Necrotron_RO

Thank you. The end.

The issue I am having with all these 'timer based effects' in the iTrials is that whenever I take a second to focus long enough on the timer to tell how much time is left, by the time I look back at my character, I have died.

With all the chaos going on around me, I don't really have to time to read commands (or the giant red text that is too big for my screen and/or hidden by my UI). Was just on a MoM trial a bit ago and the leader was trying to get everyone to time when the pink patches would appear and move away from the AV so they didn't spawn right on him. Needless to say, it didn't work, and everytime I stopped diligently watching my character to read the timer, I found I was standing in a pink patch by the time I looked back.

All the constant information spam on the iTrials is really too much to take in.

Maybe not necessarily too hard, but there is the matter of 'fun'. Frankly, I haven't found any ot these new gimmicks they're introducing in the newer trials 'fun', so that's my current preference to run BAF/LAMs. I'm not even a big fan of the 'mad dash the weak fall behind' run for temp powers in LAM, but at least it's straight forward.

Outside of the 'fun' element, I know all of these trials can be beaten, and with some consistency, it's just when I'm forced to team with random strangers and especially in trials were a 'few bad apples' can fail the league, I'd much rather just run other trials.

That is my general feeling about the iTrials. I prefer the straightforward gameplay. By far, BAF has the most straightforward gameplay. LAM is not far behind.

Every other iTrial introduces more mechanics I find obnoxious and/or less fun, and consequently, I am less inclined to run them.

And when you consider the amount of time invested versus the reward, they seem likely to win out as well.

It's a nice idea, but no way am I going to spec a second build for any of my AoE centric characters. My Elec/Rad Corruptor (with procs in every debuff) and Electric/Willpower Brute are going to have next to nothing for attack they can use until they are inside the building.

But hey, it's variation for those who want it, which is a good thing.

But given the high risk of failure, and general tediousness of the trial, I plan on just running it until I see a success and then as infrequently as possible thereafter. As it stands with the previous options for iTrials, I 'might' run an Underground if a few qualifications are met:

A) I'm on a character that only needs a rare
B) I know the leader who is forming the trial
C) It looks like a good chance of success (given the random people involed in the trial)

If these qualifications are not met, I'm running a BAF or LAM (maaaaybe a Keyes, but as a last choice, only).

These new iTrials all seem designed for the type of player who constantly complained about how easy the game was. I suppose I am the portion of the playerbase that always enjoyed the ease of winning about this game.

Outside of the dedicated populace on Virtue that likes to run novel things once in awhile (e.g. Underground), all I really see being ran still is BAF/LAMs, and occasionally Keyes. I have not yet even seen an Underground form on Freedom or Justice.

Often I will simply run whatever is being formed because well, when iTrials take 12-16 people minimum to run well, you usually just have to go with the flow given the amount of people online, but still, 9/10 trials (or more) is going to be BAF/LAM/some Keyes, I suspect. Keyes is easy enough these days if 'at least a few' people know what they are doing. Underground however ventures into the opposite side of the spectrum in that a few 'not knowing what they are doing' can fail the league for everyone. TPN continues this trend.

I'll run an Underground, MoM, or TPN 'once in awhile' to try something different (if I see someone I know runs them regularly is forming), but reward wise, my best investment still seems to be running Speed LAMS and BAFs, because, let's face it, I mostly just want the rewards (e.g. teaming with 23 strangers isn't my ideal teaming situation), and the potential chance of failure on those three trials is still pretty high. Not to mention all the tedious gimmicks those trials feature.

The best suggestion I have seen so far to increase the frequency of the other trials being ran is a sort of Weekly Strike Target system for the iTrials.

Well, Underground is still ran much less, despite having obtained a fairly high chance of success. Reasons being it still has a higher chance of failure than running other trials, and it's reward/time vested is still arguably low.

I don't see how they can do that without rewriting the entire trial.

Keyes was unpopular, and they 'fixed' it, sort of. It still contains all of the elements I don't like about it, but it now is a breeze to do.

I suspect all this feedback will be taken into consideration when creating the newer iTrials, although odds are pretty good they've already designed the basics of them, so it might even be too late now. Plus, by design, they have to be harder, so I expect them to become more and more filled with chances for failure and using the 'avoid the thing' mechanics shown in previous trials.

On our TPN trial I just ran, we had a couple Elec Melee characters mention, 'But my only single target attack is Charged Brawl!' It's a cute mechanic to have civies in the trial, but proves to be a bit tedious to avoid using any pets (all masterminds) and only use ST attacks.

The MoM trial is a nightmare to run with a melee character. Did it on beta, and frankly, with the frequency of the 'pink patches' you hardly ever get a chance to attack. I really miss the non-gimmick filled gameplay of standard missions, and hope to be able to unlock incarnate rewards with some good old-fashioned gameplay. Hopefully, the Death Incarnate issue will bring something like that.

But, at least without a new currency, we will be able to pick and choose still what we want to run.

Has someone made this costume yet?

The whole purpose of the super packs in to introduce a consumable market item that players (mostly VIPs) are enticed to regularly buy. The problem that the playerbase is having with these items is that designed with the best interests of the seller in mind, and not the interests of giving a 'fair trade' value to the customer. They are a lottery, designed with randomness so you have to likely buy more than might have originally because of the addictivness of the psychology of 'ooo, I might win', obsucating the total cost of the 'exclusive' costume part you're hoping to get, and wrangling more money out of the player that they would likely have spent by simply looking at the actual 'sticker price'.

And there is nearly unlimited upward profit potential for the company. Want to sell more? Put a super rare item in the super packs with only 0.5% chance of dropping, and then you sell even more to the dedicated fans who will try and get that item. There isn't any benefit to the player of having random drops, it only benefits the company selling them.

Don't get me wrong, I want to give the game money. I've felt a large amount of goodwill towards the company in years past. I just want to know what I am getting for my money before I spend it.

I played a few CCGs back in the day myself, and utterly despise the 'spend hundred of dollars until you collect what you want' aspect of them. That is the reason I vowed never to play any again, and do not want 'collectible' swag added to CoH.

Yep. I never wanted the ATIOs in the first place.

This is pretty much a concise list of my general feeling as well, except the bugs I can understand because as they say, stuff happens.

I don't like the 'buyer beware' feeling I get from using the Paragon Market. The fact that some items cost more when bundled than when not in a pack is just silly. With the lack of the market knowing what I already own and/or a purchase history, I don't feel comfortable using the market unless I know exactly what I intend to buy.

The whole 'super pack' thing has been talked over relentlessly, but again, the exclusivity of the items being included in them makes me feel like the studios is trying to nickle and dime me as a VIP, as we're the most likely portion of the customer base to try and 'collect them all' relating to costume pieces. Please continue to rethink the exclusive costume parts in super packs.