biostem

A hero from another time - "Tricorne":

Doesn't work if that NPC can't see them... Thereby giving away their position. Which also would give away their position. Stealth isn't the only tool in your toolbox. So... problem solved?

Are you honestly arguing that some civvie hostage should be able to detect a hidden stalker, (or anyone with any concealment power, for that matter)? The special units you described would ostensibly have either superior training, specialized equipment, or a combination of both, to allow them to detect you... Be honest here - how much of your gameplay do you actually spend having to be visible, due to these circumstances? If a circumstance requires you to be visible, then you just gotta learn to adapt to that. It's just like powers that need you to be on the ground/not flying, or cases where you may need to get closer to an enemy than you may like...

Here are my results:

It does not follow that, if your character is truly undetectable, that some hostage could see you in order to follow you out. If increasing their perception, to reflect you surreptitiously giving them direction isn't an option, then maybe have them make their own way toward the exit, (stopping if other enemies catch them), or just change it to mission complete upon clearing the surrounding enemies...

I put "followers" in quotes for a reason. It's not meant to be taken literally. What I meant is how the game handles these NPCs, vs something like a mastermind or Lore pet - those follow you regardless of your stealth. When Batman rescues a hostage in the comics, that person is vulnerable to the enemies - they can be killed, recaptured, etc. That is not the case for most such missions in CoH. The simplest solution, IMO, would be to give these NPCs much higher perception.

The CoH archetypes are extremely broad categories that have to account for everything from your "peak human" to your "god-tier" characters. I mean, is it even fair to try and categorize both Superman and Captain America as "melee ATs"? I also think a lot depends upon the writer. Most comic book characters, if translated into CoH, would have one or more unique powers - Wolverine would have something like the old instant healing and a self rez with like no cooldown, which allows him to get right back up from any fight. Supes would have some sort of damage threshold power, where nothing dealing less than that value would hurt him at all. Spiderman, in addition to his webbing, would have a unique variant of super reflexes, which had much higher values, (not to mention his wall crawling). Captain America would have a few shield throw/trick throw powers, and teh ability to deflect enemy attacks back at them with it, and so on...

The thing is, the NPCs we're guiding aren't "followers" in the sense that'd be required for this to work. I'm not necessarily against making such a change, but as long as they are basically neutral parties that just follow, then they either need their perception buffed way up, or you have to turn off your stealth powers... I mean, they can't be harmed or recaptured, either. Would you be willing to make those concessions as well?

Why not just have her go to the altar as soon as the mobs around her are cleared? You can have her go back into her "captive status" if more enemies reach her, or something...

Well, I was thinking something else that's 2-handed, or maybe "hand and a half"...

I wish we had something between broadsword and titan weapons - slower than BS but more damage, yet faster than TW, but without the momentum mechanic - something like a "greatsword melee" set that was a good compromise between the two...

I wonder if they could make the granite FX translucent, so your character model appears in the middle of a semi-transparent granite form. Alternatively, maybe they could do something like some of the bio armor FX, where you get encased in the granite visual when first activating it, then burst out of it...

I really enjoy the pairing of savage melee and radiation armor, (bio armor is also good, bit I've come to love particle shielding). I'm also having fun with my dual blades/electric armor brute!

I get not wanting all these FX floating around, but at the same time, those animations are meant to convey what is active on a particular target. I suppose, since you can still see the buff icons in the pet window, this wouldn't leave you "blind" to what effects they're under, in which case, I could get behind an *option* to suppress said FX...

I would be in favor of being able to basically "fireman's carry" the hostage/escortee, but then you shouldn't be able to attack or hide.

Think about it - you should have to become visible or otherwise give your position away, for someone else to be able to follow you...

I'm not sure why it would cost you any inf. If you take into account the time to create a costume I like, we could be talking several hours. That being said, I usually just grab the utility powers from the P2W vendor, but *not* the XP booster, so I can get some "seed money", then I'll sell off any medium or large insps from the "Inner Inspiration" power on the AH...

Well, Invuln still has its Psi hole, IIRC.

Part of the consideration for this would have to be that Kheldians get the flight pool for free (PBs) or the teleport pool for free (WSs), not to mention a mix of shields, ranged attacks, and melee attacks that are unique. Nova and Dwarf also get a ton of special buffs rolled into just 1 power. I could see allowing the human form to access the other pools, but special ones for Nova and Dwarf just seem too good, especially since concessions such as the 2 human form attacks being made available in those forms were already made...

I wonder if they could make it so *any* attack made against you, not just ones that connect, increased fury as well...

What if the unique proc for one of the sets added a multiplier to brute fury generation, like 1.1 or 1.25% of base?

If they ask nicely, and I haven't filled the team by that point, then I'll gladly save them a spot, but I also expect them to switch and send a tell in fairly short order. If they demand I save them a spot, well I won't have any of that noise, and will probably move on to other candidates...

What would be fun would be to have the various Primal Earth hero trainers dress as their Praetorian counterparts for Halloween. For April Fools, move Ms. Liberty to the top of the Atlas globe, or maybe have BABs take her place for a little while...

In theory, I love your suggestion. Knowing what (little) I do about how the game is put together, I think this would be fairly difficult to implement. That being said, perhaps what they could add would be a series of aura options, specifically based around the hand, (more so than the forearm/full arm, as current ones are), which better reflect the various origins...

So I think I pinned down a good balance of difficulty and XP, with Arc ID 51582. Please give it a try , if you have time. Thanks for your consideration!