Techwright

Hmm...okay, we've apparently two opposing viewpoints on the question. 😕 Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for pointing that out. 👍 So three Paladins, potentially, but only one event at a time? I'm just pondering the intriguing idea (to me at least) of an event designated something like "massive" to alert players that it is different and all three sites going through spawning simultaneously, or partially overlapping in time.

It's an interesting concept. Once it happens, though, you know packed-elevator fights are going to become defining moments for characters in the MCU. Daredevil, Power Man, Black Widow II, Wonder Man, etc. It would be just like the hallway fight scenes in Star Wars started by Darth Vader's moment in Rogue One. I know of at least 5 so far: Vader, Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul, Baylon Skoll, Dinn Djarin (aka "The Mandalorian"). EDIT: I'd add one concern: there wasn't a lot of maneuvering room in the elevator. Peter's not going to have the room to move that he normally does. A choreographer is going to have to be VERY inventive.

Thank you for that! Let me reword that to make certain I understand: No immobilization enhancement really necessary, as it does nothing more than increase duration. Instead focus on accuracy, which...increases the magnitude level's effectiveness? Will that snag the boss (and higher) once the accuracy penalty is dealt with? Sorry if I'm confusing it. Normally, I'm reasonably bright, but every once in a while... 🤯🙄 Perhaps it's a lingering effect from when I was 13 and decided it would be cool to test a 9-volt battery against my dental braces. ⚡😱

Remind me, or quite possibly correct me, please. I'd been told by someone in the past that there were two ways a Paladin could appear: the construction method, and another where he just appears, much like Babbage in Boomtown. It was this second method, I'd thought, that he qualified for some badge. Perhaps that was bad intel. I never thought about it much after that, and never went looking for a badge. Assuming it is only by construction, and there's no badge, what is the motivation for hunting it down to its out-of-the-way, favorite bump of dirt? I could see the need to take it out if continually ran around KR attacking and interfering with players, but not so much in a static position in a corner none need frequent.

I'm trying to recall the details, but was there not a coding reason the "no group fly" option had to be run through Null the Gull and not via some other, probably more convenient means? I seem to recall a forum discussion of that a few months back. I'm certainly one who'd embrace the ability to alter group fly where I stand. We already have a radio button for teleport that appears when a team invitation does. A group fly option there would be sweet, though I totally understand that this is ancient code and it might only function so far. Group Fly is not the only highly controversial ability. Knock Back, for example, is insanely controversial. And with a main character that is an Energy/Energy blaster, I'm stuck with it. And yes, I've been booted from teams (admittedly years ago) for knocking back opponents out of melee fighters' range. That left me with a choice. My two solutions to it actually improved my fighting technique while greatly improving my relationship to my teammates. Team's actually like what I do in combat now. Point being, when teamed, think in terms of the team's need. It may, surprisingly, improve your own satisfaction. You basically highlight the need for some sort of explanation to new characters. I say "characters" and not "players" because it is too easy even for long-term players to forget that setting when starting a new character. I know I've done it. I've been in Rikti and Nemesis invasion fights on Talos hill and suddenly started floating to my confusion. I'm wondering if a message timed to the moment a character is asked if they want to flag as helper or needing help might be a reasonable start. Even then, new players might not know how to get to Pocket D to talk to Null. Perhaps a slash command, such as that which bring the AH menu to the HUD, might work to likewise bring Null's menu front and center?

So that was what I misunderstood. Mag is not affected by level but is affected by rank. Got it. Many thanks!

