Dasher

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uh... Isn't today some kind of goofy sorta holiday? Trying to remember more details....

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It is, and hopefully this is a joke.

But hey, just look at Travel Power Suppression, Enhancement Nerfification, Prestige and dropping the ball on the Faultline and Cathedral of Pain Trials.

The Devs have NEVER needed April Fool's Day to do something galactically stupid and call it policy.

The sad truth is, after four years in-game, I have come to believe they will do something smart only AFTER it happens.

So call me gullible, but the safest course of action when you see something absurd like this is to assume some clown at the Head Office actually does think it's a good idea.

"Hey, I know! Let's make everyone slow to a crawl for four full seconds after any action! That'll make long animations (like Assassin Strike, as it turned out) really overpowered and short animations almost useless and slam the brakes on what up to now has been a dynamic, free-flowing game! Woo hoo, we Devs like this idera!"

Direct Quote from an Admin after massive amounts of customers complained and many cancelled their accounts over this bonehead move: "The Devs like the way it (Travel Power Suppression) works and there are no plans to change it."

So, never mind the PLAYERS, the customers who PAY to keep the game running, who cares what they want? The DEVS are happy. Oh, lucky us to be their Beta-Test slaves.

I will only believe they aren't screwing up the game with this latest nonsense when they actually don't do it.

Whatever the Devs announce on one day out of the year means nothing to me, because I have seen four years of them acting like Fools each of the other 364 (365 in Leap Years).

Dasher

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Ok you may quit now. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

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Hmmm... I think somebody needs to consider taking their own advice.

Can I have your stuff?

Oh, except for the Mission Computer in your base... you can keep that. After a year, things STILL don't seem to work

Dasher

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<QR> In keeping with the perceived slight of redside always gets less, Villains will not see Freeeeem, they shall only see Freee. Evil Ka-Boom! is pronounced Ka! Also, all stalker text shall be invisible.

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In Issue 12 they are changing Assassin Strike to Assassin Heal, didn't you hear? Stalkers now heal the enemies.

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I don't care if they get even moar damage, if I have some chance to see them. The routine of AS/run like a girl gets old fast. I don't die but can only kill them if they are n00bs.

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I know the feeling, I hate runners with a passion. I usually only PvP when I can get an organized fight of some sort, since people run like pansies in PvP zones.

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Hate to break the news to ya, folks, but "running" is part of "manuevering". Standing toe-to-toe with an opponent who outpunches you isn't butch, it's stupid.

Well, okay then, I guess it IS butch.

That said, granted the Super Jumping (which actually happens much more than "running away", since SJ is the preferred movement mode of PvP weenies) can be very annoying, but what's most annoying is the fact that Assassin Strike has an animation time almost as long as the four-second Travel Power Suppression period... which starts when they implement the attack, not when it's resolved.

That means they get an incredibly powerful whomp on you and can move away immediately. You may get one return strike on them before they are gone. If you don't stop them somehow, look for more of the same until you die or get bored.

And if the Stalker has a high Stun rate attack power (like Energy melee) you will be wobbling helplessly for the few seconds it takes him to finish you off. What fun!

Add this to the fact that their perfectly reasonable Hide power can be combined to UNreasonably STACK with other Concealment powers, and you have the most childishly imbalanced PvP AT in the game.

Well, PvP is for kids anyway, so I guess that's all right.

Dasher

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Sure we have time for jokes and weddings, but no time to fix the CoP trial... surprised? Not at all.

Grade: F-

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OMG, this was the BEST RESPONSE OF ALL!

Right there with ya, Waylon!!!!

Dasher

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uh... Isn't today some kind of goofy sorta holiday? Trying to remember more details....

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It is, and hopefully this is a joke.

But hey, just look at Travel Power Suppression, Enhancement Nerfification, Prestige and dropping the ball on the Faultline and Cathedral of Pain Trials.

The Devs have NEVER needed April Fool's Day to do something galactically stupid and call it policy.

The sad truth is, after four years in-game, I have come to believe they will do something smart only AFTER it happens.

So call me gullible, but the safest course of action when you see something absurd like this is to assume some clown at the Head Office actually does think it's a good idea.

