High_Beam

I use Mids for two things; building my own characters and integrating ideas from other builds into my characters. For the first part, this impacts my character creation zero. What @Bionic_Flea posted will get the job done for the second part. See, I rarely imported a data chunk to see what someone was building but instead used the printout of the powers and what was selected (like the examples Flea showed). I like the visual feel and when I am juggling power selection points or even powers themselves I use those. The new link that you click and it executes Mids . . . I do not like and will not use. Are the changes to the export function (and some font sizing issues) annoying? Yes. Is it a reason to toss the software,? Hell no. Its still an amazing tool that we are lucky to have at all and even if a dozen more features vanished, I would still use because it lets me make my hero.

Did someone abuse the time machine and got back the Birthday of the Chief Petty Officer (aka April 1st)? Asking for a future boy. Of course now I am curious

Fifties from the Farm are not what I call experienced.

Yes there is a configuration tab where you can reduce font size, I have to do it on my laptop but not my desktop.

I was talking in the context of being in Storm Cell and the other synergies. The whole set sings with Storm Cell and yet the T9 is underwhelming in Storm Cell, both ways, uphill. That doesn't mean I toss the toon, hell no. She is fun to play especially solo and in kind of Blappery with the Radiation secondary I am using.

Cool mate. It makes you laugh so there ya go, that's you and lots of others. I find him and Lucy not funny at all and that's me; I'll take Carol Burnett ten times out of ten. That movie starring Kidman and Bardam about Ball was real good however.

It wasn't until I came to Homecoming did I embrace melee characters. On Live I was a shooter or a locking shooter, or a supporting shooter. Most of my characters were Blasters followed by Controllers then Defenders. I wanted to like them, admired some eve, I created a Tanker (INV/MACE) and ran her to 50 and found the experience . . . boring. Then I created a Scrapper (BS/SR) and well hated her. Oh I ran her to 50 as well but I just wasn't feeling it. SO I made more of what I did enjoy. I never hated on those that did do melee but I did kind of become a little bit of an ass regarding Blapping (Beam don't Blap - No Blaster should Blap). I dislived the whole concept of villains and deleted my Stalker around level 39 or so and the Brute, shit she didn't make it to 20, I just wasn't feeling it. I got better. Enter Homecoming where I told myself I would avoid doing or falling victim to same issues I had on Live and to try new stuff. High on that list was giving a real chance to the non shooter types. What resulted was that I had to realize that the fun I had with most of my shooters was the alterations to the fighting style even with the same primary, that's why I have three separate DP Blasters and each is played completely differently. So with melee types I tried the same thing. So from worst to first. Stalker - Yeah I have one, (tried two others on test - deleted) and I don't like them. I am not a sneaky pete so the whole mechanic doesn't work for me. The one I have committed to play on Excelsior is out of stubborness and to be honest is a bad mood away from deletion. Oh I am sure the power set I took is "teh suck" by stalker people (PSI/SR) but that was the only one that actually seemed interesting to me. My brain cannot let go of the thematic problems. Scrapper - I have 1, she's Level 50 . . . and that's all there is to say. Scrappers feel disappointing to me. I am sure I am missing something. After the one (BS/WP) made it to 50 as part of a theme group I build a couple on test server with different powers and every time even with the Set IOs kitted in I didn't find them fun. Blapper - Yep a Blaster who gets in the melee and mixes it up is better than a Stalker and a Scrapper to me. But really, it isn't a melee type I am just putting it here to show I can grow. I have two Blasters and another that's maturing into that roll and I find it fun in doses. Tanker - I have 1 and she is awesome. There I found joy in true survivability, finally realizing that while it is about damage its damage taken. When I was a level like 30 Tank with very little in the way of Set IOs slotted but fully kitted out armors (Invulnerability) and sidekicked to a level 50 against +4 enemies, running that Freakshow portal mission and I was taunting multiple mobs and corner pulling and they were beating on me and my health bar wasn't moving . . . it was glorious. Oh I was rarely even hitting and when I did the damage was microscopic and slow (Energy Melee), that was my team mates job, but I held aggro and didn't die. Brute - Very interesting thing here. I like Brutes, probably my favorite melee types to play, I have like 3 on Excelsior and like 1 on Everlasting. Brutes are fun to me because they aren't quite tankers, just a bit shy on survivability but not too much to where you scream at the monitor and the whole mechanic of fury building is perhaps what does it for me. You have to keep chugging, like that Statham movie where he like couldn't let his heart rate drop too low or he would die. It ads this self-imposed sense of frantic need to constantly seek out a fight which I cant help but embrace. And because they aren't quite tanks you have to actually pay attention a little to your bars. Fun. As for new powers. Everyone seems to want to El Kabong people, so how about you make a General weapon-based melee that is bashy like mace but not a copy of mace and then let the weapons be things like a guitar or plain old heavy log obviously you could have bats and crowbars and batons. Maybe a lamp or sure Nunchaku. Also I had a fever dream about a power called Magic Fists - Like the punches did crazy things with like random effects like sometimes it holds or it sets a guy on fire or shrinks them down to bobblehead guy size. Oh call it Chaos Melee and totally lean into the "you wont know from one punch to the next" Sure it does a fixed damage but the secondary effects random. OMG! Perfect crazy!

