CoX: I16 is LIVE!

With all the CO-love around here, I haven’t done much CoX writing (or playing). But let’s not let this new issue pass by:

First off, we have Power Customization. Though you’re still in fixed frameworks (in CO-speak), I find the CoX color-choosing setup to be much more useful than CO’s color choices — if nothing else, it allows white and black and light and dark, not to mention being able to see how the power looks being fired off. In some ways, it’s more convenient (to see the look) than CO’s Powerhouse, with it’s Power-Up / Try / Respec cycle.

Note also it’s not just colors, but animations and themes.

New Themes of Spines and Thorny Assault available, including themes of Thorns, Metal Spines, Crystal Spines, and Slate Spines.

New Animation Themes for Super Strength and Martial Arts.Huge variety of customizable powersets, including Cold Domination, Dark Armor, Dark Blast, Dark Melee, Dark Miasma, Devices, Earth Control, Earth Melee, Electric Armor, Electric Assault, Electric Blast, Electric Melee, Electricity Manipulation, Empathy, Energy Assault, Energy Aura, Energy Blast, Energy Manipulation, Energy Melee, Fiery Aura, Fire Assault, Fire Blast, Fire Control, Fire Manipulation, Fire Melee, Force Field, Gravity Control, Ice Armor, Ice Assault, Ice Blast, Ice Control, Ice Manipulation, Ice Melee, Illusion, Invulnerability, Kinetics, Mental Manipulation, Mind Control, Necromancy, Plant Control, Psionic Assault, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Radiation Emission, Regeneration, Sonic Resonance, Sonic Blast, Spines, Stone Armor, Storm Summoning, Super Reflexes, Thermal Radiation, Thorny Assault, Traps, and Willpower.

As far as costs (if you’re talking about going to the Tailor rather than during character creation):

    • Characters created before Issue 16 will no longer need to change a costume piece in order for customized power changes to update
    • Adjusted tailor costs for powers customization changes.
    • The cost for changing each individual power’s theme is 1/9th the cost of changing your upper or lower body.
    • There is a Power Fee for changing powers customization. It is the same amount as the Tailor Fee for changing costume pieces.
    • Changing the primary or secondary color for a power charges 1/10th the Powers Fee for each power changed. This is only charged once per power, instead of once for each color.

The second biggie is the new power proliferation sets:

Archetype – Blasters 

  • Radiation Blast

Archetype – Brutes 

  • Claws

Archetype – Controllers 

  • Cold Domination

Archetype – Corruptors 

  • Archery
  • Trick Arrow

Archetype – Defenders 

  • Assault Rifle
  • Traps

Archetype – Dominators 

  • Earth Assault

Archetype -Masterminds 

  • Thermal Radiation

Archetype -Scrappers 

  • Electric Melee
  • Electric Armor

Archetype -Tankers 

  • Electric Melee
  • Electric Armor

Archetype -Stalkers 

  • Broadsword

Nice.

The full patch notes are here. Some noteworthy notes …

  • Lots of badge requirements reduced.
  • Improvements to the sidekicking system has removed the minimal entry level for most hazard zones.
  • “There is now an in-game email setting to block all email except from those on your friends list or in your supergroup.” HUZZAH!
  • More tweaking (nerfing) of experience for unbalanced custom opponents in the Mission Architect.
  • “All dismissable pets will now zone with you, but will lose their buffs.” HUZZAH!
  • Brawl now costs no Endurance. The intial origin powers cost reduced End.
  • Faster advancing (due to increased XP rewards) at levels 5-24. Which is … nice, but that’s not the area that most folks complain about, grind-wise.
  • The costume you log out in is what shows up on the character selection screen.

There’s a new Enhanced Difficulty System. I liked the old one, but regardless, this remains a good differentiator from CO. (On the other hand, in CO you an easily choose missions above your level). The difficulty settings are done via Hero Corps and Fateweavers, as before:

  • Choose to fight monsters between a -1 to +4 level difference from the player’s level.
  • Choose to set your personal team size (1-8).
  • Choose if you want bosses to scale down to Lieutenants when soloing or not
  • Choose to have AVs scale down to EBs.

The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled. Actual team size overrides any difficulty setting, so you will always get Arch-Villains if the team has 6 or more members. The difficulty setting is per task, so personal team member sizes do not add together.

