Lightfoot

I'm pretty sure this is sarcasm, but...

Don't be greedy. City Traveler was not the only reward at 60 months, you also received a character slot and 5 Reward Merits. From what I understand, some of the lower level unlocks are things like Path Auras, so City Traveler will be replaced by some or all of the new things on the Paragon Rewards table.

If you really are in Florida, I want your time machine. It's Friday.

Praetoria is kind of an odd duck. It is the new(est, until Freedom) starting zone with lots of new tech and great stories, but it really isn't team friendly. If you team, it is far too easy to outlevel those stories AND miss the moral choice missions. When I team with a character in Praetoria, I turn off my XP.

In addition to this, depending on how long you have been gone, street sweeping is a thing of the past. Most of the content is geared towards the instanced missions, so you rarely see people out in the world unless they are shopping, leveling or going from one mission to the other. Praetoria also has no "gathering spot" like the Atlas statue or the market in Cap au Diable, so people who are interested in doing so don't really have a place to congregate in Praetoria. With no stories past level 20 (yet), there is no incentive for higher level characters to hang out in Praetoria, and no reason for Praetorians who have passed level 20 to stay.

My advice; build a character in Praetoria if you want to experience some really cool stories or quickly level up a villain or hero AT to play in the other side's sandbox. If you want to socialize more, start the character in Paragon City or the Rogue Isles.

This is exactly the attitude I am talking about. There are people genuinely trying to help you, and you are doing everything in your power to make them not want to help you any more.

Even I was trying to help you, though it may not have appeared so because I was also being critical of you. I simply pointed out that you have a bad reputation in the community. I would like to help you repair that reputation. I don't want you to leave.

Criticism does not equal scorn, and there would be a lot more "GTFO" and "lrn2playnub" in this thread if we wanted to see you gone.

By sub 50, did you mean that the game was fun up until you reached 50 months subscribed (of your 65), or that the game was fun when you were playing characters below level 50?

If the former, then maybe it is time to take a break and do something else for a change. We'll leave the light on for you, and more than a few people will probably greet you warmly the next time you walk through that door.

If the latter, then I need to ask: Why in the world are you wasting so much time grinding trials with your 50s? Why are you rushing through the "fun levels" in order to get to 50? Almost seven years in the game, and I have well over 150 alts spread across 14 servers (I haven't made any alts on Zukunft or Defiance yet, and it may be a while after Freedom launches before I make anyone on the FREEEM server). All those characters, and I only have two 50s, because I have fun playing the sub 50 game.

When you return, feel free to hit me up and I'll give you some tips about how I keep the game fresh and fun for me no matter which alt or level I am playing. If my methods work out for you, that would be awesome.

I don't know if you have noticed, but players help other players here all the time with no more expectation than a simple thank you.

You, personally, have received less helpful responses largely due to the fact that you usually begin with an incorrect assumption, and, rather than accepting that you might have made a mistake with a little bit of grace when someone corrects you, you usually respond with an attitude.

After a while, your pattern of behavior was noted, and people began responding to anything you posted as if your attitude was in the forefront in every post. It may not be fair, but that is what happens when you build a bad reputation for yourself in the community. The only way to repair that reputation is to consistently show that you have changed.

As you have already given up on this community, I think it unlikely that you will do so, but stranger things have happened.

If you can't view our tickets, how do you expect us to view yours? Why would be GM tickets be public in the first place? Correct me if I am wrong, but there is no MMO that makes their support tickets public record.

There are people here who genuinely want to help you, but you need to let them do that if it is going to happen. Telling them to look up your tickets, even if they could, is not helping them help you. That is you asking them to do all of the legwork while you reap the fruits of their labor. You already noted that they would be volunteers. The only payment they receive from helping people with their tech problems is the knowledge of a job well done, and maybe a "Thank you."

There is a saying, "The Lord helps those who help themselves." The Lord has placed people in your path who might be able to help you (Ironblade and Texas Justice), but the only way they even stand a chance to do so is if you provide them the information they need. By helping them, you help yourself.

Feh!

It may be an option, and a wise use of resources.

But I fully expect the Paragon Store to contain enough cool stuff that I will find hanging on to my Paragon Points VERY difficult. Besides, powersets are my kryptonite. I already have names camped and costumes made for a Psy Blast Corrupter, Thugs / Sonic Mastermind, Beam Gun Defender, Dual Pistols / Time Corrupter, Street Justice Scrapper, Plant / Poison Controller.

