We need an easy way to transfer between characters.

I am an evil exploiter. Every character that I create gets at least 1mil inf and a set of costume salvage as soon as they finish the tutorial. That said, I wouldn't mind having an option such as this.

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho

Oh, I agree with you there. I was just pointing out that we shouldn't assign limits based on whether AE is technically considered "real" or not. Let's put out our ideas and assessments and let the devs consider whether they are worthwhile. We shouldn't let AE automatically put a kibosh on ideas simply because it's not considered "real."

See my response to Maniac_Raid concerning whether "realistically" two of our own characters could meet each other or not. That's the main point I was trying to make with regard to sharing between our own characters, whether we factor AE into the equation or not.

That's not even remotely exploiting. It's reasonable, especially with regard to costume parts like insect/fairy wings. If it's part of your character's identity, you should be able to get it that early.

There is no difference at all between sharing influence/salvage, etc., between your own characters or with a friend's characters. You can already share salvage, enhancements, and inspirations through your SG base.

Why not influence as well since influence has become in-game currency? They've already deviated from the original concept; this would fit right in with the introduction of Wentworths and an in-game "economy."

I see your point of view. I was just trying to show that while one person can use the AE (or any other feature) to explain how their alts all know each other, that same feature can be used to justify the other sides point of view.

There's no wrong way to view our characters. We can see them as individuals or as extensions of ourselves. By that I mean the player earned the influence/loot as opposed to the inf/loot belongs to the character that earned it. It's almost a futile discussion because both sides can argue the validity of their respective point of view and neither side is wrong.

So I don't think the devs should put this feature into the game based on how people want to play. I think it should be put in because the game mechanics have evolved in a direction where it makes a lot of sense to implement it.

Side switching is just around the corner and hopefully we'll be able to take our inf with us as we go from hero to villain and vice versa, and I think this feature is the next logical step.

I hope that makes sense.

"Yes, but"...

80% of the missions I see in AE are things I wouldn't eat on a bet. Titles like "beat the cheerleders". I just looked at ten random AE missions and seven of them didn't even TRY to have story content. Chances are good that two of the other three are accidentally broken in some horrible way (Oh, gee, I have TWELVE SMOKE GRENADE DEBUFFS on me again. Huh. )

Even the GOOD stuff has good reasons not to be canon, often.

After #192771, for instance, I can't look at the statue of Lord Recluse without thinking "Lord Recluse's Sweet Ride". And I'm pretty sure I 5-starred that arc. ("Lord Recluse's Regrettable Morning After", in case I got that arc number wrong.)

You need an "it was all a simulation" button for plausible deniability.

Don�t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. - R.W. Emerson

You don't have to play a badly written player-made mission for that to happen. Just go up against the Malta Group.

Yes, but...

I drop bad AE missions as quickly as it becomes apparent they fit the category of which you speak. While I love playing good AE content, I certainly don't deny that there is a whole lot that I avoid like the plague.

I also do that with dev content that deserves to have an "it's only a simulation" button (although there is a far lower percentage of those) or that I just plain don't like, even if well-written (anything Vahz, zone zombie raids, etc.).

The fact that there is bad content in the AE as well as good doesn't counter the points made about legitimate use of AE for RP purposes.

Well, be that as it may, we do all know which kind Crey is. And Dr. Aeon's the number-two man at OCP! OCP runs the cops! YOU'RE A COP!

... ahem. Excuse me. I meant to say that Dr. Aeon's the number-two man in, well, if not Arachnos proper, at least the Rogue Isles, an internationally recognized Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy (I believe it's actually a UNESCO World Villainy Heritage Site). If he showed up at a convention, his nametag actually would say

Hello! My name is
DR. AEON
MUAHAHAHAHA!
Evil Scientist

I can see MJ's point. I think she's overreacting... um... catastrophically... but I can see where she's coming from. It is kind of a flimsy backstory for something that heroes are going to be involved in, especially ones experienced enough to know anything about the AE principals' backgrounds. I mean, hell, Countess Crey framed Captain Photon for murder once. That's not really going to make him inclined to become her customer for anything, much less virtual reality situations in which things may try to kill him.

But don't go by me. I've also long thought that Hero Corps was way too shady for most of my characters to want to have anything to do with them, which has made setting my difficulty level a sort of grit-teeth-look-away experience. I don't hold with these tortuous in-game explanations for out-of-game mechanics in general (Hero Corps Adjusters, that hugely silly "Positron's Diary" thing about alternate builds, the handwave about power proliferation). The Architect is just the latest square peg being hammered into a hexagonal hole.

You had me listening until the last paragraph. "Because some other MMO does it" is a ridiculous reason to institute something in this game.

Also, as has been mentioned, somehow, CoH has survived sans said feature for 5 years now.

Thirdly, a quibble about your thread title. Don't use "we." You don't speak for all of us, as, obviously, some of the forum goers are bound to disagree with you. Also, "need" is a tad hyperbolic. A better title, would have been "I want an easy way to transfer... blah blah."

Context. In the RP situation I presented, my statement was true.Captain Amazing, and Sidekick Bob see it as influence, not money. Maybe I should have tried to make that more clear.

I'll clarify. Yes, you can chose to ignore it and expect whatever you want. You choose to ignore the in-game canon for the existence of AE to suit your needs, and beliefs. But just because you, and others who share your opinion make that choice doesn't make it a fact for the devs to think that a bank/transfers between toons on the same account needs to be added to the game.

