Memphis_Bill

Or, for a "really happened" set of examples on a longer timescale than the relatively short Staff delay:

- City Vault. "Hey, we have this really neat feature..." ... which ended up causing serious problems, and was shelved. Finally confirmed "dead," but we still ahve people asking what happened to it.

- The SSOCS. An out-of-combat skills system, you'd head to the University (added, as I recall, in issue 4 or 5 - I remember the construction being there in I3) and learn... some kind of skills. This was supposed to, among other things, reduce the effect of Enhancement Diversification - they'd take away our 1acc/5damage slotting and six-slotted stamina, but they'd have this other system ready to go.

Except it wasn't. And we had nothing until Inventions were introduced.

- Epic ATs. See my guides, specifically "EAT at WW's." But waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when Statesman was still at the helm, he announced several upcoming EATs (we'd just gotten Khelds.) Avilians - a flying EAT. (Killed because they finally figured out how to give players wings.) Incarnates. (Now a system, not an AT.) Coralax. Blood of the Black Stream - which has a few in-game items related, and even had a player turned into a card for the CCG with the bio modified to reference this... and it's also now dead (one of the "we want our new guys working on their own ideas, nto old stuff" casualties, which I think is really shortsighted.) Getting even a "they're dead" or ANY sort of status out of PS after these were announced *years* ago was like pulling teeth.

I wouldn't hold my breath on this. After all, I13 was supposed to "fix" PVP, as well. And now? Yes, IOs were around in I13... but there's a lot more going on now. IOs, quite frankly, are going to break almost any "fix" they can come up with and widen a gap between the casual and hardcore-have-played-since-COV-released-every-day PVPer.

Now, yes, there's always going to be that gap - not saying there shouldn't be. But when we were all on SOs, it was really a matter of "Learn why you got killed, and learn to counter it."

"Fixed" how?
"Profanity" Filters? That's been sitting around for a year.
UI?
More arc search filters?
Just what do you mean by "fixed?"


They're planning on releasing five more slots. Probably with trials and a bit of solo/small team stuff. Past that... *shrug*

I don't know how you searched, then. Perhaps the -ing threw you. But it's been asked consistently for years. Again, actually *knowing* the community would have prevented you from making such a ridiculous statement.

You're not proving it. And not playing it does not make you an expert on it - nowhere close. So if you don't play it, the claim you know it "as well if not better than anyone else here" is rather like me walking into a hospital and saying I'm as good as, if not better than, brain surgery than anyone there, because I've never touched one.

And you think min/maxing is THE measure by which everything should be judged? Most of the *playerbase* doesn't min/max. Much of the forum? I'd give half, sure. But *the game is not min/maxing."
I play for an expected level of performance. I expect to be able to solo reasonably on SOs on even settings. I can turn my settings up on my PBs on SOs. Illusion, on the other hand, I *had* to turn to IOs and tune a build around recharge to get it to be reasonable. My Ill/Sonic is the *only* character I've *ever* had that I couldn't pull into BB at 15-17 and solo the shivan run. It couldn't beat the firebase. It went downhill from there.

See earlier comment about "my way or else."
You don't play it. So no, you don't know the AT. Min/max is not the AT. On *ANY* AT.

And you've just insulted the entire community for disagreeing with you, so our discussion ends here. Because I will not put up with it. Especially from someone who I expect better from. I *KNOW* you're better than that. I like you, EG, but right now I'm so incredibly disappointed in you I've just got to stop and ignore (not put on list, just -leave-) you in this conversation.

So pardon my french, but knock it the **** off. And while you're knocking it the **** off, sit and think about it - you've got *zero* support for what you want so far. So either the *entire community* of Kheld drivers here is wrong - or maybe, *JUST* maybe, you are and you should reconsider your position.

But you *just* said:

... which rather indicates that solo *IS* at least part of the point.

EG, just what IS your point, besides "SOA perfect, PB should be deleted?" Do you know at this juncture? And while we're at it, specifically WHICH SOA are you talking about? Bane? Crab? Huntsman? Fort? Widow? (My opinion on the Bane, even more so now, is "Give me a stalker with Leadership and I'll do better.")

My Dark/Electric is weaker than the SOA solo, assuming by "weaker" you mean "takes longer/does less damage than." Doesn't mean it's broken.
My Earth/FF is weaker than the SOAs solo. Doesn't mean it's broken.
The SOA is weaker than my Fire/SS tank solo. Doesn't mean the SOA's broken.

"Does not match my personal preference" is also not broken.

Did I say #2 or #3 were not? Re-read, please. The only one I said was not was #1.

