Ukase

The game is strange. In one moment, the game can be a place of great humor and amusement. In the next, it can be a source of frustration. I actually wrote about 8 paragraphs, describing in too much detail different interactions that led to many different feelings. But, nobody needs to read all that junk. Right now, this instant, the game is a distraction, and an unwelcome one. I have rowing to do...rowing I was supposed to do 90 minutes ago. But who's going to look forward to a 10k time trial on an indoor rower? A blistering 1:50 pace can get me in the top 10 for my age. Or it could kill me. I'll find out too soon.

How would this be defined? In any event, just today, leveling up a kin/dark scrapper for the first time, because..well, they suggested kin needed some help. Well, I suppose it could..a little. But in any event, one group I'm always concerned about is malta. No endurance, can't do anything. So, I tend to avoid them. But, in order to progress in this certain arc, I had a malta defeat all. Well, I know sappers will drain end. And I know one of them drops that super-annoying auto-turret. I never paid attention to which one, because, well...the times I actually fight malta are very few. So, I went to HC Wiki. This is what I found: Note at the bottom, Kevlar. So, I can see what kind of armor they have and the damage they're vulnerable to. As far as I could tell, this data is available for every type of Malta, and I would assume every type of NPC we had in the game before shutdown. Now, it's not original work by me - someone else risked their endurance bar to get this data - not me. But, while I don't do this for every faction, I will do it if I'm on a character that I still have a lot to learn about and I'm tackling mobs I'm not real comfortable with.

As of late, with the more frequent occurrence of Nemesis invasions, getting the FPR on blue side is really almost faster and easier than HPT on redside. The problem has to do with your luck - did an invasion happen when you could take advantage of it? If not, then you have to wait until your level 40 to have any kind of real chance to stack up 100 fake kills. For whatever reason, the only time I see fakes under level 40, is in Anton Sampson's missions, and then, they're just the boss at the end you have to clobber. Even set to 0/8, you get 1. Mind you, that's anecdotal evidence, not to be confused for a verified factual statement. There may be better contacts, with better missions; I just haven't found them yet. I mean, you do a pos1 - that will get you gearsmasher. No need to suffer through a synapse unless you just want the merits or just like lengthy kill-alls. A yin TF - will get you on your way for Tankbuster. And if you don't get it there, by the time you're 40 and hit market crash for your free purple, you'd likely finish that badge. And of course, there are a number of contacts that have freaks in them, so there's no doubt in my mind, and proven by my own experience you can get this badge naturally, just playing the game. No need to hunt. The fakes are always the bottle neck for me. For whatever reason, I feel ineffective unless I can get the accolades as soon as I can get them. Sometimes, I feel like my build needs the stat boosts. Sometimes, it's the goal I'm chasing. Either way, I'd rather get it sooner than later. The High Pain Threshold, for redsiders - you simply can't get it before level 30, unless you're just fortunate enough to get on someone else's team for The Unlucky Artifact badge mission before you hit 30. The contact that gives it is a level 30-35 contact. And you usually have to do a few missions before he'll give out the badge mission. Even if you try the abandon, reselect a mission hack, sometimes he'll still give you other stuff before that one-off badge mission. As for XP debt - the patrol xp that we get from explorations has made any debt insignificant and meaningless, other than the lessons you learn from the defeat. (like don't slam a shot of whiskey and run into Hro-Dotz with your blaster. It's just not wise. It can be great fun, but still, not a good idea) The worst part about the HPT is the debt badge. It's annoying going into monster island just to commit suicide 15 times or however many it takes to reach it. Could just wait to level 50 and die 3x. But, waiting to 50...might as well go FPR instead. But, that's just me. Opinions and preferences will certainly vary.

Just as an FYI, I can't say that it only has spiders, but running Agent G's stuff, 4th story arc contact in Faultline (annoying location and annoying mission locations - mission tp is worth it, imo) his arc has at least one mission, that running at +2/1 on my stalker, most of the npcs were spiders. I think between Theiry and Agent G, I want to say I got 135 spiders. And that was without killing every spider I saw. Jim Temblor's finale with nocturne, running at +1/1, there's still about 20-30 in there if you're going out of your way to get them. So, I think it's probable that you could get this badge organically, as you describe it - but you might have to run at 0/2 or 0/3...but I don't know if the increased team count creates a different arachnos mixture of critters.

