Grouchybeast

They sell on e-bay occasionally, especially right after a convention where they're handed out. Expect to pay a fair amount, though -- there's one ghoul code up right now, and the current bid is $76 with over a day to go. I've never seen one go for a price I'd be willing to pay, even if I could apply a US code to my account. I assume this is why most people don't want to sell them for pixel money.

This news pleases me. I never liked the idea of being able to get one level of Incarnate powers and then have the character sit around twiddling their thumbs for a few months waiting for the next issue before they could progress further. I'd find that frustrating, rather than an enjoyable sneak peek, and I'm glad I'll be able to concentrate on exploring Praetoria and side-switching first, and then get the Incarnate system complete later. YMMV.

On a slightly less snarky note, you can download DropStats and use it to analyze your drop rates and confirm whether or not you really do have a problem with a reduced rate. One thing you'll notice is that you need a LOT of data to be able to tell with any confidence -- for events with a low chance of happening, it takes a very large sample to establish the probability, and this is why it's very easy to think there's an issue with the drop rate when there isn't.

You can get DropStats here:
http://www.glasspaw.com/dropstats/

It seems like a lot of effort, but on the plus side, if you get solid evidence of a drop rate problem with DropStats, then people are much more likely to take your issue seriously.

While I fundamentally like the idea of a PVP TF...

- Doubling the PVP IO drop rate would lead to people cooperatively farming the heck out of it (which I personally don't have a problem with, but which the devs might not like).
- A higher than normal merit award would lead to people cooperatively farming the heck out it (ditto).
- There's always going to an issue with a PVP TF with multiple missions, which is keeping the teams' progress co-ordinated. One team finishing their mission could automatically finish/fail the other team's current mission, but I can see that opening up farming opportunities, again.
- An imbalance in rewards for the winning/losing team has the risk of the losing side dropping out before the end, effectively griefing the winners. Adding merits would make this more likely, as diminishing returns would kick in on repeat runs. Having no diminishing returns will bring even more farmers. Awarding an auto 'win' to the team which doesn't drop has a very obvious exploit.

My hopes for boosters would be:

Animal -- more realistic animals heads, legs, feet, hands, tails etc. Everything, really, within the constraints of the system. It would also be nice to increase the flexibility of the system so that (my no. 1 wish, actually) skirts could be worn with monstrous legs, but I guess that's outside the scope of a booster.

'Evil' monsters -- vampires, werewolves, zombies.

Armour -- power armour, better medieval armour.

Casual -- more 'normal' clothes: shoes, jackets, skirts, shirts, etc.

A 'chassis' pack -- more faces, more hairstyles, a muscled look for female characters, an expansion of the skin colour palette so that it's easier to blend non-human skin colours with costume pieces.

The interface lags horribly for me, too, in some aspects. It's worst if I'm trying to delete text in the search box. It literally takes a second per keypress, and whatever's behind the UI goes into freezeframe, updating in time with the text box. This didn't happen for me in the old UI.

I'd happily make a new alt for the SG and/or VG, and join a new global channel. (I've always put my alts in a personal SG to get access to the stored IOs there, but that's become much less important with the ability to e-mail items.) I generally play on Defiant, but if most people favour Union that's fine, too -- I have a lot more empty character slots over there :-)

The UK 'Queer As Folk' is very good. Also, Alan Plater's Beiderbecke trilogy - 'The Beiderback Affair', 'The Beiderbecke Tapes' and 'The Beiderbecke Connection'.

I think it's a great idea.

As a way to avoid griefing, how about including an option to restrict off-line (or both off-line and on-line) invites to friends, in the same way as the e-mail restrictions?

I'm not sure that I'd want a 24 hour cycle, but lengthening it from half an hour would be great. The fast-moving shadows look pretty silly at the moment. Maybe a four or six hour 'day'?

Any blaster nuke can be profitably combined with Rise of the Phoenix, provided enough bad guys survive the nuke to put you down (or just self-destruct). RotP clears up any survivors during the rez, and the pesky -recovery is gone.

Open the ATI Catalyst Control Centre. At the top you should have a Hotkeys menu, and you can uncheck 'Enable Hotkeys' in the dropdown to disable it.

Basing rewards on datamining without having the data to mine is tricky. Presumably, the current Posi merit awards are based on run times on test, with a fudge factor to take account of the fact that times usually drop as players find ways to speed up. I expect, as happened across the TFs and arcs before, that the merits will get a tweak once there's a more solid set of data to draw on.

No one seems to have linked this, yet, so -- if you want to get into IO sets, then an extremely helpful tool is Mid's Hero Designer:

http://www.cohplanner.com/

This will allow you to plan your builds, see how the various sets and set bonuses affect the powers and attributes, see what effect slotting different levels of IOs has, etc. Very useful.

I second Fulmens' Fire/Ice blaster suggestion.

1. Fireball at level six. Six!
2. Firebreath gives you a second AOE, to use while Fireball recharges.
3. Oh, also Aim + Buildup so the fireballs hit more often and do more damage.
4. Don't forget Shiver, so that the mobs stay tidily together while you fireball them.
5. And Rain of Fire provides nice special effects that the slowed mobs can run around in while you fireball them again.
6. I suppose Blaze is pretty nifty if you want some high single target damage, too.
7. If you like the idea of blapping with Ice Sword and Frozen Fists, then Ice Patch is useful and entertaining, (plus fireballs will work just as well at point blank range).
8. There's just nothing better than Fireball with a Ragnarok Chance for Knockdown proc in it.