Andreah

I like to hit the softcap, when I can, or go a little above it, since it's more a guideline than a rule. If the cost isn't too high in other ways, I'l significantly overachieve it, since enemies have tricks to play too, and you'll get hit a lot more often than you expect if you believe "The Legend". If possible, getting complementary resistances or ability to heal/regen can be more valuable that getting a few more defense points to match the technical softcap. I find in regular content that being reasonably solid protection-wise is a big help to feeling like a "Superhero" -- which is key part of what I like about the game. Sure, defeat's not really painful, but "Superheroes" should be hard to defeat! And good soft-cap-ish defenses are an achievable way to be tough like that for most builds.

Upper-Left, with character flaws and errors.

Mechanically, I likely would not. I don't find that particularly interesting. However, in Roleplay, I have thought out several serious weaknesses & deep flaws in my main characters. Basic mechanics can't represent these well, but they add storytelling potential that I would not pass up.

This is the main reason (apart from the character designs, which are a matter of taste) I don't like these stories. It's too much funneling.

Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Twinshot took the lead, With her guns held high, But she shot the ceiling down, And debris filled the sky. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Proton’s clone-tech whirred, From dimensions afar, But he warped himself to France, Now he’s lost in a bar. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Dillo’s hoorb rang out, In the snowy fray, Slipped on icy ground, And rolled into the bay. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Flambeaux flipped her hair, Flames on grand display, But she torched her own costume, And ran screaming away. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Grym sniffed out the foe, With his hound-like flair, But he chased a squirrel instead, Left the team in despair. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away!

Serious reply, I'm not a huge fan of the Shining Stars, but the stories are undeniably well written.

Shining stars? Yes, I remember them. ... they should all be destroyed, or at least shot into the Sun.

LGTF https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ4gRh5Z0vopoz9bzUVPhuA6E6lRezCsYqfy In my main thread with other CoH-related songs:

Black Viper and the Midnight Choir perform a song for The Lady Grey Task Force https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ4gRh5Z0vopoz9bzUVPhuA6E6lRezCsYqfy

A while back, at the same time the 40+ council got their difficult buff, the CoT were buffed a little too. I don't recall the specifics, but I would nto be surprised if there was an autohit power or two in the mix.

I tend to work with a Reward Merit being worth about ~200k. I pick this number because if you convert your merit into converters and are patient, you can sell three of those for about that much. ...Or used to, there's been some deflation going on. It's more likely around 162k/Merit right now, if you're unlading your converters at 60k each and paying the 10% fee. Unslotters sometimes do a little better, Boosters are usually tagged to 15x the price of converters, and are about the same. Random rare salvage and Catalysts are overpriced and IMO, don't work into the value equation for Merits.

They certainly could be roleplay. I was on a static roleplay team of all petless masterminds in Praetoria for a while back on Live. Not only was it great roleplay, but rip-roaring fun, too! We were SO bad! Praetor White was face-palming in embarrassment every time we visited him. :D On the other hand, your static team doesn't have to be roleplay, or even have a theme. All that's needed is that you get together in a "static" manner -- usually the same time, the same people, and the same levels.

AI content can be useful with very careful guidance and bracketing -- the sort of work it takes thoughtful, knowledgeable, and practiced humans to perform effectively. Maybe someday it will be more, but I think a healthy dose of skepticism will carry the day, today.

This game has a very old foundational architecture. I doubt it's even remotely possible for the current volunteer dev team to do any of this.

It will persist, on that character, forever until you change it. If you save your binds at some point to the default, new characters will also get it. Old character won't get it unless you change it deliberately or reload a set of binds which include this onto them.