ThatGuyCDude

There were two power pools in development that were going to correspond to the Technology and Natural origins. They were called "Gadgetry" and "Utility Belt". https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Gadgetry https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Utility_Belt At the moment they remain incomplete. It's unclear if Homecoming is going to resume development on them (though I'm sure many hope they will, myself included). If I recall correctly, they were in development back in the NCSoft days before the shutdown?

I'm encountering the same bug. I tested with -1x3 and +0x3. Left the mission and reset it to try the +0, and everything was the same level (even con minions, yellow con lieutenants, yellow and orange for the +1 spawns). I checked the entire map (as I was testing with a Stalker) of a half-dozen different missions and I checked with two different characters, one a Praetorian at level 4-10 and the other with a Primal 50. The game doesn't seem to be registering the -1 level setting anymore.

On the topic of microtransactions as an element of the game industry in general, let's take this one step at a time... Lootboxes are blind boxes. Blind boxes are gambling, marketed as 'fun', 'not gambling' bonuses. It's incredibly predatory psychology, promising players that they only have to spend a pittance to get what they want, when it's really a rigged slot machine. Often the programmer end of the loot box does not have to adhere to fair gambling practices, either. If I want to play slots, I'll go to Vegas: at least I have the prospect of winning real money there. Further expanding on this point, loot boxes that grant temporary advantages are even worse: they tilt the gameplay advantage towards the player's wallet instead of their skill. Buying game money with real money falls in this same category. Both absolutely break the in-game economy, especially in multiplayer games (and more so if there exists a player-to-player trading system). Aesthetic purchases in a game are probably the only kind of microtransaction that has any semblance of merit: character appearance can vastly affect a player's enjoyment and many would be willing to part with some money to get the look they want. Provided the purchase reflects permanent access to that asset and is NOT hidden behind a blind box, this is the best supplementary monetization scheme a multiplayer game can employ. Players will encounter others who have a look they like, inquire as to the source, and then purchase the corresponding costume pack to replicate it. Costume purchases have two flaws: the first is that it leads to style-biting (where one player deliberately steals another's look) and the second is the bulk package issue... it's much more bearable to buy a single costume piece for pocket change than it is to drop a larger amount on a set (many of the pieces being things the prospective buyer would never use). Before shutdown, CoH allowed both and I much preferred the 'get this single item' approach. Just to be clear, I'm NOT suggesting that Homecoming do this. Again, this discussion is about the reception of microtransactions in the gaming industry as a whole. Purchasable cosmetics is simply the least wicked of the alternative monetization schemes, and will continue to be the most prominent as time goes on. In another context, Aesthetic purchases could be considered downloadable content. They don't alter the gameplay loop, only its perception. Downloadable content serves to renew interest from an audience in a product and can be considered part of game maintenance. Level boosts are bad for a lot of reasons. In addition to what you've said, they charge players to skip playing the game. This is even more egregious in subscription game models: "pay to play, and pay more NOT to play!" Additionally, players who level skip don't understand fundamental game mechanics, mechanics that playing through is supposed to teach. They're much more likely to grow frustrated at the complexity of the end game and quit, which is a short-turn return on the microtransaction but a long-term loss for the developer... it's a means to quickly liquidate players into funds before axing development (again, a predatory tactic). Adjacent to Level boosts is the Server Transfer microtransaction, which charges the player base for their geographic location and for events in their life that relocate or remove friends from the game space. Having to pay to leave if a server's culture is incompatible with your personality HURTS, and your only alternatives are to start fresh or pay for a boost on another server (or just quit). One last flavor of microtransactions you did not consider is the Energy Refill, the monetization scheme which punishes you for the duration of your playtime. "Buy an Awaken? $0.50" would be the City of Heroes context of that (again, I'm using CoH as an example of how the industry would use this tactic, this is NOT an endorsement). Setting aside the constant fourth-wall break to pick at the player's wallet (which in itself is annoying enough), this approach is just annoying enough to siphon gobs of money out of a player's pocket because each individual ambush transaction is minuscule. Someone shrugs off the nickels and dimes until they get their bill and realize they've spent $2000 or more on basically nothing. The person who doesn't is again at a disadvantage compared against the 'whale' (both in single-player and multiplayer games, even if you can acquire 1/600th of the purchase equivalent through 'regular play'), and eventually quits the game out of frustration or becomes a casher. Again, predatory psychology designed to liquidate players into funds. None of these monetization schemes are signs of a healthy game. Only one of them qualifies as a valid player retention strategy, similar to DLC production. The rest are designed to snag some quick cash before the player base moves on. THAT'S the problem with microtransactions, they are by nature designed to liquidate a community.

Much like the Kheldian attacks have standard animations that are superceded by special models, I suspect that henchman special animations have a generic variant that the standard body models can use. To that end, setting up customizable minions would be best handled by building on the foundation of the AE Custom Group editor: it already has functionality to randomly select actors from a list, including both custom and prefabricated entities. Make a "Mastermind Manager" NPC in the tailors who opens a similar menu to the AE one pictured here: players are free to populate their three minion categories with any combination of prefabricated or custom costumes (provided they do not exceed their allotted minion costume storage on their account, a value similar to the AE content size limiter). When a minion is spawned in the corresponding category, they pick a model from their list to use (with a checkbox to toggle between numbered or random, so that Minion 1 can always use your "Jimmy the Squealer" costume if you want). Players could assign different 'henchman' groups to their various costume slots through tabs in this menu, though if a costume change would occur then henchmen spawned would retain their model until resummoned. A lot of work, yes, but a better approach than costume slots as it allows a mix of custom and pre-fabricated models to be utilized by the same henchman category.

