Ukase

No-market alts and Yomo don't go together in the same sentence. What manner of heresy is this you speak?

I am guessing you haven't noticed the tips from street sweeping yet? No longer must we download vidiotmaps to fully explore a zone. We can get tips of a sort, and get a destination to get a badge. Granted, you won't see everything to see in zone, but while our player base as a whole may move faster during missions and task forces - many of us see that as a positive. This version of CoH is not about the content. It's about the people you interact with while doing that content. Some make you laugh, some make you want to kill someone. But it's that interaction that sets the game apart. Except for new players, most of us have seen everything the game has to offer many times over. So why would we take our time? What would be the point when you already know the story? Tank/Brute goes in, takes alpha, other teammates fire away, next mob. That's not really a game any more - that's just repetition. So, we may as well go through it as fast as we can. Not all of us, of course, and not all the time, either. But when the mood strikes, have at it. Measure it. See if you can improve upon the last effort. Heck - analyze the powers and abilities of the npcs and change your build to be optimal for that purpose! Imagine that! We get three builds now and if we like, we can tailor our build specifically for a given task to get through it as easily and quickly as possible. Why? So we have more time to do more stuff! Why should Synapse take 2 hours when you can do it in 37 minutes? You still have the defeat alls that must be completed. It's not like anything has changed in Skyway or Steel Canyon or Boomtown. They look the same as they always have! So, once you've seen them - what are you really missing by using the tools at your disposal? Nothing! You've saved time! And time is our most precious resource. We can accumulate wealth, but we cannot accumulate time! Now if you're a new player - you likely can't afford to do these things, so most certainly you'll be exploring these neighborhoods and cities whether you wanted to or not! I see nothing but positive changes so far. (other than travel suppression - but that's a hold over from live) I do understand the nostalgic feeling. When I feel that way, I make a challenge character and embrace the suck of life with travel power at 14, no cape, and don't slot stamina until 14, either, since it's inherent. I pick some powers that never get used to compensate for the Swift & Hurdle requirements before Stamina (and health). It's no longer City of Heroes, but City of Options. Options are good!

If I may, I'd like to share some perspective. I will afk farm a fair bit. I also will run missions/tfs/trials a good bit. Some days, I'll monitor the help channel or another public channel and someone will ask if the purple rate has been tinkered with. I will tell them no, because I get 1-2 a day on my farmer, and maybe 1-2 per week on my regular mission character that doesn't run solo set to a team of 8. But, as much love as the rng shows me - and while I have gotten a purple or two at an MSR (over a large number of MSRs), I don't think I've ever gotten more than 2 recipes from one, of any kind. You mentioned you had common recipes turned off. May I suggest you re-visit p2w, ensure that they are the only ones you have turned off. Additionally, turn common back on, then back off if you choose. I can't say it will fix anything, but it can't get worse. I would also offer the additional perspective that uncommon recipes, while they aren't that uncommon, they certainly aren't likely to drop routinely in the same amount every time you do the same content. Anecdotally, I've had a farmer get 11 uncommons on the briggs asteroid map - and also cleared it and only gotten 2. There's always room for variability. Personally, I wouldn't sweat it, but I do get your concern. I would also encourage you to log off in Ouroboros to at least keep those mission completion recipe bonuses coming, or perhaps that one day job in First Ward- Survivalist will increase odds of a recipe drop. (At least, the wiki doesn't say mission completion bonus like it states for Chronologist - ouro dayjob badge. )

