Shazzie

Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball. Thumb operated, which is the ONLY style of mouse I have ever found to be comfortable for using longer than a couple of minutes. My dream mouse would be pretty much the same thing with perhaps a couple more buttons - this one has your default left, middle/mouse, right, plus 2 extras. I will only ever be in trouble if they cease making this style of mouse completely, which I certainly hope they don't, as they are proven to be one of, if not THE most ergonomic mouse style, and the least likely to ever cause carpal tunnel or aggravate existing carpal tunnel. I've been using this style of mouse since, *cough* nearly the dawn of computer mice existing, and I'd like to continue with that.

I wish! Every Mayhem I think, "This time I'll get it, for sure" and I don't. I think it's probably the fire hydrants I'm low on, but with no way to verify, I can't be certain.

It's under Accomplishments.

I've had a few people not reply to me, but often I'm sending tells that don't necessarily REQUIRE a reply, because I'm complimenting their costume or something, but they're already speeding away for whatever reason before I've ever completed my message. I HAVE had some excellent conversations about that exact kind of thing, however, at CCs, where I check out everyone around me and also check to see if they've written a bio (I have seen some FANTASTIC ones, too). The ones that don't reply, well, that's fine for me, I just hope they actually got a chance to read the message and they got a smile out of my appreciation. I've always responded to messages, even if it was a "Sorry, can't right now" to someone asking if I wanted to join a group, because I'd just feel too guilty to not reply. I mean, I suppose I COULD have missed a message because I'd gone AFK and it had scrolled off my screen before I got back, but I've never intentionally not replied. I'm with you on that, PK.

This game is absolutely solo friendly- and it always has been- regardless of level! I spend a vast majority of my time soloing, though I do enjoy teaming for certain things. Task/Strike Forces are, for me, best in groups, but they were originally intended FOR groups, so I guess that makes sense. There are some archetypes that might have a rougher time of it, but it IS possible for all of them. It's easy enough to figure out, though, because say if your primary skill tree is 'Support', it's expected that you'd be supporting others. And if you're a Blaster, it's easier to go crazy blasting damage if you have others willing to stand in the way of whatever you're blasting. Regardless, you CAN make anything work. Start off with something easier to solo out the gate, perhaps: a Brute, a Mastermind, perhaps a Scrapper or Sentinel. Welcome to the game, I hope you have at least as much fun here as I have always had, which is a lot!

1. P2W Store Primer Excellent write-up of everything the P2W vendor has to offer. 2. IO/SO cost comparison since IOs (Invention Origin) are basically SOs, but you can never outlevel IOs, which you can with regular dropped enhancements. They're basic, such as Invention: Accuracy, Invention: Damage, Invention: Recharge Reduction, etc. Then there are the Crafted IO *sets*, which are more complex, and I'm not certain if there's a starter guide on the forums explaining them (couldn't find one on a quick perusal). Sets can have dual and triple mods for each enhancement in the set (such as Damage/Recharge and Accuracy/Damage/Range) and having multiple of that particular set in a power unlocks different levels of bonuses- such as having 2 would get you a general boost to your Recovery and 3 would get you some Resistances... that kind of thing. 3. Play your way. Oh my goodness, play your way. There's SO MANY 'ways' to play the game that there is certain to be others with your exact play style. Even if there isn't, who cares? Have fun, that's what matters! The only time things might get finicky is at the very high end. 4. Going Rogue starts you off in Praetoria and has its own storyline for the first 20 or so levels, after which you're set to Paragon City or the Rogue Isles. There are several choices you make during your time in Praetoria that fall in varied places on the 'feels good/feels evil' spectrum, and you're always given a choice at the very end as to where you want to wind up. 5. I love villain side, but it has a much lower population. Especially in the very starting levels when a large percentage of the population hops into Atlas Park and gets into a DFB group. This is Death From Below, a very low level trial in the Sewers, which upon completion awards you your choice of one of 4 buffs that last until you're 20, and many people run it 3 or 4 times to get the buffs (and get near or at level 20 in the process, if they also picked up the XP boost from the P2W vendor). If you decide to play in the Isles though there will still be people there (and I will likely be one of them!). One thing to note is changing alignment is really, really easy. If you go to Pocket D and speak with Null the Gull perched atop a truck on the villain side, you can instantly and freely change your alignment to straight Hero or Villain or go Vigilante (Hero turning Villain) or Rogue (Villain turning Hero). I actually highly recommend this because being Rogue or Vigilante allows you to access to BOTH sides, letting you take part in groups/trials/strike forces regardless of where they are. The only thing to note is if you are, for instance, a Rogue, you're still *technically* villainous and you'll need to be in the appropriate hero zone to join a hero side Task Force, instead of joining it from wherever you're at in the Isles. Vice versa for the Vigilantes and Strike Forces in the Isles. Hope the game goes much better for you this time. Welcome back!

