MHertz

I’m pretty sure the alignment changes could only be allowed from a co-op zone. I doubt there’s a provision in the code for letting villains wander around the city. The other bits, it might be like an Ouro portal: on a timer, summon one for everyone to use.

There's no way around that. A shapeshifter with dozens or scores of potential forms would be very hard to code and balance, as different shapes would have different effects on the enemy — making the enemy frightened, making them angry, making them trusting, etc. I tried to limit this powerset to "infiltration, become the enemy and take the group by surprise." I built it for that effect — stealth and PBAOE debuffs and limited self-defense. A different kind of shapeshifter would be more like a protean battle being: always changing to a form that is most advantageous. That would arguably be a very different style of play, possibly on a different power set in a Changeling AT. Become beasts, demons, monsters, etc., and fight with different powers. How you'd arrange the combat buttons, I don't know — maybe deploy a pop-up window like Masterminds get, with Attack 1, Attack 2, and Attack 3? It probably wouldn't get stealth, because you're not using those powers to weasel your way into a group's confidence. This also feels more like a damage-dealing set, rather than a defensive set. A third kind of shapeshifter would be the "imitation" type, where you siphon the specific powers from certain enemies. I have no idea what role that would be — scrapper, blaster, stalker, tanker, defender? What if the enemy's attack is ... a gun? Can you imitate that?

I expect that these would be NPC forms which have the right animations available, as it would have to be compatible with whatever damage secondary the AT had. For instance, the spectral demons of the COT have no legs, so wouldn’t pair well with a lot of martial arts-style moves; those would probably be out. This set would be less Shapeshifter, perhaps, than Doppelgänger. If there were non-humanoid forms (wolves, for instance), it would be a different style of set. Wolves have no animation for throwing fireballs or swinging swords. There are also no enemy groups that use wolves, so you wouldn’t expect a stealth/infiltration benefit by becoming one.

I’ve had some characters work well in RP, and some that didn’t; I’ve seen others that tried and failed to get traction. I thought I would share what works for me when creating a character that plays nicely with (or against) others. 1. Be realistic about your power level. This is a game, not a narrative, so you have to keep in mind that, unless you avoid other players entirely (in which case, why RP?) you will be spending a certain amount of time in combat, subject to the whims of the RNG. It’s almost impossible to RP a character like Batman, who is almost supernaturally prepared and aware of all his enemies — you’re going to have a harder time being that guy. Ditto Superman, who is virtually indestructible compared to his teammates. Your character may be on a journey to that kind of power, but you don’t start there at level one. If you try to RP as a goddess or a super-being or master psionic at level 1, the interaction you can expect is the same as you’d get from Nelson Muntz: “HA ha!” 2. Build bridges, not walls. In comics you might find a character with many layers of mystery, or with a tragic past that must be unlocked. If you go this route in a game, you’ll have to introduce that tragic story to every new person you meet — and if your origin is a mystery, then you’ll have to either volunteer your own story or hope someone else asks. They may not! So instead, remember to build a character that has handles — nice, easy to understand ways for others to join in and connect. “I’m super dark and mysterious, nobody knows anything about me” is a poor starting point. Also “my character has amnesia and doesn’t know who she is.” But if you drop a few clues in your bio and your dialogue (eg, injured veteran turned hero, always using military squad lingo, call people “sir”) you’ll give people a way to participate. The more broadly you build this bridge (eg, my character Ty Flare is always commenting on how flammable things are and talking about fire codes) the easier it will be for others to infer things about your character. 3. React to what’s before you. As I said, you’ll be spending a certain amount of time on teams, earning XP. You may spend some time chatting between missions in one venue or another. So figure out how to react to things your character will be exposed to, rather than rare things that will never come up. Every time Stickbonker is in the sewers, he’s looking for his lost boot. Every time Winterdove rescues a hostage, it’s personal (she was once captured by the COT). Every time Colt Soulwalker dies in battle and there’s no rez handy, I change costumes at the hospital and pretend like somebody new just found the cursed Colt pistols and became possessed by them. Or your character could hold strong opinions about other power sets (Stickbonker loves sticks), other origins (Akita loves her technology devices), or ATs. 4. Find a voice. It can be an accent, or a speech habit, or a way of treating others. Skywatcher (Beast MM) treats other people like her animals and talks to them in that talk-to-dogs voice people use. Moongold gushes over supers she meets because she’s a huge fangirl. Mistress Hertz is always intimidating and unabashed about her day job as a dominatrix. 5. Find a thing to obsess about, preferably one other people can understand. It may make your character a little one-noted at first, but it also makes them distinct. Mr Crunch is a mascot for Mr Crunch brand cereal. Winterdove used to deliver pizza to various villain groups. Moongold has a jealous roommate. Zephyr Lily became a hero in order to train for a reality TV show. Skyvixen is all about her social media branding. Stickbonker is always complaining about the bureaucrats at City Hall making his job harder. 6. It’s not always about you. You’ll have to interact with other characters sooner or later, so it’s important to know how to take a back seat — to observe, question, interrogate, doubt, explain, console, or sympathize with others. If people would rather talk about you, and you’re okay with that, then fine; but you should have a way to speak to others in a way that invites them to do the same about themselves. That may mean you’ll have to think about what your character likes and dislikes, and why. (I am not an experienced RPer in an MMO setting, which has rules and protocols of its own, but I’ve done a lot of tabletop RP as well as stage and voice acting. This is just my advice on making a character. Others may disagree.)

