Steampunkette

Ehhh... The EAT is a hero who nearly died and gets saved by an Alien that bonds with them to create a new Hybrid character. The closest to that in Praetoria would be a Devoured Seer or something. Personally I'd rather see something new than another soldier character archetype and another psychic character archetype.

Flip it around. "Everything must be freely available to me at all times because I'm selfish and entitled and refuse to spend time to earn my goodies and anyone who isn't good with that should kneecap themselves to create a false sense of challenge so I don't have to be bothered by it!" is what I'm getting from you, here. Now we could dance around that Ad Hominem circuit or debate the finer points of where the goalposts should be, but I'm not interested in that kind of circumlocution. I'd like some rewards gated behind content because it gives me a goal to achieve. It's how CoH was run for years on end. It's how MMOs and Games in General typically work. You have a goal, you have a reward for completing that goal, go get it. It isn't unreasonable to ask that the system that worked so well for so long be continued in a slightly less restrictive manner, I.E. that any locked rewards become unlocked on an account-wide basis. And presenting it as some selfish and unreasonable position is not arguing in good faith on a level field.

... yeah. No one is ever going to do that. It's a ridiculous idea on it's face. People will create goals for themselves, forever. 'Cause that's what people do. There's people out there making "Hardcore" characters who don't use IOs and reroll if they drop even once. There's people out there making Power Pool Builds where the bulk of their powers come from a series of power pools... I'm certain there's someone out there whose goal is to do every mission in the game on a single character, earn every badge, do everything once, except the stuff you -can't- (Like Praetoria and the Tutorial on one character) But there's no reward for it. And saying "Well you can just not let yourself do X and pretend it's a reward for doing all that hard work!" is just flatly insulting. I'd infinitely prefer to have goals to achieve to get some kind of reward (On an account basis) than every single thing just handed to me, forever.

I can largely agree with your points but here's a couple things that we have to remember: We keep reinventing the same stories. The Outsider who becomes powerful, like Tarzan or John Carter, is the same story as the Demigods of Greco Roman Myths. And shit like The Last Samurai or Iron Fist where the white guy winds up in a foreign culture and masters it (In the case of Iron Fist style stories, becoming better at it than the people for whom it is their native culture in perhaps the clearest example of racist cultural appropriation) is Tarzan and Perseus, too. And for a young nerd in the early 1900s, libraries had tons of options for reading the Greek and Roman myths, particularly ones often referenced in Literature and History classes, like Hercules and Sisyphus. These kinds of stories are so ingrained in Western culture that we use their names as words. Herculean, Sisyphean, Narcissist. We look at an Atlas fore directions 'cause he's holding up the world. We Hypnotize each other for fun or emotional wellness. And we turn to our Muses for inspiration. When a Cop Car needs people on the side of the road they hit their Siren. You don't have to study Greek Mythology in college to have an understanding of the big stories, or see how those stories interact with each other and plant seeds for new ones. The other thing is: Lovecraft's characters never stomp out evil. They barely survive it, if they do. And rarely with their sanity intact! His whole thing was that there were concepts and beings that were too big to understand, too world-shattering to grasp. If modern sci-fi owes anything to Lovecraft it's the idea of what is alien and unusual... which for him largely boiled down to "Too many eyes and 1 or more tentacles which is too many tentacles!" Fantasy honestly owes more to Lovecraft, all things considered, with his ancient monsters rising from slumber, casting humanity back to the stone age, and falling back asleep countless times throughout history (And he kind of owes that to Robert Howard and his ages of the world that make Africa the home of everything from Rome to Afghanistan, England to the US).

