Rudra

I don't get it. After reading your post, I logged in and changed my UI scaling as well. Even at 185%, it didn't change the readability of the badge names. (Edit: Well, that isn't technically true. Everything became so over-sized, it was hard to read anything because everything overlapped each other. The brightness of the badge names didn't noticeably dim on my screen though. Were you using the same monitor on those two computers by chance?) Edit again: Ding ding ding ding ding!!!!! It IS the UI scaling. Get off 116%. Go bigger or go smaller. Around 116% for some reason, the badge names dim. The names are dim between 101-145%. (Yes, that needs to be fixed, I agree. Just trying to give a means of dealing with it until then.)

I don't have that problem. The badge names when I do that are the same color, except much, much brighter. If you've tried everything else in the game, it's probably the new laptop. Try another game that may have something similar in the way of displays and see if it is also faded out/dim. If so, check the owner manual or call tech support to see if there is a setting on the laptop to fix it.

Considering the current meta is to out-spam your teammates' nukes and Judgements with your own to fast clear spawns before anything else can happen or be done? I personally don't view that as a valid argument. It is a perfectly solid power as a solo player and it is still perfectly usable when the team runs into something they can't just insta-nuke into oblivion. Would I complain if the recharge on Omega Maneuver was reduced? Not in the slightest. I just don't see a good reason to do so when you add in the 6 pets Crab Spiders can get plus their own attacks and their near Tanker/Brute level caps for resists.

Thanks for the explanation.

Considering Blizzard and Inferno are the two most powerful nukes in the game? No, that is not a good comparison. If you compare Omega Maneuver to the median ability of Defender nukes? Omega Maneuver may have a longer recharge, but it also does more damage, has a taunt that keeps up to 10 targets (in a 10 feet radius) preoccupied with attacking it and not you for 5 seconds, and still has the 9 second Mag 3 stun (with apparently up to a Mag 5 stun against players) after the 5 second taunt for 14 seconds of targets not doing anything to you, at less than half the END cost of Defender or Blaster nukes. It is not in a bad spot. It isn't doing as much damage as a typical Blaster's nuke, but it also really shouldn't be either. And then you need to look at the other powers the Crab Spider gets to use with Omega Maneuvers. Crab Spiders get up to 6 pets before you go incarnate. And Omega Maneuver means those pets have 14 whole seconds to tear into the opposition without them fighting back just like you do. Edit: And here's a reason why you shouldn't compare Omega Maneuver to Psychic Wail. Crab Spiders get 3 armor powers to the Fortunata's 0. (They get the same Tactical Training: and Combat Training: powers other than Vengeance, but Fortunatas get a very weak Hide power in the form of Mask Presence.) Crab Spiders are basically hybrid MM/Tank/Defender characters. Fortunatas are basically evasive Blasters. So the Fortunata's nuke should be more damaging.

I think Channelgun's closest contemporary is Mace Beam. Same damage value, same damage type. Except Channelgun has better range and animation time, whereas Mace Beam has better accuracy. Slice has a 1 second animation to Pummel's 1.667 seconds. Slice is guaranteed to reduce the target's defense whereas Pummel has a 66% chance to stun. (Edit: Also, Slice and Pummel do the same damage. The difference is Pummel gets +37.0753 if kmeter is the source. Whatever that means.) (Edit again: And if you look at their damage per animation/cast, Slice has the better damage even with Pummel getting both damage values added [for that 60% value you are pointing out]. If you add in the recharge for the DPS? Slice gets even better.) Longfang does more damage to players than Burst, but the same damage to critters. Otherwise, you are correct. Omega Maneuver includes 20 seconds of Mag 4 Taunt with a duration of 5 seconds before it explodes. (Edit again: So targets need some seriously high taunt resistance to not be taunted to the bomb until it explodes.) It does have its benefits compared to Psychic Wail. Including a 60 feet range to Psychic Wail's 0 feet range. And both have the Mag 3 stun.

