Lazarillo

Didn't have much trouble the last couple of days, but today (since re-launched Tequila and they moved the test servers? Possibly connected?) I've found myself just sort of randomly and without buildup having everything drop, and a "Lost connection to Mapserver" alert come up.

Does this apply only to "main" pets, or does it, say, buff Gang War, too?

I'd join you, but I can't get over some of the animations. Shin Breaker especially.

This non-SS player who wanted to to be an SS player had been looking forward so much to having crashless Rage that I'm just utterly bummed that it feels a flat buff was pulled because people were ticked it wasn't OP enough. 😞

My Earth/Storm Controller will shed a single tear for the "such powerful control, he can stop his teammates' computers" factor, but overall, move on with a better quality of life. Will this fix Nega-Pendragon's ability to instantly wipe a Magisterium trial, too?

As a note, you can use these powers while mezzed so if you forget, it's just a matter of hitting it real quicklike. Plus, I feel like if a fight's intense enough to miss, you're probably queuing up powers so fast you miss the chance for it to auto-click anyway.

Mako's second arc does indeed have some tie-ins to Catfish-stix and the Coralax. One of Doc Buzzsaw's arcs has a guest appearance by some of the Red Coral as well.

Right now, ET has a DPA of 65.49. Few Brute attacks even break 50, and those that do are typically DoTs, rather than front-loaded damage (Seismic Smash, Knockout Blow, and Crushing Uppercut are the only notable exceptions). If it reverted to its original attack animation, that would bump the DPA up to 160.1, which is more than double what any of those other powers can dish out. Even just swapping it to have the current animation from Stun (my preferred solution), it'd still beat the DPA of any Brute attack except for Frozen Touch.

I'd love to see this as well. With all the customization Kheldians already have, it's a shame that this isn't part of it.

The Well itself is simply the origin of Origins. It's no more "evil" than the gene that makes mutants into mutants, for example. Bad people can end up with genes that let them electrocute people, too. It's thrown into a little bit of a problem because there's also some sort of voice/will guiding it, and given that that voice says things like "GO! KILL! KILL TRAPDOOR YOU FOOL!", yeah, that entity is probably evil. But it's also indicated by Prometheus that having something like that throwing things into chaos is not the natural state of things.

So I gave this a try on my twinked-out Fortunata, set at +2/x6. As one does. Not too bad. Mission 1: Seemed okay. The NPC "helpers" are pretty useless, but again, I think that's supposed to be on purpose, and it's not like it's different from what happens to helper NPCs when I run normal missions. I actually did this one twice as I got called away mid-arc the first time I tried, the second time, for whatever reason, the various combat quips didn't fire. I dunno. There are also a ton of clickies scattered around the map that give a "you can't complete this yet" error. Not sure if they're meant to be used for something, or just decoration, but I never saw them become active. Mission 2: The Marrowless Ones looked cool...from the little I could see of their appearance, anyway. I liked that the NPCs at the end appeared to be shoehorned into the 'trinity' of DPS/Tanks/Heals. Verity was useless again. On mechanics, dunno if it was due to randomized-type spawns or not, but at the first four-way split, I initially went east, past the corpse, and its placement right in the doorway was such that I couldn't get back out again (I had to Ouro then return). The corpses also get up and attack if enemies get close enough to draw their aggro, which I'm assuming is also just a thing that happens. Finally, there are once again a few "objectives" that don't seem to do anything, though in this case, they were destroyable objects that I could still actually destroy, at least. Mission 3: D35TR0Y3V5KY made me laugh out loud, though he and his buds aggroed on their drunk buddy. I don't think that was supposed to happen. Once again, there's the "is this supposed to do something" factor with items that can be defended. I managed to "save" the desk and the "art" but nothing happened; the workbench was destroyed thanks to me aggroing 3 mobs at once in that fight. On the story side, I didn't like this mission much, though. It seems weird that the one in "real life" is the one that auto-exemps you, but the biggest offense was the whole "just straight up murder a kid" factor. It left a really bad taste, even (or perhaps, especially) for a "Rogue" arc. Mission 4: Shorter than the last couple. I liked the setup, but being set up on the previous mission meant it kinda couldn't shake the issues with the story that was left by it, either. Black Scorpion showing up at the end was a little...out of place? Like, I'm not sure why he was there. Mission 5: This one has a cool map. Sorta explains the Black Scorpion thing, but not really why he just appeared randomly on the previous mission map. Also, why does he have asthma now? I'm not sure if it's by design that the enemies actually felt tougher than the ones in the first two missions, but, well, they did, by quite a bit. The NPCs still had a hard time surviving, which made the "twist" sort of awkward, since one of the people involved in it had died by the time I got to the person they were supposed to interact with. After the first couple, I figured I knew what the 3rd was gonna be, but it was not what I was expecting and admittedly made me laugh. No major issues here, other than the difficult mobs and the fact that the important NPCs all got killed too fast. Oh, and the old "clickie that can't be completed" factor was back again, though in this one, it definitely made sense that you'd want a few random arcane bits for decoration. Overall: I liked it. It was a fun arc with some good quips, and though it occasionally skirted that fine line between being a parody of something, and sort of turning into the thing it was parodying, it typically stayed on the entertaining side of said line. I went in hating pretty much all the NPCs except for Verity (who just made me roll my eyes), but I think that was intentional, and once certain late-arc elements were established, even the "annoying" bits were pretty fun. Although, I have one question: The biggest negative was definitely the 3rd mission story. Even after certain later things gave a bit more context that kind of made sense, the whole bit with murdering a random innocent person just really brought down the entertainment value. I really feel like in an arc as tongue-in-cheek as this one, changing it to just beating him up, or coming up with a better excuse once the mission starts...there's just gotta be something better that could be done with that. The only major "mechanics" issue, as noted throughout the mission breakdowns, is the confusing presence of mission objectives that don't seem to do anything, nor seem to be possible to make do anything. As noted, in the last mission, it made sense to use them for atmosphere, but in the others, it left me more confused, than anything.

