Roderick

Not sure if this is still the case, but at one time, the Immob protect and the initial attack were tied together (like the -Damage to enemy +Damage to self in against All Odds). That means if the attack doesn't hit anyone (either no targets in range, or missed all targets, or targets are Intangible/Phased), you don't get your Immobilize protection.

If you're using Combat Jumping, you'll never notice the difference. But if you aren't, it might be worthwhile to test and see if it's been fixed.

I notice that you have a white name, indicating that you are either a Free or Premium player.

In order to switch sides, you must have access to the Alignment System. By default, Free and Premium players do NOT have access to it. In order to get access, you need to do one of the following:

-Subscribe. As a VIP, you will get temporary access to the Alignment System. If you cancel your billing, you will lose access to the Alignment System once your paid time ends. Any characters that switched alignments will retain their current one (even if it's Rogue or Vigilante), but will not be able to change again until you re-access the Alignment System. Several other features are unlocked on a temporary basis when you subscribe.
-Buy Going Rogue. Going Rogue includes a permanent unlock of several systems, including the Alignment System. Paragon Studios no longer produces Going Rogue, so if you don't already have it, you'll have to find a copy at a retail store. On the plus side, if you can find a copy, it will often cost less than a one-month subscription, and contains goodies worth much more.
-Buy the Alignment System from the Paragon Market. I can't remember the cost, but I think it's either 800 or 1200 points ($10 or $15). It seems to go on sale every few months, so if you're not in a rush, it's worth waiting for it.

If you don't want to unlock the Alignment System (or if you have, but don't want to spend the time switching sides), you can buy Alignment Tokens. 800 points ($10) will instantly switch your Hero or Vigilante character to Villain, or switch your Villain or Rogue character to Hero. You can't use Alignment tokens to become the "grey" alignments (Vigilante or Rogue), and they're one-use each, so the Alignment System is cheaper than Tokens.

Of course, if you've already got the Alignment System (or you ARE VIP, and the forums are just displaying wrong... again), then you can ignore all of the above.

The Map Pack is not a Mod. The City of Heroes client automatically looks in a certain directory when it starts up, and if it finds properly names files in the appropriate directories, it loads those resources instead of the default ones. There is no modification of the client, so there's nothing bad about using it.

MAKING it, on the other hand, is a bit of a grey area. The only ways to get the right filenames are to either spend a LOT of time guessing, and hoping you hit the right names, or to extract the filenames from the game files. The latter action falls under "decompilation or reverse engineering of the software" in the EULA, and is not allowed (See the sticky about PIGG viewers in the City Life section).

I suspect that the devs and community reps turn a blind eye because the people behind the Map Pack don't distribute any modified game files, nor any tools to modify the files.

This is an unofficial and unsupported feature. As such, none of the City staff can or will provide troubleshooting help if you have problems with it, and threads here asking for help may get moderated. If you need help, asking on the Vidiotmaps forums is your best bet.

If I had to make a wild guess, I'd say that this functionality is there for the art devs. Once they've got textures, sounds, etc finished, they can load them in this manner, rather than having to submit them to a build and wait for that to be compiled before they can test their assets.

It's a HUGE pain in the butt, but don't use the AoEs - stick to single target attacks. The AoEs generate way more lag, and are more likely to mapserve you.

I may be mistaken, but I think you can get the powers TWICE on each character, IF you're a Rogue or Vigilante or switch sides at some point, and even then, it would still be only once per Safeguard, and once per Mayhem.

I've never tested it, but I'm positive that I got the temp powers on my badger as I was collecting Mayhem Exploration Badges, even though I had all the Hero ones previously.

Remember that power pool Invisibility applies an Only Affecting Self effect, so you won't be able to attack those enemies that you're standing beside until you drop Invis - and the enemies will probably hit you before you can do anything if you're that close to them.
Another thing to keep in mind is that clicking a glowie will suppress the stealth portion of the power, allowing enemies to attack you, but the OAS portion WON'T suppress, so you can't fight back.

I'd recommend getting a Celerity: Stealth or Unbounded Leap: Stealth IO and put it in Sprint (either one will cost somewhere between 200-240 Reward Merits or 2 Alignment Merits. As a VIP, the latter is a matter of 22 missions over 4 days - not particularly difficult). A Stealth IO combined with Stealth from the Concealment pool will give you a little stronger stealth than Invisibility (65' vs 55'). You'll lose the -Threat Level buff from Invis, but gain the ability to act while stealthed (it will still suppress, but it's better than having to constantly toggle on and off powers). Having Sprint on will offset the -Speed in Stealth, and the Endurance cost between Sprint+Stealth is similar to that of Invis, IIRC.
Another option would be putting the Celerity: Stealth IO in Super Speed. This will give the same 65' stealth as Sprint+IO+Stealth, Super Speed also has the -Threat Level, and you aren't OAS. The Endurance cost is similar, but you'll have to be moving at high speed all the time, which is an issue for some people.

Well, when the extra objective is a glowie, and you click it, you get a message telling you that you earned some Influence, and possibly an Inspiration. When the objective is to kill some dudes... You killed some dudes that you wouldn't have otherwise, and they give XP, Inf, and drops.

EDIT: Also, there was no snark in my reply. On some of my characters, I will choose to do or skip the extra objectives based solely on what the character would do, just like I click the response in conversation windows that my character would give. RP takes more forms than just standing under Atlas/in the D chatting.

It mostly has to do with the letters "R" and "P" in "MMORPG". Also, you earn extra XP, Inf and drops while working towards most sub-objectives.

Or to describe it without resorting to an analogy:

Absorb is ablative armor. It takes the hit for you, then falls off.