Hallowed

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*looks around for Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon*

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Personally I was expecting Dennis Miller.

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This.

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[*]Imagesbyalex


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Awesome work as always.

They really should hire you.

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Here’s a bit of a teaser: We have big plans for these (and other) badges, and we really want them to mean something to your character. If you are in a dialog tree that involves creating something, we have the ability to look at your badges and see if you have taken the effort to prove yourself as a crafter. This effort would be rewarded with special options in the dialog tree that earn you better results, enable you to skip steps, etc. For this system to work, we’ll need them to be a reasonable indicator of the amount of work a crafter has put into crafting. And it’s not just dialog trees that are going to look at badges, and it’s not just crafting badges that will be looked at, so you guys can speculate away!

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Neat idea. But I can't help but feel it's horribly undercut by the fact that a large number of the people out there will have earned these badges by using a technique that was deemed "too easy" and is no longer available to the rest of us.

In essense, you are once again reinforcing the "exploit early" mentality that I so despise. I understand that there's no way to retroactively de-badge people who used salvage conversions as part of their badging. But how is it any more fair to make those of us who have not earned the badges yet play by entirely different rules just because you feel the new system would be more balanced? The fact still remains that plenty of people won't be using that system at all, yet they'll still get the benefits.

-D

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Can't really say this any better.

While I'm interested to see the future changes, I'm extremely disappointed in the decision you've made re: brainstorm converting. As it stands now, I expect to never get the 10000 craft badge with any of my toons. The sheer cost of such an undertaking is utterly prohibitive for most players if they can only get there by crafting IOs and base items.

Pleas explain how/why combining base salvage into base components was an acceptable way to earn this badge, gut crafting brainstorms is not.

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Cathulhu gets at the textual reasoning behind the Reformed change, but makes the conclusion that it's related to side-switching as an eventual reality in this game. There's another possibility that looks increasingly likely with the change to base crafting counting for the Artisan series. That reason is literalism.

Now, this is speculative and based on two whole data points, which really isn't enough to form a pattern, but can at least imply a direction. With the changes to the badge UI in Issue 13, we got more informative progress bars and hint texts. My speculation is that now, someone has decided to go through all of those hints, names and descriptions for badges and see if any were awarding in ways contrary to same in a very literal fashion. Hence, Reformed, with both name and description implying a villain that switched sides, and the Artisan series, with texts that explicitly state that they are for Invention crafting, get changed.

Those changes are logical and valid, from a literalist point of view. The question becomes whether or not they are really wise decisions. My opinion of that is that they aren't. They are reductive changes that are only going to serve to alienate members of the community. They are minor annoyances, to be sure, but those are often worse than painful changes. With a big, painful change, it happens and it's over, like a short, sharp headache. Minor annoyances, on the other hand, are like a long, dull discomfort at the base of the skull, they may not cause you to have to immediately stop what you're doing and address them, but they make it hard to focus on what you're doing over a longer term. At least, that what it's like for me. Those minor annoyances stick with me for a long time and add up. I've quit jobs and dropped classes over a build up of such little things in real life.

I would ask here that those in charge reconsider before continuing on this literalist path, even if there are very few more things in the game that need to be changed to reflect the literal meaning of the text. Instead, think about changing the text to something more ambiguous and just leave the methods of earning these things as they are. It will make for less headaches (Yes, I referenced my own metaphor from the previous paragraph. Wanna make something of it? ) for you and your customers in the future.

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I think this sums it up nicely and reasonably.

Bravo.

Oh... forgot to say:

60mo reward is very very cool. I also like the 57mo one for newer characters.

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The 57 & 60 Month Veteran Rewards are designed to help our ‘Vets’ hit the ground running and in high style without breaking the bank! With players having so many opportunities to create new character concepts we feel these rewards will help our long standing fans suit up in style.

[u]57 Months[u]

Abiding Badge: 50% discount on all tailor sessions: Start out your new characters in style!

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Just in case we ever run out of free costume tokens...


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[u]60 Months [u]

City Traveler Badge: Hit the ground running… this badge unlocks access to the following Power Pools at level 6, so players can access Tier 1, 2, or 3 powers early on.
<ul type="square">[*] Flight
[*] Superspeed
[*] Teleport
[*] Superleap [/list] (1) Additional Character Slot: This reward is granted annually to each player that has been part of our Veteran Rewards Program. Months: 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 should all reflect this value.

5 Merit Rewards

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[u]63 Months[u]

Workout Warrior Badge: Hit the ground running... this badge unlocks access to the Fitness Power Pool at level 6, so players can access Tier 1, 2, or 3 powers early on.






Puhweeeeeeeese?

Pwetty pweese with a chewwy on top?

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Tough choice.

#1 VEATS
#2 General QOL improvements
#3 the ITF

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I have to echo this, though Powerset Proliferation might take 3rd place...

It's at least tied for it.

"Castle's Lackey" has his own red-name? I guess they'll let anyone into the club these days...

Welcome to our lil crazy, happy, gripey, drama-ey world. You can still turn back before it's too late, you know...

