Greycat

I don't "build." I pick as I go and tweak what I need as I go. They usually end up just fine.

They still do. They take a bit and are easily interruptable, but they will still blow up their allies.

Funny thing, not everyone plays the exact same way. YOU may not enhance or place them. Someone else does. YOU may find certain powers (say, Hasten, Tough, etc) vital. Others may rarely if ever take them and find them extremely skippable.

Nemesis *really* likes Cherry Cordials.

I'll often take Kick just because of where it lands due to character size. Don't need to slot for amusement.

No. Just no.

Yes, second are level 10, third is 50 (or at Incarnate unlock.) Treat each like individual characters for everything but level. You have to select powers for each up to whatever the max on that character is, and enhance each. So it can be expensive. As far as a guide? I wrote a short one on live - accessible via internet archive here. And I think it answers most of the things you asked.

If it weren't for the time, I'd be happy to. I tend to run through content, especially mid-20s to mid-30s (after which, I admit, the siren's song of MSR and merits often calls me away....)

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.