UltraAlt

what brand and model of controller are you using?

Virginia Hoffman (and probably other Magic origin Contacts). THere is a Circle of Thorns hunt toward the end of her arc that sent you to Boomtown and Faultline. Problem being that there aren't any Circle of Thorns in Faultline or Boomtown according to https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Boomtown and https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Faultline . I flew around looking for some in both zones and couldn't find any and ended up fighting CoT in Kings Row which allowed me to complete the mission. This is followed by an mission to hunt more CoT in Steel which is doable. I do consider this to be a typo issue as it can be corrected the same way any other typo can be created. Simply redirect to Kings Row or Steel Canyon instead of Boomtown or Faultline. It look like the CoT were removed from Boomtown and Faultline around issue 8 based on what seems to be implied in the wiki notes.

Excelsior vs Everlasting Freedom F2P vs Virtue Higher population equals better chance for lag. Lag is really more dependent upon your internet connection than anything else these days. Most computers should be able to keep up with this game otherwise. I think Everlasting is better than Excelsior simply because it isn't the highest population server and what comes with that in regard to player base. So if you goal is to be on the most populated server, I think it would be best for you to stay playing on Excelsior. If you goal is to check how lag is on different servers, I would go over to Indominable if you live in US, Canada, etc. It generally has the lowest population, but that will allow you to see how population is affecting your lag. Of course, Reunion is the European server.

Really?! I didn't know that trick. If you - the general reader you and not @MistressOhm in particular - get a contact and you like their arc, you can go onto https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Main_Page , look up the contact, check their level range, and then go into the options menu and lock your XP at their highest level to stop from outleveling. Which is a little more detail in looking into when to lock your xp if you want to avoid outleveling contacts. You might also want to look at which contacts that contact can give you and check out their level ranges. Sometimes you can end up with multiple contacts in the same level range. It's a matter of what the goal is; leveling, playing the mission arcs, etc. As far as I know, the only way not outlevel a contact that you already have is to have the contact showing the book icon. If the book icon isn't there, then you can outevel then even if you have run missions for them. When you get the book icon seems different from contact to contact and some contacts seem to lose the book icon before the end of their arc.

Did you need a guide to figure out what hero missions to play? Just make a villain and check what contacts you get offered. Always take a contact if a villain offers you a contact (I'm pretty sure that is always going to mean you are getting another villain contact.) That will keep you busy for a long time on the villain side. You will know which missions to look out for that aren't strictly villain contacts. If they try to send you to First Ward, Night Ward, or the Rikti War Zone, you should know to avoid those Praetorian and Co-op Zone arcs (I'm assuming you already ran them as a hero as the game tries to funnel you into them). But as far as hero side goes, have you tried sticking to Origin arcs and following the origin path while leveling? I think you can probably do all of these by going back in time via the Ouroboros, but I'm not sure all the origin arc are there. You get mission arcs to battle Dr Vazhilok, the Clockwork King, etc. If you get into Faultline at the correct level, you can run the Faultline Arcs and even run Penelope Yin's Faultline arc to get access to her dad's store. If I recall correctly, there is a Boomtown arc as well.