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Welcome to the forums, Synapse! Please check your sanity at the door, it's safer that way.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Couldn't have said it better myself.

First of all, welcome to the loony-bin that are our (beloved?) boards!

If this initial post is indicative of the amount of information you intend to share in the future, this is a very good sign.

Now on to a question/suggestion:

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Poster: KeepDistance
Q: Would you consider removing items from the merit purchase system that already have direct-inf purchase availability through vendors? (Specifically, I mean SOs and common IO recipes.) If not, what do you see as the benefit to offering them through merits?

A: We understand that there are some players who prefer to not use the invention system at all, so we’d like the Merit Reward system to mean something for these players too. Common IO recipes are there for players who don’t like to worry about IO sets.

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How about offering constructed basic IOs instead of SOs? This gives the option of getting something with merits that you currently can't get from a vendor, while allowing those who don't want to deal with recipes and the market to get a taste of the benefits of IOs.

At a bare minimum, constructed basic IOs should replace SOs at lvl 35 and thereafter, since they are simply better in every way at that point.

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People don't get fired for so little as a few comments. They would usually get some sort of warning, or several, first.

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I'd like to live in your world... really I would.

Because in this one, people have, do and will be fired for as little as a few comments. Not saying it's rught, but it's true.

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Your post is in violation of the Message Forum Rules and Guidelines

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5. Non-Constructive posts are prohibited.

<ul type="square">[*]"NERF X!" threads are removed for much the same reason as "I'm leaving" threads. They can turn into threads with little or no constructive information.[/list]
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Classy.

LH, (Cindy the Cruise Director )

I wish you the best. You and I butted heads on occasion, mostly when I didn't agree with something you said or did (or how you said it), but I always felt you were doing your best to help make this a better game/community for all. And, for the most part, I think you did a good job. Here's hoping this was on your own terms, and that you have a bright future. [UHG! The PUN!!! ]



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Pssssst! Now that you're not on NCNC's payroll, what do we have to bribe you with to get the inside scoop on everything?!?

That seems very odd. Should NOT be happening. Try to reproduce it and if it still does that, /bug it.

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New website? Dang, why don't you do something useful and make some new in-game maps?

We've been playing the same maps since beta!! Get rid of the cave maps too. Everyone hates them!

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Er...the people who make the website are not the people who make the game.

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Filthy, filthy LIES!!! Anyone who does anything at NCNC can do anything we want them to do in the game! We just have to be irrational hard enough!

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I'm surprised the new costume piece wasn't an Apple chest logo.

no, seriously. If you think I'm joking, you haven't met any Mac people.

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&lt;&lt;.&lt;&lt;

&gt;&gt;.&gt;&gt;

If they had the logo I'd have to make a really short toon... and call him the "Apple-biter"

o_0

&lt;runs&gt;

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I'm glad they spent all that time on the holiday stuff like the zombie invasion.....which reminds me....oh thats right, I have yet to see a zombie invasion......

/sarcasm off

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Have you turned on your Events in your chat/global tabs so you can see notifications?

They happen every 30min or so in at least one zone every day for the last week+. Heck... every now and then they happen in every zone on the server.

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Its a hero trope, just like the praetorians.

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Yeah, especially if the trope happens to be dressed in a slinky, revealing outfit that ... what? no not... Augh! BABs! Not the speedo! Geeze dude, I wasn't talking about you, just take that thing off right now and ... NO NOT RIGHT NOW! AUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

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LOL!

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Do I read things correctly? Is.. this..... exclusive Villain Content? Not just more.. Co-op?

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That's how I read it. Refreshing, no?

Of course it kinda doe to a mistake...

Looks like 2 3-part arcs for each side? Hmmmm... I hope I'm wrong here, I was kinda hoping for more...



EDIT: Oh hey... look! FIRST!

Agreed. Theres a reason (or several) why many don't use IE.

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Why is everything so BIG?

The Server Status page, with just 12 lines of useful information, now requires me to scroll down 1/2 a screen to avoid the purposeless banners, and then needs an entire screen for its bloated table. An entire screen - for 12 lines of info.
Hmmm....

I'll hold my fire on the rest of it until I've had a good look. But Server Status is a page I use regularly, and it should be more functional than this.

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I have to agree with the point about the server status ape/section. It's ungodly, pointlessly huge. Please change this and make it of a similar size to the previous version (though re-skin all you want).

Otherwise I like it.

"For the love of Darwin"?!?

Verah interestahn.

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What I don't like is the Zombies are relatively difficult to defeat, yet give next-to-no XP. That really makes me not want to even bother with the Zombies. They need to have their XP increased.

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?!?

I find myself leveling very fast on a zombie team. Are you teaming?

Is it just me, or are the spawns scaling up to team size far more drastically than last year? Clicked on my first door while on a team of 7-8 and something like 6-8 mobs came spilling out. Since I was still a good ways away from my team, it was a bit of a nasty surprise (mostly b/c I don't like to run).

Is anyone else seeing this?