I confess that I'm not one to wring every last bit of data from a character, but sometimes I'll admit that I could use a better understanding of some particular function. Let me set the stage for two questions: I'm currently playing a level 50vet2 dominator with fire/ice powers. Although I'll focus on him, I believe I've seen the situation involving my question with other characters, though I couldn't cite specifics at the moment. I use both Fire Cages and Ring of Fire constantly. Each is currently fitted with one Single Origin level 50 immobilization enhancement. As I climbed the security levels ladder, I'd noted that bosses always shrugged off the immobilization effect of Fire Cages, but were snagged by Ring of Fire. No big deal to me, as I know I'm taking on NPCs equal or greater in rank. Now, though, I've taken the dom to Perez Park to Kill Skuls for my badges. I've noticed, despite them being 40+ levels beneath me, that Bone Daddies and other bosses are still shrugging off Fire Cages apparently 100% of the time (they are taking the damage, though), but getting immobilized by Ring of Fire. My questions: Why does this happen when the NPC bosses are so far below my character's rank? Additionally, why does the Fire Cage ability miss when Ring of Fire works, yet both show the same percentage for immobilization.

That would be a very different fight as Praetorian Hamidon has physically advanced beyond the jello mould salad that his Primal counterpart is currently at.

While I agree the composition could have been much better, I do think there's a few things to consider. Building on @GM Crumpet reminder of game lore, I'd note that (at least in my observations) no Incarnate has received power from the Well, small or significant, without interacting with an imbued element first. Whether fountain or pottery sherd, there was something to interact with. We've not seen anything (that I can recall) where the Well took notice of a being of natural power and arbitrarily threw power their way. Our characters are taking the slow path, which it is implied may take centuries to complete. It is natural, therefore, to understand we won't be as powerful for a while as certain NPCs, and even longer for us to be more powerful then they are. We've also not unlocked everything. Admittedly we technically have, due to where the game ended, but had it continued, there'd have been more categories to work towards. That a master is less powerful than a student does not mean that master cannot still teach said student. Training involves observation, wisdom, and guidance in refinement. If one day our characters are more powerful than the trainer, it does not mean we cannot learn from them. I mean, just look at Kung Fu Panda. 😉 The lack of a full explanation of the Well of Furies by story characters is not necessarily a failure in writing. There's significant mysteries in the real world that are only partially understood. Astronomy, for example, hardly goes a month without some new discovery that challenges the status quo of understanding. Likewise the human body is "understood", but there are a host of discoveries ongoing that challenge our thinking as to what we are, how we're put together, and how it all works. I realize the world of CoH is a glorified comic book, but that doesn't mean all answers have to be laid out in short order. The Well is essentially the game's version of Star Wars' The Force, a sentient power that ultimately is inscrutable.

I can only quote recent experience, but I got a badge two weeks back when flying in at the last minute and landing two hits on a Kronos unit before the others wiped it out. I was not on a team. So at least in that case, it was tagging the Giant Monster. By inference, this should mean the OP's scenario should count towards the badge. But that's just observation, not an authoritative look behind the curtain.

I was unaware leagues were options for task forces. If that's accurate, I'd very much like to run leagues for all of them. If the result is an increased number of opponents based on number of players, that could be a lot of fun.

Referencing Sesame Street at the start and the internet at the end. This is such a Gen X statement. 😁 (I realize by your own admission elsewhere that you're very slightly older than the commonly held start date for Gen-X, but close enough.)

The start and near-end of an Adamastor fight in the middle of a zombie apocalypse in Echo Dark Astoria, September 12, 2024. Best "Ada" fight I've ever experienced. Because of this, I'd encourage the dev's to look into ramping up a zombie sapper unit to join Adamastor, rather than a low level, after-the-fight response from the undead in the area.

Aged of Aquarius would like to comment.

