UltraAlt

Exactly. Of the options to make change that would allow someone to play lower level missions without using the Ouroboros ... which would give access to all missions (which you have pointed out are not all available in the Ouroboros), I suggested one based on leveraging an existing game mechanic - exemplar-ing - but with the added trait that it affects your "active" character level without being on a team and running someone else mission to the point that contacts see you as being that "active" level. I've seen comments that the codes are so different on other servers that porting over parts of their code would not be as simple as "plug and play". I too am just making suggestions. The DEVs are going to make the decision regardless. Which is understandable. I'm a big CoH fan as well, but haven't bothered paying any attention to the other servers. I have run into players here that do play on Thunderspy ... as well as here. I apologized for my assumption that you play on Thunderspy. I just closed trying to make it clear that I hoped you were having fun gaming regardless of which server or which game you were playing. Thanks for the reply.

I pass on that. I like it over here at Homecoming. What steps did they take to scale up the enemies? Did they even bother? I didn't bring up the Oro or reworking it. Exemplar-ing/sidekicking is already part of the game. The game sets you to that "active level". It wouldn't be a huge change to let a player set their "active level" at or below their current "actual level". That is what Exemplar-ing does. I use the term "active content level" as it would be essential self-exemplar-ing versus being on a team and being exemplar-ed. My comments on changing exemplaring was a side note. I for one do not enjoy level 50's joining my PUG groups and steamrolling the missions my team is running as a team. I don't expect it to happen for the main point of it being time consuming for the DEVs plus they would get negative feedback from the level 50's that want to show how cool they are by ruining leveling-characters gaming experience. If there is a change, characters should be scaling down to a contacts content and not the other way around. (needless, to say "from my point of view") Higher level enemies that cannot be defeated are "ding" when you are level-up enough to defeat them. I don't power-level to 50. I like playing the game. Sometimes it would be fun to level-down to run content that I could PUG. Oro missions locked to the characters that start it. My suggestion is an alternate method from locking XP. You still get XP when you are exemplar-ed. Have fun at Thunderspy if that is where you enjoy playing, but have fun wherever you game because, hopefully, that is the reason that we are gaming.

Actually, the Oro was a way of giving end-gamers something to do. But, back to the main point of this and a possible solution.... The game knows what level your character is - we'll call that your "actual level". The game also knows what level you have been sidekicked or exemplar-ed to - we'll call that the "active level". The game knows that you can only get missions from contacts within their level range - we'll call this "active contact level". What if a player can set their "active contact level" to that of or below their "actual level" in the options menu? This would allow a "actual level" 30 to set their "active contact level" down to - say - 12 (which would become their "active level" at that point when they aren't sidekicked or exemplar-ed), so that they could go to a contact that will give someone missions at level 12 and get level 12 missions (as that is their "active contact level"). That is to say, changing your "active contact level" not only exemplars your "active level" down to the "active contact level", but also contact see your character as being "active contact level" for getting missions. That seems to be the easiest way to handle it to me. No need to scale enemies up. No need to tamper with missions or contacts. Everything is handled through the normal character relations to contacts as the contacts will "see" your character as being the level you have set as your character's "active contact level" [Side Note 1 :Possibly, this option would be ignored when you sidekick/exemplar. This would be to avoid abuse for powerleveling, but I don't think there is much concern about power-leveling at this point. (seriously, there seems to be none - so this is really a moot point). The difference it would make between sidekicking/exemplar-ing from the "actual level" or "active contact level" to "active level" wouldn't be that huge of a difference based on the current sidekicking system anyway.] [-separate train of thought - Personally, I think it it time to relook at the exemplar system in general. It leaves players too overpowered compared to characters that are on that level. I understand that it was a mechanic to entice higher-leveled players to run on a lower level team. However, it makes them dominant on those teams and that isn't necessarily a "good time" for the mission holder. I would rather see reducing a character down to the level of the team leader instead of allowing them to have powers +5 levels - or whatever it is. This I think would be time consuming, and, of course, the higher level players in this situation would be complaining about how their powers are "gimped" when they are taking part in lower level content. -back to our current topic-] This "active contact level" option seems a simpler method to achieve the goal. Accessed by the options menu. Makes you appear to be level x to a contact when you set your "active contact level" to level x. In addition, it functions to transform your character's "active level" to "active contact level" in the same manner as the sidekick/exemplar system. It makes your character's "active level" equal to your character's "active contact level" when you are solo, leading a team, or running one of your active missions. Doesn't require changing any enemies, missions, or contacts.

