macskull

To be entirely fair, most of the "speed"-related Homecoming changes originated on the Resurgence server and were designed so the game would be functional and playable with a tiny population, and some of the changes have been toned down or rolled back since Homecoming launched. Take a look at, say, Rebirth or coxg, the highest-population I24-based servers, and see how long it takes to get IOs and incarnate powers on a single character. Even with Homecoming's population, the vanilla CoX experience would be downright awful compared to live.

Also, Reach for the Limit is odd in that it uses PPM but I haven't been able to find exactly what its PPM rating is anywhere because there's next to zero documentation about how it actually works.

Oh yeah, Staff's forms and Bio's adaptations are also unslottable powers. But, like @Monos Kingsaid, those are just powers which unlock other toggle powers which change secondary/tertiary effects. Unlike Reach for the Limit, neither of those have effects on their own, they just modify other powers.

It's a very odd power. It's the only non-temporary power in the game I can think of that doesn't even let you slot it (no, the new origin pool popup powers don't count). I have no idea why it doesn't take sets.

To comment more on the original topic of fixing PvP zones: Back on live, you could usually find at least a few players in most PvP zones on most servers - the lower-population ones weren't usually busy, but Freedom, Infinity, Liberty, Justice, and Virtue had some activity. That is, at least, until the Issue 13 changes wiped out most of the PvP population. After that it was hard to find players on any server that wasn't Freedom. Homecoming's population is far smaller than the live servers ever were meaning the PvP population is smaller as well, to the point where only Recluse's Victory on Indomitable is the only regularly-busy PvP zone. Other zones and other servers might occasionally have players, but if I log on with the intention of going into a zone and engaging in PvP the only place I'm reasonably sure of finding it is RV on Indom. So... how do you bring the population of PvP zones up? Well, the first step is providing meaningful rewards for engaging in PvP. While it is true that rewards for PvP have been added (PvP recipes, inf/salvage/incarnate shards/threads/inspirations from player defeats, etc.) they did not address the population issues - the PvP population was far higher when there were no rewards and the addition of rewards didn't significantly increase the population. Why? I feel like at least part of it is due to the large changes in mechanics between PvE and PvP which are neither explained ingame nor particularly intuitive. Another part is the game's playerbase in general - this game is very easy and very casual-friendly which tends to attract the type of players who just aren't interested in PvP in the first place and there's nothing you can do to change that. The "activities" in the PvP zones were originally meant to get those players into PvP zones to at least experience it, but because you were never required to engage in PvP to get those rewards those players complained. PvP recipes were basically the only attractive reward that could only be earned through PvP, but the drop rate plus lockout timer meant the actual chance of getting one was so abysmal that the majority of the supply back on live came from people AFK farming them. On Homecoming PvP recipes drop from PvE mobs which means once again there's no actual incentive to PvP. The next step is mechanics changes, and making things easier to understand, but it's highly unlikely this will happen because it would require significant time investment on the part of the dev team with no guaranteed payoff. One of the common barriers to PvP I hear about is "I need a whole different character with a different build and I don't have time or inf to make that happen." That's a legitimate concern, which is why I think it'd be neat to be able to create, level, IO, and accolade a character for free - as long as that character is only used in PvP zones or the arena. Suddenly one of the largest hurdles to participating in PvP is removed. When PvP was the weekly discussion topic some months back there were multiple thoughtful and well-supported proposals for changes. The ideas are out there, it's just a matter of implementing them. My personal suggestion, aside from mechanics changes, is to change the reputation system - right now it decays relatively quickly when you're not logged in, the lockout for defeating the same player is too long, and you can't use it for anything. Make reputation redeemable for ingame rewards and you might be on to something. Likewise, the bounty system in Siren's Call is a good mechanic but it's underused because the items you could buy with it aren't worth the amount of bounty it takes. Adjust the items available and the cost, and maybe add a similar system to the other PvP zones.

Yeah, there have been several mentions of how +/- special aren't supposed to effect each other starting with the release of Issue 26 Page 4, it's just that Power Boost in its various forms (Energy Manipulation, Primal Forces Mastery for Controllers, Soul Mastery for Defenders and Corruptors, Mace Mastery for Masterminds, and the various Dominator versions of Power Up) never got the "ignores buffs and enhancements" flag that Weaken, Benumb, Clarion, Amp Up, Adrenal Booster, and Power Build Up all got.

