GraspingVileTerror

Well, there's a Red way and a Blue way to get each Accolade, what if they added a Yellow way? Complete content in Nova Praetoria, Imperial City, Neutropolis, each of their Undergrounds (I almost forgot those even exist), First Ward, and Night Ward to earn the Accolades a third way.

@Naraka . . . I don't know what to tell you. You just didn't register on my radar while reviewing this thread. But it sounds like you might be bleeding two separate but related complaints in to one particular monstrousity. The "Lackey" problem is two-fold. The specific writing in several places implies a Villain character has no agency for self-determination within the narrative conceit. AND The ludonarrative structure of the gameplay as it relates to Villain characters causes them to have no agency of motivation. The former is a problem with "how it's being said." The latter is a problem with "what is being said." Both of these can be addressed. As to why it doesn't apply to heroes . . . we come back to one of those important words: Motivation. Within the classic context of heroic stories, about the only motivational agency a hero is ever given is the choice to Embrace The Calling or not. And the gameplay reinforces that choice rather haphazardly, but well enough for our purposes here. You either do the mission, or you don't. When it comes to villains, there's more nuance and flow and character development. Remember here: We're not playing as the villainous antagonist in some hero's story. We are playing City of Villains to be the villainous PROTAGONIST in our own story. THIS IS HUGE! This seems to be something that SO MANY of the writers seem to miss out on. Because the way things are largely written right now? We're pigeon-holed in to being a very specific villain, and that's specifically because the writing is explicit in regards to motivation instead of leaving that in the hands of the player. For a more widely analysed example, we'll take a look at another game franchise that has encapsulated this issue nicely: Fallout Fallouts 1 and 2 were great examples of a ludonarrative resonance. The story is set up with a distinct beginning and end, with objectives for the player to follow at their discretion to embrace or reject that story of their own free will. And you could ABSOLUTELY play as a villain, hoo-boy! There was villainous protagonists done right! Then came along Fallout 3. Critically acclaimed! . . . but also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLJ1gyIzg78 hbomberguy gets a little meandering in some places, and I don't necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, BUT it's a pretty solid video overall. The problem with Fallout 3 is that your character's Quest and Motivation are intrinsically linked. Your character is a "daddy's boy/girl" and you as a player have no agency to reject that. Meanwhile, the gameplay itself offers you the freedom to play as a villain (albeit it, not nearly as thoughtfully as you could in the first two games). The kind of character who utterly rejects the narrative motivation . . . and yet the game won't actually let you. This is the dissonance. This is the same dissonance that exists due to the specific writing of so many Redside arcs. It's why players can say "the writing in Redside is great," because it is in terms of NPC characterization, humour and poignancy, and setting up compelling premises to explore. But in the same breath these players say "it sucks," because that writing doesn't stick to landing. Redside has a LOT of greatness to offer. But then it never quite makes it all the way home. It's Great! But it Sucks. And it's why things like the Ambition system ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/19762-new-redside-content-ambitions/ ) have been proposed. Systems or story arcs which are carefully written without blundering in to the trap which (sorry to call you out in such a negative light, but) @Cobalt Arachne seems to have expressly admitted to in: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/28605-kallisti-wharf-level-range-everyone/?tab=comments#comment-358301 (Thread got locked before I even saw it, so I never had the appropriate venue to address the assumptions which seem to have lead to those conclusions, which I consider quite faulty.) Sure. There are players here who simply want a story told "at them." Cool. We'll leave the existing content for them to play. I personally can't stand that failure in the writing. If I'm playing a game that gives me creative freedom, I expect it to go all the way. There's a little snide joke about Fallout 4 being the best Mass Effect game. That's the sort of complaint I have about Redside. And the complaint I have for the writing style which perpetuates the belief that "there's no other way." Again, I'm late for work . . . blah. MORE ON THIS LATER!

