MistressOhm

I've gone with the concept first, then looked at how I could shoehorn a powerset into that concept. Baroness Samedi, straight Rule 34 of Geoffrey Holder's character in Live and Let Die... and as one of the original CoV characters (Beta, represeeent!) she was a dark/dark corruptor. And now I see the Bone Daddy Skulls bosses branching out into Death Walkers and Death Dolls... and I'm thinking, "I did that already, and I'm -better- than you punks will ever be." BUT... I've also seen new powersets come out, diversification of powersets into different archetypes, and thought, okay, what do I do with this? Seems like my Beam Rifle characters are all 50's sci-fi tropes (one is literally done up as a black-and-white version, no color hues anywhere, not even the weapon effects), and my scrappers usually end up as some kind of anthromorphic monster girls of some kind. My Dual Pistol wielders are either cops, ex-cops, or hardboiled noir (need to break that habit) and there's all manner of other tropes that I should break out of when it comes to controllers, how many time-displaced vaudeville performers do we need anyway? But, I never min-max. I don't use Mids to map a build. I see what works in the early game, and tweak it as I use it.

Peanut butter and onion. Everyone I've ever told about that says "What? Ew!" but they're actually quite good.

So enhancements have several 'flavors'. Back on Live we all started with Training Origin (TO), which could be used by everyone but were really not that good for boosting stats. HC has ditched those and gone straight to Dual-Origin (DO) and Single-Origin (SO) enhancements for sale. Dual-Origin are a step up from the TO's but you have to get ones that match your origin (Magic/Natural, Science/Mutant, etc). Single-Origin must match your origin exactly, but provide the best 'boost' to your stats of all the purchasable enhancements. Then we get to the Invention system (IO's). These, unlike the enhancements above, do not 'age out' and stop working when you level up too far. A Level 20 IO will provide the same percentage of boost regardless of what level you are above it. But, you can't buy these from vendors, you have to either make them yourself from salvage and recipes, OR bid on them from the Consignment House. Not only are there generic IO's that boost a specific stat, but also Set IO's that boost multiple stats, AND when slotted in a power together, add more stats. Some also add "procs" which are basically effects that process on a set frequency of probability. These can be used by anyone as long as they're the minimum level for the Set IO. Attuning these Set IO's make them level with you, so that they get more effective as you gain levels. Some IO's come in Superior (purple) variations, which ONLY work with Level 50 characters, but can be exemplar'd down and still work. They also have larger boosts to your stats/procs/whatever. At the top of the food chain are the Archetype Origins (ATO's). These ONLY work with specific archetypes, and as was explained by @Lazarillo, they provide specific benefits for that archetype, such as a "hide" proc for stalkers, or a mezz pet for Dominators, things like that. They tend to be very expensive on the Consignment market (several million inf) but also are often found in the Heroes and Villains superpacks if you like to 'gamble' on lootboxes at 10m inf a pop. We could go into the other "origin" enhancers, Hami-O's and the like, but those are dropped from specific content in the game, and unless you've got influence to spare or generous friends, you'll need to run that content to procure them.

Some folks enjoy creating a good story, others just want an action setpiece or a target range. That's fine. But, let's not get all up in arms about 'creativity' when the end product is Yet Another Fire Farm with all the powers tweaked just so. It's another form of min-maxing, only this time you're doing it to the opponents, to get as much XP and rewards for the least amount of effort from the players. That's "Spreadsheet Creativity", all math and probability. I'm sure someone had to work out the precise formulas, but let's not kid ourselves here, this stuff is shared as widely as any Internet meme. Yowling about "Stifling Creativity" is a false narrative. What is REALLY being protested here is the ability to earn Architect tickets, because people won't play farming arcs that don't net rewards. Get back into the spreadsheet, find the new sweet spot, tune the arc to hit it, and you're back in biz, yeah?

Always loved the Last Starfighter as a movie. Got another one for you all... presenting "Dynamo Diva", a 70's inspired scientist turned crimefighter. The Image: Dynamo Diva (by Daggerpoint) The Theme: Eumir Deodato - Super Strut

The /traps secondary for Mastermind has Seeker Drones - if you deploy them within aggro range of a spawn, that spawn will see them and attack them. This provokes a full alpha strike from your henchmen if set to Bodyguard. The beauty of using Seekers (as opposed to Provoke) is that you, the MM, do not take that initial aggro directly; instead you have a pair of very fragile disposable minions for that purpose. This was the linchpin for my "Demolition" build, figuring out a way to not be the target of a mob's ire, yet still getting them to attack first and having the full benefit of Bodyguard.

