Valerian

[ QUOTE ]

* Suggested length 1000 - 2000 words.
NOTE: If your writing is very good, I will consider longer pieces (or breaking them up). But long pieces will still likely be published in 1000 - 2000 word parts, so some sense of rhythm and dynamic pacing is very important. Likewise, the longer the piece is, honestly, the less chance I'll have to read it thoroughly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yikes. Well, I just blew through that limit with my Icy Peach origin story I just sent in. It starts slow, but it picks up once Jenny gets to Paragon and meets her first Winter Lord.

If you see mine (it starts with "Winter, 2004" and Jenny not wanting to take her brother to the mall on Christmas Eve), skip down to the first secion break and start reading there. Yeah, it could lose a lot of the stuff in that first section, but there's some foreshadowing that pays off later in the story.

(If anyone else is interested in reading the whole thing, click on the link in my sig, and look for the Hero Origins topic in our forums, and then look for "Becoming Icy" in the list of post threads.)

[ QUOTE ]
I'm going against the general concensus here, but I kind of liked the fact that I wasn't able to go through every contact I had available to me. In each zone, my main toon did certain contacts, and right from there, went onto the referred contact (in this case, Mr. Bocor/Radio). Since I missed out on the other two contacts, I feel as though I actually have a different way of taking my next character. I'll pick as many different contacts as possible. It'll keep things interesting, and though it might take longer than usual, I'll still be able to see most of the content at my own pace.

[/ QUOTE ]

How about a choice, then? You can do things your way, those who want to see it all can still do so. You might have to do more street hunting if you want to keep outlevelling content, but those of us who want to see it all, can.

[ QUOTE ]
Hey gang,



We are going to implement a couple changes to make this better. The early brokers will only require 3 missions and 1 heist to introduce a new contact. In addition, if a group completes a broker mission everyone on the team will get credit toward a heist that will lead to a new contact introduction. This should help keep you from leveling out of content. Just like in City of Heroes, if you start a Story Arc in City of Villains you will always be allowed to finish it—even if you outlevel it. If you miss a contact entirely, you can still Exemplar with a less experienced hero who has the correct Story Arc assigned to him or her in order to hunt down any pesky badges you may have missed.



Cheers,

Sean

[/ QUOTE ]

Outstanding! So, this means that any broker mission undertaken by a team will count towards filling that broker bar, regardless of whether the missions match? If so, Great!

Heck, yeah.

And I often say, out loud, as I stand over the corpse with a clawed hand extended "Because I can."

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Other mobs can break my placate on another target. Or that a mob can attack while placate is animating, still be placated and I lose my chance for a crit.

[/ QUOTE ]
Any more detail on this so I can get QA to try and replicate it for me? Are there certain critters that do this, or is it a general case? Do any special circumstances need to be met?

[/ QUOTE ]

What generally seems to happen is that, while you're going through the placate animation, the enemy hits you. They're placated, but I'm not hidden any more. It's hard to describe, but it definitely does happen.

On another issue - Assassin's strikes are supposed to be 120% of normal accuracy, right? (Whatever that actually means). In any case, there's a pretty substantial ACC bonus when you use it. (And I think it should actually be higher, considering that the target doesn't even know you're there, and is taking no defensive actions at all. I feel I should never have more than a 5% chance of missing with an AS - and even that feels a little high.)

I've been missing with mine. A LOT. Feels like about half the time, but is probably really only 1/4 of the time. This is against whites - about 40% of the misses, and yellows, about 60% of the misses. Because I'm trying desperately to have enough for a full set of DO's when I hit 12, I haven't bought a single enhancement the whole time I've played my villain, and he's up to 10 now. He has ACC slotted in the AS, but it's just an 8++ TO, so it's an even-level white enh.

Does this sound right? What *should* the accuracy % be against a white minion, with an 8++ ACC TO, with an AS? What *should* the accuracy % be against a yellow minion with an 8++ ACC TO?

You'll be missed!

