Lemur Lad

Firstly, there are 3 "tabs" under your mail now. Mail, Certifications, and Vouchers. Ascension armor appears under Certifications, make sure you're looking there.

Secondly, they don't expire.

Thirdly, make sure you don't have the "Hide un-claimable items" option flagged under Options, and that you're not trying to claim Ascension on a non 50. Ascension armor is 50 only.

With all the back and forth we've had over Account Tiers, Paragon Reward Tiers, and content and items unlocked at the store, it came to me that this idea would be a life saver for people returning to the game, looking to change their status, or trying to figure out how many points they need for the things they want:

Kick up the account info page several notches. Turn it into a live rundown of everything open on your account.

- No more "Perk" that has no specific name, list everything in detail.
- No more math required to determine when your next reward is coming, have a countdown timer.
- Make a configurator tool so you can see what happens if you drop down a tier or buy upward.
- Have a cost calculator so you can budget out how many points to buy over time.
- Get a character list of what's available on each Live server.

I know this is a lot of what was being planned for the Vault. However with all the options in Freedom this kind of tool really should be available. This proposal doesn't fall into the hole the Vault fell in because it doesn't pulled detailed character info off the game servers (which I've heard is what broke the previous plans).

This should almost all be info that's available in the new back end for the Paragon store and the account server. It's just a personal web tool for your own account at a glance so you can get detailed info as needed, without guesswork.

Tyger is kind of conflating 2 separate problems, custscene bombing and open doors.

Cutscene bombing is an issue for some because there's no way to know how long that person was standing there. As you said, you were honest and did it when there were only a couple left, but there's no way to know that. The gut reaction is someone was slacking, and some people hold onto that grudge. The only time I've cutscene bombed is when I as a team lead was in open competition with the other team lead (my friend). Both teams were aware of it, and participated, and going to help the other team after winning is kind of superfluous.

Open door can lead to the issue of Marauder getting dragged out. This is far more dire if it happens. Someone coming back from the hospital at the wrong time, or a bomber then making a really poor choice about where to go (leaping or flying up can lead Marauder to make odd pathing choices), can get Marauder chasing and running out, which is a failed trial when the hard work is over. It's not happened to me but I've come so close I never want to see it happen again. It only got saved because I as tank dove in and taunted Marauder back into the yard after a stupid blaster not only ran into the mob, but shot at them from outside the doorway then ran.

It would also tend to cut down on deliberately failing for the sake of expedience, which while I understand it, I still find annoying. Basically the root of my suggestion is:

On conditional missions, make every option viable in it's own way. Success through stealth or speed, success through straightforward play, or meaningful failure after a fair test.

Well to be fair Sam, the failures you hate are ones that are A poorly designed or bugged, and B so annoying because there's no chance to atone. You've kind of hit on the other downside to failable missions in this game thus far; the fact that so many times those conditions are bugged.

I tend to think people find those missions annoying not because of the failure, but because the test itself is stacked. No one (even me) likes to feel like the game cheated.

Would you agree or oppose failure consequences, if we accept the premise that the tests involved work correctly and are fair?

And to note, in my head I was going to say that all missions like this would be clearly marked and noted, so that people had the option of getting help, changing settings, or putting it off for when they have more time. I didn't put that in my original post, but it's important. I'm of the opinion that no ingame mechanism should come as a shock to players paying a reasonable amount of attention.

Here's some general tips that I keep in mind:

1) Take advantage of slots- Slots from higher levels don't go away when you exemp down. So 6 slot those lower level powers so even though your enhancers scale down, you still get good enhancement values.

2) Get your Accolade powers, love your Accolade powers- They work at all levels now. The hit point and End bonuses, and a power like Demonic/Eye of the Magus can be invaluable to easy exemping.

3) Take advantage of the +5 rule- You get powers from 5 levels above whatever level you exemp to. Keep that in mind when planning the build.

4) Make sure you have an attack chain- It doesn't have to be the best chain, but it really does make a difference if you have 3 of your own attacks and don't have to rely on Veteran powers because you only have 1 regular attack.

5) Purple Sets are your friend- Their IO Set bonuses don't follow the normal rules. They stay active at all levels. They're expensive of course, but in an exemping build well worth the investment.

