Category: City of Heroes

Mr. Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang

Via Doyce, from the Daily Grind a way to frame to your relationships with MMOs the way you frame your … “real” relationships:

I’m sure you’ve heard of the classic “marry/kiss/kill” ranking game (or some not-so-PG version thereof) designed to rank your interest in a trio of human beings. So how about turning that upon MMOs today?

Which games would you marry, would you kiss, and would you kill? By which, I mean:

  1. Marry: You’re in it for the long haul with this title, admiring the devs’ past and present efforts, and are confident that the future will hold great things. You plus this game equals “happily ever after.”
  2. Kiss: You’re interested — or currently involved — with a brief fling with this game, but you’re pretty sure that it’s not going to last. This is a title best left to brief flirtations versus long-term relationships.
  3. Kill: You are done with this MMO — or never wanted to get involved with it in the first place. You abhor the studio’s practices and products, and wouldn’t mind seeing the game thrown into the sun. Metaphorically, of course.

Actually, kind of an objectionable way of framing it, but let’s see if I can tweak it a bit:

Marry:

  • City of Heroes:  A first love, and still a best love.  She’s comfortable, pleasant, mature, fun to be with, a great sense of humor, still has plenty to explore … and she eve now manages some new surprises and unexpected presents now and again. My friends know her, which is nice.  There have been times we separated, though I always come back.  Lot of people think she’s over the hill, but I’m quite happy with her.

Kiss:

  • Lord of the Rings Online:  Old, kind of crazy girlfriend I remember fondly and still occasionally socialize with. Things just never seemed to be going quite the way I was hoping, though, but I’m very glad she’s found other relationships.  Still occasionally think about another brief fling, since she’s free now, but it hasn’t happened yet.
  • Wizards 101:  I’m happy enough chatting with her while the kids are capering on the playground equipment. We were never close, but she always seemed good with children.

Kill Don’t Return Phone Calls From:

  • World of Warcraft: We went on a first date, and I carefully thereafter blocked her on my phone. Never did see what people saw in her.
  • Champions Online: She was bright and shiny and promised so much but gave back so little.  We had some fun times, but ultimately she was never someone I could settle down with.
  • DC Universe Online:  Another try at rekindling an old relationship, but it was just too much of the same old grind.  I keep thinking I might give her a call some day, have some coffee, no strings attached, but I can never quite work up the interest.
  • Star Trek Online:  Met her at the con, seemed to share may of the same geeky interests as me, but eventually it seemed like that was all she was about.  The repeated conversations grew boring. I still play some of the music she lent me, sometimes.

(Maybe I need to stay away from girls named “Online” … it ever seems to end well.)

Ogle from Across the Room:

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic:  She’s hot, she’s new to the scene, she’s hot, she’s got everyone talking.  But she looks like someone who could take over my whole life, and I’m just not ready for that now.
  • EvE:  She’s mysterious, intriguing, and into some wild and different stuff.  I know folks who go on and on about how cool she is. Rumor has it she’s a tiger in the sack, but a very demanding mistress. Staying way away from her.

Man, gaming relationships are complicated …

Paragon Potpourri

1. The new Titan Weapons power set looks fun.

It’s a crappy video, but, heck, giant weapons? Intrinsically fun! And if you buy it by 12/19, you get a free weapon pack with it. Score!

2. Signature Story Arc #1 Episode 4 is now out. I’ve been really enjoying these (and enjoying running a ton of alts through them).

3. Issue 21 Special Update: Media Blitz is also now out. Wow. Maybe one of these days we’ll even get around to doing some Incarnate stuff with our stable of 50s.

The CoH Signature Arcs – “Who Will Die?”

I’ve not been playing much CoX of late — but when we have gotten on, we’ve been having fun with the “Who Will Die?” signature arc tales they’ve been putting out on a monthly basis. The story arc hasn’t been wildly gripping, but the scenarios and set work have been fun.  And they’ve done some great stuff in varying them between how they work for heroes vs. villains.

What’s actually been fun is running them with our full stable of alts.  Different power combinations make for different ways to get through, blast through, eke through the same scenario.  Part of it depends on what level prestige level we’re at going in. Having good stealth make things easier (or not).  Some of our sets are more vulnerable to debuffs than others.

Each scenario takes us about 30 minutes to complete (make it 45 the first time through), so it’s not a huge time sink, which is nice.

Each progressive story has been staged at a minimum 10 levels higher.  That meant our normal Victory stable was short on bodies on the most recent tale … so we’ve started dusting of our Old Stable of folks over on Champion … which gets pretty embarrassing, because the 50s there are all into SOs and don’t have their Inherent Fitness respecced and …

(Psi-Clone and Amorpha still kick ass. Even downgraded to lower levels.)

Dipping a toe into I21, Part 2

Got in a little more gameplay last night on the VIP nights for COH:Freedom.  More early impressions …

  • Atlas Park sure is prettified.
  • The initial mission arcs in Atlas are also nicely crafted (even tying into the Galaxy events, as should be).
  • There are a lot of open zone/instance hunt missions (“Hunt 10 Skulls [in this area where they will regen moderately quickly]”).  It has a different feel (not necessarily good) from the traditional hunts for some reason, perhaps because so many others were hunting there, too — largely because the proposed area to hunt is now highlighted on the maps.
  • I do like the giant arrow coins over the heads of the contacts, rather than just a colored circle at their feet.  Less realistic, sure, but it does make them easier to see.
  • There are several early adventures where you end up split up as individuals on a team (single-person instances, run in parallel).  Which is great, but at present buggy — every time, the mission didn’t give credit to the non-leader on the team, and we had to rerun it.
  • In addition to an Icon in Atlas, Ms. Liberty also lets you buy costume tweaks.  It looks like there are 5-6 slots you get through the normal means, and then another 5-6 you can buy (if you are really into costume changes).  This is actually a nice feature, to allow this at such a low level, since  what looked good in the costume maker doesn’t necessarily look good once you’re running around staring at the toon’s butt the whole time.
  • It’s still possible to make a lot of money very quickly at Wentworths.  If one is so inclined.

