Evangel

To me, DXP weekend showed how the game should be. not the double xp (though that was nice, blaster from 37 to 46 is a great leap toward 50 ). Nope, I mean the teams.

the only time I had trouble getting a team was when they were all full , even then, I generally started a team and ended up merging with another or being invited to join a higher level team.

makes me sad now that I'm back to over an hour team hunting or starting a team and seeing empty slots on the team roster

anyhoo, Evangel (lvl 46 blaster) thanks all who teamed with him - Giantess Anja, Ms Microwave , gas mantle at one stage , Sidney and all the rest (I forget all the names, sorry!).

I've just really started putting a small base together (mainly for the hell of it , and curiosity). So far I've got the entrance, a control room (oversight centre), and a workshop. control room currently has 1 corner taken up with a combo unit and looks a little empty but it will fill up.

anyway, in placing rooms, I was a bit disappointed to discover that they have to be 1 square apart to create a form of access corridor. This corridor doesnt allow for item placement like lights etc so you end up with a "break " in the design in between rooms.

My question is, can anythign be done with these single square spaces?
can I get sliding doors? a wall with a small doorway ? A roller blind? can I place lighting of any sort?

also, while on the subject, can I change the colour of lighting I place in a base ?

there are often cases in comic books where heroes have to team up with vilains to achieve a goal, however, invariably the villain has an ulterior motive.

I think co-op missions should have an element of this.

for example:
a mission to stop a mad scientist from creating a legion of super soldier cyborgs:

The Evil Scientist Dr. mania has gone too far. Arachnos and Longbow agree that he must be prevented from achieving his goals to create a nemesis/clockwork hybrid in his efforts to create a new super soldier. Your mission is to take part in a joint task force to discover Dr. Mania's hideout and put a stop to his plans. As a joint task force you will be working with members from both camps.

mission 1: Alert! Dr. Mania's minions have been spotted in Cap Au Diable power plant:

get to Cap Au Diable: all heroes will be issued with an Arachnos ID allowing them entry to the rogue isles. Find out what they are doing in the power station.

side objective for heroes: Recover satellite imagery data disk : a few months ago a surveillance satellite crashed in the sea near cap au diable but before Longbow could get there the satellite was salvaged. Now the locator on the data matrix has been activated and appears to be somewhere within the power facility. Recover the data matrix.

At a random point in the map there will be a glowy. if a villain recovers the glowy, the recoverer gets some XP and some inf (as a reward for turning it over to the authorities). If a hero collects it , all heroes on the mission get inf/xp/prestige.

Side effect: a random amount of days later, a longbow assult party will attack a random zone in the rogue isles.

mission 2: reports in of Mania's forces in IP:
Mania sent a task force into IP using a stolen Arachnos Submarine. It appears to have surfaced beside an IP processing plant. find out what they are doing and stop them. Villains will be issued with ID to allow them access under hero supervision only.

Villain Side mission: recover recording of Lusca song: same as first, a glowy.

if villains succeed, arachnos manage to re-create the lusca song and a random amount of time later the giant octopus attacks a random Paragon zone that has water. (IP , Talos, FF , PI etc). Of course, this is dependant on Lusca actually attacking stuff and not just sitting there.

etc. until finally:

objective: both: stop Dr. Megal o'Mania defeat AV + Guards
Objective heroes 1: destroy Mania's plans
Objective Villain 1: retrieve Mania's plans

if heroes succeed: xp bonus + random recipe (pool a or b) + release codes sent to clockwork captive in rogue isles: sparks a clockwork invasion as they go for revenge

If villains succeed: xp bonus + recipe + modified goldbrickers attack random coastal Paragon zone

Objective heroes 2: take villains into custody with data tag
Objective villains 2: tag heroes for transport to interrogation cells

each participant is given a 1 use temporary power that can be used on any ally (hero or villain). it has long activation time during which time the user cannot move. if the victim moves out of sight the power fails and is wasted, if interrupted the power fails and is wasted.

effect: next time the hero or villain is defeated and goes to hospital or base , or next time the character uses teleportation systems other than travel power, they are shunted to a holding facility instead where they must escape from.

once the victim shows up the person that tagged him or her is rewarded with a recipe and a prestige bonus.

each character can only ever have one tag active at any time and if given the tag power again, can opt to cancel the old tag.

