FDR's Think Tank

I just saw Pontypool and it's banging around in my head. That movie is fantastic. Kinda funny thinking about a Cult Classic movie like that when Wolverine+Deadpool is slamming theaters. You are on the edge of your seat the whole time, the pacing is fantastic, the script is masterful, and you can't see the end coming. Unlike certain modern blockbusters, eh?

Exactly... when Bashir was learning about Section 31, he was way out on the fringes... delving into something most Federation people wouldn't even think about or believe. That's what made the episodes with him and Section 31 so great. But later show and movies make Section 31 less like Area 51/X-files and more like... the NSA. It loses it's luster when it's like that.

Here are a couple of names I don't have time to do myself. Downbubble Pontypool

I wonder if they could even add a shoulder-mounted firearms option for Arsenal systems. I mean, it's not like we are asking them to go Astro-Boy on us with the mounting options.

If they had small furry bear men as a Mastermind Minion Set... you could dress like a Storm Trooper/Wookie and lead Ewoks into battle! Tribbles/Critters feel more like Controller/Dominator Summons.... you can't control them, you just unleash them. That's the thing about any Alien Mastermind Summon Set.... sure, you can give the player rayguns for combat, but the minions practically require you to be able to customize them. So we're definitely getting female minions around the same time they crack that chestnut. For now, you're stuck with Robots for Alien/Space themes. It's pretty effective. It occurs to me, the other way they could test the female minion thing is to make a Mastermind Set that just happens to have all Female Minions. Like they could have Pirate Minion Mastermind set (Complete with Booming Cannon Attacks), and it debuts with Female Minions, as a testbed/teaser for minion selection/customization. Other Possibilities for this would be Viking Minions (Valkyrie/Shield Maidens) w/ Throwing Axes, Puppetry Minions w/Puppet String trickery, Ghost Minions w/Ectoplasm, and Siren Wreckers w/Symphonic Combat.

People will be offended if you allow them to be offended. If you simply say "It's not our problem" and make sure the Moderators hold the line on leaving well enough alone, then there shouldn't be any issues with adding this.... Especially considering this games entire premise is based on the Western Culture Modern Mythos. Nobody serious is going to play a game like this without being prepared to run into something like that. The people pretending to be offended are just looking for an excuse. The reason they didn't do it when the game went live is because they knew, if given the choice, most players were going to make their henchmen women... which is fine for the individual doing it, but when considering the effect they wanted with Henchmen, which was squads of typically male goons that most Villains employ.... would spoil the atmosphere of the game. That's not exactly a concern now, is it? There is no board of investors to answer to and it's not a game that lives and dies based on updates. Now the game has been out, died, come back to life, and is not exactly flooded with casuals. Anyone still playing would be considered a hardcore gamer with that kind of dedication in any other game. We're mostly adults and highly doubt anyone would bother to abuse the function to do something silly like flooding a gathering area with piles of Harems. Even if they DID do that, it would just be a mildly passing amusement. I just don't see it being an ongoing organic issue unless this game suddenly gets thousands of teenage boys flooding into the game to make their own videogame harem. Wouldn't a larger player base be.... a good thing? Or are we trying to exclude people from a great thing? They will eventually get bored of Harems and want to try a variety of different ideas, many of which will integrate well with the community. If it's still a concern of atmosphere, you could always test something like making the Mastermind's top Henchmen eligible for customization. This would be a good way of determining which customization options Henchmen should be eligible for based on rank. After testing that out, you slowly work down to the lower level henchmen, provided it doesn't create the social/atmosphere problems people fear.

I feel like an exposed brain needs more support when not suspended in fluid/hover energy. It's a top heavy thing! I am surprised we haven't gotten a Cyberbrain yet too. And as far as the eye... basically yes. I was thinking it would be spinning Horizontally (Clockwise/Counter Clockwise) and getting a 360 degree view of things. Of course, other objects could spin, like suspended skulls and such. Just floating in the liquid, freed from rational static! We have that spinning key winder, after all.