Always liked the background pieces you wrote about people like Azuria and the City rep. Even incorporated them into some stories I wrote for some of my characters. Having that kind of background detail always makes stories written against that background more real.

Good luck on whatever it is you're gonna be doing!

[ QUOTE ]
Just because you're in SG mode doesn't mean you automatically get Prestige. You still have to do things.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whatever happened to influence being what paid the rent on SG bases??? When did that change?

You know, this whole idea of "prestige" would be all well and good - if the limits on SG membership weren't so low.

Take my SG. We have 250 characters owned and played by all the players who have a main character in the SG. We all pretty much consider all of our characters to be members of the SG, thanks to the advent of Global Chat.

But - we have to divide our characters up into several smaller SG's so they'll all fit, thanks to that ridiculous 75 character membership limit. We have one SG for our retired L50s. One for our current "most played" characters, our mains. Another for our various alts. And probably one or two more I'm forgetting.

Some suggestions to make this work better, and be more fair to good, active SG's:

-Bump the limit on SG membership up to about 500 or so

-Make membership in the SG by *PLAYER*, not character, and bump the limit up to about 100 or so.

-Allow coalitions among related SGs - maybe a new coalition mode of some kind - such that all members of all SG's in the coalition contribute to the prestige number. I understand how this could be abused, so perhaps it's not such a great idea. Maybe limit the coalitions to SG's that were all registered to the same player. Or limit the number of SG's to 5 or so.

I can certainly understand your frustration trying to build a team for the Respec trial. It can be difficult to put together a good team, for the reasons you state. A few options that come to mind:

Join a good SG, and then draw from among the membership to do the respec. Some SG's are fairly stringent in who they accept, striving to get good players who work well together. (Notice that I said "players", not characters.)

Read the forums for whichever server you're on, see if someone's trying to put together a team at a time that's good for you, at levels that are good for you.

Post on the forums for whichever server you're on, and try to create your own team that way. I've seen this method work for people quite often.

Scour the Find Member lists, sending polite tells to people who are of similar levels, asking them if they're interested in doing the respec trial. One of my best experiences doing this trial was when someone sent me a tell, asking if I was interested. I joined a team with two other tanks, a blaster, and a defender. We plowed through with only 3 deaths the whole time.

You don't *have* to do the respec trial as soon as you ding 24. In fact, I'd wait another 2-4 levels, unless you're just horribly unhappy with your build. You'll have another couple of powers to work with, as well as some more slots to enhance your powers. You might also improve your chances of finding people who are able to do the trial.

Some general respec trial advice: Keep the team to 6 or under, unless you can build the *perfect* team - and you'll find as many definitions of a perfect team as there are players in the game. Increasing team size bumps up the level of the spawns, the number of bosses, and the number of the other spawns, as well.

Keep all the damage dealers the same level. You're correct in how the respec trial spawns, level-wise. Controllers should also be the same level as the damage dealers, but can be one below. Your healer can be two levels below, as they'll be focusing their energies on their teammates. Anyone 3 levels below should be SK'd. Exemplars are OK, but be warned that if they or their anchor loses connection for *ANY* reason, you'll lose the exemplared character.

There are many team compositions and sizes that can succeed. A *lot* of how well you'll do will depend on the players far more than whatever characters they play.

[ QUOTE ]

Team play is a big part of the content in my opinion. If it's not content you enjoy, you shouldn't be forced to do it, but I don't think it's reasonable to complain that you can't do everything a team can do (I mean that as a general observation, I'm not implying that anyone specific is complaining). Teaming up adds a lot of variability to the game. If you're solo, the only variability you get is the villain type for the most part. On a team, a whole slew of new tactics become available depending on who's on the team and what powers they've got, and it (at least for me) is a completely different experience than the same mission with a different team.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ain't *that* the truth. I've been working on my ice/ff controller lately, and have two friends of similar levels. I've done a mission involving Mr. Po twice now.
Once, I was teamed with two scrappers, and once it was solo. The tactical differences are definitely significant.

