Aitchuu

Memphis, I think you may have missed the point of my suggestion.
Whirlwind is indeed a weak tier 4 pool power - hence my suggestion to improve it by giving it defense buff against AOE attacks and protection from the Stop powers (slow, hold, immobilize, KB, and repel). Why? Because you are spinning like a top, generating waves of outbound force that any incoming attack needs to be able to overcome. You are absolutely correct that waves of force are not a game mechanic. But I'm not talking in terms of game mechanics, rather the justification/pseudophysics behind a power such as Whirlwind. The game mechanics that I feel emulate this justification are AoE defense and Stop power protection.
I include Hurricane because it is the set-power cousin to Whirlwind. And I totally agree, why slot if for defense (which only works against AoE attacks) when you can slot for ToHit debuff (which affects Melee, Ranged, and AoE attacks)?
And again you are correct that the Defense sets contain Mez (Confuse, Fear, Placate, Sleep, Stun, and Taunt) and Stop (KB, Hold, Immobilize, Repel, Slow) power protection yet Hand Clap is in a Melee Offensive set. Exactly the point! Here is one offensive power that gives you a short term boost to those defenses. Ever seen Superman use his super breath [Hand Clap] to put out a fire [AoE attack]? And there are countless examples in the comics of super strong characters flexing their muscles [Hand Clap - in this case boosting Stop protection] to break out of a trap [Hold/Immobilize attack] or stand their ground against titanic forces [KB/repel]. Sure you could use a Breaky, and doing so probably infers the same sort of thematic heroics. I was making a suggession to improve what I find to be another underachieving power, which happens to be somewhat thematically related to Whirlwind/Hurricane.

Whirlwind and Hurricane and Hand Clap are all about generating a wave of force around yourself that repels or knocks back foes around you. Hurricane adds some debuff, but the other 2 are generally disliked (to put it mildly) when discussed in the forums. It seems to me that all these powers are missing one crucial element.
They all create a wave of outgoing force that toss your opponents around, but they fail to protect you from like effects directed against you. These powers should provide defense from AOE attacks and protection from Stop powers (knockback, hold, and immobilize). Most AOE attacks are in the form of storms (ice, fire, lightning clouds, etc.). The outward force of these powers should have a scattering effect on such attacks (i.e. you are less likely to get hit by such attacks - i.e. you have defense against them). Would you truly expect to be able to hurl a web grenade through hurricane force winds and have it do anything but fly apart on deployment? Knockback energy would need to pass through (overcome) these powers before affecting the target. So I suggest these powers grant AOE defense and protection to the Stop powers and can slot Defense to augment these values.
Hand Clap is not a toggle, but it does more or less the same thing. My thought is that this power should work a bit like a Break Free inspiration for this purpose – when you use this power, the defense/protection effects are instantly added to whatever defense/protection you already have toggled, and lingers a few seconds as the wave of force passes. If this is creates enough protection to break a hold or immobilize power, then it does so. Since Knockback is calculated instantaneously you wouldn’t be able to Hand Clap in response to a high KB attack, but you could hope to time it so the attack hits during the ‘linger phase’ and thus benefit from its protection. This simulates a) using the power to disperse an AOE attack and b) using it to burst out of whatever hold or immobilize power is affecting you. And that would have the charm of giving ‘Super Strength’ a power that makes it feel like something more than just super fighting. Most melee toons have anti-Stop powers, but now the Super Strong ones can take that up another notch.

Does anybody else find it odd that we can build a Trophy Room in the supercave, but cannot put our souvenirs in it?
How about a little Base love where every souvenir in the game gets framed in a case and players who have earned the souvenir can then access it as a ‘personal item’ to decorate the base for say 50 or 100 prestige apiece?
For badges make framed newspaper headlines, like “Heroes defeat Giant Octopus” with a half-page photo that we can hang on the walls. Again, only a character who has earned the badge can hang the trophy. I imagine a wall where 20 or 30 Hamidon headlines are hanging - one for each member who's been through it.
And lastly, how about some canned photos of our toons – say the “hands-on-hips” hero pose, the “leaping-into-action” pose, and the close-up. Might be a problem for the large groups to find a wall big enough for all 150 members, but the midsize and small groups would love being able to hang the right picture behind each chair.

