SinisterStairs

Sounds like you missed some lower contacts then outleveled their tier. That's not unusual for support ATs, who generally don't get their missions completed and contacts advanced (compared to damage dealing ATs). That's no big deal, since outleveled contacts are really only good for buying inspirations.

A friend's controller only had a grand whopping total of 3 contacts at level 33 -- none at his previous tier, so he couldn't get introductions to current contacts.

He went back and talked to all three of his contacts (T1 and T2 ) and did outdated missions they offered. He got introduced to successive tier contacts, until finally he was introduced to a current tier contact.

I don't believe he regained all the possible contacts per outleveled tier, but he did get fully caught up at his current tier.

Hepcat's seen this link on the Victory forum, but for everyone else, here's a useful resource on contacts. For most players, this is all you'll care about: List of contacts

The game should use one's AFK message for autoreply.

I just happened to do this Trial again. The badge and "dual-SO" are awarded, but there is no souvenir.

[ QUOTE ]
you absolutely need a controller, emp defender, and tank.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is hyperbole, we did just fine without an emp defender. We did have a controller, but I had to stop and think if we had or not. We had a tank as well, and that certainly helped for the huge spawns, but I don't think it's required if you have some decent scrappers.

We didn't have a kinetica, but can you imagine how easily you'd hit the damage cap with Fulcrum Shift against all those boulders?

I did the Trial post-I2 and we all got the badges but none of us got the "dual SO."

I've died more times just trying to reach the mission wp in the Hollows than all the actual in-mission deaths combined, including Atta & Frostfire.

Now I make it a point to /bug every single time yet another Hollows mob instaspawns on top of me. This has been posted countless times, and the devs have not responded. So hopefully all the /bug will be such a PITA for QA that they can light the fire under the devs.

Yep, I find it all too easy to blow through 5-10 and 10-15. If one is serious about doing all the arcs/missions, consider suiciding several times to accumulate debt / slow down advancement.

I was playing a new alt today, and yes, you can get 5 Tier 5 contacts. I think the reason I may not have noticed it before is because I would work a particular contact until she was completed before moving onto another. So I would outlevel Tier 5 before I was introduced to all 5 contacts.

So although it always possible to get the Negotiator badge, I would recommend picking the Technology contact (Clockworks) ASAP; or follow the advice above and do at least 1 mission for each Tier 5 contact until you get all 5 contacts.

No, you can't delete contacts.

For what most people consider "normal" contacts, you must be introduced. Of course, there are "non-standard" contacts which you can go up and talk to, such as Trial contacts, tailors, origin contacts, etc.

Yet another caveat I missed before: There are only 4 Tier 45 contacts, not counting the Shadow Shard ones.

I just checked three of my characters on Live, and all had their Tier 5 contacts maxxed out, but none of them had been introduced to more Tier 5 contacts. (i.e. All three of them have only three Tier 5 contacts, despite having maxxed out those three.). Can anyone confirm akars' findings?

One more minor caveat I forgot to mention, it's not uncommon to only get introduced to four of the Tier 40 contacts, but as akars as pointed out, after doing some more missions, you'll get introduced to the rest. So don't freak out if initially you're only introduced to 4 of the Tier 40 contacts.

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about how contacts and missions are assigned, so here goes:

The quick summary is that each contact in a given tier corresponds with a specific origin, and thus the missions/arcs available. It's no coincidence you get five new contacts in each tier, and there are five origins. In other words, all the missions/arcs are available to you regardless of who your specific contacts are.

Here's the details and some caveats:

First of all, I'll refer to contacts by their tiers. i.e. Tier 1 is your original contact, Tier 5 is the level 5-10 contacts, Tier 10 is the level 10-15 contacts, and so on.

When you first start the game, you are automatically assigned the contact which directly corresponds with your origin. A caveat here is that the missions your original contact gives you will differ, based on which city you start in. No big deal.

When you start getting your Tier 5 contacts, your original contact will introduce you to the Tier 5 contact which corresponds with her origin. From level 10 onwards this is always true; e.g. a Technology contact will introduce you to another Technology contact.

Tier 5 is the one big exception because you only get 3 contacts, which means you won't get contacts (and thus missions) for 2 of the origins. As I've said above, your first Tier 5 contact will be of your origin -- you don't have a choice in the matter. The next two are usually your pick, so you should choose wisely.

For example, if you want to get the Negotiator badge, that's a Clockworks mission, thus it's a Technology origin who can give you that mission. Make sure one of your two Tier 5 contacts is Technology (i.e. offers Clockwork missions). This is the only Tier where you can miss out on a particular origins/mission/badge. From Tier 10 and onwards, all missions/arcs are available because you'll have five contacts.

