DR_Mechano

We can only hope that happens, like you said for long patch day times which fall at awkward times for me since I'm in the UK 14:00 to 18:00 means that since I work mornings (5am to 1pm) I come home and the servers are down, playing on We Have Cake means I can get my CoH fix whilst HC is still being worked on.

The funny thing is the cellphones aren't even consistent. For example there's one cellphone emote where you're using the old brick not-a-nokia style cellphone (the one where you're talking) and then there's another cellphone emote which clearly has you playing on a smart phone (though I'm not sure if that was added by the original devs or the HC devs). Originally we had a natural timeline progression from 1-50 but Going Rogue and Who Will Die sort of threw massive monkey wrenches into that plan. For example the Shining stars arc (as much as people detest it) clearly takes place well after any of the earlier mission arcs in that level range since the big reveal at the end sets it as going on just before the Praetorian War (probably just before Tinpex get going) and maybe just before Mariah Jenkins arc which is suppose to act as the lead in to that. Because of the fact that the devs bucked the trend (and I appreciate them for doing this) and didn't increase the level cap with Going Rogue, it meant that it shattered the fairly linear progression of the time line from 1-50 which follows your increase in power from a street thug fighting rookie hero to a cosmic threat dealing with Justice League level hero. There's also the problem, at least amongst RPers, about what happened during the shutdown. For some nothing happened and life continued on as normal, for others it meant 'something' happened to their original dimension and they've spent the last few years basically pulling a Quantum Leap between various dimension (which is what my namesake did) and for others it's a completely new existence for them and their 'old' version doesn't exist.

The reason they gave was 'it didn't look professional' which I personal thought was a meh reason not to do it but lets not get into that argument again, it just leads to people arguing in circles. I've already alienated enough people over this and I don't want to derail this thread any further.

That's what I plan to do. I do love the fact that I can have a main server in Homecoming and a little side 'fun' server in We Have Cake. I mean it's a shame we can't merge the two but hey...for now I'll just have to play on both I guess.

Yeah the whole 'temporal stronghold' thing was another point in the build up to the Council/5th Column war that seemingly got dropped. The problem with CoH live is that you'd have writers who had their own personal pet projects setting up stories and then leaving at which point the writers who remained weren't interested in pushing them since they weren't their own personal projects. As mentioned the entire praetorian war that Going Rogue was based around was pretty much 1 writers baby and so when he left the devs just sort of wrapped it up and left all these threads hanging with Dr Aeon wanting to move on to The Battalion storyline with very little idea on what to do with the remaining threads. For example at one point Praetor White was going to become a mission contact with his merry group of refugees as the backing to the story (hence why once you complete Marchand's arc all of them can be found sitting around Swan in Brickstown) but nothing ever came of it.

Sister P is replaced with Penny Yin since she now basically fills the roll of Psi controller for the group but...yeah Statesman just straight up isn't there since his official replacement is Positron...who is already there. As Vile Terror mentions the timeline is already FUBAR anyway especially with the whole Incarnates things (you do the aftermath arcs before you get to do the arcs and trials that lead into said aftermath...) and it is kind of obvious that the LRSF and STF aren't meant to be 'current timeline' so why Statesman and Sister P needed to be removed from the LRSF I'll never know. That would be like removing Mariah Jenkins arc because all the Praetorian signature villains are all either dead, fled or working with other people now (By my count only Praetor White is a major player out of the Praetorians left, Mother Mayhem technically is but actually isn't since it's Aurora back in charge of her own body). We never learn the fate of Praetor Duncan aka Dominatrix who is supposedly consumed by MoT but then so were a lot of heroes throughout that arc and were freed at the end of it (Ice Mistral spent waaaay longer inside Mot and came back) so she just sort of disappears. Battle Maiden is now working with Malta and was supposed to lead into a new Incarnate improved Malta plus I imagine her female warriors would take the place of the Knives of Artemis in a sub group. But that was, like much of the stuff before sunset, left unfinished. Unfortunately it was the case that the writer who was doing all the Praetorian stuff left the company and people were just "meh, tired of Praetorians, moving on..." with tons of threads left hanging which had no real lead in to the next batch of Incarnate trials. You see this all over the game with threads left often hanging with no satsifying conclusion because the devs moved onto the 'new hotness'. Heck thanks to the shutdown we have TONS of unfinished story arcs that lead nowhere. The Council/5th Column war is clearly building up with Requiem, Reichsman and all the wacky nazi stuff (like Warwolves and Vampyri) on one side and the Council with all their Nictus allies and Praetorian tech on the other (this is what I feel like the war was going to lead up to in order to make the Council and the 5th Column more distinct from each other). Lets be honest most of the devs (if you go back and read their AMA answers after sunset) had a SERIOUS hate on for all of old Jacks characters and used 'who will die' to kill them off and basically strip them out of the game as much as they could, sometimes, in the case of the LRSF unreasonably so. Say what you will at the WoW timeline but at least it's sort of consistent in that as long as you know you're going back in time to Cataclysm, back further in time to Burning Crusade, then slightly forward in the time line to Wrath of the Lich king with a linear time progression from there. In CoH it's like doing Battle For Azeroth when suddenly you're back in Burning Crusade for just one quest and then back to normal again once it's finished.

