NotPutzing

@Ed-Wreck - Leader
@Ed-Wrecked - Leader
@W-D
@WD2
@Not Putzing - Leader
@Still Not Putzing - Leader
@Goldie1
@Goldie2
@Veronica Venom
@Mickey Slo2
@Fulc
@Cuch
@MF Fire Wire
@Payne Bringer
@Inspector 6
@Inspector 7
@Craggs
@Wastelands
@NRGFX
@Cyco Aura
@helly
@-helly
@helly-
@-Ajax
@El Ajax
@mac daddy b
@mac b
@macnificent b
@Labrynth
@Elite
@FooManChu
@hans
@-hans
@MA
@El Nino
@Spiked Gila
@Ethical Inquiry
@The Immortal
@Labrynth2
@Knockaround Guy
@TribDils

Heya Chiz,


Foo's retiring so we're in the market for another blaster. You should go app.

Looks awesome.


Glad to see the activation time got included in the real numbers. You guys seem to be making more steps to counting that as part of balance every day.

The PvP effects toggle is a nice little bonus too.

Good luck!


Very, very good pick ups

Thanks for the heads up BABs.

Good luck!

Welcome to both!


I'm quite happy that you guys picked someone who's job it is to work on "hard to find bugs" as a forum contact. A few times I've had a bug that was worthy of PMing that didn't really fit any of the other red names. I'm glad to know there's now a go to guy for this.

[ QUOTE ]
The Midnight Squad

JOIN THE MIDNIGHT SQUAD (LEVELS 10 - 20)
The clandestine organization of mystics, scholars and mages, known only as the Midnight Squad, seeks to rebuild its numbers since the devastating assault of the Rikti Invasion. The Midnighters hold a secret that could bring the alien assault to an end, but without the help of the Heroes of Paragon City™ it will remain Lost forever.

NEW ROMAN-STYLE ZONE MAPS (LEVELS 35 - 50)
The Midnighters hold many secrets within their walls, including a highly coveted Ouroboros crystal, enabling them to travel to the far reaches of time. There is a familiar threat in an ancient land and the Midnighters need the help of both Heroes and Villains to stop it. Players step foot upon the ancient land of the Roman Cimeroran Peninsula, where they battle deadly creatures, defend an ancient city and ultimately come face to face with the enemy of time itself. Throughout this journey players uncover the mysteries of power and the origins that guide them today.



[/ QUOTE ]


Looks like the 10-20 is Heroes only, and 35-50 is Heroes and Vills.

Thank you so much for posting that BABs.

I love how informative, well written, and well thought out your posts are. A big, big thank you for communicating with the players.

@Ed-Wreck - Leader
@Ed-Wrecked - Leader
@W-D
@WD2
@Not Putzing - Leader
@Still Not Putzing - Leader
@Goldie1
@Goldie2
@Veronica Venom
@Mickey Slo2
@Fulc
@Cuch
@MF Fire Wire
@Payne Bringer
@Inspector 6
@Inspector 7
@Craggs
@Wastelands
@NRGFX
@Cyco Aura
@helly
@-helly
@helly-
@-Ajax - Leader
@El Ajax - Leader
@mac daddy b
@mac b
@macnificent b
@Labrynth
@Elite
@FooManChu
@hans
@-hans
@MA
@El Nino
@Spiked Gila
@Ethical Inquiry
@The Immortal
@Labrynth2

@Ed-Wreck - Leader
@Ed-Wrecked - Leader
@W-D
@WD2
@Not Putzing - Leader
@Still Not Putzing - Leader
@Goldie1
@Goldie2
@Veronica Venom
@Mickey Slo2
@Fulc
@Cuch
@MF Fire Wire
@Payne Bringer
@Inspector 6
@Inspector 7
@Craggs
@Wastelands
@NRGFX
@Cyco Aura
@helly
@-helly
@helly-
@-Ajax
@El Ajax
@mac daddy b
@mac b
@macnificent b
@Labrynth
@Elite
@FooManChu
@hans
@-hans
@MA
@El Nino
@Spiked Gila
@Ethical Inquiry
@The Immortal
@Labrynth2

Adding Lab's second account.

Team no u

@Still Not Putzing - ill/emp troller (Captain)
@Ed-wreck - fire/em blaster
@El Nino - fire/kin corr
@Mickey Slo2 - sonic/sonic defender
@WD2 - thugs/posion MM


There's going to be a second VR team signing up too.

Lighthouse,


Do you know if the option of adding an ability to kick offline teammates was looked at? It's something many people are requesting to deal with quits-by-logging and perma-disconnects. Is this a case of the tech not being there for a quick change, or is something the design team decided against? If it was just not having the tech around when you wanted to rush the fix, is there any chance you'd look at it in the future?


I really like this change and do think it actually will successfully cut down the exploiting, but I think adding an option to kick offline players would cut down on this change's effect on regular teams.

[ QUOTE ]
Interestingly enough, this change makes it easier to farm Pool C's from certain TFs by being able to reduce their challenge level below a certain team size, thus preventing certain sizes/contents of spawns. Eg, under Live, it's impossible to run the LGTF without spawning bosses; with this change you can rebalance the TF to any level you want, including a team size that only spawns up to LT's.

[/ QUOTE ]

Before I could duo TFs set for 3 or 4 and get 8 recipes. Now if I want 8 recipes, I have to deal with 8 man spawns. Big improvement.

