A few simple questions

Been playing for about three days now and have never played CoH. So...

First question:
Why do I want a badge anyways? What is it supposed to do for me? After a fruitless attempt at a google and forum search (and getting the phonebook I might add) I know where to find them, what their called, and who offers the missions for them, but not a peep about why the heck I should bother with them in the first place or what effect, if any, they have on gameplay. If it's just for RPing, no problem. But does that badge title actually display anywhere for other PCs or is it something that only NPCs recognize.

Second question:
I found someone who can change my title/label/appelation/whatever from villainous to ... well something else. Why would I want to change my title and what effect does it have? Do the other titles that were listed for selection do different things or again, is it just for RPing? If so, no problem, but what RP effect does it have? I think I changed mine to malicious, but I can't be sure since I don't see it anywhere associated with my character.

Last question:
With my first character I decided to follow the Burke path at the beginning...not realizing that newbs should be following the other path. I guess there's a bit more handholding the other way in terms of a tutorial. SO... I finshed all the Burke missions (come back at lvl20 if you please) and have now been cut loose with no further contacts. But don't worry, I have been doing my homework. I know that I have to travel to Port Oakes next to find a broker for newspaper missions. Great! Now, how the hell do you get to Port Oakes? I assume that it is on another island since I've roamed far and wide on the starter isle. Is there a ferry somewhere? Do you need to talk to someone first? Do I need to whip out my water wings and flippers? What's the deal?

Last question (no really!):
Some out-of-context message threads that I've come across have lead me to believe that it's possible to "out-level" the missions given by some contacts, and no longer have access to them. Is that the case? Have my futile attempts to get off the starter island (Mercy is it?) jeopardized my ability to access mission content elsewhere. I've been levelling up along the way and am somewhere around 8 or 9 now. Should I avoid the random mobs and stick primarily to what's offered through contacts, etc.

I'm enjoying the game, but I find that there is a lot of really elementary questions that never get addressed. There seems to be an assumption that the player already has some familiarity with the gameplay (and I don't) which makes getting started a little frustrating. This isn't really a complaint, but more of an observation. Perhaps I'm just too thick to get it...

Thanks for any help offered...

*** Whoops...I am thick. I wanted to post this under player questions. Apologies. ***

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Been playing for about three days now and have never played CoH. So...

First question:
Why do I want a badge anyways? What is it supposed to do for me? After a fruitless attempt at a google and forum search (and getting the phonebook I might add) I know where to find them, what their called, and who offers the missions for them, but not a peep about why the heck I should bother with them in the first place or what effect, if any, they have on gameplay. If it's just for RPing, no problem. But does that badge title actually display anywhere for other PCs or is it something that only NPCs recognize.

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Badges are for showing off and obtaining some additional boosts to your hero, such as health bonuses, end bonuses and additional powers, which can all be obtained by getting all the badges required for an accolade. If you select a badge, it will appear under your heroes name for other people to see. Additionally, viewing info about another toon will show all badges obtained by that hero.

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Second question:
I found someone who can change my title/label/appelation/whatever from villainous to ... well something else. Why would I want to change my title and what effect does it have? Do the other titles that were listed for selection do different things or again, is it just for RPing? If so, no problem, but what RP effect does it have? I think I changed mine to malicious, but I can't be sure since I don't see it anywhere associated with my character.

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EDIT: Misread the post, thought you were talking about changing your toons title, as opposed to changing your difficulty level as stated in the next post.

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Last question:
With my first character I decided to follow the Burke path at the beginning...not realizing that newbs should be following the other path. I guess there's a bit more handholding the other way in terms of a tutorial. SO... I finshed all the Burke missions (come back at lvl20 if you please) and have now been cut loose with no further contacts. But don't worry, I have been doing my homework. I know that I have to travel to Port Oakes next to find a broker for newspaper missions. Great! Now, how the hell do you get to Port Oakes? I assume that it is on another island since I've roamed far and wide on the starter isle. Is there a ferry somewhere? Do you need to talk to someone first? Do I need to whip out my water wings and flippers? What's the deal?


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Haven't played CoV yet, couldn't really tell ya at this point.

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Last question (no really!):
Some out-of-context message threads that I've come across have lead me to believe that it's possible to "out-level" the missions given by some contacts, and no longer have access to them. Is that the case? Have my futile attempts to get off the starter island (Mercy is it?) jeopardized my ability to access mission content elsewhere. I've been levelling up along the way and am somewhere around 8 or 9 now. Should I avoid the random mobs and stick primarily to what's offered through contacts, etc.


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Always keep your missions up to date, you can outlevel contacts and miss some content. Nothing that would prevent you from leveling in the game, but interesting stories and great missions. Story arcs will always be available to you tho, even if you outlevel the contact.

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I'm enjoying the game, but I find that there is a lot of really elementary questions that never get addressed. There seems to be an assumption that the player already has some familiarity with the gameplay (and I don't) which makes getting started a little frustrating. This isn't really a complaint, but more of an observation. Perhaps I'm just too thick to get it...

Thanks for any help offered...

