Major_Twilight

-sigh- Okay, first things first...

My original post seems to have lost the final paragraph, which was something along the lines of "Is anyone else having these kinds of problems? Is there any kind of suggestions or advice anyone can give that I might have overlooked?" Luckily, most people have given those kinds of answers anyway, but it still annoys me that I lost those bits of the original post. But, yes, there originally were questions.

Other side notes/responses:

On his temp account, my friend seems to be limited on what levels he can reach. Therefore, we spend a lot of time doing sub-15 stuff.

Yeah, okay, I earned a fail on the greater than/less than symbols. I'd blame it on late nights, but it was equally likely to have been simple inattentiveness. The same kind that prevented me from realizing my whole post didn't go through. :-p

My main gripe for the banner events especially is that unless one has a good sized or powered team, and unless one has enough active people working on the banners, it's all but impossible to accomplish anything. The requirements for this remind me of the old Hamidon run requirements in many ways. It can be done, but it requires more than a couple of friends on at the same time as you are. Also, once the banner event starts, all the stock mobs for the zone become much harder to find, meaning that even if one ignores the event, it'd be easier just to go to a different zone or a different character and do something else for 20 minutes or so. But it is kinda frustrating to only need two more Lost in Kings Row to finish the hunt mission, and then suddenly an event starts and they all disappear.

My buddy's main gripe is that, if these events are supposed to be more fun than the regular game, and they have been for me in the past, but they end up being very frustrating for a new player, then there may need to be some tinkering done so the events are more newbie-friendly and don't lose players for the game. That said, one of the things I love about the game is that it isn't static; the devs are tinkering with it and adding new content every few months to keep it interesting, and I love that. Even when they introduce something that seems to be universally hated (anyone remember when Enhancement Diversification hit?), it's not been all that bad. The good out weighs the bad for the game, for me. But it is hard to show that to someone who has popped in for the first time and happened to hit something frustrating.

On Virtue and Freedom, which are two servers I've been playing on more recently, there are frequently characters of all levels in Atlas Park, including multiple 50s. So being SSKed to a much higher level during an event isn't all that unusual there. Yes, my level 7 Peacebringer got three event badges during a banner event in AP when she was SSKed to 49. But Nova form helps a lot with that.

The powersets I have run have varied, but I have at least one blaster of each primary and most secondaries spread across the five different servers I tend to play on, as well as a variety of most other ATs as well. Except tanks. I have one tank total. I just don't fit the tank mindset well. Recently I tend to play Controllerish Blasters (Ice, Electrical, and Energy) and Warshades, Martial Arts or Dual Blades scrappers, and Illusion or Fire controllers. I have also started playing the Psi, Sonic and Radiation blasters recently. I am such an alt-o-holic that I'm not sure which one it was that I looked at the stats on, but I think it was possibly the Rad blaster.

I appreciate those who have given me their experiences and advice here. Thanks for the selling points to try to convince my friend the game isn't really impossibly hard. :-p For most of you who told of less than level 20 characters (I've given up on mathematical signs, obviously), it seems that the team is the key. Since he and I have been just trying to run solo when we're not on together, or as just the two of us when we are, I'm going to take the approach of either pulling my old Emp defenders/trollers out of storage to run, or making something else that better complements and balances what he's playing right now. Or I'll buy him a month's worth of membership for Christmas so he can see the Winter event, which is still my favorite. :-)

Thanks again to those who helped! See you all in game.

I've talked to a few people online, some newer, some seasoned vets, some with more months play than I have (51), and we generally agree on this. When a level 9 regen scrapper continuously gets turned into hash while trick or treating, it really doesn't make it much fun. Never mind trying to do Zombie Apocalypse or the Mystic Banner Events. No matter how high our low level characters are sidekicked, we still can't do enough to survive, much less get the kills. When my level 5 blaster is auto-sidekicked to level 38, and his first blast power is only doing 23 points of damage, there is either something wrong with the sidekicking engine, or the monsters have stupid high DR. Using the sliding level scale on the Manage screen showed that a level 38 blaster should be doing at least 70ish points of damage with that attack, so I don't know what the deal is.

I got a friend of mine to start playing for the fun of Halloween, and he has decided to never play again because even with my help, the Halloween events just weren't any fun for him, because he spent more time at the hospital than fighting. Halloween was at least the second best holiday for us as kids. It's kinda sad that our 'kid' heroes get no fun out of it now.

Hey Forbin,

I appreciate the clarification there. I wasn't certain if you were trying to be helpful, or implying that I was stupid. I didn't take offense, I just wondered.

I agree that making a solo or limited membership SG is a hard row to hoe. I'll also admit that I used my empty slots on one server to make test characters of powersets I'd like to try, or theme characters that don't seem capable of much success just to boost my SG prestige so I can put in my standard arrangement of combo room with the combo table for power and control, a small workshop with enhancement table and invention worktable, and a two spot teleport bay with four beacons.

