TechnoBabel

Greetings, everyone. You likely don't know me, I generally kept myself under the radar. I've been around for a while, and I'm a rare breed. I'm a single character player. This is a misnomer in that I've made alts for helping others - or to try other things - but in the end I always returned to my first character, Techno Babel. He is the only level 50 I've had, in all my years playing City of Heroes. I want to share some of him with everyone now.

I was theorycrafting a while back with him, in fact when I was first considering making a new character for other purposes. I made a build and came to appreciate how truly diverse you could make any character with the use of power pools and invention origin enhancements. I had a build that was clunky, and it shaved off a bit too much in the way of its goals, but it was functional and shared it with a few people in the guild.

I found it to be a good version 1 success, and people liked it. After about two months, I was surrounded by clones, in fact I was called an 'FOTM Supertankermind' in Recluses Victory, and surely, the build I made was what people were calling "Supertankermind". Now was I the only one to invent this? Probably not, the odds are just as well someone else shared the idea, but I said to myself you know what, I'm going to keep my builds close to my chest. And so, Babel 1.0 was the last version I ever shared with others.

In case anyone is interested, I offer for everyone Babel version 8.1 (incomplete actually, previously there were 3 52+ synthetic nucleolus in my lowest bots, and and one less bubble, which went into another aid other power interrupt time reduction enhancement). This set is made to work in tandem with Cardiac Core Paragon and Barrier Core Epiphany to give a non stop endurance intensive output for myself and try to keep my minions difficult to kill between casts of aid other. Moreover the endurance gains of this build allowed me to continually cycle through attacks (versions 1 and 2 of Babel had no attacks, which was a weakness I sought vigorously to overcome) while still maintaining a full blue bar, which was needed for resummons and rebuffs and other intensive things. With proper management I am back to a full attack cycle very quickly.

Version 7 is also quite viable, I actually named that one, "Mister Fistermind". That build is similar except that it uses proc-mule attacks (sticking hecatomb - chance for negative energy damage and other such recipes in a power, worrying only about accuracy and even then relying on my own accuracy buffs to carry me through mostly) to make brawl, boxing and jump kick provide a less endurance intensive output of damage that allowed me to run Musculature Core Paragon rather than relying on the endurance reduction of Cardiac.

I wanted to share it, just so that it's out there. I spent so long tweaking him, it seems foolish now not to share the fruits of my designs. Then again, even sharing it, losing City of Heroes still seems foolish.

I've never posted a build through mids before, I hope this works:
http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...6DFC0FF8E3E2FA

Greetings everyone! I've been playing city of heroes for a while, and I often think about things that may further improve my already enjoyable experience. I want to put a few to the pen here to see if anyone likes them, dislikes them, or feels them worthy of hashing out to improve for better possible implementation should these ideas ever be noticed and considered for development.

I'm going to arrange these suggestions by the issues I've noticed and wanted to improve upon so that you the reader can understand why I've suggested something and give you a proper basis by which to refute, improve upon, or agree with a suggestion! The major points are bolded for easy scroll-through for issues that may be of interest to you to comment on. I just finished writing this post and I realized how large it is, so I'm going to keep it focused on one area for this post. Super groups.

Super groups suggestions. Super groups are often filled with a few 'pop-in and leave' members, not only that but the incredible creativity allowed for super group bases seems to be similar to individual player housing in terms of what it must take for the servers to run it (at least from an outside perspective), yet all those resources don't seem to be targeted toward enhancing the play experience in a significant manner.

Perhaps one of two ideas. Either individual player housing that can be linked to super group bases, which may seem incredibly counter-intuitive but if it were limited to a few specialized map and theme types, and decorated only in certain ways, it might not be that hard on the servers, though I do not know. The main reason I didn't discount this idea before posting is because I realized that selling vanity items for these personal home areas could become a source of revenue that is outmatched by costs of implementation. Either way, The intended effect is to incentivise leaving personal bases for larger bases.

