biostem

I think a lot of it stems from this (false) notion that MMs get "free" attacks via their pets. This seems to ignore the relative fragility of said pets and the extra time and end involved in the near-constant resummons of them in order to remain effective...

I only ever report blatant copies. That being said, why blame the one reporting the violation, (if it's a valid report), when it's really the violator that's at fault? I mean, unless you can get inside someone else's head, or they straightforwardly tell you their reasoning, this seems just as much like fearmongering as saying that the big bad Disney or Marvel are going to come after our game...

No, my advice is that online games change, and you either adapt or give up. Which one is entirely up to you. That's is certainly your right. Only the current batch of devs can give you that, but going back to my first point, MMOs are going to change over time. It is fully within your power to change as well...

You use that phrase "have to", but let's be honest - it's really more of a "want to". Don't get me wrong, I don't know the "true intentions" behind the change to stealth, but there are ways to adapt that cost little end, or you could just change your tactics...

Jenny, obviously!

Maybe it's just a matter of being "good enough", and I think the military forces there are more like regular army than Vanguard, so maybe it's only under U.S. control?

I also have to add that there are many maps that are absolutely overflowing with stuff in them, like the Freakshow, Tsoo, or Carnival warehouses. It kind of makes sense for a Praetorian lab to be unsettlingly sterile by comparison...

Anyone else think it odd that Vanguard can achieve the same thing as Portal Corp, while only requiring small, relatively flat wall-mounted portals, or am I missing something here? Is it that all portal tech is based upon Rikti tech, and while Portal Corp may have reverse engineered it in the private sector, Vanguard had direct access to said Rikti materiel and a much larger budget?

I was more referring to this.

I had thought about such an AT before - what they'd have to do, IMHO, is turn the various "ally-only" powers into something like a PBAoE so you would also benefit, thereby giving you the tools to survive being in melee range. Some sets, like traps, might be difficult, but still doable...

I can't speak to the devs underlying intentions, but I have taken to running combat jumping with a stealth IO on several of my characters - it serves as another LotG mule, the immob protection is nice, and it has quite possibly the lowest end cost of any power in the game, (of course excepting the no-cost toggles).

If you were creating a new AT, with blaster secondaries, (manipulation sets), as its primary, what type of set would you have as the secondary? I was thinking pets could make for an interesting combination, or maybe control, (but the latter might be redundant or too close to dominators). Your thoughts?

S.W.O.R.D.

Now we need an arc where Praetoria reasserts control over ALL such units and turns them against their "masters" - then Crey's true genius in NOT adopting them will shine through!

I mean, the cat is already out of the bag - the code is out in the wild. No argument on that point!

For Beasts, maybe remove the lockout on pack mentality when using Fortify Pack. For Thugs, maybe allow the MM themselves to benefit from the Enforcers' leadership abilities. For Demons, maybe tweak the shorter range whip attacks to be more effective or useful, (more or other debuffs, perhaps).

I mean, there's no intonation or way to discern intent, short of a heavy dose of skepticism or just taking everything at face value. *YOU* could always opt to put some form of "Joking BTW" in your replies if you wanted to dispel any ambiguity...

I don't think you could blanket-answer this, as powerset selection greatly influences the outcome. Also, you need to consider things like APPs/PPPs, IOs, and even ATOs. Also, depending upon the sets, the increased AoE size for tankers and their inherent taunt may actually make fighting groups of enemies (vs single more powerful ones) a lot easier...

IIRC, the various MM wolf pets already have some of their own animations, so it shouldn't be too difficult to port them over to such a power...

Yes, you're right in that specific example. My larger point was that a company could call themselves something that implies the source or quality of their product, without said adjectives actually applying to the product in question...

Even if that was implemented, unless there were instances where those were all you could play, there'd still be a huge disparity between fully IO'd-out builds and more casual PvP-ers. Maybe there could be some sort of "Enhanements-off" instance where people could pit build against build, thereby ignoring IOs and set bonuses altogether, (though even then, some sets have access the powers that IOs attempt to compensate for).

Unfortunately, a company could name themselves "Untainted Organic Blood" and put that on their label, even if none of it was true...

I really like my dual pistol/rad armor sentinel. You lose out on aim, but the different ammo types give you a lot of flexibility.

I just want to say that I've had really good results with my ice/earth blaster. Recolor the earth powers using the crystal option and a white-blue tint, and it looks just like ice.

And if it really is something you're serious about, check this list for invention-origin enhancements, (IOs), that provide additional PvP-oriented effects, like teleportation protection/resistance.