temnix

I won't tell you why I think so, but it is the Paragon Dance Party.

My tanker isn't using a shield, so his left arm is exposed.

As I embark on this game with yet another character who at level 5 can't cobble together enough Influence for even one single-origin Enhancement, I feel like coming to the board and loudly begging that someone please send 100,000 Inf my way to get me going. The price of Enhancements is completely out of order. But this would not do, which is why I came up with two systems for helping out beginning charaters and letting old Rockefellers play the role of public benefactors: patronage and mutual assistance funds. Here they are in outline and in keeping with the game's idiom. Like in Roman days, patronage is a relationship between a more powerful person, patron for villains, and a dependent, client in their case. The same bond is called sponsortship among heroes: a would-be protégé petitions someone to become his sponsor. Any arbiter or trainer and perhaps other superpowered contacts can be taken as one's patron or sponsor, spreading the cloak of their influence over their charge and uplifting him for a while, enjoying payback in the form of recognition. This translates into a loan of Inf. Good amounts are offered, at three terms: for instance, 100,000, 500,000, 1,000,000. Each "package" has an interest rate, let's say, 0.1, that is deducted from the client/protégé's Influence earnings, including sales in stores and auctions. These deductions do count towards repaying the loan, and the character can pay back the remainder directly when he has the means. The "packages" also have level limits before which they must be repaid. It might be level 10 for the 100,000 loan. The character cannot level up to that number until he returns what he is due and comes out of the shadow of the patron. Influence must also be repaid to a patron who has been outleveled and left behind by the character - a different threshold for each. Lesser patrons might offer better rates than the greats like Kalinda or Back Alley Brawler, so a character might change patrons over the course of his career, as long as he needs support. All the time that a villain or hero is somebody's client or protégé, the corresponding subtitle "... of ..." is displayed under his name. Besides striking up these relationships with NPC, players can make arrangements with other players to the same effect. A character advertising himself as a patron sets the sum, the level limit and the deduction rate, but interest-free loans are only available within supergroups. Also the PC patron/sponsor must be of a higher level than his would-be client/protégé. Badges, special titles and other usual perks can be given to characters who have supported others for the largest amounts, and they can enjoy high ranks in a dedicated listing. The mutual assistance system is a way for players to chip in for benefits. On the villain side they can join the Family-run Omerta Club (best cocktail olives in America, symbolic contribution - a finger), on the hero side - Firm Elbow (doubles up as a gym). Both systems involve regular contributions of Influence to a common pool from which member services are automatically provided. This is to be an affair strictly between players, no NPC flush. If there are no dues coming in, no services will be available. The fees should take a percentile form to be equally fair to starting and veteran characters and can take the form of deductions from earned Influence, as before, or explicit payments to cover membership for a certain term. It is also possible to give directly at any time. The regular fee may be as low as 1% of the character's Influence, but richer characters can put more in the common chest. Their names will again be displayed somewhere, badges, titles etc. their reward. What services will this system provide while there is money in the chest? There might be several, but bail can be one of them. Well, it would be called bail for villains, but for heroes - atonement. This would erase a considerable amount of debt when activated. Another is emergency teleportation: when a member of either society is defeated and if there is money in the chest, an extra button appears. Instead of going to the hospital he can be revived and teleported just outside the current mission, or put at the base portal or entrance zone in an open area. Other services are possible. There are no punishments for abusing this system, but richer players are encouraged to donate to keep it going. Every teleport, for example, will be followed by a message: "Rescued by the grace of ..."

