Eric Nelson

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That is fine. The "you" in this case is generic, not specific. I should have made that clear.

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No worries, SG.

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The difficulty slider will not tarnish the accomplishment of the top Inf badges. The only person that can tarnish the value of the badges is you. Ok, the developers could eliminate the badges and only count 1 inf, but that is unlikely.

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To be clear, I wasn't saying that it would (and I don't think Lothic was either). I was addressing the discussion point regarding lowering the total requirements for the top two inf badges.

Very nice site, Austara! I think there is definitely a need for a low-key, "accesible" site like yours for newer players to a game like CoX which is over 5 years old now, and has been incredibly deep and rich in content for quite awhile now (I know *I* wish I'd had a guide such as yours back during I3 when I started playing!).

Two comments (and I'm only just starting to explore your site, so I may have more later on):

On the "Being a Good SG Member" page (which is a GREAT idea, by the way!) you talk about being in SG mode and earning prestige. I think, however, you might want to mention the fact that being in SG mode on a character who is higher than level 25 has a negative effect on the amount of influence/infamy that character earns through defeating foes and completing missions (more info at http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Supergroup_Mode). I just thought you might want to warn new players that there's a trade-off between earning prestige and influence/infamy (after level 25). The flipside, of course, is that EVERYONE in a SG should be in SG mode up to level 25, since there's no downside!

You also talk about collecting Invention Salvage and storing it in your SG's base. Your information may be a bit dated here -- when "Base Salvage" was done away with in Issue 13, the base salvage racks were altered to accept Invention Salvage, but unlike the over 1,000 pieces of Base Salvage the old racks would accept (even though they SAID capacity was 999, you could actually store up to 2,500 pieces in them), the racks only accept up to 30 pieces of Invention Salvage now. I'm fairly sure there is a limit to the number of racks that can be placed in a base, so I'm not sure whether you really want to encourage people to drop off all their excess salvage in the base storage, as it would most likely fill up very quickly.

Overall, a wonderful site, and I'm sure a great resource for many players (not just new ones). Keep up the great work!

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But it will make it less "impossible" for everyone all things considered.
As a top epic badge Leader should always be a challenge regardless of how "easy" it ever becomes.

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Totally agree. I hate to agree, because it's just such a daunting badge to work on, but to make the "epic" badges too much easier to attain would really tarnish the accomplishment.

I'd definitely be interested, if you get enough people to get it off the ground...

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With the I16 difficulty settings I think the challenge level of those badges are finally going to shift from being "slightly unreasonable" to "appropriate for top level epic badges".

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I think that really depends on the AT of the badge toon in question. In regard to a toon like a Scrapper, I would agree completely. However, some of the less-hardy/less-soloable ATs would have considerably more difficulty in taking on large maps set for 8 at a high level (thus generating higher levels of inf).

(Things like this have consistently made me feel relieved that, purely by dumb luck, my badge toon is a Scrapper...)

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this is a common misconception. from the wiki:

Note! It is widely believed that an exemplared character gains full normal influence rewards in addition to any extra influence he gets from converted experience. In fact, it's even stated in several player guides, both official and unofficial. This is not true. Playing while exemplared and debt-free will not result in roughly double the usual amount of influence.

wiki under exmplar

what Burnin' up is saying that if you are expmlared, and the other toon is in another zone, the rewards get broken.

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Yes, I'm aware of what Burnin' Up was talking about (and I'm not really addressing his particular statement regarding "broken" rewards in his scenario). As stated in the wiki, I've ALWAYS been under the impression that influence rewards for an exemped/malefactored toon are increased ("2x" is simply a convenient shortcut...I'd never cared WHAT that bonus might have been), and also as stated in the wiki, I know that I read it explicitly in the CoH manual, shipped with the game software years ago.

I found this statement in the current online CoX "Game Info":

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The amount of debt you acquire varies with your level at the time you are defeated. Becoming an Exemplar or Malefactor to another hero or villain that has a lower level than you accelerates your debt repayment.

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I'll admit it specifically only addresses being "in debt", but I'm wondering if the accelerated debt repayment doesn't also occur when NOT in debt, in the form of additional influence in some measure. I'm sorry, but a wiki is NOT an official publication, and Paragon Wiki has been known to have inconsistencies and incorrect information, as have most wikis (that said, however, I generally consider Paragon Wiki to be right on the money 99.9999% of the time, so...).

I don't think I'll be satisfied without some hard data, so I guess I have to do a few experiments before (and during) Double XP Weekend. I'm really interested in pursuing whatever course I can to maximize influence earning toward the "Leader" badge (and yes, I'm aware of tactics such as assembling large teams, doing Ouroboros content, running Katie Hannon TFs, etc.).

