Astarae

Yes it would. Because it is what many people need. Bis gear, smish gear. I don't care, I don't want to keep falling further and further behind. You are welcome to use your alternate gear you are such a fan of, but don't put your trips on others, cuz i for one don't like it. Your reasoning is pathological. Your reasons don't apply to other people so stop acting like they do.

I had the same thoughts....a <20% shot at turning 8 low gems into 1 purple, and just as low or lower for purple -> orange....again, I am starting to accumulate gems in storage now, cuz it's not worth using them -- they just disappear. And, BTW, someone though you had a chance to get purples when you bought blue's. Nep. Never once. In a trove -- where they say blue, yes -- there is a chance, but when you buy blue, you get blue.

This game comes from an eastern game vendor. Eastern societies are more about conforming and eliminating individuality so large numbers of them can get along in small spaces (or so it seems). You aren't the first to bring up the issues you've brought up and probably won't be the last. This game is very poorly documented, but what can they do with them coming out with new systems every 4-6 months? Software engineers hate documenting and on top of that it would have to go into korean, and be translated to a local language. There is an option for an online help in the game -- it's in the key-options but it does nothing. But they are pushing players to spend more, *right now*, because if they may have to scale back their operations even more quickly, but they are ignoring the successes in the gambling industry, where payouts are over 90% on many slots -- which is also where casinos get over 90% of their revenue these days. If they were to pay out at <1%, their customers would quit in droves. They maximize their profits by engaging the customer to play longer -- even if it is at less profit/hour because they retain customers they can have some of them for life. I mentioned this in the last trove -- if they increase payouts of desired items, people will spend more. In this trove you get 2x50 tix for about 112NC Coin or about $140. While in previous troves, you'd get 3x100 tix with wider variety, but lower payout. Still, the payout on the current event sucks. you just don't get much. Like this time, I've gotten maybe 2HM points, but last time, was able to get 1-5pt tick for alot less -- and still nothing in this trove is that useful to me and certainly not a good deal. As for the gems -- I asked if they could change the design and look of the non-upgradeable vs. temp jewels, I was told by some sadistic players that it was my fault for not thoroughly studying them and reading fine print that was as clear as the eyes and nose on an ant. Also, I was under the impression as I made a soirée through the guilds that I could only make defense and not offense. I could try to sell them, (unlike HMgems), but I didn't think they were a great deal. For a while I sometimes wore a defense diamond on SSP to help with its need for more defense, but that diamond is in my closet now, as I had to take a break from the game (game wouldn't start) for a bit over 2 months -- when I came back both the pvp and pve gear had been upped and there was no way I could afford the new pvp gear and its not clear how long it will take to get pve gear at tt level, let alone at the next level. For a while, I was making progress, but recently getting TT has been another wall in both access and much higher costs. And already ET gear is out. It's looking pretty much that unless you are willing to spend alot of money, you are going to fall behind and NC soft is shutting down older areas to keep people from spending time there where the costs were not as high (both veridian coast line and cinderlands had all their blue quests removed. a real shame, as there was some real amusing dialogue and options there. Wonder how long it will be before moonwater and more are thinned? I don't know why they don't give better rewards, as the levels at which they are giving -- aren't reinforcing and have been shown to be harmful to customer retention.

So what's the point of getting the various skill related accomplishments now -- just the points, which don't seem to add alot, because they are too few for too many skills. I.e. there used to be extra skill addons/unlocks for having those accomplishments, but now its only the semi-anemic points? Also on GS, the current setup feels very very weak -- a stationary burst every minute or so, and hope you don't get a knock that wipes most of the time. Gunners should get improved defenses against attacks (because they are supposed to be a distance class and would be in almost any other reality) or better recovery (shorter cd)-blocking skills. How would a gunner fair in battle against KFM, assassins, BM's or any of the classes w/ability to close in 1 move and suspend all your options while they enjoy a long attack in pvp or pve. I'm 99.9% pve, mostly because I don't have a chance in any pvp setup -- but its insane on a gunner to block normal benefits of the class while the other classes get *long*/unbreakable/uninterruptible OP attacks. If you want to equalize that, then anyone caught in a Bullet Storm would have to be frozen for at least 50-75% of the duration and that's not the case, at all, but the gunner is rooted as effectively as being pinned by an attacker's melee attack. Something that seems to be problematic now, is that when you did BS, you got bonuses to all fire damage, now...with mystic, I don't see any benefit or effect from Firefall during BS which seems like another cut even though overall DPS is up (but true for everyone).

