CrudeVileTerror

Considering how many times I've accidentally changed my badge title, I can get behind this suggestion too! Or at least a way to "lock" Badge title, so we would have to unlock it again before we can change it.

Oof. Tough decision this time . . . my vote feels split.

I don't know the complexity and the potential for failure, but might I suggest a possible "Best of Both Worlds" thing for the drop-portal durations? Last 5 minutes as long as owning player remains in zone. Once owner leaves, duration is shortened to (90 minus time-spent-in-zone-post-summoning) seconds, instantly snuffing it out if the 90 seconds have fully elapsed by the time the owner leaves. Alternatively, maybe just simplify to 150 Second duration with a 150 Second Cooldown?

Silly @catsi563. We all share the same head around here. We're just residing in different parts of it.

Thanks for all the replies, @Jimmy. Especially https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/23372-focused-feedback-travel-updates-base-teleportation-long-range-teleporter-accolade-special-tp-powers/page/11/?tab=comments#comment-280370 That's the kind of stuff I really like to see: In-depth explanations as to the rationale behind decision-making, giving players the opportunity to address it at the heart. It's appreciated. And, for what it's worth . . . it sounds to me like you've got the Long Range Teleport stuff largely sorted. Any luck on possibly getting a similar level of breakdown for all the other changes associated here? I'm still scratching my head on the 90-second Ouroboros duration thing. And honestly? Earning Debt each time the command is used? SIGN ME UP! If that's all it took to have /enterbase remain a use-anywhere command, I would gladly accept. @Blackbird71; the exploit in question -might- be related to the occasional possibility to respawn at the place you got defeated while in a public zone, which occasionally happens when one uses their Base Mediport upon defeat. I've done it a handful of times and can't reproduce it, and it never seems to happen if I get defeated while in a mission. If anyone has been able to figure out a way to do that consistently with the /enterbase command, however, that might be considered a "serious exploit." Not sure that I'd agree, given how easy it is to revive with Awakens in email or the self Revive Powers from the Super Packs being so incredibly overpowered, on top of all the other ways to get back up with minimal pain . . . just saying: If that's "the exploit" . . . well, I get it, but don't agree with it. Could be something far worse, though. Just spitballing a wild theory here, so don't treat this as the actual case, but: Something which actually disrupts other players' connection to the server. If someone could weaponize the command to cause other players in a zone to crash to desktop, then yeah. That's straight-up a serious exploit which makes total sense that they wouldn't want to discuss openly. It would be nice to know where on the scale this purported exploit stands, though. "Minor advantage to the player" <-------> "mapserver armageddon." Anyone who knows the exploit; care to put a pointer somewhere on that line?

Cross-posting this, since this is technically the correct thread for it: Additional animations for all Teleport / Zone Transit Powers would be fantastic, now that we can customize these Powers. I propose the following: - The Arcane Teleport Animation, on loop for the duration of the cast time. - The Wrist-beep Animation, on loop for the duration (such as what we see with Ouroboros Portal cast and Team Transporter). - A Snipe and/or Assassin Strike Animation, or two or three. There are some good ones which could make sense here. A way to silence or change the sound effect for the 10-second Cast would also be hugely beneficial, assuming that sound itself won't be changed (although additional options are always welcome).

So, with the initial feedback that's hit, are the Devs considering anything particular for the next iteration of these changes yet? Any elaborations on some of the decisions that have been made up to this point?

I am now having visions of Hotline Miami.

