Lord Mayhem

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Mini review: The Renegade Rebellion: ID 117690 lvl 1-14 Neutral

This is a very well written arc. The author manages to write the dialogue for the contact down in a very believable way adding to an already colorful existing contact. Imo he does he better job at this then the Devs did.

He uses the MA engine in innovative ways with lots of attention to details without making it too gaudy. He created a new faction that made me feel bad to fight them despite them being all bad boys. In fact I encouraged them to win.

If you do this as a hero, then you might at a certain moment say: "Up yours mr high and shiny in your pimped up car. This is drawing the line for me." it depends on what sort of hero you are.

The author promised to tone down the ambushes a bit, as they are quite nasty for a a beginning lowbie. The maps are quite large, you need to take something that allows you to fly for the first mission. The 2nd one is big as well and with the 4th map I advise the author to place a glowie out there so players find out that they can enter the building.

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Thanks The ambushes have been toned down a lot - toned down some of the patrols too after other feedback received.

You don't need fly on the first mission if you start on the top level and work your way downwards if necessary to find the other leaders - though it may be handy if you don't want to run all the way back to the entry point to be able to get back up on the higher flyovers.

Sadly on the 3rd map (I think you mean that instead of 4th - the Warburg map from LRSF) the only place a glowie can be put is where the sole glowie is - inside the building. I truly wish the Devs could let us use waypoints on the navbar for required objectives in some missions, so that it would be obvious where to go on that map to anyone who has not done the LRSF (this didn't occur to my testers and I as we all have done LRSF).

The maps are big, but there are no defeat alls, and the size was intentional as the arc is intended to give enough xp to get both soloers and teams starting at L1 into range of the first mayhem/safeguard mission at L5-10 to get the jet pack (i.e. this arc is intended to replace the L1-5 newbie content that most of us have done a million times before). My runs with fresh L1 characters have seen them at L6-7 at the end if solo, and L7-8 in a duo, getting very close to L10 by end of the mayhem/safeguard.

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It doesn't. Precisely because we aren't talking centuries here, we're talking months. A 5-mission, story-rich arc consists of about 10-20 kb of text, (a 2-4 k words short story) mission objectives needing, say, 20 complete playthroughs to debug them, and "unforseen contingences". Connceiving and writing a decrnt short story requires time. It would vary greatly, but I think 15 hours would be typical.
Playing through requires time, say, 2 hours per complete playthrough, or 40 hours total. Adding some time for unforseen contingencies we get about 70 hours, - a two full-time weeks, for an arc.

So, any worthwhile non-beta arcs what aren't buggy/typo-ridden/just plain uninteresting should start appear about now.

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I think you overestimate how long it takes. Short stories can be written and proofread much faster by those who are in practice and/or have fast typing skills - and a 5 mission arc with large maps can take 45mins to test with the right character (I use my Bane or Stalker to ghost past the non-essential bits of mine to test the encounters/text I need to test).

Though yeah I'd probably have taken two week's worth of evenings writing each of my two existing arcs if I'd only been playing my usual 2-4 hours per evening 5-6 days per week, with longer at weekends - assuming I didn't totally give up normal play during that time - but "lucky" for me I've been horribly ill lately, signed off work, and MA helps take my mind off it.

Hence my two published arcs, which I estimate have taken maybe 25 hours each (the 3-mission one because it was my learning experience, and the 5 mission one from size alone) - and I defy you to find any typos or grammar errors (the few arguable ones I missed were found by my rigorous testers, and those who have given me feedback since publishing).

As for the quality, well, that's your call - I won't say its Shakespeare, but then I've never been a huge fan of his despite studying him in depth at school and uni (I don't like Dickens much either if you want to get the stake ready for a burning ) - and not everything is to everyone's taste, but my arcs are very story focused (/shameless plug).

Not sure if I'll use the SFMA tagging yet unless it really takes off - it might scare off those not in the know (I think the metric I read once was that only 5% of an MMO playerbase read the forums, let alone post on them). Might be worth waiting to see what the I15 MA browser update adds - we may get a category system.

