Blog of Heroes

***Dave Does the MMORPG

Heh heh heh. No, really. CoX female toons tend to move a lot more nicely than the clunky male toons (the “huge” toons get a pass for being, well, huge). I’d rather watch women than men. That’s my cuppa. Since I’m not going to stare at any character more than one I’m running, I’m going [...]

Some cool bits only recently brought to my attention (i.e., catching up on back reading). Black Market / Wentworth’s Consignment House Characters (on active accounts) who have inventories, bids or items for sale in the Black Market or in Wentworth’s Consignment House will no longer have to log into the game within 60 days to [...]

From the City Scoop on surviving AE: 3. If you have trouble with people firing off powers, look for a door marked Studio B (left side of the Data Stream). This room is a “no Powers lounge” for making missions quietly. If people crowding you at the terminals bother you, type: /macro MA architect. This [...]

When the Mission Architect was first announced, folks were immediately worried about farming. And the Devs said, “Worry not, we have ways to keep that from happening.” Ah … yeah. So all those constant Broadcasts for “LF farm ae team” and “Lvl 50 boss farm lfm” are just folks being deluded. I spent a little [...]

Along with the Five Year Anniversary today (well, yesterday), and the recent I14, they’re now announcing I15. Crikey! 5th Column Task Force  Villain Strikeforce (Levels 45 – 50): 5 Missions The Villains are hired for what seems like a simple, high-paying job: Steal information from the Hero 1 Time Capsule. Things go awry when the [...]

Doyce, the guy who originally got me into CoX and who long since went on to other pastures, stopped back in for the “reactivate your account” weekend. He’s got some interesting perspective on the game, based on past experience with it and more recent with other MMOs.

Sunday morning I was up a bit early, so I hopped onto CoX with some Atlas-level characters on Freedom and Virtue (the only two servers worth PUGging on, given populations. Now, normally, the Atlas Broadcast channel is filled with (a) invitations for sewer missions and (b) inane chatter, often around costume contests past or future. [...]

Margie picked up the Magic Booster Packs for each of us as a late anniversary gift. Aside from some very pretty outfit pieces, one of the coolest things it included is the ability to do a costume change with a resulting special effect: casting a spell, calling down a flash of lightning, a smoky presto-chango, [...]

I am vaguely appalled to be at Lvl 42 with Miss Crackle, and running around PI, fergoshsakes. Nothing unique there, of course, but still disturbing that … well … this character has gotten this far.

Friday I ran in a MA arc that Margie wrote (still under development, formal release TBA). I found it very interesting the amount of control the MA system provided, and the ability it gives the creative mission writer to create not just new content, but types of stories. (I may be prejudiced, but Margie’s carnie [...]

I will likely be tackling converting this blog over from Movable Type to WordPress Real Soon Now. My MT installation is frelled, and while I can use an external client to post from (the ever-popular ecto/Linear), I can’t actually do much from inside the MT control panel, including adding our latest 50s to the sidebar, [...]

Well, I haven’t been huzzahing, but only because of serious distractions elsewhere in my life (holidays, blog melt-downs, etc.).  Margie and I did finally hop on last night, and tried out one of arcs she built (which I’ll advertise here when it’s ready for prime time). I have to say that the whole Mission Architect [...]

When, according to this European Dev post, I14 should be released. (If the actual date’s been announced elsewhere, aside from Real Soon Now, apologies.)

And Kitsune-chan and Ex-Terra hit 50. Woot! We were both a scosh fumble-fingered in battle, but we both got the aftermath of the Big Ding. Kitsune-chan and Ex-Terra — you were just named Heroes of the City! Where are you going now? “We are going … um … going someplace really cool! And fun! And [...]

“We have Tyrant on the ropes! Look! I got him all glowy and slowed down in his awe over my cuteness! And my boys are keeping him all distracted! And Scary Sam even has him trembling in his very unfashonable boots! The big guy is going down!”  “Then (urg) why are you (smack) way so far over [...]

Soccer Dad: MA Scrapper (“Here, son, let me show you the right way to kick.”) Soccer Mom: Grav Controller (“You! Stop right there!” and “You wouldn’t believe what I have in my purse!”) Margie sees them as “suburbs” heroes — non-city/core zones (Perez, Striga, DA, maybe Boom and Faultline, Eden …). Just to keep it [...]

Ah, the golden age of computer games, when Dungeon and Zork and the like made you wander through “twisting, turning passages, all looking alike.” How I fondly remember and miss those days. Which made yesterdays City of Heroes: The Golden Age a nice April 1st hoot. Make sure your computer has the horsepower for it! [...]

Kitsune-chan and Ex-terra continue their march toward the Big Ding. We wrapped up the Praetorian arc last night, defeating Tyrant with … well, I won’t say ease (he hits hard), but without any deaths (in that particular battle). We then stood around with Statesman and posed for many fun pictures. Alas, I did not bring [...]