First let me tell you about an incident I had a week ago. I'm a Prime Earth scrapper, and I went to Praetoria by TUNNEL. There it turned out that the local missions are limited to Praetorian natives. Bummer. Still, I explored in the Imperial City, fought a few Syndicate troops along the way. Somewhere near their Studio 55 something unexpected happened: I was thrown into a quest I hadn't taken. I was suddenly told to lure the Syndicate out of a building I had never seen in my life by fighting them, and some police arrived on the scene to help me, after which the spot was flooded with Syndicate mobsters. They kept running out of nowhere in droves and hurling themselves at me, making circle kicks, sunglasses shining, trenchcoat tails flying. It was hectic. I felt like agent Smith fighting all those Neos in "Matrix Reloaded." Finally, after a few close shaves, I beat them all. I could have continued to the next stage of that quest, but it wasn't my fight, so I quietly floated away, smiling to myself. Now this was a bug, of course, some global was missing, but I have that experience notched in my memory, no, decorated with a beautiful bowtie, as an Adventure. What is an adventure? Something unexpected and uncontrolled. Challenging. Maybe funny. In that case the Syndicate was new to me - their looks, their powers, their intentions were almost completely a mystery. There was something to learn, fast, and there was challenge not of a predictable type. Now my idea for all those house doors and warehouse doors and sewer grates and ground holes and cave entrances and manholes is that instead of rebuffing us adventurers when there is no mission assigned to them they would invite us to a random mission from Architect. When clicked, the door would say "This is not the place you were sent to, but there is something going on inside. Do you want to intervene?" Architect missions, but to happen there and then, dangerously, with all of the surprises and unknown objectives their creators put in. Why have something in a virtual space when you can have it in reality? (He asked.) Start from three-star ratings and above. For optimists, the entrance's script can contain the information about which hospital to send you to. Teammates might get an invite to follow and a marker, these details can all be worked out. The mission would not be explained or described in any way, nor its villains stated upfront. The difficulty would be tweaked for the character's level, but otherwise he would plunge into the unknown. Missions of appropriate tilesets would be chosen: a warehouse door would lead... to a warehouse (we really need a "normal house" or "hotel" tileset, preferably both), a sewer grate to a sewers mission, a ground hole might connect to the sandy cave tileset, the crystal cave tileset, even an Arachnos base. Here is the kicker, though: these door offers would not be available everywhere at all times, nor reliably. Rather every door might cycle through a 50-50 chance (for example) of offering a mission once every hour. If the character decides not to involve himself, the door sets a local variable blocking further offers for that cycle. The character can try next door - literally. He might choose to investigate that manhole instead of the warehouse. If a character goes in but leaves, there is no coming back, the villains have fled. Upon completing the mission and exiting the victor(s) would find a clue - a message from the mission's author with explanations, any curious facts, advertising on Architect or anything else he wants to communicate, or just a "Hope you enjoyed it!" note.

A. The color black in powers is supposed to be black, not invisible. If you want that, make a separate color. It is possible to have real black in powers - in the Fiery Melee set, for example. There you can have a black scrimitar and breathe a cone of blackness, so transparency instead is some problem with interpreting it elsewhere. And why are powers set to all-black or Dark wine-red instead? B. Playing with tall characters is inconvenient, because they block most of the view. One has to scroll the camera out constantly. I have a wonderful character grown out to the maximum eight feet, but he is more or less unplayable. The default camera distance should be configurable.

In a world where everyone flies, jumps over buildings, outruns trains and teleports getting from one point to another quicker than everyone else is pointless - except by walking. Slow is the new fast in Walkathon, a new social event and competition where the only power the contestants may use is Walk. The type of walking is up to the athletes, whether glamorous, casual, tough or original (which is plenty glamorous), but they win by being the first to walk from the start to the finish lines - on a track in the beginning of which they are all randomly seeded, into cells. The shortest time wins. Every position other than the first row on the track receives a headstart time deduction bonus in seconds to compensate, increasing with back rows. Other characters may also participate by using helpful hasting and buffing powers or harmful slowing and debuffing powers on the athletes from the sidelines, and bets can be placed. Betting rates depend on the chosen character's position on the track, from excellent in the beginning to poor in the final stages, when the outcome is almost certain. A contestant who congests the traffic or obstructs others by staying in place for more than a second is disqualified. Only constant motion, no matter what happens, gets one to the end of the mile or so of the track. Heroes and villains compete in a mix. The first few characters to reach the finish receive winner's T-shirts, other participants more modest T-shirts for participation, and all learn the sporty walk. Heroes compete under the banner of the outgoing Fuji the Snail, villains under that of the inscrutable Phalangita the Trilobite, and prize T-shirts also feature these mascots. The competition takes place in turn on three tracks within Pocket D: the bright track, the dark track and the baseline. The baseline is a belt of tarmac on an empty, gray plain, and powers may not be used to help or hinder the contestants. Here only slotting Walk and smarts will determine the winner. The purpose of this track is to measure relative strength of athletes, but money can still be won. The other two tracks not only allow others to intervene with some powers but feature obstacles and hindrances that strike from the sides in the manner of River Raid. Nobody can die on a walkathon, but walkers can become slowed, pushed back in the crowd or distracted. The bright track is a lush, bucolic meadow with rolling hills and blue skies. At some points and intervals here attractive shepherdesses insist on leading flocks across the track. In other places contestants may be disoriented by a fluttering butterfly or mesmerized by a feather-tucking yodeler. The dark track is a walk through a Boschian underworld, among volcanoes, gibbets, wheels and dismal rivers. Here demons blow gales from the sides, earthquakes threaten to knock down the fastest champion and black ships lob flying medusa that splatter and glue feet to the ground. This is a regular event, maybe biweekly. And, of course, this will produce players who make characters slotted out just to compete, superteams and rivalries of superteams, cries of foul, all the orbiting systems of sports since at least the Blues and the Greens of emperor Justinian. Well, may that be! That's how I envision this anyway.

