Mercykiller

All very good points.

One thing I have been thinking of ... do you get any kind of architect bucks (forget what they're called) for playing your own mission? I know Creators are supposed to get some kind of reward for people playing their mission, was just wondering if they're excluded from that if they play it themselves normally.

I'm tempted to write arcs specific to my characters, i.e. replicate the "Nemesis" system of CO effectively. But I'm hesitant, as it just seems like quite a bit of work for encounters with my Nemesis that, by definition, I have already scripted out and know the endings too

Perhaps I should get together with some friends and write "their" villainous groups/Nemesis and vice versa ... but again, seems like more organization than I normally posess for group activities

Thanks for the honest answers, folks. At this point I've got mixed feelings about the AE. New stuff is great, but I also like to enjoy character concepts/powersets when I play them, and that doesn't often happen until they mature post-DOs. Perhaps the answer is to avoid playing AE until I don't care about the xp as much (I've got several 50s but there's no magic in the old for me heh), but that seems counter-intuitive to what was intended.

As for creating, I'll see, but I've never been a huge fan of "hey guys check my story out please." I get enough of that in real life I'll be honest: I'm disappointed with the current state of affairs regarding customization. From what little I've seen it seems there are already measures in place to prevent the worst excesses, and tacking on the experience penalty (as well as no end-of-mish xp, even on Dev-approved stuff) dissuades people from playing custom content ... which I thought was the whole point of AE.

Perhaps I've just seen one Skull too many; ah well, such is life.

When I first resubbed (a couple of days ago) it was with the goal of playing against and making completely fresh enemies, fun maps, interesting storylines, etc. on MA. To prep myself I started playing the higher rated stuff ... and found myself disappointed. Where were the custom critters? The storylines were there of course, but it was woven around enemy groups I'd gotten bored with a long time ago. If I was really lucky the end boss guy was something original, and that was about it. Oddly, I also got the sense that I wasn't leveling as fast as I was used to in the old days of running around King's Row, which coincided with finally hitting some 'custom groups' content.

Then I read the FAQ today about how custom critters only get 75% of xp unless they're set to "hard" and it all made sense. So if you want to actually see the results of other people's creativity you pay for it by leveling slower ... that's not a good thing. Yes, I know, the people making farm maps caused this. It's just very disappointing as a person that is actually enamored with the stated goal of the Mission Architect.

Hot on the heels of that I realized that people kept talking about how hard it was to get people to actually play their missions, and it took the wind out of my sails. So if you combine the reduced xp/drops on the custom critters with the fact that you can work hours upon hours on something that no one ever sees ...

Needless to say, I'm a tad disheartened about using the system as a Creator now. The prospect of spending hours upon hours writing and costuming the entire crew (and I will ... the problem is I like to actually try to make things as epic as I can), and then begging people to play it for months doesn't exactly strike me as "awesome." Is there something I'm missing here? I was really looking forward to seeing and creating new content, but right now it just seems that if you want anything "new" you're penalized for it.

Guess that bit just doesn't sit well with me I'm hoping that I'm way off on something ...

Ah, now THAT's a compromise I like. While I'm still not a fan of paid character slots I can see the point of it, and granting us two freebies and one for each vet year is more than I literally could have asked for. Knowing me, I'll still eventually buy some, just because I'm alt-crazy on one server, but big kudos for the decision to give out some freebies for us

Yeah but the assault bot and others actually use their powers.

Without a specific petcom for the Bruiser to go to a location next to his target he likes to stay in the back and rely on the sub-par hurl boulder every 10 seconds; he melees willingly about 5% of the time, where he actually does damage.

So yes, without micromanging his location every fight, he does subpar damage.

Scanned back a few pages and didn't see this mentioned, but the Bruiser on my MM despises close combat. He'll hapopily sit back and hurl every 10 seconds or so, without ever closing to melee range and doing real damage. It's like the reverse of the kamikaze bot syndrome! The one pet I want in close combat refuses to go there without GoTo.

Please make the Bruiser less of a chicken and change his AI so he actually enters clsoe combat willingly

Well the PLers can still PL in mishes, and it frees PI, Bricks, and Talos from a lot of PL lag (which I think spurred some of this).

Sounds fair on all fronts, although street sweeping is hurt by it. But I'll trade a little sweeping in for lag reduction. Course that's just one radioactive corpse's take on it

Does anyone know the acc debuff numbers for CoF?

You know, it occurs to me now why I don't think khelds are up to snuff in comparison to other ATs. I actually have a regular group of friends I play with, and have done so for months. There is no "we need to cover a gap". If we had a gap to cover in our team one of us did it a loooooong time ago.

