GraspingVileTerror

Quick bit of math . . . How many helpful posts are there in these forums with good advice? How many posts have bad advice, regardless of the source user? I think new players will be fine, simply from law of averages.

The point is that there is a third option. It's not just "be nice" or "be irate." It's: "Let the thread die a quiet death, because no one is obligated to reply to every thread."

This has the same answer as every other question of this nature: Dominator (or insert whatever Archetype you want) is the most appropriate for the player-character's concept. Combat doesn't matter as much as making a character that fulfils one's personal concept of enjoyment. If combat were the only thing that mattered, then there wouldn't be any variety to the Archetypes. But if someone's -personal- objective is "just combat," then . . . sure. Go play as a Blaster or Brute. But you might find this game severely lacking if that's your only metric for enjoyment.

If you Quit a Team that is in a Task/Strike Force, there is no getting back in. If you Log Out while in a Task/Strike Force Team, and then Log back In, you will still be in that team. Each Mission offers its completion rewards independently, including the finale. As for "How long" do they take? That depends entirely on who's playing, difficulty settings, how experienced the players are, what level their characters are, what their builds are . . . Some people have personal expectations for the time each of the various Task/Strike Forces should take, but there aren't any solid definites.

- Contact name: Unknown "Business" Partner - Contact appearance: Computer terminal or phone box. - Opening screed: Thank you for getting in touch with me, $target. I know better than to waste your time, so I'll cut right to the chase: The organization I represent has gotten in to a bit of trouble, and if we were to try to fight our way through, we would be punching above of weight class. We're in dire need right now, so we're happy to give you intel, remuneration, and even personnel to help us resolve our current FBSA problem. I hope it's not disrespectful of us to offer mercenary work to you, but there's a special something here we would like to offer for your benefit: We have the access codes for one of the FBSA's covert intelligence databases. Is that of interest to you? (Proceed with a two or three mission "mini-arc" of prep work to get in to the FBSA building, followed by the mid-point climax of breaking in to the building, taking out several targets and downloading the database intel, and receiving payment from the Contact. THEN continue with another two or three missions which are dependent on the team leader's choice of three optional paths based on the FBSA covert intel. Each of the three different endings offers a different Temp Power reward. I think we're at the point where something like this can be implemented with current mission tech in the game.)

Attempting to run 64-bit version of Homecoming Launcher caused this error. (Note: I obscured the exact filepath for my install directory of City, but it was listed at the start of the error message. Nothing else is modified in the screenshot.)

WELL! The latest episode is the one where my spouse said: "I know they're changing a lot, but I am on-board for this!" Mainly related to an interpretation of a certain pair of witchy ladies having . . . interactions which my spouse had always read as subtext in the original books. Spouse still says the original books are better than this series, but that doesn't mean this series is bad. Different, and good, and changing a LOT of little things in ways that stack up substantially over time . . . but that also keeps things interesting. And the important bits (whatever those might be) are apparently still there.

Cat girls are SO Virtue. Succubi androids and bunnybois are Everlasting. Also . . . @TheZag: Yes.

Vote for your favourite criminal enterprise! (Tongue-in-cheek. Somewhat.)

Being able to name costumes, and thereby make costume aliases for slash commands sounds absolutely fantastic! Great idea!

I've heard that the "kids these days" do this too, but I watch recorded streams of "Let Us Plays" while simultaneously playing other games myself. Generally Loading Ready Run's content, as I feel they "hit" more often than they "miss" compared to most other streamers out there in terms of conduct, humour, and content. Although it can be frustrating to watch some of them frequently blunder around a puzzle or parcel of gameplay which looks incredibly simple to me. BUT that's where watching the recorded videos comes in handy; I can just skip past those uncomfortable parts of the video. (I can scarcely imagine watching them play City. I'd probably be crawling up the wall as they try to learn how to play.) If I'm never going to find the time to play a game for myself since I have limited time as it is, then having a stream to watch of that game gives me a general idea of the content, and how some players interacted with it. Obviously playing it myself would give a more personalized experience, but there are simply too many games for me to play them all.

Verbal Manipulation is TOTALLY something I am 100% in support of! I have many characters I would reroll instantly if that got made well. Kissing Control is . . . well, I'm also interested in that, but I could see a lot of people complaining about the smooches making them feel icky.

I believe the root of the issue is less with the content existing, but rather its targeted nature, @TheZag. I have an example to give, but with the rules on these forums I'm unsure if it will be deemed acceptable. So . . . next best thing (maybe), an analogy: Imagine if you* select a particular costume piece that you personally like. It's the sort of costume piece that makes you feel good about yourself. And while you're playing, you come across a Contact in the game which is flagged to give you different dialogue while your character has that costume piece on. This dialogue is technically still within the ESRB rating criteria from over ten years ago, but it goes in to detail about how much you suck for being incapable of wanting to wear something else. --- Specifically using words which real-life people have used to insult you personally in the past. --- (This is the key part.) Every other player gets a version of dialogue from this Contact which feeds in to a healthy, encouraging power-fantasy for them. How would that make you feel? Would you consider it fair? (* this is the "Any You," not anyone specifically)

Note: Devs are taking a break right now. They may not see this thread until January. No idea if GMs are on break, though. So hopefully we won't need them to step in here . . . Not to derail, and I apologize if this backfires. I know that I am not an approved moderator, and what I'm about to say isn't a rule or a command. It's a suggestion in the spirit of maintaining a respectful atmosphere in an effort to try to keep this thread on-topic: If someone is planning to post a reply which amounts to denying redxathena's personal opinion based on the experiences had with this Contact, please reconsider. It's one thing to say that you "like Dean." Go ahead and post that, if you feel inclined. It's an entirely different thing to tell someone that their lived experience is "wrong." Please. PLEASE think on that before choosing to reply.

