Ukase

Back when I was farming routinely, I'd get these about once every couple of days. Maybe every 3 days. Oddly, I got purples far more often. My guess is the reason there aren't many on the AH is folks aren't farming nearly as much as they were before the mapserver event, and well, probably before then, too. I'm sure there are still the hard core farmers who do so for cathartic or therapeutic reasons, or even nostalgia. But I suspect most of the folks that did so for the inf have probably discovered the Labyrinth and while it's running, the Mapserver do a better job generating inf, even if they're not as consistently run as a farm. Just conjecture on my part, I could certainly be wrong.

So, at first, I would do nothing. I would think carefully, which tends to hurt my brain. Assuming the implementation of these ideas were within my ability, and wouldn't break anything else, or take more than 4 hours of coding to implement: I would try to find a way to trade a power for another at the trainer without doing a respec. As an example, leveling up a Beam/marine corruptor. I foolishly chose shifting tides, a power that had an icon that looked like a marine version of build-up, a standard click. But no, it's a targeted ranged power. So, I have to either make a macro or use my mouse to use it. I'd rather not have to do either. I think it should work the same way any other attack or buff does. Target acquired - fire. If I'm buffing, target the ally, press the corresponding icon, boom. Same if I'm debuffing. I might now do a respec, because even though the power itself is a good one, the implementation of it is not suitable to my current power tray set up. Second thing: I would start with 3 enhancement slots at level 27. Every build I have is 3 slots short! Third thing: I wouldn't limit power pools. If someone want's speed for hasten, leaping for combat jump, teleport for fold space, leadership for maneuvers, tactics and vengeance, and they want fight pool for tough and weave, let 'em have it. Fourth thing: Patron pool unlocks would go the way of the dodo. Fifth thing: Every zone would be a co-op zone. No alignment changes would be necessary, aside from merits, badges or that alignments temp power. (Force of Justice, for example) Sixth thing: I'd like to find a way to make AE a compelling place to visit for new content. Some of our players are pretty good at making missions, but there's currently no incentives to do them. No merits. 1/2 XP. I'm not at all sure how to remedy this, but if there was a way to monitor a mission or arc before it got published to see if it were afk-farmable, I'd try to create incentives to those maps that are far less likely to have predictable success afk-farming. Seventh thing: MSRs would remain the same, but have the flyer that routinely gets taken down be a lot more offensive, with the equivalent of bullet sprays, and toxic gas, so the league actually has to work at it. Eighth thing: No training while you have debt. If you have leveled and have debt, you should have to work that off before you can train. And that's terribly easy with patrol xp. Ninth thing: Zero second timers and zero second activation and instant recharge on all teleport powers purchased from START vendor. I see no reason why they have any. Last thing: A costume overhaul for Manticore. People hate Manticore for more than just because he's arrogant. His costume is just plain hideous. At least, on my screen it is. Give the dude some kind of color variation. I've no idea if any or all of these would break the game, nor how hard or long it would take to implement them. Or if they're even possible. Each suggestion assumes the change wouldn't break some other part of the game, and wouldn't be too hard to implement.

I think it's just a hold over from when pvp was more popular. Most folks who are aiming for a particular build might use the inf for a few micros to boost to 53 because it does boost the endurance as well as the other attributes. In pvp, it was done quite a lot. And they don't just fall from the sky, either. They drop a little more often than the acc/threat/recharge D-syncs, but they still drop infrequently. At least, that's my anecdotal perception. I tend to just put them in my tanks or brutes, as my squishier characters tend to use the sets for the bonuses. And even then, I slap a boosted quickfoot end/run to use until my low ball bid comes through.

That's actually a good idea. I believe the character would likely still have that up arrow where the level number is displayed, and they'd still hit like a 50, not a level 49. But they'd look like level 49 to anyone else seeing the character, I think. Still, good outside of the box thinking.

