GraspingVileTerror

OH MY GOODNESS! @Lazarillo has a new look! GASP! GASP, I say! ... ahem. Yes. Hamidon's internal organelles should also die when the larger Hamidon organism dies. It's only sensible. If this is meant to be working as intended, it defies the nature of Hamidon as a giant single-celled organism.

I feel that the TFS answer to Santa on planet Vegeta kind of applies to the Rogue Isles just as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7R6cgwMQXo&t=259s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zOv7kvYmtg&t=522s With that in mind, I humbly submit that the Rogue Isles should instead celebrate LORD RECLUSE DAY! During the month of December they decorate the Isles with EXTRA red spiders! Very festive.

He looks like he's waiting desperately to be next in line for the bathroom with that pose. . . . sorry. Had to.

While I wouldn't use the same colourful language as @Snarky, I do feel a lot of the new additions would be much better served with more avenues to learn than mere frustrating trial and error. I realize some people have a strong desire to blindly stumble around as they explore and experiment, and that's a valid form of entertainment for those people. But we are quite a varied selection of players here. Having some more legible and sensible in-game guidance for these new mechanics could go a long way to improving their appeal. At the moment, I agree that this content feels more esoteric than engaging in several places. To the point where I don't even feel like it's worth trying the new Strike Force on Beta right now; the recent additions have primed me to expect it to not be a productive or enjoyable experience for me.

Fanservice done right. I was a wee child when the original Ghostbusters movies were out. They weren't exactly kids movies, but that didn't stop me from being absolutely thrilled with them! When I saw the ads for Ghostbusters Afterlife, I was very wary. I thought "nah, this is just going to be a cash grab. It's going to be hollow and vapid and shit." And then I saw Paul Rudd was in it, and I thought "ok, hold on. Maybe I'll give it a chance." This movie feels like it was carefully designed to hit all the nostalgia buttons in my brain, but unlike Jurassic World, it never felt trite. Even with the BIG THING at the climax of the finale, as hammy as it was, I still felt "yeah, no, I know you're pandering to me, but . . . this is GOOD." Gonna recommend this to anyone who was a kid or a teen in the 80s. Hell, maybe even the "grown ups" from back then will love this too, although it might not be cynical enough for the older Gen-Xers, heh.

My spouse and I came to the conclusion that some of these changes happened to give viewers insights in to characters' motivations which originally were provided through a narrator or internal dialogue of the characters' thoughts and feelings. Since the show doesn't want to have an omnivoice, they're instead using cinema shortcuts to say "[insert spoiler thing here] is why Perrin tries to be the gentle giant archetype." Although my spouse is still upset that he doesn't have his signature axe.

The issue, @InvaderStych, is that when it was -just- Netflix, people didn't have to navigate Byzantine labyrinths of intentionally confusing cable package "deals." It was all in one place, basically. Then came amazon, and it was still tolerable. A little difference between the two with exclusives, but nothing world-ending. But now that every corporate entity wants a streaming service all their own, they've gone and carved up Netflix and made everything confusing as hell again. The streaming landscape effectively looks the same as the already mentioned cable package labyrinths, just with a different coat of paint. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

So, spouse started off annoyed and angry at all the changes, but by the end of episode 3 things were moving along in such a way as to get us invested. Not completely hooked, but willing to continue through the season. Meanwhile, we watched the first episode of the new live action Cowboy Bebop, and . . . well . . . https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/32648-cowboy-bebop-2021-live-action/

Hell. Yes! Watched the first episode and I'm liking it -more- than the original anime. This thing is beautiful! The set designs and the style . . . it just OOZES style. As it should, because that's part of the core allure. Don't want to wait to keep watching it, but I've got work tomorrow, so off to bed I must go . . . and then spouse got us tickets to the new Ghostbusters movie after that, so not going to get a chance to keep watching Bebop until the evening tomorrow. MMM! So good!

And they broke the $1 million mark at some point today. Currently standing at $1,135,827.97 having "bussed" for 6 days, 19 hours, and 1 minute.

