SingStar

Even if it was just "random" scientists walking around doing science'y stuff it'd still be cool, but your suggestion is basically just another furniture, a fixed position thingy looking like an NPC. The only new thing would be that this "furniture" might talk. Definitely doable, if you treat it like a "furniture".

Then again, most people villain side seem to play corruptors (team) or MMs (solo, might team).

MMs takes time, as do stalkers (slightly), to play and corruptors usually don't benefit from non-stop action, unless their like our corr team, Dave! (loads of kins/rads)
...Then again, we do stop to AM/SB, don't we?

What also surprises me is how unwilling heroes seem to be to use insps. In villains, you keep shewing blue's for the reason you stated, but heroes would rather rest!

Remember they DID change/remove some old TFs way back, back in time!

I almost bought SW:G once because it seemed to really have an on-going plot where the players actions had an impact. Got CoX instead!

On another note, I've been wondering for sooo long what that construction site around the arena in P.O. is all about. That sort of small hints are so valuable, not seeing progress on it for a few issues has made me pretty sad. The first thing I've done each patch is run off to P.O. to see if anything happened.

Yet, as it is, there really is nothing for me to "accomplish" in-game anymore. A new SF would be a one-off, done, might do again, but I'd be back at the been-there, done-that in a few days. If badges had any ACTUAL meaning I'd might be bothered to grind'em on more alts, but as it is, I'm hesitating on spending time getting the new ones on even ONE character (Inventions, MA bades etc --> bored & annoyed). There's no "Status" for me to achieve or anything.

Sure I could grind inf or help raise/keep the SGs status, but there's no actual competition between SGs so that's not tempting for many. Ppl probably hate me for this, but I'd love to see the SGs getting more important, to see the game get a bit more competitive (No, not thinking about pvp), but no, I have no clue how that could be done.

I loved the base raids I've been on, but without the CoP and the ability to steal something precious there's no major reason to go on base raids, and I can't see any reason whatsoever to let anyone into your base. ...but some sort of fierce rival competition would be fun. The RV idea of control points wasn't bad either, but failed @ live.

With 2 accounts stacked with mostly 50s levelling up another one isn't very tempting. Shield brute failed!

So, any other ideas? How could the game keep delivering that sense of "accomplishment" in the future?

Well, I DO NOT miss the "good old times" when people WHINED about getting debt, quit team without good byes mid-TFs etc.

As it is now, they might as well remove it. Removing it, however removes all penalties for deaths and stupid game-play. Debt should hurt, but not break the game as it sometimes did in the ol' days. I say: Remove the 3x debt limit and up the debt to full debt in-missions, and finally up debt in general by a factor of 1.5 and for the love of god, make patrol XP build up much slower or just get rid of it.

We don't really need to level up faster, do we? Slower patrol XP would benefit altoholics, so at least making it build up slower would be good.

I too personally would prefer a reward-based-on-difficulty system. RSF and STF are hard and should give more merits. Yes, you can make them easier with vengeance, shivans etc but that would take time (get shivans, nukes etc) and "special builds" (vengance etc).

I don't think it's wrong to datamine and look at the times, but if the devs ONLY look at the average times (and it seems like that is in fact what they've done) it's a problem.

I can agree that, for example, positron could be worth more merits since it is a low level TF and some people might actually play it at those levels for xp etc. Having some 49's in an ITF is not a problem, having some lower levels in a low level TF is.

Of course I might actually be wrong, the devs might have taken a lot into consideration, but it still ended up being imbalanced. One thing to take into account is the fact that having a villain side is valuable to the game and while the hero side is obviously more important, givin' some luvin' feeeelin' to the Reds could be a good long-term strategy. (Of course, I'd still rather see more content, than more merits. I don't really need merits at the moment anyway).

Let's just say, I'm curious for the next update to the merits.

Funny thing is, a few years ago they said "never gonna happen, too much work to pretty much completely rewrite the powers code"!

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According to you, the best things villains can now do, is to start SFs.. stand in there for a day, then finish it and wait for the next datamining? Because yeah, that way is fun! (NOW I was being sarcastic btw)

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Being sarcastic is alright with me but i'v never said that... Praf68 has

JB out!

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I wasn't quoting you, but according to your logic it IS the same IMHO. You do say that you think the current system is fair, that is: heroes getting more merits for the same amount of work.

