ShadowsBetween

As an extremely casual player of that other MMO, I can tell you that raising the level cap doesn't help. You know what the first thing is that happens when they raise the level cap? The same players that sat around at the old max level raiding and whining about having nothing to do race straight for the new cap. Go on a few raids, work out the new strategies. And then sit around raiding and whining about having nothing to do.

For everyone *else,* you've just gone from being ten levels away, to being twenty levels away. And given how the experience tables usually work, if you *aren't* in a big guild with people willing to power level you, those shiny new levels can take almost as long as you've *already* spent playing the character.

Not to mention the "value" of an expansion full of new high level content, most of which you (the casual player) are weeks or months from ever being able to see. Heck, the expansion for that game has been out for a year, and the *only* new content from it I've experienced myself are Death Knights.

Right now in that other MMO, there's *massive* sections of the original game that people avoid like the plague. Why? Pretty much for the same reason people avoid the Positron TF. Those areas are *old* and were made with a whole different design philosophy. Which can pretty much be described as "EQ Delerium," or the delusion that pointless, time wasting grinds are good for keeping players subscribed to the game. Actually, it turns out that what keeps players subscribed is gameplay that is interesting, challenging-without-being-insanely-hard, and actually fun.

For example, in the "old world" areas, it's pretty common to get a quest that amounts to "get me ten pieces of zebra steak." Under the old design model, the developers dumped a hundred zebras in a nearby area, and set each one to have a 20% chance of dropping "A Zebra Steak." At level X, a zebra should take about a minute to kill, and you'll need to kill an average of 50 to get your steak. There, aren't you satisfied? The developers just "entertained" you for an hour.

In the new areas, there's apparently a goblin that gives you such a quest. "Get me some mammoth steaks." Except then he hands you a bomb, and the following instructions:

Step 1. Find a Mammoth
Step 2. Feed Bomb to Mammoth
Step 3. Wait 30 seconds
Step 4. Collect Steak

The part that makes it fun and challenging (or so I'm told) is Step 2, convincing a mammoth to eat a bomb. It might require additional steps, and might still be set up to take an hour. But you're actually *doing* something. You have a goal. You're not just sitting there playing "Whack-a-Mole" with some random critter.

Agreed. As I said, in that other game, there's places no one ever goes, at least not for XP. Almost all the original "end game" dungeons fall into this. Most of them are long, tedious, and very difficult at any level where you can still get XP for them. After all, they were originally intended to occupy time for the max-level players. Unfortunately, now there are newer, better areas where the content covers the same range, but is actually fun. So, good luck getting a group for that quest there. Mostly what happens now, is that people come back to solo with their new Max Level characters, who are 20 levels higher than the old endgame boss, and curbstomp him. Or as often, still get stomped, because some of those dungeons are so insanely difficult that even being twenty levels higher than everything isn't enough to beat it.


One thing that helps is good variety for critters and areas. One thing that does annoy me about CoH is the fairly limited selection of enemies. Yes, there's a large number of enemy groups, but almost all of them boil down to "crazy guys with weird clothes." Where are the dinosaurs? The giant mutant insects? The nightmarish alien monsters from another dimension? Heck, nevermind lions and tigers and bears, I'd be impressed with robot guard dogs at this point. One of my favorite areas so far is the Shadow Shard. I liked the first "holy torpedoes, what the snarf is THAT?" moment when I first encountered an Overseer. After so long fighting Mafia guys, and Circle guys, and Malta guys, seeing a flat-out fantasy critter was totally unexpected. They're still one of my favorite enemies.

Personally, I strongly dislike PvP, in any game. I think I've gotten Shivan Shards exactly *once* in the year since I started playing, and I doubt I'll try again. I have zero interest in being anywhere near the type of player you're most likely to notice in PvP. (Not necessarily the most common type of PvP player, but the ones that you *will* remember afterwords.) I'm sure that polite, mature, intelligent people engage in PvP. But the immature, rude and moronic dingbats are the only ones I ever seem to see.

My understanding is that an empty "from" just means that *character* has been deleted. I know that I've tagged such email as spam, and had other emails (some that still included a character name) disappear as well. The Ignore as Spammer option hits the @Global name, not the character name, I think. Either some spammers don't know that, or they're hoping that players don't know it.

I do wish there was a better option for allowing friends to send emails - "Friends and Supergroup" is almost completely useless for a lot of people, since it only tracks character name, not global. I don't think I've ever intentionally used the server/local friends list. I make too many characters, so it would be pointless as a way to contact me - I could be on every day for a month and never log in the /friended character again.

*Edit* As far as the list being limited, that other MMO (the one with the orcs and purple elves) only allows you to ignore 25 characters. That list is specific to each of your characters, and isn't shared. So if you're playing your Warlock, and ignore BumHeadJerk, then switch to your Hunter, BumHeadJerk will be able to talk to you (because your Hunter hasn't ignored him yet.) Likewise, if everyone in the zone ignores BumHeadJerk, and he switches to his character ButtHeadJerk, he'll still be able to bother everyone. About the only good point is that that company appears to actually delete spammers when they catch them, since anyone you tag as a spammer will probably pop off the list in a day or two, with a message similar to "Ignore removed from list, as that character no longer exists." Or maybe the spammer deletes the character themselves, either way. (In fact, that might be where the "delete spambot" behavior in CoH comes from, if it's a tactic that works in such a big MMO.)

