Rudra

Here is a version of illusion control I can agree with for MMs: Illusory Support (MM Secondary) Tier 1: Illusory Recovery. You convince a target they are not as badly injured as they think. ST heal, functions as Spectral Wounds except in reverse. Target is healed, and after set amount of time, takes a wound as the illusion wears off. Tier 2: Impassable Field. You create the illusion of a field of <fire, caltrops, sharp ice, a group of me greeting them, something else unpleasant, pick something>. Location AoE. Minor DoT, heals back some of the damage at end of duration, foe -SPD. Tier 3: Blind. You fill a target's senses with false images, rendering him defenseless. ST hold. No damage. Tier 4: Dark World. You attempt to cloud the perceptions of several foes. Targeted AoE, only affects targets within AoE at time of power activation. Foe -DMG, -To Hit. Tier 5: Invisibility. You cause others to not perceive you. As per Superior Invisibility. Tier 6: Group Invisibility. You cause others to not perceive you or your allies. As per Group Invisibility. Tier 7: Spectral Terror. As per Spectral Terror. Tier 8: Phantom Allies. You create the illusion of several allies to aid you. Summon as per Phantom Army or summon 5 untouchable pets with no attacks that can still be targeted thus reducing the numbers of attackers attacking you. (I'm in favor of the cannot attack version, because with this proposal, the MM will have a LOT of pets and I would like to limit that.) Tier 9: Phantasm. You summon a phantasm as per Phantasm.

Then that makes this easy. All the MM sets are holograms/illusions if the player so designates. All the AE holograms are of various members of existing factions, so the MM's pets can be called holograms for the same reason. Mechanically, illusion control does not work for a mastermind. Thematically, illusion control does not work for a mastermind. Having an incorporeal hologram or a mental projection or a magical phantasm does not make any sense for the idea of a mastermind. As possible tricks for a gadgeteering MM or a spellcasting MM or a psionic MM? Sure. As the MM's actual servants? Not in the least. If you want illusions or holograms as pets as a mastermind? Then you already have them, you just have to declare they are. Maybe that is what why when they are defeated and you summon replacements, they look just like the ones that were defeated. (You're still a poor excuse for a mastermind since you have no actual minions though. And how would bodyguard work when your minions aren't even real? Would the illusion/hologram MM be denied bodyguard mode?) Edit: "I'll save you, master!" *illusion bravely throws self between the MM and the attacker* *bullet passes through the illusion completely unfazed because it can't comprehend the idea of an insubstantial nothing impeding it no matter how the MM tries to convince it otherwise* *MM dies from bullet to the heart*

As much as I like the idea of a MM fielding an army of clones, illusion itself is a bad idea for MMs. It would be the only MM set that the MM cannot heal the minions (phantom army pets and spectral terror at least are not healable). It would also be the only MM set whose pets are all on a timer are and automatically disappear after a minute or two. And the only MM set where the enemies all heal the MM's inflicted injuries because none of it is real. Sure, most of its pets would be untouchable, but that is hardly a good offset for the problems having illusions as pets would cause. And it goes against the idea of what a mastermind even is. You are such a great mastermind that you can't even find minions to do your bidding. Edit: At least the bots MM has robotic servitors that could be dispatched to perform various tasks and the necromantic MM has animated corpses capable of performing various tasks as well. The illusion MM? Has to personally do everything because the illusions aren't real and so have no physical component with which to accomplish tasks. So maybe the illusion controller can convince that car it is being stolen or that money to run off or.... Nope. Makes no sense as a mastermind. Make a clone MM and I'll sign on. Not an illusion one. (Or better yet, give us pet customizations and then the MM can have clones in whatever power type they want.)

