Noxilicious

Well, I17 offers several new unique maps for use in AE. Chances are, that one will be included.

The only way to find out is to wait and see, though.

I am pretty sure Carnies are psi-resistant.

Either that, or I am imagining those nightmares I still have about soloing them on a Psi/Mental Blaster.

Doctor Brainstorm.

That's right, I'm opening that can of worms!

All I want is an awesome fight scene between Statesman and Lord Recluse and I'll be happy.

It's basically like Sam said. Who watches these kinda movies for their engaging plots and emotionally-moving characters? A City of Heroes movie, by its very nature, would be an action movie, and an action movie is only ever as good as its fight scenes.

Either way, even ignoring all PCs and NPCs that don't have a Hero or Archvillain tag, you have such a wealth of characters that a City of Heroes movie would have to be truncated a lot. If we really wanna see as many characters as possible involved in roles more significant than streetcorner cameos, I think a cartoon is the best way to go.

Carnie Hunts in Peregrine Island.

I rest my case.

More personal anecdote time! Isn't it exciting?

So out of boredom I decided to do a mission on my level 50 Bane Spider. I set my mission to -1/*8 just to see how it goes (and because I needed the Infiltrator badge and I was looking for alternatives to the Fab). It was a bumpy right, but manageable thanks to the inspirations that came streaming in from the countless enemies.

Then whenever I ran into a level 50 group I face-planted. Sure, when we're talking about /*1, one level doesn't make that much of a difference, but at /*8 it's a different story.

So I'm with Sam on this one. Consistent difficulty over antiquated mechanics all the way.

Wasn't there some whacky hardware or software reason that this isn't really possible?

Either way, the idea is great in theory. If the devs can manage to merge the server lists, then I'm all for it.

Using your travel power to get somewhere is not difficult, anyway. It's just time-consuming. When I get a mission in Talos Island and I'm told to go to the southern end of Independence Port, when I arrive I don't think "YES I REACHED THE MISSION DOOR! This is the greatest thing ever!" I just lament having wasted the time reaching the ***-end of a needlessly elongated zone.

Travelling from place to place in CoH is as exciting as riding the boss. Oh, you might be new to this part of town so when you look out the window you see all those new locales and it's kinda exciting, but by the 500th time you took the same bus to get to work or visit your buddy or whatever, you just grab a book and iPod and not pay attention to the scenery.

This is CoH. Many have been playing for years and they know all the nooks and crannies. We don't want to see it all again, we care about getting to the mission instance is, where we finally get to beat up some baddies.

Challenge where challenge is due, but flying over or super-speeding past everyone, often people that con grey to you when, not if, but when you are sent to a lower-level zone, just to look at several loading screens before reaching your destination is not a challenge.

Anecdotes about how exciting the Hollows were before there were Raptor Packs and before it had a hospital do not factor into that. One pre-travel power zone makes no difference when you're already in your late twenties and sent all across the city only to reach a mission door. This is not a challenge, never was, and if you think it is, I suggest you take off your rose-tinted glasses and stop telling those kids to get off your lawn.

All my villains are varying degrees of bad. They range from simply selfish with zero consideration for their fellow human beings to mad scientists who think doing all sorts of experiments on whatever hobo you picked up in Mercy Island is a fun past-time.

That said, I don't mind if people think their CoV characters or heroic. There's even some story arcs that allow a heroic solution, even if said solution is "hey! Let the timer run out! DO IT FOR JUSTICE!"

There are character types that do annoy me, however, and it seems appropriate enough for this thread to rant about them.

For starters, there's the Kheldians and Soldiers of Arachnos that have "Not actually [Archetype]" as their first line in their bio. I just find it immensely silly that you pick an AT that has a 1-50 story dedicated to them and then say they're not connected to the story? I suppose some people just want to shapeshift without being a Kheldian, and I can respect that, but with VEATs the most unique thing you get the crab-spider backpack, and most non-VEAT VEATs don't seem to have them.

Well, either way, I can kinda see where those people are coming from. They want the gameplay but don't care for the lore attached to it so they make their own. I can respect that.

What actually starts bothering me is when the opposite happens. Having your origin being tied to the existing lore is a great thing as far as I'm concerned. Whether you're an ex-Crey scientist/experiment or you narrowly escaped a Circle of Thorns ritual with some of their artifacts, it's all cool. It starts going a wee bit far when it turns out you're Lord Recluse's wife or child, or the secret lover of Ghost Widow or anything like that. I'm cool with tying yourself to the existing lore and I can deal with dismissing or ignoring existing lore to make your own character concept, but when you warp the existing lore to make your level 2 toon beating up snakes more important than they actually are, I think you're officially trying too hard. Or, as is more likely, not hard enough.

