El D

IO procs (as @Luminara posted) and the incarnate system already allow for this. I wouldn't mind seeing an expansion of those options with other damage types, mind, but given the relatively recent overhaul in the way damage types are determined for attack powers and how defense interacts with them, this would undermine a lot of that prior dev work. Plus having this be a baked-in feature would remove the niche of the incarnate choices and procs letting players build on their specific concept themselves, and replace it with having the game force them into increasingly narrow boxes by default. Even if a 'Magma Blast' set were made with smashing/fire and locked solely onto the magma theme from Seismic Blast, it'd still only target against smashing defense. It wouldn't mechanically change aside from maybe a handful of fire damage DoT ticks (which can already be gained for Seismic Blast from proper slotting/incarnate choice). It'd end up as a copy of something players already can do only much more thematically limited, and getting overly specific with powerset design isn't something the devs seem like they're interested in. That's why Seismic Blast has the different choices under its broad thematic umbrella in the first place, and why all the weapon sets are being expanded with any fitting options instead of making a 'Meat Cleaver' set or a 'Beam Sword' set that's the exact same powers just locked to one weapon model.

All of these seem like they'd work, given modification of pre-existing assets. The innertube emote's positioning seems like it'd fit perfectly with the carnie couch or at the very least look much better than any other sit emote we've currently got. Bobcat's lounge emote might also work (and would just be nice to have). Since we've got wine glasses now, as well as soft drink cups, I'm all for new drink emotes. I'd be all for them anyway, but at least those have existing base item models to use so some of the work is already done. As far as anime emotes go, there's a number of 'pose with custom weapon' emotes that exist in AE that NPCs use that seem like they'd fit the bill (especially combined with character auras and power effects). Question is if they'd play well with player models - though if they work for AE custom critters it seems like they would.

I think the Phalanx has enough issues to manage following the death of Statesman and Sister Psyche, since those threads were never actually dealt with. If anything, War Witch ought to join up with Apex and Horus' Kheldian against Requiem and his new 5th Column. They have some serious unfinished business in that department. Heck, at that point have War Witch resurrect Horus through some ritual (she's got plenty of magical knowledge, plus spirit/necromantic stuff courtesy of the Eternal Gate/Sorceress Serene) and have him re-bind to the Kheldian. The Blue Kings super trio deserves to be reunited properly and kick Ridolfo's butt.

I'm objecting to this specific proposal because it will not ever happen, and to continue to push for it against everyone accurately explaining why it won't happen - from the disastrous in-game effects to how it runs counter to core game and content design to its direct opposition to literal years of direct evidence in how the community works - is, unlike personal opinions on what in-game content constitutes 'fun' or 'not fun,' actually an objective waste of time. This is a suggestion forum, not a speculation forum. The only value a proposal has comes from its use as an workable solution to an actual problem, which means it should be something actually actionable that solves a real issue - I.E. something the devs both can and will do to fix a tangible obstacle. Sure, they could do this but A) They're not going to and B) It solves no problem (in fact it makes a ton more, and exacerbates others). The game is ridiculously easy to progress through as it is, as you yourself have continually pointed out. They're not going to give players an 'I Win' button that expedites that even further, along with the other major issues that the AE removal from starting zones was meant to curb. Not for an inf cost, not for a donation, not for a certain badge or task force reward. MMOs are built on the gameplay loop of 'make a character, run through the content, make new/different character and do it again.' That's what builds community connections between players, investment in players' characters, and promotes knowledge of game mechanics. An instant-50 token breaks the structure of how the game is played and interacted with at the very core.

I never said progression ended at level 50. My post was focused on the required progression from level 1 to 50, which has a long-established requirement of 'You must actually play the game to get this far.' Also yes, an instant-50 button would skip every single piece of content in the game to get to level 50 because that's literally what an instant-50 button does. A player would not have to play any missions, run any arcs, or do anything to hit level 50. That's the entire focus of this thread, and the focus of my prior post. The ability to go back and 'run that skipped content later' holds no relevance because the point of the content is to be run as a progression path to level 50. That removes the entire purpose of level ranges and content existing at lower levels at all. By the by, I'm not mandating how other players 'waste their time' either. I'm simply repeating the long established way the game works - a player wants to get to level 50? They have to actually play the game to get there. That's not me telling you how to spend your time, that's the game telling you how it works.

