Ukase

I can't speak for all of them, but the mini-scrapyard I got only required 1 Prismatic and 2.5M

Same character. Just swapped alignments. I probably got confused from experience on another server - Rebirth. Used to swap sides and get a run as a hero, and then a run as a villain. (but there was a lot of alignment missions in between - no Null the Gull there)

Historically, I have a clear memory of running Theoden's SSA 2x for 20 merits each time, and then having to wait a full week to re-run it for the full merits - 20 here on HC, and it was a "hero merit" on live. I thought to myself...why not run it redside. I just ran it 2x for 20 each in Skyway...if I'm remembering correctly, it's a different arc (well, same maps, but different perspective) I can grab another 20 merits right quick. But, I only got 5. The words in red suggested the week waiting period was for ANY SSA, not just a specific one. Is that the case now? One per week, once you get the "Free" first run? I don't recall it being like this a couple of years ago. Not a big deal, just curious.

The biggest strength of the costume creator is the random creator feature. It does a better job than I would do, for sure. My routine is to hit it maybe a dozen times until I see something that might capture the image of what I think a character with the name it has might look like. I might change the color, and the head and hair. And the auras. Never did see the appeal of most of those. And the random creation tool has an affinity for non-human heads. Not sure why that is, but it does result in some interesting looks. Another big strength is the scale feature. I only just learned that was a thing about 2 years ago when I made Thong Kong, and got help with the gorilla look. The biggest weakness is there's no horse head. I'm on a character now called Neigh-Sayer. A horse head would have been a lot more fitting than a floating brain.

I can't say I have this approach all the time. But, as of late, I've tried to emulate folks who have impressed me in the past with the way they have led. Mind you, the key word is "tried". I led a dfb yesterday. Likely, just next to Posi 1 and ITF for the more frequently run team content. I didn't advertise it as a badge run. Mainly because on this character, it didn't matter to me. But, I did ask the team if they wanted badges. Three were enthusiastically wanting them. So, I suggested they use single target damage, etc. Not before Meinst has 1/4 of his hp bar gone, this one controller was dispatching cadaver after cadaver like they had a 6 slotted fire ball. One of the badge-wanters was like "fail". And I said, "oh well. No big deal". Granted, missing a badge doesn't take up any extra time like triggering an ambush when the team isn't ready for it. So, definitely the annoyance felt is justified. But - let's ask ourselves - why are we here? I mean - at that point - why are you doing a posi 1? It's not for the merits. The first SSA, solo, by a weaker AT, will net you almost 2x as many merits in less than half the time. It can't be TFC requirements for most - I mean, don't we all know visiting Null the Gull, and then going to Lord Schweinzer in Port Oakes takes at most 20 minutes? And it's not like the veteran players haven't had time to set up a 2nd account for something like this, or alternatively, don't have in-game friends who do. I guess what I'm saying, if we're there for XP, while annoying, we still get what we came for, right? Albeit in a sloppy manner. And Biostem makes a good point above - instructions need to come across as suggestions, and if you can punctuate and choose words in such a fashion as to make them silly or amusing, it might go a little further and actually be heeded. After all, some of these players are not adults and may need to be handled with kid gloves.

May we please have an option for a horse head? Imagine all the unicorns and such... but no, really. I've made a character called Neigh Sayer, and well, a fish or cow head just isn't going to cut it.

I never have grasped why these descriptions are worded so strangely; it's almost like their own version of legalese. It should say something like "reduces target's damage resistance" or "reduces casting player's damage resistance"...something along those lines where there's no mystery. I mean "-30% strength to smashing damage for 30s on self" is vague, and nebulous. Of course, we've come to expect this from the dark, right? Does it mean the damage from the critter's attack on the casting player is reduced by 30%? Or does it mean the player's smashing damage output is reduced? I can't imagine how this translates into other languages for our players. Maybe we're seeing the translated version from another language? I dunno. Or maybe I just need to work on reading comprehension.

So, I never thought I'd ask for this. I came up with an idea .. and actually having to type it out is going to spoil the surprise! But, other than for a badge, didn't really have a use for prismatics. But now I do. And when I took my level one crab - who is going to eventually pursue a bane path, (is that a thing? I think it's a thing) to the benovolab vendor and saw that there was no option to be a fir bolg - I was sure I'd seen someone with a fir bolg costume. And the real stinker, no red cap, no Tuatha de Dannon either. I'd already made "Yogurt Justice", and he was supposed to be an Arachnos Soldier disguised as a Tuatha De Dannon. A nifty back story about a bad experience with Yogurt, Dannon Yogurt in particular. It's no secret the Tuatha are responsible for those bacterium found within. But no. No Tuatha costume. So, here's my suggestion. Add it please. If my kheld can be a void stalker, surely my arachnos soldier can be a Tuatha. Oh - and some feedback. I want my prismatics back. When I switched forms, my costume on my kheld turned off! And there's no option to where the costume in dwarf or nova form. Very disappointed.