Basically you're saying "play heroes if you want merits, villains if you're not that bothered". By the same logic it would be ok to have the RCO exploit in the game: "Use it if you want xp, do something else if not".

Actually that exploit would be better since it's the same for both sides, while the merit imbalance gives the heroes an unfair advantage (and obviously they need it - Yes, It's a joke).

I, on the other hand, am pointing out an imbalance and suggesting one way of dealing with it. I didn't say they should take my suggestion straight ot of the box, I'm just pointing out that they should do SOMETHING more than just datamine, since the difference is rather big. If you're just hung up on my suggested solution, fine, it was an EXAMPLE of how the problem could be adressed and not supposed to be a solution. But if you actually think it's ok that heroes have an advantage I say: Bring the Rikti com officers back, bring on constant 4x XP, or just pull the plug and be done with it. Leaving a rather major imbalance like this in-game isn't ok imho, but OF COURSE you're allowed to think whatever you want, even if you're wrong and I'm right! (Yes, another attempt at humour)

Also: Good team or not has nothing to do with it imho. A bad hero team still make more merits than a good, speeding villain team. Long TFs probably indeed has something to do with it even if they just look at actual in-mission-time. Too bad they can't(?) measure actual "combat mode" time instead!

I wasn't being sarcastic, I was making it as clear as possible for you since you CHOOSE to misunderstand it. I guess you just want a fight?

And saying stuff like:
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the way things are now we get rewards based on what and how the players like to play. Villains like to do things fast (and has some rather short SFs) and Heroes have more fun

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Well... I'm not even gonna respond to that.

Fact remains, whatever you say:
A hero can rack up a (whoooopin censored) whole lot more merits/hour than villains POSSIBLY can. If you think that's balanced, then I guess you're also allright with me asking for the rikti com officers to be reinstated in the MA and give brutes a pvp I-win button.

The balance is off, that's the devs doing...
The devs did it because they datamined without thinking, just crunshing the numbers...
THAT actually has NOTHING to do with the veterans, does it?
...but since people brought up "veterans" I pointed out, that Ok, they might be the cause of those numbers, that the devs are using.

No matter what, easy fast task forces gives more merits than hard villain SFs, meaning villains get less merits, meaning villains are at a disadvantage, meaning villains, with less time in-game is even more unbalanced in pvp - as an example. Some people, not me, would call that an exploit!

According to you, the best things villains can now do, is to start SFs.. stand in there for a day, then finish it and wait for the next datamining? Because yeah, that way is fun! (NOW I was being sarcastic btw)

Mindlessly using data like the devs do even if they go back every now and then to check the numbers again... Well, the data is a tool, a good tool, but still just a tool.

Edit: as an example the devs could also look at the best 10% times and the worst 10% times to get a more balanced view. Running RSFs fast doesn't mean it's actually fast since people usually have to go'n'get shivans and set up proper teams, etc. There's just simply more than numbers to take into account.

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/un-signed
i do not agree with the OP.
Vet players has and will always get faster/better rewards than non-vets.
Your suggestions does not change anything at all.
I'd rather have rewards based on how good the players are than how good the devs + friends are.

on another note:
starting your suggestion post with...
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Ok, I'm slightly annoyed now, no... I'm really annoyed!

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kinda makes the rest seem "bla blabla blabla blaBLAAAA!!!"
not a good way to make suggestions if you want the devs to read this


JB out!

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Wow, you completely misunderstood it all! Impressive! The point is there's an imbalance in merit rewards hero side vs villain side and THAT has little to do with veterans/non-veterans. The reason there's an imbalance DOES have to do with veterans, sort of, since villains in general are faster at doing "hard" stuff.

So same team villain side and hero side: Heroes would make LOADS more merits doing pretty much the same things, that is heroes make more merits/hour than villains.

Again, that has nothing whatsoever to do with veterans, but the CAUSE of the imbalance has. id that clear things up for ya?

I've been moaning a lot about this game, part because I still somehow love it, part because I'm bored after all these years, but yesterday I started thinking about it.

What drives us to continue and what could drive us on for years - from a pure psychological point of view?

Well, let's think about it?

- The evolution of the world?
I'm a sucker for well-written stories. I usually can't stand Hollywood movies because they're too predictable, unless the action is mindnumbing so I forget about it. The reason I play games are usually because I want to know how they'll end. I think we all wanna know what will happen to the world of the "cities". In itself I don't think that's enough though!