So why not make the Prophecy Neck 8-9 dragon tokens w/ability to use event tokens for its upgrade -- same for gloves. Certainly would make the game more interesting. If they want to help people level up their gear for later dungeons, why not include current content (including use for TT gear). More than once I've seen people requiring celestial gear for some group or another.

Perhaps he meant absurd in the lack of a 30 day option as well? Along the lines of attracting new users, could have option to generate a 30-day-membership gift cert that could only be used by someone not already on a paid membership. Of note: it could still be used by such a person if they tried to use it after letting their current membership expire. Given other options below, I'd favor purchases of such certs as generally, being non-refundable. The cert could be issued as an in-game certificate that would be tradeable (or sellable -- why not? -- how many times have you seen someone who wants to buy a membership, 'in-game', for gold or trade?) OR The cert could be sent to the buyer's account where they can "retrieve it" by applying an expiration date (up to 30 days in future), and having a unique "serial number" issued that they can give to someone else who can apply it to another account. If it isn't used by the expiration date, it would be reverted: added back to the original buyer's account within 7 business days -- allowing for recovery of lost+unused serial numbers. I'd think that would allow for all the purposes the original poster wanted, as well as possibly attracting new paid members and protecting against fraud.

First, would be to allow training in the dungeon rooms as one would be in going up against the various bosses. First thing on that would be to enable Simple or Auto mode in the training room so one can work with it as one would use it in the dungeon. This is about finding the best options for your equipment and your character -- where to put HM points as well as skill points, and to see which combinations w/your skills fair best. Associated with that would be options to start with a buff as though you were in a group with a Wl/Wd, so one can see the effect of such a buff and train accordingly. Another option -- a Dragon Blood field generator -- that can allow you to sustain damage, but will always revive you and reset your and the boss's hits. Second -- add the new bosses so we can train against them before going against them in a party. For example, was in one of the newer dungeons where the boss gets block-able buffs shot at him, but likes to knock you down about 2s (?) before you would block it. That creates a condition where you need to recover quickly enough or block the KD. I.e. the block isn't always immediately trivial and it would be valuable to be able to practice such situations before dealing with them in a group -- because face it, how many people really want to be in a group -- AT ALL -- if they are likely to end up killing everyone. You want to have some confidence (or at least I do) before inflicting myself on a group of other people. If it is a boss that has some repeatable reaction move that would normally be handled by multiple party members, then in the practice round pare that down to 1-needed block / round/boss. The training room could have an enhanced intense training session by having 2 of those needed blocks/round *possibly* (or not), with added time for 1 person to move between multiple block points. I'd consider adding ability to select same options in training rounds as you can use in the dungeon, essential to the continued usefulness of the training room. Also, just being able to practice against high level bosses, also seems vital to build confidence and technique to handle the new bosses -- OR ALTERNATIVELY... (after some thought, I think this a better option with it likely being easier to implement): Add an "immortal mode" for practice doing new dungeons where you don't take enemy damage, aren't affected by 'auto-deaths' (maybe, only told about them) and no death or reset from a timer-expire. There would be no benefits (loot or accomplishments) for doing a dungeon on that mode, with it being a dungeon mode you can set before entry like hard vs. normal. If there is enough demand, that mode could be blocked on a dungeon for the first month after its release. This might not only be easier to implement, but also considerably, more useful, as it allows one to learn difficult path traversals without slowing down a group. I.e - it took me several attempts to get some wall walks or flying parts in places like Naryu Sanctum, Hollow's Heart, and Ransacked Treasury. By RT time, I learned I could escape after the boss-fight and re-traverse the dungeon path to redo the troublesome areas but that still requires going w/a group to get past the boss battle which can defeat the purpose of wanting to get things "down" before going in a group. Making that (and a few other group situations) easier, would be reducing the escape "cool down" to 5 minutes. The only times I've needed that are outside group battle: aborting a battle caused by being to close to a boss, then needing to create a portal for a late-joining or slow party member (which couldn't be done by me one time because both of those occurred in the same run) or to get out of some circumstance where I was stuck and couldn't wind-walk (either char wouldn't go out of battle mode or game didn't think I was on a flat spot).

