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That's a very good point and I'd be all for it. Even better if the redone version is shifted forward in the timeline. The idea of a Redux Red Widow arc being canon post-Praetorian War and years after the SSAs makes the general concept work a lot better. Despite maintaining control over the Isles Arachnos has stagnated and the world has moved on after Statesman's death, forming a context where Libby's attempt becomes deliberate rather than desperate. Now, she's had both time and motivation to investigate methods to resurrect others - perhaps having tried and failed for Statesman - and uses that for the best avenue she can think of via following his idea of redeeming Recluse, but doing so her own way. Revise the ritual used and nix the Cupid's bow angle, ideally in favor of Red Widow actually wanting to be with Recluse but perhaps having mellowed out in the afterlife, and there's a solid story there. Hell, have Red Widow be part of planning it herself, cooperating with Libby via 'speak with dead' magic or tech or whatever. Give Red Widow her own initiative in this, rather than just relegating her to being a literal plot device. The real layup here is nixing Arbiter Hawk as the opposing contact and making Justin Sinclair the counterpart. He still follows a parallel story arc (having been spying on Libby's progress and doing his own) but his goal is to resurrect Sister Psyche. Everyone gets their redhead psychic girlfriend back and this way both arcs can actually be canon.

The Red Widow arc might take the cake in this regard, not just from the sheer amount of assumptions it makes about the player character and deliberate, extreme levels of ignorance it forces upon them and the contacts, but from the context of when it was added to the game. Arbiter Hawk at least has a somewhat plausible set up for the arc via 'Fortunatas said it'd be good for Arachnos' but the pretense of Ms. Liberty resurrecting Recluse's former girlfriend he willingly left dead for decades because 'he'll care more about her than being a super villain' is mind-bendingly asinine. Even worse though is the fact that this arc was put in shortly after Statesman's death in Who Will Die? and was active when Sister Psyche died in the follow up SSA arc. Forget helping out the Phalanx, Libby's too busy recruiting randos in Pocket D for this nonsense rather than using literal resurrection magic for her own grandfather who just got murdered. Which, really, feels like a solid intro to the fustercluck that is the writing in the Red Widow arc. The whole bit about the number of obols feels like an obnoxious 'look how clever I am!' from the author and the conceit of the player using their own blood and the recursive curse happening without any awareness from Libby, Hawk, or the player character is railroading stupidity to an incredible degree. The post-mission blurb about 'well I'm glad Red Widow didn't just kill you, maybe she was grateful?' is insulting and on that note there's Red Widow psychotically trying to murder Recluse - despite presumably knowing how powerful he is and knowing she'd never actually be able to do that much less get past his patrons - just so the arc can pull the 'if she dies you die, so now you have to care and keep going' thing. Then, any remaining moral compunctions be damned, the only option for the player character to resolve this is to literally warp the mind of the resurrected assassin so she's forced to be in love with Recluse. As if 'she might've loved him once, before Recluse left her for dead and moved on' somehow justifies that. No room for the player character's potential expertise or resources, no preparation from the contacts for 'if this doesn't work,' just 'here's this massive screw up that the plot required none of the characters involved thus far be able to avoid or have the slightest awareness of, now permanently brainwash this deadly assassin with a literal love potion because her presence might make the guy who inadvertently killed her and left her for dead less of a dick.' It's a massive pile of horrifically bad decisions and awfully executed comic tropes wrapped in a 'because I said so!' bow. Before Homecoming rewrote bits of it the arc was even worse and I appreciate what HC did with what they had, but man, I'd actively excise this arc from the game's canon if I could.

Fully seconded on wanting more Hawkgirl. Isabela Merced killed the few scenes she had. Given the variant they're going with, my hope is that they'll lean hard into Kendra's archeology aspects and have her interact with Wonder Woman once that gets going. If they keep the whole 'immortal reincarnated Ancient Egyptian warrior-woman' angle (and they damn well should) there's a huge connection between ancient Greece and ancient Egypt to work with there. Hell, Diana could have known one of Kendra's past lives. So much room to build with in a way that doesn't just rehash the Diana/Steve fish out of water dynamic of the prior films. My sole gripe for Hawkgirl is with the eyes on the helmet. Give her white combat lenses that slide down when she fights, dang it! It worked great for Mr. Terrific, let Hawkgirl's mask also be comic accurate sometimes and actor friendly other times.

