The_Alt_oholic

I'm running Mozilla Firefox right now and I'm not having that issue.

At one point, it seemed to be logging me out quicker than normal, but I can get in and work on posts fine now. If you are getting logged off before you posts go through, I suggest making a copy of what you have written before you try to update to the forums. I've crashed while trying to update too many times and, if you are familiar with my posts, they aren't two sentences.

It may be related to your virus checker or add-ons?
I'm running NoScript and it does block something(s) that are trying to load once I log in, but the system lets me in without loading up the active content that it blocks.
If you start having issues, NoScript lets you see active content that might be causing a problem and allows you to block it.
This isn't an endorsement (though I do use it myself), so check the info on it at the add-on site and make your own call in regards to it.

experiment
or
mixformula
(both activate the same emote)

calculate

1. Teleport Self is the least-DEV-loved of the Travel Pools.
2. Teleport Self is the only non-toggle travel power.
3. It requires more skill than any of the other travel powers.
4. It took years to get the red-ring-of-death resolved.
5. You can't target short while in the air, it is either all or nothing.
6. It is the least forgiving of all travel powers. Other players can argue, but I know that I really need Hover to keep from falling out of the air while using Teleport Self quite often.
7. And it is an end-sucker. Hover helps in that situation to as Hover is low end and you can take a moment to safely recharge some end before continuing.

As to the advantage of getting somewhere quickly and being out of end and someone showing up 2-5 seconds later with full end, ... well ... that should be obvious. Is getting some where that little bit fast really worth all that end?
For most people, the answer is no.

Teleport Self does need to be looked at and improved.

And I do believe that TP Self is suppressed in PvP like all the other travel pools, unless something was changed again.

The sonic secondary is great as it is -RES. Any team should appreciate that. That is what made the Sonic set such a "break through" when it came out.

I agree completely.
Skill does matter, and there are skills to learn in CoX. Skills related to CoX in general as well as skills related to individual AT. I'd dare say even skills related to various team constructions.

You were on the most simplest easy-to-run team styles to run, on the lowest diff setting, and had the parts to make the team-machine to run smoothly.
Skill and knowledge are the only things that could run that situation into the ground.

I don't mini-max any of my characters. I concept build most of them.
I run a lot of "mix-bag" teams aka players that are available.
When the teams I run have problems, they are usually based on in experienced players jumping the gun or assuming they know how they are "supposed to act" in a given situation. Those are players that rush in regardless of their ability to handle the agro they cause and/or they aren't looking at the team and figuring out how the team can be helped by their powers and working as a team with the other players.
Most of the time, I'm lucky enough to find a team that just meshes or newer players that will follow my lead since I'm the leader. When this happens, we demolish the enemy regardless of what ATs are or aren't on the team.

As far as I know, kills in the AE do not count toward kill badges or hunts.

What? The Kheldean bonuses are awesome!

Tankers get what they deserve. Tankers as a whole were not taking Taunt; therefore, a "+minor agro" was given to them to make sure that they doing at least some of the agro-magnet-ing that they were intended to do.

I have no doubt that you are a Tanker if you are in the Defender forums arguing how the Tanker's are an under-powered as an AT. It is sad that your tankertude brings you here to argue how your AT is under powers in a forum for an AT that can get crushed so easily and does far less damage than Tanks.

I solo on my Doms quite often (when I play them - I play Heroes far more than Villains). I think it is much easier to solo with a Dom than it is to solo with a Defender.

In the few situations where it gets to the point that I need extra endurance, it is too little too late. It just doesn't boost you enough so that you can heal and keep fighting if things are really hitting the fan. In fact, if you heal, it become counter productive to fast end recovery. When you get to bosses that can two shot someone, there just isn't any time for this mechanic to kick in at all.
That's one reason I would be for a change to at least a dom-like activation on Vigilance - so that when activated it would fill your end bar if not another inherent all together.

I'm a fan of the damage modifier to Defenders scaling upon how many team mates that they have. Defenders great advantage is on bigger teams where their heals/buffs/debuffs gain with each additional character that can take advantage of their use. So the smaller the team (the smallest being solo of course) means that the Defender is having less impact. Starting with a higher damage modifier at solo and scaling back to the present damage modifier once the team size has reached 4, doesn't seem to be too far out of line in regards to balance.

