Tempest_56

When are we looking to do this? Soon(tm) or after I13 hits?

Welcome aboard, Sunstorm. You have no idea how much your mere presence has brightened my day. So a few more questions for you.

1) Are you our red name on a longterm basis, or are you just a temporary lend?

2) In regards to the prestige refund - just to clarify this means we do NOT get prestige back for rebuilding rooms/plots? (I presume so, but it's better not to make assumptions.)

3) Are you exploring, for when pathing is re-enabled, presenting SGs the option to opt for raidability (and thus stricter pathing restrictions) or to opt out (and keep the looser pathing)? This is more a cautionary question - forcing bases into a stricter pathing setup after we've come to enjoy the current is likely to be received poorly. Please keep that in mind for the future - we try to be calm and peaceful here, so avoiding an uproar is to everyone's advantage.

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1) How will the repricing of bases affect you personally?

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Noticeably. It opens up several nice avenues for my small-to-medium SGs. However, it has a much smaller impact than other changes, such as the revised pathing/stacking restrictions.

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2) Will you dismantle your base to gain the additional prestige from the repricing?

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Yes, but only coincidentally. I'm rebuilding for the sake of rebuilding because of the new options open, not because of cheaper prices.

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3) How long would this process take you if you were to engage in this practice?

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Highly varied. My smallest base, I'm probably going to put in ~5 hours of work-time. The largest, unknown. That one's a team effort, but we're likely to log easily over 100 hours of collective time on it.

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4) What are the positive and negative concerns regarding repricing?

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Positive: The plot reductions are the biggest change. Additionally, the drop for defense-capable rooms (particularly the pure Defense rooms) opens up a lot of possibilities. The ability to use a 1x1 to create an extended hall alone opens up excellent possibilities.

Negative: The jump from Oversight to a more full base is still rather daunting. The price for the Basic Generator remains a very significant chunk of change. The change of the larger decorative rooms from a flat price to a scaling one is a bit uncomfortable, particularly the extreme changes in the largest.

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5) How will this feature affect you long term and short term?

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Short term: Extra expansion room for decorating.

Long term: It opens up the ability for my smallest SG to hop right into a nearly maximum functioning PvE base. So long term, there's not much need for ANY SG I'm in to gather prestige.

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1) What is the negative effect on your base for this feature implementation?

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Others have said it much better than I. Primarily that it shifts base-related crafting from a painless group activity to a competition between group and self. Previously SG members could contribute freely without harming themselves. Now they have to lose (and sometimes lose significantly), making them more reluctant and placing the weight instead on the base builder's shoulders.

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2) What is the positive effect on your base for this feature implementation?

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None.

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3) How long will it take you to adjust to learning this new system?

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Already adjusted. It's not a hard change, just somewhat senseless.

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4) What side effects to this system do you currently see from transitioning the old to new system?

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Salvage storage is now worthless. It's too small to be of any real use. It also means crafting base items is more expensive and that weight is no longer spread among the SG members. It's now a PITA.

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5) What security concerns do you have regarding this change?

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High. The security controls for base storage is underwhelming and always has been. We've been asking for updates and improvements to it since it came out. We have many threads discussing it already, you should try reading some of them.

I'd just like a bed that doesn't look like a torture device. And a friggin' refridgerator.

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Again...... Just get rid of COV at this point and roll back to COH at issue3. No pvp, no ed, no io's, no gdn...... no [censored] any of it. Because seriously folks.. anything after was an"after' thought.

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No Faultline, Croatoa, RWZ, Cimerora, or Shadow Shard. The loss of somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 missions and 8 task forces.
A quarter of the costume options, including no body scale sliders and no weapon customization.
Useless 'everything run away' fear powers.
Frequently being perma-held/slept/stunned by minions from level 20 forward.
No Archery, Trick Arrow, Sonic Resonance, Sonic Blast, Cold Domination, Thermal Radiation, Plant Control, Willpower, or Dual Blades.
Full outdoor debt, and from level 5. Oh, and no debt protection in rezzes. And a higher debt cap.
No Scanner missions or Safeguards.
No travel power at level 5.
Loss of most of the inherent powers (including Containment and Defiance)
Blaster HP and damage dropped significantly.
Old, sucktastic MoG.
Increased NPC to-hit rates.
Old, sucktastic defense calculations.
No SG bases, including teleporters or storage.
No Pocket D or Ouroboros to shorten travel times, either.
No Vet Rewards.
Much more XP needed per level, particularly in 'slow' parts of the game.
Smaller cap on inf transfers
No tram lines in southern Skyway or Founder's Falls.
No Flashbacks.
No Real Numbers.

Yeah. All fluff.

Even if they do go higher - it's still a pittance compared to what we pay now.

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Honestly, with all of the chaos going on with the changes happening to PvP, APP/PPP, Merits, Leveling Pacts, ect. I really feel like I'd still get no reply.