I don't need to justify the current system. It already makes sense. When the team is on a mission map, they are at the same location working on the same objective(s). When the team is on the zone map, they can be literally miles apart working on completely unrelated things to each other. To use your example, part of the team sat on their hands at the door waiting for the rest of the team. Part of the team was not even present to be considered. And you were off taking down random thugs. Your team wasn't being a team. Some of them were just sitting there waiting. They were at least waiting instead of rushing in and clearing the mission before the others could get there. So they have my thanks for that, but they weren't helping you with what you were doing even peripherally. You weren't being a part of the team because you were running off doing off-mission tasks. You were trying to be productive while you waited, and my kudos to you for that, but you were off doing your own thing with the impromptu street sweep. So when you move far enough away, congrats! Now the xp from your defeats should be all yours! (I don't team in a zone and separate while looking for xp, so I don't know if you get full xp for defeats if you are beyond sharing range, but it would make sense since you are beyond sharing range.) What justification does the limit need? It makes sense. Yes, ask for the radius to be increased. That will likely find more support. Asking for it to go away? There is already a much better way for door sitters to get xp while door sitting. It gives more consistent xp than street sweeping seeing as how farmers typically farm all level 54 mobs. It gives faster xp because there is no need to race along roads looking for the next random spawn. And if the map is the asteroid map, there aren't even any halls or tunnels or hidden spawns in out of the way tiny rooms to complicate the rapid accumulation of xp.

The howler wolf will never get any xp. No MM pets are capable of getting xp. No NPCs are capable of getting xp. Your pet levels when your MM levels, though you will still either need to zone or re-summon for your pet to use that new level. Just for your awareness. Increasing the radius limit to not more than 200 would be fine in my book. Removing the radius limit is a big "No" from me though. If people want to team and get the benefits of being on the team, then they need to function as a team. If everyone scatters to hell and beyond from each other, then you aren't a team. You're a bunch of individuals running around and doing whatever. In comics, a good example would be the Justice League. They are a team. When they scatter to do different tasks, such as search different areas, they are experiencing different events and earning different rewards. So while Batman is searching through area A and Superman is searching Area B while Wonder Woman searches Area C, none of them are facing the same dangers or difficulties as the others. They are not gaining anything as a team, and anything any of them gains is lost to the others. Even information. That is why they have to then tell the others what they found or turned up. And some of the information is still lost as the individual informing the others omits parts (s)he thinks is not relevant to the others. This despite the fact they share communications and can call each other to their sides if something happens or turns up. Do you think Superman learned anything in area B from Wonder Woman thrashing some mooks in area C even though they are technically working together? Or is it just a "Okay, she's out there and Bats is over there instead, and they will call me if they need anything"? The shared xp radius limit is a good reflection of that. For the members of the team to gain the same benefits, they need to be in a position where they can actively support each other. Could the radius stand to be expanded a little? Sure. Does it make any sense for it to go away? Absolutely not.

Missions give mission rewards at the end of the mission. And you still get the xp and inf' from every mob you defeat in the mission. And you can set the mission to give max number of targets to defeat. Contrast that to street sweeping. There is no mission reward because you aren't doing a mission. (I am not counting the street sweeping missions contacts give since those actually give mission completion rewards and this thread seems to be about just street sweeping in general.) You can't set the spawns to max targets because it is a zone. (Go to a hazard zone if you want to street sweep large numbers of targets per group.) So when it comes to leveling, missions give much better rewards, and thus have more incentive, than just street sweeping. So street sweeping not being attractive for leveling has nothing to do with a shared xp range limit. (And if your team is street sweeping for xp, you will typically clear spawns faster together than alone anyway. If you want to AFK level, join a farm.)

Honestly, if I'm with others and we're just street sweeping for xp, we're always together. However, if we're looking for specific mobs, like Family bosses for the badge, then we're often as far apart as we can manage to blanket the area in our search. In the first approach, we're leveling together. In the second, we don't care about the xp and are just racking up defeat counts. So I really don't see a need for the limit to be changed, let alone dropped. However, I can still agree with a change to the radius for when teams start to scatter chasing runners or hitting non-adjacent groups. Just not with the limit being removed in its entirety.

That would really depend on the rarity of the group. I don't know what a gorn on nimbus is, but aside from the frequency with which RNGesus decides to not spawn Carnies or Malta when a contact hands me a street sweep 50 mission in PI (only for the mobs to show up when I'm not trying to find them because I'm on a different character), most factions are pretty easy to find in their respective zones.

