iBot

I found out similar to others. I was discussing games played with a friend and MMOs came up since he is a big WoW player. I mentioned that back in the day I remember when WoW was new and all the goings on when CoH lost players to WoW being more PvP orientated. It got me wondering about CoH again so I did a search and happened upon a video about the CoH shutdown which then led to I believe an article or other video about how CoH played on a modern system. Needless to say I followed that rabbit hole and discovered Homecoming in May of 2019. Even better a friend from Live was already playing and started our old SG back up. I was pleasantly surprised. And yes, I'll admit there was something wrong with my eyes when I first booted up the game and heard the fanfare music loading into the game for the first time in 12 years.

Interesting though I have a sneaky (snarky?) feeling that the answer lies somewhere in the realm of the current system is by design and mostly has to do with balance issues. Those two stats (magnitude and duration) are set up in such a way that makes it easier for the devs to control just how much of an effect the players can apply. One thing that has always bothered me about this type of game in general (not just CoX) is that the devs seem to like to give us power but then go out of their way to make sure we can't be unstoppable. I call it "The Superman Problem". Create a character that cannot be defeated which causes all sorts of story line issues and zero tension then invent a method to remove power from the character to introduce some danger. To answer the OP: this can of worms would touch so many other things that I doubt very much anyone could avoid all the alligators in that swamp. Not that they shouldn't try. I'm all for giving players as many control levers to mess with when it comes to their characters as possible. But man oh man would the player base go bonkers.

Yeah guess I forgot to use my <sarcasm> </sarcasm> tags 🙃. Not sure if the graphics engine they used would support underline but personally I think that would go a long way as to making it a little more obvious to us clueless mortals that the text can be interacted with. (Note: The above underline goes nowhere 👍)

Kill faster 🤪

I have an earth/rad controller that I love to take on +4 kill most ITFs. MoG cyclops you say? Naw those just melt once hit with rad debuffs. Much fun to be had and it holds up nicely to stack holds and disorientate on things. And all that -DEF negates the mobs +DEF from their special. Highly recommend the combo.

WHAAAAAAAAA????????????????????????? 🤯 You are not alone. Until this post I never would have bothered paying any attention to that text. I knew there were words there but honestly did not look closely nor did it ever occur to me to mouse over them. Talk about a failure in UI design. 🤡

No worries. Go with whatever fits your theme. Just be sure to report back once in a while to let us know what you decided and how it is going for ya. Always like to hear how other players approach the game. CoX is the definition of "It all works so have fun!" And for the record, much like @Ukase mentioned, I welcome any character's buffs/debuffs but ultimately my characters are built to solo so all the support provides is not having to use an insp before an impossible fight. 😉

Not weird at all. And that is why I suggested corruptor over the defender version. The dark blast version is different from the dark miasma version. The secondary has the same powers as the controller version. Plus you get tar patch which is great for when you don't want things running/jumping/flying away from the group. Earth/Dark is solid as well. However, earth is -def which is not nearly as powerful as -res. But as with all things in this game, it all works out in the end.

For my inf I'd prioritize -res and -tohit. Honestly +res, +def, +tohit are generally overkill on a team unless you are running a low level TF/SF or team. Also if we can squeeze in a smidge of -regen that is even better. If you can stand the sound (or like me play with sound turned off) Sonic/Dark corruptor is a beast. You get the big 3 (-res, -tohit, and -regen) a little bit of -rech. And all that with just your normal damage attacks so no real need to do anything special. One of the best soft controls in the game (fear) along with an awesome AoE rez that can save the day all day. Can't go wrong with that setup. Solos nicely (I know OP said not a concern but still) and on a team everyone will be wondering why stuff just melts after you attack it. Even +4s go down faster with this setup.

Yikes. Yeah I forget which one I got a while back but I remember selling the D-Sync I had for a (to me) high amount. Still running a SF just for that isn't that bad but given RNGesus good luck getting exactly that one you need. I remember when HOs first hit and the disappointment when after yet another run I got the useless one.

Yes leveraging the system to ensnare the impatience. It happens by accident a lot I'm sure but that is just luck. This "working as intended" system simply allows someone with the desire to do so to "game" the system and make sure they are the lucky one. As far as I'm concerned, its all fair and certainly more about psychology then game theory but then game theory really doesn't mean what a lot of people assume. 🙂

I'm going to be that guy and say ... "Umm for my money every AT and any combination of power sets." Seriously though, OP's question has so much to do with personal preference that almost any answer is good enough. Now if you want to narrow down to say can do +4/8 Malta solo then at least that helps thin the herd a bit. Or say be able to handle +4/8 carnies. But I can make the argument that depending on the approach to game play any AT can solo better than 90% of this game with just the basic understanding of IOs, maybe some set bonuses for good measure and liberal application of insp. Based on my personal toons I'd say: dark/bio scrapper, street justice/ninjitsu scrapper, and illusion/storm controller are kick ass solo and can handle just about any situation without blinking. The scrapper's builds were probably in the 500-750 mil range and the controller is probably 650ish mil range. So nothing breaking the bank in terms of sets. Those aren't the only high powered toons I have but they are the ones I have a lot of fun with.

