cranebump

I miss running in SG mode to gain currency for my Old SGs. I liked joining groups that had awesome base builders. I liked it when “my SG is calling” actually meant something. It’s all good the way it is now, but I still miss those things.

Agreed. Or, conversely, ignore the builds and have fun (but don’t preach to others that they’re “doing it wrong” just because it seems easier). Reminds me of D&D edition wars. There’s no right way to play. Just try to enjoy it.

Bane Spider Rubens arc, where you lead that massive group of villains into that LB base isn’t simply awesome. It’s epic. You’re definitely not a lackey there. Outside playing that one capstone story mish as Cole/tyrant curb stomping Recluse’s invasion force solo, that’s about as badarse as I’ve ever felt in the game due to a story arc.

Just reread the post. If you want unusual, may I suggest Traps.Psi Def, resistance (crusader) because no one plays that combo...

Staff/Ninjutsu Scrapper, Resistance (Crusader) Staff=AoEs!, has some decent single target damage with sky splitter, a ranged attack with Serpent’s reach, choice of damage types with power ups. Plus, if you miss, you still look cool doing it.:-) Ninjutsu allows some defense, mez protection, run/jump bonus (you can REALLY motor with Shinobi-iri+Ninja Run+Sprint), Endurance recovery with a click (same with heal). It’s sort of a Swiss-Army-knife defense set.

Spam em/slap on them.:-)

I’ll have to try this! Thank you.

My mains are based on characters I’ve crafted for tabletop Superhero RPGs.

I always took Steamroll to mean the same thing as speeding through, though I see now that speed means bypassing and steamrolling doesn’t. Which makes steamrolling something of the default for most mishes. I think I just say you’re running normally, not a kill all, not a speed.

Acrobattle: Staff/ ninj NR with Sprint and secondary quickness/leaping power means he really gets around without a true, dedicated travel power. Plus, the moves look like break dancing Whipsmart: Rad/atomic blaster. Feels almost like running a def Rad/Rad. Acroblade: DB/SR stalkier: soloed mostly. Enjoyed the alpha strike and combos. Gym Beam: BR/SR Sentinel. Cowboy laser! Major Viktory: SJ/WP scrapper. Because CRACK! (I like the animations and sound effects) 🙂

In and of itself, I suppose. As the basis for numerous other languages. It’s pretty much alive and kicking.:-)

There are options to make things harder. For example, when running a TF you could select enemies being buffed, then set to +4/x8. Or a player could opt not to slot everything with set bonuses and IO’s. One can challenge oneself, in other words. I’m doing that by playing “grinder mode.” No P2W, SO enhances only, and so on. The game has a decent default diff mode. Custom enemies in AE can add challenges, if you’re looking for something besides a farm with a maxed out toon. Repeating what others have said, but there are options players can take that don’t require messing with the game itself. And you never know when you can hit a wall. Everything is going great, then, all of a sudden, team wipe, due to various factors. A bit of that is a good reminder. A lot of it leads to player frustration.

Hey, I can hospital right outta that crater.:-)

I remember falling into those holes.

I would, but I'm running a toon in "grinder" mode. Seeing how play would work organically.

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

I'll put this to the test the next time I do Grinder mode in the Hollows.

This thread has me falling into a Malaise, with all the sardonyx comments.

I'm running a toon right now in mostly "old school" mode, thanks to this thread. My main rule is I cannot procure anything that isn't part of system, mission, or TF rewards. So, I got absolutely nothing from P2W, and did not pick up stuff that would've normally been a part of my old account (Pocket D, Minor Jump Packs, Ninja Run, etc.). But I did accept the temp XP anniversary boost that everyone got. Build-wise, I figured I'd be doing some soloing, (maybe a lot, since my travel isn't going to be too rapid. So I went with a Sentinel (not old school, but what ya gonna do) for a bit of survivability. Went with something I wouldn't normally do. Took EB/Energy Aura (I want the KB when I solo). I skipped DFB and went to Davies, since I was a tech hero. Ran his arc, plus part of Nandelu's, plus Jiminez in KR. I led a team through part of the last KR arc, til I hit 8, at which point I had to log off. When I got back, I jumped on Frostfire team, set at +2 (we were spawning reds and purps mostly, and since the leader wasn't running XP boost, it stayed that way almost all mish). Trained a lot, then I got on Pos1 and 2, in succession, with the same leader. Sitting at 19 now, and facing the usual END problems. Likely will do some badge runs for AP and E:GC, then spend some merit to grab stuff I can sell. I figure I'll do some crafting. Then again, I may not, I might just relegate myself to DO's, then SO's, and just do that. What I'm finding, other than the slower pace, is: (1) You really go through a lot of lore that presages things later down the road. For example, when I get introduced to superadine, and hit the lab, it's the same lab used later on by Veles in the Stockwell arc. (2) Also did some things I haven't done at all since reboot. Had a "Kill 20 Skulls" in PP, followed by a door mish there (did this with my lowbie team). (3) You get a lot of time to fiddle with powers, combos, attack chains, all that. If I were a new player (again), it would be a pretty soft landing to get going (esp. if I'd played one of the old tutorials). (4) Fear. Those lowbie zones can be a pain, depending on where you are. We hit PP, looking for Skulls, and there were lots of Reds and Purps. When running mishes without XP boost, you can't consistently depend on leveling mid-mish to make it easier. This was actually a thing in FF (though I wasn't leading). Frostfire actually lasted awhile, since he wasn’t nerfed to nothing by leader levelling. Lead Scorchers were a pain that entire mission. It was the funnest FF run I've had since we came back. At this point, the only thing I am yearning for is Afterburner. I've put it off for other things, but I'm really going to need it to use old school travel. I log the toon out at WW's so I can eventually get market TP. I plan to log out at First Word location that gives you Psychic DR badge (can't remember the name). Planning on getting Bank abilities from Talos on, since I really don't need temps thanks to having flight (which I got early, so I wouldn't have to dodge groups in certain zones.). I'd like Pocket D TP, but I really have no memory of how you get that. When I played live, it was a gifted ability. I also find myself apologizing to teams that I'm using this whole "Grinder" style of play (which is why I'll likely solo many things, outside TF's, and radio teams). On the whole, it's been interesting. The game flies by less, and I'm filing all sorts of mental notes from mishes for my AE scripting.

