Black Talon

Very interesting topic, DougGraves - and I empathize completely with your take on it, Greycat. My Boys have generally got in about the sixty-plus souvenirs level each; I really enjoy running the mission arcs and do the best I can to make sure I get the big-ticket ones - meaning where there's an Elite Boss/Arch-Villain to scrap at the end. Hence my fondness for the Striga Isle/Faultline quadrologies, especially where we get to do the James Bond blow-up-the-bad-guy's-mountaintop-headquarters bit. Yet I do also see Greycat's point about having a bit more as a "trophy-case" memento; perhaps an actual physical item mirroring the souvenir description that could be placed in the SG base. Click on that, you get the complete arc description popping up, like an extended version of what you see when you click on various historic points in Atlas Park. Again, don't know what sort of resources/time would be required to implement this, let alone whether it's even possible or if the population's reaction might be a solid, "Meh", but I'd sure support having something that could personalize the SG bases even more. Again, thanks for instigating the thoughts on this.

Welcome to the revolution, Squishee. To be quick about it - for myself, yes, I did have the full crew on Redside, Back In The Day, but have only bothered to recreate and play one on Homecoming; Torchbearer, specifically. That boy, who hit 50 long, long ago, does solo missions almost exclusively; he's exhausted the contacts so these days it's either rent himself out to Vanguard or check those classifieds. I do agree with MoonSheep, Shred Monkey and ZemX wholeheartedly; get on that LFG channel, proclaim loudly that, like The Kid from the unexpurgated version of The Stand, you'd piss Redside if you could, and are looking for others who want to taste societal extremes. If you have any inclination to "play for both teams", as it were, it is perfectly possible to visit Null the Gull in Pocket D, have your alt go Rogue, do both the Hero/Villain thing as you see fit, and double your chances of a date on Saturday night. Otherwise, just very pleased to see you over here, looking forward to be able to exchange "hellos" if we're on the same server, and very much hoping that you can find the teams you're looking for in this resurrected, recalibrated funhouse. All best.

Interesting topic, Scarlet Shocker; for myself, I gave both Champions and DC Online a shot...never got past designing a character in either game. Did, very briefly, try Conan and, however beautifully the game was designed, just couldn't get past the difficulty and apparent repetition in taking down opponents. Could have been an equipment issue with an old, overused mouse on my part, but still. I have concluded that CoX was, is, and probably always will be the only MMPOG I have any interest in getting involved in, and for that I have to pass on my deepest thanks to Jack Emmert and the original Devs for their excellent work, and our always-appreciated Homecoming crew for resurrecting that which was mostly - not completely, but mostly - dead and allowing us to, once again, see through a keyhole into another world.

December 1, Greenwich Mean Time - this meaning that we here in the EST zone are going to get it starting about 7:00 p.m., Nov. 30. I will miss the fall-coloured trees, but Atlas Park is worth going to just to take in the city at night. As I posted a couple years ago, there ain't no substitute for the quiet snowfall in the Atlas Park neighbourhoods as the midnight hour works its way around. One moment of peace and stillness...this until the voice balloon of a Skull thug demanding, "Hand it over, lady!" followed by, "Help! Help! They're taking my rent money!" lets us know that, hey, Atlas Park might be beautiful this time of year, but it's time to get back to work busting heads in celebration of the season...

While, like many others here, I was doing the finger-crossing bit and hoping hoping HOPING that at least one of the post-Shutdown projects would come to fruition, I never had enough faith in any of them to commit funds. The primary reason being, as I've brought up before, the companies were crewed entirely by volunteers, and rare is the instance in which any such venture results in a completed work, especially when it stretches over a multi-year gestation span. People get tired, get bored, get irritated with one another...and sooner or later they zip out, leaving a hole in the production chain that logjams the work until somebody is found who can fill the gap, at least halfway competently. And then someone else bugs out and the entire cascade failure starts again. My approach to those various experiments has been, and remains, one of admiration and sympathy for those who initiated the projects...and condolence and pity for those who committed themselves to supporting their development. Pretty much all of these will become, "Whatever happened to...?" five-paragraph news articles in online gaming publications, congratulating the original teams and giving the slow, sad shake of the head for how things turned out in the end. Let's all just thank those who managed to resurrect CoX, and gave us a reason to be able to look at those other works with genuine sadness and compassion while we work our guys and girls toward 50, rather than uttering the slow sigh and looking off into the distance, whispering, "If only..."

