Tutara

Not really, no. Content first. Revamped content is fine.

'Wow, I may have run out of stuff to do but these newspaper missions are really gramatically correct' is an example of something I don't see myself saying.

He's not meant to be. He's actually a pretty horrific figure, in the proper sense of the word. An idiot kid with far too much power for his own good, treating people like they're part of some game he's playing? Particularly when you realise who he is.

First Ward is cracking stuff, ambushes and all. First time in a long while this game's story has actually interested me, and the more stuff like this and the less 'go to 4 identical offices in a row and fight a bunch of chaps waiting about pounding their fists' the better.

In my humble opinion.

NCSoft is Korean.

Played this yesterday. Hell of a scrap, loads of fighting and a map that's not the same office again. What's not to like?

Daily maintenance.

Mercs are an entirely playable set, all the way up to 50. That said, after levelling my first character - a Mercs/Traps - to 50, playing Bots seemed like easy mode.

I like Mercs. I'd certainly like to see them improved, though. Something along the lines of these lads here.

Aye, Slazenger has said as much in his thread. I guess they had to handicap the Defiant players because we're so well spoken and impressive.

Hah, I just made exactly the same thread. I'm Defiant too, so I guess the problem lies there.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? I have put in a support ticket, but was wondering if this was a known issue.

I am currently a subscribing player - until the middle of October. I have 10 Paragon reward tokens, which are visible via thr Paragon Rewards button on the character select screen. I can log in with my MM and Controller characters, as one would expect for a VIP, and none of my character slots have been locked.

However, when I do log in with a character, all my reward tokens disappear and I become, to all extents and purposes, a Free player - no reward tokens, no Auction House, no chatting on global channels etc. This has only just happened now, following the maintenance today.

Anyone else in this situation?

I don't see myself playing this game regularly for the next three months, and paying for enough points to get to tier 5, even with the bonus token thrown in, defeats the point of the exercise as a budget option - it's still going to cost me £40.

I return intermittently to COH, but there really isn't enough to the game for me to justify paying the equivalent of the cost of a brand new game just to have the option of playing the characters I enjoy when the mood takes me. £10 is fine.

It's all good.

Thanks for the replies. I'd thought maybe to buy one month's VIP at £8.99 to earn the token to get me to tier 5, but if it's uncertain I may just buy the 1200 points to be sure, and spend them on the unlock if needs be.

I am at tier 4 of the Paragon Reward scheme, currently. I have completely filled in all the tokens for tier 4, so that's 8 tokens in total.

If I receive one more token, do I then become tier 5? Or do I need to complete the tier 5 rewards (i.e. earn 5 more tokens) to qualify?

I ask because when I go to Premium I wish to play my MM characters, and I'd like to know if I need to spend £10.50 for 1 token or over £50 for 5 in order to do so as a Premium. Obviously if it's the latter, I'll spend 1 token on unlocking the archetype.

Cheers.

This is a brilliant arc - funny, written in character and it develops some interesting ideas from canon. Well deserved.

I would not buy a base booster pack.

I think the resources could be better spent on something with more widespread appeal. Bases do not interest me, and I find the business of building them laborious and unrewarding. The only time I bother to do so is for my Hero characters, due to the lack of crafting benches in the vicinity of the hero-side markets.

My suggestions would be:

Apex/Tinmage:

1. Enemies drop threads during these Task Forces. Only characters with the Alpha slot unlocked can gain Incarnate Threads.

2. No iXP is earnt in these Task Forces.

2. Completion rewards 1 Empyrean Merit/1 Astral Merit if the same Task Force is completed again within a 20 hour period. This replaces the current Threads reward.

3. Completion of the 'Master Of' objectives each reward a single Astral merit, in the same manner that completing the 'Master Of' objectives for a Trial reward Astral merits.

Rationale: Apex and Tinmage both require the same amount of time as a Trial, and are designed to challenge Incarnates. Trials are still the only way to earn Incarnate XP or to obtain Incarnate Components without resorting to threads, but this provides smaller groups of 8 a chance to earn threads/merits as well.

Solo Content:


Use the Tip mission format and create a series of 'Incarnate Tips'. Incarnate Tips begin to drop from enemies in the same manner as normal tips once a character has unlocked the Alpha slot.

