GraspingVileTerror

It lasted slightly longer than that, @cohRock. City of Villains was released in 2005 ( https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Issue_6 ). City of Villains was finally merged with Heroes in 2008 ( https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/News/20080716 ). And Going Rogue came out in 2010 ( https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Issue_18 ). Unless you were thinking of https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Good_Versus_Evil_Edition when you said "the Going Rogue issue?"

I'm interested, @Rosencrantz! . . . errr . . . @Chrono-Bot!

Aye aye, as @A Cat says, @Rahabina. You are most welcome to join! I also recommend skimming through this board and the Everlasting board ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/40-everlasting/ ), and checking out some of the roleplay accoutrements on offer. And while they've been much quieter as of late, there are still hundreds of members in the OOC and RP Global Channels in-game. They're handy for finding fellow roleplayers, even if the heyday has passed. /chanjoin OOC /chanjoin RP

Aye. I think that was the punchline of their suggestion, as it was meant a little as a joke. The idea sprang from the fact that apparently Mercs could deal x2 more damage, and STILL be the lowest in terms of damage output performance. So the proposed "fix" in that thread was to just let Mercenary Masterminds double-up their Mercs by also getting them as a Pool Set. With the added benefit of giving -all- characters access to a personal army of soldiers, for thematic reasons. Not a serious solution, but a fun one to illustrate the purported problem. And honestly . . . I'm not against it. Yes, if it happened, then actual Mercenary Masterminds would still not be "fixed," but I do find the proposal of giving everyone "hireable minions" to be very much on-point with the theme and tone of this game. Bonus points if the Pool Mercs are 100% costume-customizable.

Although DJ Zero will persist, but I think that might be from the Valentine's Day event?

Geography plays a large part in how "geek" and "nerd" get defined, from what I've seen. Kind of like: https://images.huffingtonpost.com/2012-11-09-Screenshot20121109at3.05.00PM.png And that's even before we bring Canada and the rest of the English-speaking world in to the mix.

This idea has cropped up from time to time, in various iterations. I can't remember who recommended it, but somebody recently suggested making Mercenaries a Pool Set. While I doubt Homecoming's Team would commit to something like that, it does inspire some interesting ideas about how we could potentially implement some workarounds. Another alternative . . . a new Archetype which has a Ranged Set, an Assault Set, or a Control Set (or a hybrid thereof) as the Primary, and the Secondary is the Henchpet Sets, but with the attacks replaced by personal Survival Powers (like a Toggled Defense buff, or Auto Resist Power). In any event, keep dreaming the big dreams, @Dungpow! Your idea is good, but doubtful that Homecoming is the place we'll see it happen.

I believe the replacement Bands are a weaker version. I think. Maybe. . . . somebody once told me . . . ANYWAY! I'm on board for this, but wouldn't mind seeing it maybe even get a -smidge- more complex than just a P2W Vendor. Maybe the old Origin-stores and Quartmasters could each give refills of specific Temp Powers? Like going to the electronic store in Blayde Square to refill your Electric Temp Powers. Or head to one of the Natural-origin health-nut shops to get yourself a refill on rifle ammo (you may notice the store already carries an assortment of firearms next to the protein whey powder). There's a lot of creative world-building that could be employed here.

So it's true, then? That's the next Set being worked on? I saw Powerhouse's signature and assumed that's what it was hinting at, but didn't see any confirmations or any leaks (reliably sourced or otherwise). I'm not surprised, and it -is- nice to hear a new Control Set will finally get made . . . but add my name to the list of players who want to see something more interesting. Like Throwing Knives, or Blade Assault, or Street Combat Assault, or Riot Grenade Control, or Whip Control. My biggest dreams are still -something- to give Controllers and Dominators some Natural vibes.

Oh, absolutely. But let's evacuate the marginalized and abused employees before the burning commences. And, critically important, follow up with investigations into all the other publishers and mega-studios. So those employees just don't wind up being forced in to the same cesspit under a different name, as all too often happens already.

