Rodion

[ QUOTE ]
Also, in realistic play, focused accuracy was almost a requirement against Cimerorans and Nemesis mobs.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a little late to the party here, but I just can't let this go by. If you need Focused Accuracy to fight Nemesis you're doing it wrong.

Like many enemy groups, you need to understand the function of each of its members. By taking out Nemesis in the proper order you can drastically reduce or completely eliminate the Vengeance problem.

In particular, you need to defeat the Nemesis lieutenants last. If their snipers are giving you trouble, hold or otherwise disable them but don't defeat them. Then whittle down their hit points all at the same time, rather than killing one after the other.

Yeah, that means actually paying attention to what you're doing, and not just madly destroying everything in your path. This is especially easy for Fire tanks, who can have three or four AoEs that can whittle down all the LTs at once.

If you're careful, you can often defeat all the LTs with one final AoE, leaving no one to receive the benefits of stacked Vengeance.

Anyway, the typical worst case result is one minion that no one can hit. It can't hurt anyone, so this is usually just an annoyance rather than any serious danger. And if nearby unengaged groups got the stacked Vengeance, just wait until it goes away.

You can't demand changes to the way powers work because you're not using the correct tactics. It's like demanding that all characters get Knockback protection because sorcerers have Hurricane and they keep healing and knocking everyone back. It's like Shakespeare said: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the sorcerers."

Objective Feedback: The Baby New Year mission allows for the following exploit: Level 50 character teams with a bunch of level 10 characters. Level 10 character gets the mission. Level 50 character stomps through the mission in two minutes. Ding: everyone has 5 candy canes.

Subjective Feedback: I saw this exploit done with a brand-new player with a level 10 character. The level 50 player was exasperated because the newbie kept trying to do something. This sort of thing isn't particularly good for the game.

I think it really calls into question the way experience and rewards are granted in general. Characters who stand by the entrance of a mission and do nothing should get no rewards. Perhaps characters who don't use their powers and never become potential targets for aggro (relative to other members of the team) should be treated as if they haven't been on the mission long enough to receive a reward. The devs should be able to figure out some way of detecting sandbaggers.

This is a general change that should apply to all missions.

[ QUOTE ]
My second concern is something I touched on already, the cost of slotting an entire character's build. By level 50, a character has 94 slots to fill. Some of those slots can be left empty, in powers like Rest or Brawl, but the vast majority will require enhancements. Presuming a player wished to use invention sets for everything except Sprint, Rest and Brawl, that leaves 91 slots to fill. The "cheapest" recipes are 50 merits, so if a player decides to use "cheap" set IOs in every slot, that player will require 4550 merits.

4550 merits to fully slot a character. One build on that character.

[/ QUOTE ]

Merits are not intended to be used to outfit a character. Random recipe drops and the market should be used to fill the vast majority of your slots, just as they were before merits were introduced.

The question is: does the merit system put reasonable rewards within the reach of average players while keeping the game fun? I don't think so: I think the rewards come far too slowly and painfully to give the average player a sense that they're worth it. Here's some analysis.

Really, the only thing merits are needed for is purchasing recipes that dropped from TFs and Trials. That means a maximum of two recipes out of each rare set. If your character doesn't slot any rare sets, then your merits will all be gravy and can be used to slot some of the pricey uncommons.

My guess is that the average sophisticated player slots a few rare sets, say, 2-5, which means you'll probably need between 2-10 of the Pool C and D recipes, which means you'll need between 450 and 2500 merits.

If you need more than that, you're probably a voracious power gamer and you're probably going to be slotting several purple sets as well (which you don't need merits for). Which means you're probably running tons of TFs or farming constantly. We don't need to worry about that end of the spectrum; they'll do whatever it takes to get what they need.

If you use 2-5 of the Pool C and D recipes per character, so that means you'll need between 500 and 1000 merits. That means running Positron 10-20 times, or 100-200 regular arcs.

With the current setup, it's basically impossible to run regular arcs on teams and get merits. That means that you either solo your arcs, or you have to do TFs or Ouroboros missions for merits (which means not earning experience, for the most part). That means that you have to decide up-front that it's about merits. That means you're more likely to want to just crank through the missions as fast as possible. That means it all becomes a grind.

