Doc_Scorpion

So, what differentiates this from an MM? I mean, as I read it, it's a weird and very specialized MM... but it's still an MM.

Yep. My main 'bots MM is a young lady born without an arm... So she built herself one for a school science fair project, and was encouraged to follow that path to help herself and others. But she soon realized that she could do more. So, after licensing her arm for production - she took the license fees and built her 'boys'. Now she splits her time between her lab developing new robotics - and field testing her developments. Most "I can't RP that" (or "that breaks immersion)" is lack of imagination, not lack of tools in game. I mean, if I (as none of those things) can roleplay a female dwarf cleric <mumble> feet under the North Atlantic on USN submarine... Not to mention - what the heck is 'heroic" about a plague of insects? You'd have to backstory/head canon/RP those too.

OK, new season stuff - life is a little crazy ATM, so I'm way behind, but do not sleep on Anne Shirley (an adaptation of Anne of Green Gables). The first episode was spectacular.

Anybody who works with any kind of technology, mechanics, etc... hates two things with the passion of a thousand burning suns: intermittent faults, and problems with mysteriously cure themselves.

The classic Angel Beats premiered 15 years ago today.... https://apprenticemages.com/2025/04/03/anime-playlist-angel-beats/

We didn't get a patch today.

Well, they say "offense is the best defense" and "death is the ultimate debuff"... But yah, a damage aura or boost doesn't fix the set's actual problems or even fit the theme of the set. So, hard no from me too.

The respecs earned through leveling aren't recipe drops, they're just added to however many available respecs you have. (Basically the same as crafting a respec recipe.) They're available through the /respec command.

You get a free respect every 10 levels... Just how many do you need?

I'm not sure I follow the logic here... Because the "Closest to Completion" filter doesn't have any badges you already have in it. That being said, I agree wholeheartedly with this suggestion. My "Closest to Completion" tab is filled with badges I'm never going to get ("spend a zillion inf at the tailor"), badges I'm waiting for the next even to work on, and tons of zone accolades that I'll get to... someday. This makes finding defeat badges that I am working on an absolute PITA to find.

I'd love it too, but like Rudra I'm not sure it's easily done.

She had a... let's just say, outsize presence on the forums.

Seconded!

There's a lot of people, mods included, who would love to see discussion stomped in Beta feedback threads... But, without disagreeing that discussion sometimes gets way the 'ell out of hand, I'd like to push back a bit on that. (And that's without considering Patch Note Reactors, a pox be on them and their generations for all times.) Testing is neither a solo pursuit nor a one-and-done proposition. I've simply seen too many cases where discussions between testers have yielded valuable fruit. Where a dodgy suggestion was refined and polished. Where someone identified a hole in someone else's tests or test methodology. Where someone's test or test methodology inspires someone else to try a different test or test methodology. Where repeated play had clarified or changed an individual's stance. Silencing discussion does not improve the testing process. It hampers it. And on top of that, there's the times where the Feedback thread was used to arrange for group testing when it was needed. In particular, this was useful in debugging Defibrillate and for arranging "typical PI PUGs" when testing the Nu Council. Now I'd be the first to agree that testers and feedback threads should be held to a higher standard. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The game only keeps tracks of how many slots a particular power has assigned and what's in them. It does not track when (at what level) those slots were assigned to a given power.

I have no clue who Lil Jon even is, so, no.

I can't find any option to decrease my effective level on the Open Beta pop menu.

You can't delay what was never actually scheduled... (A target is not a schedule.) Page releases have always been a "we get there when we get there" kinda thing.

I was just pondering on this the other day, a respec process that worked like creating an alternate build - but playable. Sometimes I just want to go back and rebuild a character the same way I built them, one level at a time, playing them and working out what the toon needs next and what problems need to be solved or holes need to be filled. (Largely because theorycrafting in Mids gives you the numbers, but not the feel. Not how a character actually plays.)

CPO is Navy, not Chair Force. (The picture is Chair Force, High Beam is not.)

"Having animations" and "having animations that match the pet's powers" are two very different things. I've already given one specific example of that upthread - none of the potential swaps you propose have the shoulder mounted missile launchers that Assault Bots get. You'll have to remap the powers that rely on those missile launchers onto powers that animations/models exists for. Or you'll have to create new animations and possibly even new models. Or, to put it more simply.... No. Most of the work isn't already done by simply swapping models because you're not swapping apples for apples. It's not impossible by any means, but it's not nearly as simple as you think.

Speaking as someone who has moderated what seems like damm near every form of communication on 'net over the last thirty years... Outside of the most obvious of Deadly Words, intent is [censored] hard to discern. Short of the impossible task of moderating everything that could possibly be construed as insulting, it's always going to be a judgement call.

There's a world of difference between a blob that more or less just floats there, and a henchpet with moving parts and a variety of animations. I only play 'bots, so I just grabbed what looked to be something likely from the HC Wiki. But either way, whether it's part of the model or part of an attack animation, my key point remains true - the Fir Bolg don't have it. You might be able to remap their existing attack animations onto the existing attacks in the demon summoning set... but bouncing the two against each other, my first impression is that it looks like a very poor fit. Which is really my main point, there's more to doing this than simply swapping out which model the game loads when you summon your hench pets. And I should make clear, that I am not saying that it's undesirable or impossible! Only that there's more details and subtle (and not so subtle) pinch points than might be obvious at first glance.

Ah, yeah, you're correct and my statement about the only way isn't. (And I've amended my post appropriately.)

It certainly didn't so back in the OG days and to a large extent it's not doing so now. What does lead to bland sameness is your desire that "every set has a specific place to shine". "We're doing Synapse? Better grab my fire blaster" "There's a team in FF? I'm screwed because I don't have an appropriate level Earth troller." Etc... etc... Rock, paper, scissors is not really fun in the long run. People keep coming back to this game in a large part because it isn't rock, paper, scissors. They can (with few exceptions) play whatever toon they want, wherever they want, whenever they want. Balance empowers players and brings life and diversity to the game. That's because good balance is like your car running normally - it's invisible. It's not causing problems, and you can't see problems that aren't there. Unbalance on the other hand... Like Titan Weapons before the changes or the current state of Regen, is immediately obvious to anyone paying even a modicum of attention to what's going on around them.