"Hey, I know! Let's make everyone slow to a crawl for four full seconds after any action! That'll make long animations (like Assassin Strike, as it turned out) really overpowered and short animations almost useless and slam the brakes on what up to now has been a dynamic, free-flowing game! Woo hoo, we Devs like this idera!"

Direct Quote from an Admin after massive amounts of customers complained and many cancelled their accounts over this bonehead move: "The Devs like the way it (Travel Power Suppression) works and there are no plans to change it."

So, never mind the PLAYERS, the customers who PAY to keep the game running, who cares what they want? The DEVS are happy. Oh, lucky us to be their Beta-Test slaves.

I will only believe they aren't screwing up the game with this latest nonsense when they actually don't do it.

Whatever the Devs announce on one day out of the year means nothing to me, because I have seen four years of them acting like Fools each of the other 364 (365 in Leap Years).

Dasher

Oh, lord...

Please, for the love of mercy...

PLEASE tell us these can be TURNED OFF or otherwise DISABLED in the "Options" panel.

Please, please, please, please, please...

<holding head in hands> I just don't get it... you put people to work coding these sophomoric, infantile, ridiculous, crapola Visual Sound Graphics, but we are STILL lumbered with Travel Power Suppression...

What the heck do you people DO all day?

Do you even READ comics any more?!?!

Do us all a favor: Watch the "Justice League" DVDs, especially the ones with any hero who flies or teleports or has super jump or super speed.

That would be just about every episode, by the way.

In fact, watch 'em all TWICE.

And try -- really, really TRY -- to get a clue about the genre you are working in... please? Whether you want to admit it or not, whether you even KNOW it or not, this is animated comic book superhero gaming, not flipping-the-pages text adventuring.

Jeez...

Dasher

Greco-Roman style costumes look awesome. Headpiece plumes are nice, but standard style (front to back, or "mohawk") should have an alternate style which is fully attached to the helmet.

The stand-up peg was used almost exclusively for cavalry. Infantry wore the front-to-back crest, cavalry wore the transverse (shoulder-to-shoulder) crest, except for NCO rank and above, for which the style was reversed, i.e., cavalry NCOs and above wore front-to-back crests, infantry NCOs and above wore the transverse crest. It has to do with the way these units arrayed in rank and file, and the ease with which crest aligned opposite form thoe of the troosp in their orderly formations could identify a commander in the heat of combat.

Beards or other facial hair on Roman soldiers is a serious no-no; especially Egyptian-style beards, about which more later.

Maybe reeaaallllly late in the Empire (say 3rd-4th Century AD) you'd see bearded legionaries as more troops were brought in form the provinces, but in Republic and early Imperial periods, Romans were clean-shaven, especially officers who, without exception, came from the upper classes (equites and above).

As for the Egyptian style beards, never, ever, ever. Espcially not the Pharaonic-style beard shown in the illustration. Romans overall held an abiding mistrust - if not outright hatred - for what they perceived obe the erosion of their culture by the decadent Egyptians, whom they perceived as having corrupted even the Ptolemies who Hellenized Egypt and were themselves converted to Egyptians.

And the whole Cleopatra/Marc Antony mess and subsequent civil war did nothing to mollify their attitude, instead leaving a very long shadow of suspicion by Romans over all things Egyptian. That's one of the reasons the Empire developed more toward Gothic and Gaullic characteristics and not Egyptian.

This has been a pubic service message from the "Read a Book Once in a While" Council.

Dasher ("Pegging the Geek-O-Meter Since 1985!")

Alas, that is only partially true...

Most folks who DID care about such things had already faced so many other disappointments related to game content...

(deep breath)

...Multi-issue delay/pushback of SG bases, Travel Power Suppression, Enhancement Nerfification, Rampant Power Nerfification, Sucking Up to PvP'ers, Original (also promised) Faultline Trial As Vaporware, Lack of SG Base Character and Utility, to name but a few of the more egregious abuses at our expense...

... that they long since voted with their feet and abandoned the game to the hordes Two-Week Free Trial'ers sucked in by NC Soft, kids of all ages who never knew the game any other way but in its current state of "Form Over Content".