There seem to be quite a number of players that aren't running the tutorial.
I see no other excuse for players that don't now where the trainer is. If they ran the tutorial, it would have sent them strait to the first trainer to level up (as they would have leveled once in the tutorial).

All the broadcast for teams "looking for more" for AE teams in Atlas doesn't "tell a new player that the AE even exists"?

If they get to level 5, they are given a contact to go see in the AE to learn about it - in Atlas - where all the chatter for AE teams appears to be.

Are you sure there is nothing telling a new player that the AE even exists?

What about the Mission Architect box that says that the AE is an alternate method for leveling from 1-50?

Are you completely sure there is nothing telling a new player that the AE even exists?

I don't need to go on any further because there are even more ways that a new player could have heard about the AE that don't have friends that are playing the game.

I know I wouldn't lead one of my friends characters to the AE the first day that they played. I would tell them that it was best to avoid it for the time being or, at the very least, to avoid it in Atlas!

Yes. Responsibilities are a matter of opinion.
Exploiting and, therefore, cheating, are a gray area, but only until you get to that point that you are obviously getting greater returns than you deserve. It should be obvious by now that many that are doing the ae farming/pl'ing are "obviously getting greater returns than they deserve" if not the are certainly "getting more than is intended".
I think that players should be responsible enough not to intentionally cheat while playing.

I'd rather see the sewer teams.
There weren't high level characters broadcasting for sewer teams and denying entry of lower level players to teams because they were low levels. Though I do think it is silly to go underground into a dungeon-like environment as soon as you enter the City.
In the few times that I have been in the sewers I have only seen higher level characters following along healing a sewer team one time and they weren't on auto-heal.
I don't believe that a blaster can recharge their nuke fast enough to blow up every group that you are trying to fight. I have never seen this kind of behavior in the sewers.

That might have been your usual procedure, but many of us have different procedures.
Before the Hollows, I ran arcs or hunted the lakes in Atlas and/or Galaxy to gain some levels and then started running arcs.
Once the Hollows appeared, I ran the lakes until I was level 5. At which point, my character could get into the Hollows and started running arcs there. I'd usually end up running missions there until the tf, at which point, I would head elsewhere to talk to a newer contact.
Once the police scanners came out, I hunted the lakes and the streets of Kings Row until level 5. At which point, my character would get a police scanner and start running police missions in Kings Row. After getting a raptor pack and probably a jump pack as well, I'd head to Steel Canyon at level 12 to run some more police missions, the Midnighter arc, and the University arc around level 17. At level 20, head to Talos.
But all of this is based on my running a team or soloing. I'm almost always on a team, so sometimes I'm following the leader and what they want to do - which many times is completely different from the plans that I have listed above.

To me, Frostfire is a very good example of a mission that was designed not to be farmed. If you played it set on rugged or higher, there is a good chance that you leveled at least once or twice which would make the mission pretty stale by the time you reached the end of it and not worth resetting.
It is definitely an epic mission that every player should experience.

Wow, you seem disappointed that you would actually have to play to earn a badge.

Isn't that the point of the badge?
Playing to get it?

I serious doubt that the DEVs intended for characters to be parking online unattended in order to gain badges.

On that same note, stopping people from farming badges is only the tip of the iceberg as to why they might institute this kind of mechanic.

I hope not.
I'd hate to see how many of my alts this might "kill off". I have several characters that I play on various servers - aka I use the same name on various servers.
I'm sure if it didn't "kill them off", it would at least mean that all but one of them would need to be renamed.
Not fun for me.

On the plus side of this debate, it would give a much larger pool of people to team with. This might be beneficial to PvPr's who seem to be few in number and spread across various servers.

On the negative side, the flavor of the various servers would be lost. I do think there are definite differences of the various servers and the players that play on each.

I'm sure it is clear what my stance would be in regards to the 5+ instances of Atlas and the high level characters crowding into all of them.

I'd make more comments on this, but the would be only speculation and I don't know for sure about the technological limitations in regards to a server-less system. However, I can think of some other things that may or may not turn out to be real issues in regards to implementing this kind of system change.

