Grouchybeast

XP is also recorded in chatlogs, which should be an easier way to do it than writing it down from recordings. I haven't run DFB since the changes, but I'll find an old run through and have a look. I don't suppose you know of a tool for getting info out of chat files? I know someone who wrote one back on live for parsing drops, but I don't know if he still has it or how easy it would be to tweak. ETA: He still has the tool and it already tallies XP, but I don't have an old log for a DFB with a brand-new character and no XP boost running to test with it.

There's also a Cosmetic Surgeon in the Rikti War Zone, who is probably the easiest one to reach at low level blueside via the Atlas Park Vanguard Base.

That looks suspiciously like an issue that I experienced back at the end of November, the day the Winter event started. All the characters on my account were locked out of the base until the next server restart.

The layout info must be saved somewhere until the respec is complete, though, because it's possible to cancel the respec at any point and have everything go back to how it was. Automatically saving the trays would be perfect, a saveable layout would be a good substitute, too. Or even as a start, NOT have the game just dump literally every temp power I possess into the trays and then look hopefully at me like a confused puppy that peed on the rug. Thanks, game. I guess you tried.

I propose a giant statue in Atlas that uses the phasing tech to display a hologram of the highest-prestige character of the leader of the SG with the most prestige on the shard. Redside there's a similar statue on Mercy Island, but shortly after every shard restart Lord Recluse arrives and smashes it up, so anyone wanting a screenshot will need to be quick.

I usually craft in the RWZ, where there are convenient tables, a vendor and the base entrance (not so important with the macro, but handy if it ever disappears.) Then I can just craft and list, vendor junk recipes and salvage, and throw everything else in the base when I'm done.

I think what Rathulfr meant is that they're supposed to be net buffs. Nerf implies intention, while this is some buggy weirdness causing problems.

Rename it to the Enhanced Prestige Elite Explanatory Number and have it display in big letters over the SG owner's head? More seriously, I'd be happy for base raiding to come back, for the people who enjoy that kind of thing. But it was broken for a long, long time on live, so I assume there would be issues to sort out. And it would be unfair to ask the aesthetic base builders to redo their bases completely to comply with base raiding rules, so there would need to be a separate building system for creating 'raid ready' bases. Prestige, absolutely not, though. It was a tiresome grind, that also played up to the power fantasies of the kind of people who want to boss other people around in their hobbies. (Not all SG owners! Many SG owners were lovely! But some were not.) (@Coyotedancer - Wow! That base room is amazing!)

Lots of Stardew Valley. There was a content update just before Christmas, so of course I had to start a new save to explore it.

I think it's interesting as an indication that NCSoft are willing to move quickly to take down content using their IP when someone is using it commercially. It isn't that they're blanket ignoring CoX IP violations, rather they're being very selective in how they address them.

There's no access to the original character database. However... If you kept your old CoX installation, any costumes, power customizations or AE arcs you had will still be there. You can just move then into the homecoming directory. If you used the Sentinel+ to export your characters, there's a utility on Titan Network that allows you to export the costumes. If you used City Info Tracker for badging, then you might be able to recover your character descriptions. I've had mixed success (some of the characters show info belonging to other characters) but I did manage to find some of my old character bios that way.

This is all awesome, thanks so much for the write-up. I've just finished levelling up a Bots/Time which did indeed turn into a monster at higher levels. A Darkness controller sounds like another interesting option, and I had a dark/dark defender on live that I enjoyed a lot. Hmm...

Nooooo, not more choices! No, but that sounds interesting because I love Dual Pistols (it looks so cool) and I've never tried Traps on any AT but that sounds like it could have some fun character concepts. Would Traps be a bit slow and fiddly for keeping up with a brute? That's the impression I've always had of it, but as I say, I've never actually played it.

