RikOz

In the first year after the launch of HC, I rolled a whole bunch of alts in a relatively short timeframe, and I got right sick of the AP and KR arcs. So for a while I started "power leveling" just enough that I could skip straight to Steel Canyon. I used the "Bads in Space" XP farm. Now that I'm not rolling alts nearly as quickly (maybe 1-2 in a month as ideas hit me), I'm back to just leveling new alts normally via missions. Nowadays, my main use for XP farming with that mission is to jump into Bads in Space when the character I've been playing has completed a story arc and has ended up a couple bubbles shy of the next level, and I need to log out soon to go to bed. I hate to log out so close to the character leveling up, but I don't have time to run another mission or two, so I'll hit AE and fill those last couple bubble and get the level up.

I've been encountering an oddity with the various PBAoE melee attacks that have the animation wherein the character leaps into the air and spins 360 degrees, hitting every enemy in range: Battle Axe: "Whirling Axe" Broad Sword: "Whirling Sword" Claws: "Spin" War Mace: "Whirling Mace" Energy Melee: "Whirling Hands" There may be others that I'm not thinking of. Anyway, here's the issue. Very often (but not every time) I initiate the attack, my character goes through the animation, I hear the sound effect of the attack successfully hitting the target(s) ... but nothing at all happens. No damage is dealt, which would suggest that I must have missed, except that the "MISS!" word does not appear. The target(s) doesn't perform any dodging animations. No target is affected by any secondary effect that can apply even on a miss. It is especially noticeable when I use these attacks while surrounded by enemies, because when it happens, it "misses" every target in range. Missing every single eligible target with an AoE can happen, sure, but it's fairly uncommon for that to happen, and when it does I would normally see "MISS!" on every target. But when this thing happens, there is no feedback whatsoever--it's as if the attack simply didn't happen. Of course, I'm assuming that no target takes damage, because I don't see the health bar decrease for the specific enemy I have targeted, and of course the usual damage-dealt numbers are missing in action, just like the "MISS!" is missing. I'll note that, as with the example powers I listed, it is mostly happening with weapon powersets. Or at the very least, it's most obvious with a weapon set. It might be happening with Fire Sword Circle, but I haven't specifically noticed it with that set. The issue does not appear with Dual Blades "Typhoon's Edge" attack, as that power uses a different animation than the other powers listed. I also haven't noticed it with Katana's similar power, but that may also be using a different animation (not sure). I've observed this issue specifically with brutes and scrappers. I have both a Claws stalker and an Energy Melee stalker, but I haven't happened to play the Claws stalker since I've noticed this, and the EM stalker is low level and does not yet have Whirling Hands.

Okay, I've done this arc/mission enough times that it's pretty clear that this is more "incorrect original setup" than "bug" or "occasional glitch". Basically, it seems to me that the two hostages, Ken Kellerman and his wife, Kimberly Kellerman, should have their spawn locations switched. Not for any mechanical or technical reasons, but for "story flow" reasons. Ken always spawns first, somewhere on the first floor of this gigantic, complex laboratory map. Once you've rescued him and led him to the exit, he says: "You've saved me, and my wife. Thank you." Except you haven't saved his wife yet. She always spawns on the final level of the map (I swear it's the fourth floor, but maybe it only feels that way because of the size/complexity of the map), typically at a location most distant from the elevator. Once you've clobbered her guards, she says: "Oh, [player name]! Please tell me you can get Ken and me out of this place!" That phrasing seems more appropriate for rescuing Kimberly first (though I suppose it makes sense that Kimberly doesn't know you've already rescued Ken, but still). On top of Kimberly's line, the text in the objective list now says, "Lead Ken out!" It seems pretty plain to me that the original writer intended that Kimberly be rescued first, but an original developer inadvertently switched the spawn locations. A "Kimberly first" scenario simply makes more sense, as far as story flow. Oh, another thing suggests that Kimberly was meant to be rescued first. When you defeat Ken's guards, but before you lead him to the exit, Ken says: "This time, I'm sticking with you. The three of us have got to get out of here!" Like Kimberly's comment, this strongly suggests that, by the time you find Ken, you've already rescued Kimberly (and, I suppose, brought her with you as you fought through the rest of the map instead of taking her straight to the exit).

Yeah, I've noticed there are pop-up warnings when a vigilante or rogue exits a neutral zone like Pocket D or the Midnighter's Club, letting you know which "side" you're about to enter. So I was thinking of something similar for the base teleporters.

One thing I've noticed is that CoX's sound level seems to be completely disconnected from my computer's overall sound level settings. Specifically, it's louder than any other sound source on my computer. For contrast, World of Warcraft's sound levels seem to be well-integrated with my computer's overall volume settings. So if I had, say, Spotify turned all the way up, and WoW's sound turned all the way up, and had both going at once, the two things would be approximately the same volume. I could then adjust the volume of one or the other to get the balance I wanted between the two, and then use the volume knob on my speakers to control the overall level. But in CoX, if I turn the game's volume all the way up and also have Spotify turned all the way up, CoX's sound will completely bury Spotify. So I have to run with the Sound FX Volume slider dropped all the way down to 20%, while leaving Spotify turned all the way up, just to get some balance between the two. And yeah, I agree, some power sets are dramatically louder than others. It would be lovely if, at some point, our devs could do some sort of balancing pass on the various sound FX, as well as how the game's sound interacts with system sound.

