Eldorado

This HAS been going on for years -- even before this new patch, even before the i21: Freedom revamp of the Character ID screen.

The only thing I've found (so far) that works and lets me get my (often long) bios to work is to open MS Notepad* and toggle back and forth, copying and pasting and editing that way.

If you paste 1024 characters from Notepad into a totally blank, ID screen they'll show up as 1024 characters, but because of how Notepad doesn't use formatting, you'll have no paragraphs in the ID screen -- just a wall of text.

So, I usually try to write the bio in CoH, copy/paste the finished (and undoubtedly truncated) "Character Info" window over to Notepad to finagle things down to 1000 characters or so, paste it back into CoH and then add paragraph breaks, each of which properly show as 2 characters in the total count [ie. "enter, enter"] and get a revised character count.

But yes, it's a total PITA: type in ID screen as if it's actually going to work correctly, hit "Next", view truncated bio, select all, copy, delete EVERYTHING from ID screen to get it back to 0/1024, paste into Notepad, edit in Notepad, edit/select all, paste into ID screen, hit "Next", back and forth ad infinitum until you get it right.

But the good news is, it DOES work. Still, if there's a better way out there, I'd love to hear it!

*Edit: Because of technical computer stuff that's mostly over my head, only Notepad or similar minimalist word processing programs work well for this. MS Word, OpenOffice Writer, and the like have formatting codes that can (or at least used to) count as typed characters, thus interfering with the character count.

Farms with some sort of semblance of plots?!?!? Seriously? I thought they gave up on those a couple of months after AE started.

Most of the farms that I've stumbled into have had truly brief mission briefings like "LOL" or "Go!" or "Go kill!!!!!!!!!!" or "Go kill LOL!!!!!!!!"

...luckily, those are usually enough to keep me from clicking the glowing pillar of light. Something resembling a plot would probably just make me pound my head on my desk even more than usual.

Okay, sorry -- that was apparently a lack of reading comprehension on my part:

Sorry for the confusion, and it's good to know that there IS someone sending out an internal bug report. Of course, the next logical question is "who do they send the report TO, and why did they choose to ignore the report and push things out live anyhow?"

...which I suspect goes right back to "corporate idiots in neckties" vs. "smart guys actually doing the work."

Because this is apparently what happens when you let the stupid people in neckties (marketing) hang out with the smart guys in t-shirts and jeans (developers and programmers.)

I've seen it too much in real life, I've had my very own ignorant "pointy haired boss" from the world of the Dilbert comic strips, and it's why I don't think "The Office" is remotely funny -- because it's entirely too close to reality.

Oh, and it's because apparently nobody from QA was assigned to read bug reports from beta, according to one Zwillinger post -- that was undoubtedly another managerial money-saving move.

Cool and thanks muchly -- I was hoping for a husky/malamute/wolf/whatever was in the haunted house but hey, a Shepherd is a nice start!

Now, regarding this "Possible Maintenance Notification" -- good idea! Please make it happen, and while you're at it, temporarily assign that genius from Marketing who said "who cares about the bugs? Roll it out anyhow!" to help the GM's all weekend, replying to all the petitions you've undoubtedly gotten.

If you guys had done a rollback during the first few hours of the new release, there wouldn't have been very much customer progression or items/loot dropped. I'm assuming it went live at the usual Thursday maintenance time, which means that most of the US playerbase was at school, work, or whatever.

And besides, we were all too busy fixing our UI's when we logged in to actually go arrest anything, get expees and/or drops.

Seriously??? I saw the wolf in the haunted house and thought "wow, that would be a cool pet!" But is it actually available now? I just looked in the Paragon Market, I looked on the NCSoft site, and I'm not finding it. (Yes, go ahead and laugh at me -- I've got no use for a mini-HVAS following my characters around, but I would be willing to shell out Paragon Points or a few bucks for a wolf. <shrugs> Okay, laugh at me AND point me in the right direction to find it?)

But also seriously -- please either fix the bug TOMORROW or else roll the build back -- rollbacks around here aren't unheard of, and they've been done to fix issues that haven't affected every single player each time they log in.

I've just got to ask -- you've referred to "Masculation" in a couple of other posts -- is that one of the "new" alphas in beta, or are you referring to the "Musculature" alpha tree? And if it IS indeed Musculature, what "proc" are you referring to?

