Techwright

Ah, time for my quarterly grumble at the fact that half the missions in Brickstown are behind just two doors in an underground maintenance area. I may have the percentage a bit low.

I tend to like heroes of the pulp, serial movie, and radio genres of the 20s, 30s, and 40s. So my main toons are loosely influenced by them Cmdr Ray Gunn is influenced by the serial sci-fi movies and related comics of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, King of the Rocketmen, etc. Ace Barnstormer is influenced by the Rocketeer and Kato. There is one other with a comic book influence. Lesser Saint rad/rad corruptor was conceptually influenced by Desert Ghost (Xi'an Chi Xan) the little-remembered leader of the X-men 2099. Desert Ghost had the powers of healing and destruction, one in each hand, a parallel to a rad/rad corruptors two power sets.

No crazier than asking for the masks of Hazel & Cha Cha of "The Umbrella Academy".

Now you have me wondering if a copy of the chest symbols could be shrunk and ported to the front of the ballcaps. Would it even need to be a smaller size than the over-the-left-pocket symbols?

Title additions are your friends. I tried to port my #1 guy over to Excelsior only to find ever other server had a "Ray Gunn", the name I used in the original game. Funny, I play all the servers and I've never seen another with that name. Anywho, I actually deepened his backstory slightly by designating him CMDR (old abbreviation for Commander), and I've been off and running ever since. Now thinking of doing it for another of my characters I intend to port. Don't forget the professional titles too. Anyone got dibs on Senator Foghorn for a sonic?

Consider watching the Looking for Group channel for "DFB" a.k.a. "Death From Below". There's usually several per hour running, and with full teams. It's basically an MMO dungeon designed for the new characters to gain experience, and that happens rapidly running it. If you've never done it, tell your teammates. I've generally found the teams to be very helpful to first time runners. Also, listen closely if they talk about doing the badges. There's some precise qualifications, especially for the first one, but if you pay attention, it is not hard. After that (and people do run it repeatedly, sometimes up to the low 20s, though there are diminishing returns after 15 or 16, I believe) Hollows missions are sometimes grouped, and there's definitely DIB, a.k.a. "Drowning in Blood" for the 15+ team-ups. Sometimes people call out for a team to help with the Atlas story missions, so there's that as well. All of these help move you quickly up to level 20 and past the endurance drain challenges of the teen levels. Oh, and welcome back! EDIT: Looks like you posted about knowing the LFG channel right before I posted. Well, hopefully you knew about the DFB as well then. Cheers!

Ah, Magnus Robot Fighter. Dig the Go-Go boots I think, regarding the eye level, that some of it can be negated by the use of the sliders for facial sizing. Centaurians would work well with the Woodsman storyline.

I did a lot of alt-ing, never getting above 30, until I buckled down with just one and said I'd go to 50 with him. Once I got into higher end storylines (portal corp, malta, carnival, etc.) I found enough challenging and interesting, that I wanted to drag all my low alts up to the higher level. Maybe get in good with a team of 7 doing Portal Corp storyline or similar level stuff, and who don't mind a lowby tagging along, and the experience might make you interested to go higher, at least one one character.

1.) Unilateral power color customization. I'd like to be able to have my energy blaster fire a right green bolt and a left purple bolt simultaneously. Or have only one colored and the other no color. Likewise for auras, such as one color per eye, or only one glowing eye. That ought to satisfy the Cable fans out there. 2.) Neck costume option separated from shoulder option, so we can have both. If I want the Mr. T gold neck chains and the justice shoulder pads, it shouldn't be a "choose one". 3.) Texture match: I'd like to be able to select one costume piece and tell the tailor to make other pieces of the uniform match the texture. My Brass Dragon character, for example, is supposed to be encased in an all brass power suit, but the pieces each have a different texture: chrome, brushed metal, dull finish, even some plastic-y looking stuff. The texture also seems to slightly alter the color, even though I pick the same color. I'd like to click on the chrome chestpiece, tell the tailor it is the template, then select boots, shoulders, and gloves to apply the texture to, while ignoring the legs, which already have chrome, and the visor, which I want to have a glass finish.

