Jacke

I usually get badges on all my toons, though have only a few who aim to get all badges. But for the lower zones, I get them on all toons, usually doing a zone at a time, all the badges and history plaques in one pass. But after i27p1 was released, I saw I had 4 toons who didn't have LRT unlocked, so they didn't have all of Atlas Park. So I went through all the toons in succession, without using the minimap. Got all 8 badges as well as the 7 plaques (for 6 different History badges) in under 5 minutes each. It earned them a bit of Inf directly from the badges. As well as 5 Reward Merits each. Which I can exchange for Enhancement Converters and sell on the Auction House for Inf. Which is what is intended for players to do to finance improving their toons. It's the best way to do so (although at times, Enhancement Unslotters have a better return, but Converters will always sell for a good price).

As I mentioned above, I'm working on a Badge popmenu. They work by using the internal badge names in the popmenu file structure. As far as I know, the same can't be done for Souvenirs at least at this moment. I'll make a note and ask about it. However, I think most (all?) Souvenirs are from arcs or important single missions in Ouroboros's Flashback system. Try taking a look at the listing in a Pillar of Ice and Flame. If the arc or important single mission is in gold type, you should have the Souvenir from it, if any.

I've been working on a larger popmenu involving badges for the last while, so I decided to add a few features to yours, @AboveTheChemist. EDIT2: 20201128a version now. Changed internal name to "FastTravelAreas" to be independent of the stock "FastTravel". It also means I can put the version in the filename. EDIT3: 20201128b version now. Thanks again to information from @AboveTheChemist, I added Icons to the rest of the Zones. FastTravelAreas.20201128b.mnu Put the file in: <Homecoming install root>/data/texts/English/Menus/ and use a macro like this, with the mouse moved towards the upper left to leave space for the menus. /macro FTA "popmenu FastTravelAreas" I used LockedOption instead of Title on "LRT Available Zones" with the internal badge name of "Passport", so they are greyed out if the toon doesn't have the LRT power yet. Then I added the badges by zone groups, first Pocket D all by itself (with the old Pocket D power icon), then a submenu for Paragon City, Shadow Shard, Rogue Isles, and Praetoria, all zones in the same order as the LRT listing uses itself.

Oh, damn, that's jinxed it for sure. Places your bets, people, place your bets. Whoever chose "Plague of Locusts Devour Kansas", do remember that 2020 may trump the locust being extinct in North America, it has a harder time warming up a cold season. May I suggest either "Plague of Locusts Devour California" or "Fimbulvetr", both still open. I like the colours too. And the British have a slightly different Fall tradition. I find that processed turkey in a can has better taste than similar chicken. Perhaps they grind up the entire bird for both? Ah yes, nothing like celebrating entrapping a bunch of slightly traitorous discontents with an impossible scheme and then executing them in the finest of the early 17th Century's brutal ways. But a fair number of traditions' origins have their downsides. More seriously, my mum grew up in Devon. Even well into her dementia before she passed, one November 5th I said to her "Do you know what day it is, mum? Remember, remember...." and her face just lite up and she said "Guy Fawkes Day!" 🙂

I had to use a higher-level toon and then a Pillar of Ice and Flame to set the mission arc as a Flashback. But then I can touch the Pillar to teleport to the contact. FBSA NetOps Agent Watkins is in NW Steel Canyon just SW of the lake by a black van with lots of antennas and a whole big pile of boxes all around him.

@Jimmy, when the colour scheme is settled for the best performance including for those colourblind, could it also be used on the other zone popups, for the PTA tram, the Rogue Isles Ferry, the Rogue Isles Black Helicopters, and the Praetorian CTA, but especially for the the Free Fire Zone PvP Helicopters, Smuggler's Submarine, TUNNEL, Ouroboros. and Base Teleporters, as those last ones have multiple destinations in more than one of the groupings. Which means another colour is needed for the PvP Zones.

