Steele_Magnolia

Objective: Winter's Gift Recipe - Unable to claim it with low level character despite it being labled a level 1 recipe. I tried at level 1, 3, and 5. I got the error "Inventory is full" despite the recipe inventory being empty. Low level characters do get recipe drops, this shouldn't be the problem. "Level 1" is false advertising.

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You should pay rent within a day or so of when it's due. Yes, there are those who will say pay two weeks after the due date, but I find it easier to get within a day or so of the due date, and that has worked.

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Now that my sg rent is 2,200 instead of 64,000 I am not tied to paying it 2 weeks past due to conserve prestige.

SG Member: "So-and-so took ALL the candy canes!"

Me: "It's okay! It was an accident, I've got them. He took them all instead of clicking individually, and couldn't put them back. I've got the rest."

Result:

1. SG Misunderstanding, thankfully averted hard feelings.

2. And now I've got the candy canes and anyone who wants them has to come to me for a character - to - character transfer instead of getting them out of the base.

Thanks, devs.

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There needs to be some way to earn CCs during the rest of the year, because it now has a lot of stuff tied to it that is of real use for the rest of the year (for example, the auras and IO sets) and having those items restricted to one month out of twelve seems unnecessarily harsh.

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You mean like Halloween salvage?

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Halloween salvage can be turned in all year, the contacts are available year round in normal zones. The salvage also has only ONE application. It does not need to be farmed. And it drops off of defeatable mobs.

The only aspect that is comparable is time window. The application and availability is widely disparate, and THAT is the issue.

Some of the aspects of Halloween salvage should be duplicated with Winter Event salvage (drop off mobs, be able to be turned in year round), it would solve some problems.

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30 slots seems unusually small compared to personal character storage and the amount of stuff we can store on Wentworths.
Please give us more slots per rack, and lower the max number of racks per base if you have to.

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Do not lower the number of racks. Artificially 'upping the numbers' while decreasings the racks defeats the purposes, and punishes SGs that have already maxed storage space for alternate purposes. I *like* having 8 inspiration bins.

I echo everyone else's concerns. I've given up trying to candy cane multiple characters, I'm doing just one (a new alt). Just the old badges alone comes to 100, that's before halos, another 50, and IOs, 100+ (forget exactly).

On the topic of having to go to a zone your own level for candy canes, have you every tried present hunting in Sharkshead? It bites. Villainside gets very little option in present hunting. (Rather than grief lowerlevels, I hit BB and Sirens.)

Costume pieces should not cost 25 candy canes, you should not have to grind to get costume pieces. These should be lowered to 10. The Santa Hat should be added as a reward.

(Apologies to Peregrine_Falcon, usually we agree. Farmers aren't my concern, players are. )

I do like the idea of merits being awarded globally (with limitations, see summary). The reason is simply this: Alts.

For years we have been encourage to play alts. Alts were the solution to hitting 50 and wanting more content, the content was alternate ATs and powersets.

Now with merits, we are driven to play a single character to achieve enough merits to buy things. I now have to choose between my playstyle (alternating between many characters, on four servers) and merits.

Summary: At least make merits server and faction specific. That would go a long way to alleviating this problem, for most people it would be enough.

Objective:

The most use I've heard of people getting out of dual builds (multiple players today vs 1 player using them previously) has been for a SS/CJ build for the Ski Slope/Luge


Subjective:

When I initially heard of Dual Builds my plans were along the lines of Soloing/Teaming builds. With having to use all new enhancements for a second build, I won't be using this feature except to get ski slope badge anytime in the foreseeable future.

Why:

1. A Second build built from anything other than SOs or possibly generic IOs is simply too expensive for me.

2. Even if I could afford it, would I be able to fill in the missing pieces using the Merit System any time in 2009?

3. I certainly could not do this on more than one character (costs, merits). To do so would require shelving IO goals for my alts.

Subjective:

Merits feel like a grind.

Let me emphasize that, A GRIND.

Before Issue 13, even before it went live, when the Merit System was revealed for what it was, my interest in playing the game dwindled. I lost heart.

Under the old system: Finish Task Force: Oooh, I get a shiny! Maybe it would be something good or useful to that character or that could be shared, or maybe it wouldn’t, but there was instant gratification to this.