Doesn't this all really boil down to the Archetypes core mechanic/ Archetype Ability? These Suggestions would work for Archetypes that do Summons/Armor or Armor/Summons. If you're going with "Tough to Kill" and "Loads of control" I would suggest having a mechanic that plays off that. There are two obvious directions I see. 1.) "Lead from the Front", when you are topped off on Health, your Control Abilities proc control effects less often (Only good for damage), but your Summons do more Damage. Summons attack-generated Aggro always piles onto the commander, but you'd have a specific power where you could dump aggro you have onto one of your pets. As your health goes down, your control powers become more effective, but your summons do less damage, as they are "Demoralized" essentially. 2.) "Battle Frenzy" - This is basically the opposite. When you are topped off on health, your control abilities are more effective, but as your health goes down, your Summons gain bonuses to doing damage and your control powers proc less often. Summons attacks do more aggro the lower your health is and your less effective control abilities generate less aggro when they aren't as effective. It may still be necessary to have an ability that can zero out this Archetype's Aggro, but it can be set in such a way where it's only available when they are lower on health. It also occurs to me that we are considering the Summons Powerset to be where this archetype will draw it's basic attacks from. However: What if the Armor Set is instead viewed as a Parry/Counter Attack set, rather than RAW Armor. This means it has abilities that reflect/activate consequences when the AT is attacked... rather than doing the typical "Aura" damage that some armorset abilities have.

Gotta say, "No Dome" on the brain is really skeeving me out. I feel like, at the very least, it would need some sort of infrastructure between it and the body to fill it out and not look purely obnoxious. It's one thing to be gross, and that's cool. But breaking immersion with a brain propped up by floppy tubing? It's visually infuriating. And I LOVE the Think Tank stuff. I'd love that bubble dome as an option for sure. A turning/naturally moving head would be pretty cool to have. I am curious, is it possible to have certain elements slowly spinning instead of being attached to the invisible head axis? I'm not thinking of something dynamic or jiggleboned... but more just... like being able to have the head object contained by the Dome to spin in place at a gentle pace. (This might require removing visual attachment for certain elements, like the brain tubes)

Aside from the fact that current bladed sets can, essentially, be used for melee dagger builds... They could also just make scrapper claws into Claws/Knives if you're just looking for a melee set. Or Spines could be Spines/Poisoned Blades. Then it's just a matter of giving an option on either of those sets to Hide Claws/Hide Spines and allow the character model to choose the knives set they want to wield. Personally, if they are going to really make a new Powerset for Knives, I would prefer it be a Ranged Set (Blaster, Sentinel, Defender, Corruptor) with a flavor of shorter ranges, similar to dual Pistols... but with a focus on combo attacks, like some of the Combo-Melee Sets. The other possibility is making throwing Knives have a 3 split like Dual Pistols of "Ammo type" which change how the blades function. The specialized options could be: "Featherlight" - Boosts range/reduces cooldown, but at the cost of raw damage. "Explosive" - Attacks damage adjacent enemies to target, can do knockdown, but increases cooldown time. "Poisoned Edge" - Attacks deal DoT and reduce target's resistance, but at a cost of maximum range. The advantage of doing Knives/Blades as a Ranged Set over a melee Set is multifold: 1.) This adds mechanics to Powersets that currently aren't represented in Ranged Powersets. 2.) A Throwing Knives Powerset can also contain Ninja Stars, Boomerangs, Darts, and other thrown weapons. It really kicks the door open for a variety of ranged martial arts. 3.) You aren't conflicting with existing Melee Powersets or retreading ground that's already been mostly covered.

I was thinking about this conundrum. It's neat having powers that mutate based on a clock, but it becomes a real problem if that clock is too quick to rely on what's going on. So there are a few solutions to this: 1.) At middle levels, the Epic Archetype has Dawn/Noon (Sun) and Dusk/Midnight toggles which allow them to ignore the current clock at the cost of endurance. At High Levels, they might Unlock Endless Twighlight (Sun) or Perfect Eclipse (Moon) which allows them to run both timezone versions of their powers at the same time. (Yikes, endurance!) 2.) Rather than the switch between modes being based on Clock, it can be based on Location. You can divide Sun/Moon locations up and have characters that function differently based on available "Ley Lines" that they tap into. 3.) Create a different Sun/Moon timer that starts when the player activates specific powers, then either regresses or advances based on the use of various powers in each set. The Players need to balance how they use the power to avoid (Dusk with Sun) or (Dawn with Moon) which would impose some sort of penalty for creating imbalance. This might tie back to that Sanity Meter suggestion I made earlier.

