If you could radically overhaul 1 thing....

[Alchemystic]

if I could radically overhaul one thing I would go for the most radical thing I can!

 

I would change powersets so there is no separation of traditional vs weapon powersets, and give every powerset options for using weapons or other props as a means of using their powers.

 

fire blast could be your standard fist-projected attacks, or delivered by a flamethrower, or perhaps a magic wand, or maybe even a set of high tech pistols.

 

Melee sets would be able to have fist or claw attacks, as well as use of weapons or special props that deal the same damage.

 

Weapons like Beam Rifle and Assault Rifle could be reworked so they fire from the arms like wrist blasters or cybernetic augmentation too!

[Gobbledigook]

It would be Endurance for me also.

 

Low levels suck when trying to run a few armour toggles, especially if you are fighting freaks or carnies. Slot endurance reduction on toggles and attacks only helps slightly. 

Some sets get extra endurance help and they have it a fair bit easier.

 

I would increase stamina to 50% at least and reduce the armour toggles costs some. It will still be costly if you are spamming attacks, as they are not reduced or fighting freaks but not ridiculous as it is now.

 

Buffers that buff endurance will still be good to have around at lower levels, the problem is those buffs aren't needed much at all with IOs and incarnate at higher levels.

[Coyotedancer]

7 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Sounds like it wouldn't have to be any worse than the usual game of dodge the perception radius as you cross a zone.

 

Except that those NPCs are apt to be a lot more obnoxious to deal with. Dodging Hero- or Villain-class goons just to get to a mission door isn't quite the same thing as crossing the street to avoid a group of Hellions....

 

[tidge]

I'm happy with the game as a whole, even if I think some power sets and specific missions could use some love. For RADICAL overhauls, my mind goes to:

 

The Praetoria storyline - My sense is that Praetoria was basically sacrificed on the alter of Incarnate Content. I find it difficult to enjoy Praetorian story arcs when 'I know' how the story ends for that world. CoH worked best for me because it was an open-ended world with the classic super-hero 'resets' back to the status quo. No matter how much (or how little) Incarnate (or post-issue 21) content I take a character through, the story for that world has been written. I don't mind the trials themselves, I just don't like that they feel like I'm watching somebody else's story and not my own.

[MTeague]

9 minutes ago, tidge said:

I'm happy with the game as a whole, even if I think some power sets and specific missions could use some love. For RADICAL overhauls, my mind goes to:

 

The Praetoria storyline - My sense is that Praetoria was basically sacrificed on the alter of Incarnate Content. I find it difficult to enjoy Praetorian story arcs when 'I know' how the story ends for that world. CoH worked best for me because it was an open-ended world with the classic super-hero 'resets' back to the status quo. No matter how much (or how little) Incarnate (or post-issue 21) content I take a character through, the story for that world has been written. I don't mind the trials themselves, I just don't like that they feel like I'm watching somebody else's story and not my own.

Huh.  I actually like that events proceed somewhat and that it goes from "All's Well In Emperor Cole's Mighty City" to "Invasion!" (Admiral Sutter/Colonel Duray) to "Angry Hamidon is Angry" to "Exiles On Primal Earth / New Praetorians".

 

Admittedly, some of this is knowing that certain Praetors finally get what's coming to them.  

There are some NPC's I feel bad about their ulimate fates, but if they are not SEEN to die on screen, they can always be added in later.

Heck even if they ARE seen to die on screen, we've seen War Witch return from literally beyond the grave. 

Death is really only a speedbump in comic-land, if the author wants the character to be re-introduced.

 

And if the HC Devs never re-introduce certain characters, well, we can do it via some AE missions.

[Twisted Toon]

42 minutes ago, MTeague said:

Huh.  I actually like that events proceed somewhat and that it goes from "All's Well In Emperor Cole's Mighty City" to "Invasion!" (Admiral Sutter/Colonel Duray) to "Angry Hamidon is Angry" to "Exiles On Primal Earth / New Praetorians".

 

Admittedly, some of this is knowing that certain Praetors finally get what's coming to them.  

There are some NPC's I feel bad about their ulimate fates, but if they are not SEEN to die on screen, they can always be added in later.

Heck even if they ARE seen to die on screen, we've seen War Witch return from literally beyond the grave. 

Death is really only a speedbump in comic-land, if the author wants the character to be re-introduced.

 

And if the HC Devs never re-introduce certain characters, well, we can do it via some AE missions.

