BlackSpectre

deleted by request

I sometimes forget how much work it is to program a game. I love the Devs for bringing this game back. I appreciate all their hard work and effort on trying to improve it and bring in new things. None of my comments are meant as criticism. Just communicating how I feel is all. If the Devs didn’t mess with the COde at all and just sat back and played like the rest of us I’d still be happy.

Yeah, it’s a good point. It was ONLY because of my passion for tanking and interest in the aggro cap that Led me to log into the test server, then post in the focused feedback, and then branch out to reading about the proposed changes. So I had two weeks before the patch took effect, and enough time for me to decide what to do with all of the Empyrean merits my main character had collected. I’m an unusual case though because I’ve been performing a community service over the last 2 years to make as many BAF Incarnate trials available to the population as possible. In general I feel it’s a real bummer when one is trying to acquire incarnate powers but no incarnate trial is available. Players end up being more or less stuck. Not cool. So I’m not farming incarnate trials to earn any sort of currency… and yet, it is nice to have some tangible reward for all the time and effort. Icing on the cake. If I had been stuck with 1,200 useless Empyrean merits I would have been as upset as you. If not for sheer luck, I’d be where you are right now. Maybe the Devs can implement something like the one time pop up/slider you suggest? It would help many people in your situation. in a different recent thread it was suggested to reduce the merit reward costs of buying recipes and enhancements to make reward merits a viable way to outfit a character (rather than only influence). It’s not a bad idea.

Yes, this worked GREAT!!!! I just copied the appropriate files over to the "data" folder. I don't know if the Window .exe will work, but I figure there's a good chance it won't since it's so old. The only out of date information I have come across are the links to badge-hunter.com (BH). That website is gone. However, all of the Paragon Wiki (PW) links still work. Other than that, nothing out of date, per se... just old-ish. All info is from Issue 24 or before. So no new I25, I26, or I27 stuff. But... since I never found the Help Window useful anyway, at least now there is some stuff that might be usable with this new custom Help Menu... namely contacts and missions. There's a BUNCH of badge info, but I've never been into badges much. I can see people that are into badges liking this a lot... For me, the best part of this is that it provides a framework to improve upon. It would be relatively easy to add new information, new links, and even additional info such as enemy vulnerabilities and primary damage types. Actual clickable waypoints for contacts, badges, etc. could also be added. Powersets by archetypes, set IO info, pretty much anything. And since it uses popmenus, you could even activate powers or send messages. Just for convenience's sake, here's a link to the files: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uv1x7hEOQdJCTnEw0ZEHh-Nu1YoYNlw3/view?usp=sharing I also copy and pasted the important info from the post, including the installation directions, and put it in a "readme.txt" file. It's pretty darn cool! Here are the main categories in this help menu: Task Forces City Zones Contacts By Level Story Arcs by Level Tips by Type Badges by Category SG Badges by Category Temp Powers by Category Souvenirs by Name Colors by Name Badges By Name Badges in Game Order Contacts By Name Temp Powers by Name Badges Recent Adds There are a lot of other awesome features in this help menu. A cool one is the ability to click on a task force, and then click on a link to send a recruitment message straight to LFG, Broadcast, etc. Pre-written invite scripts makes is automatic. Pretty snazzy, actually! It gives you coordinates for just about everything. And links to paragon wiki for more info on whatever you're looking at. It was obviously a TON of work! The author mentioned that his primary goal was to have all this information that we'd normally have to get by tabbing out and searching on the internet, available to players right in the game... using the help menu. No need to go outside the game. It's an admirable goal... but... my head reels when I think about how much work it would be to keep updated and current. I mean, we have teams of people doing that at the wiki. That said, the information in this help menu is fairly accurate. Only a few things have been changed over the years. The bulk of the game is from Issue 24 and before, which is how current the information is in this help menu. Of course, there's none of the information from Issue 25 and later. Definitely no Homecoming stuff. But yes, the bulk of the game is in this help window. Since I don't use the standard help window anyway, I figure this one can't hurt. Go ahead and try it. Test it out. See if you like it. And if not, just delete the files that you added and the game will be back to the way it was. There's no risk of damaging anything.

