GraspingVileTerror

I make a point of informing new players about P2W Vendors, as it's an excellent source of assistance when they might be struggling.

Mayhaps renaming it to "Forest Green Lake?" (Don't. Just a joke. It's the same place.)

The value of Inf I would place on them for my personal use is skewed from my long-time experience as a player. However, the value of the Amplifiers as -accessibility tools- to new players is monumental and I believe it justifies their inexpensive nature at low levels, as I detailed in my first post in this thread today. I also made suggestions as to how else to approach the issue in that same post. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/32395-general-feedback-issue-27-page-3/page/7/#comment-417210

If the overall pricing is too low, then why set it to the value of level 50, but for all levels? That puts it completely out of reach of players who aren't already at 50 or using alternative Inf-streams.

I believe the issue, @Sovera, that is -trying- to be addressed with this kludge is that a player could make a new character, purchase a full 8 hours in each of the Amplifiers for 24,000 Inf, turn on their Self-Suppression Toggle, sit in an AE and level up to 50, and then reap the benefits of the Amplifiers for less than the intended cost. Honestly, that seems like a lot more work than it's worth for such a monumentally small benefit at level 50. Meanwhile, players at low levels who truly benefit from the Amplifiers will see that reasonable price being taken away from them.

Isn't Crystal Lake notorious for serial killings? Am I remembering correctly?

Client-side mods are definitely a thing, yes. But . . . hopefully without saying anything that might get this post deleted . . . there have been ways (no idea if they've all been patched out by this point) to "crack" the client in such a way as to send a false-positive on the costume validation check to the server. One such instance of this made it's way in to a first place winner during one of the earliest official Homecoming costume contests. A player had managed to get Arachnoid claws on their character as a back detail. There was minor outrage when some players pointed this out, and that player had their win rescinded, and the official contests have sported a warning against "costume manipulation" ever since. Also, yeah. The forearm scale value definitely causes a form of "Popeyeism." Only really suitable for gorilla characters, and even then it's not quite right.

As I recall, they're not cloned. They're born as regular human children, and then modified in to Rikti after puberty. This suggests that . . . . well, what it suggests is probably a bit outside of the scope of the rules on these forums. I'll just have to suggest anyone curious uses their imagination, or asks me in private. As for relationships . . . yeah, it's even less clear. All Rikti apparently develop a robust psychic connection after their transformation, and vocalized speech is actually something they struggle with. That seems to imply that intimacy and relationships between Rikti would likely revolve around a great deal of mental closeness, possibly literally getting on to the same mental wavelength as their partner(s). No mention as to whether Rikti society(societies) value intimate relationships, though. I'm afraid I have no frame of reference for what Coyotedancer mentions, though; I don't remember that mission or dialogue at all. On top of that; most Rikti on Primal Earth are -Converts!- If one of them speaks about a spouse and children, it could very well be from their human family prior to transformation. In short: I don't think there's anything concrete about the subject in the canon. Feel free to wing it!

There are third-party programs that have historically been used to modify player-character costume files in ways which the costume creator typically doesn't allow. I most recently saw a player with such a modified costume about 3 or 4 months ago. Officially, it's not permitted, and threads that have provided detailed instructions on how to reproduce the effects get hidden/deleted by GMs. On a less intensive scale (pun?), it's possible to edit a saved costume file to adjust the Scale values manually, even including a hidden scale value for forearms (however, forearms always revert after you zone an affected character, and only Plastic Surgeon NPCs can be used to adjust these arm scales, as regular Tailors don't have the prerequisite function). However, for characters with "fat bottoms?" I'm guessing it's just a matter of thin waist, wide musculature, short legs, and tight hips. MAYBE with the manual scalar modifications to accentuate them to their most extreme limits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_martzu

Thanks for the details, @Number Six. This kind of diary post is very much appreciated.

A couple of thoughts and potential solutions for the Amplifier situation: I concur that the proposed change gives the message (intentional or not) that new players and low level characters do not deserve equal consideration as level 50s. This sentiment has been an undercurrent in some other design choices in the past, but it's especially flagrant here. If the plan is to proceed as described in these patch notes, then I believe that change merits VERY clear communication as to why it is being done. As they stand on the Release servers, the Amps are actually filling the role of "Easy Mode" rather comfortably, if not perfectly executed. With the possibility of an "Easy Mode" still not even assured, I think it's especially problematic to change the Amps in such a way as to reduce their accessibility to the players who could really benefit from them at a basic level. I appreciate the proposed change of being able to "halt" the timers when the Amps aren't in use. As a roleplayer, I've often lost out on copious amounts of Inf since a scene came up after I had already purchased the Amps. However, 2.5 million is prohibitively expensive to players who don't make bank on the market, don't farm, and don't play copious amounts of time on 45s to 50s. I propose the potential solution of three new Temp Powers, mutually exclusive with their Amplifier counterparts. Assists! Defense Assist, Offense Assist, Survival Assist. Providing a sort of "training wheels" boost at the more manageable price points of (Level*Level*1000) Inf. List them in the same place in the P2W as the Amplifiers, giving a clear explanation as to their differences. If a player purchases an Assist, then they can't purchase an Amplifier until the Assist is deleted/run down. Same for vice-versa. Additionally, we could use the opportunity to explore the possibility of adjusting the values of the bonuses, or even implementing scaling bonuses in the Assists (such as providing more benefit at lower levels, which eventually scales down). Not necessary, of course. Just a thought about what sort of flexibility there can be. In any event, the Assists would not be "bankable" like the Amplifiers by switching on Self-Suppression. If the plans for a dedicated Easy Mode are still in the stars, and these proposed Assists run the risk of causing issues there, then I proposing adding the term "LIMITED OFFER" to their descriptions. Make it clear that the Assists aren't here to stay if the plans for an eventual Easy Mode necessitate such. Alternatively, postpone the changes to the Amps until the Easy Mode is available, and tell players running the new Master of content "sorry, we're choosing to prioritize the little guys this one time."

