Rathulfr

I don't mind running the cape and aura missions once. Or even once per shard. But when I've got 10-20 alts per shard, it gets real old, real fast.

Not to be confused with the P.L.O.T. device The Phased Linear Oscillation Transducer is a miraculous device, capable of producing such a variety of effects that many find it simply unbelievable. However, overusing a P.L.O.T. device can have serious consequences, and the more egregious uses can strain the very fabric of reality. P.L.O.T devices have fallen out of favor overall, but many a young and reckless pioneer has picked up a well-used P.L.O.T. device and run with it.

Dammit! Now I gotta make another alt. (edit:) Magic Nipple.costume

/em quietly hides something behind his back, starts whistling, and slowly backs out of the room...

I've done it at +0x1 on a few characters. Get the Envenomed Daggers temp power and put a few different Inspirations (mostly Defense, Accuracy, Endurance, a few Break Frees/Awakens) in your Email box, and it's not that hard to do with many of them.

This is the classic "careful what you wish for" scenario. Sure, it would be nice to have the feel and thrill of the good old days, but we tend to fail to remember to bad old days that were concurrent at the same time. I don't miss: having to build around Fitness for Stamina at 20. having to pick a pre-req travel power before level 14. being unable to solo level a support alt (unless you get a spot on a Dreck or Council Amerika farm team and had an SK bridge). failing TFs on the last mission because team members DC/mapserver/quit/logout after hours of struggling. not having enough Inf for DO/SO enhancements, every 5 levels (yes, that was a real thing back in the day, especially before WW/BM). running the cape and aura missions for every alt that wanted a cape/aura. being excluded/kicked from teams for the wrong build (yes, that happened quite a bit, depending on circumstances). It's exactly the same thing that happened with WoW: Classic. There was a wave of nostalgia for like the first 30-90 days, and then everybody remembered what a PITA that game could be. Yes, some folks' pain is someone else's pleasure. But many WoW: Classic servers are ghost towns now, a year later. I've logged on a couple times to try again, every now and then, and it's desolate (with a T) there sometimes.

https://www.cityofheroesrebirth.com/public/

I think it depends on how/where random or reliable is used. For me, I think that random procs are fun, because of the satisfying surprise of triggering something cool from time to time. To me, I think that random procs in powers is fun and useful. But I definitely prefer reliable when I'm working towards some goal or objective, like specific gear. Randomizing everything about gear was the worst "feature" of WoW: BfA. It's extremely unfun to grind away at some world quest or dungeon or raid for some desired piece of gear, only to get nothing -- or worse yet, something useless -- after investing hours of limited play time. I can handle working hard on something, even grinding it, if I know that I'll get a reliable reward for doing so. Fortunately, random gear drops are less of a problem with CoX, because gear isn't as essential to game play. I only mention it as an example of where reliable is better than random in one set of circumstances.

