A question on contacts and side switching

I've only ever taken level 50 characters on the side switching route so I'm unsure of how non-50 characters work when switching sides.

For example, let's say I have a level 40ish villain that I wish to take hero-side. When I get him to Paragon, how do I get him the normal contacts that a level 40ish hero would get? Is it simply through doing radio missions and getting new contacts that way? Will I get all the normal contacts in that level range if I do the diligence of playing through the contact arcs like normal?

My main concern is of taking him hero and only being able to do radio missions his whole life.

Thanks in advance for your input!

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Main Character: Ice/Storm/Ice Controller (Justice, 1340 badges)

For a villain to become a hero he/she must first "go rogue". Once you're at the Rogue alignment you can travel to Paragon City, but only do radio missions and missions with other players, you won't have hero-side contacts of your own.

However, if you take the next alignment step and go from Rogue to Hero, you will be able to use blue-side contacts.

At least that's how I understand it, none of my characters have done it yet!

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My Characters

Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012

You can complete safeguard/mayhem missions and get the contacts that way. Obviously they will only talk to you if you are the corresponding alignment; hero/vig for blueside contacts, villain/rogue for redside.

You can also get some contacts by levelling into that range, like Keith Nance, Roy Cooling, etc. Also, some contacts don't need to be introduced through SG/Mayhem missions, like the 1st contact in Croatoa.

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I find your lack of signature disturbing.

When you fully switch sides, all of your old contacts will go Inactive - but you'll immediately gain all global contacts available at your level (such as Montague Castanella, when you go Hero, who will introduce you to a level-appropriate contact during his arc; two of 'em, I think), plus any zone-specific automatics that you'd get for whichever zones you enter.

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Thank you all for the info. That answers my question perfectly. I was planning on taking this character full hero, so I'm glad to hear I will pickup contacts as normal.

Thanks!

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Main Character: Ice/Storm/Ice Controller (Justice, 1340 badges)