temnix

The first part will only apply to min-maxers. I don't know if you are one, but please don't consider myself such. The second part, alas, is the price of relevance. Your look is you, and it is your choice of reality to inhabit.

I once had a conversation in General about the purpose of stores that sell single and dual-origin Enhancements: Cooke's Electronics, Image Inc. and the others, now that all shopkeeper NPC sell those Es. The change made those wonderfully designed and interesting stores obsolete. Someone wrote: "Left to their own devices, players will eventually optimize all fun out of a game." And Homecoming people think like players too. After all, they are only modders, not creators. Almost all they offer is convenience: command line shortcuts, Null the Gull... The least they can do to keep those stores occasionally visited is to improve their buying and selling prices by a good amount, let's say 25%. And let them sell Es of any level, up to 50. That will help out poor players to get by without selling their Merit Rewards. Even better, let those places and only them buy Inventions - of any kind. As specialized stores, they are uniquely qualified to take those off players' hands.

City of Heroes feels like a dream to me. The subdued world walks on, waves, honks and drives away while brightly-colored bodies float by, sometimes in queues, like strung balloons, headed to some offscreen, abstract goal, like hunting poor Babbage or raiding the mothership for the umpeenth time. So different, yet so the same. The game is more like a fantasy about being a superhero than being a superhero in a fantasy. I enjoy it as far as it goes, but the only way it's going to feel less like an illusion is with deeper mechanics - a number of new features to give it relevance, it connect the player to the world he inhabits and consequences of his choices. And the first place (or maybe the second place, after Origin) where those mechanics can come in is the Body screen. CoH is something of an exception among character-centered games in that there are no individual statistics, no place to choose Strength or Constitution or Stamina or Charisma. Now, I don't know how to bring in mental stats there, but the body sliders are the pefect place to commit to a physicality. Taller or smaller? Slimmer or thicker? Longer legs or the opposite? It should all matter. True, heroes and villains can be so weird that the obvious choices don't always apply. A small character may be forged of impervium or a huge one may be some kind of cloud of gas. But appealing to that would be a very lazy excuse to pass by opportunity. The sliders, as anyone can see by dragging them to the extremes left and right, represent a spectrum, and the far ends really are something else: where the shoulder girdle is so broad that the arms practically fall off the clavicles or when the body is thin like a blade of grass. I think every slider should represent a duality of statistics, with the place around the center being neutral, but moving away meaning more of one and less of the other. I'm not going to propose any particular numbers, they will have to be found in testing, but for this to be worth bothering with, the far ends should make a significant difference, say, +-25% of the standard. Players should be able to focus their characters in the direction they want. Here are my ideas about what the sliders might represent. Height, i.e. size: <--- Bonus stealth, ---> More hit points It is natural that smaller characters should be harder to notice. Give them a modest permanent visibility bonus so that they might risk fighting or running by enemies closer that usual without attracting attention. But they would be fragile for all that. On the opposite end, characters towering to the full 8 feet should take less spotting but more killing. (They tend to be clumsy and difficult to control, too, which this bonus would compensate for.) Physique <--- Defense, ---> Damage resistance Slimmer characters would probably find it simpler to dodge attacks, but muscled hunks have meat shields in every place. Neither bonus should apply against Psionic, which aims for and tears at the mind. Players can tune for very different fighting styles here, either adding to the advantages from powers (a muscled Invulnerability character) or compensating for their shortcomings (a slim one with the same set). Shoulders <--- Smaller personal space, ---> Longer melee reach I am only guessing that it is technically possible to make characters occupy less space in the world, squeeze through narrower doorways, arches, chinks and so on, but it probably is. No shoulders to speak of, though, is counterindicated for punching, slashing, swiping et cetera, though these characters