VileTerror

As I've tried to stress in the past, the problematic stuff DOES exist, and it - does- - NOT - - help - to try and undermine other members of the community when they express concerns about these problems. Especially when the actual subject is game content customization. Doc_Scorpion's estimate is pretty much on-par with my own. We should all own up to the fact that there are problems. Denying the problems won't fix them, and it just drives a wedge where there absolutely doesn't need to be one. But (broken record that I am) I still advocate for education and examination, rather than censorship. The problems need to be addressed; not covered up or outright denied by one "side," nor blanket "protected against" by the other. So . . . I'm going to change my tune. As much as it pains me, since I -really, really, really- want Henchpet Customization . . . Not until we have the tools in place to give players the power to only view others' Pets as default. Hell! Let's go one step further. Let's add a /costume_ignore function which "Generics" another players' appearance on the user's end. I, regretfully, suspect that would be even MORE of a nightmare to code . . . but frankly, with the attitudes some people are demonstrating, it looks like it will be a necessity. And I hate it that I feel like I've been forced in to this position.

I am happy about that, but also: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/12964-second-and-third-tier-day-jobs

Get a little blue in there, and you'll be defeating that nazi with the power of RAINBOWS! The best weapon to use against their kind, frankly.

Yeah, I finished my Day Job collections on about a dozen characters before I did on my main badging-character. I just spent too much time actually logged in to my main to actually get the offline hours stacked. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/14432-youve-spent-a-total-of-1343-hours-on-patrol/

I'm confused that the "dev hours" line still gets used. Yes, a couple of Devs do have roles which have them overlapping on multiple projects, so they would have the work placed on their "desk" to review and ensure the pieces fit. But generally stuff like this is a passion project by one or two people who wouldn't be working on much of anything else. I mean, at least I theorize as much, given OuroDev. Haven't heard any word on the specific methodologies being used by the Homecoming Team. Maybe it -is- a cause for concern here.

Damn RIGHT you put your money on Furious George! That monkey's absolutely bananas in the cage! . . . despite what Joe Young keeps saying about Banana-nator. But you know what, I'm going to make it happen! I am going to run a Monkey Fight Night Event! As soon as I can find a day on my schedule, and a couple of "Corneliuses" to my "Joe Young" to help with bookkeeping, I will provide players with a night of monkey gambling in-game! I'll even make sure that the house -doesn't- always win, just so players can have a fun night! Postscript: If you want to be one of my Corneliuses and help out, please get in touch! This will take place on the Everlasting Shard. 'cause if we're going to do Secret Monkey Fight Club right, we're going to do it with roleplay!

Likewise; I just haven't gotten around to recreating my catgirls. Heck! I only -just- recreated my veterinarian character last week upon chatting with someone on my GFriend list about the concept.

I think it's supposed to be "Where are the Hellions?" As in: This activity is beneath us; send in people who are typically considered on that level instead of us.

That's totally Mu Guardian. Without a doubt; it's between Mob Specialist (100 Prisoner Bosses) and Nebula Elite Buckshot (Protector of Innocents).

If, perhaps, the Reverse Scourge didn't do full Critical, but instead only like 1.5x?

Pudgy and tired is totally okay! 'cause it's not a battle to the death. It's actually a co-op game. You're supposed to work together to win -even more-!

I thought "The 20s" didn't technically start until 2021. Decades are weird.

There are also some really wobbly-not-so-great tutorials in the forms of Twinshot and Dr. Graves' arcs on Blueside and Redside respectively. They're not great, because in several spots they "teach" you to do something with the text . . . at a point where you already had to have done that thing to reach that text. So, yeah; best way to do it is: When you start a new character, on the Origin Tab, be sure to select City of Heroes: Freedom. (while Going Rogue does have a tutorial, the content is generally considered much more challenging, particularly for new players.) Next, on the Archetype Tab, be sure to select one of the follow 11 Archetypes: Blaster, Controller, Defender, Scrapper, Tanker, Sentinel, Brute, Stalker, Mastermind, Dominator, Corruptor (the Peacebringer, Warshade, Arachnos Soldier, and Arachnos Widow Archetypes start the game by skipping the Tutorial.) When you get to the Register screen and click the "Next" button in the bottom right corner, a pop-up should occur asking if you want to play the tutorial. Hit "Yes." Finally, the game will offer you three potential Tutorial Zones to choose from. Outbreak is the original Hero Tutorial. It's kind of slow, but allows you the chance to earn the Isolator Badge. Breakout is the original Villain Tutorial. It's the quickest tutorial, and allows you to pick up the Jail Bird Badge. The Ruined Galaxy City is a "modern" Tutorial with voiceovers and some modified game mechanics which won't show up again until late-game content. I personally don't recommend it, but it may be worth checking it out in addition to the traditional tutorials, just to cover more bases when it comes to learning the game. I hope this helps!