Choosing to play a particular branch of content over another to gain progress is not remotely the same as literally skipping every piece of content in the game, starting at max level with a single button press, and eschewing progression entirely. Even power-leveling a character to 50, as quick as it can be, still requires time spent in-game running some type of content. One requires actually playing the game in some aspect or another and the other is not playing the game at all. They are not the same thing. That's the only 'gist' that matters, and it's one that's not going to change. Going back a step though, the Beta server already has this function. If the community did want an 'instant-50' button, if it were somehow equivalent to power-leveling and was a common-sense, workable solution that would promote player interaction and community growth... why hasn't the player base as a whole migrated to the Beta server where the the instant-50 button already exists? It isn't like they can't keep the same friends and chat channels as on Live, after all. Why has the community remained on Live, where 'actually having to play the game' is the only option? It can't be because it's too hard to migrate over - the Beta server has commands to get literally everything a player has remade in minutes and directly import their build without having to touch Wentworths or run any missions at all, as well as fully stock their influence and unlock every locked contact or desired badge. The only thing players would have to put any effort into remaking would be bases, and even then if it's the thing they find fun to do, I'm sure they'd still be motivated to do it. Yet everyone remains on Live, despite the solution some folks say they want already existing literally right next door. The resources and capability are already there, has been for months and months and months, and yet the community - despite this being a method available to anyone with a working account - has continuously ignored it in favor of playing on Live.

Fast tracking to 50 still requires a minimum level of actual gameplay, even if it can be done in hours under the right circumstances. Clicking an instant-50 button does not. Given their design decisions, the HC devs definitely seem focused on streamlining gameplay (especially at the early levels) but not about removing it entirely. PvP is the exception, again, because it locks players solely to PvP content - they can't go back and exemplar to run PvE stuff, do any seasonal events, or go on TFs or do story arcs. PvP 50s are effectively hard-locked into a mini-game, and cannot do anything outside of 'fight other players and hang out in bases and in Pocket D.' To institute instant PvE 50s would require some similar level of restriction such as locking them to content only accessible at level 50, like iTrials and Dark Astoria, which would render them mostly pointless because then they couldn't actually play most of the game. That some or even most players fast-forward through CoH's content isn't an excuse to offer a method to skip it entirely, because that removes what little enforcement remains for encouraging actual long-term interaction. Beyond that, players can already cherry-pick which PvE content, task forces, badges, and other things they want to run and do so while getting to 50 and then once again after they get there. As for the gameplay experience, a player won't suddenly find it 'more engaging' by running things on an instant-50 because it's the exact same content that they found unmotivating in the first place. Being bored while running through a Synapse TF is just as boring at level 20 as it is on an exemplared level 50. It is, as you said, the community and the people on the team that make things fun. Which is built through the connections that players make and maintain... by actively playing and leveling up their characters alongside other players. Lets say that did get implemented, though. Full-on instant-50 for PvE that can do and run anything a normal 50 can do. In theory, it sounds great - the entire game has been opened up with just one button press! Except that's not how level 50s get played in practice. When someone gets a level 50, they tend to do increasingly selective content as they run down their personal checklist. 'Already have X badge, so no need to run this.' 'I did this event last year and got everything, so I can skip it now.' 'My incarnate powers are all unlocked and maxed out, so no need to do any trials or repeat missions.' There's not even a requirement to log in to make sure a player keeps their character name. Engagement at level 50 quickly becomes increasingly selective with players only playing those characters to do very specific things, and when they can't do the specific thing they want to do on that character chances are they aren't going to play them all. The game turns into a fancy chatroom where players log in and just talk, which is fine but there's still no motivation there to actually do any of content. There's not even any motivation to log in on a level 50 and help a friend level up, arguably one of the most common things folks do given the constant barrage of PLing/farm team comments, because everyone else also has instant 50s. The core issue here is viewing leveling up as an impediment to gameplay, when leveling up is the gameplay - or at least a major facet of it - and the means by which player interaction and community growth is encouraged. When everyone is on the same path, they have to work together and communicate to advance. The person who skips to the end is just going to be hanging out alone waiting for everyone else to show up (and it's entirely possible that they'll just give up and leave before that happens). An instant-50 button for PvE won't broaden engagement for players, it'll just make them increasingly discerning to the point where they won't play at all if they can't do the specific thing they want. 'Let me skip to the end, I promise I'll play the rest of your game later' puts the onus on player investment, and if they skip all the content and all the teaming up with other people that came with it then what is there to be invested in?

