Megajoule

It kind of bugs me that this is something set via a (silly in-joke) NPC rather than a menu option like all the rest, but Tony V gives some plausible reasons why it might be so. That said, I would like to see it moved to the menu and the gull dispensed with ASAP.

Heck, I wasn't even thinking about the forums; I was talking about in-game.

(Those who don't believe Atlas Park could be any more of a cesspit than it is now: think again.)

VoodooGirl:
You have set a new standard for obnoxiousness. Welcome to /ignore.
(My first ever on this forum.)

EDIT:
Incidentally, this demonstrates one of the points made earlier:
In a "free" game, it's often trivially easy for a player who's been muted or banned to simply create a new account and continue their misbehavior under a whole new name. Both I and the devs have better things to do with our time than play whack-a-troll for an hour, but they may not.

Voids are meant to be the unavoidable downside of playing an "epic" Archetype, the Kheldian equivalent of kryptonite. Whether they actually fulfill that function, or are needed, is a matter upon which opinions vary.

Rodion covered most of my objections in this post earlier today.

I'm sure that I don't get "full value" out of my subscription, especially since I rarely play on week nights anymore (except to run Trials for Empyreals, when I'm not completely burnt out on that) and save it for the weekends. But I'm willing to pay a flat rate per month to:

* Keep the servers up, the content flowing and the developers paid - ALL the time, not just when a new issue drops and numbers surge
* Keep out some, if not all, of the spammers, the nitwits, the griefers, and the ill-behaved no-investment tourists
* Have the convenience of not having to authorize a stream of transactions for every little thing, which in aggregate may end up costing me more than a subscription would

Personally, I'd rather see the Origins of Power arc just removed from the game. To me, it's a fine but unfortunate example of something you see in the comics: the addition to the lore that one writer on the title thought would be a really cool idea, but everyone else just kind of coughs and shuffles their feet and (once that writer has moved on to another book) quietly agree to Never Speak Of Again.

Speaking as a buffer and a bubbler, I would really not want my team bubbles to be turned into a PBAoE. There's always at least one guy who's out of range when I play my Rad or my Emp, with their long-cooldown buff auras; with FF, I can at least chase down stragglers and bubble them up separately. (Yes, it means that their bubbles are now on a different timer than the rest of the team's, but IMO, keeping track of such things is part of FF and Sonic gameplay.)

"You're in a trial..."
"Which trial?"
"Doesn't matter, it's just hypothetical. You look down and you see a blaster, lying on its back, feebly waving its arms and legs as it tries to get up, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not buffing. Why aren't you buffing?"

Ugh, yes, please.

"Local Man" is a pretty good one too.

for those of a more villainous bent, may I suggest "a hired goon"?
It covers at least 2/3 of the official redside content. :/

The game has changed, generally for the better and/or more convenient.
That's my reply to the OP as well.

Friend of mine has "a ninja".

I like these.

The OP wanted to see old friends coming back to play, or at least chat, and more people to team with below 50. "Free" to Play, in some form, might give her those things. Unfortunately, it also will result in the other things that people brought up.

Remember, folks, that $15 doesn't just pay for server costs and continued development. It also serves as a discouragement to the randomly (or deliberately and determinedly) stupid and immature and abusive. How many of you would care to eat at a restaurant for half-off if you had to sit at the kids table and listen to the screaming and have food (and worse) thrown at you? Or "free" telephone service that includes being called several times an hour (every hour) by telemarketers? (Including the "free" service providers, trying to get you to pop for various "premium enhancements" to your basic plan...)

I play on Virtue. Lag in the BAF, while always present, seems to have gotten much worse since the latest patch.

UberGuy, it seems my play pattern is identical to yours.

Yes, and I ignore that too, when it doesn't fit the character.
I play the game; it does not play me.

I'll write my own internal monologue, thanks.

You want to get shards and you want to solo?
Best advice I can offer is to run tips. Over and over. Set as high as you can stand, to increase your chance of getting shards from bosses.
Getting on a team for a little while, to run tips or a task force, would be even better. If you can't work with/find a way to contribute and stand out among four to eight people, you're stuck with solo grinding.

IMO, you are now at the point where you need to make a compromise somewhere and/or give up on something - whether that's endgame progress, being The Guy, or this game entirely. As someone who hates to compromise on things I think are important, I sympathize greatly. But there it is.