Greycat

Having played (as a main...) Earth/FF, I'd say "Not unless you're *always* teamed or like watching things die in geologic time." Which, I suppose, would be appropriate for Earth/. For Masterminds, the question's going to be "How active do you want to be?" I know some folks love it. For me, a bots/FF nearly bored me off the entire AT because I felt like an observer. If I were to run another /FF mastermind, I'd probably do something like pick a melee set of pets and plan on the fighting pool - for the attacks - to have something to do. And for Corruptors and Defenders... well, anything really works. Perhaps pair with Dark (from memory) for some -tohit on the enemies. (And I, for a set like this, tend to plan on dual builds - one with team powers, one without those but more offense for solo work.)

... seconding this. That's just - a bit much for ranged, but doing some mental conditioning and using a bit of status resistance... is less problematic. (Acrobatics isn't a "must take" power now (at least for fire/dark armor) thanks to IOs, among other things, and only gives 1 mag protection as I recall... so it's a steep cost for a little protection. Superior Reasoning at 14... oof, as described, yeah, you'd see most every controller, defender, possibly mastermind, blaster and controller - barring, maybe, FF and Sonic thanks to the big bubbles giving protection - respeccing to take it.)

This REALLY needed to be necroed. *rolls eyes* Christ.

I *hate* the current voltaic sentinel and want the old one back. It's a toggle now because "OMG I have to click something." It was *far* more useful before. Far as I'm concerned, it's seriously nerfed and the only reason any elec. blast characters have it is that they had it before the nerf and I don't want to bother respeccing.

Agreed. That said, some of the stuff in game now, as I recall, was designed by players back on live. (I want to say the Made Men Pizza one was, for one.) And of course there was the in-game advertising that was ... rather out of place and died a not quick enough death...

On occasion, yes, solo. More often with teams, though. Edit: Preference-wise, yeah, I honestly prefer to do things as I level. The whole thing about which contacts I choose, which groups I face, etc. being part of that character's "story."

Yeah, wouldn't hold my breath on swap ammo affecting primary/secondary powers. Also, honestly... I'd hope if they did add something like this (as I do have some melee folks that use temp power pistols because they would...) they gave us non-silly-flippy animations. Just pull out a pistol if it's not already out, aim, bang. (And then transferred them back to the main set.)

... and again, why did this have to be necroed for this comment? Digging up a thread from *April of 2019?* So nobody'd better argue that "oh, these threads shouldn't be locked after, say, 6mo because IMPORTANT DISCUSSION!" No. No it isn't. Almost never is.

To be fair, very little is easy to do or works well at low levels. 😉 "I am an all powerful god come to Earth!" *gets taken out by a vomiting meat-robot.* "I am the ultimate warrior, an immortal with 1000 years of combat experience, time traveling to defeat all foes!" *gets taken out by a schmuck with a baseball bat.* And as far as feel... yeah, the fact COH (a) isnt' going to be as focused on any sort of representation - the game's very broad in what it lets you do, but not deep in the representation, versus something like (say) one of the Diablo games which has very few classes, focused spells/animations/items for them though, specifically to let your (say) "person who fights with fire" do that however that character wants to, and (b) anything requiring new assets is going to be harder - we don't have the live team or all the tools they had (or a team working at *just* this.) Which in its way cycles back to the OP in "what kind of arcane do you have in mind?" Would something that could be recycled from existing assets work? Power customization that (say) uses the various "magic circles" that show up now at the foot of targets? Or is it a "no, I really need to be waving a wand/crystal ball/skull around for the right feel" thing?

Same cost as on live, but you can just give yourself the aethers (I don't remember the live cost off the top of my head. 250? 1000?)

