Dythok

Homecoming has always experienced some form of growing pains. It's not easy to manage or run an MMORPG, especially one that was dead for so long. Over the years, the needs of the game, and the community, have shifted and evolved. At the start, it was about tech and legal issue. And now, especially since NCSoft's blessing, it's time to give some focus and attention to giving the community itself tools and the means to prosper. Having the CR role was a solid step, and hopefully it will be returning sooner rather than later. An official spokesperson or Community Manager would be great as well. Someone equipped to be a 'face' or public relations, to consolidate player and community feedback, help the community feel heard. I know I've been far more invested in games when I felt like it was 'our' game, and not 'their' game.

Hell, those videos are why I even bothered trying to get into base building after I found Homecoming.

There are a handful of things we all need to remember. The City of Heroes Community is small. The Homecoming: CoX community is smaller. Those with an interest in bases and base building on Homecoming is smaller. And those willing to participate in any contests is smaller still, whether you're a builder or just have an interest. But the one thing to walk away from this is with is that everyone's passion is undeniable. Lessons will be learned, and there will be future contests (hopefully). And hopefully, this contest along with the timing of the latest patch with all of the new base tools, will help ignite more interest in bases and base building on Homecoming. We can do better. We will do better. I want to thank @Dacy and @Easter Bunny and the other GMs for giving our community this gift and opportunity. Hopefully we'll see more in the future.

I would love to see some of these ideas implemented. Anything to lower the barrier of entry into base building and help speed up the process. I know one of the things that deters me from base building is just the amount of time I wind up spending because you're often moving lots of little things and repeating the same actions over and over again. I know I'd love to be able to just save a base, copy it, and use it on other characters. Or build this incredible base on one shard, then copy it to other shards.

I actually really like the idea of "On Air" as well, since that's more inclusive, so people making YouTube videos and other content creators would be covered as well. And this is the primary reason I'd use this feature. While I do have a macro I use to inform teams I am streaming and chat is covered for their privacy, I'm human and between all the things I'm juggling, I'll sometimes forget to hit it. I just want to be courteous and polite to those around me. On an additional note, it could potentially be synergistic to both the content creators and Homecoming. I know on Twitch, people are rediscovering City of Heroes everyday, returning to the game. The "On Air" or "Streamer" option could help those content creators grow their channel, in turn getting more visibility on CoH, and helping more people rediscover our game.

We currently have the option to give ourselves the status titles "Help Me!", "Helper", and "Roleplayer" from the Help Menu. I would love to be able to add Streamer to that list, giving streamers the ability to let those around them know that they could potentially be streaming. Thanks!

I feel like I'm late to the party on this one, but I'm another one of those streamers! Ever since Homecoming lifted the streaming ban back in May, the City of Heroes streaming community has been reignited and has just kept growing. That same passion and love we all have for the game is reflected in our little corner of Twitch. And with each day, the variety of streamers grows too. If you're interested in the lore and story arcs, there's VividMuse. For organized PvP, there's Sarrcasm. For that fire farm itch, there's the man behind the Comic Con Fire Farm, Brigg. I know I've watched Oklahoman run iTrials. For stalker theorycraft and gameplay, there's IIIXJokerXIII. Both Tax_E and myself showcase a lot of badge runs, task forces, strike forces, master runs, and speed runs. And that list just keeps on growing. And between all the content creators and social media (Discord, Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, etc) it has empowered us to make some really fantastic events, giving back to the community we all love. For example, on Halloween, a whole bunch of us came together for a massive Halloween event on Everlasting. It was hosted in "The Witch's House", a haunted house created by @Dacy, funded and ran primarily from the Discord "The Dawl House" and the in-game supergroup "Federation of Xzianthia" ran by @agentx5, and I streamed it (and may of secretly gave a way a ton of superpacks to most of the participants) from https://www.twitch.tv/dythok. We found out that we can cram 200 people into a base, and a great time was had by everyone. And then less than a week later, Page 3 came out on Brainstorm, just in time for Extra Life (a fundraising event supporting the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals). And I know the streamers came together that weekend to raise a bunch of money for charity. A handful of the streamers showcasing the event were @Tax E, Vividmuse, StoneMadBob, Intangeris, and AlienMafia. And as @Tax E posted earlier, it feels so good when someone joins chat and rediscovers City of Heroes. All the content creators work to help make City of Heroes discoverable on so many platforms. And give more ways for everyone to enjoy the game in general. On a personal note, you guys make streaming worth it to me. It feels good to give back to the community, and you guys inspire me to keep doing more. Thanks everyone!

