TemporalVileTerror

"For player understanding and balancing, can each AT and powerset be described with its niche?" Nope. . . . ok . . . that's probably a bit too irreverent of me to boil it down like that, but really . . . no. This game isn't built the same way as so many others. A Force Field / Energy Blast Defender doesn't play the same as a Trick Arrow / Electrical Blast Defender, and they're both still Defenders! HELL! The way you build each of those Defenders can radically redefine their niche. We need a more robust and nuanced lense to examine this game and balance than (ironically) the archetypal roles seen in other MMOs.

Yeah, was just about to say that too. Thanks, @Darmian. I'm saying Arachnos fits City of Heroes aesthetic. But even -if- there was any kind of "Korean anime" inspiration behind Arachnos, then I'd stress that it's -still- the City of Heroes aesthetic. The concept art is signed and dated, and goes all the way back to the same year as City of Heroes Beta. The vision of City of Villains was already largely set in motion before City of Heroes even had its official release. The team just expanded to pick up Zeb Cook and crew to get the thing put together and delivered on time. (At least as far as I remember. Will admit that 15+ years can play tricks on the old memory.) And -really- . . . if you want to complain about art which is clearly inspired by influences outside of the integral aesthetics of the game itself, then look to the Top Cow run of the City of Heroes official comic books. Oof.

An evolving world would seriously alienate a large number of the playerbase, though, as evidenced by the many, many posts we see on a regular basis. Just look at Galaxy City . . . A progressively expanding world, however, is a much more stable and acceptable approach, I expect. Granted, I think it would be cool to dedicate specific -new- zones* had evolving stories. Notify players in advance at the time of initial reveal, so they won't feel the rug is pulled out from under them, but have these new zones "subject to potential and catastrophic change." Have these new zones be THE de facto set dressing for Homecoming's continued development of major storylines. This way they can simultaneously distinguish their own creative endeavours while maintaining the legacy of what came before, and deploy entirely new and interesting game mechanics without robbing players of existing gameplay they've come to love. Naturally, the developmental resources and time required to do that may not make it the most feasible approach, but I'd still like to encourage the Homecoming Team to focus on making additions rather than changes to the game. *(Kallisti Wharf included, because I think this was exactly what the Legacy Devs had in mind for it from the get-go.)

Counterpoint: The lack of spandex-clad villains speaks to the tone and is very consistent with the actual aesthetic genre which defines City of Heroes, and is a very strong selling point! If one feels the gameplay is fine as-is, it could be reasonable to accept that the aesthetic is fine as-is as well. Point of view and opinions and all that, of course. Not trying to gatekeep, but rather illustrate that City of Heroes has -always- been "not just a 'golden age' spandex simulator." It is so much more.

I . . . did? Last line for each entry says which animation it would use, in parenthesis.

"Activities" I like! . . . still think an in-game bulletin board would be ideal. Granted, how to make it "fair" and un-troll'able could be challenging . . . hmm . . .

@June, I'll assume you're asking these questions with the most earnest and innocent intent. But . . . please don't. You're asking about a something which is considered a "grey area" to some, and a "nuke it from orbit area" to others. And it's the sort of thing which could lead the policy makers here to say: "You know what; that's the sort of can of worms we don't want to deal with, and now we have to be extra strict." We've seen many online adult services take an extra wide flamethrower to -anything- is remotely considered questionable, particularly in the last couple of years. It's a debate and discussion that really isn't acceptable to have on these message boards, so I won't go in to too much more detail on it. The short of it: The latitude we said the GMs have is specifically for situations like the ones you're asking for, and like I said; not all GMs are going to necessarily agree where the lines are drawn. Don't provoke them and don't try to "rules-lawyer" them. @Grouchybeast's advice is sound. If you have any doubt about something like that, the safest thing to do is to take it off the game servers, or make adjustments to your roleplay so it's no longer in a grey area. And, of course, mutual consent of all participants.

The email window could definitely use an overhaul. I use it quite a lot for distributing goodies and Inf, and for community event-related communications. Improvements to the in-game email UX are definitely worthwhile.

Low impact way to get this feature with (hopefully) minimal Dev time is two part: 1: Make a slash command for "export all character details on Shard," and let the community develop some third-party sorting programs to apply orders on the playerslot.txt file. 2: Add a button to the character selection screen that refreshes the sorting based on the playerslot.txt file.

Nah. Not justified. Just fighting against a bad situation, but in a wrong-headed way. Her happiest end is probably martyrdom to the good part of her message, with her identity and involvement being scrubbed away. That's my prediction, at least.

