Santorican

Originally Posted by SuperOz

This thought occurred to me just the other day when the announce date was confirmed, and after all the hype the community team have given it, all the 'yay, Statesman's dying, he's (insert your derogatory thought or comment here)' posts on the forums and even the promotional imagery.

I'm not going to be in a rush to see Statesman die.


Funny, even as I typed that it seems a bit morbid, because that's what effectively we're doing, even for a fictional character. I know, it's the same morbidity that drove sales for Death of Superman or the new Batman in the 1990's, but I'm increasingly finding that it's not something I find myself attracted to.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not squeamish or perturbed by death in comics; I've probably experienced a bit more real-world death on a personal level than most people I know in the last six years especially, but that's neither here nor there.

I haven't felt comfortable or felt the decision to 'kill off' Statesman was a good one for a while. I also think the various posters who deride Statesman for being a Marty Stu or a reminder of Mr. Emmert or a four-color hero (I could go on and on, but honestly nowhere near the level of some posters) also bother me a bit because I feel like the complaints may well continue on beyond the event, or the event may not be to their satisfaction, and I find that a bit morbid also.

I admit as I type this I have trouble putting my finger on just what it is; maybe it's that I know this character is dying, that I can't do anything about it and that there are some expectations as to how I should feel when it happens.

That it's not something natural and is a genuine reaction on my part.

I've been playing another game, set somewhere far, far away, and even if the stories there are similarly linear, I at least feel I have a choice in my decisions, a choice to react and think about how I feel about them. I think I would at least like a chance to save Statesman, but I know that it won't matter, and that's almost like salt in the wound in some ways.

And maybe that's the heart of it; I'm being asked to care....no. I feel like I'm being told I should. And I actually like Statesman, I've said as such. But this feels....hollow, somehow.

Am I alone in this? Is anyone else just left feeling....not much at all?




S.

Originally Posted by EU_Damz

So before going to sleep last night i was doing my usual day dreaming [or is it night dreaming?] and i got thinking about this game and my characters and how far they've come over the years.

For quite a while we were seen as purely superheroes, beings with superpowers to save the world [or destroy it] and protect the innocent. However as time has gone on and more and more gods have been introduced to us, it has gotten me thinking that we are possibly turning into gods ourselves.

As generations go on, the people call us by different names. For example the cimerorans would call superheroes and the nictus gods, however in our time we are called superheroes now because the powers that were rare and not seen before back then are pretty common these days.
So my point being is are we actually turning into gods ourselves with these incarnate powers or are we simply evolving with the words to give some purpose to them?

A fully incarnated character now [as we saw ourselves in the initiation arc] would be seen as a god in our time, but by the time the whole system is released will it be so common that people will refer to it as the norm and thus back to superheroes?

Originally Posted by Rabid_M

In the threads about Super Packs, I've seen a few people point out that it's the Dev's job to make money for the company, and that that's the reason the game exists. It is NOT their job to make us happy, unless that makes more money than making us unhappy.

True enough, I guess.

It got me to thinking, though. If the Devs of any MMO (and game itself) have no moral obligations to the players, then what moral obligations do the players have to those Devs and their game?

This isn't a question of right and wrong, that's another issue. What I'm asking is what people like us should consider ourselves obligated to do FOR the MMOs and Devs of said games we play?

If we know of an exploit but we're not using it, do we still have a duty to report it? If we're on a test server, do we have a responsibility to actually test instead of just mess around and have fun? If we find a bug in-game, do we need to report it?

The Devs are there to make money, but the players are paying that money to enjoy themselves. At what point should a player feel that they need to stop having fun and help the Devs with the game in some way?

Again, this isn't about right or wrong, nor is it about how we deal with other players. Being a jerk to players OR Devs is wrong. Abusing an exploit is wrong. I'm just wondering where people think we can draw the line that allows us to shrug our shoulders and say "Not my problem, I'm here to enjoy myself".

((PS: It's late and I'm tired. Sorry if I rambled a bit. It's hard to get the exact question into words when I'm about to faceplant onto my keyboard.))

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle

All right, as someone who does do excessive things with expensive builds, let me chime in and say that while I understand that any reduction in effectiveness is annoying, going from 90+% to 70% DDR really shouldn't be that big of a deal. The only place that could conceivably make a difference that carrying two or three lucks couldn't alleviate is trying to solo a +4x8 no-incarnate TF as a couple other people have done in the history of the forum. The very fact that you are so quick to give up on the character, though, tells me that if you were planning on doing that you'd do it with one of the characters that you already like more anyway.

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha

Unless you pay for an Alignment Change token, of course.


...
Wut.

So, seriously now; why is there still an arbitrary time limit on alignment switching by doing tips and such in game?
When you can just BUY the alignment you want (which, coincidentally, completely eradicates Posi's whole "We don't want alignment to be a switch you flick on and off" ramble from when it was first introduced...) it seems somewhat hypocritical to still limit the in-game method so unfairly. Bit of a bum move there.

Originally Posted by LaDiva

My price is 4 billion each for level 52's.

Originally Posted by Combat

Yes, they are horrible. They don't give defense bonuses or recharge bonuses in general, and those are the most common build goals. It isn't that 4 slots of luck of the gambler aren't better than 2 enzymes (I usually use 1 +7.5% lotg and an enzyme actually), it's that those 2 slots could better be used other powers, which are usually give better set bonuses.



Doing something like this isn't as simple as changing all my enzymes to LotG: defenses, and even that looks like it would cost half a billion with the rapid inflation they have had in the last few days. I would probably have to invest in either cytoskeletons or more purple IOs, and would certainly have changes elsewhere. If I switched to agility (I have cardiac now), I would have to rework everything to maintain a sustainable attack chain. Then again, I might want to go with barrier over my current rebirth, in order to gain protection against defense debuffs, and... etc. etc. Hours of effort, tons of rethinking, and no way to make up for the lost DDR, even if everything else remains the same.



Energy and ice actually have comparable levels of DDR to shield without grant cover, which many view as the most skippable power in the set. Every single set has options for mitigation outside of their defense except SR and SD. Ice has hoarfrost for healing, hibernate as an escape, and energy absorption to gain a little extra defense at will. Energy has energize and energy drain to sap and restore/buff defense. Invuln has good resists and dullpain, and has 50% DDR, which is comparable to shield without GC. Stone of course has granite, and earth's embrance/rooted for regeneration. Willpower has excellent defenses and resists along with its defense.

What does shield have? 17% resists to all outside of tough and OwtS, and some minor -damage from AAO. That is basically nothing. On top of that, it is much harder to put defense on a shield user compared to an EA or ice character. With this change, shield drops in my eye down to probably the worst overall set for survivability, or perhaps slightly above /fire for scrappers. Maybe that's where the devs intend for them to be, but I see no reason for me to try to fight the changes with influence in time when I can simply scrap him and make something else that is more survivable and deals more damage.

Originally Posted by John_Printemps

This thread is like a support group for those addicted to Enzyme, a drug that's been majorly abused since Issue Nine (released nearly five years ago). So everyone retorting "lolsucks2bu", really? It may have been an "exploit," but it is also one that's been around for a very long time. People are due their chance to "/e crai" for a minute.


Don't loose hope, both 45% and 59% are still within reach! I know, I have both builds.

Originally Posted by Granite Agent

Interesting, I now really want to know why San decided to bid on Membranes after hearing about this earlier today.

Originally Posted by Granite Agent

How? If Membranes don't work then Cytos shouldn't work either. And MIDS at least says normal DEF IOs cannot be slotted into AD, only endo or recharge.