Ukase

I can't speak for them, but my takeaway is they are doing it in the way they think is best. And as much as they'd love to have a few hundred new folks, they also recognize the burden that would put on their server (s). A higher population requires greater resources. Nobody there is getting paid, either. There will be ebb and flow, I'm sure, just like there is here. I think of it like CoH is a soft drink. Rebirth is just a different flavor. Still has the bubbles, and probably the sugar, but maybe not as much caffeine. (or vice-versa)

My thought was, if it's overly difficult/time consuming, maybe just "re-make" it, as the story is already written. Seems like it would be tedious, certainly. But, and I'm no expert, I would think the creation of the story itself would be the hardest thing to come up with. I've no idea how complex it is to make an arc outside of AE, but if the story is written already, would the rest be overly challenging?

No argument about the numbers - and I could be wrong, but I suspect a lot of us on HC joined the Rebirth Discord when it opened because we really couldn't be sure how long HC would last - at least, that's my position. I pretty much try to remember to log in there once a week for the tier rewards. Last Summer, I played over there to set up shop. The players there are quite competent, and as friendly as you'd expect from a CoH community. Interestingly enough, speed runners are given a nice gift of...I think it's 2000 AE tickets if you get the fastest time of their weekly tf. I won it once, and it came as a surprise. I do know on weekends, you can potentially see 100 players, roughly.

Flea - you do realize that's in a pvp thread, right? Guess who doesn't pvp since they put in travel suppression? This guy. I'd never see anything in there.

I just finished my row and was about to re-read "the tin". But thanks for saving me the time. It's one of the reasons why I really wish you guys would aim for much smaller patches, because "patch notes" are a misnomer with you guys. What you mean is "Patch Tome". They are huge. I can barely remember how much protein I'm supposed to eat in a day. I surely can't remember what's on page 3 of a zillion page set of patch notes. See? I'm never happy, am I? And, candidly, I'm only slightly teasing about the length of the patch notes. I remain grateful to be able to play and thank you for your efforts on our behalf.

Sir...please don't do that. You can test what I say - when you turn xp off, you do NOT get extra funds. They changed that...like 2 years ago.

Wait...what? America's Angel works for the HC Team? Must have missed that. So, I guess I need to re-read some patch notes. Darn. I'd really rather not. It sounds then, that these changes to aggro were more for the Hard Mode TFs, and the end result is the farmers have to make some adjustments to do what they were doing before. Do I have that right? Probably not entirely. Still, it tells me that they could have just put in the Sister Valeria arc and the two arcs that give badges. They needn't have bothered with these silly prismatics or the HM stuff, until they figured out how to change things in that content, and leave the rest of it alone. It made sense if they were trying to reduce afk farming. But if they are going to make these changes and then show how to mitigate the changes, then why make the changes at all? Damn, I gotta read now. It'll have to wait. Dr. Gupta has confirmed that we should all be exercising 75 vigorous minutes a week, at a minimum. So, maybe I can squeeze in a 1/2 marathon in 80 minutes. Completely logged out. No farms running. I did, however, earn 205 reward merits on my 3 primary accounts for the next alts that are coming up the ranks. So, I am very grateful for that. Nobody wants a grumpy Ukase in their iTrials.

That'd be interesting, for sure. 9 accounts? What are you doing with your drops? I tried going with a 5th account, but damn -- that was tedious as hell, crafting, converting a dozen drops on each alt after each run. I didn't have any time to play the game with all that going on, and I'd like to think I'm pretty efficient with that process. Too much of a good thing, lol. I tried waiting until the trays were full; I tried not crafting at all until I almost ran out of recipe room. It all got to be very much. 4 alts is about as much as I could handle. I tried to just let the 5th go and do no crafting or converting, and just vendor everything but purples and rare salvage...but...all that influence gone to waste by being lazy, I could never do it, because I know what the drops are worth. And because I am a nitpicker sometimes - you weren't nerfed. The mobs were just given a more realistic code. They see you, they attack you. Just at range, instead of melee. It does make things more challenging, no question. But, it's not something you can't adapt to and proceed as before. You just have to pay attention to the xp per kill. And don't feel like you have to do a map that has 100% xp adjustment for page 4. So what if you make less inf. You're still scaled for 9 accounts. That's more than enough loot to handle whatever you need for the next 1000 alts, for sure. (depending on how long you've been doing it)