How are you seeing that as a gon? looks like a yun w/that face and style;...oh...maybe that's a sword-on-back? Hmmm...i'd be more easily convinced yuns could be destro's at some time in the past than the above looking like a gon. What about the "Nameless"of Yunma Feh -- they had on black outfit w/big zippers, unzipped down-over cleavage. The first one introduced and that first squad had that black leather one with big zippers, I'm not prepared to believe they were all gons. Even if above is a gon, why not the same outfit for a yun? I don't consider the above to be tacky, though I would have had the zippers closer up top and got rid of the triangle top. Same going for some outfits on jin -- where they are wearing the same outfit, but don't have tacky looking fishnets or hosiery. Several of the outfits on yuns look more cheesy w/fishnets, though perhaps they don't have the same showgirl-on-stage feel that I more often associate them with. I'm not sure where yuns get this chaste or prim reputation from creatures bound with trees, certain creature faeries like sylphs and mermaids were oft pictured using their visual charms in their dealings w/humans. Among elves and humans living in the forest, they were often unseen or camouflaged in the woods with bows and swords until they revealed themselves, but I've never seen them covered like nuns. It's hard to see creatures of the forest being afflicted with body-shame.

I guess I would find that surprising given that all other gems have been account bound for a while. Certainly violates the "least astonishment" principle. I see no practical reason why they should be any different -- they are in class 'gems' so it shouldn't be difficult to extend that functionality to anything in class gems -- who knows maybe then it could be ported back to other, equally deficient versions of the game in other locales.

This shows an example, sorta of what I'm taking about. Character on right posing in "Pioneer", vs. character on left in similar or same outfit, but with a sexier front line. So why not pioneer with the unzipped front?

So if something has a 50% drop rate, what would it say for frequency? They only other choice there is "sure thing". I find it hard to believe that EVERYTHING is ether a sure thing or <1%. That would be monumentally broken IMO.

If they only reason to do ToM is to do the daily event quest, then shouldn't you automatically get the daily quest credit if you do that dungeon -- since you can't repeat it -- then if it is locked, it seems it would be clear that you should have gotten the DQ credit. You say there's no reason to remove the lockout because doing it only for the XP+Fortune Potions would be too inconsequential of an award for anyone to repeat it. If that's they case, then why not let it be repeated? Either dungeon lockouts shouldn't apply unless you've also gotten the associated quest (because the non-quest treasure isn't worth it), OR if someone does a dungeon with a lockout -- then automatically mark the daily/weekly quest associated with that dungeon done as well. It would make sense that way. As it is people would get some "semi-worthless" treasure (if that's true, don't know how much the non-quest treasure is worth), but be locked out of doing any daily (or weekly) quest associated with that dungeon. So if they clear, just clear the associated quest along with adding a block for repeating it too soon, otherwise it seems fairly obvious that players that forget to take a quest when doing a lockable-dungeon or raid, are being deliberately prevented from completing the daily and/or weekly quest associated with such a run. With several alternate choices for completing a run its not as bad now as it was when you had no alternate (weekly) quests, which would lock you out of being able to get weekly awards. However, I don't see why the quest and doing of the 'run' aren't tied together for locking-runs. It would just make sense.

