Ad Astra
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Posts
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Quote:Not this mission, at least not on a lowbie (I'm assuming that OP meant his defender is in the teens or early 20s, levelwise).Originally Posted by ThugOne
A tip: That mission has many big Stargate-like portals that spawn an infinite number of Behemoths; a Defender has little chance against them. If you're trying to beat them all, you likely can't win. I've found that it's generally possible to perform the rescue without spawning any Behemoths. There's typically a big pyramid-room with a small wooden bridge entrance that's full of summoning portals; the hostage is generally NOT in that room. Look elsewhere, way in the back of the map.
This map (and it's mostly the same map every time at these levels) will spawn relatively few Lost fighting the CoT (at higher levels these become Rikti, so that's why I am assuming that the OP is in the teens or 20s), and then some regular CoT spawns. It's a twisty map, not very long, but no portal rooms and mostly single level (i.e., no pyramids).
I've done this missions with Blasters, Scrappers & Defenders. The defenders were at basically -1 level (pre-I16, I levelled at least once before doing the mission) but we got it done every time.
BTW, OP - later in this same arc from Monty is another undroppable mission. -
Quote:Originally Posted by je_saist
Just wondering, but how exactly are you defining Top?
Do you mean Top Number of Players? :: That's a pointless measurement since most players have avatars on multiple servers.
Do you mean Top Amount of Prestige? :: Again, pointless. Farmers knocked out any meaning to SG prestige ratings long ago.
Do you mean Most PvP activity? :: Possibly valid question about servers given how low PvP play is. Being able to determine which server actually has people that like to explore a sunken Titanic could be a good thing.
Maybe I'm crazy about this, but I think what matters about a server is whether or not you enjoy playing on it. Does it have players you get along with? Does it have easy to find badge channels? Does it have active SG's recruiting and training new players? How often are Task Force's ran?
Stuff like that should determine whether or not a server is Top.. but such variables are nigh impossible to quantify.
This.
Too many players have characters on multiple servers. I know I have full sets of characters on Liberty, Guardian, Triumph & Infinity. Where do I consider my "home server"? I DON'T HAVE a "home server".
Pretty pointless thing to consider of any importance whatsoever IMHO. -
Quote:OR -Originally Posted by jwbullfrog
/ also signed
A fair warning for players that this person is on a trial account and may be either:
1. Doing stupid things because they don't know any better. Perhaps with a little guidance they could be a good player.
2. Doing stupid things because they do know better. Perhaps a little caution is advised in dealing with these people.
3. An idiot that should just be ignored/avoided until their free trial runs out.
Problem is, until you talk to them, you'll never know which one it is and, by then, it might be too late.
4. May need your help forming a team.
5. Isn't ignoring your /tell - he/she *can't* respond to it.
Anyway - sure, let's add some sort of tag in the title or wherever else works. I don't think it "stigmatizes" the trial account, just let's everyone know to welcome the newcomer and that there are some things he/she can't do yet. -
Generally speaking, there are more heroes than villains on every server.
Freedom has been the highest load server (for the past 4-5 years, LOL), although recently, I have seen Virtue with a higher load than Freedom.
Freedom has a bad reputation as having a higher absolute number of bad players, immature players, etc. - which makes sense since it has a higher number of players period (with the above caveat about Virtue). I don't play on Freedom (avoid it like the plague actually), but that's the general consensus. Some people absolutely love Freedom - and I let them have that server.
Note that this weekend, it may be possible to be temporarily "locked out" of Freedom (& Virtue BTW). If the load gets too high, they stop allowing more logins. I believe they recently instituted a queueing system, so it would probably be only a few minutes delay, but be warned it could happen.
BTW, as an altoholic with over 60 alts, my ratio of heroes to villains is about 3:1 heroes. -
Well, as seems to be usually for this forum and any question about *anything* - most useless at what, exactly?
What does she want to be "most useless" at? Teaming? Soloing? PvP? -
Quote:This.Originally Posted by BBhumeBB
All in favor of adding more attachment points to skeletons for bling. Rings, bracers, etc. no problem.
But not costume bits that look the same and add to scores. Doesn't go with the concept of the gamem which has always been that we design our powers and modify them with enhancements, and choose costume look to suit ourselves, whether that costume matches our powers in some visual way or not.
When I started the OP, I thought he was asking for a variety of costume pieces - I was quickly disabused of that notion BTW.
Adding cool-looking bracers, rings, necklaces, etc - great idea! Making them anything other than a costume piece - ick! -
Outstanding idea!
