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Yeah. It was definitely the best path forward (or at least the path of least resistance) for welcoming the worldwide community of players and negating unnecessary/possibly expensive legal issues for the dev team. Plus they got an in-game storyline out of it (even if it was rather abrupt) so overall a pretty solid win/win/win.

While they might not use literal Nazi symbols or espouse direct Nazi philosophy (which is certainly the best/safe call and an important distinction that comicbook media made pretty regularly at the time)... the 5th Column are directly tied to Nazi Germany. Just take the first paragraph of their background - "Before they were taken over by the Council, The Fifth Column stood as the last remaining threat from World War II, a group of super powered fascists still fighting a war the rest of the world left behind fifty years ago. The Fifth Column has the nefarious distinction of actually triggering the United States' involvement in the war against Nazi Germany. Hitler first sent the covert super team to Paragon City in 1939, tasked with spying on and sabotaging US shipping and naval development." Heck, that's quite literally where the name 5th Column comes from in the group's explicit context as 'continuing to fight WWII after it ended.' They are the 5th Column of the Reich. There's also the Amerika Korps, the entire dimension of Axis America (in which Nazi Germany won WWII and took over the United States), and the friggin Reichsman. All linked directly to the 5th Column. Sure, they aren't waving around actual swastikas - so technically the game has no explicit nazis - but they're still as close as a Saturday morning cartoon version can get. Which is fine given the role they play as villainous antagonists and given the issues CoH would have faced tossing around any direct symbology. Filing the serial numbers off for legal protections and safeguarding the game's rating is perfectly understandable, as is telling everyone that asked 'No, they were never literal nazis' when admitting that there had been intentional nazis which were removed would have been its own separate can of worms to deal with. Beyond all that though, direct quote from Positron in the Lore AMAs regarding the 5th Column's total removal (along with any direct reference to Nazi Germany the game had) - 'CYA for release in Germany. Yes we didn’t NEED to go to the extremes that we did, but it made for a great story.'

I've got an Electric/Energy/Mu Scrapper that's a ton of fun to play. He's an AoE-spamming crit machine courtesy of the Critical Strikes unique in Thunder Strike. It procs on most mobs of enemies and between Ball Lightning, Chain Lightning, and Lightning Rod everything just tends to melt.

It kind of sounds like part of the issue might be aggro maintenance. Yes, Blasters are very squishy, but on teams were mob aggro is actively accounted for most mobs will be long dead before they have time to shift focus off of the tank. If you're soloing... well, that's soloing as a Blaster I'm afraid. Speaking as someone's whose main was originally a Blaster starting back at launch, that's just how the experience goes - they were deliberately designed as a 'glass cannon whose support is other archetypes.' Taking them out of that arrangement, much as later buffs (and HC's buffs) have boosted their survivability, is still going to be iffy at best. Well, at least until you get into IO sets but IOs can break most things. For an actual suggestion of what to play, I've had a lot of fun with my Psychic/Kinetics Corruptor. Psi deals a ton of damage due to not being a commonly resisted type (and despite a handful of sluggish power animations) and Kinetics has great... well, everything. Buffs/debuffs/utility. It's considered the best support set in the game for a reason. Grab Hover to keep out of melee but stay easily within Transference range as needed, slot IO sets for Ranged defense, hit mobs with -damage, -recharge, and -endurance as often as you can. They're capable of soloing well enough and you will never lack for team invites.

I wouldn't mind expanding this concept in-particular - both more broadly for high level missions and into lower-level mobs since the Circle show up just about everywhere. The CoT's entire shtick is 'implant ancient wizard souls into people's bodies' so why don't we run into a wider variety of "Possessed NPC' mobs? Possessed PPD officers, University professors/students, Midnighter agents, Longbow operatives, Legacy Chain members... Make it pull randomly from a pool of 'human' mobs, have it slap the green eyes aura on them along with a random Caster/Mage powerset, and give them a chance to appear in standard mission/open world spawns. Have them be the Quantums of the Circle of Thorns, essentially.

