TemporalVileTerror

Perhaps an alternative which offers more broad usability: What if we could pin Combat Attributes to three different lists, each with an independent window. That way a player could choose which Attributes they monitor in specific groupings.

Ah. I did a search. d&d, eh?

I mean, if one doesn't like the MCU movies for milking money out of people, Marvel (and DC)'s print comics had been doing that for ages. Well before sequelmania had ever really sunk its roots in to Hollywood. Like any media; movies/comics(/computer games) are just the means of delivering the content. Whether they're subversive or manipulative is independent of the media themselves. But, alas, seems that @Herotu's link suggests that maybe the City of Heroes Wentworths' may have been the homage here, rather than the Wentworths' in WandaVision.

That looks like @Piecemeal's new stuff, @Troyusrex. You can thank them directly!

Sort of like the original premise for the IO Balance Thread being your attempt to read the situation based on a slice of market trends, @Galaxy Brain, I think you're looking for the crucial answers to the important questions . . . but I'm not sure the framework you're asking this particular question with is necessarily going to get us there. When "getting to 50" / "reaching endgame" isn't even the agreed upon primary motivator for players, we're already at a huge disadvantage when trying to analyze City of Heroes by metrics which other games in the MMO genre are. A foundational series of questions we ask all players (and Devs) may want to start with: What do you consider "playing City of Heroes" to mean? This thread is still a good prompt for a discussion of course. I'm not meaning to subvert that. Just trying to illuminate that we may need to pull back a little further to really get to the answers I think you're looking for.

One thing? . . . Fuck. Hard to choose just one. Customization is key, so it would undoubtedly relate to that. But would it be . . . Henchpet Customization? A /costume_ignore command? Complete animation customization for Powers? Unlocking all NPC costume pieces by some means? Complete gender parity of all costume pieces and animations? Hmm . . . Probably that last one, since it offers the most benefit for everyone, but the second one grants the community the ever-important tool to personally address problematic player-made content of the form of undesired costumes. It's also late at night for me right now, so I could easily be forgetting some ideas. On a greedier note, I'd want an overhaul of all content to rewrite away the nasty second-person narrative structure that strips away player agency, and provide text that's more inclusive to the broad variety of characters which players actually have. But there are players who prefer the current style of being told a story, so I acknowledge this particular wish is a more selfish one.

We talking Warhammer-style, or something less hellbent on murdering everything that's given them reason to hold a grudge?

Well, the Darkhold -could- appear differently to witches than it does to a bunch of scientists, given how it's presented in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as being able to change its contents based on who's reading it. I still think it would have been polite to have it appear the same as a nod to A.o.S. as canon . . . oh well. Also, to your unlisted number 7 point, @Techwright: The post-credit stinger in Far From Home tells you where they are.

Yeah. If the price was low, I'd consider that a triumph, and actively working against that does make the comeuppance feel apt.

My spouse's review of WandaVision: "I didn't hate it." Her way of saying "it has some obvious flaws, but it wasn't actively -bad,- and mostly enjoyable." To me . . . it feels like the story was left hanging in preparation for . . . something else. Given Marvel's track record, and what we discussed in that other thread here, I suspect some of those loose threads (such as @Techwright's list there) are going to be addressed in Multiverse of Madness and Loki.

I was letting some folks on Everlasting know about @Piecemeal's teaser in this thread and discussing the slight concerns expressed about the teased character's face looking a smidge more "cartoony" than most other faces already in the game, so I came back here to take a second look . . . and I just noticed something else . . . That's Kallisti Wharf in the background, isn't it?

I kind of think we also need someone to step up and do a retexture of the Rikti Monkey to look like a normal monkey, then give it a tutu and a pistol, and set it loose in the game as a random ally NPC which shows up in times of need in-game. Silly, perhaps . . . but as said in the comic itself: Nowhere gets weirder faster than Paragon City. . . . except maybe the Etoile Islands. But THERE it's just (regular) Rikti Monkeys with handguns and switchblades.

The best part is that miniature model you've created, @Baditude, is pretty much exactly the same way the Clockwork King would do it: Each of his creations is unique and pieced together from general scrap or "salvaged" (read: Stolen) metal. You absolutely captured the very essence of that Oscillator. Kudos!

Related: Air Guitar emote animations used for Sonic Powers. Maybe the drumming emotes too, though I kind of feel those aren't quite dynamic enough for my tastes.

It's the sort of skill which real world fortune tellers use. You leave things ambiguous, and you do LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of them. Eventually, some of them pan out, and you then reinforce them as intentional, rather than admitting you were just using buckshot all along. There are probably quite a few lists online about various threads that still haven't been tugged on. Some of which will probably never manifest either, since actors' contracts ended or bad blood or other factors prevent a reasonable continuation.

There's another one of those zones off to the north of Back Alley Brawler, and a couple in Mercy Island as well west of the starting area. It's some really interesting tech which I hope can be leveraged for new content in the future.

