Coyotedancer

I say we allow it... On any map with stairs. Especially the newer, Praetorian-style lab maps. NPCs just do NOT handle those things well.

Most of us who are devoted to the red side on Ev tend to be solos, I suspect.

Something something Great Minds. Something something Thinking Alike. My "current project" is a solo-only red-side Stalker, too. Goldwing Raven started out in Praetoria, but is currently stabbing her way through the Isles. (She's DualBlade/Energy) Red Side is Best Side. 👍

CoyoteNephew would *love* that. 😆

How well is your flight power enhanced? I don't know for certain if it's still the case now, but back in the day the drift effect seemed to taper off a lot the higher your level and the better enhanced the Fly power was. I have vague memories of testing it on Palrah and Ty, my winged tank siblings, with a tiled floor in a base. ("So, just HOW MUCH driftier *is* lower-level and less-enhanced Ty's flight than her big brother's? One tile more drift? Two? Holy smoke... Three tiles." It was a non-trivial difference. 😆)

Sentinels seem to get lost in the crowd on full teams... That's why I tend to think of them as characters that are best suited to smaller, 3-4 character teams or running solo/duo. They're more fun that way. As for what else feels a little unneeded at end-game... I'd agree with Control-types, rather Controller-flavor or Doms, myself. Your set-up time can take longer than the spawn lasts, depending on the powerset. Some Support-types seem more useful than others, too. While I don't expect to ever hear any OHNOs when people see my Kin/Electric or Time/Dark Defenders on a high-level smash-team list, I would fully expect to get a skeptical look if I brought a Force Fielder,

If I were going to design City of Dark Souls... One game, one setting... Everyone can go everywhere. Paragon, the Isles or whatever. Faction-based open-world PvP with resource looting... If you're out there, you're potential prey. Because people want your stuff. No player marketplace... You want gear? You grind for it or you loot for it, and you hope you get lucky. Obviously no P2W goodies or buyable temps... Though there might be regular vendors for basic SOs and such. No XP or drop bonuses... You wanted to "earn" everything the hard way, right? The "players debuffed/enemies buffed" Ouro challenge settings are basically Always On. The goons are out to eat your face. I'm not sure I'd ever actually play that game. My feelings on PvP are mixed and If I want a Seriously Frustrating Game experience plenty of those already exist. But hey, it might be interesting to tinker with once in awhile. Something like a Cuphead in spandex.

I've never enjoyed clubbing or standing around in some bar out in the Real World, so I can't really say I was surprised to find out that I don't care for it in-game, either. 😝 Personal introversion aside, the "BarP Scene" on Ev has honestly never seemed all that open or inviting, anyway. The impression I've gotten is that it's basically still as closed-group based as any regular roleplay SG. The participants are just meeting up with the rest of their Usual Group in a more public setting. LIke those SGs, if you're in the group, you're involved with the group. If you're not? You're scenery.

Ha! FlyingCodeMonkey would not approve. 😆

Lumi can borrow my spike heels.

And you kill the game for soloists who aren't the "whatever-thing" that's required for those gimmick mobs, along with making it impossible for small teams who don't happen to have matching members, either. "Bring anything and it'll work" is one of City's biggest strengths. Adding mobs that require particular ATs or power types shoots that in the foot. I don't think that's a great approach.

There are still actual newbies out there... My nephews and their mom have only been playing for a few months. Watching them play and learn their way around the game and its systems is one of the reasons I feel like I have to keep reminding people here that the forums really aren't a flawless reflection of the game. Sure... it's all easy-peasy old-hat to *US*. Most of us are vets who know exactly what we're doing, because we've done it a few hundred times before. But out in the non-forum-regular game? Things are different.

You can always exemp and run with mid-level teams... That's what I built my support characters to do, since the end-game types don't really need them. 'No Judgements or Destiny buffs to worry about when you're going after the Envoy of Shadows or such.

Another fun, personally-held one that I was just reminded of... Not everyone who has the (OOC build-defined) iPowers is actually an (IC character-fluff-defined) Incarnate. My main, for instance, isn't some goddess-like being infused with power from the Well of the Furies. She's just a very talented magician who had the academic discipline and dedication to her craft to put together a couple of seriously bad-ass spells. Her Clarion is defined IC as a warding ritual.