I'll echo what the other posters are saying - curate the chat box channels a bit to remove General and similar public channels, go with a lower pop. server, and as player on Everlasting... I'd probably have them avoid that shard entirely, honestly. Not everyone there is a frisky 'All RP Welcome' type with a naughty character bio, but there's enough. Certainly more than any other server. My SG actually has a minor game where we point them out to each other 'in the wild' (IE, outside of Pocket D), if that says anything. Regarding people sharing OnlyFans links in a server-wide public channel, that's definitely a 'report to the GMs' thing. Especially if you've got a chat log of the incident. Players are permitted NSFW roleplaying in private - with the hard-line requirements that it's consensual and everyone involved is of age - but just tossing direct links to adult content in a server-wide public channel definitely isn't 'terms of service' acceptable. Even if the OF links are just risque and not outright pornography that still seems like incredibly thin ice and not a precedent the HC team would be interested in allowing. Like, not a prude but that's just not cool. There's a place and time, and it ain't public chat channels. >.>

Fantastic pun for a feline character. Absolutely love it. ...I imagine a number of players in Pocket D would love it too, for altogether different reasons. ;>.>

It's more meant to provide a better roleplay set up. AE arcs where 'My Nemesis is attacking a Vanguard facility' or 'The Midnight Squad has word about a powerful demon they want me to look into' would work a lot better when the player can actually go to those places to run said missions, rather than starting them from either an empty AE Building or an AE full of farming teams. Granted no, that's not remotely the same thing as a full-on open world-style mission instances, but it'd be a lot more immediately implementable. Though, thinking about that, Tip missions could seemingly work for an actual open world set up. If a player designed Nemesis could be linked to Tip/Morality missions, that's a baked-in random generator of 'random things for the player's Nemesis to be doing' that can be expanded on. Player provides a costume file, slaps a name on them, maybe picks a pre-made enemy group for them to be in-charge of/working with, and the game takes it from there.

While I love the idea from a narrative RP stand-point, I'll have to echo what @biostem and @Rudra said. I have no doubt that the Homecoming team could make a more interesting Nemesis system than what Champions Online has (I was not at all impressed with it either while I played), however at that point it'd probably be both easier and more prudent to have spent that time expanding AE with new options, mobs, and mission types rather than attempt to make a 'canon Player Nemesis storyline' that won't appease everyone. There's a much more modular system already in the game, so why not use that? That said, more 'integrated' versions of AE run by other groups could bridge that gap somewhat - and definitely be more interesting to use. Vanguard having their own holo-deck version, the Midnight Squad having a magical version, Fort Trident and the Crucible each having fancy Danger Room training facilities - basically new instances where the existing AE system can be utilized in thematically appropriate settings. There's a number of AE Buildings that are almost always empty or next to empty, and some of them are in spots where it made no sense for them to be to begin with (like the Rikti War Zone).

While I understand the logic, this seems a pretty 'power creep'-y - especially so in-regard to what is already the most powerful tool for enhancing characters in the game. Having to either attune the IOs yourself or buy attuned versions separately from the auction house (where they already cost the same as non-attuned IOs, which in and of itself is an objective net gain) is really the only restraint placed on that aspect of the system. Getting attuned IOs as drops would render other enhancement drops even more useless than they already are, getting attuned IOs as recipes would make the existing recipes pointless (and require that all of them be remade as new, 'craft as attuned' versions if that's even possible), and being able to stack the enhancement boosts on top of having them level bonded seems... well, actually power creep-y. On Live, these limitations were part of the MMO grind. On HC, all these things still exist as already lessened speedbumps in the system deliberately to curb mass inf. accumulation (and at least a little bit as a learning curve for players). Also the choice to attune or not to attune (or boost or not) is there as a player decision because there's supposed to be a tradeoff for using one over the other. If a player is making a character for high level PvE play (like AE farming) they probably can boost freely and don't even need to bother with attunement, if they're going for high-level PvP content then using boosts might be the best bet (while low-level PvP could use attuned), and if the character is a main that's going to badge or run exemplar content then the best choice is attuned - but the booster AE build might not be as good while exemping, the PvP builds won't function quite the same out of their level band, and the exemplar build won't have quite the same big numbers as either of the others in their respective areas. Edit - Also, to actually address the 'player confusion' aspect, that's part of what the University IO tutorial is for and also if someone doesn't know what 'attuned' does... They can ask in Help chat or the HC Discord? Or look it up on the forums/wiki? Really, if someone dives into the IO system without taking the time to learn how aspects of it work, poorly spent influence is a really minor cost to pay (especially considering how easy it is to gain).