Lawful Evil, not Chaotic Good. He has a rule: No More Super Soldiers. He follows that rule. To the letter. And gives Turkish Delight to people. There's no way he's NOT evil. I mean, come on. COME ON.

and speaking of that rollercoaster (sorry!) . . . @arcane, this one's for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kscG_gs2BOc

You raise a very important point, @maelenah, about conduct and consent in roleplay (even without bringing erotic/sexualization in to the mix). It's a topic which we try to address a few times in the roleplay boards of this forum, and it's definitely worth talking about. As it stands, the Code of Conduct has express rules about harassment, but also (as mentioned by @GM Impervium in this thread, amoung other places), the Code of Conduct is still somewhat nebulous on specifics so that the GMs have the latitude to exercise discretion. The short of it: If someone is pressuring you in terms of roleplay subject matter, the first step should be to stop the scene and explain in clear Out-of-Character text that the subject matter is not okay. If they persist, then that's crossing a line, and it's totally within your right (and responsibility, arguably) to report it to the GMs with a /petition. Granted . . . the GMs are all human beings, and not all GMs necessarily agree where the line on harassment and "just goofing off" exists. But clear communication of your limits at every possible step is only going to help you in the long run. DISCLAIMER: I'm not a GM, and this advice is merely offered with the intent to help resolve potential issues before they ruin your enjoyment of the game. I absolutely welcome criticisms if anyone feels this advice is incomplete or inaccurate. Also of note: This thread is going to some interesting places . . . it's been a bit of a rollercoaster for tone and seriousness, though. All the same, another big thanks to @GM Impervium for handling this with tact and professional clarity, despite the jokes some of us (myself included) have cracked in this thread.

And while it might be considered a little "stalky," you can also use the /getglobalname CHARACTERNAME command, and then send a Global Tell or in-game email to the other player that way.

Make more characters. BAM! More things to spend it on!

Anyone who powerlevels at a Mothership Raid is demonstrably wasting their time. I would be legitimately shocked to find anyone actually doing that after seeing the far less processor-intensive AND much more rapid powerlevelling exists in other venues. And gatekeeping is always a legitimate concern to be raised, in all contexts. The Instance was created for those who want a less laggy and more organized version of the Raid. If people on your Shard are interested in the Raid for the Raid alone, I think you should encourage them to join the Instance. I believe @Apparition made a public service announcement post about it a while back, in fact. Perhaps signal-boosting that thread would be a good way to entice more people to join up. If people agree with the merits of the Instance, knowing that someone is willing to lead it will probably help to sway the otherwise undecided. On the other hand, I'm certainly not against raising zone caps if server stability and performance issues can be adequately resolved. But I believe the implementation of the Instance in the first place was specifically because addressing those stability and performance issues is prohibitively infeasible for the Devs at this current time.

The "Events" channels are already used for announcing giant monsters, I think. So, alternatively, maybe an in-game bulletin board could be handy. HEY! Potential Inf-sink, even. Spend Inf to buy space on the bulletin board.

. . . That's the -modest- version, by the way. Based on a character of mine which I had back on Retail/Legacy, and recreated here. ANYWAY! Any pointed feedback on the Powers themselves? Balance concerns? That sorta thing?

That's what /getglobalname and /playernote commands are for, @oedipus_tex. I mean, the UX for them could definitely be better, if that's what your complaint is, but if you didn't know about these features, then I hope they meet your needs! My challenge is figuring out which accounts are people's alt accounts. I've kept all of mine the same, with different prefixes . . . but I know a couple of players who have 4+ accounts, each with totally different names. THAT does my head in.

I believe that's how the game Rifts worked. I'm not certain, but I think when you teamed up, you would be shunked to the team leader's shard, and when you quit you would be sent back to your own. But I only dabbled in Rifts for a few months after City died, so . . . *shrugs* I have very spotty memories of it.

I do like the idea of exploring Lord Recluse now that Statesman is dead. Like, what's he going to do with his life now? He even got his old (un)dead girlfriend back. Recluse's story is RIPE for picking! But @Darmian and I did a whole thread about that already. As for the Rikti . . . seriously, stop picking on them! A whole race of peoples reduced to just an extremist group of militants? That feels bad. Not only that, but most of the Rikti we fight are just people from our own world who have been converted in to more Rikti! That feels REALLY bad. I would like to see some more development of Rikti (re)integrating peacefully in to our societies . . . or at least trying. Imagine a rehab centre for Rikti converts who are trying to reclaim their original lives. There's a LOT of potential to explore there. I'm not going to pre-haten on The Battalion; it's still largely a non-entity in the Lore. If a skilled writer can tackle them with some interesting and engaging stories, and the mechanics back them up for ludonarrative resonance, then we'll be golden. Just don't do what Paragon Studios was planning with the whole endless treadmill of pointless stories for pointless grind. Make the stories meaningful.

. . . the Power Set, or the Pet?

I think it's worth saying that if the Coming Storm is a massive disappointment, it has naught-all to do with the professional and/or hobbyist status of the people working on it. To the die-hard City fan, the Coming Storm is on-par with Half-Life 3: There's no way to do it "right" at this point; the fans have built up the best and the worst of it all too much already. There's only doing it the way that it ultimately gets done, for better or for worse. Like many others have said, I too really think the Homecoming Team should continue to focus on independent works of fiction within the City of Heroes setting. The Freakalok and what we've heard about Piecemeal's ideas for the Neo Warriors seem to be treading along a line, but leaning toward the side of making most players fairly happy for one or more reason. My personal opinion is that Piecemeal did some truly excellent work in a lot of ways, but I felt that @holymittens delivered the superior writing for story arcs on Homecoming so far. But, well, there are some idioms about opinions, right? So . . . *shrugs* I am curious to hear Piecemeal's ideas on the Coming Storm, when/if we get there.

I have a feeling that she's the grandmother of my Chainsaw Ballerina: (On this note, we also need tutus, thank you kindly! And tiaras for Huge, if nothing else.)

I would do terrible, terrible things to get my hands on Pedantic Assault and Pedantic Control. TERRIBLE THINGS!