Coulomb2

The Final Week:

So this is it, the final goodbye to the game. I've been really enjoying Aracana's "endgame" story. I won't be able to make the event (I don't think), but the story itself is one source of closure, and it's appreciated.

It is a very strange feeling that in only four days, the game will be gone. I know that for most people, the game seeming to be a ghost town is off-putting, but I must confess that as an almost compulsive soloer who managed to put in (literally) thousands of hours mostly during "off" times (and on a low population server) the game never seemed terribly populated to me any way. So I likely have a somewhat different perspective than the people who where here for teaming and social interaction - to me, the game resembles a good friend who you just learned has only a few days to live, but *looks* just fine. You really can't believe in four days it'll be over. Imperfect analogy, though; as much as I enjoy this game, actually loosing the friend would be a much stronger blow; I've already got a list of things that I'm looking forward to moving onto when the lights go out.

I've been working on a last archive of *all* of my characters. For each one I claim unclaimed 'account' stuff, take a front-on screenshot with the character description open, and then run Sentinel to archive him. This time it's different - I'm not just 'saving off' the favorites (in case something happened that kept me from making it to the end); I'm saving off *every* character, including the abandoned ones. I'm also in the process of demorecording my bases.

It's all oddly ... private ... my in-game friends were largely real-life friends that stopped playing two years ago. I started the game alone, and I will end it alone. It's hard to describe - it's like thumbing through a box of creative projects you did years ago, and making sure their in a safe place. But at the same time you *know* they really only have any meaning to you; *you're* the only one who will ultimately care what your base looked like, or what your character's did.

Of course, this last week isn't all about saving memories - it's about the last bits of playing the game too.

In game, my real goodbye to Perturbation has been to run him (as a villain) through the DA arcs - actually doing one reward roll per day just to see what my final incarnate component rolls will be. So far, three common and one uncommon, by the way - perhaps I should add that to my tabulation of thousands of rolls I started a year ago to track the solo drop rates? I actually spent much of my incarnate salvage unlocking all the unlockables (I still had plenty of merits to spare), and building the incarnate powers I'd wanted for the character - actually any incarnate power I didn't yet have at tier 4 I finished off tier 4, and there was an interface and a hybrid power I wanted to pick up too. So I did. As a result, my final run through DA has several incarnate powers equipped that normally I wouldn't be using (but wanted to play around with). No time like the present, eh?

I suspect I'll come up with one last 'farewell' for him - just something to do in-game with him as a sendoff. I don't know what it will be yet, though.

And then there's Lithos Fear. Each day, after archiving, and after the DA run, I log on with my 'final character' and just have fun. I have very little doubt now he'll get to at least level 38 by the end. He's right on the cusp of 37, and I still have tomorrow and Thursday left (I've got more important RL stuff to occupy my time on Friday - which makes me both sad and glad).

And that's the last week. Archive, play Perturbation for a bit; play Lithos Fear. Repeat. Until I can't any more.

I wish I'd posted more screenshots, but I'm not sad I chose to use the time to play the game instead. (Just 'cause they weren't posted doesn't mean I haven't taken hundreds of them over the last 90 days.)

Actually I don't. Nobody was reading this but me anyway.

It's time to go. Farewell City of Heroes. Farewell forums.

Excerpt from Perturbation's Notes (November 31st):

Yes, idiot. I know. There is no November 31st. Doesn't change the date. Deal with it.

You know what sucks about being a villain? No matter how perfect your plan is, it just never works. I had those idiots in the Phalanx eating out of my hand. The world thought I was their savior. The only people that even had an inkling about my dark past were crackpots who somehow retained fragments of memory after my countless trips to muck with the past.

I was going to save the world, and they'd give me anything I wanted in return. Willingly at first. And by the time they started to balk at whatever I was asking for, it'd be too late. I'd be every bit as powerful as I saw myself in the future - and nobody would be able to stop me. I'd be a well unto myself. A god.

Yeah, sure. I had a few loose ends to wrap up while I awaited the arrival of the Coming Storm. A few people I needed to visit - secret revenges to enact; paybacks kept under close guard with no witnesses. I'd finished consolidating my power back in the Isles, while my heroic 'allies' thought I was hunting my 'evil Praetorian double.'

I was almost getting bored waiting for Battalion to just go ahead and get here. Heck, I think I actually kind of abused my base's Crystal facing off against Mot in almost every imaginable way just to secure more and more Incarnate power for myself while I passed the time.

I should have savored it more.

The opening salvo was ... disappointing. I practically vaporized their advance scouts with my power. It was almost too easy to turn the tables on them - absorb their potential and expand my power. And they just kept coming. And kept getting stronger. It didn't matter, the gulf of power between me and them was just getting wider.

Echos that would have felled ArchVillains were torn apart by my power. I actually began to worry that other incarnates would end up more of a threat than I'd anticipated - if Battalion was going down so easily, and I was growing in power so quickly, then my rivals might also be almost unstoppable by the time it was over.

It was a trap. I never stopped to question that I was fighting only Echoes. I foolishly thought they *were* how the Battalion manifested.

They were only letting me tie my power into theirs. Sending their tendrils into my wellspring. However exacting I thought my control of the Well, theirs was orders of magnitude better.

In an instant, they did what they do - they consumed the wellspring, and my power vanished. All of ours did. They claimed it, and every Echo we'd ripped from reality simply reformed.

