Chris24601

One fun thought on that to reduce the need for new art assets; Part of the lore is that the Rikti dimension diverged because they encountered their dimension’s Battalion early. Their tech is all adapted from the Battalion’s and part of their re-shaping was using Battalion DNA and to adapt to “terraforming” (Battali-forming???) done by the Battalion to Rikti Earth. In other words; the Battalion could be presented as basically Rikti+. Do some palette-swapping on some of the rarer-seen Rikti units/maps (particularly the bigger and more impressive ones like Hro’dotz, Dra’gon and the heavy assault suits... which would be their version of the Rikti’s drones), add some alternate powers reflecting differences from taking a different path that didn’t lead them to Earth until now (I’m thinking Rad Blasts/Melee given that’s what their servants the Shivans have) and finally throw in some Neo-Shivans as underlings (akin to their Rikti monkeys) and you’ve got your Battalion. You’ve even got a good story hook that when they first show up in the skies everyone thinks it’s a new RIKTI invasion only for Vanguard to be blindsided by all the ways the Battalion are different and then when you go check in on the Rikti, they’re all panicking because they recognize the Battalion for what they are. At the same time, the familiarity with Rikti-tech also ends up giving Primal Earth ends up giving us an edge no other Earth had against their Battalion and our exploiting that is the key to victory (one interesting tidbit would be if the astronomical data you find hidden in General Loc’Danan’s armor during Twilight Son’s introductory mission ended up being related to the Battalion and one of the keys to actually beating them).

This is also the reason why I say the HC team should NOT feel beholden to the original team's ideas for future content. Personally, I'd rather the Coming Storm be a whole series of catastrophes akin to the Praetorian War and Mot happening right on top of each other and the Battalion are just normal invaders and the straw that can break the camel's back unless the Heroes stop things. No need to ramp up the power level with ever more incarnate slots; just too much going on for any one hero to actually deal with at once (good thing its an MMO).

Another random thought I had; in lieu of mez protection, if human and nova-form had the blaster’s ability to use their low tier attacks while mezzed it might be a reasonable compromise between the the usual all-or-nothing that mez protection grants (i.e. you’re either completely unaffected or fully affected) so that dwarf form still has a purpose (better mitigation, still able to move, more attacks) but lets human and nova still have some punch to them. The main gist of this post though is to suggest that the overall damage and defense scalars be looked at in light of the other ATs. I’m in the “feels like Master of None” camp and if the purpose of the AT is to be a adaptable generalist (i.e. a Jack of All Trades) then I’d suggest that the game already HAS an AT for that. Specifically, a Scrapper with one of the power sets that include 40’ ranged and cone attacks (ex. Claws and Kinetic Melee) and which have an epic pool (considered because PBs specifically don’t get them so their effects need to be baked into PB sets) with fast-recharging ranged attacks and a ranged AoE (ex. Blaze and Mu Mastery) can already do what a PB can do. Such a scrapper has a solid ranged attack chain... ex. Claws w. Mu Mastery can have Focus (40’ range), Shockwave (40’ cone), Mu Bolts (80’ range), Zapp (fast snipe), Electric Shackles (ranged hold+damage) and Ball Lightning (80’ targeted AoE). The same Scrapper can semi-tank with its defenses/mez protection, Confront and by aggro through sheer damage (including its fast recharging Spin PBAoE). And the Scrapper does both of those, plus a melee attack chain, without even needing any shape-shifting mechanics or needing to spread slots across 7 form attacks to enable those options. It also does this even without IOs or set bonuses. That is the baseline that PBs need to be compared with, particularly since they add so much complexity with the forms and slotting while trying to cover the same general areas. That’s also the reason I previously suggested that the best thing for PBs would be to create PB-based sets proliferated across the other ATs so you could build to taste since that‘s probably the only true way everyone could have their PB tailored to taste.