Travel Powers:

Okay, my life is much easier because of two costume packs I already had purchased — Steampunk has a jet pack, and Animal pack has the most excellent Beast Run.  Those become available at lvl 4 — which is the point that the Power Pools become available.

All the Travel Pools now have five powers.  The first 3 come up at lvl 4, which removes that problem, the 3rd of them being the traditional travel powers.  However, there is now a 5th Travel Pool power that comes available at 14 (if you’ve chosen two in the pool already):

  • Afterburner (Flight): Increases your fly speed and makes you much more difficult to hit for a time.  However, you can only use self-directed powers while it’s running.  This should be cool.
  • Spring Attack (Jump): Heavy damage attack where you land in the middle of a crowd, knocking them down (“boom” for jumpers).  Looking forward to this, too.
  • Burnout (Speed): In exchange for a big Endurance hit, you recharge all of your powers.  Not quite as usable as the others, but I can think of a few situations.
  • Long Range Teleport (Teleport): Increases TP range, including across zones.

Interestingly, these extra Travel powers counteract the recent trend, where (a) you could get the real Travel power without any prerequisites (besides level) and (b) the Fitness pool became automatic.  Suddenly, I’m eyeing what I’m going to want to take in the way of powers, and when, and realizing I’ll have to compromise.

Good stuff so far.  A very nice issue.

Dipping a toe into I21

I’ve had near-zilcho time to take advantage of the VIP Head Start to City of Heroes I21 / Freedom / new-shiny-coolness. So some very few notes on it:

  1. The new character creator is very nice. There are some bugs in how easy it is to browse through stuff, and there are still odd disconnects where it’s not clear why an option is or isn’t available for certain classes of costume parts.  But the overall looks is nice, and the mere fact that you can check and reserve your name while just starting off your character is truly awesome.
  2. Splash screens, illustration style, and updated character creator music are all pretty spiffy.
  3. The new Galaxy intro is fun, exercises basic combat skills and is overall a Good Thing — certainly more heroic than slugging Infected.  My main problem is that it is way too reminiscent of the intro setting for Champions Online — you’re in a city, devastated by an ongoing alien invasion, with voices telling you which way to go and what to do.  I was just waiting for someone to tell me to “Launch the Ironclad Defense!”
  4. That said, the “morality mission” part of the intro is a bit … lame.
  5. There’s now an Icon in the very attractively redressed Atlas Park.  Hurrah!
  6. No email before level 10?  That’s weird.

And that’s about all I’ve done (thanks to a malfunctioning client that hadn’t been keeping me patched).  But I’m looking forward to more.

The Dynamic Trio

So Margie and I play CoH off and on fairly regularly, rotating through a variety of duos. This week we shook things up a bit, though, and had our daughter, Katherine, play as well.

I’ve been eyeballing the F2P option coming up in City of Heroes for a bit, thinking that would let Kay play at will, rather than waiting until one or the other of us is off. But as we looked at the options, we realized that a purely F2P setup was going to place just too many limitations — including not being able to join a supergroup. We realize there will be some limits, but we didn’t want Katherine to feel too gimped.

So we went ahead over the weekend and opened up an account for her and got her set up in it, and then spent most of Sunday running a new trio through Praetoria (or least through ten levels of it) — Margie with a broadsword scrapper, me with a grav/rad controller, and Kay with a ninja/bubbles mastermind.

Fun times, though Katherine was having some performance problems with her machine that I need to check out, as well as just her having to deal with the learning curve (and the kibbitzing from the parents). It was kind of cool having a third member of the party, too.

One thing that stood out, though, was her lack of veteran award status, and how much that shapes our early game — e.g., getting full travel powers at 6 (vs prerequisited powers at 14), Nemmy staff / Blackwand / Sands of Mu options, etc. Plus we have some costume packs we’ve purchased — Mystic, Mutant, Beast, and now Steampunk — that provide some added bonuses (travel powers, in particular).

Fortunately for the travel power glitch, we can also do Assemble the Team. 🙂

The plan is to maintain her account for a few months, then switch over to F2P when Freedom comes out. That will give her some extra benefits. Or, if playing with her becomes a new norm, we might maintain her as a VIP account. We’ll see.

The City of Heroes panel from SDCC

Video of the CoH panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. Alas, doesn’t include the Q&A at the end.

Discussed a lot of the Freedom features, but also some of the other keen stuff going on:

  • The new “Street Justice” (brawling) and Beam Rifles power sets.  These will be premium sets, it sounds like, even for VIPs.  Street Justice is combination-based (like Dual Swords?).
  • Updates to the downloader (start playing within 5 minutes), as well as to the introduction / character builder and to the Tutorial.  It all sounds really nice, and a great way to make the game more attractive for the new players they’re expecting.
  • Atlas Park has gotten a total makeover with their new rendering technology, and the missions/contacts have been redone.
  • Mercy Island isn’t quite as made-over, but the missions/contacts have been revamped, and you actually start down in the main burg to the south, rather than up at Ft Darwin.
  • The low-level “Death from Below” sewer raid “event,” similar to the Incarnate Trial tech only for Levels 1-5.
  • Added training missions in levels 5-19 (to make up for the very short tutorial).
  • Issue 21 – the new zone “First Ward” in Praetoria, Lvl 20-25, complete with the new villain groups and the zone-wide Giant Monster (Seed of Hamidon) event, and the new underground Incarnate Trial (Avatar of Hamidon).
  • Quality of Life improvements — dynamic icons over potential contacts’ heads; find contact button (with info!) for a nearby contact (and you can even teleport directly to him/her); and  now travel powers will now become available at Level 4* and there will be “high end” travel powers, too.
  • Signature Stories – key storylines, new story arcs monthly, hero and villainside (free for VIPs).

