Just tried it out

[cripp12]

I went on for the first time. I have a question.

-Is the character generater limiting.  I couldn't really make what I wanted. It was like I couldn't choose multiple colors?
-Is there something I can read to find out what things do.  I am still doing the tut.
- I really couldn't make my avatar as a matter of fact it is far from it. Is that because I am doing a trial?
- any tips.

[MJB]

When creating a character make sure that "Copy Current Colors Across Entire Body" is unchecked. You will have to uncheck it since it is automatically checked when you make a new hero/villian.

All of the standard costume options are included with the trial.

-MJB

[gdaybloke]

The body is divided up into sections, and each section can essentially have two colours on it. If you use the Blend pattern option then you'll get a gradient between the colours.
Some costume options are only available to veterans (ie, different options unlock dependant on how many months you've been a subscriber), but the vast majority are available from day one.

Perhaps if you post a pic of your avatar, we can take a poke at seeing how close we can get to it, and then let you know which options we chose to get there?

[cripp12]

I'll try to post a pick tonight. How much is the monthly fee?
Also what about powers.  Do they also expand with the purchase?

[El Condor]

The fee is $14.99 a month.  Powers should all be the same.  When you reach the 12-month mark, you get a couple of bonus powers to choose from, but nothing really major.  The developers have talked recently about adding a pair of brand new power sets for melee characters, but no official point in time has been announced for that.

EC

[GhostMachine]

Yeah, there aren't a lot of veteran reward powers that are all that great.

You get a set of different sprint animations, a choice between Sands of Mu (which is similar to the Dark Melee power Shadow Maul) or the Ghost Slaying Ax (does extra damage vs. undead - ie Banished Pantheon), and some other powers. I get the Emergency Base Teleporter next, which I'm not too thrilled about as I already have the Pocket D VIP teleporter as an escape tool and can find a base portal to run to just about anywhere.

At 33 months, you do get the choice of a Nemesis Staff or a Blackwand power.

My one gripe is that base items should NOT be veteran rewards. Its never made sense.

[BlueBard]

You won't have to think about it for a whole year, but the Ghost Slaying Axe also works against Circle of Thorns spectral enemies.  If you're magic-origin it's worth thinking about.

[B A D]

And Tsoo Ancestor Spirits. And Croatoa ghosts.  And  Banished Pantheon.

[BlueBard]

And Tsoo Ancestor Spirits. And Croatoa ghosts.  And  Banished Pantheon.

Yah, forgot Ancestor Spirits.  Never fought Croatoa ghosts.  Thanks for the clarification, BAD!

[MJB]

I'm sure all this talk about Veteran Rewards is just confusing him. He hasn't begun to pay the monthly fee yet, let alone collect Vet Rewards. ;)

-MJB

[Uncle Yuan]

I'm sure all this talk about Veteran Rewards is just confusing him. He hasn't begun to pay the monthly fee yet, let alone collect Vet Rewards. ;)

But it's good to have goals . . .

[Lionheart]

I'll try to post a pick tonight. How much is the monthly fee?
Also what about powers.  Do they also expand with the purchase?

Are you asking whether you will be able to get more powers than just the ones you start with, or more than appear (even though greyed out) on the power choice screen?

If you mean adding powers as you level, sure enough. Plenty to choose from for each primary and secondary power set as you progress in level, different power sets for each type of character (e.g., Blaster, Scrapper), plus new power sets (e.g., travel powers, etc.) opening up as well (which answers the second part of the question :) ).

[cripp12]

like flying, stretching, invisibility, eye beams, morphing, being able to use more then one power set like energy and fire and ice.   Tons more.

[GhostMachine]

like flying, stretching, invisibility, eye beams, morphing, being able to use more then one power set like energy and fire and ice.   Tons more.

No stretching or morphing (unless you count Peacebringer and Warshade Nova and Dwarf forms, but you have to have a lvl 50 character before you can make a PB or WS), but the other powers do exist. You can get flying from a power pool, invisibility from a power pool or certain power sets (Illusion Control, Blaster Devices has a Cloaking Device, Dark Miasma has an area effect invisibility that affects everyone you're teamed with, and there are a few others). Rad Blast is the only powerset I can think of that has an eye beam attack you can get early on.

