Grey Pilgrim

I'm grading papers and I'm grumpy, but how is wanting better communication looking a gift horse in the mouth? I haven't said no one should pay anything to play CoX, or even that how they're laying out content with payments is bad. Since Premium players are going to be playing most of the same game VIP players are, it would make sense to let those people talk to other players more easily.

You're all acting like I am horrible for wanting players to be able to communicate and team more easily... that makes no sense at all.

*added*

Doh, sorry Chad. One good thing about this is I'll probably be able to get my wife to play the game. She's never thought she'd want to play enough to make a sub worth the payment, but for playing once or twice a month with me, this would probably be great for her.

Now that seems rather doomtastic. Payment models for MMOs are in a state of flux, and the current setup doesn't seem entirely different than what they have now if you want to pay a subscription. It's really not worth getting too worried about this before you see how it goes and we have more details.

Me, I'm staying on Victory. Maybe they'll let us swap all our characters easily to the VIP, but I doubt it... Zwill was saying it was a way to get the "brand new game experience" or something like that, so you can transfer to it probably, but now wholesale. My favorite characters are on Victory and it would take over a year of free rewards to get them over there. Plus, I LIKE Victory. Hopefully everyone else will stay as well.

So... I should remember that and try to grin when I'm on a premium stint for awhile rather than VIP and trying to team? That helps me not at all...

Also, are you quoting with this bolded statement, too? I'm not crying doom, I just don't like the communication limitation. The new F2P stuff are supposed ways to play the game, not glorified trial accounts, and it's going to be much harder to team up if you're not on a VIP account with the current setup. In other words, a pain for new players or those that are wanting to use a premium account for awhile.

I'm not exactly sure how you are ever going to be rid of spammers no matter what you do, and I'd rather have communication tools for people that actually want to play the game. We co have ways to moderate and control communication channels, too, so it's not like players would be powerless if they let premium types use chat channels (I could see not allowing non-premium people... that would catch most spammers, I would think, as premium people would have an account and a record for the devs to follow).

The Borg TNG movie was good... I try to forget the ones after that. The very last one had some decent ideas in it, but it couldn't overcome... a blandness it had? I don't know how to describe it, but it just lacked spark, even with the Enterprise ramming into an enemy ship. Most TNG episodes were better, I guess is what I am saying.

And yes, Picard was definitely more crazy in his younger days. One of the better episodes of TNG was when Q let him go back to fix a mistake from his wilder, earlier days in the Fleet, which of course made him into the captain he was (it also features one of my favorite Q quotes ever "Is there a John Luck Pickerd here?"). The later movies probably overdid the romance angle for him, but... it's not like a lot of ladies don't like Patrick Stewart anyway.

If we can include slightly tongue in cheek movies, then Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog should be somewhere in a top 10. I think most wouldn't include something that spoofs the genre, since a list usually is supposed to denote the best of a genre, but... it does hit many of the themes of the genre while spoofing it, and actually has a good story and pathos, compared to some of the superhero movies that actually had a studio backing the budget.

The new shard to thread conversion prices will help with this some, though I would still probably agree. I argued that adding a new currency was a bad idea in the I21 beta, too.

There are supposed reasons you want to keep the two separate since the new incarnate powers blow the old content out of the water, but I'm skeptical on that, especially since they're keeping most of the +1 level boosts for the trials. And you can keep the thread drop the same, making the trials a better way to get components no matter what.

That's not a change to the inherent so much as it is to the damage scalars for the Kheldian AT. The Dominator revamps were a bunch of tweaks all over, part of them being the move of damage ability being moved from the Domination power to the AT's damage scales, along with adjustments to certain Dominator powers.

I just see a change to the inherent easier than the damage mod. When I'm on a team, my PB's damage goes up noticeably, and I haven't had issues with the damage I do on teams. If someone wants to put out the math and show how it's still not enough in comparison with other ATs when you have maybe... two people improving your damage with Cosmic Balance (probably a fair average for a large team), I guess I could go with the damage mod adjustment.

I just can see the devs getting worried about upping our damage mod, with how much we can get buffed on teams, let alone our own powers. Given that, I can see a change to the inherent when we are solo or on a small team, as opposed to an adjustment to our damage mods.

Really, why? They're a little more rough if they get the drop on you, but I was handling them just fine at low levels back before when they still did special damage to us, etc. Hit them hard and fast, knock them down, mez them, etc., and use insps if you really need to.

I wouldn't recommend ignoring them, but I put them in the same camp as Malta Sappers or any mezzing enemies: contain them first and then go to town.