could still do well with ranged attacks. On the opposite end... time for an anecdote: I enjoy my Katana character very much, but I wish her reach was just a foot or two closer to what I saw with Titan Weapons. Broad shoulders should do that, but the bonus (and the penalty) would not apply to kicks. Chest <--- More Endurance, ---> Resistance to status effects It's difficult to come up with benefits of having a flat chest off the bat. Forward placement in a new-age fantasy casting? But long-distance runners usually have little up there, both sexes, their litte machinery whirring tightly all in one place. On the other extreme, a vast, profound abovewaist hall of sighs should clear status effects sooner. Except Psionic again. Waist <--- Broader auras, ---> Regeneration Gourmands rejoice, here is something for you: a solid girdle of nutrients (in the form of extra capacitors, if you are a robot or something) will help you on a rainy day. Meanwhile, Hellions, Tirailleurs and Knives of Artemis have been coming out in Sex Addicts Anonymous that they have been driven to some heroes' taunting more than to others' for motives of ulterior nature... Auras, taunting, damaging and otherwise, can be really annoying if they extend too far, although, I suppose, other players may want them reaching even farther out. And here is their chance, if they agree to a worse regeneration. Hips <--- Protection from immobilization, ---> Protection from knockdown Unless it's telepathy, they have to lasso you around the hips to glue you down. And those legs in the "Henry the VIII" pose are a sturdy prop. Legs <--- Higher melee damage, ---> Faster running and higher jumping There is a reason heavy swingers usually have small legs, and it is not just that they pumped up the arms but neglected the lower body. No, mechanically the shoulder girdle produces the more force, the shorter the time in which the impulse from the hips reaches it. However, such bruisers make poor runners and jumpers. The melee damage bonus should apply only to attacks from the arms, not kicks. All of these pairs can be thought of differently or the bonuses moved around, but notice that, in any event, I avoided primitive oppositions like "less Endurance, more Health." A bonus to kick attacks somewhere here would be nice. The important thing is not to overcomplicate this system, though, or be so fearful with an extra percentile point that the result will be an unimportant meh. Rather let it give large bonuses at the extremes, to which most players won't go, and leave it do its job. So player who wanted to make the meanest close-combat monster would be able to produce a giant, bulky as a bus, with shoulders at opposite compass points and dragging knuckles on the ground. Of course, anyone checking out such a character - at the Arena, let's say - will know that he's going to be easy to hit, occupy an acre of space, run like a snail and jump like a penguin. It could be possible to trap him in a tight corner or shoot at him from above. PvE enemies would spot him from a mile away, too, given line of sight. Want a sneaky spy instead? Make a tiny, unnoticeable thing that can filter behind pipes and through railings and defend with ranged attacks if discovered. And so on. One can imagine different body types for different uses, and that is where costumes come in. Sliders that matter would give meaning to costume change and encourage making more than one. Players could have costumes, i. e. shapes, for different occasions: something heavy for hard fights, something long-legged and slim to cross an area quickly. This would all be subject to role-playing considerations, of course. Not everyone is going to have alternate forms, especially Natural heroes. But leave that to players. And after all, isn't the reason Dr. whatever would turn into Mr. Hulk was because the other form was rather bigger, stronger and unkillable? Costumes can already be changed only once in 30 seconds. But forbid changing them in combat to keep players from suddenly getting bonuses. Changing to a more suitable form in advance of a fight or sneakaround, though, if the character has such a spare, would just be clever thinking. If the shoulders are so broad that one gets stuck in a sewers' doorway, it is time to press K. When the character background allows no very different shapes, this will be a test to separate the role-players from the power-gamers. Finally, I suggest giving more extreme values of these bonuses and penalties to the Huge form. Huge men (and Huge women, when Homecoming gets around to making them) are already somewhat freaky, even while their body is like a cloud, plays no role. Well, push them farther in that direction and invite players to embrace their inner Huge.

