Whew. It’s been a long, dry road here at Blog of Heroes — largely because I’ve been doing very little CoX play over the past month or so. No, I haven’t sold my soul to WoW or LotRO or anything like that. I’ve just been — busy and distracted.
Last night, though, we had a fun time. Doyce sent me an e-mail asking about villains on Virtue and wanting to run the first (Tarikoss/Bat’Zul) Strike Force. Margie and I discovered we both had (soloist) villains in the range in questions — my Eliza Dee (17) and her Deep Charge (15). Together we banded together with Kate and Doyce’s Miss Optimism and Mister Brightside, and Lee’s Steel Soul, and pounded through the SF in, oh, about four hours.
Lots of fun — two scrappy brutes, a tanky brute, a corrupter, and a mastermind, very few deaths, and lots of dinging. Margie got DC from 15 to 18, and I got Eliza from 17 to 19 (and so close to Blessed Stamina). Biggest annoyance was my CoX session crashing and needing a reverify in the middle of the festivities, but it all worked out okay.
We also played with Ventrilo, after a quick install and configuration. I have to confess to having been skeptical about the whole voice-play thing in the past, but it did help with the tactics (and strategy) during the game, so a big thumbs up. Installed easily on both machines and we got going with very little hassle.
Good times. Nice to play in a larger group of people I know and — well, mostly trust, and at least can predict. 🙂 We’ll have to do more of that.
“Mostly trust”? Hey!!
Seriously though, it was great fun, and despite those few deaths (mostly Doyce!), I think a rousing success. So! When do we want to do the respec?
re: Ventrilo
Apart from making it easier to communicate, did you find it less fun than with type chat?
I’ve been thinking about suggesting it to my SG, but I’m afraid it will change the gameplay too much and make it less interesting.
Ventrilo’s not something to use for RP. Or, at least, we didn’t much RP it. Eliza Dee is a rough-and-tumble super-bitch, but she doesn’t quite have my basso tones online. I suspect I could have done a phone job with Psi-clone, I suppose.
On the other hand, it’s *really* helpful for tactical situations (pre- and during fights) — and it makes it a lot easier to chime in “grats” when someone dings.
I think it does take you a bit more out of the character (though, on the other hand, “voice contact” doesn’t impact face-to-face roleplaying). It’s definitely not necessary, but it’s a useful tool.
Ktbuffy, I trust that everyone’s out for the party’s good and will behave in a fairly rational fashion, constrained not too much by roleplay …
Btw, I’m pleased by that random screen shot I managed to have the presence to take last night. I managed to actually get all the players in the picture (even if barely so in Miss Optimism’s case).
Oh yeah, there’s my hand!!
And a highly valued, even trusted, hand it was!
Swear to God, last brawl with Bat’Zul, I started with a full tray of Blues and Greens and ended up empty with a sliver of Endurance and just a scosh bit more of Health. In fact, after he went down, I was actually afraid the remaining hangers-on were going to do me in.
I ended up not dying, probably because I made a point to fire off my long-unused Holiday Spirit before things started.