megaericzero

The funnier point to this is that cutscenes aren't pre-rendered - they're emoted in real time by the mobs while the game arrests control of your camera. (At least, if nothing's changed since the last time I checked.) Players have planted themselves next to where Arbiter Sands will spawn with his platoon during the first mission of the STF (back when it was the STF) for a "cheekie selfie" while the team is forced to wait out the dialogue. Imagine someone wanting to see the cutscene only to watch the carnage of seven Judgment powers and a slew of other AOEs wipe the mobs out before they're even done talking. Meanwhile this person is forced to watch in horror like they're tied to a chair.

Good feedback and ideas. I've incorporated a couple into the OP. Here I thought I'd get more responses to the armor and melee sets given they're less adventurous (read: copy-pasted) but I suppose when you stick so closely to an existing template, it already comes with the benefits and baggage of the thing you based it on so there's not much that needs to be said. @Rudra: yeah, the idea with Sinkhole is you washed the ground out beneath the foe to create it; I've renamed it. For Flood, there wasn't a good term for "knee-deep/waist-deep water" and I didn't want it to just be "Bigger Sinkhole" so fell back on flood. With Ink Burst, I thought to have Liquid Armor also have a minor tertiary theme of your character being some kind of water creature (hence Hydrodynamic Body) but it's too much in retrospect. Plus the power was filler until I added Hydrophobic Coating; I just kept it for Stalkers since it seemed like a fitting power (it is a Smoke Flash expy). I've removed it and put Hydrophobic Coating in its place. As for Storm Drain, the PBAOE scaling endurance drain powers (Power Sink, Energy Absorption, Energy Drain) seem - to me at least - to be about creating a conceptual low-point of energy so that electricity/heat/energy flows to you via osmosis. With that in mind, the visual I had was one of those street drains that's been flooded over and just-recently unblocked, creating a whirlpool. (see visual) I've also given my thoughts in Alchemystic's powerset-recycling thread that there's a fuzzy line between jokingly punning and genuis wordplay, so calling it Storm Drain to go with Energy Drain and Power Sink seemed fitting both as wordplay and because you are conceptually becoming a drain for the endurance to flow into. @ZorkNemesis: I love the Fluid State idea and have incorporated it as Stalkers' t9 with a focus on defense and the no-collision effect to contrast with Scraps/Tanks/Brutes' stand-your-ground t9 Overflow. I'm glad we had the same idea with Vortex; it reassures me that the name, theme, and effect together are a good match. @Videra: Good points. I'm more out-of-touch with support sets as I mostly solo. What would you suggest to replace the t8 in Water Affinity?

