SpittingTrashcan

At the risk of committing one of the classic blunders - that being getting into a sidetrack argument with GG - I think it's worth pointing out that heroes haven't exactly managed to "clean up" Paragon City, where their efforts are desired and supported by the government, the police, and the majority of law-abiding citizens. Arachnos doesn't have to be overwhelmingly powerful in order to prevent a hero invasion, and indeed its overall presence is significantly less than 50% of the game - it has a fortified base on every island, and soldiers patrolling the streets in the vicinity of that base, but it could hardly be said to be in control of most of the Etoiles. Hell, there's a major Longbow base smack dab in the middle of Nerva, in direct violation of international law let alone the will of Arachnos!

This is why Grandville rankles so badly, in my opinion. After progressing through several islands liberally populated with competing factions of which Arachnos is one among many, the entire villain endgame takes place in an Arachnos-controlled fortress city, working for or on behalf of Arachnos. If anything, the progression should be in the opposite direction: the hand-picked Destined candidates should begin in the heart of Arachnos controlled territory, surrounded by Arachnos propaganda, drilled by Arachnos soldiers and agents, and only then allowed out to the wider world. The progression should be from few choices to many, and instead it's from many to one. GR looks like it might be reversing that concept, and I'll be very interested in seeing whether people like it better.

I'd be careful about that, actually. I think the general idea of presenting these options is good, but I'd want to be able to change tracks according to the choice of contacts I make in each tier.

Also, each villain zone tends to portray a conflict among multiple factions, with representatives from some of them seeking your assistance in tipping the balance. This is good, and should be brought more to the fore - especially in Grandville, where a lot of the factional options go away and you're left with mostly Arachnos with a slight smattering of Crey. Wouldn't the neglected underbelly of Grandville be riddled with agents eager to get a mole into the heart of the beast? At the very least, it'd be nice for monstrous mutants to take up the cause of the Arachnoids. Biff would be an awesome contact.

They fight crime!

Ironically, villains get significantly more exposure to Khelds than heroes do. The PPD at top tier is nothing but Khelds and robots.

I'm not sure. I think it was added at some point during the time I have been playing as an attempt to curb spam. I'd trawl the patch history on Paragonwiki but I'm lazy.
That one's easier to answer: until recently, email had few real uses other than spam, so you probably never had an occasion to try to send email from a sub-L10. When it became possible to turn it off, I did so immediately, and set that as my default. Now I'm turning it back on, because it has become useful again.

The red "Email" in the chat frame still bugs me though. I know I have email. I read it twice already: once when I sent it to myself and again when I received it from myself. You can stop telling me now.

The reason I mentioned the "Afraid" status is twofold. First, that's the name of the effect when you look up powers in City of Data, so it's good to know the difference between this and "Terrorized". Second, and more importantly, Afraid is not an inherent property of all debuff or damage patches. Enemies aren't reacting to the debuff or damage when they flee a patch; they are reacting to the Afraid status being placed on them, and if it wasn't there they'd happily wander onto them and stay there. Some entities are immune to "Afraid": for example, a number of Controller pets are, and so they will continue to fight from a debuff or damage patch without trying to move away. Some things that are not patches grant "Afraid": Ice Control.Arctic Air has a chance to grant "Afraid" on each pulse, and Storm Summoning.Tornado has an "Afraid" granting aura. Also, some patches have had "Afraid" added or removed from time to time. Notably, Fiery Aura.Burn did not always grant "Afraid", and as a result it was less useful for mitigation, but much more powerful as a damage tool.

The reason why I felt it's important to explicitly mention "Afraid" is that it's the cause of a lot of enemy (and ally) behaviors that are often attributed to other sources. Entities react to "Afraid" in a specific way that's important to take into account when discussing general entity AI.

More on topic: I agree that the enemy AI does switch between seeking to enter melee range and firing from ranged, and that they recognize when entering melee is impossible, but not when it is difficult. It's also the case that enemies have different levels of interest in entering melee range in the first place. Some time ago, when discussing Mastermind minion AI, Castle made remarks to the effect that pets can be made to behave in one of two ways with respect to approaching enemies they are set on attacking: either they can prefer to approach to the range of their longest-range power, or to the range of their shortest-range power (ask Mercs MMs about the two-fisted Medic...). I believe NPC enemies can be assigned one of these tendencies as well, and may switch between them as conditions change.

I agree that you can't balance on time to acquire capabilities - which is really all that "expense" translates to in this game - but the "price" that Arcanaville is talking about is not influence cost, but opportunity cost. As in, because you slotted for lots of A, you don't have any room to slot for much B - no matter how much influence you spend on enhancements.

I know Stone Armor looks a little like poo in its default colors, but not that much.

Hoo boy.

Excluding EvilRyu's opinions (which is frequently a good idea), most observations in this thread have to do with the natural consequence of having two mutually exclusive choices which change in value depending on the choices of others. In simple terms, a market functions better because more people participate in it, and more people participate in a market because it functions better. Until now, there has been a limiting factor on this pressure toward the more populated hero market: if you want to play villain archetypes and content, you must participate in the villain market. GR removes that restriction, and without it, the rational choice is to switch to the better functioning market. Of course, not everyone will want to make this choice; there are still reasons to want to play a true villain. But without sufficient participation, the villain market will cease to function as an effective means to buy and sell desirable items.

That said, villain archetypes and content are fun, and most of the people you meet playing villains also play heroes, so it doesn't make much sense to be snobbish about playing villains. If you've never played villains before, and especially if you're used to tank-defender-blaster specialist teams, redside may require a minor attitude adjustment: everyone does damage, you are responsible for keeping yourself alive, and no one has to take point (although brutes like to because it gives them sweet, sweet fury). Other than that, it's all good.

In order: Yes, yes, and while it's unintentional, Widows and Forts have been slotting Def/Rech IOs and Def/Tohit/Rech HOs in Mind Link for a long time despite Mind Link not taking straight Rech enhancements, and this at least has been specifically stated as WAI. I can't find a consistent dev position on enhancing aspects of a power that you can't slot SOs for by using IOs or HOs. But if you feel like taking a conservative stance against future changes, that's reasonable.

On the larger question of generic dual aspect enhancements: I do not think the absence of certain combinations of aspect enhancements is always a mere oversight, for more reasons than just the technical ones.

I also feel that the invention system is not nearly as complex or as impenetrable as you feel it is. Sufficient information is available in-game to at least pick out a combination of IOs to enhance desired properties, and copious further information is available on the forums and community-run information sites. But that's a personal opinion.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. Just take Hurdle and activate Ninja Run, and you will be flipping around town, bounding from rooftop to rooftop, and generally getting to where you need to go in no time at all.

Why, it's so fast, it's almost unnatural.