Jacke

4) Call the Sandmen to take care of the runners for you? 😺

I've tinkered and changed the builds of my most active Toons many times. (Also, there's a max of 6 available from the 3 Blue-side and 3 Red-side Respec Trials, 5 I think while levelling.) I've not even done new builds and respec'ed all my Toons affected by the Power Level Available changes in (I think) i27p5. And then there's at least a few changes in every Page that means I should at least review some of the current builds, perhaps do rebuilds and then respecs. Which could mean changing the Trays layout on several (screenshots after). Example: My main is an AR/Devices Blaster, of which I have...4 copies (1 each Primal and Praetorian, on both the CB and HC Shards), with the Primal Toons being L50 and having 3 builds. There's also my BR/Devices Blasters (1 each for CB and HC) that need a new build because the change is taking a Devices Power I previously skipped. Thus I'm in the middle of a minor revision--which though just swapping 1 Power for another, also needs changing the Levels at which a couple of Powers are taken and a redesign of the Trays layout. Turning into a major project. That's 10 potential respecs. Fortunately, 1 of them is for a Toon of a very low Level that doesn't need to respec, so down to 9. 3 of those remaining respecs are very simple. But 6 are very involved. Yesterday, I did the 4 needed on the CB Shard which also covered the Trays layout changes, so the 5 I need to do on HC (despite 3 of them for a L50 build) should go much faster. That's 1 minor change that just happened to affect many builds. It's why it would be nice to get an improved respec system, especially for simple changes. (But that may be technically very hard or impossible.)

On Monday, January 27th, the beloved leader of Repeat Offenders passed away. EDIT: Wake details in this post below: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/56573-remembering-alty/#findComment-716151 Fellow City of Heroes Players: It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of the passing of Repeat Offenders' beloved leader, @Alty, Stacie Pinkett. RO member @Ceejer had located her death notice. RIP Stacie Pinkett (1970 December 22 Tuesday -- 2025 January 27 Monday) https://www.hollywoodlanews.com/stacie-pinkett-dead/ Alty was pivatol in the first generation of Repeat Offenders. In August 2005, she and others brought together their Supergroups to create this beautiful coalition to enjoy City of Heroes even more. To have friends to share play and thoughts and dreams and laughter. I've know Alty since I joined RO in 2006. So much life. She loved City of Heroes, loved the great and small details of this other life that is a vital part of our experience. She helped make RO a wonderful community within our greater and marvelous City. After Shutdown, Alty was critical in keep RO going. She assisted many to connect to Homecoming in a City of Heroes Renaissance. She worked to make this renewed City a new home for us all. Gone now, we remember. Alty was a part of all RO is. She loved this game. It gave her a place to make her mark, to help in little ways and grand ones. Life always ends too soon. As we feel the sorrow of her absence, we should remember the love and joy Alty shared with us all.

Herm.... Now I'm thinkin' this may be the start of a 1970's Paragon City...Task Force, Echo Zone, something? Music from Funk to Disco, it's the time I really am fond of and because I was young, just didn't get enough of. I'm also imagining Back Alley Brawler in some cool threads with a huge afro. A Back Alley Brawler Time-Traveling Task Force? Dang! 😺

It would be so...on-brand for Sister Solaris. She currently may not move as far as Becky nor need to navigate as complex maps, but she works her hardest to avoid that altar! 😺 Maybe someday.... Thanks for all you've done and are going to do for our City, Cobalt!

Seriously, I read through all the entries and found something good in each one. I also had other thoughts. Inspired by @BassAckwards, I thought of a different change: Thinking of Becky the Tarantula Mistress from the Dr. Aeon Strike Force: Add an option to launching the ITF to make Sister Solaris like the Becky of the ITF. Get Sister Solaris through the ITF, get the Best Foes Forever Badge. On April 1st, Becky and Sister Solaris swap Task Forces! Totally topsy-turvy taskings! (Two more Badges...?) @Cobalt Arachne, what do you think? 😺 And then.... Finally, a worthy opponent. @Darmian, that's far too good. (And I also agree on the missing First Ward/Night Ward maps.) Finally, CARP MELEE! Or is it Carp Blast? Or...Carp Assault! MUH HA HA HAAAA!!! YOU'RE TOO LATE! (Seriously, there are good ideas there.) In 2022 in Discord. AND 2024 here!!! (Copied here for your convenience.) I also thought of Mimes and copying Gang War, but you had the genius of COMBINING THEM! There can be only one outcome! TO THE LAB!!! GIANT MECHA CLOWN MASTERMIND!!! (Any one got the number for Toho Co.?)

