MTeague

I think the harder part would be flags that need three or more colors. CoH typically only does two-color costume pieces. also, most costume pieces can be re-recolored. if it's a costume piece like any other, then don't be offended if the Red, White, and Blue suddenly ends up being Pink, Cream, and Aqua for someone's chest emblem. Because sight unseen, SOMEONE will do it. Sure as the sun will rise in the east. Personally I wouldn't have a problem with that, but statistically speaking, there will be X many who flip at the sight of it.

You definitely START that mission as a Lackey. I mean, you're literally being hired byArachnos to run an errand for them. However it ends much much better, as they realize their "hired help" has an agenda of their own.

Ah, Thaddius.... the positive / negative fight? that was fun. I more enjoyed the fight before the fight though. Dealing with teh two smaller things that would peroidcally fling the tanks to the other platform. I was one of tanks, and my tanking buddy and I had a macro setup to /wave at the other and chat "High Five!" as we went zipping past each other in the air.

Everyone with Katanas and Dual Blades and Battle Axes seems to think its "De-Feet All".

At least for me, it has nothing to do with whether current players are fickle or not, nothing to do with whether they read the mission text or not. I know me. I get very much sucked into thinking if I join some group, I should be focused on what's best for that group, and trying to help out people that group, even to the detriment of my own personal enjoyment. This was a good attitude to have during the heydays of EQ-Progression-Raiding or WoW-Progression-Raiding. You needed to have hordes of people all logging on at the same time, all team focused, all trying to properly coordinate some pretty tricky mechanics (less so for EQ, much more so for WoW), and some bosses might take the better part of 4 weeks at 3 nights a week, 5 hours a night, just to finally get to the point of defeating that boss ONCE. Once you got over that hump the first time most people were good at remembering it and doing it right next time, but oh god, guildleaders there had to be MASTERS of Herding Cats, and tamping down egos and dramaqueens. I still get nostalgic about it. A lot. But I can never allow myself to sign up for anything remotely like that, ever again. It's my own personal line drawn in my own sand to say "Nope, served my time. From here on out, no more guilds. No more obligations. No more pre-booked anything. I load up whatever game I feel like, only when I feel like it, only for a as long as I feel like it." Other than CoH, I really only do single-player games now. Very occasionally some co-op stuff with my brother if he wants a Steam Achievement for something.

Limitations: you cannot have an Ancillary Power Pool AND a Patron Pool on the same character at the same time. You can respec back and forth, but you cannot choose both at once. (This may be why you're not seeing an option for Electrical Mastery) Widows and Soldiers can never choose Ancillary Power Pools, ONLY Patron Pools. Peacebringers and Warshades don't get either one. Many may chafe at these limits, but that is the way it's coded. Patron Pools: are the same pools.... Mu Mastery, Soul Mastery, Leviathan Mastery, Mace Mastery. Exactly which powers you get varies by Archtype. these all require a story arc to unlock (Begins at Arbiter Rein in Grandville). but once you do any one of arcs, that means that character can choose from any Patron Pool during any respc. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Patron_Power_Pools Ancillary Pools: Not every archtype is going to have "Electrical Mastery" as an option. So does depend on your AT. They become available at lvl 35 (unless you're a widow/soldier/peacebringer/warshade, or already chose a Patron Pool) https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Ancillary_Power_Pools