Not likely to happen. The only reason the instant-50s were granted for PvP are due to PvP essentially being it's own game with completely separate numbers for literally everything/incredibly divergent mechanics from PvE and the requirement that said insta-50 tokens are hard-locked to PvP content only. Insta-50s for standard content would ruin any incentive for folks to actually play the game, engage in story arcs/task forces, and in-general experience what CoX has to offer. Besides, it's already ridiculously easy to level up in this game and anyway, If someone really wants the ability to do insta-50s they can already do that on the Beta server. Sure, the characters might get wiped on occasion, but when you can just use a few commands to remake them exactly as they were, with everything unlocked, and import their exact build from Mids, that's maybe a minute or two of time to get everything back.

As awesome as this is - and I fully support new epics/patron powers - I also think these could easily be their own full sets (Tech Blast/Tech Control) or as alternate animations for Energy Blast/Energy Aura if they were expanded a bit FX-wise. Those animations are too cool to lock behind just patrol pools imo, though I'd still happily take them if that's the only route where we'd get them. Great suggestion and I dig all the effort you put in to detail all of it. Fantastic proof of concept showing what folks would get.

As a preface - these were taken using Titan Icon (which is severely out of date), so it's possible things may have changed by now. As far as the Sybil's go, the robe actually is a functional costume item - the issue is that it's all tied into a singular Chest Piece that provides the torso robes, cape, and the skirt all in one, and is completely broken when you don't also use the Roman Sybil belt (leaves a massive gap because it wasn't designed to ever be used with anything else or with player use in-mind). The neck and arm bands are all also tied to one single selection under Head -> Detail 2. These wouldn't require the same type of fixing as the robe, but would need to be broken down and reattached into different points on the model (Detail 2 for just the neck torc and Gloves for the forearm bands, since the Barbarian shoulder rings are already the upper arm bit) so there's still work required there too. That's also not getting into the issue of possible proliferating any of these items to the Male and Huge models - if not the Sybil robes, than the neck/forearm bands at least, which is that much more extra work. A lot of the NPC/Dev Only pieces are set up like this. Single category selections that cover multiple body parts/areas because they weren't made to be mixed and matched the way player costumes can be. Many of them are also only designed for Male or Female models, with limited overlap, and don't even exist at all for Huge. Plus only being made to work with the specific costume they were made for, so they clip massively or outright have missing geometry when used with other items. Frankly, having a 'Sybil Outfit' hologram option that functions as a Mode costume would be the easiest route. Keeps the skintone, face, hair, etc. all the same and just slaps your character into the robes, belt, and arm bands. Could do variants of it, too - the normal Sybil blue, the Sister Solaris white/gold, and the Sister Airlia black. I'd definitely buy it.

Fair point! That was a design arrangement that CoH did grow out of as things progressed and is something that Homecoming actively works against, given the proliferation of weapon models to any set where they'd be fitting. It would definitely be the most direct route to just put the bludgeoning models on the Dual Blades set and rename it, though that still has the quibble of them dealing Lethal damage when they ought to be dealing Smashing... Frankly, it'd solve a lot of issues if those two damage types just got rolled into one, especially since in most instances they use the exact same numbers as is anyway. 'Physical Damage' could cover everything non-elemental/toxic/psychic - fists, swords, bullets, knives, super strength, martial arts - and the particular delivery method used gets emphasized in the unique animations and secondary effects (some do disorient, some do knockdown, some do -Defense, some can swap ammo, etc.). If a specific enemy has a particular weakness to a certain type of weapon, have it keyed to the specific set rather than the damage type. Using Devouring Earth as an example, Broadsword deals more damage to Bladegrass while War Mace deals more damage to Quarries. That way the specific weapon chosen actually makes more of a difference.