In the 2013-2020 gap, I had completely blanked out on this. Thank you, all, for having given me a valid reason to stop crying, presuming that various demonic forces were haw-hawing boisterously at my conundrum, and allowing My Boy to get back to the way he oughtuz look. Next idiotic, "But what do I DO about this?" situation I've got, I'll send out the online broadcast message and see if I can restrict myself to having only one sharp swat upside the back of the head. Again, thanks to all.

Quick summation: I have an alt - Brute (blueside) - with an origin oriented very strongly toward Arachnos. His chest symbol is the Arachnos spider; and while this symbol still appears when I have him on the Server selector list, it has been replaced with some kind of bull-horn image when I actually put him online. No matter what arrangement I've attempted at the Tailor, I seem to be unable to restore the original chest symbol for when I actually have this guy in Paragon City, regardless of the zone. Wondering - was some kind of irreversible change for characters with this sort of costume addition instituted at some point in the past, or did the Halloween festivities, which this guy took part in quite enthusiastically, result in an alteration that can be reversed only through some unrevealed process? Apologies to the gang for this rather pointlessly cosmetic topic, but getting this guy back to the way I'd like him to look is a bit of a personal sticking point. All appreciations on the advice and/or guidance that might come forth.

The logical follow-up to this whole wonderful month is Guy Fawkes Day on November 5: Lord Recluse (that scamp) has planted your basic Simon Phoenix-style warehouse of C4 in the basement of Atlas Park City Hall, and is threatening to hit that button unless we give him the whole of Paragon City, right...NOW! Working our way into City Hall we find that it's been cross-connected with some alien Cthulhu-type dimension that requires we spend an entire month working through it, further and deeper down, scrapping villains and monsters endlessly, to the eventual disarming. Hm...have to get my butt over the AE office and get to work on this baby...sorry, Guy...

Would have to agree with Gawstruck, for the most part, but I do occasionally wonder if it'd be possible to do a sort of AT-combination bit; e.g., Scrapper with, say, half a dozen powers from a Defender's secondary power-set, and so forth. Sure, the extant power-pools do allow a considerable degree of variation already, but again, perhaps that hybrid type with a higher xp-per-level requirement as a bit of a trade-off.

While I'm probably out of my depth completely with this one - AV scraps, on my part, have never really gotten past the mass call of, "Take 'em down!" - I feel that giving AVs a "Domination" power that would allow the hostile program to assume control of player minions - or even the players themselves - could have devastating consequences. Players would be hitting Break Free after Break Free insps in order to overcome such intrusions. Whether an app could be put together for the AVs that would allow this sort of thing to be executed in a logical and playable manner is, I would think, anyone's guess.

Agreed with GastlyGibus the big one-ten. The only thing that the KoA (and filling in the abbreviation with "Knives of Artemis" or "Killed on Arrival" fits the group about equally well) are missing is the cultural context. In terms of the power-sets...well, with regard to your classic ninjitsu, there ain't nothin' missin'. I can see any member of this group applying to become an acolyte of The Hand in Netflix's Daredevil series and getting a membership card before they're out the door (or risen from the pit, as the case may be). However, they'd have to do a complete turnaround with regard to motivation: the KoA and their reactionary, rather reductionist militant feminist approach would have to go out the window in favour of Frank Miller's rules for The Hand - especially Order Number One: Leave Nothing Living - along with dispensing with Western culture, including science, presumably, and replaced with Eastern mysticism. Yeah, the black hoods and gi, along with the ninja-to, shuriken and tetsu-bishi are all part of the in-your-face image, but it'd be nice to see a villain group that claims the same fanatical, death-worship that The Hand do and follow the same sort of millenarian-apocalypse vision, rather than engaging in the rather childish, "I'm more gooder at being a ninja assassin than you are," self-promoting proclamations the KoA are inclined to make.

Very interesting topic, SeraphimKensai, and one that does tend to point toward a person's game perception and general style. Ain't any such thing as right or wrong on this one, but it sure is nice when the mission-approach is advertised well and clear before anyone deigns to sign up. For myself - not a fan. Part of the reason I want to play the game is, as Yomo Kimata described, to take a moment to smell those roses; when on the Ernesto Hess TF (one of the most wonderfully artistic points in the game, IMHACWO), I want to take a couple of moments to glory in the drama of scrapping your archetypical James Bond-megalomaniac in a livid volcanic interior, with a mega-size 'Mech looming over the proceedings. The original Devs took some serious time and effort in putting these settings together, and, when doing the virtual visit, I'd like to take a second to appreciate the depth of what I, and the rest of the team, are getting involved in. People interested in the speed runs - have at 'er. Again, just very appreciative as to when these arrangements are labeled as such upon being announced, and a clear, unambiguous choice can be made so that participants don't have a, "Well...meh," feeling when things reach their conclusion.

