Category: City of Heroes

CoX: Late News from PAX on I19, I20

Margie was poking around the Boards, and ran across some threads from PAX (around 9/4 or 9/5), which made us guh-WHUBBLE?

The first and biggest is that, in I19 (Fall 2010):

  • The Fitness Pool becomes inherent (like Sprint, Rest), available at levels 1 or 2.
  • You can add up to 5 more slots.
  • Existing characters can respec … but (per Castle) “will only get the Inherent Fitness powers if they do not have any of them in their build. Conversely, if you don’t you get them as Inherents and never get the option to select them as pool powers.”  Which I think means that existing characters get a little bit screwed in terms of power slots, but … c’est la vie.

Wow.

So for new characters, Swift, Hurdle, Health, and FITNESS will be inherent, from (nearly) ground zero?

On the one hand, that’s like INCREDIBLY AWESOME because we’ll all be faster, jumpier, healthier, and endurancier!  Because … woot!

On the other hand, I have to think that we’re going to see some balancing as to what these powers actually do.

It makes these powers go from nearly-always-necessary to … “Well, when do I want to slot them, vs. other things?”  Sort of like the Veteran early-travel-power scenario.  It certainly opens up a wider variety of builds.

Consensus in the threads is that it won’t actually make things easier, but make things faster (no pausing between melees to build up the blue bar, or unwanted End Red slotting early days).

We’ll see.  But … damn.

Other things tweeted (and I’m sure there’s been subsequent news, so feel free to clue me in in my utter cluelessness.

  1. Issue 19 will be called “Alpha Strike”
  2. Released in Fall 2010
  3. Alpha Incarnate slot which will be story driven and ties to the game lore
  4. ‘Alpha Strike’ task force for Alpha enabled characters – Apex is the contact
  5. Primal earth characters can enter Praetoria
  6. More tip missions
  7. Incarnate content will be included in every issue
  8. Issue 20 closed beta starts in a week (with signed NDA) [Hmmm … early and with a signed NDA? wonder what that’s about?]
  9. Mission maps will get a minor update
  10. Changing character without logging out has not been implemented and has no timeline
  11. ‘Will Paragon and Rogue Isles get yellow targets?’ ‘Probably not but maybe’
  12. No new news on hero/villain coalitions or base access for tourists
  13. No new news on personal bases, but they are talking about it
  14. Old zones may see an update to make them look nicer
  15. There will be ‘casual paths and new features’
  16. They have been looking into animated facial features and fingers but it won’t be any time soon
  17. Alternate animations might be coming in a bit
  18. Praetorian Epic ATs may be coming
  19. They are working on updating old costumes and new costume sets but Sexy Jay is apparently overwhelmed
  20. Tip missions will be getting a bit of a tone update
  21. They have looked at taking down the Paragon war walls but won’t happen anytime soon
  22. ‘Will hero get more arachnos missions in Paragon?’ ‘Yes we can do that’
  23. ‘Will we get and automatic team finder? Maybe?’ (I’m not sure who said what here)
  24. Cross server teaming exists on a priority list no more details
  25. ‘Are power pools going to be expanded?’ ‘It’s been discussed but no timeline’
  26. Power pool customization is on the radar but not a priority
  27. Ouroborus mission to explore what happened to Dark Astoria? Very possible to do; may happen
  28. So, 75% (approx) of the player base have made Praetorians. That’s pretty good. It means GR has sold well.

It also appears that shifting  Villains to Heroes has been much more popular than shifting Heroes to Villains.  I’m unsure if that’s a content-preference thing, or an inherent morality thing.

So this was all in the PAX notes, but except for a couple of very early Castle comments, there hasn’t been much more from the Devs, just lots of discussing / kvetching from the boards.

If nothing else, the changes in I19 (especially the Fitness ones) will render a lot more Players Guides obsolete.

CoX: Reflections and Shadows

I’m including this picture here for two reasons. First, I’m very pleased with how Eliza Dee (my Power Girl / Galatea-inspired Crusader) has worked out, costume-wise.

Second, look at the puddle (click on the pic for the full effect). Wavy puddles of water, with distorted reflections. The new Ultra Graphics mode is awesome in a dozen subtle and obvious fashions.

Okay, here are two more — not quite so impressive, but still cool.  Reflective windows. Flying shadows.  Nothing that’s necessary, but stuff that adds verisimilitude.

I like.

CoX: The Signs of Praetoria

One of the cool things about Praetoria is its constant propaganda war between the Loyalists (well, Cole and his government) and the Resistance.

Cole’s team goes for lots of big, Soviet-style posters festooning buildings and billboards.

