Lazarillo

'sup?

I'm not interesting in paying them for the work they did, I'm interested in paying for the product that was created. If "Beast Summoning" is ever produced, then I'll compensate them for the four-legged skeleton at that time, provided that it is, at the time, worth the price.

Rather than "NCSoft pays me $X to play the game" it's more like "NCSoft loses $X because I'm subscribed". In other words, it's in their best interests to convince VIP players to spend at least $X in the store every month. However, I don't think the idea of charging large amounts for items occasionally is going to get them better business than being able to charge small amounts for a large number of items.

My general problem with this, and it's one I've seen shared by others, is that costume parts and concepts are often highly intertwined. People end up not using the Roman costume pieces, for example, because they can't create a character to whom those pieces would be appropriate. Hence, no matter how nice the ITF unlockables may be, they are less desirable because you have to go through more than half the game to get them.

On the one hand, what they're doing with the Maelstrom pistols is a step in the right direction, because it allows people to have the guns unlocked by the time they step out of the tutorial, essentially. It even allows people to have them without having to run any of the trials, since they're a recipe, rather than an account unlock.

On the other hand, there are still a couple problems with the execution. First is the "lolMaelstrom" effect, as the guns are extremely generic looking, and belonging to probably the biggest joke of a villain in the game. So basically, while they have fixed the problem of them being hard to get, allowing people to apply them in any concept, they don't have the unique look of the Roman sets, or the feeling of "special achievement" of the Ascension armor that makes them desirable.

The other problem, as pointed out, is that even if the concept is a step in the right direction, it's still a horribly transparent attempt to make people grind the TPN raid. Setting the bar too high means that even the people who might have been interested lose interest. Requiring the recipe to be purchased twice is simply silly. It doesn't really reflect the "picking up Maelstrom's gun" concept, because you're building the gun! This is just made worse because of problem #1. The guns aren't all that desirable in the first place, so the fact that so many extra hoops and costs are associated with them makes them even less desirable.

There's a pretty good shot on the i21.5 announcement page.

They're...really not worth all the rigamarole, honestly. I can barely tell the difference between them and the default Match Compensators.

Ohhhhhhhhh that would piss me off so much.
RECIPE FOUND

...oh, wait, it's just stupid Maelstrom's stupid gun.

Given that you can't gift points or market items...I'm not sure there'd be much reason for such a sale this year...

I realize that. My LOLs aren't directed at marketing alone.

That...doesn't seem right. "Hidden" status isn't anything more than whether or not it's possible to auto-Crit. Placate does give Hidden status. That's one of the main points. It simply doesn't do anything to your stealth level.

LOL. Just...LOL.

I was expecting, like, maybe $1, and even then, thinking it'd be a bit of a stretch. But more than $6? Wow. Just...wow.

$6.25 for a vanity pet?
Heh...heheheh...hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha .

Don't worry, I still consider it less a bug a more a feature!

Though I'm a little bummed tomorrow's market update is the dog pet and not Titan Weapons, at least I can go to town weaponizing my base.

It's a Detail 1 head option that looks sort of like insect eyes.

To be fair, Dexter isn't a bad person. He's a good person, who does bad things.

However, even putting that aside, there are plenty of affably evil types out there.

The thing with the SSAs is that they're not really separate arcs, they're one big arc, being released very slowly. When you have an in-game arc that's seven missions long, around the time of mission #3, you're not really expecting things to go well for you. After all, you can't thwart stage one. When all is said and done, I'd expect the Who Will Die arc to end on an obviously bittersweet note, but one that is doubtless a positive one where justice is properly served.

Hmmm, just out of curiosity, how would this interact with Lightning Rod? Since LR doesn't break Hide, will Chilling Embrace not trigger, allowing the next strike to still get a Critical? That's how I've assumed it, but I also had assumed Placate would re-supress CE, so I've been wrong at least once on this...

This isn't a bug. Heck, the contact will even warn you about it. If your difficulty is cranked high enough, or your team is large enough, the robber may be one of the Arachnos Elite...possibly even Recluse himself, though I usually run into Ghost Widow.