biostem

You are looking at it from your perspective, and not from a game design one. If the player willingly goes in front of an enemy and is defeated, even if they receive great joy from doing so, the game still treats it as a defeat, and still saddles them with debt. As far as the game is concerned, XP is a reward, and paying off debt, thereby gaining less XP, is a penalty.

Generally games want to advantage the player, not punish them. There are multiple powers that, in fact, prevent you from accruing additional debt. It is also far easier and faster to accumulate lots of debt vs the time it would take to clear it.

I have an earth control/pain domination controller that is a lot of fun on teams. Solo, it's very safe but slow going...

Are you asking for the debt ceiling to be increased, or to accrue more debt from being defeated? If it's only the latter, then just get defeated multiple times...

Great! So we're done here - you acknowledge that Ouro can already do most of what the Op wants and that it wouldn't be simple or straightforward to implement in an on-demand manner like they're asking for...

The you should know it's no simple matter to just enable auto-exemping everywhere...

Yes it would be awesome. "Can" is a tough word, here - yes, given enough developer time and resources. I know one of the other servers has the ability to select MM pet appearance using your costume slots. That being said, the implementation is clunky and hasn't been implemented here, except for the "mirror image" version of PA, which uses your currently equipped costume...

I love gravity control - making enemies your toys, summoning junk from god-knows-where and firing it off - it's great fun! In a fast paced environment, its longish animations and less flashy graphics means you don't get to appreciate it if completing missions as fast as possible is priority #1. Similarly, I think energy blast has some some of the coolest, most iconic animations among the various blast sets, but I do not like the unpredictability of the knockback and having to "waste" a slot to make it knockdown instead. From a slightly different perspective, I enjoy playing masterminds, but in end game content, I seem to play the role of "cannon-fodder-dispensary" or fall back on my secondary set, more than I am able to enjoy commanding my minions to wreak havoc upon my enemies...

Sure, but if it's a "you" issue and not a "game" issue, then it's on you to make the change, if that behavior is becoming detrimental...

I believe it also affects the caster, if City of Data is anything to go by...

But that "pressure" comes from within, doesn't it? *YOU* don't "have to" do any of that grinding. If *YOU* cannot balance *YOUR* desire to obtain some reward NOW, and become burnt out as a result of that overexertion, isn't that due to your undoing?

It's always tough to balance the amount of time it takes to earn stuff vs player attention span or willingness to keep grinding - make it too easy, and people complain that they've done all there is to do, make it too difficult, and here we are. How do you strike that happy medium? As for the SG leaving, it's pretty much inevitable that folks will get tired and either take a break or leave permanently. Even when the game was live and there was a full dev team, players burned through content way faster than new stuff was added...

What the Flashback system does is put you into a pseudo-TF state, which outside of having a lower level teammate to exemplar you, is the only way to artificially and temporarily lower your level. The only other way of achieving this would be to do something like having a contact in each zone which, if you're higher level, sets you to the max level of that zone via a similar system...

I like the flexibility you get with the different ammo types, but in exchange you lose out on an aim power. That being said, you can benefit from the additional range 24x7 by staying in cryo ammo. At the same time, you'll either come to love or hate the flashy "gun-fu" animations...

There was an interesting Star Trek (TOS) crossover with the X-Men. Can't forget the Scooby Doo meet Batman episode/special, or TMNT vs Batman.

I mean, if you're getting to the point that the game starts feeling like a job or where you're getting burnt out, take a break or switch up how you're playing. Perhaps it's a matter of perspective, because for me, outside of a few NPC pieces I'd like to see ported over to player costumes, I really don't like the whole character model replacers...

Record of Lodoss War is the best D&D adaptation, unless you're super nostalgic for the 80s cartoon...

What would be neat is if you could do something similar to what the OP suggested, only instead of making it rain, a certain number of random NPC victims in the zone would grant their savior a little jackpot. There could be a zone announcement to that effect as well...

The problem is I've been in instances where I was nowhere near the battle, but because my teammates were, it flagged me as "in combat", and I couldn't swap Incarnates...

Y'know what would be cool for higher vet-level characters - an ability to swap alphas mid-battle or mid-mission...

This has been requested many times. I would like to see its utility/effectiveness raised in a team/large enemy group environment. That being said, it also has some of the most potent effects, so would those have to be lowered to account for a greater radius?

Sonic provides -res, which the phantom army can take care of, (since they are unaffected by buffs). Savage provides additional recharge reduction and reduced end cost, which can help keep the PA up more often. That being said, you also have to consider just how much of your time you intend to or are willing to be in melee range...

Can you expand on this? Are you fighting level 50+ Vahzilok somewhere? Did they give them more powers, or just up their level with no other changes?

I've run many a league, and it seems that either individual team leaders aren't aware, don't want to step on the league leader's toes, or just don't want to be bothered.

I would love to see the league management options expanded so that the league leader can invite a person to a specific team within that league. Right now, you can either invite people to your team, or to the league as a whole, which may spawn more teams than you want, which in turn requires you to move that person to another team, and if you're trying to track broadcast and/or tells, it can add unnecessary complexity...