RikOz

I know this will never happen unless the game resumes formal, honest-to-goodness new development, and even then I'm not sure it's even possible, but I think it's a fun idea. "Secret Identity Mode" Basically a roleplaying function where a special, specific costume slot is tied to the character's "secret identity". Only "civilian" costume parts would be available. That is, only those costume parts that could be reasonably considered "street clothes" or "work clothes", so none of the more outlandish tights, no armor, no robotic parts (I mean, a battle robot isn't exactly going to have a secret identity to begin with), and no weapons/shields. Since it's a separate "mode", it would be accessed via a menu command or perhaps a special toggle power that turns "secret identity mode" on/off. Turning on your secret identity would automatically switch you into your civilian street clothes "costume", and - this is the key part - disables your powers. In their place, you would gain full access to the Fighting pool powers. The key feature of this mode would be that, while in your "secret identity", you would be able to freely move about the city without being instantly recognized and attacked by most villain groups. Basically, you would be treated like a normal NPC citizen. You might get mugged by Hellions or whomever, in which case you could choose to switch to your superhero/villain identity, which for RP purposes would blow your secret ID, particularly since the heroes at least don't "kill" the bad guys. This could be represented by temporarily being unable to turn "Secret Identity Mode" back on for a period of time. Alternatively, you could remain in Secret ID mode and defend yourself with your Fighting pool skills, or you could simply run away. You'd still be faster, stronger, and tougher than most street punks, but level differences would still apply. Even so, these "muggings" would be relatively rare. This idea is based on some of the "immersion" issues I've had with MMOs over the years, that are not easily solved without a "special" mode. For example, in World of Warcraft, NPCs frequently address you by the name of your class, even when they have just met you for the first time and have not seen you "in action". Unless your character is equipped with class-specific armor sets (like those obtained from raids or PvP), there is really no way to immediately distinguish, visually, between, say, a Retribution Paladin and an Arms Warrior. Both wear plate armor and wield a 2-handed weapon. Both specs are offered the exact same quest rewards, and can equip exactly the same gear from random drops. So while leveling, at least, there is no visual distinction. The same applies to the visual difference between a priest and a mage. And then there is the fact that "friendly" NPCs can see right through a rogue's stealth. I found it extremely immersion-breaking the time my human rogue stealthed into a shop in Stormwind City, the human capitol, and the shopkeeper immediately yelled out, "Welcome, rogue!" I was all, "SHHHHHH! Keep it down!" And if you're a serious RPer who removes all armor and puts on generic civilian clothing while RPing in a city or otherwise not engaging in combat/adventuring, there's now no visual way somebody could identify your class, regardless of what kind of armor and weapons you normally use. Still, everybody knows anyway. Anyway, I know this will probably never happen, but it's fun to speculate.

I've found a few fires marked on my SC map, but I didn't investigate to see if they were actually there. (I was on my fire/fire blaster, didn't think she'd be much help ;D ) I've gotten the notification about the Paladin in KR, but haven't been able to find him. Found the Shining Stars standing around doing nothing, but no Paladin.

LOL, I meant to come here and accidentally clicked my ParagonWiki bookmark instead, and it wouldn't load. Then I came here and immediately saw this thread. I just bookmarked PW yesterday, so it was working then.

I've used those buttons (though I literally cannot read whatever is on them and have to click them to see what they do), and I've also used the popup menu to select a channel other than "Local". Nevertheless, as soon as I say anything, it switches to "Local". SuperGroup chat seems to be an exception.

Yup, this has worked for me the last couple times. Hit the tram and "travel" from, say, AP 4 to AP 5. Problem solved.

Also unfortunately, despite how realistic those jeans look (they were added as part of the "club wear" options, along with the metallic dress, IIRC) they somehow manage to completely flatten out the character's butt.

Update with some new information, since using PrintScreen (or, honestly, any keybind I set to take a screenshot in Options) is still crashing my client. Digging into the CoH folder, I discovered that the Screenshots folder is flagged "Read Only". I see how this could be causing a problem with trying to save a screenshot, and possibly contributing to the crashes. I unflagged it, but it keeps automatically reflagging itself as soon as I close the Properties window. Thus, I suspect some property of the parent window? Indeed, the CoH folder itself is flagged Read Only. I unflagged that folder, and applied it to all subfolders. But it does the same thing - reflags to Read Only once I close the Properties window. I'm still fairly new to Windows 10, having been a Mac user for 22 years prior to buying this Windows 10 gaming PC (from CyberpowerPC) a bit over a year ago. So I'm not sure what is causing this Read Only reflagging. Could it be my antivirus doing it? I use Avast.