Under the new system: Finish Task Force: Oh, gee, um, merits. Kind of dry, tastes like cardboard. Gee, how many more TFs do I have to do to get my shiny? No instant gratification. Even if the task force was long enough to meet the 20 merit goal of being ‘worthy’ of a random roll, the player still has to make a trip to turn them in. There’s no excitement to this.

I understand the goals, both stated and unstated, behind the Merit System. I like the OPTION to save merits to purchase a desired item, to no longer be reliant on market flippers.

What I don’t like is that the zest of doing Task Forces is gone. The excitement of a reward at the end is gone. Comparing and trading rewards with your teammates is gone. I think you have underestimated the importance of this.

My experience:

I just don’t feel like doing Task Forces anymore, where I used to do 5 or 6 a week. Why bother? Where I had a chance at the end of each for something great (or maybe useful to my SG or vendor fodder) I now can save up box tops for the eventual day I can buy ONE enhancement. Just ONE. Or I can invest considerably more time than I used to have to in order to obtain a random roll that I have to visit a vendor to get, also not inspiring.

I also don’t like that 10 or so of the people I did Task Forces with regularly have quit the game. If I actually wanted to Task Force, most of the people I did so with on my main server Liberty are gone. The only suggestion I have for that is to have another Reactivation Weekend soon and hope some of them come back.

I haven't given up on this game, I still play, I still love my friends and family whom I play with here. I have played COH/V for 4 1/2 years and I very much disagree with the attitude that "people that leave are accounts you would have lost anyway". That is simply not true.

Look at my signature. It’s there for a reason. I bought a Lifetime Account on LOTRO a month ago. Issue 13 swept me off to Middle Earth. I play both games now.

The furniture in the Tsoo Mr. Po arc and Carnie MoM arc Missions.

Oh, and giggle with glee. Don't forget the giggling, MonkeyB.

I know I will be. That auto-refund will be a thing of joy to behold. The news of it lifted me out of my I-13 depression, and brought me back to actually playing this game again. (I've been visiting Middle Earth the last 3 weeks.)

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So now, we are punished from playing the fun TFs by receiving no reward to speak off,

[/ QUOTE ]That's only true if the only TFs you consider to be fun are Eden and Katie.

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They're two of my favorites, so yes. I expect every other TF in the game to be nerfed when they reevaluate, since the farmers are being forced to range afield. And they will.

If I can run a 4 hr Invinc Dr Q TF, and I'm not a farmer, I bet they can do it in 3. I know what the fast times are for 'fast players' (not farmers) on my servers, the farmers will be faster. This isn't going to be pretty.

Milk and cookies anyone? Not right now, anyway. Maybe after we clean out the fridge.

The dialogue with Positron and Sunstorm gives me hope. I played this game tonight for the first time in 3 weeks. And I enjoyed it.

Have the merit rewards for the entire Peacebringer and Warshade arcs been calculated? I don't recall seeing those.

We don't need two different types of Brainstorms. All we need is new recipes for Brainstorm conversions added to the already existing system:

1 Common Invention Salvage > 1 Brainstorm
1 Uncommon Invention Salvage > 2 Brainstorms
1 Rare Salvage > 5 Brainstorms

Or somesuch, whatever values the devs think Invention Salvage is worth. This allows for empowerment buffs to be used indefinitely for straight Brainstorm cost.

Yes, people could use this to churn Invention Salvage to get what they want, back and forth, back and forth, I guess... but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. I don't owe 'The Market' (whoever that is) anything. I'm tired of him extorting all the fun out of my game.

Failing that, give us the OPTION of paying with straight Brainstorm cost AS WELL AS the cumbersome Invention Salvage Recipes from the Ninth Level of Hell.

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[ QUOTE ][*]Replace the salvage cost of empowerment buffs with a straight brainstorm cost?

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This is a bad idea, as things stand. Brainstorms are a limited resource. Past I13, base salvage no longer drops. Which means we can't make new brainstorms. Which means that at some point in the future there won't be any more to use.

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Why not make invention salvage also convert to brainstorms? From my point of view, enhancement buffs are now to cumbersome and expensive to use with Issue 13.