I like it. I have fun with it. And yes, the T9 is pretty underwhelming. I cast it and it feels like Whirlpool from Water Blast and the numbers I see dont seem to build up in intensity as the description says but then again as was noted in Test and live play already, its not for todays team mission running because the team has already moved on to the third alpha while you build up intensity. Storm Blast is great fun solo. and @Etched; Ow. Sorry that sucks but at least you are still on the right side of the dirt with that much radiation to the noggin.

This truly is a City of Villains.

Two words; Bran muffins. Avoid the Bran Muffins. If there is any tip I can pass that will be the most useful to you is this. It is a grand deception that they are good for you. Likely a Nemesis plot vast scope. They hurt going in and hurt going out. They are evil muffins of pain. They put them in the gift basket hidden among such tasty things like Blackwands and Sands of Mu and Bucknards Everfull Box of Inspirations, waiting; patiently waiting to hurt you with their . . . Bran.

No, that's not it. Gleason couldn't act. it has to be something else. Maybe Superadine?

He's like seven seconds away from fully sweat soaked. look at the spotty streaking in his mid section. Thats the key indicator. Never found Gleason to be . . . well anything other than annoying. How did he get work for so long?

Here's the thing, when it was on Brainstorm, and I was testing on several types of characters with it (3 Blasters, a Sentinel, a Corr and a Def (I like Dual Pistols)) I was really really effing pissed about the changes to Suppressive Fire, in part because in my testing I saw it as nothing but a nerf. I do not judge a power at its base by how well it procs; not saying those who do are wrong but that's not how I roll; procs are icing on the cake. My lockdown times were down and as has been pointed out the damage isn't big in trade. But also I was not giving it a full run and as such my data was not accurate. When the changes went live I tested it again on Brainstorm, doing a respec to put two damage and two hold into it (I was unwilling to make too many compromises from what I saw as an optimum build in Di Di Guns). Then I ran around popping bad guys new blow holes. Suppressive Fire with chill rounds lets me lock Bosses (+3 mostly but some +4) and with my recharge set properly I can snap it off again before it expires which allows me to keep them in a continual block of ice. Conversely, the bump up in damage is value added while I work the Boss. I can get two other shots in before I have to reapply Suppressive which recharges. The +4 guys sometimes get out before but still, all in all I have to say Suppressive Fire, in my opinion, is a must have for a soloist. Piercing Rounds. Screw that noise. Slow ass animating power. Annoying like Dominate Will on a Psi Blaster except I cant outrun the animation. Damage or not I don't want to be angry playing my character.

They are working hard at smashing some bugs as well. They are doing the people's work over there.

This. I don't have storm summoning and I don't really have any issues seeing (beyond my age-based issues). I will say with Storm summoning (different character) I actually went to lengths to try and select semi-toned down colors for that exact reason when Hurricane and Steamy are up. Same thing goes for bubbles or mists. I swear I almost Snarky'd several teams where someone's mist is like puke or fluorescent green. Ick. And Ice armor that like bright yellow. Bleah!

Once, when CoH was still live I was I went to pick up my nephew from some school function that had him and his little friends all sweaty and as I handed out water bottles I said "Gather for RA". Didn't even realize it until my nephew called me out on it (he played a little with me supervising when he was like 8).

All kidding aside I would have to say that besides being on a team that was part of the first Hamidon takedown on Freedom server it would be on Homecoming where I was playing my Illusion/Empathy Controller Doctor Finetush, on a team that could be best defined as a challenge (Snarky would have dropped in like three seconds). We were on a Silver Mantis Strike Force with a two blasters of no real significance, a dominator whose powers I never figured out because he was seemingly never in the fight, a Bots Mastermind who was doubly gimped both with bots and the clear inability to control them, an Arachnos Soldier, a Stalker who seemed to only attack when he could Assassin strike and a tank who had clearly focused their build on damage dealing and not survivability. Oh and in some of the missions, they liked to split up. The result was that they were constantly losing health and on the edge of dying. But I was full on Empathy that day. Sure I had the PA out and such but really all I was doing was running back and forth healing and refreshing Clear Mind on the non-melee types and hitting squishies with Fortitude and combat dropping RA when I could. It was frantic and frustrating at the same time and what made it a glorious war story in game was that the only one that died was the Stalker . . . twice . . . because he had gone to the opposite side of the map thinking he cold take on more than a pair of Skulls without getting his sneaky ass kicked. He bitched about it too and I simply reminded him that there was strength in numbers. There were guys that were a second away from going down and then I hit them with HO and Absorb and suddenly they are back. Oh and in the final mission at the Raider Sea Base where Masterminds normally lay face down in the water because not flat linear battlefield, yeah the bot boy was still standing as I had flight on and was speeding from one triage point to another healing and buffing and looking damn good doing it (its the hair bow). It was . . . glorious. There are many players, myself included that will say that a dedicated healer in the game as it is right now isn't really necessary but sometimes . . . sometimes you need a skilled trauma remediation technician . . . and that's when you call Doctor Finetush.

