Ex_Libris

Our SuperGroup is called the Ex-Girlfriends
Colors: Red and Black
Symbol: Hart

Leaders are Lady Vael and Lady Blastorama

-The Train drops you off and lets you on in different spots of the station. For the longest time I thought I actually had to go and touch the ground on the zone and go back in, you've just got to go to a different room in the station.
-It is worth it to go through the default keybindings (controls) and verify you like the way they are. R was one of them and the 'reply target' (, I think) were bad ones for me.
-The boards are important you can save much time on ideas for builds but don't be afraid to experiment either, especially now that respec is near.
-Other fansites/forums can be helpful too, coh.warcry.com and coh.stratics.com are two.
-There are good and bad players out there. I found a nice group of patient people to do the Synapse TF, they were willing to wait the 30 minutes it took to make sure we got our AT numbers right to do the mission in a decent amount of time.
- Pinnacle only - The tougher zones of Boomtown are overlooked as nice solo leveling zones in your mid to late teens. Faultline is good into your low 20's and even then you may want to bring a friend just because the mobs congregate in larger numbers.
-Since you're reading the boards you most likely know this but STORES FOR ENHANCEMENTS EXIST. For the first 6 levels of my first char I deleted any enhancements I didn't use.
-Jumping is faster than running with superjump but it's quicker still if you don't reach the apex of the jump. !=Short leaps are quicker than bounding ones.
-Being sidekicked will not get you into 'unprotected' zones that require you to be a certain level. You have to actually be the level that the zone requires.

Ok, Mordaga, not surprising results, except I didn't know that Wasabi's binds made people crash also.... thought it was just mine. So, we're still at the point where all we know is that the same binds act differently on different computers. At least now we know it's not file-loading related: the files load fine for me, but I don't crash and SoD works, but while the files also load fine for you (up until it crashes), SoD doesn't work, and you crash.

As for the tells and SoD functionality not working for you, Mordaga, it's just another mystery to add to the list. It's loading the commands from the files correctly, but sometimes it's just NOT executing them, as evidenced by not doing the tells and not doing the sprints/flys whatever.

So thanks for doing the tests, Mordaga. It's a bit more information. We'll probably never figure out what's happening unless the Devs come and tell us, but maybe we'll start noticing a pattern.

Gnarly

Thanks much!

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For non-Power 10 DO enhancements, you have to wait to purchase level 25 versions (usable at level 22, 10 levels later than the Power 10). Non-Power 10 SO enhancements are available in either level 30 or 35 versions, requiring you to wait until level 27, 30, or 32 to be able to buy and use them (depending on your Origin, and whether or not you have helpful higher level friends).

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Thanks for the great guide! After being an altaholic for the last couple of months, I've finally managed to get one of my characters on the verge of 22nd-level. So a couple of questions spring to mind:

Question 1: where does a character going to find these non-P10 DO Enhancements? We're talking about a minimum of 22nd level, so am I right in assuming they're in the origin shops in Talos and Independence Port?

Question 2: Supposedly a 22nd-level character can also buy SO's at that level (for like 30k a pop). How does he get those?

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The first TF does indeed take a lot longer than 2 hours - however a team that is familiar with it and their roles can do it effectively in around 3. A "crappy tf team" will take longer, of course - and a team that has never done it before, or has no experience working with each other, will take longer.

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But of course therein lies the problem: as this is the lowest level of all the TF's, you're quite likely to have a crappy, inexperienced team that isn't familiar with the TF.

I guess there's something to be said for weeding out the men from the boys right off the bat, but I think a better approach would have been to have the first TF serve as more of a primer than anything else. Make it relatively quick and easy (emphasis on the word "relatively" though; it's still a TF).

I mean, Positron should at least explain what all the requirements are up front. I recall forming the team, then going to Positron, then being told that we had to have the whole team present. Then after we get everyone together, he tells us we don't have the right levels (he doesn't say who's too high or too low). Then we find out that you have to be at least 11th level, so we bring in characters of appropriate level. Then we go on the first mission and find out that the 11th level blasters and and 12th level scrappers can't cut it against hordes of 14th level zombies. That was all pretty unnecessary. A few expressly-stated words from Pos would have saved a lot of pointless frustration. And I suspect what the most obvious rebuttal will be, so I will pre-emptively point out that "frustrating" does not equal "challenging".

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I have a question about Gnarly's with Super Speed. Incidentally, on my flying character, Gnarly's 3.0 is AMAZING.

But I have a character that is getting close to using SS only without fly. I should simply put the fly key in an out of the way place (the readme suggests LCTRL-L) and then what? Is there anything else that needs to be done? What does the run mode key do on a super speed character? Or should it be placed out of the way too?

Finally, I have shelved my flyer for now. But if I ever get it out again would I need to change the configuration again? For example, at this point when the program asked if I use hover or fly I answered no to both. Will that blow up my flyer binds if I use the character sometime in the future?

Any configuration advice for a super speed only character would be appreciated! Thank you.

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Ok, I wrote SoD before I had a superspeeder. Now that I do, it works fine with superspeed (more on that later) but you probably won't want to use SS with SoD. It's just too fast for a lot of things. What I did was leave SoD controlling Sprint only, and I created a toggle key independent of SoD for SS:

/bind c "powexec_name Super Speed"

I just hit that key to manually turn SS on and off. If SS is off, you sprint on demand, if SS is on, you still sprint on demand, but with the greatly increased speed of SS stacked on top of it.

But, if you do want try SS with SoD, then set it up as follows:

Primary Run Power= Super Speed
Secondary Run Power = Sprint (Default, you can just hit Enter)
Unqueue Option = On (Yes, default)

This sets it up so that any character with Superspeed will use it, but those without it will use Sprint instead. If you have superspeed, sprint will NOT be used, because binds can not activate 2 different powers at the same time. Sprint's speed is negligible with SS, however, so you won't even notice. With Unqueue off, it won't work this way. If you need unqueue off, create 2 different versions of SoD in 2 different directories (see next paragraph). Configure one with SS as the Secondary power and nothing for primary, and one with Sprint as Secondary and nothing for Primary. Use the appropriate one for each character.

Using more than one SoD configuration: you can, if you really want, have a different set of binds for each character you use, and just use a different basepath directory. For example, c:\coh\superjoe, c:\coh\superbob, c:\coh\supersteve. This is limited only by diskspace, but I'd suggest something more like c:\coh\fly c:\coh\ss and just run the appropriate manual command for each character in game (the bind_load_file command) to point to the appropriate set of files. Keep the paths shortish, because these are on all your binds, and there is a limit to the length of binds of 256 characters.

For your flyer... you can either overwrite his binds with those of your SSer, in which case if you bring him back, you'll need to rerun SoD. Or you can create a different config, as above, for your SSer without changing your Flyer's binds.

Hope that answers all your questions.

Gnarly

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I AM willing to put in some debug code if you have any interest in helping me figure out if all your bind files are being loaded. A few strategically placed self-tells in some of the files to report loading progress or something. I'm not sure of the load order so if you can suggest what files might be useful to edit, that would be a big help.



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In my first several iterations of SoD, I had a troubleshooting key... each time a program was loaded, this key would be bound to a self-tell which would tell you the name of the file. You can't really use a self tell on the movement key itself, because you'll get a tell "changing to whatever-file", and THEN it'll try to change... but what if it doesn't succeed in changing? Hence the need to press a different key.

This feature was helpful, but I actually never had a problem with a a file not being loaded. I had other problems that got me in the wrong mode and whatnot, but never a loading problem, even when I pressed lots of keys simultaneously as fast as I could. It might have lost track in the middle (I couldn't press my troubleshooting key in between each because I was just pounding on the keys), but it was sorted out in the end. I eventually took that keybind out to make the bind files each a line shorter.

But you testing is a good idea, because while *I* never had problems getting files to load, I don't crash either. Maybe it's not loading files for you? Maybe it's a drivespeed issue, or pagefile, or file handles problem? So, rather than make you manually add a line to each file, I changed the basic file, and created a token file. Don't worry about the details, but if you want to try it, then download this file:

SoD Troubleshooter

It is just a single file zipped. In your SoD program directory, change the name of your old SpeedonDemand30.tkn (the only .tkn file) so you can change back later, and unzip the above file in it's place. Re-run SoD, and this version will change it so that the L key (I hope this is out of the way for you) will tell you what file is in use.

This won't do you any good unless you know basically how the files work.

