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You folks and your costumes. The Random Costume Generator is tried, trusted and brilliant. The only thing I did was change a black to a green. Perfectly fine for any npc clobbering one is inclined to do.

So, my understanding was the original devs had a concern about the market. If everyone stored recipes in a base, then what would the state of the market be? Probably not that different, but who knows? They like the idea of players crafting and using, or selling the items that drop. It keeps the gears of the economy moving. I'm not sure that logic is sound or rational, but that's what I heard. As for this current regime, I think it may be more about additional memory usage. Having to keep track of this guys 5 accounts, and the farmers and marketers they have, and the who knows how many recipes they have in addition to everything else, maybe that's an exponential potential for memory issues. Not a math guy, but I think that's the issue. Besides, crafting and/or converting and/or selling at the start or end of your character's play time should be a habit by now. It's easy, and really, it's every bit a part of the game as is badging, base building and making a costume, and of course, clobbering npcs.

No, that's really my only issue. The other night, there was a point where we're about to do a hard fight, someone had to afk, and I don't want the pet to start something before the team was ready. But I didn't have the option to dismiss it. And there's no timer, other than the one in my head to know how much longer it's going to be up. 30 seconds...20 seconds, I dunno. Time in this game is hard to gauge. I mean, I see the computer time, but I wasn't paying it any mind when I spawned it. And I don't know for sure when it despawns after the initial timer expires. I see the gremlins just fine. And I suppose there is the petcom-dismissall macro I can use. But I'd still like to see it so I know when it despawns.

I don't know about the praetoria one giving 20 extra merits, but the rest certainly do.

I have something that may or may not be useful. I've made 3 characters since this new page. 2 were controllers. One is plant/natty, the other is plant/dark. A 3rd is a plant/martial assault dominator. At no time before this patch did I play a plant of any kind - although I've a dormant fire/plant blaster that's been at level 17 for a long, long time. The controller plant version is better than the dom. It's not that close, either. The problem with this feedback is slotting isn't the same. A dom tends to focus on recharge for perma-dom. (doesn't have to mind you) The creepers and seeds are really about the same, but for whatever reason, the controllers could amp up the difficulty much sooner than the dom. Leveling with the controller was fun - with the dom..well, it's at 42, and I haven't played it in a week. It's just not as fun because it's not as good. I just wonder if the changes made to plant were made considering the different nuances between controller and dominator. I'm not sure I understand why anyone would play a dominator in lieu of a controller. For stamina? That's easy to get. For status protection - my controllers only had to deal with mez when they were farming master illusionists for that kill the pets they have badge. Dominators - at least the way I play them - are not as good as controllers, and it's not even close. Don't forget, a controller can use the lockdown proc and lockdown bosses on the first attack just like a dom. And even if they miss it, the tools are there to handle it. So, yeah, my take is - don't know what it was like before, but the dom plant set is not that good compared to control plant set. Take that for whatever inf you can get for it.

What I'd like to see: The trainer recommend a power or power pool with a reason why when you go to train. (and visiting a 2nd trainer may or may not agree with the first) all invention set enhancements be available in levels 10-50. It doesn't make sense to me why sets begin at 35 or stop at 30. (that will shake up the market for sure, lol) I'd like to see zones/instanced msrs capped to 32 until HC can find a way to reduce lag for the people who are constantly complaining about it, even though I rarely have any lag. I'd like to give away tailor tokens that I have. I'd like to be able to give away team teleporters, work benches, ATTs, SG portals and other items we can purchase, but can't give directly away. I'd like for chance of damage procs to work every time the power passes an accuracy check - with limits of one damage proc per power. Enough with (me having to do) the damn math. I'd like to click on a contact and choose any mission they have that's not part of story arc, in the same fashion Lord Schweinzer lets us look at all the mayhem missions before choosing. I'd like the find contact list to include every contact within a level appropriate range, alphabetically, instead of by zone the original devs wanted to push us towards. I would like a "get all" button on the AH, for those times when I might purchase a lot of converters. I would like a "get all" button for character email so I don't have to manually remove over 2000 enhancement unslotters and other items. (Not all the items in the character email - just all of that category of item) I would like all of the purchased teleport powers to have a recharge time of 5 seconds. There's no reason to have it take more than that. Not a good one, anyway. Or let me buy a better one for more inf that has a faster recharge time. Or let me buy more than one so I can use them one after the other. If I ever got any one of those things, I'd be quite pleased.