The problem with the merit reward system is that it's static. It pays no heed to what is actually happening, and doesn't actually reward meritorious behavior on the part of characters. You can have one character ghost TFs and Ouroboros missions and have everyone else sit at the door and everyone earns the same number of merits.

You should only get rewards if you take some risk. That is, you should only get merits (and experience and influence!) if you DO something. (This is a tricky decision because of buffers and debuffers, but it seems to me that if you're doing something that gets you checked for attracting aggro -- and that includes healing and just standing close enough to mobs -- you're at least staying with the group and risking getting attacked.)

If the devs can figure out how to make this judgment in TFs and reward merits based on meritorious behavior, then they can make that same judgment in regular missions, and give character merits for regular missions without having to run your own arcs. I'm fine with having those rewards be lower than for TFs.

But you have to make the rewards seem more achievable. If the Merit Mountain is so high you can't possibly see the top, you'll stop trying to climb it. And quit the game.

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, and lets teach contacts to always give their arc in order and make it easier for anyone on the team to "step into" a contact with an eligible teamate so that they can get the merits to. This is an MMO, not solo-for-profit.

[/ QUOTE ]

This would be good, but it still suffers from the problem that different players can be at different points in the arc.

I'd like to suggest that any player with a fresh contact be able to start that arc as a TF. It would be essentially the same as running an Ouroboros TF, only you don't need access to Ouroboros or a base with the crystal. The option to start a TF would appear for the contact only if you are the leader and you haven't done any of the missions.

While it's true you can use Ouroboros to do this, you have to be at least level 25. It also means that the person taking the mission can't get any experience.

Subjective: The pathing changes are great. The changes allow you to make much more interesting bases, and to pack many more items into each room of a base by making multilevel bases.

A friend in my supergroup has completely redone the base and made a lot of cool new rooms. By stacking floor safes he has managed to make an impressive array of innovative designs.

However, when I tried doing this myself in another base on another server I quickly abandoned the attempt. I simply don't have the patience to fiddle with stacking desks and safes and the finicky behavior of the placement of items.

Example: I tried to place four teleport beacons on the wall behind the arcane teleporters. Using the design on the wall as a guide I tried to put the beacons at the same height (after moving the teleporters away from the wall). Grouping them two by two, I was unable to get all four to place at the same height. The selection box would turn red for no apparent reason. I could get each pair of adjacent beacons to place at the same height, but not all four.

Objective: There should be a simple command to set the height of objects directly. Attempting to stack items on one another is haphazard and extremely time-consuming. A key that moves the object up and down, or a slider control that appears in the info dialog for the item, would be fine. A command to make the object "sit" on the objects below it would also be convenient, but not essential. Eyeballing the height is a lot simpler than trying to stack various desks and safes on each other.

A wider variety of sizes of generic "building block" objects would be very useful. Floor and wall sections would be very helpful for building smaller rooms inside the big areas bases provide. A set of combinable staircases would also be nice -- the existing four- or five-step stairways don't line up very well when combined to make a longer staircase.

It would also be nice to have doors in some wall sections that you can click to pass through. A secure door (requiring a SG permission to be set for your SG rank for you to pass through) would be very cool, and would essentially give us two-level permissions for storage objects by allowing physical access to be limited. This would let supergroups be more generous to new players to putting items anyone can take in storage devices in the unsecured areas. Personal items for long-time members could be stored in rooms whose access is restricted.

If secure doors are allowed in raidable base they would be destructible.

Looking at all the really great things that people have made in bases in I13 with the new pathing rules, it's obvious that the base editor needs the following:

1) An easy way to directly set the height of an object without having to stack it on top of something else.

2) A set of basic "building blocks" that you can use to make other things out of. In particular:

* A variety of wall sections that resemble the wall styles that already exist.

* A variety of floor sections that resemble the floor styles that already exist.

* Stair segments that can be easily combined with other stair segments.

3) A more complex type of object based on the above that can itself be resized. For example, instead of having to make 10 different wall segments of the same style but of varying heights and lengths, make one basic wall segment that can be increased size in any direction. This isn't stretching per se because the texture on the object would be replicated over the increased size rather than stretched. That is, if a basic arcane wall segment had a pattern of 40 bricks, doubling the length would result in 80 bricks of the same size, rather than 40 bricks that were stretched out.