Does anybody else have characters they’ve run to the top and decided that’s enough? You only play them to ‘knock the dust off’. Considered deleting them so you have room to try another toon concept - but then you’d lose all the history that you’ve built with the character.
Wouldn’t it be cool if the toon menu had another button that generates and downloads a PDF file that is the Hero Corps or Arachnos dossier of your toon? Including your background, every costume, every power, every IO set, every badge, every souvenir. That way, years from now, you can call up old buddies and say ‘hey, remember this?’
And yeah, I realize I’m suggesting the Devs do some work to enhance the experience of players who are potentially leaving the game. But this sort of memento has pretty good “bring’em back” value too.

Because players like me would rather play the game than the market. When I take a break to empty my bags of loot and craft 'extra' recipes that I intend to dump on a market - I make a quick note of what it cost me in influence to make. Since I'm talking random recipe drops with salvage I just happen to have, my only cost is crafting. Adding the 10% guarantees me a small profit for my time, and I don't have to waste time trying to interperate the last 5 buys against the bids and availables. Market 'value' has the price way over what I'm gonna ask, so I'll sell almost instantly for far more than I wanted (your error). There seems to be plenty of other people who don't want to waste time at the market, and start making offers based on the last bid given. There are times I have doubted the wisdom of my approach - finding that there are zero buyers and zero sellers for an item I want to sell, the last sale was for 750k but that was 5 days ago, and my plan is to ask 80k. But, amazingly enough, it'll sell for 650k - and presumably the buyer thinks he got to 'keep' 100k.
I use the same logic as a buyer. Knowing what the recipe cost you (nothing - but I'll credit it 25% of the crafting price), what the salvage cost you (again nothing - but I'll credit you 250, 1000, or 5000 - the book value per), and what the crafting cost is (and woe to me if its a thing you've memorized to reduce the crafting cost). To that I will add 10% and place my buy. I feel that's a generous offer, but it won't come anywhere near your 2 million request. Which is why, as a buyer, you'll rarely see me in the finished goods ailse.

Growth and Shrinking are power pools where the effects are generally derived from the amount of the power the player is actively using. They are controlled by Magnitude (or M - initially set to 0). As Growth or Shrinking powers are activated, the value increases or decreases causing changes shown below. Each Growth/Shrink power enhances 1 aspect of size changing but that enhancement affects the total magnitude bonus.
If M is positive you stand 5*M + 5’ tall, if M is negative you stand 3’/M tall.
All characters get:
+(10*M)% running and jumping speed
+(3*M)’ radius for all PBAoE Taunt attacks
+(2*M)’ reach (range bonus to melee-type attacks) to both you and your foes (min 3 ft).
+(4*M)% resistance to lethal, energy, and toxic damage {enhanced by Big if M>1}
+(1*M)pt. of knockback protection
+(1*M)pt. of knockback added to all melee-based attacks {enhanced by Huge if M>1}
-(50*M)’ stealth radius {enhanced by Slight if M<1}
-(4*M)% ranged defense {enhanced by Small if M<1}
If absolutevalue(M) > 1
+(2*M)% resistance to smashing, heat, and cold damage {enhanced by Big if M>2}
-(2*M)% melee defense {enhanced by Small if M<2}
If absolutevalue(M) > 3
+(2*M)% defense debuff on target’s melee defense {enhanced by Colossal if M>3}
-(2*M)% accuracy buff {enhanced by Tiny if M<3}
Growth
Each power is interruptible while it activates (as you grow to a new height). If you try to activate a power but have no room to grow (due to a roof), nothing happens. If you are too big to fit through an opening, you must turn off growth powers until you can.
Big (self & toggle) – (+1 M). Your body mass helps you resist damage from pinpoint attacks. Enhancements: Resistance, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Huge (self & toggle) – (+1 M). Your size gives you a PBAoE taunt attack on foes within a 5’ radius, and gives you additional leverage to knock opponents down. Enhancements: Endurance, Interrupt, Knockback, Taunt, Recharge
Gigantic (self & toggle) – (+1 M). You are so much bigger than your opponents that you do an extra 10*M smashing damage with all your melee attacks. You must be level 14 and already have 1 other Growth power. Enhancement: Damage, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Colossal (self & toggle) – (+1 M). Your fists are now the size of your foes enabling you to ignore their attempts to block your melee attacks. Your size is frightening (2*M’ PBAoE fear radius). You must be level 20 and already have 2 other growth powers. Enhancement: Defense Debuff, Fear, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Shrink
Each power is interruptible while it activates (as you shrink to a new height).
Small (self & toggle) – (-1 M). Your size makes it easy to find cover and dodge attacks. Enhancements: Defense, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Slight (self & toggle) – (-1 M). Your size makes it easy to sneak and hide. Enhancements: Endurance, Interrupt, Range, Recharge
Puny (self & toggle) – (-1 M). You are so small that opponent’s have trouble tracking and targeting you; +(2*M)% to-hit debuff. You must be level 14 and already have 1 other Shrink power. Enhancement: Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge, To-hit Debuff.
Tiny (self & toggle) – (-1 M). Your foes are so much bigger than yourself, it’s ridiculously easy to tag them. You must be level 20 and already have 2 other Shrink powers. Enhancement: Accuracy, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.