I like this idea, though it might be easier to implement Dual Wielding as a separate powerset that's basically a copy of Dual Blades except with bludgeoning weapons & Smashing damage. That'd keep it in-line with prior sets like War Mace being separate from Battle Axe/Broadsword by dint of damage type and weapon theme while still being the exact same set as far as progression/animation goes. Plus, it'd allow room for some tweaks to make the two Dual sets unique from each other (like giving Dual Blades some -Def like Katana/Ninja Blade have while Dual Wield gets Disorient a la War Mace, or something along those lines). It is a bit kludge-y but it does follow the exact same set up that the original weapon sets do - which is 'outside of Katana, all of these are essentially carbon copies of each other because we separated out their damage types.'

For a purely 'for fun' item meant to be a high-end, earned-by-investing thing, the revised prices don't seem too bad. I understand some of the objections folks have made given that they're cosmetic items, but keep in-mind that these aren't costume sets or character creator defaults, nor are they meant to be a 'get them all on every character you have' thing either. As an example, I've only got two characters that would ever remotely use the Mini mode, and of those two there's only one I'd actually go out of my way to get it for. Which seems to be how the Prismatic Aether holograms are meant to be viewed as. Highly specific long-term rewards that players aren't required to have and that don't impact their viability gameplay-wise (ya know, like Incarnate content), but still neat enough that there's a push to earn them if they're wanted badly enough. No one needs mini mode or the shadow mode on literally every character they have, or the ability to turn into a nekkid Rikti on every character they have. These cosmetics are only relevant to very specific concepts that the costume creator doesn't otherwise cater to, and if that's not a selling point then players are free to ignore it. If a player isn't intending to cosplay as Baby New Year, or play a freaky little goblin, or actually make any use out of Mini-Mode than the costume power might as well not even exist for the majority of their roster - which is the point of it being a high-end optional extra. It's there to be earned for the specific instances of folks who want it but nothing is missed out on by the folks who don't.

There actually was a planned Epic Archetype based around animal shapeshifting back on Live - The Primalist. It never got finished and likely never will be, given just how much work it would take to rig up animations and attacks for two separate beast skeletons (on top of all the work it already takes to design powersets for the normal human models x.x). As far as Origins go, I don't think any more are necessary. The five the game has already cover a wide gamut of concepts, and making a new one would require adding in an entire subset of DOs/SOs. Really, most of those listed character concepts are things that can be done via the existing costume creator and P2W powers as is. Regarding lore, if it's for a shapeshifter enemy group, absolutely they deserve some background lore. If it's for a powerset or an archetype? No thank you. The HEATs/VEATs already have AT-specific storylines and they're kind of obnoxious - much as I understand the reasoning of tying an epic AT further into the setting of the game, it also defeats the game's overall aspect of 'Make your own character with these building blocks.' If we do get a Shapeshifter AT (be it animal forms, stretchy powers, w/e) it should just be its own thing. No special plot line needed.

QFT 'You're getting too far away from your mentor!' 'You're getting too far away from your mentor!' 'You're getting too far away from your mentor!' I still have flashbacks to that nonsense. Doomsaying is a long, storied tradition across CoH's various forums, but that right there? Keeping that absolutely would have killed interest in the game for so many players.