So it does! You are indeed correct. In retrospect, the instances of my /EA Scrapper being spotted have been on teams where we zipped through from mob to mob incredibly quickly, and 'Help, my team steamrolled the enemies too quick for my stealth to reset!' doesn't have quite the same ring to it... Still think it's odd from a design standpoint - and as @ZemX said it makes for some incongruities with how ambient taunt/herding works between sets - but as is it's manageable at least. Having the taunt aura as a separate toggle overall would resolve most of those 'have to manage it' instances though, IMO. Especially if it was packaged with a 'negate stealth radius on self' effect. Admittedly a minor benefit, but taunt auras being a 'direct player control' thing rather than a 'respond and account for variances in mechanics' thing seems like a solid QoL improvement.

No, moving characters from one account to another isn't something that can be done. Or rather, it's not something that's ever been done on Homecoming or Live - I can't actually say 100% that it can't be done period because Not A Dev™. The closest thing that players are allowed to do is copy characters from the live shards to the Beta/Testing shards, but they're still locked to that specific account. The only option currently to get that Blaster on your main account is to make them fresh on said main account and level them up to the same point. On the plus side though, you can still totally keep the original farming version under a different name so it's not like the progression is lost. Use that version to test build changes, dual-box as your character's own clone, use them as bonus loot storage - there's options!

Having gotten one to level 50, Illusion/Forcefield for Controller is mind-numbingly boring combo to play. Forcefields is very much a 'buff once or twice through the entire mission, toggle on and forget about' set and Illusion has very few avenues of active contribution. Sure, spamming Spectral Wounds is an option and Phantom Army is good (especially if you can get it perma) but when the best power in the set is 'Click this then watch the game play itself until you have to hit the button again'... it's like being a Mastermind without actually having control over any of the pets. If either were paired with another, more active primary or secondary set it wouldn't be as much of an issue, but together they both reinforce the 'click once, then do basically nothing' passive nature of the other set. Also, any melee secondary where the entirety of the mez protection is A) entirely contained within a single toggle and B) tied to the passive PBAoE taunt. Looking at you, Energy Aura. Especially considering /EA also has a baked-in stealth power. Having to deactivate my taunt aura to sneak around? Fine, that makes sense. Having to also remove all of my secondary's mez protection to do so? Seems pretty counterintuitive. Frankly, taunt auras being intrinsically tied to other powers and not their own separate toggle seems like a synergistic issue in-general.

No news on that yet, and given how open with early warnings the devs were I imagine we'll get plenty of heads up before the 'release' aspect is actually turned on. As attached as players get to their various characters, this isn't something they're going to blindside the player base with (not that that will likely stop at least some folks from complaining about it, no matter how much advanced notice they're given...). But yeah, no sign yet. I'm in the same camp too - curious to see if a few names I've been looking to 'reclaim' will open up.

As great as it is to see Michael Keaton's Batman again, sucks that it took their cinematic universe imploding - in and out of universe - for DC/WB to finally course-correct on the dreary, faux-operatic tone of the prior films (both color-grading and story-wise). They seem to be banking really hard on the 'See the OG movie Batman again for one last ride!' aspect, which I can't blame them for given how... less than consumer friendly Ezra is (to put it lightly). Affleck's Batman isn't much of a general draw given that he's gone from the role after the film, but Michael Shannon coming back as Zod is a massive plus. It just seems weird how the most 'DC Comics Accurate'-looking movie thus far is basically a massive Elseworlds take for the DCEU itself... but with how Elseworlds their cinematic universe felt to the characters and setting, it does make sense. In a depressing 'what could have been' sort of way.

And some posters say the game isn't solo-friendly... (I kid, I kid!) Seriously though, thanks for the info! Would have never thought to try that. Not sure if that's fully intended but it does make a great option for running the missions by yourself. Hell, going by the nature of the thread as a proposed change I'd say embrace the solo-option and make it official - include another badge specifically for doing that mission chain without a team. Considering the other badge titles, something like 'Eye of the Beholder' could absolutely fit. "Beauty and morality can both be subjective."