The Monkey is wise. The game does have a very different tempo and feel when you running solo/duo or on a 3-4 member small team. If it feels too easy for you with an 8-character kill-squad, trying with a smaller group really might be worth a try.

I'm reminded of playing a Peacebringer back in the Live days... "Could you maybe NOT bring the squid, Bright? No. You can't bring the big, stompy one, either. No seafood! Go get a Real Character!" 😝

Nothing is forcing you to use the quick travel zone teleporter... You're perfectly free to ignore it completely. You don't even have to put it on a power tray. Me? I love the silly thing. *BAMF*ing around the City or the Isles is fun, and it certainly makes getting your friends or your PUG-team together much less of a grump-inducing wait-fest than it was in the old days. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd rather be punching robots, blasting animate mushrooms and covering fascist goons in inky black tentacles than standing around waiting for Comrade X to get back from the far end of Crey's Folly and Surfer Girl to figure out which train line she needed to take to get from South Steel to Talos to catch the ferry to Peregrine.

'Lots of interesting ideas here... Some of which would absolutely ruin the game for solo players. (It's not ALL ABOUT THE TEAMZ!!1!, guys-) Others make the assumption that everyone and their sister is running a top-end powerhouse build. (No, the entire population of Homecoming isn't made of powergaming min/maxers in spite of that being how forum regulars tend to play-) It's important to keep those things in mind, and to design difficulty options with an eye towards making those settings *optional* rather than the default. Also, endlessly grinding the same few iTrials over and over and over and over and over again, on every single alt, until you were sick to death of seeing them to unlock Incarnates was never "fun". It was tedious. After awhile, a fair few of us "back in the day" came to actively hate it. Getting rid of that ridiculous End-Game-Raids-Or-Else business, and making the solo path to incarnating characters reasonable was one of the best changes that's been made. Personally, I would argue strongly against ever seeing that mandatory iTrial crap return to the game, rather for new iToys or the old ones.

We'll have to agree to disagree about it, I guess... But honestly, I really do think you were courting disaster there. Unrequested critiques just aren't always going to go over well. This writer's response wasn't great, but it's also not surprising.

You're making a lot of assumptions there. People post test arcs and "just f-ing around with interface to learn how it works" missions all the time with no intention for them to be played by anyone else, much less reviewed by a self-appointed content critic. (I watched my nephew do it a few weekends ago. He didn't even know how to name his contact. I suspect that little test mission is still live, just as one example.) I would also be willing to bet, based on their reaction, that they had no clue the arc was tagged with anything about wanting feedback. They obviously didn't. I'm faulting you for thinking that your opinion ought to have mattered to this person, and that as a result you have a right to be offended when it didn't.

Yep. I typically put them in Stamina and Physical Perfection, too. Multiple PerfShifter procs are Love.

Hmm. I know you want validation, GG. You want us all to read your story, nod and agree on how much of an asshole that writer was. (And yes, they definitely could have handled things better-) But I can also see why they got salty with you. They didn't ask you to critique their choices. They didn't put out a call for people to proof their arc. They didn't ask you to challenge their mistakes. They didn't solicit your opinion. You just jumped right in there in AE Critic and Copy Editor-mode, all on your own and without an invitation, and you expected them to be grateful for having been given your attention. That's like walking into a minefield and expecting not to lose a foot. If you're offering corrections and critique when it hasn't been requested you're courting poor reactions. ETA: I will agree with reporting them for the one-star bombing, though. That's not a Good Thing no matter how ticked they are about the unwanted critique you gave them.

For what it's worth, I share at least one of those ideas with you, Take One. More than one of my Oranbegans has said something in-character along the lines of "The Abyss has paths to many places". 👍 Likewise the Void. (That's the name Kai and the others use for what City canon tends to call the Dark dimension.)

That sounds like something the Freaks would be all-in for.

KinMelee is a very nice and very underrated set for Stalkers. 'Gets a real build-up instead of the gimmicky substitute that Tanks, Brutes and Scrappers are stuck with. It hits like a sack of bricks, and Burst straight out of Hide is just good fun. ETA: If you're really curious how rare or common certain sets are, Blyz, have a look at this. It's a bit over a year old now, but it's an interesting snapshot of what's been built character-wise, and what gets played to 50.