Ethereal, not having a clear goal in mind is a problem for any AT, I've found. It's easy to fritter away slot and power choices if you're not careful. Kheldian builds are just tighter than most, so they're less forgiving of build issues. Glad you were able to find a setup that you are more comfortable with.

I'd prefer it if Light Form was more like Strength of Will, actually. Though most Invulnerability user's are going to say the same thing about their Tier 9... the crash is just a bear to deal with, and not all that useful. A Tier 9 with a fixed recharge that doesn't drop you to almost nothing when it crashes is quite preferable.

Moment of Glory is useful on Regeneration, but I don't see it as helping Peacebringers as much... though I guess it would help some people that don't like being locked into Light Form for so long, I'm not sure an occasional alpha soaker is what Peacebringers need... a long based boost to resists would help me more.

All those reasons are just why Kheldians can do energy damage... anyone could probably come up with reasons why their totally awesome hero or villain should beat up everyone else. However, that stuff gets thrown out the window whenever you are trying to balance a game or story. All Kheldians need is to be balanced well with other ATs, not to be super uber, I can defeat anything aliens.

What with all the posting in the Kheld forums, I think we've gotten fairly close to what Kheldians need to be improved, or at least have some good ideas to work from. Those ideas aren't a huge overhaul of Kheldians, but minor adjustments.

Voids and crystals aren't part of the problem, though. Their special and annoying damage isn't a problem anymore, and they're mostly there for flavor now. I do wish they wouldn't spawn everywhere for us Khelds, but cysts shouldn't throw anyone off anymore, even when they do the rare extremely annoying thing, like spawning with the four patrons on the Statesman TF.

Just going to stop you right there and say this: do not make my Kheldians like Soldiers of Arachnos. They're different ATs and should be kept that way. The devs are going to want that as well... since they have the ATs set up to be different. On top of that, pretty much all or your suggestions would take a lot more work than the few things Kheldians would possibly need to be set and working well. That's a much better design idea, as it takes less work and doesn't upset people that like how Kheldians work overall currently.

Soldiers of Arachnos are their own AT already, no need to try an replicate them.

As much as I think people who do not like KB are idiots, I have to agree with this. I like KB, and I have found myself startled or annoyed when people do it and I was not expecting it when I was on other characters. I mostly just truck with it on my melee types, but for my characters with targeted patches, I HATE it when teammates knock enemies out of those patches. That KB just ruined the effects of Freezing Rain, etc. Gee, thanks.

Bill, a lot of the things you are arguing for, you can still get the same benefit from KD or KU. You need breathing room? Those give it to you. If you NEED to move away, you have the time to do it. You don't need Solar Flare to be KB to do the things you want. At the very least, you kind of have to acknowledge that a lot of people dislike the KB and do not find it helpful in an AT with a melee bent.

I'll fight anyone that suggests taking all the KB out of Energy Blast or Melee, and even Radiant Strike, but fighting for it in Solar Flare is just... stubborn and not all that helpful. Frankly, I was shocked when Castle took the KB out of Dwarf Flare and kept it in Solar. That made no sense, since him and BAB were changing KB into KD in so many melee sets at the time. This is a change that should have been made years ago.

Debating the +perception... we'll see how much it would cost me on the market (it fluctuates, from when I have seen it).

Maneuvers might be of more use than assault, actually. I think you can bump up the damage caps with your teammates pretty easily, but Cosmic Balance doesn't boost defense. I might worry about the end usage with any leadership toggles, though.

There is something fun about healing teammates, though, even if it's one little power. At least the range is being boosted with the next patch.

I was debating that, too. I just know from experience that those two powers do not get tons and tons of use when I am in human form now, and when I do use them, I'd rather a more solid punch of damage (which Eye has over Bolt). I probably am only going to stick with the Achilles in there, rather than throwing more procs into it, too. I was debating whether the Kismet is needed on a PB with -def in all the powers just about, but it is nice for that first hit against all those +3s in the trials.

The shifting has never been as smooth as it should be for a shifting class. We're not allowed to reference other games, but when it works in other games, it's smooth and doesn't take forever to do. The skill involved in knowing when to switch and making the appropriate switch is the extra hoop those characters need to make to work: there isn't a need to punish with the long shifting we have in this game.

The shield system is another thing that makes this more difficult, as you note. I rarely bother with my shields on my tri-form, unless I'm going to be running in human for a long period of time (even though it means he's weaker at the time). Not losing toggles when you are mezzed was an extremely popular change among players, and for good reason. Toggle loss when switching forms is still a big pain in the butt.

I still wish the original dev team had put in the effort needed to make Kheldians good through and through. They had some great ideas and designs, surrounded by some terrible ones that are still holding the AT back.