Rudra

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.

Presumably, people want Shield for a positional defense armor with some resistance, +hp and +dmg thrown in. Willpower is a regen/resist set with some +hp and typed defense thrown in. It plays very differently. Super Reflexes is probably the closest to Shield from a play standpoint, but it has no +hp or +dmg and its resistance only kicks in at low health. Then those players still have access to a set that grants the mechanics they want without having to take away the core identity of shield defense: the shield.

It's actually either. Both forms are correct.

Looks like that is the actual term to me. Example: https://gist.github.com/cmcdevitt/28e7468a225c0e52bfdb6123ebc33650

Then why even bother taking Shield Defense? (Edit: Just take Willpower at that point. And it is even already available to Sentinels.)

D-Sync Provocation. It has Taunt, Placate, Accuracy, and Recharge +33.3%, and doesn't need to have a taunt or placate effect in the power to slot it.

By issue 3 they had updated to where multiple toggles could be active, for example invulnerability and fire tanks could have all armor toggles running. For example @Kruunch had the definitive invuln build then, which hit 90% to everything on SOs. Great. My comment was that at launch we couldn't do that so the bosses were harder. The comment you are quoting came about because the individual I was commenting to said that was back in Issue 0 (Beta) that we could not have multiple armor toggles from the same set active at once and that after launch we could always use all our armor toggles (except for Dark per this person), and I was pointing out that it wasn't until quite some time after launch that we still could not do so. (Edit again: I don't really care when the ability to run all our toggles was granted to us. In this instance, I only care that after launch until whichever issue was posted, we could not do so. That is my point.)

When my target runs away (particularly bosses, EBs, and AVs) because I placed a debuff on them, it doesn't matter if I hit them with my Blackwand followed by my Nemesis Staff followed by anything else. They just keep running. If anything, they seem to run faster, especially when the Nemesis Staff sends them flying away aiding their retreat. (Edit: And that is regardless of whether I maintain the debuff or drop it to keep from aggroing anything extra.) Edit: The run away mechanic definitely needs some tweaking. At the very least, like was mentioned earlier by others, mobs need to stop being able to run away so fast. It very much seems like they get faster when they run away without having any powers that would do so. Especially when they are stunned and stagger off at Sprint + Athletic Run speed without having either power. (Edit again: Particularly frustrating when they run staggered that fast out of Caltrops, Tar Patch, or any other slow power. Seriously, how the hell are those Hellions, Skulls, or Freakshow moving that fast when they get stunned and start from inside a slow patch?!)

I've never seen that happen. Not saying it doesn't, but do you have any other effects going on at the time too? (I often zero out enemies' END and keep them there with my electric characters. Haven't seen them run away because of that yet.)

That actually happens in a LOT of missions. Like when the Skull boss defeats nearby spawns of Skulls. Rikti blasting their own reinforcements. And more. (Edit: Skull example is from a Lords of Death mission. Rikti example is from multiple Rikti missions where ambushes spawn.)

The thing I don't get, is that Synapse's TF is that story arc, minus 2 or 3 missions. The full exact same thing down to boss names and mission locations. Oh, and the TF awards a badge for completing it whereas the story arc's reward is the relief that it is finally over.

Uhm... all of them? 😄

If this is the all Clockwork TF, be glad it's the TF and not the story arc. They are the exact same in every way except that the story arc has more missions in it. I think 3 more missions than the TF has. I can't remember what contact gave the story arc, but basically, I avoid any contact that deals with Clockwork to make sure I never go through that story arc again.

The flee mechanic factors in damage being done to the target, number of allies defeated, and whether or not they are being debuffed. Mobs will attempt to get out of debuff effects. If the debuff effect is attached to them, they keep moving to get out of it, so they run away. They also continue moving to get away from debuff effects until they are clear "enough", which too often causes them to run away. This is something many of us have complained about repeatedly. It doesn't matter what tier mob the mob is. It doesn't matter how fanatical the mob is supposed to be. I've watched full on AVs turn tail and run because I hit them with a Darkest Night. It is supposed to reflect the mobs fighting "smarter" instead of just continually standing in layered damage and debuff patches until they die.

No attack's root time is that long. They are barely longer than the animation time. If I remember correctly, the root time is so the character can do the animation for the attack. Otherwise, they would need different animations for running forward, running backward, running to the side, running at an angle, and jumping for all of the above for every attack. That's why jumping and attacking doesn't always work for getting around it, because sometimes the animation drops you back to the ground disrupting the jump.