GraspingVileTerror

That's probably a good suggestion to make in the Suggestions board, @Lorraine of Pinnacle! https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/45-suggestions-amp-feedback/

I think referring to our character names as "assets" illustrates one of the fundamental disconnects that I believe contributes to the longevity of this debate: There is a spectrum of intensity with which members of this community feel a sense of connection to their characters and creations here. At one end we have those of us who feel personally vested in the "well-being" of our characters (as unhealthy as that may be by some metrics), while others feel such a level of detachment and disposability that it's difficult to empathize with the other end (which might also be argued as unhealthy at the extreme edge). Some level of detachment is certainly reasonable, but I also don't think it's unreasonable that people are afraid of losing something precious to them. And bigger picture, we really have to come to grips with how much City means to a lot of people, and how different that meaning manifests from one person to another.

While Pentaphobia may be a rare type of Numerophobia, I know what it's like to have an extreme aversion to a particular number. So, I feel ya, @TheOtherTed. Although I don't know the specific context that Candyman (1992) has to the number 5.

No. Trigger warning: Suspense. Body Horror. Slasher violence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW5CfkUh_uw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPBH3XO8YEU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlwzuZ9kOQU (spoiler-heavy) Continuation of the original movie, and a really solid horror film. If you like horror, slashers, or thoughtful storytelling and can stomach gore and violence, then I say this is worth seeing.

Tell everyone.

It's a Genuine Fake Nemesis Staff. Which is to say the staff is real, but the Nemesis was not. I'm for it! More options is best options!

Here's a left-field kind of idea: Keep the Auto portion of Conditioning as-is, but make the Power a Click which grants 1 Medium Inspiration on a 10 minute timer with no reduction from Global Recharge. Bonus points: Make it work even while Defeated, so there's a random chance someone can get themself a Wakie as an Arachnos Archetype character. Not game breaking, but it definitely has a fairly unique bit of dramatic flair. Just like how Inner Inspiration is billed as the Natural Prestige Power, Conditioning spitting out Inspirations on command could imply that these disciplined soldiers and assassins contend with meta-powered threats by looking deep within themselves and finding strength to persevere against the supernatural. *shrugs* I mean, I don't generally use Inspirations, personally, so I'd certainly prefer something more interesting than this for my Soldiers and Widows. But I'm not sure what else is both thematically appropriate and straddles that line between so-weak-it's-pointless and overpowered.

So, looks like NC was only included there in a perfunctory capacity, as ITN only seemed to be addressing activities taken by Arena.Net employees. And, on the surface of it, all seemed fairly up-and-up. So, as a piece of positive messaging for (what I believe is) their target demographic (non-gamers), the video and the Games for Good initiative seems to be hitting their listed goals well enough. I just wish the IGDA would take a firmer stance on the hard-hitting issues internally. I "get" wanting to play nice with corrupt powers-that-be when you're teetering on a razor's edge of viability . . . but too much sunshine and smoke getting blown up people's asses only does harm in the long term. At some point, you need to cash in on the goodwill and make a play at real progress. Of course, in all fairness, when the IDGA made their big push for unionization in the game industry back in the mid 2000s, it fell apart pretty spectacularly. Maybe they're afraid of a repeat misstep. But if not RIGHT NOW, when has there ever been a better time to push? -After- the court decision on actiblizz gets handed down? I don't like to be pessimistic, but I'm still worried that whole thing is just going to get buried under a rug. That is, unless someone (the IGDA, maybe?) really digs their heels in and makes DAMNED sure that the problems actually get addressed. . . . Sorry. I'm still bitter. I'm still passionate about game development; I just can't return to it while things continue to be the way they are right now. Homecoming stirred a lot of shit up for me, heh. But I'm glad for it. I see so much potential for good here. Here's to hope springing eternal, eh?

Ah. Uh huh. I suppose we'll see about that. If/When there's a conclusion to The Talks. ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/31053-“the-talks”-aka-the-status-of-homecoming-nc-legal-discussion…/ )

Based on the trailers: Yes.

Sometimes it's nice to section things out in a way that you can link to them separately later on. Thanks for doing this, @Glacier Peak. I've bookmarked the thread, and will boop the URL in to appropriate threads or discussions when people ask for updates.

Thank you for the clarification, @GM Widower. And thank you @ZacKing for .

I think adding name auctions would promote actual name squatting tactics for the purposes of in-game profit. Some folks would roll multiple accounts just to come up with as many catchy names as possible. And as someone pointed out earlier, the purchase of names would greatly favour players who are Inf-rich. A name lottery might be more fair than an auction, but even that probably isn't necessarily a reasonable system either.

AH! Temporal Trafficking in humans displaced from other eras. Kind of like the plot to Airframe. Could make for an interesting storyline in-game. Maybe even for the Cimerora AE contest . . .

Radio/Newspaper missions sometimes suffer an interesting glitch after patches which causes them to randomize the contents. I once had a Newspaper in Port Oakes where it was full of 1950s Etoile Civilians in a Sewer map after a patch a long while ago.

I didn't hear about this before now. Thanks for sharing! How do you rate seasons 1 and 2, @Heraclea?