1. Enemies drop threads during Incarnate Tip Missions. Only characters with the Alpha slot unlocked can gain Incarnate Threads. Incarnate Tip missions should be tougher than standard level 50 content, and should involve suitably challenging goals and opponents.

2. No iXP is earnt in these missions, only inf.

3. Successful completion of an Incarnate Tip mission rewards a single Astral Merit.

4. In the same manner as normal tips fill up an alignment meter, Incarnate tips provide Incarnate fame points that fill up a meter representing the Well's interest in the character. Maximum of 5 points of Incarnate fame per 24 hours. Once the character has 10 points of Incarnate fame, the character may take a special final mission that rewards an Empyrean merit on completion (in the same way that a morality mission rewards a Villain or Hero merit). The meter is then rest to 0 again.

Rationale: This is a slower method of progression than the Incarnate trials or task forces, and pure soloists are limited to one Empyrean merit per two days. It is, however, far quicker than the current solo option. It also provides a good framework for proactive characters to seek out the Well's power rather than requiring a network of new contacts and mission arcs.

What could be more heroic than torching the cowardly sheep that refuse to stand up against the evil Tyrant and his loyalist thugs? Burn them all, sow salt and be sure to remember to laugh uproariously just before the ending credits. Everyone's a hero!

Bonus points for any pre-explosion puns - anything about 'over-reacting' is likely to be gold.

Demons -> Elementals (So rocks animated by ice, fire or hellfire as appropriate)
Demons -> Acolytes (Evil wizards in shady robes, with ominous latin chanting as standard)

Robots -> Power-armoured stormtroopers with laser rifles and high-tech weapons (The Assault Bot replacement gets a Heavy IDF backpack to play with)
Robots -> Steampunk Automatons (a la Nemesis)

Zombies -> Mutants (puking, deformed monstrosities with a hyper-evolved brainmutant in place of the lich)

Mercs -> Guerrilas (Headbands, ammo belts and revolutionary slogans)
Mercs -> Stormtroopers (Goggles, gasmasks and sleek body armour)

Thugs -> Agents (Think Crey's PR goons)
Thugs -> Wiseguys (Pinstripes and tommyguns for the Enforcers)

This would, of course, be optional as detailed in the original post.

Having the option to automate the process (by choice, rather than default) was intended purely for the convenience of those who did wish to run it at all times.

This is by no means a Heroes only thing - I rarely play Blueside myself - but having a dedicated NPC in every zone would have to be implemented and there aren't any obvious analogues Redside so new NPCs would have to be created. Blueside you have those redundant Security Chiefs and the Hazard Zone informants, both of whom probably get a little lonely and could do with an injection of relevance.

I love a lot of the zones that sadly I seem to outlevel in about twenty minutes nowadays thanks to the adjusted levelling curve. Wandering into Dark Astoria for the first time, only to be confronted by less-than-terrifying grey enemies, is a real shame.

I could turn off my XP, but being stuck permenantly at a suitable level for one zone then discounts me from entering others - or rather entering others and surviving for more than ten seconds. Also, and call me strange, but I rather like to progress when playing this game - the I16 change that you can earn XP whilst mentored is superb and is what got me thinking about this suggestion.

It would be wonderful if there was a mechanism that allowed you to automatically mentor down to a zone appropriate level whenever you were outside in a zone - particularly for the ex-Hazard zones.

Have an NPC - perhaps the Hazard zone information officers? - that gives a player the option to attune themself to a suitable level for the zone they are in, or alternatively an option that does so automatically (with the same prompt set-up as super sidekicking).

So if you are in Dark Astoria you get mentored down to 20-29 (depending on your difficulty setting - if your'e running at +5, say, then you get mentored to 24) whilst outside for example, but return to your real level if you have a mission to run there. All the usual mentor rules apply, as per I16. In teams, the leader sets whether or not to "zonekick".

Note that this would only allow people to mentor down. You would need to be a higher level than the zone to use this feature, or in a team led by someone of a high enough level.

It's currently possible to McGuyver this using Flashbacks - I would simply like a more accessible method of achieving this to be implemented.