ArchVileTerror

Now -there- is something interesting. What coding wizardry did they perform to get that to happen, I wonder.

I find the most effective way is to make eye contact for a good long while, take long blinks to show you're not a threat or threatened, and then turn your back. That cat's gonna want to pounce you SO BAD at that point. Just make sure you're in range and that you're okay with kitty claws piercing your skull or skull-analogue-organ/limb.

I believe you can also team up with someone else when they do the Flashback. Or you could go to Recluse's Victory and farm the insultingly-one-hour-respawn-rate Contaminated in the Tram station there.

Looks like it was a fake-out falsie badge.

Ignoring the nonsensical naysay(s), as I really do like the idea of making more content more accessible (and I'm a huge proponent for being able to do high level content without having to level up, too. But that's a discussion for a different thread) . . . but there is one potential issue: While Experience and Inf rewards will evaporate if you've outlevelled a Story Arc, I am 90%ish certain that the Merits are still rewarded at the end. While I personally don't view that as much of an issue, I realize that with trivialized difficulty from grey-con enemies that there are people who play this game who feel that you don't "deserve" those Merits. So . . . that's an actual concern/complaint that would need to be addressed (or not, ideally) if this feature were ever to be implemented. Programming in a solution to that issue might push the feasibility of this thread's suggested feature in to more frustrating territory. Considering the Homecoming Team has stated that they want to "take a look at rewards at all levels," I really do hope they consider opening content accessibility across the board at the same time. Just need to put something in place to let new players know when they're liable to bite off more than they can reasonably chew. Other than that? Open the floodgates already.

Would it be possible for GMs to send messages in the Events channels? (While we're at it, can we get those Events channels to stop auto-changing when we change alignments? I'm tired of losing channels when I swap to help someone.)

Aye. It's been there since Launch, as I recall. During my first year I tried to run an event on Victory to rally non-human heroes to speak out against that kind of mindset (mainly propagated by The Vanguard). I didn't get much of a turn out, but I was also a new player at the time and didn't have much community pull. I was going to try again the following year, but it was scheduled for November 1st. I ended up going Redside with the release of City of Villains, and it would just feel disingenuous of me to run an event like that from the Etoiles. But, if anyone does try to run some kind of non-human inclusion event, you can count on my support!

Fan Fuggin' Tastic. . . . I'mma just start plotting and planning and scheming. Thank you for all your hard work! It's appreciated.

I mean, three different types, technically. Proc Bonuses behave differently with Exemplar-ing from either the Enhancement Bonuses or the Set Bonuses. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18577-things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-started/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-208058

So . . . thread hasn't been locked, yet . . . there's still time to get the last of your discussions in, if there are any pressing bits to hammer out, folks! (just watch . . . GM Miss is totally going to lock this moments after I post this and make me look like a fool . . . ) (Well. More of a fool than usual, rather. Let us do be fair.)

Where are you going, and why is your RV shaped like a hand-basket?

Except that AE content is (on the surface) pretty well optimized and readable as pure text. Have you ever taken a look at your AE missions as text files? It's not amazing, but it's pretty solid for keeping things compact. Bases, however, have been modified to have all kinds of new data in them, with the original blocky restrictions lifted. Unless there's a really nifty compression algorithm working behind the scenes, I have a feeling that Bases (like Karma-508 or Veacor's Castle on Everlasting) take WAY more raw data. But, eh. I could be quite wrong. I'll take a jab at a pigg viewer later and compare the sizes of zones like Echo: Galaxy and Kallisti Wharf to see what those look like. I mean, if Kallisti is a smaller file than your average non-Farmer 5-part AE arc, then I'll be pretty shocked . . . but I'll eat my pie.

Recently I made a profile picture for @Shadowsleuth since they had provided so much content and Rep on these forums, but were still using the default coloured letter "avatar" for their identity. I also called Haijinx out months ago since they're in the top ten posters on these forums, and still don't have a profile image either. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/16315-petition-get-haijinx-to-get-a-profile-picture/ There are a bunch of other users out there, many with hundreds of posts already, who still don't have profile images either. What do you say . . . can we team up, make some appropriate profile images, share 'em here, and then tag the respective users to show 'em what we've made for 'em?

