Afterimage

Check the inactive contact tab on your contact list. You may have outleveled his missions already by level 8.

It's the visuals, you leap into the air, and out of sight at your old location, then land where aimed, hitting all the nearby targets, knocking some of them down.

As for damage, when I took the power I looked at the info provided in the 'level and pick a power' screen. Even though my brute is only 19, I could look at the damage for Tremor, and compare it with the damage from Spring Attack, they were pretty close, so I took Spring Attack.

I like it. It's nice to pick up with a character that doesn't have any AOE attacks. I'm using it with a Stone Melee brute who won't have any other AOE power until level 38.

It doesn't have great damage, and it has really long recharge. Visuals are neat. It has a good chance to knockdown. You have to take two other leaping powers for it. It's fun.

Meh. I don't like the new tutorials. I'm just going to skip the intro tutorial, then street sweep to level 5, then head to Kings Row. Pretty much what I did before the change.

I made a Praetorian last week, I like the stuff they did last year for Going Rogue better than the stuff this year.

I took Afterburner at level 20 on my new blaster, below is all that I can tell you from trying it out:

• It increased my flight speed from approximately 45 mph to 60 mph
• It increased my hover speed from approximately 21 mph to 24 mph
• It increased my defense by 10.5
• It flagged me as 'only affecting self'
• It added a graphic effect to my screen, which looked like an attempt at a shock wave

My impressions:

• The shock wave graphic is ugly
• It didn't feel faster, I had to look at the real numbers to determine that I was going faster

Extrapolation: Since the flight speed cap goes up slightly as you level, I expect that a level 50 character should be able go around 65~70 mph with Afterburner.

Comparison: My hover board allows me to fly approximately 55 mph at level 20.

The only thing I can think of on the newspaper contacts is if they are 'full'. By 'full' I mean that you did enough newspaper missions to earn a mayhem mission, but didn't do the mayhem mission, nor told the contact that you didn't want the mission. My Soldier of Arachnos had one contact like that after I switched sides. If this is not the case, then I have no idea.

I read the details on the news page about this and I confess that I am confused.

Can anyone who understands the new rewards clear up my confusion?

Am I failing at reading comprehension, or is this information actually not clearly defined?

This statement:

"The freedom to keep all of your earned badges and rewards you've earned through the Veteran Rewards Program, while unlocking new exclusive rewards."

Seems to be contradicted by these statements:

"When the Paragon Rewards program begins, Veteran Rewards and subscription time in City of Heroes® convert to Reward Tokens."

The word "convert" means to me that the veteran rewards I already have earned will be gone and will have to be purchased. Conversions mean that something is lost as well as something gained.

"All the same badges from the Veteran Rewards program can still be unlocked in the Paragon Rewards program. You can choose to reslot them as rewards. "

The word "reslot" means to me that I have to regain these badges rather than "keep" them as the first statement I quoted claims.

I don't see anything addressing how this affects existing characters who have already consumed many of the veteran rewards. By consumable, I mean respecs, xp bonuses, costume tokens, merits.

If I get credit for all my veteran rewards, and can use the new points to purchase consumable rewards that I've already consumed under the old system, then I get a heck of a bonus.

And if existing characters do lose existing veterans perks until repurchased, what happens to salvage in bonus salvage slots?

I think this is backwards. I don't think that the free-to-play players will grab all the good names. I think that the FTP players will create an account, download the software and then run in to a brick wall when they try to think up a name for their new character.

First they will discover that Spider-Man and most of the variations are blocked. Then they will discover that more generic name like Fireman and Iceguy have been taken. And after an hour of having names rejected by the system, they will either quit without playing, or will name their characters something like asdfghjkl or Scrapper999.

Frankly, the other super-hero game's naming system, which allows duplicate names by attaching the user's ID as a suffix, is much friendlier to the FTP model. I would be surprised if the developers haven't thought of this already. I expect to see changes to the naming system here before FTP goes live.

If I remember correctly, that was the vigilante version of a tip mission.

In the text of the mission, or maybe the pop up dialog box when you enter the mission, you pump knock out gas into the warehouse before entering, to soften up the 5th Column inside. I think these guys are supposed to fall over at half health to represent the effects of the gas.

So, we needed yet another thread for the elites to sneer at the noobs? There are at least three others active that I know about.

