Ukase

Just anecdotally, when using Fold Space - I saw how the mobs line up - kind of the same way the zombies spawn, all in a row, each one slightly diagonally to the left or right depending on your perspective. They are in a perfect position for a cone attack - once you get in position at one end or the other. Additionally, as I'm confident you know, a range enhancement will increase the distance from which you can use your cone - and thus, the width of the cone extends but only to a point, to a limit defined in the power's detailed info tab. It's not worth it to slot a range in all cases, but anecdotally, on my claws scrapper, it seemed to be worth it.

So, on the one hand, I've no issue with any changes you've suggested. My only adjustment would be that the buff be only for teammates, not the caster, and here's why: Those with large pockets that can and do kit out their characters can already run most content at +4/8 with little or no real hassle, unless they choose to make things harder. Providing a buff or heal to a tank or brute, above and beyond their armor just gives someone like me even less reason to team up. As I said, I'm fine with it, but lately, there seems to be some pressure for folks to team up more often than not. By providing such a thing, it makes certain ATs even less reliant on support ATs. Now, it's possible I'm the only person thinking that way. Mama told me my way of seeing the world wasn't typical.

It is a struggle, sure.

Embrace the feeling when you prevail after a struggle! When you're still slotting up, and not kitted out, the game can be challenging, particularly at +3 & +4.

I have recently gotten to level 43 with the MM. At present, the death count remains at 3, and once I got a bit of recharge on Chrono-shift, things have been easy enough to up the diff to +2/6. My character can take more, but when I tried +2/8, the trio of thugs, particularly the arsonist would die more often than not. Sure, it's easy to resummon, but then I have to equip and upgrade, and well, I'd rather just do that once per mission and forget about it. Obviously, it takes a bit longer than +1, but I'm anxious to get this thing complete and then start another powerset. I'll get this to 50, no doubt. Incarnating will be annoying, simply because every t-4 effort is a bit of a grind. And that's kind of ridiculous in contrast to the way things were before shutdown. I've solo'd the entire way up to this point, except for an MSR at level 36, and the patron unlock in the mid-20's. (two defeats in that mess!) so, teaming with it is a bit intimidating. Even in BG mode, the pets are stupid. I put them on Follow/Defensive, but the Bruiser leads - he doesn't follow - once I initiate the fights. The rest seem to have their own minds about who to tackle, which is fine. They do respond to direct commands when given, so can't ask for much more than that. I did find it interesting when they say "I can't see nothing!". If only I could change the way they look. I would prefer to not hang out with "thugs" and make them look more like gangsters, or bikers, like the bruiser, rather than these scrawny dudes.

I once held a contest for my SG - each contestant was to be level 1, in Praetoria and see how many badges they could collect in ..I think it was 30 minutes. The prize was the build of their choice. The winner did their level best to really stick it to me. I made a ruling prior to the contest that I would not provide any boosters, as 1) I wasn't going to spend the time to boost all those IOs (prior to the speedier way to do them now), and if I just handed them over in a trade, it'd be too easy for the winner to just sell them. I also said no Hami-Os, as the market simply wouldn't allow me to produce those with any degree of certainty. I think there was only one level 53 Cyto at the time, and maybe a couple of level 50's. Not enough supply to produce what may have been requested. It gave me an idea, though. What if a player just didn't want to take the time to get all the enhancements required and was willing to just fork over a sum to cover what they thought it would cost them? These guys that think a build costs 1 billion - I promise you, there are NO builds that would cost a billion if I'm the one procuring the items. You'd have to be so damned impatient to spend that much. I mean, I can probably use "buy it NOW" prices for 99% of the builds and not go over 500M. I just can't see it. So, um, yeah. Anyone who thinks their build will cost 1 Billion - you pay me 750M, I'll get you that build you want - not including Hami-Os. I don't do enough hami raids to gather Cytos and Micros, and even if I did, I'd always take the merits. And, in all likelihood, I'll have it within an hour, unless I have to take a call or make time to eat a meal or something.

