Greycat

Look at your first two sentences. You admit the game is *currently balanced for* SOs. Then you want to rebalance it over something stronger, making it ... no longer balanced for SOs, but balanced *past* that. If the game is *currently balanced* for SOs, then it's fine. If you slot something that makes you more powerful than SOs? You can change your reputation and make it harder. That option is 100% on you. If you rebalance to make it harder, you're making an *assumption* that people are slotting those things already. They may not be. They may not want to. There are people here who - you may want to sit down - do not like IOs, much less sets. Or who prefer an "old school" manner of play - there are even SGs dedicated to that. While you weren't addressing me, yes, I'm (reasonably) fine with the game having "2 generations better than what the game is balanced for," because (a) it lets people build as they want, and (b) they can alter their settings and/or play hard mode TFs to play at those higher levels without affecting anyone else.

Yep, you hit one of the nails on the head there - *current* (or "recent history") events. "Pandemicide" from what I can see is coined *specifically* to refer to recent political actions that were related to Covid. (Essentially it would be... well, like naming your character "Covid Man.") "Pestilence" is a much more broad term that isn't related to one specific disease or timeframe. "Genocide"... is questionable, - but it'd have a better chance of making it past than, say, "Auschwitz." (Actually, looking it up, Genocide's the name of a DC villain, so it'd probably get generic'd for that either way.) Common Cold ... I think I've seen taken, Spanish Flu is old enough to pr... *takes a moment to consider an alt, Spanish Lou.... wait, finish post* ...probably not get a second look, AIDS man would probably get their name hammered fast. So, yeah. Err on the side of caution.

Two arcs. *nods* 🙂 Honestly I'd lean more into "depends on what/how extreme it is?" I mean, we have plenty of grey area "official" characters, especially with Praetoria.

Well, there's "imagine it yourself," but people generally want to know what the person suggesting the powerset (or whatever is being suggested) has in mind. You don't need to give numbers - I never do on things I put out there - but more of a concept than "This thing" is helpful. For instance, if I say "We should have metal armor" and leave it there - what am I talking about? Things like medieval plate armor? Iron man type armor? Armor inspired by heavy metal music? Scrap metal? You don't know if I just leave it at "metal armor." But if I give a rough sketch of "Well, you could start with chain mail, then X, then Y, then Z," you know I'm talking medieval type armor, or "You could start with road sign, it could have an AOE of 'scrap cyclone'" I'm talking about armor made up of scrap metal. You don't have to "be a developer," but it's nice having more input showing what you have in mind.

Side note about missing information while on a team - While you do (I believe... have to double check) miss souvenirs, if you hit the "I" to the left of the mission name in the nav bar, you'll get the information the contact's giving - the wheres and whys for the running around you're doing. (I find people tend not to know about this.)

Yes. Aggro caps were introduced... eh, back in the single-digit-issue days. I (gladly) remember the shift from tanks saying "OK, everyone but the emp stay here while I herd" to ... actually getting to play my characters. AE wasn't a thing - I don't think villainside was a thing yet.

No.

1. HELL NO to prestige. I wish even mention of it in the SG listings was gone. Prestige was nothing good, and was nothing but restrictive back on live. 2. No, it's not going to subscription. It's a volunteer team. And likely couldn't go back to it due to NC.

I'd say the way @Techwright is leaning there is probably right. And that there's *probably* a little more leeway in AE vs player characters, on top of how they're used. An AE that.. say... winds up in a fight between an army of Donald Trumps and Kamela Harrisses... Harrisi? ... would probably get stomped on as soon as it was known about. Living people, current events, etc. Going back to save Abe Lincoln - who's almost more a cultural icon than "person" at this point, if you understand what I'm getting at there - from Nemesis would probably not have someone bat an eye at it. Given AE is "fiction" and in game-reality we have alternate universes and such, *depending on how someone's used* even a more recent person might be OK. Using Macarthur? Explore what happened in Praetoria in his time. Even Manson... say there's someone who wants, for whatever reason, to cause chaos, but in this alternate dimension people love Chuck's Choice flower shop and he's peaceful and *nothing* like he was in our dimension? It might be a little weird feeling as you go back to save that version from being turned into how he was here, but it's also a few steps removed from everything. If that makes sense. As far as GM guidelines? I *suspect* you'll run into "We can't give specific lines not to cross, because people will get RIGHT up to that line." (As well as .. well, it is, in part, a sort of vague, "we'll know it when we see it," and case-by-case judgement.)

- Don't be in a rush. The game doesn't "start at 50." Especially with early characters, just spend time getting to know how things work. There's plenty of content on the way up - Don't assume because you don't like how one powerset works in an archetype, you won't like the archetype. Two different powersets can have wildly different feels. - Don't worry about some superbuild or IOs right away. There are useful tools, like Mids, to help with "builds," but you don't need to have something ridiculous to finish content, nor do you have to run it at settings you're not comfortable with. It's a game. Play however is fun to you. - You have 1000 slots per server. Use them. Experiment. Do "Sounds stupid but looks fun" stuff. - ... don't make your first character an "Epic AT" (Peacebringer, Warshade, Soldier of Arachnos or Widow.) They were initially meant to be unlocked at 50, and have some quirks and complexities to them. - If you're not sure what someone's advertising for in the LFG (Looking for Group) channel, ask. Team requests can often just look like a string of random acronyms. - I *personally* wouldn't start "goldside" (Praetoria - the Going Rogue option.) It can be fun, but also has quirks to it. - Have fun. There are plenty of different ways to do so.