Of course it is right and proper that those who contribute more get more. That was the reason for the prestige store in the original game. You have already heard contrary opinions from some very obtuse people here, though, and Homecoming is committed to some imaginary idea of freebie communism - as if even under communism people would not all have to work to share in the benefits. It's just that prestige perks should have been implemented differently, more magnanimously, for example, being mostly different rather than more powerful. There may not be a regular power that does both Energy and Toxic damage, but one could be fashioned exclusively for players who help, a good power but not overwhelming, with original special effects and sound. There wouldn't be anything unfair about that. And six months later, say, these exclusives would pass into common domain. But you shouldn't expect a reasonable conversation about this here. Homecoming is a group of modders, nothing more, with peculiar modders' notion that you can run a project on voluntary enthusiasm - well, of course they didn't make the game. And many players balk at the idea that those who pay "outside" the game world deserve something more than they who pay "inside" with time spent in the game, without realizing that when they play, they only play, not work. They have only played when they took the character to level 50 and optimized the Es and fought in trials and so on, even though it was a lot of grinding, without contributing one bit. They think they are improving the bed by sleeping.

The missions in this game are often a torture. Sometimes it is only because of old graphics, weird surfaces and confusing polygons, but often it is because of poor design like bending tunnels one has to squint at the map to follow, vast areas irrelevant to the mission's objectives, infinite waves of reinforcements, overpowered enemies popping up out of nowhere twenty feet away (to run up to the character and instantly explode - that's my favorite). Reusing maps is a part of the problem and produces much boredom. Besides that, many maps are simply too big. It isn't fun to plow through three enormous levels to get to the end objective, let alone clear them out. Compared to this early missions are compact and lovely. Mission objectives, too, need to be unequivocal: if the character needs to find a computer file, don't make it turn out that every enemy has to be put down as well. What Homecoming with their limited resources ultimately needs to do is call on players who have designed so many Architect missions to draw up new maps and fix egregiously bad design. They will jump at the chance to contribute. I can think of five more particular changes to make missions less confusing, dreary and in turns onerous and infuriating. 1) Footsteps for all creatures. At the moment only player characters make sounds while running or walking. Even a huge Warwulf prances over the terrain like a phantom. Though most enemies stand still, some do saunter back and forth. Hearing their footsteps would make finding them to complete mission objectives simpler, spice up combat and help make the world less of a lonely illusion. Pedestrian NPC should also clomp, adding to the ambience. 2) Innocents to be rescued (hostages, scientists etc.) should make noise the same as glowies. In their case yelps, shrieks, sobs, moans and terrified chatter of teeth makes sense. 3) There should be two versions of both this sound and the glowie hum, one louder than the other, and the Options menu should include a choice of which set to play. That way objectives can be found more easily without subjecting the neighbors to an audial Let's Play. 4) A prestige power called Divining Rod should orient the character in the direction of the nearest glowie or NPC, regardless of distance across the map. He can triangulate from there. 5) Another should announce the player character's presence to all enemies within a good range. This can take the form of a bugle, trumpet, best of all a war horn. The effect, reaching through walls, would not taunt the enemies, but it would count as an attack, making them, as usual when attacked, swarm towards the player from every unnoticed gangplank, cornice, crook of the tunnel, back side of dead end and so on. P. S. I have also suggested before to link Architect missions at random to entrances without missions, "You cannot enter" ones, at some probability. That way a hero/villain will always find something to do by rapping on a few doors, checking a few sewer grates and manhole lids. As I imagine it, the entrance would show a brief description as an invitation, like "You see some Hellions loading suspicious crates," and if the player declined the adventure, that mission would be rotated out and the entrance "emptied" to this character for some minutes, to avoid picking-and-choosing. He would need to search around for another for a new roll on the wheel. Internally it should be an opt-out system, the box checked by default when uploading a mission to Architect. Missions with, let's say, 3-star ratings and better on Architect would qualify, and the author's name would be displayed somewhere on the minimap and in the completion message. Ideally the character would get to rate the mission at that point. In that way talented designers would get more exposure among players not interested in the environment of Architect.

Most of my suggestions have been aimed at adding imagination or encouraging players to socialize other than in these small, fizzy, fission teams of anonymuses that pool together for a task and then dissolve again. The latter would really take adding new mechanics to the game, mechanics that would make characters feel more than masks floating along in the wind. Something for real role-playing that would matter, big-time features. But small details can help create a living world too. And here is one idea: show the messages that players send to each other in channels as chat bubbles that everyone nearby can see, in other words, include Local in them. That would encourage nearby players to respond, if they think they can help or have something to contribute, not everyone is watching all of the channels all of the time. And having more bubbles around would make the world less silent. It is a strange telepathic pantomime that attends popular places, around Lady Liberty, for example. A whole crowd is standing around, several of them probably typing away, and not a "sound" anywhere except for that plump lady asking for donations for children of Galaxy City off-screen. The supergroup channel would be excluded, with only "..." appearing in the buble, and the same for private messages. But if it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done right, and it would be better for messages in different channels to appear in differently shaped bubbles. Keep the rounded square for Local, Supergroup and PMs, but make Global, for example, round, Broadcast jagged, let LFG be rhomboid (more like an ad this way), Help with zigzag top and town and so on. Communication other than in Local should involve emotes too. Here it would be good if Homecoming contributed a few new ones, though I don't know how good they are at making characters execute complex motions and drawing new virtual objects. The original emotes are exceptionally expressive (everyone should have all his characters dance the Pop Dance for a few minutes). To be optimistic, chatting in Help could involve the emote of tapping a message in Morse on a portative radio transmitter. Global - use the typing-at-laptop emote. Broadcast - shout through a louspeaker, and let's convert all text there to CAPS and make these bubbles visible everywhere in the area. Supergroup - speak into a walkie-talkie. Private messages - fold a paper plane and throw it, and let the recipient catch it, if he is nearby. That would draw more attention to receiving PMs. I have been sent local messages many times that I ignored because I paid no mind to the little background beep, and who knows what they contained? Compliments on my superb costumes, at least. LFG could wave two big checkered flags, like in Formula 1. I don't think there are so many messages in the same place at the same time yet that becoming lost in bubbles would be a concern. That would be a healthy problem to have. As it is, chilly and indifferent silence is more of a challenge among the mute supers who clomp past each each other on the way to the next grind.

