MTeague

In today's lesson, you have the opportunity to learn about social inertia, and how difficult it is to change terminology that is already firmly established. Not gonna say it's flat impossible. But probability of success .... slight.

My concern would be, if the procs are changed to +Dmg that ignores Enhancement Diversification, then for those powers where you can slot 5 or so procs, are you basically tossing enhancement diversification out the window entirely? Is that a road the devs really want to go down? And what would the proposed new IO's do for powers that HAVE no base damage at all? (like Cold Domination / Infrigidate ?)

This I would love. I wouldn't really even call it "Gated" content. I'd call it content that grants players some degree of agency, making their choices matter more. I'd hold the idea up as a gold standard of how new content should be designed. But if people are distressed and unsatisified with the current content, I don't see this as a solution per se. Because I'd be shocked if we could get more than 1-2 such branching arcs per year. (though I'd be delighted to be wrong)

Every player has the ability to contribute new content, by means of AE. I say that a bit tongue in cheek because I have yet to really sit down and wrestle with the mission editors seriously. But the reality is, we have a small team of volunteer devs. Count the number of new story arcs and zones that have been implemented since Homecoming went live. I do not expect that pace to increase in the foreseeable future. Homecoming has made clear they want to have a very high professional-grade bar for anything they introduce. I very much respect that. But it takes TIME. And you're dealing with a small all-volunteer dev team, who are contributing their free time after their day jobs, after spending time with their families, to gradually produce something that is up to snuff. I humbly submit to you that is is entirely unrealistic to hope the devs will ever crank out enough new content to keep a player base hungry for new shines happy for very long. Hell, games that have a legion of paid developers and testers usually can't manage that. I really think if you have a hunger for new content, the best thing to do is try to gather like minded people to crowdsource that content and build Story Focused Mission Arcs in AE.

For some people, self imposed limits only go so far. For other people, developer imposed limits become a grindy treadmill that is boring-as-F, for no other reason than to BE grindy. I gave up the treadmills forevermore when I hung up the gloves after eight years of WoW. I will never, ever, EVER, play another game where I *need* several groups of people to accomplish anything I care about. (and no, I do not care about incarnate trials, those have zero appeal to me, I put in my time in Hell during WoW progression raiding). I could quite contentedly play CoH on Homecoming as-is, with zero additional content, for at least three more years, possiblly four, because I'm taking each of my characters through their own storyline. It's not about dinging 50. It's not about incarnates. It's not about badges. It's not about getting drops. It's not about progression. It's roleplay-vs-game for my own internal headcanon for each character. I can milk that for years. I enjoy teaming on a casual basis. I don't mind helping other people out when someone puts a call into LFG chat or General Chat or Help Chat. But I don't ever want to be in any kind of "Guild" ever again, for any purpose, in any game. I prefer to game when I want, for as long as I want, until I feel like what I'm done for that day or maybe that week. I do not want to worry about whether other people are counting on me to log in at particular times or to join them for particular events, ever again.

subtitled, "We are ALL Kosh".

Part of me wants to say that SHOULD be super easy to implement. A new On/Off option somewhere, and just gray out the arrows if off. But I am a programmer by trade, and I have seen spaghetti code that's not just difficult but downright dangerous to try to unravel and "make better". Specfically, the code I'm talking about was code that did drug-drug interaction checking for actual human patients. And GOD HELP YOU, if you touched that code and did something wrong. People could literally die IRL from that. It was eventually burned to ash and replaced by something vastly better that was designed from the ground up to be maintainable / supportable. But several programming teams were stuck like deer in headlights for a couple years at the thought of modifying the old code before it got replaced.

That's a question of perspective. I have seen a few people say, "I got this name on server X, and immediately grabbed the same name on servers, A, B, and C, so I can server transfer without fear of losing the name, and so that this name can be MINE across every server." Now, if you actually PLAY different characters of the same name across each server, I have no bones with that. If you have a lvl 1 name-squatting on servers you generally don't play on just to be name "mules" so you can rename, server transfer, rename back, etc.... hey, okay. It's allowed by the current rules. I can't stay it's wrong as such. But it does strike me as kinda greedily hogging things instead of being content you have that name on one server. But you know, that's just like, my opinion, man.

