What can be told is that both Margie and I were in the Closed Beta.
It appears that a lot of what drives invitations to the Closed Beta is time spent in the Test instance. I, myself, almost never do that — but we’ve been known to let Kitten run in Test while we’re on Prod doing stuff. Presumably, that’s how I got the invite.
Notes on I11:
- The new weapon styles seriously rock. Seriously. CoX’s greatest strength has always been being able to create a hero/villain who looks just how you want, and now you can do so even better. Worth the price of admission right there. It’s almost enough to make me want to run a Mace Tanker. Or another AR Blaster.
- The Ourobous missions are a hoot-and-a-half. We pulled out Psi-clone and Amorpha, and had triffic fun, from the “running in Outbreak as Lvl 1 characters” to various missions with Freedom Phalanx and Vindicator heroes running against Lord Recluse’s lieuts. Excellent stuff. New content rocks.
- Dual Blades is a spiffy power. My only objection to it is that too many of the blades are not available with the existing blade powers (Broadsword and Katana).
- Willpower is an interesting defensive set. I don’t know if it’s under- or over-powered, but it has a little bit of everything (except a freaking Heal!). A good add.
Overall, an excellent issue.
Wooties! I was wondering when you would spill the beans. I’ve been grinding my BS scrapper in anticipation of customizing his buttocks all out for I11. I even remembered I have an AR blaster on Champion that I broke out and ToTed with.
Question – can you flash back to bank jobs? Accomplishment badges (lets say… fortune teller?)
I haven’t done much with the Flashbacks … I believe at the present it’s just focused on story arcs (those with and without badges). Pretty sure it doesn’t include Safeguard/Mayhem or non-arc badges (Fortune Teller), but I could be wrong.
I’m afraid buttocks customization got dropped in the early testing for I11, but there are some spiffy new swords … though,again, not everything that’s in Dual Blade is available for Single Blades (esp. for Katana, since it’s a 2-hand weapon, but there’s no reason I can think of for Saber not to be in BS).
Badge missions Yes
Safeguard/Mayham No
How’s willpower? Is it Super Reflexes Lite, or something truely different?
Oh, I think it’s better than SR. It doesn’t have a heal, which is it’s main problem, but it is a nice combo of inherents and toggles that do both Def and Resist. And the FX are, as advertised, pretty subtle, so it makes for a good non-super-duper-powered kind of look.
I suspect it will end up being a solid Scrapper secondary. As a Tank primary, I’m not as sure — it feels a scosh lightweight for that on the character I tested with. I could be wrong, though.
It is a fun mix. Since it has Defense, Damage Resistance, and Regen powers, it doesn’t fell like it has an obvious achilles’ heal. Toggle heavy like most tank primaries. I am running quick recovery and stamina on little bot and can run all my toggles and wail away without budging my endurance bar. The taunt aura power has a tohit debuff in it that sometimes scares folks away – most annoying.