Luminara

*uses all of Mac's packs as marshmallows in the hot cocoa*

Wasn't a correction, just an addition for our enthusiastic new friend. 👍

Combat Jumping does improve Fly, though, by removing the friction that makes your character slow to start or stop. With CJ running while Fly is active, you can stop on a dime and give nine cents change. With Hover, there's no other tangible benefit beyond the stacked +Def and slotting options, but the endurance cost is itsy bitsy, so if it fits in a build, there's no reason not to run it.

Try slotting one in Mids'. It's mostly accurate in what can or can't be slotted in various powers, and you're not likely to encounter the inaccuracies yet (things like mastermind ATOs indicating that they can be slotted in powers where they can't actually be slotted, and missing enhancement options for some sentinel powers). If something works in Mids', it's almost always going to work in the game. Note that Mids' doesn't always show the effects, though. Slotting the Performance Shifter unique IO into Stamina doesn't display any change to recovery rate, for instance. The software wasn't designed to account for that. There's a Radiation Armor or Bio Armor power that increases Regen and Recovery on different conditions, that isn't reflected in Mids' because the conditional argument doesn't exist in the software. Stuff like that, you have to rely on in-game numbers (Powers -> Combat Attributes (it's at the top of the Powers window, left side)) or in-game testing and observation. But for set bonuses, proc calculations and everything else, Mids' tells you everything you need to know to build a character before actually building the character. Just be careful... it's addictive. Go too deep into the rabbit hole and you'll find yourself with five thousand build plans and not enough costume parts to go around, and then you'll really be suffering.

NPCs don't have brains. NPCs don't have players controlling them. NPCs have scripts, and those scripts don't contain strategic scenarios with conditional actions based on tactical analysis. A critter can't evaluate a player's actions and determine the best course of action. A critter can't respond to a situation by making an assessment and proceeding based on that assessment. A critter can move, use powers, and respect specific engine triggers (status effects, Avoid, pathing). The only thing that makes them even remotely challenging or threatening is having that small chance to defeat your character before you defeat them. It's not punitive. It's strictly so NPCs aren't completely, laughably non-threatening. You, the player, have every advantage in every fight. You have all of the attributes and capabilities that an NPC controlled by a scripted AI sequence can't replicate. You have two to ten times as many powers, so you're significantly more likely to have another attack available. You can adjust the way your powers function by slotting different types of enhancements. NPCs are fixed. They never level up. They never slot anything. They never improve their powers, they never develop better tactics. They can't even use inspirations. The odds are always in your favor. Allowing misses to occur changes the odds, just a little, to add meaning, context and value to combat. Not to torture the player, but to give the player some semblance of a fight, instead of an endless parade of piñatas. With intellectual capacities just slightly higher than rocks, critters need help, like occasional missed attacks from the player, to be interesting, engaging and potentially capable of defeating the player, because they have none of the benefits that come from sitting on your side of the keyboard. The AI in this game was the product of the greatest minds of a generation working together with the express purpose of building the dumbest moron who ever lived. It's not remotely hard to beat, and a few misses are the only thing giving it any hope of surviving against your superior intellect and adaptability. That's the purpose of missing, at every level. Just to give NPCs a chance to not be completely overwhelmed when you roll your face back and forth on the keyboard. It enhances the experience by adding the remote possibility of defeat in any combat situation. And missing teaches players to pay attention to their hit chances and adjust their approach by slotting for +Acc or using powers which grant +ToHit, so they're less likely to miss in the future. Not guaranteed, but less likely, because regardless of level, critters are just AI and scripts, and dumber than a post.

Maybe they were mind-wiped and kicked out. Maybe the armor was stolen, or found on the battlefield. Maybe they're from an alternate reality where Vanguard takes level 1 recruits. Lots of wiggle room when it comes to explaining why a level 1 character has any costume parts. "Lore" doesn't restrict any costume parts in a world with portals to alternate realities, aliens, advanced science and technology, time travel, and only three small parts of that world even represented (Paragon City, Rogue Isles and Praetoria).