Hrm, that must be it, though I haven't really been focusing on one level alone. But it's something I can verify going forward, thank you!

I decided to finish up some crafting badges. I decided to tackle some level 10-15 ones. Bought a bunch of recipes. Got to work. Almost none of the ones I crafted counted towards badge progress. For instance, I crafted about 10 level 15 Healing Enhancements and my progress is stuck at 5 of 9 complete. I cannot be certain that NONE of them registered, as I had some progress before I began, but when I noticed things weren't registering, I did a few more to test. I had purchased, and crafted, enough enhancements to complete and unlock at least 5 badges, and I received none of them. I really wish I'd marked down exactly how many I needed for each, so I could see if ANY of the enhancements I crafted actually counted, but all I know for certain is that at the very end I crafted 3 Healing Enhancements and not a one of them counted. Err? Am I missing something blindingly obvious or is this bugged out somehow?

Some people rush. It's just how they are, that's their mentality, and they will play that way in any and every game. I will personally never understand it beyond just that: it's how they are. It does no harm, let them be themselves. Some people just want to hurry up and unlock a particular power or powers, but stop the rush when that's achieved. Some people just have a strong drive to complete their build. Some people want to get into incarnate stuff. Some people want to have their characters back, and if their characters were all maxed out, well they have to get there to be completely 'back'. Some people have just done all this so much that their interest in the leveling process is gone. We're different people so of course we all have different interests in gaming and how we game, but we still have one interest in common- this game itself. I only give a "No need to rush!" comment when it's someone who, because of 'the game starts at max level' mentality that other games foster, thinks they have to do that here. There's just so much you can do before you're max level, that unless you have specific reasons, there's no need to rush. But if they have a reason besides that mistaken concept? Have at it, and have fun.

Yes, exactly, Sister Flame! :D

Generator: I can't speak from experience as I chose to never have children, but I've seen my friend have her 4 year old daughter on her lap as she helps said daughter create characters for this game. I've seen the joy this little girl has in her characters, and I think it's a wonderful thing. There was a post on the original game forums, a very, very long (and long lasting) post, "What my 6 year old has learned from CoX", about another daughter who started playing at about the same age as my friend's daughter is now, and what she learned over the years and how good of a thing it was, helping her learn to read and spark her curiosity and imagination and even how to work on teams. I haven't gone Wayback Machine to find the post on the old forums, but I did find someone reposting it on the Blade and Soul forums. It's a truly great read.

I agree with this so much and cannot emphasize it enough. I love redside, but it can be really difficult doing specific group content there. Red? Blue? Go purple! It opens up your options to, well, damn near everything.

There are also the Cancel Power and Unqueue Power hotkeys you can set in Keymapping, that are helpful with stuff like that (if you didn't already know).

I'm always having trouble with costumes, currently I'm completely lost on the costume for one particular character- have her name but the costume bits just ain't comin' - but I'm pretty satisfied with this one here. Psychedelika, lost in eternal Mardi Gras:

YEAH! RAGE QUIT! Delete all your characters! Cancel your sub! Threaten to take your ENTIRE SUPERGROUP with you and that is just SO MANY PEOPLE they can't possibly afford the loss! .. Uh, yeah, right, that'll really show 'em. Sorry, I know I'm over-exaggerating things here, but I'm sure a lot of us have seen such responses before elsewhere, and it always boggled me. I'm feeling rather melodramatic today so I felt the need to exuberantly advertise my hopping aboard the train to nowhere. p.s. Hey Homecoming team? I love this game, and I love you. I love you so very very much.

Virtue was home for my Heroes. Champion was home for my Villains. I spent most of my time on Champion, because I found the Villain archetypes to be the most fun, and in particular Brutes and Masterminds make me happy.

I have been mostly following pages linked off of the Story Arc page on ParagonWiki. Off of there you can find links to the Hero and Villain Story Arcs and Hero and Villain Contacts. And I also noticed one more contact I'll need to hit before 20: Alastor, one of the Signature Story Arcs that should hopefully be unlocked for everyone here on Homecoming!

I wrapped up my CoX install and all things related, and stowed it in external hard drive years ago. Digging through it recently for old Mids character builds, I also found a few mods. I have not tested these yet in this version of the game, but if anyone would like to poke around in them, you are more than welcome to, and I hope it helps someone. CoHCommunityMods.exe This one appears to modify the appearance of inspirations plus Ninja and Beast Run icons. Enhancement Standardization.zip Has one set of files, plus a folder with alternate files, for power icons. NeosEnhancementInstall.exe Probably powers as well? One of these may be what you're looking for, Wild Claw. The only other things I have are modifications of the FF Force Ball and /Traps Force Bubble textures (thanks to Electro) which reduces its opacity, as it gave me a major headache in its original state. Plus modifications to the Sonic powers as they, too, were headache triggers. As I said, I haven't tested these in-game yet, so I can't be certain how/if they will work now. But no sense in hiding them in my In Memoriam CoX folder any longer, hey?