Boomtown, for me, is a place that has remained a CoX go-to strictly because of the questionable-but-still-standing architecture. The original Faultline, while a visually arresting location, had no essential story to justify sending characters in to scrap the hordes of CoT-types, Vahzilok, and what-have-you that hung out in the assorted crevices. Boomtown, while it's certainly got an essentially numberless villain population, is also considerably easier to navigate, especially for those alts (and I have a couple) with Super-Speed as their travel power. As a just-off-the-top thinking, here, I'd love to see a trilogy/quadrology of story arcs put together that use the place just as it is, the various villain groups interfering with urban reconstruction to keep progress to a minimum (thus preserving current visuals), and perhaps an AV showdown in the tunnels at the end of the third/fourth arc. I understand that back in pre-Shutdown, there was a Faultline Task Force in place that could take upwards of a fricking day to accomplish, and the time commitment is a primary reason I never indulged in such - using the current Faultline story-arcs as a model makes it much more accessible. Boomtown remains a place I enjoy coming to look over for the urban destruction aspect, and having a neo-Faultline set of reasons to come and explore the zone, rather than just instanced missions, would provide, for me, at least, a real justification to keep the place as it is.

Angel Daddy, just wanted to pass on thanks for having brought this topic up; it's something that's kind of nibbled at the consciousness for one or two of my alts with solo bases, and I'd wondered exactly why a simple SG name-change mechanic hadn't been worked into the game in the first place. Much like how character name changes are pretty much a matter of routine at this point. In any case, thanks as well to GM Capocollo for having outlined the corrective procedure. One final note for GM Capocollo: Lay off the butts, at least in public. They're setting a bad example for the kids as to what puts you on the path to the American Dream of fame and fortune in the Twenty-First century. What's that...? It's a simple artistic graphic with no connection to real events and/or people, and to ease off the pointless criticism? Well, okay...maybe that's a sign for me to go out to the garage and consider my position in life with a forty of Jack Daniels...don't think anybody can criticize that kind of thinking...

Can't state anything that hasn't already been stated by those with far broader and deeper experience than myself (especially when it comes to the Incarnate stuff), but I will give the double-thumbs up and, "Yeah!" to hitting those contacts - through Ouros or otherwise - and perhaps building up the recipes until you've got your basic Julia Child's-Superhero-Cookbook of tasty extras for your guy/girl. One final thing I will state out of suspicion: taking "3 to 4 days", especially with the double-xp buff, to get an alt to 50 strikes me as someone who's doing power-leveling; if so, fine, but I make it a point to get every alt through every story arc possible, at standard xp progression rate, and thus hitting 50 takes roughly three to five months (depending on how many free hours I can dedicate to said alt). My Boys have racked up more than their share of damn debt badges - the Mark of Shame - by doing this, but it also means that I'm able to meet up with various villain groups and ever-repeating bosses/EBs/AVs (such as Doc Vahz and FrostFire; card-carrying members of a club that celebrates a failed parole system) on a predictable and most welcome basis. I can see it as possible that the very inventive and resourceful HC Devs do ultimately craft a post-50 system at some point, but until that day, I'll be quite pleased to run through the gamut of mission arcs that the pre-Shutdown Devs (and various writers through AE) invented and put into working production, with every intent of giving the players A Real Hard Time of it.

Bit of an unhappy confession here: when I first got back on the game, closing on two years ago, I had totally forgotten about the Hollows and the attendant mission arcs. This was an especially regrettable point because I like My Boys to collect as many mission arc souvenirs as possible, and for the first few guys I put together...they just never got the opportunity. On - I believe it was my third alt - I did finally remember and dedicated the next several levels to working through the contacts. Yes, there were at least a dozen occasions with new alts where I put out the call to demo FrostFire - like Doc Vahz, yet another sad example of our revolving-door parole system - and I was very happy to be able to complete the zone with having returned Officer Wincott's boy to him, alive and well. It might sound stupid and pointless, but there's something about getting a father and child - as virtual as they might be - back together after a novel-length struggle that makes me feel I did at least one thing right with my day. That and the fact that the Hollows, along with Croatoa, is the single most nature-bound, and beautifully laid-out, setting in the game. Get the Trolls and the Outcasts to have a last-man-standing-gets-a-free-large-Slurpee contest, and then move the civilian population in after Longbow's done the body-count and filled up the morgues. Grendel's Gulch can remain, much like the sites of natural disasters, an untouched reminder of what happens when you let drug-enhanced/deformed punks start thinking they own the place. It is an unhappy reality that no post-20 contacts, at least ones that I can think of, will send a character into the Hollows for an instanced mission. Much the same as with Striga Isle. In summary, the Hollows was one of the best post-publication additions to the game I can think of, and it's only unfortunate that, at this point, My Boys regard the place as little more than a bucolic memory.

