gameboy1234

I like this a lot. Rather than make everything work the same, adding a new attack style in Broadsword really would set it apart. I like Shield Charge a lot, not only does it do damage but it lets me reposition in a fight. Lunge with a TP-to-Target could do the same. I'd say go even further and add a TP to target with a wide cone (not a deep one tho, just a melee cone), so there's two tp attacks, to allow even more movement from broadsword. I still like the idea of adding a couple of "gather foes together" type powers in pools, just so there a bit more of it in game.

And yet, we are saying that Axe Cyclone does exactly that, and we're asking for more of it? Sorry I don't understand.

Not opposed to this, but are the sets really the same? I remember War Mace getting an upgrade around the same time Shield Defense was released and it preformed much better as a result. And /War Mace is my favorite tanker, so I have no complaints. (P.S. War Mace also does Knock Up.) Just thinking out loud, but for general interest, adding a "chain weapon" or something to the Fighting Pool that draws enemies in might be cool too, just let folks who want this take it on whatever. EDIT: since this seems to be a common "I want this" power, adding a few more power like this to pools might help, esp to cover sfx for players. A small radius targeted AOE to Sorcery, and one to Experimentation. Maybe one other pool ... I wanted a "gadgets" power but we don't really have one yet.

I was poking around the Wiki and just realized that "Base Entry Permission" on the super group permissions list actually means that someone can create the code used for /enterbasefrompasscode. It sounds instead like it's permission use the base portal and enter the base, for members. This is an absurdly poorly named feature. I'd suggest something like Create SG Passcode instead, it would at least give folks a chance to actually figure it out.

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy though. Not spending time fixing things is the reason for the low population. This especially. The whole game needs it, but if the Devs could start with red side, that would give a boost to red side as players check out new stuff and the devs could get some experience implementing that sort of content. I came here to add: Super Group Registrar. Easily accessible from City Hall blue side, much more inconvenient red side going to port oaks then hiking to the Marcone building. (Also inconvenient, this building doesn't even have a name. It's just "the Arachnos building in central Port Oakes" on the wiki.) A registrar or building could be added to Mercy.

The option in Options -> Window -> Pets -> Hide Other Pet Names doesn't do anything, regardless of setting. I can still see other MM pet names. It's a bit of a pain trying to declutter my screen with these still on. Obviously a "show on Mouse Over / Selected" would also be useful.

I'd agree that it's intentional. I think there is a design aesthetic there, and I also think it's supposed to be a warren of jumbled buildings and dark alleys. But I don't think it's good game design. It's hard to navigate, easy to lose your way, and each part of the zone often looks like every other part, making it hard to orient yourself. At least in a game that's about action and the "bad guys" succeeding, that's not what you'd normally design. (if this were say a horror game where the player is supposed to feel lost, confused, and without power, it would probably be about right.) There's other issues like certain features, buildings and whatnot, that look like maybe they were intended as distinct buildings and markers are way too tall, never in view, and it's hard to notice them as zone landmarks. There's a central building behind Kuzim that's got Arachnos banners all over it, but those banners are about 50' in the air, way too far up to notice when you've got the camera at a normal angle for playing.

Another idea: trying to fix the "tram" in Mercy would require a lot of effort. If a black helicopter were added next to Dollface in Mercy, just behind Desslock, it would make her dialog make more sense (she's the only one I think not actually at a day job location) and also give players more straight forward access to travel.

I'm going to +1 this, I think that Mercy detracts a lot from starting a red side character. I was on about two months ago and answered questions from a player who seemed experienced but couldn't even find the starting contacts in Mercy. That's a problem, if you're not in the know then discoverability is very poor. Mercy has very poor sight lines. From Atlas Park, without leaving the safe zone around Ms. Liberty, you can see Vanguard, City Hall, Wentworths, the tram, Fort Trident, and with only a little more effort the Tailor and the Hospital are visible too. It's far easier to navigate around and find things in AP than it is in Mercy. As a quick fix, I'd like to see some facilities moved closer to the starting spot. Vanguard in particular since a lot of folks like to jump on Mothership Raids, but moving some others if there's time. The Hospital in Mercy is in a good spot, leave it. I think trying to fix the geometry in Mercy to improve sight lines would take too much effort, so this is a second tier idea. The spawn in Mercy is way too thick (just the green starting area, not the whole zone). It needs to be trimmed down, I'd say by a lot. Longbow and Legacy Chain especially, and I'd like to see some of the RIPper spawn reduced too. Kalinda, Burke, and Kuzim should all be added as starting contacts so players can just look there, and the starting Aribter (Richards) should make reference to them the first time you talk to him (if that's too hard, just have him reference those contacts whenever a player talks to him and doesn't need to level up).

