KauaiJim

Yeah this too. Sometimes I can combine costume pieces from different set designs and they look good together (they clip but it doesn't really show and almost looks like the pieces were designed together). Other times I have had to adjust physique down or waist down or chest down or change backpacks or capes or wings or hair to fix clipping. For example female hairstyles like ponytail - I like to make sure they don't clip with the rest of the outfit - or at least not often or noticeably. Sometimes I'm okay with minimal clipping when standing around but a little more during power animations or moving since it is less obvious. Some female hair do's can clip a tiny bit into the cape and not be very noticeable. Some backpacks look okay with clipping on large toons, others not so much. Same with chest detail. I look for everything but a couple of other common clipping pieces that I have had to pay attention to or change are shoulders (I often live with the clipping during crossing of arms) and shields (back of hand/forearm clipping). Most of my shields are chosen to not clip (in addition to staying thematic) but I do have one that the back of the hand shows through but really doesn't stand out sine the shield has a lot of details and the colors match. The more stuff you all bring up, the more I realize just how REALLY into this game I am. I should probably seek a twelve step program but I'm enjoying it so much! lol

I like this idea. I remember now I had different 'outfits' also for my mains on Live. Thanks for reminding me!

I tend to customize the powerset powers when either the original colors are not part of the theme - 'Super Pickle' my Water/WP sentinel has the water abilities colored bright yellowish green to resemble pickle juice. Some powersets do line up thematically color-wise like like mind sets having the purple-pink colors matching the outfit on that toon so I leave them be. Some are so darn ugly that I don't like them and turn them off or change them to an option I prefer (i.e. spines/stone). Some are so ugly I refuse to take them because they cannot be changed (part of bio/stone). They are GREAT abilities but the look bothers me so much it 'breaks' the theme for me (i.e. Granite). Now that we can turn it off one of the things I always do now on every toon is go back to Icon or Ms Liberty and turn off that darn 'Pig Pen' style dust cloud when sprinting. I also tend to turn off the flight affect. Teleports I tend to leave as it. In a nutshell - part of the enjoyment for me in CoX is coming up with a complete character from top to bottom. I spend literally HOURS in the costume creator tweaking and adjusting and touching things up getting them just so. Sometimes I go back to a toon I created some time ago and change it because I get an idea that improves the theme. I've even swapped names on a couple pairs of toons because when I was finished with them the names fit thematically better when switched. An example of two names I switched would be Celestri and Wysper. I originally had my peacebringer named Wysper and my stalker named Celestri. It worked, but to me 'Wysper' better fit a stalker and 'Celestri' better fit the peacebringer. I go back and adjust things like belts, chest symbols, hair, etc. too sometimes. Also, I try to create a huge variety in the different costumes and colors, etc. I want my toons to feel unique and well thought out to me. And they do. This game is awsome! For me the only other MMO's that even come close to CoX character customization-wise are CO, SWTOR. AoC and TSW. And even then this game beats them handily IMO. I LOVE THIS GAME. There is NO replacement for it. Not even CO (which started out okay but was nerfed into holy oblivion shortly after launch). I have two lifetime accounts in CO which give me access to most everything and guess where I would still rather be. When I take off FLYING as a SUPR HERO I don't want it to feel like an elderly person 'accelerating' at a stop light by simply removing your foot from the brake and slowly rolling forward faster. That's what it feels like to me. Not to go completely off subject (sorry) but my point is that I can really feel invested in my toons in CoX and that I have something I created. And I go ape nuts with that. I'm not just rolling a toon - I'm creating a SUPER HERO!

Oh - you just woke my inner conspiracy theorist. I'm in one of those slumps too right now! Coincidence? Or maybe one of those imaginary server factors affecting the RNG? Okay - who's hoggin' all the purple drops? Where the heck is Fox Mulder when you need him? lol

Oh snap. Here I am chuckling at you and I just realized it said "DM/Inv scrapper"... ... WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO US DOOM!?!? lol (runs off to make yet another alt, err, main)

