shade_NA

I think having Winter Lords in places like Atlas Park is just awesome. It does a few things to enhance gameplay. It offers up a massive amount of XP if you're running a new toon to get them to a decent level.(I levelled up a new toon to 10 in about an hour just by fighting Winter Lords) It also helps new players experience a taste of team play, because when you're pretty much forced to fight alongside fellow heroes to take down a huge enemy, it definitely serves to indirectly promote team play and I think that's great.

I think more people will be inclined to team in the instance of fighting giant monsters and I hope they have more types of giant monsters popping up from time to time. It definitely breaks up the grind of street sweeping -1 and +1 scum.

Good work, devs!!

Yeah, the implemented changes are great. This is a win-win for team players and solo-ers alike.

My Dark Melee/Regen scrapper is kicking serious boss [censored] now.

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If you want something like that, please just go hack and play Counterstike or some other FPS where mindless fragging is the point of the game; and 'god mode' is a recognized option.

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It's not up to you to decide what game options should be available to those who don't share your view.

I think the view of a lot of people is that this is just a game, and if we're paying to play it, we should have the right to play it at a desirable difficulty setting. If your life is so immersed in role-playing games and you feed off of the difficulty present in the game, terrific. More power to you. What I think others are asking for are options for casual gamers who want more instant gratification. Most people don't have the time nor patience to allow a game to play them.

If I'm taking the trouble to pay for your product, make it as accessible, enjoyable and non-committal as possible. Not everyone can or chooses to delve so deeply into the dynamics and strategies of all levels of gameplay, we just want to get in there and experience what the game was advertised to deliver; what it is to be a hero. A lot of players have real-life concerns and the last thing we want is to enter into a gamespace and have that world be frustratingly difficult to advance in and enjoy. And I also don't want to be told how to play a game, even by the developers. The inherent rules built into the game are enough. Adding on 'implied and suggested modes of gameplay' such as 'encouraging more team-based play is just unacceptable. If this is a concrete vision for the game and intended form of play, it should have stated such on the box and I'd have left it there on the shelf.

As a casual gamer, as there are legions more like myself, I assume, I'm approaching this as what it is, a game. Games of all types are meant to entertain, but when a monthly fee is attached to said game, then it's the responsibility of the developers to cater to the needs/wants of every range of player/customer who is supporting them.

Segmenting the game to be playable and enjoyable only by the most hardened power gamers is detrimental to the development of the game, both financially and enjoyment-wise.

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What of the suggestions, including one of my own, to make the difficulty slider go both up AND down? As long as you make it onerous to move it down game balance could be preserved and perhaps that would not take too much coding?

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I have to agree with that. I paid $55 for the game and $60 so far in subscription fees. I think the difficulty level SHOULD go from the greatest difficulty level or 'master of Paragon City' to the easiest or 'fighting fetus'. If I paid all this hard earned(well, not hard earned ), I should be able to enjoy this game at a difficulty level of my choosing because my gameplay preferences are not the same as some sadomasochist who likes to end up in the hospital constantly.

I'm also a father, of two boys, and when I have time to play I want to play on my terms. I don't WANT to have to find some strangers to play on my time, I paid MY OWN MONEY so I should be able to have an experience based on my preferences, which is to solo exclusively.

After playing a few pick-up team missions, I realized teamplay was not for me. It's a lot of standing around, waiting for the team to assemble, decide what we want to do, and then once we've begun the mission, I have to hope that all of these strangers are on the same wavelength as me in the objective of completing the mission without getting dead.

I bought this game for the fun factor, the experience of being a hero, not a component of a league of lone heroes banding together for the sole reason that to achieve a personal goal, I need these people. That's not heroism, it's dependency. I want to have the OPTION to be able to play this game solo and get to level 50 without ending up in the hospital even once and not having to street sweep for piddly XP scraps for months and months to do so. I personally don't have the time nor patience to work off experience debt IN A GAME.

I may be in the minority but I feel that if the game wasn't designed to accommodate a wide spectrum of gameplay difficulty preferences, then COH isn't for me and I wish I could get a refund for at least the subscription time I haven't played yet.

As I said before, I purchased the game for fun factor. Having to be terribly cautious about where you go in a game where you're supposed to be a hero isn't fun. Getting killed and having to spend hours recouping XP debt isn't fun. Being relegated to having to street sweep mobs of anywhere from -2s to +2s isn't fun.

If I'm paying $15 a month for something, there should be nothing but fun, enjoyment and satisfaction within the gamespace. Paying a monthly fee for frustration, gameplay limitations and an endless cycle of street-sweeping and XP grinding isn't my idea of fun. I pay $30 a month for satellite TV and get nothing but constant, consistent enjoyment. I'd expect that if someone wants a monthly fee for their product, they'd better make it worth it.

I LOVE the concept of COH and I want everyone to be able to play on their own level, from soloers to teamers, to those who want a Disney level of difficulty to Hell On Earth difficulty. So far, though, since I know the road between life and a hospital visit/XP debt is narrow one, the experience isn't as fun as I'd hoped.

I may be asking for too much, but I am a paying customer, and like everyone else, my concerns, reasonable as they are, should be addressed and having a difficulty slider across the board is a way to work. Perhaps players who play on a more difficult level would have access to exclusive content than those who play on the easier end?