It all looks pretty cool!

The Prezi presentation can be seen more fully here.

* Young whippernappers got no idea of what life was like with travel powers only showing up at 14 … jogging through all the zones … including the dangerous ones like the Hollows … damned kids these days …

More CoH Freedom FAQishness

Via Positron (and, yes, over a week old, but …)

VIP Server

First and foremost, it’s optional. If you are a VIP subscriber you can play on any server. Premium and Free players can play on any server except the VIP one. Second, it’s a brand new server. We are not going to take an existing server and make it the VIP server. That would be unfair to all other server communities and counter to one of our goals, which is for your friends to try out (or come back to) City of Heroes and play with you at no cost.

I’m glad they are offering this option (to assuage the “OH NOES! NOOBS!” fears), but, honestly, I have no desire at this point to be off on a VIP server.

Supergroup Transfers (Including bases)
This is something we anticipated and are actively working on, but it likely won’t be ready for City of Heroes Freedom’s launch. We are committing to bringing you this service in the future and it won’t be just to the VIP server, it will be between any server. It will likely require the Supergroup’s Super Leader to actually execute the transfer.

That’s actually a clever idea, as they’ve made server moves easier and now created a “different” (VIP) server.

Restricted Archetypes
Free and Premium players are not allowed to make or play Masterminds, Controllers, Soldiers of Arachnos, or Kheldians. There are many reasons behind this, not the least of which is the extra CPU drain some of these Archetypes can have on the servers. We want all players (free and VIP) to have a smooth gaming experience and if that means we’re going to restrict some Archetypes to ensure that, we will.

However, the Paragon Rewards program has an “unlock” for Masterminds and Controllers at Tier 5 (which is about a three-year CoH veteran status). So if you have enough veteran status at the launch of City of Heroes Freedom, you will be able to play these restricted archetypes on a Premium account on day one. As always, we’ll be chatting more about the Paragon Rewards in the coming weeks.

I just tweeted something about this that didn’t mention Arachnos or Kheldians (though both also make sense).

(Though, honestly — haven’t seen any Kheldians lately. Does anyone still play them?  Tempted to give it a try, again.)

First Ward’s Level range
First Ward is a zone in Praetoria, continuing many of the storylines of that world. It takes place from levels 20 to 26.

As I suspected. Glad to see more Praetoria content.

CoH: Issue 21 preview

Overview for I21 “Convergence” is up. Key take-aways:

  • First Ward is a new zone, Praetorian (open to F2Pers to visit, but no missions), a city area that was supposedly abandoned to Devouring Earth, but now used by Emperor Cole for testing things that go boom. It’s also full of Hamidon magic and a new Giant Monster.
  • Incarnate Trial in Praetoria, fighting Devouring Earth under the city.  (Does that mean we have some sort of content for Praetoria between 20 and 50? Is that what First Ward is for?)
  • Time Manipulation is a new Defender Primary and Controller/Corrupter/Mastermind Secondary.  No details. “Channel potent temporal energies to alter the very forces of time to help your allies or devastate your foes.”
  • Some new Costume sets.

And, the biggest change, I suspect:

New Starting Experience

Galaxy City is under attack, and you are thrown immediately into the middle the fray! A new co-op tutorial orients you in the world of City of Heroes, testing you with the moral choices that will determine your future as a Hero or a Villain. In this new starting experience, you can play using any of the Archetypes from the start with no alignment restriction. You will then take part in ongoing training missions in Atlas Park and Mercy Island that will let you further your growth, learn more about the game world and the game’s features, and test you to master your skills as a Hero or Villain.

So it sounds like that replaces (?) Outbreak and Breakout (awwwww …) (optionally?) (If not, then how does that fit into the whole CoV Chosen One mythos?).

Also interesting in that it gets rid of villain-only and hero-only archetypes, it seems. No need to start your heroic Mastermind in Praetoria any more.

So, plenty of reason, it seems, to build some new alts once I21 hits — assuming you’re VIP and can have more than two slots …

City of Heroes goes Free-to-Play? Just the FAQs, ma’am!

My immediate thought: “Cool, now Kay can roll her own characters on her own account …”

So, big announcement from NCSoft today about “City of Heroes Freedom” (CoHF?).  Let’s break it down:

Announcing City of Heroes Freedom and Issue 21: Convergence!

City of Heroes Freedom™will be launching later this year and will be the new name for City of Heroes®. City of Heroes Freedom redefines City of Heroes based on the cornerstones of content, rewards, and choice. With City of Heroes Freedom, you will get the freedom to play and pay as you choose. Join the future of City of Heroes in City of Heroes Freedom. Freedom is the future!

Blah, blah, blah … okay, okay, what does it mean?

Content

In City of Heroes Freedom, dive into new stories and features right away and enjoy more of them in the future. Freedom kicks off with a new free update, Issue 21: Convergence, and increases the pace of quality, high-energy content with regular new Issues, monthly signature story arcs, new weekly in-game store items, and high-level Incarnate Trials. 

Which we’ve already had, I think.  What’s “increased” about the pace of content?

Issue 21 packs in the First Ward co-op zone, gripped in mystical conflict, as well as the Time Manipulation Power Set, the IDF and Defense Costume Sets, and the Underground Incarnate Trial. Signature story arcs, free with VIP players’ subscriptions, let you fight alongside iconic Heroes and Villains in story arcs that make a difference in the City of Heroes universe.