As for using different types of energy, you can use more than one energy type; GhostMachine isn't a good example because he is Electric\Devices, but I have a hero called Keitaro Serizawa (2 pts to anyone who can tell me where both his first and last names come from - last should be easy) who is energy blast and fire manipulation.

My advice, which I give to anyone new to CoH or just checking it out before deciding to try is to go download Sherksilver's Hero Builder program and play around with it a bit. It won't help figuring out using the IOs that exist now or building a Thugs MM if you want to play CoV (because they haven't updated the descriptions of the Thugs henchmen), but it helps with everything else.

[Uncle Yuan]

The type of powers your characte can have is ultimately determined by the "Archetype" - the broad category of character you are.  I'd suggest playing around with the character generator to become familiar with what powers are available to which archetypes.

If you come at it with a preconceived character that you want to build, you will likely be a little disappointed with what you can build.  Better to see what's available and build something you think is cool.

[Dweomer Knight]

Keitaro (meaning = blessed) is the main character of Love Hina and Serizawa (I don't know the meaning) is the scientist from the original Godzilla (Gojira) movie who created the Oxygen Destroyer.  If anyone cares.

DK

[cripp12]

Can you actually use the salvaged items or are they only for sale purposes.

[gdaybloke]

Depends on the salvage. Salvage comes in two varieties - base and invention.

Base salvage is used to build items in bases - teleporters, defense systems, etc.
Invention salvage is used in conjunction with recipes to make Invention origin enhancements (and also some temp powers and costume options)

[cripp12]

So if I found a necklace I would not be able to use it unless I had a recipe?   Should I(could I) sell it.

[BlueBard]

So if I found a necklace I would not be able to use it unless I had a recipe?   Should I(could I) sell it.

I would say that unless you get a drop you can use directly, you are better off trying to sell it.  Same goes for enhancements, salvage, and recipes.  Avoid filling up all of your slots so that you can't get new drops.

Common salvage (as well as common recipes) is usually best sold off at a store; you will generally get more for it.  Other things you should haul to Wentworths and see what the going rate is.  Exception to the rule: Luck Charm invention salvage, though supposedly common, is used in a large number of recipes and is therefore worth a heck of a lot more than most common salvage.  There may be other examples.

Even base salvage is something to be sold if a) you aren't in a SG/VG, or b) the person designing your base says they don't need it.  If you're a low-level hero, you probably need the influence more than your SG needs that bit of salvage.  You can carry an unlimited amount of base salvage (I think) so there's no hurry to unload it.

[GhostMachine]

I've sold Luck Charms for anywhere from 15k to 30k at WW, depending on the time of day and how badly the character selling it needs the influence. You can get about 4 to 5k a piece for Clockwork Winders, so I definitely suggest doing Clockwork missions at lower levels if you can.

Most temp powers from recipes aren't worth bothering with. Ethereal Shift, for instance, is one you should definitely sell.

Keitaro (meaning = blessed) is the main character of Love Hina and Serizawa (I don't know the meaning) is the scientist from the original Godzilla (Gojira) movie who created the Oxygen Destroyer.  If anyone cares.

DK

A huge, immense, Godzilla sized  :thumbup: to DK!

I have all 14 volumes of the Love Hina manga by Tokyopop (and I currently have all the volumes of Negima by the same creator, Ken Akamatsu, that have been released by Del Ray so far - last one released was either 15 or 16), and Godzilla, King Of The Monsters is one of my favorite movies. (And no, Keitaro Serizawa isn't wearing an eye patch)

(Couldn't get into A.I. Love You, which was Akamatsu's first series, or at least the one he did before Love Hina; I gave up on it after volume #3)

And I may use Keitaro's last name, Urashima, for another character at some point.

[BlueBard]

Most temp powers from recipes aren't worth bothering with. Ethereal Shift, for instance, is one you should definitely sell.

