Gangrel_EU

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha

1 shard. You can only get 1 shard from the end component.
And I have yet to see a 30 minute ITF, despite running with some very good players with some honestly obscene builds. If by 30 minutes you mean 'Ghost absolutely everything you can', well...myeah. Doesn't contribute much to shard earnings, I know that much.

Originally Posted by Toony

Not the best community for new players to see. Makes WoWs forums look pleasent.

Originally Posted by SuperOz

There's only ever been two games in my thirty years of tabletopping that have ever gotten superheroes right, and I'm afraid Champions isn't one of them for me.

The first is the venerable Marvel Super Heroes from the now-defunct TSR (now Wizards of the Coast). One chart that handles everything in the game, and it handles every power level from Aunt May to the Beyonder. All percentile based and it scales beautifully. For pure super-heroey stuff, this is your game.

The second is White Wolf's Aberrant game, which has no connection to the World of Darkness, allows you to put huge amounts of customisation into your powers, and runs off a success-based system. And any game that has advanced rules where you can eventually going around making whole galaxies and lifeforms is pretty cool... Be warned, though...this is a R-rated game with everything that implies. But I've seen DC and Marvel heroes converted over with ease. Give it a look.


S.

Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning

It also should be noted that it's easier, from a PR standpoint, to set the bar initially far apart and approach the sweet spot from the direction of slower "leveling" speed, than faster, for the simple reason that if the developers at any point in the open beta process, make the speed slower a portion of the player base is going to talk about a nerf to the system. If they make it faster it's an easier sell to the playerbase and they get good PR out of it. With all that being said, I still feel like the bar is set strangely far apart here.

Originally Posted by Captain_Karate

So the solution is to punish the people who like to play, and have been playing this game solo, for years? I'm sorry, but by reading this thread, I thought that teams had "more risk" and therefore should got "more reward" and also "faster reward" because of it. Ok...I kinda see where they are coming from, even if I don't buy it personally. But whatever.

But not for nothing..."the majority" loves to team! But now they won't team if a solo option is present? Oh wait, I get it, they only like to team because they get (incarnate) stuff faster because the risk is greater? So if they made solo friendly incarnate arcs, no one would ever do TFs for similar rewards? So apparently the team/solo debate is moot. It's all about "getting stuff the fastest"?

I think it's all ridiculous. People who like to team will still team for the incarnate stuff, and people who like to solo will still solo for theirs. You might have a small proportion of min/maxer type team lovers who might go against their grain and solo content just for so called "faster reward" but I don't think it's a game breaker honestly for most people. And typically, the people who are min/maxers and do want and indeed get everything the fastest already have the characters and the influence to do it anyways. You don't develop that type of mentality in the game by having mediocre toons. But the point of the GAME is to have fun, and if they had WTFs and also soloable arcs available, it's basically win-win in my books.

I'm actually in the what I consider, small proportion group I mentioned above, but on the other side. I hate teaming, but I did go against my grain this week, and did two Khan TFs solely for the Notice of the Well. But now that I've got my level shift, I'm back to ignoring everyone else in the game basically again! That's how I like it. I do my thing, everyone else does theirs. The world makes sense for me again!

Originally Posted by paynesgrey

So you're basically saying that the Devs must ensure team players have preferential treatment, or they'll all rage quit if they see solo players getting comparable Incarnate drops through additional solo-friendly incarnate arcs. That the knowledge of solo players adavancing at the same rate will drive away everyone who likes to team. (Even though most players will actually bounce back and forth between the two depending on their mood or how much time they have that particular day.)

"What? They made a story arc that someone can solo and get Incarnate salvage? I... I can't.... I have to cancel now! NOAAAAW! I can't play this game if they can just play different content geared towards they're play style! This Slot is dead to me if a solo player can get it a week like me, instead of a month! I'm going to go play Farmville, where the developers undertand that social interactions are what MMO's are for, not a customizable individual experience where people can solo or team as they wish and still progress...I feel so used and dirty...solo... got slots..."

It's odd. I though CoX and another of other gamges had been succeeding by addressing the desires of both communities, by making sure solo players had plenty to do, plenty to advance with while also seeing to it that team and raid fans had their own material to work with. I thought More Content For Every Playstyle was an idea that had been working out well, I had no idea so many team players were quitting because solo'ers were doing their own thing.

Originally Posted by Eiko-chan

Generally, I either don't play at all (as has been the case for the past while), or several hours (2 to 4) a night (as was the case when I was trying to get my first Uncommon boost.)

