Greycat

... wasn't there at least a preview of a COH RPG? Or did that not even get to that release stage... Ah. yeah. All we have is the quickplay - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2979/city-of-heroes-rpg-quickplay-pack

So, the *Nictus* have been on Earth since at least Ancient Egypt - Shadowstar has been here that long, and the Path of the Dark is also Nictus-related. We don't know when Shadowstar switched sides. (Later, the ITF added time travel shenanigans to it, but that's not the start of the Nictus presence.) I mention in my background guide that my *hunch* is that they're trying for quiet control until our tech reaches a level they can use it, which it would have done in the last century or so. The Peacebringers are basically chasing them across the galaxy. Their arrival on Earth has been much more recent (and I'd say much more public, given Sunstorm standing around by City Hall and the PPD.) Which makes sense, given how the Nictus tend to operate - they're the ones being hunted, after all, and the entire war is very much in the shadows. And yes, the PBs very much want to eradicate all Nictus. Which answers a later comment/question - they came here because they found Nictus here. They came here to fight the war, not escape it. Also, Nictus (and Void Hunters) can also feel Kheldian energy - one of the first PB arcs has you encountering a Void Hunter who says flat out (as I recall) that they can "feel you." So it's two way. As far as being hidden - well, the PBs certainly aren't. Honestly, you could probably do a (*very loose*) parallel to the Jedi and the Rule of Two era Sith. One's very public, out there trying to do good, be visible, etc. while the other can only really work and survive by keeping in the shadows (until whatever plan is ready and they can emerge and take over - see "war wolf earth.")

I'm iffy about "pay for a base" (for something pre-created in game, at least. For players making them - something reasonable.) I'm all for "here are some basic base layouts you can choose from to start," both furnished and not, so someone can just get up and running or learn about how these things are put together. Or just have their own house/apartment/cave/whatever. Of course, if we did get premade layouts/bases, I'd think they'd have to be "select this only at SG creation" (or at the very least "if no room other than the entrance room exists,") just to avoid the "I overwrote my old base and now all my purples are gone!" petitions to GMs which would just make it a hassle. But... yeah. Getting some premades for people who just want "something" that are simple - heck, even do a base building contest for it - and probably small, options for furnished (power, teleporters, storage, costume/nurse/difficulty/trainer NPCs - or items, for that matter, I'd love to have non-NPC options for those) or not (just the layout, you place stuff) would be great. From there people can leave it as is, start learning to expand/modify/build themselves, or go ahead and get someoene else to build something.

Depending on the character, I like it. And it's more interesting than just an infodump of "In Ancient Rome, this guy took the idol to what would be America to hide it." It makes the Sentinel *much* more interesting of a character. Could it use some tweaks? Sure. The tentacles *are* tedious. But that's about the only part that gets me sighing in a "let's get it over with" way... much like having to deal with mole machines in one of the patron arcs. (think it's in a patron arc. I've managed to re-avoid it for a long time.)

It's ... more involved than that. The willing vs unwilling is really just Nictus vs Warshade. Peacebringers were never altered to live off the energy of other Kheldians (or other beings.) Basically, Peacebringers and Nictus/Warshades are - we'd probably consider them two subspecies, if not artificially speciated, thanks to what the Nictus did to themselves. From there, yes, Nictus vs Warshade are pretty much philosophical differences. Players can, theoretically, be Nictus, since we can side swap. There's just zero storyarc or contact support for it. I keep planning on writing an AE series specifically to support that, but I just don't have the free time I used to. (You could, if you chose to stay humanform and skip or put off a few powers, be a Galaxy as well - but we don't have the costume for it. You can get close to a Void Hunter, but the powers don't line up.)

Well, it *is* their raison d'etre, so from that perspective yes... 🙂 Plus it's only affecting two zones, so it might be a symptom of something else that could be affecting other things, too, and worth looking into given the spaghetti the game runs on. (Plus I've had groups *specifically* go into those rooms to avoid power noise/effect spam.)

