I bumped into my first C.O. from back when I first joined the Heroes the other day.
Once he got over the shock, stopped trying to run in the opposite direction and realised I wasn't attempting to fleece him out of anything (this time), we managed to grab a few minutes for a catch up.
GG: Things seemed to have calmed down for you since you've had to put up wth my sorry behind. Happy with the way your new crew are shaping up?
JW: Well, I have to clean less raccoon fur off of everything. That stuff is hell on laser optics, you know? But to answer the question, I have a terrific team, everybody is good about cross-supporting each other and continuing to build in a smart fashion.
GG: Theres a been quite a few shake ups at the top end since we spoke last. Cyberstorm disappeared and some have ended up wearing bunny ears, Fusion arrived, the Brotherhood and AFF both fractured and there's been some mergers elsewhere. Any thoughts on the whys and wherefores around that?
JW: When you get groups as big as what AFF was (what, nearly a third of the players in the game?) you're going to get people who are unhappy with the direction the group is going or chafe under leadership and want to go their own way.
It's a natural evolution of the process and in a lot of ways I'm surprised it hadn't happened before.
GG: Do you see any of those changes filtering down to effect you guys at all, and if so, any plans to cope with it?
JW: I'd like to have possibly pursued a little harder to see if we could have added to and enhanced our talent by recruiting and gathering in folks out of the resultant chaos. We would of course be more than willing to take a look at anyone who is unhappy with their current situation and is willing to come work with us.
Otherwise? Just going to keep doing what we are doing and following our strategic plan. Not broke, don't need to fix it.
GG: We've seen a lot more mech drops in the prize packs the last few wars. Good, bad, indifferent? Not just You or the clan, for the game as a whole...
JW: For me, I have added a few nice prize mechs myself.
But the drops are still exceptionally random; one of the guys in Heroes family has not gotten a mech drop out of at least the last three, not even a crystal one, where we had one who won 4 niode mecha on a 1x chance at the mechs in the last raid.
So it is nice to see the drops, but I would like there to be some way for it to be more equitable.
However, the other edge of the sword is that while mech drops have increased, it is much harder now to gather the resources to utilize them without having to invest heavily in purchasing of niodes.
For many of us we are not in a position to up that facet of our expenditures on the game, to upgrade we have to resort to recycling some of those prize mechs to choose what we want to try to improve.
GG: Staying with mechs, there's a fair amount of debate still going on with the really big stuff, the 95s and 100s. Have you had a chance to play with them yet and any opnions formed?
JW: I have not. Again, due to limited resources I have not invested in any of the high-tonnage units.
From the reactions of my teammates, some of the units are good, like the Boreas, but the vast majority of the others have been underwhelming. Not worth the resources to me at this point.
GG: The war is going to run pretty close to Christmas, and the raids have every chance of running through the period. How's it going to effect your guys?
JW: I'd like to have seen the war maybe run a week earlier. This is a game and from a meta-game standpoint, I'd much rather have seen the war a week earlier so that we could avoid the majority of the Christmas and related holidays. We will adapt, and I think my team will be able to put in a good showing.
But I will completely understand for any of my teammates if family and holiday has to come first.
GG: Last thing, war or raid prize, whats on the Christmas wish list?
JW: In all honestly, I'd like to see the Heroes family get a niode Lotto win. I don't think any of us across the Heroes clans have had one since the lotto went to 3x daily, and I've seen a lot of people who don't need the niodes winning multiple times.
Plus the timings of the drawings are poor timings for me personally to be able to enter. i'd like to see the lotto go to 4 winners a day, with two winners drawn 2x a day.
GG: Pretty selfless attitude boss, but yes, I agree about the timing thing and not being able to enter every draw.
I'll let you get back to work now, best of luck and here's hoping you get something nice for yourself in the salvage haul.
Submitted by David McCallum #701548