Account sharing, IMO, would be if the other person actually played your characters for longer than just to login / logout, or if they had other characters on the same account designated "theirs" vs "yours". I would not count it account sharing if it was just "hey, I'm going to be gone for a 18 months, just do me a favor, here's my account info, log in my characters for 2 seconds each on the first of each month while I'm gone.". Perhaps the devs would see it differently though.

https://xkcd.com/386/

I just defeat all enemies and find him between 75% and 99% completion, then go back and defeat any remaining enemies anyway.

Honestly, I don't expect very many names to be freed up even if the Name Release Policy is coded and activated. I think a lot of people are HOPING that many names will be freed up. But I suspect many names will be held by a lvl 50, and not freed. Or it will turn out that the name holder DOES still play, and just plays at wierd hours when you don't see them and chooses not to respond to any email entreaties asking them to consider a name change. That said, I'd still like to see the Name Release Policy put in place so I can stop seeing a thread on it every couple of weeks 🙂

I get what you're saying. They'll be away from home / unable to log in for long periods of time, and if they risked their necks to try to keep the world safe, it would feel pretty raw to have a character their very emotionally invested into just ripped away from them upon return. But honestly, there's no way Homecoming devs are going to know or be able to check which accounts are held by military personnel. Who was deployed on what date, who returned on what date. And if it's turned into an honor system "check this box if you affirm that you are being deployed" somewhere in the account profile, I guarantee you, it won't just be checkboxed by people who are actually military personnel. No matter how much it might offend. Some people would see it in purely transactional "if I check this box, my names are mine forever, even if I log out for a year to play <game name here> and come back later. if I don't check it, I could lose my names." and choose to check it. There isn't going to be any feasible way to do what you're asking and to restrict it to only one group of people in a given real life profession. EDIT: The only solution i can really see, and it's not reliable, is if you're going to be deployed, give your account info to a civilian friend or relative you trust unconditionally and have them log in your characters once every two months or something.

This right there is something I wish could be changed. I'm not really holding out any hope. I suspect changing that to remember you were a Praetorian Warden who has become a Primal Hero and still show BOTH alignment icons would be.... non-trivial. But man oh man I wish it would remember these things. And yes, I do say "Warden" and not "Resistance". Not all resistance are heroic, and not all loyalists are villains. I really wish it could capture which of the four you are at the end of the praetoria 1-20, even if it only does so by "you used the mission from Provost Marchand to go to primal earth, so that's Loyalist, but you chose to go to the Rogue Isles, so we're going to say you were POWER, whereas if you had gone to Paragon City we'd tag you as RESPONSIBILITY". Another thing to add to my Endless Wish List Bucket.

I vote Derek!! * For a Clueseau-eque stumblin-bumblin-fumblin his way to herodom! ** * not a real suggestion ** but it would be funny

Well the good news is they have pretty much zero incentive to actually REMOVE any existing animation option. So I imagine Nightfall will always have the pew-pew-pew as the default, whether or not it gains more choices later.

I like Torrent. No, I don't reach for it as a damage power, but KB is still very nice to buy time and act as soft control / mitigation. Yes, when not soloing I take care to use it to shove things into a corner, but an enemy that is on their butt is not attacking you or anyone else. And I just like the look of them being swept away by a black mire. Nightfall, I just wish the animation didn't include the... for lack of a better term... "Dark Bullets". I'd rather an animation that has exactly the same time as it does now, but included one sweep of blackness vs pew-pew-pew with shadow bolts. Still. Animation issues, hopefully, in time, can just be a matter of adding additional choices when the devs think it's a good time to add some.

I ... am probably being contrarian. But I like that the names ARE unique. I get that it can be depressing when you cant' get the exact spelling you want, and that spelling MATTERS to you, either because of historical connections to live or character concept or both. But I'd be a little depressed to join a team of 5 players all names ShieldyMcPunchFace. (or being less snarky, all named Firethorn, or all named Glacier Girl, etc). I kind of like that people have to stretch a bit to think of something.

Just keep in mind, even under the outline I've seen for Name Releasing, if the character is lvl 50, it will not be released. Also, while you may view the name as "your" old Virtue name, it's entirely possible the name was claimed first by someone who sees it as "thier" old Freedom or Guardian or <server goes here> name.

I would like a "Leash" temp power to forcibly drag an escort NPC along even when Steamy Mist or similar AE stealth power is active. Or alternately, an option to bonk the NPC over the head and do the Fireman's Carry with them. None of the others bother me, but I am Map Clearing Fool. Have been ever since Diablo 2, when I was convinced the 1-2 mobs I missed on a map would of course drop the item I most coveted at that moment.