No lie, the OP gave me a warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia for the days when people used to come to the old market forum to complain bitterly about the ebil marketeers who were making it impossible for them to purple out their warshades. @MasThoven17, I'm sorry you're having problems getting the stuff you want. The tone of your post obviously raised some hackles, but there is loads of good advice in the comments already. If you want to come back with some more specifics about what content you're doing in the game now and what your goals are, I'm sure that people will be able to help point you to strategies that will give you a more enjoyable experience.

Lots of fun sounding suggestions, thank you all :-) I think my final choice is going to be either a cold/cold or cold/kin corr. Probably. The main problem with this game is too much choice. The important thing, though, is that I have a costume and a name ready!

Did you get other badges for the same missions? Some of the mission levels don't line up correctly with the Ouro categories, and can screw up the awarding. Vanessa DeVore is a 20-29 contact, and the Magic Man is listed in Paragonwiki as 20-24, so it's possible they're being counted as 20-24. I did the Ouro badges with this guide, and for the 25-29 level badges I did The Origin of Power arc, which is listed under 45-50 but awards 25-29 badges.

I'm duoing a Bots/Time MM with a Beam Rilfe/Atomic Manipulation blaster. The blaster's Bonfire is slotted with a Sudden Acceleration KB -> KD. My Assualt Bot is slotted with the Overwhelming Force KD KB->KD proc. Whereas before the patch mobs would get gradually knocked around by the Drone attacks, they would mostly stay in the bonfire patch. It now seems like they're getting blown out all at the same time by one of the Assault Bot's AOEs. I guess this is probably the same KB issue as previous reported, but I thought I'd post it anyway just in case.

There's an area in Talos (the north-west area of the main island, IIRC) where the Tsoo spawn during the day, but Circle of Thorns spawn at night.

Some cool suggestions, thank you. I don't ever remember having an Ill/ controller or a /kin, so I think I'll look into something along those lines.

My duo partner wants to reroll his fire/fire brute from live. It'll be used for playing regular content, not AE farming. I'm looking for something to play with it that has good synergy. I generally play ranged and support, but I'll consider anything. Any suggestions?

And now we don't even really have devs, per se -- we have fellow players who are putting up their own time, free, to maintain access to the game and develop it further. There isn't one almighty dev team who control the only option to play the game. There are already multiple servers offering different playing experiences, and at this point there's nothing to stop someone trying to round up a group of people to develop a 'hardcore' server if there is sufficient interest to do that. Lift the aggro cap, remove IO drops, disable the difficulty system. Go wild! The We Have Cake team aren't here asking that HC give them instant 50s and sacks full of Empyrean merits. They're out there on their own server, enjoying their blackjack and Tier 4 incarnates. Complaining in the forums is no longer the only option to get what you want.

So...what you're saying is we need to nerf resistance AND defense? I'm concerned that if we do that then players will take to just hiding around corners, and nerfing all the corners could have serious implications for the map geometry.

I mean, a game is fundamentally the kind of game it is, and I think it's a good thing that they play to their strengths and look after their core player base. For example, I don't play Eve because that's not the kind of game I like, and I would never even think of going onto the forums and asking if, hey, could they make Eve more casual-friendly, let me level much faster, and maybe make PVP entirely optional while they're at it. That would just be weird. Most of the games I play are sandbox games, and that's really how I think of CoX. It's a sandbox MMO, where you set your own challenges. If that isn't the kind of MMO someone likes to play, then there are plenty more out there for them to try.

I'd agree with this as a good rule. Unless the TF is low enough level TF that characters are substantially lacking in accuracy, the purple patch scaling modifiers at +1 or +2 aren't going to make an enormous difference to a full team. Even at low levels they can, as you say, be mitigated by the right support. For anything more ambitious, the first mission is usually enough to show if the team is going to struggle. At that point a lot of people are very amenable to restarting with a lower difficulty.

Well, literally none of those things are true. No one called you either of those things, and you responded for 3/4 pages. I'm still interested to know what your actual definition of challenging content is, though, since you never answered that.