Arnabas

I always need to play a character as in I need to have a story for them and write up a bio. I tried playing red side when it first came out, but couldn't connect with any character I made, so I would always delete them. What finally allowed me to play was to create a stalker who had been taken as a child and turned into a mind-controlled assassin. She finally broke free, but without those who trained her realizing it. She then continued to go on missions to "remove" targets, but would actually fight her way to them, incapacitating (not killing) everyone along the way. When she would reach her objective, she would help them fake their death and escape to Paragon. So basically, she was now heroic, but undercover as a villain, and that made her fun to play.

Thanks for the info!

Back on live, I experimented very briefly with a PB, but not enough to really get a feel for them, other than to know how deadly Voids and Quantums were (at the time). Now I would like to level up a PB and would like a bit of advice, partly to have a clearer view of the "purpose" of each form, and also in general. I am starting to form some assumptions based on the little bit that I have played and if I am wrong, would like to be pointed in the right direction. What I know (or think I know) right now as a level 12 or so PB is this: Nova form is dishing out damage (Blaster-style) and Dwarf for is enduring damage (Tanker-style). Human form seems to be in the middle. Having played pure human up until my last power choice, I have been splitting my enhancements between offence and defence. Having just picked my Nova form, I am thinking I should respec to take the (offence) enhancements out of the human-only powers and put them into the Nova-only powers to improve its attacks. I had assumed that I would have to do the same later with the Dwarf form, as I was thinking it would add a number of defence powers, but reading up a bit, I see that like the Nova, it only gets new attacks. Does this mean that the Dwarf form keeps the Defence abilities that I am currently using in my human form (Shining Shield, Thermal Shield, etc), which turn off in Nova? Once I have both the Nova and Dwarf forms available, does human form continue to have any particular use? Right now, it seems to offer better Defence than Nova, but when the Dwarf comes along, the Dwarf will take that role. Any info you guys can share, would be great. Or even point to a simple but fairly comprehensive guide. In the meantime, i will keep looking for info myself. Thanks

I don't know... I agree with the first part here, but I don't think it's theme-destroying. I mean, the idea is to replicate Hulk-like characters who will Rage, do bonus damage, and then calm down and recuperate after everything has been smashed. Or like a berserker who kills everything in sight then passes out exhausted. So I don't see it as theme-destroying, but theme-enforcing (a theme that many may not want to play). It's kind of interesting to me, though. Rage (along with certain other powers in other powersets, some of which have been drastically changed since inception) was built as a concept power suitable for people who like a little RP in their MMORPG. My first character was an Inv/ SS tanker who had Rage, but almost never used it. She only activated it when it seemed thematically appropriate, such as when she was injured and close to being overwhelmed, or facing a major villain. I still tend to play her that way much of the time. Over the years, we moved away from things that added "flavour" to the game in an effort to pursue pure utility. I personally like to have some concept powers, but it seems few others feel the same.

Well, since people are including their bios, I'll toss up a few.

Virtually all of my characters have bios. Some of my characters from live have numerous stories written about them, including two novellas. I might have about 4-5 characters without a bio written yet, but that just means I am hammering out the details before writing them up, or sometimes trying to condense it enough to fit in the allotted space.

SOO-pruh-dyne.

Interesting. The character I tried it with had the power pre-patch. I played earlier today (not with this character) and logged out completely, only returning this evening, when I experienced the issue. I was thinking I might need to respec. It's the self-teleport, so I am targeting a location.

I don't know if this is a known issue, or if it's somehow just me, but when I use Teleport, my character goes through the animation, only to drop back to the ground without moving so much as an inch.

No, the one I was thinking of used different armour and the eyes were visible, but these are pretty cool too!

Back on live, there was someone who shared pics of his Ape character and it looked amazing. I wish I still had an image. I don't have access to the game right now and can't remember the costume part names, but he used the alien face (with the big dark eyes) and sideburns for the head and the big, fat robotic gloves for the hands to help emphasize the larger upper body (he was an armoured ape). I tried recreating the look at one point but couldn't quite get it to look right.

