Techwright

Welcome, Home to you, too! For all things Kheldian, I believe forumite and costume contest coordinator @Laucianna is usually whom people cite as the go-to expert if you need insight. Apologies if I've stated in error, Laucianna. I believe all the originals are still there. There were, of course, changes made back in the Original Game (OG) as to whom would serve as contact for some mission arcs, and some zones "retired" to status of "echos" accessed by portal in the back of Oroboros, most notably Galaxy City and Dark Astoria with the former obliterated except for a new character trainer zone and the latter getting a complete overhaul with a darker, scarier story arc, but off the top of my head I don't recall any such switches in Homecoming, nor material pulled. I suggest reading the Patch Notes to get a better feel for the changes.

Welcome, Home! You arrive in the midst of our Halloween event, a good time to quickly rise in the ranks. As you're a former player, much of this linked below may be redundant to you, but I'll link these anyway in hopes of speeding your incorporation into our ranks. The game has continued to evolve, and in some ways, streamline, so unless you've been doing a lot of reading, there's many new things to discover here. (I personally like the "/ah" command to access the auction house from anywhere but bases.) Pay especial attention to the travel methods. Homecoming has added ways to speed up travel. These links do not include everything new, for examples: the recently added Labyrinth zone, the new co-op nature of Striga Island, and the added Doctor Aeon Strike Force on the City of Villains side.

Mr. Bocor? Dr. Graves? Admittedly they don't sing or have such a, well, "merry" demeanor.

MCU Thor enteres the chat.

Fair point, but they've done that before though, yes? Handed off a position to a new character then had to rewrite missions to compensate?

Actually, I was thinking this upcoming game might prove Snarky's new favorite:

Okie, you're among the best of us and I'd never mock you. That said, would it not be better to create a warning message when selling anything orange or higher to a vendor? That leaves the player with the freedom to choose to sell this way, while reducing the accidental sales. 'Cause if you think about it, if you prevent sales to a vendor for the purpose of preventing an accidental sale, then it's only fair to treat other accidents in similar fashion. Earlier this summer, I had one of those "oopsie" moments with the in-game mail system. I thought I was sending my alternate character INF 50,000,000 from my bank mule. It disappeared and I got a GM involve. Bless them if they didn't trace the problem to a space in the address line. Apparently, there's another player out there with an identical global except for a space. They're now INF 50 million richer. Would I have wanted to prevent that, or have a retract feature? You betcha. I know I'm not the only one. And it happens on the AH, too, that spot you want to move this to exclusively. People overpay all the time because they typed too many zeroes. For all of these, I'd prefer to have what another friend once called "Are you sure you're stupid?" pop-up warning.

The first one is great! Very TRON-esque. The second and third ones: Please tell me this is one of your characters and that her name is Jacquie Lantern or maybe Jaqueline Tern. 😉

It is a question I had not considered when writing the OP, well, other than Statesman & Jack. What I was referring to was the in-game NPCs, and I did so because whenever I read "I hate [insert character here]" I did not read anything that hinted at the connection to real life people. Well, there was an unfortunate accident at the thermal paste factory that supplies Citadel and well...it's rather personal. Interesting. Your comment to me highlights a possible change in the game for future editions: what can be created/written that would allow us a greater connection to these characters? It's the one thing I dislike about Manticore: that ridiculous, oversized, impractical hood. But I blame Surge for that, not Manticore. 😉 I'm glad this and other similar comments were posted. We already have precedence for rearranging character roles. Ms Liberty took over Statesman's task for and Penny Yin flat out replaced Sister Psyche and her task force. Incandescent also replaced Castle as trainer, so why not... Move BABs to primary trainer of Atlas, and place different characters at his two current training locations in Atlas (corner) and Fort Trident. I suggest the two remaining characters of the Korean hero team W.I.S.D.O.M. , Rose Star and Spark Blade. Setting BABs as primary trainer makes a certain sense in another way as well, as he would then be a mirror to his doppleganger Marauder who's the main trainer in the starting zone of the gold side. Have a new hero take over Blue Steel's training spot in King's Row. I've no suggestions off the top of my head for this replacement, but probably a character who is overdue for a bit of the spotlight. Have Blue Steel moved to the space to his left and give him the current Synapse TF. That, as noted by others, pairs the hero most likely to want to stop the Clockwork King with his opponent. Have Manticore/Swan and Synapse/Bobcat trade places. (Since Swan is considered Manticore protege.) Give Synapse the current Manticore TF. Again, that creates a more natural hero/villain arrangement. Create a new TF for Manticore (say against the 5th Column)...OR...give Manticore one of the two halves of the Positron TF (I only suggest this because in doing so it would clear a lot of the confusion that arises when an inexperienced team lead loads the wrong half of the current task force). Give Manticore a new costume, one that looks battle-ready and doesn't look so over-the-top ridiculous. As I mentioned above, it's a point I'd not considered, that more than one character was judged on the basis of their connection to a real person. If that's actually what's happening, it's pretty sad, actually. I especially would be appalled with the comments regarding Positron being a jerk, as I've always felt that Matt Miller was given much greater appreciation in the OG game. If however the comments are directed about the NPC only, it is one piece of the reason that I wrote the original post.

