Memphis_Bill

And your response to the second part? The bit you didn't quote? (Asking because I have yet to have anyone counter it, even though it's essentially a guess based on what we do know and dev stances.)

Plus, you wouldn't be "playing from scratch." You would be coming in with a huge advantage in INF, with whatever accolades you have and the like. Plus, yes, rerolling "internally" does go against being alt-friendly. I'd be more inclined to agree with doing so if we were slot-limited (example: Aion. Bunch of servers, bunch of slots per server, account slot use limit: 8.) We aren't.

I'm not sure how big of an impact that was. I *was* playing during that time (and I'm not a current subscriber, but for things that had nothing to do with bots/RMT - waiting for 1.9 and some in-game adjustments.)

It's hard to compare RMT there with RMT here. We don't have anything close to the issue they had, even at our worst. And the methods - well, some got cracked down on here (email, reporting, and how fast the bans come in) and some just don't exist here (Player "stores" with RMT sites as their "sign" in the middle of busy hallways, for instance.) RMT was (IMHO, again having been through the worst of it *here*) move visible and harder to avoid there - but then again, that game, you *need* in-game money to advance. Sure, here you need enhancements, but they drop. You're not held up in getting new levels or powers or finishing missions because you don't have the gold. There, you are. Raise a skill? Pay money. Get a new ability? Pay. Pay for items to finish quests (or pay, after paying to raise, say, your Alchemy skill, to create whatever it is.) And of course, pay for gear, then pay more for new gear, etc, etc, etc.

My point in bringing them up, however, were that Aion's servers were *visibly* busy (as in, everyone running around, lag from people gathered around teleport sites and stores, having to wait for groups to finish boss spawns, active PVP, etc) and people were STILL calling for server merges there. (There's the side issue with merges, in that game, that you can only have one "side" of characters on your account. If you had Elyos on Lumiel, you could not make any Asmodeans there without deleting all your Elyos - well, barring buying another account. Which adds another wrinkle of problems to merges - one that we don't have to worry about adding to the list here.)

Think I touch on part of that with the "Signal that the game is dying." Last NC server merge I can think of, right offhand, was Auto Assault (IIRC.) If I'm thinking of trying out or coming back to an MMO, and I hear "well, they just shut down/merged 1/3 - half - X number of their servers," my reaction is "Oh, they're in the process of shutting down, then."

Also, here, people get very attached to their character names. We have very individual characters. (Most other MMOs I've run across, you end up looking like Fighter #98425, Soldier #0985, Orc#6981209, Mage #98609283 or some such.) Merging would play havoc with those characters and drive *current* players away. Which would also not help the people who insist they can't find a team.

Here's the thing with /Psi. Before the rebalance, it was pretty much "Drag to 38, then PSW and you're godly." PSW got knocked down, yes, but everything *else* was brought up. Doms not reliant on Domination for our damage overall now.

As far as other doms... Plant does seem to be bandied around a lot. (And I enjoy it - plant/thorn had me soloing even-con Ghost of Scrapyard followers en masse.) /Earth is our newest secondary, and (IMHO) fun. And my Mind/Fire is an unholy terror - if you don't want BoF, you can still be a single target monster.

Or just give your ice/psy a whirl still. May need to tweak some slotting, but hey, freespec.

Nope. Just of the same set.

Aion, after a month or so, had people screaming about "needing" a server merge. Figure that out (with, what were the numbers at that time, 400-500,000 subs?)

... which, incidentally, is something a server merge would also work against.

Oh? You used to log on and be auto-assigned to a group?

No?

Yes, the advice was still needed and valid 3-4-5 years ago. Unless, of course, all you did was stand in PI and get pestered, at the right levels to bridge - which, of course, drove many people to just go on /hide from 41 on.

And yes, you still CAN PUG from 1-50 without forming your own groups, etc, etc. Saying you can't now is just a baldfaced lie. I routinely end up - and no, not on "recognized characters" or anything - having to turn down invites because I'm only hopping on to check the market or pay base upkeep for a couple of minutes before having to go somewhere, and this on non-"large" servers like Pinnacle, Victory, and Guardian. Even redside, yes. These on characters that even other forum regulars - who, if anything, you'd expect to know each other - don't recognize as me. So this isn't "notoriety" or anything.

