PaxArcana

I know that very, very, very well. Like I said, i have an anxiety disorder. A bad one. Nearly crippling. (Which is probably a large part of my attraction to the superhero genre, come to think of it.) My point was that I handle stress and anxiety about as badly as is humanly possible, without being permanently institutionalized. And yet, here I am ... feeling very zen about the future of HC. What will be will be, and I cannot change that outcome. Normally I'd be beside myself, an absolute wreck, at that thought. :shrug: So yes, if I can manage it ... then nearly anyone who isn't permanently institutionalized, should be able to as well. 🙂

Should put this in Bug Reports. More likely to be seen by the right pair of eyes, and all. 🙂

There was a thing about this, on the top of the forum window, this morning - since I'd already been to this thread, I just closed it without reading all of it. But ... this forum has the ability to force acknowledgement of certain notices (especially, moderator warnings). Either you click the "I acknowledge" button or you can't do diddly. Maybe that could be adapted to work for important news, like the issues with the patch today?

Just because I disagree with you - even strongly - does not mean I'm "making you the bad guy". It just means, I disagree with you. To be plain: I think you are making mountains out of molehills. Be calm. Be zen. Your blood pressure may thank you for it. What will be, will be. The who and how of the negotiations aren't worth worrying about - and this, coming from a guy with an actual, diagnosed nonspecific anxiety disorder. (Meaning, I tend to worry the hell out of anything, at the drop of a hat.) If I can be zen about the future of HC, literally anyone can. Trust me on that.

That sounds like your client didn't update; it's still the version from June 5th, not the version we were patched up to, today. Maybe you're using the wrong manifest ...? If you're sure you've got the right manifest, try re-validating the files (no clue how that would work on Mac - but the Windows version of Tequila, it's [Options], then select [Re-Validate] at the bottom of the popup).

To add to srmalloy's post: that is one of the reasons why asymmetrical costume options were touted as such a big deal, such a big step forward, when Champions Online was first launched (LO! these ten years ago, now ...)

Just to be clear: you do realize I am not, nor never have been, part of the homecoming development team, nor even a volunteer in any capacity with them .... right?

Win10 Pro, so, yeah. 64bit OS here. 🙂 Thanks, Korbian!

So, with the new client ... is it a different install? Do I just pick the (64 Bit) line before pressing Play, or is there anything else I need to do to make sure I'm using that, and not the old 32-bit client?

I haven't "dismissed" you. I've sought to debunk your claims about certain concerns as being nearly as critically important as you've presenting them to be. The two are not the same. Yes, it is. Because if you really and truly had that kind of experience, expertise, and resource base ... you wouldn't be approaching the matter in anything remotely like the way you have been. Instead, you would have contacted the known principals directly, enumerated those skills and assets, and offered to apply some or all of them to the process of negotiating with NCSoft. IOW: if you were hoping to offer your assistance as a party to said negotiations, you would have done that - and not repeatedly insist that you be given information despite lacking any particular right to have it. Neither you nor I are investors, or even "customers", here. If you wanted to help, you should have lead with that, not insisting that you are "owed" some particular kind and amount of information. None of us are owed anything. Being able to play on th eHC servers is a gift ... and the horse might be getting tired of people holding popsicle sticks and reciting "Now say AAH".

... the simple fact that NCSoft is at the table, negotiating at all, and not immediately sending out Cease-and-Desist letters to the Homecoming team or other, smaller server operators (not to mention DMCA Takedown Notices to the hosting services involved) is a huge thing. It means, they are not 100% die-hard set on "nuke 'em all from orbit" as a solution. It means that are at least willing to think about letting the servers continue to exist, in some way or other. Totally unnecessary. Because, remember, every great negotiator was, at some time, as green as new grass. Every great business leader was, at some time, a raw newbie. No exceptions. And even if everything falls apart, if the negotiatiosn tank and NCSoft does go with "the nuclear option" on the servers. What, really, would you be out? What would you not have, that you did have a year ago, or 18 months ago? Nothing, that's what. Not a damned thing.

One workaround I've used now and then, when I absolutely HAD to have a specific name, and it was already taken: Append a roman numeral to it. Couldn't get "Captain Fabulous" ...? Fine, how about "Captain Fabulous II" ...? I mean, you probably are the second guy on that server to try that name, right? (Even so, I much prefer the approach Champions Online took for naming characters.)

This. It's much like the Trains have a separate "Arrivals" area. And for the same reason.

+1 for making Snowmaiden and Strongheart count towards the badge.