I know this was mentioned in another thread, but what if it were a bounty system instead of a set task? You street sweep mobs in a zone. Minions and underlings are worth 1 point, lieutenants are worth 2 points, and bosses are worth 5 points. Accrue 100 points on any given faction, then go talk to a specifically created or sensibly-linked contact in that zone (like a PPD detective blue side) that lets you cash in the points for a mission reward. Completable once per day regardless of zone(s). (Conversely, everything is 1 defeat and you can cash in after 50 defeats of any given faction.) And if you leave the zone? Your count/defeats goes to 0 so the game doesn't have to track every faction's defeat progress. This way, everyone could hunt whatever faction they are most interested in or has what they need. I mean, the OP works, but I guess I have a bounty fixation....

The Tsoo slows and the Vanguard curse can't be countered with inspirations. Night Widow and Tarantula Mistress smoke bombs require a tier 2 yellow to counter in my experience. I just press on despite the Tsoo slows since there is a bottom floor their slows. (It's just really low.) And I run to safe point if affected by smoke bombs until I can see again. Same with the Vanguard curse and the Carnie Masks. So they are definitely manageable. (I definitely would not mind the durations being lessened anyway.)

Prior to shut down, as best as I can remember, incarnate xp was only awarded in incarnate content.

If you do this, the task should probably be level-based. So levels 10 and less aren't asked to hunt 50 Malta while incarnates are asked to hunt Hellions. Impossible for the former and a waste of time for the latter. Otherwise? Sounds good.

Agreed. Adding monstrous legs as a skirt option would be nice. If the monstrous legs could somehow be added to the skirts option, then players could have Scottish werewolves, fashionable monsters, or whatever. Rather than just pants, armored pants, or naked monster.

If I recall correctly, the AE mission ticket cap was made based on the average return of a single non-AE mission. In that the tickets gained would be more or less commensurate with the expected return of doing other content. (Or more likely, slightly below the expected return rate of a non-AE mission.) Farming was never part of the math. Though I may be wrong. So unless the devs decide to change that math or find that the ticket cap does not equal the average gain rate of other missions, this probably won't be changed. Unless of course, a different metric than I think is used is actually used and the devs find that the AE ticket cap does not match up with it. Edit: It should probably be pointed out that when they introduced AE, there was a lot of back and forth over the ticket gain rate and the ticket cap. Even those of us that didn't bother with the forums were aware of the bickering going on and the arguments being made, including by the devs to defend their calculations. Which I believe at least in part led to AE being able to give standard rewards rather than just tickets. (The whole "fine, you can gamble on your reward or you can go with the set reward, whichever you prefer".) Which was not originally available and AE only awarded tickets. And tickets are also awarded to players that made AE content whenever anyone played their content. Which I think was also part of the devs argument for the cap, but I don't remember if that was part of the argument or not.

While we're at it, any chance of getting Echo zone access back into SG/VG bases? My grieving portal just isn't the same without the access.

The only alternate route to get Invader that makes any sense is if it follows some of the other badges and is awarded when you go villain/rogue while already having the Stouthearted badge. And vice versa. You are again comparing unrelated things. I don't care how many merits any given GM awards. You are asking for 2 merits for every radio or paper mission completed. The closest comparison to that is the repeatables. The repeatables in First Ward and Night Ward give zero merits. Why? Because they are short duration one shot missions. Missions that give merits? Are the arcs that give merits dependent on how long the arc is and how difficult it is. The only repeatables that give merits are the Dark Astoria incarnate content. Which gives 2 merits if you have not done any of the repeatables in the past 24 hours. Otherwise they give 1. With incarnate level foes as your opposition. (Edit: And SBB is a 4-person TF that requires 4 players to do. So again, not a good comparison.) So to me at least, you are asking for free merits. You want merits just for clicking a button. And you want merits for facing off against standard foes in unconnected missions on typically small maps. There are LOTS of ways to get merits. You get 6 merits for each GM, except for Adamastor who gives 10 for some reason. And several GMs, including Adamastor, can be summoned by any player whenever they want. You get 80 merits for defeating Hamidon if you have not defeated him in the past 24 hours. Otherwise you get 40. You get merits for TFs and SFs. With 1 TF giving I think 144 merits. You get merits for completing the morality mission (after competing 10 alignment missions). You get merits for completing any arc in Ouroboros. (Not single badge mission, arc.) And you want merits for clicking a join button and paper/radio missions. The devs will do whatever they want. I don't see this happening though.

