What keeps you playing 1 chaarcter?

[biostem]

So I had many level 50 characters back on live.  I love CoH, but I find myself spending more time creating new costumes and trying out different powerset combinations, than I do getting any character to a high level.  To-date, I don't think I've gotten any character through the Incarnate content.  I see someone else's costume, or I get inspired to try out a particular build, and I run off to whip up a costume and get to playing it.  I get the character to the teens or mid-20s, and quickly lose interest.  I want to stick with just one character, but cannot seem to get through the slog of the higher levels.  Do any of you folks have a particular approach or mindset that you get yourselves into, in order to complete that journey to 50 and beyond?  Thanks for reading!

[Dona Eis Requiem]

I wish I had an answer for you but alas...

The highest I've gone is to T3 Incarnate. Honestly, when it came out on live, that was the first time I let my sub lapse.

I can't get into the end- game player mindset. Not in any game I've played. It all feels too hamster-on-the-wheel for me.

It's always just seemed like something tacked on to keep people playing (paying). That may not be the case here, now, but I still find it boring.

I don't have a steady group of players to run with coming back so late in the game so that may contribute to my lack of interest.

Creating something new is always more appealing to me as well. 

[ZorkNemesis]

I have a gold costume contest title, I feel as though i'm a bit obligated to play that character as a result.

 

That said, fun character who's pretty fun to play and is my designated badger now too.

 

Edited December 2, 2021 by ZorkNemesis

[Greycat]

Well. "Altaholic" does not mean "No or few 50s."

 

Going to start with - I made a bit of a guide back on live. The Altaholic's guide to getting to 50. You may get some ideas there.

 

Short form for me, currently, would be one or more of these -

- I like the character as a *character.*

- RP keeps me playing one or two characters consistently. (Finally have Cat Grey over VL100.)

- I have "projects" like "One of each x to 50."

- And sometimes it's just something that clicks.

 

They're not the only things, but they've been the most helpful.

[Ironblade]

Well, once upon a time, I was reading the manual while I waited for the game to download (took nearly 3 hours) and I felt broadsword/regen would be a good combination just for learning the game.  So, I made Ironblade.

 

He ended up being my favorite character.  Maybe because he was the first one I created, or because I liked the powers.  I don't have any other scrappers, but I have 22 other characters with a combined total of 124 vet levels.  Ironblade has 127 vet levels.  The proportion of play was similar back on live, with Ironblade getting about the same attention as all my other characters combined.

 

I do have one habit that limits my number of characters.  I don't make a character unless I think I'll take it to 50.  At the moment, I have just six characters in the 1 to 49 range.

[Ironblade]

12 minutes ago, Greycat said:

- I have "projects" like "One of each x to 50."

Yep. Yep.  I did exactly that back on live.  I took every AT to 50.  My other project was to take every tank armor set to 50.  I had taken every armor set to 50 back on live (three times for invuln - that's my favorite) and I've taken radiation armor to 50 on Homecoming and my bio armor tank is currently 46.

[cranebump]

Familiarity and ease, I guess. Or maybe versatility. Of all my stable, I play KR Devil the most because I just like the interplay between TA and AR. Feels like I can help a team in various ways thanks to the flexibility of TA (-acc, slow, stun, immobilize). And since all his Kbs are proc’ed to KD, he can damage with some soft control. True, he’s not awesome at any one thing, but he can Swiss Army knife on just about any level. So, add feeling useful to teams as another reason.

[Luminara]

The right costume.  The right name.  Concept which fits and feeds into both.  Feels good in combat (not necessarily devastating or untouchable, but capable, consistent and always in motion).  Fluid attack chain.

 

Legionette, my main (Staff/Willpower brute), isn't exceptional in appearance or performance.  But she is exactly the Wonder Woman type of character I always wanted to play, but couldn't or didn't for various reasons.  Willpower suits the concept I had so perfectly that I'd have suspected that it was designed specifically to meet my needs, if I had a towering ego.  And I really do like the Staff attacks.  I don't care if they aren't ZOMGSODAMAGEZ, I like them.

 

Titanea, my Shield/Elec tank, might be a played out cliché for some, but I have a lot of fun playing her.  She's big, burly and bad-ass, and the dual teleport AoE attacks are rather delightful to fire off.

 

Winter's Grasp, my Ice/Willpower sentinel, was the surprise.  I expected to finish the character and move on to the next alt.  Instead, she's picked up more badges than Legionette, she's yellowing those Flashback missions and I'm still engaged when I'm playing her.  I thought that would be my Archery/Energy sentinel, but here I am, plugging along with Winter's Grasp while the other one slowly gathers dust.