@Blackbird71, I don't intend to be rude, but I'm not sure if this is the particular hill any of us necessarily want you to die upon. I think it's worth discussing the social impact that -all- of these changes are going to have, Ouroboros Portal included, but I don't think the blankets of "no one" is accurate in either of your statements. From a purely game mechanics standpoint; sure. It's reasonable to say that something like this would be busy-work that is going to be pawned off on social behaviour, and that for no small part of the community, that's all they're going to see here. And that also; yes: There are players(Group1) who find it annoying and disruptive when certain players(Group2) actively request the help of other players(Group3) for what those first set of players(Group1) find to be a design oversight. On the other hand, while it's been hit-or-miss as to what the game lore even -is- at times (good gravy do I need to write THAT essay one of these days), there is still a ludonarrative resonance which the overall game design attempts to adhere to. And "hit-or-miss" really . . . oof. It just doesn't fully and adequately engage with how many loop-de-loops have been done over the years. And in the three group scenario above, Group 1's players aren't inherently more worthwhile than Groups 2 and 3. It's perhaps not the ideal solution for any one of these Groups, but it does seem to be a fairly solid compromise (at least from my perspective). All the same, I do not want to discourage you from speaking about the feedback which you are most passionate about. If this really is a big deal to you, then by all means! Have at it. But I think we can maybe work on finding a more balanced solution than what you're proposing.

And now we're in the territory I was trying to talk about in that other thread earlier today . . . Ahem. SO! Five major points on the spectrum here. "It's just a game. Story is irrelevant." "The story must adhere to the game." "The game and story must be balanced." "The game must adhere to the story." "It's all about the story. The game is irrelevant." I think @Faultline is aiming for the middle of this spectrum, and commenting accordingly. I think @Blackbird71 is trying to address this issue from the "top" end of this spectrum. Do each of you think that's a fair assessment?

Control is in dire need of new Sets, but honestly . . . I was never on board with Wind Control. There are so many more interesting ideas for Control Sets as far as I'm concerned. @Tyrannical has a bunch listed in the eco-friendly thread: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/13484-eco-friendly-powerset-recycling/ To be clear, I'm not -against- Wind Control. I just don't think it's particularly interesting. If it were the next Set released after Sonic Manipulation, I wouldn't complain, but I'll continue to hope that something more interesting would get priority.

All Homecoming Shards, yes. Sounds like Yomo is on another -server- though. ie: Not Homecoming.

Can confirm: Congestion already happens at the Pocket D Base Portal on Everlasting. With the simultaneous changes of the Base Portal also being the -exit- from the Pocket D Teleport Beacon AND this . . . yeah. 100%, Pocket D should be an /enterbase free-for-all zone. Or at least the entire dance floor and bar areas.

I heard some people complaining about constantly having their movement stopped by their character spontaneously playing a confetti emote. Sounds related.

"as the Coming Storm gets closer." - @Faultline uh oh . . .

PC Master Race, et cetera et cetera . . . HEY! There's an idea! How about developing a way to play City of Heroes on mobile! *flees*