Yup. And it also demonstrates that this has been something which has been improved over time. We're not yet necessarily at the optimal solution to teaming, content, and level-gate interactivity. So, yeah . . . while some people like things the way they are, and they totally get to like things this way . . . anyone who tries to argue that we shouldn't attempt to further improve Sidekicking "just because" should bear in mind that improvements have been made to the system since its inception. There's still room to grow, here.

Wait a minute, @huang3721! What is THAT!? Enhance. Enhance! ENHANCE, YOU COWARD! ... No . . . NO! They told me he was dead! DEAD!!! Oh god . . . It's him . . . . . . we're doomed.

There's also the "appropriate time and appropriate place" argument to be made in this particular situation. City of Heroes has long dominated the role of "-the- MMO where your character is YOURS," and I've failed to see any other MMO approach the level of personal ownership which this game offers to players. It achieves this in no small part thanks to the character appearance customization. While literally unique characters aren't quite achievable here, and we're faced with the same dilemma which music arguably has ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAcjV60RnRw ) due to a finite number of combinations, ultimately the precedent has been set that providing players with a multitude of tools for personalization results in a great deal of creative freedom. Ergo: The greatest opportunity for practically unique creations. My personal view is that "This is a good thing. This is a GREAT thing. This is -THE- thing for City of Heroes!" (Which is why I tend to be so vocal about unlocking additional costume pieces, such as NPC pieces.) But not everyone agrees with this point of view, of course. There's the argument that something might be "more unique" if you have to unlock it somehow. However, these things aren't finite resources that only a limited number of players have access to. They're not actually unique. Gating them just places an arbitrary and artificial barrier in the way of access. Some people associate "worth" with things that are "achieved." But really . . . if someone can "achieve" it by toggling a binary flag in the code more easily than spending ten minutes hitting the same buttons over and over completing an in-game task, why even bother if not for personal reasons? And if those personal reasons aren't good enough to do those tasks and personally "lock" the content on your own terms, can those reasons possibly hold muster for -other- players to be restricted by them? But, again, these are just my views on it. Other people see it differently. There are plenty of other games out there where locking content is the norm. Goodgawd, just take a look at the games industry these days. Destiny 2 is an absolute NIGHTMARE when it comes to personalizing your character(s). Warframe wasn't much better the last time I played it. (That new Marvel game is a special brand of hell in this regard, not that the characters you play as there were ever remotely going to be considered "your own.") And generally, I think people who play City of Heroes for the sake of character customization aren't too thrilled with the customization options in those games. But . . . those games aren't "for us" really, are they? I don't like to make assumptions, but it doesn't strike me as likely that the people playing those games are doing so with the express desire to make personal creations out of their player-avatars. Which circles us back around to what I opened this post with: Appropriate time and appropriate place. I'm not one of the Devs, and I have no verifiable sources as to their views on this subject, but the present conditions in the game set certain expectations. With improvements such as Auras and Path Auras no longer being mutually exclusive, and asymmetrical costume pieces, I think we've received a fairly clear message that the Devs presently appreciate the sentiment that this game benefits from having more costume customization rather than less. I very much think now is not the time and I frankly doubt if Homecoming will -ever- be the place for arbitrarily locking players away from expressing their creative freedom. I also acknowledge that the Devs (now, or in the future) may see it differently. The present evidence doesn't suggest that, though.

There's a pretty intense stance against locking content in the manner you seem to be looking for, although you're not alone in your desire @Zantorialt. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/12155-going-forward-can-we-have-more-things-that-mean-something/ Given the deeper understanding of marketing and things like Skinner Boxes which players have these days, and the free nature of these pirate servers, it doesn't seem likely that anything like the VIP system would ever be reintroduced. As for costume unlocks and the like, we haven't seen an official stance on it, but current trends suggest the Devs have no plans or intentions to lock existing content. New content . . . that's uncertain.

What would Laser Rifle Support, Pistol Support, and Assault Rifle Support look like? I'm curious.

I like the ones where you complete a story arc in Paragon City, and then head over to Praetoria, and one of the NPC citizens randomly comments on something which they should have absolutely no comprehension of. A new Seer in the making, clearly.

So . . . That latest episode . . . All just flashback exposition, basically. Not a helluva lot of forward movement for the plot there. Sadly, given the nature of the series' format, I suppose they kind of wrote themselves in to a corner to force themselves to do such an info-dump episode.

More options is best options! Although, there may be a hurdle related to this which I believe one of the Devs spoke about regarding fly poses. Movement cycle animations that were designed for NPCs are limited to forward movement only. New animations may be necessary for strafing and reverse-direction movement depending on a few nebulous factors.

You know, it's funny. Even with how janky and unreliable Sidekicking was in the ancient days of yesterbefore, City of Heroes was -still- the best MMO for being able to team up with your friends, regardless of level. It was basically one of the major selling points for me when I was still dabbling in exploring other MMOs. But you compare how things were back then to how they are today, and it's kind of funny that we considered -that- to be the pinnacle of "team-friendly MMO features."