Card_Shark

My character "Fault" was born because of this guide and at level 39, he's one of the most fun characters I've ever played.

While I did make a couple of changes to the proposed build, I'd like to offer a personal thank you to Hot Buttered Soul for writing such an informative and fun to read guide that accurately represents the powers for what they really are!

I preordered from Gamestop. Got a PRE-ORDER box with a serial code. Upgraded my account. This is the code that lets you into the head-start.

Thursday, I received the RETAIL version. It ALSO has a code. That code cannot be used until the 31st.

Everything is fine here. If it went down differently for you, you might consider talking to the retailer first. This is how preorders usually work. If your retailer is doing it differently, they messed up. Sorry for your troubles, but this is NOT NCSOFT attempting to "rip" anyone off. They put a system into place and it works when the retailers follow what seems to now be standard operating procedures.

Sorry it worked for some and not others.

Don't blame Cryptic or CuppaJo. The problem is not them. The problem is the user base.

Before you jump on me, hear me out.

This is an "official" forum supported and moderated by the game developers. They cannot allow discussions to go on that concern the modification of the game client, the folder it is installed to, or additional files used to enhance your experience that are not specifically provided by Cryptic or NCSoft. Why do you ask? Because.... If they do, they are then opening themselves up to supporting these modifications. You see.. In the strictest of senses..If they allow such discussions to take place on their forums, it could be implied that they support and condone the activity.

Does that mean that they don't like the ideas that the community has provided? No. Do is mean that they may not be implementing some of the ideas themselves in the future? No. Does it mean you can't discuss such things on a forum not owned and controlled by the game developer? No. They are just doing what they must do to protect themselves from supporting users that have modified their clients (perhaps incorrectly) and then submit support tickets for problems that the user may have caused themselves.

It's a shame they have to do such things, but the reason can most likely be attributed to the letigious nature of society. People are very quick to blame others for their own problems. Not to ruffle feathers here, but there have been numerous threads involving people that have said "the problem is not on my end", but a Hijack This log proves that their system is the reason they are having issues.

Ultimately..it's a shame they have to do this, but it is the nature of the beast. The thing to do would be to find a third party site to discuss the modifications that players have come up with and discuss them there. The "official" forums are for discussions that the game developers are willing to "support". Anything else will be officially taboo.

As an aside... Modifying the client does not mean changing the specific client files. Adding files or folders to any folder that is part of the City of Heroes installation, Inserting any files on your system that affects the behavior of the client, or even modifying a shortcut created by the client could be considered modifying the client. ANY change, deletion, or addition to the files provided by the developer falls under this category. The TOS may be ambiguous, but it must be. Cryptic cannot allow themselves to be in a position to "support" anything beyond what they provide as a whole. A TOS with the desired specifics would be impossible to write since it would have to address each and every possibility that could occur.

Eventhough Virtue was the community elected "roleplay" server, there are a LOT of roleplayers on every server. If you are looking for Roleplay, just about any place will yield a response if you stick with it some.

I'll give my personal guidelines to role-playing in an MMORPG:

1. Try it even if you think that you aren't good at it. I have never encountered a role-player that will put down another roleplayer regardless of the level of RP experience

2. Your Bio is your friend. Take a minute to think up a bit of backstory for your character and add it to your ID card. Not sure what to say? Take some time near Miss Liberty or the Brawler and look at the info of other people. There are a lot of people that have their bio filled in. You'll see some good story ideas ranging from funny to horrific.

3. Speaking of Backstory.. think of one. It can be a few sentences or it can be a long drawn out epic story that fills in every detail of your characters life. As an example.. I ran a defender named Stormshade. She was a Weather/Darkness defender. She had a metal plate on her face, wore a cloth mask over the lower part of her face, and had one robotic arm. She was a mutant, but her story involved being a Vahzilok guinea pig. The good doctor had the idea that using a mutants organs would help to increase the power of his creations. So..Stormshade was one of his victims. This once very beautiful woman was taken apart by the Vahz minions but kept alive to ensure the usefulness of other organs. She was rescued by a group of heros and the scientists at DATA put her back together again. This left her with a self-consciousness about her appearance, a driving hatred of the Vahzilok, a desire to save others from the good doctors plans, and added darkness control to her previously possessed weather control abilities. The whole idea was spawned by the costume generator while I was just messing with it.

4. Make it personal. There are a great number of choices of villian groups. Most heroes in comics have one or more specific foes that they fight against. If the character's backstory has a personal attachment to one or more of the villian groups, it will help you choose contacts when given the choice, give the missions you do more meaning for your character, and help spark personal involvement in the story arcs that you complete.

5. Talk in Character . Say the things your character would say. Avoid talking about the real world, game mechanics, or in game terms unless you use something to separate the in character from out of character. I generally just type normally for in character chat and use << >> around text that is out of character. Others type OOC: before typing out of character chat. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you are consistent. Those you group with will quickly recognize it.

6: use emotes Emotes add flavor to your characters actions. Shrug, smile, laugh, scowl, etc... If the emote doesn't have an animation you can still just type a semicolon and some text ( ie: ; glares at the Hellion thug.) to emote. The result will be a thought bubble with the text in it. The chat window will show <your name> glares at the hellion in italics to show that it was an emote.

7. Lastly...try it. You don't have to be good at it to give it a shot. It will help improve the immersiveness of the game and increase the attachment to a specific character.

All MMORPGs are really little more than Kill X, get experience, Kill X, get experience, Kill X, Level up...lather rinse and repeat. Sure..some have crafting and loot, but then you are still just going out to Kill X and get experience to level up. Roleplay can help make a grind seem less like a grind and more like something you are doing for a reason beyond just getting to the next level.

While everything should (and most likely can) be solo'ed by any AT, there are many that think linearly and beat their heads against a wall refusing to use creative tactics.

The key is that everything may be soloable as long as you are patient and willing to try various tactics.

As to the "find a group responses"... If a specific individual (or several individuals) has(have) a problem with a specific mission the correct response might be to:

Either figure out a new approach to the mission OR to find a group to help with that specific situation.

It does not necessarily mean that the AT or the mission itself is broken.