For me, from my perspective, it comes down to the fundamentals of communication and the very basis of what it means to even play this game. And from the get-go, it looked to me like the Homecoming Devs were raring to go! And I get that. I've been thinking about this game for many years too. I've dreamt about what I would do with the opportunity to pick up where we left off and see what I could bring to other players' enjoyment. It has shaped my views on game development significantly and experiences I've had with this game fifteen years ago have changed me as a person. Yet it seems the lessons I learnt from analysing this game are different from the ones the Homecoming Devs took. Not going to say either are right or wrong, mind you. Where I think they faltered, however, was at the starting line. I believe that threads like this one should have been the first order of business. Research in to who the players are and why they play. Deep dives in to the fundamentals of what sort of decisions were made with the Legacy Devs for retail/profit reasons. Exposing the guts of the game to everyone, so we could all be equally informed and informative in our analyses of the game. And (most importantly) some back-and-forth in that regard to meet any assumptions and break them open to see where they were coming from, and how to operate around them. Sure, we got a little something in the one thread asking "what would you like," but I certainly didn't see much in the way of engagement. I didn't see discussions from the Homecoming Team to refine the answers given, to create a dialogue, and to develop a rapport with the diverse players we have here. And Jimmy did reply more back then, as did some of the other Team members; but I often found those replies to miss the entire point and then move on ( @Jimmy, I apologize for calling you out, but you in particular have been someone who I find very challenging to create a dialogue with. Based on past exchanges, you and I seem to be operating on entirely different wave lengths. I would like for us to find a means to meaningful communicate with one another, though. Of course, I also recognize that I'm just one voice amoungst thousands, and you are a volunteer working on a passion project: You owe me nothing. But in the absence of discussion, I'm left to fill in the blanks to the best of my abilities.) From what I observed, the Homecoming Team ended up creating a bit of an echo chamber with players who shared the same vision as they have. And, sure. That's their prerogative. Homecoming is their server; yes. But City of Heroes isn't their game any more or any less than it's our game as a collective community. I don't like the disconnect between the mission statement saying "we welcome everyone," while simultaneously seeing examples of the Homecoming Team entirely missing whole demographics, and I'm going to call attention to it. And what really gets my particular goat is the mantra of "we do what we do for the good of the game," which Team members and GMs love to say on repeat . . . while I watch (with my admittedly limited perspective) and see example after example of opportunities for them to say "we made a mistake, and we want to work with the community to address it." And I don't imagine that you folks in the Team think of yourselves as perfect. But it's also important to clearly and concisely state it out loud from time to time. Just as each of us (and absolutely myself included) are human beings, and prone to constant mistakes. But collectively . . . we -can- work together to fix problems. So. Kudos on starting this thread! It's what the community needs. We needed it a year and a half ago, but better late than never. And I know you're volunteers, and I -know- you're under a LOT of pressure from certain players to deliver and deliver quickly . . . but honestly? I think the best choice is to slow down. Take a step back. Take a look at everything. And take all of us along as a part of that process. Openly. With clear communication being the first objective. And finding out why we're really here. Why we -love- City of Heroes. Because most of us lost it once before. I can't imagine many of us ever want to lose it again.

I would say you're half-right, @Lockpick. Maybe two-thirds. The Devs care, as far as I can tell, and quite passionately at that. From what I've observed, though, they've just not got their priorities straight on a fundamental level when it comes to design philosophy. More on this later. Spouse needs me to go right now.

Freeborn-81 (nothing in it yet) News-90 (an Ouro-crystal and a few telepads)

A "No FX" or "Minimal FX" option for each Power individually would allow for finer control for the players to determine the look of their characters. A single slash command that blots out all visual effects would be cutting off one's nose to spite one's face in this context.

Ahem. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/10583-vileterrors-roleplay-characters-as-of-2020-04-27/ My method is to usually log in to my main first and see who's online in my Global Friend list. Poke around a little. Say some greetings. See if anyone is having a bad day and is in need of any help. If everyone's good, but looking for some fun of one variety or another, I then ask them if they have any preferences to who/what I bring along. If they're not picky, then I do my best to bring someone/something that matches the themes or content we'll be playing with.

It's come up ... https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/15350-a-minimalist-take-on-a-supportmelee-at/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/21398-melee-support-at-concepts/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/7894-regulator-meleesupport-at/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/3856-defiler-meleesupport-at/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/6850-protector-meleesupport/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/13318-new-archetype-protector-supportmelee/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/13326-building-a-melee-support/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/6713-archetype-concept-the-paladin-support-melee/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/14721-new-at-idea-overlord-meleesupport-with-a-twist/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/2442-at-proposal-meleesupport/ . . . from time to time. I personally really like the idea of Support / Melee, putting the emphasis on the Support as the Primary, and the Melee'ing as Secondary. Following in the pattern of Tanker/Brute, Scrapper, and Stalker; I would have the Support / Melee have access to an AoE Autohit Placate.