I know what you’re thinking; this is a complicated idea. And it is. But it’s a combination of powers that already exists in the game, and it doesn’t require a lot of new art resources. This set would work like a hybrid of armor + debuffs, on the basis that you are misleading the enemy and providing a surprise advantage. This set would probably work well as a Stalker armor, or maybe a Sentinel secondary. The AT could gradually unlock (or have the ability to unlock) various forms as decided by the devs, based on which have compatible animations and so forth. They might unlock after X defeats, or at certain levels. Whatever works. Tier 1. Impersonation (toggle). +Def (all except psionic), +Stealth (only works for the enemy group you’re impersonating). Breaking stealth also suppresses most of the defense bonus. So it’s like Stalker Hide, but less good. Attacking breaks stealth. Tier 2. Homogenous (toggle). +Res (smashing, lethal). As a shapeshifter, physical attacks don’t worry you. Tier 3. Rearrange Matter (click). Self-heal. Tier 4. Pacify (similar to Stalker Placate, works to re-establish stealth). Could also provide a -Dmg debuff, on the basis that you’re encouraging the enemy to think of you as an ally. Tier 5. Solidify (toggle). +Res (energy, negative energy, fire, cold). Resist KB. Tier 6. Amorphous (click). Mez protection, some Res (toxic). Tier 7. Seeds of Doubt (click). PBAOE Confusion. Being in Stealth provides a bonus to magnitude. Tier 8. Lure (click). Targeted AOE, like Taunt. Enemies will focus on you. If you are in Stealth mode, they will also not attack unless attacked (so this is basically a Sleep effect). Tier 9. Betrayal. PBAOE -Def debuff. When in Stealth mode, 30% chance of Slow, 20% chance of Fear, 30% chance of -ToHit debuff. The armor values don’t have to be overpowered here, as the basic idea is to not get attacked in the first place.

What I generally do not do is create a character with a tragic backstory. Those are usually singular events (like the murder of Uncle Ben or Bruce Wayne’s parents) or prolonged periods of life lessons or suffering (no examples leap to mind) that motivate the character with specifics, but do not always lead to a perspective that is unique. “Sure, sure, you’re an orphan; in this world, who isn’t?” or “Yeah, you hate criminals. Join the club.” There’s nothing wrong with those backstories, but at least for myself, I would rather something that stands out as a unique perspective or strange take on something that comes up often, rather than a more generic reaction (“down with this bad guy group!”) based on specifics that don’t usually come up.

I usually write my characters’ backstories in some way that highlights something absurd or unlikely about life in a superhero city, and then reverse-engineer a personality out of that. This method gives characters a unique way to react to things in the world that are happening. Moongold discovered her powers because she had a roommate, Jeffrey, that bought a “test your DNA” kit online to see if either of them had latent mutant abilities. Jeffrey struck out, but Moon actually had hero DNA. From that, I decided that Jeffrey and Moongold were both hero fanboys — collectors, autograph hounds, action figure nuts, that kind of thing. They were so excited about heroes they had to see if they were heroes. Also, Jeffrey aspires to be Moongold’s arch-villain, but his plans are small and petty (he hasn’t even moved out). Mostly, all Jeff does is stay home and eat cereal, and wage wars over who gets what food from the shared fridge. Moon gets to gush about heroes that she meets and trivia about being a hero that she picked up from magazines. My inspiration for Stickbonker was the name, initially. It was an impulse name choice before I wrote the bio. So I thought, “What kind of person would be daft enough to think ‘Stickbonker’ was a suitable name for a hero?” I reasoned he’d be thick, kind of foolish, but supremely confident in his own physical and mental prowess. The bio became a dumbed-down version of a cop from an 80s TV show (always bucking orders, trouble with the captain, doesn’t follow rules). I had to go back and revised the costume to look more like a police uniform. I hid his face because playing someone that dumb just seemed funnier when you couldn’t see his eyes and if he looked serious. Also, I gave him bandoliers, a police belt with a baton, and a quiver — all useless for a staff fighter, but suitably impressive to look at. Everything else came out of that realization. He likes enforcing rules but hates following them; he thinks he’s an action movie star; he always gets words wrong and never notices.

