Stilt-Walker has completed "Vanquished Dr. Timothy Blank". #
Need to start playing more CO before Margie dings 40 with Stiltwalker and exhausts all the content. 😉 #
13 thoughts on “Heroic Tweets for 2009-09-27”
Stilt-Walker has, indeed, been busy! 🙂
So how are you guys getting on with CO now? Any new observations or thoughts? Any good / bad character combos you’ve discovered?
I still haven’t played loads, but am definitely feeling more comfortable with the overall usability of the game – to the point where I was constantly pressing E (my remap of Z) while playing CoX yesterday!
However, I’ve still only teamed once, still find the open world thing a bit strange and still don’t really have a handle on crafting.
On the latter, my skills are slowly increasing (as I remember to research stuff when my inv gets full), and I’ve figured out how to make a couple of extra ‘bags’ to hold all the junk, but I’ve yet to make anything that seems useful. I also haven’t tried the auction house, so just tend to sell any bits I don’t want that aren’t my specialism. I’d be keen to see how you guys are getting on with this.
For what it’s worth, I’m finding my Electric/Supernatural guy to be pretty effective. I have one good ranged single foe attack, a good close AoE, plus regeneration and a couple of heals. General plan goes something like… use energy builder on main guy, use single foe attack on main guy, use AoE when main guy and friends get close, use one or other kind of heal if things get scary, finish off main guy with single foe attack. Rinse. Repeat. I also find the electric shield block I picked up to be useful with regen as I seem to block just enough for regen to improve my health.
Personally I really like the game so far, but the lack of a good teaming dynamic is likely to drive me back to CoX until it’s fixed.
I’m a little peeved that I have to wait for lvl 21 to up my science skill to a max 300 when I maxxed it out at 200 at 16 without even trying very hard. 5 levels takes a lot of time . .. .
I’m also waiting for the tutorial skip to be implemented before I play too many other combos. I’m fine doing the initial desert or canada arc, but the Qlarr invasion takes waaaaaay too long, especially if you’ve already done it.
ReCAPTCHA: Broadcasting muggiest
@Stuart:
Stilt-Walker has been very busy (largely as Margie’s been soloing whilst I was off on business).
No new obsevations that I haven’t passed on here compulsively. The main thing “bad combo” I still have stuck in my craw is Acrobatics + anything. I can’t give it up because I love it so much, but it’s sufficiently irksome that I find myself not playing characters with it because of the aggregate slowness and aggro-vation.
I am enjoying very much a TK character, with everything (except the energy builder) focused on melee.
Margie opines that big bags to hold stuff rule. I still am irked over inventory being such a drag. She can also speak further to the auction house — I haven’t really used it. (Some comments I think I’ve overheard is had to do with a lack of price history, a lack of feedback on whether you actually bought/sold stuff, and just in general a poor interface — which, coming from CoX, must mean it’s *really* awful.)
@Arty:
The Qularr invasion is not that huge of a drag — a half hour at most. Yeah, I’d like to skip it (and go directly to 5 or 6), but it’s not a monstrous burden.
Currently stuck with a lack of missions at 23. Mission completion XP is so high compared to kill XP that gaps like this are very noticeable. I’m running Unity mission and trying to complete any old hidden mission I missed, to get to 24 and then back to the desert.
I had the same crafting problem. *twiddle twiddle twiddle* Used the auction house to store all my arms enhancements so I could un-craft them after I hit 21. Wow! does it take a lot of white and yellow enhancements to hit 5 in the 300+range. I had 24 enhancements mixed white/yellow all around my level and I still couldn’t hit 5. I mostly only make consumables. I wish there was more recipes in that category. I don’t craft to sell things – too much research involved. I buy recipes for things I can use make one and slot it.
The auction interface is so very bad it hurts. The only things I put on the market to really sell are yellows and greens that I think other people will find useful. I mark them at just over resell price. I have browsed the market for under-priced items that I then walk out the door and sold them for a profit. At level 23 I think I have around 15 gold. (At the same level with similar time effort I would have around 50 million influence in CoX, more if I had some luck with drops.)
Another odd thing about the market, you can’t bid for things that aren’t there. So if you really want something, you have check back frequently to try and find it at a reasonable price.
Finally, how can you have two things with the same name and the same level that have different stats? The screwy names are bad enough, but having to check each one offered to see if they are different sucks.
Helpful hint for the day: When your bags are full or you are out of missions in an area, use change instance to hop back to home base quickly.
