Eric Nelson

In my experience this is true for Scanner/Newspaper missions, but rarely (if ever) for normal contact-given missions.

In addition to what Bill said above, this claim is pure claptrap. I play exclusively on Victory, and, while I'll admit that red-side is generally somewhat less active than blue (I think people from EVERY server can attest to this phenomenon), Victory red-side is by NO means "nearly dead".

It sounds to me like you don't put much effort into teaming. I won't go into detail (the 30 million other "ON NOES MY SERVER IS DEAD AND I CAN'T TEAM" threads have lots of great pointers on starting/finding teams), but you could always join an active SG (sounds like yours died), start your own teams, recognize that 'a team' does not equal 'a team of 8', etc.

And your contention that paying for a server transfer is "a f'ing joke" is ridiculous -- go check out what other online games charge for character server transfers sometime...I think you'll appreciate the (relatively) nominal cost we pay now.

Pretty much this, and what the Hamster said. I have two accounts, my main for 54 months but my secondary (mostly supporting) account only around 30 months. You really don't know who you're dealing with based solely on Vet Badges. I think I base my reactions to someone more on their actual conduct than anything else.

That said, I do REALLY enjoy reading character bios in-game -- the creativeness that some have shown is just amazing. I also like to see costumes and name choices as well. If any combination of those three things strikes me positively, I will usually send a tell to the toon owner letting them know that I really liked their bio/costume/name/whatever.

Keep in mind that the AE Accolade and the exploration badge (which you probably have) count toward Architect XXV.

I play exclusively on Victory, and I DO dispute your feeling (which is subjective, being based on no hard evidence and is purely anecdotal, as is my own experience).

Just today, during non-peak hours, I saw 4-5 TFs being formed, and see clear evidence of over 100 people currently logged into the Victory Badges channel (not all gaming on Victory, I'm sure, but still significant).

Heehee, I laughed when I read this line, since it's Longbow (good guys) you're fighting for that badge...

It is, however, a day the Federal Reserve observes as a holiday, and as such, for those of us who work in financial institutions, a VERY real holiday.

Same here, MB.

Just tried that, and it totally crashed the CoH application out. Interesting. Mileage seems to vary widely in regard to using this bind.

As a person who plays exclusively on Victory, I can echo this. I dare any doomsayers to roll a toon on Victory and get set up with all the global channels and then say that servers need merging. Even during off-peak hours on Victory (i.e., late night and weekdays) it's relatively easy to catch on with a TF/SF/team (just my anecdotal experience, but one that I've had over 4.5 years of playing on this server).

Congrats on joining the club, jacktar!

Why thanks, IK! Very nice of you to say!

I think I know what you guys are saying, but they DO give the same rewards -- Merits. (Yes, I know they previously gave out only an SO rather than a recipe reward.)

And in any case, they are called "Task Forces" and "Strike Forces", so that's what they are as far as I'm concerned. (The thing that's most telling, IMO, is the fact that they can actually be soloed (unlike "signature" TFs which have a minimum team size of 2), so that and the AV scaling really sets them apart, so I think I see where you guys are coming from.)

Are you referring to the three Ouroboros TFs/SFs, Ironblade? When you say "They are NOT task forces / strike forces" you confuse me, because they are CALLED TFs and SFs within the game (i.e., "Mender Silos Task Force").

Are you trying to say that they behave more like story arcs than "signature" TFs/SFs? If that's where you were going, then I think I follow you.

Just to clarify, you're aware that the badge is for the summoned PETS of the Master Illusionists, not for defeating the Master Illusionists themselves, right?

Sorry if you already knew this, but some replies made me wonder whether you did or not, and I didn't want you defeating MIs when you really are wanting to defeat their pets instead for badge credit...

Its duration is 2 minutes -- I'm not 100% sure about the actual non-modified recharge. ParagonWiki places it in the "More than 240 seconds" category, but my Blaster has quite a bit of global recharge via IO sets, so it's probably around a minute or two, give or take.

I know my Veng got a heck of a workout on that TF, that's for sure!

See this post above -- and yes, the Legion is ALWAYS happy to take on new or established players and help out any way we can. That's probably what the Legion does better than anyone.