 

I didn't pick my cats, they picked me.  I didn't pick my favorite characters, they picked me.

[Six-Six]

Hi, I'm Six-Six and I'm an altoholic.

I've got over 100 toons, roughly half of them at 50, only a handful of them have earned their T4s, and I constantly play around 3-4 toons to get them to 50.

I'm on a similar boat. It's not that I lose interest in a toon, it's that I keep getting new ideas--for costumes and power combos--that I want to try. However, the main driving force for me to complete the journey to 50 is the story. Like Greycat, each toon is his/her own character. It has its own unique path of contacts and missions that give it its own context and personal story... at least in my head. I enjoy the low level content and the fact that I have limited powers early in the game. (I do tend to get a little bored when I transform in to a steam-rolling avatar of destruction). I try instil some sort of discipline to see things through to 50 solo (with no XP boost and often disabling XP in order not to outlevel some contacts), but the at the higher levels when I start to lose interest, I tend to join TFs like ITF or Market Crash that gives a huge push... so that I can say that I'm done with that toon for now and move on to my next idea.

I suppose one thing that helps is that I play them hobo style. Meaning they don't get a lot of help from other alts in terms of IOs or inf. I've ran several toons like this and each toon gets about 100 recipes just from drops and about 25m inf. With all the merits they earn from mission arcs, it's more than enough to fully IO each one. I guess "earning" their way up adds to the challenge and keeps the interest in a particular toon going.

I rarely PL a toon, except one or two that I created solely out of a curiosity of how a certain Epic/Patron will interact with a power combo.

My problem is not getting to 50, it's going back to a toon after it's reached 50. So many alts, so little play time. =(

[Troo]

Troo was not my first character, or first global handle. He was my third or fourth character.

 

'Gy' was my first (ss/inv brute), 'Tru' was my second (rad/drk corruptor and favorite to play).

 

This character, Troo (energy/regen stalker (yep)), just seemed to stumble onto exploits, into bugs, and abused the game mechanics. It became my marketing main and the name other folks used regardless of what character I was playing. 

 

{Homecoming troo version of Troo is level locked at 32 and camps in Siren's hoping for someone to play with}

 

Similar to ZN below, I might feel a bit obligated for events and such. (blue side makes his hoofs burn)

 

17 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

I feel as though i'm a bit obligated to play that character as a result.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2021 by Troo

[Troo]

13 minutes ago, Six-Six said:

Hi, I'm Six-Six and I'm an altoholic.

 

awesomeness.

[Ukase]

What makes me spend time playing a character? 

For me, it tends to be badges that keep me playing it. The more you get, the more you want to get. 

[DoctorDitko]

Immersion.

 

I'm a flavor roleplayer (i.e., when I feel like it) but the characters where powerset meets concept and I can, for seconds at a time, forget I'm dumpy old me and feel like a superhero.

 

An inspired costume is just icing on the cake. (But cakes without icing... Meh!)

 

[UltraAlt]

4 hours ago, biostem said:

So I had many level 50 characters back on live.  I love CoH, but I find myself spending more time creating new costumes and trying out different powerset combinations, than I do getting any character to a high level.  To-date, I don't think I've gotten any character through the Incarnate content.  I see someone else's costume, or I get inspired to try out a particular build, and I run off to whip up a costume and get to playing it.  I get the character to the teens or mid-20s, and quickly lose interest. 

 

I have over 100 characters at this point. It isn't that I'm losing interest in any of the characters. It' more that I like making new characters - like you do.

I don't think there is anything wrong with making new characters and playing them until you decide something else would be fun to play. You shouldn't blame yourself for enjoying the game in that manner.

 

4 hours ago, biostem said:

Do any of you folks have a particular approach or mindset that you get yourselves into, in order to complete that journey to 50 and beyond?

 

You know the deal. You have two paths to 50.

1) You can play the game to 50.

2) You can get power-leveled to 50 - aka Farmed to 50.

 

So let's start off with the basics. You are going to stay engaged faster if you have friends to team up with. If you don't have friends you know to team up with, then PUG.

I PUG a lot. Like all the time when I don't game with the couple of real-life friends that I have in this game or in-game friends. Sometimes my RL/IG friends PUG but mainly they seem to like to game with a small group, so I go with the flow.