Epic Archetypes are unusual in that they are both Archetypes, but also semi-Origins as well. Kheldians are Aliens. Arachnos Soliders are Zealots. If you're going to keep that tradition going, you want to consider a few things: Where are these Epic Archetypes available? They could just make it easy to access and toss it to all sides, but it would be kind of nice to see an epic Archetype for Goldside, even though the Praetorian Universe is a doomed side/partial faction that players ultimately leave. Demi-Gods/Heralds of a Higher Dimension might be an interesting lore back story to toy with for Sun/Moon related Epic Archetypes. This is a "Magical" origin, but also can be any of the other 4 primary origins as well, depending on how you view it. The trick is you need to make them feel quite different from Kheldians who already cover "Positive" and "Negative" energy. This would be even better if it could be tied into Hamidon in some way. You might side step the idea of psuedo-good and psuedo-evil that is implied by the Positive/Negative dichotomy and focus more on something like the "Sun" representing burning Chaos, from which possibility is born. A little goes a long way, but too much feels hellish and downright manic. On the flipside, "Moon" might represent Coldly Rational Order, which stabilizes civilization. A little bit of this also goes a long way, because too much Order is oppressive and gloomy, draining the will to live. The Opposing force to these energies would be some sort of Divisive force that pushes each to extremes in order to create conflict and sow dissent.... the Ultimate Subversive Psychic Force? You might have some sort of insanity/risk management that could be paired with these powers to counterbalance them? We should probably not forget to post a link to this song either.... since it fits this theme so well. It would be fun playing with Moon/Sun powersets. Perhaps what needs to be considered is how they interact with other Archetypes, what scaling benefits they get when the are soloing, and how these Moon-Sun Archetypes interact with each other specifically. Honestly, I'm not convinced that some of the Archetype combinations that haven't been tried yet aren't actually viable with the right core mechanic. Epic Archetypes just feels like a side step of expanding the standard Archetype Roster. The most exciting part of adding new Archetypes is we can do powerset proliferation. Epic Archetypes seem like more work for less results and options.

Wasn't Liquid Nitrogen supposed to react with "Wet" to achieve some sort of freezing immobilization? I would prefer they finish that functionality and fully implement it. It's fun having powers that combo with other players abilities. Sure, it might not be consistently useful or reliable... but if that's what you want, there are plenty of rounded powersets.

It's a calculation of numbers. It's possible to balance in game play, they already have more complex gimmicks and combos that exist in the game. This would actually be less complicated than many of the existing combo systems, because it's closer to set it and forget it.

Fair enough. Then perhaps 1 or 2 layers that have conditional ability to tank a finishing shot or alpha hit.... and other layers instead have "Reaction" effects when the player is hit by a certain level of damage (Less than Alpha Strike but not on minor hits unless it's a finishing blow.), removing the layer, but giving a burst effect. A Fluid Armor tank down to his last hitpoint taking a small hit will activate their every layer between the topmost and their uppermost layer capable of negating damage. Negating damage might depend on combining layers in certain order, but because of that and layers having weaknesses to specific damage types.... it makes it possible to plan around Fluid Armor's Invulnerable hits. Of course, in combat against NPC's they won't normally get weakness hits in unless the Tank isn't paying attention to the enemy type... but because of the nature of the Layered armor, fighting masses of enemies can pose a problem for it. (Since Chip Damage is a bigger threat for this set.)

There are a few ways to make it "Not too powerful" 1. Layers have specific weaknesses that can be exploited. To prevent this from being predictable, layers would exist based in the order they were applied, with the last layer being the outermost. If a player is slammed with their topmost layer's weakness, they could lose 2 layers instead of one. 2. Keep in mind, layers only reduce damage on normal hits. When the tank is about to die, these layers give it only as many invulnerable hits as they have layers. It's incredibly powerful, but also weak to people wearing it down, then chipping it away. It's got a built in weakness! 3. I would like to see a tank set that doesn't fall back on self heals/health manipulation and actually has to think about where their health is when using their powers. I think at a certain point you're not talking about balance, but meeting narrow expectations. 4. Fine tune how many active layers the Water/Fluid Armor Tank can maintain to be balanced.

I could see Water Armor being a set where you stack up layers of water which reduces various damage. Each activation of a Water "layer" ability has a medium cool down, but gives you an aura of damage resistance for the duration. The trick with this set is that each time you take an "Alpha" strike or blow that would knock your character out... you lose the top most water layer instead. Water Armor Tanks would have armor that could be peeled off, essentially... and if they are still in the cool down for activation, they are vulnerable. Of course, later stages may have special "Cool Down" manipulation Powers that let them restack their armor layers.

