Returning Player Diary

if you want good, story focused arcs in AE with no EB's or AV's I am working on a list (none of them are mine). Most of them at the low levels use stock enemies. I play them with starting characters so they are all doable at that level - I note the hard ones.

I have divided them into my idea of 5-3 stars, all of which are good. The 5 stars are great.

I have a whole bunch for level 1-10
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=287853

I am starting work on 11-20 and have many (most of which overlap with 1-10)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=288465

Every player and every developer should play the 6 I have listed as 5 stars for 1-10.

very handy Dump, I'll definitely be checking those out when I get an urge to hit the MA.

Popped in to check on my zombie (and only surviving*) mastermind Mr. Cadaver tonight. He was pretty close to leveling so I rand a mission, leveled and hit the market in Port Oakes. New vendor standing there, so I clicked on him...and WTH, you can just *buy* those AT enhancements from him? Did not know that- kinda lame.

Cashed in a Super Pack, got a scrapper IO which, armed with my new knowledge, I listed for 1 and insta-sold for twenty two million- there's his bankroll!

Also got two more bits of the Elemental costume set, which I like.

My lowbie trick of buying stacks of huge enhancements cheap, turning them into big Defenses and selling them for a fortune still works....not that he needs it with 22m in the kitty.

But while converting blues into purples I noticed something I don't remember from before- a 'move to market' option in the context menu! Very very nice.

All this inspired me to check Mr's enhancements- a piebald shambles of red trainings and empty slots. He just hit 12, so time to kit him out with level 15 generics....may log him out and save that project for later. Looks like I have a bit of time tonight, and I should get in some actual gameplay for a change!


*strike that, forgot about my demon mastermind...one of two, then.

Okay, logged in my stalker Mope, who currently resides hero-side after making the alignment journey so he could hang out with the Crazy 88's on Virtue.

And, first mission of the SSA is in the books!


Overall, liked it. Fairly basic, but I really appreciated the graphic update to the standard miserable Oranbega map. Bit of a letdown at the end with the cave in- I didn't notice the appearance of the timer and was sort of wandering around the room for a bit. Spotted it finally, and had just enough time to make the front door...which was blocked. Ran around pointlessly a bit before the timer ran out.....and poof, I'm magically outside, completely unscathed. Hoofed over and talked to my contact, who could at least have had the common decency to mention my miraculous survival, being pulled from the wreckage by PPD hardsuits, but who instead carried on as if I'd been grandly and entirely successful.

I can see where anyone finding the alternate exit in time would feel like it was a hairsbreadth escape, but when there's no consequence for failure what's that worth, really?

I'd have liked at least some fluff text chiding me for not beating the timer.

Anyway, on to the second mish....

Second mish, SUPER annoying.
I think it's just me, being programmed by 8 years of play to mostly ignore the text in the mission window.

Anyway, I pop into the tunnel, jog around a bit, see some caption text, kill an orange Lieutenant just because, then all of a sudden it's raining pumicites!

Being a veteran CoH player, my first instinct is to KILL THE AMBUSHES!
Because there's only three waves, right?
And though ambushes are my MOST HATED ASPECT of playing a stalker, I figure I can take down three- I've got a full tray of insps.

And I'd have done it too, except THEY JUST KEPT COMING.

After being buried alive, I finally read the mission text.

Oh....uh, sift some rocks?
Mmmk.

Hit the Return to Battle power and zip around sifting rocks. Get the three piles, find the boss guy, swallow a giant red hit build up and put him down.

Hopefully I've learned my lesson about paying attention to the mission text.

We'll find out in part three!

Okay, that's more like it- molten hollows gulch full of lava!

Very cinematic.

Hop on over to the obelisk, which is even more cinematic- excellent!

There's Lumpy- figure I'll give him the usual and see what happens, although all this jazz about 'absorbing Synapse's powers' doesn't give me a lot of hope.

Well, got him down to about 1/2 health before he face-planted me...so much for the easy way!

Headed to the 88's base, which even in its unfinished state is a wonder to behold, then out to Skyway & /ah myself a handful of inspirations before returning to battle.


Ok, a slightly more cautious approach yields better results.
Build up, one shot his little igneous friend, placate him, run away.
Surf the net for a bit while everything recharges, then down a big purple and a big red and try again. Got him most of the way down, placate again, run offf and wait for build up. One more blast and he's down- AND I GRATZ on the exp, whoohoo! Doesn't get much more cinematic than that.