I picked up a drop of the Ethereal Shift recipe on one character, and I was sorely tempted as it would have fit the concept well.  But, the cost of building it... way too steep, especially as there was no way to tell how many uses I'd get or how long it lasts.  The only reason to get it is to avoid a KO.  Extra luck and health insps will work as well or better to prevent that.

Are there any temp power recipes that people have found to be worth building?

[GhostMachine]

I have never purchased or used Ethereal Shift, but from what I understand its the same thing as Phase Shift, which I actually have on GhostMachine. It works for 30 seconds and has 5 charges - the other invention temps can be used 30 times.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Ethereal_Shift

Here are the other invention temporary powers:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/index.php/St._Louis_Slammer
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Gabriel%27s_Hammer
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Revolver

The Slammer and Hammer are the baseball bat and sledgehammer attacks that the Hellions and (Go. Hunt. Kill) Skulls use.

[Uncle Yuan]

The St. Louis Slugger requires a Luck Charm and  Thorn Tree Vine, making it a pricey temp power!

[cripp12]

what can I do with badges?

[Reepicheep]

They're just measurements or proof of experience. You can click on one in the badge menu to set it as your title, and it will appear below your name.

It is quite impressive, when you're checking someone info, to see pages and pages of these badges. Its mostly just to give you something to do.

Some collections of badges (you'll need to look them up) will give you an accolade. For example, the first possible one you can achieve is the atlas medalion which gives a permanant, slight increase to your endurance. Some will give you a new power.

[BlueBard]

Personally, I find badge collecting to be difficult.

Not in the sense that the badges are necessarily hard to get, if you're using online resources to figure out how to get them.  Vidiot maps makes Exploration and History badges a lot easier than they would be otherwise.  (Even with Vidiot maps, some of them aren't easy to find the first few times.)  And some badges just come naturally.

I'm talking about the act of chasing after them.  It tends to distract from the main focus of completing missions, which is where most XP is earned.  And it's sometimes boring.  If your concentration is on trying to level, it's a time waster.

I still do it, at least with some of my characters.  There is a small amount of xp associated with collecting some of them.  And some of the badge titles are useful in describing a character when set.  If you don't have to go that far out of your way to get one, why not?  They're good for bragging rights.

I think badge collecting makes more sense for people who devote themselves to a relatively small number of characters.  Unlike us alt-itis guys.  For me it's fun the first couple of times I get a particular badge and then it's a grind.  And trying to badge hunt for a couple of dozen characters takes a lot more time and energy than for one.

[BlueBard]

Oh, one more thing to be said about badges...

They can be lucrative.

Take the Spelunker badge, for example.  You ONLY get that for completing the mission to rescue the fortune teller from the Circle of Thorns.  People who outleveled the mission and desperately want that badge are apparently willing to pay lots of influence to be included on a Spelunker mission team.

The same can be said for other badges.  So it pays to know when you're running a mission that involves a badge.

[JKCarrier]

Funny this should come up... I just downloaded the Vidiotmaps thing, and was hunting down some badges this afternoon. After a half hour or so, I decided it really wasn't much fun when you know exactly where to go. I think from now on I'll stick to just stumbling across them accidentally (I laughed out loud when I defeated a certain boss and got a badge called "Pwnz"). I assume that was the developers' intent -- to create a fun little easter egg, rather than a "resource" that you go farming for.

[BlueBard]

Vidiotmaps shows you about where they're at (Exploration and History badges), but believe me it's still hard work finding some of them.  The compasses are pretty much hidden unless you're right on top of them, and some of them are in hard to reach places like rooftops and ledges.  Some of the history plaques are hard to see, too.  If you aren't facing the right direction, you'll pass right by it none the wiser.

For example, even knowing 'about' where the Keen-Sighted badge was, it took me quite a while to find it the first time.  I still sometimes forget exactly where it is, even knowing where to look.

So for me, they'd be no fun at all if I just waited to stumble across them.  I wouldn't find most of them.