Worm_Kalpa

It's always great seeing more people having fun with stalkers. The i22 buffs came late but help a lot with DPS and thus a stalker's utility to a team. The two ATOs that you mentioned are also excellent. Plus hide and the fear effect from assassin's strike are useful and let stalkers fight on their own terms. All of that builds up to seeing huge orange numbers go up, sealing the doom of anything still standing as they fruitlessly cling to any hope of resistance, and then slinking away to inflict that experience on the next group. Some offensive sets are held as better on stalkers than other ATs because of stalker's focus on single-target damage. Electric melee and staff fighting are two examples. Ice melee is also supposed to be good. I have a dual blades stalkers and the large damage from assassin's blades helps with lethal resist, while the two cones and combo system help deal AoE damage.

Great explanation and example. Batman: TAS from 1992-1995 is another example since it also blended the noir style of the 40s and 50s with elements from other decades. Which makes sense since it was inspired in part by the 1989 movie. There was an episode where the villain was the former star of an in-cartoon show with a 50s 'Leave it to Beaver' look but the episode takes place about 15-20 years later. It's about taking different elements from different decades as needed and blending in a way to be timeless, as was said before. As for time and various technologies, it makes sense that an alternate universe with superpowers, mad science, heroes, villains, supergeniuses, magic, etc. would have some technologies change at different rates than our universe. I know there's the superhero genre trope of villains and heroes not using their tech or abilities for anything beyond fighting/committing crime. But the COH universe has instances where the trope is not followed.

I think this is the closest option. With the Bicentennial badge and associated plaques added by the HC devs, the in-game year is at least 2023. One issue with matching the game's timeline to time close to our present is that it would be a massive undertaking updating the aesthetics and writing from the early 2000s when the game first came out. For aesthetics, I mean elements like clothing, car models, etc. The writing for a good chunk of the game is influenced by and in the context of the social, technological, etc. trends in the early 2000s. You can see this in a lot of blueside dialogue, the history plaques, and the lore bible. The HC devs have added modern elements like smartphones or a reference to 'snapgram' in a new story arc. So it's at least 2023 but in a "don't think too much about it" way

Ninjitsu works for a psychic character, for both theme and mechanics. The mez resist power in the set, kuji-in rin, grants resistance to psionic damage in add to protection against confuse, fear, and most of the other mezzes. Take a look at the power description since it begins "Kuji-In Rin is the strength of mind and body". Ninjitsu is also a defense-based set, meaning that the character protects themselves by dodging attacks and/or not getting hit. That can definitely be flavored as precognition. You can roll a psionic melee/ninjitsu/psionic mastery stalker or scrapper, or a psychic blast/ninjitsu/psionic mastery sentinel. Those would be pretty good options if you're looking for a solo-friendly character that can protect themselves without much difficulty. Also, I noticed that a good number of psychic NPCs in the game have power from the kinetics power set. That can be an option if you want to play a psychic-themed support character but empathy and pain domination don't do it for you. Edit: I forgot that you want a ranged psychic character that can fly. In that case, psychic blast/ninjitsu/psionic mastery sentinel with the flight power pool is an option. Also, sentinels can take bio armor. Bio armor can be flavored as psychic in that mind over body way. Your psychic abilities are such that you can easily manipulate your own biology. A lot of psionic powers from D&D are flavored like this. There is also an enemy group made up of psychics with one of the enemies using bio armor power. Read the Mindcrasher's description and see how the devs flavored it.

Hardcase. Let me explain. Hardcase is a redside contact with different sets of missions for the 30-34 and 35-39 level bands. The predominant enemy group you fight in Hardcase's missions are the wailers. Flavorwise, they play a key role to the St. Martial and Johnny Sonata plot but the different types of wailers vary so little in appearance that they get boring to look at very quickly. Wailers are mechanically dull except they have ranged sonic attacks so they debuff your resistance and boss- and EB-class wailers can revive and you have to fight them all over again. Fighting them as a squishy can go downhill very quickly. Hardcase offers no badges, no interesting story arcs (although there is some neat dialogue here and there), and your character feels like his apprentice rat catcher given the crap jobs. However, Hardcase does have one interesting reward. The Demon Box temporary power. Go and read the page, not many powers have different effects depending on your character's origin. I collect temporary powers on a lot of my high-level characters. The mission that rewards the Demon Box temp power is in the 30-34 level band and is a standalone mission not connected to any story arcs. So you can't do it in Ouroboros. You see where this is going? That means having to play through Hardcase's missions and hoping that you get the 'Defeat Pandora and minions' mission before having to trudge through any of his story arcs. I'm fine with getting accolades, Synapse TF, going through Praetoria, even doing the Dr. Graves and Twinshot arcs. But those wailers... I don't know what bizarre mental affliction compels me to get the Demon Box temp power. But it is a massive relief once I get it. Whoa, I had that bottled up for awhile lol

