Megajoule

Permadom is a bit of a special case, yes, and I'm wary of it for a simple reason: for better or worse, it was clearly not the CoV devs' intent that Dominators have those bonuses all the time (thus the entire mechanic). Before we go about making that the official new baseline, either by granting universal Hasten or rebalancing the AT itself, I think there should probably be a discussion of whether we should, or if that makes them "OP".

I guess I have never grasped this universal need for faster recharge - not like, oh Stamina, where it was all too easy and common (back in the pre-inherent days) to find oneself sucking wind in the middle of any given fight. With the exception of certain obvious and deliberate outliers, powers with cooldowns of 5 or 20 minutes etc, I've rarely found myself waiting an uncomfortably long time for a recharge. So what drives this? Is it just gotta-go-fast, gotta have the Biggest Numbers?

There's lots more shades than that now. Back when there was no Incarnate system, sure. But now we have (e.g.) "brand new 50, nothing unlocked or slotted"; "Alpha unlocked and slotted with a T1"; "Alpha slotted with a T4"; "Judgment and Interface unlocked and slotted with T1s", and so on. It's basically a whole nother (abbreviated) leveling tree planted on top of the old one - which, some would argue, is exactly what the game needed. I enjoy climbing that second tree myself... on some of my characters, not all. The ones for whom it makes sense, to me and me alone, to have that kind of power, above and beyond "ordinary" super-beings (who, in the official story, get mowed down when Incarnates take the field, because they're simply at a whole other level ("divine" or "cosmic", to use some terms that have been thrown around in this thread)). Mortal stops at 50.000. Used to be, that was a hard-coded limit, a solid wall, like the speed of light. Now, Incarnates start at 50 + 1 xp and go up. My namesake, my first main back on live, is a classic Science origin, empowered in a lab accident. At level 50, she's at the top of her game, able to defeat street punks by the score and stand toe to toe with Malta or (a) Nemesis etc. But if you put her up against an Incarnate, she would get stomped into the ground. Not (just) because of what the mechanics and code say, the level shifts and all that; simply because she's not a god and never will be. She's a mortal woman crossed with a particle accellerator, with a lot of courage and training and experience. But she's not even a weakly-godlike entity. She is still essentially human. And so are many of my other characters. That's why I want this. To be able to draw that line cleanly in my head, like I used to, when starting on the road to apotheosis was something you had to opt into, rather than something you can't (currently) opt out of. You can ignore it, but it's still there. I want to stop right at 50, the best a mortal can be, and no higher. Right now, I can't; I will keep getting xp to unlock those slots, even if I turn xp off entirely (I've tried). The game will keep treating her like she is a god, already, just one who's pretending otherwise... her and all the rest.

The rest of that sentence, which you cut, was also relevant.

Fix it and proliferate it to scrappers, then.

I'd like to see an expanded selection from the existing options (I have one character right now, for example, who "needs" a title available only to the other side and a completely different Origin), but custom titles would be... "fraught". Heck, let's just admit it - most would be grossly obscene, ____ist, etc etc.

This is a fair suggestion, and I thank you. Speaking only for myself, I feel that a character locked at 49 is incomplete, in a way that one that is 50 but not Incarnate is not. I want that round number, for those characters to be properly "finished" under the terms of the game as it once was, to reach their natural peak; that peak just happens to be lower for some character concepts. I've acknowledged from the start that this is an odd and probably rare feeling, and very low priority to implement... but as one of the GMs posted on the first page, l'm not the only one who's asked about it. Also, I wrote a thing. 🙂

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For some characters (e.g. Thor), that sort of power level is appropriate. For others, it is not. On live, we were able to make that decision ourselves, and opt in to that progression if we wished. Here, we are inducted into it automatically and unavoidably; our only option is to try to ignore it.

"I want to have _______ up All The Time" is clearly a common (but not universal, IMO) goal. I submit, however, that it falls to those wanting limits on their power(s) removed to make their case why that would be a good thing for the game.

"Some" balancing is an understatement. You are essentially proposing - excuse me, "inviting discussion" - on an across-the-board reduction in recharge. This will certainly have "some" effect on the entire game. And having opened the can of worms, what is to prevent (if I may engage, just for a moment, in my own hypothetical slippery slope fallacy) calls for more reduction, and then still more, all the way to instantaneous cooldowns? As a practical matter, of course, I realize we will never reach that theoretical maximum; any given poster will likely be satisfied once they, personally, can achieve perma-whatever. (For purposes of this discussion, I will also leave unaddressed the possibility of reducing cooldowns still further, into the negatives, so that powers fire even before we form the desire to activate them.)

... unless you change your mind.