The second suggestion is allowing room to room build permissions rather than all or nothing. Though this is not as feasible with very large guild, at least for small group guilds, everyone having their own space to decorate will at least get them together in one base and allow them to be around each other. The intended effect is as above, give people a reason to feel safe moving away from a personal base.

Create in game organizational assistance. Make it possible to schedule a certain task force or other event. 'Running trick or treats at 6 pst 5 days from now' that gives a notification to all players in the super group, and a chance to go to, let's say a super group control item, from the combo power/control to an A.E.S. and click on it to confirm attendance or look at other super group activities. The intended effect of this is to make it easier for members who might not always catch each other online to keep in touch and keep active with each other. The intent of this is to make it easier to keep in touch with each other and encourage communal activity.

Having PVP and non-pvp bases might also be useful. If base PVP is going to return, I recommend having a base we can build as we have now, and then a static, set base or choice of base layouts based on super group size. The intent of this is to allow the creativity of base builders to remain, and still allow for balanced PVP play, while controlling exactly what assets would be loaded into the competitive environment. Less information to send out to everyone, no unexpected lag while downloading a heavily decorated room, etc.

Super group centric missions could be quite a draw as well. Missions where the contact would speak to the members of the super group as a collective whole, and focuses on their exploits together, perhaps with enemy super groups trying to thwart them. These missions or arcs might give prestige bonuses for completion, but the idea is to give a sense of oneness to the members joining together. This leads me to another suggestion later, which is to allow everyone to read mission information, not just the leader.

Super group events Perhaps several members participated in LGTF. It would be fun to have a warning pop up 'the super group is being invaded!' and rikti pop in for the super group members to fight. Like their zone event counterparts, it would be ideal if there were no penalty for not participating, but it could still provide enjoyable feedback based on players actions. This can go into further detail, having 'defend the VIP' special missions where the super group can use their base, defending it cooperatively, managing the raid teleporter to port in backup ally units, struggling to keep generators up and retreating to places where emergency batteries are still operative when that fails and generally engaging in an epic struggle. However for now I just want to convey the intention of the idea - give super group bases more relevance to player quality of life and gameplay.

Super group improvement. I think I may have suggested this a long time ago, but I still believe it bears repeating. It would be nice if super groups themselves gained experience, which can be spent on areas that give benefits to all members. I.e. you gained such and such super group experience, you can spend it on the 'inspired' perk, which grants 5 level 2 or 3 inspirations into the inspiration holder per day (inspiration holder required), or the 'steel wall of justice' perk, which grants all members an additional 1 defense and 2% damage resistance (requires the super group to have deflected over 10,000,000 in damage due to damage resistance, etc), 'friend of the group', which allows each member, once every day or so, to summon an ally to assist them in the mission. The specifics of the bonuses not being important, the idea being that joining a super group and helping it grow means that you can get access to bonuses not previously accessible. The idea is to reward group activity.

Greater diversity in super group base items. This is quite simple, allow more items for use with the super group base. The ability to place a rikti portal or a parked truck in the super group base might be nice, and if sold for a few paragon points for so many copies (i.e. 40 paragon points to have 5 rikti portal personal items that can be claimed individually per character as wanted) might also be a good source of revenue.

Minor SG quality of life enhancements. These could include:
Assigning personal, rather than by rank, inspiration and enhancement holders.

Using gained prestige as a form of currency and being able to assign a value to inspirations and enhancements in public holders. I.e. if you want to get a numina's convalescence: healing enhancement, you can get it if you've earned at least 100,000 prestige, but then if you've earned 110,000 total, you can only use 10,000 for other super group freebies.

Being able to 'hold onto' super group empowerment buffs, letting them be a one use temporary power (perhaps that you can even 'charge up' a few times) so that you can hold onto them for later use. Right now, the timer starts right when you create them, even if you intend to use it only after a task force starts some indeterminate amount of time later.

It would be nice to have citizens, robots, drones or other things wandering the base to give a sense of life to them, or even to help defend during the aforementioned base events or PVP.

