CoyoteShaman

Bill, while I agree with the fact that this idea is a no-go, I have to say I think the OP just meant that the pet would be more like a controller pet in that it would stay close and fight any of that controller's enemies, not that it would be more like a MM pet and actually have pet commands and stuff.

Still, accounting for the need to drop a power that some people already like and would seriously scream about losing and the massive undertaking this would wind up being in addition to the seriously over-powered nature (even if you did nerf the foe, it would really be over powered), there's a big-time no way on it.

I have to admit, however, that the idea of putting it in with a really big end-cost and watching a bunch of people try to control bosses, then having the boss break free near the end of a fight when the whole team was already low on endurance... Yeah, baby. Fun times. I'd pay to watch that.

The concept of the RTS view of bases and using pre-fab panels, rooms or buildings brings to mind the Second Life way of doing things. Digital home-steading, sort of.

Claiming a base could, in theory, give access to a digital, 3D area. Within that area one could use the tiles/blocks/buildings/whatever from the tool-kit. These could include, in essence, the exact kinds of things you're suggesting but also more detail oriented items for those who wanted more precise control. Additional space could be acquired in any number of ways, but prestige is already in place and therefore would be the most likely method.

Seeing that those items which allow interaction with the rest of CoX, such as teleporters, storage bins, invention benches, rez chambers, etc., are the only things that would need to be precisely tracked on the server, there would be little reason for the digital spaces to take up much room on the game servers. Size of the area and location of items could be stored and then passed to each client who enters the base. It would require a lot of effort on the client and probably require a huge investment of time and energy to create (and quite possibly an entirely new client application) but the vast amount of work would take place on the clients. Add in a kind of P2P system for updates/changes and it removes even more from the server load.

Of course, like the OP said, that's a pipe-dream.

Brilliant. I'd actually do a lot more just-for-the-hell-of-it exploring if there was something like this in play.

Actually, I'd probably play a lot more in general. The whole thing with being a lackey to the contacts has gotten so old I haven't been playing much for a while now and would love a good reason to get devoted (read: obsessed) again. The radio/paper missions are no different from the contacts, really. You just get a choice.

The ability to actually go looking for trouble and finding it... Very drool-worthy to me.

Mega-/signed.

Looks like I found my new wallpaper...

I'm not horribly up on all the red-name statements on various things, but something in I17 seems to go together with something I've heard over the years.

It's been said that some red-names indicated that they would never make another EAT require a lvl 50 to unlock, right?

It's been said by at least some players (myself for one) that it would be unfair or at least silly to have some EATs unlock at 50 while others unlock at lower levels.

Now in I17 they're lowering the unlock level of the current EATs to 20.

Does it seem to anyone else like that's a prelude to additional EATs being made? Maybe my 1 + 1 = 2 isn't solid math. Anyone else have thoughts?

For those, like me, who like specific breakdowns (and to give a different way of looking at Bill's breakdown), I present the following:

Here are the different things that are going to be available:

Early Play of Powersets
Access to GR At Relase
Boxed DVD
Box Perks
One Month of Play

I'm adding in "One Month of Play" because one of them gives this free but everyone who makes any of these purchases is assumed to be playing for at least that much longer after said purchase. Since one can not get all of these things with any one purchase, they each have partial availability and therefore can be assigned partial costs, as such:

One Month of Play -- $15 (standard cost)
Boxed DVD -- $0 (just where/how you buy it)
Box Perks -- $10 (I find it impossible to believe they'll price this differently than a booster)
Early Play of Powersets -- $10 (priced out like a booster just because)
Access to GR At Relase -- $15 (Most expensive version - (cost of Early Play + Month of Play)

The different ways of buying them are (note that when I say "value" I'm only talking about price points, not subjective value):

Option One: Digital Pre-purchase
--Early Play of Powersets ($10)
--Access to GR At Relase ($15)
--One Month of Play ($15)
--Total Value: $40
Missing Items: Box Perks, Boxed DVD
Total Expense: $45 ($30 pre-order + $15 month of play)