It took me awfully long recently to find the one I remembered was near Atlas City Hall so that I might change the difficulty setting.

The claws are not tintable either. And what is that about the costume file format? Homecoming has access to every last file and byte of the code. Let them change the costume file format. What is that going to take, a TED talk?

It's not easy. All new parts and details have to be drawn first, you know, and then models made for the textures. The devs are adding new costume pieces all the time, but some aspects don't get noticed - where textures end, for example, and how. But inventing costumes for this game made me more aware of fashion and colors. Look at this dress and hairstyle I found online!

I suspect I missed many interesting stories because my level is now too high. I have risen by some levels fighting villains on sidewalks, and on Indomitable in particular leveling-up is quick. Many of my contacts, even new faces, have no leads for me, probably because I am supposed to have moved on to other areas. But I like Kings Row and Steel Canyon more than, say, Talos Island or Faultline. Why should I fight the Tsoo there when I don't care about the Tsoo? As if every hero is indifferent to who he spends his time opposing. Just because those places' street thugs are not a challenge for me anymore is no reason I couldn't help the residents in need when they are kidnapped, threatened, raided and so on. I could get some random missions on police radio, but there are no stories there - no writing. So, instead of contacts keeping mum they should explain, and each in his own idiom, that there is only small-time work left, but that the character is free to lend a hand. This fair warning will take care of the problem where the villain group in question doesn't have lieutenants and bosses powerful enough to challenge the player - if this really is a factor. Besides, the level of the mission depends on chosen difficulty. Crank it up high, and basic creeps will make your hair stand on end.

A costume option for arms that makes them thicker. The only option for muscles right now is to boost Physique, and that makes me grossly rotund. The babes are just scary. Oh, and if you can throw in a booty pack, that would be appreciated. Either as a Back Detail or better as a separate category.

There is not much we can have with Monstrous Legs at all. Not even a shiny skin option to blend with the thigh pants.

Holding the jump button makes the character take off in a very slow vertical jump, or rather, rise, for a while. How high does a character rise? About treetop level. The jump doesn't begin yet. On the peak you push the forward button, and the character starts to vault down and forward. You keep the button down. Looking at distance meters, leaping forward at 45 degrees or so with this power instead of running along the ground burns distance almost twice as fast. And what is all this nonsense in this thread? Of course I know what I'm talking about. Of course I've seen Superjump and Superspeed. Maybe Superjump can put you on top of skyscrapers enhanced, I don't know, but by itself it is just at the level of five-storey buildings or so, and Ninja Run can do that, or almost. I have seen Superspeed too. It's faster than Ninja Run for running, but I doubt it's faster than its run-jump combination. And how effective is it? Well, I can leap on the monorail where it comes a little closer to the ground. And you know King Garment Works in Kings Row, the huge long factory on a terrace in the western part of the area? I can jump up to that level from the ground. In fact, if I'm not careful, I easily leap over it and the fence behind the street there and end up in a courtyard - from one leap. There is also a trick to make wall tops help the jump. When you jump up against a high wall and reach the top, before you drop down again, lean forward on the wall, and it sort of propels you like a slingshot. This doesn't always work, and Ninja Run requires some finesse, but it's plenty enough for all my imaginable travel needs. (I have Hover for a little flying when push comes to shove.) As for jumping from the air, here you have to control it differently: instead of throwing yourself forward at 45 degree angles like a grenade, you skip along - let go of the jump button earlier, then you hit it again just before the character touches the ground, and away he skips again. But this is tiring to do consistently and not a substitute for a real double jump.

