Quinch

Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

Loot/influence mail system is suggested at least four times a week, and profoundly shot down just as often. I expect someone to show up with a cutpaste explanation of why not within the next five posts.

Well, as a content floor, I've found it's fairly easy, though anything but quick, to unlock all the contacts, and even run all the missions they offer you if you decide to hitch up the XP handbrake before moving on to the next batch.

First of all, welcome into the light.

1} The vast majority of your game will likely take place in "missions", indoor maps that the game automatically creates and isolates for you and your team.

2} Capes and wings; some wings are crafted {see Inventions}, some wings are Veteran Rewards {special perks you get for having played for X months} and some are booster pack goodies. Keep in mind that costumes are completely separate from actual powers, and are purely cosmetic - having wings doesn't let fly, and you can fly without wings. You can get regular capes through a mission that's available once you've reached Lv20, mini-capes are a veteran reward and I think the Magician booster pack gives you one as well.

3} Teleport: You can pick the Recall Friend {teleports a teammate to yourself} power at Lv6 and Teleport {teleport self within line-of-sight} at Lv14. The vet reward you're referring to is the "Assemble the Team power", which basically works as a Recall on your whole team simultaneously.

4} If you've got cashflow problems, you can auction off salvage you get from defeating enemies - that should give you an extra source of income as you gain levels. Odds are, however, that you'll quickly have influence coming out of your ears.

5} You can pick multiple travel powers if you want, but you won't see much benefit in running them simultaneously. Still, if you want to, say, take Teleport for quickly moving across the map and Fly for the awesome factor and the freedom of movement, go to town.

6} I'd suggest checking the individual archetype {AT's for short, the equivalent of WoW's "classes"} forums for advice, strengths and weaknesses and so forth of each archetype. On the whole, Scrappers are generally considered best soloers, best-played... hard to tell, it's a pretty even spread, and for damage, either Scrappers for quick single-target killing or Blasters for more en masse murderizing. Keep in mind, though, that even the powersets available for each archetype vary widely.

On the whole, I'd suggest simply rolling a character and seeing how their playstyle suits you. You have twelve character slots on each server, so I doubt you'll run out of character space anytime soon.

I'd say, grab a tanker. Aggro is the blasters' only bane, and the moment you get your hands on Taunt, any threat to them will evaporate, and with a blaster's damage output, nothing should live long enough to threaten you either.

Well, depends. If you're on the Virtue server <plug>you could join the Virtue LFG Alpha global channel</plug>. If not, your best bet would be the Search window. Pull up a search in your level range and go archetype by archetype - write a "/t $target, Hi, I'm forming a team for Lv$level [insert stuff you have planned here] and was wondering if you'd like to join." then send it to prospective teammates. Make sure you at least glance at the comments, though, as some will say that they're not teaming no matter what and a lot of people write their powersets in there so you know what you're asking for. Do it in batches - if you've got seven spots on your team, ask seven people, wait a few minutes {in case they're in the middle of a fight or something similarly distracting}, then repeat the process until you've got a passable team together.

Don't worry about the reputation of the average PuG - in my experience, most randomly assembled teams tend to do pretty well, and the occasional bad apple will quickly make itself known.

As the subject says, I can't log into since this morning {GMTish} - I just get the " The game client was unable to connect to the login server. This may be due to a local network issue such as a firewall block{...}" message. The timing coincides with installing and briefly playing the Test Server version of CoH, but other than that there've been no changes to any settings between the last time I've successfully logged in and now. Image verification checks out, the shortcut is fine, the updater loads and runs perfectly, but I just can't reach the login server. Any suggestions?

edit: Forgot to mention... I can log into the training server just fine.

