wittylibrarian

I hope everyone has enjoyed this year of SHARDTOBER and that you took stunning photos of (checks notes) open zones full of Rularuu. Anyway, here are some pics!

More more pictures!

More pictures!

I want to thank everybody across the servers who took the time to run the Sara Moore Task Force out of the Cascades! Here's hoping we get a good turnout for this week's Justin Augustine TF in the Chantry! In the meantime, I took more pictures among the various Alts I run on Excelsior:

Oh well that goes without saying! 🙂

I want to thank everyone who's playing the Shard TFs this October, especially on the Dr. Quaterfield TF that still scares off a lot of people because of the number of missions (26!) even though the advent of Team Teleport and Incarnate powersets have made running it so much quicker and easier. A SPEED Dr. Q is not a joke idea... Anyway, I took pictures of the TF I ran while on Jenny Blade (Excelsior Server) and I hope I can upload them here.

This is for those who seek to play every level and every map of the game. This is for those who seek the badges, seek the challenges of playing... THE SHARD TASK FORCES. Dr. Quaterfield Task Force (levels 40-44) Firebase Zulu (FBZ) zone Sara Moore Task Force (40-50) Cascade Archipelago (Cascades) zone Justin Augustine Task Force (44-50) The Chantry Faathim the Kind Task Force (44-50) The Chantry (inside Faathim's sphere) finishing in the Storm Palace Every October when City of Heroes added the Shadow Shard realms to the Hero side of the game, there have been teams that organized to run four of the more difficult task forces the game devs saw fit to add to the MMO. Some of this had to do with the fact that the TFs were in zones that were floating space islands not easily reached back in the days of olde. Some of this had to do with team requirements for full lineups of eight, and above levels 40 (for Q and Moore) and 44 (for Augustine and Faathim). A lot of it had to do with three of the TFs - Dr. Quaterfield, Sara Moore, and Faathim the Kind were time-consuming runs that would take hours - in Dr. Q's case, DAYS - to complete. Thankfully, many recent changes to the game helped to speed up the Task Force experience. Ouroborous portals working as shortcuts from the Shard realms back to City Zones for much of Q and Moore, for example. Even better were the P2W vendors that sold powers needed to hurry up the travel - TEAM TELEPORT - from zone to zone that had been the bane of Dr. Q's 26 (!) mission run. The GMs for Homecoming have been gracious enough to set up four weeks within October to make these TFs part of the Double-Merit Weekly TF experience, in the order meant to play. That means: Dr. Q is the week of Monday October 5 through Sunday October 11 Sara Moore is Monday October 12 through Sunday October 18 Justin Augustine is Monday October 19 through Sunday October 25 Faathim the Kind is Monday October 26 through Sunday November 1 (okay so it's a day over) Information on each TF is linked above. Hints for running each TF: 1) Spend the money for TEAM TELEPORT (TT) at the P2W vendor: Under Prestige Powers > Travel. It will cost you 10 million inf but if everyone on team has it, it will speed up the Dr. Q task force from 8 hours to 2 hours. 2) Spend the money for ASSEMBLE THE TEAM (ATT) which goes for 1 million. It will help gather players from across the large zones, and in any maps that can be stealthed to the final room(s). 3) You can spend for MISSION TELEPORT (MT) because it recharges a bit faster than TT and can help stragglers catch up. 4) If you do not own a Flight power already, use the P2W vendor to purchase a Jetpack (under Temp Powers > Travel). Speed and Superjump do not help much in the Shard realms. 5) Plan ahead for some form of team balance. The mobs you will face - Rularuu, Nemesis, Crey, Circle of Thorns - are going to be plentiful and swarming and will require a mix of good damage, good tanking, good holds, and good buffs/debuffs. Benefits to running these TFs include: 1) TF Badges and Exploration badges (if you want to spend time in-zone between TFs) to complete your set. 2) If you are 50 and unlocked your Incarnates (Alpha), you can get a steady amount of Shard and Thread drops during your fights. 3) If you are under 50, if you slot for 2XP from the P2W vendor, you can level up real quick. 4) Double Merits during the WST weeks. 5) The satisfaction of completing Dr. Q before lunchtime for once. If you have any questions, look for me in-game, I'll be hiding in Pocket D behind the dancers. GOOD LUCK, HEROES!

