Rudra

The author has stated (s)he/they already play on the most populated server.

It's not meant to penalize you for going to the hospital. As best I can remember, it works this way so there aren't players earning badges or mission rewards for content that they weren't present for. For that matter, even entering the mission isn't enough. In my experience, you have to be in the mission for an unspecified amount of time while it is being done to earn credit. I've been on teams that just fast completed missions for TFs while I was still enroute to the mission. So I would finally reach the mission door as they finished and exited. That's xp and inf' I didn't get. A few times, that was a badge I didn't get. Sometimes, I would finally reach the mission, get inside, and start racing down the halls to get caught up, and the mission is over. No xp. No inf'. And if the mission had a badge, no badge. To be fair though, I did miss most or all of the mission. (Though there were team members other than me that also had Recall Friend. So them recalling me and any others not at the mission yet would have been greatly appreciated.) And there were other members that on a few missions were asking for Awakens or a rez, were told to just hosp', and the team finished the mission while they were at the hospital or on their way back from the hospital, denying them any reward. I tend to view that more as sucky teams being unwilling to wait for anyone than bad game design though. However, I do understand your frustration.

Yes, visiting a tailor and changing your character to either of the other character model types is a model change. The difference is that changing into a Nova Form Kheldian or a Dwarf Form Kheldian is a power instituted model swap. And those powers change what model is used and what animations are used. That isn't a VFX. (Though I believe someone told me that the Dwarf Form's attacks do use the same animations as the human, so there is that.) Someone way more knowledgeable on Kheldians would really need to be the one to answer, but you aren't talking about changing VFX for the Nova. You are talking about changing how the Bright Nova/Dark Nova powers work.

It could always be done, just under specific circumstances as best I can remember. For instance, there were players that would use this to knock other players off the tops of buildings or window ledges while waiting for Magisterium trials to start. I'm not sure what the trigger is, because normally players block other players, but it has been a thing even as far back as Live.

To the best of my knowledge, there can't be a minimal FX version of Nova or Dwarf forms to maintain a human appearance, because those aren't just VFX. Those are complete model replacements. So basically, if you want to use Nova attacks and Dwarf attacks, and the human form already has those attacks, you are going to be limited to using human form if you want to maintain a human appearance.

What? Why?!

Isn't that what they call a toupee? Hair Apparent? I don't know if that is a groaner or a laugher, because somehow I did both in response. ... I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. 😁

If you're talking about attacks, wouldn't that fit in more with judgements?

😁😃

No right way to inanely defend the wrong thing. There are no grounds upon which a person can tell a volunteer that chose to do something that the said volunteer had an interest in, that doing so is a waste of time. Especially after said person has already done so. If you don't like a change, give a valid argument as to why that change should be undone. Because "You did this, and I want it rolled back. Your efforts in making this change were a waste of time." goes well beyond inane or asinine or whatever other word for foolish you choose to use.

Here's one that will likely die in a hurry! Transformation This tree provides powers that completely replace your character, including powers and enhancements, with another creature. For instance, there is a wolf tree. The tier 1 power turns your character into a wolf. Most likely a not upgraded Howler Wolf from Beast Mastery. The tier 4 would turn your character into a fully upgraded Dire Wolf or a Wotan. Or a nature tree. The T1 turns your character into an Infested Ranger. The T4 would turn your character into Greater Devoured or a Werewolf Lord depending on branch.

Seems too niche to be useful as-is and could be better served as a powerful (generic) confuse in a larger CC-focused category like the one that greycat suggested, I think. *shrug* I know it is niche. I don't see a way to have it not be niche without making it an absolute, guaranteed 'I Win' button though. And @Greycat already has a dedicated CC buff pitched, so no reason to duplicate that effort. (Even though there is a CC buff in the proposed Mercy as well....) It's just a thought or consideration in @Greycat's proposal anyway, so not like it matters if it dies as an idea. Or if it gets tweaked into something else.

Such gatekeeping nonsense. Why would you do that to yourself? So, because some players make use of the assets available to them, even though they aren't the most powerful assets at end game levels, it is both gatekeeping even though they aren't stopping anyone from playing however they want, and it is nonsense because they aren't playing the way you want or expect them to. Not what you mean? Then please clarify, because that is exactly how your statement reads. No one is saying players can't slot generic or set IOs when they are available. And they are available as early as level 10 depending on what you are looking at. (Edit: Level 7 actually. Because you can slot level 10 enhancements as early as level 7.) So there is no gatekeeping going on here. However, if SOs were to be taken away and only IOs left, then you would be gatekeeping because you are requiring other players to play the way you want them to or expect them to, rather than letting them play how they want to. And it isn't nonsense since again, the entire base game, of which Hard Mode/Advanced Mode is not part of, is balanced around DOs and SOs depending on your level.

