How do you know when you have found something special?

[Sakai]

Not every character makes the cut for me. I play them for a while but they just don't have the spark. 

 

Then you find the ones with the Spark...the joy to play. 

 

Every so often I will find myself at the Steel Canyon Icon making the 6th costume for a hero in their mid 20s. This is a solid indicator they are here to stay. . 

 

It's not very often I have  a concept when I start a new character but rather just pick sets that sound fun. Occasionally a back story pops up as I play.  That will do it too. 

 

Tarragon Mist is so adamant on disrupting the Hellions for causing the three square blocks she called home  to be engulfed in unholy fire.  Her brother died that night as did Samuel, who ran the corner market and had basically raised them for the past seven years since their parents had died.  She has long since moved on to the Circle of Thorn, and their efforts to free the Envoy of Shadows,  but she makes a special trip back to Perez once a month to continue her fight. 

 

Yeah she's a fun one. 

 

The epiphany can come during a mission as well. That moment when you lay down Tar Patch...Fearsome Stare...Darkest Night...Aim...Rain of Fire...Inferno and everything just melts. Magical. Toss a fireball at the one fleeing Crey operative and look for the next mob.  

 

If I can get all three going at the same time so much the better. 

 

How do you know the character is a keeper?

 

 

 

(I so love the attention to detail Serge's staff provides. Not just in the way they help me find the perfect shade of blue but remembering that I loathe certain boot and glove styles so they are never hinted at.  

 

Went to the one in Atlas once and was shocked by the poor quality of service. Took 3 minutes to get anyone's attention and when I did the fellow was standoffish and had a holier-than-thou attitude. Doubt they see much in the way of foot traffic though and why would they. Miss Liberty is right over there and offers so much more.)

Edited March 14, 2021 by Sakai

[TemporalVileTerror]

They're ALL keepers.

After all, with 1000 slots per Shard per free account, what possible reason is there not to keep 'em all?

[Bill Z Bubba]

2 hours ago, TemporalVileTerror said:

They're ALL keepers.

After all, with 1000 slots per Shard per free account, what possible reason is there not to keep 'em all?

 

Cuz clutter. I try to keep my total number of alts around 50. Makes it very easy to crank up new ones when the base bins are always full of goodies.

 

Sometimes an idea keeps a character around when performance-wise it makes no sense to do so.

Sometimes a combo works so damn well it stays around for pure, mindless carnage.

Then there's my main, so good I've got three of him just on Excel.

[TemporalVileTerror]

There's no such thing as clutter.

Just "stuff that hasn't been organized yet."

 

 

 . . . is now a bad time to admit that I might be a bit of a hoarder in real life?

[Luminara]

2 hours ago, Sakai said:

How do you know the character is a keeper?

 

When I have an epiphany while staring at Mids'.  When I wake up at 3:43 a.m. and log into the game before putting the kettle on the stove for my morning coffee.  When I level up to the mid-teens and realize I should stop long enough to slot some enhancements.  When I don't mind using powers with longer animations.  When I try to design a second costume and give up after an hour because the first one is already perfect.

[Greycat]

Quote

How do you know when you have found something special?

 

Usually when the cops knock on my door some time later insisting it be returned.

[Doomguide2005]

38 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

When I have an epiphany while staring at Mids'.  When I wake up at 3:43 a.m. and log into the game before putting the kettle on the stove for my morning coffee.  When I level up to the mid-teens and realize I should stop long enough to slot some enhancements.  When I don't mind using powers with longer animations.  When I try to design a second costume and give up after an hour because the first one is already perfect.

Pretty much this.  Though for me it tends to be alternate builds in Mids rather than costumes.  If I get to the point of working on additional costumes that character has gotten very special indeed.

[Moka]

Cool concept. Cool costume. Fun powers. The triforce.

[cranebump]

When it doesn’t say “185 days offline” under the name.:-)

[Clave Dark 5]

If they're the new shiny I wanna play the most when I log in. 

 

If I wasn't feeling bored the last time I played them (I am just not into melee grunts since HC came back, but I do now have a stalker up to 40, so that's new). 

 

If I just love seeing the look for this new action figure I designed in the costume creator, you know, in action*. 

 

When I get compliments on the look of this new action figure I designed in the costume creator. 

 

When I don't feel pointlessly squishy playing them, or too frustratingly pointless period (such as say not doing any damage, not getting any chance to hit, etc.)

 

*This gets to one of my central premises to why CoH is fun: you basically get to design an action figure in the costume creator, and then play with it.

[Shred Monkey]

When I slot a level 53 HamiO in sprint... that's the final seal of approval.

[Bill Z Bubba]

7 minutes ago, Shred Monkey said:

When I slot a level 53 HamiO in sprint... that's the final seal of approval.