That's an important distinction. We don't all define "work" in the same way. For some, just leveling up is "work". For others, nothing is "work" until it's so grindy and repetitive that even the most dedicated player won't do it. Most of us don't want to work a second job in a digital universe. We put our XX hours in every week, we put up with the real life grind, we just want to kick back when we're playing. Perhaps some people need a job, even in video games? It's... what relaxes them, I suppose? I don't know. But gates represent a job that they can do, and they want that, it seems. Maybe that's the middle ground. Not Day Jobs, that's just a system designed to reward roleplay. Job jobs. Maybe something like appointments to positions. Like... when a player reaches a milestone, having defeated a specific enemy, or acquired a certain collection of souvenirs or badges, the player is appointed as a Watcher or Commander or Investigator or something. And with the appointment comes the responsibility of maintaining the position. Maybe running X radio missions against a certain enemy group, or going to Ouroboros and running an arc to "protect the timeline". As long as they continue to do their "job", they retain the position, and concurrently, the title and whatever benefits it might offer (maybe an alternative means of earning Day Job charges/time?). Something players can opt into or out of at any time, to provide that job for the people who want it, without forcing a job on those who don't.

May went into heat this morning. I'm more than a little angry right now. No, no, not at her. She can't control her biology, after all. And she's very, very affectionate right now, so it's giving us a chance to bond a little more closely. No, I'm angry because this means she either entered her estrous cycle a month before she should have, or it means she was a month older but far smaller than she should have been when I found her. Either of these indicates that she was even more malnourished and closer to dying than I realized at the time. And it has me wondering how many of her siblings starved to death, because some worthless shit stain didn't have his/her cat spayed. Spay or neuter your pets, people. Just fucking do it. Not because your pet is calmer, not because you want to keep your furniture clean, but to prevent baby animals from dying hungry and alone. You have a responsibility, a moral imperative, to do that. You also have my tears and rage to motivate you, if being an adult isn't reason enough. Obviously, I can't take her to the vet now. Even if the state hadn't reversed the relaxation on the pandemic control measures, the vet couldn't spay her until she was back to normal. We'll wait this out and I'll set an appointment, hopefully before her next heat cycle (which should be some time in spring). SPAY! NEUTER!

Again, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that there are levels of challenge that you're not addressing, in sub-optimal character builds. Not SO-only builds, or no purple builds, but actual, real, playable builds which are unique or unusual in some way. I built my sentinel as a dual purpose ranged/melee character. My standard attack chain is Stunning Shot/Fistful of Arrows/Blazing Arrow, and I have Rain of Arrows if I need it. I also have a complete, fully functional melee attack chain, Cross Punch/Air Superiority/Sting of the Wasp, with The Lotus Drops when I want to use it. This is not a normal sentinel build. This is not a +4/x8 build. This build has three purple sets and a Winter set, both ATO sets, more unique IOs than I can shake a stick at... but it's still a sub-optimal build. Do you know what else it is? Rewarding. I made this. I walked the miles, I earned the levels, I made it to 50 and I kitted her out with all of the shiniest enhancements (starting at level 7). She's fun to play, even if she's not a patch on my Staff/Willpower brute, and I feel a great sense of personal gratification when I log in with her. So what if I'll never have all of the badges. So what if I can't solo an AV with her. So what. I still did something that made me feel good. I took a theoretically purely ranged character and added melee combat to it, and I made it work well enough to be enjoyable to play. This is the challenge in the game. This is where the reward is. This is what I want to share with you. You can feel like you've accomplished something with this, even if there's no badge for it. There are potentially dozens, maybe even hundreds of ways to do this. The game has challenge everywhere, and none of it is self-imposed, it's inherent in the little things like archetype modifiers and role expectations, and meeting those challenges, beating them to a bloody pulp with your brain, that's immensely rewarding. I did not say that . 😛 We all find our own modes of gratification, I understand that, but I'm trying to help you find one, not abuse you. And, you should know me well enough by now, I don't accept defeat. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I accept it, embrace it as a chance to learn something, and move on, but I am never defeated. No power in the 'verse can stop me. And I'm explaining to you that I know where other gates are, if you're willing to explore them. We can explore them together (if you're on in the middle of the night. sorry, but prepaid Verizon data doesn't work for MMORPGs unless it's after 2 a.m.), or we can talk about them, or we can just move on. Up to you. I'm here for you if you want to take that journey, though.

