Samuel_Tow

That has knockback? Damn, I should have paid more attention to the power stats, I guess. I already have a Judgement power made, but I can conceivably make a new one. Seems like basic Common Incarnate powers are fairly trivial to make, coming at just the cost of a couple of arcs, so swapping shouldn't be such a big problem. I bring this up because you do make a very strong argument.

Actually, what you make is a very strong sell The way you describe Void is just about exactly how I would imagine a might-based power working, and the animation does lend itself well to this. Yesterday, I picked Ionic because, erm... Thor, really, but I'll be the first to admit it's a major break with how the character would normally fight. Void, coloured something else, can still be interpreted as some kind of magic energy attack (it's Negative Energy, after all) so I can remain in-keeping with the character progression I've planned (i.e. where Xanta is now strong enough to survive powerful magical artefacts) but it does seem slightly more appropriate than shooting lightning at people. Mind you, if Ionic looked like Statesman and Tyrant's version, I wouldn't really have a problem with it, but it looks more like Thunderous Blast. I'll log back into the game to check out my options.

It's not even figurative, the Well has been sidelined in the main storyline, and for good reason. Run the Large Breasts Trial and speak with Papa Smurph - he'll tell you about people ascending to become wells themselves, drawing power equal to, or even greater than that of the Well of the Furies, but without ties to any entity but the person's own nature. These are referred to as Ascendants and constitute essentially self-made gods drawing on nothing more than their own power. So much above Incarnates are these, that even Prometheus - the guy who's actively encouraging us to pursue our Incarnate destiny - is pretty blunt about not allowing us to become Ascendants, going as far as to threaten death and violence against any who would so much as attempt this. He and his "agents" are part of a group of gods whose primary duty appears to be to prevent people from Ascending because that's too much power for any one individual to wield, essentially more than practically anyone else has.

If ever the plan was for the Well of the Furies to be the sole source of our post-50 progression, this has been dropped in light of the OVERWHELMINGLY negative response that storyline has received from players. I've seen the occasional player who praises it, but most either don't give a crap about the story so long as they keep gaining levels or find it insulting that they're being hamstrung into serving an amoral, untrustworthy, controlling entity that has thus far brought no good to any of the people who've associated with it and whom everyone warns us not to trust. It's like if Architect Entertainment were the only post-50 progression and involved selling your genetic material to Crey and Aeon Corp. - people aren't buying it.

The Well of the Furies is a stepping stone, and an unreliable one as Tyrant stands to evidence of. It can give power, but it can also take power away, it will try to control you and people can still defeat you anyway. Mot has the right idea - consume enough raw energy to become a veritable Well himself, but without the need to have agents to use his power or worshippers to worship him. Essentially, this is ultimate, personal power, and that's where the storyline seems to be leading us, confounding Ramiel, Prometheus, Silos and possibly even the Letter Writer.

With all of that said, "you get your power from the well" is no longer a valid argument, when it's pretty clear we're fighting for a future where we're not.

*edit*
Per chance my harsh tone may not show it, I actually agree with you, Leo

I'm not sure what you're referring to. If you're just against the concept of the Well, then I agree, though this seems to be slowly phased away in favour of Ascension. The powers ARE a bit... Magic-looking so low-key, physical characters are harder to sell, but this seems less related to story and more game design. I do feel it's fixable, though, by letting us turn off the visuals of non-Judgement Incarnate powers and giving us more physical-looking versions of the others.

If, on the other hand, it comes off as me arguing against the concept of having non-Incarnate characters wielding Incarnate powers, I'm actually completely the other way around. I highly dislike the "Well" angle and Ascension seems to account for having powers that look like they might be our own. I do have a problem with squinting and pretending powers are something different than they really are, but that's purely restricted to my own characters, in that I'll always try to find an alternative that doesn't have me redefine powers basic concepts. But as far as other people go? I take the "your dime, your time" concept. If you made the character, then I have no place to tell you how you should write for it.

