Kikker

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And after checking, it isn't close to all of the contacts, but a very large group of them.

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Paco Sanchez lives!!

But... that means I have to get back to working!!

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Well my base is finally semi-functional and underwent a lot of redecorating. Here's a little tour of the Smash Ops lair on Virtue villainside.

You can see quite a bit of it from the Entry Way. (1)(2)

<...snip...>

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I have a question and this post was a good example.

Is there a way to make you entryway room larger? It seems in these pictures (and others) that people have a large, open area instead of the little default room. Did I miss something about being able to switch your entryway into a different sized room?

Possibly you can move the entry beacon? I didn't think you could.

Thanks!

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...Cricket and I have been talking more about doing more regular Forum Polls and we put this one together to see how things would go over. ..

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Hooray for this. Even if this poll COULD be more extensive, I think polls do allow some of us lurkers that don't post much to still put in an opinion about various things.

Thanks for the idea -- I guess it could be possible. I will check it when I get home (and then kick myself if I wasted all those tailor tokens on my own mistake...)

This isn't about the new veteran rewards costume pieces, it's actually about my oldest character that is still around.

His original costume was black and red, the tights options with the Stripe 1 (I think it's #1), reversed between legs and chest (top is red with black stripe, bottom is black with red stripe) and a Spade Chest detail.

For some reason, it no longer appears I can have ANY secondary color on my chest. I have wasted 6 tailor tokens trying to somehow reset it, or to find an option that will work, but to no avail.

I've tried changing the colors, tried changing the top, the pattern... nothing. In the costume editor, it appears fine but once I exit the tailoring screen... it just defaults to the entire top being the primary color.

Has anyone seen this...? Does anyone know a fix to reset it? I have logged a Bug request (twice over the past week), but haven't heard anything back. I thought it could be a graphical problem, but I have tried it on 4 different computers with all the same result.

Thanks for any ideas.

Happy Hour

I know many of us enjoy a cocktail or two while playing. What are you drinking tonight? A porter from a small brewery in Oregon? A fine, 12-year old Bourbon?? Join in and see what the after-work crowd is having...

No real point -- it's just for fun.

Supergroup Name: Prometheus Watch

Website (if any): Soon

Leaders: Spadejack

Preferred Method of contact: A tell to @TheCatalyst

Guild Description:
Prometheus Watch is recruiting on the Liberty Server.

Have a lot of alt's from levels 1-25 (or higher)? Like to have a regular team to group with? Are you a casual gamer and not into powerleveling through the game? This might be for you.

I just established this supergroup and I'm hoping to add some folks who are interested in some teaming on a regular basis.

Because of my alt-itis, I have a lot of different characters that I would like to play with a consistent group. If you would like to stick a few different characters in one SG, this might be a good place.

So far, we have 1 L23, a 3 L11's, a couple 8's and a bunch <10.

We have no base (yet!).
We're playing on the West Coast.
Alt's are welcome and encouraged!

Give me a buzz @TheCatalyst if you're interested.

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PPS: anyone going to put up a mirror somewhere so that guy stuck in the Sands can see this? I hope? I wish I could. Though I disagree with our boys and girls being in the Sands, as it were, I still will do anything I can to help em out.

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I think I hooked him up.

Here's my first attempt at a guide. I'm a casual player with a few characters into the 20's and 30's -- this guide is aimed at new players who are looking at what travel powers to take. I rarely do PvP so I can't speak to the benefits/detriments and I am no Min/Max kind of guy, so look elsewhere for that sort of input...

I'm also a positive kind of guy, so I hope to just give some input about the powers' nature rather than telling you what's best.

What are Travel Powers?
Each character gets 4 'Pool' powers to add to their Primary/Secondary. These include things like 'Fitness', 'Leadership', etc., but they also include the 4 'Travel' pools:
- Speed
- Flight
- Leaping
- Teleportation

Should I take a Travel Power
Short Answer = Yes. You can take your true travel power at Level 14 if you so desire. If your power choices work out so that you want to delay it a little (until 16 or 18), that seems to be fine, but unless you only solo AND you don't mind taking a long time to get anywhere, you should look into picking up a travel power.

Nothing speeds up your leveling progress like a travel power. Reducing the monotonous travel between missions is a big life improvement. Any teams you're on will be glad for it.

What Travel Power to Take
First and foremost, I'm big on taking character concept travel powers. None of the powers are bad (if used the right way). If you want your Tanker to fly through the skies with the greatest of ease, do it. Ignore all nay-sayers. They all work and they're all useful in their own way.