Under normal conditions Yomo's tactic would be a net loss all the time but I concur that humans are very strange and will do counter intuitive things even to their own detriment. The whole scheme only works because humans get impatient or fumble a digit which is what this scheme takes advantage of. It is just a way to always (so long as you have stock) make sure your sell is the one that fulfills when the other makes the mistake. And there is something to be said in economics for a "loss leader". Stores do it all the time. Hell for the longest time in the video game console market (and still to some degree today) the hardware is sold at minimum profit or even loss knowing that they make it up in the software sales. Not quite apples to apples here but an example of how odd human behavior can be exploited for profit.

OK so @Yomo Kimyata has seemingly confirmed something that I've suspected for a while. And while on the surface it seems as if a simple check could prevent this sort of scenario my programmer sense tells me that there is probably a deeper widget in the code that would explode if this check was made. It could have something to do with the way transactions are matched which seems to be a bit voodoo and lots of black magic. Possible also that there isn't enough information available to the matching algorithm to make the determination that a certain bid or ask should be ignored. It may well be in the very rule that allows this in the first place: no selling/buying to/from yourself. Could be an anti-duping measure also. Or given this code base none of the above. 🤪 Most likely this wasn't a thing on live because of the limited number of AH slots available. It just wasn't possible to maintain this sort of hold for long even though this sort of collision probably happened quite a bit. When HC upped the number of slots it increased the length time this sort of issue can persist.

I can count on one finger the number of toons I have that don't have stealth. I wasn't overly happy with the revamp when it first hit but after playing a bit more with it I appreciate the update. The increased run/jump speed is a nice to have since then I don't need to run sprint all the time. It also means that I can run a lowbie without a travel power/ temp and still be OK in Atlas and KR. And then at higher levels I still like the passive speed boost since I rarely run SS. Stealth was great fun on my Mercs/Traps MM since it allowed me to set up all sorts of ambushes for mobs to run into while managing agro. All kinds of fun. For missions it depends on my mood. I will stealth if I just don't feel like taking on every single group if the mission is not a kill all. During TFs I host, I always ask. If the group wants to stealth then I do. If not then we kill through. If teaming again I generally leave it up to the person whose mission it is. But I like to always have the option to just skip to the final fight or grab the glowie. It is also why all of my builds include TP Target. So even if the team teleport is down I can still move anyone that doesn't have stealth to the final fight.

OK... so after I picked my jaw up off the floor after going WHAAAAA??????? All I'm going to say is "I'm not worthy." Spreadsheets?!??? @Andreah Most impressive. You win. @Yomo Kimyata You are why I have the inf and builds I have. The bumbling, stumbling, rambling approach to 1 billion inf guide was spot on. @Ukase Another solid source of inf generating goodness. @Bionic_Flea Don't you have a dev to pester??? 🤪 As for OP: well all I can say is that I don't do anywhere near what these titans of industry do. Much like you, all I did was earn enough to fund whatever alts I wanted. The last dozen or so (I only have 33ish total) have been totally self funded by judiciously using reward merits and playing converter roulette. I did at one point fire farm but that was only to build that fire farm toon from scratch to prove it could be done. Never flipped. Never really marketed. Can't say that I did any more than the bare minimum to reach my goals. But I've got those 32 toons at 50 with full builds (none worth more than ~1.2 bn) along with the 1 toon that has languished at around level 33 ish since my in game time has taken a nose dive. And I certainly don't consider myself even in the same sport as the others let alone ballpark.

Ouch well sorry to hear that. That's the funny thing about the whole COVID thing. Some it is no big deal. Others it hits them like a truck. At least now we've a much better idea of what they are dealing with so hopefully it all works out. As for that zombie strain, I thought that was a conspira.akrjae,a //lamsfd TZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ 🤪

You do realize that we will require a follow up post on how all this amazing advice actually worked out 🙂

Lot's of solid advice. My 0.02 inf for what it is worth: Try one of each. Coming from CoD (assuming this is Call of Duty) I'd personally go with Blaster primary Assault Rifle or Pistols with secondary of either Devices or martial combat. However nothing stopping you from allowing them to roll a dozen different toons and then running them through a few opening story arcs to get a feel for what to expect. The levels under 20 if done slowly will give you a pretty decent idea of how the character will progress. As for the duo aspect all I can suggest is play what you feel comfortable with. If you go too synergistic then your SO will have a skewed view of how their character plays because you'll provide buffs/debuffs that they don't have naturally. There is helping and then there is hand holding. You'll need to be the judge as to how much your SO expects of each. Not to get too philosophical here but resist the urge to prevent them from failing. Best part of learning is figuring out how to overcome that obstacle rather than just having someone point out the solution. Again, you'll need to gauge that frustration level but from experience the best way to hold someone's attention is to provide just enough challenge to trigger that "OH I'm gonna beat this!" part of the brain. 👍

