Apparition

That is definitely one solution. The problem with it though is that some people (like @subbacultchas's friend), won't realize that they are not actually on a team until it's too late. My first three Rikti mothership raids on Homecoming back in late May, I had no idea why I was only getting about 550 Vanguard merits per raid until it dawned on me and I checked my team window... and yep, no team.

Off topic, but I just want to say that with that name, if you don't have a Rad/Rad Corruptor or Brute named "Nuke 'Em Sheridan," I will be very disappointed. :P

You're thinking of Cold's shields, not Ice Armor.

As I posted above, Brutes do decent damage and have very high survivability. I'm going to draw all kinds of aggro fire with this, but they have (for all intents and purposes) replaced the Tanker AT as the tank role for City of Heroes, but also deal a decent amount of damage. Scrappers do a very high amount of damage, and have decent survivability. They just can't deal with as much punishment as Brutes and don't aggro as well. You can't go wrong with either.

Welcome to Paragon City and/or The Rogue Isles, @Neiska. You have a couple of different options. There's nothing specific to Cyborgs in game, but you could make a Claws/Savage Melee/Dual Blades/Titan Weapons Brute or Scrapper. For secondaries... perhaps Electric Armor, Radiation Armor, or as you said, Shield. The cybernetic implants gives off an electric or radiating aura. Or you have some kind of super technology shield. Now, you could go Brute, which has very high survivability and decent damage, or Scrapper which has very high damage and decent survivability. That's up to you. Oooor... you could go Arachnos Widow (and then Night Widow at level 24), with cybernetically implanted claws. Night Widows do decent melee damage, and give off good team buffs. Not as soloable as a Brute, but teams will love you.

Well, I scheduled a mothership raid 52 hours in advance on both the forums and Discord for last night to try it the old fashioned way, but someone that doesn't read the forums nor Discord started an impromptu mothership raid about ten minutes before I planned on beginning to form my own. And they formed it the regular way which results in the league bug. Multiple people suggested that I try again and reschedule, but there's nothing preventing it from happening again, so I'm just going to write off Rikti mothership raids as a bad idea until if/when the league bug is fixed. It's a shame, as Rikti mothership raids were my favorite thing to do in the game prior to sunset, but c'est la vie.

Being level 50 and Incarnated out the wazoo helps. Yeah, my pets will die while taking down the Pylons. Once the mothership raid proper starts though, between my Sonic Resonance buffs, Tier 4 Rebirth Radial Destiny, Tier 4 Support Core Hybrid, and everyone else's buffs, my pets only die once or twice... Except the Arsonist. He'll go right up to U'Kon Gr'ai and breathe fire on his kneecaps.

I would recommend that Homecoming takes a look at the CleanTalk anti-spam add-on for Invision, if they have not already. It's about $20 a year IIRC, but it's well worth it. I've used it on my own forums since 2013 with no issues. It blocked 8,171 spam attacks from my forums last week alone.

Unfortunately, someone who doesn't read the forums nor Discord started up a PUG mothership raid just after 8 P.M. ET, and didn't kick off until about 8:20 P.M. ET, and there was no other instance of RWZ available, so I had to call the raid. Thank you to everyone that tried to attend!

Just a reminder that this is in less than twelve hours!

Excelsior.

I was on a team of six that took it down within a couple of minutes. I forget exactly what our composition was. I know I was on my Rad/Rad Brute, and I'm pretty sure that we had a Blaster. I do know that we were all on decked out level 50s and Incarnated out the wazoo though.

Attuning an enhancement lets you keep the set bonuses in that power as long as you are exemplared at the level of the power or lower. As I said, I attune all non-purple and non-generic IOs placed in powers taken before level 41, so I have some or most of the set bonuses while exemplaring below level 40. Boosting means that you increase the strength of the IO. Since all purple IOs are attuned out of the box, you're better off boosting them than attuning them. Oh, you can only attune or boost, not both. If you attune a boosted IO, you'll lose the boosts, and vice versa.

You can attune them yourself when you're level 50, or you can buy attuned enhancements in the auction house. Basically, I attune every non-purple enhancement slotted in a power taken before level 41. The purple and generic enhancements, and enhancements slotted in powers taken at level 41+, I boost instead. That way the enhancement set bonuses will exemplar with you if you do a TF or SF at level 40 or below. For my first character, I attuned them myself when I was level 50 since I didn't have much in game money. Every character after, I buy the attuned enhancements ahead of time from the auction house and slot them in the character as it levels. Less pain while leveling that way.