Here's something I wanted to suggest: the gamut of remaining water-themed power sets, save for henchmen. We're ignoring the Manipulation, Assault, and Mastery categories because they'd all basically be children of these sets. Why are you suggesting four power sets at once? In large part so that we can give each set one or two overarching themes without stepping on each other's toes. For instance, Sonic Manipulation has a power called Sound Barrier whose name would proliferate perfectly as the smashing-lethal shield to a "Sonic Aura" or "Sonic Armor" armor set... except that the actual effects it was given are not that of a smashing-lethal shield so now if we ever get a sonic armor its physical shield will have to use a different name. (Yes, I do actually think obsess about things like this.) If anyone reads the thread and thinks "hey, you should focus on quality over quantity", I did actually. I've been tweaking each of these back and forth for about six months. They've sort of reached as good as they're going to get just banging around in my own head without actually talking to other people about it (hence this thread). They're by no means perfect but I do think they're a decent springboard. As far as the themes, at a glance I'd go with... Water Control: the flow of water Water Affinity: small bodies of water and things dissolved in that water Water Melee: water pressure and release Liquid Armor: properties of water (and/or other chemicals) The themes aren't meant to be absolute; just give us a theme to play towards with most of the sets' powers rather than each set looking like "I asked chatGPT for water-related terms and just picked random ones." There'll still be some outliers in each set. Why do a lot of your power names overlap or downright sound like ones from the Eco-friendly Powerset Recycling Thread? I mean... all-in-all I'd like to say it's because of simultaneous invention. Rooting the powers in real-world concepts and terminology will do that. There's still plenty of room that I may have been "inspired" by the thread, consciously or unconsciously. I tried to make what I thought were sets that distilled the aforementioned themes, whether they overlap with sets suggested in that thread or not. My bad if I did steal anyone's work. I will admit Aqua Strike down in Water Melee is directly copied in name at least. Now onto the power sets. I'll hide the detailed power info in spoilers boxes since the whole post is already a huge block of text and so people who just want to scan the power tables at a glance can. Water Control (Controllers, Dominators) 1. Water Trap (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage over Time (Smashing, Cold), Immobilize, -Jump, -Movement, -Recharge 2. Water Prison (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Hold, -Movement, -Fly, -Recharge 3. Flood (Ranged AOE) Foe Minor Damage over Time (Cold), Immobilize, -Movement, -Jump, -Recharge 4. Deluge (Location AOE) Foe -Movement, -Fly, -Jump, -Defense, Chance to Confuse 5. Rapids [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe Chance to Knockdown 6. Decompression (Ranged AOE) Foe Minor Damage (Smashing), Disorient 7. Riptide (Location AOE) Foe Minor Damage over Time (Smashing, Cold), Draw-in 8. Waterfall (Ranged AOE) Foe Minor Damage over Time (Smashing, Cold), Hold, -Movement, -Recharge 9. Undine (Location) Summon Pet (Undine) Undine Resistance [Auto] Self +Resistance (Lethal, Cold, Negative), +Protection (Hold, Immobilize) Drench (Melee Cone) Foe Moderate Damage Over Time (Cold), -Defense Dehydrate (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Minor Damage over Time (Cold), -Movement, -Recharge, -Defense; Self Heal over Time Water Prison (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Hold, -Movement, -Fly, -Recharge Power details and random thoughts on Water Control: Water Affinity (Controllers, Defenders, Masterminds, Corruptors) 1. Hot Spring (PBAOE) Ally/Self Heal 2. Seafoam (Ranged Cone) Foe -Movement, -Resistance, -Fly, -Jump 3. Mineral Bath (Ranged) Ally Heal 4. Humidity [Toggle] (Ranged AOE) Foe -Resistance 5. Cleanse (Ranged) Ally +Protection (Confuse, Disorient, Fear, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep), +Perception 6. Breakwater [Toggle] (PBAOE) Ally/Self +Resistance (All but Toxic), +Protection (Disorient, Hold, Immobilize) 7. Halocline (Ranged AOE) Foe Sleep, -Defense 8. Tide Pools (Location AOE) Ally/Self +Regeneration, +Endurance Discount 9. Tsunami (Ranged Cone) Foe Knockback, Disorient, -Defense, -Resistance, -Movement, -Recharge Power details and random thoughts on Water Affinity: Water Melee (Scrappers, Tankers, Brutes, Stalkers) This first power table will be the Scrapper one. 1. Aqua Strike (Melee) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Chance for Disorient; Self Build (Water Pressure) 2. Piston Punch (Melee) Foe High Damage (Smashing, Cold), Chance to Knockdown; Self Build (Water Pressure) 3. Drench (Melee Cone) Foe Moderate Damage Over Time (Cold), -Defense; Self Build (Water Pressure) 4. Build Pressure Self +Damage, +To Hit, Build (Water Pressure) 5. Jet Kick (Ranged, scales w/ Water Pressure) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Chance to Knockdown; Self Teleport, Consume (Water Pressure) 6. Confront self-explanatory 7. Water Vortex (PBAOE) Foe Moderate Damage (Cold), Draw-in; Self Build (Water Pressure) 8. Pressure Cutter (Melee) Foe Extreme Damage (Lethal, Cold); Self Damage (scales w/ Water Pressure), Consume (Water Pressure) 9. Hydraulic Press (Melee) Foe Superior Damage (Smashing, Cold), Hold (scales w/ Water Pressure); Self Consume (Water Pressure) Here's the other archetypes' power tables with their differences highlighted. Tankers Brutes Stalkers 1. Aqua Strike Aqua Strike Aqua Strike 2. Piston Punch Piston Punch Piston Punch 3. Drench Drench Drench 4. Taunt Build Pressure Assassin's Jet 5. Tidal Kick Tidal Kick Build Up 6. Build Pressure Taunt Placate 7. Water Vortex Water Vortex Tidal Kick 8. Pressure Cutter Pressure Cutter Pressure Cutter 9. Hydraulic Press Hydraulic Press Hydraulic Press In the case of Stalkers I looked at sets like Street Justice and noticed they still have to trade for normal Build Up if it's not just a thematic rename, even though things like Combat Readiness are "Build Up but better" because they play to the set gimmick. Ah well. Power details and random thoughts on Water Melee: Liquid Armor (Scrappers, Tankers, Brutes, Stalkers, Sentinels) The reason this one's called Liquid Armor instead of Water Armor or Hydro Armor is so it can also cover as Chemical Armor or Acid Armor. This is the Scrapper/Tanker/Brute power table. 1. Drenching Aura [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe Minor Damage over Time (Cold), Taunt 2. Fluid Shield [Toggle] Self +Resistance (Smashing, Lethal), +Protection (Knockback) 3. Rehydrate Self Heal, +Resistance (Toxic) 4. Solvent Armor [Toggle] Self +Protection (Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep), +Resistance (Toxic) 5. Hydrophobic Coating [Auto] Self +Resistance (Cold, Negative, Recharge) 6. Thermocline Armor [Toggle] Self +Resistance (Heat, Cold, Energy, Negative, Movement, Recharge) 7. Hydrodynamic Body [Auto] Self +Movement, +Recharge, +Resistance (Movement, Immobilize) 8. Storm Drain (PBAOE) Foe Minor Damage (Cold), -Endurance; Self +Endurance (per foe) 9. Overflow Self +Resistance (All), +Defense (All), +Resistance (Mez); [Delayed] Self -Health, -Endurance, -Recovery Here's the Stalker table with only the differences highlighted. 1. Hide self-explanatory 2. Fluid Shield same 3. Rehydrate same 4. Solvent Armor same 5. Hydrophobic Coating same 6. Thermocline Armor same 7. Hydrodynamic Body same 8. Storm Drain same 9. Fluid State Self +Defense (All), +Resistance (Defense, Mez), +Recovery, +Movement, +Phase (Special); [Delayed] Self -Endurance, -Recovery I haven't played Sentinels enough to internalize how their versions of armor sets differ. Sorry, Sentinels. I guess drop Drenching Aura/Hide, shift everything up, and tack Hydrophobic Coating/Ink Burst somewhere? Power details and random thoughts on Liquid Armor: And uh... I'm really bad at ending essays. These are just my thoughts on more water-related power sets. I'm looking forward to hearing from you guys. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Oh! Okay. I misunderstood. I thought you were speaking in direct opposition to the addition of henchmen-only costume slots that don't touch the existing 10 slots that players have access to. I see what you're saying now. Got it. I incorrectly read into it as a very impassioned statement because of the numbers. My bad.

