Postagulous

Again, get out of Atlas.

Even as low as level 5 you can go to Kings Row, which has many fewer people, but you don't get the broadcast spam. From KR you go to Steel Canyon, then Talos island, which you can hang out it until your 40s if you feel like, though I've started growing fonder of Founders Falls, where you should be in the 30s, since I've been taking flight as my travel power. FF is horrible if you have Super Speed only.

And one thing to remember, the broadcast spammers in Atlas are not the majority, they are just the loudest. That said, if you are over level 7, there is no reason to be there. Heck, if I did farm I'd go to the RWZ for the peace and quiet.

Get out of Atlas park.

If you're in your 20s, head to Talos Island. The train goes nearly everywhere these days, except Parigrine Island, which kind of suffers the same farmyness as Atlas, but at about 30%. And there are no broadcast spammers there.

Like Turg said, starting your own team will really help you. I know it's daunting, but after you get on some teams it'll be easy to understand that it's nothing.

To get on a team, obviously broadcast "lv 20 scrapper lft" or LF Tips if that's what you want. But you'd want to be in talos for that. And leading a team, you'd have to be in Talos.

You don't nessesarily have to make "a team." Often I'll join up with a person who just broadcast "Need a few to help with mishs."

Team Leader:
1. You may want to read the guide listed in the Guide to Guides in the guide section here. It was really valuable to me.
2. Get some missions up or tips or a radio to get mishs.
3. "Lv 20 tip team forming pst" PST means please send tel, or private message. Though generally you can pick up people who are just LFT. Also using the search to find people is good, better in fact. That way you can make sure you have an aggro holder. I like picking up controllers. "Control is better than damage."
4. Set the mishs quickly. No one likes to stand around.
5. Don't level up. Period. During the time you're a leader. Your job is to set up mishs. Once in them, you're just there. I'll often say "Jojo, you're lead tank." and that's that. You're the leader, you just delegated authority.
6. Say things like gj and always cg when someone levels. You're going to set the tone for your team. Even if you don't want to type much, a little ty or gj goes a long way.
7. "omw" or "getting more" is something people want to hear when the inevitable standing around happens.

All this is in the guide, and put forward better. It even mentions the drop/tel you do when you get a person who dcs or something when you're leaving a mish.

To play with some good players who know what they're doing, sign up for Meg/Mr.E/Luna's stuff. That's most of what I play these days. There's also the fire/radiation controllers which meet at 8pm on the dirt hill in Talos every monday and the Dual Pistol team which is on Thursday nights. A plant superteam runs at 1pm on Saturdays but their time moves around a lot. And I know that Hyperstrike and WT[something] who run the frads and plants, respectively, are really polite and will look for you once you have been with them a few times.

OK, that's a long message.

Keyboard stuff:
My first thing I'd suggest it turn off autorun. It's either B or R. /bind [key] nop will remove that keybind. There is a massive collection of useful binds here in the guides.
Other than that Ctrl+ and Alt+ 1-9 will use the alternate trays. For UI setup ideas, take a look at some of the screenshots around here. Though some setups I can't imagine how the person can actually play with it like that.
I bind the alternate+ bar to my numpad keys. I also keep a tray at tthe top of my screen with tp powers, self destruct, and mystic fortune, etc.

Trading:
Check out the Marketing forum. Buy low, sell high.

Good -> Evil:
Once above level 20 you'll start having Tips show up. Under contacts there is a tab for Tips. Pick them and pick which direction you want to go. You can get up to 5 mishs toward your 10 to change over to the next step each day. Once you have 10 total, say Vigilante points, you get an alignment mission. Run it and you'll change from Hero to Vigilante. Then you have access to everything except the villain Ouroboros. Visiting Redside, get tips, run 10, change to villain. Same thing in reverse.

Exactly.

Adding range doesn't make it redundant. The "unless" and "or" are appreciated.

And if that blaster comes in and nukes and everyone's not dead, they suck and I will let them die, which they won't as enemies love an ice tank. I hate to let a blapper live, but it happens.

Wow, Red, didn't expect something like that from you.

Does someone have a case of the Mondays?

I did read that, but there have been so many words [so...many...words...] since then.

Ok, so there's an old map [the one I'm on with the ramps] and now a new map [which I figure I'll find when I search for "cebr doc" once I finish this arc], anyone else have a favorite they're running? Just thinkin' variety.

Put me on the alternate list. I'd be Saltier [blast] unless a tank was needed. Though my ice tank is only 48 so no incarnate powers yet.

Hmm. I've never heard it doing that. In fact, just had a veteran-veteran player tell me last night to avoid the temptation for the crab powers as I'm a huntsman [with bane poison ray and buildup].

In theory, we'd have a Dwarf form(s) as our tank on the EAT team.

What? Don't be put off from hibernating between groups if you need that. I'm ice/dark so I got heals all over the place.