Chris24601

Might be doable just with alternate animations, but I’m not sure how well weapon sets play with those so it might need to be its own power set, but... Tactical Grenades: Literally just Tactical Arrow with grenade animations in place of the bow. The reason is simple and two-fold... First, you can only have two weapons as part of your costume. If you’re Dual Pistols, the bow is invisible (but the arrows are not) so all of the bow attacks look ridiculous. Using a grenade means there’s no third weapon. Second, grenades are more generic and don’t have redraw issues when combined with other blast sets. They thematically work better with Assault Rifle and Beam Rifle and are easier to fluff as other things (they can be magic flasks for a Magic origin character) for other sets and are easier to justify pulling from utility belts or similar as a supplement to your primary attacks vs. whipping out a bow. Finally, if we’re in for a penny, may as well go for the pound... if you can use a grenade animation for them... you could also do a forearm launcher animation too for those who want a more “power armor” look. So there’s my suggestion... Tac Arrow and Trick Arrow variants using grenades or arm launchers to better allow their use with a broader range of concepts.

Water Blast is FANTASTIC for going full bore while still feeling like you're being non-lethal and just trying to get them to "cool off" in situations like this. Yeah, high pressure water can actually do a LOT of damage in real life, but given that you're basically water-bending it feels like something you can really control the power level of and the fact that all of its knock attacks are all relatively low mag down or up (vs. back) it feels like you're self-regulating the flow so you're just doing enough to knock them down rather than hitting them with a blast of water solid enough to send them flying through the air.

Yeah, water jet has a 10 second cooldown on its 3 stacks Tidal Forces use. Double Use every 10 seconds is already quite OP... add a third with their aim power also giving three stacks it’d be over the top.

To be fair; on live it used to take 22 missions over 4 real world days (plus grinding for the 5-6 tips per day) in order to go from villain to hero. The Null the Gull and unlimited tips per day were added mainly due to low population numbers on the SCoRE servers and were maintained on Homecoming. I don't mind the tip mission requirement for alignment change from rogue to hero, though I do appreciate Null being able to set my initial Red-side alignment to Rogue as that much better reflects how I play my toons even if it doesn't actually have a mechanical effect until level 20+. I WOULD mind if unlimited tips per day were taken away as the Rogue tip missions are about the only thing I can stand in terms of post-35-ish Red-side content (after I'm done with Hardcase in St. Martial it gets really hard to find Rogue-friendly story arcs outside of those tips so a cap at 5 per day means I'd just definitely take all my toons Blue at that point rather than keep one Rogue intact to help out some friends who are playing through Red-side; I'd Null one hero to Vigilante before any such change went live and that's what my friends who are trying out Redside would be stuck with once we hit level 35). I don't think I can stress how unpleasant I find playing villains. I can tolerate Rogues by limiting myself to a curated list of story arcs and Rogue tip missions (doing 10 Rogue to Hero missions, then 10 Rogue missions and the Rogue confirmation mission helps break up the monotony a bit)... but that's the extent of my ability to enjoy Redside. Which is why I suggested the notion of "Red-side Heroes" as about the only thing that would keep me Redside... I'll do "fighting for justice in a corrupt society" (that's the draw of Praetoria for me... just wish it continued past level 20 without the hard reboot of narrative direction with First/Night Ward).

And it’s also worth noting too in the distinction that vigilantes are still considered “heroes” in the generic sense. They aren’t locked out of any blue-side content for being a vigilante (as opposed to Rogues who can visit, but only have radio and tips that turn you Hero available sans teaming). They just have a differing set of priorities (protect the innocent vs. punish the guilty) and both priorities have a role in achieving justice (allowing villains to go entirely unpunished leads to villains feeling there are no consequences for their crimes). The same can be said of Warden and Responsibility; both play a role in trying to protect Praetorian society from its worst excesses. You can see how close they are both in the fact that both are the mission chains available to either faction (where as you MUST be Resistance to take Crusader missions and MUST be Loyalist to take Power missions) and in the moral choices available at the end of each zone arc. Warden moral choices are invariably about protecting individuals (remain Resistance/Warden) vs. protecting society (go Loyalist/Responsibility) while Responsibility moral choices are invariably about protecting society (remain Loyalist) vs. protecting individuals (go Resistance). Honestly, the most interesting thing to me is how it shakes out in the post-Praetorian War arcs; where Responsibility and Warden NPCs end up basically on the same side (and in Paragon City) while you see Crusader and Power NPCs turn up in the Rogue Isles (including generic Crusader mobs joining Arachnos in Recluse’s tower in Grandville). Also telling on the “two sides of the same coin” front is that the final morality choice for Responsibility involves an NPC who basically embodies the “Responsibility” faction in Praetoria deciding to “go Resistance/Warden” on learning Emperor Cole’s true plans. Similarly, even if you remain Loyalist, Marchand (who is Responsibility) urges you to go to Paragon City and be a hero in an effort to avoid the war by proving not all Praetorians are villains (and that going Red will do nothing but empower yourself). Honestly? It makes me wish we actually had two more alignments on Primal Earth... call it a “Red-side Warden”; a hero who protects the innocent in the Rogue Isles while evading the legal authorities (i.e. the utterly corrupt RIP and Arachnos); and a “Blue-side Power”; a self-serving powered person who cares only about their own fame and glory (akin to The Boys).

