Triumphant

I'm not arguing there's a price, per say. Merely that the fact that something has a price does not, perforce, mean it isn't an option. If I go to the same liquor store that you went to shop for a bottle of wine, if I see your bottle of $30 wine, another for $15, and yet another for $57 (and probably dozens of other kinds of wine at varying prices), those are all different options for buying a bottle of wine. 🤷‍♂️

You're only paying the price if you choose to do it. Which... makes it an option.

Again, I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing. As I said, I have not played the set (I have, of course, played sets that were a mixed of ranged and melee powers. As you correctly point out, these are already fairly well represented in the game). I was simply saying that the poster was not trying to say what Luminara was implying they were saying. That's all. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I don't know if they do or not. That's clearly not what the poster was implying, though. They were simply suggesting the power, as implemented, doesn't make good sense. I haven't played the set yet, so I have no opinion one way or the other.

Yeah, I think the disconnect is in your forum topic title, though you do of course clarify this in the actual forum post. I do think it's fine to ask for feedback on the mechanical balance/combat aspect of your AE mission, though. I'll try to find some time to play them and give you some constructive feedback on 'em. 👍

I tend to make characters with SR armor set (both heroes and villains). Those rat b******s tend to be really hard to hit, so I reckon there would be a lot of whiffing and possibly both parties finally agreeing to a draw thanks to boredom and exhaustion. 😄🤷‍♂️

This part, I think, may be relevant to how you're experiencing the story arc. To a large degree, comic book storytelling seems to have matured quite a bit since its inception, and even since I was a kid growing up in the 80's (and reading many comics loaned or even given to me by my older uncles who owned issues printed in the 60's & 70's), so expectations from someone like myself may be very different (and much more forgiving) than someone that was weaned on stories from the early aughts onward (I'm not saying you are of this generation necessarily, and yes, I know we had the Watchmen, the Dark Phoenix Saga, and other good stuff. But while it wasn't all bad writing, a great deal of it really was mostly just a bunch of guys running around and punching each other in the head). I just recently finished the story arc and I did enjoy it. While I acknowledge the fairness and accuracy of your criticism, I was not really bothered by the few bits of hackneyed writing to the same degree, perhaps because it cleaves more to the sorts of comics I read as a kid and also because my brain is perhaps trained to react to this sort of media similarly to the seven year old in your example above. City of Heroes scratches that particular itch for me and if I want something more sophisticated, I look for it in shows like The Boys or The Umbrella Academy (or in RP super-group driven stories, or even TTRPG campaigns). And since this topic is feedback on the arc itself, I would like to say I really like the Tron-esque environment towards the end of the story. That would be a cool asset to have for building AE missions and Bases, for characters or groups exploring matrix/cyberpunk themes. Oh! And some of those Paragon Protector clones... very nasty! Great work, there (I ran the arc with a lvl 45 scrapper at +2/2, if anyone is curious)!

I agree with this and I believe I even mentioned something to that effect up-thread (or maybe it was another TV series related thread). The problem with modern streaming series though (and Disney+ series in particular- apart from The Mandalorian, perhaps), is that they don't run enough episodes (usually) to get past that initial 1st seasons rough start to give them time to develop into something truly good. The way that people view entertainment media and the way the business models are constructed these days probably doesn't allow for the 70's/80's/90's way of doing it, though, alas.

... wow. Yeah, that is broken, all right. 😄

It's a non-starter for me, buddy. Sorry. 🤷‍♂️

Huh. A surprisingly cogent defense of why we wouldn't want that change. Go Large Language Model! 😄👍

Yeah, I'm not against it in theory. I even think it's kind of a fun idea. I agree with you that it would probably completely bork what mechanical balance we have in the game, though.

Gratz! I've probably earned the 2 billion inf cap a couple of times over by now, but I always wind up spending it on enhancements by the time I hit 300 million or so. 😄🤷‍♂️

For the two powersets you describe... Stalagmite? Piton? Caltrop? Cragspike? Razorpeak? For a face/form-shifter... Transmorpho? Everyman? Mastermorph? Identimage? Photobomb? The Simulacrum? I'll try to think of some more. That's a challenging combo to theme-up, as it were.

I'm going to have to vote no on this one, friend. Sorry. It's okay that some enhancements won't work with some powers and/or sets. You've still got tons and tons of customization choices at your disposal. There shouldn't be an expectation that the player is always going to get what they want when trying to slot enhancements.

Nor am I, though I would add that I would like to see current powersets that need balancing addressed before the devs embark upon adding another completely new set to the game. Every time they do this and kinetic melee and Regeneration remain untouched, it makes me clench my teeth in frustration. I get it though. Creating something new is surely more creatively stimulating, you have more power over it, and it's (perhaps) less fraught with the possibility of triggering the player base, since you aren't futzing with a previously established thing that players are already using. Still... kinetic melee... regeneration... please. Give 'em a little love, would ya? 🙏

I am weary of and exhausted by time travel tropes in science fiction shows and movies as a whole. There's a glut of it in the genre and it lends itself to lazy writing and hackneyed plots. The Star Trek franchise is perhaps the worst offender in this regard. The Umbrella Academy is the only example I can think of that I have actually enjoyed in recent days, but that is mostly in spite of the time travel stuff (and really it's perhaps more dimension travel than time travel, for the most part), as opposed to because of it.

Well... that's a lot of pet recipes. 😄

Yeah, again, like with your body slider suggestion: It's a cool idea, it just goes beyond the scope of what they do here. The suggestion actually makes me think of the old Incredible Hulk, Ultimate Destruction game on Sony Playstation (2?). I loved that game, and how you could run around with Hulk and demolish everything from tanks to skyscrapers. Would have been great if they had implemented something like that on CoH in at least one map/area. Not sure if I would want it to be possible on all maps, though, since it would be quite jarring to see zones being levelled all the time during standard play. Regardless, while I enjoy most of your ideas, realistically I really think you're going to have to temper your expectations somewhat. It's a volunteer outfit with only so much time and energy, so you aren't likely to get a complete rebuild of the base game.

Looks fun. I'm in. 😄👍

Terribly sorry for your loss.

So, I just found a bunch on the /AH last night, thereby making a liar of myself. Embarassing. 😝

Really, when I think about it honestly, I have to agree with you on this. I love Pedro. He's great in pretty much everything I've ever seen him in. But he just doesn't feel like Reed Richards to me. I will watch the film and give him a fair shake, but it's gonna be a hard sell for me, tbh. The industry has done such a lackluster job of bringing this team to a live-action film in the past, that it's just very difficult to feel hopeful about the next iteration.

I mean... hyperbole aside, this is what every video game does, by it's very nature. Unless, of course, you pay a great deal of money for the video game. In that event, I suppose it wastes millions of hours of peoples lives for a lot of cash. 😄🤷‍♂️ Thankfully, this particular timewaster is completely free to play (for which I, as an impoverished fellow, am extremely grateful).

I guess I wasted my time (perhaps) opining on his costume slider thread, then. Oh, well. 🤷‍♂️