PaxArcana

Yep. As with most MMOs, "low population" is a death spiral. 😢

So, I can see one detail already, that was not apparent from just the "total playerbase" numbers: the popularity of Robotics, as a Mastermind primary, is becoming less and less overwhelming over time. Level 50 (total 3,284) Robotics: 1,067 (32.5%) Demon Summoning: 634 (19.3%) Level 32-49 (total 6,756) Robotics: 1,981 (29.3%) Demon Summoning: 1,262 (18.7%) Level 2-31 (total 79,504) Robotics: 19,125 (24.9%) Demon Summoning: 16,713 (21.0%) So, the lead over the second place starts at 13.2%, then declines to 10.6% and finally a statistically-negligible 3.9% in the next two brackets. 🙂

You. Are. AWESOME!!!one!!!!11!!!eleven!!

Fair enough.

... I have a question. How exactly are they going to know you have fewer hitpoints? Sure, sure, if they take the time to scroll through your badges, they'll see you don't have the accolades. But that's time they'e spent scrolling through your badges, not fighting you, not even dodging very effectively. And they can't know what your IO slotting looks like. Maybe you have enough set bonusses that you actually have 5% more hitpoints, or something ...

I had (deleted it since) a character whose concept was "power armor / miniature 'mecha": Sokohime (literally, "armor(ed) princess". An 11-year-old girl piloting a suit of power armor. I used the Huge body type, made it look robotic, and called it a day. 🙂 (I had a similar character way back on Live, 'cept she was 13, in order to fit with the theme of the SG I made her for.)

Well, let me explain why I chose those level ranges, and maybe it'll become more worth the effort to you, at some point in the future. 🙂 Level 1 ... most of these characters aren't being played. Oh, you'll surely catch some who were just created, but if there's a lot of them, then most are just being parked on a good name, or similar. Levels 2-19 ... these actually got some playtime, and were at least used to get a feel for an AT and/or powerset combination. You can hit the mid to upper teens with only a few hours' play, if you grab a +100%XP and do several DFB runs. Levels 20-39, 40-49 ... could maybe be lumped into a single category, as these represent characters actively being played. Or coulc be split at a different point (32, as you mentioned). Level 50 ... kind of self-explanatory, I should think: these are the guys doing End-Game content. Basically ... I want to see how many of each of those ATs, powersets, etc are actually being played, and especially, played past where DFB can quickly get you ... as opposed to name-hoarding, and the like.

First, define this term. Do you mean, all new characters ...? If so, I say "hard pass". Do you mean, only a given player's first character? If so ... I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I also won't actively oppose it. Yet. 🙂

Presuming the database even existed, and could be accessed without the privacy concerns proving true (no small feat, that) ... one assumes that the mechanic to reclaim characters would be similar to transferring characters from one server to another, here. Of course, even if all of that happened ... you'd still have to remember your old login credentials. No credentials, no luck, sorry.

... well, damn. Here I was, all ready to open my wallet, and .... 😞 ah well. 🙂 HUGE THANKS to all the players who were quicker off the mark than I wasn't. 🙂

I'm drooling for Utility Belt, myself. 🙂

I think you have to complete Jim Temblor's story arcs before being offered Yin as a contact, in order to do the one you've linked to. That same prerequisite (do Temblor's arcs) could be in place via Orobouros ...?

So, basically ... a Robotics/Traps MM.

A couple of those pools, I really really REALLY want. Fingers crossed, right? 🙂

... none of whom have especially-deep pockets, AFAICT. Now picture if one of the bigger publishers came up to them and said, "we'd like to invest" ... 🙂

This one really burns me. Have these fools never heard of libraries ...? Or, get a bunch of friends with similar reading tastes. Everybody buys one, DIFFERENT, book. When everyone's done, "pass your books one space to the left", until you get your own book handed back to you. Plus, used book stores are still a thing.

