Ironblade

I think this is a reasonable middle ground. Going from unlimited vet levels in AE to ZERO feels like a huge nerf. I personally know several people who have told me (I guess they could be lying, but why?) that they like to farm their new 50's for just a few (10-15) vet levels so that they don't feel completely useless when they start doing iTrials. They don't like the feeling of "Oh, now I'm 50 and get to do incarnate content and feel like I'm level 1 all over again."

hmm.... Not bad. Nice to have this as an option and some weapons look better than others. I don't think I'll be using this on my Ninja Blade stalker for two reasons: 1) The sword hovers pretty far off his back. 2) A sword should literally be SHEATHED (okay, maybe not a claymore or the crazy Rularuu blade, etc). So, really, there should be a sheath on his back that stays there at all times. So, a little disappointed this doesn't satisfy my specific use case but, overall, unconditional thumbs up. Maybe a future update will better address 'standard' swords.

My initial thought was this seems a little grindy, particularly for a badge being introduced YEARS after the game returned. Having said that, I'll concede that I can't really judge how grindy this is going to be. In maybe, oh, 3 months I should have a good grasp on typical Aether earning rates for my main and other characters. So, at this point, I think the dev team should just be mindful of adding seriously grindy badges at this point in the games life. Adding something like the original sets of influence or damage taken badges at this point would be completely outrageous. Possible slippery slope here that should be watched for.

Fair enough. I was going to voice my support for the 'by account' option but I am VERY mindful that you are an all-volunteer team and I agree that anything adding significant time or effort is basically a non-starter. Having said that, we move to the option of tweaking the 'Days Offline' ranges. Since even a single run of Death From Below can get even the most gimped character in existence out of the first bracket, I don't see it being a big deal one way or the other. Maybe go to 120 or 150 days on the 6-20 bracket? I've seen 180 days suggested, but that seems a bit much.

Yeah, that change seems to make the system more consistent across content types. With that change, I'd say this all gets a 'conditional' thumbs up. I can't really comment on the Prismatic Aether drop rates or costume costs until I go through . . . maybe 3 months of normal play and see where that puts me. I do a lot of regular content and Weekly Strike Targets but don't really have a feel for how much Aether that will result in.

That is not good. The overwhelming majority of my characters only have one offensive toggle (well, actually the majority have zero). In this case, the old system of having to turn it back on manually is superior and now I don't even have the option to turn it off and back on to avoid the suppression. The changes on Kheldians will make all of this a positive change overall, but that 8 second suppression really seems egregious.

I was thinking it might look better on the left. In the example shown, we have "Giant Monster" on the right and blank space on the left. I don't recall off the top of my head, but is there ANY enemy that uses the otherwise empty space to the left of their name and faction?

No, but the overwhelming majority used in combat do. There are concussion grenades, which kind of look like a spray can - i.e. a relatively flimsy casing. But most grenades that the military (and presumably terrorists, villain groups, etc) use are fragmentation grenades. These are characterized by a heavy metal casing designed to produce shrapnel. The classic one that most people would recognize is the 'pineapple' grenade. Here's a picture of the WW2 U.S. military Mk 2 that you've probably seen in a jillion war movies. Edit: Obviously I'm ignoring specialized grenades like smoke, flashbangs, etc which do little or no damage.

And the description of the new badge is just: "Defeat the new boss encounter in the Imperious Task Force on Advanced Difficulty." Question: When it says 'Advanced', does that mean ALL FOUR advanced difficulty levels spawn the new boss and badge opportunity?

Well, bummer. 😞 I'm guessing you know they are run on the weekend also, including the afternoon. Not being able to play in 'prime time' must make a lot of badges harder to obtain.

