Replacement

Really frustrating to feel like you're being charged extra for their problems. I hope some of this gets credited in future months. Do you or @Telephone have a NON-BINDING, GUESSTIMATE on what the next few months are going to look like bill-wise? Surely we've gotta be out of the weeds on these SCALE-3 transition costs by now...

Not to detract from your overall take by getting lost in the weeds, but I definitely think it had more to do with being the server with like 20 extra power sets proliferated and a new AT (even if people love to crap on Sentinel now, it drew a lot of initial interest). My opinions change when I think about why it's maintained a lead but that's long and boring.

Yeah, that would be "the conversation." These things you're saying are all reasons to add it to the "exclusion" list with your other examples. But that is Suggestion territory. The current damage/recharge is not a bug. Though I realize that's basically me asserting all of this without documentation, so my apologies on that front. However, I think the Sentinel damage is wrong. Comparing to the other similar mez attacks available to Sentinel, Abyssal Gaze deals lower damage with a higher recharge. So that's interesting.

That's actually intentional on Blaster and you just hit the perfect conflux of exceptions to rules. Buckle in! Most attacks designed as "mez first, damage is the secondary benefit" perform under scale (intentionally low damage), such as Control and Support set attacks. But we have a veritable army of exceptions: 1) You would be seeing this same low damage on the Corruptor and Defender versions... Except those versions of the set don't get Abyssal Gaze at all! 2) Sentinels. One MAJOR change in every Sentinel version of a blast set is their ST mez power is given a low cooldown (8ish seconds usually) and full damage scale, so it functions as DPS and mez at the same time. Example: Archery> Stunning Shot. Blaster: 15 damage/ 20 seconds Sentinel: 86 damage/8 seconds 3) Ice is weird. Ice was given 1 full scale damage mez hold, and 1 extremely fast recharging hold. All in the name of no snipe and just-ok aoe I suppose. I still think this was a mistake and is a large part of why Controllers are so rare. 4) and 5) There have been times when underperformers had these types of powers buffed to full damage (Martial Arts) and there have been high-tier attacks given full rider mez as part of their appeal (Bitter Freeze Ray, Total Focus), especially slow-activating attacks. I'm pretty sure Radiation Blast falls into the former category but could be wrong here. Did I miss anything? Yep, 6) Beam Rifle was p2w. I hate to be that blunt, but it was designed with obvious advantages over other sets, including full-scale mez from day 1. So there you have it: a lot of people disagree with intentionally kneecapping these powers, and it's worth having the conversation on if this "rule" has been violated enough to just die quietly, but it is known and intended. Full list of blast sets using this rule as of this writing: dark, dual pistols, archery, sonic, energy, AR, electrical, and psi.

You're right that it doesn't need the shield at all. Also my suggested version is too powerful. But also also: I don't think mag 6.5 is going to fly anywhere but Cake. I understand why you're doing it that way, but I think a stacking variant is still going to be the way to go (and with shorter durations than I suggested earlier to boot). Essentially, a mix of a moderate "on activate" hold and a small recurring hold tick + percentage of additional mag. Something like that could be tuned to guarantee a boss hold in a couple seconds, but allow them a chance to recover briefly every 4 or 6 seconds. It also needs a jumbo endurance cost, since it won't be slotting for acc. Thanks also for the clarification on the Crush. I missed that it didn't require them to attack it. One thing that concerns me about the shields being weak is the actual usability of the t9. It may become more or less impossible to get more than 1-2 different booms, unless you intentionally dump all your cooldowns at the same time. I also have a couple of implementation concerns for Kinetic Barrier when I think about how it would interact with Barrier Implosion. That t9 is a darling that may need killed. Tuning suggestions version 2: C-c-combos? If you wanted the shields to be much stronger and more persistent and didn't just want everything to have terrible small % chances to generate them, a combo system like Water Blast or even Dual Blades (careful on that road though) could work. E.g. All the powers you have listed currently as creating an energy barrier all instead build up stacks to become energy barriers. To make it a little more interesting, I'd have it build on enemies instead of building up points on you. I realize this is unlikely except in the event of a near-total rewrite, but wanted to throw out the possibility as a novel way to play it more like a regular Controller while spiking an additional dimension of control on demand.