Ooookay. Hope there’s a FAQ down there somewhere, since a bunch of that still doesn’t make any sense.

Rewards

Current City of Heroes subscribers will continue as a VIP players in City of Heroes Freedom, gaining more features, services, and rewards in addition to what they have already received. Some rewards begin today, as all current City of Heroes subscribers will accrue 400 Paragon Points per month starting on their first billing cycle after July 1, 2011 . At the launch of City of Heroes Freedom, you will be able to use Paragon Points to purchase new costumes, Power Sets, and hundreds of new items from the in-game Paragon Market. The new Paragon Rewards program also rewards all levels of loyal players with new bonus content that you select, including exclusive rewards for VIP players.

Hmmm. Okay. Current subscribers get additional cool stuff (so as to encourage us to stay subscribers, one assumes).

Choice

Pay for the content and features that you want. Choose to play for free, or become a VIP player and command VIP service. With City of Heroes Freedom, you don’t have to buy the game or pay a monthly fee to play. You can download the game and play for free for as long as you wish. If you upgrade to VIP player status, you will unlock a bounty of content and benefits. You can also buy a variety of content and services from a new in-game store.

We will be giving you more information on the above features over the next few months, but in the meantime, an overview of Issue 21: Convergence, as well as a City of Heroes Freedom fact page and a statement by Brian Clayton, Executive Producer and General Manager at Paragon Studios are available for you to peruse!

Okay, I will have to peruse. But, basically, it sounds like you’ll have:

  1. Free Players, who get the basic game, and can pay for additional stuff.
  2. Subscribers (“VIPs”) who get extra “content and benefits” for their sub.

Basic hybrid model. Interesting (and, I think, preferable to going totally F2P).

City of Heroes® Freedom FAQ

Q: Why is City of Heroes® moving to a hybrid model?

A: Simply stated, it’s the right time. We’ve been planning this transition to Freedom for well over a year now.  We believe this opportunity is the best way for us to provide more value to our devoted player base than ever before, as well as grow our leadership position in the super-powered hero online gaming space. Over the past few years, MMO players have been enthusiastically embracing “choice”. By making the transition now, we’re putting our stake in the ground as a leader in the industry, helping to define the future of the MMO gaming space.

I.e., it’s been the trend, and for good reason.  It’s hard to get someone to commit, out of the box, to a subscription fee.  On the other hand, micropayment games can get annoying depending on how frequently you get dunned for them.

Q: I am currently a subscriber to City of Heroes. What does this change mean for me?

A: All current City of Heroes subscribers will automatically be upgraded to VIP accounts when City of Heroes Freedom launches. When City of Heroes Freedom launches, you will continue to enjoy all of the subscription benefits and content you enjoy today, as well as brand-new exclusive rewards, features, and services. Additionally, beginning on July 1, 2011, you will earn 400 Paragon Points each month. When City of Heroes Freedom launches, you will become a VIP player, and you will start with a tidy sum of Paragon Points to spend in the new in-game Paragon Market.

How much is 400 PP?  No idea — how long is a piece of string?

Q: What are Paragon Points?

A: Paragon Points are a form of currency that you will use to purchase items and services from the Paragon Market. You can purchase Paragon Points through the Paragon Market or our partners. VIP players automatically get a 400 Paragon Point bonus per month as part of their subscription.

I.e., virtual money that they can get partners to work with.

Q: What is the Paragon Market?

A: The Paragon Market is a new in-game store where you can purchase costumes, powers, items, and game services or features without ever having to leave the game.

Q: Will booster packs be available from the Paragon Market?

A: Super boosters and booster packs will no longer be available for sale when City of Heroes Freedom launches. The costumes, powers, emotes, and auras from super boosters and booster packs will be available for sale individually or as part of different bundles in the Paragon Market.

Well, that makes sense.  Bundles are a natural outgrowth here from booster packs.

It will be interesting to see what VIPs get that F2Pers have to pay for, and what both groups have to pay for.

Q: What will happen to the game servers?

A: All 15 existing global servers will be available in City of Heroes Freedom. We are also adding a new server exclusively for VIPs.

Still think they’ll have to consolidate servers eventually.  Heck, I want them to, just clear up some ghost towns. Although maybe that will change some with F2P.

Q: Will VIP players play with Free players?

A: Yes, although we have taken several steps to make sure that our VIPs have the choice for how they want to play, including creating a new VIP-only server.

Hrm. So what will distinguish the VIP-only server from the hoi-polloi servers?  Will we be able to transfer characters there for free?  Why would we, aside from our sense of specialness?

Q: What happens to my Veteran Rewards? Will I continue to earn new Veteran Rewards?

A: We are replacing the Veteran Rewards with the Paragon Rewards program, a rewards program superior in every way with Veteran Rewards, to add new rewards, features, and choices. The Paragon Reward program unlocks new exclusive rewards on top of the existing Veteran Rewards. All subscribers keep their Veteran Rewards and badges, even if they choose to play for free. We will have more information to share about that in the coming months.

Interesting.  More “hooks” to stick with the game.

I’ve really liked the Vet Rewards.  Some of them are goofy-useless, but others make a real (if not overwhelming) difference at early levels (Nemmie Staff/Blackwand, Sands of Mu, etc.).

Q: What is the difference between a Reward Token and a Paragon Point?

A: Reward Tokens can be redeemed to unlock free in-game benefits. They are earned as part of your monthly VIP player subscription or as a bonus for purchasing Paragon Points. Paragon Points can be used to purchase items through the new in-game Paragon Market.