ah, the old shard vs. thread issue. I can understand that many folks despise the shards. And why? Because they don't get many of them. The RNG can be rather fickle, but many folks don't help themselves. I have seen people complain bitterly about doing iTrials all day and not getting a single shard. And it pains me to share with them that shards don't drop in iTrials. So, of course, they won't get any. What many people don't realize is that shards were never meant to be aggregated and used to make components - except the favor of the well. The recipes that make them were meant to be earned separately. Take a peek: Essence of the Incarnate is a reward option for completing the Ms. Lib or LRSF. Hero 1 DNA Sample is a reward option for completing the LGTF. Dimensional Keystone is a reward option for completing Khan or Cuda. So, if you sped through those three, it's conceivable you'd have your t-1 alpha in an hour or so. Shards would also drop randomly while you did that content. Now, where things bog down are when you move to the 2nd tier, because you need 8 shards to add to yet another component you might earn from completing a given task force. This is why a lot of folks will burn threads to get the t-3 and let the shards accumulate as they work all the other incarnate powers, and then when they're done with all of those, they'll revisit the shards they have, make what they can make, and if they just want to be done with it and park the character to make a new alt, they might choose to burn some emp merits and finish the alpha. Some folks just stop at t-3 and call it a day. When I have a new 50, I often let it sit in a farm map for vet levels - but conveniently, a ton of shards will drop in a farm map. Please note, I do try to remember to use a Windfall. They don't work as far as giving more influence (it says it does, but it doesn't) but it will increase t-3 inspiration drops, salvage & recipe drops, and of course, shards) And, if I am feeling adventurous and have particularly enjoyed the character, I'll forgo that, and just play it - keeping a sharp eye out for MSRs and hami raids. Both mitos and buds tend to drop shards more often than not. Depending on how you play, it's not inconceivable to be t-3 from shards in about 3-4 hours of play. It just depends on what you're doing. And, of course, it's also possible it could take you a lot longer than that. As I said, the RNG is fickle. A number of players absolutely insist they've done the math and think shards are for idiots and they ignore them until they have enough to convert into threads. I think these people are a bit pig-headed. But, I have to entertain the notion that I'm the pig-headed one. Still, I'll use shards at minimum to get from t-3 to t-4. No sense burning any threads or emps on that, since eventually, I'll get the shards. But, many of us like to do things differently. So, your views and practices will certainly vary, as will your results with the rng.

I definitely agree that change is an opportunity for growth - in the real world. But in this pixeled multiverse? I am not sure I want to develop new skills, although I'm fine with refining existing ones. I was just having a chat on Discord about the reason I'm not a speed runner. (not the way the real speeders are) I move with the arrow keys. It's intuitive. Want to move backwards, use the arrow key that points backwards. Forwards? Move the key that points that way. It makes sense. A damned idiot must have thought W would make sense to go forward. West, maybe. But forward? // Rhetorical question alert: How does W suggest forward movement? I'm sure it's because of the easier way to manipulate the character with the left hand while it's on the keyboard. I mean, I know that now. But I come from a world of Leisure Suit Larry. Everything was hunt and peck. There was never a need to be efficient or move quickly. Old habits die hard, especially if you've no interest in changing them. In life, I completely agree it should be viewed as a chess board, seeking to improve your position each moment, without ceding gains on the other part of your life's board. But, while many principals can carry from life into the game, I remember having more fun when I knew less. So, not sure I want to be dragged kicking and screaming into change. Not in game. In life, I can see the opportunities. But in game, there really is no payoff for that investment. It's just effort, with no gain. A reward merit? 10,000 reward merits? They're all but useless. I've already won that part of the game. What would I do with them? Costumes? Useless. My characters could be naked, and I wouldn't care - although I would certainly begin playing female avatars exclusively. I was on a mere 2 star itf last night. A casual run, as 6 of us had never done it. And all I could think of when Rommie roasted me was, "I hate to retoggle". It takes about 15 seconds. Just waiting for the little swirly circle to start so you can press the next one. Toggles are the worst thing in game, really. They should all be auto-on, like temperature protection. But, I'm sure they exist so end hungry players can turn them off. But I digress. Avoiding defeat for me is avoiding having to retoggle. It's why I spend so much time acquiring so much inf - so I could kind of sit there and be a little clumsy with my keyboarding and not get clobbered. And, if I've had adequate caffeine intake, I can actually play at a high level - once I get to the fight, lol. So, um, real world change, bring it on. In game change? That takes me some getting used to. You can keep it. I'd go back to issue three and be just fine. (that's when I started) Of course, I say that, and I know I'd hate not having those IO set bonuses, lol.