1) A Spear power set. 2) A proper set for the Whip, with customizable appearance: whip, lash, barbed wire, chain, rope, poi, morningstar... It could focus on circle attacks, tripping enemies up, sending them spinning and jerking them close. I have made a Mastermind with Demon Summoning who won't take any demons, just pick the powers for the whip. But it would be good to have an entire set. 3) Several voice sets to choose from for both sexes. They only require a few sounds each: grunts for jumping, for collapsing, for kata, not many more. This should be a sufficient variety: Child/Thin, Young Male A, Young Male B, Gruff, Raspy/Old, Supernatural Whoosh, Supernatural Undead, Beast, Automaton, Robot and Mute. Because when Mak Men of the Fifth Column fall with a gasp, that's silly.

Your reasons for editing SO suffice, bro, that you can edit without giving any! Try it! About lyrics: sometimes you hear them correctly, but lyrics found somewhere on the Internet give a wrong version. I used to be perplexed by this, because I had assumed that the lyrics are provided by the music companies or the artists, but actually what you get on those lyrics sites is just what someone's ears have caught. In Gorillaz' famous "Clint Eastwood" I was sure I had the first line right, "I'm happy," the "am" drawn out to suit the meter, but online lyrics tried to make me think it was "I ain't happy." I was adamant, because that would not have made any sense. When I realized how dubious those websites are, that gave me a little ground for pride.

From 1892 to 1966 an annual dress ball was held for the students of L'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the famous arts school of France. Admission was restricted to students in the four ateliers of the school: painters, sculptors and others, and the managers were from the school itself, as gay (which means merry) and ribald as the students themselves, but also strict in their standards. Gatherings of characters in City of Heroes sometimes remind me of that event, also carnival-esque, except for its officially prohibited but really common nudity from both sexes. After the first few years, every ball was dedicated to some historical theme. There were tableaux vivants, dancing, champagne, beauty contests and general revelry. The women who attended, artist models a lot of them, painted their bodies underneath costumes, and the costumes would eventually come off to everyone's delight. The men were often not far behind. The ball lasted through the night and poured out in a winding procession across Montmartre. Towards the morning, somewhere by Louvre, they revelers would disperse. Here we have a Roman senator with a purple strip on the toga, a Japanese woman, a knight kissing on horseback, a Gavroche of a boy under a hoplite's shield, someone who looks to be from the secret police of Venice flirting with an Indian, maybe, - and a contemporary policeman watching from the curb, And below is a bill from one of those events - dedicated to Ancient Egypt, I guess. The French says something like: "Beauty, come with us to marry the pharaoh. Don't be afraid to ride to Abydos in a scant Thebian costume! The Committee." (Notice the hairy calf of the pharaoh.) Wikipedia quotes an instruction from the organizers: "Bal Des Quat-z' Arts, Moulin Rouge, 21 April 1899. Doors open at 10 P. M. and close at midnight. The card of admission is absolutely personal, to be taken by the committee before the opening of the ball. The committee will be masked, and comrades without their personal card will be refused at the door. The cards must carry the name and quality of the artist, and bear the stamp of his atelier. Costumes are absolutely necessary. The soldier—the dress suit, black or in color— the monk—the blouse—the domino—kitchen boy—loafer—bicyclist, and other nauseous types, are absolutely prohibited. Should the weather be bad, comrades are asked to wait in their carriages, as the committee in control cannot, under any pretext, neglect guarding the artistic effect of the ball during any confusion that might ensue. A great "feed" will take place in the grand hall; the buffet will serve as usual individual suppers and baskets for two persons. The committee wish especially to bring the attention of their comrades to the question of women, whose cards of admission must be delivered as soon as possible, so as to enlarge their attendance — always insufficient. Prizes (champagne) will be distributed to the ateliers who may distinguish themselves by the artistic merit and beauty of their female display. All the women who compete for these prizes will be assembled on the grand staircase before the orchestra. The nude, as always, is Prohibited!?! The question of music at the head of the procession is of the greatest importance, and those comrades who are musical will please give their names to the delegates of the ateliers. Your good-will in this line is asked for—any great worthless capacity in this line will do, as they always play the same tune, "Les Pompiers!" The Committee—1899." Here is another illustration from the early days, as usual soul-piercingly unattainable in its artistry and mastery: The balls evoked indignation in polite society, of course, and sometimes ended quite sadly. A very popular model, Marie-Florentine Roger or Royer, known as Sarah Brown for her red golden, "Celtic," tresses and a milky white skin, was arrested for nudity at the 1899 ball. When her whereabouts proved impossible to establish, it was concluded that she probably committed suicide, which led to wide rioting by the students in Paris. It is her levitating, chagalesque, in the first picture. The tradition of the ball, as I said, ended in 1966, which to my mind sets a definite date in a period that I had approximately felt to be the last days of human fun. It was around that same year that in America the Blue Meanies chased out the Yellow Submarine, and they have ruled ever since. We have plenty of them on these boards, too, and the irrational fear Cryptic, NCSoft and now Homecoming have of any suggestion of nudity, the whole hypocrisy and disgrace of the "T" rating, are part of that. As far as I am concerned, I would have liked to see those heroes and villains who mingle in Pocket D to do something more than stand around and flash their special effects. Around them everywhere stand NPC that imitate life and relaxation. The players, to prove that they are living, could at least start a boombox or do some dance emotes or try a party game. Or chat in Local, at a minimum. But maybe they feel shy, don't feel that they may. Well, you may, people. You may start anything you can. The tradtion of carnivals around the world is rich and profound. Those who want to find out a lttle more about this ball are welcome to consult the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_des_Quat'z'Arts And if someone knows that tune they played, "Les Pompiers," enlighten me.

