CO: Ending my CO-dependency?

I’ve been thinking — really thinking — about Champions Online.  And whether I’m going to play it any more.

Having been back with gameplay the past few days, I’ve done some CO solo … some CO in a duo with Margie … and some CoX in a duo with Margie.

Duoing with Margie is fun whatever the game.  But I really had a lot more fun playing CoX.

There are things I like, really like, about CO.

  1. The graphics.  The look.  I know this is hardly a unanimous opinion, but I really like them. They fit the genre.  The characters also, for the most part, move well.  And I think the stance stuff is a great further differentiator (Beast stance ftw!).
  2. I like that many powers have multiple actions associated with them, esp. in the martial arts / swords categories.
  3. Acrobatics is a great-looking “travel” power.  Especially in Beast Stance.  And Teleport is handled well.  And I like all the flight/TK variants.
  4. I like the idea behind a classless system.  It promises flexibility to play the way you want, and create the character you want.   You can make your concept character with minimum interference from the game.
  5. The physical scope of the game is also neat.  No War-Walled neighborhoods.  Tundra, jungle, desert, urbanscape, etc.
  6. I like the power-building mechanism, and, yeah, I think blocking is a cool thing. The concept behind the way powers in combat are handled is a serious step above the attack-chain-ridden CoX.
  7. The shardless setup is also cool — no name contention, easy to join up with friends, no “deserted” servers.

So, lots to like.  But it’s mostly lots to like in the concept, the idea, the presentation.  The actual execution continues to cause me fits.

  1. The execution of the classless system sucks. Powers and power sets are grossly unbalanced.  If you decide to go for a simple class … well, you’re crippling your character from the get-go.  Melee and ranged characters have differ severe disadvantages.  Figuring out what a power actually does is like pulling teeth — copious notes online with poor explanations.  And the complete flexibility of the system means it’s impossible to find a decent guide (assuming you can find anything on the boards).  As a result, I always feel like whatever choice I make at each step is probably a horrible mistake that’s going to cripple my character.
  2. Which I feel like.  Honestly, I feel weak in any of my toons, solo or duo.  Objectively, that may not be true, but I feel like too many battles (esp. solo) are life-or-death, and that the balance point can be tipped way too easily. I don’t want the game to be trivially easy by any means, but when I play a super-hero I would kind of like to feel … heroic.  Is it build? Is it balance? Is it improper expectations?  I have no way of knowing.
  3. Acrobatics is the coolest-looking thing on 2-4 feet, unless you have to actually climb up anything.  Sniper on the rooftops?  Sorry, Kitsune — try the fire escape.  Add the instant slow-down as soon as you get aggroed by someone (inevitable as you lope at ground level through the city), and travel is a real drag.
  4. Trainers and stores (assuming one must have them) are annoyingly centralized, meaning you have to travel to them. (See above, though it’s an annoyance regardless of the travel power.)
  5. I’d have explored a lot more of the system if I weren’t limited to 8 toons, total.  Sure, I can buy more, but … no.
  6. It’s not the limited content I mind so much, as that the content doesn’t do a great job (after the intros in both zones) of guiding you to it.  What should I do next?  Everything? Or a few things?  Hit every contact you find, and it all starts to blur, story-wise.  Just take a few at a time, and you discover that you have to re-clear zones because of mission overlaps.
  7. The landscape maps may be War Wall-less, but the layout is as silly sometimes as a D&D dungeon module.  Take the desert.  You have a big research fortress next to a wasteland of radioactive mutants next to a haunted ghost town next to a camp of bad guys next to a bunch of lakes full of radioactive mutants next to an amusement park next to a missile silo next to a prison next to … There are no War Walls, but it’s still pretty goofy when the entire setting changes just because you went through a pass over over a ridge.
  8. And goofiness is not restricted to geographical proximity.  There’s a lot of damned silly writing.  A bit of silly writing — well, that’s just witty.  Too much, and it makes sure that it’s difficult to take the game itself seriously.  Which I’d kind of like to.

So … lots of cool stuff that I desperately want to love.  But some massive key frustrations that keep me from doing so.

Frustrating.

The question is, am I going to keep playing? Especially if I’m still playing CoX and start playing STO?

Decisions, decisions …

STO: Shall we “engage”?

