Peregrine_Falcon

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So many of you are just mindless sheep there's no way to reach you and have you question things for your own good.

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Yep. I'm a mindless sheep!

Check my post history and view the 'little arguement' I'm in with Castle in two different threads. Yep, that's me! The Dev brownnosing yes-man! For those of you who have no friggin clue who I am (which I'm pretty sure is most of you, I doubt that I'm anywhere near as well-known on these boards as my ego would like to believe) I'm the guy that started the whole serious of "devs are supporting GBLT events but deleting posts by the rest of us" threads. Remember those? The ones that prompted Ex Libris to post an entirely new set of rules for the events forum? (Yes, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I am nearly single-handedly responsible for the rules changes. Thanks for asking.)

I was involved in a little flamewar awhile back. You may remember it. That little stalker-blaster dust up a few months ago? Dozens of threads were locked or deleted. Frankly I'm surprised that I wasn't temp-banned over some of the stuff I posted.

So now that you know who I am Nancy... let me tell you that I am actually happy about this. I think it's a good thing that NCSoft gets the word about CoH/V out on websites. Brings more players and all. I think it's a good thing that NCSoft will be getting more revenue. More money means increased longevity for my favorite game. I think it's a good thing that real life billboards for real life products will actually increase the immersion.

And I think that you and your fellow whiners are being ridiculous. If you don't like the ads then click the [censored] "opt out" button for [censored] sake.

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<ul type="square"> [*]Igs are bad, very bad.[/list]
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Come on: an enemy AT with slow and immobilize resistance on Warwolf levels and the ability to perma knock you down (yes, even scrappers who, like regens, don't get their mez resistance until lvl 16) and travel in packs of 10 unless they're rolling with 2 or 3 bosses that can perma hold you if they're 2 levels or more over you....

It's a challenge!

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Don't forget that they're HOLD resistant, too.

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Yeah well... the only thing that registers higher on my StupidOmeter than this is low level enemies that drain endurance. Like level 15 characters don't have enough end problems.

I've often wished that the CoH Dev team would learn the difference between challenging and just friggin annoying. Perhaps the new Hollows zone will show us that they have learned this lesson. Personally I hope that's what happens.

Lately I've seen the game become easier and easier, and this isn't good because easy is boring. Then I run into the more challenging parts, and often those parts (like Task Forces) aren't challenging at all, they're more accurately described as frustrating or annoying.

So I hope the Hollows becomes easier in the newbie areas but that some areas remain difficult or are made even more difficult than before. That would allow everyone to get what they want. The newbs get a good zone to play in that isn't frustrating, but those who want it will also have a challenging area where they can enjoy honing their skills.

If War Witch can do that with the Hollows then that really will be a massive improvement.

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For the record, the Greasy Grass Rules:
(Developed after a great many "learning" experiances)
<ul type="square">[*]Never run the gulch without two awakens, one for you, and one for the other guy.[*]Never stop for more than 5 seconds without locating two escape paths.[*]Never aggro a mob without locating the OTHER mobs in the area, particularly the ones chasing another team towards you.[*]When it goes south, and it will, run. Don't stop, don't hold up on a hilltop Reno, because I'm not going to stop and look for you. I may come back after I clear the entire area, but I will not stop.[*]Remember, your always running BETWEEN two mobs, if you only see one of them, your probably running towards the other one. [*]Igs are bad, very bad.[/list]
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Wow. In June of 06 when I first started playing CoH I wandered in the Hollows for the first time. I joined up with a team doing something they called a "Frostfire Run." Before we started on our long trek across the zone to the mission door the leader gave us all almost this exact same speech.

I memorized those rules, and because of them I've seldom had any problems playing in the Hollows. For me the problem wasn't that the Hollows was too hard, it was that it was boring. The first character I brought into the hollows was my AR/Dev/No Travel Power, and this was before Raptor Packs. Before outleveling the zone I had learned all of the routes and how to easily travel around without aggroing anyone.

The problem with the Hollows currently is that (like a lot of things in this game) it's too binary. You either don't understand the rules and so you get too much aggro and die, or you learn the rules and you're able to travel the entire zone without ever aggroing anyone - boring.

After reading War Witch's diary though I wonder if the Hollows isn't going to become to easy. I sure hope not.

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Does this mean... Electric Armor for Tankers?

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I don't know, but if it does I am so there!

Wow.