Option Two: Digital Pre-Purchase + Box Perks
--Early Play of Powersets ($10)
--Access to GR At Relase ($15)
--Box Perks ($10)
--One Month of Play ($15)
--Total Value: $50
Missing Items: Boxed DVD
Total Expense: $55 ($30 pre-order + $15 month of play + $10 Box Perks)

Option Three: Complete Edition (at time of release)
--Access to GR At Release ($15)
--Boxed DVD ($0) (If you want to go to the store)
--Box Perks ($10)
--Month of Play ($15)
--Total Value: $40
Missing Items: Early Play of Powersets, Boxed DVD if you buy digital
Total Expense: $40 (Just the CompEd)

Of course there's also the option of buying both but there's no way in hell I'll be doing that so I'm leaving it off.

The important thing to consider for each person is the subjective value of the Early Play of Powersets and Boxed DVD items. Since I have the Loyalty badge I'll be in beta and have them that way. I also kinda/sorta want the boxed dvd so I can keep the install media handy instead of going through that damn long d/l (which is very likely to be even longer once the Ultra-Mode engine gets put in). Therefore it seems like I'll be waiting and going with option three. It's $5 - $15 cheaper and I get my boxed dvd.

Anything more available on what exactly the "Shadowy Presence invisibility power" is? It sounds extremely intriguing to me and I love getting the special booster innates (I'm not sure why, I just like them) so this one has me drooling.

Ah, answered. Yes, it's the Buy Server Transfer button. They way they've worked this is by giving everyone 6 free transfer tokens, which I assume they'll fill to 6 every 7 days.

Either you have a different game client than I do, or you're saying there is in fact something I'm missing because there is no "Characer Transfer" option anywhere I see. There's a "Buy Server Transfer" button and I'm not doing that unless somebody tells me that's the one we're talking about 'cuz $10 is $10 and it's not worth risking it.

Know what I mean?

Please keep in mind I've never done a character transfer before. Never felt the need to spend $10 to do something so trivial. For free, however, it's gonna get used and used again! Yee-haw, even.

I hope that didn't come off as snide. I certainly mean no disrespect and I appreciate your help. I just don't know if you're looking at what I'm seeing or you are very familiar with this process and just using some kind of shorthand or whatever. Thanks again for any help.

Robin

But my question is how is this acted upon? Do we just buy a server transfer token from the character selection screen and it's free or is there something I missed saying we have to do it using some new and obscure tool?

No really, did I miss something?

Robin

I'll hold some seats open for you guys on Pinn. And I already have the rum and cokes chillin'. Step on up!

And while you're coming over here, I'm likely to move some of my older toons somewhere else. Gotta pick a target server...

Here's my thing: origins are meaningless except as RP. They shouldn't exist as something you select during character creation. Sure, if you're a hero as opposed to a villain it makes a slight difference in your first contact. From there on you can modify your path by choosing different contacts from the available. So why the heck not just do for Heroes what they do for Villains and let you choose your first contact from the available? There's no reason whatsoever for you to have to select an origin.

If you want to get technical, all heroes have a Natural origin. Even my magical construct heroes/villains could be defined as having been created from natural substances (substances which are natural to their environments) and therefore are Natural in origin. If you're going to have to select something during character creation it should have an impact on your character creation/development, not just on their storyline. Anything that's only relevent to the storyline should be played out in the story. When going into AP or GC, you should be given a list of contact options with a description of who they are/what kind of things they'll ask you to do. That starts your path. From there you are given additional options for contacts with storyline descriptions. That continues your path. This further fits with the GR side-switching thing.

Origin should be completely removed from the character creation process. It could potentially be replaced by a selector for what starting weapon you want to have in order to replace the current origin power which is the only real effect origin has on game play. If I want my toon to use a low-powered taser, I shouldn't have to be a tech to do it. Maybe it's a freakin' magic energy field that stuns the target. Maybe those throwing knives are magical and I only have one which keeps teleporting back to me after each time I throw it.

Maybe it's Sleep Sand I'm throwing and not a sleeping dart. There's no reason at all for origin to be selected during character creation. It's useless at best and at worst a hamper to RPing.

That is all.

I would love to have a character builder app for my iPhone. Either something for planning or for actually really building toons. It wouldn't handle the new power customization stuff, but the rest would possible. I don't think it would be worth it without the PC stuff, though. A planner would be great for both initial builds and respecs.