Ms. Crackle can see propaganda posters wherever she looks.
"Who Is One of THEM?" Be sure and report all disloyal or suspicious activity! (I think I saw this poster on the train the other day.)
"Who Is One of THEM?" Many of the posters have portrait and landscape orientations.
"United with One Voice, Our Enemy Shall Know Us and Be Afraid." A happy family, protected from Hamidon by the sonic barriers that Cole developed.
"Hero" - the Emperor Cole. Lots of variations on this post around the city.
A variation on the full Cole poster: "Our Guardian"
"The Sun Never Sets on Praetoria" - That's Cole's Tower in the middle. Note the shadows from the overhead lamps to illuminate the sign at night.
"The Sun Never Sets on Praetoria" - with the actual Cole's Tower in the background. It's visible from all the zones in the city.
"Unity" - Cole, his tower, and the symbolic star of the regime
"Join Powers Division" - Cole's super-powered enforcers, led by "Praetor White" (a/k/a Marauder, or, on Primal Earth, Back Alley Brawler)
"Enriche - "It'll Make You Happier!" - the only adverts in town are for Enriche. Creeeeepy ...
Kiosk-style ads for Enriche and the Powers Division

The Resistance relies a lot more on graffiti and stencils down in the sewer system. I haven’t gotten as many of these as I’d like.

"This is the Cage, and You're the Guinea Pig"
Resistance graffiti - Tyrant-and-Crossbones
I LOVE the Loyalist Sheep ...

The propaganda art of Praetoria is not only decorative (both nicely crafted and even including some lovely textural details), but it tells a story. A serious graphic art win, so far as I’m concerned.

Been a few years since I went to this sort of trouble

Emperor Cole and Eliza Dee

I’ve remained familiar and comfortable enough with the various ATs I usually play to just sort of go with the flow.  But I’ve never (well, not recently) done a Brute (SS/WP) before like Eliza Dee.

So I broke down today and found an online CoX toon planner (CoHPlanner) to lay out where I want her to go through at least Level 20.

CoHPlanner is pretty simple to use, and since what I’m interested in charting out is basic power choices and slots (and not which enhancement sets I’m going to build/buy, etc.), it does the job just fine.  And now when we ding, I won’t have to worry that I’m completely forgetting about a power I really, really wanted.

I used to use various planning and build software on all my toons.  Of late, I’ve not worried about it.  It’s kind of interesting to be back into doing that.

(Side note: It’s very cool that I have the Vet award that lets me take my main travel power at 6, rather than 14. On the other hand, it makes the rest of the build feel like it’s a tick or two behind.)

(Side  note 2: Praetoria is pretty damned flat. Aside from some minor jumping downs along the river bank, there’s none of the multi-story retaining walls or fortifications that are so characteristic of Paragon or the Rogue Isles. That’s kind of nice.)

CoX: No more Mr. Nice Guys

Or Ms. Nice Guys, since so far our Praetorians have all been female.

Last night we wrapped up the Responsibility Loyalist arc with Ms. Crackle and Positive Force.  The last mish with Inspector Kang felt a bit short (or shorter than I expected), before heading off to be a Praetorian Ambassador of Good Will to the folks on Primal Earth.

(It is interesting the differences and parallels in the motivations for sending Responsibility Loyalists vs. Warden Resistance toons over to Primal Earth, not to mention variations in the “what you can expect” briefings you get before you go.)

The send-off at the portal is similar — chatting with some (surviving) former colleagues and comrades before deciding on whether to head to Paragon City or Rogue Isles.  For both of the “good guy” (caring about the People) series we run, the strong suggestion has been Paragon; I’m presuming the opposite will be true for “bad guy” (out for our jollies) folks we run for the next two series.

The Responsibility Loyalist arc ends with an interesting conversation (no spoilers) that highlights the limitations of CoX’s new (very cool) multi-path dialog trees.  By simulating what responses you’re giving (even if providing you with multiple scripted answers to give), the sense of “railroading” dialog sometimes seems even greater than just clicking on an Accept button. I didn’t feel that any of the dialog I was choosing between in that final exchange was what Ms. Crackle would have said.

Anyway, that’s another pair back in Paragon City.  We’ve been adding them to our SG already there (one reason we chose the Victory server), even though that makes them “Animaniacs” (sigh), but it does give them a base.  And if the Loyalists and the Resistance end up running across each other, they’ve agreed to look in the opposite directions.  After all, it’s all for the People of Praetoria.

Next up, our Crusader Resistance pair (otherwise known as “Anarchy for Fun and Channeling of Anger”).  I’ve rolled up yet another rendition of Eliza Dee (my Power Girl / Galatea knock-off, 4th edition), a Super-Strength / Willpower Brute.  Margie put together Fragile Package (mysterious Clockwork figure), a Rad/Kin Corruptor.  While it’s obviously way too early to really tell, the first few mishes we finally ran (after much costume work) went pretty smoothly.