Subdirectories:
R - Run Mode
BO - Blast off Mode... you should be in this while still holding down your Fly key
F - Fly mode
SD - Set DOwn - When holding down your Run Key to land
AR - AutoRun Mode
AF - AutoFly Mode
FF - Follow Fly Mode
FR - Follow Run Mode

The individual files are named depending on what keys you have held down.. BUT, they use my key setups, which use EDSF for forward back left right, Space for up (underscore in the file name), and B for down. So, R.txt is the file that should be loaded if you're in run mode, but not moving. If you start to move forward, and hold the key, you should be using Re.txt until you release it, at which time you should change back to R.txt. If you're holding down all movement keys (hard to do ) then the file R_bedsf.txt. Simple, huh? NOTE: You do NOT have to use my key setups... they're just the filenames, which are independent of the binds inside the files. I just needed a short way to show what keys each file was for, and Rforwardrightdown.txt is too long

So, run fly skip and jump around, and keep pressing the L key, and see if all the files load properly. Let us know how it works for you!

Gnarly

So here's the thing, I would really, really like to get into role playing, as I have done with all the other MMO's I've played over the years. However, on all the servers I've been too, I have yet to run into any serious role players. I don't care about cutting my losses and starting out on a new server, I really don't. But where are you guys hiding? What are some SG's I could take a look at? How can I get in contact with you?

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Ah yes, and as a corellary to the new-player theory: New players may not realize the commitment needed for a task force. I joined one. I figured, "Hey, I haven't done one. Why not?" After the first hour, I had to leave. I wondered why people were so anxious about me leaving. I tried to recruit a replacement for me. I had a couple of polite tells: Um, you can't add to a task force. Man, did I feel bad!

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To be honest, I don't know what the big deal is about people quitting TF's. Not to say I do it at the drop of a hat (in fact, I tend to avoid TFing altogether these days except with people I know), but the fact is TF missions scale the quantity of mobs to the number of players currently in the team, just like any mission. Now, note here that the mobs levels do not scale--they stay the same (or at least about the same). But quantity is most definitely adjusted. Two people can finish a TF if they're at the higher end of the level limit (or rather one of them is and knows how the SK command works).

Obviously, some folks are aware of this because they will casually form TF's just to meet the minimum team-size requirement, then casually boot members for any minor infraction, like for having their PC crash or for not affixing a catheter to themselves before the TF (like any self-respecting TFer should do). Pruning members can, in fact, speed things up considerably.

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My only advice is, skip this TF, it takes longer than the 16-21 range Skyway TF, and is tons harder. The single 18 SO is not much reward for 5-6 hours of effort.

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I tend to agree. This TF takes way too much time considering that for many newbies it will constitute their introduction to the entire concept of TF's. It's not like a level 18 SO has that much longevity either. The effort/reward ratio is out of whack.

From personal experience, I have to say it's pretty easy for a gorup of 11 and 12's to band together, get psyched about doing their first TF, and then find themselves overwhelmed in that first mission full of level 15 Vaz. That is what happened during my first TF. We quickly decided to go get a few more levels under our belts, but I could just easily see how this could give players the impression that TF's in general are poorly-designed.

OTOH, one advantage over the Synapse mission is that you do actually confront a variety of mobs, allowing AT's that do different types of damage to shine. The guys who do Lethal damage (and there are many ATs that do) take it on the chin a bit with The Fall of the Clockwork King.

OCC. I couldn't run it, but I'd move servers for it. Been looking for a serious role playing SG.

Definetelly good advice. I will say watch out with this TF though. I had a group take this on with a full team for about 4 missions, and about 1/3 the way in the levels of the Vahz went from 16 to 17, and whiped our team out 2 times in a row. At that point, everyone quit and went on with their life. It was obnoxious, so... if this happens to you and the group gets taken out, dont let the debt pile up, call it quits.

Ok Guys, I looked at those files too, and they looked fine. Except for different keys, identical to what I have used. I've never crashed. Mordaga crashes without using ADD, Filidecht only when he uses ADD. Yes, it could be memory, or the number of files, or the speed of connection. Or any of a lot of things... I just don't know how to go about narrowing it down, and unless there is something about the binds I could change to prevent it, then I couldn't fix it even if I found the cause.

I think for now, if you can't get mine working, you should try a different version. Ahzurdan's worked well, and Falstaff created a batch file so they could be modified. They did not use mouselook either, I don't think.

Ahzurdan's Binds (Falstaff's Batch File)

I haven't used the batch file, but Ahzurdan's binds are much more clever than mine. They use a LOT fewer files. I don't think they have a Blastoff Function, so if that's essential, stay with Wasabi Joe's, and maybe edit them manually to get the keys you want.

