MTeague

My brother jokes that if we're ever invaded by high tech aliens that we have NO chance against in battle, we should just give them free subscriptions to MMO's and enslave them all that way, because they'll be too busy doing progression raiding and having infighting over who deserved what piece of loot to finish us off.

This makes me a bit more sympathetic to the Circle of Thorns, actually. It sounds like the Spectral Daemons would properly appreciate Wierd Al's #WordCrimes video.

Escort missions aren't especially irksome to me on a stalker. But I do admit, ever since the gloriousness that is Assassin's Focus, I kind of build my Stalkers as Scrappers. They still have the OPTION to use hide, for particularly nasty openers, but most of the time, they're unhid, diving into piles of foes and doing the "stab stab stab Stab Stab Stab STAB STAB STAB" bit Once in awhile they Pay The Price. But generally they wreck face. And the /Regen stalker pretty much always ends every fight at max health and laughes evilly as he dives into the next group. The defense based ones can be a bit more touch-and-go, but the IO procs give them very good maintence heals as they go.

I like MOST of the ideas here. But I cannot support the proposed changes to Instant Healing and feel it's a complete deal-breaker and destruction of the set. A third Click Heal, even with short-to-no-cooldown, would be vastly less useful to me than the current sky-high regeneration boost that IH provides. I would leave IH exactly as it currently exists. Mayyyyyyyybe drop the cooldown a touch. Maybe.

Cel-Shading does that? jeez. If it wasn't already in my "no thanks" bucket, this kind of thing would be enough of a deal breaker for me to put it there.

I can totally see that. My brother and I created accounts on Project 1999 (EverQuest classic + Kunark + Velious, no other expansions) and played around with it for a couple weeks reliving some of the nostalgia. But the grind broke us in fairly short order. Feeding coin into Tradeskills. Only really being able to level up by getting a team and setting down in a 'Camp' to kill orcs or gnolls or what-have-you in the same area as they respawned again and again. Faction grinding. The "You Can Never Go Home Again" was very real for EverQuest. Homecoming has managed it, though, in no small part because CoH was always designed to be vastly more casual friendly.

Magical Sonic attacks are a thing in tabletop dungeons and dragons gaming. But it is rare that it gets used. Rare enough to earn this honorable mention: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0345.html I do agree 100% on Traps and Assault Rifle / Beam Rifle / Dual Pistols. I've seen suggestions on toher threads to make use of rifles and pistols just one more "weapon" choice, and instead also allow wands or staves or casting animations, or allow wrist mounted beam emanation points for a more technological hardsuit look if you wanted, etc. I have zero expectations of that. But I really do with the original devs had put in more animation / looks to allow even THOSE sets to have passable analoges for each Origin.

Well, there's a lot of shades of gray along the way, too. I don't like Incarnate powers being available in all 46+ content. I think it should be pretty much iTrials only, or any lvl 50 content that was introduced with or after the incarnate system, no other exceptions whatsoever. I'm never going to get my way on that, but that's where I would have drawn the line if it had been my choice to make. But I do think Attuned enhancements, Converters, and the way the auction house pools resources into fungible pools is wonderously good. And I do like largely unrestricted sidekicking. I never minded doing missions to unlock capes or auras, BUT, if something like Wings were restricted, and I was trying to do a Birdman concept, I'd have been ticked. And if my character concept involved having energy claws, but those claws were not available until I'd defeated X many mobs to unlock that look of that weapon type, I'd have been ticked. So I don't mind costume pieces being all unlocked. I like having Inherent fitness. I like being able to choose Fly without first having to take a pre-req. But at the same time I would absolutely remove things like Void Skiffs and the ability to buy 8 hours of jetpacks at a time from P2W vendor. I sort of feel like characters *should* take a travel power. I'm never going to get my way on that one either. I'd definitely remove all the amplifiers (offensive, defensive, survival) from the P2W vendor. And same deal, I'm never going to get my way on that one either.

My only quibble is I don't like powersets to virtually REQUIRE a particular origin. I like Energy Blast, because the source of the energy is indeterminate. It can be magical. Or a mutant power. Or powers you gained by science, from a tech suit, or maybe you're an inhuman and it's natural for your species. Ditto with Energy Aura. By contrast, "Arcane Blast" with "Mage Bolt" or "Mystical Aura" with "Residual Magic" feel much too baked into Magic Origin. I'd just rather the powerset / power names be kept more fungible. Even if the combat effects would be exactly as you propose, I'd like the concept/naming to plausible as something that COULD be Magic, or Tech, or Mutant, etc. Yes, there is the Sorcery pool, but that's even labeled an Origin pool, and it's neither a primary nor secondary.

