BlackSpectre

Well, I'm not an expert on defense or damage types, but I think it comes down to how often a defense type will protect you in any given battle, and which defense types protect you more often, overall. It's a probability evaluation. From what I understand, and this is all second or even third hand, Smashing/Lethal damage occurs in the vast majority of battles and is used by a vast majority of mobs. It's the most common damage type in the game by far. In any given battle, are you more likely to be attacked with smashing/lethal damage or from range (or melee)? If you want to soft cap your defense, typically you have to choose a single defense type to build for, so you need to choose only one. Are you more likely to defend against a ranged attack (or melee) or a smashing/lethal attack? From what I have heard, the numbers lean heavily toward smashing/lethal as the best protection overall. From my own experience, I am hit by both ranged and melee attacks in almost every battle, so defending against only one or the other of those positions opens me up to taking a lot of damage. Whereas defending against smashing/lethal allows me to defend against both ranged and melee attacks simply by defending against smashing/lethal attacks. Of course this is all conditional and dependent on not only the enemy but also the situation, your build and play style. For example, if you play a flying blaster where you will almost always be at range, then building for ranged defense is not a bad idea. Of course, by picking only one defense type, you also build in your own kryptonite.

No. But... there is a slash command called /dialog_answer you can bind to a key that might let you quickly exit the pop up.

Well, my SG and Base editing macros have just always been that way. I'm used to it. The macros in Power tray 6 on the upper right are there because they take up less screen space than a custom window. They're more out of the way. I suppose I could move most of those macros in that tray to a pop menu in the custom window since I don't use them very often, but the macro labeled 7 in that tray is one that I need to click on multiple times rapidly (it cycles through every member of my team so I can easily see if everyone on my team is in the right place while doing incarnate trials), and you can't do those rapid clicks in a custom window when using rotating text binds using /bindloadfile. But I guess I could put that macro in a power slot in the lower power trays. Hmmmmmmm The BAF one was left over from a test... forgot to remove, and of course the 2 test ones at the top. Normally, there are powers up there but was switched to a different power tray at the time of pic. So... no good reason. 😉 The custom window is in that location because I click on it often when leading BAFs. It's closer to where my mouse pointer usually is. The AE macro icon is an accolade power called Architect Comlink that allows you to open the Mission Architect mission editor/creator from anywhere in the game. Basically it allows you to use the /architect slash command from anyplace in the game. You get it by acquiring the Mission Engineer Badge.

Here's mine...

The likelihood is that there were multiple reasons why NCsoft decided to shut down COH, not just one. Reasons such as resources being stretched too thin, other projects seeming to have better prospects to make more money, to rising costs, etc. Personally, I never understood the decision. A business endeavor generating enough revenue to support itself with a small profit is no reason to shut it down. It is a reason to start pursuing additional business ventures though. I've never heard anyone state that it was expected that COH would start losing money in the future, but that also could have been a possible consideration to factor in.

The most common things players build for using set IOs are reaching the defense soft cap (45% for normal content), resistance hard cap (75-90% depending on AT), and perma hasten (recharge). Because the most common damage type in the game is smashing/lethal defense and smashing/lethal damage resistance, it makes this damage type the most common thing to build for. Blasters, controllers, and other ranged ATs/powersets often build for ranged defense; while melee characters often build for melee defense. These positional defenses are less effective than building for smashing/lethal defense which protects against all positions (ranged, melee, and AoE defense), but not all damage types. Of course what actually determines what you build for is what your goals are for the character. Also, look into Set Enhancements with Special effects. Many are extremely useful. I once wrote an enhancement guide back when playing on the NCsoft live servers that didn't include set IOs, but I'm sure someone has written one somewhere.

Wasn't there are bout 150,000 players still playing COH when NCsoft closed down COH?

I don't discriminate against any AT. I learned long ago that a team of all defenders can absolutely decimate enemies. Same for controllers. Same for any AT. So all are welcome. Sometimes on rare occasions when I'm doing a trial or TF on the highest difficulty settings I will ask for a specific power set.... that's about it. PUGs are PUGs. Random. Player quality is variable, and that's the most important thing. And to be honest, a few good players can carry the rest of the team.

This post might help...