Scenario: In one of my "hero" SG bases, alongside the the teleporters for all the zones heroes can visit, I added a teleporter for accessing Rogue Isles zones because my SG includes a couple vigilantes, and one hero-gone-rogue (she's not really a "rogue" - I changed her alignment because she has a vendetta against The Family and there seem to be more Family missions on redside). I ran into a problem when setting up this teleporter, because it seemed to not be working. I was setting it up with a hero character, and when I tried to test it to make sure the beacons had connected properly, I just kept getting the "This teleporter has no destination beacons. To activate this teleporter, create a destination beacon and place it nearby" message. This led me to think that the beacons weren't properly connected, and I wasted a lot of time deleting everything and starting over, two or three times. Needless to say, when I clicked it again, this time with one of my vigilantes, it worked properly. So my suggestion is to add a message for the benefit of wrong-faction characters trying to use the teleporter. For example, show the zone list as normal, but pop up a "you can't go there" type of message if they click on a zone. As it stands now with the current message, it just makes it appear that the teleporter is broken/not set up correctly.

Seahawk likes this new base decoration :D I've run across this situation a couple times now, in the same spot in First Ward: In both cases, the Resistance fighter and D.U.S.T. guy face-to-face, pointing their guns at each other, are complete statues, totally unmoving. Meanwhile, the other two are doing the normal AFK poses, changing poses as normal, but not attacking each other.

Looking up from the bottom of a very tall room in Oranbega, with lower graphics settings.

This. I hate the fact that, after every spawn defeat, I have to wait around to see if they're going to rez. Then I have the constant problem where, after doing a couple Freakshow missions, I do a mission with different enemies and it usually takes me a few spawns to remember, "Oh, I don't have to wait around".

Another fun example of mission dialog conflicting with randomized enemy generation. I was doing that mission arc where some Council robots have become self-aware and are trying to take over. I "heard" the following dialog that would make a whole lot more sense if it was being spoken by actual human Council soldiers: [NPC] Zenith Mech Man: These robots have gone crazy! [NPC] Zenith Hoverbot: We've got to get out! [NPC] Zenith Mech Man: Move, you morons! A similar one I think I may have already posted had a Council robot expressing its dream of some day joining the ranks of the Vampyri.

This. I'd like to be able to clearly see how my costume part selections are going to interact with, say, Stone Armor, instead of the current method of finishing the costume, exiting the costume creator, seeing that something doesn't work with SA, and having to start over again.

Same things with those ToHit debuffing CoT ghosts at low levels. Can't possibly carry enough yellows to counter it, particularly if the mission spawns heavy on ghosts.

Illusions that persist after the Illusionist is defeated are definitely bogus. I just love having to stand 100 yards away from the hostage I'm trying to rescue, waiting five minutes for that damned Decoy Phantasm to despawn.

Port Oakes: [NPC] Hellion Girlfriend: My mom, like, said I wouldn't do anything with my life. She was soooo wrong.

There he is! He's right there! I see him!

Striga Isle Warriors. I assume it was completely random, but Mindi really sold this sequence for me: [NPC] Hewer Elite: These artifacts are priceless. [NPC] Slasher: We are mighty! [NPC] Mindi: Oh, gosh.

I was amused to spot this fellow whilst collecting exploration badges in Siren's Call.

I named my most recent villain "Playa del Mal". It's a bilingual pun. Translated to English, it means "Evil Beach". I was inspired by this masterpiece from Italian comedy metal band, Nanowar of Steel, in which they combine the subject matter of Satanic Norwegian black metal with Latin/Caribbean party music:

The giant cape or banner at the top of the image is what's confusing it for me.

I may have shared this particular costume of my main, Flaminatrix, before, can't recall. I designed it as her "Incarnate" costume, and to make it stand out from her other costumes I departed from her usual red+orange color scheme and went white+gold. Then, yesterday, I realized she had not collected the Praetorian exploration badges aside from First/Night Ward, so off she went to Nova Praetoria. As soon as she arrived, I realized, OMG, this is the city this costume was made for. It just felt "right" for zipping around under Tyrant's nose. (Oh, she got all of the above ground and all of the Underground badges. That took something like an hour and a half...) (Oh #2 - As of yesterday as well, she finally has every single day job badge obtainable in Paragon City, First Ward, and the Shadow Shard.)

I'm doing something similar with one of my alts: Though that pic doesn't show the whole story, since it doesn't depict his stone armor. He's using the "Lava" armor, and I've recolored the powers to match the fist & eyes aura. Here's what he looks like with the second costume and toggles up:

And of course, if you didn't already know it, 'Aren't you a little old to be believing in leprechauns?' is the punchline to an old joke. Here's a "clean" version of the joke: Hennessy wasn't a very good looking fellow to start with. Now his business had failed, and his wife and family had left him. Depressed and distracted, he was standing near the edge of the bridge, contemplating suicide. Suddenly, he sensed that someone was behind him, and turning around he saw an ugly little old leprechaun. “Don't jump,” she said, and I'll grant you three wishes.” “Right,” he said. “my first wish is to have $100, 000. ” She said, “When you check your account, you will find that you are in credit to that amount. ” He then said, “My second wish is to have my wife and children back. ” She said, “They will be there when you get home. ” He said, “My third wish is to be tall and handsome. ” She said, When you look in the mirror, you will find that your wish has been granted. ” Then she added, “I want you to do something in return for me. I want you to kiss me. ” He looked at her and shuddered at the thought. But under the circumstances he thought he should do as she wanted. He took her in his arms and kissed her again and again. She said, “What age are you?” He replied, “I'm forty. ” She said, “Don't you think that you're a bit too old to be believing in leprechauns?” I also recently read a dirtier version that involved a "genie" rather than a "leprechaun", but was essentially the same joke.

I've noticed several NPC civilian lines like that. I've come to the conclusion that the original developers allotted a certain number of letters for those, and forgot to take into account the player characters' names using up some of that number. So they get cut off if the character's name contains more than a certain number of letters.

Newest costume for Li'l Spankee: