Returning player questions on teaming, TFs, and Free/VIP

So I've come back after a while off...Wow! Combined markets (world didn't seem to end), red-side/blue-side (still no world ending), early level travel powers (I still ghetto travel until my 20s), and now Free to Play (all the servers are yellow!). We can even Walk!

As someone that can't guarantee if I can play for hours or minutes and who hates feeling stupid, I've usually soloed a ton. This time, with the encouragement of the helpful Help channel, I've not only one, but two different task forces (Synapse twice and posi, I think) AND did my first time braving of a PvP zone to snag a Shivan. Thanks to Falafel_Cone, Lightstarr, and Suede on Liberty.

This is also my first real shot at a hero character, I always found red-side friendlier with more compact zones and missions that didn't send you hither and yon as much. Blue side zones are still confusing (what do you mean I can't get there from here?) but the newer missions and combined rail lines are far nicer and made it not too bad.

TF questions:

1) I've noticed a lot of chatter on Help announcing DFBs and a handful of TF/SFs. Great to see red-side life as well. Is Help really the place to find these? My efforts to find a mission team tended not to succeed quickly, though it wasn't hard to join a TF that someone else was building. Since I can't usually commit to a 2 hour block, missions teams have less commitment and would thus be more interesting (though I do intend to try a few more TFs)

2) While I've no desire to rerun or reset a lot, I would like to try a DFB. Any warnings I should know about?

3) MMs still get injured (well, the team gets injured) when teammates don't understand that we can't just fly around to the different spots on an outdoor map, or short-range TP is a bad idea. Is this a common problem?

4) I used to love guides. I'd read them and weigh their descriptions of how a power is or is not useful and the hidden tidbits that the numbers don't give. It seems the last few years that guides are fewer and focus more on Mid's slotting than explaining these things. Am I just yearning for a past that won't return?

5) Did performance increase? It seems I spend less time on loading screens and have fewer slide shows, though I've not gone through a Rikti invasion lately. Meanwhile, I'm running on the same comp...

6) One reason I've often skipped TFs is that I never learn the story or what's going on. Someone suggest I read the Clues while on the mission (not really sure when that downtime would be). Is that the best way to know what's going on?

7) The other reason I've skipped TFs is my only previous attempt was a Villain Respec Trial with the frickin Tentacles. Apparently I have horrible understanding of 3-d space in-game and would always get one-shotted by the thing in the center because I didn't understand where I was relative to it. Was this just a non-standard example of what to expect? The descriptions I've read of Hamis, the new Seed event, or the Incarnate Trials all lead me to expect similar confusion and insta-dead. Am I wrong?

8) I am VIP, having been a subscriber from before and never playing without being a current subscriber. If I drop my subscription, what happens with my full load of characters, including those of restricted ATs or powersets?

9) As someone that tends to pop on, play for a few months, and then vanish for a year or more, not paying a subscription is appealing. Ideally, as soon as I get to feeling I'm done
for a while, I'd stop paying. Then, when the itch returns, I log in and play a bit, and if it's truly what I'm interested in, I'd re-subscribe, and if it really wasn't quite time, I'd wait a bit longer with no impact to my wallet. Is this a workable plan?

Thanks all!

Hero respec has you defending, and it's a bit more tedious but no risk like in the thorn tree. And that respec is kind of unique in how it kills you unawares.

Two places to reference in the VIP vs Prem vs Free. The main CoH website has a decent comparison chart, and the Paragonwiki.com website under paragon rewards does good in showing you what you earn when. The two things you MUST be VIP for are Incarnate stuff and interacting with the SG registrar (new SG/new base/rent).

Yeah, a lot of their initial restrictions comments have turned out to be totally off base. (ba dum tishhhhh)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Most of these have been adequately answered already, but here's a couple I'll put in.

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Originally Posted by SwiftOneSpeaks 2) While I've no desire to rerun or reset a lot, I would like to try a DFB. Any warnings I should know about?

If you want to get badges out of it:

* when you get to the Vahzilok AV, you absolutely must not defeat any minions before you defeat the AV. MM pets should be set to passive (so they don't return fire against any minions that attack them), and nobody uses AoE attacks. Be sure and convey this to your teammates ahead of time. (And be prepared for at least one of them to completely ignore you. :P)

* The Lost AV, Prophet, is the other way around—you have to defeat all the minions before you defeat him to get his badge. Or, as I like to put it

1) Defeat all minions.
2) ...
3) Prophet!

* If you do DFB more than once on any given character (it's a great way to level up beginning characters, as well as the only way you can get them SOs before the twenties), take a different reward at the end each time—they don't stack.

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7) The other reason I've skipped TFs is my only previous attempt was a Villain Respec Trial with the frickin Tentacles. Apparently I have horrible understanding of 3-d space in-game and would always get one-shotted by the thing in the center because I didn't understand where I was relative to it. Was this just a non-standard example of what to expect?

The Treespec is one of the nastiest surprises in the game. It's worth noting that one of the great benefits of going Rogue (that is, doing Rogue tips and converting your villain to a Rogue) is that your character can go do the hero-side respec instead, which is boring but definitely safer.