That's great! Step 2 is actually a bit more complex, as the Midnight Mansion in Night Ward in Praetoria doesn't have the portal to Cimerora, only the Midnighter Club back passages on Primal Earth. And players may not be familiar with the best routes to the Midnighter Club. So, in greater detail: Step 1: Take the TUNNEL system in Atlas Park (at the PTA tram) or Mercy Island (at the docks), or a SG Base teleporter to Night Ward. Enter the Midnight Mansion. Get the "Midnight Squad" Accomplishment Badge, to be able to enter the Midnighter Club. Step 2: Get to a Midnighter Club at a University. Easiest via SG Base teleporter to either Founders' Falls, Croatoa, or Cap Au Diable, as all have a SG portal on the University grounds. Via TUNNEL redside is easy, go to Cap Au Diable, the exit is at the North Docks just south of the University. Via TUNNEL blueside is more complex. Best is likely via TUNNEL to Founders' Falls, then west into the river. Swim in the centre of the river north until you get to the docks just at the SE corner of the University. Then go west tight against the wall until you come to the doors, which go directly into the Midnighter Club. Step 3: Go up the stairs to the back door into the back passages that connect all 4 Midnighter Club front rooms. At the T intersection is the special Pillar of Ice and Flame. Touch it to be sent to Cimerora, which will award the "Entrusted With the Secret" Ouroboros Badge and the Ouroboros Portal power. Step 4: Returning from Cimerora is quickest via Ouroboros. Use the portal power to go there. If adventurous, go to the top of the spire to get the Exploration Badge there. Then back to either Atlas Park (by City Hall) or Cap Au Diable (by the North Docks).

I often used the Steel Canyon Base teleport exit too. I've now switch to Talos Island (which I use as my blueside Ouro exit) as the Base portal is even closer to its PTA Station. Similarly, for the University or the Midnighter Club, Founders' Falls or Croatoa blueside, Cap Au Diable redside.

Oh, @Bopper, there's a bug in the current Mids I've noticed that I should report. When the option: Options>Configuration...>Options window>Updates & Paths tab>Load last build on startup is turned off, when Mids is associated with its files, *.mxd, and I open a saved Mids file, it starts the program, sets the window title, and remembers the path to save to. But it actually doesn't load the file.

I think we can all agree that there's now quite a bit of knowledge new players need to learn to play City of Heroes even middlin'ly well. And that they should be able to get more of that knowledge in the default game as opposed to going outside of it. There's a Tip system being developed to help guide players through a Zone's Badges, but there's so much more. The existing tutorials, Outbreak/Breakout/Destroyed Galaxy City, as well as the initial mission arcs, like the Shooting Stars arcs, do cover some things, but I think they don't quite cover enough. And I don't think they're advertised as a tutorial either. That's important because they aren't required content, so they should have some indication But vital things are not covered. There's no mention of Reward Merits, except briefly when a toon earns them, same as the first Invention Salvage drop and the first time logging in at a Day Job location. I think the Shooting Stars missions cover the Auction House in passing, but it may not be enough. Taking a look at the current tutorial system and improving that is something that needs a greater priority. A new player who's never played or heard of City of Heroes should be offered a good way to get that basic knowledge that will help them play well and better enjoy the game.

I think that's not a good option. It trivializes the Ouro Portal a bit too much, not to mention would overload its menu. It is a knife-edge judgement though, but I think there are better options that should be investigated.

But @Bionic_Flea, you actually posted 15 times yesterday. You got caught in a time loop. Several times. @Jimmy was being nice about it. Friends don't let friends abuse temporal mechanics.

OH NOES!?! @Bionic_Flea is caught in a time loop!!! Again!!! Yes please, all-black jet pack. And all-red. Because red ones go fasta! Tutorials are definitely something that needs to be worked on. At least the original Outbreak/Breakout tutorials taught the player about the game system core that's been there since the start. The new Galaxy City Destruction tutorial didn't quite do as good a job there, but did add in a bit about the alignment system. And the initial Atlas Park arcs were also an extended tutorial as well. Now there's the new Tip system under development so players can be led around a zone to find its Badges. Good, but more should be done. There needs to be a system that instructs a brand new player, who's never played or heard of City of Heroes, the basics about how to get along in the game. And if there are things that the devs are assuming players will know--like to convert their Reward Merits to Salvage and sell them on the Auction House to get more Inf to pay for everything including low level SOs (which was told in the Enhancement Focused Feedback topic)--then those things have to be taught in the extended tutorial. Any organization is always losing people, even if only from them passing away. Don't recruit, don't teach those recruits the ropes, in the long run the organization will fail.

I believe you are right. The Healing powers that need to hit, Kinetics Transfusion and Dark Miasma/Darkness Affinity's Twilight Grasp are stronger Heals. I'm not sure of the original motivation to make them stronger, but it may be because they had to slot for Accuracy as well as everything else auto-hit Heals had to slot for. Transfusion could also slot for Endurance Modification (to buff its -End effect) and Twilight Grasp could slot for ToHit Debuff enhancement.