- The community?
This is the major reason for staying in-game. You make friends and you don't wanna loose them. Trying to migrate to another game and you inevitably loose a lot of them. Staying in the game, you loose some, and usually make new friends. In the end you've lost so many there's no reason to stay for that reason alone.

..and the point that got me thinking, really thinking:
(Actually, I was thinking about work, the similarities are scary, really...)

- A sense of accomplishment?
While I've not played it, I think EVE hit the point here. We wanna see the evolution of ourselves. We want more stuff, we wanna get better, we want our characters to improve. This is the reason I'd rather play my villains, than a "regular" game. I feel I accomplish something lasting. I know it's an illusion, but it works.

Levelling up to 50, purp'ling up our alts, getting the badges etc drives us on. Eventually you might get hooked on creating the best, biggest jolly-goo-good SG base there is, but then what? Some games solve this by up'in the level cap. We're obviously(?) getting some unlockable slots and there will be more "content", but this IS a problem isn't it; that's a very, very temporary "fix".

Sure, there's always more alts, and purp'lin' up takes a lot of time, but for me Sing Star's got pretty much everything I can slot, and I've got some other nearly maxed out alts. So, I'm working on getting a perma-dom dominator that'll take forever, but still...

While we may argue that new story content is important etc, I think this, from a commercial and psychological standpoint is even more important in the long run. How will the game give me my "fix", make me feel I'm still accomplishing something? How will it keep rewarding my hard work in the long run? How will the game motivate me?

Will we get by with just quick fixes, like some new stories, powersets/ATs, new inventions etc? Will we just continue; old habits die hard?

Sure hope to see all again this evening and hopefully some new recruits (even if I really (still) need to work instead).

Last year we got some really smurfy calendars/wallpapers. I guess that's not happening this year? The google calendar is also completely dead apparently. ...sad..

also... I guess the Blog on the website is dead, dead and dead - and while not many bothered to read it, it looks really bad having it there when it's soooo old.

The same goes for old news, especially on the updater window. Advertising evens that are over etc just makes it look unprofessional. When done, get rid of it and just keep the general info or update it with new info about upcoming stuff. I'd love to see it being used to bring more people into the community, making people more active.

My point still is, that an average "veteran" would make a LOT more merits playing hero side ANY build, ANY team than you can possibly do villain side.

Yes, the ITF IS hero and villain and compared to some other TFs it's not that well rewarded, same goes for LGTF. That's the point. Testing a coop TF shows that you get more merits/hour in coop or hero TFs with a fairly basic/crappy team than you could ever do villain-side SF with an "elite" team.

The reason is simple, villain teams are more goal oriented and the players are usually more experienced and know what to do, how and when. That means villains of same skill get less than heroes. It's unbalanced because they do that "data mining" without taking that into account. So a new method of deciding merit rewards is needed.

edit: and it doesn't help that heroes have more to choose from with more people to play with, but that I can take. (but would LOVE to see more villain content)

I personally think there's a lot of things that should be made account wide instead of character specific.

A load of badges (the epic ones at least, and exploration), merits, Vanguard merits, pvp reputation, invention memorization, etc. It's A QoL issue worth adressing since the games main selling point is the "replayability". (How many other games do you make more than 20 alts on?)

F'coz, noone of any stature will care to read this [censored] anyway, so I'm going to bed, disillusioned as usual. (f'coz I had to force a moan in there)

Tenacious D FTW!

Ok, I'm slightly annoyed now, no... I'm really annoyed!

We just did another ITF in no time... we stood around waiting for about 30 minutes and still did the ITF in about 1.30.. and we really thought we where amazingly, annoyingly slow. I've done the ITF in way less than 1 hour without "exploiting" anything.

How many RSFs without shivans go that fast? So what's my point: Hero TF's are just simply rewarded more than villains because of one simple thing:

Sorry for being slightly impolite about this: There's simple more heroes, and more well.. BAD heroes that makes the average time of hero TFs so much higher than the villain ones. Or there's just fewer and better villains doing fewer SFs that they know very well.

Sure, I don't play heroes much, but enough to have seen how rediculously easy it is to get merits compared to villains.

I think the ITF/RSF comparizon shows it well, but we could go on comparing any hero TF with any villain SF really. The balance is just off, way off. Sure, villain SFs in general are a lot better, but...