I knew it was over when I saw *my own* Echoes - hundreds of them, all wielding the power I'd had only minutes ago.

And for the first and the last time, I saw the *real* Battalion - not just the Echoes they'd used to lure our power away from us. I saw only one... and I cannot put into words what exactly I saw. I do know that it was little more than a minion - an insignificant footsoldier. Yet it commanded incarnate power effortlessly, and channeled it in ways I couldn't have conceived: It's Echoes of Lore bringing merciless Judgement down around us as it just stood and watched.

I could think of only one thing - my failsafe. My afterthought of a plan should my 'perfect' scheme to claim absolute power fail.

A dimensional portal stolen from Portal Corp years ago, with just enough power for one jump - a one-way trip. To be honest, I was too lazy to even consider actually searching out a suitable alternate world to flee too; I'd just tied the stupid thing into whatever "evacuation coordinates" the Portal Corp's mainframe was set to. So I wouldn't even get to flee to some world I could dominate utterly and live out the rest of my days in comfort. I'd end up fleeing to wherever all of the other heroes and villains relying on Portal Corp's escape route would be taking them.

On the up side, the fact that I was practically powerless made me of little interest to Battalion. They were throwing their power around with reckless abandon - seemingly just for the fun of it: a celebration in the wake of absorbing humanity's Well. Sort of the Battalion equivalent of firing your gun in the air, I suppose. As long as I (or my base) didn't get vaporized by some stray bolt of incarnate power while I slinked my way back, I might get out of this alive.

I made it, although the Portal had barely enough power. The last among my cohorts to make it through, I found myself in a timeless Limbo - between the end of my world, and the beginning of whatever is next.

Hence November 31st.

It's cliche, but it feels like I've been here for just an instant, and, at the same time, for eons. *Something* is falling back into alignment, and I can feel that my next step will take me into a new world, and a new beginning.

I feel a trace of old power - like those heady first days when my mutation first manifested. I don't know if I'll have to relearn how to use and develop my abilities - or if it will all come back to me once I'm ... real ... again.

Will it be a new world? Or just an Echo of the old?

Only one way to find out...

I love this game (note the present tense). It is one of the games I've played the longest (I've literally been here since launch). It is probably one I've put *the most* hours into (although not if you count creating custom content - that'd prolly go to NWN). It is a GREAT game.

Doesn't mean I don't have criticisms. They're not so much "what went wrong" as "stuff I didn't like and thought could have been done better."

A few:

(1) ED and the global defense nerf. More to the point - when something needed fixing (and what ED and the GDN addressed *did* need fixing) all to often the approach was heavy handed alpha strike, followed by a very slow upward adjustment to something that felt much more 'right.' Specific point: The falloff for Ed always felt extremely inelegant. For SOs: Full strength, full strength, mostly-full strength, less-than TO, less-than TO, less-than TO. It wasn't "diminishing returns" (which is what they labelled it) - it was "normal returns" followed immediately by "the cliff."

(2) Before we had in-game power data, the only in game indication of what a power did was the text description. Of course, those of us with a bit of will could pretty easily figure out exactly what the power did anyway, but it *always* irked me that after the GDN, many power descriptions did get updated to reflect what the powers did. Saying "Resist Energies" provided "substantial energy and negative energy resistance" seemed truthful when you selected it, put in an SO, and watched a 120-point electrical attack start doing 90 points instead. It felt like false-advertising when the same thing made the 120-point attack go down to 109 points instead.

(3) They never let you start TFs with just one player. Yeah, fine, I know it's built for 8. I know the spawns won't scale down. I know the AV at the end will pwn me. Who cares? At least let me try. Just put a bunch of warnings that what I'm about to do is a bad idea, and then let me do it anyway.

(4) A big one for me: The incarnate advancement rate solo. You time-gate stuff to justify having decent chances for rarer drops. You justify making the chances for rarer drops awful because the drops aren't time gated. You don't do both.

(5) More on incarnate advancement solo. Even in spite of the drop rates, you make the rate of incarnate XP so low that you are *likely* to have collected everything you need to build a Tier 3 in the slot *before* you've even unlocked the slot?! C'mon...

(6) More on incarnate advancement solo. No way to earn Hybrid XP outside of Magisterium. Which, in spite of certain players swearing up and down that you also couldn't earn the other types of XP without BAF and Lambda when they first game out - and being dead wrong simply didn't have a precedent (you were able to convert shards to threads at the same time BAF and Lamba came out, and you could turn threads into iXP right when they came out two. I *absolutely* could unlock Jugement, etc. without ever running BAF and Lambda from the moment the two trials launched).

*Disclaimer - I'm still glad they added the solo path. I just thought the balance compared to the trial path was way off.

(7) Never got to go back and play Praetorian arcs through flashback.

(8) Awards that were extremely useful in PvE placed in PvP zones.

And just to play fair - here are some things that I thought were 'wrong' but I later changed my mind:

The difficulty of BAF, Lambda, and TPN: First few times, got my blood boiling. After that, never really had a problem with them. I was wrong to rant the way I did. I still think some of the mechanics could have been more *fun* - but the difficulty wasn't the issue I thought it was...

Last week or so (November 13th through November 18th):

Been taking steady screenshots, but not really inspired to put them up. These days it seems like every second messing around here is a second I could have spent in the game.