As for the recipes, I agree that hoarding isn't a good thing (what? Just because I have three full enhancement tables in my room in the SG base, doesn't mean I'm hoarding. Must of it is prep stuff for characters leveling up. Okay, it's kinda hoarding. Kinda.), and I have no problem with a 30 item IO salvage table, nor the ability to store things at Wentworth's. I just think it'd be nice to have a recipe storage unit for the base. The main reason for this is simple: My rl friends and I who have a SG on Pinnacle are often sending each other out-of-game emails about what we are looking for and/or need. Sometimes we get a recipe dropped that we know is needed for another person's character. Since we tend to work different shifts and/or go to school, we are almost never on at the same time. It would be nice for me to be able to just drop the recipe in the storage unit in the base for my friend to pick up when he is next on. I wouldn't care if the storage unit was limited to 25 or even 10 slots, just so long as we have it. It'd be nice to be able to email recipes (it just makes sense, especially since my mom emails me recipes in the real world all the time) to another character. It would be nice if the in-game email was used for something other than spamming.

I see what you are saying Forbin, but I agree with what Azure is saying; for those of us who don't max out our SG membership through heavy recruitment or alts, our SG may only have a few toons in it. And after seeing one SG I belong to get its base raided and all stored enhancements and salvage wiped out in a raid by long term SG members in good standing (and that was hundreds of enhancements and salvage), I'm not really in a big rush to try to recruit any Tom, Dick and Harry with a pulse to my fledgling SG.

Also, it is easy to use Wentworth's as a storage bay and I do that often, but it kind of seems to defeat the purpose of the auction house in a way.

I'm not certain why there is no way that they will let us have recipe storage. That doesn't make as much sense to me. Sure, they made salvage storage containers hold less when they eliminated base salvage because base salvage had much more limited uses than invention salvage and the hordes of base salvage that were dumped into the storage containers may have put a strain on things. I wouldn't care if recipe storage was similarly limited in size; that's part of the reason that I suggested three sizes. I'm not overly greedy after all.

AzureSkyCiel, feel free to add suggestions here too, that's what I posted for. :-) I find your thoughts on boosts from SG base needs to be an interesting one. I think that perhaps there might be more of a likelihood of seeing this enacted if the boosts were tied to SG badges and the items they allowed you to build. It would make it harder for fledgling SGs to get boosts, especially if they have few active members, but it might increase the drive to earn these SG badges and build the items they allow us to add to our bases. :-)

Also, I like the limits on who can get items from storage units. I just wish that they could also be limited by user name. This would be all but impossible to do, so I don't expect it, but it would be kinda nice. Just like having an account storage unit that would allow transfers of items between toons on different servers. But it's a fun dream. :-p

We've got starter base items, such as the combo control/energy table. I love that, because it has given me a reason to try to make a base on servers where I don't play as often. But I was wondering if there would be a willingness to make some other starter base items? Examples follow:

Starter Enhancement Table: A regular enhancement table is 100,000 prestige for a table that holds 100 items. Perhaps a starter enhancement table could be made available as well that will hold 10 enhancements for 10,000 prestige? Since rooms/bases have limitations on how many of an item can be placed, I don't think the starter table could be abused. And since it has such a small size, the drive to upgrade it would be significant. But for the early days of the base, it'd be wonderful.

Recipe Database/Scroll Rack: We have storage for everything else, so how about an item for recipe storage? A standard one could be 50,000 prestige for 50 recipes, an expanded one could be 100,000 prestige for 100 recipes, and a starter one could be 10,000 prestige for 10 recipes. Base/room limitations on storage items would keep this from being abused too.

I don't think these items would be too difficult to implement, since they are not very different from items already in existence.

Any thoughts?

This seems the best place to post this, though buried though it is deep into the forum, I doubt anyone who cares will read it. Ever. But for fun and laughs, I'll try it anyway:

Starter Base Items:
We have starter power and control items, so even the smallest SG has a chance to get things up and running on even a primitive level. I love this actually, and it has gotten me interested in and involved in building bases for my super groups on rarely-played servers. But I'd like a little more still.
+++Enhancement Tables: I love having enhancement tables as options for storage. What better way to keep lower level enhancements until my lower level characters get the level or two they need to use them? For my main SG where all the members are RL and trusted friends, we can trade off enhancements from character to character, and that's a great SG ability. But what I'd really like to see are 'starter' enhancement tables. I'd willingly pay 10,000-15,000 prestige for a 10 item enhancement table.
+++Scroll Racks or Databases: We love the enhancement tables for enhancements and the storage vaults for salvage, so why not add an item that we can use to store recipes?
+++Transfer Vaults: Enhancements and salvage can be stored in bases and traded from character to character easily and safely, but sometimes I get an item on one server that I really need on a different server. Could we get a "Transfer Vault" that would allow us to send recipes, enhancements, or salvage from server to server? Say one Transfer Vault per account, and 5-10 items maximum? I know it'd probably be harder and more complex to code than storage is, but it would make outfitting characters easier for the multi-server players like me.

Just some thoughts and ideas. And to the Devs and all the support people: I love the game and the world it takes place in. Keep up the good work and thanks for giving us City of Heroes!