Badges are a mark of 'X character has played Y content or gotten Z achievement.' They're character-specific for a reason, and the vast majority of them are pretty easy to earn (outside of the Anniversary badges or the ridiculously inflated Defeat badges, like Longbow or Rikti monkeys). Event badges are no different. 'This is how long I played [insert holiday event here] on X character.' If they were spread account-wide there'd be no point to running the content more than once, which defeats the purpose of it being reoccurring content in an MMO. It comes back around again precisely because people have a year to make new characters who haven't done those things. Besides, aside from having a main 'This one gets all the badges' character or the one specific character who'd actually use a specific badge title... having event badges be account-wide is not going to do anything for the vast majority of someone's character roster. Well, aside from the aforementioned 'give them one less reason not to run event content on alts' because they've already got half of the rewards. Mostly the titles would just sit there and be ignored, as are most badges on alts where the player doesn't care about them/never uses them.

This has been brought up before, but I'll still 110% support and agree that any finished piece suitable for player use be added as a player option. More costume options are always a good thing. The biggest hurdle for some of those options though, is that for the NPC implementation a lot of these aren't actually individual pieces - they're faked using a single piece assigned to one aligned category, because NPC models don't mix and match. For example, the Longbow NPCs don't have extra slots or anything. They only have the one Chest Detail (the Freedom Corps logo), and the entire assembly of pouches is actually from single Belt item that gives the chest harness, the belt, and the thigh pouches all in one. The Vanguard Thigh Armor is also a Belt item that just has the thigh armor float over the model's legs rather than actually being part of separate Vanguard Leg option. So instances like this would need to be seperated out and re-rigged on the models before being given to players. On the flipside, the Roman Senator/Peasant Glove options actually are fully functional, tintable choices under Smooth/Bare and seem to be completed pieces. We just haven't gotten these yet because... honestly, they probably got missed in a list somewhere. There's a TON of dev/NPC-only bits hidden in the creator. xD

I was too, but they made it work! Making it a darker and going with metallic gold/deep crimson really helped it translate to live action and visually bridge the gap between the Netflix series (dark and gritty) and the MCU (brighter, but still serious). The rich, saturated pure yellow works for the comics but not even Charlie Cox, glorious as the man is, could have saved that color scheme in live action. ;>.>

That's the thing though - progression in MMOs isn't about effort. It's about time. It never took 'effort' to advance in CoH. There is no factor of 'you play better than someone else and thereby advance faster than them' - outside of double XP shenanigans, everyone on a team gets the same XP for the same mobs, regardless of what AT they are, how often or efficiently they hit their power buttons, or if they're even contributing at all. Someone who doorsits gets just as much XP as someone who rushes into every room, spamming their entire power tray. It's not an FPS or an RTS or a MOBA, where 'effort' is an actual factor to increased success or produces any serious performance metric outside of PvP and, arguably, base building. The core measure of MMO progression is how much time one player puts into the game compared to another player, and whether or not said amount of time is appropriate to what is gained is the core disagreement at the heart of feature/power creep threads like this one. It's not 'I don't think you put in enough effort to earn X' because X was always going to be earnable. It's 'I don't think earning X in Y amount of time is fair,' usually with the unspoken reasoning of 'it's not fair because I had to spend Z amount of time doing it the old way.' The common complaint that it 'removes a sense of achievement' is proof that the MMO time-sink nature took hold in some folks and never let go. 'These other players didn't spend as long as I did trudging up this mountain, so they don't deserve what's at the top' ignores the fact that the Live devs purposefully designed said mountain as an escalator that's going down the entire time the players try to go up. It's still the exact same distance, just with the time gates of 'if it takes longer to do, they'll stay longer and spend more money' removed - and CoH is all the better for it.

It doesn't, actually. The ability to team with anyone at any level is a resource, while only teaming with certain players is how said resource is used. I'm not saying you have to tell other people how to play, but that you do have the means to curate your own experience. That's how teaming in CoH has always worked. Don't feel like you fit in with team X? Go join or start team Y. It's not about policing other players but about managing yourself. As far as overleveled characters making you feel useless, that's a purely personal reaction. 'My place on this team isn't special enough, especially if someone else is more special than me' doesn't really apply in a game about overpowered superheroes where most of the roles are pretty mutable and occasional carries are... kind of a default aspect of teaming up. There will almost always be one player whose contributions do more toward achieving success than some of the other players on the team, overlevled or not (usually it's someone with Kinetics).