Except, @Monos King . . . Greycat kind of has a point. PvP is decidedly hostile to a lot of people. There is a cultural impetus in City of Heroes already that has been largely formed specifically because PvP is so " . . . out there" from the rest of the play experience. Competition isn't really in this game's DNA. I mean . . . think of real life. If you're sitting down with some friends at a restaurant for a nice chat over some desserts, how would you feel if two chads walked in and started smashing each other in the face? Does that seem . . . normal to you? Healthy? There is absolutely a time and place for PvP. PvP Zones and Arenas, with consenting parties. Spectators can join and observe under their own cognizance as it is. But open-world PvP duelling brings with it an element of trolling potential and disruption to the otherwise more tranquil places that exist in this game. I would personally not see that shattered. PARTICULARLY when the option to duel anyone anywhere PRIVATELY already exists: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/29229-right-click-challenge-to-duel/?tab=comments#comment-366362

Do you mean specific to City of Heroes, @Lykkio? Because, if so, then let's take a deeper look. Badges represent a form of progression, allowing players to earn tiers of Badges or Accolades, or have content unlocked such as missions or other reward structures. Story Arcs can operate in a similar way, offering a structured approach of progression with their own layers and rewards that are outside of Experience gain. Inf or other in-game currencies can also work, allowing access to content and Powers that are otherwise nominally behind level gates. Any and all of these could be applied on a wider scale, specifically to the likes of Task Forces and Mission content, giving players the personal agency to determine when and how they would like to play. What I am asking for is the natural progression of where City of Heroes game design has already been going.

Alright, fair cop, @siolfir. I'm very much NOT a fan of "Defeat All" and I prefer my missions to be short-and-sweet. My perspective was skewed by that bias. But . . . yeah. Some players do want a slower pace, and this is a social game . . . which means introducing a feature like this could apply some negative social pressures. Seems we're circling back to the point that has come up a number of times over the years: The usefulness of a more robust means of communicating and/or organizing specific team parameters with other players. Maybe it's already time to re-examine the LFG sub-system . . . create a page of team preference tags to flag on-or-off, which can be used to help curate a specific team experience.

THANKYOU! THANKYOU! THANKYOU! THANKYOU! THANKYOU! Even if it does't get kept for the long term, I have absolutely been missing this old event ever since joining Homecoming. The new one . . . it just . . . eugh. The "beacons" were just immobile Princes, the Shining Stars are blah, and while it was nice to see the north-end of Kings Row get used, I much prefer Zone Events that can happen in multiple places AND multiple times! Of course . . . I may just be looking at things through rose-tinted glasses. I'll try to pop on to Beta a few times over the weekend and see if I can catch a Construction Site. Maybe I'll try it and realize my nostalgia is wrong-headed. Maybe, hopefully, in some distant (or near) futurescape . . . we can have an entirely NEW Paladin Event which combines the best of both!

My point is that LEVELS do not need to be the only form of GAME PROGRESSION.