But what if it was one Extra Slot every 100 Vet Levels? Starting at VL100. A build normally has 67 Extra Slots to allocate. 24 Levelling Powers. Excluding Prestige Sprints, 7 Inherent Powers slottable (Brawl, Sprint, Rest, Swift, Hurdle, Health, Stamina). That's 24 + 7 = 31 Powers that can each take 5 Extra Slots. For 155 total Extra Slots. Less the normal 67 Extra Slots, that's 88 more Extra Slots. All Slottable Powers, 6 Slots each. When this baby hits 8800 Vet Levels, you're going to see some serious--hey! Wait a minute. Where do I remember 88 from? NOT THAT ONE! This one. 😺

I'd push forward a patch for a Mastermind Primary in development. Not quite sure what to tweak. But we all know what that Powerset HAS to have for target reaction. 😺

I agree completely, @Snarky! What's more. what's all this about so many doors on one side?!? BUT a different number on the other side!?! It's crazy!!! How does 2 doors become 4?!? Or 3 become 4?!? Or 2?!? Hey!!! All things considered...

Thanks for given all the parts! I knew a few, but was wondering about the others.... Welp, those are who they're announcing, to hype up the punters that this is going to be BIG! But I'm sure they're going to keep some under wraps, for future trailers. And hopefully to spring in the film!

Well, it's not quite 6 LotG Global IOs, but you can get 6x +7.5% Recharge bonuses. Up to 10 in fact. Because bonuses from Global IOs, like the LotG Special, are counted separately from IO set bonuses for the Max-of-5 for a given numeric bonus. Example: A build with a Snipe Power and 5 Defense Powers. At least 5-slot the Snipe with Sting of the Manticore Snipe IO set. The 5-set bonus is...+7.5% Recharge bonus! And slot a LotG Special in each Defense Power! Voilà! 6x +7.5% Rechargbe bonuses!

How changing Henchmen Upgrades affect how Masterminds would interact with the game? I agree with what @gameboy1234 said, current Upgrades as click Powers is just busy work. There is no drawback to applying Upgrades except for the need for the Player to click the Powers. As I showed above, the way the current click-Power Upgrades work could be translated into passive-Power Upgrades. It's possible. All that matters is how much Dev and Tester time the change would take to be approved and tested to make sure the change was done correctly and Masterminds perform much as they are now. But without the Upgrade busy work. @gameboy1234 continued to point out how Masterminds struggle in the game due to depending so much on their Henchmen. As I've pointed out elsewhere, like the vast majority of Pets, Henchmen get NO benefit from the Global Buffs of the Mastermind, like +ToHit, +Acc, +Dam, and +Level. Even when the Mastermind has an Alpha Boost and Incarnate Powers aren't disabled, to Pets a +4 mission is +4 content. I have 2 rules I used to avoid needing to calculate every time: Slot Pet Summons Powers with ED-capped Acc enhancement. If critical Pet Powers have less than 1.2 base Accuracy, also needs Tactics or -Def debuff on the target Tactics is better because it will always apply, but needs a Pool Pick and 2 Power Picks. -Def debuff may not be on the target the Pet is attacking. Following these rules will at least get Pet Powers to or close to a final 95% chance to hit +4 targets.

From memory (also on the "Rescue the Mystic" mission on several Toons), I think the Pillars of Ice and Flame always assign a Toon to the same contact out of a Blue-side Origin trio. In this case, Trevor Seaborn. I've never checked to see if the Toons' levelling contact was also Trevor Seaborn (if getting one of those trio as a contact wasn't completely missed), but I'd not be surprised it wasn't.

It's been made public news elsewhere, so I feel confident that I can share this. Hyperstrike had a stroke a few months back, in late November, I think. He's still in the process of recovering both in his life and his ability to play the game and be present on the forums. He definitely wants to. He's mostly posted simple messages of how things are and some requests for help on the Closed Beta forums. I can see he's struggling but progressing. He's in the process of getting back on the Closed Beta Shard Vanguard. Hopefully things will continue to improve for him. And I see Hyperstrike is posting a bit on these forums now. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/profile/114420-hyperstrike/

Hmmm. I'm not one way or another. I can see the point of both the current Henchman-target AoE buff and an auto/passive MM-based PBAoE. But can the auto/passive work? Let's look at two current example MM Henchmen buffs, from Thugs. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=mastermind_summon.thugs.equip_thugs&at=mastermind https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=mastermind_summon.thugs.upgrade_equipment&at=mastermind Each is a whole bunch of 'Apply "Grant Power" (all affected targets)' effects that cover all the added or replaced Powers on all Henchmen. Does applying it more than once break things? No. Probably because the code that does the 'Apply "Grant Power" (all affected targets)' doesn't break the Pet if it was already done. Could an auto/passive Power do the same to the Henchmen. Yes. But how often would it check and would it soak up too many clock cycles? Welp, the current click Powers seem to take less time than their animation. And there are already a bunch of checks for effects, whether they expire or do something. And they seem to run well enough. So it could be made to work as a auto/passive MM-based PBAoE. But should the change be done? It's a fundamental change to how MM's currently work. Yes it is a QoL improvement, enough to make things better. There doesn't appear to be any reason to not have the Henchmen upgraded. So it comes down to: How hard it would be to implement, do so thoroughly, and be tested to be sure it's working right. Does it deserve to take up dev and tester time to do this. As opposed to other projects pending. Only the devs can answer them. It seems to be a good idea. Especially as Henchmen need a lot of replacing. But I don't know enough of the fiddly bits underneath to be sure.