Yeah, that would be because, even though they appear disconnected, they actually have access to other zones via portals (which is technically all the trams/mission doors are too... just with fancier animations) Praetorian is coded as its own faction and neither hero nor villain for zone access. Until you go through the gateway to Primal Earth your flag isn’t flipped to allow you anywhere but Praetorian zones (I believe you can also go to Pocket D as one of the Night Ward missions even requires you to go there). I also know there are Resistance and Loyalist (along with hero and villain) contacts who hand out repeatable missions inside the First Ward main compound. I took advantage of those to smooth out my Praetorian leveling since I wasn’t using double XP (which I skip in 1-20 Praetoria because its already stupid easy to outlevel contacts and then forgot to charge up on before I hit First Ward and by the time I remembered I was 36 and most of the way through Night Ward anyway).

I could settle for the level 1 contacts with the proviso that they never expire due to leveling, but will instead introduce you to a level appropriate contact of they’re type (Azuria, for example; which I keep referencing because she’s the most familiar of the level 1 contacts due to actually showing up in later arcs; would introduce you to whichever magic contact is in your level range when you speak with her). Heck, I’d even be okay with only getting the contact that matched your origin initially just like it was on live before the Freedom/nuking Galaxy City revamp. Generally each of the original contacts will introduce you to one lateral contact (one in their same level band) and whichever one is next along that contact chain (the next magic, next tech, next mutant, etc.) so you’d fill out your list fairly quickly. It’s primarily the Freedom Tutorial and associated Atlas missions that short circuit the start of the default contact system. I do still stand by my “needless detective clutter” and “for God’s sake, have the SSA contacts introduce the next in the chain so you don’t have to guess or go to an external Wiki just to figure out the proper order for them” suggestions though.

One of the main things I’d like to see is purely cosmetic, but I’d REALLY like a minimum FX option for the forms. Human-form animations for the form attacks already exist and can be viewed in the power customization tabs so it’s mainly a matter of just turning off the squid and lobster. The character shifts focus, strengths and weaknesses, but remains in human forms (maybe with an aura if there HAS to something indicating their form). I would find changing forms for combat a LOT less annoying if I could actually see the awesome costume my PB is wearing instead of the same squid and lobster every other Kheld has. It’d also be a way to take full advantage of the tri-form build while presenting as a human-only or bi-form Kheld; eliminating an entire axis of balancing complexity (i.e. not only does a PB need to be balanced with other classes, each of the four options; human-only, nova-bi-form, dwarf-by-form or tri-form; also needs to balanced). I mentioned this elsewhere too, but I think part of the issues could be “solved” by creating some “Luminous/Umbral” sets (blast, melee, armor, manipulation, assault, etc.) for the other ATs. If you could could create a Luminous Armor/Melee Tanker, it could be balanced cleanly with all the other tankers even if it had the dwarf form as one of its powers (akin to Granite Armor’s complete model swap) because its ONLY a tank. The same would go for a Luminous Blast/Manipulation Blaster or an Umbral Control/Assault Dominator. I sometimes think the PB suffers from the same problem as the D&D Bard; by trying to be too many things at once it can’t be the best at anything without being too powerful. What finally fixed the Bard was that D&D finally picked a lane where they could shine (party buffing in its case). I think what will finally fix the PB is similarly, picking another AT you want it to be most like in terms of purpose and then use the forms to tweak the base to the two extremes of damage vs. resistance within that framework. For example; lets say you pick the Scrapper as your baseline; high damage and moderate defenses. Nova form puts you at the high damage side of scrapper sets, but at the bottom of its armor sets, dwarf puts you at the top tier for scrapper armor, but the bottom tier for damage. You could instead make its baseline the brute, the blaster or the sentinel (if that could ever figure out what it was supposed to be), but the operative part would be to pick one thing for the PB and the WS to be good at and balance around it. Personally I’d go Scrapper-ish for the PB (the most jack-of-all-stats of the original hero classes) and Dominator for the WS. Nova-form would buff your damage set and debuff your armor/control set while dwarf form does the opposite. This might mean that human-form PB ranged attacks would have to go back to their original 40’ range to match the scrapper’s ranged attacks, but would gain the scrapper’s damage scale and mez protection. Nova-form would buff the range, but scale back the defenses and mez protection. Dwarf-form would only use melee range attacks, but put you on the beefier side of scrapper defenses. But those are just my thoughts and the biggest problem is there’s probably no one solution that would please everyone in terms of fixing the PB proper. So I think I’ll close with the idea of, instead of fixing the PB proper, proliferate parts of its sets out to the other ATs so the one who wants a PB tank can roll a tank with PB powersets and the one who wants a PB blaster can roll a blaster with PB power sets and the one who wants the PB just as it is with a few tweaks can roll a normal PB. Just include a switch in the PB sets so if you take one you get Sunstorm as a contact and trigger quantum gunners and they’re all PBs of sorts.

