Secret Identity
Sounds like you will be able to have several costumes per character. From a quick read you can open up a costume by doing a tailor arc at 20,30 and 40. I am assuming you can have a total of 4 costume slots and they say you can swap at will.
I heard several of us talk about making an additional character with our secret Identity. This sounds like a way to put your hero in street clothes by completing a quest and spending influence. Of course you would still have you hero name so Cobalt Sentinel would be Cobalt Sentinel and not Michael Logan. But it would be a way to not have to develop another character or have to use another slot. Anyway, I could be wrong about the mechanics but it sounded like a good RP tool.
This would be awesome if it were as you describe, Windy. Not only could Easy stay in level with me, but it saves me two slots: one in game, one in guild.
As an rp tool, it's also an incredible proposition. I could not only create a suitless Easy, but also one fully suited with the helmet off! Opens up many more expressions such as smile, grin, squint, frown, that Easy can't express when he's wearing the helmet.
Re: Secret Identity
I wonder if anyone has thought to suggest to the developers that being able to have a name toggle would be cool to add with the costume changes. Something where you "register" a name identity to go with the new costume, basically. That way if you wanted to use it for a secret identity, you could, but if you wanted the new costume to go with your same original name, you would just have the "default" option. Hmmm....
Re: Secret Identity
Ok I took a quick test drive and here is what I found... West of the boomtown entrance is an easy to find store named Icons. Inside is like any other store in that it has decor and salespeople. When you talk to one you get a splash screen with four slots. The first time you go there, the screen has you in pose with your current costume. If you click on the portrait, you go into the costume creator and basically change every slot and color. There is an ongoing price check to see what each costume piece will cost you. Also, its relatively cheap if you want to just change your costume color. However say adding a new mask or changing your boots will cost a bit more.
In the back of the store is a named npc who will give you a mission. The one I got was to capture 35 members of the family in IP. When successful, you open up the second costume slot. I didn't get to complete the mission as didn't have enough time. However, I think it will cost you the same amount of cash as if you were designing you original costume if that makes sense. There are four slots... you first is your costume you made when you made your character. At level 20 and up you can open slot number two. At 30 and up slot 3 and 40 and up slot 4. So you can have 4 totally different costume's after 40! Now you cant change sex or height/body build et. But you can build your hero in street clothes , armor or whatever you want. One last thing, the tailor's are in SC, IP and I think CF. They are set up like the task forces in that you have to be a min level before they give you the task. So level 30 to open up the third slot from the tailor in IP.
Easy, I think you are exactly right! This will free up both a guild slot and an extra char slot. The only downside is that you have to be level 20 to get the mission from the tailor.
Bri... that is a terrific idea. You should post it on the test board section of the forums. They could have a secret identity button option on one of the slots which would allow you to add a name like Jane Smith for your secret ID. So go post the idea! Maybe it will make it into the game. Jack Emmet is a huge comic guy. I bet he would love something like that. It would be a huuuge boon to the RP community. Just a great Idea!
Re: Secret Identity
Does that mean the tailor functions are on live servers already??!! I wonder if there are extra costume options in there that was not available in the initial character creation...
Re: Secret Identity
No its on test only but should be on live in a week or two. And no, there arent any new costume options that I know of. I think Statesman said they would be adding things in the futute. So far as I know, its only whats on the current costume creator.
Re: Secret Identity
This is going to be SO cool! I need to work on getting Fast Forward on up to 20 (he's 18.4 now) so I can get him a Secret ID costume once this goes Live.
I wasn't willing to use up a character slot for Secret ID versions of characters before, so this will be a very cool way to do that.
Re: Secret Identity
While lots of the new things are cool (Tailor, the new emotes, the missions, the Scorchers, new zones), I hope they don't go live soon with it. It's crashy and buggy.
Re: Secret Identity
Agreed. It definitely still has issues. The Tailor is also fairly buggy right now:
1) Using the reset buttons can randomly change your costume (resetting one item on FF turned his skin black and I had to exit the tailor and go back in to reset it)
2) The zoom-in function doesn't zoom properly...focuses on the lower torso, so the head is kind of hard to see.