Oh, I agree with that part. Clearly it was a design choice to allow such travel destinations to be reached by that portal. It should work consistently unless there is a clear reason. Instant travel was probably justified as a way to let door missions compete with the AE XP faucet; or maybe it was to allow 1 server map load instead of 2. I don’t agree with that design choice, but that’s not a reason to apply it even-handedly.

I feel it would be much simpler to just cancel all travel powers and give players a button to teleport to the end objective of the next mission. Hit it once, gain a whole level, train remotely from the ashes of the last mission, then push a button to go to the next mission. What is the need to teleport instantly to the next mission anyway? When did jumping or flying become so boring? Because you’re not at MAXXX XXPPS!!? Don’t get me wrong. It should be consistent. But is the current model of instapoof transport an ideal play model which we should design everything after? Hardly. The assumption that all Level 1s are getting the mad Orouboros Portals right out of the gate is also suspect. Maybe you do that. Maybe a lot of impatient people also do that. It’s not the whole player base, I suspect.

It would be really cool (and good for RP purposes) to be able to make a custom follower. A lot of times I’d like to have some NPC interact in some way, but a) it’s not a character I can create, because it’s a civilian and b) I can’t play that character at the same time anyway. What should it be able to do? It can show up when you call, speak lines that you feed it, go where you tell it, do emotes, and go away when dismissed. Like a puppet, I guess. The follower would have a name and costume you design, travel powers you designate, and would be invisible to enemies. It has no attacks or defenses, cannot be targeted for buffs or debuffs, cannot tank, cannot take aggro, and perhaps cannot even enter instanced missions or super bases. This way you could create your own Lois Lane, Commissioner Gordon, or Happy Hogan, for a one-off RP cameo.

1. Choose an emote for the contact. Checking clipboard, eating hot dog, etc. It would be lovely if this could change on a per-mission basis, or even pre-mission and post-mission. 2. Choose a different contact for a various missions in the arc. This would enable “go talk to Azuria” or similar. 3. Let other players read the contact text! There’s only so much storytelling you can accomplish through boss dialogue and pop-up windows. 4. Events that trigger after a delay. Someone runs off and says they’ll call for help, but help is already here. 5. Ally Reacts To X Plot Point. Upon completion of (or start of) an objective, the Ally says something. 6. Set flag to X. If the player failed mission 1, or if the ally was defeated, the dialogue for subsequent missions could reflect that. Then allow IF/THEN detection in the dialogue. 7. Villain group checkboxes for the “random” pick. Council, but no robots. Circle of Thorns, ghosts only. Tsoo, no Ancestor Spirits. Yes, you could technically build this out painstakingly by hand, but I suspect it throws off the randomization weighting.

