CrudeVileTerror

I believe that if you're willing to implement your idea as a Mod, then it's already possible. It's been a very long time since I successfully did some texture swapping, but as I recall it was only marginally more difficult for City than it was for games like the Sims. The Tools board probably has the necessarily information. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/60-tools-utilities-amp-downloads/ As for adding new texture assets; we've already had the Homecoming Team add a couple of Tights patterns. I haven't poked at chest emblems specifically, but I suspect it would be largely the same. As to the limits: The textures are, I think, limited to only 1kb or something else startlingly small. The overall limit is something which the Homecoming Team would need to set, I think. There's bound to be an upward limit, but since the game was modified for 64-bit, that limit may now be significantly higher than it used to be. Or I may be getting my information confused. In which case, I apologize for potentially disseminating misinformation. OuroDev might be a good source for the information, though, if no one here is able to provide something more definitive.

I have a villain whose backstory is basically "murdered by a radioactive superhero." Does that count, @DoctorDitko?

Vomiting up blood is usually a bad sign . . . Well, now you're got me hooked! I'll keep watching.

Oh, and @Gennifer Bone? I'd be happy to provide you and your partner a little starting Inf. Just send me an in-game Tell, and I'll make it happen. /t @VileTerror, words words words

First, Welcome Home, @Gennifer Bone! Well, at least hoping that this place will feel like home, and many of us are happy to do our part to try helping with that! As Warpact said, the Everlasting Shard and its associated message board are officially the unofficial Roleplay area. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/40-everlasting/ There is also the Roleplay board itself. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/48-roleplaying/ There are many answers to your questions, so I'd like to ask you some questions in turn to help narrow down the ideal answers for you! Have you had any experience with roleplay outside of this game? - If so, what sort of roleplay? What did you enjoy? What did you find unappealing? Would you like your roleplay to be about socializing and interpersonal interaction? Would you like your roleplay to be about grand overarching series of storylines? Would you like your roleplay to be light and flexible, while focusing more on gameplay? (Please note: These aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, and you don't have to pick one and stick with it forever; you always have the option to switch things up later!) If you'd rather skip these questions, some direct answers to your questions: Meeting other roleplayers is generally done with the in-game LFG channel, while specifically signalling that you're looking to do roleplay missions. Or Visiting roleplay areas, such as Pocket D or the feet of the Atlas statue in Atlas Park. Or Visiting roleplay Bases/events, such as the nearly-nightly nightclub scene on Everlasting. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22726-current-club-list-for-everlasting-server/ Or Check out the List of Character Lists of several avid roleplayers, and see if any of their characters sparks your imagination. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18342-list-of-character-lists/ And, of course, there are the OOC and RP Global Channels in-game, as well as some other more specific Global Channels: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/1104-rp-and-ooc-global-channels-code-of-conduct/ /chanjoin OOC /chanjoin RP (Please note that Global Channels are a bit finicky, and you may need to review a guide on them to ensure you're getting the most out of their use.) (This isn't the best guide for Globals, but it's the only one I know of off-hand: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/20291-looking-for-a-group/?tab=comments#comment-231039 ) If you ever have any other questions, feel free to contact me directly in the forums here, or in-game through my main account @VileTerror Or, naturally, anyone else who volunteers to help out! Once again, welcome to you and your partner, Gennifer Bone! We're happy to have you with us!

