EmperorSteele

If I had my way, the technical expertise, and the time? *Fix up all the old messy textures. I don't mean adding bumpmaps and shading, but just getting rid of the pixelization, visible seams, and blurring that occurs on some of them. *Have the player be able to select a travel power at level 1; Have the player gain an additional enhancement slot on leveling up sooner, for a total of 3 extra. *Re-scale the difficulty so that a single player could NOT reliably solo at +4/x8. Players should start needing a team well before that point. *In tandem with the above, allow the difficulty to go up to +5/x10. *Rebalance the existing Incarnate slots. Alpha and Hybrid are fine IMO (though non-Assault Hybrids should be brought in line to make them more attractive), but Judgement and Destiny are too stronk. Lore is all over the place, and I'd want to bring all the Lores in line with one another. *Add a new special type of SO that partially ignores ED, giving minmaxers/powergamers an additional option for builds besides just IOs and HOs. *Add a GTA V style heist mission for redside. It would involve gathering intel, getting a crew, making a plan, executing it, capping off with a car chase and escape. Actually have it pay out a large amount of inf/loot for successful completion (which scales down after getting the badge to disincentivize farming it). Granted, the car chase portion makes no sense, since you can fly/run at super speed/jump hella high/teleport/etc. But hey, pipe dreams, right?

Thank you for my new favorite word, Mister Moogly!

I don't think the devs are gonna appreciate you just posting the sauce code like that! =P

This has always bugged me, too! Figured I was just being OCD or something. Would be nice if it were fixed.

So hey, does this mission grant the "Entrusted With the Secret" badge? Since it involves time travel and actually takes place in Ouroboros?

I'm back and forth on this. Greycat brings up some good points, but also, some of those points could be used as arguments against existing ATOs, or even sets. For example, one of the Controller ATOs summons a little pet that hassles enemies. No one else gets that. If I want it, I have to roll a Controller. Want chance for Toxic damage in all your attacks? Roll an Arachnos Soldier. Hold sets have lots of damage procs, but, not everyone gets access to a Hold power. I like the idea of origin mattering more, but, I also know from experience why that might bite some people in the rear. When I first rolled my main on Live, I had put her as a Mutant... after doing the Crey arcs, I retconned her to Science, but I didn't want the scrap my 40 levels of progress. So she stayed "Mutant" until the Sundown. When I re-rolled her on HC, I made the retcon "official". Point is, I probably would have been a a bit annoyed if somehow there was some mechanical benefit or downside to re-rolling her for origin purposes. Though on HC, getting a re-rolled character back to 50 wouldn't be a huge problem, so maybe this isn't too huge of an issue? Anyway, this game is one where RP choices generally don't affect the mechanical parts of the game, or vice-versa. Having a character that wears armor doesn't make them tougher, you have to get a power for that. The rocket jump boots don't actually let you jump higher. Wings don't automatically let you fly. Origin, while providing players with a unique power -which isn't so unique anymore thanks to START vendors-, is generally more of a flavor thing, especially since the entire idea of it affecting which contacts you get and which enemies you fight was quickly depreciated early on. And the Origin power pools... I forget if they were originally origin locked, and if/when that was changed. But anyway, now, any origin can pick any origin pool, but still only one. So, yeah, I'm kinda mixed. More options is always good, and it's not like people who don't partake will be seriously punished or nerfed in comparison. There's a tiny handful of people who might be miffed that they get a few less DPS than another character built exactly the same because of their different origins, but I don' think that's enough to make this a no-go. That said, it does go against the general direction/philosophy that the current devs have been operating under, so, I'm not sure of the viability.

I hadn't considered that, good call! Do you think it probably be more beneficial to give the set more straight up resistance debuffs, then, as opposed to trying for something fancy, in order to make up for this? Or would that be stepping on Sonic's toes (the blast set, not the hedgehog)? Or maybe the one debuff power in the set should have larger numbers attached?