No, I'm arguing that personal fulfillment shouldn't be something one expects from the predefined rewards within the game. Personal fulfillment comes from meeting one's own goals and feeling rewarded for that, not from meeting someone else's goals and being rewarded. Game rewards can never fill the same role as personal rewards. Enjoying what one has accomplished for one's own satisfaction, not for a shiny digital representation of a developer saying "Good job". What we get from the game, intellectually, emotionally, not what the game offers us in rewards. And "new" content is only so new, since it's only new within the context of that specific game, and what newness it offers fades rapidly. This isn't a model for retention, nor for player happiness. Both have to come from giving players more than shinies. They have to come from giving players a sense of personal gratification, from them having more emotional investment in the game and feeling a sense of inner reward when they do things. The fulfillment of in-game rewards is fleeting. The fulfillment of setting our own goals and achieving them is permanent. I know what the topic is, thanks. I did. If you're asking why I'm not discussing pharmaceutical moderation of brain chemistry, or therapeutic methods, or something similar, because I'm not dragging the topic off in that direction. I'm responding to your points and keeping the discussion relevant to the topic, how various game rewards and content are valued and how they might be used. Okay.

Why do the shinies matter? If it's just getting them, you can still do that. You can do the cape and aura missions, you can get Task Force Commander the old-fashioned way, you can go to Cimerora and earn the costume parts before selecting them, you can wait for the holiday events and grind for the special things. If it's because they used to be behind a gate, and you could show people that you'd passed through that gate, you're losing nothing there, either. It doesn't matter if they recognize it or not, you know you did the work to earn them, and you're the only one who matters when it comes to that. If it's a sense of elitism, of having something that others don't have or can't acquire... well, I know you're a better person than that. I know you are. And I'm not going to stop, if this is the reason, because I like you and respect you, and I refuse to accept that you're just looking for a way to stand above others. I see more than that in you and I'm not sorry for trying to make you see it, too. So what is it? What makes gates so important to you? That's something you have yet to explain.

Short-term neurotransmitter increases don't fix mental illness. The high doesn't last. That's why it's a high, not a cure. And that's exactly why it's relevant to the topic. There are a limited number of badges, and adding more doesn't increase that number to ∞. Missions, story arcs, *Fs, they last a finite amount of time and can be run only so many times before they become actions performed by rote. Costume parts and special titles don't give the same thrill when they're acquired for the tenth or fiftieth or hundredth time. But personal gratification, achieving something that you set out to do and because you wanted to do it, not because someone offered you a shiny, that's long-term. Doing things for ourselves, not to get attention or show off or be recognized in some way, is what makes us feel truly happy with ourselves, and a game which allows us to feel happy with ourselves has a lot more going for its retention than a game with 6 hours of gameplay added every few months. Long-term mental health comes from stable, consistent dopamine levels. So does long-term player retention, i.e. falling in love with the game, not having a passing crush or brief craving for it. I addressed all of your points. An allusion doesn't specifically mention the subject. You didn't allude to depression as a comparison to player satisfaction or retention, you used it as an example and segued into why more "stuff" should be added. As I just said, I addressed all of your points. If you don't like being contradicted when you're unclear in your intent, be clear.

Make your own accomplishment rewards. Taking that sub-optimal character to 50 and letting people see how awesome you are, what an accomplished and knowledgeable player you are, is no less a reward than a badge or a cape or a title.

That's not toxic, and anyone who labels it as such has never actually encountered toxic behavior. @EmmySky couldn't be toxic if she tried, and her point is valid and honest. If someone has to be talked into playing, even by themselves, they're not really interested in playing anyway, and a token in a video game isn't going to help them feel better for more than the length of time it takes to get that token. Then they're right back in the stew pot. They don't need to be encouraged to play, they need to be encouraged to root out the reason they're depressed and address it, and they need to be encouraged to find things that make them happy for what they represent to them, not what they represent to others. Personal gratification, not gold stars.