Fair point on calling it too general to be helpful. Still, in my experience, sometimes it helps to state the supposedly obvious just for the sake of completeness, and to give others the opportunity to address it if it's based on faulty assumptions. I do appreciate having my own preconceptions borne of ignorance tackled. Preferably in a polite way, when possible. I was actually toying with making a little series of representative illustrations for exactly that sort of question you pose at the end there, @Monos King. While such drawings wouldn't necessarily be accurate, I think it might at least demonstrate the potential optics of the situations from these other perspectives, or at least my own narrow reading of them. Lemme see what I can draft up. It won't be a quick thing for me to do. And before I pop off to do that, I do want to say that discord isn't the only alternative to the forums. There are a number of less popular, but significantly more stable and secure applications which the Homecoming Team could use for official purposes. And I do want to stress; I'm not saying they should drop discord entirely. I'm fine with the Team using it as a vector for feedback, or with other players using it to support other initiatives. I'm chiefly concerned with it being a necessary component in the Team's recruitment, training, and development practices. THAT is where the T.o.U. issue is most severe. Then, on a personal level, I think it would also be nice for people to accept that it does represent a barrier to entry, even if their own experiences with it were smooth. I think some empathy there would do us all some good, and maybe encourage utilization of more open means of communication for peripheral City community endeavours. BUT that's getting quite off-topic at this point, so I'll stop there on that particular subject.

What about Skin Colour, @TraumaTrain?

I believe there may be a typo or two in your message, @wjrasmussen, but if I am reading your meaning correctly: I would gladly have alternative paths that take longer, so long as they're meaningfully different and not so long as to be inane.

Honestly, @Grouchybeast? Make that truly optional, and I'll put my signature on that particular petition. It frankly sounds rather compelling, and might actually encourage me to acquire Vet levels some day.

Oh YEAH!? WELL! Aggro her with a single target attack and kite her all the way to the ENTRANCE before attacking her! *crosses arm-analogous tentacles and frumps* . . . But in all seriousness; the layout of Meinst on the catwalk is rather annoying, and I agree that it could be changed for the benefit of badge-seeking players. I wouldn't mind seeing it improved as a quality of life thing, basically. The Cadaver Counter badge is already the most difficult to earn in Death From Below. It could stand being made slightly easier. But I had to not give you a Like, @Outrider_01, due to erroneously referring to the Vahzilok zombots as "undead." There are certain standards I must adhere to, after all.

There is something magnificently badass about this suggestion. uh . . . bug. I meant bug. . . . bug that is secretly a suggestion?

uh . . . I left to do some grocery shopping when there was a message in this thread that was asking me to clarify some things in my previous post. But now that other user's message is missing (and seems like quite a bit of pruning has taken place). That particular message didn't -seem- off-topic or negative in tone, so I'll try to address what I think I remember it asking from me. But if this -is- steering in to the realm of off-topic'ness, I apologize. I realize the title of this thread is "Dark Melee," but overall it seems the topic for discussion here is feedback regarding the feedback process and communication with Homecoming, so . . . When I used the term "Bad Actors," I was thinking of it more in terms of a generality for posts that foment hostility, rather than the individual people who write those posts. I don't intend to call out any one in particular. I just meant to state that sometimes people will do or say things which ultimately undermine the value of a topic, and that sometimes that conduct even appears to be intentional. Which circles back to the other point I wanted to clarify: Moderation. The GMs are working overtime to try and keep things civil and productive. However, as evidenced by this very thread, sometimes good and valid criticisms get caught in the crossfire. I don't know what the standard operating procedure is in those situations, so if what I'm about to suggest is already occurring, then . . . coolbeans! But with the number of posts that disappear, I am left to wonder if the users who made those posts are getting the precious feedback they need as to what prompted the removal. Are those community members being given any opportunity to pivot the infracting behaviour and edit the post? Does the Invision forum software even allow for that level of granularity for moderation purposes? After all, we in the community could use Dev/GM feedback to improve too, yes? So, if the tools aren't in place to facilitate that yet, but they -could- be developed and activated, then maybe that would be a good step in the direction of helping the rest of us to meet the Devs halfway in this process. Alternatively, if we could reinforce productive behaviour with incentives, that might also yield positive results. Granted, with the concerns of favouritism and elitism that have been raised, I could see some potential downsides with accusations being levelled against what some users may perceive as unfair treatment. Some people might suggest that these incentives be rewarded in private then. However, keeping that secret doesn't do any good to set a positive example, and the accusation of preferential treatment will become even MORE severe when/if a secret reward gets revealed. It is a rather unfortunate state of affairs when positive reinforcement could inadvertently yield very negative results on the larger scale. Given the freshness of wounds regarding years of secrecy, I most certainly empathize with that sense of pain and betrayal some community members feel. And given the context of that, I'd advise the Homecoming Team to be especially careful with conducting activities outside of scrutiny. As some call it: "Secrets that will eventually be revealed." The optics from that sort of thing just make for needless drama, and further feed in to the conspiracy theory narratives. The Devs should not take responsibility for the paranoia of others, but I do think they could at least do some things differently that will have the added benefit of mitigating and reducing that paranoia. And, at the risk of destabilizing it, the Forum Reputation system -does- provide somewhat of a window in to the collective values the community carry on a macro-level. But it's an imprecise system which can be undermined with little effort. Obviously it shouldn't be relied upon for anything truly meaningful, but it does at least offer a tiny bit of incentive. Perhaps some modifications to it can be explored to increase the impact it carries. Perhaps some Dev-only Reactions could be added, so the Devs have a passive tool to signal to community members when certain feedback has been received. Though probably not, since the whole Reputation system definitely has a LOT of detractors. It's just a thought. Maybe someone can spin it in to something better.

