Greycat

Story arcs: Brief - For all alignments, start at level 20. (Should there be an actual EAT, those would, of course, start at level 1 and be unique to the ATs, superceding these - you would not get these arcs as a BOTBS EAT as you're getting an "insider's view" set of arcs instead.) These generic alignment arcs should be available for everyone.) Like current V/EAT arcs, something new pops up every 5 levels, again starting at level 20. Arcs would cover multiple alignments - Blue: (edited with more of an idea) Theme is investigation, temptation and finally confrontation. They've had thousands of years of dealing with "guardians" and working behind the scenes. Now that the character has come to their attention, they will either work with the BOBS, get out of their way, or fall. Initial contact would be a midnighter (who'd been put under their influence, somehow,) leading you to an investigation of - say, an 'odd cult.' You get him for two arcs, at the end of which there's a trap - and you meet someone odd, who points out you'd been betrayed, but they can help. This would be a BotBS agent. One idea - Some of the help will be a - useful - temp power. (Not sure quite *what* yet, but definitely useful.) Once you hit the arcs at 35-40, said temp power will be turned against you - it may still be useful, but have some severe cost (debuff of some sort, most likely.) Defeating them in the 45-50s, it goes back to being something useful, having been cleansed of their influence. There should definitely be a feeling of tempting and betrayal as you unravel what's going on. ... nope, not more fleshed out at the moment, more a theme than anything right now. Red - "Do you want money? Power? We can help. Information for revenge? We know it." Most likely the most difficult to write, since I don't want to railroad redside. Possibly multiple redside arcs for "what do you want?" Grey - with alternates for both rogue and vigilante, potentially. Theme: "Being the power behind the throne can be much more interesting. Make the change you want without becoming a target. We can show you how." In addition - Gold - Given these are tech/magic based, they've probably infiltrated Portal Corp and may have some interest in Praetoria, which leads to them discovering first/night ward. Obviously wouldn't be following the "20-50" time, but some investigation would probably be worthwhile as they look into this new (to them) magical area. Extra for all - Cimerora The Egyptians have had relations with the Romans - as trade partners, in combat, and as a vassal state. We don't, as I recall, have a *time* for when CIm happens, but there's a few thousand years of Egyptian history to play with. There would likely be BotBS interest in observing what's happening with Cimerora and the little civil war (and Incarnate "magic") there. New contacts are introduced - one to investigate and prevent them from interfering, one who wants to help undermine the government and place an agent at the right hand of the winner. The latter would likely come into conflict with the Nictus / Path of the Dark, so we can play with a little more lore there. Probably 2-3 arcs just exploring some storyline or lore.

History: What are the Blood of the Black Stream? (BOTBS) I used to have a guide on the status of various Epic AT projects. Copying shamelessly from that: In any case, the Blood of the Black Stream has been kicked around a bit. We do know bits and pieces about them. They're supposed to be shapeshifters. They're based in Egypt. They're touched on, primarily in Mr. Bocor's arc, as being involved in Gadzul Oil. And they seem to have a techno/magic mix going on, as one of their projects (link needed) involved building a world-sized computer, tapping into ley lines and other places of energy... one of which is visible if you fly above the tanker in Port Oakes. (The Eye of Horus-shaped oil spill.) This is the lastest word we've had (5/11/2010) about the Blood of the Black Stream. They haven't been forgotten, but they haven't apparently been worked on either. Frankly, I'd say this fell victim to the Positron/War Witch era mentality of "we don't care about the old stuff, we have new developers and want them to work on their new stuff," which left a lot of things hanging which could have been *really* interesting while reinforcing and adding depth to the lore. So. What can we do with this? I'm *very* interested in the backstory and the hints in game, honestly. That's what I'd mostly want to develop. An Epic AT? ... I'd give a solid "maybe," but definitely not shapeshifting. EATs are a lot of work, mostly from tying them *to* a story (the "epic" in "epic AT,") but even without shapeshifting, I have some ideas. These guys sound like manipulators and assassins, and I think we could add a bit to the game with them. I don't expect the dev team we have here - at this size (and funding, and NC negotiation issues, and missing tools, and, and) - to run with the bigger ideas. I'd put them out there anyway mostly for fun, but I think we could at least develop some interesting story arcs to investigate 1-50. I'm going to reserve the next few posts to go into detail on three sections - so don't expect them to fill in *right now,* since I'm doing some of this typing while at lunch, and do want to develop other ideas. The sections: 1. Story arcs. 2. Maps (and shareable assets) 3. Powerset or EAT(s) (Oh. You didn't notice the Eye of Horus by the tanker in Oakes? Take a look...)