I do not powerlevel, will never powerlevel, and generally disable XP anytime I join a team. It's important to me to control the pace at which my character level, and to feel like each character's journey is under my control. That said. I have nothing against people who do choose to powerlevel. I may look at you askanse from time to time, saying to myself, "okay you just powerlevel and powerslotted 73 toons.... what are you actually going to DO to enjoy the game when you run out of characters to PL?". But it is your decision to powerlevel if that's your thing, not mine. I do not think any changes are needed "to save the game" or "to preserve the health of the game". If some players prove to be flash-in-a-pan and gone, that's their choice. Absolutely nobody is in any way beholden to take any single action to benefit someone else's enjoyment in this game. But I will say, if you can only enjoy this game if you have quick access to 8 man teams at the drop of a hat, I do wonder just how long this game will serve your wants. I find it far easier to become satisfied with the game by focusing on my characters personas, backstories, making choices not on what proves most beneficial but on what FITS that character, etc. I invent personalities for each character, I know which of my characters look up to which, which disdain which, which characters are Serious Business Heroes, and which are superpowered pranksters with a good heart. By so doing, it doesn't MATTER to me if I solo or team at any given moment. And so I'll enjoy this game for the duration. No matter how populated or not the server is.

My thoughts For Overwhelming Overpower (additional control mag), I'd need to play around with it somewhat before I can give a full-throated endorsement. raw proposed numbers don't translate well in my head to the feel of how it would play in practice. But I'm cautiously optimistic that it can be made to work well. For Overwhelming Overkill (chance to insta-defeat), it's simply not a thing that I feel is needed. Killing Bosses and below is not an issue for my Mind/Kin. Even for EB's or AV's, I can dish out enough damage.... if I can reliably establish CONTROL. Now, that said, my Mind Controller is, as stated, MIND/KIN. And Confuse is my hands-down favorite form of control in the game. Between Confuse and Mass Confuse, I do not lack for options to have clouds of foes defeat quickly each other at my behest. And with Terrify and Cross Punch, I don't notice any XP loss at all. It's really the Purple Triangles of Doom that are only brick wall my controller runs face-first into. Single hard targets that can't be reliably controlled but which can take me down in a disturbingly short time. When I'm faced with the Envoy of Shadow, I generally make a sad face and die, until I remember to go get myself a Shivan, speed boost the shivan, spam Transfusion and try to keep the Shivan standing before the Envoy can melt it. If the Shivan dies, I follow within seconds. If not, I win. I find that type of victory terribly unsatisfying, because at that point it's not MY powers making virtually any difference. If I spam cast controls between Tranfusions I can sometimes control the Envoy for approximately 10 seconds before purple triangles take over again and break him free. I get that all developers have been averse to City of Statues if Controls were made tooooo strong. But establishing Control is the only way a Mind Controller can solo anything. So far my solution to this, is grin and bear the use of Shivans for certain edge cases when I'm on a flashback marathon, or teaming. If I have greater ability to lock down through Purple Triangles, even if that ability is ONLY active when truly SOLO, then I'd feel more like I can walk into any missoin, anywhere, and emerge victrorious. That said, "teaming" is not really a dirty word, and it's not the end of the world if the devs decide there is no good solution and some things just require certain combos to team vs solo.

Largely true. However, it's noteworthy that under the current rules, the Lockdown, Chance of +2 Mag Hold is a virtually guaranteed proc in an AE Hold. Now the AE hold is simply not going to be up every spawn. Even with really good +Recharge. There's limits. And it's still not going to be enough for an EB / AV. But it does make for a nice opener against a regular bosspack. And certain control sets can do Hold - Sleep - Hold, and the sleep will park a boss for long enough to get that second single target Hold off. If Confuse / Decieve is on the table, I believe most single target Confuses are non-aggroing. Soloing, My Mind/Kin will AE Hold (if it's up), Fulcrum Shift, followed by Terror / Psychic Toranado to tag all foes with damage OR AE Sleep, Confuse boss, Confuse Boss, Fulcrum Shift, Terror, Psychic Toranado, Then standard single target lockdowns and Crosspunch

It's been true if every MMO ever. Gnome Warriors were legendary anklebiters in EverQuest.

While it's not related to naming, for headcanon purposes, I've always pictured it that when my Peacebringer talks, you hear both voices, a human voice and an alien voice, in stereo.