There were a handful of Giant Monster tweaks in the last major update that made them all more challenging. I think Lusca's tentacles were also modified in an earlier patch, but I can't recall exactly off the top of my head. So yeah, she's tougher to fight now.

So the solution to 'there's too many farmers/it's too crowded!' is to make a new AE zone with every service mechanic and aspect in it, such that no character has to even actually leave said zone to sell, upgrade, craft, or progress... and you expect that not to be instantly overfilled? Beyond that, you're suggesting that the devs - who have historically been pretty clear on AE being an overly bloated path of excessive rewards for too long as is - should implement a special zone that makes it more of a be-all, end-all way of playing the game?

@Lunar Ronin made a fair point about the channel usage. I can't recall anything in-game that explicitly mentions that, and it feels like it ought to be pretty immediately understood that the Help channel is for in-game Help, LFG is just for grouping up, etc., but as this is an explicit staff ruling it could be worth emphasizing in-game. If just in a 'hey, we told you to keep it to the right channels' sort of way. I wouldn't expect to see political pundit remarks in General the same way I wouldn't expect to see cake recipes or 'click here for free movie downloads!'

While @Steampunkette already made a collection of excellent points that I wholeheartedly agree with, I must point out there's a pretty big missing component to the OP's post. The Code of Conduct doesn't prohibit discussion of politics or religion. At all. The sole mentions of religion and politics within the Code of Conduct are the following: Hate speech: Hate speech is defined as anything threatening or abusive towards a specific group based on their race, religious beliefs, political affiliation, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity Controversial and adult content, including: Controversial religious content Controversial political content The rules are already pretty clear and the content of the game already reflects that. The Malta Organization directly references the Knights of Malta and the Templars, along with clear ties to post-1930s American politics. Hell, one of their leaders was the head of the CIA and the World Wide Red arc's entire framing is inspired by both the Cold War and the modern (for 2004) politics of America's interactions with Russia and China. Cain Royce, one of the Wheel of Destruction contacts, has explicit writing about the Circle of Thorns and the Banished Pantheon preying upon Paragon City's African American community for decades. The Luddites are directly connected to the French Jesuits who settled in the Rogue Isles and literally used magic powers to fight demons. Angels - biblical, Renaissance art angels - canonically exist, along side a whole buffet of demons, one of the most prominent of which is literally named Baphomet. Expanding the Code of Conduct to a blanket ban would prohibit discussion of actual, in-game content, beyond any player discussions of those topics. Though, to backtrack a step, I find it curious OP didn't provide an example of what they found to be against the Code of Conduct. All the objections were just general 'You know how it is!' comments. If a player actually is breaking any rules or harassing others then that's a problem for the GMs to deal with after reporting them, but currently it sounds more like 'some players are saying things I don't think they should be able to say and they should get in trouble.' Which does seem to jive with the whole 'blanket violation' thing. That said, to OP's remark about ignore slots, I can get behind the idea of an expanded/unlimited ignore list. That's just better player experience curation. Haven't had to ignore anyone in-game for a long while myself and I find the idea that anyone would need to ignore that many other players inherently suspicious, but the greater issue is that players shouldn't have to pick and choose in that context. If a player put someone on ignore it was probably for a reason and since it's their personal ignore list that reason can be whatever they feel like. Seems like it'd resolve this whole thing for the better, really.