I use the test server two ways. The first is to test what the Devs have put out and want feedback from. I tend to sway more towards testing the impact of changes to existing powers and such rather than new powers because I am just not that focused. I try to give feedback and/or at least make things known that might not have been thought about. I will test new power sets in time but often its after they are released on live and the super attentive testers have spoken. Second is that I use it to test builds or respec before deploying them on live. While the numbers are close enough between Mids and live actual play can show me weather its a good idea or bad idea because actual play synergy matters. Also it lets me figure out if the advanced Set IO build action is also good (i.e. I thought that proc was a good idea but it sucks) before I spend money I don't need to spend. It's a very useful tool as a player for certain and I thank the Devs for it being a thing I can use without special permission.

You make a fair point about equivalency and the possibility of activity based on an alteration of that equivalency. I mean I know players who run teams to speed run the Villain Mayhems in order to get Invader which converts to TFC when they jump back to blue Side. As you mentioned, the absence of two low level SFs like Posi are yet again a barrier to entry which would need to be resolved and Kal you have to unlock to run which would need to be changed to be included. Plus there would have to be level realignment which might involve relocating contacts and I definitely haven't dug that deep in research there.

I mean that I do not go on crusades to make things go away because I didn't like them. I do not define others fun and they mine. I am not the only opinion in the room and I am often both wrong and/or in the minority. But I do like discourse as it occasionally opens up new ideas. Now things that are inherently wrong, those are the things I am apt to crusade against to the best of my ability.

I agree here, I was just pointing out that Praetoria allowed for a better assimilation of the Vigilante/Rogue in-betweens than the straight up hero or villain. There are several things that were implemented in CoX that I didnt agree with because they weren't comic booky and heroy; playing villains, the Arenas and PvP in general, having to watch myself travel to the fight. But I just didn't participate in the things as opposed to trying to make them go away. It doesn't always have to be The Dark Night, Watchmen, Section 31 but you really fail when you make real white hats like Superman into grey hats.