Temporarily, within the context of the discussion, that being in a video game, and potentially to the detriment of finding long-term ways to overcome their mental state. A carrot on a stick doesn't fix depression. A short-term goal doesn't fix depression. A gold star doesn't fix depression. A video game doesn't fix depression, it distracts the player from the problems which cause their suffering. A distraction isn't a cure. A pat on the back isn't what everyone needs when they're depressed. Sometimes it's the opposite of what they need. Motivation has to come from within, and yes, it can be encouraged, but that doesn't solve the problems they're having. The game has finite rewards. Every game has finite rewards. Expecting an infinite supply of rewards, motivations, pats on the back, is pointless because it's impossible. And relying on finite rewards to "fix" depression is guaranteed to fail. One has to find personal gratification within the structure of a game, an inner need to continue playing, in order for it to be fulfilling, and unless it's fulfilling, it's not helping, it's just providing a delay in dealing with the problems which caused the depression. And others are going to get their temporary distraction from the real problems in their lives, then go back to being depressed when it runs out. I've spent more than 40 years of my life fighting mental illness. I've learned that distractions aren't solutions to depression, finding personal gratification and inner happiness are. No-one can truly change the way we feel, stop the pain, make the voices in the rain go away, except ourselves, and we can't do that with short-term, temporary fixes. Personal gratification, taking satisfaction in something that doesn't require external validation, self-acceptance, those are how we combat depression effectively. Badges and five mission story arcs and new animations, those are digital medication. Real healing starts inside. And sometimes, we can't be healed. Some of us are going to live with our demons forever. Understanding those demons and accepting that we're just not going to be "normal" does a million times more good than a reward or distraction in a video game. So no, I'm not going to agree with you, on any of your points. People suffering from depression need real assistance for their real problems, not the ephemeral relief of a pat on the back by video game developers.

There can be only Jaun.

I'LL TAKE IT! SEND IT TO ME! HURRY, BEFORE IT MELTS! 😨

Thought about that yesterday when I saw some heated gloves at a thrift store. But I'd have to replace the stator (only 6 pole), and... well, at least half of my riding is on unpaved county back roads. I had an accident, went sideways on another bike three years ago, it suddenly turned over and pinned my legs under it, slammed me onto ground at 30 mph and broke my left arm and collar bone. I'd rather be thrown clear if (when) it happens again, instead of being tied to the bike. Especially this bike, it's twice as heavy. I absolutely can't have broken legs, not when I have to walk down to the stream to fetch water every couple of days. I just placed an order for new winter riding gloves (mine are ten years old) and a scarf (can't find the one i had). With a thick coat and two pair of pants, and wool socks, I stay pretty warm. Not having the scarf last year was the worst. I'm ready for winter! Oh, wait, I need to download all of my Christmas music... winter event, then Christmas music, and hopefully lots of snow! Oh, crap, I only have one box of hot cocoa mix. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! PANIC! PANIC!

Personal gratification is the only real reward. Badges, titles, unique graphics and textures on gear, they're just acknowledgement from someone else. You knowing what you did, how hard you worked, what hells you waded through, and you seeing the result or your efforts, of your perseverance and determination, that's what matters. That's what playing less than god/goddess-like characters offers. That's where you can find the challenge, and satisfaction. I'm living in a 12'x16' cabin with no plumbing and no 110v electricity for my own gratification. Not to impress you, not to garner respect from my nearest neighbor, not for pats on the back from my friends, not to "prove" anything to anyone, but for me. There are no plaques celebrating me. I have no gold stars decorating my walls. My success isn't measured in the number of people who complement, or even notice, me. It's what I get, inside, from living where and how I do, that makes it rewarding. The measure of my success is my happiness, and the rewards I gain for doing this are innumerable and intangible. Waiting for developers to make "challenging" or "rewarding" content is futile, because challenge always exists if we choose to pursue it, and what we value in ourselves is what makes anything rewarding. It's not someone else's definitions of challenge or achievement you should be trying to meet, but your own. Sub-optimal characters can give that to you. The Plate of Argonnn can't.

