Oklahoman

I imagine you are thinking of literally anyone else. 🙂

Short answer is "I don't know" but I'm curious what others say. I'll speak to why I form them out of RWZ instead of Ouro, Pocket D, or Echo Plaza. Lauci convinced me to run only instanced MSRs anymore, and really they are more convenient as a leader even with the invite bugs. I form them out of RWZ mainly for the access to Levantera, the availability of Rikti to earn the Member of Vanguard badge, and the ability to get a last second HVAS. But, the zone will usually fill before the league does so I end up recruiting through the pylon phase. That's not bad except I sometimes can't invite people for open slots because of the aforementioned bugs - usually just a couple at most.

I ran home for lunch yesterday and got on the game. My wife came in asked if I was doing anything that would be interrupted by her talking to me. I said no, I'm just doing some "bookkeeping." These are the types of tasks that are not much fun, for me anyway. Combining Astrals, combining Emps, emailing Monstrous Aether to one account to combine, converting shards to threads, etc. And still, even after all the cleanup, you probably still end up having 3 Astrals, 10 Vanguard Merits, 3 shards, etc. I posted a suggestion a while back that, much like at a START vendor, you ought to be able to just reject some of these things. Or, if I could just get a trash can in my base, I guess.

For the overflow Hami's on Saturday and Sunday, and to a lesser extent the early Hami raids on the same days, we've been having some non-regulars step into the Team 1 roles. I think this is awesome as it gives more people a chance to get involved and be a big part of these events. If you are ever interested in stepping into a Team 1 role, my first recommendation is to be able to slot any Incandescence power into Destiny. It's great if everyone on Team 1 has some form of Incan. Core Epiphany is probably my favorite, but any of them will work for what we do with them. If you want to be a taunter, you obviously need some kind of taunt power, too. Also, everyone on Team 1 needs their teleport settings set to "Ask" so you don't just automatically get teleported away each time someone does an Incan. (NOTE: Others in the league may have Incandescence slotted in Destiny, but please DO NOT USE IT unless you are on Team 1. If you aren't on Team 1 and have a choice, I'd probably recommend Ageless or Barrier.) Ideally, there are 6 roles for Team 1: Taunter - left mitos. Goes in with Team 1 and keeps taunting the 3 mitos on the left. Taunter - right mitos. Goes in with Team 1 and keeps taunting the 3 mitos on the right. Taunter - Hami. Goes in with Team 1 and runs to the opposite side of Hami, around max distance for taunt, and auto-taunts Hami. Incanner - Hami Watch. Stays at the meetup location and watches for Hami to spawn. Once it does, Incan the league to the meetup location. Incanner - Buffs. When I call for buffs, Incan the league together again at the meetup location. This role, in particular, probably benefits the most from Core Epiphany. This is partially to buff the league, but also to sort of shake everyone awake, cause hands are about to fly. Incanner - Hami Can. Goes in with Team 1 and when I call for the league to go, Incan everyone directly in front of Hami. Additionally, during the phase where we hunt GMs the Taunters will herd GMs together around them. The Taunters rotate who will use Incan - Taunter 1 will Incan the league to them while the other 2 Taunters gather herds of their own. When Taunter 1 says they are clear (all their GMs are down), Taunter 2 Incans the league to them so Taunter 1 can rebuild a herd. Then, when Taunter 2 says they are clear, Taunter 3 Incans the league to them, and so on. The Buff and Hami Can Incanners may follow, as well, to provide backup in case a Taunters Incan is not recharged. This continues until the Incanner on Hami Watch sees Hami spawn, then Incans the league back to the meetup location. Team 1 coordinates on the /team channel, so you need to be ready, willing, and able to use that channel. I've had a couple of people I've pulled in to Team 1 hoping to give a role, but then they don't communicate so I have to move them off to another team in the league. Coordination on this channel is essential. With all that in mind, if you show up at one of these Hamis and would like to participate on Team 1, just send me a tell in game as we are forming. I may not be able to use you right away, but I promise I keep track. Also, with 6 roles, plus 1 leader, that leaves 1 open spot for an "observer" on Team 1 who might can step into any of those roles in the future. People do tend to mapserve, so knowing who else is in the league and able to step in helps, too.