Also confirming that Rallying Cry is blocking teleports like Shadow Step and Black Dwarf Step. Additionally, it's also blocking the Incandescence destiny powers, which can be hugely problematic in an incarnate trial or a Hami raid.

If it was renamed to Invisibility, then people could be confused. Do they mean Infiltration? Do they mean new Stealth? Are they talking about the Illusion Control powers? I think it's just easier and clearer to just leave it named Stealth.

I believe he meant Ageless Radial, the Destiny power, not the Alpha.

So, I made a Warshade and Peacebringer on the beta, and over the past few days have played around with all of the travel powers. Here's are the highlights of what I took away from it: Pool: Concealment I really am enjoying the revamped Concealment pool. It was always in a little awkward place with Stealth and Invisibility being so similar to each other, that often just relegated one of those powers into LotG mules. It just made sense to merge those two powers together. Also a big fan of Infiltration. At first I wasn't sold on it because it was just a clone of Ninja Run, but then realized that both it's run and leaping could be enhanced. Then I was all aboard, especially since it can double dip in those universal IOs that buff all travel speeds. Additionally, it's a travel power that you can slot a LotG into. This just makes Infiltration into a really versatile power that can cover multiple needs a build might ask of it. I also appreciate this power for characters where other travel powers just didn't fit thematically. My only real gripe is the interaction between Stealth and Infiltration, you can only have one or the other toggled at once. I wish both could be toggled on both to reflect how you can now toggle Hover/Fly and CJ/Super Jump together, and just taking the strongest stats of both. So in the Stealth/Infiltration case, the defense bonus and stealth from Stealth, and the move speed from Infiltration. There were times during my testing I just stopped using Infiltration and just swapped in Ninja Run because retoggling powers was starting to get under my skin. Overall though, I really liked this version of the Concealment pool, and can see it opening up new builds for everyone with the versatility and variety of powers it contains. Pool: Speed The more I played with Superspeed, the more one flaw of the momentum mechanic it has baked into it stood out. I was finding it incredibly easy to lose momentum just by tripping over small things or going down the smallest of inclines. Running over some of the larger curbs, running across grass or landscapes with minor hills, or transitioning from sand to water would almost always remove the momentum stack. I just wish it was more forgiving with the circumstances it was consuming it. Maybe once the game has tracked vertical upward movement, or extending the grace period timer. A minor issue overall Power Pool Travel vs Kheldian Form Travel I was disappointed when I hopped into Dwarf form on my warshade, hit Black Dwarf Step and found that while the 15 second grace period hover and it's no phase was implemented, the extended range of 350ft was not. This is also true of White Dwarf Step. I just wish these powered worked similarly across the board for consistency sake, so when you use Teleport, Shadow Step, Translocate from Mystic Flight, or White/Black Dwarf Step, they will perform similarly and move you 350ft. After I did my teleport tests with the teleport powers meant for travel, I saw some feedback suggesting that Dwarf Step was acting a little closer to Combat Teleport, and it justified it's range being lower. So, I played around with Combat Teleport, Jaunt from Speed of Sound and compared it to how Dwarf Step felt. Teleports are certainly more responsive across the board (including Dwarf Step), and that 15 second hover grace period is a huge quality of life feature, Dwarf Step definitely wasn't feeling like Combat Teleport for me. Nova forms weren't touched, and I'm actually okay with this right now. Nova form has always been this weird hybrid between Hover and Fly, and I don't think there's an easy fix to it. Probably something that's better revisited at a Kheldian update anyways. It just seems like it would take less man hours to bump up Dwarf Step by 50 feet than it would be to potentially rework the flight of Nova forms. Conclusions Overall, I really like all of the changes to the travel powers. They all feel a lot more meaningful, and Concealment is certainly a lot more interesting to me. And while I'm disappointed Dwarf Step wasn't buffed to 350ft, I'm not in anyway upset. We're not losing anything, the Dwarf Steps still got the QoL features from Teleport. We're just winning!

Scarred in Echo: Rikti Crash Site --- loc 3216.4 -137.3 -3198.1 On a broken fragment of road next to a destroyed building. A wrecked car is pointed at it. Communications Specialist (new badge I think) --- loc 959.6 171.3 -1174.4 Next to a red and white communications tower antenna.