Old Habits Die Hard

[GuyPerfect]

Since October or thereabouts, I've periodically played a game of Pokémon, occasionally snagging old titles on Amazon. Everything has progressed fairly normally: the Sinnoh game was poorly designed, each cave has more Zubat than molecules of air, and the random number god has a grudge against me. So far so good... But when I save my game to turn off the system and go do something else for a while, there's this nagging impulse that catches my attention at the last second. I feel like I need to save somewhere significant, such as inside a Pokémon Center.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "It's just Day Job syndrome. It'll wear off after a couple of years." But it goes back much further than that. Some of you may remember Bob the Biohazard, my Badge-collecting entrepreneur in the game, with whom I collected every single [available] badge right up until Issue 23 when the shutdown was announced before I ran the new content. A not-insignificant time was certainly spent earning all those blasted Day Job badges, so of course I had a mindset of logging out in the right places.

Like I said, though, the habit was formed much earlier than that. While most of the unimaginative, glossy-eyed morons out there (with no individuality nor capacity for rational decision) religiously selected Hasten and Stamina on all of their characters without any thought or consideration, I had my own pair of picky powers: Recall Friend and Revive Ally. What kind of short-sighted bozo wouldn't have those? Does no one care about their teams? Heresy, I say! Recall Friend was a one-off pick from the Teleportation pool, but Revive Ally was a Day Job accolade that required a month and a half collectively logged out in a university and a hospital. And then another 15 days to charge it up.

Again, I know what you're thinking. "Why not just give your teammate an Awaken?" Because when I started this, that was impossible. With Issue 10 came the Rikti War Zone, and with that, cooperative play between Heroes and Villains. Mostly. You couldn't trade Inspirations with the opposite alignment--even those on your team--because, obviously, it's illegal to trade with enemies. Granted, Day Jobs weren't around until Issue 13, but that no-trade rule was enforced for some disproportionate amount of time even after that, so I began collecting Revive Ally on all my characters.

And even now, a year and a half after Day Jobs became a thing of the past, there's still that inkling in the back of my brain to pause my Poké quest in some location that will benefit me the next time I play.

[Thunder Glove]

For the record, I almost always saved in Pokecenters, too, and I've been doing so since I first played Pokemon Blue back in 1998, before CoH even opened.

[r00tb0ySlim]

 

Now, I know what you're thinking. "It's just Day Job syndrome. It'll wear off after a couple of years." But it goes back much further than that. Some of you may remember Bob the Biohazard, my Badge-collecting entrepreneur in the game, with whom I collected every single [available] badge right up until Issue 23 when the shutdown was announced before I ran the new content. A not-insignificant time was certainly spent earning all those blasted Day Job badges, so of course I had a mindset of logging out in the right places.

And even now, a year and a half after Day Jobs became a thing of the past, there's still that inkling in the back of my brain to pause my Poké quest in some location that will benefit me the next time I play.

Ahhhh day jobs...it felt good to get 33 of 33 badges!!!  My main finished with 1202 badges...I really crammed the final few months.   Your #61 of the all server top 100 is very respectable indeed!! I still find myself on Icon trying to log out in a "beneficial" place as well  :o

[saipaman]

We should have had even more day jobs.  After all, how many heroes can actually keep a steady job?

[Arcana]

Long before Day Jobs even existed, I had a habit of specifically logging out in certain places.  Its a habit that got solidified because a good friend I had in-game tended to religiously log out in the train stations.  So I started logging out in the train stations because I knew approximately when they tended to log in, if I was available I could log in and see if she was there chatting away (which she did often before jumping into play).  Her play was must less regular by the time Day Jobs arrived and it was easy for me to shift from logging out at train stations to logging out at the appropriate Day Job locations (also, Day Job #1 was a pretty easy one for me to get on all alts).

