Scarlet Shocker

I was just reminded about an event we ran on live many years ago on Defiant server. A whole gang of us got together, including Avatea and some other GMs, and we searched all the great secret locations in game. This was pre-Going Rogue so obviously we didn't cover Praetoria, but from memory we visited about 16 locations in total, red and blue side, including the Hangman's Tree, the Blue Arena, the toilets in the Grandville tunnels, and a few other places besides. It sounds like this would be another fun event and given we're likely to have some players who've never seen those sights, I figured we could run it over the coming weekend or early in the New Year. I'm unable to remember all the places we visited, but I know we didn't cover the Rikti Mothership and Gas Station in Pocket D, so we'd need to do the following things to make this work: 1) List all the places we want to visit (including their locations 2) Pick a server to do this on 4)Decide who wants to come and what time 5)Learn to count numerically I'd suggest a lower pop server, simply because we wouldn't get in the way of others but I'd also advise you to have at least a level 50 character A TRAVEL POWER IS ESSENTIAL from memory there are some very hard to reach places and we will be covering a LOT of distance. I'd suggest New Years Day because it's usually reasonably quiet* but people have time and availability Sign up below with preferred time (EST please) and server Also list places you know of. *we know a song about that, don't we, boys and girls?

grr

Are you sure you're playing City of Heroes or are you in Snarky's "living" room?

I'd echo what UltraAlt says, first and foremost - Play the way that works for you! But with that said, crafting can be interesting and fun and allows you to kit out your character to be the best that it can. It may be you're entirely happy with the 50 you have now, but it may also be that you feel the need to make another and that might want an extra boost, in which case crafting a few inventions can help immeasurably. If you feel the need for more Inf, you can craft some sought-after Procs and sell them on the Market Place or place them in Supergroup storage for alts and other SG members. 1000 merits sounds a lot but some of those procs cost a few, so you might find it's not as much as you think. But that's ok, right? Because it encourages you to go out and get some more. Whatever you choose, have fun with it!

The great man would have been 101 today. Excelsior!

The issue with long TFs is usually not their length per se but their lack of engagement. They were created to be a much longer experience which is generally a good thing, but at a time when there was way less content in the game than there is now. So there was a formula: 1) Make the players travel far to take time out of the game (and remember, there were no travel powers before lvl 14 in those days) 2) REALLY large maps and you had to Samuel L Jackson with an AK 47 in all of them. 3) Lack of variety. Some of the early TFs were built to a formula (when XP was far less available - even discounting boosters.) Thus the TFs themselves became boring and dull and frankly if it were not for Weakly Strike Targets that give bonuses for them to be played, some would simply not be done. 4) Lack of empathic significance: Synapse has the potential to be one of the more interesting signature heroes, but has been so poorly crafted and presented he comes across as a whiny snivelling self-pitying shite, who's never stood up to the challenge he's been confronted with and faced it down. Had he been shown differently it would give the player base a very different 5) Your character is locked into the TF for the duration. For me, this is the biggest drawback and can cause big scheduling issues (especially with global communities, times zones and the like) but is not insuperable with a bit of imagination. A lot of the above points can be levelled at other early TFs - especially Shadow Shard. But here's an alternate take: Most people who play the game in my experience spend a good few hours teaming with buddies, running content and generally enjoying the game until they get a) tired b) bored or c) have a reason to go to bed (there can be several) - they tend to play for an evening, time in which you could otherwise watch a couple of movies etc. Many will run a LOT of content in that time, and do other stuff, such as RP, base build, work on their character. So putting those two points together we know that: Players are willing to play the game for an extended period but they are discerning and won't play crap content unless coerced (usually by reward.) I've played for hours on teams where tips or radio missions are run rinse and repeat. It's not about the length. Honest. So the trick is to make the existing content better. Nobody wants it to be shorter - and if you don't believe me ask your wife - they want to be entertained, engaged, excited and given a reason to play the TFs. Paragon on live made a mistake with Posi and Sister Psyche too. Both were basic but ok TFs. Their replacements are ok, but I wouldn't say they were massively better in themselves. But they are shorter. Posi has no real reason to have his TF split in two. Put the two halves together you have something interesting and actually pretty good - a lot better and still shorter than his original TF. I find the fact that his TF is chopped in half to be a hindrance more than a bonus. Similarly Penny Yin's TF is also interesting and valid, it stands its own ground and gives Penny herself an interesting backstory but there was no reason to kill off Sister P's TF (or indeed the character) other than the Devs wanted us to get a shock. They could have handled it very differently and rewritten parts of Sister P's TF to include much more of Aurora's story - which in Primal Earth is sadly lacking in Lore AND content (but bonus time we get Mother Mayhem and her massive mammaries of masturbatory magnificence in her very own ITrial... so that's a bonus for those young enough to remember how such things work I suppose) Ok, this has turned into a bit of a wall of text so congratulations if you made it this far but the tl;dr version: People play for a long time - so long as the content is engaging and they can pick it up as and when they need, it needn't be a short arc. It just needs to be interesting

Yes, but sadly now Ray is nowhere to be seen!

I can only report what I experienced, hence posting here. It did seem like strange behaviour but you seem not to have experienced the same issue.

I have a related but different question - when the bar pops up is there a way to automate the activation of a power in it. The only way I know of is literally mouse click but some form of key press would be great.

Ah thanks! Good answers folks, thanks for your input.

I noticed they spawned after a hami raid the other day and people seemed to delight in killing them but what do they do and why should we care?

That's what I figured. It makes no sense that it should enhance one or the other I found the best place to slot it was in the AH where it made me some good inf but I think it should be looked at!

Happy wossname and may your god(s) go with you

Apology accepted with thanks! I'm glad you were able to get what I was trying to put across. And it does sound like you need a break from the game wihch might do you some good - I've taken many breaks myself. No matter how good the game is, sometimes you can have too much fo a good thing so enjoy your downtime and doing different and catch you when you return maybe! Happy christmas and all that!

you could always make your avatar taller! 🤣 I play a lot of controllers and I find the pets to be generally very well behaved; they are definitely worth their picks. I think VS needs considerable reworking to make it viable as a pick.

Well, at least one person loves you. So it's not as bad as it first appeared

How big is Santa’s sack? big enough to hold all his balls (I hope)

nobody's making you play it. Haters gonna hate

I think one guy in the gif missed the point more than me. I dislike XP boosts but I do use them sometimes, because they exist. I'm also generally against taking stuff away - I take the view that it's better not to add something than to add it and then remove it later. We have them, we don't need to use them, but to take them away would create a good deal of hassle that the Devs probably don't want to deal with, so meh

But you have them.

No, not what I'm saying. Personally I think they are entirely unnecessary and I see no real reason for them to exist. I'm just saying we have our best game back for good and we don't need anything more, so be satisfied with what we have.

That is not a selling point It's not like a troller pet which can largely be trusted. It's a wild card that can kill the player. Is that a worthy T8 power?

nice things nice things Because some very amazing people worked very hard, and took risks, we have the nicest nicest thing. What more do you want?

the problem is that XP boosts exist. There is no need for them. We have our game back and your argument defeats them. Why not simply remove them? Take them out of the game and the problem is solved

There's a spider in my bathtub Please help!