Rudra

It isn't a thematics thing. It is a mechanics thing. You see the same thing happen if you cross through say, Ouroboros. (Edit: That is why it is typically advised for rogues on blue side teams and vigilantes on red side teams to stay in the respective side's zones while teamed with the other side.)

I don't know about PvP players and their SGs, but I would personally be fine with that.

On Live, when you joined a SG, if they had any SG badges, those badges were loaded to your character. If anyone checked your character's information, they would see your character's personal badges and the SG's badges too. If you left the SG, those badges were no longer loaded against the character, because they belong to the SG. So if anyone checked your character's information after you left the SG, those badges were no longer there because you no longer had access to them. (Edit: A quick way to check that back on Live was to check the character's badge count while in and out of the SG. Even if you weren't a member of said SG, you could do that check with a willing member of a SG. The badge count would go up or down depending on whether they were showing as part of the SG or not, provided the SG had unlocked any of the SG badges.) (Edit again: So to answer your questions in the order asked: Yes. No. Yes or no depending on whether the SG has the badge or not.)

Being allowed to exist is not an advantage. The advantage of a solo SG? You have an entire base to yourself. I'm not talking about solo SGs though. I'm talking about small SGs. Small SGs have shared storage just like large SGs. Small SGs typically have an interest in doing the same things the large SGs do. Whether it be running TFs/SFs together, doing iTrials together, forming or leading raids, RP (or non-RP) social events, and anything else pretty much any SG can do. And now you want to add something that the large SGs would be able to do with ridiculous ease, get SG badges, but that small SGs would not be able to do because they will not be able to recruit the people they need to accomplish it. (Or if they are badges they can get on their own? Will take them years to do so. If they have enough members to keep it at just years of effort instead of not at all.) And no, badges are not something the SG only would be able to see. They get loaded to the SG members as well. So everyone can see them if they choose to check the character's information. Yes, we are being serious. However, your stance is obviously that small SGs are solo SGs and so should not even be a consideration. And it was that elitism that upset players like me about SGs and prestige back on Live. 'Your SG can't recruit new members? Tough, you should have joined a proper SG.' 'Your SG can't do X? Tough, you should have joined a proper SG.' 'Your SG is trying to be a "proper SG"? Tough, you should have joined a proper SG in the 1st place.' (Edit: You want SG badges? Fine. Let's add some. However, you want prestige badges or other badges with requirements that only the larger SGs can accomplish? No, I'm against that.) (Edit again: You want to lock anything behind those only large SGs can get badges? Hells no.)

Your argument again fails and for the same reason. Let's break it down. A PvP'er will earn PvP badges. A PvE'er will not unless they opt to go do some PvP. In this case, it is someone choosing to not partake of something, the PvE'er not doing PvP means the PvE'er will not get any PvP badges. A villain that chooses to stay red side will not get blue side badges and a hero that chooses to stay blue side will not get red side badges. Again, the player is opting to not participate, so they will not get. A player that does not check the badge tabs to see what badges still need what to be completed is most likely not a badger. The badger will pursue the badges whereas the non-badger will not. (Edit: So the non-badger is opting to not participate in getting badges, so they will most likely not get them.) A player that joins a SG is still joining a SG, regardless of whether it is a large group or a small group. Those players are choosing to participate in a SG. They are not opting to not participate else they would not be in a SG. As opposed to the player that does not join a SG, and so is opting to not participate in such. This is a completely different phenomenon than the examples you are citing. Your argument is that if they want the SG badges, then obviously they need to join the large SGs. Which not only punishes smaller SGs, not even looking at solo SGs, just small ones, it also drives those players looking for SGs away from the smaller ones and to the larger ones. Which even further reinforces the smaller SGs' inability to get those SG badges. This is the same thing that happened back on Live. Where only the large SGs would be able to recruit and the smaller ones would try over and over and over to get new recruits, only for the ones they finally get to join to realize they joined a small SG and don't have access to all the perks, badges, and improved base items the large SGs have, then immediately quit the small SG to try again for a large SG. And your comments are leading me to believe that is exactly what you want, for only the large SGs to enjoy recruitment opportunities and base item access and SG badges.

