mousedroid

Thanks for the info everyone.

[ QUOTE ]
Once I've been gone from the game for say...three months (?), six months (?) will I lose "leader" status? Will it then be given to one of my friends who logs in regularly?

[/ QUOTE ]

As others have already said, yes. This is how I, as the only active member of a once thriving SG have come to be in charge of it. Before we even had Super Leaders, the game promoted me to Leader. When when the founder came back for a short time, he installed himself as Super Leader and then left again, which lead to me being auto-promoted to Super Leader.

Honestly, I'm not sure how willing I will be to give up the position if the founder comes back in another 6 months and asks for it back. It's my earning of prestige, and paying of the rent that keeps the base going, and there was one other time that the founder decided he didn't like the base layout and sold everything to start from scratch again, which meant I couldn't use the base portals to hop between zones for like two months until he eventually got around to adding them back in. I almost quit the group because of that.

OK, while playing this weekend, my fingers hit some weird combination of keys at the bottom left corner of the key board, as well as possibly a mouse button, and two small menus with emotes listed on them popped up near my chat window. I don't recall what I was trying to do at the time, and I have no idea what combination of keys I hit, but does anyone know how to do this on purpose?

And a side question: the costume change emotes don't work if you are a weapon user and you have your weapon drawn, correct?

I was on a TF over the weekend that seemed doomed to failure. I won't mention which one, or what night, but the folks who were on it would recognize it. Unless this happens a lot, in which case some of you may think, "Wait, is that the one I was on?"

Anyway, we start the TF off with 6 folks. Things go great until we're about thirty seconds into the first mission at which point one of the players literally starts yelling "WHY AM I GETTING NO EXPERIENCE?"

The leader explains the exemplaring thing, and the player yells, "WOULD'VE BEEN NICE TO TELL ME!" and quits as the leader is typing, "It was in my invite message." One of the remaining 5 players is romantically attached to the departed player but decides to stay anyway.

We roll through several more missions and things are going incredibly well. Then, a little over halfway through, the romantically attached player announces, "Sorry gang, I gotta go. Personal reasons." I think someone got yelled at for staying with us. So now we're down to four and wondering if we're still going to be able to take the AV at the end. We decide to slog on and do our best. And we do - we're still steam-rolling things with only 4 players.

Right before the next to last mission, the leader announces, "Guys, there's a medical emergency here, I need to take my wife to the ER." Yikes. After the leader leaves, I suggest we just log out and select another time to finish later so that he can still get credit towards the TF Commander badge.

One of the other two remaining players needs his toon for something else later though, so we decide that rather than just give up, we'll try to finish, even if we do get our butts kicked. The three of us get to the last mission, find the AV and proceed to...

...mop the floor with him! I frankly was stunned. The controller/defender (sorry I forgot which he was) kept spamming transfusion to keep my scrapper near full health while I wailed on the AV and he and the other player kept the minions busy. It was never even close.

So that was my experience with a near disasterous, or what appeared to be a hopeless TF, but obviously I still have a lot to learn since it wasn't even close to being a disaster, or hopeless.

OK, I work most weekday mornings, so I don't know how long server maintenance usually lasts, but I thought for sure they'd be back up by 10 AM ET.

I'm not going to quit the game over this, but I will declare that it sucks. I guess I might as well go mow the stupid lawn now. Thanks for making me go outside on a sunny day NCSoft! *shakes fist*

OK, thanks. I'm hopeful too.

Tommorrow, May 25, is a US holiday - does anyone know if the regular server maintenance still happens on holidays, or does it get postponed until the next day, like my garbage pick up?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My thoughts are around what game to play now.

[/ QUOTE ]
I hear Progress Quest is pretty fun. See ya!


[/ QUOTE ]

You (and others like you) can keep using those same silly responses whenever someone posts something like this, but that does not change the fact that there is a not insignificant number of players that are being driven in this direction. They may not have made the actual decision yet to "jump ship", but that doesn't change the fact that some folks are actively looking for a replacement, or at least considering the possibility.

Anyone who thinks they are all the "OMG! Teh evil devs nerfed mah Rikti farmz!" players is being naive.

[/ QUOTE ]

It also doesn't change the fact that a lot of people are posting knee-jerk, overreactions to this similar to the one I posted earlier in the week when I said that my perception of one player greifing me on a badge mission would prevent me from ever inviting others to a badge mission team again. It won't, but that's how I felt at that moment, and I later realized it was silly, as I assume some players will realize their posts about quitting the game over the removal of some meaningless badges that didn't exist six weeks ago are.

