FoulVileTerror

Yeah. I have a long, long history of leaving things in RAM, rather than writing them to the hard drive by hitting "Save." One might think that I should have learnt my lesson by now . . . but somehow I just keep trekking on like a big ol' bag of derp.

It's at least possible to solve your first two issues no problem, Zepp; proof's in the pudding of Blind. The Power would be a single-target, which also happens to provide an AoE based on the target hit. Make that Single Target portion Autohit, and the rest based off of Accuracy. On top of that, the Autohit Target would have a magnitude suitable in turning a Boss in to said Pet. Where the challenge/question lies in is turning that Autohit target actually in to a Pet. Dopple code might be handy in getting it to work, with the target that gets Autohit actually instantly vanishing with no XP reward, and being replaced with a Dopple that mimics their appearance. The problem then becomes the Powers of the Dopple . . . Another option is to see about jury rigging some kind of code which straight-up spawns a friendly version of the target. Finally, and perhaps ideally, if the target can have their faction/alignment flag toggled to the player's side. We know that targets can switch from enemy to neutral/friendly (or vice-versa) with mission scripts, so the code is there . . . it's just a question of can it be piggybacked in to a Power. BUT . . . that -does- make me realize another potential issue: What if you cast this Power on a target who is meant to be used for a scripted dialogue or mission parameter. That could be more disastrous. Like, say you're doing the mission where you have to interrogate the D.U.S.T. Squad Leader in First Ward . . . but you just turned that Leader in to your Pet. That would likely lock you out of the mission and force you to reset it. . . . dang. Looks like this idea might need to be shelved after all . . . phooey.

It's on the Staging Shards right now: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22749-staging-patch-notes-for-september-29th-2020/ There are some other quality of life and backend doo-dads getting put in as well, so the Team would likely appreciate folks taking a shot at testing it tonight, if they can.

Nah, I was just curious to see where members of this community fell in regard to the issue. If the Homecoming Team use this thread to datamine that sort of decision-making process, I'd encourage them to reconsider. Better to use it as a venue to do . . . well, exactly what Cipher already did: Explain the importance of reporting bugs from the perspective of the Dev Team.

I always found Telekinesis and Levitate to be really out of place thematically in Mind Control. I rather feel a Psychokinetic Control Set would be an ideal Set to have those two particular Powers, and that Mind Control could focus entirely on effects that wholly inside the minds of your targets. Like . . . where's the Stun? Mind Control could totally have used a Single Target Stun. But, ship has sailed and all that, so . . . yeah. I guess @Patti's idea works and respects the Cottage Rule? Just give Mass Confusion some kind of permanent Pet aspect to it, and that should help dramatically.

Thanks, @Buckets. When you say "technical stuff," do you mean specifically regarding the server hardware et cetera, or technical stuff in a broader context? Which technical fields are your area of expertise here, so we can ensure the questions are appropriate?

@Healix . . . . . . why you do this? Why? Whyyyyy . . . !

I hear you on that one, @InvaderStych! Pretty much straight from when I first started playing during Issue 0, I always wanted a way to flag my main as True Undead. The game already has that flag in the files, and even though it would mechanically mean a penalty in the form of certain attacks dealing extra damage, I would gladly make that sacrifice to have the dialogue and narrative content adjusted appropriately. It's a daunting prospect, but I think we could try to get a community project running to comb through all the dialogue and do some mark ups where such flags would be appropriate. Granted, considering how other community projects have gone . . . well . . . might need some encouragement from the Homecoming Team to let us know that it wouldn't just all be for naught. Might help motivation.

Oh yes, Almost forgot. Umbra Beast. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/19010-weekly-discussion-50-darkness-control/?tab=comments#comment-211986 Still applies.

Beautiful, @Number Six! Absolutely beautiful! Thank you.

I am curious to know more details about this "not good" in regard to the VisitedMaps formatting, if there isn't any risk of it being exploited with the Live releases of the client right now.

I'll try another format. Play as Villain. Complete a Mayhem Mission. Receive dialogue box with the choice of placing an NPC copy of your Villain in to a queue for the next Hero Safeguard Mission to be the "final boss" of the Heist. This NPC copy will work similarly to the Dopplegangers of Positron 1 / the Clones of Dean MacArthur's Story Arc. Player of a Hero starts a Safeguard Mission. They receive a dialogue box offering to give them a stronger challenge in the form of a player's Villain character. If they decline, the Hero just gets the regular NPC Villain which normally spawns. If they accept, they receive a player-made Villain. There's a lot more we could do with this as well, but this is just the basic idea.