(It’s also a nice change of pace for us.  I’m usually the ranged/support toon — Controller, Blaster, Defender, etc. — with Margie giving or taking the up-close punches.  We’re changing that around a bit with this pair.  We’ll see how that works.)

City of Rogues – bits and bobs (Part 3)

Well, we basically took up our Labor Day weekend playing CoX — which was some pretty fun together-time for me and Margie.  One last round of random comments on the Going Rogue supplement:

  1. Our first duo, Golden Judgment and Velorio, hit Level 20 and departed for Paragon City.  We decided at that point to shift over to another duo we’d gotten up to 5, Margie’s Positive Force (Kin/Elec Brute) and my Ms. Crackle (Elec/Storm Controller).  We ended up this evening at 18, well into various story lines in Neutropolis, and quite happy with how the duo plays.
  2. Timed missions are interesting in GR.  Unlike “Do X. You have 45 minutes.” types of missions, instead you get “Do X. Additional security will arrive in 5 minutes.”  Sometimes that must means running at full tilt in the mission map to X, then finding your way back out. Other times it means just living with the wave attacks of bad guys that happen with the timer goes off.  The nice thing  is that you don’t Fail the mission by losing the timer; instead, it just becomes more difficult.  (I think in some cases, that’s more to add tension to the situation; some of those missions simply cannot be done in the time alloted, unless you have a stealth power.)
  3. Every first mission from a contact you have to return to that contact (with some very rare psychic exceptions).  After that, you get the person’s cell phone for the next mission in the arc.  When I think back to early days in CoH when you never got to call the mission contact, but always had to trot back across the zone (or two or three) to report in … yeesh.
  4. Everything in GR is an arc.  Kudos to the CoX team for not throwing a bunch of random one- or two-offs as starting content.  Level progression is steady, and story interest is high.  Randomized missions, a la Newspaper/Police Band stuff, can be added in later supplements.
  5. GR buildings have names.  Time to go visit Mr. Yin?  You can find him at the Yin Technologies building, not some random structure in the city.
  6. GR has a large number of cut scenes. Particularly nice, your character shows up in several of them.
  7. I still resist the idea that it’s all about a binary choice of SIDES.  There are enough moral gray areas in some of the decisions to be made that stepping over the line here or there shouldn’t brand you as an automatic hero to your new side, or an automatic enemy to the other.
  8. That said, it’s odd that the consequences of being known as Resistance (i.e., you no longer have the combo to the Loyalist Underground area, nor do you get Loyalist missions) doesn’t mean that you get auto-attacked by PPD (nor vice-versa for being known as  a Loyalist).  That might have to change if they expand the level cap in GR beyond 20, since that’s sort of the Big Final Decision Point.
  9. There are no Zone Alerts in Praetoria.  Zone camping areas seem to be smaller in number, too.  On the other hand, it’s very cool that it’s all a huge 3-zone city, and that you can actually either take the train or fly from one end to the other.  No war walls or island barriers.  Really, it’s not a significant difference technically, but it has a different feel.  You can see Cole’s tower in Nova Praetoria, all the way across in Neutropia.
  10. Missions are nicely clustered in your neighborhood.  No need to go flying to hell and gone for a given mission (unless you need to go back and sell, or visit the one auction point and invention building in Praetoria).
  11. Along those lines, the Resistance has a way better access to commerce.  Their Underground lair in Imperial City has an auction point and a vendor in spitting distance from each other, and the exit point is just down the street from the invention site.  Loyalists have to fly back and forth across People’s Park to do the triangle trade of Auction / Vendor / Invention.

Good stuff.  As much as I want to see new content, I really hope they retrofit some of the GR mechanisms back into the old CoH stuff.

CoX: Dual Pistols in review

Golden Judgment (the Tank) and Velorio (the Dual Pistols Blaster)

This isn’t going to be any detailed guide to the Dual Pistols power — more scribbling down my own notes for next time with Dual Pistols.  I ran Velorio through Going Rogue up to 20 with the set.

As a set, DP is lovely.  The animations (some of which vary from use to use of a given power) are lovely.  Sometimes a bit much (throwing around ammo in all directions seems wasteful, vs. a flame blaster’s AoE attack), but overall quite nice, from the fancy-twirling Dual Wield, to the deliberately lethal Executioner’s Shot.