Well, I dunno if it’ll help, but I’ve never encountered the memory leak you mentioned. Perhaps something in the difference between the two systems might reveal a starting point for fixing it? I’m not the most tech savvy guy out there (I basically just follow provided instructions when I encounter a problem) so I dunno what the HC team would need from me (or if it’s even a problem on HCs end or if it’s just some weird hardware/software interaction), but I’m game to take some time to help a fellow player get a problem like that fixed if I can be given instructions on how to do so.

I mentioned this in another thread, but since I’ve been back I’ve noticed the complete hash that has been made of the contacts system. To be fair, most of that was a result of the live devs wanting to their best foot forward (and to push the contacts whose mission chains served as ads for various paid power sets/costumes), but it’s still a huge mess of pop-ups and the find contact button isn’t super obvious, skips a bunch of older contacts and, especially with First/Night Ward offers you contacts out of order to the story arcs in those zones. Then, in terms of experiencing a sequential story, several arcs are pushed in the pop-ups before the preceding events are even available. The numbering in Oroboros helps, but Oroboros doesn’t make up for the default contact system being a mess. Related to that is, particularly for lower level contacts, it’s super-easy to just sail right past their 5 level band. So, here is what I’d propose; 1) Give all the contacts cell-phones to start: Its the 2020s and talking with heroes over a phone or dedicated comms is far safer than standing out on some street corner waiting for a hero to happen by. The paranoid ones would just be using burner phones. The result is you can initially get in touch with a contact from anywhere and decide if you want to pursue their missions. 2) Include a standard date system with the contact name: Ex. Azuria (issue 0), Penelope Yin (issue 8). This would help clear-up when a given contact’s missions occur in a way that’s harder to miss than the pop-up contacts. Optional: If a contact deals particularly with enemy groups of a certain origin (ex. magic or mutants) or theme (ex. Portal Corp) that might be included too (ex. Azuria - issue 0 magic or Maria Jenkins - issue 23 Praetoria). 3) Automatically introduce the first contact in a chain: Unless they’re part of a larger story chain automatic add all contacts in your level range (ex. Jim Temblor would be added at 15, but Penny would not because you have to finish Jim’s story first for the larger arc). By level 10 contacts are already mentioning having seen your exploits on the news, so if they have a problem/scheme they think you could help with, they’d be reaching out to you instead of the other way around. Coupled with number one, they’re just a call away if you decide to assist with their problem/aid in their scheme. [Side-bar: this would also help red-side with the feeling that you’re a lackey. It’s the difference between being interviewed for a job (pull enough missions to prove yourself to a broker who puts you in touch with someone who might need your skills) and being the one doing the interview (okay, your scheme is worth my time to get involved with).] 4) Expand the level range of the contact to the full range of the associated villain group/zone: Vahzilok go all the way to level 15 and the Clockwork to 20. There’s no reason to lock the contacts/missions introducing them to levels 1-5. I know that content is quite old, but having different routes to level up for different characters can help keep the game fresher than running the same content repeatedly. There’s also some really great lore attached to some of those early missions that people rarely even see unless they go looking for it. I went out of my way to talk to Azuria first thing recently and, as a result, got the right contacts to actually do the Spleunker badge mission as part of a normal mission chain. But I had to actively seek that content out rather than having it handed to me. It’d be a lot easier if Azuria and the other magic origin contacts were willing to talk to you for the entire level range that you can find Hellions to hunt. Likewise, Faultline is a level 15-25 zone and the Lost, Sky Raiders and Arachnos cover that entire range. There’s no reason Jim Temblor should be cut off as a contact at level 20. Oroboros should be the option of last resort for doing missed content and a way to replay old content; not the most efficient way to find story arcs for the first time. On the flip-side, because of City of Villains, the Carnies now have mobs all the way down to level 30. Other than Caedo Kestral’s involvement in her arc there’s no reason Madeline Casey’s arc needs to occur only during levels 40-45. It could instead be available in the full 30-50 band the Carnies are available for (with Harvey Maylor unlocked immediately afterwards). 5) Consolidate the Police Radio/Broker Contacts: Batman’s police contact was Commissioner Gordon (and occasionally Bullock and a few others), not half the Gotham Police Force. The actual contacts are functionally interchangeable with the zone they’re in mattering only in the sense that your level determines which zones you can get missions in and where the door for the Mayhem/Safeguard missions are. So have whichever police contact/broker you speak to first become your default contact and attach then to the police radio/newspaper so you don’t need a separate tab just to track your detectives/brokers. This cuts the contact tabs down to just three; active, inactive and tips. I’d also suggest that the order be changed to active, tips and then inactive and, if feasible, add an option to disable the inactive tab to further reduce clutter. If I could figure out a way to cleanly put tips on the main tab, I’d say do that too, but at least removing all the needless duplication of police detective contacts would help somewhat with the clutter. 6) Consolidate the SSA’s so the contacts naturally introduce you to the next in their chain of missions: Half the hassle with the SSA’s is knowing which contact goes with which of the two arcs and in which order. If you have to pull up the Paragon wiki just to run a story in order, It’s a problem. * * * * There is SO much content in City of Heroes that could provide different areas to explore that often just goes missing until you find some of it via Oroboros (example; there’s a VERY early clockwork mission where you actually find the Clockwork King’s mortal remains with the skull cut open to remove the brain... very creepy and really helps set the stage for later Clockwork content). It doesn’t have to be my suggestions as laid out above, but some level of housekeeping on how contacts get handed out is something I feel would really help out the play experience.

