Mjolnerd

I think there's a subset of posters here who significantly overestimate the number of people who are perched atop a mountain of fantastic names, greedily hoarding them and willing to expend large amounts of time and effort to actively prevent others from taking their precious names away from them. (I suppose it's also possible there's a group significantly underestimating that, too.) I'm sure there are some, but I feel like it's a relatively small number. On an individual level, certainly a given name-hoarder is keeping the more names from the general public than an average player, but overall their impact is probably relatively small. They're a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the player base. And even if I'm wrong, even if most of the really good names are all being held up by a tiny cabal of players who have nothing better to do than hold onto thousands of names just so nobody else can have them, once the policy goes live they won't be able to just check a list of dozens of names at time and click through the creator as fast as possible for the available ones so they can park the "blank" in one of the tutorials, thus blocking everyone else from having that name forever. Maintaining a list of fifty, sixty, a hundred or more inactive names won't be something they can do passively anymore; they'll have to work at it. Keeping others from getting "their" names will become a constant hassle that they'll have to stay on top of actively, taking a significant amount of time, and frankly: good. For a lot of them, especially if they've got a really egregious number of names camped out, it's not going to be worth the time and effort, and they're eventually going to stop maintaining their vault, or at least pare it down to a more manageable size. Maybe not on day one, but over time -- a marathon, not a sprint. Probably a much bigger percentage of unused names comes from absent players, people who are gone and (presumably) never coming back. I know exact numbers are hard to come by, but... does anyone remember an article (can't find it anymore) that came out right after the news broke that the game was back, stating that there were so many people playing on Homecoming that if it were on Steam, it would have been something like the 3rd-most-popular game on the platform at the time? That's tens of thousands of players, give or take. Four years later, we've probably got half that number (if we're being generous) still playing on a regular basis. The other half? Gone. Most likely forever. Among them, the number who have any characters at 50 is likely vanishingly small. But they've probably got at least four or five non-50s that will never see the light of day again. Getting back those names, the ones that were played for a few days and then abandoned somewhere in the 20s and have been sitting unplayed ever since because the person whose account they belong to moved on to a different game years ago, is going to have a noticeable impact on the pool of available names. Will they all be A-plus names? Of course not. But some will. And frankly, we'd benefit from fishing a few B-minus names out of the drain too. Any improvement, however small, is still an improvement. Pretty much. I'm sure it's possible; in situations like this, almost anything is with enough effort and expertise. It's a really a question of whether the amount of effort and expertise required justify the end result, and less subjectively, whether making those changes would break or negatively impact other, existing systems within the game. I don't personally know enough about software development in general or CoH's code in particular speak from a position of expertise, but I am willing to Appeal to Authority on this one and say that if, over the course of a decade-and-a-half that I know of (and probably longer than that), entire teams of people who do know about that kind of thing, from Cryptic to Paragon Studios to Homecoming and Rebirth and Thunderspy and others, who were fully aware of the fact that many people were requesting the feature, chose not to implement said feature, there's probably a good reason they haven't. The horse has been thoroughly beaten. Thoroughly.

The Perfect Solution Fallacy: an informal fallacy that occurs when an argument assumes that a perfect solution exists or that a proposed solution should be rejected because some part of the problem would still exist after it were implemented. The policy will make it more difficult to name-squat, thus acting as a deterrent and reducing the number of players doing it. You're never going to totally eliminate... well, most problems in the world that stem from people being selfish or hostile or irresponsible or otherwise unpleasant, but you can minimize them and steer people away from the harmful behavior. Retail stores are never going to reduce losses from shoplifting all the way to zero, but the amount is certainly going to be closer to zero if those stores implement countermeasures that make it hard to do than if they just shrug and say, "oh well, I guess there's no preventing it." Deaths due to drunk driving are never going to go away completely, but that doesn't mean we throw laws meant to prevent those tragedies out the window and just let it happen unchecked. And releasing the names from accounts that have been abandoned isn't nothing -- it's likely a pretty significant amount. It's also something that will prevent the problem being compounded in the long term since (after the initial dump of thousands of names when it first goes live) names will be continually made available a few at a time as players naturally leave the game for a variety of reasons, thus making it easier for new players to get into it. If I'm just starting to play today, I create an account, I download the client, I pick out an AT and powersets and design the perfect costume, and then the name I want is taken, so I try another... and another... and another... and another... and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and they're all unavailable, then at best I'm being introduced to the game with a negative, frustrating experience that makes me less likely to enjoy my time with it, and at worst I'm going to decide not to waste my time and give up on it altogether right then and there. Losses in terms of player numbers are inevitable, so MMOs need to continually add new players to replace the ones they're losing or the whole player base suffers. Saying "sorry, someone else got to that name first, it's theirs forever even though they only took it halfway through the tutorial and haven't logged into their account at all in literally several thousand days, guess you're out of luck, n00b" is not the way to entice new people. Or to hold onto some of the existing ones, if we're being honest. As for appending global handles to names, it's been suggested for years, at least since Champions Online was released 14 years ago and probably for a while before that. At this point, I think it it were feasible in CoH's code, someone (HC isn't the only CoH out there, remember) would've done it by now. It's probably time for everybody to let that one die.