What I'd like to see (and have suggested before) are EAT-like arcs based on the origin, following you 1-50. Which sounds somewhat like what you're talking about. Yes, Crey is interested in your tech. I always thought it was a lost opportunity that in the original tutorial you see them "helping" the police with Rikti drones, being good guys, then you hear nothing about them, then *bam* bad guys. That would have been an interesting arc to follow, I'd think. COT or midnighters in your magic, that sort of thing. Have to reveal who's stalking you. And with them available to all in ouro, nobody would necessarily miss out.

Hmm. INitial thoughts: No sort of build up in the primary, though it could be argued tactical assault fills that role. Would you keep the Fighting pool style "having more attacks buff the others?" Which could make for an interesting overall mechanic throughout the melee set itself, come to think of it. Not mentioned, but I'd hope we have an alternate animation option (Probably stolen from MA) for jump kick. 🙂 And yeah, I'd play it for the heck of it.

Result: They'd be used even less.

Or a base. A lot of the public transport bases, as well as others opened to the public, have trainers, tailors and the like in them.

Yes. Galaxy used to be a big RP focal point, and Echo sometimes does serve that as well. I've also seen others doing so in the other zones - and I'm not the only one with a character with a tie of some sort to the old DA.

First, "easy to implement" is never a good thing to assume. Second, even if the zones were switched to PVP and nobody cared, there's one OTHER thing that would probably annoy people. PVP mechanics for powers *are different* from what they are in PVE in many cases. Hell, it's one of the reasons PVP withered after the changes implemented in i13. So not only would your proposed change keep people out who are absolutely opposed to PVP (and deprive us of zones where, for instance, people can hold RP events - Galaxy used to be a very popular event for that - because they don't want someone coming by and *starting fights* for the "fun" of disrupting events,) but even those who would otherwise not care would have zones where their powers operated differently.

The way the comment reads rather implies a judgement on the players, which is why I found it rather irksome. If that was not the intent, I apologize. And as I mentioned earlier, this does not end exploring. Hell, I tend to go after nooks and crannies. As I said, it's an already existing mechanic. So, let's look at early missions. The Hollows. Last Wincott missions: get artifacts, get weapons from Outcasts. One has three glowies, one has five or six. You search, you get close, you hear them, fight whatever's close, click, done. Followed shortly by Flux. Second, third mission? Rescue officers from Trolls. Find 5 officers. Fight what's around them, done. (No escort, etc.) Free them, done. Pain to find sometimes, makes no noise. Explain to me, please. What's the difference between the two that's making one acceptable and one a threat for "significant impact?" Edit: To be clear, no this shouldn't be added to something where you have to fight someone. Having, say, Maelstrom start going "woo woo woo" when you have to find him in - I think it's a morality mission - would be silly, as would having ambushes do it. But when you're essentially treating the NPC as an object to find with no real other interaction, they're not hunting you, etc? It's a minor expansion on an existing mechanic. 'nother edit: As far as expanding, I should also point out we've gone from glowies making noise to adding a mechanic to (in theory) having the last one(s) show up visually on the map - when that works - years ago. As well as (in theory) the last enemy NPCs, though patrols can also make this wonky.

You say you like "exploring" in the reply to Patti. This change does not keep you from exploring. It DOES, however, mean you don't have to go over the same part of the (potentially very large) map five, six, ten times trying to find ONE NPC tucked in a corner behind a door under a potted plant. I *highly* doubt you find that "enjoyable." This is not an "explorer versus rusher" issue. If anything, this would provide some consistency, as glowies *already do this.* Do you consider that ruining your "exploring?" Do you call the people who listen for glowies "brainless" as you did in your first post in here? Frankly, what you're trying to use as a counterargument doesn't give you a leg to stand on, given it's an already existing system in the game for an identical purpose.

Origins are baked too deeply into character creation that they cannot be changed. They're one of four things (the others being AT, primary and secondary) that can't be changed. Also, while I wouldn't mind more tip missions, and some origin-related arcs and such, I honestly don't think I'd want "bonuses" for origins. Finding a way to mix them? Sure. Bonuses? I'd rather have them fit the character thematically, not be a "I am going to need +acc" or whatever.

