GraspingVileTerror

I also wonder what effect people's various monitor and display settings might have on their perception of Redside being "too dark/gloomy."

Carnie/Traps Mastermind. Mimes with Mines. But . . . yeah. Seems like the lowest hanging fruit for a quick turn-around of a new Mastermind Henchpet Set. There are a lot of other Set ideas which I think are infinitely more interesting for Masterminds, but Carnies are prefabricated, popular, and fill a missing niche. They're the obvious choice for the first new Mastermind Set in years.

I mean, if someone were only motivated by the acquisition of money . . . sure? But the anecdotes I hear of people saying they see people leave the game after receiving Inf gifts runs completely contrary to my own experience, where giving gifts of Inf often results in a player sticking around longer. And really, if the people who are only here for the "bigger numbers grind" get to the end of that particular journey more quickly, I suppose we're just saving them time on the eventual inevitable anyway. The people who are interested in everything else this game still has to offer will certainly stick around regardless of whatever prizes they end up receiving, free or otherwise.

There's a Badge idea for you: Star-Crossed Haters Run in to one of your own alt-characters in an Asynchronous PvP Mayhem or Safeguard Mission.

Yeah. @Illy's got it. Fine-tuning PvP on the feedback of hardcore PvPers doesn't make PvP accessible to those who might be interested in dabbling, and eventually finding their way in. Shifting PvP back toward a state where player performance feels consistent between PvE and PvP might help . . . but even that probably wouldn't be enough. I think more objective-based PvP would probably help. Give players content where they can engage with the game in a familiar context, but with the added threat of other players. Still, a dedicated PvP build will utterly destroy a regular player, making for a hostile play experience that isn't conducive to long-term engagement. And so . . . Dropping the ceiling on PvP for -some- zones would probably be a great gateway. If new players -couldn't- be utterly annihilated by a veteran PvPer, and be on even footing, it would give more space to learn, grow, and fail without the instant frustration of unavoidable defeat. Flesh out the Shivan Shard with optional side-objectives. Maybe have the giant Shivan monster spawn in-zone, and downing it grants a temporary, zone-specific buff. Make the battle for Siren's Call more consistent, by having the NPC battles follow a set pattern of progression from one end of the zone to the other, taking Outposts, then offer players on that side a safe haven to retreat to as a reward for helping their side win. Create a new PvP Zone to showcase and leverage newer gameplay mechanics in a PvP context. It could be really wise to follow a MOBA framework (and trust me, I'm not a fan of MOBAs in general, but I admit that they have pretty much cracked the nut when it comes to objective-driven PvP where big strong player-heroes destroy scores of weak NPC enemies, before tackling one another). Otherwise? You just keep iterating on PvP using the feedback from the existing PvPers, and little by little they'll get their fill of the same-old, same-old. Catering to an ever-shrinking demographic is a self-sabotaging approach. Especially for something hinging on competitiveness in an otherwise cooperative environment. Capitalize on what works in the rest of the game, and use it as the primary framework for attracting new players in to the scene.

Updated to include @Retrobytz's post.

The biggest hurdle for Mayhem PvP is that hardcore PvPers are leagues beyond normal players, and would absolutely ruin the experience for them. And that's not a dig at PvPers, since they're playing the game the way the enjoy it. But mixing the general population with PvPers is a recipe for a lot of deeply upset regular players. Without yet-another overhaul of PvP mechanics, the best option is asynchronous PvP, where Villains accumulate points in Mayhem Missions (or some new form of content) to launch NPC/AI-run events in Blueside zones. Both Heroes and Villain players get to maintain the regular play experience, but still get that almighty sense of "Villains Act (and have agency), and Heroes React (and save the day)." But a full-disclosure PvP Mayhem/Safeguard, where everyone knows what sort of extreme cases exist with PvP builds? Yeah. Okay. Just make DAMNED sure you choreograph well in advance what a regular player is getting themself in to with something like that. Maybe make them only available from inside PvP Zones, just so there's that extra layer of security from a regular player being annihilated without warning.

I believe it's a matter of people complaining because they didn't know the "level 50+ presents" WERE "level 50+ -only-" It's not exactly clearly explained anywhere in the game itself. A lot of this game is still taught to people through chat or from outside the game.

Sorry, I'm not saying that an actual Tanker would have low Hit Points. I was implying that such a character would be theoretically balanced by a complete lack of Hit Points.

Note that your PBAoE Toggle character's Hit Point total would be equivalent to a Mastermind. Without Henchies.

Would give an opportunity to showcase Support/Melee, and hopefully work out any concerns while demonstrating the viability of the Archetype.

When Tour Tips came out, someone in the Everlasting chat was asking whether there were more diegetic tutorials in the game. This sounds like an excellent opportunity! Perhaps we can various Zone's Security Chiefs offer a sort of tour mission where it gives you waypoints to familiar a player with "the turf" of various enemy factions. Perhaps even mention when a Badge is tied to a certain faction. Something to play with in terms of development.

As TheZag suggests, the command will either be: /wdwsave or /optionsave on a good character, then /wdwload or /optionload on the screwy character. That should hopefully do the trick.

