RemianenI

Super-Powered
  • Posts

    235
  • Joined

  1. RemianenI

    what is this?

    From what I've seen, the only temp power that really sells for a decent amount is the Phase Shift one. Everything else is 'meh' in comparison.

    But my brute has the bat, the hammer, and the revolver and man, that bat is fun. Makes her feel like Lil Mami (as opposed to Big Papi ).
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lemur Lad View Post
    I hate fading when I level up (with a passion), and I have a crafter that negates the cost of buying recipes. I didn't go into detail about how I get my IOs because I didn't have the time.

    Cost is relative when it's a game with simulated bits and bytes. It doesn't cost me much to do something I'd be spending time on anyway (selling what drops I get, crafting some things to sell them ready made).
    This is my view as well. My base has multiple bins for level ranges and I start slotting generic IOs at 7 and replace them outright every 5 levels, without exception. I don't generally move to sets until L30 (threat level 27) with only a few exceptions (i.e. fiery aura gets Karma:KB unique at the lowest possible level which is 7).

    I tend to stockpile my favored sets (Thunderstrike, Crushing Impact, etc) in two bins and keep multiple salvage bins for the various level ranges (only commons though. Uncommons and rares I buy with tickets)

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ignatz View Post
    I cannot dispute your experience. Lets just agree that either option is viable. One last little caveat....for the most part, players are the 'must get now' crowd. With that in mind, I still think my method is easier....not better...just easier.
    I make tall dollars...err inf off the 'must get now' folks. I love 'em!

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eek a Mouse View Post
    As far as set IOs, I will slot them as early as 15. A level 21 dual aspect IO has a total enhancement value greater than that of an SO. As long as I value both aspects, I'll slot a dual aspect IO at 18 and never have to worry about it again (although it will surely get replaced in the 30s-40s). Two level 21 DAM/ACC IOs are better than one Damage SO and one Accuracy SO, and can be slotted 4 levels earlier and never wear out. Obviosly this isn't optimal if one of the aspects of the IO is less useful (range, end, recharge on a toggle/auto).

    Similarly, a triple aspect IO at level 18 (slotted at 15) provides more benefit than an equivalent SO.
    I've started to frankenslot a lot after figuring the above out, especially with my doms (control sets are often less expensive than potting soil).

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eek a Mouse View Post
    +2 DOs are 18.33% (Schedule A)
    +3 DOs are 19.16% (that's level 20 DO on a level 17 character)

    Level 15 IOs are 19.20%
    Level 20 IOs are 25.6%

    That is, common IOs are ALWAYS better than equivalent DOs.
    Yep, saw that during I9 beta. Back then, I'd slot 15s at 12 and then not again until 22. Then I'd go to DA (was mainly blue side then) and farm the bejeezus out of BP for arcane salvage and sell it for big $$$. Now, years later, with inf even less of a concern, I made tons of IOs chasing after the Fabricator badge...then find out the bar had been lowered. I was halfway there, demmit!

    Anyhow, it's really going to depend on your individual financial situation. I start with generic IOs at 7 and turn 'em all over at 12, 17, and 22 then start loading up on sets at 27+.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Creole Ned View Post
    But I wonder how many people who play MMOs subscribe to more than one at a time? (I honestly do not know.)
    Including myself, I know of 70 people who do. I'm at the extreme end with 14 tops (usually just 8 with multiple accounts here, in EVE, and EQ1) and the other end of the spectrum are a couple families who play 3 games. Nowadays, people with multiple accounts in one game are probably far more common than folks with one account in several games.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ironblade View Post
    Well, many people are genuinely and truly stupid.
    You're just coming to this realization?

    You see this in every MMO, without exception. Folks go to try something new and the mouth breathers (some of whom have, sadly, procreated ) start talking about people being disloyal.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_HR View Post
    MMO wise. just 1 and always 1 (ignoring any overlaps)
    This is most likely the most common occurrence. I admit I am the most extreme of outliers.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by rpgguy View Post
    You have got to be kidding me..
    A queue system?!

    The european players are pledging for a server merge for months, ending up with less people on their servers each day, and ncsoft is just nicely implementing features on the american servers to deal with the load?

    This is getting so redicolous.
    Yes, I agree! The devs should, not now but right now, stop further development on this game and fix the European servers' issues.

    Not now.

    Right now.


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by UnSub View Post
    The server queues are being implemented ahead of CoH/V going into a single server with a full seamless world. The war walls are coming down, people.
    When you wish upon a star....

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Celestial_Lord View Post
    You've got to be kidding me. Server queues? Sorry, the moment I see that I'm queued to log on to a server for a game that I pay $30 a month for (two accounts), I'm gone. I have never played a MMOG with queued log ons, and I'm not about to start. And no, I don't play on Freedom, nor Virtue.
    I call bulls....shenanigans. You will do no such thing. No one who threatens on a message board to quit over a minor backend feature ever does so. You're a unique snowflake....just like all the others.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steele_Magnolia View Post
    Yes, the problem isn't the Double XP weekend. It isn't even the Reactivation Weekend. It's the lunacy of letting people on for free onto servers with a higher load than normal because of double xp.

    Have a free reactivation weekend that isn't double xp. End of major problem. The queue becomes a rarely needed tool.
    Um, Steele? The last double xp weekend was not a reactivation weekend. Should I link to all the posts where people commented on 'low turnout' and the like (not knowing why the turnout was lower)? Double XP weekend has to be paired with reactivation or you spoil the marketing potential of the event. Honestly, who cares if you (or I) play during a double xp weekend? You're already invested, you would've played with or without double xp. The beauty (and allure) of the event is the opportunity to win back those who might have stopped playing for whatever reason. Out of sight, out of mind is especially apropos for MMOs. How many people played UO and nowadays don't even know the game is still open? Or Meridian59 alums who don't know the game was re-opened a few years back? It's a means of keeping the game in front of people (since TV advertising seems like a dealbreaker for MMO publishers, save one).

