Greycat

I want alternate start points. I *want* to start a player (or team) in a holding cell and can't. Or at the far side of a jungle map. (Also "more map variety." Might be City of Heroes, but what if I want to send a team to the pyramids, or Central American ruins?)

It's not enhanceable because it's a free, temp power. That's how it is. And yeah, I use it (and nem staff/blackwand) on characters with Super STrength since their damage isn't lessened during a rage crash. Sands takes just about long enough for the crash to wear off.

No! You want a respec, you have to *prove* you want it. You have to *bleed* for it, commit yourself to it, show ... OK, kidding. I wouldn't mind. Honestly even having this limited to "one step back" sometimes would be nice. I wouldn't argue with more.

What's being described is often called "Defiance 1.0." And I recall one of the devs actually saying "Tell them not to heal you." There was a *lot* of facepalming going on. Yes, people took advantage of it (I remember taking my Elec in old-Faultline and falling off a skyscraper to try it out) but... yeah... (I seem to recall it being mentioned as a high risk high reward thing in PVP, too.) It's ... not a mechanic I'd want to come back, personally, even if it *was* amusing for a bit.

Hmm. Probably wouldn't last as long (trying to think of how long they last now) ... wonder if they'd allow multiples on that. The one usability issue I'd see (coming from Warshades and their 'extract essence') is in things like invasions, where the enemies disappear fairly fast to where you *can't* extract, even if you get them right on death. (Yes, it's annoying.) .... I don't know if it could be coded, but it would kind of be amusing if it would act as a confuse on spectral enemies, like Tsoo ancestor spirits, ghost pirates or COT...

I wouldn't argue with a resist buff on that. Not sure how the "do damage" would go over (since in theory you should be doing more damage with your other attacks afterward,) but I'm not a numbers guy by any means. (And need to remake my sonics here, come to think of it.)

T1s already generally die fast enough (part of why I hate taking MMs redside - Demolitionists. And then there's "why bother summoning them" MSRs...) without making them weaker. The main issue I think I have with your suggestions is this - Maybe *yours* don't. My primary necro/ MM definitely does. There's not one definition of who or what a necro MM is or what their attitude should be. (We had this argument back when the ability to switch sides was added, with "Stalkers can't be heroes, they're assassins!" "X villain AT/powerset can't be a hero because I can't imagine that concept!") Your 'corpse explosion' power already exists in Warshades... I don't know that I'd want to give up life drain for it, though. (I find that useful.) Don't think I'd argue with pet upgrades being auto-applied... not sure what we'd be looking at for balance and such though. (Though given a MM's offense is all in the pets, it's not like a blaster loses the ability to fire off an AOE and has to resummon it, the argument it's "already balanced" could be made.)

<-- prefers the intangible Cage, though if it were a toggle I wouldn't argue.

Light RP... so all Peacebringers and Energy blasters? Special consideration for Spectrum costume users?

Hmm. Suggest a /displaytip or /randomtip command? Or one that senses if you're at certain day job locations so if you pick a /displaytip or /randomtip while (say) at the market, AE or in a PVP zone, it gives an appropriate tip? (Like "You're in a PVP zone, why are you reading this? What's that behind you?" )

Always concerned about size, sheesh...

... .give me more slots and I can guarantee you'll see mobs with those. They'll probably be the least upvoted arcs, but still... The mobs will have reason to have those, as well. I'm also half tempted to see if people would be willing to play in (nearly) the conditions mentioned previously - let's call it classic mode. 1-50, TO/DO/SO only (or, rather, to avoid the annoyance factor of re-slotting constantly, TO/lv15 common IO/lvl 30 common IO only, for roughly the same strength.) Nice mixed team. (Or, hey, go Green Machine and break the game with what are essentially Regen Blasters.) P2W is fine, just skip the XP boosts (nobody's complaining about sands of mu....) and otherwise just play classically. Cash as it comes in.

There are several things that keep me from playing redside frequently. 1. The "streamlined" maps. Yes, there were complaints about "wasted" maps blueside, but I can take characters through a few different paths. Jim Justice might help out in the Hollows, take on the trolls in Skyway and break the mob in Indy Port, but Lisa Law can help out fighting the Lords of Death, deal with the Outcasts in Steel and the Warriors in Talos - while taking side trips into hazard zones. It keeps it from being same-y. My villains? They see pretty much the same things every time. Sure, you can pick a couple of different contacts... in the same place. 2. The grim, grey, dirty and broken scenery, when it's not on fire. Granted, there are places like this, but even the presumably tourist-desiring Giza has cratered roadways a quick (super)hop or two away. It fits some areas, yes. But as part of the "streamlined" maps, there's not really a lot of variety, and the variety there is (Aeon City, say) feels out of place and dropped on top of the "old town" or the slums (or butting right up against the jungle.) It doesn't get that much of a chance to be "different" and develop its own character... which leads to the same-ness of it. 3. The writing. Villains are harder to write than heroes. Heroes can react all day long. Villain is doing Badthing to Goodperson? Go save the day! You can even focus on groups or types of crimes. No reason for techguy to fight magic, which he doesn't understand at all. Villains in general are more "doers." They have more agency, and it's hard to address that, or motivation, with preset missions. Something pushes someone to go rob banks or sell drugs out of desperation. Maybe they're forced into it. Someone's just power hungry and will do anything to be on top. Someone's an amoral corporate type who takes advantage of looser laws to begin early human testing to get something to market faster than their competitors. And yet the writing doesn't really address this. You're a flunky, who occasionally beats someone into "following your lead." (Yes, some of this was starting to change in later writing, but even then.) And don't get me started on the VEAT "storyline." It annoyed me enough to (a) enjoy the ATs less and (b) ignore it after the level 10 costume mission. 4. Related to that, yes, your characters are flunkies. Or vicious, evil, and/or stupid. Or get suckered into things too easily/frequently. Yes, historically some of my villains *would* beat Frostfire and take power for themselves, going a bit crazy after an eternity or so. Or would say "Here, take this hero and experiment on her and turn her into DE." Or would happily be part of Minions, Inc, since it's a paycheck. But you almost have to write your *own* missions in AE to give yourself a satisfying path (unless you see everything as just sources of XP and merits and don't care, which, hey, valid if that's your thing.) 5. There's no really 'undercover heroic' path Redside. I know, redside's for villains, and there's no 'evil' path Blueside either, but there's no choice to - let's say "do the right thing for the wrong reasons" (or, for that matter, the wrong thing for the right reasons.) Or to put it another way... not much grey on either side (aside from redside weather. 🙂 ) And that's just off the top of my head... Mind you, probably 20% of my roster is villain. But that leads to (6,) which touches on some of this - concepts. You might be able to think of villain concepts, but they're shoehorned into the same things regardless. Insane assassin? Scientist, mad or otherwise? Someone who sees no other path? Ex military who *likes* being a hired gun? Banished leader from another country/dimension who WILL get followers and rebuild a power base? There's not much to do to express that... short of writing your own stuff in AE. Which I don't want to do from 1-50 (especially with limited slots.)

