Hellguard

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Isn't it standard now a days for freespecs and free tailor tokens to be given out with the release of a new issue? I'm pretty sure this has become the "norm" now.

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No, the "norm" is for it to be a few days to a week after new issue release. They issued a freespec during the Issue 12 update, like they did with this one, and then they issued another one a week or so later to make up for the fact that the first one wasn't announced.

EDIT: Link to thread announcing the 2nd freespec after Issue 12. Note a couple of the posts that say "Good call" or "Respec re-grant, definitely the right thing to do," referencing the complaints at the time because the first one wasn't announced.

Again, I don't have a lot at stake over this particular issue, but I do value some consistency in the actions of NCSoft even if it doesn't affect me personally. If they made a mistake once and fixed it, they should fix it if they make that same mistake again.

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One Freespec Token for each character, to find out more about Respecification check out the Paragon Wiki Article at the Titan Network.

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Is it okay to ask why the freespec wasn't announced in advance? There wasn't even a hint that there would be one this time (although everyone figured there would be), much less an announcement so that people could use old freespecs they already had. The first "notice" that anyone had was a mention on the UK boards while the servers were still down for the Issue 13 update.

Also, having the freespec grant during the actual issue update made it so no new characters (such as Shields or Pain Dom characters) could have one.

When this happened before, another freespec was granted shortly thereafter to make up for the first one not being announced. Do you foresee this happening this time?

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I would like to know about this as well. I do believe this is a third time in a row that this has happened. I would like to know if the freespec is going to be granted again, like it has been in the past to correct this error. Also please, if you decide to give one out in I14 - tell us ahead of time. Even a day's notice is nice.

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Third time eh? You would think people would learn and expect something a third time

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We were explicitly told they would announce it ahead of time. I understand that they're shorthanded and stuff slips through the cracks, but when it happened before, another freespec was granted to correct the oversight. I would expect the same thing to happen this time. It doesn't really matter to me personally a whole lot either way; I have more Vet Respecs than I ever use on any character I make. I'd just seen some people upset over it and figured I would try to be the first to bring it up since I'm calm about it and some people aren't.

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And I dont understand why people should feel they deserve a freespec on a new character. Its new!!

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I didn't mean to imply that anyone "deserved" a freespec on new characters; it's just a nice bonus side effect to the way that they've almost always granted freespecs.

Bottom line is, they said they would announce it ahead of time and they didn't, and when it happened before they issued another one shortly thereafter. The fact that they're short-handed probably has something to do with it, but why it happened doesn't matter. It was an oversight, and it's no big deal, but they corrected such an oversight before. I was merely asking if this oversight would be corrected again.

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I was wondering, what about the new boards? I thought they were supposed to go live with Issue 13? (Curse my search-fu as I can't find the post about it).

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I don't think it was ever stated that they would go live with Issue 13. You may be remembering when they announced that the new forums would be used for the closed beta period of Issue 13 testing.

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Have accounts already been reactivated, or does it start this Friday?

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All players who had retail accounts that are in good standing will be able to access our live servers starting now through Sunday night at 11:59 PM EST.


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One Freespec Token for each character, to find out more about Respecification check out the Paragon Wiki Article at the Titan Network.

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Is it okay to ask why the freespec wasn't announced in advance? There wasn't even a hint that there would be one this time (although everyone figured there would be), much less an announcement so that people could use old freespecs they already had. The first "notice" that anyone had was a mention on the UK boards while the servers were still down for the Issue 13 update.

Also, having the freespec grant during the actual issue update made it so no new characters (such as Shields or Pain Dom characters) could have one.

When this happened before, another freespec was granted shortly thereafter to make up for the first one not being announced. Do you foresee this happening this time?

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No run tonight

Anyone playing i13 right now?

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Can't get onto the servers just yet. Should be able to soon, though.

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Did I read this correctly. Will my currently rent free base, going to have to pay rent because I have salvage and enhancement racks? My SG is me, so any rent is a HUGE impact.

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Yes, but the absolute maximum in rent you can have is very low. We're talking maybe 2 or 3 missions played in SG mode. It's not going to be hard for ANYONE to generate enough to pay such a small amount every six weeks.

It's still a negative change if you were on the default 8x8 plot, yes, but absolutely no one will ever have problems paying rent under the new system, which you can't say for the current system.

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Base Repricing
1) How will the repricing of bases affect you personally?

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It'll free up millions of additional prestige just from the plot price reductions alone. I'll be able to finally add some of the cooler "mid-range" control and energy items and have room for some nice themed decorative rooms.


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2) Will you dismantle your base to gain the additional prestige from the repricing?

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Yes, at least mostly.

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3) How long would this process take you if you were to engage in this practice?

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A couple of hours initially, to upgrade and make sure we have all the necessary accommodations. After that, it'll take a good long while to get all the extra stuff squared away (experimenting with decorative rooms, floating stuff, etc), but since that'll be part of the expansion that really shouldn't be counted as part of the dismantling process.

