Rudra

Forgot about that. Thanks, @biostem.

I've never had any problems with those maps and I play on very high settings. On a very old computer. Maybe it is your provider causing you problems? There is an Arachnos flier at Mercy Island, but it is not targetable. I was unaware of there beinga flier in Sharkhead as well. The only GM flier I know of is in Grandville. (Which is much easier to deal with in a mission than the zone.) St. Martial may not have a GM, but it does have an event. And personally, I would rather an event over just another GM thrown into a zone. Events require me to be more involved than just standing there smacking a very large bucket of HPs. And you can spawn Scrapyard by smacking down 100 Scrapyarders, I believe. Seems to be the trigger for GMs. 100 Scrapyarders, 100 Gremlins, 100 spectral demons (during either the day or night cycle, can't remember which), 100 (very specific at very specific locations) Clockwork (for Paladin or Babbage, can't remember which) before they reverted it back to not needing the 100 Clockwork, and 100 Council WarWorks to spawn the Goliath WarWorks. Players are going to play where they want. Players used to spend a lot of time red side because it had the more linear zones and most of the missions/arcs were self-contained to the contact's zone. So no need to run to Atlas Park, the Peregrine Island, then Steel Canyon, then Striga Isle. Being able to stay in zone was a large selling point for a lot of players. However, some players just don't like the idea of playing a villain. Other players don't like the missions/arcs for being red side. Some players stay blue side because that is where their friends and SG mates play. Adding more GMs isn't going to get players to suddenly run to play red side. All it will do is get their vigilante aligned characters to pop over to the red side zone to smack down the GM and then go back blue side to continue what they were doing. And if the devs were to add incentives to get players red side? Then gold side players would demand the same thing to get their even emptier zones more populated. And as the population shifts away from blue side, blue side would demand incentives to get players back there. So basically, just let players play where they want.

@Rigged, I'm reading through the thread and it looks to me like the devs have actually responded as to the why for a lot of your comments. Yet, you keep arguing with @Shadeknight. So I have to ask, and I apologize for insinuation here, but are you reading the dev responses? If you are, why the continued debate with @Shadeknight? Personally, I'm glad to know that the development process doesn't work as described in the OP. I'm also glad to find out that if an individual makes the effort to teach themselves how to mod or create content for the game, there is a process through which they can apply to join the volunteer dev team and possibly become a dev. If a person wants to mod a game as broken in code as CoX, then I agree, a very good step would be to find the available materials and show that the person in question is willing to take the time to go learn and work with the system for himself/herself. In some businesses, showing initiative to get something done isn't just appreciated, it is required for employment. As for the devs? Thank you for taking the time to respond in this thread. I think more in this thread than any others so far, your responses were needed to help find a resolution.

They have 1 animator. That is their biggest holdup with new animations.

Yes, Spark Blade wields a single pistol. Apparently at the same time, though not for attacks, as his sword. And both are electrified with his power.

The Live devs said we would get Ghost Widow hair never. Because it is a cape on the model's head and it apparently fails spectacularly on player character models.

Modding isn't going to happen. Not on CoX. I don't remember why and am disinclined to go looking for the answer, but it is out there, somewhere. If you want to become a developer, there is a process that someone linked on another thread to apply to become a dev. (Edit: Yes, I know there are mods out there. I'm using one to shut the gargoyles up when on my demon summoner. However, they are not officially recognized and fall into the "user beware" category.)

Okay, I finally got the Night Widow's Psychic Scream again. And out of the box? The only issues I have with it is the damage and recharge. However, I have yet to slot anything into it and my plan for when it is finally 6-slotted and fully enhanced (at level 50), is as a damaging soft control power. And it still looks like it will work well for that. I can't say for certain at this point because I just unlocked becoming a Night Widow on the character, but that is how it looks. I think mobs have a bottom of 50% recharge, and that would mean this one power gets them to their floor in a single go, so it still looks more like a soft control primary effect power rather than a damage primary effect power to me. And using it like that? Should work well. I'm just wondering why as a -recharge power, it can't also take slow sets or enhancements. (Edit: Maybe just adding a slow component to go with the -recharge could be enough.)