My suggestion is:
Let the devs (or devs friends, whatever) play through the SFs and TFs a few times and use THAT average time as a measure for the merits instead of the player base average times.

Well, to be fair, even playing a simulation will give you experience, know-how, skills, so not getting xp would be strange and of course most people would stay clear of the MA if they don't get anything at all.

Why, because most arcs are horribly bad and a waste of time. Getting SOMETHING out of them makes it bearable. If I didn't get something out of it I probably wouldn't play the game anymore since I've done all the real content repeatedly and find most of the archi-stuff.. you know...

This way I still get the occational good arcs and at least get something out of'em as well. If not, I might as well finish off GTA4, Chronicles of Riddick, Mass Effect, CoDmf, Force unleashed and the other really good, modern, fun games I've got stacked on top of a speaker.

And, lol, I suggest people that get a dev choise doesn't get credit for it in the ma, but get the title instead. Should kill most of the whiners and you still get something when you're "chosen". Or give us the option of being anonymous and bring back the e-mail feedback so we don't get all that "private tells" [censored] when we log in.

Wow, just checked the list. That's a LOT of badges going. LMAO!!!

IMHO, the badges need a need way of thinking completely. Why would any new player bother? The can never get near the top collectors and they don't get anything for the badges anyway (except a measly few accolade ones).

We could use more "perks" connected to badges.

And darn you, Avatea, Forcing me to log on to the blueside version of the forum!

Also hope there's still som HoF/Devs choise reward, like a temp. in-game or at least forum title.

The BIG point about badges are, they're really only there for competing in "I've got the most, I'm so (whatever)" except for the puny amounts of accolades.

While I'm apparently still #1 EU villain badger despite my serious lack of veteran badges i still say the badges need a serious look-over.

Why: Because they're mainly pointless for any newbies. Why would anyone grind weatherman villain side today? With all the stupid invention badges and now the MA badges etc noone that didn't get on the badge badnwagon from the start years ago has absolutely NO reason to grind badges.

What to do about it? How do we make badges attractive for more people, not just the old veteran elite that wants to brag about their old exploits (and it was exploiting, we all know it, no skill whatsoever required, so bragging is rather silly, yet I do it, erhm..)?

Well, we have to make badges WORTH something. This is the route they could have taken instead of giving us intentions (or just put in on top of it, game's silly easy anyway already). Either by giving us more accolades or by letting every badge count for something.

Start by making at least the "epic" badges account wide, as well as the anniversary badges etc so we don't have to grind 50 alts each event.

Kill-badges could give you perks of different sorts depending on what you've killed, not just silly gladiators.
Exploration badges could increase perception
Held badges: Increased mez protection
Debt badges: Decrease debt, make account wide
Heal badges: Improve healing powers: Make account wide
Inf badges: You get the idea...

This way anyone and everyone would benefit from hunting badges, but the perks would be small enough not to be needed and preferably only used for PVE, since vets with insane amount of grind-inf already prevent new folks from joining pvp. (Yes, let's face it, pvp is as dead as the Amiga OS)

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Personally I've always wondered how the (bleep) the masked people see throught the masks. Even if they're fairly see-through it's still a huge risk to limit your sight like that.

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Here's the secret (and I'll whisper it because it's a touchy subject) *it's not real*.

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"I refuse to accept your reality and substitute it with my own"

Altosax FTW!

Personally I've always wondered how the (bleep) the masked people see throught the masks. Even if they're fairly see-through it's still a huge risk to limit your sight like that.

Let's cash in on the plastic music instrument game industry:

Guitar Hero powerset:

Background, about a year ago me a nd Smurfnof discussed this and found it to be very doable. Now just think about it for a while. I don't have the whole conversation saved but let's give some example of powers:

Head banger
Instrument over-head smash and other instrumental violence
Amp explosion
Crowd surfing
Screeeeeech - tuning mishap
Butt-kick
Telly throwing
All sorts of sonic de/buffs
Fan crowd riot/Groupies reinforcement/bodyguard mode
Charm - works on opposite sex only - unique power
Special weakness - weak against opposite sex

Yes, it must be done, just call it pop star powerset to avoid any legal problems...

...oh, and when's the beast MM powerset done? Cm'on we know you're working on it!

Clarification: We'll accept pretty much anyone, but kins and rads are preferred, as well as fire based alts.

We're currently lvl 30'ish but will take on any level alt that's looking for a nice, fast regular team