Lack of dev hours and preconceptions about what each model type should/would want to wear. It absolutely takes a lot more time and effort to make multiple instances of the same costume item and properly scale and rig it to all three different models (which, for porting old pieces, is also time spent not making new costume pieces/content) so at first the items were just kept on whichever model/NPC they were initially made for. Which is completely understandable in a 'this is all the time we've got and this piece is the only version we have, so that's what the players get' sort of way. Still, costume design on Live was pretty divided regarding 'These costume pieces/patterns are [Insert Model Only] because They're For Ladies/They're For Men' for a pretty long time (with the Huge model just sulking in the corner). Add in a number of costume items also being designed as 'NPC Use Only' and thus also model-locked, and that just further compounded the issue. Occasional proliferation did begin to happen later on, but at the same time full 'Intended for Players' costume sets came out that were deliberately designed as 'Here's the Normal/Badass version for Males and here's the Sexy Halloween version for Females - and you don't get to mix and match them whatsoever!' and a lot of players... were not happy about that. It took a while (and a hefty amount of forum commentary) for the Live Devs to curb that aspect of the costume design philosophy, but they got there. Honestly one of the things I'm most grateful about Homecoming is the costume design process being 'If we make a thing, every model is getting it' and the dedication put in to proliferating model-locked/npc-locked items. So yeah, 110% absolutely yes for OP's suggestion of a Briefs pattern for male models and your suggestion of actual Shorts for them, too. More costume choices are Always Good.

@Greycat has a point - including a pitch for a ghost GM would help give more to latch on for the suggestion. Off the top of my head though, if it were to be implemented... Well, there are the Ghost mobs already in Croatoa that could easily connect to any spectral GM. The spirit of some famous local hero could be a neat take. A deceased super, corrupted or connected to the invading spirit world like the other Ghosts, forced to join the Eternal War. Have a really powerful Cabal witch spirit run amok somewhere, seeking revenge for her slain/captive coven sisters. Heck, maybe the will-o'-the-wisps can Voltron themselves into a giant one that actually attacks people. Alternately, tuck some Circle mages off somewhere and have them empower an archmage into a giant wizard ghost via tapping through the thin veil between worlds. The inhabitants of Orange Bagel having absolutely no presence in Croatoa always seemed odd to me (I understand it keeps a tight focus on the Celtic mythology theme of the zone, but come on - if they were willing to use the Faultline dam, they'd absolutely want to get in on Salamanca's shenanigans for their own gain somehow).

Always worthy of a link! Also what @Rudra and @twozerofoxtrot said - it's something the devs would have to tweak into the power itself regarding what animation/effect activates when it affects targeted enemies, but it would absolutely be hilarious and a fantastic option for the set if it's doable. Alternately, have Sonic Freaks (or April Fools mobs?) inflict the same dance-mezzes onto players, because why should we be spared the glory of the dance gun?

You know, that's a fair point! Like, on one hand it required more time spent doing the 'between the missions' part, but it also gave you more time spent exploring and interacting with other players. I remember having actual, full conversations while flying/hovering through zones, which isn't really much of a thing anymore with the mass teleport options available now. It basically forced players see more of the setting and get to know the layout of things rather than skipping entire zones worth of content. Travel time took longer back then, but given how much more prevalent street sweeping was, it actually was more of a gameplay thing than it is now.

All of this. It's wild to look back at how vastly different the game was. I've been around since release, 2004. The early Issues were very different. Perez Park being constantly inundated with street sweeping teams, then the Hollows being added and having to do the lowbie death run through the map every time you died in a mission. Seeing the Winter Event for the first time ever (and getting pancaked by the Winter Lord). Not even having Badges in the game - or the ability to respec your character until Issue 2. Kheldians actually being a rare sight in-game and being fascinated by the transformation powers they had as 'the new cool thing.' Actually being able to fight the 5th Column as an enemy group - in low-level missions no less! The FBSA contacts actually having missions and a purpose, and getting different ones if you started in Galaxy City or Atlas. Freakshow Dumpster-Diving and the original Praetorians just being 'the Freedom Phalanx, BUT PALETTE SWAPPED AND EVIL' ruling over a wrecked Paragon City that was the same as every other 'alternate ruined Paragon' Portal Corp map. One of the biggest things IMO though, is just how slow the game used to be. Traveling around took so much longer back in the old days (between movement speeds being much lower and having to be level 14 before ever getting a travel power) and the combat was not remotely as kinetic and fast-paced as it is now. The tanker herds an entire group (or map), the blasters spam AoEs like Fireball or Rain of Fire, the Defender and Controller stack buffs on the Tank to make them the next best thing to immortal long before IOs were even a thing, the Scrapper scraps, and... that was about it. It was very static, rinse-and-repeat old-school MMO 'just stand here and use your powers.' The fast-paced nature of iTrials and speed-running TFs was not even a glimmer of a thing. If you signed up for an original Positron or a Synapse back then, you were going to be doing that for multiple hours minimum. I sometimes wonder what a pre-Enhancement Diversification iTrial might have looked like - or if modern iTrials would still be doable with pre-ED numbers and buff options. It'd be an interesting experiment to say the least.