So, I just need to say this - just ran 2* with someone who actually had the /loc commands of where the other player with incan should port us. I died once. We had fewer team deaths than I think I got alone on my first run on the 1star. It's like it wasn't even the same task force. Everything was calm, relaxed, and I kind of thought it was some kind of mind trick, where it must be that the 1* is the hardest and the 2* isn't quite as challenging. I swear, sometimes folks are playing a different game than I am. It was almost like some of them had the instant win buttons from brainstorm. Those AVs went down like they were level 54 lieutenants. Now I understand why some folks are shaking their heads, wondering what my issue was. I got terrorized once, and slept once. And I was unaware that I could only use medium or small inspirations - all I had were the large ones - which went unused. I learned a lot. I'm gonna run that a few more times, because there's still more to absorb, but with a solid team, a blaster can actually blast instead of running for his life.

In a sense, I agree. But that's not the way I decide on if I should make a suggestion or not. To me, dev time is irrelevant. I'm here to make a suggestion. That's all. It could take 2 minutes or 2 years. A more important question is would it add value to a player's adventure? But that's just me. I get it, volunteer staff, and lord knows there are much more important things. But, there were more important things than the lrtp, too. Yet it found its way into the game.

This is a difficult question - mainly because I haven't thought about it. I don't even know if you can call it a QoL change. There were some changes in HC since the first day they opened up the doors to everyone. And it's tough to remember what was something that HC specifically did, or it was done prior to the public opening and it just carried over. Most of the things on my list - as I think about them - are more about the game's economy than anything else. The seeding of salvage comes to mind. The change of the exchange rate of VG merits to reward merits. The lack of charging influence for trading reward merits for converters, and the generous exchange rate. The Find Contact and the Teleport to contact option. The LFG teleport to contact option. The LRTP. Since some of those have less to do with QoL than others, I think as much as I want to bring attention to converters and seeded salvage, I think the LRTP is probably the biggest QoL improvement for me. Sure, I have base teleport, and the SG portal I could use, but the lrtp is faster - saves me a load time. I know some folks are thinking, "what's the rush", but if you're after the prismatics (or the monstrous aethers that convert into them) or even the merits, then you'll recognize that if other folks are also after those things, then sometimes, Babbage is defeated before you get there. I use the lrtp and even though I'm on the opposite side of the map, I can generally get there in time. Having to port into my base, and then port from my base to Skyway, I've lost out on merits because of the 30-45 second delay. (the biggest delay is usually my finally noticing the broadcast, honestly) I did not like the instant base tp being taken away, but the solution to that was manageable, and I've kind of forgotten about that great convenience. It's really hard to pick on this new way of trying to make things easier for the new player. Part of me thinks it can only help, but my inner curmudgeon wants them to suffer as I did, having to hover over The Hollows just to reach the mission alive. But those changes weren't from HC - they happened prior to the shut down. I thought the pvp recipes dropping in pve was insane, but I really like it. I never enjoyed loading my alts in and killing it repeatedly in hopes of getting a drop. Granted, it made a ton of inf back on "live", but it wasn't really fun. Just something I felt like I had to do to make enough inf to slot my characters. I think the one thing that impacts QoL a lot is influence. And the removal of NoXP/2xInf had an impact on a lot of players. When it was implemented, I'd already amassed a sizable stack of influence. But, I still think this was an over-reaction and completely unnecessary. Just making afk-farming more difficult or even improbable would have been a better course of action to achieve the desired result. Leave the active farmers alone. Let them make 2xInf if they want. They're only going to put it back into the economy, fund more costume contests and make more alts. And yes -I recognize that opinions vary strongly about this. You have a right to yours, just as I have a right to mine. We can disagree and still share a joke, I would hope. And, the thing is, every now and then, I see a new-ish player, level 30-something who's asking if they have an option to turn off xp and double influence. I mean, for them, it was an innocent question - as they figured if they could double xp and lose inf, they ought to be able to double inf and lose xp. But, for reasons which I still don't agree with, we can't do this anymore. So, for me, that's the biggest one that I'd like to roll back.