My father, a Dean of Economics (just so ya know he wasn't just some wise old fart), would say to me, "Time is more precious than money. I can accumulate money, I cannot accumulate time." But, the construct of time, while we're gaming is an interesting thing. I think a number of folks have a certain number of hours they can play, while another set of folks have...seemingly limitless time to play. I work remotely, and candidly, my "8 hour day" only takes a couple of hours for me. So, I do have a lot of time, if I so choose. But, between meals, exercise, family, I'm still only going to play so much. So time is important, but I detest the feeling of being "ripped off". It makes no sense to use brain storm ideas for uncommon salvage when it can be had for less than 125k. (5 brainstorms gets an uncommon vs 20 for a rare). So, 20 brainstorms are worth roughly 500k, making an uncommon (5 brain storms) worth roughly 125k. Yet, I'd sooner burn through them rather than pay over 5k for an uncommon. It's a loss, but the feeling of letting some marketer get over at my expense is a worse feeling. I've got ...sheesh...maybe 7000 (units of 20) of them on one of my accounts. Not like I'm gonna miss them, lol. But It's not like I'd miss the influence either. But, my grandmother who didn't even attend a high school, had no idea how old she was (no birth certificates in her country of origin - only a certificate of baptism) would tell me, "Every dollar you save multiplies to the bottom line. That means, if you save your money, that's time you don't have to spend working." So, there's some wisdom in not giving the AH your resources. As we "work" ( Play our characters), we earn inf. If we never spend any on the AH, it stands to reason we'll accumulate a lot more than if we were spending inf on the AH. But then...the idea of blowing 100 merits on a recipe...now that's really painful, when I know I can get converters and make a lot more than that recipe would cost if I'd bought it from the AH. Ultimately, it comes down to each person's preferred gaming experience. I have spent a lot of time on another thread trying to determine why someone would kill most/all when they could race through, get the merits and move on. And someone was kind enough to get it into my thick skull that all of us have our own preferred gaming experience, and it doesn't have to make sense to anyone else. Wouldn't think it would take so much effort for something so simple to sink in a thick skull, would ya? Some genuinely detest the market. They think it should all be free, or they at least want to minimize time with the AH open, so they sell goods like lotg 7.5% for 1 inf, and then they overpay for the same thing 8M when they want one. Doesn't make sense to me, but hey, doesn't have to.

I could certainly be wrong, and very often am. But I am not under the impression the AH works this way. As I understand it, someone posts their salvage for auction at X price. On ANY of our 5 servers here in HC, whomever bids the most for that salvage gets it. Doesn't matter if the AH is slow due to duct tape procedures. It still checks each piece of salvage to see what the cheapest offer is to provide the piece or pieces of salvage to the highest bids. I will grant you that the AH may work more slowly due to this duct tape, but I don't think it checks the home server of the person posting and satisfies that bid and doesn't check the other servers due to duct tape. But, the transparency post about their duct tape solution could have stated things just as you said, but when I read it, that wasn't my take away.

I've only just seen this post, directed from the other post. 1. I really appreciate the manual install option. There's something about the other method that just stymies my poor brain. 2. The real reason for my post - have you considered the Sewer Network & Abandoned Sewer Network? On characters of mine that pursue all the explorations, I will cover a zone, such as Atlas, then enter the Sewer Network and only grab the closest one to the gate, then enter the ASN and grab that closest one to the gate. Only after I've hit Atlas, Kings, Steel, Skyway do I head to Boomtown (no particular order, although there probably is an optimal path) to get all the Sewer Network stuff, and then all the ASN (and the plaques within in), if I'm high enough level to pursue them. If not, I may have an alt SK my character, or I may wait until I'm 40-50.

Alcohol is just empty calories. I see nothing useful about it. It dehydrates me, makes my head hurt. And, too much, it kills you. I see no reason to consume it. In my youngers days, well...that was different. I simply didn't know any better. I know a number of people who do drink when they play, and I try my best to avoid them, as they'll usually do nothing but waste my time and annoy me, because they think some things are funny, and I just think they're stupid. (The things they think are funny, and them - because they are stupid. If you're gonna get your drunk on, go to a bar and do it properly, and wake up wondering where your cash went like I used to do) I should add - that not everyone who drinks turns into a jackass. But for the most part...they do. Nancy Reagan was on to something, Just say no. Do not game and drink. Heck, do not drink period. Waste of resources.

My next in-game hero props would have gone to @Bionic_Flea, but someone already mentioned him. The dude is a vast storehouse of knowledge about CoH, and seems to almost always be around to answer questions - and most importantly, answer them correctly. And if he doesn't know - he very often knows how to find out, and will take the time to look it up. So, I will give props to @Peacock (in game handle. Not sure of his handle in the forums.) Peacock is a natural wizard at creating costumes. If he hasn't won, he's placed in any costume contest I'm aware of. It's a low bar, because I'm not into costumes as a rule. But it's more than that, he's super smart about a lot of different things, and has always made my game time more fun than it otherwise would be. There aren't many folks who would, or even could, create a gorilla costume, and share the file, and share how they came up with it in a matter of minutes.