And I am darned happy about it. If the Paragon Store enables us to have a higher concentration of pure awesome than what we have already come to expect from our Devs, bring it on!

DC Comics (thanks to Time Warner) and Marvel Comics (thanks to Disney) have much deeper wallets than Comico or Dark Horse comics.

It is in NCSoft's best interest to avoid any chance of a lawsuit funded by Disney or Time Warner money, so names used by characters appearing in comics by a subsidiary of either mega-corporation are strictly verboten.

Actually, it looks like the City Traveler benefit will not be available via the Paragon Rewards program.

Reports coming in from folks demoing Freedom at Comic-Con are that travel powers unlock for everyone at level 4, and that the travel pools now have an extra power that unlocks later.

Most of my characters could probably do what they do independent of the established storyline. I could easily come up with alternate stories and enemies they could be fighting instead of Arachnos or the Legacy Chain.

I don't do this, however, so that I can stay involved in and engaged in the missions I am playing. The first character I run any new content with has their story adjusted to fit the new content. Once I know the story and how it turns out, I only run characters who would care about that particular plot through that story.

By keeping their stories tied to the game world, and taking my characters' motivations into account, I keep the game fresh for me after seven years and 150+ alts (with more on the way, CURSE YOU I21!!!!).

I try not to do this. If a story arc would run counter to the character's motives, I try to avoid it unless I absolutely need to in order to get to the story they need to do. I.e.; Peter Themari - Nicholas Scratch could care less about the Longbow incursion into the Rogue Isles. His aspirations go far beyond Lord Recluse's little domain. Corrupting the soul of an innocent and turning that hero down the path to Evil? Oh, yes, Nicholas Scratch NEEDS to be a part of that (he is a devil, after all, it is his nature to befoul all he touches).

I have some fairly generic heroes and villains. I try to run through new content with them first, as there is less chance I will be blindsided with a twist after I have begun the arc. I wish I had done Willy Wheeler's arc the first time with a different villain than Black IC. I figured out that Willy was a dupe who was working for a hero by the end of the second mission. Black IC would have turned Willy over to Arachnos then and there (or killed him). Instead, I had to do some mental gymnastics to explain why Black IC continued to play along (she did contact Arachnos, and was hired by them to continue on and see how deep it went and determine if Arachnos was being betrayed from within or if it was an outside agent).

That would be Newsrama's "wishlist" of stories they want to see folded into the new DCU.

The only ones of those I actually see any chance of being folded in are the Books of Magic, Milestone and maybe the Golden Age (as part of the secret history of the nDCU).

The rest, highly unlikely. (They even point out how unlikely it is that Watchmen will be folded into the nDCU)

Way to overreact to a few people who were teasing you.

You did receive some actual encouragement from some people in this thread, but you seem to have chosen to ignore it and focus on the negative.

Here's hoping that you take a break, but decide not to stay away forever.

When you come back, I advise you to seek out some build advice in the Controller sections of the forums. Those Controllers that you felt were unable to contribute to the content you wanted to do will improve by orders of magnitude and become valuable additions to any team if you take the time to learn to slot them properly.

Good luck wherever you land, come back soon. :tiphat:

I absolutely love how people trot these out whenever attempting to defend some half baked suggestion that obviously doesn't take into account the basic design philosophy of the game or the amount of work it would take to implement.

This suggestion falls into both categories. It would take an incredible amount of work to implement, likely sucking up the powers team time for two issues or more (Power Customization took BABs and team almost a year to complete, and we still don't have customization for Power Pools almost two years later)

It would also take a shift in philosophy on the Dev team. Freeform selection was in the alpha versions of this game, and was ultimately nixed as it was far too easy to create both unplayable characters and overpowered characters. The AT system and current power structure which have served the game for the last seven years are a direct result of the Dev team scrapping the freeform system. Inherent Stamina was a philosophy shift, true, but not one that could have led to breaking the game.

In order for this suggestion to be even considered, they would have to commit the powers team to a large amount of work (possibly sidelining all of the new powersets they are currently working on) and there would need to be a major philosophical shift among the Dev team.