Most of my character are around 6' or just over as that feels about the right size to manage in game for most play (a super big or super small toon can be more of a hindrance sometimes for various reasons). I do however run the spectrum as I do have some 'outliers'. I have 2 toons max height for thematic reasons. I have 2 minimum height for thematic reasons. I have one male I made 5'5" because that is my height. I also tend to make my female toons a bit shorter than the males however I do have a couple of tall females. Also, I am in total agreement about adjusting the 'leg' slider down on most toons. Middle setting just looks to odd for me. On that note, I tend to turn up the waist a bit (not all the way) and sometimes turn down the breasts a tiny bit on females as on some costumes even at mid setting looks like two big soup bowls on their chest. I just can't picture some poor gal with double D's jumping around fighting. Also, on males I tend to turn the hips slider all of the way down because to me they look odd running. On females it looks fine to me but for some reason on males it looks weird. (not being sexist here, I just my humble opinion). As for the other sliders - all over the map. Tankers and brutes tend to be bulkier, ranged tends to be slimmer. Hey here's an idea for the devs - AoC has an ability called Lumbering Hulk that is a toggle that buffs your toon (with a speed penalty). What makes it unique is that your toon actually 'grows' in height and size. It's not that noticeable in that game, but when Champions launched they had an ability (it was a rare drop that I somehow managed to get ahold of) that was bugged for a while but when you clicked it your toon would literally become Godzilla sized. Some of us used to turn into giants and stand around in the main zone freaking out the new players! lol. Anyhow, wouldn't it be fun if we could make a tiny little tank toon that grows BIG when he goes into battle!?!? Just a thought - be gentle... 🙂

I can say for a period of time I was thinking *something* other than RNG was affecting it because it seemed to vary so wildly and it seemed like drops would be better on certain days or times leading me to theorize all kinds of crazy stuff. Silly, I know, but the drop rate swings in this game can be so 'streaky' that I just had to wonder. I have nearly 800 vet levels on my two 'farmers' and I always run the same mission at +4/x8 and I have this particular mission down to an exact science. My personal experience was that I almost always got the occasional purple recipe every few missions. Sometimes it would be a bit 'streaky' where I could go a day or two with no drops then I would start getting them again. On a few occasions I would get more than 1 purple one the same mission. I have even had one time where I got two purples from the same cluster of mobs and then one more purple on the next cluster of mobs. What made me start thinking *something* else must be a factor was the first time I hit a 1-2 week period of playing daily without a single purple drop. I was counting at one point and I don't remember the exact number now but I've had streaks where I go many dozens of missions without a purple drop. What I thought might be happening for a while was that for game economy reasons maybe something else was coming into play, like maybe the game engine tracks total drops occurring on a server and has some type of hard cap to prevent people from trashing the economy with an exploit of some kind. Or another though was the total number of players online or in instance maps could be factored in somehow. It was pretty wild thinking but it really did look for a while like something is going on. I am now of the opinion that rare drops in this game are just darn 'streaky'. You can go for what feel like forever without one. I can even see the streakiness in other types of drops - orange/yellow/white recipes, inspirations and even incarnate threads. I can't rule out that there isn't something else being factored in because I can definitely say that the first few weeks/months of farming was MUCH more generous to me with purple drops than what I have been experiencing over that last few months. However, that really could just have been me being very lucky for a few weeks and then not nearly as lucky since then. Honestly I don't bring home as much on my farmers as I used to but that's ok. I'm using them for a purpose - to generate 'extra' revenue for when I want to deck out a build and try it out. While I can make money on this market playing the market game I still prefer farming because I also sometimes p/l at the same time. Farming still works just fine even when I don't get many purple drops (or any at all for days/weeks). Playing the market works good also, however lately I'm noticing the Auction House acting more 'squirrelly' than usual. A lot of long pauses while it's trying to cycle through whatever tasks others are running it through, misleading inf amounts displayed (either from the display bug or folks manipulating prices), and wild price swings at different times of the day/week. I still prefer farming over 'playing the market' (but it is fun too and can be as profitable). Back to the topic of RNG, I have yet to meet a Random Number Generator that actually really is 'random'. It is usually some type of algorithm designed to simulate randomness as closely as possible - or more specifically, the goal is to make the result equally as unpredictable as a random number would be. So most RNG isn't really random, it's pseudo-random. It is possible that in any given game engine the RNG might feel a bit less random and more streaky due to the nature of RNG algorithms and the factors they depend on. I have heard of at least one game engine that I used to play that actually used certain character values as a factor among many other things and while that *should* have resulted in a 'random' feeling experience I was actually able to notice at times - I had one toon in that game who was consistently much more 'lucky' and one who was consistently much less lucky (this was in a big name MMO too, lol). It really depends on the algorithm and how it was designed. TL;DR - Yes, after billions of hours running the exact same farm with the same toon I can say the I have personally experienced what I felt was a nice drop rate for purples become much less frequent and much more 'streaky'. I tend to think it's just this game engine and the way RNG is implemented. VERY, VERY streaky sometimes. Before every closet programmer out there jumps in to correct me on the details of RNG's and algorithms, please just don't, as that wasn't the point. The point is, I think this game is super streaky and I think they knew it when they came up with the drop chance percentages (1 in 5000?). I think it's working as intended. But I do love a good conspiracy theory! 😁