So, I guess the Devs and the Accountants got their way after all, because when you are left with only sheep, nobody really cares when they get shorn.

Except the guard dogs, who maintain the unappreciated responsibility of trying to get the hopelessly apathetic sheep to realize that the shepherds are only interested in their skins and, all too often, the flesh off their bones.

Dasher

Holy cow... this is... unbelievable...!

My reaction is not aimed specifically at Darque_Duce, nor indeed at any one particular poster, but I am blown away by how many people rsponded to this thread with NO concern whatsoever for being hosed out of promised, advertised content, and instead most of them are worried about some ridicuous, pointless, silly, utterly inconsequential piece of game coding for a badge!

I guess when you have spent so many years being boned by game developers you just assume that's the way life is: You pays your (or your parent's) money, and you takes your abuse.

There is a word for folks like that. In fact, there are several: "Suckers," AKA "dupes", "rubes", "saps", "marks", etc.

This attitude explains why gold farming sites thrive. What they SHOULD be doing is offering code hacks to let badge-addicts collect all the shiny-pretties they think have any value whatsoever. At $10 a pop they'll be rich in a day.

Seriously, some folks need to grow up just a tad and start getting excited about things that MATTER.

Like getting their money's worth.

Wow.

SUCK-KERZZZZZZZ!!!!!!



Dasher

Lighthouse Sez:

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Remaining Items of Powers Removed Fri. March 14th
#10362470 - 03/10/08 06:02 PM

During the maintenance period on the morning of Friday, March 14th we will be conducting additional server maintenance to remove the remaining Items of Power on the Live US servers. The fact that a few Items of Power have remained has been a bug that we are now rectifying. Thanks in advance for your understanding.

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Hey, good job!!!

Now this means, of course, that you guys will FINALLY be fixing the Cathedral of Pain Trial and getting it up and running so the REST of us can get our shot at Items of Power, too, right?

Right?

RIGHT?!?!?!?!?!

Because a great many of us have been PAYING you to do just that for oh, say, over a YEAR, now.

Thanks in advance for doing your jobs.

Dasher (Professional Cranky SOB Since Issue 2 began revealing Dev Contempt for Subscribers)

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Do you seriously believe that the Cathedral of Pain Trial will ever make it to a live server?

Because if you do you're more of an optimist than I'll ever be.

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Well, I don't blame you for sounding bitter, and I am very often right on board with that viewpoint.

But for my part, it's not so much being an optimist as it is being a capitalist.

I don't so much "believe" it will happen as "expect and require" it to happen, as should every other poster, lurker and fanboy, and all those customers who have never even set keystroke in these Forums.

Because we pay the bills, folks.

We have a right to get what we pay for.

Dasher

Okay, I like the Veteran Badges and the Awards are cool, too.

Now, I'm not 100% convinced that the game needs yet more fiddlly-bit Pets floating around, but whatever.

So here's my constructive suggestion for future Veteran Awards. People, tell me what ya think:

50 Months (Yes, I know, it's not a full year or billable quarter, but it's a better number than "51"): Choice of a Toggle Graphic separate from, but based on, your chosen Travel Power:

None (uses Sprint speed, available to any toon): Motorcycle

Speed: Jetbike (as a motorcycle, but hovers a foot over the ground like a Star Wars Speederbike).

Leaping: Sticky Feet (toon sticks to vertical or overhead surfaces until they move again; any non-Jump move and they fall off).

Teleportation: Wormhole effect; a visible "tube" of light extending a few yards from the toon. The Destination Point is chosen on the Zone map and can be anywhere in the Zone.

Flight (Like the Blackwand and Nemesis Staff, this would have two versions; one for Tech/Sci/Natural and one for Mutation/Magic):
Tech: Permanent Rocket Pack in two new styles, one high tech, one retro (no pun intended)
Arcane: Winged horse. Yes, a winged horse.

Costume Suggestions for Veteran Award 50:

Gladiator armors, especially helmets, breastplates, greaves, bracers, etc.

Internal Lighting Auras. For example, a toon with the Circuit or Magic Patterns could have those specific costume elements illuminated as if from within.

"White-Eye" masks. The "Bonehead" mask option could be easily modified to do this; just lose the nose hole and make the eyes subject to secondary color choice modification.