#2 I stated was an opinion. As opposed to a declaration of the direction of the game or of design philosophy for PS.

Only if the point you think we're trying to make is that you're not reading things properly.
... says the person who is trying to 'revise' things in this very string of quotes.
EG. Just stop. You've just made an incredible fool of yourself with your assumptions. Search JUST this forum. You'd see a reduction in time on form shifting, including "instant," as a suggestion made QUITE often in these forums.

You don't know the AT. You don't know the Kheldian community. Just stop. And stop trying to insist Khelds should be "some other AT."

... says the person who keeps basically saying the AT needs to completely drop what it is and become like SOAs.

Again, if we WANTED to be playing SOAs... we'd be playing SOAs.
"Performance" by what measure? "Weaker" by what measure? And how many IOs are you shoving into your SOA when you make that comparison?

This IS personal preference you're pushing, EG. You don't like how PBs/Khelds play. Fine. Solution: Don't play them. I dont' like how Illusion plays, despite the praise heaped on it by some well known Controller players. Solution: I don't play Illusion. I don't care for the (to me) exceptionally *boring* play of Scrappers. Solution: I rarely play them. I'm not suggesting anything I don't do. And you don't see me going into the Scrapper forums and saying they need to play more like Controllers. Which is, essentially, what you've been pushing this entire thread. "Khelds don't play like X, they don't have the same number as X, dump the form shifting and make them into X." Whether you THINK you're saying it or not, that's EXACTLY what you're saying.

Adds armor. If she wore a chainmail bikini, she'd be invincible.

Note to devs: No. I do not want the next costume alteration to be a Yinkini.

Let's see:
One is a "So and so told me." No way to verify that's what was said exactly versus how you remember. And what stage was the Freedom change at at that point, and was he on the team? He could very well have not had the information.

Number two is an opinion.

Number three, they ran the numbers on and didn't like. They wanted to encourage "gun-running," which was supposed to be a benefit of the "grey" alignments - but then introduced a *third* market and a *third* currency, which made the entire system exceptionally unwieldy, especially with praetorians having to "convert" or "store" their Information into Influence or Infamy. To the point where a currency and market merge *was* the better idea. In other words, a major factor changed the equation.

So, with the selective memory you wish to chide others for, you didn't really pick great examples.

Meanwhile, they still do not want to let people do a "full respec" of AT/Primary/Secondary (or any combination thereof,) just for a counterexample that keeps coming up that we've gotten a definite "no" on.

If permanent mez protection were *actually* seen *by the devs* as a problem after nearly TWENTY ISSUES, I'd think - with all the other changes - they'd have done something to grant it by now. The closest they've come? The Light Form recharge/duration/crash changes.

Just because they've changed their mind on *some* things does not mean they'll just change their mind on *everything* on a whim.

Edit: Frankly, given the "kind of" mez protection Blasters get (getting to use some powers to defend themselves while held/slept/etc,) well, I look at Dwarf and Light Form and think they're probably quite happy with the options we have.

But you're coming off like - let's switch ATs here for a second - "Controllers aren't strong enough. They can be some of the slowest soloers in the game, outside of a set or two they have no mez protection. So let's up their damage scale, give them more melee attacks, get rid of most if not all of the controls and give them some armor..."

... well, congrats, you just said you want to play a tank/brute/scrapper. Not a controller.

No, the *fundamental design* is not broken. The design just doesn't work with the way you want to play.

Frankly, I'd say that none of the changes made to Kheldians - and do remember, we have only one powerset per AT, so a tweak to (say) Light Form is what I think you're counting as a "tweak to the AT" as a whole, unlike every OTHER AT where you have a bunch of sets to compare and contrast and mix - come close to the "massive AT changes" that the Domination change, Defiance 1 and 2 changes, even the Brute Fury changes were.

We've been playing ours and know how they work, and how they don't. How about you?

Except that by having them as VIP, even if the person drops later, the items have fulfilled their purpose - namely, convinced someone to subscribe, even if only for a little while.

It's a carrot.

They subscribe, get their VIP costume bits - then maybe try out the SSAs they didn't bother with because they needed to be purchased, since those are free for VIPS, or try out powersets they may not yet have access to. Then get to 50 and they can try out the Incarnate stuff - which is VIP only, and a reason to *keep* subscribing (for some.)

VIP perks are an incentive to subscribe. Subscriptions are (in theory) a more constant source of revenue Paragon Studios and PlayNC can point at to project future income, decide how much "stuff" to make, etc. as a baseline - a la carte (premium) purchases aren't predictable.

Why should it matter when a powerset is delayed? After all, Staff fighting is cool but it's *just* another melee set.

