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So, I JUST found out that this came back... This makes me so happy. I played this game as a kid growing up. Now here I am, 28 years old. Tired of all the other washed MMORPG's. To scroll down a thread and see that a license was given to bring CoH back... The inner child in me is screaming right now. Starting from the ground up all fresh again. Can't wait to dive in.

EDIT: Ha! Great job with that pistol on the right there ChatGPT.

Microchimp, the little haunted Nemesis automaton toy!

Accolade Name: Original Grit Description: You recall the times when every battle tested your resolve, when progress came from facing real challenges, not quick solutions. No endless simulations, no outside aid—only the trials of true heroes and villains. This accolade honors those who stand on their own, forging their path through sheer determination. True perseverance earns true power. Requirement: No P2W XP boosts, no traded/emailed enhancements slotted, no outside financial assistance beyond a modest 10 million influence, Require that at least 60% of total XP gained must come from any source other than sidekicked play above +5(Excluding TFs). Effect: Unenchantable 2% +Def upon obtaining Level 50 Existing characters cannot earn the badge, however, if the accolade is earned on a new character, it is applied account wide to all characters. Previous proposal:

This might ruffle some feathers but the year is 2025. There are more than 8 billion people on this planet and less than 1 in 6 celebrates Halloween. The continent of Australia is wider than the moon, and insects are a good source of protein. We can't keep lining up in Atlas park like degenerates. Cocaine is a hell of a drug. First time offenders can get a 24 hour ban but after that, no additional bans are necessary.

houtex here. I know I don't post much like I did in the old forums. I'm almost a backgrounder these days, what with life being what it is for me compared to earlier. Things Change(tm), as life is what it is. But I suddenly had a need to say it, and I feel like it's long overdue too. So I'm saying it: Thank you. To everyone. Sincerely and heartfelt. ❤️ To everyone who puts up with me and my weird characters, like Brawling Humiliator, the sometimes sorta but not quite tanky thing what otherwise is pretty useless in a team... but without can't get further. Or Total Dependent, who has no offense, but will help buff with Ice. Or the whip only MasterMind. Or just me messing it up but trying anyway as I sometimes do. And any of quite a few more goofy things that shouldn't exist/I should fix/stop, but do because I said, and you never disappoint in letting me have the fun trying. To everyone who kept the dream alive, so that we may today enjoy the City. And therefore everyone who *keeps* the dream alive. GMs, server people, coders, and of course the donors, that last to which when things get better I swear I will become a member of. Hell, to be honest, I'd like to be well off enough to just take that over and let us all just enjoy the City, would that I could, and I *absolutely* would. But alas, not just yet. And to anyone and everyone else, for any of a plethora of reasons. You know who you are/why, and even if you don't, well, you're included anyway, because we're all a family in the City. 🙂 City of Heroes has been a large part of my life since I came aware of it back 6 months after it came out, as it may have been for some of you all out there for the whole life of CoH, and when it went down, it was hard. Then we're back, and its being around has been a blessing for sure. It calms me, even when I'm in the middle of battle. It soothes me, it... it's a sort of therapy so I can forget, just a little bit, the RL that I've inherited and sometimes just don't wanna deal with. When I can get in, that is, which sometimes is a bit of time between. But then I get in, and all is well for a little while. So yeah. Nothing tragic goin' on, mind, just an overwhelming need to get this out. All that and more. All this sappiness... ...directed at you all. Even just for reading to this end. Hugs, everyone. And one more time: Thank You All. See ya in the City. houtex

