EmperorSteele

The problem with not being able to find things and etc is part of a much larger issue with how easy things have been made. There are a lot of moving parts to this new economy, and it so far seems to discourage a lot of old practices. Let's look at some of these changes. Uncommon recipes are 20 merits. That's like, 1 or two short story arcs. Sounds fair. Rare recipes (And PvP IOs, which have had their rarity reduced and now also drop from PvE enemies) are 50 merits: a task force and maybe a story arc, not unreasonable. Very Rares and ATOs (which can also be won in Super packs for 10 mil inf) are 100 merits. That's like, 2 task forces (maybe 3 if you're just doing shorter ones). We have Enhancement catalysts to make enhancements more powerful, and converters to change up enhancements we don't like (Fun fact, Converters drop from ANY defeated enemies, even if you're level a 50 farming level 10s for a badge. I got 2 last night Kiling Skulz in Perez). The devs have seeded the market with salvage so that you don't have to go broke to craft something yourself. As an aside, even Incarnate progression is MUCH easier. The second you get your alpha slot, threads and shards will drop from any enemy you'd receive rewards from. And you get enough Empy merits to craft VR components every 3 levels (this does drop off, but by the time it does, you probably have all your incarnate stuff at T4). Ends up leaving you with a lot of surplus. The result, which I believe was intended, was to make progression while soloing easier, and ungate ALL THE THINGS, and to do away with the corporate MMO publisher philosophy of making people want to stick around longer to keep paying money. These are all good ideas, especially for a private server. However, there seems to be just a shred of overkill here. There isn't much of an economy when there's no demand because people can just make things themselves after an afternoon of playing. I've watched as Rare enhancements have dropped from 10Mil to 3 Mil, which is maybe where they should be, but it's not very incentivizing to people who want to make a profit. Heck, you're lucky if you can sell a common IO for more than you crafted it. Also, have fun making any money on salvage now that a price ceiling has been established. You want to move some product, you gotta undersell the other thousand people trying to sell the same thing, which fewer people are buying because thanks to how easy and accessible all this is, a lot of people already have their builds all set. Heck, there's even a TASK FORCE that guarantees a purple drop if it's your first time doing it! Strange thing, though. One of the big draws to this new system is converting uncommons to rares, and yet the uncommon recipe market is floored. A lot of them have 0 bids, and were only going for 100 inf at last sale. Guess people just want the enhancements to convert and be saved a step. Now, maybe this is self-correcting. If no one wants to take the time to craft and sell things, demand might eventually even out as more people level up their alts and want enhancements NOW instead of doing several task forces. But as of right now, there's a glut of a lot of things (except Purples, which at 100 Merits isn't quite worth the only 20 Million inf you'd get for them. Especially seeing as merits convert from inf at a rate of 1 million to 1), so it's totally a buyer's market. And it's a young one; the server's only been up for about a month. We should give it time before making any adjustments to the flow of resources and rewards. OP wants to nerf Mothership raid rewards as an answer to all this. While there is economical reasoning behind it, I also get a feeling of "Everyone is doing X, we should stop them from doing X because no one else is doing the other 25 letters of the alphabet!" as we've seen with AE, DFB and DiB. Though, there are other alternatives to just making VMerits useless. Perhaps cap the amount you can earn in 1 raid to 500. That's still a rare recipe for your trouble, or you have to go at it again for the purple, instead of earning a purple AND a rare's worth in a single raid. Or heck, instead of 1 merit per bad guy, change the ratios: Minions have a 25% chance of dropping one, LTs have a 50% chance, Bosses and EBs have a 75% chance. Yu'kon automatically drops 20 on defeat. This would reduce the intake rate by a fair amount without introducing caps or making VMerits worthless. There's probably other solutions, as well. There's also the fact that's it's kinda impossible to partake in a raid without crashing a few times, so that right there is a detriment to both doing it and decreases the amount of merits you take in. SO in general, while I do agree that the impact of MSRs on the market should be softened at some point, I also think we need to wait and see before doing anything too rash.