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to remind players that only a handful of tasks in the game had their rewards reduced, however the majority of tasks in the game have had their rewards significantly increased and that now story arcs give players a chance at earning rewards that might otherwise be unattainable.

[/ QUOTE ]

While this is true, it may discourage teaming for most arcs. Many players will want to solo their arcs to get merits.

For some arcs (those in Faultline and Croatoa) players on a team can all start working with a contact at the same time and get the same missions in the same sequence. This is good for teaming and getting merits.

For the majority of arcs, however, the missions are doled out in random order. The contacts also seem to include non-arc missions depending on your level. This makes it effectively impossible to run the arc simultaneously for multiple players on the team.

It would therefore be very nice if there were some mechanism for characters to get the missions in the same order to allow synchronized completion.

Ouroboros does provide a mechanism to do this, but is has problems: You have to be level 25 to get there, and one of the characters has to be above the level range and will not get any experience for the missions.

There are probably a lot of solutions to this, but here's a possibility that could fit into the existing system fairly well.

If you're the team leader and you haven't done any of the missions for a contact yet, there'll be another option with the contact that starts the arc as a TF (essentially be the same as running the mission out of Ouroboros, but without any flashback).

It would follow all the same rules as running any Ouroboros arc, except that if you're at the max level or lower you'd get experience just as you would for any TF you do when you're in the level range.

You get merits for running it this way because the team is dedicated to the task like any TF. Once the team leader completes the arc this way they're done with the contact, as normal. If you abandon the arc you'd be set back to the beginning -- it wouldn't remember which missions you did in the arc. You could then either restart the arc as a TF, or as a normal set of missions.

Has the drop rate for Invention Salvage been increased to account for the base salvage that is no longer being dropped (but will be used to make base items)?

I'm glad to hear that the merit system will evolve over time.

Are you looking at rewarding merits based on actual time and difficulty, rather than estimated time? That is, if you run a Katie Hannon TF by skipping over most of the content and completing the mission in 20 minutes you would get 4 merits, but if you actually did everything that the designers intended and took 2 hours you would get 24.

This would relieve you of the repetitive task of datamining and reseting merit rewards based on averages. It would also let you automatically apply rewards to future content such as arcs from the Mission Architect.

Also, are you considering checking that team members actually contribute to the mission to qualify for merits? For example, in the Katie Hannon TF there are two missions in which a few team members can do everything while the rest of the team sits at the entry point.

If you could implement the second check, you could also use that same logic to eliminate the scourge of PLing by awarding no experience for non-contributing team members (of course, the logic would have to count buffing and healing team members as activity, in addition to attacks and debuffs on enemies).

In the article Matt said:

[ QUOTE ]
At the same time we’ve added some sets that are tailor made for Tier 9 “Nuke” powers like Inferno, Blizzard, Thunderous Blast, etc. These Nuke IO sets do away with Endurance discounts (since these powers tend to use 100% of your Endurance anyway), and add in a bunch of Recharge bonuses instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can find the new PBAoE Damage sets for this (Eradication and Obliteration), which can be used for Inferno. But I can't find any new sets for Targeted AoE Damage. The only ones listed are the same old ones: Air Burst, Detonation, Positron's Blast and Ragnarok.

Is something still to come, or is this an oversight?

Question: does the double experience from being logged out work the same was as the double XP from Double XP weekend? Does it double experience, influence and prestige?

What does it do for level 50 characters?

In the interview it says base salvage is going away, but that it can be converted to Invention Salvage. That brings up a few questions:

How exactly does the conversion work? What are some examples of how a particular piece of base salvage will be converted?

Will the drop rates of invention salvage be increased to reflect this change? I.e., if there's a x% chance of a base salvage drop and and y% chance of invention salvage on the defeat of a mob, does that mean there will now be an (x+y)% chance of invention salvage drop?

Will invention salvage be storeable in the salvage racks in bases?

Depending on the details, this could have a huge effect on the prices in the market. If we can convert all that base salvage that's been collecting dust for years into rare invention salvage, that could be very helpful for some players.