Honestly I'm kinda surprised it has taken this long to get to this point. For my inf I'd say there are a few factors at play here: We haven't had a huge influx of new or returning players in quite a few months. I base this mostly on recruiting. A year or so ago we'd get 3 or 4 recruits a week asking about the SG. Now maybe one a month if that. A good percentage of the player base is no longer outfitting new toons from the AH but rather stripping IOs off of unused toons or just, as you mentioned, using what they already have in their base. More players now understand the path to getting the IOs they want and that isn't always the AH. Effectively using merits and converters eliminates the need for buying that specific IO on the AH anymore. Even getting the special ATO or WO is easier using the packs. Personally I don't worry about the "new player" experience. Would someone struggle to make billions with just the AH now as compared to a year ago? Probably. But going by my own experience I can say that it is entirely doable to just play the game and have enough inf for whatever builds you want. It takes a little longer, but the end result is the same. So just because the market isn't quite what it once was isn't a major concern. It certainly has the potential to get there again if there were to be a sudden influx of new or returning players if/when the legal stuff ever gets sorted out. For now I'd say enjoy your retirement 👍

Well as I said I've not seen the code and yes my example was simplistic and really only meant to show that generating random numbers isn't a seriously complicated problem that requires hundreds of lines of code and specialized knowledge of the inner workings of the universe. So long as the seed used is changed or tied to something that doesn't repeat for small samples the built in rand function is about as good as it gets.

These sorts of human issues are why lotteries and casinos exist. I will caveat by saying I've never looked at the CoH code. However, I can say that given my experiences with coding in general there is nothing that would lead me to suspect that the CoH RNG is nothing more than: num = rand () % 100. That simple line is all it takes to generate a series of random numbers based on whatever seed the system is set up to use. And because that line of code has no memory it will always be independent for the purposes of probability. It is the humans that add that memory and swear on all that they hold sacred that some nefarious force is skewing the RNG against them. Another funny thing that always pops in these sorts of posts is that it is the negative that we howl about. No one ever says "WOW I won that 4 times in a row. The RNG must be coded wrong!" More proof that it is the human code base that is skewed in that we tend to remember more vividly the failures rather than the successes and the failures are attributed to an external force rather than our own brains. It is why game development is like 10% idea, code, and graphics and 110% psychology. (and yes I know that doesn't make sense but neither do humans 🤪)

The only other thing I can think of to add is that you've got to avoid human specific values when you want the AH to work in your favor. As @Yomo Kimyata mentioned, the AH is very poor when dealing with ties. It has to do with the way the transaction queue is coded. Instead of listing for say 100 or 5 or 1 try 37 or 43 or 397. Avoid anything that ends in 0, 5, or power of 2. Those are numbers that humans gravitate towards and so there are thousands of those transactions on the AH. As mentioned, we do not have the entire picture with regards to all the transactions that occur so from that limited data things can look very odd. But I believe there are enough of us playing that market that we've got a pretty good consensus on how the whole system works. That doesn't mean it isn't a possible bug and certainly report it. Worse that happens is the devs determine it is working as intended and so ignore the post.

Personally I think PvP in CoH was always a poorly implemented bad idea that just got worse over time. At its core, CoH is about creating a character that cannot be stopped against incredible odds. Call it the "Superman" problem. If you cannot be injured then there is no tension in any battle you face. With Superman the original writers introduced Kryptonite to attempt to add that bit of tension. In CoH, we got all the changes and nerfs from PvE to PvP. I remember to this day how disappointed I was when I first stepped into the arena with my single target sniper blaster and couldn't even dent an opponent. Even worse, all my stealth and maneuverability was completely useless against an opponent that didn't need to aim. So yeah, PvP was short lived for me. The zones were OK but annoying trying to complete an objective or run to a mission door only to be ganked. The base raids were a cool idea until we realized our base items could be destroyed and no one wanted to risk all that prestige for no reward. Items of power were promises that never came to full fruition. As it stands now, I don't even bother with the PvP zones. The badges just aren't enough to motivate me to bother. And at this stage of the game's life I don't really see anything that the devs could add to the game to change my mind.

The bucketing of salvage was added by HC at the very beginning so if it is listed anywhere it would be in the first set of patch notes. The AH on live did not work this way and that is why on live salvage prices could be cornered and manipulated to ridiculous amounts. Can't do it on HC for a single item. As for the apparent lag with buy/sell orders there is shall we say a less than ideal matching algorithm in use. I've had plenty of occasions where I will buy a block of 10 pieces and the first say 7 or 8 fill immediately and then a few seconds or even up to 30 sec later the final 2 or 3 fill at the same price point. That time lag is because the AH was performing an indexing and sort pass. Remember the AH server runs the AH for all the servers so it crunches through hundreds of thousand if not millions of transactions each pass. Those aren't insignificant numbers and if your bid happens to be an outlier it can take even longer to find a proper match. Stack in some good ol interwebs lag and some really odd looking things can occur.