mechahamham

Please allow me to add a tangent to the arguments here. By tangent, I mean 'only tangentially affected by/affecting the economy'. When IOs first went in on Live, I was delighted because it meant that 'tradeskilling' was coming to CoH. You could craft in game, right? Except, no. Even if you got a recipe drop, chances were it just wouldn't sell once it was crafted. Even if you did manage to get something worth selling, you had extremely limited inventory. People crafting for the badges and the inventory space bonuses that came with them meant that ingredients for pre-40 IOs were difficult to obtain and then the common IOs you crafted with them wouldn't sell well, if at all, because the market demand simply couldn't accommodate all of them. Converters changed that a *little*. Suddenly, the crap recipes were a little more worthwhile, and prices evened out on the market somewhat. You were still severely limited by inventory. As another poster put it above, Homecoming unfucked the economy. The increase in supply for ingredients means that players can reasonably work for or trade for the enhancements they want. Builds can be expensive, but they are not unobtainable. Importantly for me, it means that Recreational Crafting is FINALLY a thing in CoH. It makes financial sense to craft enhancements and sell them to fund my own characters. If the supply dries up, if converters go away, it doesn't just mean that items are harder to get. It means the effective death of a fun part of the game experience.

Say you get sexually harassed and then report that person for sexually harassing you, including chat logs, screenshots, and whatnot. You get exactly the same response as you would if you reported someone for spamming /gen chat with political rants. The latter is annoying, and perhaps stressing. The former can be terrifying and can and does induce anxiety and panic attacks, especially for people who've been victimized in the past. "Is this going to blow up into another cyberstalking thing? Am I going to start getting disturbing phonecalls again? Have I accidentally said anything that would let this person find me in RL?" And, yeah, it *does* happen on Homecoming. I've experienced it first-hand. And submitted the screenshots and chat logs. And got the 'For reasons of player privacy' email in response. The 'For reasons of player privacy' thing goes back to the NCSoft era. In cases of harassment, it wasn't sufficient then, and it's not sufficient now. The victim's right to understand what's being done to protect them ABSOLUTELY comes before the offender's right to privacy. In the worst cases, players need clear contact phone numbers and email addresses for law enforcement reasons. Victims of harassment need very clear information about what's been done on tickets like these. They need to be told things like: "This account and the email address associated with it have been permanently banned from Homecoming Servers. Unfortunately, we cannot stop individuals from signing up new accounts with new email addresses. If you believe this individual is targeting you in the future, please screenshot any actions or relevant chat and respond to this email, referencing ticket number %%%%%%." Homecoming very desperately needs to revise their policies in this regard. Secrecy doesn't help stop harassment. Clear information helps stop harassment.

I may have not phrased it well. My intention was to use a modified version of the old Galaxy City map, what's now rendered as Echo: Galaxy City, as a base for this new zone. There would be some new buildings and a couple of new protrusions out from the old War Wall enclosure to make it less square. Think of a dogleg hanging out near the old KR entrance to house the PCU campus building or the like.