Sorry OP but I don't have a problem like you do with 'alt'oholism. . (looks around nervously) . Like nightroarer said, all of mine are mains too! . (checks online to see current total which changes often) . Yep, all 100 of them! All mains! Yep! . (already working on ideas for two more, perhaps three... hmmm...) . Okay. I'll admit I might have an itsy bitsy problem with 'mains', but I have it under control plus it's not serious like 'alt'oholism can be! . (begins sweating while thinking of ways to convert existing character spreadsheet data into awesome graphs!.. yes... pretty graphs to help me monitor all of my mains!.. yes... begins to rub hands together while looking away in deep thought... my precious... scurries away...) But seriously, I really do consider quite a few of my characters to be mains. Regardless of *my* classification of them my total current character count is 100. I joked about it in another thread but I really did go make an elaborate spreadsheet to keep track of them. And it really did pop into my head to make some graphs from that data once I saw the OP post in this thread (thanks Skywise!). And like the OP I ain't asking for a cure either! I'm loving it! I have fully embraced my Homecoming City of Awesomeness 'main'oholism AND 'alt'oholism. I have recently been thinking about halting new toon creation or maybe just slowing down for a bit as I've already made many of the AT/combo's and concepts I wanted to have in my 'stable'. Then I saw DougGraves post (thanks!) and think that's a cool idea. I'm now thinking of creating a 'series' of alts that are 'younger' versions of a couple of my favorite mains and making them look the same (or, perhaps not exactly the same but slightly less powerful/complete looking appearance-wise). Name them similar, and stop from levelling at various points. I'm thinking it might be interesting be able to drop down to a lower level version that really is that level as opposed to exemplaring my decked out 50 and compare the difference. About 40 or so are level 50 or higher. I P/L'ed a few of them. Most are still 'baby' or 'young' 50's with no or few vet levels. About 20 are 'complete' builds I/O-wise and are at various stages of incarnate from Alpha's only to a handful fully blown T4, a couple with 'extra' T4's. These 'completes' are also at various vet levels from single digits to a few in the double digits and a couple in the triple digits. The rest of my toons range from some still sitting at level 1 just waiting for me (and no no no they haven't been forgotten. I will play each and every one of them at some point if we are that blessed I'm given the time.) all the way up through the upper 30's. I found it interesting to notice that I have a trend to want to hit 50 once I get into the 40's so I tend to not park there. On Live I had about ~15 toons both Hero and Villain. Only ever got one Blaster and one MM to 50 and that's playing off and on from the very beginning until a couple years prior to sunset. Had several in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Never got to try out I/O's. Mostly used D/O's levelling and S/O's and a few Hami's on my two mains. Only ever did one respec and even though the mission was fun it was also a bit over the top hard to put together and do just to try something out (IMO). No graph yet (darnit! shakes fist and shouts "You young whippersnappers quit givin' me idears n git off my lawn!!!) but my origin breakdown is: Mutation ~46% Magic ~23% Natural ~7% Science ~12% Technology ~12% Levels by AT basic summary: Brute > Scrapper > Blaster > Tanker > the rest (I have all archetypes) TL;DR - I currently have 100 total characters. I am actually very invested in most of them. EVERY single one of them is a full concept build from origin to powers to looks to name (and many with maximum length backstories that I am rather pleased with). I have been thinking about slowing down or stopping new toon creation around where I currently am, maybe a few more. Now that I have a 'stable' that I really like and enjoy I may add a couple more builds and now after reading what Doug does I just may add a few more to have 'younger' (level capped) versions of a couple of my favorites mains (and I may cap a few of the toons I haven't brought to 50 yet just for fun - it sounds intriguing to me. Maybe even concept-wise turn a couple toons into apprentices or helpers... or oooooh, I might make alt apprentices on another account and level lock them and design them full blown concept-wise to pair up with other toons on my main account! Holy Guacamole it's Taco Man and his apprentice, Burrito Boy! lol And as always my apologies for typos and sentence butchering in advance. (I do however refuse to apologize for my silly sense of humor. I was born with it. It's genetic. like a superhero mutation...) Oh snap! Another idea for another toon! Eh, so much for TD;DR lol. Gotta run. Toons to roll... things to go... places to see... people to do... oh no my lysdexia is upping act! 🤪 (j/k)

