[When a tank isn't a tank]

7 hours ago, lemming said:

Aw man, we're getting remakes of old threads.   It's like when an author puts out a new book and you find out they reused the plot of one of their older books.

 

Just like Hollywood.

[A relook at Sorcery Pool's Flight]

I used to take the Flight Pool more often in the past.  But now when I take a non-Temp non-Prestige flying Power, it's almost always the Sorcery Pool's Mystic Flight.  I don't always take more from Sorcery, but I love that combo of flying and teleportation.  Add an extra Slot and a 2-set of either Blessing of the Zephyr or Hypersonic and at L50 (and even some Levels Exemplared) the Toon flies at the FlightSpeed Cap.

 

 

[How inf much is “just enough” to give?]

When starting a Toon, I normally give it 40M Influence and spend around 34M of it on S.T.A.R.T. picks, leaving the 6M for the initial cost from Levelling the Toon to at least L6.

[Redoing OG TF as level 50 Hard Content]

Just now, MsSmart said:

Good points, but  I wonder could they be resolved since they would be only 5 TFs and a like number of SFs for the red side?

 

There's a lot more than 5 TFs.  There's more than 5 Enemy Groups and some of them have more than one TF that involves them.

 

Making a change to an Enemy Group:

• Adjusting the Enemy Group definitions.
• Adjusting the Missions/Arc/Task Forces to make use of the wider definitions.
• Those changes would have some basic checking by the devs, then expanded to Closed Alpha and later Closed Beta testing by Devs and Testers.
• Issues and balance and other concerns would have to be addressed and then tested more.
• Impacts on other parts of the game would have to be identified, adjusted, and tested.
• When it got well enough along, goes to Open Beta testing and adjustment.
• All along this process, if the Devs are satisfied with how a change is, it goes to Release, else parts get removed and put back for consideration on a later Page.
• What is considered in good enough shape is released as a new Page.

To do that to just one Task Force to make it for all Levels, L1 to L50, would be a massive change.  Because it would have to be tested at many Levels.

 

And to do that would mean other content changes would have to be delayed, because there's only so much Dev and Tester volunteer time available.

 

Now, there are changes done to Enemy Groups, changing them and also expanding their Level range.  But often that new Level range is only used by new content, just to make changes reasonable enough to not overwhelm the Devs and the Testers.  More general changes are done, but more content needs to be tested to confirm those changes.

 

 

[Redoing OG TF as level 50 Hard Content]

1 minute ago, MsSmart said:

I have wondered, why are the TFs in fact not scalable to the level of the organizer? Just a thought...

 

Welp, I can think of a few reasons:

• Some enemy groups, generally and on a particular Mission/Task Force, are only defined for a certain range of Levels.  If any are defined for L1 to L50, it's not many.
• Other features of Maps/Missions/Task Forces are adjusted.  While these can work for a range of Levels, I don't think they can for L1 to L50.
• The rewards are usually fixed and don't vary that much.  At the lower Level, it may be significantly easier for nearly the same rewards.  This would be exploited.

 

 

[Redoing OG TF as level 50 Hard Content]

On 10/17/2025 at 4:26 PM, Snarky said:

rewrite OG TF as Hardmode 50, offering both Master of and 1-4 star versions.

 

Let's lean into Hardmode....hard.

 

Let's change Task Forces Hardmode such that afterwards Players will want to tackle something easier, like a +4x8 Barracuda SF.

 

This will require some engine changes.  Stuff like much more complicated maps.  And not just staying on a Task Force when logged off.  But staying on a Mission Map of a Task Force when logged off or even the Servers restarted.  A persistent Task Force state.  Need these things to reach for that Hard Hardmode.

 

Then recast the Task Forces, leaning into whatever Players complain about.  Sometimes indirectly.

 

For example, Synapse Hard Mode:  Only 1 Defeat-All Mission.  Which will need those engine changes.

 

It's in a skyscraper.  A big initial map, with an elevator far across the map.  Packed with mobs.  Mobs grouped together so 2 or more spawns are aggroed together.  Tough mobs.

 

Then the Team goes up the elevator.  Another big map packed with mobs with the elevator up across the map.

 

Then the Team goes up the elevator.  Guess what?  Another big map packed with mobs with the elevator up across the map.

 

Then you can guess what happens on the following floors.  😺

 

Some floors are smaller.  Still packed with mobs.  With an AV like +4 Reichsmann but tougher.  😺

 

Can't just drop off the Task Force.  Gotta go back down to the ground floor.  Oh, floors respawn.  😺

 

Get back to the ground floor, get to the door.  Whoops!  Gotta queue to exit the Mission.  😺

 

Some more stuff yet to be determined.

