Barata

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I wouldn't put any procs in it, myself, because if they ever remove the ability to slot them (which is far more likely after all this time than readding a tohit debuff), they may no longer function or they could end up deleted.

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That was something I very much meant to say, but forgot. I'd refrain from slotting an IO into a power if it's questionable whether or not it's something that could change.

Uberguy is correct. You can sell the recipes at any store, but once you craft an IO, you can only sell it on the market.

From what I understand, they removed the time limit on the market. It used to be if you bid or tried to sell items, but didn't log into that character for 45 days or such, you lost your item. Now, you can keep it there. So I would just put the items on the market for a reasonable price and leave them until they sell. It's rare that something never sells unless it's priced too high.

I suggest calling up the Info for the power itself to see what effects are applied. I've seen discrepancies before between the pop-up description and the power info screens.

I like the Radiation set. It's got an AoE Heal, Accelerate Metabolism (which increases damage and endurance recovery and recharge), a damage debuff, a damage-resistance debuff, accuracy debuff, rez, regen debuff, a group pseudo-hold (choking cloud)..... it's got about everything you'd need.

With a defender, sonic blast pairs well with it because you can debuff damage-resistance even further. With a controller, I found it teams very well with Plant, but really, it should complement anything you choose.

Like others have said, "money" isn't really a problem in this game. Sure you may need a ton if you want to purple out a toon, but it's not at all necessary and is only possible once you hit the max level. At that point, you're most likely well-equipped anyway and anything extra is just fluff.

I'd still like some kind of common storage area shared by all your toons though as a QoL feature. There's times I get a recipe on one toon as a drop that I really want on another, and I'd love to be able to transfer it. It's just part of human nature that you view your characters as "you". Getting a drop on one toon, selling it, and then having another toon put in a bid for the exact same one, just goes against the way people think. Also, there was a time or two when I wanted to move money from several different characters to one so that he could get a particularly expensive IO, and it would've been easier had there been a transfer mechanism.

Perhaps a vault that can hold limited mixed items. Six recipes, six enhancements, influence/infamy, and a dozen pieces of salvage. Not big enough to let you hoard things, but still large enough to transfer items or put things aside for just one character.

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After more than five years (I was in beta) of playing City of Heroes, I'm leaving. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here. City of Heroes has an awesome group of fans! And you devs, continue the good work with this game - you've really made some great changes and updates!

I'm leaving City of Heroes because of time and money and other circumstances, but this game will always stick out to me as one of the greatest MMORPGs ever made. Thanks a lot, everyone!

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Good luck sir. May life be fruitful to you.

The AE building appears to be different from the other buildings in the game. With other buildings, when you enter through a door, you actually get moved to a room far beneath the world geometry. Originally, from what I've heard, there was a point where doors opened and the inside of the buildings were seamless with the outside. These led to problems with mobs following players into the shops, and then attacking patrons that were shopping or afk. So they moved the "inside" of the buildings to far underground.

AE building seems different. You can see out the windows, but can't see in, which is odd, and that would mean that the upper level of AE is at least in the spot we see it in the gameworld. The lower level, where you enter from the street, I'm not sure of. Maybe it's far underground like the other shops.

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I'll add to what other people have already said that if you're mid-level for the task force or strike force, clearing (or very nearly clearing) each mission is the most rewarding way to play: maximum XP, maximum loot. For all but the longest TFs, and for all villain SFs, that's what I'd actually prefer: to join the TF or SF that is my level, and play it as designed, fighting our way to the objectives.

But since task forces and strike forces give only merit rewards to people above their level, and since running the TFs and SFs their own level more than once per day gives diminishing rewards, your average TF or SF has at least half of the players getting no reward for anything but the end of the mission. So, by definition, half or more of the players on the team want to get to that end-of-mission as soon as possible.

(What? Inf? Yeah, as if there's anything left in this game that can be bought with the amount of inf you'd get from clearing a TF. You get inf in this game by grinding out merits, using merits to buy reward rolls, and selling your unwanted random rewards to people who got their inf from gold farmers.)