The only part of me which doesn't like it is the part that likes to duo TFs but go back up to 8 for the recipe at the end. And the change is excellent for precisely that reason.


Hate soft loading? Congrats, it's now *actually* fixed. Before you could still softload and 8 man Posi for 3. Less effecting than softloading an 8 man TF for 1? Sure, but it was still softloading and still a mechanic the devs didn't want.


Think it sucked that if you lost a few people on a shadow shard you were royally screwed because you'd have 8 man spawns no matter what? Now it's not an issue so long as people are polite and quit before they go.

Hate people running 8x8 caps, each playing running one TF, and all meeting up at the end for 64 recipes? This is something that fixes that. If you want 8 recipes, you have to fight spawns for 8. Fair as far can be.



I would add an ability to kick offline teammates. Without it I think this is still worse than the old version. But it's a great improvement to what we have currently on live.

The VIP badge is what switched me from "eh I'll probably do this" to "omg I want." Right now the only other way to get VIP is from occasional ebay or amazon listings. Right now they have it up on Amazon for $80.

But I'm one of those rare pvp-badger hybrids.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately it's not a waivable rule as it stands now. That said, VR petitioned to make this rule waivable when it was discussed at the leader meeting, and would almost certainly support an initiative to change it to be waivable now.

[/ QUOTE ]

You mention a leader meeting? Was this just VR leaders or was this pvp sg leaders? If it was pvp sg leaders is there a way i can get the meeting notes?

[/ QUOTE ]

It was SG leaders. I don't think anyone took notes. What was agreed apon is in the first page of the PvP SG ladder post

[/ QUOTE ]

It was all SG leaders. We went through all the rules in the fall and added the ability to waive some rules, Ex posted the update October 18th but I don't remember the meeting date. At PCJL's request we had an all-SG leader meeting not too long ago to discuss adding a rule punishing groups that interfere with other officials (prompted by the raid invite incident).

I've always supported more/all waivable rules.

Unfortunately it's not a waivable rule as it stands now. That said, VR petitioned to make this rule waivable when it was discussed at the leader meeting, and would almost certainly support an initiative to change it to be waivable now.

@Ed-Wreck - Leader
@Ed-Wrecked - Leader
@W-D
@WD2
@Not Putzing - Leader
@Still Not Putzing - Leader
@Goldie1
@Goldie2
@Veronica Venom
@Mickey Slo2
@Fulc
@Cuch
@MF Fire Wire
@Payne Bringer
@Inspector 6
@Inspector 7
@Craggs
@Wastelands
@NRGFX
@Cyco Aura
@helly
@-helly
@helly-
@-Ajax
@El Ajax
@mac daddy b
@mac b
@macnificent b
@Labrynth
@Elite
@FooManChu
@hans
@-hans
@MA
@El Nino
@Spiked Gila
@Ethical Inquiry
@The Immortal

Congrats guys!

I'd say two weeks.

I think we don't punish teh emo drama kids by making them sit out.

[ QUOTE ]
This game CAN tell the difference between someone thats logged off and someone thats QUIT the tf.

Therefore a better solution to softloading is to set spawn size to team size including logged off.

If someone quits the TF spawn sizes should adjust because they are not coming back.

[/ QUOTE ]


This is a change I'd back. Ideally, you'd combine it with adding an ability to kick offline players from the TF. Sometimes people dc and don't come back.

This change would actually fix sotfloading, and make getting 8 recipes for a TF run by one or two considerably harder, while at the same time not hurting regular players who just want to run keep running TFs even if they lose a few.

[ QUOTE ]

Since rare recipes are given out for completion now, though, attitudes have shifted and about the only people who run task forces now are farmers on "speed" runs. It was genuinely hard to get on an "honest" task force because even those who wanted to work on them usually got recruited into the "speed" runs. The default had shifted to using exploits to finishing task forces.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm so sorry to hear you're having this dreadful problem, TonyV. Luckily, I found some advice that might be of use. It's such good advice you'll almost think you must've written it yourself!

[ QUOTE ]
find better teammates. I've done it, it's easy, and you can do it too.

[/ QUOTE ]

In the interest of actually testing out the changes, I ran a bunch of TFs this weekend, watched Victory Badges for stories, and talked to my friends about the TFs they were running.


The goal of the proposed fix should be:

1. Stop the practice of softloading
2. Stop a few people doing a TF for 8 rewards
3. Not hurt legitimate players who aren't doing either


As far as I could tell, this fix fails on all three counts.

I had friends softloading Posi for 3 and killing with 8. Yes, it's slightly less effective than softloading for 1, but it's still substantial softloading none the less, and doesn't fix the problem of unnatural gameplay, like telling people to log out for 3 minutes while you map.

I was able to duo Manti, Synapse, and Numina in 90 minutes each, and still have friends and second accounts log in at the end for the AV and 8 recipes. Players who didn't do the TF can still get the reward, you just need two people doing the TF rather than one. (Note that Numina felt entirely soloable, but I didn't test it.)

In Victory Badges I saw people trying to form a Shadow Shard TF, manage to get 7, be unable to find an 8th who could stay for the whole thing, and thus have to give up all together. I also heard of several TFs end in failure when players dropped out and the willing participants weren't able to deal with the mega spawn sizes. This change is having a substantial and unnecessary negative effect on legitimate players.

You can't make me