Don't know if this really qualifies, but for me, it's Storm Summoning. While this power-set comes across as almost disruptive in group settings - many have been the times with my SS/EB Defender that I've done not much more than hang out at the back, dispensing O2 Boosts and running Hurricane as a constant in order to prevent being jumped; that and the required biting sarcasm commentary so that Villain Group X can go to prison with another layer of blistering humility - I've found it to be extremely effective when working solo, with the Hurricane/Snow Storm/Freezing Rain combo serving as a great warm-up for Lightning Storm. Haven't seen too many others handing out decks of compliments to Storm Summoning, but would certainly like to know if others have experienced much the same with this power-set.

KC4800, thank you for the topic introduction; this is something that, if I ever had thought of it, was doing basically a Pluto-distance orbit in terms of considering, "Hm - wonder how other people handle the solo-level stuff?" For myself, after having spent several hundred million (probably closer to a billion) on various purple/red recipes, my 50s guys (Scrappers and Tankers, at least) are able to handle themselves with moderate challenge on +4/1; one of the reasons that I haven't pushed things past this point, at least to date, is that I've stayed well and away from the whole Incarnate thing. Regarding larger villain groups - while, yes, it would jack up advancement rate, I'm really not too much into the idea of turning every police scanner mission into an afternoon's marathon. My Defenders and Blasters are at +3/1; while, again, they could handle the +4 with a touch more difficulty, I do like having a few random bad guys that prove a bit more manageable, especially when it comes to the boss and the wave attacks when escorting the hostage to the exit. Perhaps I will start altering the multiplication rate one day, but right now I'm perfectly okay running things on a, "I've got to watch my butt," level rather than constant panic. The Boys have still been taken down in various situations (often due to the damn Sappers), so it ain't a cakewalk regardless of what the villain numeric appearance level is.

Personally, my only notable reaction to the spam invasion was, "Oh, God, not again." I will skip out on all subject-based commentary and simply pass on every congratulations and thanks to the CoHHC team for their alacrity in response to the annoyance, and to the site's population as a whole for the, "Hey, if you're gonna come in here uninvited, there's a nice gladiatorial lion pit we can toss you into for the gang's entertainment." All appreciations to Luminara for the poetic parody; these goofs want to come in the door without knocking, fine - and there is the understanding that they don't give a frank damn what our personal response is, unless it involves forwarding cash - but we're going to hold you up as demonstrations of social and corporate failures. All best on your next site invasion attempt, guys...

Nothing particularly revolutionary or insightful here; just giving the big "Yeah!" to Luminara's argument and providing a bit of limited personal experience. I have been - and continue to - operating under the impression that the HC version of the game has been under the dictum of, "Teaming ain't that common any more." ATs which almost demanded teaming in order to achieve advancement - Defenders, Controllers - have, through the Devs' application, become something that can actually handle a mission solo. I did, and do, have a number of Defenders on my roster, and I recall, back in pre-Shutdown days, that they would have dedicated insp use with +0 bosses. Now, my SS/EB Defender can keep his End at an equitable level, with regular Electrical Blast hits; there's no need to send out a holy-crap-I'm-in-trouble alert that would bring assistance on the run. Luminara's point about the IOs is also, in my opinion, dead-on. I stuck with the level 50 generics for a long time with all my 50s, and finally decided, "Huh. Fine; I'll start spending some of the 100 million-plus Inf this guy's got on some recipes that look half decent." As indicated, they're not mandatory in any shape, form or fashion, as also goes for the Incarnate thing. Over a year and a half on, and I still have no desire to put any of my alts through that process - and I don't particularly feel the loss for it. If we were to regress and go back to a pre-Enhancement Diversification (eternal ugh) state, would there be advantages? Yeah, we'd have perma-Hasten as a possibility again, but we'd also be stuck in a world where forced teaming for several ATs would pretty much be a given. To join with the chorus, I have every appreciation for what the HC Devs have done and continue to do here, and will be playing/contributing to the monthly sustaining fund for as long as possible. There ain't no perfect game; there's the perfect game for you. If this one has fallen off the pedestal in that regard for you, my condolences...but the population here certainly don't seem to have no major problem with it.