By coincidence that was one of the changes I made. I haven't started him yet but I was trying to shore up Def a tiny bit plus thought it might be fun to try using Arcane Blast as a quick runner snipe that has a chance to give me a big boost. Not sure how well that will work in reality. Then I added Rune for a buffer. I also tacked in some incarnates to get an idea of what ultimately can be done. It's still what you put together for the most part with a few changes (that don't necessarily make it better just more what I would want to try out). For fun turn on the incarnates and take a peek. Oops - I posted the build with them turned on. Take a peek to get an idea, then turn them back off to compare. This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.0.4.7 https://github.com/Reborn-Team/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Veil of Shadows: Level 50 Magic Brute Primary Power Set: Dark Melee Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Smite -- Hct-Dmg(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg(3), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Hct-Acc/Rchg(5), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Hct-Dam%(25) Level 1: Dark Embrace -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(7), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(7), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9), GldArm-3defTpProc(9) Level 2: Death Shroud -- SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprUnrFur-Dmg/Rchg(11), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), SprUnrFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), SprUnrFur-Rchg/+Regen/+End(15) Level 4: Murky Cloud -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(21), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(21), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(23), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(23) Level 6: Shadow Maul -- Arm-Dmg(A), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(15), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), Arm-Acc/Rchg(17), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Arm-Dam%(19) Level 8: Mystic Flight -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A) Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(25), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(27), UnbGrd-Max HP%(27) Level 12: Siphon Life -- SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBrtFur-Dmg/Rchg(29), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), SprBrtFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), SprBrtFur-Rech/Fury%(33) Level 14: Touch of Fear -- CldSns-%Dam(A) Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(33), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(33), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34) Level 18: Dark Consumption -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(34), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(36), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36) Level 20: Cloak of Darkness -- Ksm-ToHit+(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(29), Rct-ResDam%(42), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(50) Level 22: Kick -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A) Level 24: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(37), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(37), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(37) Level 26: Soul Drain -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(A), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(39), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(40) Level 28: Arcane Bolt -- Dcm-Build%(A) Level 30: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(45) Level 32: Midnight Grasp -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(40), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(45) Level 35: Rune of Protection -- Ags-Psi/Status(A) Level 38: Soul Tentacles -- Bmbdmt-Dam(A), Bmbdmt-Acc/Rech/End(43), Bmbdmt-Dam/Rech(45), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech(46), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech/End(46), Bmbdmt-+FireDmg(46) Level 41: Dark Obliteration -- Rgn-Dmg(A), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(48), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(48), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(50), Rgn-Knock%(50) Level 44: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 47: Gloom -- Apc-Dam%(A) Level 49: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 1: Fury Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg-I(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Rest -- Heal-I(A) Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(43), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(43) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A) Level 50: Void Radial Final Judgement Level 50: Spectral Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Melee Core Embodiment Level 50: Ageless Radial Epiphany Level 50: Agility Core Paragon ------------ | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1425;687;1374;HEX;| |78DA4D935B4F13511485CFB4536BA1A5D4425B2E95D2165A5AAC14C5BB312862A23| |4212121F18934ED011A2B43A610F5D107DF15A231CAD5CBAB3FC0DFE20FF0414045| |E315EA9EB3970C9334DFE99ABDCE5EE73285FB23DE77371E5E115AE3B56AB1569BB| |A6A2E2E4857A1385329097AFC93B2528D19D3B189D962D9B8577393165235530559| |9532375234EFF030C2F2889C967335BC1836EF1AA6F08E1B463537619825693EF0A| |93FA39599D985CADC4C03BF9A97B2EC57C331592C4BB3365B990F5F9FAF94723CE9| |84B1589D2A146B0B34418422F4D2EF93F8FFD45DA2D72144DE231C2930CDD4FBC00| |C339265BEB06C9AF2EAE29B536947BE833F98477F8283CC9796853D2ECDAB2BADC1| |073631BD7EB099D91460AE90CB897E4EF46B41BF16F40BA15F284C85518FD8A26A1| |7D6E73AC7B99BCE339B2F801799C72E819799CB3D42B8D92BDC1F585BA57F1ECEE0| |F420430419DA91A1FD177387AA1AB1D6C60DD63A3799C75F81AFC137CCD85BE636B| |97CE8EDFBE8506B59B3AE92DAF0BAEEFFC379627FC13D66F73E58677EA1EA003C01| |78BAE149C093802701CF3A5507B1C6E01E21AA8BCE5612F2BAE8DBE57CF95B16DDC| |2411BD4CAB5A2F511FB9DA485E10F638F92D8A324F6288973FA4A556D9CCFD5B6C2| |E7DCBB0AAE81EBCCD406B8C95CA2F3E940EF0EEB72A474A153EF286B5AB49933F72| |3FB2EA95DB83F5D8F31D71366DF12B8CCEC7FAA2BCF33EA11C739C487789E3245EF| |C19DEAD9E3FACC3E7C75E609EBD659D440075392370D6F7A90F7EBE429F03438C4C| |C9F01CF32E3B4B62CD69BCD0AA59568BE1CF2E5F25C17A0BA01D40D60EDA3FAC1B7| |5AEFD40FBE79DA2C9E67CC7E2F28BCD2C67548A46949D6B61A0EBE5FA12558DB3EA| |CA559DBB13587D6ED541932373575469949CEF4F9B02FC6BEFE160272DE0EDBE3F7| |717BFC3C688FEDE777C856FF01AA47DDD5| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Well this made me roll yet another brute for my stable. lol Nice build Snarkster! I borrowed it and made a couple minor changes more to my flavor and it looks really good. Thanks!

