biostem

I think it's a fairly simple if-then routine with some tweaking for entity type and other situational factors. For instance, are they in melee range or not? If in melee range, check for available melee attacks. If one is available, use it. If not, check for available ranged attacks. If neither a ranged attack nor a melee attack are available, either run or remain, depending upon critter behavior and whether they have been taunted or not. As to which specific attack an enemy might use, that I cannot say, but I think it defaults to a ranged attack, (going strictly by my anecdotal experience)... You'd need someone far more familiar with the game's code to tell you for certain, but it isn't any sort of complex AI or anything)...

I think you're confusing an in-game justification with an out of game one. Out of game, sure, you can say "I just don't want to see the crab backpack", and that's fine. In-universe, you bet there's going to be some explanation, and that's included with things like power descriptions. They may not describe the exact how or why, just that it "does". For example, take the description of the MM primary, Necromancy: "Command the forces of Death. Necromancy allows you to summon undead henchmen to do your bidding. Some Necromancy powers can even grant your undead henchmen additional powers. Most Undead Henchmen generally have good resistances to Cold, Negative Energy, and Psionic damage as well as Sleep, Fear and Disorient. Undead Henchmen cannot be resurrected." It doesn't explain the exact mechanism by which you "command the forces of death", just that you do. Similarly, my explanation of the hidden backpack is that you are cloaking it or otherwise it isn't there when you don't want it there, and instantly available when you do, and if you could somehow travel into the world of the game and ask your character, they'd be able to offer some explanation, ("it's linked to a neural implant that senses when I need it and teleports it directly onto my back")...

I can handle sappers. It's those phasing enemies, like carnie illusionists, or ones that can taunt/confuse you, that really ruffle my feathers, (but at least a break free can help with the confusion)!

Can't you get a Freakalok PAP costume that has no legs, yet still use kicking attacks while it's equipped? If so, then I think that ship has sailed...

Well, there should be at least an attempt at explaining why the pack isn't visible, but it need not be any more complex than "it has a cloaking device" or "you can summon it when needed" - the actual mechanism doesn't need to be explained in exhaustive detail...

A statue isn't enough! That big floating citadel in the Shadow Shard should be replaced with a giant floating disembodied @Snarky head! Bonus points if it winks at you at inappropriate times!

It's about maintaining the semblance of some sort of "rules" within the world the game takes place in. Whatever your chosen explanation, (or lack of one), as to why you cannot see the pack, is irrelevant. I lean toward coming up with at least *some* nominal explanation because it helps to maintain some sort of illusion that this is a (at least somewhat) coherent world that operates under some rules/laws. My only contention, (and why I went with the cloaking device or nanotech angle), is that some sort of toggle that specifically hides the backpack, (along with enacting some sort of "only affect self" condition), would require vastly more dev resources than simply providing an invisible option...

How difficult or not it would be for characters in-game to accomplish certain feats is irrelevant - they just do. I am unconcerned with the specific rp-reason(s) why your crab spider may have a concealed backpack. If a player or Sky Raider engineer can summon a shield gen from seemingly nowhere, or a seismic blast character can call forth a meteor inside a building without damaging it, then we can handwave a hidden crab spider backpack...

Well then it's a good thing that these are just the sort of highly trained agents and operators that would know how to act casually and not do those things. We have people turning others invisible willy-nilly, and you're objecting to a special-use case where it'd only be applied to a portion of said person instead? If the invisibility thing is too far-fetched, then nanotech assembly on-demand or some sort of on-demand teleportation of the pack onto your back from some secure location, (also established tech in CoH)...

Same reason a person might conceal-carry a firearm or hide a backup weapon; Your presence somewhere may be unavoidably detectable, but your true capabilities need not be.

I wonder how difficult it would be to simply have a set of invisible crab spider claws; For all intents and purposes, they're still there, you just can't see them, (chalk it up to cloaking tech or some sort of instantaneous nano-tech assembly as needed)...

I'd rather some sort of frontline fighter MM... something like removing the MM's own attacks from the pet sets, replace them with theme-appropriate general armor toggles, then give them a melee or assault secondary, (or maybe blaster manipulation sets for flavor)?

That's where the "clever binds" come into play - by using a carefully placed + you can have 1 key target your nearest living minion and fire off one of the chaining powers, but to each their own...

Elec secondary makes the most sense to me, IMHO. Faraday cage is good, has a relatively short recharge, and with some clever binds, you can maximize the chaining buffs...

I wonder how difficult/feasible it would be to have it where, upon freeing the hostage, all players on a team are granted a temp power that, then toggled on, suppresses all stealth for that person...

Another I think turned out rather nicely - "X-Cise":

My "inspired by" - "Sunder Wonder":

Maybe my connection's wonky, who knows?

Really love this one, and the way the chest detail blends seemlessly into the chest pattern is a great touch, (that I may have to borrow )!

I'm getting an "Upgrade to Premium" placeholder image from postimage...

He may be a conqueror from the stars... or an aspiring professional wrestler with delusions of grandeur... He's "The Edge-Case":

Aaaaand we're back! XD

Excelsior & Everlasting appear to be down...

Continuing the "Robots Gone Wrong" line, "Sunderbot":

Once a humble deep-sea maintenance robot, it encountered "something" when they dug too deep... "The Abyssal Beacon":