Holy smokes. This is just what I was looking for, but my search fu was too weak to find it. This will take quite some time for this guy to absorb. I've done some early, easy programming stuff in java, so this shouldn't be too much harder, but my brain isn't getting any sharper. Still, I am appreciative that someone took the time to type all that stuff out. It's really insane that someone just voluntarily shared their extensive knowledge in this fashion.

I forgot one thing that I'd love to see. And it ties in with https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Demo_Recording#How_To_Record_A_Demo. Years ago, Bobbo, or Bobby or someone made this video. Even though the song is catchy, I think it's a great way to tell a story. And while I know how to record action in game, I don't know how to make a given character do anything. How to load my character into a file and have it interact with another character could help me tell some pretty goofy stories that AE just doesn't have the ability to display.

@AboveTheChemist I've said it before, but in case you don't hear it enough - your contributions to the pop menu, and https://n15g.github.io/badger/homecoming have just made the game so much more pleasant for me, and I can't say it often enough, thank you!

Regarding shards - once you have the t-4 you want, you can convert them into threads as often as you like 10 for 5, for free. Then, take those threads, buy Ultimates, super reds, or whatever you like and sell them for 1 inf. Or, just let the threads tally up to 10K and you'll never have to worry about them again. It's that simple. Anecdotally, I can tell you this much. Often I'll think I have all the t-4's I want. On my primary, Ukase - the number of times I've run with specific groups for specific tasks and have been requested to get certain interfaces or destinies, and sometimes specific judgements (usually Pyronic for the instant burst damage). I even ran with a group that wanted me to have the confuse interface..or was that the hybrid? I dunno. One of them gave a 75% chance to confuse, so I used the parts I had on hand to make them. Most of my 50's just can't make whatever, whenever, because they're mostly around vet level 20 or so, and haven't accumulated all that extra loot to make that stuff. You might think it's okay to burn that stuff, but sooner or later, there will be some new content that comes out, and the lore pet flavor of the month will change, and you'll want to have the parts to make it. So, having a large stash of those on hand isn't really a negative. Better to have them and not need them, then need them and not have them.

What I'd like to see may be in there already, but the way it's organized, it's not readily apparent to me. And some of that has to do with the way I play the game only sometimes, for various challenges. There was a time when a Hellion would drop an arcane type of enhancement. Usually a dual-origin, magic/* or */magic. The problem I am having is for drop-challenge characters that can only kit themselves with drops, not being allowed to spend the precious inf at the store, a vendor or the AH. I know from experience which npcs usually drop what, but if there were a clear list of that, I'd like to see it. Another thing I'd like to see is, in list format, how many merits each mission or story arc, (including SSAs and TF/SFs) award. I think someone came up with that list here on the forums, and while the wiki will show you if you look up the specific story arc, there's no list from most merits to least merits, as far as I know. Given how the CoH economy is driven by reward merits, I think that would be useful.

I knew there was something I didn't think about. And you're absolutely correct. It can't be auto, because it's not perma out of the box. Shame on me for even making the suggestion. Thanks!

Surely a bot would use capitalization and avoid horrific typos, no? As for balance - let's just get some teeter-totters in game, and work on that balance. I put my blaster on one side, you put your character on the other and see if we can't find the proper balance.

I suspect they made accounts on those platforms to "reserve" the names should they decide they need to use them in the future. As for Bluesky, this forum is the ONLY place I've ever seen it mentioned. I had to google it to see what you were referring to.