(nothing else i can think of to say) -
I agree with the others here - I have inherited a couple of SGs myself. I kept the former leader in the SG for a relatively long time, just in case - but 60 days or so sounds about right to me.
I advise caution when kicking inactive members - just be sure to keep the 15 needed to keep the Prestige bonus the SG got from them. If you are kicking all old members (and there is nothing wrong with that), make sure you have replacements to keep the 15 member minimum.
OTOH, I have kept some inactive members in one of my inherited SGs for nearly 2 years now. But if they don't come back this weekend, they are going to be kicked - I figure they won't even be back. -
Quote:Hey, Leo, I understand your suggestion. And it really is something different from the OP's complaint about names being scarce.Originally Posted by Leo_G
<snip>
I've read some of the criticisms of my particular suggestion and understand that I might be he only person to use the option...and not even all the time. But it's an option. It's not hurting anyone if I (or anyone who isn't that creative) with names decides to put it off until later. Is it? If so, explain.
<snip>
That doesn't stop the artist/author from actually drawing/writing and putting the character out there. For example (even though I don't agree with the analogy of being the author of the character. It's a RPG, not an endorsement deal. I am *playing* the character, not selling him) Lucas didn't have a name for Luke though the first drafts (who went from being a girl to an aged general to a boy) and went through several names before finally naming the character after himself. The any names before were placeholders until they settled on Starkiller and pushing it out for publication. Century Fox didn't like it so it was changed to Skywalker.
The 'placeholder' names are essentially what I was suggesting. The changing from Starkiller to Skywalker is pretty much a requested name change that you'd have to purchase.
...but again, I find equating the player as the author and therefore you must have a name otherwise you're a forgetful hack writer absurd. Like I'm creating a complete character right at the start. That's is just dumb and flies in the face of an RPG. You're not publishing a completed character, you're creating a new *incomplete* character that *becomes* complete as you play and experience the game. You can give him a reason to fight but that doesn't equate to needing a name (I mean a moniker, I name all my characters but they don't go walking around being called by their first and last names). Already gave an example of someone sort of 'earning' a moniker too so really, it's not completely out of left field.
But I'm afraid I have to say that unless it's incredibly easy programming for the Devs to put your idea into the game, I would vote "thumbs down" on it because I honestly don't think it's all that necessary. It would be hard to quantify it, but I doubt that there are that many people who develop another name for a character (even to replace a placeholder) after the character gets its start in the game. I'm thinking that the huge majority of characters never change their names - partly because there is a cost involved, but mainly because the character is the name it is from the beginning in the player's mind.
If we had lots of people in this thread supporting the need for allowing a placeholder name to be used until the character develops, or if I had ever seen anyone upset that they had a character develop into another name after it was played for 5-10 levels, then I might support your idea a bit more - but it really seems to be a niche idea. -
Quote:So I'm guessing you didn't bother to slog thru the entire thread before posting, didja?Originally Posted by Joe_Blow
They should just attach everyone's global to the end of their character's names, hidden or not. That way, anyone can have any non-restricted name.
Just look at Champions Online. That's what they did. It was one of their only great ideas...
There are some pretty strenuous objections to doing that which have been expressed multiple times throughout the thread, so I won't repeat them here except to say - NO THANK YOU.
BTW - my newest baby alt - on Infinity - is Voltaic Amber, an Electric/Electric scrapper based around the discovery of an Amber magical amulet. Names are still out there if you take a minute or two to think about them. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Crim_the_Cold
4. How many of you would think it would be funny to flood a server's hero side market full of rare enhancements and salvage. (psst - This is what I'm planning to do)
You do realize that you can't flood a "server's" heroside market with anything, right?
All the servers are linked on either the heroside or the villainside. To flood one server's market, you would actually be flooding all the blueside markets at the same time - quite an ambitious goal. I wish you luck with it, but I'm not holding my breath that any single player can do that. There have been experiments run by some of the ebil marketeers that seem to indicate it really can't be done to any extent to have much effect on the entire blueside market.
I am interested in your motivation in doing so, anyway.
Also - since you can only hold a max of 18 storage items, that's only about a max of 1800 rares (any combination of enhancements and/or salvage) you can hold in a base.