I'm guessing that is a separate bug then. Every time I fought my duplicate, the duplicate never exhibited powers higher than my current level that I noticed. However, my Crab is now level 49 (and slogging through tips to 50), and every time I fight my duplicate, the duplicate unloads with the Wolf Spider rifle attacks (both ranged and melee attacks), the crab backpack attacks (both ranged and melee attacks), blasts me with the Arachnos mace, swarms me with the Spiderlings, the Arachnobot Disruptors, and the Arachnobot Blaster; inundates my location with thrown grenades and launched grenades, drops an Omega Maneuver on me I immediately jump away from if able, and heals up with Serum when health gets too low. It's like "Holy WOW! That is a sweet Crab Spider!!!". If I take all the attacks the duplicate evidenced in battle? I would have 1 power slot left to pick up 1 of 10 EAT secondaries. (Edit: Or 1 power from a power pool.) (And I'm pretty sure my duplicate has those secondaries as well.) Don't get me wrong, as long as I can maintain distance and keep the bots from overwhelming me, I win. (I have most of my enhancements slotted.) It just seems like Arachnos duplicates get every power available to them, beyond the 24 we as players can get.

I don't know if this is intentional or not, so I'm treating it as a bug. Anyway, every time my Crab Spider has to fight a duplicate/clone, the duplicate/clone exhibits every Wolf Spider and Crab Spider power in the game as well as most (probably all) of the Mace Mastery powers. And I do mean all of them. While that is ridiculously cool and I wish my character could do the same, I'm not certain the duplicate/clone is supposed to have all those powers. If they are? Then I'll shut up and press on. Same with if the powers are randomly selected and it just looks like the duplicate/clone has every power because of how often we face off. If they aren't? Then maybe Arachnos character duplicates/clones need to be looked at.

And here's another thought. For the proposed mechanic to maintain the kinetic theme of the game, if you siphon attack speed from your target(s) to boost your character's attack speed (as opposed to recharge), then the target(s) have to have their attack speed reduced. It is what the kinetic powers in the game do. You siphon damage to boost your own? The target does less damage. You siphon speed to boost your movement and recharge? The target loses movement and recharge. So absolutely every power in the game used by mobs or players would need to have a slowed alternate animation created. So just for Kinetic Melee, that entails two new sets of animations. The sped up one for having drained attack speed from the target, the slowed speed for having a player or mob with the set having drained you, and the current set for no modifications and draining to counter being drained.

Yes, but whole new animations would need to be developed to do so, and as has been pointed out every time this comes up, Kinetic Melee is not a slow set. The appearance of it being slow is due to when the damage and effects from the attacks are applied. For instance, Concentrated Strike has an animation time of 2.833 seconds and an Animation Time Before Effect of 2.533 seconds. Whereas say Eagle's Claw from Martial Arts has an animation time of 2.533 seconds and an Animation Time Before Effect of 1.3 seconds, or Lightning Rod from Electrical Melee has an animation time of 2.567 seconds and an Animation Time Before Effect of 0.867 seconds. Kinetic Melee is not slow. Players only think it is because they have to wait longer through the animations before the damage and effects are applied. Edit: My preference for a fix would be to delay all melee attacks' damage and effects to almost the end of the animation. Then everyone would have a better reference for what attacks or sets actually are slow. However, that won't happen, and if it did, the player base would be in an uproar for "the new slower animations" which would not be new or slower.

From what I see? No, the game does not have such a mechanic. Having Momentum on your Titan Weapons character enables "Fast Mode". https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.titan_weapons.set_momentum That tells me the set has two different animations per attack, and the mechanic activates the second animation. Edit: And if you look at the powers themselves? They have two modes. So Titan Weapons works like snipe attacks, swapping between the two available versions depending on what is going on. Example: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=scrapper_melee.titan_weapons.crushing_blow&at=scrapper (The stacking effect looks to be defense.)

How would that work? For instance, the confusion resistance empowerment only needs 1 Luck Charm. There are 5 other recipes, but they also only require 1 item. So would you need a Luck Charms for each character you want to be affected? Would the AoE require all characters to be affected to be within 10 feet of the station? 20 feet? 30 feet? What if there are other characters also within the AoE that aren't part of your team, would they also be affected? How would the game differentiate between available characters for the AoE? Especially since it is so much simpler to simply have everyone that wants the buff to use the empowerment station.

You're not going to get a power that shortens the animation time of attacks. (That would require sped up animations to be made. And how many different variations for speed would you need for siphoning off multiple targets or faster than the previous siphonings went away?) And if you use /Kinetics (Siphon Speed) as a reference, then it will slow your target (edit: movement/recharge), improve your recharge, and improve your movement speed.