The powers themselves are fine. The damage scale is fine. The smaller target cap is okay (Personally I would've gone to 75% instead of 50% because it's neither a blaster or a scrapper but somewhere in between, but that's just me!). The problem is that it's built around an inherent that in regular play largely goes unnoticed unless someone is fighting AVs. Like a -LOT- of AVs. And even then it's mostly viewed as a team-benefit rather than a personal benefit. They're slightly weaker than scrappers and blasters, baseline. That's fine. That's 100% acceptable, go team good shit. But Blasters -get- Aim and Build Up to make their stuff hit harder. They get Defiance to make it hit harder than -that-. And Scrappers get to hit harder because Crits which through ATOs (not baseline, I know, but still!) can be partially controlled. All this stuff makes -their- damage stronger. The Sentinel gets a 5% res debuff on their enemies to make everyone's damage better. And a 20% res debuff on a single enemy to make everyone's damage better. Yeah, they get to feast, too, but someone who drops from 300ft popping aim and build up on the way down to land near the boss and drop to 1hp before popping their nuke followed by an instant cast snipe is going to benefit from that 20% debuff a lot MORE. I'm not saying the idea of debuffing as an inherent (especially unresistably) is a bad idea. They just also need something for -themselves- to feel good about.

Equal to Scrappers would be equal to Blasters. Both have a 1.125. The target count would help to separate them a bit, the lower range. But it would hit as hard as a blaster on the baseline and the things that make Blaster different would be a flimsier secondary that makes them run in to land big melee hits where they have no defense. Oh, they wouldn't have the burst potential of Blasters, obviously. No aim+bu. But trading half the target cap (Or less for some powers) in exchange for near scrapper-levels of survival? Kiiiiinda on the power creepy side. As it stands they're at .95, the Dominator Scalar. The intent of the 5% Res debuff on their ST attacks was to bring them up to the equivalent of a 1.0, and then the 20% resist debuff target-marking after that takes them to 1.20 (or it's equivalent). Feast and Famine back and forth but only on a single target... Which is really only useful against Bosses (But not much) and EBs/AVs. So they wind up in Famine for most of their careers and feast once in a while against harder targets.

The difference between grind and content is a person's perspective. Grind is what happens when you get tired of the content. People don't do radio missions for the content. most people no longer do the ITF or LGTF for content. And certainly not the Freedom Phalanx task forces. People have already experienced all that content has to offer. People have basically experienced everything that the game has to offer. At this point it's pretty much just grind. But because they don't care about the grind its content! So go get your accolades, run that task force you've played a dozen times before. I'd like some new content with some new rewards at the end please. And maybe some new goals to reach on the content we already have for new rewards 'cause if we honestly minded the grind we would be playing other games, right now...

The Nazi reinterpretation was literally Forster-Nietzsche rewriting his works. Like. MASSIVELY. She forged letters after his mental breakdown. Not like 1 or 2, either. In one year Nietzsche sent out 500 letters, and only around 80 of them were actually his. And of those 80 she altered like 60. The rest? She made up whole-cloth and mailed to his friends and to Nazis presenting Nietzche as a raging anti-semite. The Nazi Party didn't reinterpret his work, Zepp. The Nazi Party was handed an interpretation of his work by his sister who was such a raging anti-semite she and her hubby set up an "Aryan Colony" that collapsed on itself (her husband died in the colony) 'cause they couldn't take care of themselves. They didn't read his ideas on fitness and make it about Eugenics: His sister the raging anti-semite Nazi Wannabe put in references to Eugenics in his letters and her rewrites of his books to court the Nazis. That said: The philosophy of a character and the narrative structure don't have to be the same. Not by a long shot. Hell, Conan was an exploration of Existential Philosophy, much like Kull before him, but it's not like any novel exploring an Existential Character has to have them be a loincloth clad Barbarian-King. Certainly Lovecraft's explorations of the topic didn't. I think we're going at cross-purposes, here. You're focusing on the philosophical underpinnings of the character's personality and identity while I'm referring to Narrative Tropes and Story Framing. I.E. that of the Modern Mythological figure. Though I'd also probably argue that Clark Kent and Superman are an exploration of Kant's Moral Absolutism crashing headlong into a world that does not accept such forceful binaries resulting in a sort of Moral Relativism centered around Kant's Maxim.

