Quinch

If people start to harass or abuse... that's what petitions are for.

Not doing so hot in what way? Besides, Help is communally regulated, and it's pretty functional.

I know, I was referring to both VLFG channels, both the original and the replacement.

As some of you know, Issue 15 introduced a new serverwide channel, "Architect Chat", which doesn't seem to be seeing much use, partly due to not being automatically added to chat windows. Thus, I'm considering pushing for its use as a general teaming channel, as opposed to the Virtue LFG global channel. The Architect channel doesn't have an officially declared use*, and because it's so new and unused, retooling it into an unofficial teaming venue wouldn't interfere with a pre-existing use, because there is none to begin with. Furthermore, mixing AE and regular teaming would probably have the positive effect of exposing AE-exclusive players to quality official content, and vice versa.

edit:
Also, a general channel has the advantage over a global one in several ways - there is no hassle about joining, and the eventual migration issues global channels have as they reach the 2500 member cap.
What's everyone's opinion on this?



*"The Architect Chat Channel does not have an officially stated use, however most people have been using it to discuss mission architect subjects and advertise their storyarcs." - GM Datum

Also, when in doubt, ask in the Help channel {send command /hc, doesn't work as active channel because someone hasn't bothered to update the UI}.

Well, Help is pretty self-explanatory, and it's been stated {somewhere...} that it's for gameplay assistance. Furthermore, using it as a general channel would defeat its purpose, as requests for gameplay help would get drowned out by general chatter.

Thanks for the comments, but I suppose that means noone actually knows?

Quick question - is there any official word on what its purpose is, specifically? I'm considering pushing for its use as a general teaming channel {thus avoiding the limitations of global channels}, but I'd like to make sure it doesn't go against its intended role.

What the title says - is there a chance we could get more sitting emotes? I'm referring specifically to emotes where the character "does" something, like read a book, newspapers, AE tablet, talk on a cell phone, et cetera. All the sitting emotes available so far are purely static, so making a few that simply change the lower body joint positions from standing to sitting might not be that much of a resource investment.

/window_toggle Status

Failing that, /window_reset_all will... do what the command says.

Okay Posi, tell us straight... who tripped over the power cable this time?

Don't make us go to Freedom!

{hides Tina Macintyre's modified sapper rifle behind his back}

{whistles innocently}

What on earth are you talking about?

I don't think it'd be a good idea - legitimate missions might call for only one enemy type {can you say clone army?} and imposing creativity restrictions rarely yields more benefit than trouble.

Okay, I admit it, I'm picky, elitist and on the whole intolerant. I openly confess that I am prejudiced against players who don't slot their Tell Backside From A Hole In The Ground inherent and don't want to end up teaming with them.

Sue me.

So, we all know the problem with AE farms, auto-sidekicking Lv54 PLing runs, and so on and so forth, for Arachnos etc etc, for lord Recluse, etc etc. It's also apparent that the measures to date, while alleviating the absolute worst issues, still failed to reduce the problem to at least manageable levels. With that in mind, I figured I'd take a stab at a plausible solution.
The first step in preventing any given situation is to analyze the conditions that enable it. In this case:

<ul type="square">[*] 1} A single enemy type tailored towards the least threat possible, facilitating the removal of need of skill, tactics or enhancements to defeat said enemy.
[*] 2} Large number and easy accessibility of farming missions fitting this template.
[*] 3} Automatic sidekicking negates any level gap between mission and player level, allowing characters of all levels to simultaneously reap full benefits of the mission, regardless of the influence they had on defeating the enemies.[/list]
Theoretically, breaking any of these conditions would severely hinder the number of power-leveling farms run, but it would be rather difficult to filter out the first two conditions reliably, not without an unacceptable number of false positives, especially as the methods start to mutate in response to filters. So, the only remaining opening is to hit them in the rewards.

It wouldn't be acceptable to simply deny characters below the arc's level entry - AE appears to be intended as an open system with little limitations as to who should be able to play what. Dropping the auto-SK would be little improvement, as there's no functional difference between playing a mission with enemies twenty levels above you and not playing it at all.

Thus, what I propose is a degree of ironic consistency in the AE sidekicking system. If a character is sidekicked by a number of levels past a certain threshold {like say, ten}, the experience gain rate scales to simulate the leveling rate of the sidekicked level. Thus, for example, a Lv1 character being sidekicked to Lv10 would gain experience at their normal rate, but if they were sidekicked above that level, the experience scaling would gradually assert itself at say, ten percent per level? So if they were sidekicked to Lv15, they'd incur a small XP penalty, at Lv20 they'd level at the speed a naturally Lv20 character would, SKed to Lv30 they'd level at the pace of a natural Lv30 character, and at Lv50 they'd level at the snail's pace of a Lv49, and so forth. That way, AE missions retain their accessibility, the influence and ticket drops remain consistent, but there's no longer an exploitable advantage to playing missions ridiculously out of one's level range.

The common salvage also goes for quite a bit - midlevel arcanes, for example, will go for around 1250 influence a ticket on average {upwards of half a mil per 400 tickets, in my experience}, so if you don't feel like rolling for recipes, you can take advantage of the market suffusion of recipes, but lack of components to make them.

1} Go to your enhancement screen and simply click on a slotted enhancement.
2} You can ctrl-click on a power in your tray to make it fire whenever it's available, but on the whole, unless you want to brawl badguys to death, your powers are your attacks.
3} You can cheerfully fire off powers, meelee, ranged, whatever, in mid-motion, but most of them will root you while the animation plays out. The exception to that rule are interruptible powers, such as the medicine pool, sniper attacks or tripmines.

So? I'm not suggesting that characters are able to *start* flashbacks above their range - but that those who *are* flashbacking have the ability to bring along sidekicks just as they're able to bring them along on non-flashback arcs.

Given the implementation if the quasi-taskforce mode for Mission Architect, perhaps the same should be ported into the Ouroboros flashbacks. They seem to be fairly unpopular, usually only ran for the badges, and the main reason I hear for it is the punishingly narrow level range for each flashback. Thus, allowing the non-leader teammates to be automatically elevated to the lowest available level or simply sidekicked by teammates who are in the appropriate range might make Ouroboros more of a mission zone and not merely a shortcut hub.

Just a request... pick up Taunt the moment it becomes available. Us squishies will thank you.

Mender Lazarus arc blueside has them, as well as possibly the final stage of the ITF. They're not found naturally in the wild, though.

Server info type? What do you mean, exactly?

My opinion of the Shard - beautiful, oodles of potential, but empty as heck. Throw in a few story contacts in there, rework the taskforces to incorporate the post-Statesman game improvements, and if you can get away with it, throw in optional PvP in all the Shard zones.