This, plus the ability to get merits from regular story arcs will put a lot of those rare items into the reach of players who don't have the time or inclination to endlessly farm those same old missions.

[ QUOTE ]
There are a few of us that just want to PLAY the game and not neccessarily make missions.

[/ QUOTE ]

Once the fan base starts making missions you will have many new missions to choose from. If you're interested in lots of content, you should be rooting for this feature, not denigrating it.

You have to remember how long it takes to make new content -- even in a sizable release a player can crank through the new missions in just a few hours. While a lot of the player-made missions will be cookie-cutter copies of existing missions, I'm sure that certain resourceful individuals will be able to coax very interesting missions out of the system.

Here's the build and sets I use for my Rad/Kin. It's something that you can reasonably obtain without spending hundreds of hours farming for ultra-rares.

I had a hard time deciding between Aim and Assault. I finally decided on Assault because of the Placate resistance and it gives 15% damage boost all the time. Aim gives 45% for 10 seconds every minute or so. I don't rely on Atomic Blast all that much, so the burst damage and accuracy are less important. Just made 49, so I may well respec into Aim if I need the burst damage.

I didn't go for Power Sink because Transference is so much better. Transference can drain LTs in one shot most of the time, and bosses in just one or two. Combined with Transfusion you can almost completely shut a boss down while you whittle him away. It's true that PS is an AoE and is therefore not quite the same, but it doesn't recharge fast enough to keep mobs drained long (they're long dead by the time it recharges), and the -recovery is only 4 seconds.

I went for the pet just to see how it worked; I am favorably impressed. It attracts a lot of aggro.

I also love Electric Shackles. Every squishy needs at least one if not two holds or stuns.

Though many don't like Increase Density, it's a great place to put Steadfast: KB protection, which may be cheaper than Karma: KB pro because of the lower demand (many squishies can't get any kind of Dmg Resist until level 44).

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.40
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Ilyich: Level 50 Science Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: X-Ray Beam -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:39(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:39(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:39(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:39(9), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:39(17), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:39(19)
Level 1: Transfusion -- Dct'dW-Heal:39(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:39(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:39(7), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg:39(13), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:39(23), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc:39(27)
Level 2: Neutrino Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:39(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:39(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:39(7), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:39(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:39(19), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:39(21)
Level 4: Irradiate -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:39(A), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:39(15), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:39(15), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:39(17), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:39(21), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:39(37)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:40(A), RechRdx-I:40(9), RechRdx-I:40(11)
Level 8: Siphon Power -- Acc-I:40(A), Acc-I:40(13)
Level 10: Siphon Speed -- Acc-I:40(A), Acc-I:40(25)
Level 12: Hover -- Flight-I:40(A)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I:40(A)
Level 16: Swift -- Run-I:40(A)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I:40(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:40(A), EndMod-I:40(25), EndMod-I:40(27)
Level 22: Electron Haze -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg:39(A), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:39(23), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx:39(33), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:39(33), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng:39(34), AirB'st-Acc/Dmg:39(37)
Level 24: Increase Density -- S'fstPrt-ResKB:19(A)
Level 26: Speed Boost -- EndMod-I:40(A)
Level 28: Cosmic Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:39(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:39(29), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:39(29), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:39(31), Rope-Acc/Stun/Rchg:39(31), Rope-Acc/Stun:39(31)
Level 30: Neutron Bomb -- Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:39(A), AirB'st-Acc/Dmg:39(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg:41(34), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:39(34), Posi-Dmg/Rng:39(36), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:41(37)
Level 32: Atomic Blast -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:39(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:39(40), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:39(43), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:39(43), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:39(43), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:41(50)
Level 35: Transference -- Efficacy-EndMod/Acc:38(A), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg:38(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:38(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg:30(46), Efficacy-EndMod:39(46)
Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc-I:40(A), Acc-I:40(39), Acc-I:40(39), RechRdx-I:40(39), RechRdx-I:40(40), RechRdx-I:40(40)
Level 41: Charged Armor -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:39(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:39(42), TtmC'tng-EndRdx:39(42), TtmC'tng-ResDam:39(42)
Level 44: Electric Shackles -- EoCur-Acc/Rchg:39(A), EoCur-EndRdx/Hold:39(45), EoCur-Hold/Rng:39(45), EoCur-Acc/Hold:39(45), EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg:39(46)
Level 47: Summon Adept -- BldM'dt-Acc:49(A), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg:50(48), BldM'dt-Dmg:50(48), RechRdx-I:50(48), RechRdx-I:50(50)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I:50(A), EndRdx-I:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge



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Thank you! This is very much appreciated and is a far better implementation than I had dared hope for. The fact that it will be in Issue 12 makes it even better.