As an avid roleplayer with well over 200 characters at this point, I find that the generosity or lack-thereof from other players isn't wholly contingent on the appearance of my character. People are diverse, and City of Heroes (especially places where roleplay is popular) has a wide variety of players representing many walks of life. I've occasionally been "hit on" while just walking around in non-Pocket D zones, without even interacting with the other player. This has been while playing as masculine-presenting characters, feminine-presenting characters, ambiguously-gendered characters, clearly robotic or monstrous characters, and even as a giant rottweiler dog character. There are a lot of different people out there. People like a lot of different things. It's just normal humans being normal humans.

I mean . . . you know, eventually? Someone somewhere will get some use out of that. But Buttcape parity has been a LONG standing issue, with vocal interest dating back all the way to Issue 6, 7, or 8 at the very least. Probably even during City of Villains Beta, honestly. When the first buttcape was spotted, someone wanted it, and they made their desires known to the world. And many have been banging that drum ever since.

I'm unsure, but is there actually some way to tell the difference between a Primal Convert and an original Rikti Earth Rikti? Other than the big names (like Hro, the ambassadors, and the Riders), couldn't all the Rikti we interact with at this point be Converts?

In Buttcape We Trust.

I also approve of Buttcapes For All. . . . sounds like an election slogan . . .

Traps -thrives- in melee range thanks largely to Poison Trap. Given Trick Arrow's duration on most Powers, you pluck yew from range to soften everyone up, then dive in while the Debuffs are applied. Reapplications of further Debuffs as necessary from point-blank range work just as well. Hurricane is definitely an issue. But replacing one Power with a new one, say a Anti-Repel version like what they've added to Singularity, and suddenly you'll have people clamouring to have a Storm/- Trickster on their team! Of course, they would need to reduce the To-Hit Debuff just to make sure this replacement Power isn't completely overpowered. Force Fields as a whole set is overdue for a looking at for every Archetype, so problematic Powers there could potentially be addressed while that's getting an overhaul. Alternatively, of all the Support Sets, if Force Fields are just something that's not available to a Support/Melee Archetype, it would hardly be the first time a new Archetype didn't get everything proliferated in to it upon release.

Now if only Phil could convince microsoft to respect that kind of backwards compatibility with the non-game software that was included in past versions of Windows . . . Anyone else ever notice how features that were standard in old versions of Windows, particularly 3.1 and XP, were gutted in later versions of the OS? Like being able to modify audio recordings in the old version of the built-in Sound Recorder, or being able to configure the original free Outlook with more than just one account. Anyway. I am always suspicious of how the games industry plan to inflict DRM or cloud-based limitations in these cases, but more support toward preservation, including through emulation, is a net positive at the moment.