My worst solution is to team with folks of different origin and trade the enhancements. That's how we used to do it back in the day.

I've said this somewhere before. I used to do PvP back on live. I was on an ice blaster, and if I was any good, it was because of the ice, not any kind of player skill. But, #3 on the OP's list - that part about builds being different in pvp vs pve...that's the problem as I see it. For those that don't farm, we spend (It used to be maybe 10X the time) about 30 hours, a little more for some, a little less for others getting to 50. We know our characters. We're probably aware that this power won't be ready to fire a second time until we fire this power. Attack chain stuff. Then, we get into pvp land...and suddenly, my tank which I labored to get to 90% resist in s/l/e/n is now barely over 50% resist. My defense which was 44% is now a lot less. The inspirations to boost these values do next to nothing, if they do anything at all. The only inspirations really worth pvping with are accuracies and break frees. If you want people (well, me) to pvp, you need to have my build work the same as it does in pve. I know what my character can do, but then I get to RV and suddenly I can't do what I used to do. It doesn't inspire me with confidence. And of course, lacking the skill without the best build doesn't help - but maybe remove travel suppression from pve, and we can talk again.

Do Hard Modes suck? For some, I'm sure they do. I think Rune of Protection reeks now, but so what? I don't have to take it. I do understand the frustration of being told by some tough guy that an MM or whatever someone's AT or powersets might be that they're not up to the task. That would irk me a good bit. But I don't think it's the fault of the Advanced/hard mode TFs. I think it's the fault of the players. They have a bad experience with one player on a given AT and they blame the AT/powerset. And maybe that's fair in some cases. I was on a Master MLTF, and the dominator died from the flyer while we were taking the pylons down, just before the Recluse fight. I don't blame the entire class of Dominators. It's just one of those things. Perhaps there are some things within the advanced modes that might need to be considered with regards to Masterminds. Or maybe Masterminds might need to consider a different type of build for these runs. No idea. But just like nobody is putting a gun to my head and telling me I can't run an advanced mode lgtf, nobody is forcing me to run one either. It's all by choice. Don't like 'em, don't run 'em. And I won't choose Rune of Protection either - at least, not until they reverse the nerf. But that's a whole different thread for another day.

Not sure if it would work on all pop ups, but try this, and sub ESC for Z. /bind z "dialog_yes$$dialog_answer Accept"

Opinions will likely vary. After all - how many people actually write this stuff down while they're doing it? If it is XP you're after, and you want as much as possible in a given unit of time, then it's pretty clear: My level 16 stalker (with 2xp buff, and patrol xp) killed a level 16 minion on the streets of Steel Canyon - 130 xp. Same level 16 stalker killed a level 15 minion on the streets of Steel and got 103 xp. Things to consider: Size of the map Your character's abilities Story arc? Think about that story arc completion bonus. The ones in Striga and Croatoa - when I move my notoriety to +4 just after I complete the last mission of the arc, but before I call the contact, I get more than I would if I didn't boost up the notoriety. For me, sometimes, completing the missions as fast as possible works out to be more easy xp than otherwise.

At the risk of coming across like a jerk, I think that's precisely what the MAs are for - to get the recipes, in case the RNG disappoints. I got one recipe that may have dropped because I was using a windfall, one of the temp powers that comes from the hero packs. Supposedly increases the odds of very rares..no idea by what margin, but I wanted more shards, so why not. Seemed to work. Just anecdotal, nothing scientific. But if you have them, may as well use them.

