Rudra

You are so close to the point if you jumped you would crush it under the weight of that thick head of yours That none of the NPC Kheldians use Nova or Dwarf abilities without transforming any more than player Kheldians do? Or that none of the NPC Kheldians that I know of even use the transformations and instead just use human form mode for their combat? Other than the named Novas in the ITF Hard Mode and Sister Valeria's story arc which don't use human form at all.

Are they using Nova or Dwarf without transforming? Or are they using their Nictus powers and are more powerful because they are AVs? (It's because they are AVs.) And War Wolves aren't using Dwarf strength. They don't even have a complete Nictus in them to be able to tap into a Nictus recalled form transformation. Just a shard that is being used to amplify their physical strength. The Kheldians players play are using their full force too. And they even amplify that force with the help of enhancements. However, they aren't AVs. Just like a Psychic Blast Blaster uses their full force, but Penelope Yin and Clockwork King hit harder. They have the advantage of being AVs/Heroes. Edit: And the Galaxies aren't using Nova powers. They are using Nictus powers. For instance: Galaxy Archon Warshade Gravimetric Snare Gravimetric Snare (T3) Shadow Blast Shadow Blast (T5) Gravity Well Gravity Well (T9) Sunless Mire Sunless Mire (T7) Essence Drain Essence Drain (T10) Star Punch Does not have a matching power even in Dwarf or Nova (Go Council) Shadow Slip Shadow Slip (T10 secondary) Stygian Circle Stygian Circle (T8 secondary) Stygian Return Stygian Return (T12 secondary) Umbral Shield Is all Warshade shield powers merged. Not even Dwarf has a match. Absorption Absorption (T1 secondary) Edit again: Arakhn: Ebon Eye Ebon Eye (T2) Gravimetric Snare T3 Gravity Well T9 Essence Drain T10 Gravitic Emanation T11 Quasar Does not having a matching power even in Dwarf or Nova Stygian Circle T8 secondary Inky Aspect Inky Aspect (T11 secondary) Resistance It's good to be an AV, isn't it?

You are not reporting a bug. This should be posted on the Suggestions and Feedback forum. (Edit: You can also turn off the buffs applied to you. It's been a while, but I believe you right click the buff icon and select cancel. While that won't stop the buff from disrupting emotes, it will take them away.) (Edit again: You can also ask the buffing player to stop buffing you if it is a ST buff. And they are supposed to stop.)

SoAs do have to use the Crab Spider backpack to use their Crab Spider attacks. (Edit again: And Arachnos Widows have to use Arachnos Widow Claws with that extendable blade for their melee attacks.) Kheldians do not have to transform into a generic model to use their powers, they use them in human form. They have to transform to a Nova to use the Nova's more powerful attacks and they have to transform into a Dwarf to use the Dwarf's abilities. Their own abilities? Nope, they can use as many of the 14/13 powers as their 24 power slots allows them to, with 1 of the 14 and 1 of the 13 being transformations into another species that provide their own abilities. The lore says that they merged with multiple races over their existences. However, the devs did not provide those other races with their respective powers to PC Kheldians. Most likely because that would be a huge undertaking. And even if they did, they would not provide the same powers as the Nova or Dwarf. (Edit: And who knows how many of those other races provided no combat abilities to the bonded Kheldian? "You are a good host! Let us see what you can do! ... ... ... I see you can bleed and die... with your only ability being to spit a harmless glob 3 feet away... ... You are still a good host! I will not age or die while in your body and that is more important!") You are correct. Per the lore, the Kheldians should have a great number of forms to choose from. (Edit: Though that does not mean those previous races' bodies were any good in combat without the Kheldian using his/her/their own attacks instead. And Kheldians have no need to transform into those bodies to use their attacks/abilities, because they are already using their own attacks/abilities in the player's character.) The problem with that being making all those forms with their respective powers. And maybe the reason why the Kheldians retain their Nova and Dwarf forms is because they are more similar to the Kheldians than more organic forms. I don't know, just guessing here. The practical reason is that making all those races the Kheldians merged with is a massive ask. The possible lore reason may be form compatibility after separation. Edit: And even if any given PC Kheldian had merged with humans prior to that player's current PB/WS character, they still would not use a transformation to turn into a human. Because the only thing the human race offers them is a safe harbor as a host body with no innate racial abilities that would help them fight. And even if they did for some reason choose to transform into a previous host human, they would still be using the exact same powers as that player's current character. For no benefit. No increase in power. No increase in durability. No anything. So that would be a wasted transformation. And transforming into the current character makes no sense because they can't bond multiple times to a single host. So the human form would be the only form for that character. No transformations that retained that character's appearance.

Look at it this way: If you were to change the Kheldians so that your specific Kheldian never bonded with a Nova (whatever their race is called) or a Dwarf (whatever their race is called), then you will not get their powers. You want a lizard form instead of Nova? Okay, but then the Nova's Blast, Bolt, Detonation, and Scatter powers go away. Instead you get whatever natural abilities that lizard race had. You want a human instead of a Nova? Okay, you are another race after the human and you get to use the human's powers. So... uhm... Brawl.... Changing the Nova and Dwarf changes what powers those powers add.