IIRC a certain someone (who would likely know) said the changes to the way powers data is saved doesn't work with City of Data's current coding.

I don't think "we" are anything with regards to personal attacks, as I haven't attacked you personally a single time. You're forgetting a third category of player - players who go to a PvP zone to PvP. While I'm sure the player you describe in category 2 does exist, they are certainly not in the majority. You couldn't possibly have "settled in" on Indomitable "when HC started up" as the server didn't exist when HC went live, and at any rate it was designated as the unofficial PvP server within three days of its creation. If you couldn't see a stealth-capped Stalker with your capped perception, then that Stalker was more than 10 feet away from you. It's not a bug, though it might have to do with server latency. See also my earlier statements about autohit debuff auras or patch/rain-type powers which would either remove the Stalker's stealth entirely or at the very least just drop them to Hide-only stealth levels (500ft stealth radius, IIRC). Since I never said that it takes skill to AS a player that's standing still, I'm confused by your comment. But please, continue to insist Stalkers are "no skill pussy play" - if your opponent has no skill but you are unable to counter what they're doing, what does that say about your skill level?

"Griefers." Point of clarification - PvP was always intended to be part of the game, but it wasn't included with launch because it wasn't ready. The game was barely a year old when it was added, but zones didn't exist at the time because there was no thematic reason for them to exist. The addition of villains gave a perfect thematic reason and bam, here we are. The game has had PvP and PvP zones far longer than it didn't have them. It is an unfortunate reality that zone PvP is not the most balanced form of PvP in this game and that it's also most peoples' first experience with PvP but there are two general categories of players in this game with respect to PvP: Players who go into a PvP zone and get facerolled but are still interested, go "that was pretty intense!" and end up learning why they are getting facerolled and make improvements Players who go into a PvP zone and get facerolled and complain about it My first experiences with PvP in this game were rough, but instead of complaining I figured out what other players were doing and took the initiative to learn and make myself better - learning the systems, learning the builds, and so on. As a whole, the PvP community in this game is relatively friendly, if somewhat abrasive, and extremely helpful. You are approaching this from the point of "I don't like this so it should be changed to cater to me" which is going to get you exactly nowhere. I also notice that you refuse to acknowledge what I said about the live and Homecoming GM teams, and refuse to acknowledge that I am actually trying to help you deal with at least one of the problems you're having.

There it is again... I think in-game roleplaying is silly but I would never ask for it to be removed because I know other players enjoy it. I think badge hunting and the "gotta catch em all" mentality is silly but I would never ask for it to be removed because I know other players enjoy it. I think the Flight travel pool is awful but I would never ask for it to be removed or outright replaced because I know other players enjoy it. See the pattern here?

If you're dying to a single Stalker using AS (an interruptible attack with a 4-plus-second animation) plus a followup attack or two (likely 2-3 seconds worth of animation time) you might want to re-evaluate which of you is the bad player.

And yet again (what is this, the eleventy-fifth time it's come up in this thread alone) attacking players in a PvP zone isn't griefing. If you want the badges/temp powers/whatever from a PvP zone but aren't willing to accept the risk of getting them you could either 1) not get them or 2) come back later or on a different server. The entire reason those badges/temp powers/whatever are in PvP zones is to get people into PvP zones. The best part is, not a single thing you can get in a PvP zone is required to play the game. EDIT: Also worth pointing out that the apparent stance of the GM team back on live, and the GM team here as well, is that attacking other players in PvP zones is not griefing. If you're getting repeatedly teleported into geometry that you can't get out of by another player then you might have a case (and even then that's barely arguable since there are many ways to prevent that from happening) but just being attacked by another player while in the zone? Nope, sorry. EDITx2: The "getting attacked by other players when I don't want to be" argument is weak at best simply because 1) free server transfers exist and servers that aren't Indomitable have virtually empty PvP zones and 2) even on Indomitable the zones are mostly empty aside from RV.

