Starsman

The next stage is boycott.

• EverQuest 2 8 years and running.
• Lineage 2 9 years and running.
• Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted (Formerly Horizons) 9 years and running.
• Final Fantasy XI 9 years and running.
• Planet Side 9 years and running.
• Dark Age of Camelot 10 years and running.
• EverQuest 13 years and running.
• Ultima Online 15 years and running.
• Meridian 59 17 years and running.

My theory, as posted above, is simply that the mothership refused any attempts, and this post comes with an ultimatum to the few NCSoft West members trying to save the game to stop the pestering already or they too will be axed/replaced.

I don't hold much hope for any of the NCSoft western operations. In a few years I am sure we will be seeing most the operations being taken back to Korean soil. We will have to see if GW survives (in the west) that transfer

That explains how my Bio Tank in beta got eaten alive by the new family spawns that seemed to summon 3 or 2 of those at a time on me.

That made me lol.

As for that game, I quit it in rage after I got sick of having rather absurd downtime after every silly fight as a gladiator (?) while every high DPS class or ranged class would go, kill fast their target or kite it and face next to no downtime.

Was absurd that one of the tanking classes had more risk of death solo than the ranged high damage "squishies".

Would not be shocked if this was solved via nerfing kiting and high dps classes instead of making the tanks sturdier.

Oh, and the flight timer was ridiculous!

I'm sure THIS is all that set the context for your perception of the situation...

I think SR is a mikstake. But the WP may have been a "mistake" that was flagged "like it". Recall Castle mentioning it was labeled as the set's weakness.

To spill my 2 cents:

Back in 2008 (I think) when Paragon Studios was hiring I remember asking some dev what the salary was. He was not 100% certain and I can’t remember myself with 100% accuracy, but think he stated along:

40-60k/y entry level
Bout 80k/y seasoned designer.

No clue about management roles but those are just a handful.

The 60k I remember clearly because I remember thinking it would have been a downgrade for me even if I got the topmost of that range. The bottom line may have been 10k lower but I think it was about 40k, not 30k.

I am not sure how Paragon handled it, but game Q&A tends to be a very harsh job. The average I have seen is about $12 an hour, with non-warranted 40 hour weeks. For Paragon Studios, I'm sure hours were more standard but I doubt salary was much higher.

Do keep in mind that the game industry is infamous for underpaying people for the same skills any other industry would pay an arm and a leg for, taking advantage of developers extreme desire to make games for a living.

I honestly will miss him.

That was not your argument, but it was Richard Garriot that convinced NCSoft to publish the game that was already in production with founding from someone Jack "Statesman" knew came though after selling some company or stock.

The same guy that got kicked in the nuts by NCSoft and who's game got also canceled (still have a collector's edition of that by my side.) Same way they canceled Auto Assault on me. Same way they are canceling this on me.

If there is one entity or person that we need to be grateful to, it's Richard Garriott, and the select few in NCSoft that kept defending the game from closure for years (this game has been under the axe for several years now.)

Look, if you want to stick with the company, great. I'm not insulting you for that. But stop going on every corner defending them with flawed logic and treating everyone that does not love NCSoft or GW2 as if they were retards or ignorant that are not greateful for having their game defecated over.

I said I wont miss NCSoft and left it there. You decide to drag it. Unless people insult you for sticking with NCSoft, start respecting their opinions.

I have 3 very good reasons to never miss NCSoft again, some here have up to 5.

And yes, I'm frigging angry. At one point I thought NCSoft had a fresh take on MMOs. They had a Sci-Fi twisted metal-like game, an alien invasion scifi MMO, a super hero MMO, a mech fighting MMO, a frigging Shaolin Soccer inspired mmo that never got to see the light of day... I didnt just trusted the company back then, I promoted them. They killed everything that I cared about from them, to refocus in their 100th fantasy game, only this one has twitchier fighting system. I was not just betrayed, I was backstabbed several times.

The NCSoft I would care for either was just a facade or simply died years ago.

So NO, I wont miss NCSoft.

I know, but it also was a target-free cone.

Shield Charge would have been possible as a target free cone that requires a teleport-like target as we have it now.

You point where you want to teleport, the game forces you to look that way and starts a cone attack in that direction, with a .2 second delay for the actual teleport effect.


For such a version to work, it would have to also grant the player an insanely fast pulsing damage aura so that enemies among the path get hit. That would be problematic since enemies would be hit more than once along the way.

What i would like to know, though, is why they never made a Teleport To Targeted Eneity Location power. Every teleport in the game was set to target a location, not an entity. I can see issues with you ending up inside the target, but should the attack also apply a knockback this would not be an issue.

I think that version of Shield Charge could have been achieved with the same tech as Vorpal.

Oy.... Synapse would have been getting hell from me... I been wanting tanker Taunt powers to be replaced by set-thematic attacks that did just that! Was it speed-adjustable? Was it possible to make a power that slowly pulled while another did a sudden knock-forward like pull?

(>.>) (<.<)

I also have seen blasters take aggro away from invincibility so that's not just exclusive to WP, and Invuln needs at least 8 powers in the set. The T9 arguably needed for the not-so-rare situations where you are bombarded with energy/negative/fire/cold/toxic damage.

Technically it is. But the goal of the game is not to achieve max level. The goal of the game is... as you say, playing the game.

In Super Mario Bros: Do you feel it's pointless to play at all because you cant level further?

If content is fun, then the level grind does not mater. In fact, MMOs started with the level grind because it was easier to make longer XP Bars to keep people playing than making content.

There IS some stuff about human psychology, leveling up, subconscious rewards and other things, though that we tend to find strangely addictive and I may understand if some one gets bored without more levels to earn.

My goal in city, for instance, were things like completing every mission in the game, at least the ones I was able to catalog via Ouroborus.

There is another rather successful space exploration MMO out there. Eve Online. Do you know you don't even have to be online to advance in that one? You flag the stuff you want to earn xp towards and you get it even if you go offline.

The only reason you get leveling in Star Trek (or at least that's how I feel when I played it this past weekend) Is so you can see yourself become a captain and go up the ranks (something that arguably would had been possible just in the plot itself but got to keep SOME MMO tropes, no?)

A good MMO should not make any content or system necessary for progress. The content and additional systems are there to entertain you.

An MMO that forces repetition of content to advance is doing some stuff wrong (and yes, I am aware that is the case for end game here, there is a reason why I dont care abeout endgame in city of heroes.)

WE paid for that. NCSoft just took its cut until they got sick of us.