Those storage items can be stacked/crammed into 2 2X2 rooms (if you don't care how ugly that looks) BTW, so Impish Kat's projected cost is a little bit high since you don't really need the 4X3 room. Just stack the tables one on top of the others with floors lowered and ceilings raised. -
Quote:I also make it a habit to stock them in my Enhancement Tray prior to a /Respec. You can at least recover some of your costs for those nigh worthless level 10 Slows you made to get your Field Crafter accolade, and it can provide some cash if you need it (admittedly not much cash, though.) Waste not, want not, my gramma used to say...Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
I'd drop the "chance of recipe back." The recipe itself isn't "part" of the invention - and what about memorized? (Obviously you can't memorize sets, but still.) The invention fee, yeah, would be gone - heck, i'd say there should be a fee to reverse engineer it, frankly.
Though for the "benches are cluttered," I've got to agree... time to either remind people to use them, or make some of that INF back dropping them on the market. -
Quote:Hey, I call 'em like I see 'em - so I stand by "best". And I will be much more careful with your "underscore" in the future.Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
*bampf*
Did I hear my name?
And "best" is debatable, Ad... I MIGHT qualify for "most prolific," but "best is debatable.
To answer Animorph's question, if you visit the ParagonWiki site and search for Demo Record, you'll find several links there, not only on how to actually record in-game, but programs you can use to customize your footage, opinions of various video editing software, and so on.
Don't forget to post a link to your finished product in the Fan Videos thread, along with the category for your video type so Dark Ether can update the list!
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
*bampf*
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Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I have to agree with this. Archetypes, classes or whatever you want to call them are designed to pair up specific advantaged with specific disadvantages. An open-power system allows players to keep only their advantages while avoiding their disadvantages, or where that isn't possible, pick advantages that matter and disadvantages that do not. Left to their own devices, players WILL gravitate towards the best possible approach, and that ruins the fun for me.
And this is almost exactly what happened on the old Champions campaign I was part of about 20 years ago. Players would come in with characters who had disadvantages that granted point bonuses but were not truly a disadvantage - at least until the GM drew the line and shut them down.
In order to do that in an MMO, you would have to employ a metric ton of skilled players who know all the exploits and have the sneaky mindset to continually look for new exploits. The GM in the campaign above was just that sort of person. They aren't necessarily all that common, and the learning curve for training them is pretty steep.
Remembering this long-ago Champions PnP campaign made me not very hopeful for the MMO, and based on the reviews I have been seeing, it looks like I may have been right.
Oh, and to refer way back to near the top of the thread - Eisregen, I do not have a single character with Hasten. I tried it on one character and respec'd out of it long ago. It never works into any of my builds. I know I'm only one player, but I guess I am going against the "accepted wisdom" that *everyone* takes Hasten. Most of my characters take the Fitness poll, but the reason for that is almost just as much to get Swift as to get Stamina. -
Quote:Hey we are "Quiz Twins". I got the same score.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
78.79% - had to make guesses for the technical questions
Hmm, yeah, guessing on the tech ones myself. -
Quote:Stop by the gather point. There are typically a few who show up to see if someone is a "no show", and a third team is sometimes possible.Originally Posted by Orion_Energy
Ah, it's a shame that both teams are full. I would have loved to tag along. I'll try be on before 1, so give me a shout if someone doesn't make it and you have a free spot?
Unless there's enough interest to do a 3rd team? I'd gladly run it, if need be. -
Quote:A lot of people DO still play this game, but currently there seem to be less on-line at any given time. Part of that is the start of school, which tends to pull some players away to concentrate on RL stuff. Part of it is because a couple of intriguing other game released not too long ago and people are checking that out.Originally Posted by KrystDaymen
Hey everyone,
I just recently started on city of heroes and I was wondering if a lot of people still play it.
Galaxy City is one of the starting zones. That said - it is the one chosen by those who want a quieter start. Many more people start over in Atlas Park. You can go to AP if you want - just look for the circled "T" and take the train.Quote:I'm in Galaxy City and I don't see anyone....where does everyone hang out and are all the cities relative to a certain level range?
All the city zones (BTW - Paragon City is really one big city for the most part - what you mean are zones or neighborhoods) do have targetted ranges which means you are somewhat more likely to see a level 15 in Steel Canyon or Skyway City than in Galaxy City or Atlas Park. That being said, the recent release of Issue 16 means that it is even easier to have many different level characters on the same team, and so the character levels are a bit more mixed than they used to be in each zone.
Absolutely not. This is a game where many players start new alt characters all the time. I have been playing the game for more than 57 months and I just started a new Scrapper last night.Quote:I mean am I doomed to always be playing by myself because I am new?
One thing to remember is that over 90% of the missions in the game are "instanced" meaning that the character is not out on the streets and visible to everyone else.Quote:I really am enjoying the game but the tumbleweeds are getting to me...lol. I'd appreciate any answers to these questions.
Where can I find you? What is your Global Name?