Isn't that a drop box from before the patch? Then they got marked "expired" when the patch came out so they are marked as coming before the evo-stone drop rate was changed. I'm just guessing, but they only wanted to change the evo rate for new drops, not everyone's stock of old drops they hadn't opened yet. I opened mine and got some random selection of what was pictured, so I'm guessing the 'expired' label is meant to indicate old vs. new boxes. Wouldn't that make sense? Just noticed -- are you saying that the weekend boxes from this weekend are dropping expired boxes? I had a mix of expired and non-expired, but mine were from last weekend and this week (but not the weekend). I just assumed the expired ones were the older ones. Weird...

As for our version vs. Korean, I'm going by what others have said. But vs. artwork and other versions of same outfit -- going by what I have seen. One simple example with the unnamed spies of the girl who became the ruler after her father -- who told Jyansei to contact them when she got to Desari -- they had a black outfit w/large zipper in front that was unzipped down to show cleavage in front. There are a few outfits like, I think Midnight Action hero that look the same, but are zipped up to a high collar. There are 2 variants on this seen in a transition artwork screen, one with an almost pendant like zipper tab and another also showing it unzipped a ways down in front, yet the version(s) / variants for PC's are more conservative. Many times an outfit for Yun is seen on Gon's or Jin where they put fishnet stockings on the Yun and let on the less-leggy Gon and/or jin. Yun, usually are the most 'leggy' but more often have their legs obscured behind stockings or plastic-wrap. While the plastic wrap / plastic/shiny often looks "ok", a version with leg instead of plastic-shine might look better, since having worn some outfits with that plastic-like sheen, I can't help but look at them and think how uncomfortable they are. As for reskins, I only know about 5 for Yuns in costumes I have and they aren't for costumes I normally wear much. By 'five', I'm limiting it to ones where there isn't explicit nudity but ones with deeper cuts or more skin showing. Out of 100's thats a pretty low level.

Um what accessories can I use these on? Near as I can tell only if I have story-gear, but as someone who's spent over 1.5 years developing/upgrading my chars, I'm stuck for another several months until I can upgrade celestial. Only took me a year to get the first of those accessories only to find upgrade events don't apply. Lame.

Why is it bad when too much stuff comes out? On this one I'm getting too little useful stuff for too much money. Result => stop-that, it hurts. On last trove -- they put in higher than normal rewards, price same as before. Result => I spend more at that trove than at any previous one by 2-3X. They want to make money -- making the rewards large enough so that you want to get more boxes is the way. But with the price and rewards as low as they are -- what's the point? Worse, I can't use any of the upgrade tokens on either of my two characters I play because they don't work with celestial. That makes them more worthless for me than normal. The only good thing are the moons -- you can use to buy things -- but even there -- its way too much money spent for what I'm getting. I still want to see Bloodlust + it's accessories in the loot box. Let me buy something I want to buy...they other stuff...I'll get one cleopatra, but the BL+accessories, I'd get at least 2 maybe more (and that's assuming they are account bound!) Yeah, I do have 2 sets of jewels on my guns, cuz I don't wanna be spending a bunch of time shuffling things around. It's really a shame there's no solo option in the new dungeons (and I don't mean solo like in the mao dungeon where I can't get past the first boss). I tried to get my clan to just go and to check it out -- not that I expected get through it or not...but just wanted to poke around -- and the bastards kicked me. They were too afraid to even try the new dungeon cuz they didn't have a mech-guide. So pathetic. No wonder of exploring, no option to find out how to solve a puzzle -- just wait for someone else to give you a new video to memorize. Too bad, I suck at rote memorization, and too bad that's the only dynamic offered.

One thing that helps...in the options there's an option to change the FPS when the game is in background -- and it helps lower the load on cpu+gpu. One thing that I think happens, in situations like you re mentioning -- when you windwalk somewhere and then put the game in background, it will drop to the background FPS (I have mine set at 4-5 -- whatever lowest is), but when the game is finished getting you to your new location, I think sometimes when the screen refreshes with the new scene, it "forgets" it is in background and spins back up to the foreground FPS level. Hard to say but that's what it seems to do *sometimes*.