I'm optimistic that Paragon Studios' Devs are working on something big, but pessimistic about their PR and Support handling of the game. I'm pessimistic that the something big will be another MMO unrelated to CoH, but also optimistic it might be CoH2 or a paid expansion to CoH.

I may moan at the lack of content we've been promised, or that the story canon moves forward so slowly in-game, or that issues seem smaller now than they used to, but I still love the gameplay of this MMO more than any other I've played. The game might fill up with farmers and whiners, it might go into maintenance mode one day with very little new content added, but while my friend and I still enjoy duoing our way through an instance I'll still be here - the moment that changes I'll just go - and I'll go quietly because nothing anyone could say will keep me here. Been that way with every previous MMO I've quit, though this is the only one I've ever come back to.

I still enjoy the gameplay here more than any other MMO out there I've trialled/subscribed-to, and while that continues I won't be quitting.

I still feel a little disappointed by the content list for I15 - in other MMOs I'd have been satisfied with that as a free content update - only EQ2 that I've played has matched CoH/V in quantity and quality of their free content updates (as well as churning out tons of paid-for content updates too) - but I didn't enjoy the gameplay like I do here. Ironically Blizzard delivered zero new content in the 6 months I played WoW and the playerbase were already moaning of not many additions post-BC when I joined.

The problem I see here is that the CoH/V Devs at NCNC-that-was set such high standards for themselves in the issues they produced when they only had 15 or so Devs. It is their own fault that we expect so much more now - after all, in this last year they have bragged about:

- new capital investment into the game
- doubling (perhaps even tripling) the size of the Dev team
- their rebranding as Paragon Studios and commitment to the future of this game

They've promised big things and delivered one big thing - the MA, which while fantastic seems lacking in the implementation (not just technically, but in what it is doing to the rest of the game and the community), but they've failed to deliver on the smaller promises (such as powerset proliferation every other issue) that matter to the playerbase.

Through this last year of staffing up and reinvestment all we've seen is less content each issue, long gaps between issues, more bugs that take longer to fix, more maintenance downtime, the EU studio/support being slashed in size, and now the gradual deterioration that all this is causing within the community. Usually those are indicators of a long-in-the-tooth MMO gradually winding down and on life support with skeletal staffing, not of an MMO being supposedly reinvested in.

Tbh they had better be working on CoH2 or a graphics update and paid expansion, or what the heck have all those new staff been doing?

All I can say is that issue 16 had better have:

- at least 1 new zone (preferably the moonbase) with at least 4 contacts with arcs
- at least 1 revamped zone with 4+ new contacts with arcs
- at least 1 new powerset
- at least 1 powerset proliferated for each archetype
- an SF that actually covers a SF gap on CoV side
- the completion of those space centre launch bases in Steel & Oakes that they've been building for half a dozen issues now
- the arrival of the Coming Storm... preferably on the moon... with Nazis

We'll need all that just to make up for the lack of content in I13-I15 (besides the MA addition, which yes it was huge, but it was basically the Devs working on a Dev tool for themselves and then deciding to release it to us - it was work they'd have done anyway).

Though personally I think the Devs are working on a boxed expansion with tons of content, unless they are really working on CoH2 or another MMO. I can't see any rational explanation otherwise for us actually getting less content in the issues following the doubling/tripling of the size of the Dev team. I mean come on, surely they've had enough time to train the new guys by now.

Otherwise I wish they'd sack the new guys and go back to 15 people turning out fantastic content every issue.

While I like every single addition on that list, and the much needed MA browser updates, I too am underwhelmed that the issue seems so small.

I can only assume there will either be another announcement, or hope this is just a "rushed out" issue to be near the anniversary, to be quickly followed by an announcement of the big content issue we've been led to believe is coming SOON! (TM).