Setting up costumes appropriate for a mission. Redside VEAT's cry out for this, not only for those 'incursions' into Paragon City, but also the regular missions, like taking out a Longbow base. There's something about dressing up as Longbow on a stealth character, so that I'm completely unnoticed....

My first Dominator was basically a "player" version of the CoT Succubus. Mind/Fire. And I found out right away, that Control comes before Assault. 🙂 But, once Domination came up, yeah, that was I Win Mode. Of course, I didn't level her very fast, cos RP addict. But then... I found a group who liked to roleplay while they beat up on stuff. Thus, Bitter December, my Ice/Cold Dominator. Britt was a sweet little girl who just got in with the wrong crowd. And then she discovered she -liked- being with the wrong crowd. And playing her was crazy fun, Arctic Air slotted for Confuse, plus ice slows, holds, and knockdowns... not to mention throwing ice bits at people. 😉 I have a similar build on Everlasting - Auntie Freeze, a Praetorian 'Powers Division' cop who takes "Freeze!" to a whole new level.

With all the beatdowns you see the Freakshow giving to the Warriors, I'm totally expecting a Freak to sing out "Warriors... Come out to Pla-yayyyy...!"

MA/Nin or Staff Fighting/Nin flow very well as stalkers go. Both take a bit for the rotations to 'bloom' but once you get into the 20's you'll have enough attacks to get a nice rhythm going. Staff's animations are kind of goofy though, altho' there's one where you whirl it to where you grip the end, not the middle, and then thrust it like a spear... that one's actually a 'thrown' attack (ranged) and is useful for taking down anything that decides to run or fly away.

Ok so the consensus seems to be "deal with it" in whatever form or fashion (be it ignoring the /local rp, avoiding the area) rather than asserting that ownership is invalid. Noted. Thanks. That's what I posted this to find out, thank you! 🙂

I haven't forced the issue by walking up and using it as a bar and calling anyone out on insisting it's a corporate property, no. I could, which would probably escalate into OOC sniping and general bad feelings. I could just ignore the fact that a supergroup has taken over a specific space, and figure, "enh, it's roleplay, whatever." This is what this discussion is for. Before any tickets are filed, or supergroup leaders are contacted, I'm genuinely asking, how you all, as roleplayers, would handle such a matter.

I'd be ignoring the players of an entire supergroup, which is WAY overkill for this. As stated in the first post, I'm trying to figure out if this is 'egregious enough' to complain officially (so that the SG leader can be told to straighten up and fly right) or it's not that big a deal and I should just avoid the area in an RP sense. Several other players have stated (in local and broadcast!) that they're annoyed, but.. either the SG isn't paying attention, or they don't care. I will not be naming the group here.

I haven't checked into it myself, but people have said it's no longer freeware or trialware. It may have gone subscription-based, which unless you're actively updating something constantly (like, say, AV software or games) it's basically a money grab.

It's one of the bar areas in Pocket D. Suffice it to say that through traffic is fairly high, and the NPC tending the bar is pretty vocal. 🙂 And yes, its not like there's any shortage of RP space, Kallisti Wharf is completely target-free, so the whole zone is one big space to hang out and roleplay.

So, basically, Paragon's version of Damage Control, Inc? Not just 'clean up the mess' physically, but also P.R. wise as well. That... has some merit, I think. Also can go deep into the vigilante/rogue weeds too.

What is this 'main' you speak of? LOL! My highest level is Storm Kachina, a member of the Hopi tribe who was born with vestigal winglets and a penchant for messing with the weather. She's grown into a Shaman in her own right, taught the various Blessing Ways... but when the Rikti attacked (again!) she was -sent- to Paragon. (this is as close as I could get the costume designer to a traditional Kachina Dancer costume, the Clown.) Which probably has a lot more to do with her choice of activism as a teen and young adult. She is an AIM member, and a covert 'monkeywrencher' - for those who haven't read much Edward Abbey, this means she finds industrial operations on (or near) Native lands and sabotages the equipment so as to slow down the progress and/or cut into the profits. She's run up damages in the billions (trashing a bucket-wheel excavator at a copper strip mine was a several hundred million dollar price tag - who knew running a lightning strike through the controls would do that much damage?). So her relocation to the East Coast was probably less altruism and more "get her away from here before the Federal cops come and make life harder for everybody".