Originally Posted by Leandro

Edit: okay, I thought of something to add. Let's say you want to get the shards by hunting bosses, for example in PI by Portal Corp. Let's say you are a capable build that can defeat a boss in under a minute, and travel to another boss before the minute is over; it'd take 24,000 minutes to get all the shards you need. That's 400 hours, or 4 times longer than it takes to level to 50.

Originally Posted by Eiko-chan

A Very Rare boost costs a bare minimum of 56 shards, no matter how you earn other parts (three uncommon components at 8 shards each and a Favour of the Well at 32 shards).

32 gets you an Uncommon (12 for a Common, 20 more for the Uncommon part; this uses up the Common.) You will need two Uncommons (so you can make two Rares) to get a Very Rare, so that's 64 already.

88 Shards for a Notice - you'll need two of these, for two Rares. 176.
Now you need two more, to make a Favour. 176 + 32 = 208.
That's Leandro's 384. It's not counting any other costs. That's just the Notices/Favour.

Two more common components for each Rare - that's another 8 each, 16 total. We're up to 464.

The Very Rare costs another common and uncommon - 16 more.

Total cost for a Very Rare from scratch is 480 shards (and apparently 400 million inf.) Those gaining Notices in other ways only need 128 shards (some of which can come in batches of 4 by gaining common components through TFs).

If you lower the cost of a Notice to 24 shards (which was my suggestion), that makes the total cost 224 - almost a hundred more than those gaining notices in other ways.

So no, I didn't expect it to cost "a hundred or so". I was expecting a couple hundred. Considering solo shard drop rates (even running at x8), that would be months of play.

Originally Posted by Eiko-chan

I do not consider the marketing department of NCSoft or Paragon Studios to be separate from the development team of Paragon Studios. When I say "they" in reference to "the dev team", marketing is included. I'm not sure why this would not be the case. To suggest otherwise is to suggest that marketing works at odds with the developers, not in tandem.

Originally Posted by Mylia

Well since they are under a lot of NDAs they probably cannot talk to much what is down the line for various reason this thread shows.


I know for my job and some of my friends jobs we are under strict NDA due to the sensitivity of work we have. They would be the same since they are competing against other companies/games out there that would take something and copy it in their game.....OR it does not get implemented and we feel that we should be entitled to it now.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

This is something people need to remember. "Teaming preference" is not a binary thing, either WILL DO or WON'T DO. It's usually a case of "might do, sometimes, for some tasks, with some people if I'm in the mood." I haven't undergone psychological evaluation and I don't know what I'm talking about, so I can't say whether I'm an introvert or an extrovert, but I know that playing with other people - even when it's fun - taxes me, and greatly, meaning I either need to leave the team and do something on my own where no-one will bother me, or otherwise log out of the game and do something else entirely.

Also, for lack of ability to carry over nested quotes, there's something I want to say on the subject of "teaming vs. interacting." At some point along the way, I described worries of teaming becoming nothing more than a means to an end that people engage in not because they want to, but because they feel they have to, leading to communal play, but VERY cold, basic interaction which leaves one feeling even less a part of the community. It's pretty evident when a person teaming with you doesn't really want you on his team, but knows he NEEDS you on the team nevertheless, and will tolerate you through grit teeth out of sheer necessity. That's generally not a good situation.

I've teamed a lot over the years, and I can say one thing for a fact - the level of actual player-to-player interaction, to say nothing of social interaction, is rock bottom for the most part. You exchange some curt communication with the team leader, are placed on the roster, and proceed to solo alongside what may as well be 7 bots, for all the humanity they display. No-one says a word, no-one cares about a word that is said, no-one wants to acknowledge that there are human beings behind the characters on screen. On the subject of bolded MMO, this is not better than solo play in any way. It IS solo play in everything but game mechanics.

In short, being within a certain proximity of other human beings is not the same as socialising with other people. And that's not a fine line, either.

Originally Posted by TrueMetal

As an introvert I can say that I love teaming, TFs and everything that has to do with it. The Apex TF is the best piece of content this game has imo.

It is also true, that after a certain point (which can be after a single TF, or a 16 hour gameathon it differs day to day) I've had enough and I really need to do something solo in game, or some other loner activity outside the game (reading or just staring at the ceiling while listening to music usually works) so I can recharge my batteries. Interacting with people, even online, is draining.

In the same vain, I love summer music festivals. 3 days in a tent on a camping site with a group of friends and surrounded by thousands of other people. I love it. For 3 days. Afterwards I usually lock myself away for two days and really appreciate it if people just leave me the heck alone. I did a four day festival once and that really stretched my limits. I don't think I was all that pleasant on the road home.

Originally Posted by Desmodos

When did you switch? When Ultra Mode was introduced, with Issue 18, I had no problems whatsoever. The 'compatablity' fell apart with Issue 19.