Ok. The Feels: I like it. I enjoy your attempts to avoid overlap with Force Fields, and the novel mechanic to build on top of it all. The Mechanicals: While some of the hows of implementation would likely change, I feel like I can point to other powers that prove more or less all of this is doable. But that's as it is understood by me, a fallible human bean with 1.5th hand experience. The one thing I would wonder about is the "forced attack." I know there are some things that do this already that don't seem to use Taunt -- either they actually do and I didn't notice, or they use some other mechanic that is foreign to me. Some specifics... Energy Barrier - This is essentially a Hold that can be overcome with DPS. Not only would I avoid it canceling toggles just out of concern for being Hold power level, it's also out of scope for implementation (requires a new Suppress/Cancel event in every toggle - that's every enemy toggle and every player toggle for PvP!). Kinetic Barrier - This is essentially a Contain/Phase effect over the area. Not the end of the world, but that's basically how this would work out: instead of a pseudopet summoning a phase region, the way Dimension Shift (Gravity) works, it would summon an ACTUAL pet that can be targeted and beat up so it stops pulsing the phase effect (and looking specifically at the Kinetic Barrier power, I think an outer radius of regular Repel would work). The Balance: First off, my biggest concern is AVs and other crazy-hard targets. These shields would ignore mez protection, yet (ostensibly) force them to waste attacks on them instead of on players, which is incredibly strong. Imagine stacking 2-3 Barrier characters to always render their attacks useless. If these are targeted via Taunt -- my understanding is Taunt is never blocked; just duration-reduced. And you really wouldn't want to start the precedent of AVs having Taunt protection, lol. Also, if Taunt is the only way, that does mean AoE attacks will "leak" through. That's off-theme, but on-balance. AVs aside, it's still very hard to see the Energy Barriers as anything other than mez-bypassing Holds. For context on how good this would be at soaking damage: energy fonts only lose 30 HP at level 50 relative to other pets. For context, this is 1040 HP at level 50, vs a Fire Imp's 1070, popping out all the time. That's enough for an AV/GM to continually 1-2 shot it, but most regular bosses will never ever break it before you've had a chance to reapply. Tuning suggestions version 1: A big HP reduction to the shields themselves. - Lower the max HP of the Energy Barriers to something like 600 at level 50 (this should be enough that heavy-hitting melee bosses and LTs need to burn all their attacks to break it). - I would go even further, dropping it to ~450 but allowing these powers to take +Healing enhancements. This not only makes slotting interesting and diverse; it helps cut into the power budget by forcing you to choose between better standard Control stats and thicc shields. - Remove the +Max HP from Barrier Empowerment. It's redundant with the +absorb anyway. Instead, could consider making it so shield refreshes also provide a stacking Max HP buff. - Detain should change to "chance for Energy Barrier" per tick. Even something like a 10% chance every 2 seconds would add up fast and keep it occasionally locking targets who are overcoming the Hold. On that note, it would be pretty interesting if the Hold effect it applies is actually weak (mag 1-2) but set to Stack. I could imagine it having a guaranteed Shield when you first cast, and then each standard 2-second tick would have a 10-20% chance to re-up the barrier, as well as apply a stacking mag 1.5, 10-15 second hold. That would hold Bosses in 6 seconds (at which point they would have no way to really recover). - Compression Field doesn't need to also have the impenetrable exclusion bubble. The theme doesn't demand all of them be air-tight, and this is an example of an effect that fits the fiction while still being strong without it. Targeting the barrier just to break free is incentive enough (should be possible to give it an inherent very high threat multiplier so its naturally more likely to be attacked). -Barrier Implosion - I think I would implement as a very large pbaoe minor damage + knock effect that also enables a mode on any barriers in the area to unlock a new power (technically 2 linked powers): their own boom+Knock, and a self-destruct. This should hit the effect you're after, but also keep it "waste" proof like Tex was saying. It may have an odd effect that I would actually call a feature: the barrier collapses would likely be slightly staggered, booming in staccato instead of synchronized. To be continued with some other approaches.

I view those starter missions as just part of the arc, at least like Jenkins' which is always the same. I would rather every single mission without a blue title gave one merit. Instructions unclear. Ran mission for 20 years.

Pretty sure all the men involved with the Carnival (and by extension, the reason for the ladies' dress code) are made mindless thralls. I don't think life is much better for the mask-twisted women either.