Sometimes it's less about politely asking an awful person not be behaviour in an awful way, @biostem. Sometimes it's just about reminding the good people who sometimes behave without thinking about how awful some of the things they do are. And sometimes it's about trying to galvanize the good people to actively work to address the problems caused by awful behaviour by stepping up to make a difference.

I appreciate your bringing this up, @redxathena. Dean's attitude in the narrative is definitely one that would be "problematic" in real life, to put it mildly. I don't want what I'm going to say here to be considered as being in defense of that kind of behaviour in real life. Dean's characterization is that of a sleaze. He's a larger-than-life dirt-bag ex-cop (spoilers, blah blah) who claims that he chose to move to the Rogue Isles to get revenge instead of operating within the confines of law. His behaviour is that of a reprobate. But you're absolutely right that his dialogue targets women in a more negative way, which can be uncomfortable or even triggering. Would either of the two potential following solutions be acceptable to you, and which of them would you prefer? Do you have any other proposals? 1: A content warning is placed on Dean MacArthur notifying players in advance as to what occurs in his story arc. -pros: Allows players to cater their own play experience in advance by avoiding the Contact. Relatively less impactful to Dev time. -cons: It doesn't do a player any good if they are actively seeking the Badges that are uniquely available in the arc, or if they want to enjoy the rest of the arc's content. 2: New dialogue options added at the start of his arc to actively rebuff Dean and have him apologize for his behaviour in the context of the story, which would also change future dialogue to retain his characterization, but within the context of fearing/respecting the player-character for establishing boundaries (after all, he -does- love to compliment the player-character for being a Big Bad Villain). -pros: Maintains the narrative and improves the accessibility of Dean as a Contact, adds additional nuance to the character, and gives players meaningful agency to shape their characters' story. -cons: More time intensive for the Devs to implement. Debatable on whether this would mean that characters using the Male/Huge models should also be granted extra dialogue paths, even though the initial problem is due to an inequality to begin with. There are, of course, other problems related to gender and representation in this game. Historically there has been a lot of push-back and denial when they've been brought up. Here's hoping the Homecoming Team will be willing to re-examine the situation on a broad scale, and start to enact improvements. The inclusion of more diverse representation within the ranks of Arachnos is a good sign, even if it was not implemented with much thoughtfulness. I'll ping @Cobalt Arachne and @Piecemeal to this, as they're the only Devs I can think of whose roles within the Dev Team might make this discussion applicable to.

It changed mid-May of this year, @Hardboiled Hero. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/28866-homecoming-code-of-conduct-update-may-13th-2021/

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/19655-weekly-discussion-53-how-to-increase-villain-population/page/7/?tab=comments#comment-222763 I think it would be an ideal opportunity to showcase that it's possible to write villainous content which actually respects the player-characters' agency. Is @holymittens still kicking around? There are also some fantastic authors who have published AE arcs. Lots of great opportunities to expand things in more broad and diverse directions.

Here's the thread for that: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/23624-who-would-win-a-fight-superman-vs-goku/

That's kid of a potential powder keg, even though I totally agree that it would be awesome and I would enjoy it, @plainguy. There are a lot of . . . let's call them "purists" around here. The idea of a Temp Power being anything other than either garbage or really restricted offends their narrow concept of what City is. And so to appeal to them, there would need to be -some- kind of trade off. Whether it be an obscene Inf or Merit cost which only grindathons could pay for, or a prohibitively Dev-time-intensive new subsystem of a limited inventory of Temp Powers, or even some other options which just aren't dawning on me right now. In short: Great idea. Probably the wrong audience here.

Episode 4 had a moment that felt very real for me . . . an odd experience, given the rest of the content. The original lived experience was already kind of surreal, honestly, so seeing it play out on the screen like that gave me a very uncomfortable sense of nostalgia. I am now emotionally invested in this series.

I'm okay calling this a "Feature" and not a Bug. But somehow I don't think my opinion will count for much here . . .

I'm not sure what to say if someone actually feels that Control Sets are only notable for their Pets. Seems to entirely miss the mark. Although, I suppose it could be interpreted as a criticism about the lack of meaningful impact that Control has in the meta. That's hardly a hot take these days.

The default is 15 (two weeks plus a day), about as long as you said that you go offline for in your post @capricorpse. The maximum is 600 days (roughly 20 months, so well over a year).

Indeed. It's kind of the Mastermind Archetype's whole schtick, and it's glorious! But naturally, it's also not for everyone. A Control/Henchpet Archetype would be very similar. It's not something which everyone will enjoy. Exactly like every other Archetype already in the game. Besides, with a whole Primary dedicated to Control Powers, there's a -LOT- for this Subjugator to do while the Pets are laying down the primary source of Damage. Without any Support Powers, the Subjugator would have to be proactive in ensuring their Pets don't wind up defeated, prioritizing targets and reapplying Control. With the Henchpets being a Secondary, I would expect that they would be substantially weakened compared to a Mastermind's version of them. Also, the lack of a Bodyguard Mode would mean the Subjugator would need to be more mindful of their own well-being. This proposal is probably -less- of an AFK'able Archetype than the current Mastermind, all things considered.