I mean, yes... but also no. Given how many people showed up when the servers were first opened up just to check things out and/or for nostalgia's sake, but aren't regular players now, plus the fact that accounts are free and everyone has an effectively infinite number of slots on every server with which to squat on names, there are probably quite a few names that were grabbed early on, played for a few hours to level 15 or so, and then never touched again. Are you likely to get that name you're pining for if a daily player has it? No, probably not. But if it's being held up by some rubbernecker who was just curious and uninstalled the client three-and-a-half years ago (so they won't see any in-game messages about it one way or the other anyhow)... maybe you will.

I play on another server, but realized just now that I've been squatting on a bunch of really good names on other servers for... a long time. Since launch? Close to it, anyway. I'm dropping the following on Everlasting: Adamant Eve Arch-Rival Ctrl Alt Defeat Daddy Longlegs Doctor Horizon Highway Star Madam Smasher Mother of Invention Night's Templar Psychosis Jones Yucatan I'm trusting you all with these, Everlasting -- make something awesome.

I normally play on another server and apparently I've been squatting on quite a few great names over here on Torchbearer for four-to-five years that I had totally forgotten about. I'm releasing the following: Ace of Spades Adamant Eve Arch-Rival Armageddo Auntie Freeze Commodore Core Ctrl Alt Defeat Doctor Horizon Epicenter Freak Accident Great Wall of China Mother of Invention Nemean Night's Templar Psychosis Jones Sentinelle Yucatan Don't make them go another four years without being played!

I play on another server and have apparently been squatting on a bunch of names over here on Indom for... almost 1400 days? I had no idea. Anyway, I released the following: Armageddo Ctrl Alt Defeat Daddy Longlegs Emperor Scorpion Hellrazor Mother of Invention Psychosis Jones That Handsome Devil Villainess War Widow Give them good homes!

The head on that design looks amazing! (The rest is great too, I'm just particularly impressed with the head.) I don't know why, but I always write off the Organic Armor headpiece as "too specialized" for whatever I'm working on and skip right past it. I should stop doing that.

I think you're right (or... right about being wrong?). Ultimately, "insane space genie" is not a concept that demands subtlety. So here's what I came up with. I leaned a little harder into "genie" than "space." Red because it suggests fire but is also associated with danger, blood, etc. -- hopefully that helps communicate "sinister." I also tried to get that across with things like the inhuman skin color, pointed ears, and face with strange markings and glowing eyes. The Reaper mask helps make it look a little less Mortal Kombat-y while also being loose cloth, which, again, I think helps with the "genie" look. That's also the reason for the gold wristbands -- Disney put some similar bands on the Genie in Aladdin, and while we're by no means beholden to that specific depiction of genies, stuff like that (and to a lesser extent, the bare midriff) acts as a convenient shorthand, telling a viewer "genie" without actually coming right out and announcing it. It's like putting glasses on a character to indicate to the audience that they're smart. Circle of Thorns shoulders hopefully further the "fire" theme, producing a similar effect to the robe in the original design. I changed the hair to Hard Candy because it covers up the "seams" between the mask, jacket and top well. The costume file has a Bio Plasma aura on the eyes, but I turned it off for the screenshots. I think it makes her look more dangerous and powerful, and the "lines" of that aura in particular flow really well the the pointed ears. Personally I feel like this looks a little boring in the editor, but with fire a lot of the heavy lifting as far as making the design visually interesting is going to come from the powers, whichever way you decide to go. So in this case I think that's okay. It will look more exciting in action. spacegenie.costume

Sigh. Right, I didn't realize we were using the term "east coast" to mean "literally sitting on the coastline" and not "in the general eastern coastal region of the United States which is typically referred to as the 'east coast' even if the particular town in question doesn't actually physically touch the Atlantic." Columbus and Syracuse aren't coastal cities, but are certainly located in the general region of "the east coast." Tampa is, if anything, an outlier because being in Florida might mark it as part of "the South" and not "the east coast" as it's typically referred to, which is often used as a shorthand for roughly the Washington, DC/Baltimore area and north through New England. (But that's assuming, of course, that it must be placed in one and only one of those two boxes, which we probably shouldn't do here.) Any other cities mentioned -- Chicago, Las Vegas, and so on -- were included as examples of other phenomena, such as settlements existing as military installations before their incorporation as towns, or being established in the relatively-recent past. Supporting arguments to the original point, not a repetition of it. Anyway, Atlantic City, New Jersey was founded in 1854. Orlando, Florida was settled in 1843 but not incorporated as the Town of Orlando until 1873, though it's 60 entire miles from there to the nearest beach, so I suppose it doesn't count here. If we're done splitting hairs, I think the point of my previous post remains valid: While unusual, it's not unheard of for large cities to appear decades or even centuries after the region in which they are located has already been settled and developed, and there are several real-world instances of that happening within the geographic area in which Paragon City is said to be located. It happens. It's a thing. The date on the giant coin, while it does point to some relatively rare circumstance or set of circumstances, it one that, in the context of the growth of America's eastern seaboard, could absolutely be plausible.