@Glacier Peak One thing to note on your screenshots - all healing is a percentage of max HP. That beefy HP pool thus swells your numbers. More broadly on the topic, I would be curious to know if you skip any Empathy powers. My take on Empathy is that most powers are great by themselves... It's the amount of power function duplication overkill that is fundamentally the issue. If we were to improve the set, we would have to change the primary use case of someone's preferred health bar reverser. One thing I do want to mention in Empathy's favor: it is incredibly strong in small groups like mine, where the extremely strong ST buffs shine. Highly recommended. Hard mode and healing: while I'm excited for the idea of increased usefulness of party roles, especially Support and Control, I would hope none of us wish for "hard mode" to require healing specifically. We've long worn our diverse support and recovery definitions as a badge of pride in our game. It would be miserable to see that end, even if just for new Incarnate difficulty content. ... But does anyone else feel like Resurrect could be an auto-rez aura toggle and still wouldn't be OP compared to Howling Twilight?

This is good feedback! I appreciate it! I am taking a sort of "allowed Arsenic parts-per-million" approach, but this very handily explains your disconnect. Thank you! I still like this idea, but I can definitely see that any sort of "version 1" should not involve costume pieces, if for no other reason than player perception. I would instead push for something more benign, like @Marine X's version - simply handing out free bits of merits, incarnate pieces, (I would also like to see Experienced charges) etc., at a rate that is slow enough to just feel like a nice little bonus for people actively playing, but paling in comparison to active farming, speedrunning, etc.

Yeah that's a good example of how this could be used. What you've provided here is an example page of rewards the Paragon Points could add. Not worrying about more controversial items (NPC pieces) and focusing on easy-win items everyone can get behind. This would be good -- it's a "drop in the bucket" for career farmers, but a vast boon to folks who are not.

As in: that's literally the perspective I am pitching here. Stay with me, I'm trying to break down the gap in Internet communication. It's really ok to not like the idea, I just want to close this disconnect. Let's break it into 2 parts: Questionable NPC costume pieces: I'm saying here "Hey HC, if you're on the fence as to whether or not to include a thing, consider a way to allow it in, in a limited context instead of not at all." Right now, several pieces have been cited to me as not wanting to add it for concerns of the item's quality. My (subjective) take is that equates to an item they don't want in open circulation, showing up everywhere you look no matter how bad. If we had a new costume piece, they would want to add that out to everyone and this "limited" context makes zero sense. Occasional freebies like bonus XP, bonus uses of temp powers, bonus IOs or their recipes, even level boosts: These are all things that are attainable in-game through other means, so adding additional avenues to achieve it are... by definition, only adding to player options and providing alternate avenues. For example, I would love to get a free Winter IO every 4 weeks instead of logging onto my Farm toon once every 100 days as I currently do. So take those things together: 1) add an unavailable thing only if it's a better alternative to "not at all." (that's an HC judgement) and 2) Alternate avenues for players to get fun stuff. Add them together and you can see how saying "no thanks, no limits ever" just isn't in scope. It's really like saying "if you're only offering a single slice of pizza, then I reject it because I will only accept the whole pie." I'm ok on this front. I just hope someone on Team HC sees my suggestions, skims them, and maybe gets a nugget of a different idea they can use.

I can get behind this. The moment it feels like a daily, even I don't want it.

Well, because it's not true. The fact that it's there on the other servers, who got all their code from SCoRE, tells us as much. It's a couple of simple Definition files (you can even edit them in notepad). The lion's share of the work would be in creating the reward codes and tables we already use elsewhere. EDIT: to be clear, that WOULD be significant work to set it all up.

Best argument yet. Appreciated.

The only way for this to lead to elitism is for you to fail to understand what was proposed. Unless you think "account is 60 days old" is elite status, I guess. I will extend to you the grace you deprived me by explaining: I suggested 2 months to cap points or less, in part because that ensures there is nothing that costs more than that. In turn, this destroys any sense of "veteran" rewards. Just the choices you made. If you still think this would lead to have/have-nots, you'll have to expressly describe how, because I'm 99% sure it's assuming a position I'm not making.