*** Whoops...I am thick. I wanted to post this under player questions. Apologies. ***

[/ QUOTE ]

All I can suggest is to keep going at it. It will all come in time. I was frustrated when I first started as well, but you must persevere hero....er....villain....

Good luck!

Badges (mostly) do nothing for you. On the hero side there are known combinations that will give you +10% health, +5 endurance etc (check out vidiotmaps for Accolade badges)

The five "titles" are difficulty settings.
villanous-even level mobs(enemies), no bosses
second -even lvl mobs (but more of them) but now you get bosses
third- +1 mobs about same number as the first difficulty
fourth-+1 mobs but more than previously
fifth-+2 mobs and Arch Villians (read need a team to defeat) solo
Also you get more experiance points (xp) for completing misisons of higher difficulty.

There are ferries hit m or click map by your mission menu. There should be a green dot near the bottom right of your map that says "Port Oaks" or Rogue Isles Ferry. If there isn't go to the bottom right of the map and bring up the menu there. Double chack and make sure that all the options have a blue circle by them (this makes them pop up on the map).

Yes you can out-level contacts. You will normally open up new contacts every five levels and outlevel them after five levels....

That isn't too clear. Let's say you started with Kalinda. She'll give you missions until you complete all hers, or you hit level 5. Then she'll send you to a new contact. Once you hit port Oaks you have to do "newspaper" missions. You go talk to your broker (your only contact in the zone) Then you can click on the newspaper at the top of your contact list to get missions. This is how to get contacts past Mercy Islands.

I'm too fuzy on when contacts quit giving missions to offer advice on outleveling them. I can say that you will miss content at the lower levels unless you die to get debt and do all missions on the lowest difficulty.

I'd pick some contacts who look interesting and do their missions and grab the other stories on another character.

1. Badges are almost entirely chrome- you can put it under your name to show that you did [thing X]. There are a few badges, called "accolades", that give you small small bonuses - generally you get them for getting a bunch of other badges. Some also tell you a little bit about the game world in the flavor text. Some people wear their "1 million damage taken" badges proudly. Some people like to show the perfect badge- a Storm Defender with "Meteorologist", for instance. Some people get the collecting bug and chase them down. I'm not much of a badge person.

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2. Changing your "reputation" actually changes the difficulty of your missions. I can never remember the names of the villain levels, except for Villainous (which I will call level 1).

Levels 1,3, and 5 spawn badguys your level [or -1], level +1/0, and level +2/+1.
Levels 2 and 4 spawn the same level as 1 and 3, but more of them.

Level 1 will, as a special feature, not spawn a Boss in solo play- it will spawn named Lieutenants. This is because some characters can't beat a Boss solo, and nobody should be forced to team to finish their missions.

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3. To get to another island: Open your map [on the navbar in the top middle, or press "M"] when you're outside. There will be various little circles for landmarks. One will say "Port Oakes Ferry" or very similar. You run in the back of the ferry and it takes you to Port Oakes- new map, new contacts, tougher area.

4. If you outlevel a contact, nothing very bad happens. They just pass you on to the next contact. If you finish a story arc [a bunch of related missions from the same contact] you get a special XP bonus. And the story arcs are kinda fun.

Note: If you feel you missed some "tutorial info" you can go back and make another character and go through Breakout and see Kalinda, and get more explanation of things. It may be a little repetitive, but you are allowed 8 or 12 characters per server- you are not locked into one character.

Thank you for all the excellent information. I have in fact made it to Port Oakes and have started going through those missions. The background info on badges and reputation helps to clarify a great deal. It also explains why it felt that the first character I played with had a much tougher time of things than the last since I had inadvertantly ramped up the difficulty. It's also more interesting to have some context added to the game.

A final question on reputation though. When I went to see the person who changed it for me last time, I think there were five options: Villainous, Malicious, Relentless, and two others. They weren't numbered however (unless I just fail to recall it) so I was wondering if picking one of these other than the starting Villainous, will that increase the difficulty? Would the furthest down the list then be considered number 5? And do these monikers change as my characters reach higher levels?

I appreciate all the help!

the reputation goes 1-5 top to bottom.. The names will always stay the same..

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A final question on reputation though. When I went to see the person who changed it for me last time, I think there were five options: Villainous, Malicious, Relentless, and two others. They weren't numbered however (unless I just fail to recall it) so I was wondering if picking one of these other than the starting Villainous, will that increase the difficulty? Would the furthest down the list then be considered number 5? And do these monikers change as my characters reach higher levels?

I appreciate all the help!

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Villainous is always easiest (Heroic on the COH side.) The names stay the same, but you can always adjust the difficulty.

Going to Relentless, then Malicious, doesn't make the difficulty Relentless+Malicious levels, just Malicious.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Great!

Thanks for all the useful info.

One quick note. While some badges (Accolades) provide bonuses, buffs or temp powers in COH, as far as I know of, in COV, no accolade provides any bonus.

Far as I can tell, with the exception of Gladiator badges (if you play in the arena) badges in CoV are simply a way of "keeping score" or "something to do". Some people collect them hardcore, some only get what they manage in passing. It's all a matter of personal taste.