Dr. Graves has one very long story arc that I'd leveled out of before I began this. I got his 'you outleveled me' response when I tried to talk to him at level 14, sadly. I'll have to go back and Ouro him and the others later, if I can.

SQUISH THE MOSQUITO! Oh my goodness I hope I never see that one in-game. Job well done, I hate mosquitoes so much that simply seeing the picture of that one was traumatic.

I'm working my way through this as well, though I didn't think to start until I was already 14, and I'm not choosing to explicitly solo. I just want to do all the story arcs/get the souvenirs and badges for all the contacts, so I locked xp and did Dmitri Krylov, Peter Themari, Shelly Percey, The Radio, and Veluta Lunata- hopefully I didn't miss anyone in that level range. Completed that 10-14 bit and then turned xp back on. Am now 19 with xp locked once more while I finish up the 15-19 chunk. Golden Roller and Willy Wheeler done (as well as Ashley McKnight, I got started with her late), almost done with Marshal Brass, and have Seer Marino and Operative Wellman to go. At least, I think that's all I have to go in that level range. I seriously debated ALSO doing blueside, but since I'd already missed out on the lower level contacts for both sides, I decided just to focus on redside. For this character, at least. I might have a different character do ALL the things- every contact and all TF/SFs both sides at the appropriate levels! I'll just have to figure out what archetype I want for that.

I have played so many MMOs, so very many. My first was EverQuest, in 1999. My second was Dark Age of Camelot. I would play both of those games an awful lot for quite a while, and my memory is fuzzy as to what exact order I played the following, and this list is probably not complete: EverQuest 2. Guild Wars 1 & 2. RIFT. Fallen Earth. Star Wars Galaxies. Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Lord of the Rings Online. Word of Warcraft. Ryzom. A Tale in the Desert. Dungeons & Dragons Online. Neverwinter (also Neverwinter Nights, but that's not technically an MMO). The Secret World. Vanguard. Elder Scrolls Online. Anarchy Online. Elite: Dangerous. Dabbled in a heck of a lot more, but the above are ones I played for good lengths of time. But ever since I got into City of Heroes Beta, I've been in love with this game. I might drift away momentarily, but I always quickly returned, and I can't say that about any of the other games, despite truly loving a few of them. City of Heroes was not a game I expected to love, but it bowled me over, and then when City of Villains released, my heart was well and truly captured. I said over and over throughout the years, that CoX is my Forever Game. I might play other games now and then, I might be completely enraptured by other games now and then, but this one, this one is home for me.

These are the bios that I had a lot of enforced editing practice to keep within the word limit: Tinker Toyah, Bots/Time Mastermind: Hotwired, Electric/Fire Brute (a re-imagining of my Fire/Electric Blaster Hotwire from the old days, and I know it's early but so far I'm LOVING this version so much): Totally Radiculous, Rad/Bio Brute, her bio is humorous (of course it is with a name like hers!) but the 'serious' story behind it is far far too long for a bio: I love the bio system in this game so much, I'm always checking to see if people around me have written one. I love reading them, thanks everyone for sharing- whether serious or silly, I appreciate it!

I always said during its Live years that CoX was my 'Forever' game. It might not have been the game I was actively playing/playing the most at any given time, but it was always there, something comfortable and welcoming to slip into. Now it's back, and I'm sure I'll eventually go back to my old habits, slipping away momentarily for something else. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but I know myself and I know it will happen and I know, no matter what, I'll be back. I'll always come back, as long as I'm able to. I only have a couple of weeks experience here on the Homecoming servers, but this past weekend I saw five (or six?) Atlas Parks and *gasp* THREE Mercy Islands (Redside is bestside and seeing that made me so happy). I'm grouping with people who are playing City for their very first time, people who've only been playing since the servers launched, and plenty of veterans of various experience levels. And regarding a lot of people not realizing CoX is back, I can attest to that. Last week I told my Friday night D&D group about Homecoming to a resounding "NO WAY!!!. Gave them the info they needed. Every single one installed Tequila on their computers that night, as did their spouses. My husband's been spreading the news at work, and several of them have returned to the City as well. I'm sure lots of other people have had similar experiences, and in this way the news is slowly disseminating. Not everyone keeps tabs on gaming news or reads MOP, and word of mouth can be erratic, but the news is still spreading.

I usually had 3 or 4 "mains", before the servers went down years ago, but the ones that were on that list rotated in and out. I haven't settled on any particular ones to semi-focus on here yet, and I *did* make 7 new ones yesterday... and 6 the day before that... ...it's so good to be home.