It's purty colors.... I like.
It's a nice site. Good work. Too bright and hero-y for me though 
Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.
"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality
[ QUOTE ]
It's a nice site. Good work. Too bright and hero-y for me though
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Yeah, we need a CoV counterpart: something like: "Snake Tunnels under Mercy"...
But thanks for the website, Austara; I plan to spend the next few hours reading thru it...
Keep NCSoft from shutting down City of Heroes : http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
Thank you for the replies so far! I'm excited to see what people think so far and how the site can grow from here.
@The_Player: YAY for purty colors
@magikwand: Aww, but bright and hero-y can be fun too! :P I did think of making this site about both CoH and CoV at first, but then I realized that it would be WAY too big. Plus, I need to play on the villainous side a little more before I can write more confidently about how to play the different archetypes redside. It can be done!
@Archiviste: "Snake Tunnels under Mercy?" Hmm...but how to get a cool underground screencap for the graphics? *goes to explore redside*
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
going into my favorites list right now cool site
Triceth LVL 50 Ice/Storm Controller
Ghost Scrapper LVL 50 MA/reflexes Scrapper
Gespin LVL 44 Spine/Regen Scrapper
Treal LVL 41 Emp Defender
Radill LVL 41 Ill/Rad Troller
On the page titled "The Untapped Power of the Chatbox", you mention this:
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Chat (A) Light Blue/White Not sure what special function this does--it seems to be similar to Local chat, but this is questionable
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When you select "A", any text you type goes into the default channel selected for the tab you are currently on... So if you have the regular chat tab, Local is the default channel (but can be changed by right clicking and going into 'Edit Tab'). This is handy if you setup multiple tabs, with a different default channel in each one.
For example, set the Chat tab default to Team, add a second tab for, oh, PinnBadges and set the default to PinnBadges, and add a third tab for Infinity Badges and set the default to Infinity Badges. Now select the "A", and whichever tab you switch to, when you type, it will go to the right place.
@armylife1124: YAY! I'm very glad you like the site!
@Ecliptix: Thank you for the explanation of Active Chat! Now I understand it a lot better. I'll put a link to your post on the Chatbox page and credit you--I would have never phrased that so well!
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
Very nice site. The colors are light and inviting, but maybe sort of feminine. I like the way you explain things. You're informative without sounding like a know-it-all, and you keep it witty without trying too hard to be funny. I won't fault you for it being a little light on content because it's new and can only grow from here. Great job overall
@Angryellow: Thank you for the praise and constructive criticism! I do want to add a lot more content--just have to write it first! I like to write informative articles from my own personal experience, so as I level up and do more within the game, I will write more articles for enriching gameplay.
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
Chuck some sample costumes in your costume section as well for people to have a look at.
Your basic guidelines in that section are pretty spot on otherwise.
Crime of Fashion Level 50 Rad/Rad Corrupter
My Toons
My Rad/Rad Corrupters Guide
Mindscape - Reworking
Nice work on your site. With the influx of new players I meet and into our SG, I'm going to direct them to the site to answer some of their more fundamental questions
53 Bots/FF/Mace Mastermind | 53 NRG/FF/Electricity Defender | 50 Time/Dual Pistols/Soul Defender | 50 Demons/FF/Mace Mastermind | 51 Necro/Dark/Soul Mastermind | 50 Thugs/Time/Mace Mastermind | 50 Ice/Ice/Arctic Tanker | 50 Plant/Rad/Earth Controller | 50 Illusion/Trick Arrow Controller | 50 Gravity/Force Field Controller
Yes, I like Force Fields.
@Crime_of_Fashion: Great idea! I've taken screenshots of all my characters' different costumes anyway, so that will be an easy addition. (Why that slipped my mind in the first place, I will never know. )
EDIT: Pictures added! The article on costume design was also lengthened a bit to add more detail about each picture. Costume Design page
@Chill_Out: Awesome! New players are definitely part of my target audience for the site--thank you for your support!
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
Great idea! Just what our influx of new players needs right about now.
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@Crime_of_Fashion: Great idea! I've taken screenshots of all my characters' different costumes anyway, so that will be an easy addition. (Why that slipped my mind in the first place, I will never know. )
EDIT: Pictures added! The article on costume design was also lengthened a bit to add more detail about each picture. Costume Design page
@Chill_Out: Awesome! New players are definitely part of my target audience for the site--thank you for your support!
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Awesome work, I am glad you took my advice
After all I am the Count of Costumes 
Crime of Fashion Level 50 Rad/Rad Corrupter
My Toons
My Rad/Rad Corrupters Guide
Mindscape - Reworking
Nice site! There's a lot to take in at once - if you want to make it very new-player friendly, having a 'Start Here' page would be great - with a quick overview of what each section is about, complete with links! If you want to make it -very- new-player-friendly, a section on 'picking a server' would be handy as well, with little things about each server population (Virtue: roleplayers, Justice: lots of aussies/nz-ers, etc.).
