UltraAlt

I started in Episode 2 so I saw the game evolve over time (eventually to the point that I stopped subscribing and playing altogether (partially because of what F2P had done to the game on many levels) about a year before sunset for multiple (additional) reasons - Homecoming has removed many of the reasons that I stopped playing) I had full character lists on all the servers before the sunset. Each server had its own character/favor. Kind of like it is now. one server wants to be the RP server. one wants to be the PVP server. one (or two) is where the Europeans tend to hang out. One is where the Oceanic/Asian/Pacific players sent to hang out. There is always one most populous server - that was Freedom. It is Excelsior now. The flavors/character were distinct but they really started diverging when the AE came out. Players did farm and power-level before the AE release, but the release of AE was a farming boom on steroids. And that (and the change to F2P/microtransaction [even for subscribers] model) funneled players directly to the most populous server - Freedom. The F2P revisioning was even called Freedom. New players went directly to the AE in Atlas when they logged in. And started yelling over broadcast for farms. They would level up to 50 and have no idea how to level up or get to another zone. Since many of them didn't have much influence at that point, they either tried to play without enhancements or took advantage of one of the spam goldfarmer emails that was being broadcast every 15-30 seconds. All this was intensified on the most populous server - Freedom. So pretty much the players rushed, didn't learn to develop the use of their powers through experience and were left overpowered and overconfident about what the game was about without actually playing it. I'm not saying that you are anyone is guilty, but there are many times that more experienced players are going to use different tactics to avoid teaming with that kind of player. It has nothing to do with a player being new. It has everything to do with a player not watching how others are gaming round them and treating teammates like NPCs instead of watching what is going on and figuring out how to gel with the group. It happens to some extent on all the servers, it is just more obviously the case on the most populous server - back then, and now. People should play how they like to play. If they like playing some way or another, there will be others that want to game with them and some that don't. There are people that like being crass and those that don't. There are people that like to ding, and those that gratz other people's dining because dinging is an important part of the (any) game (MMOs) .... well ... addictiveness and comradery ... both which add to play longevity. Players that rush and don't really care about their characters are a totally different kind of players from ones that take time to craft characters or bases (both of which lead to different play styles) ... and marketers that get hooked on the marketing. Players that play overtime obviously have a different understanding of the game and teaming (to each their own for sure!) Yep. People should play how they like to play and City of Heroes has a huge amount of content to explore ... if you don't go directly to the end-game and think that is all that there is. Was just pointing out what I see to be an obvious situation that occurs with the most populous City of Heroes server ... which may very well be the situation on the most populous server related to any MMO.

either you are targeting the same thing as everyone else or the other characters that you are running with have power-levels much higher than the foes you are facing. I actually do what I can to avoid running with players that have veteran levels just because of this reason ... well .. and others ... You see, some people just level past all the low levels to get to 50 and then think that that they know how to play the game since they have a 50. They just want to plow through everything and show off how super they are and could care less about what the rest of the team thinks of their behavior (other than adoring them because they are so mighty, powerful, etc.) I too am annoyed when someone rushes around to speed/stealth something that I wanted to get xp from. I don't like chasing players that act like a ping-pong ball or a tank the rush through a mob and into the next one and could give bat-droppings about the rest of the team. That can go for someone that runs ahead of the team and agros mobs and dies after leading the enemies back toward the group. Luckily, I PuG at good bit and generally get to be on teams when people actually figure out how to work with each other and move at a pace where the team is able to fight foes without falling. ... and that happens a lot more on servers other than Excelsior. Excelsior is like the new Freedom server. And I mean that with all the bad connotations that obviously go with that. Even before AE and City of Heroes when F2P back-in-the-day, it was already a different kind of server population. AE made it ... well the AE babie paradise. F2P just doubled down on it. Back then, the behavior level was like of DCUO global chat out in Metropolis or inside of the Watchtower gets at some points. If people like to play like that, that's great. I hope they are enjoying themselves. If you want a team to talk to each other talk to them. Gratz people. Woot out and thanks when the gratz you. A lot of that used to happen in the game. And, as always, if the team really is that bad, make an excuse and bail out of it. There are better teams out there ... especially in the lower levels from my experience. Teaming isn't the problem. It's your teammates.

Make an Alt and play the game instead of the end-game.

