Silver Gale

No there isn't, because the bio isn't a separate file on the server, it's a field in a database. That means for every character ever created in game, there is 1Kb of space in the database reserved for a bio, no matter how much text the player actually put in the field.

Doubling that would mean having to reserve an additional 1Kb for every character that exists on the servers currently, including those from Trial and banned accounts, and redoing all the estimates for "how many more characters can our databse hold before we have to get a bigger HD". It's a lot of work just to let a small segment of players write a little more about their characters.

Assuming 125k subs, it's 49.9992% of the playerbase. I just felt I should point out that you are expemt from the two hypothetical groups, since you tend to post strongly-worded opinions based firmly in fact and supported with data, and can manage that just fine without knowing the plans in detail.

While I roll my eyes at people who call this "punishment", "no more reason to be a VIP" or being "forced" into certain Trials, I do think it is a bad idea.

There will be a sharp divide between characters who do not have Lore/Destiny unlocked (and thus are at a maximum of +1) and those who have them both slotted with Rares.

The lower-rank Incarnates can either try to form entry Trials among themselves, or they can try to join the higher-ranks in the advanced Trials, and be at a distinct disadvantage (and increase the chance of the whole League failing).

With no recompense for entry Trials, the higher-rank Incarnates basically have to run the advanced Trials if they want the Good Stuff. On smaller servers, there may not be enough Serious Raiders available at most times to organise the advanced Trials, making progress slow or impossible. Not to mention that without their help, the lower-rank Incarnates will have a tougher time with even the entry Trials.

Then there's the people in between, the ones who have run the entry Trials enough to unlock the Lore and Destiny slots, but do not have enough Salvage to slot them with Rares for the cruical +2 Incarnate Shift, or those who are not interested in more difficult Trials but still want some of the Empyrean-only unlocks. They're the ones complaining the loudest right now because they have been left in the cold.

The people interested in endgame raids are already a small part of just the VIP subscribers. Splitting that group up more (and trying to force a large number of them to pick a side) cannot possibly be healthy for the Trials, or for general player goodwill.

They said very early on that the Incarnate system could get updated pretty much indefinitely with new power trees as well as new tiers in existing trees.

So a character can "grow in power" as an Incarnate not just by going up the ranks in a single ability, but also by crafting several abilities from different trees.

Think of having multiple level 50s on a single server. You can't actually log in more than one at a time, but the more of them you have, the more flexibility you have in what you can bring to a high level TF. And you don't feel like you're "wasted your time" or are "missing out" when a new powerset comes out, you just level a new character to 50, and increase your flexibility as a player even further.

If you've never run any SSA before on that particular character, then you got the "freebie" for Arc 1, then your weekly reward, then the "freebie" for Arc 2. Next week, you will only be able to get 10 threads the first time, and nothing else.

On the week that the third arc comes out, you'll be able to get 10 threads from that, and another weekly 10 threads.

The eyeball bosses are called Overseers - both their description and the badge for them (dating back to I2) implies that they do oversee the other soldiers of Rularuu, which would mean they have some measure of authority.

I'm fairly sure that Tip mission was written specifically to let you do that.

When I want to craft IOs in the 45-50 range, I bid between 300-500 on the salvage to make sure sellers don't get less than vendor price.

Nah, I couldn't make up superhero antics all on my own including background history and everything. And I don't think I could create a better "beating up mobs" system than this one. As a springboard for my imagination, where I accept stuff I like, and ignore or rewrite stuff I don't like, CoH works quite well.

I don't see how the writers' decision to re-use Thiery in a future arc would Joss a player's decision that their character punched Thiery in the face. Unless he's introduced with narration saying something like "You remember Thiery, and how you very patiently listened to his ranting and absolutely did not punch him in the face before arresting him". Even then, you can just ignore it. Not like they'll dock you XP for not playing along.

Yeah, I don't grudge people for using abbreviations and I don't grudge them for making typos, but the more you abbreviate, the more you risk losing all meaning completely with a single typo.

Suppose I get a /tell that just asks: "ift?" Now I'm just confused, because I don't know if they mean ITF but swapped the two last letters, or LFT but typoed an I for an L.

It's a technique known as "phasing", where basically the server tells your client to draw different things depending on your character's database entry.

On a side note, it amuses me that ten years ago, the fact that two people playing a game on two different computers could see the *same* things was what made people go "wow, how do they do that?!". History goes in cycles and all that.

I sympathize! This totally sucks. I love this game too and I hate not being able to play it.

You didn't pay for a month of access, you paid for access to the service whenever it's up during one month. Read the EULA. No, seriously, read it. It's not "a lame excuse", it is a contract that states exactly what you paid them for and what you can and cannot expect in return for your money.

So you think they haven't realised that downtime will make players angry and possibly lead to people leaving, and they urgently need your post in the forum to explain this to them? "Of course! We should be trying to have *less* downtime, not *more*! How could we have been so blind? Thank you, AngryPoster!"

The Devs (well, the server techs) *are* doing something. That's why there's downtime. They are taking the servers offline and doing things to make them work better.

Oh? And what exactly can you do to CoH game servers that will make them work better that can be done while they're still running, without risking any data loss (the data, let me remind you, is someone's character, with all their costumes and IOs and badges)? And also fits within the budget they have without having to make cuts elsewhere?

TRICK QUESTION! You don't know. The Devs do. They know their budget and their servers. They *know* additional downtime will make more players lose playtime, and that players who don't get to play when they wanted will be angry players.

They still went ahead with the downtimes, so that means whatever players are going to leave because of the downtimes are already accounted for and deemed "acceptable losses".

In short:

We all know it sucks when you can't play the game. But if the Devs and server techs decided the servers need more downtime, no amount of angry posting will make there be less downtime.

It's both. You can turn in 50 Reward Merits and 20 million Inf for one Alignment Merit every 18 hours, and you can turn in Alignment Merits for stuff once every 18 hours. Those are two separate timers, so if you buy an Alignment Merit with Reward Merits, you can turn it in immediately.

I'm guessing you can't buy them because you're still a VIP, so you get access to them as part of your sub.

Trying to step down to Premium and retain access to everything you've had before is not going to be cheap. This is by design, as Paragon Studios want you to stay a VIP if at all possible.

Okay, A for actually taking the time to search in the forums for whether a topic has come up before. F for not actually paying any attention to the post date, forum, or indeed content of the thread.

In answer to your question: No, there is no system for getting a specific rarity reward table, it's random. There is an activity check, but it only measures whether you get 10 threads table or a random rarity reward table. There is some data suggesting that achieving badge requirements may improve the chances of better rolls for the whole League.

You can get the Rares and VRares with Emp Merits, and the benefit of T4 over T3 is really not proportionate to the cost. T4s are a long-term goal for competionists.

Getting a Common or Uncommon reward table is not "getting screwed", it's "not winning the lottery".

I'm guessing this particular instance is someone trying to follow the non-rule of "never end a sentence with a preposition".