Some of us also figured out alternative ways to make extra INF on top of "selling things to the right store." Since I often had trouble affording ALL my SO's at once at level 27, I took to street sweeping in south Independence Port. There are lots and LOTS of innocent mugging victims running around down there, offering EXTRA influence as a "thank you" when their muggers get defeated, and as a result you could make more INF than by just running missions, and the xp wasn't bad either!

Now wait a minute -- "before that" when? In early beta?! I'm sitting here paging through my ancient Prima® Official Game Guide -- that I got for a mere $5 on release day -- and it shows all of the origin and Freedom Corps stores on the maps. Good thing, too, especially when I had to go unlock the stores I needed in Founder's and Brickstown. But those stores were there as of Issue 1.

They're playing the same game we used to play. We paid more and eventually got more goodies -- they can pay more now and get all those NOW instead of having to wait a few years. And it's a much better "free to play" experience now than the old "limited to level 14" free trial.

Just for chuckles and a trip down memory lane, I just dug out my ancient COH box that I bought the day it was released:

Minimum system requirements:

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP • Intel Pentium 3 800mhz or AMD Athalon 800mhz • 256 MB RAM • 4x CD ROM drive • 2 GB available HDD space • GeForce2 series or ATI Radeon 8500 series video card • 16 bit sound card • 56k modem • DirectX 9.0 (included on disc) • keyboard and mouse

Recommended: Windows 2000/XP • Intel Pentium 4 1.7ghz or AMD Athalon XP 1700+ • 512 MB RAM • 16x CD ROM drive • 2 GB available HDD space • GeForce FX5600 or ATI Radeon 9600 series video card • 16 bit sound card • broadband internet connection • keyboard and mouse with scroll wheel



Today, from https://help.ncsoft.com/app/answers/...city-of-heroes [last updated 9/22/2011]:

For Windows PCs:

Minimum PC System Requirements:

* OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
* Processor: Intel® Pentium® III 1 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 1 GHz MHz
* RAM: 512 MB RAM or more
* Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 2 Series, ATI™ Radeon® 8500 or Intel® i810G Series Video Card
* Hard Drive Space: 4 GB Available HDD Space
* Internet: Broadband Internet Connection
* Input: Keyboard and Mouse

Recommended PC System Requirements:

* OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
* Processor: Intel® or AMD Dual Core processor
* RAM: 2 GB RAM or more
* Video: NVIDIA® GeForce FX 5600 Series (or higher), ATI™ Radeon® 9600 (or higher)
* Hard Drive Space: 6 GB Available HDD Space
* Internet: Broadband
* Input: Keyboard and Mouse

Recommended PC "Ultra Mode" System Requirements:

* OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
* Processor: Intel® or AMD Dual Core processor or higher
* RAM: 4 GB RAM or more
* Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 8 Series (or higher), ATI™ Radeon® HD 2000 Series (or higher)
* Hard Drive Space: 6 GB Available HDD Space
* Internet: Broadband
* Input: Keyboard and Mouse


And of course, COH now supports Macintoshes, but there wasn't that option back in 2004.

You could stop by swapping out the nine Hami-O's? Here's a link to an older post with more links to other DB/WP builds: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...38&postcount=4

From looking at a lot of other "gotta softcap my WP" builds, it seems as though a lot of them start making sacrifices here or there to reach the softcap. Willpower already comes with resistances and regeneration, so layering defenses on top of that is just icing on the cake, and "really close" to softcap plus resistances plus a truckload of regen will still let you survive most anything.

To make another of my many analogies: BrandX's DB/WP build is kind of like the Bigfoot of monster trucks -- it's totally awesome for what it does, but there's only a handful of guys in the country who can (and will) put something like that together! Most of the rest of us are happy with an off-road capable rig that will go wherever we point it and not get stuck, for less than the cost of a house.

Check out that link for some more [virtual] wallet-friendly budget build ideas.

1) Rumors are rumors. Who'd you hear them from? Where'd THEY hear them from? Unless you're talking to someone about their firsthand experiences, you're seldom getting the full story.

