StrykerX

Short answer: most of the actual "game" is server-side and not preset in the code you install on your computer. The client just translates raw data into pretty pictures and lets you tell the game what you want to do... all the actual movement, power use, inventory management, AI, etc... happens on the server. That means any attempt to make a single-player version would require recoding the server software to directly interface with the client instead of connecting over the net, and would significantly increase system requirements. And by "significantly" I mean you'd need your own blade server to run the game...

Alternatively, a ton of recoding to scale the server software down to single player levels and integrate it with the client so it can run on a normal PC... which would probably take about half the work of writing a new game from scratch.

NCSoft may have done a lot for us in the past, but they also shut down Paragon Studios and tossed all of their employees out the door without notice. They didn't just decide to close down the game, they fired everyone on the spot and shut down everything but the actual servers without notice. That isn't something I'm prepared to forgive... not just because I'm mad that the game is ending, but because I feel for the entire studio of people who showed up to work on August 31 only to find out that they no longer had a job.

Maybe that's normal procedure for large scale layoffs. I neither know nor care. I just know that I would be angry with any corporation who did it ("everyone else does it" is not a valid reason for being total jerks) and when it also means my favorite MMO is going away, then yes... I'm even madder.

I'd stay, though losing all of my veteran rewards would be annoying. I might not stay if I lost the various powersets I'd purchased though, particularly if they remained in the game and the only way to get them was to purchase them again. I would hope that if for some reason all of the data on who had bought what was lost, then all of the permanent purchases like new power sets, costumes, and extra enhancement slots would be given to everyone rather than forcing those who had bought them to repurchase.

The way I look at it NCSoft proved themselves to be:

A) heartless bastards

and

B) idiots

and as such I have little desire to support them in the future. Shutting down an entire studio with one day's notice? That is, quite frankly, inexcusable. It may well be common practice in large corporations, but if a lot of other heartless bastards do the same thing it does not make it any more acceptable. And shutting down a studio that was still making money was, quite bluntly, stupid in the extreme. Yes, NCSoft lost money last quarter. Boo hoo. They had a ton of one-off expenses and any sane company would simply accept the losses and wait for the investments to pay off. Instead, NCSoft apparently chose to look like they were "doing something" just to pacify investors, but any corporation that prioritizes quarterly (or annual) reports over long term profitability is stupid beyond belief. All too many of them do exactly that, but the fact is that it hurts them in the long term... and often the executives don't care, because they consider looking good and getting their fat bonuses more important than actually making the company stronger.

So bottom line... NCSoft acted like a typical greedy, stupid corporation and made a knee-jerk reaction to try to spin a bad quarterly report. Are they any worse than many other corporations? Nope... plenty of them do the same things. Except that this particular stupid knee-jerk reaction killed my favorite MMO, so I'm mad. And because I'm mad, I'm going to do my small part to screw over the corporation that pissed me off... meaning that I won't be buying any future NCSoft products and I'll be bad-mouthing them to my friends and anyone else who will listen. Not because it's the right thing to do or from some moral high ground, but because I'm mad and want payback. It's just that simple.

I've got a lifetime sub to Champions (worst purchase I ever made, in hindsight) so I might give that another try, but otherwise I'll be sticking to single player games for a while. There just aren't any other MMOs out there that really appeal to me now...

The OP might also be talking about the Zephyr KB IO, which is more expensive but saves you a slot if you drop it in a travel power (assuming you aren't planning to enhance the travel power for speed or endurance). I believe that one is purchasable with A-merits, and if you are planning a mostly-SO build with just a -KB IO then running tips to confirm your alignment and doing a couple of SSA missions might actually be faster than collecting 75 merits for a Steadfast if you don't do TFs. (Obviously that doesn't apply if you've done enough story arcs to already have 75 merits...)

