Steampunkette

I'll do this in a simple list, I think!

1. More Costume Pieces. Sexy Jay is, of course, already handling this.
2. Tops with Skin Sleek. Seems an odd suggestion, but I find it a bit distracting to have shiny legs and a matte top, sometimes...
3. More "Super" powers. Guns, Swords, Shields, and Kicking people are all well and good, but I'd like some propless powers. (Light blast, Acid spitting, dark and electric control)
4. More Power Pools. (Throwing was recently suggested. I'd also love to see a few "Cross-Class" power pools like a micro-powerset (Fire Blast 4-tier power pool and the like)
5. More Ancillary and Patron Power Pools. (Mostly more Patrons, I'd love to have the heroside iconics become patrons as well as some of the other villaingroups)
6. Self-Flagged Open World PvP for Vigilantes and Rogues. (Fight other Flagged Heroes or Villains. Maintained through the options menu, probably. Standard: Off)
7. Villains gaining reputation with various villaingroups (Freakshow/Malta/Hellions) as a method of gaining temporary powers which call allies into a fight.
8. Heroes being given the option of doing something similar with Legacy chain, Longbow, PPD, and others.
9. World Peace (Might as well ask for it, right?)
10. Praetoria to have brand new 1-50 content rather than just 1-20 as some have speculated.

Why by 2012? Easy! We're all going to die in 2012 except for John Cusack, his family, and a mischievous and incredibly lucky dog.

-Rachel-

I think the main issue, here, is that some missions are hard-coded to Ramp up, Ramp Down, or be +1. And while the nice difficulty option can change the overall difficulty of the mish by +1, -1, or however many levels the ramp-up or down is still going to be there.

Ramp-up, for those of you who are unaware, is the coding method by which enemies at the front of the mission are weaker than the enemies at the rear. Giving a sense of progressively harder foes.

I -think- (ergo I'm probably wrong) that this information is basically hardcoded into every mission, as it is in the Architect. Which would require the Devs to go mission by mission to change every ramp-up, ramp-down, etc, to the new format. This would be incredibly tedious and time consuming.

As an alternative, I'd like to suggest allowing players to go to Level -2. So that on missions with Ramp-Up or Higher Difficulty spawns the player can keep them where they want them.

-Rachel-

So! It's now Tuesday. I've been contacted for the sales identification code which appeared on my billing summary. And found out something interesting!

The initial payment was received by NCSoft and the pre-order was not applied.

Did you catch that important word, there? I was charged a second time, the pre-order was applied, and I now have dual-pistols. Though I'm out another $30...

I did not use curse words on the phone. I was upset and that passed, mostly, over the weekend. I apologize for seeming like a vindictive B-word.

With that said, however, I'm still upset over spending $60 for a $30 item, receiving it late, and being put off for yet another day. In another hour and fifteen minutes I'll be calling the customer service helpline.

-Rachel-

See? That's actually somewhat useful information! If only someone had confirmed that weekends were no good I'd have gone to bed hours ago.

Now I'll be good and mad at the game for another hour, then collapse after coming down from an emotional high. Huzzah!

-Rachel-

PS: Gonna have a field day on Monday involving various colorful words and Customer Service...

I understand this well, Grey Pilgrim. However I am incredibly upset. Have you ever been angry or frustrated or concerned to the point where you don't even want to play the game in question?

I'm there right now. And I'm irrationally lashing out at the GMs for their lack of speed on a situation where they should have better prepared for issues.

If they are running their "Standard" weekend crew on a weekend when the server population has increased dramatically then that's a failure on the part of NCSoft's part.

If they're running the same standard weekend crew on such a weekend with the additional glitchiness of new material in game (I.E. Dual pistols being gated by a serial code) then that's a further failure on their part.

If, however, they've expanded their support staff to accommodate the increased flow-thru and it's STILL not enough to get a situation resolved in a timely manner then something is desperately wrong with either A) Their Support System, B) The code they've installed which creates a further increase of system clog, or C) Both.