@BlackSpectre suggested I post this thread, and I'd like others to chime in, as well. The question we league leaders get a lot is "how long does that take?" So, here's a thread dedicated to answering that, as well as arguing about it down to the second (as is tradition here on the forums). Based on my experience, and what I tend to run most, speaking in generalities, I would say... Speed Lambda - pretty consistently 12 minutes, if we only clear 1 side. After you clear the weapon caches you usually have 2 minutes or less before Marauder appears. If you can clear the containment chambers faster than that, go for it, otherwise your best bet is to wait on Marauder to get there on his moped using Apple Maps. Lamdba badge runs - roughly 20 minutes each, since you can't use the pacification grenades. (See my signature for how to figure out who did, though.) BAF - about 20 minutes, whether you are doing a regular run or a badge run. Doesn't seem to be a significant difference. Dilemma Diabolique - 20 to 25 minutes. This is one that's pretty easy to get Master on if everyone follows chat at least a little, so no clue what a regular run would be. I would think about the same. TPN Campus - 20-25 minutes here, too. Maybe a bit faster if you aren't worried about badges at all, or if you're just trying for the News Flash badge. Magisterium - Probably about 20 minutes. It depends - I ran with a pretty low DPS group today and we went down to the wire on the AVs, so that can stretch it out, especially if you use a lot of time on Tyrant, too. I'll also throw in a couple of non-iTrial things, as well: Mothership Raid (MSR) - about 45 minutes, counting taking out pylons and the Drop Ship afterwards. Hami Raid - Hamikaze style, we usually can get 4 runs in under 30 minutes, probably under 20 most times. It all depends on how fast Hami chooses to spawn for us. DFB - probably about 20 minutes. DiB - probably about 20 minutes, too. As an aside, the problem I have with the question itself (when players ask me) is that I can't tell you how long it will take to recruit. A Speed Lambda, for instance, may actually take 30 minutes total if you are the first one into the league and recruiting is slow. You can definitely run these without a full league, but sometimes it can take a while to recruit even enough to know you'll probably be successful.

I ran an instanced MSR last night and everything felt laggy. Been feeling like that for a few days, for me at least. I thought maybe it was connected to this, but I guess not.

It used to really bother me when I'd log in and see a big green character wearing only cutoff pants (purple, of course) with a name like "Incredible Savage". Now I just tend to play the game and enjoy it. Someone else can report them if they feel like they need to. If it bothers you, report it and move on. We have no guarantee the game will be here for us past today under any circumstance. Enjoy it while you can. Bigger fish to fry.

Search is OK, but it could be much better. For what OP is talking about, I can search by name for a player who is in another zone and see what level they are, what archetype, what origin (which doesn't matter), where they are, and whatever comments they put in which most usually is nothing at all. I can't read their bio until they get in zone. I can't tell if they have a certain power I'm looking for, or if they have lore and destiny unlocked, or if they have a certain badge, or if they are level shifted, etc. Not that it's super easy to get some of that info even once they are in zone, but at least you can quickly join the queue and see if you get an error (thinking specifically of MAG trials). If they are in the same zone as you, then when you right click on the search results you get the option for "Info" which is what I would love to see be universal to all search results. Search also limits what zones you can see based on your alignment, and if you do something wacky like search for everyone in The Abyss on Excelsior at 5pm Central on a weekend you get some mix of everyone in Abyss 1 and Abyss 2, limited down to about 50 people. Plus the coding may help you see if they are already on a team... but also maybe not, but chaos is fun. Back to OPs suggestion, some kind of slash command (/showcharacter "Superhero Dude") that pops up with the character window would be great. Better if search could show every zone regardless of alignment, everyone in that zone (and numbered spawned zones), and give you the "Info" option no matter where they are.

You did what now?

I've often wished I could just TP their happy ass to where I need them to be.

I'd love to be able to pull up their character window no matter what zone they are in. Not so much to read their bio, but to see what archetype they are and sometimes even what powers they have. It's not uncommon for people to join an iTrial I am forming, and as I'm structuring the teams I really need to know that info, but have to wait until they get in zone. Or, I guess search their character name, but that's too much work. 🙂

It's always been odd to me that we have this great costume creator, then in-game you get slammed with buffs that covers it all in ice, vines, etc.

An option from Luna in Ouro that pops up AFTER you've unlocked Alpha that rejects incarnate shards. Fight me.