It's less of "we're having a gathering here" and more of "this area is now our official HQ". The former I have no issue with at all. The latter is like, "I would have sworn this was a noodle shop yesterday. Or, wait, your base is in a noodle shop?"

Wow, all of this is really useful!! For those looking for a substitute for Audacity, GoldWave is still a thing, and while there is a "pay for it" unlock code ($20), the free version should work to allow you to create silences and edit volume ('gain') levels within sounds. It also exports to nearly any sound format you can think of including Ogg, in whatever bitrate and sample rate you'd like, either mono or stereo. It also includes a TON of effects and tools (gating, flangers, reverb/echo, chorus effects, noise reduction, fades and voiceover drops, and so on and so forth), along with effects chains and batch processing logic for multiple files. It comes in Windows/iOS/Android flavors. More info about GoldWave Here

@Surge Protector Here's how I manage form switching on Warshades: Set up a macro (or a keybind) for each of your forms: /macro Human "bind_load_file wshuman.txt" /macro Dwarf "bind_load_file blackdwarf.txt" /macro Nova "bind_load_file wsnova.txt" What this does, is when you switch forms you reload all of the keybinds listed in each of the form's bind files, which then also toggle your form powers and rotate trays in the first tray row to the appropriate ones with all the powers for that form. By rotating trays, you don't have to change muscle memory for firing off attacks, they're right where you expect them to be if you're a mouse-clicker, and work with the standard number keys if you're a numpad jockey or a number row maven. EDIT: Discovered something from the 'settitle.txt' bind file that the Badger badge database log parser uses. You can get commands in a bind file to EXECUTE when a bind file is loaded, by prefacing the command line with $$. This is kind of a 'cheat', because when CoH loads a bind file, it assumes every line begins with the word "Bind" followed by the contents of the line. By putting $$ at the beginning of a line, CoH interprets this as "Bind (nothing) $$ execute this command". This means instead of creating a macro to do three things (toggling off powers/changing forms, rolling power trays, and loading a new file), you can have it load a file that switches your form and rolls your tray, and then in turn loads your keybinds for that form. WS Human : uses Tray 1 -- wshuman.txt ==> wshbind.txt WS Dwarf: uses Tray 8 -- blackdwarf.txt ==> wsdbind.txt WS Nova: uses Tray 9 -- wsnova.txt ==> wsnbind.txt Lastly... if you're tired of having a battlecry that's too short to fit into the ID character limit, or you want a different one for each form, you can always rebind F10 to say whatever you want. /bind F10 "/l I will feed on your souls.$$/l I will consume your life essence!$$/l I will strike terror into the hearts of your next of kin!!$$/l I!$$/l AM!$$/l THE!$$/l M'F'ING!$$/l WARSHADE!!" Which should come out to: I will feed on your souls. I will consume your life essence! I will strike terror into the hearts of your next of kin!! I! AM! THE! M'F'ING! WARSHADE!!

This might be a sensitive topic, so I will do my best not to call anyone out specifically, nor step on toes where it's not warranted. I do ask that we keep the conversation civil, and present views in as hypothetical a context as we can. I know there will be people who will think "Hey! That's ME that Ohm is talking about!" and possibly get upset. I want to state for the record, I don't know anyone as players, I'm only familiar with a few character bios and perhaps some overheard public roleplay, so this is not directed against anyone specifically, unless they state they're the ones being talked about. And hey, it'd be cool to see that 'side' of the issue also, so if someone does say "Hey this is me" it'd be really helpful to see your viewpoint and rationale. Maybe there's Reasons(tm) that I didn't consider, and should have. So here's the issue: Recently I've run across groups of people staking claim to publicly-accessible (not instanced) areas in game as 'theirs'. I don't mean as a 'regular table' at the local bar and grill, but as actual real estate for a headquarters and so on. And... this seems to me to be kind of selfish. One, there's no way to actually block others from strolling up and jumping into the roleplay (short of filing a complaint), and two, to others wandering around, it's kind of like, "Wait, this was an open spot before this group came along, what gives?" Now, back on Live I was part of a couple of small roleplay groups. And being poor/lacking in prestige, we elected to roleplay in the main world rather than in a supergroup base. But, we tended to park ourselves on rooftops well out of local chat range, rather than hanging out in front of InFront Steakhouse or City of Gyros. And once bases became 'the' thing for supergroups to build, group-centric roleplay that wasn't meant to include the public all migrated to these bases. With Homecoming making base building essentially free of cost, all that is needed is time to put together some sort of hideaway/HQ/hangout spot. So I find the 'staking claim' practice a bit annoying. But before I raise a stink over it, I wanted to really find out what the consensus is with the Homecoming roleplaying community. Now, above, I stated "group-centric roleplay that wasn't meant to include the public." I wanted to make this qualification because every group has a public face, be it recruitment, PR, damage control, media messaging, whatever you'd like to bring into your collective lore. I have no issues with that being in a public space, because otherwise you have to invite people into your space, set up access permissions, and all that. It's often easier to make appointments to meet in a public setting. So let's put that on the sidebar, that this is no way a critique on "roleplay with the public". What's at stake here is "group roleplay" where the group may not be the only ones in attendance, to the point that 'the public' might interfere or derail the scene OR introduce elements that might not be something the group wants to deal with. What are all your thoughts on the matter? Is this something that I'm just overly sensitive about, or should the above type of roleplay be conducted in a group-accessable space (supergroup base, shared team instance, AE mission, whatever)? What is gained by doing this publicly? What risks does it bring in? Thank you in advance. I look forward to responses.

