HT_Ingram

I just want to say TY for the breakdown of Tiers for Premium. Thats one thing they really never let you know before hand and I have to admit its intimidating to think all your characters are going to loose their IO bonuses you have spent trillions on equiping...

I have 30 tokens sloted and 3 @ Tier 8

So since I have Lifetime access to the Invention System from completing tier 7 Basically when I let my account VIP go I am not TOO adversly effected... Other then loosing Incarnate system which I have not been doing much of anyhow cause I lag so bad on any trial in the game.

And of all my 50s, most I have retired and not been playing at all anymore, focusing instead on my lowbees and mostly playing alone cause no one is interested in doing anything BUT trials on my server...

I got 25 characters on my main sever and like 6 on the VIP only server which are retired...
Obviously No need to mess with Exaulted when i let my VIP lapse for a bit, and should have more then enough character unlock tokens to unlock the ones I am working on... I think I now know everything thats been holding me back from dropping VIP for a little while...

Boy I'll tell you what though NCsoft sends some nasty Scare tactic messages for you NOT to let your VIP go... Its was ONLY here on this thread that ANYONE was able to tell me at what point I had Lifetime access to the Invention System for Premium without doing it first and finding out only then. So Thank you...

=HT=Ingram
Victory Server
HAZTEAM

lol Am I the only one standing here looking at Hamsters last post and scratching my head going HUH? ;P

You guys seriously suck the way you make fun of clown summoning... Clowns are freaking scary as hell to many people, and add to it there is more then enough president for Clown villains in comics and movies. Clowns have been depicted as murders, bank robbers, terrorists, and general insane Mahayanist. Making fun of this request is just another insult of a legitimate request for this for many years. I say its time to take the mackerel out of the flower pot and slap the perpetrators of this salacious sequality of the joke on our request square in the face.

I tend to get more converters while doing TFs then street sweeping in DA or just doing missions... Almost none in trials thus far... after a long night of playing a series of TFs I had like 15 converters on me. Thats Representative of about 8 hours worth of playing around 6 TFs plus some sweeping in DA... IDK what the pool is they inserted these into but I am getting them in all levels of TFs once I hit 50. even when maled down. I have yet to see any drop on a toon that has not yet achieved 50... So I think its prob working as designed... we will see...

Seems to me to be very similar to Shard drop ratios... And same drop quality status as shards. white common... Just have to be alpha unlocked to achieve them. So its prob part of the same drop pool.

Pretty much as predicted from the same feedback on the beta server... I'm starting to wonder why they even have it at all, their just going to do what they want to anyhow...

OK a fix that worked for me is to manually change the settings file in the game directory to the lowest possible settings. Then launch the game and go directly to the new settings button (on the login screen) and adjust your settings and save it. It seems to fix the launching problem at least... (IDK why but the graphics settings seem to be defaulting VERY high on reinstall)

There use to be a way to go into safe mode with the old launcher. IDK or cant find the way to do it on the new one...

Rememebr on beta most things they test there is subject to change. indeed 90% of the stuff we do in beta is to test teh roll system and odds of getting things. Its often where they test new powersets and their roll to hit ratios to be sure stuff is not too overpowered as well.

I have rarely seen something from beta arrive in test as it originally was in beta.

Test is where they put things that are soon to go live for final testing and tweaking by the player base. Almost everything that happens in test ends up in game eventually.

So getting 25 in Beta was a way to test the drop rates essentially. Now in a live environment they are not going to just give them away in large number. as it is they are little more then a fad that are pure gambling away your hard earns points and rewards to encourage you to spend more $$ with them. Heck I been expecting a 1 in a million chance golden ticket concept to be applied to this to generate even more income for the company... At least that follows suit with the nickel dime mentality... For me I am not interested in the super packs at all. I'm thankful to use what I use (and have used for years) without GOD MODE settings for the ego player base.

Incarnate stuff is nice sure, and if I get it ok fine I get it, but its not the end of the world when I DONT have it either... Contrary to the snoobery that happens in game if your are not a +3 and on a trial. If you dont want people to play with so be it, I'll not play, but dont expect all the people that you turn away to welcome you with open arms in other things when you want to join a TF of the week. I HATE HATE HATE going to pocket D anymore cause your invited to a group on arrival till they see your not +3 then immediately kicked from league. Same goes for the AO stuff. If I want them I'll buy them on the market for their over inflated prices. But really not all that interested... So more then happy to stay away from superpacks as though they never existed at all...

Preatoria was ... interesting in a way...

The problem being that Cryptic made a little mistake in seperating the game / server populations when they separated out Villains. While the entire villain concept was great, the game itself is still essentially the same. go get this guy, got get this thing, go kill that guy, and so forth... Going rouge while trying to fix that for some, also split it again for others... They did merge the market databases, and made the currency basically universal. Yea its still called different stuff for each side but its just the amount $ you have now...