Ice/Ice Blaster The Blizz

Ultra Owl Sonic/Sonic Blaster

Hello all, After certain amount of time in development and testing with friends, I figured it would be good to share this tool with the larger community. A few disclaimers first: - This external tool reads log files in real-time to organize and present data clearly. It's not a mod. - If you think using this tool will ruin your COH experience, don't use it. Many players enjoy mastering builds with various abilities and enhancements. This tool lets you see the results of your efforts in real-time, whether you're doing PVP, PVE, or farming. COH players are passionate which I love, enjoy the game in the way it makes you happy! In this forum I will not be going in depth since I created a Youtube video showing the tools features along with a Discord server. Here are some examples images! Discord: Sythlin DPS Tool Discord Link Youtube Demonstration: Simplified Mode: Detailed Mode: PVE Overlay View(In windowed Mode) This overlay I created for people without multiple monitors, gives you quick access to start Recording/Reset meters. (This reset in the overlay is destructive and will clear your log file along with the meters! There is a non destructive reset meters in the main window.) I did my best to capture as much information as possible for all different types of builds and enhancements, but I know I still missing more. Would love to hear more feedback from people since the tool is still being actively developed. Would love to see more and more people post their builds and show their DPS with the tool! Would love to see someone beat my numbers! Thank you all and see you in Pocket D! Sythlin

As we enter the last weekend of the MS event, I thought I'd share the data I have collected over the last week. Simply put, I've recorded the start times of every event I could and put them into a spreadsheet (attached). From that data, there are a bunch of observations that become clear, and I share them here in hopes they help your gaming experience. It must be noted that my dataset is relatively small, so take most of this with a grain of salt. Location (high confidence with these observations): Events pop in 15 specific zones: Steel Canyon, Cap, St Marts, Imperial City, Nerva, Port Oakes, Neutropolis, Nova, PI, GV, Talos, KR, FF, Sharshead, and Skyway. There appears to be a no-spawn zones around hospitals (call it 100m), including hospital rooftops. Mobs appear not to spawn in the air. Duration (high confidence): Events last 20 minutes. Frequency (medium confidence): Each zone appears to have a cooldown that lasts approx. 200 minutes plus or minus 30 minutes. Zones do not repeat until all 15 zones have hosted an event. We call all 15 zones a "cycle". Each zone appears to be on an independent timer. Nevertheless there appears to be a "grouping" phenomenon where a set of zones will pop in close proximity to each other. The data suggests three such groupings constituting a "beginning" "middle" and "end", though that could just be coincidence. There does not appear to be a minimal "lull" timer between events or between cycles. Hope these observations help your leagues, and if you have additional data please send it my way!! Cheers, Calamity (Torch) Book 4.xlsx

I suggest (and have before) a bonus to characters that are much loved by their player. At Vet level 100 you get 1 bonus enhancement slot. This is quite achievable by standard players who stick with one character. It is not game breaking. To me, it seems like a reward in standard with the other types if rewards a character gets. It is, of course, a completely different type of reward than currency, badges, accolade powers, incarnate, etc. The goal here is two fold. To encourage the long term development of “main characters”, which i believe 1) increases a players connection to the game 2) increases level 50+ play. The second point is debatable whether that is needed, but it is a goal and i believe this would further that goal.

Just putting my two cents out there. Okay, I realize this remark is not in the base construction forum, but that is for a reason. Some folk do not darken its door, and that is a mistake in this case. I'm putting this in General because it is usually the most viewed forum. Hopefully more will respond as a result. There's a current base building competition, you've likely noticed the launcher's announcement, and entries are already pouring in. Go see it. Seriously. There are some really remarkable creations in it. Sure, it runs the gamut from barely beginning novice to powerhouse expert, but the number of amazing creations is worth a visit, especially considering how old the base-building system is. Don't skip out on the other servers. If you're not going to transfer a character to those servers, just whip up a new character, a starter copy of your favorite character, perhaps, and transfer some INF via email. Start the character in Atlas Park, stop by the S.T.A.R.T. vendor for an hour or two of a jetpack rental, and head to the Atlas base portal. (You'll likely need a jetpack for some of the creations.) EDIT: Adding @Forager's comment from the thread: a newly-minted Peacebringer starts with flight, so you could skip the jetpack costs if creating one. Don't skip out on the "novice" category. A few of these are incredibly impressive and "novice", in these cases, simply means they've never entered (or perhaps placed) in a competition before. No, I'll not tell you specifically which ones. Consider it an Easter egg hunt, and give all competitors a sporting chance. Lastly, I recommend giving positive feedback. Drop them a message telling them what parts you liked and that you appreciated their efforts. I've already done it for several competitors and it thrilled several that someone took the time to respect their efforts. Even a kind question (Where does that path lead to, exactly? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see here? Can you clarify?) can be positive feedback for their improvement by helping them see their creation through another's eyes. You might just be inspired to try your own hand at it. Like I'm attempting. (We'll see if it gets done in time.) List of competitors is found here, and is growing, probably through May 4:

