CraterLabs

So I finally got a Stalker to level 50 (got her to level 49 back on live, nice to finally finish this). Mostly I just play by myself with occasional supergroup teaming and task forces for fun, so detailed power optimization is something I've never really looked into (I've tried using Mids a couple times, but I just get kinda baffled by how what I do there is supposed to be different from when I do it in the game). I'm not actually sure what my level-by-level power selections were like I see in most of the builds that people have here, but I was wondering if anyone could see any, like... massive red flags from the following powers (I've got a few notes in the margins next to them for things that I'm thinking about as I move forward, or for other purposes. Most of these powers have a set of Single Origin or Invention Origin enhancements in them, though I'll note exceptions when they pop up) Staff Fighting - (Right off the bat-shaped staff, the lack of Placate in this list is probably glaringly obvious. For some reason it just never... felt right? It's definitely on my list for adding once some other powers get removed in a respec since it fits not only the generally agreed upon methodology for competent fighting but also the character concept. Nothing fancy here, though it's worth noting that while each power in this set tends to follow the basic set of SO enhancements, I've usually got one per power that's unique based on whatever rider effect the attack carries with it) Mercurial Blow Precise Strike (An Endoplasm Exposure (+Acc/+Mez Hami-Origin) enhancement is here, now that I'm a high enough level to actually face off against the Hamidon.) Guarded Spin Assassin's Staff Build Up Eye of the Storm (I've slowly purchased four of the Assassin's Mark set and put them here. They're all attuned (which I'm led to believe is the preference for people who team at lower levels or do flashback systems a lot, right?) though I've not yet had a chance to pick up the +Chance To Build Up enhancement. Not sure if this is the best set for it, but it's been all right so far.) Serpent's Reach Sky Splitter Ninjitsu Hide (Accidentally gave this a second enhancement slot, which I certainly intend to rectify when I do a respec) Ninja Reflexes (Kismet: Endurance/Recharge has found a home here for now.) Danger Sense (One single lonely Luck Of The Gambler (+Def) sits here, attuned.) Caltrops Kuji-In Rin Kuji-In Sha Smoke Flash Blinding Powder (A Lysosome Exposure (Acc/Def Debuff/To-Hit Debuff Hamidon Origin) Enhancement is sitting in a slot for this.) Kuji-In Retsu Inherent Fitness Stamina (Mentioned only because I wound up slotting it. I'm like eighty percent sure that's a rookie mistake, but it was such a nice early fix for End problems, and became a home for some spare Efficacy Adaptor enhancements I acquired that would probably have a better home over in Kuji-In Retsu or something) Leaping Combat Jumping (Put Springfoot here on a whim. I figured hey, what not?) Super Jump (Possibly something I could trade away since I mostly rely on Ninja Run to get around. But I also know that the times when I prefer Super Jump to Ninja Run are times when I REALLY prefer Super Jump to Ninja Run.) Spring Attack (While this is mostly just for flavor, I've kept it for a while for its (admittedly limited) utility as both a means to navigate through tricky places that standard jumping and flipping won't reach. and also as a way to contribute more to the task forces where the rest of the team is wiping out huge cadres of enemies largely before I can finish my first Assassin's Staff attack. Also, this is home to a single Eradication enhancement which felt like a better deal back at level te.e) Body Mastery - (While the shurikens and exploding shurikens available in other ancillary pools tempted me, this set wound up feeling more in tune with the "spirit" of the character. Plus this had fewer powers that messed with my existing flow of moves or required a redraw animation after use (not that that stopped me from getting Laser Beam Eyes...) Superior Conditioning Physical Perfection Laser Beam Eyes (This is one of the only powers where I've actively said "I think it's less fun when I play with this." It was a nice addition to the character's flavor since she's reportedly known for terrorizing the crooks of Talos Island with a deadly glare, so playing it as a semi-psychic ability that goes along with the rest of her training felt appropriate, but it didn't click initially, and I wound up wishing I'd picked Focused Accuracy instead. Ironically, by the time I picked up Focused Accuracy, the power wound up growing on me a bit both as an extra way to finish off runners and also as a compliment to Caltrops or Kuji-In Sha since they also trigger a redrawing animation. So while this power did quickly hop onto my list of things to remove, I got a soft spot for it over time.) Focused Accuracy So, are there any quick course corrections or fixes that jump at to you? I probably don't need anything in-depth since I don't have a Mids-evel breakdown to make it easier to flip through. The More Than Just A Ninja guide seems to suggest either a straight up damage focus via Musculature or Cardiac and Agility to focus on defense and endurance mitigation... I think I'm leaning toward Musculature between the three, but if/when I respec and de-slot Stamina I might want the extra endurance help.

