Memphis_Bill

There's also one other item - we had the whole "superleader" bit pushed on us, so let's make it useful. Unlike filling out the info at the registrar for the SG, which is static information and may be out of date, if it's automatically sent to the 'superleader,' there's a far better chance of that email being read and/or the membership accepted.

As an example, say player - making up a global - @Cityguy made a supergroup three years ago. Got a few friends into it, and dutifully filled out the SG description with "If you want to join, send a tell to @cityguy and let me know!" Well, @Cityguy got bored of that global. He has a new main, and plays them almost exclusively. He changed his global to @Riktismasher two years ago - but, never really seeing that screen again (after all, he's still active, the SG still is, why would he edit it?) he never changed his global. So anyone trying to send a tell to @cityguy, well...

Or the original person leaves, and someone new is running it, who again never edited the info (they let others deal with details like paying rent, they got the SG and are on every week or two and don't really think about leadership, but nobody else bugs them about it.) So that contact info never gets updated.

For Kat - Yes, the registrar's screen is useless:



You can absolutely say one of them is new. Two wanted to make sure to say they were new when they were, but we don't know when that was. Other than prestige levels, there's not much you can say about almost any of them - levels don't really show activity (they could have burned a bunch on a recent spate of base building, could not be in SG mode, etc,) membership, group interests (one mentions being Kheldian related, one - later - mentions stormies) or even if they're active right now or not. No contact data (scrolling down, I think I saw a total of two, and one's an assumption from the RP info there.)

That screen may as well not exist for all the good it does.

*Points to sig* 276 alts, and I tend to push dual builds. I may not see them the same way as you, but... *shrug*

Personally, I see three builds as starting to stretch things, and do think there should be an upper limit (5, perhaps) but I'm not against *reaching* that limit. There is, after all, a built in cost for those extra builds in the time and enhancing. It's certainly not something for nothing.

For instance, I have a corruptor I'm working on with a team build - less offense, more team support - and a solo build, which includes a few "concept" powers like Presence. When she hits 50 and does the Incarnate bit, I'll probably work a build around that, even if I don't go past alpha. I can certainly see team/solo/pvp/exemplar/concept as full but separate builds.

This is true (and also part of the reason behind the Aion merges, too.) Heavily PVP focused games need targ... er, people around.

... see, that's one I don't get. (Not picking on ultrawatt here, this is more a general statement.) I somewhat get "I'm used to the people there/server schedule" and such, but why NOT grab a few friends/sg mates and start up on a new server? Do a project group or something. Start a splinter SG over there - with the friends coming over with you, you'll have some prestige to start with just from "The first 15 members," you can set up some time (especially as a project group) to play and get them leveled, you have an alternate place to go if something happens to the server (maintenance-wise, that is,) and with gleemail you don't have to worry about not having stuff from your other alts available.

(Obviously I get it somewhat with the EU side having had so few servers before.)

So, you've been in and checked out the code for the game, have you? And know everything about programming as well? Nice to know they're so free with showing it off to anyone and everyone. Not many companies do that with a living MMO.

I still personally suspect (note the wording there, as opposed to your "It's gospel truth" wording) that those four attributes mentioned in the copypasta - AT, primary, secondary and origin - are baked into the character/database/game at such a fundamental level that being able to change them would break something badly, or require such work to do that it's not seen as being worth it.

MMOs don't pass that much data.
Youtube videos are compressed pretty handily.
Texting/IMs/etc send miniscule amounts of data.
Leaving your PC on, short of having a 'bot infected system or leaving a good number of large torrents seeding continually, does nothing for how much data you use.

Essentially, you're standing on the pacific shore with a coffee cup worried about draining the whole ocean. Your use looks a fair bit like mine. I rarely hit 100 Gb/mo. and certainly never hit Comcast's cap - their *having* one was news to me. (This includes steam downloads, btw.) In the last several months, I've only had one over 100 Gb. (111 Gb, to be precise.)

Grappling is not possible with the game engine. As far as environmental interaction, the best we'll see for that for a while would be in instances (such as mayhem misisons,) but I doubt we'll see it as a result of "being slammed into walls" and such.