And if anyone asks how these guys came back from the dead, just say, "Sea turtles, mate."

[MTeague]

55 minutes ago, Twisted Toon said:

And if anyone asks how these guys came back from the dead, just say, "Sea turtles, mate."

Well in the case of 

Spoiler

Praetorian Vanessa De Vore, her mask survives, and we know for CERTAIN of at least one Primal Earth mask-wearer who's psyche transferred into it and later contested the wearer for control of the body.  Praetorian Vanessa probably wouldn't do it just to have a body back, but, if the mask fell into the possession of someone deep on the Evil Street?  Then she might, if only to stop them from hurting people.  

 

[Chris24601]

On 9/12/2020 at 11:08 AM, gamingglen said:

4) Make more Tip missions, even for levels less than 20. I don't know why they made 20 the lower limit.

I suspect its because they were added at the same time as Praetoria, which ended at level 20 with an alignment choice to go from Resistance/Loyalist to Hero/Villain. Having lower level alignment missions would be nice, but so would just allowing the previous tier(s) of missions to be played. The big problem is there's only eleven missions per level band with one (12 for 40+) for a given alignment. This wasn't quite as noticeable when you were limited to 5/day and advancement through 20-29 and 30-39 were quick enough that you weren't going to repeat too many and incarnate stuff required you doing entirely different content to advance it, but it gets VERY noticeable now that you can run an unlimited number per day and incarnate leveling is just doing any content.

 

All that said, my radical overhaul would be to re-jigger the Praetorian content to create a smoother overall process for a Praetorian only playthrough.

 

Step 1) Tweak the levels in Praetoria; right now its super-easy to outlevel Nova Praetoria and Neutropolis without even using an XP booster while Imperial City lags slightly. Changing the levels to 1-10 for Nova Praetoria, 10-15 for Imperial City and 15-25 (with the Rift to Primal Earth mission still opening as early as level 20 once you complete one of the four arc chains) would clean up a lot of that.

 

Step 2) Move the exit points for the Praetorians into Paragon City/Rogue Isles to one of the Vanguard Annexes. Inside the Paragon City Annex would be Tina Macintyre (or a replacement) with JUST "The Praetorian War" arc re-leveled to 20-30, Maria Jenkins with all her missions re-leveled to 30-40 and Mistress Eva (First Ward starter contact). The Rogue Isles would have contacts with villain/rogue rewritten versions of Tina and Maria's arcs and Carter Mordesen (villain First Ward contact).

 

Step 2A) Tweak a bit of the First/Night Ward dialogue to make it clear that events there are happening contemporaneously with the Tina and Maria arcs and add a closing mission/arc that takes you from the conclusion of Night Ward to the start of the arcs in Step 3 without having to have picked Hero or Villain first.

 

Step 3) A new set of zones accessible from the Annex would be available starting at level 40. These would be mirrors of the Praetoria 1-20 zones with forces swapped out to the time of The Praetorian Invasion (ex. IDF and War Works on the streets instead of PPD). These would be War Neutropolis (40-45), War Imperial City (45-50) and War Nova Praetoria (50+). For content, each of the Incarnate Trials would be re-written into story arcs (one per trial) with mission doors in the respective zones (i.e. the Lambda Trial arc would be in War Neutropolis, the TPN Trial would be War Imperial). You would be diverted to Dark Astoria and its arc at the appropriate point.

 

Step 4) Move both the Marchand/New Praetorian and Mr. G's arcs to Kallisti Wharf and make them level 50. The rationale here is that the zone matches the graphic quality of the Praetorian content a lot better than Brickstown/St. Martial do and with a story arc version of the Praetorian conflict available that can be soloed to experience it, it makes sense to move the arc to after the war arcs.

 

The end result should be a reasonably seamless path from the Precinct 5 tutorial zone all the way to incarnate content while focused entirely on the Praetorian crisis (with Primal heroes and villains able to hep in at level 20, about the time that missions like Roy Cooling's arcs start setting up the big war with Praetoria... in that case upgrading the Mediporters to deal with the jamming the IDF intends to use that is mentioned in the later arcs in Praetoria) and its aftermath.

[Player2]

Update older power sets to bring them in line with newer sets.  There's a reason the older stuff gets played less and it's not just because the newer stuff is shinier... it's because the new stuff is usually better.