"Toxic" is a damage type in the game, but there's not really a damage set based primarily around that damage type, unlike for say, Fire, Ice, energy/negative energy, etc. So, heck, let's fix that! This is a Blast set for Blasters, Defenders, Corruptors, and Sentinels. You use slimes, oozes, noxious gases, and more, to inflict pain and discomfort on your enemies. But, everything's gotta have a gimmick these days, right? So, for Toxic, how about "Poison Counters". The more poison counters an entity has, the more it will be affected by other debuffs and mez effects. Each power will have a different chance to apply a counter to an affected target, based on how easy it would be to stack the effect and how powerful the ability is otherwise. Poison Counter: Lasts for 30 seconds. Each stack of Poison on a creature makes Accuracy, Defense, Regeneration, Recharge Rate, Resistance, and Slow debuffs used against them 5% more powerful, Endurance drain effects 5% more potent, and mez effects last 5% longer. An entity can have up to 5 stacks of poison counters at a time. Most of the attacks would deal their full damage via DoT, but otherwise, would be close to a typical blast set. I also imagine the blasts looking like streams of toxic sludge or poison gas, instead of being delivered via needles like some existing toxic powers in the game. Quick Toxin: You lob a softball-sized ball of slime at an enemy, dealing a small amount of toxic damage. Damage: Light (Ranged/Toxic). Recharge: 2s. Chance for Poison: 10% Toxic Tendril: You unleash a stream of chemicals right towards your opponent's face, hoping they choke on it. Damage: 3 ticks of Ranged/Toxic damage over 1.5 seconds, totaling to a Moderate amount. Recharge: 4s. Chance for Poison (per tick): 5% Horrid Breath: You burp out a noxious toxin in a 90 cone in front of you, affecting a max of 12 creatures up to 30 feet away. Enemies who already have Poison Counters may be rendered helpless for a few moments as they are forced to vomit (5% chance per counter; vomiting will remove all existing counters). Damage: Moderate Ranged AoE/Toxic. Recharge: 16s. Chance for Poison: None on targets that already have poison counters, otherwise, 7.5%. Forced Ejection: Your hands erupt with a powerful, concentrated blast of hardened sludge. The forced of the blow may knock weaker enemies down or away from you. Damage: High Ranged Smashing/Toxic. Recharge: 10s. Chance for Poison: 10%. Contagious Contaminant: You launch a glob of slime at a foe, which explodes on impact, dealing splash damage to other nearby foes (within 15 feet). Damage: 5 ticks of Ranged Toxic Damage over 3 seconds, totaling to a High amount. Recharge: 16s. Chance for Poison (per tick): 5%. Surge: You let your toxins build up pressure to make your next few attacks more potent. For 10 seconds, you have +50% ToHit, +50% damage, and the chance for Poison counters on each hit is doubled. Recharge: 90s. Toxic Gas Cloud: You summon a cloud of deadly gasses and contaminants to fill a 20' area within 80' of you. Foes within this area will be slowed (-25% run speed), take light toxic DoT, and will have a high chance of getting poison counters, as well (20% every 3 seconds). Note that some foes may try to escape the cloud, ala rain of fire. Recharge: 60s. Corrosive Sludge: This volatile mixture of chemicals will burn or melt most substances. Does not poison a target, but instead will debuff their defense (15%) and resistance (10%) for a short time while dealing damage (values shown are Defender numbers). Damage: Moderate Toxic DoT over 10 seconds, totaling to a High amount. Recharge: 45 seconds. Patient Zero: You mix a volatile concoction within yourself, which explodes, dealing a large amount of damage to nearby foes (within 25'), and making the immediate area hazardous to any remaining foes. You are left weakened by the explosion, but most foes may elect to retreat instead of taking advantage of your weakened state. Damage: High PBAoE Toxic damage, followed by Moderate Toxic DoT for 6 seconds (12 ticks; only lasts as long as foes remain in area). The initial burst has a 25% chance to poison affected enemies, with each tick of DoT having a 15% chance. Self: -500% endurance recovery for 5 seconds. Recharge: 145 seconds. Some notes: I'm fairly sure an idea like this has come up before, but a quick search didn't show anything recent. The % for the poison counters is somewhat arbitrary. I don't think it's necessary for a minon to have to get 5 poison counters, they'd be dead well before that happens, even if the chance was 100%. It's more to help with Bosses, EBs, and AVs. I imagine it should be doable to get/maintain 5 poison counters on a strong foe for the 30 seconds they persist, but it shouldn't be like "bam bam boom, ok, max counters!". I would want players to work for it a little. I also wanted the Poison effect to only really be noticeable after about 3 stacks or so. It's supposed to be a bonus/incentive for maintaining fire on a target, but not something you absolutely NEED for the set to work. I figured an effect that enhances debuffs would be more interesting than just... debuffing the foe. Not super powerful on its own, but if you're a Toxic Blaster on a team of Defenders... congratulations, YOU'RE the force multiplier now! I had originally worked out that different ATs would have a different chance to apply the poison effect, or have different values... however, that would make things complicated. What would happen if you had a Toxic blast Defender and a Toxic Blast Blaster both attacking the same foe? Also, Blaster debuff values are so low, that the 25% debuff potency wouldn't amount to anything game-breaking. So, decided to keep it all simple, and let their default damage/debuff values speak for themselves. There's no snipe. I... kinda lost the plot on that. I suppose "Forced Ejection" could be shifted to T8 and made into the snipe, but I figured a soft control (KD) would be more beneficial earlier in a hero's (or villain's) career. I also don't think a snipe fits thematically with this set? But, w/e, I'm not married to the idea that a set doesn't need a snipe. My initial concept for this was just slime blasts, but then gasses and liquids came into play, and... I can see how a set like this would be used to make gross concept characters, so maybe it's a non-starter. Though, that kind of concern didn't stop the devs (current and OG) from making water-based powersets, so, maybe "what some people MIGHT do" isn't too huge of a concern? Any thoughts on how this could be improved?