This is feedback. I'm playing an electric/electric dominator. I took Voltaic Sentinel. It's too soon to say if the power is good or bad...but I can't target it to even find it some cases. I know it lasts for 60 seconds - but what if I want to dismiss it? I can't. I think this is a mistake. Right now, it seems like a useless power. I can at least see the gremlins and what they're doing - and even though they're uncontrollable, I can dismiss them if they start wandering the wrong way. Since I can't even see the Voltaic Sentinel most of the time, I don't know what it's doing, how hard it's hitting, or if in fact it's hitting anything. For all I know, it's still trying to catch up with me after the last fight. Let's make this thing targetable so I can see it when I spawn it and see it when it despawns, and find it if I'm curious as to where it is.

The only issue I'd have with this is there are some players who'd turn off XP until right before the ding, and then turn it on right before what should be a challenging battle. Ultimately, what you're asking for is completely harmless and won't hurt anyone. But then again, what do I know about what impact a level buff might have on the price of prismatics? (or anything else) Maybe Rudra has some Ultimates for sale on the AH and hopes you'd buy them.

I'm not into math. And you can trust that I've lost in-game friends over my position on some of the things that were never even suggested and made it into Beta. Some made it to the game, and some, thankfully, did not. This is what little I do know: I know that there are suggestions that might look positive but be impossible to implement because of limited resources or knowledge on the part of the current volunteer team. I know that me, along with a number of other people, think of a suggestion, post it - and then suddenly we're swamped with "you forgot/didn't think about X, Y and Z". (and that's probably more polite than some folks will put it) The X, Y and Z, regardless of what they are, are sometimes valid points, and sometimes conjecture that came from the farts of the opposing poster. I know there are some suggestions that are fairly harmless and we think wouldn't have any impact on anything, like some new costume element. Let's say a horse's head. I'm ignorant, but for all I know, a horse's head would cause some powersets to not work properly. Or something else. I really don't know. I think that's the boat most suggestions fall into. On the surface they seem like decent QoL additions that would add some fun to maybe 3 to 5% of the players, but it isn't feasible for technical reasons, or coder ignorance of how to implement it where it doesn't cause Ms. Liberty's liberty belt to fall off. I do think the HC Devs read this stuff. They're volunteer and they're not likely to work on a given suggestion because they'll want/need to be interested in it. The longer/harder it is to implement, the more interested in it they'd have to be. It's amazing the additions we've gotten over the past 5-6 years! What we don't know is how many suggestions have been attempted, but were not accomplished due to it being technically impossible/improbable. And I think if our devs were to say, "We tried Okie's idea, but it fell like a cow patty on a hot day" for even a few of the arguably better suggestions, that would be a good thing. Or conversely, we tried Okie's idea, and if it passes the smell test on Beta, we should see it next patch.

You raise a good point. But, I am fine with the way things are now, but I am open to some change. I liked the lower SO cost. (for everyone, not just new players) But I certainly don't want things free. And I do want every player to at least know how to use a converter and a catalyst, even if they would rather not. After all, nobody's forcing me to get an accolade. That's torture (of sorts) I put myself through. Kudos to you for explaining your position constructively and not just telling me I'm a jerk.

