Felis Noctu

Ahh! Well we're in the same boat then, honestly. While we can use EBs and AVs, I don't know what differences there are between the pre-shutdown AE and the current version. With the SG base upgrades I would hope the AE is the same, but I haven't gotten around to checking it out yet. Really I think the biggest thing I'd be interested to see is raid-style AE content. Not sure if that'd be possible though, depending on how the system was designed. Buffing 54s would definitely be nice. Or even just the 50+ mobs in general. Make that curve a little more extreme.

I remember the mention of The Coming Storm, but they'd been talking about that for a while. The way it'd be hinted at, that sounded like it could very well have been the end of CoH's intended storyline. But yeah, while I can hope, I don't really expect there'd be much for a period of the game that's beyond the already incomplete content.

Not quite sure if that's sarcasm or not, but regardless that's really not the point. We were given the incredible power increase, including level shifts, which I would assume meant Paragon was planning on going somewhere in-world with it. I have a hard time believing they'd be so shortsighted as to build us up like that without some sort of forward movement. Paragon didn't even got to finish the Incarnate system. Unfortunately, unless there's something laying around in the resources we have to indicate such a thing, it'd be up to the HC team and the community to follow through. In which case, yeah, I guess we've got the AE system. EDIT You know, I haven't really looked much into it with whatever changes have been made. I wonder if it's possible to create AE content for more than 8 people at a time...

Traps is already a little funky for MMs, but Beast Master has its own combo issues. Higher end play with Traps generally involves setting up ambushes using poison trap, trip mine, pull enemies, then time bomb, for maximum effect. MM Traps doesn't have Time Bomb, so you're missing a third of the combo, and it's a big part. Instead, they have Detonator to blow up their own pets. Plus, with pet controls being what they are, to make it work in a way that's effective you also need to kit yourself out with a number of macros. Without those, control can be a bit awkward in any situation, let alone setting up an ambush. Besides, the Mastermind itself isn't generally meant to be doing the damage, and Traps is reliant on the character's power. A Mastermind's "crazy" damage comes from how reliable and rapid pet attacks are, producing a relatively steady high level of output. Back on Detonator for a second: Beast Mastery primary play revolves around stacking as much Pack Mentality as possible. Blowing up one of your pets results in less gains for a time, probably causing you to drop stacks. A detonation on Beasts can potentially result in lost damage rather than a gain, not to mention Pack Mentality doesn't provide any boosts to Detonator. It's basically just additional Supremacy. Then there's the general Beast playstyle. All of your pets are melee, and your primary support abilities for Traps are Force Field Generator and Triage Beacon, both of which require the pets to stay within range to gain the benefits. That means that you're going to have to jump into the middle of the battle and STAY THERE, risking getting squashed in order to protect your beasts, and in the midst of battle they may run off anyway. MMs aren't exactly the most durable by default, even with Bodyguard going, and traps doesn't have the defensive capabilities that other secondaries generally provide. If you want to save your own skin you need to bail out, thus reducing THEIR survival (and leaving your heal patch), and they aren't the most durable themselves. There's a reason why Fortify Pack exists. The problem there is if you have to pop Fortify, you just lost your damage advantage because it eats the Pack Mentality stacks. TL;DR: Beast/Traps just doesn't really mesh well. Its strengths are a little awkward on MMs who aren't 110% invested in micromanagement, supporting melee minions requires putting yourself in danger and still may not be entirely effective, and playing safely means potentially dramatically reducing your damage output. Also power creep, because there are several secondaries now that can provide much better support while boosting the effectiveness of your pets and the rest of the team. Traps on MMs just doesn't even have the same effectiveness that it would on Defenders. TL;TL;DR: Beast/Traps has considerable conflict of interest problems. ---------- Being an MM enthusiast, what I would really love to see is a variation of Devices on MMs, replacing or even just in addition to Traps. Swap out Taser for Triage Beacon, and probably Time Bomb for FFG. Would need to shuffle the levels of the skills a bit. Targeting Drone could have reduced effect but be a team-wide buff, and Field Operative would be great for lowering the chance of aggro while you're having to sit in the middle of things keeping everyone alive or toe-bombing. Gun Drone also fits the MM theme very well. I feel like that kind of setup is much more workable for MMs in general. It wouldn't solve the conflict of interest with Beasts, but it would feel a little better for the AT as a whole. EDIT 2020-02-17: Updated some wording and details for clarity, and tweaking ideas regarding the MM Devices adaptation.

