ShadowNate

Originally Posted by Sigium

No. Bad computer.

If anything, Paragon City/Praetoria NEEDS more competition. It encourages PvP, it promotes a sense of a challenge, and people can actually feel more involved if there's a faction.

So YES to the Loyalists and the Resistance! May they go to war and may the battle rage on!

Originally Posted by Black_Mute

I'm sure everyone will remain in the same SG/VG unless they decide to quit it simply because if you were kicked when you switched sides then you'd have some PO'd folks. I can see it know, leaders of a SG/VG switching sides and getting kicked out of their OWN SG/VG.

Would be epic fail if that happened.

Originally Posted by MentalMaden

There was a dev post pretty much saying it wasn't going to happen without major reworking. (can't remember the specifics)

Originally Posted by Thirty_Seven

It seems to me that if they make it a primary for controllers, there is almost no way that the could make a secondary that wouldn't just be ridiculous amounts of control... In other words, I don't think trollers will get Dark Miasma, ever.

Originally Posted by EmperorSteele

The extra 6%? No.

See, as long as you're past the softcap for S/L damage (45%), you're already going to avoid like 80% of everything in the game 95% of the time, no matter which position it's coming from.

Get your s/l def to or past 45. After that, you're golden and you can work on other slotting priorities, like a damage power or more global recharge. In your example, you're talking about a little extra safety in exchange for a lot less damage. I say, take the risk, live a little, and defeat your enemies faster =)

Originally Posted by Fiery_Redeemer

So, I’m glad the drop rates are back to normal. I still have a general question however. First I’ll preface it.

I’m English second language, older (40s), and very VERY drama-king type person. Very Old School non-USA customer service (i.e. I can teach the French about being rude, which is doubly funny because… well… I AM French).

So, the question is… what is it about computer games that cause most people to doubt customer complaint?

I come from EverQuest, and, barring a few bells and whistles, the thing there on boards was exactly as I see it here. People complain about drop rate, mob toughness, power toughness, and the overwhelming response is either…

“I don’t believe it.” Or…

“Prove it.”

And, to steal buzz words I know nothing about (friend is a lab tech), to prove it, you almost have to have a double blind placebo control trial with negated observer bias having an extremely high sample size (I have no clue what I just said, FYI) for it to be acceptable. Otherwise, it’s “Not true”.

Um… why?

Here’s a mirror example. When my wife and I go to a restaurant, she likes the steak to moo as she bites into it. Mine has to shatter on the floor if it’s dropped. She routinely orders her steak rare. When the waiter brings her the steak, she routinely sends it back, saying the rare streak “is too cooked.”

My friend works in the food industry. My wife IS getting a rare steak. What she wants (loosely translated from French) is “Blue Steak”. But, she thinks it’s overdone, so, the chef makes her a new steak, barely cooked. Facts don’t really matter. She’ll only eat it one way, her way. The waiters now know what my wife means by “rare” since we always go to the same place. They don’t correct her, since she is the customer, but just give her the steak her way. Perception > Facts.

Ditto my friend’s wife when she visits. She asks for milk. We give it to her. The milk is perfectly fine, but she often feels “It smells rotten.” So, I take the glass, put it back in the fridge for us, for later, and she gets juice. The milk WAS perfectly fine. But she will not drink it, the end. But we don’t go “prove to my satisfaction the milk is bad”… we go to the fridge, and get her something else. Now, after the second or third type of drink she’d reject, we DO go “Well, then bring your own drink.”

So, back to computer games, why do most communities “demand proof” when it comes to drops, mobs, powers, etc…? If enough people think something is a problem, in almost any industry, it either changes, or we get a “It won’t change sorry, and this is why” of some sort through management. Or, at the very least… silence. But we don’t seem to get the vitriol for “daring to complain” that online boards give out.

I understand a bit about game balance, but isn’t it still perception > facts? This isn’t a science class, but a business, no? I completely get that, say, if 1 purple auto-dropped as EACH mission complete, it would totally ruin the game. It would render many if not most sets obsolete. Yet, wouldn’t the Devs cave if 90% of the player base was quitting unless they dropped? Or, do you honestly think that (making up numbers) if subscriptions went from 300,000 to 30,000 because of “not enough purples” that Devs wouldn’t up the rate, hoping to get customers back? And, if they wouldn’t… care to explain why?

If it’s only a few people, trust me, I’ve done my share of “Don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out.” French, remember? But, even without the “Wah, I’ll quit.” Part, wouldn’t well, common sense / courtesy / etc… mean = let the person talk / vent / whatever?

Case in point, I too thought the recipe drops had been much lower. However, unlike the super-dedicated people that did 100s of runs, talking statistics I have no hope of even grasping, just to “prove” their point to the community and the devs, I just told my friends, and they agreed.

The runs you did, that was 1,000s of person-hours of work, just to… not be yelled at, to avoid “can I have your stuff” posts, or to get dev attention. Stands to logic (I think) that means that if those hours weren’t invested, by the playerbase, by dedicated people, we’d be still at low drop rates, from now until the end of time (fine, I superlatize, shoot me, and yes, it’s not a word but it should be, heh) and no-one would have known it.

But, I didn’t “dare” mention it on the boards, for fear of retribution. Well, not drive-by retribution, but certainly a “I’m grumpy towards friends / family because the board yelled the crap out of me for daring to complain and now I’m in a bad mood.” type deal.

So, can people, using small words, and no “cool phrases” that a 40 year old will likely never grasp as to why computer games have so much of a “prove it” type mentality on boards, rather than most other places?

Any input to this daunted old man would be helpful.

Disclaimer = I press Power on my computer, and Double Click on City of Heroes, and hope to God it works, so keep that in mind if getting technical.

Side Note = People talk about BM hunting for Purple. What does that mean? Thanks.

P.S. It’s late, but tomorrow, I’ll post my Peanut Butter Toast story, that should show clearly my perception > fact issue.

Originally Posted by Shadowclone

New and improved? O-o what shiny toys have the added?

Originally Posted by BrandX

Truthfully, I think Empathy is all wrong for the Defender type iconic Defender. All wrong.

Read a superhero comic. There just not that many (not saying there isnt any) Major healing type heroes.

Empathy is more the Iconic "group support" for MMOs. Not for Defenders though.

Besides that, I can agree with all of those.

For Defender...hmmm...Storm/Elec might just be it.

Originally Posted by Aett_Thorn

Yerah, if we're going for what is most iconic of the AT, Super Strength for Tankers wins hands down. Here are my choices:

Blaster: Energy/Energy

Controller: Mind Control/Force Field

Defender: Empathy/Psi Blast

Scrapper: Claws/Regen (or Dual Blade/SR)

Tanker: Invuln/SS

Brute: SS/Willpower

Stalker: Ninja Blade/Ninjitsu

Mastermind: Robotics/Devices

Dominator: Mind Control/Fiery Assault

Corruptor: Dark Blast/Dark Miasma