They just feel slow. For instance, if you were to reduce the animation time on Kinetic Melee's Body Blow, Quick Strike, and Smashing Blow by 1 second, you would have animation times of 0.07 seconds, -0.17 seconds, and 0.2 seconds respectively. Repulsing Torrent has an animation time of 2 seconds currently. Burst is 2.667 seconds. Focused Burst is 2 seconds. And Concentrated Strike is 2.833 seconds as the nuke. What makes them feel slow is that they apply their damage and effects almost at the end of the animation whereas other sets apply their damage and effects shortly after the start of the animation. (Edit: I have Kinetic Melee and Radiation Melee characters. The reason I don't normally play them or make more is because in the case of Kinetic Melee, I hate the sound effects. And in the case of Radiation Melee, most of your effects and ability is reliant on the target having the Contaminated debuff applied. And I usually kill my targets before they ever get the Contaminated debuff applied to them. Particularly bothersome when I need my heal to work and nothing is getting Contaminated for the heal to actually heal.)

Do yourself a favor and look up the Praetorian zone you are in on the wiki. It will tell you what contacts are in the zone. And if there is a potential problem with other contacts, it typically has notes to warn you. If you don't want to go to the wiki, there are only 2 Praetorian outcomes to keep in mind. First, is deal with Cleo last in Nova Praetoria, or at least after you deal with Marauder/Praetor White. Second, if you intend to do both Loyalist and Resistance arcs in Imperial City, do Dr. Steffard's Resistance arc before Interrogator Kang's Loyalist arc. Those should be the only conflicted contacts/arcs. (And you are likely right in the probability of the missions being able to be corrected for dead contacts. This is a very old game being run on a very old game engine after all.)

That's actually a really good idea! Making an assembly area in bases that includes things like 1 (or more) Trees of Wonder or nurses, 3 (or more) tier 3 empowerment stations, and a few crafting stations in a conveniently arranged hub... maybe at the teleport hub in the base.... ... ... Now I have to figure out if any of my current bases could make use of such an area....

Given how long the list of SG bases open for others to use for RP or utility the last time I saw it? Not really feasible. You would wind up with a super long list to scroll through.

It's not broken. Praetoria is set up so that decisions impact the world. So if you do the Cutter Cain arc before the doctor arc in Imperial City for example? You can't do the doctor arc because he has been arrested or killed. Since Marauder is the first contact you get after the Praetoria tutorial, it is basically expected that you will do his arc before branching out to do others. So for Praetoria, when you get to the morality single player only missions? Make sure you have nothing else to do in that range first. (Edit: If you have a mission where you can arrest, kill, or otherwise neutralize a target? Make sure you don't need that target for anything else. Killing Cleo' has more impacts than just that Marauder mission for instance. Her death, if you kill her in that mission, turns up in later parts of the story too. Same if you don't kill her. It turns up later in the story.)

There are players that make bases for RP reasons for the community as a whole to use. They post their base passcode with a note for what the base is like or about, and people just randomly pop in and use it for RP whether they are part of the SG or not. There are players that makes bases for utility reasons for the community as a whole to use. They post their base passcode with a note saying other players are free to use whatever they can access in the base, and people just randomly pop in and use the base to get around or craft. So bases do get used. Even by players that are not part of the SG that owns the base. Are bases central to game play? No. Would it be nice if there were more things players could do in their bases whether as members or not? Yes. So I'm not against your suggestion per se, just like the others in this thread. However, your premise that bases are not being used is flawed.

Never noticed, but I just checked my Bots/Rad MM. It's the same for MMs too. It also shows the same on the Homecoming wiki and City of Data.