Note: the tagging does not appear on combat statistics so it is possible for a hero or villain to manage it without being noticed.

Note also: teleport powers are only shunted once the task force is finished.

no urgency in getting the badge but would love to join the hunt for poos and polite laughter.

Evangel lvl 46 AR/Elec blaster

[ QUOTE ]

and for new players the ability to place a mob type before encountering them in game could be considered a spoiler.

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y'know, that never even occurred to me before but I definitely see your point. Perhaps badge based controls are the way to go, or at the least, arc completion.

thats the problem with hints. Sometimes the speculation inflates expectations so high that the reality ends up being a bit of a let down , even if it is generally well received.

examples: Dr Who season Finale, Lost (there's no way the series can compete with some of the ideas floating about), Heroes showdown with Silar (definitely didnt live up to expectation imho), ending of any superman film, the league of extraordinary gentlemen, mystery men, daredevil movie(snicker), electra movie (guffaw!), Van Helsing movie (Milk just shot out my nose! which is strange seeing as I havent drank any milk in two days).

I know what I'd like it to be. I know what I dont want it to be. But apart from the last two vet rewards announced, the devs have done a good job so far keeping things fun and new. Just wish city Vault would hurry up

if I'm not at the pc where CoH is installed (I travel with owrk and use a laptop for internet access while away) then out of game options would be nice.

if I'm not playing CoH but at a PC, or dont fancy playing Coh, or I would like to start a base design and leave it open while I work on something else and come back to it.

Being able to plan your base away from the game saves you time in-game which gives you more time to actually do missions with your SG instead of sitting them out as you work out how to place the workbenches so they actually fit into the room you created and dont require extra power or control.

agree with the shopping cart idea so /signed

but dont agree with the powerset change. my resoning: some powersets are more difficult than others to manage properly and to play through missions (dark/dark vs undead, ar vs undead - I know i hit a wall against CoT spirits with my AR, had to rely on my secondary elec to get through mission).

Also, I think you learn the powerset by playing up through it. If you just drop in near the end you miss the subtle power quirks and combos. Will result in sloppy play.

I agree it can be a pain when a new issue gets released and there's a power set you'd like to use but thems the breaks, and its also the carrot to create a new alt

Not necessarily fo rth eguys in NC to do but a suggestion for someone....

there's already a character builder but how about an offline, or online just not in game, base builder ?

If not NC: then just a planning utility that lets you place items in an inventory list (rather than actually put items on walls etc) that lets you work out different variations and see the power/control balance and prestige costs of options.

If NC: an offline base builder that lets you design and place objects in the same way as the base editor in game does. Only resources in storage can be used to create items (synch with game to get lists?), then the completed bsae can be uploaded to the game.

I dont get that much time to play nad I'd prefer to use it playing than placing items and working out costs.

Just a thought.

but how would an offline mission creator be a "reward" . I though the creator was a feature available to everyone ?

Offline apartments for your characters where you can review newspaper clipings of your missions, polish badges and see character stats etc without actually having to log in to a server (local account login may be possible?).

1 apartment per character, or 1 apartment + purchasable options

just a thought

Is this up and running yet ?

Just curious if anyone had more recent word on this.

I am very sorry. with the relatively short notice (first reply was only two days beforehand) I couldnt make the time to get on at all, let alone long enough for a task force.

I hope you all went ahead anyway and it went well for you.

well, I did Numina TF at 35 , just a little away from 36 and i made it to 37.

Numina is 35 to 40 so, by the same logic, if I were to run through it during a DXP weekend it should take my character from 37 to near 39.

I still wouldnt have hit the TF cap, you get the recipe at the end and a huge amount of Xp all in one spot.

yes, I can see your point about hitting hte cap, but that was always a risk in CoX. I remember before they patched it, not being able to team because i played as par tof a team and outlevelled my contacts meaning no more missions, no more contacts being introduced. I only had one contact who could give me missions so I couldnt afford to take the chance of outlevelling him!

Isnt ITF 35-50 ? if so, i'd be more than happy to hit the level cap over the weekend

In the run up to the double xp weekend , thought it might tbe nice to get a TF out of the way. So, sign up if you're interested!