The ones we tend to see are going to be Nictus - most infamously the one that empowers Imperious. Now, we *do* see Kheldians - not just Nictus, there are rogue Peacebringers (at least early-ish in the Kheldian storylines) - in some missions in squid/lobster form *without* seeing them revert to a host, so whether they're attached to a host or not is left unclear. As far as death - the way I tend to read it, it would depend on how and why the host died. After all, Void Hunters are around specifically to kill Kheldians, their weapons (in game mechanics, at least) used to do unresistable Nictus damage specifically. Again, my read here - the Kheldian and host could split voluntarily ("My job's done and I have to go on" or "I'm getting too old, time for you to get a new host," for instance,) the Kheldian would survive and separate at sudden or traumatic death by "normal" means (meaning non-Kheld-specific ways - car crash, bullet to the head, exsanguination) if the Kheld can't repair it, or the host and Kheld would die if hit by Kheld-targeting or affecting ways (from Quantum weaponry to possibly something else that would target the Kheldian energy matrix - maybe a high dose of some sort of radiation, being teleported into a star, that sort of thing.) The twist there is that we know forcible separation is traumatic for both the host and the Kheldian. I'd *suspect* >.> death counts there. But I don't know if there's a scale involved - for instance, if a host just dies in their sleep, is the Kheld fine and still fully aware of themselves and left floating there going "Oh, no, goodbye Jim, I'll remember you - I need to find a new host" or if there's some degree of disorientation or loss of "self" there. I'd *suspect* that the less time there is to prepare, the more loss-of-self or more disorienting it is (and even more if they're trying to *stay* joined, such as the storyline where a Kheldian and host are forced apart.) Staying unattached - Again, mostly assumption, since what *we* tend to see are the soldiers in a war, so there's different imperatives right from the starting point. But given the Kheldian lifespan was the driver for the Nictus to become Nictus, to where they began feeding on their own kind, I'd lean towards "if they don't have to stay unbound, they won't if they can help it." (The Nictus also have the side factor of being weakened if they've travelled via Cyst, thus having prisoners who have been kept weak and can't fight back handy to play Motel 6 for them when they arrive.) Whether that happens in "civilian Kheldians" or they tend to stay happy with their otherwise short (to us) lifespan, I couldn't say.

Um... Entire *50 levels* of story there, ties with the Nictus (aka galaxies, Arakhn, Requiem, path of the dark... ) "No significant explanation or backstory?" Seriously? I'm sorry, if you're saying that, you've never looked. And not even "looked" as in "have to find these TWO markers in obscure areas" looked - it's RIGHT THERE. It's not even "you need to play a Kheld" backstory - it's there in the Galaxies, War Wolves/Vampyri, the whole "war wolf earth" (the *point* of having to go to get the clue for the mission,) the ... TF whose contact I'm blanking on suddenly... Moonfire TF... Their story's been there for the majority of the game's life.

Wasn't the whole "cast time" thing already looked into and found it's pretty much the same as any other set? I seem to recall this discussion before...

This would why I wrote this back in the day. Someone did import it into Paragonwiki and (where you should be going) the homecoming wiki, but given that's ... a wiki and people can just wander in and alter it for whatever reason... Cimerora (and some current changes) have twisted a few things around since then, granted. (I'm *really* not fond of a few things that were done for gameplay reasons, frankly) but... *shrug* them's the breaks. The basics haven't really changed. And yes, I keep saying I need to update the guide and put it here, but I haven't learned to time travel, nor have I won the lottery, so...

Or the game continuing to run. Oh, wait...

Um.... you should, perhaps, click on their name and see they've posted quite a bit in different threads on different subjects. Not a "bot." I highly doubt anyone's testing their AI chatbot here talking about their character, ideas for COT/Hellion corossovers, etc.

