Greycat

*nods* As I believe I was told once, the character select screen isn't really aware of the "pages" we see our characters by, it just lists, then lists more on the next screen, etc. And there are a lot of potential sorting options and filters that would be nice. Ideally I'd like to see a big rewrite on the character select screen that was aware of more, as well - such as your supergroup, should you have multiple alts in one, for instance. Something like checkboxes for alignment, level range, search on super group as well. And let us create (and label) actual "pages" for some custom listing and sorting of characters - people could create things like "raid faves," "mains," "current projects," "PVP" and focus a few characters in those pages. Which is more work. But could be useful.

I know, I was kind of doing a "er... but..." with that. And yes, you're 100% right. It does lose meaning when calling out *actual* racism when everything not related to it has been called that, too. (Which, of course, is why some people do it.)

Ehhhh... I'm sort of "yes and no" on this. I don't get "esports" at all, or that people make a living from it. I do find myself watching Baradul's Mechwarrior Online videos for build ideas (... if I ever go back to that,) and watched a bit of Battletech. Mostly because he runs mods I'd find.. interesting but not enough to play. And there's the occasional "ok, how do I get past this," which I'd call more understandable. But general "video game watching," for pleasure, no, I don't get.

Language isn't tied to race? Plus the comment was "I'm getting the feeling English isn't your first language," which given some of the wording, punctuation choices and such, does seem like a possibility - they fall under fairly typical "ESL" habits. I'd probably make similar mistakes in German or Japanese or whatnot. (Which, re-reading, is just reinforcing what you asked, so... 🙂 )

Do the streams show ads? Do the services show ads? That's all that matters. Regardless, answer is no for now.

When they have news, they'll have news. They're still talking with NCSoft. Assume no streaming 'til the discussions are done or nearly done, whenever that may be.

Well, you can search by AT, but other than that, yeah, more sorting options have been asked for before and I'd still love to see them.

Yes, they're useful. Situational, but useful.

Should rebuild the system I started COH on. *Starts hunting Ebay for a Thunderbird 1 Ghz and Maatrox Mystique 440*

Some edits and fleshing out done.

I'm going to assume that's going to be at the end or near the end of the NC talks. But that's just a guess.

I'm just waiting for them to do another rename to City of Homecoming Heroes. I mean, it'd be appropriate, right? 🙂

There are *some* options, but yeah, this has been asked for for a long time.

In which case, you can ignore it, just like those who (say) play a Peacebringer as an angelic character versus... well, a PB ... ignore those arcs. Honestly, I'd see them as halfway between EAT arcs and normal arcs. They're extra, and focused on something dealing with the origin you chose. A 1-50 set of arcs you can go through, different for each origin. No, they can't be as customized as an EAT because characters have more backstory to them and origins are more generic. But they're more focused than generic arcs.

Well, I'm replying to the general PVP discussion, to be honest. Realistically, the suggestion to change these zones won't happen, at least on homecoming. There's no desire for it, and badge-hunters have a second, fairly large and vocal community (RP - enough to *also* have its own "unofficial" server, after all, and able to be assumed large given live-Virtue typically being one of the higest pop, highest activity servers) who would rip the faces off anyone wanting to do this to crash RP events. 🙂 If someone wanted to do this? They'd pretty much just have to set their own server up.

Thing is, there is absolutely nothing in the PVP zones required to finish PVE content. There are things "nice to have," sure. But nothing required. As mentioned, the game *used* to force you in (and I will use that wording because it is accurate) when the PVP zones were introduced. You *had* to see the warzone contacts - they'd show up without any other contacts, basically blocking you - and they were in the PVP zones. And when they were released, connections in general were slower - so people could actually time out of that 30 seconds before they could do anything. In response, since this could actually lead to "non consensual" PVP, those contacts were moved outside of the zone. And now, you don't even get a popup about them. You can notice and click on them outside, but that's all they are now. So, honestly, right now I can't agree there's any non-consensual PVP in the game... unless someone's still on dialup and can't make it through with that timer. That said? There's so little actual *risk* of PVP that complaining about it - barring being on the "unofficial PVP server - is sort of like complaining about the risk of being hit with a meteor. And not just a meteor, but specifically one that's at least 1.5 km wide, spinning counterclockwise and coming in from the northeast.

... this is kind of like saying "I wanted to go skydiving, put on the parachute, got in the plane, but I didn't consent to falling through the air!"

