Greycat

Snipped various points I agree with and others I feel are rather poor assumptions. However, this is why I tend to lean more towards "Pay attention to ACCOUNT activity, not character." I'm an active player, but some of my characters don't get played a lot (they're pulled out for certain things, for instance,) so I've got to go through multiple accounts (RPer, there are reasons) and make sure everything's out of the 'danger zone.' I'm told (I believe in the beta thread that this was announced in) that for some reason HC can't *track* account activity. Granted, we're not paying, there's no separate payment server that says active/inactive/renew and controls access to the game... but I find it hard to believe something *can't* see "This account hasn't been logged into in a month/a year/three years." If the issue is that people rushed on to HC and reserved a bunch of names at launch and then never came back, surely the *account* would be the place to look for that and the *account* would be where you'd want the names - level 1, level 50, whatever - freed up, since those would be obviously inactive characters and accounts. And would avoid "Hey, my RP character I pull out for an event, that doesn't need to be level 50, got renamed" for an active character while freeing up names that are - after a year or more on an inactive account - likely never being touched again, regardless of level.

The Eternals is a movie that should've been a series instead. I'm not sure how they thought it would work as a movie. Big cast of characters nobody had seen before in the DCEU rushed through so nobody had time to get to know or care about who or what they were, rushing to fight off another threat nobody really had time to get any sense of build up or threat about, and done... If someone asked me to write a movie with an eye towards having it fail? It'd be The Eternals.

There's a lot that'd be nice to have on the character select screen. This is just one of the things that's been asked for a good bit... and would still be nice to have.

So, for those of us who like playing with poisons, we only have ... poison. There's nothing that directly matches, thematically. Sure, you can argue for plant control, somewhat, and spines if you *really* like bananas, but... More toxic sets might be fun. Generally I'd see these having an effect of gradually (or quickly) wearing down an enemy's defense/reisst, and having it keep stacking (if it's mechanically possible, possibly starting to add DOT after some point. I'd suspect it is possible, due to things like disintigration and scourge.) Stunning and otherwise disabling the enemy would also be fully fitting as they react to noxious gasses and the like. While these aren't full set descriptors with powers and such, a few rough thumbnails follow. Toxin Blast - Does both Toxic and Smashing (from the projectiles hitting you) damage. It's interested in both weakening the enemy and keeping them at range, so things like (say) a toxic pool as part of an AOE that slows the enemy and/or stuns (from the smell) or holds (maybe on stacking) would fit. To deal with resistances, *maybe* we could have something like Swap Ammo which lets you go more towards smashing or more towards toxic damage (or balanced) as options would be useful. (And yes, animation wise I could see regular blasts, "lobbing" some of the attacks, or - yes - even the poison pool's spitting options for animations.) Toxic armor - OK, so other than "let's make more sets" I've got a different personal interest in this. Before COH came along, I had a character - inspired by Dennis Cuzinski in the New Universe D.P.7 series - who basically had this. Due to a mutation, he just started oozing toxins. He could make "spitballs" (which, thanks to the rules of the system being a bit silly at times, I managed to destroy a bunker with once...) and could walk into a room full of enemies and, in his words, just "smell bad." The noxious cloud he could create could blind or incapacitate enemies, as well as eat through armor and weapons (and his clothes, and bulkheads...) When I came to COH in i3, my first character - Memphis Bill - was an attempt to come close to him, but the only sets I had at that time turned him into a fire/SS tank. Dark armor has otherwise been the closest to the "ideal" him... but I'd love to make this come to life. So that bit of preamble should give some idea of what the set would be like. Mostly resists - incoming fire literally melts, after all - as well as PBAOE damage and control, probably working with other powers in the set to give "more." Player regeneration and health would continue improving as you picked more powers up (probably as a mix of a dedicated power and synergy with others) since you get more resistant to your own body trying to eat itself with those same toxins. A somewhat control-leaning tank. Toxic Control - My main thing here is "just how do we *animate* this to show control?" Some things - stuns, choking, and a similar "toxic pool" as mentioned before are easy, but this might be a graphically boring set, honestly. Possibly having "fumes" rising from the enemy (singular or in groups) to show where the area of effect is, and/or "bubbling" around their feet. Also possible in here is a slow/small DOT/-tohit "cloud" (with chance of confuse) using a non-stealth-inducing version of Steamy Mist's graphics to show the area of control. Other than that, it'd be a fairly standard control set with the debuffs we've been going with with the other toxic sets. Pet? ... *shrug* I don't know, something ooze-y? Toxic Melee The one that's really "how do we make this look like... toxic melee? What would a toxic melee look like?" AOEs and cones would be "sprayed" or "splattered," of course, and likely build on each other for damage (and work in synergy with any other toxic powers to build damage even on top of their powers that have -res side effects) but other than that... yeah, hadn't really developed this much. 😉 It and the blast, of course, would contribute to the assault version on doms. Just rough thumbnails of an idea for another thematic branch of powers to go along with Poison.