Effectively, Homecoming is CoH 2. Officially licensed on-going development of what came before is as close as we are ever going to get to a sequel. Anything beyond that - such as an actual new MMO - is so remotely unlikely as to be impossible. Homecoming would need to explode in popularity and active player counts multiple times over and maintain that level of interest for years, along with a massive boost in development efforts through the same time period, for any large-scale investment to even be conceptually feasible. Much less allow the necessary time to actually make a modern MMO and finance everything needed for that afterword. As for kickstarters... that Ship of Heroes has long since sailed, hit the iceberg, and sank. The fan projects that attempted crowdsource funding have not manifested anything close to half as good as what already exists, and that's only accounting for the projects that have actually manifested anything at all. Hell, none of them have managed anything as good as Champions Online and that game is a literal zombie of an MMO with no active dev team.

I'd expect clowns to be a customizable minion option - either via pre-made skins or fully player customizable minions - before being their own full powerset.

I'd argue there's a core design difference between optional PAP costumes intended to break normal player model access as a high investment reward versus 'this powerset is built around using a specific costume piece for all of its animations.' Especially given that the Freaklok example is one outlier out of multiple dozens, and we only have access to that one because it also happens to work with the vast majority of player animations and is only wonky with one powerset. Same reason we don't have the Snake models as PAP rewards. Though, if this is the route we want to take for this suggestion - that PAP rewards are the approved way to break player model/attack animation fidelity - then an invisible Crab backpack as a low-tier PAP reward totally works like @Talen Lee suggested in the original post. Option is there for folks who want it via a path approved by the devs. Every player would have to earn it individually on every crab they make versus having the option worked into the backpack itself, but hey, it's implementable immediately.

Making the entire backpack invisible probably won't happen because any attack animations without the legs look janky and broken. However, a 'Sheathed' option where the legs fold out when attacks are activated and are curled inside out of combat, similar to how sheathed/holstered weapons currently work, could be a cool way to work in the idea. How easy that would be to do, no idea, but it works pretty nicely for the Praetorian clockwork in the same 'having these attacks locks you into X costume pieces for animation/model functionality' approach.

I've got an Electric/EA Scrapper so slightly different slotting arrangements, but to echo @Black_Assassin using 4 slots of Kinetic Combats will be a big help. Steadfast Protection +Def and Gladiator's Armor +Def uniques for a global +6% boost. Three stacks of Eradication will net +3% Energy/Negative Energy defense per stack, which when combined with pool powers like Maneuvers, Hover, and Combat Jumping, can leave you will really solid type defense for most of the game. I'm sitting on 56% Smashing/Lethal, 45% Fire/Cold, 62% Energy, 52% Negative, and everything else in the 20s to 30s. EDIT: To preface, those numbers are with a fully Incarnate-ed out character, but as a bonus incentive - if you do slot Kinetic Combats it makes exemplaring down a lot more fun due to their level range.

Escort NPCs should just be temporary pets. It maintains the set up of the escort missions while allowing the NPCs to be a lot more functional rather than frustrating. Direct control and immediate ability to monitor them eliminates a lot of the issues with losing track of them or aggro-ing on everything in sight. It also makes it very easy to tell who they're following and it's a lot harder for folks to miss a brand new pet window popping up on their screen and randomly drag escorts into another mob. Can still teleport them as needed, and do so more easily.

Banks already exist. You get a character to level 50, build up inf while doing so, and then dole out that inf to your alts via email. Said alts then build up more and it compounds over time. Even better, there's no interest or repayments necessary. The only requirement is 'playing the game.'

The comparison doesn't account for the fact that a human hunter who shoots deer doesn't commit the full genocide of an entire planet's worth of civilizations every time they make a venison sandwich. Also there's a core disconnect with 'it's just basic survival!' in that as an on-going problem it doesn't jive with Galactus being a deific cosmic entity nor the otherworldly, fairy tale-esque solutions that the Fantastic Four are commonly capable of. They can make any sort of plot-solving nonsense that the story requires except engineering something Galactus can subsist on indefinitely? Nor, apparently, can Galactus himself despite all his own technology, power, apparent lack of antagonism toward those he consumes. Of course, any permanent solution to his hunger would negate Galactus' motivation to spark conflict and effectively excise him from the narrative (at least as an antagonist). Though in that case maybe he ought to have a deeper motivation to warrant ending countless civilizations and treating solar systems like Vegas buffets beyond 'I got space munchies that nothing can solve that despite every other nonsense plot solution apparently being not only plausible, but outright expected from my opponents.' Which, funnily enough, is why this movie took the route it did. The Fantastic Four do have a possible solution to Galactus' eternal hunger, it just happened to be something they were unwilling to give up. That makes the conflict personal for both the Four and Mr. Big Purple and Hungry. It also gives Galactus a reason to keep pursuing them because its the only solution he knows about. He's got a Reason to go after the Four repeatedly now versus just 'welp, guess I'll just eat more worlds despite not especially wanting to.'

