nightroarer

My wife calls energy melee the "pompoms of doom."

The devs are not wrong for making this change; it is logical given resources and the situation at hand. The word is cool, but not important for us to use. This is just a game, albeit a really fun one. 🙂 Those who continue to use the word corona properly are also not wrong. The primary meaning of corona has not changed, although it may now have a new secondary meaning by connotation. It will still be used in scientific discussions and descriptive language as usual. Context of usage makes a difference. Side note to Shred Monkey: I apologize if I came across as rude in my previous post. That was not my intention. I respect your opinion and understand where you are coming from. We may not agree completely certain aspects, but that's okay. I want to keep things congenial, not combative.

It's a little early to make that call. It won't mean that for me, ever. It is certainly not the first thing I think of when I hear the word. But I am not willing to project my own perception on what "this generation" will think.

The meaning of the word corona itself has not changed. Corona and coronavirus are two different words with two different meanings, both of which have existed for many years. Corona is still a perfectly good word on its own, especially when it is used in its appropriate context. Coronavirus got its name because when viewed under a microscope, it appears to have a corona, similar to stars. Using the term in reference to the virus can be viewed as a negative; using the term in reference to a star or other objects that have coronas is still perfectly appropriate. However, the HC team faces the dilemma of having to police each use of the word individually to see whether it is being misused or not, and they probably do not have the resources to do so. In that case, a blanket nerfing of the word is logical, if unfortunate.

I still have the figures. My brother has the cards.

I have no alts, just 80 mains. My highest level character is a couple bars from 30 -- and that is just fine with me. I'm in no hurry. 🙂 I never farm or power-level. As others have said, I do try to vary the paths of my characters. Some do the new tutorial; others do the old. Same with contacts, although I also mix new and old for variety. I have one character that started by being the protector of Galaxy City (using the base teleporter to get there) and did street sweeping of muggers, thieves, etc, for his first nine levels. I created my own storylines for him. Some characters do AE missions (stories, not farms) and level really slowly. Some characters are soloers, while others team with my wife and/or daughter (who are also avid SG base designers). Our bases are designed for both function and RP fun. One may ask how I have time to play that many characters. The answer is simple: it doesn't require any more time to play 80 characters than it takes to play one. It is all a matter of how I choose to spend my time in game during a given play session. If it means I never reach the level cap on any character, that's okay, as long as I am having fun. There are so many ways to play this game, it is incredible. Thank you to the Homecoming team for bringing it back. 🙂

Little Toga Dude is just creepy. On the other hand, the buff to Brawl is hilarious--and functional! :)

Wait, what??? Oh, great! Now you've blown my reality matrix.

What "pretend?" I treat good stories in AE just the same as any official missions. I just use a different teleporter to get there. :)

It's an easy answer for me. I do have some redside and yellowside characters for a change of pace, but by and large, I simply prefer playing heroes.

Perhaps "most people" would be a more accurate assessment. My family and I never run DFB; we do the early level missions. Some of our characters run the new contact missions, some do the outbreak tutorial and run the original missions. Some do a blend of old and new contacts. Variety is good. 🙂

Agreed. Employees are not assets, they are people. I understand that investors invest to make money, but employees work to make a living as well. There needs to be a balance of interests to keep the company profitable and yet still support the people doing the work that help make it so.

I understand what you are saying, and even agree in part. Unfortunately, what you describe is only half the story. LLC is also in place to protect businesses (especially small businesses) from the maliciousness of others. All it takes is one frivolous lawsuit from someone with money to drive a small business with limited funds out of business. It doesn't matter whether the lawsuit is successful or has any merit or not; the legal costs can be enough to destroy not only the business, but the business owner's home and family if there are no personal protections in place. This has happened many times and is a big part of why the LLC model came into being. I would never start a business without limited liability protection, not because I want to do dirt to someone else, but because I want to protect my family from someone else doing dirt to me. If you eliminate limited liability, you pretty much put a stop to small startups and independents. In other words, it would put all of the financial power in the hands of the bigger money corporations that you worry about doing nasty things to people in the first place. I'm not sure what a good middle ground would be, but removing protections from the little guy with limited resources is not a reasonable idea at all.

I'm still kicking myself for not saving the Missions folder from my old arc. Of course, I guess we really didn't know the game was coming back.

You can now also invite your own characters into your SG by using /altinvite character-name (e.g., /altinvite superman).

"Phil? His first name is Agent."

Ouch! If I get back into creating AE arcs again, I too will have six available. Three on my account and three on my wife's account.

Yeah, that's what I figured. I didn't know if publishing it on the servers would create a server copy or not. I've been scouring my saved files and apparently did not save the mission folder. Ugh and other comments.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I missed "those" and just read "most people.' My apologies.

That's kind of a generalization. I rarely do generic radio missions unless I'm close to finishing out a level to get a new contact. Story missions are the primary part of the game for me. However, going with full teams for story missions is a bit overkill. Solo, duo, trio seems the best fit for story missions (in my playstyle; opinions and playstyles certainly vary 🙂 ). One great thing about CoH is that both the new and old tutorials and missions are still available, so there is a great variety of content to do--including radio missions. Using the search button for contacts instead of taking whatever contact is next in line based on your current quest line gives even more options.

I have characters that play both the Hollows and Faultline, but I mostly solo or run with my wife and/or daughter. I like to spread my characters around so that not every character is running the same content (e.g., different zones, some focus on newer content, some focus on old school content, and so forth).

This. In anticipation of the policy, I've tried to make a habit of logging in characters when they are reaching the "danger zone" for their level, but a good heads up announcement will help.

One thing you can try is refining your search parameters with the options in the search tool. Another would be to search for [sfma] (player acronym for story-focused mission arc). SFMA is held over from live, but may not be widely used. None of these are perfect. I, too, wish there was a list available, but at least the search tool in AE gives us some options.

This right here. Well said.

I currently have 59 characters and none are for name-camping. Some are soloers, some were created to team with specific people so that we level together, some are open to PUGs, etc. There are so many power and costume combos available in this game that it is ripe for creating many characters. 10-30 characters is nothing in CoH. I had over 170 when CoH shut down before. There were times it took me a little effort to find a name that was not taken, but I never settled for a "bad" name. Even when Paragon implemented a timed name reuse policy, people still complained that all the "good" names were taken. I don't expect that to be any different when HC implements their policy. Limiting players' creativity is rarely the best answer.