Santorican

Originally Posted by LISAR

Billy the Kid used guns, I'm gonna consider him tech.

Originally Posted by Turgenev

(Felt like sharing. MiniTurg turned 2 months old this week. Cape gifted by @ObsidianLight and crafted by @Layla Rei (who's hugely talented and makes dolls too!).

(Thanks to everyone for helping me get Layla's name right! )

Originally Posted by dugfromthearth

not be defeated, but actually fail missions. And not forced failures like no matter what you do Statesman is killed. But as in Lady Jane gets defeated or more than 30 fir bolgs escape.

A lot of missions say there is time pressure but then there is none.

Whereas in safeguard if you do not stop the bombs in the sewers they blow up and if you are inside you are defeated.

Or you can just fail to stop the bank robbery.

I like the idea of having some higher pressure missions - with a higher xp reward for mission success, maybe.

I wonder if the repeatable missions in pvp zones, hollows, etc could be changed to a shorter time limit like 15 minutes. Make them rush missions. Of course that might just mean ninjaing missions

Originally Posted by Beastyle

Well, it's time for this party animal to do the shuffle into the unknown. Today is my last day here at Paragon Studios, and I leave enriched, having known this fantastic community.

It's a bit of a funny story; I wasn't even supposed to be on the Community Team! I had applied for a completely different position at Paragon Studios, but was offered the chance to interact directly with the players instead. Even before I got to know most of you, I jumped at the chance, and I cannot express how glad I am that I did. It's often said that we have one of the best communities in online gaming, and it's no exaggeration: City of Heroes players are friendly, creative, and deeply passionate about the game. The people I've met, whether in-game, on the forums, over social media, Ustream, or those of you I've had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face, have completely astounded me with how wonderful they are.

Thanks to all of you for the forum discussions, for sharing your characters and stories in-game, for opening up your SG bases to tour and hang out in. Thank you for Incarnate Trial runs, for not flipping out whenever I suddenly appeared in-game standing upside down above you, and for hanging out in Ustream chat long after broadcast ended to chat about random things. Thanks for joining in my impromptu dance parties in Pocket D, Atlas Park, on top of the truck in Cap Au Diable, during the ITF, during Rikti invasions, that one time inside the Golden Giza, during the Keyes Trial, during the Underground Trial, during BAF, during the Statesman TF, in Studio 55...

It has truly been a pleasure. I still plan to keep up with City of Heroes, and Paragon Studios; just as Beastyle in-game often lurked around invisible, perhaps popping out unexpectedly, as will I. I look forward to seeing all the exciting things coming up for Paragon Studios, and watching this community flourish in the years to come.

Cool guys always walk away into the sunset with a wave behind their back; I think, instead, I'll salute you all with an /e popdance. See you around, Heroes, Villains, and Praetorians! Keep on partying!

Originally Posted by Hqnk

I did something last night I thought I would never do: deleted two level 50 characters (two tanks actually).

I had tried to play them both earlier in the evening and I had become increasingly irritated at them because they *felt* inferior to the tanks and brutes I had leveled to 50 since then.

I wondered if I was just in a bad mood, but I could not come up with a slotting combination that let me enjoy them and as I thought about it, I really stopped enjoying them when I could never get them to "mature" for me.

So...I carefully denuded them of expensive enhancements, sold some of it and mailed the rest off...and I deleted them.

"I needed the space," I told myself, and it was true. I didn't want to spend the PPs to transfer them to another server (I have ranged characters who need decimation sets). It was still an odd sensation. Two characters who I worked pretty hard to get to 50 rolled under because they were, in effect, training wheel characters for the tank and brute I feel absolutely super playing.

In the aftermath, I felt guilty, if not to the work than to the character concepts. "Maybe I should have been more flexible or something." Or, "I got you to 50, it just didn't work out."

Time to play with the new hotness.

Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei

This is an excellent thread.

It is a reminder of why despite the things the devs messed up or could improve upon, they are WAY better and will ALWAYS be my choice for the ultimate deciders on balance issues. Players IMHO can rarely if ever be trusted with this responsibility, its too much for the majority to handle.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison

As much as I hate to think what it would do to my favorite characters, I do agree with this. Unfortunately, the public backlash to this kind of action could be fatal.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

I've had a lot of mean things to say about the SSAs since SSA3, but I figured that since they're obviously going to have such a prominent place in City of Heroes lore (and since I cooled off a bit), I might as well run them just so I know what they're about. To my surprise, the stores themselves aren't that bad, but the characters... Dear Lord the characters!

