Ukase

Alcohol is just empty calories. I see nothing useful about it. It dehydrates me, makes my head hurt. And, too much, it kills you. I see no reason to consume it. In my youngers days, well...that was different. I simply didn't know any better. I know a number of people who do drink when they play, and I try my best to avoid them, as they'll usually do nothing but waste my time and annoy me, because they think some things are funny, and I just think they're stupid. (The things they think are funny, and them - because they are stupid. If you're gonna get your drunk on, go to a bar and do it properly, and wake up wondering where your cash went like I used to do) I should add - that not everyone who drinks turns into a jackass. But for the most part...they do. Nancy Reagan was on to something, Just say no. Do not game and drink. Heck, do not drink period. Waste of resources.

My next in-game hero props would have gone to @Bionic_Flea, but someone already mentioned him. The dude is a vast storehouse of knowledge about CoH, and seems to almost always be around to answer questions - and most importantly, answer them correctly. And if he doesn't know - he very often knows how to find out, and will take the time to look it up. So, I will give props to @Peacock (in game handle. Not sure of his handle in the forums.) Peacock is a natural wizard at creating costumes. If he hasn't won, he's placed in any costume contest I'm aware of. It's a low bar, because I'm not into costumes as a rule. But it's more than that, he's super smart about a lot of different things, and has always made my game time more fun than it otherwise would be. There aren't many folks who would, or even could, create a gorilla costume, and share the file, and share how they came up with it in a matter of minutes.

First - you need to understand something. There is no "best" in CoH. There is optimal, but no best. There could be a "best for YOU" build. We don't know your manual dexterity. We don't know your reflexes. We don't know if you want to afk-farm (set burn to auto, sit in the middle, reset 10-20 minutes later, depending on your passive damage buff from fury and IO sets.) Some say Rad/fire brute is marginally better. I say anecdotally, that's not true. I have played both, and found the rad/fire inferior. But- I have to allow for the possibility I slotted my spines/fire better than my rad/fire. It's certainly possible. So - there you go. Slotting differences can take HC's "best" +4/8 AT & powerset combo and turn it into trash compared to someone else's build of the same AT & powerset. So, now that I've said that, to me - spines/fire is an easier way to go than rad/fire. Anecdotally, it was more fun to level up. There was a time I couldn't put burn on auto - my build wasn't there yet. I had to put healing flames on auto, and just let the blazing aura and quills do the damage. I was afk, so speed didn't matter. The brute lived, and I made enough to put burn on auto after boosting the fire defense with winter sets. I like spines/fire for other reasons, too. It was just easier for me to build. Six slot winter sets. Six slot some oblit sets. I mean, it was simple. The rad/fire build was a bit harder for me - probably because I just wasn't as familiar with rad melee. Below is my build, which I use outside of the farms, too. There's a clear lack of defense debuff resistance, so groups like Carnies, Banished Pantheon and Arachnos are highly problematic. Other than that, I had no trouble soloing AVs in the TFC blue side tf chain. It is not the "optimal" nor best fire farm brute build. But it is more than suitable for farming +4/8, either active or afk. ApacheFog - Brute (Spines).mxd

I love thinking about "If" some days. I don't owe any money to anyone that I can think of...so I'd probably hire a chef and a personal trainer, and get a 1 man shell (row-boat for those not into that kind of thing) and a vehicle suitable for lugging it around to suitable waters. I would set up a college fund for my grand-daughter, of course. And maybe remodel the house I'm in. Not sure if I'd service the car I have (overdue a bit) or just buy another. The newer cars scare me with keys that cost more than a six-pack, and you apparently don't need them to start the car, you just mash a button. Would be a fun problem to have, though.

To provide a little more information - I'd have to go back and revisit the patch notes from the first ...six months, I think since HC came out. The HC devs seeded the AH with 10M units of rare, uncommon and common salvage, each. They placed these salvage at a price of 1M for rare, 100k for uncommon, 10k for common. As mentioned before, any common salvage listed is bought in the form of whatever common salvage was bid upon. (assuming someone meets the auction price, of course) Those patch notes came out in the Pre-5/16/19 Patch Notes (including i25). But, just so you're fully informed, the AH can certainly be glitchy from time to time. It is quite susceptible to lag.