With the scrappers, my main task was to keep them bubbled, lay down the ice slick, and seek-and-lockdown the sorceror first, then any ink men, and once they were dispatched, attack whoever else was around that they weren't busy with. We cleared the whole mission - partly because we could, and partly because it was fun to do so. I did manage to get killed once, but that was mostly my own fault. Couldn't get a spirit locked down as it charged me, and it stunned me with the hand-clap, and then took me down with a couple other shots before I could do anything. The scrappers were occupied with their fights, with sorcerors and ink men stunning them, so they couldn't get to me in time.

When I was solo, I put on the personal force field, turned on sprint and combat jumping, popped a discipline, and raced to the end to face Po and just the mobs around him. Once I got that done, I went after the blinkies, trying to avoid fighting as much as possible, because it's just so darned slow with an ice/ff controller in the high teens.

Same exact mission, same exact level, very different experiences.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'd love to see a way to completely turn off XP gain, so as to be able to see and do it all with any given character.

[/ QUOTE ]

But, there is. Exemplar. Your level will never advance with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's great, if you can find someone to exemplar to, who happens to be the right level, and who is willing to just follow you around and do your missions to the exclusion of their own ability to experience their own content. That's hardly fair, to expect someone to do that, is it? And I'd much rather be running around doing my own stuff than spending my limited playing time trying to find someone who wants to do this.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Character concepts are few and far between for me. I don't just close my eyes and randomly click on archetypes, powers, or costumes. Every character I create - and I only have 3 - mean something to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

And believe me, I value that! I wish I'd have known, I would have made my characters on the Virtue server.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not saying I do a lot of RPing. Just that my characters have a lot of thought put into them, before I ever even go to the character creation screen.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
And, bottom-line: If you don't want to use Flashback, can't see the point, don't like it, whatever, it's simple. Don't use it. But don't try to take it away from those who *do* want it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't want it *taken away* from those who would use it. I'm saying there are already ways to experience the missions.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not always on your own terms. You have to get lucky and find someone who has the missions/story arc you outlevelled, and exemplar to them. Why should it be that hard? I managed to completely outlevel a whole story arc with my scrapper - the one where you get the Sky Raider jet pack as a temp power. I now have no way to ever get that temp power (except when I4 comes out and I can get it for something like a 2 minute duration, or something, at a high Influence cost), unless and until Flashback is implemented.

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, not enough of the backgroud--I think that was a comment on another thread, or this one?, that everyone in a team needs to be able to read the contact's dialog and clues.

[/ QUOTE ]

This, I can agree with, especially on task forces.

[ QUOTE ]
If they put that in, there's nothing keeping you from exemplaring and experiencing all the missions as if you'd done them the first time through.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree. It's still not your mission. It's still not your story arc. You still don't get the souvenir at the end.

[ QUOTE ]

What I'm actually trying to get at here is not spending devs' time on something not needed. The dialog-clues thing is already needed for other reasons, and it's the only thing I can see missing from this doing old missions thing. Let's have them work on other things.

[/ QUOTE ]

I very firmly believe that the Flashback system IS needed. For all the reasons I posted above, and for scores of other reasons I haven't even thought of. And, besides...the devs are working on it. So, it's all a moot point, anyway. Flashback is coming, whether or not you think the devs should be spending time on it.

[ QUOTE ]


Your exemplar solution does not work for players that prefer to solo.

Krieger

[/ QUOTE ]

Quite right. And I do solo a fair bit, even though I'm in a good SG. I just tend to play about 3/4 of my playing time at times there's not many SG members around.

Hence, Flashback is a great solution.

I want any and all of my characters to be able to do it all, at one time or another. Whether I get myself killed, a lot, and live in perma-debt, hoping I don't outlevel all the content, or do it later with Flashback, I want to see it all, with all of 'em. Or, at the least, have that choice. I'd love to see a way to completely turn off XP gain, so as to be able to see and do it all with any given character. Doesn't mean I'll do and see it all with one character, get them to 50, and then leave. I see myself playing this game for years.