Wait … we get Paragon Points and Reward Tokens, and we get Reward Tokens from being a VIP (but also Paragon Points) or from buying Paragon Points, and maybe the Reward Tokens as part of the Veteran Awards and …

Dammit, NCSoft, your player currencies are as freaking confusing as your in-game currencies.

(It’s explained a bit more here. Still will need to see it in action.)

Q: What will happen with the issue game content system? Will there still be free issues?

A: City of Heroes Freedom lets Paragon Studios continue to support free issue launches and major seasonal events that expand the lore of the City of Heroes universe. City of Heroes Freedom will feature numerous free updates. In fact, we are inaugurating City of Heroes Freedom with a new issue, Issue 21: Convergence! We plan to share additional information about issues as launch day approaches.

Q: What new game content will we see when City of Heroes Freedom launches?

A: Issue 21: Convergence will launch alongside City of Heroes Freedom. Issue 21 packs in the First Ward co-op zone, gripped in mystical conflict, as well as the Time Manipulation Power Set, the IDF and Defense Costume Sets, the Underground Incarnate Trial, the new Seed of Hamidon zone event, and over 60 new missions.

Cool.

Q: Are there any incentives to maintaining my subscription or reactivating my subscription before City of Heroes Freedom launches?

A: Current subscribers and former subscribers that reactivate their accounts earn 400 Paragon Points per month beginning July 1, 2011. Any active subscriber also earns Reward Tokens in our new Paragon Rewards program.

So, yes.

Part of me thinks I’ll just stick with the subscription, but it sounds like Kay can do some fun F2P stuff (and buy trinkets if she so desires, as she does in Wizards 101).

Q: What content will Free players receive?

A: A Free player can achieve maximum character level (Level 50) in the game and can choose from among eight Archetypes (classes). Free players can create up to two characters (total) and play as Heroes in Paragon City™ or Villains in the Rogue Isles™. Free players can join in most Task Forces, Strike Forces, Trials, and raids. However, certain content and rewards are reserved for VIP players only.

Free players are restricted from certain systems within the game (alignment change, Day Jobs, Mission Architect, and so on), and they will not receive any live support unless they upgrade to VIP player status. They can still access self-help support. View the Free player benefits in the Freedom player choice side-by-side comparison.

Hmmm.  So, F2Pers basically get the game as of four or five issues ago, with severe limits on character slots.  That’ll probably be the biggest heartburn for Kay.

Q: What additional content will VIP players get?

A: A VIP player will enjoy the same benefits as a current City of Heroes subscriber and much more! In addition to the regular Issue content updates, VIP players will receive new monthly Signature Story Arcs as well as full access to Incarnate Trials and Going Rogue expansion content. VIP players have high priority status in any server queues, access to live in-game support, and one free server transfer per month.  VIP players also receive 400 Paragon Points each month and earn exclusive rewards in the Paragon Rewards program.
View the VIP player benefits in the Freedom player choice side-by-side comparison.

Coolness.  Plus — a free server transfer a month.  Hmmmm.

Q: If I am a subscriber now, what will happen to my account if I choose to become a Free player when City of Heroes Freedom launches?

A: Current City of Heroes subscribers who choose to become Free players will retain access to tons of content, however some Issue content will be reserved for VIP players, including power sets, costume sets, etc. One notable difference is that Free players will be limited to two character slots total, plus any character slots directly purchased or earned through Veteran Rewards. All existing characters will be saved and reenabled if a player subscribes as a VIP player.

View the Free and Premium player benefits in the Freedom player choice side-by-side comparison.

So not a good option for folks with alt-itis.

Now, if we look at that side-by-side …

Side-by-Side Comparison*

Character Features Play for Free Premium Players VIP Players
Archetypes 8 8+ 14
Maximum Level 50 50 50
Power Sets 100+ 100+ 150+
Costume Pieces, Auras Thousands Thousands Thousands+
Content Features
City of Heroes Going Rogue™ Purchasable Purchasable Included
First Ward Zone Access Included Included Included
First Ward Missions Purchasable Purchasable Included
Social Features
Super Groups Not available Can join Can join or form
Chat Channels Local, Team Local, Team, Whispers (Tells) All game channels, and can create them
In-Game Mail Not available Included Included
Forum Access Read only Read only Read or write
Account Features
Free Paragon Points Not available Not available 400 per month
Character Slots 2 total 2 total, plus slots that were unlocked or directly purchased 12 per server, plus slots that were unlocked or directly purchased
Server Transfers Purchasable Purchasable 1 free per month
Auction House Use Limited Limited Buy/sell/store
Mission Architect Purchasable Limited Play/create
Inventions Purchasable Limited Included
Priority Queues Not available Not available Included
VIP-Only Servers Not available Not available Included
Premium In-Game Customer Support Not available Not available Included

*Subject to change by launch.

So a few things to note:

  • Premium Players?  They weren’t mentioned before.  Ah, those are folks who return who were previously playing.  So you’ve got the added slots you bought/earned, your old vet rewards, SG access, some MA and Invention access.
  • F2P – no tells, no SGs.  No Inventions? Interesting. No mail, either.

More to come, obviously.  Overall, I think this is a good direction — getting more people to try the game can only be to its benefit.

When Praetorians Attack!

For the 7th anniversary of CoH, they are running some special Praetorian invasion events for a few weeks. Margie and I hopped on this evening for a couple of hours for the one on Champion.

I got on first, running Torchielle (figuring a blaster would be a worthy addition to an attack from Praetorian Earth), with Margie later jumping on as Amorpha. And, it quickly became clear that the biggest danger to Primal Earth from a Praetorian invasion was a disruption of the time continuum, leading to things moving ever and ever slower …

Yeah, the lag was pretty awful.