Email notifications for certain base upkeep things would be nice. I.e. one of your inspiration holders is below 50, you asked to be notified if this happens, etc etc etc.

Further thematic possibilities such as allowing the exterior walls, instead of simply looking like more wall to give an enclosed feel, could instead look like water, or stars, or lava, to give the impression the base is in certain areas. Being able to choose an in-game music theme that plays while people are in the base, could also be good. The intent is quite simply to further the creative possibilities of the base editing structure.

Multi-tiered bases. Right now, bases come in one level, which might already be a bit much on the servers, I don't know. However if it's not too much of a drain, having multi-tiered bases could allow for much more space to create individual living areas above or below the main areas. The intent is to make large bases with many people in them still able to provide personal areas.

Allow us to decorate hallways, and to have hallways that are more than just one square, from long to l-shaped, allowing for more complex inter-connectivity in designing bases. Perhaps even allowing for hallways that aren't only hallways but secure rooms, medbays, teleport bays, etc.

In point of fact I think super groups could be a great premium and V.I.P. draw, and I think these ideas might further that. Please feel free to tell me what you think!

Hey, long time mastermind here.

I have gotten 1 ultra rare, on my second run, it was a behavioral adjustment facility, 7 rares (6 from behavioral adjustment facility), many, MANY uncommons (i wanna say around 15, approxomately) from behavioral adjustment facility and 3 commons.

I've gotten 7 more commons from lambda, a few uncommons, I've never gotten threads from either trial.

A few things to note about my build. I have, and continuously use, all three of the robotics attacks, cycled with judgement in the mix. So I likely put out more non-pet damage than some other masterminds.

I die in lambda. Usually once, sometimes twice. It often happens when someone calls out that they have found a box or acid tube and are alone, I set my pets to passive, dash off, destiny shield and buff them, ion judgement the widget and, assuming my pets hadn't died on the way, catch aggro away from the other person while I try to resummon my pets, if my timing isn't spot on, I die. (When i'm not lagging, my self heal can keep me above water, but i'm having real rendering issues in there even at minimum settings which I have to work on). Either way, I don't think much of it, the one who found the box got some help and a shield, and nine times out of ten they finish the job while i'm hospitalizing. Other ways to die are when the team dashes off in all different directions, since we aren't moving as a group, my passive pets get a lot of aggro, get destroyed, and i am behind the 8-ball the next time I have to stop and fight.

My pets are always pre-summoned for the task when I go into a trial. Though I do note that lambda has a tendency to give me the pet bug, requiring a /releasepets and a resummon.

The Behavioral Adjustment Facility, either by some facet of this participation system or good luck, has given me three of my seven rares in a row. In my doorsitting during the escape phase, i am quite proficient, from my electrifying fences to my lore pets to my pulse rifle, I often do exceptionally well. I cannot say, however, how I compare in other portions, only that I'm often the heavy hitter in the escape phase.

Whether ANY of this is actually relevant I cannot say, but I wanted to mention it all in case it might lead people down an interesting avenue of experimentation. I'm not incredibly bothered about not getting another ultra rare yet, as I'm having fun in the trials, but I do admit the idea of having to get them only through merit conversion or a 400m/rares conversion is bothersome.

Story-wise, it is our Self Powered Incursion Threat Eliminator, built from the ruins of our old home so that some of it may survive, just as some of us did. This is no implement of vengeance, no tool of righteous fury. Yet, if we are careful, we may yet glean from it the one prize we currently still have the strength to grasp for in spite of everything.

Survival.

Item-wise, it's actually just 6 pieces together.

But, we really liked how it came out. Certainly it's less awe-striking than most of the wonderful works I've seen here, but it seemed fun and interesting. Simple perhaps, but hopefully elegant. The impression we were trying to give was that the control unit was taking power from the pylons, and feeding data via the ball of energy into the table's readout panels.

Whew, I was in the first event, and that was quite a fun distraction.

I Hope everyone else had as much fun as I!