The_Alt_oholic

If you or someone would be so kind as to answer a couple of questions, I'd be very happy.

1. The pre-order (expansion only - vis DP and DS early) gives you how many free additional character slots?
2. If I wait and get the GR:Complete Collection (because I'm some what tight on cash for the last couple of years) and add it to my account, will I get free additional character slots and how many would I get?
3. Are the additional server slots place-able or are they (hopefully) 4 per server like City of Villains?

- a 63+ month vet that (has always bought 6 months subscriptions) that bought into the full year subscription during the November Loyalty Pre-Re-subscribe offer (my account wasn't due for a re-subscribe until January so I'm go through like 2011 March or something at this point) - yeah, I'm here for the long haul ...
...just looking for INFORMATION and the sight and what I've been able to ferret and squirrel through the boards seems to be incomplete and some Smoke and Mirrors still. Just looking for clarity in this darkly lit mirror world that is soon to be and is slowly filtering its way into existence...

Seems server related.
I haven't run into this in Atlas, but I'm not on Freedom.

Honestly, I wouldn't give trail accounts more than 6 months and full accounts more than a year. They aren't deleting the characters, they are just "freeing up the name".

If you log into a character who has lost their name, you get to pick a new name. It isn't like you lost the progress on that character. (If no one else picked the name by the time you log back in, you still have the name - it doesn't take the name away from a character "when it is free-ed up" only after someone picks it after it has been "free-ed up".)
And, if someone doesn't care enough about their character name to log their characters in during the "couple times a year free-reactivation weekend", then I wouldn't think that they really cared enough about their character name to make it worth holding it for them.

Let's see. Freedom and Virtue had gone from fairly consistently 2 bubbles to one bubble.
How exactly are you making the conclusion that "most" players are moving onto Freedom and Virtue and not way from Freedom and Virtue?
It seems if the server load is going down, then there is better data to suggest people are moving away from Freedom and Virtue

The fact that there have been posts in the Freedom forums to merge the servers because the server population is down also seems to be another indicator that players are moving AWAY from Freedom.

Please post some data to support your claim that more players are moving to Freedom than way from it.

Your hypothesis seems to lack any credible data to back it up.

Your conclusion here seems to be that you want to even out the servers.
Please log in and look at the server selection screen. See how all the servers have 1 bubble each?
The servers are all at low load.
What is it that you are trying to balance?

What I see is giving badges/temp powers for people to move around for free. As one servers load increases and it becomes more populated, then players will be not be able to move to it, but to some other less populated server instead. This starts a cycling of more populated and least populated servers by badge hunters and temp power seekers. The free transfers are now used to gain temp powers and badges rather than to move where you want to join up with friend or join in special events.
This plan seems to encourage more server transferring.

Also, if you move characters away from "the more populated servers", it opens up more slots on them to make new characters. So what you want to do is to try to temp people with higher level characters to move away from the what is currently the higher population severs to less populated servers so that those players can make new lower level characters on what is now the higher populated servers?

I guess most of the power-leveling that still goes on "goes on" on the most populated servers. Also the most egregious farming goes on that server as well. I would actually rather that the farmers and pl'r stay there so I can avoid them.
Your plan might disperse these people who like that kind of behavior because they are trying to get their badges and temp powers.

I posted a thread on keeping SERVER TRANSFERS FREE - FOREVER.
After seeing this post, I guess it is good that they will be gone soon if there is any chance that your plan would go into effect.

Get ready for the server lock-up on those high population servers though, because players that haven't played are going to get their free-reactivation for double XP weekend, and I have a pretty good idea of where many of them are going to want to hang out.

However I have to say that it was A PLAN to try to conceive of a way to get players to move off Freedom so that you wouldn't get locked out on double XP weekend.

....Hmm.. maybe you could just move your character off Freedom and you wouldn't get locked out?
Nah, that would be silly.
Better to get other players to move their characters off instead - and, while your at it, make it one way.

I wish they would allow you to do that. Seriously.
I wouldn't mid having access to the EU servers just to check out what the play-styles are like on them, but I don't have the loot to run another subscription at this point - especially with GR and Ultra-mode coming down the pipes.

I think it would be a nice gesture to allow EU players to move their accounts to the NA servers completely if an EU player wanted to do so. I'm not sure if the EU players would want the lag that may be associated with playing on the NA servers, however.

We are agreeing to disagree then.

I'm sure you think you are really Tanking without Taunt.
The fact that you think you were Tanking with a Brute without Taunt makes it clear to me what's going on.