After most of the invasion was done, I swapped out to Psi-clone, figuring he deserved some massive SO drops like Torchy had been getting.  Unfortunately, the event sort of dragged out to a close, with large intervals of nothing happening leading people to think it was all over.  Still, I got some action in with him, too.

And, when all was said and done, I realized I’d missed both those characters — and that both needed some serious attention, as they’re still all-SO, still unrebuilt after veteran travel powers and inherent Fitness.

And, yeah, that means some money, which, fortunately, I can send in bushel-baskets-full from some other characters I’ve actually been paying attention to.

Not looking forward to respeccing Level 50 characters, but it really needs to be done.

CoH: WORLD of Heroes

So I’ve not been hanging out in the forums and CoX site all that much of late … so I was a bit startled when I fired up the game this afternoon and …

Hey … what are all those servers?

I thought for a moment I might have been on Test, or else something awful had happened, but, no, Global Server Access has come to CoX. So now everyone can see not just the North American or European servers, but both.

Which means one now has 15 servers to stuff alts onto …

The Europeans take it a bit in the shorts here, since if there are @name conflicts, etc., theirs are the ones that get altered.  But aside from that — it’s pretty cool.  Better news than the “server consolidation” going on over in DCUO, alas (though, on the bright side, that article’s English is hysterical).

(Actually, I’m expecting server consolidation to hit CoX sooner or later — Victory, where we do all our stuff these days, is nigh-on-ghost-towny.)

Cow and Chicken

It always makes Margie laugh when I refer to this new duo as that.

In reality, they are Rhett Bull (Axe/Shield Brute) and Phoenix Reburn (Claws/Fire Brute). Much balls-to-the-walls fun to play.

(Yes, I have been playing a wee bit of CoX. Just not writing about it much, I fear.)

(And, yes, we’re enjoying the Animal Pack.)

CoH Animal Pack

(Hey, look! A live post! Treat it gently kids — you don’t want to scare it off!)

So of course I purchased the new Animal Pack for City of Heroes. NCSoft makes it so seductively easy …

And what did I get for my $10?

Well, I guess I got my $10 worth. It’s neither as lame as I might have feared, nor as cool as it might have been.

The basic costume piece additions — the whole purpose of the upgrade — are okay. Two sizes of cat heads (ferocious, not cuddly), with some variations for tigers, lions, etc., and for patterning and a couple of ear styles and for (optional) sabre-teeth. A new wolf’s head (not the kind of mutant werewolf style previous available) with some variants. Additional tiger striping. Minotaur heads, with three different styles of horns (plus hornless) and four (!) styles of nose rings.

There are bird heads, too — eagle, hawk, vulture. Cue the Egyptian costumes …

They’ve also added cat feet and bird feet for the monstrous feet costume slots, and a minotaur tail and shaggy wolf tail.

What’s there is good, though the heads feel too small in proportion. Of course, the human heads sometimes feel a bit small on normal bodies. The effect is worse with the monstrous lower body, which still looks monstrously large/long compared to the rest of the form. I did a little experimentation, and the minotaur on the huge body doesn’t look bad.

(Apparently in the UK the pronounce minotaur with a long I — my-notaur — as opposed to the short I we use here in the States. Ran across that the other day on TV. Weird.)

Another new costume feature are some animal-specific auras. I didn’t play with the “fleas” aura, but there’s a beastly anger one that you can focus on different body parts (including breath), perpetually or just in combat. You know how bulls have that stereotypical steamy breath? Yeah, you can do that with your minotaur.

There are some nice costume change emotes.

I did not get a chance to play with the beastly running power. I’m hoping it’s as good as the Champs Online one.

So, is it a huge game changer? Nah. I don’t see Paragon (et al.) being overrun by cat girls or minotaurs or wolf-men, though it’s nice that there are now those options for those who want them. I may retrofit a couple of my feline characters to use the new heads, but not in all cases. And there are a lot of other possibilities here — I (or Lady Zebra) would love to see a horse head, for example, and certainly a monkey/gorilla would be used by some.

Good fun. Now if I can carve out some time to play for the next few weeks …

Because occasionally I feel like I should post something other than tweets

Even though there’s not a lot of News or Info or Interesting Stuff to post about.

Um …

Margie and I have been playing CoX (business trips permitting) pretty regularly over the last weeks.  We’ve been mostly running the cohort of 20ishes we grew up through Rogues, playing with new Tip missions vs Evil Duplicate missions vs Plain Ol’ Police Band missions vs etc.

For a guy who hates crafting/auctioning, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time at Wentworths (etc.) building up bankrolls by Buying Low and Selling High, mostly Special Enhancements and highly rare Invention Salvage.

By the way, the recent addition of a new Salvage tab that requires scrolling over in order to see the Invention tab?  Highly irksome.

So, not much more to tell.  Playing CoX. Having fun.  Booyah.

Viz other games … well, never signed up for DCUO after doing the beta stuff — bright and shiny but annoying non-instanced missions and overly combat-oriented.  Haven’t done any STO in ages, either — it didn’t float Margie’s boat, and ultimately felt too repetitive (though what it was repeating was rather cool).

We’re pretty much a CoX shop these days.  And, for the time we have to spend, that’s not a bad thing.

Wherein Dave tries to demonstrate that he is, in fact, not just a Twitter bot

Yeah, Blog of Heroes hasn’t been getting a lot of love lately.  But at least that annoying auto-playing CoH trailer got finally pushed off the front page …

Things have been uber-busy the last month or two.  November was pretty much sucked up with NaNoWriMo — after hitting my 2K words, I had no energy for gaming.  December, thus far, has been mostly holiday prep, but Margie and I did get some CoH in over the weekend — mostly taking some of our newly-arrived Praetorians through their low-20 adventures, evil twins, all of that.

