MHertz

All of the above, yes please. Additionally, it would be lovely to: lock an item from being accidentally moved or rotated rename an object or add a note so you remember which one is which a “building base AFK” message

How desirable an enemy is for farming isn’t the same as how fun they are to fight. I like that the Freakshow are smashing/lethal/energy and not a whole plethora of damage types. No toxic, no psi. The fact that they get up sometimes, that’s just to keep you on your toes. If you have a couple holds on the group and you’re judicious about locking down problematic Super Stunners, it’s okay. Nemesis is usually on the same plane, except when the snipers have an advantage of location that’s hard to get around. Crey’s Paragon Protectors are pussycats if you hold them before you deliver the beatdown. Carnies are annoying because you can’t lock down everything that’s a problem. Arachnos, same. Vahzilok, double ditto, plus they do toxic damage and explode and rez, which is a lot for heroes of that level.

I’m pretty agnostic on this idea. I’m in favor of the idea that the late game is too easy and needs more of a role for support archetypes. Things die so quickly that the challenge is greatly lessened and the usual powers and tactics aren’t needed. However, I know that the devs are tackling the long-term balance issues to correct for these things, and adding another solution might not be appropriate. I’m curious: in your vision, how does this affect rewards for 50s who have (or would have had) a level shift?

I can't answer questions about how base PVP is designed to work. That isn't at all related to what I'm suggesting. From the standpoint of a kick/ban function, I'm only saying I can envision a use for it, if you're trying to set up a 4v4 battle but some knob won't leave the base. For all I know, the problem of bystanders has already been solved. Or not.

Incidents occur all the time as problems come up with public RP spaces. That should be reason enough to give base owners and SGs control over whether troublemakers have the right to stay and continue being obnoxious. PVP is only an added wrinkle that provides extra impetus for a solution. Whether or not such a command should be permitted while PVP is active is a question of implementation. The devil is in the details. I think you ought to be able to kick someone out before PVP begins, if they aren't part of the plan and won't leave voluntarily. After PVP has been activated, it should be the case that no further people can enter the base. This prevents PVP from being used as an ambush against unsuspecting players (who enter the base and didn't know PVP was active) but also to prevent pile-ons (give all your buddies the code and zerg rush the other side). Once PVP is flagged, the portal should lock — in my opinion, anyhow. (Edit: I do not know whether this is already the case, as I don't use base PVP.) Whether a kick command should be permitted during PVP, and by whom (team leaders? base leaders? anyone in the SG?), I couldn't say. That is literally not my fight.

My understanding is that base raiding does not exist, per se, but base PVP can be activated. I have not tested this to see how it functions. If the SG is running with PVP active for an in-character "sparring" session, or using Halloween costumes to simulate a parley with some Rikti or whatever, then someone could definitely cause trouble by attacking people or attacking the "enemy" when that is not what the RPers are trying to do. Even without base PVP, a lot of people on Everlasting have set up their bases as public spaces to be shared — restaurants, parks, city blocks, apartments, or what have you. Occasionally you get people showing up making trouble, such as by spamming, or inserting themselves in an RP session where they are not invited, or starting arguments that drown out whatever else was going on. Right now there are no good alternatives to preventing this, short of changing the base password and kicking everybody out, even the people who weren't a problem; or one could try to summon a GM to scold the unwanted participant. Having an in-between option — begone with thee! — would let RP sessions police themselves.

Now that we have PVP in supergroup bases, can we implement a kick/ban feature to remove problematic players from the base, preferably based on global ID? Some SGs are going to want to use the PVP feature as a role-playing aid and will need a method to remove players who are making trouble.

I do like the event weekends because of the increased traffic, and the planning; it’s a must-attend event that brings in players. If double (or more) XP isn’t attractive, other ideas include: Lootmania. Change the drop rate and/or level range for items. Maybe 2x regular drop rate, or make purple drops land on low-level players. It would create some churn in the market and extract some money from rich players looking for rare goods. Increased Inf* rate. This could bring players in and, as above, create some action in the markets. Extra rewards for TF/SF/Trials, mission completions, AE, or some other specific activity. Double number of mobs per spawn, just for kicks. If you want to avoid the stigma of power-leveling, just give a % chance to auto-level up for any non-gray enemy your team defeats (as long as you did damage). That would make for a fun weekend, even if the chance is like 1/500. Using the “bug attacks” software on a semi-regular basis would also be good.

You misunderstand. I couldn’t care less that farms exist and I don’t think anyone else needs to get in a twist about it either. People will always seek to maximize advantage; devs will always fix bugs. That’s how it goes.

