Evangel

/signed a small but useful enhancement to QoL (especially for those of us who forget what IOs we currently have slotted on the other build )

personally i can see an arguemtn for and against both sides of this debate.

Unlockable weapons and costume parts should have to be earned. its a reward from playing. I feel that they should not be account wide, however, I do also agree with the sentiment that by having them locked, you are restricting costume options at character creation

sooo,

make a version of roman armour available to all characters and have specific variants unlockable:

roman segmented armour = all

roman ornate breastplate = those that complete ITF

and so on for all unlockables (rularuus blade should remain unlockable but a "eye in crosspiece" design should be available as a weapon option for all blades)

woohoo! I'm (cl)EUless!

thanks

Base item options:

new room item: pedestal
new room item: plinth
new decoration: bust (head and shoulder thingy) (small or large)
new decoration: holographic projection (small, medium or large)
new decoration: statue (stone) (small , medium or large)
new decoration: statue (bronze) (small , medium or large)
new decoration: alcove (small)
new decoration: alcove (large)

sold as recipies in the Auction Houses (BM or WW) for inf and no salvage requirements, just inf. once crafted, they can be added to a base. the statues busts etc are taken from a selection of stills (the character's costume slot images) and rendered in whatever material. busts and small statues can be stored in small alcoves (1 per height level per wall block) or medium statues can be displayed in large alcoves (lifesize statues). large statues can only be displayed in a room and reach to full ceiling height. (1 storey)

some way to apply standard emote poses would be good as well. A wall of SG member statues would look pretty cool or a magical crystal displaying a holograph of the hero posing (tech: holograph projected).

would cost a nice packet too!

I posted this before water got sucked out of the atlantic but I'd like to post it again to hear the American (or n00bs as they are known to global historians ) pov.

In AE custom missions a lot of flavour and setup for the missions comes from contact dialogue. Foreshadowing, resolution, suprise findings etc. this is fine for solo missions because the one player gets all the info. However, on a team, only the leader gets this info, the rest just get a synopsis once the leader has accepted the mission and they also dont get the exit text.

I'd like all members of an AE team to get the full text. if they dont want to read it, they just click "ok" and get going but at least the option will be there for those that actually want to follow the story.

as an addendum to that: the same system for tf rewards (dimininshing returns) would have to be in place to stop a team of 8 just running frostfire 8 times and scooping up a massive 49 merits for one , quite short, arc.

I would be of the opinion that Arcs should be examined for example:
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Flux#Flux_the_Outcast

flux the outcast's mission with Frostfire at the end awards 7 merits.

this should be broken down and re-arranged so all team members get rewarded for completion.

Flux the outcast's arc is:
Souvenir: Flux the Outcast Contact: Flux Summary: 3 Door Missions (1 Defeat All), 1 Hunts Elite Boss: Frostfire

so, merits should be set at
1 per door mission
1 for defeat all mission
2 for the EB
1 for mission holder for completion

this works out at:
stop the outcast raid (1 merit)
Rescue the cops (defeat all) ( 2 merit)
Hit the streets (0 merits)
Take out frostfire (1 merit + 2 for eb = 3 merits)

mission holder +1 merit on completion

obviously something would have to be done for ouro missions or people would cherry pick arcs to amass huge amounts of Merits.

as another example (redside):
Breakout at the Zig : no merits listed on cohtitan...
3 door mission , 1 is defeat all:
no EB
steal the transfer list: 1 merit
Break prisoners out of the zig: 1 merit
Defeat the retrieval team: 2 merits (defeat all)
+ 1 for the mission owner
total: 5 merits

etc. that would be fair to all players and still reward the arc holder slightly more. as the merit amounts go up, the leftovers from missions goes as a reward to the owner and this gets larger but its still worthwhile helping out and its worthwhile joining halfway through an arc.

a series of objects (cloud, surf board, skateboard, pogo stick, etc) that you select for the custom animation of the travel power. I'd vote for that!

Fly: cloud, surf board, light disk, energy bubble, light aura,
Jump: rocket boots, springy legs, pogo stick, giant rubber ball, energy ball, space hopper
run: roller skates, skate board, roller blades, energy field / trail , fiery trail
teleport: smoke cloud, light flash, fade out/fade in, beam of light, disperse into sparks

buy the booster pack and you get to add these as part of the animation. most would only require a model stance and direction change lean, the travel object would be static for the most part imho.

so eh, longwinded /signed i 'spose

oops, I posted a new thread before I saw this one.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=187580

synopsis: inf degrades over time...

Influence / infamy is what you get for being recognised, for making a name for yourself for doing great things that the public witness and make the civvies cheer or scream.... its popularity/notoriety as evdenced by the badges associated with inf collection (note: I'm happily ignoring AE because I dont think inf/prestige should be awarded for virtual simulated deeds but thats another argument)

So, what happens when a hero doesnt save anyone for a while? In a world full of other super heroes he'd be quickly forgotten, his deeds accomplishments toppled by another super powered do-gooder. Heroes need to keep active to remain popular... Introducing Inf Degradation! All characters have a ID rating that naturalises to a negative number. This rating is a measure of how quickly your inf dissipates. The longer a hero is inactive the quicker his/her inf is lost.