There is also, as noted above, a new Sidekicking system. The main difference is that a single player can SK/Exemp as many (to a full team size of 8) as they want. No more fumbling around for a match of equal high/low toons.

    • Each player in the group’s level is set to the level of the owner of the active team task. If no team task is selected, everyone in the group’s level will be set to the level of the team leader.
    • When the team level changes, players will be notified via a dialog and have the option to quit the team or immediately accept. The dialog will time out after 30 seconds at which point acceptance is implied.
    • While in the pending state, players cannot receive rewards and any critters they damage will be worth no experience.
    • Players can choose to auto-accept team level changes 0 to 50 levels above or below their current level.
    • Exemplars will now earn XP and a level capped person will get XP converted into influence like exemplars used to.

Power-wise:

Blasters 

  • Radiation Blast – All AoE powers in this set will no longer give a damage bonus per target hit. Like other Blaster AoE powers, only a single damage buff will be granted per use of the power
  • Radiation Blast/Neutrino Bolt – This power now has a 4 second recharge, which increases base damage from scale 0.6 to scale 1.0 and increases endurance cost from 3.12 to 5.2
  • Radiation Blast/X-Ray Beam – This power now has an 8 second recharge, which increases base damage from scale 1.0 to scale 1.64 and increases endurance cost from 5.2 to 8.53
  • Electricity Manipulation – Power Sink: This power should no longer have a lingering icy effect on the caster.

Controllers 

  • Kinetics/Fulcrum Shift: This power will now correctly use Controller buff modifiers instead of Defender buff modifiers, resulting in a 20% damage buff per target and a 40% damage buff on self, instead of a 25% damage buff per target and a 50% damage buff on self.
  • Cold Domination: All of these powers should now accept the correct IO Sets.

Defenders 

  • Traps – Trip mine – Fixed repeating animation

Peacebringers and Warshades 

  • Players in White or Black Dwarf form will now play the updated version of the AlakazamReact emote

Scrappers 

  • Electric Melee – Removed the ability to slot powers within this set with Taunt enhancements as these powers do not have a taunt component.
  • Electric Armor – Lightning Field: Removed the ability to slot this power with Taunt enhancements as this power does not have a taunt component.
  • Electric Armor/ Power Sink: This power should no longer accept taunt enhancements.
  • Spines – Ripper: Removed extraneous sound effect from Barb Swipe.
  • Electric Melee – Chain Induction correctly jumps to additional targets when slotted with proc IOs.
  • Spines – Quills. The body spines will now appear when this toggle is activated. However, they will go away if the player enters and then exits spines combat mode while the toggle is on.

Tankers
 

  • Electric Armor – Lightning Field: This power will no longer accept Taunt IO sets to be consistent with other taunt auras.
  • Electric Melee – Chain Induction correctly jumps to additional targets when slotted with proc IOs.
  • Invulnerability – Invincibility no longer accepts Taunt IO sets. This makes it match similar powers available to other ATs.
  • Electric Melee – Fixed Gauntlet for Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, and Chain induction to not allow procing on all nearby targets.

Brutes
 

  • Claws – Corrected a decimal shift error in the Recharge Time of Slash. Now recharges in 6.4 seconds, not 0.64 seconds.
  • Claws/Slash – Slightly increased this power’s damage to be in line with its recharge time
  • Claws – Eviscerate: Corrected this power\ss long help, it erroneously stated that this power had a chance to critically hit, which it does not
  • Claws – Powers in this set are now slottable for Taunt enhancements and Taunt IO sets.
  • Claws and Stone Armor are now mutually exclusive at character creation due to animation issues.
  • Electrical Melee – Jacob’s Ladder: Re-enabled FX for this power.
  • Electric Melee – Chain Induction correctly jumps to additional targets when slotted with proc IOs.