Though if you aren't going to be buying other IOs I'd just purchase a -KB recipe off the market... 200 mil is more than enough to get even a Zephyr and still afford all the SOs you need. Though on a Fire/Dark Tanker I'd strongly suggest also doing tips and SSAs to snag the Miracle and Numina's recovery uniques, because that will really help your endurance if you aren't using set bonuses. Personally I'd just frankenslot everything and end up with 8-9 SOs worth of enhancement per power for around 10 million inf, but that's just me... if you don't want to fool with the market SOs do work just as well as they ever did.

Making it a toggle is a great idea... they could make it like Phase Shift or Steam Jump, where it automatically detoggles after so many seconds (whatever the current duration is) but you could turn it off early if needed.

Really, anything with a targeted AoE plus /Fire is good. Electric Blast isn't that good for AoE damage but it does have a decent TAoE so Electric/Fire works well. Rad is probably the absolute best to pair with /Fire simply because it has both a TAoE and a PBAoE, but Fireball is one of the highest DPA AoE attacks so Fire/Fire is also very nice. Beam/Fire would probably be the worst fit, since Beam has redraw and lacks a targeted AoE outside of its mini-nuke (which can't be used every spawn even on a top end build).

I love the Leaping pool. My personal take on the powers:

Combat Jumping - Fantastic in-combat mobility, immobilize protection, a bit of defense, and a place to drop another LotG recharge and / or a Kismet 6% to hit IO, and it costs virtually no endurance to run. Pretty much my go-to power for non-fliers when I want a place for a Kismet.

Super Jump - My favorite travel power for general use. Plenty of vertical mobility plus very good speed means it's usually the fastest way to get around aside from teleport and it works much better than teleporting indoors. Afterburner is faster, but that requires a second power pick and can't be turned on and off repeatedly. Super Speed is faster in wide open zones, but being able to jump across rooftops instead of running around buildings usually makes SJ faster in most places. Plus you get to play the "try to get from point A to point B without ever touching the ground" minigame to make travel less boring...

Jump Kick - Pretty much sucks, just like all the basic pool attacks that aren't Air Superiority. It isn't completely useless like Flurry though, so if you need extra damage on a Controller or something it can be semi-useful.

Acrobatics - Kind of endurance heavy but very handy on some squishies. The KB protection can be had easily enough from IOs but Acrobatics also protects against a single hold. On a character with high defense and no mez protection that can be huge since things aren't too likely to land a second hold before the first wears off. If you just want KB protection I'd go with IOs though.

Spring Attack - Very fun though only semi-useful since it really doesn't hit that hard. I like it for adding some extra AoE to single target focused melee characters like my Bane Spider, but if you already have decent AoE it's kind of redundant unless you want it for thematic reasons.

Fire and Beam Rifle are the best primaries for ST damage... Fire has Blaze (the highest DPA attack a Blaster can get) but also has a slightly weaker than normal tier 2 blast, and Beam Rifle has the extra damage from Disintegration plus a full strength tier 2. Of course the absolute best ST damage a Blaster can do comes from mixing Blaze in with high DPA melee attacks (Fire/Electric is probably top of the list) but for ranged ST damage Beam Rifle is also a contender on hard targets.

Ice Blast is a pretty hard hitting ST set since it has full damage tier 1 and 2 attacks and one of the best tier 3s that isn't Blaze. I'd rank it 3rd on hard targets and 2nd (just behind Fire) on things that will die before Disintegration really matters when it comes to pure ranged ST damage. /Ice is pretty middle of the road on damage, but it has lots of mitigation to help you stay standing in melee so that's something. Ice/Ice isn't going to do as much ST damage as an /Electric or /Energy Blapper or a Fire Blaster with a secondary that has decent melee if survival isn't an issue, but it will outdo most everything else (probably including Beam Rifle once melee is factored in, since Beamers can't mix in melee attacks without redraw penalties lowering their DPS) and will be able to use melee in situations where most Blasters couldn't.

Maybe Titan Weapons are coated in Flubber and gain energy every time they hit something?

I remember that Titan Weapons leak... we were chatting in one of the Virtue global channels and someone noticed that Titan Weapons were up in the store. The funny part was that a dev was playing on his personal account and happened to be in that channel and he immediately switched to his dev account and yanked it from the store, which is why it was only up for a very short time.