Ah man, I bet you're the life of the party, eh. You justify your "no" becuase something else in this game is "jack all"? A lot of what's in this game is "jack all". For example, I can join a mission arc team which only benifits the team lead in merits if I haven't unlocked the contact or too high or low a level for the contact. Yep, the party goes to hell when I get there. Merits are awarded based on the duration and difficulty of the missions/arcs. Radios and papers are single shot missions. Typically on small maps. Their value for the merit system? Zero. So their reward? Zero. I am opposed to merit rewards for papers and radios because it takes so little effort and time to do them. That over simplifies and you're cherry picking. Aren't merits rewarded at the end of a mission? And we all can already get merits by doing "jack all" by door sitting every mission of a TF, SF. I don't care if people door sit their way through an arc and get the rewards. I do care if people are going to get merits just for joining though. The merit rewards for doing something are already there. I am opposed to bonus merits just for using LFG to join. What is to stop people from simply using LFG to grab 2 quick merits, quitting, then using LFG to grab 2 more quick merits. Merits are awarded at the end, and they are already awarded based on what is being done. Getting merits for just using LFG to join anything is just asking for free merits. So, no. Is this an oxymoron or are you just against PvP in general? Or are you asking about the ratio that is prefaced by Maybe.\? What maybe are you talking about? And yes, I am against PvP in general. I don't want PvP to go away, because there are players that enjoy it. So huzzah, enjoy PvP. No skin off my back. Mayhems and Safeguards as PvP options is fine. If done through a PvP venue. Making Mayhems and Safeguards themselves PvP however, I am against. Yes, you said "the option" for it. I acknowledge that. As long as Mayhems and Safeguards stay PvE, I don't care if there is a PvP version. Just addressing a previous concern (from a different thread admittedly) that asked for Mayhems and Safeguards to become PvP instead. You want a PvP Mayhem/Safeguard? Sure, great, go for it. As long as the PvE version stays. You are comparing completely unrelated things. I have no problems with buffs. Not from specific missions granting buffs, or IO set buffs, or whatever. My comment is strictly about accolades and accolade powers themselves. We already have ample buffs from accolades. Further, the proposed accolade and its associated power only benefits that percentage that uses fear effects. It benefits no one unless they have a fear power. That is a highly specific buff. If I join a mission team on the blue side at level 9, and not really paying attention and go to level 15, I miss the chance to go back and do paper missions to unlock the bank job unless I get lucky and team with someone at a lower level to do the bank job or wait till I unlock Lord Schweinzer. Are you also against multiple paths to a reward, zone? For example, Steel Canyon has multiple transfer points like two train (the old Green and Yellow lines), base, Cosmic, Wentworth, Universities via Midnighters, Sewer Network.... Thank you for not answering my question. You get the Invader badge by getting all the Mayhem explores. If you have out-leveled a Mayhem, you can already get help from other villains and rogues by them letting you join them so you can grab the explore. And I am sure there are villains and rogues that would welcome you to their team for the sake of more mobs and more things exploding sooner. All of which is already possible. So how would villains and rogues help get the Invader badge other than how they already do? What are you asking to be implemented? You like to contrast completely unrelated things like asking if I am against multiple zone connection points in response to my asking how could villains and rogues help others get the Invader badge. Which they already can do. And which I do for anyone asking me or in broadcast when I am on. It makes taking you seriously difficult.

Was thinking of maybe a ranged set with bubble blasts and constricting/collapsing bubbles and ground erupting bubbles launching unfortunate souls and....