Corruptors
 

  • Archery/Rain of Arrows – This power will now correctly Scourge enemies allowing for critical hits on enemies with low health
  • Kinetics/Fulcrum Shift: This power will now correctly use Corruptor buff modifiers instead of Defender buff modifiers, resulting in a 20% damage buff per target and a 40% damage buff on self, instead of a 25% damage buff per target and a 50% damage buff on self.
  • Trick Arrow/Acid Arrow – Fixed a bug that caused this power to deal additional damage to immobilized, held, or disoriented targets
  • Pain Domination – Soothing Aura is properly suppressed when the recipient is mezzed.
  • Trick Arrow – Glue Arrow: This power’s ground based glue effect will no longer fade once the initial target is defeated, instead it will last its full intended duration.

Dominators
 

  • Earth Assault/Mud Pots – This power’s long help will no longer get cut off at the end
  • Earth Assault/Fissure – This power’s long help will no longer get cut off at the end
  • Earth Assault – Tremor, Slightly reduced chance of knockdown.
  • Earth Assault – Fissure, Adjusted damage, recharge, and endurance cost down moderately. Slightly reduced chance of knockdown and stun.
  • Earth Assault – Fissure: This power’s disorient effect is now enhanced by Domination.
  • Earth Assault – Seismic Smash – Corrected normal hold magnitude to 3, and the hold is now affected by Domination


Masterminds
 

  • Dark Miasma – Removed erroneous Jump Speed slow effect from Shadow Fall.
  • Mastermind Pets now correctly keep their level 6 and level 32 upgrade power buffs when zoning
  • Pets will now zone with their Mastermind owner and will keep their buffs
  • Necromancy – Zombies, Skeletons and Lich should use the selected custom colors for their enchanted and empowered particle effects.
  • Pain Domination – Soothing Aura is properly suppressed when the recipient is mezzed.
  • Thugs/Gang War now summons the Posse correctly
  • Trick Arrow – Glue Arrow: This power’s ground based glue effect will no longer fade once the initial target is defeated, instead it will last its full intended duration.

Soldiers of Arachnos and Widows
 

  • Mace Mastery – Focused Accuracy: This power was replaced with a new power called Shatter Armor.
  • Mace Mastery – Shatter Armor (NEW): This power has replaced Focused Accuracy in the Villain Epic Archetype Mace Mastery epic power set. Shatter Armor is a heavy hitting melee Arachnos Melee attack that reduces the target’s damage resistance.

Stalkers
 

  • Electric Melee – Chain Induction correctly jumps to additional targets when slotted with proc IOs.
  • Stalker Melee/Broad Sword/Head Splitter – Fixed a bug that caused this power to have a 100% chance to critically hit while hidden. This power will now critically hit 50% of the time

Let me just note with joy that Mastermind pets now zone.

The EPPs/VEAPS have been changed to have 5 powers instead of 4.

All in all, a very solid Issue, even if there’s no content to go with it. Well done, Paragon!

CO: New patch last night, details and commentary

Details on the patch that went in last night:

General
• Perks: Perk Cape Symbol Rewards: Fixed these rewards such that players cannot deconstruct them for parts or sell them to vendors once they have the unlocked symbol.
• Power Replace items sold by the Perk Vendor are now level 40. These items require the purchaser to be level 40 as well.
• Added some performance fixes to counteract some of the changes from last night’s patch.
• Fix for one of the major stalls while moving around.
• Fixed a crash some users were experiencing loading into the game with ATI graphics cards.
• We’ve added a number of performance improvements to Supergroups. Supergroup commands should be much more responsive now.

User Interface and Chat
• Large powers and advantages UIs are now movable.
• Fixed-position UIs and large window UIs no longer close each other (large window UIs DO still close other large window UIs).

I believe that means that you can have your character’s attribute list or power list open and still open the Powerhouse Trainer window. If so, excellent.

• Added search button to social UI.
• Map itself now takes up larger portion of the large map UI.

Good.

• Main map UI now can be shrunk a bit more.
• Integrated overflow bag into inventory and experiment UIs.

I’m not sure what that is, but it sounds promising.

• Many user-facing messages (in chat, etc.) have been reviewed/improved for grammar/consistency/brevity/clarity.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players with an @ in the account name from logging in from the game login screen.
• Changed the label on the remember account name check box to show Account Name instead of Username.
• Added “report spam” button to mail UI.

*sigh*

• Emanation points dropdowns now take up less space unless hovered.
• Builds UI now has powers in the same order as the main power tray.

Thank you. That’s caused some confusion (and inadvertent purchases) in the past.