What's important to some people is not the same as what's important to others. Fire and Ice finally let me get a character who I created back when COV was new to what she was *supposed* to be - as opposed to using... think it was Chitin or Insect Armor, I'd have to look again - to try to simulate cracked, charcoal-y ash.

Yes, it makes a huge difference to me with that character. Doesn't make a bit of difference in how she plays, quite honestly, but makes a *big* difference in my enjoyment of it.


As for the rest, I said pretty much the same thing earlier. Get Tier4 unlocked, then (as VIP - I hadn't added that, but agree that it should "stay VIP" as an incentive to subscribe) you can put the tokens in the costume options.

Those are just quick examples.
"Play my way or you're wrong" doesn't really fly with me. You should know that by now.

Yes, Dominators went through the change you mentioned. Why? *Because they were broken.* Not to the point of unplayability, but they were badly broken. Why? Because the original premise did not work.

Thanks for reinforcing my point.
Stalkers got a major improvement, yes. They did not, however, abandon the original premise of the AT. Stealth, spike with followup. If you think that having an AS you can now use as part of an attack chain "breaks the premise," then quite frankly you must have been playing the "AS - placate - run away" game - in other words, you were a bad stalker.

My stalkers have *always* stayed to scrap it out, since issue 6. Eat a hit so placate isn't broken, get the crit I want, keep scrapping.

Except that some of us don't particularly *care* for the SOA, and like the AT *because* of the form shifting. If we wanted to play SOAs, we'd roll SOAs and be talking in the SOA forum.
"The Majority" doesn't play epics of either stripe. The Epic ATs have always been at the bottom of the AT lists. Plus, quite frankly, "The majority" wants easy. "The Majority" likes Survivor, autotuned pop music and McDonalds.

Some of us prefer better.

No, VEAT storyline, such as it is, is not that.
So you have no place to really say anything about its theme, now, do you?
No, bad, unfinished and unfocused equals bad. Which the VEAT storyline is. And the contents of which you still couldn't be bothered to remember, which is another strike against it being "good."

Frankly, you get more done and have a bigger impact, storywise, by the time you're in the 30s in the Kheld arcs than you have the slightest *chance* of having in the SOAs by 50. And you learn more about the Fortunatas and Banes in a *non* VEAT arc (Phipps) than you do in the entirety of the VEAT 1-50 run. That's not good. That's *pathetic.*

Let's see some comments I recall:
Mind/Energy: Telekenesis. "Why are you pushing me away from your biggest attacks again?"
People complain about Ice - AOE hold vs Ice Slick.
Ice/Energy - see mind, keeping ice slick in mind.
Dark Armor brutes (stunned/terrorized enemies don't attack, less fury built.)

... just with half a second of thinking about it.

And have powers of their own. No other ATs have forms or anything close. Strawman/moot.
Most of the ones you mention don't have shields until their APP/PPP, and those shields for the most part don't give mez protection. (Exceptions: Force fields, Sonic, and the Psi APP for Controllers and doms.)

Domination on doms was a major component of their AT. That was broken at introduction. That got fixed.

Stalkers are (finally) fixed.

If they felt PBs were as "broken" as you want to indicate, history suggests they'd be "fixed" by now. So perhaps it's just your perception. Yes, there are tweaks that can be done. But that's a LONG way from "broken."
Your posts here don't indicate it.

Statement from Positron in reaction to accusations of targeting farmers: "We are not targeting anyone's playstyle."

Action: Introduction of MARTY to prevent heavily exploited, well past "the line" rewards.

*Farming* isn't wrong. *Exploits* are. The two are not the same.

So, if you despise them so much... why are you in this area of the forums again?

And I can't take your complaints about a storyline seriously when you praise the utter lack of one on VEATs.

Don't know why you're replying to me with that, as that's kind of my point. The whole "nooo, I EARRRNED it, slogging uphill in ten feet of snow uphill both ways" is rather a silly argument when you can just throw money at it.

And for me, the Veats - both bane and widow - were a slog, not helped by the utter crud that is the so-called storyline. I mean, I enjoyed my Emp/Psi more than those, and she can feel like she takes ten minutes to kill an even-con minion. Twenty if it's a robot of some sort.

What about those who have "earned" it through shoveling a bunch of money at it? No dedication required, just cash. Did you forget that?

"Oh, wait...."


The only restriction I'd put in is that you have to have some of the lower tiers filled in - enough to get things like SGs and more ability to interact with the community. That, to me at least, is a fairly important part of the game to unlock. I'd say "Finish Tier 4" is a good cutoff point.