Triumphant

@temnix From an idea standpoint I like the imagination and logic put into this concept. If we were forging a new game from the ground up, I could certainly support this approach. I think it would be really cool and a lot of fun to play with the sliders to adjust the mechanical effects of my character. But to be honest, I think you're asking too much from a coding standpoint here, not to mention how one would go about rebalancing the game around this and the way it interacts with the great multitude of other factors (enhancements, incarnate powers, inspirations, and so on) present in the game. In a nutshell, I think it's a bit too ambitious a request from a team of hobby developers running a free-to-play game. In the event that I'm wrong, and that the Devs would be onboard with trying to implement something like this, you need to allow for the option to turn the function on or off, because players of established, much-beloved characters are not going to be happy about those characters abilities changing from their present state, based upon choices they made in the character creator before this was implemented (If you see what I mean? I'm not sure if I am explaining my argument clearly here, so apologies if this is muddled).

I totally get that. And there are certain powers in the game (assassins strike, ranged snipes, teleport target... and plenty of others I can't think of off the top of my head right now) that are really only enjoyable if you're approaching the game in a careful, measured, tactical way, as these powers require thought and finesse to fully derive the most enjoyment from. PUGs are usually frenzied, random things with players of widely varying skill levels, which is not conducive to enjoying those kinds of powers or just playing the game at a more thoughtful, relaxed pace as you prefer to do (and as I myself prefer doing, from time to time). I also play solo for this reason, sometimes- though these days I play solo mostly because I have garbage internet and I don't want to torture other players on my team with my frequent rubberbanding, mapserves, and other lag-related woes.

That's totally fair and probably a great point. Part of my problem is likely that I'm always pushing myself to solo as difficult content as I feel I can manage at any particular level, because I like to level quickly (hate grinding) so I have a more interesting selection of powers to play with, so I'm striving to squish as many baddies (or goodies, if I'm running a villain) at as high a level as possible. This, naturally, puts a strain on my endurance bar due to the necessary frequency of attacks. When playing in a group, at normal levels- especially if you have a good team buffer to replenish endurance, it's probably a non-issue.

Definitely sounds like a glitch. A very odd one.

I guess the closest analog to what we're getting now, is sort of the old TV mini-series, from the 80's and 90's. These were always difficult to pull off well, and I seem to recall most of those being more bad than good (though I suppose one could argue that about many classic TV shows that got cancelled, as well).

Did not work for me. Tried it on two heroes. One was lvl 50. The other was lvl 43. Contact was not interested in talking to me. Sorry. I dunno. 🤷‍♂️

Of course. Apologies! Playing through this story will be my next project when I log on. Looking forward to it, actually!

I knew an Ainsley. No Aislings, though.

I like either a 3 year or 5 year story arc on television series. Enough time to give us a great story with well developed characters, but not so long that it becomes a hackneyed slog. Babylon 5, possibly my favorite sci-fi TV show of all time, was a planned, 5-year story arc that is one of the most satisfying stories I've ever enjoyed. So I know it can be done, if the writers are on their game. It's one of the gripes I have with the various Disney series (both Marvel and Star Wars). The seasons run very short numbers of episodes and then only go for a couple of those seasons (if we're lucky). But it's very hard for actors to really get grounded in the characters they're playing and for the story to grow and develop in such short amounts of time. Most of my favorite series (Babylon 5, the various Star Treks, etc.) were not great in Season 1 (or, at least, early on in the 1st season), for just that reason, but by season 2 (or end of season 1) were really hitting their stride. You have to give a reasonable amount of time for the actors to get immersed in their roles and the plot(s) to gain some traction.

Yeah, I do believe it's randomized. I've had a particular type of dead mob transform upon death and then in the very next group of mobs, same type, same level, it doesn't transform. Having had this experience multiple times, I have to believe there is some randomization element to it. I will say, though, I still enjoy the change that makes more of these guys do that (and do damage upon self-rezzing). I know some just find it tiresome, but for me at least, it adds a bit of fun to fighting the same old.

Interesting etymology. Also, strange. But, then again, I suppose many names that we are used to today are pretty strange, if you really stop to think about it.

