Captain-Electric

Me too, I thought Virtue and Union were the only RP shards.

Thank you very much for that link!

I better download them all in case that page disappears forever.

I'm not going to hang out with people in this game who buy inf. You go ahead and make that as complicated as you want.

It's pretty simple for me.

Edit: To be clear, that was disappointment and discomfort I felt, not rage. Disappointment in my friend for willfully breaking the game's terms of service, and discomfort while being there in the middle of a conversation where everyone present seemed fine with it.

It wasn't a perfect situation. I considered reporting people. Maybe I should have. The aforementioned inf-buyer wasn't actually there, which made the conversation hearsay. Those who were there weren't outright saying, "I've done it" in chat, regardless of their explicit defense of inf-buying. Their justification? "It's a game. Get over it."

I ended a long-standing friendship with someone in City of Heroes when I found out her and her super group friends were "okay" with buying inf. I didn't say why, I just stopped communicating. I was disgusted. In a game called City of Heroes, you'd think people would reconsider contributing to real-life theft, in-game inflation, and in many cases, unfair and unhealthy employment practices in China and other countries. It isn't right to do this.

It's a slap in the face.

I may use the "fix" eventually, but for now I'll stick with the "Clickichht." It's something new. And it's a very rewarding sound to me, somewhere between the click of a switch, and maybe the rustling of heavy paper material. I like hearing it in the costume editor, almost as if I can hear the pieces being picked up as I arrange them. (I probably just put way too much thought into that.)

I was impressed by it the first time I heard it. The new character log-in screen is not as bright and toy-like as it was pre-i21. Like the game, it has grown more sophisticated. The old sound seems almost childish. Sometimes understatement makes a stronger statement.

Excellent transcription!

That's actually a graphics mix-up. If you go check out all the hazard zones, you'll see most of them have it right by stating "You are now entering a Paragon protected zone" when you're on the hazard zone side. The very first time I entered the Hollows, I too noticed the sign there was wrong (it said "leaving"), and sent in a bug report. A GM replied to thank me and said he'd forward it on. That was two years ago.

Good idea.

Moments like this are like those embarrassing dreams where I walk into a room with my undies on the outside of my pants, and everyone points and laughs. Not this time. As Captain-Electric in City of Heroes, I do wear my undies on the outside of my pants and I'M PROUD OF IT.

On a related note, I also outed myself the other day not knowing that male characters can be Arachnos Widows.

IS THERE NO END TO MY FOOLISHNESS?

(No.)

Thanks for the link, bound to be some tips in there I'd find interesting.

For a few weeks last year I experimented with "playing the market", buying low-priced recipes for high-selling enhancements, then building them, and selling them. It wasn't a major time commitment, just some casual inventing and selling while I was there for my own enhancing needs. I would shop at the Wentworth's in Steel Canyon, so I could jump or fly across and down to the university without any hassle.

I almost felt mischievous, like I was cheating. It was not out of the ordinary to spend a million influence (or less) and make back 10 million-- on a single recipe. After a few days of invention-selling on Virtue (a populous shard with a very healthy market), I began to get a feel for good bargains and quick sellers. Sometimes a quick sell isn't important. A prudent investment on a slow-selling item can land you millions of influence after a few days. Some of my biggest sells took a month or more to come, but I knew they would. What you do is keep an eye on the last five sells and ask yourself, "is it worth it?"

I never became an expert marketeer. I never looked at guides on the forums. Undoubtedly, my methods would seem amateurish to seasoned sellers. And yet still, a year and a half later, the two characters with whom I conducted the experiment are wealthy, greatly owing to the experiment.

But...how enjoyable was all this? To make sure, for a follow-up experiment, I played a character who only used the market and university for his own enhancing needs. Strapped for cash from day one, I learned to plan, prioritize, and depended on training and dual origin enhancements in the early levels. These growing challenges helped define that character's gradual rise to influence, and for many characters afterward. I also found more time to focus on story arcs, friends, and designing likeable characters to play. (The latter, incidentally, has netted me at least 150 million in costume contest winnings.)

I learned that easy influence wasn't for me, and that I enjoy all the challenges and strategies associated with "making it". I learned what was fun for me. But yes, if you're curious about the market, I can attest to the ease with which the market can be played.

OPs also tend to focus on their detractors and completely ignore their fellows.

(I'm like, the complete opposite and lemme tell ya it's GREAT!)

Not everyone. Several posters have chimed in to admit they had no idea either. I've been playing two years now, and with 25 characters there are still many power sets and a few archetypes I haven't explored--including epic archetypes. I think people realize this isn't a big deal and they're just jumping at the chance to tease a dev.

While unnecessarily confrontational, there's a good point buried in your tirade. Long ago, I respec'd almost all characters using the Hasten power, and removed it from them. I realized it didn't make any sense conceptually for those characters to be running around with their hands on fire. My natural origin archer, for instance. Good with a bow and arrow, but otherwise, totally normal dude. Okay, so why would his hands spontaneously combust? Ha ha ha! (They wouldn't.) Out of 25 characters, I have one magic origin hero, a scrapper with the ability to conjure fists of flame. You get my point, right? That this sucks for me? The Hasten power has been sorely missed for its practical use, and I had no idea its long-desired mutability was being held hostage by PvP concerns. In two years, I have visited a PvP zone to PvP only once.

Oh well. If this is the worst thing I have to accept about this game, then I'll be okay I suppose. This is the coolest game I ever played. *Takes a deep breath* I guess I can let go of Hasten.

I have a few on my roster of characters.

Thank you for that "epic conclusion" LOL.

Dammit, I could have just said that.

/frustrated emote
/curseyou emote

Yes, it is a game. But the day the above statement looks and feels entirely true will be the day I unsubscribe from City of X and never come back. War Witch said it best in the development interviews leading up to Going Rogue, "City of Heroes is a comic book inserted into an MMO."

City of Heroes IS an interactive story. You might not be invested in that story, nor the genre from which it sprang. I'm not holding that against you. But as I'll point out below, this isn't the way everyone feels. Since the beginning of MMORPGs, button-mashing gamers have butted heads with those who come to these games to immerse themselves in interactive, persistent stories. (For the record, I dig the button-mashing too.)

My global list helps me stay in touch with regular teammates who not only wait for everyone to read their clue bags, but sometimes even request for the team leader to copy/paste mission dialog into chat (on more interesting story arcs). It's not so crazy. If you think walls of text are crazy in a game, you should see the pen-and-paper RPGs that some of my CoH pals play. Or visit Roleplaymarket and sign up for a game. You will find a ton of great gaming that is sorely lacking in button-mashing, and a bunch of players who couldn't care less.

I've read most of them (still reading them). Most of my regular teammates have read some, or all. In canon-based AE arcs, I'm sometimes impressed to see nods to the CoH comics. Look, I'm sure we both agree that the game needs to be inclusive, not exclusive. That welcoming mat needs to be there, whether people enjoy comic books or not. But it's just as off-putting for me when I see someone poo-poo the game for design changes that establish it more firmly within its own genre.

I don't think it would matter. People who don't like story-telling elements also don't want it there for other people who do like it. As always, if you don't want to read something, you can skip it. But they are concerned about potentially having to wait on other people to read stuff. On random PUGs, and with teammates who don't share my preferences, I always skip the text. However, City of X is an RPG, not an arcade game. I enjoy reading the unfolding stories when I can. Hopefully there will continue to be storytelling involved, the more the merrier, the more comic-based the better.

I didn't know that either!

Thanks for the transcribing Von Krieger.

Hey, that rhymed.