GM Crumpet

I think people are trying their best to contribute so are watching the action and spamming buttons. If it's a support character they may be looking for the best time to spam a buff, or a hold or something. Unless I'm on voice chat I worry sometimes when someone is spending more time chatting than attacking. A lot of teams I'm on tend to be on the fast side and outside of a thank you for a gratz or TP or a call for a rez or a wakie most people tend to be too busy for lots of chat. The occasional comment happens like "I hate this map" or suggestions for tactics, or pointing out we all died because the team split, but outside of that most people are just busy 🙂 As for drama, I've seen it happen. I was on a farm where the leader had very specific ideas on how to progress, and it was way outside the normal sitters and hitters dynamic and insisted everyone, including the level 1 alts took part in the fights. Then proceeded to call everyone in the team all kinds of awful names because we either attacked too soon, didn't have our crystal balls on auto so couldn't read his mind, and team wiped. It wasn't even that good a farm. I blocked him and quit. Several team members followed suit and messaged me with uncomplimentary things about the farmer and also blocked him. Sometimes bad behaviour has consequences.

I have that a lot. I was in a MK a couple of days ago and we were having fun and being silly and chatting. It's hard sometimes as you are trying to keep up with the rest of the team and contribute so chatting tends to be limited

I have a lot of inf saved in my global email and drag it out as needed whether it's a level 1 or a level 50 🙂 I also randomly drop inf on new players in atlas

Just a reminder that everyone has an opinion and a right to play the game how they want, even if it's not the way you play, or even if it's not the way you think others should play. Jumping on a returning player because they are doing something you disagree with is not good. We have a responsibility to new or returning players to show our good side. Give them advice, point them to resources they may find useful. give them guides to yes, create a really good farming toon if that's what they want. Sometimes having the build for a horribly frankenslotted toon is welcome. I think farming has a place (I'd be a hypocrite to say otherwise as I have farming alts) but I also think it can become the focus instead of a tool and someone ends up farming as the main or only aspect of the game that they play. Even then, that's up to them. If they enjoy it and get satisfaction from it then I'm not going to criticise. There really isn't that much content at level 50. It can get as repetitive as the low level content for someone with altistis who never gets past level 20. A player who only farms and does high end content is always going to complain there is nothing to do, they are bored etc. The trick is to mix it up.

I agree your original character pick may not have been the best. There are better combinations out there. I tried a few when I started on live before I picked my mains which were AR/Devices blaster and Invul/SS tank. It was such a different experience to my first couple, almost like a new game. As for starting with a farming toon and power levelling new alts as a starting player, I'd recommend against that. The point of the low level contacts is to act as an extended tutorial. Twinshot and Dr Graves are mirrors of each other, but get the basics down in a fun way without feeling like you are "learning". I'm sure we've all seen a level 50 player joining a team and asking "What's an enhancement?" and facepalming. Not their fault, but the modern idea of the game only starting at level 50 and the journey to the good stuff is a grind doesn't apply here. Inf is ridiculously easy to get. Just read a basic tutorial on playing the auction house (of which there are several excellent ones on the forum or pinned in Discord) and you are sorted. Just from merit conversions and good drops you'll get enough inf to slot a pretty decent character. Farming is actually a slow method of gaining inf. It used to be the fastest, but after the bug exploits and loopholes were closed it stopped being phenomenal and went to just OK. It is a good method of power levelling though. I'll often farm to level 22 so I can slot IO's. I've done the lower content to death and really can't face doing it too often now 😛 I agree though, play the game how you want as long as it doesn't impact on other players. I just think it's a shame when players think farming is compulsory and miss out on some actually great stories because they have levelled past it.

I'm impressed OP. It's always nice to see hard figures to combat the regular "Homecoming is dying" posts that crop up now and again. We are reasonably stable, and we get a steady trickle of new players on discord who either played on live and only now found we exist, or were too young to play on live and are now old enough to try the game their parents used to go on about all the time. We also get a few from other games like DCO or CO who want their fix of superhero action but have lost interest in those games. As for the low pop shards, it's a shame. Reunion gets a bad rep, and it's undeserved. I play on Reunion a lot, and there are player led events like Hami and MSR, plus iTrials and weekly TF/SF's. Everyone says "Don't play on Reunion it's dead" which becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. It does get quite busy at times, but mostly when the Americas are quiet so someone over there logs in at 7pm there time and goes "It's dead" when actually all the EU players are asleep. We are active when you lot aren't. And as someone else pointed out, even at their quietest, our two low pop shards are still more active than *cough* other servers where more solitary players who enjoy being solo play. TL:DR Come to Reunion, it's lovely 😛

Some people are still using windows XP??