Similar are also the types that claim to be ancient super-gods with the power of omnipotence and demand you worship them... at level 12. I only ever saw those ones in the Pocket D, so I don't exactly care about them, either.

My absolute "favorite" concept, however, and the most common of these at least on Virtue, are Arbiter toons. I just find it hilarious when someone claims to be part of Arachnos' impartial and untouchable branch but is very far from being either one. All the other concepts I, at most, just shake my head and move on, but whenever I see an "Arbiter", I make a point of saying in Local "Do you think that shoddy disguise fools anyone? You're not even shiny like a real Arbiter!"

Again, these are concepts I don't like, but with the exception of Arbiters who get a short one-line quip, I never tell anyone how to make their character concept. It's your choice how to play the game and if you're having fun, awesome! These are just concepts I find silly and I just wanted to share my two cents.

There's also been times I've been asked to unsummon some of my henchmen because someone's lagging a lot. In those cases, I actually do unsummon one tier 1 and one tier 2 henchman. I have no idea if that actually helps, but when I'm on a team it's important to me that everyone on the team is having fun, so I'm willing to make some sacrifices like that.

Being told to get rid of my entire bloody Primary because someone is unreasonably paranoid about the healing Nictus? No thanks, now you're just asking me to feel like a wannabe Defender just to alleviate your paranoia!

The worst part about that was that I was told to unsummon my henchmen by another Mastermind. To this day I cannot understand how he thinks that in order for the enemy ot have less healing is to cause less damage, but at least I never ran into that kinda leader on an ITF again.

This usually doesn't bother me, but lately I've had some really bad luck and I've been encountering AVs two to even three, THREE, levels above what I specified.

In a full team of eight, I feel that one or two levels don't make too much of a difference, but an AV can easily take twice as long all of a sudden until you realise their level is WAY too high.

I don't actually mind the +1 because, as was mentioned, +1 spawns also tend to be smaller so in theory it balances out, but when it comes to AVs, +1 is a HUGE difference because their entourage of minions won't make a difference in the long run, only their own power.

If you don't wanna use Speedboost, why even pick the power? Actually, have you checked whether the person has SB? Judging by the person's behaviour, I'll just assume yes and go on.

I'm very much with BrandX on this. For starters, as I mentioned, if you pick a power only to adamantly refuse using it, well, that's not even selfish because it borders on self-destructive, as the OP's anecdote showed.

Then there's also the fact that when you're on a team, you're expected to be a team-player. If someone asks you to do something, it generally makes sense to actually do that. Asking a Blaster to take aggro makes no sense, but who asks that? Asking a Kin to apply Speed Boosts when everyone's endurance is gone? That is not telling you how to play your toon, that is called having Common Sense [insert Deadpool comic here]

And lastly, anyone who threatens to leave after being told to HELP THE TEAM deserves to be kicked. In fact, anyone who threatens to leave for any reason deserves to be kicked. We're superheroes, we don't negotiate with terrorists.

I'm mostly with the OP on this.

Nowadays, though, I start slotting generic IOs once I hit 32 if only because at that point generic IOs are about as powerful as a permant +3 SO and from what I can tell, the higher level generic IOs aren't that much of an improvement anymore.

I have a grand total of one toon slotted with IO sets, with a build a friend of mine made for me. Making generic IOs is a small hassle, less so than re-slotting every five levels to me, but gathering up the materials and recipes for IO sets on the market was significantly more effort than is worth to me. Yeah, the results are noticable, but ultimately I just care about going pew pew and watching the peoples fall down.

I used to look with envy with people whose set bonus list was nigh-endless, but nowadays I'm comfortable with just using generic IOs. But hey, that's why CoH is so fun, no? The number-crunchers have their IO sets and simpler players like me can use SOs/generic IOs without being gimped or useless and everyone gets to have fun.

Aside from the obligatory KB rants, my advice for Peacebringers is to attack directly from above the mobs. Knockback quickly becomes Knockdown.

Other than that, I'm not sure you've said whether you told her to stop. Yeah, you said you don't wanna teach another player how to play their toon (kinda runs contrary to this community's reputation of being helpful, but hey, to each their own), but telling someone to wait before attacking or attacking from above or ANYTHING takes seconds and is a far cry from teaching someone how to play.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you really didn't say anything and then just kicked her, it's in part also failure on our part as a leader.

For what it's worth, I'm having fun with Dual Pistols. Of course, "having fun" is everything but constructive criticism and won't fix any balance issues, so I'll leave that to the helpful number-crunchers of the forum.

I oppose your opposition.

In fact, you make an excellent point in favour of this change.

"We hurried to finish off a villain toon for a hero buddy that hadn't ran villains before."