Why are you managing multiple supergroups?

Managing one supergroup would seem too much like work for me (I play to have fun, not because I want a second job). I am totally content being a member of a supergroup, I feel no urge to lead any of them.

Why do you need "super wealth?"

The game was not made harder to accommodate IOs. You do not need them to play, or even to have a character that performs at high levels. If you want to have a testament to this, it lies in the characters you are playing right now. You are operating under some incorrect assumptions about the way the game works, and as a result, have made some characters that others might consider "gimped."

Yet those characters are working for you, and you are able to run the most difficult content in the game with "gimped" characters. Imagine how playable those Controllers you think can't do their job would be if you took some basic advice from the Controller forums. I'm willing to bet that they can help you improve the performance of those characters by orders of magnitude without heavy or expensive IO slotting

Stop working so hard at the game, and learn how to play for fun again. Games are there for you to have fun. When a game feel more like a job than your actual job, it is time to reevaluate why and how you are playing that game.

At least they haven't gone back to five variant cover, holofoil, polybagged with trading cards, "Pulse Pounding First Issue(s)" again.

The 90s almost killed comics. Vast crossover events and producing for the comics investor, rather than the comics reader were the things that almost did them in in the 90s. They have backslid on the crossover events, here's hoping they don't forget about the reader in the process and kill comics for good.

Presumably, you are in Powers Division, which puts you firmly in Cole's grasp (at least, at level 1).

If you join the Resistance at the end of the tutorial, presumably they shield you the same way they shield everyone else.

It looks like he took the images off the host.

Whether that be to prevent further criticism of his builds or because he decided to take his ball and go home, I'll leave that to your imagination.

As much as I hate to see a fellow CoH'er leave the game, if the above is how you feel about playing the game, it is probably best if you take a break for a while.

You should play a game because it is FUN, not because you feel compelled to grind away.

I have 160+ characters, only 2 50s, and will play any and all of them at the drop of a hat. When the new powersets and Proliferations come out with Issue 21, I will be adding at least ten characters to that roster, and deleting and re-rolling 5 of them because a new or Proliferated set is closer to the original character concept.

For example, Texas Hold Up is currently a Dual Pistols / Kinetics Corrupter. His story is that he is a time traveler from the future who went back to the Wild West to live a life of crime. The law eventually caught up to him at his hideout, so he activated his time machine to go back to the future. The sheriff shot the machine while he was in transit, and it deposited THU halfway home, in modern day Paragon City. I chose Kinetics because it was the closest thing I could refluff into a Time Travel set. With Time Manipulation on the horizon, Texas Hold Up will finally have the sets he should have had from the beginning.

Seven years later, making and playing characters with their personal stories in mind has kept the game fresh for me, and not a grind. When, if ever, it feels like a grind is when I will decide to take a break.

I despise multi title crossover events as much as you do. They tend to break the flow of the story in every book they touch. Given your feelings towards the multitude of changes in Batman, Superman and Flash over the last 25 years, why isn't this relaunch a good thing? Doesn't the fact that we will know which "phases" were important and which weren't mark an improvement?

You are objecting to the New DC Universe as it will be following Flashpoint. I haven't read Flashpoint either, as I dislike multi-title crossover events. At the end of Flashpoint, DC history will be rewritten, just like Crisis and Zero Hour. In particular, you seem to be objecting to the fact that DC will be cherry picking which parts of history are still valid in their creation of this New DC Universe. I put forth to you that DC did this with Crisis, Zero Hour, and Infinite Crisis. Why was it acceptable for DC to cherry pick then, but not now?

Are we sure Donna is gone? It seems to me that re-retcon version of Donna, where she was created from the same clay as Wonder Woman to be her younger sister and playmate is completely workable in this new timeline. She may not be a hero yet, but it does not mean she doesn't exist.

The point is that you are making judgments and condemning something before you have even seen it. When the story comes out, and if it sucks, feel free to condemn it all you want.

You were claiming that DC had all of it's rich history to draw from, all the way back to 1938. Except, they don't. Large parts of that history were negated by Crisis, and more of it negated by Zero Hour, and some of that history, also cherry picked, was even restored by Infinite Crisis.

Again. Why was it acceptable to cherry pick then, but it is not acceptable to cherry pick now?

