UltraAlt

So the main differences between contact missions and radio missions come down to: 1) Radio missions will keep you in the same zone. Contact missions will not. 2) Radio allows you to pick from 3 missions. You can figure out the enemy type on most of them. 3) You won't get any Kill Alls or Hunts from the radio 4) The Radio has no story unless you make up your own. (you can build your own mission arc in the AE and there are plenty of already made story arcs there as well ... it is what it was designed for) 5) Contacts give you merits if you complete their story arcs (the little book icon). 6) Contacts send you all over the City so you can race around and check out the City. (It used to be a real adventure traveling to different places in the city. Not so much any more for most of us) 7) You can easily outlevel contacts. With police missions, you can outlevel zones. There are those that only level through radio missions. Without the Kill Alls, Hunts, and Zoning the leveling usually goes faster (often times leveling teams even avoid the bank missions because some players think that slows down the leveling). Have you done any of the Origin story arcs that start from the contacts in the basement at City Hall in Atlas? The Origin arcs go from level 1 to 50 with a line of contacts for each origin. In the end, the Origin arc explains the origin of the origins and where your powers truly come from. It is also easy to bypass the contacts in the Hollows, Striga, and Croatoa. As an alternative to the Police scanner, there is always Tip missions. They can be a lot of fun. Honestly, I mix it up. I do contacts, police missions, AE mission, tips, street sweeping, giant monster hunts, task forces, SSBs, etc. Sometimes based on my mood. Sometimes based on character conception. Sometimes based on those I team with regularly. Sometimes just because I see something that catches my eye in the /LFG.

Honestly, I sell all white and yellow drops I get for 1. But I always by whites for 1000 and Yellows for 25,000. Of course, the one that is posted at the lowest price is always the first one to be purchased whenever a bid is placed.

When I run on an AE team on missions run by a friend of mine, they always cut-and-paste all of the contact dialog into team chat so everyone on the team can read it (if they want to). So usually I do that back for them as a favor if i'm the one that pulled the arc.

I never looked to see how much vendors pay for whites and yellows. Do you know the numbers? I currently always pay 1,000 for all whites and 25,000 for all yellows. I'll up my bid prices if those are below vendor pricing. I do quite a bit of crafting. Selling to a vendor takes the salvage out of circulation.

I kind of think of it as a somewhat sentinel like human form, a damage-dealing squid form, and a tank-like dwarf form. If I want to make a Kheldian that is a damage dealer (as I usually just dual form), go with human/squid. If I want to be tankery, I go with human/dwarf. Does this make sense? I honestly thought that is what they did but in a different manner. You don't flip back-and-forth between forms, but you pick one at a certain level - if I understand correctly. Honestly, VEATs don't excite me so I've never played them. I tend to always get the fighting pool on my kheldians. I can't remember what I did about kb mitigation in human form, but I don't remember it being a big issue, but I don't solo a whole lot. The same thing really goes for mez protection. I have characters that seem to get mez way more than the few kheldians that I have played have had mez issue. At any rate, I do tend to carry a column of resist effect inspirations on pretty much all of my characters (even if they are only there to get going quickly on the rare occasion that I need to use an resurrection inspiration) I'm not entirely familiar with warshades. I just made my first one on Homecoming a couple of days ago. I plan to be playing as human/dwarf so I have a good ways to go before I can get the dwarf form. As far as this part goes, it kind of reminds me of the complaints of some of the marine affinity set. I tend to play based on the team that I'm on. I can generally gauge pretty quickly if I should avoid using multi-target attacks or lean into the multi-target attack; if I need to back-off or if I can close; etc. So some of the power picks appear to be used when the situation allows and may not fit into the way that people want to use the sets. Okay. Sorry. I didn't understand it was the inherent. So yes, I can agree with that. Defender's inherent was changes so that it would help he defender if they are soloing. What do you think would thematically fit for https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Inherent_Powers#Cosmic_Balance when not teaming? Based on the earlier comments - though may not be thematic - it could increased knockback and mez resistance when solo? Would that be a fix? Maybe I missed what you suggested to be the change for Cosmic Balance for when solo. I honestly haven't noticed one way or another. I'm not looking to see what archetypes are on the teams I'm on and trying to figure out what perks my Kheldian should be getting from Cosmic Balance and trying to figure out how much of an advantage that they are. Then it seems like to me that the Kheldian player is supposed to switch to Dwarf form when getting mezed or knocked around is an issue. I am not an end-gamer. The Kheldians that I had previous to the warshade I recently made were all human/squid peacebringers. A majority of the time, the characters stay in human form. If the team allows me to go into "blaster"-mode or if I'm running low on endurance, I switch to squid form. As the situation allows which is sometimes when my character's endurance has recovers, I switch back to human form. So this seems to fit with the "increased knockback and mez resistance when solo" suggestion. I think that for the damage increase part, that is really covered by changing into squid mode. If you choose not to pick that form, then you know you are not picking the most damaging form. I think that is intentional as Keldians have the other forms to compensate one way or the other as I indicated earlier.