The hero/villain merits are nicer than regular merits. The tip missions are mostly interesting and well written. They are far better than the radio missions. But after a while, I get tired of repeating the same tip missions no matter how good the rewards. I don't really need that stuff anyway. I like the ability to make my characters be a rogue or vigilante if it fits my concept.

I played with the breast slider a few times, now I mostly ignore it. It was 'gee whiz, look what they let me do!' for a while, then boring. The only time I see the front side of one of my own characters is on the character select or costume builder screens.

Male characters have unrealistic proportions too. Some men are built like that, but most of us are not. But this is a fantasy world. We make characters the way we want them to be, not how we ourselves are.

Different things bug different people. I can't be happy with a costume that looks like it would need adhesive to stay on. Why? I dunno, I can go along flying, teleporting, tossing fireballs. But I can't deal with a costume that I feel needs some support.

None of my characters who were active in last year's winter event received the temp powers either.

I have a question about this, if anyone has an answer I would appreciate it.

Do you get the same 'Festive' badge each year, or a different one each year? Last year was the first time I logged in all my alts to get the badge. They all had 'Festive', now my newer alts all got the 'Festive' badge as well as the temp powers. I thought it was a different badge each year, but never checked before.

I was thinking that maybe the temp powers are tied to the badge, so no new badge, no new powers.

I wondered the same thing a while back when I first started reading about 'perma-elude' builds on the scrapper forums. But I don't know how they would change things to compensate without breaking defensive sets like Super Reflexes, Shield Defense etc. They could lower the buffs from IO sets, but I think that would cost them a lot of customers.

There is already a lot of defense debuffs in the game, but they have to land in order to take effect.

Some people like maroon and yellow. Some people don't. So naturally you are going to get people who agree with your taste and some who disagree.

I like Dante's analysis. All the villains should mug the merit vendors for their recipes.

I opened presents in Brickstown with a level 30 character last night. Level 30 is appropriate for that zone, correct? But when I got frostlings, they spawned as high as level 37.

Now was I rude to not clean up the frostlings that spawned 7 levels higher than myself? Because I cannot defeat three +7 minions.

If I was rude, and I don't want to be rude, then I'm not allowed to open presents in a zone that I can play in for experience. Because I cannot clean up after myself in such a zone, unless I'm at the high end of the zone range, and I am not.

If I wasn't rude for opening presents in a level appropriate zone, when I cannot clean up for myself, then would I be rude if I were 7 levels higher and can?

Is rudeness simply a matter of level?

I'm sorry, but I cannot agree with the simple thesis that opening a present and not fighting the frostlings is rude. Is isn't even possible for many characters to do that unless they only open presents in places where they are guaranteed to win the fight.

There is no code of conduct written down stating that not fighting the frostlings is bad behavior. That is just the personal value system of some players, and not shared by every player.

Not defeating the frostlings doesn't prevent new presents from appearing, the frostlings automatically despawn as soon as a new present appears. And frostlings themselves are nothing more than another enemy group to avoid if you are just passing through.

What specifically is the problem here? That other players are littering?

The worst thing that I can see about this, is that like my experience last night, that the frostlings can spawn in a region within the zone that are many levels higher than the normal NPC enemies for that region. Such as level 37 frostlings near the Brickstown/IP zone boundary, where most such NPCs are levels 30-33 in that region. But that is a consequence of the developers' designs, not players' behavior.

And that is only a problem for incautious players who don't look where they are going.

So, in summary, chill out.

I'm already done with Trapdoor, all 5 of my 50's unlocked Alpha Slot in the first week.

But I am curious. If I understand things correctly, Trapdoor can no longer be dragged out of range of his regenerators, and his regen has been buffed enough that he doesn't die from the lava.

Can he still be held by controllers and/or dominators? Did he get the Purple Triangles? I don't have anyone close enough to 50 to find out.

Ironically, now that I don't have to play villainous content with villainous archetypes, I find myself playing red side more than in the past. I've moved as many heroes to the Rogue Islands as villains to Paragon. (Not counting Praetorians here at all.)

I agree though that I'm not looking for dark stories. My favorite villains in the past I always pictured more as rogues, long before Going Rogue was announced. They weren't kitten-stomping world domination types. they were just in it for a quick and easy buck. Amoral rather than immoral. Selfish rather than vicious.

Mayhem missions are great fun too.

I roll mine around in my left hand while looking for my strawberries.

I think it is just luck.

Last night, I got two tips off of one group of Freakshow that I was streetsweeping for a defeat 20 mission.