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And that point that we bring up is that merits and influence and drops and all those rewards are only good for one thing..... enhancing your character for combat. To solely focus on the reward and toss aside the combat is silly. It devalues the reward. What good are all the merits and recipes and IOs and bonuses if all you do is race past all of the mobs. It's like saying "I like going to the movies. I time them so that I can catch the last 20 minutes of all the movies. I can fit 20 movies into a weekend!"

Sure the climax is at the end of the movie, but what's the point? The same with this game. What's the point of collecting all of these rewards and having a pimped out character if you don't want to actually play? To just see the cool bonuses listed?

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Except how many times can you go see the same movie, before you stop giving a [censored]?

After doing the ITF about 30+ times, I really couldn't care less about the story. I know it by heart. And it's not as if the combat is all that compelling. This game is still pretty much, beat stuff down till it's dead before it kills you, in it's basic form.

The AI in dev content is still dumb as rocks.

I can see some folks loving the reward and yeah just pimping out a character IS in fact the point for many. If not many folks would have stopped playing by now.

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That's my point. Why are they playing if they find the content boring? I may not have said it, but if actually playing the game is boring, then why are they doing it? To pimp out a character so they can not play the game?

Using my movie analogy, it's like saying "I hate going to the movies, but I go anyway so I get coupons to save money on movie tickets." Great. You've got coupons for doing something you don't like doing, and had to force yourself to do it to get the coupons.

You've got great enhancements for a character, but don't like playing him.

It's burnout. The old phrase "familiarity breeds contempt" comes to mind. Some people don't like the content because they've done it all before, so they concentrate on the rewards, forgetting that the rewards are only good for enhancing the content, which they claim they don't like anymore. So what do they do after they get the rewards? Stand around and show off their set bonuses? I wish! Instead they put together TFs and SFs, speed through the content so they don't have to play, and deny everyone else on their team who actually enjoys beating the bad guys the ability to do so.

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I'll add to what other people have already said that if you're mid-level for the task force or strike force, clearing (or very nearly clearing) each mission is the most rewarding way to play: maximum XP, maximum loot. For all but the longest TFs, and for all villain SFs, that's what I'd actually prefer: to join the TF or SF that is my level, and play it as designed, fighting our way to the objectives.

But since task forces and strike forces give only merit rewards to people above their level, and since running the TFs and SFs their own level more than once per day gives diminishing rewards, your average TF or SF has at least half of the players getting no reward for anything but the end of the mission. So, by definition, half or more of the players on the team want to get to that end-of-mission as soon as possible.

(What? Inf? Yeah, as if there's anything left in this game that can be bought with the amount of inf you'd get from clearing a TF. You get inf in this game by grinding out merits, using merits to buy reward rolls, and selling your unwanted random rewards to people who got their inf from gold farmers.)

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And that point that we bring up is that merits and influence and drops and all those rewards are only good for one thing..... enhancing your character for combat. To solely focus on the reward and toss aside the combat is silly. It devalues the reward. What good are all the merits and recipes and IOs and bonuses if all you do is race past all of the mobs. It's like saying "I like going to the movies. I time them so that I can catch the last 20 minutes of all the movies. I can fit 20 movies into a weekend!"

Sure the climax is at the end of the movie, but what's the point? The same with this game. What's the point of collecting all of these rewards and having a pimped out character if you don't want to actually play? To just see the cool bonuses listed?

For myself, I have an easy time explaining temp powers or abilities. Every single character heroside, and every character villainsiide, share something in common. If you're a hero, you've gone to City Hall and registered with them. Regardless of what you you claim your origin is, all heroes start out at City Hall and are given a security clearance (visible on your character screen). All villains start out in the Zig. The blackwand my mutant tanker carries? I a made friend during indoctrination and he gave me that as a parting gift. Sands of Mu? A little trick a zig cellmate taught me. The tech my magic blaster carries (body armor, long range missile)? As I got more and more experience fighting Paragon's villains, I realized I'd need to augment my abilities with some tech, so I raided our superbase's storeroom for some things we gadgets we picked up over time.

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A Clean Break, #30821, @Crimson Racer

This is a good ol' supervillains-for-your-superhero arc. Story-wise, probably better suited to the lower end of the level range (30-54). A great short story plot, 3 medium-sized maps. Lots of nuggets, like mission titles and navigation, for pool buffs. Highly recommended! Minor comments below.

