Samuel_Tow

I believe he/she is talking about our headshots on the ID screen. I haven't checked, however, or if I had, said difference must have slipped me.

I have a question: Considering there is no level 51, how ambiguous is it to say you're level 51? What do you think the person means? That he can get into zones a level 50 character cannot? That he can accept missions a level 50 character cannot? What difference does it make whether you say 50+1 vs. 51, when for all intents and purposes, they're the same thing.

No, you're not level 51. I know this, because I know level 51 doesn't exist. But BECAUSE level 51 doesn't exist, then the only two conclusions I can draw from you claiming to be level 51 are A) that you made a typo listing your level or B) that you are level 50 with one level shift.

Now, if we could be, say, level 40 with one level shift, then I wouldn't agree with calling yourself level 41, because you're not like the people who are legitimately level 41. In these cases, I would ask that level shifts be stated separately. However, since level shifts can only be earned after reaching level 50, I don't see this as a problem, either. You can't gain a level shift at level 40, or even at level 49.

"So what if I exemplar?" If you exemplar, then your level should have come up in conversation beforehand. If it hasn't and yet is still somehow relevant for some reason, then yes, I fully support listing your level as 15+1, rather than 16, because there are people who are level 16, and you are not one of them. There are also people who are level 50 genuine who exemplared to 16, and you are not one of these, either. You are a level 15 with a level shift.

However, until and unless characters can gain that 1 point of experience and reach level 51, saying you're level 51 is unambiguous and undeserving of nitpicking. You know what the person means, and he is technically correct, because what you are claiming the confusion is with does not exist.

This is like asking for the price of your hot dog in any American city, and when being told "five" demanding that the vendor specify that he's talking about dollars, because he could mean pesos or euros or florins or some such. You know enough to extrapolate the necessary information without even thinking. There is no room to complain.

Pitching ideas is easy. There's a whole forum for it. Convincing the developers to abandon a horrible storyline and pick a better one... Not so much.

That said, here are a few easy ideas I've thrown around over the last few months:

Option 1: The obvious. Rularuu the Ravager stirs from whatever Darryn Wayde had planned. The Shadow Shard becomes much more active, with all of Rularuu's aspects awakening and unleashing their own minions on the place. Ruladak the Strong gets to keep the Soldiers of Rularuu, who can be renamed into the Soldiers of Ruladak, Lanaru the Mad gets more forms of his storm elementals, renaming them to Tempest of Lanaruu, or some other synonim. Whoever it was that was in charge of the Shadow Shard reflections gets more reflections, renaming them to Memories of Whoever. Faatim the Kind could have the Shadow Shard survivors act as his followers, called Followers of Faatim. I don't know enough about the other aspects to comment.

Rularuu himself doesn't need his own minion faction. The reflections are his minions.

In the intervening years, FBZ's General Hammond has pushed for an increased presence, bringing in more modern US troops, armed with the latest power armour, energy weapons and meta-human enhancements, as well as reinforced by Peacebringer Corp and Psi-Ops commandos. This way, he has been able to take the fight to the Rularuu and set up secure Mole Points farther into the Shard. However, this has necessitated the dismantling of the Cop-Out (Copperfield Outlands Industries) teleporters that used to lead to indiscernible blotches of whitish energy, as they have proven to consume far too much power without a static receiver, and have proven to be far too dangerous to traverse besides. The Mole Points are now the only non-manual mode of transport between the zones. Mole Points are further equipped with distance-calibrated recilmators which "fish out" people who travel too far below the islands, assuming that they have fallen off.