Thicker Tails: The Reptile Tail especially is awfully wimpy.

More variation in Monstrous Heads. Wolf heads than can wear hats, Dragon heads that can wear helmets, etc.

These are just off the top of my head, but the Travel Power Veteran Awards are the main thing, and those I put a lot of thought into.

And now, the World's Most Unnecessary Question To Ask on a Public Forum:

What does everyone else think?

Dasher

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I would SO do that! /Signed 1000x over!
Golden Gate Bridge is one of my favourite things in the world right now- I have a rivet from it, even


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D-OH!!! Oh, you LUCKY... !!!!!!

Too cool!

Dasher

I notice a lot of folks are referencing Issue 12 in this thread, which is cool, I just want to weigh in on that subject.

I have no idea, notion, inkling or even concern for what, if anything, I-12 will be all about; apparently it's some Orobouros "Storm"-related thingy, based on what I gather from references in other peoples' posts.

Cool, great, wonderful, bring it on.

But...

I would be ECSTATIC if the ONLY THING Issue 12 did was to get the Cathedral of Pain Trial up and running.

I am sick unto death of waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for the CoP Trial and Items of Power.

Please, Devs, please, please, PLEASE fix this!!!

Please, stop throwing distracting shiny-pretties in front of us, hoping the lack of the CoP Trial will make the problem go away.

It won't; it will just antagonize people further.

Just Make It Work.

Please.

Dasher

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The looming threat of the Rikti Invasion Force still hangs like a dark pall over Earth. Despite the best efforts of humanity, aggressive Rikti incursions still plague the planet.

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You know what would be really cool?

Global requests for aid with custom co-op map zones filled with dynamic structures.

I know, I know, this is a HUGE amount of work, but how neat would it be to get a call for help from a major city and teleport there with co-op teams of Heroes and Villains just in time to...

... save London, keeping Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from being destroyed?

... defend Moscow, driving Rikti assaults back from the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral?

... keep Tokyo, or Buenos Aires, or Beijing, or Sydney, or Paris, or Cairo, the Pyramids and Sphinx(!) from being destroyed by Rikti?

... and of course, save San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge!

This of course is total blue-sky wishful thinking, but it would so rock...!

Dasher

I am so jazzed that this is a recurring event!

The (periodic) Return of the Rikti is one of the most fun events in CoH.

My only wish - my ONLY wish! - for this event would be that when the Rikti start raiding, all Zones get opened to everyone, Hero and villain alike, and they all go Co-Op! "Out-Of-Towners" could be auto-teleported back to the Zone they entered from or any PvP Zone, but it would be so cool to fight side-by-side with my friends' alts from both sides of the law!

Whatever, I'm just happy for the chance to do MORE RIKTI-STOMPING! WOO-HOOOOOOO!!!!



Dasher

HEROES (Two SGs)

* Supergroup Name: .GUARDIANS.
* Website (if any): None at this time
* Global Chat Channel (if any): Private
* Leader or Recruiting Officers: All members
* Preferred Method of contact: We'll find you; we do not blanket recruit, membership is by invitation (but we tend to invite on a pretty easygoing basis).
* Guild Description:
Motto: NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER!
We're almost all over-30 adults with many years of mature gaming behind us. We don't mind younger members (we have 'em from 10 years old and up), but we expect maturity in our players. We use Ventrilo for in-game comms and we look after each other in-game even if we aren't teamed. Roleplaying is welcome but not required. We play the Story, not the Game, which means we don't power-level, farm, or in general attempt to sidestep the "game world" for the sake oif personal gain. We have a good-sized SG base with all the bells and whistles, but we aren't interested in raids until the Cathedral of Pain Trial is up and running. We're pretty easygoing but because of the younger members we are death on foul language.

