Category: MMO

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.

Giving voice to the DC Universe

This is probably old news to many, but Sony got a pretty damned impressive lineup of voice talent for DCUO.

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announced today that two of animation’s most well-known talents lead a triple-A cast of voice actors in providing their skills for the upcoming online action game, DC Universe™ Online. Mark Hamill (Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: The Animated Series) will once again voice The Joker, while Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, Batman: Arkham Asylum) brings to life everyone’s favorite dark knight, Batman.

This is full of win, of course.  Hamill is a splendid Joker, and Conroy is the modern voice of Batman (even Diedrich Bader emulates him in BBatB).

But equally cool are some of the other voices (which haven’t gotten as much publicity):

  • Adam Baldwin as Superman: I’d prefer Tim Daly, but Baldwin’s pretty solid.
  • Gina Torres as Wonder Woman: Good pick.
  • James Marsters as Lex Luthor: Again, I’d prefer Clancy Brown, but Marsters works, too.

Wow. That makes it look like a Joss Whedon production doesn’t it?

  • Michelle Forbes as Circe: And a bit of BSG goodness, too. She sould do a nice voice for Circe.

Good stuff.

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.]

    CoX: Signs that Cole is a Tyrant

    For all that I’ve waxed  lyrical about the Going Rogue expansion, two things stand out as serious errors by the Cole Regime.

    First off … doors on the subway? Really? The ferries and train stations of Primal Earth get by just fine without an additional click to go between zones.

    (On the other hand, kudos to the Emperor for designing a city that is actually usable by Super-Speed.)

    Secondly, power suppression sucks. It especially sucks at the Trading House. It especially sucks when you have a football field or two to slowly lope across at the Trading House to get to the traders and you can’t even Sprint.  (C’mon — a suppression field that recognizes Sprint, Hover and Swift would be just fine and serve the purpose of keeping the TH aura-free while not driving folks mad.)

    (I  note with my current MasterMind that my pets get a “Stay” override at the Trading House door when I get there.  They follow me inside, but stay at the entrance. Which is fine.  I note that they do not lose the Stay when they exit with me, so they just hang out there until I come back. Which is weird.)

    This is especially annoying because the Resistance setup has it made — trading house + bank + vendors + contacts + level-up all in one area … and it’s just down the freaking street from the crafting tables.  And no suppression!  Compare that to the Loyalists, where the trading house has the suppression field, the bank’s across the street, the nearest vendor’s a good 30 seconds of travel power away, the crafting tables are twice that and in the opposite direction ….

    C’mon, Cole … throw us a bone.

    (The Resistance setup demonstrates that it is possible to have  all these things a trivial distance away — even more convenient than Steel Canyon or Talos with a Base — without somehow unbalancing the game.  Slogging about building up money in trading, or even making use of trading, is a PitA for Loyalists,  and a joy for the Resistance.)

    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.