{below is a transcript of a roleplay between two characters, or the mostly relevant bits at least, which we plan to continue soon. We will need a police character for this though, so if anyone's willing, so much the better}

Spicay: Ready for port.
Quinch PG: Spicay, standby for teleport in three, two, one....
Cosmoculus: That's a unique little ability you have there, perhaps if I concentrate long enough I could do the same thing...
Quinch PG: It's a hijacked EMT signal. They never bothered to lock down the access keys.
Lady National: Oh that's not right! I should report that...
Quinch PG: -shrugs- You do that.
{...}
Lady National: Oh you and your pink boots...
Quinch PG: -shrugs- Remember when I said I don't trust magic?
Lady National: ...Seriously, I just noticed that. What's up with that?
Quinch PG: I got them off a cape who was too busy sucking dirt to object to me taking them.
Lady National: ....
Taris Galen: ...
Lady National: I should -so- be arresting you...
Quinch PG: Salvage rights, baby. It's all legal.
Taris Galen: that's...low.
Cosmoculus: Magic is quite different from what I do, but I see your comparison
Lady National: I'll deal with you when we're done here.
Occult Kid: Hmm... even to me that doesn't seem right...
Quinch PG: If you can mug anyone on the street because you deem them "evil", the same law allows for the same to be applied to you.
Lady National: We're not mugging them!
Lady National: They're mugging civilians and we're arresting them!
Lady National: Besides... what do you think you're doing -here-?
Quinch PG: Right. And I suppose all those personal effects you auction off without a second thought become your rightful property the moment you pry them off someone's cold, limp hands?
Lady National: I haven't auctioned anything.
Lady National: And we don't kill people!
Occult Kid: ..thankyou
Quinch PG: Who said I killed anyone?
Lady National: Well, I don't... can't speak for everyone... but they shouldn't!
Lady National: "cold limp hands" Implied killing.
Quinch PG: Or unconscious.
Lady National: They wouldn't be cold if they were unconcious
Cosmoculus: Well, we're all bigger than morals anyway. You can't see that I know...
Quinch PG: Well, if it makes you feel better she hosported five seconds later.
Lady National: And those items that are auctioned off are protected technology and artifacts necessary for the major Heroic Organizations!
Quinch PG: Oh really? A wristwatch is protected technology? Jewelry that probably got stolen from some citizen you couldn't be arsed to save? Samples of their own flesh and blood?
Cosmoculus: Two sides of the same coin... and Cosmoculus flips it, amusing... *laugh*
Lady National: Hey, hero work isn't cheap.
Quinch PG: Of course. It's for *our* benefit.
Quinch PG: Silly us for not realizing it.
Lady National: I'll have you know most of the Vanguard weaponry technology was developed from recovered stolen devices.
Quinch PG: And don't call yourself a hero. you dirty the word.
Lady National: ..What?!
Cosmoculus: To bad "recovered" and "stolen" are the same words in this case.
Quinch PG: You're a mercenary at best, and a petty thug at worst.
Lady National: Oh now your'e on his side, magic man?
Lion Heart: Easy...
Skylark Tail Feather: If no one is harmed and may people are helped is it really a crime?
Lion Heart: Go for each other's throats after this.
Lady National: Look at all the bad guys trying to steal or destroy around here! You think if we didn't do what we do we'd be in as peaceful a state as we are?
Cosmoculus: Sides are for those with no imagination My lady.
Quinch PG: Does that justify you taking other people's property?
Skylark Tail Feather: Rikti aren't people
Quinch PG: You might be surprised.
Lady National: Does that justify -you- stealing your pink boots from a body?
Quinch PG: Nope. But I don't pretend that it does.
Lady National: Then you're willingly evil.
Cosmoculus: We're all just different boats on the same sea.
Quinch PG: Besides, it was a cape. That made her practically subhuman.
Lady National: Oh you have to be kidding me.
Lady National: You stealing from the dead makes you definitely non-human.
Quinch PG: Un-con-scious.
Lady National: Well even so.
Quinch PG: Having a bit of trouble with the concept, are we?
Lady National: That doesn't help it either.
Cosmoculus: I think he pays for the boots in the fact that they make him look like a moron. *laugh*
Quinch PG: That, I can't get rid of them and they tend to explode.
Lady National: Well you've just confessed a crime to me, and under the Might for Right act, I can arrest you.
Quinch PG: ....wow. *Some*one skipped their history classes.
Lady National: ...Shut up. Either way I can still arrest you under whatever act it is.
Quinch PG: Yeah, sorry, there hasn't been a Might Makes Right act yet.
Lady National: Well consider yourself on probation until we get this done.. then I'm taking you in to the PPD.
Quinch PG: Yeah, good luck with that.
Lady National: Must need your theft fix...
Quinch PG: Did I mention that it was *legal* under the Salvage Act, passed May 1st 2007?
Lady National: It is NOT legal to steal something from an unconcious person.
Quinch PG: Not according to the Paragon City council.
Lady National: Oh I'm sure you went to the council and said "Hey I just took these boots off an unconcious hero. Can I keep them?"
Quinch PG: I didn't need to. The law is clear.
Lady National: You broke the law and you'll be going in for it.
Quinch PG: And yet somehow, I didn't.
Lady National: You will.
{...}
Lady National: Okay, good. *takes a set of handcuffs from her belt* Let's go then.
Quinch PG: {raises an eyebrow at National} You're joking, right?
Lady National: Not even a little bit.
Quinch PG: Well, I am so sorry, but I fail to recognize you as a valid law enforcement figure.
Lion Heart: I don't want any part of this... ((Thanks for the team, gotta go get dinner : P It was fun!))
Quinch PG: OOC: Later, thanks for the help.
Lady National: Well I am.. and its either in these handcuffs or unconcious, so take your pick.
Quinch PG: You think that a} you actually have the authority and b} the wherewithal to arrest me?
Lady National: I am a registered and liscenced hero and I have been given the authority to arrest anyone who I witness commiting a crime or has confessed to one. You confessed.