No, it isn't. Being on teams - and I do team - I don't remember ever seeing anyone complain about knockback was melee based characters and characters that were level 50. Reading these forum - obviously I do - I have read post by players that said that it was disruptive to their melee play-style and/or complaints about knockback in high-end content. Is the untrained/team-friendly content not disruptive to those that want to steamroll content? My statement about steamrolling teams seems correct. People have different styles of play. "steamrolling" is a fairly common term. People that steamroll even use it to talk about their playstyle so see no reason that using that term would be insulting. I'm not discrediting them, I'm indicating that they are the ones that are more likely to have an issue with it based on my experience. You are free to post your opinion of what archetypes and levels of characters are most like to oppose the use of knockback. Honestly, I have been on extremely few teams when anyone complains about knockback. I think I can easily say less than 10 in the several years that I have been on Homecoming servers ... it is probably more likely less than 5. And just to help clarify, I only very rarely play level 50 or level 50+ content, so that is another reason that I suspect I'm not hearing the in-game complaints about the use of knockback. Are they justified with having an issue with knockback? If they do, it is their opinion like I have mine, but I do think that is where most of the complaints about knockback come from based on my experience. In my opinion it is. Just because in your opinion and some other people's opinions it doesn't, does make it so. Then maybe you should learn how to use knockback powers so they aren't disruptive or slot knockback to knockdown in all characters' knockback powers. I seriously don't have a problem with using knockback or other players using knockback. I run in some teams where everyone has has knockback. Lots of fun chaos as far as I'm concerned. Clearly, you have no idea what you are talking about and making assumptions. I figure out how a team is operating and do what I can to either augment what the rest of the team is doing or try to fill in the gaps/help the weaker members of the team. It is no use discussing anything with you any longer. You simply attack posters that you disagree with and - apparently - think that other people shouldn't post opinions if they disagree with yours. Your opinions are no more valid than anyone else's. Everyone can state their opinions. I don't want the DEVs feeling like they need to waste their time working on something that already has a fix.

I generally only create a dual-form Kheldian and not a tri-form one. I will also admit that I - I'm pretty sure - have only made human/squid Peace Bringers on Homecoming. I think the original concept for Kheldians was intentionally to make them difficult to play - sort of an "expert" mode if you will. There are intentional large advantages and large disadvantages for playing Kheldians over the various 3 forms. Having 3 possible forms to use complicates the game play. An attempt was made to balance those large advantages and disadvantages, and, though they may not make sense to some, I can agree that an attempt was made to balance the set of the 3 forms. And I think it was a fairly good attempt. And that includes limiting what powers are available in the various forms. I generally only create a dual-form Kheldian and not a tri-form one. I will also admit that I - I'm pretty sure - have only made human/squid Peace Bringers on Homecoming. I think this comes under the general idea of complication of gameplay and game balance that was intended when using his (h)EAT. It is entirely about game balance. However, how are you going (fighting pool) to punch or kick anyone when in squid form? - is probably one of the most blatant examples. So are any powers that only affect other members of a team. There are a bunch of them on other ATs. Rez (other) powers are an obvious example, but there are far more. It is supposed to be a complicated set - intentionally. You can use various builds and switch to one that is best for the content that you will be running. I say keep it like it is in regard to this, but make it clearer in the game messages (especially when picking powers) as to forms a Khelding can use a power. make it stand out more by making another color and/or having a note after each powers descriptions indicating "WARNING: Only use able in Human and Squid form" or something like that. Peacebringer Dwarfs get White Dwarf Antagonize, and Warshades Dwarfs get Black Dwarf Antagonize. These are both Taunts. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Inherent_Powers#Gauntlet is the specific inherent of Tankers. No other archetype gets Gauntlet ... not even Brutes. Kheldian dwarfs have an AOE taunt that they can use, so I really don't think adding taunt to all Dwarf-form-only attacks should be necessary. thanks for posting your ideas and thoughts about Kheldians.