Who said it was designed to be used "every fight"? It isn't an auto power nor is it a toggle power. I think of it more like domination that I can use more often. It isn't meant to be "perma" but, if that really is your goal, then you can probably achieve it through the same methods as perma-hasten or perma-dom. Personally, I don't think that is necessary. It seems to stay up until it is almost time to cast it again. It just doesn't move that quickly and has to be lead into a battle the same way that is necessary with phantom army or carrion creepers. "instant gratification" is what is required? I don't depend on Storm Cell for every other ability. I build my other powers to do what they do. Storm Cell does what it does, but also enhances. It can be used far more often than any build-up or like temp buff. Perhaps figure out how to use the power set without Storm Cell? Once you do that then Storm Cell is just icing on the cake.

Brickstown does lack a giant monster. Maybe an AV (or two) and some EBs mixed in with the prison escapees in the open-world would suffice? Perhaps moving toward one of the exits to another zone through the roadways through the warwalls with a group(s) of prisoners following them??

If it is based on the SG leader, then I'm assuming that it would have to pull that data from the SG registry. If it is going to pull it from there, why not just have it to default to whoever is the SG leader each time the base is entered? That way it wouldn't have to be updated and would always remain current.

So like 6" action figures of the whole Freedom Phalanx? (maybe all the "signature" characters? Gotta Catch'em All!) How much "smaller" are we talking?

Of course, not. People with similar stimulation/exposure in the world are bound to come to similar conclusions or thought patterns. Some may related it to the collective unconscious. Evidence for a communal consciousness: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21724158/

Is that just for primary and secondary set combinations?

Not even close to "almost everything". I am not going to bother calculating because I know it would take far more than 120 characters to have a character of every possible primary and secondary paring of every archetype. And that isn't even scratching the surface of power pick combinations, mixing in power pools, sloting variations, and enhancement variations. And there are other variable beyond that. And, in case this is about content, I seriously doubt you have played all the non-farming arcs in the AE.

I have a player that I game with that would copy and paste the text into the chat window or, if we are on discord, then the player running the mission would read the text to the rest of the team. Often, most of the talk going on has no relevance to what is going on once in the mission other than maybe "you will be fighting x, looking for y, and trying to find out why z is going on." and maybe "Arrest them all!" I don't mind chatter to the player that isn't demeaning. If the contact is sucking to the player to do their dirty work or whatever, that's find. It just doesn't need to be overly verbose to the point of becoming "My Dinner with Andre". There is a difference between color and feeling and fluff and filer. It's hard to draw the line sometimes. I've ready plenty of novels with a bunch of fluff and filler added for word count. No one here is getting paid for word count, so there really isn't any reason to overwrite. At the same time, I think some people feel that they need to over edit. We don't have to over edit here for word count either. I ran into an interesting term going through some books that I recently inherited from a dear friend of mine with a good soul. STET - Latin for "let it stand", a proofreading term that means "Don't change the author's wording".

I'm leveling with other players, so I'm about up to level 18 now. I can't say I'm seeing what you are seeing. I'm having fun with the power set. The players that I'm playing with are as well. I'm not going to say that I don't think that smashing damage kind of sucks in general. This is true, because pretty much everyone has resistance against it. But the whole set doesn't do smashing damage. It's out of beta. You had your time to comment on it during beta. If the Devs didn't listen, then well, if it really is all that bad it will get adjusted later on. In my own experience, of soloing in beta, it gets to a point pretty quickly during leveling where it seemed to be OP to me, but maybe that is based on my tactics and reputation settings.

...errr, what? Oh, wait..... Welcome back to the forums. I haven't seen you post for a while. Now it all makes more sense. Have a good day and have fun.

Yes, when the DEVs call for testing. Because the DEVs ask and I like to support what they do. Mainly, I test new powers, but I don't constrain myself to only new powers.

Yeah, based off of zombies from the mastermind set. You also get some flaying PBAoE attacks using the /e tantrum

@warlyx you are quoting me as saying something that I did not say.