If you're going to quote people, then don't change what they said. Remove what doesn't apply, sure, but don't change what was posted. Otherwise it isn't a quote. Those are fighting games. Using well established characters that are immediately recognized by a large number of individuals that are by no means balanced against/to each other. Having Superman fight Batman without any kryptonite is simply a dead Batman, and that makes for a very poor fighting game. This is an MMORPG where you aren't playing pre-established characters from DC, Marvel, or any other franchise. So there is no need to nerf one character into the ground for a 'fair' fight against another in a fighting game. Then ask for more cosmetic options for your character. Novas and Dwarfs though? Those aren't your character. Those are previous beings that your bound Kheldian remembers enough to be able to assume their form. No, your request was to be able to transform and use the powers without transforming. Previous threads asked to be able to change what previous races their Kheldian had bonded with. Not even. Kheldians have 14 primary powers. Of those 14 primary powers, 1 is Bright Nova or Dark Nova. Bright Nova adds 4 attacks you do not have to devote power selections to. Even if you count the Nova form power itself with the Nova form attacks, that becomes 5 of 18. 4 of which were already available to the Kheldian without taking Nova, they just require power selections. Kheldians have 13 secondary powers. Dwarf has 4 powers. Even if you count the added powers from Dwarf, that makes it 5 of 17 powers. So not even close to half.

Just because you don't like what is being said does not render it nonsense. The game's lore drives a lot. Why the Freakshow are the way they are. Why Crey is the way it is. Where Arachnos comes from and why they do what they do. Where the Kheldians come from, what they did before they got here as a race, why they did what they did before getting to Primal Earth, why they hate the Nictus, why the Nictus focus so much effort on them, and even why they need hosts on Primal Earth. And to change or ignore that is to throw out a massive part of what explains the game and makes it what it is.

Kheldians have an established story for them. Bio Armor does not. Kheldians have specific enemies hunting them that only show up for the Kheldians except in a single mission that I know of where they can be found by others. Kheldians give players the ability to build their characters from 14 primary powers (not counting the added powers from Nova) and 13 secondary powers (not counting added powers from Dwarf), while Bio Armor characters get the standard 9 and 9. So how does Bio Armor invalidate the Kheldian HEATs?

Yes. It is explained in the Kheldian lore. No, it wouldn't, because where the Kheldians went is defined in the lore. What races were there and why they used them as hosts is defined in the lore. So to change those past hosts requires you to change the lore. Edit: It's like us looking at a wolf. Most people can't at a glance tell any differences between two grey wolves. The same goes for the Nova and Dwarf forms. They may have a wide variety of differences, but those differences are invisible to us because of lack of familiarity/understanding.

Not arguing that either. All I am saying is that not all powers are divorced from their appearances. Some still require specific alterations to the character, be it a wielded weapon or a shield. Those requirements have a variety of options for what models they use, and so what appearances they have, but they still have that requirement. Edit: And as far as VEATs and their costume pieces go? Uhm, yes they are. They are still limited to the single Crab Spider backpack if they have any builds on that character that have Crab Spider abilities. (Edit again: We have the option of color changing the backpack, but we are still required to have the backpack.) Edit yet again: And as far as the Kheldians go? I would like to point out the obvious. The character's human form is the current character. The Nova and Dwarf are previous hosts from a specific planet where there wasn't the sheer variety of races like on Earth. One of the races, the Nova I think, is from a gas giant. So you shouldn't get to change the Nova or Dwarf based on the lore because those were past hosts. Not defined by the character, but defined by what the Kheldians did before getting to Earth.

Except as you yourself said in this post, they are not just cosmetic options. You literally have to enable another suite of powers that you stack on top of the suite of powers your human form is using. The human form has its own version of everything the Nova form and Dwarf form have. So you can very much play a human form only and get access to all the same powers. I don't have a stake in this argument because I won't play a Kheldian. So I'm not arguing in favor of or against the OP. I'm letting others with a stake do that. All I am doing is pointing out that you are not asking for a minimal FX option, you are asking for how the power works to be changed. You can't use a particles effect slash command to make the Nova or Dwarf go away, so they won't go away with a minimal FX option. They can only go away if the power itself is changed, not the associated animation(s). I'm not going to argue the merits of having a separate Nova or Dwarf form appearance. On that argument, all I am saying is it is not a derailment of the thread to argue whether or not having those appearances is required or not.

Sort of. Weapon attacks still call for weapons and shields still call for shields. And Kheldians get as much variety in their main (human) form as any other character. So they can still be any race currently, but their previous hosts were not so diverse in appearance. (Edit: And SoA Crab Spiders are still required to get that one Crab Spider backpack no matter what. They just get a color change option for it.)

The point was that the forms are their appearances. Like you said, the human form has the same powers. So the forms are basically just the appearances with some modifications to the character's stats. (Higher damage for Nova and higher resist for Dwarf, I think.) Edit: So the argument wasn't a derailment. It was an argument against taking away the forms' appearances.

While not the same as what you are saying, the OP is functionally the same. For instance, if you craft a Judgement power and a Side Branch 1 power, you can either slot that Judgement or you can slot that Side Branch 1 power, but you can't slot both. So it would still for all intents and purposes be an instead of power.

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.