I play on all the servers. I can't say that I've run into much problems with the AE on Infinity lately, at least, not as much as I have run into on Farmdumb or Virtues - which I will not game on until the AE farming/pl'ing has been stopped or died down.
I ran several non-farming/pl'ing AE teams on actual "real" story AE missions on Infinity a while back and people seemed to enjoy it.

You seem to have about 4 statements here.

1. It sounds like they are the noob, and they are the ones that need to go away as they were bothering you with repeated replies. Obviously there is no reason to pay any attention to what this player had to say. Set your options to show stars. Use the "add notes" feature to rate them with one star; now one star will show up over their head whenever you see them. Lastly, put them on ignore. Now it is pretty easy to avoid any more interaction with this character until your ignore list over-flows completely. Also, if you run into a 1 star, you know not to team with them.
2. I still do run mission teams. I suggest that if you have a 50 and you like the game, that you start running teams as well. I also suggest that you make new characters and play with new players. This will give he new players something to do rather than being roped-into an AE farming/pl'ing team.
3. The AE system is being highly abused. There is so much abuse going on that it can be hard to find the "real" story AE content. If you only have a level 50, try this arc 232506. It is a non-farming/pl'ing arc. The worst part of the AE abuse is the fact that some players think it is their right to abuse the system - and, by that, I mean cheating. By not following the rules, they are cheating, and they insist that they have the right to cheat by using exploits. That part is pretty out of hand. The system has real potential if we can get rid of the cheaters' missions and spotlight the story missions. Of course, the farm/pl'rs are quite vocal about not wanting to run other players "cruddy story" missions (or however you want to phrase it in a derogatory fashion for this what some like to do.); too bad Mr. AE Farmer/PL'R - the stories are the whole purpose of the AE.
4. I have no reason to switch to Champions Online and many reasons not to do so. As a fan of Champions the RPG, Champions Online is a travesty; it does not use the game mechanics that made Champions the RPG so popular and revolutionary in RPGs. There will be a micro-transaction system build into the game; though you apparently can earn "coin" in game, you can pay for it as well, so it looks like the more you pay the more powerful you can be - what fun for the rich?! Apparently, there are only 8 character slots - not per server, just 8 - or, at least, that is the rumor. What you will get is an archetype system like City of Heroes. Oh, I even hear that they are selling life memberships even before the game is release (and maybe only before he game is released) - this seems like a come-and-get-it-sucker move to me. If you feel you need to leave CoX, I'm sorry to hear that; I won't even be checking out Champions Online if I get a free trial offer.

If you like CoX, help us fix it and don't run away.
This is our City.

Cool. It's away good to know that more than one person is on the same page.



You might note that I only indicated selecting AT's specifically briefly. I'm firmly believe that any group of players around the same level or sk'd to it can be a successful team if they work as a team.

However, I'm a great fan of the no tanker/no scrapper team at the moment. There are so many tanker-lead teams that that mechanic of game play as grown very old to me. Invite a scrapper to a team without a tank, and they want to be the tank. The same can be said for kheldians.
These teams are amazingly successful and don't fail as long as the team moves and works a a team.

I lead teams quite often.
If I don't have a lot of time I don't start one. I don't want to start a team and then just let it fall after a mission or two, but that's just me.

I use a pretty simple method to lead and recruit for teams.

First off you have to have a team plan and stick to it. Mine is usually to run a certain kind of mission that either I'm pulling or a friend of mine on the team is pulling. This could be Police missions in certain zone, the midnighter arc, or just simply running level $level missions.

Always pull up a mission and have it ready before you start recruiting. If you don't do this, players will just drop from the team if one isn't pulled up fast enough.

Always say "hello" in one form or another when new player joins the team.
Always keep your team window open.

Okay, now you are ready to recruit.

1. Open the /search window.
2. Pick your level range and search again.
3. If you want to find a specific AT(s) click those options and search again.

Now you have a list of players in your level range to start recruiting from.

You are only looking for names that are in blue that;

1. Do not have a red circle next to their name
2. Do not have a search comment that says that they aren't looking for the kind of team that you are going to be running.

Okay, so now you see someone you want to invite to a team.
Don't click invite to team. That's a blind invite. It is considered rude by many people.
Instead send a tell asking them if they would like to join and wait for their reply.