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Counterpoint: If you don't give it an attempt, you're assured of getting no reply. Which would you rather have, a 1% or a 0% chance?

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I don't believe the Merit System has been FULLY explained. If I were to do the Sharkhead SF, would I get the 25 Merits? Regardless of the time I did it in? Or would I have to do it in.... carry the three, sqaure the 4..... 2 hours? To get the 25 merits? If I did it in 1 hour, do I only get 14 Merits?

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No, you get 25. It's a mis-read that several people have made. The number of merits are STATIC. How the devs decided how much each SF/arc is worth is based off the average completion time. That's where the time comes in. You get the same number of merits if you complete it in an hour, in two hours, in ten hours or in ten minutes. The whole x minutes = y merits thing only matters to people who like knowing the mechanics behind the scenes (and even then it's pretty vague).

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Because if this stuff is now no longer tied to random drops, what is the market for?

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Getting the salvage. This may play havoc with the market, but as a player I love it. The number of merits it'll cost me to get the IOs I want will, in most cases, be cheaper than buying them with inf on the market currently. As a player, I couldn't care less if the market for Pool C and D IOs collapses and falls into the ocean - I have access to a much more reliable method of getting them now. I'll probably still use the market for salvage and for Pool A and B IOs (so as not to waste merits on things more easily available), but as a buyer not a seller - this looks like a good change for me.

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Say it ain't so, Posi?!

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It ain't so. Read the rest of the thread.

Hm.

Good: Massive drop in many costs, particularly rooms and plots. That plus the rent adjustment means I can safely upgrade my small stuff. I've had a tiny SG or two that's been restricted to just the free plot - plenty in the bank, but not enough consistently coming in to overcome rent. These changes mean I can safely go whole-hog in spending, since I can recoup the rent costs in one or two casual missions. Also, the relaxed pathing restrictions (once they're fixed) are a big bonus.

Bad: The reduction of empowerment buffs to 15 minutes is absolutely stupid. As is the expense of some of the recipes. They're already underused. If you're going to just make them even less appealing, devs, eliminate them. And many of the other new recipes are.. not smart. You're asking for overly expensive salvage, which makes our jobs unduly more difficult.

Ugly: I understand that Brainstorms are really just a stopgap to give us a way to drain our overabundant reserves of base salvage, but c'mon. It could be done more simply and easily. This is overly complex, and for no reason.

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Looks like 2 3-part arcs for each side? Hmmmm... I hope I'm wrong here, I was kinda hoping for more...

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I read it differently - three arcs per side. A start, a middle and an end arc. So...

I8: 4 new arcs
I9: 1 new arcs (+1 TF)
I10: 5 new arcs (+1 TF)
I11: 5 new arcs
I12: 6 new arcs (+1 TF)
I13: Projected 6 new arcs

I'm not seeing this as being out of whack. It's more than we've gotten in four of the last five issues. (Heck, I12 only technically beats it - one of those arcs is Senator Decimus, who's arc contains no actual missions, and the two Origin of Powers arcs which have only one real mission each.)

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Cyborg Sphere is totally going to inspire some Samus Aran clones lol

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Now now, some of us already had them and are just happy for better costume pieces.

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However, I am curious to know... what is it about electric armor that's bad for stalkers?

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Short version:
- Pure resistance set on an AT that works better with defense
- No safety net - no mez, no heal, no escape button. If stuck in a position that where the resistance doesn't cut it, there's absolutely zero to fall back on.
- Heavily hurt by the low stalker HP and resistance caps. (Elec works fine on brutes, sure. But brutes have a 90% resistance cap and several hundred more HP.)
- Poor utility - all it really has is endurance recovery, but that doesn't come until far too late to consider skipping Stamina. Sure, there's LR, but SR has Quickness and is better in pretty much every way.
- Does nothing that another stalker set doesn't already do better.

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Doesn't sound like a good idea to me. An easy solution would be for them to maybe say, "Hey guys, we have this idea here <insert new idea> and we hope it will make it in game, but no promises. We are currently testing it." It's that simple.


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They've tried this - it has not worked. At all. See: 3 issues per year. It references Posi saying, roughly, "Our goal is three issues per year". That's it. Nothing set in stone, no 'we will', just a general idea of their target. Now look at the absolute explosion of responses where people have voiced everything from general disappointment to outright threats to leave over a third party giving unofficial rumors that there may only be two issues this year.

They're smart to play it close to the vest. We're kept pretty well informed, compared to most playerbases. But in the past announcing stuff before it was ready has gotten the devs burned over and over. Any amount of bad from them not announcing stuff is nothing compared to the huge flak they catch for announcing something then not delivering on-time.

Edit: Another example - check out what Castle's said in the dominator forum in regards to potential changes to Domination. He's made absolutely clear that it's just an idea for a good distance in the future, and will undergo significant debate and changes before it ever sees the servers. I can guarantee you that in three months, that statement will be getting thrown around as gospel of a change 'any day now'. That's how it always goes.