@Optimistic89I do have one Whispered Rumor mission. Is Optimistic89 your global in game? If not, DM me, and we can see if we can't work out a time convenient for both. My global is @ukase. And my main, Ukase is the one that has it. And I am on Excelsior.

My SG has a guy who made an app that acts as a depository for builds. Folks in the SG ask for a specific build, give travel power preferences, and other details - and our build specialists make them. I try to make my own builds. I might look at other builds for inspiration, and occasionally use one I have found, maybe take a proc out or two in pursuit of a set bonus, or because bopper's sheet suggests the proc would only fire a small percentage of time. Then, as I look at other builds more and more, I can see that while the maker of that build may have been proud of it for whatever reason, I found it to be less than ideal. Often, the builds would require recovery serum and ageless to be viable. Other times, a build would be great - at level 50, but at level 40, it would be trash. A number of folks when making a build in mids add in the travel powers at 49 instead of level 4, when I usually get it. So, I'm certain there's a number of places that could act as a database for "proven" builds, but a build that might work great for player A may not be worth a thing to player B, and vice-versa. So, how would one determine which builds are viable, and which are not? Who's to say? It's all too subjective and dependent upon playstyle and other preferences.

I think it's got to be someone amusing themselves. But, what do I know? I have tons of brain storm ideas, Once, I thought - "screw this marketer. I'm not gonna play his game." But, I did the math, and even at 50k per uncommon, the rare is still a better deal to make from 20 brain storm ideas. So, I went to my farmers and let them drop stacks of uncommon in the base for the other character that needed them. It's crazy. I have literally billions and can still make influence buying uncommon at the capped 100k price, but I refuse to do it. I wonder why I even market or farm anymore. Unlike Yomo, while I do give some away, it has to be my idea. I'm not going to just drop 20M because I got an email. When I do drop inf, it's a tidy sum, but it's almost always unsolicited. As for meeting this need for uncommons, the devs have done that already by placing caps on the price. That's why I never market with salvage. It's a losing battle. The sheer volume you'd have to deal with is more trouble than it's worth. I'm not trying to make the next billion 50k at a time, I'm trying to make the next billion 5M at a time.

So, I'd asked for this in the request costume thread, but an sg member gave me some tips, and this is what I came up with. I present "Thong Kong" I've attached the costume file which you could load up at a tailor and tailor it to suit your preferences. Thong Kong.costume

In a word, no, it isn't any easier. Malta, sappers - any npcs, really. When you rush through to mission objectives, they rarely have an animation going by the time you've moved out of their area. And..what's strange is even when a sapper does attack, they miss most of the time, depending on your defense stats and level shifts. The longer you fight an npc, the greater the risks. If you don't have to engage them, there's really zero reason to do so, unless you just want to for ...incarnate xp, maybe. There's certainly no reason to do it for influence, as you can make a LOT more in 5-10 minutes of marketing than you would in a very speedy tinmage/apex. I'm not saying it can't be fun, to end drain a sapper. But to me, it's just dull after you've done it once or twice. May as well ignore it, as it doesn't get you anything useful.

lol, I would let you win. I wouldn't blow my inf on something so useless. Give me ...insta level 50 for 100M +10 recipe storage for 100M p2w in base for 100M But prestige? nah, useless stuff