I don't know. It's more the fact that the arc's storytelling is incredibly predictable to anyone who's even the slightest genre-savvy. The MOMENT Alexis is brought up and put in a "peace conference" in enemy territory, that's a blaring red siren in my head telling me "Things will go bad and she will get kidnapped!" Because I've seen this plot a million times before, and not just in this game. It's a basic cliché of writing that if you make a point of explaining how a character is put in a dangerous situation but is still well-guarded, then that guard will fail and the character will die or be kidnapped.

And even for those not genre-savvy among us, after the first mission in SSA1.4, it should become bludgeoningly obvious that any time something happens off-screen while we're not there, it will be a miserable failure and people will die because of it. Because it happens every time we're told to leave the scene and go do something important - people get kidnapped/killed/mindridden off-screen. It comes off like the writer REALLY wanting to keep throwing shocking surprises at the player, blissfully unaware that after the first couple or so we'll wise up and expect them. And when you're expecting a plot twist, not having one is pretty much the biggest plot twist you can introduce, but no. This is Soul Reaver all over again - twist after twist after twist, and all of them depressing, to the point where they become the status quo. I'm left expecting everything to go to **** behind my back because apparently God doesn't want me to succeed. And once I resign myself to this mindset and my expectations are proven true time and again, the story gets damn depressing right quick.

SSA2.1 was, to me, the most surprising of all because a situation was introduced where characters might die... AND THEY DIDN'T! It was played pretty much straight in that I go there, find them beat up and save them. Wow... A simple, straightforward story surprised me! And the other rescue was even more impressive, in the sense that it was a twist, but not the damn depressing one I'd grown to expect.

What I'm saying is you don't have to have played the game for eight years to realise that the SSA1 story is repeating itself.

I actually managed to trap Nuclear Toast for about two hours yesterday, and we had a long discussion on just this subject - should characters "evolve" when they reach the Incarnate level, or should I keep trying to stick them to their original abilities but just stronger. I don't really have a clear answer for you in terms of a general rule of thumb, but I decided "evolve" Xanta just the same because we came up with a pretty cool way to do that. Well, a pretty basic way - MAGIC! - but with a cool spin on it that's still based around the character's physical prowess as opposed to spellcasting ability.

As I said before, Xanta has a suit of magical armour, and so I postulated that the Incarnate level of magic is something that's so physically taxing it would outright KILL most people if they tried to use it. This is partially why Ionic held such appeal to me - not everyone can call and then redirect lightning yet live to tell the tale. Basically, magic this powerful needs a very sturdy individual to survive using it, hence why it's magic, but it doesn't take away from Xanta's core strength, which is... Well, strength. Her ability is still based on how strong and tough she is, it's just now partially expressed through being able to survive hitting herself with the same magical attacks she's hitting her enemies and basically shrug it off.

And this is where we differ. I'd sooner delete a character than break concept. I'll always use whatever wiggle room there is, but as soon as I come up against hard limitations that define why I made the character in the first place, I can compromise no longer. In the case of Xanta, I'm limited to a relatively slow, incredibly physically tough and strong fighter. So long as I don't violate or supplant that, it's OK.

My apologies, I didn't mean to badmouth Cryonic, especially when it fits the concept. If ever an AT I play gets access to two ice sets, then you can bet I'll be taking the Cryonic Judgement, myself. All I meant to say is that it seems lower-key than powers which already exist in powersets, like Snow Storm or Blizzard. When you're talking godlike powers, I'd have expected something bigger than a spray of icicles, so it's really not something I'd pick unless ice as a theme were part of my concept - which it's not. I really don't think there are any BAD Judgement powers, but there are ones with greater visual appeal than others. Pyronic is one of those.

Jonah, the Mystic Smith doesn't really have a backstory that I've given him. I originally only intended him as a sort of father figure and used him to provide an excuse for why Xanta's fighting with a sword as opposed to a gun or her bare hands. That's back before she even wore medieval armour, since her original gear was more of a professional wrestler's kit, and she was a Broadsword Scrapper. I always treated the armour and the sword as more like costume elements than crucial character concept plot points... Until about a week ago when a story I was telling sort of went that way. I had one of my Mary Sue characters try to act tough and deliver a super-strength punch to Xanta, which she blocked with her sword. Instead of shattering like it should have, the sword glowed with magic runes as I was reminded of a scene from Samurai Jack, of all places. It's from the bridge episode where Jack attacks the Scottsman's sword and remarks about how his technique should have shattered his sword. "Magic runes, laddie!"