How do you determine what origin a given contact is? There's several ways. First of all, you know your starting contact is of your origin, thus the contact they introduce you to (and the contact they later introduce you to) will all be of your origin.

What about the others? Pay attention to the types of gangs they deal in, and what kind of enhancements are available from them. A contact who deals with the Circle of Thorns is going to be of Magic origin, and anyone they introduce you to later on will also be Magic.

Also, the enhancements they give out are a dead giveaway because they are of the same origin as the contact. So if a contact can provide Inventions (Sci/Tech) and Gadgets (Nat/Tech), you know that contact is of Tech origin because that's the common origin between those DOs. The contacts which sell SOs are no-brainers.

So with that clue, you can always determine a contact's origin, even if you're unsure what the origin is of the gang(s) they specialize in.

Now some more explanations: In a given tier, you will have one contact which corresponds with each of the origins. There may be more than one contact for a given origin (of which you'll get one), but all the contacts of a given origin assign the same missions! i.e. Whether you end up with Athena Currie (SC), Carla Brunelli (SW) or Everett Daniels (SW) doesn't matter -- they're all Tech, and thus offer the same missions.

So from Tier 10 onwards, all missions/arcs/badges are available because you'll have a contact corresponding with each origin. You just have to pump the contact whose origin matches the mission/badge/gang you're looking for, or in the case of story arcs, have a "arc slot" free. (You're only allowed to have two story arcs ongoing, and until you clear one of them, other story arcs won't be offered.)

Except for the Tier 5 contacts (of which you only get 3 of the 5 origins), the randomness between contacts is just for variety; i.e. you can't "screw up" selecting a contact, or get locked out of a specific mission, unless your "arc slots" are maxxed.

A small, unimportant caveat is that at Tier 40 and onwards, the five contacts don't all represent a specific origin (some are of generic origin) -- but at that point, everyone gets the same contacts, so no guide is needed.

Also the Hollows, Striga and Shadow Shard are also linearly assigned and "extracurricular." (i.e. You don't need a guide for those either.)

Hope that made some sense. If anything is unclear, post here, and answer and try to update this guide accordingly. (Incidentally, yes, I have compiled my own list of all the contacts, their tiers, their origin, the gangs they deal in, and what enhancements they sell -- and thus what missions/badges/arcs they have. Unfortunately, the list isn't in digital form and I'm too lazy to type them all in now -- because that would be the Ultimate Guide, a simple table with exact information, instead of this long, drawn out guide. )

Here's my 2 influence:

To me, there is no point to 50 -- I honestly feel sorry for characters that have reached 50. Level 50 is not "winning the game", it signifies that "the game is over;" the game isn't about the "destination" (i.e. 50), but the journey -- all the rich content -- along the way.

The only thing to look forward to at 50 is the infinitesimally smaller advantage on Hamidon raids -- and we know how well that's going so far. (That and the upcoming Epic AT/sets, at which point I'll concede it'll be worth having 1 level 50 toon.)

Short description:

Whenever I click on the Clues menu in the navigation bar, the CoH client immediately freezes up, then eventually crashes to the desktop.

Disclaimer:

I have contacted official CoH support and am working with them, but I strongly suspect this is related specifically to Crimson's Malta arc, and not a driver issue.

Facts:

This bug only occurs with one of my characters -- my others can read their clues just fine -- and it only started happening after a recent mission in the level 45+ Malta arc. I did not have this problem at anytime earlier in the arc.

Detailed description:

Whenever my character hits the Clues menu in the navigation bar, the client immediately locks up (i.e. the clues dropdown doesn't occur) and eventually crashes to the desktop.

Now, I've found an interesting way to work around this: If I click on the Mission menu first and change the Mission/Player tab to the Mission/Team tab; I can click on the Clues menu ok.

The Clues dropdown appears properly, and because I had previously selected Mission/Team, the dropdown appears on the Clues/Souvenir tab. Now I can tab over to Clues/Clue without crashing.

At this point, if I click on the Clues menu to close the dropdown, the client will crash again. I cannot click on any of the other menus either, such as Map, Mission, etc. I must switch back to Clues/Souvenir before I can safely close the Clues dropdown or select a different menu on the nav window.

Background:

Again, this bug only occurs with one of my characters, and it only started happening recently after a specific Malta mission in the arc. I checked my clues regularly prior to this mission, with no problems at all.

SPOILERS: The last mission I did with this character was the "visit the Wildflower lab" mission. After completing/exiting the mission, Kronos ambushed us and we defeated it.

I've talked to my contact, so that mission has been cleared off, but of course the story arc Clue still remains. (Next mission is to arrest Director 17.) Since this point, whenever I click on the Clues menu -- except as described above in the detailed description -- the CoH client locks up & crashes.

