ImpousVileTerror

@Cipher's thingy (linked on the first page) would be the Detailed Info. Hey, Cipher! Is there any way we, the community, can help you along with that project?

I too would like to slot more Pet Enhancements, so I'm in agreement on doing something there . . . but gun drone is a bit meh. Sapper Drone?

It doesn't help that -some- Powers ignore volume settings and distance. I can hear a Street Justice character from four blocks away with my game volume set to 3%. That ain't right.

Given that they're Traps, AND it's a Support Set (nominally), I do think that whatever happens to Trip Mine, Time Bomb, and Detonator should reflect that. I understand that it's marketed as the most Offensive Support Set, but the straight-up Damage dealing Powers at the end just don't feel impactful. Perhaps it's time to straight-up cottage those, and replace them with -traps- of some sort. Something like an AoE Knockup field with a trigger, a la Poison Trap. "Antigrav Mine" maybe? Keep a little bit of the damage, but I'm fine with neutering Trip Mine's damage output in favour of supportive utility. Maybe an "Electro Pulse Mine?" Essentially EMP Arrow, but as a (again, because it rocks) Poison Trap-style drop? "Spirit Bomb!" My main villain would straight up murder people to get her hands on something like that! Bonus damage to Spectral, Circle, Banished, and Mot critters. Heavenly retribution! "Explosive Decoy." Summon a duplicate of your character model, with a Taunt aura and -Range Debuff. Enemies flock to it and try to kill it, causing it to explode and deal damage! There's a lot of potential fun to be had here.

Yup. Very yup. 100% yup. All the yup! . . . I really need to dust off that project about shifting the first- and second-person text to third-person. Thanks for the reminder!

And agreeing with old ideas doesn't mean they're not also problems. While there's a definite gap for many players in understanding the complexities of interlocking systems, especially in a game of the scope of City of Heroes, we do have to acknowledge that Homecoming is an entirely different beast than Legacy. There has been a fundamental shift in the purpose of the game, from a developmental project standpoint. It is no longer for-profit, which absolutely changes the design philosophy which will best serve the game's new expressed purpose: Welcoming everyone, while being familiar*. Maybe Castle knew his stuff. Maybe not-so-much. In either case, the design decisions made back then were under a different paradigm. Scrutinizing those decisions is a great idea, frankly. I am very much in favour of scrutiny. I think you were right back in https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/9193-current-dev-road-map-section-of-development-forum/ We as a community could certainly use a more open flow of information with what's going on behind the veil. There is a potential problem with passionate people banging their fists against the table during an otherwise productive conversation (I've been guilty of that on occasion of the very topic of dev-community communication and workflow). However, I think that more detailed communication is a great thing. It will help get folks on to the same page if we can see the hard math and specific design principles that are being used. It will allow us to address those principles and philosophies at a fundamental level, and propose solutions to the ones that trouble us. Holding to the game's original design principles doesn't need to happen. Frankly, it shouldn't happen. It's a different game now. It's time to embrace that, and the opportunities for new growth it offers. * Paraphrased, and I'm not saying it's not a mission statement above reproach. I think it's important to be critical of it and its execution. Constructive criticism can lead to better outcomes.

So a single-target Confront, that boosts Regen, Resist, and Defense for a short time?

OpenOffice or bust, baby!

Ah, yes! The theme, thanks for reminding me, Troo. I believe it's been mentioned, but another potential theme for Traps, without having to create new 3D assets, is to use the Banished Pantheon masks for a magic-based Traps theme. Alternatively, using the Legacy Chain runes. Are there any other existing assets which folks would like to see used for Traps? New stuff would be great too, but let's set our sights on targets which can be achieved with less pain first.

Ah! My main villain's Secondary, and one of my favourite sets! Trip Mine, Time Bomb, and (especially) Detonator need a good, hard looking at. I know other people have complaints about the rest of the Set in various ways, but I'm overall pretty happy with the Tier 1 through Tier 6. Seeker Drones are eh, but not terrible, and I'm willing to have them stay where they are if it means getting something more compelling in Tiers 8 and 9.