If we're expanding the boombox play list, can we also get them without the dancing NPC? I'd like to hide one in a jukebox in my base so I can have different music in each room without having to figure out which wall can I stick the NPC in to make him disappear. (Edit: It would be a lot easier to hide a boombox in the middle of the room so its music doesn't carry over to other rooms than it is to hide an NPC.) (Edit again; Why not just incorporate the NPC? Because his dancing never matches the music.)

They can also put on their SG outfit and go out in the community to do things that earns them actual prestige instead of game prestige number. Anyone remember the Taxibots back on Live? You want to talk about a well received and well recognized SG? They had real prestige. I never met a player that didn't like or appreciate them. And it had nothing to do with the currency prestige.

This argument fails on this thread. Why? Because if you make a character without heals, of course you don't have access to heal badges. However, we are talking about SGs here. How is being part of a small SG as compared to a large SG the same as making a non-healing character versus a healing character? They aren't even remotely similar. Using the healer example, it is the difference of a character with just one single target heal that grants light healing compared to a character with several heals including AoE ones. Not the difference of making a character without heals compared to one with heals. (Edit: Also, note that in my post you are quoting, I said small SGs, not solo SGs. My "Especially solo SGs" comment was a highlight for reference.)

Then we experienced vastly different prestige back on Live. Because back on Live, a SG's prestige went up and down regularly until their base was fully built up. Only after there was nothing left for the SG to buy with prestige did they just accumulate prestige without it dropping. Which again, is something only the large SGs got to experience. (Edit: And even then, prestige still went down monthly to pay base rent.) I do not recall that tab, but yes, there were multiple base items that were only available to buy with prestige once you unlocked them. Teleporter beacons for one. Someone in the SG had to go through the zones and grab all the explore badges while in SG mode in order to get access to that zone's teleport beacon for their base. The rez items also had their add on items that were not available until the SG, in SG mode, achieved some milestone to unlock them. Which again worked fine for large SGs, but small ones had to live without. Especially solo ones. Because again, large SGs will get the required prestige really quickly while the smaller ones will be stuck without. Unless you make the milestones to achieve those badges so low that they don't really matter.

Here's the thing: Prestige is a currency in the game. And there is no point to that currency if it does not buy anything. And if it is needed to buy things, then smaller SGs are not going to be able to afford those things. At least not for quite a while. As for other uses for prestige? There have been other threads made for bringing it back. And those threads, just like this one, will penalize smaller SGs just like prestige did back on Live. (I had multiple personal SGs with active bases even back on Live. I hate prestige in this game. Just getting that out of the way now.) There have been calls for the SG roster at the registrars to list SGs based on their prestige. Which is fine for large SGs, but penalizes smaller ones looking for members as the only thing players looking for SGs will see then are the ones with lots of prestige. There was a call to just bring back prestige for the sake of there being prestige, but again, prestige is a currency, so what point does it serve if it has no actual purpose? SG rewards for accomplishing achievements such as wiping out 200,000 faction members? Yeah, small/solo SGs won't be getting that done. So you are rewarding large SGs only. Base items that must be purchased with prestige that base builders have been clamoring for all this time? Well, large SGs will have no problems, but small ones are SoL. What good does bringing back prestige do? I can definitely see the harm of it. I was part of a few SGs back on Live that if you didn't earn a set amount of presitge per week, you were out. You were sick or out of town for a while? Too bad, you're out. And no, you can't re-join because you couldn't uphold the SG's prestige requirements. It's things like everything I've mentioned in this post that I am leery of coming back if prestige comes back in any way.

Then I sit corrected. However, he does show up as a popup introduced contact periodically on my characters, and I'm not aware of most of them having that badge.