In that respect, Khelds are great for folks who do a lot of pickup teaming, but for people with a regular list of friends whom they play with, its just not worth it. If our team consistently needs a tank or a blaster, its better I make a tank or blaster, since that is what I'll be doing for a few months. The ability to change shape into wannabe forms is of no use to a team that gets together regularly and has no 'gap' to fill.

So there we have it, Kheldians are better at pickup teams than any AT out there. Too bad most people avoid pickup teams like the plague ... which is why a lot of us wish it was easier to solo with Khelds, as I know I am far more likely to solo when none of my friends or SG are on (a rare occurance, but it happens).

In the end, if there are no gaps to cover or your regular team makeups are stable, Kheldians lose a lot of their abilities. No gaps = worse than normal ATs (since if you know you'll be the tank for several months, better to actually make a tanker than a stopgap sort-of tanker).

Just a random thought, and of course all mine own opinion. I never said Khelds are not playable, but compared to others they fall behind in fun in my eyes

Thank you for a great game, easy soloing and teaming, immersive and well-written storylines, great GMs that actually help out and are not ban-happpy *cough*SWG*cough*, letting me play a superhero and actually getting it right, allowing diversity in the way characters look by actually doing away with the stupid concept of loot that makes everyone look alike, the most robust character generator ever, the ability to jump on for twenty minutes and actually do a mission or two for those of us with limited gaming times, the incredibly responsive devs (even when the response isn't necessarily the one we had lobbied for---better a "no" than no answer at all!), incredibly nice and helpful (if sometimes cryptic hardy har har) devs, and damn near a thousand other things I'm missing.

Oh, and thanks a lot for giving me carpal tunnel by making such a great game j/k ... I gave it to myself through enjoyment

I'll still be here long after City of Villains has been expanded by City of Vehicles, City of Robots, City of Spacetravel, and the oft-lamented City of Uberness roll out in the next twenty years

I resisted Aim myself at first, but it recharges quickly with only a singe SO recharge reduction in it, and I notice a definite difference in both damage and accuracy. Generally it recharges fast enough to be used once per fight, and it's nice for getting off the shots that count, especially if there is one annoying git who stays outside of the pretty yellow-green clouds.

EF rocks as a power, and its animation time is quite fast. Stinck one or three end reductions in it, and call it a day (since its a bit of an end hog).

Origin-specific missions are some of the most unexpected and best news coming from this, from a roleplaying and story perspective.

Ideally, I'd like to see each origin have storyarcs and missions equal to the current standard missions. Of course it would take time, but I'm not going anywhere.

And talk about increasing replay value for us alt-alcholics! 5 different types of stories to experience

Hmm, since now origins are beginning to matter for missions, I wonder if we'll see some Kheldian-only missions .... sure hope so.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear Warshades

Well if you 'cloned' your teammates' powers that would certainly cause you to need them more. No teammates = no powers.

Could be your hitpoints and endurance (actual numbers and regen rates) are tied to how many people are on your team. Like their emotions are supporting you.

Speculation with no data is fun! It's the new 'hip' thing

I'd speculate Peacebringers are a mind control/healing Kheldian AT (forcing peace with mind control hehe).

And Warshades are a more combat-oriented blaster/tank Kheldian AT, most likely tossing dark blasts since a lot of people have asked for a Dark blaster type.

Damn cool names, but that's my 2 influence on what they could be.

Thanks for making us even more insane with speculation Statesman

EDIT: If they stayed to existing power pools, I'd almost guarantee the Peacebringers had Mind Control/Empathy and the Warshades have Dark Blast/Dark Armor.

Of course my guarantee and a buck will get you a cup of bad coffee

Well, it probably won't be, but I would like the 2nd Epic AT type to be ....

Werewolf.

The graphics are already in the game, it would fulfill the little "shapeshifting" comment made by Statesman, and, lets be honest, it would be damn cool to be a Werewolf.

Powers? Toggles, which transform you into the big fuzz. Tanker-like but with some nice speed. Weakness that Epic ATs are supposed to have? Daytime you do less dmg, weakness versus fire attacks (since silver dmg isn't in-game and monsters have traditionally been hunted with torches lol), random Werewolf Hunter ambushes, things like that. You could even work it into the storyline based on Requiem's world and the recent Halloween invasion (people bit, infected, etc.).

Spinning my wheels, I have no data whatsoever, but I would love to see some werewolf action. And so far I've never seen a game successfully implement it.

Make me furry!