It should probably be Ashley, though, because who is named Ashling? 🤷‍♂️

Invulnerability/Super Strength is always the recommended go-to for resist based tanker sets. I always struggle with endurance management on INV builds at low levels. Even after putting in End reduction IO's and Endurance Procs, I always find myself endurance starved on INV and it annoys me. It's fixable once I get into my incarnates, but you aren't going that far, so you might also find it as frustrating as I do (Or not. Who knows? As with all things in life, YMMV). I enjoy Radiation Armor for protection and having lots of useful clicky powers on a tanker. As far as attack power sets, Titan Weapon is pretty great. Like you, though, I much prefer defense sets, my favorite being Super Reflexes. My ultimate recommendation is always just to try whatever seems the most fun to you. If you don't like it, abandon the toon and try something else (it should be relatively easy to find someone to power level your new toon up to whatever level your buddies are currently sitting at). I'm no expert on tanking, by any means, though. So hopefully some experts can get in here and give you some genuinely useful advice.

Size is normal afaik. Your character is tiny.

I had no idea. Thanks, Dacy! 👍

LOL. I get it, I really do. And I'm sure the Devs are gun shy about messing with it, for just this reason. But you could do incremental tweaks and evaluate them, bit by bit, on the test server. That's the whole point of vetting power changes via the test server. I imagine there are very difficult challenges associated with changing the power set into something decent, without making the set over-powered and breaking the game again, but you can't do it if you don't try.

Yeah, that's the thing. If the legions of old-timers on live are a vastly larger group than the rest of us, they could just band together and play in the classic style, by dialing the difficulty up or down and refusing to use the various new-fangled widgets. A few folks have even posted old-school type groups on Discord and the forums. These groups are not comprised of huge numbers of members, so far as I know (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But if I'm wrong, why is there still an issue from an old-school player's perspective?). I think if that was going to happen, you would already see it happening. I don't see it happening. Maybe players of a more old-school play style would get more traction if they advertised outside of the game discord/forums on Twitter/X, facebook, or whatever the current social media landscape is? I dunno. 🤷‍♂️ But I think the reality is that most live players have moved onto other interests. A few of them have returned via the call of powerful nostalgia, and these are the ones that remain. Others (like myself) are folks that never played during live, stumbled on Homecoming entirely by accident, really like the game in its present form, and keep sticking around. Realistically, I think reverting the game to something more like it's live state would just drive off most of the current player base, making it a fully (or mostly) dead game, once again. The above is all just my opinion, of course. I haven't got any hard data to back up my hypothesis, fwiw.

That would be an epic crossover television event (it's already been done in the comics, though, hasn't it? 🤔)

It tells me pretty much what I would expect from a 20 year old game: The small core of devoted fans remain the same small core of devoted fans. Everyone else is looking for more modern gameplay. It's fine by me. I like the game. I like the player base that we have. If a few trickle in and a few trickle out, every now and again, that's okay too. 🤷‍♂️

I don't know what the solution is, but it needs help. I do wish the devs would devote some to it, in lieu of (or, at least, in addition to) working on new power sets. Don't take that too hard, Devs. I love what you guys do here. It's just how I feel about this one particular thing, which has needed attention for some time now, but never seems to get around to being addressed.

Shard: Everlasting Base Code: DIGS-34712 Builder or Owner: @Doctor Radon Special Considerations: This was meant to be a simple studio apartment in Kings Row. Visitors will quickly realize that it's poorly named, as this is much larger than a studio, having multiple rooms and even a small bar. What I discovered is that it's much more challenging to craft a nice-looking base in a very compressed space than I had first imagined (It can be done, of course! I have seen some amazing studio-type apartments in the past- I just lack the skill to pull it off myself, apparently). Anyway, I imagine that this base is one of several apartment complexes in a former warehouse in Kings Row, that was gutted and converted into rental flats. I'd go back and change the base name, if I could, but of course you can't do that, so I suppose it will remain poorly named in perpetuity. 😄🤷‍♂️

Well, one does wonder where the "Sumerian" bit comes in, I suppose. It does look like a pretty cool game, though.

Yeah, I've actually had that happen a couple of times. Rare, but it does happen.

Looks cool. Will be watching with interest. 👍

I think that's mostly for when people are running radio/paper/tip/alignment missions and such.