When you click a power's "Detailed info", it doesn't show your global bonuses or any active buffs (for instance, having Assualt on you won't change the damage number in Detailed info), only the enhancement values for the power. So while it WILL show the effect of an Alpha slot (which is treated like an enhancement on all your powers), the set bonuses aren't treated as such. So then you can go to the attribute monitor and see what your global bonuses and buffs are, but they won't give you the new values for every power. So if I have an attack which does 25 damage, and it's enhanced for 100% damage, then I do 50 damage. Detailed Info will show this. If I have buffs and global bonuses equal to 200% (which the combat monitor will show), then the power is going to do 150 damage. I can figure THAT out in my head, or just look for the orange numbers floating over dude's heads. However, there's no one place showing the total of these two things. Which might be useful since most of the time, the numbers aren't that cut and dry. Most of the time it's like a power than does 47 damage with a 97.3% enhancement value and a 167.5% damage bu- oh no wait, someone just fulcrum shifted, so it's 247.5%. If someone is interested in what that final number would be, and it's not an opaque number like damage, but something more like recharge or endurance use, then they're on their own (Though the devs are adding "real time countdowns" to powers soon, so that takes care of one concern).

For one, there are a lot of sets which give bonus Endurance (both blue bar and recovery), Accuracy, and Recharge. Posi's Blast does NOT exist in a vacuum, and the whole idea is to slot for bonuses to make up for shortcomings. If all you're slotting is Posi's blast and then using regular SOs/IOs in the rest of your powers, well... I don't want to say you're doing it wrong, but, you could be doing it a LOT better. I mean heck, I'm sitting on a Controller build that has double the amount of standard recovery, near perma hasten and most of my attacks have over 2x accuracy BEFORE enhancements. So I can spam my Posi Blast-enhanced AoEs and they hit well, don't take any endurance, and they're up within seconds. So, I couldn't care less about the set's shortcomings. Not every single set has to be 100% bonus to everything. Also, don't forget your incarnate Alpha slot, a portion of which ignores ED. If you want to make up for your sets's shortcomings, slot the right Alpha for the job.

I just want to chime in and say that is an AMAZING costume; I never even thought to put a design on jeans when my characters wear them!

Global bonuses don't show up on the powers in your enhancement menu. That only shows their enhancement values. It WILL show effects from an Alpha slot, since that's treated like an enhancement. If you want to see the effect your globals are having on your powers, I suggest using Pines hero builder (which, unhelpfully, I don't have a link for off-hand).

So I'm level 50+, and was running around Talos hunting Tsoo Sorcerers and Ancestor Spirits for the badges (all level 20-something), when I actually got an Enhancement Converter as a drop! It dropped from a Sorcerer, and happened after maybe after about 15 minutes of street sweeping. Is this intended?

Yeah, I'd be down to run this for double merits. At least then it'd be "worth it" =D EDIT: Bringing a Mind/Kin Controller!

So, I went and found Jack Wolffe at the Hero 1/Omega Team memorial... except I didn't know it was him, and I clicked and BOOM, it sent me into a respec. So I'm like, ok, whatever, I needed to respec anyway. I take my time, tabbing in and out between the game and Pines to make sure all my slots are where I wanted them. I get OUT of the respec, and, uhm... I'm having a hard time moving. And that's when I realize I'm FLOATING... but very slowly and with no control, as if I were stunned. So I'm just coasting around the room. Here's a screen shot to show that i have no powers active, yet, I'm flyyyyyiiiinggg.... https://imgur.com/VjyEUnh So, I guess don't repsec while you're flying. /I'll take the Bug Hunter badge, plz [EDIT] it persists outside the room. I'm currently floating around Atlas Park. I'm fairly sure I could just turn fly on and off, but... this is unique and kinda cool and just a little fun. [edit 2] Afterburner gave me a bit of speed and full maneuvering control, so that was nice! And turning Hover on and off undid whatever was going on =(