I can't believe the Devs would again break their I12 promise of powerset proliferation in at least every other issue - I forgave I14 as it was basically I13 part 2, but this... And as much as I appreciate the TFs/SFs, no new arcs and no new zone is saddening. The hero TF sounds somewhat like the return of Reichsman, but if this happens without a Boomtown revamp or connected arc content then colour me disappointed.

Primary purpose: Congratulate Devs. Secondary purpose: Thank community. CoH age status: 5 years. Wish: Happy returns. Game enjoyment: Very much.

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The cake is a Nemasis Plot!!

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Nemesis: Pie fan. Cake plot: Negative. Involuntary response: Bzzt! Cake: Not lie.

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If this is the criteria that defines an MMO, then we only have one true MMO, which is EVE Online.

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It does partly depend on your definition of "lots"

Imho things get far too chaotic with more than 30 and tbh I prefer an upper limit of 20 (and most of the time I am perfectly happy in a duo or small group of 4-6). Having led raids in EQ1 with 71 other people involved I'd rather not experience that again (the phrase "herding cats" comes to mind) and I'd rather my MMOs weren't too massively multiplayer. But every now and again it is nice to see 50+ players gathered in one place and lots of chaos (and lag) - like at Rikti zone raids when they were new - if only to know that your chosen MMO is healthy and thriving.

Though 400 player battles in Planetside (generally 167 vs 133 vs 100 players of the 3 Empires on a continent - I think those were the caps) were massively fun and the only time I've ever felt part of a real campaign with masses of people involved while playing online. Part of me would like that back one day (64 player instances in BF2142, 32 v 32, were not the same - more like a skirmish compared to a war).

EVE doesn't interest me - looks too much like hard work - I get sick enough of business and corporations at the day job

I agree with both of you, but one of the things about massively multi-player games is that they are supposed to let you have massive amounts of players co-operating or competing together - while there's a tendency for MMOs moving away from raiding to grouping now (which I generally prefer - though I still like big events occasionally, like MS raids here), having lots of players together in a persistent world is a hallmark of MMOs.

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Then funny enough CoH isnt a MMO either. Missions you can only do with your party, not with anyone else. Only the 'main hubs' you can see and interact with eachother, happen that CoH has some mobs there also. And CoH got even worse in that, apart from the US sewer hunts, 'streetwise' CoH is plain dead.

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CoH/V has enough persistent zones, that you can hunt in if you want, to qualify it as an MMO. It may not be the most expansive of MMO worlds for outdoor exploration/combat, but by my reckoning 43 persistent zones you can hunt in and only 3 non-combat persistent zones (Pocket D, Ouroboros, Midnight Club) adds up to more persistent areas than a lot of MMOs have.

I played Guild Wars and D&D Online when they first launched and both only had a single non-combat city hub with instances off that, which to me made them more like playing Diablo 2 on Bnet than an actual MMO. Sure, they've expanded on that since, but you can't seriously say CoH/V was ever that limited. Do GW or D&D Online have anything like our Mothership/Hami Raids now, where 30+ players can all fight together?

Outdoor hunting still happens. Sure, double debt and lack of mission/arc bonuses are no incentive, but you can only blame the game so far for community habits. You mentioned sewer teams, but I've seen players hunting outdoors in Cimerora (clearing the walls) and both soloers and teams in RWZ and other hazard zones when I've hunted outdoors there myself.

The last 7 levels solo outdoors with my EM/Elec in RWZ actually went faster than doing missions, with better drops (notably more purples at 47+) and enough Vanguard merits to get all the costume unlocks for him. Plus my friend and I did a warshade+fire/kin duo which hunted almost exclusively in blueside hazard zones (as they thrived on huge spawns) and levelled noticeably faster than our other dozen or so duos to date.

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May or may not do any reviewing today because I feel so sick I'm about to barf my guts out...

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Hope you feel better soon.

I do agree with a lot of what you've said.

