Ultimo

That's possible... but it's been on the system for some time, and as I mentioned, the folder was still there with everything in it. Very perplexing. I just reinstalled everything, didn't take long.

So, earlier today I was playing the game. No problems, just as usual. I went to update Mids, and it mysteriously uninstalled itself instead. I thought it might have done it to prepare for an update, but nope, it never reinstalled. I had to download it again and reinstall it (I didn't try updating it again). The evening wore on, and I thought I'd log back in to do some stuff with my AE arcs, but when I started the launcher, it says, "Not Installed" where the button to enter Homecoming is supposed to be. I looked into the game folder (I usually put my games in Games/Homecoming, for example), and the Homecoming file folder is there, around 5GB in size. So... it doesn't seem to have been uninstalled, but it doesn't seem to recognize that the game is THERE. Any ideas what is going on and how I correct it?

Oh, I agree. I don't expect or hope for them to implement anything like perks and flaws, I was just saying I'd made the suggestion at one time.

Yes, that particular example is. But day jobs happen while you're NOT playing. I'd like to see some depth added to the game when I AM playing.

Well, it's a case of deciding what great wealth DOES for you. It's not just a matter of having more influence, it could be a bonus to gained influence (it takes money to make money). Perhaps it gives you a discount when buying enhancements or temporary powers. This is just off the top of my head, of course. Anything they did include would need to be worked out carefully so it didn't create any balance issues.

I hate that argument. Why have different powers? You can roleplay them all. Just say it's fire or ice or whatever. Heck, why play at all? Just roleplay everything. Sorry if that seems impolite, but it's kind of a trigger to me.

And I see no problem with that. Superman often uses different tactics when facing a foe that has access to Magic, or kryptonite. I'm reminded of JLA #200, where the original League members were trying to recover kryptonite meteorites while the newer members were trying to stop them. Hawkman had to try to stop Superman, who had deployed ANDROIDS to recover the meteorite. He took steps to minimize his disadvantage. I see that as just smart gameplay, no different than using Hover to limit melee vulnerability.

Of course, in a game like this the players wouldn't define the effects, they would choose from a selection. For example, your character might suffer a debuff when in the presence of fire. Maybe it's psychological, and he suffers a Fear effect. Another character might be especially susceptible to Confuse effects, or take extra damage from a particular type of damage, Fire, Cold, Toxic or what have you. The particulars would be defined by the GAME, not the player. Same with the perks. The idea is that whatever bonuses you choose would match the flaws you take. So, suppose I'm making Superman. He's susceptible to Kryptonite. In the presence of it, he suffers a constant DOT against his Endurance, and once that's gone, his Health. -3pt flaw His defenses have no effect on Magic. This reduces all his defensive powers to 0 effect against any Magic damage. -5pt flaw These flaws would be paid for with extra perks. He has increased travel speed on all his movement powers. +3pt perk He gets access to Epic powers at L28 instead of 35. +5pt perk This is just an example, of course. The player would choose these effects from a list of possibilities. I've seen this in tons of games over the years, and I really like it when I see it. It was one of my favourite bits of Master of Orion II, devising some cool combination of perks and flaws. It would need to be carefully balanced, too, but that shouldn't be TOO difficult.

How about the minimal fx settings? I posted a thread earlier that described how even with minimal effects Brutes are still having the pulsing effect. A few others posted indicating considerable variation in this effect, based on class (eg. Scrappers don't have to put up with it, but Brutes do). Are these being looked at?

I agree. I've already tried to accomodate this by using powers with the darkest effects possible, but it's still not quite right.

Not long ago I posted a comment about perks and flaws, which was intended to flesh out characters, giving them weaknesses (such as Aquaman's need for periodic hydration, or Superman's vulnerability to kryptonite, or Martian Manhunter's reaction to fire), in exchange for perks (such as great wealth, or political influence, or what have you). It was met with the usual resistance.

You were serious about that? I assumed it was a joke.

I usually get the double xp boost when I create the character, but after they've got a few levels, I don't bother with it.

Let's not go there, hm?

I wasn't aware of that. Good to know.

Yes, I understand that. What I mean is, if I put in IOs at L25, I'd be getting that 32% at L25 and on up. By the time I'm L35, SOs produce more than 32%. The big difference is I could leave the L25 IOs in the slots for as long as I like, and still get that 32% bonus at no cost until I'm ready to upgrade them.

Hm. Well. I replaced all the endurance reduction enhancements on one of my characters with IOs (L35). Seems they provide a 34% boost to the power. That's fine, but the SOs provide a 33% boost. I'm not seeing much benefit to the IO there... especially when I see that higher level SOs are MORE EFFECTIVE. The SOs on my L41 character provide about 36%. Now, that's only 2%, but it means higher level SOs are still superior to the IOs, meaning the IOs will have to be replaced anyway. So why am I spending all the time and influence on IOs I'm going to have to replace?

Well, I don't HAVE any L50s. My highest level character is 41, but most are around L22. That said, pretty well all the stuff I have on my characters is worth almost nothing on the AH. I had one recipe worth around 300k, but I decided to actually USE that (Performance Shifter). I've got merits on all my characters, but I'm not sure how many. I was also under the impression that those, and the aethers, are extremely important, so I was trying to save them for when they're needed. Are you saying I should just sell all that stuff off? What are they used for?