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The descriptions I've read of Hamis, the new Seed event, or the Incarnate Trials all lead me to expect similar confusion and insta-dead. Am I wrong?

Yes and no. The Behavioral Adjustment Facility and Lambda Complex trials are short, sweet, and drop-dead easy once you know what you're doing (and learning what you're doing doesn't take long at all). (In fact, the devs are finding, to their chagrin, that they might just be too easy, to the point that they toyed with removing Empyrean rewards from them until the players revolted—it's hard to get anyone to want to do any of the other trials, that are more challenging.)

Keyes is a bit harder, but they really nerfed it back with the update that just went in. Underground is a platinum-plated rhymes-with-witch—I've only managed to do it successfully once out of the four times I've tried it—but I expect they'll get around to making it easier at some point too. And the devs are cranking the rewards from those trials to try to get more people to do them.

It really makes a big difference to have an experienced leader who is good at communicating the objectives. The right leader can make the difference between winning and ignominious defeat.

Update from the Original Poster:

First, thank you for explaining how the character slots work if you go preemie from VIP...all I could find on the websites was what's allowed, not how it handles things that are no longer allowed.

Second, now that I've tinkered a bit and interacted with the Free players, I want to offer NCSoft some props. It seems like they are really targeting the game to be usable and interesting for free, solid for Premiums, and just trying to get you interested enough for a VIP to be worthwhile, as opposed to making the game "force" you to subscribe. Compared to a lot of other "FTP" approaches in the non-MMO world, this was really nice.

I've now done a few DFBs and a couple of BAFs.

I found joining the big channels on the server to open a whole new world of offers. While finding an op to get unsilenced has been mostly unsuccessful, I can still see the groups forming and get involved. This has made a huge difference to problem #1: Finding a group without waiting hours.

I love the format of using cutscenes to layout the background and the "radio" prompts to give background/instructions. This avoids the "rush, rush, no time for appreciation or guidance" issue, while not really delaying things by very much. The status boxes (e.g. "0/11 left" or "1:34 remaining") are also awesome. The big warning text on event changes is likewise great. Having maps that aren't chaotic messes filled with trash also improves things.

Compared with the few TFs I've done, or the Villain Treespec, the new Trials are friendly to new players and quite accessible. While there are still a few gotchas (Thanks for the warning about the bubbles with the hydra - I'm not sure I'd have figured it out as actually avoidable as quickly if you hadn't warned me) - having a leader that recognizes that you're new and gives a few prompts is still awesome. (My props to NullValue on Liberty, who was a kind and successful leader on BAF) Heck, even the hospital in BAF is convenient!

Reading the Wiki was helpful, but mainly because it let more click when someone gave me hints in game. Things like "you'll get a circle for each warning of suppression" doesn't really prepare you for when it happens. (BTW, for my fellow BAF-newbs - it's VERY obvious) Reading it all was a lot to take in and remember, but when my guide said "fall back if you get a circle" it let me go "oh, I can fall back and kill adds until it fades".

I'll also say it fared well compared to my limited experiences with That-Other-Game, where the few raids I was in tended to smite-or-wipe. My first BAF was very successful, the second where they were going for more badges had NightStar rez no fewer than 3 times and had the adds on Seige get out of hand. Some 6 trips to the hospital for me and members of my "team" later we were able to regain control and come back to complete it (no success on the badges, but I got 29% Judgement after the first run and was up to 76% after the second). To have a long fight where we can be clearly "losing" and be able to readjust and come back to "winning" WITHOUT being an elite crew of people who dedicate themselves to the game made it really enjoyable.

Of vast importance to me was the fact that this didn't take an inordinate amount of time. Sure, there was 10 minutes of initial grouping time. But there wasn't a maze full of trash to defeat, there wasn't zoning between contacts for no real reason. There wasn't an hour or more of standing around waiting for the raid to assemble.

There's still room for improvement. The LFG tab would be a truly awesome idea if everyone didn't prefer to group up beforehand. I've played this for game for years and never knew that the global channels were significant at all. A few UI additions (being able to toggle between a few select targets) would make certain tasks easier on the newbie. The resulting rewards are dizzyingly incomprehensible. (I was alpha slotted so I understood shards...Now I have threads, different components, and two kinds of Merits!) And while the new format and direction for Trials is great, there are still few of them, leaving me dreading the TFs I will need to run to finish out my currently-commonly-slotted-alpha.

On the whole though, I highly enjoyed myself and look forward to finding the time to do more. The experience was more accessible than I thought once I found the global channel.

So, I kinda know what global chat channels are, but it's been so long since I tried using them (probably back when they were first implemented way back when), I don't really remember how to get at them. Any quick pointers (or wiki links) explaining this? I've tried "joining" a channel (by name), but I didn't see it in the list of available channels to add to a tab after that. Was I just blind? Or is there some other voodoo I need to go through? And which of the tiny little chat channel icons (Team, Local, Supergroup, etc.) do I have to be in to send messages to one of these user-created chat channels?