The biggest nuance with the power set is Swap Ammo.  You can, in theory (and, perhaps, for RP) go without the power.  Velorio  didn’t, which meant I had to decide in any given combat (or even during it, since it’s a quick swap) between:

  • Basic bullets:  baseline Lethal damage, chance of knockback/down.  The knockback chance made it less attractive to me, duoing with a Tank.  For a soloist — or someone who wants basic bullets for their own character’s artistic integrity — it’s fine.
  • Cryo bullets:  partial Cold damage, +slow.  I believe the damage is a little less than basic bullets. I tended to use these when we were being mobbed by more powerful opponents — slowing their attacks relative to us was a force multiplier.
  • Incendiary bullets:  partial Fire damage, DoT.  Net-net, a higher damage set, albeit with DoT.  I tended to use this when we were plowing through lower-level types.
  • Chemical bullets:  partial Toxic damage, damage debuff.  I tended to use these when going up against a boss — anything to lessen the damage the Tank was having to stand up to would keep my delicate little Blaster in better health.

There’s a lot I haven’t played with in the set — I skipped the first quickie power, as well as Suppressive Fire, and, at level 20, hadn’t hit my snipe yet, etc.  But it’s nicely done.  I enjoyed it.

City of Rogues – bits and bobs (Part 2)

Played Going Rogue most of the day yesterday.  We got our first duo through the Level 20 Content — Margie’s Golden Judgement (Elec/Shield Tank) and my Velorio (Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster), running as Wardens (“good” Resistance).

I have to say the justification for the transition from Praetoria to “Primal Earth” was a bit silly (“We’re going to insert you into Earth society to demonstrate that not all Praetorians are bad guys out to conquer the world, so that the folks there will help us against Emperor Cole”), but the actual execution of it was nice, including the choice of going to Paragon City or the Rogue Isles.  (I would have liked to have been a “hero” in RI, but that’s not an option provided.)

It will be interesting to see what bits of the Praetorian storyline carry over into Paragon; there’s at least one contact provided that sounds like it’s involved in that.

Anyway the execution was nice, even sentimental.  I look forward to seeing how it’s framed for Loyalists when we get there with our next pair.  I also look forward to returning to Praetoria for future stories.

A few other items:

  1. It took me a while to get the hang of multiple ammos with Dual Pistols.  I have a post coming on that.
  2. Going Rogue is very, very arc-driven (and meta-arc driven).  It’s a much tighter story than CoV, let alone CoH.  It’s the right direction for them to be going.  Question is, can they retrofit some of that into the existing game content?
  3. Had a few problems on some missions with only the person who’s mish it was getting the exposition dump (or dramatic farewell) at the end from the last person you talk to.  Which was okay, since Margie and I play in the same room, but would have been a bit more problematic otherwise.
  4. The final mission we were on was focused on Enriche, the rather creepy, probably mind-controlling soft drink / fortified water that everyone in Praetoria drinks.  Which was fine, except we hadn’t really done any stories related to Enriche.  Not sure if we missed something, or if that’s in other Loyalist/Resistance arcs, but it sort of came out of nowhere.

Going Rogue has clearly perked up my attention in City of Heroes.  How long that will last, going through the different types of characters possible, remains to be seen, but it’s been quite enjoyable so far.

Now to go through the semi-wrenching transition from tank/blaster to scrapper/controller …

City of Rogues – bits and bobs

I’ve been playing a fair amount of the “Going Rogue” world in City of Heroes.  Various random thoughts.

  1. While not “CoH 2,” Going Rogue sets a whole new standard for arc quality and world-building.  I’m almost afraid to run through some of the older CoH bits.  There are few silly, random, Hunt X, Get Y, Do Z cookie-cutter missions.
  2. A huge (but obvious) improvement: increased and randomized mob spawn points.  You know that room (you know, that one) where the opponents are always right there so you come around the corner here and do this and … nope. No more.  Discovering that the bad guys aren’t in the places you remember is remarkably refreshing.
  3. The morality system is fascinating, but is annoyingly nuanced in its presentation, but binary in its results.  It’s got all the irksomeness of those tests “A is like B as [blank] is like C … and you don’t get to  ever argue as to which of the various arguments for the options that could fill in the blank you chose.  So, for example, I am running a Resistance character (Velorio) who faced a decision point where, after much soul-searching, she had to choose to oppose another Resistance person’s effort.  Okay, so a great RP kind of thing.  But the result was not just some concerns amongst my peers, or an evaluation in the cold light of day of what I should have done but … I was immediately labeled Loyalist.  I was able to continue in the Resistance storyline (good thing, since Margie chose differently), but I couldn’t use the Resistance entrance to the Underground, etc.
  4. There are still a few bugs here.  Margie and I went into the final battle of the Penelope Yin arc, and because we were labeled as different allegiances, our ally was always attacking one or the other of us (and we could PvP each other, too).  Made our mission a lot more … interesting.
  5. I love that there are a lot of folks on the street who are potential enemies — but only if you attack them.  That makes a lot more sense than the  opponent-filled streets of Paragon (and a bit more over the similar situation in the Rogue Isles.
  6. Enriche! It’s wonderful! And creepy!
  7. I love that this parallel world not only has Marcus Cole in a parallel role (Spock! With a beard!), but a number of other characters from CoH / CoV — including minor ones suddenly having more prominence.
  8. The various GR arcs are much more interesting than the hand-off between various contacts pointing to various mob types to now fight.  “Now it’s time to go see Fred Smith and fight a bunch of Circle of Thorns opponents.”  There’s real difference in sophistication of the whole thing.  Well done.
  9. Would folks in Dimension X really refer to  another Earth as “Primal Earth”?  Yeah, didn’t think so.