Support / Melee or NO DEAL! (I'm not seriously "or no deal" on this, but I do think with Stalkers, Scrappers, and Brutes all being Melee Primaryists, with Controllers, Corruptors, and Masterminds all being Support Secondaryists, only Defenders being Support Primaryists, and only Tankers being Melee Secondaryists, we'd feel more level-handed with Support / Melee instead of Melee / Support.) Here are a taste of some past ideas: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/15350-a-minimalist-take-on-a-supportmelee-at/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/21398-melee-support-at-concepts/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/7894-regulator-meleesupport-at/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/3856-defiler-meleesupport-at/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/6850-protector-meleesupport/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/13318-new-archetype-protector-supportmelee/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/13326-building-a-melee-support/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/6713-archetype-concept-the-paladin-support-melee/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/14721-new-at-idea-overlord-meleesupport-with-a-twist/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/2442-at-proposal-meleesupport/ (If one might not be able to tell, I have a personally vested interest in Support / Melee as an Archetype.) The general nay-sayings revolve around thoughts that such an Archetype would "need" to be squishie, and that presumed squishieness would some how be too much to bear in melee. Given current Defenders can survive in melee solo, I've always found that particular complaint to be a little baffling. This thread proposed a new variation of that by suggesting that Buff Powers are Ranged typically, so that's somehow incongruous with a Melee Attack Set? I think @Hjarki's response sums up the retort to that. What it really boils down to is making sure that the Inherent and the replacement for Confront/Taunt/Placate mesh together and define the Archetype's roles in both solo and team play. I proposed a PBAoE Escape/Placate that would be available starting at level 10 (replacing Taunt from the Tanker loadouts for Melee Sets). And an Inherent which provides such an Archetype with additional Survival stats while solo, but those values drop as teammates go up (like Vigilance does for Defenders). Ultimately, my ideas are to craft something that rewards flexibility and mobility. Positioning oneself in any given battle to maximize the benefit to allies, while dishing out a little hurt to enemies to fill in the time. Thematically, my Support / Melee would be less of a paladin, and more of a trickster. Think Loki, for example, as Kinetics / Dual Blades. Gets up close and personal for the violence, but pops around the battlefield and debuffs enemies with poison barbs spit from the lips (a.k.a.: Demoralizes and confounds people with his words). Granted, some folks might argue Loki as a Stalker, or a Controller. And those are both valid too, given how many variations there are of the character. Alternatively, Batman could be interpreted as this sort of Archetype, as Traps / Street Justice. Using devices and doodads, then going in to finish a weakened target off with a well-placed punch to the jaw. And, in desperate times, Batman has been there to give the rest of his team a lift; supporting them in times of need with his various equipment. Of course neither of these are a perfect fit. I don't even like to use examples like that, as I'd rather people use Archetypes to create their own original characters. But some people seem to expect these sorts of examples be made . . . so there are two. Some non-specific examples of other concepts using this Archetype (credit to @HelBlaiz for half of these): Trick Arrow / Dual Blades - hunter-trapper Kinetics / Staff Fighting - warrior maiden Empathy / Martial Arts - mystic monk Time Manipulation / Kinetic Melee - arcanist Kinetics / Katana - Tsoo Red Ink Man Dark Miasma / Titan Weapon - grim reaper Poison / Spines - alien or mutant monster Force Field / Broadsword - guardian angel Pain Domination / War Mace - inquisitor

Between Market and in-game email, everyone does actually have at least 100 Inspiration Slots starting at level 1, if they choose to use those storage slots in such a way. And that's before we take Super Packs and Character Items in to account here. But that's a separate issue to be addressed or not addressed at the whims of the Devs.

I did propose something like that as one of my alternative solutions, yes.

The why of their initial implementation doesn't detract from their current value. Emergent gameplay is a thing, and I strongly believe it should be embraced and nurtured, ESPECIALLY in City of Heroes. Inclusivity and diversity have been inherent parts of this game's fundamental identity since the beginning. Not executed to perfection, of course, but the importance of personal choice and personal identity expression through the game shows up in all these places. Yes, even in a real-money "Pay to Win" gacha that was modified when the game became not-for-profit.

I think you may want to expand your play experiences if you think every game works that way. And frankly, you and I aren't the ones to judge how a new player -should- get to play. That's the point. The Amplifiers exist as an excellent tool for players to choose their own play experience. They could be implemented a bit better, or a more thoughtful Easy Mode could be added, but for now, in the absence of better options, the Amplifiers fill an excellent role which I don't want to see lost.

"Necessary?" Ah ah ah! https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/32055-pv2-vendor-sell-a-permanent-or-temp-hold-power/page/2/#comment-410175 And of course I give them advice. But not everyone has the same inherent skills or abilities. That's the whole point of improving the available Accessibility Options to all players.

I'm content with Netflix, and contemplated piracy of didney+ if we didn't end up getting it from a shared account originally. Spouse, on the other hand . . . Netflix, the dp ...-lus, a'zon, a few Korean and Anime streaming services, and subscriptions to various fanfict sites. . . . I managed to kick my 8 account CoH habit back in 2009 or 2010, only to end up paying for my life partner's media consumption on so many different platforms. C'est la morte.

Hell, with the changes to SO availability, 24,000 or even 200,000 isn't unobtainable. And let's expose another element of this: Donations from veterans to new players. Used to be that 1,000,000 to 50,000,000 was more than enough to give a new player a terrific head start. Now I've got to decide between giving a new player 200,000,000 or more to get them to that same place, or cut back on my assistance to these players? Doesn't feel too good to me.