Thanks for pointing this out to me, Chuque.

Happy birthday, WE! Enjoy that new set of Wonder Woman Underoos we sent ya! (The old ones were starting to look a bit threadbare...)

Didn't know about this neat thread -- I was above 700 before the I15 purge, but of course that dropped me back down. Currently at 661 (with a few more to come over the next few days). :-)

http://www.badge-hunter.com/view_player.php?id=42980

From Badge-Hunter's badge info:

"Defeat 200 Arachnos Wolf Spiders to earn this badge. (Rogue do not count)"

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Thanks, I'll try exemping down whenever I can, I didn't know you got more influence on that when you were a level 50.

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Yup, you get 2x influence/infamy while exemped/malefactored down (NOTE: you do not have to be a 50 to receive this benefit), and during Double XP, you get (2x + 2x) = 4x inf. That's why a group of us on Victory are going to (as mentioned above) run continuous Katie Hannons (1st mission) during this upcoming Double XP Weekend (because you get the exemp 2x bonus for being TF auto-exemped to 34, plus the Double XP 2x bonus).

I think in the end the best advice is what a number of people gave above -- play play play, and have fun! My main toon (also my badge toon) is a Spines/Invul Scrapper that's over 4 years old now, and I still get a kick out of doing any content at all on her.

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Masque told me so!

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Well if Masque said it, it must be breaded in goodness and deep-fried in truthiness!

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Um. Well, yes, that's true. :P

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Hahahaha, guilty as charged! Don't worry, I fully expect you to smack me in the back of the head later this week in San Diego...

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Anyway, get a level 46 to malefactor the character you want to accumulate the vast amount of wealth on. Use a tricked out Fire/psi dom (On HERO SIDE I guess this would be a pimped out Warshade.) to do all the killing. Set up a flashback for 6. Flashback to that huge TV invasion map and start killing. Reset the mission before you complete all the objectives. Repeat.

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Ah, nice. Probably a Fire/Kin blue-side (my 50 WS isn't particularly tricked out anyway, and my Fire/Kin is all kitted out for PLing/farming), and I'll have to figure out a nice fat blue-side Ouroboros mission/arc that has a map similar to the TV one. Thanks, man, that should work nicely!

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Love your Avatar, by the way. I think I need a new one, myself.

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Thanks, it's the SGS that CelticBolt did for me quite some time back, still my absolute favorite piece of SGS art (out of more than I care to think about).

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You will indeed get quadruple influence.

I learned a while ago that most people prefer the gains to be had from leveling a lot of characters quickly, rather than what seems to be a minor achievement in the Leader badge.

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Okay, good to know I was on the right track, thanks, Sadys. I already have about as many blue-side 50s as I'll need (25 or so I think), so it's time to start really getting serious about those last two influence badges.

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Unlockable contact redside, Television.

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Sorry I wasn't totally clear on my comment, DC -- I know what a red-side reference to TV is, but since I was referring to blue-side, Sadys' reference to TV confused me. I think he's referring to the Television contact specifically because his brain resides full-time on the red-side.

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For 'best' ways, it would be either the Marybash from Katie TF, or a ton of ITFs. Main thought is to stay on a large team at all times, keep fighting stuff that's higher level than you (now, whether you take that to be a 50 fighting 53s or a 50 exempted to 46 facing 52s, that's your choice).

It may not be the best way, and it'll take most all the weekend, but 200 mil for Borea isn't bad, I don't think.

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Good ideas, too, thanks DC. I may try some "earning trials" prior to Thursday and see what ends up producing the most.

It's interesting that there doesn't seem to be much support for my idea of large teams running 2x + 2x content (Ouroboros or otherwise exemped for the double influence bonus prior to the Double XP Weekend bonus). Am I totally off-base on that tack? I know for a fact that influence/infamy is doubled (duh, but in case anyone wasn't clear), and I'm also reasonably certain that it modifies any other modifiers, such as the Ouroboros 2xinf bonus...or am I smoking wacko weed?

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I was going to tell you how I did it, but you lost me at "doesn't require extensive setup..."

Might be easiest to wait for that custom difficulty setting, and flashback the TV invasion set for 6.

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A$$.

Would you mind coming down from your lofty, ivory tower (where you're busy counting your piles of badges and admiring your stunning reflection emanating from your Bug Hunter) and gracing me with your accumulated wisdom? Perhaps any "extensive setup" might be worthwhile.

(And note, this is blue-side we're talking here, influence, so I'm confused by the reference to the TV mission [unless there's some Terra Volta flashback I'm unfamiliar with]...)