If you don't have Taunt and you are actually chasing enemies around, you are the exception to the rule.
I'm not really sure where all these ranged attacks are coming from that have enough agro control to keep the agro.

You may be doing what passes as Tanking in other games, but a Tank with Taunt can out Tank any Tank without it.

---

When it comes down to it, it always seems to me that Tanks that post in the forums tend to want to shrug off the definition of the archetype and, instead, be one man teams. Virtually every suggestion can be negated by the fact that a team mate can provide what the Tank says that Tanks need. Need more damage, get a Blaster or a Scrapper.. Need more control, get a controller. Need more heals/buffs/debufs, get a Controller or a Defender.
....and...Tanks are always TRYING to defend the fact that they don't need Taunt. Well, guess what, the other hero Archetypes can't get Taunt.
So maybe it's time to play a different archetype -or- learn to work as part of a team and let your allies do their job instead of trying to do it for them.

I have a Natural Origin character that I never plan to get a travel power for.

I have to say that slotted up sprint, swift, and hurdle can get you moving pretty fast and jumping fairly high. Once you add in the GvE Jump Jet and Shadow Shard Raptor pack - not to mention the PD VIP tp, Mission TP, SG Tp'rs, TPs to SG bases, etc...heck, I don't even have Ninja Leap and that thing is supposedly kick butt.
Even before the vet-tp's, Day Job Tps, and Shadow Shard Raptor pack were introduced, that character was still able to beat some characters with travel powers to missions.

I have a character that has all the travel powers (easier when you get the Vet ability to get a travel power without the prerequisite power) on one build by level 23.

I used to tend to get a travel power at level 14.
Usually I always had one by level 24.

I have only made I think about 4 characters since I could get Travel powers at level 6 due to the vet reward. I think, maybe, one of them purchased a travel power at level 6.
One of them I forgot and picked combat jumping (I'm not one to respec much) so, as fate would have it, that character is now is over level 21 and relying on a Raptor pack for a travel (which seems to server well).
The other 3 don't have a travel power yet and are all relying on a Raptor Pack.

It isn't really that I don't plan on getting a travel power for most of my characters, but these days it doesn't seem as imperative as it did before.

Back in I1, I would have been planning every character to get a travel power by level 14 just for the ability to get around town. It wasn't just because the other options weren't available, the City used to be a lot more dangerous. Travel powers - not including TP Self which had the horrific "Red Ring of Death" - were the safe way to get around town.
Now, especially with SSK'ing, it is pretty easy just to Sprint where ever you need to go if it really came down to it.

People have been making the level 1 run from Atlas to Portal Corps in Peregrine Island for years at this point.

The main benefit of a travel power is getting to missions quickly. If you have a team mate with Recall Friend that has a travel power, you really never needed a travel power to get somewhere quickly.

It's not an extra $5. It's $15.

The Pre-order is $10 cheaper. You get the pistols and demon summoning early. You don't get the booster pack or the free month.
The booster pack would be +$10. The free-month has an apparent value of $15.
So if you aren't going to get the booster pack it would only be a $5 difference. If you are going to get the booster pack, it would be $15.

I a can agree with rogue/vigilante from the zone access standpoint.

I guess is that many are going to try for vigilante instead of rogue as vigilante give you access to the Blue side market WW which supposedly has better gear than BM.

Psst!

Hey, look over there!

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=211181

CoV was CoH 2.
GR will be CoH 3.

For some reason, some players don't understand that there have been graphical/game mechanic advances since Issue 1. There have been plenty over the years.
Ultra-mode will just be the newest advancement and they didn't have to make a NEW CoH in order to do it.

It's a question about an idea - posted in the Suggestions and Ideas Forum.

There have been posts about the need for marketing/advertising. There have been posts about how we aren't picking up the number of new players that we used to.

It think this thread could cover some ground in regards to both those kinds of threads by presenting how we were exposed to the game and why we started playing it.

The idea forms a suggestion by the information that people leave here. So my question about the idea will hopefully form a suggestion - though maybe too subtle.

Sometimes when the brick-over-the-head doesn't work, providing information, and letting others come to the obvious conclusion is the way to get your point across. People tend to be more likely to do something when they think it is there idea.
Maybe this is why some people complain when they don't understand a post instead of just leaving it alone or trying to participate.

Or maybe some people just stumbled onto the game and are here so that they can have an avenue to complain about what people post in the forums.