Now we have Praetoria goldside sitting out there and if you stay pure praetorian your only go to 30 with first ward. Future zones for 30-40 and 40-50 (Emperor Cole's Palace) will help bring people back to gold zones again to flesh out their characters. Having unique base options would ALSO bring people back to gold factions and have them stay there... BUT... all that being said, I doubt they want to split the population again into a 3rd major faction at end game. indeed the trend is to merge everyone into a single populace for end game content. I would have been very happy to have seen the trials forming in praetoria, and for a SHORT (very short) time they were. like days... lol then everyone just went to Pocket D instead cause it was quicker and everyone was able to go there...

ALSO its worth noting EVERYONE is able to go to Praetoria. blue red and middle. So it would be cool if there were a few missions came about that would take groups back there for one reason or another (well yes I know the Trials are there, thats not what I was meaning)... Unfortantly if your gold exclusive not much is left for you to do once you become lev 30. Some holiday events you may get to do to level up, OR do what we are suppose to do and abandon Earth, I mean Praetoria, and go to the red or blue sides...

There are a few unique badges associated with gold side so thats nice, but beyond that. No bases, no AE, no Ouro access... so for the most part beyond the novelty its not worth the bother, especially now that we can make whatever we want and go teh way we want from the beginning... (which was in high demand for ages)

There are a few good reason to go to Gold side for 50s..

All the exploration and kill badges there for badge hunters.

The Studio 55 respec agent. (like the Pocket D Tailor) its a quick zone to do it fast. lol
{I never remember where they are on blue side cause I dont play it often. haha}

The extra costume slot from Halloween salvage. yep thats the secret to getting the 6th costume slot for free.
(not sure if thats by design or a bug but its worked for me when I tried.)
(edit: this has bug been fixed.) Still works for 5th costume as it was designed to do but not the 6th...

The 3 Zone events for free temp powers, emotes, and merits.

And Hami Seed in First Ward to kill for badges...

So there are reasons to go there if you want too. but most just want to do the trials anymore on our server at least. getting groups together to do things in Praetoria is like taking candy from a 5 year old... Not easy, and a lot of Whining involved...


PS: A TF or 2 over there wouldnt hurt to attract some people back in those zones as well...

Now that we have seen that rarely used areas are up for grabs for co op zones, and Issues 22 will add Dark Astoria redone as such a zone, can we please talk a little about the Shadow Shards?

So Now we have Cimerora, Rikti War Zone, Pocket D, Praetoria (first ward and other zones), and essentially all the trials; that are openly available to all Factions within the game and we can team up together to work regardless of Hero or Villain status. (not counting Galaxy City cause its still really just a Hero Zone even if it is a tutorial area, since Villains can not go there via Ouroboros.)

Issue 22 : Brings us an old rarely used area from Blue Side : Dark Astoria. And its been completely reworked right? All the old missions and quests redone and new rewards for doing stuff there, AND both side will have access to it. Fantastic.

Thats the setup for Proposal.

Shadow Shard zones: These 3 zones are home to many a beasty to kill, and a at least 1 hero only SF that is RARELY run because it is so universally hated for being too long and tedious. So Could we have a chance to see this zone reworked as well for an upcoming issue. In the same way you have for Dark Astoria?

First open up area to both sides. (as it is now if a Vigilante goes in to firebase zulu the exit portal already says it goes to Grandville, but it really goes to Peregrine Island.)

Second Scrap Dr. Quaterfield as it currently is and maybe split it up a bit into 2 if not 3 TFs.
Same with Sara Moore SF. Really completely reworking Dr.Q would be preferable cause it just NEEDS IT! To many going in and out of the Shards region and back into Hero zones for it to be a true Co-op Task Force.

And Third Add more missions and contacts to the area for all the zones and both sides.

Being that this is already a fairly high level region. 40-50 basically, this is a great place to add more end game content including new trials at some point...

My personal fav area in the game is in the Storm Palace zone, but its a ghost town regardless of what server I have ever been on cause there is no reason to go there... Its time to open up the Shadow Shard zones to more contacts missions and TFs for both sides...

Please Consider this region for future issues and co-op areas...

Thank you..

I know this is an old thread, but there should be a way to connect IRC to global chat channels... Cause they are essentially just IRC rooms on a separate chat only server... I wonder why no one has done this yet?