I do have to ask "why," though, with beast run being free. I'm not *against* the suggestion, mind you. More customization's good. I'm just curious.

... ehhh. I don't think the 200% XP boost would happen (we've already got free 100% boosts, and I *really* doubt they'd be allowed to stack.) The Inf boost makes sense - maybe not 200% worth (and, after all, if you've got an XP booster you're losing some percent there.) Villainside just hasn't ever really been as popular. I've got some villains around, I just ... am never really in the mood to play them. And villainside for me isn't an issue of people playing. I know they "streamlined" the Isles - but that's part of the problem for me. Heroside, I've got a lot of environments to go through. Yes, some say too many (with "unused" hazard zones, etc.) but it has more contacts and more areas to keep it from feeling the same (or like you're stalled in one area for too long.) Boosts aren't really going to fix that to me. But that's just me.

Prestige power slide was the COH Collector's edition, around Issue 3. (Which got me into the game, so...)

Yeah, about the only workaround I know is having everything (including you) follow a pet you keep pointing where you want to go.

I don't recall the participation metric on live being much more than "do something more than stand there through the trial," personally.

I'm solidly "Meh" about it. Didn't even know it existed.

Honestly I'd see that as an upside. People who love just messing around and base building could create "hey, here's a basic outdoor/tech/whatever base for people to use and expand on" and those who'd like something set up but don't have the time/patience/skill to do these could copy them over. ... I'm not sure how big an issue "base stealing" would be. (I don't think items like salvage or enhancements would be considered "part of the base," though, either.)

I think maps, I end up thinking AE and what I'd like. But yeah, more "neighborhoods" that aren't city blocks - more or fewer houses, parks, one by the water, one with a graveyard nearby (just for october mission fun,) that sort of thing. Growing up in Milwaukee, we had the Domes - basically giant greenhouses that (IIRC) were open all year. Not only would it not be out of place in a city (stop nature-based enemies, not just DE, from creating a stronghold, etc.) but AE-wise it would find use as a "space colony's greenhouse" or someplace in a desert, that sort of thing. (And if they wanted to use that geodesic dome and put other things, like a neighborhood or lab under it, well... more environments!) In no small part because *I'd love to see the Blood of the Black Stream, or at least investigate their lore,* and part of it deals with Gadzul Oil (Egyptian based?) we could introduce new, desert environments. Heck, add a (SMALL!) -recovery to the map. It's hot, it's dry, it'd sap someone's strength... ok, that should probably be "with some reason in a mission," not tied to the map. But hey. Road trip to Ancient Egypt. ... heck, with that let's do actual jungle ruins.

Mind you, I love Elec. First 50 was one back in I3 or so. But.. yeah. Pre-Defiance 2, VS was (as I'd mentioned) a boon - it could attack while I was held, something no other blaster could do. Saved my neck a few times. (Granted, it grabbed more aggro and got me killed a few times too...) Helps currently, too, it's just not as much of a "set differentiator." Which it should be. The endmod wouldn't hurt (it would *have* to have that -recovery boost to make it useful, though, given how NPCs can attack with the slightest bit, it seems.) Sleep... hmm. While not the *same,* I do rather like adding the chance to stun IO (I forget which endmod set off the top of my head) to the attacks in Elec. Get a couple elec blasters going with that (I had a group that made a team of 4 with those) and it gets amusing.

No, we're not. I can see when someone's so against something they won't bother listening and is not worth attempting to discuss anything with. *shrug*

Right, and I was saying (alternatively) to have VS's attacks chain (since, hey, you know it's there, and since it's already got that cast time/duration...) and perhaps give that buff to AOEs while it's there or for 20s. The reason I'm iffy about adding that chance to chain for all attacks is that I'll usually end up casting it just prior to trying to pull something out of a room and not wanting to chain then (it'd be within that 20s.) Of course, I could just cast afterward then, couldn't I. 🙂 Disregard the objection then. Works either way!

Misremembering the chance on my part, then. My apologies, carry on.