White Hot Flash

Why do people keep bringing up the fact that current owners of the Celestial set "got to have it first?"

Costumes don't make the game easier (nor harder), they don't offer buffs, they don't make influence rain down upon you. The only difference between those that have it and those that don't is a couple of extra decisions to make in the costume editor. How is that a perk worth saying "Well, you've had it longer than I have, so it's ok to make it non-exclusive."

I say, if there is going to be such a thing as T9 VIP, make that VIP mean something, and make it stick. Whatever rewards you put in there should stay in there, or you lose what being a VIP means. Being able to play Incarnate content, not having to pay for SSAs or certain powersets, or anything else VIPs already get for subscribing has nothing to do with the reward system. If you want what a VIP has, become one, spend the money to reach T9 (like all the rest did. When they spent that money has zero to do with anything, they paid for the privilege), and enjoy it. If you want the costumes bad enough, pay up. Paragon shouldn't change a thing. In fact, they shouldn't put any of those costume sets on the PM, or anywhere else outside the rewards.

If you're not willing to make VIP exclusive like it's supposed to be, don't do it at all.

You plain vanilla people are so boring

At first glance, I liked the first Penelope, but the second Shadowhunter (though both are cool). I voted for 1 because the expression on Penny #2 was just too weird.

If we're throwing out suggestions for further skins, I would like to see a way to have either several choices, or maybe a random selection that changes each time I log in. That way if there's one I don't like, it won't be there again for a while. Honestly, once you start reading a thread, whatever artwork is at the top is forgotten anyway.

I realize the OP's experiment is checking performance in a "Damage Dealing" sense, but I'm confused as to why you're comparing a ranged character to a melee one. Why not pick a Corr instead of a Stalker? Even if you can play your Blaster as a Blapper, the Stalker has no alternative but to be a melee character, and I don't think the choice between taking a Blaster or a Stalker when you need just one more damage dealer is one people really make.

It seems to me the result of your experiment is predetermined by the ATs you've chosen, and you're merely going through the exercise to have your conclusion proven correct, which is only one set of data. You really can't say anything definitive after this.

What would be worth putting on a Twitter feed (as far as Breaking Announcements goes) that doesn't boil down to "Hey! Go read the Forums right now!!!" ?

If there's a sudden beta event and you're at work, chances are you're gonna miss it any way. Why the need to know about it ritenao if it's something you can't participate in?

The point of any mass media communication medium is to, wait for it, .... get people using it. If more people use it to exchange cookie recipes or talk about their latest RP session on Virtue, great. It's being used. Every use is a win for Paragon Studios. We should be finding MORE ways to community-build, not trying to put limits on what we already have. Limits force more people to stop using it, and overrides any benefit from concentrating the message.

A_A, this entire thread highlights why the entire Freedom package is a good thing. You now have an option for how much you want to pay, and for what content you want to pay for. Before Freedom, you either had to subscribe, or not play at all.

Whether you go VIP or Premium is entirely up to your own personal playstyle, and there's really not much we can do to say one way is better than the other. Only you can make that call. The pros/cons have already been enumerated by others.

It being your choice also means that if others want to play as a VIP (like me), they made the right decision for them. Incarnates, being able to post in the entire Forums, etc, are all important enough to pay the monthly sub, and that decision is neither good nor bad.

You guys complain about our CS like they're the only ones that do things like that. Every company's CS has issues.

To provide some balance, I've never had a problem with CS in the times I've had to deal with them.

People are human, large companies have problems with communication between departments. It happens. Moving on....

Why are we assuming there's only one way to shoot a bow correctly?

Somehow I don't think Hawkeye's archer skills being based in reality or not is going to make or break this film.

If he had his own film, maybe...

I think a better option than trying to retrofit old content with "more options" is to just try to strive for something different in a new arc that you haven't tried before in previous content. Much like New Dark Astoria content is geared toward a certain type of gameplay, whatever comes down the road next should be different from DA, as well as from other content in some meaningful way. I would rather see the time and effort spent on trying to make the game challenging spent on brand new content, rather than trying to rehash old stuff and shoehorn some kind of gimmick into missions that weren't designed for them.

Finding things that suit difficulty needs would be A) easier on those that have to produce said content, and B) more interesting, if content were compartmentalized. Instead of everything having all the options, what's wrong with some content being geared for solo play, some other content being geared toward teams, and other stuff being geared toward Incarnate/uber build play? I appreciate that folks want to be able to experience as much of the game as possible while confining themselves to their own style of play, but perhaps there are challenges already within the game ready to be had if more people stepped out and did some things they don't normally do more often.

I think the Devs are on the right track already, and should focus their energies to produce new content in the same vein as I22. Make each Issue focus on a particular game style over the others in some way, and go all out to make that content great, then focus in another area for the next one. Trying to spread love out to everything every time waters down the product for everyone, since time and resources only go so far.

The Devs didn't create the difficulty dichotomy. Players, and the way they want to play, did. There are scads of players that want large teams fighting huge problems that only large teams can solve. They wanted a good reason to be able to gather more than just 8 members of their SG/VG at one time, doing one task. They wanted their purpled-out Warshade to have a challenge in regular missions that normal mission difficulty could not solve.

There are also a ton of players that don't necessarily want a difficult fight at the end, especially if their solo character of choice is more on the support side of the scale. They want options for how hard the fight will be, depending on who they bring to the party. They want max rewards for avoiding all human contact, and not feel singled out because they don't want to team.

Devs are only providing what the players keep asking for. YOU may not be asking for it, but enough people did that democracy prevailed.

Looking forward to this big time, but I still roll my eyes a bit every time I see that shot of the entire group as the camera spins around them, waiting for Iron Man to show up. You have Big Hulking Man, Big Hulking Man, little guy with a bow, Big Hulking Man, little girl with a pistol.

I know that Hawkeye and Black Widow are talented fighters, but they're still bringing rocks and sticks to an Epic-level fight. At least give her a bigger gun

You guys (and gals) are missing the point with the existence of the side-switching tokens. They're geared toward free players who don't have the alignment system (which is why it's clearly stated that you don't need Going Rogue to use them). Why would Marketing charge so little for a token when they'd rather the free player purchase GR instead? With the price point where it is, free players now have to make a decision that carries some weight, much like when people had to choose to pay real money to get server transfers when they could simply just re-roll a character on a different server for free.

They can't limit usage to just people that don't have GR, and they can't trivialize the effort it takes to switch for free if you do have the alignment system unlocked already by undercharging. Hence, you pay 800 points to shortcut.

Pathfinder is just 3.5 rules with some clarifications, simplifications, and such. Unless you need specific rulings, going with what you know from 3.5 DnD is fine.

I've played through (most) of an adventure path, and my GF is playing through her second one of theirs right now. These games tended to be more RP heavy than sticking to all the little rules.

How long do you plan to have this campaign go (in other words, how many levels do you expect them to gain?) Pathfinder characters tend to be weak in the early going, but really pick up steam after lvl 7 or so, when the magic users start gaining their good spells. At least that's what it seemed on our adventure. I would suggest a fairly fast leveling curve, or at least throwing in enough encounter opportunities for them to gain levels fairly fast if they choose.