Slashman

I find that soothing...

Exactly. All your toons that never dipped into the fitness pool will now have it automatically.

It's only characters who have a taken a power from the pool that will need to respec to get it for 'free'.

And this is my issue with Issue 19(heh). I never minded that the majority of people took the fitness pool. I do mind having it forced on me even in cases where I would not have taken it. Making it optional seems to me, to be the logical thing to do. Even if you have to opt in for the entire pool or nothing.

Maybe I just don't have the whole story, but with customization being the foremost attraction in this game, how does taking choices away line up with that design philosophy?

This is where your arguments don't quite add up. And why I say you're asking what is essentially a simple question on something that is not a simple topic.

You describe additional information that is not directly tied to the plot of a game as extraneous and not needed to enjoy the game. But then you say that you know a lot of people enjoy having that in their games. If a lot of people enjoy it, it is most certainly something that contributes to the enjoyment of the game for the majority of people playing it.

In your original post you write:

I say that's incorrect. Games that do that almost entirely fall into the RPG genre with titles such as we've described. Oblivion has a crapload of books to read with detailed history and background on characters you'll never meet and places you will never go. Those things can, if you wish to, be ignored and you can do whatever else you want to. That's how it is with most games such as you describe.

To say that developers believe that this is the only way to make a good game is actually misleading. On the whole(and there are probably only a few exceptions), developers who make a certain type of game, include things in their game which are commonplace and expected in the genre. This is because their target audience is generally expecting these things.

Some things, you can argue are not needed. Like multiplayer being tacked onto every FPS game under the sun, when statistics show that only a few games ever retain a large and thriving multiplayer population after initial launch if the game is not multiplayer only.

Other things, like what you are describing, are not so easily separated out and placed in a 'worthwhile' or 'worthless' box when you weigh their overall impact on the gaming experience of the larger audience.

Then let me tell you that you are not the target audience for Baldur's Gate.

I can't argue with that.

The thing is that I think you did miss out, but that's only because I'm applying my way of thinking to your choices. In my mind, if a single aspect of a game was something that would turn my mind off a game, it would be something that the game tries to do but fails horribly at that nagged me all through the experience. Lore is something that can be ignored. To quit a game over its abundance would suggest to me that you have other issues than not liking lore, since you don't have to pick up every book you see or read through every scroll you find.

I'd say that your issue is that you like to play straight up action(y) games with very little divergence from the main and immediate goal. Hence your references to things like Darksiders and Street Fighter. But you're trying to apply those principles to the wrong genres(or sub genres) of games.

And yet I have no trouble at all knowing what games I want to play and which ones I don't. What I want to play at any given time, largely depends on my mood more than some arbitrary number of lore entries/side quests that I may or may not encounter while playing a game. What games I buy and invest time in are determined by the quality of the game and richness of the experience as it relates to the type of game it is.

Oddly, I've heard you say you like Mass Effect. That series is no less lore-filled than other Bioware games. They have whole novels based on it to fill in additional backstory. And about a novel's worth of lore in the in-game Codex.

I could get behind that. Especially if they alternated the level ranges that the arcs took place in.

They do seem to be trying to release new arcs with every issue that aren't directly related to the issue, I'll give them that. But it still means we're 'dry' between issues once we exhaust that content.

Was there that much complaining over EQ expansions?

I vaguely remember my EQ days and time on the forums there. I think people complained more about the content of expansions rather than not wanting to pay for expansions at all.

From what little I have seen of the EQ2 forums, I think it's probably similar. I know Blackarachnia plays EQ2 so he'd probably be able to give a better idea.

Still...I think the most complaining I have seen on the EQ forums was when they upgraded the graphics engine to support higher end video cards and the base system requirements went up. Folks didn't want to shell out for new graphics cards.

I think this game could have used a couple more expansions between COV and GR, personally.

Actually that's not really true at all. I've been following gaming for a long time and I can tell you that I've seen some screwed-up crap happen with developers and their 'word'. Even up to very recently.

And my sentence stated that I wasn't sure how it translated into faster content for a specific area.

In any case, my statement was more to illustrate that I don't feel very comfortable when members of a forum community tell me that a supposedly well-established and solid MMO is holding me to ransom as it were by saying: 'Look what you got for buying that booster pack! Now if you want even more stuff faster, continue to buy more packs!'

I've never seen Valve say that to its TF2 customers and they patch and add to that game like crazy. Yeah, its not an MMO and they don't get paid monthly fees for it by their community.

Anyway, this brings me to my last point. A booster pack is a one time buy. If content delivery is gong to hinge on money made, then getting more customers into(and staying with) the game is worth a whole lot more than good sales on a single booster pack. Those people are going to continue to give you $15 a month for as long as they stay.

I love this game. However, that doesn't mean I should feel 'forced' into spending more money just to keep it afloat as if it's on its last legs, by buying a booster pack every couple months.

Dungeon Runners was a F2P experiment that didn't pan out. Auto Assult and Tabule Rasa launched with a bundle of issues and TR especially, had a ton of baggage behind its development.