Overall, triffic stuff.  Folks who liked CoH/CoV, but fell away because of the repetitiveness, should really consider some CoGR.

Going Rogue and I18 – A CoX Mini-Review

Fairly short, sweet, and to the point.

I cannot, at this point, imagine rolling up a new character for a while who isn’t starting in the Praetorian “Going Rogue” character.

Part of this is because, frankly, the CoH starting arc is so threadbare and worn that running a new toon through it would be painful. CoV is only slightly less so. Co … hmmmm … is there a convenient TLA (Three-Letter Acronym) for Going Rogue? CoR (City of Rogues)? CoP (that’s Cathedral of Pain)? CoY (City of Yellow)? Anyway, the new material is fresh, which counts for a lot.

Further, it’s so well crafted. There’s a story behind what’s going on. CoH’s early zones are are disparate micro-adventures, roughly introducing various factions and powers but without much intelligence behind them. CoV sets up the whole “Chosen One” theme, but that’s pretty monolithic.

But Going Rogue does a great job of branching adventures, and the whole “choose your morality” thing. In fact, not only is there the whole quest of whether you are a hero / vigilante / villain / rogue thing, but within Praetoria there’s the question of whether you are a Loyalist and Resistance — and even within that, you can have Loyalists who are guardians of the public welfare or just out to be publicity and power hounds, or you can have Resistance who are believers in freedom or are just in it for the anarchy.

It’s a system that puts the RP back into MMORPG.  And it’s very nicely done, supported by a nice cast of characters and a world that is such a melange of cliches (bright utopia that’s actually a tyrannical dystopia except that the rebellion isn’t as wholesome and idealistic as it seems) that it plain old works for purposes of the simulation.

It’s not quite CoH 2, but it’ll do for a while.

A few other notes:

  1. I would spend money for some swag with the Praetorian / Emperor Cole propaganda posters.  They are superb.
  2. I don’t know how I ever raised a Scrapper before the days of having (via vet rewards) two ranged powers and an additional melee power from the get-go.  I know the vet rewards are supposed to be more QoL than game-changing, but, damn, that (and getting an early travel power) rocks.
  3. Have I mentioned lately how much I love how the auction house interface has evolved?  Now if they just put vendors and crafting tables in the auction houses, my crafting joy would be complete.

CoX: Getting in some last I17 action

Since rumor has it that I18 and “Going Rogue” go live Real Soon Now (like … today?), we did a bit of Multiple Mastermind action, bringing our robots and gang members into play on Cimerora and elsewhere.

We actually got our hats handed to us multiple times (and rather dented they were, in fact), due to it being a while since we’d played these toons (Oh, hey, I can put up an impenetrable force bubble when things go pear-shaped, can’t I) and the fact that we were running around at +2 levels, x2 members. Which easily led to multiple purple bosses when our pets exercised their usual lack of discipline.

Still, ’twas fun, and we’re up to 38 with them, so that’s all good.

We’ve been pondering what to start running under the Rogue model, and we’ll probably create new toons to run around Praetoria with.  Not sure with what, though we’ll probably experiment with some of the new power sets.  Margie did some beta of the new setting, and it sounds (and looks) pretty nice.

CoH: Scrappity-scrap-scrap!

Yes, it’s actually news around here when I do some gaming. Last night it was CoH, doing our Lvl 42 scrapper team, Rita & Runt.

Lots of fun, but being at that level means you have a ton of powers and attacks and, aside form it being a button-munching fest, it takes a while to get the attack chains back. Especially when it’s been 300-odd days since you last played that toon …

That all said (and we had fun, and pretty much wiped up anything we went against), I want to comment on the best QoL improvement EVAH:

The changes the Auction Houses.