• Guild UI now obeys guild offline check when first opened.
• Minimap locations dropdown now shows your crafting school type (or doesn’t show that option if you have none); also sized to fit correctly in all languages.

YES! WOOT! EXCELLENT! (It’s about time.)

Wait, does that mean you can see what your crafting school is? Or that you can filter out crafters that aren’t of that type? Hopefully both.

Powers
• Toned down the loud jetboots audio.

Good. I respecced an early character because of that.

• Ice: Ice Cage (and all Ice powers that apply Ice Cage): Fixed a bug that allowed the root to be stacked many times on a single target. The root should now only be able to be placed once on a target at any given time.
• Ice: Wall of Ice: Frozen Footsteps advantage: Fixed 2 separate bugs: Players now actually have to move (as the description says) for the path to be formed. Also made it so individual critters can only be affected by the path once, so you can’t get 4 or 5 Ice Explosions on a single target.
• Telepathy: Mindful Reinforcement: Revitalizing Boost should now actually give energy when it is triggered, instead of giving zero energy.
• Telepathy: Mindful Reinforcement: Ranks 2 and 3 should properly absorb damage now.

Missions/Environments
• Critter: Gadroon: Instant “thunderclap” PBAoE used by Adjudicator and Slavemaster can no longer hold players.
• Critter: Gadroon: Adjudicator now uses Melee AI.
• Critter: Gadroon: Gravatic Shaper and Invasion Leader now have a basic attack to use while their schtick attacks are on cooldown.
• Critter: Gadroon: Gravatic Shaper’s Containment Field now has a overhead schtick tell.
• Critter: Gadroon: Lancer and Terrafromer’s Gravatic Rift now snares instead of pulls.
• Critter: Gadroon: Lancer and Terraformer’s Gravatic Rift now does less damage.
• Critter: Gadroon: Lancer and Terraformer’s Gravatic Lance (basic attack) now correctly displays FX.
• Critter: Gadroon: Lancer and Terraformer’s Gravatic Lance (basic attack) no longer penetrates defenses.
• Critter: Gadroon: Fixed art timing on Gravatic Bolt (basic attack) used by many Gadroon.
• Critter: Gadroon: Gravatic Initiate now less likely to use its charge up hold power.
• Critter: Gadroon: Gravatic Initiate’s hold now correctly displays FX.
• Gadroon: Terraforming Spire’s Toxic Gas now properly snares instead of holds, and does 90% less damage.

Desert
• Nadir of the Invaders: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• Asciing for Trouble: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• Hang ‘Em High: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
Canadian Wilderness

On the plus side, huzzah for no exploit. On the minus side, if you miss it, you have to hang around (or find something else to do) for 10 minutes. Yawn.

• Undead on Arrival: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• Reign of Frogs: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• Hunters Hunting: Fixed issue where Hunter-Patriot Lts. were unkillable if players were not on the mission to interrogate them.
• Hyperborean Woodland Warding: Fixed issue where Maj. Hendges would not interact with players. Maj. Hendges now gives the patrol mission “Hyperborean Woodland Warding” which takes the place of the mission which existed there previously: Echo Escort.

Millennium City
• A Bullet Bound For Biselle: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• A Bullet Bound For Biselle: Found and fixed the issue where the mayor could miss an FSM trasition causing him to not run away and despawn when a mission fails. This should allow the mission to properly reset after the mission failed.
• Jail Break: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• Repaired a badly offset patrol mission door that was not allowing people to access it.
• My Lost Foot: Fixed a bug that could cause Xiress to despawn, causing players to be unable to find her.
• Destroids Rise Again: Fixed a bug that could cause the Mega-Destroid not to despawn when the mission ends if it is in combat.
• Destroids Rise Again: Increased the number of rescues required for the first stage of the open mission (to give more players a chance to show up). Increased the cooldown of the mission to 90 minutes.
• Destroids Rise Again: Fixed a bug that caused Destroids guarding the Retribution Devices not to attack.
• Waterfront Watcher: Fixed a bug that could cause James Harmon to freeze and prevent players from interacting with him.

Monster Island
• Great Barrier Grief: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• Crisis on Monster Island: Removed a level restriction on the Monster Island Crisis queue. This should have no game effect, since the level restriction on the mission and the level restriction on the queue were the same.