Sadly humans, as we both know, are rather tribal. The SCORE/Homecoming team and the Ourodev team do NOT like each other. HC dislikes Ourodev since one of their number was responsible for the leaking of the original secret server, I imagine this is where a lot of the trust issues come from and Ourodev dislike the SCORE/Homecoming team because they say they were responsible for essentially keeping the game out of players hands for six years and feel like it was a betrayal of trust.

True and once that change happens, I imagine they'll be a panicked rush to get a 64 client in place unless the other dev teams are already working on it (which they may very well be, I wouldn't put it past them to have something in the works). Like I said, currently they're using a lot of stuff which will draw people to those servers, new general content like Powersets etc. and you can't argue with giving people what they want as a means to draw people in.

Not sure on the Issue 24 servers but We Have Cake is slowly getting more and more popular, not in huge strides but it's basically now being seen as a more direct alternative to Homecoming because A) It's using Issue 25 code. B) It's not related to 4Chan and the problems that come with it. C) They're focusing on stuff that is very much an crowd puller, new powersets, new ATs, new Incarnate powers, new costume pieces. All the stuff that gets asked for a metric butt-ton around here but because of the reason Jimmy gives, have been put on the backburner until who knows when the backend stuff is all sorted. D) People love an underdog. Homecoming is seen as the 'big enemy' by the other server groups. Ourodev and Leandro have had massive arguments in the past which has led to the two groups generally refusing to work together and We Have Cake is sort of part of the Ourodev group but not the Issue 24 group, if you catch my drift. It's seen as a small up and comer with a more freewheeling indie attitude vs Homecomings more corporate monolith sort of deal. Now both teams are basically tiny Indie teams but this is Homecoming's success and links to NCsoft being used to put them in the corporate space instead of the indie space.

Yeah this is a tad of a personal point of contention between myself and the HC dev team. Other servers (including We Have Cake, which operates on the same issue 25 background as Homecoming does) have those particular costume parts enabled but here on Homecoming we're basically told 'no' and not given a specific reason, we're just told there are 'lots of reasons' and that they didn't want to go into specifics. I tried to get a reason out of it and just got told 'it didn't look professional' (seriously, do NOT care about that but hey....I'm not in charge of the server). So yeah...a lot of stuff is going to remain NPC only for the foreseeable future, especially if it happens to be related to any 'signature NPCs' these would basically be the big names like Statesman, Tyrant, Miss Liberty etc. Personally had hoped that sacred cow had been butchered when the servers basically became unofficial but hey...here we are... And for those of you who are going to ask the obvious question. No I will not let this go, it still annoys me somewhat and will bring it up when the time is appropriate.