You don't think he can binge drink that much do you? I mean how much alcohol can he drink anyway... oh wait... I think that's his superpower and he's finally come to grips with it. He's probably just out on the streets wearing a cape and puking on Hellions and killin' Skulls (aren't we supposed to be arresting them?!)

Well, I've calmed down on my anti-farmer/power-leveling crusade. I haven't ranted about it for a bunch of months at this point... I think... Unfortunately, only normal handgrenades are sold at the P2W vender.

Oh, I have seen this happen in many comic books of various publishers and titles. I think I have seen it happen most frequently in Legion of Super-heroes comics before the yearly-reconathons began I'm unsure of the meaning/implication of this statement. Agreed. Make a new character instead.

There is no queue that I know of. Are you playing on the weekends on Excelsior? I guess that server could get filled, but I have never experienced that (I don't play on weekends) Even if the server is full, I wouldn't see getting this message. Again, I haven't seen that kind of server queue message, but I can't see that should be showing before character creation is completed. Did the player use the Homecoming launcher to install City of Heroes? Did the player make sure that the game was updated before launching it? You get this when you are already logged into the game. I'm assuming they have their own account that they aren't sharing with anyone else. If this happens just log back in again, and it will terminate the active instance of the account. If the game hangs when going into the City, just let it sit until the character "zones in". Sometimes there is a delay due to lag. This should take well less than 5 minutes. The character won't be "saved" until the character has been "zoned in" to the game. So I would test just making a garbage character that they don't intend to play just to get a character saved. Go to Reunion or Indomitable. just click and pick through everything (make sure to pick powers and a character name) and zone into the game. move around for a bit and then log out. Go back to the same server and see if the character is there. check back if they still can't get a character into the actual game (past character creation)

I feel that they went this way with the Praetorian content because there was a move in comics toward anti-heroes and the television show Heroes was also exploring this "gray area". To me, that destroys the comic book mythology. The original comic book mythology is pretty direct. There is good and here is evil. The good is attacked by evil. Evil must be vanquished because of that. Sure, the Comic Book Authority made that even more rigid. I'm not saying that there weren't characters that law enforcement thought were criminals when in all actually they weren't or that Batman didn't throw enemies off of building or back them off the top of buildings or into a vat of deadly chemicals by menacing them. At the time, the Praetorian content was too close to life to me and the point of playing was to escape from that into the CITY OF HEROES not into another dystopian reality. If freedom is outlawed, only outlaws can be free. Which doesn't imply that all outlaws are free or that freedom is benign or malevolent.

I'm a "character conception" player. I really think City of Heroes is about creativity and creating things. Of course, once created, the characters are about exploring the world through their mind set and fighting the forces of evil (or being evil ... if for some reason that is you character's "thing"). So my advice is to think of the kind of character you want to play. The kind of powers you want your character to have, what they look like, and an origin story. Then go in and find an archetype and power sets that matches that, a costume that meets at least your base level standards, and write your bio before even going into the game. Doing that makes playing characters more enjoyable to me even when I really have to work to get the character to succeed in some instances. Welcome home. Then a blaster is probably your go-to. If high pop is important but you are playing from Europe I would go with Everlasting over Excelsior. Excelsior has a higher population, but that might also increase lag. I really feel sad about Reunion's numbers these days though. I have had some good times on that server (I have characters on all servers, but mainly play on Torchbearer and Everlasting at this point ... because, I too, enjoy teaming... Torchbearer is usually okay for population during America primetime [one side of the coast to the other] but after that it drops off pretty quickly.)

Well, The Dwarf is the more tankery form. The Squid is the glass-cannon form. I have only one Kheldian at this point and they are a Peacebringer. They try to stay mostly in Human form, so they run combat jumping (for the defense), fighting pool (kick - for a chance to knock opponents down, weave - extra defense) and leadership (primarily for maneuvers and tactics) I switch to squid for if on a team and more damage is needed or for the quick end recharge of a squid rather than using rest. I can't say for end-game, but the above seems to work well once you are able to get the shielding against the voids and what not. I haven't made one since before the sunset, but my somewhat addled memory is telling me that it isn't all that much different playstyle-wise. I guess the main difference is the https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Umbral_Blast#Starless_Step but, honestly, (from running with someone else with a warshade) the to-hit bonus for teleporting doesn't seem to be as good as https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Teleportation#Combat_Teleport