Excellent question, @Troo. What -should- a Tier 9 be? Should they be "all that AND a bag of chips," or is the Tier 9 "just another Power?"

This way it can be migrated with you when you switch computers. If it's in appdata, then it's in a distant location you have to track down, rather than just copy-pasting your entire City directory to your new computer. I don't know if that's the reason the Team had to implement it, but it's the way I'm looking at it, and I appreciate it! Now . . . just to find some time to test it out on a computer or three . . .

I'm liking the changes to the Visited Maps data! Much appreciated!

Bear in mind that Recluse doesn't even need to enter in to it for Redsiders. There are other ways to get to alternate dimensions, after all. And really, if -any- Archvillain would hire Villains to go to the Rikti Home Dimension and cause mayhem, it would be Nemesis under the guise of some lackey.

So, Controller Pets . . . and Mass Confusion? I think Mass Confusion is the only one which needs a good hard look at, and that's mostly because Seeds of Confusion absolutely decimates it.

. . . I really HOPE she's not your mother . . . If so . . . I'm sorry. And not about what I said.

Clearly I missed a thing during work today. Although, not really. Already getting some messages in private about it. In any event, I have to say I'm EXTREMELY disappointed! @AerialAssault . . . Harry is CLEARLY PvP, and Ron is Suggestions and Feedback. Get your stuff straight! (Also: 0110010000110001001000000110001000110101001000000110001001111010001000000110010000110010001000000110001000110101001000000110001001111010001000000110010101100010001000000110011000110111001000000110011101100111001000000110011000110011001000000110011001101001001000000110011000110101001000000110011001100111001000000110001001111010001000000110011001101001001000000110011101100011001000000110001001111010001000000110011001100001001000000110001001111010001000000110011001100110001000000110011101100101001000000110011001100011001000000110011000110010001000000110011001101001001000000110011000110101001000000110011001100111001000000110001001111010001000000110010101100100001000000110001000110101001000000110010001100101001000000110001000110101001000000110010101100010001000000110001000110101001000000110010001100110001000000110001000110101 )

There's a comedic parody screenplay just waiting to be written on that premise, @Frostbiter. "We gave them life, but they wish death upon us! . . . mainly because we're hogging all the bandwidth."

In addition to @Greycat's idea; a Redside story arc about procuring Quantum Weapons slated for destruction in a PPD armoury/evidence locker, and then redistributing them.

My main is a level 22 Mercenaries/Traps Mastermind and I've made a point of soloing each of the Task Forces so far. The one which gave me the most trouble was the one with two Durays. Chasing down that teleporting sonnuvagun AND applying enough -Regen was hell. The Flames of Prometheus Strike Force also gave me a little trouble, but that was because I didn't realize that EVERY SINGLE ROBOT will bear down on you simultaneously if you don't defeat them along the way. I was speeding to the end of the map. Was a bit of a mistake, but I eventually pulled through and took down Positron (who was also annoying with that little green imp). Shivans and Signature Summons help a lot, and (as others have said) the Envenomed Daggers are huge.

Wonderful! Thank you so much!

The document has restricted access on it; I'm afraid I can't view it.

I agree with your assessment on treating children with kindness to foster a better life. But I suspect a true AI will not have a human-style sapience. At least not an accidentally emergent AI. -Maybe- an intentionally constructed one. I wish I could find the link, but there was this beautiful experiment where a researcher allowed an iterative machine learning program to modify a reprogrammable circuit chip to run through several thousand generations to try and reproduce a simple thermostat. The program eventually succeeded, but did so in a way that did not make sense to the researcher. The final iteration actually had two separate circuit loops which should not have been able to interact with one another. When the researcher removed one or the other, the entire thermostat failed. Only the two seemingly separate circuits on the chip together produced the desired result. The researcher's best guess is that residual heat from the inner circuit modified behaviour of the outer circuit. It was a truly fascinating read. But long story short: Computers, when left to their own devices, come up with "impossible" solutions. I fully expect an emergent AI to be just as "impossible."