I've seen this suggested before, as well as calling it /unstuck. The Temp Power from START isn't a bad idea either, as it might make newbie aware of the option. Both would be best. /unstuck should try to verify that a mob is indeed stuck before doing anything. As temp power it should have a cool down to prevent server load spamming problem (and maybe also a slash command, like /cc has a cool down). /unstuck without a target might search around for mobs and see if any appear stuck. This could unstuck mobs that you can't target. So you'd stand close to the target and type /unstuck and the mob should be moved close to you. Just occurred to me-- as a stop gap: a 100% to-hit Teleport Foe as a Temp Power with a 30 minute cool down (or even longer). Abuseable, but not much because of the huge cool down. Keep it handy and only use it when you really need it.

At one point they fixed Penny Yin's arc too so her dad follows no matter what. So that's a good AI template to copy too.

Extra Plus Bonus Annoyance: Maps with jails. Die on this map and you'll go to jail! Be separated from your team! Wait for them to bust you out or try to solo what is probably far too many mobs for your character to handle! So just sit and wait instead! Yeah no...

Ashley McKnight again, Cap au Diable, her second mission at level thirty "Midnight's Hand" part 2, her mission intro text is: "We don't have the man power like Vanguard" Merriam Webster says this is usually "manpower."

Ashley McKnight, red side contact, called her by phone at level 30. "Howdy, PlayerName. What brings you by?" as her opening text.

I think it's supposed to follow Matthew Habashy's arc, which is mostly trying for lots of action and "rush around doing stuff!!" type of gameplay, while also showing off some of the new features of the engine like spawning a character other than your own so you can be "in disguise" during a mission. I think Twinshot is meant to pick up after that and reinforce things you maybe weren't sure about, even if you've experienced them before. But also to experience some gameplay first so that the tutorial wasn't just theoretical at that point. The locations thing is mostly about Day Jobs. You go to City Hall and the Hospital and the Police Department and Wentworth's to learn there are special locations to log out. The level up thing actually gets you over to Kings Row to talk to Blue Steel, so you can learn there's more than one trainer and also how to use the Tram. It's not terrible. The plot, I'll grant you, is a little weak. And the AI personally bugs the heck out of me. But it kinda is what it is. I'd like to see work done on it, but I can see how it's not a priority.

I like this. However I think the developer intent was to actually have the player *dislike* the actions they just took, even while being told the action was necessary. Allowing players an easy out (it's a game, choosing to disobey authority is easy here, but in the real world would you be able to make that choice?) would remove a lot of the pathos that I think developers had planned.

My 2nd best idea is to use the teleport idea, but have the camera fly towards its new location, rather than porting with the player. This would give a sense of distance and scale, while still using what might be an easier mechanic for the engine/server. I don't know if that's possible to have the camera do that, but it's a thought I had.

I like the jump pad idea. I think it's even been proposed. Just dispose of any idea of "jumping" or CoH mechanics and just put everyone on a "track" the follows a basic parabola from point to point and have everyone travel that exact path. I don't know how hard that would be to do with the current engine but trying to finesse the "physics" to get it just right sounds like a far more complicated idea.

The intro to Ouroboros has you actually help the Council win against the 5th Column. You literally are the person responsible for forcing the most important leadership in the 5th Column to join the Council. It's pretty good as lore, and I enjoyed it. I also played it as a villain, as a hero it might be pretty dark actually. Mender Lazarus's mission, level 30-39.