[ QUOTE ]
Soo, any plans to fix that?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. And since you complained about it they are going to take those powers out of the game with I15.













I kid, I kid! I never noticed the mixup myself - I usually just throw them both on the same NPC and then wait for them to recharge when someone on my team goes, "Ooooo, sparkly!" *Smash* *Blast* *Slash* "Aw, sparkly all gone."

You're asking for opinions from an obviously very passionate player base about what is normally a touchy subject, but currently a ticking time-bomb of angry, so I hope you don't expect any sort of reasonable consensus on this issue. I learned this lesson brutally last summer when I made what I thought was an innocent suggestion that NCSoft give out a nonsense badge to anyone who stopped by their booth at San Diego Comic Con. Hoo-boy, was that the wrong suggestion to make!

That said, I am what I would term a "casual" badger. I have two toons - one of each faction - for which I try to get as many badges as I reasonably can. I know my fire/mind dom will never get Empath, and I have no interest in farming for some of the epic badges. But I'm only one person with one viewpoint, which is, "No, I don't think everyone has to have everything."

I learned this lesson years ago when I used to collect Star Wars toys. At one time I was a "completist." I need to have one of every figure; actually I had to have two of every figure - one open and one "mint on card." This mindset caused me to run to Target and WalMart and TRU and who knows where else several times per week lookig for new toys.

At first it was kind of fun - finding a new figure was like a little victory. But then more and more product was released, and in weirder and weirder assortments, and what was once fun slowly became work. And not only was it work, it was expensive. There finally came a point where I decided enough was enough - I couldn't keep shelling out money on crap I didn't need and I couldn't keep stressing myself out because I couldn't find the latest version of Darth Vader that was packed one to a case.

I abandoned my completist mindset and changed my collecting focus to only getting what I liked. Suddenly, collecting was fun again. And not only that, I suddenly was able to pay off my credit cards and spend money on other fun stuff, like going on vacation.

So that's my story, and why I'm very wary about having a completist mindset about anything. I like flying around and shooting fireballs at stuff in this game, and if I get a badge or three along the way, that's cool. Or even if I get three quarters of the way to a badge and have to spend 15-20 minutes hunting down another 25 Hordlings for the Cold Blooded badge, that's cool to me too. But to continually reset and rerun the same mission 12 times in a row to get the XYZ badge or to sit in front of a red crystal to get a damage badge, or to buy 10,000 pieces of salvage and spend hours converting them to temp powers and deleting the temp powers to get the Fabricator badge? No thanks, that's not fun to me, and I don't need it that badly.

I hope it's OK to post that I had a positive CS experience.

The name I ended up getting Anna-Phylactic was rejected yesterday along with Annie Phylactic and AnaphyIactic for the aforementioned unfathomable rule violation. I wrote back to CS and politely asked if they could explain what rule those names violated. I also explained that I thought word play based on the medical term anaphylactic shock seemed like a good choice for a bee-themed character with electrical powers.

I got a very nice response back over night saying that there was some misunderstanding or misinterpretation on the GM's part and that all three names were fine. Now this isn't nearly the same as having a character wrongly deleted, or an account wrongly suspended/banned, but it does go to show that mistakes happen and that patience (something that is not typically my strong suit) and politeness are often all that is required to clear up those mistakes.

I'd really like to get rid of that hyphen though, so if anyone reading this has Anna Phylactic or Anaphylactic on Virtue and isn't using it...

Before I answer this question I need to know, did you sleep with the AE's sister? Kick its dog? Steal its parking space? Spoil the ending of "The Crying Game" for it?

If the answer to all of these questions is no, then it's probably that Dev's Choice thing everyone else mentioned. Otherwise, I don't know...

I think you should all cut the OP some slack. This game is old, and not only that, look how many people have already played it!

Very sweet.






Can you PL me?

Well I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have gotten Bee Itch through given that they rejected three far more innocent names I suggested based on them violating some rule that I cannot fathom.

I'm hesitant to mention what the three names are because I have tried to appeal the rejection (not sure if you're allowed to do that). All three are currently available and I'd hate for someone to see this thread and grab them before I found out whether I was able to change the GM's mind.

[ QUOTE ]
Heh, blame the cold medicine on this one: Have you tried the name "Bee Itch" >.< cos beestings hurt, and you're allergic they itch...

[/ QUOTE ]

I so wish I had made that name my first choice last night. I doubt they would've let me have it, but if they had, I wouldn't have to worry about losing it, or getting in trouble for it. That said, no, I don't know if it's even available.