The letter E (for "emergency") has been assigned as an automatic hotkey to fire off all your longest-recharging powers. This now means you can no longer type the letter E for any reason without setting off powers. You will have to adjust your in-game chat accordingly. Characters with the letter E in their names will have to be renamed so they can be invited to teams. Farm missions will now be given subsidies by the local government. The mission owners will be paid in order to keep them in business, but 90% of the generated XP will be thrown away or fed to pigs. 40% of all Longbow officers, city police, and police drones in Paragon City will now take 20-minute vape breaks at random times, but they will be paid the same as the other police. Because Hamidon raids generate so much lag, the new artwork for all Hamidon-related mobs will consist of a spinning GIF of a ham sandwich. In order to make the Mercenaries set more efficient, mercs will now stab each other to death after summoning to save time.

You have a stray 4 that got out of its corral.

Architect Entertainment has been purchased by the cable company. XP from AE missions will be delivered to your supergroup base within a four-hour window. You must be present to receive XP.

I know people are upset about the changes to their favorite toys, so let’s make up silly hypothetical nerfs to be upset about instead. I started a new character, and I had to begin at level –15. I tried to use my flight power but I was bumped by the airline because someone else was using Flight before me. The Walk power now has a supplementary travel power called Uphill In The Snow, Both Ways. Water Blast now has to cut back water usage by 40% due to drought conditions. I tried to make a Stalker … and it let me. If you take the train anywhere, they make you get out and push.

Every MMO I’ve played has had a population that seeks to find the path of least resistance (or the fastest/easiest path to victory). It never changes. That’s what some people enjoy; that’s their preferred playstyle. I would characterize it as pitting themselves and their native wit against the developers’ carefully constructed systems. Whether this is victory in PVP or fast leveling or gaining quick cash, it’s looking for ways to excel by the terms of the game. And in every MMO I’ve played, this inevitably turns into “the devs are trying to destroy us!” when the terms of the game change. (If this is indeed your mindset — an adversarial us-versus-the-devs 'we must defeat the system' mentality — I am not surprised you take changes personally. But I respectfully submit that that mentality that is your problem.) You see this in nature. When there is a source of food, something comes along to consume it. The population which prefers that excess of food now booms. Then the food source goes away and that population falls away, or moves somewhere else, leaving ripples in the other populations as it goes. Whether you characterize this in a positive light (eg, beautiful hummingbirds coming to your lovely tended garden of wildflowers) or in a negative light (eg, swarms of locusts stripping bare what was once fertile farmland) is all in your own personal perception. I keep saying that some day, someone will release a game that lets all players feel amazingly powerful, and we would be able to empirically determine if such a game would be welcomed and embraced and successful, or whether it would be stale and dull and unchallenging. It would probably not be viewed equally by everyone. Farmers may dislike it because there's no way (or no need) to gain an edge; other players may not like it because it contains no danger. Or it might be wildly successful among all groups. Who knows? Meanwhile, if you’re a farmer, embrace the cyclic nature of your changing ecosystem. If you’re against farming, accept that the boom-bust cycle of advantage-seeking isn’t going anywhere.

Can you put that in context for us? For instance, how does that compare to how many level 50s exist?

Since SG raids are not on the horizon, is it possible to implement a SG base ban? I have noticed that there seem to be occasions where someone shows up and causes trouble, requiring GM intervention, and it might make things easier to let SG leaders control access themselves. A ban (cannot enter) and a boot-ban (kicked out, cannot re-enter) would be great. Such a ban would have to override other permissions, like "team leader grants access" and coalition membership, but probably not override being in the SG itself. Is this feasible?

Please see the above messages where I explain this is not my position. But thank you for pointing out the logical converse of my point.

Your post contains a ton of incorrect assumptions about me, my writing ability, my ability to write content with others, my experience with comics, and so forth. And this is just wrong. This isn't what I said at all. It's totally backwards, as I pointed out above. I didn't ask "why do all people choose characters like X and then play like Y?" I asked "why do players want to play like Y, and sometimes happen to be X?" As you'll note in the OP, some of them are human but they happen to be superior to others. First: yes, I'm biased. I was a PNP GM for 20+ years, playing a multitude of superhero-based campaigns. Power-gaming RP leaves a bad taste in my mouth due to a particular example (let's call him Sheldon) who always had to have the characters in the game who were the Best at Something. The fastest, the wisest, the strongest, the hardest to kill, so he would never be at any disadvantage and would always have the best characters to call upon. And not just the best, the ridiculously over the top extreme champion, so nothing was ever a challenge. I didn't understand it then, and I don't understand it now. Doesn't it get boring when you're always the best at stuff? Yes, those kinds of beings appear in comic books, where the writing and the plotting is controlled so those beings can be as powerful as the story requires them to be. This is a role-playing game where you have to play with other people. There's no writer or GM in charge to moderate those impulses. So I'm asking "why do people choose to play a character that is defined to be more powerful than the other characters?" What do people get out of that? Why do I encounter so many people who RP such characters so poorly?