Theoretically, they should have both powers. I’ve been meaning to post over on the Low-Hanging Fruit thread, that it’d be relatively straightforward to create several sets (armor, blast, melee, assault, manipulation, control) based on the PB/WS sets so you could mix and match them with other sets to specifically create heroes who had merged with a Kheld, provide another option for human-only Khelds to build (Kheld blaster, Kheld tank, Etc.), and let players refluff the abilities as desired (such as the Praetorian character who uses PB blasts that come from their power armor). That said, not the right approach to Statesman returning IMHO. I’m in the either “leave him dead or if he returns make it mean something” camp; heavily slanted to “leave him dead” just because it was pretty clear in his death scene that he was a tired old man who’d never quite gotten over the death of his wife and was only pushing on out of a sense of duty. All he needed was the assurance that the world wouldn’t end without him and he died with a smile on his face. Knowing that there’s a genuine afterlife in the CoH universe so he’s with his wife and daughter (who was canonically 72 when she died) would actually make yanking him out of Heaven rather cruel actually. So if they were to bring him back you’d almost need it to be due to a villain resurrecting him in some scheme where he’s under their control and where States can’t be killed again (which is what he’d probably want) so the only remaining option to stopping the villain is to break their control and get mopey immortal States back. I’m going to propose an even more radical answer to the Ms. Liberty issue though. Since CoH has always used real dates for historical events, most of the Freedom Phalanx is actually getting into Star Trek V territory and the members of the Vindicators “junior team” are in their late 30s at the youngest. While some, like Numina, Citadel and Ms. Liberty, have functional immortality for one reason or another, Back Alley Brawler is 60, Position is 58, Synapse is 54 and Manticore is 52 as of 2020. Likewise, Mynx is 38. Penelope is the youngest; 18-19 in the Faultline arc and joins the Phalanx five years later in 2012 so 31-32. My suggestion is that we should have even more changes made to the trainers/TF contacts; in some cases even swapping the TF giver with the trainer to reflect the former sidekick becoming a main hero and the Phalanx member stepping back into a Mentor role. In some cases it might make sense to outright replace the hero entirely (or at least give them a visual update). For example; Manticore should either be decked out in a powered exoskeleton to compensate for all the beatings he’s taken like Batman in The Dark Knight Returns or Kingdom Come or he should be made the trainer a la a Batman Beyond-style badass mentor too beat up to keep fighting himself, but passing along his wisdom to the next generation). In point of fact, pushing the “I’m too old for this” aspect would actually make a lot of the TFs more plausible. The older Phalanx members are symbols and have scores of contacts that help them coordinate responses to threats the city faces; but they’re getting too old to be anything but a liability in the field, which is why they’re relying on the players to save the day. Perhaps that might be something to look at when (hopefully) the HC team eventually gets around to cleaning up the other TFs the way Posi and Yin were. Hey! Back Alley Brawler plays a VERY useful role in Atlas. He’s right next to Aaron Thiery and so is the ideal trainer to hit after finishing the middle arc of the Atlas Park mission chain. Between endurance issues and TOs not mattering much I often skip leveling in Atlas once I get my level 4 power just because I don’t wanna run all the way back to Ms. Liberty each time when the mission chain is designed to pretty smoothly move you from one mission/contact to the next with minimal backtracking. But popping around the corner to BABs after you get Theiry as your third contact and you’ve got 2-4 level-ups stacked on you is super convenient. If anything, BABs not only needs to stay where he is, he needs a vendor by him just because I routinely hit level 7 about then and that’s a good time to slot some acc TOs to make up for the slow reduction of your base to-hit number you’re starting to feel if you haven’t started slotting them by then.