Aye, I like that band. They didn't always break, though. Sometimes I showed up from behind them like I was part of the act.

Okay, trying to puzzle through it right now. So far I'm at... /macro_image "Teleportation_Pocket_D" "Pocket D VIP" "powexec_name Teleportation_Pocket_D" ...which creates a button! Alas, the button is nonfunctional. I'm guessing the command to teleport to Pocket D has a different name than its icon. I *can* replace the powexec command with the popmenu command for LRT, which isn't a perfect solution, but at least it'll get me to Pocket D even if not the VIP Club.

Aye. I meant to look into making macros today but work kinda got in the way. Hopefully over the weekend I'll be able to figure it out.

I'll check for that the next time I play in case it was changed without me realizing it, but last I looked the only part of it I could see was in the sub-menu that pops up with the little Teleport Options menu thing. I can't recall if I checked it to see if it would take me to the Tiki Lounge instead of to the base portal. If so, I suppose I could bind something? I'd have to investigate ways to try and change the button icon in the tray, I'm pretty sure that's doable but I've never tried it out for myself.

So, I had my doubts about the teleportation rework, but I think that for most of the player base the new way of doing it is a nice QOL improvement, even if it raises certain character-based story concerns for me. As much as I like what's happened so far, I was wondering if some of the Long Range Teleporter effects could be reexamined? I have some weird thoughts on it... All of the exits are by Base Portals. I'm guessing this probably has to do with playerbase familiarity with the base portal teleporter thingie that this feature replaced(?). While this is good in a way that makes a pretty clear and consistent exit possible, it also takes away the pre-existing Long Range Teleporter exits which I preferred (generally LRT would drop you off near a zone entrance, like one of the ferries in the rogue isles.) Would it be possible to either change the exits back to the LRT exits, or possibly (and I almost like this one more) make the original LRT exits something that you could unlock? Like, if I had Nerva's exploration badge, it'd be nice to be able to choose between Nerva's ferry, Nerva's two black helicopter exits (north and south), and the base portal exit (I could take or leave that last one, honestly.) This would probably clutter the menu a bit, but I think it could be managed if the new LRT menu was divided a bit between the kind of location you want it to take you to (that, of course, being one of those things players assume would be easy to code that would actually be nightmarish.) Related to point 1, I miss my Pocket D VIP passport power. Would there be a way to get this back? I know there's technically a Pocket D option in the new LRT but, again, it takes me to Pocket D's base portal instead of Pocket D's VIP Lounge. Even if changing this thing isn't possible, is there some weird way I could get the button back? It was one of my favorite button designs in the game and I'd like to be able to push it again. (I nominate this bullet-point for the "Lowest Rung" award on the ladder of dev-time importance). If it becomes possible to go to zones that don't have associated exploration badges and don't require base portals to be the exit points, could we see this expanded to include some locations like Cimerora or the Midnight Club or Bloody Bay if a character hits certain milestones there (like the Irradiated badge or something?) I can see some rationale behind not always permitting Cooperative or PVP zones, but I can see those particular locations being nice perks for certain characters who spend lots of time there or have story-beats centered around them. Also, this is unrelated to LRT, but I wanna thank you for the existence of Combat Teleport even though I've not had a chance to try it yet. I've realized that it's not an "auto-include" for my various teleportation-centric characters, and I like that kind of complexity in design building (plus it's exactly what one of my characters needs, even if I haven't, like, reworked her yet to try it out.) Thanks for all the super-hard work!

So, I've got a couple dedicated Teleport characters (basically people I wanna treat as "teleporters" the way properties like "The Flash" handles things like "speedsters") and I was kind of disappointed in Fold Space. Especially for my Gravity dominator. I can certainly *imagine* scenarios where it might arguably be more to my benefit to use Fold Space instead of Wormhole. I have yet to encounter any where it actually helped more, though. Generally it's always the inferior choice. Ideally, I would like Fold Space to be "tactically different" than Wormhole, *or* provide a different benefit. Lord Recluse noted, in the original CoV installation manual, that as you level up your powers don't really get "more powerful" per se so much as they get "more complicated" or "more specific", and I think that's the sort of thing I'd like to see from it. Maybe not something as good as Wormhole's Teleport + Specified Exit + Stunned + Knockback effect, but probably something a little more than "A group shows up in melee range FIGHT". For what it's worth, I actually think the power's design is nice. For a person who didn't already have Gravity, this would give me a taste of some of that power's playspace. And "Bring that group of enemies over to where I can punch them!" is actually a really nice tactical option for general damage-dealer characters who focus on melee, especially for things like clearing a room before fighting a big boss. So, thanks design team! It's really clever and fills a playspace that I'm sure some people need. ...but my teleporter characters hunger for more. More! 😛