There could of course be temp powers (magic elixirs or proton belts, etc) that enable Growth or Shrink. But only characters who have the power(s) have access to the enhancements, so there will probably be a noticeable difference in performance. External boosts could, in theory, grow or shrink a character by any amount, but if Magnitude is a single digit, then 9 levels is the limit, which is down to 4” tall or up to 50’.
Having the power effect force specific heights will hopefully help with the costume issues as there are only specific values to be checked rather than the entire range of possible heights. Since the wire-frames and skins are proportional, I'm not sure I follow the argument about the 4' to 8' range provided by the design sliders. I agree that the resolution of various costume parts could make them look terrible when stretched or shrunk to extremes, but not the notion they won't scale properly. Weapons, I suppose, might not scale (I've never much bothered with weapon-users). I would expect the overall length of a sword to scale to the length of the user's arm to reflect proper size and balance - but that might be too fine a detail for the game to simulate.

I would echo the call for more on Astoria, but not so much the darkening or lightening back stories but a re-working of the zone that does the following:
There is an available PVP strike force for villians to remove some mystic barriers that allows the BP to assault the zone and take over when it is currently 'light'. Heroes are alerted about the Pantheon's attack, and can possibly find a mobile contact that directs them to interfere with the villian SF missions as they occur in game, each of which is removing the defenses that hold the BP back. Should the SF ever wipe out, its over and the remaining heros can defeat the BP outbreak and "put the cork back in the bottle".
When 'dark', the hero contact becomes stationary and begins recruiting a PVP task force to set new mystic barriers in place which would allow the zone to be reclaimed, and the villain contact wanders the zone recruiting villains to interfere with the TF in the same manner. Heroes and villians not in SF's or TF's have opportunities to directly help/hinder these transformations by capturing/controlling key sites of the zone. This would lead to a constant in-game pendulum swing for this zone.
And I think the BP really need to show Crey what the word 'revenant' really means - by bringing all the heroes buried in Moth Cemetary to their aid during the overrun attempt (side thought - where are Atlas and Talos buried?).
I like the notion of African mission tie ins for the BP. I've always liked the name Adamastor - Adam (man of earth) and astor (a fragment of the zone name) which provides a solid connection to the BP here; but is actually a real world mythologoical creature tied to the Cape of Good Hope. So maybe he should return to haunt any African missions and leave the revenant Atlas and Talos as GMs in Astoria.

Global: @KidKourage
Gender: Male
Age: 43
Location: St. Louis, MO
Height: 6'
SG Affiliations: Adverbs(blue) / Adverse(red)
Most Recognizable Server Toon: Courageous Lee/Severe Lee