* Supergroup Name: Paragon City S.W.O.R.D.
* Website (if any): None presently
* Global Chat Channel (if any): Private
* Leader or Recruiting Officers: Colonel Cipher, SGT AP0NE
* Preferred Method of contact: In-game tells are acceptable, but membership requirements are strict (see below).
* Guild Description:
Motto: ABANDON NO FRIEND, SPARE NO FOE
Paragon City Special Weapons Operations Response Division is a 100% hardcore ROLEPLAYING supergroup. All members are Technology-origin Assault Rifle/Devices Blasters with the "Leaping" Power Pool (this may change if Jet Packs become permanent costume add-ons). Other Power Pool choices are restricted or severley limited.
The SG has a standard uniform; all members are outfitted exactly the same, and body types are limited according to height and weight restrictions.
The idea behind this SG was to create a para-military response team of ordinary human "grunts" to lend fire support and back-up to "real" super-powered heroes. In essence, it's those guys and gals from Metropolis U.N.I.T. or S.H.I.E.L.D. who show up to get mowed down in droves before somebody calls the Justice League or the Avengers.
It's a lot more fun than you might think, especially when eight troopers all open up at the same time with "AutoFire".
We die an awful lot, but it's a lot of fun and very challenging. If you like First Person Shooters, this SG is a pretty good crossover from those games to CoH.

VILLAINS

THE IMPERIUM

This villain SG is being maintained on Protector, but most of its active members have transferred to the Champion server. We are currently debating whether to transfer some alts back to Protector and will update this post if we do so.

Happy Gaming!

Wow.

Four years, and all I can say is "wow"...

I've been watching this thread for 24 pages now and it's gratifying to see considered all the things that I've been howling for since Issue 2 went live.

I think I'm just gonna push my tiny little cloud of "Smug" up next to George Clooney's here, have a coffee and wait a bit longer before I do the "I-Told-You-So" dance...



Dasher

I have sent e-mails to eight friends asking them to consider returning to CoH/CoV.
All declined and asked not to be sent referral e-mails, for various reasons, most of which overlap.
Their reasons, and the number of people who felt the same way, are listed below:

1. Enhancement Diversification: Unanimous. The respondents' examination of the new Crafting abilities did not convince them this feature was an improvement over simply allowing players to commit to a theme-design for their
characters as they envisioned them. Eight (8) refusals;

2. Travel Power Suppression Still in Effect: Six (6) refusals. Believe it or not, folks, it's not just me. ;

3. Cathedral of Pain Trial Still Not Operational: Unanimous. All eight (8) feel that this is a symptom of a continued, conscious choice by management to ignore many in-game problems hoping they will go away;

4. "The game is just all combat, all the time": Four (4) refusals. I can't fully agree with this one; most comics are "just all combat", but I do concede that there is room for mission content of a more cerebral nature: Puzzle-solving,
random mission triggers like glowies in the Zone maps or on-the-street citizen-rescues that open mini-story arcs and so forth. Even so I list it here to give a complete account.

5. Prestige: Unanimous. All eight felt that Prestige was "grossly unfair" to long-time players, who had been promised SG Bases starting in Issue 2. When those bases finally went live, these loyal customers were told the Influence they had been saving for months - some for over a year - was, essentially, worthless. Again, this was regarded as a symptom of contempt for long-time subscribers in favor of appeasing newcomers. (Two respondents also voiced continued resentment that SG and VG bases lack anything "super" in their character; that instead of
being helicopter carriers or submarines or orbiting space stations or offshore oil platforms, they are still just holes in the ground.)

6. Still No Vehicles: Two (2) refusals. Very low on my list of priorities, but these two respondents were adamant in wanting their [Your-Hero's-Name-Here]-mobiles, jets or motorcycles (As an aside, all respondents wanted to see Rocket Packs as an integral costume choice for flyers, but I pointed out that was potentially a Costume Recipe issue.);

7. Alignments: Three (3) refusals. These respondents resent being forced to play a Scrapper in a heroic mold, a Brute as a villain, and so forth. They contend - and I agree - that actions and story arc choices should determine a player's "alignment", and that the division of player ATs into "good" and "evil" is an obsolete PvP contention that should be phased out, at which point they will reconsider returning to the game;

8. Game's Emphasis Toward PvP: Unanimous. This should be clarified; none of the eight respondents felt PvP should be eliminated, only that the game was being unduly influenced by a desire to pander to PvP'ers in the most unimaginative ways, i.e., allowing those players who value min-max'ing (AKA "munchkins") over strong tactical play to determine how the in-game powers get tweaked. This was seen as allowing the game to degenerate into one of "perfect design" instead of achieving its potential of rewarding intelligent play; as a result, this led directly to the subject of...