It may be my opinion only, but I feel CoH has done a reasonably good job with this by allowing higher level characters to team with lower level characters at a security rank comparable to that lower character's one. I say "reasonably good", not "completely good", because I'm not overly fond of having my abilities earned at higher levels blocked. This marginalizes them, which is especially frustrating because many of them can only be acquired at higher levels. I'd much prefer that they be present but at a proportional fraction of their power. In regards to the main topic, I loved playing WoW without rushing up the ladder of rank. There was so much to see and do in an open world. (CoH has always been somewhat different due to most of the action being instanced, and lacking a PvP flag and a few other details. ) However, I have to wonder how a game with an ever-increasing number of levels deals with a new player trying to catch up. At some point I'd think it would take so long to reach the final rank (at least for the latest expansion) that the player with a full-time job would be hammering away for two or more years to reach cap level, and woe to the alt-holic who must do the same for each new character. There's one other thing an MMO with no sidesteps to leveling should address: those zones, events, and rewards which were endgame material for previous caps to leveling on earlier expansions. WoW has traditionally been terrible about these, more or less abandoning them. Ahn'Qiraj is a good example of this. I came to the game before the first expansion, Burning Crusade, but too late to level to a point to experience Ahn'Qiraj before it was completely outdated by the expansion, including all of its rewards. As a result, I never did more then peek into the entry area, which is sad because I'd heard it and other end game areas were a lot of fun. A game with the full leveling experience on the mind should make a best effort to adapt and incorporate the former endgame into the expansion's heirarchy, including making the rewards matter.

Okay, so how about now?

As a side note, people love to team for these contacts. Recruitment is usually comparable to recruiting for a task force, so you might consider a team if you've been soloing so far. "DBZ"? I admit I'm drawing a blank. DBZ to me means a certain anime show. Did you mean FBZ: Firebase Zulu? It certainly qualifies as a "change in scenery".

As GM Crumpet notes it comes and goes in appearance depending upon the need. Look for the box framework towards the top right of the homepage. It should say "Donating". The Paypal option will appear in there when there's a need.

It would have been faster to check with Mr. Owl.

I must be living under a heap of small stones at least, as I'd no idea Roblox was so popular, and I've never heard of Valorant. I'm also surprised Starfield made the X-box list given how much hate is out there for it. I'm wondering if part of that might be a decline in population in younger generations. I grew up at a university. Two years back I had a great chat with the current C.I.O. of the university who stated they, along with most other universities, were about to experience a slump in freshman population for at least a handful of years, as the newborn population had dropped 18 years before for the first time in a long time. While his comments were regarding colleges, I'm wondering if that population slump would have a noticeable effect on new player growth as well.

Getting an MCU Odin vibe from that.

Peter's Evil Overlord List #34: I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

It's a group like that which makes me want to completely clear the city hall plaza as well as the inside of city hall. It probably wouldn't take long.

This was a gut punch, the second this year. Bob Newhart was the first. I hope Dick Van Dyke will not make a third. While Darth Vader will always be his signature role, and Mufasa probably his second one, I'm much more fond of his appearances in two baseball films, Field of Dreams and The Sandlot, as well as his Admiral Greer character in the Tom Clancy movies. In fact, I just re-watched The Hunt For Red October a few days back. Looking over his achievements, it seems he narrated a documentary about Lincoln back in 1992. I shall have to find this.

While I see your point, that kind of falls back on the late person themselves when setting up their estate. While admittedly someone who died before the advent of CGI and AI would have no idea how technology might bring them back so vividly, they likely still would know/understand that their photo likeness and possibly voice recordings could be used for marketing purposes long after they're gone. It would make sense to pick executors of the estate who will hold to that person's vision regardless of personal feelings. The trickier part is to prepare the estate to carry on for multiple generations of executors making sure that none act in their own interests, but in the interests of the deceased. JRR Tolkien is such an example, I think, though not as an actor. His son, Christopher, tightly guarded his father's estate, and was angered when New Line Cinema took the films in a path he felt did not adhere to his father's wishes. He even stated that it would not happen again. However, with Christopher's death, the new generation clearly has wealth on their minds and has opened his iconic writings up to all those wishing to slap an official "Middle Earth" label on anything, whether it measures up or not. I've not read JRR's will and testament, but I suspect it didn't tightly regulate his intentions. While it could be reasonably said that someone past could not have planned their estate for CGI and AI, they would have had the chance for stating how their image and voice were to be used. After all, those sorts of things were in use for printed and radio advertisements back to the 1920s.