Rudra

SR is not based on improving as your health gets lower. The increasing resistance SR gets as your health gets lower was added because SR had a survivability problem when sufficient numbers of enemies attacked or the SR character was up against auto-hit attacks.

You are ignoring the points being made for why a stealth character can remain stealthy and still guide an NPC to safety. Yes, the character is giving away their position to the NPC. That is not in dispute. That same character is not however yelling through a bullhorn to guide the NPC. And you're right. Stealth is not the only tool in my toolbox. However, the only other tools are the attacks and defenses. (Edit: Because you sure as hell can't use a power to move them.) So you are basically telling me and every else that plays a stealth character to not play a stealth character because stealth is pointless and we should rely on the other tools at our disposal. Not your point, but it is how you are coming across. And no, problem not solved. I also don't see it actually being solved. Especially if the devs are even half as intractable as you are currently proving to be. I can acknowledge your points. I can't understand why you would think a stealthy character would have to not be stealthy to help someone escape. Especially with all the references out there you can look up and read or watch that says otherwise. Edit: Also, your comment about NPCs not being subject to re-capture or defeat? When was the last time you ran an escort mission? Sure, only combat NPCs can be defeated, except in that one mission I will not talk about where the heroes have exactly 1 HP, are not combat NPCs in the mission, and are subject to defeat. However, the non-defeatable NPCs can be re-captured. That is the point of the ambushes that spawn after you rescue the NPC. And that is what happens when you are defeated. They get re-captured. So it is not a question of whether I or anyone else is willing to deal with that, because we already do.

A friendly NPC won't resist having the stealth character guide them out. The character can hold the NPC's hand. The character can give verbal instructions to move forward and go around corners and go through doors. The civvie hostage does not need to be super perceptive to be able to do so. The hostile NPC will take every opportunity to escape. The character can still maintain a physical grip on the NPC to force him/her to the exit. Like they do in anime, cartoons, movies, TV shows, comics, novels, etc. With combat forcing a disruption of the character's ability to do so. (Introducing the new NPC flee mechanic for when the PC is in combat.) Every time I have to escort an NPC. Now as for stealth itself not being very useful any more? Every time the mission requires me to kill... I mean defeat... every mob in the room even if the have no means of monitoring the object I am there to take or the mob I am there to take down. (Let alone the plethora of defeat all missions where being sneaky is pointless.) Can I still stealth most maps? Yes. Then I have to hunt down every mob at the end to finish the mission despite being a sneaky character. I do. And I will keep playing the game even if this is not changed. And I will still keep making stealthy characters. That is more because I personally have a preference for playing hidden/sneaky characters in every game I play than because of how useful stealth is any more. And yes, I still enjoy stealth as a power in the game in all its forms because I can still bypass most of the map unless there is a hostage to deal with or it is a defeat all. And a lot of those have been changed to simply being near the ground instead. Uhm... like when? My ranged characters have the ability to keep enemies at range, usually with KB or immobs/holds/stuns, but also even if only by running away until aggro breaks or exiting the map or flying higher than their better than mine range. My melee characters really want to be in close to the target. And if in either case I want more space? I run away. (Or play the frantic methamphetamine OD'ed frog in combat.)