To be fair, that issue isn't lack of ZONES. It's lack of varied CONTENT. I think @Yoru-hime is spot-on here. We need new villain story arcs, spanning different aspects of villainy. I'm fine with it if the "Contact" for such arcs is something like a tip as opposed to a regular contact we run back to. Maybe each mission complete, it removes that tip and adds the next tip for the "arc"?That might help keep the immersion factor going that it's YOU planning it, not Marshall Brass, etc. We have plenty of arcs where the character is a simple brute looking to smash to make a profit. Those stand well on there own, so please do not bother creating any similar arcs until there's a better parity of content. Villain story arcs where the player is making a grab for power.... ON THEIR OWN BEHALF. Not something to strengthen Arachnos. Not helping Victor Von Grunn do mad science, so that HE can have a devouring earth army (seriously, what's my motivation to help a potential rival like that?) Not for something as simple or tawdry as coin. But something where I'm looking to become king of the hill. lower level arcs, maybe you just flatten some lower level rivals... Family, Legacy Chain, etc. mid-level example: what If *I* find out about the ChonroMetroTron and make a play for it? Sure I can't get it, or if I do, I'll find out Penelope Yin already told it not to work, but hey, what villain wouldn't at least make a go for that? Again, not for Arbiter Sands, not for Arachnos, but for for personal power. lvl 50 ish, I'd want to actually attempt to DEPOSE Recluse. Or attempt something Darrin-Wade style that would make Arachnos entirely irrelevant. Even if I have to be predestinted to fail, scripted to be defeated, and then permitted to live to savor my defeat, or allowed to live out of respect that I'd had the stones to make the attempt. At least let me TRY, even if I have to be thwarted by a railroat plot twist. Villain Or Rogue arcs to build an alliance of NPC's. like Echinacea, or Polar Shift, maybe even Flamebeaux. And Definitely Zephyr and Crosscut. Those guys were fun to work with. I'm "meh" on the rest of the Hearts of Darkness but Zephyr and Crosscut? Yes please use them more. And make sure to give me OPTIONS during the arc. Give ME the choice to honor the alliance if my villain values his word of honor, or options to betray the alliance, if I'm more "thank you for being a useful idiot". I'm seeing this mostly in a Magneto-y way where he builds up his Brotherhood of Mutants. It would allow each villain player to have his own personal timeline where THEY get to be the big bad organizing it. Some Revenge Arcs would be good, but.... those are tricky. Everyone's villain is going to have their own motivation for what they want to strike down, and why, and the why may be several times more important than the what.

I haven't done much interactive roleplaying since my tabletop pen-and-paper gaming days. 1990-ish. I'd at least be interested to get my feet wet with it, test the waters, <insert metaphor here>. I don't know if I'd enjoy it on a recurring basis. I guess it depends how it all works, what others players are expecting of me during such an event.

Some thread necromancy for sure. But hey, why not. The topic can still be of interest, and the older posts no less valid. I will probably never join a "real" SG. I made my own SG just so my characters would be joined as "already belonging to a SG" so I could stop getting invites and needing to decline them. It's just.... after 4 years of being in a EverQuest guild... and then 8 years of being in a WoW guild.... no, I'm sorry. I'm done with guilds. I have zero interest in any kind of "Guild Activites" or "Guild Events". I feel no great desire to have lots of "guild chat" going on. I do not want to powerlevel my characters, and I have no interest in helping PL anyone else's. I wish them well, just don't look at me as a resource to that end. I do not "raid" anymore. iTrials hold very little interest for me. I'll do some here or there, but story arcs and alting are what drives me. I am allergic to anything even close to a whiff of a regularly scheduled group. I'll team when the mood strikes me, and generally I always enjoy it. But EQ and WoW both ended up becoming full time jobs, and I found them becoming a recurring obligation that was beginning to control my life. Never again. Never. I'm content to operate on a PUG basis, night-by-night, if I choose to log on that evening.

Poison is a fun set, and you get some very strong debuffs pretty early, so I really like @Strawberry and @Peacemoon's idea of leveraging that from the thread title. Masterminds: If I was going to do an MM in Praetoria, I'd need something where the minions are not human. The power should reside in MY character, not them, or otherwise why didn't they get conscripted into Powers Division as their own character? So I would avoid Thugs, Mercs, Ninjas. But I could still justify Beasts, Demons, Necromancy, and Robots. Corruptors: Stronger Blasts, weaker debuffs. And Scourge might save you if you're an idjit like me who likes doing +2 with bosses when soloing Praetoria. Some of those laser-guided ambushes get....nasty. Defender: Stronger debuffs, weaker blasts. I'd be leery of soloing a defender in Praetoria. Esp if you have stronger enemies and not enough slots yet to really proc-monster your way through things. Controller: Now, we're talking. Oh, I know, I know. Controllers are even Less Damage at low lvl than Defenders you're saying. Well. Kinda. But if you do a set that gets a Confuse.... like, say, Mind or Dark, or Plant....then those really strong Praetoria bosses will be on your side and help you mop up the ambushes. So my vote is Mind/Poison Controller. Honorable mention for Plant and Dark, but Plant much as I love it, Seeds of Confusion may not recharge fast enough to stack it on bosses. So if you use solo bosses = Yes, the bosses may hurt quite a bit. On Mind, Confuse should definitely cycle fast enough to stack confuses.