Hi there! Here's my submission for the AE Contest! Arc ID: 35255 Arc Name: The Sugarplum Job Author: @Clairvoyance Number of Missions: 3 Description: A member of The Mooks has a job that'll pinch a peck of Praetorian plunder, but there's some spooky holiday interference between you and this swindled holiday charity money! Will this Christmas caper be the biggest bonanza of your criminal career, or will you bite the big one in the coming New Year? Photo: (Okay, I'm not that great at taking pictures) Thanks for the contest! I followed the instructions for what the arc must include, but there's a few oddities (4 allies who can join you in combat instead of just 1, for instance. I assume that if you have "4" you still have "1", you just have it four times as often...)

So, I've got a couple of characters who are rooted in teleportation. It's their whole thing, and the choice to take Long Range Teleport instead of another attack or utility power always felt special to me. Being able to just pop over to Sharkhead while other people have to run or fly has always been a bit of a delight. None of this is a good reason to not make these changes that you're making, of course... but I kinda feel like the single most impressive "capstone" of my dedication to Teleportation is being made a little less special? Don't get me wrong, it's a *great* Quality of Life improvement for most players, and I'm sure the new power coming in to replace it will be super nice, but... still. Having said that: I love the idea of it being expandable through accolades. The fact that I could go to the original redside zones but nothing else always felt weird to me. I'll just need to do some legwork before it goes from Beta to Live. But out of curiosity: could you please, please, please implement some ways to customize the Teleport accolade? Astra Dynamic's teleports are pink, not a general flash of light. And Professor Flummox would love to arrive in a cloud of dark smoke or explosion of playing cards. Ooh, honestly, could the "appearing" end of this new teleport power (and of the other teleportation powers) have some of the costume change emotes worked in? I just imagined a big Christmas present appearing and my Christmas Ninja character exploding out of it. And that's just three of my characters who could benefit from it. 😛 (In fact, being able to customize the appearance of the Long Range Teleportation power might be a fun treat for people who get all the other powers in the set... just sayin'... 😉 ) Anyway, this whole expansion looks great. You guys are doing great work, keep it up. Sincerely, Crater "Way Too Opinionated About Teleportation" Labs

Okay, with the full understanding that there's a lot of hardcoded stuff that just *doesn't work* in the costume creator and power development thing, I was wondering: would it be possible to give a costume a sort of "Prop" slot? I think conceptually it'd be a lot like the Weapon slot. But instead of having a Weapon, it would be a sort of neutral-scenario item. Even if such a thing is doable, there, of course, would be a lot of animation concerns and modeling development issues that, frankly, would probably make this require more work than necessary, especially since a lot of "props" are already sort of available via different emotes. But, well... I kinda want to have a beast summoning wizard who waves a staff around, but all the staves are being hoarded by the Staff Fighting characters. Anyway, just wanted to mention it, on the off chance that at some point in the future it becomes weirdly convenient to work on. Thanks!

Is it... Lost... Freakshow... turning into Rikti... with help from... Doctor Vahzilok? If not, then I think I'll have to stop guessing and just wait and see.

In the final mission of the "The Mysterious General Z" arc from Christine Lansdale, I observed the curious sight of General Z saying "I don't intend to talk. So you can save your breath." This is immediately followed by him also saying "You'll tell us anything we want to know, old man." Typo? Perhaps. I assume so. Either that, or General Z is *really* confident about his bargaining position as a hostage, and also thinks he can get away with calling the Sky Raider he's fighting an old man. I'll let you, the game devs at home, decide.

So, I whipped up a little something featuring Hellions, doing all the things that Hellions love best. Starting fires. Summoning demons. Arson. Smuggling magical artifacts and using them for power. Pyromania. Worshiping dark forces. Setting things aflame. Partying to cool electronica music. Igniting materials. Graffiti artistry. Watching things burn. Identity theft. Firebombing. It's all good fun, but when their cleverest Arsonist starts the Hellions on the path toward escalation, only a Hero of approximately security level 5-14 will be able to save the city... and the day! Featuring fan favorite obscure hero Max Action of the Civic Squad as the mission contact, all this and more awaits you in... The River Of Fire! Arc ID# 26057 Title: River of Fire! Global ID: @Clairvoyance

You mention artists signing up at that link... any chance that extends to non-visual artists? I'm mostly personally asking for the writery sides of things, but the music and sound design has always been a big part of the game too.