There are players on these forums that have already stated many times that their characters, at level 50, are slotted with SOs. So this argument fails. And it doesn't change that the game, other than new content created specifically to deal with incarnate content and set IOs, is still balanced around SOs. Because the game's content has not been changed to match player capabilities with set IOs and/or incarnate powers.

How about "no" for the reasons already given.

The servers are not linked in that way. So you can't have a merged LFG. That would require merging the servers.

Here are some possible alternatives to Judgement. Mercy Depending on the specific power crafted and slotted, you have a very slow recharge power that converts enemies to allies. They don't become followers. They don't become pets. They simply become friendly to PCs for a set period of time. Like a confuse effect except that they don't remain targetable by PCs and their pets. (Edit: So they won't follow you around, but they will attack and be attacked by any remaining hostiles in the area.) Similar to how Zenflower pacifies the Devouring Earth. And just like with Zenflower, each crafted power would be limited to specific enemy types (such as undead, plant, et al.) or factions. (Yes, I know this will not be a particularly desired option.) Tier 1 maybe only affects minions and underlings. Tier 2 may also affect lieutenants. Tier 3 and 4? I don't know because I don't think it should affect bosses or higher. Though maybe it can make attempted mezzes against them more effective by adding magnitude to them. (Edit: Which for the sake of simplifying coding, would be a reduction in their Mag protection.) (Edit again: Make it a non-stacking effect, and you don't have to worry about a group of incarnates reducing Hamidon and his mitos to confused, paralyzed victims waiting to be put down.) Creation Depending on the power crafted, you can either make a passable or impassable barrier. The barrier would be maybe 3 character collision boxes wide and 1 character collision box tall, with potentially wider/larger walls from higher tier versions. Passable barriers do progressively more damage to things that try to move through it, with either a weak repel field or a larger area around the barrier that applies fear to enemies to discourage them from attempting to pass through. They can still be taunted through, if you can overcome the fear, or KB'ed through to cause them harm. This would encompass such powers as fire walls and blade barriers/walls. Impassable barriers would be like stone, metal, or plant walls; and can be destroyed. With higher tier versions improving their HP and/or adding damage effects for melee attacks used against them. Like a wall of briars maybe. (So if the enemy is too close, the wall does periodic damage to them. A damage aura. Because I think a current dev said a thorns ability like in some other games can't work in this one.) (Edit yet again: All the walls would only last for a set duration, maybe 10 or 15 seconds, unless destroyed before then. All the walls would have a threat of 0 but would still be flagged as PC pets, so enemies will still attack them if nothing else is present for them to attack. Impassable walls are simply destructible objects, so anyone can destroy them if desired, and must be placed on the ground. Passable walls would also have to be placed on the ground. [No using the walls to trap your fellow players in Atlas Park for instance.] Passable walls would still be destructible, but would have appropriately high defense and/or damage resist to the incorrect forms of attack for their type. So a fire wall would have no damage resist to ice or water attacks, but would effectively be impervious to smashing and lethal attacks from its ridiculously high defense and/or damage resist. All walls have a much larger than themselves area that precludes the placing of more walls to prevent abuse against their fellow players as much as possible. And passable walls do damage as per other AoE attacks, since they are considered player pets/effects. Just like how you never have to worry about how many of your teammates or civilians you are rescuing are going to be flambe dinner for any scavengers in the area when throw that fireball. So no using like a fire wall to murder level 1s and 2s in City Hall.)

I have no clue what to plug in there though. I'll post again later after I've had some time to consider.

More variety in choices is something I support. Let's not make incarnate powers any more accessible to less then end game content though please.

I was more or less okay with the suggestion until I got to this point. At which time I found my hackles raised and my fangs bared. I'm already frustrated that incarnate powers are retained all the way down to level 45, including Alpha's level shift, where they often get spammed to fast clear content that was never designed to handle that kind of power. So I am very much opposed to extending even just Alpha's effects to any extent any further.