Essentially, that's a roundabout way of saying you make a very good point. As I said above, I think I'm ready to advance Xanta's story a bit and make magic a greater part of her toolkit, and in a way that still relies on strength of body first and foremost. The Tsoo actually give me a good idea with their "forbidden techniques." OK, theirs are forbidden because they're evil and not very nice, but suppose Jonah, the Mystic Smith knew a few of his own. Supposedly, he learned from from an ancient tome that Xanta brought up from a Circle of Thorns library, meant to enchant the battle gear of the gods. They're forbidden because the enchanted armour becomes deadly to any mortal who tries to wear it just because it takes such a tremendous toll on the user's constitution. It's HORRIBLY heavy, it drains your essence and it channels its energy directly through your skin, so if you're just Average Joe and you put this on, it'll kill you.

Well, here's the deal - Xanta's been getting stronger. A LOT stronger. She's tangled with Recluse, she hit Rula-Wade with a sword until his head broke open and he exploded, she hacked her way back out into the real world through Mot's insides with nothing but a blade and her own two hands, she's trod in lava, been shot enough times to qualify as a regular armed force and she only seems to grow tougher and stronger and more determined. Maybe, just maybe, she's finally strong enough to use armour imbued with those forbidden techniques. Maybe she's strong enough to handle Zeus' Lightning and Tielekku's Barrier and Rularuu's apparitions, just as a form of comparison. You see, what "unlocks" this power isn't so much something that creates the technique, so much as her being tough enough to use it without killing herself, essentially.

Hmm... Let's see... Think of it as Muad'dib drinking from the Water of Life that would kill pretty much anyone who wasn't Kyle MacLachlan.

I made her in... Gosh, 2005? 2006? So, yeah, a while before Incarnates. This was one of the big things I discussed with NT last night - should I make the step of adapting characters into their Incarnate forms by altering their concepts (within reason), or should I keep trying to represent concept through adapting Incarnate powers? For Xanta, this proved to be doable via some degree of spin, but in general, it means both a core rethinking of essentially all my concepts AND a much different mentality when creating new ones. The more I have to worry about when making a new character, the less likely I am to find cool concepts since making them becomes more work, and that's a problem.

But, you know what? I've been writing character concepts as a serious past time for eight years now. I like to think I've gotten pretty good at it by this point. In a way, NOT planning for Incarnates (in case I die of old age before the character gets there) and then figuring it out on the fly when the time comes is the kind of challenge I enjoy, speaking from a writer's perspective. Sure, it meant a couple of days of pain and anger trying to figure out what to do with Xanta, but the solution you guys and Nuclear Toast and I came up with pleases me greatly. In the end, I learned a couple of things - the less I have to bend the game to fit my concept the more better, and when it comes to Incarnates, it's next to impossible to keep a character using ONLY physical powers. Sooner or later I'll start getting pets and shields, after all. It's not completely impossible, mind you, but it comes close.

So, when the time come to figure out how to progress a character to make them into an Incarnate without violating the character's core identifying characteristics, I'm confident I can figure it out on the spot.

You're both right, and you point out something that I really should have given more thought to - colour-tinting Incarnate abilities to make them look like something they're not. Void coloured yellow does kind of look like Spring Attack and I guess I could have used it as your typical "hulking out" move where a strong character under a dogpile of enemies will get up and toss them all away at once. Were I choosing yesterday, I would very likely have gone this route and just pretended it wasn't dealing negative energy damage. However, since then, I've decided to expand the concept and I'm now pretty sold on introducing powers to Xanta which are decidedly magical in nature, so I'm less concerned about making Incarnate powers fit.