So... I was looking at one of my characters today, he's outleveled all his SOs once again, and hasn't enough Influence to be able to replace them. So, I thought, he's L30 now, perhaps I can upgrade them to IOs, and not have to worry about all this nonsense. I started looking at the IO recipes, just the generic ones, and they're on the order of 45k, just for the recipe. THEN there's the cost to MAKE them, AND the cost of the salvage... they're ridiculously expensive, there's no way I'd be able to get them made. When I asked how people are getting the billions of Influence I keep hearing about, I was told to play the market, selling this or that or what have you... which left me feeling rather depressed. First of all, I have nothing of particular value to sell. Secondly, and more importantly, I'm playing a game to be a super hero, not a day trader. I really don't have any inclination to fiddle around with the market every day. I HAVE a job, I don't need another one. I just want to zap the bad guys. Is all this really necessary?

I've seen videos of guys doing that kind of work... it's really cool to watch, actually. Unfortunately, that kind of service costs THOUSANDS of dollars, and I can't afford that, especially since I've been off work with a back injury for three weeks now. No income, you know. My best shot seems to be what my brother suggested. He works for Stantec, and their tech guys are some of the best anywhere, and might have tools available to them that neither I nor the shop guy I took the PC to has access to. But, that means paying for a new drive. I have warranty, but that means sending the old drive to the manufacturer, which means NO chance of recovering anything. There's stuff on there I hate to lose, but I know I can get back, either because it's not terribly important (eg. the AE stuff... I can recreate most of it without TOO much trouble). It's the artwork I've done, the writing I've done. Website addresses I won't be able to remember, and will likely never find again. Screenshots over a decade old. Music files. Photographs (including my now-deceased aunt and uncle's last trip to Canada), and video files. My THESIS work will have to be redone, AGAIN (this is the THIRD time... the first time happened when my old PC AND the backup drive AND the USB backup all crashed at the same time). I did have a copy on my laptop, but I hadn't updated that in over a year... and the laptop often refuses to start, too. I can't even remember what all is on there that will need to be replaced. I'm also worried about private stuff, like passwords and banking info. It's beyond frustrating. Oh, and it's injury added to injury. Late last year, my parents had a fire in their house, and a cleaning company had to be called to clean up everything from the smoke damage. They cleaned EVERYTHING, including all my old toys and games and models that I made as a kid. Irreplaceable stuff, most of it, brought in from Britain... old 1st edition Star Trek models and toys, Space 1999, Star Wars... all kinds of stuff. Hundreds of pewter Warhammer miniatures. They smashed EVERYTHING. Even stuff that was stored in boxes packed in foam was taken out and broken. I can repair most of it, but the ONE custom piece I made myself was broken off and lost. I'll never be able to replace it, it was unique... and it's the principle of the thing. My mother even told them to be extra careful. A lot of good that did. All my childhood memories smashed and destroyed. My phone died. Laptop died. Now the PC has died and taken YEARS of stuff with it. All while I'm out of work with a bad back. SHIT HAPPENS IN PILES. (Sorry, needed to vent a bit there.)

Well, holy old crap. My SSD crashed... AGAIN... and my tech guy tells me he can't recover ANYTHING from it. All my photos, videos, writings, favourites, game data, including ALL my AE information, character costumes and such, EVERYTHING is lost. SO ticked off. Anyone know a good way to salvage stuff from a crashed SSD?

Ah, that's too bad. I actually have 3 collections, one for one sort of evidence, one for another, and one that is not relevant to anything. They all LOOK the same, and all have the text, "Search the area." for navigation. The result is that it says "21 Search the area." at the top. It's adequate. They could find all the actual evidence before doing all 21 anyway.

So I put text in the relevant boxes, and it still says something like "9 Search for clues," presumably because there are several items to interact with. The issue is that I don't want the NUMBER there... and I'm not sure how to be rid of it. Also, in the second mission, I have an encounter I'm having some difficulty with. I'll describe what I want, perhaps someone can suggest how best to make it happen. The players are to search an area for an alien who has crashed on Earth and is somewhere in a residential area. When they find him, he's supposed to be in the middle of a fight, or about to fight, a group of other aliens (the ones who made him crash). The player should defeat his attackers, but then HE will turn on them. While he is fighting the player, a third party, members of the villain group the Doomsayers, appear on the scene (as an ambush), telling him to flee while they delay the player. The idea is that the alien is SUPPOSED to escape. Initially, I made him a Boss objective, but then he fights alongside the aliens who are supposed to be his enemies. So, I tried making him an ally, to be rescued, only for him to betray the players and attack them. The problem with this is he cannot be set to FLEE at any point, so he won't run away and just stays until he's defeated... which doesn't serve the story. So I'm kind of stuck... Any thoughts? Oh, and another issue I'm having... when I include him as a Boss, I set him to run away at 50% health, but he won't GO. He gets to that point, says his line about retreating, but then stands there and stops fighting. I've no idea why.

I'm fine with it remaining a pbradius, but I do think it should do damage. Alternatively, if they made knockback do damage, they wouldn't need to change the power at all, as the knockback it causes would do some damage.

So, as I'm making another AE mission, I once again find myself frustrated that I cannot select a specific character for an ambush. For example, I have an enemy that the player is fighting. As he gets to 50% health, it triggers an Ambush. Ideally, it would consist of ONE character from a group of supervillains, either at random or by specific selection. However, that is not currently possible. Instead, I can only select the GROUP the Ambush is supposed to be drawn from, and the general difficulty of the Ambush, Easy, Medium or Hard. In the mission I am creating, I've set it to select from my Doomsayers villain group (all Elite Boss supervillains... they'll usually spawn as Bosses), on Easy. The result is THREE of the group members appear. This is WAY more difficult than most characters will be able to handle, and often results in copies of the SAME character appearing (each one should be unique... it's like having 2 or more Magnetos appearing). So, my suggestion is to allow Ambushes to be more specific. Give us the option of having a SINGLE character appear as a difficulty option, and give us the option to choose which specific character should appear, or a random character.