The Freedom Phalanx are incompetent and more than that, they're horrible people! Manticore is probably the worst. We now know that the Statesman is the one who dies, bit if we had to ask WHY, it's all because Manticore is failure and a jerk.

This is the most evident when he's seen speaking with Ms. Liberty in the Malaise interrogation mission, where he acts like an insensitive *******, suggesting that Alexis' death was "just a mistake" to her still-grieving daughter. Dude, Liberty just lost her mother. Show some respect and sympathy. Or, failing that, get your priorities straight. You want to get in on the interrogation. If you're rude to Liberty... SHE WON'T LET YOU! Be nice to her, apologise, promise to make up for it, then when she lets you in to see Malaise, shoot him in the head. You fail both as a friend AND as a meta-human!

And then when the Dirge of Chaos starts playing, making Longbow agents kill each other and putting Psyche and Aurora in extreme danger, Manticore shows up to kill Malaise anyway - WITH COPS TO HELP HIM - and says the dumbest thing I've ever heard coming out of a character. "The Dirge of Chaos wasn't my doing, but it makes my plan easier." What was your plan, Manticore? Get your wife possessed and killed. Weren't you the one shedding crocodile tears about how you had to be there to protect her? Now you come back, the base is on full alert, bodies litter the floors and your first reaction is to go "Yes, now I don't have to explain why I attacked the base!" Did it not occur to you that YOUR WIFE might be in mortal danger, and that you should maybe go help her? Nope. Longbow are killing each other, and that's gooood. Insensitive, incompetent ***.

And, really, if you wanted Malaise dead, why not just shoot him at Blitz's place? You had your chance. He was alone, unguarded, he attacked you. You had every opportunity to shoot an arrow through his head. You've shot your friends in the back and kidnapped your own wife. What did you think was going to happen? Who did you think was going to interrogate Malaise, the powerful psychic if NOT your wife, the other powerful psychic? Why arrest him, send him to your wife AND THEN break into a secure facility to kill him? You idiot?

And the Statesman's not far behind. I get that he's become infamous for having blamed Ms. Liberty for Alexis' death, the dick, but let's talk about that some more. Why ARE you blaming Liberty, States? Because she hoped Malaise could be saved? That was all Sister Psyche's idea. She was the one who stood up for him and defended him and so on, which is right out of her line at the end of that same arc. Far as I could tell, Liberty merely supported her friend, both out of hope and because she thought Psyche knew what she was doing. What did you expect her to do, States? Punch Sister Psyche and put Malaise in jail? Maybe YOU should have spoken with Sister Psyche at the time.

And, really, how insensitive is that of the guy, to blame his own granddaughter for Alexis' death. Yeah, I know, you lost a daughter. Guess what, jerkface - she lost her mother! Not only did your daughter die, your granddaughter was devastated, but instead of focusing on what you have left, you fly into a rage over stuff that's not even her own fault. You're the premier hero, States. You're the one who's supposed to help others with their problems and their grief, especially YOUR OWN GRANDDAUGHTER!

No. He flies away "to clear his head." And it turns out he's done that before, which I wasn't aware of. Did it not occur to you that if someone's going after your daughter, that he may go after your granddaughter, too? Or is her grief and potential death just not important enough to break you out of your emo state? So, when the going gets tough, you take off and abandon your team to fend for themselves when you pretty much know they'll get dead or put in a coma? You jerk?

And why blame Ms. Liberty, of all people? Back to that, yes. Blame Manticore, I get that. He screwed up big. But why not blame yourself? You approved of this operation. You sent your daughter into an incredibly obvious trap, didn't go to protect her yourself, and instead entrusted her life to the guy that once shot you in the back? And you're surprised something bad happened? How old are you, dude?

Sister Psyche doesn't come off like a horrible person so much in this, even though she seems to have a very short temper, but she comes off as VERY incompetent. I mean, Psyche, what did you think was going to happen? Malaise told you he was next, he more or less told you he intends to kill you. What did you think would happen when you absorbed all the negative energy from the Dirge of Chaos? WHY did you absorb all the negative energy from the Dirge of Chaos? There was no immediate pressing threat that called for such drastic action. I was on my way to you when you did that. You were protected. What purpose did that serve, other than because it was annoying you?

And, OK, let's go with the logic that there's some real reason to absorb the nasty from the Dirge. You KNOW Malaise will try to attack you psychically as soon as you're vilnerable, so here's an idea: Force-choke him, slam his head into the ground, knock him out, THEN absorb the energy from the Dirge. That way, even if he has something planned, he'll have to sleep off a concussion before he can do it. Or if you think you can't do both, have Aurora force-choke him until he passes out and keep him suffocated while you do this, just in case he tried something funny?