The elevator problem is an known bug. It's probably a side effect of whatever they did to pets to allow them to zone, and to MM pets specifically to allow them to zone with the upgrades in place. For now, the only workaround is to dismiss the damaged pets and resummon them. It's annoying, and a waste of endurance, but I've only had it happen a few times. However, I mostly solo, so I have no idea if this glitch might become more common on teams.

I'm curious, is this based on any evidence whatsoever, or is that just an assumption on your part?

I'll try that and see if it works. That would actually work fine with what I have in mind, since it's basically a "sneak into this office and get some files without killing everyone" mission. Most offices don't generally have several hundred security guards on staff. At least, not all in the same five rooms.

I've encountered this twice on my Necro/Thermal Mastermind. In both cases, I was able to force them back to controllable status by throwing a Fire Shield on them. If it happens again, I'll try to test the targeted and AoE heal powers, to see what works and what does not. I assumed that this was part of the "known issue" where Mastermind pets are having an issue with zone doors and elevators.

Also, of the small amount of info we've gotten from the devs, they've mentioned repeatedly that they are including a new starting area, and hinted that it'll be a mixed/co-op zone, where Hero and Villain ATs can work together. I think it was also mentioned somewhere that this would likely be a "neutral" zone, in that anyone who starts here would probably be in the grey zone morally. (So if you wanted to run a Mastermind to Atlas as soon as possible, you might need to start here.)

Also, as a full expansion, they'd want all the new features to be available to anyone who buys the box. Especially new players. Adding all this new stuff, then telling all the brand new players who just picked it up that they have to slog clear to 50 and then start over before they can do all the expansion content would trigger a massive ragequit.

I've run into that once or twice, and I completely don't understand it. "I am a Tanker, I *MUST* have perfect aggro. Anyone that manages to draw a critter away from me will be kicked." I sort of thought the whole point of a Tanker was that they keep everyone else busy while the Blasters and Scrappers tear apart their chosen targets, and the Controllers pick a group and patiently crush it to death. That said, that Tanker is in for a rude time if he joins a Task Force where A) he's not the leader and B) the team includes a Mind/Storm or Illusion/Storm.

*Edit* It just occurred to me, that when Going Rogue is live, his life will get even more interesting. Robot/Storm Masterminds and Energy/Storm Corruptors leap to mind here.

*Sigh.* No, I'm not presenting any defense. Nor am I throwing a temper tantrum every time someone points out a potential problem. I am also not the *only* person pointing them out, nor the only one you are attacking in response, which is what I was asking about.

As for feasibility, MM Customization and bikini girls are two completely different topics. Some form of MM customization may be possible, even likely. Whenever the developers have been asked about female humanoid pets however (and have bothered to answer at all,) their response has been more or less "no, because some players would do something immature and stupid." It really doesn't matter whether this is logical or consistent or makes sense in light of AE, or Warcraft or anything else. That was their stated position.

Yes, the developers have stated some things in the past and then later changed their position. (Custom powers were not possible when the team was down to fifteen people. Then NCSoft showed up with a wheelbarrow full of money and told them to hire a lot more staff. Suddenly some things were no longer quite as impossible.) However, it is *entirely* their decision whether to do that or not. It really *does not matter* how much you, nor any other player, wants or needs or deserves bikini slaves. If the devs don't like the idea, it's NEVER going to happen.

I am curious though - why are you so desperately attacking everyone whom you THINK is disagreeing with you, as if you are unwilling to consider any alternative?

Really? You'd just kick them without even seeing if they have a clue? If they're on the path to having a clue? Personally, I find vet badges irrelevant. One of the best players I know had *no* vet badges as of a month ago. One of the worst, most egotistical and most grossly incompetent players I've ever seen had just about every badge you can get, and insisted they'd been playing since just after launch. (And he was a Build Nazi, too.)

Lack of vet badges means *nothing* except that it's a character on a new account. Until I've seen them in action, I have no way of knowing if it's a player picking up the game again, an experienced player from another game, or even just a second account of someone who's been playing for a while. (I know two people who got a second account for a relative or spouse, then ended up keeping both accounts when that person quit. I know two couples who each have characters on their partners account, and switch back and forth at will.) And people were getting powerleveled to 50 on characters they didn't know how to play *well* before AE was introduced.

And as far as booting someone for having a high knockback build like Energy/Storm, I'd like to point out that *every* AT has numerous chances for a moron to run amok - Defenders and Tankers who choose powers as if they were Blasters or Scrappers, Stalkers who wait to refresh Hide after every attack "because it does more damage," Masterminds who try to "scout ahead" with their pets set to Aggressive...

Yeah, that would pretty much fix any population issues with the game. Either everyone would spread out onto the other servers, or they'd all ragequit and never return. But at least we wouldn't have any more posts saying "this server is dead compared to Freedom."