Oh, do I remember that. Getting Perez Park missions where the mobs on the way were worse than in the mission. In Steel or Skyway at level 10 and getting a mission at the far end. And running down the exact centre of roads in the City zones as well as dodging the mobs on the street. There's a reason why I go for full stealth on all my toons. By level 20 at the latest.

That's a very good point. Though technically it doesn't go on cooldown until you zone after invoking the power (which is what the red ring around the power means). You can see which Accolade Badges are for Exploration by their sideways spikey look, with the centre gem Blue in Paragon City, Red in the Rogue Isles, Yellow in Praetoria, a special Hazard Gates icon for Hazard Zones. And every one of them when earned has a label that says which zone they are for. It could be improved though. Take a look here to see what I mean. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Hero_Accolade_Badges https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Villain_Accolade_Badges https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Praetorian_Accolade_Badges

Perhaps it should have been turned off for general use last year. But /enterbasefrompasscode hasn't been removed with i27p1. It's been restricted. Need to be within 45ft of a Base Portal, including the summoned portals. Or invoked the 5 powers (LRT, Base Transporter, Day Job temp Monitor Duty Teleporter, Supergroup Portal, Day Job Accolade temp Rapid Response Portal), don't select, but use a /ebfp command. Or be inside a base, where it can be used continually.

When I brought this up in another topic, a dev said it was expected that players would take their Reward Merits and make the best use of them to improve their toons. As I've known for a long time, the best use of Merits is buying the best Salvage to sell on the Auction House to get Influence to then buy everything the toon needs. Not anything else. (The next step after getting enough Inf is to buy the Super Packs to get the stuff you want out of them and sell the rest, but that's a ways off for now.) Getting the Atlas Exploration Accolade is the quickest way to unlock Long Range Teleporter. It also pays 5 Merits. That's about a million Inf from it alone. There's current development on making a sequence of Tips to guide you through the Badges in a zone, eventually for all of them. Every Zone, all 8 Badges is another 5 Merits which can become another million Inf. Merits come from Exploration Accolades, completed mission arcs, Task Forces, and Trials. The first Weekly Strike Target (WST, at least 2 Task Forces/Trial a week, not iTrial, at least one 1 Blueside, 1 Redside) completed pays out double Merits. Some of these numbers have changed, but look here: https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Task_Force https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Strike_Force The second Task Force Blueside, Synapse, pays out 58 Merits. Plus another 3 for taking down Babbage near the end of the Task Force. Even at 70,000 Inf average per Converter (I've sold them for more and bought them for less), that's 12.8 million Inf from one Task Force. Plus whatever you get for Inf rewards from defeating mobs and mission rewards as well as selling loot drops. The best consistent source of Influence from just playing the game is a level 50 toon. They make millions of Inf directly on every play session. Plus everything else. Not a farmer. Any level 50 toon. Pick the toon you like the most and start having fun on the road to 50. When you start an arc, finish it to get the Merits. More of the WSTs will be accessible for their doubled payout. And my 32 million Inf purchase of starting Prestige Powers is pure luxury (I've got 16 toons so far and over 2000 million Inf). Even a few million or so will get most of them. 2 Powers alone are 10 million each (Team Transporter, Supergroup Portal). I'm testing this on toons that only bankroll themselves. And some of my bankrolled toons haven't used any of their earned Merits. I've got a level 20 toon with 59 Merits. That's over 12 million Inf worth for a toon I've barely played, likely 16 million if I wait for the price of the Salvage to shift up. He's got both Posi Task Forces (26 Merits) and 5 Exploration Accolades (25 Merits), so that's another 8 Merits from 2 or 3 mission arcs.

But in all things moderation (even moderation sometimes 🙂 ). Going too far, drawing out the argument too long, that often hurts you position.

Decades ago, in a magazine about board wargames, there was an article that refuted that argument. Back then it was about mailing surveys. Which several companies did, one quite frequently, to help gauge how well some of their ideas would sell if developed into a product. The problem was the survey responses were in no way truly representative of the player base. They were at most a small non-random fraction of the player base, self-selected to those that really wanted to be heard. Even with written-in addenda to the multiple choice surveys, they were less helpful than first thought and could often hurt if followed too closely without further judgement on the choices. Some very bad games that didn't sell at all came from that. Now it's game forums. Still for every game, a small non-random fraction of the player base, self-selected to those that really want to be heard. Still not likely to be representative of the player base as a whole. The devs know this. They have the stats for how many accounts, how many toons, how many posts how often. Just depending on a volume of posts saying that's crap, politely or otherwise, isn't going to work with anyone who's been to a few of these rodeos. You have to support what you say with a proper argument. Understanding what and why the devs did what they did what they did. Making a respectful argument showing its issues. Proposing other workable solutions that fits within the constrains that can only be moved a little or sometimes not at all. Making your point and not repeating yourself excessively. That is the way. It's how several of i27p1 changes were improved over the open beta. It's how things will continue to improve. And maybe even reconsider some things.