    Yes, I know you know this. That was for the benefit of those who perhaps don't know the 'why' behind double xp and holiday events and/or don't know why the last double xp weekend wasn't as jam-packed as they had been previously (and thus automatically assumed 'the game is dieing[sic]' because they could actually log in to Freedom at 11am on Saturday morning).
  5. Well, I would consider myself a hardcore player in every and any MMO I play, past, present, or future. Whether you define it by number of hours played or focus, I sit on the extreme high end of the scale. Because I often play at work (at least doing the menial things like dailies and errands and such), that tends to bloat my ingame time. Because I'm doing the menial things that most people have to spend/waste actual playtime on, I can focus on the 'accomplishment' end of things with my actual real playtime.

    I'm just a hardcore MMO player. At any given time, I can be active in half a dozen or more MMOs at once. Right now, it's 8 (CoX (2 accts), lifetime in CO & LOTRO, WoW, EQ1 (6), EVE (4), Runes of Magic, Atlantica Online) and I'll add Aion (x2) and Fallen Earth in a couple weeks. The game's design will determine how I adapt my playstyle. For high-end/raid focused games (WoW, EQ1), that means multiple max level characters raiding constantly to stay way ahead of the gear curve. For PvP/sandbox type games (EVE, Ryzom), I find a niche and exploit it to the best of my ability (like marketeering, supplying pet corps of major alliances, etc).

    In CoX, until fairly recently, 50 represented 'the end' of a character for me. I don't tend to know how to deal with a character reaching the top and having little to nothing worth doing (in my view). As a result, after five years of play (with a few breaks - only 51 months paid on my primary account), I only have two 50s. But honestly, I don't sweat that too much. I'm more proud of my 85s in full Tower/80s in Algalon loot than my 50s here (means a bit more IMO).

    I think the actual profile of a casual player differs by game. Here it might be folks who don't play a whole lot (the 10 hrs a week sounds a bit extreme on the low side given weekend play patterns) and don't tend to become fixated on metagaming. They may enjoy one particular part of the game and concentrate their efforts on it (whether it be RP, the market, PvP, teaming, etc). I tend to see 'hardcore' players as having more broad interests if only because they can (due to more available time ingame). Most of my friends consider themselves casual players and their playstyles differ greatly from mine.

    I think to developers, casual players (and the casual playstyle) represent the bulk of the available gaming audience. Thus, they tailor their designs to appeal to that segment.
  6. I'm just curious about something. Frosticus, what MMOs have you played prior to this one? Specifically, what MMOs offer near-instant team opportunities at the drop of a hat, with no effort involved for "casual players". The definition typically thrown around for that segment of the playerbase leads me to believe that they're usually the ones who have to do more work to get teams than others (since their playtimes aren't really conducive to playing fast & loose. Pre-planning tends to be the order of the day).

    Also, your posts make me really miss the days when MMOs pretty much forced you to earn your way into certain areas. People congregated in certain places specifically because there were limits to who had access to those places. You had a pretty good idea that if a person was walking around in a particular zone, that meant they at least had a clue. If they were hunting in one (of four) other zones, they had to be part of a group with a particular playstyle that matched yours. I'll give you a very common reason people prefer lower population servers: Moron/idiot proportion. Fact in MMOs is, the more people on a server, the higher the number of idiots on the server will be. It's simple math. Even if only 10% of a server's population is a moron, 10% of 10,000 is far more than 10% of 5000, is it not? I don't know about anyone else but I encountered more morons in 2 days redside on Freedom (spamming broadcast with their inane chatter) than in two months redside on Infinity.

    But you know, none of that matters. The fact is, people will pay their subs and prefer to play on lower population servers. Even the one game that has had issues with server populations being too high, chooses to SPLIT servers and offer free transfers OFF high pop servers rather than just loading people onto them. A happy medium is probably the best approach, business wise. You don't want to shut out the people who aren't running state of the art rigs and you don't want entire servers of tumbleweed scenes. And nobody wants to play on the Guantanamo Bay server.

    As for your narrow 'MMO' definition, please. I've been playing these games for almost 15 years now. At no point did I desire a ton of people I care nothing about to be all in my face. I would seriously have loved to see you on a high pop server in a game where players have to directly compete for resources (like xp). Instancing alleviates that issue but common areas shouldn't be like a bazaar in Marrakesh.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by marc100 View Post
    I kind of like the speed of doing -1's but I wonder if I do it long term how much slower it will be to get me to 50.
    As said, it depends on the set.

    My brutes all run at -1, 4-7, no boss/AV from level 14 on nowadays. I have an SS/Fire at 26 who I'm trying -1, 8, no boss/AV and while slower, it's still a heckuva lot more xp per hour, even with mission completion bonuses factored in.

    I need to check my corrs and doms but I'm almost positive my scrappers will all be -1, 8.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frosticus View Post
    1-4 are just some dude's opinion. One shared by many I'm sure, just as I'm sure many would enjoy a more populated experience.
    I have a problem with this part.

    As it stands now, people who 'would enjoy a more populated experience' have available options to make that happen. Your proposed method of merging servers removes the options available to those who don't enjoy 'a more populated experience'. I also have to admit that reading your posts, I couldn't help but hum 'Imagine' since it's just about as pie in the sky as that song is.