I dunno about Mind Control, espeially paired with Kin. I only say that because, as my Main, I'd call that combo more of a blaster than an MM. If you want to go Mind, I'd reccomend a secondary that debuffs enemy resistance. Kin works against Mind in this regard as you're making your foes weaker and less able to defeat one another. Either that, or get as many AoEs as possible to leverage all your extra damage. Also, if your whole idea is confusing FF generators, Malta Sappers, and Ritki Guardians for thier buffs and debuffs, get ready for the dissapointment that comes from your team targeting them before they can do anything for you. I'd probably just echo Illu or Plant.

I think the issue is Time Ratio. I COULD start my character off doing Mathew Hashbey's arc, and after an hour or so, be level 4. Or I can do a DFB in 10 minutes and end up at level 6 or higher. Per Ivan above, Katie Hannon takes like 20 minutes. ASF is a solid hour, more if you're on a less-than-stellar PuG. I love almost everything about it, except the run time, and the fact that since it's a TF, people just want to blitz through and don't care about the dozens of easter eggs, lore bits, and side-missions. Of course, since the more interesting bits of it are literally TIMED, I get the anxiety to get through it all. Yes, the ASF rewards are generally much better, but you have a non-0 chance of getting an acc/mez enhancement and feeling like you've utterly wasted your time. This is why the ITF is popular. It's just 4 missions, and doesn't require you to do much except mindlessly murd- er, arrest(?) everyone from point A to point B, and even then, half of them can be skipped. We're all old and busy and may not have the time or energy to take more than an hour to do something.

No, but it may be rude to do so without asking first, though I'm sure most guys wouldn't have a problem wi- ...oh, wow, wait, I think I misread the title. Nvmnd >_<

If you folks think a dual-trademark on a generic word is bad, look into the history of the Comics Cide Authority. Short version: when the US gov't threatened to come down hard on the comics industry for all of the objectionable content (as well as a scathing report from a quack child psychologist), Marvel and DC (and Archie too, I suppose) came up with a set of "rules" as a compromise. If a book didn't follow these rules, it couldn't be sold at newsstands (the only place to get comics back in the day; dedicated Comic Book stores didn't exist yet). Rules like "no sex, drugs, or realistic violence", "good guys must always win", "no gays", "no books with Terror or Horror in the title", etc. All of this was aimed at putting EC comics (publisher of books such as "Tales from the Crypt") out of business. They self-censored themselves just to get rid of a rival company. Getting the government's OK to continue doing business was just the icing on the cake.

I dunno about all this... Thing is, Gold Titles have some kind of intrinsic value due to their rarity. You see that someone has one, and it's like "Ooh, shiny! Me want!". If the Devs/GMs/whatever gave titles to everyone who wanted them, they'd no longer stand out, and would lose that "value". Though I wouldn't argue with them running more events/chances to earn those titles. Just don't think they should be obligated to treat them like Oprah handing out bees.

Hey, at least I got on the top 5! I probably woulda had more kills, but noticed I was picking on mostly under-leveled characters and didn't think that was fair, so I turned my attention to Fio... who caused four, if not all five, of my deaths XD

I just craft what I think I might want later, or something that I know will sell if I end up deciding I don't want it. I wonder how many others do the same, and thus don't need to rely on the market as much, thus making it harder for sellers to make a buck?