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4) What are the positive and negative concerns regarding repricing?

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I'm not really sure there's a negative to the repricing in and of itself. I sympathize with those who have huge bases and have to face dismantling all that work to get the lower prices, but that's not so much of a concern for me personally. The new prices are, in and of themselves, completely positive.

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5) How will this feature affect you long term and short term?

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Short term, it'll allow me to create a really spectacular base fairly quickly. Long term I guess there's no way to know. My group is never going to be interested in base raids, so if that's the primary focus of bases for the Devs the effort will be wasted on us. Hopefully the Devs will see fit to add things that the base community has asked for for years now, and then we'll see what all the extra space we'll gain from Issue 13's repricing can really do for us.

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Base Salvage Exchange to Invention Salvage
1) What is the negative effect on your base for this feature implementation?

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None, really. The negative effects don't have anything to do with bases directly. This change will potentially have major negative effects on base architects, since in many cases it will take a fair amount of influence to get required salvage, and base architects will in many cases have to spend their own influence to get it, rather than rely on members to drop off base salvage like in the current system.

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2) What is the positive effect on your base for this feature implementation?

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There's no positive effect on bases with the change to salvage. There's a minor positive effect on players, since the recipes to make base stuff are a lot simpler now, but I don't think that most people would see that minor positive effect as worth it compared to the negative effects it could potentially have.


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3) How long will it take you to adjust to learning this new system?

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No time at all. I'm as prepared as I can possibly be.

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4) What side effects to this system do you currently see from transitioning the old to new system?

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As mentioned above, base architects WILL have to eventually spend their own influence to make stuff from the base. Taking away base salvage WILL reduce the contributions from supergroup members towards base building.

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5) What security concerns do you have regarding this change?

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The same security concerns the base community has been complaining about for years now, only amplified. Changing base salvage, which most individual players never really cared about or needed very badly, to something that is needed by any player who makes IOs, costume pieces, or temporary powres, WILL cause a rise in base thefts or necessitate shutting off all permissions to withdraw items from storage from most supergroup members. Making this change to base salvage while ignoring the base community's long-standing pleas for better storage permissions is, quite frankly, so short-sighted I simply can't believe it's happening.

Additional Notes:

No one complained about getting confused about the difference between base salvage and invention salvage. I don't care that Positron said it, he's either wrong or he's overestimating the "problem". It can't have generated enough confusion to justify changing it for that reason. And for the one or two players that MIGHT have said they were confused about it, a much, much simpler solution would have been to add the word "BASE" to the "SALVAGE FOUND" message. Positron needs to come out and tell us the REAL reason for this change, because the confusion thing is just laughable, really.

Not giving us a better storage permissions system is just asking for trouble and is, as stated above, short-sighted on the Devs' part. Out of all the stuff that's been ignored on the base community's "want list," I simply cannot believe that the permissions setup is still as dumb as it started out being. Positron, or someone else who can speak to this, needs to come out and tell us why this can't be done, and done soon.

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All these 26 pages talking about telepads, which even a lowbie can afford to build before I13 and i do not see anyone raising the question (maybe i missed it?), do we get reimbursed for the cost difference of our existing bases or will we have to dismantle them to get the prestige to build a bigger and better base?

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If you haven't seen the answer to this question you can't have looked very much at all.

There's no automatic prestige refund. You'll have to sell and replace your rooms and/or items to get any prestige cost difference. The biggest prestige "refund" for most groups will be found in simply re-selecting the current plot size, assuming you're on anything bigger than the default 8x8 plot.

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Why couldn't the devs just automatically convert the base salvage to the other when i13 goes live?


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Don't.
Take.
My.
Easy.
Path.
To.
Fabricator.
Away.
From.
Me.

Well, LH, I knew something was up but I'm sorry to see you go. I've not always agreed with you on all of your actions since you arrived, but overall I think you've been a fair and communicative community lead.

Good luck to you in all your future endeavors.

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: Hellguard
Global Contact: @Hellguard
Level of Classification: 50
Origin: Mutant
Super Rank & Super Group: Leader, Hero Depot

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Any Idea if once this goes live if we increase the size of our plot and then decrease it again will we get the adjusted balance back? If so that would mean I would get an extra million prestige back which would help a lot.

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You don't even need to actually change your plot size. Re-selecting the exact same plot that you already have will give you a refund (unless you're on the default 8x8 plot of course).

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I'm curious to know if there was a change...when I went in on test after the prestige grant, I did NOT find 'secure' plot prices to be as listed, they were a good deal higher than equivalent sizes for 'hidden' plots. Did this get changed?

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Not sure what you were looking at. The plot prices are identical to that listing you quoted. I just now checked. There ARE differences in the prices between Hidden and Secure plots once you get up to the top 3 sizes, but that difference is already reflected in that listing.

