FourSpeed

Yep.

One of the very first things my friend said to me when we discussed
it over lunch on Friday was: "Well, there goes 2XP weekends - those will
purchasable now..."

I'd expect all sorts of expendable commodities to become available thru
the store.

For the most part, I'm not too angst-ridden about them as they're helpful,
but not mandatory (compared to unlocking ATs, some contact, zone or trial
for instance).

That said, I understand Sam's complaint of it giving direct advantage for money.

Of course, (sadly) that is typically the actual point of the F2P model.
If you pay, you get better stuff (advantage) over those who don't.

My fear is the opposite... not that somebody else can have a PvE advantage
by throwing money at it, but that I will be prevented from content if I *don't*
throw (more) money at it.

That is the showstopper for me if/when it occurs.


Regards,
4

I've been using Freeb(s) myself, so I guess I'm in this camp also...

4

I will be invoicing you for a new keyboard once I clean up the mess and the
"soda pop through the nose" issues subside...

I'd take an equivalent number of Paragon Points as suitable compensation....


Cheers,
4


PS> Or to quote Larry the Cable Guy, "That's funny sh*t - I don't care
who you are"...

/this.

I am predominantly a solo player. I have several L50's, a handful of which are moving
on to incarnate trials.

Enjoying your toon is critical.

Take time to read the stories - some are quite good.

Run at difficulty settings that are manageable but challenging - it'll level you faster
and make the accomplishments sweeter along the way.

Set "mini-goals" - ie. a goal for a play session. Maybe one session it's getting
the 5 tips. On another, maybe it's finishing a contact's story arc. On a third,
maybe it's running tf X...

In short, come to your play session with a simple goal that you intend to complete
during that session.

Team when it appeals to you, but don't spend a play session waiting for a team. Make
some progress on a mini-goal instead of waiting around.

String enough of those mini-accomplishments together, and ... Ding - L50...

Finally, it's easy to get a toon to L50 if that is all you care about - several folks
have done it in under 30 hrs or so (to the exclusion of all else)...

It's far more interesting and fun (imho) to enjoy the journey along the way... YMMV


GL,
4

I'm with these guys. 4 hours or less is pretty much typcial. Like them,
much less if I run back-to-back trials, or switch among a few alts.

You can test it for yourself quite simply. Log into a mission, go somewhere
safe. Leave it alone for x hours (4 & change is the max for me). I've tested
it on 3 different PCs (on my network), and a friend of mine has the same
issue on 2 of his (Win XP-SP3 for me, Win 7 for him)

I initially discovered that test while running a mish prior to a dinner-date.
After getting some gf aggro, I decided to just leave the toon in mission
and finish it up later.

So, date, and a movie, and came back to a crashed box. For me, it's 100%
repeatable in 4 hours or less of just parking in a mish.

Definitely less, doing actual stuff...

So, my take is, yep, memory leaks abound, once again...


Regards,
4


EDIT: I lied Ok, actually, I misremembered the exact details (It had been quite
awhile since I first stumbled into the situation).

The scenario I outlined above differs from what I *actually* did in two key ways.

1> It was an Ouroboros Arc, (Envoy of Shadows, I think???) not a simple/standard
mission.
2> I didn't park IN mission as previously noted. I completed the mission I was in,
and simply parked in Zone, expecting to head to the next mission when I returned
from dinner/movie.

SO, the updated test (which I did confirm again last night) is:

1> Grab an Ouroboros arc (I'm not sure the arc itself actually matters)
2> Park your toon in a zone somewhere and leave it logged in (I'm not sure the
zone matters either - I did it in King's Row last night)

3> In 3-4 hours, welcome to City of Crash...

Sorry for inadvertantly misconstruing the original scenario sequence and any
confusion that may have caused... My Bad... (attribute it to advancing years)


Regards,
4

Exactly what I was thinking... Well played, sir...

4

There's a guide out there to help you with common abbreviations.

It's probably a little dated (it was written in 2009), but the frequent/common
stuff will be there.

A couple more recent additions:

H/VM's: Hero, Villain Alignment Merits (you'll also see a-merits)
BAF: Behavioral Adjustment Facility - a location in Praetoria *and* an incarnate
task force.
WTF/WSF: Weekly Task Force / Weekly Strike Force


Another, not so recent, but not in the guide.

IIRC: If I recall correctly


No doubt there are plenty more, but that's a good start...


Regards,
4

...and that doesn't even include 1/2 of what I'll do in addtion
to the above...

* I will gank you while you're AFK
* I will also attack you while you're chatting
* In fact, I will attack you any time I think I have an advantage - esp if you're
not paying attention, or are otherwise distracted...
* I will tp you away from any "safe" area that I can to attack you
* I may even tp you into a crowd of NPCs, or within range of a Drone if you're
too near my base.

In short, even if you're a personal friend or S/VG member, if you're on
the opposing faction in a PvP zone, first and foremost, you're a target
before anything else.

That is the PvP etiquette I'm aware of...


Cheers,
4

Not sure why you're confused by my response. Right now we have a power
that summons a pseudo-pet, and (mostly) goes Boom when a target is
in range... Pretty simple code.

Without going back to see which suggestions belong to which posters, there
are summoned pseudo-pets which partially go Boom, summon still more
pseudo-pets, and/or buff bots, for varying effects and lengths of time, among
other suggestions.

So... Interesting ideas, but I'm fairly sure that somewhere in there it stops
being "simple code"... At that point, given the low number of played
Khelds, I further question the liklihood that the Devs would jump on board
with those.

Hence my far simpler suggestion - make it a real pet with limited MM
control to overcome the idiotic AI they currently use... <shrug> YMMV.


