twozerofoxtrot

Just to add to the pile you get a sample of what you're asking for with Shield Defense. Do you dislike anything at all about how SD restricts certain character customization options? Consider that. Also, a lot of suit of armor type characters take SD. For the Armor.

Not as a critique of your review but rather to inform, Alexander is introdiced to the player in the original version of the game as an anti-Hero for the Redeemer badge and then during John Houston's arc as the deuteragonist we see more of him and he's somewhat characterizedby his reactions to the Warriors and the player. My assumption going through this arc was that they didn't flesh him out more because we've already experienced the character throughout the game.

The power doesn't operate in a vacuum, it's part of a set. It was suddenly nerfed after the set overall was suddenly buffed. Gaz already laid how how it was was being affected. Troo, give it a shot first and see how it plays before going down a spiral on this.

This is all off the top of my head on my lunch break so pardon the stream of consciousness. Psi Armor is one of those sets that really wants you to take all the powers; pairing it with Fire is a good call since you can realistically get by with like 5 or 6 picks in Fire. You can maybe skip Memento Mori if you don't think you'll use it. You don't need Hasten to make it work well if you're building with sets that have recharge bonuses. The absorb is perma out of the box and the resists it offers only stack 3 time. Put the Absorb on Auto to keep it up at max stacks all the time. I like slotting the Drain Psyche cone with a 3pc Prev Optimization set that focuses on Acc and Recharge. You can go for more but if I slottwd more in there it would probably be heals. The first 3 armor toggles I went with 4pc Unbreakable Guard but you can basically do anything that gets you to ED Resists (for the Mez Prot toggle I put the 7.5% HP unique in there and focused on End redux). I just like this set for the End Redux and SLM Def. The Auto Def power is a great spot for a Kismet Mule. I recommend a flying Sent for this set so you can angle the cone for Drain Psyche best; use that thing off of cooldown, the recharge is really short if you're only hitting one or two. I always put 5pc Coercive Persuasion in the Aura. 6pc if you want the Ranged Def. When the proc goes off it's mayhem and really helps if you're in the middle of a mess. EPP is definitely user preference. Personally I'm a fan of the Mace Pool Coordinated Targeting since it buffs your team with ToHit debuff protection, but you need to grab something before that you might not care about.

I was going to say just that. Singy's atracks are mostly either autohit or baseline 1.2 accuracy on CoD (only lift is at 1.0). So it could be an oversight in copying over from Singy. BTW Checked Symph's Reverb and it also has that -25% ToHit debuff; I would imagine for the same reason.

