Ruin Mage

Warrior update is probably being saved for the eventual Wharf Update(s)

As someone who closed beta tested them; Skill Issue. It sucks to be denied entry to a team but that doesn't mean they failed. It's optional content that rewards decently, takes some brain power, and can usually be done decently quick even now - though Your Mileage May Vary applies here. It can be frustrating to wipe several times but that's why you do 1 or 2 star. 3 star starts to require some thinking and 4 star? Well, you're going to have a hard time if your composition isn't even a little thought out in my experience. At least if you're going to PUG it. My source is that I've run through 4-star Aeon multiple times, beat the Vanguard full fight multiple times, and had an absolute blast. Repeat the same for the ITF (except for the singular run stopped by the colossi) and now the HM LGTF. I can say from personal experience that MMs have never been denied, but groups can pick and choose who they want. That's the fun part about MMORPGs: no one is obligated to invite you to their team! An example of sets I've personally run with; Nature Affinity, Dark Miasma, Empathy, Pain, Thermal, and Force Field. Mind you Force Field, Nature, and Dark are all REALLY good and help out against the Hard Modes. Hell, I've beaten the Vanguard fight with a fire farmer brute as the tank. Now THAT was a fun run! Try forming your own! Maybe do a 1 or 2 star at first and then go for 3 or 4 star. Cultivate and curate your own teams and you won't have these issues. It's either that or move servers, but that may not be the greatest option depending. But the hard work of the devs shouldn't be decried as a failure or removed just because YOU can't get on teams for them.

Perhaps as a free comic and not one for money. Plus it'd open up a forum fire unseen of. Anyway, Castle deserved to be moved because he was a dev-insert and the dev ruined PVP. Or so I heard. Incandescent works where she's at until vague future comes to pass.

Woops, small issue with the flyer folks! Base code is meant to be ROLEPLAY-32140, not 104 Sorry!

You can drop that your group is attending here or in the City of Roleplay Discord. You can also just show up, but I might end up assigning booths to those that sign-up ahead of the 9th and 10th.

This is this weekend!

Here's my 2cents; By the time you are in the 46-50 range, you should be facing groups at their full might. This means there should be no real "easy to farm/mow down" group in my opinion. There should be something that makes you consider even the lightest bit of strategy. Does that mean the groups in the 46-50 range need to be Omega Hard? No. But the abilities they have/the tools they have need to put characters to the test just a little bit. The reason I say this is because we have the ability to adjust our settings for what difficulty we face. We're also not playing a static/content-locked version of the game and haven't been since HC started. Things needed, imo, to be adjusted to match the level of power our characters can reach. So this type of thing was what I think we needed for those level ranges. The Council is probably just more tedious than anything, but its better than keeping things as is. More adjustments might be needed.

So our base builder has been hard at work as I've shown in various little teases. Enough so that they've given me the information I need to change where we're hosting the March Recruitment Fair. That is right: We are going to be hosting it within the City of Roleplay base. The dates and the times remain the same, but the location has changed--a new flyer will come sometime soon with this updated information. We would not have been able to do this without the base builder Psi and their hard work over the past few weeks. A major thanks to the Scourge community for also helping us fund Psi for their hard work! The base is set up to have areas for supergroups to place themselves without too much issue. We won't be doing a 'reserve your spot' or banners within the base, but that may be a topic revisited for another Fair. The old rules (which I will repost) still apply within the Base--though some new ones may crop up between now and the week of the event. If your group intends on attending and is open to new members? I ask you post on our forum thread so that I can gather a list. Optionally you may include a small blurb about the group's concept. This will come in handy both for expected attendance and for a later forum post. If your group is attending just for the roleplay/to support the event and ISN'T recruiting? You do not need to post this information. We appreciate your support <3. The base code won't be released outside of the admin team just yet. We're noooot quite ready to fully show it off beyond a few screenshots. We hope people enjoy the base, the event, and all things that come from the two nights. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions please feel free to post them or send them my way in DMs.

Fun fact: That's how the arc ends!

There was one issue that people kept latching onto: That it would encourage "picky" teams / encourage shitty picky nature. Something that already happens without the Aether reward. That's it. That's all people thought was a big bad deal outside of the placement of ATs (which is w/e - its a hard balancing act to get that right and you can't please everyone)

Mirror Image is a fucking great badge title/name.

