Add a vendor with "Training" origin enhancements

[gabrilend]

Some of us just like to play the game on hard mode.

 

2007scape (the modern version of Runescape) has an "ironman" mode where you can't trade with other players. I think it'd be neat if that style of play was catered to a bit in City of Heroes/Villains. Currently, the player is expected to use the auction house. If they don't, they won't be able to save up enough infamy to buy all their enhancements, as the only ones available at the store are single or dual origin. Very expensive for a noob with no dollars!

 

This problem could be solved if the old, iconic, training origin enhancements were added back in. The ones with a gray border, that aren't locked to a particular character origin. They were very cheap and you could fully equip a character just from the infamy you gained while levelling up. Unfortunately that's not quite true with the current vendors, who only offer very expensive (and powerful) single and dual origin enhancements.

 

In addition, utilizing the training origin enhancements increases the difficulty of the game. Using inventions and origin enhancements introduces power-creep, causing the player to deal massive amounts of damage and be able to defeat foes that they should have no business taking on - back on live, if you were poor and levelling for the first time, it was generally a bad idea to set your mission difficulty to higher than the baseline, or rather if you did, you knew what you were getting into. And yet fighting hordes of red and purple foes is generally considered normal now.

 

Some of us like to play on hard mode. Giving us the tools to "up the difficulty" without necessarily increasing the reward is the essence of what "ironman mode" from 2007scape exemplifies - adding a vendor that sells training origin enhancements could be a step toward accommodating that type of gameplay in CoX.

SOURCE: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Enhancements#Training_Enhancements

[Rudra]

Talk to any vendor in your SG base. They sell them. (Edit: They cap at level 20, but they are there.)

Edited March 14 by Rudra

[Yomo Kimyata]

Or you can buy them with AE tickets.

[gabrilend]

hmmmm, I suppose those work.

 

However they require you to have a supergroup or use Architect Entertainment, which... is not ideal for all playstyles. Each of those options provides the same content (training origin enhancements), however it does not allow for the same playstyle (akin to ironman mode from 2007scape). So unfortunately those solutions, while providing access to the requested material, do not provide a solution which allows for the suggested playstyle to be a viable option.

 

Thank you for responding, though. It's good to know they still exist somewhere in the game, even if their presence does not have the same effect it once did.

[Rudra]

You can make a SG just for yourself. You don't even have to build the base. Just plop a vendor in the entrance room you get by default, and then you can use /altinvite to get any character you make into the group to buy the IOs up to level 20.

 

You can also make an AE mission/arc and every time someone plays it, you get 5 tickets. Just tell others about it and hope they play it.

[gabrilend]

I see... Well, in that case, I'd like to alter the suggestion to be:

 

"add training origin enhancements to the SG vendor from level 21-50"

and also

"add a training origin enhancement vendor to the world - Pocket D? In Hospitals? It doesn't matter where, as long as it's accessible"

[Glacier Peak]

Can't a player just slot the Training Origin enhancements and then click upgrade when in the enhancement screen to make all their enhancements level up by paying an inf fee?

 

Do TOs cap at Level 20?

 

Why even slot anything at all if it's an Iron Challenge? 

[Rudra]

22 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Do TOs cap at Level 20?

No, per the AH they go up to 53. They stop at 20 when bought through the base vendor though.

[Glacier Peak]

There would need to be much effort to get them to Level 53 - that sounds like a real challenge to me!

Edited March 15 by Glacier Peak

[gabrilend]

I didn't know you could upgrade them like that! Neat!

 

The reason you slot things at all is because it allows you to customize your character. Basically giving you semi-permanent choices about how you'd like your character to play and how it should feel.

 

It seems like there already exists the tools to accomplish my desired goals. Thank you for commenting everyone!

[Purrfekshawn]

There is also two vendors in the game located on Independency Port & Talos Island, which sell TO's up to level 30:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Training_Enhancement_Costs#85%_baseline_prices

[AboveTheChemist]

14 hours ago, gabrilend said:

However they require you to have a supergroup

 

In addition to Rudra's suggestion for building a simple SG base, you could also use one of the many travel hub/utility bases that folks have set up. The wiki has updated base code lists (here's Everlasting's list, for example) that you can sort by venue. Look for 'Travel Hub' and most if not all of those should have vendors that sell training enhancements. Links for the base lists of other shards are at the bottom of that page.

[PeregrineFalcon]

The only real problem that I see is once your character gets past level 33. Sure you'll be able to keep upgrading your enhancements, but you get a lot of slots after level 33 and you won't be able to slot new enhancements in order to upgrade them. So unless you buy high level TOs from Wentworths you won't be able to fill those slots.

[Grouchybeast]

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

The only real problem that I see is once your character gets past level 33. Sure you'll be able to keep upgrading your enhancements, but you get a lot of slots after level 33 and you won't be able to slot new enhancements in order to upgrade them. So unless you buy high level TOs from Wentworths you won't be able to fill those slots.

 

Maybe level 10 Common IOs would be a good enough approximation?  They give 11.7% for schedule A, which is certainly more than a TO, but considerably less than an SO.

