Ultimo

Having been the target of many insulting posts in the past, I didn't see you post anything I thought was insulting. That said, I get that you don't like knockback. Personally, I love it. It's typical of comic books. Your suggestion would mean BOTH of us could be happy, so I don't see any problem with it. You could turn off knockback and enjoy the game, I could leave it on, and enjoy the game.

What if, instead of Null doing a global thing, they altered the enhancement that changes knockback to knockdown, so it does double duty. That is, it makes the change, but also functions as an accuracy enhancement, or a damage enhancement. That way, someone can slot it where they might otherwise slot something else.

I'd be very much against this, as this affects EVERYONE. If you don't like knockback, that's fine. The suggestion that it be made an option on Null the Gull means you don't have to have it. Some of us LOVE our knockback, for various reasons, both practical and cosmetic. Don't spoil it for everyone else.

As with most things in the game, there are those who prefer things as they are, so making a change as significant as this needs to be optional. I agree that it seems unfair to force someone to "waste" a slot for a knockback to knockdown enhancement, so making it an option on Null the Gull seems like a reasonable compromise.

See, the thing for me is, knockback is kind of a definitive aspect of fights in comic books, especially when the characters are super strong. The problem with knockback in the game is that knocking a foe away is actually counterproductive for most super strong characters, since they also have defensive toggles that improve defenses depending on how many enemies are in melee range. This makes knockback undesirable in most cases. What I would like to see is for knockback to be made USEFUL. The simplest method is to have it do some damage. More knockback should do more damage. I mean, if I fall down where I am, I'll say ouch. If I fall down after flying 30 feet through the air, I'm going to say more than that, it's going to hurt a lot more.

I gave him Street Justice and Willpower, seemed the most in character. However, Scrappers are generally sturdier than Stalkers... but being a little squishier might also be in character for him. He's essentially a normal person, after all.

So, I've created a character whose inspiration is Rorschach (also the Question, but more Rorschach). I've made him a Scrapper, but I wondered about making him a Stalker. I thought I'd poll the audience and see what people think? Would you make him a Scrapper or a Stalker, and why?

THAT could work. Good call!

Part of the problem is that characters I create as EBs sometimes appear as allies, and in that form they completely trivialize the mission. But if I make them Bosses, they're completely trivial themselves, when they appear as enemies. I don't want to have to have TWO versions of every character... and that doesn't help if one of them is confused or somesuch. It's also not a matter of one particular mission, this is an issue that arises in many stories I've tried to create. It's just so hard to make an enemy that's a challenge for any class. I mean, my Tankers can usually handle an Elite Boss, because they can withstand a bit of damage, but a Defender or Controller is going to get obliterated. If I make the enemy a Boss, the Tanker can still tank the damage, but isn't going to immediately wipe out the enemy, Controllers are a bit hampered by the immunity to controls, but they can at least survive getting hit a few times... but anyone with even reasonable dps, like a Scrapper or Blaster, is going to wipe out the Boss with ease. It's just so hard to find a balance point. The ideal would be a rank that's part Boss, part Elite Boss... with Boss damage output, but Elite Boss defenses. No such thing exists, of course... My usual recourse is to limit the powers I give to Elite Bosses, but that makes them rather thin and uninteresting to fight. I mean, who wants to fight an enemy with ONE attack, maybe two?

Ya, it's a frustration. I could use the Winter Lord map, it's a Croatoa map with the Winter Lord cave... but it's snowy. Guadalcanal wasn't known for its arctic weather...

I understand that, I'm just saying I'm not against your suggestion either. I feel like we're arguing the same thing from different directions. Let me just assume we're in agreement!

There ARE objects around the various zones that at least react to stuff going on around them (eg. trees shed leaves, mailboxes toss letters around, garbage cans discharge garbage). Given that this is so, perhaps they could add some other objects that react similarly, throwing debris or changing to have some other textures imitating damage. It's something I've suggested before, actually, for Super Strength, which just doesn't feel all that super. It's the presentation. If you watch any fight between super strong foes, there's ALWAYS a ton of collateral damage. Adding some of that to Super Strength attacks might make them seem more super... and making "destructible" objects in the zones that react to damage happening near them might be a good way to do that.

At the risk of yet another storm of nastyness, I feel the need to post about this issue again. Once again, I'm trying to make enemies for AE missions, and as usual, I'm having great difficulty making them playable. They're either way too squishy with appropriate damage, or way too strong with appropriate durability. There seems to be no middle ground. In addition, and I've commented about this before too, allied NPCs don't seem to scale down as enemy NPCs do. For example, if I put an enemy built as an EB in a mission, he'll usually appear as a Boss (with appropriate damage, but too squishy). If I include an allied NPC in the mission who is built as an EB, he appears as an EB, which trivializes the enemies (since EB damage is so over the top). I'm not sure what else to do about this. Any suggestions?

That's doable, but takes a lot of work and is very finicky. I think just having a wall we can put in place in one move is preferable. Of course, there's nothing stopping you doing it the way you've done in your picture, but an easier option would still be welcome.

The problem with that is trying to balance a second wall on top of the first one, to complete the wall. That's been a huge part of the problem I've been having, all the walls in the base only go half way up. Perhaps the best solution is to offer both types, half height and full height. As for the width, the problem with that is they have to clip through the wall to be placed, and if there's a space on the other side of the section, it sticks out there. That is, it's more than two blocks wide. Having the suggested sections be only one block wide means if you needed to, you could put two side by side to fill a double wide corridor or room.