Yeah, the changes have been around a few issues, but I just want to comment on them: this was the interface we needed when Wentworths came out.  Drag something (enhancement, recipe, salvage) into the auction panel.  If it’s salvage you need for a recipe you have, it warns you. Then you can instantly get, on the same screen, the most recent prices for that piece.  Choose a price, and have at it.  Ditto for making bids on items, with the search line being quick and auto-completing.

None of this is capability that wasn’t available in the original interface, but here it’s actually convenient, quick, and useful.  It’s as close to a joy to use as such an interface could be, and it makes buying and selling stuff (auctionable stuff, at least) as close to painless as possible.

Yeah, having the actual crafting be a separate location is still irksome. Salvage management is annoying. The actual crafting stuff is a distraction (though, ultimately, less so than having to constantly refresh DOs and SOs).  But at least they’ve gotten the auction house interface right, and that’s no small thing.

MMOs, the San Diego Comic-Con, and I

City of Heroes

We sat in on the City of Heroes “Going Rogue” panel, which was mostly interesting for being able to actually see what the various people looked like.  Panelists were Matt Miller (Positron), Melissa Bianco (War Witch), Jesse Caceres (Ghost Falcon), and David Nakayama (Noble Savage)

They went through all the various new features of Going Rogue. They spent a fair amount of time discussing the alignment cycle (Hero becomes Vigilante; Vigilante can become Villain or return to Hero; Villain becomes Rogue; Rogue can become Hero or return to Villain).

Vigilantes or Rogues can visit either Paragon or Rogue Isles, but the intent is not that people “stay” in these transitional forms (even though that means you can GET ALL THE BADGES, except for those that flip between Hero/Villain already).  The incentive to stay (or be) pure is access to custom lounges and extra merits  that give you access to Purple stuff.

It all looked pretty darned cool, and the idea of a new starting zone is very attractive.

The panel was asked by the moderator — Bryan Clayton, the head honcho at Paragon — if they had any comments on the news that NCSoft had registered a trademark for “City of Heroes II”. The panel read off in unison a nicely legalistic disclaimer that said they had no comment but that NCSoft was very proud of the game they had. It was amusing.

One interesting comment  was that Paragon Studios has grown significantly in bodies and funding (such that they are running out of room in their new digs), which is letting them do a lot more stuff than they were able to do in the past.

Margie also hung out multiple times at the NCSoft booth. We submitted some hero screen-caps (Torchielle and Kazima) into a raffle in the hope that they’d be rendered by David Nakayama, who’s the art director on CoX. Alas, they were not drawn (or, thus, drawn), but we had some nice chats with him anyway.

We never did make it to the big NCSoft party the evening it was running; we had Prime Invitations, but since Michelle and Mary were not all that much (or at all) into CoH, it would have been kind of rude to drag them to it (since we were using Mary’s car).

dcuoDC Universe Online

We had a couple of exposures to DCUO over the weekend.  The “big” one was the, well, DCUO panel, which featured a cinematic of the “backstory” for the game universe (as written by Geoff Johns).  Marv Wolfman (who’s doing mission writing) and Mark Hamill (who’s doing the voice of the Joker, natch) were there, too.

I didn’t sit through the full panel, as I had to run off to another line (Margie maybe can relate more).

We also played the game out on the dealer floor — a PvP training scenario in “icon mode” (where you play actual DCU characters), in this case, a battle in the Batcave between Batman and Nightwing vs the Joker and Harley.  It was a bit difficult, mostly because the X-axis on the mouse was reversed (we were promised it would be fixed by release), but I ended up (as Harley) defeating Margie (as Nightwing). Go, me!

The game looked pretty decent, but it was hard to judge too much from the limited exposure.

We did pick up cards for beta keys, though …

Marvel Super-Hero Squad

This is a newly-announced MMO, based on the super-deformed Super-Hero Squad figures.  Margie and Katherine played a bit at the Marvel booth — it looks to be very kid-oriented (think Wizard 101) in design.

The game is all browser-based — no client.

Here’s a trailer:

Overall, a pretty good MMO time at the Con. Not what I went there expecting to focus on, but …

So there was, like, y’know, some actual game being played here

Yes, it’s been a long dry patch.  Well, for me at least.  Margie’s been busy as a bee playing CoX, as well as [REDACTED DUE TO SOMETHING WE CAN’T TALK ABOUT OR WRITE ABOUT OR EVEN HINT AT, REALLY].

Still, on Wednesday night, we ended up going in and playing some CoX, and  I’ll admit I was totally embarrassed at some of the oohing and aahing I made at the New, Improve, Old-to-the-Rest-of-You Auction House interface. Eleventy-zillion percent better.

We ran around with Araware and Fazenda, had a fun time, leveled to 31, looked at the Storm Knights roster and were a bit sad, then whomped on bad guys.