Name: The Georgeworth T. Bonkspoon Academy of Bonkin’ Colors: red and dark blue with gold trim Team: blue or red Founder: Stickbonker (@Hertz in game) Details: RP friendly but not required A word from the founder: Hey dere, dis is Stickbonker. If you on Everblasting, you know dat I am a top-quality guy and also the mayor, prob’ly. I wrote dis mission about hot dogs, an’ I arrested Ghost Ship when it went fru Underpants Port. I got to da highest level ever (50) by only leveling up 49 times. I bet dat never been done before! Anyway, it time to pass on all dis cunning an’ skill an’ cunning dat I got, so I startin’ dis academy. I made up a fancy name so it fit in wIf all dese fancy Ivy Leek schools dey got. We study art of bonkin’ in all various forms: stickbonkin’, rockbonkin’, techbonkin’, an’ all dat. I gonna build dis great base like a big fancy school, we gonna have grill in da back yard an’ a pool, it gonna be great. Dere’s a couple rules we got about joinin’ dis academy. Your name gotta have BONK in it, an’ stickbonkin’ ain’t a metaphor for nuffin’ nasty. (Dat a common phallacy.) It also gonna be much funnier if it all one word, wif first part ending in K sound. Here some ideas to get you started: Quarkbonker could be atomic guy. Darkbonker could be somet’ing too. Sharkbonker sound totally cool. Hackbonker could be sword guy. Mechbonker could be dis killer robot guy, I dunno. Maybe he got rocket boots. Thinkbonker could be a psionic guy an’ shoot mind farts at people. You get da basic ordeal. Dere ain’t no requirement dat you as smart as me, or dat you talk all fancy an’ dat, or if you red or blue or male or female or what. Bonkin’ academy welcome all kinds. Only thing is, we don’t allow nobody to join if dey one of dose beercats down at City Hall dat always pushin’ people around wif pencils. Dey always makin’ up so many rules! All dis red tape dat dey do is makin’ life hard for da people on da street. At da Academy we don’t mind givin’ out rules, but we draw da line at people tellin’ us what time of day to do. If you wanna know official Stickbonker uniform I can tell you dat too. Anyway, send a message to @Hertz in game to join up on da ground flop of dis new supergroup.

I can think of a few things. COSTUME PIECES Caveman / Tarzan top, ragged edges, hanging over one shoulder, with animal print patterns. Caveman / Tarzan micromini skirt, ragged edges, with animal print patterns. French-cut bikini bottoms (possibly as a "belt" item) that arch up and over the hips, not flat across. Beret + bald. Beret + long hair. Butt capes. Cigar + beard. Gloves and boots with Smooth / Mesh pattern. I keep running into problems putting mesh across the whole figure. Flower(s) in hair detail. Straitjacket, complete with buckle sleeves — not fastened, obviously. New pattern for face, body, feet, etc: dirty. More shoulder pieces that don't look like manufactured bits of tech armor: tortoise shell, bark, boiled leather, branches, etc. COSTUME EDITOR More pale colors. Find a way to allow Tops w/ Skin + Pattern.

I considered that, but I don't think that's a good idea. Two things would be true: you still have the knowledge and ability to make more money, and other people might come along in 2 years and have even more than you did. So you spent 100 billion, but that Nouveau Riche guy comes along with 101 billion and wants to change your branding to theirs. But they can't, because you got there first? That's it? First come, first served? Even supposing some newer, richer guy never turns up, you're still making money. What happens when you've bought every vanity thing that's for sale? Nothing? Too bad, so sad, it's all sold? And now we need a new distraction for the super-rich? Permanent sales in perpetuity limits the size of the money sink to, what, a hundred IO set names? That would only extract a certain amount of cash from the game, and when that money sink is used up, it's done. It's a hard-limited amount of content. My suggestion would either be to rename all of that set on a monthly basis, or to essentially manufacture 1000 units of a vanity duplicate version with your name on it, which will drop in the normal course of the game. (Maybe you get an author's copy for one of your toons.) If you want another thousand units pumped into the economy, pay again. That keeps the money sink alive and collecting for as long as people are earning. It's the same as buying a megayacht or an luxury jet as a vanity possession. It's not a one-time purchase; it must be maintained, harbored, licensed, staffed, fueled, and so on.

If there's going to be a money sink, then it probably shouldn't turn money into power — better gear, better protection, faster earning potential — money already does that, and we haven't managed to solve the sink problem that way. Therefore, money is going to have to turn into something else. Two things come to mind. The first thing money can turn into is vanity. Imagine being able to pay a pile of cash and get your name on one of the buildings in the game (for a certain amount of time). Instead of "Cook's Electronics" in Blyde Square, we'd get Yomo's Tech Haven, with a lighted sign and everything. Or you could put up a billboard advertising (or bragging about) your SG. Your character's face on a flag. Yes, this would take some developer time, but it wouldn't have to take an abusive amount of coding or excessive testing. It's a texture; it just has to be evaluated for content. You'd be Bruce Wayne. Imagine being able to pay a pile of cash to rename some IOs. You pay for 1,000 Ukase's Blast recipes to drop, and suddenly people are talking about your character like you're a big-time Iron-Man-style arms dealer. This would take some dev time, too, but it would be a way for your character to live forever. You'd be on all the wiki sites that talk about what gear to buy, what build to pursue. And maybe your branded version could be 1% better than Positron's version — just that much. Another thing money can turn into is political power. Suppose you could invest a spectacularly large amount of money into a corporation or a country which is part of some macroeconomic mini-game. After all, if you're the kind of player for whom money is a game, then the developers should create a financial end game that deals with large sums spent on specific political or economic effects. Maybe your corporation is pushing magic stuff in an attempt to make magic better or more plentiful. Sale prices for magic salvage at all vendors goes down by a small amount. Meanwhile, someone else is pushing science, which negates part of your efforts to push magic. It'd be a macro-scale economic game that doesn't specifically make you more money (but from which more money might be made). You'd never be able to push prices down to zero, but there would always be one origin that was "cheapest" and another that was "more valuable." Billionaires would be able to fight over this, mostly for the sake of bragging rights. Or, you know, some other macro mini-game centered around money could be imagined, like founding a corporation that is now fighting with other corporations. Do real monetary PVP. Yes, this would take a lot of developer time to make. But it would provide a real financial end-game for those who have too much money to spend and nothing to spend it on.