So let's start with Nietzsche. He hated the Nazis. He wanted his unfinished works destroyed so that after his death no one could take his final, incomplete, thoughts and try to "Finish" them by guesswork. His Sister refused his wishes, finished his books with a HEAVY Nazi Slant, and destroyed Ubermensch as a term. Nietzsche's Ubermensch was an empowered person. Not in any magnificent way or genetic superiority. But philosophically empowered with an understanding of himself, of the world around him, and of the endless question mark that is the afterlife. Someone who understands their brief stint on the planet must be entirely under their own mandate, and no one else's, lest it be wasted. That they must live the life they -choose- to live, rather than the life other men might force upon them. And then the Nazis dug into Nordic Folklore because of Wagner (Who loved Nazism and Nietzsche's writing, but whom Nietzsche famously disliked) to try and explain why their German blood made them the "Best People" Yeah. Siegel and Schuster were men of jewish faith creating a hero inspired by the father and dressed in a strongman's suit as a direct opposite to the 'German Ubermensch" mentality. But they did so by leaning hard into Greco Roman Myth because the Germans were leaning hard into Nordic Myth. Take Superman's story. Banished from his homeland because his people were dying, he comes to Earth to be raised by loving parents who make him into a good person, independent of his phenomenal powers. He grows up to later learn about his Birth Family, and is given their mandate to protect Earth. (Okay, so that last part depends on Continuity) Now trade "Superman" for literally any Greek or Roman sounding name and call Krypton Olympus. Now Superman's a Demigod sent to Earth, raised by a human family, who rises up to protect people. It's the same story as half of Zeus's spawn with a Sci-Fi twist. It might be closest to the story of Perseus, in fact. Who was cast into an unforgiving sea in a chest with his mother only to wash up on a distant shore. We tell the same stories in new ways, over and over.

Eh. It's a power they have. But due to recharge time, ranges, and scripting it's gonna come up more often than others. Statesman was, after all, a Superman Clone with the numbers filed off. And Superman, himself, is just an attempt at Modern Greco-Roman Myth. Swap Krypton with Olympus and Supes becomes your general Demigod fighting monsters and evil kings like Darkseid and Lex Luthor. Personally I feel like Laser Eyes was the -least- fitting power they could've given Statesman, but Emmert is nothing if not a geek like the rest of us.

Grind doesn't equal fun. Goals equals fun. Grind is how you reach your goal. You don't walk into a mission in CoH, then throw up your hands that you've got to "Grind" through the enemies to reach the end, even though -that- is a Skinner box, too.

I actually like the idea of an Olympian Archetype. However, it shouldn't have Laser Beam Eyes. Go with the Lightning and the big hits. But don't make it the Superstrength Powerset. Use some of those animations, sure, but it needs to be it's -own- powerset. How about we mingle the Melee and Ranged without straight up Lightning? Do things like a "Handclap Cone" where you slam your hands together to send out a shockwave of force. Ditch the idea of a straight up Footstomp clone, and make it a ground-punch that sends broken-ground toward enemies before flinging them up in the air. Then make the Lightning Powers a -visual option-. A Power Customization thing where instead of cracks heading across the ground you're sending lightning cracking forward. Or instead of Hand-clapping out a shockwave of air, you do a big hand-clap cone of lightning that sparks between you and your targets, briefly. Maybe we could even make it play like Dual Pistols and change the damage type between Smashing (Which gets a bonus to the total damage done), Lightning (which changes the damage type and adds a -end component), and maybe Fire or Darkness to play into different TYPES of Olympians (Mars, Pluto, Jupiter, Etc)

And this is why I suggest Account Unlocks. Get a concept for a character that uses the New Costume Bit behind grind. Grind on main. Roll character with Cool New Outfit!

