Mychyl

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When you get a chance, could you please review either 22740 or 365851? (Or both, if you've got the time. XD)

Neither of them have threads as yet, since I haven't done much to publicize them. So I'll be watching here for your reply, when you get the time. Thank you! ^^

...Did we really need to open a can of *DHOOOOM!* on the forums?

Oh, right. This IS the forums we're talking about.

Anyways, even if it did come to a server merge (which I somehow doubt, since they've kept the servers as-is as long as I've been playing), I'm sure they'd make sure the cries of doom were kept to a dull roar through various nefarious dev-tricks. (Like migrating existing SGs and so forth, for one.) But I highly doubt such a thing will come to pass... even on my "underdeveloped" server of Champion, we're still pretty busy, more often than not.

As for the ACTUAL post here: I personally like this service... it gave me a chance to repatriate a number of characters I'd moved over to Victory during my brief sojourn there, and this time *without* paying $10 a pop. Which is why I'd abandoned them there for the time being... but I'm definitely glad they're home (and effectively playable again... I don't care for worrying about more than one server).

Basically, I'm seeing two threads of thought here. Those who would prefer to save their money (and, with the economy the way it is, who can blame them?) and those who are willing to sacrifice a bit of money to get their shinies sooner.

Honestly, I've seen a LOT of numbers strewn about this thread. And a fair bit of hostility, unfortunately, against those who choose the shiny route.

What this breaks down to me is: I'm paying $40 either way. The logic behind this: if I do the prepurchase, I will be getting the item pack. The only pack I've passed up is Science, and I might get that one yet anyways, for completion. Never know. This doesn't make me rich; this just means that the majority of my entertainment budget belongs to NCNC. Not console, not theatres, not clubbing or drinking or drugs. City *is* my entertainment, and my addiction. And NCNC knows it. I even occasionally dream that they love me for it.

If you look at IP + Prepurchase = CE (based on the exact amount of out-of-pocket given for the purchases, and ignoring all else), the balancing act becomes [4 months of early DP access and 3 months of early DS access] versus [1 month free game time]. For me, it's DP and DS. I love DP already (have a DP/Traps blaster and a DP/Therm corr that I'm in love with on the test server), and I have no doubt that I'll love DS (MMs are my fave villains, provided I'm in the right mood to play them).

So all the numbers of "real value" and "consumer value" mean little to me. This is a far easier (for me) way to break this down. It's $40 for the CE. It's $40 for both the prepurchase and the booster. (This is assuming, as we are probably safe to do, that it'll be $9.99 for the booster, just as it has been for *every* booster thus far.) So, if it's not worth it to you to get the prepurchase and enjoy DP and DS for those multiple months at the cost of $15 (the value of 1 free month), by all means, don't. Cultivate some patience and wait for the CE.

As for me, I'll be rolling my DP/Traps blaster on live in the morning. Provided that it is, in fact, today that it releases... since it's not up yet. >.>

I decided, with all my slumming around Champion and schmoozing with the best, maybe I should throw my hat in the proverbial ring as well.

So I signed up!

Act now, and if you're lucky, I might even come with a complimentary Cy-bot! :3

As an aside, yes, I am in fact aware of the irony of a bug saying to let Cryptic know, when they are no longer developing Co*. Still, I'm assuming that whatever infrastructure they had in place to troubleshoot this specific type of issue (whatever it is) passed on, or that otherwise it's known how to deal with this.

(Like I said above, I'm hoping this is an isolated issue... I've been back in game since that message with no issues beyond the odd mapserver, which is expected for double-XP weekend. Just seemed odd, so when it asked me to report it, I didn't think twice. >.>)

Was on the character selection screen, went to load into the game, and got an odd error. (Reminds me a of a BSOD, but a little more explicit.)

The error is as follows::

Assertion failed

Program: ...am Files (x86)\City of Heroes\CityOfHeroes.exe
Time: Sat Aug 01 10:45:42 AM
Process ID: 3900
File: c:\src\utilitieslib\utils\superassert.c
Line: 1857
Expression: 0

Error Message: CRT abort() called

ERROR: swDumpStackToBuffer - timeout (258) waiting for dumpHeap is NOT corrupted
Last windows SYSTEM error: Not enough storage is available to process this command.