I know right off the top that some players dislike the idea that most other players take hasten. They see this as some sort of anathema for reasons of their own. Some folks think hasten should be relegated to characters whose AT, powersets, back story make sense to have it. I'm not one of those people. What's fun is different for all of us. I have thought briefly of any kind of circumstance when I had hasten and would prefer not to see the effects. The only thing I come up with is maybe roleplay, or a costume contest. So, just an add-on thought. Make Hasten auto-fire. Give the option in the tailor for hasten to have no visual effects. The advantages would be Dominators could put Domination on auto-fire instead of rigging up some crazy file bind system. Other ATs could also take advantage in some way, I'm sure. I do grasp that some ne'er-do-wells might use such a thing for ill-gotten gain, like AFK-farmers being able to use their AoE power that much more quickly. (That's probably splitting hairs on ill-gotten gain. Those farmers did earn the enhancements, and took the time to figure out how to rig their characters to do such things. And if it weren't fun for them, they wouldn't do it) Still, it was a thought, figured I'd suggest it. I'm certain the same folks that hate every other suggestion will chime in as to why. Sometimes, I see their points. Sometimes, I don't. Fair enough. I'm still waiting for a day when we can choose if we want a toggle to be automatic, instead of having to toggle it on/off every time. I suppose that shows how lazy I really am. I just can't be bothered to mash one more button.

While I appreciate the tip, for this guy, that's taking things way too far. It's just too convoluted for me to wrap my head around. If the character were the only character I played, I could see taking the trouble. But, I tend to level them up, and then park them, and start on something new. For several months, I'd even thought of playing just a few characters, and did delete almost 70 level 50 characters, but man, that was tedious work. I fully understand why we can't auto-fire more than one power. Although, it would be nice if Hasten were just a built-in auto power in the first place.

I'm at level 21 with a Beam Marine now - and it's been fun. Granted, I've brought this thread back from a recent death, but folks may want to know the two work well enough together to suit me. It's still early yet, but so far, it's fun. And, I was doing it as a drop challenge. But I felt discouraged because I wasn't getting the right salvage to utilize some good recipes I got (like a kismet and a glad armor). I was getting the converters, but old habits die hard. I'd thought about burning merits for random salvage as a bit of a cheat, and still use the drop challenge rules, but when I got 8 of 12 Symbiotic Armors...I said screw it. That's enough wasted merits. Now that I've decked it out in the better enhancements, it's more fun. But, if anyone else is crazy, the marine secondary is fantastic for drop challenge efforts. But you will want to do the dfb for the recovery boost.

Candidly, most folks play the game for fun, right? I would hope that's the case. Now, fun is subjective, of course. If we were to survey people on if it was more fun to win a fight, or lose one, well, I think most folks would rather win. So, it does stand to reason folks are going to fit as much recharge in their builds as they can afford. And, by afford, I mean not just the influence cost, but the opportunity cost. If we pursue recharge, often that comes at the expense of defense and other worthy combat attributes. But sometimes, the best defense is a smoking hot offense. Kill them before they kill you kind of mentality. For all of us, there's a balance. Some lean towards chaos (more recharge) and some lean towards order (more defense/resistance). I am not real clear why people using 5 lotg's would "depress" you. I usually only use 4, because that's usually all I can fit into my builds. Combat Jump Maneuvers Weave Epic armor if it's defensive, and the AT allows for one. On my blasters, there's seldom an option for a 5th one, unless I wanted to forgo hasten and the speed pool and opt for the flight or invis pools. And I'm not likely to ever do that because flight is comparatively less fun and not really that fast in my opinion. (which is rarely typical, so take that with many grains of salt) But it just makes sense to grab as much recharge as you can fit. I can't think of any reason to not do so. I can kind of see folks avoiding hasten - maybe they hate the fx, or the sound, or just don't like choosing the same power pools on every character. But, if you can get that kind of recharge with one slot - that's not anything to be depressed about. That's something worth being overjoyed about. I could make a case for doing a respec at level 50 and doing away with some, as there are enough attacks at that level where you don't need that much recharge, but in the early levels, you want all the recharge your endurance can support. But that's just my 2 influence.

The reason you struggle to fill teams is, just my own anecdotal experience, teaming with you is less fun than teaming with others. The bringing in of a new server is a good thing. More shards means more options for names that may not be available on the more populated ones.

I find myself envious of the enthusiasm so elevated one makes a spreadsheet to track each character/powerset combo. I've tracked the loot and stuff on a spreadsheet, but never the powersets. I should probably do that, and it would prevent me from discovering I have 3 ice/cold corruptors, and 4 fire/fire blasters.