To be fair, I would like to see the introduction of content designed for Incarnate'd characters. Paragon never really got around to adding stuff meant to be run by that level of power. Though, I guess it's difficult to find challenges for pseudo-gods 😛

I spent a few minutes scratching my head thinking I was crazy before hopping over here to make sure it wasn't just me. Sounds awesome, and thank you for all your hard work! =D

Vanden's fix pack is here, but obviously it's all loose texture files, so it isn't the easiest to actually view the differences. I've been working on something that I hope will allow for mass header copy between standard .dds and .texture. If it works, we won't need to fight with PiggViewer 1.6.1 to actually make the .texture files, and it would also help converting backwards as well.

I did catch that he wanted to make them as accurate as possible, but if he mentioned Sunset specifically, I missed that. That being said, he IS using the icon legend. If that's the case, some of the powers in-game were inconsistent due to patch changes or overlooked art decisions, so making consistent versions of the ones that were incorrect isn't too far off. What would be really cool is if we could get a setup for an icon compiler tool similar to what Vanden had used in the past, with high-res template files like Rylas' work. Being able to construct custom high-res icons would be awesome!

@Rylas Out of curiosity, are you modeling the power icons directly off of the current in-game versions? Have you checked out the fixed erroneous icon pack at all? Having those alternatives would be awesome as well! Also, considering the bits and pieces I've been doing already, would you be alright with a replacer texture pack containing the icons you're making? I'm sure Christopher and I aren't the only ones that like the softer look!

I've been messing with PiggViewer 1.6.1 and Pigg Viewer Pro while trying to help Vanden figure out how to get the tools working for the erroneous icons pack, and I inserted a few myself. Though, it sounds like swapping the header with a hex editor may be easier and faster than dismissing the error message in PV1.6 every time you change to a different texture. As for appearance, it's pretty close, but some of them have a noticeable difference even at that size. For example screenshots, top is Rylas' version, bottom is original: Rylas' versions are less saturated and generally softer. EDIT: @Olly: I'm not sure what happened when you saved that file, but that just doesn't look right? I'm gonna test that one real quick. EDIT 2: Rylas left, Vanilla right. I was expecting a bit more of a difference between our attempts due to tool and formatting differences, but mine's only a bit more clear than yours. I'm guessing it's due to the color palette and softer outlines. I'm going to guess that it'd look better if ALL of the icons from that set were replaced, so everything matches. Wouldn't seem so out of place.

Well, I was able to extract and create new .texture files with the old 1.61 version, I just can't preview them in PiggViewer itself. The swaps work in both the 32- and 64-bit versions of CoH, so good news there as well. I (hope I) sent you messages on Discord as well about it. If you're unable to get the texture file manipulation working, but you have the rest of the tools, I'd be more than happy to team up. I don't mind being annoyed by error messages if it means making progress! 😛 EDIT: Oh, and as for Piglet, I'm unable to build it. Not sure why, other than the code errors that pop up during the process. After several attempts I got frustrated and went back to install literally everything related to C++ compilation in VS2019 and it STILL fails, but I assume other people have done it successfully, so I have no idea what I'm missing.

Was there a specific problem you were having with PiggViewer? If you haven't gotten it functional, you'll need to run it in compatibility mode for Windows Visa (Service Pack 2). It looks like it's throwing up a .NET framework when trying to view textures due to the DDS.dll being incorrectly handled. Doesn't surprise me that they'd be using the DDS format, but I'm not sure how that could be resolved. I don't know if we can get a copy of .NET old enough to properly load it. EDIT: "But also, I can't actually find any of the i25 icons, like the new Blaster secondaries or Sentinel powers. Piglet can open multiple piggs at once, but even so I can't find anything they added for i25." I was able to extract icons from the Homecoming-specific PIGGs (they're in the /homecoming folder). archetypeicon_guardian.dds archetypeicon_sentinel.dds atomicmanipulation_decay.dds

Ahh, targa, cool. So we just need to figure out how to build the texture files again, since Piglet doesn't seem to be able to do it? Also, since you're floating around, do you have any objections to me including your work on the CoH mods archive site I've started throwing together? Just files at the moment, getting the content up first. https://github.com/FelesNoctis/library_of_ouroboros/

Not sure if this ever came to fruition, but I'm actively starting on that right now. Been gathering every mod I can find, links or the files themselves, whichever, and planning out a relatively simple site for it. EDIT: https://github.com/FelesNoctis/library_of_ouroboros Hooking up the git upstream now so at least the files are up.

