Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #44: Shady Acres Retirement Home (which characters do you have collecting dust?)

[SeraphimKensai]

Welcome back to another weekly discussion. This week I was thinking about all the characters I have in my cadre, and as I looked through my three accounts I realized I have several even lvl 50s that haven't seen the light of day in a year or more. So it got me thinking about all the characters out there collecting dust.

 

Which character of yours has the longest time since they last logged in? What level are they? AT? Powersets? Are they slotted with enhancements? What spurred you to roll that character? Why has it been sitting idle for as long as it has? How many characters do you have that you haven't played in a year or longer?

 

Will they make a triumphant return to prowling rooftops in spandex or stick to playing pickleball and eating Werther's originals?

 

As always thanks for playing.

[Without_Pause]

Spine/fire Brute done with a cheap build. This should be a bit obvious.

1. This build isn't meta anymore.

2. It isn't even the meta before the last changes to /fa.

3. I really don't do farming. I only do it in spots.

4. And if I did, I have a Rad/fire.

 

Before I recently decided to look at what it still had on it, it had been over 500 days since I logged on it. It is the only level 50 which made me genuinely debate deleting it. 

[lemming]

100 characters on two accounts, five haven't hit 50 yet.  I'm trying to keep myself to 100.  If I get an idea for another char, I tend to delete one of the non-played ones.  Which one gets the axe is getting harder.  Some I want to keep the name, or the concept is something that I just haven't given up on.  If it's the name, that may wind up being one that gets rerolled with a different AT, powerset, etc...

 

I play almost all on Everlasting now and some have moved over from Excelsior.  So far 42 have moved over.  I also have one outlier on Reunion holding down a base.

 

I do tend to run all my characters a least briefly during holiday stuff which is one reason I keep the limit of 100.  I can cycle thru that.  When I had over 200, it was bit much.   (And I'm too CDO to not run them thru some of it...)

 

[Greycat]

Hmmm. none of mine are less than 132 days unplayed - probably an anniversary badge login or some such.

 

That said, I'm an RPer. I have characters who are around *just* for the occasional need of somebody's parent, sibling or boss, or their other-dimensional self (such as one from a dimension whose politics are decided by wrestling) who pokes in every once in a while to push a story or just check in and add some silliness. So they will sit unplayed.

 

I've got a few that are just characters I loved from live, but they don't get played much because their stories were finished, or they were so tied to people who aren't *here* and aren't *coming* here for whatever reason that playing them's just sort of empty without the rest of the squad. Sort of memorial characters.

 

I've got one that's in that boat that, thanks to the electric blast and leveling changes, feels *wrong* and puts me off of playing her. Given she's a remake of my first 50, and is/was in a "classic play" type project SG (taking a pool and some powers to simulate fitness, not slotting it 'til then, using just TO/DO/SOs) it bothers me.

 

They all vary in levels, from the single digits to 50. And I rarely delete a character, so... I see no reason to most of the time. I've had the "this just doesn't click with me" turn into "NOW it does!" months or even years later often enough on live, and with 1000 slots per account... they can sit.

[JasperStone]

I am going through my entire roster, spending a month on each character.

Getting as far as I can with each one.

Setting a good build

Incarnates

Badges

I will log into others to move them for day job badges

[Six-Six]

All of them, including my current toon. I just happen to live in a very dusty corner of this flat earth.

[Etched]

I am a master at deletin toons and being a t4 incarnate does not save them from extinction. 

 

I am very particular about my toons and if they don't live up to my expectations then they are voided. I have deleted more t4 50s than most players have with 2 on the choppin block currently (BR/SR Sent & A Bane SoA (which didn't get far enough to be incarnated)).  With that being said, I normally roll a toon to replace the deleted toon/toons.

 

Otherwise, the toons that do make the cut are logged on the first of each month to collect merits, emp merits, inf, and etc. 

 

I'm extremely OCD about my toons. They need to be able to handle 3 criteria- solo, team, and tf/sf/gms.

 

I have started movin toons to Excel that I don't play that much, prolly to be deleted.

 

@Etched

[UltraAlt]

17 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Which character of yours has the longest time since they last logged in?

 

I log mine in before 60 days if I can help it.

I do a rotation and try to catch them starting at 30 days, but I market with pretty much all of them at this point to some degree or another, so it gets time consuming for some of them.

Only one account, but on all servers.

 

17 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Are they slotted with enhancements?

 

Yes. All of them. With some level of stored set IOs, event IOs, and/or Archetype IOs waiting to slot as the character levels up.

 

17 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

What spurred you to roll that character?

 

Across all character since I don't have anyone lying dormant due to the shadowing threat of name release and only having 2-3 50's.

95% character conception driven. Thought "that would be a cool character", and made them.

4~% to try a set and made a character conception to match the set. 

1~% picket a set, randomly selected a costume, tweaked the costume, and created a character conception to match the costume and powerset.

 

17 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Why has it been sitting idle for as long as it has?

 

Because it is the next character waiting to login as part of the rotation.

 

17 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

How many characters do you have that you haven't played in a year or longer?

