Zodai

I was on the Dr. Graves path at around level 7 or 8. After this, I needed to get to level 10 to continue that quest line, so I moved to do Operative Kuzmin's path instead. After completing that, I was asked to select a new contact. I picked Fire Wire, since it was a mission path I did on a previous character and had liked a bit. When I went to talk to him, his initial message looked fine, and I clicked the 'Ask about available missions' button But after that, it immediately went to a 'Sorry, I don't have any missions available for you' screen. After closing out that screen, this is what happens if you talk to him, and the games assumes that you completed his arc with the option to spare him. I don't believe the doubling up of the leave button is intended either. While other arcs close out if you move out of their level region as well (Though I didn't know he was level 1-7 before selecting him), they usually cover it in some way, by telling you to go somewhere else and giving you a new contact. It seems that functionality is broken in this case, however. The quest chain simply breaks, and when you talk to him again it defaults to his end-of-chain dialogue.

I have an issue with Montague Castanella (Steel Canyon University)'s dialogue. When I talk to him outside of a mission, it gets me this placeholder text, with nothing of actual substance included. Talking to him during a mission, the text for starting a mission, and the text when ending a mission seem to all be okay, but when you're not currently in a mission his dialogue seems completely bugged. This APPEARS to be happening regardless of relationship level with him, but I can't be sure as I've yet to complete it. I'm currently on what I think is my third mission with him, and will update once I finish the mission line whether it's still present. I was told this was the appropriate place for issues such as these, but let me know if that's not the case!

Hm... What if we have a buffer of sorts - if Rage only has ~10 seconds or less left on its timer, then a second cast would only add to the duration of the old one instead of stacking. This makes it easier to do single-rage playstyles, while still leaving double rage styles open, just activate it earlier so it's clearer you want to stack the rages together. This is intended not to punish a single-rage player for mistiming - with the solution presented, a single-rage playstyle who accidentally overlaps by one second is getting the same risk/penalty as someone taking the much more rewarding double-rage option. And raging too late would mean the buff drops, which is a direct loss of effectiveness. That said, this would be much more usable if we had a timer that showed how long buffs were going to last for, as the current one is a bit vague. However, having a buffer of sorts as I described is a definite improvement for someone intentionally trying to play single-rage.

As someone who's a writer myself, I want to say something like... if old writers want to return to their old world, we could at least allow them the possibility, though on the other hand I think new blood would be valuable as well. There's probably people who have fond memories of CoH who have become great writers in the years since. Though we shouldn't just pull from old CoH players.

I'd be interested in that for some of my chars too! I don't think I have the time to run an RP SG rn though

I'm a fan of the tanker endurance changes! Definitely something that gives Tankers a leg up while still making them distinct from brutes. That said though, I'm not knowledgeable enough to give a clear opinion on the other changes myself. I do agree that it's important that Tanker and Brute have things that make them distinct from one another while both being viable.