I want to be able to do TF's and trials more than once, with the "I *do* know now what I wished I'd known then" advantage, and not have to worry about getting kicked from the team due to either my own client instability, my own occasional connection issues, or personal/client/connection problems on the part of whoever I'm exemplared to. Some of these things are a hell of a lot of fun. Some are just drop-dead gorgeous to look at, like the Eden trial. I should have to choose to do trials, or do my contact missions, but not both? I don't think so.

I don't want to have to go back and build up a whole new version of Valerian to see Hollows content through the eyes of a young tank. I don't want to have to go back and build up a whole new version of my scrapper alt, just to see Striga content through the eyes of a mid-20s scrapper. I want to take my existing, familiar, fun characters, put them back to where they were then, and see this content through *their* eyes.

Character concepts are few and far between for me. I don't just close my eyes and randomly click on archetypes, powers, or costumes. Every character I create - and I only have 3 - mean something to me. They all have a rich back story. Valerian is the "embodiment" of a Champions character I've played for many years, for instance. I've written stories about my scrapper and controller. Some day, I'll come up with an idea for a 4th character. And a 5th. But don't force me to create a character just to see content. I have no interest in creating and levelling a character just to experience content.

And, bottom-line: If you don't want to use Flashback, can't see the point, don't like it, whatever, it's simple. Don't use it. But don't try to take it away from those who *do* want it.

There's the Numina TF - Only need 4 to start this one. You can't beat "Car on a stick".

There's the Sewer Trial, though you're at the bottom of the level range for it. Great XP, if you can avoid dying. Timed - 90 minutes, once you get past the first "Kill 150 Rikti" portion. Not too hard, if you have a decent team.

Level up to 39, and there's the Eden Trial. That's a very, very cool trial. Can do it in just a couple hours, with the right team. It's timed, with a 4-hour limit. Also lots of debt potential, along with a great deal of XP to be earned.

There's the L34 respec trial. Always folks looking to do that. If you're the right archetype/build, and a very good player, you might even be able to solo it, if you can get three others to start the trial with you and then quit the team. (They *might* have to actually log off, though.)

If you haven't done the extra costume slot and the aura missions, you can do those, too.

You can offer your services to help take out AV's.

Yeah, almost all of this is team content. If you insist on soloing only, you'll be missing out on three of the coolest trials/tf's the game has to offer. I understand it can be hard to find large enough blocks of time to do these things. I have that same issue, being a husband, a father of two, and working a full time job. But at least the first three above are so very much worth it, you should make the effort.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Yeah. How's about you don't screw DragonCon over this year by saying. "Oh by the way...we're not coming to that con next week!" Honestly, after doing that, that should've been the first Con visit you announced.

[/ QUOTE ]

They didn't screw DragonCon. It was more the other way around. There was a posting at the time that explained it in circular language to avoid stepping on people's toes. There are some players here on the boards who know the backstory better than me.

[/ QUOTE ]


Yeah, I heard the story. Frankly I don't believe it. They had only announced DC like 3 weeks before it was scheduled to occur, if that. By that point, DC had already closed their vendor registrations and whatnot. I imagine they got caught outside. In anycase, it's not a matter of who screwed who, it's a matter of trying harder to make sure all of your fans have the chance to get some of the pie.

[/ QUOTE ]

As a former programming track director for Dragon*Con, I can speak with at least some authority as to how the convention operates in terms of guest appearances.

They don't pay speaker fees. They rarely pay travel costs either. Unless you're a big star - lead role in a syndicated series, main cast member of a show like one of the Treks or Stargate, or a main character in a good-sized movie, you'll pay your own way to get there, though they'll pick you up at the airport. Hotel room is usually covered, and sometimes, a relatively small per-diem. Basically, if you can't fill a large room for a panel presentation, they're not going to pay your way to the con, nor pay for you to be there. This, I know for a fact, at least the way it worked when I was with the convention, from my efforts to secure the presence of several of the actors from the show my track was about.

Free dealer tables are almost exclusively out of the question. Autograph tables are provided, but they're not free, either. (This is to the best of my knowledge, as I wasn't very involved in this aspect).