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First off, thank you for taking the time to answer some of our concerns about this. One of your answers was actually linked to a question I asked in the original thread, although the reply was to a different post:[ QUOTE ]
Poster: EvilGeko
Q: Will you state right here, right now, that you will not further nerf rewards on content that the playerbase learns to do quicker?

A: We can’t do that. However, we can state right here and now that we won’t take such decisions lightly. We’re going to only decrease rewards on a task if we don’t have the option of immediately making adjustments to a Task Force and we find that the majority of players are running the Task Force at a significantly reduced average time than before.

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My concern is how you determine the majority of players are running at a significantly reduced time, as opposed to the same group of players running the TF or SF more often at reduced times, which causes the majority of runs to have a significantly reduced time.

Because this seems to be gearing the system towards the speed runners, and leaving the "average" player who doesn't stealth the objectives with reduced rewards. This is already shown in the time estimate from the Virgil Tarikoss SF and Eden Trial - an 8-person team fighting their way through each mission will not take an average of 50 or 10 minutes to complete these, so obviously the rewards are geared towards the multiple runs of a smaller group of people.

I'm also concerned about the cost of several of the rewards and pricing of them. Do you honestly want to say that defeating 20 AVs isn't even worth one single origin enhancement, through two runs at least 24 hours apart of the Katie Hannon TF? Also, a couple of developers that aren't on the rewards team have stated that they had slightly lower estimates for how much effort should go into a random recipe roll, both listing times of around 60-75 minutes. This would put the cost of a random roll at 12-15 merits, which is honestly where I see the average completion time settling into once speed runs are done more frequently on the higher-value TFs.

I'm still wondering how failed attempts are accounted for in the average as well.

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Welcome, Synapse.

The above states a concern of mine very well, as well.

Say - to be ridiculous about it - someone finds a way to run a "Speed Quarterfield." Ok, stop laughing. They finish it in, say, 1 hour. 80 (from memory, not looking it up ATM) merits.

He gets a group together. Every day, they run a SpeedQ. Others find out. Soon there's an average of two Quarterfields an hour being completed. It's the same, say, three groups of players, just switching characters. The normal player, who rarely touches it, finally decides to run one, taking six to eight hours over two or three days. Their "average" is pretty much lost in the data, I'd think.

To counteract this, why not - while in a Task Force - award a merit to everyone in the group for, say, every 250-300 enemies defeated? That way, when "SpeedQ" is inevitably nerfed because "it can be done in an average of an hour and a half," those who slog through are getting more of a reward, instead of being *dis*couraged to use their time on this TF? Sure, the speedsters (no offense ) might get more merits in the end - but for each run, the "regular" players are getting more per TF.

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A 4 hour Invincible Dr Q is easily achievable with an well built team of experienced players. The trick is to leave the team leader sitting on the contact until you get the call button. I've done it just for fun.

Enjoy your 80 merits while it lasts. I expect the real Speeders to show how fast it can really be done.

Welcome Sunstorm!

Thank you for the very good news about the prestige refund and placement prices of items already in personal storage. I am very, very happy to hear that!

Will you please consider these things, I echo the concerns about the base salvage changes:
<ul type="square">[*]The confusion of the non-forum-going player base when this goes live[*]The "30 pieces of silver" storage limit change is too restrictive. (Ex: I already use six characters to mule and all my characters' markets and vaults. This really will not be an impediment to people who truly want to hoard, they'll use alts or the market slots to do it.)[*]The difficulty storing/sharing SG event salvage[*]Cost of base building is now shouldered by the builder[*]Empowerment buffs are far more difficult and expensive to use now[*]The addition of yet another currency to the game does not simplify things[*]The stated reason for this change is literally unbelievable[*]Coerced Market PvP is perceived to be the intention of this change[/list]
Would it be possible, at minimum, to:<ul type="square">[*]Increase the salvage limit on the storage bin to 50 or 100 (I do not believe this will greatly affect the market, this is in effect what one level 50 character can fill)[*]Replace the salvage cost of empowerment buffs with a straight brainstorm cost?[/list]

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1) How will the repricing of bases affect you personally?