2) What do you mean by "graphic RP environment?" Sexually graphic? Hardly. It's a big ol' nightclub, and while there probably ARE some people engaging in "ERP" in the corners, there's also villains talking smack to heroes, heroes talking smack to villains, people on the dance floor dancing and talking about everything under the sun, people crowded around the bar(s) talking about whatever comes to mind and occasionally hitting on each other.

There are people talking about their latest crimefighting adventures or criminal enterprises, their supergroups/villain groups and what's going on there, or about a hundred other drama-laden topics like who broke up with who (yawn), who thinks who is hot (yawn), and what they were working on in the lab when (pick one) the experiment came to life/meteors started crashing into Galaxy city/someone they know got kidnapped/some other player-created plot point.

I just spent about two hours in the Virtue D talking to an SGmate, and I didn't see or hear anything I wouldn't have heard a non-superpowered version of in any bar around here IRL. And there certainly wasn't anybody naked or doing R rated stuff on the pool tables.

So, it's kind of like a dance club/sports bar/get-drunk-and-start-an-argument bar all rolled into one. There's a dance floor, there's multiple bars to congregate at, and a few quieter but highly visible places where you can stand in a corner and hear yourself think. And while the occasional pair (or worse) might be RP frolicking partially nekkid in the restroom, it's not like it's going on in the middle of the dance floor. And also like a real bar in the real world, if someone hits on your character and you're not in the mood, just smile politely and explain "sorry, you're just not my type/gender/species." And on the other other hand, it's my personal perception that most of the ERP* crowd these days tends to stick together and look for people with "ERP" in their character bios. Your mileage may vary -- I'm seldom in there during Eastern US "peak periods."

*It's also my perception that the "lite RP"/"RP"/"MRP"/"ERP" crowds have less overlap and confusion than before, thanks to the ERP crowd finally going "okay, fine. We're done being embarrassed -- it's cybersex. Happy now? You 'mature' roleplayers can have your 'M' for your darker-than average superhero fodder like deaths and dismemberments and drug addictions and gritty graphic novel stuff, and we'll be over here making out -- in a mature manner, you understand, but with our 'E's'." (Which is not to say that MRP characters don't have virtual sex, or that ERP characters don't do "omg srs bsnss" RP too, but it's more about what the character and/or player are primarily after.)

3) As other threads have said, try looking for RP everywhere, and all the time. Try putting some sort of "LF RP" tag in your character's bio. Try looking for other RP'ers in PUGs, at the train station, at Wentworth's, standing by mission doors, or pretty much anywhere. Atlas is apparently like "The Barrens" in that it's a loud starting zone that attracts pretty much everywhere, and did I mention that it's loud? But just look around and if you're looking FOR RP, you'll probably find it.

And yes, good idea to poke around the Virtue forum as well -- and good luck!

[Bold emphasis added above]

There's too much conjecture and guesswork going on here -- WE'RE probably missing some things as well, particularly WHAT things you were saying in character!

Did you just walk up to them and start blathering your entire life story? "Hi, my name is Captain Stupendous, and I'm a 1st level tank! I've just crash landed on your planet but I figured I'll supplement my "repair the spaceship fund" by crimefighting with my super strength! And aren't they great coincidences that I seem to speak the native language here, AND that I'm a carbon-based, oxygen-breathing creature? Talk about luck!"

[I have a RL friend who used to do just that in-game, and wondered why he was ignored a lot. "Next time stop after 'Hi, my name is _____________' and let THEM say something." ]

Or did you walk up, stand around for a minute hoping for a break in the conversation, maybe with an /e wave or /e bigwave, and/or say something like "Hey, excuse me, but...?"

For all we know, you IC'ly walked up, started leaping up and down with /e dance5 and proceeded to comment on the size of the nearest superheroine's chest -- which probably WOULD get you ignored! [And yes, I'm betting that's NOT what you actually did, but without knowing the general gist of the conversation, we're just guessing.]

For years, I've thought that RTTC gave a flat -3.75% to hit to all enemies within RTTC range, and the "more mobs around you" mitigation came from the character's regeneration rate increasing based on the number of bad guys within range.

If the -to hit was cumulative, it would seem as though my almost-but-not-quite softcapped scrapper would almost never even get HIT in the middle of a /x8 spawn!

Ohhhh -- very nice! Okay, admittedly, I've never been there, but I have a good friend who grew up nearby.