Welcome to the RPing world! 1. I imagine there are times when someone may have to step out of character. How is this normally accomplished? Separate channel? I usually denote it by (( )) that is, ((text in double parenthesees is implied as OOC.)) This is because (Single paranthesees usually denotes thought.), Zodai thought. 2. What does a typical RP session look like? Are there organized sessions? Is it just a passive thing you do whenever a fellow Rper logs on? Both? Both forms are reasonable. Organized ones are usually for larger scale ones, with a more firm premise or larger numbers of people, but people do plenty of RP on their own with whoever they meet. Usually the 'quick RP' forms happen at Pocket D, or at an SG's base if enough people are there. 3. What are some of the common pitfalls that newb Rpers usually step into? I don't know for sure how common they are, but the things that are most concerning would be metagaming and consent-based stuff. Metagaming generally covers all things from a character knowing things they shouldn't but the player does ('I know your secret identity, even though nothing would allow me to do so), a character's level of power being beyond reason without justification (I blow up the planet, everyone dies), but usually it involves an error between the player and character/characters/game world. Game Masters/SG Admins/Event DMs/Etc have authority in events where they're present, so in those kinds of cases you want to ask them for permission depending on what it is. (Obviously though, Homecoming Staff supercede them by turn, in case that isn't clear.) Consent is based in two different things, agency and comfort. Agency is 'the character's agency to take their own actions, and the player's agency over their character.' Character Agency implies that the characters actions have some influence on the story being told, such as trying to save someone from being killed or trying to steal a precious gem or rob a bank. Their actions should influence the game world and have the possibility of altering events - I see it as the character's impact being respected by the story. Some stories will require a certain event to happen for the story they want to tell - It's hard to give an arc about death and grief or failure if players never fail, but the road they take to get there should respond to their effort to achieve their goals. For an opposite example - it's hard to tell a story of a hero down on his luck who doesn't have money to feed his daughter if another player's character he's never met walks up and gives him $1M in cash. In this case the player's personal arc was resolved from an outside source in a way that removes the drama from it, so he would be justified in retconning it because the resolution was improper. A Player's Agency over their Character implies that the player has the final say over what actions their character takes. If you try to shield someone from an attack, you'll take the consequence and get hit, which is a natural consequence of that action. But something like 'this character falls over and can't dodge' without justification (terrain where this would happen, plus a dice roll or something depending on your DM) would be taking agency away from the character. It also means other players can't decide what another person's character does. As I see it, actions are based in the players, but consequences are based with either the DM, or in absence of one whatever all those involved in the scene judge to be a fair result for the actions taken. Comfort is basically 'Am I okay with the scene having content of this nature/having this happen to my character?' Example being that not every player would want to sit through a scene with torture or sexual content, especially if their character was forced into it by means beyond their control. You should be clear that everyone in the scene is okay with the content it might entail before proceeding. This also entails things like character death if the player doesn't want it as a part of the RP. Sometimes a player and DM might come into conflict over this though - I would argue that the DM has a responsibility to communicate what could possibly happen, since not everyone will like some potential parts, but if those are communicated clearly then I would say the DM should lean towards the enjoyment of the group as a whole and that the player might fit another group better. 4. Is there such thing as being too immersive ? Not to be confused with inappropriate speech, but simply just being too much into character? If so Examples? Yes and no. I've been emotionally distraught for weeks at a time from being way too into an RP before but that kind of getting too-into-character is also where my most memorable RPs come from. I would say the main thing where being too immersed is a bad thing is when you stop considering the enjoyment of the enjoyment of other RPers. Even as someone who's hard-line 'this is what my character would do and I want to respect who I believe them to be', nobody's going to have any fun with that if who they are is someone who nobody wants to be with, IC or OOC. ((This itself depends on how fleshed out or well-written the character is to begin with.)) 5. Are their any over-looked nuances RPers skip over that you wish they’d acknowledge as an RPer? For example does full immersion go so far as to change players attire when entering a certain building? Is running everywhere discouraged? Should I get that “walk” power handy etc? In the SGs I'm in, most have some form of uniform requirement for some major events, but definitely not for everyday RP. One of those is a school and the other is a corporation, so uniforms fit there. Fleshing out attire deeper is up to player choice. I don't think running everywhere is discouraged itself since it's more convenient, but most people use walk when they're actually in a scene/talking ICly with someone. 6. Is there a group of dedicated RPers that want to scoop me up? Usually you look for them rather than the other way around. There should be a pin in the Everlasting forum

*hoorb* ! As someone who never got to play live, twinshot is 'oh god I hate them' in more a funny way than a frustrating way. I'm fine with the content itself though replaying it on every new char would def be too repetitive. *hoorb*

