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Yes, they are. Guess I should have made that clear in my OP. Yes, that is exactly how it shows. Also, an update: After digging around in the files, I am 99% certain that the newer of the two Game Folders, "HC", was created on 12 December 2024. Which would be the same date that my Windows version got upgraded and I couldn't find a bunch of the stuff I had already installed => Had to reinstall a bunch of programs to my PC, one of those programs being CoH Homecoming. Now it seems CoH was still there all along, I just wasn't seeing it 😞 So the mystery is solved, at least - the reason I had a "HC" as well as a "Homecoming" game install is that I put both of them there myself! Now I am curious as to how/why the game installer decided that the newer of the two installs should be named "HC" when the default naming is "Homecoming", but that is idle speculation and not really worth spending any more time on. Many thanks for the help, @UltraAlt and @lemming !!

Until recently, my CoH install was located at C:/Games/Homecoming. But at some point, a new directory named C:Games/HC has been created. And at some point - possibly at the same time but I have no way of knowing that - the game started using the game files in the HC directory. I only discovered the change in directories when trying to load an old costume in the character creator and finding zero saved costumes. It has been months since I made a new costume, so I don't know when the change happened. All my saved costumes are still there, but in the old Homecoming directory. This is Homecoming's own HC launcher, btw, not ol' Tequila. Anyway, I am not super worried about this, because the game runs just fine. I am merely wondering if this change - creation of a new game directory - happened to everyone else as well? I hope the explanation makes sense. I am not particularly IT savvy, so I might be using the wrong terminology here.

There are a few cases where a goldside contact directs you to kill an NPC who is himself a story arc contact, leading to the problem where you cannot obtain missions from Contact X because you have previously killed Contact X as part of Contact Y's story arc. There are only two such cases AFAIK, and they are only a problem if you intend to run all arcs from all contacts, Resistance as well as Loyalist. If that is the case, you can avoid all such conflicts by following this guide: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Apparition's_Complete_Guide_to_Praetoria. There are several other such guides on this forum, but Apparition's is the one I personally prefer. YMMV and all that. If you want to be certain of being able to do Bobcat - or rather, do Bobcat's story arc - you can always do another arc after Belladonna Vetrano and choose the Loyalist ending to go back to being a Loyalist. Which is what you should do anyway, because the Resistance are filthy scum who do not appreciate how awesome life is in Praetoria and therefore want to destroy all of the Emperor's great works. All hail our Emperor Cole!

Why luck charms? They were crazy valuable back on Live, but these days thanks to auction house bucketing they are no better than any other common salvage.

Yup, being able to use our t9 primary on lvl 20ish content was a huge positive change. Many of my favorite TF/SF/arcs are in the 20s range, so being able to use the chars which pretty much need their t9 to be worthwhile, opened up a lot of content for those chars. Great thinking by whichever dev came up with that idea.

It saves the PPD a ton of money in salary, because the cops are willing to work for free when they get the hazard zone posting.😉

For simplicity's sake I will simply point you to the HomeComing wiki which explains attuning quite well IMO. Edit: ...and here is the link which I forgot the first time around: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Attuned They are called enhancements, btw, not enchantments. Common mistake and no big deal, we all can figure out what you meant, but now you know. I always buy my enhancements as the attuned version, except for purple- and PvP enhancements which don't benefit from attuning.

Anti-Matter is my favorite Praetorian NPC. It took some pretty damn good writing to make an already-known archvillain into a troubled and somewhat pitiable, relatable person. Others Receiving Votes (by me) were WarDog (the story makes you understand why he does what he does, even if you think what he does is heinous) and the aforementioned Interrogator Kang (I always with him, but I always feel bad about doing it).

I stand corrected. As mentioned above, I was sure Power contacts would still talk to Resistance chars and vice versa, even though have never actually bothered to test it. But I happen to have a lvl 13 goldsider who is Resistance aligned at the moment, so I tested Apogee's statement by walking up to Mr. G (as he stands in the street, i.e. is not locked behind a no-access area), and sure enough, the G-man would only say "I believe the path you've taken doesn't suit our goals, [charactername]. Let's speak again if you've had a change of heart, yes, let us indeed speak again." Thanks for the correction, @Apogee

Good observation, @CYPHERPUNK, and as the starter of this thread I thank you for noticing 🙂 But we all know that every CoX forum thread invariably ends up getting derailed by a few people pursuing their pet peeves, so I kind of figured something like this would happen. The thread had a good run already - I am at peace with whatever happens to it now 🙂

I believe this is correct. A few years ago our goldsider SG "The Ozites" on Reunion teamed all the way through goldside, and no one was locked out of any mission because of alignment conflict. Except, as noted by others above, for those missions at the end of each arc which are coded as solo-only. One thing to note, though, is that even though the contacts in Praetoria won't refuse to talk to you even if you are Resistance aligned and they are Loyalist or vice versa, some of them are physically unreachable to you if you are the wrong alignment. Mainly, all the Resistance/Crusader contacts are located in the Resistance's underground base which the game will not let you into if you are Loyalist aligned. I.e. the contact himself/herself in principle would talk to you, but you cannot get to their location to talk to them. Likewise for some of the Loyalist/Power contacts who are located inside buildings to which Resistance scum are not allowed access. But as Zhym pointed out, only the team leader needs to be the relevant alignment in order to go pick up the mission.

This is the only thing that really matters in an AE arc (or for that matter in any book, game, movie or any other work of fiction) for me. I very much agree with @Police Woman's list of 5 criteria, but for me, the other 4 are really the means for getting to the end goal - with the end goal being the 3rd bullet point as quoted above.

Found it! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, @Skyhawke For others reading this later on (including, quite possibly, my forgetful future self): You have to be inside the shed with the bar in it. On the mini-map, click the icon marked P2W vendor and go there. Get inside the bar by jumping over the counter and standing behind the NPCs named Last-Minute Gift Shop (who for some reason is not shown on the mini-map) and P2W Winter Operative, and presto! the day job icon below your health/stamina bar will show a Shop Keeper day job badge. 🙂

QFT. I started out as a blaster player and only much later began to make melee chars, and IMHO the learning-by-failing that you get as a new (and in my own case unskilled) player on a glass cannon AT is the best tutorial you can get in CoH. But yeah, it can be a rough ride. For someone who has limited playtime (not that the OP mentioned this, but possibly relevant for other newb readers) it might not be a worth the additional time commitment, in which case a melee character is a wiser choice. On a related note, a Stalker is a good compromise. Not quite as sturdy as a brute/scrapper/tanker but plenty sturdy enough, and the DPS is oh-so-satisfying. But then again, I am the guy who answers "stalker or widow" to every question on this forum, regardless what the question was.

Is there a way to get the Shopkeeper day job badge in the Winter Forest? I seem to remember reading something about that a few months ago - in a forum post here about how pure Praetorian chars can get the Pilot, Commuter and Shopkeeper badges - but now I cannot seem to find that post. Any help will be much appreciated, T.I.A.