Man, that is dead on. I forgot about that. I guess this explains why I like to log out at WW for the teleporter. And I do remember the taxi bots.

I have one lvl 50 I started redside, solo, no XP boosts. Ran most mishes on +2. Got to 20, ran tips to move to hero side. I didn’t team with anyone until I hit blue side. Eventually, I broke down and used XP boost for the last 5 bars. i did use base TP, though I collected ouro and bought mish TP. I also gave her a ton of iNf from other chars, so she’s got near 100% attuned enhances. I’m considering running a toon without XP boost, and not giving them any INF from alts. No SG base for crafting. Similar topic: I’ve seen a lot more calls for Hollows recently. I also ran KR story and bank mishes a couple times. Maybe I’ll make a rule to get all the bank mishes as I trundle through zones. I still recall how nice it was to get raptor and zero-g in Kings, and you could get them both before you reached 14, so you could wait on travel if you wanted.

I’m sure this originally developed as a way to get players to tour the zones. With the whole cosmic TP, it really isn’t a thing. Sometimes it’s good to have a short break, I would think.

Cranebump presents: "Data Games" [ID: 26757] "Section-41" is an "off-the-books" organization dedicated to protecting Paragon City, "by any means necessary." This includes stepping way over the line, working with entities like the 5th column and Doc Vahz himself. Now, they've taken one of PPD's finest hostage. You're going to get her back. Overview: *Contact: Juliana Nehring *Morality: Neutral *4 missions (3 small maps, 1 medium; the first 3 missions are all pretty short. Last mish is timed, 60 minutes, but I completed it in about 25 mins, on average, during test runs) *Featured Groups: Freakshow, Wyvern, Section-41 (custom group from Friends & Lovers, with some added bosses), and first appearance of a new group "Omnibus." *Featured individuals: Fareed Abdullah and Exarch Industries; Sting Agent Rash; Hellbeast and "Bot;" Meg Mason; Super Hacker Jeri McKitnick (whose name is a smashup of two noteworthy hackers). *Titles feature a "pie" motif (everyone likes pie). Thanks in advance, Crane

It’s tricky to get things just right. Been running tests as I design latest arc. First mish ended up placing an ally (whom I had to switch from escort in order to make subsequent spawns work) who has appeared at the same place in every run since my second edit of the mish. Mish has two glories that drop clues. Wanted the second glowie to spawn a flood of adversaries (who are after the same data) in middle and front to seize control of the facility, so that fighting back to the door actually held some danger. Ended up spawning the max level of patrols I could, but, as the map is so small, they spawn on floors 1 and 2, rather than just on the lower level. I’d like to throw in an ambush trigger, but my event chain is too small to keep it from being circular. So I settled for the patrol spawns, giving one of them some dialogue indicating arrival. The cool thing is that the facility has wandering friendlies (“lab techs”) who take on the invaders, so it’s something like several battle spawns. And not all the friendlies fight, which has this effect of people running for cover while some duke it out. All in all, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for or, but it’s close, which, with AE is usually goood enough.

Haven’t tried this yet. I am currently testing a mish where I wanted 3 members of a villain team to spawn together. I designed them as 1 boss and 2 LTs, made one of their sets “hard,” the other pretty sparse. In the test run, they spawned as 3 LTs and just kicked my rear. The grav boss slapped a mez on me, while the pay assault and savage melee took me down. It was brutal. My initial attack nearly dropped 1 of them, and significantly damaged them all (was running DP baster who has a few toggle defenses). Had no breakfrees though, so that was that. The arc capped at 25, and I was running a L27, exemplared. i don’t know that you can get 3 AVs, but you can make lower levels tough by selecting higher levels on their power, say a Boss or LT with Extreme setting to primary and secondary. That might allow the spawn, though it wouldn’t be a true AV.