Anecdotally, soloing to me will depend on the AV I'm facing and the character I face it with. Vandal, Clamor, Burkholder, Arakhn, Jurrasik, Hopkins, Countess Crey, Clockwork King, Dr. Vahz - these are all just bags of HP. I remember against Dr. Vahz, my rad/stone tank simply could not do enough damage (pre-tank changes) to Vahz, despite Envenomed Daggers and large reds. Just couldn't kill him. But my blasters, corruptors, brutes, scrappers have no issues with any of these. To be fully transparent, I always have envenomed dagger, and a ranged summons for my melee characters and a tank summons for my ranged characters. I don't always use either, but if I need them, I use them. With the tank, I tried to forgo use of these, but no dice. Rolled out the echo version of positron and beat Vahz pretty quickly. Yesterday, I took my fire/ice tank and solo'd all three blue side respec trials without use of lores or summons. But I did use 24 reds, particularly against the freaks, as they tend to rez when you'd prefer they not. No AV, but plenty of mobs and a reactor to keep healthy (enough). I am what you would call team averse most of the time. The idea of recruiting a team for killing heroes in Recluse's Victory for badges..that would just invite bored pvpers to grief me, so I am reluctant to recruit for that, so I will always try to solo those first. I remember, using the in-zone hvas, plus my lore pets, I got through all the AVs except Positron with my first blaster. I just couldn't get him without getting killed! My stats were great for pve, but in PvP, for some stupid reason, the old school devs changed things up and ruined any desire I ever had for pvp. But I digress. I had a knight errant, a shivan, clockwork gears, a Tsoo, a werewolf, katie hannon emp temp, an HVAS (rwz/msr), lore pets and the zone heavy and only just barely beat Positron. The only temp that was left was the Knight Errant if you can believe that. Which is crazy because on Red side, I solo Positron and he's fairly simple with a luck or two.

Not sure why us richer players can't just donate to an SG the way things are now. Oh..we do! Well, they do. I would, but my sg just likes to blow the money on contests - which I don't think are quite fair, as they rely on a good graphics card and not everyone has the same set up to see the same things. My purple might be your violet, etc. Something with cel shading might like quite good, but without it look pretty strange. Just doesn't seem fair to me. (and that's okay - that's just me) The truth is there's a lot of in-game "currency" already. Losing prestige would be a plus. I do think it could have some value, but consider this: Player A is a farmer. They enter the farm, exit, sell, reset, etc. All day. They earn tons of prestige. Meanwhile - three or more sg mates were forming up a team for some purpose or another. Player A is in the farm, not coming out. While it's certainly okay, let's look at Player B, who stops what they're doing to join the SG mates. Better is certainly a subjective term, and if Prestige had the utility from live, the farmer might be held in high esteem for the massive earning of it. But now...isn't it better to reward the sg folks that are teaming, preferably with SG folks? Shouldn't prestige be earned ONLY when teamed with sg folks of the same SG and their coalitions? This might be a more useful metric for an SG leader. Player A is on all the time, but has earned zero prestige. Player B is on sometimes, but seems to earn a decent amount each time they're on. How hard would something like that be to implement? I have no idea. I just think that metric would be more useful for an SG.

Apparently, I've fallen behind in posting on this stuff. Got two more just waiting on the nemesis event, but talk is cheap, and that's not much compared to Voltor and a couple others I know.

What really tickles me is the new PvP snipe set. If you look, all 6 recipes all take the same exact salvage. But, I always craft those yellows that take rares. The rare salvage is free, the converters are free. So craft it, convert it, see what you get. You know you're gonna make inf.

This guy's name is spoken of on every server as a great content leader. I keep meaning to visit Everlasting, but the last time I was there, he was doing a TPN, and I would hate to fall asleep as a visitor. (I do detest TPN. So much repetition)

I almost recognized *ic Flea myself, and was planning on getting him some props in the next couple of weeks!

You're not the first person to suggest accolades over badge count. Certainly, accolades certainly suggest investment in the character, if nothing else, given the boost in hp/end. I appreciate the perspective and will give it an either/or kind of thing. Either know them (or their rep) or look for the passive accolades, or a relatively high badge count. Fun fact on the badge count, as a metric. I've got a warshade and a widow - both are levels 42-43 and didn't do 2xp. All missions so far were kill through, unless mission objectives required otherwise. I've made an effort to get the exploration badges in each zone they're in, and neither one has over 200 yet. Mind you, I'd never make a badger out of these two, I just don't enjoy them enough to do so, but the low badge count makes me think that all of you are correct, I'm being unreasonable. (They are both locked to their alignment until 50 - so there's a limit to the low-hanging fruit badges for both as far as explores go.) I hope folks realize that even though I can be obtuse, I do try to take in other opinions and have an open mind. So, your counter-points are often considered!