I'll probably do that for my other characters who get to that point, though, if they need to stick to a more physical look. Hell, I might even do that to Xanta at some point, but the conceptual gain to be had from "magic" is too great to resist, I think. I might even be convinced to swap her Epic into something more magicky... If I didn't absolutely NEED Energy Mastery to offset Titan Weapon's energy cost Or had the slots for it.

By FAR my favourite skill from Diablo 3's Barbarian is the "Charge" attack, which essentially has my big chunky overly-armoured Barbarian lady take off running in a straight line, running THROUGH enemies and objects in the way. I got the Grave Buster achievement from charging through a graveyard full of zombies and trampling around a dozen tombstones along the way. In fact, one of the skill's runes is actually called "Trample."

I tell ya, if I can have this skill in City of Heroes, I will drop what I'm doing, abandon my Judgement and start making that IMMEDIATELY, because it's probably the coolest thing I can think of for a big character to do That's essentially what the Juggernaut Headcrush is from Marvel vs. Capcom and the like. The Juggernaut rushes forward, head down, and basically bowls and tramples his enemies. Because he's unstoppable It's sort of like what Vinnie Jones did in the third X-Men movie while running through wall after wall. Yeah, I want an attack that's like that Maybe a very slow teleportation which animates our character model running forward between current location to teleport location, attacking enemies in a cone centred on us, THEN teleporting us with a two-second delay?

I don't know, I'd just like to have that

Not from a storyline perspective. As far as the story tells me, it's simply a case of gaining "more power" without specifically insisting what shape that power has to take, or that it has to be contrary to what my preexisting powers are. You can make the same argument about Epic pools, that they exist to break the mould of character classes, but I can still pick one that matches my primary and secondary selection about as often as I can pick one that doesn't.

And even if we assumed I need to "expand" the character, I'm still not going to expand Xanta into an entirely different character that's unlike what I originally liked enough to create her. I don't want her to be fast, so if I have to tweak the character concept, I will tweak it so that she's still slow.

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Sideways from Vorpal, I've actually taken a liking to Ionic rather a lot. Unlike Fire, it's something that can be "focused" and "channelled" (I know you can argue that so can fire, but that's less obvious). Unlike Void, it's not a complex-looking intricate type of magic. It's essentially just catching and redirecting a lightning bolt. This has the added benefit that I can claim it takes a very tough character to do this and not get shocked or burned.

As I said, if we accept that there's going to be spin no matter what I choose, this seems to be about the most benevolent kind that spins towards the character's core strengths.

You're both right in that Vorpal works well for a Troll, but... God I wish I could show you the piece of artwork I'm looking at, but not yet... Basically, Xanta is very big and actually very slow. She's your typical ocean liner type tank who walks in the door, walks all over her enemies, walks up to the boss and then steps on his face. Think the Juggernaut with a sword big enough to call his own. Having her perform these sudden bursts of speed when her response to attacks is almost always to just take it on the chin is not in-character.

Bizarrely enough, I'd sooner write magic into the character and explain that than try to make Xanta fast. With magic, I can fudge it and spin it, but I'd still have the slow, immovable brick I wanted to make. With speed... That's just a different character.

The Well of the Furies enhances one's basic origin, thus a technology Incarnate is entirely possible. For as much as I hate the Origin of Powers storyline, the Well of the Furies is based on it, and it does allow for Incarnates of all origins. The Well of the Furies is not magical, it is a power boost. Besides, quite a few gods of myth lack magic powers entirely or at least mostly, with many Greek gods being essentially really big, really strong humans.

Those videos are old and don't include Vorpal. There IS a video of Vorpal, but it's badly shot and barely shows what the power looks like. And it's low quality besides.

That makes it a lot simpler, then. I can sink another, say, three Threads to unlock the slot and decide then. Probably best to do that before my next reward table.

Ha! If this game had a power that allowed me to charge through my enemies and knock them down, I would get it in a hertbeat In the meantime, though, I hope we eventually get a Mega Ground Punch or a Super Foot Stomp or some kind of Hyper Leap Attack or Extra Shield Charge or such. Even if it hides my weapon - which it will - I'd still take it, use it and love it. Because right now, the balance between might and magic is not very good.