First - you need to understand something. There is no "best" in CoH. There is optimal, but no best. There could be a "best for YOU" build. We don't know your manual dexterity. We don't know your reflexes. We don't know if you want to afk-farm (set burn to auto, sit in the middle, reset 10-20 minutes later, depending on your passive damage buff from fury and IO sets.) Some say Rad/fire brute is marginally better. I say anecdotally, that's not true. I have played both, and found the rad/fire inferior. But- I have to allow for the possibility I slotted my spines/fire better than my rad/fire. It's certainly possible. So - there you go. Slotting differences can take HC's "best" +4/8 AT & powerset combo and turn it into trash compared to someone else's build of the same AT & powerset. So, now that I've said that, to me - spines/fire is an easier way to go than rad/fire. Anecdotally, it was more fun to level up. There was a time I couldn't put burn on auto - my build wasn't there yet. I had to put healing flames on auto, and just let the blazing aura and quills do the damage. I was afk, so speed didn't matter. The brute lived, and I made enough to put burn on auto after boosting the fire defense with winter sets. I like spines/fire for other reasons, too. It was just easier for me to build. Six slot winter sets. Six slot some oblit sets. I mean, it was simple. The rad/fire build was a bit harder for me - probably because I just wasn't as familiar with rad melee. Below is my build, which I use outside of the farms, too. There's a clear lack of defense debuff resistance, so groups like Carnies, Banished Pantheon and Arachnos are highly problematic. Other than that, I had no trouble soloing AVs in the TFC blue side tf chain. It is not the "optimal" nor best fire farm brute build. But it is more than suitable for farming +4/8, either active or afk. ApacheFog - Brute (Spines).mxd

I love thinking about "If" some days. I don't owe any money to anyone that I can think of...so I'd probably hire a chef and a personal trainer, and get a 1 man shell (row-boat for those not into that kind of thing) and a vehicle suitable for lugging it around to suitable waters. I would set up a college fund for my grand-daughter, of course. And maybe remodel the house I'm in. Not sure if I'd service the car I have (overdue a bit) or just buy another. The newer cars scare me with keys that cost more than a six-pack, and you apparently don't need them to start the car, you just mash a button. Would be a fun problem to have, though.

To provide a little more information - I'd have to go back and revisit the patch notes from the first ...six months, I think since HC came out. The HC devs seeded the AH with 10M units of rare, uncommon and common salvage, each. They placed these salvage at a price of 1M for rare, 100k for uncommon, 10k for common. As mentioned before, any common salvage listed is bought in the form of whatever common salvage was bid upon. (assuming someone meets the auction price, of course) Those patch notes came out in the Pre-5/16/19 Patch Notes (including i25). But, just so you're fully informed, the AH can certainly be glitchy from time to time. It is quite susceptible to lag.

@Optimistic89I do have one Whispered Rumor mission. Is Optimistic89 your global in game? If not, DM me, and we can see if we can't work out a time convenient for both. My global is @ukase. And my main, Ukase is the one that has it. And I am on Excelsior.

My SG has a guy who made an app that acts as a depository for builds. Folks in the SG ask for a specific build, give travel power preferences, and other details - and our build specialists make them. I try to make my own builds. I might look at other builds for inspiration, and occasionally use one I have found, maybe take a proc out or two in pursuit of a set bonus, or because bopper's sheet suggests the proc would only fire a small percentage of time. Then, as I look at other builds more and more, I can see that while the maker of that build may have been proud of it for whatever reason, I found it to be less than ideal. Often, the builds would require recovery serum and ageless to be viable. Other times, a build would be great - at level 50, but at level 40, it would be trash. A number of folks when making a build in mids add in the travel powers at 49 instead of level 4, when I usually get it. So, I'm certain there's a number of places that could act as a database for "proven" builds, but a build that might work great for player A may not be worth a thing to player B, and vice-versa. So, how would one determine which builds are viable, and which are not? Who's to say? It's all too subjective and dependent upon playstyle and other preferences.