This will undoubtedly cause an outcry for getting Issue 12 out as fast as possible; please don't succumb to these pressures. I would much rather have everything in the release and working well the first time around.

[ QUOTE ]

The mission door thing... that's just so awesome, especially for the lower level players without even a safeguard mission travel power.


[/ QUOTE ]

Anyone who can get into the Hollows (level 5 required) can get the Safeguard Mission travel power.

Which makes me wonder: why do I see so many characters from level 5-13 hoofing it everywhere? As soon as I hit level 5 I'm in KR on a radio mission.

Is the safeguard Mission too hard? I don't think so -- the hero mission is pretty easy to solo, especially if you take it and then go up a level before doing it.

Do people not know about the travel power reward, and therefore not do the mission?

Or do people just like running all over the place, getting stomped by roving bands of criminals, unable to get over the wall in Perez Park?

[ QUOTE ]
Also, if you have no free character slots on a server, you will need to make room before you can transfer there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is there a technical reason why additional character slots cannot be added per server? I understand that there needs to be some kind of limit (to prevent name camping and general resource issues).

But after three years I'm filling up all 12 of my character slots on my main server with level 50 characters. Forcing me to another server isn't really quite fair, because then I have to abandon the Supergroup Base that I spent so much time on, and all the people I've played with.

Forcing me to get another account isn't right either, because I won't get Veteran rewards on a second account.

Finally, forcing me to delete a character, or paying to copy a character to a third server to free up a slot and then paying again to make the transfer I really want is a shabby way to treat users who have playing and paying for the game for three years.

Here are some suggestions, in descending order of preference:
<ul type="square">[*]Once a character hits 50 on a server you should get an additional character slot on that server. There are probably technical issues involved that would make this non-trivial to implement.
[*]Additional character slots should be added as Veteran rewards across all servers. E.g., after each year you get two more character slots. Seeing as account information is already accessed to decide whether you should have 8 or 12 character slots, this should be pretty straightforward.
[*]Additional character slots (across all servers) would be available for purchase for a one-time fee of, say, $10. Like the previous one, this should be relatively straightforward.
[*]Institute a character swap. When you specify a transfer, optionally specify a character on the destination server to exchange with. The source character will be moved to the destination server and the swapped character will be moved to the source server.[/list]While it is true you are adding new content all the time, it takes you much longer to develop that content than it does for us to play through it. You've also added new powersets -- and will add even more, it seems, in the relatively near future. To access that content we need to create new characters, and we should be able to do so on the server with our base and friends.

Please don't alienate your most loyal customers by forcing them to switch servers, abandon friends or delete characters.

I got spammed once on Pinnacle or Champion and immediately petitioned it with the name of the spammer and the text of the message.

I'm glad to see Cryptic and NCSoft are on the case.

[ QUOTE ]
Summon Teammates. I have no idea if this is a power available for heroes. But villainside it's a temp power that you can get for 3 days of in-game play from one of the mayhem missions, which allows you to summon all your teammates to you, from up to a mile away. I don't know if this is something you can pick up in Safeguard missions. This temp power has a 30 minute recharge timer, but with enough speed boosts and other speed buffs that tend to go on in Hami raids, such a power can be recharged quicker. But this can be a sleeper hit for Hamidon raids because everyone who expires in the Hive can be instantly ported to safety outside of the raid.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, heroes can get this power in the level 20 or 25 Safeguard mission (not sure which one it is).

[ QUOTE ]

With one or two exceptions, the only players that I've known since before PvP was introduced who are still around today are those who are interested in PvP. Everyone else has moved on.


[/ QUOTE ]

As long as were in anecdote mode, I have four or five acquaintances who mostly play PvE, and they've all been around for more than two years, playing various alts. Although we do occasional forays into PvP zones, it's usually not very interesting. You fly around Siren's Call looking for someone to fight and as soon as you engage they run away.