New advances in the understanding of the Shadow Shard have revealed a fifth-dimensional link between the mystic geysers that litter the islands similar to the link that Horta Vines around the Shadow Shard share. This has allowed those equipped with Tachyon Calibrators to enter the geyser network itself and travel between geysers without the risks involved in the crude method of hurling one's self into a geyser's ejection stream and hoping this lands you on solid ground. This network is still not fully understood, so travel is only currently possible only to the nearest geyser along, meaning each one Geyser links to only one other such. However, extensive mapping efforts have been successful, and the locations of ALL geysers and their destinations have been added to the standard Shadow Shard map of known areas, replacing the previously unreliable and incomplete guess work. For those uncomfortable with entering a fifth-dimensional wormhole network, conventional jet packs are still available, though they remain slow and have limited fuel due to the Shard atmosphere's effect on rocket fuel combustion.

However, the Soldiers of Rularuu are no longer he only dangers the Shadow Shard has to offer. The denizens of the Rogue Isles have also gained access to a section of the Shard. Crey Industries recently patented their own version of a dimensional gate. Rumours abound that it is based on stolen Nemesis technology, but the few who've had access to the theories behind the flash metal plastered in Crey logos claim it far more resembles the Circle of Thorns' "Tower to the Heavens" research. Quick to capitalise on the opportunity, Aeon Corp have offered Crey facilities, resources, energy and, more than anything else, a safe haven from US authorities. As a result, Crey now operate their portals exclusively from their compound on Nerva Archipelago, offerring services to the denizens of the Rogue Isles and Lord Recluse's chosen, in return for a hefty profit from Aeon Corp at no operating cost, while Aeon Corp scientists are in turn always trying to reverse-engineer Crey's portal technology. Countess Clarissa Crey is unable to comment on the matter due to an ongoing criminal trial she is involved in.

Crey forces in the Shadow Shard routinely clash with General Hammond's expedition force soldiers, causing no end of tension, and opening many opportunities. Hammond has been authorised to sanction the assistance of any Paragon City heroes in the defence of his installations and in the containment of Crey expansion, in return for Freedom Corps supplies "Infulence," while Hero Corp operatives, always looking for the next big opportunity, have taken to handing out bounties and hiring Paragon City heroes to aid in the effort in exchange for cold hard cash. Of course, heroes who just wish to help are always welcome to assist the rest of the expedition force officers. In response to this, Crey have taken to hiring mercenaries from the Rogue Isles, though largely to swell the ranks of their own forces and to use as cannon fodder against Hammond's expedition force, as well as to distract the Soldiers of Rularuu. Arachnos forces have have also been station at Crey's Shadow Shard facilities, though largely to deal with the up-and-coming destined ones and their ongoing tests. They are not above handing out simple mercenary work, of course, as Arachnos forces in the Shard are badly understaffed due to acting as liaison and not the controlling force. Though they will usually attempt to pay in Arachnos supply credits, they will still pay real money as long as the job gets done.

For those uninterested in a struggle with their own, there is always the greater threat and opportunity presented by the unusually aggressive Rularuu forces. Research personnel on both sides are constantly working at understanding their nature and motives, as well as untangling the mystery behind the Shadow Shard and the spirits within it, with no help from the Midnight Squad, as per usual. There is always more than can be learned about Rularuu and his aspects, and there is always more to do to keep them from scratching at the doors. However, simple containment may not be enough, as recent discoveries are revealing concerning threats.

There is no known "bottom" to the Shadow Shard, but there is uniform gravity pulling "down" all throughout. Portal Corps and Crey have so far mostly explored the upper islands, the ones closer to what can be described as the "sky" and "sun." However, there are floating islands lower down, mired in fog and obscured by the interlocking shadows of islands above. Exploration of these has been poor, both because of their remoteness from established footholds and because they house far more ferocious monsters than the islands above. Theorists suspect that there may be something sinister and dangerous lurking at the bottom (or centre, depending on how you look at it) of the Shadow Shard. Speculation has suggested everything from Rularuu himself to a black hole to the beginning of time and space. Considering chances of exploring the very "core of the world" as the locals call it are slim, however, making the confirmation or dismissal of such rumours unlikely.