I get that it's hyperbole but why so riled-up about this in specific? I'm genuinely curious. If they're added with the express purpose of being for henchmen and don't encroach your existing costume slots, you're not losing anything. You are literally gaining something at no cost to you. If they implemented it like that mechanically under the hood but it was never visible to you as a player, you wouldn't even know that's how it was. Like is it actually a concern to you, as a player, that the server store these hypothetical pet costumes in a different section of your character's file even if it doesn't affect the result and that you explicitly know that's how it's programmed?

Maybe we don't have to. Just playing devil's advocate for a second: VEATs were able to accidentally acquire a sixth costume as far back as i12. Dunno how the excess alignment-swapped ones behaved but, for the VEAT one at the time, the game supported the sixth costume. The UI just wasn't programmed to display more than five so you couldn't edit #6 at the tailor; it still worked fine and could be accessed with /cc. That brings up the question of how much more costume data current character files can store. If there's sufficient room, perhaps allocating n more costume slots for henchmen could give us the best of both worlds. Add a new NPC at icon/facemaker locations whose UI only looks at those slots (so you can customize them) and disallow /cc or /cce from switching players to them. From the end user's perspective, they now have "player" costumes in the existing menus and "henchmen" costumes in a new menu. (That said, I do still feel the costume route is too clunky and scales badly even if it didn't eat the player's costume slots, for the reasons I gave three posts up.)

Using costume slots is a creative solution but does present some concerns. The big ones, to me, are: Tying it to your own costume slots means you have to use more slots if you want henchmen to have multiple appearances. Not just in terms of your Jounin looking different from your Oni but if you want your Genin to look two different ways depending on which costume you-yourself are sporting. Henchmen also have different visual cues for which upgrades they have equipped. Not all are particle FX; some, like Thugs, change the actual outfits - arsonist gets a satchel, the enforcers put on trenchcoats, etc. Trying to incorporate that into character costumes would probably overcomplicate the customization process or impose cover-all VFX people would be discontent with, to speak nothing of whether or not it's even possible. -- Henchman customization would be cool. Moving away from other servers' implementation via costumes, perhaps power customization recycling existing enemy groups? For instance, defeat 100 Vahzilok to unlock them for Necromancy - cadaver zombies, mortificator grave knights, and an eidolon lich, selectable per-power. This could also address the visual cues for upgrades as the NPC models could go through different versions of the same enemies. Having the Cadavers go to Embalmed Cadavers with the first upgrade and Diseased Cadavers for the second, for instance.

Didn't see anything on the index page about proliferating Ninjitsu to Tankers and Brutes. Ninjitsu 1 Ninja Reflexes [Toggle] Self +Defense (Melee), +Resistance (Defense) 2 Danger Sense [Toggle] Self +Defense (Ranged, Area-of-Effect), +Resistance (Defense), +Perception 3 Kuji-In Sha Self Heal, +Resistance (Toxic) 4 Kuji-In Rin Self +Protection (Confuse, Disorient, Fear, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep), +Resistance (Psionic) 5 Taijutsu [Auto] Self +Protection (Knockback), +Resistance (All - scales w/ missing HP) 6 Mind's Eye [Auto] Self +Defense (Melee, Range, Area-of-Effect), +Resistance (Defense) 7 Kawarimi [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe Taunt, -Recharge; Self Chance for +Absorb (per foe) 8 Quickness [Auto] Self +Recharge, +Movement, +Resistance (Recharge, Movement) 9 Kuji-In Retsu Self +Defense (All*), +Resistance (Defense), +Recovery, +Movement; [Delayed] Self -Endurance, -Recovery * differs from the original which only gives melee, ranged, and AOE Power descriptions (for non-recycled powers) : Taijutsu [Auto] Self +Protection (Knockback), +Resistance (All - scales w/ missing HP) You are trained in multiple forms of hand-to-hand combat. These skills allow you to evade attempts at throwing you around and reduce incoming damage by blocking. This damage resistance is only available as you lose health but improves as your hit points decline. This power is always on and costs no endurance. (Decided not to recycle Bo Ryaku both so this could have a scaling resistance instead and because the term is more familiar to me.) Mind's Eye [Auto] Self +Defense (Melee, Range, Area-of-Effect), +Resistance (Defense) Your ninja training grants you a level of combat awareness on par with futuresight. Your defense to all types of attacks - melee, ranged, and area-of-effect - is permanently increased. Your experience also grants you resistance to having your defense reduced. This power is always on and costs no endurance. Kawarimi [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe Taunt, -Recharge; Self Chance for +Absorb (per foe) Using misdirection techniques allows you to trick your opponents mid-combat. While this power is active, nearby foes will be forced to focus on you but will be unsure where to aim their strikes, effectively reducing their attack rate as they hesitate to attack. Enemies also have a chance of attacking a body double which will absorb the damage for you. This chance increases as more foes surround you, allowing you to exploit the chaos, for up to a total of 10 foes. Recharge: Moderate (In terms of visuals, I don't know if a constant "afterimages" vfx like the ones Dual Pistols creates are possible, since I assume they are hard-coded to the attack animations rather than dynamically imitating the character's movements. That said, it would be pretty cool if possible and of course should come with a no-fx option as well.) Not sure how balanced this would be for tanks and brutes. Ninjitsu is already a distant relative to Super Reflexes but trades raw defenses and multiple scaling resistances for utility powers, and is originally used on an archetype not meant to draw aggro (Stalkers); this version may give up too many of those aspects without reclaiming enough of what it gave up from SR to properly absorb alpha strikes.