DxDiag can be made available if needed, but this is an isolated (I hope, since it's never happened before) event, and didn't show any errors which I could spot. However, the error very specifically said "Please report this to Cryptic Studios on the beta forums", but since it's from the live version, figured I'd drop it here instead. (That and I haven't figured out precise navigation of this new forum layout *just* yet.)

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Hm... this seems like a bad topic to post to. Considering it's supposed to be technical issues and not flame wars.

But that's OK. I'll just ignore the flamewar going on and post a bit of illumination.

So, yea. First off, Buster badge. The spawn rate for Spirits is bugged, I agree, but that does not make the badge itself bugged. It still works. Just slower. (If this irks you... my apologies. Large teams still get decent-ish rates of spawn, so I might suggest that. At this time, it seems a workaround is the only real option available.)

Second, Jack in Irons. I apparently am one of the few lucky ones, in that I've gotten 3 spawns (blueside) in approximately 4 hours. My advice is to form a GM hunting team and give it a go. (And to avoid Peregrine and Grandville, since those two have been dual-instancing a lot, and since a kill in one can cause the next spawn to be in the other.) It's unfortunate that it's a low chance of respawning to Jack instead of Eochai, but if you focus on killing Eochai every time he pops, it's gonna happen. Sorry I can't offer a better workaround, but it *does* work.

Third, Zombie Apocalypse. It's easy to do at higher levels, and the badges award quick. Personally, I don't see too much problem with it, aside from the fact that, after you get the badges, it just feels like another Rikti invasion. Which is fine for some, tiresome for me. To each their own, in my opinion. (Although what I saw earlier in this thread, about the Apocalypse screwing around with spawns needed for TFs, is annoying a bit. I can imagine how it'd be to be doing a TF, need some outdoor zone kills, and suddenly find out that you can't get them for... oh, say, 30 minutes.)

Fourth, the statements about rewards. I hate to parrot such a well-used line, but it's the only thing that seems to fit: "This was introduced as an optional feature and is not mandatory." There's a good chance you still have at least one contact with missions unless your character's been around a while. Even if you've run most of those out, there's still Borea's repeatable missions, or doing scanners/papers, or doing (occasional, unfortunately) mission teams. There's other ways to earn XP, to farm inf, to build up prest, and to earn those purple recipes you're drooling over. If the Halloween event isn't your cup of tea this year, or if you're burned out on it already (I admit, I suffer from that as well), then find something else to do.

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Not to mention that someone could make badge-farming missions.

how about a mission where there are a dozen Carnie Master Illusionists, locked up so they can't attack themselves, but can do nothing but summon pets?

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I was about to say that with the restrictions they've told us about in place that it couldn't happen, then I thought of a way to do that... Except I don't think the mobs count as high for badges (probably 1/10th or something) so I'm not sure it would be worth it.



Yea, the devs really are going to have to be careful.

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Or worse (or better, depending on your POV), have them simply not count towards badges at all. It'd be fairly easy to do: just have any mobs which spawn inside mission creators have altered allegiance names [ie. how, with the V-Day Red Caps, most of them are actually "RedCaps" and only the "Red Caps" (the "upgraded" forms of the minions/lts) count].

Granted, it'd be better (IMO, given that I loves my badges) if they'd count but only a little bit. But either way, my arc is already figured out in my head... provided I can build it the way my mind demands.

