Greycat

Have you ever been in an MSR? Those questions kind of hint at "no" being the answer. (Or at best, you only play pullers.)

So, when in an MSR, one of the common strategies to be sure you can *find* something to hit is to target through a pet - yours or someone else's. The reason, of course, is that with all the people, pets and effects, enemies just don't get drawn (and/or aren't targetable.) The problem is that those *pets* can run out of visible range - and so your targeting aid is gone. Yeah, you can hit tab like a crazy person and target something for a shot or two, but that doesn't guarantee you'll *find* something (even if it's there) for the same reason you were going through a pet in the first place. So: Suggestion. For (say) 100 V-merits, you can plant a targeting "tower." You don't *have* to use this on the MSR, of course - it's just not all that useful anywhere else I can think of. It doesn't grant +Per or +Tohit, it does have hit points and a life span (5-7 minutes, I'm thinking, but I'm not dead set on that.) All it does is target like a pet. You (and anyone else) can select it. It will target a valid target and switch every 2-3 seconds (so it's not stuck on, say, one of those Rikti that portal in but never show up or that you can't shoot because they're not "there" yet.) Range: From the center of the bowl, either halfway or all the way to the top of the ramps. To keep the servers from having to do too much, limit 1-2 at a time. I'm figuring purchasing these with V-merits is appropriate because the MSR's really the place they'd be most useful. Most everywhere else, you don't have the same number of players facing the same rush of enemies causing targeting issues.

I play, and have played, quite a few Warshades. As mains, even. So I can say that no, they aren't. They get a temporary "pet," yes. Non permanent. Not even guaranteed, if you don't use the defeated enemy's body in time (which is harder during invasions, as they tend to vanish faster.) Controllers, doms and masterminds (ignoring Mind, who's the oddball here,) get permanent pets (with far more HP.) Some get temporary ones to go with them. They're meant to "be there," they're guaranteed to show up when you summon. Extracted Essences are short-lived, easily killable balls of fluff. (You can also have multiples out, unlike control set pets/pet groups and mastermind minions of each tier.)

I drop in there on most characters. Temp invisibility (and 5 merits for the explores,) after all.

Why? They aren't a "pets" class.

If you're thinking of Siren's Call, I believe those were replaced (unless I'm remembering incorrectly.) Nope, here. Macskull verified (and I believe I looked) the listing's a legacy listing, and you can only get breakfrees from the vendor.

Beta testing changes aside, I've seen this happen once. No idea what exactly triggered and combined to do this. I *want* to say I was on an Ice control character, and someone else did some KB. (It's been at least six months, so...) The result? The held enemy sliding around following the other character for several seconds. I'd never seen it before, have never seen it happen again.

I don't know where adding that logo would fall. I mean, "technically doable," probably - but Cryptic exists as part of another company (or whatever their relationship is now,) so "legally able to add it to more stuff" might be a minefield (especially with HC's talks with NC.) Personally not against it, just that it might have some non-technical reasons to be difficult.

I don't know. I'd say that's 100% context dependent. Walking up to someone on the street and asking? Yeah, rude. Talking to someone whose laundry is nearby and suddenly moving on its own? Completely reasonable to ask.

Eh. Honestly, if *you're* going so far as to have your character die, it's up to you. Communicate it to others in your regular RP group if you have one, or SG or whatnot. If someone *else* is involved, they'd better ask me first. You tell me "I killed your character by XYZ!" without discussing it with me, I'll tell you what you can do with it. Don't really need a scale for it, IMO.

... are there numbers on that? I'm kind of curious, given pretty much any system in the last decade plus should be able to handle 64-bit... (Yes, I am wondering how many do and why. Like I said. I'm curious.)

Do away with inf all together! Think of the benefits - - Heroes doing hero stuff because they want to, not "for the money." - Fewer purse snatchings because there's no money to be had from them. -- This leads to more people being on time to work and greater productivity. - Fewer bank robberies because there's no money in the bank. -- Bonus: Less energy consumption since banks can be downsized to just the vault and not really need as much of a lobby and the like. They can consolidate into fewer branches, too! - No need to worry about minimum wage (or having to work a job you hate!) - No worries about too MUCH inf either! - Taxes are much easier. No money, nothing to tax! - Greater minion / henchperson heath and safety benefits. With no banks to rob, no security will shoot at them. And there's no risk of failure, so there's a smaller chance (chance varying depending on who they work for) of being shot, dropped in lava, mutated, teleported into space without a suit, or being forced to hook back up with their ex - all things that cause stress in a minion's life. Live the inf free life!

