UltraAlt

I can only speak from my own feelings and what I have observed. The game is City of Heroes. City of Villains was added to City of Heroes. Even though it was technically listed as a separate game originally, you couldn't have a base in City of Heroes unless you bought and installed City of Villains along with it. Also City of Villains gave you additional character slots for CoH. CoV was a way to try to get more money out of the players. Was it to explore villainy? Yeah, sort of, but they knew they had to give something to the heroes to get them to buy it and maybe play it. CoH hadn't been released 20 years ago, let alone CoV, but I guess that's just a fudge on the timing. It is true that you couldn't play the villain archetypes as heroes until 5 years after City of Villains was released when City of Heroes: Going Rogue was released and the alignment system was added to the City of Heroes. By that point, City of Villains had been merged into City of Heroes and City of Heroes: Good and Evil edition had been released and everyone that had City of Heroes or City of Villains that did not have the other were grandfathered in to the other game. From my point of view, the merger of the two games and the alignment system were added because there were alway far, far fewer villain characters than there were hero characters. Even back then, people that were playing villain characters were complaining about having no one to team with. I played CoV for a while because I bought it. I randomly played villains at other times because was in the RO (Repeat Offenders Global supergroup that had multiple supergroups - maybe even across multiple servers... I can't remember that much for sure at this point) or a friend wanted to run villains for the night. I think I had one villian make it to level 50 before I stopped subscribing almost exactly a year before the sunset. Honestly, I never really enjoyed City of Villains for multiple reasons, but I didn't dislike it as much as Going Rogue/Praetorian content. I purchased City of Heroes in order to play superheroes. If I was designing one, I would start having morality tracking from the get go. Do what you want, but other people and other "groups" in the game will react to you based on your behavior. Even if you start as a hero, if you behave in a villainous manner, you become known "in the City" as a villain. It depends upon the game environment, and the way that Homecoming is now, you can go change your alignment as soon as your character zones into the game for the first time if you want to. But your point was taken by Going Rogue. You don't choose your alignment until you get to level 14 or something, so that option is there if you want it. Go Rogue. nothing like that from my standpoint.

Yes. If you mean that the DEVs should double the XP (boosted or not) for simply playing villain content, then I agree with that statement. If you meant that you didn't word it so it meant that, so again, I agree. There is no reason that the DEVs should reward villains simply for playing villain content. I haven't checked recently, but Planetside 2 still does this as far as I know. You get a percentage increase of XP based on the percentage imbalance to the other sides. it isn't a cut-and-dry double xp boost if your faction has less than 33% of the population on that continent. Also, there is no need for faction-balance in City of Heroes. It isn't Heroes vs Villains vs Praetorians PVP where you want a relatively equal number of players battling against each other. If you want to go for some kind of PVP reward bonus in PVP zones for actively fighting in a PVP zone, I wouldn't support that either because multiboxing is allowed. There is no reason for force players to play one side or the other. The incentive used to be the archetypes that you had access to, but we know that many players simply got around that once the alignment system was introduced by making a villain and then moving them along the alignment spectrum to some degree or another to be able to have a character with a villain archetype on the hero side. I think Homecoming was correct in simply opening up all the archetypes to all characters during character creation. Being a villian is "good" makes no sense. It is one of the arguments that villains players have been using since before the Sunset. If being a villain is so "good", then it wouldn't be villainy would it? "a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot." - google it. Villains are by definition "evil" Calling it the "red" side - instead of what it is (villain) - is intentional obfuscation of that fact, imo.

I didn't indicate you did. I was suggesting that you recruit for the alternate low-level content that you suggested. I often join low-level teams if I see there is recruitment for them. I'm not on all the time or on all the servers at the same time, but some "uptake" would be better than "no uptake". Since leveling is faster in the DFB, I'm assuming running around in the zones is generally less desirable to many players. I haven't run in Kings Row or the Hollows for a while now for my own reasons. But I will say that I do not enjoy the TwinShot or Hasherby (sp?) arcs. If I want to level up, I'll run the lake and then do a DFB or two before continuing on with content. I do wish the game would grant you access to your origin contacts through the contact system as you leveled - rather than being cut-off from that group of missions simply because you didn't get the next origin contact as you out-leveled the first one. But I do think you are hitting part of the issue here. Players at level 1 are looking to get at least a couple of levels under their belts before they go to the Hollows or King Row, and that is generally to level 8 - at which point, I'm trying to get on a Posi 1 team for a good number of my characters. In regard to running teams, I understand. To some extent, I go out of my way to run teams because I want to support the community. I'm not saying that to imply you should have any sense of obligation and fully understand that you are trying to "escape to fantasy" by playing the game. At the same time, I can't see the point about complaining about people that are recruiting for teams simply because they aren't recruiting for the kind of content that you would like to play. Well, I don't think that is true. During the times that I play with my sg and associates, I don't recruit. [One of the players takes frequent and spontaneous bathroom breaks and I don't feel morally-correct/proper-gamesmanship (I know, sort of misuse of the word) recruiting others into that situation when I'm against power-leveling, doorsitting, and farming.] I know when I'm recruiting, I'm looking at who is online and seeing what content that I think I can get a team together and run. Sometimes that is based on what I feel "the need" for the server is (sub-50 and generally sub-35). Often times that is DFB. When I see people calling out for a DFB, but not recruiting for it - or - I see that there are 10-15 characters sub-8 not in missions, I'll recruit for a DFB. Then I go up the levels seeing what kind of team I can get together. I will admit, that in most cases these days, that is a task force.