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I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that the base improvements will bring a prestige grant with it... those are all sorts of fun [edit] My assumption on this is that if there is one, it won't be announced until the last second, so people don't pad their roster too much. This is actually the delusion I'm going to hold onto all the way to i13 going live, unless a dev steps in and... lets me down easy [/edit]

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Actually, given last (November, wasn't it?), if they decide to do a prestige grant, it'll be announced with loud fanfare about 2-3 weeks before the day in question. And if that happens, I guarantee a lot of people will be burning out every slot they've got, trying to fill their rosters with anything, just for the prestige grant. (Personally, I've already got all my slots fill, roughly half to my SG and my VG. So not much I can do aside spend lots of cash on character slots. &gt;.&gt;;

Still, would be nice... free prestige means making bigger things happen faster... and would mean my "co-builder" for my VG can add decorative stuff to her heart's content. o.o;;;

On second thought... maybe a prestige grant is a bad idea. XD

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Shields for stalkers just don't seem to fit the archetype at all.

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That's why that was a mistake, a mental whoopsie, and was clarified as such. Stalkers aren't getting shields... that's already been reclarified several times (including at least twice, as my memory serves, by rednames).

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BTW people seem to be forgetting Abyss and Monster Island villain side. They were actully the last two new zones added villain side not G'ville.

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OK, I was wrong then, I thought Abyss and MI were added in 8 alongside G'ville. Apologies.

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I'm not really sure what the purpus of Monster Island is but the entrence can be found on the north side of G'ville.

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Aside from farming monkeys (which is no longer an issue due to RCS, and never was to be honest) and playing with DE monsters (which is a silly use of a zone), neither do I. It feels kinda unfinished to me... but I'll leave that to others to speculate on.

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<ul type="square">[*] (22) The Chantry[*] (23) Cascade Archipelago[*] (24) The Storm Palace[/list]

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My guess would be Fire Base Zulu as that's really the only zone I have been in and not fully exsplored as I didn't have fly at the time and I really suck at trying to navigate through the jump holes. They're frustrating and I hate them.

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You would be correct. The only reason I know this is due to having (in ye olden days of I6/I7) done all 4 SSTFs on my fire/rad. (A task I'm not looking forward to repeating, but ah, to be a badge [censored].) They're sorta fancy, they're only kinda pretty, and aside from badge completeness (or future TF "merit" farming) I advise against them. (Although if you like a challenge, Rularuu can pose a minor challenge. Especially if you're built for evasion... Overseer-type mobs seem to auto-hit with their "eyebeam" attack.)

Note: Badge [censored] can be replaced with badge hunter, for those who prefer seeing the full term. Otherwise, feel free to use your imagination. And yes, I do refer to myself using the first term.

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So when do you guys think this will go on the Test Sever?

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Ah, the question I've been waiting for someone else to ask.

Yes, when? The best I've seen for a timeline is a tentative January-ish for live I13. Do we have any timeline? Is it in closed now? Open? On the moon (perhaps being tested in the fabled moonbase of survey lore)?

I know these things take time, I know patience is a virtue (and as my MM's chatbind reads, lack of patience is also a sin). Just a hint of a tentative maybe date/timeframe would make me happy. (Granted, I understand if the devs are reluctant to release anything more promising than "We'll get it to you when we get it to you"... I've seen people cry for blood when a tentative date is changed. But still... PM it to me, I won't tell, and I don't get all vengeful if it changes... promise. ^.~)

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Where are the NEW ZONES for VILLAINS?
Gosh where is the New Content for Villains?


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Where are the NEW ZONES for HEROES?
Gosh where is the New Content for Heroes?

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Heroes don't really need any new zones. Like I said before on hero side, there are still zones and contacts I have never seen or spoken to in 4 years of playing this game.

Villains side, I've exsperienced everything... 5 times. Villains are the ones lacking in the content department.

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And oddly enough... the number of villan players is much smaller than hero players.

So the devs could spend their time creating more content for the smaller segment of the player base... or they could spend their time creating content for the larger segment of the player base... or they could spend their time creating content for both segments simultaneously...

gosh... I wonder what they'll do...??

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Yes because they totally didn't add any Red side only content in Issue 12, nope none at all.

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Huh. What was the new villain zone in i12? I must have missed it.

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Cimerora. My Mastermind hit 50 there ... during an ITF. My first 50 ever, too.

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To reply to both misconceptions at once:

The phrasing was "red side only content", not "red side only zone". If it was zone, the correct answer would be no, there was no red-only zone added with 12. In fact, the last zone (correct me if I'm wrong, as I might actually be) that was added for red *only* was G'ville.