As a story I find it quite compelling. As a SF I nope right out of there. It's not one I enjoy or wish to play again, and you know what? That's perfectly fine. We don't all enjoy the same things. Players were complaining the content was too easy, that there wasn't anything complicated they had to work hard on to discover strategies and builds to take it on. The devs listened, and created both a very complicated SF and a new difficulty system that made players have to work for the rewards. Now all I hear is "It's too hard, My Defender is useless. I can't play a controller on this" etc. etc. There is going to be stuff you love, and stuff you don't. You can't please everyone. There are players who like this SF and have worked hard to the point they can speed run it and snatch the goodies. Which is fine for them. What's not fine is if those same speed runners berate players new to the SF for being noobs and not knowing exactly what's going on, and not being in the right place immediately. For players like me who don't really know what's going on and just follow along behind and hit things it's not ideal. I did it on Beta before release and wanted to linger and look at all the fun stuff in there, of which there is a vast amount. There are so many fun easter eggs scattered around, plus fun NPCs (Becky) and I wish there was a low diff version you could run solo and just meander through enjoying the very hard work that went into making it. I wouldn't even care if there were no badges on the "easy" version. Or any PaPs. Just a standard XP/inf/merits reward for completing a standard story arc. But as it is it wasn't created for players like me. It was created for those players who wanted a challenge and something past "Oh God, not Penny Yin again".

I had that the weekend. The league leader wanted the badge and we were all noobs and killed Anti Matter as soon as he appeared. Sometimes the best instructions in the world go out of the window in the attack frenzy. We were also trying to get the badge on Magisterium where you defeat all three AV's within 10 seconds of each other. We failed that badge too mostly because (I think) the lore pets kept attacking after we stopped at 2% health. It happens unfortunately.

I did a Lady Grey for the first time ever yesterday and it was a speed run. I was so confused. I just followed along behind and hit things until the teleport to the end boss each mission. I got the rewards, but I prefer a more leisurely approach. I'm in it for the XP, recipes and salvage, and threads. I understand doing something over and over gets boring, but personally I like to feel I've accomplished something . I didn't feel like I'd actually done the TF, just the potted highlights. I mostly avoid speed runs of anything for that reason, but if I join a team and then they announce a speed run I think "Well I'm committed now" and go along with whatever the team leader says.

We can find accounts if you know the global, or an alt name. Then we can find the forum and from there we can help with emails.

This is a hot topic with some strong opinions, which is fine. Please remember to keep it polite and not attack someone for having a different opinion to yourself.

I sometimes feel sorry for league leaders, 99% of the time everything goes smoothly then 1% of the time it's like herding cats. I've had 2 Hami raids in 4 years that have been absolute shit shows with people utterly refusing to pay attention to the league leader. The LL was awesome, the instructions were clear and easy to follow but there were a handful of players who Leeroy'd their way in and we just failed utterly. It's not like Hami is even hard these days. There are 2 different strategies that work, and as long as you do what you are told to do it's quick and easy. Same with MSR. As long as people pay attention it works well, I've had a few where someone uses incan to teleport the league all over the ship instead of just... not using it... Then wondering why everyone dies and we all quit. As for trials, every trial I've done has been awesome, and even though we've failed on rare occasions it's always been because people don't listen or ask questions if it's new to them. DD is actually my favourite, and the instructions are always clear as to what to target, when to target, and who targets who. The only time I have issues is when the league leader uses a different channel to give instructions because it's a stand out colour and some people don't have that channel in their chat list. One point I would raise is events. When you have a full league and need to start another, move leagues 2/3/4 etc to different parts of the map a long way from each other. The recent mapserver was so much fun, then it wasn't. Leagues formed, then more leagues formed, then it became a slide show and all the XP and inf slowed to almost nothing. The lag was dreadful and nobody was able to do anything. Despite me asking over and over for leagues to please find somewhere else it was Thursday before anyone paid attention and it was almost over by then. Excelsior was great early morning, then by lunchtime to evening was painful. I got so much more on Reunion with a 4 or 5 team league.