So. Solo, most groups are 2-3, on base settings. Up those settings or get onto a team, enemy groups get bigger. Now, on top of all of YOUR teammates' footsteps, powers, pet noises, etc, you now have a hallway with hundreds of enemies in it... all making footstep noises. Your desired COH experience thus sounds like: ... but without the music. Constantly. No thanks. One, a power called Divining Rod already exists in game. You should pay attention. Two, this sounds extremely annoying. Have you *paid attention* to the maps at all? Aside from the multi-floor maps, of which there are many, the game also "counts" things like Council jail doors and COT crystals as "enemies" (just watch them show up on the map.) There are also maps where rescued NPCs don't go anywhere, maps with civilians running around that have nothing to do with the mission - In short, this would be far less useful than you think. This is probably the singularly most laughable idea I've heard this year. How utterly ridiculous. You're aware (obviously not so why am I asking) there are missions that...require you NOT to get the attention of enemies? Or that there are ATs and powersets that don't handle "EVERYONE RUSH THEM!" very well? Or that not everyone does capped-everything builds? Or that some people *want* to be able to stealth through some missions? This would take that option away from them. Horrible idea. If I want AE missions, I'll *go to the AE.* Just like if I want PVP, I'll go to a PVP zone or the arena. Do I think AE designers should have the *option* of setting outside doors as mission entrances? Yes. Do I think you should just randomly end up in an AE mission because you happened to click a door? Hell no. Horrible idea. What missions you go into should be *completely at the player's discretion.* Repeating a bad idea does not make it any better of an idea.

... you mean something to encourage people to *pay for a subscription* (or otherwise spend money) in a commercial game, run by the original owners and publisher for the express purpose of making money? You know, the reason most businesses exist? And if you're so against how the game is run and so dismissive of the people who have run it and dug into it since 2012 (SCoRE, the HC team and others) - since they're "just modders," after all - why are you here? You can head to Ourodev and pick up almost everything needed to run your own server (and instructions on how to set up the stuff they don't provide, all of which is free) and go play with yourself there.

Just running through, everything redside seems to be working (just as a double-check on that...)

... not a dev, obviously, but how would this really be useful or accurate? The times are going to depend on the group, how they *want* to run it (granted, most are going to do it in one shot, but some do run them over multiple days/sessions,) clear all vs speed, how well the group handles it, who's exemped down vs at level and in what combination, etc. I mean, if someone sees Posi 1 at - say - 15 minutes, because there are a bunch of groups exemping down and speed running it during the WST, and they run it with their friends or a pug at level 8-10, it's *not* going to take 15 minutes.

Maybe it's from the BAF scene not taking place in the same "part" of the world - it's Mother talking Siege and Nightstar in a building, after all, not in the open world, versus Marauder jumping down in front of the gates. Just a guess.

Not sure about the +def buff, since there's so much +def floating around, but honestly I'm not really that concerrned about it. And .... yeah, I mean, we can already do gun-and-sword going the other way with sentinels (and I think blasters were mentioned,) this'd let melee get in on the fun. (Other folks can debate the powers and such. Theme-wise, I'm for it.)

Novelty. There wasn't much reason to fly to the edge of the map in PI and pop into Talos (not sure if that's still active,) but it was amusing to do sometimes - even when zipping to the ferry was quicker...ish.

Yep, long as it's opt in, go nuts. 🙂 (Windows sounds are among the first things I shut off on a new/fresh install, even. Though I could see even me adding something to Request specifically to grab attention during hami raids or itrials, which tend to use that channel.) Only question I'd have is if it's limited to in game sounds or there'd be an option for your own. (Pointing at .wavs or .ogg or .mp3 or whatever you may have.)

Honestly, I don't think I could see the COT seeing the Hellions as anything but amateurs... or victims. Some Hellion might try to approach the COT to get more power, just to be told "Sure, step one - jab this thorn into your side..." Which, itself, might make for an interesting story - you'd end up sympathetic to some Hellions - but the down side of that is that that story (with other NPCs) is already in the game in the ... 20s? 30s? in essence.

I still like Thunderous Blast, even if we've got the various judgements. Just for the "Zap!" ... entire spawn twitches.... falls down in unison. It was satisfying when I first got it on my first Elec/Elec blaster back in the day, and it still is.

... amusingly, someone ... low to mid level asked for assistance in a mission - I think it was fighting the first Skull founder (blanking on his name, the fight in the warehouse, guy with the club...) I showed up, regular character. Other guy also showed up to help. They spammed out - well, a *lot* of Snow Beasts. It was both amazing and amusing how many.

... am I the only one parsing that as that smash hit wizard party game, Dance Dance Levitation? ... Yes?

No.