Reading Badges & Toon Info

I brought this thread up awhile ago and thought I'd revisit it again as I wanted to get some more thoughts on this subject. Normally, when on a team, I will occasionally read other's info such as a description of their toon (if they have one) and to see how many badges they have be it veteran badges or other.

The first thing I look at is how long they have been playing CoX. Now I know there are people who either might have transferred their accounts to others or let others use their accounts and it would appear that the person playing might not be the real veteran playing and would only be a newb, but I think this only represents only a smaller group. The majority are the true users of their toons. By doing this, I can get a better feel of who I am teamed with. Yes, there are those that have been playing this game for a very short time but come across as pretty knowledgeable in the game and then there are those who have their 66 month badge and not too knowledgeable about stuff but again, I think the majority of veterans are pretty knowledgeable and know the game pretty well.

With that being said, how many of you will play different knowing you are teamed up with a 66 month vet versus a newb? If you knew a newb was forming a team and calling the shots versus a veteran player, would you be more likely to drop from team if the going gets rough? I'm just curious on this as I myself have had some thoughts about this and sometimes feel uncomfortable knowing that person running the show and getting everyone killed is a newb. But hey, that's just me.

Also, when it comes to describing your toon. I know that some go into great detail, such as myself, when putting a description about their toons. I think this can be fun, and give your toon more character to those who read their history. I actually have each of my toons all related as either immediate family or cousins so when you read their bios, you know who their other family members are. Each has their own unique story about how they got their powers and what makes them so special.

So, with that mentioned above, do we know if and when there will be a "fix" on making the description field longer so you can elaborate more on your toons history? I knew there was some kind of glitch that would "lump" all your info together, not sure if that has been fixed yet? I always thought that having more room in the description field to write about your toon would be ideal. Does anyone know if that has been suggested yet for new developments and ideas for the game? If not, I will need to suggest that. In closing thanks to all who replied and your thoughts on these subjects.

I do as you do. During free moments or during the forming of the team I'll check out info. Powersets first...then Vet badges get second glance. After that I move on to bios. I've never been bored enough to check all the exploration badges though.

I think I do view other players differently depending on how many months they've been playing. It's kind of a sigh of relief as I assume they'll be "ok". But to be honest I don't think it effects my behavior either way. I almost never quit a team (I've often been the last to quit a TF and once tried to finish one with just one other person.). At most I may offer some advice via private chat if it appears a new player doesn't understand something.

More room to write a bio...hmmm. I'm not against that. Almost all of mine are comedic in nature so I don't need a lot of room for that. But I can see others really getting some use out of it.

I absolutely I love to check descriptions if they are there, badges, and vet time. Its fun to get a feel for the enthusiasm of other players and their experience in the game.

Now, I can't say I ever 'play differently' based on what I find. That information is just that... information. I have played with folks that have been in the game less than 3 months who really have their act together, with others that have over 50 months that seem clueless... or even with players that get one AT, but another time can't handle a different AT/powers right (I'm in that boat myself on occasion).

I only check badges if they're acting weird or incompetent, generally.

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Almost always, I'll check who I'm teamed with, leader or not. But I'm more interested in their archetype and power sets than their description, although I can get some sense of their enthusiasm with their character from their description, if any.

As a general rule, I won't alter my play style based on experience - only on composition. For example, I have a Kheldian who can blast, scrap or tank, and how she plays may depend on what's needed in the team.

And I'm not fond of the term 'newb'. Although a person may have played CoX for 6 months, they may have considerable RPG/MMORPG/wargaming experience under their belt and be a much better player than their vet badges show. Indeed, I've seen cases of worse play by a 666-badge 'veteran' who couldn't team (or lead) well, and better play by a 'newb' who knew (and sometimes tested) their limits while contributing highly to the team's success.

My take on character descriptions remains this: brevity is a virtue.

When trimming down to fit into the bio space, I find myself removing redundancies and paring out unnecessary words. It keeps me sharply on-topic.

