# Welcome back to Paragon City - how to play the revived City of Heroes **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [May 21, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264 "2019-05-21T02:48:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/441 "2019-10-24T21:14:43Z")
You know, there’s one thing that always bugged me about CoH, and it’s still a problem- the hoarding of good superhero names. It’s worse, now, in that accounts are free and you get a thousand or so slots. Even obscure names I used back in the day aren’t available. I know they’re working on a way to clear up names for future use, but it can’t get here soon enough. This was one way in which Champions was superior, in my opinion- names were per-account instead of per-server, so technically everyone had names like “bob”@“foo”, but only the first part was shown. I wish they could switch over to that, but I realize that would likely be non-trivial. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/442 "2019-10-24T21:45:07Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > You know, there’s one thing that always bugged me about CoH, and it’s still a problem- the hoarding of good superhero names. It’s worse, now, in that accounts are free and you get a thousand or so slots. Even obscure names I used back in the day aren’t available. This is why I have [Tarmonpesae](https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto&tl=en&text=tarmonpes%C3%A4) the Electric/Electric Blaster and Fantomas the Illusion/Bubbles Controller. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/443 "2019-10-24T21:49:21Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > You know, there’s one thing that always bugged me about CoH, and it’s still a problem- the hoarding of good superhero names. It’s worse, now, in that accounts are free and you get a thousand or so slots. Even obscure names I used back in the day aren’t available. > > I know they’re working on a way to clear up names for future use, but it can’t get here soon enough. This was one way in which Champions was superior, in my opinion- names were per-account instead of per-server, so technically everyone had names like “bob”@“foo”, but only the first part was shown. I wish they could switch over to that, but I realize that would likely be non-trivial. It’s funny but I never have problems finding names I like for my characters without having to do F@stGuy111426 like you see in DC Universe Online. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/444 "2019-10-25T01:02:53Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > You know, there’s one thing that always bugged me about CoH, and it’s still a problem- the hoarding of good superhero names. It’s worse, now, in that accounts are free and you get a thousand or so slots. Even obscure names I used back in the day aren’t available. One one hand, my Homecoming character, “Teardrops”, was just plain “Teardrop” back on live, but I had to tag the S onto it because somebody beat me to it on Everlasting. She is, surprisingly, the only one of my many resurrected alts that had to alter her name. On the other hand, I was able to get “Captain Apple” for my 71st alt, a name I couldn’t get back on live. He’s a superhero I created “on paper” nearly 30 years ago as a “small-town local hero” for my hometown of Wenatchee, WA, “The Apple Capitol of the World”. He technically has no superpowers, so I gave him Staff Fighting/Willpower, Natural origin, which actually isn’t too far off from my original concept. I did go ahead and give him Flight, though, because the game won’t let me make him ride a bicycle 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/445 "2019-10-25T01:04:49Z")
I did run into that problem with the Stalker I just made, but the name I wanted for him was something like “\_\_\_\_\_”. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/446 "2019-10-25T08:00:35Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > On the other hand, I was able to get “Captain Apple” for my 71st alt, a name I couldn’t get back on live. He’s a superhero I created “on paper” nearly 30 years ago as a “small-town local hero” for my hometown of Wenatchee, WA, “The Apple Capitol of the World”. He technically has no superpowers, so I gave him Staff Fighting/Willpower, Natural origin, which actually isn’t too far off from my original concept. I did go ahead and give him Flight, though, because the game won’t let me make him ride a bicycle 😃 I haven’t recreated him (since I don’t really care to play a tank), but I was able to get “Regular Joe” as a name for my Natural tank on the live servers years into the game’s life. You’d think someone would have taken that, especially on Virtue. On the other hand, despite creating Balanced right at launch, I had to stick the “d” on the end, because “Balance” was taken. I’ve never had to resort to numbers or random characters, though. There are lots of fun names still out there, though some take a combination of creativity and downright weirdness to find. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/447 "2019-10-25T14:05:39Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I did go ahead and give him Flight, though, because the game won’t let me make him ride a bicycle 😃 I’ve had at least one Natural flyer. Douglas Adams technique. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/448 "2019-10-25T18:14:52Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I’ve had at least one Natural flyer. Douglas Adams technique. 😃 Regular Joe’s flight was from rocket boots he scavenged while helping clean up after someone else’s super-battle. You would expect to find all kinds of leftover bits of super-gear in Paragon City in the wake of the Rikti War, even if no one can figure out how most of it works. I had another character, Heir Power, who had a bunch of heroes in his family and inherited all of their alphatech and magic gear when they died in the war. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/449 "2019-10-25T18:38:11Z")
I kinda like the names being unique. Marvel Heroes was plagued by the reverse issue – you could have teams composed entirely of the same hero. Or mixes like 5 Hulks and 3 Dr. Stranges. I agree that it’s frustrating when you want a specific name though. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/450 "2019-10-25T19:39:24Z")
I still remember the episode of The Tick (the cartoon) where another character called The Tick showed up and they had to battle for the name. > **[The Tick vs. The Tick](https://the-tick-animated.fandom.com/wiki/The_Tick_vs._The_Tick)** > > Got to... get it together... can't lose my name... It's on all my stationary! — Tick "The Tick vs. The Tick" is an episode of the animated television series The Tick. Tick and the gang go for a night out at the Comet Club, but Arthur is kicked out to... You know that would totally happen in a superhero world. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/451 "2019-10-25T20:44:31Z")
