TheOtherTed

My "villains" pretty much fall under two personality types - 1) former professionals (enforcers, troubleshooters, thieves, etc.) formerly associated with some intelligence agency or crime syndicate, or 2) beings not of this earth (e.g., extraterrestrials or supernatural entities) who seem amoral, but who really have a moral code that's about 90 degrees to our "normal" conception of morality. Coming in at a distant third are those who were trained or bred for villainy, but who broke away for one reason or another and now have to fend for themselves with the skills and abilities that they have. I put "villains" in quote above because about half the characters I consider to be villainous actually make more sense as heroes in my brain.

Martial Combat does indeed kick backside, but if I have two characters with one overlapping powerset, I usually tend to play just one of them (Archery being the one exception). To complicate matters, I also have a Martial Arts scrapper, and even though it's a different AT, I now play my previously existing Archery/MC blaster a good bit less as a result. Regardless, I might give it a go and see how it feels. Might also give Devices (or Traps or whatever) a try again. I do like the controllery toys in Ninja Training, but the animations just feel "off."

Wow, I didn't expect so many replies! Or any, for that matter. Thanks to all of you for the suggestions. I guess I should have said that the character is "natural" origin, though I could go tech or science to take advantage of the more elemental suggestions here. The character is also a former "enforcer" for an organized crime syndicate (or something), but is now just trying to get out of the Rogue Isles by any means possible. Also, while I appreciate the functional advice, I'm really looking for something with enough flash and style to keep up with Dual Pistols. You know, zowie, zing, zork, kapowza. Doesn't have to be optimal (though "effective" would be good). It just has to look cool. So sell me on the coolness factor of something. I don't know what's cool. Me and cool, we usually don't hang out much, and for good reason.

So I've been trying to make a Dual Pistols / Ninja Training blaster work for a while now, and I realized last night that it's just not happening. As trivial as this may sound, the NT animations just don't live up to Dual Pistols (no, I won't abbreviate it). Granted, I haven't gotten the character past level 12 or so in its many iterations, so I'm open to the possibility that the animations get better later. Right now, though, I'm just not feeling it. Martial Training is out - I've already got that on an Archery blaster. EM is a possibility, though I kind of overplayed it on Live. Devices would be a logical choice (natural character with a past as an enforcer for some Triad gang or other), but I remember those animations being a bit dull as well. I'd consider going Corruptor or Defender, and part of my brain is whispering "aaaarchery / taaactical aaarow" since my prevous A/TA died on the vine (conceptual reasons - nothing to do with the set). Right now, though, I could use a few jabs to the brain thing and see what falls out. Any ideas?

This song will probably raise flags and stoke ire in these modern times, but it's the inspiration for my Pipe Wrench / Manhole Cover biker Valkyrie (aka War Mace / Shield Brute). No pics available, as they just can't do her justice. I'll let you guess which refrain inspired the character.

I'll share some tricks I've used to keep cats calm, though you're probably already doing them. The Slow Blink. If a cat stares at me, I'll close my eyes slowly, keep them closed for a second or two, then open them halfway. If the cat is comfortable with me, they'll return the blink. If not, I'll repeat, but keep my eyes shut longer, and if that doesn't work, I'll give them a third blink and turn my head away. I'm not sure why cats respond well to this - maybe they take it as a sign that you mean no harm - but I've found it really helps with bonding. Privacy. With two or more cats especially, they will each need their own "home base" - a sheltered place they can go where they know they're safe. This doesn't have to be anything fancy - an open box with a blanket in it, a shelf partially obscured by a piece of furniture, whatever. Try a few things and see what your cats prefer - and then help them (gently) defend their territory if the other cat gets ideas. Water, Water, Everywhere. I set out a bowl of water in obvious sight in three or four places that I know the cats will frequent - living room, kitchen/dining area, one at each end of any corridors, etc. This is not only good for their health, but it means they don't have to go too far from their home bases to grab a drink, so it helps to reinforce their sense of place. And as Luminara said, let them tell you what they want, though it may be tricky early on to know what that is. As an example, a friend of mine had 2 cats, and for a while he lived in a house with 4-6 other people and one dog. I visited him once, and saw the older cat sitting in the corner of his bedroom with her eyes shut. I gave her a scritch, and she responded normally - then bit the ball of my thumb and started gnawing away, like, full-on all-molar gnawing. From her pressure and posture I could tell she wasn't trying to do damage. I figured she was stressed to all heck and needed some kind of relief, so I let her gnaw. From that moment on we became best buds.