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Bad: The reduction of empowerment buffs to 15 minutes is absolutely stupid. As is the expense of some of the recipes. They're already underused. If you're going to just make them even less appealing, devs, eliminate them. And many of the other new recipes are.. not smart. You're asking for overly expensive salvage, which makes our jobs unduly more difficult.

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The "original" buff time for empowerment stations when first introduced were 15 minutes. They then changed them to 60 minutes,but the help text has never been updated. The buff should still be 60 minutes.

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It is. Yesterday I made a joke post about it in another thread that people took seriously. I've since edited it to make it clear I was just joking, but, as PlasmaStream pointed out, my joke post was no sillier than some of the base changes that we've got with Issue 13 so it was easy to be fooled.

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So 12 items are needed to make a base teleporter? The way those lists look, it seems to me like you only need one of those sets there.

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You only need ONE of the three available recipes, so you only need four pieces of salvage.

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Bad: The reduction of empowerment buffs to 15 minutes is absolutely stupid.

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The ones that I tested out, still last for the whole hour. The text says 15 minutes but the buff kept going.

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Gah! That came from a joke post I made in another thread! It's not part of issue 13. I'll go edit the post to make it perfectly clear I was only joking.

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Unless you pay zero rent now, the reduction in rent is drastic...and no longer based on plot size.

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If it's free now, is it free in i13?

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Not if you have storage (and possibly certain other types of) items, but in no case should rent costs ever be prohibitive to any group.

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Do we know if rent costs are staying the same? That would give me pause before upgrading some of my bases' plots. No need to upgrade the size if a possible SG slowdown will lock me out of my base or make me tear it all back out to afford it again.

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Rent is now apparently based on the number of storage items (maybe some other items too?). It's undoubtedly a LOT lower than it is on Live. We were never given info on how rent had changed (or even that it changed at all), but some people were able to work out that it was based on the number of storage items they had.

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QR

If an item was crafted using the old base component recipes, is it placed at the new cost or the old one?

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The old one, as far as I could tell. When I copied my main over to Test, he couldn't actually place crafted items since I didn't have enough prestige to make a base, but they still had the old prices showing in the "Place Personal Item" menu.

SinnerSaint, my family will keep your family in our thoughts and hope for the best.

My daughter was born with Alagille Syndrome, a multi-system disorder that she needed a liver transplant for. She had her transplant over 3 years ago and is doing well, but for a long time before that (and for a short while afterwards), we had many dark moments when we wondered if she would live past childhood and, if she did, what kind of life she would have. She's a typical 7 year old girl right now, but even so, we bear the knowledge that most transplanted Alagille Syndrome kids don't have a normal life expectancy and it's quite possible that her mother and I will outlive her.

Having one of your kids be sick is bad enough; when it's something as big and life-altering as cancer, well... I still can't imagine what must be going through your mind, even though I can relate to the having-a-sick-kid part of it. Just make sure she gets the best care that she can get, and try to stay strong. Hopefully she'll be one of the many cases of neuroblastoma that end up doing well.

Regardless, enjoy every minute that you have with her. That's the best advice that can be given to a parent, whether their child is sick or healthy. Every minute, every smile, every heartbeat, is a gift.

When we were dealing with our daughter's transplant, my wife and I had her family, and my co-workers, to help us through it, but we were physically separated from them by 160 miles. With my friends from Paragon City, though, it was like nothing had changed, despite the fact that we were in a hospital far from home. I'm very grateful for the support we got from my family and co-workers, don't get me wrong -- but the impact that my fellow superheroes had in helping me get through that rough time can't be stressed enough. We have a great community here that is generous with its kindness and compassion.

I don't know you, and you don't know me, but if there is anything I can do, don't hesitate to let me know. Please keep us updated on your daughter's progress.

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As for the invasions times, they are really wierd. i was watching the zone events tab on villains, and GV got pegged 2 times in a row, before the first one ended. This was on Freedom.

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Were there 2 instances of Grandville when that happened (since it's Freedom, during a holiday event, it's probably safe to assume that this was the case)? If so, one of the invasions hit one of those instances and the other you saw hit the other instance. There was a post somewhere around here with someone commenting that they went to one instance of PI on a server when a zombie invasion was taking place "in PI." They were surprised to find that both instances of PI weren't being invaded, but they shouldn't have been. The game sees those instances as separate zones, so the invasions will treat them that way as well.

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w00t! My Protector base made it into the Scoop afterall!

Thanks for that guys.


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Yep, and mine made it in too, even though they said it might be pushed back to a later issue, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Loved your base, BTW, PF. It's one of those concepts I look at and wish I'd thought of it.

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if you realy want to continue, the numbers are around 32 million toons and 350,000 active accounts in this game alone. do the math.

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Even at its absolute highest, this game has never had anywhere near 350,000 accounts.

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Now that I've found a few, very select, people selling SHRINKWRAPPED(and hopefully not RE-shrinkwrapped) boxes for less than $50($22-30 usd). BTW, will those "free month" codes still work?

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Yes, they will.