I agree. When a product gets to the open beta stage of development, it is basically done and undergoing final testing/tweaking. If something turns up in open beta though and it is not a minor tweak? Then the product should be able to be moved back to an earlier stage of development, even if only briefly, for correction. This becomes even more critical if the closed alpha team is a particularly small group and there is no open alpha stage. City of Heroes lacks an open alpha stage as far as I know of. So the test server, despite being an open beta server, meaning it is for final adjustments, would also need to double as an open alpha server too. If there is an open alpha server though? Then the test server is fine with just being an open beta server and changes being limited to minor adjustments, though more players would need to be made aware of the existence of said open alpha server. Edit: I should point out that even open alphas are not usually "open", and are still fairly exclusive for access. They are however, more open to others to provide additonal feedback.

I don't know how the testing for new sets works on beta, but if the development process works like @Puma said, then that means you are going to get a sub-optimal result a not insignificant part of the time. If the alpha testers are only a very small community and only their inputs get rolled into larger changes and tweaks for new sets with beta being limited to final adjustments, then there is not a large enough base to fully test out a new set and iron out deficiencies or other concerns. Again, I have no idea if things work the way @Puma said. I'm just saying that if things do work like that, then beta testing should really be considered open alpha testing until the set is properly polished. I need to point out that I have not yet tried Storm Blast, so I have no opinion on how it turned out. I'm just commenting on the OP here. You have a good point, @biostem, but so does @Puma depending on how the situation may be.

Per the wiki, Rose Star is a Super Strength/Invulnerability character. Likely a Tanker. And Spark Blade is a Super Reflexes character with both sword and pistol. No defined powers beyond that. I forgot all about that video though. Was looking forward to WISDOM making a bigger appearance, then shut down happened. Edit: As for what Mirror Spirit did to Rose Star, it looked like a purification spell via willing conduit.

I'm sure the Live devs had plans to bring the other two in. Likely even to eventually expand the group. Just as I'm sure there is nothing currently available in the code for either Rose Star or Spark Blade. The current devs most likely would have to create them from scratch.

Mirror Spirit isn't just a trainer. She shows up in a couple of missions. Most notably the Mr. G arc where you turn the Praetorian Penelope Yin into Penelope Mayhem. And another mission I can't remember off the top of my head where you fight her alone. Pretty sure the same thing applies to Foreshadow in that he is an enemy in one or more missions.

Go to the wiki if you want in-game information such as about the different factions and groups. W.I.S.D.O.M. is here: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/W.I.S.D.O.M. and here: https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/W.I.S.D.O.M.

How is Eviscerate a short range cone? It has the 7 feet range of every other melee AT attack and it has a 90 degree arc. It may not be a PBAoE (circle) like some other melee AT attacks, but it is not a short range cone as far as I can tell.

There are lots of T9 powers I skip. However, I don't see Psychic Scream as being bad. I'm still trying to get my Widow from Live back up in levels, but my Live build called for me to take it. It is set to be 6-slotted. 5 Ragnaroks, including the KD proc, plus the Overwhelming Force KD proc. Between -50% recharge for 10 seconds to enemies, chance for KD, and being able to use it every 6.22 seconds, it works for me. Sure, for a moderate damage attack, it does light damage, but (turns out it is a light damage attack according to CoD. So Mids calling it a moderate damage attack is wrong.) It still worked for me back on Live. At least I'm pretty sure it did since I never changed the build to remove it. I'll get back to you when my Widow gets it again. Though it should be pointed out all the psychic attacks for the Night Widow seem weaker than expected. Probably because they are melee focused. Mental Blast is also a moderate light damage attack (CoD says light, so going with CoD over Mids), is single target as opposed to AoE (cone), and does 86.5% of the damage that Psychic Scream does. (Edit again: And while it is listed as available at level 1, you can't get it until you go Night Widow. So it is only available at level 1 as part of a respec after reclassing into Night Widow. So I'm still treating it as a later level power.) So I'm thinking the lighter than expected damage is intentional since the Night Widows more focus on slicing and poisoning their foes. Edit: Also, while I am not adverse to the power getting a potential buff, I am most definitely against replacing it. Edit yet again: I'm also only counting Psychic Scream as a T6 power. Since it is the 6th of 6 powers in the Night Widow tree. As opposed to the 10 powers in the Fortunata tree. And is available 4 levels earlier than the Fortunata's Psychic Wail of DOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Sister Solaris, Sister Airlia, the other sybils, and the shamanesses from the Banished Pantheon are all wearing the same single model dress. There is no separate top and bottom (at this time). The dress looks like a separate top and bottom on the shamanesses because the belt is a separate model that is not used on the shamanesses. Because the dress model uses the belt model to make it look like a whole piece as the player sees it, it looks like a separate top and bottom on the shamanesses, but is not. It is a single model like the special top toga available in the costume creator. And the reason I last heard for us not getting the sybil dress is because it works like the cloaks and is prone to twisting and tangling as the attached model moves. I'm not against the OP, just to be clear. Just sharing the information I currently have. That information may or may not necessarily be current any more though.