The key distinction for me is that most of the Warden missions involve rescuing people from the corrupt regime while many Responsibility missions are about taking out threats to the false peace of Praetoria... including executing people because going through proper channels wouldn’t be effective (ex. Washington choosing to execute Cleopatra because she’s Resistance because he believed Praetor White would try and shield her). There are several Blueside missions that involve you going outside the law for the greater good. One particularly memorable Crey arc even has you hunted by the authorities for a time because you’re getting too close to uncovering the Countess’ true identity. So disregard for the letter of the law isn’t the hero/vigilante divide. The tip missions on the other hand make that divide clear; choosing hero for the tips always prioritize saving people over actually stopping the bad guy, vigilante missions always prioritize stopping the bad guy over saving people. Warden missions similarly prioritize saving people (even from their Crusader allies at times) while Responsibility missions prioritize hunting down those responsible for endangering people. That’s why I categorize Warden as more hero aligned while Responsibility feels more vigilante aligned. It’s not a perfect match because of the underlying structures (Paragon City by-and-large has reasonable authority figures so heroes can operate mostly within the law while Praetoria is clearly a crapsaccharine tyrannical dystopia where saving people more often requires going around or outside the law), but the Praetorian mission targets relative to the tip missions (the only place we really get a distinction between a hero and a vigilante) fits a LOT more closely than the other way around.

For me it always mapped as; Warden = Hero. Oppose oppression, but care about the means used. Crusader = Villain. Most of their missions boil down to hurting innocents to achieve their political goals. Loyalist = Vigilante. Try to do the right thing, but are willing to do grey things for the greater good of keeping society intact. Power = Rogue. You’re out for power, fame and wealth and saving people is a means to that end (many rogue tip missions and the like focus on getting people to pay you for saving them or to gain the item you procured). None are a perfect match, but that always felt like the closest fit... the two extremes (hero/villain) in one faction and the two intermediates (vigilante/rogue) in the other because that allows for different interactions than otherwise and gives both factions a reason to go either Blue (warden/responsibility) or Red (crusader/power) at the conclusion of the main Praetoria arcs. One of the big “tells” on this, at least for me, is who you get to have farewell conversations with in the mission that sends you to Primal Earth. Hero Resistance is all Warden story NPCs. Villain Resistance is all the Crusader NPCs. Similarly, Hero Loyalists meet up with Responsibility NPCs and Villain Loyalists meet the Power NPCs.

The fact that you can’t see yourself when using the sustain power for blaster devices led to me re-rolling them as a Tac-arrow secondary (the power preview in the character builder didn’t include any fade out, just a blue aura... so it was annoying to get to level 20 and have your character just disappear). It kinda worked out because I was already dual pistols so the bow was invisible and you just saw the arrow appear and launch and I eventually used the Resistance gloves to justify it being hydraulically launched from your right gauntlet; but I would have much preferred devices for variety. Similarly, my stalker hides using the equivalent of Jedi mind tricks so having them remain visible to me would actually be more thematically appropriate.