This is a minor thing, but my life seems to be filled with the pursuit of marginal gains. I finished an arc in Mercy today. Well, I actually finished it last week, I just logged the character in, noticed I needed to call the contact to get the next mission - and <fanfare> I leveled up from 4 to 5. Story arc bonus pushed me from 4 to 5. I have 2xp buff going, and a full 10 bars of patrol xp, so not a terrible surprise. Apparently I was level 3 when I started that last mission of the arc, and dinged in the mission. And logged off without training. So, suddenly, I'm an untrained level 5. And my reward was a level 3 SO. So, yeah, I can still use it. But why isn't it at least a level 5 to match my level? Because I'm untrained, I suppose. I mean, it's just an SO, but it seems like it should have matched my level at worst, or been 3 levels higher, at best. Just kind of feels like I robbed a bank and got 5 bucks instead of 5 gazillion dollars, which no normal bank would keep on hand, but they all certainly have more than 5 bucks. If I'm going to risk making little rocks out of big ones for 10 to 20 years, I ought to get something more out of it. Jus' sayin'.

I'd like this myself.

So..I think SG bases and SGs in general are an interesting part of the game. I remember in retail getting invited into an SG with no prior teaming or anything. Just a blind invite and then, not being asked, but being TOLD to convert my costume into "SG mode", which changed my colors to make me look kind of like a bumble bee. These folks were probably the experience/adventure people wanted - but I couldn't stand it. I was on an emp/electric defender, my first character ever. And these crazy people wanted to do +4 stuff. Well, they wanted the XP. What they didn't realize is that I was just learning the game, hadn't a clue about slotting, or power choices for that matter. And the harder the content is, the more I would have to heal. It was annoying, not fun at all for me. I quit as soon as that first mission was over. It wasn't their fault - it was mine. Noob player, but I felt like if I'm going to be in a group, I want to be in a group with people I like. And it made more sense to me at the time (and still does) to team with folks FIRST before you decide to be in a group with them. With the options to use Discord - which I'm not a big fan of - people end up talking about non-game stuff, and can sometimes amuse or piss off people. I tell the worst jokes I can find just to punish my team for having me use Discord. I'd rather not use it - but damn, it's a lot easier to say "Try to avoid the nullifier force fields after the riders die. If you're in one, do your best to get out of it, asap", than it is to type it out, especially while in combat. So, I use it. It's a good tool. But, you know, there are background noises from a few folks every now and then. What'd we expect? Not everyone is playing in a basement all alone. Still, a super group, as it is now, allows for people to see at a glance who's on, and who's not. Beats the whole "Anybody home" in the global chat channel. If we were to suddenly be allowed to join multiple groups, this is kind of how I see things happening for me: "What? Join your group? Sorry, who are you? " OR "Um..hi bird brain. Yeah, I guess I could join." "What? I have to join your discord to? Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Okay" "9pm? But that's during the other event that I do at that time." "Why are your SG colors so lame? I can't look evil/heroic wearing <color>. Come on, don't you think about this stuff?" "Do I have to actually talk in your chat channel? I'm trying to play a game here, not chit chat with you about <whatever>" BUT: I can keep my own stuff in my own base. No need to worry about permissions. I don't have to drop 20 fps immediately upon entering this SG base that's really trying to impress folks. The bottom two (for me) outweigh the foolishness of the top potential issues. In many ways, I kind of think like Groucho Marx. I don't want to belong to any group that would have me as a member. I mean, as a player, and as a joke teller, I'm only slightly better than mediocre. But as a human being, I can be a real jerk. That's just me being me. I try to be nice. It just doesn't come easily and sometimes, I'll let you have it. And keep letting you have it. Because you deserve it, don't you think? The sad part is, I don't know how it can be done. I'm not saying it can't be, but it's beyond me. I think about object oriented programming. Can an npc be a freak and a carnie? I just don't know if the game can resolve the differences.

