Solo content.

But of course I must bow to the relevance overlord. My deepest apologies for your inability to recognize context.

The 'obsolete reward' converts into 40 threads. That makes it not obsolete. As such, either you didn't know that fact, or you are grousing.

AGAIN, NOT ON EVERY SERVER.

For some servers (currently) it takes a signifigant amount of time to form the trials. That's yet another reason why I'd like an option to do while waiting for traffic FOR THE TRIALS to pick up in Pocket D, RWZ, or hell across the entire server on some servers.

The best thing the devs could ever do is to make the server LFG queue cross server.

As another stated I don't think the proposed additions in I20.5 will do jack shite to move more folks towards using the Open League system.

EDIT: I will say the best change (even better than anything posted in I20.5) is the conversion of the WST to 40 threads. It's significantly easier on some servers to form a WST than it is to form a trial AT ANY TIME of the day.

I have to agree, I don't much care for how the current LFG system works, and I don't really see the i20.5 changes fixing it. It would be nice if you could do something else instead of waiting around for a trial to happen. The amount of time I have burned standing around in Pocket D with my thumb up my butt hoping for the trial I want (like Lambda over BAF) is rather larger than I like.

If it could yank you out of a mission, that would be nice. You could at least get something done instead of just waiting. I wonder if there's a technical issue to it or something?

40 Threads<Atral merits, an Emp merit and at minimium a common componant. Obsolete.

Wow, you really are trying to be obtuse.

Look, 40 threads is 40 threads. I'm not trying to claim it's as good as the rewards from doing a trial, I'm just pointing out the simple truth that 40 threads can be very handy.

Organizing a WST is pretty damned easy. It's usually a lot easier than organizing a trial. Getting 40 threads for a TF which is often no harder than falling off a log is a pretty damned good deal even if it only once a week.

I know that conversion, by itself, will convince me it's worth doing the WST each week on the alts I'm incarnating.

Trust me I know this. When I am playing at off peak times, which is most of the time actually, I solo tips or whatever and keep an eye on the channels to see if a trial is starting up.

Possibly, although I cant wait to see the boarding party from victory and freedom crash an ITF on justice.

Why not just allow the LFG que to pull you out of an instance if you choose so you dont have to stand around outside waiting for the league to fill.

Quote:

As another stated I don't think the proposed additions in I20.5 will do jack shite to move more folks towards using the Open League system.

Agreed. There isn't a carrot big enough to get me to wait around outside and do nothing while waiting for the league to fill.

First, as you I assume have noticed by now, only the empyrean merits are good for the purpose of buying a very rare, which is the only thing I need at this point. Those you only get once a day if you'll recall. So the couple of hundred astral merits and thread I have lying around are essentially junk, since for some strange reason they can't be traded or sold. It looks like I've for once lucked out, and with an upcoming patch they will have some uses.

Second, we were told very early that the empyrean merits would be good for OTHER things. I wanted to see what those other things are before I making the irrevocable decision to spend them. Now that we've had a glimpse of what those "other things" may be, I am very glad indeed I waited.

Third, the incremental gain for a lot of the tier 4 powers are, as many are so fond of pointing out, not that great. Hardly worth burning irreplaceable and untradeable resources gained in content I actively loathe.

There's probably other points, but that should be enough to be going forward on.

This is where we end our conversation. Have a good day.

No, but it's said enough that the REAL wait time needs to be mentioned. Saying it takes 30-40 minutes for the trials is not a completely factual statement. Server population IS something that needs to be considered when mentioning the times a task takes.

It's an old problem that I had a problem with when people used to mention to me how fast hami was when trying to convince me to join one. I often found that I spent more time WAITING for the task to start than for the actual raid.

WAIT time is something folks need to factor when mentioning how long a task takes in MMOs.

It's funny you mention this, as OTHER mmos in this genre and out DO in fact let you do other things while you wait in queues or for a trial to form.

A EXTRA EMP merit (since those are one a day) MAYBE. Those convert into 20 threads and can make getting a very rare in one play session easier. An astral and buffs which are not really necessary since everyone is near up to +3 in their area wide buffs, no.

EDIT: I think the reasons we can't be pulled out of an instance are technical reasons. I've read AND seen that they kept wanting to add things to it but that was holding up it's release. Seeing as how everyone is NOT using the LFG Q I think it would have been better if they had waiting on releasing.