I'd love an Assault Primary AT. But because an Assault/Defense character wouldn't have a "Nuke" or an "Extreme" damage melee attack, and wouldn't have build up -and- aim for maximum Burst potential like Blasters, their baseline damage scale would need to be fairly high for both melee and ranged attacks. Of course, that could make them an interesting and engaging option for players on it's face, with an inherent mechanic that -doesn't- modify their damage, but instead plays with their defensiveness, or offers some support or utility to groups. Imagine playing a character that deals damage on par with Scrappers (Who don't have Crits) or Blasters (Without Build up + Aim + Nuke). Consistently solid damage combined with moderate survivability jumping in and out of melee to survive..? I'd love it. It'd be an Ultrablapper. Give 'em Scale 1 or Scale 1.08 and let 'em go to town. But it wouldn't be a Sentinel.

I do not agree with your assessment of the Carnival of Shadows and I feel like the "Gang War" idea turning a portion of it into a Circus Clown Crime Organization would be a bad move, regardless of how you wind up justifying it. The Carnival are Mardi Gras. Let them be Mardi Gras. If there's some kind of internal strife it should work in -that- sort of way. Not a way that changes the theme of the group. Like the Skulls? If there's a Gang War or whatever Faction Flippery that happens, it should be centered around the Superadine. It should be some upstarts or rivals or old members who feel undervalued fighting over the drug itself. Over the territory and the sales and the money. Or maybe a pseudo-fascist ingroup-outgroup violence on the basis of their Death Cult mentality. A Hyperreligious Sect of Skulls who reject Superadine altogether and seek a Skulls gang organized centrally, if not exclusively, around thanatology. So maybe the Carnival could split -that- way. Devore only put the mask on during the Rikti War so she could be a Hero, after all, maybe have a personality schism between Devore and Scaldi that births the Carnival of Twilight which is a bunch of Heroic Carnival characters. Still hedonistic. Still self-centered and mind-controlled and Mardi Gras, but a split of power and concept that plays with morality rather than theme because the leader -is- a morally dichotomous character wearing a full mask which plays into hidden intentions. But Circus? Nooooo.

RPGs in General are a Skinner Box. You do the thing a little bit and get a reward. So you do the thing some more and get another reward. But the longer you do the thing the longer the wait between rewards. But you still want the reward, so you do the thing looonger and looooooooonger. Part of CoH is a Skinner Box environment. We've retained some of that with leveling, obviously. And added a new Skinner Box in the Vet Leveling which I, personally, adore. Even if I don't get new powers at this point I like the ding. So putting some new stuff behind a little grind, but not a ridiculous grind, would be good. It would give people something to work toward in the days or weeks that followed implementation. I just beg you: ALWAYS make it Account-Unlock.

Ohhhh... I see, now. You're a rude pseudo-intellectual jerk who might have some kind of point but hides it under personal insults and passive aggressive snark. That makes more sense! If you earnestly think Mag 4 Fear protection and half a break free are anywhere near as desirable as Tough or Weave (Especially since there's no IO Set enhanceable component to that sort of 'Mez Protection') then I don't think I can help you, Scorpo. Same thing with Duration Reduction on Hold/Stun. But hey, you'll never have to read my responses to you, again, at least! I'll just drag my neanderthal knuckles over to the ignore button for you!

At no point did I say "Do I have to do the Katie Hannon Trial 30 times in a 48 hour period to unlock a Witch's Broom travel power?! SIGN ME UP!" I get that it can be frustrating to have to do the same content over and over and over again. S'why I didn't suggested. Oh... The Warwalkers was supposed to be Warworks. Like any of the Clockwork IDF members, up to and including the Warwalkers. I think you'd hit the 1,500 mark just doing all the mid to late game Praetoria content the first time through (Including the Incarnate Trials).