Plus, hate to say it but the forums have degenerated into a place I'm not fond of spending any more time. (So why update at all? Simple; I've got copies of these updates saved, and one day I can look over them as a record of how I enjoyed the game in its last days. Well okay, hopefully not *last* days - but I do suspect in whatever form the game gets saved, if at all, it won't be the same as if NCSoft had decided to see where it could lead.)

On the happy side, I've been able to spend a large amount of time in-game. That's sort of drawing to a close, but I was happy with my progress, coupled with still getting to enjoy content that I *may* never get to see again.

First and foremost, my Widow *did* make it to 50. And completed Mako's arcs. So now I've finally played through every patron arc.

Also, used the Widow (pre-50) to finish out the rest of the live versions of SSA #2, and then copied Perturbation over to Beta to check out the final installment of that one.

And that's it, in one sense. With my various characters, I've played through virtually all of the content available on CoH at least once, with my main having played through a very large fraction of said content all by himself (at the very least every story arc, almost every TF, every incarnate trial - didn't necessarily *complete* each, but at least got to the final stage, and a lot of the single one-off missions).

Of course, I've been pulling in levels on my "last character" (Lithos Fear) as well, although much of the time did go to finishing out 50 with the Widow. He's now to level 32, and I should be able to squeeze in a few more before the end.

Still need to do final screen shots of my characters with their bios. That'll be a next week sort of project (with perhaps some this Wednesday).

And, to be honest, I haven't figured out the exact time table - but I do believe that next Wednesday will be devoted to my own "personal" sendoff of Perturbation; it seems fitting that I spend my last "major" play stints before the 30th with the character that I've come to think of as my main.

I strongly suspect this'll be my second-to-last update with only one more planned: A brief account of the end of Perturbation's story...

I'm keeping it extremely short and sweet today...

(Perhaps one last upload of screenshots on Wednesday too...)

November 12th

Got my Titan Weapons / Stone brute up to level 30 (and a few bubbles toward 31).

Then, logged on with my Widow - I got him about five bubbles, so he's now one shy of 45.

Should have another 1.5 to 2 hour window tomorrow.

Up to today (November 8th):

When all was said and done, I focused almost exclusively on seeing how high I could get Lithos Fear. When all was said and done, I actually spent very little time with my Widow (only gained about one level overall). My pattern was surprisingly predictable...

1. Keep an XP Booster and a Windfall active (virtually) all of the time. Always have patrol XP (using the Experienced power).
2. Play through the level range's paper missions and the Mayhem. Pick a contact, and play through the contact's story arc.
3. Start making use of the +50% long duration boosters at around level 20.

Interestingly, until I hit the mid 20s, my advancement rate was very close to 20-35 minutes per level. Now in the upper 20s, it has rapidly slowed: first to about 40 minutes per level, and now to a bit over an hour per level. Of course, I've always been aware of the slowdown as you advance, but I think I'd always kind of thought of it as a gradual change - but it's coming off as a much more abrupt slowdown in the late 20s. (I'm now vaguely remembering some sort of change to the 'leveling curve' from a long time ago that sped things up until you reached level 25...)

While I was in the 15-20 range, I picked Marshall Brass after the Mayhem to get the story arc that would give me the Oro portal. I forgot that he's got two arcs, and its the second one (Echo down the Aeons) that gives the Oro portal. The Aeon Conspiracy got me to level 20, and he refused to give me the second arc. That wasn't a big problem, though.

At level 20, it was time for the next batch of paper (and the Mayhem mission), and I also did a set of tip missions to (ultimately) confirm my villain-ness (so if and when I do SSA arcs I can get Villain merits - which might be very helpful for getting IOs that are just not on the market any more).

I then used the Oro crystal in my base to do the Echo Down the Aeons arc. Yeah, yeah, I know I could have easily just chosen a badge mission and got the portal, but I really kind of like that arc, and wanted to play it one last time.

That got me to level 25. Once again, it was time for newspaper missions and a Mayhem. Afterwards I selected Maros as my contact - I really like his arc too.

So as of today, I'm on the last mission in his arc (I think), and I'm level 29. I believe I will use level 32 as the kind of "cut off" for upping my difficulty even more, and see how far I can get.

Only three more weeks to go. I might need to come to terms that my preferred playstyle just doesn't level me up fast enough, but I *do* need to make it to 45 on my Widow - I absolutely want to finish out Mako's arcs - and finishing the last two arcs in SSA #2 is on my list.

In fact, I should probably list my "bucket list" for the last three weeks.

1. Finish Mako's patron arcs. (Widow)
2. Play through arcs 3 and 4 of the villain side SSA 2 (Perturbation at least, but Widow if possible).
3. Get screenshots with main costume and bio for each of my characters; and do one final save-off using the Titan Sentinel extractor.
4. Save off local files for my MA arcs.
5. Do a demorecord inside my hero and villain bases. Possibly a demorecord inside one mission each for my favorite characters too.
6. See just how high I can get my Widow and my Titan/Stone Brute before the end.

And at some point it'll be time to call it quits with those two, so that just before everything goes dark...

7. I can do one final "last hurrah" with my main, Perturbation. A final, in game goodbye - play through some of my favorite missions (I suspect I'll play the entire DA story, time permitting).

And that'll be it.

I can't believe it'll be over in three weeks.