I look at the Red Side (it is red side as the load screen for a Villain or Rogue aligned character is red, its not parsing words its literally the color), I look at it as somethinig that exists. When it came out on live back in the day I bought it and rolled a Mastermind, the only interesting AT that it came up with. However after running that one toon up to 50 I realized that Red Side wasn't for me. I don't wish is dead I just don't care about it except when it suits my needs. Personally I believe it is exactly where it needs to be unless the Devs want to truely invest in moving forward the established canonic foundations coupled with the repeated and nearly accepted AMA Lore relating to Recluse and the ramifications of the Who Will Die SSA as well as the Patron Arc of Sirocco along with the Coming Storm shtick. Blue 90% - Red 7% - Gold 3% and here's where the painful truth comes out; I go to V side for one or two things, Patron Unlock or badges and now that my primary and alternate badge hunters have what they need, that is gone. The only other time I go there is when one of the Strike Forces is the WSTAnd gold side, that horse has been beaten and should never have time dedicated to doing anything with it. But that brings me to: When CoV came out the stories were new and many included new mechanics to them that gave them this veneer of being "better written". However once you have done them once or maybe twice that great writing is riddled with holes and in the end no better or worse than the content on the Bluse side; there are good arcs and bad arcs. The problem was that until Going Rogue came out, the bulk of the Red side missions were really just Rogue missions and as others have noted, almost always you being a pawn of whoever. Villain groups like the Circle of Thorn's were fleshed out better which I appreciate because I truly consider them evil. Similarly the expansion of the Freakshow was welcome but the Column-Council, the Sky Raiders and such were filler. But with very few exceptions I never felt like a villain. Naturally when GR came out it fit more so my MM was shifted to Rogue and using Ouroboros I could cherry pick content I had missed that matched my theme. GR made thematic play on the V side better. Contrary to some people I loved Mayhem missions because they made sense and who doesn't want to smash shit for fun and profit. Someone also said that they didn't want to grind papers and went to Blue side to fill in the void in leveling but part of the reason that void doesn't exist on Blue side is more content over time. And here's an interesting thing, the recent Page 6 release included story arcs designed with Rogues and Vigilantes in mind. If the devs were to develop a semi-parallel Rogue to Villain path akin to the Gold Side Praetorian (of which all aren't total black hats) vs Resistance (who aren't white hats by any means) (and yes heroes/vigilantes in time) then it might spice some things up. Shift some of the non-Destiny, non really evil stuff to Rogue and develop measures content that is more "evil" it might work for some players. It works in Port Oakes and Nerva, I always felt like I was on an island and the atmosphere-architecture worked - French and Spanish colonialism which matched the timeline history. Sharkhead should have leaned more into the industrial waste dump/afront to nature place, maybe create some sort of rolling-random toxic cloud or water zone that keeps you on your toes. Coralax ambushes like the Snakes pull in Mercy. St. Martial bugged me as it is this industrial dump paired with a Casino world. I have been to Atlantic City, I don't need a slightly nicer version of that in my game. It should have been totally Vegas tricked from the jump, freaking fake fun parks for the kiddies, roller coaster park, more casinos, brothels, bars, and the like. Take the industrial port to the West and turn it into a cruise ship terminal, make a Spider World theme park on that mound of rubble to the East; ride the Recluse-Coaster and eat 6 dollar shave ice. Make it super shiny to fool everyone into believing it is what Recluse envisions, Praetoria the shit out of it. Grandville sucks. I hate it and I want it leveled. Terrible design, terrible to navigate, confused ideas paired with bad vibes. I would blank slate the whole thing. It's supposed to be the capital of a seat of government for a nation state. It needed to lull visitors into a sense of complacency. Sure you keep the giant ass statues but yeah, Praetoria the hell out of it with a slightly darker color palate but clean up the travel. Well you read a lot of my ideas above, it's not like I don't think about what could make Red Side better. What else. Someone mentioned it and I agree; Arachnos needs to be punted from Sirens Call and Atlas and Longbow forcibly ejected from Mercy and Nerva, it makes absolutely zero sense at any level (game or real world). In no world would a sovereign nation with actual power allow another nation state to occupy its lands. Maybe expand the lore and content opportunities on those un-named southern Isles in the Rogue Isles (I have a lot of fan fiction explaining those). Dig deeper into the Blood War between the Mu and the Oranbegans and how it is essentially focused around the Isles, you fought Mot and have communed with Teikeiliu (spelling) so dealing with Ermeeth and Hequats issues as well as Merulina and the Coralax would make for some great story telling that builds upon existing material. But hat is one of the problems. A lot of players want content but most players just blast through it to get the shiny, never bothering to read . . . anything. That's why I don't do Khan's unless someone actually has the temerity to say KM Khan because speed is what they want, same goes for Aeon (god I would love to actually enjoy an Aeon) and Tin Mage/Apex (where are we going, what are these). I tried to lead these once to get that and people lost their shit and left the team because not fast enough for reward! Conversely, the unavoidable truth is that the core issue is that Blue side is easier and a better known variable and the most populated. So do the devs waste time and energy developing more content to a generally abandoned world on the hope that people will frequent it more and do so beyond the initial blush or will it regress to what it is now once the shiny's are earned. Gold side tells us everything we need to know. Best stories (seriously, best written stories) and new looks and moral specific content yet a freaking ghost town. Blue side is simply easier (in all fronts; navigation, ability to find teams, content, everything) so only those who want to slog, or be different or take a chance do anything but blue and hoping that you can change that is to be blunt . . . foolish; hope is the last refuge of the dammed. I mean look at the chat right now (at any moment). How many times per hour do you see a DFB on blue and how many red. How many Posi1 or 2, Yin or Citadel or Moonfire are being run daily when they ARENT the WST compared to Tarikoss or Renault or Mistral when they are WST.

So I was on a Cruiser and one day General Quarters is sounded at Oh Dark Thirty and I jump out of my rack like every other drill we've been doing for the last three months, steaming around the Red Sea in a box pattern. But you never know so I am in my gear and up on the O-3 Level, headset on and letting Combat know that my Battle Station was manned and ready. So there I was, my team all thinking about lighting up cigarettes because we are all outside the skin of the ship and nobody is going to know and we just assumed it was a drill when all of a sudden we hear a pop-roar and suddenly a freaking Tomahawk Cruise Missile clears the line of sight up forward and is outbound. More followed. At that moment Desert Shield became Desert Storm and shit was never the same for me in the Navy. I was scared that first few days but in hindsight it turned out to be a pretty good war story. 🙂

Not a Mids Dev here but just put in the newest version (3.5.3 I believe because I am not at home). It does use a new file extension but all of my builds except my Masterminds do import and do so apparently correctly. Masterminds are the only one I am seeing it throw multiple alerts on and don't open. Will be putting in the Discord channel when I get home. Happened with all four MMs (and only the four MM's). Mercs, Demons, Necro and Thugs.

What, no robotic platform high heels of ugliness?