1. Because very often I try to RP with a person who is playing a dragon, or a fae, or a god-being, it's no surprise that they invented for themselves a bunch of extra magic powers that aren't in the game. This isn't just me making up a bunch of assumptions, this is me asking the question after numerous eye-rolling encounters. There's a pattern here. I'm not claiming it is universal, because I have met numerous nymphs, dragons, god-beings, fae, and so forth, that are good RPers with well-defined characters and who play well with others. Nevertheless, the correlation is pretty persistent. 2. I don't know you, and I don't assume anything about you. 3. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that "every person who plays a god, demon, angel, or dragon is a power-gamer." I'm saying "why do people want to play power-gamed RP character [which is typically one of the aforementioned beings, but not always, as I point out in my OP]?" Or to simplify: I'm not asking why all X in the game play like Y; I'm asking why people play like Y in the first place [and are usually one of X]?

No, not really. People play what they want to play; I don't have to like it. It comes up because I try to build my base with RP hooks in mind, enough to satisfy people with different backgrounds and hero origins. There's this problem here for magic users and enemies of the Circle of Thorns; there's that problem over there for necromancers and other death spirits. There's another problem for people with natural origin or technology. But then someone inevitably comes along and says, "Hey, I'm a time-bending super alien overlord, and I'm also the god of magic, plus I'm a playboy billionaire, let me just blink my eyes and fix it all. And if you're interested, I have pheromones that make you want to have sex with me." And inevitably the person is a god, a dragon, a super demon from beyond space and time, the guardian of the universe, or whatever. I wanna say "No, dummy, that's not what I'm trying to do — I'm not looking for a solution, I'm looking for engagement in finding a solution." I want to stress that I have met some lovely RPers who have engaged in the story hooks I have put into the base, and, yes, some of them have been such beings. I'm not trying to complain about them, because they were very collaborative in coming up with a solution. But I have met others who are, let's say, a little pushy in wanting to be the be-all end-all solution for all problems (and sometimes a little pouty when I'm not interested in a super-savior).

I have to admit, this is something I do not comprehend. Why do players feel the need to portray characters who are even greater than superheroes? You're already on a path to becoming an Incarnate, one of the most powerful beings known to exist. But your character must be even bigger than that, right out of the gate. A god, a vampire, an unkillable assassin, an angel, a demon, a millennia-old super dragon, a reality-bending alien, a cruel and mysterious fae creature from the dawn of time, or (as some bios would have it) "the fastest person / best psionic / strongest hero / whateverest whatever" in existence. And I ask: why? From a roleplaying perspective, doesn't this make it harder for your character to take an interest in the trivial inconsequential daily lives of citizens in Paragon? Why would your character care about a single purse snatcher, or a pitiful plot by the Freakshow to hold a crime competition? Doesn't this backstory require jumping through some hurdles to explain why your ultra-powerful ancient evil dragon is struggling against level 2 Skulls at the start? Are you trying to create a character with power on your terms, without any weaknesses unless you permit them? Is it because super-beings play for much higher stakes on a heroic scale (savior of the timestream, guardian of the universe) and much lower stakes on the emotional scale (can never be hurt, never touched by mortal loss or trauma)? Or is this an OOC (out-of-character) thing, where you feel inadequate unless your character is somehow better than those of other players? I don't know, I don't get it. Characters with limits and flaws are so, so much more interesting to me, and I have a hard time relating to (and RPing with) characters who fill this "god mode" role. I prefer characters that need help. Characters that cooperate, rather than dominate. So why do you choose a god-mode kind of character? Please explain the appeal. I'm willing to understand, here.

Let’s be honest, though — there’s no reason for high-speed travel powers to exist either. The proliferation of pop-up portals, long-distance teleporters, team teleport powers, shortcuts, consolidation of train lines, and AE missions, we hardly ever have to travel distances at speed like we used to.

How many people? I have only had two toons so far that even earned that much, much less spent that amount on IOs for perma-anything. This idea only acts as an incentive for people who already try to spend a ton to optimize in a specific way.

How many people do you think actually spend money to get all the IO sets for their toons? Won’t making the IO into a valuable damage proc make it more expensive to buy, and less likely for people to buy it? I get why you would want people to do this (for your convenience) but I don’t see how this would change the behavior of enough people to make a difference.

In real life there would be a penalty to accuracy for the superhero cruising in at top speed to take potshots, as well as a penalty to accuracy for anything targeting that hero (excepting AOEs).