You know, it seems like every new issue you guys have put out since Issue 9 attempts to top the last one. That's a good thing. From the looks of it if Issue 12 doesn't top Issue 11 at least it'll run a close second.

Just seeing this not only makes me look forward to Issue 12, but it makes me look forward to Issue 13 as well. Since I'm now certain that it'll be at least as good if not better than the last.

Now if an entire issue were devoted to fixing all of the bugs well... that'd probably be the best issue ever IMO.

You know, you're right. Looking at my CoV box (for the first time in at least a year) it says "Wage epic battles against Hero and rival Villain Groups in huge base invasions."

It's appears that my aging memory interpeted that as the Cathedral of Pain Trial, but I was wrong. I stand corrected.

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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.

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Oh that's nothing. Before the Good vs Evil Edition came out my first CoH/V purchase was a City of Villains box. On the back of the box it specifically mentioned the Cathedral of Pain Trial. Read that last sentence again. Yes, the CoP was a promised feature on the box that I purchased.

And what? 2 years later and it's still vaporware?

Now imagine if you purchased a car and the paperwork specifically said it has air conditioning. But when you drive off the lot you realize the air conditioning unit isn't even installed in the car. Now imagine that you go back to the lot, point to the paperwork that promises air conditioning and the salesman says that they will install it in your car, since it was a promised feature.

Now imagine it's 2 years later and the air conditioner still isn't installed in your car. Wouldn't you be a little upset? Hmmm... maybe just a little?

Or would that also qualify as "working as intended"?

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Where do the Bone Daddies spawn inside Dark Astoria? (You know you wanted someone to ask)

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That's the one you wanted to ask me about?!? Cause I threw a much better one in there than that!

C'mon man. All this work I did to set up a perfectly good joke and you're asking me about that one?

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Every time you move to a different part of a zone or defeat an enemy or complete a mission or find a clue, it goes to System channel. So, unless you are literally standing around doing nothing, System is virtually useless for invasion announcements as it is going to be constantly spammed.

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Yes, but in my experience it's really not a problem. It usually looks something like this:

You have entered Dark Astoria
You have defeated Bone Daddy
Your friend Flirty Superheroine is online
You have defeated Gravedigger Slammer
You have defeated Freakshow ******
WARNING! RIKTI SHIPS HAVE BEEN SPOTTED
HEADING FOR TALOS ISLAND!
ALL NON-COMBATANTS ARE URGED TO SEEK
COVER! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

So yeah, like I said it really isn't a problem. YMMV.

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Yes, they still need to fix that whole "not enough channels" thing so they can add a real Vanguard channel

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Yeah well, I'm sure it's on the list right behind "fix the Robo-Surgery" and "give the NPCs in the Shadow Shards actual names." This means you've probably only got 3 or 4 more years to wait.

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I am sick unto death of waiting...

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Waiting for what?

Do you seriously believe that the Cathedral of Pain Trial will ever see the light of day? I mean seriously. There are things in this game that have been broken for 2+ or 3+ YEARS and they've been ignored while the devs spent time fixing one power in one of the strongest ATs, nerfing a power that's already been nerfed how many times, refusing to fix Devices, heck refusing to even fix the incorrect power descriptions in devices. They continue to pile more broken stuff onto more broken stuff onto other stuff that's been broken for longer than my youngest son has been alive.

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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I've been hoping they would bring back the invasions on a regualr schedule.

Does anyone know if there is a utility that can monitor the chat log for the invasion alerts? I keep missing the LGTF ones.

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Yes. It's called the Mark I Model 0 Eyeball. It works like this:

You open a brandnew chat window, create a new tab, label it whatever you want, and put only one thing in this new tab. The channel called System. That is the channel that Invasion Alerts are announced in. Very little else uses this channel.

Good hunting!

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And it has me hoping that someone from Cryptic is taking notes.

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I so totally agree with you on this. I am so tired of the bugs. So tired that I'm probably going to not renew my account.

It seriously aggravates me that there are so many bugs in this game. And there they remain for years while the devs blithely ignore them and continue to work on new stuff.

For example, anything about this game that you name, I guarantee you I can name at least one known bug with it. UI, team window, zones, missions, bases, powersets, costumes, contacts, SGs, Trains, IOs, what am I forgetting here? I know I'm forgetting something. Anyway, my point was that there isn't a single thing that exists in this game that is bug-free. Not one thing. Not one!

I'm so sick of having to explain bugs to people all the time. Either my friends who are trying the game out, or to newbies on PuGs.