So, if long term collectors like you and I, the ones who are most likely to be emotionally attached to favorite stories of the past, are a minority of the market, why is this relaunch such a bad thing again? Sure, it might alienate some of a minority of the market. It seems to have alienated you. It does not alienate me. So not all of that minority will turn away from DC. The risk DC takes is how much of that minority will leave, and will new readership more than make up for it?

In main, I pulled your post out because you made the ridiculous claim that DC had slapped you, a loyal fan, in the face. DC did no such thing. DC is making a business decision. You are taking it personally because they are making a business decision that you feel is going to tarnish your memories.

Funny. I count four DC reboots, ever, including Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Crisis in 1985-86, Zero Hour in 1994, Infinite Crisis in 2005, and Flashpoint in 2011.

It was okay for Crisis to do that, or Zero Hour, but not Flashpoint?

That's funny. I seem to recall a retcon of Wonder Woman in 1986 that invalidated large portions of Donna Troy's history, necessitating the creation of the "Who is Donna Troy?" arc. A storyline that was referenced very rarely, and eventually re-retconned out of existence again because it never resonated with the fans.

We have vastly different memories of Post-Crisis, I see. I saw lots of changes, and no real plan. Superman was revised with Man of Steel, and Wonder Woman was relaunched as if she had never been seen in the DCU before. What those retcons meant for the history of the Justice League was not touched for another three years. Hawkman (Carter Hall) was active after Crisis, until they published the Hawkworld book and a whole slew of new paradoxes that would not be resolved for another 12 years.

So, you are claiming that everything going back to 1938 is part of the current continuity? What about Crisis?

I kind of agree. They have gone on record that Superman is the first "superhero." But do they mean that he is the first "modern superhero," or that he is the actual first one to don tights and hide his identity. The Justice Society may have existed in the new history, but they may not have operated as openly. They were called "mystery men," after all. It is entirely possible that modern Americans could have chalked the "Justice Society" up to being U.S. WWII propaganda meant to scare Hitler away from our shores. Until the comics come out and we learn the updated history of the new DC Universe, we really won't know if there was a "Justice Society" that inspired the Justice League.

If I had your crystal ball, I'd use it for the lottery numbers. You know which story lines are going to be invalidated and which are going to be kept two months before the first book hits the shelves? You know which retcons are going to be good (Identity Crisis) and which are going to suck (Doom Patrol 2009, sorry Keith )? I have no doubt that there will be some writers that rehash old stories and do it poorly. I also have no doubt that there will be some writers who have original and entertaining takes on them as well. I won't know which is which until the books hit the shelves.

I'm not much of a fan of Superboy Prime, either. Good to see that Johns realized how bad he was at least in hindsight. However, the stink that was Final Crisis was Grant Morrison, and not Geoff Johns. While Johns was overseeing Infinite Crisis and 52, Morrison was laying the groundwork for Final Crisis in Seven Soldiers of Victory

I've met him and other DC writers and come away with the opposite opinion. It all depends on who you talk to and the context, I suppose. I met them (Geoff Johns, Judd Winick, Gail Simone, James Robinson, Jim Lee) at conventions, so everyone may have been toeing the party line. Did you talk to the people you met in a more casual setting?

The real reason that things like this have failed to stick in the past is because everyone knew it was temporary. The Death of Superman. Superman Red and Superman Blue. The Breaking of the Bat. Batman's death in Final Crisis. Dick Grayson "graduating" to become Batman.

If they can stick to their guns, they can establish a new status quo.

I hope they can do it, and not cave in and do a stupid "DC Universe: Reborn" event that puts everything back in the same stagnant place it was five years ago.

So you want them to handle the post-Flashpoint DCU that same way they handled post-Crisis? Assume every character is unchanged until they decide to publish a new book with the "new and improved" version of the character? And create even more continuity problems, until some writer gets fed up enough about it to create their own incredibly complex story to explain the paradoxes (see: Power Girl, Hawkman, Legion of Super Heroes, Donna Troy, Doom Patrol (and Beast Boy), "the Speed Force," Huntress, Infinity Inc., JLA: Year One, etc.)? Until the ripple effect creates the need for another "reboot" event (Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, etc.)?

What we have going on right now is exactly what DC should have done after Crisis on Infinite Earths; restart continuity and relaunch all of their books. Not just that, but do it with a plan and with every writer on the same page. Except that no one at DC at the time had the guts to do it. DC is taking the incredible risk now that they should have taken in 1986.

