MTeague

So, May is the "Anniversary Event", like October having Halloween, or December having the Winter event. I can work with that.

If it affected combat, I would have to tell them. If it doesn't affect combat in any way shape or form..... it becomes much easier to rationlize

"Sprocket Man" (and I think it's gonna be a long, long time...)

I .... like.... these missions.... most of that though, I guess is really nostalgia from doing them before IO's ever existed. At SO's, on a medium ("Rugged") difficulty setting, I saw them give a few teams trouble. Never again, after all the changes that have happened since then though.

There's already a stone-like look. The texture isn't 100% the same, but it's not bad.

Female boots with non-high-heel options, and that didn't SOUND like heels when moving. I mean, if she's wearing COMBAT BOOTS, or Sneakers, why it gotta sound like heels?

This is a huuuuge part of why I use the option to disable XP so much. It's not the only reason; as much as I know I *can* go back later to do Safeguards and Mayhems I missed levelling up, I do like them, and I don't want to miss any as I level. but it's so easy to completely outlevel phase 2 of a long story arc (croatoa, striga) while you're still only doing phase 1. and I like doing several story arcs in each level range on the way up.

Now I have an urge to see if Mitten Man is taken.

I'd create Traffic Jams. No. Literally. I mean exactly that. It's a CITY. There's no morning / evening commute? What's up with that? We have a sunrise sunset. It ought to be possible to have certain streets have backed up traffic at certain times of day. Also, I'd fix NPC Civilian Distribution in Independance Port. There's a complete HUMAN WALL of civilians marching north / south along the eastern sidewalk by the zone to Brickstown and north a bit frokm there, because they apparrently have NO IDEA where else they can go. I mean, I guess they're not going to go hang out in Perez Park. But that one stretch of sidewalk just can't be THAT happening of a neighborhood. I'd figure how to distribute civlians around the rest of the zone, or I'd slash their numbers by at least 75%.

Yea. As much a I would have liked to have had the game for all those seven years? I totally get why it was treated as Double Top Secret Classified. They're fairly little fish in a great big sea, and who needs an army of lawyers going up places you really don't want armies of lawyers going? Were the worries unfounded? People can armchair quarterback that back and forth for years (and will, I have no doubt) but without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight? I might have made the exact same choices if I'd been in their shoes. And that's even assuming HC = SCORE, which I've never even been sure is true. All I care about is I have the game NOW. And Homecoming is doing their level best to get an above-board agreement hammered out with the legal owners of the IP. And I've seen nothing but professional and reasonable behavior from them since I found this place. I don't see any benefit in obsessing over coulda/shoulda/woulda for what might have been during the Snap.

I get the impulse to ask. But I would never assume that everything other servers have will (or even should!) end up on homecoming. One giant hurdle is that unless the other servers have made similar efforts as the HC devs to unravel the original spagettti code, and are using an identical organizational structure to maintain all of the refactored code, then no, the heavy lifting has NOT been done. Because everything would need to be translated over from "slapped together in 32 bit spagetti code" to work in HC's 64 bit code. Shinies are shiny, yes. We likes the shinies, yes. But I strongly suspect the codebase between Thunderspy and Homecoming are essentially incompatible at this point. Doesn't mean ideas for new things can never be added to Homecoming. But I'd bet taking anything to put in here would very likely be "rebuild the shiny thing 100% from scratch".

It's possible you may go Wild and Crazy with recharge far beyond what I do then. I don't mind using an atttack chain with 5-6 different powers in it, whereas others focus on having Insane amounts of recharge to continually pump out their very best (and usually semi-expensive) AE attacks pretty much nonstop. I could certainly see something like that causing you to burn through END at a far faster rate than I do. I'm also typically doing story arcs, not farming maps, if that might also factor into it. I have some travel time between mob pack #1 and mob pack #2.

Just, if you name yourself "Gourdian Not", watch out for anyone named Alexander.

I think the game TRIES to to this, in some of the AI. I can't tell you how many times I've had runners flee down the hall and stand right in the center of the next group of mobs. I've seen this with Family, Malta, Arachnos, Outcasts, Sky Raiders, and Longbow for sure. But as long as you don't follow them in? And as long as you don't attack them while they're standing next to their buddies? Nothing aggros. It makes me a bit sad. The AI is clearly trying to chain aggro, but must be forbidden to, at a code level. I suppose it's for the best. Not everyone has an Immob or a Slow, and some things like Slag Golems and War Wolves just can't BE Slowed or Immob'd. I'm sure it would destroy many characters if aggro did chain like I keep expecting it to from the EverQuest days.