@Vanden: Out of curiosity, do you intend on updating this for the I25/HC changes? If not, is it possible to get info from you about the format and how these textures are edited? A quick search didn't bring up anything notable, though admittedly I've been more focused on gathering up all of the locations/files for old mods. Sounds like you were having trouble with PiggViewer? I'm stubborn and have way too much time on my hands, so I may be able to figure something out. 😛 EDIT: Looks like the new tool is Piglet? Working to get VS2019 installed now so I can compile it and take a look.

My body would agree, much to the dismay of my brain and mouth. ...I miss being a teenager and being able to practically drink the stuff.

I'll admit I'm not entirely sure to that end. I know that there's been mixed decisions regarding S230 Safe Harbor and trademark, but I believe (no guarantees) that at the moment you're correct, and no protections are granted for trademark violations. S230 is about unlawful publication/distribution, which is generally more of a concern for copyright. As for DMCA, it's specifically for copyrights and doesn't have anything to do with trademark at all, so no application there. In fact, trying to use a DMCA against a trademark violation can actually open the issuer up to counter-action: DMCA paragraph 512(f) provisions regarding misrepresentation of the process.

And to add on to that, for people who may not understand the different categories, trademark is different from copyright is different from patent. (Disclaimer: Not a lawyer, but have had to personally deal with these topics before. These are all being described in relation to how they apply to Homecoming.) ----- * A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes goods, services, or the source of such, must be deliberately registered, and must be actively defended as it represents an identity. Names will open HC up for legal action through trademark, as with enough similarity they could be misconstrued as being used in an official manner. TL;DR: Trademark protects identity. If you don't defend the identity, you lose it to someone else who will. * A copyright is a set of rights granted to you immediately once you have created an original work. It lasts for a certain period of time after creation, and is protected through clear publishing that documents a rough date and time as well as the creating entity. A copyright is generally lost only if someone else can successfully prove they came up with it first. Copyright is also a legal mess of loopholes ripe for abuse by any party, as well as protections regarding fair-use and derivative works, many of which can't be 100% guaranteed until precedent has been set in court. Visual representations will open HC up for legal action through copyright. TL;DR: Copyright protects a specific work. You don't HAVE to specifically defend a copyright, but companies often do because it in part represents their image. If something harmful is mistaken for a first party official version of something, it can hurt the company itself. * A patent is a set of rights granted by registration of an idea, that allows the owner to maintain certain rights of the original while opening up the general concept to others to develop on. It's not something we'd be particularly worried about here, as anything that could fall under patent is going to be more easily enforced through trademark or copyright. TL;DR: Patent doesn't really apply to Homecoming, as the concept of superheroes is generic and wide.

I sure hope so. Disney's a huge fish that likes to throw down over frivolous things just because they can. Just gotta play it safe and cross our fingers!

That's exactly what I mean too. You would hope that covering the big names in a filter would be enough, but there are hundreds of potential mines in this field that we could end up tripping over, even one-shots, any of which could potentially be used to give HC a hard time. We just have to hope it doesn't come to that and covering the big names is enough.

You might think so, but what we're doing here is in rough legal waters, and US-based companies in particular love their legal action. 😛

This right here. They can toss the big names in the filter and call it a day. My main concern voiced above is that there are hundreds of comic book character names out there, and while it's unreasonable to assume every single one should be monitored, there's always the possibility that X company tries to make it hard on HC deliberately.

This is the main thing I'm concerned about. Staying away from copy-written content is always the best decision (maybe light references at best), but having a similar name should be irrelevant if the player subject has nothing to do with whatever associated copy-written subject. There were some cases back on live of people's characters or names being shot down due to similarity only, not to mention AE levels like what Kistulot is mentioning. As someone mentioned, DC and Marvel can be extremely litigious. The issue there is, especially in our situation, they can also (and may very well) try to bully. Hopefully the HC team won't need to bring the hammer down hard!

I disagree honestly. The problem with the gold sellers is that while it does show popularity, it's then up to the company running the game to deal with it. It causes inflation for the in-game economy, which in turn results in shrinking player counts due to frustration, thus being a profit loss. Not to mention they'd honestly care more about the whales willing to dump massive amounts of money into the game than the gold sellers. Keeping the whales spending however requires active development of new features to entice them, which I very much doubt NCSoft is interested in doing. They also can't use the new Homecoming content as that falls under the creator's copyright. Yes, even if it's produced in a technically illegal environment, as it's still their intellectual property. From a business perspective this doesn't mean much for Homecoming's status other than stronger community support due to their efforts. It's only if Homecoming started profiting from the situation somehow that it might cause any significant damage.

What I think is interesting is that they consider Homecoming profitable for their time. As annoying as it is, that's a compliment! 😛