That's not what I said. I said you can choose to create and play characters which are challenged by the existing content. Deliberately ignoring everything and focusing on enhancements as the intent and tone of my comments is on you, not me. Stop looking for a fight. I'm playing an Incarnate level character right now, with purples, Winter IOs, PvP IOs, ATOs, the whole shebang, and I can't solo this character at +4/x8. She's just not capable of achieving that, and it's not because she's missing enhancements or slotted with SOs, it's because the content is already difficult for her with the powers she has and the way I play her. +1/x4 is as high as I care to go with this character, because despite being at the soft cap for Defense, despite having a heal, despite having perma-Hasten, she's not a character designed to make the game easy. I don't even think about fighting AVs as AVs with this character, because she'd be smooshed in less than half a minute. Enhancements aren't the problem. The problem is making the choice to only play god/goddess-like characters. Make a sentinel or defender who uses melee attacks. Make a tank or scrapper who uses ranged attacks. Make a petless mastermind. Make something that only uses single-target attacks. Make something that doesn't have full status protection, maxed Defense/Resistance, travel powers. Turn off all inspiration drops. You can choose to play something less than optimal, and make the game quite a bit more difficult for yourself when you do that, even with all of the bells and whistles of IO set bonuses and procs and Incarnate powers. Play a C-lister instead of a member of the JL/Avengers. That's what I said. That's what I meant. The game plays very differently when you're Moon Knight or Matter Eater Lad, instead of Superman or Iron Man.

I did read all of it. Only commenting on this, though. The challenge was never removed. It was merely shifted into the hands of the players. We make our own challenge. I'm not referring exclusively to the difficulty settings, I'm pointing out that every character you create can be designed how you please, to handle whatever level of challenge you prefer. Your choices determine how easy or hard the game is. There is no automatic slotting process which stuffs purple/PvP/Winter/unique IOs into your powers. There's nothing which disables your ability to select less than optimal powers when leveling up. There isn't a mechanic which prevents you from creating a character with uncomplimentary power sets. There is no rule which prohibits you from pursuing builds which can't solo at +4/x8. Just as in reality, how difficult this game might be is up to you. You walk your own road, be it the easy path or the hard path. Granted, there are a lot of easy paths, but you don't have to scour the brush to find the hard paths, either. They're everywhere. Pick one and start walking.

The most satisfying feeling was a tie between hitting 50 with my TA/A before Issue 7, and fighting Adamastor solo on my Issue 5 Kinetic/pool melee character when everyone was screaming about ED killing the game. The most satisfying sound... peacebringer *WHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG* when attacking.

They're also not directly affected by inflation. Temporary power vendors don't raise their prices. Merit vendors don't show something as unavailable. SOs don't sell for less to stores because there's a glut on the market. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. It's fair in that there isn't a comparable merit sink to fight inflation, or inflationary effects on the costs of the goods they buy or sell, or stock shortages at the vendors they use, or taxes for characters contributing to inflation but not being affected by it. Using or not using the market, there's an up side and a down side, and something that might not seem fair on both sides. Inf* sinks are necessary. And fixed price items are as fair as they can be in that no-one is excluded from generating the funds, even if they choose not to use certain methods.

Inf* is readily available and in constant supply. I don't know anyone who uses merits to buy ATOs, but I suppose there might be some people who do. Super packs are cheap, only 10,000,000, and with converters, every ATO you get from one is either useful for your characters, or the most valuable that can be sold (convert, sell). And super packs can drop two ATOs (not guaranteed, but often enough for the marketeers to have assembled some good, reliable data on drop rates, suggesting ~20% chance per pack on average), as well as other things which can be sold on the AH, so they typically pay for themselves and provide a profit over time. Buying super packs also helps combat inflation by directly and permanently removing inf* from the game. This helps keep prices on everything low, and dumping super pack items on the market increases supply. Basically, super packs are a win win win for everyone, whereas buying specific ATOs with merits doesn't offer any specific benefits. I suppose if you imagine the RNG being hateful and singling you out to be screwed over, you'd buy with merits instead of spending inf* and converters. But the smarter, more profitable and game-healthier method is to buy super packs and convert the ATOs it gives you, sell everything you don't want or can't use, and pocket the inf*. Also, what everyone else said about attuning through the AH. I always forget it does that until I'm actually looking for attuned enhancements.

I don't want to be outside in it. I'm 5'6" and 130 lbs, I don't have the body fat to play in the snow, or the boots/shoes to keep my feet dry and warm (the woes of self-imposed poverty). But I adore seeing it, and I'll tolerate it cheerfully, because it's beautiful and serene. I spent most of the last 30 years living in cities, living with social anxiety disorder, living with the feeling of not being able to be happy, being afraid to stop to enjoy something as simple as a dandelion, a robin, a snowfall. My life is different now, and I've got decades of enjoyment to make up for. BRING ON THE SNOW! ❤️ That's more than we had in Virginia last year. This year will be better! I will see my Christmas card view again! Or else!