So, I was messing around with Pines, the new Hero-builder, when I came across an oddity. When I try to put pieces from Will of the Controller and Superior Will of the Controller into my build, it won't let me put the same piece from the two sets in two places. As in, Acc/Mez and Superior Acc/Mez won't both go in. They're unique and mutually exclusive. This is expected behavior. BUT, Overpowering Presence doesn't seem to have this limitation. I can put a full set of OP and Superior OP into the build. So my question is: Is this a bug in Pines, where it's letting me put OP and SOP in the build? Or is it a bug that I cannot put WotC and SWotC in? Or is this how it actually is in-game, where one ATO is mutually exclusive and the other is not? Just wanted to be 100% sure without spending/wasting a shitton of merits and Inf, thanks =)

I played a Mind/Kin to 50+ on live and here, so, I consider myself an expert =) After quickly perusing, I'll say that you seem to want a lot of travel options, and that you're only slotting for control. These are both mistakes, in my opinion. You also seem to be going for a team-oriented build, but you're not quite there. The following is slotting advice based on your chosen powers, and is assuming you're not interested in sets or procs or anything fancy. Until you get Transference (Dunno if you're already level 50 or not), you'll want End Reducers in Levitate and Dominate. Hasten and Siphon speed will give you an "always up" attack chain, and those powers, especially Dominate, carry hefty endurance costs. Granted, you're not running much in the way of toggles, and you don't have Mesmerize, so it might not be an issue. Overall, I don't agree with slotting for full control on Dominate and Terrify. Yes, you're a /kin and can boost your damage, but even if you get a full 16 targets with Fulcrum shift, you'll still only be doing half your potential damage. If you ever solo, it will. Be. So. ... Slow. Mind Controllers play a lot like Blasters, just with a lot more safety and half the damage. Slotting strictly for control on your attack powers is a bit wasteful (Though 1 hold enhancer in Dominate is pretty smart, since it's duration isn't all that impressive) and you're not going to have fun. However, if you plan on exclusively teaming and focusing on your Kin powers, then this idea holds a lot less weight. Mass Hypnosis might benefit from a Recharge Redux so that it's up every fight. Speed Boost doesn't benefit too much from 3 End Mods. I usually do 1, especially at level 50. The slots are better used elsewhere. Same deal with Increase Density, just one Dam Resist is fine. No need for recharge, it's usually up pretty quick and affects everyone else on your team within like 30 feet. Total Domination and Mass Comedy Confusion should be 6-slotted: 2 control, 2 Acc, 2 Recharge. MC can get away with 1 Confuse to add an End Redux if you find that 26 Endurance is too much to pay. Range in Fulcrum shift is wasted. You only get the full benefit of the power if you're in melee range of your foes, and with your AoE controls, getting into melee shouldn't pose any issues. [EDIT] WOAH, and put a Heal in Health and a End Mod in Stamina! 3-slot Stamina for End Mod if you can afford the slots. Wow, don't know how I missed THAT on first viewing! *** Now, I'm going to switch gears and make some power choice suggestions. Pick up Mesmerize. It fills out your attack chain, and is one of the few things that can completely shut down most AV's in one hit. Very useful for multi Boss or AV fights to keep one at bay (...unless a teammate insists on AoEing everything, which happens *sigh*) Take Hover instead of Fly. You already have your travel needs met with Inertial Reduction, Siphon Speed and Super Speed. Flight doesn't give much in the way of mid-air control (for instance, if you strife mid-air using A or D, and then let go, or even try to change direction, your character will coast for a second or two, making exact positioning difficult), and it costs a LOT of endurance. Hover costs very little Endurance, gives you complete maneuverability, adds a defense buff, and can be made a lot faster if you use Siphon Speed. If you plan on flying around during a fight, Hover is the better option 95% of the time. If, however, Fly is something you really really want, then drop the super speed set (except for Hasten, keep that!) to make room. Or at least drop IR. You do NOT need 3 travel options! (Keep IR if you want to keep Super Speed, to help navigate vertical terrain. Otherwise Fly does it all better and more safely, but it's slow; Afterburner helps with that a little bit.) If you want to help out your team, I'd take at least one Leadership power (Assault or Maneuvers. Then, if you can fit it in, Tactics), and possibly Recall Friend if you insist on getting to a mission door or final boss before everyone else with your Super Speed (assuming you keep that power, otherwise ignore this last suggestion). Finally, World of Confusion. I personally hate this power, but I couldn't tell you why. It dictates that you be in melee of a group of foes, which MOST of the time is a bad idea for a controller... but you're a Mind/Kin, and melee is actually where you shine. BUT... you already HAVE 2 Confuse powers, including an AoE. And you're sorely lacking damage... so I'm gonna say go Psinado (Psionic Tornado) and 6-slot it for Acc/Dam/Recharge. If, however, you insist on being the utility player by confusing ALL THE THINGS, just realize that Mass Confusion won't always be available to stack effectiveness with this power, confusing all the things all the time isn't an option, anyway. I wrote mind/kin guide that I'm in the process of updating. Stay tuned for that, I guess, but in the meanwhile, it should still be up on webarchive. There was a link around here somewhere to the old Guide to Guides that had an old link to it, but I can't find that right now.