Here's a guide to Praetoria on how to complete all the contacts' arcs in all the zones on a new Praetorian Toon. Here's a command to make a macro to toggle XP off and on. /macros oXP "optiontoggle noxp" If you have access to an SG Base with a Pillar of Ice and Flame, a Goldside Toon can use it to run Flashback missions and arcs in Praetoria by...well, definitely by Level 20, maybe earlier. But the Moral Choices in a Flashback mission aren't permanent, though they do count for the Praetorian Accomplishment Badges. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Praetorian_Accomplishment_Badges

You do realise there's multiple meanings of the word "fixing" ? 😺

Think this is bad? Homecoming forums has the nicest and most appropriate moderation. Way back in the day, the rules of the board wargame Imperium Romanu II (1985) included a section on how to adjudicate rules disputes between the players. There were 3 options (paraphrased because the game is buried away someplace, so I can't look it up): Can't remember the first one. The two players should arm themselves and settle the matter like Noble Romans. Settle the dispute with the roll of a friendly die. You're lucky Homecoming didn't decide on going with option 2. 😺

Group Teleport has a 30ft radius but a 25ft base range. I don't think it's that great a travel power. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pool.teleportation.team_teleport&at=mastermind

Take a look at the CoD2 page for the IO: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=boosts.crafted_panacea_f.crafted_panacea_f It only targets the caster ("Self"). Its stacking is per-caster as well. If it procs, the caster is the only one affected and at most only once. It will attempt to proc every 10s in an Auto or a Toggle Power. It will attempt to proc whenever a Click Power slotted with it is cast.

It's been a long while, but as I recall, what made Freeform (the original character method from the launch) in Champions Online so gamebreaking is the presence of many powerful "Pool" Powers (with little or no prerequisite Powers needed) that could be combined on one Toon. When it went free-to-play, the free Toons were limited to Powers templates (can't remember the exact term) that prevented a massively powerful combination of Powers on one Toon. As for this idea for "Saga Mode", @Snarky has a point that being able to take Powers at any point in a build does smack a bit like the Freeform problem in CO. Powers balancing is hard enough now. Stop it with those negative waves, man. You can disagree with an idea without being so...snarky. Follow @Snarky's example.

I believe buff procs like the Panacea special will only proc at most once when they fire, even if in an AoE mob-targeting Power.

Except that Mu Mastery's protection at T1 was better than Electricity Mastery's at T2 until there was a change. Then the Electricity Mastery one was made EXACTLY the same as Mu Mastery's, but still at T2. Protection shields are not made better in Epic Pools because of their Tier. And @Icecomet's thought on making the first 3 powers T1, similar to the Travel Pools (and should be spread to the non-Travel Pools), is a way to implement this thread's proposal without upsetting existing builds.

I have an AR/Devices Blaster. With 3 builds, currently Arsenal Mastery, Force Mastery, and Mu Mastery. And I've got a lot of other Toons either at L50 or with full L50 builds. I'm aware of the tradeoffs due to the current nature of the Epic (and non-Epic) Pools. There is already massive complexity in builds just in what Pools to take, what Powers to take, and where to put the Extra Slots. EDIT: And what Enhancements to slot, which often drives where those Extra Slots go. The different ordering of the Blaster Epic Pools is just an irritating extra on top of that. Changing the ordering of ALL the Epic Pools for every AT to some sort of reasonable canonical sequence will give more flexibility in choosing the Epic Pool. It would create choices, not remove them. As I expanded just above, this could be a goal for ALL ATs for their particular Epic Pools.

Well, this discussion has been all over the place. I agree with @Icecomet's position. I have a reason that I don't think others have mentioned yet. Build are often tight or very tight. What 4 Pools? Which Origin Pool, if any? What Power picks when? What Extra Slots picks when and where? And what Epic Pool? Some builds will only have 1 or 2 Power picks free for an Epic Pool. If that desired pick is deep in the Pool for no specific reason, that means it's either passed over or the rest of the build needs to be changed to allow going deeper into the Epic Pool. Sure a common trade-off all over any build. But to Blasters, that Epic Pool protection, whether Def or Res, is a critical part to improving their survivability.