No strong opinions on the secret lair; I probably wouldn't use it if it means badguys (or good guys) are going to harrass me about it. The idea does just seem like bases with more steps / less control. The souvenir contact/display idea seems like it'd make for an interesting end-of-arc mission, though - having the game scan your character and populate a museum map instance with relevant items and/or contacts.

IIRC it's that the auction house isn't its own thing; it's a sub-function of the zones. Each zone - like Kings Row, Grandville, and Pocket D - has to create and maintain its own separate auction house, then the maps have to sync with one another. It's already janky and hardware intensive doing it for all publicly-accessible areas, hence things like lag and trouble fetching recent prices, so having any or every mission and supergroup base load their own auction house for the hundreds or thousands of players online would vastly compound the issues.

Erm, I think you're misunderstanding or overcomplicating it. In the hypothetical, we have two or three zones. Using the GC example, we have original Galaxy City for level range 1-5, Destroyed Galaxy City for (let's say) 25-30, and New Galaxy City for 50+. When you meet whatever trigger is used - whether that's simply entering DGC's level range, setting foot in the zone, touching its first zone-related storyarc, or whatever else is considered the best indicator of crossing the threshold - your character earns an internal flag telling the UI to, from now on, display "Echo: Galaxy City" for original GC's loading screen and name listings (player search, etc.). Then when you reach the trigger for NGC to be your "current" version, the game puts another flag so that DGC now displays in the UI as "Echo: Destroyed Galaxy City" in the same way. It's a cosmetic change and only affects your screen. Original GC is still, for all intents and purposes, original GC - contacts, enemy spawns, amenities - it's just labeled "Echo:" and that's fine because, to you, you're time-traveling to it via Ouroboros. Anyone you meet there - NPC or player - is in your past. Any newly-rolled player characters you meet or team with there still see it as Galaxy City (no "Echo:") because that's their present-day. No need to phase anything, no need to impose a "YOU ARE SEEING THE WORLD FROM MISSION-HOLDER'S PERSPECTIVE" warnings. [insert Standard Code Rant here] From there, just make sure missions above the trigger level range never send you there, same as it is now. Remove the zone's listing on the tram if you want or slap an Ouroboros logo next to it to go with the prepended "Echo:" in its name.

Er, right. That's why I mentioned in the next paragraph protecting people's immersion by having the game flag "older" versions of zones as echoes in name once your character touches content that progresses their stories. We already have the in-game lore (handwave-y as it is) that Ouroboros is giving you the ability to visit via the pillar. I'm eminently aware. My whole post was a hypothetical on an alternate way to have implemented this stuff, presuming that version would be no jankier than what we have now; it wasn't an actual suggestion to retcon the Altas/Mercy streamline storyarcs from how they are now. I never intended to imply Galaxy would or should be rebuilt nowTM. Just talking about if-and-when. Whether or not (and how) Boomtown and Faultline progress is another matter. Since you mention it, though, I can see Overbrook taking a lot longer to rebuild even if it's fully funded given the sheer depth to which the bedrock is shattered. Most of the zone is basically a bowl of loose rocks twice the height of skyscrapers.