All throughout the recent happenings, a certain group of mystics have questioned just how "real" of a world the Shadow Shard is. There have been many aspects of that word that could be interpreted as symbolic representations of abstract concepts, and the laws of physics there act in ways unusual and inexplicable, though only ever so slightly. Some have theorised that the entire Shard may in fact be an illusion, or the physical representation of a mind. No concrete evidence to any of these allusions have ever been found, but many who have been in the Shard for long will tell you that it wouldn't surprise them is this were true.

Whatever the case may be, one fact remains: The Shadow Shard has become an incredibly dangerous, hostile place. Survival is a trying affair, but actually facing the horrors that lie beneath the surface of this strange world will require power on an entirely new level to anything that Paragon City has seen. The natives fortell of a time when men will need to stand against the gods, themselves, and it is not clear whether they mean the Aspects of Rularuu, Rularuu himself, or something even greater. If one must fight the gods, then one will probably require the power of the gods to do so.

I still hold Oni as the pinnacle of level design, as Bungie hired actual architects to design their levels. You know, before they sold their souls to Microsoft and rebranded themselves to Halo Team. Of course, people being stupid, there were complaints that the levels were boring and confusing, what with them resembling actual buildings instead of levels ripped from DOOM 2: Hell on Earth.

Personally, I'd love to see verticality in City of Heroes instances. Right now, they are entirely flat floor plans, with alternate floors consisting of laterally-translocated maps, which is why we need teleporters/elevators to move us around. Yes, some tileset pieces do have floors in them, but nowhere on any map can you see tileset pieces stacked on top of each other. In fact, wherever you DO see this, you can also see map artefacts as the black box around the foreground tileset piece clips over the map for the background one. All tileset piece transitions are horizontal, as well, You never go straight down through the floor to a tileset piece below, or climb up through the ceiling to a tileset piece above, because they are not stackable like this, that one map notwithstanding.

Personally, I'd prefer to see City of Heroes buildings built up complete blocks without a "void of blackness" to them. So instead of a warehouse that looks like a tree structure, you have a warehouse that looks like a giant square that's sectioned into smaller squares and rectangles. Office buildings would similarly fill an entire (if imaginary) building's footprint without relying on zillions of locked doors, or at the very least explore most of an office building with entire, easily-definable sections closed off, as opposed to just snaking hallways seemingly dug underground.

In other words: Ono.

That's pretty much my experience with her. My Axe/Shield Brute got hit for 7500. That is where my interest in that TF died forever.

Last time this came up, I wrote a Java programme to copy sliders from one costume file to another. It's not rocket science, just text file manipulations. The developers should be able to do this officially.

I wouldn't be against non-combat missions, myself, if people stopped insisting to make them timed. There are few things I have such abject hatred for as I do for timed missions, especially "5 minute" timed missions. HATEEEE!!! The mere fact that the Steel Canyon fires can time out and KILL me often causes me to ignore them, when I would naturally attend far more if I didn't have to worry about failing them so spectacularly.

In general, I don't need artificial pressure threatened by a timer.

With all of that said, I would like to see non-combat missions, but not if they required what amounts to a brand new game inside our old game to achieve. Not if they rely on the introduction of completely new skills and abilities that aren't useful in the rest of the game.

To my eyes, "crutch" temporary powers like the Steel Canyon fires extinguisher are the solution to the discrepancy between ATs. Say you have a mission to make your way through a ruined building and save people, busting through collapsed walls to get to them. If you can bunch, explode or burn your way through them, GREAT! If you happen to have no personal offense, sell, have this Jackhammer temporary power to take down walls with. It won't work on enemies, and the collapsed walls are kind of resistant to all other kinds of damage, so even if you have explosives you may want to use the Jackhammer anyway.

Or how about this: A sci-fi power plant is about to go into core meltdown and all staff have been evacuated. You need to make your way inside and activate a series of suppressor mechanism. No special powers required, but you don't have a map and the inside is kind of a maze.

There are options to introduce non-combat missions using our combat powers without making them hugely complicated, which I feel is a wrong design choice in general.