As has been stated earlier in the thread the devs are focusing on other things at the moment. Mostly back end stuff and numbers tweaking so we're unlikely to get a costume pass for a while and we've basically been told they want to get things 'perfect' before they'll port them over, we don't know what that means (as you can see here between myself, VileTerror and the devs have a very differing opinion on what should and shouldn't be ported over but we've sort of put that to one side now since nothing is going to happen for now anyway) but it basically amounts to 'sit here and wait with our fingers crossed' pretty much. As for the belt itself, it's actually one of the few fine talon pieces we're missing in my opinion though I suspect the reason they haven't ported it over yet is they want to mesh it with the loincloth that's currently sat in the 'shoulders' category to make it a drop down option to attach but I can neither confirm nor deny anything since I'm not a dev.

Yup as I've often said there were HUGE plans for the next tier of Incarnate abilities and according to various post sunset AMAs the next set of Trials with the Battalion would be tough even for an Incarnate with rares in every single one of the currently available slots but...then the game gets shutdown probably 2-3 months before they can finish everything. We know a lot of it was being prepped just by the fact that the zone was in the game files and the Shivan meteor map is in there as well, this suggest the first 'phase' of the Battalion content was already in the 'getting everything together' phase and after Issue 24 we would have seen issue 25 and 26 bring about the next step. Whichever server can actually get to doing this storyline first and expanding out the Incarnate powers is going to have one hell of a draw, even more so if whichever server can get Mastermind Customization first.

Yeah basically Kheldian/Nictus lore (and the AT itself it would seem) was someones pet project IIRC and when they left the dev team they sort of didn't bother pushing it any further so we basically know next to nothing about them because the rest of the dev team/writers didn't seem to be interested, we got nods here and there but nothing major. Though I suspect we might have seen more on the Nictus side of things with Provost Marchand's arc very clearly setting up a Council/5th Column all out war with the Council taking the Praetorian stuff along with the Nictus allies whilst the 5th Column takes on your traditional wacky Nazis kind of stuff. I suspect that was going to be the intention to make the two sides more distinct from each other. Things like the Vampyri and Warwolves going to the 5th Column (since IIRC Nosferatu and Vandal are back to being members of the 5th Column along with Requiem and Reichsman) with Nictus Dwarf and Nova replacing them on the Council side with the basic Council troopers enchanced with Praetorian tech but the 5th Column being further advanced by other Incarnate stuff thanks to Reichsman and Vandal.

It's one of those urban legend badges. For example there's supposedly one for destroying all the webway parts in the first mission of the Miss Lib TF without ever being spotted, that is an example of an Urban Legend badge.

And I think this is where the problem lies. You think people want to be able to deal with this with JUST passive regen. No, that's what the heals are for, you know those OTHER things Regen has as part of its set I'm not sure where you got the idea that I thought Regen should just be all passives, notice how I didn't argue for the click heals (thought they could do with some changes perhaps) to be changed. No I merely argued for IH to be changed which is like, what 1 less click in a set. You would still need to managed Reconstruction, Dull Pain and MoG. Even adding back in Instant Healing that's 4 clicks. That's about the same as Bio armor, in fact it's actually only 1 more than Bio armor, making IH a toggle instead of a click actually puts it on par with Bio armor... Like did you think we wanted the entire set to all be toggles? Did you think that is what we were suggesting? Because if so..you were VERY wrong.

Personal experience I actually think VEATs as a whole are in a rather good place. Widows as Blood, Night or Fortunata all seem perfectly fun and viable as well. Blood allows for the Huntsman widow variant of stacking the 2 leadership pools but for melee, Night is a fun little mix of CC and melee done right and Fortunata is a great CCer and damage dealer.

You have some points. Yes the regen does need to be enhanceable but your very first post came across as utterly nonsensical which was why I was so confrontational, they idea that if you wanted to play a concept like say, Wolverine, you were better off playing Willpower just made me go WTF. Plus you've admitted in the past that you like to prod the hornets nest just to see people react so I am rather wary of dealing with you. Willpower isn't built around JUST passive regeneration which is why I do not see it as a regeneration focused set. It also has resistances and defenses. It's more akin to a less Smashing/Lethal focused Invuln with its secondary benefit being regen instead of more typed defense. Regen is built around just healing and regeneration, Regen doesn't just HAVE to be about passive regen, it should be about Regen AND healing, IH as a toggle helps that view in my regard. My suggestion for IH being a toggle with an absorb shield was a compromise since you seem dead set on not allowing it with its current state. Personally if I could I would rather see Regen get IH as a toggle back and have a lot of the regen enhanceable.