Assuming that there's enough interest, I will lead two back-to-back Rikti mothership raids on Wednesday, August 7th, at 8:30 P.M. ET/5:30 P.M. PT. What zone instance in particular (Rikti War Zone 1, 2, 7, 11, etc.), will depend on what is open and available at the time. We will meet at the Vanguard compound in Point du Hoc. It's going to be formed up a little differently than how most Rikti mothership raiders are used to. It will be formed up old school style. Six level 50 PCs will each invite seven other PCs to join their team. Once each team is nice and settled, then, and only then, will I form a league. As to why, see this thread. Unfortunately, it's the only way I know how to make sure that everyone under level 50 is sidekicked up to 49, and that everyone in the raid receives their proper Vanguard merits. I just ask for your patience, as it will take a little longer to form up. If you have a level 50 character and are interested in leading a team, please send me a PM on the forums or a global tell in game @Apparition Hope to see y'all there.

Yep. One of the very first things I did back in April was remove the Help channel completely, and move the LFG channel to its own chat tab.

Yeah. I am considering leading a weekly mothership raid on Excelsior formed the old fashioned way, prior to leagues, until the league bug is fixed. It will be slower to get started and confusing to those newer to the game, but it is the only way to ensure that lowbies are sidekicked and that everyone gets the proper Vanguard merits.

I looked and didn't see anything directly related, so I will make a thread about my bane of existence on Homecoming, or as I like to call it: The league bug. Leagues are typically formed for Hamidon raids, Rikti mothership raids, and Incarnate Trials. Most typically, the raid or trial leader will invite people as they come, and then organize them into teams later. It is easier for the raid or trial leader, quicker, and the raid or trial leader won't receive a tell from the player asking why he or she hasn't been invited yet. However, if you invite someone to join your league who isn't already on a team, the game sometimes (seemingly at random), won't actually place the player in a team. The league window will show that player in the team, but if that player opens his or her team window, that player will see that he or she is not actually on a team. Global friends can also apparently see that that person is not actually on a team. There is no way for the league leader to know however, unless that person realizes it and mentions it to the league leader. The ramifications for the league bug don't impact Hamidon raids. The league bug definitely hits it, but few people notice because you actually don't need to be on a league to get your rewards from Hamidon raids. You only need to get in your attack chain. The real problems are with Rikti mothership raids and Incarnate trials. People show as on a team in the league window, but actually aren't. If that person is on a level 40 Controller, they're not being sidekicked up to level 49. Up against level 54 Rikti, that is one very dead level 40 Controller. In addition, those affected by the league bug in Rikti mothership raids don't get full Vanguard merits. There have been many Rikti mothership raids where, at level 50+1, I would only get 550 - 700 Vanguard merits where most on the raid got double that. Why? Because the game only counted the Rikti I personally damaged, not the others that the league window showed were on my team, as I was not actually on a team. I also strongly suspect that the league bug is the root cause for people being booted from locked league teams in Incarnate trials. League leaders are locking teams, but some people are not actually teamed despite the league window showing otherwise. Once the trial starts, those who aren't actually teamed are booted because the team they are supposed to be on is locked. The only thing I can think of that can get around the league bug is to form teams the old fashioned way. Once people have set teams of eight players, then, and only then, form the league. I do not recall this bug before sunset, and I routinely lead Rikti mothership raids and was a team lead in Hamidon raids. I would really greatly appreciate it if it was looked into.

No. Most modern forum software (including Invision Community Suite), do not allow a custom posts per page setting, unfortunately.

Negative, Ghost Rider. Characters, yes. Supergroups and bases, no.