 

 

[Redoing OG TF as level 50 Hard Content]

6 hours ago, MsSmart said:

Please forgive me, but what is OG?

 

The Urban Dictionary is often good for finding all sorts of definitions.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=OG

[Have a way for Lore Pets to show their state]

14 hours ago, Rudra said:

Sorry. Guess I just assumed everyone put their pet windows in Advanced Mode. No reason not to in my opinion. Much better control.

 

I either never heard of these controls on the Pet window or forgot about them:

• Switch to Advanced Mode
• Show Individual Pet Controls

Turned them both on.  Need a Pet active that has the full controls to see the "Options" item to click on.

 

They're also saved in the standard config file options.txt.

 

 

[[FOCUSED FEEDBACK] Ninjitsu Adjustments]

2 hours ago, Frosticus said:

1.Smoke+blinding powder should just be merged rather than mutually exclusive. They are both mediocre/weak on their own.

- this should also have adaptive recharge

 

I like the idea of combining those two Powers.

 

For a mutually exclusive Power pair, Ninjitsu (and Shield Defense as well) should get a Toggle Mez Protection as an alternate to their Click Mez Protection, same as Super Reflexes is getting.

 

 

[Disabling Costume Powers]

On 10/16/2025 at 2:22 PM, Scarlet Shocker said:

I'd like to be able to disable the receipt of the costume powers. They are like spam to me and I hate them in my trays. 

 

I don't want to disrupt anyone else's pleasure but to me they are as useful as spam fritters.

 

I delete the Temporary Costume Powers as they show up.

 

Spam fritters?  Don't remember that from the menu.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Ms Lib tf hard crashed team to desktop.]

12 hours ago, Rudra said:

Your team tried to restart the TF while still in the TF? (I didn't know that was even possible.) You can't be on more than 1 TF at a time..

 

I've been through a few that did that.  I don't think it's done in a mission, but outside.  It keeps the TF Team together and you go to the TF Contact while leaving TF Mode.  Allowing Toon swaps and new members.  It may be possible in a mission, but of that I'm not sure.

 

12 hours ago, lemming said:

Sounds like a race condition that confused the engine when you clicked exit.

 

This sounds like what went wrong.

 

 

[Your Favourite Cut Scene]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

well, they are big, but with support they do not quite reach her legs

 

I mean the combination of Mayhem's legs and her waist and that killer belt-buckle.  Just doesn't look right.

 

 

[Your Favourite Cut Scene]

12 hours ago, Snarky said:

She is human. She had implants.  She is very attention seeking. 

 

In her legs ?!?  And she must never bend at the waist, because that buckle would kill her.

 

 

[[EXPERIMENTAL] Patch Notes for October 17th, 2025]

I know it's sometimes not done until Open Beta. But the changes to some Powersets are so complex, we are really already needing Full Powerset layouts:

 

<Tier #> <Lowest Level> <Power Name or 2 Alternates>

 

for all ATs. Would be helpful to add them to the Patch Notes.

[Grok Imagine is SUPER!]

4 minutes ago, macskull said:

Jesus christ this thread is an absolute dumpster fire.

 

That's what you get when billions of dollars are spent trying to drive a technology beyond its normal development and into things well beyond its proper current use.

 

An industry that will need 2 Trillion Dollars per Year to break even.  Won't happen.  It's a bubble that's going to pop.  We will suffer.  The basterds who caused it won't.  😠

 

 

[More Perception in Epics]

On 10/17/2025 at 12:41 PM, CoeruleumBlue said:

...why are PvE and PvP stats not the same in the first place?

 

Because a game has to be designed from the start to have PvE and PvP play as similar as possible.  Exampe: Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Once a PvE game has developed a lot, to add PvP to it (as happened with City) means making the two systems very different.

 

Why?  @macskull gives a good reason:  Player Toons have much longer Perception ranges than the Mobs do.  If the Mobs all had the same Perception as the Toons, once you had line-of-sight to Mobs on most maps, they'd have line-of-sight to you and would ALL aggro on you.  If Toons had the Perception Ranges of Mobs, everywhere would be like on the final map of the Sara Moore Task Force: Stumbling around barely able to see anything.  And with different Toon and Mob Perception, comes different PvP and PvE stealth ranges.

