Spyte

.....errr trying to get back on topic

Actually on another point thats a blind alley is the thought that Pvp and PvE should be considered entirely seperate. If PvP was done right players should be unable to distinguish it from PvE. The real problem is excessively Dumb NPC's in pve.

Matters of attitude are at least as much an issue for the person that cannot handle it as those dishing it out, we have many filters so there is no real excuse for angry outburtsts or anything other than seeing one body go down and the other celebrating.

I would actually love to get 'into' pvp but its only Zonal pvp that offers any immersion imo....arena pvp is premeditated and totally unrealsitic so it just offers no excitment - its there soley because this is a trivial game etc.

Entering a zone invariably finds....no one atm so you dont hang around long (going to a pvp zone to fight npc's doesnt sit well with me) and theres really no way to get good at it for newbies like me....well thats my excuse anyways :P

I dont agree with the idea that Zonal pvp needs to be team based, the nature of the zones is far more impromtu and natural - you enter knowing that one side or another will likely outnumber the other and you should be encouraged to think that you can eneter and still have fun despite this.... the combat mechanism needs to respond to this by preventing a linear scaling applying to the effectivenes of players and teams in pvp..... of course if you outnumber your foes you should have an advantage but that shouldn't equate to one whole body or you generate an impossible scenrio for any fun encounters (Zerging needs to be made difficult to achieve). The alternate route to that is to use the queueing method (like WAR) to get roughly balanced teams togther, but with our population I just dont see that as possible.

Judging from the general opions on here and the US forums I13 seems to be a step backwards on many levels but most specifically in my case they appear to be pursuing a one to one balance that destroys the character of the differing AT's and makes pvp excessively dull. By all means cross balance specific classes but there is no way a defender should be going toe to toe with a brute, its illogical and destroys the nature of both classes. Well at least to my mind =/

I can see the authentication issue could be a problem (at this stage login names could be duplicated etc), though its not insurmountable.... in fact I could also see a half way house whereby certain sections like Dev forums are global to the game while others are localised - where you character is housed determines which local sections you get....much like ITV has many programs in common but splits for news/weather etc.

I think WoW thrives through sheer volume of content, it is easy (and dull and horribly generic) but there's a lot to do and they have resources ploughing in quick enough for the dev team to keep ahead of the field. No other MMO can really do that.

I tend to agree this game has stepped a little too far in the direction of ease, particularly as regards death effects and consequences... the threat of death/defeat is something the game should use to generate excitement and challenge but seems to have become nothing more than a minor break to go get a cuppa. I was never a fan of XP debt, but there just isnt any real impact when you fall now.

long term players will b!itch and moan from time to time but have already endured a lot and not gone, there's actually very little that the game will now do that will really cause them to depart at anything other than their natural ageing rate.

New players however are a different kettle of fish, as they log in they see a degree of activity and become involved into the community and team and generally level faster.... a larger population gives them more options and increases the likelihood of them sticking with it.

Hopefully in future the technology will be set to serve the populace rather than the other way around - servers wont split populations instead multiple servers can be used to hold zones that can be dynamically micro managed....that way the community is unified from the beginning, petty intrusions of server racism and self importance are avoided and the infrastructure behind the scenes can be expanded or contracted according to need seamlessly.

There is no flaw to this argument, the number of servers is directly a result of the ability of equipment and infrastructure to cope with the anticipated load, by no stretch of the imagination is that load as severe as it was at launch nor are the technological restrictions as tight.

There are legitimate concerns as to the actual impact of a merge on so 'established' a population....if a merge did go ahead some long term players may well leave and the nature of the game enjoyed by people at that last moment might well change for the worse...so its by no means an exact science.

At some stage the need for a merge will become an essential process to ensure new players find...anyone... human nature will see the older community members resist this as long as possible, we can only hope that in making demands for or against a server merge - at any time - the powers that be at NCsoft are wiser and more courageous than both.

There's a beautiful cyclic futility in everyones arguments here,

Apparently raising a concern about the population is being a doom merchant, apparently doom threads have been here for years and its apparent that those that disagree most vehemently with doom threads are the very same people who say things are ok so just keep quiet.

Therefore the people who dont like Doom Threads have proved to themselves, as they are nothing new, that clearly they dont negatively impact on the game's popualtion. Conversely those that think there is a problem can look squarely at themselves and their postings and must concede their threads might actually be an integral cause as to the problems they are seeing.

We need 4 more impossible things to believe in and who knows what wonders we might unlock.

A graphics overhaul only need effect the client side of the game so could be delivered via a microtransaction style upgrade leaving some players with and some without depending on the capability of their machines. Things like the Wedding and good vs evil pack show that even revisiting existing outfits with a bit of bump mapping and texturing substantial improvements can be made.

Ironically thanks to the enormous LAG introduced in the development of MMO's by WoW newer games dont actually look much better as they always pander to low end systems. CoH/V holds up well and looks better in many cases than the newer AoC and WAR games.

This game is 4/5 years old, there is an inevitable consequence to that on the population.....the actual surprise is that 'this game is five years old' and its still here and still has the population it has.

Its a shame people wish to bury their head in the sand whenever anything negative is said or worse try and gag the person saying it and its equally a shame people feel to need to exagerate problems, miss the bigger picture, or spew random venom because their voice isn't omniscient, but sadly this is humanity for you.