Welcome to the City! Please stick around to give us a chance to make you feel more welcome.... -
Quote:Population also changes over the course of a 24-hour day.Originally Posted by Caemyr
Okay, I have been playing the game for a long time now, many years, and this question finally started bugging the hell out of me. Why are some servers populated more than others? I mean, the missions are the same, the enemies, environments, NPCs, etc are all the same, so why the vast gap in players? I have toons on both Guardian and Pinnacle, Pinnacle is not too bad, but Guardian should be re-named "the abandoned server". There is never anyone on Guardian it seems, at least on Pinnacle my SG is on there, so there are people I can team with. Also why is it that Freedom seems to be the most populated/poular server?
Your experience of Guardian as "abandoned" is opposite to mine. I ran a PuG Moonfire TF on Guardian at about 10 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday night. At that time, Guardian was actually lower on the list than Infinity and Justice (typically the 2 servers vying for #3 status), so therefore (at least theoretically) more populated than either of them.
Justice has a rep for being the server with a large Aussie & Oceanic population, so it's usually busier at peak times there - about opposite those for NA players. I'm not sure if there is a server with a larger EU population, but it stands to reason that it would have more players on about mid-afternoon for the NA players. If you play at times that are not the typical 7 p.m.-midnight in one of the US time zones, your experience of which server has a good-sized population will be be pretty different from someone who almost exclusively plays in that time window. -
Our very best resident video-maker is Dark Respite - you could pm her.
There is also a whole forum dedicated to fan art & screenshots who can probably answer your questions better because it's kinda their "thing".
It's down in "For Fun". -
I'm kinda hoping to get my level 44 Corr to 50 (finally - she was created during CoV pre-start weekend) to unlock the VEATs.
Other than that, I have a few characters who kinda specialize in Double XP Weekend - a Grav/Rad Controller, a FF Defender, 3 Emps at various levels. All in demand for DXP teams who don't get played as much at other times.
Postagulous - I don't want to try to tell you how to play your characters - but a level 2 Tank that is "messed up" is easier to delete and start again (especialy on DXP Weekend) than to try to "save". If you delete & re-roll right now, the baby tank should be up to reasonably good levels (at least high teens) before DXP and then you don't have to make time for the Respec Trial unless you want to do it for the XP & drops (and to see what it's like, of course, if you have never done one). -
I'm fully in support of *anything* that makes moving crafted enhancements around easier. I tend to do the same thing myself (try to keep bins stocked for lower level characters - granted those characters belong either to my sister or to me, but still they are lowbies in search of IOs).
The idea of "going until you can't go any more" sounds intriguing as well for the same reason. -
Quote:Between 54 & 57 months, including the first month I played on the hubby's account, so here I am - you rang?Originally Posted by GarfieldZ
This for the uber vets! I class these as players who have like a 48 month badge and higher!
I started with about 5-6 characters when I first set up my own account (the very first character on my husband's account has long been deleted).Quote:for these uber vets, i have 3 question! what toons have you been playing for all this time?
They were:
Maurya - Eng/Elec/Elec Blaster, now level 50
Flambe' - Fire/Fire Tanker, currently in the mid-20's where she has been for a while
Libby Belle - Katana/Regen/Body Mastery Scrapper, currently level 47
Isotope 167 - Rad/Dark/Dark Defender, currently level 48
Violet Psyche - Strom/Psi Defender, currently level 28(?)
But like Alt, I also have a whole stable full of alts, most of whom will never see 50 (which is never really a goal of mine, as you can see from the group of 5 characters above). I'm only amateur compared to Alt, though, as I only have about 60 current characters, with a few ideas yet to be made from the I16 powerset proliferation.
Well, both Maurya & Iso are part of the regular Saturday TFs run by the Taxibots on Infinity. Flambe' & Vi are much less played. I can't get into a Tanker mindset, and the chaos caused by Vi's storms require me to be in a particularly destructive chaotic mood, so they get played less. I also play about 10-12 other alts at least once a week. The others go thru cycles, but everyone comes out for the big events.Quote:have you played one from when you started till now?
See the sig below. I love to Blast things. I play lots of Blasters, usually with /Energy as the secondary, but across all the Primaries. /Ice is also a favorite Secondary.Quote:whats your favourite build?
I play a good number of Defenders as well - all of which are played as Offenders most of the time - i.e., I Blast stuff a lot between buffing/debuffing. They tend to be soloists for this reason, as taking time out to buff means less time to blast.
Villainside - I play Corruptors who Blast. I play MMs who attack alongside their pets.