To try and keep the spirit of the thread - as a purely perspective-based opinion I'd say 'still probably not a good idea at any level' since influence is, as established in other posts/threads, very easy to gain and double inf. caused issues when it was active. Combined with the prospect of making things more expensive/scarcer, the Haves will become even more Have-y and it'd take even longer for the Have Nots to reach that level. Using double inf. would go from a 'fun option the devs took away' to more and more of an outright necessity just to keep up with the increased cost for all players and those that already have dragon hoard-like stockpiles would be left at an even stronger advantage. The wealthy players would also have decreased incentive to give out inf or other drops via random trade invites or contests, knowing their ability to obtain more going forward was lessened. I totally get wanting an actual, above-board discussion on the forums. Especially given how quickly some other threads can devolve into sniping and bickering. Unfortunately, when the crux of the topic is 'if this was actually implemented, it would suck for everyone' most folks are going to talk about how actually doing it would suck for everyone. Discussion is the first step to implementation, and if folks do not want implementation to happen, they tend to halt discussion as quickly as possible.

Statesman gets more press due to being the official face of the game, but yeah, Sister Psyche not getting due recognition is irksome. Not quite as irksome as her exit, though. The most powerful psychic - sans Penny Yin at least - whose primary gimmick is 'can literally send her mind into other bodies at-will' just gets overwhelmed due to off-screen prep time and instantly killed from one arrow? No medi-porter, no 'sends her mind into someone else,' no Manticore having a countermeasure to nullify her powers and cause the classic 'Batman has contingencies' plot? Then immediately afterword, we establish afterword that there's a method of raising the dead that Ms. Liberty knows about... and she doesn't use it for Psyche or Statesman, but for Red Widow? There's a lot of conspiracy theories that float around the forums (and did so back on Live) that I don't buy into, but dang it if it doesn't seem like the writers at the time really wanted Jack's characters gone. At least Statesman's death got some kind of honor regarding his legacy. Psyche just got ganked and brushed aside.

The characters who are the sole reason he even is able to get in there and shank her are... side-lined? Jumping off of what @Rudra said, the entire arrangement for that trial is 'this needs to be stopped yesterday.' As soon as the incarnates done doing all the difficult stuff no one else is capable of, the Dream Doctor does the one major thing he can do to help eliminate the imminent threat. Having a Scooby-Doo 'everyone mug for the camera as we turn the bad guy over to the cops' ending undercuts the dire stakes of the trial and the need to stop Diabolique and Mot.

Signature NPCs have to do something to justify their presence in the narrative. Almost always that's 'abilities the player-facing mechanics don't allow the players to do' and 'narrative choices the story can't allow player characters to do.' The Incarnate arrangement already has to walk the fine line between 'your PC is super-ultra-mega powerful and destined to become the ultra-greatest-most-powerful character in the setting' and 'so will literally every other character you make and team up with.' Adding in the chaos of 'I killed Diabolique! No, I did!' is just extra nonsense that muddies progression, and that's not even getting into the players who'd opt not to kill her, or reform her, or whatever else. For large-scale MMO storylines like that, the NPCs - at least those on some semblance of equal footing as the player character - have to handle the decisive story beats because that's the only way to control the on-going narrative. Also, if the narrative required that Diabolique was always going to die, then there's no agency taken away from the players anyway. Agency requires the availability of choice. If the hardstop ending is 'Diabolique dies regardless of player desire or action' then there's not even a fake choice there like 'Stab Tielekku or Don't Stab Tielekku' at the end of the Dark Astoria arcs.