But Thanksgiving was in October. Did that explosion in Galaxy City also grant the Devs time travel powers? Impressive!

Signal-to-noise ratio is definitely a concern, and quite a valid issue to bring up, @macskull. As is the hostility and toxicity of certain people in these/those kinds of discussions. There are ways to address those, though. Clearly marked expectations of conduct (which we mostly have), with positive reinforcement of helpful behaviour and prompt reactions to negative behaviour can promote dramatic improvements. Again, yes, the time investment is a significant limiting factor, but that could be addressed with greater delegation of responsibility and training. Having an internal process for recruitment would help with that, I think, rather than having to access outside software. I know that people get passionate, and people can feel quite a lot of personal attachment to this game. Hell, I know I feel that way, at the very least! But I think we can push for initiatives as a community to help mitigate the time and stress costs bad actors impose on the Homecoming Team and the Devs. Like I've said, it's a two-way street. Part of that is for greater responsibility and a higher standard of conduct from us. I would like to think we'd be capable of it, with a little help. I suppose I'm an optimist in that regard. Or maybe I'm just too stubborn for cynicism and pessimism.

Oh, goodness. This thread was quite a while ago. Thanks for the reply, @America's Angel, though it is perhaps a little late given the timeline.

Again, I seem to have poorly articulated my idea. I'm sorry for that. But seeing your reply gives me the opportunity to address it, so thank you for that, @RubyRed. What I'm proposing isn't cross-posting everything everywhere. You're right; of course that's ridiculous. I'm asking for them to sit down and take the time to address these things on a fundamental level in advance. You're right, that particular image (the first time I posted it, by the way) demonstrates something of a bit of minutia. So let's go up a few levels in the process and address the underlying principles and philosophies where we can do some optimal good while minimizing the time investment the Devs need to give. As I stated previously ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/24273-so-dark-melee/?tab=comments#comment-295591 ), the message which Faultline posted in the Transit Feedback thread was really revealing. That's what I want to see more of. That's the way we can have the most positive impact with the least amount of busywork. At least, as near as I can see. Maybe there's an even MORE optimal course of action I've not been exposed to yet. And that's the reasoning I have for improved two-way communication.

Sorry, I appear to have been unclear. Yes, the multiple channels offer more opportunities for people to be heard. I don't dispute that in the slightest. I think that more voices and more opportunities to provide feedback is a good thing. My concern is when a Dev sends a message like: in -one- venue, while leaving the other(s) in the dark. Feedback without communication is ultimately pretty self-defeating. I would like to see the Devs take some time to re-examine their methods and establish some new best practices for improved communication. That's what I'm trying to encourage when I say that I want greater transparency.