Obviously, this isn't true for everyone. But I can't count on both hands and both sets of toes the number of people I've given a billion inf to that no longer play the game. They're gone. And now - it could be anything that kept them from returning, but I blame myself for removing the same challenge that kept me interested. Now, that's obviously false reasoning, and frankly egotistical of me to think that way. As if I would have that kind of control over another person's choice to play or not play. This is a really interesting take, and honestly, I don't know how I feel about it. For me - this talk of "this game is 20 years old" is irrelevant. But the last sentence about what other experiences are available is relevant. But let's not lose sight of the fact: this is free to play, made possible by consistent donations of a very small minority of passionate players who generate stories, new factions, new powersets, all on their own time. And, to a lesser, but every bit as important, financial donations by another minority of passionate players. I can only express my opinion, which you disagree with - and that's perfectly okay. You have a perspective that far beyond my narrow view. I've only tried maybe 10 other MMOs, and for whatever reason, uninstalled them within 10 minutes or so, except Champions Online, which I uninstalled after a few days. So, my views about those other experiences that are available are non-existent, really. But in the vacuum that is CoH - I think it's more than fair to let the players that don't find marketing fun to suck it up, and do it anyway. I didn't find defeating 200 vamps and 200 council wolves fun either - but I did it. So why can't they suck it up and just do it? It's part of the game. We don't have recipe storage for a reason - because marketing is part of the game. For me - it's a sometimes tedious, but other times endorphin releasing fun. I fully get that we don't see this the same way, which is fair enough. This is actually a fair idea. At level 2, they should cost like 200 inf. Level 10, 1000 inf. Etc. Resale value should be 1/2. That's just a suggestion, but as I see it, that's very cheap, but not so cheap that they can't sell the trash drops and get what they need/want. And as they level up, even though the prices creep up, they should still be able to keep up.

I have never shared I played this game with anyone. I'd be too embarrassed. They all think I row and lift in my free time.

I'm kind of on the same page as you, but I'm not going to presume that more than a few of these players don't need to learn it now. They've already learned it, and it's in their knowledge base. At least, given what I've seen, and picked up during the chat when teaming with some of them, that's what my take away is. After having slept on this topic, knowing that my first task today was to grind out the defeats necessary for Atlas Medallion. I enjoy this about as much as the folks that don't like to craft enjoy crafting. Now, I can choose to do a tf and have a team help me with the heavy lifting. And really, that's what I should do. But then I can't enjoy my coffee. I can only sip between missions and it gets cold (if I'm playing to contribute, rather than just ease back and let other folks do the work my alt tank would do.) So, my new position is, if we are to remove an obstacle/challenge for players that is part of what this game offers, then we should totally allow me to buy the accolade powers with influence and remove those obstacle/challenges for me. That seems fair to me, but just typing it out, I know there are going to be a lot of "Are you nuts?" and "You are nuts!" kind of responses. In their minds, if not typed out to needlessly have me question my sanity and intellect. (Both are probably fair game to question, tbh) My heart goes out to the newer player, it does. I want to help them. But - I know if you help a new player too much, there's no more challenge for them, and they just get bored and stop playing. That's a real thing. I like the sentiment as I said in my first post. But in practice, gifting influence and other goods doesn't work in the long run. (I'm sure there are exceptions) A new player needs to figure these things out by reading the forums - since the information isn't easily digestible in the game, (if it's even available) unless a player like myself takes the time to explain things in detail (sometimes excruciating if they're young, or really don't know the terminology at all). Even then, I'm careful to not reveal too much behind the curtain, lest they get overwhelmed trying to run before they can walk. The best thing I do for any player asking about inf is to either send them my old, obsolete guide from 4 years ago, or have them read Yomo's guide that's far more up to date than mine. I haven't shared mine because it is obsolete, and as you can tell - I'm terribly bad at being concise. I tend to explain things in great detail - because that's what I would want.

I do this after a respec. But when leveling, they go in the order that will do the power the most good. So, currently, if I take a level 20 IO (for example) that's the Preventative Medicine absorb proc, and place it over a level 25 Heal SO, the game will ask me if I'm sure I want to replace the stronger enhancements with the weaker one. I can't remember the terms used. It might have been "replace a higher enhancement with a lower one". So, the warning is there, but if they're both level 50 enhancements, the system doesn't ask. Sorry about your loss. DM me your global, I'll reimburse you.

I've just now taken to changing the default color for certain characters. I don't know that I'd want them changed now, even if it were temporarily. But, if it's optional, fine by me.