I DO realize that the toons on one account are not the same person, and it's simply that an account cannot have two toons logged in at the same time which keeps up the aspect that was brought up that they can never meet, and thus never exchange inf/anything. They can be in the same SG/VG, have all the same contacts, and friends, defeat all the same villains/heroes. If all of the toons ever created on a single server were real live people in and alternate dimension, it's plausible to think that Captain Amazing and Sidekick Bob, who while in this world are characters on a single account, could meet, and trade between them. In that world, they are not connected in any way.

But then, answer me this. How often have you been approached by a multi-millionaire whom you have no connection to all, and been given a massive amount of money?

Lastly.. for this post. Concerning what Megajoule said. From what I remember(I'm not deep seeded in the CoH lore) but Crey is not known world wide to be an evil corporation, and Dr. Aeon found a way to get cheap power to the Rogue Isles. He's known to be a brilliant scientist. Brilliant doesn't necessarily mean moral/ethical/good.


I really need to stop reading this thread. I feel I'm playing devils advocate far more than I ever intended...

This.

Pushes the button again. It was funny to watch.

I like watching her pant.

I don't expect anything; these posts are purely for discussion purposes, not to demand anything from the devs (my brother is a dev for another MMO; I know better than that).

The only argument I'm making here is that there is no "canon" or logical storyline reason for characters on the same account not to be able to use bank transfers with each other. The notion that they can never meet is absurd on the face of it in an RPG. The whole point of an RPG is to be able to write your own backstory for your characters and fit them into the devs game world.

In my backstory, I can write that my character met the president of the United States. Never actually happened in game, of course, but nobody would question it.

But if I have two characters who are brothers with fully fleshed-out backstories about their escapades together, it won't wash because these brothers could never have met in "RL"? That members of the same SG have can never have met? Technical limitations should have no impact on storylines in an RPG.

Again, it is not (or perhaps only barely) plausible to think that two members of the same SG, with the same contacts, friends, etc., can not possibly have ever met. That's technical limitations trumping RPG elements all the way. It's not a valid reason to say two characters on the same account can't share influence (especially since they *can* share just about everything else via the SG base).

The only valid reason for not allowing is that the devs said so. This doesn't mean that they can't change their perspective based on the evolution of the game or player feedback. Hence threads like this one.

Actually, right here in this game. My daughter joined a costume contest in Atlas on one of her characters. She was in the middle of the line when another player jumped in and bumped her off of the platform into the water. She just jumped back up at the end of the line (instead of trying to push back into the middle).

She did not win the contest, but afterward a high-level character sent her a tell and said that she saw what happened, liked the way my daughter handle the situation, and proceeded to give her 2 million influence. It made a nice impression on my nine-year-old.

I've had high-level characters that I don't know pop by while I'm at a vendor in Atlas on a low-level character and drop a ton of level 50 enhancements on me to either store or vendor for a bunch of influence. I've done the same for others.

No, you're fine. You are pointing out the technical realities of the game in a reasonable fashion. Personally, I feel no sense of contention with you; I'm just plopping my two influence worth in too.

I play with my wife and daughter, so the issue of trading influence and such is really moot for me.

This is just a mechanic that I think has become obsolete based on the maturation of the game and reasonable story/RP elements. It would be a QoL change for the players, not a major game-changing feature.

When have you ever known me to do that? *innocent blink-blink*

To the rest of your post, however, and somewhat back on topic - yeah, MOST of the Devs' attempted in-game justifications for new features and game mechanics have ranged from clunky to stupid. A part of me thinks they should just not try; it would at least mean less for those of us who want to tell our own stories to ignore.

inf is inf. It's game cash. If the Devs don't want lowbie alts being twinked out by their mains and/or friends... well, it's far too late for that, the horse has not only left the barn but sired a herd of wild mustangs. But they should come out and say so in plain language, instead of hiding behind the kind of story excuse they've trained us to ignore (by being so lame).

Now, it could be that they accept that it happens but they don't want to make it easy; to discourage it without disallowing it. But if so, again, it would be nice if they'd just say so.

It's also possible that, like Power Customization until recently, it's simply about #57 on the list of priorities to be coded. They might get to it sometime before they shut down the servers... maybe.

"It looks like you're trying to produce a rant. What kind of rant would you like?"
* Farmers
* Griefers
* SPORE
* Those kids today and their damn music

Oh, and Forbin Project? Go watch some Baywatch reruns instead. Perv.

Brilliant and just about made me spit my tea.

This claim is so absurd as to be laughable. So rather than rebut it, I'll just say thanks for a good laugh.

Just in case anyone is reading this thread and isn't familiar with Fulmens, I'll chime in for some reassurance. He's a well known player, wealthy to the point where he listed a stack of 10 common salvage for 2 billion each (costing himself a billion in market fees) just for grins, and has been offering inf xfers to players for a very long time. He's quite reliable and trustworthy.

Well there was this one time, but it turned out they werent really a millionaire

It's funny because it's true. I really do love Dr. Aeon. He's an adorable mad genius.

LOL yes and people would queue up for Doctor Mengele's new HMO.

Which would be true, except for all the in-game (and therefore "real") missions where the devs repeatedly bludgeon home the fact that nearly everything Crey does is, in fact, evil. While Dr. Aeon isn't as consistently, kitten-stabbingly evil, he *is* consistently portrayed as someone who would, for example, kidnap a person and toss them through a portal into an alien dimension just to see what happens.

All in all, good post. Just as an aside, I agree with it.