Another option is to only add a -few- extra enemies to each faction who specialize in Buffing and enhancing the existing low level enemies. Superior Lieutenants and Bosses, or even Elite Bosses. Now, I know there are some players who are hard-set on firmly stating that "Hellions and Skulls should never move past level 20!" because they like the idea of "having defeated" them as a Group (there's a deeper can of worms there, but going to avoid it for now). So, what if these supplemental forces were more like Signature Villains; big cheeses of independent factions with agendas where they exploit the weaker villain groups to their own personal advantage. Like "King Inferno" coming along and giving a bunch of Hellions flaming swords in exchange for those Hellions helping him with his personal quest for glory. In this scenario you would add some new Hellion Lts. and Bosses with the flaming swords, who in turn would cast Forge, Warmth, and Cauterize on regular Hellion Minions, Lts., and Bosses (along with having attacks and defenses of their own). The supportive nature of these new Sword Hellions elevate the regular Hellions and brings them to a more threatening state for higher levels of gameplay. I see a lot of story-telling potential there, along with gameplay improvements, but with comparatively lower overhead than trying to flesh out a -whole- faction for later levels. Win-win-win.

Due to a combination of management changes and the worldwide pandemic situation, it looks like my favourite geek convention is cancelled this year. Not to discount the other more serious impacts which the virus and the subsequent lockdowns and quarantines have had on the world, of course. But it looks like I'm going to be in the market later this year or early next for a new Hamilton-area geek or geek-related convention. Eschewing overpopulated nightmares like AnimeNorth and CNExpo, does anyone have any good recommendations for my area now that ConBravo! is looking to be kaput? Crazy Stretch Goal: Should we try to make a City of Heroes convention in this area, since Hamilton is historically the hub between the u.s. and Montreal dating all the way back to the bootleg alcohol daze of your prohibition era down there? That would be pretty awesome.

I will say that Rikti Ship Blasts really suck when you're AFK near the trainer in Port Oakes . . . or just about anywhere else. Or on your way somewhere. Or attempts to roleplay/run an event (hello Monkey Fight Club last week). Invasions are fun and great and all, but yeah. Don't overdo it. Perhaps if there were designated windows of safety, so players could make plans in advance. Then the invasions -could- happen during other times to leave things a bit random. I dunno. Just spitballing.

I believe that, due to their choices in forum "avatar" images, that I must now call upon: @Greycat @Muppy and @Grouchybeast

This looks relevant to your interests. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=streets+of+rage+4 Seriously. I am getting some City of Heroes vibes off of this . . .

. . . alright, adding another concept for my inevitable deluge once we get a Support/Melee Archetype . . . Poison / Spines

Updated to include @Bastille Boy's post! Updated to include @Heraclea's post!

There is a potential counterargument in the form of it sucking for those players who had already invested the hundreds of Merits to unlock their Badges. Issuing Merit refunds for everyone who has the Badges is theoretically possible, but would require taking the servers down to issue it and could potentially get buggy/glitchy. But . . . yeah. I'm also of the mind that 100 Merits is PRICEY AS FU- . . . ahem. Especially since Merits are so valuable for other purposes directly related to core gameplay. I'd even hazard to say that any player who says "1500 Merits is easy to get" has a skewed perspective, frankly.

Additionally, you always get the benefit of Procs as long as the Power in which the Proc Enhancement is Slotted is still available to you at your current Exemplar level, even if the Enhancement itself is outside the normal range. So, if you were a Level 50 and had the entire level 30 Numina's Convalescence Set 6-Slotted in Health (don't 6-Slot Health, by the way, this is just an example), then you would be able to retain the Set Bonuses all the way down to Level 27 of Exemplaring. However, the +10% Regeneration/+10% Recovery Proc from the Set would continue to work all the way down to Level 1, since Health is a free Inherent Power unlocked at Level 2 (and you retain Powers up to +5 your Exemplared Level). That's probably a little confusing, so don't worry about it any time soon. It's not something you're likely to need to deal with for a long while if you're a new player.

I'm not really contributing to the discussion when I ask this . . . but has this been the biggest Weekly Discussion for the forums so far? Feels like it, anyway.

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Exemplar_Effects_on_Enhancements

I believe they're called Stonewalls? You can join the Pride Global Channel ( /chanjoin Pride ) and ask around there. I think we have a fair number of Torchbearers in the channel. Good luck!