Emphasis added by me to make it stick out. I know I'm not the only person who makes a character and as soon as I notice my character is in General chat by default, I remove it from entering my text boxes. General chat has a purpose - it's where a lot of folks who like to disagree with each other go to chat. Not saying that's everyone, but man, those folks seem to like to quibble. So, I just take it out. Just stop paying attention to it. About the procs. I would have no idea if they're going to adjust them or not. I have heard rumors, like a lot of people. It would depend on what they do, I suppose. I only have a handful of characters I really care about - most, if they were impacted by the change - I'd just not play them anymore and make a new character. That's what the 1000 slots are for. When someone says, "Oh Super Strength is lower-tier", this is what I'd like you to keep in mind: I build my characters different than you do. I build mine different from that guy with the silly costume. I build them differently than most other folks. So, how is someone going to tell me that my character sucks compared to someone's Shield/mace tank? They can say it all they want. They can believe it all they want. But that doesn't make it so. If my character gets the job done, then I guess it doesn't suck that bad. The only arguments I hear against SS are that as good as foot stomp is, it comes too late, and there's no other AoE. Well, AoE isn't the greatest thing in the world. Sometimes, you need single target dps. Do I want them to change procs? No, not really. I kind of just figured them out, thanks to a spreadsheet that lets you fill in the values and it computes the odds of a proc firing. It's really interesting to see how many builds people put in the forums, and I crunch the numbers and see they've wasted slots with damage procs that will never fire. If you really want to try and head off disaster, maybe go to brainstorm and measure your character's dps without the slots. Then, measure every other powerset that's not SS and showcase how bad your character will be without the procs compared to the other sets. I think you'll find it's not as bad as these goons in general chat think it is. Mind you - I haven't done these tests. But I can guarantee you your SS out-dps's my SS/dark tank. I can't even get past Trapdoor! Every other character I've made has wiped him out in about 15 seconds, but not this stupid tank. Mostly my fault for trying to use Soul Drain on him, instead of the group of Arachnos at the front of the catwalk. I guess I should slap some procs in.

Just anecdotally, fold space brings the mobs into pretty much a perfect cone.

I have a simple macro I use to find GMs. And, I can edit it for whatever GM or even some boss or npc I'm looking for. But, I thought it would be useful to press/click a macro - and then scroll to the specific GM I'm looking for and have it either create a whole new macro or change the existing one. While it's true it only takes a moment to edit it, sometimes, if you're slow to find it - someone else clobbers it in silence - and you never find it. The faster you find it, the more likely you can get folks invited before some eager player rushes in and kills it - preventing a number of other folks from getting some loot. I just don't know if a pop-menu can create a macro.

Off topic - but in what way do you think they stand out?

My father used to say, "Time is the most valuable resource. I can accumulate money. I cannot accumulate time. So, that's why I tell you to move with a purpose, so you don't waste it." Should we be surprised that people want to go fast? Some folks look at speed runs like they defeat the purpose of the game. They do not. There's a chap on the internet somewhere who said something that resonated with me. I'll paraphrase. You can make a good decision for yourself today. But will it be a good decision tomorrow? Next week, next year? And will that decision be good for your family today? Will it be good for them next year? 5 years from now? And what about your community? Will it be a good decision for your community today? next week? Next year? Most of the choices/decisions we make, we're too shortsighted to see far enough into the future to know how they'll impact us. Our characters...if this 8 separate stacks of 1 hour buffs were implemented, I might take less damage, get mezzed less, and attack with greater frequency. But - I might up the difficulty a notch to keep things more interesting. And I might make a little more influence, great. How does that impact anyone else, other than removing salvage from the game? Nobody would stop you from using them. Nobody would force you to use them. There's tons of common and uncommon salvage put on the ah. And there's a max price to pay, too. And, if salvage costs were to go up, that would actually be a good thing, because of the influence taken out of the game by AH fees. Granted, nobody likes to pay 500 for a common salvage, and for some reason, paying more than 2k for uncommon has me break out brain storm ideas and use those at a loss just so I don't have to pay more. It certainly isn't rational, but I do it. So, yeah, from this player's perspective, as a stackable 1 hour buff for 8 hours, I see no real problem with it. If every other player had all of those buffs but me, I'd still be able to play the game the way I typically play it. It wouldn't impact me at all as far as I can tell.

