quickfire

Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect

It's a two part question, so I'll give you a two part answer.

The first one, why the restrictions, is to prevent players from creating extremely overpowered combinations and/or so gimped they're unplayable combinations.

Complete freedom of choice was allowed in the very first Alpha version of the game, and one guy created a character who was invulnerable and could fly. That was ALL he could do, he had zero ability to actually defeat anything. That particular character would be completely unplayable.

On the other side of it, you'd have tankmages. Characters with nearly impenetrable defenses and overwhelming offensive capability. Characters with the defenses of a tank and the damage output of a blaster would be overpowered in this game by quite a bit.

Your second question, why we can't change our powersets when we respec is related, but different.

Powersets are balanced against other ATs and against other powersets in the same AT.

Lets look at two Tanker primaries; Stone Armor and Willpower. Stone Armor gets a power at level 32 that will allow it to be nearly invincible to all damage types for as long as it can keep that toggle active (pretty much indefinitely). It has drawbacks, but it is almost imnpossible to kill a Stone tank in Granite if an experienced player is controlling it. The price the set as a whole pays for that survivability is that it is relatively weak before getting that power.

On the other side, you have Willpower. Willpower is an easy set to level up as. It doesn't lose any survivability at high levels, but it still isn't going to touch Granite Armor levels of survivability.

If you could change powersets in a respec, you could level as a Willpower tank and switch to Stone at some point after Granite Armor is available. You have juts gotten to the good part of the most survivable set without having to play that set through the levels where it is weak. Being able to do that would destroy the balance between the sets, and Stone Armor would be considered extremely overpowered because you could switch to it when it gets good and ignore the squishier early levels.

There are sets in every AT that follow the same pattern. Radiation Emission and Kinetics as used by a controller would be another good example. Kinetics gets it's key power at level 38, while Radiation gets it's good powers mostly before level 20. If you could level as a Plant/Rad controller (which gets it's good powers early) and switch to a Fire/Kin after level 38, you've skipped the levels in which Fire/Kin isn't particularly great.

It's all about balance between the power sets. The sets that get good later in the game aren't that good in the beginning of the game. In that way it is fair for the sets that peak early and never get much better.

Originally Posted by Silver Gale

That just makes me kind of sad.

Originally Posted by seebs

Ahh, but here's the thing.

You are sending exactly the same messages to any devs who read the posts. Furthermore, the devs in this game generally like the players. They have been known to ask players for advice about things, act on player guidance, and so on.

And they use the experienced players who know the game as one of the filters to identify "feedback worth considering".

You've just told the developers that your feedback is insincere and unconsidered, and they will doubtless react to it accordingly.

This defeats your stated purposes.

Originally Posted by Silver Gale

We have to make a compelling case for you to present actual arguments before you will back up your statements with facts?

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

Goodbye, from someone who *did* want to see just where you were getting the various impressions you were arguing from. Borrowing your own phrase, I'm no longer silly enough to believe YOU may actually want to discuss the matter.

Originally Posted by SinisterDirge

The restrictions exist because people were ******* up thier toons making them unplayable. People making tankmages they could have probably balanced around, but people making pure buff/debuff toons ensured they wouldn't be able to successfully balance the 1 hero = 3 mobs equation.

Also, not sure how long you were around, or when you first started, but they were VERY hessitant allowing us to respec our powers at all. The main reason they did allow it was because people were still messing up their toons bad. (How much of that is because the playerbase were idiots, or that the powers were not actually balanced to begin with is impossible to determine cough*smokebomb*cough.)

I have already made my argument why I believe that powersets should not be allowed to be switched, and stick by it.

Please keep in mind that this is the player questions sub forum. The questions you are asking seem better posed to an actual developer.

Originally Posted by Lost Ninja

I would however like to see something that appears in DDO. Past Lives. So I could re-roll a character I no longer enjoy at 50, but keep all the unlocks on that character. That, is badges, costume parts things of that nature. And then have to level as a new class but gain a bonus linked to my old class. (Maybe only after hitting 50). In DDO it takes longer to level for each subsequent life, because after reincarnating you need more XP/level than before. Yet people do still 'reincarnate' many times.