The game's mechanics do not limit the shield to single arc, correct. Neither does it animate your character actually using the shield which is how your character would be avoiding those attacks from any direction. We're playing a comic-based game, but some elements of comics cannot be directly incorporated into the game mechanics and animations. It's like a Super Reflexes character. Super Reflexes characters in comics are constantly moving and actively dodging attacks. In the game, you can just stand there instead. That is a limitation of the game and does not change what the power set is designed as. No, it becomes useless unless an enemy is dumb enough to try and hurt you through the stowed shield. It does not become invulnerability. (Edit again: Basically, if you stow your shield and leave it there during combat? It becomes back only armor.) Is it a barrier that you must interpose between you and incoming harm? Yes? Then congratulations, it is technically a shield in this game. There is a difference between the verb shield and the noun shield. Shield Defense is the noun, not the verb. And if you want to go with the verb? Then here you go: SHIELD: to protect (someone or something) with or as if with a shield. to serve as a protection for. to hide or conceal; protect by hiding. Obsolete. to avert; forbid. verb (used without object) to act or serve as a shield. Note that the verb form refers to protecting as if with a shield. It references the noun. And what is the noun? Here you go: noun a broad piece of armor, varying widely in form and size, carried apart from the body, usually on the left arm, as a defense against swords, lances, arrows, etc. a similar device, often of lightweight plastic, used by riot police to protect themselves from rocks and other thrown objects. something shaped like a shield, variously round, octagonal, triangular, or somewhat heart-shaped. a person or thing that protects. No, it can't because it provides protection by fortifying your entire body or providing an encompassing barrier that protects you. Yes, these can because they are objects held apart from the body that are being interposed between the user and the incoming harm. They just can't attack with their weapon while using it as a shield. The barrier you are talking about is more of a localized force field, but it still works as a shield because it has to be interposed between the ship and the incoming attacks. (Edit: Now if the effect you are talking about before those women had to manipulate the shields encompassed the ship? You're talking about a force field.) That depends on whether what you are talking about is them actively interposing something between them and any incoming harm or if it is a passive barrier they set up around themselves as omni-directional protection. (Edit: If they must intentionally position their chakra defense to block the attack? Then it is a shield. If what they make/use encompasses them protecting them from harm? It is a force field.) Correct, it does not. It can be a localized energy barrier that you have to manually interpose between you and incoming harm. It can be a large rock you ripped out of the ground and swing between you and incoming harm. (Edit yet again: It can be a really sturdy stick or small tree that was picked up and being used to catch and stop sword and axe blows aimed at the character (such as by say a dwarf fighting orcs in Middle Earth).) It can be anything that is apart from the body that is actively interposed between the character and incoming harm.

Power armor encases the user. That isn't a shield defense concept unless you also have a focused defense on one arm like a shield. Same with magic bracelets of protection. Those provide all around protection for the character unless they generate a localized barrier like a shield. And again with force fields. So either you are looking at Invulnerability or some other general effect power set, or you have a localized on one arm defense like a shield for Shield Defense. Now if you want a Force Field armor set? Propose it. (Edit: That is what makes Shield Defense shield defense. You have a construct of some sort that you have to intentionally interpose between you and harm. Anything that isn't some sort of barrier/construct that must be intentionally placed to intercept attacks is not using a shield. That is Invulnerability with armor costume pieces for magic armor, bracer costume pieces for magic bracers, full body technologically themed armor costume pieces for power armor, and so forth. Or a Super Reflexes if it helps you avoid the harm by getting out of the way or deflecting the harm. And so forth.) (Edit again: Now if your hand was somehow impervious to harm, and only your hand was so if you were hit anywhere else on your body you would suffer normal harm, requiring you to intentionally interpose your hand to intercept the attack to avoid being harmed? Then congratulations, you have a shield. A very, very, very small shield, but still technically a shield. And though I would be inclined to have penalties apply such as reducing the set's effectiveness by half for that? The set will never see such penalties.)

Short answer? Yes. I mean, the animation already exists. Depending on how the animations were constructed and what programs the devs have access to for making them, it should be a fairly simple matter. Also, depending on how the animations were constructed and what programs the devs have access to for making them, it may require the animation to be completely rebuilt mirroring the original. So whether simple matter or whole new animation needs to be constructed, the answer is still yes. (The questions I see are is it is a simple matter or not, and is it worth their time. Neither question I can answer. Though it is odd that zombies get 1 attack and the other sets' pets get 2....)

There was a discussion on the Suggestions and Feedback forum about being able to preview character names. Turns out, @Naomi already made an html that lets players do exactly that. So my suggestion is to have that added and pinned to the Tools, Utilities, and Downloads forum so players can find it.

It also would impact players at the lower end of the level range for the zone that keep getting sent into that area. You're talking about taking a level 44-46 area, a 48-50 area, and a 46-48 area and changing them all to 50-54 areas. It's already hazardous enough when my level 44 is sent to those areas where the mobs are at least somewhere near my level. Players already have to dodge Rikti pylons to reach their missions. When there are spawns at your mission door and they are near your level, it's a race to get in fast enough. If those same spawns are now 10 levels higher than you? My squishy characters won't even reach their entrance to try to get inside in time any more. (They already enter the mission low on health when I find near my level but still higher level Rikti waiting at the mission.) (Edit: The level 44-46 Heartbreak Ridge area already sees my level 35-40 characters getting sent there for missions. Level 54 Rikti will eat me if they are extended down that far.) Edit again: Why don't you try Cimerora? Since it has been expanded, there is a sizable 54 enemy zone there now. And regular missions don't send solo players into that area unless we choose to do that TF from not-Valkyrie Valkyrie.