Teaming - especially running task forces - seems to make the leveling quicker and more entertaining because everyone is on the go.

 

If you are taking the game-playing path,

Lead teams yourself so you can regulate the difficulty.

Lead task forces yourself, and make sure to announce you are running an XP task force versus a speed task force ... I mean if you are really trying to level.

Don't feel confined with that one character though or you might start to hate it ... which ruins the point of having fun playing the game to level up.

 

If you are going to powerlevel/farm to 50,

That's easy enough these days.

If the goal is just to get to 50 for some reason, this is the quickest and easiest path.

Just yell out in /LFG that you are looking for a farm. Maybe even move to Excelsior to powerlevel your character and then move back to the server you want to game on.

 

4 hours ago, biostem said:

To-date, I don't think I've gotten any character through the Incarnate content.

 

I hate end-game content. I really hate the incarnate system.

It's a grind. Have at it, but don't expect me to condone it.

I pretty much shelf my characters when they get to 50 and only pull them out on rare occasions.

[Veracor]

It's mostly about identifying over a period of time what you subconsciously want to be in the game, rather than you're currently thinking you want to be.  This is largely an introspective process to find the style of play that you will enjoy the longest, versus what AT/powersets/character concepts you think other people will be the most impressed to see in a team (as this is a social game after all).  And then you actually need to "live" that character, slowplaying the story and being a completionist so that you feel you belong in the game, and realizing that you will always have weaknesses and faults no matter what you choose, and that that is actually okay.  As long as you identify with the character and accept the flaws in it, you'll stick with it.  Being level 50 doesn't mean you HAVE to do level 50 content right away, you can totally just join lower level content and be exemplared.

There's no shame in having many characters and playing different things, but if you're looking to narrow it down to just a few it can help to identify the details of a quick daydream: what do you imagine yourself being congratulated for doing by friends following a victory against a difficult opponent, or what they're counting on you to do well?  For me, that was to be the teammate that fearlessly threw himself into harm's way to prevent friends from dying as they played out their own roles.  But how did I translate that to CoH in 2019 as Homecoming launched, a game I had hardly played on live and had zilch for experience with, and whose only info I could get was cross-referencing old archived forum threads with Pines' outdated hero builder?  I explored Brute numbers, Willpower, Fiery Melee, and even considered Warshade!  What ended up tipping my decision into Bio/TW Tanker was the acceptance that I needed to specialize if I really wanted to be exceptional, that Bio offered greater flexibility within that role than the other armors, and that having a weapon powerset was an additional cool costume piece.  Titan Weapon, based on what I was reading from archived 2012 forum threads, also seemed to me a powerset with higher skill ceiling/payout than most, and I wanted any "best tank" reputation to derive from skilled gameplay no matter how much that meant that I would have to learn and play pre-emptively.  And so after two weeks of hardly playing Homecoming on its launch and instead soul-searching the permanent choice of AT and powerset for my namesake, I decided to be Veracor the Bio/TW Tanker and have never once regretted it.

 

Am I typical?  Probably not.  There's lots of other ATs and powersets that I could've had my main be and there will always be weakness or fault somewhere.  But that's fine!  I feel that in this game it is much more important to main an over-arcing role than it is to fill a niche, and for me it is to be a protector for altoholics to rely upon when they try out all the new-fangled powersets.  And that is always what I will play when I'm not required by a team comp or speedrun to be on something specific.  All those other people that I witness having cool concepts and costumes for their squishy Blasters and Scrappers?  I don't want to be them, I want to work with them so that we shine as a team no matter what their level is!  I am Veracor!  I am a tank, and I seek to be exceptional not for my own glory, but for the well-being of others!  (Although I will laugh if you faceplant from forgetting EoE in a Hami raid >.>)

[Snarky]

I am back on a Dark/Invul Brute. Part of this is I love the archetype.  Brutes are my thing.  Part of it is I lo e Invulnerability. Part of it is I love the undead Dark theme

What brings me to this character, keeps me coming back to this character, is I love the concept of the character and the way I am able to realize that concept in CoH/V.

This game is truly alone in letting players define who they are in an online world 

 

[TheZag]

For me when i landed on 'my power combo'  is what brings me back to the same character.  I originally made a bio armor/dark melee tank because i heard it was good for tanking hamidon.  And while it is great for hami,  turns out it was really fun for me.  I play him more away from hami raids then in a hami raid.