Based on the fact that you aren't allowed to just rename the character yourself when it gets generic'ed, I thought there might be some restriction on renaming that character again after the GM does it.

Not that I'm going to risk further punative action, but I checked last night and Bee-yotch is once again available, when it seems like it should have been blocked.

This would certainly be nice, but I doubt it will happen for some reason I can't think of.

I have a few characters that outleveled these missions before I knew they existed, or that there were badges in them needed for an accolade. You'd think finding someone with the AP mayhem mission on Virtue would be like shooting fish in a barrel, but apparently no one ever runs those missions because my lvl 44 dom broadcasts requests for it at least once a week and never gets any response. And I never see broadcasts for mayhem teams redside like I do for bank teams blueside; although that could be because mayhems are much easier if you don't have a bunch of other players who don't know what they're doing.

[ QUOTE ]
Well previous posts seemed to indicate that she/you wouldn't be able to re-up your sub. Glad to see you are still here. When shall the next contest be held?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I figured, but she posted this on the 14th...

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So it's Thursday. Will there be a CC tonight, or were you able to renew your account, in which case it will take place on Sunday?

[/ QUOTE ]
We'll be doing it on Sunday. A friend of mine got me a time card. I haven't decided on a time yet, but maybe 10:00 CST would do unless someone has a suggestion.

[/ QUOTE ]

One thing I hadn't noticed mentioned is if you're running around outdoors in the city (Steel Canyon, or Skyway City for example), there are different level foes in different parts of the city. Look at your map and you will see areas bordered in yellow, orange and red. These are the low, medium and high level areas of the zone.

If you keep running into foes that have red or orange names, check the map and run to a lower level area if need be. Most contacts send you to talk to the Steel Canyon Security Chief at some point early in your career and when you do he makes you take out 10 Outcasts. I used to dread that because the Outcasts near him are typically a couple of levels higher than you are when you get the mission, and if you try to fight them alone they make Swiss cheese out of you. As soon as I figured out that there are lower level Outcasts down by the Yellow Line station and Wentworths, that mission became much less dreadful.

Other than that, yes, pulling is a good tactic. Just make sure you try to pull from the fringe, and try to pull a minion rather than a lieutenant. Elec/Elec is a really fun set, but the fact that so many of the cool and/or damaging powers - Short Circuit, Charged Brawl, and Havoc Punch - are melee range makes it a little trickier and riskier to play solo than say fire/fire IMO.

As for creativity, I don't see anything inherently uncreative about playing elec/elec if you have a character that fits the concept. I think it's less creative to play a certain powerset combo just because it's FotM or because it's "more uber" than other powerset combos. For example, Psi/Mental blasters are notoriously hampered by psi-resistant foes in the higher levels, but I'm not going to make my psionic concept character able to create swords out of ice just because it'll be easier to play them that way.

[ QUOTE ]
He wants to know if, say, a month from now, he can buy a rename and rename her "SuperBee" or some such, or if he'd be stuck with "Ex Generic Character."

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, this.

I got my first character generic'ed recently - not because she was a copywrite/trademark violation, but because her name was a pun basedon a swear word. Honestly, I figured it would happen if I got reported, but I didn't mean it to be malicious or anything, so I rolled the dice.

I lost. I logged in last night to find the insect-themed villainess formerly known as Bee-yotch was now GenericXXX239blahblahblah. I know I need to e-mail customer service with replacement name suggestions and they will pick one and rename her. My question is, am I then forever locked into that name? If I have them rename her Bee Lass for example and later discover Lady Sting (or any better name than Bee Lass) is available, can I purchase a rename token for her, or are formerly generic'ed toons new names unchangeable by the player?

I kinda hope it continues to be a marginal utility because that was one of the compliments I got on the first mission of my arc that contains a betrayal - no one expects it because they haven't really seen it much before, so it ends up being a, "Whoa, WTH? Cool!" moment.

Why is she likely gone?

Just make sure you pick the right option. I can't remember what they are called exactly, but it's like "rescue" and "escort." One follows you to the door (escort, I think) and the other just runs away when you free them.

Also, on the escort, you can set them to different modes - passive, defensive, aggressive and one other I think. In passive mode, they won't attack you even if they are set to betray you and you attack them. In defensive they'll only attack after you attack them, and in aggressive they'll attack you a few seconds after you get to the door, even with no provocation. Of course which of these setting you choose wiill also determine how they will act to any enemies you encounter on the way to door - attack, defend themselves, or just stand there and take it.