1. Looking back, considering everything, which was your favorite archetype in the game?

Prior to the release of City of Villains it would be Blasters, but afterwords it became Brutes *by far.* It's telling that my "final character" to enjoy the game for these last three weeks is a Brute.

2. In possible contrast, when it comes to your favorite character, what kind was it? List AT and the two main sets.

Perturbation, my Energy/Energy/Soul Brute. I've put twice as much time into him as any of my other characters. My "namesake" character Coulomb (an Elec^3 blaster) is a *very* close second - he's the first character I ever made, the first one I ever got to 50; I think the only reason he isn't my favorite is that I got him to 50 way back in the era when the only thing to do was go on Hami raids, so, for years, I stopped playing him. By the time there was real content for 50s, I was already very invested in Perturbation and didn't really go back to playing Coulomb until Death Incarnate. In fact, I was kind of surprised when I dusted him off to find he still had his *pre-ED* slotting - I don't think I'd realized just how long he'd been shelved. It's probably also no coincidence that a "recreation" of Coulomb is the first character I'm playing through CO with...

One aside, there is a third character that is very dear to my heart: my Inv/Axe Tank Lethal Guardian; I only played him in a team with my wife and some good friends. My wife lost interest in the game around the time the Incarnate Trials came out (actually, large-scale raid content to advance your character was such a turn off for her that it drove her away from the game), and I never really played him again (I just can't find Tanks very fun solo), but for a long time he was at the top of my list of important characters.

3. What AT did you evolve to enjoy over the years that you disliked initially?

Stalkers. Every time I tried to play one, I just got bored. It always seemed like they were an awful combination of squishy with never enough attacks available to feel like I actually had much of an attack chain. The recent changes (i.e. addition of Assassin's Focus, etc.) completely revitalized them for me - I really found them fun to play after that... So it wasn't really an evolution so much as a positive change turned 'unfun' into 'fun.'

Never really liked Controllers or Masterminds, and never changed my tune on that. It wasn't for lack of trying - but I always got so very bored with playing them when I tried, and couldn't go on...

November 4th (Part One):

Well, today’s the day – a full day to play CoH.

First I felt like posting some screenshot taken during the past few weeks (mostly of Perturbation playing through the SSAs as a villain – one of the last things on his ‘to do’ list before the end). So here’s a more visual record of the last month or so…


Watching a rocket launch…


Pffff… Elite Boss? You’re not even worth summoning my Lore Pets. Or using my Tier 9 Godmode power. Of course, I can’t even remember the last time I actually used that power, except just for the fun of it (or because I just didn’t feel like having to manage my endurance consumption for the next three minutes.


Déjà vu … feels like I was *JUST* here, doing EXACTLY this same thing…


Fighting Ghost Widow always makes me feel a bit constipated. Sorry for that joke. Seriously, sorry. (Actually, if it makes you feel better for reading it, she nailed me with her uber-hold right after this, and killed me. I revived and managed to beat her, but I did so by summoning an Echo of Ghost Widow. Which was pretty amusing to watch…


This was just such a cool map! Looking at such memorable moments like this one really get me feeling nasty thoughts toward NC Soft.

…

It was an early start with Lithos Fear. For whatever odd reason I felt the urge to chronicle his progress… now, to be fair, I’m not really trying to Power Level him. I still intend to play through all of the intro arcs, all of the Mayhem missions, and focus on playing some of my favorite arcs on the way up. But I’ll be using Patrol XP often (along with XP Boosters) to speed his progress up – I just don’t have the luxury of time.
After selecting all of his Vet Powers, giving him 200 million influx of infamy from Perturbation (who quite literally has almost ten times that much, and not much to use it on), and e-mailing him a set of those summer blockbuster IOs and a set of Brute IOs, it’s time to start the Tutorial (at about 9:35 am).

Not surprisingly, level two hits at about 9:38, and then during the first story arc, I hit level three at about 9:52. Level four is at 10:02, and level five at about 10:11. Level six is at 10:28 (and also when I remember to have him join my longstanding villain supergroup).


Note that at the moment I’m not using any boosters or patrol XP – obviously the levels come extremely fast without even having to try.

After a detour at my base, I’m back into the game, finishing up the final arc of the intro arc series (hitting level seven at 10:49 and level 8 at 11:02).

The next task is to hit Port Oaks and start working toward the Mayhem Missions. After a respite to work on a few Enhancements, I begin (it’s about 11:18).

I hit level 9 and am ready to start the Mayhem missions at 11:35. I make it to level 10 in the Mayhem at about 12:16, finish up, and take a break for lunch…


Flying over Port Oaks, getting ready to sell stuff (force of habit – I still want this to feel somewhat “normal” and not like a rush session…) and slot in Blockbuster and Brute IOs.

After lunch, and a break, I start up again at about 2:00 pm. Without really thinking about it, I select that Family contact (the one who gives you the arc where you face off against the elite boss Vampyr), not thinking that he tops out at level 10. I start his mission, realize the mistake, but don’t really want to have half completed story arcs hanging around, so I devise a plan…

First off, I’d figured I’d start using the XP Booster and the Patrol XP around level 10 (I still have dozens of uses of this stuff left, so I see no need to be stingy), so after completing the contact’s intro mission (and hitting level 11 at around 2:25), I set about just doing the paper missions followed by the King’s Row Mayhem. (Incidentally, I also set my difficulty to be for two players before I start the next batch of newspaper missions.)