Huh, I didn’t realize it was a problem. I figured if my old Win 7 machine ran it smooth as butter on the default Ultra settings, then anyone could.

I’d be more inclined to agree with that if the non-Oroboros contact system wasn’t a complete hash dropping out of order contacts on you with only the initial pop-up giving you any clue as to when they’re supposed to occur. There’s also no clear on-ramp for the non-promoted content unless you’re actually familiar with the system and the find contact button (which isn’t even highlighted on the contacts tab) is littered with out of sequence contacts (particularly the ones in First/Night Ward) based solely on your level. Frankly, the entire contact system needs to be cleaned up. I’ve got some thoughts, but I’ll save it for another thread once I’ve cleaned them up a bit. As it stands though the only way to ensure sequential arcs is via level range. The Council upgrades happen during and post New Praetorians, so for sequence sake, shouldn’t appear before level 35. Malta doesn’t recruit Battle Maiden until Dark Astoria (incarnate content) so their upgrades need to happen in that range too. In general, my upgrade concepts are intended to be “incarnate upgrades” that result from the incarnate arms race. My other line of thinking is that Kallisti Wharf is way too gorgeous a zone to just be devoid of content except for one TF and tip missions. Making it the home base for these upgraded groups and stories related to them would give it some much needed content. As such, the updated groups should be in that zones level range of 40-50 (though I suspect it was originally intended to be another 50 only zone like Dark Astoria). On a related note; Dark Astoria already did a pretty good job incarnating the magic threats; Tsoo and Banished Pantheon both got specific 50+ mobs; and the Circle of Thorns already had 50+ mobs and had a recent (relative to shutdown) visual upgrade as well. So with that in mind, my primary focus for upgrading would be on the “tech” factions, many of whom look quite dated and, well, frumpy. Malta is supposed to be THE black-ops anti-meta force in the world; but they’re decked out in ordinary looking fatigues and mostly armed with slug-throwers. Crey’s power armor also looks extremely dated relative to newer models. The Freakshow are meant to have an anachronistic 80s-90s punk theme, but there have to have been more modern offshoots (which is the idea behind my Neo-Freakshow concept). So the idea behind my upgrades is that Kallisti Wharf would be to Tech what Dark Astoria was to magic. The Neo-Freakshow are making a statement as the future of man/machine fusion. Crey’s offices there are showing off the latest iterations of their power armor suits. The Council and Malta are testing their latest upgrades against the heroes there; etc.

