Greycat

The "greys" mentioned are not aliens. It's Grey, capitalized, as in a name. It's buried ... eh, somewhere in lore. If I can dig it up, I'll edit to add it. Edit: Or not so buried. In the SO description, it describes "Grey, the entity of exploration."

Exploration badges are character specific. (Thus having to unlock the LRT power on every character. Which makes sense. Just because character 1 visited Detroit doesn't mean every other character on the account has.) As far as which ones you've visited, other than looking at your badges and comparing to a list of what's there, no. (Generally I'll leave the fog of war on, so I can see where I've been, 'til I have them all.)

Yes, people *do* have to AFK longer than that. I had to while family members were sick, for instance. Others have kids and such they take care of that have something come up suddenly. It's not uncommon at all.

it would (or to go to all of them.) If there's a problem with it, it might be that the plaques don't award a badge (until you get them all,) so I don't know if they'd have a trigger to say "mission complete." (Though, there's that old "Learn the history of that hero" old newbie mission that did, so maybe it does have a way of doing it.)

Well, they already flow from First Ward into Night Ward, level and story wise. I'd be wary of potentially causing problems with that. On the plus side, if those contacts give missions past 40, the mobs exist, so they wouldn't have to be created for it. Honestly, though, I think the big issue with Night Ward being underused is more one of it (and first ward) really being kind of off in a little world of their own. It's not *obvious* how to get there from finishing Praetoria, and while the contacts get thrown at you to the point of gumming up the "Find a contact" window - they're just "off somewhere, unconnected" sort of like the Shadow Shard. Connecting them to the world (and making the find a contact thing less annoying) would probably help more, short term, for introducing people to the zones.

The call boxes *are* underutilized. Outside of a TF or two, they're used about as much as bus stops in Paragon.

The old new one (with the shining stars) was bugged, the new old one (stop the construction) works - also, I have seen event notifications of - i think it's "strange Clockwork activity in KR" so...

Also: Polly Cooper, "Defeat all sky raiders in lab." (Yeah, I'm in Sky Raider land...) 75 minutes, "Defeat all" and click three glowies. Not a defeat all (any more.)

... not... really? I mean, some sets are updated and such, sure, but I'm fairly sure I could take 99% of my live characters, plop them into the game right now, and be perfectly fine without "a lot of work." Or any at all. Different story if you have to min/max or only played sets that have seen big changes, maybe, but otherwise I'd say they'd be just fine.

"Secondhand Fleece." .. wait, probably don't want "fleece" in a store's name. Circe's Cleaners (or pet store.) Bacchus Beer and Wine?

Betty's mom told you?

Hate to put this in the typos since this isn't really a "typo," but we do have missions that have incorrect descriptions. I don't know how doable it is to get them changed. Example - since i just ran it. Oswald Cuthbert, "Defeat all sky raiders in lab." (Non story arc mission.) Actual goal: Three glowies, mainframes you disconnect from the network to stop them from stealing "Cryonite armor." This is mentioned (sort of) in the description, but not indicated at all (no "Lock down network x/3") in the nav bar with the mission requirements - that still reads "defeat all skyraiders" and gives the timer. Rewards Cryonite Armor temp power.

... I had to stop and think about "playing" vs "happens to be the sets on the characters I'm RPing most heavily." Lessee... - BS/WP Brute - Staff/WP brute. At 50, and I've got another Staff/WP 50 that's a scrapper. Despite being *very* identical, I play the brute more. Something more enjoyable about it. - Ill/Storm Controller - For MSRs, if I'm not running someone else, a Pain/Dark Defender. - Alternately, a Grav/Elec Dom. With +1 from Alpha and Ultimate inspirations, Fold Space and Wormhole have Rikti getting teleported into the bowl from everywhere.

I had to go and look, I don't think I'd even noticed before. Yeah, a recolor wouldn't fix that. Honestly, for finding out how "doable" that would be? I'd ask some of the modders, if anyone. Someone that pokes around with that stuff would have a better idea.