Then, while dealing with the “level 10” story arc I use a Fateweaver to keep rising my difficulty so that the foes are on level with me. I *just* finish the arc and am a ways into level 15.

For the record, I actually hit 12 at about 2:40, level 13 at about 3:23, level 14 at about 3:50, and level 15 at about 4:23. Yeah, it could have gone noticeably faster if I ignored the story arc and focused on paper missions – and was ignoring crafting and selling stuff for now, but see this is also the last time I really get to enjoy ‘building up’ a character – adding in new enhancements and watching his power grow, even when I know that the early IOs will just later get replaced by higher level ‘upgraded’ versions. Like I said before, I’m trying to balance getting to high level in a timely manner with actually *experiencing* the game one last time.

That seems like a good place to take a break with Lithos Fear for now. I went from level 1 into level 15 in a bit under five hours (or about one level every 20 minutes). Believe it or not, that’s faster than I prefer to go, but at least at this pace if I don’t make 50 by the end of the month, I’ll be pretty close…

I took a break to write this update, of course, and that (sort of) serves as break #2. Now it’s time to spend the rest of the day on my ‘other’ project – gaining as many levels as I can on my Widow.

It’s far from my last day of playing CoH, but today is special in that on no other day (either since the announcement or after today) will I be able to devote this kind of time to playing, and it’s a great feeling. A kind of ‘pre-farewell’ to the game.

So now to the Widow… let’s see where he’ll be by the time I’m ready to call it a night. (He’s level 43 right now)…

October 30th and 31st:

Finished the paper missions on my Widow and played the Mayhem Mission. He's now level 42, and, at this point, I've "filled out" almost all of my attack powers with the IOs I want; that's giving me more flexability to put in slots in places that shore up my defenses.

I've been trying out +1/x3 - that's working out really well. As my defenses improve, I can probably move to even higher than x3 and still not take longer than is tolerable to me to get through missions. The Widow's later powers have really been focusing on picking up more AoEs. I 're-acquired' Dart Burst, which I haven't had on the character since the 'career path' respec at level 24; I also added Arctic Breath at level 41, and will probably add Bile Spray at 44. If all goes according to plan, that'll allow me to rapidly wipe out spawns that are on the minion heavy size, but still be able to use my stealth attacks to quickly dispatch bosses (followed by jumping out of the 'wad' to fire off a bunch of AoEs).

November 1st:

Early voting was today's priority, so I didn't do any actual playing today. Instead, I actually *added* the slots for level 42 for my Widow (see, I *got* to 42 yesterday, but didn't actually level the character up), and 'refreshed' my supply of SOs (mostly defensive powers - my attacks are all IO sets at this point).

And, as I promised myself, I created what will (probably) be my final character in CoH, my Titan Weapons, Stone Armor Brute. I got screenshots of his costume and bio; I'll post them later in the week. I didn't actually 'play' him, of course - just got his UI set up the way I like it while standing in the tutorial.


ADDED: Screenshot of my last character (I think). Hopefully I can get him to 50.

Hmm ... that voice-over 'welcoming' you to the tutorial and telling you how to move your character is apparently tied to that help message about movement. I could get it to play over and over again by clicking on the help message. I never knew that...

Since this thread seems to have some CO experts hanging out in it...

Recreated my namesake blaster in CO and, in general, been having a good time. At level 20 started the Whiteout "arc" (or whatever). It's been fun so far (although the difficulty of the foes and the ambushes get frustrating at times), but I've run into a brick wall:

That commander in mission #4 (the supervillain who you mostly defeat who then turns into three master villains, who then becomes a supervillain again with about 21,000 hit points). While I could go into a rant about game balance (21,000 hit points? At level 21? AND it's foe #5 of a series of rather difficult foes? *Really?*), I'm really interested in what my options are for getting past this encounter.

Does CO have a "complete mission automatically" feature for if the mission is bugged or you can't get past it, like CoH does?

If not, is there a particular consumable that would help here? Something that could make me practically invincible long enough to do 21,000 points of damage? Would summoning in as many pets as I can muster to attack him and then I just block all the time work?

Any advice?

Still here and still plugging away at playing. For the moment, I've 'de facto' limited to posting once per week, so a day by day "recreation" seems a little silly. I'll probably start ramping up the frequency as the end draws near (and during two planned 'play a thon' weeks during November.

October 23rd to 29th:
My Widow has made it to level 41; I haven't touched Perturbation (and probably won't until the final installment of SSA #2 comes out - it should be any day now).

Recently, I took to "confirming" my villain status (something I hadn't yet done, believe it or not) so that I could play through all the SSAs and rack up villain merits. Those'll be useful when filling out some of the newer powers I'm picking up with rare and difficult to find IOs (such as Obliteration - which still goes for a fair amount, so why not just pick it up with merits)? Actually, not *all* of the obliteration recipies are terribly expensive. I picked up the fairly cheap ones, and use the merits for the ones that are multiple 10's of millions.