I recall that Metronome (Praetorian version of the Clockwork King) uploaded himself to Siege's robot body and put on a new coat of paint. I forget if it that confirms if Siege (and likely Nightstar) are dead or just captured. A lot of the Praetorian contacts are encountered in Belladonna Vetrano's arc and Provost Marchand's and Mr. G's level 30-50 arcs. You get some alternative dialogue if you did their goldside arcs since they recognize you. Its a nice touch to have some acknowledgement in story arcs that you worked with other contacts. Of note, the Praetorian Yins' plot is advanced in Mr. G's arc. Same with Vanessa Devore and the Awakened enemy group. What's interesting is that I think Praetorian Wu Yin is trying to re-establish the Syndicate but as a non-evil criminal group (weird but okay)? Meanwhile, Praetorian Penelope is trying to soothe the Awakened by keeping a lid on their anger and hatred, wanting to use them as a force for good in Primal Earth. She calls you out as Rusty when you fight her

That workaround brings up a neat, alternative fix to this mission. Make it so that if any of the (much lower-level) captive heroes are defeated, you get the mission failed text, forced-exit, and probably no reward. That idea likely requires more time and effort than making it like a typical rescue mission with captives who don't fight after being rescued. Still adds a neat little twist that level 40+ characters can have ways to complete.

There are a lot of story arcs out there that have nice plots and make soloing pleasant. All three of the 'seemingly inanimate object' contacts on redside are pretty good. Television was mentioned before and it really has a lot of funny mission text and neat story arcs. Your character being unsure if they were just hearing things or if a TV set in the slums and not plugged into anything is communicating to them through movies and shows. Radio is a low-level contact with a similar vibe. Its mission text is more high-energy than weird, which fits for a radio DJ and trying to be the N-th caller to win something. The Valentine's tip mission that brings in Internet is cool. Slot Machine is an unlockable mid-level contact and its second story arc is simple but nice. Helping a down-on-his-luck washed-up villain could be a rogue alignment mission. I like having the contrast between more serious and/or evil contacts like Westin Phipps versus the 'honor among thieves' meets PG-rated bad guy stuff.

I ran into a bug the other night when doing the 'Stop the Blogger's Reign of Terror' mission. It is a level 40 - 50 Rogue to Hero alignment tip mission. The objectives including rescuing three captives from the enemy mobs that spawn. However, the captives are not invincible and are targetable by any enemy AoE attacks that occur. The captives also spawn at a much lower level than the other NPCs on the map, which I believe is purposeful but they are defeated very easily. This prevents the mission from being completed even after clearing the map. Also, their might be a final enemy that is supposed to spawn once all three captives are rescued. If any of the targets are defeated however, then that final enemy doesn't spawn even though a red map marker indicates their likely location. Finally, something weird is going on with the objective counter in what it displays. It is likely related to the captives being defeated when they shouldn't be. Searching this forum, this bug has been around for some time: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/32279-stop-the-bloggers-reign-of-terror-mission-breakable/#comment-411071 https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22424-blue-side-rogue-tip-bug-blogger/#comment-261786 https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/4207-stop-the-bloggers-reign-of-terror-mission-bug/#comment-35167 https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/13391-stop-the-bloggers-reign-of-terror-full-bug-report/#comment-137247 https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/7855-hero-tip-mission-with-hostages-bugs-if-any-hostages-are-killed-by-incidental-aoes/#comment-72334

Echoing what everyone else already said, plus adding a few of my own. I played mainly red- and goldside when the game was live and only really explored blueside in the last year or so. Redside mission goal descriptions are more straightforward. For example, it will be explicit if it is a defeat all or not. Blueside mission goal descriptions can be ambiguous sometimes, such as it might be a defeat all without saying so Speaking of mission goals, redside rescue missions involve bringing the captive back to the mission exit whereas older blueside rescue missions do not and just require you to defeat their captors Much to my disappointment as a temporary power collector, some blueside missions that give you a temp power either remove it at the end of the mission or you have a time limit for how long you can keep it (different than how long you can have it active) In general, redside missions are more solo-friendly There seems to be a lot more hunt missions on older blueside content While redside and newer content have contacts and story arcs with more personality, I like that older blueside contacts are often just normal people (and some magicians, mystics, etc.) who work with heroes. It handles how are hazardous waste disposal, civil rights, corporate espionage, doing journalism, etc. handled in a setting with heroes, villains, and superpowers