I did, mostly because when on a team, I could keep just the Brute/Tank bubbled (which is what I was doing that night). Or, especially when solo, if my Assault Bot started taking a bit more heat than I liked, I could bubble him up and keep him alive longer. Usually long enough for the Protectors (and myself) to top up his green bar again. ... the need to optimize-or-GTFO like you basically describe/infer, is why I pretty much stayed the hell away from Dungeons and similar content, for my entire tenure in WoW (through to the then-level cap of 100, and then for about one month of Legion).

When you have pets in Bodyguard, you share out damage with them. Each pet takes 1 share; the MM takes 2 shares. A single pet takes 1 out of 3 shares, for an effective 33% damage resistance Two pets take 2 out of 4 shares, for an effective 50% damage resistance Three pets take 3 out of 5 shares, for an effective 60% damage resistance Four pets take 4 out of 6 shares, for an effective 67% damage resistance Five pets take 5 out of 7 shares, for an effective 71% damage resistance Six pets take 6 out of 8 shares, for an effective 75% damage resistance ... so, like I said, with all six pets out, that's essentially 75% damage resistance.

I'd like to see a breakdown that was split up into ... Level 1 Levels 2-19 Levels 20-39 Levels 40-49 Level 50

A possibility for regular fundraising, would be a subscription system, with tiers. Something like: For free ("Bronze"), you get: 10 character slots unlimited playtime For $2/month ("Silver"), you get: 30 character slots new characters can start in Praetoria new characters start with a 50% increase in Merit rewards for 3 days For $5/month ("Gold"), you get: 50 character slots new characters may start off as EATs and VEATs (otherwise, they are unlocked the old-fashioned way) new characters start with a 100% increase in Merit rewards for 5 days new characters start with a 50% increase to earned Influence for 5 days You could also separate out costume pieces, somewhat. Like, at Bronze you get everything that was free for owners of CoH and CoV during Live; Silver gets half of the remaining pieces; Gold gets tthe rest, including the CE parts. And then, you could reinstate the Loyalty program. Bronze players don't accumulate time at all, while Silver players accrue time at 1:1 and Gold players at 2:1 rates. 🙂 I'd definitely pitch in at the $2 level, maybe even the $5 level. 🙂

This is not accurate. Tabula Rasa launched on 2 November 2007, went free-to-play on 10 January 2009, and closed for good on 28 February 2009. Issues 9 and 10 were released during the closed Beta of TR. Issues 11, 12, and 13 were released while TR was Live. And Issue 14 released less than two weeks after TR shut down (meaning, it was in development while TR was still in operation). At no time during this period were any CoX servers closed, to the best of my recollection. And afterwards, issues 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 were released. Issue 24 was in development, when City of Heroes/Villains closed down in November of 2012 ... just over three full years after Tabula Rasa shut down. To quote Mark Twain, "Get your facts straight first, Sir; then you may twist them to your heart's content."

/JRanger And I say that as a player who considers Mastermind to be THE Archetype to play - it's my favorite, it's the first 50 I ever got back on Live, and I have three of them now (out of eight alts who've survived "the Great Purge" of sub-20 characters I've lost interest in). Bodyguard works out to being 75% resistance to everything, while all six pets are in play. Not even Tanks get that. And what's worse, any actual resistance they get (set bonusses, buffs, Incarnate powers, PPPs, whatever) is multiplicative with that 75% ... not additive-and-capped, like it is for every other Archetype. Exactly so. BG mode was made, because MM players - myself included - were having nigh-insurmountable problems against scripted ambushes (where the enemy starts off already strongly aggro'd against a character, and beelines for them). We didn't have any tools to use, to survive those, except eating half a tray of inspirations and praying. So, Bodyguard was conceived of, to give us an option to spend our henchmen's HP to keep our own selves un-faceplanted, at least until those henchmen could pull the aggro off of our character. That very loss of fine control theOP bemoans, is part of the cost of having such an astoundingly-good survival mechanism.

.... that is an excellent implementation. Damned shame it wasn't thought about back on Live...!!

There are bad players in EVERY archetype. ANY player you invite, could be the guy who dooms the team to repeated faceplanting. ... By the by? I wasn't "brilliant" as a Mastermind - not that night, nor in general. I just wasn't bad at it.

.... now, THIS is a good idea. 🙂 It will get my unreserved +1 ...!