So I made this evil surfer dude called Whoa Betide, right? He is a Water Blast/Storm Summoning Dominator who wants to turn the planet from 3/4 water to 4/3. And he has Prestige Sprint: Power Slide on, swirling underfoot, and Slide as his running stance. But how is he supposed to surf through the air everywhere, if Hover makes him either float vertical-like or fly like Flight? Tell me that! Now if he could soar in one of those other stances, he'd be, like, so much truer to his old name - Noah.

Couldn't this be circumvented by supplying a simple text file for every costume listing all of the pieces involved in it and the colors used so that the player has a blueprint for rebuilding a costume from scratch? It doesn't take long to rebuild a costume, as long as you quite remember which parts you used and how they were colored and with what patterns. That kind of list could probably be generated automatically - like the list of powers and their colors on importing, where the changes to all powers are contained. If Homecoming can generate this kind of inventory for every existing character and send the lists out over in-game e-mail before setting down to alphabetize things, players could take care of things on their own side. Give them free tailor sessions, obviously. It's an unpleasant part of housekeeping, but the overhaul would be worth it. And as for adding more parts, can't the sequence problem be solved with some clever renumbering? If the parts go by 1, 2 and so on, insert them as 1.1 and so on?

Why is a text file a security issue? Any browser will offer saving passwords. They are even saved at e-stores and e-banks, although there one usually has to add some extra identification (at least here in Russia; I don't know about the United States, but here all and sundry want to know your phone number to send you confirmation codes, and when you start giving that, expect to begin getting spam calls). I don't believe that a hacker's program could not access these stored passwords. Also this game is free to play, completely at the moment. That has the advantage of making everything in an account impossible to steal, because it has no value. Nobody can buy in-game items with my password, at most someone might vandalize the character roster and waste my respecs. As evil as that would be, access becomes a non-issue if the "Save password" checkbox is accompanied by a disclaimer somewhere. It is a theoretical risk which is mine to take, like all risks.

Having played a Stalker for a bit, I notice that their attack ("Assassin's Staff" in my case) delivers its damage rather too late. I'm all right with them preparing the strike while hidden, but when the blow is made and the character is out of invisibility, there is a good second before damage applies. In this time most enemies get a chance to hit back, or rather hit first, once, even if they go down afterwards. That should not happen. Extend the aiming time for the execution time, if you must, even though I don't think you have to, but make the strike lightning-fast when it finally happens.