Or Alternatively: Inf gravitates to a certain level. Everyone remembers the hero that saved the world! Everyone remembers the woman that brought captain mako to his knees! Your famous!

so, as you finish unique achivements (arcs, tf/sf, raids etc) you get an amount of inf added. Additionally your influence level is increased. What is this level? its a number that your inf will naturally gravitate toward. A low level hero that hasnt done anything beyond the tutorial will have an inf level of say , 10. (arbitrary number chosen for illustration only). he is given 100,000 inf by a higher level hero - lets justify it as more than just a player transaction and say its the interest generated in him being associated with the more famous hero...

current inf = 100,000

but people will forget about this once off and start to think abotu the deeds the hero has done... none.. and so ,gradually but at an escalating pace, the hero's inf will start to adjust to its "natural" level of 10. This level can be raised by the hero being active and defeating bad guys, saving people, completing arcs etc. Even street hunting raises a hero's profile.

Mega Hyperman is lvl 50, he's done everyhting. he's earned all the inf related badges been on tv, peple buy hte t-shirt and ask for his autograph. his inf rating is 3,000,000 . He goes up against the hamidon and loses repeatedly and has to spend a ton of inf on inspirations and equipment to help him but ultimately he fails. broken he returns to paragon city with an inf of 20,000. exhausted, he takes a break from crime fighting to recover (the player plays a different alt for a while). People gradually forget his failing and remember his past successes against the council and the work he did clearing the circle out of perez park not to mention his shining example on the mothership raids.... his influence level will slowly creep up until , eventually - after a logn time - it reaches his cap of 3 mil.

A combined apprach: the inf degredation could affect the toons influence/infamy cap instead of his current total. the current total would be dealt with by the natural gravitation appraoch...

Just a thought to realistically remove some of the spare inf floating around and hopefully reduce the current inflationary economy of CoX.

With GR coming out it's looking like Portal corp will be making alternate earths accessible for all heroes...

so, what if we treated the different servers as alternate earth versions of each other?

ramifications:
characters could travel between "earths" - ie: server migration but you get a tag at the end of your name denoting your original "home" Paragon/rogue

ie: if my character Evangel went from defiant to Union I'd have something like Evangel (def) as my name.

Upside, characters can travel between worlds. But, we can already buy a server transfer so why would we be given something for free that we should be paying to use?

well:
1. you'd have the name thing

2. the differences in the strange world are minor but they are there. prolonged stays in an earth that isnt your home means your character starts to suffer a form of dimensional homesickness (perhaps a reduced accuracy, or reduced recovery / regen, reduced resistance/defense that gets worse over time) that can only be cured by returning to home for a period of time (maybe half the time spent abroad?)

3. travel between dimensions so close together is hard because of the proximity of the dimensional barriers. On travelling each enhancement slotted or carried and all salvage or recipies carried have a chance to be destroyed or randomly changed to something of equal or lower power.

4. storage is seperate between dimensions as are SG bases etc - multiple Sg membership? dimension spanning SGs? SG based portals requiring huge power and control supplies to be available?

why bother?
Roleplayers: meet alternate selves! mr Awesome meets Ms Awesome but she's grown up redside....

Transdimensional Events: the coming storm is actually a poly-dimensional Swarm that travels through dimensions harvesting resources. The Multiple paragons/Rogue Isles being so close makes it a rich feeding ground for the swarm. Players would have an option of following the swarm and fighting it as it moves from dimension to dimension

Pan-dimensional PvP: every new technology has someone willing to exploit it, maybe the powers that be could introduce a nemesis type of system where you can track a criminal across dimensions

but mostly, well, why not? It expands the playing area and player experience without having to write a load of new areas

Expansion- dimensions you can travel to and hunt or do arcs (if written)
Paragon city or rogue isles after succumbing to the zombie plague, super zombies a la marvel zombies?

paradise isles: everything is wonderful. Things couldnt be better... or could they?

City of Steel: Council robots rebelled nad have taken over paragon city. the rogue isles are under attack and Lord recluse has found himself as the last defender of mankind

City of night / the night Isles: The redcaps failed in their attempts to force the tuatha and the fir bolg into war and both sides joined forces against their aggravators... and then went on to conquer the lands aroudn them. Now the Tuatha rule and overgrown paragon City while the Fir Bolg control a destroyed Rogue isles

Hamidon unleashed: The devouring Earth succeeded in theirplans and Hamidon now occupies most of Atlas Park. Mitos roam the streets absorbing the energy from anythign they find. Herders move groups of humans from farm to farm where they are grown as livestock... Positron, with his radiation powers has carved out a safe have in Skyway City where his resistance move to try to contain the Hamidon's forces and someday reclaim the city but first he has to find a way to maintain his uneasy alliance with Ghostwidow....