Some people power-level through content. Some people join farms. Some people sit by the door, and some people steamroll the whole map and destroy it. Some people run Trials and Task Forces. Some people run missions. Some people street-sweep. Some people have to be on teams. Some people solo. Sometimes it's the same person at different times. If you're in the mood to form (or join) a team that has a particular flow or pace, carpe diem. Make that group. I bet there's somebody out there who'd rather be playing your way than playing solo.

Last two for now. Colt Soulwalker: And Stickbonker:

Two more. Winterdove: And Ty Flare:

Two more. Chaney: And Skyvixen:

Two more. Carmen Astra: And Caxino:

Since bios are the fun part... Mistress Hertz, based on my main from Live: Mr. Crunch:

It seems like the hardest part about this suggestion is deciding what farming is, so you can decide whether someone is using the channel "correctly." I always thought of farming as doing one kind of content over and over for a certain kind of loot drop. Depending how you define "loot," this rule would ban Trick-or-Treat teams from using LFG (temp costume powers, Hallowe'en loot, badges), as well as Death From Below (lowbie temp powers, badges) and many task forces (temp power, badges, merits). Or if by "farming" you mean "power leveling," I have no idea how you'd manage to police that. You'd have to ban Grandville and Peregrine Island radio mission teams, just for a start, and then ban ads for AE missions. Oh, and certain mission teams, because they have temp powers and badges too. Where exactly do you propose drawing the line? How many players would agree with you on where that line should be drawn?

The Stone Armor has always looked like a character fell down a muddy hillside and landed in some Cocoa Puffs. Would it be possible to have a version of Stone Armor with minimal FX, that is, without the blobby rocks look? I'd like to create a character that is made of stone, instead of one who happens to be glued to some.

I generally mock the tragic darkity dark orphany death doom backstories, but that's because in my superhero bios, I tend to mock everything. My only goal, like Roger Rabbit, is to make people laugh. I have one character who clearly wants to have a tragic backstory. This is Skyvixen: And I have a dark/dark Defender who can't figure out how to be dark, Carmen Astra: When it comes to RPing with people, I generally don't like any RPer who feels the need to be at center stage, with a spotlight, for every single interaction. Your backstory may be dark and gritty and "real," whatever that means in a world where alien meteors turn ordinary citizens into jelly people of doom, but that doesn't mean your character's personal tragedy makes you the Main Character in everyone else's story. I didn't sign on to be a cameo in your Darkity Dark Drama starring You. Or, for that matter, to be a cameo in a Sob Story Drama starring You. I got over that when I was 9. Remember how there was always that one kid who wanted to be an Alien That Nobody Understood and would run away, so all the other kids would chase him and try to make him feel better? Yeah, don't be that. It's my opinion that we should plan our RP backstories so it can integrate with that of other players, so we can sometimes be a cameo in their piece.

Agreed. This description of how actual battles go passes the sniff test. Whatever might be theoretically true on paper, you gotta compare it to what you see in the game. Even running the Death From Below trial at level 5, the minions and lieutenants go up like a magician's flash paper, and the bosses are swarmed under in seconds by everyone else's concentrated fire. AVs are pretty much the only exception. It's just how the game is balanced. I can totally see why melee types would be unsatisfied with the role of getting one good AOE in, and then everything else melting away. If that. It's a problem, yeah. The incentives for different archetypes to have a satisfying combat experience may be too different.