1823 actually places it pretty close to the founding dates of Columbus, Ohio (1812); Tampa, Florida (1823); and Syracuse, New York (1825). Of course, just because that's when the city was incorporated doesn't mean there was nothing there before that time -- a lot of major North American cities (Chicago, Memphis, Calgary) began at forts or military outposts. It's also probably worth mentioning that large cities do occasionally spring up long after the region where they're located has already been settled and developed: Las Vegas, Nevada and Anchorage, Alaska were both founded in the 20th century. Brasília, the national capital of Brazil, was established in 1960. Cancún, Mexico didn't exist until 1970 -- there's a good chance there's someone reading this thread that's older than it is!

There's a guide on procs per minute (PPM) here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/5290-procs-per-minute-ppm-information-guide/#comment-45849

Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be a specific date listed. Not that I could find, anyway. I'd propose establishing April 28th.

It happens. Glad I could help!

Sounds like you're running one of the double XP boosters from the P2W (or in your case T4V) vendor. Read the description very carefully.

Cones are great. Targeted cones are even better. But I get the frustration some have with them. Especially melee cones. You've got five or six nice fat targets all lined up, and juuuuuust as you hit the attack, they all shift ever-so-slightly to the right and now only one of them is in the area of effect (which happens approximately 97.945% percent of the time according to my exhaustive and rigorous testing)... but because it's an attack that could theoretically hit multiple targets at once, it's balanced for that in terms of either increased animation time, a raised endurance cost, lower damage, or some combination of the three. The end result is that you've got a slow, expensive, weak, single-target attack.

I've gotta say, "Warning Shot" and "Caped Crustacean" are fantastic names. Anyway, congratulations!

I don't think it is a thing. Sometimes leaders don't know what level/difficulty they're going to set the TF at until they see who they've got -- levels, ATs, Incarnate stuff, do we have a healer, do we have a tank, buffs, debuffs, controls, what's damage output likely to be. Lots to consider. Sometimes they even like to ask the team to provide their own input. Like I said upthread, broad expectations i.e, "will this be a speed run or a normal one?" should probably be in the LFG post (and "normal" should be assumed unless the post says otherwise, because that's why we have words like "normal" in the first place), but expecting everyone who forms a TF to determine and declare all the minutiae ahead of time is just being obstinate. And acting like that's what people are arguing for is also a classic strawman. Ultimately, if you've got deal-breakers and they didn't mention them one way or another, it's up to you to ask about them. Or to form your own damn team.

There's a saying, normally it's used in reference to customer service but I think it applies here too: If you have a bad experience everywhere you go, the common thread in all those experiences is you.

Regardless, it sounds like "run the task force" was the only expectation communicated by any party until after it had already begun. Anything else is just one person or the other making assumptions and then getting salty about those assumptions not being accommodated.

I kinda feel like there are baseline expectations for any team, and exceptions to those expectations need to be clearly stated. "Speed" (or any other special circumstance -- enemy levels, Master badge runs, etc) shouldn't just be assumed, on either side. Communication really isn't that hard. If you're forming a speed TF, say so. If you don't, then don't act all surprised when people show up expecting a non-speed one. If you're only interested in a TF if it's a speed one, say so. If you don't, then don't act all surprised when you join one and find out it's not.

My builds are all playtested extensively. I assume. By the people here on the forums who posted them in the first place. Probably.

P2W powers (and accolades, unlocks, etc) are all per-character, not per-build. BUT, as Snarky mentioned up above, switching builds puts ALL of your powers on cooldown -- so P2W things like, say, a self-rez power with a half-hour cooldown aren't going to be usable right away.

Any given character can have a total of three builds. They unlock automatically at certain levels -- the second one comes at 10 and the third at 50, if I'm remembering right. Respecs are per-build. One respec, one build -- using it will respec the current active build.

I don't think I've ever gotten a fire/fire anything too far off the ground. I do have a fire/radiation corruptor and a fire/earth dominator, both of whom I enjoy quite a bit, and lately I've been having a ton of fun with a titan/fire brute. They all have themes that the fire works as part of (respectively that's a nuclear reactor, a volcano, and... another volcano, actually), but no literal fire/fire combinations. Not personally being a fan of the "sometimes it's a sword made of fire, other times it's just fire" implementation of the melee sets probably plays a big part in that. Give me some alternate animations that are presented as just, like, punches with fiery fists or point-blank bursts of flame and I'd be much more inclined to use them.

I have created a new pantsless stalker named Undie Tectable. I feel no personal shame about this, but it would not be inappropriate for you to feel shame on my behalf.