I wanted to slot Ninja Run to leap even higher, and this power is supposed to take Enhancements. But I don't see it anywhere on the Manage screen. Why? I ended up putting the Jump Enhancement into Hurdle in hopes that the bonus would carry over to Ninja Run, but if the highest bonus takes precedence, it won't. Second question: statistics for my Fire Melee powers list numbers that apply "only with Fiery Embrace." What is Fiery Embrace? It's not on the set.

When a contact sends you to a warehouse and the mission takes place in a warehouse, the only thing standing between the two is the gabled porch of a nice manor house... There is no shortage of industrial buildings on the maps, missions should be placed at intelligent locations. And how about an interior set for a private house, for that manner? If it turns out to be an immense mansion with stairways and floors and hallways, I won't be surprised. After all, endless depots can hide inside modest buildings and miles-long sand warrens and crystal caves sprawl below city sidewalks. I'm actually quite fed up with warehouses. It's like I'm some kind of industrial facilities inspector.

This is all being very theoretical, but I think the feature that can make the Commander stand out is a different relationship with minions. It is not interesting enough to have a power that simply heals them or something like that. And this type needs distinct minion groups, intentionally less impressive. Militia, makeshift robots etc. are all possibilities. There could be more summonable minions to control at once, for example (it's disappointing that Masterminds only get three goons - not exactly Shredder and robot ninjas... quite some time later they get another, but it's never an impressive presence). Commanders' minions could be much weaker, but the starting power could summon four of them. And if the idea that their maximum percentile hit points are the same as the Commander's at all times is in, that would make them even more fragile and put the pressure on the Commander to stay alive and command instead of wading into fighting as I have seen Masterminds do. Combine this with Inspirations passing on, at least in part, and you have the beginning of an original Archetype. On the other hand, there is a remaining noun in the English tongue still unused: Interceptor. This could be a version of Redeemer for villains.

Right. Now who is being ridiculous? The 5th Column was possessed by Kheldians and turned into Council. You can still see both 5th Column and Council troops on the streets. There is even a "Krieg" soldier in Boomtown who is explicitly described as being a leftover of the Column after their takeover, for those who didn't know it already. I don't pretend to know everything or even very much about the villain groups, only what I have been told by quest-givers and texts, but I do know that piece of history. And this is my one and only time of replying to you, Mr. 4000-odd-forum-posts-and-counting.

I like the first two. I would rename Cannon to Monitor, though. Monitors were enormous floating batteries in the early days of steamships. They usually had one huge artillery tower or many small fixed cannons around, and they had the sailing qualities of a brick. They would not be allowed into open sea for fear of capsizing. Unlike your Cannon, though, they were excellently armored. My concern when it comes to balance is that teams know to keep Blasters in the back, out of harm's way, already (Blasters themselves know it). Adding another strong if vulnerable shooter to the back lines would not make fights more difficult for them, especially if the character slots Range Enhancements. He could bombard the enemy from the entrance door. But if you change Shattered Glass (too particular) to Collateral Damage and make it so that this damage is AoE but indiscriminate, i.e. allies can suffer too, then it would be a question of whether the team wants to be subjected to friendly fire. In other words, then it would be interesting. Give the Monitor the best shooting distance of all Archetypes, but correlate Collateral Damage with it. Monitors could specialize in acting the howitzer with bosses, for instance, while everyone else keeps out to the sides, fighting the rank-and-file and distracting the boss when he rushes towards the Monitor. For the second concept I insist on new minion choices. It should be some people obviously less proficient than demons and ninjas: Militia, for example (badly and ridiculously armed civilians of today), Peasants (sickles, pitchforks, clubs... rags), Apparitions (nearly immaterial phantoms and poltergeists), Snewts (goblin-like runts), Gizmen (glue-chicken-and-duck-tape robots), Vermin (big cockroaches, caterpillars, gnats), Footballers (quarterbacks, halfbacks etc.) or Ceremonial Guard (slow, stiff and lumbering). But the principle connecting them to the Commander should be that their effectiveness and hit points correlate to his. They can never have more percentile hp than he currently has, and if he is incapacitated or defeated, they run about in panic (by the way giving him a unique chance to recover or resurrect himself and slink back). On the other hand, his Inspirations pass a small boost onto them. And for the third: why not speed up recharge of support powers all the while the character is attacking in melee? I would use Redeemer for the name. He rushes in and turns the situation around for the benefit of his friends.