Many, or even most, yes. Some are just too exclusive. But you can fire up titan in npc mode to see some of these (remember to play with sliders too. Many only work well at default). There are still many many pieces that work in enough configurations that I want them enabled, but general dodginess in responses leads me to believe Homecoming doesn't want them cast out for all. The alternative is not having them as a choice at all for the npc parts, and less ways of accessing them for the other benefits. Literally, every response to this thread that is "I reject it for not being totally open" is like saying "I reject your free slice of pizza because you didn't also give me the restaurant." I realize it may not be clear, but there is nothing in the OP that insinuates new content, for example, should be locked to this. Nothing at all. This suggestion is for things where "totally open" just isn't an option. A compromise that can bring some engagement.

This adds more ways to attain things, removes literally nothing, and adds avenues to include things we would never "naturally" see. An occasional extra event IO doesn't take it away from elsewhere. A general new costume piece would still be added to the creator directly; this is for those that we don't have enabled because they're just a bit too low quality to go into regular circulation, like untintable shoulder pieces or neat pieces that "can clip with other options" even though we have plenty already. @Glacier Peak regrettably, I believe a mechanism like this is the only way we would ever see some of the more limited npc costume pieces. A good example would be Borea's V-shaped vest thing. It's an interesting chest piece, but we'll never see it given to everyone because it's too easy to interfere with shoulder pieces. By turning this into a choice about which character you'll put it on, you (hopefully) decrease the likelihood of people just making horrid decisions that make the overall game look worse to passive observers. All other benefits - yes, there is no reason to remove these from other aspects of the game. They only add options.

Paragon Points exist at the account level, and yet can grant character-level items to be collected. That has a lot of potential! Part 1: No P2W/RMT. Duh. Similar to how we are regularly granted server transfer tokens, the idea is just to put every account on a schedule, receiving x Paragon Points per y interval. That could be 400/month like typical Premium subscribers used to... or it could be 2 points per week and all the costs could be rescaled from hundreds to single points (so even more like the server tokens). This suggestion is not at all about asking for a paid subscription. Just using the framework of the system. Suggestion: I would consider clamping the MAX PP very low. Instead of hoarders, we would be best-served having folks max out their point stores in 2 months or less and actively spending them (and thus remaining involved in the game). We have no reason to encourage account-holding like the old "unused Gym membership" days. Part 2: What is gained? Controlled Rarity. Points cannot be farmed, exploited, etc. They come when they come in and no faster. Due to the character-specific benefits, this isn't heavily exploitable with multiple accounts. Since points are built up at the Account level but exchanged for Character Items, players must choose who gets the benefit, which allows the Homecoming to add content where they would normally say "we just don't want every single character running around with this." The Rewards sheet can change reasonably easily. There's always just mixing things up, but it also gives you the ability to phase in new options over time, and phase out options you've decided aren't good to keep in permanently (things that can affect the economy come to mind). Items in the Paragon Store can be flagged as Repeatable... or not! Truly unique things could be added by flagging as non-repeatable, though ideally this would be reserved for things that are in some way transferrable between characters, so they don't feel like they already "burned" their best decision. An example would be a Winter IO. Part 3: Examples These are just ideas and their reasoning. No need to imagine all of these would be included. Apply a custom title tint. - In case it's decided this shouldn't require direct GM intervention, this allows players a limited way of achieving their own tinted titles instead, though no custom title names would be included (probably). Unlock "potential problem" costume pieces - Specifically for costume items where there are concerns it could bring down the overall quality of the game (e.g. horrid clipping potential) if everyone's using it willy-nilly. This allows a best-of-both-worlds approach: If your character concept absolutely relies on the Widow Chest Detail (on a non-Widow) from level 1, you can wait a few weeks at most and buy it, build your character, and put it on at Ms. Liberty right up those stairs! Homecoming doesn't have to worry about hosting City of That Solaris Dress Everyone Wants because it'll only go to the specific character you buy it for. Increase a character's Bio Description field - I imagine this would require a code change and not really be worth the effort, but it's a thought. Event IOs - A way to ease the burden on folks who do not farm. Obviously has Economic implications that would need considered, but I imagine an extra winter every 1-4 weeks cannot meaningfully affect the amount of activity happening from folks with capped inf. NONREPEATABLE: Certain Named NPC Costume Pieces - I don't think Ms Liberty's Liberty Bell belt+sword is a good idea to include, but Swan's wings? Manticore's crazy hair? The only issue with this is that, while I like the idea of only one character per account having these, I think this would only make sense if there's a built-in way to revoke access to these items and validate they aren't in use on any costume slots before being able to reclaim on a different character. There should never be a world where someone feels they need to start a new account because they claimed Penelope's suspenders on the wrong character. Level boost? - Obviously controversial, it would reduce the reliance on AE mapserver instances to be able to just be able to open up a package and gain enough XP to go from level 1 to 20 (or less. Or more) every once in a while. Could replace the server tokens while we're at it, but if so these should still be very cheap and accessible. I'm sure I haven't even thought about the best ideas, but there's a lot of potential here. Paragon Shop doesn't need to mean cash, mtx exploitation, etc. It can exist without it and provide some fun meta-toys.