How easy you are to give headache to. My simple point is that all of the details ought to be available in all combinations, and never mind what "makes sense" or not. Moving the parts around won't do it. If the tattoo is included in "Masks" "Detail 1" only, that is going to mean the costume maker will have to sacrifice everything else he might desire from that menu. If, on the other hand, it is found in both "Detail 1" and "Detail 2," and in "Detail 3" that replaces and should include hair, then perhaps in those other fields the player won't have to make sacrifices. This is different from what I suggested about combining male and female parts, because the placement of, let's say, a belt might have to be adjusted between the sexes. But expanding menus to feature all parts that are known to be compatible with the current model won't cause any problems, it is only a convenience matter to get around the "either-or" problem. And only some of the NPC were made whole-cloth. Others clearly use the same parts that are available to players. Infernal, for instance, wears a typical "Armored" suit on the whole, etc. An exception was made for him, some kind of custom model created, that included just what I propose, two picks of standard horns. And so on. There are some NPC that use a combination of unique items and ordinary ones. Skulls wear shitkicker boots, I think, shorter than the Work boots that players get to wear, but that is only my impression, and their jackets might not be the same kind, but again that may be due to unusual colors. On the other hand, Veles in the cutscene wears the same part that is called the "Human skull mask" in "Detail 1" of "Standard," only with blue eyes behind it that are unique. But why not ask Homecoming about this? They have the files and can look at them. Hey, Homecoming! Do Infernal and Veles use standard parts or not? Excuse me if I don't come back for a reply. I'm not someone who replies to every thread within 20 seconds, and this conversation is not too interesting to me. I made my point, that at least for player characters all of those extras that are available at all can go into every menu.

The head when "Standard" has two Details menus, with all of the additions either in the one or in the other. "Full masks" has three Details, if I am not mistaken, but no "Hair." And on the whole, "Detail 2" is a lot less useful and attractive than "Detail 1," and the list is shorter. Most of "Detail 2" is taken up by gas masks and other masks. Making a head always involves much juggling: do I use "Standard" and limit myself to the parts there - but then I can have hair, or do I make a full mask with some kind of color that looks similar to skin, and so on. Or: how do I get a "Back of the head tattoo" with "Full masks"? And so on. So, I suggest putting all of the items from each of the menus, including hair, in all of the menus. In effect, eliminate "Hair" as a separate category and turn it everywhere into another "detail" (you can keep the name for simplicity's sake). I don't know what will happen if a player chooses the same detail from two or three menus, whether that will result in three identical additions blending together, a strange jutting and duplication, whether there will be clipping or not, but no matter what the result will be, it is the business of the player making the character, who will play the role of the arbiter. Nobody wants clipping, but if somebody does, after all, let him use that detail. What matters is giving more power of combinations. Some NPC already use duplicate details. Infernal in Founders' Falls sports two sets of horns: "Rhino" along his nose line and those little side horns like Hellions'.

If I had three prizes to give to Cryptic, one would be for emotes (the choreography and expression of motions is perfect), one for most of the music and the third for the design of city areas. You can keep the Shadow Shards and Ouroboros. I am not impressed by a void with a big ball in the middle or any other cliched fantasy concepts. But the inner city in Paragon and the Rogue Isles is a masterwork. The placement of the buildings, levels, precipices, sudden surprises, shanty towns, garbage heaps, Freakshow towers, the Drenchin' Donut on a string, marinas, the tower of the Magisterium and the Paragon Dance Party... The prize would have to be shared with the people who arranged NPC across the game, from the groups of enemies to the "background" characters. And some of the latter only appear on occasion. You may never see them on a particular playthrough, if you run or float by. I don't know if they have schedules or pop up at random, but let's mention the ones we know about. There will be some news here for everyone. I'll start: on Mercy Island, in Darwin's Landing, a Lunatic occassionally appears on the clocktower, firing his rifle at the ground below. Your turn!

Statesman is not dead, if you get to kill him for Recluse. But more than that, of course the game remains in 2012, actually in 2004. Just look at the cars and the trucks. There are emotes for smartphones, but also phone booths on the streets. Some of this obviously comes from incorporating retro elements: the Family wears suits out of "The Godfather" and shoots from Tommy guns. For brevity, though, Donald Trump has never been the president of these United States. The wars in Ukraine, Myanmar, Yemen and Israel, in Syria, never happened. Neither did COVID-19. It is a universe of a better past, and enjoyable that way for those who remember it. After all, where else won't I be surrounded by the Internet and see people talk to each other on the streets, if not in this online game?

I have proposed this before myself, along with a drastic reduction in enemies' Endurance total so that draining them to surrender would become a viable way to victory... right now they die or kill you before they empty out... But this kind of big change isn't going to happen, I think. I have seen no interest either from Homecoming or from players in seriously changing the game. Either they are afraid to ruin it, or they are afraid of NCSoft, but most likely they are just. Not. Interested. And that is why I myself have scant interest left. What am I, stupid to click the same five buttons to level 50 and then repeat?