I'd love to live there too, so I can totally see how that particular little intangible would be worth QUITE a bit of money! (I think they should offer to let you work from home, but what do I know?) Enjoy the surf and sunshine for us!

I think many of us have asked the same question, and I know others have suggested that Paragon Studios hire Arcanaville.

I suspect it's something to do with either "not enough money" or "one of those many other intangibles in real life". In which case I personally think they should keep offering more and more money.

Unfortunately, that's the same environment as it was in help channels in a few other online games and MMO's I've played in the past. For the most part, in my corner of the CoX universe, there are more helpful vets who are willing to help a n00b than in any other game I've played. It's too bad that the mostly pleasant in-game and forum experience a new player might have could be so quickly overshadowed by some total idiots in the Help channel.

Those titles are worse than useless, and they're ugly, too. Seriously. Back when everyone in CoX had blue titles, they blended together nicely and faded into the background. Now with these titles and "Custom Colored Titles" as a vet reward, it's finally driving me to change my settings to "only show names on mouseover" or whatever it's called.

"Helper" should only unlock after some arbitrary time that people would argue over; frankly, I think "Help Me" should LOCK after a certain amount of time, but I do realize that wouldn't be at all fair to returning players.

As it is, if I see "Help Me" over a player's head with a couple of year's worth of vet badges, who says something like "I just like the color LOL" I wonder what sort of person plays with their own name displayed and just walk away. If someone can't tell what character they're playing by their costume and power trays, especially after they just saw the character name and AT at log-in, maybe they should spend more time at Icon or something.

Lots of practice, and the realization that there are only 108 kinds of salvage, which fall into different tiers. After you play around with the market for a while, you'll quickly start remembering which of the many common white salvages you should just vendor for 1 or for 5 INF, which of the few rare orange ones you should price at 1,000,000+, and which of of the uncommon yellows you should actually look at the "last five" for.

Once you make your first few hundred million, I like my strategy: list everything except those few oranges for 1 inf. You might not get top dollar out of it, but you'll clear those market slots quickly, and can use those for more expensive items that might take a day or two to sell.

What Crysys said, especially that last part. I've got a stableful of 50's, and I've gotten them all there with SO's and two or three IO's. Something for knockback protection, maybe, and a Performance Shifter +End or two is always handy. Once I know I'm really liking and keeping the character, I might spring for a Miracle or Numina's proc, too, but for the most part, I'm only using SO's until level 47 or level 50.

The big thing to remember is that purples aren't the be-all, end-all in this game. Yes, they give you great damage. Yes, they give you great recharge, and nice Endurance Recovery bonuses. In the big scheme of things, though, they don't do anything significant for defense, and I always have to suppress a snicker when the purpled-out character next to me faceplants while I just keep tearing through bad guys. Among my 21 level 50's I think I've got four purple sets, scattered across three squishies, and no purples at all on my melee characters -- and I can STILL do a lot of normal content on 4/8 with some of my 2 and 4 billion INF builds, thanks very much. I've done the "old" RWZ scrapper challenge long before Incarnate content arrived (including once with a blaster), I've soloed pylons, all without uberly tricked out builds with five purple sets.

You see a lot of people here on the forums talking about purples because there ARE a lot of min/maxers and people who've been playing the game for years and are looking for the ultimate in builds, or challenges. Inside the War Walls, though, purples really ARE a lot more rare than one might think from the forums.

Thank you for recognizing the support for the individual AT forums! There's a huge difference between "making things simpler" and "dumbing things down."

More guides certainly sounds like a good thing; on the other hand after this thread, I can easily imagine "OMG now we've got too many guides -- how do we consolidate THEM?"

Short answer: don't do it. Slightly longer answer: don't do it, and don't fire Zombie Man as the volunteer editor there unless some redname is prepared to do an even more outstanding job, which probably entails more work and more time than it might look like at first glance.

From using the guide section semi-regularly [and pointing them out to new players regularly] it seems apparent that yes, old dead links should be purged, but active guides shouldn't necessarily be purged simply because they're from, say, Issue 8. While numbers and powers may have changed, basic skills and tips like "gathering aggro" or "avoiding mass aggro if you're a squishie" or "hey, if you're tanking, try turning that Archon around 180 degrees so his rocket launcher AoE doesn't hit everybody" haven't changed all that much.