I've never had a character at lvl 30+ who had ongoing endurance problems. Never mind Incarnates. But I do slot IO sets as I level Would stronger set bonuses be nice? Perhaps. Do I think they're needed? No. But I will say the VAST majority of my characters are using a Panacea Proc, and a Perf Shifter Proc, and usually one Perf Shifter:End Mod to go with that proc. And I do slot for the "end discount to all powers" set bonuses, from Unbreakable Guard, Reactive Defenses, Annihilation, and Preventative Medcine, whenever I can work them into a build.

Sappers and Malta in general, are a cakewalk for Controllers too. Observe the spawn, figure out who has to die first. Apply your favored control (most espically Confuse, if you have it) and the sapper is out of the equation entirely, if not shifted to your side. Now you do need to plan your kill order, and you may not be soloing +4x8. But "mez them first" also eliminates the problem.

Just about fell out of my chair. I'd honestly given up hope on that one. I acknowledge that'll be a sensaitive one. Many people may be quite unhappy if they lose access to incarnate powers, during, say, the Maria Jenkins arc. Or Doc Quaterfield. And I should also acknowledge, I have no idea if that's even on the table. MY definition for "non-incarnate content" may not match the dev's definition. Other standard boilerplate applies. I think it's great that it's being looked at. Whether or not anything ultimately changes.

No Mind is *very* appropriately named. About the only way to make it more fitting is to rename him "Dies A Lot".

Someone told me Bow Ties Are Cool.

Naturally this is a special code to confuse people, and "Rare Arcane" holds only Common Tech salvage, right?

There can be a bit of a confidence issue / feeling unsure of what the proper protocol is when you start a team. The long and short of it? There are no rules. It's up to you, the team leader, to choose. The best thing you can do, is advertise up front how it will work. If you plan to just go round-robin, doing one mission from each team member? Advertise that. "Mission Team LFM, taking turns whose missions" If you plan to focus on just a particular story arc? Advertise that. Esp if the foes kick it up a notch: "LFM for World Wide Red arc, Malta Malta and More Malta! Ends with a Kronos Titan!" If you plan to do radio missions? Advertise that "LFM for Brickstown Radio missions and Bank mission!" Etc. If you set the expectation up front when you're advertising, no one's surprised, no one is "Oh but I thought were were gonna do" and no one will be all "OMG Malta? Screw this I'm outta here". If that was a deal-breaker for anyone, they just would not have joined. Also, don't feel shy about calling it when you're done. By tradition, I always ask if someone else wants the star first, but I can count on one hand the number of times people took me up on that. ex: I was doing Bricks Radio missions and the Bank Mission. We did 4 radio missions (I already had credit for one first), and then we did the Safeguard Mission. We wrecked face in the Safeguard, we got the Explore Badge and did some side missions. The stated goals were achieved. I was done. I asked if anyone wanted the star. No one did. "Okay, thanks all! good team!" and I disbanded.

It is far faster to start a group, than to look for one already in progress needing a few more members. I never post "lvl 32 Blueside Controller LFG" or "lvl 42 redside Widow LFG". When I feel like teaming, I'll usually spend a few minutes observing what groups are being advertised for, as I check the auction house. If none are going on, I'll start a team.

Bit of a pity. it really would be nice to see more options like that. it must play 17 kinds of hell with the code for them to rather vigorously shut the door on that.

I can only give lukewarm endorsement to a new set of generic gun-related names. But if you can get it named Battle Waffle? /ENDORSED

It definitely requires telling the Cottage Rule to go take a walk. It would require awarding a free respec to every character with Assault Rifle, because it looks like which Sets can be slotted into which powers would be changing. Critiques: I'm not sure Beanbag should just be gotten rid of. While I don't use it, I do use a few "Not Dealing With You Right Now" powers on most of my blasters. Now, usually, those come from your secondary, but not always. Dark Blast gets a Cone Immob and a Hold ion thier primary. Psi Blast gets a Foe Immob and a Disorient and a Knockback in it's primary. Dual Pistons gets a disorient option in Suppressive Fire. I'd be more on board with Beanbag just havin increased damage but keepng the stun. I would be extremely unhappy if you remove Ignite from my AR/MC Blaster. It's wonderful in doorways and the Frozen Blast Immob proc can keep mobs in it to cook, and it can do quite a bit of damage that way. Even more so if your secondary comes with an Immob, like Fire Manipulation/Ring or Fire, or Tactical Arrow/Glue Arrow (though admittedly, I suspect there are not many AR/TacArrows out there....)