Techwright

Actually, if it's even feasible (knowing the devs undoubtedly have much on their plates), I'd like to see a badge for having visited each of the characters added to this date. It's not so much to gain a badge, as it is a way to not just "statue" a memorial and forget about it. It sadly, may require additional badges in the future, if more memorials are made, but we can cross that bridge later. I'd love to either see the info on the character filled out with player info, or a clickable plaque near the character containing this info.

The exploration badges are associated with a progress bar under "closest to completion" under the Badge tab. So the easy assumption is that there is at least one badge per zone, and once you get one, the progress bar will give you a good indication of what's left. Finding them would be a whole different matter, especially those that have a marker that doesn't readily appear even when you are practically on top of them. That said, it would be sheer dumb luck if someone discovered an exploration badge in a safeguard mission if the development team hadn't made us aware of them. Most never take the time to stay in the mission after the bank op.

Right up front let me state I have no intention of streaming or posting videos online. I understand that's a Homecoming no-no and I'll abide by that. What I'm seeking is a game video recording software for recording my characters, storing the videos for memory's sake should Homecoming and I ever have to part ways. Looking for clear, high quality results; easy to use; preferably not a resource hog; capable of working with older rigs; and of course, free. Suggestions?

It does remind me a tiny bit of my visit 30-ish years back to the "canyon" between the skyscrapers of the Wall Street/Broadway/Trinity area of Lower Manhattan, but even that view was broken up by the occasional church (which aren't in COH), and it has material and architectural distinctions in several skyscrapers, due to the era they were built.

Is it possible to have multiple leagues take down Lusca all at once? Or even a single full league. I'd sign up, especially if there were a badge involved for league coordination to completely eliminate all limbs & head within a brief time from each other. Kinds of like eliminating the Twins in Drowning In Blood, only this one is 9 targets instead of two.

Which one?

Keep in mind that each of these centers you seek may now lie in a pile of rubble from the Ritki Invasion, or the meteor attack that destroyed Galaxy City. While I could see Steel Canyon as the finance/banking district, it very well might have been Baumtown with its skyscrapers. I would guess that, even several years out, the city is still in makeshift mode, renting what space it can, where it can to replace those offices and businesses that were destroyed. "Trendy" seems like it would be Founders Falls, with its canals and gaslamp-lit bridges. A case could be made for Kallisti Wharf, even though it never fully developed as a game zone. Kings Row is definitely the surviving industrial district. This kind of makes sense as it is adjacent to Independence Port, the main shipping district (though Talos has one, too), ideal for importing raw materials and exporting finished goods. I'm not sure how you define "bad" in this case. A zone/district where lodging is still rented? Because Crey's Folly, another industrial district, is a much bigger mess, and there are people living there, if you can call the shanty's of Freaktown a living. I'm not sure I'd call Croatoa a "suburb". We had a discussion a while back on the forums, looking at old maps that suggest that Croatoa was not far above Indepence Port, which would indeed make it a suburb, but other evidence, including comments in-game, suggests that the train ride to Croatoa is actually significantly farther. I don't know that the city has any true suburbia in-game, but I think a case could be made for Eastgate, a.k.a. "The Hollows", since it's mostly a park, few small collections of apartments and small businesses. As to quiet, well, when a place is filled with roving ghouls or trolls, is it really "quiet"? As a side note, back during the original game, I'd pitched an idea to the art director (truly sorry, I forgot his name/forum handle), that as a big, northern city, Paragon City really needed ethnic districts. He seemed to really like the idea, and said he'd look into the possibility. We'd chatted about using new street decor to existing buildings to add a Little China to the spots in Skyway where the Tsoo were roaming at the time, a Little Italy to the west side (non-train side) of Independence Port (mostly due to the Family influence), and maybe some other places, like a Czech Village (I'd just visited Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which has a Czech village, so it was fresh in my mind). Perhaps that discussion will inform your efforts.

The Great Server-pocalypse of July 2020 is upon us, and while I wait, lurking in the forums, I figured "Why not?", so I've dug deep into my character shots from the game of yore to produce two that might be at least mildly interesting: Lumineon, originally dubbed Neon Knight during development, was an early attempt to create a neon look, both in costume and in power colorization, without actually having neon elements to costumes (At the time, that is. That has since changed for some costumes). As a kinetic melee, each of his powers were given individual colors, chosen to give off a neon-like glow. He looked pretty good in the tunnels under Praetoria, though I did always hate the pipes sticking out the back of the shoulder pieces. The second shot was the original look of my Vincent Poe, a dark/dark range striker. I don't show him for his costume, which is pretty standard, but his face. Nowadays, he's a corruptor, and was retconned to a bit of a teenage techno-goth look. But originally, I was making a concerted effort to give him two costume looks: Edgar Allen Poe, and Vincent Price. Sadly, though I worked hours with it, I could never get the costume creator to deliver a believable Poe, but spending a lot of time fine-tuning the face sliders, I was able to get a passable Vincent Price.