Star Trek OnlineStar Trek Online goes live in production … tomorrow?! Yeesh, how the months have sped.

I haven’t been on STO since the closed beta, for a variety of reasons.  Even there, we didn’t devote endless hours — I really didn’t want to invest a lot of hours creating characters I wouldn’t be able carry on later.

Here are some thoughts on the game, and where we (Margie and I) are headed on it.

  1. The game is nicely immersive.  It feels like you are in the world of Star Trek (despite the efforts of some players).  The writing is pretty solid.
  2. A nice mixture of “Away Team,” admin/base busy-work, and ship-to-ship combat activity, each of which provides a different flavor.
  3. Ship combat is … fun.  Felt very war-gamy.
  4. Away Team activities are more complex, but managing an actual away team is a nice feature.
  5. The idea of growing yourself, your crew, and your ship adds complexity to the gameplay — but is also pretty cool.
  6. It’s less “role-playing” in some ways — yes, you have a race, and a history, and so forth — but, essentially, it remains a tactical game that is not focused just on your toon but on your team.
  7. It’s nice that not everything is about combat — but that will be an ongoing challenge (war in the Alpha Quadrant or not).  Star Trek is not, basically, Star Wars, DS9 notwithstanding.

Overall, it feels well-balanced, well written, and potentially a lot of fun.  I think (formal discussion pending) we’re going to subscribe, and stick with it for some period of time.

That would make three MMOs we’re subscribed to, which may be too many.  More on that to come …

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.

CO: Kitchen sink patch and coming stuff

Whew. You turn your back on the game for a few months, and everything goes all crazy!

After having been away (Real Life Sucks) from CO and CoX for a while, I have a few things to say, separately, about coming back. But, in the meantime, some thoughts on the CO news.

I won’t go into a lot of details on the Kitchen Sink patch (except to note the patches to deal with the patch that immediately followed). I think it’s cool that they’re trying to incorporate as many concerns and problems as they can.

That all said … looking at the “coming attractions” ….

“New Costume Sets in the C-Store” – Oh, boy. As in, so seriously not interested. I’m actually pretty happy with the costumes I have on the toons I have, and since I have no more slots available (mutter), there’s no big driver for me to change costumes. (Which, honestly speaking, I don’t do in CoX that much any more, either; I now have a Vet Award that gives me 50% off all Tailor Sessions, and most of my toons have free Tailor Tokens in the double digits.)

“I See a Blood Moon a Risin’” – Well, if we can have Rikti Invasions at random intervals, I guess we can have Werewolf Invasions every lunar month. Meh.

“This One Goes to Eleven” – Okay, this one looks good.

We’ll be introducing difficulty levels that players can set both for individual heroes and for their team. With 1 lower and 2 higher levels of difficulty to select from, players can create a challenge that fits their play style and ability.

Excellent. Soloists will be able to dial back difficulty levels. That will make life a lot easier.

“Flashing Back” – I don’t have any characters so far along that I feel the need to flash back with them.  It does make me worry that so many people do that this feature is considered worthwhile.

“Vibora Bay Watch” – Hmmmm. Okay, on the plus side, more content.  On the minus side, is the game so unbalanced that we need to focus on Lvl 37-40 content already?

Evidently there are indications in some references to this expansion pack that it’s going to be a paid content item, which has some portion of the CO community up in arms.  It’s certainly a different model than CoX (which has had one paid upgrade pack, with another coming soon, both of which were not just new zones), but we knew CO was designed differently from the start.  It will be interesting to see this play out.  I certainly don’t feel any compelling need to acquire it any time soon.

Especially for level 37-40.  Yeesh.  Give me a 12-20 zone, or a 20-30 zone, and I think you’d hit a lot more customers.  Self included.

Flashing Back

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.

Five years ago today …

… I succumbed to intense social pressure (coughDoycecough) and tried out for myself that newfangled “City of Heroes” game.  I didn’t actually blog about it for a bit because I was sort of, um, keeping it secret from Margie (I knew I could quit any time).

The rest, as they say, is history.  And while my  own gameplay over the past few months has been near-nothing, Margie continues to solo her way through endless hours of fun with CoX and CO.

And as soon as Kitten goes to bed and they both get off the Wii (where they are playing Scooby-Doo), she and I are going to play some City of Heroes.