Ultimately I'm incredibly upset, worried that it will be Monday before this issue is resolved, and out $30 on a product that should have been digitally handled by a server and auto-applied to an account.

There should be a backup system to bypass a failure rather than a message that an action has failed with no recourse. There was no "Would you like to send in a support ticket?" prompt, there was nothing beyond a simple error message. Heck! I haven't even received an E-mail that confirms my purchase. All I've got is an order number on my billing summary and the information on Paypal saying that NCSoft took the money.

So yes. I'm upset. I'm sorry if this offends or upsets you. But it's how I feel. Customer Service should be fast, prompt, and easily accessible. Making customers wait for hours on end for an item they purchased is poor customer service.

-Rachel-

10:00pm CST. Saw a GM in Talos (where I happen to be hovering). Decided NOT to initiate contact via Tell.

Thinking that was a mistake...

-Rachel-

I put in an in-game call for a GM/Support because, hey, why the heck not, right?

It's been 40 minutes and counting. I'll probably give people hourly updates on this event. 9PM CST now and no reaction from Support. This bodes poorly.

-Rachel-

But that's an IN-GAME GM, Soul Storm. I'm referring to ACCOUNT SUPPORT which is a different group entirely.

Isn't it?
-Rachel-

That's a game GM, not a Billing Support rep.

Of course they have in-game GMs to save people from glitches or getting stuck.

But can they fix my broken account?

Another note: The account recognizes that the GR Pre-order was purchased for it in the Billing Summary. But it's not applied and, on looking at my "Serial Code" list it's not there.

Hurray.
-Rachel-

I've gotta ask, hopefully: Does NCSoft's Support Staff work on weekends?

I had been resisting the urge to purchase the Going Rogue pre-purchase in favor of hitting up the Collector's Edition on Launch day with all the neat goodies. Suddenly, tonight, I have a fantastic idea for a Dual Pistols/Sonic Corruptor! She uses time-manipulation powers for all the really cool and neat Dual-Pistols animations, as well as to bend timespace around her enemies to make them less able to dodge her shots.

So I caved. I went to the NCSoft store and grabbed the pre-purchase as the altitis kicked in, full power. I knew I shouldn't. I should wait and be responsible with my money. Save it for the big buy in July! But no. No. I couldn't resist. I typed in my Paypal and purchased the pack!

"Product Distribution Failure"

What..? What is that? I looked into my Paypal and saw the money removed. I tried to create the Dual Pistols character and found it still locked. Ah! Some kind of minor error! I'll just contact NC Support and get things straightened out!

I sent in a ticket and, before it let me send it off, the ticket asked me to check over several issues. One of which was Contacting Billing support between noon and five PM CST, Monday through Friday.

...

You're kidding, right? On double XP/Reactivation Weekend not three days after the launch of the prepurchase you -don't- have a weekend staff to handle this kind of issue? I'll now have to wait until Monday afternoon to make the Dual Pistol character I've just paid $30 to create?

Tell me I'm wrong. Please! Someone tell me I'm horribly wrong in thinking that there will be no resolution to my problem before the yummy yummy Double XP is over with. Please tell me I'm wrong that I've spent $30 on a digital-upgrade that, somehow, will take longer to apply than it would to ship to my home by US Mail.

Please?

-Rachel-

This might be somewhat of a shock... but bear with me when I say: Tankers do more damage, base, than Brutes.

Shocking! But true. Go to the character creator and check the "Real Numbers" on any tanker or brute power. Compare the Brute's damage to the Tankers and you'll find that tankers have a higher base damage.

This means that scrappers (base) do a heck of a lot more damage than brutes! At least until that fury bar gets up there, then they're actually doing far more.

Now... Assuming you give a tanker the same thing you'll wind up with Scrappers being blatantly overshadowed by the Tanker. The Brute would have a run for it's money, no less.

And that's not including the corner cases like Shield/SS, mind you. The ones who can (on occasion) cap their damage bonus.

So no. This is not a good idea.