I actually looked into this one, myself, but... I can't find any footage of what it looks like. Maybe it'd work, maybe it won't. I don't know because I don't know what it looks like. Or can I see it in the costume editor if I unlock the slot?

Either way, if it does look like extreme speed, then it'll have to be a VERY tough sell for Xanta, because she's pretty much the opposite of fast. She's a very big, very chunky woman with a Titan Sword. Fast she isn't. I honestly wish we had just a Mega Ground punch, but... Eh, one can always dream.

Highly unlikely. It's just too weird for someone who's solely concerned about physical strength and durability. Why I say "weird" is it sounds like a trick, and of all of my characters, Xanta is pretty much the least likely to use tricks. She's a straightforward kind of gal.

*edit*
And I DO NOT GET the Dark Astoria spawning rules. At x1 difficulty, special boss spawns give me a boss and a minion, exactly like at x1. At x2, I get a boss, two lieutenants and four minions, which is something like x3 or x4, maybe even x5. Why the big jump and why can I not have something in-between?

You can't believe how much I appreciate this precise point. The downbeat, damn depressing tone of SSA1 is easily one of its worst qualities, partly because it reinforces the feeling that everything I do ultimately fails, and partly because it has absolutely no levity anywhere in it. I find that a good story, even a dramatic one, needs to strike a good balance between light and heavy theme, both so that the heavy teams can be appreciated when they show up and so I can actually breathe in-between the heavy dramatic moments.

I must admit that I'm very soured on Penny Yin because of how she's being handled, and her being bratty about "Oh, it's no big deal I mind-controlled my team-mates, it's all in good fun!" attitude is reprehensible... But at the same time, her goofiness and her arguments with the other Phalanx members do serve to defuse the tension of the story here and there, and it keeps a nice balance all around. As I said - SSA2.1 is no less heavy and threatening than anything in SSA1, but it's handled such that we can feel the danger without necessarily being depressed by it.

It's more from Desdemona forward, really. Desdemona came in the same Issue as Tillman, who wears a trench coat over a bathing suit, and Belladonna, who despite being in military gear still wears spike stilettos. For as much as I like their design, Night Star and IVy aren't exactly helping. Then we got Diabolique who went from wearing a pants, a high-neck shirt and a trenchcoat, into a monstrosity that wears a metal bikini and a campfire on her head. In the meantime, we got the Barbarian set which gave us tough burly Barbarian men and "Santa's little helper" Barbarian women in pointed-toe thigh-high high-heel boots, short skirts and low-cut tops with a fur trim and a battle thong. Then we got the Steampunk set that let men have cool coats and armour while women got Victorian corsets and thigh-high high-heel boots. Then we got the Gunslinger set, which let men look like badass gunslingers, while women got showgirl attire such as thigh-high high-heel boots and low-cut corset tops. Then we got Penny looking like that and it was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

Again I reiterate - it's not a single one of these items I listed that's "the problem." They are all symptoms of the underlying problem, and they come together to create what is becoming a systemic complaint. JUST Desdemona would not have been a problem. JUST the Gunslinger set would have gone under the radar. JUST Penny Yin would really barely have raised an eyebrow. But it's all of these things together, and more, that start to become very old very fast. It feels like every female character that we've gotten since I18, either new or revamped, has been "like that."

It's time to do something else, guys. You don't have to do it all at once. Baby steps is enough. I'll be happy just to see a major female character wearing flat-soled shoes. That would be a nice start, and we can diversify from there.

Yes, it does. That's the whole point - they're the people no-one ever suspects. They look like soldiers, they act like soldiers, yet they're able to take down the biggest of the supers. The game gains nothing at all by removing what is essentially the only faction that's like that and giving them power armour. Just because they're old doesn't mean they're ugly. They aren't even all that low-res from the distances I typically see them at. To me, having them be overtly futuristic takes away from their core concept of being a contemporary conspiracy. The last thing we want is for Malta to go the way of Crey where they stop being clandestine and just turn into yet another paramilitary organisation with super technology. These guys are commandos first and foremost, and they ought to look the part.