I am grateful to Homecoming for making the game playable again, for sure, but not for making it free. I like handouts as much as the next guy, but I avoid them because I realize that each comes with an obligation and establishes a relationship that is not reciprocal. In the time of "the live game" I used to buy monthly suscription cards at GameShop, and that gave me a modicum of influence over the game's direction, at least theoretically. It might have been the force of an ant, but I had the power to express my disinterest by walking out, which indeed I did when I became unhappy with the game's mechanics shortchanging my main character, who kept on dying and could not develop. That might have been because I was not a good player, or more serious objections might have come in, but either way, my preferences mattered - as much as an ant's, in any event. Cryptic depended on the money of people like me, nor could this game have been created on crowdfunded money then or now - something that players should appreciate. It took solid, even mighty production values to bring about the world of CoH, and that meant guaranteed salaries for the developers, a secure business model and everything else that lets one feel at ease and be creative. Also limiting the player base to those who actually contributed kept that base limited. It is like with property ownership requirements for voting - a very intelligent restriction. Now that the game is funded by donations, some of them probably from people much richer than myself, and exists in a permanent mod-like state, in some weird financial dimension, I am no longer a stakeholder, I have no say in things, and neither does anyone else, even the donors, except by crying with one mighty voice - of a crowd. Our opinions matter as a statistic. If something is wanted by a large mob, Homecoming might implement it. If not, it is a spark in the wind. This does not bode an innovative future. Then again, people do come to the game mostly out of nostalgia. Floating before the wind, Homecoming feels no obligation to review its direction, its standards, its ideas. For example, they have completely censorious and kill-happy moderators on these boards, the kind that would make Emperor Cole proud. Remember the happy citizens of Praetoria? No disturbing truths or uncomely manners trouble their ears and eyes. They are happy to live in their golden sandbox, walled in on every sound by sonic boom. As long as they all "unite" in being happy, or unhappy in permitted ways, their paradise can go on forever. And Homecoming is not especially hypocritical, illiberal or heavy-handed, only as much as the rest of the Internet and society today. That I don't like, thousands of people poking inside old and essentially primitive, childish, power-gaming mechanics I don't like, but this happy-happy dimension is protected by its lack of curiosity, ignorance of its own nature, just ignorance and a business model that allows it to roll on. Yes, and eliminating the importance of role-playing with that gull I also don't like. That change knocked the bottom from under the very limited meaning, truth and seriousness that could be found in this game. Now that's all optional, and idiots are as welcome as anyone. A lot of things were made optional by Homecoming. Free, it's all free like cheese in the mousetrap! I don't know if that is what users vociferated about on Reddit or not. That place is far stupider than this one. Now let's see if I get another warning point for saying something moderators don't like.

It's too bad that the mobs really were drawn whole. But even from screenshots it should still be possible to study and recreate the details, if not to export the textures. And as for dresses, I don't see why a broad dress or a fur coat would clip more than the bolero or the trenchcoat. Besides, whose problem is clipping anyway? Only of the player making the character. Some of the models may clip, some will be tolerable, other players have no right to complain if they see something breaking through. There are all sorts of clipping issues with walls, warehouse stacks, helicopters, containers, and it bothers no one, because characters don't get stuck on that account (a very impressive achievement for a game from that period).

While pedestrians who give me a languid wave from the sidewalk might envy my powers, I envy their clothes. Shirts, in several varieties of checkers and Hawaian, trousers and slacks, briefs, I think even dresses - there is a lot that they get to wear and I don't, even if its colors are muted and cuts aren't fabulous. Well, the NPC ought to surrender all of that, tintable or not. And this seems like a simple thing to implement, so I am puzzled why it hasn't been yet? Civilians aside, it is another puzzling fact that players only get to try on imitative versions of the equipment worn by different factions, such as Praetorian PPD or the Resistance. The "Praetorian" gauntlets don't seem to be quite like the ones low-rank policemen wear there, and the much more interesting massive, and glowing, gauntlets of suppressors can't be had at all. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the "Chest detail" Resistance breastplace, but only one type of their gauntlets may be available. There are "Resistance goggles" that some of those fighters appear to wear, but others use a type similar to "Blast goggles up," yet again not the same. There is a chest detail called "Resistance strap," a crosswise sling, but if you walk up to some fighters grey to you and have a good look, theirs has a much better, worn texture and a different middle. Their faces are not available either, even though S. T. A. R. T. vendors greet both dimensions from Face 1. The impression that I get from all this is that either the particular creatures for the factions were drawn as they are, from scratch, instead of being dolled up the way of player characters and common villains, and so there are no separate clothing items to give, or those files were lost somehow after being used for the mobs. As a result, someone among the designers in Cryptic decided to sit down and create something players could use to pretend to be from these factions. But I, for one, can't pretend because the differences are so obvious. Homecoming should get the shovel and dig out all of those wearable clothes of every kind from the archives, wherever they are. Exceptional NPC may be allowed to keep their unique items, like Praetor White's gauntlets and belt, but everyone else must turn in his threads to save the world.