This post reminded me of my thoughts when issue 4 came out. I was so blissfully ignorant that I had no idea I was truly clueless about what I was doing. It saddens me to say, I had more fun when I knew next to nothing about how to play. I had more fun when I didn't know you should slot 1-2 accuracies, 3 damages and 1-2 recharges. (before Inventions, of course) When issue 4 changed things, I complained. In writing. I told them I had bought the game in a certain state. The fact that they changed the game post purchase was clearly a bait and switch. I mean, at that time, it never occurred to me in a million years a company would plan to change the game they had spent years developing. To put in context, prior to CoH, the only computer game I'd played besides chess was Centurion, defenders of Rome and Leisure Suit Larry. I bought those games, and they didn't change. Never occurred to me that CoH would. I was just ignorant. Now, I'm not ignorant, but I'm certainly prone to being obtuse. With every patch that comes out, I am against it. It still riles me up that they change the game. It's like that line from Guys and Dolls: "You women, as soon as you find a guy you love, you gotta take him in for alterations." They love the game so much, they gotta change it. Maybe they didn't love it as much as they thought. That said, eventually, generally about 2-3 months after, when I've adapted to the changes, I usually come to terms with the changes. I still think the "leak" of the SG macro was the best thing that's happened in the HC Dev reign. And the adjustment to it was clever, but needless. (from my perspective - I know, pvp, master badge runs, yada, yada) So, as much as I might gripe, bitch or moan, I eventually come around.

First - let me tell you - good questions! Second, let me also tell you - the time will vary. If I may be so bold, I realize that most do not play this way - but consider thinking about your character early - and the powers you will want, and what you'll slot in them. Consider using Mids Reborn. The values Mids may give from time to time may have an error here or there, but it does let you see which IOs you would need/want, and you can bid on those before you even make the character. A lot depends on how you do things. In my case, my farmer will tend to have more influence than any of my characters, so the farmer usually ends up placing the bids on the items I'll want that aren't already stored in my base. I tend to favor the attuned sets for leveling, unless I'm PLing to 50. (rarely) And since I can't craft attuned IOs, I buy them. If the item is a pvp IO, I might buy the level 10 recipe and craft it. Tends to be much cheaper that way. And, once I reach level 10, if it's not one of those proc-types, I'll just catalyze it to make it attuned. Usually that's still cheaper than buying it attuned. The longer you have the lower bids placed before you need them, the more likely it is you will get what you want at the lower price. Patience is the key.

@America's Angel <doh!> You're absolutely right. It didn't even register in my feeble mind. Near as I can tell, this mysterious 100% XP figure seems to be: 6408 for minion 12816 for LT 38448 for Boss At least, that's what I was getting on my own "test" map. What's puzzling me is why my characters seem to struggle on some of these adjusted maps, but not on other adjusted maps. I think there's a lot going on behind the curtain that the combat log isn't showing. I keep hearing/reading people talk about upping the s/l resist, but I see no evidence of taking any s/l damage in the farms. Puzzliing...a good word for it.