Well written, @Luminara. This is a great summary of basic human nature and the metagaming problem. Humans are always inclined to optimize whatever circumstances they can control for their own benefit. Once players discover and/or understand how to manipulate a game's mechanics to maximize accomplishment or rewards -- even if that violates either the letter or spirit of the game's rules -- they will do so. AE is a perfect example of this, and has been since it was first introduced. Even after repeated nerfs and adjustments, AE still offers significant rewards for exploiting flaws in the game's design, such as being able to create targets that either deal only one type of damage or are vulnerable to only one type of damage. We've grown so accustomed to this that we've rationalized it as an acceptable method of gameplay, even though the game's creators clearly never intended it for that purpose. [Note: I'm not asking for more AE nerfs, just using it as an example of metagaming.] Every game suffers from this, and every game developer has to deal it with it. This is why every game has a "meta" in the first place. It's also why there are "flavor of the month" (FOTM) builds, and why people always ask for the "best" builds, even when other builds are viable. It's also why "Proc Monster" builds are the new hotness in this most recent revival of CoX. Figuring out how to exploit the mechanics of PPM is distorting the original intent and design of proc enhancements. It's also fundamentally altering the intended function of some ATs and power sets (most specifically Defenders). Currently, both CoH and WoW are experiencing this problem with procs, which is why Blizzard plans to apply a sliding scale of diminishing returns in Shadowlands (ED finally comes to WoW -- ironic!). I hope that the HC devs can address the problems with proc enhancements and PPM before it becomes as enshrined as AE: "broken but tolerated". So what does that have to do with "balance"? In my opinion, "balance" is achieved (which I doubt is objectively possible, perfectly) when folks don't feel compelled to create the "best" builds in order to have fun playing the game (as others have pointed out), or to rationalize obviously broken things as tolerable (as we have with AE). I think that trying to achieve balance is a noble goal, even if it's objectively unattainable, because it improves things for everybody, not just those who are the best at metagaming. As onerous as it was, ED actually helped accomplish this to some degree in CoX. Full disclosure: I was so mad that ED killed my Invuln Tanker, I actually unsubbed for a few months, back in the day. Strip away all the rhetoric, look at the numbers (as @Bopper pointed out), and it's plain to see that TW is OP: it needs to be nerfed. I also agree that Fire Blast probably needs a bit of a trim, as well. But it's also plain to see that a few of the other primaries need some love. So a balanced approach would be to nerf TW and Fire, but also buff the weaker sets, too. I'm also looking forward to a bit of love for my second favorite AT: Sentinels. Let's hope that happens Soon™.

Much better.

Pics or it don't count.

It appears he covered the bad nipple.

Bad Nipple.costume

Ouch! Sorry to hear that.

Now I want to see a villain named "Bad Nipple". Too bad I'm working now, or else I'd roll one myself. Which AT/powerset? (edit) Water Blast springs to mind. I'm thinking Water/Pain Corruptor...

Is it bad that this comment made me slightly aroused? (edit) Also: "good nipple"? Do you also have a "bad nipple"?

If you make a copyrighted or offensive character, and the GMs decide to reset it to a "generic" character (plain one-color costume or generic name) as part of a disciplinary action, you can't just turn around and re-make the same character by loading the saved costume file again or renaming it back again. Apparently, some people don't understand that they're not free to keep breaking the rules a second time after being told not to break them the first time.

Yeah, I read this a few years back, and it also changed my perspectives. It's good stuff.

Writing a PowerShell script to manipulate this file's contents has been on my Round Tuit* list for awhile now. (*: I'll do it when I get a round tuit.)

With 1,000 character slots per shard, way stop at just 2? Keep trying different combinations until you find the one you like. Re-use the same costume file for multiples, and then use the unlimited free rename tokens to rename those characters at will. That's what I did: I built/played several different Rathstars (see sig below) to try them all out, and then moved them around to different shards to be sure I had at least one on every shard. Now whenever some has something on a specific shard, I always have a Rathstar that I like to play available. I've done this with several of my different characters: Wrathstar, Wrongbow, Booster Rocket, Wisewolf, etc. I've got at least 2 of each of these on multiple different shards.

This. I sometimes strip an older 50 that I'm not playing much in order to equip a newer 50, and having to burn two respecs and/or a bunch of unslotters for that is frustrating, when I know that the 70 slots limit is arbitrary. They could easily just tack on another 3 trays for a full 100, in the same way they tacked on the additional 4 to make 70. Or at least add something to P2W for additional trays, say at 100K Inf each. I'd gladly spend the 300K per char for that, if we really need the Inf sink.

I find Caltrops useful at lower levels and when solo, as a way to mitigate aggro. When the mobs encounter Caltrops, they immediately start fleeing -- slowly (which is often quite comical). They're no longer coming towards me, and those in range stop attacking: it's as if "run away!" becomes their top priority. Even if it's only for a few seconds, that's usually enough time for me to either finish them off, pop an Insp, or run away myself.

I love my Energy/Time Blaster when he's on a team, too. 😍

I think we're agreeing with each other. I prefer Sentinels when solo, but I prefer Blasters for end-game/teams. (edit) And if you're not eating dirt while leveling up a Blaster, you're doing it wrong. 😉😆