Here's my screen:

A tanker, or potentially another character with incan. My early Hami runs have a pretty steady group now, but the overflow runs are still very much a work in progress and probably where I would need the help the most. If you are in league, don't hesitate to shoot me a tell saying you have taunt or incan if needed - that helps me a lot. After I fill my 3 taunter and 3 incanner roles I sometimes have an extra space in team 1 for someone to just be there and observe and see the chatter that goes on, so even if I can't use you that day I may have you on team 1 to get a feel for how we work so you are better equipped to step in when needed later.

I recently started a channel just for those who've helped on Team 1 for my early or overflow Hamis. Since I don't have a lot of "regulars" on those just yet, it's a way for me to advertise to that group that I need a taunter or an incanner from the group who's done it before. If I can't get what I need that way, I get it from the league that does show up and then they get added to the channel afterwards. It's terribly exclusive.

I like the direction you are thinking in, but I think I would rather it not be an automatic increase. Instead, I think maybe having access to different inspirations and temps via Luna. This could create a way to spend those extra threads, emps, or even Transcendents on things. As an example (thought up on the spot here, so not necessarily advocating for these specifically): At vet level 100 you can buy an inspiration that reduces the recharge time of your incarnate powers by 25% for X number of seconds At vet level 200 you gain access to purchase PBAoE rez inspirations, which you can use even when not dead At vet level 300 you gain access to purchase a rechargeable temp power that... I don't know, does something that's cool but not overpowering. Maybe turns on your Destiny power for 5 minutes if you are playing sub-50 content? Again, don't hold me to those specific examples, but that's the sort of thing I think I'd like to see.

By that, I mean that an MSR is great for XP, but for 40-45 minutes worth of playtime you could almost certainly get more in terms of reward merits, etc. doing other things. A quick example I've mentioned before - we tend to do 4 (or more) Hami raids at a time these days, which could net you 200 reward merits if you just selected that from the table, and a set of Hami runs will take about 30 minutes. You'll get a little XP and other drops from the GMs as you are gathering EoEs, but not a ton. A single MSR will probably net you in the neighborhood of, let's say, 50 reward merits if you choose that conversion, and will require a little more of your time. You do get influence, salvage, and recipe drops during an MSR, but it's not going to make up the value of the 150 additional reward merits you would have got in a Hami. Others can point out even quicker ways to earn reward merits, influence, etc. than in an MSR, I am sure. Outside of AE, though, I don't think you can beat an MSR in terms of XP. In my mind, the non-reward incentives to participating in an MSR versus, say, a Hami is the interactions that happen especially in the bowl. This is an example of where our community gets to hang out and just have fun while playing the game. Hamis have that, but in my experience it is much different than just hanging out and blasting away at bad guys leisurely.

Specific to COH, I don't think your experience is wildly different from the norm. I've had a few stalk me in COH, but I've put them on ignore and move on with life. I really have no social media presence outside of the tiny one in I have in Discord. There's one other social media platform I use regularly, and I never post there "Hey, find me in City of Heroes @Oklahoman!" so there's no link between that account and my COH account. There are 3-4 people who play the game and have known me in real life, so it's a bit jarring when they call me by my real name in game, but I've seen them all in tights so there's the threat of mutually assured destruction there that keeps us in line. Other than that there's a small handful of people in game who know what I do for a living, and specifically what town I live in, otherwise I enjoy keeping those parts of my life separate. Makes it a little harder to stalk me outside the game, I think. Though, I think most people know what state I live in.

That's been what I've seen, too. It's been a good long while since I've had an MSR fail in any way, shape, or form. It probably has some small effect on rewards, but if you are doing an MSR for rewards you probably aren't getting the biggest return on your time, anyway.

True, and especially when that happens with trials where you have carefully constructed the makeup of each team before going in it can be extremely chaotic. With an instanced MSR it doesn't have to be that way - you just have a delay before you get the star back and add any new people into the league. Last time we sorted this out while we were working on pylons.

That sounds like a lot of work, especially when there is a non-zero chance you won't be able to get enough people to form a successful raid at all. It's rarely happened to me, but I have had to call off a couple raids in the past due to lack of interest.

One thing about the second run is that I still had people in the league from the first run. It may not have happened if I had completely dumped and reformed the league between runs. Next time I do a back-to-back run I will try that and see what happens.