You need to reread the posts. Slowly. There's been zero "crying." There has been *a statement of disagreement with a suggestion.* Hell, it wasn't even a statement in my case until you started trying to state that a *thumbs down emoji* was somehow trying to ban people from being able to want things. You also have not "questioned" why anyone disagrees, and even tried to dismiss one person's explanation as to why they do when they offered it anyway. The closest you've come to discussion is basically saying "You disagree with me so you're wrong" to people. YOU, meanwhile, have deliberately gone into another thread to start trolling. As well as have been the one disparaging others for disagreeing in *this* one. As far as not affecting me? It affects builds. It affects the way I deal with people around me, and expectations for future content. It keeps purple sets, frankly, *boring.* That is not "crying." That is not trying to keep you down or make it so you can't post (though I suspect you probably should step back for a bit, given your reactions to basic discourse.) That is an opinion, mine, which I am as free to state as you are to state yours, and which has just as much weight as any non-dev's. That is to say, essentially zero. If you can't handle that? That's on you. *I* am going to state my opinions, whether by emoji or novel-level post, whether you like it or not. Just like everyone else is free to do.

Are you asking specifically about this, or in general? The forms can take on a tint. The aura around them is colored, at least in Nova, the base model from what I've seen stays the base color. Example:

So you don't want others to state that they don't like it, and anyone who *does* is "keeping you from having options," even though nobody here has any power to keep anything away from anyone if they're not a dev. *shakes head* Ever think that maybe, just maybe, people have a reason other than trying to keep you, personally, down for disagreeing with the idea? Best keep away from magnets with all the irony in that statement...

Nope. This needs clearing up: Player characters / accounts (your COH login(s,) associated characters) were part of the game servers. Your COH logins were COH logins, were only affected by whatever COH did. COH GMs could ban you from the game and you could still happily (?) play Lineage or other NC stuff. *Billing* information (who *you* are, your address, credit cards, etc.) would have been on a whole separate set of servers handled by NCSoft, since they would be billing for multiple games (COH, Guild Wars, Aion, etc.) using the same information. These tend to be siloed - billing would have to work with them, so they'd have access (and that was done by NCSoft.) The billing department's support would have access to answer payment and account status questions. The Cryptic/Paragon devs would have zero need for any access to that information, and neither would the game servers - they'd live in their own little world. So payment information would never have been at risk with that leak. (In short, having the leaked databases, they'd be able to see that the Whackaguy account had Whackasword, Whackastaff and Whackablaster, but they'd never know that was Eugene Snufflepot in Powers, Oregon, or that he had acounts in Aion and Tabula Rasa. If the person or people who copied the game database had also somehow managed to get the *billing* database, there would be *zero* question about it - there'd have been law enforcement on it as soon as they found out.)

... you know, I haven't checked recently. Are demorecord and demoplay still functioning? I seem to recall an issue with playback some time ago...

You don't want it. It's really heavy. A good 15-20 minutes wearing it and your shoulder will be ... aching. >.>

Wow. News flash - *people can have differing opinions.* It's not some secret cabal trying to keep you down. Followup - people agreeing or disagreeing with it doesn't mean jack about it getting into the game or not, unless those people are the devs themselves who would make those changes. And given no dev has commented in the thread...

Well, the three piece bonus is the one with the confuse duration. While I'm fairly sure this can also be slotted by Controllers and Doms... yeah, something else as part of that 3 piece bonus wouldn't be amiss. (I don't know that I ever *have* on a controller or dom, and probably not for the 1% confuse duration, which... eh.... )

The developers are big boys and girls who can decide where to spend their time without us worrying about it. It'd be part of what I referred to in the last reply - which, granted, got wrapped up in mentioning other reactions from NPCs and the like - but I see no reason why someone who'd be viewed as a traitor (and even more of one, not to mention someone with *recent* secrets/plans) wouldn't be a *prime* target for Quantums and Voids, either sent by old rivals/allies or just as part of a general Kheldian hunt.