I stated my view. That isn't any more "crying" than the people that want to be able to forward this suggestion. As I stated in my opinion, there are already enhancements available to convert knockback to knockdown if you want to use them. Please leave personal insults out of your comments.

Yes. It is. In regards to character names: Do you understand that those numbers are the number of characters currently online at the time you are looking at the numbers and not the number of characters that have been created on those servers or the number of characters that may be online on those servers at other times of the day?

Katana/Super reflexes with the whole https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Force_of_Will power pool Power Level Effect Weaken Resolve 4 Ranged, Foe -Res, -Def, -To Hit Mighty Leap 4 Toggle: Self Long Jump, Special Project Will 4 Ranged, Moderate DMG(Psi/Smash), Foe Knockdown Wall of Force 14 Ranged (Cone), Moderate DMG(Psi/Smash), Foe Knockdown Unleash Potential 20 Self +Regen, +Rec, +Def

Leave knockback alone. It has been in the game since the start of the game. Knockback is a soft hold. I would think that the majority of players that complain about it are melee players and/or playing level 50's and just want to steamroll content. If you don't like knockback on your characters, there are enhancements to convert it. If you don't like other people using knockback, maybe it is time to realizes that you are playing with other people that don't need to adhere to your playstyle. If you have the star? Kick them if you like. If you don't have the star? You can try to talk to the player, complain to the team leader, or leave the team. Are you on the only one on the team that is complaining? I'm going to put you on ignore. Are you the leader and the only one complaining? I probably put you on ignore and may or may not simply leave your team. I don't want to see your /lfg recruitment messages any more. I love knockback. (Do I have knockback on every character? no) Is there a learning curve until you figure out how to use it in a strategic manner? Yes. I have run on many teams with players that don't pay attention to the rest of the team at all and are a danger to their own character and the rest of the team. I try to do my best to play my character in a way to mitigate and/or to work with their chaos. As far as I'm concerned, there is far too much complaining about knockback. It isn't complaints from a large number of players, but the players that have an issue with it are very vocal.

Certainly. Why not? Let's let this thread die until it is revisited by @TerroirNoir if the DEV's ever start having DEV's Choice awards again. Let it drift to the bottom of the subforum. That is the best way to hide the discussion that has been going on.

"Oh, dear! This One might take more than one League to defeat. Better start recruiting, shall we?"

Well, you have 1000 character slots per server. You can make more characters and take all the time you want to explore the different options in the early part of the game. Some of the hero Origin arcs can get a bit tedious with hunts, but there is some cool stuff thrown in them. Same goes with bypassing Kings Row or the Hollows. When I'm soloing - and sometimes when I'm teaming with my non-PUG group - I turn off XP to keep from outleveling contacts. A while back, I started getting 8 hours of the x2 XP and then not re-upping it on my PUG characters ... and still turning off the XP not to out level low level contacts. At this point, I turn off XP and leave it off to keep some characters at certain level ranges so I don't feel like I'm playing an overpowered character when I want to join a group that I see recruitment for in the /lfg.

Thank you. Improvement takes time. I think you understand that. Discouraging people doesn't foster further development/improvement. Mentoring them does. But this thread started as a listing DEV's Choice awards - which were no longer being handed out to "I really think it's time that the Dev's Choice was reinstated properly." And, quickly, turned to "I can get behind any idea to drive a little visibility and recognition towards authors, but really, there just isn't that much interest I don't think....It'd be cool if farms and stories were separated somehow..." I don't care about the DEV's Choice and who has been selected by the DEV's because it was entered into a contest. I care about people here showing their creativity on whatever level they are able to do so and see the interesting things that they are able to create with the AE. So I can get behind recognizing authors (in general) and having a way to more easily denote which AE arcs are farms and which are stories to the casual user so that they don't have to go to the wiki to try to figure out a way to search for non-farms. I feel like that would be helpful to the community in general. It would possibly increase the number of players playing non-farm arcs and, possibly, the number of creative players creating arcs. Will all of them be great? No. Will they all deserve a 5? No. It would be very hard for me to rate something that I played in the AE as a 1 unless it is completely unfinished, a disaster to play, and would fall into the category of .. Honestly, I might not even rate that as a 1 depending on the way it played. I can't see rating anything that looks like a player put effort into less than a 3. Regardless of any shortcomings, if I enjoy a mission, I don't rate it less than 4. Trashing other people's works doesn't improve your own. Acknowledging that someone has put in effort to make something that is enjoyable for them that they want to share in hopes that other people find it enjoyable as well seems to be the proper goal in this environment. None of us are being paid. We are doing this for fun. People are going to be able to create and refine on different levels. That is what only focusing only the stories of DEV's Choice and a group that wants to gain DEV's Choice status even if the DEVs are no longer hosting the DEV's Choice awards is. It has a complete disregard for any author outside of those who create arcs that would "win" a DEV's Choice award. 👍 It isn't that I don't see where you are coming from on this. I do. But are those "test" arcs hiding story arc as much as .... And pretty obviously you are indicating they are marked as "test" so that pretty much makes them stand out for what they are. I really can't see any other reason for a unplayed mission to be be marked as test. Someone was trying to use the AE system, but really didn't understand how it works. Exactly. As they say, "one man's trash is another man's treasure".