For feel? Echo: Dark Astoria. When live (pre-Echo-ing,) it had a pretty good size impact on the backstory and character of .. well, a character. Fits a couple of others now, too. The current Incarnate zone is kind of "just another zone." Story-wise, Croatoa, for both feel and content. Even dealing with red caps, a good portion of my magically delicious characters go through there. In the "wish I had more to do (and earlier)" category, Cimerora. It needs more stuff to do besides repeatables and ITFs pre-50 -that's actually in the zone and related to it. Yes, there's two arcs from off-brand Posi or GW... that send you out of Cimerora, which always felt pretty odd. "Hey, here's our new zone! Now go back to Paragon/the Isles to run the related arcs. Not that there are many."

As an option? *shrug* Sure. I think some possibilities already exist in game. I don't *think* Hot Feet is quite as intense, for instance. Or you could go for a ring of fire around the character, perhaps, using Fire control's immobilize scaled up?

(Not ignoring the points in the middle, just snipping to the most relevant for space.) See, for that first point, though, an SG is more than chat channels. Between base, storage and utility, they serve a greater function. It would carry more weight if this were still some of the *very* early issues where an SG *was* pretty much just a group... and chat channel. "Ah, but wouldn't that be what being in multiple groups would allow!" as an obvious response - to which I say, yes... and which we get with coalitions. Access to each others bases. Dedicated chat in the coalition channel. And if there's to be a central hub, a central base/group can be created and coalitioned to all the others. So the tools are pretty much there. As for the super *team* concept - which, honestly, sounds like what I mentioned above with "early issue supergroups," I think that would possibly work (technical limits aside, which I don't know) with existing technology, fitting between coalition and SG on an individual level, yes. It would, I think, be seen primarily as an RP vehicle - but I could see it being used with something like the classic hero project characters, too. (I think part of the problem with your original post is the way you framed it - because all of the tools for what you mention already exist. The way it sounds above sounds different, at least to me. But that's what this forum is for - refinement, arguing, etc. to get the best out of an idea, as far as I'm concerned.)

With respect, this sounds like a mostly "you" issue. For your points: 1. Broadening the network. That's what friends lists (local and global) and coalitions are *for.* This is not something that would only suddenly unlock with having one character able to be in multiple SGs. 2. Again - coalition covers that. And your feedback feedback? 1. No, that is nothing close to what is being said. You have to fold, spindle and mutilate the argument to make it say anything close to "we do not need SGs." 2. Not if you make the alt another version of the same character. I've done this to play the same character on multiple servers, or play the same character at different points in their career, or, yes, to be in different groups. I've even had it be the same characters with or without certain powers in the same SG (warshade for one, dual pistols for another version, for instance.) All that said, I'm not necessarily *against* the idea, I just don't think it's all that needed - and shudder at what could be broken with trying to do it.

Yeah, I haven't been on COH much, much less the classics. (Among other things, preparing for a move, so...)

... Had to comment on this, because this is just not how I recall those days. Granted, I didn't get *into* those discussions much, because just like now I don't particularly care, but Arcanaville and others seemed to be quite willing to publicly share their (fairly tedious seeming) testing, both in methodology and result, while trying to ferret out numbers and mechanics before the curtain was pulled back. It was quite the opposite of elitist.

Bring back the cysts! It's disappointing, now, to be running (say) the later Kheld arcs, be told these are a huge threat, go into the mission and find... inert lumps of crystal.

I want a middle ground. Some things can be tied together in a grand plot that even some of the participants aren't aware of, being used by some other being or group, absolutely. There can, of course, be multiple of these, to a point, and of different scales. Mix in local plots of a group or individual that can be seen and stopped that have nothing to do with the big group's plot to TRY to TAKE OVER the WORLD! What I'd also like to see, frankly, are some older plot hooks (*cough*gadzul/BotBS*cough*) picked up, fleshed out and finished.

You *can* manually sort (drag and drop.) You can even edit the playerslots.txt file, but that can lead to its own issues (newer characters sometimes not appearing because the file's not being updated, etc.) Plus it's not allowing some of the other options people have requested.

I will admit the first time I saw that, I thought it looked like a wilted grenade.

Sunda flying lemurs.

Which is basically the same model (powers wise) as a PPD Awakened, yeah. (Well, the boss in that group.) You can't make one with both form shifts and pick and choose powers - or a Warshade. (Which is why I suspect NPC AI limitations.) Though, honestly, the only Kheld-related thing I really want is a contact NPC with the Nictus "cloud" look. (Or PB light form.) That, I don't know why it's missing.

Just as an aside - go to early, in-development prerelease interviews, and PVP was part of the plan from the start. It wasn't *introduced* until a few issues in (with the Arenas finally showing up,) but it was planned as part of the game. And as far as balance... to an incredible degree more than the rest of the game, "balance" in PVP really meant "go in with a team." After all, we're not just balancing 5 (or 7, or 12, or 16) archetypes, but the powerset combos *inside* those ATs can be vastly different. So, yeah. PVP's balance was "go with a team."