Me and Wasabi Joe were using a similar approach, and kept adding files for different key combinations, because the missing combos were 'breaking' the binds - Sprint would be on when stopped, and turn off when running. Ahzurdan came up with a clever Axis approach, and had files just for the X, Y, and Z axis's and their combinations. But I couldn't get some things to work with Ahzurdan's, and adding more key combinations was getting exponentially worse. So to get around this problem, and to allow everybody to use whatever keys they wanted, I created the basic program to create files for EVERY key combo. This was swatting a gnat with a sledgehammer, but it seems to work (for most people) and allows more functionality than previous versions. For example, you can go smoothly into autorun when already running forward manually... I couldn't get this to work with Ahzurdan's setup. But the improvements are relatively minor.

So anyway, there's a bit of history of this post If mine don't work for you, or you just don't want to use a sledgehammer, try out the binds above, or Wasabi Joe's.

Cheers, Gnarly

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Now for the kicker, has anyone found a good use for group TP?

I was considering taking this power but I can't think of a good use, or maybe I'm missing something? For travel it seems like its just easier to port self then recall friend, and for getting out of dodge, it seems like it would be easier to have everyone use their own travel powers in the immediate, then you can recal friend if neccisary. Any ideas, comments?

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While I'd like to see the power modified to be more of a group recall, there's a few uses for it currently:

1. Emergency escape- unenhanced, you'll move ~80 yds per port. With a full group, expect 3-4 ports max before you're out of endurance. That said, it's useful for immediately moving the group out of harm's way. (get the groups permission before the TF/mission begins. some people dislike this)

2. Blitzkrieg! - Great trick for pet controllers or tank groups- have the blasters/defenders back off for this one, everyone else target an enemy and prep for blast off. Set the group TP just behind the enemy group. When you arrive, all tanks/pets will immediately start swinging, giving you the combat initiative.

3. Clearing doorways- Larger groups, especially groups with pets, will occasionally become bottlenecked in a doorway or a tunnel. Blasters can be caught between the tanks and the enemy, just not a good situation for all. Group TP everyone involved into the action, or backwards into the previous room and prepare for combat.

[ooc]Hey you guys want to roleplay? I found a great way, just follow the link in my sig to www.creyindustries.com and you can make an entire webpage for your character. Read up on my hero Valar and see what you can do good luck[/ooc]

Good Tests, Filidecht. I don't know if we can say it is the ADD key that is causing crashes, though, since you use it in your first test. Your first test doesn't work correctly, but it doesn't crash. The first test, actually, sounds like you answered "No" when it asked you if you could fly. Could you have entered a space in front of "Y" when answering, or did you just hit enter? My code takes a leftmost letter, and if it's Y or y, it says you know fly.

But it could be caused by the keys chosen. I didn't think of that before, but I use pretty normal keys (almost all lelters). It is something different in the game that processes the same binds different ways. I don't know if it's key choice, or OS, or hardware, or lag, or random bad luck. My program just makes binds, so I don't know how to go about troubleshooing if one person has no proglem and another does :/

If somebody post those two files (R.txt and Re.txt) Then we could see at least confirm that the problem is the show or the movie.

Gnarly

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I'm at work, so I don't have access to the files. I'm pretty sure I tried resetting, but I'll try again tonight.

Oh..I'm using 3.0, default Pri/Sec run powers, and default Unqueue.

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Silverclaw, Mordaga... I don't know what to tell you :/ It sounds by your setup that it should work.

Have either of you changed the keys that SoD uses? You can get yourself screwed up if you have them on WASD for example, and then change them to the arrow keys or something because the second time you run the program, it doesn't remember where the 'old' keys are so doesn't clear the binds there. If you then accidentally hit one of those old keys, it'll put you in an incorrect mode and try to load a file that no longer does the right thing. But that would be reset by you logging off and back on, so it's probably not your problem, but I don't have many other ideas. Try resetting, and posting or sending me your R.txt Re.txt files from your R subdirectory.

Anybody else experiencing problems, who didn't have any previously? I haven't played the game in a while, so I'm a bit out of touch, but after Mordaga's post, I'm wondering if they changed how the game uses binds.