... yeah, I don't really understand how it's supposed to be Disadvantages, here. Unless the powers Debuff you for having the audacity to take them, they're going to have advantages. The question is whether or not "+50% Resistance to Hold/Stun Durations" (Which reduces their duration by 25%) is a good substitute for Kick (Which can be slotted for a Proc, but is largely unused outside of triggering that proc). If you're a melee type: No. Because you've got Mez Protection which also provides Resistance to some degree or another. It is only marginally useful, like Kick. If you're NOT a melee type it's kind of useful, but not really. More useful than kick unless you planned to proc Sudden Acceleration off Kick. Then comes the same question asked of a power that grants a small amount of Fear Protection (Which is a very rare form of Control that only a few sets have protection against) and has a click 'end controls on me' effect is a good substitute for Kick. If you're a melee type, again the answer is no. Fear is only used by a handful of enemies in the game and your Mez Protection precludes a need for half of a break free's usefulness. Especially since Break Frees exist in the game. If you're not a melee types... Not really? The break-free effect is nice, but those drop fairly regularly and Fear is pretty rare. It's like buying a brand new umbrella because the weatherman said there's a 20% chance of rain. As to the Brawling Pool... Very few people would ever bother using it. Yeah, there's advantages in taking the full powerset (Boxing/Kick/Crosspunch buffing each other is nice, and getting a 10% bonus to all of them is great!) but it's a very limited pool, has higher end costs and recharge times than other melee powers, and would require a lot of slotting investment to make it 'Good'. Which would limit investment to Blappers, Seppers, and Scrollers. In short I think your minimal response with only vague terms isn't particularly productive, but I'm trying to answer it as best I can: The disadvantage is you still have to take a crappy power to get to the good powers.

Yeah. New items behind Grindwalls. Right now, everything is free because most of us -did- the grinding on Live to unlock everything. Or most stuff. If your character needed the Vanguard stuff to look good, or the Purchased costume pieces, you got them on live. Remaking the character on this server? No one wants to do the grind, again, and we aren't allowed to throw profits at the Dev Team because NCSoft would murder them. So keeping everything that -is- unlocked the way it is? Golden. But putting new stuff in the game locked behind Gameplay Walls? Brilliant idea. Perfect. Beautiful. New Costume pieces? I will murder 2,000 Warwalkers for them. New Archetypes? I will grind my way to Vet Level 100 for them. New Titles? New Badges? New Powersets? I'll complete every TF and Trial both Red and Blue on a single character for that account-unlock. Gimme.

Let's try round 2! Brawling Pool: Boxing (Unchanged) Kick (Unchanged) Crosspunch (Unchanged) Leg Sweep (PBAoE Smashing + KD, 8ft Radius 18.5 end/use 20 second recharge, max 5 Targets.) Bruised Knuckles (Autopower. Increase KD/KB/Stun of all previous powers, add 10% more ToHit and Damage to other Brawling Pool Powers) Self Defense Pool: Reliance (Autopower: Mez Resist (Not protection).Grants 50% Duration Reduction on Hold/Stun/Sleep.) Fearless (Autopower: Mez Protection Fear Mag 4. Grants click power that ends control effects currently affecting you, but provides no lingering protection.) Tough (Unchanged) Weave (Unchanged) Defiant (Autopower: Debuff Resistance for Defense Debuff, ToHit Debuff, Recharge Rate Debuff, Speed Debuff, and Healing Debuffs) People looking to get Tough and Weave still have to pick a power from the Self Defense pool, but their choices are a little more meaningful. Most Mez Protections don't provide Fear Protection, and anyone who -gets- mezzed could benefit from shorter mezzes. And then Defiant can help shore up sets that don't have "Enough" Debuff protection. Meanwhile the Brawling Pool becomes a much more reasonable choice for Controllers, who can cobble together an attack chain for themselves to use on Mezzed Opponents with 2 Melee and 2 Melee AoE powers. Also a great option for Pistol Blappers and Sentinels who want to mix things up in melee a bit more while maintaining a "Natural Hero" theme.