There is more than enough room for the Grey Fox super soldier in other enemy groups. Again, look at Crey. Hell, look at Arachnos. Even the larger Council troops pretty much look weird and techy. Malta have a distinct look, and I'd really, REALLY hate to have the same thing happen to them as happened with the Circle of Thorns. Newer is not necessarily better.

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I do agree that it makes no sense for them to camp out in the streets with their giant robots. It would make sense for people's first encounter with these guys to be when Indigo sends them on a mission and... Wait, who's that? You know, as opposed to just being one more faction you see all over the place before you even get a story to do with them. At least the Knives don't spawn anywhere. Unlike practically any other organisation, Malta's thing is they don't want people to know that Malta even exists. Sure, the Council has infiltrator agents out in the open, in much the same way as the US has B2 bombers on the news, but you don't have a chase plane following them out on a mission. People know the Council exists and that they have spec ops teams, they just don't know where these teams might strike. For Malta, no-one (including Roy Cooling) is supposed to know they exist.

Hey, that could even come off as a challenge. So you want to prove that writing the Statesman out of the game wasn't a petty jab at Jack Emmert? OK, then put huge statue of him behind Positron

Wherever they put them, though, both the Statesman and Sister Psyche deserve commemorative statues of their own. They were important characters in the city and pre-date all our own. There needs to be some obvious reminder that they existed.

That's not necessary. A single anchor point can easily hold multiple costume items and the costume creator would not complain. A bug in weapon selection used to create this quite regularly, such as with Thessalia's Bowtana. Just stick horn and glasses on the same slot, but pick what's there from two different menus.

Of course, that still means UI work, and the team apparently has no UI artist, so...

She has pointed-toe very high heel shoes. They may not be particularly stilettos, but again - we have a non-flying character... At least for the most part... Walking around in high heels. I'll be the first to admit that Desdemona's needle stiletto platforms are ten times worse, but come on, now. When was the last time this game showed us a female character who wore sensible shoes? The Iron Widow? Doc Delilah? When was that?

True, but Superman and Batman didn't also have thigh-high heels painted over their legs. I think you need an example to see what I mean. Here's an artist's rendition of Layer from MegaMan X8. I should point out that Layer is a robot with no organic parts that I'm aware of, and just happens to have been painted to look like she's wearing panties and a high-riding top. And no, this depiction is not too far off from what she's like in the game. Of course, in X8, she's one of three "female" robots, the other two being a loli one and a "responsible childhood friend" one, so Layer just fills a niche. Yes, she's extreme and gratuitous, but it's pretty much just her.

When I look at Penny, I see pointed-toe thigh-high high-heel boots, panties, a bare midriff, then a top that's painted to look like a corset.

My problem is that Penny Yin is the "reserved" one of the lot, and she really isn't, especially when she's being drawn with her spine contorted, her hips swayed and her ankles buckled. If I bent my ankle like she is bending hers, I'd be walking in a cast for a few months thereafter.

My problem, as it were, isn't Penny Yin specifically, and it's all too underhanded to dismiss the argument just because you don't see her as being provocative. She isn't the problem, she's simply the catalyst to a much older, much more pronounced problem. It's a problem that started around Going Rogue when Destdemona and Tillman started running around in their underwear, and it snowballed from there. We didn't say much at the time because these sorts of problems take time to fully form in people's minds, and they take repeated missteps to solidify the attitude behind the problem, which is what I and others are against. You can't just pick the latest, lest problematic example and proclaim that the problem is that that women are sexual at all. That was never the point.

But let's talk about that - should women be sexual in their attire. Yes, sometimes. For some characters, it makes sense. For some, it does not, but think back and tell me - when was the last time we had a female character that WASN'T sexual? I'll make it easier - when was the last time we had a female character who wasn't overtly and intentionally sexual? When was the last time we had variety? OK, Tunnel Rat, maybe, I'll give you that much, but she's hardly a "main" character. And even so, guess what? Tunnel Rat ended up being extremely popular, back when people still played Prateroian content. More so than Vetrano, despite her "animated" hair and more popular than Tillman despite that cutscene which give us both an "upskirt" and a boob shot of her. And couldn't be skipped for the longest time.