Has it been requested? Prob will not get it since they want to limit it to VIPs only. and opening it to IRC would allow others in there that could abuse the system. Still would be interesting to keep the community always going even when offline... lol

DFB on red side? why? Villains can level to 20 in like 30 mins... only heroes do such lame things as run DFB to 50... Sorry a bit of sarcasm. Essentially I think your not hanging out where we are. Typically blue side Atlas seems to be a hang out for all the power levelers. Where as red side its Cap or Grandville. I hardly EVER go to Mercy for any reason, so if your looking for teams there on Victory your prob seeing a near ghost town.

Also Villains on Victory are a tight group. we are coalitioned and in Private Global Chat Channels. hardly any of us use broadcast or local chat. Also a number of us use Vent or Teamspeak to talk to each other rather then type.

The largest groups of Villains on Victory are Trial / task force organizers. Rather then doing missions tips or papers... if we HAVE to power level we end up doing farms in Grandville or AE in RWZ. But not too many times are we doing that unless there is a new build were playing with and want to quickly get to 50 so we can slot them out.

Anyway, sorry your having trouble on Red side. There are many of us that are near exclusive red side, but were rather elusive since the group is rather disconnected from the community cause we use voice chat programs and Global chat to form up groups first; and that normally fills up our teams really quick... We prob should try to do a little recruiting again. Maybe someday soon...

IDK. Having rolled 12 50s the normal way, Personally I get tired of doing low level stuff, so yea the DFB is a quick way to get to 20 for me. skip all the boring tedious crap and all. only so many ways you can play those beginning missions, All be it they did freshen up villain side a little. But still. I know many that just dont want to waste their time playing a character that is worthless to anything team oriented. For me I can tell if a build is going to be useless around lev 25 or so. if its just not going to be able to fit a role thats good for a team it becomes garbage cause no one will want to play with it on a team. Alla Keldarian Syndrome.. Or trials with a non+1

So yea I like the DFB because there are people playing it and its fairly quick to use to get to a point that an experienced player can then respec it and tweak this or that to see how a build feels... I've trashed a dozen or so this way and kept maybe 3. Specifically the Titan weapon builds since there is no Mids to play with yet for this; I played in game with a few builds. Ultimatly its an interesting set but not really ready to say I love it... I'm hoping to reroll once a new defence power set comes out in Issue 22. that may pair better with this. And yes DFB will make since to reroll the toon up after its deleted for the new build. why put yourself through that tedium again?

As to end game. well after 5 years for most of the players I been playing with, the old stuff is just uninteresting. Its a SF/TF or trial or nothing... When nothing is running they leave. Heck some of these people have BOTH sides oro arcs complete. I was in shock seeing that on a Friends account. Its no wonder he is bored with all the low content if he did all that! I really try to mix it up some to keep the game fresh. I'm just a casual player going on 4th year. So I have plenty to do between say lev 30 to 50 I haven't done. but prior to that its rather tedious for me now. I have literally rolled at least 40 toons to at least lev 20 or so now, most get deleted cause I dont like the builds. Once AE and DFB came out it was easier to determine a build was a waste of time for me. I can see why some vets just want to reroll to 50 and start from there. alla the reason so many vets have multi accounts to do just that.

Praetorian Arc flashbacks would be indeed welcome... Please be true...

Would tis be a Pillar within Pretoria somewhere or would we be getting our own Ouroboros zone making 3? Why not just merge all the Ouroboros zones as 1 and have different exits like we have for Pocket D or Midnighters?

Regardless I really do hope this is coming soon. I out leveled at least a few Gold side arcs before turning off gaining EXP for a while.

I have been for a while now, working on an idea for an unique character... He is a Resistance Controller (Using a now unavailable skin that looks like Emperor Cole) Now thats inconsequential, but here is the rub.

I been wanting to get him to Lev 50 without having to change my alignment to hero or villain. Until First Ward came out this was quite hard to get past lev 25, but now its rather easy to get to lev 31. Now I'll admit I am now at lev 35 using Pocket D holiday events to farm with higher level friends. I figure I can get to lev 40 with my causal gaming pace. And then do other things later to get to 50. IDK if anyone has done this or not. Kinda curious of a few things...

If I use a Oro portal will it mess up my character and force it into hero?
I been reluctant to try...

If I get to 50 as a resistance / loyalist alignment is there a special badge?

If we do get an Oro portal would it be possible to go back and do Pretoria missions in there?
If not I really would like to request this somehow. It would be tremendously wonderful to finish some arcs I out leveled before completing.

I was plesently surprised to find the long range teleport power does work well with a Pure Praetorian.

And finally If I do attain lev 50 Resistance will I be able to do Trials as a normal lev 50 would? Will Alpha unlock work? (without Ouroboros I would have to purchase one with merits I assume.)

Like I said IDK if anyone has done this before, I just thought it would be interesting to have a unique character like this...