That may be true in order for NCSoft to get a specific rating and I know nothing about ratings in the EU, but who would be requiring NCSoft to tone down amount of skin -- and please note, I'm not talking about full frontal nudity, though I wouldn't strongly object to that, I probably wouldn't find it exactly appealing -- I mean what's the point of all the outfits if there's no outfit. However, in some shots of women in 'jumpers', the top's will have a split to the belly button but be fully covering of nipples and show nothing more than cleavage. I've heard and seen outfits in videos and the artwork with a cut all the way to the waist or belly button, but the the US version shows up with it closed or zipped all the way to the top. What's up with that? The long split is clearly more sexy, but in no way would it exceed a PG rating and certainly not the 'R' rating that mature theoretically corresponds to. But certainly, KOR textures could be available for download and I wouldn't think compatibility would be an issue. Sure, NCx might have to comply with country codes, but if users download it from a site in another country and the loader or the game has an option to "look-aside" in a user's personal folder before looking in the localization folder and stock-game folder. But what irks me is gratuitous censoring of things that are sexy, but not showing anything explicit. That's the thing that bothers me the most -- like I can't even handle seeing a bare belly button as though it was some demented return to the early ears of "I Dream of Jeannie" where they had to be careful in earlier season to avoid showing a bare belly button. Still maybe the best solution might be making original textures available for D/l and installation?

I've been told that many korean costumes are excised or "cleaned up" for the delicate western market. Tell me this is rare to non-existent, cuz so many of the costumes ARE so tame -- many are beautiful, but I've seen all-textured options for a couple of costumers that weren't nudes, but might be NSFW. Something I've see in very few games is having some outfits have 'Alt-Textures'. If you want more risqué options, you could choose to see them on your account. But for example, lets say we have costume ratings like PG -- stuff you see at the mall, Sexy -- stuff you see at night clubs or fashion shows, and stuff that would earn a Mature rating. If person A goes for PG, B for sexy, and C for Mature -- then anytime a person in 'C' group sees teh costume it would be the sexy-variant -- on them and others, i.e. their 'world' looks sexier. but at opposite end of scale, a PG person would see the PG variant on themselves and others -- a PG world. But that way everyone could see the level of world they were comfortable with. That's alot to addin to deal with something like that -- and mostly I'd just want to ensure that we aren't getting an edited down version. Indeed, Funmation (et al.) had to go through a long learning cycle. They found many americans stayed away from funmation redone anime's because they were censored and people preferred the the uncensored versions. It took over a decade, but eventually they started releasing anime's with uncensored, uncut video and audio. And many times it makes little difference, but sometimes, a cut version would ruin a show, take it from an interesting show with a message, to something boring. I've seen some companies do this to "topic" (content) as well. I remember a movie maybe back in the 90's that maybe got a 'PG' rating in france about a boy growing up thinking he was a girl and the problems that caused. In the US, even though there was no nudity or bad language, it got rated 'XXX' in some southern states that prohibit it being shown in normal theaters and rated 'NC-17' which prevent distribution in all major video carrying companies. All that based *solely* on content and topic. It was an 'artsy' movie done with surreal cuts to the boy's thoughts of himself as some type of magical girl -- but very innocent and non-sexual (even if it was a a surreal topic as well. Things like that are just so annoying! Anime, conversely (and often) excels in dealing with sensitive issues in a variety of ways: humor, bleeding noses, sensitivity, and over-the-top fan-service (Queen's Blade and High School DxD). Sure those weren't like to win any awards, (though the first season of QB was groundbreaking!) and sure some drag things out long past anyone's interest (ok, I'm sure there are still tweeners and early teens that might be), but some treat topics that would be forbidden in the west with sensitivity and compassion. Of course it does show which guys have matured and which are still hung up on oversized mammary glands embedded in fat (though most would have to be synthetic). I really don't want to see anime become "westernized" as I think that would also involve it being sterilized. Ick. It's usually only a few loud verbal and rude types that want to control things for everyone one else, so please don't censor away korean fashion and sensibilities. Part of coming to this game it to be exposed to different cultural values and art -- you lose that, and what's the point? -Astara