The outfit the shamanesses from the Banished Pantheon wear is the same thing the Cimeroran sybils wear, just missing the large belt. (Edit: So it is a single-piece outfit model, consisting of the top and bottom. The belt piece is a separate piece, and the BP females simply don't have that belt. The sybil dress was alongside a surprising number of other NPC costume pieces in Icon prior to HC coming back. So that is where I am getting this information from. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be possible for the bottom to be separated from the top, or the entire dress being made available. That would be a dev choice. Just letting you know the sybils and shamanesses are wearing the same dress.)

Yes, they are available through the Pillar of Fire and Ice. They were never included as regular contacts because they were purchase-only available arcs back on Live. HC took away the purchase requirements, so they can be accessed at any time by a character of the correct level range, but are still treated as special access contacts. I don't think they really make sense for the Find Contact function, but I do agree that they need more visiblity.

This sounds like a costume issue rather than a suggestion. Costume issues should be reported under Bugs here:

I'm operating under the impression that each power is given a set of flags for what enhancement types they can slot. That is the core part of my concern. The generation of 8 new flags (which would not be difficult) and then applying them to every attack the proposed sets would be able to be slotted in. (You would have to go through the armor sets for this too since some like Fiery Aura have damage auras.) Especially since some sets would be able to slot multiple different sets from the OP. As someone who spends too much time sorting through files and placing them where they are supposed to be as opposed to where they are, asking the devs to do that at this stage of game development with the sheer number of powers available, would be cruel and unusual punishment in my opinion.

Agreed. We need an official answer as to how and when the game checks and applies damage. At the very least, for the purpose of the OP, it would be nice to know if adding the proposed sets would require the devs to look at each and every power individually, if a new mechanic to look up the already provided data would need to be generated to make this possible, or if anything else was going on. If this could be rendered a non-concern, then my only issue would be making sure the proposed sets were sufficiently all the same that players wouldn't be complaining that say the fire set has better options than the ice set or whatever. And if the OP could be reduced to just that concern? I would no longer oppose it.

Good question. I don't really know. The problem I have with this is that either the devs will have to go over every power in the game and set those individual powers to be able to accept the new proposed IOs for each damage type that specific power may utilize, or they would have to generate a new system to check for the damage types instead of just the attack type to make this work. And if the proposed sets only affected that specific element in any given attack, which is not something you said but something I have to consider until it is specifically ruled out, then multi-damage powers would be handicapped using the proposed sets. And then if any of the new typed damage sets was more appealing to players than others? Not better, just more appealing. There would be all sorts of complaints that players' preferred power sets couldn't make use of these damage sets for being the wrong element. (I've argued to death that Sudden Acceleration as a set is a good set compared to most damage sets, not the best damage sets, but most damage sets. And players still argue the proc it has is a tax because they refuse to slot the set for not giving them exactly what they want.) You have an interesting idea, but given coding problems and the already existing problems of how players approach sets, I'm going to be against the OP. I like @srmalloy's take on the idea, but I am going to have to be against the OP itself. (Edit: And yes, it would have to be basically every power in the game the devs would have to comb over and add new flags to because even many mezzes have a typed damage component. Not just specifically attack powers.)

Borrow the code from Swap Ammo. This would be far more feasible than the OP.

You're not just asking for new IO sets with this. Damage types aren't tracked for separate enhancement. So the devs would have to add code to make sure the proposed sets could only be slotted in powers with the correct damage types. (Edit: And then, only buff the correct damage type.) Edit: And then you have attacks with multiple damage types. Like water with its smashing and cold or smashing and fire damage depending on the attack. Or Dual Pistols which can change its damage type with the Swap Ammo power. Edit again: The Universal Damage set is not called that because it works with all damage types, it is called that because it works with all attack types. Unlike melee sets, PBAoE sets, TAoE sets, and ranged damage sets, the universal set can be slotted into any attack.