Agree. Disagree for Homecoming. I would agree if this were a newer or live game. This is neither. This is a miraculously resurrected blessing that is crazy fun. Disagree for Homecoming. See above. Strongly disagree. Did someone in your family get killed by an IO or something? Why the IO hatred? (this is an attempt to be funny, albeit a poor one) Very strongly disagree with this OPINION. You know what really ruins the game? When it's shut down and not available to play ever again. I'm so grateful for Homecoming even especially in it's current state and everything we can do. In both this and your prior statement you sound almost angry and I'm not calling you out for it at all, and apologize if it comes across that way. Rather I'm trying to understand why? This is not a new MMO. This is not an official MMO. This leads me to think that Troo hit the bullseye with: ... and maybe I'm the outlier here but I came back to CoX via the Homecoming miracle with NO expectations. Certainly not the usual 'everything must be fine-tuned and balanced' that I would have in a newer live MMO. What I found was more bleeping fun than I ever could have imagined having in CoX! Now if these folks who gave us what we currently have want to nuke all of the extra enjoyment they have already brought us into oblivion they can, but that's not the vibe I get here from the Homecoming team and I love it and hope I'm reading them right. However... Maybe some of you came here expecting the Homecoming team to pick up where the Live team left off and just go around tightening things down, tuning (which tends to become over tuning), balancing (which tends to become homogenizing) and adding more build options and end game content? There's nothing wrong with that. It's just not how I feel about this particular MMO in the one in a million second chance situation we currently have been blessed with. And that's just my opinion not an indictment of anyone else's opinion. I think expectations would be a very good place to start. I have no idea which expectations others came here with, or maybe didn't come here with but have developed over weeks/months. But I think it would be a smart idea to check with the folks who bring all of this to us in their spare time to maybe better know where THEY want to go or even how much time/effort they want to or even can put into all of our 'expectation'. I see no harm in these threads and discussions and in fact they can be very good but I want to be sure we aren't getting a little carried away here with all of this MMO philosophical debate popping up lately. I personally hope we aren't going to start making the Homecoming folks regret bringing all of this to us. The best possible outcome here before too many of these threads start running off in every direction and folks start hollering strong opinions would probably be to know how the Homecoming folks feel about these 'big-can-o-worms' requests and if they would even want to or would have the time to do them. So yeah, now that I think about it, I am of the OPINION that expectations is most definitely something that should be discussed. First, if anyone knows what the Homecoming team can do and wants to do with Homecoming (I'm not going to pretend I know lol)? Do they have the time/resources? What is their take on all of this what they want to do with Homecoming? Should we have any 'expectations' at all? If so, are they even taking our requests? Also, do a lot of you feel as strongly as Doug about that (or other things)? Is it because you have expectations from the Homecoming team? What are your expectations? I am having a blast playing the current game as it is. But that's me. Obviously not everyone feels that way. I honestly don't want anyone to feel like the game is ruined for them if this... if that... but I also did not come here expecting anything and just enjoying what has been provided so it really honestly surprises me to see such strong feelings here in the Homecoming forums. I know it's nothing new but I am seeing these types of strong demands/emphatic statements more lately and now I'm wondering what does everyone expect (and should we)? {clears throat}... I'll start. I came to Homecoming with no expectations. Only hope. And holy granola was I surprised and pleased! Now after playing what they have given us since they opened up I still have no expectations. Should I? I can tell you what I'm not hoping for or expecting is for the Homecoming team to suddenly go nuclear on all of the fun possible right now. I can see them making SOME balance attempts on things they did not intend that THEY too are dissatisfied with. I can also see them continuing to make QoL adjustments and continue adding more. I can even see them maybe making some kind of balance attempt on IO procs without obliterating everyone's fun by doing something less drastic than nerfing them in a way that hurts everyone and maybe more proc monster targeted if that really is something most want (like limiting how many can go off at once to 3 or 4 or limiting ability slotting of procs to 3 or 4 - I just made this up as an example, I'm sure something's wrong with it. Don't shoot me lol). But I'm seeing a lot 'expectations' lately of what I referred to earlier as 'big-can-o-worms' requests. I don't have these and can only hope that some of you don't get your wishes because it will make the game a lot less enjoyable for some of us. I'm really hoping for more minor and moderate requests and expectations than major demands and hard core/rose colored sunglasses expectations. I'm having fun like it is guys. I also don't mind continued changes and fixes and adjustments and additions and these discussions are QUITE interesting. Some of the ideas I see getting bounced around sound really cool. But then the bickering starts because we all have different expectations and we're human. Can we identify a general consensus of what we can expect here on Homecoming? Are we really expecting them to pick up where Live left off? Or even treat this like a new game that just came out? In the meantime, I think I'm going to get outta here and jump online and play me some crazy fun Homecoming style crazy fun "Homecoming City of Holy Cow I'm Finally Really Able to be a Superhero" (or HCoHCIFRAtbaS for short). I'm interested to see what people are really expecting from this. Super tired (long day at work) so forgive any typos misspelling or nonsense if I accidentally butchered a sentence trying to change it.