I keep a spreadsheet as well. Or, at least I did. I haven't opened it in a few months. Many players will keep surplus influence on the AH, on bids that presumably will never fill. Like, bidding 5M on a hero pack, when the going rate is 10m, and have never gone on sale and are not likely to do so. I do not do this. Why? Because then, that character is the one with access to the influence. You'd have to log it in, make sure the character has room to pull the inf out and then do with it whatever it is you wanted to do. I can concede to the argument that inf stored in this way is surplus; you are not likely to ever need it, so what's the big deal. Fair point, but for me, I want any of my alts to access any of my loot. I track a few things for each character - inf on hand, vet levels and emp merits. Recently, I took the time and just ensured that no character had any emp merits left, and all were emailed to one character who would be able to distribute the transcendent merits to new characters with as little fuss as possible. It's not nearly as many emp merits as I would like, I'll tell you that. I track vet levels to see how much time it would take to get the next set of free emps. Each character when their t-4s are done will email all influence over 1B to the global email, and to have room for the emailing of emps & transcendents, each account is capped at 90 emails at 999,999,999. I made a 4th account just to have a place to keep the emails. Recently, had to make a 5th. Like Ironblade, once an IO is in a build, it has zero value because it's not for sale. I also don't count the well over 1000 purples I have in my base, nor the thousands of winter packs I've yet to open. I also don't count the ...now less than 100 luck of the gambler 7.5% I have in base storage, the PVP IOs, nor all the ATOs that are in my email, nor the tens of thousands of converters, as none of those things are for sale. If I did count them - the price of purples would likely have to drop in order for me to get rid of them all. Same with ATOs, PvP IOs, Winter-Os. Nobody is likely to ask how much you have. The more you have, the more you'll likely either boast about it as if it mattered to anyone, or never bring it up because telling them you have far more than they ever could want doesn't really win friends or influence people. And yet - marketing is tedious for some and can often require a sacrifice of actual game play. Sometimes letting people know you've endured such things to gift them that winter set or 50M or whatever is the only satisfaction you'll get. Personalities are different and varied. Where some person would rather be hush-hush about donations, other folks would shout at the rooftops how generous they are. Other folks just depends on their mood. Now, I must hurry and sell my 19,000 Iron Will inspirations and steal @Yomo Kimyata's inf reserves!

Just picture me smacking my forehead, Homer Simpson style. I should also add a thank you to those who have taken the time to offer tips and advice. Thanks.

I will never use keybinds for this. It would make me have to rewrite binds for other powers and actions - and then I'd have to remember which binds did what. Binds, unless they are the same for every character you have, would render me incapable of doing anything. Again - when you switch from an MM to another alt - and play that for a stretch, and then re-visit your MM - how would you remember which key did what? Study a keybinds text file? Does that sound like something someone should have to do before playing a character? That just sounds pretty crazy to me. I ain't gonna do it. Props to those of you who can actually remember which key does what without having to review a text file. I'll use macros, thanks. I can at least right click on those if the label doesn't remind me.

A bind? That puts me in a bind. Using keybinds for this would be impractical at best, at least for me. There are only so many keys on the keyboard. How would anyone remember what each key was for? With the macro, there's at least some visual clue, presumably an abbreviation or acronym. I already have a bind for V,B,N, H, I, O, P, S, Z, T,M, N - which are the same for every character so I can keep them straight. Keybinds for all those pet options? I don't have enough keys. And I can't use the number pad because my right hand is on the mouse if it's not on the arrow keys moving the character about. As it stands now, I have the broad macros where I give the pets direction as a group. Telling one to go off and do X ...that opens up a lot of options, but requires way too many keys to have a different macro or keybind for each type of instruction. Surely this is the way of madness. Why would anyone be willing to entertain this level of control over a mindless henchman? More to the point, is it necessary? Or just optimal? I'd prefer to be optimal. No sense doing something half-assed. But, with the way I move a character, (arrow keys), I may be stuck in at a notch just above mediocrity.

I have no idea how you would discern any of the attacks of the henchmen. I can barely find them in the throes of battle, let alone determine what attacks they're doing. I guess I should be doing more research. But, if I designate a target for those three - don't I lose the bodyguard mode? They have to be in defensive & follow, right? Or, would I just lose the hitpoints of those specific 3 out of the BG mode equation?