But to be fair to you, I have removed both the warning and the point.

I gave you one point and asked you politely not to discuss other servers or their features again. You are not in any danger of a ban or restriction for discussing what you were discussing, but in the code of conduct it asks you to comply with GM requests. We do not allow anything other than general acknowledgment of the existence of other servers. Good or bad it's not fair on them to discuss what they are doing (even if it's something you like) as they have no way of commenting or addressing points raised. We truly have nothing against them, they often do some interesting things that get people excited and it's good there are other flavours of the game for people who might be looking for something different. We prefer a more general catch-all rather than try to have a very long list of things we would prefer people not to talk about as we will always miss something then get "but it's not in the CoC".

At the request of the CR's I'm closing this thread. Thanks to everyone who commented, the passion demonstrated the love for the incredible talent and dedication of everyone who entered their bases for the competition. Lessons have been learned moving forward, and to those who entered, thank you. Sadly there are going to be winners and not-winners, but there are no losers here. The designs were all of exceptional quality and showcased the artistry of the players. I'm proud of each and every one of you and am glad to be part of the community that has people like you in it. GM Crumpet

OK Guys, enough. This has gone from a fun contest into a really unpleasant attack on people who are trying to do nice things for the community. At this point most of the CR's are ready to throw in the towel and declare this contest null and void and never hold another one. Is this what you want? If so then you are very close to getting it. If you have an issue then bring it up with the GM's. Do not attack people on the forum. The CR's have the full support of the GM team and do not deserve any of the recent unpleasantness. As for the problem of block voting, that happens everywhere. We can't do a lot to fix that. We will have a different system of voting in future contests (if there is one, the way the CR's have been treated recently I wouldn't be surprised if they walked away). Anyone with a registered forum account can vote. Ideally they should check every base and vote on their favourites, but if they don't it's out of the hands of the GM's and CR's. We all do what we do for the love of the community. We don't do it for what we can get out of this. You are better than this. The CoX community has a reputation for being one of the best on the internet. Sadly this has brought out the worst in some people and I'm ashamed. GM Crumpet.

The CR's have worked really hard. I've personally had DM's from members of the team at all hours of the day and night asking to clarify this, can we do that, what if we do the other. As for the accusation of eliteism I'm confused. Everyone starts with the same base, empty and waiting to be filled. Some people are extraordinary and have the ability to see how putting several unrelated items together can make something unexpected. Not everyone can, I certainly can't. I'd heard of several of the CR's as base builders long before they became CR's and I've had a couple of them pop into my personal base and tweak something that I wanted but didn't know how to achieve. And this was on my player account. I'm not a GM who wanders round on my player account going "look at me I'm a GM" unless it's absolutely necessary. If I'm on my player account I'm a player and the CR's still probably don't know who I am when I don't have my GM hat on. And you know what? Even thinking I'm just a player they were so helpful and generous. There was no "You're an idiot" when I asked if they could help me fix a mistake. There was just "Yeah, invite me to the SG and I'll take a look". Five minutes later it was fixed. And they did that with a lot of players. Someone would come on to the help channel saying "I've really messed up and don't know how to fix it" and one of the base-building-for-fun players has jumped on and sorted it out for them. I've never seen anyone laugh and point and abuse a player because they aren't as good as the CR's. Just a "How can I help?". A lot of the base builders (non CR's as well as CR's) are true artists. They are Michelangelo to my 5 year old with safety scissors and glitter making fridge pictures for mommy. I'm not a good base builder. I plonk things down, it functions and doesn't look too horrible. I'll never win a base building contest. And that's OK.

Judges personal bases were always considered not allowed to enter. The difficulty came from the fact that over the last 4 years a lot of the CR's had input on quite a few bases as well known base builders. Someone would ask their advice or input, or have an idea but not the experience to make their vision reality. Anything they built from scratch and handed over wasn't allowed, but a lot of the CR's became CR's because of their passion and experience in base building. If a judge had built (say) a forest and gazebo in a base but the owners had done the rest then that judge would recuse themselves from discussing and judging that base. The CR team actually turned down a number of bases purely based on the fact they had done too much of the work. There are always going to be winners and losers, and these things are going to be a judgement call. If the community as a whole decides that any input, no matter how small from a CR years before they became a CR is enough to disqualify a base from future contest we will of course abide by that wish. This is for the community as a whole to decide, but unless there is a clear consensus, the GM's make a decision based on what we consider fair.