Cue the trials and travails with my laptop.  Timing is everything. Rrg.

Sunday afternoon,  we spent a goodly chunk of time playing our first STO in a long time. (I think we didn’t play during any of Season 1.1, and now it’s 1.2, crikey!)  Finished the City on the Edge of Never arc (which was much easier in a duo than soloing), got up to LC4, good times had by all, etc.

Nothing wild or exciting or mind-bending (though getting eleventy-zillion accolades when we signed onto STO was kind of trippy).  Just some gaming fun.  About time.

Transitions

I just came the the realization that I have next to zero interest in ever playing Champions Online again. Which ticks me off to no end since (as I’ve said a dozen times) there are so many things about the game I like. I just find the overall experience an awful, not-terribly-fun grind.

On the other hand, we put in our pre-orders for City of Heroes‘ “Going Rogue” expansion, which in theory means we immediately get Dual Pistols to play with. Woot!

(Interestingly enough, as I was watching the DP trailer, it occurred to me that the power just looks a bit goofy, given that in CoX animation, the bad guys aren’t being immediately knocked back / down / dead in in all directions due to the shooting. I’m not sure why that feels more wrong for pistols than for, say, fireballs, but it does.

So I still need to get onto CoX and do my server transfers before they (finally) stop extending the free server transfer service.

On the gripping hand, I’m still busy playing Star Trek Online whenever time permits, so no time for supers.

CoX: I17 news up

Wanted to comment more fully on the new CoX I17 stuff coming out Real Soon Now (based on the overview page).

Features

Ultra Mode

Ultra Mode includes a superior graphics rendering process for players who have higher-end graphic cards. Each feature can be enabled or disabled in the graphics menu options and will be scalable. Ultra Mode works on both Macs and PCs. In specific, it offers dynamic shadows, screen-space ambient occlusion, and dynamic environment reflections (including planar reflections and environment mapping of reflective surfaces).

I’ll be very curious to see how much of this will run on my and Margie’s newer machines.

Epic Archetypes Unlocked at Level 20

Previously, you had to have at least one character at level 50 to make an epic archetype character. No more! Now you can create an epic archetype character as long as you have any one character at level 20 or higher.

A sign of the aging game, perhaps, but also worthwhile.  I guess now I can make a VEAT (since I already had access to Kheldians).

Animated Tails

No more tails lying about like dead weight! You will now be able to select tail body parts that will react to your movement and have a swaying or swishing idle animation mode. You will need to go to a tailor to upgrade to the animated version.

Yes!  Excellent!  (And will they be free upgrades? No matter — I’m swimming in Tailor Tokens.)

Content

New Story Arcs: Issue 17: Dark Mirror features two new Hero and two new Villain story arcs for levels 20-30. Each of these story arcs has four missions, and the story arcs highlight the Dark Mirror’s sinister new enemy. Acquire the first Hero story arc in Talos Island, and the first Villain arc in Sharkhead Isle.

A good “sweet spot” area for some new content.

Silver Mantis Strike Force Update: The Silver Mantis Strike Force will now be available to all Villains, not just supergroups. You now can access the Silver Mantis Strike Force via Silver Mantis, located in Sharkhead Isle. You can also run this Task Force from your supergroup computer.

Interesting.  And, it makes me think, a sign of the slow social decay of CoX. How many people are active in SGs any more?

Positron Task Force Update: This Task Force has been split into two halves and dramatically upgraded and updated to ramp up the fun. The final battle of the Task Force takes place in the Faultline Dam and incorporates the new Dark Mirror enemy.

Positron TF?  Wow, that brings back some memories.  Sounds like it’s bringing the TF back to what was originally intended, plot and division-wise.  Nice.

New Badges: Along with adding badges for 500 Badges Earned, 750 Badges Earned, and 1,000 Badges Earned, we are adding new exploration badges to city zones, almost doubling the number of exploration badges. You can learn new Accolades for finding all of the exploration badges in each city zone.

Um … okay.  Those who like those sorts of things will find them the sorts of things they like.

New Player Emotes: We’ll let you know more about the new emotes soon.

Ditto.

Quality of Life Improvements

Craftable Temporary Powers: You will now have a much cleaner and more consistent way of finding and crafting temporary powers.

Never found much use for craftable temp powers.

Increased Mission Count: You can now have seven active missions (previously three).

Now that’s pretty interesting.  Honestly, I’ve never felt much need for more than three, especially these days, and even with 3 it’s easy to end up with stale mishes.  Expanding to seven feels more like a copy-cat move than something all that worthwhile.

Show Last Objective: This UI improvement lets you find your last objective on a mission map, making it easier to find something you’ve missed.