That seems like a lot to me. I see so many folks get defeated and they laugh it off. Just like in real life, defeat is a message. What does the message say? It says you made one or more mistakes. What were they? Win, or learn. If you're not learning after each defeat - as in - how to avoid the next defeat, you're not going to improve. My goal isn't simply to get an MM to 50, it's to learn to play one well. And, if you're dying routinely, are you really playing it well? I would say no. But that's just my definition. I wouldn't hold anyone else to my crazy standard. I completely understand this is a game, and many couldn't care one iota about improving in this game, I believe a winning attitude in real life will spill over into the game, and vice-versa. Not saying my thoughts are normal, it's just what I think. It's kind of like throwing a game in professional sports. Only the really bad teams will do it, because the good teams have a winning culture. It would be unthinkable to go down without a fight for a winning team.

That would be fine, if the gang actually did any kind of damage. They're like a bunch of toddlers trying to take down The Big Show. I'm just running at +1/3, and their only utility is a distraction. Pretty much a useless pet which I hope I won't have to use much. I mean - what's the point? Granted, all I have slotted in them is a couple of recharge IOs, but they do nothing but get foot stomped and die as soon as they spawn. Sometimes, they just get tossed about. I don't see much utility. What the set needs is dps, and thus far, it's not damage per second, but damage per moment, lol. I get that my experience with it is a learning one. And if I slot differently, I should expect a somewhat different result - and playstyle enters into it as well. I'm learning, but so far, other than the bruiser, none of the pets are worth spawning. They just seem to run interference. Perhaps I need to experiment things outside of bodyguard mode - but man, the hp of an MM is ridiculously low, and I don't see the logic there. But, just hit 32, I may learn more as I go and will gain a better appreciation. It's hard to transition from SS/Fire Brute to an MM.

I should say - Props to those that play MMs. I played one before - but I had only teamed with it to 25 or so, then PL'd the rest of the way. Didn't learn much that way. Came across a post from someone who'd used it in a challenge of sorts, going up through Praetoria, solo. Figured I'd give it a try. (Thugs/Time) It's not as easy as it looked from the outside, for sure. Hats off to any of you who leveled one up solo without being defeated once on your path to 50. So far, I've suffered defeat 3x and I'm only level 31. Tempted to delete it and start over, but I figure there are other combos to try. Time at this level is just about useless. I can't at this point imagine why folks are proclaiming it to be so awesome. A weak heal and a slow is all I'm seeing out of it so far. But, it's still early. Still, even more reason to give you guys props. Playing one of these is quite the chore. Now if I can just get all the pets to come in on a motorcycle, and give them a decent haircut. But, they are punks. What could I reasonably expect?

So, let's take a step back and enter the wayback machine. In the old days, before the shut down, and before free to play...a new issues came ...how often? And let's be honest - how many of YOU left the game then, when you were paying for it every month because a full staff of paid developers couldn't keep up with your ability to go through content and new powersets, new zones, etc.? Can any of us actually be disappointed at the fantastic job the HC team has done? I will admit, I don't do well with change. Heck, when issue 4 hit, I was puzzled as to why they thought the game needed a change. They could have let it all as it was, would have been fine with me - like with no further changes to it, ever. You tell that to folks and they say, well, people will get tired of doing the same things over and over. And, I guess, now that I've got over 200 level 50's that are t-4'd, of which 80% of them leveled through content outside of the AE, I can see where folks would get tired of doing the same thing. But I have no expectations of our HC team. I sometimes wish they'd do less and not more. Badging is tedious! And when you have multiple badge characters, each time new badges are available, there's a lot to do - and some of it, it's damned tedious. But I digress. We have the game back. It may not have enough folks to suit you, but there's enough to do any content in game without waiting too long. Maybe not on your shard, but you can move shards easily and for free. You can't get any XP in an SG base, so just move to a busier shard. Two ways to increase player base: Retain the players that are here, and bring new players in. Some have said streaming is a way to bring in new players. Perhaps. Word of mouth has also been suggested. There's certainly not going to be any paid advertising, at least, not by the HC team. So, it is what it is. All any of us can do is what we're willing to do and able to do. I consider the matter closed, as everything else is just conjecture or opinions - which are all perfectly fine, but it's just you keeping you occupied when you could be doing something else - like playing the game. Maybe if we all spent less time typing, and more time playing, we wouldn't even be looking for more players. I dunno. Ha! Hypocritical of me with my post count! Anyways, I'm back in the game. Let's just give this a rest, and talk less about it and actually DO more.