The problem is you keep giving everyone contrary opinions, but don't seem to know that peaches != evolved stones, and most people seem to hang out down around the beast bog south of SSP where evo-stones claim they can be found. You still haven't read that reference on logical fallacies, have you? Argumentum ad ignorantiam (argument to ignorance). Assuming that there is no issue with the current time without proving it to be the case, then using such a circumstance as a reason to keep the current time. Argumentum ad antiquitatem (argument to tradition). Because it has been done that way in the past, or it appears to have been done that way in the past says nothing about how valuable the practice is today. However, there are various utilities that allow you to monitor what processes are in memory and to kill processes that are not exiting promptly. For example, I used to regularly run Process Hacker to monitor what was going on in my system -- and would notice quickly if there were unexpected events happening on my system. If necessary, I could take action to correct the problem. Sometimes your character hangs around in the virtual world where other people can kill you, or pick you up and run somewhere else with you. To prevent that, it's a good idea to kill off the game client if it doesn't exit promptly. However, XIGNCODE labels programs to detect problems in the game as "malicious" and will kill the game if you try to monitor your system looking for problems. Because tools designed to look for problems are disallowed, I'm told that BnS Buddy will tell you if the game client doesn't end and will give you the option to terminate it. Really? So HM, CS and Midnight SSP are no harder now than a year ago? How often do you play the game? To be fair, some dungeons that were harder have been made easier. Difficulties change. Hard to avoid that. "Argument to ignorance". You haven't proven that anyone who is not accepted can form their own party. Moreover, the opposite is more likely true. Second, how is this NOT a game issue? It happens in the game due to the design of the game, compounded by people's ignorance. But, *for example*, if the game rewarded parties that included lower level players, you can bet this behavior would change, making it completely a "game issue". It's not a matter of people being forced to accept someone they don't want -- though even that isn't true -- go in and hit LFP, you will take people like them or not. And when someone goes AFK in the dungeon -- I can't dismiss them from the party. The party would need to be destroyed and a new one reformed -- if that isn't pressure to keep unwanted leaches, I don't know what is. As for buffs for lower level chars -- perhaps they were talking about buffs beyond the buff given to everyone. A simple solution: a potion only good for those with HM level or AP below some amount. Trivial to implement and an easy way to apply boost where it is needed. Um...automatically adding something like the red-portals that are added when someone wipes, except add them if someone's entry is delayed. Alternatively the leader might have the ability to transport people far in the back to be up with the party. In addition to that, though, if someone is hanging back and refusing to get with the party, or, better, if the party has started battle and it detects that a client's keyboard is "idle", it could move that person out of the dungeon "for their protection" and so they won't have the problem of the dungeon ending up in a partially completed state. They can fix their problem and come back with a different group. I saw a great example of the attitude of many in BnS and a fair number of baby-boomers: "It is not enough that I should succeed - others should fail." And someone else stated this "What's the fun in winning if there is no loser?" Too many feel that way and I hope they find their loser within themselves. Meanwhile I hope the upcoming trove has the option to get DST tokens. People get unhappy when they realize they have no chance of getting that which central to this game while seeing prices skyrocket at the same time. Meant to post this a few days ago, but stuff came up, so here it is...

When did this start? Lately been having people join my group then hang around near the dungeon entrance -- never moving. Or, in some cases, only move into a boss area after the rest of the group has cleared it. In the first case, thought it might be some problem, but when they move into an area after the rest of the group -- and I ask them why they didn't fight -- and they don't answer, it gets pretty clear that they are just trying to leech off the group. In one case, they hung back, then bid on all the items in the final treasure even though they didn't contribute any damage! So why can't the leader kick people who aren't moving? I thought they used to be able to do so, no? Especially when rest of party is bidding for loot, those who are AFK slow down the bid until it times out. Can this be fixed?

