LotRO: Unto a New Generation

Katherine has suddenly decided over the last few days that LotRO is an incredibly fun game that she wants to F2P.  With Margie as a partner, if available.

Which led to her watching the first to LotR movies today (since she was off for MLK Day). And also to opine that she really doesn’t want to play a dwarf because they’re all boys.

I’ll be curious to see how long this impulse lasts for her, but I think it’s kind of cool.  Not that it makes me want to play LotRO again, but it’s still cool.

CoH – Issue 22 Preview

I’ve been playing a lot more CoH the past few months — pounding through the Signature Story Arc for starters, and, in the last week or so, circling around to some alts we pieced together on Exalted when CoH Freedom came online.

The new Issue 22 stuff looks very, very cool …

Issue 22: Death Incarnate Overview

Starting with a cool new name — Death Incarnate …

A reenvisoned Dark Astoria beckons its bony claw! Issue 22: Death Incarnate,introduces new powers and costumes, exclusive VIP content, and expanded endgame features, and reintroduces Dark Astoria, a zone corrupted by evil magical forces.

Features

Dark Astoria Reincarnated

Mysterious forces have twisted parts of Dark Astoria into a bizarre, nightmarish land! The undead are now stronger here than ever and new menaces brood within the area.

I’ve always had mixed feelings about DA.  I’ve thought the perpetual fog was kind of cool (it was even more fun during the “Fog Bug” days, when you could see the whole city), and the undead/supernatural nature of it was pretty spiffy.

That said, it was waaaaaaay to hell and back, so, honestly, if it was a choice between going to DA and just doing something in Talos — well, it was mostly a no-brainer (for a one-off, the Mission Teleporter and then Wentworthing back to Talos was the easy way to handle things).  So it’s good to see that it’s becoming more central, and getting some even more enjoyable content.

Zone Level Increase: Dark Astoria transforms into a Level 50 Incarnate co-op zone, with missions that can unlock Incarnate abilities for both Heroes and Villains. Dark Astoria is also now accessible from both Peregrine Island and Grandville.

Improved accessibility is a great bonus.  I’m wondering how they’ll handle this geographically.

Turning it into a Level 50 zone is also cool.  We’ve done next to nothing with the Incarnate content, and that’s coming up pretty high on our list of things to do (now that we’ve gone back to those 50s in the last few months and gotten them all respecced and IOed up).

Repeatable Missions: Dark Astoria repeatable missions feature rewards befitting an Incarnate, including Incarnate Experience and Thread Components.

  • Ephram Sha of the Midnight Squad has tasks befitting Incarnate-level Heroes in Dark Astoria. Help him push back the forces of Mot!
  • The Circle of Thorns has an interest in the dark magics swirling around Dark Astoria. It has sent Maharaj, a powerful Soul Mage, to help Incarnate Villains sow chaos in the ranks of their foes.

Repeatable Missions Good. That they can be done solo (from what I understand elsewhere) is even better.

Content for All Levels

Dilemma Diabolique Incarnate Trial: Diabolique, the evil sorceress, plots to become an avatar of death by seizing the powers of the banished god, Mot. With them, she can bring the living world to its knees! She seeks nothing less than to dominate all life and hold the fate of the many dimensions in her grasping hands. Heroes and Villains must unite to protect our dimension from this terrible fate.

Co-op Hero/Villain stuff is fun (though less essential now that powers are basically available interchangeably).

Drowning in Blood New Low-Level Trial: The Shivans that decimated Galaxy City are now attacking Bloody Bay! Using the Team Up Teleporter, groups of up to eight players can fight off this alien invasion. Heroes and Villains each have a separate trial. Drowning in Blood is a PvE encounter available for all characters of level 15 and higher.

Another good thing: lower level trials.  And Level 15 love is useful.  What’s unclear in the above is how this trial works in conjunction with the PvP zone — the trial is PvE, but it’s in Bloody Bay …

New Mission Arcs: Steel Canyon and Cap au Diable feature new mission arcs. Heroes can encounter the latest conflict between the 5th Column and the Council. Villains face off against the Longbow and the Luddites.

New low-level mission stuff also good.  I’ve been finding myself skipping over most Steel and Cap Au missions of late, with the zone-independent stuff available.