I'm absolutely sure I would come up with some inventive curses as I spent 20 minutes swearing at my computer screen. Then, I'd start laughing at myself and calling myself the Biggest Idiot Ever (though I tell ya, there's a LOT of competition for that title....) Then I'd realize 55 mil, while it would sting to blow it on 10 rare salvage, I can earn back with fairly little effort from a few rounds of converter roulette. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't bother me after that.

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/all-things-scottish/n10127

That's a fair point. I'll admit, part of me wanted to be snarky and read it in a Jeff Goldblum "Life... finds a way!" voice. But snark aside, you're right. Strictly speaking, we don't know. Maybe some computational algorithm, Siri version 98002, will actually become truly self aware, AND, able to make choices on it's own beyond what data and programmed responses were initially available. I'm ... HIGHLY... skeptical of this. I think we're really good (and getting better) and giving things versimialatude of seeming like it's sentient without actually BEING sentient, and I don't think we'll ever cross that bridge. (though, I admit, in my more cynical moments, I also wonder if HUMANS count as "actually sentient" and not just "looking like it"....). But if I'm going to be honest with myself, I has hunches and guesses and no clue what we'll have in the year 2525. Or even 2022.

The cel-shading doesn't do it for me. I don't want to feel like I'm looking a comic book. I want to feel like it actually IS the real world. But I definitely appreciate having the OPTION to turn it on or off.

I strongly suspect it's an issue with your internet. I don't think I've experienced rubberbanding, ever, since ... Oct 2019? Or so? and I've played it a lot this past year. I get that it's GOT to be frustrating as hell. I remember dealing with Rubberbanding issue in EverQuest, Diablo2, and WoW, and man o man, it SUCKED. I do not mean to pooh-pooh the issue. But I don't see how it can be an issue on the Homecoming side of things.

I've been a programmer for 25 years. I have ABSOLUTELY no fear of a Skynet situation. Experience has shown me, time and time again, that All Code Is Bad <--- not mine, but a HILAROUSLY TRUE rant If an AI does begin to emerge, it will die, choking on bugs, it's last thoughts being "Why? Why does bad code happen to good people!?" as the uncaring sky fades to black.

Scrapperlock Haiku!

Absolutely, right there with you. Once upon a time, I saw this mission wipe teams. We're talking before IO's. SO's only. No inherent fitness. And probably wasn't the best config'd team. The first few waves? Easy Peasy. Next few? Easy Peasy. Then people starting running out of END. And kill speed plummetted. And Red Caps were diving into the earth and promoting themselves to Lieutenants and Bosses, because we couldn't kill them fast enough while scrapping the bottom of the barrel in need of END. It hit a point of no return when there were over 8 bosses at once, throwing gnomes on our heads to blind us and dogpiling on. Later on, with a team that was actually prepped for that mission, and which had sufficient boosts to END recovery (Empath + Rad defenders), that team stomped the bejeezus out of it. Now, today? With IO's? Panacea Procs and Perf Shifter Proc's being almost standard? Not so much. Now, it's largely a joke. You're not going to hit a point where you start hemmoraging END and suddenly everyone's DPS hits the floor. But once upon a time? It was possible.

the chosen one who will bring balance to the equation?

I should. I'm not going to use any of the P2W amplifiers though. Logical or not, it's a thing.

I'm mostly okay soloing my Blasters, but am stuck on one particular First Ward mission at the moment. (the one were Katie teleports you into the Asylum and there's endless waves of laser guided seers). Admittedly, it really doesn't help that I've got it set at +1x2 with Bosses, and I'm being a Stubborn Idjit who refuses to consider lowering that. But I was able to manage every prior mission in First Ward that way, so realllly reluctant to accept reality now.

Most of my Sentinel's live in melee range anyway, so the existing toggles are fine by me. It may vary a bit depending on your primary.

If you have a character that is a shapeshifter (concept wise, of course...) Use Assymetrical Gloves Then use the Cosmic Corsair Hook for both right AND left hands. Then use Savage Melee. It looks significantly more brutal.

Uncomfortable animations. Knocking down a male enemy with Eye of the Storm (staff fighting) and then using Innocuous Strikes, jabbing him....well... someplace you don't want to be jabbed... with a BLADED spear. Astonishingly, he got up after that and kept fighting! THAT's some serious hardcore training for the D.U.S.T. Soldiers.

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