I'll get some as soon as I'm happy with the final looks. Deal? My thinking is these would be things that strictly show up post-50. Earlier arcs wouldn't be touched if I were in charge of implementing them. I've always liked the original idea that progressing through the zones/levels was progressing through time as well, so Atlas was issue 1, Kings Row is issue 2, etc. I honestly think how they set up the SSA's and then pulled States and Sister Psyche from the game was the wrong way to go. Setting several of the arcs that were clearly post-Praetoria in levels as low as 35 also just plays havoc with the clear timeline the game once had. Phasing tech could have kept the events out of sight in Bricks before the arc occurs, but it really needed to be AFTER the i-Trials. It's too late to fix what the original devs put wrong (given the mandate to cash grab you see in a lot of the late content; some of those story arcs are practically commercials for the newer power sets and costumes you could only get with Paragon Points; I suspect got in the way of the usual protocols; you can sell SSA's available at level 20 a lot easier than if they're only available if you have a level 50), but that doesn't mean we have to compound the error. So yeah, I'm thinking exclusively post-50 and also with an eye to their native stomping ground being Kallisti Wharf; so definitely leaning on the later costume pieces and the like to match the general quality you see in that zone.

See, and I love my Archery/Tac Arrow Blaster (though I admittedly skipped Rain of Arrows). I found that Tac Arrow’s electro-net (energy damage and VERY short recharge), toxic glue (toxic damage) and ice arrow (cold damage), coupled with Archery’s fire (fire damage) and explosive (smashing damage) arrows gives it a fantastic mix of energy types to deal with things with high lethal resist. Of particular note, two of the biggest offenders; ghosts and robots; are usually weak to energy so I just spam them with electro-nets (I slot mine with damage IO set instead of immobilize) with their 1s cast and 1s recharge (popping a fire, ice or sniper shot into gaps as they come up) and watch them melt. ESD and explosive arrows are also good against robots (ESD for the bonus damage, explosive because most bots aren’t resistant to smashing damage). Also of note, the ESD arrow + the Ice Arrow can lock down anything short of an AV and give you time to double stack your ice arrow to keep them that way. I think it’s easily my favorite blaster of any I’ve ever rolled. Fast firing, very low End use (only needed the base stamina slot + base effect of the +rec secondary to have zero End worries) and with exceptional control as a secondary. It’s bonus to-hit from the secondary also augments the fast damage of the archery snipe (it was very easy with tactics and the kismet to-hit IO to reach the damage buff cap) which I’ve got on a 5s recharge. Even with high resistance to lethal it just drills through things. Sorry your A/TA blaster didn’t work out for you. Not every build is for everyone.

I’ve got a level 36 Praetorian who used the door in Underground Imperial to reach First Ward and from there went into Night Ward. My plan is to utterly exhaust the content there before finally exiting to Primal Earth as close to 50 as I can get so I can then do the Instant Army and Hero’s Epic (i.e. more Praetoria). If necessary, I’ll do the New Praetorians arcs pre-50, but if I can hit 50 without them I’ll delay those so I can run them in sequence after the Trials and Belladonna arc. Lastly, I plan to close that character out with the Praetoria’s Last Gasp arc with the notion that they will remain at Last Bastion rather than return to Primal Earth because Praetoria is their home and they intend to fight for it.

I’ve actually been messing around with enemy group designs in AE based on the last lore developments from issues 23 and 24 and, in general coming up with ideas/looks for “incarnated” enemy groups that could be built using existing assets. * * * * The Tsoo, Circle of Thorns and Banished Pantheon have already been upgraded so they’re good to go. Devouring Earth can upgrade by having the two Hami’s merge into a pandimensional Hami. * * * * Per the lore the Council teamed up with Scott’s UPA group which netted them Warworks and IDF tech. In addition Arneson from Praetoria (who was working on a detox/cure for the Destroyers) is going to reverse engineer Neuron’s super-power serum (that Marauder used in the Lambda trial) to improve their super-soldiers. While the conclusion of the New Praetorians arcs suggests that the Warworks/IDF tech were all lost, they don’t HAVE to be and, frankly, I think adding more visual distance between the Council and 5th Column would do them some good. Again, per the lore, at least Requiem (war wolves) and Vandal/Burkholdler (Mek-men) have gone back to the 5th Column. Add Noferatu (Parasites) to that crew and the 5th Column aesthetic becomes a solid 50’s B-movie theme (space nazis, vampires, werewolves and almost cartoonish robot designs). So with that in mind I created the “Nova Cor Leonis” as the next step up from the current Council troops that take the IDF look, but oversized (per normal for Council super-soldiers) and using the Council’s color schemes. Drop the parasites, war wolves and Vandal’s Mek designs entirely from the Council and replace the Mek-men with clockwork/warworks units, the hover bots with IDF orbs and the Galaxy troops for outright Nictus dwarves and novas. Then add a sleeker Ascendant design. * * * * For Malta, I’ve built a higher-tech uniform (starting with Director-11’s look) for the troops and replaced the slug-throwers with beam weapons for the minions (I use the bots mastermind beam rifle since its a little more restrained) and dual pistols for the gunslingers (and mention nanotech homing ammo for why the ammo arcs in flight). Leave the Titans as-is (nanotech upgrades are more internal for them). I wish I could give the sapper’s attacks to a new mob, but as is they’re left with the old frumpy look compared to their sleaker buddies. * * * * I’ve also been toying with “Neo-Freakshow” (based on the Cybertech set mixed with some Cyborg and Resistance bits) and upgraded Sky Raiders (the folding Shrike wings started that concept). The whole exercise is basically a proof of concept test for new “incarnate” threats (albeit limited by AR mechanics to level 54). We’ll see how it goes.