Quick correction. As of Dark Astoria (which is the last time we see him + Requiem before shutdown) he's now considerably depowered and Requiem (A Fascist who was notably a Mussolini lapdog) is back in charge. Requiem, in this cutscene, is even stronger than before I believe. This happens in Max's arc when you're retrieving members of Malta from sticky situations. I know too much about this game, help me.

Anyone trying to equate fascism with Nazis is...not worth the time. Both the 5th Column and the Council are fascist groups to reiterate. Requiem is a fascist. His group, the 5th Column, is specifically written as a group of super-powered fascists led/founded by fascists. I have linked and shown this in my previous two replies. Including in the controversy page which has the direct response from Matt Miller on why they did it. There are no parellels. Inserting them yourself does not make them exist.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/5th_Column I urge some reading comprehension. The 5th Column are German-named enemies run by an Italian fascist who seeks to turn Earth into a Nictus homeworld. Not a single Nazi ideal or thought can, to my knowledge, be attributed to the 5th Column. Nor does their imagery invoke the typical image of a Nazi. People are associating the naming scheme to being Nazis. Which is REALLY REALLY bad to do.

I do want to make a note that the 5th Column came back a number of times.. Once with the Khan/Baracudda Task/Strike Force and again with Dark Astoria's Incarnate Arcs. I also point to the Imperious Task Force. It's not a group that needs to be disappeared anymore - especially if you understand that both the Column and Council are fascist groups and not nazi groups. Paragon Studios understood this: The excision was from Issue 3 to Issue 11. After which they were fully brought back into the game. In fact: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/5th_Column_Controversy

I can't wait for Earthquake + Dispersion Bubble + buffed ruin mages because someone didn't lock down that one mage type. At level 54. It probably won't do much on a team that's popped their Destinies but god. The havoc possibilites...

I want to reiterate that this change cannot be so finely predicted that we can foresee what will happen. The diversity (fuck you this word is cool) bonus is unable to be gamed or min-maxxed to abuseable levels. Teams currently do the whole nitpicking thing depending on the team leader anyway - we can't say if this will make it worse or better. If the reward was better than 1 Aether per 18 hours, I'd understand half the shit being said here. This is one change that, unironically, can only be seen in full effect when it goes live. I get it, incentivizing thinking about team make up puts up the big wee-woo sirens for people but being alarmed over one aether is a Choice.

There is a good reason to change the Circle of Thorns and that is that it makes no sense for their mob make-up to dwindle down to nothing at 50. Level 50 Enemy Groups should all be dangerous or difficult in their own ways. Malta, Carnies, Arachnos, Council, Circle, Crey, and more - all of them should bring something to the table that you need to think about at +4/x8. Death Mages are a nothing-burger generally. Now is a Ruin Mage going to slow you down or halt you? Yes. That's where you either focus them down, Line of Sight pull, or change your difficulty settings. You do meet Circle of Thorns outside of paper missions at 50. Miss Liberty has a whole ass mission where you face them. I believe 2 or 3 of the Shadow Shard TFs involves them. Halloween tips too! No group should be a brainless mindless stomp by the time you hit the 46-50 range of mob levels. This is when you should, in reality, be going up against some real threats.

Think the next step has been giga-delayed due to bugs with the warning system.

Well, they could be doing a lot of planning and a lot of things for KW. I imagine they want it to be THAT update that blows people up. I mean away. Speculation all, of course. But they did lose Piecemeal and bring on a number of new devs since then. Caretaker, Headhunter, Holymittens, Viridian, and Unitas to name the ones I can recall.

They're taking the zone and what's to come with it very seriously I imagine. No half-assed or unfinished stuff or "here's part 1 of the wharf story stuff." - plus volunteer time + interests. And all the breadcrumbs being set out for the Wharf in story arcs. I mean suuuurely they'd be doing that. Plus new devs brought on for, say as an example, the content/narrative side things needs time getting acclimated to the systems before moving onto a big project.

Basically just testing the GMs. Do they feel right, are the powers being funky, etc? Finding any little weirdness with the mini-pets might also help.

This is one of those changes that need live data more than anything. We won't know what effect it has until P7 is live. We can speculate, humbug, and whatever else we're doing here - but predicting how people are going to act with forming teams based on this is not that good of an idea.

Now my name change/icon change makes sense.