City of Atlantis : the coralax succeeded in waking the leviathan and the rogue isles were swallowed by the oceans. paragon city has taken in the survivors and modified the war walls to hold out the oceans. Enemy coralax patrol outside and villains inside the walls have made bargains with both sides to achieve their own aims...

scratch that, forgot that blasters have it already

not if it used the same conversion ratio as the SG registrar not to mention the fact that the BM/WW take their cut out of the profits as well.

prestige earned could be "pooled" like the tickets in MA that you earn for people rating your missions and then the SG permissions could decide who has the right to collect the pooled prestige. this would help with managing the bits after the decimal point....

It would also allow group members to make more of a contribution. By this i mean, those alts that cant solo very well and/or find it hard to find a team. instead of completing missions and beating up bad guys htey can earn SG prestige by supplyign the heroes (or villains) of the world with devices and resources to help them in their objectives....

not a hugely massive idea but just something I'd like to see:

in a tech base: a huge wallscreen that acts as a connection to the black market or wentworths. From here you can buy or sell items BUT all inf earned is converted into prestige for the base and goes directly into the SG coffers (at a ratio of 1000 to 1 or whatever it is with anything less than .1 of a prestige poitn being discarded).

in a magic base.. ehhhh a large crystal or a bowl with smoke rising from it that displays the data...

as I say its not a huge idea, but it would encourage SG members to sell gear for the benefit of hteir group without having to sell at BM/WW, go back to collect inf from nearest BM/WW , travel to city hall / arachnos tower , talk to the SG registrar and then convert a large chunk of inf to prestige.

One side benefit I would see is items being sold on the market which pull inf out circulation.

Another additional benefit would be allowing SGs to sell IO recipies (ok , they cant be stored and stockpiled but a player could sell them directly from their own inventory).

Group Fly shoul dbe changed so that allies within a radius gain the flight ability for a limited period of time that they can toggle on or off themselves.

the ability only lasts a few seconds (say 10 or 20) and is automatically renewed if you are within range of the initiator.

this way, if you "fall out" of the area of effect you have 10 or 20 seconds to catch up and recharge

if we can get animated tails... how about prehensile tails? option of having the tail included in the melee power sets , I could finally make the Alien warrior for my upcoming MA arc

well, the idea was that the zone (say atlas) would be divided into "neighbourhoods" almost along the same lines as the current colour divisions on the map. that way areas can be ignored and go downhill while more popular areas are easier, criminals tend to steer clear of areas where heros patrol regularly.

additionally, some zones would have "anchor" areas. atlas would have city hall as an anchor, this area, by default, influences the surrounding areas to make them better while some zones have a dark anchor that is the source for the disturbances and is hardest to change for the better. this way, each zone will have a natural tendancy.

fully agree with the graduating threshold by the way. sort of what I had in mind but seems to have been lost somewhere between head and hands

I am really really sorry for the multi-post but this %*£"$ing board wont let me post more than a certain number of characters in a single post for some strange reason. anyone know if this is a setting in the userCP ?

Anyone that joins a team or logs off has their signup requests deleted so leaders dont end up inviting non-existant or already busy people.

TFs and SFs can be arranged and scheduled for a future time with a form of sign up sheet. at the time of the TF the leader checks the signups and sends the invites. Names can only be removed from the list by the person that signed in the first place or by the TF organiser.

TFs that go past their organisation date are removed from the board automatically or can be removed by the organiser.

as long as the team is listed and has less than eight members it will appear on the board when a person searches. If it hits 8 members the listing disappears until the number drops below 8 when it automatically gets re-listed if the team leader still has the option selected.

from a user point of view:

click on terminal, filter your search options by
level,
my Archetype
my origin
mission types

and all available teams that
a: have room
b: want new members
c: will probably say yes when you ask

appears. you apply for a place by clicking a button beside the team details (maybe current members, current mission, current zone), however, the leader is not notified immediately. he will see the requests when he checks the inbox and can send invite or reject at the click of a button.

I would suggest that the terminals work as follows:

Team leader has a small list of options that pop up when he clicks the star.
options:
list on City info? yes no.
if no, then they dont appear on the board when someone searches.
if yes then they have the option of choosing their target audience or of leaving blank to reach everyone.
options: level range , Archetype , mission type , origin

There are channels on servers that can help with teaming but a lot of people dont use them either because they arent members of the forum and dont know or because they dont trust thigns that arent game developer material.

City Info terminals. These should be re-fitted to give access to a team and task schedule bulletin board system. redside should be given shadey men in shadey coats standing on shadey corners who help criminals find likeminded thigns for jobs and cake and stuff.

or have it as a random one of the suggested solutions so missions have yet more variety

really want to respond to this but after 8 attempts I cant be bothered because of a "bad input" error even when there are no non-alphanumeric characters...

speaking of infernal..

Infernal Justice is also recruiting on defiant blueside. check out the forum http://infernal.faelkeep.com/PHPBB3 for info.

overview: a fairly active membership (we usually put out two full teams to any event , sometimes more) of fairly time ravaged (looks pointedly at mereman) players.

all toons are magic origin but there are restrictions on powersets to keep the SG theme, however its not all that restrictive and exceptions can be made.

currently we have First wave: averaging about lvl 45 and the 2nd legion:avg about lvl 24/25

its not a "serious" SG. not competitive. The main goal is to make the game more fun to play.