Just thinking out loud: Since the old "levels = time" progression standard was abandoned later in the game's life back on live (and understandably so - I'm not saying it was an intrinsically bad idea but I do think the original devs gave up the ghost way too thoroughly and too easily), I wonder what it would've been like if the they had treated some of these zone revamps/repurposes as alternate zones instead. For instance, having Galaxy City (what is now an echo) remain the same and instead adding Destroyed Galaxy City in the mid-range (teens-20s?) with Neo Galaxy City at endgame - all as separate zones. Similarly, leaving Dark Astoria (now echo) as-is and adding Darker Astoria (current DA) as its own zone. Heck, lump the newer Atlas and Mercy stories as content in the same level range as Destroyed GC but have them in AP/MI at that higher level range with phasing instead - the old Atlas and Mercy being the same for starting heroes/villains and the newer arcs with the Arachnos/Longbow invasion taking place when the characters return to these zones later in their career. In the case of being able to go backwards on a zone's timeline (eg: visiting GC after playing through DGC content), perhaps having a character flag that changes the loading screen and other display elements to "Echo: Galaxy City" and removing it from things like the transit line until you have the Entrusted with the Secret badge. Then when you get to Galaxy City 2: Electric Boogaloo, it flags Destroyed to also have the "Echo:" prefix. The separate zone idea could work with respect to the thread topic. As of current, you can't revisit the destroyed Galaxy as a zone and the Shining Stars arc is pretty low level, so no continuity concerns with adding at least a fully-rebuilt Galaxy as its own zone.

Might I introduce you to Peacebringers and Warshades? Granted they have less hit points than a Scrapper.

Er, yes. That's why I mentioned it. I use two monitors and play in windowed mode.

FWIW, Windows takes a screenshot with Windows + Print Screen and dumps it into a Screenshots subfolder under Pictures. If you run the game in full-screen (and don't have multiple monitors), it's effectively the same as the game doing it, just under a different directory.