I might be wrong but one of the possible issues I think some folks might have is that when they look at the Official Mids' page for instruction here in this forum it's a little hard to spot the actual download link (just below the .Net info and links which stands out a little better). Not saying there's a thing wrong with the page (it's awesome!) but some folks might not easily spot it if they try to skim through quickly. Ok - I'll admit, I'm saying it because I had a hard time spotting it for some reason, lol. Anyhow that can lead to them then instead finding links to Github and trying to understand what they find there and need to do, especially if they search and find threads where we were going that route for semi-manual updates a few weeks ago and they try to follow any of those fun manual methods. Also, the Windows signing thing might stop some folks dead because they either think that means something is wrong and they are afraid to bypass the warning out of fear there might be a virus or maybe they think they did it wrong. But the main thing I jumped in here to say is that I get multiple Windows warnings trying to stop me (in sequence) and they are less than obvious that they are giving you a choice to continue with the install. First during download Microsoft Edge pops a warning in the lower left: "MRB_Setup.exe was blocked..." do NOT hit 'delete', instead right next to it select the three dots ( ... ) with your mouse and choose "keep"'. Next, is a pop-up window middle screen from Windows Defender: "This app might harm your device..." do NOT hit 'Delete', instead mouse click "show more" and select "Keep anyway" Now click on the downloaded MRB_Setup.exe file in your download folder to run it. Guess what pops up? You guessed it, yet another Windows protection warning this time middle screen: "Windows protected your PC..." do NOT hit 'Don't run', instead politely thank Windows for being such a wonderful thoughtful (if not stubborn) OS and then mouse click "More info" which then brings up a sneaky hidden "Run anyway" button. Choose that one. lol Next... yep... next, user account control pops up another mid screen window (I'm starting to realize how appropriately named Windows is): "Do you want to allow this app...". Yes, in the name of all that is good and holy, YES! Please Windows... Please just let me install this... I promise everything will be okay! Then (at least for me) you finally get the installer. NOTE: It may pop up behind other windows instead of on top so look for it. Aaand if everything goes well the installer will run and complete with no issues. And there will be much peace and joy in your household and celebrations all over Atlas Park! Hope some of this nonsense helps somebody, lol. ***Forgot to mention I'm on Windows 10***