Contact Numina
Zone Founders' Falls
Minimum Size 4 players
Level Range 35-40

I was thinking maybe thursday at about 8:30 or so
The taskforce takes approx 2 - 2.5 hours or so (if you ghost a mission or two and spread out for the hunting missions).

1. Evangel lvl 37 AR/Elec blaster
2. @Riff
3. Black Karhu, Fire/Fire tank
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

reserve:
1. Gas Mantle Fire/NRG Blaster.
2.
3.

I had given up on this actually happening. Not even sure if I can set aside the time (short notice and the DXP weeked coming up) but will do my best to be there.

but htey could make it a level 50 solo mission (one mission for each patron deity that suits his/her nature) that you can only do once per lvl 50 character. once completed, you "unlock" the incarnate AT by drinking the water from the well and having your hero reborn . level 50 gets archived and you are given a level one toon again but with the AT you did the mission for and a whole new set of powers (along with certain godly inherents) and a whole new set of missions to accomplish. hero and villain get dropped in favour of true Good and Evil with the entire process being made up of "opposed" missions and realms. Each time a goal is achieved, there is some effect in the real world of Paragon/Rogue (all CoT gain +1 level etc limited to once per hour after which time they revert to their normal state).

this way, those that want to continue having adventures beyond level 50 get a whole new set of 50 levels to play while those who are content at the top of mortal ability can continue doing what they do.

it also adds a whole legendary status to names.

oh and

d: global channels are great for when you are online but if I wantd to organise a TF or run through a stroy arc, the data terminals could hold details of upcoming events which I can then plan my time for. I personally , very rarely can do a pick up TF because I havent made the time required available beforehand. However, I have made the time when I see one advertised on the forums. a similar functionality in game would be very useful imho.

I can see your point about it possibly not being used and yes, there are global channels that are used to announce the start of pugs , TFs etc.

TFs aside, usually once a pug has started its quite hard to hunt for new members without making everyone wait. or, you annoy the hell out of everyone sending tells to ask if they are interested. conversely, it can be hard to join a team because the person you send a tell to might not be the team leader and may not pass along the request for some reason or another 9I have to say though that whenever i am leader of a group the members are usually excellent at passing along requests).

This idea would
a: reduce tell spam which people are complaining about
b: sort out getting in touch with a team leader 9currently there is no way to do this though another suggestion has been made recently to mark the leader in the team meu)
c: make use of the terminals which is an information resource already in place and imho underused.

in any case, its just a suggestion and thanks for the replies

quote
The Devs have already said finger claws are not possible/likely, because there would be horrid clipping issues
/quote

hehe

Ok, not incredibly well thought out but I just thought I'd throw up a post to see the general reaction and hopefully get some input into how it could be implemented (or indeed, if it already exists!).

the situation: players are hovering around atlas park saying "I'm bored" or complaining of there being nothing to do in Mercy Isle.

What happens: they post that the game is dying and then get told that its not, that other players are having a ball with TFs , respecs and pugs every night as well as events and competitions.

well, where do we find out about these things ? On the forums, except not every player reads the forum - and even thise that do will probably notice the distinct prevelance of gratz on 50 threads over announcements of whats actually happening in the server categories. Seriously, gratz to all the 50's , without your posts and their replies I think the forums would be almost empty

so, my suggestion: If its not already in place, a form in in game player notice board.

Blue side: use the city info terminals
Red side: ehhh, beat up an orphan until he tells you what he's heard.

Whats in it? well, player notifications. perhaps an exampl e of how I would see it working:

From the POV of an organiser:
I decide to create a team of heroes to go run through a vahzilok story arc. I send out PMs and can only find three team mates, so the four of us get started, before we go, I set an announcement on the city terminal saying "team currently running through vahzilok story arc, levels 5-10 , currently looking for (4) members" - the (4) changes as things go along.