You may want to make some brief mention about picking heroes vs. villains as well - the site is obviously hero-geared, but a few notes on the similarities, differences and so-on could be quite helpful to the new player.
In the costumes section, some discussion on do's and don't's of color would be ideal. I cannot remember the thread (and my link-fu is terrible!) but there is a guide on good vs. bad color choices somewhere, and the importance of branching out beyond 2 colors for looking good. It may be more than you're after, but customisation is what CoX is all about!
Also (from my reading), some notes in the 'archetypes' section that not all variations of each archetype fit neatly and there is a lot of overlap. Roles can be shared, archetypes can be tweaked out of their 'designated' role.
And to be extra-picky on this front (spot the controller-freak!) I'd personally reword the controller description to say they 'neutralise' or 'lock down' enemies. Holds are common ways of doing this, but most controller primaries and secondaries have altogether different ways of doing this that are easily as effective. Special mention of the importance of locking down high-irritation enemies would be good - a controller who locks out that Tsoo Sorcerer, Malta Sapper or Spectral Demon Lord is much more useful than one who spams their AoE controls then faceplants from immob-agro.
@Kid_Gloves: Thank you for the in-depth perspective on my site! I appreciate the tips and ideas--I definitely like the idea of the "Start Here" page, and am almost finished writing it at the moment.
As for the controller description, I agree that the wording should probably be changed. Most of the Controller powersets I have come across have used mainly holds and immobilizing attacks, but there is something to be said for slowing enemies and lowering their defenses as well. And thank you for suggesting the controller's optimal role as "boss-neutralizer!" That's something I definitely missed first time around. ^_^
And you caught the bit of "Page Fail" on the archetype page--there was a later draft of that page which includes the caveat that some archetype builds may function differently from the way I have outlined them in the article. Problem: I didn't upload the later draft yet! Lazy silly me. XD
I'm debating about going into more detail about "good" costumes vs. "bad" costumes on my site--since I haven't and don't plan to win any costume contests any time soon, I'm not exactly the authority on what makes a "winning" costume. :P There's certainly some guidelines I could give, but I don't want to introduce too much personal taste bias on my part. After all, who am I to criticize someone's neon green- and orange-striped costume if it fits their personal concept of their character? ^_^ My perspective is basically "design and let design."
However, maybe an article about what all kinds of options are available to new heroes would be good? I'm also planning articles about day job locations, writing character backstories, creating unique characters, and the article on server selection you suggested. (Paragon Wiki, here I come! )
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
I like the site, just a comment, though: for escaping those 'trapped in the chatbox', the Escape key actually works as well, though I typically have to hit it twice (once leaves you still in the chatbox).
The suggested playstyles for the ATs... quite useful for the less experienced players this site is intended for. More experienced players might play somewhat different, but that takes really knowing what you're doing in breaking the mold anyway, probably something the apparent intended audience of your site shouldn't be doing until they have more experience.
@Alef_infinity: Cool, I didn't know the Escape key literally functioned as an "escape" from the chatbox! I will put that into the article (and considering how often I get trapped in the chatbox, I'll probably be using that trick more often!) Thank you for suggesting that!
The Teamplay article is definitely just a starting point--sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly where your particular build functions best in a team, so I just wrote more general guidelines from my perspective in playing a hero of each archetype.
Also, a question for everyone: I'm considering taking down the quick-reference powerset guides, because I've just noticed that on Internet Explorer, the guides download themselves into a weird zip file that Excel won't open. On Firefox, just clicking the link opens the file just fine. Anyone else have this problem? I'm not sure how to fix it, and I'd rather not have something this broken on my site. Thank you in advance!
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
Very nice site, Austara! I think there is definitely a need for a low-key, "accesible" site like yours for newer players to a game like CoX which is over 5 years old now, and has been incredibly deep and rich in content for quite awhile now (I know *I* wish I'd had a guide such as yours back during I3 when I started playing!).
Two comments (and I'm only just starting to explore your site, so I may have more later on):
On the "Being a Good SG Member" page (which is a GREAT idea, by the way!) you talk about being in SG mode and earning prestige. I think, however, you might want to mention the fact that being in SG mode on a character who is higher than level 25 has a negative effect on the amount of influence/infamy that character earns through defeating foes and completing missions (more info at http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Supergroup_Mode). I just thought you might want to warn new players that there's a trade-off between earning prestige and influence/infamy (after level 25). The flipside, of course, is that EVERYONE in a SG should be in SG mode up to level 25, since there's no downside!
