Help Me Make A List of Goals & Milestones for New Characters

Having only played City of Heroes very infrequently for well over a year now, I find my thoughts wandering back more and more often to the idea of trying out some of the new powersets and all the newer content. I've even made a few attempts to play recently, but just making a new character and playing has led to me logging off within a couple of hours, disinterested. In an effort to stave off boredom at just pushing keys until the enemy is defeated, I'm thinking I should try playing again with a list of diverse goals in mind. To that end, I'm posting here.

Let's start with a premise: I'm a new player, and I'm going to make a new character (the type of character is unimportant, I think). Given that the accomplishment of any particular thing in this game is not essential, what are some beneficial goals I might strive to reach? Item #1 on the list will be "Have fun," as I believe many would agree it should be. What things do you try to do on each of your new or main characters? What badges do you make a point of garnering? What items do you collect? What milestones do you hit? Are there certain things that should be done at certain levels, or in a certain order? Assume I have only limited knowledge, and please feel free to include links to ParagonWiki (or something similar) for further research.

I'll keep the list updated in this post (doing so every couple of days, depending on the frequency of new entries), and I thank all of you in advance for reading and/or participating.

1. Have FUN!
2. Level from 1 to 50

In the past I liked to make a base with all telepads and med center. It required adding friends (or 2boxing), badge hunting, earning prestige, crafting and 'town planning'.


I did it 3 times: red side, blue side on Triumph and blue side on Freedom.

This one depends on the character, but one milestone I shoot for is to earn the "right" badge for the character to wear as a title. A Viking might be Destined for Valhalla, and a demolition specialist would like to be known as a Tank Buster. If you're the Top Dog, this goal won't take long, but it may take a while to let everyone know you're a Cimeroran Hero.

Do something incredible at an impossible moment (Example: Taking out the EB while having just a sliver of health using just a snipe and/or your most powerful melee attack)

I made a Night Widow with the intent of making this toon a powerhouse. But I started with a theme. I laughed at some of the animal characters long before there were the animal heads etc we have now. So I went for something original. Then I wanted him to be fun to play for a long time to come. Worked on the math, got the IOs and rewards needed to be perma-ML and now love the toon for the accomplishing the task and the effort to make it. He is also a hoot of a concept. Won Best Male Villain one year as well. All around just a lot of fun working on him from 1 to 50 +Incarnate/Hybrid slotted powerhouse. SO maybe go for the them but plan for the long haul as well.

I like this one:

Get a "Gold Star" next to every entry in the Ouro crystal.

Get the Atlas Medallion and Task Force Commander.

Get every Souvenir.

Assuming Heroes and not Villains..

Try to play every contact you get, as many enemy groups as you can find and read as much story as you can handle.

Try and make your temp power list bigger than your primary, secondary and pools combined, invention temps are cheating.

Try and get at least 300 badges from 1-50, don't hunt for them, but don't let up an opportunity to do something crazy which just might gain you that permanent reward.

Stop the Vahzilok Plague, end the Freakalympics and at some point Save a Thousand Worlds. Remember, you're a Hero's Hero.

When you hit level 50, make a new character with a different play style which you're comfortable with and do everything your 50 didn't and even stuff they did because it was fun.

Edit: Find an arc you're enjoying enough to warrant use of the Turn Off XP button so you don't miss anything.

1. Finish X contact in Hollows to unlock Trial
2. Get wedding ring from Striga Stephanie Peebles
3. Finish X contact in Striga to unlock Hess
4. Finish X contact in Faultline to get Entrusted with the Secret
5. Do Montague arc to unlock Cimmerora
6. Finish X contact in Croatoa to unlock Katie
7. Get radio from police
8. get safeguard exploration badge every 5 levels
9. do Task Force every 5 levels and get accolade
10. After 20 do 10 +1 tips and confirm alignment
11. Do Pilgrim in Oroborous to unlock Oroborous content
12. Talk to X in Vanguard base to join vanguard and unlock vanguard merits
13. Do ITF at 35+
14. Do Mother Ship Raid
15. Do Hamidon Seed Raid
16. Defeat Lusca

Visit Praetoria once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Visit AE once, but leave before it makes you soft.
And always wear sunscreen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

Collect all of the history plaques - They exist as "sets" and completing a set will award a badge, as well as teach you something about the history of the city.

Along the same vein, search the Midnight Club for all of its hidden artifacts.

Earn a full set of Vanguard armor or unlock Roman armor (assuming you didn't just buy either or both of them from the market).

Make an Architect arc and advertise it on the forum. Earn enough tickets to buy all of the "expansion" content.

Play through the morality missions and take your hero to villain and back again. Laugh at Flambeaux.

Do all of the safeguard missions, collecting all of the badges and special powers. At a minimum, do the Atlas Park mission and get the jet pack.

Buy (with influence) all of the craftable costume bit recipes and craft them.

Play through the entire New Overbrook aka Faultline story. Ask yourself how old you think Penelope is supposed to be.

Collect all of the arena gladiators and then find someone to fight a battle with. "Avalanche Shaman! I choose you!"

Pick a set of day jobs and earn their badges.

Find the super secret developer lounge in Faultline.

Read all of the City of Heroes comic books. There are two separate runs. If you don't want to read them all, then do take the time to read the Smoke and Mirrors story, then go to Ouroboros and play the in-game story arc. Visit the Cyrus O. Thompson memorial statue in King's Row and pay your respects.

Earn at least one firefighter badge.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. There's a lot more to do in the game than just "visit contact, defeat villain, repeat".

I really like the 4 mission arcs. That's just about the right length to be fun and engaging but not too long

Something new came to me while I was in Night Ward for the very first time this morning: take a flight power or buy a jet-pack or something and spend some time exploring a zone, just looking at it. I can't think that any zone in this game is 100% bland.

Keep the Vet buff pet alive through more than 5 spawns of +4/X8.