I feel bad for you on this. I guess what I don't get is there was a time a month or so ago, when on Excelsior our league leader would have 6 teams, and I'd hear about this lag. Now, I play with minimum settings, even though my card can handle the ultra graphics. I frankly don't see much of a difference between the two. And the only time I get noticeable lag is during the mapserver event. I might rubber band now and then, but generally, I mash a button, I see the recharge time, and it's ready when it's supposed to be. I'm not at all clear why everyone else has lag and I don't. But I do feel like the labyrinth is a lot of fun, and I disconnected due to my isp having a hiccup a week or so ago, and I couldn't get into the league either. So, I have felt that disappointment. On one hand, it's truly amazing that people across the world can all meet digitally to tackle various npcs. There's so many places for those bits and bytes to bottle neck. Each player's individual system could have a bottleneck from their ISP, or even their own memory, particularly if they're using some of the more bloated software applications in the background. And it is painfully true that some players are playing on machines that are just woefully obsolete. But, they continue to function so buying a nice new one is not on their agenda. I'm not smart enough to know the solution. I don't know if they paid more money for stronger servers if that would address this lag issue so many people have. I don't know if they all had U-verse if that would fix it - probably not. I hear the internet in Europe makes the internet in the US look like turtles racing. I don't know if it's literally this old code and the old graphic engine that runs the game that is the culprit. If so, I don't know that there's a solution that isn't time consuming and cost prohibitive in terms of time and money. What I do think is perhaps there's an opportunity for someone to run another lab event either several hours before or after the one that's normally run.

I like the sentiment behind the idea. If there were a way (for me) to know with certainty which characters were actually a new account, rather than an alt, or an alt account, I would be giving away inf more often. There are a lot of players who already have big stacks of inf who have no problem putting their hand out for free loot to get more - just to hoard it. But, there's no way for us to know who's brand new, aside from asking them. And given my experience with more than a few players - they'll lie to you to get your inf. I guess they feel like if I have enough to give it away, and they only have 20 billion to my trillion larger stack, then I won't miss it. And while that's true, I'd rather give it away to someone who only has 200M or less. And really, if someone has a level 50 and 200M, that's really all the inf they'll ever need - unless they start making alts. It's the alts that sap the stacks of influence. And there are players who make a ton of alts. Some folks make a new 50 every day. No idea how they get a real feel for the character that quickly, but they're gonna do what they're gonna do. I'm just glad I don't have to fund them. Now, if the HC gms want to mark new players with some kind of burlap cloth, or barrel held up by suspenders, I'll be able to recognize who could use a donation, and gladly make it. But, I imagine for the same reason they ridiculously hid the "date of creation" date, making me have to toggle that on, instead of the other way around, they'll never make a new account stand out like that. And, heck, even if they did, given Snarky's affinity for panhandling, who's to say he wouldn't make a new account just to see what might end up being donated. Well, I'm saying he wouldn't...but the option would be there, and I know there are players that would do just this - make a new account and hope they get some free influence.

So, I replied like crazy. I wrote about 200 lines, and then I said, "Self, nobody cares about this." So, I deleted it. You're welcome.

I think it's worth saying that a lot of players are looking for "best". And that term requires follow up questions, like "best for what"? Best for Nemu, Maelwys and Snarky isn't always going to be best for me. The idea that DPS is going to solve most of the game for a given player is true to a point. But - let's all keep in mind the attacks have to land before they do dps. The character has to remain upright to keep laying out that damage. There's a balance to all of it, and where that bubble is on the figurative level is going to be a little different for most of us, especially since the buffs we get, and the debuffs on the npcs are very likely going to be different, because while we may play a lot of the same content, the buffs, the timing of those buffs, the strength of those buffs - they're different.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one to consider this question, particularly with a lot of the better "signature" powers being available to take earlier in the build. I often use an alt to assist with the defeat requirements for the atlas medallion - specifically the vampyri and the wolves, or more commonly referred to as vamps and pups. Moonfire tf has the first two missions which are filled with these specifically, and respectfully - first one vamps, 2nd one pups. Any of my tanks can get in there and handle this at 0/8. But - obviously, some are going to be better at one or the other, and certainly some will be faster. Right now, I've got a fire/ice tank that generally does this. But, in some cases, those vamps load the -toHit to the point where I've got to gobble multiple yellows to overcome it. So, I got to thinking. And I'm still thinking. I thought, dark or psionic armor would certainly be better suited for this task. And Moonfire caps at 28, so footstomp at level 30 would be available. But, the resisting of damage isn't the issue, but the -tohit that is bugging me. Tactics is a thought, but that's just a 15% boost. All those vamps floor my tohit to about 60%. I read all the time about DDR, but that's usually in reference to defense reductions, not toHit reduction. Granted, if my defense stays high, I'm not as likely to get hit by the -toHit. I can certainly respec the fire/ice tank to load up on more accuracy set bonuses, and more defense, etc..but what would you folks suggest would be a more suitable armor to deal with the -tohit, given the character is exemplared to 28, and can't use any powers chosen after level 33? I can always just continue to use yellows; it works. Just annoying to deal with. I'd rather think my way out of this. I'm thinking dark/SS or psionic/SS at the moment.

