Stormbird

Yeah, I know, they could be working on it and not saying a word.

Cryptic was basically created to make COH, IIRC. (And don't give me "Cryptic doesn't own this now." I know that. However, it's where it started.) It was their first game, on an engine they created, and there were many areas they didn't look ahead on, plan for, or had philosophical objections to at the time.

By now, the game's been extended, patched, scabbed on to, folded, spindled, mutilated, tacked on, broken apart to give us what we have now. Old storylines and systems are discarded, systems are in place that the devs don't want to touch because they could implode if you look at them sideways (bases,) graphics (I know, another engine, really) are... dated, and jarring as you go between zones (I almost like the older zones better - Atlas looks like it's in a plastic bubble case to me,) and others have been poorly documented so nobody's quite sure what they do. (Remember the bit from Castle and Ghost Widow mentioning how they discovered Taunt didn't work the way they thought it did?)

I think it's really, *really* getting to be time for a COH 2. The devs have, I'd hope, learned the hard way to not lock themselves into things quite so much (even if they seem surprised by what seems to be rather straightforward requests by the players - like wanting to color powers, or disable effects, or have a solo path on a system.) And they'd hopefully push it past the rather... odd... "everything in its city" setup.

Alternately the game gets more dated, more scabbed on and limps along until it's shut down. Which, yeah, will happen eventually, but I'd really love to have its successor in place and going strong - hopefully with some actual ADVERTISING behind it. For all my complaining lately (see DA,) I do want to see this go on and have the franchise around for a long time.

Basically, I kind of wonder if they're getting to the point where the game's various systems are going to be ready to break if they alter too much more - how many odd bugs are going to show up because they did X to the character creator, so now Y is happening when you try to use the train or something weird like that.

Honestly, I like the earlier mention of a daily post limit for non-VIPs, as long as it's reasonable (5-10 should work for most questions and followups.)

But otherwise, the way it is now gives it a pretty good balance, I think. It lets them into the broader categories to ask questions, and they can still read the other sections.

Doms > Brutes for me.

Something to realize:

If you use more than one computer, the notes don't automatically follow. In your COH directory, there's a playernotes.txt file. It's just text, but you'll see the players, notes and ratings in it. Copy it somewhere if you want to keep that if you need to reinstall or something.

Each line (if you look at it) is a new player. It goes:
"Global" "Rating" "Other names" "Notes (or (Null) if there aren't any)" (though it tends, to put, a comma, where, spaces, go, in, other, names.)

So, if:
1. I team with @Newbie McNewberson on his Newguy character, he's not exceptional but I want to note I've played with him before and keep an eye out for him - 3 stars. I team with (or get info) on him two more times when he's on Nooblaster and Nootank.
2. I then run a TF with @Egotank who has zero clue what he's doing, is generally irritating, and I don't want to team with him again (1 star,)
3. but someone else @Brootalic on their Slicylicious character takes over and is just awesome, so I five star them, my playernotes.txt file would look like:

(All names made up.)

"Newbie McNewberson" "3" "Newguy, Nooblaster, Nootank" "New guy, not bad, talk to SG about inviting."
"Egotank" "1" "EgoTank" "Ugh. Buy stock in tylenol before ever considering teaming with him again. Awful, bossy, won't listen."
"Brootalic" "5" "Slicylicious" "Awesome, great time, lot of laughs, breezed through missions. Really knows her stuff."

I'm assuming you don't mean supergroups, but something like an "All fire team" or "All Mind or Psy" themed team. I'd either put it in AT/Powers (since it would be related) or the server-specific forum.

An I5 would be great.

Cases... do you have a computer store nearby? CompUSA, Frys, etc? It really helps to be able to go and *look at* (and touch) a case to me. Not just for "looks," but to feel if it seems solid or not, to see what's available for space and fans, and (importantly, and often overlooked, it seems) to see how it would be to work in it.

If you don't, look for reviews. I don't spend $50 or less on a case, and see no reason to spend $200 or more on one. (Not saying they aren't good cases - some are, certainly - but they're usually a bit "too much" in those ranges, or gimmicky.)

I've liked (recently) the Coolermaster CM 690 (I think they're 690 II now.) Don't know what they run at this point. But it's a solid case and plenty of room to work in - and room for lots of fans and drives.

Do not, in any circumstance, cheap out on the PSU. Just don't do it. Go with less RAM or a few Mhz less speed or Gb less space if you need to - do *not* cheap out on the PSU. Antec's good, Corsair's gotten good reviews, PC Power and Cooling (think that's the name) is good but tends to be a bit pricy.

Start with FatherXmas lists on parts to get ideas, I'd say. MaximumPC and Tom's Hardware also do machines at various budgets - Tom's just updated.

*sigh*

There are times I think nobody on the forum would be happy unless everyone got a "Blow up everything within 500 yards" button at level 1, and it recharged instantly.

There are some (few) powers that are problematic, yes, like time bomb. But they're fairly few and far between. (No, not snipes.)

"Doing a couple DFBs?" Why not join in on an ITF instead? They're hardly slow.

I play everything. Can't really narrow it down, just because I get burned out on playing the same character every time (or same type of character - I tried leveling 2 scrappers on 2 different servers at the same time, and didn't want to touch a scrapper for months after that. They haven't hit 50 yet.)

*grumbles about plans for DA*

It's part of the reason it's a pain in the Isles from 18-24. Only one T2 pet, the T1s are -2, and we have scrapyarders (see also demolitionists) tossing AOE fire patches everywhere.

I want to say that Glue Arrow was originally the way you suggest, and that it was made the way it is (target an enemy) because there were too many powers requiring placement reticules and it was (a) annoying people, (b) really slowing the set down, or (c) both, so they changed it either in beta or just after release.

I *might* be remembering it wrong though.