Except your character is not truly undetectable. Even a Stalker using Hide, a Concealment Pool stealth power, and a movement stealth proc is not truly undetectable. Snipers of even 3-4 levels less than the character's level prove that at max range all the time as long as they are high enough in level to aggro to the character. Drones prove that every time you are in their LoS, which I am perfectly fine with. Even other players in PvP prove that with a few yellows or by having a perception boosting power active. (Edit: And that is without the consideration of how stealthy characters actually work when looking after another. You know, outside of CoX.) I'm fine with bolstering the escortees' perception. I'm fine with making hostile escortees difficult to lead out. I'm fine with suffering a stealth penalty while having an escortee in tow. I'm fine with losing the added defense bonus from not being in combat if it will get the escortee to follow. I'm fine with any combination of the above. The whole stealth characters cannot use stealth to be stealthy bit though? THAT annoys me. Escorted NPCs always required players to drop stealth to lead them out unless the NPC was a combat pet. Annoying, yes, but stealth characters also got the benefit of being able to sneak every other mission then, and it felt balanced. Then they added Stalkers and things changed. NPCs still required stealth characters to drop stealth unless they were combat NPCs, but almost every other aspect of stealth was stripped away. Only missions with multiple glowies still allowed a stealth character to sneak around and be sneaky as long as there was absolutely no other objective, otherwise it became a sneak the glowies and then clear the last room which may in fact be two rooms. So stealth as a player power is nearly useless. How many missions still let a stealth character be stealthy and not have to wipe out the room to claim the glowie the character already clicked or the boss the character already defeated like they could before Stalkers were added? And if you're doing a Nemesis mission? The game loves to saturate the map with snipers that completely ignore your stealth. Some Council/5th Column maps too. Rikti maps? Rikti Drones see you no problem, though they are subject to stealth reducing their perception radius so they see you closer in than the others. The whole "Here is a power you can use but we will force you to not be able to on a better than regular basis during normal game play" bit is why I am in favor of the OP. (As opposed to incarnate game play, TF/SF game play, or other.) Not because I think Sister Solaris should be unique, I actually disagree with the OP because of that part. However, I think any friendly NPC being saved and escorted by the player should be able to follow through stealth. Even if something is applied to compensate for that. Is it too much to ask to be able to use a power the game has provided since day 1 without having to run so many missions with it turned off to accomplish the goal? At least before CoV, stealth had a practical and obviously useful function, even if the player/character missed out on defeat xp/inf' for bypassing the mobs on the map. As opposed to the near niche role it has now. I love my stealth characters, all of them. That is despite how stealth works in the game now rather than because of it.

My apologies for the misunderstanding then. As for fixes? Right now? I don't really care as long as stealth characters stop being penalized for being stealth characters. (Though I am still very partial to @Greycat's solution, even if it would be far more technical to implement.) Edit: And yes, I hold that stealth characters are being penalized. Before City of Villains launched, a stealth character could sneak to the end of the map, use the glowy or take down the boss, and the mission would be done. Then they introduced a dedicated stealth AT and took all that away.

They aren't followers in the comics either. I'm rather partial to @Greycat's take. The ones that want to be rescued follow through stealth. The ones that don't require you to actively manage them. Either by dropping stealth, or assigning a pet to toss 'em over a should and go, or anything. I'm even willing to take a hit on stealth effectiveness and lose the non-combat defense bonus from stealth powers on top of that while you have a friendly NPC in tow. For crying out loud though, there are combat NPCs that can't even follow your character through any form of stealth. Most can, but some can't.

One of the things about stealthy characters in comics, is that when they have to move with a non-stealth character they still guide that non-stealth character while maintaining stealth. Even panicked NPC rescuees know to more or less keep their mouth shut when Batman or another sneaky hero is guiding them to safety. (Edit: And manage to follow the hero sneaking them out.) And while those rescuees' stealth is poor, they are more stealthy while the stealthy hero is guiding them. Edit: Sure, Batman and others just typically clobber all the baddies so the hostages can run for their lives or whatever, but on the occasion a stealth hero is sneaking a hostage to safety, that is how it goes in the animated shows and comics. Edit again: So maybe having an NPC escortee impose a Stealth penalty on the character would be in order.

According to data on the Mole Man, he would be a (low level) Staff Fighting Scrapper. Data on the Red Ghost places him as a CoX Mastermind though. However, he can be argued as a low level Blaster too. Edit: Data on Yellow Claw places him as a Martial Arts Scrapper.