The title says it all. I know there are many interesting missions... well, there are often interesting twists in hack-and-slash... but lots of missions, especially smaller ones, look hastily slapped together. Being told that a person by such a name is held by such a group, with the entrance message reading "Time to rescue a hapless Citizen (yes, with a capital) from the clutches of evil," and the mission itself being a warehouse with twos-threes of baddies standing around and that innocent somewhere in the back, does not make my toes tingle. Some missions remind me of "We know you like Dog, so we put some Dog in the Cat, so you can do Dog while..." A few examples. A jewelry store is being robbed by - what villain group, do you think? The Vahzilok! Hacksaw-wielding surgeons in bloody aprons and shambling, bomb-strapped corpses stand - and snooze! - around that store. Poor sods, they must be desperate for money. No display windows have been smashed, however, and only one little holding cell is open in the vault. The mission message adds to the confusion: "The Vahzilok are trying to poison Faultline!" (or something like that). Here is another: a villain by the name of R-something has been appearing in Clockwork raids. "It is time to show R that crime doesn't pay!" Excuse me? Clockwork? The word "crime" is not even applicable to them. There was another quest in which my character supposedly stopped "a war" between the Skulls and the Clockwork in a warehouse that belonged to the Skulls, but one which the Clockwork were "moving in." This could make some sense if it was Skulls vs. Hellions or something, but the robots? These villain groups are treated interchangeably. There is no attempt to set them apart or give a meaning to their schemes. I can't tell if this frequent sloppy quest-writing is something new that the staff of Homecoming has slapped together or they have been around before the shutdown. But villains' activities out in the open have always been pointless and unexplained too. Cultists of the Circle of Thorns suspend victims in green light in parks. What is that about? What is the Circle itself about, besides fuming green from the eyes themselves? Thorn daggers, on the other hand, are red. That's all there is to them, isn't it? Green light and red daggers. At least they could mutter something informative for the hero - if only there were, in fact, a story behind the group. There are also cases of poor introductions to quests and groups. Some are bugs: my character, not a Praetorian and therefore excluded from that dimension's quests, traveled to Imperial City via TUNNEL, and near Pocket D, behind one of the skyscrapers, suddenly got a quest to fight the Syndicate with police's support. I killed 40 of those trenchcoat-wearing, sunglasses-blinded, circle-kicking Neo wannabes in a row! And I got to continue to the next stage, if I wanted to. In that case there was simply a missing condition in the code. But here is a different situation: I was traveling around Steel Canyon and saw on the sidewalk under a twirling arrow a red-headed girl who did not look like anything like a United Nations trooper but was one. She told me about a skirmish between the Fifth Column and the Council. I had not been given an introduction to either group by anyone, and out of character last I remembered was that the Council was the Fifth Column after its takeover by Kheldians. How come the Column returned, the Council stayed and, evidently, they lived apart and indifferent to each other most of the time? But the conversation and the mission-giving ended before they began: I agreed to look into the conflict, I was given an ego-pleasing rank of sargeant by the U. N., and then, after I clicked "Let's get to work," the girl told me "I have no work for you." I guess my level count was not high enough, or too high, or I was not supposed to have spoken with this NPC in the first place. And now that I think about it, the Council here is inserted again as just any villain group to go VS the Column. Other contacts turned out to have no missions for me the very first time I met them. Was I again too high-level? Well, give me those low-level missions, I don't care! Let the auto-leveler do its job. This combination of careless plotting, bugs and disheartening design choices does not help maintain my interest in the game. But hey! I was invited to work for the Midnight Squad - the very original "we are mystical mystics, we like libraries with lampshades" band that reminds me of that lame Voldemort-fighting cabal in "Harry Potter" movies... what were they called? Here is an idea for the writers: instead of trying to pull together every cliche why not actually write your own stories for the villain groups and create real characters with personalities and motivations, whether villainous, heroic, antiheroic or none of the above? There isn't a single NPC in this game I have met so far who is a believable person. Who is given enough screen time to show himself as a believable person, to begin with! Or is that because... a terrible thought! ...is that because believeable people are those passerby on the streets - the students, the slouching bald guys, the construction workers carrying logs, "the hapless Citizens," and we supers are the paper dolls?