You also talk about collecting Invention Salvage and storing it in your SG's base. Your information may be a bit dated here -- when "Base Salvage" was done away with in Issue 13, the base salvage racks were altered to accept Invention Salvage, but unlike the over 1,000 pieces of Base Salvage the old racks would accept (even though they SAID capacity was 999, you could actually store up to 2,500 pieces in them), the racks only accept up to 30 pieces of Invention Salvage now. I'm fairly sure there is a limit to the number of racks that can be placed in a base, so I'm not sure whether you really want to encourage people to drop off all their excess salvage in the base storage, as it would most likely fill up very quickly.
Overall, a wonderful site, and I'm sure a great resource for many players (not just new ones). Keep up the great work!
Leader of Legion of Valor/Fallen Legion (Victory server)
http://legionofvalor.guildportal.com / http://fallenlegion.guildportal.com
StainedGlassScarlet - L50 Spines/Inv Scrapper | Badges: 1,396
Avatar detail taken from full-size piece by Douglas Shuler here
@Eric_Nelson: Thank you for the comments and suggestions! I'm glad that the site is functioning as an accessible guide--that's how I tried to write it!
I was unaware of the negative effect on influence that playing in SG Mode has beyond level 25 (since my highest level toon is just now lv. 29, I hadn't actually paid attention to notice whether there was a drop in the inf I was getting). I will definitely post that as part of the article, since it is a concern for high-level toons.
As for the salvage issue, I mainly wanted to encourage people who might be new to the idea of SGs to contribute in as many ways as possible. It is important not to clog up the base's salvage storage with enough Daemon Programs to choke someone, but adding the odd Luck Charm or Ancient Artifact is always welcome! To explain this better, I could add a line about "Most Wanted Salvage," or a part about asking your SG leaders about what kinds of salvage the group is looking for.
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
/thumbs up
Ware ni tatenu mono mashi!!
[There are none before me who have not been cleaved!!]
Just wanted to let viewers know that Skies Over Atlas has been updated with a lot of new content, as well as considerable updates to previous pages, according to the feedback I've gotten from this thread! I've got new pages up about day jobs, accolades, designing an original character, writing character backstories, and an opinion article about "the perfect costume" for winning costume contests.
On the way is an article detailing the features of every Hero Zone in Paragon City (yes, EVERY one!). I had a technical fail this evening while using MS Word 2007 to find and replace text (was trying to save myself some typing), and Word ended up eating the hero zone file completely...yes, Austara was NOT a happy Tank. >
But as soon as I can retype, repair, and reformat that page, the Hero Zones page will be up and running too!
As always, feedback is always welcome, as is advice and suggestions on content changes, etc. I've looked to Paragon Wiki very much during my research, as I have aggregated and condensed information for various articles, but even Paragon Wiki isn't quite complete in a few areas. 
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
Well, after a few weeks' worth of work, all of the new pages are up on the site. Please let me know if you see anything that needs to be added/expanded/corrected/deleted--I know that some of the pages are a little more incomplete because of my incomplete knowledge of certain aspects of the game. I welcome all input!
Those of you who have already posted, I thank you for your effort, and I have credited your help on my Contributors page; I definitely couldn't have done so much on certain pages if it hadn't been for your help. Check out the thread entitled "Heroes, Your Gaming Experience Requested!" if you would like to see the hero zones I need help on detailing. As always, this original thread is still open for questions and suggestions as well.
Link to site: Skies over Atlas
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
Even more new updates, this time pertaining to the acquisition of costumes and costume slots! Also, there's a great new article on the PvP zones, written by a contributor who did such a good job of writing and explaining it all that I posted it pretty much as it was.
Let me know, as always, if you see anything that needs to be explained more clearly, corrected, or deleted, or if you know of something that should be added.
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara
Skies over Atlas
The link above is the CoH site I've been building since I began playing in February. I wanted a different kind of CoH site, since many people have already done a wonderful job of summarizing the game's technical details, such as damage stats on powers, etc. Thus, I decided to focus on the social/human aspect of playing the game, answering questions like "how do you interact with other characters effectively?" and "How do you play well on teams?"
I also provide quick-reference powerset guides in Excel format. Nothing so awesome in its detailing as RedTomax's guide, but it's nice to have a single file you can look at to remind yourself of all the different power sets available to each archetype.
I also give information about the game that I learned either from experience or from watching others play--stuff that new heroes might not know right away. In essence, this is a site for people new to the game as well as people looking for a deeper interactive experience in their slice of CoH.
Let me know what you think--I'm always glad to add and edit as needed to make things clearer and better.
_~`Tanker Chicks Rock`~_
City of Heroes for New Players | Learn More about Austara