Hi @Velvet Violet, thank you for taking the time to ask and solicit our feedback. I think @Zhym and @JKCarrier very succinctly summed up my feelings on the matter so if you just want the topline, that will do it. But if you want my detailed, organized thoughts, then I'll provide them here. --------------- Context: I did this arc with my main, who starts every page or issue fully "content complete" since about mid-2020. This means my character has every badge, has run every arc, task force, or trial available. Why I bring it up is that my running assumption going into a fresh page is that if there is prerequisite content that needs to be done for a badge unlock, that won't be an issue. This was a faulty assumption in the case of Erin West. —----------- Specifically with regards to the badge implementation versus the rest of the bonus badges offered on HC, again I think it’s more or less been identified but the method of implementation for Erin West deviates from what we’ve seen before. Obviously arcs like Bobby Curtin or Shauna Bruan are a bit of a throwaway, since all you need to do is run the arc and make choices, one or the other. The patch notes more or less dial you into what you needed to do but even absent that, getting the one badge for Shauna Bruan for example might lead you to wonder what might happen if you made a different choice? There are a few other cases like this and it’s not quite a challenge but it does set a baseline for expectation. Moving up the chain, you have something like Dr. Stribbling’s, which force repeats through the Ouro arc system but the mission progression and very nature of the characters you are dealing with may entice the player in that direction, anyways. Again, absent any context clues from the patch notes a player might reasonably assume there was something special if they ran through all of the possible ways to handle the final confrontation. Or at the least, their curiosity would be satisfied. But the way you can shortcut options in the first Ouro run certainly provides enough of a signal that there’s something special going on. There’s no wrong answer to the test other than to give up. Possibly the closest example to how challenging this badge could be to get would be Tarnished Star, but as I said up top, in my specific case it was a non-issue because I was already “content complete” when the badge came to Open Beta and Live. However, for players who were just looking for the badge and don’t have a near-psychotic desire to 100% the game, it was probably a frustrating slog. I can now empathize. But the fact remains that if you know that you need to put some bad guys away, you can knuckle-down and do all those pre-level 30 Ouro missions. Eventually you’ll get there. —------------ I’m going to put a pin in that and move onto an observation I’ve made about your arcs: you want to push the limit of what the game allows for player agency through the choice and dialog system. It’s the case in a lot of your more recent arcs but specifically with Erin West, I’ve noticed a trend more towards something like single-player CRPG dialog choices. Generally speaking, I’m a fan of this idea and your implementation (if this is indeed your intent), but there’s a glaring issue with it: we’re not playing a single-player CRPG. If you bolo a choice, you own that choice until the arc is done. There’s no save-scumming. You can quit the TF if you're doing it via Ouro, but by then you might be 30 minutes in, for nothing. Who wants to do that? Forget if it’s even fun or not (it’s not), is that even acceptable design for this type of game? If you were trying to find the envelope for what CoX can offer as far as narrative choice with consequences, I think we found it here in Erin West’s arc. Gating rewards behind certain choices when there are this many choices is a dubious call in my opinion. This is markedly different from, say, getting the achievement for learning the Necron language or wearing the Halo Device in Rogue Trader, where a quick reload gets you the achievement and you can move on playing how you wish for the rest of the experience. Forgive the specificity of the examples, but IYKYK. So my takeaway here is that having a lot of choices that provide roleplay agency: good. Having achievements or other prestige rewards gated behind them: bad. It effectively eliminates that agency for players wanting to collect badges. —------------ A few other thoughts on this arc which may help provide more context to how it’s challenging to pick up these badges: There’s absolutely a massive clue that says “hey if you have a contact that’s worked with Crey, hit them up for some extra detail.” And that’s great. It’s frankly necessary and rewards people who are engaged with the content. I love that. What I don’t love is that Crey is quite ubiquitous throughout the game and this is max-level content, meaning it takes into account the full breadth of the game. Not just the pre-level 29 blue side arcs, all of it. Case in point, I went to Tavish Bell on my first playthrough because of course I did. I thought getting clues got me what I needed for the badge unlock, but by the end of the arc nothing had materialized. Later playthroughs I tried Kelly Uqua. Then I tried both. Then I tried, in no particular order: Timothy Raymond, Black Scorpion, Protector Z-958, Doc Buzzsaw, Synapse, and Mynx. Obviously all of those would be fast flops, but it didn’t narrow down my frustration. Despite knowing Dr. Orts was affiliated with Crey, he didn’t come to mind. Maybe because I associated him with Incarnate content that’s outside the span of the “normal” game? I honestly couldn’t say. But he wasn’t the only one I didn’t think about, because another player who shared frustrations with me on the badge said they considered Fusionette and Manticore and those options for contacts flew right by me. I’m sure you see what I’m getting at here. It’s not immediately obvious who you need to talk to, much less how many clues you need to gather up, and in what sequence. These criteria in combination are very problematic. This was outlined by others but I wanted to really excavate the context here so you understand I didn't just run this once or three times and sit down with my arms crossed and pout. I ran this arc for roughly 8 hours, scooping out every little hint or clue I could find or think of. If I hadn't picked up Uncomfortable Truths on naturally on my second run, I would have thought the arc was legitimately bugged. —------------ I close with this: I feel Petrograd thanking help received from the arc writer and a GM on advice and feedback for picking up the badge should have been a red flag during the Open Beta when they posted it. I’m not casting any shade at all on Petrograd, (to whom I’m deeply thankful), but if players couldn’t figure the Truth Seeker badge out short of getting input from the actual game staff who had the answers, then that should have been seriously evaluated and corrected during the Focused Feedback phase.