Obviously there are dozens of things everyone would want from an official server - but personally these are the things I see as highest priority 1 - HEALTHY MONETIZATION I don't know for sure whether this would mean that Homecoming would require income beyond the donation system, but it's likely enough to at least be a strong consideration. Given that - ensuring the game's monetization will be healthy is one of the most significant elements post-officialness. Whether or not a sub fee is introduced and how large it is could cut out a significant number of players, and if and how elements such as microtransactions are implemented ties both the game's financial stability and community perceptions into the mix. In regards to a sub fee, I think I'm strongly against it. As I see it a large focus is opening the game up to as many people as possible, given that the game was important enough to revive to this level and that its community is the strongest element. I don't want someone to be locked away from that based on money alone. This means the next topic is microtransactions. Obviously, no real-money lootboxes - not likely but important enough to mention given that they were in live to my knowledge, and I'll assume the devs are up to date on why. No P2W, meaning 'a paying player's ability to progress or compete should not invalidate a F2P player by comparison.' Paid XP boosts are fine* (more on that later), but 'immediately level to 50/get every enhancement you want/fully complete incarnate' probably isn't, and I don't think 'pay to not play' is fun even for the paying players. A paying player also shouldn't be able to reach a numerical advantage that's impossible for an F2P player to reach. (Again, assuming you know the reasons why this is usually a bad thing.) *(In regards to XP, I'd generally prefer the currently free XP boosts remain. The leveling pace they set feels like an enjoyable amount without being too fast, but I'm concerned if the game will feel too grindy if the option is removed altogether. Paid XP boosts could probably stack with this somewhat, but payment should feel like 'improving on an already good experience' instead of 'bringing a subpar experience up to good' from player frustration. Furthermore, I think Paid INF boosts are a *bad* idea, because an impact on the in-game economy can be much more harmful than a player's leveling pace.) Aside from the obvious... No permanently* paid powersets/costumes is a major thing. CoH thrives on its creativity - the ability of the players to create whatever they'd like with the tools available, as I see it this would be its greatest strength. We have more to gain encouraging creativity as much as we can, and letting it improve the player experience, than we do to gain the monetary value some of those could be sold for. (I would say not to limit character slots by purchase as well.) I also think the players thinking 'my creativity is limited by my wallet' is the sort of feeling that puts a sour taste in people's mouths as well. However, I think a system of new powersets/costumes being paid for a (reasonable) limited time is something that could work better. It allows them to be partly monetized while the system still feels fair - for F2P players it's a question of patience rather than opening your wallet or having the option be inaccessible. A month feels like a right timespan for me, but this is dependent on if new powersets themselves are within our means and at what pace they could be developed. In regards to what I think is a good idea... there is some form of sub that could offer small bonuses, something like 5$ a month. Could offer some +25-50% XP that stacks with the F2P bonuses, an option to boost new chars to level 15-20 (assuming they've leveled another char of that AT up to there before) and access to whatever new Powersets/Costumes were listed above. I see the 15-20 boost as more a convenience thing, since it's skipping the early game rather than being valuable in and of itself, but that's only my take. Respecs and free Tailor sessions could be sold as well, so long as their cost wasn't prohibitive (Around 5$, and having at least some method of getting them for INF as well) I don't know whether the premium travel powers remaining free or being paid is the right choice. It's true that it's convenience, which is usually something reasonable to pay for, but that the parts it's speeding up are some of the least enjoyable parts, walking back and forth between missions. I don't think I know the game well enough to say what ideas might work beyond that - but I hope this is sufficient enough to give a solid direction for where I think the monetization should go if it's necessary. 2 - IMPROVING OLD CONTENT The second priority I would have is improving the older content. Not creating new stuff, improving what's already there and the faults involved. In regards to what qualifies as creating new versus polishing old - I would generally say that creating a new zone or powerset is creating new stuff, but improving old powersets, or adding things to old lower level zones would be polishing the old stuff. Bring the game at the foundation, and the experiences new players will be going through, up to a stronger level where you can before moving on to creating new things altogether. Balance is the clearest form of this. In regards to PvE, this means that the different powerset combinations should be close enough that they're all enjoyable to play in regards to their mechanical impact and abilities, without choices being entirely invalidated by the power of another powerset. For example, a person shouldn't feel as though their enjoyment and speed of progression is noticeably harmed by picking powersets based on theme or character concept, or in a team that their contribution is entirely irrelevant compared to someone using higher-tier powersets. This also applies to powersets that are too similar - if Street Justice is more enjoyable to play and mechanically stronger than Martial Arts, even on a character concept level then Martials arts becomes a suboptimal choice for all possible avenues. Buffing Martial Arts itself could easily just reverse the roles, however, so I would argue part of improving this old content would be buffing Martial Arts, not in a way that simply makes it as effective as Street Justice, but in a way that makes its abilities more distinct from Street Justice. So that way people would have a reason to play one over the other aside from raw DPS. For example - If we interpret Street Justice as being more self-taught or practiced, perhaps closer to boxing, and Martial Arts being closer to the formal disciplines you'd see in a Kung-fu action movie, you could base the differences around the fantasies those provide. Buff Martial Arts in a way that gives it a higher focus on defensive bonuses or maintaining it's health/energy over a long-term fight (perhaps in addition to its current focus on disorient abilities.), alongside some form of shorter animations/recharges to give it a more free-flowing feel than Street Justice, which in theory centers around the feeling of power behind its punches and the strength of its combo finishers. This is an untested hypothetical, of course, but it serves an example of a direction that would help the two powersets be more distinct from each other. In regards to PVP (Have never done in CoH, take with a grain of salt), In addition to balance itself, it should mean the experience of playing against them is satisfying as well, and that players should feel as though their actions can have an impact against their opponent. I believe builds having weaknesses is a factor as well, which means that certain other builds can counter and exploit those. Outside of balancing itself is how the powersets feel to play themselves. In specific this refers to game feel - how the graphics, sounds etc contribute to the experience of playing the character and how it feels to play that build. Doing this to the level of a modern game might take a prohibitive amount of resources - however, doing things such as updating sound effects could make a large impact for a smaller cost than animation changes would. One example I've heard could use assistance sound-wise is Broadsword. In regards to revamping old leveling areas, the main thing I've seen come up is Redside, and that its missions tend to make you feel more like a minion working for someone else than your own villainous powerhouse. Adding more mission chains and contacts that let you feel like you're making progress towards your own villainous goals through writing would be a valuable way that redside content could be improved. (This assumes that the resources to do so are minimal, regarding mainly the writing and some sort of in-house mission creator using pre-existing assets.) Obviously, I don't know everything that might need touching up on - and a large number graphically could be prohibitive in regards to what's required. The only thing I could suggest in regards to graphics as a whole might be a texture update, since it seems less difficult to do than recreating character models or environments altogether. But I hope the Homecoming team in general will be able to know more about what could be looked at. ~~~~~ The other priorities I have in mind I don't have as much to say on, or that their significance is lower enough than the others that I don't need to spend as much time on them - as such I'll put the rest in this section. After improving the old content comes graphical updates in general - texture updates as stated before, but also character model improvements, animation updates, environment updates etc. This is less 'make the game better' but more 'do what you can with the resources you have available.' In specific - figure out what benchmark you can try to make things at, then try and get the rest of the game up to that if you so choose. I think some degree of graphical updates would be helpful, but it depends on what the team is capable of. This should be done before new content itself is though, so that way you know what graphical level you should be aiming for for anything new you make, instead of waiting until after new content is being made to plan this out. After this is the last two things - New Content and Community Growth. Specifically - making brand new things for the community to enjoy with the game, and bringing more people to the game. New content includes new zones and maps, both high-level and for things that allow for different beginnings for new characters, as well as things like new powersets and costumes. To my understanding CoH's most well-known content tends to go 'wide', going for different experiences that can be done through different characters, rather than going for expanding the endgame for the same kind of characters like other MMOs do. I would argue that Community Growth is a higher priority, since it lets more people enjoy the game we already have. But given that new content can itself bring people here, they balance out. In short, I judge the priorities as follows, in this order. --If monetization is necessary, do everything possible to ensure it is done in a healthy manner to ensure the long-term health of both the community and the game. --Focus on improving what currently exists before creating new content, mainly involving the gameplay design and balance, mission content for old zones that won't require as many resources, alongside limited low-cost graphical updates such as new, higher-res textures. --Larger scale graphical updates, assuming and depending on what resources are available --Bringing more people into the community and the game --New content developed for the game.