"The Circus Larcenous" would be pretty cool. Bunch of thieves and acrobats, jugglers and low-grade supers and mutants who work together to put on a great show and then rob everyone blind. Even better, they're not the Circus, but, like, a subgroup of thieves and stuff that use various Circuses as -cover- and then bail, leaving the Ringmaster to deal with the fallout.

... The Carnival of Shadows literally runs through Mind Control and Soul Sucking. "The Carnival of Shadows exists principally to cater to the needs and desires of Vanessa DeVore and the spirit of Duchess Giovanna Scaldi. In return, Vanessa has built a decadent and insulated environment for her subjects, in which they may enjoy whatever pleasures they desire. All she asks in return is their absolute loyalty in the ongoing battle against her many enemies. Of course, since Vanessa dances through the minds of each and every one of her followers, they are always happy to do whatever it is she asks of them." When you beat them up and they scream and fall and then drain your endurance? That's the power "Psychic Visage". It's literally Vanessa Devore pulling her mind-link out of their head and yanking it back to herself, stealing some of -your- endurance on the way. The Mafia can have all the subgroups and splintergroups and backstabbing betrayals it wants 'cause the Boss doesn't have a psychic mindlink to every member of the group through their special psychic masks and literally suck out their souls if they betray him. Okay, for the mafia it'd probably be a tie or something. Cufflinks. The Watch you get when you've been a Goon for 30 years and are about to retire. This would be a huge retcon. It would be an absolutely massive narrative and tonal shift for the Carnival of Shadows to suddenly also have Lion Tamers and Sideshow Freaks, Clowns with Murderpies, and stuff like that. ESPECIALLY if it was an "Oh, we already had all that, we just didn't mention it before now because they're betraying us in a Gang War!"

Yeah... I know about Cirque du Soleil. I'm not an idiot. I also know that Tumblers, Jugglers, and Masked Entertainers have been a staple of high faluting parties since freaking ROMAN TIMES where the masks they wore would often symbolize specific gods whom they were either impersonating or insulting in a fun and ribbing sort of way with their antics. More acrobats have died slamming into marble floors of Palaces than straw lay down on sand and soil, over the centuries. But that doesn't change the VIBE. Nor does it change the kind of people within the Circus versus a Carnivale Atmosphere. And no. You couldn't have an 'Unwashed Masses' sub-faction of the Carnival of Shadows. The Carnival is masterminded by the psychic soul of Giovanna Scaldi tied to an exquisite carnival mask after she'd ruled Venice as a Duchess for years through psionic control. She manipulated Vanessa Devore into surrounding herself with mind controlled rich and young beauties for endless debauchery and wealth, started sucking down souls, and is constantly on the lookout for other rich young women to bring into the fold. Like that is their MO. There's a high end Hero Tip Mission called "Elegant Party Favor" where you're explicitly rescuing Debutantes and Socialites who are being wooed into the Carnival. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mission:Tip_-_Elegant_Party_Favor Here's a link. Vanessa Devore/Giovanna Scaldi don't recruit Riff-Raff Circus Folk. They don't get sideshow freaks or lion tamers or lions for that matter. They're aiming for wealthy and poised young men and women to have freaky sex with and expand their wealthy little empire with. It doesn't write itself. It would require a massive retcon of what the Carnival of Shadows -is-.

I'm not gonna get into the "Crimewave" or the "Subgroup" or any of the stuff touched on in the other thread. But I do wanna touch on one important thing: The Carnival of Shadows is meant to play into Mardi Gras/Carnivale ideas, not Circuses. Yes, they have Strongmen. But the style/colors/characters are all about a Carnival and they play into Debutante Balls and it's all very French and very Louisiana. It's a very "Party" Vibe. It's not a Circus, which is a whooooole other vibe. It's a -show-. It's clowns and barkers, lion tamers and sideshows. The Carnival is a Masked Ball in High Society. The Circus is a bunch of poor folks trying to make ends meet by biting the heads off chickens or taking pies to the face and being humiliated so people laugh. Carnival Lion Tamers would be more Sigfried and Roy than Ringling Brothers.