Cheers, airhead

Perhaps the first mission could be adjusted to match missions 2 and 3 using the I15 ability to do so. Also, it seems odd that these Pool Gang guys run at such a high level, if their opponents are the Skulls.
The contact's description (Story Settings) is missing (readable through Ask about this contact).
The Pool Gang decided to dress up as supers - perhaps explain where they get the superpowers?
6-ball is lime green with a stripe? 5-ball also has a white stripe down the middle. You could make the 5 into a 9-ball. I understand there's no 10+ chest detail. Perhaps the 6 could be the ten, using roman numeral X... I guess there is no easy way.
mission 2 intro: talkin -> talkin'
Not as climactic as was possible. Hopefully there'll be a sequel to take it from nine-ball to kelly.

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That's really great feedback and advice! Thanks!

I haven't examined the I15 features yet, so it's a good idea of yours to use them to even out the missions (I didn't know it could be done). Likewise, I didn't even think about the Contact's description. There's no way I'm letting that one go by. I'm adding his bio, and probably going to spruce up the descriptions for the other guys.

Their costumes and colors I chose based upon the colors used in billiard balls. I did a wikipedia on the sport and used the colors I saw in the photos to match up their costumes and colors to the same-numbered balls. I've been thinking of adding two more into the group as Solid and Stripe, to give more variety.

Now that you mention it, their super powers do seem a bit strong considering what they're supposed to be. It will make a VERY nice detail in the story. I also know exactly how it will fit in. Cookie will remark that after they brought 8-Ball into the gang, some of them started to develop real powers. But you know, since Cue Ball uses radiation.....

The climax still puzzles me a little. It isn't really a story of city-changing scope. I didn't want to attempt something "epic" at first, the entire thing is the result of my first use of the AE system over several days. So I focused on a simple plot that could be done nicely, rather than a complex and epic plot where that I would probably do badly. Still, I think the final conclusion can be buffed a little.
I'm really excited! You gave me some really great ideas. I like the stories to have as much detail as they could, and this'll fill out it nicely.

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I had managed to avoid the AE up until Lv. 11, when I was on late (like... 1:30 in the morning) and I could no longer find a team or anyone to join a team. I sent a tell to one player, a Controller, asking them if they would like to team with me. Instead, I was told that I should just go join an AE team cause I wouldn't need to do regular missions anymore.


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Welcome back, and thanks for joining the forums. It's great to have the perspective of a relatively new player.

That paragraph is what I found troubling. The view that "regular missions" are somehow a necessary evil that we can now avoid. The regular missions are fun and the heart of the game. I know there will be people who respond to that with "it's not challenging and it's repetitive and boring" or some such nonsense.

Those are the jaded vets. What makes them jaded is that they can't see for a moment how wrong they are. If regular missions were boring or bad, they wouldn't be vets. They started out as a newbie just like everyone else. They started playing the early content and had fun. The fact they stayed proves there must have been a fun factor involved because they would've quit if it there wasn't. It's because they played that early content so many times that they're bored with it now. They should realize that a new player will be having the same fun and enjoyment that they themselves had years ago when they started playing.

I did smile when you said you stopped after you hit level 18 and felt "guilty". You instinctively realized that you were missing on some very good times.

Skulls and Hellions and Clockwork and Vahzilok are all so familiar to us vets and nothing we'd go out of our way for, but to a new player, they're the thrill of discovery. Going up against Dr. Vahzilok the first time is a wonderful experience in all regards, and I smile when I think about the first time I came up against him. One of the best character models in the game is also one of the first real "bosses" you'll come across. And new players can easily zip right past Dr. Vhaz and never see him in the future because they PL'd way too soon in their subscription.

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..completely ruin the theme sometimes when it comes to Epic Power Pools?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm NOT telling anyone how to play at all. However it just strikes me as so odd when someone has obviously put a lot of thought into a character, their primary/secondary powerset, bio, character name. Yet come up with the most rediculous EPP. It is such a shame I think.

