skrid

Pursuing several Task Force invites in the last week or so, I am told, upon joining, that I don't have the alpha slot, and that if I don't it will cause a nerf for everyone. In fact, when this has happened, the Level 50 in question had just gained the alpha slot, and I had not yet gathered enough shards and/or salvage bits to fill the alpha slot.

Essentially, I was told that if I didn't have anything slotted, that I should leave the TF, because I wasn't ready. So, here's the thing: if you have to do TFs to /get/ shards (and yes, I know that some of the high-level missions such as AV mishes will give shards), how are you supposed to get those shards when people ask you to leave their TF because you haven't got shards. Since I'm a piss-off kind of guy I left the TFs at that time.

This all seems rather rude to me. I also question whether the Devs would put in place a system which would apply a nerf to a toon or to the team they are on, simply because one member doesn't have the alpha slot filled yet. Perhaps they meant that it's as if there was a nerf in effect, but that wasn't what was said.

I'd be interested in people's opinion and if anyone can shed light on this nerf that people without the alpha slot inflict on other toons in a TF.

I would really love to see an end to the warwalls and the current zone transfer system.

Yep, I know there's tons of arguments to keep the zones the way they are, but I'd really like to be able to walk from say, Atlas Park into Skyway without a zone transfer screen or even if the Devs changed to tunnels, so we could go through them. No, just a subtle shifting over several blocks where the "terrain" shifts and different mobs begin to appear. All the zones are fairly distinct and would be recognizable as the shift proceeded.

That would truly make this feel like a large city. Be nice to get on a train, and actually ride through the zone to the next stop too. Waste of time? Not necessarily, and actually would help growing players get a better sense of the city. As they level, they outgrow the trains anyway, and begin hopping through other means. Right now, there's essentially no difference between boarding the train in Atlas and going to Steel Canyon, or going through the warwall tunnel. You even end up in about the same place. What kind of flavor is that?

Yes, you're going to have your hazard zones like Perez Park, Dark Astoria, and Terra Volta where there should be barriers. Yes people will go where they will be smacked down by something that's too high a level for them. So? That's what a hospital is for.

What about all that space? What about it? How hard is it to fill that space with buildings and as the city fades into rural areas, forests and rivers/lakes etc.

Yeah, it'd require a different setup from the devs. There'd have to be "buffer" servers or something like that which handled the actual transfer from one zone to the next. But overall, something like this could be transparent to the player. And should be.

Anyway, my .02...
Skrid