 

Now this is the real thing.

Because I don't play 50's and I only have 2-3 of them, and I'm ever vigilant of the possibility of the name release program going live and actually releasing names, there really is no telling how long has been since I actually "played" a character.

 

Logging in and marketing with them in order to make sure that they have been logged in, and I'm doing something with them to generate loot/gear/stuff for all my other characters while I'm doing it ... this isn't really playing them.

 

I have to say the characters that I know for sure that I haven't "played" for a very long time are the ones that I still have on Indomitable. There is just little to no activity there.

Sadly, I don't play my characters much on Reunion, for whatever reason, I have a special connection to some of those. I guess because I was able to play on a good number of really good teams over there during the COVID lockdown.

I don't get to play my characters as much on Torchbearer any more because of the same kind of thing going on. the majority of my characters are on Torchbearer, but most of the primetime game play time over there is playing with a supergroup and that group doesn't tend to alt up much, mostly creates character and levels them up and then starts over again. By the time that play time is up, there has been a massive population drop and not as easy to find teams any more after prime time.

So I play more on Everlasting at this point than any of the other servers. I work on my Origins project on Everlasting or market until I see a /lfg for a team that I have time for or I see there are enough people on in a level range that I like to game in and try to get a team going.

Excelsior. Yeah. I made 2 sgs there with 10 members each. Sometimes I'll team up if I'm marketing and people are looking for more, but I generally don't go out of my way to start teams over there. It's the new Freedom, and people behave like that as it is the most populous server. It's more for fun for me to team up elsewhere.

 

I have some characters that were created just to be part of one seasonal event or another. They come out to play the seasonal events and then pretty much hide away until their time comes around the next year.

 

18 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

AT?

 

I don't play VETA. I don't have Warshade.

I have 2 Peacebringers, 2 Brutes, and 9 Stalkers. Stalkers probably get the least play. The way most teams run these days, I might as well play a scrapper instead. I just don't get to use the stalker the way it was designed to be played when running with most groups.

I would throw the Corruptors in that mix, but I've been running some corruptors fairly often recently.

 

18 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Will they make a triumphant return to prowling rooftops in spandex

 

When the time is correct and the call is heard, all my character respond because they are all ...

 

Rapid Response Members

 

I check out the leader's name on an /lfg call and try to fit the genre, level range, or ask what the team needs (we all know that pretty much any team can make it happen, so I don't always ask)

 

18 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

or stick to playing pickleball

 

I have managed to avoid finding out what that is and I hope that I don't ever have to find out.

 

 

[High_Beam]

I don't have hundreds of alts so none are truly retired.  a couple (and I mean like 5) were moved to Everlasting because I wasn't into playing them any more but were at a level where shit-canning them made me feel bad.  So when Excelsior is down, I go to Everlasting and play my Arachnos Soldier, or that psi/psi Blaster that is still slow as balls even after the changes.  I have one (1) 50 who only gets pulled out when the Nukems do Creepy Children of the Dammed Illusion Monster Pull Events.

[huang3721]

On 9/8/2023 at 1:53 AM, SeraphimKensai said:

Why has it been sitting idle for as long as it has?

 

I had to do a clean install on my notebook a few months ago (June?). I haven't restored COH HC from my backup disk ever since.

 

 

On 9/8/2023 at 1:53 AM, SeraphimKensai said:

Will they make a triumphant return to prowling rooftops in spandex . . .

 

They will return when the HC team continues COH's major story arcs. As far as my headcanon goes, they are still dealing with multiple failed Rikti invasions, the meteor strike, the aftermath of the Praetorian War, etc. Two Loyalists are unaccounted for because they'd rather die fighting than flee to Primal Earth. One Blue sider is so disillusioned with the carnage he decides to retire and focus on his day job. One Red sider and a full-fledged Incarnate stole enough Praetorian tech from the Arachnos to get all the money she wanted and fled to a friendly country. She is currently living her dream there.

 

 

[rolandgrey]

I have 148 characters.  Only around 20 are 50s.  None of them are "retired," though.  Usually, I just have an arc I'm saving on that particular character because I know it has an AV in it that I want to share with my friends.  Usually, I'm just not in the mood for that particular powerset combo.

[KaizenSoze]

A number of controllers and doms. I enjoyed leveling them, but they are really needed at high levels.

[GastlyGibus]

There are three main reasons a character in my roster gets ignored:

• The concept or costume isn't working for me.
• The powersets don't mesh well with each other.
• The character just isn't fun to play.

Right now, the most idle character I have is an elec/elec Tanker, sitting at 224 days since last played. The reason is the first one I listed; her costume and concept just aren't really meshing for me. Every character of mine has a backstory, and sometimes, when I put those ideas down into a character, I find the character comes up short. Usually, I keep these characters around because I like the name, and I want to keep the name held for myself for a later time. Yeah, you can call me selfish for that, but a lot of times when a character doesn't work, I'll keep the name but rework the powers and concept. 