Passing on quick and sincere Thank Yous to KaizenSoze for providing that link; provides some much-desired clarification and specifics on how/when/where these sort of things occur, and how to/how not to get involved, depending on one's predilections at the time.

Wonderful, and very much appreciated, seasonal topic, CU_Crow. I, along with everyone else who has a personal investment in this game, cannot thank the Homecoming crew enough for their time, patience, and willingness to put up with silliness that would drive many kindergarten teachers to drink and/or retirement. During my occasional interactions with the Mods - when particular goals are unreachable or technical issues crop up - I've always attempted to show some real respect and good humour as an appreciation for the volunteer time they're donating. Various other CoX "legacy" projects have ended up either miscarried or essentially frozen in a glacier - and being originated and carried on with a nothing more than a full-volunteer capacity for pretty much the bunch of them, I can't see, logically, how it could have turned out any other way - and, although it could be argued that the CoHHC team at least had a fully operational system to work off of - just reinflate the tires, change the oil, fill up the tank, check the plugs and we're ready to go - that doesn't change the fact that keeping this thing going on an hourly, weekly, monthly and years-long basis has required some really honest, serious love. For me and all the other superhero-wannabes out there, Homecoming crew - staff and volunteers alike - our greatest and ongoing thanks, and a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Happy New Year to all. We'll be thinking of you and passing on our deepest appreciations every time we gather to give the CoT's Envoy of Shadow what for. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Knockout Blow that actually connects with the target and lodges them in the ceiling tiles.

For myself, having run a number of My Boys through the grinder with Snaptooth over the last couple of days, the lack of "announcement" with this is pretty much a non-issue. For the Lord's sake, we know it's fricking Christmas, and we expect Father Time (who's gone through childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age in 365 days) to be replaced with his rather precocious and overbearing replacement. This is not new content; with the exception of the "lost years" (2012-2018) we've had access to the exact same Christmas run-through without significant alteration, and the only real shocker is how well the population has got the process knocked down. For my part, I would have expected an announcement only if the Devs had decided, "We ain't doing it this year," and some sort of heathen celebration for Walpurgis Nacht on April 30 was designated instead. Actually, just thinking about it, that could work...turn Croatoa into one of the biggest population zones in the game, and questioning every Witch in the zone's coven as to what unholy form that ultimate sacrifice will take. Final scrap is against Jack-In-Irons. who brings a bunch of his iron-welding buddies out for a night's parties and hit the Budweiser just a little too hard. Guy/girl who takes Jack out gets those huge novelty chains as a souvenir...

No more need be said (or written), and I think the sharpness and rapier-like penetrating ironic wit of our previous commentators sums it up better than I ever could. Can only express condolences to Joel in episode #1, because we all know that if he did press Captain Dynamic's Awesome button, it would end up extending back out further than it was pressed in, as a total violation of Newton's Second Law. Also felt that the closing music was perfect (not kidding about this one), and we're all a little poorer for not having it worked into the game. All thanks to Astralock for having brought these to our doorstep. Just remember, pressing that doorbell for notification is a very different experience than the Awesome button...

Very small point, and this is exacerbated by the fact that I never engaged in it to begin with, but PvP has, from my standpoint, gone the way of the trilobite. I recall, Back In The Day, being in the PvP zones on the way to missions (no, I wasn't a huge fan of it, and got in/out as quickly as humanly possible) and getting sniped/ambushed with no announcement or challenge whatsoever - why the Devs didn't institute a WoW-style set-up, right from the beginning, escapes me completely. Since Homecoming's institutionalization, this seems to have become even more strongly the case. I stop off in the PI Arena every once in a while, just to see what's (or what's not) happening; I don't recall ever seeing another PC alt there, and the active Arena itself has been nothing but silent. Certainly don't have any qualms about this, as I'm perfectly happy to raise the fists in PvE circumstances for as long as this game is running, but I do wonder occasionally what would have happened if there hadn't been such self-declared push to do the "Harrison Bergeron"-number, back in '06 or thereabouts, on what could have been a diverting element for the game.