A wily trickster that will go unnamed got me to spill the beans early on my objectively awesome power set idea that I was planning on posting today - Plot Armor. Not to fear. As I am an individual of unparalleled creative prowess and strong balance sense, I was able to whip up another much-needed set! Namely, Market Manipulation People are always arguing about controlling the market and whether or not new players will be able to understand and utilize it. Now, everyone can! Sure, it's only available to Blasters. Aren't they in need of more secondary sets anyway? Mastermind sets purportedly take three times as much effort to make as any other set so that means they have like 21 primaries' worth of value already. Forget them. This set adds value in more ways than one. It is another set with a unique and non-origin-specific theme, it has the builder-spender set gimmick, it allows you to access the market in missions, affects your reward drops through combat, inflicts self-debt to offset the new explore badge patrol XP, and it even lets you steal INF from other players in PVP. Basically the only thing it is missing is being locked red side so people have to actually play villains! Now, onto the powers. First, the power table for a quick overview: Power Level Effect Lock In 1 (Ranged) Foe Damage (Energy, Special), Immobilize; Self Cancel Transaction (All), Collect INF (All), Build (Stock) Short Sell 1 (Melee) Foe High Damage (Smashing); Self +Debt, Build (Stock) Insider Trade 4 [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe -Recharge, -Movement, Chance to Taunt Seed 10 Self +Damage, +Tohit, -Inventory (Enhancement/Inspiration/Salvage/Recipe), Build (Stock) Dump 16 (Melee Chain, scales w/ Stocks) Foe Moderate Damage (Psionic), Chance to Knockdown (scales w/ Stocks); Self -Salvage (Common x10), Consume (Stocks) Liquidate 20 Self Heal, +Absorb (scales w/ stock), Consume (Stocks), Change Market Sales Offers (1 INF/ea) Flip 24 (PBAOE) Foe -Endurance, -INF (PVP only); Self +Endurance (per foe), +INF (PVP only), Build (Stock) Crash 28 (Melee) Foe Superior Damage (Smashing, Psionic), Knockdown, Hold (duration scales w/ Stocks consumed), -INF Gain; Self Consume (Stocks) Hemorrhage Funds 30 [Toggle] (Ranged) Foe Minor Damage Over Time (Lethal), -Regeneration, -INF Over Time; Self -INF Over Time, -INF Gain; [Delayed] Self Detoggle (Hemmorhage Funds) Next up, in-depth power descriptions. We can infer from powers' effects what enhancements and sets are applicable. None of those Strength of Will "can't slot recharge" shenanigans going on. Lock In (Ranged) Foe Damage (Energy, Special), Immobilize; Self Cancel Transaction (All), Collect INF (All), Build (Stock) You immediately close your position, securing any existing profits and losses. All your current auction house entries and INF will be cancelled/collected back onto your character (or as many as you have room for). This bold play shocks your target for minor energy damage and immobilizes them for a time. It also has the added effect of forcing all existing damage-over-time effects you have on the target to end immediately, dealing the remainder of their damage all at once. This power builds one stock. Damage: Special Recharge: Fast Short Sell (Melee) Foe High Damage (Smashing); Self +Debt, Build (Stock) You sell a borrowed asset to smash a foe with some quick, heavy damage at the cost of accruing some debt. This power deals high damage and recharges fairly quickly but judicious use is recommended so as not to put yourself in a bind with constantly capped debt. This power builds one stock. Damage: High Recharge: Moderate Insider Trade [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe -Recharge, -Movement, Chance to Taunt; Self +Discount (Enhancements, Inspirations) While active, you leverage inside access to privileged information about upcoming corporate announcements, financial reports, and other market-moving events. This makes it hard for rival investors to navigate the market, effectively slowing both their attack rate and movement speeds. It also tends to sorely anger them if they find out it's you. Recharge: Moderate Seed Self +Damage, +Tohit, -Inventory (Enhancement/Inspiration/Salvage/Recipe), Build (Stocks x3) You seed the market with inventory, providing you with a large boost to damage and a moderate boost to your chance tohit for a time as well as filling your stocks. Recharge: Long Dump (Melee Chain, scales w/ Stocks) Foe Moderate Damage (Psionic), Chance to Knockdown (scales w/ Stocks); Self -Salvage (Common x10), Consume (Stocks) You sell a large quantity of common salvage all at once, disrupting the item's market value. This, in turn, causes psionic damage that knocks investors down as the repercussions spread across the market. This power consumes all stocks you currently have; the chance to knock foes down and the number of max targets this power can chain onto both scale with the number of stocks consumed. Damage: Moderate Recharge: Slow Liquidate Self Heal, +Absorb (scales w/ stock), Consume (Stocks), Change Market Sales Offers (1 INF/ea) You sell existing holdings to provide you with more liquid capital, healing a moderate amount of health. Additionally, this power will consume all stocks you currently have and provide an amount of absorb that scales with the number of stocks consumed. Recharge: Long Flip (PBAOE) Foe -Endurance, -INF (PVP only); Self +Endurance (per foe), +INF (PVP only), Build (Stock) You create a short-term price fluctuation to reverse the financial positions of you and nearby foes, thus draining them of an amount of INF and endurance and transferring it to yourself. This power also builds one stock. Recharge: Long Crash (Melee) Foe Superior Damage (Smashing, Psionic), Knockdown, Hold (duration scales w/ Stocks consumed), -INF Gain; Self Consume (Stocks) You plunge the market value of an item that specifically undermines your targeted rival investor. The sudden and severe loss of value deals both smashing and psionic damage as the target hits the floor literally and figuratively. This will also put a hold on their ability to gain INF as they scramble to recoup their loss. This power consumes all stocks you currently have and uses them to boost the duration of its hold effect. Damage: Superior Recharge: Long Hemorrhage Funds [Toggle] (Ranged) Foe Minor Damage Over Time (Lethal), -Regeneration, -INF Over Time; Self -INF Over Time, -INF Gain; [Delayed] Self Detoggle (Hemorrhage Funds) While active, you burn your own income to cause an enemy continual loss over time. Your victi-- opposing investor will continue to take minor lethal damage and be unable to regenerate their losses as long as you keep this up. This power can be toggled on for up to 60 seconds, after which time it will forcibly detoggle itself and need to recharge. Damage: Minor Recharge: Long In addition to the above, there's some room for other effects to be added like costume discount coupons, forced emoting, -- just so much stuff. What do you guys think? ..... I think I lost sight of the joke and overdid it to the point of not being funny anymore but still: Happy April 1st, everyone!