Maybe change all escortees to be able to follow through stealth? Seriously, you can't just grab the NPC's hand and pull him/her along in your Steamy Mist or what have you? If you fight while stealthed, well, the NPC can plainly see what mobs are suddenly bleeding or flying uncontrollably away, the direction of your <insert damage type> blasts, or hear you yelling to get over there when the fighting dies down. (Edit: Also, you become visible while fighting anyway.) Edit again: I've got no problem with having some of my characters buy a dozen leashes or so and leashing the NPCs with shock locks to keep them from taking the leashes off until I get them out.

And if you're up against a melee heavy AV with a ranged character? Jumping around like a methamphetamine over-dosed frog launching a hail of ranged attacks keeps the AV from doing anything more than turning in circles and screaming for you to stand still! 😆 (Edit: Just make sure you fire after launching yourself....)

The Echo zones were stripped of all mission content because those zones as they stand don't exist any more. Those contacts and missions/arcs only exist in the current version of the zone. So most likely? The Echo zones are not going to get any mission content.

I personally hated old school Defiance. In order to use it well the character has to ride the knife's edge of defeat? Better to ignore having the inherent than bother using it. And ignore having it I did. If the Brtue's proc, either one, worked like that? It would be a phenomenal waste of the set. Edit: The players that used old school Defiance and loved it still leave me wondering what drugs they were on....

Jump-firing is great! Want to pull a mob without getting everything with him? Line up your shot and jump behind cover as you attack! Half the time, enemies are left looking around in confusion while your target races to you alone. Once you are already in motion, the attack animation happens without locking you in place.

The same can be said of any mastermind. Is why I said Masterminds would have worked just fine as a power pool. Their ability to lead and manipulate others is not related to their combat capabilities which branches into the blue side ATs. Any mastermind in any comic is not just his or her minions. Sure, the minions do a lot of the heavy lifting, but the mastermind himself or herself is quite capable even without minions. Whether the combat monster Darkseid, Kingpin, or Doctor Doom are (scrappers, tankers, and sentinels); the scheming manipulator quite capable of talking you into suicide or some form of surrender like Lex Luthor (controllers), or the mental giants of the psychic I can't currently remember the name of (blasters or controllers). Mastermind is a role they play. It is part of their tactician and strategist role. They don't actually need any followers or teammates to do things; they are still very capable characters in at least one other aspect which would be the better basis of what type character they are. The followers and teammates simply make things easier, safer, or provide more options including distance from the event for deniability or to outmaneuver an adversary. At least, that is my take on comic-CoX interfacing.

Ah, the episode where he waffle-stomps Darkseid and proves he is more powerful until Darkseid pulls a fast one on him. 👍

Sure, he taunts. However, most of the time Spiderman taunts, it is to anger his foes and keep them off-balance. Also because of his personality. With the side effect of he gets the enemy's attention while teaming. The Scrapper's confront power, given that Spiderman taunts enemies individually to rile them up rather than aggroing everything at once, fits better. There are also times when Spiderman doesn't try to taunt his foes, usually while teaming with others, and instead focuses on picking off enemies. I would argue that Spiderman's schtick is to anger his opponents into frothing, blind rage to limit their combat effectiveness, rather than him being a tank. (Edit: Then again, it has been years since I read any comics, so my data is likely out of date.)

Good idea, but not sure missions/tasks can be layered like that.

That is where I am getting that characters withdrawing anything would pay anything. My comment would be my preferred approach to charging for use of the SG bank.

Tanker using Mastermind power pool. Edit: Sure, he's super strong, but he's also ridiculously tough. A willpower or invulnerability tanker.