Oh and regarding the “NCSoft Bad” and “Gimme Shinies” post above... NCSoft is made up of people and those people change over time. The NCSoft of today is not the NCSoft of eight years ago. Their priorities then are not going to be their priorities now. The people making the decisions now aren’t the people who made the decision then. There’s also a big difference between shutting down a game with the thought that the IP might be useful elsewhere and that the market would move to their other properties... and licensing an IP that’s laid fallow for nearly a decade to be used in a market in which they have no interest in even trying to compete in. As to things like growth and wind control and all those other “shinies”; Apple just ended compatibility with 32-bit programs. The next iteration of Windows is almost sure to follow suit as the last 32-bit systems are nearly a decade old at this point. All those shinies aren’t worth a thing without a system to play it on. It may not be glamorous, but the Homecoming team did the work to upgrade the client to 64-bit architecture that ensures new players on new systems can actually play the game (and older players aren’t locked out forever because their old machine finally died). Cleaning up the fundamentals like that is the sort of responsible use of resources that will keep Homecoming running long after flashes in the pan offering poorly tested shinies have faded away.

Nah, the interesting part was they put the most traditionally heroic types (Warden goal of overthrowing the evil empire without endangering the population) with the worst possible monsters (the Crusaders are willing to blow up hospitals full of innocents and set off a neutron bomb under the city just to make Cole look bad) and then put the folks struggling to make the least bad of a bunch of awful choices (Responsibility) with the ones who only care about the fame of being a super (Power is basically The Boys). Thus, each faction is a study in contrasts; The Resistance is “What means are justified?” and the Loyalists are “What do you do with your power?” By the end the Responsibility Loyalists and Wardens are basically on the same page that Cole’s invasion plans have to be stopped (and fit naturally into Blue-side) and Crusader and Power, while their overall goals don’t align, are naturally better fits for the Might Makes Right philosophy of Arachnos and the Rogue Isles. As to Red-side, I’ve done several characters who make it to about level 35. Prior to 35 there’s enough content that is Rogue-focused that I can work with the setting as a fugitive or jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold type who robs from the even worse and tries not to get any bystanders hurt. Past that, particularly once you reach Grandville, the only Rogue options left are basically tip missions and newspapers (beat up or rob another villain). There’s no way a Rogue (at least as I envision a Rogue) can justify not shooting Westin Phelps in the head after being given their first assignment from him. Bottom-line for me; if you want me to be interested in late-game Red-side then I need more arcs that let me stay a Rogue; an Ocean’s 11, John Wick, just about any comic series where a villain is the protagonist. The biggest problem with a lot of Red-side content is you’re basically being written as the antagonist during acts one and two of a three act superhero story instead of as a protagonist of a full three act story... basically you’re presented as a monster (ex. the lackey mission in the Graves arc; the Skull agrees to help you and be your minion only for you to turn him over to a serial killer not two-minutes later... this is particularly jarring if you’re playing a rogue-ish Thugs MM as the Skull was perfect recruitment material for your gang of misfits). Even better from my PoV would be to start adding actual hero missions on the Isles and full-on villain missions in Paragon City. Let the players who really want to play a Batman type have the rundown urban decay and overtly corrupt police forces and corporations of the Isles along with the worst villainous scum to fight. Let the villains who prefer to plot crimes against the rich targets of Paragon have missions beyond just the timed mayhem missions and other instances to explore there. But as written currently, I start into Rogue tip missions as soon as they’re available and leave the Isles behind for Blue-side after I get done with Hardcase and unlocking the Patron powers.

Why no disabled people? Have you seen how inexpensive a set of cybernetic legs are from the technology origin shop? Heck, there’s magic stores you can just walk into and buy powerful enchanted talismans that boost all manner of things. So the “everyone (or at least a fair percentage) is actually super” argument actually has some merit to it.

This is because every architect in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles was replaced by a member of the Circle of Thorns. They designed every building in the City and Isles to force hapless mortals by their erratic paths through their office buildings to enact eldritch rituals that empower the Circle and their demonic minions. At least that’s the only sane reason I can think of for the layouts. The layouts are too crazy to even be.a Nemesis plot so the only remaining reason is “a wizard did it.”

Spectrum for the boots is at the very bottom of the texture lists for the basic, stiletto, flat, folded, etc. boots rather than a separate boot type.

For me, all of my toons monitor; -Regen Rate -Recovery Rate -Endurance Consumption -Last Hit-Chance -Inf Depending on the toon I will also montor; -Current Hit Points (if the toon regularly rides that edge... regen rate and the basic bar are usually enough) -PVE Stealth Radius (if the toon has stealth) -Hold Protection (if mez protection isn't steady state; ex. a clicky or Blasters with the stacking ATO proc) -Damage Bonus (if the toon has a non-permanent means of buffing it) -A relevant defense bonus (if the toon is defense focused and has elements that will cause it to vary)

Think more Alucard from Castlevania (hmmm... maybe I should go fire mastery instead, but can I shoot three fireballs at once?). Basically traditional vampire powers minus burning up in the sun (at least no more so than your usual ginger ); superhuman speed and strength, fast healing, limited transformation like growing claws/fangs or turning to mist (hide+flight+a cloudy aura), some hypnosis (i.e. placate) and channeling the power of their blood (boosting strength/damage, speed/defenses or endurance). In the level 30+ range this will also include some blood sorcery (pulling blood from nearby people to heal, trapping opponents in bloody tentacles, etc.).