Absolutely not. One of the things that really stands out with this game is that your look and your abilities are completely separate. I don't have to spend time in the costume creator only to have the look demolished within five levels because I need extra armor or a changed weapon.

You can, of course, *simulate* this with the costume slots (a powered up/powered down mode or armored/unarmored mode, for instance.) But that's as far as that should go.

So vague as to be pointless. What do you notice? What sort of "total makeover?"
Well, nitpicky bit about that being a dimension and not a planet aside, they DO add more environments. Croatoa, Ouroboros (admittedly more a waypoint) and Cimerora, for instance.

It hasn't in the past. Why would it now?

I'm assuming that's where you intended that thought to end. Again, though, there's no reason to think adding any of this would raise the subscription cost. City of Villains didn't, and that added five ATs at launch, multiple new zones and all that goes with them, bases and more PVP zones. Going Rogue didn't raise the monthly sub. Neither did AE.
Again, assuming that's supposed to be a "won't" as opposed to "want."

The SG invite feature... mostly, yes. For direct invites. It's very simple and straightforward to right click and invite or /sgi charactername.

However, what DOES need work is the registrar's page. Go in and look for a supergroup. You can't tell what the group's about outside of the description. If you looked for one, saw one that sounded interesting and wanted to join... then what? You don't get any contact information unless someone has put it in (and updated it!)

Other than paying rent, the registrar is pretty useless.

For instance, say you were looking for a VG on protector. You run across mine - "Government Surplus." For whatever strange reason (perhaps you're drunk?) it sounds like JUST the thing and you decide "Hey, I'd like to join that." What do you do?

The group's description doesn't have my contact info. There's absolutely no way to get in touch with me. So you sigh and move on.

(Alternately, and I mentioned this - hmm, think it was last year - I'd been trying to get in touch with a group a former SG leader had coalitioned. Had no contact info for them whatsoever. Checked the registrar, they had plenty of prestige, but no contact info in the description either. Ended up just waiting, then breaking the coalition without knowing if the group was active or needing the porters or whatever.)

That interface needs a revamp, with more relevant information, and having a way for others who are interested to contact the leaders or ask for membership (or, for the SG itself, mark itself as "Not accepting members" to disable that feature) would be right in line with it.

Of course, I expect this neglected interface to be changed about a year after they fix PVP and it becomes wildly popular....

/this. Yes, the US servers went down to... eight, I believe. Not sure what they're at now. (correction, down to five now.) It's definitely a Korean-market game.

Edit: Devs, could we get something like this? For those of us curious about such things? (Level breakdown overall/by side, AT popularity, etc.)

/this.

Hmm, in the very quote you used:

When was the last one added? When was the last time we had any indication a dev so much as looked at anything besides Aeon's little (few and far between) challenges? I believe the last time I asked, "Over a year" was mentioned.

Rolled out, bug fix or two, then forgotten by the devs.

Then put me on ignore and you don't have to worry about it. Otherwise, well, all you're doing is the very thing you complain about - whining.

And if you want to talk about attitude, look at yourself first. "You don't agree with me, you're whiners."

If you tell me that in a year, I'll believe it. (Not the I know better, but that you find it interesting.) Why? Because after that it won't be "new mechanics" and "new shiny."

Meanwhile, don't tell me MY opinion of it is wrong when YOU decide to speak in absolutes.

You mean the "continually updated system" they're talking about... which, by definition, means it *can't* be completed? (And which, frankly, I expect them to put aside for some reason and end up leaving laying around... kind of like "Oh, well, we'll keep giving Player/Dev Choice rewards to AE arcs to free up slots!" and "We'll revisit PVP once these changes settle in and tweak/change what's needed" (or even Castle's statement, in a sub-set of that, that even HE wasn't happy with having to essentially kill Teleport as "suppression" and wanted a better solution... that never came.)

No, it's not, really. It's newer, that's all, with some interesting mechanics from GR. Croatoa was more interesting when it came out, too. That, at least, DOES finish. You have a four contact (and one TF) overall story arc. You also had new mechanics there (the enemy vs enemy fights that actually DID have them taking damage, where before they were shadowboxing.) You go from the general chaos of a war in a zone being sucked into the spirit world and, as you play through, find the root causes - and stop the Red Caps.

There are far more interesting storylines (that can *also* be finished) that have been left hanging for years - some since before COV was introduced. The Shard and Dark Astoria as mentioned many times as HUGE examples, which have had players begging for YEARS to have something done with them. You don't like that and want to call it "whining," well, too damn bad. You can go french kiss a Ghoul. I find the whole "The well has gone mad, here's Cole and his dancing minions!" to be silly, and the rework of "A hero's hero" into "A hero's epic" to be horribly done, turning you FROM a hero to a third-rate wannabe who needs "Real hero support" as they're sent out. I find it, and pretty much everything being shoveled at us from that direction, as disappointing as the VEAT arcs.

I wouldn't argue so much if the storyline and relationships between the characters had actually *evolved* instead of been given a distinct retcon feel to shoehorn in the Well bit - and if it were actually done decently. Which, given my descriptions above, I think you can tell my feelings on.

I will second/third/fourth this.

Especially for the EU based altaholics. Congrats on all those new slots!

Wish I could actually believe that. Unfortunately, our dev team(s) have had a habit of going "ooh,new, shiny, lookie lookie just need to add a Oooh, new shiny, what old thing I was just messing with? Ooh, new shiny!"

Yes, they've had quite a few hits. But they leave things just sitting around like a five year old at Christmas that they play with and then forget about. "Fix things that are broken?" How long have we looked at PVP now? Admittedly, it's hard to datamine when nobody's around to give data... Or how about bases? When's the last time a new item got added to bases? Saying "Fine, pathing's broken for base raids, we'll just say screw it and let you play with it that way while shutting them off" is not a fix. The editor has needed work for a long time.

But they're not "new shiny" items, so they don't get attention *regardless* of their problems... well, except for the occasional sacrificial community team redshirt... er, redname that gets tossed into the lions den to try to get those communities to think something might, maybe, one day be done. (Though that trick doesn't seem to be working these days.)

OK. Let's start here. What, to YOU, do they need to do?

They currently have:
- Gravity well paths marked.
- Jetpack vendors for the vertically challenged.
- A more-than-fair number of contacts just standing around.
- A portal system in place to mole points, etc. as well as the other zones.
- A pretty decent variety of enemies.
- Good backdrop/backstory to investigate further.

In-game, we have so many different teleporters and travel options it's dizzying. So, no, I don't see getting around as a big issue. I don't think we'll end up agreeing on this. (I do see needing beacons added potentially.)

I'd say that's a fairly solid place to start, and eliminates a LOT of potential work.

What does not need doing:
- Artwork revamp. The shard's already visually stunning.
- Mob revamp. They're appropriately difficult for those level ranges, with a fairly good variety of powers/resists. And IIRC there are even art assets for aspects of Ruularu that we haven't seen.
- Longbow does not need to be introduced. Neither does Arachnos. Unfortunately, both have been established as having presences there via instanced missions. Not seeing them would be nice.
- Zone geometry revamp. Yes, this took a lot of work in Faultline. Doesn't need one at all in the Shard.
- Interiors... there are already a fair number of maps barely/not used. (I'll throw this as a "maybe" for doing/not doing.)


What DOES need doing:
- Task force revamp. Smaller start size, shortening the mission list. Make them more attractive to run and more accessible.
- Mission arc creation. What we have now is, essentially, a group of proto-newspaper missions that pay off with inspirations. REAL arcs that go into the lore and have you dealing with (positively or negatively) Ruularu's aspects. While Ruularu himself is likely "too big" to deal with (as an entity in game,) there's still much that could be done.
- Investigation into Darrin Wade's activities. Yet another plotline left dangling.

What we mostly need is *writing time.* We have for years, for this and the other zones mentioned - which is part of what I find so *irritating* with this sudden focus on Praetoria and the out-of-left-field "The well is nuts!" bit.

I edited for clarification. Go back and re-read.