THANK YOU, LORD!  Best QoL Improvement EVAH.

Auction House: The UI gives you new options for sorting search results, your Auction House inventory is now separated by clearly marked tabs based on the item’s status, the Auction House text entry box now autocompletes, and a single click on a recipe displays all salvage needed for that recipe.

I’ll have to play with it, but any improvement to the auction system is a good idea.

In-Game E-mail: You can now use in-game e-mails to send Influence/Infamy to your own characters or to other players’ characters via in-game e-mails. (You still cannot send Influence, Infamy, or items from a Hero to a Villain or vice versa.)

About time.

Mission Architect Improvements

Experience: You can now handpick the powers for custom enemies and still receive experience for them (within game balance limits).

New Maps: We have added approximately 20 new unique maps.

Giant Monsters: You can now add giant monsters to some outdoor maps.

Exit Mission on Complete: You can now specify that players have to leave the mission manually on completion.

Escort Missions: “Lead to place” technology allows you more control over escort objectives.

All sound useful for those who do MA content. Though the idea of adding Giant Monsters … (Can we create the Good Old Days at Portal Corp …?)

Overall, sounds like quite a nice issue, especially with the Going Rogue around the corner.

CoX I17 ups the ante

This CoX post shows what the new “Ultra Mode” graphics will look like. And it is damned beautiful. I have no idea whether my machine will support it but, damn — that’s pretty.

Other I17 (“Dark Mirror”) announcements:

• New badges, new missions and new player emotes
• Epic Archetypes now available at level 20
• Improvements and additions to Mission Architect
• Enhancements to UI and game systems

All of which sounds nice (if non-specific) — though some folks are apparently having conniptions about EATs being available at 20.  “I fought my way to 50! Now you’re cheapening that effort by making the available at 20!”  (I assume that’s what it means — I haven’t seen a Redname confirming what all that means).  I guess it’s an acknowledgment that a lot of the CoX population is veteran, not newbies, so enough people have a lvl 50 that it’s not worth holding that out as a carrot any more.

I don’t see it as a cheapening of lvl 50.  I’m kinda glad I’ll be able to access the VEATs (having not 50ed any Villains), but I don’t feel like anyone has “stolen” Kheldians from me for my various lvl 50 Heroes (I’ve yet to really get the swing of Squids, anyway).

On the other hand, it sounds like there’s not a lot of content to I17 (which makes sense, if the content folks are all hammering out Going Rogue, but is still a little disappointing).

Remember Going Rogue? That’s right, how could you forget? Well, you have the opportunity to get access to the Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning power sets in March and April, if you pre purchase City of Heroes Going Rogue (MSRP $29.99 USD)!

Ooooh.  Well, that sounds pretty keen. Dual Pistols for the win!

You will also be able to get your hands on an exclusive item pack if you get the City of Heroes Going Rogue: Complete Collection (MSRP $39.99 USD), that will be available when Going Rogue releases in July! What’s in that item pack, you ask? Well, a few nifty things like:

• Alpha- and Omega-themed auras
• Alpha and Omega themed costumed sets
• Four stance emotes
• The Shadowy Presence invisibility power

Hmmm.  Not sure any of those are worth the extra $10.

But, overall — good stuff.

CoX: Masterminding Made Easier

I’d read they were doing this, but hadn’t been on with my MM in so long I’d forgotten.  Mastermind pets now zone into missions with you, so you don’t have to spend the first five minutes of each mission summoning and buffing your crew.

It’s a small thing, but a big thing at the same time.  Makes playing a MM a lot more fun.

I did notice that pet ownership seemed a bit buggy last night — in a couple of chases in one mission, pets didn’t handle elevators well, or suddenly stopped responding.  I had one case where my pets followed me across a zone, but stopped being “mine” — I saw just generic names, they didn’t indicate as belonging to me, and I couldn’t command them (“You have no pets”).  But they kept following me, and at the next zone, all the ownership was restored.

Weird — but worth it, just to have them zone in painlessly.

Gameplay with our MM duo — Gifted Kid (FF/Robots) and Special Educator (Dark/Gang) — remains a hell of a lot of fun.  And now we can get into the fun even faster.

CoX: Okay, now I’ve hit 5 years

Not sure what the precise date issue was, but I got my 5 Year / 60 Month “City Traveller” badge this evening.

Which is kind of a cool QoL feature, basically letting you take at Lvl 6 a main Travel Power without the pre-req pool power. E.g., you can now take Fly without taking Hover or Aerial Assault. I suspect this will be most helpful for Fly and TP; most Super-Speed folks use Hasten as well (as do most supers, regardless of travel power), and Combat Jump is a reasonable power on its own, even if you’re angling for Super-Jump.