The warcraft rerelease was a trainwreck, @Techwright. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGFPEB1DKXI

I had a brief conversation at work with a co-worker about music, and the conversation got interrupted JUST as she was saying "video game music is art." I'm sad that we didn't get to dive in to that particular tangent. Maybe next week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbXJ3_AQE_o I'm on board for varied, potentially experimental animation (mis)adventures! Hell, before changing my focus to games, I wanted to be an animator when I was growing up. Watched a LOT of experimental and artistic stuff. I quite enjoyed Into the Spider-Verse, so this will be an easy movie ticket from me (barring some massive upheaval about the movie being truly bad, anyway). But October 2022? Wow. That was a pretty fleshed out teaser for something that's almost a whole year away. Maybe it was a proof of concept animation that they just decided was good enough to publicize. Then again, the intentionally low framerate does theoretically make it a bit easier to get this stuff out in a hurry.

I suppose that is a question of whether you or this other person place value on your personal identity at this time, or if you're both just comfortable continuing to interact without that information added in to the mix, @Rosencrantz. You could lead off with a question along the lines of "do you mind if we discuss some things related to real life, or would you prefer that we just keep strictly in the game's/roleplay's fantasy?" Gauge the other player's feelings on the matter, if they're not already clear. Non-specifically, I'm of two minds on that matter in general. I like that online can be a safe space to explore our own identities, and how those identities mesh with others, in theory. It was vital for myself back in 2007'ish, in Legacy/Retail City no less. So I've personally experienced the awesome force for good which roleplay in a nominally anonymous space can offer. But I wish that it wasn't still potentially volatile to the point where some people feel some trepidation or outright fear at the prospect of connecting on a personal level with the other players. Strong bonds get forged all the time, but sometimes those are bonds of connection that were formed with an identity which ultimately was just a stepping stone on the path to personal enlightenment. The sort of identity that isn't true to the person who used it, but the identity which someone else grew connected to. It can get messy. And there are a few people out there who are not questioning their own identity, but intentionally misrepresent themselves in an effort to manipulate the emotions of others and troll for their personal amusement. Activities which ultimately undermine the efforts of the genuine people by feeding in to that culture of fear in others. Ultimately, though, a person's identity is no one else's business but that one person. If they choose to share it or not remains wholly their decision. The important thing for others to remember is that spaces like this have rules to protect the anonymity of participants, so we must assume that no one we speak with is going to necessarily be the person we think/hope they are. Hopefully those who are still exploring themselves, but haven't yet found someone they can trust and confide in, will find that sort of connection and feel safe to open up on their own terms. It did wonders for me about fifteen years ago. It's a big part of what City of Heroes means to me, and I try my best to provide safe space and facilitate that kind of self-discovery here.

Misinformation and unreliable narration are powerful tools for allowing retcons to live a shared life with their original disregarded lore.

Just finished season 1. I kept getting ready to stop liking it, since I saw a lot of negative reviews about it. But honestly, most of those negative reviews boiled down to "they didn't redo the story exactly like the anime" or some variation of being a fan of the original, and this series not living up to their standards. Frankly, I found the original anime leaned WAY too heavily in to the ennui. Themes of depression, boredom, and pain/harm can be interesting; but they need a good contrast to really shine. The anime always felt to me like there was just never any kind of levity that wasn't also self-depreciating. Everything was always punctuated with how awful the universe was and how pointless caring would ever be. The live action, on the other hand, had enough excitement and positivity to really make the low points feel punchy and satisfying. There were meaningful highs and lows. There were also complaints about a certain face-heel turn at the finale. As if someone who had been traumatized for years, trapped between fear for their life and feelings of abandonment, could magically welcome a self-proclaimed "reformed" serial killer with open arms and boundless love. No way. The ending for this series was spot on! Characters reacted like human beings, rather than reductive caricatures (well, perhaps aside from one who we only got to see for about 45 seconds in the literal last scene, but if season 2 happens, they might actually have a chance to be fleshed out). Overall: Fantastic! I hope season 2 happens.