In other words: "I don't enjoy the aspect of the game that you like so it should be removed." That, folks, tells you all you need to know about the OP's intentions.

You want to go into a PvP zone and not engage in PvP, thus foiling the PvPer from accomplishing their goal of fighting and defeating other players. By your own definition you are the griefer.

Again - and I'm beating a dead horse here - being attacked by other players in a player vs. player zone is not griefing.

Siren's Call used to be the PvP zone. The issue 13 changes significantly reduced the population, the issue 16 changes to exemplaring (keeping powers 5 levels above you instead of 0) drove most of the remaining players away, and now on Homecoming the PvP population isn't really large enough to be active in multiple zones at the same time. It has nothing to do with the bounty system. Also, of course there is no way to enter a PvP zone and not be flagged for PvP. That would go against the entire purpose of the zone's existence. You have two options with regard to PvP zones: enter them and risk being attacked by other players, or don't enter them. If you choose to enter a PvP zone to engage in non-PvP content, despite the numerous warnings telling you that you are indeed entering a PvP zone and can be attacked by other players, that is your own decision.

So maybe PvP zones and the content in them aren't for you. I think at this point it's best to leave it at that instead of trying to change them for the worse. Some of your ideas in the OP have merit (specifically rewards if you already have a rocket/shivan temp) but the rest of your suggestions show you don't understand PvP and would rather everyone else be dragged down to your level. That's how we got Issue 13. EDIT: Also, the only PvP zone that's routinely active is Recluse's Victory on Indomitable. Any of the other zones are mostly empty to the point you can go in knowing there won't be any players there. The risk is tiny at worst.

You're intentionally and willingly entering a zone that has PvP as its primary purpose and you're complaining about being attacked by other players. Heck, you're even greeted after zoning with a dialog box that says something along the lines of "You are now entering a PvP zone and may be attacked by other players."

/jranger

So it looks like what is happening here isn't Power Boost stacking, since that would be shown as a linear increase in defense and heal bonus with each cast (i.e. you'd see heal bonus go up by 78.67 each time). It seems like Power Boost is boosting the already boosted values though, by the percentage boost Power Boost is supposed to give. The math works out like this: Initial boost: 78.672 Next boost: 78.672 * (1 + 0.78672) = 140.5648 Third boost: 78.672 * (1 + 1.405648) = 189.2572 ...and so on. The reason you see defense stop going up while the healing bonus keeps going up is because the way that math works out, you're seeing a smaller and smaller increase with every cast, but the absolute change per cast for heal bonus is high enough where it'd take 44 casts of Power Boost before combat attributes would stop showing a change. The defense bonus follows similar math as shown above but only applies to the defense granted from Weave and Combat Jumping (3.5% and 1.75% defense base, respectively).

I suppose I should directly respond to the OP as well... Nothing at any point ever has stopped a player from playing whatever powerset combination they want, picking whatever powers they want, and slotting (or not) those powers the way they want. Some combinations, power picks, and ways of enhancing those powers are going to be better than others, and some powersets and combinations are objectively bad. I'm not here to sugarcoat things for a new player. The example OP gave was someone saying something along the lines of "whatever you do, don't play Energy Melee, that set is awful." If I were giving advice to a new player on what power sets they should look at, I certainly wouldn't recommend it, and I'd probably discourage them from picking it, unless they liked the idea of it. I'd probably say something like "that set isn't very good and there are better options but if you wanna go for it, it's fine." I don't give two shits about character concept, but I understand there are players that do, so I won't tell them "that set is awful so you should rework your concept around a different set." I might ask "why not these sets or this power?" and if their response is character concept, then I shrug and help them anyways. Also, god help us that people complain about something in a game. Using the "this is free and supported by volunteer efforts" as a reason why no one should be complaining is a shitty cop-out.

TL;DR version: OP complaining about people saying powersets are weak/underpowered/whatever and would prefer people in-game just pretended that all powersets are good.

"Signature" task/strike forces will always spawn enemies at the max level range of the task/strike force, regardless of the actual level of the team. Most task forces aren't classified this way, but every strike force is.

I'm like 90% sure that's just a demorecord with alternate Super Strength animations.

Task forces will lock at the level you were when you started.