Greycat

Well, we only know about one of them - Genesis, which would be AOE buff/debuff patches. What the other four would be, we don't know. (Or haven't dug them up, at least. I ran across that one some time ago going through an AMA.) As far as what we'd be facing? The Battalion, of course, was the next thing. With the final challenge from them being the True Batallion, who were the ones "eating" the wells. There *was* some talk about a "final showdown" with Prae Hamidon. Not a lot of detail there, it seemed to be just "this would be ideal." It'd probably be what really finished out all the Praetoria storylines. Other concepts to follow that, which were getting more and more vague? Fighting against Prometheus (Ascended) and the Furies - and the Well itself, to free yourself from it (no worry about "draw too deeply and it can take you over." ) There are higher beings such as Dimensionless, as well. Once you defeated Prometheus/Furies/the Well, the next one mentioned (as we keep ramping power up) is listed as "The Primordial who came close to destroying the Source at the dawn of existence" (as in a Primordial, one of the beings that leads the Dimensionless, who did so.) You'd be the one rallying multiple Wells and some other NPCs to fight at your side (maybe this part of the Incarnate tree would have powers named after the wells. *shrug*) So, yes, power levels go from - 1-50 super => Incarnate => Ascended => Dimensionless => Primordeal. (Just picture that tree. And grinding up those trials...) Not enough? One step *higher* was mentioned where you have to survive a Primordeal/Dimensionless civil war, and *then* fight against the *concepts* of Order and Chaos who erupt from the Void to fight their personification and another being listed as "The first Primordeal to save existance." Granted, we're probably talking issue-late-30s at the earliest by that point, but still. How's that for scale? Edit: For those curious, this is primarily from the AMA/"loregasms" - should be the 2014, as I'd had that handy for other things.

...like people care about lore. It's been made quite clear to me lately that, with few exceptions, they don't. While I'd love to see it? *shrug*

It's counted as two "hits" as far as the one shot code is concerned. Or at least it had been for quite some time. It was specifically called out in a discussion on it on live.

If you put on a doctor costume at halloween, do they let you walk into the hospital and start giving people drugs or do surgery? A doctor is defined by their interest, years of schooling, internship, licensing and the like. A halloween costume is a halloween costume. I leave the rest to the readers to ponder. Good luck.

Wow. You really don't get the difference between "Here's a Halloween costume" and the rest of what's being said. I'd say I'm shocked, but... Neither you nor the thread are worth it any longer. Haven't been for a while, but I'd been holding out some degree of hope. Should know better by now. Can probably stop working on updating the lore/backstory guides, too, since obviously nearly nobody gives a damn. (Yes. Guides. Since there are plenty of nooks and crannies with interesting... oh, wait, it's lore, you don't find it interesting.)

... it's a halloween costume. Impact: 0

That may just be the one in the RWZ, as opposed to the ones that fly over during invasions. I don't think the invasion ones reward anything.

... just caught my eye here. This isn't even DOTs. There *are* attacks that have multiple components and thus can, indeed, "one shot" you. For instance, look at your combat log when hit with - I believe it's the Rikti energy sword. You'll see two "hits" of damage - they're not DOT, they're just two damage types hitting at once (Lethal and Energy, I believe.) These get around the "no one shot from 100%" rule, despite being one non-DOT attack. (Assuming it hits you hard enough.)

... MDC? Trying to think of what that is. The target dummies?

So, since I've slowly been working on that "Kheld backstory guide update," which requires things like... looking through the sources and what actually *makes* a Kheld, from the developers intent, after all: The Kheldian backstory bible specifically says they change their *form.* Not their arms. Not their powers. Not how curly their nose hair is. That they've done so since before they had an actual civilization - they changed *form,* not just part of their bodies, to move between the rocks that formed the rings they actually lived in around the planet of Kheldia. It's *very* specifically mentioned that way. (Edit: In fact, it's even presented as a choice - they use their energy, OR they change their form. If the intent was "They just shift part of their form to direct energy," it would have been stated differently. So even this early, *it's an obvious choice.*) "Form" for khelds, in game, is that entire look. Upsides (buffs) and downsides (fewer powers.) You know, the ... whole-body shape shift that Khelds do. That's been there since *before they were released.* It is, therefore, integral to the AT. Nowhere is it mentioned "Oh, they just change their feet" or "They just alter powers for what they need." The exact opposite is implied by the very deliberate description of changing *form.* Even later sources stick to that - there was never a developer change in attitude that, oh, they only change X. Even the later description of *how they travel between stars* relies *specifically* on the differences between the forms (using the pure-energy "native" form to get to, or close to, light speed, then suddenly switching to the very massive Dwarf form - *specifically because of its mass* - to (*handwavey-comic-book-explanation*) essentially form a wormhole *right there* to get them where they're going. (Source: Email with Floating Fat Man, original COH forums, from the developer Avatea, quoted in my *original* Kheld backstory guide.) If there were ever intent to have them take on properties *without changing form,* much like... oh... taking Dwarf without swapping that physical form, they could very simply have said "They alter their mass and makeup." Which is a different sort of shape shifting... and obviously not what Kheldians do. And yes, anyone saying "Forms don't have downsides" definitely doesn't sound like they've played a Kheld. Then again, the person you're quoting, well... there's a reason they're on ignore.

Then set it so you *must* burn a costume slot for each, and said costume slots must be significantly different from your human form.