A name checker that worked.

A way to check friends that might be online.

A way to check characters' XP/Inf/AT/Origin/Power Sets.

A better forum reader.

There's a million things that would be great.

As a new iPhone app developer I'd be happy to help out.

Do procs even work in autos? I thought the every-ten-second rule was strictly for toggles and no procs triggered at all in autos.

Agreed that the lack of mez prot in my set would be a huge weakness. Given the size of the +def by the end, however, and the fact that the decoys would be taking the large majority of the hits, I think the set needs some kind of major weakness to make it remotely balanced.

I agree about the stealth/invis power, though. That was tossed in because I couldn't think of anything else to put there. Theoretically the change to some of those powers could go something like this instead:

• 8 -- Swarm: Click power triggers a massive release of small (say ten that look like imps?) mimics for a short while. Other Mimic affecting powers on this list cannot affect these mimics.
• 12 -- Shifter: Toggle power causes you to become slightly out of phase with normal space. While this doesn't make you untouchable, it does make many non-focused attacks bypass you as well as making you highly resistant to confinement powers (+def to AoE only and +prot/res to most mezzes).
• 26 -- Hypnotism: Click power makes you and all your Mimics put off a pulsing light (which wouldn't actually pulse because we don't want to trigger any seizures in players) causing all nearby enemies to go into a deep sleep and thus be unable to defend themselves (AoE Hold of tiny mag and sleep of larger mag).
• 32 -- Phantom Upgrade: Click power turns your Mimics into true a Phantom Army (just as the Ill 'troller power). When used, however, the Mimics/Phantom Army will disappear after 60 seconds (the duration of Phantom Army).

While I have to agree that clones are a big no-no, even without the code problems that would entail, the idea of having a pseudo-PA based melee defense set is majorly intriguing.

I'm not saying it's a great idea, just that at first blush it sounds like it would be tons of fun.

First scrap the idea that the pets are MM-style pets or that you have any real control over them. Assume they're much (!) more like Phantom Army. I'm going to plop out some other power concepts here and hope nobody gets angry with me for thread-jacking. Keep in mind that I'm thinking of this as a tanker set for the levels I'm listing. They'd obviously be different for other ATs.

• 1 -- Displacement: Toggle makes you fuzzy and indistinct so you're harder to hit (small +def to melee, larger +def to ranged, no +def to AoE).
• 1 -- Mimic: Click summons 1 - 3 phantom decoys (like Phantom Army except you only get one at level 1, 2 at level 6 and the third at level 18). These decoys stay close to you, however, never getting more than 10 - 15 feet away (maybe? what do you think?) and all damage they do gets healed back (it's all illusory). These, however, have hit points and can be defeated, although they do have some good defense or resistance, or both maybe.
• 2 -- Mesmerism: Toggle makes your image waver in a hypnotic fashion, disturbing the aim of those attempting to attack you (small +def to ranged, larger +def to melee, no +def to AoE).
• 6 -- Bright Lights: Click power causes your Mimics to fire off a massive burst of bright light, causing all nearby foes to be temporarily blinded (short duration -perc, medium duration -acc).
• 8 -- Shifter: Toggle power causes you to become slightly out of phase with normal space. While this doesn't make you untouchable, it does make many non-focused attacks bypass you (+def to AoE only).
• 12 -- Swarm: Click power triggers a massive release of small (say ten that look like imps?) mimics for a short while.
• 18 -- Protected: Toggle power with high end cost that makes your Mimics work like Bodyguard mode for MMs.
• 26 -- Black Light: Toggle power makes you and your Mimics invisible and makes your Mimics unable to attack while the toggle is active.
• 32 -- Hypnosis: Click power makes you and all your Mimics put off a pulsing light (which wouldn't actually pulse because we don't want to trigger any seizures in players) causing all nearby enemies to go into a deep sleep and thus be unable to defend themselves (AoE Hold of tiny mag and sleep of larger mag).

Please keep in mind I'm not saying this is a good idea, just something I thought sounded interesting and might be worth discussing. Thoughts?