Really? Then why did it take me an hour to get a treespec going at 7 pm? Organizing a WST is pretty easy when a popular TF is WST. If you're trying to organize a redside WST, it's often not so easy.

ugggh the villain treespec. I'd rather much wait for a trial to form than play that.

I've noted that there's often a lot of people just hanging around willing to join a TF, assuming someone actually gets the ball rolling. TF/LFG channels are a godsend for this.

I suppose it depends on your server. On Justice I managed to do a couple of those without trouble. I really hate how boring the blueside respec has become, so I try to stick to the treespecs now.

Of course to maximize my access, I do have my main played villains as rogues.

But they don't actually do that. You NEVER get bupkiss at the end. (At absolute worst you'll get 10 threads, half a common, and that's the "You were AFK for most of the trial weren't you?" consolation prize, I've never gotten it on any of my chars, including the MM) They have offered a slow but steady (albeit time-gated) path via empyreal merits *for that very reason*.

Which btw. I think is one of the lessons the devs have learned that's a good thing: You'll always get *something*.

I think Sam is referring to something like 10 threads as bupkiss in relation to what you need to advance.

If you need an Exotic Isotope getting a common or 10 threads is seen as a waste of time.

Apparently so would a lot of other people. I like the treespec, so....shut up!

I did say "organize." In case it wasn't clear, I am willing to actually "get the ball rolling" as you said. I also belong to three TF/LFG channels, one of which is also a badge channel. This means hundreds of people are aware that I'm willing to get the ball rolling on a WST. If none of them want to do said WST, then there is nothing I can do to force them.

Turning your villains into Rogues doesn't make the blueside respec any less boring. I tried to form the treespec with a Vigilante, because the blueside respec is boring. Two hours later I got my Notice. If my playtime had been limited that night, I wouldn't have gotten one.

True, and I certainly saw far more freakspecs going than treespecs. However that is an issue of the popularity of redside vs. blueside more than anything else. If you really needed that notice, you could (as a rogue) have sucked up the boredom and freakspecced. It's only in the reactor core that that trial sucks.

And if being a rogue doesn't fit your villain's concept? Then you're screwed aren't you, especially if everyone else is taking the path of least resistance and going blueside.

"Everybody else is doing it" is and always has been the stupidest reason to do anything, especially in your spare time, and especially if you don't enjoy what everybody else is doing.

I know it's just me, but the whole business of how an MMO works quickly sank any focus I had on roleplaying characters a long time ago. I play to play a game, not to roleplay a character. I do pen and paper games for actual roleplaying.

So the way I play there is no matter of a villain concept getting in the way of being a rogue. I do go with the 'path of least resistance' as you call it. I build characters I think would be neat to play based on power set combinations. I don't even bother to cook up origins or back stories anymore.

I can understand that other people approach things differently and it can cause a problem. However I have to wonder if there are more gamists (like me) or roleplayers out there. A preponderance of the former will certainly lead to path of least resistance issues with side switching.

There IS middle ground here - gameplay and story segregation. I personally don't roleplay. Ever. However, I take great care to construct INTERESTING characters, give them exciting backstories and design them such that I'd want to see a movie about that character. Once that's done, I play and build the character in accordance with that story, "gaming" only instances which are irrelevant to the concept. For instance, if I designed a winged, flying character, that character gets flight. I don't care about Acrobatics, I don't care that Stone Armour will spend most of its time on the ground anyway. The character flies, and that's final.

However, my concept doesn't dictate whether Seismic Smash is slotted for recharge or not, how long Fault stuns for and whether Stone Fists is accurate. These get chosen and optimised for performance.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

You may not be roleplaying in the idea of standing around pocket D hamming it up, but you are certainly roleplaying in that you play the character in a manner which suits their personality. You limit your play options (not build, but actual choice of what to play) based on their background and personality. That is roleplaying. I certainly don't mean to impugn it by any means (I've been pen and paper roleplaying for 30+ years).

I don't do that. I don't really know that I've ever done it in this game or any other MMO. I just play what is available to play without any concern about what that character might do, simply because I don't think out that angle.

I consider the MMO environment not conducive to roleplaying as I wish to do it, so I don't even try. As always YMMV.