The bold part is what I fixated on. You said to create a different version for Scrappers. Okay, check. Scrappers and Stalkers typically have a modified version of the Tankers and Brutes attack sets. Then followed up with "maybe make it so across all ATs". That is asking for proliferation. There are players out there that like Super Strength as is. So either you are asking for them to no longer have it on their already existing characters, or you are asking for there to be another power set that is similar. I am inclined to think the latter since I am hoping that you would not ask to take a power set away from those already using it. Regardless of how similar it may be. If you are proposing another option than set replacement or alternate set proliferation, then please explain because I am not seeing a third option.

People get too hung up on the name of a power some times. The way Rage works, it works as Adrenaline Rush for characters that push themselves farther (and the crash is the adrenaline surge wearing off or not keeping up with the body's demands), Steroids for characters with a chemical boost concept (with the crash being the obvious chemical crash), Channel Power for mystic type or avatar type characters (with the crash being the overwhelming power you are channeling/drawing over-taxing your body), and so forth. Rage as a name is just that, a name. If the concern is the name, then just call it whatever you want for your character concept. The power has to have a name, and it happens to be Rage, but the concept of the power is not limited to raging. If you want a different power set, then ask for a different power set. Especially as @Troo pointed out, you are also talking about proliferating it to ATs that already have Super Strength.

Here's a wild question: What if they made an offensive set using force fields as the theme? 😏

Thank you for the responses. Much appreciated. (Not a PvP'er, so didn't know.)

Dumb question: Last time I was in a PvP zone, I was on my Ninja/Dark MM and ran into a PvP'er who told me that /Dark was the support set most used in PvP. Is that true? And if it is, would this change affect the PvP balance?

*sigh* Let me try this from another angle. I do not care if this change is implemented. Like, at all. If it is? Okay, don't care. It is already my favorite support set and the set I use on over half my corruptors and MMs. If it is not? Oh well, don't care. Will still use the set, it is still my favorite support set. My post with the links is to ask you to keep in mind what the current dev team has said they are trying to do. Push for the change. I am not opposing it. I am asking you to not ignore what the devs have said in your comments. I am also not saying that your suggestion violates what the devs said. I do not know what specifics they use for balance. I am leaving that up to them. I am simply pointing out that none of us know what they look at for balance. So we cannot say that a suggested change to a power will not affect the balance. What we can say is we have an idea we think will improve the game and here is our reasoning. Let the devs deal with whether or not it unbalances anything. Unless the proposed change is flagrantly unbalancing if implemented or if the change would make the power not the same. (Neither of which I am saying yours does.) So sure, let's shake hands and bury this between us.

There really isn't much of a rule system across the gaming industry. Expectations? Sure. Rules? Not so much. Every company or enterprise develops their own rules and philosophies for their own products. And in some cases, those rules and philosophies change between products. So yeah, there is no rule for the arguments being made in the industry. Because the only rule in the industry seems to boil down to "make a product people will pay for". Now as to how such a product is made, that is up to each agency or team. And our team has said they want to keep the game as much like it was on Live as they can while still making new content and making required changes. See https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/2411-the-future-an-open-letter-from-the-homecoming-team/ for the statement of intent. See also https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/3199-design-formulas/ for statement of power design and editing philosophy. Let me point out "While these formulas can be broken with enough justification, they should definitely be followed as a starting point in order to make sure your power "feels right" when compared to other powers in COH." from that post. Powers are subject to change, as needed and in keeping with other powers in the game. So make your case as to why you think this change should happen. Expect push back, pretty much every suggestion faces that, but give your justification for the suggested change. And as was discussed earlier in the thread, you don't know any better than the rest of us what specifics the devs use to gauge power balance. So maybe just shortening the animations with no trade offs will not unbalance anything. Or maybe shortening the animations with no trade offs will make the powers mechanically unbalanced in contrast to the other powers. Unless you are a dev, you do not know. And if you are a dev, then just do it. No one other than another dev can stop you.