It's been a very long time in actual years since Galaxy City was destroyed with the launch of Freedom and the new training mission. It's been a long time in game terms too. And yet I notice that Outbreak and Breakout seem to have a good following of new heroes coming on-line and learning the ropes the old school way. I don't run the Freedom mission often at all but that seems anecdotally to be less popular. Does it add anything much to gameplay and/or Lore, especially in light of Homecoming having overall control of the game's direction and development. Certainly there are a lot of people who enjoyed starting in Galaxy, and it was a blow to a lot of players when it was consigned to history. Perhaps it's time for the Paragon City governors to restore it to its former glory. That's not without precedence as we know from Faultline and many other places that have had rebuilding work undertaken. It would be an ideal space for new heroes to prove their mettle and make sure that the bad guys were driven out of Galaxy for good. There's another point; Galaxy Girl. She was a human once, and sacrificed herself to save our city.* It's rare that any city government would allow such a monument to be destroyed and not be reforged. It's one of those things that is as true in real life as in fiction - we celebrate our iconic heroes and there would be strenuous efforts made by any self-respecting city officials to ensure their fallen heroes are honoured. It could in fact become a serious mission arc: Reclaiming and rebuilding Galaxy City and ensuring it becomes safe once more. This isn't so much a suggestion, more of a wish, an appeal. I have no clue what our devs have in store, but it is surely time we got Galaxy back!

I, along with many of my fellow Red-siders, have been against lineups for years!

Badges New Badges Event Cheers! - Log-in during the City of Heroes 21st anniversary to earn this badge. Purchasable from Luna in Ouroboros during the month of May. Mafioso - Defeat 25 old school Family during the City of Heroes Anniversary Event to earn this badge. Skull Killer - Defeat 25 old school Skulls during the City of Heroes Anniversary Event to earn this badge. Events Fixes Fixed a scaling issue with some of the higher-level enemy groups when spawned in low level zones via a Time Capsule that would cause them to be far more difficult than intended when fought by lower level characters.

I have been trying to get the spectrum option to my liking. I have always wanted a ghost character, so I came up with this (Sentinel - Rad/SR): I was Ezra Kane, a seeker of the arcane, drawn to mysteries most would fear to explore. My path led me to a temple, where I discovered The Eidol, an artifact blending magic and technology. Its power was tantalizing yet ominous, and my curiosity proved my undoing. When I attempted to wield The Eidol, it bound itself to me, ripping my soul from my body and leaving me stranded in a ghostly form. No longer flesh and blood, my ectoplasmic essence allows me to channel devastating bursts of energy that sear like cosmic radiation. Yet my incorporeal state is fragile—I would dissolve into the void without The Eidol. It forges spectral chains that tether me to this plane, keeping me grounded while serving as an eternal reminder of my hubris. Now, bound by The Eidol's enigmatic will, I exist to safeguard the fragile balance between life and death, challenging those who tamper with forces beyond comprehension. Though cursed, I endure as Spectryl, guardian of two worlds.

Problems with proposal: 1- There is no way for existing characters to get said accolade. 2- If the game does not currently do so, then how is the game supposed to track where inf' or enhancements come from per character? 3- Why would it be necessary to penalize characters by denying them the ability to get the badge/accolade because others wanted to help? (I've had friends simply walk up to my characters and drop enhancements on that character to help me get by. And by the OP, that would render that character unable to get said badge/accolade through no fault of my own.) 4- Why should any specific play style be rewarded over any other play styles?