I think the DEVs should put 3-4x the thought into Hero content as they do Villain content. I say this due to the relation size of the active server population. Relation to Praetorian content is weird as Praetorian content turns into co-op content so perhaps putting some focus there would increase content that would benefit all Heroes, Villains, and Praetorians. The kind of alternate leveling path that I would add to the villain side would be one where contacts bring the new player into a non-Arachnos organization that has the player do missions to help the organization. the leaders have the middle level guys (npcs) push the player around ... at the start ... As the player levels, they get to gain influence in the gang/organization and then start pushing lower levels (npcs - possibly having underlings now using the primary and secondary colors of the PCs SG) around with the boss/leader of the gang/org (AV) pushing them around still. The number of minions, lts, bosses, and individual NPCs (named allies) that persuaded to join the PC sub-gang is tracked as leveling progress. As the player levels, they convince more of the gang/org to side with them (in which case the start wearing the primary and secondary colors of the PCs SG). Reaching 50 (or maybe even 45) the player confronts the boss/leader of the gang/org (AV). There is a big gang fight between the player (with their allies and minions) versus the leader/boss (AV) and any allies and minions that the player has not brought to their side. If the player starts being defeated possibly his minions would break for it and run. Same goes for the AV, their followers might not just run but change sides and start helping the PC defeat the AV in order to get on the PC's good ...er... I mean evil side. After defeating the AV, the player would now have missions as the gang leader; fighting off rivals, using the acquired gang in bank missions, fighting other criminal gangs, and general terrorizing THE CITY missions. I'm not sure how that would work in team play, but I think that would be an interesting leveling path for villains.

Sonic is a team support power. It functions on -Res. There will be people taunting or controlling most of the crowd. High DPS is not the only answer in a fight. Why would you want to be "far for all the cones"? You have to be close to the guy in the front to get the most of the crowd behind them. ... or you haven't put enough thought into find good ways to use combinations and tactics that you haven't used successfully before. Cookie-cutter builds are just that. Might as well make a cookie-cutter post list in the forums and people can rate the builds with the like options. Easy enough. No cookie-cutter min-maxing for me. I enjoy the flavor of different characters. Being the same as others is boring and self limiting.

Can we get a change to Null the Gull so that after completing a selection it goes back to the main option screen instead of kicking you completely? A little annoying when setting up a new character and you have to keep clicking back in in order to set a character up.

Yeah, had drops with even minions. Was trying to hunt down Bosses because it seemed like it was intended for them to have a higher drop rate. With the amount of testing I did so far, it the tips seem to drop more the higher they con to the character ... but random isn't always random.

Checked out base power for flight and leaping. Little weird needing to use the pop-up tray for the double leap, but it is pretty cool. Can tell the change in speed for sure. I always liked how we gradually increased in power, but can see how it is ease of use/travel. I agree that the travel pools should be more powerful/faster than the P2W versions ... though I'll probably still stick with some P2W travel powers on some character (form changes for sure). I use the flight pack from parking for the Day Job in Firebase Zulu on several of my characters. (Related to this I would like to see the Raptor pack as a backpack option where the wings come out when in flight/hover mode) Afterburner gets you a substantial way across a zone enough to make it worthwhile I think.

Steel Canyon two bosses - both dropped tips - just looked for bosses to fight Fought 5 clockwork minions at a badge marker and a tip dropped

Just went looking for bosses. found and fought like 7-8 bosses in Kings Row. Two Travel tip drops. Found like 4-5 grey/green bosses to a level 15. First boss downed gave a tip. Paladin event started/stumbled into event area, so that that gave me several conduits which were bosses. first conduit downed gave a tip.

No bosses in Atlas. I guess I should have guessed. Onward to King's Row! -edit- made a new character and ran around the lake. Took out three minions and tip dropped.

Didn't even know that could happen until last night, Doc? Am I correct in thinking that the Bank Heist doesn't work in this manner and that all have to enter for it to start, or have my teams just been entering closely enough to together or the selection of all the rolls need to be made before that one will start?

You are talking about testing by solo players I'm assuming as nothing you have posted seems to indicate group size, sidekicking/mentoring, group structure/mix, or player skills at teaming. Teams are generally going to be a mix of the categories you listed even in beta. Group tactics, the "gel" state of a group, and the experience and skill level of players goes a long way.

The game sets the Parameters. The Community is always within those Parameters. The Community doesn't set the parameters; the DEVs do through game changes. If parts of the Community want to limit themselves or create little boxes for themselves, then that is their version of game play and their own personally imposed parameters. I am opposed to anyone that is trying to set parameters on others that are not set by the game itself or Code of Conduct.