I've also been bouncing around several difficulties - I usually aim for whatever gets XP the fastest, but still isn't very challenging (what can I say, I've got too little valuable game time left, and too many other games on my 'to do' list that are a challenge to want to waste my time dealing with frequent defeats here). So far, I've tried:

Normal (0,x1) - Well duh. And not even slightly a challenge.
+1, x1 - Did this just to see if it would noticeably slow down the speed at which things die (It didn't).
+0, x3 - Works really well. Very easy overall, but doesn't produce so many enemies that each mission feels like a long, slow, slog.
+1, x2 - Also worked pretty well. Seems about the same as the previous in terms of ease (both settings seem on the borderline between 'effortlessly easy' and 'I might occasionally get overwhelmed')
+3, x2 - This sucked. And I was dumb enough to try it when fighting Rularuu. And Arachnos. *Maybe* it'll be worth trying it again on much easier foes.

I've got some others to try - and as the addition of more IO sets starts softcapping certain defenses I'm sure I can ramp things up as well.

Next up is SSA #2, the paper missions (and Mayhem) for the 40-44 range, and finishing up Mako's patron arcs. In fact, with heavy XP booster use, it wouldn't surprise me if that carries me much of the way to 50.

Also on 'to do':

Create my Titan Weapons Brute - my "last character" to try to get to 50. (And I've got a few others I'd like to try, but will probably not get to 50. I still haven't decided if I'm going to finish getting my Water Blaster to 50...) There's a good chance I'll actually start him off this coming Sunday.

Sort though my collecting screenshots and get ready to give a much more 'visual' update than my last few 'farewell project' entries.

October 22nd:

A very disappointing day all around. I'd assumed that double XP being Oct 18th through 22nd meant all of the 22nd, but early today found out they'd shut off double XP before I'd even gotten up.

Honestly, I do find myself wondering why they are still being so stingy with double XP - you'd think they'd turn it on every weekend, or every other weekend, or even just for all of November just to aid with the 'going out with a bang' thing. What's the harm? It's not like we really have to worry about an 'unbalanced' number of high level characters in the game any more...

It really didn't matter, though. Shortly after learning double XP was turned off, a real-life emergency ate up most of the rest of my time. I did get enough time (with the help of patrol XP and the +50% booster) to get only one bubble shy of 38. But that was it.

Considering how I'd hoped for a few hours of double XP fun today ... well, what a letdown.

I can't log in, and the server status is listing all servers as 'unknown' except for Virtue which is listed as down.

Was away during the weekend, so I was hoping to get some quality double XP time today before work.

Been a while - but I haven't had much drive to update my "journal" here.

I've taken a lot of screenshots of various things (mostly on Perturbation). I *know* at some point (perhaps at the beginning of November) I intend to post a large gallery of the various 'scenes' as I've been enjoying the last weeks of the game.

Still, having a few notes on what I've been up to is warranted (so that when I go back and look at this "end of the game" journal there won't be a massive gap in it - and yes, I'm referring to my personal 'saved' version of it).

October 11th:

Perturbation continued his playthrough of SSA#1 (today was Episode 5). I haven't gotten back to playing Tidelock yet - been focused on my Widow. I just remembered that the patron arcs now unlock at level 35, and that's something I've been very interested in - I've had three villains that I soloed up to level 50 thus far, and each had a different patron. The odd man out in this case is Captain Mako, so playing through his patron arcs are a high priority for me.

Thankfully, the Widow is slowly becoming a LOT more fun to play; as I mentioned before most slots are going into attack powers to efficiently replace them with sets. It typically isn't until I've got a set slotted in that I have much endurance reduction in a power, and having virtually all of my attacks cost reduced endurance is making a HUGE difference in downtime for the character.

Picking up whatever that AoE psionic cone power that a Blood Widow gets at level 32 is also useful. More AoE means I can turn the difficulty up to more foes. More foes going down at once = faster XP. Using his consumables to keep +25% XP and patrol experience up is helping - and I'm not even close to running out of those yet.

Also, it's a rare session that I don't go through several store-bought inspirations. I'm starting to make a dent in my supply, but I'm still going to have to stay on top of things to make sure I use them all up before the game's over...

(Didn't play on the 12th - more writing for pen and paper game)

October 15th:

I just love that cutscene where Psyche is killed. The music is so great. I'm almost dreading tomorrow - the final episode of SSA #1 is just so long that I suspect I won't really have time for much of anything else... (okay, I'm actually writing this after the fact - but I really *was* dreading that last episode) and I'm not going to just 'rush through'...

I hit 34 on the Widow. I finished one contact's arc, then play through enough newspaper missions to open up the Mayhem.

October 16th:

And this was the day I learned I shouldn't have approached the last part of SSA #1 with dread. It does get a bit long, but I'd forgotten how much fun it is gawk at the maps for this one. Really neat stuff.

The Mayhem Mission gets me to 35 on the Widow, but that's all I really have time for.

October 17th:

I only have time for CoH today in the afternoon. I'm of the opinion that SSA #2 is just a lot better than SSA #1 is, and that's reinforced as I play the first episode today (on Perturbation). It's longer than the 'typical' SSA #1 episodes, and that leaves me less Widow time - but that doesn't bother me at all.

I did open my souvenir window to admire my growing collection. I was a little alarmed to see that I had no souvenir for the ending episode of SSA #1. I see the one for episode six, followed by the one for SSA #2, episode 1. I start to suspect that I've reached some sort of limit on this character and I'm just going to keep "overwriting" whatever my last souvenir was. Turns out I was being an idiot - but I'll get to that in tomorrow's "entry."