Unless one zigs and the other six zag. In that case, the first guy gets to die. 😉

Ugh. I don't let them accumulate like that. I make new characters infrequently enough that I only need to run Synapse once, or RARELY twice, when it comes around in the rotation. um, the Buddy badge is for the buds so why didn't you just do regular Hami raids? It takes about 20-25 minutes for a double raid and that's a lot of buds if you're tossing AoE. If you don't have AoE, buy a temp AoE power or use pets. Edit: To answer the original question - I will run just about ALL of the task forces myself when they're the weekly. My favorites are Posi 1 and 2, Penny Yin, Katie Hannon, Ernesto Hess, Moonfire and the ITF. I'll solo Dr. Q when it comes around because it's so many merits. I'll log in 3 accounts and solo it so that's 732 merits.

SPOON!!!

Basically, yes. There is a listing of ALL zone events and you would need to read the description of each one to see if players can trigger it. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Zone_Events

I only run at +0 for Positron and Synapse because we're so low level (and Synapse is torture). Other than that, I run at +1 and as fast as possible when it's a weekly since I'm there for the Notice or the extra merits. On the ITF, most people run at +3 or +4.

1) The promotions aren't a free action. It requires 'retiring' (removing) the general. 2) Not just the military. *ALL* units get the extra movement. Also, using a promotion does not end their turn.

Was playing today as Simon Bolivar, leader of Gran Colombia. Every time a new era starts, I get a special leader called a Comandante General. The most recent one was named Gregor MacGregor. Sounds odd, but I'm guessing it's a reference to this guy: General Gregor MacGregor (24 December 1786 – 4 December 1845) was a Scottish soldier, adventurer, and confidence trickster who attempted from 1821 to 1837 to draw British and French investors and settlers to "Poyais", a fictional Central American territory that he claimed to rule as "Cazique". At one point, he led Venezuelan troops against the Spanish with the rank of general.

As usual, really beautiful work.

I expect it to come all the way back down eventually. It's around 5000 now and I have my usual stacks of bids at 1400 just waiting. I've still been buying, though. Spending an extra 10,000 per yellow salvage is irrelevant when I'm selling the converted results for multiple millions.

I wouldn't say that I "track" supply and demand. I would say I briefly observe it. Most of my money comes from buying trash recipes and converting to something useful. A couple weeks ago, I noticed someone was buying my usual recipes at about 2-3x what I had been paying, so I just stopped. I could have bid higher or moved to some other recipes but that would have been too much effort. I spend VERY LITTLE time working on making influence. In the past couple days, it seems back to normal so I'm buying again. Regarding the LotG +recharge, I never even look at those. I buy cheap recipes and convert to get the ones I need and stop once I have 15-20 to put in base storage.

Pretty much. I wanted to do a 'high end' tank build and used both ATO sets and four purple sets, including six-slotting Boxing with Hecatomb. He also has Absolute Amazement, Armageddon and Apocalypse (in Laser Beam Eyes). My goal is to see how well he can tank the Avatar of Hamidon in the Underground I-Trial. So I wanted a lot of +regen, +recover, +recharge and extra hit points. On a side note, this was a relatively expensive build for me and I had the character self-fund. At around level 30, he started buying trash recipes, crafting and converting them. He has bought all his IO's (not slotted yet), and has 800 million inf extra at level 48.

Unless there's an open bar. There's your problem. No booze in the next arc. You think those are ice slides for playing on? Nope. They're ice sculptures to pour vodka into your mouth. Back on live, I would create a character and run him thru Atlas Park and The Hollows to meet new players to recruit for my SG. Then I would delete and recreate the same character to do it again. He was MA/regen and was named Dr. Smacky.

Missed opportunity. You have misspelled 'misspellings' and then edited to correct it. 🙂

I contend it's not trivial since we failed last week, with a core of highly experienced players. For some reason, our damage output seemed way below par despite having six corrupters.

No. Well, perhaps the curiosity is natural but don't expect an answer. And you certainly have zero right to demand an answer. Any negotiations are confidential. If you don't like how the server is being run, you don't have to donate. It is 100% voluntary. Me? I donate on a regular basis.