There was a player I met in the Hive back when HC opened the doors called @Profit and that's where I got this preconception from. If the IO isn't cooperating by converting to what you want after 7 tries - stop. Find something else to do for a couple of minutes. Then return. There's nothing scientific about this. It's all perception bias. And like you, MC, I used to just slot the def or def/end and lose the extra million or whatever. Despite what many people say, I know that influence in this game is harder to make now through marketing than it was a couple of years ago. And each of us is to credit/blame for that, for revealing what goes on behind the curtain - even though we haven't shown all of it. There's so much competition in the various niches, that it's just harder. Sure, I can easily amass influence by marketing, but I'm not getting the margins I used to. It's wise of you to ask the question. When I do the PvP niche, with the shield walls and the panaceas, it's never worth it to me to spend converters looking for the procs. Other marketers and otherwise savvy customers are looking for the non-procs to convert into procs to save themselves a million inf or so. More in some cases. I sometimes found my pvp marketing character with 40-50 glad armor recipes. Spend 3 converters to pursue the proc...or convert out of set? It's just about a 30% chance converting out of the glad armor set. I could painstakingly go over the potential outcomes, but if you assume I want any of the panaceas and shield walls or any of the other "procs" of each set, the odds are getting any of those are better than 1/5. In summary, I think you have to the math for each time this question comes up. After a time, you kind of know what's the best play. Just anecdotally, I am recently inclined to not market. The margins aren't as good as they used to be. If I still were hungry for inf, I'd keep at it. But I'm not, so there's no real motivation to spend the time for the slim margins. Now, I'm sure there are some larger margins, and I think they're in the HO/D-Sync area. And that's why I'm trying to be a better player, to get in on that action. It's certainly bound to be more fun than clicking and converting ad nauseum.

I was just regurgitating what the HC wiki said.

And you're 100% correct. I've had the RNG tell me to go kick rocks many times. I once spent 58 converters trying to get what I wanted. And it wasn't even to sell something, but to slot a proc! I just didn't want to give any of you my influence so you can use that to make things even harder for me to "wet my beak". (Godfather tribute) I ended up making shy of 200 of those miracle's. Most of them sold for 2,500,000. Strangely, a few began to sell for 2,505,000. Or maybe it was 2,550,000. There was a 2nd 5 in there somewhere. I figured somebody wanted one and couldn't get in less than 2.5, so they had to bid creep. Not sure why they bought the odd few they did, instead of just one. But, didn't matter to me. My challenge character was delighted. The hitch was earning the merits to get the converters. I don't mind opportunity cost, but as mentioned, I don't like to put money in the AH - only taking it out is my goal. So, instead of buying the converters from the AH, I had it buy them from one of my hami corruptors that hold hundreds of Hero merits. And it paid the full 60K, not the patient lower price of 52,500. All said and done, I made about 125M. (paying an alt 90m for converters..gross. But it beats paying the market.) I'm sure there's much better opportunities, but for a level 12 brute, there's only so many merits you can earn, and I didn't want to wait for the more profitable recipe bids to be accepted. Soon, though. Soon.

It actually happened again - same recipe. Thinking about leaving this niche, as it became apparent someone was obviously flipping, as the last 30 or so have sold for the exact same price - and cheaper than the price I'd originally been getting of 4M, to just a dinky 2.5M. Still profitable, but I don't like to contribute folks who are just too lazy to craft their own loot. But, I thought ...you know, I'm still making inf, they're making inf - but my inf is faster. Theirs is slower. And if I keep pushing it - perhaps I end up filling all their bids - leaving them with a ton of miracles they'll have to unload at a higher price to recoup their investment...and then if I never leave the niche - they are a bit stuck. The silly thing is anyone that wants a miracle unique can just get one easily and far more cheaply by just doing what I'm doing. We share how to do it - and because it's fake money, they can't be bothered.