Too hard to send a tell to everyone? I've solved that for you.
Paste this macro into a text editor, modify it to fit your team, and then past it into your chat line in CoX. This will put a button in your tray that you can push to send a message to a likely recruit.
This one is geared to a team that I'm running.

/macro SFT "t $target, Hello. I'm running a team doing level $level missions on difficulty in zonename. Would you like to join us?"

As you see, it offers the player a choice to respond if they want to join. It also tells them my level, the difficulty setting, and zone.
Here's a possible edit --

/macro SFT "t $target, Hello,hero. I'm running a team doing level $level police missions on rugged in Kings Row. Would you like to join us?"

Another would be ::

/macro SFT "t $target, Hello. I'm running a team doing level $level missions on inv in PI. Would you like to join us?"

Okay, now that you have your macro built and your search window of likely candidates up. Refresh the search again.

Pick one of the names in blue that don't have a red circle or a search comment that indicated that they won't want to join you. Click on their name. Click on the marco. It will send the tell.

Now wait for replies.

Keep track of who you sent tells to. Sending multiple requests is bad form, so try to avoid it if at all possible. Just sent a tell to a player once and wait for responses.

Many will respond.
If they don't say they want to join, send a tell to thank them for responding.
If they do want to join, invite them! And don't forget to say "hello" when they pop into the team window!

Now you have players on your team, the mission is already up, and they are probably heading for the mission. Good work! You have the start of a team.

Take time to recruit between missions - using the method above you can do it quickly once you have the macro set-up.
Have a channel tab in chat for just tells makes it easier to keep track of who you have already sent tells to.

Remember to stick with your team plan.
The some on the team might want to do something else. It is best to just ignore them and keep with the plan. They will stop taking about wanting to do something else. If you change plans, you are at the risk of losing your whole team.
I have never seen more than one or two players leave to do something else and most of the time I see that they have logged shortly afterward as they weren't able to find anyone else to go along with their plan.

At the end of missions, make sure to say "Good work, team." or some such if the mission went well. If it went wrong, even "Whew" will go a long way for the rest of the team to know that you were sweating it as well.
If someone does something really good in a mission try to remember to compliment them on it.
And always say gratz when someone levels.

This is the critical part.
As soon as you get out of a mission pull up the next mission as quickly as possible. This can make or break a team.
If you have to go to a contact to get the next mission, let the rest of the team know as quickly as possible.
If you are going to go train, let the team know that you are going to go do that. If you are running missions, it is imperative that you train if you want to get a mission based on your new level - so don't pull a new mission until you have leveled up.
If you don't have a full team of 8, tell the team that you are going to do "quick recruit round" and quickly look for other players to send tells to. Do it quickly. Teams will fall apart if you delay. Quickly.
Don't wait for replies to the tells, head to the mission once you have sent tells to the new possible recruits.
You can deal with replies as you travel to the mission door or once you head into the mission.

There are finer point to leading, but this is they very basics that will enable you to form and lead a team that will keep going.

Good luck.

---------
NOTES:
For those of you that aren't familiar with macros, they are ways to run commands by placing buttons into the powers tray.

The basic structure is:
/macro nameofmacro "command"

$target = the player you have targeted. You can directly target them or click on their name in the /search window.

$level = the level of your character.

I don't reply to Hydrophidian because I have him on ignore.

I'm an anti-farm and I'm trying to protect the game.

The fact is that the AE farm/pl'rs are staying that they have a right to their game playstyle which effects everyone else's playstyles in a negative fashion.

How are these AE farm/pl'rs negatively effecting the game play of myself and others?