Mission 1: Positives: - The not-so-subtle jab at forum arguments turning in to name-calling fights. This was amusing to me. - Rotting Mire Eidolons splitting open and complaining about their impending death. Really sets the stage. - Emblamed Cadavers going "...wheeeee..." Pure hilarity! - Instant cell phone number. Always a nice quality of life perk. - Newt (and Malady). Although, despite having the Regeneration visual effects, Newt doesn't seem to actually regenerate hit points at much of an accelerated rate. It may be worthwhile to bump him up a touch. Then again, if Malady is right about Newt, then it's just fine that Newt's no good at regen'ing. Malady . . . that collar and those boots and gloves . . . those aren't standard for Eidolons, are they? *goes off to check* Hmm . . . interesting. The collar in particular bears a striking similarity to the one YOU wear, @Piecemeal. Also, I think I saw some red visual effects animating from Malady's right hand in combat, but didn't notice anything else special about her. I feel like maybe I'm missing something. Uncertain: - Those Insta-boom Embalmed. Are these the "Zoombies?" Perhaps they should be called "Bomb-bies" instead? And are they -supposed- to insta-explode? I know you said they weren't supposed to spawn on top of players and that would be fixed, but the instant explosion is still very . . . odd. - Moldy face mask and blotch of petroleum don't invoke any Clues? And the debrief dialogue suggests my character was diligently documenting things inside the mission? Or was that Watkins trying to be sarcastic? Negatives: - The introductory text (including all of the myriad dialogue paths) is entirely skippable, untethered from player level, and assumes that the player-character had a part in defeating Dr. Vahzilok. Given the way Contact introductory text works, this can cause some issues that could easily result in players missing information that is crucial to getting the initial context of the whole arc. There's also some really awkward dialogue from Watkins, but that might just be his personality. He seems like a fairly unlikeable person, which I suppose is on-brand for a government hacker. More of an issue is that the temporal displacement of the whole setting makes for some awkwardness in terms of when Dr. Vahzilok was arrested and when Galaxy City suffered the Shivan meteor attack . . . but that's hardly your fault as the author of this one arc. More an issue with the greater timey-wimey stuff which the entire narrative suffers from. Still . . . there might be a more elegant way to address it. Or, more to the point; NOT address it. The more ambiguous you keep the events surrounding this story arc, the easier it is to slip it in to this fluid timeline. - There are talking Cadavers and Abominations in very first mission, saying things which are very inappropriate for them. If this was intentional, then I call in exhibit A: The Eidolon Description. "Unlike the cadavers, they retain all of their memories and personality." The Cadavers (and by extension, the Abominations) are simple robots built from cybernetic replacement limbs, covered in spare flesh and given rudimentary programming. Instances of them having dialogue in the existing missions from Retail are (as I recall) admitted errors on the parts of the Legacy Devs which could not be easily fixed. If unintentional, then perhaps one more additional new enemy is necessary to complete the story: Weakened Eidolons. Same attacks and animations as Cadavers and Abominations, but using the Rotting Eidolon character models. Would that be something that could be implemented without too much stress or difficulty? - One of the pop-up narration text blurbs is a little irksome. "You hear the quick shuffling of bare feet and the low groan of the living dead!" I recommend replacing it with something along the lines of: "The eerie sound of quickly shuffling bare feet and the low groan of animated corpses creeps through the air." The revision allows the player to retain agency (avoids the use of the second-person "you") without changing the overall essence of the narration, and (personal pet peeve, as the subject of undeath is one near and dear to me) modifies the description of the Bomb-bies to be more in line with the greater distinction between true undead and the Vahzilok creations. - There doesn't appear to be any unique text for Newt's description. Newt deserves a little something, no? What with how cute Newt is! I'm WAY PAST my bed time now. Fighting some kind of throat infection, and I told myself I would get to bed by 10pm tonight. It's now 1:45am. I'll gave to finish testing the other missions in this arc, and the entirety of the other arc in the following days between work and other responsibilities. Thanks again for putting your hard work out there, @Piecemeal. I hope this feedback is helpful.

Buggy issue found with the Supergroup Portal: While the slash command does work, it seems that one can't pull up the usual menu to select where you want to go unless you're part of a Super Group. Perhaps this is something which could be addressed regardless of any of the more opinionated suggestions?

I'm sorry if my tired eyes are just missing it, but which Shard is this on?