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I like the red side content a LOT more than blue side: Contacts keep you in the same zone, generally Unlockable contacts are somewhat natural Writing is better The zones are more creative (I'm not going to revisit claims involving players feeling like they lack agency, done that elsewhere) But I play more blue side, because PUG. The things about Red Side that irk me: In-zone travel is more difficult This is a direct outcome of the clever zones, but it is annoying to (effectively) require a flight power for several of the zones (Mercy, Grandville). Several arcs (or ideas) just sort of dead-end or are side-stepped or are otherwise difficult to understand what is going on in the lore. For example... All these years later and I have no idea what is going on in Nerva, and I feel like Sharkhead has more secrets. I miss not having a nonAbyss Hazard Zone. I recognize that Blue HZ are generally seen as failures, yet I feel like and under-the-mountain zone had potential.

My initial reaction is that this feels like it could only be a problem for players that have either "too much" or "not enough" of whatever. If the former: Those players already have enough, why make it easier for them to accumulate MOAR? INF can get most anything in the game, and transferring (enough) Inf is trivial. If the latter: I can totally see how it would be annoying to have a small amount of stuff that you want to transfer to another server or another character without using email, SG base, whatever... but trust me: if you intend to stick around in the game, this really won't matter. The in-character limits for a lot of the 'transferable' stuff are quite high, plus there are a LOT of slots in the auction house available... so unless I was playing as a complete pack-rat and NOT wanting to have a SG base for storage I feel like I could hoard so much stuff that I couldn't even imagine wanting to transfer most of it between characters... and if I did, it would probably just be enhancement pieces and I think I would use email. If it bothered me that much I'd use a SG base. I recognize some things that can be accumulated are intended to be difficult to transfer, but those are relatively few.

Would it be possible to add a tiny %drop chance to Monstrous Aethyr to the level-less spawns, especially in Croatoa? Ideally there would be some way to %reward the players on the team that actually defeats the final spawn that resets the Grim Vale event, but anything to get players to actually clean up that event would be welcome.

I think there is an unstated assumption that Supergroups and their leaders are constantly active, hive-minded cogs that all spin together as some sort of eternal machine that progresses in a uniform way towards completely agreed upon goals. That is not how it was on Live. As I mentioned above: get in a group with a more-or-less absentee SG leader, and you are working as a serf who can get kicked from the SG at any time... and you will lose your precious SG badges. Of course I suppose you can try to join another SG and instantly be granted all their badges? Yay! /s No matter what "good vibes" people are attributing to the prestige-era of SGs, it ultimately became a measuring contest.

A couple of empirical truths about a lot of "x8" content: 1) it rarely needs 8 players to complete 2) 8 players can get in each other's way There are reasons why this might not be obvious to a new player, or for a character with less than a full kit of enhancement slots... But players not huddling up on each other isn't a wrong play style for teams.

Reporting as a long time Energy Melee/Invulnerability Tanker from back in the day when Unyielding had the player rooted... As I recall, the explanation for this AI behavior (which was mostly fixed on Live, but not entirely) goes something like this: If the AI for a mobile has that mobile on a travel vector (with some speed value) of some kind, and that mobile then gets a Disorient effect placed on them, the game keeps the mobile going on that path. This is the "baked in" effect I believe. The OP request isn't unreasonable: but I offer some words of caution... I don't know that any such effect (if implemented) would really make a difference for mobiles that already resist such things (e.g. Hypersonic War Wolves) and the queuing effect of status effects might still not have the end effect we want. There could also be an issue with allowed slotting for Disorient powers... My take: This can be annoying, but it is far less annoying than it ever was... except for high-speed mobiles that already have inherent resists to slows and immobilizes anyway (War Wolves, Igneous Minions, etc.) which will zip away stunned or not.

Here is my Mind/Poison Build. I have fun.

I just got off the phone with my totally real Canadian BFF GM (you don't know them) and they checked the logs of the super-secret SG prestige that was implemented on the "page 23" (I was into it before it was cool) and I was informed that my SG "Flicking Fetch Plastic Heathers" has MOAR SG prestige than anybody else, and that it will be mathematically impossible for anyone to ever exceed our totals, because that is simply NOT how things work in this high school server.