Personally, if we're only going to get 3 issues per year (and not even regularly), then I want a new zone or a zone revamp in every single issue (with at least 4 new contacts with arcs, plus a TF/SF, GM and/or raid/event) and I want the game's overall story to move forward with it. I also want either 1-2 new powersets OR powerset proliferation in every issue too. And the main trademark/asset this game has is the costume creator, so we should be getting costume pieces in every issue too and not only by buying boosters. I want new invention sets every issue too ("Targeted AE" is crying out for more sets).

It would also be nice if they could find the time to revamp the dull blueside TFs (Task Force Commander ones and Shards) and add some redside SFs to fill in all the level range gaps they have with no SF/TF/Trial when compared to blueside. And also revamp the blueside contact system completely so that contacts have more personality and are more memorable like they are on redside, and with less running to other zones and less hunts. And add more content to existing zones and contacts to freshen them up without needing a full revamp.

The bugs are really bugging me too - they take too long to fix them (lag hill in ITF, as you mention) and introduce far too many new ones in systems seemingly unrelated to newly added stuff (chat bug, SG base banners losing textures, etc). CoH/V seemed far more stable back in I6-I9 than it has been lately - less maintenance, less bugs, less stability issues, etc - the game used to feel really polished and while it has more features now, it all just feels more clunky and less reliable than it used to and runs noticeably less well as the months go by (every other triple-A MMO I've ever played has run more smoothly as time passed, with only new expansions running less well or needing a beefier PC).

As much as I love inventions, the crafting and inventory/market management take away a lot of time I used to spend doing missions. It's odd, because I level so much faster these days than I used to, and yet the game feels slower-paced with more of a grindy feel (because of the reward systems I guess) and more of the "back to town" hassles that other MMOs have but this one didn't.

I really wish the Devs would add story/powerset/costume content first in each issue, then only add new systems IF they have time to do so after fulfilling that mandate, and then only if the new systems complement core gameplay, rather than totally changing the gameplay dynamic or having effects that the devs haven't fully assessed.

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Zero defense and zero health management (the two go hand-in-hand in teams, as you can't use Aid Self with 16 mobs punching you with no defense) does a squishy make indeed.

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With 2 Interrupt Reducers in Aid Self and sensible timing the only time I can't get the power to fire while being punched in the head by half a dozen mobs is on Quicksand/Caltrops or similar patches, or against certain DoTs. But sure its not ideal.

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It's still the squishiest Brute secondary

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I've only played Energy Aura on a Stalker to 50, but I've seen plenty of /EA brutes dying in droves on TFs/SFs I've done, and from my own experiences its pretty squishy as well and I know my Fire/Fire brute is horrifically squishy with very similar slotting to my EM/Elec brute.

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Look at Stalker Elec Armor to see that it just doesn't work on other ATs.

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I'd argue that resist sets just don't work on stalkers full stop - I love the archetype but they even make Dark Armour look bad.

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Elec needs -something- before being proliferated to anyone expected to take a punch. Sure, my main can tank the LGTF due to damage being most energy/psi, but gets pasted in the ITF. They really ought to remove Conserve Power (from both Elec and Energy, and put it in Mu Mastery) and replace it with something for health management (a heal, a dull pain clone, a regen buff, anything), or at least a defense toggle or something.

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I do wholeheartedly agree with you on this - Conserve Power is totally excess to requirements imho and is the logical place for a heal or fast-regen power. I was dismayed when the pathetically small heal was added to /EA's energy drain, as it probably precludes a change that would turn Conserve Power into a useful heal. Oh and I'll defer to you on the rest that I didn't quote, as my experience with Tankers is limited (i.e. I haven't got one to 50 yet).

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Or a 5th Column invasion complete with giant zeppelin's?

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Maybe they'll re-run I3's event in reverse and we'll get 5th Column soldiers booting the Council out of the City/Isles for a day...

Yeah you're probably getting cynical in your old age - I know I am, but then I was a cynical youngster too

I would find giant zeppelins in the sky very cool though...

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elec melee and armour for tanks and scrappers

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This.