Both of you are a couple of the reasons I remain in the SG. Along with a few others. I still use my own base, though. It's nice not suffering lag as soon as you zone into a base, lol.

This is emphatically true. I am in an SG. It's a large SG that has a lot of rules. Recently, some rules changed. Some for the better, some not so good. If it weren't for the few relationships I've formed within it, I would simply quit the SG, as their base is too large to be of any practical use. All those useless decorations - literally a costume shop - complete with Icon contacts - and yes, what appears to be racks of clothing - all for you to see before you can get to the workshop or teleporters. Interesting the first couple of times, but after that - move that crap out of the way and let the portals be much closer to the base entry. But - that's just me, and I'm digressing. The point remains - relationships, often built more easily over discord and other tools are going to be what glues the community together. These zone events like MSRs and hami raids - many people aren't comfortable with discord, and in fact, some folks detest it for their own reasons - but overall, you can build ties more easily using it in zone events than you might otherwise. Primarily because a number of folks find it easier to say something funny than to type it. If it's an event with any difficulty, you can require Push to Talk to limit the number of folks talking over the league leader. And there's no rule that says everyone or anyone has to talk - but if it's there, generally, it allows for social discourse, and that's going to go along way to building relationships.

No worries...but the use of quaint in reference to keyboard and mouse, tools that will be with us for at least another 20-40 years is hardly what I would call quaint.

Well...that's one way. An easier way is to get the invader badge on red side, then change your alignment back to hero or vig. Invader: +Max Health Hero equivalent: TFC Badge Earn all exploration badges in mayhem missions (9 in total, Atlas Park, Kings Row, Skyway City, Steel Canyon, Independence Port, Talos Island, Brickstown, Founder's Falls and Peregrine Island). TIP: Lord Schweinzer, contact in PO that will give you on-demand mayhems. He's unlocked by getting the Hero Slayer/Bloody Hands badge which can be earned by completing the RSF ~2 times. An easier way is to do the Brickstown SSA from Dakota Berg with the third mission on -1x8. If you're on a less sturdy character, you can simply start this arc, and when you get to the third mission, just log off before it's complete, back on, and re-do it with a lower notoriety, like 0/4, or 0/2, whatever your character can handle. It will still be faster than sludging your way through those task forces, and you can do them solo, at your own pace. Granted - you won't have those tasty merits - unless you actually complete the arc, then you get 20 merits for your trouble. I have a character on each account that has Schweinzer unlocked, and the process of getting invader is easily less than 10 minutes.

How in the blue hell do you consider a keyboard and mouse "quaint"? The game isn't old. It's just older. Pong is old. This game will have many years ahead if the current HC team continues to allow us to donate and keep it going.

I can't say you're wrong. But I can't say you're right. I do know that just anecdotally, many pvp-ers I've come across have been unpleasant. When they get clobbered, they whine and insult. When they win, they gloat and insult. It could be a great part of a game, but it really doesn't belong in CoH - at least, not the way it is now. I think a villain doing a mayhem should only happen when a hero is doing a safeguard. That is what pvp should be about, only instead of an npc, another player. How to do that? or something like that? No idea.

The shards don't need to merge. Just the players. Personally, I think Everlasting has its own flavor, as does excelsior. I think Indom and Torch are fairly similar - at least in my limited experience on both shards. Just have Saturday be Indom day and Sunday be Torch day, or vice versa, see how it pans out.

I think the best thing the HC devs could do would be to take the better story arcs made by players OUT of the AE system and implement them in game. The reason these arcs don't get noticed more is that they are in AE and they give no useful rewards. Tickets are only good for salvage or recipes. (and I guess threads now) - but I can buy salvage easily. Same with recipes, and they're recipes I'd actually want, instead of random. AE is good for PL, that's about it. Unless you're in it just for the story - and most are in it for the loot - there's no real purpose to go in there. These "dev choice" awards should be moved out into Paragon City or the Rogue Isles, or Praetoria.