I'm not sure what you mean by "your archetype". I'm an alt-jumper. I have over 100 Alts. I play all archetypes except for warshade and the VEATs. I started playing about a week before Issue 2 dropped. So I have played the game so long, that I have seen powerset proliferation even before the Sunset. I think every powerset proliferation opens a new doorway ... a new pathway to play in THE CITY a different way. Why do I feel that way? Because I like game replayability. If I'm getting bored, I make another alt, or switch to another already existing Alt. I like to create and explore. Power proliferation gives me more experiences to explore. Yes. All of them. I think I already answered that. I think that maybe I should add this. I think it is much easier to customize powers than it is to proliferate. I may be wrong as many of the SFX can be ported, and moving the powers to another set is more about game balance. Maybe I shouldn't bring up power customization in this set, but, on some levels, power customization can almost duplicate what power proliferation does as both are really simply adding more customizing of the superpowers available to explore/combat THE CITY with. I think it is unlikely to see power proliferation of the Epic Archetypes or the Villain Epic Archetypes. I see it unlikely that we will see power proliferation in primary Mastermind power sets, but I do see power customizations that could fairly easily be implemented for each of the existing primary Mastermind power Sets. I don't see a need to proliferate power sets for the EATs or VEATs. I feel it would be difficult to create a new primary set for Masterminds. If we are only talking about proliferating is taking the components of a set that are not another archetype (porting all of the primary melee power sets to secondary blaster sets) versus creating new powers, then I'm good with any proliferation that the DEVs are motivated to work on. The DEVs are volunteers, and I appreciate what the do. We offer a lot ... a huge amount ... of ideas to the ideas and concepts that they already have. I don't want to put any pressure on the DEVs to work on anything that they aren't interested in working on at the time. I'm good with the DEVs shelving things that they get bored with and moving on with projects that interest them. I don't think that they should feel any pressure that they must do anything for the community other than enjoy the game like the rest of us and be creative as much as they want to be with the game. I'm very please with what the Homecoming staff has done. I quit subscribing to City of Heroes almost exactly a year before the Sunset because I didn't like the direction that the game has going in. Homecoming has resolved almost all of the issues that I had with the game that made me quit paying for a subscription, remove the bios from all my characters, switch all 100+ character into Praetorian Robot costumes, march them out to under the Statue of Atlas (or the equivalent on the villain and Praetorian side), self-destruct them, and delete each character. Yeah. I really did not like the direction the game was going at the time. I'm very please with what Homecoming DEVs have done with THE CITY, and I'm glad that a friend of mine pushed me into downloading Homecoming. I think the DEVs should enjoy the game like the rest of us and be creative in the game in a way that is fun for them. I can give them my ideas, but I'm fully satisfied with them doing what they want to do with their time.

Mutation :: At Level 16, headed into the mission to defeat Dr Vazh and stop his plague. Character leveled up to 17 almost immediately once in the mission. Dr Vazh was Orange and very quickly defeated as an EB. I have heard some people having issues completing this. I haven't. I think it is a matter finding all of the glowies as you go. Yet the arc continues?! The Vazh are still prowling the streets looking for bodies. Magic :: At level 16, headed to fight the Tsoo's Dr Po, stop his smuggling of bronze statues to the Outcast, and leveled up to 17 during the mission. Connected mission, opened automatically upon completion, lead to battle Tsoo boss Dr Shin. Dr Shin was busy distilling the Rage drug that the Tsoo had been selling to poison the Trolls. Merits gained, but another mission ... time to defeat Storm Strider and get some weapons. Another Tsoo boss. Then sent to track down Circle of Thorn in Boomtown and Faultline, but I couldn't find any. Checked https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Boomtown and https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Faultline for villain groups in those areas. Yeah, Circle of Thorns are not listed as villain groups in either area.

I don't think it needs nerfs if it would requires enhancement slots in order for to activate. The power could be setup to power down other aspects of the power if it is slotted for to draw enemies into it and vice-versa. I also suggested needing to slot accuracy in order to "hit" foes in order for them to be affected. That could take away 3-4 slots just to have that SFX work on some of the enemies some of the time. I think this is kind of a good idea for a lot of powers and some already work that way. Some powers have 3 or 4 different components and the powers are hardly active until you slot them to activate that aspect of the power. You can see it in pets and other powers (too tired for hunting down specifics at this point) AoE immobilize can already lock-down fairly large mobs for as you say "speed-kills" so can Taunt that matter. I don't see this as any different than that. You can even concentrate groups with knockback and repel if you know what you are doing. Several teammates that know how to work together with knockback and repel can be pretty devastating. I've pinned boss so that were just flopping around and unable to attack while they were slowly frozen to arrest. (Snaptooth in the ice caves being a good example) I think there are a good number of people that just like the chaos of knockback and aren't trying to use it to herd or immobile targets. I like knockback heavy teams myself. But then, I'm not an end-gamer.