Gnarly

I died ages before this century, i got murdered by a tall young man in the streets of London 1870. I only know my name and that i waked up in a dark room. I tried to find a way out, but this room had no doors , only a small window. I couldnt open it, neither hear something from outside. I only could see a massive amount of fog outside nothing more. I lost my sence for time very fast but i had the feeling that i must be in this room for ages. I got nothing to eat or to drink but i werent hungry or thursty. I couldnt sleep but i werent tired. I looked out of the windo and thought "There must be something outside". I tryed to call for help, but i couldnt speak , i had no voice. "Ithiliel, you are in a universe, far far away of your old life! There is nothing outside, just this room here for you!" told me a low and warm voice in the background. I turned around and looked on a tall man , with grey clothes and a back cape with a hoot. I couldnt see his face, it seems he want to hide it of me. Oh yes there was a wooden staff in his right hand. " I catched your soul as you got murdered, there is no way out of here, only i can let you go Ithiliel" he told me. I thought "Great, im dead and even there i can get in troubles". "You have two options stay here forever or began a new life and collect more souls for me!" asked me the mysterious man in grey. "You cant answer me just think on one of the two options and it will happen! You will get a new life , magican powers, its your choice , its your destiny. Choose carefully Ithiliel Tarmo, i only give this chance one time to you!" the man in grey explained me. He walked slowly around the room, looked at me and starts to talk again " Im sure you want to know, why i give you a second chance and you want to know what you have to do for me to repay me. Well its easy, long time ago i was a powerfull Archmage and yes before you ask i wasnt the friendlyest on earth. I was the owner of a big area with woods , villages and lakes. Everyone called me THE DARK LORD and everyone praised me. But one day 8 Life Magicans crossed my way. They searched me for a long time and they found me. King Castor sent them out to destroy me . But i didnt get destroyed, they only could ban me into this world of nothing, this poor week bastards! Now you are hear and you can help me to get my old strenght back. I need more souls to break the ban of my jail. I´m weak, i only have the power to send you down to the world and you collect the souls for me. I give you the power to start a new life there, its a good deal you know it. Now think about it , i´ll come back later which way you wanna go!". He holds up his wooden staff in the air , pushed him down and a big flash light brought light in the room and he was gone. I thought about his offer for hours , im sure. It was the best option for me to accept it. Better as you be hundred of years in a room with a window and fog outside. I sat down on the ground and looked outside the window. I frightened as i heard his voice again " Now , tell me what is your decision." I thought on the new life and collecting souls option. "So may it be, close your eyes Ilithiel, remember, im watching you all the time. Im your master and you will call me The Dark Lord."were his last words to me. He spoke something in latin and i waked up in Paragon City , with magican powers and a voice in my head that hustles me to collect souls for The Dark Lord.

I find combustion useful to help hold agro as well as drawing in foes along with provoke. After drawing them in my Blaster buddy drops his Trip Mine and we can knock out a whole mob of orange our lvl in one punch.


Dooome lvl 27 Invul/Fire Tanker Triumph

Circle of Thorns are not really that hard to find in Kings Row. But there's a trick to it.

They only spawn at night. And you often need to kill the daytime spawn at their favorite hang-outs.

I really wish I had known this earlier in my career.

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Ok..I'm having a problem using SOD with one of my alts. He's a Tanker that knows Fly, but not Hover. When I am running forward (Sprint is On), and hold down my Takeoff button, he switches to Fly and ascends, but Sprint is staying on.


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Which version are you using? 3.0 was created specifically for Fly Only characters.

A simple thing to try first is to reset (CTRL-R), or deactivate and reactivate the binds (CTRL-M twice)... but you probably already tried that.

Ok, if that doesn't work... what are your other options? Are you using the default for Primary and Secondary Run powers (ie. Sprint as secondary, and nothing for primary)? Are you using Unqueue (default is to use it), or did you disable it because you use a drawn weapon? Maybe just post or send me the text from your Re.txt file. That'll tell me all I need to know.

Thanks, Gnarly

Crimanal health???...I ARREST people with my SWORD

Well, from an entirely personal standpoint, I don't like x-ray. I just don't. The power itself is fine, but the eyebeam part bugs me. Also, I kinda messed up the build as i was going along, and want to re roll any way. The dark blast powers just appealed to me more than the rad's did.

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I always crash the first time they are loaded

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So each time you re-run the .exe and set up binds then hit CTRL-M you crash, or each and every time you hit CTRL-M you crash, regardless of if you've run the .exe? And then after you reboot, it works?

I'm still trying to figure this one out

Gnarly