So, I read this in context, and in context, I'm not sure I agree. Depends on "utility" I suppose. For both end/hp, sure, use the Numina before the Miracle. But if it's specifically stamina a player is concerned about, I would use the Miracle before the Numina. Maybe something has changed? I remember reading about 18 months ago, maybe, a player mentioned they had forgotten to reslot their numina after a respec. And then noticed that if they played for several hours and never realized it, maybe it wasn't doing as much as they'd thought. (paraphrasing) I wish I could cite the post, as I read it in the HC forums. And another player did some testing and verified as far as Stamina goes, the numina comes last in order of benefit. But, I've not been paying full attention as of late, and things may have changed.

I'm frugal, but even I can agree with this one.

I am in the minority, but I fail to grasp why anyone would want to spend hard earned cash to travel to see people that play a game they play online. What's the draw? Where's the value in that? Curiosity as to how much Cheeto dust is on our fingers? The dulcet tones of a kitten avatar? Now, in certain cases, I know there are groups of folks who formed an SG back in retail, and teamed up for the most part exclusively and would chat over Ventrillo or another voice chat service. Or in today's case, Discord. Hearing folks communicate over voice can certainly allow you to feel like you know someone a little better than the chat in game. In those cases, I can see the value. But, other than that? A very easy "have fun, I'll save my funds for something else".

I have had strange experiences leading tfs. Not all the time. But, here's an example. Positron caps at 15. So, I always wait until I'm level 15 before I lead it. And invariably, there will be a player who's higher than level 15 that thinks I should hand the star off so they can have more of their powers. I explain to them it wouldn't make any difference, as we're going to be exemplared to the cap of the tf - level 15. They'll get powers up to their level 20. Having a level 50 lead it would make no difference. The TF is still going to cap at 15. I explain this to them and they think I'm wrong. Thankfully, they just leave the team because they didn't want to team with an idiot. It makes me chuckle. This happens maybe...once every 5 or 6 characters I put through a positron tf. It never seems to happen with any of the other TFs, though. Weird.

Typically, my order of operations is: T-3 alpha. Sometimes I use threads, but usually shards and the notw. Depends on if there are some itrials I want to do instantly. Once I get t-3 alpha, I will typically bring 2 alts with the primary character through the Dark Astoria incarnate arcs and collaboratively complete all but the final, then do the final mission 3 times for 3 reward tables for each arc. I'll use what threads/emp merits I get to craft first: Lore, then Destiny. The reason is for the level shifts. One, it makes the DA arcs faster to zip through, and 2, the level shifts help get you into some of the higher level iTrials. Most of the time, other folks are spamming judgement before I do, generally making it useless anyway, and interface...I know it works...but I don't really miss it if it's not slotted. And lores are very useful for various trials and such. Once I get all t-3, then I check on the shard collection for the alpha, and by the time I get t-3 in all, I have enough shards to make the t-4, but I tend to have to wait an additional week to get another notw to craft the t-4. Then I t-4 the others in close to the same order: Lore, Destiny, Hybrid, Judgement, interface.

I don't know if I shared this one yet, and I'm too lazy to sift through the previous pages to find out. Last November, I made "Naughty Zoot". I am amused every time I log in and see the character name.

I have a clear memory of making a broadsword/invuln scrapper on retail. And then I made a katana/invuln. Things have probably changed a bit for them since, but then they were pretty much the same animations, just slightly different damage and end usage. Other than that, to me, it was the same powerset with different names. The old devs were clearly lazy and in a rush to get new stuff out. I look at thermal and immediately, radiation comes to mind. There's a lot of overlap between various powersets, but katana and broadsword are just too similar for me to consider them different sets. They're the same thing. At least they were. I made them when HC first popped up, but have since deleted them because I wasn't playing them. Changes to each like the changes to battle axe would be welcome.