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This is a good one, throughout my time and experience Roleplaying I can say with almost certainty that almost every source of 'Roleplaying Drama' stems from IC Relationships. I've seen this thing go nuclear more times than I care to count. The absolute most important thing about IC relationships is to make sure there's no bleed and if there is bleed (IC/OOC boundary-blurring) make sure you are both cool with it. I tend to avoid this entire thing unless I know the player well enough OOC and know they're chill, because an awful lot of the time some people treat an IC relationship as something more than what it is, that's when wires cross and it gets messy.

I've seen good things said about Martial Arts and Energy Aura, but I've yet to find a build that has both. I've searched for 'MA/EA' on the forums and come up empty, though I did see a few pointers for Martial Arts and I love that fast-paced rotation and feel! (Some people seem to skip Eagles Claw?) Apparently it's really good with procs? I wouldn't know the first thing! I don't have the time to test and risk INF on making a build with my own intuition, so I'm calling up fellow Scrappers for an assist! Are you sitting on a kickass MA/EA build? I'd love to see, I'm sure it will help other people seeking it too. So far it's been a really fun Powerset combo, but I don't know the first thing about sets as I've typically relied on awesome people who have mathed the numbers down and figured out what makes a great build.

This is great, gives me a foundation to build off! Would there be any decent replacements for the Sorcery Pool? I've got a feeling Rune of Protection is one of a kind and important to the build.

I've not played Blaster in a long time and it seems to be the only Archetype with access to Sonic and Martial Arts in some form. Dominator seemed close but the /Martial relies too heavily on Ranged Shiruken style attacks. I'd like to focus on the Martial side of the character, with Sonic being a sort of secondary, that's going to mean Blapper focus. In high-tier content is a Sonic/Martial Blaster going to be able to have the defences, resilience and damage to keep pace?

Prime time Everlasting feels like it's about 10pm - 5am UK time, like others have said it's still going to be where the most RP is at. Oddly, weekends tend to be quieter than weekdays at least from my experience.

I'm not sure how we went from Incarnates to mentioning CP, wtf? A lot of people enjoy the City of Heroes lore, I know I'm one of them. I enjoy creating characters within that lore which is the most flexible lore there is. No one is telling you what is right or wrong, but love or hate it 'lore' of the game and it's structure because of it is this video games general theme, discussing that lore should not be dismissed by drudging up a decade old drama for no reason. There is very little resources for the games lore in general, Incarnate lore especially seems it was never finished and we -- as Roleplayers -- are left to fill in the gaps and it's up to the individual whether to heed discussions on that or not, either way the discussions with patchy unfinished lore might inspire peoples ideas and I wholly welcome that from Nightingale.

Great thread, having more info on Incarnate lore is awesome, thanks for this!

I've achieved this build and it's awesome! Is there any ways to squeeze more out of it with a higher budget? This would give me more build goals to aim for.

I've been using AI, especially ChatGPT, to help me come up with interesting stories and descriptions based on just one sentence. It's a pretty cool tool that I'm really excited about! It's been super helpful for me when it comes to writing about things like languages my characters might speak, sayings from other cultures, or hobbies I don't know anything about. Basically, it gives me all the info I need in a way that's easy to understand and perfect for what I'm looking for. (This post was written by ChatGPT for funsies after an input from me) Now this isn't filtered through an AI, but this thing has been invaluable from a DM standpoint, a spellcheck standpoint, a 'find a suitable word', or give me some ideas for a character standpoint, make a puzzle for a plot, write a riddle for a breadcrumb quest for characters, the list is endless. Voice AI's have been used already in a World of Warcraft mod which is giving voice dialogue to quests that never had it to begin with which blows my mind, the world is going to change rapidly when using AI becomes as normal as using a smartphone.

Has anyone tweaked this build to work nicely with Water Primary?

What a Goldmine, how have I not seen this before?!

Oh for sure, cliques will always exist and they're not necessarily a bad thing. I think cliques turn rotten when it's so insular that the group of people might perceive their way of doing things is the only way. Or if they might never try other things because they're so ingrained on sticking to their own version of tried and true. When you start to think your way is the only form of RP you sort of bridge the gap between being a clique and being an elitist/gatekeeper. I'm sure everyone has their standards of what is acceptable RP, I know I do! But I've absolutely dabbled in most aspects of RP, I guess I figured out what category/pigeon-hole to put myself into, though I find a great way to get past that is to have multiple characters that explore multiple different aspects of RP.