Dragon*Con tries to not announce guests of any kind until they're sure they'll be there, but occasionally, they jump the gun. As you might imagine with a convention that entertains 20,000+ attendees, it requires a rather large volunteer staff, and sometimes, communications among them are not the best, so mistakes happen.

Choose to believe me, or not.

[ QUOTE ]
Our concerns are still present regarding the length of time a person must stay online to completely a taskforce. Our RL friend and I are both physically disabled. We cannot sit for hours and hours straight online. We are frustrated that the taskforce badges will not be possible for us to complete given the current construction of the game.

Heidi Ho (level 26 controller Infinity server) and others

[/ QUOTE ]

If you can put together a team for a TF that doesn't include any RSK'd characters, you can start the TF one day, and finish it the next. The key is to let the other people (those who are not you, your husband and your friend) know, up front, that this is your plan, and get their agreement. It will certainly add to the time it takes to put together a group, I know. It helps a great deal if you're part of an active Super Group, as you can try to recruit from there to fill out your team. Believe me, there are some good ones out there, with a lot of people who are in similar situations as you - disabled, limited playing time, etc. You're hardly unique. If anything, you're probably closer to being the "average" CoH player.

The key is that if you log off during a TF, WITHOUT QUITTING THE TF, you will still be in the TF when you log back on, provided the TF hasn't been completed in your absence. The drawback for those other people you recruit is that they will be unable to do anything except street hunt, or work on TF missions if the log on while the TF is still acitve.

As TF missions scale to current team size, they could, conceivably, finish the TF without you being there, though that's difficult with the later ones, due to the Archvillains present. That's the chance you take, and a chance which is minimized if you recruit people you already know...like from your SG.

So, bottom line, doing TF's is not at all impossible, even if you can only play an hour a day. Yes, it can be very difficult to put together a team for a TF with those conditions, but it's not impossible. And your chances go up significantly if you're in a decent SG.

[ QUOTE ]
I like the proposals. I certainly rarely use the ctrl+num binds, but I do use the shift+num binds quite frequently - as a FF Defender I often spend my time buffing every teammate in order every 4 mins and if I'm chugging back some juice with my mousing hand when that happens, it's nice to be able to do the whole thing on the keyboard. Of course, whatever the change, a player can set their own binds if they don't like the defaults.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've got my keyboard so heavily remapped, I have no clue what the original mapping is like anyway. I've got my tray slots linked to the F keys, with Alt-F# handling my second tray. I've got the number keys across the top bound to team selections, and for my Ice/FF controller alt, I have some binds set up for double-bubbling each teammate as I select them. I hit their team number, then hit the A key, and it tosses both bubbles on them. Found the bind in this thread:

bubble bind

[ QUOTE ]
I especially like the idea of adding little numbers to the team list. Counting teammates during AV fight = brain hurting.

[/ QUOTE ]

I gotta say, I love that idea, too.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
With a good team, it takes around 90 minutes to start and complete any of the respec trials - you really dont have 90 minutes to spare?
Not even on a weekend? Holidays? During a leap year??


[/ QUOTE ]

How long does it take to organize a respec team? Add that time cost to the actual mission. I have small kids. I have a job. I have a wife. So, the answer is no. I really do not have the 2+ hours it takes from start to finish in one seating. Also, I am not alone in this.

Bushpig

[/ QUOTE ]

I've got a wife, small kids, and a job, too. And I have a cat and a dog, too! I've managed to do all the TF's and trials that were available prior to I3 (except the Cavern of Transcendence). Some of the new ones that have come out are too low-level for my characters, and I have stability issues that make RSKing risky at best, or I would have done all of those, too.

I just make the time to do the trials/tf's/etc. on Friday or Saturday evenings, and/or during naptimes on weekends. Small kids take naps - at least, mine do. And we had the foresight to establish specific, near-immutable, simultaneous naptimes for both kids. In other words, they sleep at the same time, and naptime is almost always the same time every day. Great time to play CoH. My wife goes shopping, or watches TV, or does something around the house, or plays on the playstation. Of course, I don't spend every weekend night, or every naptime playing CoH. But there's enough occasions where I *can* put together a 3-6 hour stretch of time that I've been able to do all the group stuff.