If this were added my original main Lost Ninja would be re-rolled immediately as would one of my Fire/Kin controllers. And probably some others.

Originally Posted by sykoholic001

In full agreement here. These things are just taking up (ie: wasting) space. Since an author's name is the same as their username, my suggestion would be to cross-reference all of them and flag all arcs by authors that no longer have active accounts. Depending on how long the account has been inactive (maybe a year or more), delete those arcs.

The same goes for broken arcs. I have no idea if the Devs can tell (quickly and easily, that is) if an arc is broken but if they can, find all the broken ones and flag them. Then determine how long they have been broken. If they've been broken for more than a year and there is no indication of the author attemping to fix them in that time, delete them.

As for test arcs and farms, that's where it would get messy. The only way to really determine whether or not an arc is a test or farm (other than it being blatantly stated in the description) would be for someone to "inspect" every single arc. That requires time and manpower. While many of us (myself included) would consider this a "dream job", I seriously doubt there is any company in world (not counting the US government) that would be willing to pay someone to do that. . . especially when it's easier/cheaper to simply ignore the "junk" arcs and leave them cluttering up the system.

Originally Posted by UberGuy

I'm not sure what other forums you've been on, but if you think this is bad, I'm not sure you should visit any others.

Now, pointing out that there are worse forums isn't a shining endorsement. However, you set yourself up on the wrong leg (let alone foot) when you were asked, without any noticeable negativity, for evidence of something you pretty obviously claimed was a broad-based dislike of this game. Your very first response was non-helpful in the extreme, and painted you as someone who was not interested in discourse.

If you post in a player forum, you should expect players to respond to you. Posting on any of the forums is not an especially functional way to get the devs to pay attention to your ideas, but that's likely particularly true in this forum. If you both want the devs to see something, and you aren't interested in players feedback, a PM to some redname is probably the way to go. Barring that, the Suggestions forum is more likely to be looked at than this one. Barring that, at least put "Suggestion to the devs" or something in your thread title.

I will say that while regulars here definitely like to poke holes in purported problems that people post about regarding the market, IOs, etc., I'm frankly not sure we've got anything on the regulars in the suggestions forum. Not if you make claims you can't or won't back up.

Originally Posted by Selina_H

Then you need to PM the devs. If you really don't care what any players think, why are you bothering to post?

This, exactly.

Originally Posted by seebs

quickfire, a thought:

There is, as you say, no requirement that you post evidence.
There is also no requirement that anyone believe what you say.

We all have more fun, though, if we post support for our views, and if we try to evaluate each others' claims as best we can given that support.

FWIW... I would say that some aspects of the crafting system are daunting even to me. I'm autistic, and I habitually min-max in video games, and the nested interactions of the invention system ("if I take this set, that breaks rule of 5 for this recharge bonus so I should consider replacing that set, but then I lose part of my S/L defense, but I gain E defense, so maybe...") are Too Hard for me to do a good job. Yes, I can use Mids, but it can't really do a good job of "I would like to replace this set with that set, what would the implications be?"

That said... While crafting may not be NEEDED at low levels, if you have a little time to put in and you're soloing (so you'll be there long enough to care), it can make a HUGE difference. Grab yourself a Kismet +accuracy and a Karma or Steadfast -KB (or maybe the set bonus -KB from one of the knockback sets), on a level 8-10 character with no inherent -KB, and let us know whether it makes a difference.

And to some extent, I think, that's the point. The entire concept of crafting in this game is that it is to be optional. At all levels, really. The game was built with the assumption that you would have SOs at level 50, and characters are supposed to, with just SOs, be amazing enough to be able to take on the original 50-level content.

Originally Posted by Ironblade

Wait, where is this from? WHAT people list crafting as a reason to avoid this title or the reason they quit? Where is this from?