@Bopper: Nothing has changed regarding the problematic nature of discord in the past 18+ months. My point is that the problems with discord are two-fold: Third-party software with a T.o.U. which should be triggering the spidey senses of Homecoming's lawyer, and the nature of -any- splinter in communication channels. The former point is cut-and-dry, from my perspective. The latter, I accept, is a prickly one. Reaching as many voices as possible is a good thing. But it's a double-edged blade, in that it also places more burden on ensuring that communication is matched in all venues where discussions are taking place. It's the same issue we had when GM Miss revealed that there had been weekly discussions taking place on discord for months before the forums were ever informed of it. And, again; yes! They're volunteers. They don't have all the time in the world. Hell, even if they were -paid,- they still wouldn't! But there is DEFINITELY a disconnect when it comes to communication going on. One that many people are trying to address. That barrier is what is at the foundation of so many of the complaints that are being levelled in this process. It's why I would honestly prefer we reduce speed in terms of development for a while and focus -on- communication. It's the groundwork that can lead to a more substantial and long-last foundation.

Well, the prevailing criticism that I've seen is that Joker was less of a unique experience, and more of a mish-mash of art and I.P.s. So, less standing on the back of giants, and more just pointing to the giants and saying:

I'd say it's probably a fair assessment in some cases, up to the point of browbeating, @RubyRed. People browbeat while having totally uninformed points of view just as much, if not more. My personal view, which I can't attribute to anyone else, is the dissection of decisions is meant in good faith. An effort to expose misconceptions and biases which would be otherwise invisible. Ultimately what people do with that information is still in the hands of whoever has the power and authority regardless. Hence why it's not a democracy, as so many people have suggested over time. As a recent example of what I like to see is what Faultline posted in the Beta Transit Feedback thread here in the forums recently as part of a discussion point that slid in to off-topic territory. As GM ColdSpark recently mentioned in the latest Weekly Discussion, we might be getting to see Faultline and/or the Devs' views on said topic expanded for a future week's thread. Faultline admitted the view expressed in the feedback thread was simplified, but already it highlights the perspective which is being operated under. Having that out in the open offers the rest of the community the opportunity to address where that perspective may be too narrow and a limiting factor preventing other solutions from being given due consideration. I see that openness as a very good thing. The use of discord is an entirely different bag of snakes. I suspect the unpopular nature of my point of view on feedback has already put me on thin ice, if not already under the frozen lake, in the eyes of some members of the community here . . . so I won't be getting up on a soapbox for that particular topic right now. But I would at least like to encourage everyone to consider the practical value which these forums offer as a direct solution to communication. They're incredibly robust and have a LOT to offer in terms of convenience and reaching other players, and without the spectre of third-party. The Clubs feature is particularly underutilized.

About the only thing I could say regarding Incarnate Powers is for the Devs to take it slow. Take time to be really careful, because the existing Incarnate stuff is a mess. In an ideal world, there would be a dedicated team to untangle the Incarnate content in every aspect it touches, but in the absence of that, time and care will need to be kept in ample supply. An alternative to Incarnates would also be wonderful. Whether it takes the form of the previously proposed Anti-Incarnate content, or just entirely new and original content which provides players an opportunity to engage with the game with long-term goals (ideally both!), then I think the Devs will be heading down the best path for sustainability and inclusion.

Yeah, Joke was a series of homages to some really great films. Quite a few people felt that watching the films it homaged were the better experiences, and if someone hasn't seen those films yet, then it would be worthwhile to make the time.

2859 now, eh? Looks to be an average of just over 4.5 hours a day since my last check in roughly 150 days ago.

A Lug- . . . -he- . . . -bu! of Banished Pantheon Cultists?

The Battle of the Lazies! If you're too lazy to click linkies, then maybe -I'm- too lazy to summarize! . . . Fine. You win. The Devs are exploring the possibility of adding Tip missions that will lead players to Exploration Badge locations. I thought it was only at the idea phase right now, but if this Tip Tab Change is related, then maybe they're further along than previously implied.