Comments made on these forums in years past suggest a percentage of these hoarders actually consider using inspirations to be "weakness" and apparently feel they're so much more macho than the average player by never using them. I'm not really sure how they intend to show off this, uhh...ruggedness... as the inspiration tray is only visible to them, but to each his, her, or small furry creature from Alpha Centauri's own.

So all around, a bunch of sad sacks.

Snarkoticks, of course.

Nailed it! 😁

I can't believe I didn't name this one before. I've described it to others as a quirky modern fairy tale...mostly without the fairies. I went into viewing this one cold. I only was given the name (which I thought bizarre). Loved it. All-Star Cast: Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Charles Durning, John Mahoney, Bill Cobbs, Bruce Campbell

And now I understand why I've never seen the kid from Sky High ever again. 😛

The Freedom Phalanx: essentially the game's elite squad, the Avengers, the Justice League, the A-Team. So why all the hatred for them? By them, I refer to every member present since the original game's creation, since a few of the original ones are not with the current team. Statesman hatred I get, I guess. A lot of it that I've read stems from the character's connection to creator Jack, though not all of it. It is that other part that I'm interested in. Positron hatred completely confuses me. I've not read in-game things nor had experiences to give understanding to that. But nearly every other member I've seen a lot of trashing regarding. I can't say I've seen much, if any, regarding Citadel. But the amount of detest out there makes me wonder why it is even the elite squad of the game still. As follow-up, how about some constructive comments? What suggestions might give the writers opportunity to move the characters to a more positive reception while no turning them to highly generic characters lacking personality?

A dwarf of few words. I like it. I'm assuming dwarf, of course. With a forum name like that, one really should be a fantasy dwarf. Welcome, Home! I'm assuming returning player of the original game, of course, based on the newbie post count and the near-universal thoughts of gratitude.

On previous work assignments, I was in charge of generating new passwords when employees forgot theirs. I had one assignment that bizarrely didn't permit me to force a password change once the employee used what I gave them, and I knew 90% of those folks were not going to change it on their own. For my part, I wasn't about to give them some shoddy, easily-guessed password, but I needed them to remember so they didn't call me back. The solution came from the old 20 Questions game of "animal, vegetable, or mineral?". Just add a number and character. Employees remembered these better. At one point I even changed it up a bit and was generating month-based ones for work. For example Cat10Pumpkin!Rock might serve for October/Halloween (not one that I actually used).

First had that effect in 2006 when I was talking to a group of guys and mentioned the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979 as a defining historical moment. I received a full round of the blank stares and "say what?" comments. l33t doesn't seem that old. Don't some of the Freak Show names use l33t?

As one whose second retained memory is of the first moon landing, I hate getting jaded about humankind's space accomplishments, but I sadly admit to some of it these days. However, this relatively new development of precision returns of the rocket boosters: may this never get old. One person says it's like watching magic, and I have to agree.

Should it be something different, or just a re-skin of the other special kinds?

A clear helmet shaped like that, especially one that integrates into several of the oversized shoulders, would not be amiss for the game.

Probably something to do with a mouse wearing a sorcerer's hat and a lot of mops...

We survived Helene dead center, endured a few days in the aftermath, and then were given a chance to stay with relatives in Fort Myers, FL, and attend a family wedding. We'd intended to stay longer but... the storms Milton drove before it rained on the outdoor wedding, and next morning, being ill-equipped to ride out another in the position as guests (and having received word that our home's power was restored), we turned back. We didn't intend so, but we were at the front of the wave, so to speak, of those fleeing Milton. Fuel station backups, heavy-but-moving traffic, blinding rains, many delays due to crashes. It was our dumb luck that we got into the start of the exodus and not the middle. I heard from our Fort Myers relatives this morning. We'd begged them to come with us, but they stayed. I thought they were crazy, but then hurricanes are not my survival forte. Ice storms and tornadoes are. I guess they were crazy like foxes. All are safe, no damage to their two homes, and no damage to their two businesses. Minor damage to their church. All in all, pretty remarkable. I believe they said this was their 7th hurricane, and there was damage on all 6 previous ones, hurricanes Ian and Charlie especially. I'm interested to hear what the barrier islands are like. I'm hearing Sanibel Island may have taken a beating again. We'd been to view Fort Myers Beach and Estero Island just last Christmas, and they'd still had a long ways to go in restoring from hurricane Ian.