I have some things to say. Not all of which are going to get said in this post. Thanks to those who showed their support, though. It's appreciated. There's a lot of basic, foundational stuff that I think certain members of this community need to get straightened out (and while I will be tagging certain posters later on in this post, I am not suggesting that all of these necessarily apply specifically to those of you who I will be calling upon later . . . but maybe just reflect on them all the same, yeh? Could be helpful for one or two of you). Important foundational stuff, like: "People who aren't playing the game the same way as [insert self here] aren't playing the game -wrong,- they're playing it differently. The only wrong way to play is to ruin the game for others." And "There's room enough for more ways to play then what we have even now. Adding or expanding perspectives doesn't diminish anything that already exists. And while it can be a delicate balancing act when it comes to -change,- those with a surplus in their favour may wish to consider letting a few things go so that others have a chance to reach a level of enjoyment which the former may be taking for granted." AND "The themes and subject matter expressed in the content of this game have been authored by a dozen or two different people over the course of a decade-plus-change of Legacy/Retail, then another few during the years of SCoRE, followed by these couple more years here of Homecoming. Perspectives of the very people who originally made this game, and everyone who came afterward to add their own contributions have held different views than one another, and it has only enriched the overall experience we have at our fingertips today. While not everything is for everyone, the more there is of different things then the more there is for everyone to share." A N D "Now more than ever, but even back in the days of Legacy/Retail, Players have been taking the plunge and becoming Developers and contributing to City of Heroes. And that, too, is a good thing for the enrichment of City. (See the point above about "not everything is for everyone.")" ... All of that is basically a more elaborate way to try and say: STOP ARGUING ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE HERE TO ENJOY! Unless someone is actively griefing, being toxic, or trolling. And in that case, please . . . PRETTY please, just report them to a GM. Let people express themselves about the things they enjoy, and what doesn't quite work for them without telling them that they're WRONG for it. Likewise, and on the other end of this equation: When sharing your perspective, or (as an advocate) the perspective that other players have shared with you, bear in mind that it's not your job to crowd out different points of view. Sure. Offer suggestions for perspectives which you think some people may not have considered, but when they tell you "No, that's not me" please take it to heart. Most people know themselves better than other people do. Even those of us who studied psychology, human behaviour, sociology, and marketing have to admit there's a limit to our "insight" in to the personal lives of others. . . . Now for the part of this post I'll probably REALLY regret. Apologies if this ends up causing any sort of escalation. I was a little bit triggered, and felt the need to get some stuff off my chest. @everyone-who-brought-it-up ... Yeah . . . I've called for a "total rewrite" a time or two in the past. It wasn't fair of me back then. As much as I think Redside, or Blueside, or everywhichside could use a good, solid overhaul . . . I have to remind myself to respect the players who DO like the things we have right now. Gotta practice what I preach. . . . buuuuuut . . . with that in mind . . . I would totally be down to work with many of you in fleshing out the existing content with OPTIONAL branching paths. Give players the chance to play the missions exactly the ways they are right now, but also offer the players the chance to do that old content in a NEW way. A fresh coat of paint, but the same familiar space. Let's not give up hope on the Devs some day allowing that possibility to be explored. @MTeague, no. The age of this game and the era it came out in isn't an excuse. It's an explanation, sure. It offers context as to where the starting line was . . . but it absolutely MUST NOT hold us back from progress. The members of the Homecoming Team have demonstrated a willingness to do "The Impossible" on a number of occasions already. While it would be cavalier to expect them to break through every barrier, we can at least offer them support and encouragement, and perhaps direct them toward the specific walls we want to see knocked down next. Ultimately, they'll decide whatever it is that they want to decide . . . but they're also not the ONLY Devs we are ever going to have (fingers crossed, at least. Let's not get shut down tomorrow!). Just because the current Devs may not prioritize something, or may not even have the technical insight to overcome a limitation right now . . . it doesn't mean we should settle for obvious deficiencies. Things can always get better. Let's be optimistic AND realistic. Let's acknowledge where the barriers are, and THEN offer suggestions on how to surmount them. Or at least get around them. Let's not be defeatists, please. @UltraAlt, I wonder about you. I really do. And if you're entirely genuine and truly, honestly believe everything you say . . . then I worry about you. It's not that I'm worried -of- you. It's more that I worry FOR you. I'm sorry that I can't find a better way to express this, and the perspective you have a tendency to express here is absolutely yours to have, AND I feel a bit like a hypocrite going and publicly calling you out like this . . . but . . . You DO realize that the things you say, and the way you say them . . . it's often expressed the way a VILLAIN does? Like, for example: "because you can't accept the truth." That's exactly the sort of thing a villain utters during a monologue. Like, pretty much verbatim. Hell! I almost feel like it's a direct quote from Dr. Doom or Lex Luther or Thanos . . . Couple that with the quote you posted of mine, and that you seem to have divorced my words from the point I was trying to make. But, fair cop. Maybe that one's entirely on me. So, I'll give it another shot. I didn't say "City of Villains failed." I said: "City of Heroes has generally failed as hard at accurately portraying heroics as City of Villains has failed at portraying villainy." A few elements I wish to emphasize. The word "generally" is meant to convey that (from my perspective) when exploring the overall ludonarrative of both City of Heroes and City of Villains, examining them both with a broad lens, then I feel my conclusion AS IT APPLIES SPECIFICALLY TO THE CLAUSES EXPRESSLY STATED (specifically about how the only meaningful gameplay we're offered is "go to place, beat up thing") is that both City of Heroes and City of Villains have EQUALLY failed IN THE SPECIFIC CONTEXT of delivering a gameplay experience that encompasses the much broader definition of being a Hero or Villain in other media (including other video games, including MMOs). Both City of Villains and City of Heroes are absolute TOURS DE FORCE in so many respects. I wouldn't be here if I didn't think these games were great already. I wouldn't have dedicated so many years, so many words, so much research, and so much of my free time if I thought the games were total failures. It's just that to have something improve, you first need to acknowledge where the problems are. It really looks like you completely missed the mark of what I was saying, and this wasn't the first time either. It wasn't the first time that seems to have been the case with you missing other posters' intended messages either. But hey. Maybe you're just "clowning around," and you don't actually mean anything you've typed. Maybe the efforts of the community to enrich this game and imbuing it with vitality and longevity is all just a joke to you. And all the double-speak and classic misrepresentation is part of a front to give yourself a few laughs at all of our expense. I honestly don't know. Like I said: I really do wonder about you. I just don't know . . . @Luminara . . . Ok . . . there is something I've been wanting to say for years. Like, I've said it plenty of times . . . but it really deserves it's own thread, instead of just a little comment here and a little comment there. Fucking hell! It deserves it's own thesis essay. And your post triggered me on it. And it's not personal. I've Liked a number of things you've had to share in the forums over the past couple years. Just . . . hot button, and you hit it. Hard. Buuuuut . . . this particular exercise has taken a lot out of me, and I'm just not ready to go down THAT particular rabbit hole right now, so . . . let's address the bit that I can work with right now: . . . what fucking comic books have YOU been reading? Is that ALL you've really seen?! Maybe flip through the pages again, yeah? Give the medium a little more respect. Please. @Snarky. Yes. Redside needs a PROPER social hub. Good point. (Gotta have SOME positivity in this post, right?) and @Bionic_Flea? Sometimes even sleep requires effort. Like right now, when I should be in bed. Especially when there's so much City of Heroes to play and explore and break my mind trying to do my little part to elevate it . . . but there are only so few hours in a day. (That last one isn't a real call-out. Just an attempt at levity. Please don't let Flea bite me!) My apologies if I've been too harsh. I do mean to be a positive influence in this community, and I'm not sure I necessarily handled the specifics in this reply as tactfully as I should have. But I'm just at a point in terms of emotional energy and patience where I couldn't find a better way to express myself. I think there were important issues that needed to be addressed, and this was the best I could muster to do so at this time. I really should go to bed, though. Night. Hope to see you all again on the next day. And Redside Bestside.