Whenever I think of the Battalion, I envision them as being similar to the Cabal in Destiny. Not sure why. Might just be the name. I'm honestly not sure if I want to see the story play out. Part of me definitely does, but I don't think they have the time and resources to do it properly. Maybe they could have a Task Force that centres around delaying it indefinitely. Just keep repeating the TF and they will never arrive. I disagree with this. I mean, they've been rebuilding some zones for 20 years now.... I think seeing some progress is fair.

My Dark/ Dark Dominator is great and I am currently obsessing over how fun my Fire/ Dark Controller is.

I need everything to come together... the story, the powers, and the costume. I have one character who I made and remade multiple times, first as a fire Blaster, then an energy Blaster, followed by an ice Dominator. For one reason or another, none of those worked for him, but I wanted to keep the character because he is important to my head-cannon as the twin of the very first character I ever made back on live. Finally, I remade him as an SJ/ SR Scrapper with a new costume and a focus on being a speedster.... and now I absolutely love him. Sometimes I will try out a powerset combo that sounds fun, but I end up deleting the character because it isn't fun. Later, I might try a new character with those same exact powers, but a new backstory and costume and I'll think "wait... it wasn't this much fun before!" The sum of the parts make the character playable. If one element is off, the character tends to be largely ignored, or just deleted.

I would love to see the contacts (and missions, really) redone. I am tired of every hero being sent to Montague Castanella regardless of whether he is an appropriate contact for them or not. I am ready to let the Circle of Thorns have their way with Percy... I seem to recall back on live that we were sent to all sorts of contacts, but now there seems to be like 5 or so that I am doing ad nauseum. As for Twinshot, I don't mind the arc too much... ok, well, I kind of do.... but the problem is that by the time you are doing it you are already familiar with everything it is supposed to introduce to you.

I love punny names, but I almost never use them. My one exception is my Dark/ Ice tank Darkfrost, whose real name is Cole Dendark.

I am a bit unclear on something. You mention that "Classic travel powers (Fly, Super Speed, etc) should be on even footing with Origin Pool travel powers - and ideally, be better at the core thing they do (running, flying, jumping)," which I agree with (I dislike Mystic Flight being as fast as true Flight and Translocation having the same range as true Teleport, for example) but then according to the above, they have the same values anyway. What am I missing?

I am not a big "numbers" guy. I just play what's fun. I have 2 Regen melee types that are both very fun to play, as well as one Regen Sentinel. I have no issues with any of them. For people whose fun is being able to handle +4/ X8 and never see their health move, then for sure it won't be fun. But if you like a more active power that requires you to think a bit about how to approach your battles, it can be quite fun.

I enjoy my sonic character, but have to play with the sound off. I can't listen to the set as originally designed.

This is something that always bothered me. I make my characters normal human height unless their backstory dictates otherwise (IE the cosmic beings, demi-gods, etc). It's irritating to have my "normal-sized" character stand next to a huge civilian, but what can you do? I am not going to make all my characters 7' +

Praetoria is worth doing just for the experience of a cohesive, well-made setting and story. I wish we could do more in Praetoria because it's (IMO) some of the best content in the game, visually and story-wise.

This is really good to know. What a great use of Ouroboros. I will definitely have to do this with one of my characters. That contact's death was the tipping point that caused him to become a bit more extreme and ultimately go vigilante.

I would actually really like to see more (or, actually, better) low level stuff. WHy? When the game came back and I played the new Skulls missions for the first time, I was blown away. They are relatively low level, but still feel pretty epic and were very well done. I would love to see more of that and (much) less of the really old content that consists of "go here and defeat 10 Hellions, then go there and defeat 20 Hellions." It just might make the lower level stuff engaging enough that people won't PL to 20+ before starting to actually play. I can wait for more Incarnate slots and such. The game is already easy enough without adding more power to my demi-gods.

It bordered on too much reading for me. I love having dialogue and stuff to read, but this had a lot, and it came fast. I had to stop periodically and then scrtoll back and read for five minutes before continuing on with the mission.

I love seeing alignment choices integrated into actual missions. I would like to see more of that.