Now, if your definition - which I have had from others who were making the "It's impossible to team any more!" argument, thus me bringing it up - is "Getting a full, perfect team of 8 and running with nothing but that?" That's your problem personally.

Plus, portraying "building friends lists" as some horrid, off the wall, incredibly nonintuitive way of keeping an eye on good people to team with? Really? I guess "Join or form a SuperGroup" is also equivalent with "Walk ten miles to school uphill in a blizzard wearing nothing but someone else's used shorts" to you?
Really? Did you bother looking through that cut and paste? There's good reason for everything that's in there.

You think it's "hard to find a team" now? Try after people leave post-merge because they've lost characters from being out of slots. Or they've lost their SG name - or the entire SG, or the base, which we don't know would be transferrable. Or the lack of new people coming in because they see a server merge and figure the game is a day away from shutting down.

"Isn't something intrisically bad or indicative of problems?" You haven't bothered thinking through past "I want" and/or "I'm lazy" at all.

I've had the old (18 g-key) G-15 on two systems (one that used to run xp and now runs win7, and another built after win7's release,) and the newer (display-less) G110 for some time now. I've never run into that in any game.

Did you download the driver software or use what came on the CD? Uninstall, snag the newest software, and give it a try. Just to see if it still happens.

*points to the Kheldian forums*

Human, bi- and tri-form are all going to play a bit differently (for both a PB and a WS.) For a Warshade, going at *least* biform (to dwarf) brings the plus of a second Mire to buff yourself. It's a very active AT.

(Also, earlier comment about /Psi not doing damage 'til 38? Yeah, old guide. PSW was toned down a bit because all the other powers got buffed up. It's a fun run up to 38.)

With some powersets, as well, you may want to look into dual builds to shift some of your strengths. I have several "team support" builds (Empathy, Thermal, etc.) that have a team build and a solo build - the solo dumping team buffs for more offense, leadership and the like. Or just use it to experiment a bit.

... interesting.

(That said, I know I've been asking for the same thing as the OP for years.)

And there are also some things - such as changing the primary and secondary - that they have said, flat out, no to. And the reasons against have been given, both the general and, for this, the specific.

Plus, as I've mentioned elsewhere, it may not *be* something that could be changed if they wanted to. Primary, Secondary, AT and Origin are the four things we're told will not be allowed to change. Given how little origin actually does now - but did wayyyyy back in Alpha - their decision could very well be reinforced by "changing any one of these four basic things would break so much it wouldn't be funny."

Just the one.

And two free? Not sure if they'd stack properly - but it seems we get so many from freespecs, trials, drops, vetspecs, etc. I don't think I've run out in... er... years. >.< Only thing I have more of are costume tokens!

(Not really arguing against it, as it makes a kind of sense, mind you.)

I have no idea why that has me thinking of coffee cake.

That's not just Aion. I remember the Tabula Rasa beta far too well. I wish I still had the screenshot of the line of people huddled around the first logos youhad to click, stretching out, up to the next level of the entrance, out the cave and back to the first village.

Or in the open bit for CO, where there were people standing around waiting to... think it was break some speedster type out of something or other. Then wait for that to respawn.

The low level spawn in Aion was probably to destroy the first portal - the quest that finishes your training session and lets you into the rest of the game.

Have I mentioned I really, really like how instanced COH is?

link.

It works the other way around, too, you do realize this, yes?
Or perhaps to solve other issues, like having to refuse spots because there *wasn't* someone to mentor or sidekick available - an issue that is no longer a problem? Another step from the auto-SK that fixed TF creation issues (where if you had to be exemped down and you lost your exemp, you were kicked?)

Oh, wait, no. Has to be dooooooooooooooomthegameisdyingmergeeverything. Yep. Only explanation.

You don't know what you're missing.

With SSKing, why is this even an issue? Replace "Wishful thinking" with "Experience" and "Teaming changes in the game, such as SSK."

Sure they would... well, maybe not time bomb.

That said, yeah, I think the "balancing" bit mentioned would be the death of the idea though.

/this. Think my first was near 500 hours. And you forgot "newspaper missions, not running out of missions at 38, xp smoothing, set bonuses that give debt reduction" too.

/this. Mostly out of amusement.

Even so, I somewhat lean toward the "no cap for emailing to your own address." I suspect, given the dev stance on storing recipes and such, though, that they wouldn't budge on it.