Red_Raccoon

I suspect the mechanic behind calculating the total hours on a character can be a bit buggy at times. Most of the time I check the total hours on a given toon it looks correct, but there have been times when I've gotten a result that's been way off (like hundred of hours on a lowbie I've hardly played at all).

If you really have 9,334 hours logged onto one character in just 2 years and 3 months of real time, that means you've spent an average of about 11-12 a day logged on to that one character over that span of time. Somehow I'm guessing that's not correct.

I've run a lot of newspaper missions but have never encountered a mission like this. What enemy group was named in the mission description, if any? Did the turrets at all fit with the mission description or the dialogue?

Funny things happen with newspaper/radio missions when a patch occurs between when you accept the misson and when you run it. Often one enemy group getting switched to another happens. Was this possibly the case here?

I'm pretty sure they're saying "Purple Monkey Dishwasher."

Unfortunately I had to log out last night before I got any help with this issue. I saw upon logging in today that there's an announcement about the bug and that they're working on it. I figured I'd quit the strike force and try again after they fix it. However, abandoning the arc doesn't look to be a choice, unless I'm missing something. Fortunately, this time I was able to get a GM to auto complete the mission for me, so I can now move on.

However, I have to ask: is there really no way to quit a SSA once you've started it? Or is that a bug too?

I'm experiencing this same problem myself, in fact I came to boards to ask what I was missing in trying to complete this mission and then saw this thread. Looks like I will have to file a petition as well.

Once I learned how to generate all the inf I needed via the market, it became my practice to always kit out every character with the best possible enchancements as soon as they become available. At level 12, I fill every slot with level 15 DOs. At 17 they they all get replaced with level 20 DOs. At level 22, each characer is completely decked out with SOs. Then I start replacing those with IOs. Etc etc.

I admit I find it hard to imagine playing a character that doesn't have a full set of DOs after level 12 or a full set of SOs/IOs after level 22. I haven't had to do so in a long time. I'm spoiled.

But this wasn't always the case. There have been a few times that I've logged on to a lowbie that I haven't played since my first few months of subscription--characters I haven't played since before I knew how to earn from the market or even knew how to slot efficiently--and I've been amused to see things like level 18 characters with lots of TOs, or level 27 characters rocking plenty of DOs (even quite a few empty slots or slots with outleveled enchancements)

The thing is, I remember having fun playing those characters. It didn't matter that I didn't have the best possible enchancements. Sure, the game was harder then and I died more. But what game isn't more difficult when you're new than when you're more experienced?

For a vet that goes freebie, the downgrading of enchancements will likely be a bit of a shock. But new freebie players won't know the difference. They won't know that their playing experience is supposed to be "horrid" just because a mission which is a breeze to us vets may be a little challenging to them (many may actually enjoy the challenge). So I'm not too worried about the newbies playing on their free accounts. If I enjoyed the game in my early days with no huge bankroll of inf and a stable of mostly crappy enchancements, I'm sure they can too.

As for not wanting to spend any money on the game, I can certainly appreciate waiting until a player is sure that he/she actually likes playing. But for anyone who decides to stick around, the experience will be very limited unless you are willing to buy something at some point. That's deliberate. NCsoft doesn't want people playing completely for free--they make zero money from that. Think of a totally free account as an extended trial. You CAN keep the trial going forever if you really want to, but NCsoft is hoping you won't. Eventually they want free players to either subscribe or at least engage in a few market transactions from time to time. It was never their intention, nor their promise, to give players a full gaming experience for absolutely nothing.

I've noticed that the contact you talk to to access the portal does not appear on the map as a contact (at least not after the first time you talk to them) but the portal itself is marked with a red dot. It took me forever to figure this out when I was trying to get back to First Ward from Cap.

I've been having the map problem too--a zone map will appear mostly uncovered to a character who's never been there before, or else the map will appear mostly fogged out to a character that's been all over the zone already.

I haven't noticed any other anomolies.

I thought the First Ward story arcs were great.

They never promised that First Ward would offer moral choices or branching story arcs, and I never assumed those options would be there, so I wasn't disappointed to not find them.

Did I feel that some of the things my character had to do in these story arcs were out of character? Sure, but I feel that way about a lot of story arcs in the game. I think that's unavoidable unless they implement a system of choice-making far more advanced than anything we've seen so far in this game.