I hear ya. There are easily dozens of things a SG can do. Not just for themselves and their members but also for other players: Hosting leagues, earning merits for Purples/ATOs, running arcs, going to PVP zones... I just don't see what "SG Prestige" is necessary to: I know the players and SGs that have the most impact on Torchbearer because I play in their regularly hosted content and team with them. I know the kewl base builders because they advertise and/or have invited me. I don't need to have some arbitrary "leaderboard" added to the game, and if this was added back to the game, I would never check it.

The entire SG could collect Prismatic Aether's and parade around in a common costume... Of course that has already been done...

What is stopping any SG from having "long term goals" now?

I certainly remember working for SG prestige back on Live, and then the SG leader went incommunicado and the rest of us were pretty much SoL. It isn't like we could take our prestige with us. In one case, it took sooo long for the auto-promotion to kick in so that I could do anything with the base, the salvage racks were bugged because they still had base crafting salvage in them! Asking for a return to Prestige is asking for a whole lot of pain we haven't had to deal with for four years of Homecoming.

Do you offer any evidence that people aren't already playing the way you would prefer, or evidence that people aren't already building bases like you want? If not, this has the "solution in search of a problem" feel to it. EDIT: I can go ahead and report that at least one redside group exists, with their own custom base on Torchbearer, that regularly runs content as a team. As near as I can tell we are doing it for the comradery and the love of the game.

Ah, the old "I don't want to deny other players anything, I just want more rewards for players that might already be playing the way I prefer they play" argument.

I don't understand. This request seems to be "can I have some feelz pleez?" There are plenty of badges that invite team play, if that is what you really want. Whatever this request really is, restricting base building is not a cool approach, any more than it would be to restrict costume options.

Setting aside the "Dark" of it all... Generally it is a good idea to help out the henchmen with defenses (first) and resistances (second). Aside from the various global unique enhancements that buff these when they are close to the Mastermind, it is rare that slotting the henchmen themselves for defense/resistance IOs (not counting those globals) is that valuable. /Dark has historically been a strong MM secondary because it offers two things, plus a third thing (in the era of enhancement sets) It offers PBAoE Healing, Defenses, and Resistances to support the henches It offers debuffs and controls to make the henches job easier. Dark Fluffy The Dark Servant should be able to take some of those global enhancement pieces... If it made sense you could probably just slot the Servant with an Accuracy IO and use the rest of the slots for mules. My own recommendations for the secondary lean to this (I have played lots of Dark, but not as a MM since live): T1 Tar Patch <- take it, 2xRecharge and use it all the time. T2 Twilight Grasp <- This is the heal for the henches T3 Darkest Night <- Eventually you want it, but it can be delayed. It needs no slots T4 Howling Twilight <- I love spamming this, but on MMs I'd probably skip it. T5 Shadow Fall <- A must take. This is your best power for protecting the henches. T6 Fearsome Stare <- A more reliable control attack than Howling Twilight T7 Petrifying Gaze <- I'm not a fan of late choice single-target Holds. If you take this, slot it for Accuracy, Recharge and Hold. Don't fool yourself into thinking of it as a source of %proc damage for a MM. T8 Black Hole <- I'd skip this T9 Dark Servant <- take it. It's good to have a pet (not a henchman) that will also try to spam heals. I'd recommend leveraging the Leadership pool as well.

I am very casual these days and only noticed a couple of things: The uncommon salvage market has overcome the pricing silliness. Thanks farmers! It took longer than I expected to sell some of my wares. I am guessing that it took some time for new players to get comfortable with slotting their characters.