Sorry... the "I have a life" card doesn't cut it. I have a life, and I've had the time to do the long, group-oriented stuff, too.

[ QUOTE ]
Hello---


I think solo and team players should have equal access to all game mechanics. One game mechanic that I would like to see solo accessible is the ability to respec.

A series of soloable missions with a respec as the reward would do the trick.

What do you think?

Bushpig

[/ QUOTE ]

I think snowballs have a better chance in hell than we do of seeing something like this.

That said, if you really want to try it, you can get a respec team together, kick everyone else off, and see if you can solo the respec trial. You'd better have a pretty good build though...but if you had that good a build, then you probably don't need to respec anyway.

[ QUOTE ]
I have tried the eden trial several times and the moss wall allways seems the break point. Since v3 I have not been able to get past the moss wall and believe it is definitly more dificult than before. We had a full team of lv 40/41s a couple even lvled to 42 before we got to the moss wall. The new boss rules and other changes flat out made it imposible to get past. The spwans were overwhelming and we all died at least 3 times. If any one has been successful at this in v3 please let me know what you did.

[/ QUOTE ]

I did the Eden trial yesterday. Most everyone was 40-41, one was 42, having levelled during the trial.

We had, when we got to the MOLD wall:

L40 Tanker
L41 Tanker
L42 Tanker
L39 Scrapper
L40 Blaster
L41 Controller
L40 Controller

We had another blaster, but he was RSK'd, and lost connection before we got to that area - somewhere on the bridges where you "farm" for Ambrosia. His loss was deeply felt, as he was RSK'd to the L42 tanker. As an aside, the whole RSK for TF's thing DESPERATELY needs to be fixed. Now, not later, not with Flashback. NOW. With *ONE* exception, all the trials and TF's I've done with my main and my alt which had someone RSK'd has resulted in losing that character.

We got wiped a couple times trying to take out the lichens and lichen colonies, til we figured out what we needed to do. (take out the colonies, then the stragglers, all from range as much as possible, though the melees did a little cleanup work, too).

We tried several tactics with the wall. Tried having the tankers work on the spawns, and the damage dealers work on the wall, with controllers trying to lock down what they could. Wipe. Tried the damage dealers on the spawns, and the tankers on the wall. Wipe. Tried a combination of those two - can't remember what. Wipe. Tried *EVERYONE* on the wall, with the healing controller staying back, so if we wiped, we at least would have one still alive who could TP us back and revive us. That tactic worked. We took down the wall, the healing controller was able to keep most of us up, and we then finished off the spawns. It took a while, and it was very difficult, but we managed it. Everyone was deeply in debt by then.

But, after that, it was pretty easy. That huge room of Crystal-type DE's was a very good debt eraser. The Titan took me down once, but only because I thought I could get off one more swing before popping another Ambrosia.

Took us almost the entire 4 hours, with all the deaths. But it was fun, and I'd like to do it again, soon. I will point out that this was done solely with members of my SG and those from another SG - all of us very good players, with a great deal of experience between us, and a lot of experience playing together.

And even though we managed to get through it, I'm still happy with the upcoming boss changes. 5-6 team wipes are a bit much, though only 3 of them were due to I3 bosses.

[ QUOTE ]

In the short term:

• We will roll back the Boss changes.
• Team up XP bonuses will be increased.


[/ QUOTE ]

This, and the improvements to Invulnerability, have gone a loooong way towards restoring my faith in y'all devs.

Let’s not start pointing fingers – “the whiners had their way” or “the game’s too easy, make it harder” – because I think the Boss changes violated a basic principle. Namely: never let a person make an uninformed decision. And right now, people aren’t clear when a mission requires a team up and when it doesn’t. Plus, they have no ability to drop a mission if they don’t feel like doing it. Besides, we’ve introduced our Mission Difficulty Slider to satisfy the demands of those who want something more challenging in the future.