Dibs on "Nude Scrapper" for my next blaster build. 😃

I'd pencil those in right after my preference for story arcs and enemy groups to be added to Kallisti Wharf which is far too gorgeous to be so criminally underused. We know the doors there function because you can use tip missions in zone so its mainly a matter of finding the right story and the right outdoor mobs to fill it in. Ideally I'd like to see both blue and red side arcs for Kallisti Wharf as it appears like its been laid out with a hero (bright and shiny) and villain (more industrial and run down) side to it already with the big tower and Statesman statue as neutral ground in the middle. Maybe something like the Peacebringer/Warshade arcs that started as separate stories then merged into a single arc for both. I also don't think it needs to specifically follow the path that the original devs had laid out either (though it should flow from what's been set up obviously). I don't need an ever-scaling cosmic crisis where Well < Battalion < Dimensionless < Whatever the heck it was they were talking about as bigger than the Dimensionless was requires ever greater power creep. Frankly, I think the Oncoming Storm would be better addressed not as a single big bad, but as a whole series of crises that pop out in close proximity to overwhelm the system. A not quite so epic Battalion would be one faction of that, but all the groups the i23-24 personal story missions showing off how various factions were getting incarnate upgrades leading to a "Perfect Storm" seems like something that would be more on scale to what our current dev team could tackle.

Or, if there is a change, it would be a good one. For me, it’s the focus on both future-proofing (64-bit client is HUGE in this regard) and backend code cleanup/documentation (making all future work easier) that is why I chose Homecoming over any of the other server groups. Those aren’t the things you do if you’re just trying to bask in nostalgia while you still can. That’s the actions of a team focused on the long haul.

Word to this. I played a PUG Tinpex at base difficulty on my just alpha-slotted scrapper the other day. We had no support classes and my scrapper faceplanted more in just one of those two TFs than I did in my entire solo run to 50 (including soloing all six of the TFs for the Task Force Commander badge while in their level bands). The supposedly invincible all damage approach ran into a wall so hard we had to actually stop and regroup after a couple of TPKs. Frankly, I think the people asking for “hard mode” are playing in such rarified air they can’t even see what the general playerbase looks like. I’m betting they have a multi-billion INF, fully T4’d incarnated builds and think everyone else plays that way... when 95+% of the player base is running on uncommon/rare IO sets and haven’t gotten their destiny and lore slots unlocked yet. The difficulty is plenty hard enough already for the vast majority of the playerbase and the ones complaining would be complaining about the difficulty being too low even if the baseline were pushed past the point the majority of the players couldn’t even try to participate. The OP says they can’t find enough people to team with interested in their version of hard mode and presume it’s because people don’t want a challenge instead of realizing that the current levels of difficulty are STILL a challenge to most players. OP. You ARE the elite. The reason you can’t find enough people at your level is because there just aren’t enough players AT your level. You are Blue Steel, my friend. The difficulty you want everyone to shoulder would crush them.