*sigh* I just want the damn thing to work right. Is that too much to ask?

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We considered that option along with others, but given our timeline for Issue 12 we didn't go that route. It involved a lot of risky coding in our current development cycle where we are trying to close this live branch and shift to Issue 12. We felt this was a good compromise to address immediate concerns.

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Thank you.

I may not always agree with NCSoft's decisions, but I really appreciate your coming here and posting. If you guys make a change or a nerf that I don't agree with it's much easier for me to deal with when I understand the thought process that went into said change.

Giving your company a name like Cryptic = cool. Being cryptic with your paying customers = not cool.

So I really appreciate your coming here and posting not just the what, but also the why.

I do think that cutting some of the crap out of Pool C would go a long ways toward settling some of the ruffled feathers in this thread though. Assuming NCSoft cares about doing that.

As for the concerns about disconnects ruining Task Forces... well stuff happens. I for one don't expect the coding of the game to reflect every single possibility. No one can do that. Ok, disconnects happen for a number of various reasons. This new change means that sometimes you'll be able to complete a Task Force, and sometimes you won't be able to complete it. Committing to a Task Force means you're taking a risk. What's wrong with that?

Oh noes! I won't be assured of winning 100% of the time! Waaaaaaah.

What do you mean I'll actually have to come out of my cave and deal with my fellow human beings in order to do a Task Force?? That's not fair! Some of us are so completely disfunctional and socially inept that we can't stand to speak to other human beings! Waaaaaah!

This is an MMO. You want to solo 100% of the time? Fine. Go buy one of those games that you can play all alone on your computer.

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The people who have supported the Live system are not being listened to, what do you have to say about the Devs with regard to that?

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Actually I already covered that. I said that listening to your customers doesn't mean listening to me and ignoring everyone else. Please note that I don't specifically mean you when I say this.

As with a great many things you can only have it one way or the other. While I personally don't think that this is the best change for what I believe to be the devs goal at least it shows that they are listening to us. Now they aren't making the decision that I would make, but I have long ago learned not to expect everyone to be a super-genius like myself. (joking, well ok mostly joking)

Personally I'd make the anti-farming fix by simply not allowing people to reset their missions. You didn't save Mrs. Smith? Ok, the monsters ate her, or another hero rescued her, or whatever. You didn't complete the mission you don't get the XP, sorry about your luck, move on to the next mission. There's always a next mission.

Although that's not what I'd actually do. What I'd actually do is just get over the fixation the devs seem to have with farmers. I personally hate farming because it's boring. I play the game to NOT be bored. But if other players want to farm then so frikken what? The only difference between farming and playing the game is the lack of travel time between missions. Big deal! Quit trying to force people to play the game your way Stat... er I mean Positron. Work on something useful like... oh I don't know... say... fixing anyone of the 1,738 "known bugs" that are over a year old. How about that??? Ok, lets make it simple, lets start with just the bugs that are over 2 years old. That should cut it down to just less that a thousand.

*sigh*

Anyway, frankly I'm just happy that the dev team is working on Task Forces at all. They could be spending their time doing stuff like nerfing Devices, or Buffing Willpower, or ignoring Bases. Uhm.. ok, scratch that last one. They pretty much ignore Bases 24/7. So yeah, maybe you've noticed that I'm not a real big fan of the Devs. That being said I'm still happy that they're at least listening to some of us. What we've got now is much better than before with Statesman and his "my way or the highway" motto.

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I for one prefer the way Task Forces operate on the live servers. However I am not going to complain. Instead I want to say thank you to the Devs.

Why is that?

Because they actually listened to their customers and implemented a change that was suggested by said customers and made good sense. So even though it isn't the change I'd prefer it was one that shows that they're actually listening to us. And I for one understand that "listening to your customers" is not the same as "doing what I want and ignoring everyone else."

I mean this change was suggested by us here on the forum. The devs listened to us and made this change even though they might not agree with it. All I can say is, what more can you expect than that? I guess you really can't please some people ever.

Thank you for listening to us.

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Sounds like a "I wasn't invited into the I9 Beta, so it obviously sucked" whine.

Because your claim doesn't match the facts.

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I don't know about him but I was in Issue 9 Beta, and everything he said matches my memories to a 'T'.