And who knows … maybe I’ll actually start playing again.  Heck, maybe I’ll start posting to this blog again! Stranger things have happened!

See y’all in Paragon!

Heroic Tweets for 2009-12-16

  • Star Trek Online : Inside Beta: Character Customization MMORPG.COM http://bit.ly/8PR2TT #sto [Sounds like flexible but reasonable options. #
  • The Winter Event Has Arrived! – City of Heroes Forums http://bit.ly/5zoEmN #CoH [Not sure I'll be able to get to this, but sound like fun. #
  • Too Late to Start Playing LOTRO? | A Casual Stroll to Mordor http://bit.ly/4W78xs #LotRO [No, it's not. Good article on why. #
  • Real Life Comics – 14 Dec 2009 by Greg Dean http://bit.ly/7TN2sv [OMG! THEY NERFED FIREBALL! I'M DROPPING THIS GAME! #

CoH: Free Server Transfers?

“That’s usually not a good sign,” says Margie.

City of Heroes® is proud to announce that starting today character transfers between servers (within North American OR European server lists) will become free to all players and remain that way through the end of January 2010.

Now you will have more freedom to fully enjoy the game and each other…but don’t go haphazardly jumping servers without knowing the Character Transfer limit and all the other facts. Visit our Knowledge Base to learn all the specifics so that you can make educated transfer decisions. Amongst other things to bear in mind:

  • Transfers are not available between North American and European servers.
  • You will be able to complete up to 6 transfers a week (7-day period) per account.
  • Not all possessions will transfer over with your character so be sure to read the corresponding Knowledge Base article before you decide to transfer a character.
  • Super-group affiliation, Prestige and access to your Supergroup base items will be lost.
  • You may lose your character’s name when transferring from a server.

Then all you have to do is transfer away and enjoy the holiday server ride!

So I wonder what’s going on here?  Are paid transfers simply not being done?  Is this a prelude to server consolidation?

Some clarifications from the KB article:

Between December 15th, 2009 and January 31st, 2010, you will be able to complete up to 6 transfers a week per account. For example:

  • You can transfer 1 of your characters to five different servers then back to his/her original server in the span of a week.
  • You can choose to transfer 6 unique characters to a different server, or
  • You can transfer 3 characters to a different server and back, etc.

[…]

With Character Transfers, when someone does use it, do they receive a warning that their name is already taken prior to the move?

No, there is no warning. However, there is now a Name Check feature included in the game. By using this feature, found at the character select screen when logging into a specific server, you can check if a name is available on the server you are currently logged on to prior to purchasing a rename token. Be sure you are logged into the correct server when you are checking names.

Please keep in mind that while a name check may come through as showing a name available, there is still no guarantee that someone might not choose that name just before you use your rename to obtain it. Therefore, there are no guarantees that any name will be available.

If you do go through with a Character Transfer and there is a name conflict on the destination server, the character’s name will be appended to have a numeral at the end and be issued a free rename token. When you next log that character in, you will be able to use the rename feature to obtain a new name. […]

Do all your possessions move with you when you do a character transfer?

Yes, including your auctions on the Consignment Market. Here is a list of things that do not move:

  • Your non-global Friends list of players will no longer be valid.
  • You will be removed from any Supergroup that character was in, and will lose access to any SG storage.
  • You will also lose all Prestige accumulated within your Supergroup since you will be effectively leaving it (even if you are going to be re-creating the same Supergroup on your new destination server).
  • Taskforces or Strikeforces that may be in progress will be abandoned.
  • Kiosk stats will be preserved, but rating positions will likely change.
  • We cannot guarantee that your character’s name will be available on the destination server you move to. Should there be a name conflict, your character will be issued a free character rename to change the name.

Still … can’t stop wondering what the metameaning behind all this is … The (non-conspiratorial) speculation is that it’s giving folks a chance to clear the decks for the “Going Rogue” expansion. But it still has that server-consolidation feel that some folks are so terrified about.