The new version 2.6.0.2 came out today, but there's a couple of issues with it. I'd open up bug reports in Github, but Github won't allow me to create an account. Its account creation captcha never shows, even after I disable all web browser extensions and even on different web browsers. Anyhoo... It still shows version 2.6.0.1 is the first issue. Much more importantly, I changed a couple of options. Under Options > Configuration > Effects & Maths, I selected "Use ArcanaTime for Animation," and Supress Attacks. Under Discord Export Settings, I added a Discord Nickname, Discord Channel, and Discord Server. Under Updates & Paths, I changed the default save folder. I clicked on "OK," and then restarted Mids' Reborn. Then I went back to Options > Configuration just to make sure everything changed. Except now I'm getting an error every time I go to Options > Configuration. "Unhandled exception has occured in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately. Value cannot be null." If I click "Continue," it still works, but most of the options are now blank and I can't change anything. See the end of this message for details on invoking just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box. ************** Exception Text ************** System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: value at System.Windows.Forms.ListBox.ObjectCollection.IndexOf(Object value) at Hero_Designer.frmCalcOpt.<>c__DisplayClass213_0.<SetControls>b__0(String item) in D:\Projects\imaginary-hero-designer\src\Hero Designer\Forms\OptionsMenuItems\frmCalcOpt.cs:line 564 at System.Linq.Enumerable.WhereEnumerableIterator`1.MoveNext() at System.Linq.Enumerable.<DistinctIterator>d__64`1.MoveNext() at Hero_Designer.frmCalcOpt.SetControls() in D:\Projects\imaginary-hero-designer\src\Hero Designer\Forms\OptionsMenuItems\frmCalcOpt.cs:line 564 at Hero_Designer.frmCalcOpt.frmCalcOpt_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in D:\Projects\imaginary-hero-designer\src\Hero Designer\Forms\OptionsMenuItems\frmCalcOpt.cs:line 482 at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl() at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl() at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) ************** Loaded Assemblies ************** mscorlib Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3416.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_B CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v4.0.30319/mscorlib.dll ---------------------------------------- Hero Designer Assembly Version: 2.6.0.1 Win32 Version: 2.6.0.1 CodeBase: file:///C:/Mid's%20Reborn/Hero%20Designer.exe ---------------------------------------- System.Windows.Forms Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3324.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll ---------------------------------------- System Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3416.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_B CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Drawing Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3062.0 built by: NET472REL1 CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll ---------------------------------------- Base Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0 CodeBase: file:///C:/Mid's%20Reborn/Base.DLL ---------------------------------------- System.Configuration Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3324.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Core Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3429.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Core/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Core.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Xml Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3062.0 built by: NET472REL1 CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll ---------------------------------------- Newtonsoft.Json Assembly Version: 12.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 12.0.2.23222 CodeBase: file:///C:/Mid's%20Reborn/Newtonsoft.Json.DLL ---------------------------------------- System.Runtime.Serialization Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3440.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_B CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Serialization/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Serialization.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Data Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 4.7.3260.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_64/System.Data/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Data.dll ---------------------------------------- midsControls Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0 CodeBase: file:///C:/Mid's%20Reborn/midsControls.DLL ---------------------------------------- Microsoft.VisualBasic Assembly Version: 10.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 14.7.3062.0 built by: NET472REL1 CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/v4.0_10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll ---------------------------------------- AutoUpdater.NET Assembly Version: 1.5.4.0 Win32 Version: 1.5.4.0 CodeBase: file:///C:/Mid's%20Reborn/AutoUpdater.NET.DLL ---------------------------------------- ************** JIT Debugging ************** To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this application or computer (machine.config) must have the jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section. The application must also be compiled with debugging enabled. For example: <configuration> <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" /> </configuration> When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer rather than be handled by this dialog box. For what it's worth, I used the regular non-installer .zip archive file, and am using Windows 8.1 Pro.

That would have been nice, but extremely unrealistic. City of Heroes is a 15 year-old video game using 20 year-old technology. That's strike one. Strike two is that it isn't World of Warcraft. A lot of people in that category of "I'll play it to see what all the hub bub is about" crowd I mentioned in a previous post were from World of Warcraft. They played CoH as they knew how to play WoW. They stuck to the holy trinity, and rushed to level 50. They played the Incarnate Trials... and then went, "That's it?" And left. Remember all the Empath players in late April through early June? Yeah. I came across more than one level 50 Empath Defender with only one attack and the full Medicine power pool... I wanted to cry. They're mostly gone now.

We've definitely lost a substantial number of players over the past two months, but honestly, that was to be expected. There was a huge rush through May as people discovered the game was back. Many played just out of curiosity to see what all the hub bub was about over the past seven years, and found that the game wasn't for them. Many people had fond memories of the game, but after coming back found it "too old" and "archaic" in comparison to modern games. I disagree, but then again I had a friend in 2010 who refused to play the game after a couple of weeks because he thought it was too old and archaic. It's summertime. Online game activity always goes down during the summer. Personally, I am in for the long haul. I expect the numbers to go back up some in September, but not to the extent of what they were in May.

It's a known issue. Pine's/Mids' Reborn doesn't like the Invision Community Suite software Homecoming uses. Just have to either sit tight until it's fixed in Mids' Reborn, or just copy & paste data chunks. Go into Mids' > Import/Export > Short Forum Export, and make sure "Only export Data Chunk" is checked.

They're usually run late in the evening. Usually in Pocket D or Ouroboros (sigh). You'll see mention of them in LFG and the Excelsior global channel.