I see your point. When I first joined Homecoming, I hopped on my fire/spines brute and farmed up a storm just to get Inf. I did calculations and time/cost benefit spreadsheets, and figured out the best missions to farm for the best Inf yield. The best I found yielded 41 million inf per hour. However... that was before I started playing the market. For 15 minutes of buying and selling per day, I can earn 1 Billion inf in 10 days or less. A couple months of that, and I haven't had any monetary issues whatsoever since. I just buy whatever I want, when I want it. In fact, if it wasn't for me bankrolling everyone in my SG, I wouldn't have had to play the market ever again. As it is, I've only played the market again once in over 2 years. So I see your point, but frankly the whole monetary thing doesn't apply to me anymore. It doesn't have to apply to you either. However... What if you're here to play a superhero and not a stock broker? Valid point. Then you're forced to farm if you want anything other than basic IOs. This is actually a good idea. I've never bought recipes using reward merits because it's just too expensive in time spent earning reward merits to do it that way. I don't know about the reduced costs suggested above, but maybe some sort of price drop would be a good idea to help support the new player base The average Reward Merit to time ratio in the game seems to be about 30 reward merits per hour. That is without attempting to hunt down and farm the missions with the best Reward Merit yields. There are, of course, better yields in the game. If the reason to farm is to earn Inf, then increasing reward merit yields or reducing reward merit costs (or both), sounds like a very good idea to get many people out of the AE buildings. P.S. Leveling a character from 0-50 yields me about 150 reward merits by the time I'm 50. This is with an XP booster. Without an XP booster, it would probably be double that because I'd be able to complete more mission arcs, but also double the time. This should give you an idea of what a new player might earn just by playing the game and not farming at all. At the current 50 reward merits per recipe, a new player would be able to buy a total of 3 set IOs... not even a complete set! If you instead farm for inf for 1 hour, 41 million will buy you 8 set IOs (probably more actually, but I went high). Whereas, farming for reward merits for an hour wouldn't even allow you to buy a single set IO. See the imbalance?

Not entirely true. Depends on how you run it. If the farm is being farmed by 2 toons that can both easily farm the mission solo, and if they start on opposite sides of the map and meet in the middle... the map ends up being completed in half the time... which doubles the XP rate (XP over time).

My biggest problem in the game right now is getting a team of 8 together to play the difficulty setting TFs. I think I need to join a new, active SG. Anyway, we did the Valeria arc with a team of 4. Turned it up to +4 x8 on the second and third missions. Same result. Easy. But I hear your points guys... it's meant to be easy. What do you guys think of the idea of incarnate missions starting in hard mode, with the ability to lower the difficulty settings if needed? Just the opposite of how regular missions are setup. And I'm not talking about starting out at +4... but actually hard mode. INCARNATE!!! Make it mean something...

The subject says it all. This new arc from page 4 was touted as incarnate level... god was it easy... and boring. I and my SG was all hyped up to face a challenge, and instead we got the same ol thing. Not challenging. Not interesting. Just... ho hum. Very disappointing. I don't mean to criticize our wonderful volunteers and developers, but you always ask for feedback... and unfortunately I have to say this arc is forgetful... at least for me... and my SG mates. We will never repeat it. Why was boring, what am I talking about? Everything about the mission except for the story, and even that was... meh. It had potential, don't get me wrong, but its execution left a lot to be desired. We all brought your best, toughest toons expecting a real challenge and discovered we could have brought our weakest, least effective toons and succeeded easily. 1) it was in caves which automatically is grating, 2) my tank was killing minions and lieutenants in 1 hit with my axe.. one hit! 3) the elite bosses took more hits to kill, but otherwise posed no threat whatsoever. I could have just sat down and let them wail on me and wouldn't have lost any hit points. BORING! My suggestion for future missions, or even these ones if you want to rework them, is to make then actually INCARNATE level. Not for regular toons but for INCARNATE level toons. Or better yet, for toons that are decked out with set IOs. A toon that was not incarnate should not be able to complete incarnate missions... at least not without incarnates carrying them. For regular missions, fine, balance away. But for Incarnate missions, you need to assume the toons participating in those are not only incarnated but decked out with IOs. Specifically, smashing/lethal resistance at cap, and smashing/lethal defense of at least 45%. Anyway, it was a bummer doing this Valeria arc. My SG ended up leaving for Diablo Immortal, and I ended up completing the arc solo by myself just to to get it done and be able to say I did it. Anyway, thanks for trying. I do appreciate your hard work and effort, Devs. All the best to you and yours.