[ QUOTE ]
In the mid-term:

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds perfect.

[ QUOTE ]
• Task Forces and Trials will continue to contain Elite Bosses, ArchVillains and Giant Monsters. There will be no changes here.

[/ QUOTE ]

This, I have a question about. Does this mean that all bosses in missions will be Elite bosses, or just that they will appear? If the former, then there's still a problem, especially on respec trials. If the latter, then that's perfect as well, since there were named bosses in several TF's that were just normal boss-strength, but who had names. Based on your first "short-term" changes, I would guess that you mean the latter.

[ QUOTE ]
In the long term:
• The Mission UI will be improved to designate various elements of mission: timed missions, team up required, etc.
• A system will allow players to drop unwanted missions or do old missions that have been passed over (the infamous “flashback”).
• Only until players can drop missions will we look at the Boss difficulty again.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe the first two changes will be a very good idea. I don't know that looking at Boss difficulty is the way to make the change more challenging for the higher levels. Certainly not an across-the-board change as was made in I3. I've seen many good suggestions that propose looking at archetypes, team size, etc to determine how powerful bosses should be. I don't know how difficult those would be to implement, but a global change to bosses isn't the way to handle the issue. I think we've proven that pretty conclusively.

[ QUOTE ]
What’s our goal? Simply put: if a player wants to do something solo, it should be CHOICE. Teaming shouldn’t be required, but rather encouraged. If a player gets a mission with an Arch Villain, he’ll be able to drop it and get another.

[/ QUOTE ]

And that's what I believe the vast majority of folks who took the time to post in the Boss Changes thread were asking for - Choice. The choice to solo or team for most of their contact missions. Getting the carrot instead of the stick where grouping was involved.

I think what you've done, and what you plan to do, is excellent. Thank you so very much for listening to us.

I do have one question: Did you notice a drop in the participation and completion rates in TF's and Trials post-I3? Actually, I would expect participation rates would have gone way up in the first couple days, til word spread of the boss difficulty change. I would expect the completion rates would have dropped significantly.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
... and I doubt anyone has read every single post.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have.

[/ QUOTE ]

As have I.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

My guess is that, using the awesome power of the GM, they clicked the blinky for you, thus completing your mission.

I'm not entirely sure they can otherwise mark missions complete for you. Perhaps they can. I doubt they would for an undeclared boss. In any case, they have better things to do, like helping people with unfindable blinkies or hostages.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, I wasn't even in the mission when the GM marked it complete.

Never underestimate the power of a GM....

[/ QUOTE ]

Not at all impossible for them to have entered the mission themselves, after finding the blinky, and clicking it. I believe, from reading accounts from people who have obtained help from GM's, that they are able to instantly appear anywhere they want, including within a mission, and can "team" with you without it showing in your team window, and thus click on a blinky and complete the mission for you.

I know I've been outside of one my own missions when a teammate completed last objective and saw the Mission Complete indicator. I had LCTMS'd, and had to log back in. They re-invited me, we had nobody with recall friend. Since they were deeeep into the mission, I told them they could just finish it. And they could, and did.

Neither of us knows just what they did, of course. But, we do agree that it's unlikely they'd complete a mission for you because a boss was too hard.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
And they're going to do what, exactly? The GM will say "Sorry, I can't help you. Go get a team." They have no power to mark a mission complete just because you're unable to complete it. - Valerian

[/ QUOTE ]

Just thought you should know: GMs can mark the mission complete. Though I don't know if they *would* because of an undeclared boss.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've had occasion to call GM's for issues related to not being able to find that last blinky, or for not being able to find that last hostage. Every time, they've either teleported the blinky to me so I can click on it, or they've teleported me to the hostage/blinky and let me kill the guards or click the blinky.

My guess is that, using the awesome power of the GM, they clicked the blinky for you, thus completing your mission.