It actually still annoys me that I cannot do that in any other MMO, because of the travel restrictions in virtually every other MMO.  It reminds me of the freedom we had in CoH that it seems no one else is even trying to give us anywhere else (CoH reboots in progress notwithstanding).  Even in Champions Online, this is not as easy as in CoH (although I haven't logged into my account there in quite a while, and I might be out of date there).

[Cinnder]

I never really went to specific logout locations before day jobs, but if I was playing with others when it was time to go, I'd always say bye and run around a corner before logging off, just so I didn't fade out right in front of them.

[saipaman]

Early on, I got into the habit of logging out at "safe" locations.   Some are obvious like hospitals and train stations.   After getting hover for the first time, I'd log out on ledges of the war walls.   

[eabrace]

I'd often go out of my way to skip Recall Friend and log out in locations that were not hospitals just so that Guy would have something to complain about.  :)

[Illusionss]

Early on, I got into the habit of logging out at "safe" locations.   Some are obvious like hospitals and train stations.   After getting hover for the first time, I'd log out on ledges of the war walls.

I always logged my people out in "safe" places, after one day logging in as a newbie and having the same group of Family I had logged out to get AWAY from, materialize and beat my poor Rad/dark Corruptor to death on the spot. I used to log my lowbie villains out in the Port Oakes arena.

Then we got Day Jobs, which I scrupulously collected on everybody, even the annoying ones like Cimerora. I still kept everyone very safe.

I guess I could miss this game more than I do.... but that would be extremely hard.

[Eoraptor]

Am running into this a bit in STO. I'll be getting ready to log out and suddenly stop and ask "Wait, shouldn't I dock at spacedock? shouldn I head to vulcan? Nope, no bonuses to be had by not just dumping your ship somewhere in space.

[Felderburg]

Am running into this a bit in STO. I'll be getting ready to log out and suddenly stop and ask "Wait, shouldn't I dock at spacedock? shouldn I head to vulcan? Nope, no bonuses to be had by not just dumping your ship somewhere in space.

Arguably, you should get a bonus for doing just that - "exploring" places while offline, rather than going back to spacedock.

[saipaman]

Has STO changed much since launch?

[Eoraptor]

Has STO changed much since launch?

In the past year, yes. they've added the romulans as a playable faction last year, with rumors they will add a fourth playable race this year. they are also switching to the same sort of rapid-fire updates and events schedule as city used with weekly and monthly mini events and new content. Sadly, there are a few bugs, and I find, as a former hard core trekker, that some parts of it still fail the sniff test from the writing POV, but it is, generally speaking, getting better.

[dwturducken]

Star Wars: The Old Republic has a similar bonus system, though it's greatly simplified. Since it's for subscribers only, and I'm not a subscriber, I don't know much about it, but I know it involves logging out in cantinas, or some such. I'm still in the habit of logging out of any game in a "safe" location, though, usually near a store.

[Twisted Toon]

Star Wars: The Old Republic has a similar bonus system, though it's greatly simplified. Since it's for subscribers only, and I'm not a subscriber, I don't know much about it, but I know it involves logging out in cantinas, or some such. I'm still in the habit of logging out of any game in a "safe" location, though, usually near a store.

You gain rest experience while logged out in a Catina. You get double experience while the rest experience lasts. And you can only have one level's worth of rest experience, I believe. that is about theonly benefit of logging out in a Cantina.

[Night-Hawk07]

You gain rest experience while logged out in a Catina. You get double experience while the rest experience lasts. And you can only have one level's worth of rest experience, I believe. that is about theonly benefit of logging out in a Cantina.

Yep.

I never got into Day Jobs, but typically would log out on the ledge of a building. Same now with CO and DCUO. With SWTOR, I try to log out in a rest area, but failing that I just find a "safe" spot (a tent, in most places) and log off there. I don't know how long into my gaming past I've been doing that.

[thunderforce]

Am running into this a bit in STO. I'll be getting ready to log out and suddenly stop and ask "Wait, shouldn't I dock at spacedock? shouldn I head to vulcan? Nope, no bonuses to be had by not just dumping your ship somewhere in space.