Ice armor's pretty cool as is, though I know some people have issues with the graphics. Don't think I've gotten one to 50 yet. Working on that.

Another surprise pickup. Rad/rad brute. Ultraviolent Ray. Seems like an obvious play to me...

No "shivan plagues" in Echo:Galaxy, please. Or dropships in the RCS. Atlas exists because it looks different, pre graphical update, and there are people who didn't like it. Want a quick example? Compare city hall old and new.

Absolutely not, thanks. If it were hard to get into BB, Siren's, WB or RV because of the PVP population, you may have a point, but right now you'd just be giving more people who want nothing to *do* with PVP even *more* reason to avoid the zones. There's not enough of a PVP population to even entertain the thought of the idea of this. These zones may not be *heavily* used, but they are used. On top of it, we very specifically do *not* need a level 1-15 PVP zone. There's enough of a power disparity in BB with 15-25 (even ignoring the +5 levels of powers when exemping down.) We don't need someone getting their jollies messing with people that have all of 1-2 attacks and nothing (or TOs, which are essentially nothing) in them. (Note I don't call those people PVPers. THese would be the same people who used to enjoy teleporting people off tall buildings - thus the devs adding the "prompt teleport" prompt - or into guard towers, thus prompting a redesign with a back exit. These people are known as "asses.") Edit: To be clear, this is not coming from someone anti-PVP. I used to enjoy PVP, even if I didn't build for it. Some of my fondest memories of the game on live are things like my ma/regen stalker and a ma/regen scrapper fighting for a good 15 minutes straight and getting nowhere (it was amusing,) or my corr, another corruptor and a dom holding Siren's for a good while until there were just too many heroes, or - well, multiple things with my energy/energy brute. I could go on. Even here, I go into PVP zones expecting PVP. I've even gone in looking for it, burning time on (say) the Sirens "battles" and having nobody show up for a good hour and change during prime time. Even with that, I'm opposed to this idea.

A, I really don't like Diablo III and the less in this game that's like that, the better. B, I'd much rather have control over my self-rez than have it automatically fire off, thanks. C, everyone seems to have something they decide is "the most useless power in the game," so do try to state it as opinion, not fact.

It was very nice. Touching. Thank you all.

*shrug* THere's nothing unplayable. If you want to play it, play it. You're not forced to take an XP booster. You're not forced to do alignment changes via Null instead of running the missions. As far as grinding specific content for costume pieces instead of having them at creation, or for Incarnate salvage, that being gone is a *huge* improvement. Play what you want, how you want. You don't "lose" if someone else fire-farms on 2xp to 50 in an hour or whatever. You don't "win" by taking 500 hours to do the same journey. You *win* by having the game available to play the way you want. The game gives you *choice,* not grind. This is not a bad thing.

The negative side of that is for each bump up, they go *down* one level. (Part of why I find MMs such a *slog* from 18 to 24 - you have three -2 pets, one -1, and they die so easily...)

Edit: - BB thinks TPKing is "good storytelling" and "good RP." - Heavy handed and pushes opinion on sides being the "right" or "wrong" one to play. Yep. Know just how to consider his opinion now (reinforced by multiple wordy posts on other subjects.) Which is "not at all."

"Good guy with problems" or "good guy making some bad decisions." If I remember the mission correctly, it was basically "I'm getting old and can't keep up, I thought this would help me keep an edge."

It means you have an active mission in that zone. Check your mission tab.

Running that now, myself. Also noticing it's just showing me with 6 merits earned. Between explores, GMs and such I have 45... Edit : (And yep, not counting any of the 20 from SSA 1. Still just shows 6.)

Random Skull chatter in king's row (possibly elsewhere.) [NPC] Gravedigger Assailant: That sweet sterio is as good as mine. Should be stereo.

It is not anything close to "great writing." It adds nothing to the specific story or the overall narrative. If you're needing a cold shower because "yay, the villain lost," well, they do *anyway* in this arc if you know it at *all* - the obelisk shatters. Having multiple mobs show up that you have zero chance of doing anything against for an insta-kill is just not good design. Heroside, you can stick around and clean up any igneous you left behind if you want to. Villainside, no, you can't. As I said, it's nothing but a big middle finger to the player. Also, it doesn't sound like you've ever played redside to the end. And stop making assumptions about villain motivations.