On one hand, I'll readily admit I can see the reasoning behind the 'remove the +5 for Exemplaring if this change goes through.' That increase in power access for outleveled characters would already be inherently curbed by the revised progression rate, which was basically what the +5 was meant to solve in the first place when exemplaring to older content (well, that and making older content go by faster). On the other hand, if teaming with outleveled characters is seriously that much of an issue, I'd figure the immediate solution there is just not invite them to the team in the first place. To branch off of the 'I don't want to be Batman on a team with Superman' thing, the option is there to just not invite Superman and stick with Nightwing, Bat Girl, Red Hood, etc. As for getting stuck with them on someone else's team... <shrug> Teammate curation is the prerogative of the player who forms the team. IMO, there should be some kind of incentive to playing through lower-level content on a higher level-character. Otherwise there's no point to bringing them at all, and progressing through content ends up effectively becoming a gated range rather than an constant sense of improvement (even if said improvements are occasionally minimized to retain a sense of level appropriate challenge). 'This is the range at which this character is 100% useful. If this character plays content beneath this range, their progression up to this point will mean nothing' really puts a cramp in the whole 'team up with anyone at any time' thing that Super Sidekicking encourages.

I think the core issue of this thread is seeing powers as a reward for leveling up. They're not - powers are the means by which the player gains levels. Powers in CoH aren't a benefit of progression, powers are the progression. They're not like badges, or merits, or Incarnate rewards; the game doesn't give out powers if a player 'does well' or accomplishes a certain task (temp. powers notwithstanding). The Primary/Secondary sets are not a reward for playing the game, they are the game for the character that picked those sets. As for respecing, you genuinely don't have to unless you intend to actively play that character or play them in auto-exemplar content. Heck, even if you don't respec the character and still play them, outside of PvP I can't imagine a noticeable difference in gameplay. I know someone who, back on Live, had a Scrapper he never respeced from before Fitness was inherent - never had any problems. It's not like this change makes the content any harder, just more fun to play through. Would have also accepted 'This is Halloween' from the Nightmare Before Christmas. FORUMITES OF EVERY AGE WOULDN'T YOU LIKE A NICE QUALITY CHANGE? LOG RIGHT IN AND YOU WILL SEE THIS NEW TALE OF POWER CREEP THIS IS POWER CREEP! THIS IS POWER CREEP! PLAYERS CLAIM IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT!

That's literally still how the game works. It's still a tiered leveling system when the player chooses exactly which powers they want. Someone wants to stop leveling at 25-30 to play a street-tier character? They can do that. They don't think the character should have access to their Tier 7 through 9 powers by that point? That's now a decision that player gets to make for themselves by not taking those powers until they do want them, rather than having the game decide for them and offer no alternative. With this change, folks who do want to take these powers earlier are able to do so and folks who want them at the original level ranges can still level up that way if they so choose. It patches the dead levels in character progression and provides enhanced choice to the playerbase without removing any prior progression options. This seems like an unequivocal example of 'Homecoming should let players play their own way!'

Dead levels that didn't grant access to any Primary/Secondary/Epic choices were a bad design decision from the get-go, as was forcing players to take the Tier 1 of their secondaries at creation no matter how useless said power was. This isn't power creep, it's solving an innate progression problem with the game. Power-granting levels should have always offered something new from the main sets a player built their character around. This restructuring will allow players to get more of their builds functional earlier, actually let players to progress with said build rather than 'Well, it'll be online about the time I'm done playing this character,' and make certain content in the mid/late game less of a slog. If you feel like that's 'too easy' and you need to 'earn' the power pick? You can still level up the old way, just use some self-restraint and take them at the old levels they were granted. There's a difference between making the game easier and making the game less obnoxious. This is the latter.

Looks like we're finally getting a comic-accurate, agile Daredevil. Good thing too, because that's the power scale he needs in order to keep pace in the MCU proper.