If I am in Melee (and not on a Blapping Blaster), I am probably playing a Scrapper with either /Regen or /SR as a Secondary, although recently I am liking /Firey Armor on a new baby Scrapper I have running. -
CoH was my first (and only) MMO, so I can see where some of the confusion might arise as to the "mechanics" of the game - but really the system is pretty simple.
Target something and hit the attack - watch the orange numbers float up. If the Health bar of the bad guy in the targetting reticle doesn't go down all the way, hit another attack.
Scrappers follow this strategy pretty much all the time.
Blasters also follow this strategy, but with a healthy dose of keeping an eye on the baddie so you can beat a strategic retreat if necessary.
If you are teaming, I actually recommend Blasters as the best method of learning mechanics. Your team can help keep you safe, leaving you time to watch how others are playing their ATs and roles from the back of the party while firing off attacks. Watch the other players to see when a Defender fires off buffs and debuffs, or how a tanker takes and holds "aggro", etc.
Play one of those ATs until you get your feet under you, then start looking at some of the others. Defenders are a pretty good next step if you are planning on soloing (with the right set of powers, such as Radiation - not as easy if you choose Empathy or Force Fields). By taking a Defender set that debuffs enemies and/or has the ability to buff yourself, you can make up for lower damage numbers.
I don't find the Wiki all that difficult, but if you aren't familiar with how a Wiki is set up in general, I could see some confusion in finding answers.
Have you checked the section labelled "Player Guides"? There are some really well-written guides there to help you thru specific issues like how to use the Markets, or playing particular ATs and powersets. There are a couple of nice New Player Guides as well. Unfortunately, I have been playing the game for so long that I haven't kept up onwhich are the best guides.
Specific questions are something that these boards are great at answering, so please keep coming back. You may want to post above in the Player Questions forums, however, as there will typically be a faster response there (forum regulars kinda have a race to answer first, LOL).
What server and side are you playing right now? Post that here and likely someone will come find you to help.
Welcome to City of Heroes!
EDIT to add - Here is the best thread for seeking a guide to just about anything - ZombieMan's Guide to Guides -
Quote:In answer to your rebuttal - You appear to not understand what the "Hide" function is or how it works.Originally Posted by Prez1
Weeeee,,, this is fun.
I stated what I am seeing on Freedom, it's obvious the long term vets and those alike who are pleased with the AE changes are going to jump with glee showing how many people are on looking for teams other than AE farms now. I just have not seen >>> inserting edit here. Thank you Westley for pointing it out! You're awesome and deserve a gold star.<<<<< a lot of it or as much as those stating they are seeing it.
As far as "people are in missions" and inferring their numbers are staggering......really? So, when I pull up the box that says Find Members and choose All and the total number of people show up at the bottom, this does not represent the total population on the server? Hmmmmm.......it also shows people "On Mission Map" so I guess that would include those too.
My apologies to OP for continuing this in their thread. I will conclude my point made with this post. These are my observations and I had to post stating I was tired of others making those who feel the server populations were dwindling as if they were imagining it. And in response to those who are constantly stating the reason is school, time of day, tis the season --- they may have an effect but not this much and certainly not to the degree RIGHT after such a patch as i16, it's just too coincidental.
>>>>>Disclaimer added for Ad Astra<<<<<< The above picture representation does not reflect my current view of how low the population of the Freedom server is during peak playing times since Issue 16 was released. It was taken to illustrate a point of how you could see the total amount of people online and to rebut the point in a previous post about "hidden" people on mission maps. I am still uncertain about completely hiding yourself from the game so far as not to be counted in the number listed above.
When people say there are "hidden" players on, they mean that there are players who have set their settings to not even appear on the Search window your screenie displays. Yes, there are some players who aren't on the streets because they are in missions - but there are also players who aren't even on your list. And you have no way of knowing how many there are.
And as Forbin pointed out - your screenie only displays the first couple dozen names on the list captured by your search - there are others not displayed.
So your screenie is still not a good representation of how many players are on at any given time.
And I don't really think that 184 players who choose to be displayed as on-line Redside on a Sunday morning at 11 a.m. (8 a.m. on the West Coast) is really that low a number. That was *my* point. Anecdotal evidence like your screenie do not illustrate much at all because they are a very limited single data point that can easily be "opted out of". -
OMG! So few people on and unhidden at 11 in the morning on a Sunday! Oh, wait, that's 8 in the morning for those on the West Coast, isn't it?
Do ya think that maybe we should go wake some other players up from sleeping in after a late Saturday night or pull some out of church or something so Prez can have team mates at his beck & call?