[EmmySky]

3 hours ago, MTeague said:

Huh.  I actually like that events proceed somewhat and that it goes from "All's Well In Emperor Cole's Mighty City" to "Invasion!" (Admiral Sutter/Colonel Duray) to "Angry Hamidon is Angry" to "Exiles On Primal Earth / New Praetorians".

 

Admittedly, some of this is knowing that certain Praetors finally get what's coming to them.  

There are some NPC's I feel bad about their ulimate fates, but if they are not SEEN to die on screen, they can always be added in later.

Heck even if they ARE seen to die on screen, we've seen War Witch return from literally beyond the grave. 

Death is really only a speedbump in comic-land, if the author wants the character to be re-introduced.

 

And if the HC Devs never re-introduce certain characters, well, we can do it via some AE missions.

Bolded for emphasis.....

Comic books are like soap operas, without the kissing.

They can be married a bazillion times and come back from the dead with no penalty.  

 

😄

 

[Twisted Toon]

2 hours ago, MTeague said:

Well in the case of 

  Reveal hidden contents

Praetorian Vanessa De Vore, her mask survives, and we know for CERTAIN of at least one Primal Earth mask-wearer who's psyche transferred into it and later contested the wearer for control of the body.  Praetorian Vanessa probably wouldn't do it just to have a body back, but, if the mask fell into the possession of someone deep on the Evil Street?  Then she might, if only to stop them from hurting people.  

 

All of that could be condensed into "Sea turtles", mate.

Why explain the mundane methods of the return of Dr. Whoever, and ruin the mysteriousness of his(or her) return?

[Chris24601]

30 minutes ago, Twisted Toon said:

All of that could be condensed into "Sea turtles", mate.

Why explain the mundane methods of the return of Dr. Whoever, and ruin the mysteriousness of his(or her) return?

Well, sea turtles are well and good, some returns can be more sensible with barely more effort than saying “sea turtles.”

 

That said, the lady in question is NOT one of the ones I’d expect to see return... and in fact was probably killed off in the first place... due to a variation on the “One Steve Limit” rule.

 

Put simply, if there’s a version of a Praetorian character on Primal Earth, then one or the other either did or was in the process of being either put on a bus or having a bridge dropped on them (or both) so that only one would be left going forward.

 

As a prime example of that, look at the combo of the new KIng’s Row arcs (only partway completed) and the New Praetorians arcs. In the former, Back Alley Brawler, who’s mostly been relegated to auxiliary Atlas Park trainer ever since Galaxy City got blown up, was crippled (also worth noting, his powers are supposed to be entirely training and he was pushing 60 back in 2012). Meanwhile in the New Praetorians arc we see Marauder get redeemed and his actual super-serum powers (making his age irrelevant) restored.

 

I’m pretty sure that, if not for The Snap, future issues would have seen BAB’s retire and Marauder more or less replace him. Given that she’s only a trainer and turns up only in a villain mission or two I also think Aurora Borealis might have been eventually phased out for the Praetorian version as well.

 

Only versions that were extremely different from each other seem able to co-exist (ex. Pendragon and Hero-1/the Honoree).

 

In a version going the other direction, Metronome (the Praetorian Clockwork King) took over Anti-matter’s satellite to assist the humans of Last Bastion on Praetorian Earth, meaning he isn’t around to replace Primal Russel.

 

So in that respect, several post-Underground Trial arcs/missions happening to feature the Primal version in a more “neutral-ish” role probably means the death was deliberate move to remove a very similar doppelgänger and the villainous version being chosen because they’re the one easier to write future missions about.

[Player2]

4 hours ago, Player2 said:

Update older power sets to bring them in line with newer sets.  There's a reason the older stuff gets played less and it's not just because the newer stuff is shinier... it's because the new stuff is usually better.

Actually, if there was one thing, I think it would be names.  I would want the name exclusivity thing overhauled so that character names don't need to be unique and are tied to global names.

[Twisted Toon]

3 hours ago, Chris24601 said:

Well, sea turtles are well and good, some returns can be more sensible with barely more effort than saying “sea turtles.”

 

That said, the lady in question is NOT one of the ones I’d expect to see return... and in fact was probably killed off in the first place... due to a variation on the “One Steve Limit” rule.

 

Put simply, if there’s a version of a Praetorian character on Primal Earth, then one or the other either did or was in the process of being either put on a bus or having a bridge dropped on them (or both) so that only one would be left going forward.