And yet, there get to be two guys named Faultline. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/452 "2019-10-25T21:56:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And yet, there get to be two guys named Faultline. But not at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/453 "2019-10-26T20:31:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I suggest people read all the way through that thread before installing anything. Leaving aside the installation difficulties, there seem to be malware and re-sizing difficulties that need to be addressed. Did we ever figure out if this was a legitimate threat or if it was safe to proceed? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/454 "2019-11-01T16:56:30Z")
I haven’t experienced anything malware-related and I downloaded in April. Recently been dabbling in my Tanks, Brutes and Scrappers, but last night I fired up a couple of Stormies (Storm/Dark Defender and Grav/Storm Controller) and was reminded just how much fun Storm is. In my case, I think it’s because (unlike Mastermind or Controller pets) it’s hard to personify the Storm pseudo-pets (Lightning Storms and Tornadoes and Freezing Rain patches), so it feels more like _I_ am doing the power and not watching a minion do it, but it upticks my action economy (I blast at the same time my Lightning Storm(s) blast and my Tornado whirls and my rain beats down and my previous damage-over-time blast also ticks). It feels like multitasking effortlessly. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/455 "2019-11-01T20:12:35Z")
> [@](#): > > In my case, I think it’s because (unlike Mastermind or Controller pets) it’s hard to personify the Storm pseudo-pets… You haven’t played enough Night Ward missions, then ;). And I have a crazy idea-- A character who does no damage, at all, nor teams up with anyone else while they’re doing damage. XP would come exclusively from badges, and from the rare occasional mission that doesn’t require any kills. I’d still allow control powers, as long as they did zero damage. Obviously, such a character couldn’t get very far, but I’m curious to see how far they could get. Where I’m hesitating is in picking an archetype. I’m thinking maybe Tank, to survive badge-hunting in high-level zones? Or maybe something with Forcefields, because this is a perfect job for Personal Force Field? Or Stalker, for being somewhat tanky but also having Hide, or maybe I should just get that from the pool powers? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/456 "2019-11-01T20:21:17Z")
Would the character not have attack powers, or you’d just never slot/use them? For fun make them red side. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/457 "2019-11-01T20:34:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You haven’t played enough Night Ward missions, then ;). > > And I have a crazy idea-- A character who does no damage, at all, nor teams up with anyone else while they’re doing damage. XP would come exclusively from badges, and from the rare occasional mission that doesn’t require any kills. I’d still allow control powers, as long as they did zero damage. Obviously, such a character couldn’t get very far, but I’m curious to see how far they could get. > > Where I’m hesitating is in picking an archetype. I’m thinking maybe Tank, to survive badge-hunting in high-level zones? Or maybe something with Forcefields, because this is a perfect job for Personal Force Field? Or Stalker, for being somewhat tanky but also having Hide, or maybe I should just get that from the pool powers? Illusion Controllers can get Superior Invisibility at level 8. It’s the closest you can get to being truly undetectable. Depending on how you phrase your self-imposed stricture, you can also use the Deceive power at level 2. It confuses an enemy to attack its friends–and you get no xp from any they defeat. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/458 "2019-11-01T20:44:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I have a crazy idea-- A character who does no damage, at all, nor teams up with anyone else while they’re doing damage. XP would come exclusively from badges, and from the rare occasional mission that doesn’t require any kills. I’d still allow control powers, as long as they did zero damage. Obviously, such a character couldn’t get very far, but I’m curious to see how far they could get. This would mesh nicely with an idea I had recently: a parody of [Captain Obvious](https://www.purecostumes.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/FR49488_full_1_465x705.jpg) called “Captain Oblivious”. Stand on a corner in, say, Steel Canyon totally oblivious to the ambushes that run by. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2019, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/459 "2019-11-02T00:25:42Z")
I don’t think it’s possible to completely avoid having attack powers (after all, you have to have at least one power each from your primary and secondary sets), but I’d never use any of them, and since I wouldn’t be using them, I’d be picking as few of them as I can. And I don’t think that Deceive would fit the concept, either: If he doesn’t want his teammates killing, then he won’t want his enemies killing, either. But I am actually planning on this character being a Rogue, based on the backstory I’m thinking (a fallen angel who is in the process of un-falling). He’d have to be either Rogue or Vigilante, anyway, to get all of the explorations and day jobs. Can you click shinies while Superior Invisible/Hidden/Concealed, without giving yourself away? That might enable a few missions. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2019, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/460 "2019-11-02T01:00:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think it’s possible to completely avoid having attack powers (after all, you have to have at least one power each from your primary and secondary sets), but I’d never use any of them, and since I wouldn’t be using them, I’d be picking as few of them as I can. I wasn’t sure. I thought if it was possible it would be really difficult. If I remember correctly, every character I’ve made starts out with at least one offensive power you have to choose at the beginning, but I haven’t explored every power set so I thought it might still be doable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264.md?page=24)