SHARDTOBER AD 2020

It's a Month of SHARDING.

Answers: 1. Shardtober is a plan to use the month of October to run the Shard Realm Task Forces - Dr. Q, Sara Moore, Justin Augustine, and Faathim the Kind - that people tended to avoid back when CoH was Live (2005 to 2012) because A) they were insanely long B) they're in zones people hate traveling across and C) required full lineups of 8 players which was hard to get back in the day. So a supergroup - I think it was the Pillars of Might on Champion, may have been another group or on another server - decided to plan ahead for team runs on the October weekends (because Shard + tober worked as a punny name). As things fell away, I ended up handling the signups and promotions on Champion server, and did my best to encourage turnout. The good news is, since those terrible early years when Team Teleport and Assemble The Team did NOT exist as powers, the Shard TFs are now very much playable. As long as every teammate has Team Teleport, the play time for Dr. Q - which could notoriously go on for DAYS in the Before Times - has dropped to under 2 hours. The other TFs are now just as short. The ability to buy a Jetpack as a temp power makes getting around the Shard zones - divided by wipe gaps between floating islands - a lot easier than before. There are still sticking points: Minimum levels for Q and Moore are at 40, and Justin and Faathim require 44 and up. Team Teleport is a must but it's expensive at 10 million. Other good news: Incarnates at +1 and better can smash through Rularuu - a tough mob of villains - at a healthy pace. Also, there are p2w vendors in FBZ, near Sara Moore, and near Justin where you can buy the TT and jetpack before you jump onto a TF. The Shard TFs drop a lot of stuff - TF badges, a few Defeat badges, a few AV badges, and if you're running Incarnate you should get incarnate pieces (and maybe a purple recipe or three) in the process. 2. Everyone misspeels it.

I just need to confirm that Shardtober 2020 will be a thing, y'all. My Incarnates desire it. My Team Teleport is prepared for it. My Blaster is unarmored fo... wait, bad idea, lemme send my Tanker in first.

Reached Level 50 this year.

(realizes he can break down shards into threads to craft Hybrid and other upper tier Incarnates) damn me for a fool.

...I did not notice that... let me check.

So one of my alts has maxed out the Alpha incarnate slot, and there's 6 Notice of the Wells sitting there I can't sell or trade (I don't think). I could break them down into Shards... which I can't sell or trade either. /headdesk

isn't this the fault of that new intern in Ouroborous...?

That's right, DARE me to watch Hamilton on Disney Plus right now... (ow stop hitting me) Seriously, if there's a need to upgrade to better servers send word and I will see what I can donate.

I was hoping for a Twinkie, but yeah that works.

I've created a "You Say It's Your Birthday" AE mission, and would like feedback. It's messy, I know. Please be constructive in the criticism. Also, would it kill you, game devs, to add the Holiday Gift Box item as a usable box for AE missions?! I hate using crates for the presents.

the MSR raids are every Thursday night?

Ow

I am slightly busy in real-life this December, and um well in January I am expecting to have surgery for the removal of a pituitary growth in my head, so... I'll try to keep people up-to-date on my Facebook account.

I apologize for not posting here more than I should, it's been busy in REAL LIFE and there's NaNoWriMo now distracting me. We had Justin Augustine TF last week as the Weekly, and this week is the fourth and final Shard TF with FAATHIM THE KIND as the contact. If you've gotten this far into SHARDTOBER, you're hopefully level enough (45+) with Team Teleport and Flight (yay) to make you succeed in surviving this fight in the STORM PALACE!!! I plan on showing up for a Friday night run of this TF, I hope to see you there!

is there a starting template that creates an open-world / island setting?

aw nuts. I couldn't get any screenshots tonight of the Sara Moore TF! We're gonna have to run it again!