More power to 'em. I just wish someone at Marvel had the same kind of intestinal fortitude.

Make mine DC!

(For the record, I hate Harley Quinn's new look, too. I'm willing to deal with it for a new Suicide Squad book. Who knows? Maybe it will grow on me. I'll never know if I never give it a chance.)

So if it isn't Frank Miller's Batman from Year One, it won't be your Batman?

From what I've been reading, the Batman coming out will be a lot closer to Frank Miller's Batman than it will be to Bob Kane's, Bill Finger's, Adam West's, Tim Burton's, Joel Schumacher's or even Christopher Nolan's Batman.

And my current attitude is very much the one you describe. When they did it to Donna Troy, you were silent. When they did it to Power Girl, you were silent. When they did it to Hawkman, you were silent. When they did it to Hal Jordan, you were silent. When they did it to Wonder Woman, you were silent. Now they are doing it to Batman, you want me to stand up and be counted with you? No, it is not going to happen. You want me to protest because they finally dare to touch an icon. I say that 25 years and thousands of comic books later, it is about damned time.

Geoff Johns has a great attention to detail and he plans years in advance. I have no doubt that the core of the character will be preserved and that the great majority of important points of character growth and development since 1939 have either been accounted for or plotted out for a revision. I have met the man. Trust me when I tell you that he is a bigger comic book geek than you or I will ever be, and that he loves these characters at least as much as we do.

I'm sorry that someone pointing out the ridiculousness of "They changed it, now it sucks and it is Ruined Forever" throws you into a murderous rage.

If modifications to the character's history such as Batman no longer being a vigilante killer or Hal Jordan being an alcoholic or the plethora of revisions that Wonder Woman, Donna Troy, Power Girl or Hawkman have been through are acceptable, why is this such a travesty? DC is finally doing this with a unified plan and all of the writers on board, things that were sorely lacking after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

All those great stories are still there to be read. The Wolfman / Perez Titans were some of the greatest comics I ever read. Even after the relaunch, this will still be true. Even if Cyborg doesn't remember the Judas Contract, I will.

Already done. How many times has Barry Allen come back? Kara Zor-El came back in the pages of Superman / Batman. If you didn't cry "Foul!" then, how can you cry "Foul!" now?

They aren't spitting in your face. You are simply taking it personally. And they aren't divesting themselves of history. Stories that are important to the characters still happened (maybe some of the details will have changed to fit). Barbara crippled by the Joker? Still happened. Blackest Night / Brightest Day? Still happened (as evidenced by the spectrum of ring bearers). Slobo? Maybe not.

Stories that are important to the character will either still be part of their history, or they will be retold to fit in with the modern day (and for everyone who gets up in arms about this, may I point you to Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn). If the characters are not allowed to age, then, every so often, they need to be re-imagined. Otherwise, Batman would still be a gun-toting vigilante who was little better than the criminals he murdered and Superman would still be using his fantastic powers to mash mobsters with little thought of restraint or regard for the injuries he caused them.

What is happening is not so different from what happened after Crisis on Infinite Earths or Zero Hour. The real difference is that DC actually has the balls to do it right this time, and have the new reality affect the entire line of books, rather than doing it piecemeal like they did after Crisis (remember the mess that was Hawkman after Crisis, or even the story gymnastics that needed to happen with the Wonder Woman reboot, such as the "Who is Donna Troy" storyline.)

Nothing can take away the stories you loved reading in the past. If you give them the chance, maybe they can tell some great stories in the future. The right person is helming this new direction. If you want proof that Geoff Johns knows how to drag a character into the modern day while still honoring the character's past, just look to his runs on Flash, Green Lantern and JSA. I feel secure in the knowledge that the core of each character will remain, even if the details of their past have changed.

The face is composed of parts from two different Booster Packs.

Using Full Mask as your Head type (you need to not have hair in order for the Death Goggles to cover the back of your head and to get the Crystal Crown detail).

The Face appears to be "Alien."

Detail 1 is the "Crystal Crown"

Detail 2 is the "Death Goggles" from the Science Pack.

Detail 3 is "Warrior Half" from the Martial Arts / Natural Booster Pack.