It's not an obstacle, it's a cost. ("Held up, minefield. Wait, out." is an obstacle. Especially if buddy is now a smoking wreck.) The cost is there to make sure the use has a cost versus benefit balance, as @Glacier Peak points out. That the use isn't completely frictionless and doesn't have whole sections of the game devolve as what happened with unrestricted /ebfp. I have to get Inspirations, Salvage, craft Enhancements, use Converters, etc. So all that has a cost versus benefit balance, risk versus reward. Or I could demand that Null the Gull actually get a setting to make me more powerful. Without cost. Without limit. Without being frozen in gull form. Interesting idea to consider. Thanks for posting, @therealtitanman.

There's something under consideration that may help you out. It's buried in the first post of this topic, so it's easy to miss (and I don't know how I didn't miss it either). You may want to get involved so you can champion it in a way that helps it works the way you want it to. I don't think you'll get a recreation of the free general case /ebfp command, but you could come close. Think of Enhancement Converters. I can easily burn through hundreds in a single session of converting enhancements. Something similar on a lower scale for Base Teleportation shouldn't be that expensive.

That should already be possible. Outside of a base, the 5 powers allow use of the /enterbasefrompasscode to get into a base. What I forgot to mention is that inside a base, you can jump to another base with /enterbasefrompasscode directly. Just tested it with 2 macros in my Custom Window. Bounced back and forth between Bases until I was dizzy. 🙂 Ah, Custom Window. A feature in City that's been around for a while. Rediscovered it a few weeks ago. I made this post last week that covers it in some detail in the last half. The same file is automatically shared on all your toons. Reduced to the little grey box, it's very unobtrusive. The only issue is you should leave the Custom Window, whether expanded or the little grey box, in the upper left of your UI. The darn thing will jump around a bit, but at least it will roughly stay in the upper left. (Need to make a bug post about that.) I don't think it's suitable for combat use, but for a bunch of Base /ebfp macros, it's perfect.

Interesting thoughts, @Blackbird71. I wanted things both ways. both the repurposed LRT power as well as the classic Pocket D teleport. With its arrival point in the Pocket D Tiki Lounge moved so as not to disturb the floor show. What we have now is better than a low recharge Base teleport power. LRT takes you to a zone in one jump, near the base portal so you can go in for restock or carry on elsewhere in the zone. Teleport to a base, you have to go to the porters there to get to another zone. But that's still possible, with 4 other powers. And all 5 powers can be used to get access to the current /enterbasefrompasscode.

And exploits like the early farming in Perez Park, when mobs could clip into themselves, there was no aggro cap, and Tankers dragged a good chunk of all the mobs in the whole zone to the trash cans so Blasters waiting there could defeat the whole lot. That was fixed, with aggro caps and making mobs have a collision surface to prevent them from packing too close together. Funny thing, that collision surface of mobs, restricting them from clumping too close, could be a long standing cause of melee AoE powers underperforming, even now. Fixes can have unintended consequences. And all those quotes that everyone are giving are basically the devs talking about the same issue: giving a GM command to all players all the time without restriction, without limit, without cooldown, is open to exploitation in all sorts of ways, in all sorts of places, in all of the game. Drawing attention to specifics like PvP and trying to blame PvP for a necessary fix for something impacting all the game is unfair. I think a lot of the devs and GMs were just tired too, a big set of changes that they've been working on for near half a year or more. Some feedback topics still helped make some of the changes much better. Especially the Travel changes; just go back and look at the beta original mid-October change notes to see how far they improved. About as often as @Bionic_Flea says "But @Jimmy....". 😄 I've actually made a Katana/Regen Scrapper just to see how bad it can be. Katana 'cause at least getting good defense should be "easy". 🙂 Though now I'm thinking Dark Melee/Regen...damnit @Troo, you've got me altitis acting up. Anyhoo, someday Regen will have a pass through the revision process and will shine a bit brighter again.