Stormbird

It's a horrible angle, then. Because it looks like she's toppling over backward.

So how much additional CPU time would you like to have the client (or server) spend on that? And there are a lot of ways to substitute.
Ask in the AE forums how well such a filter works (and is regarded) - just with our own basic "censoring" list.
See also "how to piss off a customer when this happens by accident, and give your game a bad reputation." Especially if it's buggy. (Myth - or maybe Myth II, while not doing it for *this* reason, had an uninstall bug on the initial release that wiped the entire hard drive. Now imagine something like that slipping through where the *user* doesn't initiate the uninstall.)

And blocking is problematical itself. The spammers don't care - and they don't care that end users can get hit by this as well.

This is a (predicted and *not* looked forward to before it happened) side effect of having "free" accounts. Spammers were locked down pretty well under the old trial vs subscription, where they could only mewl uselessly in local about their BS - and that I only saw on Freedom. Now? Free accounts left and right with access to Help.

So they post their site - let's make one up called COHUsesInf.com.

You block that.

They change it to C O H Uses INF dot com.

You block that phrase. Either that or you have to block each word - which could cause problems.

Then they use C O H U S E S I N F D O T C O M.... and so forth.

That's why lists like that don't work.

Do about 3 ITFs. Maybe 4. (One of those "Kind of depends how they go" items.) Even if you just do one a weekend, they run typically quickly, and it should at least get the character to 50 while leaving time for others.




... and I will admit to misreading carp armor/melee. *hangs head*

I've never had that request.

How about, don't worry about that, and make sure you have a good leader who's not a twit, instead? One that can make sure everyone knows what's going on and is on the same page? if there's someone leeching badly enough to hose the entire trial, one star, kick, don't invite to the next trial.

No need to get picky over how many level shifts. Or for that matter, powersets, or which iPowers you have, or whatever else.

I've had raid leaders that were so bad, giving contradictory instructions, not answering, etc. that they've managed to micromanage a BAF into failure - or someone else has taken over giving instructions with everyone ignoring the "leader." And other leaders that insisted they were right when seasoned "raid vets" told them something didn't work some way they were insisting it did... which led to people quitting mid trial.

A good leader that can keep everyone together and direct the whole thing (without being a micromanaging little fuhrer) is far, *far* more important than any level shifts.

100% agree with Aura_Familia:

That's the other risk.

Then again, that's the problem they had when introducing trials, too. They only had the two - which led (not incorrectly, IMHO) to comments on "Dev sponsored farming" and the feel of grind.

I think they did Alpha properly - and that they should have had both a solo or "regular" team path (1-8 people) as well as the trials coming out at the same time. I appreciate the system is a lot of work, and that would have been even more - but a lot of the complaints that have been made could have been avoided, I think.

See, there are two "sets" of progression here, though, and I think you're sacrificing one on the altar of the other without needing to.

The first is the progression of the character. We've had it presented to us with the story evolving through time as the character goes from 1-50 - and us all, essentially, starting at the same "time."

The level 1 character is in the position (barring individual RP elements/backstories, which you at PS can't control - though they make for odd dialog later) of thinking, for instance, that:
- The Rikti invaded twice. They're all bad. Hero 1 is dead.
- Nemesis is history. He's been gone for a while now.
- Crey is a big company, but not necessarily "evil." Hey, look, some Crey Cola! A Crey washing machine! No issues there at all!
- Paragon protectors are simply a supergroup, with no ties to anyone (any more than any other SG.) Nothing particularly special, other than nobody sees their faces.

(That, of course, is from the hero POV.)

As you go from 1-50, that story evolves. And it's an "evolution" that's supported, honestly, by Ouroboros- even as they let you "cheat" and skip around in it.

The other evolution, of course, is the change in the game world. The destruction of Galaxy, the upcoming removal of states, the introduction of the RWZ and Vanguard (which I was really hoping you'd use as a model here.)

Doing this change the way you're doing it - again, by my understanding of what you're doing, as revealed at the pummit, etc. - is focusing *solely* on the second (change the game world) without exploring the first - and, quite honestly, losing a *lot* of storytelling possibility there - as well as, my opinion of course, really not helping the zone from what I've seen *so far.* That opinion can, of course, change once this hits beta - I know how things can be lost in screenshots - but it looks like the overall "vibe" of DA that hooked ME long ago is going to be gone.

(And, as mentioned, doing the multiple levels and capping it with Incarnate content would be creating a "hook" that could get free/premium players to *want* to go VIP for at least a while to see how it ends... and possibly get drawn more into the Incarnate system, paying you guys some more.)

I knwo you're not the story guy, Z. And I'm not saying you're not working on lower level content. I'm saying the choice made for this zone is one I strongly disagree with as being the only way it was handled.

The zone is, as I understand it:
(A) going to be a level 50 zone, removing it for any non-VIP and any lower level VIPs (going in there in the early 20s was an adventure)
(b) solely (thanks to the above) incarnate, and
(c) getting a Praetorian dumped in it for some bizzarre reason that has nothing to do with DA itself. (Sorry, but no, it doesn't.)

DA has had a LOT of hints in it, a LOT of atmosphere, a great three-way potential conflict with the Tsoo looking for "something" (what is never revealed,) the BP trying to wake Mot, and the CoT trying to stop them ("Reinforce the bindings! The sleeper must not wake!" dialog.)

Again - having the upcoming changes to DA as a capping element - the "spirit world" or something - for the incarnate stuff... I'd have been thrilled with that, with other, *non* incarnate, lower level content doing what people have begged for for YEARS - exploring the zone and its history. Which itself would probably "whet the appetite" for free/premium people to see how it ends, getting you at least some part-time VIPs paying money that aren't now.

But that's not what's happening. And I'll repeat it to Aeon, etc, too. I'm extremely disappointed in how this seems to have been handled. I know we haven't seen I22 on beta yet... but it seems to me that, when getting ready to "revamp a zone," the folks responsible just took a list of zones from the forum requests without actually looking at the sorts of things that were suggested.

To me, it's removing and gutting what could have been a great zone if there had been actual *missions* there for the past several years.

And, again - booo to that decision.

I wouldn't mind it if it were part of the "tiered" Dark Astoria suggested before - going to the spirit realm as a 50 incarnate to deal with mot, after dealing with current, lower level threats in the 20s, and getting deeper into it in the 30s, say, in the current zone... which would make that "incarnate" content more meaningful and part of an overall, interesting progression of a sort we haven't really seen for a zone.

Instead... this. Meh. AFAIC, we've basically lost another zone, one that had a lot of backstory (and current-story) potential.

Uses:
1. Fulfilling a customer request. (Yes, we asked for walk.)
2. RP.

Wouldn't argue about a badge, though. Wouldn't care, either, to be perfectly honest (I don't chase badges,) but it wouldn't hurt to exist.

Seconding this. And anyone that tells you something "has" to be hero or villain (epic ATs aside, and even they can switch after level 20) can blow it out their tailpipe.

The only reason I'd switch the AT is the priority of getting certain powers - do I want to get the support powers more quickly? Play a defender. Do I want more damage, or more damage choices coming faster? Corruptor.

We're all out of cake, we didn't expect such demand.

Thanks for flying CofE!

That sounds.... weird to me.

I mean, we have a heal-over-time aura in a way (or "anti-damage" aura) in Pain Domination. (Soothing Aura.) Half wonder, if it required new tech, if he didn't just "reinvent the wheel." (Yes, I'm aware SA is a toggle.)

In a who episode?

OK, see if someone recognizes this one:
They're reincarnated, but have "switched" bodies. *And*
The therapist is actually the stuttering child, who killed her and framed him for it.