I think this would be fun. I would love to see enemies spinning around as they were drawn into the center as well. Probably should have a to-hit check to do it though, and maybe start off without the SFX until you add a knockback to it. Adding this kind of thing would make it so the power could be slotted in multiple ways. Make me kind of think that a reverse knockback proc would be fun. it could slot into any power that takes knockback and would pull enemies to you instead of throwing them away from you when the proc went off. It would be super funny with hurricane.

I don't think most people read EULAs, TOSs, or CoCs any more.

... and onto the concrete sidewalk below! Whoops! Did Batman just intentionally break that guy's neck?! Ah, the good old days before the Comics Authority!

Welcome home! I'm glad that you made it back to THE CITY!

Heroes. But this isn't really a complete answer. When I play villains, they are always rogues. I'm playing City of HEROES. Character conception. I have vigilantes based on character conception versus wanting to run missions in the Rogue Isles. And for the villains side, character conception. My villains are always rogues because none of them are subservient to Arachnos. Why? They are supervillains and not minions. The content that fits my character conception or those that I'm pulled into by other players. I don't always play the same content. I try to check out content based on character conception. I'm not sure how this question is related to the alignment system. I really didn't like what the alignment system did to the game. I don't know if I'm really for or against it at this point. I do think that the tip/morality missions are the best part of the alignment system. I think that I don't play them as much as I should with some characters. Without being able to start a character as a Vigilante or Rogue, being able to set a character's alignment from the get-go is nothing more than character creation options that should have been/be part of character creation. A this point these options are no different from accepting fortunes, speed buffs, team teleport, or group fly. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to start as a Vigilante or Rogue with a different training/tutorial mission for each? Break the Law and Break Arachnos? Breakdown and Break Bones? I wouldn't have added it to begin with. When the superhero mythos began, it was very clear who was hero and who was villain. The heroes were clearly in a moral position that they needed to do what they needed to do because the villains were clearly unredeemable villains whose crimes were clearly against the average citizen and/or society/countries in general. If you were a vigilante, everyone really knew you were fighting for good. Anyone nefarious in any way was obviously a villain. Sometimes this was broken for alternate/anti-hero situations during the Silver Age, but it was really always pretty clear if a character was really a hero or villain. Spider-man being one of the early examples of this. Deconstructionists are really the reason for overtly grey areas in retconned and newer superhero comics in America and the superhero medium in general. This really has its greatest impact on on American comics through British authors. I blame this and the television show Heroes for the alignment system and Praetoria. The Devs didn't know which way to go and picked the deconstructionist path. Which lead to the Deconstruction of the City as a whole ... bringing about it's Sunset. The alignment system was added to City of Heroes as another "funnelling" mechanism. In this case, the funneling was directed at giving villains more players to game with and to merge the Black Market with Wentworths (all currencies) in order to stabilize the villain economy (everything cost more on the villain side) ... and most probably the Praetorian economy as well. It came in when the development process was already widening out the options for players by introducing Praetoria and more funneling was required. Additional co-op zones were also added for additional funneling of the Heroes and Villains into contact areas where they didn't even need to change alignment in order to game with each other as the process to shift alignements through tips became fairly necessary as soon as the alignment system was released. The alternate character tutorial in Galaxy could have been done better. It should have allowed gateway options that determined if you were a hero or villain (or vigilante or rouge) rather than asking you if you want to be a hero or villain ... and, if it is going to simply ask you if you want to be a hero or villain, why not ask if you want to be a vigilante or rogue as well? Oh, almost forgot, I would have added a 4th and 5th (and maybe 6th) alignment based on how your characters XP was generated. If a majority of your character's XP was generated in the AE below level 50, you would gain the Door-Sitter Alignment. After level 50, if a majority of your XP pre-level 50 was from the AE, then you would retain the Door-Sitter-Alignment until you gained more XP then you gained during leveling. Once you gained more XP than you did by door-sitting, there would be two paths; 1) if a majority of your post level 50 XP was from the AE, you would gain the Farmer Alignment; 2) if you gained more XP post 50 from non-AE missions, you would be given the option to pick an alignment. Players would not able to use Null the Gull or Tip missions to change alignment from either Door-Sitter or Farmer to other alignements. Door-Sitters and Farmers could only run AE missions or missions in Co-op Zones and would be unable to join non-AE or non-co-op teams nor are they able to get any contacts while they are Door-Sitter or Farmer alignment. The 6th Alignment would be AFK. This would be locked and not removable. If a majority of your character's XP was gained AFK in AE before level 50 (how would anyone even be able to realistically be able to track this), you character gains the AFK alignment. Like Farmer and Door-Sitter, you are neither hero nor villain (nor vigilante, nor rogue), you are teleported to the AE in the Pocket D, locked into the AE area, unable to move, but able to access the auction house and use the email system. You're character's body is directly linked into the AE and can not survive if you are not linked into the AE's systems. You live in a constant virtual reality with no ability to escape.

