biostem

Agreed - the patterns, when applied to pieces that are "skin", don't have the right color/luster/sheen or whatever term you want to use, to go along with most of the other pieces. A hat, like the warrior one, can get you pretty darn close, though...

I don't think there is a half-mask as a head or hat option, but there is a "half" face pattern. It's not a perfect solution, but it may work for you. Also, there are a few hat + eyewear options that, when combined, can pull off the look somewhat decently...

Does the game do any calculations insofar as which POIs are closer or further from a mission entrance? While on the surface this may not seem like a big request, if there is no system in place besides "what zone is mission X in", then such a system would have to be added, which means yet another calculation/system that could go wrong. Yes, it can be annoying, but to walk back to the "boarding" section of the tram station and reenter isn't that time consuming. If anything, maybe we can do way with the issue of having to wait for a tram to arrive, and just make it a static one with the doors open...

A mind or dark control/dark or savage assault dominator could work well, too.

The trick, IMO, is how to make being in melee both rewarding and survivable. I totally get people wanting this setup from a theme/concept standpoint, but we need to look at things from a mechanical/gameplay perspective as well. For instance, sonic, FF, or even elec can get status protection and defense or damage resist. Could an empath spam heals or buffs enough to last in battle? This brings me to an interesting idea - what if this AT had, as its unique ability, something called "mirror", which was a targetable but invincible pet of sorts - when you used a buff on it, it would cast it right back at you. This would mean that you could clear mind or speed boost yourself, effectively. As a balance for this, the "mirror" could recast the ability at a reduced level of effectiveness. This would then mean that you could support yourself with your buffs a lot more effectively, thereby allowing you to stave off defeat. The downside would be that certain sets get no benefit from this inherent, (so maybe just omit them from the selection or otherwise adjust them to compensate).

Or just have them periodically "say" something via speech bubbles, like "help me!", etc...

A lot really depends upon the particular lore/mythos we're going with. You have a bit of mind control, you have some enhanced physical abilities, you have some control over lesser creatures, and so on. Them you could basically just go for something like how Alucard is depicted in the Castlevania animated series, (though technically he's a Dhampyr), but his use of swords, speed, and the occasional flash-step or fireball could easily be realized as well. Also, and this is just me being pedantic, but I don't consider someone who has been transformed by some serum or lab accident to be a vampire...

So then the issue is really addressing detention field and other such "phase" powers that don't have a response, (short of pre-emptively holding/mezzing the boss or stacking enough defense to avoid the power). Either way, the mission is not truly "destined to fail" in the literal sense...

If you were playing on the default difficulty, +0/x1, no bosses solo, would the situation have been the same?

I'm confused - you are running at a difficulty geared toward 4-8 players, then are upset when you run into issues doing it solo? There is an option for soloist - run it at x1. Even if you were able to handle the bulk of the mission without issue, you enter it with the understanding that it is geared toward more players...

I wonder why not - maybe some sort of ownership/rights issue or something?

On a somewhat related note, I noticed a contact in Atlas the other day who is wearing a pith helmet that I don't think we have access to...

I suggest you try setting both the launcher and the main exe to run in compatibility mode for windows 10, 8, or 7, and see if that helps. Perhaps also try running them as the administrator.

Some of the Crey armored units look to have shoulder pieces that could conceivably be launchers of some type. That being said, since, AFAIK, we don't have any powers that emit from the shoulder area, it's kind of a waste...

The problem with this is that the game is designed around how NPCs treat players and their powers/pets. Players know to go directly after the MM and ignore the pets, for instance. Powers are also generally centered around the kinds of resistances/defenses/mez protection levels that NPCs have. What you'd run into would be a game of stealth vs perception and defense vs tohit buffs - fundamentally different than the rest of the encounters one would run up against...

I think a lot of it boils down to needing to have PvP as a major consideration right from the get-go and having some form of "active refereeing" when it comes to game mechanics vs the spirit of the competition...

IMHO the best way to implement PvP in an MMO is not to do so as a direct player-on-player fight, (maybe leave that to some form of solo or team dueling), but instead have competitive events - like heroes having to defend a base against waves of NPC attackers while villains do the same against heroes, or some sort of goal/objective-based challenges - so you don't have to deal with powers working differently or people coming up against wacky builds that exploit meta-aspects of the game.

We have to think in terms of difficulty of implementation vs benefit; A basic "character-specific" (contrasted to entire account) block seems pretty easy, especially since every name is unique. Though there may be some edge cases where a name got freed up, used by someone else, so now you're blocking a completely different character. Maybe the name could be translated into a unique character ID block, so this doesn't happen. How would you handle the expiring or time-based block? Set some kind of timer when the block is removed? Maybe just allow the player to set the counter in hours or something? As for keyword blocking, my issue is people misspell or use abbreviations all the time, so I don't see it being all that useful - maybe allow wildcards or something...

The question is what info does the character select screen actually load-in. Perhaps a more practical option would be to allow us to add some notes to each character or perhaps have some sort of screenshot automatically taken upon last logout, for reference...

So I haven't really messed around with dual pistols all that much, and I had a concept that I thought would work well as a Sentinel. As I've been playing him and looking at the numbers, it seems that incendiary ammo's extra DoT is just too small to be worthwhile. I've been taking advantage of cryo ammo's increased range and slows to a lot greater effect. Am I missing something here? I suppose there are some enemies that are a lot weaker to fire damage, but besides that, which ammo do you folks find the most useful, (or is the ability to swap as needed really the best approach to take?). Thanks for reading!

My comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek; You already have the ability I suggested - just don't go in there...

I could get behind this but only with the caveat that it is a 1-time, permanent choice, and you are henceforth unable to enter PvP zones or take part in any PvP content.

Strawman; The opinions of players on the forums in no way reflects those of all, or even most, players, nor should you necessarily take a "majority rules" approach with respect to how core game mechanics should work. But if the design philosophy was that "players should always have the possibility of missing", it does. An appeal to authority is only a fallacy when the authority being referenced is not so in the field being discussed - like appealing to a "doctor" for medical issues, when said doctor has a PhD in engineering or something. I think it is safe to assume that the original devs are a supremely qualified source to reference, when it comes to how the game functions and its core mechanics.

Appeal to popularity. Being able to miss was always intended; It's about what the design philosophy of the game was, not doing something simply because that's how it's always been done.

Appealing to popularity doesn't make your case any stronger. Caps are just as much a part of the game as being able to slot for ACC or TOHIT. Irrelevant - THIS game WAS made with always having a chance to miss being a part of it.