I agree, to a point. There's a number of GREAT players who, for one reason or another don't pursue badges on a given character. But here's the context: I'm running an MoTF, I've got some choices of folks among a pug crowd. First thing I do, is check global name, then powersets, then badge count. If I don't know you - you might truly be the best choice - but I have no way of knowing that. When you want to make the most of your time, and not have to redo the tf because of unfortunate missteps, what metric would you look at? Leave everything to chance? I ask myself - why do they want this badge? They don't seem to be a badge hound. Vet level 12 and only 223 badges. I'd think they'd have quite a bit more by vet level 12, if badges were what they were after. Are they trying to be helpful, or are they just looking to team up with anyone? Just the challenge? And that's the dilemma I often face if I don't know them. I also look at vet levels if they're 50. Experience with a character is important, too. Although badge counts suggest they have experienced a lot of the game, rather than the same fire farm repeatedly. (not that high vet levels mean that - but they could) Obviously, I know with certainty that high badge counts do not guarantee success on a Master run. But, to me, it's a fair indication that someone with a high badge count: 1) wants the badge 2) has enough experience to know not to do things that are needlessly risky - like go afk during the 2nd mission of an ITF with all those ambushes 3) has stumbled across my path on one league badge effort or another in the past I'm very open to finding another metric to use. But I can't think of one that's a better indicator of success when considering an MoTF with someone I am unfamiliar with.

I really appreciate this perspective! And the time it took to spell it out for me. I have never played those games you spoke of, but I got the gist of it. So, I'm grateful for the explanation. I knew I had to be missing something, which was why I was asking in the first place.

I appreciate the perspective, thanks. I used to play the slow way, I promise, I did. I don't think I ever got kicked tho - and I've never kicked anybody for playing differently. But as I learned more, it dawned on me how much I was missing in the experience. Now, I guess I'm missing something else - more nuance, more silly commentary from the npcs, etc.

This is exactly what I need/want to understand more clearly in my feeble mind. I completely understand that there are thematic reasons or even at home/real life reasons why a player isn't out to be ..well....super fast. If the character is where you want it, then what is it that motivates you? After so many levels, doesn't something like War Mace's Crowd Control and it's satisfying crunch, doesn't that just get...old, stale? I have moods where the last thing I want to do are speed. And generally, I've found the squishier the character, the more likely I am to want to go more slowly - more order, less chaos. But, I'm not talking so much about in-mission tactics, but out of mission tactics. Is it just an old school preference to ride the slow turtle 30 miles to the quest door, a hold over from some game I've never played before? If that's it, that's fine - I just don't get it. And I don't have to, I'm just trying to understand it. I play a few characters that are "about the journey", not the destination. Oddly enough, I've learned to despise all three! A warshade, a widow and an MM. I chose the ATs because I hadn't played them before. Now I see why! Ordinarily, I'd just delete them, but they are each in a team crawl, so that would be letting the group down, so I suffer through it. My arbitrary list is exactly that. I've often heard that you have to measure something to know if there's improvement. So there's got to be a metric. Fun is subjective for all of us. It cannot be measured. We know it when we experience it, usually. But for me, because time is scarce, I want to be sure I'm not coming to the boards and complaining about people that don't deserve complaints, they're just...well, not in a hurry, whereas, I usually am. What really seems odd to me are the number of times the recruitment message is "speedy XTF", and there's usually that one player who never exits the map when the mission is over. Sometimes, it's just a long page load. Other times, they have scrapper lock and don't notice the mission ended. We'll yell in team chat, send tells, and optimally, use discord to ask what the delay is for. These are the folks that will make my hair gray. And one of the other folks are the ones with flight, have a celerity in sprint, but not realize that's not enough to let them zip by most mobs unscathed. You need super speed for that celerity:stealth to do you any good! And they die. And they wait there on the floor, as if some defender is supposed to tp them and rez them. The ones that do use the hospital, they miss the end of that mission, are late coming to the next one. In short - they prove themselves of no value to the team. Not even a joke as they lay there dead. It was advertised as a speedy run, and they are not speedy. Then THEY come to the boards and complain about how selfish we are. We're not selfish, we're just in a hurry, and our builds allow us to be in a hurry. We've gone to the trouble of making the builds, sharing it with friends, asking for their critical eye to help us make them better. We have farmers that allow us the resources to acquire anything in game without any hardship. It's so easy to do! And yet people say they hate it, can't stand it, it's ruining the game, etc. I stopped farming for one week on my accounts and suddenly the end mod perf shifter +end rises in price by 25%! Same with a number of other useful IOs that many of you use in every build. PvP IOs that I'd helped to reduce down to 8M are now back up to 10-11M as of this posting! Just because I stopped marketing for 1 lousy week. All thankless deeds, misunderstood by the casual gamer. But I digress. I just want to reach a place in my heart and mind where when I see someone who's playing slowly, I can instantly say to myself, "They're not stupid, Ukase. They just don't like the faster, more efficient way of play because X. And "X" can be anything, I just want it to make sense. Doesn't mean it will make sense to me, it's just what I want. And I may not get what I want, and that's okay. But if I don't ask, I don't get.