-Rachel-

This could turn into a massive inconvenience for various players. What if I'm just heading over to Crotoa to drop off costume salvage at level 20 so I have a third slot to add a cape to? Let's get really stupid and say that on the trip to Crotoa I get pushed off into an instance fighting in Steel Canyon, get to Crotoa, then get caught coming back to Steel by a second instance in Skyway!

My 2 minute excursion to get my costume slot set up just turned into a half-hour or more of frustration (based on AT) before I could do what I set out to do!

Randomizing mission generation is a bad idea. Even making it an On-Off switch isn't that great. Now... Putting a "pseudo Contact" next to a door in the Train Station who you can get missions from to go to specific zones and fight enemies? I'd be fine with that.

-Rachel-

I can agree with the -idea- of it, from a more cinematic standpoint, on ranged attackers.

But a Melee set without rooting would lose -all- of it's punch. Throw a punch at a practice dummy (Punching bag, whatever you have) and tell me how you move and how hard you hit. Then do a full-turn punch throwing your hips into the motion. And then do a running punch as you dash past the punching bag.

Which hit harder? Well unless you were running very fast (and either hurt yourself or stopped) the hip-turning punch is going to hit hardest.

Removing the root animations would visually weaken all the melee attack animations, to be honest... Though I'm right there with you on the jumping melee attacks! My first 50 was a heroine named Jumper Girl! Second generation spider mutation with claws and super reflexes. I'd jump over targets for all kinds of attacks.

And I think, for cinema's sake, that's our best hope. to enjoy the jumping and, now, the ninja-run forward flip into a sting of the wasp at the enemy's back!

-Rachel-

Make a Shield/SS tanker. Get yourself Hasten and work toward Perma-Rage. Once you've got that double-stacked and Against all Odds running at full power you'll be flinging damage that makes the party's blaster stand up and take notice. Especially with Shield Charge clicking every other fight.

Wanna make it worse? Go Brute. SS/Shield.

Your suggestion would make the Shield/SS tank more or less a "standard" for tanks. Which would suck. Since the Shield/SS tanker can hit the damage cap and sustain it for 10-30 seconds at a time. The "High Damage Build" would become far less impressive, IMO.

-Rachel-

Yes, please. On all counts.

-Rachel-

He's not asking for 12 free slots. He's asking for another page of purchasable slots per server. Which i don't think is -too- unreasonable...

-Rachel-

While I'd agree that the set would be very cool....

I'd prefer to see some non-weapon/prop sets come out instead.

-Rachel-

I know there's a thread for SGs to post their info on and I could look through that... however I have never found the information I've been looking for in that method. So here goes.

Where can i find an ActiveRP SG as opposed to an Active RPSG?

That's an important distinction to me that you basically can't -find- in the description of most supergroups. allow me to explain the difference as I see it.

In an ActiveRP SG you have players forming teams, running missions, and RPing as they do so. In-character interaction before and after the mission, witty banter flying about during fights, drama and comedy throughout.

In what is, apparently, the standard RPSG "Static" Roleplay seems to take the fore. Most people spend most of their time standing around in a bar, the base, or some other static environment and RP. Sometimes other RP goes on which leads to someone being taken to the Medbay or something of that nature, but generally RP is Standing around RP.

Now i have nothing -against- what I call StaticRP SGs. But they seem to have a higher propensity for cliques and Text-scrolling causing new people to feel out of place in some cases. The only thing i truly -hate- about the StaticRP SGs I've run with is the phrase "Read the Forums". My character should not have the information on the situation located on the forums. So reading them is a purely out of character exercise which leaves my character just as in the dark as she was before you told me, Out of Character, to go read the forums.

So what I'm looking for is ActiveRP Sgs or ActiveRPers looking to join such a group that I can then found.

Again, I have nothing against StaticRP sgs aside from the "Read the Forums" thing. Just looking for a more active one.

-Rachel-

I'm not going to argue this in this thread. Either start a new one about powersets or wait for me to do it. But this is threadjacking at it's finest.

My statement? I'd rather have the powers team creating powersets instead of altering the animations of the existing ones. Preferably Non-Weapon/Prop sets.

-Rachel-