Reason being, atm tankers do not have a specific set to resist energy damage better than other types of damage. Ok in pvp it doesnt make as much difference anymore, but its still a hole in my eyes.

The entire set could prove a godsend to tanks who have endurence issues.

[/ QUOTE ]It would also steal the position of "Squishiest Tanker primary ever" from Fire Armor. It'd suck horribly.

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And yet, of the four brutes in my signature, the Fire/Fire is by far the squishiest. Sure, the EM/Elec is the next squishiest, but then the other two are a very survivable SS/DA and an unkillable Axe/WP.

Ok, the primary adds some mitigation (though the Fire/Fire kills big spawns faster, just not single targets), and admittedly my EM/Elec has Aid Self (because the Devs were crazy enough to create a pure resist set without in-set regen or a heal), but great all round resists combined with Power Surge as a panic button does not a squishy make. Actually my lowbie L25 Mace/SR feels squishier than the EM/Elec too (though I expect/hope that will change at higher level), as does my EM/EA Stalker (but his low HP adds bias to that).

So I think Electric Armour could work fine for a teaming tank providing you had a heal-heavy Defender/Controller to back it. A self-heal and/or +HP is about all that Elec lacks - it has very few resist/status holes.

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Archery & Trick arrow for Corruptors


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YES PLEASE!

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Abso-frikkin-lutely. I want this more than anything. Despite the disappointments of the last few issues (though I do like MA), even if I15 only contained Archery/TA Corruptors I'd be blissfully happy I can't see any reason why they won't get it - it's as obvious as Thermal/Fire Defenders.

Oh and Brutes/Tankers had better get Spines/ (imagine it with Stone Armour or Ice Armour...) plus Claws/ and Broadsword/, Controllers need /Traps (Grav/Traps...) and /Cold, /Ninjitsu for Scrappers (replace hide with a zero-cost stealth toggle) plus every melee set they don't currently get, and Ice/Ice for Stalkers...

... or I'll cry!

It would be handy if the feedback screen was like the bug reporting screen, with set criteria you could click to select at the top, then a text field at the bottom for adding further detail. The clickable criteria could be in two columns: Positive on the left and Negative on the right. Unlike the bug reporting screen you would be able to click multiple criteria, but only either Positive or Negative for each line.

The layout of the feedback screen would then be as follows:

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Award a rating for this arc: 0 stars (dire), 1 star (poor), 2 stars (mediocre), 3 stars (good), 4 stars (excellent), 5 stars (perfect)
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[ ] I liked the story/theme of the arc / [ ] I disliked the story/theme of the arc
[ ] I liked the contact/NPC dialogue / [ ] I disliked the contact/NPC dialogue
[ ] I liked your custom group(s) / [ ] I disliked your custom group(s)
[ ] Missions were too short / [ ] Missions were too long
[ ] Arc was too easy / [ ] Arc was too difficult (Tooltip: list team size below)
[ ] I noticed no errors/bugs / [ ] The arc had errors/bugs (Tooltip: provide detail below)
etc.
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If you click neither of the following options the arc creator will know your global name when they receive your feedback, but not the rating you gave:
[ ] Notify creator of the rating you awarded and your global name / [ ] Deliver feedback anonymously
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Type further comments, detail and suggestions in the box below:
[ ]


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The feedback would also automatically include the archetype, primary/secondary powersets and level of the current character of the player giving the feedback (useful info for creators trying to balance arcs for solo play). Perhaps the feedback screen could also include a simple drop-down menu for selecting the team size as well.

This would guide the feedback into a more useful format for the arc creator, but also make it simpler for players who don't like typing comments to leave feedback quickly - then the arc creator could tell if their arc was being marked down because of valid problems or qualitative opinion (because tastes differ and quantitative feedback is arguably a lot more useful to you when you initially publish an arc).

This feedback would be delivered as a form via the in-game email system (rather than the /tell system, as it is now), so that you could get feedback even if you were offline. You could then also retain the feedback for later perusal (i.e. for when you had time to make changes to your arc in lieu of that feedback).

