SuperJames

I don't know. I hate outlevelling contacts too, but there are workarounds. On the other hand, gaining a level in the middle of a tough mission can be a real boon at low levels.

Can you clarify what you mean by playing the character? You've ruled out task forces, so I'm curious about what it is you want to do that you can't do because you're grinding influence instead. What do you enjoy? You're creating an artificial either/or situation. Players can do both. I enjoy playing my character and I enjoy checking my progress against various goals at the end of the session. Take away that sense of progression and you take away part of my fun.

I've just logged in to check and the top price for a level 10 Science Origin Accuracy enhancement at Wentworths is 1,250 influence. Damage is 1,000. Recharge is 1,500. If people are concerned about new players struggling, usher them towards the market instead of a vendor.

You have just described wargaming with miniatures. Lots of people really enjoy collecting, painting and remodelling their miniatures. For some, the actual game is irrelevant. Your analogy falls down because CoH gives us the resources we need while playing. We don't have to do anything other than play. I've accumulated a billion influence over time without doing anything on the market beyond selling inspirations, enhancements I crafted myself, and the odd recipe. The analogy would be better if you could buy a squad of space marines and then get another model every time you played a game. OK, you have to play the game to get more models. Or just buy some from a veteran player who has more than they need. Some people will play diligently every weekend for years to amass vast armies. Then someone else will say the models should be free, because hey, these are only pieces of plastic.

Offering some unsolicited advice: Temp Invulnerability gives you much more protection than Resist Physical Damage, and Dull Pain will save your hide a lot more than Resist Elements. The Resist powers are always on and cost-free, but the actual benefits are very low. Something I wish I'd known when I rolled my first Inv Tanker. Hope you're having a good time.

Any map after running through the same map for the last four missions. Task forces that send me into one Council base or Crey lab after another really wear out their welcome.

I have Taunt slotted with the Perfect Zinger damage proc and I like to use it even when solo, hoping to do a bit of extra damage during the Rage crash. Recently, I ran the entirety of Who Will Die for the first time. I'm not a fan of the whole thing, but I enjoyed the finale a lot. I battled through to the end and then unexpectedly defeated Rula-Wade with a taunt. It seemed highly appropriate. He's near-invulnerable, except for his pride. I'm sure I'm not the only one who slots this proc, so I wonder: in our long history, which other archvillains have been laid low by a crack at their ego?

I don't think the Twinshot arcs are written well. I like the concept but the execution is poor. The plot is silly and the ending is downright depressing. Having said that, Techwright's comments me think. Instead of a rework, I would be happier seeing the characters reappear as contacts for new higher-level content. It would be great to see some character development and a sense of progression in the game world as they guide you through storylines that are less focused on the NPCs themselves. I've just played the first of Darmian's AE arcs featuring the Meteors, which I thought was very good and just what the Shining Stars need. Has anyone done an AE arc along these lines already?

These are both heroic story arcs. At higher levels, you will get alignment missions which do give you the choice of being a hero or a vigilante. Usually heroes save people while vigilantes leave them to go after the perpetrators.

I think the idea is that you can't be everywhere at once and can't save everyone on your own. Rest assured, another new hero will be right along to help whoever you can't. Later in the game, when you discover time travel through Ouroboros, you can do the other contact arc. Right now, for a low-level hero, Officer Fields has you fighting Vahzilok, which are tougher enemies and more likely to send you to the hospital. There are a few groups of them around Atlas Park, so you could try fighting them and see how it goes. Hope this helps.

I'm happy to say this has not happened to me once in two years. Never seen anything in Pocket D approaching the silliness I used to see in the Lion's Pride.

It must work, because I do love running around the city, despite the frustrations of getting from A to B. That's what keeps bringing me back to the game. It feels like it could be a real city. And it's a cool city, a city I want to live in. I'm playing a hero with superpowers having adventures in a cool futuristic city. It's awesome.

This gets me, too! In a city overrun by criminal gangs, Manticore decides you should fight his friends. I do like to think that I just beat up the Freedom Phalanx in disguise. No wonder those Arachnos bosses were so strong. I guess this is because the writer wanted to set up a surprise twist at the end. It irks me when writers do this. A good twist is great, but when the set up turns into a convoluted mess then it stops looking clever and just looks contrived. Sometimes it really kills the payoff, too. Like here, you didn't really stop an Arachnos plot. It was just a simulation.

After playing it once, I decided not to run it as a hero again. It just seems such a weird thing for a hero to do. Not only that, it makes no sense to me.

This has been on my mind for so long! How do speeders get around? I've never taken Super Speed, because I love flying, but I have tried to get around most blue side zones on foot. I wanted to learn the layouts, and it was incredibly difficult. Most zones are like mazes. Half the city is built on blocks of concrete thirty feet high. Roads twist like spaghetti or go half a mile with no exits. Walls, fences and tunnels are everywhere. Founders' Falls has an island of buildings with no bridges. I guess the citizens go out on boats. Searching for a mission entrance in Brickstown made me think the map was bugged. I live in the UK, where most of our towns were decrepit labyrinths before urban planning was invented, but to me the design of Paragon City looks like a Nemesis plot. Are US cities actually like this? I'd love to know the reason for this design choice. My best guess is they were worried players wouldn't take travel powers.