Oliphantino

... i think it should be a policy that in advertisements for items sold in the Paragon Market to make it a point to describe all the REQUIREMENTS to use each item...

I just got an email adverting the Beast Mastery power set... the email seems to indicate any character can use it... it has a link to a more detailed description... that description also does not say anything about character requirements to use the power set...

ONLY when you get IN the game ad go to the Paragon Market and select Beast Mastery power set and read its detailed description, does one finally discover this is for Mastermind characters only... who already have pets...

if i had paid real money to but paragon points to buy this and only then discovered i couldn't use the power set with the character i bought it for, i would not be a happy camper...

sure... i should always read the description in the market in its fullest before buying... but if buying from the Paragon Market ends up being a bad experience, even if it is due to me not reading a third description of the same item on the assumption the other two would list any restrictions if they existed... will often result in my not buying as much from the Paragon Market...

i feel i have a reasonable expectation that all descriptions should list requirements for use... especially those that suggest it is a detailed description, such as a link called 'Learn More'...

a few points...

first, while there have been previous 3D movie fads in the past, times have changed. nowadays, we have the ability to watch 3D content in our homes.

but more importantly, computer games can also be played in 3D environments... often retro-actively! In fact, as i understand it, the PS3 has an upgrade to firmware (free) that converts all 3D rendered games to 3D vision...

the technology has gotten a lot better. in the old days, they used polarization to get the 3D effect. this works, but has the drawbacks that it can give the user a headache and will always dim the picture since each eye only gets half the light of the projector.

today in 3D TV's, the 'active' 3D method uses glasses that have two 'shutters' for lenses... these are synced to the TV and can open and close at about 120 times a second... this is faster than the eyes/brain can detect... it alternates between the left eye being closed and the right eye being closed... each time it can use the FULL brightness of the TV to render each eye's perspective... i'm told this method of generating 3D doesn't work for everybody (likely genetic in nature), but i do know it works for me...

and there are also 3D cameras now... some cell phones even have 3D cameras! the Nintendo 3DS also has a 3D camera... 3D still images are best viewed on a 3D TV...

and 3D video cameras are also on the market... as well as software that can convert panorama videos to 3D stills... again, this even exists for some cell phones!

DirecTV has a few 3D stations... major sporting events are now often captured live in 3D to show on these 3D stations...

so nowadays 3D has many more reasons to stick around...

my 'old' HDTV went out... but it was under warranty, and i just got a full reimbursement of the old HDTV purchase price (!), so i am buying a 3D HDTV to replace it... it's hard to buy an HDTV nowadays that is not 3D... hehe

it is possible to play CoH in full 3D?... if so, what do i need to know or get to do this?

FYI, I will have the computer hooked up to the 3D HDTV directly via a port in the back of the HDTV... it will be a Samsung plasma HDTV using active 3D glasses system...

i might try letting the first future-me go away as normal (i.e., talk to him), and then use the second-me help fight in the third area (i.e., don't talk to him until we clear out the third area)... the reason this might be fun is the second-me is suppose to be a demi-god in power... like to see what he can do!

there is a villain morality mission (one where when you complete it you get a villain merit) where you meet various future versions of yourself to correct a mistake you will make dealing with a future named bad guy (who plays a part in the mission as well)...

the basic form of this mission, once the scientist is forced to unlock the terminals, is to clear out the area, activate the terminal in the area, fight a bad guy that is spawned, then talk to your future-self, which spawns the future named bad guy in the story, with the help of your future-self defeat him, after which your future-self goes away... this is done for three separate areas...

now... I accidentally found this cool trick after about the zillionth time i've done this mission...

today, when i got to the point where i was suppose to talk to my first future-self (the bolded part of the description above), i forgot i was suppose to talk to him... as a result, this future version of me followed me around into the other two areas and became a virtual pet who helped me fight to clear out all of the bad guys first!... THEN i talked to him, which caused the remainder of the mission to unfold as before... but with no bad guys left...!

I suppose there is a danger of failing the mission if your future-self dies... and i warn you if you try this, he tends to have a mind of his own (he will very aggressively and pro-actively attack groups of bad guys near by on his own)... but it was a lot of fun to do this mission with two of me!

i have a couple of issues with pets... at least one is a bug...

ISSUE #1

in the Winter event one could get 'Build Snowbeast' as a power... oddly, one can have 3 of these at one time... but they don't stack... it says this in the description... so this is correct... and that's NOT the issue, but i suspect it is the cause...

i accumulated 3 of these, and placed them on one power bar... but on occasion, when i log back in, one or two of them have been removed from the power bar... i still have them, and i can still place them back... but they shouldn't be removed without ME doing so...

ISSUE #2

this one I'm not sure if its a bug, but it is not 'nice'... I have 'spiderlings' i can bring up in accordance to my being an arachnos soldier with that ability... i have managed to reduce its recharge time so much that it becomes 'available' before the spiderlings go away... i think this is referred to as 'perma-pet'...

the problem is this... if i evoke the 'spiderling' power while i still have spiderlings, it does not bring up another set... ok fair enough... but it resets the spiderlings powers recharge timer, so i can't bring them up when they do go away... if i do this while the spiderlings are at that exact moment they die, it can have this result in only some of them returning... for example, i might end up with just one or two spiderlings...