Apparently, the "Anniversary Edition" of Skyrim SE will pretty much break many (if not most, or all) existing mods. Here's the Reddit thread explaining the issue and how to circumvent it. I'm neither a coder nor a modder, so I can only parrot the basics here, but if you set Skyrim SE to update only when launched and run the game through SKSE64 (or a mod organizer that uses it), supposedly your mods should be safe. Edit: Supposedly, putting Steam in "offline mode" before starting the game should also do the trick. Given how long it took for SE modding to match (and surpass) "Legendary Edition" levels after launch, I can only imagine how long it will take for AE.

...wat?

I'm scarred forever. I can't hear Carmina Burana and not think of this (warning - may contain references to chicken): I'm sorry. I'm very sorry.

If it helps, here you go.

On HC, this happens with the first character I created, but only with that character. All the rest, including my "big money" characters (big for me, anyway), always show the right number of days offline. Since your in-game global ID is initially set by your first character's name, I always figured that logging in on any character reset the global ID's offline time to 0, which somehow propagated back to the first character. I could be wrong. I'm probably wrong. However, I don't think it's a security issue unless your other characters show 0 days offline when they shouldn't.

Really? Wanna bridge?

Not the only one. Even on live, I tended to turn off my XP while on teams so I wouldn't outlevel arcs I wanted to run, and I've never been into set IOs or 1337 builds or all the other Pavlovian obsessions that MMO players tend to fall into.

Malta Group, because you'll never have to worry about retirement.

When did you started playing CoX? Was it before or after the game shut down? Tell me a little about how you met the game. I started playing in January 2006. I was casting around for a new type of game and happened to stumble across CoH. I almost didn't play it - I had no interest whatsoever in superheroes - but then I realized that if I wanted something new, I should try, you know, something NEW. So I did. Have you played the game before the shut down in 2012? If the answer is yes, tell me about how you feel about the game’s “Death”. What was that experience like? To be honest, when the closing was announced, my reaction was "Eh, I guess it's time." I had pretty much moved on to other games by then. I'd done all I was likely to do in CoX, and after IOs, AE, and DFB, teaming just wasn't as fun as it had been. I also felt like the big MMOs had a habit of overstaying their welcome, and I figured 8 years was a pretty good run for any game. And when the game returned in 2019? What did you felt? Was it like a “Homecoming”? When I found out on another MMO forum that the game was kind of sort of live again, I hopped right back in. In spite of my answer above, there was a lot I loved about the game and had sorely missed. That said, it didn't feel like "homecoming" so much as a "second chance." What was the first thing you did after playing the game for the first time in years? The first thing I did was re-create my first character who made it out of the tutorial and play him up to level 14. He's still stuck there - he needs a travel power, badly, but nothing available fits him. What are your thoughts on the return of the servers? Did you brought something with you from the original server? (Avatars, builds, things like that) I tried re-creating some of my old favorite characters, but only 3 survive, including the character mentioned previously. Instead, I've gone full-on experimental, trying new and different ideas and powerset combinations. That said, I'm not a "builder" or "planner" so much as a "trial and error" kind of guy. Do you like to play with a specific character? (can be more than one) If yes, what makes it so special to you? I'm currently rotating 4 characters - a MA/Ninjutsu scrapper, an Archery/Martial Training blaster, an Illusion/Dark controller (a re-imagining of one of my oldest characters), and a Dark/Nature controller. The first two kick single-target butt with style and grace, and the controllers are unstoppable forces of nature.