If they're pushing to Release after such a short beta, of which a new version only recently hit Brainstorm without going through Pre-Release, I'd be shocked.

Thanks for the reminder. I'll need to update the lists once the proliferations and new Sets hit Release status.

Oooh, I don't think everyone got over it. I still see some complaints from time to time in General chat. "Putting up with" isn't the same as "getting over." (To be clear, the enterbase controversy is not a particular issue for me given the replacement tools put in place and the comfortable Inf contributions I receive offsetting the inconvenience. I just think it's worth addressing that sometimes people stop complaining not because they accept a given situation, but because they feel their complaints are being dismissed.)

Thanks for the clarification. Also . . . QUWHA?! Is there now an automatic double-post-condenser in Invision, or did a GM do this manually? Interesting feature in any case. Might cause some issues with intentional multi-posts, such as those detailing a series of discrete-but-related elements.

My spouse has been talking about the book series since we first got together almost 14 years ago. No matter if the show is good, bad, mediocre, or batshit bonkers; I know I won't hear the end of it.

Cross-posting for people's interest: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/32559-forum-badges/#comment-416733

I think that the addition of badges to a forum isn't inherently bad, but it carries a lot of baggage, so it should be implemented with extreme care and consideration. I don't believe this badge system was. From what I can see, it was bundled with an update package for the Invision software and ended up getting enabled as a batch job with the rest of the update. If it's the Homecoming Team's desire to have a badge system in the forum, then I think there's a critical question for them to ask themselves: Is it the intention of the Homecoming Team to encourage users here to treat the forum as a game? If so, then what sort of game design principles are being employed to ensure the badge system doesn't become profoundly detrimental? Do the GM staff feel they have enough time and resources to address conflicts arising from this game? Do those who implemented this system feel confident that it will reward the sort of behaviour they're intending it to? Ah. Posted at the same time as Widower. Thanks for the clarifications, Widower.

Replaying Fallout 3. It's better than I remember. This really illustrates the failings of Fallout 4 even more pointedly. Still worse that New Vegas by a long shot, but that's a given considering New Vegas' darling status. It crashes so frequently, even on a more modern rig, that I'm starting to remember -why- it took me so long to beat it the first time around. Also, if you haven't done so already, @ThaOGDreamWeaver, I strongly recommend Tales from the Borderlands. All the quirky humour and world-building of the Borderlands shooters, with some absolutely delightful characters to have fun with, but much less repetitive and grindy! Biggest complaint is that some of the animations are really janky or disjointed in certain scenes, but that's a Telltale signature.

That name sounds familiar, @stegosaurus. Did we play a scene before?

I must say that I appreciate your takes on these, @ThaOGDreamWeaver. Please continue!

I think @Apparition's point is not that the content factually requires Nukes and Shivans, but that by Apparition's estimation the community perception is that those Temp Powers will be seen as necessary. And as a social game, the perception of the majority has a larger bearing on player choices than an obfuscated reality does.

Heraclea got it. The letter E is statistically the most common letter in the English languages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCn8zs912OE It takes a little bit of effort, and some stretches in a thesaurus, but to compose an entire English paragraph with legible meaning and complete sentences sans-E is challenging. For example, this reply post (which I'm writing more naturally) has the following statistics (value in brackets includes the URLs): E = 42 (50), 12.80% (12.63) vs 13% T = 38 (46), 11.58% (11.62) vs 9.1% A = 26 (28), 7.93% (7.07) vs 8.2% O = 16 (20), 4.88% (5.05) vs 7.5% I = 27 (32), 8.23% (8.08) vs 7% N = 22 (25), 6.71% (6.31) vs 6.7% S = 28 (31), 8.53% (7.83) vs 6.3% H = 17 (20), 5.18% (5.05) vs 6.1% R = 16 (19), 4.88% (4.80) vs 6% D = 3 (4), 0.91% (1.01) vs 4.3% L = 24 (25), 7.32% (6.31) vs 4% C = 12 (16), 3.66% (4.04) vs 2.8% U = 8 (11), 2.44% (2.78) vs 2.8% M = 10 (11), 3.05% (2.78) vs 2.4% W = 4 (10), 1.22% (2.53) vs 2.4% F = 5 (7), 1.52% (1.77) vs 2.2% G = 12 (13), 3.66% (3.28) vs 2% Y = 3 (5), 0.91% (1.26) vs 2% P = 7 (10), 2.13% (2.53) vs 1.9% B = 4 (5), 1.22% (1.26) vs 1.5% V = 1 (2), 0.30% (0.51) vs 0.98% K = 2 (4), 0.61% (1.01) vs 0.77% X = 1, 0.30% vs 0.15% J = 0, 0% vs 0.15% Q = 0 (1), 0% (0.25) vs 0.095% Z = 0 (1), 0% (0.25) vs 0.074%

To add to what the two above me are saying . . . perhaps if the 3-piece Bonuses were interesting, rather than Defense (or a pitifully small Endurance Discount in the case of Warp), then players -might- say to themselves "Well, already have the 3-piece Bonus, may as well grab the 4th." I'd bump up the Endurance Discount on Warp, and switch the Defenses to things like Damage, Recharge, and/or . . . what else might not be abundant from other sources which people chase, aside from more Defense? Maybe a fat stack of +Max Endurance?