A character's name is as much a part of the character's concept from a player as their character's appearance, origin, and power choices. So no, names are not just names in this game. Names are part of what makes any given character that character.

Yes. Exactly. You are misunderstanding me. City of Heroes did not have a Hero alignment that player characters had. All player characters way back then were simply player characters. No Hero alignment. No Vigilante alignment. No anything alignment. All they were, were player characters. The game's story was written from a hero point of view. So by virtue of playing the game and going through the game's story, you had to be a hero. That was the game's story. That was what you had to play. That had nothing to do with any character's alignment. Because the entire game's story revolved around the player assumedly playing a hero, the game manual was written from the point of view that you were going to make a hero and the story itself assumed you were playing a hero. However, there was still no hero alignment. No character had any alignments, it was all just the game's story. When City of Villains underwent development, alignments had to be added to differentiate between hero player characters and villain player characters. It wasn't until City of Villains was added that there was even any alignments for any characters to have. It wasn't until City of Villains was added that player characters could finally actually have an alignment that wasn't simply an assumption from the game's story. So prior to that, there were no player character alignments because there was no reason to devote any code to something the game simply did not need back then. I am and already was aware of that. However, what I am trying to point out is that the character creator does not itself include any alignment choices. You do not get any alignment choices until you finish going through all 8 character creation tabs. The alignment choice is fit in between registering your character and loading your character for initial spawn into a tutorial zone or a game zone. And anything past the first 4 tabs of character creation do not interact with the game except in a visual manner. Anything in the first 4 tabs were declared by the Live devs to be something that cannot be changed after character creation except by deleting and remaking the character because of how the game works and was originally designed. Probably because they were figured as essential data for game play. How did that earlier post put it? Right, that was it. How is the database set up? How can that database be changed? How bad will it fuck up the game trying to do so? (Thanks, @Psyonico.)

Or, you know, if you want to play on a more populous server, use the double arrow icon at the top of the character select screen when you have your desired character chosen and simply transfer to the server you want. You can always transfer back later if you want. (I don't remember how many times per week this can be done though.)

Except that as per the Live devs, a character's AT, primary power set, secondary power set, and origin are locked and cannot be changed once the character has been finalized/created except by deletion and creation of a new character. Not that they weren't willing. Not that it was not worth the effort. That it simply could not be done with the way the game is designed.

Because all player characters were heroes. Even if you were making a vigilante or if you were making a demon bound to hunt specific targets (NPC factions) or anything else. All player characters were heroes. However, not a single one of them way back then had an alignment. Because the alignment system wasn't created until City of Villains underwent development. Back when the game was just City of Heroes, the only popup choices you had were did you want to enter the tutorial or not (after you at least had a completed character before making another, otherwise you had to play the tutorial), and if you chose not to do the tutorial, if you wanted to start in Atlas Park or Galaxy City. The character creation system did not address alignments because it was not part of the character creation system. There were no alignments because everyone simply had a player character, and as far as the game was concerned, everyone was playing a hero for the sake of the game's story. Then City of Villains was released and the alignment system was added. However, even in character creation as the game is now, the character creator we make our way through for any new character does not incorporate an alignment choice. It is only after you finish creating your character and click the "Next" button to load your character into the game that the popup that lets you choose your alignment if you did not choose to go through any of the tutorials comes up because the alignment choice is required to determine what zone your character will be initially spawned in. For all intents and purposes, that "Hero" or "Villain" button choice is only an "Atlas Park" or "Mercy Island" choice with the alignment being added as part of initial character spawning. (Edit: Which is why your character can enter the Galaxy City tutorial as non-aligned and get their alignment in the tutorial. Otherwise, you would have to pick your alignment as part of character creation and enter the tutorial already a hero or villain.) Because the alignment is not part of character creation, it can be changed. It is tacked on after. (Your character's battle cry and description can be changed because those are just simple text files that don't interact with any of the game's core mechanics. Just something that others can read or something that your character can localize with a key press, but does not interact in any meaningful way with any of the game's actual game play/mechanics. So that being part of the character creator doesn't affect anything and can be changed by the player at will. Anything else that is part of the core character creator cannot be changed. [Edit again: Obviously not counting the costume. I'm referring to the core mechanical parts of your character. The costume also has no meaningful interaction with the game's core game play/mechanics.] So no hitting up Null to change origins. Players simply have to keep their current origin or make the character over again. Just like if they want to change primary power sets, secondary power sets, and ATs.)