The reason your lowbie is leveling slower is likely the change in the 2xp buff from p2w. Per the HC devs, they said that their testing revealed that the 2xp we thought we were getting was actually 3xp. So, yeah, the reduced leveling speed with 2xp should be expected.

I did try it. For whatever reason, the minions give 72 less XP than another "adjusted for page 4" map. Is it on Brainstorm? and another edit: I just left brainstorm. And I look at the xp I get from this "100% XP" (by moving the slider to 100%) as shown in the snipped pic. I only present this because of my confusion. In my map, I'm getting 6408 per minion. In yours, I get 4200 per minion. So, if both are adjusted for "100% XP", what's going on here? It's not my intent to derail, or complain, I'm just curious, wondering if those words "100% XP" mean what I think they mean. Maybe not, lol. I genuinely am fairly ignorant of AE mission creation. I mean, all I do is click on the errors, fill in the fields and then select an objective.

This is what I see. Thanks, though.

Where can I find this code? I mean seriously. People say it's out there. I've never seen it.

I have to agree. My biggest problem with this issue so far has been a lack of transparency. I'm left to connect the dots, as it were. Being told by this player or that, but no word from an HC dev as to why this, or why that. Perhaps I'm unrealistic to want to know the whys and wherefores. Volunteer staff, etc. I did finally get one word from a GM about something rather sinister that I had no idea about, but I would have thought they would have led with it, instead of me feeling like I had to kick and drag someone screaming to get some explanation about it. I think there's a number of players who have names I recognize as just players that are GMs on the sly - that is, it's not common knowledge, or not known by me that they're GMs. And they state things and others know they're GMs, so the other players back what they say, but I'm here not knowing they're GMs, and I occasionally call to question certain things I don't understand - and attract some negative attention because of it. On the one hand, I completely understand why some folks hate the idea of AFK farming. But on the other hand, so what? Anyone can do it if they want to, so there's no advantage anyone has over anyone else. The barrier to entry is the same barrier we all have/had. We're all different people and have found different ways to enjoy the game. But they've clearly put afk farming in the crosshairs - at least temporarily. It won't be long now until a build comes up that will allow afk-ers to do what they did before. I remember when they seeded salvage. GM Jimmy or some other GM wrote a post about why. And it made sense. But a lot of the changes I've seen don't make sense to me. To be fair, some changes in the past made no sense to me then, but they make sense now. So, I'm hoping that time will make some of these things make more sense. Like the prismatic Aethers. I think they're a wasted currency, but the jury is still out. Maybe it was a good move. We'll see, I guess.

I think this is on topic. If not, apologies. Seems like I've spent more time on test server after the patch than before it! I have made a map to test my builds on brainstorm, but I think I'm screwing something up. When folks are saying "adjusted for Page 4", I am assuming they have moved the slider so that the mobs award 100% XP. But on test, my builds did fine, but on the "real world", they don't do fine. They suck. But that's because I'm using two different maps. I like Bloodom's maps, due to the silly dialogue. But he doesn't have one updated on Brainstorm. Do we know of a map on Brainstorm that is properly adjusted for page 4? It's been a real eye-opener as to how much I did not know about farming maps. I always assumed they all gave the same XP, but this is not even close to reality. I tried one by @darkfirebrutetest (I swear, that's the global name the AE said made the mission!) but it seemed much rougher than Bloodom's, and gave more xp per kill, so I think it may be ramped up, but I can't be sure. And, if so, is there an identical version on the live server?

Anyone remember @verdigris ? They played on Liberty. I remember having a lengthy chat where I learned they were going through a lot of struggles, the game providing a necessary release of sorts. Wondering if they ever came through it alright.

How could anyone forget you? You're constantly bleating about your "legendary" status at every turn. I remember you for all the wrong reasons, sad to say.