I play this game solo much of the time by choice, so the impact of any variance in the population is relatively minor to me. However inevitably at some point a small population begets a smaller population...people log on to find less people and consequently log on less often...it will happen. A server merge will extend the appeal of the game to new players but at the same time it will raise some genuine concerns with the older players making them depart.

Threads like this do raise proper matters for consideration and will in any event continue...if you dont believe its a concern or believe that remedial action is premature or ill advised then don't repsond and the thread will drop/fade.... that is until there comes a point where action is very much essential.... till then everyone arguing the perpheral issue of what should be said and by whom is just muddying the waters, denying the right of free speech and preventing the game from gaining a proper measure of the size of the problem....rather like my own lengthy diatribe here :P

I suppose the paradox here is that most badges represent an effort or action that was positive on behalf of the player whereas these badges seem to arise from the exact opposite ... an absence of effort.

Curious really all these badges will come, its just a matter of time, but the characters you invest least in will be the first to gain the gold ^^

TBH though I really dont understand the attraction of badge hunting unless there is some material reward at the end =/

Oh atually come to think of it weather effects would be nice....the rain in MxO was always magical.

Yeah the actual environment and setting is still very nice but a grapical update for character models with more polygons/bump mapping and some additional animations (walking, better kicks, object interaction etc) would be very worthwhile imo.

Many Happy Returns......

I mean wb

By all accounts LH was well regarded Stateside and that is a significant positive when dealing with such a diverse community in that role.

All the best for the future Mr LH I hope the change proves to be all to the good for you.

It is a great pity there isn't more to do once you have a character at 50, that is certainly a worthwhile place to develop content imo but I think extending the cap is the worse possible way to acheve it.

In fact 40+ I find the game has lost all character and you just have your head down soulessly grinding out mission after mission (its saved by some of the great people you meet along the way however), the patron arcs are awful, completely out of character for any villian, their powersets as 'rewarded' are dull, generic and inconsistent with your chosen AT.... and don't get me started on GV as a location..... hmm yep I could almost agree to dropping the cap to 40 ^^

Media player for a little mood music...I don't like too many distractions when I'm annihilating them hero wannabe's

I thought I read somewhere that you would have to visit a trainer to change builds?

Unfortunately the background to this change rings alarm bells in my head....which drown out those voices telling me to ki..... conceptually and stylistically it will erode the identity of our creations as we open the door to an everyman generic build for each AT (pretty much any useful power will be in one of your builds or another a la everyone else).

It is also linked to this idea that the same power can behave differently in pvp to pve they are suggesting you can have a build for each....but what does that really mean - the requirement for different behaviour in a power is down to the excessively dumb and predictable AI of NPC's which insists NPC bosses get heaps of HP and cheap overpowered attacks in a vain attempt to compensate. The proper solution to this problem is to improve the AI in which case playing against an npc becomes much more like facing a player in pvp (albeit potentially more IC and with fewer histrionics), powers in that scenario have to be consistent and coherent in their effect.... opening the door for powers to behave differently toward different opponents is fixing an effect and not a cause, its a slippery slope and very likely ensures we will be lumbered with the same monotonous AI for the rest of CoX's life.

I13 still looks a worthwhile issue imo and I would have no interest whatsoever in a mission architect that only allows me contorl of predefined gangs etc....my only dissapointment is that the devs would ever have thought that was a satisfactory restriction to the architect.

Meh I dunno, how many people play an MMO simply because its an MMO and how many people actually choose this mmo because its not more elves, dwarfs, orcs and fairyland rubbish....gawd I'm sick of the fantasy genre in games!

I always welcome more parts to use in customisation so the cyborg stuff is good news imo.

However I am very dissapointed in NCSoft for the pricing point and/or time limit restriction on the jetpack, it wouldnt have taken much development to make a store bought jetpack permanent.

Sad news, My comiserations to all the devs affected, thanks for your effeorts here and I hope you quickly bounce back.

Technological issues, a'la laggggg, aside - One server has always seemed the right home for any MMO imo.

Matrix online is pretty much the only real alternative if you arent a fan of elves and dwarfves atm, its actually very solid technically, still looks great and has (or had when I was there at least) a great community. Unfortunately the story is completely now disconnected from player and franchise and the newer content has been allowed to completely contradict the core theme - but if you want something different and dont try and connect it to the movies its worth a look.

Eve.....hmm its just got no personality imo =/

The downside is that in terms of variety of missions we have seen everything there is to see, its not impossible but highly likely players will not be able to come up with a radically new challenge...the real interest will be in the variety of stories and settings, so I am hoping there will be ways to weave an evolving story that doesnt intrude on the action but adds some depth to what you are doing.

Likewise it would be nice to develop some player contention short of outright pvp, villians setting challenges for heroes and vica versa.

I wonder if there is any advantage in concentrating on one dayjob...ie the more time you spend on a job the more valuable more time spent becomes....or is it just a linear scale that means speicalisation has no reward?

Looks exciting, the mission designer could be awesome... your characters story brought to life etc... new costume pieces, new powers, new missions, new consumerbles and I12 is really not so long ago!

It's a sad fact that the more they put into each issue the more the players expect of the next and the less time they are willing to wait for it.