While I like the 'Destroyed Galaxy City' tutorial, I hate the idea that we just lost Galaxy City and never had it reconstructed. I've been pouring over an idea for a while for reconstructing Galaxy as a higher-level zone, about the same level spread as Brickstown. The zone would be modified quite a bit, using original geometry, but also quite a bit of new geometry around the border to include new buildings. Difficulty: High. This would require a significant amount of modeling, something that the Homecoming team doesn't have a ton of ability to do. We've had a few zone additions, but this would go maybe a step or two beyond what was necessary to create Echo Plaza. Regardless, if any or all of the ideas here are useful, please feel free to use them in any form! Story Arcs: The idea behind the story arcs is that these should be along the lines of the origin arcs in the original version of Galaxy rather than a overarching zone storyline. Additionally, I've added arcs for the two blue-side alignments. Never Forget What They Took From You (Vigilante): Shawn McCrehy is one of the many residents of Galaxy City who lost loved ones during the Neo-Shivan attack. The experience has hardened, perhaps even radicalized him, and he's out for blood. Shawn maintains that Freedom Corps' Longbow troops acted poorly and, in one notable case, homicidally recklessly in their 'defense' of Galaxy City. Shawn has requested your aid in bringing justice to a murderer. Heart of the Galaxy (Hero): Kevin Graham has lived in his older sister's shadow for more than a decade after her passing. "Some people try to worship my sister, like Galaxy Girl was some kind of saint. I've still got scars that say otherwise. She *was* a good person but now someone's trying to tell people she was some kind of fascist messiah. You have to stop Arachnos from *using* my sister's memory like that." A Good Cop (Natural): Captain Dan Roholland of the Federal Bureau of Investigations has been dispatched to Paragon City to help the Paragon Police Department investigate allegations of corruption within their rank and file. He's ready to bring charges, but a complication has arisen... a complication called 'The Malta Group' whose members are active within the PPD. When the Walls Fell (Tech): Dana Jericho believes very strongly that the War Walls surrounding Paragon City neighborhoods have not only outlived their usefulness, but are actively harming the communities they're supposed to protect. "They didn't stop the second Rikti invasion. They didn't stop the Shivan Meteors. They DO stifle commerce, education, and more. And now they're swarming with robots from another dimension!?" Regardless, you have to get to the bottom of the infestation of the War Walls by Praetorian Clockwork. Informed Consent (Science): Brian Maddock, or as he prefers, 'Br'ock', was at one point a member of the mysterious Lost, the cult-like gang that seemed devoted to Rikti ideals. Then he became a conscript of the Reformist Faction of Rikti invaders here on Primal Earth. "Listen, Hero. You think you're doing a good thing 'rescuing' us from the Rikti. And, maybe for some people: you are. But for a lot of us, the Rikti gave us a place, community, and stability. I had nothing but abuse and addiction in my life before. Now one of your friends is hunting us and forcibly detaching us from: the psychic network. Many of us: do not want that. Many of us: would rather die. You've got to help us." Guarding the Guardians (Mutant): Ashley Brinson is the president of the PCU Guardian Angels student association. The Guardian Angels are super-powered university students dedicated to making sure the PCU campuses stay safe for all students. Unfortunately for the Guardian Angels, some of their members are being subverted. It's no secret that many young people come to university to party, but the Carnival of Shadows' depraved brand of 'partying' is everything the Guardian Angels are trying to prevent. Out of Time, Out of Mind (Magic): Murder is afoot in Galaxy City, and the Midnighters need your help. A serial killer is on the loose. Martina Demetria, Midnighter Archivist, thinks she may have a line on the killer. "So far as we can tell, each and every one of the victims has had an Orenbegan Spirit Thorn either implanted or on their person. The perpetrator is targeting Circle Mages... and murdering their host bodies in the process." Points of Interest: Police Radio Mission Contacts Simon Angel and Danny Frost on loan from the UK Metropolitan Police Force. (Suspiciously similar to Simon Pegg & Nick Frost in costume from 'Hot Fuzz'.) Reconfigured War Wall Enclosure Pleiades Banking District and Memorial Tower PCU Galaxy City Satellite Campus Star Rise Point Apartment Complex Fallen Heroes Memorial Museum: Repurposing and renovating the Freedom Corps building in the heart of Galaxy City is the new museum dedicated to all of Paragon City's heroes who have passed while in the city's service. The museum is currently displaying exhibits dedicated to the memory of 'Atlas' Barnabas Branson and his Wife Gloria, 'Galaxy Girl' Kelly Graham and 'Dauntless' Robbie Prescott, and the inimitable 'Statesman' Marcus Cole and 'Maiden Justice' Monica Cole. Menders Baker and Tennant: Near the entrances to King's Row and Galaxy City, Mender Baker and Mender Tennant watch carefully for lower-level heroes to enter Galaxy City. They'll offer an explanation of the realities of the reconstruction, and offer to transport heroes to Echo: Galaxy City.

There's a missing face on the bottom of a staircase in Kallisti at [6818.2 58.6 4280.8]. I don't seem to be able to clip or teleport through it, but it can be seen through and futzes with the other textures surrounding.