New Adamastor Zone Event: Adamastor has broken free of Dark Astoria! Prevent this Giant Monster from going on a rampage in Talos Island and Sharkhead Isle by finding the Ritual of Summoning and using it to summon and defeat the creature.

Ooooh … a Giant Monster for Talos.  Excellent!

New Darkness Power Sets and Olympian Guard Costumes

Darkness Control (Free for VIPs): Command the shadows to terrorize your foes, devastating them with spectral minions. The Darkness Control power set is a primary power set for Controllers and Dominators. This new power set is free for VIPs. You will also be able to buy it in the Paragon Market™.

Darkness Affinity and Dark Assault (Free for VIPs): Two more power sets are now available to Controllers and Dominators. Controllers can access Darkness Affinity as a secondary power set, and Dominators can access Dark Assault as a secondary power set. Darkness Affinity and Dark Assault are free for VIP’s. You will also be able to buy them in the Paragon Market™.

Glad they are free.  Though it sound like (sigh) time for yet another set of alts …

So, is this Fear-based? Would make sense — it’s a secondary power for a lot of sets, but I’ve always thought it was very cool.  In fact, I might hold off on a Mind Controller concept I just rolled up to try this out.

Hmmmm … might be time to start building some of those inexpensive Fear IOs and then selling them once demand spikes.

Olympian Guard Costume Set (Free for VIPs): The technology-themed Olympian Guard costume set is free for VIPs. You will also be able to buy it in the Paragon Market™.

More Costumes always good.

(Are you getting  theme here?  Good stuff!)

Quality of Life Upgrades

Expansion of the Team Up Teleporter: In addition to granting access to the new Bloody Bay Trial, the Team Up Teleporter can now be used inside missions and to organize groups for existing task forces and strike forces. Characters on solo or group missions can queue up for trials from within those missions. You can also use the Team Up Teleporter to queue up for a task force or strike force.

Ah. That answers the question about the PvE Bloody Bay trial above.

I have to confess, I’ve not used this particular feature.  Some Friday afternoon or evening while Margie is out, I’ll have to use it to run some of my solo toons around with others.

New Teleporter Pad: The new Hacked Telepad and Magicked Telepads are available for bases. These new telepads cost more Prestige to build, but allow Super Group members to teleport to six zones per telepad instead of two.

Well, I guess that’s helpful. But, honestly, I think I’ve used the Telepads in any of our bases, oh, maybe twice in the last year.  There are so many other ways to get to locations quickly, between all-points trains/ferries, Wentworthing, the “O” …

Changes to Powers

Controllers

Gravity Control: Increased the damage of Singularity’s Lift by 63%.

Controllers/Dominators

Gravity Control: Added a bonus mechanic to player character versions of Lift and Propel. These powers now deal a small amount of additional damage (called “Impact!”) to targets that you have recently held with your Gravity Distortion power. In addition, Propel’s cast time has been reduced and its projectile speed has been increased.

Oooooh. One of my new low-levels (Unified Fieldsman, Gravitic/Chronotic Adventurer!) is a Grav Controller, so I look forward to these improvements.

Stalkers

Stalker Buffed Max HP modifier has been increased from 1 to 1.3. This results in Stalker’s potential Buffed Max HP increasing from 1,606 to 2,088 at level 50. This allows powers like Dull Pain and Frostworks, as well as +Max HP set bonuses, to have a greater potential effect.

Assassin Strike (All Versions): This power now functions differently while you are not Hidden. When attacking a foe when Hidden, it behaves normally, dealing tremendous damage with a chance to demoralize nearby foes, but it can be interrupted. However, when you use the power while you are not Hidden, it deals Superior damage and is uninterruptible. While you are not Hidden, Assassin Strike has a base 0% chance to crit.

Assassin’s Focus: All damaging powers found in the Stalker’s primary power set, other than Assassin Strike, have a chance to grant you a stack of the Assassin’s Focus buff. This buff increases Assassin’s Strike’s chance to critically hit (for +100% damage) while not Hidden by 33.3%. Assassin’s Focus stacks up to three times. Using Assassin’s Strike when you are not Hidden removes all stacks of Assassin’s Focus.

Aside from when CoV first came out, I have never run a Stalker.  They seemed very much a one-trick pony, and really only usable on a team.  This sounds like it changes things some.

Overall, an excellent update.  Now … when do we get it?

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.)