rsclark

As much as I hate to say it, the AE system would work better with some social networking features.

It has already been pointed out that non-farm missions are graded on different scales and standard,s while a farm mission just has to deliver the crops. A better system might point out that "hey, global friend gave this AE mission 5 stars, you might want to look at it" instead of just the majority vote system they have that skews the results.

A million people could be playing story arcs, but nothing in the current system helps them locate what they want.

Nothing requires that they be.

Did you even read what I wrote. I cannot imagine that you did, because you ignored what I wrote. Go back and read the post you responded to again. Read every word. Make sure you understand all of them. Then post another response that actually shows that you read what I said.

He said "raid" and you changed the word to "trials". Those are different things.

No, they are a carrot if you want character advancement - which is the bread and butter of the entire MMO genre of games.
#1 the benefits work just fine in the rest of the game - in fact, for at least one of my characters, they have enabled me to complete side-switching missions on my own when I had a huge amount of difficulty before
#2 as I already mentioned, even the parts that are not usable in the rest of the game are going to be used in future end-game content. It is not the concept of "post-50 content" that I hate, but instead "poorly designed post-50 content that requires way too many people".

When they give me 50+ content that I can complete with 1-4 people and doesn't involve squishies exploding randomly due to 300000 mobs all firing randomly at anything that moves, then I want to be prepared (including the level shifts). If they are never going to do that, then it would be nice if they would come out and say so, then I could stop doing incarnate content at all (and stop paying them money at the same time).

End game is no different than adding 10 new levels. I see this as no different than any of those games where you can solo fine for 10 levels, and then suddenly need a group to continue to play - only in this case, you get 50 levels of doing what you want before having a forced "choice".

Character advancement is one thing; this "core" distinction you're trying to make is rubbish.

If there is a DB issue, then they made really stupid choices when they upped the number to 36. Not saying they didn't go that route for whatever reason, but I can't think of any reason for the DB to hardwire in 36 slots instead of making it theoretically limitless.

If I had to guess a good reason for a hard limit, it would be graphical, not UI or DB. They seem to load all the characters and costumes when you select a server instead of waiting for a new one to download when selected. They could have sensibly cut some corners there to make loading faster.

This is likely because signing into the queue locks you out of doing anything productive - including getting invited to a group doing the trial.

Well, I have corrected my post to combat your pedantry. Look, I didn't say I agree with them, but the idea that getting attacked less increases survivability isn't totally insane. The lower taunt multiplier is also a form of mitigation. All else being equal, one character throwing out attacks that count for damage X2 in determining taunt will be attacked less and live longer than one throwing out damage X4 taunt worth attacks. Having an AT that trades the ability to take an attack for the ability to not get attacked as much is a fine idea that just doesn't pan out in the game when you actually try to implement it.

I think the big problem is that hide and placate are being counted as a form of mitigation, so the devs do not view stalkers as glass-like as they really are.

Not superfluous at all. They are the carrot. PVP is also crappy content, but without a reliable reward structure, I don't feel pushed into taking part in it. Really, with the way trials are going now, I think the next slots should be split in half with one side unlocked exclusively by PVP and the other unlocked by yiffing with catgirls in pocket D. As long as they are compelling certain content to advance characters, they might as well make everyone do something unpleasant.

I work at a job to earn money to pay for videogames as well, doesn't mean I enjoy going to work. People regularly do things they do not enjoy in order to get access to things they do. Don't pretend that is somehow aberrant or unusual.

As longs as the trials continue dropping end rewards that equal hundreds of threads and hundreds of millions in inf, there is absolutely nothing that can be done with non-trial drop rates that will make the slow path viable.

I assume by your use of "sage advice" you intended to be cryptic, but you went too far. I am struggling to figure out what you are trying to say.

If you are insinuating I am not being honest, then you are wrong. I ran three trials on the 4th, and had not done one in around a month before that. They were as abysmally bad as I had remembered them.

If by "faking it" you mean that by doing any incarnate trials I give the devs the mistaken belief that I like them, then I agree. And I have stated that if I had some meaningful (ie financial) method of communicating to the devs that "I like your game, but trials are ****", then I would do that. But as it stands, I don't have that option. For now they just get to creep forward pushing me closer and closer to canceling my acct with every new trial.

Actually, yes, I did. It is to be prepared. I have a vacation coming up in September. I have already started not spending as much money as aI usually do in order to have some spare spending cash. I would enjoy myself right now much more if I had more money to throw around, but if I did that, I would not be prepared once September came around.

That's a big if. I have never for one millisecond enjoyed a trial. Better to take the big bitter pill and get the unpleasant experience over with than to sit there and nibble on it for weeks or months.

I have run 3 trials in the past 30 days - it didn't make them the slightest bit enjoyable or less of a grind.

Plus you have the fact the time required to get trials put together is getting longer and longer. The characters I got unlocked in the first two weeks were much less of a hassle (though no more fun) than the one I am trying to do now, because of the easier availability of the trials.

I am only having "fun" currently by not running trials at all. But right now I have a character at 44 who I am reluctant to play. In 6 levels, the only avenue available to advance that character is going to be trials. The fun will be sucked from the character, so I don't even want to play him right now and move closer to that undesirable future. The opportunity to play a character should not include an element of dread. Having a character grow and become more powerful should be absent of negatives, and shouldn't include "great, soon I will be allowed to take part in the worst content this game has ever had."

And maybe they will magically make one that is actually enjoyable. Currently their batting average is a big 000, but how long can that dismal record continue?

Because one of the last things you unlock on each side of the incarnate path we currently have is the level shifts. For many non-uber characters, these level shifts are a necessary component to run the high end content enjoyably. Since each step of the endgame consists of this same kind of mass random death stuff, it only stands to reason that anything that comes out from now on can only be enhanced by having the shifts.

So, basically, to have any hope of getting the tiniest bit of enjoyment out of any future endgame content, I will need the level shifts. Once I get those, I stop running trials.

I think this is the potential problem with whatever they do at this point. If they are worried that small group/solo content will empty out the trial pool of players, then they are right to be worried. Not only do plenty of people find the trials unpleasant, but the process of putting the trials together at all is a chore. If they produce a pleasant, enjoyable incarnate path, the trials will become a ghost-town.

And Rad is just as good at that same thing while simultaneously being good at neutering entire groups. Not having group abilities is a huge detriment in this game and needs to be balanced by some large advantage. Poison doesn't have that. At best, it does just as well as the other sets.

What got me is that trollers and corruptors are getting a noxious gas replacement that's a toggle, but my MM still gets a version that's only up for 30 seconds every 2 minutes. Hopefully that means they realize how terrible it is as a tier 9.

So, you think two, slightly convex cones placed widely on the chest would look better than what we have now? Because if you scale down from what we currently have, that's what you get.

I'm not really convinced that it would help with costume options. As an example, SWG was the only game I have ever seen that allowed you to play a fat person. You could have a huge pot-belly on your character - literally, a waist that was larger than the chest.

The result? Belts that floated a half-foot around the character. Designing the costume pieces to look right involved designing them for a basic, general body shape. The more deformation you allow, the greater the chance that costume pieces will simply fail to conform to the new body shape.

The same applies to the boob slider idea. There is more of a difference between an A and a C than size - one hangs and the other really doesn't. But to keep things simple, they have one general shape and allow variation in size only. The result is that if you go too far outside the average parameter, it looks stupid.

Or you could check the box that says close the league. It is literally one click of a button.

And as for the comment about not being able to add someone - just have the queue, that's the whole point of the system. At worst, they end up in someone else's trial - and then only if you've got a lot more trials forming than on my server.