I figured for my 100th post I'd do something helpful, rather that just respond to someone else's post.
Having played CoH for nearly a year I have noticed many quality of life features are not obvious. There are also things that are learned through experience and need to be shared.
Along those lines here is a list of some things which may be helpful to new players and even some old players. I'm still learning about little features which make this great game even better. I would like to encourage everyone to add their own ideas to this as well.
- Change the keybind for autorun (usually R as default). This has killed more heroes than villains, n00bs, and stupidity combined. Suddenly charging into a pile of villains is most often not a good thing. Set it to something out of the way. It can be nice while traveling long distances (so you don't have to hold down the forward key) but it can be a hassle.
- Status protection is a must on a tanker or scrapper. These powers (Unyielding, Rooted, Practiced Brawler, etc) will give you protection from things like sleep, confuse, knockback, holds, to name a few. They are extremely important for a melee character. My tank didn't have unyielding until 26 (its available at lvl 8) and after I got it I literally slapped my noob self for not grabbing it sooner.
- If someone sends you a tell (private message) you don't have to type in a bunch of stuff to reply. Hit Backspace (the default key) and it will set up an autoreply, or tell to that person. Then, just type your message in and hit enter. This comes in handy when chatting while in missions, or just to speed things up.
- To send a tell to someone you will need to type the following: /t Player_name, message. The /t and the , (comma) are very important as is the proper spelling of the players name, so make sure to take your time to get it right. Otherwise you'll have to do it again.
- Your global id is important too. It is represented as @whatever, for instance mine is @Starflier. You can use this in place of a player name when sending a tell. A tell to a global id will be saved for that person, even if they are offline when you send it. You are only allowed to change you global id once so make certain you are sure about what you want.
- One thing that comes up often is about the chat channels. If someone is talking on Broadcast or Request, they are in the same zone as you. Local is within a couple dozen feet of you. Team, friends, coalition, supergroup, arena channels will let you communicate with people in any zone.
- If you join a team, make sure you are using the team channel. You can change the channel at the bottom of the chat window with the little buttons. This keeps you from broadcasting wierd and annoying stuff over broadcast.
- F10 is the key to execute your battle cry, which you can fill in on your ID page. This will broadcast on your active channel, so try to make sure you're on team or local, so you don't spam your zone or sg with your battle cry.
- F7 will make your character say "Ready!" on your active channel while giving a thumbs up. This can be helpful in teams when people ask if everyone's ready.
- To pan the camera around (so you can take pics of the front of your character) there are 2 methods. Hold the middle mouse button and move the mouse to where you want the camera positioned. You can also hold Page Up while using Q or E to swing the camera around. The print screen button (PrtScr button, near the Scroll Lock or F12 key) will take the picture and put it in the CoH folder under screenshots. Screenshots will not have any interface or windows in them. The game will also take a screenshot with the windows/interface in it and put it on the clipboard. If you want this image you need to open up an image program, Paint will do, and paste it in there and then save it. This will only be saved until the next screenshot is taken.
- When on a team, in the team window there is a green arrow on the right hand side. Clicking this will turn on/off your ability to see powers and effects on teammates. Having this on can be useful if you're buffing others, and turning it off will make it easier to see the action while still keeping your team window open. This will also show what zone your teammates are in ( there names will be on a black bar, as opposed to green if they are in another zone).
- There is a similar little green arrow in the global friends window. Clicking this will allow you to see more info about your global friends such as: what server they are on, what character they are playing, what level, what archetype, and the size of the team they are on.
- If you play a "squishy" (most often defenders, controllers, and blasters) a useful way to keep from dying is to auto-assist a tanker or scrapper. Target the tank or scrapper. From now on you will attack their targets and cast heals/buffs on them. This is a good way to fight since the melee toon will hold the villains attention.
- CoH has a good system for people looking to team. On your team window, if you're not on a team, you can set yourself to "looking for team" and include a message for people looking to invite others. You can also use this window to find teammates to invite to your team.
- When inviting people, it is felt by many that "blind invites" are quite rude. This is when someone invites a player to a team without first sending a tell. It is a matter of etiquette, but blind invites can often result in joining a bad team. When putting together a team, a simple tell like so, "Interested in joining a lvl 20 team for missions in Striga?" goes a long way to finding players who want to join and help. Sending a tell or invite from the search window is easy, as their are buttons for both.
- Not everyone set to looking for team is, and not everyone set to not looking isn't. A lot of people don't change their "flag" very often. Once again, this is where a simple tell helps.
- A general guideline for making a "good" costume is to stick to 3 or 4 colors. Fewer colours can make the outfit look bland and more often make the outfit look hideous. Having colours and patterns match up can go a long way to improving your look, but don't be afraid to experiment. It's a great system with tons of options to try out.
- If you decide you want to chage your outfit, you can go to an Icon store. The first you can get to is in Steel Canyon in the NW corner. It's a small fee to adjust colors, but changing other options can be very pricey.
- At level 20, 30 and 40 you can get new costume slots and a free costume in them. You will need to talk to the head tailor in the level-appropriate Icon store (Steel Canyon - 20, Independence Port - 30, and Founder's Falls - 40), They will give you a mission and after completing it you will be able to make your new costume.
- Also, at 20 and 30 (respectively) you can unlock cape and aura options for your costume. Talk to the City Representative in city hall building to get the cape/aura mission. When finished you will be able to add capes or auras to your costume at an Icon store.
- Selling enhancements at a like store will get you much more money. So try to sell tech enhancements at a tech shop, magic at a Pandora's Box store, etc.
- People are pretty good in this game, so don't be afraid to ask. And don't be put off by the jerks. If someone is irritating you, use /ignore Player_name and you will no longer be able to hear them. Ignorance is bliss sometimes.
Anyway, I hope some of these help you out and I hope you can help others by adding to the list.
Have fun out there.