I'm not entirely sure they can otherwise mark missions complete for you. Perhaps they can. I doubt they would for an undeclared boss. In any case, they have better things to do, like helping people with unfindable blinkies or hostages.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

but god help you if you get one of the hidden team missions or missions with an unannounced boss.


[/ QUOTE ]
If this happens it’s a bug. Petition the GM’s that’s one of the reason they are there.


[/ QUOTE ]

And they're going to do what, exactly? The GM will say "Sorry, I can't help you. Go get a team." They have no power to mark a mission complete just because you're unable to complete it. They're not going to help you complete the mission. Petitioning a mission with an unannounced bosses accomplishes nothing, and is, in fact, a negative, as it pulls a GM away from helping someone they might actually be able to help.

[ QUOTE ]
It also indicates that it’s far better to deliver solo content in other game formats, which is why any MMO is going to place team content first.

[/ QUOTE ]

Who defines what's better? You?

[ QUOTE ]

There are plenty of missions solo players can do. Most people can even solo those missions with bosses in them once they adjust. If you stopped assuming every single mission in the game was a “single player mission” perhaps you would no longer have reason to complain.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think I've seen anyone demanding that every single mission be soloable. I believe most everyone understands that soloing AV's is just not going to happen for 99.9% of our characters. But, I think we are asking that *most* of the missions we get from our contacts be soloable.

And I'll note, yet again, that doing this in no way makes teaming less attractive, nor does it have *any* negative effect on teaming. As I've said before, bump your slider up and take full teams if you want more challenge.

[ QUOTE ]
missions = 100% of the ongoing content of the game. Making them all soloabel and trivial for groups makes this a nearly 100% solo game. Again it comes back to the point of the people opposing this change thinking nearly 100% of the games content was specifically designed for them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Baloney. Absolute baloney. TF's and trials are a substantial percentage of the content of this game. And as noted before, *EVERY* single mission is or can be team-oriented. Just bring a team. How hard is that?

What you don't seem to be able to see is that content *IS* and *CAN BE* multi-purpose - team-oriented and solo-oriented. And that making sure things can be solo-oriented in no way detracts from the content also being team-friendly. And because you can't see this simple fact, your whole crusade is based on a faulty foundation.

It's a sad thing to see.

[ QUOTE ]

Given that many of the previous generation of MMO’s often required you to commit 10+ hours at a stretch to accomplish anything of significance I think it’s clear this simply means you don’t need to play 80 hours a week to enjoy the game. This is not a comment on either team or solo focus, it’s a comment on fact you don’t need to commit large amounts of time to accomplish anything. Certainly allowing solo play is part of this, but that is very different from saying the emphasis of the game is solo play.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why is it such a problem to you that there's solo content? Just how does it hurt you that the vast majority of the contact missions were soloable? Like I said, if you don't want to solo, bring a team. If things are too easy, bring a big team, and bump your slider all the way up. But this campaign of yours to make most of the content team-only is very distasteful. Don't solo if you don't want to. But quit pushing to keep me from soloing, if that's what I want to do. Don't push for this game to *require* grouping for a large portion of the content.

Every bit of the content in this game is team-oriented. All of it. Every single mission, task force, and trial. A large percentage of that content is also soloable - and should be. The vast majority of your contact missions *should* be soloable, with the exception of AV's, and maybe some Elite bosses. The boss change has made it so that a lot of what should be soloable content is no longer soloable for a substantial number of characters. I estimate 75%, or more.

I wouldn't expect most characters to be able to solo most AV's. Not in this game, and not in any comic book. Some characters will be able to handle Elite bosses solo. Most should be able to handle the average "named" boss. All should be able to handle the "generic" bosses. Not without some difficulty, of course. Too easy is boring.

You've seen many, many reasons people prefer to solo - even from people who also love to team. I've posted my own reasons a time or two. Surely, one of those makes sense to you. I've yet to see anything beyond "It's a multiplayer game. You shouldn't be soloing in a multiplayer game" as a reason from you.

Perhaps you should think about your reasons for disliking soloing in multiplayer games. All I've seen is repeated assertions of "It shouldn't be like that."