Even if Prestige Power Slide isn't in your try, it could still be toggled on. If it's not on at all, it sounds like the character might have modified their Stance option in the Costume Creator (Inherent tab -> Stance - > Slide Stance).

It certainly can go in that direction. I've seen a number of RP exchanges that end up like the intro to Toy Story. 'I've got my attack dog, with built-in force field!' 'Well I brought my dinosaur, that eats force field dogs!' etc., though that's historically been an issue in walk-up RP, PUGs, or forums posts (it certainly happened on the live forums a time or three...). In a group that a player is familiar with though, stuff like this doesn't tend to happen nearly as often because whatever someone claims for their character is just worked with as part of the cooperative narrative. As a very relevant example, back on Live a friend's character was immune to psychics - specifically telepathy - and I'd brought an Arachnos psychic prodigy as a new SG member. They ended up getting along pretty well precisely because my character couldn't read his character's mind, so they actually had to talk and get to know each other 'like normal people.' At the core of it, it's mostly a watermark for how collaborative a player is willing to be (both by the claims they make, and how they respond to those made by others). It's only as big a deal as the folks involved make it out to be and those that do tend to usually be either young and/or inexperienced. IMO, the only serious no-go is when someone does this while deliberately ignoring setting canon. That's just not cool. <.< Also, 100% support this idea of more space for the Info pop-up. Make a 'Details' tab for quick notes, extend the existing word count, I don't care how - more in-game resources for player writing is always good, whether it's used for roleplaying, records of player events, personal accomplishments or other characters that person plays, w/e.

Popular speculation put it there, though I can't recall if the devs ever confirmed or denied that in any of the lore AMAs. Frankly it always seemed far too small and concise of a location for something as grand as transport to the moon - be it by rocket or by teleporter. Plus Steel Canyon just seems like a weird place to put it in-general as the business/finance sector of the city, especially when something that big could easily be the key aspect of a reclaimed hazard zone or some secondary Vanguard compound.

As other posters have already said, the insurmountable hurdle to this is the fact that CoX PvP runs off of an entirely different set of mechanics and numbers to PvE. Something like this would either require an entire rewrite of the PvP system or an entire rewrite of the PvE system of power effects specifically for this one server - which is multiple Mount Everests worth of effort as far as CoX development goes. All for an entirely new server that, frankly, it seems like the majority of players wouldn't ever play on due to PvP's popularity taking a massive nosedive post-Issue 13 and never really recovering in interest. Plus the additional maintenance costs of buying another server and maintaining it to begin with. I love the concept behind the idea, I just don't see how it'd work out in practice on this scale given game mechanics and general player opinions. IMO, the current progression has been pretty solid. Adding PvP back into bases is a really fun addition allowing for player-run events and community things, while keeping it specifically under the 'engaged with at the players' choice' aspect. If the entire game and every zone and every instanced mission are PvP enabled though, that just seems like a recipe for making it so much more obnoxious to run content. How would that affect task forces? iTrials? Dark Astoria missions? Would there by any zones that don't allow for PvP at all? Not to mention the impact on badging. A hefty number of players already dislike the necessity of having to possibly PvP to get a handful of badges in the existing PvP zones - having a server that introduces that into every other aspect of the game just seems like most players would look at it and go 'I'm good where I am, thank you.' Rather than apply this to a whole server, I think it'd work better as a contained PvP zone that allows for 'invading instances.' The game does allow for different teams to make it into the same instance - albeit currently only on accident - and the new phasing tech could make for a more dynamic overworld. Hell, even just instituting that 'PvP Instance Missions' thing on its own without a new zone could be fun. Villains get hired by Crey to protect an asset while the heroes have to retrieve it, or competing members of the Midnight Club get their own teams to find a relic from Oranbega. The vast majority of mission maps already have various spawn points and pathing, so it'd readily allow for a variety of objectives, too.