Jophiel

I guess I'm just echoing here but I've noticed it won't work for me on certain maps. I'm not even sure if it's the map itself or if it's a question of "Once it fails, it keeps failing for the mission". I have a bind set up to target it and zap it with my Origin taser so I know it's not a problem of not hitting it.

I don't think it's working as intended as I recall hearing that the still-unsolvable problem is the reason the Devs haven't tried to add more synergistic power combos.

Based on this thread, I changed one of my arcs to have an elite boss at the end. One criticism it would get was that the end was too easy. I think I originally went a little too soft on the custom mobs, having fought too many uberpowerful ones previously. But now at least the final guy should stand out a little more. So some of you will be happy to know you influenced my design choices (and some wish you hadn't!)

I started with fairly maxed out sliders, pulled back slightly and then eventually decided that I preferred being able to max out my visual range and character textures more than see mirror reflections of myself in sewer water. So I rolled back to the old High Quality settings. My system is on the low end of the UM spectrum though (9800 GTX+ card, i3 CPU)

My biggest beef is that while the shadows look really nice, the urban setting means that you're almost always in a shadow. Or a shadow will be rolling over you in the next twenty seconds. High Quality may not be as realistic but at least I don't spend my hero life in perpetual semidarkness. My first thought when I logged in with UM and was standing with a bunch of other folks in the shadow under Atlas was "Well, this is really going to mess up some costume contests".

Almost exclusively recommendations. Every time I get it in my head that I'll browse the AE for a new and exciting arc to play, it ends in abject failure.

Two blasters can do well together. If you're worried about keeping the bad guys away, the Ice secondary has a nice selection of control powers (immobilizes, slows and holds) for some pseudo-controller action.

Otherwise, Defender/Controller would work just fine. With the new buffs to Vigilance, your Defender would still get a 20% buff to their damage provided you guys plan to mostly duo. I'd personally probably not choose a controller unless you plan to either team a lot or run missions at a higher crowd level than average just because I wouldn't find the "crowd control" worth it for five bad guys at a time. That's not to say a controller would be a bad choice -- I just like playing my controller the most when I'm locking down massive swarms of villains, not just a couple guys. Also, controllers don't really start dealing decent damage until later in the game so you might find it unrewarding until then.

Personally, I'd go */Ice blaster or a Defender. Probably Dark/Sonic. A nice combination of utility from Dark (Heal, slows, debuffs, holds) and damage from Sonic.

My Chris Jenkins arc (see sig) is level 1-14. Uses Hellions so no worries about custom critters and is only one mission long.

Keep in mind that you can't play your villain on the blue side or vice versa. A few zones later in the game are "co-op" zones where villains and heroes can join up against a greater danger but that's not for a while yet. You can make a hero right now though to play on the blue side.

In July, the expansion "Going Rogue" is expected to be released which will allow you to actually change your villain into a hero (or vice versa again) without changing their archetype or powers. That will be a paid expansion though and not part of the core game.

Arc #209473 - "Standing Within the Mists" has a good deal of evil-osity in it. When I get comments on it, they're usually about how villainous the arc felt.

Oh, they've merged the two games ages ago. You can play both CoH or CoV now with the same account for one low price. Many times you see it referred to as "CoX" for that reason.

You might want to play a villain for personal preference reasons (CoV was made later so it has some general game play 'quality of life' facets you don't see in the CoH entry levels) but you're not restricted to one side.

Oh, and you being "red side" (playing a villain) will have a definite impact on population. Most people tend to play heroes ("blue side") so you're much more likely to see people running past in Atlas Park than on Mercy Island. Playing on a higher population server will of course help boost that.

Civilians, to be honest, are pretty poorly rendered. Maybe they looked better back in the day (compared to the old graphic option scenery and on old systems) but these days a lot of them look pretty shabby.

Most of the mob factions look a lot better with a few notable exceptions. I hope someday they decide to re-do the Skulls and Hellions to look less blocky. Wouldn't kill the Outcasts to get a going over either.

I don't have Vent (or a microphone for that matter) so if you don't get it up and running, you can always talk to me

I actually have Rose's costume ready in advance this time instead of saying "Oh, yeah.. that's tonight!" and running to Icon three minutes before the event.

Inspired by this thread, I went to tonight and visited the AE.

Wow... that was dire.

I started out looking at random pages of 4-star arcs. Page after page of abandoned farms, unfinished arcs, ones that perhaps looked interesting but then I'd see "Custom Enemies. Warning: EXTREME Archvillains!", etc.

Oh well. I'll try the no-rated arcs. I'll even sort them by date starting with the newest. Right now some fledgling author is probably waiting by his or her screen for that first "You have received 25 tickets..." message and maybe a shot of yellow text praising their story-telling efforts.

BM Farm
Time to harvest for Farmer Clem
BIG XP FARM
batle maidin farm
Veggie Time!!
Plant Killahz
myfarm
FARM 4 GROOPS

Eventually a fellow SG-mate gave me his arc number which was entertaining. But I could have been there all night trying to find something worth playing unless I stuck to the HoF/Dev Choice arcs or ones gleaned from the forums. Pretty depressing news for the story minded.

Every once in a while I think "I'm going to hit up the 4-star selections and find some lost jewel of story-telling and adventure..." before spending a half hour pawing through pages of garbage or playing some extremely lackluster missions. It would be nice, if perhaps impractical, if they could wipe the AE and have people re-load their arcs, thus clearing out a lot of abandoned chaff. I know it's not that simple and there'd be problems associated with doing it but I can still dream.

If I just want rewards, I'll play my own arcs. Not because they're farms (they definitely are not) but just because I know the maps, objectives, mobs, etc so it's easy going with no surprises. For finding stories, I feel like I'm in a giant warehouse where 99% of the crates are filled with old coat hangers so I usually just don't bother.

My earth/storm controller Pachamama is named after an Inca goddess so I suppose she'd make the most sense from an RP standpoint.

In reality, I have no idea what the system involves or offers aside from "moar powah!" Assuming there's nothing stopping me from using it to just give my AR/Dev blaster more umph in her attacks or more survivability, I'll get any serious character there eventually whether it "makes sense" or not. I'm not going to stall out characters I enjoy just because "Incarnate" doesn't make sense for them; I'll just fanwank it away.