... less so than team teleport. It would make so much more sense if this was Assemble Team. Heck, when I came back from when the worlds were destroyed, I thought it was Assemble Team. Tried about 4 times and someone said, "how are you teleporting me". They were standing a few feet away. :s

The original game :: https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Training_Enhancement_Costs Training Enhancements are the least potent of all Enhancements. They are dropped by enemies for characters of level 1-21. TOs only ever dropped to level 20. Training Enhancements (up to level 20) may be bought in Freedom Corps stores located in various zones, from Freedom Corps Superpowered Field Trainers in Atlas Park, Kings Row, and The Hollows You can by level 25 and 30 TOs at Freedom Corp Special Forces stores in Independence Port and on Talos Island. Characters are just more powerful at lower levels than they used to be ... if they want to be. Some players get power leveled to 50 and don't have anything slotted. Play the game the way you like to play it. If you like to put yourself in a position where your suffering, well ... if that's what you enjoy, go for it.

As long as they aren't the team lead, they can get kicked from the team. If it is the team lead, everyone else can quit. The only bad behavior I have seen on Summer Blockbuster IS the guy rushing in and dragging the whole team in before they are ready.

main issue to me is players rushing into the colosseum before the other players are ready to start. it shouldn't start up until all players have entered. The rushers should have to wait for the team and not get dragged in before they are ready (mostly buying insps) it is kind of annoying to be targeted immediately upon entering the colosseum as well. As squishy, I often have to spam heal insp immediately upon spawning into the thing to avoid dying right off the bat. Otherwise, I wish there were more double-feature movies like this as content.

I checked the old wiki. It looks like generally training enhances ever possibly went to level 30, but mostly capped out at 20 before the sunset. I went to test/beta. Leveled to 10. slotted training. leveled to 20. slotted training. used the upgrade function to level up the training enhancements leveled to 30. the quartermaster in the base would only sell me DO's or better. Went to Talos Freedom Corps and they would only sell me SO's. used the upgrade function to level up the training enhancements. leveled up to 50. used the upgrade function to level up enhancements. Training enhancements slotted are now showing as level 50. So : Couldn't buy training past 20. Using the Upgrade function in the Manage window, slotted Trainings can be Upgraded all the way to 50.

I get a lot of useless drops in general. I get drops of types that I wouldn't slot on a particular character. Regardless of origin. It sounds more like an influence issue more than a drop issue. You aren't getting enough return to even slot trainings that you could buy from a base. I can feel you pain in regards to this as back on live, before the market was introduced, I had a defender that didn't have enough influence to fully slot even with training enhancements in the mid upper teens I think. The whole how much influence and xp you gained by fighting was all wonky at that point as well. It was all based on damage dealt and not being on the team. The character was an empathy defender and boy could I keep a team alive, even with the crappy enhances. Everyone was dinging left and right around me all the time. Not my character. Sometimes the other teammates would feed me scraps ... enhance that they couldn't use - because I wasn't getting those much either because I was busy keeping the team alive so they could do damage. Buffing them so they could do more damage. It was frustrating. The market is your way out if you really want one. Of course don't use any xp boosters if you need influence as using them limits or stops your influence gain through defeats. Run on teams and you will gain more than running solo. Don't depend on drops and make a base or access one to use the enhancement vendor ... but once you get to a point, it won't even sell you Trainings any more. I'm not sure if the auto enhance leveling function works on training or not. Maybe I'll go on test and see as I have time.

Okay, confused gain. Why is a bad thing to have a better enhancement drop? I'm assuming it is because you are fighting enemies that are not related to your origin so you are not getting DO and SO's that your character can use, but one shouldn't assume.

Sometimes the game intentionally puts you in situations where completing a mission is a lot easier once you have leveled up. I'm pretty sure I have run into that kind of situation quite a bit. The behavior of gameplay with the Tsoo from when you first encounter them to when you have leveled up to beat them down is a good example. It's a mechanic to make them a real threat to overcome so when you can beat them down ... it's all that much more rewarding.

I think the technology is improving over time. I have a couple of pairs from Costo https://www.costco.com/optical.html#blue-treatment That seem to serve me well at work. They don't get all scratched up, but I don't have a large pack of dogs. I have prescription lenses, so it doesn't look like you are going for that. If so, look at my comment above. I have also started taking Lutien which has helped with my eye strain at work. I haven't tried Zeaxanthin. Honestly, eating more fresh carrots on a regular basis is supposed to help. Suggestion to put your Windows 10 computer in night mode is a good one. I generally don't do that, but I set it to dark mode (default is light mode) - to set this go into options and type dark in the search. Putting lower wattage light bulbs helps me as well, but my eyes are light sensitive.

Got me leveled up zombie/dark mm and put it in Gloom with no issue.

I'm assuming the mastermind version can take both recharge and damage enhancements. That's the only thing that I think should possibly have some reason to stop the slotting. grrrr.... now I have to make a Zombie/Dark Mastermind before I can go to sleep.