Did the bathroom portal rotate clockwise or counterclockwise? That might have at least told you what hemisphere you were in.

What? You cannot have them all and rotate through them? 95% of the players would probably be thrilled to come up with a costume as good as any one of these. To pick, I suppose it would be how you'd want your character to be perceived as soon as folks saw him: Beetle = tech, dwarf = steampunk, cloak = magic, winged helmet = ? I dunno, techno-Asgardian, maybe? I get the confusion on the name "Voltsgeist". Most people play on the shallow end of the philosophical pool, so a term like "volksgeist" tends to be obscure in the general English-speaking public. Don't feel bad. I've had to can more "good" names than I can remember because I realize the other players wouldn't recognize the terminology I was punning. It is a cool name when you explain it.

Just had an "I never knew that" moment this morning. I was nosing around the architect area of Pocket D, an area I ventured into only to grab the exploration badge at the entrance, and I suddenly realized there were two DJ's on a high ledge (I previously thought DJ Zero was the only DJ in the place) and the armored duo are likely a visual reference to Daft Punk.

I could have sworn I was able to turn them off in the original game, I've tried too this time around, but have been unable to find a solution.

I made a rare trip through the Tiki Room of Pocket D tonight and suddenly remembered that in the original game there used to be a band that would make an occasions stage appearance there. I can't recall them playing music, however. I think it was only visuals? Do they still appear, what is the schedule if so, and is there actually music, or just an appearance?

There's another of those spots literally on top of the marker for the Thrill Seeker explorer badge. entrance to the Architect section of Pocket D. You can accrue for both Clubber and Architect simultaneously.

I take it that by "Home instance", you mean like the garrisons of WoW or the homesteads of Wildstar? Actually, that's exactly what I'd like to have in game, so yeah, my "supergroup" base is setup up just for all my blue characters on one server, and I'm hoping to add in my best friend soon. That said, and just a pipe dream here, I know it would be a LOT of work, but the comic superhero theme is rampant with the idea of solo, or small team "lairs": the Batcave, the Fortresses of Solitude (both Superman & Doc Savage), the Skull Cave (Phantom), etc., so having such in-game would be perfect for today's player mindset. DC Comics' Watchtower would be the supergroup base in comparison. As to Supergroups, maybe take a page from WoW's Ahn'Quiraj? Just a raw idea here, but supergroups working through massive checklists, but on players' own schedules, nothing forcing them to leave real life, in order to unlock special content (perhaps big chapters in the Coming Storm saga) and special rewards. As I said, a LOT of work, and a pipe dream, but I'm laying it out anyway.

I have wondered of late if a concentrated effort would improve red or gold side. Say, a designated day for promoting temporary swaps to red or gold and running content, kind of like a tanker Tuesday, or perhaps have a week every quarter where xp/inf/drops are greater when running tf's and storylines in these area.

Unless they changed it late in the original game, running a controller solo or with a smaller group proved challenging to level 20 due to endurance issues and to level 32 in some cases, when certain controllers would finally get damage dealing pets. I have avoided all that in homecoming, but it certainly could be a challenge if it is still unaltered.

I clearly don't understand the mindset: why would bot creators have any interest in the game as it stands? It's old, it's free to play, and though I wish it was mainstream, it's very much a niche group. What would be the draw?

They can all be seen in action in the trailer here:

Unless it was adjusted late in the game, so I would not have heard it, Back Alley Brawler is actually not a member of Freedom Phalanx, though he certainly runs with them a lot. He is actually one of the founders of The Regulators, a drug-culture fighting supergroup, that I think the Eagle Eye storyline in King's Row has you rebuilding. The confusion comes apparently due to mishandling by the original dev team. BABs is a member of the Surviving Eight from the Ritki War, and since most are Freedom Phalanx members, folks confuse the status group with the super group. Even one of the old wikis got that mixed up, though the other one corrects it. Also, technically they are not the original Freedom Phalanx. They are the game-starting members. The original group founded in 1932, just days before Brass Monday. Of that group, I think only Dark Watcher and Statesman survived to the modern era. I know Maiden Justice and at least one member of the duo Vambrace are dead. Elementar is presumed dead, but his passing is unusual and probably left open the possibility of a comic book styled return.

Aurora's Praetorian counterpart, if you can call it that, is the body that Mother Mayhem (Sister Psyche's counterpart) has forcibly taken possession of. You see her in the cut scenes at the beginning of the Behavioral Adjustment Facility raid (BAF). This merging is a callback to the origins of the game and the Earth Prime storyline, where Sister Psyche, in order to survive had to mentally take control of Aurora's body, allowing Psyche's body to slowly heal over time. Eventually, of course, they separated.

So, what's the name of the album this cover shot is for?

I personally prefer shoulder padding that conforms to the shoulder, not things that look like I dropped twin 1-meter modern art sculptures on top of my character's shoulders. So yeah, I dig Riptide's shoulders, too.

Though I'm not a fan of garish colors, at least all over (certain key spots like the power rings are more my style), I do dig the overall look of the character.

Ice/Ice + ?