Just gonna call @Darmian in to here.

Given I've met a number of players who have demon characters ranging from lore-friendly personal takes on the Abyss or Nether realms, all the way to literally describing their characters as from the d&d demon/devil planes . . . yeah, I don't think demonic player-characters really have to play by any kind of solid rules. I mean, isn't there a saying about Hell being personal? I feel like there's an obvious joke I'm missing built off of that sentiment . . .

I had totally forgotten about the "Girlfriends from Hell" . . . so, yeah. Looks like "Hell" is explicitly referenced, but it's done so in a cheeky fashion which kind of suggests a double-entendre more than a specific reference to a literal place called Hell, from my reading. Also, thanks for reminding me about the word I was searching for, Coyot: Abyss.

Nether and infernal realms exist, but nothing explicitly called "Hell" as far as I can recall. Demonic entities seem to come from a couple various infernal realms, with the demons who made the pacts with the Orenbegans to form the Circle of Thorns being the most endemic in the Primal Earth universe/Shard. It -seems- that the way the multidimensional nature of City has it that there are alternative realities that exist in external dimensions (Shards), and within those dimensions are realms that exist out of phase with one another (like First Ward/Night Ward, for example). I believe it's implied that the infernal realms are that latter category. Interestingly, the Demons of the Demon Summoning Power Set for Masterminds seem distinctly DIFFERENT from the Circle's pact partners, and seem to be from a different plane or entirely different realm. Additionally, with the character named Infernal and his doppelgänger, we see that there seems to be an implication that Praetoria has a similar/roughly-equal infernal plane of existence. We know of the Spirit Realm, which the Banished Pantheon are locked away within, but there are apparently even various realms that share that name, since there are a few missions where we have Spirits/Ghosts coming in to the physical world OR as a player-character you even go to those realms. @Coyotedancer is exceptionally well-versed on Circle lore, so I'll prod her to see if she has anything to share here.

I was thinking that maybe if we did get around to different categories of Temporary Powers, @TheZag, then 3/7 could go under the Primary column (STAttack, AoEAttack, Control), 3/7 go under Secondary (Survival, Support, Mission), and 1/7 remain in the third column (Misc). While it wouldn't necessarily be completely equal, it would make everything much more clearly organized and quicker to reach.

Much appreciated, @Kallisti. Given the web app doesn't work for me at all, I'm happy to see someone still keeping conventional spreadsheets alive for this. Will you also be adding the Issue 27, Page 3 Badge additions once it's out of Beta?

Honestly, with how many Temp Powers exist ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/12631-packrat-at-17/#comment-143379 ) I think it would be stellar to have a complete overhaul of the Temp Power sub-system, if possible. I suspect, however, that introducing a whole new menu just for such management would be prohibitively difficult or time consuming. At the very least, having some better list categorization would be nice. So instead of just one large list of Temp Powers, they could potentially break them up in to categories like: -Temp Single Target Attack Powers -Temp AoE Attack Powers -Temp Survival Powers -Temp Support Powers -Temp Control Powers -Mission Objective Temp Powers -Miscellaneous Temp Powers Et cetera. Still a pretty substantial amount of work, though, given how many Temp Powers there are, of course.

I know my knowledge of Hamidon is limited, but don't regular Mitochondria in the raid version die/disappear when the nucleus does? Should the Lady Grey -weakened- version really have a better survival mechanic?

Perhaps. I did realize after posting that what constitutes "alive" versus "dead" can be tricky to define, even at a cellular level ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibpdNqrtar0 ). But at the very least the mitochondria should all tumble to the ground since the gelatinous solution they were suspended in is now gone, and become severely weakened due to the impact on the ground, no? And given the amount of effort that sort of additional might entail versus just having them straight-up die when Hamidon does, I figured it makes more sense to introduce a kill code.