3) Ambient effects around where you're standing bleed through. I saw boomboxes floating in the air and power effects others were using flashing over my character.
So, yeah, I'm hoping they at least take a couple weeks to let people test it out....especially now that I know there's no actual new *content* for anyone below level 41......*mutter*
Well, okay, maybe some of the "missions with a twist" will be available starting in the late teens to early 20s.
Oh, also Solaron.....don't worry about being a couple levels away too much....because you're going to have to save up some booku Influence to use the Tailor anyway.
I tested out remaking FF into a Secret ID version (just over the one costume slot you start with) and it would have cost me 34k (and some change) in Influence....of course, part of this is because I wanted to put him in a t-shirt....which is still considered Tight type for the upper body. Which means that instead of just paying a lump sum of around 7480 to change that entire section of my body, I had to pay a per-subsection price for every little part of it I changed....including removing the lightning bolt from my chest.
In fact, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be cheaper to change the upper body type to something else random and then go back in and change it back to Tight, doing all the changes then....
Re: Secret Identity
34k isn't a whole lot once you hit level 22 or so. One SO enhancement will run you nearly that.
At levels 27 and 28, Fox upgraded all of her enhancements to SOs (30s and 30+s, respectively), except for a few non-power-10 ones like the to-hit buff from her Tactics, which she upgraded to 30+ DOs instead. At level 29, she's already got upwards of 300k influence. And I've been giving away the enhancements she gets to people who write backgrounds and RP, instead of selling them. Above level 32, I know people who have millions of influence on hand.
That's what I keep hearing and I'll be glad to get to that point.
As it is, FF is 18 and is having to scrape and save and sell every possible thing he gets in order to get the 3-6k to replace one DO that's about to go red next level. I think I have about 7 DOs to replace (hopefully) before I hit level 19 and all those 15s turn red.
I've gotten to the point with him where I won't give away any of my Enhancements because I need every point of Influence to try and keep all my DOs going.
I will be so glad when that doesn't become an issue anymore.
And I'm even more glad to know I'll be able to create alternate costumes without having to sacrifice buying needed Enhancements.
Black Atom Project Captain
Posts: 145
(6/17/04 4:08 pm) Reply
Secret Identity
Hmm....Black Atom doesn't have a secret identity.....I can't think of a reason he would have an alternate costume worth paying for. Dangit.....
Quote:That's what I keep hearing and I'll be glad to get to that point.
As it is, FF is 18 and is having to scrape and save and sell every possible thing he gets in order to get the 3-6k to replace one DO that's about to go red next level. I think I have about 7 DOs to replace (hopefully) before I hit level 19 and all those 15s turn red.
18 is about as rough as it gets. Sure, at 22 you spend a bundle on SOs (if you're a blaster, scrapper, or tanker, at least), but it's not vital to fill up every slot with an SO right off the bat, so you don't feel so rushed. Also levelling starts to slow down slightly, so you acquire more influence per level. Especially if you get yourself sent to the hospital a couple of times.
Also, once you hit level 20, every enemy you face in a mission will potentially drop a DO. (If you can't wait, do Synapse's task force, where all the enemies are 20. We were often getting 2 or 3 DOs each per mission, and there are probably around 10 indoor missions in the task force. They're mostly tech/science or tech/natural types, but you can get others, and you can always sell them, at several thousand a pop.)
Speaking of selling, if influence is tight, make sure you're taking the enhancements to the right place. You get less than full value if you sell the enhancement to a store that doesn't carry that type of enhancement -- so if you have a gadget (tech/natural DO), sell it at a tech or natural store, or you're only getting maybe 2/3 of what it's worth. The exception is training enhancements -- even though some DO stores sell them, you want to take them to Freedom Corps if you want full value for them. Once DOs start dropping, they'll be practically irrelevant, but in the high teens, the extra few hundred influence can matter.