However, under the concept of "red side only content"... why yes, as I recall, that's the update that added VEATs. And VEAT missions.

There. Misunderstandings (and mischief) managed.

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well, I certainly DON'T want CoX to be like other MMO's

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/signed

Honestly people, if I really wanted City to be like other MMOs, why would I be playing City *instead* of said other MMOs?

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but I take issue with swords, shields, and other "medieval" things being "un-super". There is a LONG history of Superheroes using these items in modern times.

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Again, I agree. There's no reason to believe that, just because "omg sheildz r teh midevil", that makes their powersets any less super-powered. Let's at least wait until the powersets are revealed before jumping to such conclusions, ne?

And given the number of people I've seen salivating over the shields powersets being released, I honestly don't believe the outcry of a few naysayers is going to stop this plan in its tracks. And if it does, then we *will* be getting more like other MMOs. Which will be a desperate sadness, imo.

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I believe TheFrog put it best when he said, in another thread...
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Don't go bringing your silly logic into this! The internet has no place for it!

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Oh, and /signed.

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/signed as well, though I can be a hopeless dreamer and wait for the day............

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Oh, yeah, one more thing (and again, YOMV) - since I've seen the accusation levelled at a few other folks on different threads that those who stick up for the devs are just [censored]-kissing... I say NCSoft creates a division for these people who think they can do a better job than the devs. Give them limited resources, personal lives, a half-dozen competitors' MMORPGs, a restricted budget, a public relations appearance schedule, and 100,000+ players holding their every word as sanctified gospel and breathing down their necks.

The devs are not perfect, guys. They're a bunch of folks doing the best they can with what they've got.

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/signed

And honestly, the devs *do* have plenty of deadline stress as is, without people trying to add 20 extra "Gimme or I quit" tasks onto the list. Personally, I hope they do something like my previous idea

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...they can have a dev (or have a special QA taskforce, either employee or -- gasp! -- player volunteers) look at it....

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so that the actual QA team and devs can keep working on the "real" content (as I think I'll refer to it from now on... or perhaps "canon" is better), and we can sort-of police ourselves. (I'll volunteer, if this goes forward. Badge optional but certainly accepted. XD)

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&lt;OT&gt; "We solemnly swear we are up to no good"... not that it's entirely apropos of my posts here, but eh. It's a HP reference, not too surprising given the icon itself.

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I know the reference. Just couldn't read it because of the text being distorted by the shrinking of the image. The goth-ified HP gang is a bit mind-breaking, too.

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That's the main reason I have the icon. The text artifacting is an unfortunate side effect of taking one of my poor old LJ icons (gasp!) and shrinking it to acceptable size.

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The heroes have more zones, but they really don't have all that much more content. Volume, yes... mass, no.

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I... well, I don't know how to respond. I'd say I agree and disagree in parts, I suppose. Quite a few of those blue zones have as much (or nearly so) real content as any red zone. And while I agree, in some cases, the red zones (for example, I'd go with Sharkhead) are packed with a lot of contacts and arcs, it still gives the feel of there being more to do, discover, and experience blue-side. I'll leave the actual tallying to someone with the patience to log 50s to each side and sit in Ouro counting individual arcs. (And yes, I admit that a good number of lowbie blue contacts tend to overlap. Something to help that could help with diversifying blue's experience... I want more on both sides, just looking at where I see it being needed more.)

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Hero zone missions still labor under a cookie-cutter motif: Fight mobs, click glowie, exit. The Faathim the Kind TF has about a dozen missions consisting of cave-clearances and simultaneous glowie clicking. Ho-freaking-hum!

Villain missions overall, building on two years' experience and the acquisition of talented scenario designers (tip-o-the-mask to Shane Hensley, to name but one), enjoy a far superior depth of detail, scope and feel than the vast majority of hero content.