    The problem is manhours. While you seem to think that the solution you thought of in a few minutes somehow means the folks who actually make the decisions must have better ones, it's one thing you haven't considered. Coming up with a feasible solution to merge servers isn't worth the manhour investment it would take to make it happen. Period. You can't market server mergers, unless you're moving to a serverless environment. EVE promotes theirs. Champions does too. But you can't say 'We're going to merge Pinnacle and Liberty. Send that to Marketing'. Those manhours could (and probably are) be invested in producing "stuff" that'll actually generate revenue somehow. Merging servers because some dude can't be arsed to start his own teams, isn't something a lot of people are going to pay for. I can't see too much positive buzz occurring because CoX announced it's merging low pop servers.

    Whether you want to admit it or not, the market (read: a lot more people than you) sees server merges by older games as a negative indicator. You're right in that if they wanted to or felt it would be advantageous, they could find a way to make mergers work within one fiscal quarter, I'd wager. But.....

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Captain_Photon View Post
    Actually, not vital at all, since servers do not need to be merged, which renders the whole thing moot.
    Yeah, that.
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Corebreach View Post
    In my experience, getting into a pickup group the old-fashioned, almost-effortless way became much harder back when AE was introduced in Issue 14. I16 has had no further noticeable effect.
    This is what I see to. In fact, it's almost a 'duh' type of thing. When true combat level means nothing with regard to assembling teams, you tend to have more available characters to choose from.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MissInformed View Post
    Finding a team is like dating. Stop acting like a fairy princess waiting for a prince to propose and go out and ask some people out yourself.
    MissInformed wins the thread!

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steel_Shaman View Post
    Sadly, though this is a highly reasonable and logical suggestion, it will most likely fall on deaf ears. So many people want to be invited to someone else's team, rather than make one of their own.
    Yeah, I've noticed the proactive people never have a problem forming teams and I16 made that even easier. Only the passive types will suffer now (as they should IMO). In my experience, across many MMOs since Meridian59 came out, the true 'team oriented' people assemble their own teams when the need arises. The passive 'can I join ur team plz' types go through cycles where people stop inviting folks they don't know (or can't vouch for) and then they complain about a lack of teaming when the truth is, it's only a lack of teaming with them (and people like them).

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Demoth View Post
    My observations as a newer player 'only played briefly back in 2004' is that this game after issue 16 is far more tedious for the new player. Even on Virtue, it's just mainly sewer groups until around 12 and then it's a lot of running around, pretty much begging for a group.
    I don't get this. People doing sewer teams til 12 are largely doing what they want to do. If you want a team to do what you want to do, there's an easy way to accomplish that.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Demoth View Post
    Vets already played around with alts, know the areas, have friends, ect. Changes like this do not effect them. New players, frustrated with CO and wanting something fast paced and fun would have more likely been hooked in like I was by the fast paced AE group dynamics.
    That ship has sailed (for good or ill). For the record, the vast majority of my ingame friends play on one server (Virtue). I play on Infinity (redside) and Victory in addition to Virtue. I have never had an issue teaming when I want to team. Not for boring scanner/newspaper teams, not for storyarcs, and not for TFs/SFs. The main problem I have is with short timers (those people who join a TF team knowing good and well they won't be able to see it to its conclusion, even after being told how long it'll typically take).

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Demoth View Post
    The fact is, this game does not have the population to facilitate a spread out player base. I really don't care, I also can make my own team and fill it with 8 almost anywhere because of the fact most people do not want to be responsible for organizing or take the blame for other idiots. I'm having fun exploiting other people's fears on that front, but I suspect the devs vision here is going to cost them a lot of subs.
    I don't think so. If anything, SSK and its ancillary features mean that literally anyone (of any level, of any AT, heck of any SIDE) can team together. That tends to mean 'spread out' no longer has meaning. So what if my friends are all in PI and I don't feel like playing my (50) blaster? I log in another character, join the team and voila! I'm getting rewards and enjoying teaming (with people I know, respect, and trust, no less!). The only thing separating people now is server architecture (and I wouldn't put it past them working on a way to 'fix' that, even).

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Demoth View Post
    Maybe a solution would be a more global channel for team requests and more access to TPs. Even on a low pop server, players will have better luck in the 20s in a zone like Thalos vs something like IP. A new player could end up hunting anywhere though and may never find a team for long periods. A channel that covers all zones within the character's level range and maybe a team TP inspiration could be added to the drop list to make getting teams at lower levels together easier.
    A new player that doesn't take the time to learn the interface and use the tools at his/her disposal is....well, I'll refrain from the ad hominem that comes to mind. Bottom line is, it's wrong to design a game to cater to the uninitiated. If a new player can't be arsed to even access the (admittedly clunky and less than ideal) teaming interfaces, the devs shouldn't worry about a solution that will keep that player paying. Why? Because that player is an...a likely candidate for Hello Kitty Online or FreeRealms or any of the myriad MMOs that exist for people (usually small children) who may not be adept at grasping what many might consider 'basic' concepts.