So, that's interesting - but since Des won't accept tp or incan, it would probably be more fun for the player escorting Des to be tp'd away, as long as it's a fair distance and out of line of sight. I've left them on the barge, that is before the trap room, after we clear the trap and are ready to proceed. It's not clear to me how you definitively know there's not going to be any traffic in the trap room. Pigg diving? I've also heard stories of players going to the hospital and unknowingly becoming her escort and she gets into trouble with the league too far away to be of any assistance. As for the bombs, the only real thing to communicate prior is the bombs have a 150 foot trigger. If you're within 150 feet, you have 10 seconds to destroy it. The problem I often see is players don't know this range, or even if they're told, despite having the option now of having target distance turned on in the game settings, they don't know what the range of their snipe is, if they even have one. If you take a team of snipers, you want more than 4, really. Because, if one of them misses, it's not always a sure thing that the first one to fire will be recharged in time to ensure it's destroyed. For me, zerging the zig-zag bombed hallway "spaceballs" style is probably the more fun, and the better option for most leagues. This way, everyone can participate. If they fail it, they fail it - but they can only blame themselves. But more often than not, they succeed. The sniping method should really only be done with players that can answer the question "What's your snipe range?" As for the last part, I don't know that league damage is a constant. It might be, but so much depends on how survivable they are. If half of them are dead, the dps isn't going to be reliable. I think the league leader has to play that one by ear. More than likely, your numbers are a great starting point. The attachments are a couple of pop menus I've made for the trial. I had to break it into two because my screen is too small to see the whole thing. I think I even have a stale dad joke in there to keep the league awake. Master_of_Underground1.mnu Master_of_Underground2.mnu

I'm sorry to hear this. I have no idea what's behind the scenes, particularly now with the license legitimizing yours and the rest of the devs' hard work. I'm someone who is obtuse more often than not. If I'm not looking specifically for it, I play it on Brainstorm the way I would play it on Excelsior. Historically, we've gotten some pop-ups making it known there was a need for testers. I specifically recall the request for a "stress test". Is there something I can test now that would be helpful? I can probably figuratively twist the arms of a half-dozen or so and try something out if that suits your purpose. But, I need something more definitive than "Test something on brainstorm"

I promise you, the AH makes no limit on buying a recipe, crafting the recipe and re-listing the enhancement on the same character. Many of us have accumulated a large stack of inf doing that very thing.

So..um, I fought Eochai yesterday. I saw the red words "Pumpkin Patch". I just assumed Eochai planted some pumpkins. I might have taken damage. I don't recall. But, I was also not on a Mastermind. I do know my lore pets disappeared. Instantly. No idea from their specific cause of defeat. And they had a t-4 barrier, just 5 seconds prior. In the end, it didn't matter. I had thought I had just chosen (Polar Lights) a poor choice for lore pet. (Folks aren't really running The Really Hard Way anymore, and I only occasionally do a Hami, so I figure lore pets are now a choice I can make without worrying about getting the optimal dps out of them for a given task. It seems to me there should be some kind of fore-warning, kind of like there is in Apex when you fight battle maiden. Eochai drops some seeds on the ground, ya got 5 seconds to scoot before a giant jack-o-lantern eats you. Something like that. The patch seemed trivial to me, but I did just have barrier and there were heals being cast. I don't pay that much attention to my hp because other than the hard mode lady grey, it seldom gets touched. I don't recall my defense/resistance stats being bothered, but I wasn't paying attention. I'll have to take a closer look next time I want pumpkin pie.

I used mids to rig up a build with as much recharge as I could muster - it played like garbage. Smelly, warm garbage. Ice blast is already a "fast" set, with fairly fast activation times, except for Bitter Freeze Ray. To me, when we look at blizzard, one of the better reasons to take ice blast, and see that at best, it's only going to be up every other fight. So, we might as well just aim for about 150-160% recharge and focus on other areas, like accuracy and defense. But, that's just my opinion. I have two builds posted in my own post looking for feedback and haven't gotten any. They are both pretty good, with the way I play, but I've a feeling I'm still leaving a lot of what the set has to offer out of my build, so I'm still tweaking things.

For me, there's hard as in tedious or time-consuming, like the damage taken badges, or hard as in overcoming one or more challenging mechanics in the game. When you write it on paper (or in the forums) avoids the green stuff sounds just trivial. But when you run a league, even with exceptional leadership and other folks with great reflexes that know what to do, just one player making a small mistake can cost it for the whole league. The bomb badge in Underground comes to mind. Instructionally simple. Heck, I've been on leagues that have zerged all the bombs with no problem, and I've been on leagues where some players don't read, or some leaders don't explain clearly, or at all, what the solution is to the problem at hand. I'm sure all of us have stories to tell. For me, Avoids the Green Stuff is the hardest one. You have to get a league together. You want about 4 to 8 people with incandescence. And you need folks to pay attention to the trial data box and still manage their characters. Procedurally, it's not that bad. But in game, it can be challenging for some folks more than others. I still don't have "Doesn't look at Explosions", from the new hard mode of lady grey. I don't even know what has to be done to earn it yet. But given my only single experience with it so far, I don't think I'm going to have any fun getting it. Maybe after I get it, I'll think it was fun. Time will tell.

I've tried to get ChatGPT to offer a build. It offers a choice of primary/secondary, but doesn't (yet) grasp what a build would look like. It does a fairly good job on the bio/origin story, though.