As ever, there are players willing to help those who are having trouble with finding a name for their new characters. I linked the N.A.B.bers thread a little while ago, and I'll be even more explicit about it this time: - The debate over freeing up names currently in use, regardless of how long the player has been offline, is something the Homecoming Team are fully aware of. - They've made a tentative policy which will go in to effect when they deem it is appropriate to do so. - I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't seen a lot of situations that lead me to believe the Homecoming Team will be coerced (or even politely convinced) to deploy the name release policy until they're ready to do so by the metrics of their own (arguably inscrutable) standards. In the meantime, your collective time is probably best served tapping in to the creativity which other members of the community are more than willing to share, free of charge! The Name Release isn't Dark Souls. Smashing your foreheads against it perpetually isn't likely to be fruitful. If you can't get the name you want, let us help you compromise on a name that you might just love even more. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/21400-name-assistance-brigade-the-nabbers/

Other than the entire Garfield debaucle and Raimi's loathing of Venom, Spider-Man has been an incredibly solid mainstay for media based on a Marvel property for many years. The trailer for this movie, and the chemistry which Cumberbatch and Holland possess, and the awesome energy which acting professionals like Zendaya, Batalon, and Favreau bring in to the mix . . . Well. About the only thing which might make this movie better would be a post-credit stinger with Ryan Reynolds getting mouthy about his affection for a certain Spidery boy while merc'ing someone, you know? (So, so, SO excited about DaFoe and Molina! I hope Goblin and Oc team up. And Keaton's Vulture! Oooo! Excite-bike!)

I've been a card-carrying member of the IGDA since the early 2000s, @Siouxsie. The organization has certainly had its ups and downs over the years, with changes in leadership happening a few times. Their Code of Ethics is pretty good . . . on paper. There have been concerns throughout the years, though, that the IDGA failed to meet the standards they set for themselves, from time to time. Lately they've been on the backfoot, far as I can tell. But I'll freely admit; I've not really been fully engaged with the industry in a professional capacity since around 2012/'13ish. So I may be totally out of touch. Likewise, @Kyksie, I'm not a fan of "charities" or not-for-profits that exist solely to "raise awareness" . . . but this Games for Good initiative doesn't appear to be a fund-raising endeavour. At least not in the typically overt fashion from what I'm seeing. My concern is that I'm still unsure if this is a legitimate extension of the advocacy side of the IGDA, or if it's more of a lobbyist angle. Positivity is all well and good, but you can't address systemic problems by ignoring them with good public relation efforts. Still . . . drawing otherwise unengaged people in by making them interested in the beneficial aspects of games may be helpful. After that, we may be able to make efforts to engage those people on the more urgent issues too. We'll have to see how this shakes out. But, in the meantime, sharing information with one another on the topic is a great way to keep an eye on things. Sort of like the benefits of Free Press, and all that, even if we're not necessarily holding ourselves to any form of journalistic integrity.

Given you've been following Booper for a while, Flea, I'm not sure why you're making that post.

With the upcoming Stone Throw/Rock Blast/whatever-it's-going-to-be-called Set that one of the Devs teased earlier this year, sounds like an appropriate time to get Stone Armour proliferated to Sentinels (and yes, Stalkers too). Actually, here's an idea . . . replace the Tier 9 with a Auto Power which creates synergy bonuses in the other Armour Toggles of the Set. You know, if Granite is seen as inappropriate for Sentinels/Stalkers for any reason. https://loveandlightschool.com/the-secrets-of-the-synergy-12-stones-for-meditation-more/

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/29090-mapserver-host-hardware-changes/?tab=comments#comment-391558 Thanks to @Telephone's recent post, we've been given some insight in to one of the core problems preventing Bases being used for combat (whether that's PvE or PvP with Pets). It makes me wonder if a solution might be possible in the form of invisible volumetric geometry being created that: A) Can't intersect with any Base items or decourations, with the exception of Entrance Portal, Spawn Locations, Combat Objective, et cetera (which must all be inside the volumes for a Base to be Combat Validated). B) Must all be connected to one another. C) The bottom surface must contiguously be within 5 feet of a dedicated floor geometry. D) Are only visible in Base Editing Mode, and are wireframe or have translucent surfaces for ease of configuring/placing. E) Greatly simplify the Beaconing process for pathing, allowing the otherwise overtaxed system to have less intensive operations. Naturally, I recognize this would not be a small ask. I'm just curious if it's within the limits of the engine, and the skills of current Devs or if additional Devs would need to be recruited for such an ambitious project. It just seems to me that allowing PvE or PvP content in Bases would be a monumental step toward long-term player enjoyment, and it has been my understanding that AI pathing has always been one of the most significant hurdles to making that a reality.

Aww, sad day. Looks like I spoke too soon. Someone walked right in to the deepest nonsense pile.

. . . Do I even touch that one?

Just got this in my email: https://igda.org/games-for-good-itn-igda-programme/ I'm going to need to do some more research before I personally decide how vested I will be in this, but I figured I should at least spread the word for others to look in to it as well. Something smells "off" right now, but I'll try to look a little deeper, just in case that's my own paranoia talking.