Ah, my bad using a special character! Thanks for fixing it. 👍

I uploaded a mod through the site and it's showing up in mod installer but with a blank name. Did I do something wrong? Its name appears on the site itself.

Psionic? Seems fitting for a cuteness overload.

The level of contempt people have about the new Striga arcs got me interested; I hadn't had a chance to play them yet but the sheer revulsion some posts have about them got me curious enough to dust off an old alt in level range and start this morning. I only had time to get through the first two contacts so far. As far as Oberst Straxt goes... what was the gripe? He's part of the 5th Column but his actual missions and dialogue didn't have anything offensive that I picked up on; you're just an errand boy picking up crates of what sounded like void rifle pieces. He could've been a Wolf Spider with the same missions. I saw something about Peebles in the thread so guess I'll circle back around when I get a chance to finish the other three contacts. -- The recurring suggestions in this thread to mark each villain arc as Rogue or [irredeemably] Villain and shuffling the linear contacts so they don't swap between the two types sounds good along with hopefully adding enough content to go 1-50 on one path or the other on a given character. To Rudra: I like how you reframe context yourself, in-character and/or as the narrator of your own story. It's a creative solution to "whoops, I took / have to take a story arc that doesn't fit with my concept!" and an extra immersive layer of roleplaying. -- EDIT: Okay. I finished the Striga arcs. Ragana and Orpheus didn't really stand out aside from the interesting alternate complete condition on one of Orpheus' missions. I'm guessing all the vitriol is reserved for the finale of Tatiana's arc. If it's that you're able - and only able - to do it as a rogue, I can see the complaint there. If it's about what you do, I would think that's par for the course of a villain (the actual alignment) - rough up the good guys, sew chaos, etc. Personally, I quite liked it. The dialogue in the Striga villain arcs as a whole were sometimes awkwardly scant and robotic but not glaringly so and the brevity is much appreciated. All-in-all a fun experience and I hope that villains (again the alignment) get more content like Orpheus' mission with the branched win condition and Tatiana's arc and dialogue. (My sympathy to the rogues who wouldn't have gone in if they could've known they wouldn't want their character doing the last mission.)

On the whole, I agree with you. In terms of why it doesn't already, whatever dev(s) were in charge of power icons back on live seemed to be of the mindset that powers used primarily to buff yourself - even if they draw from PBAOE - should have the "self" designation (no ring). For example: Invincibility, Rise to the Challenge, Soul Drain, Energy Absorption (Ice Armor). It's interesting that the manipulation version would come with a ring. If I'm not mistaken, Vanden's icon fix pack gives these icons their PBAOE rings. Might be worth looking into.

Thanks for listening to the discussions and adding features to the renewed keybind behavior, especially /show_bind_all and /show_bind_all_file! 👍 -- If it helps, Starhammer, I find that the game temporarily overwrites the binds it needs for base-editing keys when you first load the base editor UI during a play session but that loading any bind files reverts them, so if you have a rotating set of bind files that switch off often and during base editing that may be what's happening. For instance, a bind that swaps files when you toggle a travel power for maneuverability while editing. (At least, that's been my experience in the past and I haven't done any substantial base editing since P7's release so it could have changed.)

Rudra beat me to it before I could take screenshots. Here's a pic of three different use cases where I fashioned them as a faux elevator, some cars, and - most fittingly - a blue police box.

Looks like it just replaces the skyline backdrop with a flat gray. I'm more looking to replace the reddish backdrop to the UI boxes. Thanks, though. I really appreciate the help.