Cool, I'll be there. And even better, I don't have to make up macros and stuff, I'll let you do the heavy lifting =D

Ok, so this thread hasn't gotten many replies, but a lot of people in game have expressed interest, so it'll probably be best to PuG it. That said, I'm thinking Saturday starting around 6-7pm EST. I'll probably start recruiting around 5:30/5:45. If a decent number of people join early, I'll send them to Monster Island north of PI for some EoE farming before the raid proper while I continue to recruit and set up the league. That said, I'll be running Patty-Sue Ivanova, so look out for that name in LFG, and I'll be recruiting though global channels Excelsior, Excelsior TFs, and Excelsior Badges. If there are any other, more active channels, let me know! [EDIT] Disregard, looks like there's already another hami being planned for 8pm, so let's just do that!

Well, seeing as this post is in the badges forum, I have a proposal. Much like the official "make up exploration badges for PvP zones" thread, maybe we can come up with a few ideas here. KW is a beautiful, well-made zone full of lots of different features, I'm sure we can come up with something!

SO! Hami raid! We should talk about when is good for everyone, assuming we're not going to completely PuG it (though that worked out pretty well for the BAF i was on the other day). I'll also post a very genral run down here. I'm good any evening this week from 7-10pm Eastern, or any time Saturday and any time up until 7pm on Sunday. I've taken part in my fair share of raids back on Virtue, and I could probably run it if no one else volunteers. As for what to bring? A blueside character level 45 or higher. Incarnates would be awesome but are NOT required. Make sure your inspiration tray is MOSTLY EMPTY (a rez, a couple break frees and maybe some team insps would be okay, otherwise, keep it clear!). You'll need the space for special inspiration drops. Note: unless the Homecoming team has changed something, the Hive only supports 50 characters. So once we agree on a time, its first come first served! When you get to the Hive, meet at the overlook near the middle of the zone, to the south (don't engage any hostiles along the way!) Once eveyone is in, the league leader will form up the teams, and we start hunting. The zone is full of Giant Monsters. Defeating them may cause a special inspiration to drop called Essence of the Earth. These are the only thing which can mitigate Hamidon's damage, so we need a lot of these, especially for the tanks! After a random number of foes have been defeated, they'll all run away, and Hamidon will spawn in the middle of the zone. Hopefully this step takes around 20 minutes. Any more is monotonos, any less and we may not have enough EoEs. Once Hamidon is spawned, the league will reconvene at the staging area. We'll redistribute EoEs, with tanks and brutes being favored. The league leader will over timing for buffs, attacks, and so on. The leader will also assign targets (basically melees on yellow mitos, range attackers on blues, and controllers on greens). Once mitos are down, we move onto the nucleus. When the nucleus reaches 75, 50, and 25% health, he will spawn a new set of mitos. Usually a leader will call for an evac just before this happens, and we start over. We repeat until the Hamidon is out of respawns and we take him down. There's a bit more to it than that. There's communication and coordination involved. But I just wanted to give folks a general idea what to expect. So again, post availability below and I'll see what we can come up with! [EDIT] I'm gonna default running this to Foxfyre! They're their raid for 8pm EST on Saturday!

