Robotech_Master

I'm told that Null the Gull can disable them, but I've never been able to figure out how. I couldn't find it under any of his conversation options last time I looked.

I'm given to understand by people who'd have reason to know that even the private server whose leak started the whole thing no longer has access to those original character files. Any new invitees there have to start over from the beginning now, too. My suspicion is that the existence and availability of that file could be a sticking point in any negotiations for the continued future of privately-run public servers--not a lawyer or anything, but I know Europe has some pretty stringent corporate privacy laws, and even if the file doesn't include any personally identifiable information its availability could still very well be legally actionable to the tune of millions of Euros. While I would certainly hope we could regain access to those old toons, I'm not holding my breath. I wouldn't be surprised if the destruction of that file was a necessary precondition to allowing servers like Homecoming to exist going forward. And if that was the case, I'd be disappointed, but I'd gladly give up all those older characters if it meant I could make and keep newer characters going forward. I can make them better with what I know now, anyway. :)

Because we enjoy it. And there doesn't need to be any other reason. Then there's the original poster's answer, too. :)

If you're coming to Gen Con, you might wanna check out my guide to Indianapolis. It's slightly out of date, I need to get around to updating it for things that have changed in the last year or so, but most of the information is still good. http://mybook.to/geekindy You probably know me from my guides to the P2W store and enhancement conversion, but I write guides for real life, too. :)

Really, there's no reason not to rush to 50 anymore, now that you can go back and reexperience any content you like at any time--especially if you're familiar enough with a given character type that you can play it well at 50. Perhaps the better question should by why some people would rather dawdle. :)

All that complication is, to some extent, a relic of the Incarnate system in its original, well, incarnation, as it was on live. Back then, you had to earn Thread-based stuff and Incarnate XP by doing Incarnate Trials, and you didn't get it from regular content. (Except maybe the Alpha slot, I forget.) The Alpha slot was supposed to be easier to unlock, so it had the Shard-based stuff, that could be obtained from doing regular non-Incarnate content (an Ancient Nictus Fragment from the ITF, or Gr'ai Matter bought with Vanguard Merits, for example). Higher slots were of a higher order, and so you had to grind them out using Incarnate trials (which were behind the paywall, not sure if the Alpha stuff was or not). As for the three types of merits, well, there used to be merit vendors for Astral and Empyrean Merits up on Ouroboros. But as part of the SCORE changes, all the stuff they used to sell was rolled into stuff made available for free or elsewhere. So there was nothing left for them to sell, so they were replaced by Luna, who converts between Astrals and Empyreans. Astrals are only good for converting to Threads or Empyreans, Empyreans are only good for converting to Threads, Astrals, or Rare/Very Rare Thread-based components. (So at least that's something.) I expect that completely removing them and revamping the system to make it less complex was more work than the SCORE devs wanted to do. So they just retrofitted stuff so you'd at least have something useful to do with the things that were no longer useful for much of anything else.

I can't say I've ever needed to use a channel to find a DFB myself. I just go into the entrance of the Atlas Park sewer and there they all are.

Well, nearly nothing. You can't get lower-level Safeguard missions through Ouroboros. You have to find someone actually of that level and go along with them if you want to get the exploration badges from those. Actually you can now - if you get the Hero Slater or Villain Disrupter badge you can get a contact who will allow you to go and do them. Yeah...If you grind out enough radio missions to have killed 25 villains. I got some help from lower level players to get the badges I was missing, and only ended up with that badge during the mission that got me my last badge. :P

Have you tried switching the team interface back to classic mode? There's a switch to do that in the options menu.

A couple of times in the last few days, I've been on Safeguard missions with maps that were out of kilter—my position as displayed on them was significantly displaced from where I was in the instance. I'd be at the corner of the war walls, but the map would still show me in the middle of the zone. Made it hard to locate where badges and side quests and such were. (They were the Atlas and Founders Falls safeguard maps.)

All you need in Stamina is an Attuned Performance Shifter EndMod, an Attuned Performance shifter Endurance Proc, and a boosted 50+5 common EndMod IO. Boom, you're done.