Wow, you're really beating that 'new player' drum pretty hard. And yet, in another thread, you said:

Okay, wait, so are you a new player or a returning player? And "Last time I left"? You've left more than once?

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

I think you have to re-examine your assumptions.

Originally Posted by RosaQuartz

No insult intended, and it looks like you could teach most of us on how to be condensending. I just think you are pointing out "problems" than can be solved by putting in a modicrum of effort.

This game is far from flawless, but the early-level crafting system is, IMO, way down the list of problems.

Originally Posted by SinisterDirge

Originally Posted by Aett_Thorn

The game is 7 years old! What the pancake did you expect?! For a niche game, CoH did VERY well, and exceeded expectations. But yes, after 7 years, there aren't as many people here. Your suggestion would NOT change that in any meaningful way.

Where is the medium level between "powerset respecs" and "no powerset respecs?"

And you should feel free to, but when you start making claims about what is driving OTHER people away, and what might get OTHER people to start playing the game, then you need to back that up with some sort of evidence, which you don't have. You're stating opinion about what is causing the game to lose population, and making up a solution to that cause, even if it might not exist.

I agree with you there.

Here's the thing with opinions: everyone has one. What you see as a problem, another person might see as a benefit. Without being able to show how many people are on either side, how do you propose to show that you're right? The fact is, that you can't. Doesn't mean you need to stop saying stuff, but you should understand why people might be giving you some flak.

Originally Posted by Chaos Creator

OP overuses the word draconian. Rest of post is hyperbole.

Originally Posted by RosaQuartz

My eight year old, without a whiff of coaching from me, can figure out how to buy and sell material in the auction house. And he doesn't have a character over level 22.

This is a fairly bizarre list of complaints, IMO.

Originally Posted by Frost Warden

DooOooOoooOooM?

Seriously though, CoH has maintained a fairly steady amount of paying accounts since its inception. Some people have multiple accounts, and that needs to be factored in, but I'm guessing that the majority of players do not have multiple accounts. (I myself have an inactive second account, so it counts as half?)

I've seen these kind of arguments over the past several years about how the game is dying, etc., but I've yet to see it happen. Going F2P to me is a good step for CoH. If you view LoTRO and its transition to F2P, they experienced a growth in both subscribers and revenue. Is it hard to believe that CoH can't experience the same? Not really.

You are partially right. They may not be able to change player opinions all the time, but the flipside is true as well. We may not be able to change the dev's opinions either.

The devs need to walk a balancing line: on one side are the consumers, who need to be kept happy; the other side is the company, who needs to have good revenues. The devs are trying to keep a happy medium, but it isn't always going to make us perfectly happy. You don't like not being able to respec a powerset, but it doesn't bother everyone else. Devs have to manage based on the majority, not the minority.

Originally Posted by Voidstalker

Draconian? Really? Like this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_(lawgiver)

I think, since none of us are being put to death, that "Draconian" is probably a teensy bit hyperbolic

Yes, that's right. Amongst all these statistics and wild opinions, I noticed nobody was doing the Language Police thing, so I thought I'd better sort that right out.

Originally Posted by Fulmens

I like to tell people why I'm putting them on /ignore. There's only a tiny chance they'll learn from my explanation, but it makes me feel better.

I am putting you on /ignore, quickfire, because you aren't trying in any visible way to convince me of your points. You're a lazy arguer, and I've done the thing where I spend half an hour on a reasoned post to be met with 30 seconds of "Nu-uh! You're not the boss of me!" I've done it more than enough.

Sir, madam, or tentacled creature: I bid you good day.

Originally Posted by Sardan

I'd also add the frequently voiced complaint that many who try out the game complain about it feeling deserted because it's so heavily instanced.

Originally Posted by Chaos Creator

Top 20 sure seems like one of the top to me. Maybe not you but hey.. the sun is blue eh?

Originally Posted by Chaos Creator

Why yes, he is.