Challenge completed. The problem I have with recruiting is the time it can take, in particular during off-peak times. There are many times when I could have just solo'd the mission in the time it took to recruit. Most folks would prefer an ITF or a tinpex for merit rewards than tag along for a kheldian story arc. But I intend to start leading ouro arcs as they will have minimum levels, but the best part is everyone gets merits at the end, instead of just the team lead.

So, I did this, and it did turn blue. This saddens me. Maybe I can fit a booster somewhere... Yeah, it only took one booster on my steadfast proc.

Not that I don't think visiting the forums can be fantastic advice, I do. But I am sure there are folks who don't want to spend their game time reading - they want to play the game.

I decided to wait until I at least got through a 1 star lgtf before I gave some feedback on this patch. I played an arsenal/arsenal dom; it was interesting. I swore off Dominators a few years back after an unsavory experience with a mind dom. But while I liked Arsenal assault better than Arsenal Control, much of that is probably due to playstyle, than the powerset itself. I got it to 50, t-4 in all, so it had to be at least decent, or I'd have just deleted it. I've gotten used to the patrol xp for badges deal. It did take some getting used to, though. So, I did get through a 1 star lgtf. I'd never done it on beta. So, I was going in cold. The leader, despite having gotten badges from it on numerous characters didn't really explain much. While I may be obtuse from time to time, it was rarely clear to me precisely what was going on. The pros: The little dragon-looking monkeys, or whatever they were called - very interesting. It wasn't immediately clear to me exactly what I was supposed to be doing in that part. Leader said kill the dragon monkeys, and at that point, I hadn't even seen one to know to target it. Still, it was interesting. Certainly more interesting than a big bag of hitpoints that we have to whittle down. The Hamidon part...it was such a contrast from the mission prior, during which I think I was defeated more times than the entire life of my character. 6 times, I think. And something killed the whole team except one of us at the end. I have no idea what. At one point, there was a voice talking about gas, and I was a bit puzzled. Didn't know if it was the game or something from someone's radio, outside. The Cons: It's not clear what the specific requirements are for Doesn't look at Explosions. At least, it wasn't clear to me from the patch notes. Maybe that's by design? I'm supposed to wander around like a Leisure Suit Larry game until I figure it out? I barely survived that TF and got the Zookeeper Omega, but whatever was needed for the other one, I guess we didn't achieve it. Mirror Image is awarded by satisfying the conditions for Archetype Duplication. I read something about having at least 4 of the same AT on a tf - and it's very nice that there are no other conditions, like all being the same alignment or something. I'm sure the answer is somewhere, but I have no confidence in my understanding of what "the conditions for Archetype Duplication" are. Kind of the same thing with Variety Act - I thought it was straightforward when I was recruited for this badge by a friend. No duplicate ATs, which SHOULD satisfy the "conditions for Role Diversity", but it doesn't. I think we had to ensure we only had traditional Hero ATs - and that was a bit silly. Granted, nobody forced us to pursue this badge, I'm just suggesting the conditions for it be made more clear for those of us who are prone to being obtuse. The Piecemeal personal story: If I hadn't read about it in the patch notes, my character, a level 50, with all the badges except for the ones from this patch, would have had no idea the telephone contact existed. In fact, I had to go through Ouro to find the contact. Then, when I got the mission, it wasn't at all clear what "look around the lab" meant. I mean, I walked around, and got some messages for entering certain spots - but after that - there was no way point, no verbal or written directive as to what to do. I quit it, restarted it, and only by incidentally walking to a certain point did Bile mention something about popping through - I can't recall the words he used. The story he tells is interesting, but it took me a second try for a way point to appear after I hopped around the lab. Once I got through the portal, the objective said to go to the arena. I look at the map and there's no indication of where the arena is. Granted, I can hop around in concentric circles until I find it - but my reveal was disabled, and I was given a powerset that I had no idea which powers did what. I've seen this before in other personal stories - in some ways, very interesting. In other ways, a bit frustrating. So, a way point to the arena would have been helpful. When I was sent to AE - I click on a glowie and it wants me to go back to the arena. Fine - but the way point remains on AE, so for a moment, I was a bit confused. The entire experience was interesting, but I was never really clear on what I was supposed to do. Those are my thoughts on it up to this point. I am left wondering if my lgtf team was really bad, or if the tactics used were bad. It doesn't seem to me like a leader should be burdened with explaining things with a lengthy lecture - the game should make that clear prior to combat - and that might be something the game did do - but getting ported around with incandescence inhibited the game from making things known. No idea. I plan to run it again with someone who will be on discord. It's always going to be easier to talk while playing then typing while playing.