I know I was on the cusp of this because I saw the option to respond snarkily about Ravenstorm on my 1st playthrough* and didn't take it because I was too busy "roleplaying" my character and completely unaware how I was going to spend the next cumulative 8 hours of my free time re-running this arc trying to figure out the badge unlock criteria. But if I recall correctly, you need to tell Erin before you meet the team something about her getting her first pick and she counters that you weren't, and you have to probe once more to find out Ravenstorm was. Then bring up Ravenstorm to the team mates when you first talk to them, and get their reactions. Then at some point... I want to say just as things are starting to turn south, the option will appear for Erin for you to snark at her (never let go of that rage). There might be more, and I might be slightly off, but those are the breadcrumbs I can offer. It'll probably be another 3 months easily before I attempt to figure this out because I'm way too burned out by my recent experience with it. I'll literally need to keep a running log of all dialog tree options to cross off through the whole arc to nail it down (something I was starting to do for the badges before I was told of Petro's guide).

That's where pet messages will go if you have them enabled. Are you sure they're turned on? Options > Windows > Pets > Pet Response Text

It also provides inhererent +10 ToHit and Perception Debuff resist. It does a lot. A lot of little things. Overall, its sum is greater than its parts. I also personally like how it visually marks the target. Want to let everyone know that Requiem is in the middle of a pile of Cims? Clamor under a pile of Freaks? Vulnerability them. I'm a fan of it as is.

Failed Midnighter mage absorbs a genie, becomes crazy strong yet power-obsessed. Crey employee steals growth experimental growth formula, but it has a limited duration. Bright-eyed young mutant tries to be great, but only has mediocre power levels.* Hood rat from the Isles learns magic, breaks out of the streets to become a merc. Scientist transforms herself into a psychic pincushion with the help of extradimensional flora. Goth girl tries to get more goth with dark magic. It backfires, but she's not complaining. Scientist's attempt to use seismic control suit results in tragedy and she's branded an outlaw. Space Pirate who's running from bounty hunters hired by intergalactic capitalists. Savvy hustler being sacrificed to demons turns the tables by offering her own terms. Nerdy girl with mutant ability to detonate body fat reimagines body horror for justice. Praetorian science experiment survives by eating sewer ghouls and becomes a juggernaut. Pre-Sumerian queen aims for lich-hood; wakes up a few thousand years later than planned. Comically lanky lady tries to be a professional villain, but nobody takes her seriously. Outcast girl wants to be Frostfire's chick. Beats him up instead. Whoops. *I rolled this character as FF/Elec Defender in 2020. Then HC buffed both sets. She's now insanely strong. LOL, woops.

My take is that Hypnotizing Lights is best used like a proc-shotgun: You'll get a little more damage at the close ranger targets, but overall it blasts everything in front of you. Anything that isn't dead or confused falls asleep. I haven't messed with Brilliant Barrage. I think I might get on test to mess around with it, but I ran 2x Pyrokin Trollers* and 1x Pyrokin Dom during open beta and never missed it. Between the knock-up from the AoE immob, Hypnotizing Buckshot Lights, Glittering Column, and the adaptive recharge on Explosive Bouquet, I felt like I had tons of control options. But after scoping it on CoD (they've updated!) I feel like it might have some good proc-portunities. Especially if you use /powerexeclocation target to layer both attacks on top of the same target, since both effects have a minor damage component! >:3 *One of these was a Pyro/Time. Edit: Goofed around a bit with Brilliant Barrage and wasn't very impressed. Not scoring double procs (my assumption is the internal CD on procs is keeping this from happening) and the longer CD on this power makes it less useful as a proc'd out damage/control option than Hypnotizing Lights.

While I personally despise sniping at other people's wishes, I feel compelled to say you technically already have Jet Pack as it was being designed with Fly. When HC revamped travel powers and made Afterburner a Fly Boost effect, it was a direct port from how Gadgetry operated in the i24 code. It didn't animate an actual jetpack on your character, either 😕 That said, if they did something somehow different with Jet Pack and gave us Gadgetry's crown jewel: a click absorb any AT or power combo could use... That would be something else.