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What I am just furious about is the secrecy about the future of the game. WHY does it have to be such a secret. You have all these big plans for the game and are working on them already. So why can't we know what they are?

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Because we're jerks, basically. Look at the past. Sometimes they've had big plans that didn't work out. Without fail, we as players take them to curb over it. The CoP is a prime example of this. It was a big plan they had that didn't work out. And because we got told about it ahead of time, there are a significant number of people complaining about it three years later. They don't want to tell us more until they're sure that what they're planning will work. If they tell us and it doesn't, it's a sure-fire recipe for dissatisfied players who will complain about it for years to come.

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Ahem... while it may not "speak volumes" why are there less subscibers now than a year ago? Especially given we players are getting such a "great deal" now from the new and improved NCNC.

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Because that's how MMO subscriptions work. Outside WoW (which is such a ridiculous outlier it isn't even funny), MMO subscriptions go down over time. There's the occasional upswing (usually at the apperance of a new box on shelves), but those are temporary. People play, and stop when they complete all the content/find a shinier new thing/run out of money/et al. It's just how the genre works.

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Just as a standing rule, PMs from me can generally be quoted and put up on the forums.

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And that, Castle, is part of why we love you.

(And abuse you, but that's just one of the ways we show our love.)

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Does this mean you'll finally put a stop to those annoying, non-constructive "first" posts?

*crosses fingers*

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I fully support this. I cringe each time I see a completely pointless 'First post after a red name' post. Please, please put those in as "nonconstructive" and put an end to it.

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Will those of us who purchased City of Villains and the additional content actually receive some sort of "game" compensation for what have essentially become redundant purchases?

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I'm shocked people are even considering such things.

Comparison: You buy a new game - game #1. Three years down the line, the game company starts to give away game #1 as a free bonus to those who order game #2. Would you, as a customer who ordered game #1 demand compensation?

Or this - Command and Conquer, Marathon, Wolfenstein, Tribes and Sim City are all freeware now. Try going to one of the companies who own those and demand a refund for the game you bought a decade ago.

Hint: If you did, they would laugh at you. You bought a product and got several years use out of it. Just because an older product is discounted/used as a free promotion/made freeware does NOT entitle you to compensation. No business model works that way. It would be insane for them to do so.

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hmm sleep...well for one the nictus at the end are archvillains if you are refering to the three at the end and they are immune to that.

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Calling BS on this, as it's pretty widely known that the purple triangles provide no resistance to sleep and immobilize. Plus I've seen Surveillance screenshots outright showing the Nictus have no sleep resistance. (And yes, I HAVE done the ITF.)

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I'm a 45 month Veteran-
I have to give the new Hollows a thumbs down. Mishes close together? The second mish i got was across the map vs. CoT.
YEA Circle of Thorns the group EVERY SINGLE PLAYER I KNOW IN THE GAME HATES - do a poll!!! YAY lets give the players more CoT!!! YAY!! CoT are SO much fun at low levels!!!

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You do realize that they didn't change any of the missions (aside from door locations), right? Aside from the random missions you can pick up from Meg - who's entirely optional.

Actually, now that I think of it I've never gotten a CoT mission from Meg. And the ONLY CoT mission you get from the normal arcs is from Talshak - the last mission from the last contact. And I think that's been at the same door for forever. So... you're complaining about a three and a half year old mission that wasn't touched in I12. Good work.

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It was Positron who said it if I recall correctly. And he is still around.

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I thought it was Geko? Either way, seriously. It's been several years. The horse is dead. If it was going to happen, we would already have gotten the apology. It's a distraction and a detriment to the list as a whole to have it focused on bug fixes and balance issues, and to stick in one single instance of a non-mechanical, non-balance issue that's years past and really of a fairly minor note.

Should we have gotten an apology? Sure. Would it be nice to still get one? Sure. Does demanding one belong in a list of balance issues? No.

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It appears Defenders Ranged_Knockback modifier is higher than Blasters. Power Push for example is about 16 knockback for Defenders, and 13 knockback for Blasters.

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That is very interesting. And I remember the same thing - no AT supposedly has a higher KB mod than any other.

[ QUOTE ][*]Quality of Life: Detention Field's graphic needs to be more obvious -- currently teammates can't tell when an enemy is detained and waste attacks on it. Are there any plans to either make the graphic more obvious, or to otherwise make it more difficult to waste attacks on a DF'd enemy?"Detention Field" float text was added, is this enough of a change to remove this?

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It's an improvement, but the graphics are still far too low for such a major effect to team play.

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[*]Quality of Life : Neither Erratic nor the Defender community have been given an apology, formal or informal, for the Developer behavior regarding the I5 Enervating Field changes. Still worth mentioning?

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It's been almost three years. I don't even think Erratic is around anymore, and half the dev team of that era is gone. There's no point in holding a grudge like this.