I19 is out, of course, alas right about when I couldn’t talk about it at length (esp. having been in closed beta).  There’s just a whole bunch of nice QoL improvements, from trains that run everywhere (and tell you about where you’re going) to being able to sign out without logging off (though it’s a kludgy implementation, and buggy to boot).

Over on the DCUO front, various beta keys are being given away, etc. and so forth.  Not that I would, theoretically, have any time to be playing with that, either …

CoX: Issue 19 goes into Open Beta

I actually got an invite to the Closed Beta (I presume the NDA on that is over), but only had limited time to play with it.  Now that the beta is open, some highlights to look forward to (below abridged from the official I19 page):

*     *     *

The Alpha Slot

Issue 19 unveils the long-awaited Alpha Slot*, the first part of the new Incarnate* system that gives high-level characters access to new powers and challenges. Unlocking the Alpha Slot is no easy task. Players must first learn what it means to exceed the definition of Hero or Villain to become an Incarnate. Mender Ramiel in Ouroboros guides players on this journey.

Note: you gotta have Ouroboros access.  If you don’t, you need to get it.

We did some of these missions (Psi-clone and Amorpha ride again!). They were fun enough, though it took me a while to get back into the Level 50 power set for him.

Two New Task Forces

Challenges already await new Incarnates. The Praetorians have begun their invasion of Primal Earth. Protecting Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ from such overwhelming forces requires the greatest Heroes and Villains (as well as Rogues and Vigilantes) to work together. Two familiar faces will help in stopping the invasion: Apex and Tin Mage.

Didn’t play these, but they looked fun.

Praetoria Zone Events*

Live events in Praetoria in which your Resistance or Loyalist character can participate:

Good to add more content to Praetoria.

Fitness Pool Powers are Inherent

Fitness Pool powers are now inherent powers granted to all new and existing characters starting from Level 2. All characters will be granted Swift, Hurdle, Health, and Stamina. These powers can be slotted and will accept the appropriate Enhancements.

Existing characters with these powers selected via Pool Powers will be able to gain the powers they have not previously taken via the normal leveling process.  They will not gain access to any of the Inherent fitness powers until they Respec.

Upon using a Respec, the Fitness pool will not be selectable by the character and all 4 powers will be granted as Inherent Powers at level 2.  This prevents issues with lost enhancements or slot allocation errors.

I didn’t roll up any new toons under the Beta, so I don’t have a sense yet as to how much difference these inherents make.  I suspect they will scale down significantly, which will must mean a faster improvement curve up to where they were previously available.  Which is fine — convenient without being game-breaking.

Alternate Power Animations

Now players can customize the animation for some characters’ powers. Shoot a Psychic Blast or even launch a Fire Breath from your character’s hands. Hurl an attack from one or both hands. Select the animations and customize how a character fires off its powers at any Tailor.

The following powers have alternate animation choices:

Primary Sets: Dark Blast, Electric Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Radiation Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Sonic Attack, Mind Control.

Secondary Sets or Powers: Psionic Assault, Sonic Resonance, Icy Assault, Fiery Assault, Mental Manipulation, Energy Assault, Electricity Manipulation, Integration.

I’d love to see some alternatives to the Fire and Ice blades, personally, but these are all nice features.  I’ve never liked Fire Breath — except for the one toon (Torchielle) that used it a lot and for whom it made some sense.

Merged Monorails and Ferries: The Transit Authorities in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have made major improvements to the monorail and ferry system by merging their respective routes. All monorails can now travel to every monorail station on the Green and Yellow Line, while all ferries can now travel to every ferry station in the Rogue Isles.

This is very nice.  Being able to get to either end of Steel, regardless of where you are, or even to Atlas, even if you’ve already fired off one of the teleport powers (or if you’re not near a base) is all good.

One thing I really like about CoX (at least as a vet — I might feel different as a newbie) is that over time they have really gotten rid of the movement problem.  I remember the old days of jogging everywhere, at least until sometime in Steel.  Now, between jet packs and veteran teleports and auction house teleports and earlier access to travel powers and the enhanced trains and base teleports and Ouroborous … you can get to anywhere pretty darned quickly, pretty darned soon.

(Except the back corners of IP.  Lordy, I hate that zone.)

The other thing not mentioned here is that the trains all give you a zone level for each of the stops.  Looking for action in your level, or not sure if it’s safe yet to bop around in Talos? The trains are your guide.

*     *     *

A few other patch note items not included above:

  • Taking a cue from Praetoria, Nurses have been brought in to hospitals across Paragon City and the Rogue Isles to provide low-level inspiration to recently defeated players

Yes! Stock up on rezzes (or heals, or  break-frees, or whatever) after that darned defeat without having to find a contact to run back to. Huzzah!

  • Mobile hospital areas (similar the Hollows) have been added to Hazard and Trial zones across Paragon City and the Rogue Isles so that defeated players will respawn within the same zone

Task Force players will be infinitely grateful.

Players may now log out to character select.

  • Menu -> Quit will now give the option to quit to Login Screen, Character Select, or Desktop.

Yes!  Having to login all the time to swap between toons was always silly.

Further on the monorails, etc.:

  • Paragon City
    • Green and Yellow Line are now one monorail line. Players can access any zone with a monorail station from any other station. Steel Canyon and Skyway City have two stops.
    • Container ships to Striga Isle will now also connect between Talos Island and Independence Port.

A minor convenience on the container ship, but still nice.

  • The monorail window will now provide a notification next to a stop name if you have an available missions in that zone
  • The monorail line will now place missions that require players to board a train at the top of the window and sets these mission destinations off from all other stops

    • Both handy.

    Overall, good stuff here.  I’m accumulating some stuff I want to play, esp. once NaNoWriMo is over.  I19 isn’t as huge a deal as some issues, but it’s a worthwhile enhancement to the game.