I get the mission complete, but Synapse is still just lying there so I go see if I should click him or something, and find *another* igneous around the other side of the obelisk- I grease him out of a sense of completeness, and UH WHAT there's a whole 'nother chunk of mission coming my way!

Get some dialog from a ghost that goes by a little bit too fast to follow, a problem I've noticed in other missions with those colored [dialog] boxes, and all of a sudden that annoying spiney Echidine is all up in my grill with a couple of ghosty friends. Take them out after a bit of a battle, have a little chat with Synapse, then whoah CUT SCENE! Haven't seen one of these in a loooong time.

Very nice!
Much improved over the CoV ones- I like the shadowy figure plotting my demise.

I do have one question though- what if I'd exited after the mission complete?
Hopefully it wouldn't have let me- I'd hate to miss the actual finale of the mini-arc.

So, a little bumpy, could have used a few tweaks here and there, but overall pretty darn fun. Visually striking, some unusual gameplay that caught me off guard, enjoyed the story, and looking forward to part 2.

1st mission you can exit with Oro portal or just sit and wait

the 2nd mission is easiest done solo
you just run through, get the glowies without fighting, then clear the last room

3rd mission is tough solo, not so tough on a team usually.

I have never noticed an early mission complete in the 3rd one.

gawd, I'm hopeless!

Logged on tonight intending to rock some event action with a 50, ended up buying Street Justice on sale because I had a good idea for a character and rolling up yet another alt. And I like him, so he'll probably go far- SilverRage, a heroic street/shield brute. Couldn't believe the name wasn't taken.


Ran him through Atlas, then logged in a few old characters to pick up the 8 year anniversary badge & pay some base rents.

Street Justice is /deliciously/ punchy. I have a redside StJ/Will Brute that's an ex-Mob legbreaker. Never had a character concept that worked itself out in my head so quickly.

Oh yea, street fighting is SO fun. SF/WP Brutes rule.

You can tell that I haven't played in a while because I forgot to plug my other arcs. If you liked one of mine, there's a chance you'll like one of my others, right? If you search "Bubbawheat" all my arcs should come up. While I feel It's my strongest story, you might not like Matchstick Women due to the custom enemies. A Clone of Your Own? is another fun little take on a typical story with the doppleganger system using mostly Freakshow. And if you've been on many Lambda trials yet you might get a kick out of Whack a Mole: Lambda Sector, though again, it does have all custom enemies.

Footnote from the olden days:

One of the experiments from my previous stint was seeing how much inf a character could make while earning field crafter. I'd never done it before, but some helpful person who's name I have shamefully forgotten slipped me a printable template and off I went.

Buying the bulk of my junk on the market, crafting to the plan, selling the salable stuff and throwing the rest in the garbage, I checked in on him tonight and found him at level 20, with Field Crafter and 113,157,667 inf on account.

Aside from inf from defeats and selling drops, all of that came from crafting and selling generic IOs on the market.

Nothing amazing, but a tidy sum to make while pursuing an accolade perceived as 'expensive'.

okay, I've given in to my natural urges, said "the heck with it!" and abandoned all other dabbling to level SilverRage in earnest. You can't fight fate, I guess- he's just too much fun to play.


Running him through Atlas I took on Twinshot's arc again, and ran up against the problem facing content that's more story dependent than action/mechanics dependent- as much as I loved it the first time through, the second time around I'm just madly clicking my way through dialog trees to get at the fightin'. If I'd waited a few months it'd probably be fine, but right now it's too fresh in my mind, like a book I just finished reading.

It's a variation of Hollywood Blockbuster Syndrome- explosions and fighting are pretty universal, intimate dramatic stories are harder to pull off, besides being less translatable to different demographic groups.


Anyway, still a terrific arc, but not one you should play every other week.

Got him through it at pretty close to level 10 & headed to Kings to do a little street sweeping and finish off the level. Leveled & hit up Blue Steel for a photo op:




time to do a bit of marketeering then off to dreamland.

SSAs are actually different for heroes and villains, following the same story, but from different perspectives. So, if you enjoyed the first hero SSA, you might want to try the villain version of it, if only for the giggles during the final mission.

also, quick question-

I'm not liking the quality of my screenshots, I think they're going straight to jpg?

I dimly recall some way to change the format, anyone have any hints?