    What I can get behind is an auto-teaming feature. Something where a group leader can set a 'looking for more' type of setting with several parameters filled out so if a compatible player goes LFT, it becomes an auto-match. This would help the passive types with their perceived problem while also allowing existing teams to continue running without the typical 'pause to look for more' occurring. It would have its downsides (i.e. you couldn't vouch for the person's competence) but it could be win/win for those who seem to have trouble finding teams every single issue. And yes, this same 'problem' is stated every issue. In I9, people weren't teaming because they were busy farming salvage (so let's not advocate for a better system of loot distribution in teams, let's demonize those players who are perfectly willing to go out and get what they want themselves, accepting a lower xp reward in many cases). And in every issue since, the same recurring theme has been posted by someone because their passive style of teaming is impacted for a month or so.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Demoth View Post
    Either way, I'm still having fun but I suggest the devs keep a close eye on those sub numbers after the first month of incoming CO players expire.
    Yes, because we all know the MMO market is rapidly shrinking and there's never a lull in any bigger game in the months prior to an expansion release. If not for CO's players, this game would never grow, amirite?

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Drugfree Boy View Post
    uh? I have found as many PUGs after I16 as I used to find before I14, but I had a very hard time finding them during the reign of the AE farms.

    Now they are easy to find on the high population servers, on Infinity I could almost never find any PUGs, except low-level blue side
    I don't get this at all. The vast majority of my villains reside on Infinity (39 of the 43 of 'em). I have never (read that again, I mean it literally) had any issues putting together teams to do whatever it is I wanted to do. How are you defining 'teams'? To me, any group of 3 or more players (I say three because with my two accounts, I can duo at will so I don't count that) is a team. I don't wait to have 8 people before doing anything. 3 of us can run until we find a few more who fit what we're looking for. By that I mean, if you're a 'healer' (by your search comment or broadcast), I'm not inviting you. If you're a Corruptor or an MM, welcome aboard. Even with that admittedly staid and restricting bias, I can still put together teams at the drop of a hat. What makes that even more unusual is the fact that I don't even know what Infinity's global channel is, so I can't use that to draw from!

    Every issue has someone complaining about lack of teams. I thought this issue would be different since it obviously is as pro-teaming as you can get without forcing people via game mechanics (i.e. all defensive powers reduced 70%. Bosses & above all summon. Air Superiority has been changed to a 15% chance to knockdown a target). But no, still complaints that a passive teaming playstyle isn't viable.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by cyberdude View Post
    Hmm.....I was in the Ritikki War Zone most of the time......Also, what is this new SSK feature you talk about? I need to really do some catching up. Also, I noticed that server load before on Freedom was always yellow to full, now I noticed server load on all servers to be low.

    Also, what's new in the new patch?

    Personally, I am playing Champions online to check it out and still like COH better......
    Bit of advice. When 'taking a long break' from an MMO, while patching all the stuff you missed out on during your break, read through all the patch notes from the last time you played to the present. The reasons are twofold: first, it helps you get up to speed on what has been introduced to the game and what has happened while you were gone. Second, it clues you in to where people are congregating (or might be drawn to). A tertiary benefit is it keeps you from making posts amidst the game's most ardent followers, speculating on the demise of said game (especially if you attribute it to a vastly inferior competitor that is still refunding long term subscriptions sold prior to its launch). Also, a game heavily based on instancing will tend to have fewer people in open areas in the weeks following a new content release.

    As for whether CoH is dying, heh, EverQuest laps CoH in age. As does Ultima Online. Both still going. And unlike CoH, both of those games have in-genre competition worth mentioning. EVE is 6 years old...and still growing. It wasn't that long ago that a major MMO publisher felt this property was worth buying in its entirety and investing heavily into it. Given CoH's numbers (which don't even come close to the market leader), that must mean someone in Korea felt this game had staying power. No, CoH isn't 'dying'. Check back in 2014 though, the game might've caught a cold by then.

    TL: DR version: Just because people aren't congregating where you last remember them hanging out, does not reflect on the game's life or appeal. It just means you're behind the times.
  11. RemianenI

    Blind invite lol

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by thanos316 View Post
    I will send a PM asking if they want to help with mishes. If I don't get a response from them whithin a min, I will send a invite to team. Why? Because they may be on a trial account and can't comment back. I mean, besides being afk, anybody else would be polite enough to say yes or no to my PM.
    Unless they were, oh I dunno, looking at something that takes up the entire screen and thus didn't see your tell. Besides, it has nothing to do with politeness. If I'm futzing with a costume or SG details, I'm not going to stop what I'm doing and back up (perhaps losing the train of thought I had going) just because I hear a 'doo-doot' sound indicating a tell. No offense, but I'm busy and will get to you when I get to you. I often shut off invites (via the teaming menu or /lftset 128) but I can't expect everyone to do the same.

    I always find it funny when folks send blind invites....to people not accepting invites.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Harry_Canyon View Post
    or (as in my fiance's case) just upgraded their Aptiva running windows 95


    Friends don't let friends run abacus aged rigs. Does she play games on an Intellivision too? (Yes, I'm kidding)

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Harry_Canyon View Post
    Remember how daunting this world seemed to you when you first came in mask-first


    While I understand the sentiment, I think it might be a bit presumptuous to assume that everyone started CoH as their first game of this type. I only started because a guildmate from a game I had been playing for 5 years prior to CoH's release, raved about CoH beta and release, even though he was in danger of being booted from guild for raid skipping (and this wasn't a 'casual' type of player so this was very out of character for him). So I tried it and hoo boy! I outlasted him (he quit in the aftermath of the purple patch and smoke grenade nerf).

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Harry_Canyon View Post
    I know we are a great community, but I have seen a lot of elitism lately, and just wanted to remind those who have let it slip into their vernacular that we were all newbs once.
    Harry (if I may call you that), this is a 5 year old game. Elitism among some of the more vocal veterans is to be expected. In fact, I'd be worried if that wasn't the case. If it's not people talking about 'hell levels' or 'hunters on the frontier' or 'raiding MC before Onyxia' or heck, I recently heard a 'man, I remember when we had to kill Kael'thas to get into Black Temple...and he was HARD. Not like this casual [expletive] now'.