These players are very likely in the minority, not the majority. The idea is a good one, on the surface. But let's say they are stackable, as suggested. The grant invis gives only 25 feet of invis. With SS, that would give 60 feet of invis, as it stacks. How would this impact other facets of the game? Eh...there are some that would likely forgo a celerity in lieu of one of these buffs. But I suspect those are just a few. It would probably take a year for it to become standard practice, if it ever did. People are lazy. There's a fair number of folks who have zero desire to make their own sg base for any purpose, let alone make use of a temporary buff ( that might as well be permanent, because for 8 hours, this is an easy time investment to make) The hitch is how these buffs are handled in advanced mode tfs - and they do work in the 1* - not sure about the 4* cuz I haven't been that crazy yet. So, in a nutshell, while I like the convenience of letting them stack, I am not smart enough to know how clever some folks are when it comes to squeezing out all the juice for more power. But, whatever that would be, they can do it now, but just for an hour, instead of 8. Ultimately, it's not that big of a deal, I don't think. But, what the heck do I know? I like it. And if some folks don't like it, I have to wonder why not? If they think it makes the game too easy, they certainly don't have to use them. But an option that might go over well is use it as an inf sink, which the game needs more of. The more hours you stack, the greater the cost. First hour is free. After that, a rising inf cost. 100k, 2nd hour 200k 3rd hour 400k 4th hour 800k 5th hour 1.6M 6th hour 3.2M 7th hour 6.4M 8th hour. It certainly doesn't have to be doubled each additional hour, nor does it have to start at 100k. That's just an example of how to make an inf sink out of it.

Hey, no worries here. It's only that Leisure Suit Larry - arrow keys. Centurion: Defenders of Rome - mouse control - just clicking, really. And Chess, well that's more of a click and drag. None of the games I've played ever required any kind of directional movement, except for LSL - and that was arrow keys. Mind you, aside from chess - those games are from 1986-87. If they had games that required directional movement beyond that - I probably was too broke to afford them.

So, on Excelsior, there's more than a few that are chasing the loot that GMs have to offer. Before I dig out a menu file and edit it - do we have one of these yet? I am thinking of a pop-menu that you would click on and scroll to the GM name you're looking for and create the macro for you, on the fly as you zone into the appropriate zone. I know that such a thing is possible, because I've got one for various TFs; I would just need to edit it. As some of you are aware - one errant key stroke and it may not work properly. That's why I figure I might just ask before I spend time on it. Thanks!