Gotta agree with @The_Warpact on the Spiderman bit. He's scary strong and insanely difficult to pin down/hit, but he's pretty squishy to be a tank. Super Reflexes tanks in comics are also at least moderately resilient, more so than Spiderman is typically shown to be. Gotta disagree on Batman though. Batman is a multi-role character. He has a plethora of ranged attacks plus a robust mix of melee. Further complicating it is that he fights openly. He may open with an ambush attack to take down specific foes as he progresses, but he is just as capable at taking them down as quickly without the ambush. He gets no bonus for attacking from Hide. (Edit: Any Blaster or Scrapper, more likely Scrapper, with Stealth or just being sneaky enough to use terrain to mask their approach and drop their targets to avoid aggroing the rest of map would actually match Batman as a character type.) He's a scrapper-blaster hybrid. (Comes from being a gadgeteer type.) Wolverine is a full on Scrapper that overlaps heavily with Tank. Not a stalker. Agreed on Captain America and Juggernaut. Abomination is a tank with scrapper overtones. Incarnate types are... uhm... well... ... moving on.... The problem with trying to classify comic characters into CoX ATs is that when you look at it, Brutes are basically a subtype of Tankers or Scrappers. It is just that as a Tanker or a Scrapper, they have some mechanic that boosts their combat ability while in combat. Typically based on Rage. Which is why all the calls about Brutes 'stepping on Tankers' toes' or on Scrappers comes up so often. Brute as a separate intentional archetype does not exist in comics but are defined by their combat style, tendency to lose control, blood-thirstiness, or combination of those traits. Also, Stalkers are specialist Scrappers and Sentinels are the blaster-tanks you see in characters like Doctor Doom (just cut off from his national supply of minions) and Iron Man. In CoX terms, Mastermind as an AT could simply have been a power pool any AT could have taken given the variety of comic masterminds.

The concept of the brute in comics is very narrow. You could even say niche. As far as melee characters go, you have the scrapper type and the tank type. (With a lot of overlap between those types. Especially when you get into solo characters that either don't mesh well with teams or can safely fill a variety of roles on that team if they get into cross-over team up issues.) Some characters within those types are also subject to some form of fury boost, but still stay within the realm of scrapper or tank. Even Stalkers don't really exist in the comic world, since they are simply Scrappers, Blasters, Controllers, or Tanks with added stealth capability. Which the comics has shown any character in the comic world can also use to some extent, especially if guided by the stealth character. They don't do any more damage when attacking from stealth than they do when attacking openly. They are just as 1-hit deadly in regular combat as they are in ambushes. It's like looking at Controllers and Dominators. You have the control characters, and out of those characters, you have some that specialize in domination but are still controllers. The red side ATs except for the Mastermind don't really exist as separate entities in comic books. And even masterminds can be broken down into controllers, blasters, tanks, or blaster-tanks with the command of some sized support force. The red side ATs exist because the devs wanted red side ATs that weren't what blue side players already got. And players thoroughly enjoyed those ATs, so the ATs were proliferated to all sides so red siders could have their actual tanks and blasters, and so blue siders could get their masterminds and stalkers.

If you want your lower levels to be getting the inf' and all you want is a way to dump inf' on your zillionair characters, then a straight inf' dump, maybe with a processing and handling fee a la the AH for posting the deposit, would be both simpler and not require the cash-strapped lower level to find the money to get the money. Possibly by taking out a small withdrawal to be able to pay for progressively larger withdrawals until they get what they went to the SG bank for in the first place. Point being if you want to dump inf', making the characters that need the money pay for it works counter to my understanding of the OP.

Marvel's best known Brute: The Hulk. Strength: Unearthly (100) - Shift Z (500) Health: 250

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the suggestion? Why not just make it so that characters that want to get rid of inf' can just dump it into the bank for other characters to withdraw?

I'm with @Bertg58. You see Veles blow up his factory in King's Row, then he disappears leaving himself and his little sister Morganna free. Then the next time you even hear about them, it is in a task being performed by 2 New Praetorians in the Provost Marchand arc where they are apprehending all 3 of the Petroviches and Veles (presumably) is unbeatable until you find and disable an empowerment device on the map you are on. At least getting the opportunity to learn the official story line for what happened with them in between those points would be nice.