 

As a prime example of that, look at the combo of the new KIng’s Row arcs (only partway completed) and the New Praetorians arcs. In the former, Back Alley Brawler, who’s mostly been relegated to auxiliary Atlas Park trainer ever since Galaxy City got blown up, was crippled (also worth noting, his powers are supposed to be entirely training and he was pushing 60 back in 2012). Meanwhile in the New Praetorians arc we see Marauder get redeemed and his actual super-serum powers (making his age irrelevant) restored.

 

I’m pretty sure that, if not for The Snap, future issues would have seen BAB’s retire and Marauder more or less replace him. Given that she’s only a trainer and turns up only in a villain mission or two I also think Aurora Borealis might have been eventually phased out for the Praetorian version as well.

 

Only versions that were extremely different from each other seem able to co-exist (ex. Pendragon and Hero-1/the Honoree).

 

In a version going the other direction, Metronome (the Praetorian Clockwork King) took over Anti-matter’s satellite to assist the humans of Last Bastion on Praetorian Earth, meaning he isn’t around to replace Primal Russel.

 

So in that respect, several post-Underground Trial arcs/missions happening to feature the Primal version in a more “neutral-ish” role probably means the death was deliberate move to remove a very similar doppelgänger and the villainous version being chosen because they’re the one easier to write future missions about.

Ok, then. Up the ante to undead spectral cosmic sea turtles.

 

That should cover everything...maybe.

[EmmySky]

Or just change it to...

 

See, turtles!

[Bill Z Bubba]

Oh yea... also might be a great thing to fix stuff like this in personal missions:

 

[gamingglen]

I just levelled a character and was upset I had to pick a power...

 

So, change my ONE thing to change to:

You can pick a power OR extra slots when you train up.  Addendum: you get 3 slots per level starting at 25 instead of 31.

[First Player]

Editing a bio.

[Zeraphia]

The biggest thing I'd overhaul would be customization visual effects and costume pieces.

 

Look, love the Fiery Aura look, but running the auras 24/7 can get a bit visually redundant and it sometimes obscures character designs. I think possibly making an option cosmetically that allows for a complete transparent option for the power effects on you (particularly for resistance armor toggles/"adaptations"), whilst still retaining the in-game benefits the power grants you would be delightful. Another example is the offensive adaptation of Bio Armor's pom-pom hands, no matter how I recolor that I'm never truly satisfied. 🤔

 

Another thing would be the option of, as other posters have claimed, "vanta-black" an actually BLACK version of the aura effects and not just a more muted grey. 

 

Further, there are some costumes pieces (some not all**) used for NPCs that would be lovely to use for customization of our characters. For example, Ghost Widow's hair, I don't find to be a truly "unique" element of who she is as a character, and I find straight long flowing hair to hardly be a "rare" trait by any means even in a real-world standard. 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Zeraphia

[Clave Dark 5]

16 hours ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

Except that those NPCs are apt to be a lot more obnoxious to deal with. Dodging Hero- or Villain-class goons just to get to a mission door isn't quite the same thing as crossing the street to avoid a group of Hellions....

 

Seeing as how this is all theoretical...

 

All I know is that no matter which zone I play in, you always have to carefully skirt around mobs on the street.  There's no reason they can't be flavored to be one thing or another here, it'll still play the same anyway.

[EmmySky]

1 hour ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Seeing as how this is all theoretical...

 

All I know is that no matter which zone I play in, you always have to carefully skirt around mobs on the street.  There's no reason they can't be flavored to be one thing or another here, it'll still play the same anyway.

Carefully skirt around mobs on the street?  So my approach of runnung hell-bent-for-leather straight through them while quietly chanting to myself "don't kill me don't kill me don't kill me" is probably wrong?  😝

[Lines]

3 minutes ago, EmmySky said:

Carefully skirt around mobs on the street?  So my approach of runnung hell-bent-for-leather straight through them while quietly chanting to myself "don't kill me don't kill me don't kill me" is probably wrong?  😝

Does it work?

[EmmySky]

1 minute ago, Lines said:

Does it work?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no!

 

😄

 

[Lines]

1 minute ago, EmmySky said:

Sometimes yes, sometimes no!

 

😄

 

Then it's only sometimes wrong!

[Clave Dark 5]

8 minutes ago, EmmySky said:

Carefully skirt around mobs on the street?  So my approach of runnung hell-bent-for-leather straight through them while quietly chanting to myself "don't kill me don't kill me don't kill me" is probably wrong?  😝

Hard to kill an old habit!  My first toon was a blaster and I had to learn the very hard way about dodging street mobs.