1. The constant changes to the AE to take out exploits being used the the AE farm/PL'rs. I'm contantly having to change my missions because objects are taken out. Sometimes just taken out and put back in. Other times it's some kind of object that would have a reason to be taken out of a farming/pl'ing mission that I'm using because the object looks cool. The same goes for maps.
2. The broadcast spamming in Atlas for AE teams. There is an AE channel, but it isn't used. Instead the broadcast in Atlas is full with people trying to fill level 50 teams. The lower level zones are for lower level players.
3. The prices are being driven up in the markets. Regardless of who says what, there has been massive inflation in the markets. This is directly AE related both due to the lack of players running normal missions and the prices that people are able to pay due to gold farming. Yes, gold farming. That is one of the side effects of these pl'ing sprees that continue to go on.
4. The degradation of what it means to have a level 50. Sure there was pl'ing before the AE, but it was minute compared to the massive waves of power-leveled 50's that have been created since the AE was released.
5. The effect on new player experience. I should not have to add this to my statement, but to make it clear - in my opinion, the AE activity in the lower level zones is ruining new player experience. There was pl'ing before, but it wasn't a walk through a couple of level 1 mobs away from where they zone into the game. Players are not getting to experience the "normal" game before they are being drawn into the AE. They might think it is cool to see the levels spin by, but all of those levels were times that they could have been gradually learning their powers and the different zones of the City. It is a problem when a level 50 steps out of the AE and doesn't know where the trainer is - because if they don't know where the trainer is they didn't even run the tutorial or, at the very least, they didn't read all the great information that is there for new players.
6. AE farmer/pl'rs insisting that others need to change the way that they experience the game in order to avoid their AE farming/pl'ing behavior in the lower level zone, because they refuse to change their playstyle so that it won't interfere with "normal" game content. I've seen posts telling players to turn off broadcast if they don't want to hear farming/pl chat. Broadcast is an integral part of the gaming experience in the City. Instead of the AE farmer/pl'rs moving to the AE channel, they expect other players to give up a game function that has been used for team building since release? This is not the only example of this kind of behavior that they feel that others should change in order to avoid their AE farming/pl'ing behavior. The AE farm/pl'rs don't seem to understand that they are the ones that were forcing their playstyle and it's effects on others and that we are reacting to the effect of their "playstyle" has caused and continues to cause to the game in general.

All of that is relevant. It is other players forcing the effects of their game play style on me through it's effect on my gaming environment. I like the "real" idea of the AE, but it isn't being used it is being exploited.

Deal with the fact that you aren't playing the game if you are exploiting it. You are cheating. You cheat when you break the rules. If you are exploiting the game you are breaking the rules. If you are an AE farmer/pl'r then you are a cheater. It's true.

Exploitation and cheating is not a valid playstyle. The fact that you are cheating and exploiting means that it is "invalid" as it is against the rules.

I'd rather see an insta-50 button in the game than to continue to have to hear about how abusing the AE by farming/pl'ing is a valid playstyle. At least the insta-50 button would be a legitimate way to get to 50.

Stop cheating and play the game. You might find out that you really enjoy it. I know that I do.

And the changes are on-going. Every change to the AE because of the exploiters caused me to have to make changes to my non-farming/pl'ing arcs.

I agree that Nethergoat is fond of saying don't encroach on his game playstyle. At the same time, it is obvious that he could care less when his game playstyle affects others.

The difference between me wanting the AE farmer/plr's to stop exploiting the game isn't a matter of not wanting them to stop doing what they want to do -- it is a matter of stopping them from exploiting the game which cause changed to the game that effect my gaming experience because of their actions.

Even more so, I will also note that Nethergoat relies on directly insulting individual and groups of players in order to try to get a point across.

If Nethergoat is utilizing exploits in the game then he is cheating. So is everyone else that uses them. Doing things that are against the rules is cheating. The EULA is clear that we are not to use exploits; therefore, utilizing an exploit is cheating which means that anyone that is using exploits is a cheater.
This isn't harassment. It is a fact.

If you think that cheating is wrong, don't cheat.

Cheating affects other players.

Cheating is not a valid playstyle; if it was "valid" it would not be against the EULA.

I sell all my purples for prices higher than the farmers do.
I don't buy any.

I'm there. I just noticed it last night. I was playing a Defender on Triumph.

I agree with you completely.

It is sad that some are so misguided to think that the AE wasn't created to tell stories and create end-game content.

Uh, yeah.

I was replying to your post which didn't talk about being at a computer when your views about role-playing and roll-playing were created. As I recall you were talking about that while you were working at a gaming store.

Perhaps I read into that that it was a "hobby" shop versus an "only video game" store. I probably also read into that you were making these assumptions based on watching people playing a pen-and-paper RPG in the store.

Either way, I'm not going to discuss this with you any more.
I made my points and this is not a thread about RP'ing.