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Experience That's all I've got. Feels like it might be out of date. Also, I don't see any indication of how much experience mission rewards, story arcs, and other miscellaneous tasks are supposed to award. Might be time for the community to join forces and do an updated Experience Table.

Level gating is what doesn't make sense. The level system in place here is a throwback to an era when game design for MMOs didn't get iterated upon very much. But City of Heroes was a trailblazer in a lot of ways, particularly for features such as Sidekicking and Exemplaring. It's only natural for those progressive trends to continue here on Homecoming, as Devs become wiser and learn from both positive and negative examples within their own projects, and beyond. Changes that support greater accessibility and player self-determination are always excellent changes. It's the very foundation that City of Heroes was built on, after all.

Except that this isn't w.o.w. It's City of Heroes! The Never-Ending Game.

To the best of my current knowledge, all servers operating the majority of Shards on the Homecoming are situated in Montreal, Canada (Eastern Time Zone). The exception is Reunion, which is based out of Germany. The majority of players on Everlasting, I assume (and it's a fairly baseless assumption) are also in the Eastern Time Zone or +/-1, although plenty of Pacific and Mountain Time players too. Occasionally international players also muck about on Everlasting, despite the latency issues they suffer from that distance. Most of the nightly Everlasting clubs open around 7 or 8pm Eastern, and many of the Raids and similar events go from 6pm to midnight (again, in Eastern). Roughly, anyway. People who engage in these activities routinely probably have a better grasp of the times they're conducted. As for the other Shards, I don't think any of them have been declared "dibs" by any particular time zone groups, but Excelsior does have the largest population overall, so it's likely that you'll find folks on that Shard at more hours throughout the day.

45 to 54 Weakened Hamidon, while players 44 and lower are completely locked out.

If a "Challenge to Duel" feature -is- added, then it should be accompanied by an "Ignore all Duel Requests" option. And it should probably be set to Ignore All by default, in my perspective. PvPers can opt-in, rather than everyone else having to opt-out.

You can -sort- of achieve that by hosting your own virtual server, @borgking001a. It's been a long while since I've looked in to it, but I expect OuroDev still has all the handy details. The only problem will be that you won't be playing on Homecoming's branch of the City of Heroes code, and wouldn't have all their specific features and content. Nor would you be able to use the characters from your virtual server on Homecoming or vice-versa. So, in regard to that . . . I turn my attention to The Team, and say . . . release the Homecoming branches for personal server use, pretty please!

You know, this kind of makes me wonder how Enhancement piggy-backing works for Henches&Pets under the hood, exactly. I realize that the likes of @Captain Powerhouse and @Faultline and @Bopper (or is that @Booper) can't expressly state the details of code which may be protected under the veil of some intellectual property copyrights . . . buuuuuuut maybe some random forum user who happens to stumble upon this thread could explain things in lay-terms which are "accurate enough" while being detailed and informative.