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SGS I was thinking of doing the exact same thing for my badger. Killing Mary 10times gives alot of influence and with a team of debuffs/buffs it goes really fast. I may put together a Katie team during DoubleXP but honestly, I'm just not feeling it this time around. I'm out of slots on Victory and I have 3 toons who can still get xp, but those are for "team night" types of groups.

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Hmm...interesting idea. I wonder if that would give 4x influence (2x for being exemped down via TF auto-exemp and then 2x for Double XP)? Even if not, it might be worth trying out.

You're more than welcome to join us no matter what we end up doing, Masque, even if you'd just prefer to door-sit and send tells back and forth with MP while you do...

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Managed to grab this screen shot of the 2d drop ship we took out, this one was in Steel Canyon.

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I actually got a demorecording made of the 2nd ship being destroyed (got the 1st also, but the vantage point wasn't very good), but when I viewed it, everything was visible EXCEPT for the Drop Ship (unlike the first demorecording, which showed the ship completely)! DOH!

Going to see if there's any surgery that can be done on the demorecord file to make it show the spectacular explosion and crash the ship goes through, and if it's worthwhile, will post it and put up a link here for anyone who wants to check it out...

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I've never understood this obsession with coloring powers.

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I think it depends on how much of a "role playing" (I'm using the term in an extremely broad way) approach one takes with their toon(s). To the people that do (in some measure), this is a pretty neat development. Those who don't really care much about stuff like that, of course, aren't really excited about it, understandably.

All I can say is, it didn't cause me to quit the game in over 4 years of playing, but it also gives me the chance to tinker with some costumes and make stuff "match" the character's concept a bit more closely. Is it the best thing to come along since sliced bread? Nah, but it IS kinda cool to some extent. Any excuse to play with my dolls...er, ACTION FIGURES!!!!

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It's not that it wasn't feasible, it's that it was extraordinarily time-consuming.

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Yes, not feasible -- due to time and staffing constraints. Exactly what I was saying.

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I think the way they overcame the issues associated with PC was by tripling their staff. When you're running a game with 16 people, there's no time for stuff like that.

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Absolutely -- I think that a lot of these neat new things we're seeing are due to the infusion of cash from the Boosters and other micro transactions, and also, undoubtedly, due to perceived competition with Champions Online and DCU Online. Programming issues that are insurmountable with a staff of 16 are a lot easier to overcome when you have twice that and more.

I think it's all great -- how many years did they continue to tell everyone that power customization (colors) just wasn't feasible due to programming and code considerations, but they've found a way to overcome them (whatever they were), and give many vocal players what they were screaming for for years. Very nice.

More power proliferation is a nice thing (and don't hold your breath for EM on Scrappers, that would just be ridiculous ), lots of new options there.

As far as the new actual "content", I'm sure they'll do something. I think they REALLY need to get off the dime and throw red-side a few bones soon with some SFs or other comparable content to get them closer to being on par with blue-side (that will take a bit of effort). Also, some love for the PvPers would be nice too -- we'll see.

Overall, though, with this and then (hopefully soonish) more Going Rogue details, there's some pretty neat stuff happening!

So I've been thinking about what to do this Double XP Weekend to maximize my influence earning -- like DC, my badge toon has a lot of inf, but 2 billion is a CRAPLOAD when you really take a look at it.

This time around, instead of leveling lowbies, I think I want to put as serious a dent in that 2 billion as I can -- what do you all think is the most efficient way to go about that? I know exemping is a good option (since that's already 2x influence, right, so that should then be 4x influence), but isn't Ouroboros also normally 2x influence? The weakness of Ouroboros runs, of course, is the "closed" nature of them, but perhaps that could be minimized by doing shorter arcs, or simply restarting if necessary.

So what's the consensus? Is there a perceived more efficient way to earn influence toward those badges (and hopefully something that doesn't require extensive setup and juggling, like exemping MIGHT)?

Thanks, guys!

Yup, I had exactly the same thing happen to me (I suspect because of free time from upgrades such as the Valkryie booster, but maybe it's just a vet time bug). I opened a support ticket and they were nice, but even though I showed evidence from my account profile, I don't think they understood. Eventually they just "manually" awarded the missed vet badge/rewards, but now I was on track to be 3 weeks later with all future vet rewards, which didn't make me happy at all...

However, lo and behold, a few weeks later (after no communication whatsoever -- I'd basically just written it off), my correct veteran reward date magically reverted to something close to what it originally should have been -- weird!

Hopefully you'll have the same good luck with your efforts!

I'd definitely be down for some influence-generation on the main, might as well make use of Double XP for double influence badge credit.

Welcome back, Tex!