The Portal is open to Victory! Let the invasion begin!

I franken slot. So there might be set bonuses for only slotting 2 or 3 in a power that you might find useful. I almost always put two Lockdowns in any hold power. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Lockdown:_Chance_for_%2B2_Mag_Hold and https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Lockdown:_Recharge/Hold which gives "Two enhancements improves the Damage of all your powers by 3%". If If I have multiple fairly-fast-recharge hold powers, I would put in a third lockdown in both of them for the stacked "Three enhancements improves the duration of your Hold effects by 2.5%." That third Lockdown for me would most likely be https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Lockdown:_Accuracy/Hold unless it is a high end-use hold power. I would probably end up putting a https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Devastation:_Chance_for_Hold in https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Illusion_Control#Spectral_Wounds in most cases.

You miss my point. When people were cranking out work for comics and even sci-fi and mystery pulps, there were plenty of spelling errors and grammatical errors. I fully understand that we are in a world that there are programs that will check spelling, grammar, and even tell you how you are supposed to word things. Those, however, are not in the game. And also, your creativity as a writer is stripped away and replaced by "how it is supposed to be done". I think that this modern need for perfection has jaded people. Though some writers of comics today are working to craft "literature", the goal of comics once was (and probably for the most part still is) simply an enjoyable experience to escape from the "mundane" world. Perfection is not necessary to tell a fun story or provide an enjoyable experience. I can understand how spelling errors, grammar, and punctuation trip some people up. They simply can't enjoy something that doesn't meet their standards. That doesn't mean that other people can't. I seriously have to wonder how many players that have been playing for a while even bother reading the mission text. If you are on a team, then only the mission holder is reading the text. The rest of the team is along for the ride and only seeing the NPC word bubbles in the missions. Is anyone even bothering reading the mission text when they run a task force? Yeah, the few that report spelling and grammar errors in these forums (and maybe discord) but the rest of the player base? They really don't bother. They are having fun playing the game. The AE doesn't have to be about "canon" stories. The AE is for players to be creative in creating adventures. City of Heroes is based on the superhero genre in general. Agreed that City of Heroes has its own superhero environment. Trying to make something a "canon" story requires very rigid following of the existing narrative and that is not a requirement of a good story mission in the AE as far as I'm concerned. Yes. But who are these "others" of which you speak? The Community in general? I've seen plenty of good pulp stories, superhero stories, etc. The point is that those genres historically are rife with spelling and grammatical but that didn't take away from the enjoyment of most of those that read, purchased, and/or collected those products. And most people don't have the time to produce stories for the AE if they are just going to get ripped apart in these forums because someone wants to overly criticize their creation and dissect it with a fine-toothed comb. They are creating adventures to be played and to be enjoyed. And again. If the wish to be able to bestow the DEV's Choice on only the most perfectly crafted mission (who gets to decide what perfectly crafted means?) that does nothing to promote the AE mission writing community. All it does is create Elitism. An elitist group that feel that they are on some higher level that entitles them to harshly criticise people that are just trying to have fun writing missions quickly because they want to play in that environment. I have a friend of mine that just shreds the overwriting in AE missions. From my point of view, don't take the star then and you don't have to read it. Let's play it an see if it is fun to play. And, yes. All criticism is subjective. You can be objective as you want, but in the end it is always affected by the subjective viewpoint of the observer. Take Thor Ragnarok or Deadpool (in general). Apparently, many people love that stuff. I think they both contain humor that is crass and annoying to me. However, the market is there for it. It is what that demographic of the market wants. I'm not saying that AE arcs are getting belittled because of the sense of humor. I'm saying that the creators of AE content that trying to promote their works because they want to share something that they created that they think is fun are being driven away by those that feel that they are superior ... not only superior, but need to be given a reward because they are better than everyone else and everyone should respect that they are superior. If the DEVs aren't selecting the AE mission, It isn't really the DEV's Choice. If the AE community wants to promote the use of the AE, they have to accept that not all players have the time to put an extensive amount of time into creating missions the way that perfectionist do. Those missions are in the probably because, even though it was really still in testing, they may have thought they had to publish it before they could test it. I think you are the first person that has mentioned arbitrarily going through and removing missions from the AE that you don't think should belong in the AE listings. I think we all know that the AE is used for farming more than anything else. Does anyone really care about the spelling and grammar if the farm is yielding them the rewards that they seek? No. If a mission is fun to play, how much difference does it make to the average player if mission arc is cranked out for the environment, enemies, and story frame work versus a subjectively "perfect" work? I have the feeling - for the average player - none at all. And I also think that most players that are going to the AE to look for a story mission (rather than farming) are looking for something different and fun to play. I'm never searching for a story mission labelled as "canon" when I use the AE.

