UltraAlt

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

This seems to be triggered when you try to cash in more than 30 or so things that have been sold by clicking on the button to get all influence. I don't think I have ever had it happen when I was manually clicking each sold item to get the infl. However, if some of those transactions for infl retrieval that you were manually clicking on to retrieve are still processing + your character still has slightly below 30 more completed sales and then click the button to get all the remaining infl, you may get the busy message. Generally, I'm collecting inf for well over 30 sales, so I have been watching the behavior for a long time and trying to manipulate it to avoid the message as seems to make sense at the time. When pulling card drops out of email, that doesn't seem to hang at all if you wait to hit the button to retrieve the next one until the message that displays on the screen for the item retrieval starts to fall toward the bottom of the screen.

If we are only going to stick with the two distinguishers; Hall Of Fame and Dev's Choice... We have to admit to ourselves that Hall of Fame is for farms. In general, these are the only AE missions that get the level of play required to achieve Hall of Fame. Dev's Choice is supposed to be for actual non-farm, story missions. So the only real distinguisher that stands out for a random player with little or no experience with the AE - And let's face it, that is most of the community - is the Fall of Fame and Dev's Choice markers. In general players avoid the AE other than to farm. And, as @Dacy pointed out, that is because it is hard to find non-farm missions and ones that can be used through leveling (non-level 50 missions). I believe - at this point - that DEV's Choice should no longer only be for what harsh and, I believe, some abusive critics to be absolutely perfectly crafted gems of literature. This kind of public ridicule of someone's work will dissuade them from even bothering. Is the point of the DEV's Choice an elitist goal for a small in the inner circle of the Mission-crafting community or is it to highlight story arcs versus farming arcs? If it is an elitist goal, then I don't support anything to do with it. If we are working to use DEV's Choice to help promote the AE for non-farming purposes by using it to denote fun, exciting, different, and/or leveling content, then I'm for supporting those criteria. Is it fun? Is it funny? Is it exciting? Is it different? Is it leveling content? Now Fun, Funny, and Exciting are relative to the participant. One person's fun is ruined if they see a spelling or grammatical error. One person's excitement can be related to the mission being different or the story being intriguing ... to them. Humor is relative to the state of mind of the observer. If the goal is to be more inclusive, it must be more accepting and allow development of skills over time. If someone writes a decent mission, it should be promoted in order to promote the creator to work on more missions. Skill develops over time. Destroying someone's fun in crafting missions is driving people away from the AE instead of promoting it. It appears that there are far too few that that want to be involved in the mission-crafting community even bother with the DEV's choice. The Elitism has already driven away those that would participate if the goal was truly to tell stories, provide alternate content for leveling, and to use the DEV's Choice to make it easier to find leveling story content in the AE. It only takes on reply to prove this ... And it comes from someone that indicates that they have already won 3. Yet again it seems to come down to "Let the elites pat themselves on the back". I was all for promoting the crafting of story missions in the AE. This appears to have nothing to do with that. There is a steep learning curve and the game doesn't proved in-game spell check nor grammar check. Most writing from the Pulps of the 20's and 30's would fail based on the kind of stringent criteria that some one to impose upon AE mission arcs. Works that are considered today to be "classics" to genre communities. Are they perfect? No. Are they fun to read - apparently, many people think so. Of course, critics rip them apart. When a critic feels that they have to rip something apart, they generally aren't really talented enough to generate their own works, think they they are superior, and/or don't want competition. Obviously, were are in an environment where the biggest critics fall into the later two distinctions. In my casuals strolls through the AE looking for content to play with friends, I'm not looking for missions marked as DEVs choice. The ones that I find fun to play don't get DEV's Choice awards anyway. This is a game based on comic books. Apparently, that fact has gone over the heads of what appears to be the "core" AE mission-crafting community. And again, it is come down to, "we want a reward for the elites because we consider ourselves to be the elites" instead of invigorating others to take their time to craft non-farming missions and develop their skills over time by continuing to create more story arcs (If you read this and think you are limited to 3, simply contact a GM and ask for more slots once you have filled 3, you will get them in most cases ... as far as I can tell)

er .. which time zone?

As they say, "'Tis the season."

I don't know if it is good or bad that you didn't bother to look up one of the never ending new threads about this and necroing it.

Celebrating the holiday with friends. Like the Ski Chalet, it is kind of like the Pocket D. Long, long ago before what has been called the Sunset, there were huge dance parties in the Pocket D (on some servers ... well maybe mainly Virtue) where players would dance emote on the dance floor, check out other player's character, send tells to each other, and who knows what else ... often while listening to the same online music channel. Not much of that going on anymore either. So, yeah, "a cool place to hang out" which gets about as much use as the Paragon Dance Party. I wasn't sure of this was a co-op zone or not. I guess most people don't know where it is. It would be a great place to form up leagues to go to the Winter Realm. 👍 That people could?

collective unconscious collective unconscious, term introduced by psychiatrist Carl Jung to represent a form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware) common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain. It is distinct from the personal unconscious, which arises from the experience of the individual. According to Jung, the collective unconscious contains archetypes, or universal primordial images and ideas. - https://www.britannica.com/science/collective-unconscious If you think it was "a brilliant name", other people probably think it is as well.

I love pairing up a blaster with Martial arts secondary. Ki Push is great for knocking an enemy up into a wall or corner continually as your character blasts them to ... rrr... arrests them. Make it a cold blast character, and it makes sense to throw in a https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Blistering_Cold https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Blistering_Cold:_Recharge/Chance_for_Hold Then you not only knock them into the wall or corner, but character might freeze them into a block of ice (hold them) as well while they continue the process of arresting their foe.

The players that show up to defeat them, because they would just fight eternally until - server reset or - players came to defeat the both of them like Jack in Irons and Eochai in the Croatoa War https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Croatoa_War Sounds like a fun idea! The Malta-Council War! I guess it would have to be in a zone with both Council and Malta show up already. Rikti War zone? Is there anywhere else that this could happen?

You want an archetype that can take over another player character and controls them (so the player of the character has sit around while you play their character until they are defeated - gaining them the debt ... I'm assuming)? And the Symbiont is a blob that moves around - I'm assuming slowly - until it can latch onto another player character to control? Yeah. Not for that at all. In any aspect.