I'm Peregrine Falcon, and I approve this message:

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Issue-9 ....had very limited actual Beta Involvement across the player base and even less actual testing on drop rates or any way to verify them(Pool-C's being the hardest to verify). Issue-11 was a cluster-bomb of channel-drama that saw the release of several bugged and untested IO sets since there was no direct market access to them--especially Pool-C's ...these 2 issues of oversight conspired together to make TFs/SF's the targets of "pool-C farmers" which just saw a huge stealth Nerf despite the Devs' own promises that none of the existing content would be made more difficult to compensate for the implementation of I.O's.


The entire issue could have been fixed issues ago by focusing feedback and testing on TF rewards for casual players so that everyone was getting rewards at a rate that satisfied demand and discouraged farming. ...when that failed to happen, Farming took over and solved the problem it's own way. Meanwhile the devs HAD the resources(All of Us!) to fix the CAUSE of the problem instead of just treating an ugly symptom of it. Instead what we got now is some very un-informed corporate doublespeak labeling RMT'ers as the scapegoats and a solution that will only further reward the farmers they claim they're trying to stifle.


When I say 4 years of failure, this is exactly what I mean... Simple feedback and pro-active effort on the part of the Guys at the top of the design decisions easily fixing the problems early on, but instead what we get are Half-Truths and stealth-nerfs designed to bypass player Scrutiny entirely. ...followed by bad explanations and excuses later on. It's tiring. I understand it's how American business sometimes works, but I don't want to feel like the mid-level Devs I WANT to support so much, have to work in Dilbert's Office for a buncha "pointy-haired Bosses".

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My first question is: Was it really necessary to post the announcement in every server forum?

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It's the cost of the pack that we are upset with. If it had relatively the same options that the GvE pack had it we'd have not problem with it.

Drop the price to $4.99 that seems more appropriate. Positron said he wouldn't add a badge to it because he felt there would be outcry from those who are badge addicts. So instead he went after the clothes addicts. He agreed to the word extortion, go back and read his response to the person that brought it up.

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That's fine if you don't like it. Please understand that I'm not criticizing you for saying; "I think this pack is stupid/I don't like it/I won't be getting it." That's not the issue. The thing that I'm disagreeing with is the immense overreaction. I'm c'mon... extortion? I really hope that's hyperbole, I really hope that you don't believe that is the correct word. Because I do know the correct definition of that word and I can tell you that this is not extortion.

What this is is a service company offering to sell a product. Gee, imagine that? A company that sells a product offering to sell another product. Yeah, like wow. That's so horrible.

All I'm saying is that if you don't like it and you're a mature adult then shouldn't you act like a mature adult and just say; "I feel this costs too much for what you get" or "I'm not interested in wedding costumes and emotes" or even "I really don't like that they're selling these items and I hope that NCSoft isn't going to make a habit of selling costume parts that in the past were offered for free."

Yeah, I know that this is the internet and that psychotic overreaction is what people do on the internet. I guess I'm just being stupid because I thought that most of the people on this forum weren't as bad as most of the knuckleheads that populate the internet.

BTW, just so you understand my point of view I won't be purchasing this Wedding Pack. That's because I just don't find wedding costumes and emotes interesting. Now if the emotes included a "Present Arms" emote (which IS routinely done at weddings) or something else that I felt was cool I'd buy it. $10 too much? C'mon... last time I went to Taco Bell I spent more than that, and I was hungry again 3 hours later. These emotes and costume options will still be there for every single one of your characters years from now.

I do not agree at all with the overreaction that a lot of posters are having to this Wedding Pack being sold. I'm mean "extorting money"? Please. I suppose you walk into Safeway and say; "What? You mean I've got to pay for these groceries? That's extortion!" Yeah, I didn't think so.

I do not think there is anything wrong with selling a few exclusive costume parts and emotes. I won't be getting them, but that's simply because I don't feel the need to have wedding clothes or emotes. For those that do like these I think that's great. Different people have different interests. If these emotes or costume options were something that I did find appealing then I would purchase the pack. And in the future if similar packs like this are offered I will buy them if they include costume parts or emotes that I do find interesting.

As for others that are complaining that $10 dollars is too much I'm going to say the same thing I said when people complained about the price of server transfers. That being; "Are you kidding me? You're complaining that $10 is too much money? Most of us routinely spend more than that on lunch."

However, that being said I do find myself forced to agree with this little bit posted by Osha:
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Perhaps your staff needs to re-channel its efforts into fixing those items which are broken in game and have been for quite some time. Catherdral of Pain, Robo Surgery, Toggles Dropping when leaving missions, Fixing the Eden TF, etc.