Lemuria
• Plunder the Sea: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• Ship of Fouls: Increased timer for open mission to 10 minutes to prevent exploit.
• Crisis in Lemuria: Fixed a bug that could prevent level 31 players with the Crisis missions from not being able to join the queue even if they had the correct mission.

Nemesis
• Added VO to The Drifter in the Nemesis Gold Mine mini.

Crafting
• Crafting UI now sorts by level as the default (instead of by slot).

Not sure where that applies, but it sounds useful.

Costume Creator/Tailor
• The Tailor now uses the correct texture to indicate an inconsistent randomize lock state.
• Fixed a bug where unlocking a new Pattern would show the material name, instead of the pattern name.
• Fixed a bug where the list of unlocked costume parts would only indicate that it was available for one side, when it was available for both.

Hero Games
• Changed the Stronghold HUD and final scoreboards to display NPC heroes/villains defeated rather than total opponents defeated. Previously, the HUD had been tracking total kills, and it counted destroyed objects as kills. Now it doesn’t care about objects or henchmen NPCs.
• Hero Games Store: Fixed a bug where purchasing the basic Luchador Costume in the Hero Games store would only unlock one mask. It will now unlock all four Luchador masks.
• Hero Games: Volatile perk: Fixed a bug that caused players not to receive credit for the Volatile perk on the High-Tech arena map.

So no biggies (per current complaints) clearly they’re working on stuff.

Heroic Tweets for 2009-09-14

  • Psiclone has completed Vanquished Rakshasa #
  • Champions Online : First Impressions – MMORPG.COM http://bit.ly/wz5nF – Pretty critical drubbing due to Day 1 Nerf, respec costs, confusion. #
  • The Digital Continuum: #champs launch edition – Massively http://bit.ly/10V1K6 – Chatting on the Nerf, soloability, and dearth of missions. #
  • Psiclone has reached level 10! #
  • Comparison of Passive Defenses? – #Champs Forums http://bit.ly/iUBXR – Good stuff; some interesting ads/disads to each one. #

Heroic Tweets for 2009-09-13

  • Zebra has completed Open Mission: Hang 'em High #
  • Zebra has completed Vanquished Talisman #
  • Zebra has completed Vanquished Leech #
  • RT @Positron_CoH I have been officially diagnosed with h1n1, and poss. bronchitis. I do not wish this on anyone. #coh [Get well soon!] #
  • Adding Margie's toons to the Twitter posting. Meaningless to others, but fun for us. #
  • Star Warrior has completed Vanquished Rakshasa #
  • Honeygun has reached level 10! #
  • Weapon Replacer Pics – #champs Forums http://bit.ly/146NX6 – Different gunslinger/munitions weapon choices. #
  • Munitions Explained: All About the Guns – #champs Forums http://bit.ly/12KA1A – Very solid forum guide, discussion of Munitions. #
  • RT Cryptic_DaekeLooking like we'll be doing an emergency patch tonight to prevent today's server crash from occurring again. #champs #
  • So it seems that new #champs social settings are throttling Twitter posts. Honeygun / Star Warrior duo only generated those two Tweets. #

It’s all a matter of perspective

So this morning, whilst showering and having pre-church coffee, Margie was regaling me with her thoughts on CO (which were the foundation of the lengthy post I did this afternoon). 

After about, oh, half an hour of various gripes and complaints, I was feeling more than a bit tense. I realize (in retrospect) that it was because I felt like (a) I had gotten her into CO, and (b) she wasn’t having a good time, thus (c) I was responsible for her being unhappy. That she was going on and on about it simply made me feel like I was being righteously scolded for my iniquities (I can say “iniquities’ because it was, as I mentioned, pre-church).

I actually did voice my concerns and unhappiness over same, and was, in turn, reassured that, despite her various complaints, she was still having fun and that there were a lot of good things about CO, and that, really, her main complaints were (a) it could be so much better, (b) she felt like she didn’t know what she felt she needed to know, and (c) kill-stealing / spawn-stealing seriously sucks and any game that allows it deserves whatever opprobrium it gets. (I inferred the last item).