Note that you don't necessarily have to use all Shards all the way. I typically use Shard-based stuff up to Tier 3 (twice, given that making Tier 4 requires you to have built two Tier 3s), assuming that I got a Notice of the Well from the Weekly Strike Target and the power has a Tier 3 option that uses one of those. But crafting a Very Rare shard-based component is ridiculously complex, requiring two Rare components and a bunch of extra shards. There's just no point in fiddling with that when you can get a Very Rare Thread-based component with 30 Empyrean merits, if you didn't already earn one from an Incarnate Trial.

Note that your listed level caps on the Abandoned Sewers Trial and Eden Trial are incorrect. They were capped at those numbers on live, but on Homecoming, both trials cap out at 50, meaning that Incarnate players have their +1 level shift and Incarnate powers fully available.

Certainly some good options for earning money at the low end. I might even drop a link to this guide into my own guide on making money through Enhancement conversion. As I point out in that guide, you can also get a decent chunk of money very quickly just by visiting all the badges in Atlas to get 5 Reward Merits, then buying 15 Enhancement Converters at the vendor and listing some on the market (while keeping others to use in making yet more money via conversion).

Well, nearly nothing. You can't get lower-level Safeguard missions through Ouroboros. You have to find someone actually of that level and go along with them if you want to get the exploration badges from those.

90 million in 8 hours is really a poor return on crafting time investment. I could easily make that much putting a half hour into crafting and listing activity, then going away for a few hours. I'm on my way home from work now, looking forward to seeing how much a half hour or so of activity last night before bedtime has brought me. If it's much below 90 million, I'll be very surprised. (Edit: Turns out to have been a hair short of 84 million. And part of that was from selling some ATOs, unslotters, boosters, etc. that I bought from Super Packs, but it's still part and parcel of the same activity.)

Actually, there are several infinite mission givers, including one where you can get Kora Fruit missions. Back before base Inspiration storage came in, those gave you large-sized Inspirations, now they're just middle-sized, but still it's a decent way to stock up.

More than once I've been tempted to turn villain just so I could murder some architects...

Isn't speed boost now a whole-group-at-once buff, like bubbles? So there shouldn't be any need for numpad binds to apply it individually.

Don't really have anything to say about the build advice, but just wanted to note that you can afford purples quite easily if you get into enhancement conversion. :)

If you're well familiar with how the game is played, why not rush to 50? Once you've got all your slots available and your build fully arranged, you can slot out with Attuned sets (and/or Boosted purple sets) and have your character all finished and ready to play through any content in the game. Thanks to Ouroboros, it's not as if you're missing any of that content now. Nearly every bit of earlier content in the game can be replayed that way, with your character better-equipped for it than they would have been when they were at the right level for it thanks to those IO sets and the 5-level Exemplar power differential. About the only thing that can't be done that way are lowbie-zone safeguard missions, but it's usually easy enough to find someone at the right level range to tag along with to get the exploration badges from those. I don't really grind out the levels to 50 myself through farming (well, mostly--I did farm some with my Fire/Fire Brute, but that was more to familiarize myself with how it worked), but running through the complete course of Task Force Commander task forces at 2XP gets me most of the way there in just a few hours. ITFs, Weekly Strikes, Mothership Raids, and radio mission teams get me the rest of the way in a few hours more. And I don't feel bad about that. I'm a more than competent player, so I'm not going to be a burdensome n00b to anyone with what I don't know--and I can always go back and play through earlier arcs at any time.

\ Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I think that they probably could have picked a better name than P2W, given that it seems to confuse just about everyone who encounters the store for the first time. But then, the folks who came up with and named the store in the first place did so in the context of a much smaller community, where pretty much everyone knew each other and there weren't so many n00bs out there to get confused by their sardonic jokes.

Also, bear in mind nothing says that you have to stick with just one. After you've tier-4ed everything, you're still going to keep getting thread drops and Empyrean merits, not to mention a component every time you do an Incarnate Trial. You could build to tier 4 in multiple Interfaces, try them all out, switch between them as the mission warrants, etc.

I was Purramedic on Pinnacle...anybody remember me?

I used to have the character Purramedic on Pinnacle—my first level 50, an Emp/Electric healer. Had various other characters there and on Virtue: Tigerbright, Infurno, Pouncetta, Pouncetta Purrfect. I ran the supergroup ("supurrrgroup") Kitty of Heroes. Anyone remember me? Or my characters? I play on Torchbearer these days, global handle @RobotechMaster. Maybe I'll see you around.