Every. Goddamn. Day. *sighs* I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but I seem to remember being included in more things on Pinnacle Redside roleplay back on Legacy. Now, there is any number of factors that could be contributing to this, including my own tilted perspective, but it seems to me that my style (the themes and tone of my roleplay*) doesn't quite mesh with the other roleplay groups which have collective strength on Everlasting. Maybe I just haven't connected with "my people" yet, but there are still days when the sting of loneliness is a bit much to bear. However, in general, I do find the "unreliable narrator" element to be helpful in marrying characters in to scenes which are not quite gelling conceptually. We had an example in the Global OOC Channel just a few days ago. Someone wanted to create roleplay lore that there were amazonian titanesque super warriors living in the planet Jupiter. Other players were . . . not so keen on that concept, feeling that it didn't really mesh well with their perspective and interpretation of the City setting as being overall less pulp and more relatively serious. These players felt that while the other player was fine to play a pulpy space vixen, they took a little umbrage with the suggestion that all of Jupiter was populated by such creatures. So, there were two "best case" suggestions on how to handle that: 1) "The space vixens come from a planet they call Jupiter." This leaves enough ambiguity to the precedings that it doesn't preclude any interpretation of the lore. Indeed, invoking the unreliable narrator in this instance suggests that maybe this so-called space vixen is just a deranged resident of our own world who has come up with an elaborate explanation for their own freakishly large size (granted, 8-foot tall women aren't -that- freakishly rare in Paragon City, statistically speaking). 2) The Jupiter she comes from is of another time, or another dimension. Time Travel and Extradimensional Travel are two VERY common themes in this game. It provides all sorts of opportunities to say things like "well, on -my- Jupiter, complex multicellular life IS possible, clearly." While this doesn't guarantee anyone will necessarily -want- to roleplay with the individual who makes such a character, this does at least open the door for the possibility of their divergent narrative not completely nuking the established collective point of view. Granted-granted, it does require that everyone is operating on the agreed parameters, and no one tries to step forward and say "nuh-uh! You can't play that!" And, of course, no one is obligated to play with a person sporting a character with such a thematic divergence either. Which I think is where the accusation that roleplayers are "too insular" comes from. I'm not sure if we need it, but codifying some key words for shorthand might be helpful. I know some people use the comic "eras" of Marvel/DC (silver, golden, modern, tacticool, et cetera), but I really want to encourage players to do exactly NOT that. I know there's a lot of folks who strongly feel that this is "a comic book game," but it's actually open to everyone. Using comic book lingo doesn't help players who are entirely unfamiliar with that lingo. I feel we should aim more broadly. Use language which applies to any media. Minor aside, somewhat related: Magic. Fuck magic. Bane of so many roleplays! "But that's not how magic works!" I contend that Shadowrun v4 handled it best with the Unified Magic Theory. "Everyone is right, so therefore everyone is also wrong, but it doesn't matter, since magic still works anyway." Would be nice if we could adopt something similar to that as a community. * My specific style of roleplay involves focusing on the social and cultural factors which would stabilize in a setting like this. Basically, in a world beset from extradimensional invasions, ancient soul-devouring gods, and insane scientists who turn themselves in to massive single-cell monsters . . . how does society remain functional? I know, I know . . . I'm bringing my work in to the game, rather than leaving it at the door. Thing is, I do NOT play to escape real life. I play to enjoy myself. And that means that an examination of the setting through a lens of real world sociological sciences is what really amps me up. I use roleplay as a tool to examine those social factors, cultural development, and the impact which global and local events has on day-to-day life. It also means that I'm at odds with a lot of players who come here specifically to get away from real life. C'est la morte.

Ok, finally heard one I hadn't heard before: The double Day Job. I'm going to have to test that.

Ear Asymmetry!

If the 3D asset is a lumped package, but can reference a different texture for the hands, we'll just have to set them to use a transparent texture. Not ideal to have dead polygons like that wasting resources, but I still think it's a worthwhile pursuit overall. Thanks for tracking that down!

For Salvage, for Inspirations, and for Enhancements. Basically, take the "Wall Clock (Modern)" 3D asset, copy it a bunch of times, and replace the clockface texture with the 2D assets for these various categories of storage items. Would be a huge help to organizing and labelling storage. Many pleases and thanks be upon ye who approves of this. (and if someone can point me to the clockface texture in the PIGGs, I'll even do some of the work and do up a few of these myself.)

I think the fact that your playstyle is different makes it ESPECIALLY worthwhile to listen to your feedback. Diverse points of view lead to better decision making, after all.