I would generally agree that this is high-priority, but the industry wave to have these things included didn't really get momentum until after CoH already closed down, to my understanding. To me I'm concerned about like, if the game's infrastructure is built in a way to support these, since that seems like it would be the biggest barrier to this. Alongside that is the resources of the Homecoming team and whether there are things they would consider higher priority right now - I agree something like this is high priority, but since this is a fan revival in and of itself we don't know how much the team has to go around with whatever else needs doing on their end. I'm not surprised if they're really swamped already. Definitely support this strongly though - I feel like CoH is a game that appeals to all sorts of people, especially with how creative its hero creation can be, and giving that experience to people who wouldn't otherwise be able to do so, especially when allowing people to play it at all is one of Homecoming's major goals itself. (I hope I'm not putting words into their mouth, just what I remember reading.) Also! Here's Game Maker's Toolkit's videos on the topic as well, if anyone wants to look further : >

Do you mind if I ask a curious question? What are the other inf sinks in the game?

The main things that come to mind are like, having some people who can run a fair amount of DFBs/other Trials and SFs so Redside can find groups. Could probably be good to think on more possibilities though Everlasting could probably put in some RP stuff as well, though I'm only on that and Torchbearer so I don't know if I could handle all the servers myself ^^;

Leo is correct in that this is closer to a community-focused thing than it is something developer based, they have other priorities in general And I think it's fair to say that a lot of people might just switch back, but I think at least some people might end up sticking around. Even if the average villain population only ends up rising like 30-50% from its usual by the time something like this ends, that's still an improvement worth the effort to make the game more enjoyable imo. People have stated reasonable flaws with Redside, though from my own experience it can at least be serviceable. There's going to be at least some who end up liking it, I think the activity is a larger thing than the aesthetic/storylines at least.

I generally agree that the numbers aren't the only factor, you need to look deeper to understand and interpret the data to get the full picture. Numbers alone are more like a tool - it's knowledge to use but you should use it to uncover more information, not to act on it alone. In response to GM Sijin's point on stalkers though - since a new powerful build for them seems to be recently discovered, I'm wondering if stalkers will rise in popularity in the near future. I'm curious to see what happens to their playrate in a month or two if that remains the way it is, whether or not that will push them into jumping popularity-wise or not. I will admit Scrapper is more appealing to be flavor-wise though.

I was originally talking about like, long-form arcs in general even if they were limited to a few supergroups, but the idea of server-wide arcs and server canon definitely interests me : > It feels like it would take a hell of a lot of work to set up though. xD