Greycat

I would - - probably get people together to go over the lore with a fine toothed comb to make sure it's consistent. (Seeing different viewpoints is fine or someone hearing such and such, ok. But the underlying timeline, lore, etc. should be consistent.) Just so we have a good, solid basis. - Get rid of the whole sentient well and go back to the idea (granted, vaguely described) of it collecting humanity's potential and occasionally releasing it (causing ages of gods/herores/legends.) - Put in Nictus-side storylines redside, to see that side of the Kheldian war. Get choices to make other alliances to work with or against Arakhn on the way, for instance. - Even if it can't be an EAT (because those are a lot of work on top of this,) introduce the whole Blood of the Black Stream - NPC group, storylines from 1-50, interactions with other groups, etc. There are several hints and mentions that just were dropped because the live devs went "oh, we're ignoring that, we want new people to do their own things, not actually finish these other things." - Similarly, more information and missions with the Coralax - who were also supposed to be an EAT at one point - and their (as I recall) enslaved race, the Virtea. (You know that odd "thing pulled up in the nets" in... I believe Stephanie Peebles arc? Yep. That. Another hook that was never paid off.) - While it's a minor hook - Hollows missions from Wincott. You find the Hellions with artefacts, one of which is a hollow skull. That was a nod to one of the other EATs that never saw the light of day (meant as a way to give players wings before they figured out how to do it as a costume piece) - Avilans. I think I'd want *something* just to explain what that was. Even if it had to be specifically in Ouroboros. - More Ouroboros (and other time travel) missions, not connected to any greater storyline, but exploring bits of the history. Fight in Brass Monday. Investigate Mayor Spanky way back when. Try (granted, fail, but still) to save the Moraine. Finish a series of them, get a badge - something like "sepia-toned glasses." - While it's a minor thing, purge anything that tells you THIS is where you get your powers (like dark-themed sets often saying "they're from the Netherworld!" No... leave that to the player.) Epic ATs excluded, since they're tied to a storyline so it makes sense to have more definition there, but for the generic sets? No.

I tend to just autocomplete rescuing them. Of the three, the generic Longbow grunt is the least annoying.

Most Arachnos maps, but probably highest among those is the reactor (or whatever it's supposed to be) room... especially when there's a "kill all" or "lead hostage out" in there. Just so much wasted or otherwise annoying vertical space.

The universities - or at least the empty ground showing something being built where they were - were added pretty much on the heels of this. They were working on a different sort of system (I want to say it was called a legends system, I have the quote... somewhere,) but it got scrapped and we got the Inventions system, which was derived from some if its ideas, later than we were originally going to get "something." We were initially supposed to get it hot on the heels of ED. And no, I don't think we *would* have gotten it without ED. ED, and some of the other limits, were needed. The whole "Oh, everyone stand at the entrance while the tank (or scrapper, for that matter) herds the floor and a single blaster nukes them" that people seem to pine for? That was not fun. It was amusing, briefly, sure. But it was broken and would have led to the game dying *much* earlier. From one of the people constantly being told to just stand back and watch? While sure, it gave time to BS with people, no, that was not fun. Rail against ED all you want, but it was absolutely needed in hindsight.

Of them, Praetorian Office is probably the most flexible. I have very few that could use the dark metal techy Arachnos, and while I have aliens, the Rikti aesthetic doesn't really fit them. PraeTech is probably second place.

I've *built* bases in the past, but find myself without ... plan or energy these days, so mine tend to be mostly utilitarian. I have friends who do other bases which we tend to use for RP purposes. Only one I've done anything close to "publicly" was one called Stages, pre-Echo plaza, just to have somewhere to bring people for costume contests with steady lighting, and I don't think it was ever used - I threw in an extra room (a 'borrowed' warehouse/garage) for a scene at one point, but other than that.... *shrug* I keep thinking of rebuilding some, but... time, energy, ambition. With the whole "building above the base" thing, there's one I'd love to build/expand, but ... yeah. No idea where to start, and what I have in mind I think would get annoying and/or frustrating for me quickly. As far as PVP? I don't really care about it in the base. *shrug* I can do without raids. The editor (like a few other things) needs a complete overhaul. I agree with scale - both for the base "blocks" and several items (like the old "you are all toddlers at the grownup table" sized SG tables - with chairs you may not be able to get in.) Being able to do things like... let's say Sim City style, drawing a road (with road texture,) raising and lowering some terrain, having basic shapes (you can texture) to deal with really building things, having "walls" and "floors" where you don't have to guess which has a texture on both sides, being able to lock (say) a string of fence pieces together to move as a single longer fence, being able to copy/paste bases or have some premade ones available for people who want a spot without all the building - yes they'd be more generic, but for "I have my house," it'd be fine... Rgh. Could go on with that for days.

RP. *shrug* Mostly what I do.