Well if you want to hand me more rewards I won't exactly refuse them. I've never needed much motivation beyond "it's fun" to do them. Although I admit, I solo them much more often than team them. Especially the low level ones (Atlas Bank/Kings Bank).

I accept that this can be true. "almost always".... maybe I'm giving people the benefit of too much doubt, but I want to say you're reading way too much into what people post/chat. In any event, if you feel there are posters / people in chat who fit this profile, probably the best thing is just add them to an ignore list. Bam. For one right click on their name, they're out of your life. Trying to "prove" entrapment in a game chat arena ... difficult to say the least. I understand why the GM's would be loathe to take action. They'd essentially have to become Praetorian Seers, acting as thought police and trying "read in" what someone "probably" meant. They'd have to assume guilt until proven innocence to make any kind of dent in this behavior and but the cure would be worse than the disease.

It's not, but I think it should be Strike Force Tributa. Why? Because it's "taxes" (more or less) in Latin And Death is "Morte". And the mission is given by Mortimer Kal. so you can get the whole "nothing is certain but Death and Taxes" going on 🙂

Someone posted the same general idea regarding the [Body Armor] power. At the time, I opposed the idea. On further review, I was wrong. Back in the day, I think this made sense for it to exist exactly as it was. It was a lower dmg resist. but it was still the two most common damage types and it was FREE, always on, could not even be detoggled by an enemy. And, for many many many issues, Blasters DID have to contend with Endurance issues. Nukes with Crashes, etc. Body Armor was a nice alternative to an toggle with an END cost, at that point in history, Now? With Blasters..... basicallly not having END issues anymore? I suspect the vast bulk of the player base would gladly swap it out for a toggle that either also included another couple of damage types, OR, reamined Smashing/Lethal only, but with higher numbers for Smashing/Lethal. Would everyone agree to that? Probably not. There's always that one guy. (and frequently, it's me 🙂 ). I suspect some, perhaps particularly in PvP-land, may appreciate that it's an Auto-Power and cannot be de-toggled. But I think there's probably a good case to be made that this no longer cuts the mustard in a world where blasters have crashless nukes and end recovery toggles.

QFT: soloing, as a controller, you should be able to lock most things down fast enough, unless you're trying for x8's or something. And when you're NOT soloing? Well, then either the team likely has a tank or brute to take most of the brunt, and you don't need to worry about everythign targetting you, OR, the team probably has other support classes who may be handing out Defense buffs anyway. I don't really need to have all 45% defense be native to MY character. Just "close enough" that the FF Bubbles, or Ice Bubbles, or Widows, or stacked Manuevers, or Traps FF Bubble, or Steamy Mist, or Shadow Fall, or something, can make up the rest. Heck, I don't even care if "the rest" comes from a bunch of Dark Blasting or Darkest Night or Hurricane. As long as the equation comes out right, it's all good.

