Dev Unitas

Whoops! Accidentally voted. Disregard mine!

That's unfortunately the old patch note, the change didn't make it into the build today, nor the better notes as a result. Timezones suck. Sorry, should definitely be in the next!

A note on the Colossal power changes and Known Issues: The power itself is quite complex, and the patch note above (which, full responsibility, I wrote), is very inadequate in explaining the change. Testing is already being done that has determined the impact of the changes has gone beyond what was intended for groups of all sizes when tackling a GM with the power. The next update for them will have more detailed patch notes, and GMs will have their heath values dialed down to be closer to live values, as they are currently massively inflated. In the meantime, please understand that Colossal has a baseline HP buff (40% MaxHP on live), and then a scaling factor (15% MaxHP per person past 8 on live). Currently on Open Beta the baseline HP buff is substantially higher than intended (120% MaxHP), and will definitely be reduced. Scaling factor is as mentioned in the patch notes, 25% MaxHP, and working as intended. The primary aim is to tweak the scaling factor primarily, but the baseline HP buff will likely also be raised from Live values- just not to the current build's degree. Thanks, and apologies for the confusion here!

Sorry to disappoint, but want to set expectations on this: Outside of Riptide (who I believe exists for particular reasons, though you'd have to ask Cobalt about it), named characters are something we're currently avoiding and that's unlikely to change. More to the point of the thread and some of the things discussed- we're aware that Aether costumes are a niche item, and that's by design. We wanted a reward that people don't expect to be able to have, or feel like they require, and have to put substantial effort into earning, whether that's trading inf or earning it directly from challenging content. We also wanted it to circulate inf throughout the economy to newer/less wealthy/lower level characters lucking out and finding Aether that could help them bolster their build if they were to sell it on the AH to someone with a more finalized build and plenty of inf to spare. Unfortunately I believe (dont quote me on this I'm not cobalt I didn't make these directly) the on-defeat dropping of the costume toggles is a design limitation, not a decision we had to make. Certain things are also made pricey due to the particle effect impact on the game (the auras) or due to us simply not wanting to see a whole lot of them running around the world all the time. Beyond the prestige factors, it's a deliberate effort to lower the amount of them you see around. As such, to circle back to the first point in the post, if we ever were to add a named character costume (we almost certainly won't, but never say never I suppose) it would likely be at a very high premium, I suspect. EDIT: Oh god I just saw the first post in this thread (and the one I quoted) are both all the way from 2023. Whoops.

It's definitely easier to explain and write a concise hint for, but in terms of effort required for the update, try not to factor in the workload on my end, as it'd likely not be enough to impact a release date for the change. I suppose the question comes down to: Does the relative ease of understanding, conciseness and clarity of the hint and explanation in Option 1 justify less freedom of choice in a game where people play so many alts?

Returning to this feedback thread with a proposed pair of solutions, and looking for thoughts on which people prefer: FIRST: The simple, clean option. I will replace the Shauna Braun arc badge with the Roy Cooling arc badge. The other 5 badges remain as-is, no further changes. SECOND: I rework the badge entirely so that the critera are as follows: 1. Force of Justice Badge 2. Gallant Badge 3. Guardian of Forever Badge 4. Any 3 of the player's choice of the following badges: Helping Hand (Roy Cooling) Singular Vision (Special Agent Jenni Adair) Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Shauna Braun) The Greater Good (Agent Watkins) Dignified Combatant (Graham Easton) Skull Buster (Eagle Eye) The Center's Nemesis (Provost Marchand - Primal Earth Arc 3) Pollster (John Houston) Bicentennial (History Badge) Open to discussion on this and/or variations on that second option. If providing alternative design suggestions for the second philosophy, the design staples I'm sticking to are: Requiring the Force of Justice Accolade - Non-negotiable at this time Requiring the Gallant Badge - Non-negotiable at this time Strongly encouraging, if not requiring the Guardian of Forever Badge and the Bicentennial Badge as options to take despite their length/level of effort/tedium I'm quite interested in replacing arc badges with the 'challenge' badges related to said arc, if people are accepting of that, but would want feedback on if that'd be 'too much' in addition to the three currently required badges. Thanks again to those who contributed to the original conversation. It was a tremendous help!

