Honbrid

In the beginning, things worked as in Citizen Razor's reason for the change (i.e. painting the instance for one.)

Then they changed it to always use minimum team size, as Citizen Razor mentioned.

THEN they changed it to the way it currently works, where people logged out still count for spawning, but people quitting the team do not.

The AE license was only available during I21 beta - it never made it to the live servers.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Mission_Architect_License

I think (non-premium so no direct experience) that if you ever used the I12, GR, or old vet 1/yr slots, they would be bound to which ever server they were used on and will not show up in your global accounting. That said, if you visit the server they were used on, you might find that you have a server slot already on that server. That server slot will be used before any of your global slots, but can only be used on that server (as the name implies).

My guess is that you used all but 3 of those slots before, which combined with the 2 for premium gives you 5, with a few server slots scattered around.

I thought the one you buy and the Safeguard/Mayhem one are the same, as they are both the Raptor Pack. But for another third option, if you log out in the Shadow Shard zones or Grandville, you charge up a Day Job flight pack - 10 days logged out nets you 30 minutes of flight I think.

Huh, didn't realize that, as I haven't gotten that far with my VEATs yet. Is that new with Freedom and the expansion in available slots? Because my understanding was that VEATs used to be able to unlock the sixth slot and could even switch to it via /cc 5 command, but could not edit it due to unavailability at the tailor. Thus it was locked as a copy of your second costume forever.

With regards to being alone, the person causing their O-portal to despawn does not need to be on your team or in your line of sight. If anyone at all is within some unknown range and does this, it can interrupt you. Could someone have been behind a building and you just didn't know they were there?

If you're playing a VEAT, you also get a costume slot by doing your VEAT storyline missions at 10. Brick Johnson is the contact for that.

I have heard elsewhere on the forums (don't know where though drat my poor search-fu, maybe connected to the Pummit?) that once the 3rd VIP set is ready for release, they will swap out Celestial for that new set. What that new set is or when it's coming though, I don't remember (if that info has even been released.)

Gonna quote the P-Wiki from here: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Invention_Salvage_Tiers

From up-thread:

I'm a E, split mostly between two characters on different servers.

First, welcome to the City! I'm going to assume you mean move slots in game, not in Mids. If you meant Mids after all, well, this info may still be useful sometime.

In order to change your slot placement and power selections (in-game), you need to Respec. Here's the Paragon Wiki page: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Respec

If you are still a very low level (under 10) my suggestion is to visit a Trainer/Tailor, save your costume, and re-create the character, as your only real respec option at that point is to buy one with Paragon Points (our cash shop).

From levels 10 to 24, you can use the second build feature as a sort-of respec. This will let you choose all your powers and slotting as if training for the first time. You can use this method once. (You can also use this method after 24 of course.)

At level 24, you can begin earning respecs by running the Respec Trials. These are Task Forces, so you need others to help you. You can earn three respecs over the life of your character this way, after level 24 for the first, 34 for the second, and 44 for the third and last.

Also, the developers have historically granted free respecs at new Issue releases (our major content patches) if there are major changes to powers. Issue 22 recently became available on the VIP Beta server, so it is likely still over a month away. I anticipate a free respec with I22 as there are changes to Stalkers and Gravity Control coming, but I'm not a dev, so I can't say we will get one for certain.

A pointer for character builds in general that new players may get bit by: I never put slots in Brawl, Sprint, or Rest. When I was new, I did sometimes put a slot in Sprint because I wanted more jump power, but the ability to enhance Jump (or run for that matter) is generally not worth a slot that can be better used elsewhere. Some people may dispute slotting Brawl, especially where Brutes and/or Invention Origin proc enhancements are concerned. I don't know if you have a VIP subscription, but if you don't the Procs are unavailable to you, and even for Brutes, I feel a single Accuracy is sufficent.

Reward merits are awarded based on general time of completion for that arc (or that is the ideal at least). For more details on the formula used for reward merits go here: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Merit_Rewards

As a note regarding the formula, I expect the TimesRunModifier to currently be 0.6, as it is still fairly new, and I haven't heard of an adjustment to the arcs. 2 merits per arc corresponds to a completion time of roughly 20 minutes per arc, which I don't think is too out of line with First Ward stuff. That said, once the devs have enough datamining done, they might change the merit value on a per-arc basis.

To make this more relevant to the OP, and I didn't see it explicity stated, Vanessa DeVore is the final contact for First Ward content. If you've finished with her you are done. Also Master Midnight is the contact in the chain directly before Vanessa.

I believe that in order to invite a Rogue to a Hero team, the Rogue must be in a Hero or Coop zone first. A hero in Paragon can't invite a Rogue in the Isles, to the best of my knowledge. (If I'm wrong, I'll be corrected shortly, I'm sure.) You can get to Paragon from the Isles through Pocket D, the Rikti War Zone, the Midnighter Club, or a submarine in Sharkhead Isle that goes to Indy Port.

On Justice, try the Justice United global channel. I think Justice For All still works too, but I'm not on that one myself, so I don't know if the name may have changed.

Regarding the higher rate of EB/AV, the 'classical' villain ATs all seem better at dealing with high ranking critters like them. Maybe the fact that villains can take EBs lead to more being included? Or maybe they were trying to give more reason to team? As I'm not a dev, I can only speculate.

Edit... Scooped by taking too long.

Well, by getting the VIP membership, you get a lot more than just the controller unlocked..... but only for one month. If you buy the Controller Unlock, that's all you get.... but it's yours for keeps. So your answer will depend on whether that other stuff is something you want and how long you think you might be playing for. (I think there's a page somewhere on the main site that has a side-by-side comparison of the different things you get when VIP vs. Premium, and it's probably on Paragonwiki.com too. But I don't have a link for you, sorry.)

Well, it's only stackable if used on the same server tick, which although doable on normal teams is a bit more complicated during the chaos of an Itrial, especially since people hosp immediately. It takes a little more time to setup than people normally give it.

It does only work on dead teammates. As far as I know, the devs are concerned about it being overpowered if available league wide, so I don't expect it to become a league wide buff.

Was it really necessary to necro a year-and-a-half old thread?

The emote name would be ThrowConfetti (no space), or simply Confetti. Also, I'm not sure what you intend the $$ to do, but you can probably leave it out. You may also be able to leave out the quotes, but I don't see the harm in leaving them in.