To the OP though. Okay... sure.... I don't think those are the only categories you could draw, but if for the sake of the argument you wanted to run with them.... fine. So what? Okay. People want different things out of a game. Why is that a bad thing? Admittedly, the small volunteer dev team we have cannot satisfy everyone with all that they want. If anyone was expecting that they could, well, they were being foolish, and they will have opportunities to temper their expectations as months and years go by. It can be a good life lesson for them to reflect that you can't always get what you want. There will be some changes I like, some changes I look at and wish it were undone. I already look askance at half of "Help" chat who are constantly asking what's the "best" powersets for a given AT, or who ask what's the "best" way to pile up inf or merits, and shake my head saying "okay, same planet, different worlds." Because my stock answer, which they are entirely un-interested in, is that "Best" NEVER MATTERS in this game, just pick something you have fun with. And okay, if you get all the "Best" characters and rush them all to 50 and gear them all up.... then what? If you're a powergamer, do you just stop playing the game beacuse you've done it all? Why not take time, level slowly, and enjoy the trip? Again, "Same Planet, Different Worlds". What I value is clearly not what they value, and vice versa. I don't really need to convince them, and they don't need to convince me. I will say if you want to bring back some serrrrious endgame progression challenge to the game, best bet is grab 7 others who feel the same way, and start using things like "No Enhancements" challenges. Or rules that, for these characters, No IO sets, period. You do it oldschool style. Levelling vs +2 mobs with bosses. Will the rest of the world be facing the same challenge? No. But why should you care? If you have a serious challenge you have fun with, what's it matter if someone else is facerolling a win? Like a soldier or artist who simply doesnt' care about the opinions of civilians who do not and will not ever get it, you don't need to care if other people want other things out of the game than what you want.

That cat is like "I will destroy you, human. You have to sleep sometime, and I will waiting."

generally you can get +Def as a 5 or 6 slot bonus to many Control IO sets. Maybe your ATO's, maybe Hold sets (Lockdown), maybe a Confuse Set (Malaise?), etc. And of course the two +3% defense all uniques. And likely Combat Jumping or Stealth. Weave or Manuevers are also options for more. I do not have my controller actually softcapped vs ranged defense. But +30% defense still takes an *awful lot* off the top, and *enough* of the enemies miss him that he can lay down controls and stop most mobs from ever getting a second or third attack. I also have like +55% resist to a few common damage types (smashing/lethal/psi), somewhat less if I exemplar down too low and don't get my epic armor toggle.

My priority for set bonuses +Recharge is top priority unless you're /Kin, then it's #2, because Kin will already get boatloads of +Recharge from using Siphon Speed on Cooldown. +Ranged Defense is next, unless you're /Kin. If you are /Kin, +Ranged Defense is 1 and the Recharge is 2 +Acc to All Powers is a tasty third priority. Missing Sucks, esp if you're trying to stack lots of Hold mag on an EB/AV. then probably Melee and AoE defense then +Max HP then +Max End +Resist is never a bad thing, but it's more target-of-oppurtunity, squeaking it in where I can. exception: the Shield Wall +5% res all and Reactive Armor Scaling Damage Resist (minimum of +3% res all) are both Too Good not to slot.

I missed Armstrong's walk on the moon. Born in 1970. But Columbia and Enterprise and Challenger I remember quite well. I always did want to see Rush perform "Countdown" live as well, but the concerts i made it to never included that particular track. Great song though.

I'd settle for a building with windows you could look outside of, and see an approximately correct landscape in. Or an office building with Stairs as well as elevators, and the stairwells and elevators are right on top of each other. But since those will never happen 🙂 Moon + Moonbase map. As soon as you enter it, you are constantly under the effect of Inertial Reduction.

Psychic Shock Wave immediately leaped to mind.

Why do they all have to get the power at the exact same lvl? Some controllers get AE hold at 18.... some at 26. Some tanks get their AE quite early.... some quite late. What's really wrong with a bit of variety? I suspect though, it was a question of what power would you give them earllier, and/or just a question of what the OLD powerset looked like, BEFORE they gave each blasters secondary a +Recovery power. They likely just picked a toggle or click power to grant the effect to, and decided that would cause less disruption, AND require less enforced respecs, than if they actually shifted around what level you get each power at.

Oh god I can only hear the Village People in my head. Time to pour a large drink.

Wait, I thought company softball, you swung the bat one handed and carried your beer with you as you ran from home to first. Which slowed you down, but every infielder had to manage their beers too....