Looks great! The only thing I did all that different on my Mind/Time (back on Live) was that I just loaded Distortion Field with ALL the Damage procs. And the Hold one. It was fun watching enemies at near full health just randomly keel over (very rare, as 5 procs had to go off to do that, but still). Also, if you're looking to slot Total Dom (and we're assuming an Unlimited budget), then I'd say go 5/6 on Unbreakable Constraint (Hold Purple set), and then throw in the Hold proc on the 6th slot. In any case, it's a super fun combo and having a Secondary which adds 2 more holds makes it a beast, especially against AVs and such who have high Hold Mag resistance.

Here's mine: BLOODY BAY Bluedy Bay LOC: 1397.7 -28.7 -1098.5 (small area of Beach in the southern part of Freedom base) Heroes venturing any further than this will find they have no support going forward. Villains heading in will find themselves quickly overwhelmed. Rolling the Dice 2372.9 32.0 -767.5 (In the parking lot of the Casino) Venturing into a PvP zone is a gamble: High stakes, high rewards. Casinos like this one spread across the island exemplify this idea perfectly. (Note: This one is VERY close to existing badge #2 Lobbyist/Crooked Politician, so maybe move the badges further away if this gets used?) Running Red LOC -2146.4 -35.0 2302.4 (Southern tip of Villain Base) The blood of slaves and slavers which gave Bloody Bay its name pooled around this island during their deadly conflict. Perhaps it was an omen? Mostly Harmless LOC 195.9 52.1 2080.3 (Middle of large circular metal thing near Meteor Char) While the meteor fragments that crashed here are the prelude to something much worse, their impacts created little collateral damage. This refinery is completely intact around the impact zone. If only Galaxy City had been so lucky... Precipice to Disaster LOC: -2375.9 90.5 -2868.7 (North East edge of the island) Little did anyone know that the meteors that landed here were the prelude to something bigger. The endless abyss to the north looks comforting compared to what's in store... SIREN'S CALL Abridged LOC: -512.2 -168.0 -971.8 (Under a bridge in the NE part of map) One of the few people to Witness Sunburst's explosion unscathed was a homeless man sitting under this bridge at the time. When asked for a statement, all he said was "It was really bright". Run Aground LOC: 42.7 153.4 1347.7 (On a black rock next to the destroyed west War Wall) It was about here where many ships crashed when directed by Randall's fake lighthouse. Blast Radius ( LOC -366.0 74.3 -306.2 Top corner of an apartment building in front of a tall, partially-toppled building) This apartment building, as well as the two on either side of it, are remarkably unscathed compared to the destruction starting just a few feet away. WARBURG Heated Dispute LOC: 834.7 -3.4 1368.4 (Beach just north of Freedom Corps carrier) Many heroes have a difference in opinion over who should have control of the Warburg Rocket, if at all. Starting here, those differences turn violent. Blitzed LOC 802.3 48.0 -72.1 (In front of a tall, official-looking building) Governor Melody Harkness's remains were found on this spot, as well as in a 30 yard radius after being thrown from the top of this building. Rogue Rouge Isle LOC 1146.0 122.0 -730.2 (Though you could choose any of the alcoves) This is one of the many Arachnos alcoves taken over by Marshal Blitz and his loyal traitors. No one is sure who is on who's side. No Trespassing LOC: 1442. 1.2 -1256.8 (In front of Black Heart Memorial Hospital) This is the border of Arachnos-controlled Territory, with Marshal Blitz's forces controlling the rest of the island. Villains aren't welcome here, and especially not heroes! Radioinactive LOC: 129.6 -114.0 -2.3 (Middle of green pool in The Web) When Marshal Blitz acquired cancer (probably from too much exposure to toxins such as the one you're standing in), he decided that Lord Recluse wasn't being proactive enough with the Warburg arsenal, so he decided to use it for himself. Safe Space LOC: -182.1 -64.0 -435.4 (Random corner in the NW section of The Web that's almost completely boxed in) Rogue soldiers, Arachnids, heroes, villains, nowhere in Warburg is safe, especially not in The Web. Except maybe this little corner, which is perfect to set an ambush, or recover from one. RECLUSE'S VICTORY Sick of Time Travel LOC: 558.1 74.0 -1415.8 (In Tram station) Occasionally, a Contamination victim ends up here in this fluctuating future time stream. He's not very happy about it. The Grass is Greener LOC: 704.0 -.05 -576.2 (Middle of road between Prometheus Park and Atlas Plaza) In the battles for control of Recluse's Victory, it's not uncommon to see two completely different shades of grass on either side of the road. However you feel about Lord Recluse's possible asscent, one thing is certain: Arachnos doesn't take good care of their lawns. Not for Newbs LOC: 336.1 -0.0 760.8 (Southern edge of map across from inaccessible sewer entrance) As if high-level Arachnos foes and Archvillains running around wasn't enough, a newer hero might also be deterred from entering Recluse's Victory when they learn the Sewers are unaccessable! Tempting Fate LOC: -1427.6 -0.5 63.7 (In crossroad just in front of Villain base) Heroes dumb enough to venture this way will find themselves crushed by the might of Arachnos. Watch Your Back LOC: 875.7 0.0 -1600 (Dead end near one of the Arachnos Heavy stations) The Freedom Corps base is just on the other side of this undefended wall. It is quire impenetrable, however. EDIT: A name