Can I clarify a few things for people. There was much discussion with the GM team about rules and procedures, and all of us gave input from GM's and Leads to yellow names. The CR's were very clear to us as to their goals and the rules, and accepted every one of the GM teams recommendations. If anyone has an issue with how the bases were picked, or which ones were allowed or not allowed it's on the GM team and not the CR's. The CR team does an incredible job with all they do and they do nothing without running it past the GM's first. There was a lot of discussion about allowing bases that had had input from CR's before they joined the CR team and it was decided by us, not by the CR's that it would be unfair to the owners of the bases in question to be penalised because of things they did in the past. Perhaps that was a mistake. We were certainly wary of backlash, but the CR team then and now don't have any advantage over players. Nor do GM's in fact. There is no magic "build now" button that can bypass the hours of hard and painstaking work required to make something as imaginative and amazing as the bases on display. As of writing this CR's have no access level higher than normal players. They are not "GM-lite". They are regular players who care deeply for the community and give up their time to do something brilliant for no reward. They do have access to GM's to chat and discuss any questions they have, but GM rulings are final and they accept that. We try to be as fair as possible and err on the side of caution. Any mistakes or decisions players disagree with are on the GM's and not the CR's, They tell us what they want to do and we as a team decide if it's a yes or no. If anyone wishes to DM me or message me please feel free, I'm always willing to chat with players who have questions about our decisions. What I would ask people to do is avoid personal attacks. People like Dacy and Easter Bunny do this for the love of the community, not what they can get out of it. Any decisions they made are with the blessings of the GM team. Any bases the CR team worked on in the past were judged as dispassionately as ones they didn't work on. If one of the CR team found it was something they had an input on they informed the CR and GM team and recused themselves from any discussion or voting involved. The CR team behaved in an exemplary fashion and any mistakes players perceive are the fault of the GM team and not the CR's. We were the final arbiters of what was allowed or not.

I've been round a few bases (not all as I don't have the time) but the ones I've seen have been awesome. I don't envy the CR's, they have done an extraordinary amount of work.

It can be argued comic sales are almost on the floor and the current MCU is the only thing keeping them going. I'm certainly over them after the fiasco of the X-Men Krakoa stuff and the way they have done almost every legacy character dirty. Captain Marvel has become one of the most dreary heroes in existence and Carol Danvers was always a personal favourite. As for Phase 4 and 5 I think they were a bit stuck. The existing characters were done, the actors too expensive, and the story ended. They started strong with WandaVision. Loki and Moon Knight, but Ms. Marvel (while done well) as a comic character isn't that interesting and the show changed too much about her powers for the actual fans to embrace her. Eternals was fun, but should have been a limited series. Expecting to introduce a dozen characters, a threat and a resolution was too much for it. Even the original comic had Ikaris wake up, then slowly bring together the core Eternals together over a year. It suffered from JLA syndrome without the pull of a couple of characters you actually knew, so audiences walked outr none the wiser as to who these people were. She Hulk was a shambles. Even for someone who loved the John Byrne era it was still shocking. I did find it entertaining, but it was all over the place and was just hot garbage. I could go on, but basically it seems that dragging Feige off to try to save Star Wars was a massive mistake as his attention was split. I'd have gone the route of Loki forming a new Avengers team to combat the threat of Kang after the events of his show. Similar to the Nick Fury cameos in the early shows. Resulting in a quick Avengers movie handing the baton to the new team.

I like Dark melee, I have it on a tank. It's just something a little different.

Sometimes it's the anti-virus or firewall. We had to change certification companies (no idea why, just what Cipher said) and it's taking a while for the new certificate to cycle through the different providers. We had someone with an issue a few days ago and they had to mess about with the antivirus whitelist to get it to work then were good moving forward. I'm not saying that's the actual problem or the solution, just a possible one.

Getting a little off topic here guys, but not everyone is organised 🙂 I'll log on to an alt I haven't played in a long time and go "Hey, 200 million inf I'd forgotten about". And I only have around 40 alts. 20 of which are retired now they have hit incarnate level 4 on everything. Those I do strip of inf, merits and emp threads, but the others have all kinds of stuff I forgot about. I found 10 PaPs on one yesterday.