MetaVileTerror

They've already begun bringing volunteers in; there are two new story arcs done by holymittens, for example. I imagine other people have contributed in other ways as well, but writing two (rather good, frankly) story arcs tends to garner some attention. The question becomes: Will they be less picky about volunteers in the future?

Crazy idea! You know those walking Citizens in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles? You can click on them, and they say things, varying from cute nonsense, to world dressing, to oddly out-of-character informative data (like how many times I've been "on the Prowl" . . . ) What if clicking on them could drop a Tip for a new Mission Arc?

With the way the last thread went, I never really felt like I had the chance to build off of what could have been the positives . . . so: Fresh start, fresh face. I think Base Souvenirs is a good idea, provided that we just reuse the existing assets (less work the GMs, no one is left out for creativity purposes), and make the Souvenirs Unlockable with the special element being that they're Clickable, like Plaques. Imagine, if you will: Anyone could place Infernal's Axe asset in their base, just like it is right now. But if you complete the story arc "Into Valhalla," then you get a single copy of the special version of that Axe to place in your base, which anyone can then click on to read the Souvenir text. Ideally (though potentially not possibly) with the player character's name in place of "you" (and grammar adjusted accordingly).

This is one of the longest standing requests that the game has received, and it has come in many flavours. (Un)Regrettably (depending on who you ask) it is not something which could presently be implemented without destabilizing your character database, and causing your characters to be unplayable. Other servers have tried, and no one has been able to get it to work. Yet. I'm sure they'll keep at it, though. Maybe someone will make a breakthrough some day.

So, my main Hero has always been a Teleporter, right from even before City of Heroes, when I brought the avatar in to this game. And recently, I've been thinking . . . if there is any way, even if it has to be an Incarnate-level Travel Power, it would be absolutely awesome to have a Teleport Power which is completely Instant. Both Cast and animation time, rather than the 2 second activation time and 1.17 second delay. But, yeah, I know this isn't really likely. Just expressing a flight of fancy . . . a hope . . . a dream . . . *melodramatically emotes a longing stare at nothing in particular, accentuated with a gesticulated hand pose* . . . but, yeah, in typing this up, I realize . . . if we're short on ideas for the Incarnate System, some Incarnate-level Travels would be awesome, no? A Super Speed so fast that coming in to contact with an enemy throws them against the nearest wall at high velocity. A Fly so powerful that it blows enemies on to their butts as you zoom past them. A Super Leap which doesn't feel like you're just weirdly under the effects of moon gravity, and instead you actually move with some /OOMPH/.

and I mean, really, Star Trek as a franchise changed over the years. We can see how motivations of human characters grew more complex and realistic through later seasons of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.

I am always - 100% always - in support of Minimal FX Options /for everything/.

If the "playerslot" file could be modified to also include that data, one could write a batch or script to rearrange the playerslot.txt, and that would do exactly what you're looking for. They'd also need to add a "Refresh" button to the character select screen, but . . . yeah. Do'able, as long as the code for the playerslot reading isn't totally a mess of spaghetti.

Circle of Thorns start at Level 5, and go all the way up. Have been that way since launch of Live. 5th Column (and Council when the switch over hit) go from 1 to 50, and I think might be the only original Villain Group to do so. One might argue that Clockwork go from 1 to 50, but the Level 40+ Clockwork weren't added until Issue 1 was released, and there's still the gap between levels 20 and 40. If you count the Lost and the Rikti as the same group (I don't), then they also go from 5 to 50, like the Circle. Arachnos and Longbow both go from 1 to 50, but they were both added with City of Villains.

And there's always the option to have a button which can minimize the box which contains the information.

Will there be prizes for specific categories? ie: Best Social Space/Night Club, Best Evil Villain Lair, Best Slice-of-Life

I still scratch my head when people call the Redside zones "unpleasant" or "depressing." They're so ALIVE and /vital!/ To me, they feel like places in the real world, rather than the whole-zone-is-one-theme generics of Blueside. All the little nuance and stories that the details tell. The ways that the NPCs are used to populate key areas, like Tart and Vixen in Port Oakes. The Etoile Isles feel like a place I could visit (or indeed, /have/ visited and/or lived in). My least favourite zone is Steel Canyon. It just feels so fake and arbitrarily large, and it's such a pain in the ass to navigate. At least Skyway has some out-of-harm's-way paths with some nearly-Redside levels of attention to detail.

I mean, it HAS been a discussion for other threads; several of them. I'm just citing them as examples of how the nebulous concept of "feels like home" doesn't actually tell us what's in store.

It does shed some light, yes, and I hope that things like "feels like home" could become a little more concrete in the future. After all, I think we've all seen quite a few threads in these forums already about people having some pretty wildly different experiences with the game while it was Live. I'm not sure if it's on any of the Dev Team's radars, but there was that recent hot Topic in the Suggestions board which . . . well . . . it was very informative as to a pretty steep disconnect in the feelings of various members of the playerbase. The ol' AE/Knockback threads which keep popping up also reinforce this realization. Home is where the heart is, and people seem to have some very different hearts. When you're in a better position to do so, I would very much like to request a more formalized exploration of the design philosophies as they apply to Homecoming's future. I'm not sure if you have someone on your team already, but I know I'd certainly be willing to pitch in on the documentation for that.

/chatsavefile NAME /chatloadfile NAME

Thank you for the insight, Abraxus, but your answer isn't quite what I was looking for. I would like to get an official statement, as well as hear about what the Homecoming Team is looking at in terms of content design philosophy, not stability and future-proofing development (the latter of which they've been pretty forthcoming with, so no complaints there).

I apologize if I missed it, but I would at least like to know something tangential to the original question, with the contextual understanding that it's not a small question and busy volunteer Devs might not be prepared to answer it yet, but: What is the design philosophy which the Homecoming Team intends to lead with once content development begins/resumes? More to the point: Is the Homecoming Team prepared to deeply re-examine design philosophies which were implemented during Live or other for-profit game development, and treat the Homecoming game development as the new beast that it is?

I believe it's entirely random. But one could test it to be sure: Roll up a character, and check which Detectives / Brokers they get by visiting each zone. Delete the character, but keep everything the same: Name, Costume, Power Sets. Visit all the zones again and see if you get the same Detectives and Brokers.

I'm sorry, are you suggesting a new Archetype? I believe there was a miscommunication, then. The Set I was speaking of is a Survival Set (ie: Scrapper Secondary, Tanker Primary, et cetera). I thought your original post was calling for Melee Archetypes to receive Power Sets which include Powers which are thematically within the Time Travel/Control paradigm.

I drafted up a Quantum Defense Set for my Tabletop version of City of Heroes, since one of the players asked for it by special request. Want me to drag that out and share it here?

The good news, then, is that I am quite certain that the Homecoming Team have definitely made their stance clear on the commitment to NOT remove any existing content. That much, I think, we're safe on.

An excellent point.

They exist for zombies, already, and you can wear them in Icon/Paragon Chat . . . so, yeah. I think they could/should totally be enabled for players here.

They took away my Eternal Night? Bah. Humbug! Bugrit!!! Millennium Hand and Shrimp!!!!!!!