In the interest of...well, my own self-interest, really. I apologize for what is really a rambling mess of my experience doing the 1star lgtf on Brainstorm, taking full advantage of the buff/damage toggle macros found in the freebie menu. There is no way I would have been able to observe anything without these tools. Even as it was, some parts were quite chaotic, and hard to really get a feel for what's actually happening. You get these messages that pop across the screen, but in some cases, you've no idea what the message means, or what can be done to avoid the doom that awaits. Get your beverages, take a read at this rambling mess. It's likely every bit as chaotic as the TF itself. I am currently on Brainstorm, taking advantage of what I would call some fantastic cheat codes, known as the QA commands and powers. Insta-win buttons, practically. The motivation is, having been on 2 LGTFs, both 1* efforts, there are a number of details missing that would allow me to lead one of these with any measure of confidence, let alone competence. First mission. Since I'm set to 0/1, the adventure here will be much different. Easier to stealth, speed than it otherwise would be. Suits: In the standard LGTF, it's customary to tackle Famine first. Something about the end drain, I imagine, but just going off what every LGTF effort has led to - take out Famine first. What's the prevailing wisdom on this strategy for the 1 star? And does it change with the 4 star? The nullifier fields are the same for each suit. Let me elaborate - suit for the named Assault Suits, War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. When you defeat one, it produces a nullifier field that gives you a -60% resist debuff to all categories, and a -32% defense debuff to all categories - at least, that's what it looked like in my combat stats. It also floors regen, recovery, toHit. So, good advice is to avoid being in the nullifier field. Take courage, melee friends. When you leave the field, the debuff goes away. It takes a second or two for your stats to come back up. The AV Death Rider seems to dish out negative energy damage. Add to that, once you enter the mission, you begin to take a small amount of damage every 5 seconds. Maybe a 4.5% of your hp? My hp is 1847.3, and the pulse I'm taking every 5 seconds is 83.41. So, that's like 4.5%...but not sure if that's what the number is based on. It's not the regen rate, I don't think. I am unclear if the usual strategy applies - focus on Famine, Pestilence, War, and then the AV? Team composition might make a difference in what order. Death Rider does seem to have some serious regen. 28,272 hit points, I guess even his base regen is pretty good. After completing the mission with the death rider, I find myself with the option to rescue 6 psy chicks (or was it psychics?) that provide some advantage. I'm not clear as to what that advantage is just yet. Anecdotally, most folks seem to dislike the chattiness of Infernia when she's rescued. Who knew she lived in Overbrook in an apartment before the invasion? But, she's making her rescue worth my while - she's gonna buy me a steak dinner. If I can just learn to listen, it might not be such a bad time. The cut scene, presumably helping to tell the story, occurs when Glacia is rescued. The fight with Kong is interesting. I did find the 4 psychics I was looking for, in the same room as Dra'gon. I'd looked all over the map for them, and then there they were. If/when you get defeated, it may be smart to use the hospital to rez - but when you do - you're stunned. It's not immediately evident, but all you have to do is leave the "chamber" you spawned into, and the stun goes away. From the hospital, there are two doors - a hallway exit and a lab exit. No idea which way I'm supposed to go, because the only thing the map shows is the hospital. Using the lab exit, there was some green field there. If you see that - don't use it - it kills you. Hallway exit was safe. When you are in the hallway, there's a portal. You click to enter, get a warning and ignore it and enter anyway. There's a ton of monkeys. There's Kong. And there are these Primate Psychic npcs. Use a macro to find the Primate Psychics. It may be useful to have a couple of folks specifically using AoEs on the monkeys, and a couple of folks looking for primates, while the rest dodge Kong and attack at range. It's a very confusing battle - this part. Even with the insta-win buffs, there is no insta-win. Sure, I could have just 3 shot Kong, but I wouldn't have learned anything. And, the only thing I can grasp from this fight is you go in, you use AoEs for efficient clobbering of monkeys and clobber the primates - all while avoiding Kong until the primates are down. Then focus on kong. And pay attention to the messages on the screen. I suspect it will take folks like myself multiple runs to get comfortable with this chaos. Next up is Hami. The drop ship is a bit of nonsense in my opinion. It's not apparent, what can be done, if anything to avoid it. Perhaps not disturbing the pylons. Pylon take down seems to be the trigger. But, there's nothing that beats me over the head and says -"Hey - do this, not that". In any event, hami is still weakened, just like the standard lgtf, and, it's mostly familiar - as I've done hami raids countless times, and maybe 20-30 lgtfs total in my time playing CoH. It is not a TF I enjoy because even when you speed it, it's a bit long. And Rikti are not my favorite npc to fight because of the constant mez. But, sometimes, we have to "embrace the suck". Just like in real life, in game, we can do difficult things. Not sure why we want to in a game, but I think for more than a few folks, doing the hard things in game provides a measure of interest that a mindless button mashing of a no-lag zone event cannot provide. It's easy for me to forget that some folks have done everything in this game hundreds of times with hundreds of characters. 20 years is a lot of time playing. Although, for me, I didn't have access to the secret servers, so it hasn't been that long for me. But, I digress. Finale: This is a bit very confusing. While it's evident we have to defeat Ukon Gr'ai and Hro'Dotz, the events going on during this battle are truly chaotic. I don't understand how folks are supposed to do this with discord, let alone without it. I mean, I'm buffed to the gills with the super macro/toggles, and I'm still getting clobbered because I don't want to kill the AVs, because I'm trying to get some sense of what's going on in this room. It's just mass chaos. Monkeys, psychic primates, feral krakens, oh my! I don't have red slippers with this costume. Where's the Wizard? Wait..that's a different adventure. It was easy enough with the insta-win buttons to defeat these AVs. But, what's not so easy is determining what's supposed to be done during this 30 second timer, or was it 1 minute? Can't recall. I had no idea what I was supposed to do during that time. Then Hero 1 makes an appearance. I don't even remember him in the legit run this morning, prior to maintenance. There's a lot I must have been carried through in that run. Still, I've learned a lot more than I knew before. Hero 1 seemed to be a straightforward fight - finally. I'm still not clear on how to get the badge "Doesn't look at explosions". My understanding (probably a misunderstanding) was that you were supposed to follow some green line out of the mission. I was unable to do this. Thankfully, I ran it this morning on the Excelsior shard and got this badge, but I'm still not clear what's required here. I saw some green lines, I followed one, an odd, ominous looking object in the center of the room. So, I click and it has a lot of words, something about well of furies and incarnates..but nothing that says Do this or that. I go another path - I get instantly dead. I go back to the red thing, notice some kind of pylon looking structure, kill it, and the tf ends. For all I could tell, the timer expired. I was like a rat in a maze. I just had no idea where to go. I mean, I never even found the original map. Guessing from a lore perspective, I was on Delta 294 Mothership. Look folks, I'm not the smartest guy in every room. But, in real life, I make a good living being the smartest guy in the room. (Do I mention I work from home and am the only person in the room most of the time?) One disadvantage for me is CoH is the only MMO I've ever played. I strongly suspect many folks are pulling their knowledge and experience from other games to manage the chaos in this TF, but I can't say that with any degree of certainty. My gut tells me that on the closed beta, various players gathered and got talked through this and most of the information was passed along. It just hasn't gotten to me yet. I do not think most players would enjoy it very much without that walk-through from someone. But that's just my opinion. I'm really looking forward to a legit guide to this advanced mode tf that will help me make sense of the more chaotic parts. So far, I haven't seen any guides to this by anyone who has any insights. But, I remember when The Underground iTrial came out. The Dev who created it essentially wrote a guide for it, detailing everything from the 150 foot remote triggering of the detonation charges to the discordant spheres that would trigger every 30 seconds and leave you confused for 15 seconds - essentially confusing folks for half the time if they didn't have clarion or stacked tactics or fairly large break frees. Now, there are probably some folks who really find the problem solving part the most interesting. I understand that. For me - the most fun I have during this game are 2 distinct times - hunting for that last hostage to rescue on a large map, whether it be a city section or a cave map, and dodging pink patches of psionic damage in the MoM, light blue patches in Apex, or the crackling lightning from Tyrant in Magisterium. Problem solving is fine for me at a desk. Problem solving while playing dodgeball, I'm not so sure I'm up for that. The creativity that went into this advanced mode is on a very high level, I'll say that. But, I do think I'm not alone when I say we could use some more information.