(Education edges)
There are some distinct tuning issues that remain to be resolved, fall-out from the Great Launch Nerf. Plus, as you note, Margie, it’s very difficult to get substantial XP for street hunting vs. missions. In CoX I wouldn’t object, because I do almost all missions, but CO is much less instance-oriented, making street hunting much more common (and thus its relative lack of value much more noteworthy).
I’d note that if you are within a level or two of the next missions you can usually still do them, so head out to those level 24 missions!
I find that’s sometimes true, sometimes not. The level balance in missions (esp. with different builds) is sometimes more than a bit wonky.
Ah, by ‘do them’ I meant that you can pick them up from the contacts.
I’ve found that there are definitely some mishes and some enemies that are a lot harder than others. At level 16 I have the mission where I have to defeat two of the china town villains and gather their weapons. I stood zero chance against the first master villain I fought. I ended up accidently face to face with a more generic master villain in an alley and HE had no chance against me. A little wonky.
Yeah, I dislike picking up a bunch of missions I’m not going to do yet. The clutter (and the idea that there are things I promised to do that I’m not doing yet) irks me.
I did try a few when I was 22 and decided to head to Millennium instead of get frustrated. Since I am in M-city I thought I would try to finish the level before heading out again. Fairly close now.
I was talking to Dave last night about how some missions feel over or under powered relative to their assigned level. I found myself clearing +2 missions in relative ease at the same time I had a -1 or -2 mission I couldn’t complete or could not solo.
I think I find these inconsistencies frustrating. Like when you are in an instanced mission and you are taking on the group of henchmen and a villain. You get the villain down and most of the henchmen but die before you get the entire group. Nothing is worse than trotting back from the respawn point to find the whole group waiting for you. It feels like the game is cheating you.
Whereas I think it’s perfectly fair (if understandably irksome) that if I get to be rezzed with all my HP, so should the bad guys. It does make for head-bang-on-wall frustration, though.
A side note: Is there any official metagame model for defeat/respawning in CO? In CoX they went through some very complex explanations of teleport systems and hospitals and the like — too much so, perhaps, but it was at least a complete model. CO just seems to have (metaphorically) a [LATER THAT AFTERNOON] caption flying overhead as you rearrive at the respawn point.
I understand your point Dave, what gets me is the inconsistency. In most mission, defeated enemies stay defeated, so it feel unfair when they don’t.
We can agree to disagree on the miraculous recovery of undefeated enemies.
(Vietnamese mambo)
I concur that inconsistency is not just the hobgoblin of little minds but a grave sin amongst game designers.
Stilt-Walker has, indeed, been busy! 🙂
So how are you guys getting on with CO now? Any new observations or thoughts? Any good / bad character combos you’ve discovered?
I still haven’t played loads, but am definitely feeling more comfortable with the overall usability of the game – to the point where I was constantly pressing E (my remap of Z) while playing CoX yesterday!
However, I’ve still only teamed once, still find the open world thing a bit strange and still don’t really have a handle on crafting.
On the latter, my skills are slowly increasing (as I remember to research stuff when my inv gets full), and I’ve figured out how to make a couple of extra ‘bags’ to hold all the junk, but I’ve yet to make anything that seems useful. I also haven’t tried the auction house, so just tend to sell any bits I don’t want that aren’t my specialism. I’d be keen to see how you guys are getting on with this.
For what it’s worth, I’m finding my Electric/Supernatural guy to be pretty effective. I have one good ranged single foe attack, a good close AoE, plus regeneration and a couple of heals. General plan goes something like… use energy builder on main guy, use single foe attack on main guy, use AoE when main guy and friends get close, use one or other kind of heal if things get scary, finish off main guy with single foe attack. Rinse. Repeat. I also find the electric shield block I picked up to be useful with regen as I seem to block just enough for regen to improve my health.
Personally I really like the game so far, but the lack of a good teaming dynamic is likely to drive me back to CoX until it’s fixed.
I’m a little peeved that I have to wait for lvl 21 to up my science skill to a max 300 when I maxxed it out at 200 at 16 without even trying very hard. 5 levels takes a lot of time . .. .
I’m also waiting for the tutorial skip to be implemented before I play too many other combos. I’m fine doing the initial desert or canada arc, but the Qlarr invasion takes waaaaaay too long, especially if you’ve already done it.
ReCAPTCHA: Broadcasting muggiest
@Stuart:
Stilt-Walker has been very busy (largely as Margie’s been soloing whilst I was off on business).
No new obsevations that I haven’t passed on here compulsively. The main thing “bad combo” I still have stuck in my craw is Acrobatics + anything. I can’t give it up because I love it so much, but it’s sufficiently irksome that I find myself not playing characters with it because of the aggregate slowness and aggro-vation.