    Info on the Test server here.

    CoX: I19 Overview

    While not quite as whiz-bang as some expansions, I19 for CoX looks like it will have some fine features:

    From the official overview page (abridged):

    The Alpha Slot

    Issue 19 unveils the long-awaited Alpha Slot*, the first part of the new Incarnate* system that gives high-level characters access to new powers and challenges.

    [All the asterisked items require Going Rogue.  Which is kind of interesting, though I understand it from the perspective of the Praetorian activity they have tied into it.  Still, saying that you need GR in order to enhance your Level 50 will probably draw some fire.]

    Unlocking the Alpha Slot is no easy task. Players must first learn what it means to exceed the definition of Hero or Villain to become an Incarnate. Mender Ramiel in Ouroboros guides players on this journey.

    [From what I’ve read on the boards, there will be opportunities for soloists and small-groups (vs TF-sized groups) to do this.]

    Two New Task Forces

    Challenges already await new Incarnates. The Praetorians have begun their invasion of Primal Earth. Protecting Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ from such overwhelming forces requires the greatest Heroes and Villains (as well as Rogues and Vigilantes) to work together. Two familiar faces will help in stopping the invasion: Apex and Tin Mage.

    [It’s using the Praetorian invasion (great idea) that drives the GR requirement.]

    New Auras

    Issue 19 includes two free auras for all City of Heroes players. These auras are customizable.

    Fireflies – Your character can be surrounded by glowing, tintable fireflies.

    Snow – Celebrate winter and be showered by snow.

    [Auras are always nice.]

    Praetoria Zone Events*

    Live events in Praetoria in which your Resistance or Loyalist character can participate:

    [Okay, it took me a minute to realize that these are like the Events on the Hero and Villain side — Rikti invasions and Zombies and Ghost Ship and so forth. Good — Praetoria needed these.]

    The Protest (Nova Praetoria): The angry citizens of Praetoria are staging a protest in Nova Praetoria. Will you join them or shut them down?

    Syndicate Takedown (Imperial City): The PPD has found a cell of the Syndicate in the Agilecorp building. The two forces are at a standoff at the base of the building. If you hurry you can capture one of the Syndicate’s leaders.

    The Great Escape (Neutropolis): One of the Failed Experiments has remained lucid and sane, and appears to have the ability to influence other Ghouls. Informants say he is eager to aid the Resistance in its war against the regime. Will you aid him in his escape? Or will you hunt him down now that he has escaped?

    [And now for the announcement everyone’s been waiting for …]

    Fitness Pool Powers are Inherent

    Fitness Pool powers are now inherent powers granted to all new and existing characters starting from Level 2. All characters will be granted Swift, Hurdle, Health, and Stamina. These powers can be slotted and will accept the appropriate Enhancements.

    Existing characters with these powers selected via Pool Powers will be able to gain the powers they have not previously taken via the normal leveling process.  They will not gain access to any of the Inherent fitness powers until they Respec.

    Upon using a Respec, the Fitness pool will not be selectable by the character and all 4 powers will be granted as Inherent Powers at level 2.  This prevents issues with lost enhancements or slot allocation errors.

    [I am guessing, of course, that everyone will get a Freespec with I19, just for this reason.

    By the way, every Guide and Power Tracking Tool just shattered into a zillion pieces.

    By the way, this is now TEH AWESOME.  Unless they scale back dramatically what the powers do without slotting (or maybe for level) to make up for the fact that everyone now is regenning Health and Endurance faster, running faster, and jumping further.]

    Alternate Power Animations

    Now players can customize the animation for some characters’ powers. Shoot a Psychic Blast or even launch a Fire Breath from your character’s hands. Hurl an attack from one or both hands. Select the animations and customize how a character fires off its powers at any Tailor.

    [Another “minor” change, but still very cool. Except for my dragon character, the whole “fire breath” thing always seemed stupid.]

    The following powers have alternate animation choices:

    Primary Sets: Dark Blast, Electric Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Radiation Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Sonic Attack, Mind Control.

    Secondary Sets or Powers: Psionic Assault, Sonic Resonance, Icy Assault, Fiery Assault, Mental Manipulation, Energy Assault, Electricity Manipulation, Integration.

    [If only we could get alternate forms for the various blades.  Never have liked the Fire blade powers.]

    Primal Earth Characters Can Enter Praetoria

    Non-Praetorians can journey to Praetoria* through Pocket D.

    [Interesting. I wonder how the locals react.  And I guess this means that Praetorians can return.  Also, aside from touring, why would anyone go there — will there be missions that non-Praetorians can hook into, even if they are not immediately Resistance or Loyalist?  And how do they get out again (and is that route available to Praetorians)?]

    More Tip and Morality Missions

    All City of Heroes characters can play and enjoy more Tip missions, while City of Heroes Going Rogue™ characters can choose from more missions* that impact a character’s alignment.

    Other Enhancements

    New Badges: We’ve added new Exploration badges for hazard zones.

    Merged Monorails and Ferries: The Transit Authorities in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have made major improvements to the monorail and ferry system by merging their respective routes. All monorails can now travel to every monorail station on the Green and Yellow Line, while all ferries can now travel to every ferry station in the Rogue Isles.

    [That’s … I think that’s very cool.  Certainly, once, I would have thought it fabulous.  As it is now, though, it sort of makes any sort of street activity even less necessary than it once was, especially coupled with all the teleporting powers (Pocket D, Base Teleport, Action House teleport, the O, etc.).]

    [Overall, a nice set of QoLs for I19, unless you’re dying for Level 50 TFs.  Not a lot for non-GR owners.  Not a huge amount of there there, but I’ll take it with a smile.]