None of the macros I listed change keybinds. @mistagoat doesn't include any macros that change keybind either. That wasn't clear. Well, you received more information than you needed .... information that other players may find useful. Perhaps @mistagoat can give you a more succinct explanation of the targeting macros that I'm unfamiliar with.

Macros are coding that players can do. They create buttons that drop in to trays. Basic macro creation structure: /marco name "command command-text" "macro" tells the game you want to create a button "name" is the name that will be on the button "command" is a /command - list here: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/List_of_Slash_Commands "command-text" is the required command text or message. Simple examples: /macro Hello "local Hello!" /macro try1 "goto_tray 1" The macro above flips the active tray to tray 1 /macro try2 "goto_tray 2" The macro above flips the active tray to tray 2 $$ is used to link commands when writing a macro. /macro Hello "local Hello!$$e wave" /macro Grat "team Gratz!$$e clap" A more complicated one for triggering one of all basic healing insps that might be in your insp tray: /macro Heal "inspexec_name respite$$inspexec_name dramatic_improvement$$inspexec_name resurgence" @mistagoat is creating some macros to change how the button looks with "/macro_image" /macro_image "Teleportation_Wentworths" "Auction" "AH" The one above creates a button to access the auction house. I use this one instead. /macro Auction AH /macroimage Teleportation_ResistanceMarket "Superbase Teleport" enterbasefrompasscode yourbasecodehere The one above creates a button to access a base when you are near a base portal if the base has a passcode created. My basic structure for this macro is /macro Base "enterbasefrompasscode BASE-999999" Where "BASE-999999" is the passcode for a base you want to enter. (if you yell out that you want access to a base, just yell out in the /help channel and someone(s) will provide you with one ... if you haven't built your own already.) @mistagoat 's might actually trigger the single character base teleporter as well ... if that has been purchased at the START vendor by the character. F, Stun, and ITF seem to be targeting macros where you are using it to search for specific targets. I like creating custom change emote (CCE) macros /macro name "cc #" cc # = slot # first slot is 0, second is 1, third is 2, etc /macro name "cce # ccemote" name = name of your macro cce # = slot # first slot is 0, second is 1, third is 2, etc ccemote - see listed below I use these macro structures to change from innocent bystander and super hero mode. My tray 9 only has basic powers in it. /macro IB "cce # ccemote$$goto_tray 9" /macro Super "cce # ccemote$$goto_tray 1" ccemote = one of these below ccbackflip cchowl ccevillaugh ccspin ccnuke cclightning ccprestochango ccdrinkformula ccsmokebomb ccninjaleap CCDimensionShift ccfurburst ccsalute ccvanguardsigil cccast ccsuperserum ccenergymorph ccrapidboil ccfeatherburst ccfurspin ccoilstrike ccpressurerelease cciceblock ccstoneblock ccfireworks ccpureenergy ccnuke ccmurderofcrows ccconfettithrow ccgiftburst ccinnerwill cclightmagic ccrainbow So say you want to get hit by lightning to change into costume for slot 0 (the first costume) /macro Super "cce 0 cclightning" Just as warning, there is like a 10 second delay between when you can switch costumes Have fun!

At that distance, I'm assuming that the other characters (in the other league) are far enough away that those characters aren't displaying on your screen. Less characters for the system and your computer to keep track of, the less lag there should be. Tons of characters are stacked in the same place (invasions and such) and the system and your computer are struggling to keep up with supplying and displaying all the information that is being processed. That isn't to say that the number of player characters in a zone in general don't have impact on lag. There is a cap on the number of player characters in a zone for a reason.

It seems to be that they believe farming should be more important than crafting and trading on the /ah