I have zero characters with Mace Mastery... my Archery/Tac Arrow Blaster went Munitions for the armor auto power so I could slot the two +3% defense IOs from the resist sets. My Statesman heir from “Elysian Earth” (Rularuu, the Rikti and Praetoria never reached them because Primal Earth took care of them first) had her evil twin from “Tartaran Earth” (where Recluse took over everything) unlock the Patron Pools so both could wield Zeus’ lightning as intended. My hi-tech Claws/WP scrapper went with Fire Mastery for built-in plasma blasters in addition to the forearm plasma blades. My widow has no patron powers at all and, by their fluff, is faking the psi-attacks with a psychic generator she got in trade for helping Psimon-Omega (because she just barely qualified and only earned above average marks in running in high heels). Her bosses keep sending her to assist with actual Destined Ones schemes in the hopes she’ll meet a sticky end and be out of their hair, but she apparently has the survivability of a cockroach. My Dhampyr Savage/Bio Stalker will be going Soul Mastery because it’s the easiest pool to recolor to look like blood magic (just like I did for Bio’s auras) and some actual ranged attacks to pick off runners will be useful. My Magic Grav/Storm Controller will be going Blaze Mastery because it sticks with the whole “fundamental cosmic forces” theme way better than something like a Mace would (a funky wand maybe?) and some characters you just don’t want to bother with side switching. So... yeah, Mace doesn’t even exist in my world of character creation.

One of my favorite endgame activities; Hellion Launching. Grab your biggest knockup power, hit a level 1 Hellion with it and count how long it takes them to fall back down. Hellion Golf is similar, but requires a knockback power and teleport foe to get them to a rooftop for optimal distance.

I tend towards classic comic looks, but with more modern textures. The Olympian Guard top and bottom have a nice base texture complete with actual seams and the very basic retro-sci-fi gloves and boots are basically updated versions of the original gloves/boots. Similarly, my archer got good use out of the Circle of Thorns costume while still looking like a fairly classic superhero.

I brought my laptop with CoH on it over to my Godkid’s house when I was watching them for their folks’ anniversary. We plugged it into the big screen and I helped them each make a character. And let them run around in Atlas Park. They’ve been preaching to their parents about needing to play CoH together for me ever since as a result. Mwuhahahahahahah!!!

Having tried an Archery/Trick Arrow Corruptor, Trick Arrow/Archery Defender and an Archery/Tactical Arrow Blaster I can say without reservation that Tactical Arrow does everything Trick Arrow needs to do, only better and with personal survival buffs on top. Net Arrows? Check, plus they're electrified so they do energy damage, helping you deal with ghosts and robots, the two mob types most resistant to your bread and butter lethal damage. Ice Arrows? Also check, plus they deal cold damage over time and fast enough on recharge you can double stack them with little difficulty. Glue Arrows? Check, plus toxic damage over time (you noticing a theme yet?) Flash Arrows? Check... basically the trick arrow version. EMP Arrow? Check, but faster to recharge and you get it 3 levels earlier. Self-buffs include strong regeneration, so much recovery you only need a single End-mod SO in Stamina to never worry about endurance again, to-hit/perception buffs, knockback and immobilization protection and a 20% recharge buff to what is already a fast recharging pair of power sets. In short, you deal exceptional single target damage, have solid off-controller (like off-tank only a controller) level lockdown ability, solid debuffs and ridiculous survivability for a squishy class (tactical arrow being all ranged with multiple immobilize/slow/hold attacks and a good base regeneration can prioritize IO slotting for ranged defense and more regeneration to deal with what little actually does get through). And it can't be cited enough... Archery + Trick Arrow gives you lethal damage, one attack with some fire damage and one attack with some smashing. Archery + Tactical Arrow gives you all that plus a T1 scale energy DoT you can get down to a 1 second recharge time, a cold DoT attack and an AoE toxic DoT attack. In short, all those things you were weak against with Archery + Trick Arrow are much less of a problem for Tactical Arrow. Trick Arrow needs a hard optimization pass to bring it more into line with Tactical Arrow's capabilities.