So, I have an arc set during WW2. Each mission is its own thing, and they're not really related. The arc starts in North Africa, then goes to Sicily, then to Europe, Berlin, and then finally Guadalcanal in the Pacific. The problem is, I just don't like that last mission, and I can't think of what to do with it. Right now, the "story" of the last mission is that you're being sent to Guadalcanal to locate the Stalwart Star, an American super-soldier you met in an earlier mission. He's gone missing, and you need to find him. What has happened is that he stumbled into a temporal incursion by Ouroboros, who has come back in time to stop the Rikti from giving alien technology to the Japanese. So, you need to find the Mender in the zone, then go around and destroy the Rikti tech. Simple enough... but it just feels tedious. So, I've come here to see if anyone has any suggestions, what might I do with a story in the Pacific. Ideally, there should be SOME kind of super-badguy for the hero to face off with, there's been at least one in each of the other missions. One thing that might help is a map that has a cave system in it. That is, ideally, the map would be like a jungle, but with a door somewhere that leads to tunnels. I seem to remember there being such a map that goes from a wooded area into ordinary caves, but that turn into Rikti tech. A map like that might be ideal for the mission I described above, but I can't find which map it was, or if there IS any similar map. Any suggestions?

Right. The panel should extend from the low floor to the high ceiling, have a doorway, but no broken hole, and should be wide enough to extend from one wall to the other. It would also be useful to have wall sections that DON'T have a door in them.

So, when making my bases, I keep finding the same problem. There are no walls with doors in them. Specifically, we need a wall segment that fits across the standard 1 unit block, and goes from floor to ceiling, that has a normal, human sized door in it. We need one in a metallic finish, a wood wall finish... basically one for each general style of walls. For example, THIS wall section would work, IF it didn't have the broken hole in it, and it extended to the ceiling.

True. They might also use it as an alternative to the Hide animation. Right now, the character kind of clenches up like he's having bathroom issues. A smoke bomb to use the Hide power might be more appropriate for that too.

So, tonight I was playing my Stalker, Martial Arts/Ninjitsu (based on Batman). As I was playing, I noticed something I'd forgotten. He doesn't have Placate. I gave him Smoke Flash instead. The reason I dropped Placate is because of the animation, which is a Star Wars mind trick wave of the hand. It just feels out of character for the Ninjitsu set. My suggestion is to alter the animation for this to be some kind of smoke bomb, or sand in the eyes or something more in keeping with the more "natural" power set. It could be included as an alternative, so people who like the current animation can still have it.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ya, I tried to choose moves that were at least close to the animation times. I mean, .83 to 1.07 is only around 2 tenths of a second. It might mean speeding up or slowing down the martial animations, but I can't imagine that would be too difficult.

Tonight I was playing a new character, he's a Mastermind with Ninjas, a set I've never played before. One thing I noticed was that he has no martial arts of his own. He has his bow, but the only melee attacks he can get are in the Fighting Pool (and Air Superiority), and they just don't LOOK right. So, I'm suggesting making some alternate animations for the fighting pool, lifted from the Martial Arts power set. My suggestions below are chosen for animation timing and for the "cool" factor of the moves. Boxing = Storm Kick Kick = Cobra Strike Cross Punch = Dragon's Tail Note, this is only a cosmetic thing, the effects of the powers would not change. I think this would be a welcome change, I can think of a few characters who might benefit from this.

If there is a purpose to the invasions, it's not being implemented very well, because the enemy never does anything to achieve their purpose... and never actually DOES achieve it. As for the latter point, it would only make the zone unplayable if it's implemented poorly. Suppose the zone in question is King's Row. Right now, you have groups of Clockwork, Vazhilok, etc. all standing around doing essentially nothing. My suggestion above is simply to replace those NPCs with Rikti, at a zone appropriate level (or non-level, as with the beaming in ones). You could have ships flying around, but they wouldn't be attacking anything, they'd be largely cosmetic (though, they COULD be attacked). Meanwhile, quest givers might be moved to "safe" spots, where the Rikti wouldn't find them, or some such. Players could still do their missions normally, but they might have to deal with Rikti mobs instead of the usual ones. The main hero of the zone (Blue Shield in King's Row) would have a set of special quest objectives open to everyone in the zone. It might include instanced missions, or zone missions (eg. defeat 1000 Rikti, which EVERYONE in the zone could contribute to, or take down the patrol ship (again, it would likely need everyone to participate). Eventually, one of these kinds of objectives might be completed, and the zone would reset. That at least puts some semblance of purpose in the event. Right now, if everyone ignores it, nothing happens. The Rikti don't do ANYTHING. But, this is just one quick idea off the cuff. I'm sure something better could be devised.

Well... the zombies could have a purpose, if there was someone summoning them. The Rikti are the ones that bug me the most. If they're weakening Earth's defenses, WHY are they doing it? They must have some other purpose that the "invasion" is in service of. For my part, I'd love to see the invasion have a result, if the heroes can't mount a sufficient defense. Perhaps it could be as simple as making the relevant zone(s) Rikti controlled, with all resident spawns of enemies being replaced by Rikti... heroes and contacts might also be replaced by Rikti, or might give different missions, specific to repel the Rikti garrison. There are other possibilities, I'm sure. Nemesis too, should have a purpose.