Quote:I've gotten to the point with him where I won't give away any of my Enhancements because I need every point of Influence to try and keep all my DOs going.
Well, you don't necessarily have to keep everything going. Sym still had a couple of training enhancements until level 22, and it didn't hurt her. Some people get too obsessed with maxing out everything at the earliest possible opportunity, but a single slot here or there really doesn't make so much difference that you're crippled without it.
If you need a little more time, combine two of your near-red ones to give yourself a level to work with, and stick a training enhancement in the now-empty slot. The decrease in enhancement bonus is less than 8%, and in that extra level you'll earn more than enough. This works well with healing, damage, defense, and range; less well with end reduction or recharge reduction. Not sure about accuracy, since that's usually my priority to update, and I wouldn't recommend it for 'X duration' enhancers, where you want the effect to linger as long as possible.
Re: Secret Identity
Hey folks... Bri made a post over at the coh forums training room. Please take a minute and go give her some support on her idea. We are RPers, we should support any idea that would help enrich RP.
Quote:18 is about as rough as it gets. Sure, at 22 you spend a bundle on SOs (if you're a blaster, scrapper, or tanker, at least), but it's not vital to fill up every slot with an SO right off the bat, so you don't feel so rushed. Also levelling starts to slow down slightly, so you acquire more influence per level. Especially if you get yourself sent to the hospital a couple of times.
Ahh, well that's good to hear, I guess.
And yeah, I can imagine that I will be more patient when 22 hits because I will still have plenty of nice DOs and won't feel the need to upgrade *everything* to SOs right off the bat. Ooh, I'll get to upgrade the non-Power 10s to DOs then, too, won't I?
Quote:Also, once you hit level 20, every enemy you face in a mission will potentially drop a DO.
Hurrah! I was wondering when this would happen. I actually got a couple of DO drops in one of Mysticka's missions the other night, so that was promising, too.
Quote:Speaking of selling, if influence is tight, make sure you're taking the enhancements to the right place.
Yeah, this I found out a while back and have been doing religiously. I also heard that the Freedom Corps store gives you more for Training Enhancements than the standalone Field Trainers do. Can anyone confirm this?
Quote:Well, you don't necessarily have to keep everything going. Sym still had a couple of training enhancements until level 22, and it didn't hurt her. Some people get too obsessed with maxing out everything at the earliest possible opportunity, but a single slot here or there really doesn't make so much difference that you're crippled without it.
Well, that's true. But considering that the jump from Training to DOs tends to make a noticeable difference, I do try to get them all upgraded as soon as possible...in order of ones I think most important, of course.
Quote:If you need a little more time, combine two of your near-red ones to give yourself a level to work with, and stick a training enhancement in the now-empty slot.
Hey, that's a good idea. I'll have to remember that. Thanks for the tip.
Re: Secret Identity
Freedom Corps does indeed give you more for generics than the other stores do, which is why I take them there.
DOs drop more in Skyway and Faultline after you hit level 16.
Synapse's TF is a veritable cornicopea of DO drops.
Al doesn't have a SID, and maybe if everyone else is doing them, I'll have Eve (Quickshot) and Jamie (Swiftwind) get them. But the tailor is very very buggy,. I'm still on Test server, and actually Test QS is higher level and should be 20 soon.
Re: Secret Identity
You can get DO drops from enemies starting at level 15 or 16.
But it's pretty rare at that point. I've noticed a huge increase starting when the enemies hit level 20, even from those enemies that you fight in both ranges, like Tsoo and 5th Column. And I mean huge. I've gotten maybe 2 DOs from enemies between levels 15 and 19, spread across the 4 or so characters who've reached that point. But once I hit 20, getting 2 DOs per mission is not unusual, even on shorter maps.
In the same way, I've seen occasional SO drops starting at 25, but they seem a lot more common from enemies of level 30+.
I wonder if there are extra costume options in there that was not available in the initial character creation...
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