The other day I saw a blaster who was themed as a witch. A great bio, and electric blast/electric manipulation. Her outfit was pretty cool and her bio was enjoyable. Yet to my suprise when reading her power selection she had the munitions epic power pool. I noted that this witch would apperantly throw out a ROCKET LAUNCHER amongst her electric spells?

Why is it that when people reach 41, their idea of concept sometimes flies out the window?

Sometimes a flawed character who doesn't wipe the floor with everything and does have weaknesses, is a more interesting character to play.

Peacemoon, Mind/Storm/Psi Controller

P.S I realise that sometimes it is thematically correct to have different elements etc, but you can only stretch it so far.

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I think it's the result of a change in the players' perceptions that occurs after they've been playing the game for a while.

When a game is new, the genre and lore and gameworld are all new to the players. UO had people coming up with names fitting into the genre, as did EQ and others. Once the newness wears off, and players have been in the game for a while and everything is familiar and not exciting anymore, the focus shifts to the inner workings of the game..... the mechanics of the powers, behavior of the mobs, the numbers behind the world. So keeping within the genre, even if it's your own "concept character" isn't a priority. Sometimes, it's not even a concern at all. Since a player can't respec out of their primary and secondary power sets, when an older player does a respec, it's very easy to choose a different EPP to give you the numbers you're looking for.

I've long felt that you should be able to choose an origin for each individual pool. You should be able to have separate origins for your primary, secondary, pool powers, and EPP. This would allow much greater flexibility in customizing your character concepts. You can have a mutant fire blaster who got their /mental secondary as a result of a radiation accident during an early mission. You can have a technology-based Assault Rifle blaster who backs up their attacks with some magic based Fire Manipulation.

I totally rewrote the description above since I did a horrible job of it the first time. I think the synopsis is now pretty accurate.

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imho, nobody deserves 5 stars


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This doesn't even make sense.

There will always be a few at anything that are the best.

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I don't understand it either. It sounds like a philosophical decision or something.

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Two snaps up!! That explains why I hate focusing on rewards. The ultimate goal of the rewards is to enhance your gameplay and make it more fun. To purposely not have fun so you can earn the reward and use it to purposely not have fun more efficiently is something I don't understand. I know some people will argue that point, but I've seen both sides. I've played MMOs for a very very long time and have played them for years with a focus on rewards. Over time, I realized that I wasn't playing and getting rewards, I was working and getting rewards. I decided that if I'm going to work, the only "reward" I want in return is money, and since I accomplish that with my job, I'd return gaming back to what it should be.... having fun.

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I think I take a more health approach to rewards and play in general. I'll use my Ninja/Pain Dom MM as an example. I'm currently working to very specific build, and I work on rewards towards that buid. Currently I'm working on getting enough Inf or Merits to get the +DEF Pet Damage Proc to help protect my tissue paper Genin a little better. Pain Dom doesn't give much in the way of proactive defenses. The previous goal was getting my AoE and ST heals slotted with a Heal IO Set for End Cost reduction. Long battle would leave me drained of END even with Stamina. Now the character is nicely slotted with Doctored Wounds which means no more huffing and puffing after a Boss fight. And the icing on the cake is a nice set of IO Bonuses. Next goal is a a 5 piece a Shield Breaker for the +11 ACC IO Bonus. (She uses the Veteran Attacks a lot in lieu of the MM attcks.

And now for the now intellectual rewards. The end result character was created during the closed beta that Pain Domination came into being. The character was literally just random choices that I made from costume to Patron Power Pool. I took the Mako Patron Pool. The spirits sharks and the chum spray are just plain cool looking. And the Shark Skin aura's color complemented the character's costume. So a character concept began to gell around that throw-away test character. I just had to recreate that character on the live servers. Now I'm nearing my rewards as the character is just about level 41. That will the down payment of my hard earned reward.

Cap'n Payne Jayne - The most notorious High Tech Pirate Ninja Lord on the 7 seas. She's steal anything that's not nailed down. She's stolen a Ninja Clan and their secret techniques. She's stolen from the forces everyone from Nemesis, the Circle of Thorns, and to Arachnos. She's even stolen from her dear sister, but that's another story (and character).