I think it's got to be someone amusing themselves. But, what do I know? I have tons of brain storm ideas, Once, I thought - "screw this marketer. I'm not gonna play his game." But, I did the math, and even at 50k per uncommon, the rare is still a better deal to make from 20 brain storm ideas. So, I went to my farmers and let them drop stacks of uncommon in the base for the other character that needed them. It's crazy. I have literally billions and can still make influence buying uncommon at the capped 100k price, but I refuse to do it. I wonder why I even market or farm anymore. Unlike Yomo, while I do give some away, it has to be my idea. I'm not going to just drop 20M because I got an email. When I do drop inf, it's a tidy sum, but it's almost always unsolicited. As for meeting this need for uncommons, the devs have done that already by placing caps on the price. That's why I never market with salvage. It's a losing battle. The sheer volume you'd have to deal with is more trouble than it's worth. I'm not trying to make the next billion 50k at a time, I'm trying to make the next billion 5M at a time.

So, I'd asked for this in the request costume thread, but an sg member gave me some tips, and this is what I came up with. I present "Thong Kong" I've attached the costume file which you could load up at a tailor and tailor it to suit your preferences. Thong Kong.costume

In a word, no, it isn't any easier. Malta, sappers - any npcs, really. When you rush through to mission objectives, they rarely have an animation going by the time you've moved out of their area. And..what's strange is even when a sapper does attack, they miss most of the time, depending on your defense stats and level shifts. The longer you fight an npc, the greater the risks. If you don't have to engage them, there's really zero reason to do so, unless you just want to for ...incarnate xp, maybe. There's certainly no reason to do it for influence, as you can make a LOT more in 5-10 minutes of marketing than you would in a very speedy tinmage/apex. I'm not saying it can't be fun, to end drain a sapper. But to me, it's just dull after you've done it once or twice. May as well ignore it, as it doesn't get you anything useful.

lol, I would let you win. I wouldn't blow my inf on something so useless. Give me ...insta level 50 for 100M +10 recipe storage for 100M p2w in base for 100M But prestige? nah, useless stuff

Anecdotally, soloing to me will depend on the AV I'm facing and the character I face it with. Vandal, Clamor, Burkholder, Arakhn, Jurrasik, Hopkins, Countess Crey, Clockwork King, Dr. Vahz - these are all just bags of HP. I remember against Dr. Vahz, my rad/stone tank simply could not do enough damage (pre-tank changes) to Vahz, despite Envenomed Daggers and large reds. Just couldn't kill him. But my blasters, corruptors, brutes, scrappers have no issues with any of these. To be fully transparent, I always have envenomed dagger, and a ranged summons for my melee characters and a tank summons for my ranged characters. I don't always use either, but if I need them, I use them. With the tank, I tried to forgo use of these, but no dice. Rolled out the echo version of positron and beat Vahz pretty quickly. Yesterday, I took my fire/ice tank and solo'd all three blue side respec trials without use of lores or summons. But I did use 24 reds, particularly against the freaks, as they tend to rez when you'd prefer they not. No AV, but plenty of mobs and a reactor to keep healthy (enough). I am what you would call team averse most of the time. The idea of recruiting a team for killing heroes in Recluse's Victory for badges..that would just invite bored pvpers to grief me, so I am reluctant to recruit for that, so I will always try to solo those first. I remember, using the in-zone hvas, plus my lore pets, I got through all the AVs except Positron with my first blaster. I just couldn't get him without getting killed! My stats were great for pve, but in PvP, for some stupid reason, the old school devs changed things up and ruined any desire I ever had for pvp. But I digress. I had a knight errant, a shivan, clockwork gears, a Tsoo, a werewolf, katie hannon emp temp, an HVAS (rwz/msr), lore pets and the zone heavy and only just barely beat Positron. The only temp that was left was the Knight Errant if you can believe that. Which is crazy because on Red side, I solo Positron and he's fairly simple with a luck or two.