On reflection — and it didn’t take much reflection — her various gripes and griefs and suggestions re CO were, in fact, very well taken. They were also proportional — there’s a recognition that some things are Very Bad, and other things are just Mildly Annoying. And the fact is, once I stopped feeling all defensive about it, I agreed with nearly everything she said.

hindenbergWhat seriously put it into perspective, though, was some skimming through the forums this evening. Oh. My. God. You’d think that Bill Roper and the various CO Devs were personally spitting on each person’s mother’s grave, and also selling their sisters down to Rio. “Game is screwed – quitting now.” “One last shot for CO to prove me wrong.” “30 minute Retcon grace period or i cancel my account.” “This sucks.” “Nerf is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.” Etc.

In many cases, the complaints boiled down to, “I want a character that can do X, Y, and Z, and they are not letting me have that.” Some such criticisms were valid concerns, but most were akin (in style, and usually in substance) to kids screaming incoherently about candy not granted or toys not bought. And very, very few of them had any perspective viz where CO is in its life cycle, how most MMOs look and feel, and how game balance works.

Compared to which, Margie’s critiques are positively the Roger Ebert of reasoned, enlightened, perspicacious, insightful observations. She makes cogent comments that don’t involve invocations of DOOOOM! or assumptions that the Devs are out to rob her, personally, of having any fun. And she’s also quick to note the things she likes, too.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

CO: I’m back in the Hollows again

There’s a lot of Champs Online criticism below. It’s leavened by some positives at the end, but it comes from a few days of fairly intense play (mostly on Margie’s part), and a variety of frustrations.

 

Once upon a time … before zone remixes, and early travel powers, and early radio contact with  contact, and police band missions, and a variety of content …

,,, The Hollows was the bane of CoX experience. A huge zone. Missions assigned willy-nilly across the whole map. Endless nasty mobs that you had to run past or dodge around. And no hospitals in the zone — you die, you go back to Atlas. No trainer in the park — how many groups lost all their momentum (and often members) because people had to run back to Atlas for leveling — “GTL BRB.” No stores in the zone, either.

And it was the only game in town. From 6 to 15 or so, that’s where you had to go, sooner or later. Yeah, there was some Kings Row stuff, and if you really were desperate you could go into Perez (which was where all the I1-3 content for that level was — The Hollows was a late addition).

There’s a reason why the Chamber of Transcendence was the epitome of the Hollows — hard to get to, lots of mobs, a pain in the bitch of you get killed (or need to level) …

There’s also a reason I don’t go to the Hollows much any more, even though it’s been much improved as a level,

Champions Online feels, sometimes, like I’m stuck in the Hollows. At least in the Canada / Desert zones. Huge zones, Missions scattered around. Contacts that you always have to go back to. If you need to level, sell, or craft, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the zone. Dying (respawn points) aren’t as bad, but it’s still annoying.

Part of this is travel power selection. Flyers and TP are pretty much golden, though they miss some of the ground content and “treasure” — and there are AA guns in some areas. But Superspeed, Acrobatics, and even Superjump are problematic — especially since even just being aggroed will immediately slow you down (and draw fire for seemingly 30 seconds, even if you break LoS).

(Irradiates plasma bolts remind me of the old-style ToS Romulan fireballs — faster than you and unevadable.)

Much of this is due to the relative immaturity of the game, sure. There’s a lack of content, and the Devs are still tuning the XP curve and how aggro works and all. I’m sure that, in the future, we’ll probably be able to call contacts (realistic), and pick up mission rewards (um, okay, that would be unrealistic). We’ll know about the best paths through the terrain, the relatively safe points — using meta-knowledge to counter lack of world immersion.

But it’s still annoying.

 

I hate inventory issues. No, really.

And CO has them. Not a lot of them immediately, but we started to see it last night. 

You have basically three sets of things in your inventory: 

  1. Widgets / power-ups. Some of these you use, in which case you swap them for something else in your tray, which doesn’t help the overall inventory problem. The rest you either sell (if not of your craft school) or deconstruct (if they are). You might also auction them, but we haven’t started doing auction stuff yet. That means these things do, with regular maintenance, get taken care of.
  2. Resources / raw materials. These are used for crafting, so it’s unlikely you’re going to use them up as fast. They become a real problem as you advance in crafting tiers, and suddenly open up new types of raw materials. There may be a more efficient way of dealing with them, but at present they aren’t too bad.
  3. Mission items. These are the real PitAs. They can fill your tray in nothing flat — and sometimes they end up staying there. (Do I ever really need the Key to the City? Like, ever? Inquiring minds want to know and/or clear their inventory). Given that you can stack several missions and be working on different ones, it’s irksome — especially with missions that involve several items (e.g., four different keycards takes up almost 15% of your inventory right there).