The one acquaintance who has PvPed a lot leaves the game for months at a time. When he returns he basically plays one character non-stop, racing to 50 running radio missions.

PvP for archetypes without status protection is tedious, so it's most attractive to stalkers, scrappers, tankers and brutes. And don't get me started on stalkers -- here's an archetype whose entire purpose is to one-shot squishies. How boring is that?

Finally, for most characters you have to build your character for PvE or PvP. This is a sacrifice we shouldn't have to make -- especially before level 50 -- because you have to PvE to level.

It should be possible to have at least two builds to switch between, so you don't have to make that choice. If the devs want to limit it so that you can only change builds once every 20 minutes, or you can only do it in the base, or whatever, that would be fine.

I want to like it. But since you've limited the discussion to trivial non-informative responses that's all I can say.

My kinetic controller and corruptor often target destructible objects (such as the demon portals and vault doors) with Transference and Transfusion. Those objects transfer End and hit points to nearby characters, so it makes sense that the oil slick should too. I assume Howling Twilight targeting a vault door will resurrect fallen characters, but I've never tried it.

I don't think this is a legitimate target of a nerf. It's more of a "natural law" of the CoH universe than an exploit -- if you can transfer hit points and endurance from robots, you should be able to do the same from vault doors and demon portals. And oil slicks.

I've rarely teamed with Trick Arrow defenders, so I'm not sure how long the oil slick lasts when burning. You can make a reasonable argument that igniting (or otherwise attacking it) should have the same effect as attacking objects. If you set it afire it should lose hit points and the duration should be reduced. I don't know if it works that way, but that would be reasonable. In order to not penalize the damage the burning slick does, the damage inflicted should be at least partially a DoT on on NPCs standing in the slick when it's ignited, and not just DoT while they're in it (oil is very sticky).

So any attack on the slick (and it looks like Howling Twilight does damage) should reduce the duration. Powers such as Transference and Transfusion seem to drain or debuff and do no damage, so they should have no effect on the slick's duration except to reduce its endurance. The logical effect that should have is to prevent you from using those powers on the slick if it has no End to drain.

And it was a brilliant idea to take the physical laws of the game universe to their logical conclusion.

I'm not sure why people are reacting to this so violently. The purpose of the consignment system is not to transfer influence between servers, it's to sell items.

By giving the transaction to the character with the lowest asking price, the system encourages listing items with lower prices. For the intended purpose of selling items, this is the best deal for buyers.

It's no knock against this system that it doesn't offer a foolproof way to transfer influence to your alts.

Some time ago I read that you are limited to a small number of sales at a time. Is that still operative? If so, the scam of listing every trainer at an asking price of 1 inf wouldn't allow you to intercept cross-server inf transfers.

I've got more than 30 alts, and I'm not troubled by the way this works. Remember, the devs are people too. By constantly cussing them out and insulting their intelligence you're not endearing yourselves to them. Cogent analysis, helpful suggestions and humor will make them much more receptive to your ideas than declaring them fools.

Lighten up, people.

Quicksand still "splats" and halves my performance. I have all the newest drivers, which I downloaded from the ATI site when I8 went up on Training Room. The usage of many Kheld powers hammers performance as well.

Last night we were doing many Portal missions in Peregrine IsIand. In PI itself performance was normal, typically 20-30 fps. After exiting the last mission, however, the framerate plummeted to 5 fps in PI. This was in the portal room, with no one present except our team. Poor performance continued all the way to the base portal. Once in the base the framerate returned to normal. This was on Pinnacle about 10:20 CST, 30 November.

Additional suggestions:

You should be able to use your own influence to buy items for your personal space.

The whole idea of having to sacrifice your own influence for the common base is bogus anyway -- apparently someone thought that high-level characters have too much influence and nothing to do with it, so let's get rid of it by charging prestige for bases.

If a sliding scale of influence is required for personal base spaces (like it is for costumes) here is yet another way to eliminate excess influence.

At a minimum you should be able to add storage items (for inspirations, enhancements, salvage).

You should be able to designate whether your space can be entered by others in the SG, and specifically named individuals.