In this some vein, I have seen some characters with multiple travel pools chosen. I've never done it (I have problems taking all the Primary/Secondary powers I want), but if it fits some concept in your mind, go ahead.

What to consider (besides concept) are the introductory powers (available as of Level 6) as well as the ultimate power (available at Level 20). I'll take a look at each 'pool'.

Speed
Your travel power is Super Speed. You run... really fast. Sparks fly from your feet. On a straight-away, you're hard to beat. The only issue here is some sort of vertical movement. I haven't seen all the maps, but from what I hear, there are some maps that you will have some troubles on. Without vertical movement, you're stuck running around obstacles. I have never added any Enhancement slots – I don’t really think you need them

To me, the BIG benefit here is that one of the intro powers for Speed is 'Hasten'. Speeds up all of your recharge times (by 70%?). If you're going to take Hasten anyhow, Super Speed already has its requirements met. That leaves an extra power slot for something else.

'Flurry', the other intro power, is ok if you want a melee attack. It's ok damage with a long animation time. I just don't know why you would take that over Hasten.

'Whirlwind' is the ultimate power. It's a toggle power that causes Knockback. I've only seen it in action a couple times -- it's ok but seems a little pointless.

Flight
I don’t know if any other travel power seems more like a superhero than Fly. It was the first one I tried and I still love soaring above the streets. Forget obstacles – just about anywhere is accessible to you.

The downside of Fly is that it is the slowest of the travel powers. It’s not horrible, but unenhanced, you’re not moving real fast. I tend to drop an early additional flight enhancement in the power (and another when I hit Single-Origin’s). With 3 SO’s in the power, it’s pretty fast and the fact that you can fly over anything makes for quick, direct trips.

Both of the introductory powers are good. ‘Hover’ is a really slow Fly, but without any accuracy penalties (and a small defense bonus). I have never mastered it, but many people fight while Hovering, which gives you a nice third dimension to manage combat. ‘Air Superiority’ is the other intro power. Decent damage that can knock down a flying target. It can function as another attack in an attack chain and is worth slotting.

The ultimate power is ‘Group Fly’. Eh. I think there are occasional circumstances it comes in handy, but by the time you can take this endurance-hog power (level 20), most people have their own way of getting around. (Masterminds come to ‘mind’ – flying your pets around, but I don’t know if it’s really worth it).

Leaping
Super Jump! Take huge leaps crossing expanses of territory. You get vertical, but you’re faster than a Flyer. The only issue you may encounter is that you DO have to come down intermittenly, so you have to be careful to not land in the middle of a bunch of +5 bad guys who won’t be happy about you crashing their get-together. Paying attention, you can actually maneuver fairly well and should be able to avoid unfriendlies. I haven’t actually added any enhancement slots to Super Jump since it seems fairly fast to me.

Like Flight, Leaping offers an attack (Jump Kick) and a small defensive power (Combat Jumping) as introductory powers. ‘Jump Kick’ takes a little while to go through its full animation, but it can work as an additional attack. ‘Combat Jumping’ only offers a small defensive bonus, but it does a couple other things as well. It adds height to your normal jump and it gives you a little immobilization resistance. It’s a toggle-power, but the endurance cost is minimal.

The Level 20 power is Acrobatics and this may be the best ‘ultimate’ power in the Travel pools. It offers you Knockback and Hold resistance, as well as slick little animations while it’s running.

Teleportation
Of all the travel powers, I think ‘Teleport’ gets the most bad press. The fact that it costs a lot of Endurance seems to be the main issue, but I think maneuverability comes into play a bit too. I initially tried Range enhancements in Teleport and what I found that I was still having to stop mid-trip to replenish my endurance (especially pre-Stamina). What I have ended up doing instead is adding 2 Endurance Reduction enhancements. The range is good enough and if you’re spending less endurance on each ‘port, trips become less stop and go. Racing teammates, I can regularly beat Flyers and Leapers, and occasionally can beat Speedsters if they encounter enough obstacles to make them take a non-direct route.

My recommendation is to bind ‘Teleport’ to a key on your keyboard. Since you have to target where you’re going with the mouse, you don’t want to have to click on the Teleport button, then click on target and repeat… use both hands! There are more fancy binds out there (if you look), so find what will work for you.