The heck with the unitards, where are my Dr. Dentons?

Dual Blades. Take Claws, and your inner mologogue will be saying "snikt" and "bub" all the time.

Never have I ever gotten a character past level 46. Only once have I ever bothered with set bonuses, and never have I ever slotted more than two from a set. Never have I ever played an epic archetype. Never have I ever found footwear that actually matches the rest of my costume (to my satisfaction, anyway).

...wait - this #6? If so, where?

When you play solo, Teleport Target + stealth + any snipe should be a great way to isolate and dispatch single targets quietly and efficiently. My Dark/Dark corruptor uses the combo all the time. Just make sure you place the target as far from you as possible, and, if you can manage it, facing away from you. That way, they're less likely to spot you and blow your snipe advantage. Unless you have CJ or Hover slotted to the nines, you probably won't miss the +def from either one. Even less so if you're on a halfway decent team. If it's vertical mobility you're worried about, slot Hurdle, or get one of those temp powers from a bank mission.

I don't have screenshots from the old days, but, man, I'm suddenly deeply nostalgic for 4:3 displays.

I had no problem with Tequila last night, although some might say that's a problem in itself. (sorry, couldn't resist) Did you try uninstalling and re-installing Tequila? Alternatively, you could try the HC Launcher instead.

I learned something today. Thank you. I also learned today that you don't clean affinity columns with high concentration sodium hydroxide, but that's beside the point.

Controllers have become my go-to in Homecoming, Illusion and Dark controllers in particular. I had avoided the "confuse" powers on live because 1) the pundits claimed that such powers reduced XP, and 2) I didn't want to be "that guy" who "ruined" everyone's "fun" by "stealing" XP from them. Now I'm old enough to not give a carp, and now I loves me some confusion. Nothing better than getting a Lieutenant or even a Boss to punch a destructible item until it blows up and knocks them back 20 feet. That said, I also love my Archery/Martial Combat blaster and my Martial Arts/Ninjutsu scrapper. If all they had was style, they'd have more than enough to keep me playing. Throw on a trenchcoat or some other butt cape, and you've got perfection and grace and a smile on your face. Still love the idea of my Staff/Dark Armor stalker - a temple guardian spirit who woke up real angry when thieves broke into the museum and messed with her relics - but she kind of lost traction around level 20. Still not sure why. Also still digging my first concept to make it out of the tutorial - a private detective from the early 1940s who got science-blapped into the future while investigating 5th Column activity. Unfortunately, he stalled out when he really, really needed a travel power, and nothing on offer fit the bill. Maybe someday we'll all be able to call a taxi and the world will be right with Dash Marlowe.

I enjoyed my time in Star Trek Online. The main problem I had with it is that it wasn't Star Trek - or, rather, it didn't feel like it. Destroying entire fleets and trouncing multiple ground squads in every mission kinda fell short of the whole "explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations" thing. Granted, that's hard (if not impossible) to do in a multiplayer game, but I found myself seriously questioning how the "bad guys" were assembling so many ships so quickly, recruiting people so rapidly, yet utterly failing at winning through sheer numbers. In fact, I ended up exclusively doing PVP on the Klingon side just to keep the cognitive dissonance at bay. I will say, that was the most PVP fun I've had in any game - until Cryptic decided to massively "streamline" the skill trees and pretty much kill ground combat. I quit after that, but I still poke my head in once every couple of years. PVP (and my interest in it) is pretty much dead now, though, or it was last time I sniffed around it. However, props to whoever wrote the Klingon side PVE missions. That made up for much of not-so-benign neglect us Klingons put up with the first couple of years. Got some good mileage out of Champions Online - but I had to turn the music off to play it. NWO was like they took the CO style music and made it visible. Couldn't spend more than 20 minutes in that game. Oh, well.