Many people say that in this game, unlike many other MMOs, it's the journey that matters, not the destination. This game practically encourages altitis, what with there being a sizable portion of five year or longer vets that even today report hitting 50 for the first time.

Having something unlockable at 50 isn't bad per sé. I like Rikti Raids, and while I'm not as fond of Hami Raids, I understand there's many people who are. You can get purple recipes and many people love pimping their toons with them. But these are things for you to do once you hit 50, things to do with your level 50 toons. Unless you hit that level, you don't really have a reason to care for them. Having unlockable ATs, however, gives you something for the whole range of 1-50. Raids and purple recipes are nice, but these are Epic Archetypes! EPIC! We must have them right now!

As you so brilliantly pointed out, having new ATs unlockable at 50 doesn't give you a reason to have a level 50 toon, it only gives you a reason to rush to 50 and then abandon said toon in order to... play all the content again that you previously rushed through? That's kinda backwards, don't you think?

At worst having unlockable ATs at 50 encourages power-leveling, and at best it encourages just ignoring all the content on your way to 50.

Then there's also the fact that making ATs unlockable at 50 is actually harmful to these ATs. Despite what devs say about Epic meaning "tied to the lore" in this context, to most people Epic translates into powerful. Sure, Kheldians and Soldiers of Arachnos are unique, but they don't overpower the other ATs. In fact, many people are not fond at all of Kheldians simply because they feel so very weak in comparison to other ATs. Kheldians are jack of all trades, and jack of all trades are always masters of none, yet being called Epic Archetypes, being unlockable at 50, gives totally warped expectations, expectations that are very easy to fail. Make them unlockable at 20, and EATs are new ATs with a gimmick, not the super awesome ATs that only cool kids are allowed to play, except they're not as super awesome as expected so they fail.

Then there's also the fact that according to War Witch, the number of 50s and consequently the number of EATs is lower than they anticipated. From their perspective they went through all the effort of designing unique Archetypes, only to have them hardly played? Some players may say that their work is wasted now that EATs are unlockable at 50, but to the devs, it means that their work finally pays off. And make no mistake, only the devs did any work, the players, well, they played.

And while we're on the subject: More Kheldians and more Soldiers of Arachnos are only beneficial to EAT players. With an MMO, you will always have tons of bugs, glitches and most of all balance-issues. We would all love to see all of that fixed immediately, but there's priorities, and a seldomly-picked and played AT is low on that list. What's more important? Seeing to it that the 10 basic ATs that everyone plays are working properly, or seeing to it that four 'rare' ATs are being balanced? More EATs means EATs cannot be ignored when it comes to balance issues and bugs and the like. Why, Arachnos Soldiers may have a Crab and Bane Build without both having the Crab Backpack when actually many people play the AT!

I see no reason not to make the unlockable at 20. Hell, if the devs one day decide to make them unlockable upon subscription, I'd be in favour of that, too! So please, tell me again, what reason is there to keep EATs as unlockables at 50 other than some silly sense of pride? And for the record, I have a Bane Spider at 50 and a Tri-Form Peacebringer at 49, so don't think of insinuating I'm only saying this for my own benefit. Oh sure, I understand there's people that do take pride in their EATs, I understand there's people that considered getting to 50 "work" and EATs as their just reward that they earned, but if the only reason these people had to hit 50 so they can start again at level 1, this says more about how they view those last five or ten levels. But hey, I actually enjoyed the raids and Strike Forces and red-side especially the story arcs that I played, so I never minded hitting 50. If you need a carrot on a stick dangling in front of your face to play because you consider it work you must endure, well, maybe CoH/V just isn't the type of game for you?

Edit: Oh, I also forgot to mention: Some people say reaching 50 "prepares" you for EATs, but even ignoring that several people rush to 50 and therefore have less time to learn the game, playing an AT does not prepare you for another.

For starters, nothing prepares you for the enhancement drought of a Tri-Form Kheldian. Then there's the fact that a Kheldian can fill many roles, so if you REALLY want to prepare for a Kheldian, you need to play a Blaster and Tanker to 50 as well as a Scrapper to 50 for Peacebringers and Controller to 50 for Warshades to be properly prepared for all the stuff a Kheldian can do. The same goes for VEATs, except they're even simpler in that they only respec into a kind-of different AT, and until I played my VEAT, I never respecced before, not to mention that respeccing isn't actually difficult. If you want to learn how to play an AT, the best way is and will always be jumping into the water and getting your feet wet, not getting a driver's liscence so you can start flying helicopters.

Well, my Dual Pistols/Pain Domination Corruptor is named Maquise de Sade. Yes, her name has closer ties to her Secondary, I'm a rebel like that.