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I honestly can't argue this, but that's because all missions seem to fall into one of four types, when you've done them over and over: kill all, kill (name) and guards, get the glowie, or escort (name) to safety. Sometimes mixing the goals together, but it's all a lump. Diversifying the types of missions isn't even something I touched on, and probably something out of my league, due to so many times through of the same missions that my mind no longer wants to come up with alternatives.

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As for "unstoppable" PvP AT's, the problem is not that any one type is over- or under-powered (although several are, and undeniably so), but that there are a few types which can ONLY be countered by other specific types.

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My counterargument, at least from a non-PvPr's standpoint (which probably disqualifies it before I type it), is that given that those weaknesses exist, they theoretically are then stoppable. If a stalker's main strength is its stealth, have +perception (whether by inspirations, IOs/sets, AT powers, or temp powers such as can be bought in SC when the zone's in your favor). It's my opinion that whoever comes the most prepared stands the best chance for survival, or to quote an old phrase, he who has the most toys wins. (Sadly, most PvP on my server stops being 1v1 and quickly becomes 1v20. It's not fair, but people who PvP on my server seem to think it's the only way to play, hence another reason I'll stick to my PvE.)

&lt;OT&gt; "We solemnly swear we are up to no good"... not that it's entirely apropos of my posts here, but eh. It's a HP reference, not too surprising given the icon itself.

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some cool stuff but i'm a little upset at the idea of nerfed rewards on the custom missions.

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They have to.. i mean you could make a repeatable mission arch w a glowie at dor to get 2 minute end of mission xp forever.. or create custom farm missions... ect ect... unless they nerf the drops/xp... it will be to easy to take advantage of.

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Thing is, even then, we don't know to what degree they "nerfed" it. (Still feels odd, referring to something as "nerfed" when it doesn't even exist yet. At least nowhere I can see it.) And knowing NCNC, they probably are planning on putting some form of flag in, so that if a mission is completed is way too little time, they can have a dev (or have a special QA taskforce, either employee or -- gasp! -- player volunteers) look at it and make sure it's not just a quick-cash map. (Possibly with the punishment of losing your mapmaking privileges suspended/revoked if you make them habitually, and certainly causing the map in question to be flagged for deletion.)

I'm sure the devs have this idea well in hand... or possibly even built something into the editor to require at least a token force to be placed to prevent easy glowie farming?

OK, let's be honest here, people. There's been a lot of immature response to this.

First, hero content vs villain content: Heroes have a lot more. It's a well-known and loudly-complained-about issue. Over twice the zones, with a *lot* more in the way of content. And there's NO. SUCH. THING. as an unstoppable PvP build. (Ask my roommate's "unstoppable" crab, which got mudholed by my "lolscrapper" 4 times out of 5. And I'm not a PvPr except by badge-lust and SG badge-need.) And sure, right now there's more active blue than red at any given moment... as was pointed out before, that's because people get tired of picking between arcs they've run too many times, shared content that smacks of heroism, or the same old paper missions. I've done stuff in every zone as my 50 heros... but it took a lot of extra time to really visit every single zone. My red 50? More paper grinding than I care to think about, once all the contacts dried up.

Mission creator: Likely it's going to be a bit overhyped out the gate, and will get better. Until we can actually see, touch, feel, and love it? We won't know just how overwhelming (or underwhelming) the final answer is. Trust to the devs to not let us down, expect the worst and hope for the best... whatever it takes to get you through to I13 launch. I do have one favor to ask the devs, given some of the people I've seen around the game... built-in spell checkers? Please? That or give me the power to highly censor a mission's text. Some people type like to type with their foreheads (or haven't reached third-level spelling proficiency, take your pick), and as much fun as their maps might be, reading 500 spelling errors in a single sentence will ruin it quickly. It's one thing to catch the occasional whoopsie from the mission devs... it's quite another to wade through an ocean of them on player-created content.