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That's cool. There is one question I have though that you didn't address in your post..... are you having fun? Seriously, you with all you typed, you never once said if you actually have fun.

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A partial solution to this, in my opinion, is to remove AE buildings from lowbie zones. This eliminate most of the farm spam in broadcast, this will allow the newbies to enter the game in the traditional way, doing official content and getting real teams.

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I don't know how effective that will be, because I well remember the days when PI was full of <10s.


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That's true, but keep in mind that those <10s were people who wanted to be PL'd so much they made the trek to Peregrine. They already had enough familiarity with the game to not only know the zone exists and that PLing can be found there, but knew how to get there too. If they were able to make the trip without taking shortcuts through a SG base or have someone bring them, and manage to avoid the street mobs and not get killed, then they already had a fundamental knowledge of the game.

In Atlas Park, none of that is required. A new player who may naturally want to join a team will find tons of invites and not know that AE is one of the last things he should be doing. It's these players that make it a good reason to remove AE from Atlas. The people who have made up their mind they want to get PL'd will find a way to do so. They'll make the trek to Peregrine. Removing AE from the lower zones will let the true new players experience enough of the game to learn the basics without being distracted or accidently PL'd by AE.

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Maybe rerolling to powersets that are a bit more synergetic? Both sets have merit, but together it's just a weird combo. Ice/Energy would probably do much better.

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I thought it was odd too. It seems to lack synergy. I'm sure it can function well as both Energy/ and /Ice are powerful sets. And I guess there's some synergy with some of the powers. For example, Shiver can slow down the mobs and Energy attacks can knock them back. Since they're slowed, it'll take the mobs much longer to get back into melee range.

Both sets have very good powers in them. It's hard to imagine that the power choices the OP made were so bad it's going to impact him. He took his break before IOs were released, so merely upgrading to some sets and getting some bonuses will probably make a big difference.

I think some good set bonuses could be accuracy (which is always good), recharge (which is also always good), and knockback (which will complement his Energy attacks).

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Pretty much, yeah. Rewards that allow me to make my character better at other content - content which may actually be a challenge. But more than that, the same thing you get when you accomplish anything ina video-game; or a real life sport or hobby or activity not direclty tied to your material well-being: an artificial sense of accomplishment.

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This kind of sentiment makes me cry on the inside and, in a very real way, has made it absolutely, positively impossible for me to do ANT TF ever unless I wanted to throw an hour or two down the toilet. I never understood this notion of an artificial sense of accomplishment, because, quite frankly, there IS no accomplishment to playing this game, or any game. Or doing pretty much anything, really. Real life aside, all you have at the end of a day of gaming is your butt in your chair and what good times you've had in the process.

Obviously, different people play for different reasons. But for me, personally, the only "reward" worth having is being able to look back on a play session and thing "Wow! That was a lot of fun! I want to do it again!" This could mean I earned a lot of experience, it could mean I knocked off a hard but important objective, but more often than not... It means I left with nothing more than the clothes on my back, only I enjoyed actually DOING what I did. Enjoyed playing the game for the sake of playing the game, as it were.

Please understand that I'm not making a value judgement when I say this, but to me this approach has been quintessential to a larger approach to life that has seen the past couple of years as by far the BEST time in my life... And I neither achieved anything during this time, nor really changed anything practically important. What I did was promise myself that, unless I really really had to (say, to earn money), I would NEVER do anything that I didn't really really want to and that I didn't enjoy doing from beginning to end. I didn't do anything because I felt I "had" to, not even with the promise of it bringing even BETTER things later on. Sure, it may not have made me a better person or let me do great things, but you know what? There has not been a day I have looked back on and thought "Man... Today was a bad day. I wish I'd done things differently." Sometimes I didn't get to achieve ANYTHING at all, but I STILL didn't regret doing what I did, because I had enjoyed it.

To me, reducing the game to a boring grind with only the glimmer of reward at the end, and with a notion that I'm going to "grind" the use of that reward anyway, is terminal. Very much so. Just about anything in this game that I can do on my own, I do on my own, because I'm sick and tired of people spoiling my fun by infecting me with their apathy and their rush to NOT play. Task Forces and Strike Forces I cannot do on my own, which has made me have to run them with the apathetic, unfun masses who only want to speed through them while having as little fun as possible. In other words, I can't and don't do them.