I understand that they can spend recreation time, playing a game in order to earn 'credits' towards purchasing some end-game type item. However, it is clear that some people who get high-level items do so through doing what they would likely *want* to do anyway as a form of recreation or play -- not saying everyone, but if they were not interested in spending 18/7 (allowing 6 hours for sleep & food ;-)) online or in the game, they likely would not be among the elite who can do the end level dungeons. So they are being rewarded for doing something they would likely do anyway. If you want to talk about number of hours spent in game, recently, I think my game client scolded me for not having taken a break in 34 hours. Since I stay at home most of the time, gaming, programming and reading are things I do alot of. Speaking conservatively, I would say I spent something on the order of at least 50 hours a week, though I wouldn't be surprised if that total frequently went over 70. The first clan that was doing any raids didn't have any room in their "1" vt raid/week. When 'tt' came out, I convinced the clan leader that we should do a progressive to learn that dungeon. However, progressively he kept upping the requirements for that raid until when it came around, he shelved his remaining requirements (equipment, DPS) and was convinced by his vt raid group to only take experienced players into 'tt' and that he shouldn't consider me because I didn' t have all the mechs from current dungeons and VT memorized and had never even done VT. I was pretty sure I could deal with it if I started in at the same level, but they came up with bogus reasons on how I hadn't "paid my dues" by mastering all the lower level dungeons. Result was 9-10/12 of the players in the TT raid were same players as were in the VT raid. He claimed that I hadn't been the one to convince him to do TT and deleted material from the discord that would have shown otherwise. He also claimed I wasn't going on runs with the other clan members -- the ones leading runs were mostly the ones in the vt-raid trying to reserve the tt-run as well. A few at first, but later most of that group had put me on ignore in the game, so they wouldn't see my requests to join parties they made, and even putting myself right in front of them, they'd just go around me and later claim the never saw me or saw my applying. I had screen shots of the planning talks of the tt group and him saying it would be a progressive -- with him later adding increasing requirements that I passed until the final week when I and some favorite girl were among the lowest rank for the DPS requirements, but with a trove in the last week and various people getting new badges, he canceled any competitions and announced who would be going. He ignored the fact that requiring a balanced group of high level players was completely at odds with it being a progressive, teaching raid and ignored that another main purpose was to open up raiding spots in the clan allow other members of the 70-person clan a shot at raid experience.raid training. Instead, his high school buds reserved that time-slot as well and I was shown the door for having created "drama". In spring of last year. I've run into other perplexing and confounding situations in other clans from ego maniacs to many who didn't like answering questions and told me to go find out myself -- exactly those things that others said I should learn from my clan. Normally I'd read game documentation or in almost every game I've played, a game-guide -- sometimes with me having to buy a second or third guide as the first became too dogeared and torn from usage, but this game doesn't have such and if it did it would be out of date w/in less than a year. If the raid content were doable solo, I might have a chance, though I don't have the coordination to really handle hong or M'ao. So I don't see the game as providing enough options for non-elites who who really just wanted to have fun. I see so many newer players walking because of the games hostility toward new users and lower level players, and rather than walking, I'm trying to find, at least, what I need to progress, but after the emotional battering i've gotten from various clans, I'm really not feeling good about the clan system. And now, after this merger -- faction chat has become a toxic cesspool that I have to keep off for long periods, but I can't believe how much people substitute bad behavior and swearing for any sort of rational discussion. I wouldn't be heavily in favor of those either, BUT having spent most of my life in the past 18 months in this game, yet getting more and more resistance and toxic people pushing back that I'm getting more upset. One gamer friend I see regularly and others I've met online see things as getting more toxic -- competitive back-stabbing. Well, I do pay the premiums and have spent more on this game than any other game in my life. I could easily fund a car payment or two with the money I spend in this game -- and I would like to see it better rewarded, which is why I'm pushing for more things lightening up. Not really. just the largest segment of toxic players in their earlier 20's and late teens. I have no problem with others being able to get things -- like I see someone wanting the Cutting Edge costume int he shop -- a costume I have, and my reaction is yeah, why not, its a cool costume and more people who want it should be able to get it. I don't need or want to be on top of others to be happy, but I don't want to feel like baggage or deadweight -- especially because if I don't, at least, have good equipment I'll get kicked or not be able to handle dungeons. I'm high enough now to do all by the highest dungeons in F8 and usually no matter if on my gunner or FM, I have to recruit for the mid-daily-challenge dungeons -- and when i do, I don't advertise for equipment, I look for people. Who wants that? I think there should be better ways to get all of the equipment/items/goods, *in game*, with store purchases being secondary -- but ways in game have to be doable by non-experts. The reason the pay thing comes up is because other ways of getting things has failed. Um...*halt*....two things if you are saying about getting gear, "Just through spending", meaning "only through spending" I would STRONGLY disagree. But having things only be available to elites will discourage both new player who don't want to feel like they will forever be 2-3 years behind as well as current players who have put in years of effort and also are shut out. I have better equipment than many because I *need* it to keep parity, and I quickly tell anyone that in any clan I'm in. A point that keeps coming up now are those that tell me I should be able to do alot more damage with my equipment. Nope. I don't/I can't. I have about 10-30% slower nerve conduction impulses when they have tested my hands, so I'm. The only way I could do better would be to have some interface into the game that I could write a program to assist me with. I do have a degree in computer science, but just as I heard that the elites complained about assisted script kiddies (which would bug me too, cuz they didn't write their scripts -- but how would anyone "police" that?)