Back in the old days I created a team of female heroes, and called them "Solar Angels". One heroine based upon each planet in our solar system, plus the moon and other assorted celestial objects that inhabit our system. Girl Mercury, Venus Lass, Erdmadchen, Ms. Mars, Fille de Jupiter, Saturn Signal, Princesa de Urana, Neptuna, Notta Planet, etc. They all gained their powers via amazing SCIENCE! And the brilliant scientist who developed the serum that empowers them was an unassuming, middle-aged woman named Dr. Frances Solana: Of course, Dr. Solana tested the serum on herself first, before administering it to her young volunteers. When she imbibes the concentrated liquid science, she grows to a height of seven feet and wields the power of Old Sol himself (that is, she becomes a Radiation Blast/Fiery Aura Sentinel), and is known as ... MOTHER SUN!

But doesn't explain why it keeps switching me to "Local" after I select something else.

I'm getting confused. I see constant chatter in "Looking For Group" and "Help", but I can't figure out what is considered "General" chat channel. Sometimes I want to say something that is neither LFG nor asking for/offering Help, and I'm having no luck. In the input box, I select something like "Broadcast" (which sounds like the closest thing to "General Chat"), and type whatever it is I want to say. Then when I press Enter, my words appear in a bubble over my head, and in the chat window my message has changed from "Broadcast" to "Local", so I can't tell if anybody who wasn't standing right next to me "heard" what I said. I see other peoples' messages labeled "Broadcast", so I'm not sure why mine keep getting changed to "Local". The same thing happens when I try "Global". What's going on here?

I'm starting to suspect that something is "off" with regard to The Lost spawning in Kings Row. I've gotten a mission to hunt Lost on a few different characters now, and I'm having a really difficult time finding any. I've repeatedly visited a location where I clearly remember being able to dependably find Lost when I played in 2011-12 - it's the area around a particular skyscraper up towards the northwest corner of KR, near the entrance to the next zone (I want to say Skyway, but I'm not looking at a map right now). I've looked there during both day and night cycles, and there is never anybody there but Skulls, Skulls, and more Skulls. In fact, the whole zone is practically nothing but Skulls, with an occasional Clockwork spawn, and Circle of Thorns on the rooftops. It's possible I'm actually visiting the wrong building - there are identical buildings elsewhere - but I'm just not seeing many Lost at all these days. Is it possible that i25 inadvertently nerfed Lost spawns?

It actually seemed to me that it wasn't a matter of the spawns not keeping up with so many people killing them. At one point I went to a spot where I know for a fact that three separate groups of five Hellions typically spawn for that mission. I just stood there in the one spot for a good 10 minutes, and not a single Hellion spawned. If I encountered this in WoW, I'd assume it was a "phasing issue". I don't know the mechanics behind whatever CoX's version of "phasing" is (I'm pretty sure that these particular mobs only appear to people who have the mission, and that the area remains Hellion-free after completing the missions), but this feels like something similar.

Posting here because this doesn't seem like a "bug" per se. Yesterday afternoon or evening, I ran into an issue where I couldn't find Hellions to defeat in Atlas Park. Specifically, I couldn't find them for the very first mission from Matthew Habashy. Considering that this is likely the very first mission a new player is going to receive upon entering AP for the first time, this could leave a bad taste. If I'm on a Magic-origin character, I'll usually grab the first mission from Azuria at MAGI as well, which is also to beat up 5 Hellions, as I can complete both missions simultaneously. However, while any Hellion in AP counts for Azuria's mission, only the Hellions in a very specific area count for Habashy's mission, and they just weren't spawning there at all. I saw a good number of other characters circling around and around the area, the same characters for quite a long time, so I'm guessing other people weren't finding Hellions either. It wasn't just the mission location, either - There were no Hellions standing around or mugging people in the parking lots and lawns around Atlas Plaza. The Hellion lieutenants assaulting people at the part in the next block for the second mission in the arc were also very scarce. Logging my character out and back in again eventually solved the problem, but I'm wondering if the problem was the result of the sheer number of player characters in AP yesterday overwhelming the server to the point that it was having trouble spawning mission mobs.