Well we know that's what they told us and while I'm not calling it a lie, I'm not sure how it exactly translated into getting content out faster unless the booster packs paid for overtime.

Look, I'm not opposed to paying for some stuff in boosters. I have bought some of the packs myself. I would be lying, though, if I said that I didn't have a fear that going forward all the worthwhile costume pieces will be tied to boosters.

I would really rather not have that happen. I'm also worried about powers creeping into booster. So far it has remained benign(with the exception of the game changing Ninja Run). But I also wonder how long it will be until we see people who have all the booster packs start to become increasingly more powerful because they stack small buff on top of small buff without end.

If this game has reached a point where it can't sustain itself without a constant outflow of buyable in-game merchandise, then I'd say that the game itself has a problem and that needs to be addressed.

I don't feel that I need to play the hero(no pun intended) and try to save it via booster pack purchases.

You need a nice long GG-free break. Well actually...we all do!

Or more likely it = crudload of bugs, we're releasing it anyway and patching those suckers out later

Don't fret. I'm sure he saw you say enough grossly inappropriate things to other people to satisfy him completely...

Since I stabbed her in the back with my katana, would that be right about now?

Seriously though, I would have to say I'm skeptical that refocusing through a reduction in the workforce and then losing such a small number of people should include your top animation guy.

We'll probably never know, but I always looked for his posts in the Dev digest as a matter of course. I'm not happy that he's gone.

Nor am I sure that, despite standard issue marketing speak, the game will have the same quality in the animation department that it has previously had going forward.

I'm also not a huge fan of the relatively low level of dev interaction we've had lately. Usually when they announce something of the magnitude of inherent fitness pool, it is accompanied by some good back and forth with the community. I miss those days.

At the top of the pet window there is an options menu. Click it and a small window comes up. It will give the option to switch to simple mode or advanced depending on which one you're currently in. The arrow that extends the menu basically gives you details on buffs/powers affecting them.

Bodyguard is an inherent power that all MMs get. As long as your pets are not in aggressive mode and relatively close to you, each one will absorb a portion of the damage you take. The more pets you have summoned and are close to in a non-aggressive mode, the more damage you can directly take. This can, of course, kill your pets indirectly. But it makes your relatively squishy self more survivable.

I agree with you. I was always able to use my ninjas effectively under the old system. I agree that the new 'mechanics' are problematic, I was merely stating the opinions of other MM players that I have seen on the boards. You don't want your pets to always run into melee. This is why I advocated range and melee stances for them.

Please don't put ideas in the devs' heads...

Take what I'm about to say within proper context because I'm sure that as soon as I say it, someone is going to post in this thread that I'm crazy for saying it.

I don't personally use macros and binds for my MMs. Now I'm not saying that they aren't useful, but I've never really needed them.

I first suggest that you switch your pet command command window from simple to advanced. This gives you the greatest control over your pets both individually and as groups according to their type.

You can set the behaviours of groups or individuals as you see fit and you also have the ability to command them as a whole unit.

I personally found that experimentation was the best way to learn my MM skills. Each MM type is very different so adjusting your playstyle to suit your pets' powers will be necessary.

I think you'll find mercs to be one of the most straightforward types. They are pretty much range-focused and deal damage in the same way across the board (I kinda wish the medic had an assault shotgun instead of the usual rifle but meh).

I assume you know how bodyguard works? Its something to always keep in mind.

In the past, a pet would occasionally run into melee even if it was a ranged-focused type. Every now and then a bot or merc would run up to their targeted foe. Ironically, pets would tend to stay at range even if their majority of attacks were melee.

This totally ticked off ninja masterminds who would have to manually move their Jounin and Genin close to an enemy group to get them to use their melee attacks. It also affected necro MMs because the Grave Knights would tend to not use their more powerful sword attacks.

It was no sweat for mercs, bots and thugs(except for the Bruiser) because at range was where you wanted those pets to stay.

What is happening now is that regardless of the type of pet(and consequently type of NPC) involved, everyone throws a ranged attack or 2 and then rushes to melee distance of the enemy if it isn't defeated after their ranged attacks are used.

There has always been some type of problem with pets not 'knowing' where they should position themselves in combat, but now we have moved from one extreme to another. With this one being arguably worse because pets will try to keep in melee range of fleeing enemies as well as ones who are standing to fight and they will aggro other spawns by doing so.

To answer your question though, you're not doing it 'wrong'. I have used a similar setup for my MMs. You will notice though, that your spec ops actually are useful in melee because they can use their gun butt attack to stun enemies.

If that's the case then something else needs to be done. Even if it means making all pets more melee centric so that their behaviour makes sense.

In fact, it doesn't even make sense for demons on the whole. The Lt demon that casts the fire shield only has ranged attacks with the first upgrade: Fireblast and Fire Breath. Yet he still runs into melee the first chance he gets.

Maybe its time to invest in some server hardware to handle pet AI. At the very least, I'd like to see pets be given a toggleable melee/ranged stance option. Probably just wishful thinking on my part.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't it...