You were asked for clarification. "A powerset focusing on the arcane arts" is so vague as to be meaningless. Which arcane arts, represented how? You might as well post "Why don't you make a set that does the thing and stuff?" I can't say if I *like* the suggestion or not because *the suggestion is too vague to have any meaning.* Of the responses before your little snit above, you have: - One telling you what you requested for test already exists, providing links on how to get there/use it. - Mine, asking for clarification on what you mean. - One mentioning the sorcery pool. (Which you obviously *don't* know about from your quoted response if you think it's "travel other than 2 skills.") - Another asking for clarification on what you mean. Absolutely nothing unreasonable or even saying they don't like it. So chill and *maybe give some clarification or flesh the idea out* so people know WTF you've got in mind. After all, if *you* don't care that much about your suggestion... why should anyone else? Also, sunshine, this is a public forum (as far as "public" = "those registered to play the game.") You don't get to declare who can and cannot respond or how. The forum is *a forum* because... guess what... feedback and discussion is part of the process. If you don't like that? Use email or private messaging. Then nobody has to know you said anything at all.

What do you mean? The majority of sets are fairly generic (and can be made moreso with some of the weapons options) - no, there's no "Wave wand around" power set, but I'd say that'd be more an animation / "weapon" option issue than "it needs a powerset." For the most part, "is it arcane" (or anything else) is answered by "How do you describe your character using it?" Is it a magic charm you found that lets you control others perceptions? (Illusion.) Is it practice from an ancient book that lets you form a sword of fire or ice from your hands? Is it nanites that swarm out and encase your enemy, hampering them and holding htem in place? (more taking a "magic" set theme - Dark whatever - and turning it into tech, there.) Heck, one of the people in one of my SGs uses the beam rifle (with the crystal resistance rifle) as an "automagic wand" (long bit of backstory that goes with it - but it just needs to point and shoot, so...) Even the Sorcery *set* doesn't have to be described or restricted to magic whatever - drop the aura at the tailor and you're just flying. Setting an enemy on fire? Lots of ways to do that - and so forth. So, what do you mean by "a power set more focused on the arcane arts for magic-themed characters" that can't already be done in game... basically by selecting Magic origin and putting a note in your bio about how you're doing things?

Eh. My only worry is that the tech seems iffy *now,* and it's just an annoyance. Burning 10 threads for it and having it still not work would... yeah...

What I'd *like* with them is an option to go back and read all the clues/dialog that came up during the mission, honestly. The summary is nice and all, but you miss quite a bit.

There's plenty of non-RP teams on Everlasting. I'd say it's *mostly* non RP, with people there for the population. You don't have to roleplay on the server. Half the time it's just chat going on anyway. If you mostly avoid Pocket D, you'll miss most of the public RP. *shrug* Given we've got three double-Hamis and at least two MSRs a night going on (and ... next sunday? Quick Trix is running her "smushening," at least 12 hours *straight* of MSRs...) as well as fairly steady monster hunt teams- well, you won't be hurting for activity.

Maybe there were two then... That said, I'm kind of surprised they didn't last. The format of the .storyarc file isn't ... *overly* horrible, until you start adding custom groups in. (I want to say the character models get added to it then, which makes it big and nasty.) More an issue of "Keep up to date with available maps/etc." ... looked at a (simple, single mission) arc, and yeah. StartStoryArc Title "Test mission" Description "Here to test a group! " ContactType Contact ContactCategory P2108159343 Contact Ouroboros_Crystal_Console_A Morality Neutral StartMission Title "" SubTitle "" MinLevel 0 MaxLevel 0 MinLevelAuto 0 MaxLevelAuto 0 MapName maps/Missions/CargoShip/CargoShip_Layout_04.txt MapSet CargoShip MapLength Small EnemyGroupType Custom VillainGroup "Mystery Cult" Pacing Flat CompletionTime 0 ContactIntro Test! ContactSendOff "TEst! TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST!" ContactDeclineSendOff "" ContactStillBusy Test! ContactReturnSuccess "Tested! " ContactReturnFail "" MissionAccept Accept CompassActiveTask "Testy test. Click barrel when tired of testing." MissionEntryDialog "" MissionSuccessDialog "" MissionFailDialog "" MissionRequirements Test CustomVillainGroupIdx 1 Detail { Name Test DetailType Collection Entity OO_Council_Drum_Barrel_01 Quantity 1 ObjectInteractionTime 4 ObjectLocation Floor } EndMission All stuff you could just edit in Notepad if you know what to put in (which, of course, is part of the challenge.) The two critter types I have in this mission, though, take up *far* more space than this (granted, it's an 18k file.) This (other than the custom groups) should be easy..ish... to create an offline editor for. (No, I'm not a programmer, last programming I did was in Basic and scripting in (Auto)Lisp in the 90s. Decided I hated semicolon hunts in some version of C and haven't gone back.)