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As I have been building my bases since bases first came online, largely it won’t, with a few exceptions. I will be able to expand my existing base plots and purchase new rooms more easily.
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2) Will you dismantle your base to gain the additional prestige from the repricing?

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My main SG base on Liberty – no. It has dozens of man hours in building and decorating it, and my SG coleader is against doing so. I would be willing to do so to regain prestige (for example, to allow for plot size expansion if plot size were tied to expanded storage bin allotment). We have no interest in PvP, and the base currently meets our PvE needs. Nearly all of our current rooms will not go down in price, and the invention salvage cost of recrafting enhanced power and control items is simply not worth the prestige return. Also, my SG coleader is against the time investment, and we would need to be in agreement to take such a drastic step. The return simply isn’t worth it.

My main SG base on Pinnacle – possibly. I’m the only base builder there. However, we really don’t need the additional prestige, I would just like the additional plot and rooms for decorations.

My villain bases on Pinnacle and Liberty – yes. The additional room will be very much worth it.

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3) How long would this process take you if you were to engage in this practice?

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Depending on the base, between 4-40 hours per base.

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4) What are the positive and negative concerns regarding repricing?

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The positive: In the future, base building and expansion will be easier (although not for initial base startups). Building for PvP will be much easier.

The negative: Because there is no provision for refunds for already built bases, and base builders are faced with the decision of rebuilding from the ground up (including recrafting) or leaving potentially millions or tens of millions of prestige locked in place, this is an effective slap in the face for the base building community that has made the best of a buggy system for the last three years. This is a bad PR move.

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5) How will this feature affect you long term and short term?

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Long term – My larger bases will be able to expand plotsize and build more rooms for RP/decorative purposes. My smaller bases will be able to become fully functional bases much more quickly than they would have before.

Short term – I will have to spend many, many hours rebuilding my smaller bases to take full advantage of this.

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Base Salvage
1) What is the negative effect on your base for this feature implementation?

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Tremendous.

Use of the Market system is now forced, not just for the base builder, but for SG members seeking just to use Empowerment Buffs as well.

Using Empowerment Buffs just became incredibly more difficult. Before, SG members could draw upon an existing pool of Base Salvage and Base Components for buffs, now they will have to use specific recipes of Invention Salvage for this. It is more complicated and restrictive, not less.

The use of invention salvage for Base Crafting will impact the market, increasing demand, while the supply remains the same (no information from the devs has been forthcoming to state otherwise).

With the use of invention salvage tri-fold, for Invention Origin enhancements, Empowerment Buffs, and Base Crafting, the value of Invention Salvage will increase. Why should an SG member donate valuable Invention Salvage instead of sell it? And even if he desires to do so, the ability to store it may not be there. I know my Base Salvage bin is full beyond ‘30’ with no room for more bins. Previously Base Salvage was effectively worthless for sale, and storage was set at 2500, plenty of room and safe – it would be there, dedicated for use later. Not so with Invention Salvage.

Effectively the cost of Base Crafting is now on the shoulders of the Base Builder.


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2) What is the positive effect on your base for this feature implementation?

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Assuming my base will be able to free up a storage bin slot for an empty base bin, we will be able to share invention salvage… to a minimal degree. 30 spots in one bin, maybe. Theoretically.

I don’t see it happening, we don’t have room, our bins are full of Base and Event Salvage, Enhancements, Inspirations. Unless you implement larger storage size for larger plot size, it’s not happening.

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3) How long will it take you to adjust to learning this new system?

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Since I stay on top of the forums and betas, I’m already ready for it. I pity the casual player.

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4) What side effects to this system do you currently see from transitioning the old to new system?

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Salvage theft (Base and Invention) for sale on the market and the Brainstorm conversion, also in turn for sale on the market. A lot of confusion when this goes live for those not in the know when they go to place their already crafted items and find out they have to pay the old costs. A hue and cry when they find out that Invention Salvage is needed to craft new items.

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5) What security concerns do you have regarding this change?

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With the SGs where I am leader, none. I don’t openly recruit. In the SGs where I am not leader, I expect theft.


Additional Notes:

Decorative Rooms cost too much. They should be cheaper than functional rooms, this should be looked at. Also, start up rooms should be looked at. The 1st tier rooms should also be reduced in price somewhat.