I don't get weirded out by AI art the way some people do. HOWEVER, hearing AI voices crawls right up my spine, right into the 'Flight or Fight' part of my hindbrain, and makes me start looking for weapons. To say that they drop me in 'Uncanney Valley' is an understatement. They both enrage and horrify me all at the same time. DO NOT WANT. VERY NO. /jranger For the love of all that is good and right with the world, do not unleash the demon voices! Someone a little up the thread suggested volunteer voice acting. I have a stutter and lack-of-tone, so if you need someone to voice terminally socially awkward characters, I can do that.

It kills me that there's not more infrastructure out there to retrofit legacy animation workflows into Blender, but those old 3D packages were ZEALOUS about copy protection and vendor lock-in. Blender is kinda like Inkscape. It found a narrow, painfully empty niche to fill, and then filled it with style and precision. In Inkscape's case, it was 2D vector graphics, just right when a huge part of the web NEEDED an open source vector graphics package. It took the SVG format and worked miracles. In Blender's case, we're still fighting to get all the old, crappy, horribly locked-down 3D stuff working with it.

The pieces that bother me most in this regard are the various hairstyles. There's very little reason to restrict styles to male or female models. I'd like to see most, if not all the styles unlocked across all three character models.

So tonight happens to be the first time my lowbie Pyrotechnics/Cold controller has had the opportunity to use cold shields on a Catherine Wheel: Here she is, buffing a higher-level player's pet. And, as we can all see, it uses the same 'still has a hidden bipedal boning rig' that a lot of the amorphous and spherical pets use. You can see each of the compressed limbs outlined in my ice-block shields. I was hoping for something along the general lines of the Pillar of Ice and Flame from Ouro, where you can see the burning object inside a larger crystal. This kinda breaks that hope entirely. I would like to keep the faceted look, though, but if I do, I'm going to be seeing super-compressed Baby New Year every time I look at a buffed Catherine Wheel. I'd like to suggest simply subbing in a different boning rig in place of the bipedal rig currently on display. Would the Rularuu Observer rig suffer this same issue?

Y'know, I give those a *wide* miss. I'm okay with the AI art unless it's grotesque, but AI *voices* on the other hand make me start looking around for weapons to defend myself. I'm subject to not just the heebies, but a buffet full of jeebies. It's worse if the AI voice is supposed to be a real person. The recent James Earl Jones stuff for Darth Vader's voice is horrific, and not in the good, Tarkin-must-be-holding-his-leash,-blowing-up-Alderaan-just-to-show-his-daughter-her-ol'-man-means-business-way.

In this case, that might mean the HC team needs to do the caching step ANYWAY. We know that the script runs on lower population servers like Victory, but dies on Everlast and Excel. While I'm certainly not privy to its working, that just screams 'SQL join is exhausting all its resources'. Doing a 'select top 1' style query might also help with that.

I was a mod in Victory Badges for a long time during the live era. I never got frustrated on the 'Gotta catch 'em all!' front, but I did like to help others get badges. For me, EVERY run is a badge run, even if my character has those badges. I will likely never be in the top 5 or even top 50. I don't think people should be ashamed of showing off their characters' badge counts. It's a big part of the fun of that game. When one individual takes all the top 10 spots, it's maybe not so fun for others. They have achieved a lot and should rightly have kudos and recognition, but so have those other players. My suggestion is that if you have one character on the badge leaderboard, the clicked leaderboard entry will display other characters from the same account that would also be on the leaderboard. Currently, it looks like so, when it's not broken: When you click on the name, you're taken to the list view of that character's badges. On the character page, list other characters from the same account that have more badges than the #100 spot. So if you're #1 and have 80 characters with more badges than the number 100 on the list, your displayed badge list is topped by a list of those characters. Difficulty: Medium, but not moreso than the existing functionality. This is likely 2 somewhat hairy, but still completely feasible SQL joins, one for the top 100 list page and one for the character badge list page. However, the badge tracker script already breaks on RAM usage and joins can VERY hungry. My suggestion is to schedule the joins to happen once per day and then cache the result. If the Badge Tracker select runs once per player click, simplify it to use a 'select top 1 *' style query rather than a join.

