Player2

Being a superhero means not having to wear pants. Maybe that's supervillains... No, no... I stand by what I said. Good superheroes MAY choose to wear pants if they want... but they're not required. Run around in shorts, swimsuits, thongs, or just covered in fur/rocks/something else. As long as naughty bits is covered, pants is unnecessary. You and I can't do that at work and it would likely be very much frowned upon at the supermarket or when trying to apply for a mortgage, but superheroes can go all day and night without pants... because they are super!

I actually think it's a good idea in theory, but there's a little too much going on. The Rogue Isles Villains and Paragon Heroes for the Mayhem and Safeguard missions lists are woefully stale after all these. The missions are broken up into level ranges and there's like 2 heroes and 2 villains in each range... plus AVs. How about a contest once a year where people can submit either one hero or one villain, and there's a vote here in the forums to pick the winning hero and villain that can appear in the player's choice of level range --as determined when submitted. I imagine that submissions could get a bit out of hand with too many to make an effective vote, so maybe in the first month of the contest players submit their entries showing a screenshot, of the character, an attached costume file, a suitably small but informative blurb to be used as the character info tab if someone right clicks and looks in game, and possibly some suggested dialogue for combat (battle cry, players sighted when battle starts, character is reduced to 3/4ths health, 1/2 health, 1/4th health, is defeated or defeats the player(s). After a month of open submission time, Homecoming staff (or someone appointed by them) can review entries for quality to weed out anything with issues (violates ToS with copyright, content, etc), and then passes the remainder on to official judges who will select a specific number (maybe like 4 heroes and 4 villains) of them for players to vote on. The winning hero and villain gets permanently added to the Mayhem/Safeguard mission roster for purposes of fighting at the bank or rescuing from jail or whatever. It would be a lot more self-contained than trying to implement having random heroes and villains show up as bosses, EBs, or AVs in standard missions and slowly grow the list of available villains and heroes in a specific area of the game. You can't exactly do Mayhem and Safeguard in AE, so it's not the same thing as we already have. As a bonus, maybe give the winning two players one of those special permanent titles over their character's name that says something like "Robbed [specify zone] Bank" or "Protected [specify zone] Bank"... as a little memento that their character is going to get their butt whupped a lot as an NPC, but at least have bragging rights for when they're playing... so if someone sees them on their winning character in game and brags "I mopped the floor with you!" at least they can claim that they still accomplished the thing... maybe not with the braggart, but somewhere somehow against some who.

The limit on symbols in names seems to be an entirely arbitrary one that the Cryptic team set, probably to keep people from doing 133t5p34k names... even though that's something they use for named boss Freakshow. We get a couple of different symbols to use and only one at a time... not even duplicating the same one, like if I wanted to make Mr. I.P. Freely. I could make Mr. IP Freely or Mister I.P Freely or even Mr IP Freely., but then I would probably get generic'd for the urine reference. But can't even have two periods for a character with initials in their name. I've never heard of an explanation for why not, so while it could be a limitation of the game code I think it's more likely an arbitrary one to prevent people from making B.A.T.M.A.N. or similar nonsense... because then they'd have to add acronyms for every name on the restricted list. And if that's the case, adding one specific symbol with a specific function should be possible.

There is only so much that can be done even with coding. If there is more name, then simply hiding it doesn't solve some problems... like being able to send private messages to people. Again, to bring up the harassment example, what's someone to do if someone else uses a more popular player's name with a hidden symbol and number system to send hostile or otherwise problematic messages to someone and they do it from another zone where you can't mouseover the player to pop up their actual name? Making the hiding too effective opens it up to abuse. I say let people play and have whatever name they want, but transparency should still be a thing. In Marvel Comics there were like six Captain Americas over the years, and not everyone in the story knows the secret identities of all of them... so they might refer to some who they do know by also referencing a real name but those they don't know they might associate with a specific time period or just say something like "the third Captain America." Having the number more visible would equate to this... we would all know that people using copies of a name aren't the original and can see which iteration they are. But for gameplay purposes, the story refers to the player by name only without the hidden number and the player wouldn't see the number over their head. It's really no different than if we could get a system like other games where character names are tied to the global names... but since that idea has been debunked as not possible, we just have to move on to the next one but not go overboard to where it could possibly be abused.

Just an afterthought... personally, I would like the hidden symbol and number to be as accessible as possible. I think just hiding it in the bare minimum of channels and over the character's head are all that's necessary. If you are accepting being the second, third, or two-hundred and fiftieth iteration of a character, let other players be aware of who you are. Be the awesome teammate that they remember... instead of "Just another one of those Captain Awesomes" in a crowd, be "Captain Awesome_51 is the best Captain Awesome. Change my mind!"