The 9 buffs and 1 Debuff from Mystic Fortune are all minor and don't affect things very much. The one exception is the dang dialog box that pops up right in the middle of the screen, preventing me from seeing what's going on, and forcing me to stop attacking to click on the accept/deny button. Once that dang box actually killed me! Another time I ran right off a cliff because I couldn't see where I was going! So you're doing the right thing to set it to always/never accept at Null the Gull. Hate those freaking pop-up boxes. They occur at the worst times. The pop-ups that appear when reaching level 20 or 30 are just as bad, not to mention all of the various boxes with new contacts, badges, first tips, etc. They happen in the middle of combat, interrupt the flow, force you to stop movement, etc! Most of the time the pop up boxes are a minor annoyance, but if I could I would disable those too! Come to think of it, why don't developers make them transparent so you can still see what's gong on around you (COH is not the only game that does this with pop-up boxes)? Or why don't they put 5 second timers on them to automatically fade away? Why stop the momentum of the game and force us to click on it? Clicking on it doesn't force me to look any closer at it. In fact, I now brush them aside so quickly because I'm in the middle of something that I don't even look at the boxes! Anyway, Mystic Fortune is usually a small buff but it does add together with other buffs, and every little bit helps. So I set it to Always Accept. @Ukase, I completely understand where you're coming from. However, do you chastise those who give you the buff right in the middle of combat? Cuz they deserve it! If not, don't worry about thanking them. You didn't ask for it, and in fact may not even want it. Do you thank the person every time you're healed, or speed boosted, or buffed in a zillion different ways? Do you even know they're doing it? Of course you don't. So, here's the rule you can follow... if the other player has told (or asked) you in chat (or I suppose voice chat) that they are giving you Mystic Fortune (or any gift), then the polite thing to do is to reply to them and thank them. If they are attempting to interact with you specifically and socially. Otherwise, it's just another random buff. Treat it as such. On the other hand, if you really, really, really want to thank them... then send a generic thank you via the Local chat channel. That should be good enough, and with the new role playing command /listen_range you can even limit how far your thank you can be "heard". There are a ton of players who just slap it on other players and zoom away. Me? I'm generally indifferent to the buff, but I hate the dang pop up boxes! LOL

Surprising. Well, you never know. Things might have changed. You could try again. You just need 1 TB of space, right?

I found this on the old COH forums via the WayBackMachine. It literally replaces the obsolete help menu (/helpwindow) with useful stuff such as badges, and missions, and contacts, and binds, etc. The download links for the Windows and Mac versions still work! Check it out! https://web.archive.org/web/20120906212849/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=292537 I should mention I haven't installed this yet, but it's my plan to do this weekend. It looks like the guy wrote an .exe installation file for windows, but if that doesn't work, use the data found in the "Mac" version download.

If you still want to do that, I'd ask the Homecoming devs for space on the servers to set up the Old COH forums. It's an important enough resource for all homecoming and COH players that I'd bet they'd figure out a way... Or if you don't want to bother the devs, then ask Reddit... I bet someone out there has the resources you'd need...

Yep. Paragon Wiki is great. However, the Homecoming wiki has everything the Paragon Wiki has, plus updates and additional resources. It started off as an exact copy of the Paragon wiki, after all. In many ways the Homecoming wiki is superior to the old Paragon wiki, especially if you're playing on Homecoming. If you're on the Homecoming server, I'd say the Homecoming wiki is THE place to hang your hat...

You know... it's the story of my life. I figure out something new, come up with a new creative solution, invent a new way of doing things, or create a novel storyline and do you know what happens? After patting myself on the back and feeling really good about myself and how innovative and creative I am, I discover someone else had already done it! Arrrrrgggghhhhh! Last night I discovered that @Grumble from the old COH forums had documented how to store macros in text files way back in 2009 in this post. I guess I can take a little credit for figuring it out on my own? Maybe? Ah, whatever. At least @Gruble didn't figure out how to use macros in text files to create rotating "text macros", but dang! He did come really, really close to it! If I had stumbled on this post earlier, it could have saved me a ton of time. So kudos to @Grumble! Know that I appreciate the creativity and out-of-the-box thinking that went into developing this idea. You did great work, my friend. Great work. 🙂

Hey PK, do not despair overly much. There are some problems with the SQLlite database that are hard to overcome and the version you've been working on is still sorely needed. Mainly, the SQLlite version lacks nearly all of the photos linked from third parties like PhotoBucket, which are the major sources for images posted at the old forums. It's kind of a bummer because most of the time players posted code (binds, pop menus, mods, etc.) they just took a photo of the code and posted the link. This means the SQLlite version does not have any of this extremely important information. It's just gone. Consider these 2 "duplicate" pages from the old forum: SQLlite: https://cityofheroes.dev/liveforumarchive/topic.php?threadnumber=277110 WayBackMachine: https://web.archive.org/web/20120906214313/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=277110 If you look closely, the SQLlite version doesn't even have all of the text, let alone the necessary images. And from my own browsing of both versions, missing information is not an uncommon thing with the SQLlite version. However your files, PK, contain nearly all the images and the complete text. There is still a need for your old forum data and expertise. What are some things you could do? 1) just continue on as you were. Finish your project and put it up on the web. 2) use the SQLlite version as a framework to parse your files to include the missing information and images into the SQLlite version (kind of combine yours and theirs). This might also be faster. I don't know, just throwing some things out there, PK. Perk up, we still need ya!