I get the feeling that Ms. Liberty is supposed to come off like the jerkish one of the lot, just because that's how she came off in the comic books, but of all the Phalanx members in this story, she's probably the more level-headed one. Well, except for Aurora Borealis, who's a lot like a puppy in this. Liberty's pissed off at Manticore, because he screwed up. She's pissed off at her grandfather because he was a jerk and abandoned her. She stands by her decision to help Malaise even knowing it was a mistake because she chose to believe that he could be helped.

This whole series of events hinges on the heroes being incompetent hostile jerks with tons of baggage, who more or less allow this to happen through their angst and ineptitude. And it really serves to ruin the Freedom Phalanx, when none of this would have happened if heroes hadn't made numerous, very immediately obvious mistakes. And here I thought that Synapse getting incapacitated off-screen was just a battle cut for time. I've no doubt he got tagged because he did something stupid, too.

Originally Posted by DumpleBerry

We can only hope.

Originally Posted by _ACFU_

I have been playing COH since sometime around Issue 2 or 3. And in that time I have dabbled in a couple other MMO's from time to time but I always find myself thinking that COH did things better. So what did COH do that is so much better than those other games? Here is my list. Feel free to add your own bullets.

• Character Customization Pt 1 (The Costume)

Not only do we have the literally thousands if not hundreds of thousands of possible costume combinations to choose from, but we have multiple slots to save off different costumes for different occasions. In fact our costume creator is so good, that one of the complaints of the game I hear from time to time is that certain powers obstruct the costume in some way.

• Character Customization Pt 2 (The Type)

Assuming you have a VIP subscription and the Epics unlocked, you have 14 different AT's to choose from when creating your character. Each of which plays different from the rest. Not only that, but even characters within the same AT can be very different when selecting different Primary and Secondary Powersets. Taking that into consideration, you have hundreds of different characters to choose from each of which is unique. Going even deeper, you could even argue that two characters that are the same AT, with the same Powersets could be very different based on their personal choices of which powers to choose and focus on.

• Travel Powers

I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am to have travel powers early on. In other games I quickly get tired of running all the time until I can finally train into and afford some kind of speedier method of travel. In COH I can pick up a Travel power as early as level 6, or level 4 for things like Ninja Run.

• Mission Architect

The ability to create your own missions is simply just awesome. It adds a whole new level to making the game fit your own personal story.

• Sidekick / Exemplar system

For me this is the biggest and best part of what makes COH so great. I can team up with anyone, at any level and not be penalized. I honestly don't know why this feature isn't in more games.

Originally Posted by IanTheM1

I'm still hoping for the triumphant return of Hero 1, player-made replacement aside.

He fits rather neatly into the role. But perhaps that isn't what they're after. To whit:

1) Patriotic

2) Invuln Tanker

3) Incarnate

4) Has a connection to Ms. Liberty

Originally Posted by Werner

Haven't played in a month. Got tired of waiting on solo incarnate content. Abandoned CoH for <other MMO>, though I expected it to be temporary.

Haven't read the thread. I'd rather play <other MMO> than wade through it all.

About the only reason left to slot HOs WAS the exploits. I have huge piles of uplevel ones. Spent tens of billions. Now half of them are useless. Yes, I knew I was "cheating", that they would some day be nerfed. I knew the risks. I took my chances. It served me well for years. I finally got burned. I know it's my fault. Doesn't make the news any more pleasant to me.

It would have been better to rebalance HOs, make them competitive with purples and PvP IOs in some way, rather than nerf them into oblivion. But I didn't expect that. I expected the eventual nerf, and that's what we got.

Yes, I know it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things. It doesn't really hurt me that bad. I spent those tens of billions to get small percentage point improvements in characters, so I'm only losing a few percentage points. I'll get those points back and MUCH more if I switch to purely +5 IOs and rebuild characters around the incarnate powers instead of just adding them on afterwards. As for my main shielder and DDR, his whole point is damage, and so the DDR loss won't be that big a deal to me, unlike to people playing shields for survivability.

But it's a straw that threatens to break the camels back. I'm annoyed, and like everyone, I have alternatives. I don't HAVE to continue paying this company to annoy me.

They'll keep getting my money for the moment, but I'm going to continue not playing for a while. Maybe I'll check back in in another month. I'll probably be resigned to my fate by then, and thinking more of what I can do instead of what I've lost. And hopefully the first thing I see when I check back in will be good news instead of bad. Like maybe the rumored solo incarnate content. Maybe it even won't suck the way (to me) the group incarnate content sucks.

We'll see.

Later.

Originally Posted by Vman

I was thinking spiritual, Reactive and rebirth for incarnates