9. Power Nerfing: Unanimous. All eight (8) agreed that weakening an ability to accommodate a player segment who could not be bothered to find a way to deal with the creative use of that ability by innovative players was "dumbing down
the game" pure and simple.

It was interesting that no one declined on the basis of any lack of content; rather, that was an area everyone I contacted was excited about. Most of these players had left before the Second Rikti Invasion, and all were excited about the "new and improved Rikti", additional TFs and Co-Op Zone, as well as the new Orobouros content. However, the consensus was that even the best possible content would be ruined by the negative impact on play presented by the conditions listed in their replies.

The "XP Smoothing" feature I told them about in follow-up e-mails was also considered irrelevant by all eight former players. As summed up by "Ace351" (the player who first brought me into CoH in May of 2004), "I don't mind staying at the same level for a while if the game is still fun. If it were up to me, they wouldn't even have levels, we'd just get more powers to start and then be allowed to improve them over time. THAT'S a super hero! The way it is now, we're just playing Elves and Dwarves in spandex."

Anyway, that's how eight former CoH/CoV players felt. For my part, despite the fact that I agree with all of the above reasons for declining to return, I'm still here.

But I cannot, in good conscience, invite any new players to the game until these matters are resolved and the promise the game once held is restored to it.

Dasher

I'm very excited about the new additions to the game for 2008.

Please be sure that one of the changes is to get rid of the four-second Travel Power Suppression nerf that follows the initiation - but not the resolution - of all attacks.

Besides being an indefensible nerf with a jarring negative impact on the flow and indeed the very concept of a game about super-powered characters, the four-second lag is a tremendous advantage to Stalkers and any other AT with a long-animation melee attack.

With the long-overdue rescindment of this nerf - which was poorly conceived and unilaterally implemented without regard for player input - the "mobility advantage" will be restored to all ATs equally, which in the final analysis is the only way to "balance" anything.

Thank you,

Dasher

[ QUOTE ]
Hmmm guess I could help my tiny (3 person/4toon) VG on Virtue by using those trial codes I have laying around, dual boxing, and inviting a horde of useless alts. Just seems an annoying and akward reward that promotes the wrong type of play (I suspect to hear a lot of recruiting going on and a lot of people after the awarding complaining about being kicked from their SG, not everyone is aware of this upcoming award so may think they're getting legit SG invites).

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, more like it rewards a "different" kind of play than a "wrong" kind of play. We've got lots of members and we try to welcome everyone's alts and still enjoy being able to invite folks who we've played with for a while who might also have lots of alts, etcetera, and it's a pain to have to maintain (at least one) overflow-SG whose members have only limited access to the Main SG's facilities.

Of course, as stated above, our style of play does not embrace blanket recruiting. We team, we get to know folks, then we invite. If they already have a solid SG, we offer a Coalition.

[ QUOTE ]
I think a flat reward regardless of SG size would be more useful.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Unfortuntely, a small SG getting, say, 3,000,000 Prestige might overextend its designs and find itself hard-pressed to pay the rent, but this is a welcome problem compared to staring at four blank walls with a glowing blue hole in the middle of the floor.

[ QUOTE ]
As others have pointed out the small SGs won't get as much of a bonus (between 10 and 24 my villain got 100k prestige for his VG and that's about 75% of the VGs prestige since there's onloy 3 other members) while the big SGs that will get more probably won't notice it as much unless they are mostly inactive accounts or new and went on a recruiting spree.

Of course they could encourage SGs to trim inactive members by making the reward reverse proportional: give 20k prestige for each member LESS than the new cap that the SG has, then even a SG at the old cap would get 1.5mil prestige while a 1 person SG would get just shy of 3mil

[/ QUOTE ]

The simplest and best solution would be to get rid of Prestige altogether. It is now, always has been, and will remain, a rip-off; a clunky artifice to limit achievement and force continued time spent online to compensate for either/or states of earning... Influence I need to craft, or Prestige I need to support my SG?