For me it’s as simple as “I am constitutionally incapable of playing evil.” Not just here; in any game. I’ve never seen the villainous endings of video games I own outside of YouTube videos. I couldn’t even take the vigilante option in the new HC vigilante-only arc (which I used Null to try out because the Vigilante tip missions require too many moral compromises for me to actually manage 10 tips plus a morality mission to do it organically). I stealthed through most of it and, when given the option, ultimately arrested the guy for the lesser offense rather than killed him. I tried a Chaotic Neutral PC in a D&D game once. By the third session the GM declared them Chaotic Good. The first villain I rolled in CoV was an undercover hero from the future trying to stop a horrible event from happening and needed to play the villain. I picked only missions that seemed to have other villains as targets. I deliberately failed certain missions. For the mission to stop Amanda Vines broadcast I just zoned in and door sat until the timer ran out. I was basically playing like the lightest-grey rogue, before the Rogue alignment was even a thing. But by the 30s the content was getting darker and harder to avoid the moral event horizon. So when the final Kelly Uqua mission allowed me to deliberately fail it and thereby allow reveal the secret Rikti plot, I decided THAT was the event my Redside character had been sent back to stop and benched them immediately thereafter at level 38. Then I re-rolled the character blueside as they started their life over as a hero in the light of day. When the alignment system was put into place, the first thing I did was run that benched character through it so they could be a hero using their original AT. Years ago I learned I was someone who, without thinking, ran towards real life danger just because I saw a stranger in need of help. I am literally not wired to enjoy even pretending to be a bad guy. That’s why I don’t play redside.

Its considered a little below the Street Justice and such level in performance, but Kinetic Melee, particularly with the effects set to the darker shades of "light" (i.e. light customization then pick the darkest red or blue you can) makes for a good soft martial arts style like Tai Chi (which I believe some of its animations were based on actually).

Mr. Rogers was a Scrapper.

So, I like my toons to fit the setting lore and my latest one led me down the rabbit hole of the canon timeline. The use of real dates was fine in 2004 and still passable in 2012 when the game shut down, but in 2020? Let me present a few examples; Manticore was born in 1968 so he was 36 in 2004, 44 in 2012 and 52 in 2020. Mynx was born in 1982 and 22 at the game launch (right age for college student turned new superhero), but would be 30 by 2012 and 38 in 2020. Back Alley Brawler’s heyday in the eighties was 30-40 years ago, putting him (a natural orgin hero) at least in his late 50s, but possibly into his 70s today. Now for some heroes it doesn’t matter as much... Ms. Liberty is probably as ageless as her mom (who was 72 when she died in the SSA) so, apart from her fashion choices despite now being in her 40s (maybe even 50s... her mom was in her 20s during the 1960s) it’s fine that she still only looks 20-something. Anyway, what I’m getting at is that City of Heroes is now getting old enough that, unless you want Star Trek V or the later Star Wars EU (“70 is the new 30” was actually said by one of the authors when asked why Han Solo could still be running around like a young man despite being in his 70s by that point)... then the game should probably start implementing the concept of “comic book time” as applied by DC and Marvel. In other words, remove specific dates unless absolutely necessary (or the subject is functionally immortal) and replace them with X years ago. The other alternative; and possibly a way to make Homecoming stand apart from the game as it appeared live; would be to let the march of years progress in future story content. Manticore passes his mantle to an apprentice or pre-Sister Psyche illegitimate child (fitting for a Batman/Green Arrow expy mashup). Back Alley Brawler retires entirely (while the super serum Marauder used extended his lifespan). Ms. Liberty steps up as a senior hero along with other members of the Vindicators becoming members of the Freedom Phalanx as older members retire. Comic Book Time would probably be easier to implement.

I was thinking as another ATO set. Call it “Long Arm” (of the law) and have its sixth slot include a significant enough global range increase to bump a melee AT’s reach say 25%. The reason I say it needs to be an ATO set (or four sets; for scrappers, tanks, brutes and stalkers) is because that way the range increases can be significant enough to matter for melee attacks (even a 40’ one would only go to 50’), but wouldn’t be slottable on ranged classes (where 80’ becomes 100’ and a snipe goes insane).

You know, forget 40 feet; I’d pay good influence for something that would up my scrapper’s reach just a couple feet (or expand that silly 50 degree melee arc on that might as well be a single-target attack for all the targets it ever hits, but has the END cost of an AoE).