You know, that's a fair point. I'd buy that as Recluse effectively putting the rivalry to bed on his own terms (as much as he could, given the context). Jives with Libby's on-going attempts to get him to turn over a new leaf, too. Not necessarily in any way that'd make it more or less successful, but just plausible.

Facts. Not only would Emperor Cole not demean himself by doing that, Lord Recluse would absolutely not stand for it. Frankly, the fact that he hasn't managed to hunt down Darrin Wade for some extensive level of heinous torture by this point also feels iffy. Though that would make for a fun 'reunion gift' from Red Widow for their rekindled relationship... More on-topic to States himself, I'd rather have some fun Ouro arcs that explore Statesman's life prior to 2004. Similar to how the Top Cow comic arcs were put in as unique flashbacks. Whether these were presented as personal stories playing as Statesman, other Signature NPCs, or just the player temporally taking the place of a generic hero of the time, it's be fun to see the original Brass Monday (and possibly learn more about Nemesis), have more lore drops for the Nictus fighting against Requiem in WWII, and get more first-hand info about the whole arrangements (and secrets) of the First Rikti War.

If there's anything the internet at-large and the CoH forums in-particular have taught me, it's that users rarely understand what 'fairness' actually is. Or effective game design. To both points, they usually just reference what they personally want in any particular given moment. What are you going to do if they don't? 'The people who control my access to the forums, game, and accounts should let the entirety of their moderation decisions be fully assessed by the playerbase!' is a nonstarter. They have no incentive to even consider this. So where do you go from there?

Inf is already incredibly easy to earn, especially so at level 50. Leaving double inf in-place with no trade-off aside from badge progression - since all the rewards from missed vet levels could be earned a lot faster by regularly running Incarnate content - was just going to further exacerbate the core issue of this thread and the one it's playing off of.

The more dramatic of a proposed change, the more dramatic of a response it will provoke. Not to say all the dramatics are remotely justified or the levels said dramatics reach on these forums don't often get needlessly overblown, but that's a side effect of 'relatively small group of posters who have interacted with the same people they disagree with on a weekly or daily basis for X years' unfortunately.

Transferring Homecoming's economy to function around merits would grind it to a halt, unless the rate at which merits were earned was vastly increased. If the rate at which merits are earned is vastly increased so that players have enough of them to spend... then they've just taken out influence to kitbash its role onto what was a perfectly functional supplementary system. Said system now doesn't fulfill its original use anymore, so that would mean having to create another currency or kitbashing another system to do what merits used to do. That also means there's tons of players - the vast majority of Homecoming's user base - that now have mountains of a worthless currency. There is no degree of trade-ins, alterations, or transfers that will make that pill easy to swallow. Even the perception of making the game's primary currency worthless is Not A Good Idea. Branching off of that, why is the argument in-favor of 'new players' always the proposition that any 'problematic' system or mechanic must be dumbed down, minimized, and or outright removed 'because they don't know how to use it?' Of course they don't know how everything works when they first join, that's the whole point of the game and/or community providing room for them to learn. Also, to that point, the market is not gated. It's accessible to literally any player who has the inf to buy or sell the items they want, which is not remotely hard to reach. Inf is the easiest resource to gain in CoH, by a wide margin and by deliberate design because it's the primary currency. Yes, new players who just start out won't have the same resources as 5+ year old-timers, but that's how starting a new game works. I also don't get the whole 'tiny group of elite marketeers' thing, with them apparently being the sole true beneficiaries of Wentworths. In my experience, the max level characters with tons of inf are the ones who either hang out in Atlas and drop multiple thousands onto random new characters or run massive contests and give literal millions or billions of inf away. With that in-mind, if 'new players struggle when they start and can't catch up' is the core issue of this whole thing... why is the suggestion 'uproot/rewrite the game's entire economy and potentially piss off tons of the active playerbase' instead of 'give new accounts an investment bundle of inf when they start out?'