I have suggested something similar. My idea is to make the powers center on damage, however. There are already many sets and parts of sets that incapacitate or trap, even the entire Traps set. I would like to see that go boom and hurt. A power to attach bombs to enemies out of invisibility would be welcome. And they should be timed - every one set bomb with a timer, but there should also be a power for detonating all bombs. Without outstanding bombs this detonator (which could look like a bid red pushdown lever or a high-tech remote activator instead, choose that in Costume options) would change the damage type the same way Switch Ammo does in Dual Pistols.

I took this Prestige power, and it increased my running speed wonderfully and jumping height considerably, I thought. But it turns out that if I hold down the jump button with this power on, even without running, I rise and RISE into the air until I can dive into truly gigantic leaps. If I time it right, I can even jump again from the air just before touching the ground without taking any other power for double-jumping. I can even land with forward rolls. Control is very good, I always see where I'll be landing. And hopping along instead of simply running burns up distance. I could cross the biggest area in one, two minutes of non-stop vaulting. Together it is like Superjump and Superspeed combined, perhaps a little milder than either. It requires a bit of direction when descending, I kind of float down in the end of the jump, but that's fun.

I would like to know more about the villain groups in this game, but is there more to know? For example, I am particularly curious about the Lost, but it is told right upon meeting them, in their ID cards, that they are mutants, and before long I get into simple quests about them where they drag the homeless down into the sewers and apparently subject them to a deluge of sewage with promises that "soon you will be like us." Is there any more of a story behind them? Will I ever find out where they are getting Rikti weapons or what the inspiration is behind their changes, their point of view, or is it just some quasi-Lovecraftian sideshow? There is a quest, promising on the surface, to defeat 10 of them and get samples of their blood, but that leads to nowhere. Or take the Skulls: I have done half of their story act, learned a little about their leaders, but all I know about the organization is still what I read in their descriptions in the beginning - that they are a death cult (yet somehow also dedicated drug pushers). Well, have they had any success in overcoming death? Or take the Vahzilok: from the first ID cards I knew they were creations of someone called Dr. Vahzilok, and by the end of his story arc I knew just a little more about his motivation. Is this all the depth there is to the groups? How about digging deeper, then, developers? I am not interested in reading up on these groups in some wiki, I'm interested in encounters that have something to tell me. I'm not going to stick around until level 50 otherwise.

As far as I know, a base must be either magical or technological. Unless there is some insurmountable technical obstacle, it would be better to let players mix and match.

The first is that "Return to contact" missions don't produce a navigation marker that would show where the contact is. Instead the player has to click on the completed mission description and expand it to learn who gave it, then find that character in Contacts to train the bead on him. Even if the contact can already be called, this is still inconvenient. Two other things have been around for 20 years or so: the bio editor is mutant and does wicked things to words and characters, throwing them about, pushing them out of the paragraph and God knows what else, especially when the text gets long, AND the distances to map markers in yards and feet are way off. 10 feet is not 18 feet. They still decrease and increase in the right degree to give the correct measure of approach, but it's skewed.

I don't exactly know, and unless I'm flying and looking at the situation from above it is difficult to judge, how far my ranged powers reach. Make it so that when an icon is clicked and no target is selected the player sees the maximum range.