Quinch PG: Well, I am a registered and licensed hero as well, and I have consistently failed to confess to committing a crime.
Lady National: And even if you choose not to accept that, consider this a citizens arrest and I happen to have handcuffs.
Lady National: It doesn't matter... you confessed to a crime and you will be taking the consequences.
Lady National: Now come on.
Cosmoculus: Surely there are more pressing matters at hand than boot theft??
Lady National: Look at him... I bet everything he has on him right now is stolen property.
Quinch PG: {rolls his eyes} First, even under the provisions of citizens arrest, you do not have the authority to transport your arrestee without their permission. Second, repeat to me again, which crime have I committed?
Lady National: You confessed to stealing those boots from an unconcious individual.
Quinch PG: Under the provisions of the Salvage Act, after its passing.
Quinch PG: Deplorable? Yes. Morally questionable? Certainly. Illegal? Mfraid not.
Lady National: You have no idea what you're talking about. You stole those boots... which seem to be a valuable piece of technology... and you are going in for it.
Cosmoculus: Isnt your court based on evidence anyway?
Lady National: He has the boots.. that's evidence enough. Plus the confession.
Quinch PG: Now, if the fact that Pagragon City's legal system allows for legally untouchable acts such as this one, you're more than welcome to fight it - in fact, should you happen to, I'd gladly support you. But until then, no law was broken, and you have no case.
Quinch PG: And as for the boots themselves, they're an unstable, and self-hazardous piece of magic.
Lady National: Like I said... handcuffs or unconcious.
Cosmoculus: All the same, I grow bored...
Quinch PG: Neither. I haven't surrendered to legions of criminals, I won't surrender to a cape with delusions of authority and moral compass.
Lady National: Alright... unconcious it is.
Quinch PG: -draws his rifle- I wouldn't.
Lady National: Oh yeah, go ahead. I'm invincible, you know.
Quinch PG: What, you're Statesman in disguise? Tell you what, if you want to make a case of this, you have my registered hero name, you're more than welcome to press charges.
Quinch PG: My place of residence is in the city-assigned base, the location of which can be procured with a valid warrant.
Quinch PG: Care to put this in the hands of someone even remotely qualified?
Lady National: I have a confessed thief here who has just pulled a weapon on me. I'm well within my qualifications to take you out.
Quinch PG: You were making threats of bodily harm. Self-defense, look it up. And I'm not referring to your physical qualifications, dubious as they are. I'm talking about the legal ones.
Cosmoculus: You humans bore me with your bickering.
Quinch PG: Yeah, yeah, go commune with the universe or whatever.
Lady National: You're right, this has gone on long enough. Hands against the wall, if you don't mind.
Quinch PG: And yet I do.
Cosmoculus: It tends to say more relevant things than either of you, and with greater speed. So be it.
Quinch PG: You have no authority to arrest me. End of story.
Lady National: I do and you know it. *grabs Quinch's shoulder and attempts to turn him around and cuff him (keep in mind, mild super-strength)*
Quinch PG: -with his free hand he swings the rifle around, under his arm and shoves the barrel against Lady's sternum- Hands. Off.
Lady National: *gets shoved slightly, but fortunately being superhuman has benefits* Don't make me use more force than I want to.
Quinch PG: Don't make me have to shoot you.
Lady National: Do that and you'll definitely be going to jail, and even you can't argue that.
Quinch PG: Yes, I can. You're committing assault, miss. You were advised to file charges with the Paragon City police deparment, and chose not to. You have all the relevant information needed for the police to make the arrest themselves, should they decide it needed
Lady National: Ah geez... you have the right to remain silent, I pray to God that you'd exercise it. *slaps on one cuff*
Quinch PG: -grins- Well then. Lead the way.
Quinch PG: -flips the safety on and holsters the rifle-
Quinch PG: OOC: Man, now we need someone to RP the police.
Lady National: That'a'boy. Come on.
{at the police station}
Lady National: Hey Sarge... got a thug here for you.
Quinch PG: Hello officer. I'd like to file assault charges, if I may.
Lady National: What?!
Quinch PG: Oh yes, and unlawful arrest as well.
Lady National: Sarge, this thug confessed a street robbery and pulled a weapon on me when questioned.
Quinch PG: What the lady means to say is that she attempted to subdue me and threatened to render me unconscious should I refuse to accompany her.
Lady National: Yeah, this was after the confession. My judgement said you wouldn't come easily and intimidation was needed.
Quinch PG: I confessed to nothing illegal, officer. What the lady does construe was a "confession" is my statement that I excercised my right as a H4-R License under the provisions of the Salvage act.
Lady National: Yeah, he stole those boots he's wearing from an unconcious individual.
Lady National: Main word -stole.-
Quinch PG: I believe the word I used was "took". Or "got", I forget.
Lady National: Was the person unconcious?
Quinch PG: They were subdued, yes.
Lady National: Were they wearing the boots?
Quinch PG: The boots were on their person, yes.
Lady National: Did you take them without permission?
Quinch PG: The person in question did not object.
Lady National: *emphasizes* Did you take them without -permission-?
Quinch PG: Whose? Theirs?
Lady National: Yes.
Quinch PG: No permission was needed. Again, I refer you to the Salvage act.
Lady National: They are working devices that were being used! They are hardly "salvage!"
Quinch PG: Chronological devices, temporal tracers, weapons of all make and method also fit your description.
Lady National: You know what? I'm done arguing this with you. Any criminal thinks they're justified for one reason or another, but that doesn't mean they're right.
Quinch PG: I see your invulnerability also deflects irony.
Lady National: Sarge, I have a confessed thief. Put him in the holding cells, if you don't mind. I'll fill out the paperwork.
Lady National: ((...this would work better if Sarge could talk))
Occult Kid: ((lol))
Cosmoculus: ((lol. We're painting ourselves into a corner here.)