This may be something you're aware of and skip for thematic purposes, but if you have a character that has Schweinzer unlocked, you can get TFC in about 15 minutes. Simply log in an alt, or ride along with friends and do each mayhem bank mission and get the exploration within. You don't even have to defeat a single npc. In fact, it's advised you don't, as that would take the 20 seconds to zip in and out and turn it into a longer task. I have a character on each of my three accounts with Schweinzer unlocked and will typically get Invader, the red side equivalent of TFC on all my characters around level 15. Then, I switch them back to hero, and poof, I now have TFC. The only reason to suffer through those task forces that are repetitive and lengthy is because you want the merits, badge, or you derive some fun out of them. Or a combination of all three. But if it's just the accolade you want - invader is a faster, easier approach. Cosmic Council SG does a weekly/bi-weekly run for all 4 passive stat boosting accolades. Takes about 2 hours. Usually less if people are..well, speedy.

While I can't dispute the math, an overwhelming truth that gets shouted throughout the forums is CoH is about fun. A subjective term, to be sure. But, when HC opened - the first character I made and played (after creating what would be my main characters from Liberty to reserve their names) was a Sentinel. Why? Because at the time, I had no idea it sucked. It was a Fire/Rad sentinel. And you know what? It was fun. It was survivable. I had no clue what that stupid "Opportunity" meant, and didn't really care. The AT was brand new, so there wasn't much information on it. It was my first 50 here on HC. Got about 480 badges, so it's still a trash character not to be trusted. (Nobody should trust any character with less than 500 badges, lol - at least, none in my stable) But, I played it quite a bit, vet level 30, I think. It was fun. I haven't played it in over a year, but I'll never delete it. I look at the build now and wonder how I played it. I wonder how I managed to only get defeated 4 times over the life of the character, given the lackluster numbers. And then, when I was playing something else, the negative talk about Sentinels began. Me, I was clueless. I had no idea. While playing (teamed for the most part from level 19 and up) I had no idea my dps sucked. I think a Sentinel is a fine character for anyone to play. But...if I'm going for a RHW badge, I'm probably going to wince if I see one on the league. It's the only character I've got that's ever failed a RHW attempt, lol. (others have failed, but only after succeeding, and trying to help others get the badge.) So, yeah, I know why folks would play one, and I think they should, if it's fun. But I don't think I'll ever play one again, until they get adjusted somehow.

There's been quite a bit of negativity on these forums lately. From folks like myself asking questions "Why do something like that?" to folks bashing a shard because of some unpleasant experiences they've had. So, what I propose is that we all take a moment to think - and post - about someone who has made your player experience better due to perhaps their generosity of inf, time, knowledge, badge assistance, or whatever. The first player that comes to my mind is @Yomo Kimyata Yomo is filthy rich as far as in-game currency goes. And, what's crazy, is I'm sure he's still giving away 20 Million influence to anyone who asks him for it through in-game email. But it's more than that. Yomo doesn't talk ill of those who are broke, or ignorant. He goes out of his way to share his knowledge with anyone, as evidenced by his guides in the market forum. It's my aim to revisit this post once a week and name one player who makes this game better because of the way they interact with the players around them. It'd be nice if some of you would do the same. Sometimes, good behavior is taken for granted, and we should probably do more to recognize these folks.