Isn't there a Paragon Times Roleplay Group on Everlast that reports news of ongoing RP events and has foreign Correspondents writing articles about what's going on in other servers?

I would say you could go bat-a-rang Batman with a Arachnos Widow... play the whole Arachnos Origin off as a Parallel to Bruce Wayne training in the League of Shadows. Have fun!

Play a Martial Art's Cultivator who specializes in Hammers because they also Forge Equipment. You're dealing with a Melee Class and you have a number of different options for Hammer Type Builds.

Maybe he is using "Ground Effects" to move fast. Technically, he is flying, just not very high... and he has a massive super-pressure microburst storm propelling him around.

You have one of the great pleasures of playing a Super Hero themed game. A Rival, An Admirer, or perhaps an Enemy. Being Copied is just flattering. You found something that works enough that someone else has made space in their hearts and minds for your ideas. I really don't see how he can do anything serious, since it's pretty obvious when you're dealing with a copycat.

1.) Discord is notoriously unsecure and often the transitional point that social engineers will use to learn your real identity. You shouldn't be sharing your identity with people you meet online. A previous poster gave in depth links to this topic. 2.) Discord has been rumored to turn a blind eye to criminal enterprise and silence people who mention those issues or request Discord to take action. These events come and go, most of the focus is usually on the Discord communities in question, as opposed to Discord Corporate. 3.) It's not great using any external communications program with CoH. It reduces your ability to communicate effectively because you may have to switch screens. It also opens you up to being hacked, harassed, or scammed. When CoH was live, it was standard practice to ban anyone who promoted or used external communications programs on many online games. Obviously the industry has changed quite a bit since then.... but CoH still has a complex message/search system in game that largely obsoletes Discord. The only exception is the voice chat, which has many alternatives. That's back to why I was suggesting running a Roleplay Paragon Radio station. If you have people who are confident at speaking, they could be giving thematic background noise to CoH. Then that's going to be way more successful than trying to build a normal Discord community by dividing the existing CoH Community. There is a way forward... but you can already see how people who don't even know about Discord controversy are resistant to the very idea of using it. If your purpose is to organize events on Discord, that mindset totally derails that vision. You can argue that Discord is safe and welcoming... but CoH has a high bar for tolerance and chill attitude that very few game communities can replicate. It's hard to convince people and it looks like some people really don't want to be told to go to Discord to find teams. I think in a sense, the original poster doesn't understand how an Online PC game wouldn't have a Discord Community... so he is questioning why the players of City of Heroes are so resistant to FORMING a community on Discord. What he doesn't understand is that between forums and the very functional in game chat function, most City of Heroes players already feel like they are part of a vibrant community, even on a Zombie version of the game that hasn't even come to the attention of half of the player base that existed during CoH Live.

For Masterminds Demon Summoning would be funny for a really cartoonish take on the character. Mercenaries would make sense from the standpoint that he has infiltrated the Postal Service. Faceless Paramilitary Drones! Either Way, you can name the minions after Postal Bureaucrats. Fire seems like a good secondary set, from the video clip. Cash would be a decent aura effect, but don't rule out Tarot Card Aura, which would look like Lost Mail. Alternative costumes could have Flies/bugs Aura, since he has a plot to steal Garbage. You could make his powers gross green in this set up, where they can be colored.

If you want to promote a Discord Channel for City of Heroes, especially a VOICE channel, I suggest you pick a server and run a "Radio Station" for that server. Everlast has a lot of Roleplayers, so you might find volunteers there. Have D.J.'s discuss in game conspiracies, play good music for adventuring to, and use the text/chat part of discord to do requests so the DJs can do Warriors style callouts and let players know a team is forming. You're not going to get many people using it at first, but if you make it fun... and most importantly, make it something people can just run in the background without having to interact or talk... then you'll lower the natural suspicion Discord attracts as Unnecessary competition to the powerful in game search and communications platforms. I know there are Radio stations that do just dance music and stuff for clubs and chilling out... but you want a more active Radio. Paragon News/Talk during high traffic hours... during low traffic it's Music focused with DJ narration breaks to give weather or notify people of in game events. It would be neat to hear Supergroups have members show up to talk events to boast and talk about their team vision. I don't know how far you could go with it. But frankly, I don't even like Discord for the games that I use it for now. It's a hassle in my mind, and really shady to use. Even CoH Vets who aren't aware of controversy behind it will ask "why do I need to do this as well?" So... good luck on your endeavor, whatever you decide to do.