    Helping new players is awesome, but bringing in new players would be even better. The way I see several rather vocal vets here talk about the game on various other forums, you'd think this game gets destroyed with every issue. I14: The game is dieing[sic] due to MA farms. I15: The game is dieing[sic] due to MA exploits. I16: The game is dieing[sic] due to Aion/Champions/MA nerfs. Meanwhile coming here and posting as if the game is the picture of perfection. That's the main concern I have. Word of mouth can make a game (see EVE Online) and it can also break a game (off the top of my head: Shadowbane, Horizons/Istaria, SWG, arguably EQ1). Current players telling prospective newbies to stay away because 'the game is dieing[sic]' doesn't help IMO.

    I remember how the Pwnz badge mission allowed CoH to steal a subscriber from...that game that wouldn't miss him. Was duoing with a guy who was playing the free month (says he got the Architect Edition for 20 bucks). Problem was, he didn't think he'd be able to keep playing because he couldn't afford to pay for two monthly fees and he didn't want to miss out on 'the new lewtz' (several months ago, before Ulduar's release). So I happened to get the Pwns badge mission. We zoned into the mission and, having never seen the Freakshow office map (or probably Freaks at all since he hadn't been anywhere but AP, the Hollows, KR, and Steel Canyon), he was blown away. During the mission, he's freakin' out (pun intended) on the map and Freaks rezzing ("WTF he got back up!") and at the end of the mission, the decision was made. Then we did the Faultline arc and Nocturne almost whooped our ***** (horseshoes & hand grenades...only times when that matters). Those experiences are awesome!
  13. RemianenI

    Solo TF's

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Scientist View Post
    If you want to make even MORE friends and baffle people, use either;

    Base teleporter (vet power), or
    Pocket D teleporter (from one of the expansion packs), or
    Market teleporter (day job badge)

    after completing his spawn mission, Defeat Clockwork Lord and its Guards, and exit directly into Talos, where there are usually plenty of people hanging around to put the beatdown on Babbage.
    I did not know you could do that. Hand delivering Babbage would rock!

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zombie Man View Post
    Solo Task Force.

    Consider that phrase carefully. Who can tell me what's wrong?
    *shrug* I don't see anything wrong.

    Then again, I also don't see 'MMO' as meaning 'You must team with others at all times or not play at all'.

    Even prior to I16, Catwhoorg solo'd Positron (and most others, if I remember right) so this isn't a new thing. Might try it when I get bored.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Willowpaw View Post
    I have some helpful advice to anyone who is in charge of creating these filters, or to anyone who may one day be tasked with creating these filters.

    Please totally ignore the existence of Urban Dictionary. If you use Urban Dictionary as a reference for what words might be deemed offensive, then chances are, the majority of the English language (and probably several other languages as well) will end up being censored.
    Wish that were possible. If what you suggest actually happened, all of those words that were eventually added to the standard dictionary with pejorative definitions, would offend all those people looking for something to take offense to. Then the forums would be inflamed by them and their ilk and all the people trying to refute them (or belittle them).

    Broad brush is cheaper.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SlyGuyMcFly View Post
    .... Are there any words in American English that are not pejorative slang for black people?
    'Rich' comes to mind.
  15. My playstyle matches perfectly and always has.

    Ingame, I tend to stay to myself until such time as I meet folks I vibe well with ("People will judge you by the company you keep") and I'm the same way in real life. I'm a hyperactive achiever concerned with efficiency both ingame and in real life. However, that's by necessity since efficiency is important when you're always trying to fit 30 hours of activity into a 24 hour day. I'm no Adam Smith but I do have some expertise in finance (specifically offshore banking) so I do engage in market operations in MMOs I play. I'm a dabbler in real life (with businesses and interests in a variety of different industries) and in CoX, I have at least one of every AT (though scrappers, brutes, blasters, and tankers (in that order) dominate) over level 20. I also "dabble" in a wide variety of different MMOs (both pay to play, free to play, and combinations of both).

    I'm still very much a big kid but I'm not a hoarder. I'm a collector (as the arcade in my basement is testament to) which kinda explains why my main base is always in need of more salvage containers and enhancement tables. I work a lot, play a lot, and sleep rarely and often find it hard to stick to one character for long stretches of time (which can also be said for relationships - I get bored easily). I attribute that to being a prototypical free spirit Aquarian. Which is what I also attribute to the fact that every one of my characters, in every MMO I have ever played, has an extensive backstory written up (even if I've been unable to synopsize it to cut & paste ingame).

    Ingame, Mastermind would probably fit me best but I don't like the way the AT plays because it mirrors real life a bit too much for my liking. If I had to admit it, I love to fight (gunplay and all) but I've always been prevented from doing so much of the time ("We can't have you catching cases and doing bids. You're more valuable on the outside") so I gravitate to scrappers and brutes and, to a lesser extent, tankers.

    But yeah, I tend to go to extremes with everything. I work "too much", I play "too much", etc. The only thing that doesn't match is the fact that my girls are, well, girls and I'm not.
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by MsMisery View Post
    ok the person that pointed out that we are talking about the period immediately following dbl xp is correct and I have played cov long enough to expect the spike my statement was that this is not a normal spike and yes I had to buy pistons for 1 mill to complete a toon lucky for me I only needed 4 more but 4 mill for something I normally pay as suggested 5k or less for was painful and no I am not JOKING its not FUNNY
    Actually it is funny. And y'know what? Everyone else is too nice to let you have it square in the chops but I lack that level of restraint. You are the problem. Go look in the mirror. If there is a person in CoX responsible for high priced items, it is you and those like you.