A curious thing happened the other day in firebase zulu. I was in there with a few friends just badge hunting, and as I was leaving I noted the portal that normally goes to the Portal Corps on hero side actually said it would go to Grandville? And I was like Well! Thats a nice change. I wonder why no one mentioned it before. But allas it didnt go to Grandville ( I was on a Rouge naturally) it just zoned back in the Portal Corps building.

But then I got to thinking, Why the heck not? This area would be nice if it was a shared access to firebase zulu, especially given there are so few people that are ever in there. Why not open it up for both sides to do the Task Forces??? Could this be soon in coming?

Please Join us for a multi coalition Hami Seed Raid on Oct 15 7pm EDT
calling all Inherent Chaos, Hazteam, Masterminds, & any others that wish to join us on Victory.

Thank you.
=HT=Ingram

Seems we are getting WAY WAY off topic. But for the record there are illegal free servers that use the COX engine. have been for some time actually. So there are and pretty much always will be alternatives for people that purchased a retail item to do as they wish. Personaly this is not my cup of tea, but it was worth a reply. Just like There are free Galaxies servers and free matrix online servers, and free Tabulas Rasa Servers, even free Phantasy Star Online servers, all long dead now. That just goes to show you the original purchase will still be valuable media beyond shelf space if this free thing fails and they close up shop. I dont think thats the case but just saying.

I'm Disapointed that they can not garentee that my characters as they are right now will not remain the same if I continue my subscription for as long as they allow me. This tier thing seems an aweful thing to have to deal with and if you mess up it seems unfixable. Much like taking the sprint vet powers UGG! I have MANY Masterminds and controllers and 2 each Kalderans and Crab Bane characters. So that being said if all the sudden as a VIP I find I can not access my existing 50s I have had for some time now, yes I'll be upset and frustrated. I dont like change any more then anyone else, but this was the course they decided to go for. Is it a mistake? I think so, but we dont know and will not know for some time. If they suddenly discover its costing them more profits then it was worth to keep regular subscriptions. like say a year later. I hope they will consider going back to the proven system rather then throwing in the towel and closing down. Just opinion...

I just rescheduled it for October. But yea.

I know people get frustrated, I certainly am with this as I cancelled a trip to Hawaii for this event. BUt auw well. I think I know the problem, and I'm a little disappointed they are not allowing it as it would have been the best service to our veteran VIPs that have been grinding to boredom to fill out all our 50s incarnate xp and equip them. So much so I know of several on victory that just HAD to take a break from the game because they just could not do anymore Trials and nothing else for a while.

Now I am NOT a fan of powerleveling, but it does still happen on Victory. You just need to know where to go and join a good SG or channel to find people doing it. Its not like other servers that are demanding real money or billions of influence to powerlevel you. That particular variant of cheating and ROC, EULA breaking is not well received by the Victory community. So we dont see that in broadcast as much. If we did we would just turn that off and ignore them.

What i do not understand is the game is SO vast. Yes I'll admit there are some arcs that I play far too many times, and some we have too for required powers. BUt there is also so many more that people tend to never really look at at all. So why not work on some lowbes the way the game is DESIGNED to be enjoyed? By playing the content and not being powerleveled all the way to 50 and skipping everything in between. I know I know its a waste of time? I hear that ALL THE TIME. But what else is a GAME for I ask you? really. Its a game. Play it. There are poepl in this game that I care about dearly, but honestly its SO frustrating when i can not get a lowbe team together Even when no one is doing ANYTHING to speak of. We all say were bored and want to do something but at times cant decide what, so why not go for some content we have NOT played in a long time. I'm not just talking about TFs, I mean even regular mission arcs and even paper missions. I am happy to say I go do that on high settings rather then being in AE farming the same missions over and over just adding to boredom, and the reward for that is halfway decent drops on occasion. I been pulling respec recipes, Purples, and rare Luck of gamblers and Miracles just doing missions with lev 30-45s. If anything of late the lowbes are funding my 50s build development rather then the other way around. I honestly believe the reason this is happening is because people have seemed to abandon the normal method of leveling in favor of skipping all this content.

OK Rant over. Sorry, just wanted to say it. This is a very massive game. Its a shame to see people only playing maybe 20% of it.

So I take it they didnt want us to have double incarnate exp for this event as it would have been under the current build. disappointing really as that was the only reason I was looking forward to it this time. Sure its nice to grind up some lowbes during these weekends, but it sure would have helpped to have allowed the incarnate exp to be double as well... ;(

Anyway they are delaying Double XP weekend till Aug 11- 14 now. This is the only reason I can see that they would have had to postpone, as dbl xp has been working normally for a long time in all previous builds. And last one Incarnates were NOT in the equation.

Frustrating.