Can we make some "fake geometry" then? Transparent to players and does not obstruct movement, but still blocks the ray?

I've always kind of thought that Energy Aura was pretty easy to view as a technological force field Set.

Well, maybe a whimsical "What-if" for Masterminds . . . But, what if it could be implemented somewhere else. Like the Gladiators mode of the Arena. Yes. Remember those? This game has a "pokeymans" minigame! It's one of the most under-utilized but fantastically creative aspects of the game. But the costs of the various Gladiators were NEVER balanced, and the system was never expanded upon. It remains one of my sorrowful regrets that Gladiators never became a huge success. But what you're suggesting, @Thrythlind? It could totally work with the Gladiators point-buy system. So . . . don't give up hope.

Other than the Confusion Experience thing, sounds all good to me. As for that last one, I think someone did the math, and discovered that your Experience-per-second INCREASES because the enemies are helping you to defeat them faster, at next to zero risk to you. Although someone may want to confirm that, of course.

That's very interesting, @Faultline. Given that, to the best of my understanding, Invasion spawns will not occur inside shops and other indoor map spaces, could we not flag those phasing areas as "indoor" to prevent Invasion spawns? Not saying I want Invasions in Atlas Park or Mercy Island, of course, but I think it would be cool to have that phasing tech show up in more future content. Naturally, resolving problems like that and keeping the tech as non-complicated as possible would be required, aye?

Last revision: 2020-04-25 --- Hero-leaning GraspingVileTerror, Natural Dominator: Darkness Control / Thorns, Level 5 - extradimensional entity Warlock King, Magic Brute: Dark Melee / Fiery Aura, Level 15 - extradimensional magical warrior and ruler of his world (taken be force), plunged in to a dimensional portal by a hero challenging his tyrannical rule. During their time in the space between dimensions, the despot and the hero shared deeply with one another, and the Warlock King has decided to turn over a new leaf here in Paragon City --- Vigilante-leaning Santa Claus?, Natural Controller: Plant Control / Thermal Radiation, Level 19 - Ho ho ho! It's . . . Santa Claus? Then why does he look like a tall, slender pumpkin monster? Oh! Diet cookies and diet milk. Ok. Sounds legit --- Rogue-leaning Clarabella, Natural Controller: Plant Control / Nature Affinity, Level 27 - alien plant which mimics humans in an attempt to obtain food. Inspired by Lykka and Audry II, with a dash of my own insanity in the mix (more than a dash) Rudra Sarva, Natural Defender: Traps / Archery, Level 15 - current star pupil at the prestigious Etoile academy, Rudra has life goal aspirations of becoming an Arachnos Arbiter as a mere stepping stone toward "further greatness" Academy Guard Ishi, Technology Brute: Electric Melee / Shield Defense, Level 15 - professional security guard for a prestigious Etoile academy, Ishi is a bit mysterious compared to the other guards in the squad, with an uncharacteristically beautiful face contrasting the slab-of-meat physique --- Villain-leaning Magic Consultant Stu, Magic Controller: Illusion Control / Darkness Affinity, Level 17 - professional magical consultant with low moral scruples. He'd sell his own grandma for a few grand, assuming the financial gain outweighs and risks associated with the act Guardsman Prospero, Science Soldier of Arachnos, Level 18 - healthy human brain grafted in to a troll's Superadine-riddled body and maintained by an elaborate chemical filtration system, he represents the only success (read: survivor) in a series of failed Arachnos-funded experiments Operative Crura, Natural Arachnos Widow, Level 9 - (haven't yet fully realized this character's personality) Child of Agony, Natural Stalker: Spines / Regeneration, Level 13 - torture fanatic akin to Silver Mantis, but with a more quiet personality (and a mouth stitched closed) Deathguard Theta, Technology Sentinel: Beam Rifle / Energy Aura, Level 23 - one of several manufactured footsoldiers as a prototypical series of an evil corporation's planned Legion of Doom product line --- SPECIAL! Grim Isolator, Science Brute: Titan Weapon / Fiery Aura, Level 10 - (not a roleplay character, but a Helper designed to get people the Isolator Badge in a matter of minutes. Please get in touch with me @VileTerror if you'd like to schedule an Isolator run)

It bears noting that there are Global Channels of "RP" and "OOC" set up in the game right now too. Over 200 members, in fact! Only a couple other Globals have such populations.