Unless something has changed, to the best of my knowledge, it's only the Global Channels which can have their colours changed. While it's not necessarily what you're looking for, Tinfoil', there's also the possibility of changing the font which the game uses. I'll try to track down the tutorial on that, if it's of any interest to your needs.

@Coyotedancer and @Rathulfr, I appreciate the sentiments you've expressed, since I wholeheartedly approve of altoholism (not so much on deleting alts, though, but that's a different topic). Although, I did want to get your feedback on something: Would you run low level content more often if there was new low level content to play, or would you still feel that it would be optimal for you to skip the low levels to nab your high-level Powers as soon as possible? What -would- incentivise you to start playing low levels again?

Thanks for the reminder, @EmmySky! I really wanna peel back the hood and see how -that- particular mechanic works. It opens a LOT of potential for future development.

It was suggested in another thread ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/20142-new-archetypes-the-things-we-do-not-have/ ), and I'd like to roll with it: I've never been a fan of Vigilance on Defenders. I felt it was awkward and didn't really help all Sets equally, and I attempted to argue for a +15% Recharge and +15% Endurance Discount Bonus while solo, rather than the 15% Damage Bonus. I believe it was Arcana who said something along the lines of "no one's going to want +15% Recharge when they can have +15% Damage," but this was many, many years ago, before IOs were even a blip on anyone's imagination. So, what if we (re)examine that with a Support / Melee Archetype? While solo, the [Vanguard/Interceptor/what-have-you] would gain +15% Regeneration, +15% Resistance, and +5% Defense Buff to all types/positions. This scales down for each Teammate added, until you've got three teammates where it zeroes out. Meanwhile, the closer the [Archetype Name's] allies are to death,* the greater the [Archetype's Name] +Recharge Bonus becomes. The player would have to be careful, though, as unlike Vigilance, this Inherent wouldn't be doing anything to mitigate the Endurance Costs of pumping out Powers more frequently. I'm naturally open to consider different bonuses, but I like the idea of the Archetype having a sort of scaling effect of "while I'm solo, I focus my energy to keeping myself alive. When I have friends, I focus it on keeping -them- alive." And like the other suggestion over there; replace Taunt/Confront/Placate from the Melee Set with an AoE Placate which ALSO provides a Power Boost effect, improving Heals, Buffs, and Debuffs. Possibly scaling in a way similar to those PBAoE Toggles: First target hit provides 50% of the benefit (whatever the benefit ends up being), and each target thereafter provides a little more, until you get the other half for a full 10 (sound good?) targets. Now . . . there are some potential concerns that I'm already seeing . . . The playstyle might be interpreted as encouragement to allow your allies to take aggro and you actively putting their lives at risk, so that you gain additional benefits. A valid criticism, I think. What about the rest of you? Is that a justified fear? Do we just say that this Archetype is thematically the villainous counterpart to the Sentinel's heroism? Let us see if we can hash that out. @Replacement? @EmmySky? @HelBlaiz? @Zepp? @oedipus_tex? @dangeraaron10? Anyone else who wants to see this Archetype happen?

Disable all Incarnate Powers on level 50 characters, and run an algorithm to populate Incarnate Powers on any 49-or-lower character, with the length of time since last April as the metric to determine how many Incarnate Powers are unlocked. On April 2nd, re-enable Incarnate stuff on 50s, but "forget" to revert the other half.

This what you're looking for, @Troo? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcY090XV284

/bind shift+f11 +screenshotui$$screenshot$$-screenshotui WHOOPS! I saw @Camel's post, and didn't realize there was a whole additional page. Sorry.

There are a number of varied groups on various Shards. Would you happen to have any additional information to help us offer some suggestions? Are you looking for a "raid group?" A general content group? A conversational/chatty group? A roleplay group? A group with some other unifying theme or demographic? Any particular Shard, or are you open to playing on any Shard?

The self-revive from the Super Packs is by far superior to the Inspiration, but sadly much more rare unless you're rolling in eternal Inf. I have a stockpile of Bounce Backs and Emerges in my in-game email on each account. However, it's kind of become a matter of having them and not needing them, and I've hit the email cap on my main account twice already from it. (It's way over the "20" that's listed in the error message, by the way.)