I agree with this sentiment. Pretty much the horses are so far out of the barn at this point it would cause mass hysteria to go the 'nerf' route. Thankfully we do have the options to play the game in a way that give each of us just the right combination of challenge and entertainment. I for one very much agree with Bill. In my case, I've been playing MMO's hardcore since 1999 when my brother introduced me to EQ. I've spent of thousands of dollars on having multiple maxed out characters and tons of alts in almost every big name MMO. Many of them I was involved in closed beta and several more open beta. Almost every one of these games went through a pattern of easy/fun pre-launch followed by the first few months of tweaks to adjust the game once it rolls out. These tweaks often become massive nerfs because they had a vision but once the game is rolled out the community does what they always do - cry for nerfs and balance. For some damn reason I have never been able to fathom, no one has ever made an MMO that could decide which of the many playstyles and crowds they want or heaven forbid actually design a system that allows for balance and variety. So basically where I'm going with this is, I've been through all the nerf/balance/challenge vs. reward cycle/arguments so many times in so many games I really just like to be able to log in and play and have fun doing what ever I like do do in this game at an easy level. I was in my early thirties when I started MMO's and I've been playing computer games since the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 with a cassette tape drive. The game was all text in green numbers and letters on a black screen, called Santa Paravia. 1978. I'm much older now. I'm in a differnt place in my life. I've done hundreeds of hours in games grouping, duoing, raiding and soloing. I've created and run small medium and large guilds in multiple games. I've done PVP hardcore in some games. I've paid for and run Ventrilo, TeamSpeak and Mumble servers. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've been with CoX since the very beginning too like many of you (as were several of my friends and coworkers). Like many of us, I've spent a good part of my life playing these games. I have had plenty of challenge forced upon me over the years and while I've had a blast it's also a bit of 'been there done that' for me. I'm at a place in my life now where I want to relax when I hop online. I'm getting plenty of challenge and stress in real life. I love that this game has been brought back and even more I really enjoy its current state. I'm getting to do things in this game that I never tried out before. Very fun for me. That said, I completely understand what people are saying from the other side of this too. It is fairly simple to get to uber mode currently. IO's have a lot to do with that (along with incarnates and P2W). I really like the idea of addressing challenging or new content, but I am concerned about some of the inevitable dissatisfaction and griping that has been popping up lately and hope this community (which is one of the best MMO communities I've ever seen BTW - thanks!) doesn't get caught up in it too much. We have something quite unique here. Because this game is unofficial we as a community can ask this incredible dev team for all our dreams and wishes. I just would like to ask that some of you consider there are folks like me out there too. More optional ways to play = better IMHO. We also have to remember the (one in a million) circumstances that brought about our being able to play this game again at all. I see people pop into these forums and comment in a way that makes me think not everyone realizes this is not an official MMO being run for money/marketing/corporate profits. This is an unsanctioned server with what we all hope will remain to be available to us for years to come. Clearly this dev team understands more options and playstyles. They have given it to us. I'm sure there can be more. Just at this point in my MMO career I think I'm really getting A LOT out of the crazy fun and flexibility of the game in its current state. To the original point of this topic, yes IO's can be taken advantage of. Can they be re-"balanced" for the current game? Sure. Should they? Sounds pretty hazardous to me. It could easily 'ruin' the fun that others are having. I for one don't want to have to "re-balance" most of the wonderful characters I've rolled on Homecoming. And that's exactly what I and everyone else would do. We would just find the next best thing and all go with that. Sounds like fun! I could be wrong but I think it's a bit late to go that route without disaster. But I completely understand the point being made and personally think the best route at this point is to ADD options not take them away. I love my super heroes now. WAY more than live. I loved this game live but it was a slog. I pretty much agree with most others that Jack Emmert and his vision for this game was just... wrong. I am loving easy mode right now after twenty-two years of whack-a-mole nerfs and rebalance passes. I love that this dev team has chosen to concentrate on tons of QoL fixes and just plain FUN! Next lets discuss balancing ovens with campfires. Ovens are way too easy. Where's the challenge? 😁 1... 2... 3... Attack! 🤪

Thank you! Yep - already updated to the latest and I love it! Works perfectly. I'm just really used to the old window while I'm working on a build. The new window is great too but I'm so familiar with the old window it's just easier for me to spot what I need to work on. I'm so used to the old size/look and often I have multiple builds open and the smaller totals window works better for me in the situation where I'm trying to compare things and screen real estate is limited. I've had my own TeamSpeak, Ventrilo and Mumble servers in the past but I never really got into the whole Discord thing (yet). I have it but just haven't bothered to start learning/using it. If I can ever get into the whole Discord thing I would love to hang out. Thank you for the invite! And again a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone working on Mids'. This may seem odd but part of the CoX experience that I enjoy is using Mids'. It wouldn't be quite the same without it (to me).

Fyi - Speaking of the green dots... I thought maybe I was having some new visual issue with some of the dots being yellow now and sometimes even doubled up with green dots. Then I found this in the notes: - Enhancement procs now have their own unique gold toggle on powers. This applies to powers that could already toggle, allowing users to toggle the proc and the power separately. Thank you! I'm going to start reading the notes a bit more lol.

Here's a quick snip of the new way the blue power bars look:

I was having this exact issue and was able to finally fix it but I'm not certain which of the steps I took actually fixed it (maybe all steps are required or only one?) Anyhow here's what I did. WARNING: If you are not computer savvy you please be careful to not delete anything if you follow my instructions below. I do not want you to accidentally delete files you may need. For example if you decide to delete an old Mids' folder instead of renaming it and/or moving it you could potentially delete saved builds if you have your save directory for them in with the Mids' program stuff. Please be careful. My system is Windows 10 64. The first clue to me was how the blue power bars look to be the old style visually even though the newest Mids' had been successfully installed and it showed as that version. I still had some older versions of Mids' / Pines so I moved everything old into a save folder on another drive. That way I still have everything if I need to get at something, but nothing is anywhere near where my PC might go looking for any of the old files. It can't use any of the wrong files if it can't find them (in theory). Next I made sure that Mids' was completely uninstalled in settings->apps. Then went into C:\Users\yournamehere\AppData\Roaming and renamed the "RebornTeam" folder to "Old RebornTeam Save". Lastly because .net wouldn't let me uninstall/reinstall (a Windows 10 *feature* lol) or repair I went to dotnet.microsoft.com/download and got it to run the install for the 5.0 .net runtime thinking maybe that would fix anything wrong with .net . Then I went to MidsReborn.com ant ran the MSI install for the newest Mids'. It now works like a charm (and you will notice the slight visual change to the blue power bars in their new style). I hope this helps you!