I am enjoying very much a TK character, with everything (except the energy builder) focused on melee.
Margie opines that big bags to hold stuff rule. I still am irked over inventory being such a drag. She can also speak further to the auction house — I haven’t really used it. (Some comments I think I’ve overheard is had to do with a lack of price history, a lack of feedback on whether you actually bought/sold stuff, and just in general a poor interface — which, coming from CoX, must mean it’s *really* awful.)
@Arty:
The Qularr invasion is not that huge of a drag — a half hour at most. Yeah, I’d like to skip it (and go directly to 5 or 6), but it’s not a monstrous burden.
Currently stuck with a lack of missions at 23. Mission completion XP is so high compared to kill XP that gaps like this are very noticeable. I’m running Unity mission and trying to complete any old hidden mission I missed, to get to 24 and then back to the desert.
I had the same crafting problem. *twiddle twiddle twiddle* Used the auction house to store all my arms enhancements so I could un-craft them after I hit 21. Wow! does it take a lot of white and yellow enhancements to hit 5 in the 300+range. I had 24 enhancements mixed white/yellow all around my level and I still couldn’t hit 5. I mostly only make consumables. I wish there was more recipes in that category. I don’t craft to sell things – too much research involved. I buy recipes for things I can use make one and slot it.
The auction interface is so very bad it hurts. The only things I put on the market to really sell are yellows and greens that I think other people will find useful. I mark them at just over resell price. I have browsed the market for under-priced items that I then walk out the door and sold them for a profit. At level 23 I think I have around 15 gold. (At the same level with similar time effort I would have around 50 million influence in CoX, more if I had some luck with drops.)
Another odd thing about the market, you can’t bid for things that aren’t there. So if you really want something, you have check back frequently to try and find it at a reasonable price.
Finally, how can you have two things with the same name and the same level that have different stats? The screwy names are bad enough, but having to check each one offered to see if they are different sucks.
Helpful hint for the day: When your bags are full or you are out of missions in an area, use change instance to hop back to home base quickly.
(Education edges)
There are some distinct tuning issues that remain to be resolved, fall-out from the Great Launch Nerf. Plus, as you note, Margie, it’s very difficult to get substantial XP for street hunting vs. missions. In CoX I wouldn’t object, because I do almost all missions, but CO is much less instance-oriented, making street hunting much more common (and thus its relative lack of value much more noteworthy).
I’d note that if you are within a level or two of the next missions you can usually still do them, so head out to those level 24 missions!
I find that’s sometimes true, sometimes not. The level balance in missions (esp. with different builds) is sometimes more than a bit wonky.
Ah, by ‘do them’ I meant that you can pick them up from the contacts.
I’ve found that there are definitely some mishes and some enemies that are a lot harder than others. At level 16 I have the mission where I have to defeat two of the china town villains and gather their weapons. I stood zero chance against the first master villain I fought. I ended up accidently face to face with a more generic master villain in an alley and HE had no chance against me. A little wonky.
Yeah, I dislike picking up a bunch of missions I’m not going to do yet. The clutter (and the idea that there are things I promised to do that I’m not doing yet) irks me.
I did try a few when I was 22 and decided to head to Millennium instead of get frustrated. Since I am in M-city I thought I would try to finish the level before heading out again. Fairly close now.
I was talking to Dave last night about how some missions feel over or under powered relative to their assigned level. I found myself clearing +2 missions in relative ease at the same time I had a -1 or -2 mission I couldn’t complete or could not solo.
I think I find these inconsistencies frustrating. Like when you are in an instanced mission and you are taking on the group of henchmen and a villain. You get the villain down and most of the henchmen but die before you get the entire group. Nothing is worse than trotting back from the respawn point to find the whole group waiting for you. It feels like the game is cheating you.
Whereas I think it’s perfectly fair (if understandably irksome) that if I get to be rezzed with all my HP, so should the bad guys. It does make for head-bang-on-wall frustration, though.
A side note: Is there any official metagame model for defeat/respawning in CO? In CoX they went through some very complex explanations of teleport systems and hospitals and the like — too much so, perhaps, but it was at least a complete model. CO just seems to have (metaphorically) a [LATER THAT AFTERNOON] caption flying overhead as you rearrive at the respawn point.
I understand your point Dave, what gets me is the inconsistency. In most mission, defeated enemies stay defeated, so it feel unfair when they don’t.
We can agree to disagree on the miraculous recovery of undefeated enemies.
(Vietnamese mambo)
I concur that inconsistency is not just the hobgoblin of little minds but a grave sin amongst game designers.