I would be okay with Exploration and History badges being Global. I think the badges for doing things, though (other than just "go to X location and maybe click on a plaque), should stay per-character. TFs, missions, trials, all of those should not become Global, IMO.

It was my experience, back on Live, that my Robot minions were smarter than about half of the actual human players out there ...

+1 I don't know if it's possible, but I'd love it if it were.

I got complaints once, waaaaaay back on Live, about my Mastermind. Bots/FF. One of the early "all pets, nothing else" approaches to MMing (yes, this was in Issue 6 or 7, VERY early days for villain ATs). The other players, you see, never saw MY little avatar "do" anything except stand there. Nevermind the pets. Nevermind the great big giant soap-bubble of Dispersion Field. Nevermind the little soap-bubbles I kept on everyone. Nevermind the six big stompy robots burning enemies down with laser blasts galore. Nope ... my little MM "just stood there and watched", so I was "leeching". ... ... I told them all, "tell you what. This next room is big. I'm going to turn off all my toggles, not re-bubble you guys, and all my robots will stand with me, over here, and ACTUALLY do nothing while you fight ONE of the three groups in this room without me. Then, you will all stand back, do nothing, while I and my robots fight the other TWO groups, just us. And we'll see who finishes faster, and in better health." ... spoiler alert: I did. 😁 All three leadership toggles, fully upgraded and bubbled robots, dispersion bubble ... it was like pushing baby ducklings into an alligator pond. And I was done in about 90% of the time it took them for half as many enemies. At which point, I said "So ... remind me, why I'm sharing all this XP with you, again? 'cause it seems you need my robots, more than I need you." And finally, specifying that I was speaking totally OOC, I explained that I was giving them all much better defenses (Maneuvers, Dispersion, individual bubbles, and my Protectors' bubbles), plus better chances to hit (Tactics) and more damage (Assault), that my robots were doing lots of AoE damage, and that I was spending MY time making sure I was close enough to everyone for those toggles to work, while watching for adds by retaining situational awareness. ... No-one complained again that night. 🙂

OH. Sure, sure. For other weapons too, if they aren't there already. Swords and hammers/maces and so on. 🙂

Those look wonderful. I can hardly believe that CoX may be getting a graphics update, even if it's "just" character costumes ...!!

Actually ... I do have an idea how to solve that: a new setting in the LFG pane, "decline all invites". VOILA ... no more blind invites. 🙂

.... and then, in CO, there's SO BLOODY MANY items with stats. /facepalm

Yeah, I for one agreed with the idea behind ED. It really did make the game better. It diversified not just the use of enhancements, but made a few less-popular powersets see the light of day more often. Or so it seemed to me, in the year after.

Oh, but it gets even worse. During the closed beta, Hero/NPC balance was pretty close to that of City of Heroes. A little better, actually, most characters could handle 4-5 equal-level minions without too much difficulty. During the 3-day Head Start for pre-order customers, a small handful of players used the knowledge they had accumulated during the beta (and probably copious notes they took) to skyrocket to the level cap before it ended. ... Cryptic, and Emmert, PANICKED. The morning of official Launch, a very large patch got pushed. A patch that simultaneously weakened every Hero by about 30% across the board (offense, defense, everything) .... while also strengthening all the NPCs by at least 50%, again across the board. (Edit to add: if we valued each "equal level minion" at 2 points, that means heroes had 8 to 10 points. After the patch, the Minions were at 3, and the Heroes were at 6 to 7. That's a good mathematical representation of what happened. My personal experience was, my main (Munitions with a splash of Power Armor, called Arsenal of Justice) went from being able to bounce quickly from 4-5 spawn to 4-5 spawn all day long, to faceplanting if even one spawn was more than 2-3 minions. And GOD HELP ME if there was a Lieutenant in the mix ...!!) Almost everyone, except those with the "best build possible" went to struggling to beat TWO equal-level minions. For some of us, in the space of six hours (the "maintenance" window in which the patch was pushed out). That day killed CO for me. Which sucked especially hard, considering I had bought a Lifetime Subscription. Fifty bucks for the game, two hundred bucks for the Lifetime sub ... and twelve hundred more, for a computer capable of running the game "with all the bells and whistles". And by the end of week two, I had uninstalled it. 😢 I've tried going back a couple times, but ... no. It's still dead to me. 😢

I would like to point out (again, I think): Populous servers, do not have to also be crowded servers. The HC devs could dial back the population limit per shard, so that there just aren't that many people in any one instance of (for example) Atlas Park ... while at the same time, arranging for everyone to be on, perhaps, one HomeComing server. IOW, we literally could "have it both ways": less-populated zones, on more-populated servers. 🙂