Again, I do not have this problem with any of my other characters, and this never happened before prior to that particular mission.

Thank you.

Some more notes:

There's different types of leaders too. There's the "keep things together" leader (i.e. the game-designated leader) who recruits and selects missions.

There are "follow me" leaders, that the teammates follow. This should be the person with the most experience in a given zone, or the "first into battle" teammate for door missions, or perhaps someone with invisibility/stealth/SS.

There is the "tactical leader" who designates what mob is being engaged, which foes need to be eliminated/neutralized first, etc. Often that person will also be the "combat leader" who initiates fights, but not always so. (E.g. the tactical leader says, this mob and take out X. But it may be the cloaked blaster who leads off with a time bomb, or a lockdown controller who AoE holds the entire mob, or the provoke tanker, etc.)

All these different lead roles may or may not be the same person, but make it clear to the team who is leading under those kinds of circumstances.

It really throws a team into disarray if four different players are all shouting "here", or people are randomly blasting to start a fight or conversely, people are standing around waiting for someone to start a fight.

I think the AoEs have been underrated here: Generally speaking, it's a quick trip to the hospital for blasters who recklessly open fights with AoEs. But know who your teammates are and what their abilities bring to the table, and your AoEs will be pain free and really mop up foes quickly.

Starting at the mid-levels (22+) Controllers can routinely lock down entire mobs at a time (hold), and in those teamups, your purpose of existence is to hose down mobs with AoEs. Likewise if you're paired up with a good FF defender, 95% of any retaliation will miss, so AoEs to open a fight can be a thing of beauty. Paired up with Dark and Radiation defenders also provide ample opportunities for wholesale AoE slaughter. Of course, there's the standard provoke tanker/scrapper as well, who clumps all the foes nicely for you and preemps the aggro. AoE away!

So rather than say, don't open fights with AoEs, it's best to say: Learn under which circumstances your teammates will worship you for melting mobs away with AoEs; and know when to wait and pick your opportunities for AoEs, and thus avoid hospital tabs.

Sorry for the digression, I guess I've sidetracked this towards "how to be a smart AoE blaster" rather than leading teams.

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To bring this back to topic, moving a team along is absolutely key as a team leader, as mentioned above. The surest sign to me that a pickup team is going to be lame and not worth my time, is when I join up and the response to "so what's the plan?" is either "I have a lot of debt" or "what do you guys want to do?" These teams have no leadership, and everyone will invariably end up standing around, attack different mobs at the same time, run off in separate directions, etc. or -- and this is what you should do too -- break up because everyone is bored.

If you're running missions for the xp, select the missions of the highest level teammates. Unless they've got outdated missions (defenders and controllers tend to have old ones), you'll get the highest level foes and thus most xp from those missions. But if you really wanna make a defender or controller's day, select their missions to knock em off their list. Also look for teammates with multiple hunt missions. If 3 different teammates all have the same "hunt X", it's really efficient to do them at once and make everyone happy.

My rule of thumb is this: If someone is significantly higher in level than the others, always run their missions first. If there are multiple missions in the same zone, do those to minimalize travel/down time. If people are within reasonable level of one another, cycle through each teammate's missions; i.e. spread the love. The exception for me is if someone's mission turns into a story arc -- it's fun to follow those to the end, and they'll appreciate the help.

If your team is going well and everyone is having fun and enjoying teaming with one another, knock off the lower level players' missions, even if they're not worth much xp. If the team is vibing well, no one will mind doing this, and makes the mission "owner" ecstatic, especially if it's a defender or controller mission.

A team slows down when people are leaving in the middle to go train/sell. (Btw, a sure sign someone is a newbie, is when they have to go train immediately on a level up, and can't wait for a break or for the rest of the team to ding.) For those kinds of players, when they cannot resist the urge to train/sell, I politely let them know, Ok, I'll look for a replacement, page me when you're ready to rejoin. (Good players know they can hold before training/selling, and the ones who can't hold typically aren't good players, so they are worth replacing. But having said that, just because I say that, doesn't mean I will necessarily kick/replace them. But it's good to put on the table so they know it's a possibility.)

What I like to do is let people know ahead of time, don't train/sell, we'll do it as a team. I guess a way to describe this is, manage and designate downtime for people to hit contacts, sell enhancements, train, etc. It's better for the entire team to break at once, rather than individuals randomly leaving in between fights to take care of personal business.

Anyways, yeah, just to restate what someone else already posted, keep a team moving. Or put most succinctly: LEAD! If someone on your team shows more experience towards the game, don't be afraid to allow them to lead. But make it clear to the team, "Ok, we're going to follow player X."