...and is ironically still there even though Homecoming put the PDP back in!

Ironically, since I never really got into any communities for games I played prior to CoH, I didn't realize that it had basically been coined here. The couple of times I mentioned it in discussions while playing SWTOR, people always gave me the "hell you talkin' about?" treatment, which was just a huge shock.

Standard Code Rant applies.

I liked it until the end. The raid mentality that the original devs had at the time it came out meant we have a big climactic finale and then "well, nope, guess not".

That's how it used to be, but HC removed them as random spawns.

They did, to kill the Peacebringer-type Kheldians, particularly. That they work on Warshades (which are basically Nictus traitors) is mostly just a bonus. That said, while Arakhn is pretty much loyal to the Nictus race as a faction, Requiem seems to see the source of his powers as a tool at best, so even if the Council wouldn't fight the Nictus, per se, the 5th...actually might. I'm not sure I'd be too eager to team up with the nazis, though, so maybe turn the event into an outright three-way war?

I mean, you can always buy them with Merits. HC has done plenty to reduce the grind already (not that you'll here me complaining!).

Slight spelling "adjustment" aside, "Carl Egon" is Dr. Aeon's real name. He is not, it seems, a firm follower of network security best practices.

Not really "useful", but for me, there's a generic villain Newspaper mission to steal some passcodes that allow a back door into Aeon Corp's network. When you get it, the clue mentions the code is NOGELARC. I never understood it and always thought it was a reference to some old movie or comic (since a lot of the clues are exactly that). Then a few weeks ago I was doing it and just happened to realize what it said when spelled backwards... How that eluded me all those years, I'm not sure.

So back in the day, one of the very first villains I ever created was a Plant/Psi Dominator. I'm looking at trying to build him again, but so much has changed with Psi Assault, especially, that I'm not sure what are "best practices" these days. I've put together a few thoughts, and a few questions, and would be glad for some feedback on them. Plant Control Strangler, Seeds, Vines, Creepers, and Fly Trap all seem like clear "yes absolutely take these" choices. I feel like I should probably take Roots. Seems like a good power for an AotD set and thus, more Recharge, and it could be handy to prevent post-Seeds scattering. Maybe pick it up somewhere in the 20s. Spore Burst seems like a clear skip. Entangle also I figure isn't worthwhile because I've got plenty of other, better ranged attacks I could take. Spirit Tree I'm also thinking is a skip, just because while I can be handy for some builds, in this case, I've got Drain Psyche. Psionic Assault Drain Psyche and Psychic Shockwave remain bread-and-butter type powers, as far as I'm aware. Building off those is the general "After Seeds, I want to close to and stay in melee if I can" strategy, so Mind Probe and TK Thrust are both good choices. TK will probably get Overwhelming Force slotted in. In addition, a ranged chain is probably not a bad idea. Options are for Psi Dart, Mental Blast, Subdue, and Psi Lance. I figure I don't need to use all of them, but three out of four are probably a good idea. "Skipping" Psi Dart would just mean dropping it from my tray and not slotting it...according to the latest Mids', even with the buffs it got, it's still slightly weaker than the others, but maybe not so much that it's worth sacrificing another power pick? Psi Lance seems like the next-weakest, but only without any To-Hit Buffs. That could change, potentially, depending on teammates or just taking Tactics (see below). Also a little unsure on Psychic Scream. I remember it not being popular before, but when I look in Mids', it actually looks stronger than Shockwave these days? Of course, it's also a bit slow and requires hanging back...if I'm not "safe" hanging out in melee I'm not sure I'm safe tossing around damage cones either. This may be misleading but I may be missing something. Power Pools Teleport will definitely be a travel power because the character's concept sorta ties him to the Malta Group. Similarly, Stealth feels appropriate (though not an absolute pick) and useful. Will also be dipping into Speed for Hasten. This leaves me one, maybe two potential pools. Any recommendations here? Is it worth dipping into Leadership for Tactics, which will improve hit rates and damage as well on Psi Lance, for example? Also not sure on what APP would work best. Again, this is a character who's already villain-aligned conceptually, so Patron Pools are doable. Fire and Ice APPs don't fit the concept, but anything else could be fair game, I think. Thoughts/suggestions?

It's 10-15, as a couple of the missions utilize Minions of Igneous who cap out at that point.

I mean...that's what the Seed. It's more or less a "normal" GM, with one extra little mechanic (like, say, Lusca). It's not, and never was, meant to be a raid.

Given what a certain rather prolific player gets away with on Everlasting, I doubt HC would come after you for this. Not impossible, as noted by the above-mentioned impersonation rule. But precedent seems to show they don't make too much effort regarding it unless you actively start trying to convince everyone you are that person (which would be hard in Stan's case).

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a thing. I always just assumed that it's a sort of digital mirror of that.