out one at 43 on his way to be IO'd.) they both have or will have at 50, a full power-tray of attacks (9 attacks and taunt) These builds/characters are aggressive, and aggressive to play, but I've paid an awful lot to get them to that point, and I might end up paying and giving up a whole lot more to take and achieve perma-hasten for perma-hoarfrost on both of them.

But playing in Mids (both i18 and i19 versions depending which one I open at the time) I've noticed with my third planned Ice tanker (Ice/Dark) I've got a chance to do things like soft-cap to Psi and Fire/Cold with one medium purple, or soft-cap to Fire/Cold/AoE with one minor purple, as well as being able to completely drain targets of endurance,
The trouble is, there only maybe 4 fast recharging attacks in /DA, which are chainable but it doesn't add much for flexibility or enjoyment.

So the choice is between going for the standard S/L/N/E build, taking a 4-power attack chain with some long-recharge "bag of tricks" powers and possibly ending up perma-hasten due to the recharge issue, this would effectively be the "classic" way of building it, with generic weaknesses to such things as psi and fire damage, or do I go for something that has incredible survivability and moderate aggro gaining at the cost damage and finally the choice of going like my other 2 Ice/ tankers and maxing the offensive?

I would post the 3 builds but they're still in the tweaking/concept stages at the moment.

Originally Posted by Sin_Stalker

I asked this to a few other comic makers but I figured id ask comic readers this too.
For reference and if you haven't read my work its at www.jkcomics.com.

How do you know if you have too much dialogue in an issue?
Both my last issue and now this one seem to be very dialogue heavy. I feel that was the main problem in my issue 1 comic. Which i am going to redo later after I am done with this storyline called Obey.

But I was going over last issue and this one and its very hard to get rid of any dialogue. It all fits and is needed for both character and plot development. But it makes the comic less fun in some ways to me since its a heavier read...

Any thoughts on this topic? Should I sacrifice character development or what? Its rather frustrating...

I appreciate any feedback on this. Thank you.


-Sin

Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay

I would. Wondering if I'm alone in this.

Originally Posted by Le Blanc

So am I the only one holding my altitis in check till I-19 drops? I'm sure I'm not. Also, all you professional prognosticators, feel free to drop your "I 19 release date" guesses. Im gonna say right after the Holloween stuff. Around early Nov. Any others?