My main is... Black Spectre (see avatar <--). He's a dark/dark defender from way back in my Champions pen and paper RPG days. My First hero. Extremely versatile with an enormous amount of tools he can draw upon and can adjust to every situation, including good DPS. A true Jack of All Trades. His toolkit includes: -To Hit (AOE), -Res (AOE), -Regen, -Dam (AOE), -Speed (AOE), -Fly (AOE), -Recharge, +Def, +Res, +Mez, +Dam, +Acc, +End AOE Stealth, Invisibility, Intangibility, Hold, AOE Immobilize, AOE Fear, AOE Rez, AOE Heal, Flight, Teleport Target, Snipe His build has undergone MANY revisions, before settling on his current build. Looking back at my Dark/Dark defender guide from 2007 always brings a chuckle (see link below). I had no idea what I was doing, and yet I wrote a guide! OH, it's embarrassing! LOL Well, chalk it up to my love for the character. 🙂

Make the pact!

In SG base... UI for "Show Permissions" window (in salvage racks window) is a little messed up. Also not sure these are bugs, but just in case... none of these supposedly active windows found in WDW.txt work with /window_show, /window_hide, or /window_scale commands: baseprops baseinv baseroom inventory conceptinv recipeinv invent base_storage scriptui also baselog window. P.S. It's possible I just haven't been able to find these windows, but so far they're resisted all my attempts... P.P.S. You guys probably already know, but using the missionmaker window with /window_show messes up the entire UI, forcing a client restart to get the UI back. P.P.P.S. Using /window_show with the playernote window produces a partial UI.

If I were to choose 1 thing to change in the editor, it would be to make moving things smoother and easier. So often I attempt to move an object to a spot only to find that it won’t allow me to move it to that spot. So then I have to move the object all around the outside, behind the spot then around to the side and then down to the spot in order to place it. Sometimes I have to change the position of my character who is placing the item in order for the item to be able to be placed. Sometimes I attempt to move an item and it Just plain disappears out of sight… blinking to a far away location, but if I keep the mouse button pressed and move the mouse around, the item blinks back into range.

I would like a flat slab about the size of a bathroom stall door that didn’t reflect or refract light. So that I could use it to hide things such as secret passages. tintable would be best , but I’d just make it black. To create a visual illusion or a wall or passageway that isn't really there I’d need pieces that when placed in front or behind each other would blend into each other seamlessly to appear as one. Alternately, pieces such as walls or bookcases, etc, can appear solid but can be walked through.

I would like a flat slab about the size of a bathroom stall door that didn’t reflect or refract light. So that I could use it to hide things such as secret passages. tintable would be best , but I’d just make it black. To create visual illusions I’d need pieces that when placed in front or behind each other would lend into each other seamlessly to appear as one. Alternately, pieces such as walls or bookcases, etc, can appear solid but can be walked through.

The thing is... you don't know why they down voted it. None of us do. Did they thumbs down because they disagree with your facts? Who knows? Did they not like your tone? Who knows? Did they just think your post was too long, or too short, or used too many big words? Who knows? Did they downvote it because they don't like your negativity... or positivity? Did they down vote it just because they don't want to read anything on the topic, so didn't? Who knows? Did they down vote it because they're in a bad mood and don't care? Who knows? And there are a zillion other reasons people could down vote, up vote, side vote, happy face vote, sad vote, etc. The fact is the gesture is far too general and vague to know... ever. So just ignore the silly emoticons. They literally don't mean anything significant at all. They only thing I find them at all useful for is gauging how many readers visited the post, but even that is wishy-washy.

I’ve done the same for teleport powers, flight powers, and jumping powers. One bind to rule them all… well, for each of the different travel powers at least. It really dos help if you have a lot of alts. 😃

Wow. This is awesome!

Hey! That totally works! I didn't realize that the game wouldn't attempt to execute a Destiny power that a character had crafted but wasn't slotted! That's awesome! OK. So what you want, @Zhym, is a macro that strings all of your Destinly powers together, and you might as well use one of the icon images so it looks nice... /macroimage Incarnate_Destiny_Clarion_VeryRare Destiny "powexecname clarion core epiphany$$powexecname barrier core epiphany$$powexecname ageless core epiphany" Just replace the Destiny powers above with whatever your powers are. Each powexecname command is separated by double dollar signs $$. And that's it! Wow, pretty much exactly what you wanted! I didn't think it was possible. Thanks for pushing me to do some testing, @Ironblade! 🙂 P.S. The only drawback to using a macro like this, instead of the actual power icon, is that if you have the recharge timers enabled on your power icons, the macro won't show them.