Should talk to the guy complaining about having too many threads to do anything with. >.> 🙂

Yeah. that's not spoilery. Honestly, what I'm going to say is probably more spoilery than what Hyperstrike did: Yeah. Movie is supposed to be a big setup for future stuff. We know this. But ... ok, some is interesting, the rest *feels* like "We're setting things up." Mind you, I enjoyed the 2 1/2 hours of diversion. It wasn't mindblowing. It didn't *really* leave me feeling "Oh, that was awesome!" or whatnot. It gave me an excuse to kick back and eat popcorn (well, pretzel bites in my case.) One character is both "Hey, look, it's him! Kinda cool!" and one step away from being the humor equivalent of a fart joke. That character should've either been treated better (with more of a backstory,) or held off on and put in somewhere else. They ended up being utterly disposable as far as movie plot, or even subplot. They kind of fell seriously flat. Honestly, so did the post-big-fight bit. Watching it will make which "post fight bit" obvious. Verdict - not bad. not my favourite. Certainly better than the ... what was it, eternals was it? but that's *not* a high bar.

Well, considering on live they only ran the script twice - and the second time *radically* dropped the level that was affected because it didn't really make a lot of difference... Also... *looking up a few posts* I didn't think i'd have to specify that no, I was not saying or even implying anything about two million accounts. That should be obvious.

I've played an earth/ff controller. It was fine when I did it, with a team, and pre... various updates, plus sunset. Now, it's just .. slow. Bots/FF - at least on live - nearly bored me off the entire AT since - especially after the "all buffs are AOE" was done to the set, it left absolutely nothing to do other than press two buttons every once in a while.

Attuned enhancements are going to be at whatever level you're at (in their level range.) You still won't be able to slot them early (for instance, Thunderstrike is level... 30 or 35 minimum, you won't be able to slot it at 10, but once you DO slot it, it'll keep leveling with you to its max level of 50.) Generally if you're going to *buy,* buy attuned.... *unless* you're planning on boosting, because it's an either/or thing - attune or boost. You'll normally want to use catalysts to attune winter and archetype IOs into their Superior versions once you hit 50 - hold on to them for that. After those are set? *shrug* I tend to craft stuff, catalyze it on my 50s that just keep accumulating them and toss them in storage, unless I'm attuning and selling winter IOs for cash. People will tell you not to bother attuning other things, just sell on the market and buy the attuned version (they're in the same "bucket,") but I honestly don't care. If I do it myself (yes, "wasting" inf, oh no...) I know an attuned version is there and ready to go without someone screwing around on the market.

Which my response would be "in the last week? So what? Why would that even be a metric to determine anything?" For instance, i've got a SG that only meets once a week, for instance, which has a couple of characters in it. if we have people sick, or it's a holiday (or series, say, Christmas and New Years) we may not meet for a week or two. This is a game, not a job. My "Unplayed" (by this metric) and "under-leveled" (I should have no requirement to hit 50 in some timeframe, thanks) on my *active* accounts are my business. Now, if the comment were about "accounts that haven't logged in in the last six months," for instance, that would be a different discussion. But "these characters haven't been touched in a week!" ... again, so what?

They run out. There were a couple of ambushes (they even managed to stack and attack together,) but they're not infinite. Typically there are 3-5.

There's a limited number, and they're not that different - other than not giving XP - from any other ambushes.

So as I'm actually dusting off a goldsider and playing them a bit, I'm finding I'm missing something. Namely, XP. Yes, Goldside is ambush-central. You trip on the curb, and ten things ambush you. But if you're spending time fighting them (and they're not grey,) *you should get XP for them.) It's not just one group either - I've had to fight ghouls (Dr. Hertzog...her... whatever, brain-boy) 's arc and Bobcat's (Hunt down Shen, Syndicate.) You can see exactly when I go from fighting (even con) placed mobs to (even con) ambushes... which take the same, if not more, work, given they're larger groups -

As far as any issues with IP... they're *shorts.* Or even a colored region that represents shorts. Personally I'd want - just for general principles, not even to represent the classic (old-wrestler-inspired) costume described - a pair of shorts for males that aren't the long things we have now, or briefs, as well. There's a pair of perfectly workable, believable "hey, I'm wearing shorts" over on the female side, after all. I don't know why an equivalent was never created on male or huge.

... the citizens of Croatoa aren't all dead. There are citizens you rescue in at least one mission, others who the Cabal corner, and of course all the university students hanging around - not counting those that get transformed (as briefly mentioned) into fir Bolg or Tuatha warriors. The ghosts are the *former residents* which you see as part of the Red Cap plan to pull Salmanca into Croatoa (the spirit-world side of things.) (Last mission of Gordon Bower's arc, when you get to play with Skipper's rod.) Think you need to replay the zone and pay attention to the lore. 🙂 (and no, I'm still not convinced we need *yet another* GM in the zone, lore aside.)

