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I have 50's on both sides of CoX.

I thoroughly approve of more players having access to more options and applaud moving access down to 20.

I do not index my pleasure in my own accomplishments by how hard others have to work to get the same thing, or how exclusive my access to rewards is.

My energy types have a note "If knockback bothers you I will not make a good teammate."

Mind you, I think I use knockback tactically and effectively, but some folks get upset if they see a body flying no matter where it lands.

You left out the often all-important:

MYOB

Sorry, but my experience of Crey in Brickstown is that they are like cockroaches, pretty much everywhere. The Fifth Column there, as elsewhere, show up in the same spawn locations that the Councl did and do.

Council hunts are indeed harder, especially the ones in Boomtown, where you have to be right quick to get the one or two Council targets before the Column does. I like the challenge, myself.

National colors are not forbidden (I have several red white and blues).
Patriotic themes are not forbidden. Mister Free, for example, rw&b theme (electric blaster), has a pulp/early silver age flavor, with strong patriotic elements in the bio.
The iconic Captain America elements seem to be:
- military rank reference
- the shield, of course
- the winged cowl
- the particular pattern of the rw&b on the costume (though flag draped heroes were all over the place in the golden age, especially during WW II).
- the A on the forehead

I see a lot of flag-colored heroes (US, Canadian, one Japanese) in CoH.

I don't think you have much to worry about - a US patriotic theme with the flag-like costume is not going to get genericed for those reasons. If you try to skate too close to Cap, sure, you are in more jeopardy, as he is the iconic patriot hero image. But the costume maker gives you a zillion and three ways to design s flag-draped look without coming close to that one.

Suggestion: random and frequent changes to Task/Strike Forces, without announcements. Like a tabletop GM altering a well-known published adventure for use in his campaign.

Good game design/gamemastering? Or the end of civilization as we know it?

Discuss.

Maintaining multiple code bases is an awful lot of work for what is essentially a museum of how CoX looked X years ago.

Tremendously busy 2XP weekend.
We had a set of fairly rare upper degree initiations at my Lodge this weekend, so setup Friday, final rehearsals early Saturday and the initiations themselves Friday evening. Got home about 0300.

Sunday was an annual brunch with a bunch of old friends, followed by an after party, followed by food coma and an early night of it at home.

Thoughts:
1) I had a number of things to do this weekend that were more important than the game, so wasn't on much.

2) I don't get particularly upset at how other players like to play the game, and do not tolerate much in the way of nosy parkers who want to tell me how I am supposed to play the game, so I don't have much to say about farming, and if I preferred to farm, would not be much interested in what anyone else had to say about it.

I don't index my satisfaction in my accomplishments by what others DON'T have. Certainly not in a game where it costs me nothing is they have something I already have.

I approve of epics at 20. My Khelds and Arachnos characters do too.

There is of course additional context.

In the wake of the Spanish Civil War, "fifth column" became a general term for any subversive organization working in support of the enemy in wartime (hot or cold). It was applied to organizations like the German-American Bund during WW II and those which supported (or were perceived as supporting) the Soviets during the Cold War, especially during periods of high anti-communist feeling like the McCarthy era. 'Fifth columnist" was an accusation/insult that ranked with "com-symp" and "fellow traveller" in those days.

Robert Heinlein turned the term on its head in the novel later published as The Day After Tomorrow, which was originally entitled Sixth Column, referring to covert action by citizens of a conquered America opposing the invaders.

The movie V was based on a graphic novel written by Alan Moore decades before this game came along.

afterthought - oh, THAT "V". As Yogi notes, the original series was made in the 70's (SyFy just ran a marathon of episodes and the original miniseries) and surely, there are some visual and script references to the 1970's "V" series which resonate with our own favorite Nazi punching bags.

V the miniseries and later series was notable for, among other things, being a breakout part of Michael Ironside, setting his typecasting as a hardnosed sonofagun for years to come. Favorite line:

Ironside opens the first of several cans of whupbutt on a human traitor who has been working for the Visitors. Another resistance fighter asks "You gonna kill him?" Ironside responds "As many times as I can."

Hope it never catches on as I would hate to cancel my subscription after all this time.

Direct historical reference, as is V's.

Your title seems misleading. Letting someone play an Epic after reaching 20 will not prevent you (or me, or anyone else with a 50 from playing our existing EATs, or making new ones.

Nor does allowing other gamers easier access to a reward diminish such satisfaction as you may feel (or wish to feel) in the effort that obtained it. You did various things that got you to 50, and got access to Epics. Good for you.

Letting someone else play an Epic on easier terms does not diminish the effort you expended.

Of course, I get that that is not your primary issue. If I am reading you aright, when you show up in your Kheldian or Arachnos character, other people will not recognize your efforts.

I am afraid I do not sympathize. Why index your satisfaction in your accomplishments by the plaudits of others? This is not primarily a performance art. Insofar as the way we play shows that we are good players, to other players we are working with at the time, yes, that has a performance aspect. But in the main the audience we perform for consists of one member - ourselves.

There is no reward I have received in game - not veteran rewards, not my 50's, not the Warshade (who just dinged 50 himself) or the Soldier of Arachnos, or anything else I can think of - that would be less valuable to me if some other gamer could have it too, on easier terms.

Pedantic appeals to the dictionary when dealing with technical jargon strike me as a bot odd, but OK.

I will say I am all in favor of players using any Origin they like, whether they exert themselves to fit it into a backstory or just base it on which vendors they find the most convenient at different stages of play.

I was speaking from an anthropocentric point of view, certainly.

But the argument that "X is natural to that character" can be stretched far enough to cover anything, rather like the "Any weapon is Tech, including pointed sticks."

Inherent is either Mutation or Natural, depending on how you look at it (this assumes the gizmo you get from an ancestor is not a magical artifact or a tech/scientific item).

Supernatural and Magic are synonymous in this universe of discourse. Magical qualities acquired from external sources or study, or inherent power, or even characters who are magical/praeternatural/supernatural by ...er...nature, are all Magic origin. Gods, demons, imps, vampires (classical), boggles, goblins, oni, ghosts, you name it.

I see the usual complaint that giving travel powers earlier would somehow insult or diminish long time players who got that option as a vet reward.

I have been playing 60+ months, have the City Traveller reward (or whatever it's called) and would say...

- time in level is not an accomplishment. It doesn't make me special to have been playing that long.

- even if a real accomplishment WERE involved, making a reward available to someone else does not diminish my accomplishment. I reference my satisfactions by my own acts and performance, not the opinions of others.

- giving someone else an option like early travel does not take my option for early travel away. I have no objection to more players having more options, and indeed, am very much in favor of all players having as many options as possible.

So, dunno if only one vet player expressed an objection that making early travel more widely available would be a slap in the face, a kick in the junk, a poke in the chops, or a stick in the eye, or more did. But for the record, here's one vet who does not share that opinion.

I see teams running at all levels. Since there is no raid-play centered on having high levels with the phattest l3wt clustered together, and especially given the new SSK (supersidekick) mechanic, which enables teaming almost without regard to level, I would say you will not be soloing much unless you want to.