The problem is not any one single character, so picking any one single character apart accomplished nothing. This is a systemic problem of theme and approach that will only be cured by counter-example, and right now, we have barely any.

Like these, yes. Her breasts don't look as big in those pics as they did in-game, but the rest of the outfit is pretty much as I described it, minus one garter belt that's apparently a Carnival of Light thing... Or a Vanessa DeVore thing, alternately. It's funny how Desdemona looks more like a dominatrix than the ACTUAL Dominatrix, what with her shiny black leather needle stilettos (I guess magic gives you powerful ankles), the ridiculously constricting hot pants that leave NOTHING to the imagination and the cleavage-exposing strapless dress top. About the only thing the game does which isn't in any of her official artwork is it pushes her breasts up so they form that distinct fold line between them and her actual chest, and possibly makes them bigger. It's possible they just look bigger because of how they're shaded.

As I said, JUST Desdemona on her own is not a problem, especially since she kind of stood to contrast a lot of the female characters active at the time. Trouble is, it's not JUST Desdemona, it's Desdemona and essentially every female character to come since, Penny is only SLIGHTLY less gratuitous with her neck cover, but she still has a belly window, panties painted over her pants, pointed stilettos and her artwork shows her curving her spine and swaying her hips and twisting her ankles. It's not as gratuitous, but only just.

Erm... So? What business do you have in Croatoa, for instance? Nothing that takes place there has any impact on Paragon City. It's just some God-forsaken town in the same state. Who gives a crap about that? Erm... We do, because we're heroes (since villains can't even get to Croatoa). We don't go to Croatoa because it's somehow relevant to saving Paragon City. We go there because the mayor asked for help, we go there because there are innocent people being threatened, and we go there because it's the right thing to do.

So far as I'm concerned, tying First Ward and Night Ward to the Praetorian War would have been a mistake, since I'm ******* SICK of the Praetorian War and I like to think there's more to that particular storyline and that particular side than Marcus Cole. When it comes to heroes, you don't need a self-serving agenda in order to go to another dimension and help out. Run a few Portal Corp missions and you'll find yourself going to, say, a dimension ruled over by the Banished Pantheon to get people out of there. Why? How does that benefit the war against Cole or the fight in Dark Astoria? It doesn't, it's just the right thing to do. Then there's the dimension that Nemesis Rex took over, where we go to help the freedom fighters there take out a few Nemesis munitions depots. Why? How does that help us against the Coming Storm or the Rikti War? It doesn't, but it's what heroes do.

Hell, for the last 8 years, we've had precisely ZERO reason to go to the Shadow Shard other than because it's there. We don't know what this dimension is all about, we don't know what we'll find there, we don't know why Paragon City citizens live there... Sure, in recent years Rularuu has been big news, but back in 2004? "Hey, it's a new dimension, let's go explore it!" was the only reason we were given to care.

A hero doesn't need a reason to go to another dimension and help people. If you can't find a reason for your heroes to go there, then don't. No-one will hold it against them. But please don't act like your heroes are nothing more than soldiers in a war and anything that doesn't help in that war is not worth doing.

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When it comes to villains... Yeah, this here is a problem. Unlike heroes, villains DO need a reason to go places and do things. Heroes can do things "because it's right" but villains can't really afford to do things "because it's evil" if they want to be taken seriously. Villains are not the opposite of heroes, they're just people who put themselves before others, thus they need some sort of benefit in order to go to First Ward and Night Ward and help out. Sadly, the story really doesn't give a good enough motivation.

In fact, the Night Ward story really comes off like a hero arc that villains are just allowed to take part in, and occasionally be jerks about it. At the very worst, villains can help support Tyrant, which as motivations go is just another variant of "go there, do that, get paid." That's the prime reason I've had quite enough of co-op zones and feel very strongly that villains need at least one new zone all to themselves that heroes can't go to, just so that the stories in it can be purely tailored for the villain side of things. Because right now, co-op storylines are little more than hero storylines where the hero is allowed to also be a jerk, that villains can take part in.