This may not be to place to ask this but... I like the size of the old totals window. After thinking about it, that may be the main reason I voted for the old window. If you decide to keep the new format, would it be possible to make the window more similar in size to the old totals window? Or, I could just get used to it lol! (Sheesh I feel awful asking for anything with as much work as you all have put in - and a HUGE thanks for all that work too btw!)

No AT is useless. On Homecoming every AT is even much more viable than they were on Live. I had to laugh when I read the OP because by coincidence my latest project is a INV/SS Tanker that I based off of one of the crazy unkillable SS/INV Brute builds (thanks Hyperstrike!). This Tanker is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites. Out of 90 or so toons. So far... You will always run into different personalities and opinions in MMO's. It's part of the experience. But ultimately, you should follow your own path. Play what you enjoy. Don't worry what everyone else says. This is a game. Have fun!

I have a SS/Invuln Brute and a Invuln/SS Tanker that are both beasts. They both feel unstoppable. Very fun. The Brute was more expensive to build - but the Tanker was relatively inexpensive compared to most of my other builds. I think Hyperstrike has some nice builds out there for Invuln/SS or SS/Invuln if I'm remembering correctly.

I haven't found "the one" yet, but I keep finding ones that I really really like/love/enjoy. I will feel like I have found it for a brief period then I will get inspired again and it's off to the races with another concept. However, I am feeling pretty confident that I will find "the one" with my remaining 935 character slots! 🤪

Well this thread made me realize that I really need to make a spreadsheet lol... Ok, so all of mine are on Everlasting. Arachnos Soldier: 1 Arachnos Widow: 1 Peacebringer: 2 Warshade: 1 Blaster: 5 Brute: 16 Controller: 4 Corruptor: 2 Defender: 1 Dominator: 2 Mastermind: 2 Scrapper: 6 Sentinel: 8 Stalker: 4 Tanker: 2 Magic: 11 Mutation: 25 Natural: 5 Science: 7 Technology: 9 57 total characters 38 of which are 50. 10 are recreations from Live 2 of which I was able to keep my original name. (I was able to get some really good replacement names but it took a while) 8 are variations of other toons. Only 5 are full T4 incarnate but many have T1 or more. All of them are on Everlasting. For comparison on Live (Pinnacle) I only had about 12 characters and my mains were a Blaster a couple of Scrappers and a Mastermind which were the only ones I got to max level. Back then I was mainly SO'd with some Hami's. Now it's all about the IO'd builds. So it would appear that my new favorite is Brute, but honestly Homecoming has made it possible for me to try so much more than I ever could on Live and they are all quickly becoming favorites in one way or another. Glad to see I'm not the only one going alt crazy on Homecoming lol. 😁

To everyone on the Homecoming team THANK YOU! for everything you have done and are doing. I love this game. I have been hooked on MMO's since my brother got me started on EQ back in 2000 and this game is still one of my favorites. I was crushed when they closed down and I monitored all of the projects and COH Titan Forums (mainly the Hail Mary thread) hoping like crazy that somehow some way this game or something very much like it could be brought back. It wasn't looking good. For years... Then HOMECOMING! I am and will be forever grateful to you all for everything you have done. As volunteers you have not only brought back CoX but have also done it incredibly professionally. It's been very impressive and amazing to me. I was a senior software engineer at a major worldwide software company for a long time and I know how much work and time goes into even making minor changes and just day to day maintenance. On top of that you are all so very helpful in game and on the forums. I'm probably babbling on but really really you guys are the best! Just the fact that I can play this wonderful game again is nothing short of a miracle. I'd like to buy you all a beer and shake your hand in person and say "thanks!". THANK YOU! Jim

Thank you csr! 🙂

Some quick questions regarding the Mag changes to the Holds/Stuns/Sleeps - I think understand the mag (magnitude) system, I think but I am not clear on a few things. 1) By reducing the Mag to 1/2 from Mag 3 does this mean these abilities are now only effective against minions and not effective against Lt's? 2) Why are the new status effects split into stacking and non stacking and what does that mean compared to how it works now? 3) What are Scales? (targets? time? area?) I'm sure this is common knowledge for some but I confess I never really looked into it. Searching the internet and this forum didn't explain it either. Apologies in advance for asking silly questions... Thanks!