Hmm. i don't' recall seeing any either - regular citizens, yes, but not ghosts. Bit of lore in there with them mostly being devoured when mot awakened, I believe. That said, there's a perfect spot - with badge! - for anything like this, which doesn't actually match its badge description. The Palace of Stone Leaves: It's a little bit of an odd spot for an "event," since there's just not that much room (A corridor? We used to DREAM of having an event in corridor, it'd been like a palace to us!) but if anything, it'd sound perfectly appropriate for something like this. I don't know if drudges are appropriate for this or not - I'm *not* as heavily into their lore - but the character that was my "main" for a long time, and is recreated here as well, used to spend a lot of time in DA *specifically* because of the spirits of the people that used to live there - spending time disrupting rituals and such. Tying it somewhat to the "last stand" warehouse might be interesting, too.

Come to think of it, I think I saw the comics a time or two at CompUSA, of all places...

Still online. http://www.cityofheroes.ca/media-and-downloads/comic-archive/

It's been a while since I've done the missions, actually. What mostly comes to mind with the event are the valentines they want you to deliver (which you get as tips) - as I'll inevitably get something wanting me to go somewhere I'd need to switch sides for. Granted, popping a teammate with an arrow so they're going into battle with little hearts floating up from them can be amusing...

So here's why - Ghosts: Former citizens of Salmanca. They're only there because Salmanca is being drawn into "Croatoa," the spirit world, and any anger (etc) is mostly a side effect of Red Cap shenanigans. Tuatha de Danaan - one side trapped in an "eternal war." They're mostly forced into it by the Red Caps. fir Bolg - The ones "eternally fighting" the Tuatha. They have an alliance (or at least understanding) with the Cabal. (Their "Champion" - Eochai) (The Tuatha and fir Bolg use the names of groups in Irish mythology.) Red Caps - Nasty imps who just exist to cause pain and suffering. The ones *doing* the trapping of the Tuatha and fir Bolg, where they die and resurrect to just fight again. (Their "champion" - Jack in Irons, who's helping them willingly.) (Red Caps are more English/Scottish myth IIRC, the caps being red because they're dipped in the blood of their victims.) Cabal - the "witches." I'm slightly rusty here, but IIRC the Red Caps were responsible for the death of their husbands/sons/etc. - they've been fighting for a long time.) When they spawn independently, you'll see the only ones accompanying Eo and Jack are fir Bolg and Red Caps. The Cabal get into the war up north because they're there. The ghosts are just in the way (and targets of both the Cabal and - indirectly, or at least kept as future targets by - the Red Caps.)

Ugh.... Mix that with the higher debt cap, no "half debt in missions" ... my first 50, an elec/elec blaster, spent entire levels in debt and was out of contacts at 38 or so. That was painful. (Also old debt cap of 1.1 million... went from zero to that in one hami raid.)

Why? There are already two (three, if you count Sally) which are directly tied to the lore of the place. Seems like it'd get a bit crowded for one zone. Also who or what is it supposed to be, how is it at all tied to Croatoa and what's happening there?

I thought stepping on ideas was already painful... 😉

Started in i3. So. yeah. The whole "it was glorious" bit was fun... if you were the tanker. Maybe the emp following them. For anyone else on the team - basically being told to stay back and let the tank handle it - it was boring as hell. It was superhero "stand around and chat." Pick a blaster to nuke when the tank got back, go to the next floor, do it again. I could do *that* on IRC without paying a sub. Blast from the past for those remembering how sidekicking/exemplaring went: "You are getting too far from your mentor." "Your mentor is too far away!" "You are getting too far from your mentor." "Your mentor is too far away!" There were times I was *just* on the outer range and it seemed Superjump was... *exceptional* at filling your chat window with that on repeat. 🙂 Yes, mentor/exemplaring was 1:1... and heaven help you if your exemplar for the task force you'd been on for a few hours lost connection. Too high, you'd get auto-kicked. Of course, once you hit... I think it was 38-41 (obviously once PI was introduced,) you could get *bombarded* with tells asking you to help sidekick for a farm (for max XP.) You could get decent INF thrown at you for that. (Or offering the Spelunker mission. I never asked for INF for that, and *still* got gifted millions every time.) Of course, if you wanted to actually play the game, you'd have to go on hide to avoid all the tells. Taxibots were known and loved. Especially in the Hollows. (Warshades were welcome too... fly to the mission if you had Nova, or teleport there, and start teleporting teammates.) the Hollows also taught you aggro radius and dodging. Unless it was just being laggy. Which was often. And would see you run face first into a pack of purple enemies that weren't there a few seconds ago, but you just found yourself in the middle of... and would have to sprint back from the hospital... in Atlas. The fastest route from point A to point B was very often not a straight line. Newbie races along the rail lines! The Tram actually going where the LED sign above said it was... on, off, on, off, switch lines... "Woo, I hit 20, time for Stamina!" "Woo, 22, I can get SOs!"

Anything that "exposes you to time travel" will give you the badge. When ouro was first introduced, if I had mid to higher level characters that didn't have it, I did the science store mission in Brickstown, as he's a time traveler. The Faultline missions will do it as well, as I recall, plus a couple of others.