I would think evoking the power when there are spiderlings still up should either:

- evoke more spiderlings (thus having as many as 6)
- disable the power (grey it) until the existing spiderlings are gone
- kill existing spiderlings, bring in fresh set of 3
- auto-bring-in ALL the spiderlings back when the current ones go away

spiderlings last for 4 minutes, and i have their recharge time down to about 3 minute 45 seconds... so if a evoke the power between 3 min 45 secs and 4 min i will end up with NO spiderlings for almost 4 minutes...

this seems like a bug, but i guess it could be working as intended...

I've read that the Winter Event is until Jan 31... but there are still 'presents' one can grab, the winter area in Pocket D is still accessible, and etc.

When do these actually go away? I'm guessing tonight at some point (Jan 1), though I don't know what time zone is the 'official' time zone for the game (PST, EST,...)...

ok... i have been logged off long enough to get the Vanguard Merit Bonus badge and the Mercenary accolade...

but i'm not sure what these do... first off, it says that now that i have the badge that the vanguard merit award double at the end of each mission for a time... BUT.. that was already happening BEFORE i got the badge, I ALWAYS get ONE Vanguard Merit at the end of the (Rikti War Zone) missions and TWO if i have the bonus still within the time limit... so what changed with this badge?

and then there is the Mercenary badge... it it says build up 'charges' to my 'fragmentation grenade' power when i log off in Vanguard area... but I have a 'frag grenade' power uses energy like all other powers... so i have no idea what 'charges' are... and i see no new temporary power called 'fragmentation grenade'... so what did i get with this badge?

i wish the description were more complete and clearer about what they do...

i also had the 'problem' that I 'earned' the Archanos badge, but didn't actually get it till i went 'Villain' again... apparently this is a requirement.. but i only found out after contacting customer support since it didn't say anything about the requirement for Villain ( instead of hero or vigilante or rogue) status...

nowadays i log out exclusively in the Rikti War Zone 'hub' to get the Vanguard Day Job badge... it says when i do this that for a brief time i will get two Vanguard Merits when completing missions in the zone...

my problem is this.. i have logged off for as much as 12 hours.. and the 'brief time' that this advantage is active is like 4 minutes... which means it is worthless, since it is kinda of tough to get mission, get there, and finish it in 4 minutes...

why have this at all if it is almost impossible to benefit from it? it says one can earn up to 2 hours of this bonus time.. does one have to log off for MONTHS EACH TIME to do this?

thanks!

i can bring up pets via two 'reinforcements' and three 'spiderlings'... do buffs like 'tactical training' powers, which say affect team members, also buff these pets...?

i have a level 45 arach soldier who has traveled to a lot of areas, thus 'filling-in' the maps of the areas i've been to...

yesterday i created a new character, a peacemaker... when i returned to my arach soldier it had reset all the maps as if i had not traveled anywhere... including removing all landmark information (the maps are 'black').. as i progress they do fill-in again...

but creating a new character i'm pretty sure is not suppose to clear all the maps of my other characters... if it is important, they were both created on same server (Champion)...

in the last day, i have done three mission where the character i rescue STOPS every few feet and expects me to go back and get him or her...
often requiring me to do it HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of times in the SAME mission.. this is NOT fun!

this results is a ridiculously long exit... it took me 5 minutes to find them, and 20 minutes to walk them out..

is this annoying to you...

(forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back) (forward) (stop) "can i get some help here?" (go back)

it is to me...

please make ALL those one rescues not stop every 5 seconds...

in Tip and 'paper/radio' missions there is nobody to go to to end the mission by the 'stuck' method (go back to guy who gave you mission and say end it now)...

this is a VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY annoying and frustrating aspect of some rescue missions... most rescue missions are fine, with the character being rescued actually following one in a reasonable fashion, but i've almost quite for the day twice because of this...

one of the enhancements allowed for call reinforcements is 'defense debuff'... however after equipping this power with the enhancement and then reviewing the 'info' details for the power, i see no indication of any defense debuff-ing going on... so i have no idea what effect it has...

i have thought about replacing it with a third damage enhancement, but would rather know all the facts so i can make an informed decision!

i have a few more 'advanced' questions...

i have successfully switched from villain to rogue... this allows me to go to, say, atlas park now...

it took a long time to get a tip on the hero side... but when i did, i discovered that the alignment missions on the hero side are for hero alignment only... i would have thought it would have been a choice between hero or more rogue, since on the villain side i have the choice of villain or more rogue... I find this lack of symmetry a bit confusing... and it sort of discourages one to go to the hero side at all (apparently unless i want to become a full hero, i can't do tip missions on the hero side)...

for me to continue to do rogue alignment missions (as a rogue), do i really have to be on the villain side of the universe to do this?