Apparently, everyone on Excel makes a character, runs DFB, then makes a new character and repeats... at least, if the LFG tab is any indication! So yeah, you're the only lvl 50, sorry dude! Kidding aside, I know of the following global channels (which are kinda borked at the moment): "Excelsior Badges", "Excelsior TFs", and then just "Excelsior" Even when global chats ARE working, these channels are pretty vacant. Heck, people hardly even chat in teams, which is weird to me. I feel like Excelsior is turning into the "Freedom" server of the bunch, and I'm not happy about that =/

So, I was a member of a few additional channels before the move, and now none of them work! They're not on my list any more and I can't find them by attempting to rejoin. Not a huge loss, none of the extra channels were that busy anyway, but still!

One question: What are you playing as? Because I can tell you, that some powers (particularly Mesmerize and Dominate from the Mind Control set) do NOT agro nearby opponents. This is by design. Most attacks do allow an ai to "shout" as it were, but there are a few that are meant to be "stealthy".

Because number twos get flushed!

Welcome to your new home, Phallic Knight! I'm sure you'll- Wait hold on (What? Are you sure? I don't... oh, crap!) *AHEM* Let me start over: Welcome to your new home, Philotic Knight! I'm sure you'll have fun here!

...so, I kinda RP'd the loss of powers when Paragon Chat came out, but with these new servers, I've just been so happy to play that I haven't given much thought to this elephant in the room (though to be fair, in Paragon City, an elephant is usually the least interesting thing in a given room)! But now? I dunno, it almost feels like nothing happened. Though back on Live, i DID make a future version of my main who came back in time to avert the Comming Storm. She obviously failed, so that kinda leaves that version of the character up in the air...

Yeah, my crappy laptop loads the character list faster than my PC, which is no slouch in the specs department. I chalked it up to actually being in a queueueue but the game having the wrong message up, but if others are having the same issue...

I think "uncontrolled explosion" could be named "Sunbursted" =D

Probably outside the context of the thread, but I'd like to see a badge called "foolhardy" or "suicidal" or something for getting into an enemy base area. As for actual exploration badges, definitely something I'd like to help with, so I'll post some suggestions later when I've had some time to browse the zones!