That's actually a point. Someone on the design team was really interested in adding vertical challenges to all maps. I'm not sure why. Maybe they thought there should be an advantage to Flight that other travel powers didn't have, or if it was just an aesthetic choice (or some sort of PVS in the graphics engine?), but it's kinda horrible. Flattening some maps and making things more accessible seem like at least worth considering. Some pet peeves: 1. League Code. Whether it's scrambling the league on mission load or the obtuse UI, this is a pretty horrible piece of tech. Frankly I think the whole thing needs an overhaul. At minimum fix the tech issues, but it would be useful to also look at the UI and make it easier to use. A feature to lock teams to 50 would be useful (auto-promote a team member to leader). Be able to reorganize the order of members of team members. Clearly indicate the actual level of each individual so decisions can be made who to promote and where to put them on a league. More better options for display. Etc. 2. Collision Detection. The CD seems too aggressive most of the time. This is especially true in tight maps like caves and around lots of small geometry objects. Large toons can have a lot of difficulty here. Flyers have the collision shapes displaced from the model so it's easy to misjudge the actual location of the character. Looking at game design articles, CD in modern games is used to help the player move around the map. The implementation in CoH seems to be a classic and basic implementation of CD, with the result of a CD being basically "full stop," which is pretty terrible for players. In my mind, I think the client should be in charge of finding the best way to move around the map based on player actions, and the server should just verify that the player doesn't CD and the movement is valid (and the result of an error here can be "full stop" since the client was supposed to generate this). 3. NPCs getting stuck. This is an old problem and really needs fixing. I'm talking about getting rag-dolled into geometry and then the animation doesn't CD in their new position and they're stuck when they stand up into geometry or something. 4. Gravity Geysers. These things always suck. You need a magical incantation and a dead chicken to get one to work right. Just replace them already. 5. Walk Speed. Needs to change based on the size of the model. It's "walk," you're moving slowly and all your powers are shut off, I don't think there's any need for "fairness" or any exploits to worry about here. Bonus gripe: Temp Power Icons: Always grey. I think it would be useful to start adding some color to these, I often have issues telling them apart on my tray. Might have been OK when there were few of these in game but now there's dozens. Start by adding a bit of color to the most popular powers (Envenomed Daggers?) and then see how players like it. Maybe decide on a common theme like a black outline or something.

The Homecoming Wiki is broken. Even using the link at the top of this forum it's leaving little 404 pooters all over the place. I guess the database might be down, the page returned looks like it's actually from the wiki software and isn't a default page from Apache or something. Sorry if this isn't the right forum, I just wanted to let someone know.

Hit boxes in this game are in general roughly the size of Texas and all outdoors put together. I've posted before about my Dark Wolf (? the Dark Control pet) having a hit box large enough to be a game play problem on cave maps. And recently I noticed my giant ice/ tanker has a wonky hit box too. They need to be looked at imo. Not trying to invalidate your request here, just piggyback on it and amplify it. A quick fix like START or maybe adding a reduced hit box to Walk or something would be great. Probably have to add a mechanic to not engage the smaller hit box if you have aggro or been in battle within the last 30 seconds or something. It's hard to imagine someone abusing "I'll move slowly and shut-off all my powers" but I suppose it could happen. Anyway, yes please, look at hit boxes, including special cases for RP.

I'm pretty sure newspapers were part of CoV at its launch. They're too heavily integrated into the missions not to be. Radio mishes I honestly don't remember when they got added. I can't actually recall if it was late beta, early afterwards or later.

Yes, more or less this was my whole point. The gating system that Newspapers provides just isn't needed, or fun. Random missions are fun enough if you've completely run out of contacts, or just are in the mood for mindless fun. But they shouldn't be required to get to the story arcs. With higher XP rates it's actually tough to pick up more than an arc or two before you out level everything. Yup, this would be the best solution. Just open up all except the specially gated ones right away. It's fine for a contact to introduce another contact, but we shouldn't be required to do the newspapers to start off with a new contact. I think you can just walk up to a lot of the contacts, but you have to know where they are, and new players (and sometimes old players) don't know that. Discoverability is pretty poor in this game, so having a marker and a broker to tell you "go here" would actually be useful. Blue side new contacts often just pop up, brokers serve the same idea red side. I'm still also focusing on actual play experience, rather than theory crafting. Superior Invisibility = red side fun. I think that observation ought to lead to changes.

I started a new Dom w/ Illusion Control on red side to play though arcs. It's shocking how much superior invisibility improves newspaper missions. Just ghost them and skip them, it's so much better to not have to actually "play" through what is obviously padding and filler. It's what really convinced me that forcing newspapers are a bad idea.