Whatever like I said we're not going to see eye to eye on this and frankly I'm starting to dislike you as a person so I'm just going to end this by saying I vote yes for IH as a toggle.

Yes you're not saying Regen wouldn't have regen but you're saying that Regen SHOULDN'T BE the number one secondary when it comes to Regeneration despite having no defenses, very little resist and being all about constantly gaining back health. Also where did I complain about Regen requiring active clicking not making it regen, honestly POINT THAT OUT TO ME! Is it because I want Instant Healing as a toggle? Yeah no, that's not about Regen requiring clicking that's about making Regen ABOUT Regen, IH as a toggle makes it a constant regeneration buff...which is what Regen should be about along with healing. Hell I'd even take it so that IH was a toggle which gave a large absorb shield that refreshed every 10 seconds or so. It is clear the Absorb mechanic would far better be used on Regen but that wasn't a mechanic for 2/3rds of the games life (Dull pain would be an absorb shield if such a mechanic was around, lets be honest). It was more you're strange thinking that because we just happen to have willpower...that somehow making Regen not the main focus of Regen at all was ok? Like I honestly don't get it? Personally YOU'RE the one that's drunk, so maybe it's time you went home, last orders just rung.

I do hope the devs take your changes and fully implement them into the game.

Basically we're not going to see eye to eye on this. Your view is one way, mine is the other. You don't want Regen to be a Regen focused set because of...reasons...and I do...you don't want Instant Healing to be a toggle (I get that stalkers losing Quick Recovery makes it a PITA for them to run but Stalkers trade defense for offense so I have no problem with this) but I do. I still have no idea what the point is of not buffing Regen to be Regen focused just because Willpower does Regen...but whatever...

Personal opinion is just make it a Robo only AoE Heal, keeps the theme and the flavor but makes it a much better power to take. Lower the cooldown, lower the amount healed but keep the restrictions in place.

So you're suggestion is if you want a regen secondary take willpower despite Regeneration being NAMED Regeneration...how freaking wonky is that of an idea? I'm sorry but that just sounds like some ass backwards kind of thinking. REGENERATION should be the REGEN secondary not Willpower. Just because several sets have come along that eclipse Regeneration doesn't mean that we shouldn't make Regen all about health regen, that's just stupid IMO. I honestly hope the Devs don't share this way of thinking. Regen seriously needs some buffs, in fact there are a LOT of powersets that were either overnerfed because of PvP complaints (Regen, Energy Melee) that never got rebuffed and are in serious need of being looked at again.

Keep in mind Praetoria has been around since the introduction of level 50 hero content (so Issue 2 I think) AND it got a massive overhaul from its original version. Prior to Going Rogue it was basically just your standard mirrorverse with evil Freedom Phalanx and not much else explained beyond that since the only exposure you had to it was really one contact heroside, with it having no presence villainside up until Going Rogue. Night Ward was also not originally in the Going Rogue expansion. Initially it was just the 1-20 experience and that was it. First ward and Night Ward got added a while after IIRC. Whilst First Ward does actually play into the whole Devouring Earth vs Tyrant I do agree that Night Ward seems to just sort of...be there. It's got its own self contained story which doesn't really affect the rest of the story at all.

Yup you need to speak specifically to Icon/Facemaker employees who are listed as Cosmetic Surgeons. Traditionally these are in the back of the Icon/Facemaker stores. You can't do it from trainers, they will only let you change your costume. The easiest one, for me, is Tina in the VIP lounge in Pocket D. She does everything and is fairly easy to get to no matter which side you're on. This change was in the game before even the Incarnate system got introduced so it was available on live for AGES before shutdown