Both intro powers for Teleportation are useful in their own ways. ‘Recall Friend’ is a classic team power. Tankers who make the long Hollows run can bring their friends along. Defenders can bring their dead friends into safe areas for rezzes, etc. If you solo, this is obviously useless. ‘Teleport Foe’ can be used to pull bad guys to a spot next to you. It seems to cause some area aggro (which will pull the whole group), but used carefully, it can help you whittle down a big group.

As with ‘Team Fly’, ‘Team Teleport’ seems to have some circumstantial usefulness, but I wouldn’t really look at it as an ultimate goal.

Conclusions
As I said, I think you should use whatever travel power that makes sense for you concept and character-wise. To me, the fun is in having a character you’re happy with, not one that fits someone else’s concept of how things work. Teleporting Scrappers, Flying Tanks, Leaping Masterminds… if it works for you, do it.

Hope that helps.

Story Arcs!

I've been playing for about a year and I have always just taken whatever missions sound interesting, skipping around contacts, moving on to new ones, etc.

I have realized that focusing on one contact can get you a story arc which has the benefits of giving you (a) a interesting tidbit of history & story to follow and (b) a reward at the end of it.

Of course, I had to close old story arcs, doing Lvl 15 and Lvl 20 missions as a Lvl 29. A second note on that... if you're doing a mission (especially one that low), you can just run through and click the right glowies, free the hostages, etc. You don't have to endure defeating 40 low level bad guys for no exp.

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Inspiration Usage

Try this instead:

/bind F1 "inspexec_name resurgence$$inspexec_name dramatic improvement$$inspexec_name respite"

That will use the smallest heal inspiration in your tray wherever it might be. Reverse the order if you'd rather use the largest first. I have F1-F7 bound to all the inspiration types; other binds left as an exercise for the reader.


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Overall nice tips Pilcrow.

I only have Health, Stamina, Accuracy and Damage inspiration binds currently. I'm not sure of the others' names:

F1 "inspexec_name Resurgence$$inspexec_name Dramatic Improvement$$inspexec_name Respite"
F2 "inspexec_name Second Wind$$inspexec_name Take A Breather$$inspexec_name Catch a Breath"
F3 "inspexec_name Uncanny Insight$$inspexec_name Keen Insight$$inspexec_name Insight"
F4 "inspexec_name Righteous Rage$$inspexec_name Focused Rage$$inspexec_name Enrage"

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My favorite latest tip: create a generic bind file to start with for all of your characters. That way, whatever alt you're using, hitting F1 will give you Health, etc.

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Ability to display emblem somewhere other than covering your chest (I'd like to see the ability to put it on the capes myself)


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Can I throw this request in for general use?

Many times I have wished that the symbol appeared small and on the breast (like when you use the suit) even if it's for a Tights or Leather costume. Maybe a button to toggle where you want your symbol?

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I think the genre (and the great game) attracts many of us who want some online gaming experiences, but need it to be flexible enough that we can solo at will (instead of standing around trying to form a team for 10 minutes).


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Eighth - you've hit the nail on the head! Positron and I were just talking about this; part of the beauty of the game is that you don't need to wait in order to get to fun. I don't want to lose that in the rush to encourage grouping. Like I've said, I'm going to review the missions this week and see how many have bosses at the different level ranges.

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You know States, I fill all giggly that you responded to me directly. I feel like I'm 12, getting a letter back from my favorite rockstar.

Thanks for listening -- I love teaming as well, but the game you guys have produced, unlike a lot of the competition, is great in team or solo and I think we're just trying to preserve that.

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I liked City of Heroes for one reason mainly. I could play solo. I am a Dad and when things come up with the kids and the wife I MUST leave the computer you just can't REASONABLY stress reasonably do that in a group. Its not fair to the group. You say MMP shines with a group that may be true. But yours was different it finally was a place solo players could fight solo and just chat with other people. You did not have to fight as a group. But as time goes by each change seems to move away from that. I just feel you are working against me now. As a dad I may need to look elsewhere for an online game.

Terry Bailey Sr.

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Ditto on this statement.

This is the only online game I have stuck to (and plan to stick with) precisely because I can log on for a quick mission while the kids are getting put to sleep, wife is getting ready to go out, etc.

I think the genre (and the great game) attracts many of us who want some online gaming experiences, but need it to be flexible enough that we can solo at will (instead of standing around trying to form a team for 10 minutes).

I'll keep paying my monthly fee, even if I'm not on 4 hours a night, grinding through levels. But only if it continues such a great game for my situation.