I tend to like the sci-fi elements, such as the Ritki, and because I'm a fan of 1930's through WWII era stuff like dieselpunk and pulp fiction heroes, I like the Sky Raiders as well (though what I know of their story feels a little light). Malta are cool (though I detest their sappers), and Freakshow are always fun. What I don't gravitate to is magic, most especially the Circle of Thorns. I've stated elsewhere that I feel they were overused. I think my distaste is because I was led to believe, perhaps mistakenly, that the game would develop to maintain a balance between the 5 origin types, and I liked that concept. But I tend to see magic as having been far more developed than the others.

I've been curious about this myself, most especially if a hard number can be had. There are variables, I think, like the "Bug Hunter" badge, which was obtainable in the original game if you submitted documentation of a serious game bug and the devs liked your efforts enough to reward you with the badge. I'm not sure that's still being handed out, but if so, it's extremely rare. There's also the blue/red issue, possibly. While we can cross the line of hero/villainy, I think I'd once heard that there were certain side-specific badges that neutralized other side-specific badges. This was only heard, mind you, so I could be wrong. There may be other total-count variables I've not heard in rumor.

Used to love doing Frostfire back in the original game's run. However, after over 400 confirmed missions (probably closer to 500, though I stopped counting), I'm a tad burned out. I've only done it a couple of times since May. Still, one doesn't run a mission 400+ times if it isn't a lot of fun. I'd often wished in the original run that the devs had come up with a second major Frostfire mission (new Zig escape?) higher up in the rankings, say level 35, and plenty of ice to slide on.

All I could think about when seeing this was...Yeah, Toast! (so sorry...)

Much as I'd love the idea, I'm pretty sure the "growth" part doesn't work with the current engine. If it did, we'd probably have had Atlas as an interactive NPC, if only for a flashback mission to the Fifth Column invasion of Independence Port. I believe the sizing issue came up in old endgame material where targeting (target boxes?) got to be a problem due to the size of a character. Besides, even if you did have a Giant Man, would you really want to fight in the blue cave tunnels using him?

This explains the steady deconstruction of the promising game Firefall after acquisition by The Seven, including a refusal to sell the game back to its creator, and a "promise" that the game would be turned into a mobile game (which was just vaporware to save face). It also explains NCSoft's shutdown of Tabula Rasa, rather than move past its rough points. Restricting existing signature characters might not be a bad thing. It would give opportunity to use the Portal Corp lore to create the game as a parallel Earth where alternative signature heroes, villains, and events arose, perhaps even differences in zones, such as Baumtown.

Sorry for the delayed response. How I missed this for so long I've no idea. I stumbled across it when looking through the older pages for inspiration. Thank you for your kind words. I might have just left a "like" after so long, but the graphics brought a big smile to my face! 😄 Groovy!

From early days of the original game, I kept count of the number of Frostfire teamings I completed covering all my alts and repeats. I stopped counting sometime after 450, but I'm reasonably sure I cleared 500 by quite a bit. It was quite a challenge back then, and often just from the ever-changing PUG dynamic. The ice was always fun.

First, you can do a lot more than I ever could, so kudos to you on your creativity. I'm always interested in finding good superhero themes so, please, keep at it. You're asking for honest opinions, so I will give one. I listened to yours multiple times then went back to listen to what, to me (YMMV), is the current gold standard for COH fan theme scoring: OmniousVoice's "City of Heroes Orchestral: Rise of the Heroes" (see YouTube). I don't know the limitations of the tools you use, but OV's work sounds richer somehow, maybe a little less clipped on notes. I deliberately didn't post it's link because this thread should focus on your work, not his, but perhaps if you listen to it, side by side with yours, my crude attempt to explain will become clear.