Ooo, Spring Attack/Savage Leap for henchmen, I like it! I've recently come to really appreciate attacks that can plop you on a target (even if the attack by itself isn't that potent), and having them on minions who otherwise don't have ranged options would be quite helpful.

I made a similar recommendation in the past as a 'capstone' bonus for reaching Level 50 (since the level is otherwise underwhelming with its three slots, I pitched five instead). The suggestion was shouted down as a contributor to power creep, with 'extra set bonus' as the primary argument. Incidentally, apparently the way the enhancement slots are coded makes it very difficult to add more: the devs can set existing powers to start with more enhancement slots but they can't really increase the number that are available--particularly because of how the respecification system is coded. So they could do something like "Fitness inherents start with two slots" which would consequently save *some* players up to four enhancement slots for other purposes, but I don't think they can add additional assignable enhancement slots. I will say that the 'respec to give your level 49 power extra slots' route and 'enhancements work as long as the power is active, regardless of when the slot is picked' mechanics are not exactly clear or well-communicated by the game, so additional in-game text about the matter might be helpful. A mechanism where acquiring an Incarnate slot unlock also *adds* a power to your character with its own enhancement slots might also be possible (like learning Rest at Level 2), but the benefits of that would probably have to be generic like other inherent powers.

This is on-point for the feel of a Brute: their punches leave you reeling and their shouts paralyze you like a deer in headlights. Having some harder control rates for the ones that pair with the melee sets (and adding ones to those sets that don't have them) would make a noticeable difference in the theme of the archetype, even if the most effective tactic available isn't shifted by it. For the melee sets that don't have debuffs, pepper them in to taste from among slows, stuns, immobilizes, and fears. I'd say Fury should affect the Magnitude of these debuffs as you described, so that long fights with a boss or elite boss can actually stack control over time.

Have you thought about inherents for the archetype? Maybe something like "Using a Primary power (buff) reduces the cooldown on Secondary powers (attacks). Using a Secondary power reduces the endurance cost on Primary powers (for 3 seconds? 5? One activation?)".

The thing is, the form revert isn't another activation, it's a detoggle. There's no precedent to having a lockout on detoggling a power (I'm not even sure it's possible in CoH's engine). The closest is Supremacy 'pulsing' every few seconds, which for Kheldians would be the toggle refreshing a constantly expiring 'form' buff that decays every three seconds or so. With that approach, the Changeling exploit could be plugged by reworking the form toggle to pulse a buff every few seconds instead of being on-or-off. If locking a toggle from being disabled were to become possible in the engine, I'd like to see that tech also applied to the Hybrid Incarnate togglel; can't tell you how many times I've wasted it with an accidental long press or double-tap and had to wait another two minutes for it to refresh.

Tidge's point was more to the structure of the archetype than the alignment that it initially launches with (and the one for which its epic-exclusive missions are attached). Arachnos Soldiers start with a basic power selection like any other archetype (one that plays similarly to a Sentinel, if you follow a normal power progression), and then unlock a slew of other choices when they have to pick their 'elite' specialization at level 20(ish?). The latter set leans into adjacent roles, such as Stalker (Bane) or Tanker (Crab) for the Soldier, but the player can still take abilities from the original list as well if they've got the powers to spare. From a Kheldian standpoint, building the archetype that way would have you start with the 'human' form base set (again, Sentinel-esque), with the elite track being the Nova ranged blasting or the Dwarf melee tanking respectively. As a rough draft it might make the archetype easier to build effectively but it'd lock out three-form Khelds... and that's problematic. Of course, if there were also Kheldian Patron power pools (Nova and Dwarf), you could minor specialize in the form you don't prioritize or even double-down on the one you picked. Any way it plays out, though, the forms would need to be toggles that modify shared powers rather than lock and unlock a bunch of powers, both for the enhancement slots and for keybinding.

With regards to this, I've been picturing a Scrapper crit sort of thing. You use the Eyebeam attack. It hits once if you're in Dwarf form, twice if you're in Human form, and three times if you're in Nova form. Then you use the overhand strike attack. *It* hits once if you're in Nova form, twice if you're in Human form, and three times if you're in Dwarf form. Yeah, you lose out on being able to slot the attack differently when you're in one form or the other, but you'd also benefit from not being as enhancement-slot starved and it'd be a BIG buff to Human form Khelds.

It's actually my global handle (but the character name was taken on Torchbearer)! Back on live, my Saturday Knight was an Earth Armor Super Strength Tanker in a business suit wearing a horned helmet. The character evolved from there but that's what I picture whenever somebody else mentions the name.

Aww man, Provoke as a PBAoE would actually be a novel function for the power! Then it wouldn't just be 'Taunt, but worse because there's a hit roll'. (I'm on board for an icon targeting fix, mind you; I'm only dreaming of more interesting Presence Pool starters... like Pacify as a PBAoE with its same hit roll. In other words, +1, this is a bug I've experienced as well)

Absolutely. I wasn't trying to clobber the suggestion; rather I wanted to puzzle out the technical hurdles that might be in the way right now. Knowing the hurdles can help plan a way to jump them.

That's incorrect, you can do two blueside tailor missions and two redside tailor missions and unlock all four slots. I've done so on many characters. I've never once had to use Halloween salvage to unlock Slot 10.