Another out from under the floorboards - "Marrowwrought":

I wonder why? If you get too close, you might get burned. Just ask Icarus.

Hellfire Paladin Katana / Fiery Aura Scrapper

It's a superhero world, radiation is more likely to give you powers than kill you.

Variety is the spice of life, or so they say; Let's not homogenize every power set...

The long story: Back in the day people would 6-slot powers for damage, and they ruled like gods. The developers then decided that they needed a way to make people weaker, so the made it so that you could only gain the full benefit from slotting 3 of the same type of enhancement into a power, and anything beyond the third would get increasingly diminished returns. hence diversification, as you would need to diversify the types of enhancements in your powers. And to make us feel better about lost power, they gave us the invention enhancement system, a new kind of enhancement that you wouldn't out-level and if you got 2 or more from the same set in a power then you would gain set bonuses to your damage, defense, regeneration, recovery, resistance, healing, to hit, etc. Those bonuses are small, however, and you need to get a lot of them to really make a difference. ED took away a lot of the awesome feeling of being super powered and made the game into a more balanced vigilante force of differently abled heroes rather than superheroes.

Boomtown and Faultline raise their hands "Get in line"

this would be decorative, useful, and provide no significant advantage to anyone. they are by far one of the nicest "doors" in CoH/V and fit nicely with most base themes.

point of note to newer players: you absolutely do not need a farmer to have enough inf for a high end build

I would like to suggest a skin for 'spines' that is energy spikes, like the ones in the celestial aura. I have been somewhat obsessed with the idea lately because I think that would look awesome.

I believe the Fighting pool powers need a little love. Most people who take fighting ONLY take Boxing/Kick to unlock Tough/Weave. Some will mule slot Kick for DMG. I think they are often dead powers. I will give 2 concepts of what I think could be done 1. Remove the requirement of Boxing/Kick to take Tough. OR 2: This is 2 part with a recommendation: Remove the least taken power between Boxing and Kick. opting to keep the one that people actually slot/enhance. add a new 5th power. Recommendation: Resilience - adds 1% Res to a damage type you are hit by for 5 sec. Stacks up to 5 times. FIGHTING: Kick Tough Weave Cross Punch Resilience

Looks at the calendar, then back to the thread, then back to the calendar, and back to the thread...

The standard of quality in this thread is ridiculously high! Here's my Street Justice/Ninjitsu Stalker: Night Warden

I think I am now a blaster main. Horrible, I know. But while I like the IDEA of other ATs, the issue comes to gameplay. Blasters requires the active participation in what's going on I need at this point. ...Ice/ice is fun.

Just.... don't. It makes work for the GM's and we err on the side of intent when we look at characters. If I see someone with a name from another IP I get twitchy. If the first result on my google search shows a character from a movie like these do it's pretty much a slam dunk for a generic. Then you have to appeal and explain exactly why we were wrong.

I don't believe it's actually possible to balance all combinations of powersets for all archtypes, and have them all perform the same by whatever metrics you choose to use. I do believe it's possible to make them fun to play, and that is where the rubber meets the road for me. Heresy #1: I do not care about clear times. Not one bit. Heresy #2: I do not care how fast or slow I finish a TF. It's not even on radar for me. I never invite people based on what powersets / archtype they bring. I invite people for fun. Bring the player, not the character. It hasn't let me down yet.

You misspelled Mastermind. It's a common mistake.

Another refinement in a long line of nightmares: "Night-Haunt"

I have a dark goddess from beyond the stars: The Goddess of Tentacles

Equal parts celestial entity and dark goddess - "Ethereal Grace":

Overstayed its welcome. Should have lasted a week at most. Became a farm substitute with tons of players following the event from zone to zone to power level. It became near impossible to target unless you were doing it through a pet or henchman. Many zones were ground to a standstill (especially PI and Talos), even away from the center of combat.