    You come here and whine about people jacking up prices artificially and then admit to paying said inflated prices, which makes you a, say it with me now, hypocrite. You say one thing and do another. You whine about exorbitant prices, and then you pay those prices. Anything in the world is worth only what someone else is willing to pay for it. If you're willing to pay 1 mil for a hydraulic piston (and I don't give a flying flip how you justify it to yourself) then a hydraulic piston is worth 1 mil. Man, until now I've never been one to take advantage of folks and do something like that but now I feel like I've missed out. Luckily, I also lack compunction so I'm definitely going to have a rarely played alt put up some stuff at crazy high prices.

    You wanna stop high prices? Stop paying them. Or, barring that, stop coming here and whining about a "problem" you're contributing to. It's like a cokehead complaining about people selling drugs.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RagManX View Post
    No you didn't. You chose to buy pistons for 1M. You could have bid, say, 10,000 and logged out. Then in an hour or two, when you went back, you would have bought all 4 most likely. Certainly you would have them after an overnight wait. There - I just saved you 3,960,000 off your next purchase of salvage that is temporarily out of normal selling range.

    RagManX
    WTH? That's crazy talk! Hydraulic Pistons are worth 1 mil. Stop trying to kill my buzz, dammit!

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eran_ View Post
    But, then again, you can always stick your head in the sand, screaming out of the mouth you've left in the air "It's ALL THE EEBIL MARKETEERS FAULT!!?!?!!!!!!111!111!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!111"

    It's your game, and your $15/month. have fun.
    OMG, Eran_, where do I send the bill? I need a new keyboard, thanks to you. By the way, is that the mouth that emits the strange odors?
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ironblade View Post
    I'm curious, no story arcs that qualify on which characteristic? (juicy, content-driven or mostly soloable). I'm guessing the 'mostly soloable' part since you wrote "hah!" after that item.

    Since you say you solo 99% of the time, I would think you're playing a character suited to soloing, so why do you say the arcs are not soloable? There are ZERO arcs I have not been able to solo. (I've done every arc hero-side at least once.)
    You might be thinking wrong. Not everyone who prefers to solo does so with 'the bestest solo toon EVAR'. Since "best" seems to change every issue or with every change to powers, it could be Glazer is running a character that might have been considered a decent to good soloist when s/he created it but isn't so much now (controllers pre-APP nerf, as an example).

    Basically, I get the idea that the OP is referring to arcs that give you a tangible, useful reward upon completion. CoX doesn't have those. 'Welfare purple' has no meaning here and you're not going to get a LOTG recharge recipe for finishing Hardcase or Tina Chung's arcs. That's how I understood the original post.

    But I think Adeon_Heartwood's advice was totally on point.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Black_Marrow View Post
    AE XP. Nerf It. Hard.

    I used to form teams almost every day, using /search, sending out waves of messages for people to join, etc. But now... now even that doesnt work. This new generation of players has no clue how to play, some of them have never left Atlas Park. It was depressing to get a 5 man team together at level 28ish the other day and have someone leave because there wasnt a /kin on the team. We had a /Dark and a /Cold. Apparently that wasnt enough for him.
    Are you new? That exact same thing happened before AE. Jeez, have you never played a Dark/Dark Defender? Have you never had anyone say 'We need a healer' while you're on the team already? Those same morons existed prior to AE, prior to WW/BM, prior to, hell, when level 40 was the cap they existed.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Celestial_Lord View Post
    I feel the original poster's pain. I much prefer playing redside. I just find the ATs there much more enjoyable. However, good luck finding a team. Before the Mission Architect, finding teams was difficult, but doable. Now? Pfft. Before level 35, the only available teaming option is AE farms in Cap au Diable. After level 35, it's either ITF runs or AE farms in Cap au Diable.

    "Well, make your own team!"

    I tried, repeatedly. I spent quite a few of my evenings just standing around, searching, and asking anyone that shows up in my search window within five levels of my character that isn't already teamed if they'd be interested in teaming. Most of the times, I'd only find three to five people in one night that fit that criteria, and only once was anyone interested in doing non-AE farm missions.

    People said that the newness of the Mission Architect would wear off after a while and I'd be able to find teams again. I've waited four months, and I still am not finding anyone willing to team outside of AE farms.

    Sorry, but I'm done waiting and soloing. I already purchased a lifetime subscription to Champions Online. Just a few more weeks, and I'll be able to play with others again.
    Please begone. I too bought a lifetime sub to Champions. But I also re-upped both my accounts here for a year (and would've added two years if NCSoft allowed it. But they don't, which boggles the mind). Y'see, I've been playing these games long enough to know how they work. People said the same thing about Age of Conan....and Warhammer, hell, let's go back further, EQ2, DAoC, Anarchy Online. Y'know, I'm gonna use an old school acronym that most people here probably won't even recognize: GQLLFM. So yeah, when the 'new car smell' wears off of CO (like it did with AoC and WAR and AO and EQ2 and DAoC and...) and folks start filtering back to the game they prefer, tune up the whine time band and play that song on that game's message board.

    What's funny to me is, people play these games and verbally castigate people who prefer to play solo using that "it's a multiplayer game. You need to be social!". But it's often those same 'antisocial' types who seem to have zero trouble putting together teams whenever they feel like it. If your social network can't provide a team for you at your beck and call, that's a personal problem, I think.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Caestus View Post
    After seeing the replies, I can say this.