Support might be better equipped to handle this. Though am not sure.

If the person who didn't step foot in there is willing to pay money for it, is it fair to let you have it for free just by playing the game? They don't charge for access to the game, but the sure can charge for other things, or how do you think you getting it for free is going to pay for the game? If everyone got it like you, they'd have no income and the game would shut down immediately. You are taking the road for being cheap and claiming this give you the right to lord your accomplishment over others. But you aren't supporting the game by allowing others to to buy what they want. In the thread on clothing, someone summed it up -- they are a newish player, and so many outfits they want -- but they see no reason to play the game if the nice items are never going to be available for them to get. So where does the game get new players if it alienates and shuts them out as you indicate the game should go. Who pays for your reward? Why do you think you deserve a reward when you not only don't pay for it yourself, but actively work against others being able to pay for an outfit or accessory. This game is not a public service, and its not paid for by good samaritans. It's paid for by a company wanting to make profit from it -- and how are you helping? Actually, perhaps more fair to the company and players who support them might be you get the dps you pay for. If you get it for free, the the dps would be some base value, but if you bought it in F10, then different levels of item would come with different amounts of bonus points you pay for and apply. Sounds perfectly fair, cuz I don't see how it is fair for you to play for free and demand that be the only way to get top items. Only getting things out of the game that you spend time gaming to get, that should be least rewarded because you get to play the game while earning the item. But your actions to work against those who might want to pay for it feels like you are trying to sabotage the game -- to kill it off. So you asked how it was fair that someone pays for something and you get it for free by doing an online puzzle (the game). Good question. Maybe you shouldn't get top gear.

I got hit w/this this month, so did another friend who asked me if I had deleted them from my friends list -- told them no, and told them mine had been blanked. Asked if they still had any entries but they didn't have any either. FWIW, I did clean out both of my block lists recently, but that was a few weeks ago. I don't think I'd done that before. It's possible I hadn't added any new friends to the list though, since cleaning it -- maybe I added a friend more recently though, and it cleared the list soon after? Not sure . Question: where is the friend list stored? I noticed files (in my Documents directory, under dir 'BnS', under dir 'NCWest', i.e. if ~==my home dir, and my documents dir is just named "Documents", then at "~/Documents/BnS/NCWEST/") that seemed to contain a block list for each character, but didn't notice anything resembling a friend list. Seems like it would be common to all characters on an account, but nothing looking like a friend list. I was hoping the friend list would be there along with the block lists, but either it was in a separately named file that was gone all-together, or it isn't kept in the same place. Does anyone know if the friend list is normally in the same place (different filename) as the block lists? The fact that the file was missing, entirely, might indicate why it was empty in game. I was hoping to find the friend file to see if it was empty, but in absence of any file looking like a friend list, could mean 1) I have the wrong location or 2) whatever deleted the friends in game resulted in an empty friend file that may have been deleted because it was empty. It's possible it wasn't supposed to be deleted and something isn't recreating the file for friends to be stored in, but just guessing.