It should last only 1 week, just April Fools week, and that's being generous.

New additions... Angry Beaver Savage Melee / Invulnerability Scrapper She's Canadian, clawed, and animal-themed... but she's no Wolverine! Taboo Illusion Control/Dark Miasma Controller It's all smoke and mirrors... and necromancy.

Would it be possible to get some sort of marker on player names in the team/league window who are 50? When forming a league that would make it super easy making sure all teams are good. My idea would be a slight gold outline around their name, or maybe some sort of symbol next to their name, whatever is easiest to implement.

Chained Sonata

Exactly this. And it wasn't "the developers", it was one single lone developer. ED and the slew of nerfs that quickly followed weren't for balance. They were to soothe one man's ego. Respectfully, this is <redacted>. ED did none of these things. The only purpose of ED (and the GDN, travel suppression, target caps, etc etc etc etc etc) was to enforce Jack's ass-backward obsession that we play his game in accordance with his Vision™️ (1 hero = 3 minions) and it infuriated him that people were able to solo AVs and herd entire maps. The mass exodus from the game at the time made it clear players were NOT happy, and it's no secret Jack's slew of narcissistic nerfs nearly killed the game. IOs were added as way to stem the hemorrhaging after CoV failed to bring players back long-term, and after Jack moved on to Marvel/Champions. AE came shortly after that, again, as a desperate attempt to keep players that came back. All this is evidenced by just how clunky and unpolished both systems were (and don't get me started on Incarnates). And before anyone chimes in with "but ED was necessary for IOs and Incarnates to exist", I again say <redacted>. Getting some kind of crafting system was inevitable, as was some kind of post-level 50 achievements, as both serve to keep players grinding away month after month. Neither system has anything to do with ED. And I will go so far as to say without ED, the invention system and AE likely would have been far more streamlined and polished than what we inevitably got, because it wouldn't have been a mad rush to shoehorn them into a dying game.

E.D. was needed for the longevity & health of the game. You get folks pining, bitching, and looking at everything before E.D. with rose tinted glasses coated in shit. Bemoaning about the before times. But overall, it extended the game. Improved it's overall health and did bring in more folks. After it, they brought in Recipes, put in the Rules of 3 & 5 for said recipes. (Not counting Unique). Then several have Global effects.(Meaning they just need to be in a power somewhere you get the buff no matter if it's on or not). Overall. Just mechanical changes.

i think they should remove them and put up statues to people like Arcana. Seriously. Heroes of the people, that have made things better.

Chimpy needed to level up! Here it is next to the enormous Ms. Liberty!

Sure...not big news to some...but not often ya see a Vamp running around Atlas in broad daylight. lol Makes one wonder what nefarious deeds he might be up to.

Work on the Insect Mastermind power set: Pheromones: Minor damage, minor debuff, tags enemy with a pheromone that attracts and take extras damage from insects. Summon Bees: 2-3 swarms of Bees obey your command. The third has a queen that can apply pheromone tag and when upgraded replace a defeated swarm Stinger: Throw a large stinger for high lethal/toxic damage- applies pheromone tag. Train insects: (TBA) Honeypot: Toss a honeypot to a location that does damage, applies a taunt effect drawing foes in, and slows them Army Ants: Summon 2 giant Army Ants (about the size of a dog) Locust Swarm!: Similar to Gang War. Summons a devastating swarm that eats everything in its path. Cannot be controlled. Genetic upgrade: (TBA) Summon Dung Beetle: Summon giant dung beetle (about the size of a small car). This tanky beetle attacks with giant pincers. Every 3 minutes he creates a dung ball that can capture enemies and roll them around (like a katamari!)

1. Existing chars would need some challenge to obtain the accolade, perhaps completion of all available 4 star TFs 2-3. developer magics 4. not my problem just an idea