    I know how to create teams. I do it when necessary. Last night no one wanted to be on my team. I asked politely and either I got no answer or 'no'. Well, no, that's not entirely accurate -- I got one guy who said yes, but he left almost immediately for an AE team.

    The problem is not that I don't know how to start teams. It's that in Cap au Diable, on the Virtue Server at that time, there were no players willing to team with a measly 17th level brute.

    Is it that I should have gone back to Port Oakes and tried there?

    Maybe it was just that time of night. (11 PM CST)

    Or maybe something else.
    Hello, I play on Virtue too and have zero trouble putting together groups at any and all times of the day. I prefer to solo (because PUG are such a mixed bag) though I team with friends fairly frequently. However, I almost never try to team with my brute prior to level 20 or so. Those levels fly by too quickly and teaming often has me at level 22 with little inf due to the loot split in teams. No one's going to ensure my characters are "equipped" but me so that's a bad thing.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NeoSporin View Post
    Many are the ones on the boards who will say "I have no problem getting on, or making teams" but I wonder if the circumstances are the same. Aside from friends and SG mates, building teams, especially red side, has become much more difficult for someone who wants to run regular content. But, if what you want to do is PL in AE... building teams is much much easier. People beg to get on teams there.
    Sorry, I am probably THE most particular group leader in this game. I won't even send a tell to someone with a name I don't like (all lower case, period at the beginning or end, blatant copyright rip, etc). If I do invite and someone says (seriously) "We need a healer", I use the /kick button with extreme prejudice. Even with all that, I can put together a group of 4 with little trouble, doing regular content. If it's a low level team blueside (and a few times, even redside), I do the Nuclear in 90 arc Cavatina made and a few other non-farm AE missions. Like Snakebit mentioned, I'm not one of those people who thinks an 8 person team is the only viable team. In fact, many times, 8 person pickup teams can be a huge headache since you have no idea how competent all of your teammates are.

    Celestial_Lord, I've done the same thing in every MMO I've played since EverQuest in 99. I don't consider it 'work'. I consider it the best way to get the kind of team I want. It's the same as only recruiting groupmates from guilds of your raiding tier. If you're planning to run for 3 hours, you really don't want to invite the person who can only play uninterrupted for 30 minutes. Likewise, if I want a particular kind of team here, I put it together myself. I don't wait around expecting others to do it for me. Because of my experiences playing various powersets, I tend to look for those sets when I'm building a team (or even when I'm not). If I'm on my ice tanker, I look specifically for a force field defender because I know how people discriminate against that set ("OMG no healz?!?").

    I think the reason some people are unable to find teams is because they're either not using the tools available to them (notes, friends list, search, etc) or....well, other people are using the tools against them.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by MaestroMavius View Post
    Just never saw the appeal personally, then again I never played WOW. We need some kind of disclaimer on the box, letting all the blizzard refuges know, that this game doesn't start at the level cap.
    Bad idea. First, NC still gets paid off the box sale so dissuading someone from buying would be bad (from NC's perspective). Second, someone's bound to get offended by that disclaimer. Heck, people get offended by game specs ("That game sucks! The sys reqs are too high! My PC can't run it!" Yeah well, we can't have prettier visuals sticking to systems that your FX 5700 and 1 gig of RAM can handle) so basically putting a note on the tin saying "This is not the WoW you're looking for" would have a vocal contingent calling PS/NC "elitists" or some other ridiculous term.

    Oh, and WoW isn't the only game where "the game starts at the level cap". There were MMOs before that (EQ1, DAoC are two examples I can think of) that WoW got its basic philosophy from.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Blue_Wave View Post
    I find it much more playable than the American grinder, WoW.
    Blue Wave, no offense here but, do you actually know what a Korean grinder MMO is? Any idea? Comparing any Korean grind game to WoW basically tells me you don't. You can't typically go from 1 to max level in a month of casual play in a Korean grind game. Try it. You don't tend to have half a level's xp handed to you just for saying hello to someone in a Korean grind game. Go load up the Lineage 2 trial to see what a mild Korean grind is like.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eislor View Post
    If this hypothetical NCSoft Game Pass would not cover the cost of multiple CoX accounts that would piss off all those people with multiple accounts.

    Would you create another CoX account (or 2 or 3 or . . . ) if an NCSoft Game Pass covered multiple accounts of the same game?
    As a person with two CoX accounts (and four EVE accounts, and 31 EQ1 accounts, and...), it wouldn't piss me off at all. I have more than one account for a reason that has nothing to do with a possible Pass option. I don't know who you're talking to but they're probably the same people who want to be able to play two characters on the same account at the same time.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SlickRiptide View Post
    No it wouldn't. If you'll pardon me saying so, that's a rather silly idea, primarily because it's way too open-ended on the one hand, and it doesn't actually generate extra revenue on the other. In fact, it takes extra revenue away!

    The point of the Station Pass or any similar arrangement is that it encourages the players who would normally have a single subscription to go ahead and agree to send you more money than they otherwise would. The point for players is to get a variety of games that you ordinarily wouldn't experience, not to go wild and get a bunch of new accounts in your primary game for free. I've never met any EQ player who felt cheated that his Station Pass account only covered one of this six EQ accounts.
    I have significantly more than six accounts in EQ1 and for the four I did Station Pass on, I didn't feel the least bit slighted or wronged. A Pass is designed to allow one account in each game for the stated price. Not five accounts in the same game. Jeez, if that's the case, ask for a "Family Plan" or summat.
  22. I think it's a personal problem.