 

Whoa. I thought I was the only freak that did this.

[Coyote]

56 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Whoa. I thought I was the only freak that did this.

 

All Freaks do this. Even the ones who Fly.

[JnEricsonx]

The "feel" of the character.   When a team lead comments on how my Widow must be part tank because she jumps into groups going YOLO.  Or when my Nin/Nin stalker pops BU, hits AS, and proceeds to make a 54 Death Mage vanish from the universe with a 1400+ hit.  Or when someone thanks me for my Dark/Dark controller making the team play incredibly smooth by turning the enemies into babies.  Etc, etc.  Sometimes you just need "that moment".  Or, going back to about 2005 when I first played the game, made a Eng/Eng blaster, and hit my first enemy-who proceed to fly back 20 feet into a wall.  I then didn't do anything for 2 minutes straight but laugh.

[The_Warpact]

When you get butterflies in your stomach. 

 

When you cannot imagine life with out it.

 

When you say with meaning "that was cool asf".

 

When your standing above hoards of the dead and dying which may or may not include your teammates and think "wow I'm a bad mofo".

 

When it is just that good.

 

When others want to know your build on Mids.

[wjrasmussen]

2 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

When I slot a level 53 HamiO in sprint... that's the final seal of approval.

Only one?

[Erratic1]

12 hours ago, cranebump said:

When it doesn’t say “185 days offline” under the name.:-)

 

[Coyotedancer]

Do I enjoy playing it?

Yes?

Okay, then it gets to stay.

 

It's not really any more complex than that with my gang. If I have fun with the character, then I keep it around. If I don't... I have no hesitation about getting rid of it. I'm just not going to clutter up my list with anything I'd rather not play, just for the sake of having 500 characters. 😝

[Cobalt Arachne]

For me it was finding a character that played in a way that fit my personality and playstyle preference. I like to move into the fray fast and hit hard; my Broad Sword/Willpower Scrapper has been perfect in that regard.

Like an unrelenting ball of hyperactive violence zoomies, she rushes into danger! (which eventually lead to me needing to bulk-up her resistances so she'd stop eating pavement so frequently.) 😅

As long as the character can move fast, and their hits have 'oomph' they're usually keepers in my book. By this same thought I've had a hard time finding a support-type character I've enjoyed, and still haven't loved any Masterminds haha; but the game's ability to provide many flavors is what makes it fun, I know people who live to play support.

[Fire Chief]

When I look at my vet lvl and its almost 100 and it feels like I just rolled him up.

[SaintD]

I live in China, so I can only play in the morning (when international internet isn't garbage and you're all asleep) with gradually increasing lag as afternoon begins until evening is unplayable for real missions. The Catch 22 is that I work in the evening and do all my chores in the morning.

The result is that I idly build alts and slaughter Bads in the AE in the evening because it's all I can do with horrendous lag, and as such can never stick to a single toon, no matter how much I was enjoying it. There just ends up being a gap in playing it and I build a bunch of new ideas.

Edited March 17, 2021 by SaintD

[Mopery]

On 3/14/2021 at 8:00 PM, Moka said:

Cool concept. Cool costume. Fun powers. The triforce.

This. Many times over, this.

[MrAxe]

When you feel a bit of excitement before they first step into the city.

[Arnabas]

I need everything to come together... the story, the powers, and the costume.

I have one character who I made and remade multiple times, first as a fire Blaster, then an energy Blaster, followed by an ice Dominator. For one reason or another, none of those worked for him, but I wanted to keep the character because he is important to my head-cannon as the twin of the very first character I ever made back on live. 

 

Finally, I remade him as an SJ/ SR Scrapper with a new costume and a focus on being a speedster.... and now I absolutely love him.

 

Sometimes I will try out a powerset combo that sounds fun, but I end up deleting the character because it isn't fun. Later, I might try a new character with those same exact powers, but a new backstory and costume and I'll think "wait... it wasn't this much fun before!"

 

The sum of the parts make the character playable. If one element is off, the character tends to be largely ignored, or just deleted.

[Sovera]

When I return to it. I usually drop a character and play something else. Got a bit boring of having no one to play with so I got struck with altitis. Tried several characters and they all felt squishy or low damage. Not the EM/Bio scrapper, that one hits hard. Plenty of cannon there. But plenty of glass as well. Dropped it, stripped it of IOs. Made two different characters, compared my experience. Re-respeced the EM/Bio and re-slotted it and I'm tentatively re-leveling it again.

 

...but the experience just made me feel how my Fire/MA baby is such a gem with the early big damage and tough enough. I actually restrain myself and don't use BU/FE in lower teams so they get a chance to play too.