Bob is bored. pity poor bored bob. Nothing he can think of would relieve his boredom other than getting puked on and assaulted with cleavers, alas there are very few that share his interests in life. But wait! a quick click on the data terminal brings up a list of all currently active super teams. Bob sorts by level, then sorts this subset by number of members currently in the group, then sorts by current mission (bob is a bit manic and does all this every time he checks which is why he makes such a good example). Lo and behold, there's a group on a mission against vahzilok in his level range and they are looking for 4 team members. Oh Joy of Joys! Bob clicks apply to appyl for a spot on the group and his pool of 3 application attemtps is lowered by one until either Bob cancels his application or the team leader refuses or accepts the request. (this stops spamming)

In between making sure that the corpse is actually going to remain a corpse and wondering why zombies actually wear trousers or where all that vomit actually comes from (i mean seriously, if projectile vomiting was an olympic sport team Vahz would mop the floor - no pun intended), I notice that my star is flashing signifying that someone is applying for entry into my group, cool. Time to have a quick look. a screen pops up with the details of a hero called Bob, a 7th level scrapper seemingly with a tag line of "puke on meeeeee!". Sounds perfect. I click the accept button and wait for bob to also click accept on the invite that I know has appeared on his screen. Before the 30 second timeout has passed, the boring monotone words are typed into the team chat channel from Bob: "hi guys!" to which all reply in unison "Hi Bob". the number on the city data terminal is now down to (3). Bob types in, hey, my friend larry wants to join, he's a 8th level psi/fire blaster. ten seconds later the number drops to (2).

Other annoncements could include, TF setups with a tag of where to meet and what time its kicking off at and also a toggle to say whether its been delayed or not. arena events and matches. perhaps an arena challenge message.

A PvP tab shows any and all declarations of defiance made by the naughty side with details of when they would like their rear ends handed to them , exactly.

ah, it could also have an event section! showing events finished in the last 4 hours, events currently ongoing and events due to happen in the next 2 hours.


Another possibility, a preference page could be included where you select , by means of checkboxes, what events, teams, level ranges etc , interest you and if one gets listed, you get a message in your in game email to elt you know something of interest jsut popped up. An option would exist to have this notification idle if currently on a team or involved in an event.

anyway, just an idea. Hopefully someone has a few suggestions on how to make it workable.

well, I solo'ed melvin , my robotics mastermind , up to 20th because PUGs were non existent. I asked, I pm'ed, I broadcast and nothing. I was very close to just dropping CoV altogether and concentrating on CoH (actually, whenever I make an alt it is now blue side, primarily because a: I hate the zig intro , b: I hate all those stupid snake missions , c: I hate the lack of variety up to 10th level).

However, recently I have had the great pleasure of actually seeing invites to PUGs and broadcasts looking for people to join. I've been invited to a (unfortunately very quiet) SG called Max damage Inc - i seem to be the only person online, ever....

Imho, the red side has actually picked up a bit in recent months.

It was crowded when it started, then the novelty wore off and it almost died an agonising death. VEATS and higher level co-op as well as crimerora have sparked new interest. And its great (after 10th level!!).

Now they need to keep the interest level they have generated:

vary the starting missions and give option to not do intro/tutorial (cant remember if they give this option already).

More SFs!!! Seriously. more. and not just SG unlockable ones.

Lower level co-op zones and allow players a path to make 50th playing through co-op story lines exclusively.

On a side note: I was playing my main on the blue side and I met a friend I havent seen for a while. a lvl 46 scrapper. and a comment was made that shocked me. "I'm just hanging around for a bit. I'm bored."

What?? you should never log onto a MMO just to "hang around" because you're bored!!! Start a team, join a team, find *something* to do!! It is an unfortunate fact that players will not always entertain themselves. CoX needs to make it easier for players to organise events, teams and one off outings such as GM hunts , Arena deathmatches etc.

Seeing as ts double Xp weekend I'm a little suprised at the lack of task forces etc being advertised.

I , for one, would love to do the Crimerora ITF this weekend at some stage.

anyone else got any plans outside of SG activities ?

dont really like this idea.

My ar/elec blaster would have been re-rolled as ar/energy if this was do-able. instead i kept playing (you made your choice!) and now I get almost as much use out of th eelec side as the AR side of him.

/signed!!!

Love the idea and the description is excellent reading

well, the bad good news is that we didnt get started.

So, how about another attempt on the sunday after the DXP weekend ?

Ok, dont know if we'll have enough interest in this to go ahead, but just in case Darke a 4th level natural Scrapper is currently on the steps of the town hall in atlas park.

Hopefully someon ewill turn up before he gets arrested for loitering