I have to carefully select my red-side missions to not get disgusted with it and just flip hero at the earliest opportunity. I always stop the intro arcs after the Harris introduction (before he gives you his story arc) because I wouldn't care enough about Longbow to use some sucker to murder one of them (I also spare Fire Wire). I also skip the Graves arcs because I don't want to have to deal with Crosscut; particularly the lackey explanation mission where you have to give him the Skull who just swore himself to you. There's villain and then there's being a dick. You treat your help well so you get a rep of being good to work with... otherwise you're stuck hiring the few people living under rocks who haven't heard of your glorious exploits yet. I always appreciated that they managed to stick the two most extreme sub-factions (LG and CE essentially) into the same group while still managing an opposing axis for the other (LN and CN essentially). My recommendation if you wanna get out of Praetoria with your morals intact; do Warden (Resistance) missions only until the last one, flip Loyalist there, then run the Responsibility (Loyalist) arcs (but take every Resistance mission option you can within them) and finally flip back Resistance at the moral choice point. If you wanna feel even better, run First/Night Ward before leaving for Paragon City... putting the exit scenes with Katie and Noble after First/Night Ward feels a lot warmer than leaving and then going to First/Night Ward. Conversely, if you want to really feel like a villain forget Red-side; go Crusader (Resistance) all the way then go join Arachnos like the proper psychopathic terrorist you are... you'll easily be more villainous than 99% of the most despicable villains of the Rogue Isles and you'll only be in your 20s.

The problem there is two-fold; First, unlike the Patron Pools there is no set themes available to every AT; Tankers have Ice, Scrappers do not. Scrappers have ninja weapons, Blasters have a rifle. Second, the Ancillary pools don’t map well to any existing major character. Blue-side Blast Furnace (after he goes hero) and Flambeaux (before she goes villain) are the only two I can think of who even have fire powers. Do we REALLY want Flambeaux as our patron just to get Blaze Mastery? We do not.

I made it to level 40 as a Praetorian by going directly to First Ward and then Night Ward. I had to a number of the First Ward repeatable missions and I probably could have dinged 50 if I’d used an SG base pillar to run all the arcs, but ultimately I left Praetoria at 40. I jumped straight into the Portal Corps Praetorian arcs and then the “New Praetorians” arcs. Those combined with double XP got my Praetorian to 50 where I ran the Last Bastion incarnate arc. It takes a little planning, but you CAN actually do Praetorian content all the way from 1-50 and only need to be Blue-side for the last 10 levels. You can’t do it Red-Side unfortunately since it only has the Mr. G arcs (added contemporaneously with the New Praetorians arcs) connecting to Praetoria while Blue-side has the revamped Portal Corps arcs to fill in the needed XP gaps.

If it helps on the incarnate front, my all natural archer’s fluff around the incarnate stuff is that they built incarnate stuff into their tech. Their uniform is reinforced with Incarnate Threads for added protection; Threads were also woven into their bow string and polyfiber bow to give it increased strength and their arrows are tipped with Incarnate Shards for better penetration. Ionic Judgement isn’t even them... they’re calling in a strike from a Vanguard orbital ion cannon. The character invented all their tactical arrow loads; incarnate is just a very advanced form of technology to them; akin to Tony’s ARC reactor or Vision; they’ve learned to adapt into their tech.

I should have explained more clearly. ”Redeem Scirocco” would be the Blue-Side arc to access the Patron Pools. Still have to do an arc to get Mu Mastery for your concept, but you aren’t playing a villain to do it. “Kill other villains and take their stuff” with Manticore as the contact would be a new Red-Side arc to access Patron Pools without becoming Recluse’s lackey. We’ve needed some new story content and the Vigilante and Rogue arcs were both appreciated and well done. So my suggestion is that these would be two good 35+ arcs to add because the payout/reward (Patron Powers without being a Recluse Lackey) is already in game. And because the rewards ARE the draw, I don’t think you’d need to add anything that can’t already be done for the actual missions in the arcs. No new programming needed, no new art or assets needed, just whatever amount of work goes into writing and scripting a 4-5 mission story arc. Heck, reduce the writing load by make a contest of who can write the best arc for it in AE and credit the winner as the arc’s writer (one award for Redeem Scirocco and one for Monsters Fighting Monster).