 

I keep characters around because, while I intend to visit them in the future, work keeps me from playing all of them. Sometimes, you come home from work, and you just want to play a character that you know and enjoy, and all the other alts sit on the backburner for a while. Eventually though, I come around to logging back on with them, play with them for a little bit more, and see if I can't make it work again. Sometimes, I can, and the character enjoys more regular playtime as I'm able to fix whatever was wrong with them, but other times, after playing them again, I realize it just isn't working out and I scrap the character entirely.

 

As of right now, these are the top five most ignored characters on my roster.

1. Street Shock, 224 days, level 31 elec/elec Tanker. See above.
2. Femme Flare, 220 days, level 24 fire/fire Blaster. I love the concept and the costume, but playing her is just kind of boring. Sure, she does lots of damage, but that's pretty much all she does. Lots of pew-pew and fire punching. I may rework the concept in the future, same name and costume, but different AT and powers.
3. Warp Shot, 218 days, level 32 Kin/SR Scrapper. I've rolled two super reflexes characters, and I think I've learned by now that super reflexes is one of the most boring power sets in the game. It's a very "fire and forget" kind of set, which I don't find fun. I'll probably just end up deleting him outright, since I'm not terribly attached to the name or the costume.
4. Sapphire Sting, 217 days, level 26 Fortunata. I am fully prepared to be spat upon for this unspeakable heresy, since I know Fortunatas are highly appreciated by many, but I am going to say it. Fortunatas are boring. Playing her so far, she just feels like a really underwhelming Dominator. I'm keeping her around in the hopes that one day I'll take a harder look and discover the secret to enjoying the AT, as I've heard nothing but good things about Fortunatas, but right now, she sits idle.
5. Gleaming Cut, 204 days, level 50 SR/Kat Tanker. The costume and concept is really cool, but as stated before, super reflexes is boring to me. Not sure how he made it to 50, nor am I entirely sure on what to do with him. I rolled a Bio/Claws Tanker afterwards and found that character infinitely more enjoyable as my main Tanker, so Gleaming Cut currently stands in limbo, waiting for me to make a decision on what to do with him. (Sounds very ominous, OoOoOo.)

Edited September 9, 2023 by GastlyGibus

[carroto]

Off the top of my head I abandoned my Grav Dominator.  Been so long I'm not sure of the secondary power set.  I might have taken him to 50 or quit in the late 40s.  Even with the last set of changes Gravity Control just isn't good.  Wormhole is really hard to use well on teams.  It seems to always position mobs poorly or cause scatter, but that's really the only every-group tool the set has.

 

I abandoned my Rad/??? Stalker because I really didn't like Rad Melee.  Took him to 50 though and fully IO'ed him.  The animations are slow and wonky.  I was also disappointed by how unreliable the Contaminated effect was.  I picked the set in part because I thought I could leverage the heal from Radiation Siphon, but when I needed a heal I could never find a Contaminated enemy.  On teams it was hard to tell which ones were under the effect, or when I could find one someone would often defeat it before I could take advantage.  Quite frustrating needing a heal and corpse-blasting and missing it.  Plus the animation for Radiation Siphon is one of my least favorite in the game.

 

I had a bit more wisdom and quit my Staff Melee Stalker somewhere in the 30s.  The set looks decent (but not great) on paper but in play somehow it just feels weak.  I think it's the combination of the animations and sound effects.  Doesn't seem like it's doing much.

 

I took a Widow to 50 but never specced into a final build.  I can never seem to come up with a Fortunata build I'm happy with.  I guess I'm trying to do too many things with it.  Maybe it's the paradox of choice.

 

 

[BazookaTwo]

Mossbauer - my lvl 50 grav/time controller, rarely gets any gameplay now. Mostly because I consider it an 'easy mode' character. He could use a respec, and I prolly have stripped some IO's off of him for other characters. 

I have been looking at my two main accounts and going through each play type roster (melee, ranged, control, etc) and tried to sacrifice the lesser to their betters. 

[Troo]

So many characters and so little time.

 

Some characters get too strong and become boring.

• This happened on a Psi / Mental Blaster and an Shield / Energy Tanker

Others just don't work out.

• Ice / Time Corruptor made it to 50 and I just never liked Time as much as other sets.
• A Dark / Electrical Defender Just wasn't as much fun as on a Corruptor.
• These sit.. stripped of anything of value.

[Coyotedancer]

Heh... Pretty much all of mine are "retired" these days. I think I've played the game exactly twice all summer. 😝

[A Cat]

The main reasons for me is if their story arc has completed. Not really RP necessarily (except in my head like a weirdo I guess). But I'll make a run with certain arcs in mind. The only power sets that have kept me playing a character long after 50 and T4 so far are EM and Bio. Nothing wrong with other stuff but EM feels satisfying and I like the extra damage and active play style with Bio. 

[Lusiphur Malache]

I have 25 t4 50s parked on Everlasting.  I spend a few minutes with every now and again to remind myself how they work and if a friend needs  a specific teammate.  Expect those numbers to increase as I'm working on 6 50s in various levels of incarnateness.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

I have a sentinel I wanna let go but instead its out topasture