I've heard of one person who has a habit of doing something similar. Think I've seen them once and just had someone mention it was something they did, often for ... non family friendly purposes. In all the time I've been playing, I've run into someone who had an almost-exact replica of a costume I had (obviously ignoring intentional copies and things like "Jeans and a T-shirt") ... once? And that was pre-COV release. In that case, it was 100% happenstance, we laughed it off and I don't think I ever saw them again. Regardless, I'd go with the intent. If it seems like they really liked it... talk to them, who knows, they might have something interesting you can incorporate into your setup, you might have someone worth adding to the SG or the RP storyline. If it really bothers you, ask them to not make that copy. If it seems malicious, make sure you've screenshotted it (and you can grab bio info, open it up, /screenshotui 1 to grab what's on screen,) and ask them to *not* due to the issues you've mentioned. I'd screenshot and/or get date/time of when you asked, too, to back it up. If they don't, get a GM involved.

Just as an aside... this was always just *weird* to me. The only place it really seemed to work was in the (tiny) amount someone gave you on the street for rescuing them. One of the "If I could..." things I'd do is just call the whole thing cash or credit or whatever, and maybe have the "INF****" be something that would start influencing your rep in an area, affecting the discounts (or not...) vendors are willing to give you. Granted, it wouldn't help the "give ways to burn excess money at high levels" - it'd work directly against that, really - but still. Anyway, aside done, carry on 🙂

Well, Tank primary/Controller secondary wouldn't work directly. The Tanker primary is their armor set, the Controller secondary is their support set. While some Tank primaries do have damage auras, very little as far as a Controller secondary would. (Imagine trying to level an Invuln/Empathy. You'd have ... brawl, and whatever temps and pool powers you'd pick up.) You'd have a character that would be *painfully* slow to level (and I say that having leveled an Earth/FF controller... ow,) and given the way the game runs these days, would likely be passed up in teams. (Granted, some farmers might like them - a shielded buffbot? And maybe some very specific content, but other than that...) Controller primary/Sentinel (or just control/armor) secondary would be more viable, since you'd be able to ... well, do something 😄 Though I expect the set would be less control-heavy in favor of giving some direct *attacks.* (Yes, I know, many controls do damage.) How they'd specifically look or be laid out, I couldn't say. But of the two varieties, yeah, I'd say control/armor would probably be more likely.

Yeah, as far as work? Set up a template or two (for things that need to go to two pages,) with columns, the "Paragon Times" header and spaces for things like the date, spot for a headline photo, the columns, etc. so it's just set and ready to go. Yes, there'd probably be time spent on what events - either a new release, or announcing things like Halloween coming through again, anniversaries of events or whatnot. Yes, there's a little time writing something up, proofreading (and having someone else check as well,) getting a good screenshot and setting everything up, but I highly doubt that it would have any real impact on anything else getting done in the game. And it would be a way to increase both immersion and involvement - go ahead and have the players come up with what they want in it, even for little ads on the side for in-game things. Those always seemed to be popular on live when they came around. (Granted, they'd probably have to be generic vs. SG or server specific - less "Weekly MSR results!" and more "Sheherizade's Sher-the-love buy 1 get 1 free sale!" but still.) Granted, there are people that seem to hate the fact lore even exists, despite this being an MMO*RPG,* but as far as dev time? I don't think "it would take their time" or "be too much work" really would hold that much water. (Besides, Devs spend time on what they *want* to spend time on, we're not paying them to be on a schedule or have to release X much content per month/year.)

There's a whole thing roughly sketched out between how the Wells, Ascended (and Dimensionless) interact, including Prometheus being a bit jealous and trying to hold back the players because - basically he doesn't want to be replaced. And as far as the well - well, wells - they're all independent of each other, so losing *a* well doesn't seem to affect the others, but would affect the species it's tied to. However, they're all "buffers" between the species tied to them and the Source (which is why beings like DJ Zero and Ruularu, who aren't going through wells but doing things on their own, are "concerning" - the Source is a *lot* of power. As in universe-writing or destroying.) And I didn't find any info right offhand about "what happens after?" for Praetoria if it goes post-Hami-defeat. Especially with other bits mentioned about Cole replacing Statesman here. *Personal* headcanon kind of wants to link his "redemption" to being able to reclaim Praetoria and defeat that Hamidon, but... nothing backing that up. I just think it'd be an interesting way to tie the story together, wrap it in a bow, and - really, just let them recover.

mm. I don't run on Hami raids like I used to, but I could see that being a slight issue during the "Did we get all the buds" check. MSRs tend to be even more chaotic, especially when people target through someone else's MM pets because acutal targets aren't displaying on screen for them because - well, MSR. If they're being used, intentionally or otherwise, in a way that's disruptive, I could certainly see something being put into place that prevents them from being summoned, especially as they don't serve a combat purpose. (There could be a *very* slight argument made for Electrical Affinity, since you need a friendly target for some of those, but... you have the rest of the league, so...) I'm kind of surprised the hami bud pets are targetable. (Never picked one up... might have a recipe on one off my characters.) Making them untargetable would probably help as a first step, though that wouldn't fix (and actively work against) the target dummies.

Hmmm... Villains Against Malnourished Peasants In (the) Rogue Eitoles? Beware - Incoming Toothy Exploration?

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.)