    I have had zero trouble assembling regular mission teams blueside (Victory, Virtue) or redside (Infinity, Virtue). Wait, I think that's the operative term: assembling. If you're passive, you get passive results. It's like standing in your living room expecting a billion dollars to rain down on you. The people who want a particular type of team, go out and get it (or make it themselves).

    But yeah, the Sahara will be a swamp with all the tears being shed here.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Netherine View Post
    Apparantly, even on the new forums we still can derail like pro's

    On topic, yeah I suspect there are players out there who are indeed just as picky. Some for example don't wish to team up with me because I'm not a "dedicated" healer when I play my d3. One time I had a strange request on my MM robotics/bubbles ... I could join if I only bubbled, but not waste time on my droids ... right ...
    Actually, this makes sense. If they're doing the 'centralize aggro on the tank/brute and AoE to your heart's content' strat, your bots run counter to that (knockback and burn/ignite patches). So inviting you to bubble is the same thing as inviting a defender or corruptor to buff/heal. There are many people who prefer to keep things as simple as possible. A "Oh look, the assault bot just blasted a mob into the next group/spawn. Incoming!" situation requires thought. Some people don't like that.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by AnotherDeadHero View Post
    The main reason for this is because a scrapper has greater survivability in Melee than the blaster does. So it is a trade off for the blaster, want to do that high damage? You may die.

    Plus, dont forget the scrapper attack has a chance to critical and do double damage, the blaster does not.
    This is a very good point.

    How often is your blaster going to be using Total Focus? Every few seconds, or once in a while? It's a similar reason why blasters don't get Energy Transfer (do you really want to give up HP as a squishy, for a melee attack?). Also, keep in mind that that power is also available to other studier ATs (Tanker, Brute, Stalker), ATs that earn their living using that kind of attack. Plus, stop isolating one power from a set and trying to compare it to another, completely different one. Most of Energy Manipulation (and Energy Melee) has disorient up the wazoo. Claws has very few secondary effects (-def in one power and knockdown/back in two others?).

    You're judging those two powers as if they exist in a vacuum. They do not. What level does a Scrapper first have Eviscerate available? 26. Now, what level does a Blaster first have Total Focus available? 38. What's the base recharge time on Eviscerate? 8.9 secs, roughly. What's the base recharge time on Total Focus for blasters? 20 seconds. So, in the time a blaster can do one Total Focus, a scrapper can do more than two Eviscerates (and the scrapper can crit with ALL of them). Why is this grapefruit not as sweet as this orange? I mean, they're the same thing, right?

    My point is, you're judging these powers on a 'damage per activation' basis. I won't say that's 'wrong' per se, but you'll find you're constantly finding disparities because that method is seriously flawed. In the numbers you posted in the OP, multiply the Eviscerate damage by 2.1 (being conservative) to account for the massive difference in recharge time. Eviscerate also animates faster so factor that in too (you're not doing anything else for the extra second you're jumping in the air). There have been many powers whose performance changed when their animations were redone/replaced (Storm Kick comes to mind. Swipe too, I believe?) so it does matter.
  25. Quote:
    Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
    Not automatically. It depends on the foes and the team. The reality is that teams who can push their peak XP/hour out to level 54 are probably not that common. I know some pretty good PLers/farmers, and they tended to use level 51 bosses.

    A small team or even a large team with no buffs or debuffs is probably going to do better facing lower-level foes. A large team with significant mitigation and damage multiplication is probably going to do best with high level foes.

    For "mythical average players," if you plotted XP rate versus foe level, you'd probably get something vaguely like a bell curve propped up on the left side - a graph that starts at some non-zero baseline, rises a bit, and then collapses rapidly, especially above +4. Foes get increased resistances to effects and increased damage output as levels increase over yours. These combine to give a very nonlinear fall off on the progress rate as levels increase. Eventually you're doing worse even though each foe may be worth more.

    "Superteams" can widen the hump in that curve, and/or shift it to higher levels. With enough mitigation going on, you can largely ignore the increased foe damage output. This leaves the increased foe resistances reducing your damage delivery, but this can be at least partially countered with damage multipliers. Even such teams though can only push the curve out so far - the "purple patch" accelerates rapidly above +4, and eventually no amount of buff we can achieve is going to be practically useful.

    The examples of teams given in this thread sound like people who heard about well-honed teams getting great XP on level 54 bosses and concluding that the level 54 mobs were the silver bullet. It's really nothing new, people have been making the same kinds of claims about 8-man teams and Invincible/Relentless missions as long as I can remember, citing that other people do it while sometimes failing to see that it's hammering their own reward rates.
    Yeah, all of the hardcore PLers/farmers that I know cite similar things. Two of them (RL couple) even have graphs and a Powerpoint presentation done to illustrate this in four games (here, EQ1, EQ2, and WoW), comparing and contrasting. When I was designing my personal mission, they gave me a lot of recommendations to make it lucrative xp wise, while still adhering to the story I was putting together. The key thing to remember is that, due to the ticket cap, completion is more important now. You'll hit the ticket cap fairly quickly (not even halfway through most boss missions) so scaling down so that more of the mission is completed before actually doing the primary objective, garners you more xp and tickets (from the end of mission bonus). Lower level bosses make the mission more widely accessible (in other words, even non-optimal teams can do it) while still maintaining challenge level.

    Also, familiarity factors in HUGE. People who have played together alot (even in other games), tend to perform better than those simply trying to familiarize themselves with others' playstyles.