If I remember correctly, the first time that one of my characters came down the Vahzilok disease (before the sunset), I had to /respec in order to recover from it ... and that meant running the Terra Volta taskforce while still affected by the Vashzilok disease. It was crazy rough, but luckily, I had decent teammates on the taskforce.

I was slowed down with this project during the Halloween even and, honestly, it is getting a bit slow going with long (time-wise) mission as part of arcs. I'm unsure if at this point if I'm going to try to get all 5 characters to the end arc boss before fighting any of the end arc bosses or if I'll start fighting the ones that the characters have already reached. It seems a bit odd that some will unlock at level 16 but other Origin contacts send you away until you're level 19. (I have to make sure to lock them once they reach level 19 so that they don't outlevel their contact).

I have no idea either way. Thanks for the info

Correct. I'm talking about the previously existing Galaxy City that was removed from the game in order to funnel new players into a single starting zone on the hero side. I did play the Praetorian content. I didn't like it. I didn't stay in it very long. And I stopped subscribing a year before the sunset and didn't play any more until Homecoming was open to the public. Honestly, the focus on the Praetorian content was one of the factors involved with me dropping my subscription. It wasn't as great of a reason as other issues I had with what was going on in the game and in game development at the time. I know it wasn't the point that you were making, but I had not heard of it, so I didn't know if it was internal to some mission/task force content or if it was an actual city zone. Thanks for answering that question. So, in fact, it was removed from the game like what happened to Galaxy City. I guess this may be in your characters timeline. Every character's timeline is different. When a character leads a team, everyone is drawn into their timeline. Or I don't understand what you are talking about as clearly players can create characters and start off in Praetoria. I also hear that there is that sewer network that can be used to travel to it (how a sewer network takes you to a parallel world? I have no idea). I haven't played through either First Ward or Night Ward far enough on any character to run a mission where they are destroyed. I thought I had played pretty far into it, but maybe not. Yep. We have clearly both stated our opinions on that point. The things we obviously have disagree on, we have both made our points. If you have information on the other stuff, I would be glad to hear it/discuss it as you are more knowledgeable on the Praetorian stuff than I am. I posted my views. That is what this thread was started for. Discussions to me aren't about agreeing or disagreeing on something. It's about providing opinions and the reasons why you have those opinions and sharing information. The point of asking a question in a discussion shouldn't be to an attack others in a discussion. Asking questions in a civil discussion should be because you think the other person can answer the questions or maybe just hope that they or someone else can. You have answered many of my questions and some have lead to other questions on my part. Some have lead to confusion. Unfortunately, that's bound to happen.

The Galaxy tutorial isn't on the Galaxy City map. You can only go to the old Galaxy City by visiting it's Echo. Was it ever available to players? Other than that map that I posted, there are 2 more Praetorian zones. They are First Ward and Night Ward, and that is where the leveling path goes to from the Praetorian Islands. Though it is the newest and graphically most advanced zones of the game, I don't think they are the best looking. There are different levels of difficulty on other maps and they are a bunch of rectangles like dominos placed side to side to each other. It's lazy.