No, I personally would not. GMs are rather boring as new additions. Personally, I think new zone events are much better because they require more interaction than just standing there solo or in a team and pounding a very large mob into the ground. The problem with events though, is I don't see them being used. (Praetoria has a zone event in all 3 surface zones, but they rarely get done from what I see. I'm not counting First Ward or Night Ward. St. Martial also has a zone event that I pretty much see being skipped by players frequently.) However, a zone event that includes a GM could be interesting depending on how it is done.

Mr. Bocor already requires no introduction. Just walk up to him during his active level range and he gives you missions. I do this frequently on red side. I even re-verified just now with a brand new level 5 character. (Edit: Also, other contacts that don't require introduction do get their own little pop ups red side when you reach a high enough level to do their content. The Slot Machine in St. Martial is one that does that. Just not all of them.)

@Cozybread, when someone affects you with one of those stated buffs, you can right click the buff and choose Cancel. It goes away. I'm not arguing against the OP, I'm just telling you that you do not have to wait for it to time out. And if the player that buffed you is still present and buffs you again? Ask them to stop and then make the buffs go away again. And if they persist? Report them for harassment.

Players in a SG can already do things in SG mode as a SG. They don't need prestige to do that. If you want to ask for badges that the SG can earn? Fine. Make some badges that are earned by the SG, just bear in mind that those badges will automatically go to any new player/character that joins the SG after the badges have been earned. (Why? Because they are the SG's badges, not the character's badges, so just being in that SG will automatically award them.) Any base items of any kind being locked away? No.

If you have to earn and use prestige to buy base items again, even if it doesn't affect current base items, yes, you are saying base building should be restricted. Especially since moving NPCs are one of many things that are being asked for by base builders.

Well, yeah, but they are hazard zones because of how entrenched the various factions present there are resulting in very large spawns. The problem with red siders accessing the hazard zones is they aren't connected to anything conducive to the red side players sneaking in. (Except maybe Terra Volta since it is in a port zone.) While the Hollows is near water, it is on the other side of the war wall with no ports. Makes accessing it by submarine relatively problematic. Not impossible by any means, but those war walls are intentionally... erm... difficult to bypass. Setting lore and the map layout aside? Adding villains to hero zones (or heroes to villain zones) is very likely going to result in a push for putting PvP in those zones. (And I am very against adding non-arena PvP to any PvE zones.) (Edit: You need to understand that the co-op zones have a central threat with a unifying faction calling for heroes and villains to set aside their differences and work together to survive. The hazard zones have neither. [Edit yet again: For instance, the Igneous in the Hollows aren't out to conquer the world or destroy it. {Edit yet again: Well, not entirely true. Igneous is planning to attack Paragon City....) They were simply disturbed by the Trolls' blasting and the Circle's investigations. So despite being the primary foes in the Cavern of Transcendence, they are basically minor players in the events of CoX.) (Edit again: And even if villains could access the hazard zones? The players that are not willing to go red side? Won't care about the new villain missions beyond "why are there suddenly Destined One villains in the hazard zones?!". They don't like or want anything to do with villainous content.) Yes, rogues can join. While I don't think they can form a Cavern team and lead it, they can definitely join.

Just so you know, you can turn those buffs off. Right click the buff and make it go away.