What I've seen in my time Roleplaying (not necessarily on Homecoming but across almost every online medium) is that cliques form quickly and a 'us vs them' mentality almost always takes root. The Roleplayer that broadly accepts all forms of RP without bias is extremely rare, even if claimed otherwise. The casual Roleplayer with a joke-like character interacting with serious serious characters. An erotic Roleplayer having an argument that sexuality has it's place in storylines. The hardcore perma-death Roleplayer belittling other players who might not be at 'their standard' of Roleplay. A Roleplayer that's more light-hearted/casual and speaks (( OOC )) mid-sessions to someone else's annoyance. Just a few examples here, but there is always a sort of pigeon-hole-esque thing going on with a lot of RP Communities, people enjoy slapping labels on everything so they can be quickly judged as either 'my thing or not'. The biggest RP drama's I've seen stem from three main sources; IC Character Relationships (usually sexual) that bleed and blend IC/OOC and it can get to atomic bomb levels of drama. "Metagrudging" when you dislike a player so you force them into IC situations with the intent to cause the player harm. Permadeaths outside of the victims control, typically seen in RP-PVP Sandbox style games. It's a niche hobby to Roleplay and like all niche Hobbies, elitism and stigma will always exist.

I'm thinking of a new character and really want that buzz of just seeing chaos occur as far and wide as possible, with damage numbers cropping up on as many enemy heads as possible. What powerset and archetype combo might achieve this whilst being strong on it's own? Also, sadly i'm not sure on MM as a choice, I like to have all the agency so pet type powers aren't really my thing. It's been a while since I played, but target cap went up? I'm sort of assuming Tankers might be good for this with huge AOE attacks hitting a ton of enemies, I'm not sure my game knowledge is lacking.

Why not? All RP is eventually backstory of some sort, breaking out of the Zig or having stories contained therein serves the same purpose as all RP -- to develop your character. Prison focused RP would be just as fruitful as any other form of RP, it could be a tale a character could tell to others once they busted out and you decided to continue the characters story outside of that setting. If you wanted to make this an SG it might be worth considering making a prison themed on the Ziggurat in an SG base, that way there is easier access for players logging on to get involved. Could have things like a cafeteria, yard, special holding cells for Villains that have certain powers etc.

The entire thread topic seems like a bait to me. If you think Pocket D is bad sign up to FFXIV and enjoy your trip to Ul'dah or check out WoW and note that Goldshire and it's infamy is still a thing fifteen plusyears after the games release. As long as the bios aren't explicit -- there is a big difference between explicit and suggestive -- then just move on.

My clockwork themed robotic character has all her stuff integrated, was inspired by Mantis Blades in CP2077 that are too awesome a design to pass up. My other characters in City carry their items as normal, a belt with pouches, small pack, tucked in your boots etcetera! Funniest was my Sith character in The Old Republic who wore no belts, no pouches or backpacks. She had magnetic subdermal implants on her upper thigh to carry her lightsaber around.

This series is great! Though in the Herogasm episode;

Hope we see a Cal Kestis cameo, seems like it's taking place at the exact same time as Fallen Order.

If it's the gameplay of City of Heroes nothing really comes close except dungeon crawlers. If anything it's the very early precursor to superb games like Warframe where the gameplay loop is almost identical, though Warframe is an extremely fast-paced game and most players play at the 'speedrun Taskforce' level in every mission. Go to SG Base, plan a mission, randomly join a big group, go do mission, stomp mobs 90% of the time, get a reward that improves your character sometimes, rinse and repeat. Still, Warframe is without doubt one of the best games ever made and absolutely worth checking out regardless. The common bundle of MMO's might be worth checking out too, everyone knows those. FFXIV, WoW, ESO, GW2. For the simpler and more RPG heavy I'd suggest WoW Classic, Wrath of the Lich King will be out soon which was absolutely WoW's peak, it was all downhill from thereon after.

Is this what you're looking for?

Honestly I'd rather it lower base defense or base resist on the drop. Not damage, that way you have reason to use any armor clickies (Like Dull Pain) to counter it. Far better than just 'You do nothing for 10 seconds.'

I do not play MM, but I have heard insane things about Thugs/Storm burst damage being highest in the game, Burnout and double Gang War?

Oof that's a big Psi weakness, does it fare well against Psi?

Yes! I used your build as the basis, sorry I forgot to credit!