NightErrant

Okay. Look.

Do you see forums that say "Open Beta: i17: Dark Mirror" or something?

Because if they don't specifically say "Open Beta", you're in CLOSED BETA.

...Seriously. Unless you're actually standing in Mercy Island on your new mastermind, you aren't in the Beta yet. o_o

Yup. That guy's a liar.

Figured. XP

Dark Armor on AVs is just borked in general. Especially custom ones.

But I've been on a team with a Thugs MM, and we did fine.

...After I told him to stop using Gang War. For the love of God do not use Gang War (Or any Similar Power) on Ghost Widow! D:

Just ran a test.

Training Room v1 gave me a standard "ACCESS DENIED" message.

Vincent Morse, the Snake-Hybrid, is already an Incarnate. He's one of S'theno's progeny, so he gets his powers from the same source.

As for my other characters... Hm...

NightErrant: Not really sure... His backstory indicates that he gets his powers from his position as Guardian of the Mu homeland (which in turn is linked to his armor) So he's linked more to the concept than any particular deity.

Morgan Serif: Circe, for her knowledge of magical potions and that one time she turned a man into a snake.

Tempus Freakout- Chronos. Time powers. :P

Duskshooter: Pluto. He just didn't make the cut to be a planet.... He's also a Nictus inhabiting the corpse of a Void hunter.

Bill Hyde: Beowulf. ...He's not a deity. But it fits in an odd way.

As for Operative Halfway, The Savage Spider, and Detective Mort... No clue.

Huh.

Looks like the Whip is actually a particle effect instead of a weapon.

...Still awesome though!

I've been applauded!

But yeah, Lore doesn't have to be binding. I mostly use it as an insperation than a "Let's make a member of X group."

I remember liking the "Unstar" idea quite a bit, as well.

Longbow, Carnies, and Thorns are mostly ranged.

DE and Freakshow are a bit more melee oriented.

Either way, I'd use your Taunt aura to herd them into a corner before unleashing EPIC AOES!

I think I've seen Confusionette... Or a similar character.

VEATs and Kheldians are a given most of the time, yes.

I know quite a few Crey Experiment. Crey is the go to for those types, it seems.

Well, the way I set up my canon themed characters is that they aren't actually "Ranked" in any meaningful way.

The Vanguard Op Rikti and Midnighter are members in a slightly more in depth capacity than the typical hero or villain, but membership in those organizations is open to players.

The Troll and Nictus have canon in their origin stories (One took a ton of dyne, and the other sort of grew organically out of improperly implanted N-Fragments) but aren't members of their founding organization.

The Detective is a PPD officer, but that's fairly easy to RP.

The Snake-Hybrid is an anomaly, because he was created as part of a larger arcing plotline that my friend Heronator wrote for his snake hybrid. And that plotline involves S'theno and the Snakes heavily. There is a risk of future characterization invalidating certain plot points, of course. (For example, in the current version of our personal lore, S'theno rewards violence by granting certain children greater access to their Incarnate Powers. If Going Rogue revealed that the Snakes had a peaceful shamanic culture or something, Heronator and I would have to retcon a great deal of our storyline.)

So there's an inherent risk. But it doesn't make it any less fun.

City of Heroes is a really interesting game lorewise. On one hand, it's not like World of Warcraft or something where the reason for your characters existence may require a degree in Video Game History to actually understand. A lack of lore knowledge isn't detrimental to your experience. You don't need to know about The Well of the Furies, or Dr. Webb, or the Rikti War to get the basic premise of the game.

On the other hand, the game takes place in an absolutely fascinating world. There are so many interesting story details that the vast majority of my new characters are inspired by interesting tidbits of lore.

Like my Mastermind/Dominator (I tend to reroll toons as multiple ATs), who was inspired by "The Strange Case of Benjamin Decker". A Riktified Human working for Vanguard who leads a band of reformed Lost.

Or my my Corruptors and Defenders, who are both heavily Mu inspired. (One is a Midnighter that specialized in the study of the Origin of Powers, and is Elec/Kin. The other is a detective who is a member of a Mu descended Bloodline of Demon Hunters that defends other descendants of Mu from the wrath of Oranbega. He's Dark Miasma. And he's also -very- loosely inspired by Raidou Kuzunoha. So he might not be the best example...)

Then there's my Troll (Well, I have two trolls, but only one is actually a Dyne Troll. The other's mythological). Trolls tend to be popular. This one is tied into the whole Portal Corp Origin story a bit, with the seeing alternate realities. thing.