At least on Everlasting, there are periodic giant monster hunts. And those hunts hit up both red side and blue side. So more GMs aren't going to do it either because pretty much everyone I've ever seen on those monster hunts goes vigilante long enough to complete the hunt, then they go back to blue side as either a vigilante or hero. (For that matter, I've watched players pop over red side when it is announced a red side GM is up, take down the GM, then immediately go back blue side.) Edit: Most likely, at least as far as I can tell, the only way to get players to go red side and actually play instead of just visit for a few GMs, is to make content they want to play there. However, the biggest problem with that is not content quality, but content... uhm... content.... As has been stated by a few individuals already, they have no interest in playing a villain. They have no interest in playing a rogue. So the quality of the content doesn't matter, what matters is that the content is outside of anything they are willing to play/experience. (Edit again: And it doesn't matter how big an XP or inf' multiplier is provided. Regardless of 1 day or 1 millennia. They refuse to play the content and no reward/incentive will get them to do so. So acceptable content would need to be made, but why would there be heroic content in the City of Villains? And if there were, how would you prevent the Rogue Isles from just becoming Paragon City II in order to cater to them?) (Edit again: And increasing XP and/or inf' gains won't really help either even for those that are at least willing to play red side. All that would do is make it possible for them to schedule when they will play red side. Bonus gains for 1 day? Okay, they'll play red side for that day. One week? They'll play that week. Let them know when the next increased XP and/or inf' incentive is active again so they know when to pop over and get the increased rewards. That isn't conducive to increasing the red side player base except for the duration of the increased rewards. And that doesn't seem to be the goal to me.) (Edit yet again: I should probably point out these comments are not aimed at you. Your post just gave me a launching point. Sorry.)

I don't think it will cause enough of a change that anyone will really notice. Easy way to find out is to run it through beta and see how it goes. If it is too much, it is a relatively simple reversal. Any changes to challenge teams are going to need a lot more than just this though.

Maybe this? Pistol Assault (Dominator secondary): As per the OP Heavy Pistol (Blaster, Corruptor, and Sentinel primary; Defender secondary): T1: Gut Shot T2: Heavy Shot T3: Suppressive Fire (Cone [edit again: or ST damaging debuff]) T4: Feeling Lucky T5: Empty Pistol (Cone) T6: Aim T7: Knee Shot T8: Dodge This T9: Target Rich Environment (Cone or PBAoE nuke) Pistol Combat (Blaster secondary): T1: Back Off (Light damage kick or backhand, KB) T2: Chin Check T3: Marksman (As Reach For The Limit) T4: Sweeping Punch T5: Intimidating Glare (Cone fear, 0 damage) T6: Mysterious Stranger (Self stealth, +DEF, RES slow+KB) T7: Throw Sand T8: Marked For Death (Edit: ST -RES, -DEF) T9: Powderkeg Punch

*shrug*

I have no opinion on that. However, I will point out that what you are asking for is most likely bottom of the barrel in priority. Filler content is just there to pad out what the characters can do, typically to help them level. And since they are not part of any arc, they don't check to see if any arcs are done yet. Same with the arcs. They don't check to see if you did a specific filler mission or not. So dialogue between them ignores any chance you may have already had interaction with the characters. This even holds true between different arcs. You can encounter the same AV between different arcs, and in both/all cases, it is as if you never met before. The amount of work it would take to go back through all the stand alone missions and the arcs to figure out who meets who and when and why, and then add in extra dialogue that may be different depending on what order you happened to do the content in, is overwhelming.

That is because they are. Blue side has a lot of filler missions. Some contacts are just filler missions. That would be because it has filler missions as well. To make arcs feel "epic" rather than just have a quick resolution, you will find blue side has filler missions embedded in the arcs to help extend them to show your character as busy dealing with multiple problems at the same time. (Edit: Check out the flashback version of her arc sometime. You will see how the arc was made simpler despite retaining the same length. For starters, the current version lacks the expected fail mission the original has.) (Edit again: Also, while it isn't any benefit to you at this time, you can learn where those glowies and rescues are on those maps. There are limited locations for them to spawn at. The problem is, since a change back on Live to make the game easier for some computers to handle, they may not be visible until you defeat enough enemies. You will encounter those maps on other missions, and if you do them enough, you get a feel for the glowie/hostage spawn locations. Like I said, not really helpful to you at this time, but it can be over time.)

Like @Demobot said, they were disabled. The menu command is still in the game, but it does nothing. (Other than give an error when you try to use it.)