6) Plan your IO Levels- I have a Tanker designed to tank the Abandoned Sewer Trial. When I slotted him for this, I kept a close eye on the level of my IOs, so that I wouldn't lose IO bonuses when exemped down to that level. I assure you, he's not gimped at 50 either. I can do all my normal tanking duties up to and including incarnate trials. However having as many bonuses as you can get at lower levels really helps.

The new Atlas Park is great. As you progress, enemies appear and disappear, entire neighborhoods come under attack and are saved, it's a lot of fun and feels much more epic heroic, without making things tougher.

So I got to thinking of ways to use this that would enrich the player experience provide options, and make things a little more realistic than they are now.

Right now the game is pretty much in a 'No Harm No Foul' state when it comes to success or failure. Mess up a mission accidentally or on purpose, and the worst that happens is your contact chides you a bit before handing you the next mission. Timed missions for the most part have a completely unfailable limit on them, making it a non issue. I think though a lot of the new tech they've come up with could be applied to make some or all of these unrealistic hiccups a thing of the past.

Here's an example:

Let's say your contact sends you to a building to prevent a bombing. When you enter and begin to fight, they are alerted to your presence, set the bombs to a short timer and try to escape. You have to fight your way past feeling bad guys (ambushes) and disarm the bombs in time. If you succeed, you exit the mission and report to your contact to continue the story. Possibly, there could even be multiple ways to win. Invisible characters might never be detected, and disarm the bombs without triggering the timer. They'd get less xp but be done sooner, or maybe with a slightly different badge name. Reward different playstyles instead of forcing everyone to do the same thing.

If you fail, the bombs go off and you exit the mission into a different phase. Your contact won't talk to you until you help clean up the consequences of your failure. The building is on fire and the PFD is there to put it out. From there, you're in a kind of personal zone event, working to put out the fire (or possibly going back inside to pull out civilians who had been held prisoner by the criminals). It's not a long event, but it is time taken from your normal progress. There's still the potential for experience, but not as much as if you'd been in a true mission. Once it's over things go back to normal and you continue on with the arc.

There's a lot they could do with this kind of thing. In some cases your success or failure could even lead to true Zone events, similar to how Babbage is spawned or an LGTF win leads to a Rikti counter attack. I think that should be limited, so people aren't inconvenienced, but that's a benefit of phasing things. Someone doesn't have to be bothered by a zone wide Troll rampage if they are in a different stage. Or zone events could be more like Neighborhood events. Letting people go on their way if they dont want to get involved.

As a player, I'd like my actions to have consequences. I don't want my failures to be irrevocable and catastrophic, but if failing means I have to devote some extra time to clean up my mess, I'd say that's fair dues.

I don't have time today to dive into this thread, so this may have already been covered and you have my apologies.

I just wanted to say that in talking about what it feels like to be a villain, I think the devs are listening. I played the new 1-15 post tutorial arcs from Dr Graves, and on the whole they were a huge success (for me). I don't think it's a spoiler to admit there was a bit of Scirocco ex Machina happening, but I think that's alright for the low levels. I won't detail the rest so people can play it fresh.

My point is, I felt pretty good competing with and beating the principals in the arcs. Maybe I'd feel differently if I wasn't on a character whose actions and dialogue didn't mesh as well with what your character does in the arcs, but on the whole I felt like I was consistently either taking matters into my own hands to advance myself, or playing along as part of a larger ploy and not just as a dupe.

In the end, this game is never going to be the kind of sandbox game where you have free reign to build a good or evil empire as thou whilst. But if they can keep adding arcs where the villainous actions aren't just repugnant, or thinly veiled heroism, then I'm great with it.

While I agree people have alts, and we can't expect them not to play them, and as leaders we need to be aware of that and plan accordingly, there's something else at work.

It's not a failure of leadership when people who bring a new alt act like they've never been on the trial before. Sure different ATs have slightly different jobs, but it's not Rikti Science here, and even when you're focused on doing well you should be able to pay a little attention to how other people do their jobs so when you bring your own version of that AT, you have a handle on what to do.

People need to start acting like their memory is an account-wide unlock. No one should have to ask more twice to get powers handed over, or to get people to stay together in the right places.