FrauleinMental

Same here. I still have two full Thunderstrike sets on my main, down from four about a month ago. (I finally replaced two with the Devastation and Gladiator's Javelin sets.)

I remember having to make sure there were enough mentors to sidekick up all the lowbies on a higher-level team...and having to rebalance it when someone left or DCed. I also remember the sidekick/mentor relationship having a finite range.

A TF or MSR will clear that right up, and there is tons of other content for 35+. They even tell you to talk to Borea for extra missions. This used to be the norm--you'd run out the contacts in each level band a couple of levels before the next level band. It would happen even at low levels, and I recall it being particularly bad in the 30s, when the increased XP needed per level became apparent. There was a lot of street sweeping involved, so you'd see a lot of characters on the streets. But that was even before the Police Radio.

Mary MacComber can be pretty nasty (especially with the rest of the Cabal) if you're not prepared. Most of the Cabal witches at all ranks have either -End or -Rec. The first mission in KHTF can be horrifying if the team leader has the Notoriety maxed out.

Not to "jump on" you or "post strategies", but I do have to disagree with you. Sappers don't need to be nerfed. Everything in Malta melts ("arrests") pretty easily. Sappers are the only reason people have to fear Malta, but they're only OP if you let them be. Sappers have one trick (maybe two, if you count their melee hold), and they're easy to counter if you're actually looking for them. It's exactly the way Kheldians learn to look out for Quantums, Voids, and Nictus everywhere. Most people I played with on Live had learned to scan Malta spawns for Sappers and mez them or focus them down. It doesn't matter that they're only minions--it matters that they're the only dangerous mob in the spawn. Also, if you're regularly seeing yellow Sappers in missions (beyond the occasional up-leveled spawn), it's because you have your Notoriety turned up. The Sapper is your wake-up call.

I also haven't noticed excessive lag. Mostly it's reduced frame rate during zone raids. Occasionally on a Friday or Saturday night I'll see a few lag spikes, but I chalk that up to increased demand on bandwidth in my apartment complex thanks to everyone streaming instead of going out to party.

It is the LFG channel, not the LFM channel, so technically that's its purpose. That being said, if you're LFG and you see a bunch of other people also LFG, form a team.

I've done versions of all three of these. I haven't popped 10 vs. Hami, but as a troller I'll generally pop a team acc/dmg and a team dmg right before we charge in, just to get started on the first couple of green mitos. My normal loadout these days: 4 large team acc/dmg, 4 large team dmg, 4 large team heal/end, 4 large team break-free, 3 Ultimate, 1 Immortal Recovery. (I've bought a decent number of super inspirations from the AH because I'd rather spend inf than threads.) I rarely use the Ultimates except against a high-level AV, and I rarely use the Immortal Recovery because I have 3 self-rez temp powers (Return to Battle from the P2W vendor, Renewal of Light from the winter vendor, and the expendable self-rez from pack drops). I almost never use inspirations while soloing. During a Hami raid, I'll store the last 3 columns to free up space for EoE drops.

To be fair, my trial is a small sample size, but this morning I spent 75k inf for 5 yellow recipes, spent salvage I already had (about another 25k inf) and about another 2.5M inf in crafting fees (for level 50s, which I recall is the wrong level, since you want something that has a 50 equivalent but has a low enough level to be cheaply crafted) and 38 converters I already had (13 merits) to make 7M (6.3M after AH fees; about 3.7M profit). I didn't even try for the big sellers; I sold as soon as I got something that would go above 1.25M each. I could do that almost 8 times on 100 merits (8 would be 104), and I could see that spending more time (and being more practiced) would probably get me there.

Boosters: Convert 100 merits to 20 boosters, sell for 1,200,000 each, netting 1,080,000 each after AH fees. 21.6M net. I did that when they were going for 1,500,000 each, but that's more rare now than it was a few months ago. Catalysts: Convert 100 merits to 5 catalysts, sell for 2,400,000 each, netting 2,160,000 each after AH fees. 10.8M net. Sometimes they'll sell at 3,000,000 each, but also more rare now and even at the higher price they're not worth buying with merits. The only time I'll generally sell catalysts is when a bunch drop from pack openings. I've seen recent discussions about using those 300 converters to play roulette with uncommon IOs you buy off the AH and resell as higher-priced rares. I haven't tried it myself, but proponents claim to turn 100 merits into 100M inf profit.

When SG-1 first meet the Tollans, Omac tells them that they were awaiting a rescue transport because they were sealing the gate and their new world didn't have a stargate. It might be that they had to repurpose their ships to set up their new world. Omac seemed to be unnaturally paranoid for a Tollan (the rest of their race seeming somewhat gullible), so he pretty much had to die for any of the Goa'uld plot to succeed.

Ah, vaporware. Duke Nukem Forever took just longer than 14 years to release. On the other hand, DNF wasn't worth the 14-year wait. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-protracted-game-development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_Forever One potentially critical difference is that all those games had audiences when they looked new. The danger of taking a decade to develop a game is that you have to attract an audience who have never played your decade-old game. It's now five years overdue (from a 19-month timeline, funded Nov 2013, due Jun 2015). I wrote off my $250 Kickstarter donation and moved on long before HC brought CoH back.

"Always remember, your weapon was made by the lowest bidder." --Murphy's Laws of Warfare

Excelsior, you say? Hmm...

The odds of rolling in 20 minutes late and getting in might be like that (at least the $4-winning level). But it only takes a small amount of self-responsibility and preparation to vastly improve your odds.

It will happen for each server, just not all at once.

The problem with either cancelling or selectively auto-declining a specific fortune is that you'd effectively be allowed to reroll (redeal) the fortune within the 20-minute duration if someone hit you again with the power. The random nature of the power is its own cost. I could almost see allowing something like this but triggering a "blank" Mystic Fortune with a 20-minute duration just to prevent redealing. But even that takes some of the risk out of the power.

What do you hope to gain by this? People won't stand around ("gathering") outside a mission door unless they have to, so you're inconveniencing other players on the slightly-increased chance you'll stumble upon a random team up. As others have said, this was the entire point of Ouroboros. Also, not every enemy group has mobs at every level range, so some level scaling is necessary. I don't do a lot of AE, but I still vote no. Don't try to force people to play the way you want to play. (Besides, even before AE there were some missions that were plenty farmable. I'm looking at you, Council Empire.)

This day is BANANAS! https://tenor.com/tD4H.gif

I'm also that weird. I joined at Issue #6 and subscribed annually all the way to shutdown, even when I took breaks to play other games. (Even when I deployed in 2008 my sub was still active.)

I had about 2400 hours on my main during Live, and I have just over 700 hours on her with HC. Actual play time, no AFK shenanigans for me...but then it'll be a while before I get some of those badges. 🙂

I won't speak for anyone but myself, but here's my particular state of burnout... Even on Live, my SG was just with a small circle of RL friends who barely logged on. We had a SG, but I was the one who built the base (and contributed the majority of Prestige, on Live). Nowadays, I have enough going on in my life that I don't want to feel the duty to log on at particular times. That would be work...and I have plenty of work to do in my real life. I'll log in a couple nights a week to do Hami raids and/or MSR, but I don't do them every night even if I happen to be on. This is the main reason I've resisted seeking out a more active SG.

Why not play a Spines scrapper? Why Rage instead of Build-Up?

It tried it last night, and it worked as normal. I was able to convert 50 Reward Merits to and from 1 Hero Merit or 1 Villain Merit.

I haven't run into that problem, though I remember wondering if it could happen. You can use the Pillar of Ice and Flame to teleport to your contact.