It might not be your computer. I think there was general weirdness going on over the weekend due to the US holiday allowing more people to play. I was dealing with frequent disconnects myself yesterday.

i feel you. After lvl 3 I just ignore levelling until contacts send me to KR and I can level up there (and oh the sweet sweet silence of the AE in KR, no goddam spines and hot feet driving me up the wall) MCM imagine being this afraid of other people existing Eh, I work in an environment where there are often too many people in too small a space, and the noise and chaos really gets to me after a while (I suspect undiagnosed social-anxiety or Asperger's, which just seems to get worse as I get older), and so I play almost entirely solo in MMO's because I get at least the illusion of wide-open space and peace & quiet and solitude, and only having to deal with crowds and noise on my own terms.

This is simple, but it's my first try at recreating a real-life person. This is my attempt at Tatiana Shmailyuk, the singer for Ukrainian metal band "Jinjer". Unfortunately, there are no skirts like the one she's been wearing on stage lately, so this was the closest I could get. Sonic/Darkness blaster.

I have a lowbie Ill/FF controller, and holy cow is she a challenge to play, at least at low levels, and solo. At level 7 she only has three "offensive" powers - Spectral Wounds, uh, the "flashbulb" thing, and Confuse. On her FF side, she only has the first power, (Force Bubble?), which is mostly useless solo because she can't attack while it's up. And the next FF power she'll have available cannot be used on herself. So she ended up doing the Shining Stars arc up through the "Save Manticore" mission, and wow, did I have to get creative. Largely because all those "Arachnos" lieutenants are largely immune to anything except direct damage. Well, not techinically immune, but good luck landing any kind of immobilization on mobs that con +1 or +2 levels higher than you.

The only problem I've had with escorts was while I was on my Stalker. I forgot that Hide also hides me from friendlies, so I'd take a few steps and the NPC would promptly lose track of me.

I just wish all the DFB/DiB LFG spammers would stand someplace else other than all clustered around Ms. Liberty. I've found myself running all the way to Back Alley Brawler to train levels a few times just to avoid having to fight my way through that crowd.

Just out of curiosity, what factors determine whether Detective Becktrees or Detective Frietag becomes our hero's police contact in Kings Row? As far as I've been able to determine, there is no functional/gameplay difference between these two NPC - both hand out the police radio, and whichever one gave you the radio, that's the guy you talk to when you get a Safeguard mission. I can't recall any specific contact sending me to talk to either of them - their yellow markers just show up when I first travel to Kings Row.

Thanks! My coworkers got a kick out of it when I showed them ;D

I'm going through this with my fire/fire blaster right now. She's a recreation of my "main" that I had before the shutdown in 2012, and she was the only character I got to level 50. Very, very fragile at low levels. I'm still only to level 13, so I die frequently. But I remember that, at higher levels, once I have more abilities and more power, most enemies are going to melt under my attacks long before they can harm me. I just need to be patient. Also, I'm playing entirely solo, not doing group content.

This is my newest character, "Savior Machine". I wanted to call him "Iron Savior", as I am a fan of that band and the science fiction story that is told over the course of their albums. Alas, it seems there was already another Iron Savior. So I went with "Iron Saviour" before deciding that was cheesy and went with Savior Machine. One of the band's songs is sung from the point of view of the inventor of the Iron Savior, and he calls it, "savior machine, creation of mine". And as that song is called, "Titans of Our Time", so my character uses the "Titan Weapons" powerset. I'm a professional cook IRL, so I created an "evil chef" supervillain. He cooks everything in the microwave (Radiation Blast PS) and fails to observe proper food safety practices (Poison PS). His name is "Recipe for Disaster":

Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I ran into this exact issue myself, except it was on a followup mission - the one where you go after Chernobog's brother, Veles. I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the mission, but it's the final one in the arc. Veles set the place on fire, I couldn't find him anywhere, and the other mobs were unresponsive/non-hostile. I was doing the mission solo, not on a team. I ended up leaving the building and then came back and tried again the next day. Veles appeared on this second attempt. However, the way he appeared made me wonder if he was actually there the first time: he attacked me from behind after I was already deep inside the burning room. It almost looked as though he follows a fixed path toward the exit once you enter the room, and if you (the player) just charge off in an unexpected direction, you and Veles simply miss each other and he has to circle back to come after you.

Aye, thanks! I guess I must have had shadows turned way down back in 2011/12 so that I wasn't even seeing this. It's something I definitely would have noticed back then.