the other question is that i could not find any way to get a contact to do missions on the hero side... my first guess is that this is only possible as a full hero... or is there a mechanism i'm missing?

can i still do missions on the villain side as a rogue?

thank for all the responses!

ok... i just did the 10 rogue missions (over two days) and switched from villain to rogue status...

but the description (the the in-game guy describes) says when i complete my first morality mission i should get 50 reward merits (and it says a villain/hero merit for each morality mission after that)... i had 54 when i started and i still have 54... so i didn't get 50 reward merits...

i now can walk around in atlas park (i started as a villain) so i know i did switch to Rogue... did they change the rules, am i reading the description wrong, or was i suppose to get 50 reward merits and didn't?

i personally have a rule that i never use an acronym unless i first define it... such as Single Origin enhancer (SO)... after which i THEN feel i can use SO as often as i want in the same post...

now... most come to this forum to get help on stuff they are new at... the problem is that those who do know the answers, because they have played a long time, tend to immediately use acronyms... but those who are trying to learn probably don't know the acronym, making the advice look like a different language... and the advice sometimes worthless!

for example, someone trying to learn about the various types of enhancers is just going to be confused if given the answer "there are DO's, SO's, and IO's"... see what i mean... this kind of response basically assumes the audience already knows the answer!

this is because there has always been the problem (not just in this sense) that people who offer help tend to know the subject so well they talk in a language that assumes who they are talking to does too (i call it the 'user manual author's paradox')... which tends to defeat the purpose...

for me... i just saw the acronym ED... i assume this is some artificially imposed system that makes it so the more of the same enhancer one uses in the same power use the less effective it is... i'd like to look up more detail on this subject... but i can't... because i have no idea what 'ED' stands for so i can't look it up via search (a search for just 'ED' result is nothing found)! i also saw people in-game saying all the time DFB, DFB, DFB... i didn't know what this meant ('Death From Below' quest) for weeks...

thus, assuming it doesn't already exist, i suggest that there should be an acronym dictionary sticky topic so one can look up common acronym's...

i'm not exactly sure what Fame points are for...

my best guess is that they give an indication when you can do another Tip mission once the 5 in one 'day' has been done... that is, you can't do a Tip mission unless one of the Fame point boxes is empty...

so if I'm right... the system is NOT that at like, say, midnight you can now do 5 more Tip missions... it is once you have done 5 you can only do another one when the longest one was at least 20 hours ago... so in a sense, Fame points are what you WANT to go away!

but i don't know if this is true, it's just a guess... but i don't think Fame points are spent, nor do you get some benefit from having them (like, say, 1.5X experience for kills)... am i close?

i didn't see the filter ('notice' is a better word)... and i will check out the guide... thanks all!

i finally have started to do 'tips'. I have read the description by Pit (NPC) and it is somewhat confusing and not very informative. for the remainder of this i will speak based on a character that is currently aligned with 'Villain'.

i finally found the Crucible and went in... inside i found a guy named Trashcan.... i finally figured out i have to look in the trashcan behind him...

when i do... he offers me the ability to exchange 50 reward merits and 20M inf to buy a Villain Merit. and that's it... he does not seem to exchange them for anything, and i can't find anyone in the Crucible that does...

AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I WANT ANY VILLIAN MERITS! like i said, i can't find anyone that lets me exchange Villian Merits for what Pit says are 'rare items'... don't even know what kind of 'items' he is talking about (enhancements, recipes, inspirations, powers,.. all of the above?)...

and Pit says i lose all villian merit points when i change alignment... what causes me to change alignment? I have two bars at the top 'Villian' and 'Rogue'. when i do a mission it gives me an option to pick one of these. But i have no idea why i would want to increase the Villain bar if I'm already a Villian (alignment)? can i increase both bars independently, or if i have advanced the Rogue bar does doing a Villian mission decrease the Rogue bar or just add to the Villain bar independently (and visa versa)?

if i advance a bar enough (say all of the Rogue bar) and i have Villain merits, does this cause me to switch to Rogue automatically and thus lose any Villain Merits i have...? that's sounds quite scary considering how expensive they are... and WHY do you LOSE them?

in short, the whole thing is a big confusing jumble of 'rules' that i have no idea what i should do that is best for me... for instance, i don't want to buy a whole bunch of Villain Merits at the very expensive conversion price (that i can only do once every 20 hours anyway) and lose them because i 'forgot' to spend them (or don't know where to do so) since i don't know when i turn into a Rogue... and i have no idea what good Villain Merits are since i can't find anyone who lets me use them so i have no idea why i would want to collect Villain Merits in the first place...

in short... why would i spend 20M inf and 50 reward merits for something i have no idea what i can buy with it, and that i might lose automatically if i do a mission that changes my alignment...?

is there a CLEAR and EASY guide on this somewhere?

there are recipes called 'Knockback Duration' but the description says the resulting enhancements increase DISTANCE... which is it?

I would assume it is duration that is increased, because increasing how much groups are scattered is not usually a good thing... but i want to know for sure!