You can see the following if you do Officer Field's introductory arc in Atlas, but there's no text to go along with the display. Reaper: "I wanna talk to my lawyer!" PPD Cop: "You're going to have to wait. We're trying to find one who'll wear hazmat gear." PPD Cop: "*You* cuff him!" PPD Cop: "I will very literally quit the force and go work in the Rogue Isles before I touch that." Mortificator: "Oh, the fitness requirements for new police officers! They look..." Reaper: "Delicious?" Mortificator: "Deli... You just had to go and make it weird, didn't you?" PPD Cop: "When we make it back to the precinct, I'm going to shower. Then I'm going to have another shower. Then, you know what? I may well just have a third and fourth shower and possibly even a fifth." PPD Cop: "Dispatch, we need a coroner here in Atlas. Send some bodybags with him. How many?" Mortificator: "..." PPD Cop: "All of them. Good lord, this job..."

...Is no longer entirely true. You can zone in to RV at level 1 if you so choose. It might be better to rephrase this with just the zones that have hard level requirements like 'The Hive and The Abyss have a minimum level required to enter.'

At the peak of the hill in Moth Cemetary lies an obscene altar that runs continuously with the blood of the damned and dead. The air is foul, stinking with rot, war, and the worst, most vile of unending desires. Here, the Veil between life and death is thin, and the gibbering creatures beyond it reach for the light, desperate in their hunger to devour the pain and torment of the living. At their pinnacle, towering above all else in evil, hatred, and lust for blood is Adamastor, the unwavering, slavering fiend that champions the Banished Pantheon's return to Earth. Adamastor *must* be destroyed, and frequently. Champions of the Living must gather to oppose him. Counterintutively, the best way to weaken Adamstor's lust for agony and death is to draw his undead, unholy form across the Veil, destroying his power before it has time to reach its pinnacle. But how? Rumors exist of a ritual to do just that. Knowledge of the ritual and the reagents for completing it lies in three pieces. The Pantheon's undead warriors and husks run with Unliving Blood. Reinterring enough of those zombies grants the Champions of Life a single drop. The Pantheon's spirit masks are known to contain Fragments of the Veil. As the dead and banished cling to the living world of light, these fragments allow the spirits of the Banished Pantheon to reach into the waking world. Finally, the Parting of the Veil is a text that has been seized by the zealots of Orenbega in their unending duty to oppose the Pantheon. Defeating the spectral Orenbegans will grant the champions knowledge of the ritual necessary to summon Adamastor into the realm of the living. Combining these three components at the obscene altar will summon Adamastor. Those who seek power, those who seek redemption, those who lust greedily, and those who simply want to protect the living will face the undead and unholy. May they not be corrupted by Adamastor's creeping touch. Goals: I really like that you have to work to spawn PEACE Keeper in Kallisti. It's not hard to do, and he still appears frequently, even with the requirement. Adamastor currently spawns every hour on the hour, with only a single click required to summon him. I think it would be pretty awesome if there was a mini-game of collecting salvage and then combining it at the altar in Moth Cemetary to perform the summon. It's an opportunity for world-buidling, in-game color, and player engagement. The drop rates on the ritual components can be tuned to allow the ritual to take place more or less frequently. The 1-hour timer can be kept in place. Importantly, a goal here is *not* to inhibit spawning Adamastor. Instead, it's to make the process more interesting than 'Click here to start the fight.' Right now, it's basically a 'Click to receive merits' thing. That's not terribly fun. Difficulty: Medium. This may require code changes, but we've got items in the game that can be repurposed or retrofitted to achieve this. In particular, we've got the computers in Bloody Bay and various crafting tables. A recipe can be added to an altar 'console' in Moth Cemetary. Combining the three salvage items grants a 'Summon Adamastor' temp power. The pieces are all there. Just like ingredients at Taco Bell, we need to make an Adamastor Crunchwrap Supreme.