My understanding is that trademarks protect TRADE. Since a player in a game is not making any money off of it, nor are they attempting to say that they are the owners of the intellectual property, my guess would be that the protections offered trademarked public domain characters wouldn't apply to players playing a free, non-profit game. If Homecoming, for example, used a trademarked, public domain character, it would be a bit more murky since Homecoming is a brand using another brand, more or less. I am not an intellectual rights attorney, so don't take my word for it. I'm merely musing out loud here. It's a good question...

Someone is standing in your way and you have to move around them is disruptive??? Just because you're annoyed at being forced to deal with others doesn't mean they or the world around them is wrong. Certainly not "disruptive"... unless you're talking about disrupting your effortless clicking on something. In which case, who says it should be effortless? It's a tiny thing that doesn't harm you or anyone in any way. It seems to be human nature to: 1) blame others for any problem one has instead of looking at oneself as the cause of the problem (disregarding any evidence) 2) If other people pose a problem to someone, the first impulse is to attempt to control the other person rather than look at what they can do to solve the problem themselves. To put it another way, try to force others to change rather than change themselves. It's odd, but it is very prevalent. I see it in children and adults. For most of the discussions like this thread, this is the primary dynamic that I see going on. When playing this game, I've found it much less upsetting to find a way to change myself (work around people) rather than to attempt to force them to change (do what I want). But I you want to be upset, then by all means blame others for making you feel annoyed (hint: how you feel is not their fault), and then attempt to control them rather than look inward to oneself for the solution. It's a sure fire recipe for conflict and heated emotions. Just some unsolicited advice, my friends. Nothing more.

Why stop short? The next question that follows is "Why have a game at all?" And I think you can sense the absurdity of the line of reasoning that you started. No need to really comment. @Troo, you're a good person and a stellar COH player, and I see that you've narrowed down your objections to the idea of "excessive". There's that old pearl of wisdom, "too much of even a good thing can be harmful." And in that, there's no argument, at least on my end. For me, moderation and balance is usually a healthier way to live. If we apply it to COH, then I think even players who go to extremes eventually realize that it's not worth the cost (attention, focus, obsessiveness, work, time, etc.), and completely on their own reel in their own excessiveness. Either that or they burn themselves out and drop out of the game. So for me, the issue of excessiveness is transitory at best. It's here, and then gone. Which brings us full circle back to just letting people enjoy the game the way they like. As long as no harm is done, it's all good.

It's nice that you're trying to be considerate of the devs' time and effort, but is it your place to do so? Believe me, if the devs thought it a huge nuisance they'd do something about it. As it stands, it follows the same rules as multi boxing... meaning, is there enough room for players to just sit around taking up a spot? Whether or not it's a problem is entirely conditional on how many people are on the server and/or in the zone at any given time. You can complain if you like, but a toon standing around not doing anything isn't hurting anyone.

In a non-AE zone? Never seen that. Crazy. It is usually less productive unless they're farming giant monsters (I guess)? And quad-boxing? Man, that dude has a nice rig to support all of that! In a superhero game where the focus is on power and ability, there's always going to be people who buy into it and say "Hey! Look at me! Look what I can do! I'm amazing!!" and walk around flaunting it and showing off. They feel really good about themselves. And they want others to feel really good about them too. They think they've accomplished something no one else has done, or at least only a few, and want to enjoy the power trip. As long as it's harmless fun, I don't see anything wrong with it. Is it sometimes annoying to see someone all puffed up, bragging, and with an ego about 10x the size of the Empire State Building? It can be. Me? I usually just laugh at them in my own mind and move on (if I'm feeling spiteful), otherwise I just smile and move on. They're having fun... even if it's AFK. They think they're doing something no one else can. There's a lot of that that goes on in this game. People wonder if they can make a build that can do something amazing or difficult, and have at it. While running BAFs, every once in a while there is a player who splits off from the group and goes to door sit. They're seeing if their toon can shut down an entire door all by themselves. Does it bother me? Not at all. The league can almost always carry a few individuals who are off doing their own thing. They're having fun. I'll mention where they're supposed to be, because people often just don't know, but after that I let them be. They're having fun. And that's what I want people to do when playing COH... have fun. To me, that shows that they are committed, really enjoying the game, and want to share their joy with others. Writing a guide is not an easy thing, and if they do there is a social reason why they do so: Sharing knowledge, sharing joy, or the desire for more accolades and approval from others. You are coming from a point of view that what they are doing is wrong, but I don't see it. The code of conduct states "We allow a basic level of multiboxing on the Homecoming servers outside of peak times". The only consideration is whether or not there is enough "space" for one person to take up more than one spot on the servers by multi-boxing... and that is completely conditional on how many people are on the server and in a particular zone. It is allowed. Not "wrong." Using malicious code and hacking the game is not allowed, and it can mean account deletion, but other consequences can be levied too. whether or not someone is hacking the servers is something that is difficult for players to determine. I don't think what you saw was hacking. Again, I don't see that they did anything wrong. Annoying? Maybe. Distasteful? To some. Were they hurting anyone else? No. Where they having fun? Yes. Historically, that's not the case. People who have complained about farming are the main antagonists to farming these days, but your point is well taken. One bad apple can often ruin the whole bunch. Still, I don't see the bad apple here. Back when the game was originally live, NCSoft had moved to the "pay to win" model and that model depends on making things hard and time consuming in order to accomplish anything so that people will pay real money to get what they want quickly. Farming makes getting XP, Inf, and drops easier. AFK farming makes getting XP, Inf, and drops easier. So it went against their model for making moola, and that's why the old devs always seemed to take the anti-farming front's side. These days that model is gone. Everything is free, and the only thing our wonderful devs want is for their players to have a wonderful time playing COH.