Enough of the greater good already!

When wings proper were first introduced, they didn't flap when chracters jumped, and we fight tooth and nail to get them to do so, such that the wings were usable for more characters than those who had Fly. I feel the same is true for the Mecha Armour wings. Yes, they are technically "wings," but wings can be used for more than flight. They can also be used for gliding, as seen in both birds and enginless glider aircraft. If need be, go the same route as Celestial Wings and add a version that opens when jumping and a separate one that only opens when flying.

For my own use, I'd like to create a fairly giant robot who's too heavy to fly, but is able to super-jump thanks to giant glider wings.

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Similarly, could we please make Jet Boots and the various Jet Packs fire up when jumping so we can simulate jump jets? Pretty please? I'd be OK if that came as a separate costume bit option.

When I still played Blaster, I had one of each primary well into their 30s... Except Sonic Attack. I never, not for a moment, considered making one, and this is the exact reason why. Mouth-based powers simply don't work for me unless you're talking about biting, and even then it's iffy. Even when Sonic Blast got a custom power animations to shoot from the hands, some attacks still remained mouth-based, and it never really worked for me. What I wanted to do was something akin to Spider-Man villain the Shocker, but that was never meant to be.

When you're talking about power styles and animations, I believe you're REALLY going to have to look into alternate custom animations. Remember that, developers? Power customization? You said you were going to expand it? Yeah, it hasn't gone anywhere, it still exists. And it can save you a lot of work making a zillion new sets if you just proliferate some animations.

I don't have a problem with a mouth-based set so long as it comes with non-mouth-based alternate animations. As with most Blast sets, exactly what the animation is doesn't matter. At the end of the day, it comes down to pointing a hand or two or waving a hand or two. What matters is what effect you project with your finger-pointing and hand-waving. The "soul" of the set, thus, is in the effects, which can remain consistent between mouth and hands. Hell, you can even recycle old Blast set animations and not many people would care. There's no reason to have it done either-or when you can do both.

Speaking on the subject, I agree that it's very easy to do wrong, and I'd say both Plant Control and Beast Mastery are clear examples of why, as well as clear examples of misunderstanding what a set constitutes. Plant Control fails on the "throwing seeds" part because it pretty much eliminates any kind of natural magic type plant controller. For instance, The Pirates of Dark Water series had a character named Tula, who was an "ecomancer." Essentially, her powers revolved around magically making plants grow out of the ground and impede her enemies, basically by waving her hands and making green light. No seeds involved. For Beast Mastery, despite getting a series of embarrassingly absurd arguments about "speaking with animals in their own language," having the Mastermind growl and howl simply eliminates any type of scientist or wizard who gained control of animals via indirect means, as well as circus animal wranglers, leaving only room for the literal Beastmaster of the movie by the same name. That's as narrow as narrow gets, and it entirely eliminates characters like Ben 10's Dr. Animo - a scienitst who mutates and controls animals via a sciency techy helmet with antennae on it.

It's easy to get wrong, so a set that's both generic enough to cover most themes AND customizable enough to cover the themes that simply don't fit into any one specific look is the way to go.

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That said, you're highly unlikely to see a set that's entirely or primarily toxic damage for the simple fact that Paragon Studios had to add the damage type post-launch. Once upon a time, the Vahzilok did untyped damage because they were intended to be especially hard, but people complained that it was completely unresistable for Tankers whereas defence-based SR Scrappers have a much easier time. For a while, they started dealing Fire damage because... Acid burns? Then the studio up and added a new damage type - toxic... But not entirely. They added the damage type and they added resistance against it, but never added defence against the type. Right now, SR has decent protection against Toxic same way as they do against Psi, but unlike Psi, NO-ONE has defence against toxic damage because it doesn't exist. I'm more than convinced that for this reason alone, seeing a toxic damage set is highly unlikely.

But, hey, if it happens, I won't really complain. I don't exactly PvP, so what do I care?