Also, as an added incentive for people to leave feedback, I would like to see two buttons at the bottom of the feedback email the creator receives - Was this feedback useful to you: Yes [ ] No [ ]. If the arc creator clicks yes then the player giving feedback is awarded 5 MA tickets that they can claim on any character (similarly to how arc creators can currently claim the 5-tickets-per-star-of-rating award they get from their arc being rated), but perhaps only if the feedback was not given anonymously.

You're welcome to review my arc, if you wish - be as tough as you like - after many years trying to get a novel published I'm inured to having my work mercilessly dissected

Arc Name: A Mythos of Mystical Mysteries
Arc ID: 84285
Morality: Neutral

It's a story-heavy arc, 3 missions long, L46-50, with 3 necessary EB/AVs (5 in total), so bring one of your strong characters if you solo it (though most of my brutes, corrs & Bane find it a decent solo challenge). The contact is Faathim the Kind - I had feedback from one person saying they had trouble clicking him, but he's clickable at waist/chest height (as I've noted in the in-game descriptive text).

I've got some useful critical feedback in-game, but as I only get that when I'm online it would be handy to get some deeper feedback here.

Best wishes for the future, Rockjaw. Ttfn!

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This came up in another thread and I know a fair few people that do it, but I actually am left wondering how many people actually do do this.

Please reply with a yes or a not, and any views you do have on this

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Yes - very often - in pretty much every MMO - very definitely in CoH/V. I have no problem with it. Imho how I use anything I “earn” as a player is up to me.

I chuck 5mill inf at every character I get to L12, to fund their IOs at L15+, up until they become self-supporting around L25-30ish (when they re-slot with mostly set IOs) - I get the 5mill inf from whichever one of my L50s can spare it. Also when I get any character near L47ish I’ll use several of my existing L50s (whichever has inf to spare) to bid on whatever L50 IOs that character needs for their “final build” (I rarely use purples, but otherwise anything goes).

I also have my L50s spread-bidding constantly on IOs I use a lot, but that I've found hard to buy at short notice - those IOs go into base storage for any of my characters that need them. I also store in the Vault all rare salvage that drops worth 25k+ (and some historically expensive commons too, like alch silver, rune, luck charm), then if one of my characters gets a recipe but doesn’t have the rare(s) for it I can get my friend to transfer that salvage over from a character that does have it.

By being patient/frugal like this I get IOs much cheaper than the going rate and don’t get ripped-off on salvage either, so I don’t have to farm to afford the good stuff. I do arbitrage or other market schemes sometimes if all my L50s get low on inf, but I can usually get by on inf earned while levelling, smart bidding/selling, and the proceeds from selling any purples or other decent drops I don’t need.

An easier way to transfer recipes/salvage between characters on the same account would be appreciated - until then I'm just glad I'm in a 2-person SG both sides with a friend I trust who is usually online at the same times I am.

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This worked like a charm. Has to be said though that using the forwardkey makes the game crash if you use that character on a PC which hasnt got the bindfiles

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I'm glad it worked in practice as well as in theory - I did briefly test it the other day when I had 10mins free and it seemed to work ok.

Although I did notice that the auto-power circle only seemed to switch to the other power while "W" was held down, and switched back when I released "W" - and which power the auto-power rested on when "W" wasn't held down depended on which txt file you loaded first. So I re-wrote the bind files so that pressing W, A, S, D, or SPACE would trigger the bindloadfile, so any movement at all would switch the auto-power to Domination, but otherwise the auto-power would be Hasten. I haven't tried that latter change yet, but it should work - I'm just wary of whether the binds would get confused when pressing two movement keys at once.

But if it does work without a hitch I guess I could get over-ambitious and get every single hotkey on my keyboard to run the same bindloadfile command, but I'll have to see how the existing set-up works in normal play first. I do have a little bit of a margin on my Mind/Psi perma-dom anyway (he only needs 2.5% to reach perma-dom, so the 20% base empowerment +rchg buff gives me a decent "buffer" in case I'm slow at activating hasten/domination when they come back up) so it may not prove to be an issue.