The change to Base Salvage is unwarranted, unwanted, and unnecessarily complicates the game. For a so-called simplification, you’ve made things worse. I don’t think this could have been done worse if it had been intended as such.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rains fall soft upon your fields,
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

-Traditional Irish Blessing




Farewell, Lighthouse. You will be missed, and not forgotten.

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Kind of ironic that Positron basically reiterated the point that the existing pvp community does not matter right after poor LightHouse had to post a retraction. Also ironic that LH is no longer listed as a mod... doncha think?

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Lighthouse's entry still shows as "Community Relations Manager"

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I think it's hilarious that people think that the other superhero MMO will somehow "get" what players want.

Since NCNC bought CoH from cryptic we've gotten features we've been asking for for 4 years, but while captain fancy helmet was in charge and Cryptic was roaming these hills we got... ED, and broken PvP that Posi has to take [censored] for.

Yeah, run to the mooks that lit the fire your complaining about, I'll stay here while Posi fixes things up and continues to deliver what players have asked for.

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I haven't been here nearly as long, but I'm with ya... I'm tired of people sounding like spoiled kids. Go! It was nice having you while you were here and I appreciate any of you that I've had the chance to team with. If you decide to return, I'll be waiting for you.

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Your attitude seems to match that of the developers.

However, some of these "spoiled kids" have been [u]paying customers[u] since game launch. And the game developers, at least, should know that fewer people return than leave as they depart for other MMOs.

And as it is said in the business world, it "only takes seconds to lose a customer". In MMOs it takes more than that, because the customers are more loyal. Correspondingly, they are also the more bitter for it when they do leave.

55 months played, my husband and I bought a Lifetime LOTRO Memberships last night. We haven't left COH, as I still play the game, but he will let his game account go inactive.

The attitude demonstrated in the give and take of this issue's changes, player response, and the developer response in turn really stomped hard on my 4-year long warm fuzzy feeling. I'm no longer a "FanGirl".

When I left EQ to play COH it was with no hard feelings at all, EQ was great fun, and I came to COH because I loved the game immediately upon my first time sitting down to play. I never looked back. If I leave COH, it will be with hard feelings. Some of them will have been put there by developer posts telling me that "I was someone they wouldn't have kept anyway." That can't be more untrue.

Edited for typo.

Edit/add: By my count, between subscription, boxed sets, Valentines Day and Cyborg pack I've spent $930 so far on this game. I also bought a new computer to play it on, the old one just wasn't good enough. I renew at 6 month intervals, at one time that was at 1 year intervals. I think that qualifies as "loyal customer", only recently did I even consider another game, and it was this upcoming issue changes and the developer/player relationship that led me to do so.

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[Because that's who is going to be loving this change. The rich get richer...and everyone else...doesn't.

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ZOMG! the game is copying the stock market crash!!! O.O

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That seems to be the point of this.

At least, it looks like it.

A storage limit of 30 salvage is ridiculous.

The system is more complex than the old.

It's burdensome to base builders. It encourages theft.

Issue 13 base salvage changes: Fail

Edit: Already crafted items place at the old cost, if you haven't placed them already they're wasted effort.

There are so many things wrong with this new system I get furious just thinking about it.

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I gotta ask...which Genius thought this system was less "confusing" than the current Base Salvage?

Were the devs drunk when this was in concept stages? And they just said to hell with it and let it go?

For the first time, Issue 13 is something that is srsly making me reconsider my subscription. Just compounding stupidity on top of stupidity with this Issue.

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My husband asked me to play LOTRO with him. I bought the game and am downloading it now.

[u]Why does it still cost so much to build a small starter base?[u] Isn't this supposed to help them? There is no price change for a starter base at all:

Items:
Combo Unit: (no change) 25,000
Teleporter: (no change) 15,000

Rooms:
Oversight/Combo room: (no change) 50,000
Teleport 1x1 1 porter: (no change) 50,000
Medical 1 connection: (no change) 50,000

And I ask that this item be looked at again, it still costs too much:

Energy: Basic Generator 225,000 to 200,000

Also, why the expensive costs of decorative rooms? Why does the 3x3 decorative room [u]still[u] cost more than the 3x3 sized control room? It's an inconsistency.