Genius. Excellent. First off, the suggestion was to "Allow a symbol, such as #, to be used as a name delimiter," which means if for some reason that symbol can't be used then use a different one. Secondly, the code as it is won't allow the # sign to be used in that way or any way; that is why additional coding would have to be done. Can it be done? I'd argue that almost anything could be done. Does the HC team have someone capable of doing it? I can't say; but I will point out that we used to not be able to do asymmetrical boots, gloves, and shoulder pieces in the costume creator but now we have it because someone figured out a way around the existing game code that made those body locations a single symmetrical costume choice. It is entirely possible that someone also possesses the knowhow to implement an idea like this one... but the only way to know would be for them to actually try it to determine if they can or cannot. And then comes the issue of what happens if they can make it work? Possibly a flood of same names in the same zone? "I am Spartacus!" "No, I am Spartacus!" "No, me!" So allow me to add my own suggestion to the mix: Display only the characters up to the delimiter symbol but only in specific circumstances. For example, don't hide anything in LFG, private messages, or league chat... maybe also leave everything revealed in search windows. This way, if Captain Awesome(#11) is being a bit of a jerk and someone goes and makes Captain Awesome(#28) and starts sending private messages to people to make it look like the other one is being an even bigger jerk by harassing or violating TOS, the person(s) receiving such messages can immediately identify when they are sending a report to the GMs that #28 is the problem individual. Also, LFG channel definitely, because just having part of the name hidden doesn't mean you don't have to enter it for sending a private message to the correct individual. So if Captain Awesome(#8) put out LFG message to form a team for trial or something else and someone logs out to get on a different character for that team, they don't have to figure out which of like six or maybe more Captain Awesomes to send a tell to for invite request. League chat. Let's assume you have 3 different Captain Awesomes in your league and one of the is the main tank... so when the league leader says wait for Captain Awesome's signal, maybe not have confusion over which one he's talking about. The symbol and number would be added on automatically if you right click on a character or their name in the team, league, or chat window... but there are times when it would be handy to know who's speaking. Honestly, as I'm typing this out, I think the best solution is to use a less intrusive symbol like the underscore to separate the hidden number from the rest of the name and leave the full name with number visible in team and league windows, as well as most chat channels. But hide the number and symbol over the character's head and in things like Local and NPC channels. "Oh no, Captain Awesome_94 is here! Get him!!" just isn't necessary and is entirely what hiding extraneous name stuff is about.

Not yet.

That is NOT Chiron Medical Center.

One more question, for the Powers Team: With time and experience behind you, how would you fix Regeneration now to make it both balanced with other damage mitigation power sets but also stand out from its heir/replacement, Willpower?

To everybody in general... If you had the opportunity to add anything (that was actually feasible) before the shutdown, whether it be new powers, content, or even just little details, what's that one main thing that you would have liked to do? Have you seen the game in its current state under the Homecoming team? Have you considered volunteering some developer time and/or wisdom to the current team? If the game had gone on longer instead of being shut down, what signature hero/archvillain would have been killed off next? We lost Statesman and Sister Psyche, and it felt like there could have been more coming. Signature Heroes had Freedom Phalanx and Vindicators, not to mention later addition of the W.I.S.D.O.M. characters and The Shining Stars... were there any plans to add more to Lord Recluse's retinue?

Let's just do away with in-game names altogether. Everyone gets assigned the generic "Hero" or "Villain" title and can call themselves what they want behind the scenes. /t Hero, Nice costume. /t Hero, -> Thanks... again. You've told me that like 30 times already. /t Hero, Wasn't me, I just logged in. /t Hero, -> That's what you said the last couple dozen times. /y Hero, I think you're confusing me with Hero. Just imagine the chaos in the General chat channel.

Neat. How long will those be available?

If you want it, I have Supervision on Excelsior. Last logged in the character 288 days ago, so I could part with it if you want to go with the eyebeams theme. As for the powers not really offering a lot in the way of eye blastering effects... maybe switch it up a little. The character draws ambient energy from the environment with his eyes... and can release it in a variety of ways (including eye beams if you want to go the radiation blast route).

They can?? I had no idea.

In general, pool powers are supposed to be less useful/effective than any primary/secondary counterparts. If you're a stalker, you excel at placating foes... and if you take Pacify, you can get a second chance to do so. Your primary placate should be better than your follow up attempt. Same with Confront/Provoke. Pool powers are bonus to add a little more depth and range to your character, but they aren't necessary and don't have to be complimentary. Taking Pacify or Provoke to get to Intimidate shows a devotion to manipulating others reactions with your presence. If I want the added defense from Fighting -> Weave, why do I have to take 2 other Fighting powers first? Why can't I just learn defense instead of punching/kicking/soaking up smashing & lethal damage? Because it's a prerequisite; you learn lesser things before you get to the good stuff.