 

There is plenty of reasons people make new toons but if you land on 'your power combo/concept',  you will find yourself coming back for more.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Bill Z Bubba the Scrapper was the first character I ever created in CoH back in Issue 1. Two nights ago he hit 750 badges and 750 vet lvls. I didn't plan it that way like I did with 666 badges/vetlvls but was amused that the two are staying close together.

 

He gets played the most (including his brute and tank incarnations) for no other reason but that I like him and he is the personification of me that I share with the CoH community.

 

I have other fully T4ed, tricked out and accoladed characters, but ya either have a main or ya don't.

[Rishidian]

I don't think I'm an altaholic.  I have about 20 characters - mostly heroes.  Only 2 are level 50. Only 1 is abandoned.

 

All the rest are various levels, from about level 10 to their mid-40's.  My nightly and weekend character choice goes something like this:

Weeknights: Look for a character that hasn't been played in the longest time.  When I play them, if luck doesn't go their way (4+ face plants), then choose another if there is still time.  I figure it just isn't their day, and move on.

Weekends: 1 day is spent on one of the 50's.  The other 2 days are for leveling up the younger ones.

It took me over a year to get the 2 to level 50, and I expect the same for the rest.  I solo about everything - No Farms or PL'ing...It's kind of my thing.

 

I try to not have 2 similar characters.  I want to experience how they play, and how I do with them, not to mention the game content.  My level 50 Bio/Street Justice Brute, Duk Duke, is very fun, and easy.  I think playing him is therapeutic.  Others, well, It depends on how much effort I feel like putting in.  Any of my defenders requires more effort to keep alive.  If I'm not on my toes, they are on their face.  But all are fun, whatever that means.  I enjoy playing them.

 

I don't build new characters because I'm bored.  I build new ones because I want to try out something different, like a Fire/Fire something (sorry, my memory is failing and I can't remember details like I used to).  I like Defenders, but they like to group, but I don't like to group too much - I'm too much of a flake.  The problem is, the more alts, the longer it takes to level them, because they get less time per week or month.   Not necessarily a problem - just reality.  What a concept!

 

[Outrider_01]

about 12 50s so far, 11 fully IO and no Incarnate as I run off to the next one. Dozens of theory builds sitting a mids folder, just can't decide what direction to go.

[Shred Monkey]

For me, it comes down to total and complete destructiveness.  If a toon kicks enough s## I'll figure out the name, costume, and other stuff.

 

I make other toons, and I run missions and think, gee, I wish I was playing X because he does this better.... then switch and play X.   That keeps happening over and over until X never changes.  (Currently X is an energy/energy stalker)

[MrAxe]

Its my favourite AT (Tank)

Has two of my favourite power sets

I can farm with him (although not as efficiently as fire spines)

I don't have a character concept that limits the costumes I can have

[Carnifax]

I tend towards getting obsessed with whatever it is I'm currently intrigued with and run them all the way to 40s. Then another "intrigue" may come up and I'll alternate between getting the 40-something to 50 and levelling the lower level. Generally they'll be two quite different characters as well (maybe the 40-something is a Stalker and the lower level is support of some sort).

 

As for "A main" I have a stable of a few chars I use when the SG cry goes out for something. If we need a general Tank it's always the Fire/Claws Chicken of Justice because they're fluid and tough enough for most of the game. If a tanky-tank is needed then Rad/MA. Otherwise I might bring Carni (Ill/Dark) or Bullitt (DP/Kin) if support is required, depending on what else we have. It's rare enough I bother with bringing a DPS, mostly because I know my SG teammates will probably include at least 1 Fire Blaster and a Stalker, but for some reason my Fire/Nature corruptor is my Tinplex specialist. 

 

Overall the Flaming Chicken tends to be the one who gets brought along to casual TFs and the like due to the flexiblilty and how well they exemp. 

 

 

[0th Power]

Most of my alts phase out around lv 40.  I do get a few to 50, but most of them get shelved after being fully slotted.  My main is an energy/energy blaster that I initially created in closed beta and was the 1st thing I recreated once I found Homecoming.  Reason I continue to play my main?  Because energy/energy blaster is my favorite.

[pawstruck]

My 2inf: Try to remember that this is a game, and that its purpose is to amuse the player. If I stop having fun, I immediately do something else. (I mean, if I was going to work, I'd rather do it in real life!)

 

Costume/character making is at least 50% of the game for me. I'd argue that it's what makes CoH the king of superhero RPG's.

 

I have zero 50's, and I have a blast playing. To each his own. :)