New powersets: Shields sound decent, if not overwhelming... I'm looking forward to trying it out as an alternative to my preferred /SR scrap build. As for pistols... I'd love it, I admit, but beating it into the ground isn't gonna make the devs love us more or pull it outta their tophats like a fluffy white bunny. It'll come when it'll come, and harassing them won't make it happen sooner. (If I was a dev, I'd push it back a couple issues for the harassment. Makes you wonder... ^.~) And yes, by the love of all that's holy, let's just start calling it /Pain (or whatever) now and leave the dom part to the villains that own it by AT. I see too many people going "omgz we needz moar pain quik luk 4 domz". (I've teamed with people that type like that. If you haven't, feel blessed.) And yes, to reiterate, it is for CORRS and MMS ONLY. NOT FOR DOMS. If you're confused by the name and/or my statement that pain domination is not for dominators, please go reread the OP, s'il vous plait.

Merits: If you're a casual player, enjoy the ability to invest your rare playtime in something real. If you're a hardcore, invest your constant playtime in fully godslotted in a week. [And if you're a hardcore player, be polite and realize not everyone has their umbilical cord surgically attached to their computer. Just because you do (and just because I do)...] And whatever happens, PLEASE let this stabilize (if not normalize) BM/WW. I don't know about all servers, but Champ's WW looks like a indecisive suicide half the time, going between rock-bottom and sky-high on all but the rarest IOs. (I'm sorry, when an ancient bone goes for 100 inf one minute, and 20k-30k three minutes later, then back to 1k about 5 minutes after that... there's an issue, and it's not with the system.)

Day jobs: Sure, the badge ([censored]? hunter?) in me is rubbing its grimy little hands together gleefully, but my alts are gonna get a severe workout trying to hunt these all down. (Or at least earn them all.) But hey, more badges, more accolades and temp powers, more fun to be had. Let's do it. (As long as the badges/accolades are permanent, even if the boosts they represent aren't.)

PPPSpecs: I haven't personally had an issue here, so I'll move on. Kudos on what apparently, from the non-buzz, amounts to a bug fix? I love Ghost Widow, and all my villains shall follow suit, so no complaints here regardless.

Kheldians: I agree, they've been given the short end of the stick (especially given the versitility of VEATs with little that I've seen, PvEwise, of detraction aside from weaker soloability pre-forcespec). Perhaps a bit of buffing, or added soloability, might be in order for the HEATs? I love my Kheldians dearly, but it's a bit tricky to be soloing a mission and get virtually one-shotted due to a surprise Void around the corner. Price of levelling a Kheldian, but they're about par against regular mobs, so it feels a bit lopsided, having levelled both a good bit.

Bases: People are talking about this. Sure, I run two groups (one red and one blue), and I'd love to see lots and lots of pretty upgrades. (Someone suggested multilevel bases, I think I saw. I'd like to second that, and with a fervor.) If it happens, I'll be in even more map-making glee and less reachable for team invites... if it doesn't, I'll dry my eyes with an even more impressive story arc.

Finally, to end my rants: A lot of people are demanding a lot of things that they feel have been "overlooked" or "forgotten". (And jokes aside, some people seem to be in the "omg i kan quite and than u be sry u didnt do whut i wnt" mindset.) Reminder: the fabled words "And more..." were used at the end. This is not a complete list, or at least not necessarily so. Promising you'll quit won't make the devs magically pull your desired project (to abuse my earlier metaphor) from their battered old tophats. If it's in the works, it'll be announced. If they're holding it back (as was said by a red-name) in the hopes they might... MIGHT... be able to push it through, and they do, awesome. If they can't, maybe it'll hit I14. If not, I15 perhaps... or 16 won't be all that far down the road for some of you Betas.

Either way, I'll be occupied and entertained, and that's what I'm paying $10ish a month for, right? Right. (Yes, I believe in lump-sum fees. Why not? I'll still be playing when the next batch of time runs out... and the next... and the next...)

[Please note: The above is not intended as a flame, argument, or anything other than well-placed constructive criticism. And anyone who hates the devs for this update is constructively advised to be quiet and enjoy the *free* update, and wait a few months for the next *free* update when their ideas might (gasp!) be implemented.]

[Please also note: Yes, I'm extremely long-winded. But I get the point across, ne? XD]