Or my Dark/Dark Brute (Soon to be Warshade. YEAH!) Ex-Voidhunter.
...Or rather, a Nictus inhabiting the -corpse- of an ex-voidhunter.

Or my Snake-Hybrid... Or...

...Okay, you get the point. I have a lot of Canon Themed characters.

But I want to know about you! I want to see how the canon has inspired you! Is your Fire/Fire Blaster a Hellion? Do you have a Mortificator Mastermind? Have you been experimented on by Dr. Krylov? Are you a Revenant Hero?

I want to know about you!

For Dark Miasma, I find Suppressive Rounds to be somewhat redundant. It's a great power, but you can already Stun, Fear, and Slow most of a spawn with relative ease. The Hold is nice, but not needed.

What about just one or two pieces per faction? I'd like to dress up as an NPC sometime...

...Dammit, I mostly just want a pet Wailer. Not the Demon Box Hardcase gives you. One like the Rikti Monkey pet. D:

So, our enemy factions have tons of cool goodies. Costume pieces, Weapons, shiny things...

Many of which aren't available to us. Which is sad.

As a customization *****, I can tell you that people love dressing like NPCs. Which is why I have a suggestion to make...

Enemy Faction Costume Rewards

...Yeah, I know. Original right? We've been asking for (and getting, in various degrees) this forever.

Now, there are two ways to go about this...

One way is badges. Badges are always a nice way of doing this sort of thing. But they tend to be annoying. Especially for new characters. (If you're making a 5th Column defectee, you don't want to have to kill 500 of an enemy group you don't even see that often.)

So... here's my suggestion. Make enemy faction themed rewards craftable recipies. They're available as random drops from members of that group (At all levels? Y/N?) and are freely tradeable. They could also be Merit/Ticket rewards as well.

This has several advantages over a badge based system.

• You can transfer the costume pieces freely between characters.
• You can get more costume pieces/emotes/pets/etc than there are badges for that enemy group.
• You can buy them off the market.

As for the rewards themselves? Well, they can vary. Uniformed enemy groups might drop iconic costume pieces. (Carnie Masks, for example). Non human enemy groups like Snakes and Wailers could drop pets of themselves. These work like the non combat Vet Reward ones. Making them Petsay compatible is a bonus.

...Not a well thought out idea, but I'd like it...

People using Howling Twilight can still SD'd allies. Though everyone knew that.

I just found out there's a Law Enforcement Day Job location in Atlas, even though there's not a detective.

Good and Evil are relative.

Using Going Rogue as an example...

From the Loyalist perspective, they are "good" and the resistance is "evil".
Cole has built a Utopia, and the resistance wants to destroy it. They are responsible for the deaths of more loyal men and woman than any other faction in all of Praetoria. From the loyalist perspective, Calvin Scott and the Resistance are terrorists.

From the Resistance Perspective, they are the "good" ones, and Tyrant and his Praetors are "Evil". Their "utopia" was built upon the bones of a once free nation. Metahumans are forced into service. You no longer have the sanctity of your own mind anymore. Dissenters are imprisoned, or worse. The Resistance, in this case, are freedom fighters.

And here's the kicker. Both of these possibilities are valid. Despite the viewpoint that Tyrant = Bad and Resistance = Good, both sides have performed actions that lead in the other direction. The Resistance has been responsible for civilian deaths. Cole has nearly abolished hunger through his control of the Praetorian Hamidon.

The real world isn't like "Primal Earth", where the Freedom Phalanx can do no wrong, and Arachnos is "Mwhahaha" evil.

It's complicated.

I love this idea. It's almost impossible to find IOs on the Black Market at my level, and this would make those mid level builds so much easier...

I kind of like the gym idea, Just as a way to get a "Feel" for a build. I know I'd be apprehensive of wading into a new powerset combo blindly.

...That would make sense, actually.

This toon is already 50, so I should respec to pick up Mind Over Body a lot sooner that I did while I was leveling. I want as much of my defensive powers up as possible no matter what I'm doing. (And I run a lot of AE Arcs for RP Reasons).

That Build does look -very- good. I'll look into it on tomorrow to see how it fits together. I've actually been experimenting with Frankenslotting on my Corruptor, so I have a much better idea of how it works. Though, as a result I'll have to set this project on hold for a little while while I raise the funds again.

Thank you for actually taking the time to post by the way.