Honestly I just want to be able to play my dom as a perma-dom without my eyes being glued to watching Hasten/Domination on the hotkey bar all the time, as I'd rather be watching the combat and staying situationally aware.

DC Universe Online is going to be doing this, so if DCUO makes it to launch and this proves a popular feature then it might find its way into CoH/V.

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Shouldn't that be 'Surrender, evil scum!' instead Alpha? These are heroes, after all.

A low level co-op starting zone has been suggested before, and was very popular then and still is.

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One of the finest suggestion posts ever made IMO (which I really, really want, along with a RWZ style revamp of Dark Astoria for 20-35s with an epic storyline along the lines of the RWZ or Faultline one with BP, CoT and Tsoo).

*Edit : Re-reading it I just realised Valk also suggests the Dark Astoria co-op thing. That makes it offically the bestest suggestion ever made in terms of new content

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Thanks

Another idea I had at that time (but didn't dare mention as everyone would pester me to develop it) was revamping Boomtown as a L1-15 co-op newbie zone - probably focusing on the 5th Column, Clockwork and Vahzilok - with a low-level 3-mission TF that would have Paladin, Dr Vahz, and a weakened Reichsman in it (the TF's final mission ending with the discovery of Reichsman's stasis chamber under the old Freedom Phalanx base in Boomtown, accidentally releasing him, then having to try and defeat him before he fully awakens and regains his strength - this could also lead to the zone having a L35-50 co-op TF as well, where you could face Reichsman at full strength).

Boomtown would work pretty well for this as heroes could exit it into Steel Canyon safely at any point from L10-15, and villains could catch a black heli out of there to Cap au Diable at same levels.

Just don't expect me to develop that idea now - my new job barely gives me time to play CoH/V or read these forums, let alone spare any time to develop ideas just for the heck of it. So if any of you want to develop that idea and make a post about it, go for it

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Hmmmm. I think you just solved something for me. One of my binds in the Warshade files refused to work properly and made me work around it. Now I think I know why.

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Oh and yeah I should have said that the "8 characters or less" and "no spaces" thing also appears to apply to the filenames as well as foldernames. I didn't test it extensively, but removing a space from a foldername did miraculously fix one problem I had, and reducing a filename to 8 characters solved another, so I do think it's safest to stick with those restrictions.

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and my Warshade has 4 keybind files to himself I think, hehe

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Only 4? I've 8 (thanks to the 255 character limit), 5 are a chain of switch on shields binds.

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All my shield-toggling binds are usually dealt with in a single line on my character-specific txt files - just a series of toggleon statements for each toggle usually, bound to the F key, though with a powexecname statement first for SJ/Fly/Superspeed if I want to be able to toggle them on/off (or switch between hover/fly or cj/sj) once all my shield toggles are up.

In fact the first time I hit the 255 character limit was on my Claw/WP scrapper, because I had 8 toggle-ups in one keybind (4 from WP, Foc Acc, SJ & CJ, Tough) and all of the WP ones have quite long names - so I had to move Focused Accuracy to it's own key (C, iirc) - and then of course I kept forgetting to turn it on after logging in because I'm now in the habit of pressing F repeatedly like a mad fool on every character upon logging in or after being toggle-dropped

But it did take me quite a while to work out why my keybind with all 8 toggles in was only toggling up 7 of them, until I realised the last listed toggle (usually status protection, as that's often the first thing I want back up after a de-toggle, and for the uninitiated a keybind always executes right to left) was the one not turning on and I realised there must be a limit (and I did a wordcount in MS Word, and sure enough I was a little over 255, and that's such a distinctive number in computing I realised it must be the limit).

Glad I might have solved one of your problems though - that took me a heck of a time to work out as well. Keybinds can be frustrating... but oh so powerful.