I never play in debuff. But if others are into naked COH, well, I don't have to see them... Buffs and debuffs are usually... almost overpowered in COH, given what they can do to a player or team. And we've known this since live. It's part of what makes teaming in it fun - to get that level, there's a degree of cooperation needed. (See... almost any old Repeat Offenders team. Green Machine turning Emp/* defenders into "Regen blasters," for instance.) As far as sets... so many of the sets are "hybrid," not purely buff or debuff, so it's a question of where they fall on that scale. Empathy's purely "buff," Pain dom's mostly-buff-some-debuff and so forth. I play several pain dom characters, for instance (Rez Dispenser waves hello from the War Zone) but I don't know that I'd call them "debuffers," even if they do use their debuffs. And that leads into what I enjoy (or not,) which I find *really* depends on what I'm pairing them with, if I'm teamed or not, what AT I'm on. Some really call for dual builds (solo/team,) some are fine as is however you're playing. I think my main gripe is how long it takes to cast and animate some of the debuffs. Buffs tend to be fine, debuffs vary on if they take a bit or not. Kin is (properly) fast, either way - you're not waiting for Siphon Speed to finish a three second animation, it's *boom*done. Rad frequently seems to be "Ok, I'll debuff that one's oh wait they're dead" on anything short of EBs if you're teaming. Given Kinetics can seriously debuff an enemy's regen/end/recovery - *while buffing allies nearby* - I'm not sure Rad debuffs really need to stay *that* long. (And I still say Clarity comes too late to be really useful as is, no matter what it's on, but at least it doesn't need extra slots if you take it.) Otherwise... yeah, they're fun, and in a reasonable place, I think.

So, answering a few questions... What if they side switch? As I mentioned, part of me wants to say they can't switch, or can't switch past grey. But I don't think that'd be welcomed much. Really, the main thing would be "you'd no longer be playing that story arc - you'd lose access to it," which is the same for both existing Khelds and SOAs. It would feel *weird* to switch and suddenly "oh, you're picking up with Shadowstar's storyline, no fuss, no muss, no suspicion" after all - you were *just* actively their enemy. Game-mechanics-wise (lack of a better descriptor) what's defining them as "nictus" is the side of the Kheldian war lore they're tied to. I mean, yes, the AT would be "Nictus" and you'd have that label on permanently - but it's a lore-bound AT and the main reason for its existence is exploring and revealing the *other* side of the lore of the war. Loosely, it's like the Wizard of Oz (and I know Oz was a series) and Wicked being two different books looking at two different viewpoints of the story. (Think Wicked was the book/play... it's been a while.) Honestly, I'd love to see some sort of in-game reaction - you side switch, you become a *target* of your old allies/cronies/minions/victims. Maybe special tips or something where you have to deal with something a rival - Nictus or otherwise - sends against you. PPD Awakened and other Kheldians at least give some sort of commentary around you (maybe you *can't* form Moonfire, for instance, and there'll be comments that she's only begrudgingly allowing "that nictus" along - "but don't trust them. Don't turn your back on them.") (Which would be nice for SoAs, even if it wouldn't fit all the characters that have been made from them as well.) Appearance As far as accepting the purple doomfluff that buffs Rommy - I mean, yeah. I'd probably have to, and it's what people are familiar with. Canonically, at least as far as I recall (I can't find my link to the Kheld design document/lore bible - not the Kheld backstory guide, I didn't put it in there since we didn't *have* it at the time,) - they abandoned that look and just appear *dark.* It's actually referenced in one or two arcs heroside where it just looks like shadows flitting around. (Formwise? Well, we *do* have the doppelgangers in Posi 1 as a basis, and Spectrum pieces colored black/black give a good "person-shaped hole in reality" look. Apply that to those clouds... ) But that's pretty much an "I'd like if" and visual differentiator, not a critical piece. If that couldn't be done, I'd just add it to the list of things that couldn't be done and play it anyway. 😉 ... think that sums up the questions so far.