Yes, it's hard to express a lot in the bio space. That's probably for the best. I'll be honest -- I write, I like writing and reading, I've written fan fics about some of my own characters, I read every in-game bio I see; but neither I nor most other people want to read that 20-page dramatic history of a beloved character's origin. When I go to the fan fic section or to Virtueverse and see what people have put together, it's great, but the audience for it is, sad to say, pretty narrow.

If the (proposed) expanded bio space took up bytes it would further impact performance, too.

The short-form bio space we now have enables us to convey key points and a sense of the character, a flavor, if you will. That doesn't slow down the action, either with reading tons of stuff or with transmitting packets in bulk to everyone in the zone.

I would support adding a hotlink to the current bio space (preferably outside the current space and not compressing it even further) that would both allow readers to peruse longer written accounts outside the game (opening a browser to a wiki page for example) and encourage authors to keep the original bio space self-contained (i.e., not use it as spillover for their 27-page novella, but as a stand-alone "hook" to make the in-game character interesting.)

I lead my own teams, so I check powers and badges when I recruit people.

I'm impressed by Accolades, SF badges and accomplishments like Efficiency Expert. I don't put a lot of stock by vet badges. I'll notice if someone doesn't have the 6 month badge and adjust my expectations accordingly, and I'll outright kick someone who's playing an Energy/Storm corrupter with zero vet badges, but that's about as far as it goes.

Why? I've been playing since Beta and only have a 15 month badge. I think I'm one of the better players that's still playing CoX with any regularity. All the really serious MMO nerds are off taking castles in Lineage2/Aion or raiding stuff that's really difficult in WoW/EQ. CoX doesn't have an endgame, so I find myself quitting, realizing that endgame commitments in a real MMO aren't compatible with a full time job and a life outside of the game, and coming back to CoX just about yearly.

Vet badges are for time payed, not time played. You don't get them for spending a certain number of hours playing the game, you get them for buying a certain number of months worth of playtime. If there were badges for the amount of time the player had actually spent in the game/on the character, those would be a lot more meaningful to me. Someone who's played their 50 Rad/Kin for 20 hours is still tainted by the AE. Someone who's played the same char for 200 hours can probably keep a whole team SBd and FSd while blasting away full bore.

A level 50 with no vet or TF badges instantly sets off warning bells for me. Doubly so if they've got a dumb name.

Doesn't matter too much for me, I will give advice if they are doing something wrong either way :P Or rather, doing something that isn't working out quite right.

Vet Badges don't really mean much. My main account just hit 42 months Wednesday. What if I start a brand new account today? I'll have 0 Vet Badges. But if I use my 42 months of knowledge, I can easily get a 50, without running any TFs, before I've hit 3 months.

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I always do a spot check when running tf/sf, but rarely on regular missions unless they get to be a pain. My spot check is vet,powers/powersets,tf/sf accomplished, set bonus info. I believe this information is important to how the tf/sf will be run and what level of mentorship and leadership will be required.

I don't care really. I only adjust play style to the mission at hand. I do my best to make sure we have fun and roll along meeting our objective. If we have a team mate that is having a rough go I will adjust my playing to try and make it easier for them.

I don't look at vet badges, I dont really care. I do like to see how many they have overall, it is nice to come across someone that has more than I do but that's about it.

I just like teaming and I am not picky about power sets, vet status of the player or anything else. As long as more things die than we do then I am happy.

I really only make a point to check the buffer/debuffers to see what their powersets are along with how much veteran time. I like to have an idea of what kind of back up I "ought" to have. I don't actually rely on them to use their powers, but if they do and do it well, I'm happy to be pleasantly surprised. However, if the team is doing badly and I don't see the buffs/debuffs, I'll make a mention of it.

For the damage dealers, I might take a peek, but I don't really care. For very short timers, I might devote more attention to covering them assuming that they're still new to the game. But if a multi-year veteran is acting strange, then I'll keep my distance and assign them low priority.

I don't care about Bio write ups at all.

I tend to check out the info when waiting, interested, or upon noticing strange or newbish behaviour.

My buddy was a pretty knowledgable guy before he got his 3 month badge, and I've teamed with pretty clueless players who, according to vet badges, had been subscribed for years.