I can agree whole-heartedly on this.
Setting a flag and hollering out on channels is about all you can do to find a team, but the ability to find and sort archetypes/levels (and the search comments) make it very easy to find players that might be interested in finding a team.
Anyone flinging around blind invites left and right are not likely to get many other players to join them. Setting up a macro to send to tells to people is a snap. When you send a tell letting the player know what your team plan is and what level missions you are running, it is easy to get a team going - when there are people on to team with.

However, I have to say this. I was on a couple of servers early today where there were only 3-6 people below level 30 not hidden and majority of the players on were level 40+.
Players aren't going to have much luck trying to invite a player that is 10+ levels above them to a team.
Conversely, players that are 10+ levels below a team leader aren't likely to get invited to a team on the servers that I was on - regardless if they have their flags up or not.
They were lower population servers, but new players could get alienated by this and they may not have even looked to see how many characters were on for their level range. So you could set your flag and never get an invite because of your character has a low level.

At least one of these servers in the past where some players insist that other players use a personal global channel in order to join teams instead of using the systems that are already built into the game. Not inviting players because they are looking for teams using the methods build into the game alienates new players.
If we want this game to gain new players, we have to foster and mentor the new players and not ignore their presence because they aren't in-the-know.
I really don't want to hear how they could easily find out what global channel to use on their particular server on the forums, because it is known that only a small minority of players even go to the forums - let alone on any kind of regular basis.

In fact, there has been an on going - as you say - "exodus" FROM the the higher population servers (aka Freedom and Virtue - more so from Freedom). So much, in fact from Freedom, that they have been complaining about their population being reduced.People were moving characters away from Freedom even before free server transfers started.

I, honestly, don't like some of the behavior that I find prevalent on Freedom, and I have not been playing there (other to log in to keep SG/VG's up and running) since not long after the AE was released.
Other players have posted the same comments on the forums and, in fact, asking for free server transfers so that they could move their characters OFF of Freedom because they no longer wanted to play there. I'm guessing those that did are glad that they had the chance to move their characters away from Freedom for free.

The servers each have their own flavor. To say that Virtue and Freedom are unique is like saying Chocolate and plain-generic Vanilla ice cream are unique - and I am pairing up Freedom with plain-generic Vanilla ice cream intentionally. If repetitive ad naseum behavior is unique then you have a different definition of unique than I do.

You might ask "What the advantage of a lower population server?"
One thing is less lag. Fewer players do mean less lag. If you are a slow connection, fewer players can make the difference between playing and reoccurring map server disconnects.
If you are a team tactics player, you are more likely to find teams with non-standard rush-in-to-everything (aka bull-in-the-china-shop) teams on the lower population servers. At least, this is what I have found to be the case.

Those that are PRO-Free Character Transfers have another week to enjoy them. If you want to keep them free, then you need to post and get the world around others to post about this.

I am against server mergers. I certainly do not want to be FORCED to play on Freedom.
I hope that, at some point, the situation on Freedom changes. However, I don't see that happening. Luckily, the kinds of players that want to play in that manner searched out Freedom and are likely to stay there and not make characters on other servers.
And that's too bad because my group of players had managed to set-up decent sg and vgs on Freedom.
If I didn't have to buy slots for my character and I could move the entire bases (and everything in them) to another server, I would move the sg, vg, and all my characters off of Freedom.

As it is I have all my slots full except for 4 which I am saving for DP and Demon-summoning characters which I will not be making until the GR::Complete Edition is on sale, GR goes live, and I've saved up enough loot to buy it.

I'm seriously promoting
because I think it is a great benefit to the community.

My point was that they wouldn't see the characters on the selection screen if they weren't using the same trail account that they created them on. The player wasn't seeing the characters that they created.

I don't think the game will let you log into a trail account that has expired, so they wouldn't have access to see if they were still there if they didn't activate the trail to a full account. However, I haven't tried logging into any old trail accounts I set up to test the trails in a while either, so if you have then you you have more recent experience than I have with the trails.

If the player was using multiple trails, my point would have been valid - and no one had brought up trail accounts at all in the posts up to that point.

Regardless, I also pointed out logging out shouldn't delete any character in the post that you are only partially quoting.

And no one else would be without their inherent.
This is the perfect example as why this version of Vigilence would not work.

It seems pretty clear that the old inherent for Blasters didn't work when it allowed them do more damage when they were almost dead. Thus making the debt-magnets plunge into debt even more rapidly as they shied away from runnign at all because they might take down the foe with that last blast of extra damage.