Heroic Tweets for 2009-12-15

  • Star Trek Online : Starbase 24 Trailer : MMORPG.COM Videos http://bit.ly/6nsEdD #sto [Great hypothetical fun! #
  • Free Costume Gallery | Champions Online Official Site http://bit.ly/7EWQtP #champs [A bit late, but some fine costume accessories here. #
  • A Star is Born:Let’s Play Champions Online Pt. 9 http://bit.ly/6qv2Bg #champs [Having just done Klaus with FoW, this was amusing to read. #
  • The Escapist : News : Star Trek Online Open Beta Coming in January http://bit.ly/5Om1Ke [I'm looking forward to playing *open* beta … #
  • The Escapist : News : Cryptic Releases Star Trek Online Timeline Video http://bit.ly/5KIKfL #sto [First backstory video … #
  • The Escapist : News : Cryptic Unveils Second Star Trek Online Timeline Video http://bit.ly/6PtQ8I #sto [And second backstory video … #
  • Champions Online announces iPhone app: Champions Companion – Massively http://bit.ly/8GjlbC [Um … kinda dorky. #
  • Hands-on with Star Trek Online's space combat – Massively http://bit.ly/8JQEyn #sto [Nice description of space combat controls. #
  • Star Trek Online offers advanced retail programs – Massively http://bit.ly/6dwVog #sto [No definite plans, but under consideration … #

CO: Passive Aggressive

Forcfe of Will
Force of Will

Hrm.

So I’ve been doing more looking at various builds, whilst playing CO solo (what little duo play we’ve been doing has been on a hypothetically mysterious and intermittent game that I can’t talk about).  My current solo character is Force of Will, a TK blades character.

I’m reading through guides, and reviewing build suggestions, and making notes, and figuring out what I want to take at different levels.  And I finally got to another power level with her, and glanced at those notes, and …

… and WTF?

All the guides are all, “Hey, gotta have that Passive Defensive early and often,” followed by bitter debates about which is best (which is, as far as I can gather from the tenor of the debates, Anything But Lightning Reflexes).  Well, that’s all well and fine, but the TK Blades guides are also all full of debates about which is better, Ego Form or Shadow Form — most people prefer the latter, but there’s a vocal and vehement minority that argues the former.  And, hey, there was Ego Form, ready for selection.  I should give that a try …

… um …

It’s a slotted Offensive Passive … and I can have only one slotted Passive thing at a time.  Which I choose depends on … which build I’ve selected.

So, to have both the oh-so-critical Defensive Passive, and the oh-so-critical Offensive Passive, I have to be also toggling between builds.

Let me say, that’s probably one of my least favorite bits of CO thus far.  Okay, I like the variety of approaches you can have, both within a framework and from outside (vs. the comparatively much more channeled CoX power choices).  But I find the Build mechanic to be one more decision point than I want to have to make.  And so I’ve been basically ignoring it — only to discover now that, um, I actually need to make use of it if I’m going to achieve golden heroism?

Now, I’m sure that people do get soloing and making that choice.  And I’ll get along without it.  I just find it … annoying.  Part is my own ignorance, part is the lack of decent player education. Yeah, if I was using a character builder program, I’d have probably figured this out, but …

Harrumph.

Player Nerfs Movement Power!

So, just as I was getting back into the swing of playing … Margie slipped and broke her ankle on Monday.  Hospitalization ensues.

She finally got home last night (huzzah!), and now the question is … hmmmm, how are we going to play games?

Margie (who has to stay off her feet for the next couple of weeks) can sit at her computer desk for a very short spell, but it’s not ideal.  So her idea is that I let her borrow my laptop to use on the couch, while I use her machine, so that we can play CO and CoX and the like.

Which is fine, but … well, it still feels weird.  Like trading underwear or something.  I mean, different screen sizes and resolutions, different keyboards, and some macro issues as well (on the CoX side, at least).

We’ll see how it works out.

CO: Having fun again

I spent most of the free hours of the weekend — which were not as many as I’d have liked — playing Champs with Margie.  We basically carved our way through levels 15-17, and are now leveling up to 18, leaving the Westside of Millennium behind for what looks like all new stuff up north of Renaissance Center.

We were playing with Kitsune (Dual Blades) and Surprise (Electricity), and the two are doing pretty nasty AoE damage to mobs.  We can still get defeated, but it didn’t happen much (and rarely did both of us go down).  Nice.

Still finding myself annoyed by Acrobatics and the “I just ran past some gray mobs and they’re still plonking me and I’m slowed to a crawl, boo-hiss” syndrome.  Looking at getting Versatility next time I get some enhancements to play with.