A teaser on what I've been working on for the next page? Hmmm... I've got nothing. Sorry! Wish I were creative enough to think of something clever. Anyway, tangent, has anyone ever thought much on what it's like to walk around a bustling city? It's interesting, in my favorite place I've visited (not going to say where, that'd probably doxx me), there's this part of the city that was so so quiet... it really stood out. Last time I visited though, it was surprising how busy it was! Vibrant, diverse and, I'll admit, perhaaaaaps a little intimidating. I'm used to a very different energy, so it was a bit of a surprise, but not an unwelcome one I think. I'd love to go back again sometime soon, though there was some kind of 'off' vibe about the local law enforcement, couldn't put my finger on it. Despite that there's such a cool energy to the place though, almost feels like I'm in the Wizard of Oz, you know?

To be perfectly clear on this- we aren't holding a blanket policy of 'no morality swapping required' for badges, whether past, present or future, nor are we looking to make major changes to a number of badges with alignment swapping as an expectation. This is specifically about the purpose, theme and intent of this particular badge, which I myself added last Page.

Never said it was acceptable, necessarily. Quite the opposite. My point is that, for the majority of players, this would not fix the issue and it would have a negative impact on the game's levelling flow, as well as the metagame. Chasing the meta, by joining a group in an easier zone to spam max level papers/radio, would become easier and more accessible for low level players than it currently already is to make one's way to Peregrine. I predict substantially more players would gravitate to the 'optimal' radio/paper zone than they already do. While yes, max level players would have more places to do radio/paper missions and that would bring more possible variety, we can (and want to) find other ways to provide that, and with (hopefully) more interesting content than the existing paper/radio missions from 18 years ago.

That's stepping into a different territory, which is the whole current situation with Story Arc level ranges being incredibly easy to overlevel. That's something I'd definitely like to see us find a remedy for, on my end, and it's certainly not an issue that's gone un-discussed internally. Way I see it, things like this where there seems to be an obvious, clear remedy, there's just a difference between doing something 'simple' and fast, and doing something cohesively and well. But again, very different conversation, though that applies to the main discussion as well.

I think that these issues that are being described are better handled with more content, rather than broadening the ranges of existing (repeatable) content. IMO it's possible to have the zone flow and progression that currently exists as your level progresses, while also expanding the amount of content available to characters within a specific level band into new spaces, with new content. It may be more work for us, but its, frankly, more exciting and enjoyable work for both us and players! At least, compared with rebalancing and adjusting existing paper/radio missions to be equally valued by the playerbase.

So while I understand the desire, this is one of those suggestions that, for me personally (and not the whole team necessarily), I currently think would be a design decision that would come to the detriment of the game. Radio missions being locked to level ranges encourages players to move through the city. If all radio missions were level agnostic, it would lead to players picking the most optimal zone for its doors/enemies/etc and sticking to it. You already see that at 40+ (and even broader when accounting for sidekicking) - players could be in a variety of places, (Grandville, Peregrine, or even the repeatables in Cimerora x2, Dark Astoria, Shadow Shard - understandably) but they almost always prioritize Peregrine. Typically broad-touch level scaling in games does the opposite of what it sets out to achieve, because most players follow the crowd, and the crowd follows the lead, and the lead will usually seek out optimal play. It also robs the implicit sense of progression that comes from moving from one space to the next. If we were to implement this, I would predict 80-90% of radio groups would take place in one zone- whichever they determine is the most optimal for radio missions in that setup. Suddenly, the devs have a motivation to try and bring all radio missions in all zones on par with eachother - a colossal effort that also increases homogeneity as a result. Of course, this is all, itself, a statement painting with very broad strokes. There are always exceptions, and there are always ways to do things better, and perhaps the gains outweigh the losses in the right circumstances. Nevertheless, that's where I personally stand on this sort of change. And none of what I've said means we'd never do it- it would just come with a lot of debate, conversation and potential problem-solving internally, most likely.

Already part of the accolade!

As I explained in the original post, this conversation isn't about removal of it without replacement. That is on the cards and will be within consideration, but I request that it's not discussed here as it's not the point of this thread, alternatives are. As I also explained above (and in previous threads) the 'unfairness' of the accolade when compared with SFC is very very deliberate, the overall number one goal of the Accolade Power was to provide additional motivation for players to complete Strike Forces and this is simply a more grindy/time-consuming alternative that one may pursue for their own niche, specific reasons. Debating the fairness is not a part of this thread's particular discussion, and I ask that it is not a particularly meaningful consideration in deciding upon an arc. Regarding Valeria, I'm not really considering it because, simply, it's a co-op arc. Not specifically/exclusively heroic, which means that it's not really within the theme/intent of the badge's existence in my eyes. In addition, it doesn't primarily take place in Paragon City, which means it doesn't exactly fit the 'Protector of Paragon City' theming.

Possible, but would start to make the whole thing a bit messy in terms of the badge hint (not to say it's a write-off because of that, but it's a consideration).