Yeah, have to say Arcane has it right here. You're given a very blatant "You've entered a PVP zone and may be attacked by other players." You're also given a 30 second countdown in which you're perfectly safe where you can decide to continue or "not consent" by turning around and exiting. They even removed an "I have to enter the zone even though I don't want to" issue when the zones were introduced, as the war zone contact was in the zone. THey were moved out. And now you don't even have to go see them. Now, granted, some people may say they have a bad/slow connection and don't get that full 30 seconds, and I would not argue with the timer not kicking in until the player does something (move, type, activate a power) to indicate they are there - but you are given time to consent by staying or not consent (safely) by leaving. It's frankly no different than consenting to PVP by entering a PVP match in the Arena. Going to a console, joining an event, then saying "I didn't want to PVP" would be silly. You took a deliberate action to enter a clearly marked PVP environment. (This is, frankly, one of the things I *like* about COH PVP. You *can't,* for instance, just want to do a "get 20 moth wings" quest and have someone from another faction somehow drop into the area and kill you. You have to go to very deliberate areas, set off from the rest of the world, get warned that it's a PVP area and you can be attacked, and agree to continue by waiting out the timer and *not leaving.*)

Because it's different when you get to play through a story tied to *you,* versus... let's say "reading through back issues" via Ouro. If, using one of my examples, we create a 1-50 arc where Crey is really helpful to you, oh tech hero, oh, mind if we see tha tthing you're using? No, no, it's to help you really... and they do something "anti-your-technology," it doesn't particularly make sense to level through that as a non-tech hero. "You've done tech sabotage to my tech? But... I don't have any, I'm natural and I kick people, what did you do, tie my shoelaces together?" Fighting the COT or some other group in the magic origin arcs as a tech hero. "You're countering my magic? What magic, gunpowder?" And so on.

Ahh. Disregard then.

I'd argue that doesn't really "work," though. They don't really scale well to the ends of the spectrum.

And it doesn't do it well. For instance, yes, Rikti are "at level" in King's Row, but easily overpower players at that level. Meanwhile, they're pretty much cake at higher level. And zombies are a PITA in the same way.

I'd call that a good compromise, personally.

EATs: Least likely, but still. I kind of keep going back and forth between this being an EAT and an... "epic powerset." This is also the most nebulous (and most likely to stay mostly blank for a while,) but there'd be two ATs - the BOTBS, and the guardians (whatever we want to call those,) mostly as a call back to the player and the card that were initially referenced. BOTBS: Not the most up front, the way they're referred to makes them sound like manipulators and assassins. The group is also a mix of magic and tech. I'd see them as a mix, in some ways, of stalker, assault, and illusion - especially given the shadow/duplicates tech we already have in game. I only have rough ideas, here, but they do involve stealth, using duplicates as decoys/damage sponges, an upgrade to them later to make them more like phantom army (causing as well as soaking damage,) possibly even laying traps (quickly) to trigger a brief gang-war-like power to misdirect and absorb damage, letting them strike (or get away.) They would also do direct damage, have some (but not a lot) of armor, and perhaps have a bonus to damage on distracted or unaware enemies. It needs fleshing out. 🙂 Guardian: (Likely needs a rename, that's kind of boring for this.) Probably more tank/brute-y, with support ability for the team given the guardian role in the player card. Definitely need to flesh it out more, likely copying both some aspect of "being a statue" and, again, the decoy/simulacrum mechanics. More "light" based. Melee and range. And yes, when it comes to "being a statue" as a defending entity, I do kind of picture a "For 10 seconds, you're invulnerable and taunt everything in a radius, but can't move from this statue form." (Probably with some kind of AOE on release.) More on everything once I have a little more time to chew on it and do so.

Maps and shareable assets: I have specific reason to list this this way. Obviously with something that's lasted this long (since ancient Egypt,) new assets would have to be made to really convey this. These would, I'd think, get a lot of mileage as they could be used in AE, we'd get plenty of new items for base building, and even costume parts (ancient egypt = more monstrous heads, to begin with, as well as weapon customization choices and other costume parts.) I'd think, for maps/environments, at least we'd have: Desert Oasis Desert village (ancient) Riverside desert city (ancient) Riverside desert city (modern) Ancient temple (looks new) Ancient temple (ruins) Oil fields (links to gadzul oil) Not only would this expand the world a bit beyond just Paragon and the Isles (which, after all, was started somewhat with both Cim and Praetoria,) but it would open up some storytelling options in AE. Plus, of course, all these maps would have pieces and parts to use in our own bases. While these would take work, as mentioned, they'd be useful outside these storylines and I think several areas of the community would enjoy taking advantage of them. Just because they'd be needed in the maps and missions, seeing new items for bases (Egyptian themed statuary, temple columns, simple buildings, even something hut-like - not everyone lived in big stone buildings after all! Plus all the other little details that make maps come alive) would probably be exciting. Even simple "desert surfaces" and "sand dunes" could get a lot of flexibility, if they can be recolored - surface of Mars? Beach? Might not be the greatest "moon surface," lacking craters, but it could do in a pinch. And of course, we'd have other assets to use. Not just things like other animals (crocodiles, jackals, and the like,) but since Egyptian deities were often depicted as animal/human hybrids, we'd have a bit more to play with in the character creator. Of everything, I'd hope *these* were pursued, *even ahead of story arcs,* since it could open up so much in general. I think these would get a *lot* of mileage for the work put in to them.