An archived page from the old CoH site says that "The Bone Daddies are chosen through some secret, black ritual performed by the original founders of the Skulls, the Petrovic brothers. This ritual gives them power over the negative world, and allows them to tap into spirit killing energy that they can use to feed off of their victims. Heroes who have faced them have stated that Bone Daddies are dead inside, their bodies just haven’t realized it yet." I wonder where the Skulls' story would have gone if the game continued and we got a sequel to Eagle Eye's arc. Especially since superadine, the drug the Skulls were pushing, can in rare cases grant the user the ability to see and travel to other dimensions. At least if the wiki is true. It would be an interesting twist if the ritual that gave darkness powers involved superadine use and connecting to the netherworld. Like a really messed up ayahuasca trip

As others have said, the deeper part of the enemy group lore is in the story arcs. Mainly the store arcs offered by older contacts, and the arcs are might be some levels higher than when you first encounter an enemy group. For example, you learn more about how the Lost came to be and their connection to the Rikti from Eliza Thorpe's (blueside levels 25-29), Steven Sheridan's (blueside levels 35-39), and Timothy Raymond's (redside levels 30-34) missions. Some mysteries are also revealed in content that came out a few years after the game was launched. Like the Rikti War Zone arcs and Montague Castanella for the Lost and Rikti. Another thing is that you can get the broad strokes and some specific answers (like what the Lost do to the homeless people they abduct) but not everything in the game lore is revealed.

Yeah, goldside has the tour guide tip missions as well. Even up to Night Ward.

Adding some new purchasable temporary powers to the P2W vendors would be pretty neat. I like temp powers as a way to help fill in attack chains in the early games, they help those without Traps, Devices, etc. get in the theme of a gadget- or magic trinket-using character, and I just like collecting them. For example, the revolver temp power adds a ranged attack to low-level characters and a bow and arrow temp power can do the same thing but for characters who don't want to use a gun or do archery as a back-up. A caltrops temp power can help for ambushes, fleeing targets, or as an 'oh crap there are too many enemies in melee' situations and I don't think it would devalue powersets that already have a caltrops power. There can be a new temp power that uses the reading scroll animation and debuffs a target.

I started with CoV and mainly play there so I've played through most of the redside arcs. I can't say much about blueside. Favorites: Marshal Brass's arcs deal with Cap, the PTS, and Dr. Aeon. I like that failing the last mission in the first arc means the truth leaks out and that puts Arachnos in a bind. For an early villain arc, that can be played as weakening your rival. Bane Spider Ruben being a bureaucrat treating the cult as another job, you taking over said cult, and all this on top of the dialogue choices to play your character in different ways. 5/5 would recommend. Dean MacArthur for all the previously stated reasons. Leonard might not be as fun as a contact but I like that your character is putting a scheme in motion. Playing through Captain Petrovitch's arc dealing with the Scrapyarders makes the group a lot more sympathetic than when I first played through the game. Technician Naylor for the redside dimension hopping, and Psimon for the temporary powers and working with an overly dramatic psychic. Johnny Sonata's arc is one of my favorites. A man signs away his soul for fame and fortune, and then tries to find a loophole is classic. That same man trying to do that in superhero setting somehow clicks for me. Vincent Ross has a great arc. I hope however thought to include other contacts for side objectives got a raise. Vernon von Grun has everything I want. Over the top lab assistant turned mad scientist, weird temporary powers including bees, neat missions. Radio, Slot Machine, and especially Television are great for the weirdness that is left as a mystery. Viridian's arc where you gather the heads of various factions is a nice 'who's who' of the game. One of the COH devs pointed out that there might be more going on. A lot of the arcs in Imperial City are solid. Particularly the Crusader arcs where you are crossing that line between freedom fighter and terrorist and lot of those missions have your contacts as allies. They make a really good 'start of darkness' for anyone going from Resistance to Villain. The Warden and Responsibility Arcs in Neutropolis are nice sendoffs. Least Favorite: Not many for me but Dr. Graves' arcs are bad. The story and dialogue need a serious overhaul. Calvin Scott's arc in Praetoria feels underwhelming to me, like it was meant for an earlier contact.