I did not know about the petsay command, but it is not the same thing. For one, it is very inconvenient and limited to have to type in line something, anything, to make an action happen. We are past MS-DOS. And numerous emotes exist. Does the player have to know the names and abbreviations for them all and in advance? "petsay <em flex>" to flex - how convenient is that compared to a menu? And that is a short emote name. And if I want one of the stances, let's say Villain 2, and don't know or remember which one it is or how it is to be shortened for the typing, what do I do then? My proposal would make it simple to make Henchmen execute any emote that they in principle can or let the player navigate to a window and type a message there, although the command function is superior in that it can combine spoken text and emotes. Still, even that combo would probably not be difficult to implement. petsay also only allows saying something once instead of repeatedly, as I suggested. In short, my idea is for making emotes for Henchmen a viable and popular, and possibly useful, option, instead of a specially devised technical trick to please oneself. According to the wiki, the command is also not too reliable and capricious. And it all comes down to what is important, doesn't it? Yes, the engine contains this (practically hidden) function for pets, for no purpose and without relevance. On the way to killing another mob players can pull off this little number, barely worth mentioning. Well, that is not good enough in my book. I don't respect killing mobs as an activity to build online time around, and what I would like to see is new interactions between players and new tools to that purpose so that this game can become something less dumb.

Allow Henchmen to execute animations and display balloon messages. For this add a right-click option to Henchmen to display, e.g., Emotes and Messages - > This Henchmen - >, All Henchmen - >, Emote - >, Message - >. As far as I have seen, even robots have it in them perform many of the emotes, and if a particular creature form can't do one of the animations, it would probably require no special tuning to make nothing happen. The Message feature would cause the Henchmen to inflate a text in the Local channel regularly. Besides entertainment and happenings like dancing bands, choruses and sign-holding protests, a Mastermind could post his minions around an area to direct visitors to where a party is being held or advertise his exclusive salvage and other sales and invitations.

The costume selection menu, the one that opens through Menu or K (this shortcut does not work for me either on its own or with Ctrl, Alt or Shift, by the way) offers a number of wonderful and unique emotes to accompany the change of costume. I never noticed that menu until recently, probably like many other people. (My favorite there is "Nuke.") But these emotes don't play when switching using the quick keys from Options, on the bottom of that screen, under Other. There are four places for quick keys to change between costumes 1-4, and I have found it convenient to assign the numbers 1-4 to them. Switching from the keyboard is much easier and more natural than going to the K screen, which besides blocks the view, but emotes don't play. I request expanding the keys options to all 10 of the costumes and making it so that the switching uses the emote set up in K. Even better, you could show a drop-down menu of emote selection next to each costume, because while Dr. Jekyll might drink a concoction to turn into Mr. Hyde, he changes into an evening frock more simply. If that is too onerous, then mention in the same menu a way the player can suppress the change emotes. To avoid involving more keys, make it so, for instance, that holding down the right mouse button while switching disables the animation.

Before I played a Mastermind, I assumed the upgrading powers for the minions were permanent boosts. I would "buy" the powers and enjoy stronger, better-looking minions. Instead my character had to upgrade them manually as they appear. This does not bring anything interesting to gameplay, and it is a hassle, especially if some of the henchmen out there have been killed and I have summoned more. Now half of them are improved, half aren't, I don't remember which are which, can't even make them out in the tangle of bodies rolling on the ground. I have to select them in the control panel and keep throwing more upgrades as the henchmen keep touching the grass. Don't I have anything better to do? It's true, there is a little silent satisfaction in throwing that strange... upgrade grenade... to them and seeing them transform, but I would feel no less satisfaction in summoning them and seeing them come in stronger and better already. Actually I would feel more, because then I would really have at my disposal an improved army instead of being some kind of lame tailor always playing catch-up, more and more of it, in fact, with levels. I am the freaking mastermind, I am Dr. Evil, not his quartermaster, arsenal keeper and tattooist.