I have it on good authority that are all the same person. Well, maybe not.

For one, you are absolutely correct in thinking the npc/GM scales up or down, depending on each player's respective level. How it does that is beyond me. But, from someone who just finished playing a tank, I was really focused on my hitpoints. The more HP I have, the more regen I have. The more hits I can take, etc. So, if I'm level 40, and then get myself on a league and suddenly I'm 22, then yeah, I'm thinking about that. Am I going to ask to be promoted? Probably not. It's just a GM fight that's going to be over in 20-30 seconds. But the hitpoints are really the only reason I can think of why it would matter.

So, it's probably the folks that don't have their chat configured to monitor this stuff in the first place - but - I do think it would be nice if when I logged in, I could see if there were any zone events in progress - like MS in Nerva, Nemesis Invasion in Skyway, etc. I'm sure I'm not the only one who must have seen a good 2 dozen folks asking where MS event was when they logged in. And, at least half the time, the event message had just popped maybe 5 minutes before. And, even tonight, I log in after supper, thinking I might have this one last chance of the event to grab a vet level or two - but have no idea where the event is. So, I figure if you folks like the idea, you have a year! 🙂

I can't speak for any of you - but I think this mapserver event has really driven demand up for all sorts of enhancements. From 10pm central time to 6am central time, I sold a TON of IOs. For over a billion. Again. I am seeing how much someone is paying for items that normally go for just a pinch more than 1/3 of what they just paid. I'm grateful, but I'm wondering if they're stoned, or just don't know any better, or just don't care.

Amazing! You captured pretty much how that entire effort felt - except for the hami part. That was fairly straightforward.

So, is the base of a stalker's toHit a smidge higher than everyone else's? I dunno about this math here. The values clearly have 2 decimal places - which are zero. I know this may not be a world where 75+6=81, but ...