I did the same thing as @catsi563. Adding SuperJump to the mix might be fun. I need to try that...

Try https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Macro_(Slash_Command)

Yeah, if you want something made persistent, it's worth trying it out as a command line parameter to see if it will work. The launch parameter list at the wiki has all of the known command line parameters, but there are probably many slash commands that can also be used as launch parameters that no one knows about yet. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/List_of_Command_Line_Parameters

A-STOUNDING! 🙂 Avertitable ectoplasmic delight!

Wow, I've never seen the Steam Controller before. How do the touch pads compare to the thumb sticks on other controllers? Easier? Harder? Less/more precise?

@LKN-351's suggestion above is a great idea. I do basically the same thing. However, if you really want it to be persistent, then you can add the "-camdist 25" command to the Extra Launch Parameters box in the Homecoming Launcher (Settings--> Homecoming). That way the view distance will be set at log in. There are other camera view commands that might prove useful to you. Check out https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Camdist_(Slash_Command)

I love ya, @Ukase, but really?? You exit rather than being defeated??? From others I'd expect to see a strip of yellow running down their backs, but not you!!! Debt is so small and burns off so quickly... why? Why, man, WHY??? 😉 If I don't die, or teammates don't die, it's just a ho hum mission. Of course, I do like a challenge. Nothing makes be feel more like a hero than facing death head on and saving either myself or teammates from it's gaping, ever hungry maw.

Well, thanks! At least SOMEONE gave their opinion... 🙂 OK. I'll put the guide on the list of things to eventually do. As usual, I'll try to retain as much of it as I can while at the same time adding improvements. I've updated the wiki with the Issue 27 Page 7 and Issue 28 Page 1 changes to slash commands and the keybinding system. It turned out that a surprising number of pages around the wiki needed updating because of the updates. I added some new pages too, the most important one being Keybind Profiles. It's in a final draft or first published kind of state, so if anyone has any suggestions or additions, just let me know. Otherwise, I can't think of anything else to do at the wiki related to binds, macros and commands. It seems fairly complete now. 🙂

Oh, man... this is a sad day. I just now read the Issue 28 patch notes and saw that the devs removed several email slash commands. Most are nothing that I'd cry about, but /emailsendattachment being removed is making me sob like a little baby. It was by FAR one of the most useful commands in the game for me. Yes, it had its problems. Yes, it very rarely mucked up people's in game email... but for me, the usefulness of the command was SUPER! Devs, I have a request... would it be possible to make a new command that had similar functionality as /emailsendattachment but without the glitches and risk?

In general, Influence and XP go hand in hard. So if you find a mission with the best influence yield, it will also be the best XP yield. Don’t know if this helps at all, but with the following AE map I’m able to get 4,217,911 XP per 12 min run — 342,920 XP per min. Map: 62525 - street tunnel FF vet levels are 5,608,000 XP So that’s about 17 min per vet level.

Nope. You’re good. The exploitive part of the command was taken care of in Page 4. So /enterdoor to your hearts content! 😀