Well, one way to stop that is run low level teams for the content you want to play and use /lfg to recruit for it. It won't be just recruiting for DFB in /lfg if you do that.

Villains have had access to P2W XP boosters the whole time that I have been playing on Homecoming. My villains use x2XP buffs from the get go. I see you repeating this and it makes no sense to me. And, seriously, most players are here to play City of "Heroes" and not to play villains.

No. I keep mine open at the width of the chat window and about square shaped in the upper left hand corner. It doesn't make sense to me to play with the map closed.

The villain side has had access to x2 XP boosters since there has been free P2W access to it. I'm unsure what you are talking about.

I'm just trying to figure out exactly what you mean by a "do over". You don't seem to give clear details about what you mean by the term. I guess your reply means I really shouldn't care, so I'll take that advice.

Well, I was trying to get a reply from the OP @hakurr, but maybe you are them on a different account. But I see where you are going, so thumbs down on that.

what is this "complete do over"? How is this different than making a new character?

Yep. it works up to a point, but I wouldn't level up past you have the whip powers six slotted. I would just level lock it at that point and play at that level or lower with the character. I have fun with a whips/electric. But whips/traps works okay. When you are on a team and teammates comment about you not having minions, just reply "I have x minions" where x = the number of characters on the team - 1. No idea.

I don't think I'm going out on the limb to say that Sleeps aren't very useful in most group situations, especially if you are power-leveling to 50. as a controller, use range and walls to your advantage. Most of the time as a controller, you should be staying at max range. Walls have 100% resistance to damage. Stick close to corners or objects you can dive behind if you get to much agro when you AoE a group. It usually only takes a second or 2 to lose most of the agro you dish out with an AoE when you are in a group. Always slot-up your single target holds with 2 accs, 1 recharge, and a hold as able. Once you get to 27, look at the lockdown set the Proc for the +2 mag on holds is a must from my point of view. Then throw in a couple others from the set to replace the recharge and hold enhances to get some set benefits. If you character conception gets you an extra hold in your secondary, that is great for a controller. ... and, of course, understanding containment is a must ... "Controllers are the masters at locking down and controlling their opponents. Few can escape their will. Controllers do extra damage to any target that is already Held, Immobilized, Slept, or Disoriented." - https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Inherent_Powers#Containment

I think you meant to reply to @Scarlet Shocker

People are going to play what they want to play. There is a focus from a vocal crowd that the best power sets are the numbers that crunch-out the highest and, of course, that will follow with what powers you should take when, how you should slot them, and what you should slot them with. This yields a tiny number of options and leaves the whole domain of the rest of the game wide open for exploration if they dare. I'm a character concept player. Most of the time that means I think of a character and then pick powers that fit that concept. Some of the time, I pick an archetype and then try out power sets that I haven't tried before and make a character conception that matches those choices. Even less of the time, I pick a power pool set and try to build a character conception around the use of a power pool that I haven't explored. And I guess this final one is where i see the road-less-travelled or underrated powersets. I really love the Presence Pool to make fear-based characters. Usually that ends up meaning that I'm going to take a powerset(s) with fears as well. Sometimes it's just fun to terrorize your enemies and make them watch in fear as you defeat their allies. Concealment is fun too, but there are ninja options for that as well at this point. I end up using Fighting for some characters, but I haven't tried making a character focused around those powers yet. I probably would try to mix it in with Street fighting and super reflexes if I did (or may end up doing probably at some point). I know someone that focused a character around the teleport pool, but I haven't. I almost always end up taking leadership maneuvers and tactics - so I'm not really going out of my way to hype those which are mainly team oriented. Sometimes I mix in Leaping with blasters for the combat jumping (defense) and acrobatics (knockback and hold resistance) .

I've been playing various robot related characters. Characters that are robots and Masterminds that have robots as pets. And various other characters when I haven't been playing those. Various ATs. Various power sets. I don't think any of the characters that I have been playing lately have epic or patron powers. err... which one? I hope to level them all over time. My plan at this point is to level lock them once they hit 49 (if not before in some cases). Yes. I'm a character conception player. All my characters are based on a character conception and have a bio when they zone into the game for the first time.

I would consider these as french fries. And these to be potato wedges. Not to be confused with ... .... says what it is on the bag. I think we all know it's a "football" thing.

Happy Vulcan's Day. Catch you on All Machines' Day!