StarkRavingMad2

Well from a "n00b's" perspective, just meaning someone who hasn't played Gravity much... I like the sound of it a lot.

The timing of this change is kinda funny. I was fiddling around with a build for a new gravity controller the other day. And I noticed right away that I'd have issues controlling if the sh-- hit the fan with this character.

If my team aggro'd too much with my ice/storm 'troller around... I could lay down glacier in one spot followed by snow storm, run over and shiver another while holding them in my arctic air, then cause another area to do the ice slick dance in an ice storm and keep firing ice block at the bosses till one sticks.

With gravity I could lay down that aoe hold, then.... try the aoe immobilize and hope they don't kill me before firing up personal force field? Granted I would have dimension shift, but honestly I didn't want it because most teams just hate that power. It's too situational, ONLY for those really ugly whole-room-is-aggro'd scenerios. Other than that it was all single holds and the comedic yet not terribly useful wormhole.

But with this change, at least I've got 2 useful all-purpose AoEs. I'm looking forward to it.

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If players are on a mission map, they always receive their full shares. There’s no distance limitation. Teams can split up in maps – players can be separated by elevators – everyone receives their XP.

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Okay, so a lowbie can stay in the front door of a mission while the rest of the team clears out the mission so he gets the xp.

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Now, let me clarify the situation with Badges and Defeat tasks. As long as you or any of your teammates are within 200 ft. of the defeated mob, EVERYONE on the team gets credit. This is not a change in Issue 4; this is the way that it currently works.

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So a lowbie can sit in the safe area of a zone while everyone else goes out and does the hunting... as long as they have a defeat task (which is available on a fairly regular basis from contacts, even after they run out of door missions) so he gets the xp.

..

Uhhh... Why are we even going through all this? I'm with the people who suggest tightening the level restrictions on xp now. Have characters beyond a 6 level difference that are not SK'd or Exemp'd get either minimal or even no xp. Problem solved. All this seems to be really overcomplicating the issue.

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No - that isn't what I said. As long as either YOU or YOUR teammate is within 200 ft., you'll get credit for the defeat.

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Uhm... States that makes no sense.

If your teammate is within 200', and you can be anywhere... why even have the range? I'm confused.

As for the original poster... the reason some of us feel that the game is too geared for the hardcore gamer is the severe imbalance in the ATs... which forced the game to get harder and the need for a difficulty slider that only goes up.

Each AT has one insanely broken power-build. Of the reamaining sets, half are average, and at least 1 in each AT is nearly worthless. Rather than nerf these glaring problems (though they are finally nerfing regen and fire tankers... THANK YOU), they've mostly raised the bar of the game to meet their levels. The difficulty of the enemies seems to assume all green enhancements of the maximum level you can have, ignoring whether it's realstic to afford them or not... because they know the uber-gamers would find a way. On top of that, rather than put a hard cap on enhancements that actually matters to encourage people to round out their characters, they have a system that encourages 6-slotting for maximum power.

As a result, you have these uber-builds that make the mostly-silent masses of concept character builds feel left out. I've given up playing some ATs because they are not needed. More than a couple friends of mine have done the same, even leaving the game altogehter in some cases as it is leaving them behind.

It's going to be brutal when CoV goes into open testing. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not.

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Actually, our updates are intended to cover ALL levels (as much as possible).

Auxiliary Power Pools - levels 40 up
Kheldians - level 50
Council - all levels
Striga Isle - levels 20 - 30
Mission Customization - all levels
Global Chat - all levels

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Naming those last two things as being for all levels is a dodge. You're not giving people under 20 anything more to do in the game. I consider those to be bells and whistles. Nice, but that's not what we're griping about.

On the flipside, you did gave them the Hollows last go around, so there's no need to try and justify yourself on that end of the game. Low end is fine IMHO.

The problem is with 30+.

The epic power pools not being available until 41 is a slap in the face. It makes levels 30-40 feel like grind. LOTS and lots of grind. And they are the levels when we start to face the really hard zones and enemies... IOW it's when we really start to NEED the extra power.

You should have given the epic pools at 30 (or even 34 would be good, to keep the progression of power at least feel consistant), and focused more on adding missions and a new enemy for 40-50.

'Cause I hate to break it to you... but there is still PLENTY of content from 20-30. Striga is nice, but it's one of those zones that I wonder if I'll ever even see... like Fautline or Boomtown. How many people even visted those except when hunting for badges?

Content starts to run out after 30. It's the high end that needs the most help, not the middle.

A side suggestion... up the xp for patrolling in hazard zones to match going on missions. Otherwise I see no point for any of them.