Not sure why us richer players can't just donate to an SG the way things are now. Oh..we do! Well, they do. I would, but my sg just likes to blow the money on contests - which I don't think are quite fair, as they rely on a good graphics card and not everyone has the same set up to see the same things. My purple might be your violet, etc. Something with cel shading might like quite good, but without it look pretty strange. Just doesn't seem fair to me. (and that's okay - that's just me) The truth is there's a lot of in-game "currency" already. Losing prestige would be a plus. I do think it could have some value, but consider this: Player A is a farmer. They enter the farm, exit, sell, reset, etc. All day. They earn tons of prestige. Meanwhile - three or more sg mates were forming up a team for some purpose or another. Player A is in the farm, not coming out. While it's certainly okay, let's look at Player B, who stops what they're doing to join the SG mates. Better is certainly a subjective term, and if Prestige had the utility from live, the farmer might be held in high esteem for the massive earning of it. But now...isn't it better to reward the sg folks that are teaming, preferably with SG folks? Shouldn't prestige be earned ONLY when teamed with sg folks of the same SG and their coalitions? This might be a more useful metric for an SG leader. Player A is on all the time, but has earned zero prestige. Player B is on sometimes, but seems to earn a decent amount each time they're on. How hard would something like that be to implement? I have no idea. I just think that metric would be more useful for an SG.

Apparently, I've fallen behind in posting on this stuff. Got two more just waiting on the nemesis event, but talk is cheap, and that's not much compared to Voltor and a couple others I know.

What really tickles me is the new PvP snipe set. If you look, all 6 recipes all take the same exact salvage. But, I always craft those yellows that take rares. The rare salvage is free, the converters are free. So craft it, convert it, see what you get. You know you're gonna make inf.

This guy's name is spoken of on every server as a great content leader. I keep meaning to visit Everlasting, but the last time I was there, he was doing a TPN, and I would hate to fall asleep as a visitor. (I do detest TPN. So much repetition)

I almost recognized *ic Flea myself, and was planning on getting him some props in the next couple of weeks!

You're not the first person to suggest accolades over badge count. Certainly, accolades certainly suggest investment in the character, if nothing else, given the boost in hp/end. I appreciate the perspective and will give it an either/or kind of thing. Either know them (or their rep) or look for the passive accolades, or a relatively high badge count. Fun fact on the badge count, as a metric. I've got a warshade and a widow - both are levels 42-43 and didn't do 2xp. All missions so far were kill through, unless mission objectives required otherwise. I've made an effort to get the exploration badges in each zone they're in, and neither one has over 200 yet. Mind you, I'd never make a badger out of these two, I just don't enjoy them enough to do so, but the low badge count makes me think that all of you are correct, I'm being unreasonable. (They are both locked to their alignment until 50 - so there's a limit to the low-hanging fruit badges for both as far as explores go.) I hope folks realize that even though I can be obtuse, I do try to take in other opinions and have an open mind. So, your counter-points are often considered!

I agree, to a point. There's a number of GREAT players who, for one reason or another don't pursue badges on a given character. But here's the context: I'm running an MoTF, I've got some choices of folks among a pug crowd. First thing I do, is check global name, then powersets, then badge count. If I don't know you - you might truly be the best choice - but I have no way of knowing that. When you want to make the most of your time, and not have to redo the tf because of unfortunate missteps, what metric would you look at? Leave everything to chance? I ask myself - why do they want this badge? They don't seem to be a badge hound. Vet level 12 and only 223 badges. I'd think they'd have quite a bit more by vet level 12, if badges were what they were after. Are they trying to be helpful, or are they just looking to team up with anyone? Just the challenge? And that's the dilemma I often face if I don't know them. I also look at vet levels if they're 50. Experience with a character is important, too. Although badge counts suggest they have experienced a lot of the game, rather than the same fire farm repeatedly. (not that high vet levels mean that - but they could) Obviously, I know with certainty that high badge counts do not guarantee success on a Master run. But, to me, it's a fair indication that someone with a high badge count: 1) wants the badge 2) has enough experience to know not to do things that are needlessly risky - like go afk during the 2nd mission of an ITF with all those ambushes 3) has stumbled across my path on one league badge effort or another in the past I'm very open to finding another metric to use. But I can't think of one that's a better indicator of success when considering an MoTF with someone I am unfamiliar with.