Greycat

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.

So, live we had a sort of roadmap. And it got derailed constantly. I mean, Blood of the Black Stream was mentioned *way* back before COV, when a player won a contest to have their character turned into a trading card, COV came out and we got mention of Gadzul Oil and that eye of horus oil slick, then... nothing. States mentioned a *bunch* of EATs... which we never got. The Universities were originally going to be part of some *other* "improve your character" system that ... suddenly gave us buildings with no purpose, which were then turned into the Invention system. I'd think any roadmap - especially with our volunteer crew - is going to be "We'd like to do this," and/or just ... vague at best. More "vision" than "map." I'm ... rather confused by the first one. TOs don't drop - you have to go out of your way to find them, which leaves them available for those who *want* to use them without them mucking up the rest. DOs, SOs, people use. And the rest... of course people use them. Origins - part of me, as I've mentioned elsewhere, is still annoyed at Epic ATs being uncoupled from their origin. That said, the live team had started making steps to bring origin into the spotlight, at least through dialog - see the "origin of power" arc, which I tend to think of as a test run for it, giving different dialog, or the Trapdoor mission where the dohickey changes depending on your origin. I don't know what hooks are in the game to be used right now, but I look at the nascent nods to origin that were being put in, and I look over at STO where you'll have different options to complete a mission objective depending on your 'class' and can't help but wonder if that's where they were trying to go. Even if they can't do "alternate win conditions" (Next mission you don't get an ambush if your Tech origin notices and does XYZ to the computer, or your Magic origin notes that if they change the arrangement on that altar something will/won't happen,) I still think that having the FBSA departments start off every origin on 1-50 arcs focusing on an enemy group or groups related to it would be nice to do. Lots of work, yes. But it would add to replayability. Incarnates are a whole thing unto themselves. *shrug* The SG thing - do we need to "encourage" active SGs? Why? The last thing we had to encourage SG activity was prestige, and that was just seen as a grind (and a point of abuse in some cases.) I know I hated it, the cost on my characters, and the way building bases was limited by it. And what would count as "active?" I've got characters who are on almost nightly, or weekly... for RP, generally, with others in that group. That's an "active" group, to me, but you can't really put a metric to it. Is a group where someone happens to be farming constantly "active?" How about the group that meets once a week or once a month? Trying to define "active" and how to encourage "activity" just .... opens many cans of worms. I'd say leave SGs where they are right now. They can be private, social, always-hosting-something, transit hubs... whatever, and to me they're doing just fine without artificial stimulation.

Yeah, those have always been around. And where would you have people put their garbage? Get rid of those and Talos will look like redside.

I'm still thinking it's the side door to PDP, personally, and that there was some hiccup that just did something weird. Side of Terra Volta. Since I woke up way too early, I've been poking around pretty much every door and police van (and working on Family boss and Sorc defeat badges) - there area lot of mission doors, a lot of dead doors, but so far nothing matching that description. Even checked the new(ish) doors used in the newer Vahz mission (plenty of police vans, fog at the door, etc) in case that went somewhere else when you don't have a mission... nope. Does your friend remember what *enemies* were in the area? It's generally some mix of Family, COuncil/column (though that's more north, not south,) Tsoo or DE. Only thing I see that really says anything "boardwalk/dock"-ish to me is the south part of TV (more wooden docks for small boats,) which is close to the PDP entrance. The rest of the "docks" I'd call far more industrial than boardwalk-ish. (Other odd thought was that they were maybe being attacked by something, got killed as they entered and the game didn't know what to do - since there's no hospital in PDP I remember - and somehow "Rez circles in pocket D" made sense. I don't know.) OK, so, trying to narrow it down (not that I'll actually have time this weekend, yay work, but might help someone else track it down) - - Were they being attacked by anything (and what,) - Was it an actual *door* they clicked to open or did they happen to hit a wall or something and appear in PD? (Geometry hole... I know you used to be able to get to the odd room under... bah, forget what it was now, think it turned into the arenas - that way, or from PI to Talos flying "through" an area of a war wall, or even get into the trial area in Faultline (echo, now) that way.) Regardless, even if it was a one off glitch (also possible,) kind of a fun little "scavenger hunt" trying to verify this. 🙂 Edit: Of course, if they got killed going to or just after showing up in the PDP, they'd have that rez dialog box, which would be noticable. Soooo.. maybe not that. Eh, it was a thought.

Yeah, that's the (what I think of as) original location for the SC entrance. It's the one there I've always known of.

Sorry, way too overpowered. 😉 (But yeah, having people aware of it would be good.)

Honestly, those aren't the same as the Zero G pack. The 0G pack gives a longer period of shorter "bursts" of vertical movement - well, just like Superjump. The two you list are just one big boost for an amount of time, then are off while they recharge. They're *really* not like travel powers. (For instance, you can use SJ to get to the top of the tall tower in ... forgetting the name of it, the first Praetorian zone, and back down again. I *believe* last time I tried that with one of those packs, I had to make one long jump and wait for it to recharge. (It does match the height, having just checked, of starting with the double jump from superjump... which is just barely not enough to get there. But with regular SJ or the Zero G pack, you can just hop up the side of the building easily. With those packs, you'd have to either have SJ or some secondary power - like the jetpack they give now at startup - to make that final leap and have time to move as needed, or sit and wait for the rather long recharge.)