Fulcrum: I'm just shaking the tree to see if there are still some more folks out there playing CoX, even if infrequently. There is some activity still on CoH-side of the Trimmers, and as the days go on... Majik is still abouts with regularity as am I with the occasional sightings of Blackvoid. There are a few new faces in the SG at the moment that I'm seeking to validate as brand new, fresh Trimmer blood to revitalize interest in CoH. =)
-Fulc-
Yeah, I've been fairly busy farming prestige for the Operatives as they didn't seem to have a base when I re-subscribed - it's not been going all that badly actually, Since I started a few months ago I've managed to personally do about half a mil, which has enabled me to liaise with Fulcrum and divide up the teleporter duty - the Trimmers base covers most normal zones, and the Operatives base now has teleporters to every hazard zone. I'm almost over the mountain that is transferring from 'starter base' (with oversight centre etc) into a proper base (with separate power and control rooms etc) - why there is such a massive gap as soon as you start to expand a bit is beyond me *slaps the devs*. Anyways, it's ugly as hell at the moment (certainly compared to what Fulc has done with the Trimmers base!), but it's functional, and I'll get round to some actual decorating once I both a) have time and b) decide on a colourscheme.
In other news, Issue 9 seems to have made some fairly wild changes. The market appears to be the most impressive post-release implementation of a timesink i've ever seen in a game - and what makes it all the more impressive, is that it's actually quite an enjoyable timesink. Crafting and IO's also mean that powers can be made to work quite a lot differently than they did with simple SO's - from doing little bits of psionic damage, to adding a chance to hold, to buffing HP/Endurance/Regen/Recovery stats etc - or maybe just changing the way you slot (as you are able to reach the ED cap a lot easier with straight 43% IO's, and can therefore mix up the slottings in a bit). Another thing I like is that even though the new IO's (especially the 'set bonuses') are fairly sweet, my toons that don't have them don't immediately feel 'second class'.... i.e. it's not gamebreaking if you're not pimped out with all the sweetest IO's... and you can also just dip your toe into the whole IO thing by fairly cheaply crafting yourself a couple of IO's for powers that would really feel the difference (replacing your 33% accuracy SO's with 43% 'common' IO's for instance).
Anyways, just thought i'd report in with my meandering thoughts about how things have been going since I decided to pop my head back round the CoX door...