I've been researching, asking in-game help, and experimenting, and I still don't have a working solution. I feel I'm missing something obvious. I'm trying to find the way to turn off the visuals of all the healing and damage numbers that appear during combat, especially those done by others. I find in big fights like the Mother Ship Raid, that it just needlessly piles on visual distractions to an already busy field of view. One thing I've tried, at a suggestion from the help chat, was to enable "Hide Buff Numbers" and "Stop Sending All Buffs" on Status Window Buff Display, Group Window Buff Display, and Pet Window Buff Display. I've tried all these, simultaneously, but there was no noticeable different during the next MSR. Can someone direct me to the correct settings?

Any chance your area has a little old tech "junk" shop? We've got such a vendor in a permanent booth at a local flea market. The man buys "old" business equipment, and either refurbishes it to sell for cheap, or cannibalizes it for parts bins. Since manufacturers often like to use the same power brick for multiple models (at least until the wattage is forced to increase), there's every chance a buyer might find a usable replacement for dirt cheap in one of the parts bins. If you find such a place, just be sure to look for nicks in the wiring, and have them test the charger, preferably on another device to protect yours from problems, before selling it to you. Wattage and laptop socket connections (size/shape) tend to be the two things to most consider. There's also an outside chance a charity shop might have what you need. I've a friend who used to be the tech for a well-known charity, and he said they were getting tons of tech coming through the business. And "old" technology may not be so old. Some businesses, like the one I work for, like to unload their equipment as soon as the three year warranty expires, even though the tech is still in good shape.

Yeah, I was really puzzled why it was sending me for instruction to Ms Liberty when I was a level 6 already. A couple of other things I hate about that arc are the pointless dialogs, and the really annoying habit of the characters running up to you and then buzzing around you like pesky bees. The only reason I do the missions is to get the badge for doing all Atlas park story missions.

I don't recall the groups exactly, but I've found a scatter effect pretty useful when the NPCs start showing greater effectiveness when clumped together, like say peeling 25% chunks at a time quickly off the tank, or causing major endurance loss to several of the team. I find it usually better to accept the scatter and use it to heal and regroup your team. Pretty sure the Nems were in that list, like Redlynn mentioned. It's also great when your team is actually overwhelmed, and members start dropping, leaving big holes in your defense. Lastly an AoE or conical knockback is a real joy if you're fighting high up and they've not been noticing that nearby edge that lacks a safety railing. Certainly, they'll find a fire escape staircase and run back up, but the stairs essentially act as a chokepoint, and you'll more easily pick them off one by one.

Good to know. I've not really paid attention to him to this point.

So are you defining "quality" as a lack of "endless patrols and deliveries and defeat alls"? Or is there another defining element?

Ebenezer, is that you? I just want a moon base zone and an airport zone. Where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars! Okay no seriously now (sorry I'm punchy from being up too late), most everyone mentioned a successful NCSoft deal, and I concur. In game, however, I'd love to find out what improvements can be made without having to go to the time and expense of building a new zone. I've no skills in game design, but I'm wondering if they couldn't overhaul the IP zone, for example. There so much real estate already in game that's ripe for redevelopment. Add a third tram station on the middle other side of the zone from the other two. Shuffle the villain clusters around a bit, bring more storylines to that side of the puddle, that sort of thing. Similar overhauls to the hazard zones. give us reasons to go in there again. Find the way to better equalize the xp and rewards system on story missions to encourage people to leave overused scenarios like Death From Below after a first run through and instead do the story missions again as they level. Maybe review some of the story arcs to see if the spread between doors is too awkward, likely prompting a team to switch to radio/paper missions. Done right, this might even encourage players to start in the "gold" side zones again. See if there's a way (hopefully fairly easily) to reward the very best AE story arcs by canonizing them permanently in the game with their own contacts and doors. Not just any stories, only the best. Add a nurse vendor to the Oroboros hospital. QoL stuff like that.