Harmless except to my obsessive tendencies and/or MUH IMMERSION, you mean... 😉 I figured that this would be the response, but that by the same token, it wouldn't hurt to ask.

(Note: if such a thing already exists in game, please let me know!) So I know some of you will think this is an odd request - why would anyone not want to be an Incarnate? Well, for me, it was a combination of concept/roleplaying and reducing my grind/workload. Of my characters, both back on live and these servers, there are some that I can imagine ascending to demigod levels of power (or even higher), while others are "merely" "ordinary" super-beings, or even exceptional but unpowered normals. On a purely practical/mechanical level, deciding that some characters would not take part in the Incarnate grind meant that I didn't have to do the Mender Ramiel arc to unlock that status for them, or craft and slot those abilities for them; I could focus just on the ones who did. Here, however, I don't (seem to) have that option. All characters here automatically start earning Incarnate xp and receiving Shards and Threads as soon as they turn 50. Even disabling xp entirely doesn't keep this from happening. At least if I ignore it long enough, I'll end up unlocking all of my slots and then the messages that I've earned xp toward doing so will stop. I'll still be left with an ever-growing pile of Threads sitting uselessly on that character, though. The best case (for me) would be some way of conveniently transferring those rewards to one of my other characters, who I do choose to participate in Incarnate gameplay and content with; but if that's not practical, or considered fair, I would simply like a way for some of my characters to completely opt out.

I wouldn't mind something else to do with threads. I'm a self-admitted odd duck in that I have 50s - a couple now, and more in the future I'm sure - who are, in terms of concept, not and never will be Incarnates, merely "ordinary" super-beings. Back on Live, I had the option of just not doing the arc that unlocks Incarnate status/progression, but here it's automatic and as far as I can tell, unavoidable, and so they have threads piling up that they will never have use for.

Did the Midnighters also gift them with cell towers, or did they enchant the phones to "just work"? (A lot of people don't realize how much infrastructure mobile phones depend on.)

Pigeons. Trained pigeons.

Syndicate jackets, anyone?

Run speed is a biggie, yes. And as noted, a personal beef for me is that I want to see my character, not the back of a Devouring Earth critter. Right now, I have to choose between being hobbled, slow as mud, and driving something that is not really my character ... or the rest of the set, which gives me decent mobility, but all of them put together are still not as good as Granite by itself. It's an exclusive and binary choice, one or the other, and both options have big drawbacks.

Anecdata and opinion follows: There comes a point, IMO, when the game has changed significantly enough from how it was when the original decisions were made that it is worth looking at them again. I'm not usually one to suggest taking stuff out of (any) game, at least not without something to replace it... but on the other hand, I've not slotted TOs since my very first characters back in the '00s. They're just not worth it, especially when you consider the expiration issue. DOs are barely worth it, and only if you're not PLing to 20/22 by one of the mechanisms that were introduced after launch (and now the 2xp option here). Now, to balance comment: this is coming from someone who still slots characters with SOs. And buys new ones every five levels, financing the leveling character(s) with inf drops from 50s. Why? Because That's How I'm Used To Doing It, and SO-level bonuses are worth it to me, and SOs were/are more readily acquired (on live, at least) than full sets of IOs. It could well be that the meta has changed again while I wasn't looking, and an IO build now involves less faffing about than just visiting the origin vendor every five levels with a shopping list of (X) damage, (Y) acc, etc etc. (The tradeoff, I suppose, is "SOs mean more effort but less thinking.") Anyway. If you were to get rid of TOs and even DOs, I literally wouldn't notice, except I wouldn't have to sell my drops. If you were to do something different with them? Maybe I'd actually use them. Or not. *shrug* It's kind of like pennies. I'd miss them, maybe, if they were to go away... but I haven't actually used them in years, and they're arguably far more bother than they're worth these days.

Here's the one I accidentally subjected myself to recently: Solo the Praetorian arcs as a mind-psi dominator, with no enhancements (because TO bonuses are nothing), no self-heal or mitigation other than (briefly) locking down individual foes, and repeated ambushes that know exactly where you are and come right on the heels of the one before it. (Seriously, WTF were the devs thinking back in 2009-2010? "A solo player is roughly equal to three white-con enemies, so let's throw a DOZEN at them, all at once!"? )

So, how're we doin' on that whole "less negativity" thing?

Wouldn't giving out Granite at tier 1 make the rest of the set useless? "Here's your power, singular - next level you get Rooted, and then the next thirty levels are powers you'll never actually use."

All my Electric knowledge is years old, from a character I played back on live. I don't even recall if he was IO slotted. -_-; Sorry.

Which adds one more problem with the set, for those of us who actually like and put some effort into our costume(s): we don't get to see them. Activating our strongest toggle makes us look like every other Stone/* and just like any DE we may be fighting.