For those that need to juke about in combat, these are rather useful: SHIFT+W "powexeclocation forward:20 Combat Teleport" SHIFT+A "powexeclocation left:20 Combat Teleport" SHIFT+S "powexeclocation back:20 Combat Teleport" SHIFT+D "powexeclocation right:20 Combat Teleport" This basically maps the normal movement WASD keys to use CT for 'shifted' versions. Change the distance to whatever you like, within range of Combat Teleport of course. Alternatively you could use SHIFT+WASD for standard Teleporting at higher distances, and CTRL+WASD for combat 'ports. The only limitation I've run into is the 3-port cooldown for Combat Teleport, but you can always use standard Teleport to get out of a bind (get it? 'bind', haha) if your Combat 'port goes on cooldown. I've also set up the "bungee cord/escape hatch" using Teleport, thus: SHIFT+SPACE "powexeclocation up:max Teleport" SHIFT+X "powexeclocation down:max Teleport" What these do is yeet you upward when you SHIFT the default "jump" key, and drop you downward when you SHIFT the default "drop" key. By specifying ":max" as the distance, you're only limited to your teleport range OR the absolute ceiling height of the area you're in / whatever surface is below you (whichever is less). Because Teleport also gives you 15 seconds of "Untouchable" status and free hover-in-place, it makes for a great way to bail on a fight that's going badly (it does NOT dump aggro, but jumping out of range to tag Inner Inspiration and perhaps find a better spot to recover is invaluable). For Warshades, substitute the appropriate Step power for either Teleport or Combat Teleport - remember to load your 'port binds when you change forms. Translocation can also be used as above, but, the animation time for Translocation (plus the requirement that Mystic Flight be on) makes it a little less useful. You can also use Jaunt (from the Speed pool) but ... my goodness that power is noisy and disruptive, so I'm totally not advertising any means for people to spam it! I've attached the binds I use for all of my teleporters. Save it in your Settings / Live folder, then in game: /bindloadfile teleport-bind.txt teleport-bind.txt

Dame Demolition - Robots/Traps MM. I've got art, I've got stories, and nooow... I've got a theme song. ART: John Becaro Theme: AUTOMATICA by Nigel Stanford

Splunk is awesome for dissecting log files and the like (we used it at work a lot because we had a LOT of microservices running), but keep in mind that unless you've a freebie version or an Enterprise license, Splunk charges by the query. So before you start unleashing it against your logs, make sure you're not in a pricing structure that will bleed your bank account dry. We actually moved away from Splunk and went to Prometheus/Grafana for log analysis, because the two of them together were cheaper than Splunk for a large scale service deployment.

I'd like to repost a very old commission I got from the awesome Graver, back on Live. This is the 'origin piece' to my Mastermind, Dame Demolition. When we discussed the piece, I told Graver how she'd come about, the accident that resulted in dismemberment, and the process she underwent to rebuild herself after Crey denied her workman's comp claim. And he asked, "So which scene do you want illustrated, her as a villain, the accident, or the 'training montage' bit?" He'd sent me sketches to all three, and I said, well, um, could we do all three? two as a backdrop to the main piece? And this is the result: "Fatal Error" by Graver. I have the original, and it is one of my most treasured pieces of art.