Regards,
4

In a way, you're making my point exactly.

1> Now that fitness is inherent, part of that goes away immediately now.

2> On a legacy build, you just gave a prime reason to make use of the respec
feature to correct the oversight, making the toon playable again.

3> Even without 1 & 2, you flip over to build #2 and take another crack at it that
way.

In short, it's pretty difficult to make a toon that is completely unplayable these days.

As for affording DO's, that's a completely different issue, which *shouldn't*
be a problem for anyone since I-9 (market). If it IS a problem, that too is very
easily remedied by reading some market guides (heck, start with my sig)


Regards,
4

I'll offer a few thoughts on the topic.

First, is mindset - this is a game and *should* be fun. So, build a character
you like - something about it should interest and intrigue you... Don't make a
toon simply to make a toon. Have an interest and reason to create your character.

Fun is always a matter of perception, not a matter of build - a twinked-out
build can be fun, but it's not exclusive. I have a toon that has never left
the tutorial, that I still enjoy now and then - I have a fun healer capped at L20
that only buffs folks in lowbie zones and a L2 character that never leaves the market.
Fun isn't cast in stone - it's always a matter of perspective and perception.

Second - Expectations. There are VAST differences between a character, that
is effective against standard game content, a PvP toon, an AV or Pylon soloer.
It is extremely rare, if not impossible, to have a character that excels in all
of those areas (multiple builds notwithstanding). When you make a toon, give
some thought to what you expect it to achieve. Learn its role - its strengths,
and its weaknesses - Leveling is really the discovery of those things for a toon.

Find its area of fun.

Third - Effort. How much effort are you planning to put into this toon, in terms
of play time, and enhancement value? Is it your primary toon? Do you plan to
play it often, or just now and then, or only with a particular friend/group? That in
turn may help you decide how much you want to spend to enhance it. Also
bear in mind that builds can be changed, or improved, fairly easily with respecs.
Don't sweat any minor issues too much.

For a standard character that runs PvE content well at normal difficulty settings,
SO's or common IO's work just fine and cost the least.

That said, you'll still need 18-20M inf over its career to equip it with SO's.

If you have greater aspirations for it, you'll want IO's and sets and cost will rise
accordingly (a decent Frankenslotted build is appx 100M-500M depending).

You'll also need to put some time into crafting and marketing, or running tf's
and such to help you enhance the character adequately.

If you're creating an AV soloist, Pylon wrecker, or PvP master, it costs
billions (my Pylon soloing Brute has 8-10 billion worth of goodies, and my PvP
stalker is probably worth about 2-4 billion). You'll need plenty of market effort,
and content running, to get near those levels typically.

Fourth - The "how-to". For most toons, I typically follow the simplest guidelines
a friend told me way back in I1. These are very general, but still helpful:

* You won't go far wrong taking the character's Primary Powers early and often.
Then, look to take Secondary powers that interest you along the way.

* You should have some way to get around quickly and easily (In I1 days, it was
a travel power). These days with Jet Packs, and Bonus Packs, options abound.

* Play it enough to begin to understand its basic role(s) and hole(s).

* Fill in the holes with Pool Powers to help you do whatever the toon is expected to do.

* Slot out your perceived core/role powers (5 or 6 slots). Put 3 or 4 in supplemental,
helpful, or often-used powers. Leave the rest at 1 or 2 slots. Slot to maximize
the primary attributes of the powers you slot (g. Acc/Dmg in attacks, heal in Heals, etc).

That will pretty much always get you a useful toon for the normal game.

Beyond that?

* get Mids' - it is an awesome piece of software for theoretical tinkering
with builds.

* read Guides - even outdated ones will clue you in on awesome (or sucky)
must have (must avoid) powers. Current ones will also give you helpful advice
on IO's, and sets, binds, etc.

* Post your build in the appropriate AT forum. Plenty of folks will gladly make
helpful suggestions for your build if you, at least, go to the effort to make and
post the Mids' plan of it.


I'll hope you'll pardon the length of this post, but even more importantly, I hope
the ideas in here will help you with future characters. Good Luck, and most
importantly, have fun.


Regards,
4


PS> You'll have to define "broken" for me. It's *hard* to make a truly broken
character (my first toon - a blaster, had 3 of the 4 travel powers, and just
a few of his secondary powers, and still solo'd most of the way to L50 in
I1-I3 days). Clearly, "broken" means results != expectations for you.
Getting a better understanding of your expectations may well be the
biggest help.

Me too.

It's even more problematic if I'm running the latest Mids' and CoH on the same
PC (although CoH will still crash on its own with nothing else running).


Methinks they've introduced another memory leak or two or a few, recently.


Regards,
4

I know you're not talking about me, but also "Guilty as Charged". In the couple
bases I have, all of my storage racks are organized that way, around the room.
Oh, and actually, you don't need an empty rack to organize it that way - just a L50
with 70 or so salvage slots. That will cover 2 racks worth of shuffling...

Of course, I'm also one of those who has his inspirations neatly stacked and
organized too... F1 is *always* Heal - on every toon I have.. Lucks are
in F2 early (or in F3 on toons that carry 2 columns of heal), and F5 is
either End/Cabs or Break Frees - again depending on toon).

You can say it - I can be distinctly OCD in some areas.

As for the OP's post, I'm more in the IronBlade camp. I have only two toons
with PortaCrafter (tm), one hero, and one villain (back before the market consolidation).

Even then, I can count on one hand the total times (cumulative) that they've
used it in the past year ... Mostly an unnecessary waste of time/effort unless
you want it for the badge, or you're the main supplier for an S/VG.


Cheers,
4