I honestly have a hard time believing this is actually going on to *this* extent. "Numerous people" with "thousands" of names? Granted, I can admit to having several accounts on live with names I never used... because of the SG grant they did once... and all the names were things like MBSGG1-001. Strangely nobody ever asked for them. But it still was "a lot of names." And peeking at Atlas Park on EL right now shows lowbies with perfectly fine names, no "tricks" to them. (As in non of the I for L, 0 for o, random numbers or punctuation.) (Correction - I see one. But it's both a fairly obvious name, and one that *might* be copyright blocked, as it's also the name of a Battletech 'mech.) And this is fairly typical when I hop into Atlas over there. So if there are "thousands" of names being held by a few people... it doesn't seem to really be having an effect on others making characters.

Arakhn's older, as I'm recalling. Seem to recall she recruited Ridolfo. She's in charge of the Void Hunter mercenaries as well as the Nictus on Earth, and the Quantum weapon tech is referred to as hers. Requiem would be around 100- possibly older, as he was specifically mentioned as being one of "Mussolini's lapdogs" - so if he were younger then (let's say 20,) and was *right there* when the Italian Partito Nazionale Fascista took power (1922) ... yeah, that would end up around 120 years old as of now. But we don't know exactly when he was born. They are, at a minimum, near the same age, as Ridolfo (Requiem) wrote to her: "Even before you joined Arachnos, I saw how you and he would court over wine at your villa. In my old life as Ridolfo Uzzano, as a flunky to Il Duce, I watched the two of you." The Center mentions his attempts at recruiting Arakhn first, in 1926 and also mentions the "many long talks sipping wine into the night." Whether she was a Nictus then is unclear, but he also mentions she hasn't aged a day, which does kind of imply it. He mentions Requiem coming along later (and giving him the 5th column to lead in hopes he'd ... well, grow up and stop bickering with her, basically. That's formed in 1938.) He obviously knows they're both Nictus. So. Timeline wise, the Center (initially a "mid level Italian diplomat") exists at some point, recruits Arakhn in/around 1926, and Requiem later. (Now how old the Center is... he's growing old, so non-Nictus, and it's a question of when you'd consider someone an "Italian" versus ... Roman or Venetian... 1802 with Napoleon's italian republic/kingdom, or maybe 1861 for the Kingdom of Italy - I'd lean towards late 1800s, given there's a 20th century bust of him the Council tries to destroy.) (The Council is listed as just stretching back "more than six decades" - WWII era, given the game's start in 2004.) Regardless they're all pushing at least over a century at *minimum.* Of the three, Arakhn has the most wiggle room to be older, as we don't know when she became a Nictus. (Also Nosferatu mentions seeing Requiem as a/their leader, not Arakhn, and being bothered seeing the hold Arakhn has over him. He thinks Requiem's infatuated with her.)

*nod* I'm mostly in the "I'm not sure how/if that would work, tech-wise" camp there, to be clear, not objecting to it 🙂

Honestly (and as much as I hate to bring politics into things,) given a number of areas very publicly being sure to allow "open carry" IRL... the police very well may *not* have reason to be "all over them" for having weapons in the open. And in the game world it may be even less of an issue given they're in an environment with people who, themselves, are in essence living weapons. I mean, c'mon, even the civilians can casually push aside the toughest meta and keep a purse from being stolen despite it being tugged on for *days.* 😉

So not necessarily "it's awful, thanks for bringing it up, time to hit the tequila" but something that had to be planned ahead and baked in. Yeah, more flexible sounds good. Thanks 🙂

Out of - well, not wild, more like "slightly awake and still making coffee" curiosity 😄 - how is it done for the PVP zone / Pocket D badges now? (I know there are some "interestingly hacked together" ways things have been done and probably shouldn't be again. They're interesting to hear about, which is why I'm asking.) Something specific running in the background?

Because it might not *be* tracked currently, which is what was alluded to. Or it might. I don't know right offhand if it's something that had to be added specifically to Pocket D and the PVP zones (VIP club member and the PVP zone badges) or if it's just visible there as a badge where (say) Skyway City isn't, but time there is tracked anyway.

Well, the "pick a blast type/alternate power" is pretty much a no go after the devs tried it once, and I don't know how well (or poorly) the ammo switching mechanic would work for this with model switching. (I don't recall right offhand if it does anything but switch damage type or maybe color on DP's ammo.) But in general an elemental mastermind has been suggested before and would open up a number of concepts. I just think for simplicity's sake you'd end up with fixed models at each tier, as interesting as the pick-a-minion would be.

I wood have to agree with this.

The OP never mentioned "purple" anything.

Makes me almost glad the other EATs that got dropped didn't get made. If we're going to keep de-Khelding the Khelds, might as well roll the Coming Storm through, use them all as intergalactic Energizers and delete the ATs and associated story arcs. (Almost nobody else seems to give a damn about the lore they're tied to anyway.)

Step 1: Go here for reference. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Emotes For that specific one? There's no "Emote villain stance 2." There is, however, stancevillain2. Similarly, there's no "Threaten" emote, but there is threathand. Don't go by how they're named in the in game menu. Use the list in the link above for the actual commands.

Eh. There's a case to be made for them - for more sets, that is, as a lot of the less populated categories are very much copy/pastes of the same setup. For instance, stuns: Other than the proc? They're the exact same (obviously can't see set bonuses here.) (Also ignoring the purple, but it's still not *that* different.) If I want non-proc damage in an attack that does a stun, I'd have to frankenslot. Of course, creating a set with "Damage/stun" is - like hamis - not going to *add* damage to a power that doesn't *do* damage. For that, yes, you'd need a proc. But a bit more variety in some of the set families wouldn't be bad.

... I'd have to ask if you were on a defender or a corruptor then, come to think of it. My blasters? Yeah, no, it did a number en masse. Defenders? Those ... severely needed buffing and were fairly skippable.