I am not going to refute anything or even address the topic at hand. Instead, I am going to point out that this statement made me laugh... "painfully mid - despite being the best set that HC has added" It's like winning the Megamillions jackpot for half a billion dollars and complaining, "this jackpot is weak -- despite being the best thing that's ever happened to me." Come on, pick a lane. Is it good or is it not so much? Or don't pick a lane and I will continue to laugh at the contradiction.

Yeah, I am not going to learn a new order. It's too ingrained in at this point, and as someone with serious altaholism my first go to is the quit to character select... and when I'm done I can quit to desktop. The quit to login screen could be removed entirely and I won't notice... but if it's moved to the top (or bottom) of the list, I will become obnoxiously vocal in my complaints about it and curse everyone that had a hand in making it happen.

I cannot support or condone this suggestion because of the confusing reference to Super Strength... or Super Speed... or the Schutzstaffel. I dislike abbreviations.

I was going to suggest something like that, and/or using incarnate power to simply summon the echo of a past nuke into being like the lore pets... it's just a very short-lived "pet" that ends when it detonates.

Time for some Krea Giant Monsters...

The MindBrain is online... NecroAngel Big Bad Baby Eater is craving a little snack... Floodstorm is all wet Crafter has something for you. It's pain. Viridian Storm... because Green Lightning sounds both dull and derivative. Mister Mojo will have you rising with his gravity tricks. We do not talk about the Big Guns.

Yes, exactly. There's a button that says "Settings" below where your uploaded image is. When you click it, there's a box for Prompt which usually auto-generates to describe the image you uploaded; If it doesn't, there is a little Auto-Generate button in the bottom left corner of that box. In this box, I usually specify things like "Asian Woman" or "Robot Man" as appropriate. Don't assume it's always correct, either. I've noticed the auto-prompt give me partially incorrect descriptions like calling a blonde a redhead or giving me weird descriptions of things in the background that just aren't there. Fix it here. After that, there's a drop-down menu (Default, Flat Sharp, Strong, Reinterpretation, Oil Painting, Digital Art), followed by some sliders (AI Strength, Resemblance, Clarity), a Color Correction button, and another prompt box called Negative Prompt where you put in things that you don't want to see. This one is going to be hit or miss depending on how much you mess with your options, but it's not a miracle magic deletion button that will make anything you don't want go away... I wish, though.

And yet, we have seen continued development since it was released with some fixes for old problems and entirely new ideas presented giving life to old player requests, such as the asymmetrical boots, gloves, and shoulders. People still want more, but that will always be the case. No matter how much we're given, there will be someone with an idea that didn't get realized that will spark similar desire in others. But we've gotten innovations under Homecoming. The Gull? You mean the one in Pocket D that has been there changing the way some people play since before the 2012 shutdown? Yeah, Null is a holdover that has been granted some additional features under Homecoming, but there were some core changes that were just given away. There's also the S.T.A.R.T. vendors, previously P2W, which are new with Homecoming... but they're just a new delivery system for stuff that NCSoft was doling out in the past as rewards for time played and/or microtransactions. Honestly, I like that everything is up front and given away with little need to "earn it." Why were butterfly wings something that had to be earned originally? To string people along to keep them playing because grind = money, even after the game went from subscription to free-to-play. Why were some powersets premium and required players to pay to unlock them? For the cash grab to milk the player base as much as possible. Now you can start with virtually any costume options, play every AT and power set combination, and have 1000 characters slots per shard. And people keep on playing, so giving it all away didn't stop us from grinding or playing with teams or doing whatever else we love in the game... it just made it all more accessible. I'm sure there are people that would disagree because they prefer the model where things need to be unlocked to have fun. Meh. Boring. But they could still choose to limit themselves and do the old mission content that was required for somethings, or choose not to take things until they would be awarded for whatever the original goalposts were. It's all about having fun now, and you can be intense and power to 50 with farming or running missions and task forces, or you could slow play and stop at whatever level you want just to start a new character from scratch again and again. And despite all of these options of content and play styles... the game still gets updated. New missions, new features, even a new hopefully seasonal event added recently. And now with the legitimacy of officially being licensed, player interest spiked and I'm sure there will be more fun and innovations on the horizon.

We're all naked under our clothes. That makes our heroes and villains clothed nudists... except for those ones that aren't wearing clothes because they have animal hair or some other non-human texture that would replace ordinary nudity.

I would be in favor of creating an entirely new aura from existing resources. Specifically, take the tarot cards aura and replace the cards with the Shield -> Elemental -> Energy choice so that it looks like you're surrounded by a bunch of little force barriers that are supposed to be constantly moving to block incoming damage. Also make teeny-tiny energy shields over the eyes as a Body and Eyes option or just Eyes so it looks like you have energy googles on.