 

Another big difference: PvE Player Long Mez Power Durations.  Don't see that in SWTOR.  That's because Players being Mezzed as long as Mobs are is very very unfun.  Thus the Mez Effects and Protections are different for PvP and PvE.

 

 

[Your Favourite Cut Scene]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

Clearly the "best" is from the BAF trial...   (runs away screaming @Snarky did it!)

 

I was about to post that one.  Mother Mayhem...there's something not human about that body.

[(Almost) Everyone's best friend?]

21 minutes ago, Snarky said:

What you are encountering blueside is the fact that a story arc can have 1-5 possible contacts. Then you are assigned 1.  The other possibilities are dead to you, they offer the exact same story arcs and side missions 

 

Those are the traditional Blueside contacts.  There's 5 sets of them, one for each Origin: Magic, Mutant, Natural, Science, Technology.  They tend to give Missions involving the same Villain Groups.  Only the first set, for Levels 1 to 5, only have 1 contact per set.  Then they expand to about 3 per set.
https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Contacts_By_Level

 

 

[Anyone knows what are the developers plans for incarnate salvage in our inventory]

AFAIK there are no plans to tinker with the current Incarnate Powers.  For any future Incarnate Powers, there will need to be greater challenges to justify them.  Despite creating Advanced Mode content, that's not yet considered sufficient for new Incarnate Powers.  All TFs at 4* levels is tested so that teams with even some co-ordination will get through them.

 

There is a lot to do on the current content and powers, which is the focus at this time.

 

 

[You cannot enter.]

8 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Open "Settings", select "Devices", select "Mouse", select "Additional mouse options", select "Pointer Options", turn on "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key". (Edit: Then when you press CTRL, not hold, just press, a shrinking circle zooms in on the pointer.)

 

I followed that and it works, thank you.  That shrinking ring happens when a Control key is released from being held down.

 

 

[MoLGTF PUG UGLY]

Those early Masters aren't just no Temp Powers (except Prestige and Temp Flying Powers are allowed), no defeats.  They're now also no Incarnate Powers.  Which means less safety and thus...more defeats.

[Hardware V WiFi]

Sometimes the bottleneck is a bloated web browser who's current support don't seem to have been introduced to any sort of time and space efficiency in programming from any decade.

[1/2 Half XP Option]

For those wanting to turn off XP for their Toon (like most times running a Completionist Toon), I suggest this macro:

/macro oXP "optiontoggle noxp"

 

 

[[FOCUSED FEEDBACK] Mastermind Archetype Adjustments]

@Dispari, thanks for doing that testing.

 

@Dispari, @Maelwys, can you confirm that all the Mastermind Henchmen are receiving the MM's Alpha Boost T3/T4 +1 Level Shift.  Because I didn't see anything about Level Shifts being part of the Caster's Mods that Henchmen would receive.  And a +1 Level Shift is hard to only take 1/4 of.

 

If they're not receiving that Level Shift, those Henchmen will see +4 Content as +4 Content.

 

 

[New Null the Gull Setting: Minimal Fx Buffs]

To cut down on the glare from effects, I've used this to toggle Particle Effects:

/macro FX "++noparticles"

 

However, it's rather brutal in what disappears.  Like the Base Entrance Portals and Vanguard-style Teleporters disappear completely.

 

Currently experimenting with turning down Particle Effects in the Video Settings.  Still working on that.

 

 

On 8/14/2025 at 6:43 PM, RadiantPhoenix said:

Some buffs (e.g.: Ice Shield in Cold Domination) have very intrusive visual effects.

I would like to be able to force those buffs into Minimal Fx mode (or complete invisibility) on my character.

This seems like something that Null the Gull should be able to do for us.

 

I've at least solved this one on my Ice/Cold Controller.  I use the Power Customization to change the Ice Shields in Cold Domination and Ice Mastery's Frozen Armor for Controllers.

Controller.Cold_Dom.Ice_Mastery.powerCust

 

I'll just whip up some .powerCust files for just the Ice Shields with Minimal FX for all 4 ATs:

Controller.Cold_Dom.MinFX_Shields.powerCustCorruptor.Cold_Dom.MinFX_Shields.powerCustDefender.Cold_Dom.MinFX_Shields.powerCustMastermind.Cold_Dom.MinFX_Shields.powerCust

 

Drop those files in the <City Install Root>/powercust/ folder, no need to restart.  You'll be able to load them in the Costume Editor.

 

Just edit the costumes of the Toon and in the Primary+Secondary Power Customization Tab, load the appropriate file and save the changes.