I'm trying to knock together a story arc with a few troublesome properties;

1} The enemies are CoT, but without the ghosts. This isn't so much dictated by the story as the ghosts' binary nature - they murderize anyone meelee and/or physical-damage oriented, and get murderized by most everything else, so the difficulty would oscillate far too much from player to player. Anyway, I got around that by making a custom "Circle of Thorns" group and adding enemies from the CoT to it.

2} The missions should cap out at around Lv15-20. The problem is... CoT minions, lieutenants and bosses have uneven level ranges. Energy mages, for example, cap out at Lv16, but most others do so around Lv14, which means that if MA exemplars you, you'll be fighting bosses exclusively. So how do I force an arc to exemplar at a set level?

Thanks for the review, Venture. I should probably point out the root of the two problems you mentioned, though.

Regarding overpowered Grimoire {or Grimor, as Trolls have a predilection for vowel deficiency}; yes, he's designed as an AV, but in all the runs so far he's spawned as an AV only once, on an eight-man team running on Unyielding - in all the other cases, including a plethora of Heroic and Tenacious eight-men he resolutely stayed an EB. Also, if he's designed as an EB, on a solo he downscales to a mere Boss, which is a little underwhelming, so an EB with a couple of tank-build boss allies on your side should make him feasible. The glowy and the cops both are supposed to show up at the front of the map, by the way, but what with AE's glowy placement and all...

