Quinch

2: Talking to the detective yields you a new story contact, if available. I wouldn't mind having the runaround removed, but only if the new contact mechanic remains.

3: Pick a mission at random. Then abandon it. That will repopulate the radio list.

When paid-for-VIP powersets started coming out, I decided that, if my monthly vreem stipend wasn't enough to buy them, I'd cancel my subscription and never come back. This, fortunately, hasn't and doesn't look to be the case, and I generally come out a bit ahead each month anyway.

That said, while I've had time to accumulate the paid powersets as they came out, I can see how this would be an issue from the perspective of a new player. The projected message of being a Very Important Player is undercut by the fact that, at the start, their options are still limited. What if they want to create characters with various paid-for powersets? They'll either have to pay extra off the bat, or wait each month enough points to buy them and the prospect of that, if I were just coming to the game, would leave a pretty bitter taste in my mouth.

/signed

We have /cmdlist, /wdwlist and /optionlist and probably a few others too - so /emotelist would be nice for a quick reference.

"Come work at Paragon Studios
We have the most spacious toilets in the industry"

I'll only support thrown weapons if I get to do this.

Preferably with axes.

KB2KD conversion.

I'm annoyed that we need an event random drop IO for it to begin with - having it as a set bonus would help, I guess.

Random thought - so far people can buy monthly and multi-monthly subscriptions, and that works well enough for most of us. Others, such as freem and preem players, probably don't fire the game up very often, and thus consider a running subscription a cost-effective thing.

So, how about selling daily subscriptions? For, say, a dollar, a player has VIP access to the game for twenty-four hours. Since that amounts to twice the cost of a single monthly subscription, it might not take away from the income CoH gets from normal subscribers while still opening up an approach for intermittent players who want to play the full game once in a while.

Thoughts?

..encore.

Can someone please replace the forum software? I'll even help you burn it down if I get to dance around its corpse.

Anyway, relating to the topic in my signature, is there a page that explains, in detail, the exact mechanics of turnstile teaming?

Specifically, when does the turnstile kick in? For example, I've had DFBs start with four people, but also with eight - and in the latter case, I am certain there weren't seven other pre-queued players before I, too, joined.

Second, what about the "join events in progress" option? In one case I was sent to an empty, half-cleared instance. Another time I instructed another player how to queue himself with that option enabled, yet he never received a prompt to join our existing four-man team, nor anyone else's.

And finally, DFB-unrelated, is it possible to queue for unlockable TFs, such as Cavern or Hess, if the player doesn't have it unlocked, but another queued player does?

Now that I have your attention...

This is not about DFB in general. It's a great way to knock out the first few levels.

It's not about people grinding it up to some arbitrary level. What you do with your characters is none of anybody's business.

It is, in fact, about how to make sewer trials easier.

What most people know, but not quite register, is that Death From Below trial is that DFB is a turnstile trial. That means that, while most who start DFB runs do so by pre-assembling a team and then queueing, whereas those looking for a trial ask or wait for announcements to be made, at which point they contact the leader.

Now consider the role of the leader once the trial is underway. It becomes, to all intents and purposes, superfluous. Certainly, there is always room for leadership, but it ceases to be enforceable and so far I haven't seen a situation where enforcement is needed. As with all trials, the team composition is locked, and mission is fixed - all the team leader can do is kick a teammate should the need arise, and that too can be done via kick voting.

Consider the team composition. Whereas most task forces do require a certain versatility {leading to turnstile's rather... anemic reception following incarnate trials}, low levels are an almost universal equalizer - with nearly no powers at their disposal, there is very little difference between most archetypes at the outset.

Now, in turn, consider the turnstile mechanics. All it requires of its participants is to queue themselves for the trial. All it requires of the trial is a critical mass of queued participants. Once these two requirements are fulfilled, all the participants are whisked away into the trial and can merrily go on their way.

It bypasses the need to organize a team - the game does that for you. It bypasses the need to assemble everyone into the same zone, or for that matter, the same instance - it works anywhere, even inside a mission. In short, it provides a degree of convenience with no cost involved.

So the next time you're forming a DFB - or looking for one - don't tell people to send you a tell {if they can}. Instead, tell them to queue up. I have little doubt this will not be an overnight change to the DFB teaming mechanics, but as more and more people begin using the queue to join the trial, the quicker and more convenient it will become to the point where forming DFB teams will become as quaint and outdated as the old sewers themselves.