If people have fun by not having fun, more power to them. But it just makes it impossible for me to play anything that requires other people's help.

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Two snaps up!! That explains why I hate focusing on rewards. The ultimate goal of the rewards is to enhance your gameplay and make it more fun. To purposely not have fun so you can earn the reward and use it to purposely not have fun more efficiently is something I don't understand. I know some people will argue that point, but I've seen both sides. I've played MMOs for a very very long time and have played them for years with a focus on rewards. Over time, I realized that I wasn't playing and getting rewards, I was working and getting rewards. I decided that if I'm going to work, the only "reward" I want in return is money, and since I accomplish that with my job, I'd return gaming back to what it should be.... having fun.

Are you sure it's that bad? Maybe just reslotting with some of the better IO sets could help.

If you love that, then try this.....

Find a lower-level spawn on a rooftop, get in position, and turn on force bubble. Once a mob's feet is off the ground and there's no traction (when they get pushed off the roof), they go flying so far they're not even targeted anymore. They just disappear into the distance.

I think the problem is that it used to be if you wanted to get PL'd, you'd have to go out of your way. You'd have to make your way to Peregrine and convince someone else to PL you. Occasionally, you'd get requests for PLing in the lower zones, but only from people wanting to get a level or two. It was mainly Peregrine, and it wasn't a journey a newbie would accidently make. You had to want it and work for it. AE did made it so that you never have to leave AP. A newb could easily find themselves on an AE team without knowing any better and be level 20 or higher at the end of the day... and still in Atlas Park. Actually, it'd be hard *not* to find a team in AP because broadcast is filled with people looking for members.

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I think I have seen you in global channels, Barata. Have you ever done a Task Force with me?

I don't do them for speed. I don't do them for experience. I don't do them for the reward at the end. I don't do them for the badges. I don't do them for the Infamy/Influence.

I run Task Forces to blow **** up.

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I just ran the ITF with Smurphy and had a blast! We steamrolled through the mobs and had a great time. I really liked it Smurphy. It was just loads of action. The pace was good, the team was good, and it made for a fun night. It felt focused, but still relaxed. That's exactly the way task forces should be. We did really well.

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I think I have seen you in global channels, Barata. Have you ever done a Task Force with me?

I don't do them for speed. I don't do them for experience. I don't do them for the reward at the end. I don't do them for the badges. I don't do them for the Infamy/Influence.

I run Task Forces to blow **** up.

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It sounds great! My global isn't Barata though, it's @Crimson Racer. Actually, Barata is my least-used character. A DM/Regen scrapper that I made very early in the game's history that never grew on me.

I love playing with my blaster because he has Rise of the Phoenix. Talk about a liberating power! When faceplanting can be turned into an attack and you get an instant 2nd-chance every few minutes, you don't much hesitate to try new tactics or see how far you can push yourself.

oh, and I'm on Freedom. It was the one some online buddies were playing on when I started.

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QR

Barata, you should have been on the ITF I was on last night. We had people regularly still stomping baddies in the mission after the mission complete, we charged up the hill on the first mission instead of flying up the back, took down every ambush in the second, even if it didn't feel like coming to us, we searched it out and destroyed the heck out of it.

In the third mission, that team was the only one I've ever been on that charged straight up the canyon of lag, and one of the few teams that took Rommie and Requiem on the platform.

Oh yeah, and the entire TF was done on invincible.

Glorious...

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Hey! I was on that TF last night! I was playing my VEAT Impervium Widow!

Yes! It was GLORIOUS! We simply charged and obliterate everything we saw! And i got Hecatomb Dmg/Rech Recipe thee hee hee

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I'm envious of both of you. It sounds like a great time!

I've been playing my dark defender a bit more lately because our supergroup is nearing completion for the healing badge. My favorite character though is my fire/ice blaster. I do have to admit that I could respec him to do more AoE damage, but I really like his combination of damage, soft controls, and defensive abilities. He's a blast to play (pun intended)! I would've loved to have been charging up that hill and laying waste to everything!