For me, the only thing I would really hope for and care about is Freakshow costume parts. Not just the arm variations (probably would need to pin to the Robot Arms torsos) but also the Excelsior injectors, and Stunner arms and backpack options. It's a very selfish ask, but then again I do see a lot of Freakshow-related characters on Everlasting so maybe there is a market besides just me.

Every so often when Mids seems to have problems updating, I just download a fresh installer from midsreborn.com, manually uninstall the program and run the fresh installer. It works every time; been doing this since i26. That's what I did this time, worked fine.

Badger has been updated, and every location-based badge has a grid location associated with it. You can search by the badge name, then copy and paste from the site with /thumbtack. https://n15g.github.io/badger/homecoming If you haven't used it before, despite being on github you don't download a thing. If you choose to actually interact with the badge-tracking application on the site, it merely creates a local .txt file on your computer (which also means it doesn't track progress automatically across different machines).

Hi Coin! It's all mission context clues. I did this one last night and my brain is fried from doing Erin West over and over but I'll try to put it all together here. Mission 1: After you drop Orbital Bone, it will complete the mission. But don't leave. Find the door beyond him and go through it. You'll get to Morana. Even with the mission completed, you'll still get the clue and credit. Once you get the clue, exit. Mission 2: When you get to the first fork, turn left and look behind the junk piled up for a glowing plant thing. Click that. It will take you to an upside down area where you have to defeat carnies and talk to a captive Warrior. Do that, get the clue, then exit the door there to go through the rest of the mission and complete it. Missions 3-5(?): Just complete them as normal. Mission 6(?; Crey HQ mission: When Dap-Dap bolos the negotiations, just escort them to the door wiping the floor with the 5 named security chiefs along the way. Do NOT Mark & Recall or otherwise lead your escorts out before those five are defeated. Next mission: Speed this; just free hostages, go to the warlord, find the dialog option to trade to orb to him (it felt pretty obvious to me, I forgot the lines though), and after that go free Medusa. She might have spawned somewhere in the tunnels, just zip around till you find her and get her out. Mark & Recall works great here. Penultimate mission: Nothing special, just find the 3 and bring them back to the lab. Mark & Recall if you can again works great. Fight off waves, defeat Dreck, exit. Dap-Dap then offers the final mission. I'm pretty sure it's only got one outcome, which is violence. But there's a lot of good plot building and writing before you enter the mission that sets the stage for the next chapter of the Pierce Chronicles.

Folks, if you're having a heck of a time getting those Erin West badges, and don't want to blow literally an entire day off like I did trying to freehand it, @Petrograd put together an outstanding guide for it. It just may not be where you expected. I wasn't for me. Kudos to @Velvet Violet for writing a great arc but this badge implementation is the worst I've seen since HC stood up. Personal opinion. YMMV.

Not your fault really, just wanted to give credit to him before I dropped a link in the badger forums.

Thanks to @.OX for pointing me to this guide in-game. I assumed there was no guide because this was here but not in the badge forums.

Regardless of whatever changes are made or not to the economy, there will always be some form of scarcity. And however that scarcity manifests, it will become the discrimanator between those who "have" or are "winning" and those who don't.

Minor error but you have Staring Into The Abyss as Dap-Dap's bonus badge when it should be the "Complete Adelard Ziegler's story arc" badge. The Dap-Dap bonus badge is Brass Tax, which is currently listed correctly.

Forgive the lack of detail. Mild spoilers so don't read this if you care. When being prompted to take the mission with the new Alpha team after the hive mission where you have to split up, I responded to getting a new, "less talkative" team by saying "so fresh from the cloning tubes?" and got this response from the contact with no text: Assuming it's a missing p-string?

What are you talking about, doesn't this happen to you every time you step outside on a bright Port Oakes day?

There's a lot of fun little references tucked all over the place. Post your finds, even if they need a little explainer for reference! I'll start with this: when Radiant Dawn is asked what his favorite bands names are, he responds with groups whose initials come out to "GG and "Fed," common shorthand in MOBAs or other games. The impermanence of which is a possible nudge to the true story behind the Altruist Paragon Protectors. Probably hard to share a lot about yourself when your memories fit on a thumb drive.