With my Widow, I select Mako as my patron, and start his arc. He's got some kill alls - and so I really only finish about half the arc before it's time to call it a day.

October 18th:

This'll be the last day for this week, as usual.

First, of course, is SSA 2/2; there's a definite sinking "oh, yeah, NOW I remember why I turned AVs off when I played this with my other villain." I forgot you fight Ghost Widow as an AV. Considering how I just got finished fighting her as a AV two days ago in SSA #1, I'm not thrilled at this. Still, I do it anyway.

Oh yeah, and I have to fight Lilitu at the end of the arc too. My lore pets are not back, so I summon in an Echo of Ghost Widow (*irony*) to help. Okay, actually it was more ironic when I summoned in the Echo of Ghost Widow to fight Ghost Widow at the end of SSA #1.

This being the first day of double XP weekend, I'm eager to get back to my Widow. Having a +25% booster active is giving me 2.5 XP. I get to level 36 pretty early on (I was pretty close anyway). Of course, that means I haven't yet gotten my level 35 power (I'm waiting for the arc to finish so that I can select a patron power), and now I can't add the three slots level 36 gives you. I'm about midway through 36 by the end of the arc. So I get to train up and add my new slots (and select my new power).

My XP booster's expired, and what better time to use one of my remaining +50% boosters. Two of Hardcase's missions finish up level 36. I'm only about halfway through the booster's time when I have to call it a day (and week), but that's okay since Monday will also be double XP!

October 9th and October 10th:

Perturbation continues to work through SSA#1 one day per episode.

Most of my gaming time on CoH is playing my Widow - who is advancing nicely, and getting to be considerably more fun to play as adding in IO sets starts to effectively mitigate his endurance problems.

Short but sweet for this end of the world journal update... (and I need to remember to copy this into my personal copy so these two quick entries don't vaporize when the forums go down).

October 5th:
Fridays are often for writing encounters and adventures up for my PnP D&D group. And this Friday was unusually busy with other random chores, so very little time to play. But I still probably spent about an hour with my Widow - *just* long enough to hit level 31. Those three slots are just what the doctor ordered ... one goes in Maneuvers, letting me slot in four attuned LoTG enhancements I acquired in some sale on the market a while back and want to get *some* use out of. One each into two frequently used attacks, giving me five slots in each - one will get attuned Kinetic Combat, the other an "ordinary" Crushing Impact bought using the hordes of reward merits gleaned from Super Packs.

I should clarify. I put the slots in place, but hadn't actually put anything in them yet; it was time to get back to writing, so I just logged off.

October 8th:
A medical thing for this morning got postponed, so I hit SSA#1 episode 2 with Perturbation (netting my first villain merit in about a year on him) and then return to the Widow. NOW I actually craft/slot in his first new IO sets. The set bonuses are a nice boost, and with two strong (and frequently used) attacks having endurance discounts, my endurance problems improve (there's still a ways to go, though).

I manage to get him to level 32 and take that psychic AoE cone attack - having another AoE certainly speeds things up.

That's it for today. *If* all goes according to plan, Perturbation will be hitting one SSA episode a day (through Thursday) each week. That'll finish out the SSAs by the week after next, and likely be the last "official" content he does. I'll probably cycle between my Widow and my Blaster in the meantime (perhaps focus on the Widow this week and the Blaster next).

I'm also going to make a mental note of creating (possibly) my last new character for next week. That'll give me about seven weeks to get him up to level 50 before the end.

It's going to be a sad day for me when the game shuts down (and I've said it many times, I hope it gets saved - truthfully, even a local server emulator that just lets me 'solo' it matches my play style pretty well), but I can honestly say I feel like I'm making good use of the time I've got left.

It's just a personal note, but my willingness to risk trying any other NC Soft games has actually eroded over the past few weeks. And it was already very low after their announcement. I just don't think I can get past the whole "stepped over the line by shutting down a successful MMO" thing - if they're willing to do that, then I just can't risk investing time or effort (or money) into anything of theirs, no matter how successful. I just can't trust it won't get axed too...

October 4th:

Very short session for today. The last bit of content I need to “acquire” for Perturbation is the villain-side versions of the SSAs. I’ll start that up on Monday (at a rate of one per day – four per week; to maximize the rewards I get from them).

So today I pulled out one of the characters on my list of “get him to 50 before the game ends” – my Arachnos Widow. Just straight villain content for him – abandoned my previous missions (which, apparently, I’d outleveled a long time ago), headed to St. Martial, and started doing newspaper missions (set to x3).

Ugh … I definitely need to work on endurance management with this character … survival isn’t a big problem. Getting some good enhancement sets into my powers will probably be a good first step. I’d already had several “attuned” ones that had been flagged for this character stored up, but it’s not yet completely cost effective to slot them in (I really like to get about 5 slots in a power before I start putting sets into that power) – but after one more level I’ll be able to bring three of my powers up to five slots each.