So, I'm older. But if CoH required a link to my phone, my first question would be "Why?". There's nothing to be gained by this. Absolutely nothing. I mean, you want access to the AH from your phone? Why? Your phone would be way too small to do much of anything, I wouldn't think. And even if it could - what would be the point? To avoid logging in? Seems like a lot of code work to avoid logging in. I don't see the reason for this. Again, I'm older. Nothing says the way I think is the way anyone else should think, other than my over-inflated narcissistic ego. But, now Discord...that opens up some of what you're looking for. I know in a number of Discord (channels?) I belong to, I can see what game certain people are playing. So, I can send DMs to these players from there. I think Discord would help you do the communication side of things you're suggesting, but everything I know about the AH says the code is way too scrambled to implement something like this without building it from scratch - which would be a massive undertaking.

I reluctantly agree. I'm really going to try and be concise - which is a struggle. But, here's the situation as I see it. It's hard to add anything of quality to what's already been said, but I'll try. Because our current cadre of developers are themselves unpaid volunteers, it's too much to ask for them to grind out new stuff every 3 months, even if it's small stuff, like a new story arc for an old contact, or a new arc for a new contact. (compared to a Page 3 type issue) So, it seems simple to me. Enjoy what we have. Stop sweating the server load or lack of it. Can't find a team? Be the teammate you want to find. (I am stealing that, sort of from someone else, I forget who.) There are still people who meet routinely and tackle whatever task/strike force or story arc that catches their fancy. The shard that's played on is irrelevant. It's all the same game. Now, if you want to read everything - you can read below, otherwise, skip it. *************************************************** Aging player base - we're mostly older adults, I figure between 35 and 50, some younger and some older. Still, in this demographic, with the restrictions from the pandemic easing off, there are more demands on our time. If we were still 15-25, not so much. What's more, and I could be sorely off base - as older adults, well, we're smarter. We know what's under the hood now. Folks like Bopper have taken that mystery and revealed things that we simply didn't know before, essentially making things a bit easier when it comes to building for dps and survivability. League/Team size requirements - these have been lifted for Task forces, but for incarnate trials and zone events like a hamidon raid, there's still a minimum. With Hamidon, the minimum isn't set by the game, but by the players' abilities and time to commit. Hamidon has been defeated with less than 8 if I'm not mistaken. And even if the lowest number he's been defeated with was 8, those 8 were specific ATs and powersets with specific builds and temp powers for that set purpose. In Underground and Magisterium - it's my understanding if the league size is less than 24, the HP of the AVs scale down to correlate with the league size. Doesn't make it easier, as you have fewer buffs and debuffs to go around, but there is some sort of system compromise for lower numbers. But for hamidon and msr - missing those dozen or so extra buffs/debuffs make things a little harder in the case of MSR, and a lot longer, in the case of Hamidon. A solution is possible, but if it were implemented, then you might have folks on the more populated shards able to take further advantage. (depending on the solution, of course) Fire farms, or more broadly, farms in general have become more of a norm than a treat. Farm is now pretty much a verb, rather than a place to produce livestock and/or produce. I can only imagine what the end result is for most players, if there even is an end. Massive piles of influence can and are obtained by farming. With HC's generous 3 accounts to a shard rule, there's nothing, other than your system's resources to stop you from making a total of 15 accounts and having an afk farmer on a map. Even with minimal outcomes, that's a chunk of inf. Bear in mind, you'd have to find the inf to build 15 farmers, but it only takes one farmer to do that. I remember making my first farmer. It was a fire/fire brute. I wasn't even aware of spines/fire at the time. And it sure wasn't afk. I had tried it, but I had to have healing flames on auto, not burn. Granted, it was July, just about 2 months after the servers opened, and folks were still figuring things out. I leaned more towards marketing for influence. But I didn't want to spend time sifting through the AH looking for bargains. I figured I could just use what dropped in the farm, and that has worked very well for me. Unfortunately, or not - I now have options. Because of the inf I have stored up, I don't feel this need to run Apex/Tin Mage over and over with a different alt just to get those tasty merits. I will on occasion for the fun of it - but it's not really about merits for me anymore. I'll use them, of course, but there are no "carrots" dangling by a string and stick over this donkey's gaping maw. So what motivates me to play? And is it really accurate to call it play? I "play" to try out different powersets and ATs to see if they are suitable to my playstyle. On occasion I'll play something completely out of my comfort zone - like an MM - to learn more about what it's like to team with MMs. I tend to only see things from my characters' perspectives. It's time I figured out the reasons why scrappers get PO'd when rain of fire scatters the few mobs they had in their AoE damage patch. It's time I figured out how to make a controller more useful. And, it's time I figured out if the MM pets are stupid, or the player behind the MM. (I suspect in some cases it's the pets, and other cases it's both, and in a few cases, it's me. ) But, because of my success, I now pretty much don't team up anymore with pugs. I'll do the odd tf or iTrial, but nothing like when I was struggling to fund a build. I can't tell you how many times I made the mistake of accepting a recruiting call for a free farm only to delete the character later because I simply didn't understand how to play it, or what the powers really did. A lot of that is my own fault, of course. But who doesn't want free XP? With the ease of making characters on the test server now, there's really no need to PL anything anymore, unless it's just the sub-50 content you're tired of. But, even so, after all these years, there's still content I'm not tired of. I am weary of the Hollows. Not yet weary of Faultline. Croatoa continues to interest me, but I do hate the initial hunt missions. Good excuse to get fold space, though. I port them into the very neighborhood I'm supposed to remove them from. The contact system, at least on blue side, needs major work. The idea of having origin contacts is outdated, and what's more - any contact that doesn't give a story arc should just disappear from the game, or be clear from the top that all they'll do is give random one-off missions. The only reason I play now is pretty much out of habit. Things are just too easy in this flavor of CoH. Even the master runs, without set bonuses, WHEN you're on a team of other competent players make things trivial; no sweat. Mind you - when I say that, I need to make it clear - we're not doing master runs at +4/8. The only reason they're being done is for the badges, and who would want to make the effort as difficult as possible? Certainly not me. I just want the shiny. Not complaining about it being too easy. I like easy. But many folks savor the challenge. Easy is dull and boring for them. There's something to be said for making things "as difficult as possible". I remember on live - The Really Hard Way. Accomplishing that was truly a big deal. Some of us even transferred servers to help other servers accomplish it. Here on HC - it's trivial. The ease of acquiring super inspirations certainly doesn't hurt the process. Farmers would always have trouble getting a donkey to work. So, they had a choice. Use a carrot, or a stick. I'm not real clear on the origins of the idea, but someone eventually tied the carrot to the stick, and hung the carrot in front of the donkey to get the donkey to move forward. If the donkey gets the carrot, he stops moving. A PL is pretty much giving the donkey the carrot. The problem is simply that with veteran players, they've run the early content into the ground. It's like Monopoly now. We all know that Oriental Avenue costs $100, rents for $6 unimproved and charges $550 with a hotel. And who doesn't know that Boardwalk will cost $2k with a hotel? Humans in this day and age require novelty from time to time. CoH simply doesn't have it. When Aeon came out, for 2-3 weeks, and a little bit more than that - Aeon was being run night and day, all day. Now...not so much. Still get some folks doing it on occasion, but even for new content, for most folks, it's every bit as stale as Flambeaux & Fusionette running off at the mouth. I understand that many of you simply want a larger, more vibrant community. It could happen, but that's highly unlikely. For one, now that we're all older, who's going to tell their friends that they play a video game in their spare time? Certainly not me. I'm an adult. I know my father would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that at 55, I've even spent time typing on a forum instead of taking out the trash or some other mundane household chore that can wait until the sun comes up. And I know my friends would have their palms out waiting on that gift of influence, and then quit playing due to real life being more challenging. This game was designed initially to get players to subscribe and follow the lore. But then they got smart and learned the free to play model would get them more money. But that meant new content coming out, routinely and regularly, as well as the "loot box", or super packs that you'd literally pay real world cash for. Our players want new powersets, new ATs and new content. But most of all, they want quick forming teams and leagues. More players. But it's not going to happen until we determine a proper method for player retention, if there is such a thing.