I can't speak for these people you've looked to for advice that are no longer playing or scaling back, but often this has little or nothing to do with the game. Most of us are older, with families and responsibilities. This is still a game, and as time goes by, I know I recognize that I cannot get that time back. The only instance where I've ever been able to accumulate time was in prison. That's why it's more precious than money. I can save money for future use. I can be efficient, but still - the minutes or hours I save with this efficiency cannot be stuffed in my pocket and pulled out when I'm behind schedule later on. Time spent is gone forever. So, it's probably a good thing folks scale back or stop playing. Presumably, they're getting things done in real life, which actually matters far more. That aside, I can see your perspective. And you're entitled to feel the way you do. And nothing wrong with your opinion. I don't agree 100%. I think you have some good points, though. I do think that the Paragon devs have made some mistakes and the HC devs are left to make things work if/how they can. When CoV came out, I thought it was an insanely stupid thing to do. A game that is struggling to get really massive (compared to other games), decides to split it's talent and create a new world, with totally new ATs and powersets. A number of players stop paying for one game, and begin to play the new game. Then they realize how stupid of an idea that was, and try to merge the worlds so heroes can play with villains. Then, they didn't learn from it and create yet a third world, only to discover that while many appreciate the complexities of the stories, the inability to go to and fro with other players that aren't praetorian left a lot of the players that did like to play the content unhappy due to the loneliness of that world. It's why I believe there should be no alignments at all. But, if they do that - then what to do about all those alignment badges? I'm sure it would be a bloody mess to remove alignments anyway, but it's just a dream of mine. I don't really see the ATs with these generalities that you do. Too many people I know play petless MMs, and play blasters as if they can only blast from a distance, and other blasters as if they have no ranged attacks. I've seen too many brutes that play like tanks, and tanks that play like blind scrappers. Most folks don't want to fit into a given mold when they play, so they do things the way it pleases them at that moment. And that's usually fine. Folks wanted their incarnate powers to mean something, and now, with the hard mode stuff, they do. Still seems like a bit too much. How does one enjoy oneself when they are so focused on spamming barrier at the right moment? "Oh noes! We only have 4 barriers on this team, so we must use them every 30 seconds in rotation, so be sure you're in range!" I completely get that for some, this is just the kind of coordination and strategy they've been wanting! And both Aeon and the HM ITF are really well done, except both are just too damned long to suit me. I'd rather have each broken into 2 task forces, rather than sit that long for one. But, it is what it is, and eventually the time to complete won't take as long.

When you ding 50, there's still a lot of things to do, outside of the incarnate path. You've read it already - ouroboros and badges. Just because you've dinged 50 doesn't mean you can't revisit arcs you've not done on any given character. And do I need to open up the HC Wiki and search for level 50 contacts? Nah, you can do that. Off the top of my head, Crimson, Unai Kemen, Maria Jenkins, Harvey Meylor, and that's just on blue side. There's also more than a few Sig Story Arcs that have broad level ranges that are good for teaming or solo play. There's also the shadow shard. It's an area most of us overlook; we tend to only think of Dr. Q and the other shard TFs. But there's three contacts in FBZ, and pretty sure there's more in the other shadow shard zones. The only down side is there are no story arcs. Just repeatable missions. No badge missions, either. But, plenty of Rularuu to tackle for some defeat badges, if that becomes an interest. RWZ has several arcs that can keep you busy for a little while. Much depends on what content you did while leveling. If you're like me and you do Maria Jenkins' arc at level 45, then when you ding 50, she's not going to give you any more story arcs. Same with some of the contacts in RWZ; if you leveled up doing Gaussian's arc, then when you're 50, no more arcs from him. Obviously, even with Ouro, there is a limit to how many story arcs you can do at 50 before you're repeating content. But, for the most part, there are dozens of vet levels of play left before that happens.

Blasphemer! If there isn't 12 pounds of sugar in it, you cannot consider it a pop tart! If this were the place for it, I would bore 99.9% of you with thousands of confusing data points on non-nutritive sweeteners. T

Pizza, peanuts, pretzels. I'd include pasta, but when you eat that with your hands...that keyboard turns into a real mess!