The exchange rate is an insult to players' intelligence, and the whole idea of YET ANOTHER form of "currency" is so transparent a deception as to be absurd, yet in addition to Influence (or Infamy, a pointless piece of fluff-naming) we now have not only Prestige but "Vanguard Merits"... yawn.

Leave the Debt, Wipe the Prestige and the Merits, and make everything an Influence-based economy.

THAT'S fair to everyone; you may be behind the curve in Influence-earning to start, but you will know that every point you earn during your gameplay will be universally valid.

Dasher

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Hopefully this isn't too much of an inconvenience for anyone.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, I'm as big a badge-ho as the next guy, but I was surprised to see a badge for debt in the first place. Frankly, those are the badges I would NEVER want to earn.

In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to offer a reward for failure in the first place - look at what a success Blaster "Defiance" has been - but badges for working off millions of debt points worth of failures?

"Woot! I finally have ALL the debt badges! Of all the losers, I'm the best!"

Dasher

Just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS and wish you all the best on the new venture!

Dasher

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Don't offer things until you already have them ready for delivery


[/ QUOTE ]

At that point why have a poll - push it out the door.

A player poll to determine direction pretty much requires you dont have the finished products ready.

[/ QUOTE ]

All the more reason to heed the results of the poll.

If the player desires as expressed in the poll are going to be ignored or accommodated only insofar as what;s convennient for the pollsters, then offering the poll is, as I said, nothing more than a sop to make people feel like their input is valued when, in point of fact, it is not.

Dasher

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Okay, so it would take longer. Fine. Take the time, and give us what we asked for.

[/ QUOTE ]

They are. Shields are coming as well as Willpower, not instead of.

Or were you not aware of that?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes indeed, I am aware. I presume you are aware that Shields are NOT coming "as well as" WEillpower in Issue 11, despite the fact that Shields were offered along with Dual Blades in the poll and Shields beat out Willpower in the polling?

The point is, Shields beat Willpower in the poll, but we will get Willpower instead of Shields because Shields were too difficult to implement and Willpower was more or less ready. Shields will come along in a futuire release, NOT Issue 11, so we WILL get Willpower "instead oif" Shields, at least this time around, despite what we were offered and what we chose.

Hence, as I tried to make clear, what the players want, ask for, or indeed, pay for is irrelevant... what they will GET is what the Devs feel like doing.

QED

Dasher

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What is the point in even posting that? People voted, asked for dual swords, and we got it. Of course there are other powers we want to see, but this is what we got in issue 11, so let's talk about it......not water. Just MO.

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Yeah, except that what people actually voted for was dual swords and shields, but instead we got Willpower, ostensibly because it would have taken umpty-ump more poses to put shields in.

Okay, so it would take longer. Fine. Take the time, and give us what we asked for. Don't offer us something then say "No, you can't have that, because it's not convenient for us to give it to you, despite the fact that we already offered it.

That's lying.

And you know what? When you take money for it, it's fraud.

I would happily have waited for shields, rather than have the Devs offer something they either knew they could not deliver or never bothered to research beforehand.

And the fix is so simple... Ready Devs? Okay, pay attention, 'cuz here it comes:

Don't offer things until you already have them ready for delivery.

DUH.

"Hey, rent this house for $1,000 a month and after four years we'll build it."

Would ANYBODY take that deal? They should, because it works the way the Devs like things to work.

All of which leads thinking folk to surmise that the whole "voting" nonsense was nothing more than a sop to the vocal dissatisfied customers to make them THINK the Devs have any interest in actually giving the players what they want.

Trust: The players will only get what they ask for if it's something the Devs feel like doing.

I quote CuppaJo regarding Travel Power Suppression when asked why they wouldn't withdraw it when EVERYBODY hated it and people were leaving the game in droves because of it: "[Travel Power Suppression is] working the way the Devs intended, so there are no plans to change it."

Get the point? What was said there, in a nutshell, was this: What the PLAYERS - the people who pay the bills - might want, or not want, is irrelevant. If the Devs are happy, that's all that matters.

So let's all shut up and eat our grass so we can be nice fluffy little sheep when it comes time for our monthly shearing...

Dasher