Regarding the Shaggy Dog ending, it wasn't my first choice, but seems to be the only way to stay with the canon, as it's not a historical arc; if the case did make it to the court, the Family's Dyne-through-Skulls operation would flounder, which would go against the canon you encounter later in the higher security levels. The missing evidence is also fairly easy to explain - a hired superninja vs. a crooked cop - which is more probable? There's also a hint to as who the culprit is - one undercover agent named Manual Ferrous whom you may encounter later on.

And other than cranking up the rep, absolutely no way around it?

Yeah, he's an AV by design.

I've got an annoying problem on my lowbie arc - I can't make my EB spawn as an AV on a team of any size. The one time he did go AV was when a team of eight ran on Unyielding, which made things.... interesting. But on Heroic, a generally fitting difficulty on pre-tens, with a moderately-sized team, he's nothing more than a speed bump.

Is there any way to make him scale to an AV on a large team? He's balanced-ish for a soloer, but I'd still like him to be at least a vague challenge no matter how many people take him on.

Ummm.

You... do know you can simply invite someone else {preferably someone trustworthy}, promote them to leader and have them invite your alts into the supergroup. It's pretty standard fare, and it seems a bit excessive to make a whole new account for something that could be done with a friend and a few minutes' time.

edit: If you're on Virtue, hit me up sometime and I'll help out.

Keep in mind that you can customize or make new chat tabs from scratch. Simply right-click on your chat window and select "Add tab" or "Edit tab" and proceed to add or remove the channels you want that tab to display. You can have up to ten chat tabs spread across up to five {main plus four} chat windows, each of those being splittable down a horizontal line.

Already proposed something similar here .

So there's no way to start at your level and go up as you move toward the back of the map?

Okay, lower compared to what? I.e. will you start with blues at the door and end up with yellows in the back, or do they start at your level and go up from there?

Well, nerts. And between the placement AE bugs, trying to force the encounter doesn't work either. Thanks anyhow, though.

Quick question, as searching turned up nothing - I'm trying to find a way to make a named regular boss and his team-sized entourage make a beeline for you after clicking a glowy. Can it be done? I can make one or the other, but not both.

You... you actually managed to turn the Atlas Park Lv1 fodder into an actual threat?

I am impressed.

Made one a while back, and though I'm still tweaking it here and there, I'm generally getting positive feedback on it. Arc ID 61156, "The Grim and the Green". I took Jose Brogan's "Skulls attack a nightclub" mission and took it as the starting point of the arc. There's two custom foes - one a Family mobster {which had to be custom because there's no Lv1 Family} and the endboss {which you can call backup for}. In any case, led a few Lv1ish teams for field tests and other than the occasional teamwipe from overlapping fields of aggro, didn't have much trouble getting through the arc.

How about your entire team? For example, when you click on a mission door, your client takes the models of your teammates {which are probably cached on your computer at that point}, slaps them in preset poses, superimposes them against a backdrop, takes a virtual screenshot and uses that image as the background loading screen. It would probably be pain in the butt to code, however, and unlikely to be resource-profitable for such a small cosmetic improvement, but hey, while we're throwing ideas around...

re: MunkiLord

That it takes up an additional amount of server space for a longer period of time?

re: Munkil
That's basically the point - you don't get something for nothing. Instead, you get extra slots, but to be profitable, you need to be correct in the assumption that your wares will sell relatively quickly.

re: Lavitae
2} It prevents the players using up any number of slots and simply removing and re-adding them them before the 24-hour timer expires and the renting fee applies.

The idea sounds good - as far as the "gaming the system" argument where players could put expensive items in available slots and cheap items in rented slots to minimize the expenses, simply cheat. The first rented slot would use the price of the highest-priced item in the queue, the second rented slot would use the price of the second-highest-priced item and so forth. Thus, you can rent the slots, but don't have a say in which item gets used as the cost criteria.

Edit: Plus, the first payment should be applied immediately, rather than after 24 hours.