Also don't forget the (may it never see the light of day) plans for Lady Grey to have been a turncoat, working for the battalion (also, IIRC, the source of impervium?) so there's potentially that angle for their portal tech. *shrugs*

If you put your entire thing in quotes? Yeah, it cuts them off. I believe it does things that way because of how it lets you use them in binds/macros (to enclose things that have spaces in them as one item, such as names.) If you have other text around it? Like /em says smugly, "Yes, I *did* eat that rhino with A1 steak sauce," it'll keep the quotes. At least as I recall.

*points to people who like to overclock and compete with each other.*

*Adds Chicken to the list. Turns player into a chicken. Does a 200% runspeed away from the nearest enemy for 3 seconds when triggered.*

To target Peacebringers and Warshades, and these were handed out by the Council. The Skulls didn't steal it or buy it from some other group that did. They were specifically spread out to target Kheldians. I still seem to recall some "hint," waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when, about a possible downside to using Hami-Os - like they'd stop working or turning against the people who slotted them at some point or in some event that never came to be.

... very last paragraph in what you quoted, "with a last log on tag in the list..."

A lot of times, "favorite" will depend on who I'm playing. I like playing against things that I have a personal-lore reason to (such as taking magic users through Croatoa and dealing with the threats there.) I'll say that my Khelds will tend to *obviously* target Quantums and Voids. None of this "Put in a bind to ask my teammates to kill them" nonsense. Hate to fight? Hmm. Times I cringe at dealing with a group are situational. For instance, I don't mind fighting Carnies, but I hate getting rescue missions against them, specifically for the MI pets... especially the Phantasm that spawns its *own* decoy, that does zero damage to you but you have to sit and read a book for a while until it goes away before the hostage is "freed" to follow you. That needs to just go away. It doesn't add challenge, just tedium. Tweaks... probably to Arachnos and Rikti. Arachnos, so I'm not on a very-low-level character with *very* limited insp slots and slotting and facing Mu after Mu after Mu draining me. Rikti for something similar... spawns with one "real" mob and a ton of monkeys, or rooms full of drones. Limiting the number per spawn would be nice. Lore... I know there are some groups (redside comes to mind) that show up for, oh, one contact, and never actually in game... to where I don't even recall them. One with spetznaz, I think? Which seemed to be a victim of the "Oh, let the new guys work on their own thing, ignore the plot hooks we put in and never did anything with" attitude of the live dev team for quite a while. Also... I'd go the other way around. Lore without a group in game. *YES I WANT THE BLOOD OF THE BLACK STREAM IN GAME.*

I kind of like the Steel canyon fires. They're one of the most "naturally part of the zone" feeling events, and the fact there's logical interaction - to a point - with some player powers (ice and water attacks being able to be used directly on them - though fire powers don't "heal" them) just makes them fit very well. I'd probably like the Zig event if it were contained more. No more Freaks or prisoners running off out of the event and never coming back. But I'd like it for the same reason.

Tags would be more effective advertising. Circling around, again, to essentially "Big prestige number does NOT mean good or compatible SG." I very well remember SGs on live that were "You MUST have prestige on!" - not because they wanted to base build, but because "Bigger number gud." Some were rather draconian about it, some were mostly "churn" (and some were rumored to kick people out at 35 when the "free" prestige ran out, or if you ever dared not earn X amount.) Meanwhile, smaller SGs that might be *great* get buried in position 50000 down the list and nobody knows they exist - at least looking at the list. Tags > Prestige. Tags would help *search* for the SGs with similar interests. Proper tags would show if they're recruiting and whatnot. Prestige? That can go die in a fire.

mmm. Honestly, I think they're kind of spread out enough. Seeing them tied into even more groups ... eh, just isnt' that interesting to me, personally. Besides, given some of the dialog/NPC actions in Brickstown, they were supposed to be doing something else - I'd love to see what that was. (Though part of it sounds like it's leaning toward the same direction as Malta's "robots," if you know the lore there... just dealing with the Crey tanks instead.) Heck, I don't think we have much payoff (other than a redside contact and some dialog) with Crey poking around with Rikti tech... which they've been doing since the original tutorial.

