RandoHero

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but here we go. Influence isn’t just some pile of Paragon Pesos you can slide across the table like you’re tipping the bartender at Pocket D. Influence is earned. It’s the lifeblood of your heroic reputation — the nod of respect from the shopkeep when you stroll in wearing a cape still smoldering from yesterday’s Hami raid. When you “buy” an enhancement from a vendor, you’re not really buying it. You think the guy at Cooke’s Electronics is swiping your debit card? Please. He’s giving it to you because your influence says you deserve it. Just like a diner might comp a police officer’s meal — except instead of free coffee, it’s a level 35 SO that lets you melt Clockwork like butter. Influence is personal. You have to keep earning it with good deeds, daring rescues, and the occasional giant monster smackdown. Stop doing the work, and your influence fades. Hit zero, and you’ve got no stroke, no pull — Serge at Icon won’t even let you try on that new cape. “Sorry, champ, we save the good stuff for the people actually saving lives.” Now imagine you could trade influence. That’s like your sidekick‑wannabe walking into Wentworth’s, pointing at a bin of D‑Sync Provocation IOs, and saying, “Don’t worry, I know Super Bob. Load me up.” You try walking out that door and see how fast the PPD drones drop from the sky to zap you for shoplifting. Influence trading doesn’t make sense in lore, and it never has. You can’t hand someone your reputation. You can’t say, “Here, take half of my street cred.” That’s not how trust works in Paragon City… or anywhere else. So let’s keep it pure. Let’s keep it earned. And if you want more influence? Do what every real hero does: get out there, save some lives, punch some Freakshow in the face, and let your legend grow. Or — you know — work that auction house like an ebil marketeer.

DUDE! I had no idea about these either. Thanks for sharing!

I was today years old when I learned you can double-click enhancements in your tray to send them straight to the Auction House if you have it open. No idea if this was a thing back on live or a QoL feature added by the Homecoming devs — but either way, it’s a total game-changer (and wrist-saver) when you’re crafting 50 enhancements at once. Got any other “how did I not know this” moments to share? I can’t be the only long time player still discovering new things.

Great stories y'all, but I win. Enjoy... Growing up in the 80's, and having spent thousands of hours playing games like the Bard's Tale Trilogy, the mechanic of having a mage cast a healing spell OR visiting the local temple to heal your party was engraved in my brain. With that context, I started playing CoH around Issue 2. My first time playing, I'm exploring Atlas Park solo and ultimately find myself battling with a Hellion Lieutenant. I eventually managed to arrest him, but I came out worse for wear with my health bar in the red. Not knowing that my health would slowly regenerate, or that there was a rest power, I sprinted to the hospital frantically trying to figure out who in there could patch me up and restore my health. I spent way too long trying to figure it out before finally asking for help in the chat. Imagine my embarrassment when another hero kindly smartened me up 😬 You're welcome.

From I2 until the end, all I really played were melee toons. But I just recently rolled a Sonic/Atomic blaster (Disco Kryptonite) to try something new, and am having an absolute blast (that's a pun) playing him. I have no idea if that power combo is considered "good", but I do know it's hella "fun". Especially when I throw in some light roleplaying. So I guess what I'm saying is you don't need to sweat the power combos, just hit the streets and have some fun.

Came here with the exact same question! I'm having a blast (pun intended) playing my Beam/Temp blaster, but I'm really lost when it comes to slotting, IO sets, etc. @Rayla did you ever find the info you were looking for?

Remember when the Hollows didn't have a hospital, so when your team got wiped you got sent back to AP, where you then needed to sprint (yes, sprint because you weren't level 14 and didn't have a travel power) allllll the way back to the Hollows zone entrance, then book it 3/4 of the way across the zone to get back to the mish door, all while evading large groups of trolls, igneous and other baddies just so you could take one more crack at Frostfire — only to get wiped once again? Sometimes I miss the old COH 😛

I've noticed the same thing for the past couple of days, but for me it's not just been in AE — there's now mega-lag throughout the game in general. Thought at first it was my router/modem or isp as they've been known to have issues from time to time, but after multiple speed tests and no signs of signal degradation, I ruled that out. I'm on a Mac and play on Torchbearer exclusively. I've even noticed that just loading the manifest when launching Island Rum takes 4-5 seconds when it used to load near instantly just a couple of days prior. Wonder if anyone else is experiencing issues like this, or if it's just us two 🙂

I haven't played since Saturday, but everything had been working just fine on my Macbook Pro. I fire up Island Rum this evening, and this is what I get. Game just hangs on "loading". Any ideas what could be happening here and how to fix? This Mac noob could use a hand. Thanks in advance!

@Astrobear The 64-Bit version had been working fine on my Mac since the update until this afternoon when I experienced the same issue as you. I followed your steps above, and thought I was good to go. However when I go to launch the game, the green checkmark appears, but nothing happens. Also as you can see the Safe Modes are greyed out. Is there a step I missed somewhere? Appreciate your help. edit: just saw @Manga's post below mine, which at least provides an explanation as to what happened. Now I just need to figure out how to make the game work again lol edit #2: Restarted my Mac and all is well now 🙂