I can live with that; it's a ship, a self-contained world equipped for weeks or months away from resupply. In the middle of the resumption of hostilities, it's more valuable out in space with sensors on, ready for action, and drilling its crew [1] than sitting in spacedock with a lot of other ships.

I'd want Day Jobs for STO to be on the borders with other powers or in unexplored space, not at spacedocks and friendly planets... but ultimately I think the duty officer system is a more interesting system for leaving something to be done while you're logged out, and STO doesn't need another one.

[1] Consider the Napoleonic era equivalent; British ships on blockade were consuming more supplies and men, but had far more experienced crews as a result, than their enemies' ships sitting in port being blockaded.

[johnrobey]

I always logged my people out in "safe" places, after one day logging in as a newbie and having the same group of Family I had logged out to get AWAY from, materialize and beat my poor Rad/dark Corruptor to death on the spot. I used to log my lowbie villains out in the Port Oakes arena.

Then we got Day Jobs, which I scrupulously collected on everybody, even the annoying ones like Cimerora. I still kept everyone very safe.

I guess I could miss this game more than I do.... but that would be extremely hard.

I so appreciate what missing CoH is like.   *Hugs and Sympathy, Illusionss*   I loved the Damage Resistance buff, along with the buff to Recharge if one had the Time Lord accolade (the Cimeroran + Ouroboros dayjobs.)  Often my first squishies would travel to Cim just for the Dam Res buff!  Too bad those dayjob bonuses and other temp powers didn't work during iTrials!  I and many, many friends would smile in understanding when one of us was on simply to log on to our numerous alts simply to change their dayjob locations.  I always surprised me that people didn't do this, but practically all of my characters had dayjob Rez (physician accolade) along with Invigorate--both of which could be extremely useful on TF's.  Ditto, if I remembered to click my gladiatorial Combat Shield  (or Peebles' Wedding Ring or temp Kinetic Shield power etc.); if I did, often a toon that was about to fall would manage to escape defeat.  The challenge for me was with all the powers to remember I had the ones used rarely.  It helped a lot when I figured out a system of placing these in the same power tray location on all my toons; e.g., the all had Recovery Serum, a Kinetic Shield and a Med Kit for those Just In Case moments.  And yeah logging out in a safe place makes total sense.  I had more than one lowbie toon working on the Mortician badge get zotted by graveyard baddies when logging back in.   But, in addition to getting all the dayjob badges, I was inspired by an earlier CoH friend whose magic origin toons would cast the Rune of Purification temp power granted by the Archaeologist badge Accolade power just for the visual effect and to enhance role-play.

[JKPhage]

I had this habit long before COH even existed. In any game that allowed you to save anywhere, I always had to log out in someplace significant to me for some reason. In Pokemon it was either in the pokemon center (always centered with the door, facing toward the screen), in Kingdom Hearts (from 2 and onward) I always save on the world map for easy travel wherever I want/need to be right from loading, and even before dayjobs were a thing in COH, I had a spot. Any character that wasn't running an arc for someone who was particularly troublesome to get to (in which case I was saved next to said NPC), I drove them back to Atlas and parked to the right of the statue plaza, on the second raise podium back near the tree. That way, whenever I logged in, I always knew where I was at, and for some reason, this spot just felt nice and peaceful. Even on busy days, this particular spot got hardly any foot traffic at all. It was like a weird, no-fly zone somehow and I liked that. It felt like my own private little spot. Then, when the makeover hit, my podium was removed and the spot didn't feel the same anymore, so I migrated to the rooftop garden. As cool of a place as it was, again, almost nobody was ever there, at least that I saw, and so it became my spot.

I miss that lovely, private little podium though. I like to think that all my heroes are hanging out there together now, just chit-chatting in limbo and waiting for the mysterious time freeze to end so life in the city can resume. Someday guys. Someday.