Dang, Lum. You really expect someone to sit down and read *all that?* 😉 As far as the OP? A few thoughts. The system currently feels tacked on, because frankly it is. COH had a habit of growing "wider" instead of "taller," like other MMOs. COH, then COV, was released with a cap of 40, with the last 10 levels released an issue later. And it stayed at 50, instead of following so many OTHER MMOs which just kept raising that cap, spreading things out and making it feel like someone coming in in (say) issue 10 would never catch up to an issue 0-1-2 vet. The system really seemed (to me) geared towards "Hey, we're going 'freemium' now... how do we get people to keep paying? Oh! Whole new system that you have to be a *paid* subscriber for!" (We were also initially told "no, there's no solo/small team path, GRIND THOSE BAFS!" and had the two "sides" of the tree getting their two types of Incarnate XP from different activities... it's the only time I walked away from the game (for a few months.) Also, Hybrid was supposed to be the "root" of the next set of powers - the only one that got fleshed out (and had its *own* IXP - Advanced IXP) - of the rest, only one (Genesis) even has a description (creates patches of .. buffs/debuffs.) Mind, Omega, Vitae, we don't know what they were doing. We'd be using those to fight the Battalion. Then the *next* tree, we'd be using to fight the Ascended (IIRC) like Prometheus, and so forth and so on. It's clunky and tacked on feeling because it was - it was meant to introduce a grind. Other thoughts: - No, I don't think the whole thing needs to be scrapped. - Yes, Shards should be done away with. Part of the above mentioned grind design. - IIRC, a 7th slot causes problems with the game. Blame the spaghetti. - I really kind of don't like the idea of seeing the system turned into "Invention system 1.7." - That said, as far as special enhancements that have some special effect on their own, not part of any set? That I've wanted for a while. Make them rare/very rare, doesn't need to be part of this system, add some flavor and variety that way. But just as part of the regular invention system. - Adjustments I'd make? Alpha should be available regardless of exemped level once you've earned it and filled it. The others should be toned down in non-Incarnate content. (Or maybe "non Hard mode +whatever content," since that's a thing.) - Not everyone runs the arcs, as mentioned. I'm still baffled how people have trouble with it - though, frequently self inflicted. Granted, I rush through Ramiel's arc to get it done quickly, since i see any iXP earned there as wasted given the auto-unlock of Alpha at the end. But I've also gotten the unlocks and components just by hanging around in MSRs or running other stuff, so... - I'd be more interested in more Incarnate-level (and interesting, not Mot or Praetoria) content, if *anything's* looked at re: Incarnates.

Not sure where you think I'm particularly *caring* how many people are in an SG. The only reason it's even tangentially touched on by me is that getting the suggested prestige "by activity" isn't telling anything. And no number that could be devised could tell "how many people" are in an SG anyway- you see one with 12. Is that twelve people, or four people with three accounts? Which goes right back to "original prestige" and, to a point, this version - it's not anything like an accurate indicator of SG activity (much less if someone should want to join it.)

Which still has the issue of "is it one person doing their own thing or an active SG?" Personally I'd revise the SG search system (and related items on the SG side) so someone searching for a SG would see: SG name Tags (RP, PVP, public, private etc. - which may include "recruiting") Email (set on/off by SG, as well as who gets it, an icon.) Message (set on/off by sg, as well as who gets it, an icon) Base code (visible, members only, off) Description (text field, can be blank) Leader (text field, can be blank) (or maybe "contact") It's sort of like looking for a restaraunt or store. I want to know where they are, what their hours are, what their menu's like, I don't care if they made ten thousand or eleventy billion dollars (like the old prestige,) I want to know where they are and what they have to eat. BUT. All this in any case requires UI changes with everything, which is apparently a bit of a problem.

To expand on that - The only time you're going to see your SG's password is when you set it. When people ask about it in help, I try to mention this, and *strongly* suggest putting it in the SG's description or MOTD - someplace easily visible and accessible to the rest of the SG. If you forget it? The only thing you can do (if there's no other SG member to ask) is set a new one, if you're a member of the SG who can.

Nope. I don't care about what the ATs are called. I don't *care.* I've got characters that have absolutely nothing to do with Arachnos that are ... "Soldiers of Arachnos." Any discussion of them where I have to use that are purely OOC. The character is the character, picked for powerset combinations that work for that character. (Also, as far as "Stalker?" Refers to more than just the illegal activity. And I give you one heroic figure from early in another series with it as (part of) his name:)

It still tells us nothing about the supergroup. As mentioned, all it would take is someone with two (or, remember, you can have up to three accounts on at once) PLing their alts, trading, etc. to start getting that prestige. It doesn't tell us it's an SG you'd want to join, or that has interests you do. There could be a great SG that only meets once a week, since the members tend to just have (say) Saturday off together - the during-the-week activity wouldn't show up, since it'd just be a person on for an hour here, another running a TF the next day with non-SG-mates, someone at another time writing up an AE arc, etc. - who'd also get "buried" under "OK, Jim's running a farm, we've got 7 SG mates who want to join." There's a lot that should be done with the SG system. Doing away with the (now defunct) prestige listing is one of them. Using the tags you give? That would be useful. Prestige has always been a ridiculous thing to show for the "top 100 SGs" or rank them by. Revise the SG search / listing system, dump the Prestige number all together, put in the tags and other useful info.

Sending people to Pocket D's sewers? Now that's evil.

Yes, it was. I miss those. And the actually dangerous Quantums and Voids.