I feel like I'm going to need to brush up on the research related to mood-weather interrelations. . . . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6704634/ Only 24 subjects? Pha! Need more research! Ahem! Anyway. The weather complaint always struck me as odd . . . but then I realized; I'm one of those "weirdos" who much prefers a good rainy day (or, dare to dream, a thunderstorm and heavy shower!), or a good snowy gloom in -real life,- let alone the game. As far as I'm concerned, the sun can fuck right off, if not for all that life-facilitating photosynthesis going on. If things started getting as sunny in the Isles as they do on Blueside, I'd be pretty miffed, personally. But I'm not against more diverse weather in -all- zones! Bonus points if players can opt-in/opt-out of being exposed to certain weather phenomena on a personal basis.

And does anyone remember certain posters claiming that it was (quote) "Impossible" (unquote) to have Villains and Heroes together in the same non-co-op/non-PvP zone? *shrugs* I mean, I know I need to be more careful about my word choice sometimes too, but "impossible" in the context of a game always seems to imply to me that something is not possible. You know, completely unsupported by the code to the point where it couldn't even happen as a glitch. Glad to see that this sort of thing can still happen from time to time. Gives hope for the future.

Not to further contribute to the swirling downward motion going on here, but . . . @Lockpick? Your contextual video is not viewable in my country, apparently. Got a title or a wiki page or something instead? Also, @Monos King, have you given up, or do you think there's any salvaging the interesting bits of the original topic to continue discussion here?

I don't see Positron 0 on the list.

I owe you an apology, @Shenanigunner. For context and an explanation, but not an excuse; I called you out because I made a mistake about who you were in this thread. I was in a rush to leave with the spouse to go see Black Widow now that the theatres are finally open in our area, and didn't do my due diligence in reviewing the whole thread before making my last post here. I had twisted your identity with an earlier poster in this thread as a single narrative of negativity. Upon proper review, I see that your posts here are actually largely investigative and offering suggestions, even if there's a bit of a disconnect in terms of your play experience not being transferable to all other players. There's been a lot of nay-saying, defeatism, and pessimism all over the City forums for a long time, and that really tends to get under my skin. I think we would be a lot further along if there were more open support and collaborative cooperation from the entire community. So, I'm sorry for my mistake, and I hope you continue to offer suggestions throughout the discussions related to City. That said, I do also want to reiterate to everyone that it's crucially important to remember how diverse the player population of City is. We're not all comic book fans. We don't all play the game the same way. We aren't all motivated to play for the same reasons. And that only makes City stronger! We are all equally valid players so long as we do not harm others. Our diversity gives this game lasting power beyond more insular creations or games meant to be played in only one way. Emergent gameplay has maintained the lifeblood of many incredible titles, and even revived a few (the history of Speed-Running, anyone?)! And creating more -optional- ways for players to meaningful customize and personalize the game to their own comfort and familiarity will only ever enhance the game for everyone by keeping more players happy and engaged. The less obstacles and barriers there are for entry or continued interaction, the more players there can be to support one another and enhance the experience for all. I always support features that serve this end.

Someone called? What's going on? Where're my henchies? Oh. Yes. "Teaming." I'm a villain. I team when it suits my interests. In all seriousness! Everlasting has statistically held the highest ratio of Redside players, but as a roleplayer server, teaming with unknown quantities of people isn't necessarily something a lot of the Everlasting crowd will necessarily do. But even then, during peak hours, I'd say there's usually at least one or two Redside team running with constant push in the LFG channel for more members. Granted, roughly half of those are in-character teams. Meanwhile, while I don't have personal experience with Excelsior, I hear that it tends to be more team-focused than other Shards due to its high overall population. Sadly, I can't speak to the teaming culture of that Shard.

Somebody bopped me one of those that they were using during SCoRE. Lemme see if I can attach it to the forum here . . . CoX-Log-Reader.zIp

@Shenanigunner . . . why are you so against players having the power to play the game in a way that is familiar and comfortable to them? You've offered your feedback, and you've offered your suggestions on how you want others to play, and they've been rejected by the players who want to see improvements here. This is clearly not a suggestion that you feel you need, but other players do. I think it's safe for you to leave it at that.

. . . Ok, terrible idea, but . . . hear me out . . . What if we schedule a Clubbing Night one of these days? No, no. Not a bar or nightclub. Like @Greycat's joke at the end there. A night where we all play as some variety of War Mace or Bane Spider characters, and we all go CLUBBING. Yeah?

Don't forget the Spider Vanity Pet! Now imagine one the size of an Arachnobot.

Fair enough. "Working as intended," as far as I'm aware, then. The first time I wound up in Atlas Park as a Villain was during CoV Beta. Got Droned, sent to the Hospital, then couldn't leave the Hospital due to the Drone out front, heh. Any time after that, which has been . . . three? Maybe only two times. But, yeah, any time after that, I had the same experience you just described.

According to the Wiki, the minimum Stealth is -180 https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Limits#Stealth_and_Perception Is there anything in the game currently that can actually cause that?