Jacke

No idea on how difficult this would be in-game. But since Illusion Controllers and Dominators can have their Phantom Army look like they do, that should be able to be done for Masterminds..... (Now distracted by thinking about my very low Level Thugs Mastermind with clones of his rather cool costume.... 😺)

Herm.... I'm a Retired Royal Canadian Armoured Corps soldier. I also know a lot of history. The Tank has been with us over a Century and I think it's never gone 10 years but that what the particular best working mix of features, including the Required 3 of Firepower, Protection, and Mobility, has changed. Now Drone Warfare has burst upon the Battlefield. Some are saying this is finally The End of The Tank. Just as in other times and places, it's been The End of the Aerial Dogfight. Or the end of the Horse. Not so. Every Battlefield Technology that has an effective use on the Battlefield and hasn't been overwhelmingly neutralised or replaced in what it provides is still got some niche of usefulness. Every Weapon (some World War 1 troops were armed with Gladius as well as Rifles for Trench Fighting) and every War Technology. The Tank and Tanker and those who fight Tanks will continue to evolve to the form and doctrine that is most appropriate for providing Mobile Protected Firepower at the Forward Edge of the Battlefield. In the 1980's before I learned about Tanks, I learned Sneak-and-Peak Recce much as it was practiced in World War 2. Recce hasn't had the changes forced upon it as much as Tanks have, but there are changes and Recce soldiers will have adapted. Because if you don't adapt, you find out the hard way that Today's War is significantly different from what you trained for. Don't get better at fighting the Last War. Get better at fighting War as it is and as it seems to be changing. Always observe. Always be willing to consider adapting. @Diantane, I figure you honestly feel strongly about what you post. You wouldn't keep doing it so much if you didn't. What I suggest to you is your view of City of Heroes is a bit askew. I don't know why, but it's askew enough and you keep posting about askew views that don't get any respect. I suggest to you it's time, as the Infantry say after finishing an Assault upon a Position (or if they failed at the Assault too), to Suck Back and Reload (catch your breath, refill magazines, drink water, and the leaders and senior Infanteers reassess the battlefield). Play the game to have fun. Observe more. Read more here in the Forums. Especially if there's a back-and-forth. Think more. Notice who seems to be switched on about what they say. Give it time. There's many cases in Military History of being caught short by circumstance leading to strong reversals. And of those caught in those reversals reassessing and fixing things.

In Repeat Offenders, there was one good Player who, when they found out about Shutdown, quit City of Heroes and has never played it again. They went on to play DC Universe Online. After City and Star Wars: The Old Republic, the game I've played the most is DCUO as they are a good friend and I would play the game for a while. But eventually I'd end my subscription (you really have to subscribe to DCUO after getting to Level 30 to experience the Endgame) and go back to City, because City is the game that has my heart. One day they mentioned a recent paid item you could get in DCUO: I forget what it's called in DCUO (or even if it's still available), but iit's effectively an Ultimate Respec. My rememberance of DCUO is weak, but it was the equivalent of changing everything in City, including your AT and Primary and Secondary Powersets. I don't know if my friend has indulged in using it, but it is interesting that the DCUO devs at the time thought there was a market for such an item. This means it's kind of similar to what @BEASTCORE is suggesting. And as @The Trouble has pointed out, you can sort of do that via a Reroll. I have done a number of Rerolls of Toons in City. Often to change some of the AT and the Primary and Secondary Powersets. Some Toons have gone through several over the years. I've also Rerolled Toons just to change their Origin. Because the one I picked initially years ago wasn't right for my concept of the Toons. Something that now just has an effect on some texts in some conversations in some missions in the game. But I had to change the Origin to put it right. And could only do that via Reroll. Now, on the other hand, the Suggested Item of this thread is being sold partly as a massive Influence Sink, as well as giving Players something that some of them would want for some of their Toons. I've thought of ideas for new Influence Sinks too. Except Homecoming City appears to not need Influence Sinks at this moment. Pre-Shutdown, the game had gone through some Inflation, as the Supply of Inf was growing but the Supply of Stuff to spend Inf on wasn't growing as fast. As the prices of Luck Charms was in the range of 100,000's to Millions of Inf, Rare Salvage was always in the Millions of Inf, and PvP Recipes sold off-market for Billions of Inf. I assume the Inflation had reduced or near stopped, because I took note of at least the Luck Charms and the Rare Salvage and though they shifted in price over a range, that range didn't seem to creep up. On Homecoming, through methods and new features including Inf Sinks but also included Merit Purchase Possibilities (which puts ceiling on the effective Price of most items in the game) and other things like Upgrading SOs on the Enhancement Screen, Inflation has been more that vanquished, as the price of many items on the Auction House has declined over the 6+ years of Homecoming, though there still are fluctuations. Such a massive Inf Sink as suggested in this thread isn't really needed. And as @The Trouble has pointed out, you can sort of do that via a Reroll. And as I am a strong example, Players are willing to do Rerolls when they need to change unchangeable parts of a Toon.

I had them too (retired now). I'd say someone recruiting for an active combatant organization could be detained indeed.

From what I've heard, @Snarky has killed his role, dead. 😺

But they are not hors de combat, unable to participate in fighting. Even under our Internation Laws of War, they would be considered a combatant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hors_de_combat

I have a Ice Armor/Dark Melee Tanker. Been a long time since I played it, but I enjoyed it.

I use Arcane Bolt on Controllers too. And I believe that as with Containment, Arcane Power adds the same damage again. So Arcane Power and Containment does three times the damage.

Just like Hollywood.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I delete the Temporary Costume Powers as they show up. Spam fritters? Don't remember that from the menu.

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. This sounds like what went wrong.

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

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

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. 😠

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.

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

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

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.