At some point it’ll be time to create what I think will be my last “new” character – a titan weapons brute (that will be villain side). I’ve really been wanting to kind of “end” on the villain content, especially after spending so long taking Perturbation through all the hero side content over nearly an entire year. I’m missing redside, and am eager to get back to it…

I’ve been out of commission thanks to a nasty cold, but I’ve recovered enough for…

Excerpt from Perturbation’s Notes (October 3rd):

I need another “scheme” for my “Praetorian” alter ego to accomplish while I’m “chasing him down.” Striking a blow against Aeon (never bad to knock him down a few pegs, just in case he’s working on some insane invention that could, say, remove all energy based powers, or something) and getting the Luddites on my side could be useful. And even if having a bunch of technophobic heavies on my side ends up not being terribly helpful, at least it will have passed the time. It’s probably not my best plan, but I’m in need of a diversion…

So I study up on Luddite prophecy and set about to “achieve” said prophecy. I also make sure a Luddite “contact” of mine – Brother Hammond – is aware of the fact that I’d like to strike a blow against Aeon and help their cause. He’s understandably skeptical, but he’s also an idiot, so it shouldn’t be hard to steer him toward my side.

First I need to get the attention of Arachnos – a bit of B&E followed by stealing one of their prototype weapons seems like a good idea. Then I’ll just let them know where they can meet me to “buy it back” and set to waiting. Should be fun.

…And just too easy. Sure enough, Aeon’s three local lieutenants are dispatched to retrieve the prototype from me (right where I told them I’d be – in the main square of Aeon city), and even make the boneheaded move of splitting up to hunt for me. Because, you know, taking them out one at a time is *so* much harder than facing all three at once would have been… Morons. Of course, my actions match the Luddite prophecy perfectly, and Hammond is now convinced I’m their “chosen one.”

That leads to a meeting with Martin Henri, which allows me to direct my new “allies” to attack some local power stations that should power down the security in a nearby bank. (Yes, yes, bank robbery. How droll. Trust me, I have a plan.)

As expected, the Luddites don’t quite know where to stop, and have decided to “expand” their campaign to taking down power all throughout Aeon City. This puts Dr. Aeon in kind of a bind (as he can’t even square off against me in battle without power for his inventions) and now I get to make my real demand – access to all research Aeon has on additional Incarnate powers and abilities.

I live up to my end of the “bargain” – I put a stop to the Luddites’ attack, and now have access to all of Arachnos’ research into Incarnate level powers. I’m not sure if it will be useful to me personally, but the ability to quickly “empower” my most loyal followers might have tactical value.

That’s enough for now.

Excerpt from Perturbation’s Notes (October 1st):

Much of what remains to be done before the arrival of the Coming Storm simply involves strengthening my position of power, and sending back bogus reports to the Freedom Phalanx regarding my “progress” in tracking down my evil Praetorian Counterpart. It’s boring and uninteresting. And it would be a mistake let a bunch of busywork take the edge off my fighting skills… so getting out from time to time to wreak some havoc and mayhem is important.

Who am I kidding? After a day at the office, nothing loosens you up like beating down a few unfortunate saps. There’s nothing more to it than that. That I get to blame some of this stuff on my counterpart – and potentially uncover more resources to strengthen my position – is a nice bonus.

Let’s face it, there’s only so much good that random violence can do for one’s soul (and following random tips and leads is worthwhile to a point), so when I got word that some random Bane Spider was looking for help with a problem regarding disappearing ‘Destined Ones’ I figured I’d help.

Surprised? Don’t be. Rescuing a bunch of superpowered villains too stupid to avoid getting themselves into a bind (or ever become a threat to me) roughly translates into a bunch of superpowered followers who owe me bigtime.

Plus, it passes the time.

A short investigation reveals that this loser, Baron Zukar or whatever, is using mental manipulation to convert villains into heroes. While it’d be easier to just cut him down with a massive bolt of energy drawn from the sky, it’s actually a lot more fun to play along and see how big the Baron’s operation really is. Plus, I got to beat the snot out of Mangle for, what, like the three hundredth time? (He kind of flipped out when it was apparent that the Baron really *was* somehow converting villains to heroes and I had to ‘stop’ him.)

Even more important, this Baron could be very useful to my plans – if I can find some way to manipulate him into convincing all of these villains to become fanatically loyal to me, it would certainly make this diversion worthwhile. Even better, depending on how strong his powers are, he might be able to elevate or reinforce my status as a ‘savior of humanity’ in the common people…

In “proving” my loyalty to the Baron I’m tasked with taking out an Arachnos base. Which reveals that the Baron has connections to Longbow (no surprise there). So perhaps by killing all of the Longbow operatives involved, but sparing the Baron, I might be able to “convince” him to aid my cause once this is all over… if not, I’m sure a little light torture (along with some psychotropic drugs) might accomplish a similar goal.

Next up is the infiltration of a Longbow base to try to glean some intelligence on just what they are up to (and how exactly Baron Zukor fits into it). To avoid blowing my cover as a reformed villain, I need to attack the base disguised as an Arachnos agent, but, in the end, I determine that Zukor is accomplishing his ‘conversions’ with the aid of a Longbow device called the ‘suggestion engine.’ Hmm … I know what’s going on my wish list…

As Longbow readies their plans to march on Cap ‘au Diable, I invent a pretense to see Baron Zukor in private. A quick and savage beating takes him out of commission, and I take the suggestion engine for myself (along with the Baron, who will be cooling his heels in one of my detention cells back in my main base). It isn’t hard to subvert the ‘converted’ Destined Ones to my side, and we quickly wipe out the Longbow forces.


Nothing like your own personal army of pet supervillains to get the job done. I’d call this a successful field test…

Now, I’ve got an army of superpowered villains at my beck and call, and a subtle but powerful mind-warping device under my control.

It’s been a good day.