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I'm really sorry to keep beating the same old drum but yeah... some of this stuff has been broke for years. Isn't it time it was just fixed already? Shouldn't at least some of this old stuff get fixed before you spend manhours creating more bugs to add to the game?

I got home at 1pm Monday. With only 2 hours to go until the servers were shut down for maintenence I logged onto my level 43 Invuln/Em Tank on Freedom. I was almost exactly halfway to level 44. I was going to just solo until the servers went down, but I got a team invite just a few minutes after logging on.

We had a full team and we were running scanner missions in Peregrine Island on Unyielding. The team leader was a level 44 Invuln/SS Tank. It was a good team, and we were all moving quickly, trying to squeeze out as much of the last little bit of Double XP that we could.

Then came the announcement that the servers would shut down in 30 minutes.

At that point I had almost exactly 1 bub to go til level 44. The whole team started moving even faster. The leader would engage one group of enemies and I'd leapfrog him and engage another. Taunting and holding them in place while waiting for the team to show. I'd see the leader run past me and then a few seconds later the rest of the team would show up and quickly AoE the mobs that I was holding. We did two more missions like that.

Then came the announcement that the servers would shut down in 10 minutes.

We started moving even faster as we had gotten used to each others style and moves. Myself and the leader would leave the spawn before they were all dead, when there was just a few enemies left and we knew the team could handle the aggro. He and I started pulling one spawn into another, so that each of us would hold two full spawns while waiting for the team to show up and wipe them out.

Then came the announcement that the servers would shut down in 5 minutes.

I noticed that I needed about 1/5 of a bub to level, and I really wanted to hit it before the servers went down. The whole team was moving so fast that it was hard to see what was happening half the time. In the almost two hours I'd played with them we had only a couple of deaths at the start but now we were mowing the enemies down like a well-oiled machine of destruction. This despite our being on Unyielding and the leader being one, two or even three levels above the rest of the team.

A few minutes after the announcement I hit Unstoppable and ran into one of those council rooms of death. Normally I don't like herding, but since I knew the rest of the team was about a minute behind me I decided now was the perfect time. I ran around aggroing the entire room, and got them to follow me toward the entrance. Right as I got there the team rounded the corner and began unloading on the enemies. The leader also stopped and did his best to hold as much aggro as he could as well.

Then it happened. Level up! I had just enough time to type; "YES!!!" into team chat and then Unstoppable started blinking. My cursor hovered over Archmage but before I could click it I was forcibly disconnected from the server.

A lot of people in a lot of threads have made a lot of complaints about 2XP weekend. I just wanted to share this because it was easily the most exciting two hours I've ever had online. As in EVER! Sure there were times I couldn't log onto my Freedom characters, so I just played one of my characters on Protector. Yeah, a couple of times I was on Freedom and Virtue the lag was noticible, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I've seen in the past. It was nothing like 2XP weekends before which were often nearly as bad as a Rikti zone invasion or a Mothership raid.

So thank you NCSoft. You have at least one customer who enjoyed 2XP weekend.

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So let me see if I understand...

Despite knowing that Freedom is the most populated server, despite knowing that during events like 2XP and Winter event and other events the population becomes large enough that the lag on the server prevents most people from playing...

Despite knowing all of this many of you decided to put all of your eggs in one basket by making all of your characters on just one, just ONE of the 11 servers. And that's somehow the Devs fault.

Have I got that right?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Oh, no wait...

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Take responsibility for your own actions and realize that making all of your characters all on the same server makes no sense. If some event happens, planned or unplanned you could then lose access to all of your characters. And THEN you can come to the forums and blame it on everyone except the person who is truly responsible.

YOU

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That said, I have no problem doing this if you guys don't. Just let me know what missions you want on Ouroboros and I will do my best to get them there.

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Safeguards and Mayhem missions please kind sir.

And while I'm here I want to say; "Thanks for the XP smoothing out easier leveling thingy. Ok, I'm not sure what to call it but thanks."

Wow.

This is one of the best posts that I've ever read on this forum. Excellent work sir.

w00t!

Now that I've finally gotten a few characters over that gigantic level 39 hurdle I think it's time to finally get one to level 50!

Thank you NCSoft!

I am so happy about the changes that have been made since NCSoft took over. I am really looking forward to the additions mentioned here, especially real numbers.

Thank you NCSoft.