I once had an Atlas Park Starter Contact give me a mission in Night Ward.

Could be the Mu Guardian Gladiator Badge, for example. Which Badges are above it and below it in its Category List? That will also help us to determine.

There is a pretty significant difference, though, between things immediately accessible and apparent in the game itself, and those things which rely upon outside connections.

This might sound a little horn-tooty, so I apologize for that upfront, but I have always been a bit curious about the amount of stock and the potential usefulness of the forum's Reputation system. And, notably, the "Days Won" Leaderboard. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/pastleaders/?sortdirection=desc I know that, as a metric, Reputation isn't really reliably able to measure anything other than how many times other users clicked a button. But I do also think it provides an interesting level of insight in to social trends of the subset of the community who frequent the forums, and how they interact with one another. Christopher Robin, for example, absolutely DOMINATES in the "Days Won" category. From my research, that's largely from their involvement in the Multimedia board here. Not to undermine the worth of those posts and the positive impact they apparently have on a significant number of community members, I did notice that few of those "Days Won" were for posts in General or Suggestions; two boards which I tend to frequent more often. So, I would conclude (rightly or wrongly) that the Reputation garnered in the Art boards isn't really comparable to the Rep generated in those other boards. Different social dynamics are at play, with different goals and expectations. Naturally, the Homecoming Team have some great Rep too. It's sometimes odd to me, though, when a regular user beats out a Dev on a day when a big announcement is made! I'm curious as to what underlying trends affect that sort of thing. I don't want to put too much stock in to something that, ultimately, isn't all that important nor meets a level of rigour to pass a burden of truth threshold. But I do like to read between the lines and try to work my head around the sociological impacts and causes which are illuminated by systems like this. Anybody else, or is this kinda just a "me thing?"

Lard knows this game probably has no small number of players who came to it because it was JUST close enough to anime-esque that the comic book angle wasn't even on their radar.

If-only- they were a communist! Probably would have had a slightly different thread progression.

*anxiously twiddles fingers while glances back and forth, sweat forming on Its brow*

I haven't made a Praetorian yet. That -could- be a way to do it, though. Buddy Cop system! Although, you said you don't like angsty roleplay. Kinda hard to avoid that in yellowside, no?

Wait. "Years?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SSEcTzEOwU

I did not hate it. And I'm not even a Sonic fan! . . . maybe that's why I didn't hate it?

So, an idea was expressed in the weekly discussion, on Brutes: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/15412-weekly-discussion-38-brutes/?tab=comments#comment-164246 @SeraphimKensai proposed that Brutes should lose Resistance and Defense the higher their Fury bar gets after a certain threshold, but also allow the Brute to get more Damage than they currently do as a trade off. As an across-the-board change, I think most of us would agree that it's not ideal. BUT, what if we made it optional? What if we allowed players to choose if they wanted their Brute SO FURIOUS that they started to fall apart at the seems? And I got to thinking; the existing ATOs do some pretty nifty stuff. Some of them even kind of radically redefine the paradigm of their Archetype (hello Stalker ATOs). So what happens if we add some ATOs which go the extra mile and -seriously- redefine the Archetype? So, we've already touched upon the potential Brute one. A Unique which causes the Brute's Fury to provide a larger scaling Damage bonus, in exchange for Fury also inversely scaling down Resistance and Defense. Again, this would be optional; an Enhancement which players choose to, or choose not to, slot in to their Archetype Powers. Other options could be: Blaster - restores the old Desperation Archetype Inherent, where the lower your life is, the higher an inherent Damage bonus becomes. Controller - provides +50% Magnitude to all Control, and +1.5 to Crit Control, at the cost of losing Containment Damage Bonus. Corruptor - Inverse Scourage; deal increased damage to enemies with Full and High Health, rather than enemies with low health. Et cetera! Please, feel free to come up with some of your own too; including for the Archetypes already listed with examples. The more ideas we throw at the wall, the more likely one is to actually stick! Like Science!

This is probably going to get shouted down, based on the responses people are sharing here . . . but there is another element to the players who aren't "working the market." They might find it morally repugnant. Culturally-speaking, that kind of market mechanic has it's appeal for some people, and certainly seems like a large percentage based on responses here. But some people avoid the market, not because they "don't get it," but because they view it as a microcosmic exemplar for real-world systems which -are- inherently unfair. Whether that response has roots in accuracy or not doesn't necessarily change how people -feel.- I've always been curious what might happen in a game where the Devs added two modes of trade: One free market capital, and the other more akin to a direct barter system. Naturally, the capital side of the equation would very likely have individuals who feed off of the barter system to further their capital, so some kind of barrier would need to be established between the two exchange systems. OH WELL! We're too far down this particular rabbit hole to investigate the merit of that idea in City of Heroes now.