I want to say there used to *be* an external MA writing tool - though it wasn't updated and had fallen behind/gotten broken because of MA updates even before sunset. Still, interesting template (and more organized than using Notepad 😄 ) - nice.

Sentinels are perfectly survivable. I don't try to "aggro manage" for a team because that's not their job. And they do damage enough that, frankly, I don't feel short changed there. If you like another AT's numbers better, play that AT. Have fun. There's zero reason to "what's the point" any other AT. Don't like it, don't play it. As far as the point, for me? They let me actually run certain character concepts that "Melee with epic/pool ranged attack" or "blaster with APP shield finally in the 40s" don't. And no, neither does "IO it out."

Oh, do movie nights. Especially if someone hasn't seen the movie IRL (or is really good at not "remembering" for their character.) They don't *sound* interesting, but reactions and "I'm totally doing that" and having movie bits bleed into character mannerisms after watching can be ssurprisingly fun. Or funny. (One of the "touchstones" for one pair of characters I run with a friend - platonic - is DBZA (from Team Four Star.) Just from this being a *thing.*) Also... Yeah, I'd say if you start feeling something for another player... step back and talk to them OOC. Remind yourself who the *player* is. Way back on live, I had a (female) main. First character I seriously RP'd with. Player: male. Had someone else I RP'd with constantly. Player: male. Character: It's Complicated. Co-led an SG. Mind you, I'd mentioned my wife a few times (and same-sex marriages weren't a thing anywhere at that point.) Found ourselves sitting on one of the southern Peregrine islands and he hits me with a comment about never thinking they'd be sitting watching a sunset in a video game - or want to so much. I don't think he was expecting the "Er... what? Wait..." He'd *forgotten* who was behind the character because of how I'd RP'd her. Went to one of the other officers - also an in game friend - and metioned it, and *his* reaction was "I was wondering when you two would get together finally." And he meant OOC. I had to remind *him* who was behind the screen too! Fortunately we were all good and laughed it off, but it was *extremely* awkward for me right then. The other side of things? Maybe keep an eye on how it effects other people *irl* around you. Had another friend - went to her wedding, actually - whose husband cheated on her. They got divorced, but (granted, I think this was mostly an excuse, not a cause - he was getting fairly horrible) among other things he basically said she "cheated" too, because... her characters had in-game relationships and "it was the same thing." Aside from the divorce itself, she left COH permanently (which she'd been enjoying, both as a game and a place to just talk to a group of friends) because that's what it got associated with for her. (He would probably have found some other excuse if it weren't for COH, in truth, but still.)

Honestly, the only (play/mechanical, don't get me into their storyline) issue I have with VEATs is the blasted forced respec at 24. It's *exceptionally* annoying to me and often has me looking for any other option that fits a character concept.

I'll sometimes try to help (or just comment) in Help, repeat stuff if someone looks like they just came on and are looking for something advertised in LFG. Broadcast is... rare, barring inside a base (like a link to music for an event) or having an RP reason to shout stuff. Local - most frequent, since RP. General Chat - gets ripped out and thrown in the fire. SG and custom channels for various groups get used fairly frequently, usually to say hi and see what else is going on.

This creation is not mine, of course. But I'm sure many of us from live remember Samuraiko. (No, she's not gone, so far as I know.) And while we've lost more since this was created, she made this... apparently 9 years ago. Ran across it while looking for things to add to a playlist. Given both our losses and the time of year, well -

The test server has a "freebies menu" so you can test things. Immediate level to 50, test full sets, etc. It's part of why people will often say if you want to see how a build performs... do it on the test server.

I just dream of my characters having fingers.

The times I hear about it, it's like "oh, they'll be emulating the game as it was on issue 2" or some such... and it never seemed to get more current. *shrugs*