I plead guilty to grabbing aggro from some other spawn, especially if the PUG has been advertised as a "Kill Most". Occasionally I get $#!+ about it, but I only do it if I know both I and the team can handle it. I will also branch off of large map mission where the objective is to "defeat all", again: if we can handle splitting the party. By "handling" I mean both being able to clear spawns quickly and survive spawns. I see little point in running off solo if the encountered mobs (by 'solo' or a 'pack' of players) aren't being defeated. Scattering mobiles can be a real time waster. I grok that sometimes people aren't in the mood for this, and I make an effort to pay attention to PUGmates to see if they are exemplared down, have a lotta slots, etc. so as to not have them be overwhelmed. But FFS, a team of 8 level 50s on a Penny Yin can handle an extra spawn or two (or more). I've never seen anyone run a Penny Yin with any actual limits on players, besides time and number of defeats. I've seen PY 'speed' runs that involved destroying doors in the police station, and 'kill most' that involved skipping all the Freaks on the way to Clamor! Speeding to the end objective is a different beast. I'll only do this if the team lead has said that this is the way, and I am playing a character that can actually get to the end objective without aggroing the entire map. Otherwise I am perfectly happy to hang back and defeat spawns. When I lead PUG, I always announce I don't mind speed if that is anyone's jam. The Manticore TF for example has a few missions in which I think the whole team would have to be in a very particular head-space to want to clear all those maps.

Let's agree to disagree on any potential value of changing this implementation.

I don't dedicate that much SG storage to Enhancements; it's four tables (1 for PVP/Superior, 1 for Superior/HO/DSync, 2 for commonly used sets) so what I do when a table has gotten "too full" and I don't have an alt that will eventually use any of the pieces is to have one of the finished alts hold the enhancements of a certain type. I don't typically stockpile Winter or ATO pieces because those will get purchased/crafted as needed (and they never "drop"). For example: I'm a fan of the Reactive Defenses and Unbreakable Constraint sets for just about every AT, so I try to keep those pieces available. When teh storage is tight, I have one of my "tanky" types pick those pieces up to free up space for things I will craft to pass on, such as ATO or Winter pieces. Extra "Healing" set pieces will end up with one of the more healing-oriented characters, etc. I also do this with Hami-O and Dsyncs, but I often forget who is holding those! I personally tend towards being a pack rat with certain %damage pieces, as well as pieces from non-PVP, rare sets that don't tend to drop as much (often because they only exist at lower levels). I can afford them on the market, but I take a peculiar amount of satisfaction in being able to kit a character from the stockpile.

With the Endurance costs for MM powers? No thank you! I think I understand the point, but except for the delay in being able to immediately apply the upgrades I am completely satisfied with the henchmen keeping their powers as I zone, pass through doors, or send them across the map to dispatch with something. To clarify: I try to take Leadership toggles to assist my henchmen, plus toggles for the MM to reduce incoming damage (via Defenses and/or Resistances) so I don't want to think about having two more toggles!

I think it is a shame that we can't "Ouro" to lower level tip missions! The writing in them is quite good, and there are a bunch of "mini arcs" that explain some of the game's side lore.

IIRC, @lemming has it right. I don't believe it is possible to buy a lower level TIP if you have leveled beyond its decade. E.g. Level 50 characters can only buy "level 40" tips in the SG base.

I'm enjoying the increased population (Torchbearer), with a small number of bête noire. Because they are so trivial, I shall list them! I'm witnessing a lot of patter (sometimes "bossy", sometimes less so) that reminds me a little too much of less enlightened times. For example: I'm occasionally seeing LFG calls and in-team chat for specific ATs. There is very little content that requires anything that even looks like a "balanced" team. I used to just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but with the upcoming rewards for "balanced" teams, I kinda feel like the game will soon be explicitly rewarding a type of behavior that tends to be exclusionary. It's been a PITA in zones like Kings Row and Croatoa to find "loose" spawns that were left undefeated by some other Giant Monster Hunter. When the GMs get buffed, I feel that the problem of people not cleaning up after their meals is only going to get worse... it does take a little extra time to make sure events are reset, yet it so rarely happens now,.. I want to believe it is some new player ignorance, but it happened before the big influx too. I worry that after an even longer struggle with a GM that fewer players will look around to make sure the event is ready for the next batch of players.