FuzzyOne

Well, I can tell you that the little box noting "Influence" can be brought up under the Powers>>Combat Abilities window. You can have any number of statistics displayed by right clicking the statistic and highlight "Monitor this statistic."

GL!

I had an interesting experience with my first SG. It was sometime after I3, I joined the SG because my roommate had run some missions with them and thought I would be a good addition to the group.

The group was well-organized with an official website, rules and regulations, and a formal command structure of 3 leaders and 6 sub leaders. They introduced me to TS, and we became vast friends as we would meet up on line each night and form play teams. The leaders were fair and just, and while they maintained order, they also kept a sense of humor.

Things were going really well, and eventually we decided to get together for a real-life meeting, so we spent a long weekend partying in Chattanooga, Tennessee with 14-16 folks from all over the US including one fellow from Belgium!

Everything collapsed quite rapidly with the release of World of Warcraft by Blizzard and Enhancement Diversification in this game. There had already been talk on our forums about who was going over to WoW, and nearly half the members agreed to transition to WoW but stay in CoH. Then one month later, ED came down like a hammer in this game, and everyone in the SG who was thinking about staying with CoH threw a fit on the forums and completely left!

So there we were with about half the SG in CoH, and the other half with all the leaders completely quitting CoH for WoW. I was close to the SG leaders and had been exchanging some pms with them during the whole SG collapse. One of the leaders and I exchanged some pretty angry words. He felt we were being ungrateful when I told him and the other leaders that SG rules and leadership were going to have to change since there were no leaders playing CoH anymore. We remaining CoH players were not going to submit to leadership decisions being made by people who weren't even playing our game anymore.

To this day, I don't know if I was being ungrateful to the fellow. To admit; I was quite angry and feeling a bit abandoned. He was the one who set up the forums and TS. He organized the real-life get-together, and he ran the SG with a fair hand until he held that SG emergency TS meeting. The emergency meeting was to be a vote on my and another fellow's continued membership. I was ok with that. I wanted the opportunity to state my views to the SG. Problem was though, the leaders excluded me and the other guy from the meeting and the vote about our membership.

It worked out in the end. The remaining CoH players were so appalled by the leader's behavior that they all quit the SG and formed a new CoH only SG, and I and the other fellow were the first new recruits of that SG!

I'll toss my two cents worth into the pot with:

1) Perez Park
2) Eden
3) Croatoa

I've always appreciated the attempt to create a wooded labyrinth in those zones. I've always wanted a TF tied to one of the woodland zones or a contact giving missions to hunt the labyrinth.

Of course, you all are right. There are definately creative and couragous players pulling off TFs like the Recluse Strike Force with unconventional teams. I really admire players who do so. I need to get involved with those folks, and challenge my own perceptions.

First Hero: The Omega Protocol--Dark/Dark defender on Freedom. Conceptually, he is a creation of the church imbued with dark powers in order to fight Lucifer and his legions.

First Villain: Chained Fury--NRG/NRG brute on Freedom. Pain in the *** to play, but conceptually very cool. He is an ex-Carnie strongman with a grudge.

First/Only 50 Deleted: Gunny Bornhard--AR/Dev blaster on Freedom. We had quite the case of love and hate, Gunny and I. I joined around I4, and it was through Gunny that I first learned of the DEBT CAP. Through all the ups and downs of nerfdom: ED, global defense nerf, and the removal of To Hit enhancements to level B bonus, I finally decided I could not play him anymore and deleted him. There was something liberating about it. I highly recommend it if you can stomach it.

Go on...delete a 50...you know you want to.

For me, it's any TF/SF that is the product of "lazy design." Having to slog through the same mission, fighting the same mobs, accomplishing the same goals over and over again is a waste of my playtime. Some of these TFs include: Synapse, Citadel, and Doc Q.

Another gripe I have is the "harder is gooder" TF design mentality that mandates certain classes or powersets be necessary or failure is assured. The Lord Recluse SF is the worst offender by far.

Same problem here, also.

Thanks Mateys. As usual, great advice.

Has anyone else noticed an increase in the Malta Groups' mez powers? Just recently, I've faced situations where I had to use two or three Break Free's to stop the mez. I've seen tanks and scrappers get held numerous times in the same mission?

I'm not a noob to the game. I've been fighting Malta for as long as I've been in the game, and I'm quite sure I have never seen their mez attacks being so effective.

I suppose it's also possible that player mez protection has been debuffed, but I haven't heard anything about that lately either.

There’s been a lot of haggling about what the developer’s said or what was their intent. I don’t see that as being overly relevant. They have one real job: run a successful MMORPG, and that, in part, requires that they listen to their customers.
I’m one customer who has an idea. Here’s what this prespec would allow me to do…

I don’t build IO sets before level 35. Their power and set bonuses aren’t as good as 36-50 IOs, and constructing IO sets is expensive and time consuming. If I had a prespec, I would construct level 10-34 IO sets because I could save them when I wanted to upgrade to superior sets. I’m not going to waste my resources in the earlier levels by constructing sets I know I’m going to want to replace later and be glad of it because it is some developer’s idea of being generous.

As it stands, I believe most players don’t construct many IO sets below level 30 for that very reason: there’s currently no easy way of saving low level IO sets without burning multiple respecs. And really, what is the purpose of a respect…to clear out IO sets…or change powers, slots and enhancements to improve a character? I’d rather not waste multiple respecs trying to save a number of IO sets.

I have this idea for a “prespec” so that players can keep more than 10 currently crafted IOs without loosing them in a respec.

The prespec could be earned like a respec (veteran reward, random recipe drop, free with a certain issue), but operate in a different fashion. The player could craft the prespec which would put a prespec toggle button in his/her power tray. When the player activates the prespec, he/she goes into a “prespec mode.” The player can stay in the prespec mode until he/she deactivates the prespec toggle. Once deactivated, the toggle power goes away like a temporary power that has expired all its uses. While in the prespec mode...

• All character powers are deactivated, except perhaps travel powers.
• The player can remove IOs/enhancements from power slots and store them in the enhancement tray.
• Once a power slot is emptied, it cannot be filled while in prespec mode.
• Then the player can turn off the enhancement screen and do what he/she needs to do: store IOs/enhancements in base storage, go to Wentworth’s, trade them to other players, or email them.
• The player can go back and forth between his/her enhancement screen and storing/selling actions until all IOs/enhancements have been removed and/or dealt with.

When finished, he/she can deactivate the prespec mode and all powers return. Then, the player can either respec the character or acquire and slot different IOs/enhancements through the enhancement tray.

Too long a post.

I can't reply.

Happy anniversary of your spawning, my friend!

A pleasant spawning day to you, Ash!

OMG! You are suggesting that I do that damnedable Dr. Quatermain TF again and again. Cob, you are cold-hearted. Your ideas are extraordinary, but lets have them review and streamline a few of the Shadow Shard TFs to make your Step 3 more reasonable.

Five years? That's terrific!!

(You have outlived Stryke Force!)

Narf!

Congrats Ping.

Terrific art and the writing has a service orientation. Liked it.

DUDE!!

You so have to hunt down that video of Carrie Fisher in her Princess Leia outfit singing some god-awful holiday tribute to a Wookie Christmas.

I KID YOU NOT!

My roomy, Nightmission, had problems with his vet rewards. He petitioned it and they took care of it satisfactorily.

Congrats on your oldishness!