If Vigilence's End reduction started when the team's health was at an average of half health, and it not only decreased the Defender's end use, but also increased their end recharge, power recharge time, and increase the effect of their healing/buff powers then it might be more useful.

I'd rather see a Defender Inherent that shifts damage and agro from Defenders to non-squishes on the team that are supposed to be protecting them - a sort of Anti-Gauntlet.

I'd also be for an Inherent that allows Defender to do more damage when they are solo.

Slot to get your Acc up to 1.75+ and you should be able to hit Reds fairly consistently *. Usually this will mean slotting up most powers with 2 accs;

1. DO's at level 12.
2. SO's until the sweet-spot change (I think some have said this is around 30 or so).
3. IO's from then until you want to switch to IO sets.

Myself, I get DO's at 12 and IO's at 17. IO's have the advantage of not going "stale" aka turning from green to white to yellow to red and diminishing in effect as they do so. IO's have the same effect no matter what level you are.

If you are fighting greens or grays, you are likely to miss about as much as you do fighting against Reds or Purples. This is to stop high-level characters from running around mowing down lower level enemies.

* Of course, this will vary with enemy types which have increased defenses or are debuffing the character(s) that is attacking them.

Hey! I'm slotting up knockback on some of my characters.

I don't want a lethargic Tanker spoiling my fun because they want to be rooted to one spot. If the player doesn't want to chase things, they can play an archetype with some ranged attacks.

BTW, I was on a team and had to endure a Tanker with Shield Rushing that was giggling madly about Shield Rushing in and throwing the enemies everywhere.
I was playing a Plant Controller and started gluing down the enemies just as the Tank was Shield rushing in and the Tank started complaining.

So it looks like Tanks complain a lot in general.

Taunt is -Range, so if the targets are knocked away, they will come back if they are Taunted, most Tanks take less damage from Ranged attacks, and Controllers certainly have AoE holds and immobilizes that can hold down enemies.
There is no reason to add more ways to take away the advantage of knockback from those that have it - and it is THE advantage for those that have it as part of their power set.

It figures that someone would want to make Gauntlet optional.

Tankers have the Gauntlet inherent because not enough Tankers take Taunt.

It's the Tanker Archetype's punishment for not fulfilling the purpose of the Archetype.

If you don't have Taunt, you aren't a real Tanker. You aren't the "big man on the team" without it.
Gauntlet is not a substitute for Taunt. Gauntlet just makes you hold more agro than you would without it. And, apparently, the agro that Gauntlet generates is apparently too much for some Tankers - if they are looking for a way to avoid it.

Farming is redundantly doing the same thing over-and-over-again to reap an expected reward.

"Farming tickets" is generally running the same AE mission ad naseum in order to farm "tickets".

People farm for a number of reasons. All farming, however, involves repeating the same mission over-and-over-and-over-and-over again.

From a farmers point of view

1. Want a certain kind of salvage? Find an enemy that drops that salvage, find a mission with that enemy, then run that mission over and over again.
2. Want merits? Run taskforce over and over again, but don't run the same one more than once a day.

By-and-large, you aren't much of a hero or villain if you are going to spend your time tending crops.


To the OP :: Don't farm - play the game

If you want inf, get out there and hit the streets. Get a big team going, and do some difficult missions. The inf will start to roll in. You don't have to make it boring by running the same mission over and over again. There are plenty of missions to run. You might even realize that you are having fun - I certainly hope that was why you were playing to begin with.

If you want to make big bucks, then stop farming and start learning about the market - that is where the big loot is. The farmers supply the market with the goods that I get rich with.

Many farmers know me as an vehement anti-farmer. That's true.
Farming is bad for the game. Farming burns out plenty of players.
If you are farming and think there is nothing new to do in the City, that's your own fault for running the same missions over and over again, isn't it?

Forget the farming and play the game. Your character is cool because you are playing that character and not because of the kinds of gear you can equip them with (or how well you mini-maxed them to be generically perfect). If you keep playing them, you will get more inf and drops that are unique to the way that you play - making the character even more special because you made it happen by adventuring.

I would mainly use this on my Werewolf characters - which I have several of. The only thing even close is a lizard tail - and I think we all know that that isn't anything like any Werewolf tail.

I mean you're going to have a howl costume emote and not have a good bushy tail? What tha?

And while we are on the tail subject, I want to see an "electrical cord with a plug" tail as well - for robots, of course!