 

ETA: Am I misremembering, or do TO/DO/SOs now not go level+, level++, level+++ as they combine, but actually increase in base level?  If they do, then theoretically you could buy a LOT of TOs at level 30 and then recombine, strip and stash then, and keep doing that all the way up to 50.  It would be incredibly time-consuming and tedious, but theoretically possible?

Edited March 15 by Grouchybeast

[Rudra]

32 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

 

Maybe level 10 Common IOs would be a good enough approximation?  They give 11.7% for schedule A, which is certainly more than a TO, but considerably less than an SO.

 

ETA: Am I misremembering, or do TO/DO/SOs now not go level+, level++, level+++ as they combine, but actually increase in base level?  If they do, then theoretically you could buy a LOT of TOs at level 30 and then recombine, strip and stash then, and keep doing that all the way up to 50.  It would be incredibly time-consuming and tedious, but theoretically possible?

I tried last night, but could not find a way to get an unslotted TO to upgrade to the next level. And you can't slot a red enhancement. (I removed my generic IO from Rest on my main MM and tried to work a level 20 TO to be slottable. I couldn't do it.) So probably the best way of doing what the author wants is to ahve a vendor and an Enhancement storage in their base, plan out their character, and then buy all their TOs before level 21 (or 31 if there is a vendor in Talos/IP), and upgrade all the pre-purchased TOs as they go. ... which will require a lot of unslotters....

[Grouchybeast]

33 minutes ago, Rudra said:

 So probably the best way of doing what the author wants is to ahve a vendor and an Enhancement storage in their base, plan out their character, and then buy all their TOs before level 21 (or 31 if there is a vendor in Talos/IP), and upgrade all the pre-purchased TOs as they go. ... which will require a lot of unslotters....

 

That's what I was thinking.  But it would need a lot!  Assuming only upgrading every 5 levels, you'd dlot a level  20 Damage TO at 20, and at level 22 upgrade it to 25 (that's 5 level 20s)

Then at level 27, you could upgrade it to level 30 with 5 level 25s.

So...level 50 would need 5x level 45, and each of those would need 5x level 40, and each of those would need 5x level 35, and each of those would need 5x level 30, and each of those would need 5x level 25, and each of those would need 5x level 20.

Maths is not my strong suit, but I think that's 15,625 level 20 TOs?  Per slot  Even if you can get level 30s and start there, it's still 625 per slot.  Plus you'd need to figure out all the later slots and buy and pre-level accordingly.  I would definitely just use a level 10 Common IO can call it a day!

 

 

[lemming]

Yea, the having to unslot and prep a large number of TOs would be counter productive to trying to be cheap.

 

I think Grouchybeast's idea about Level 10 IOs is the best.  You can buy them on the AH for cheaper than a TO and they're slightly better than a same level TO.  (~12% vs ~8%)

[The Chairman]

8 hours ago, Purrfekshawn said:

There is also two vendors in the game located on Independency Port & Talos Island, which sell TO's up to level 30:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Training_Enhancement_Costs#85%_baseline_prices

 

This appears to no longer be true. I just checked out the Indy Port location on my L24 Scrapper. They only offered SOs.

[Grouchybeast]

35 minutes ago, lemming said:

Yea, the having to unslot and prep a large number of TOs would be counter productive to trying to be cheap.

 

I think Grouchybeast's idea about Level 10 IOs is the best.  You can buy them on the AH for cheaper than a TO and they're slightly better than a same level TO.  (~12% vs ~8%)

 

And I don't think it really makes much material difference to the idea of playing in 'hard mode'.  Even in pre-IO days on live the TOs stopped dropping after 20.

[Oubliette_Red]

Perhaps the Devs can extend the TO's to L50 from the vendors that still offer them?

 

[biostem]

In a worst case scenario, you can slot 1 DO for every 2 slots or 1 SO per 4...

[Techwright]

The vendor in Fort Trident, just off of Atlas Park's center, offers the TOs.  I don't know to what level, but it's not to 50.  I just checked and my level 7 is offered them, but a level 50 was not.

[Rudra]

9 minutes ago, Techwright said:

The vendor in Fort Trident, just off of Atlas Park's center, offers the TOs.  I don't know to what level, but it's not to 50.  I just checked and my level 7 is offered them, but a level 50 was not.

If the Fort Trident vendor sells TOs, they are capped at 20. My level 22 Dominator saw no TOs for sale in Fort Trident, and even level 20s should have still been visible.

[Techwright]

15 minutes ago, Rudra said:

If the Fort Trident vendor sells TOs, they are capped at 20. My level 22 Dominator saw no TOs for sale in Fort Trident, and even level 20s should have still been visible.

Okay, you got me to break my 2+ year marathon of not utilizing two characters, 19 and 24, but I can now confirm the Fort Trident vendor sells up to level 20 TOs. 

 

 

[UltraAlt]

On 3/14/2024 at 7:17 PM, gabrilend said:

hmmmm, I suppose those work.

 

The TO's go up to 30.

Check this list https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Stores for purchase locations.

I'm assuming you can use the option in "manage" to "upgrade" them higher, but I haven't tried.