Uh huh, yeah I hate the direction of this thread and will immediately regret keeping it alive, but I want to talk about the premise and I'm not gonna make an account on MassivelyOP for it: Portal Corp as part of the core premise. As they mention in the article, I would love to see an alternate reality (or, ugh, universe reset). But to go along with it, I would take the approach of a full set of linked dimensions. Problems this solves: You don't need an evil, hostile nation-state a quick boat ride from Paragon, RI if Arachnos/equivalent can be ruling from an alternate version of the city. Essentially, this is what they tried to move towards with late-game Praetoria, but they undermined it with all the... Praetoria-ness. And, you know, the whole "we broke it" thing. As a connection point of the dimensions, Paragon being the City of Heroes makes more sense. I don't like how justified the NPC jokes are about not being able to throw something without it hitting a superhero. We need more justification for the density in this one spot. The rest of the "kitchen sink" world can be split up some more between the different realities, ideally with some blurring. e.g. one dimension can be the wellspring of most magic, so it's rare/non-existent in some other dimensions. One dimension can have a sentinel-esque (in the X-Men sense) police force and heroics are outlawed, etc. So basically, imagine 3-5 different Paragons that all share a Portal Core Metro line of some sort, with varying degrees of open trade/currently-at-war type situations. Perhaps more controversially: no straight PvP, no true supervillain players. Just an alignment system tied into your Contact/story arc access. I figured I'd have a bunch of bullets and bolded headers but... no. I really just want to decentralize some of the setting.

Don't get sick, but I still have a character concept waiting for this.

Off meta by a lot, but no, it is very much "broke." No matter how bad a pick the power is, doing literally nothing is the definition of broken. The reason I mentioned Brute's being a bit bigger deal is there are plenty of brutes who do not want to tank, such as thematically "speedy" characters that use Fury to represent building momentum. That's a character that might spring for this or Misdirection (haven't tested, but probably broken as well) to help their "move in a blur" hit-and-run tactics. Yes, this exactly. The funny thing about "as designed" is nothing is capable of being designed for the thing overlooked.

Aaaaaand it affects Brutes too, which strikes me as a slightly bigger deal.

Not that this is even close to "meta", but I would think a power shouldn't be completely unusable due to your inherent! EDIT: Both Tanker and Brute (below) were tested on Brainstorm. Actual NPC behavior: attacking me. In fact, me checking to see just how terrible my accuracy must be (because they kept ignoring and attacking me) is the reason I noticed.

Male > Upper > Gloves > Fire and Ice 3 Same deal as CoT 3 -- I noticed it's awful, but it may be better to defer this as "solution: asymmetry toggle." Male > Upper > Gloves > Omega Could use a minor offset Male > Upper > Gloves > Organic Armor (and Thorny, but meh) Thorny is obviously much worse at clipping, but the Asymmetry answer of "just use regular Organic Armor" also clips: Regular :: Thorny :: ...And then to go back through and check the other genders: Huge: Celestial Armor 1 only has the issue with the rear section, while Female only has the clip-through on the front: ::: Female > Gloves > Mecha: Same issue as Male. Huge is fine, though. Huge... > Gloves > Resistance Huge | Female... > Gloves > Ascension: Yep :: Huge | Female > Gloves > Fire and Ice 3: yes, clips. Not sure it matters. I can see people liking it with earthy toons. :: Huge | Female > Gloves > Omega :: Huge > Upper > Gloves > Organic Armor Including Thorny: As above, not truly a huge issue. But I'm reporting it and letting you decide if you care to fix: :: Female is fine enough, not worth a report at this time. Thorny of course sticks through but you get the idea. Sorry.