I’ve gotten past being irked about how you have to handle drops (wait, there’s a bang! no, that’s yours. wait, I opened it up, but then forgot to choose Take all …) I just find the growing inventory problems a pain.

My solution: Treat mission objects separately. They simply exist.

Another solution: Treat resources separately. I mean, my guy isn’t really carrying around a locker full of Argent Arms on his back. We assume they exist in katanaspace, and move on.

Another solution: More places where you can sell stuff.

Ironically enough, the one place that you don’t run into inventory problems is with stacking of stuff, e.g., heal patches. Except, when they are down in your actual “usage” tray, you can’t see how many you have. Rrg.

 

Other gripes:

  • There’s a lot of interesting “read this” content … Viper plans you run across, taunting letters from mysterious enemies, arcane tomes stashed here and there, etc. Unfortunately, those items stay “stuck” wherever they are; read them while you are standing there (hopefully not in an area where bad guys are about to respawn). That’s both silly and a lost chance for immersion. 
  • Is anyone taking active use of the “multi-build” capabilities? I’m not — it’s all I can do to track what I have and can do, let alone creating specialty versions with different powers available. 
  • A group of -5 cons should not be able to take me down. Or even slow me down. If i can’t get XP for them, I should not be be in danger or affected by them. Or, conversely, if they are a risk, I should get XP.
  • The current XP curve is wonky. Characters are ending Canada and Desert content around levels 12-13 … but MC is really designed for 14 and above. And you can’t just go out at that point and punch out some baddies — they’re all conning so low that the XP is worthless. So I’m finding myself taking maxxed-out chars in one place and hopping over to the other to grab a few more missions in the hinterlands.

 

All that said, it’s clear that CO’s biggest “problem” is that it is an immature MMO. There is nothing fundamentally wrong here that can’t be fixed by time and tweaks — as demonstrated by CoX having overcome most of this stuff. Which begs the issue of, aside from volume of content, why should the CO devs have to relearn some of those lessons that CoX already lived through.

There are still a lot of positive that get lost in the above. The gameplay is fun. The travel powers are cool. Things could just be better than they are. Being able to be a totally custom framework character is very, very cool. But the learning curve remains high, and the documentation remains scanty. As Margie puts it, she feels “inefficient.”

An example problem — I was agonizing over a power to take last night. I finally took one. Um … hey, what happened to it? Wasn’t it supposed to show up there? Ah, it’s a slotted passive power. And I already have one. Um … then why was it being offered to me? Oh, I could slot it in a different build. Hrm. Okay. A warning that, “Hey, dummy, you already have one, so you can’t have another in your currently active build” would have been nice. For that matter, realizing that I was going to be offered one later on would have been nice, too. I suppose I could use my freespec on the character to fix that (the button is finally there), but I’m not sure I want to.

Meanwhile, Margie discovered that she had a slotted passive power that hadn’t gotten slottted. So she was operating at a disadvantage for the last couple of sessions of gameplay. Irritating.

I like it that the sound quality in certain settings changes — sounds (powers, etc.) start to echo. I like the number of objects that can be affected. I like the animation and art style, still.

Interestingly, for a character who’s traditionally been (in CoX) a Controller/Defender, or sometimes a Blaster, I’m finding myself most enjoying melee characters that just hop in and start wailing.

I like that there is a dedicated “T” key to toggle on Travel powers. I don’t like that my toons keep getting bugged back to CO button layouts (using C1-5 for the usage items) rather than the “Other Super-hero Games” (snort) (using F1-5).

Margie says: “I don’t think it will replace City of Heroes for me — but that’s okay. And it will take a while for me to get tired of picking up Humvees and throwing them.”

That’s not a bad place to be a couple of weeks post-game start.

CO: DevChat tidbits

The full DevChat transcript from today is here. A few items that caught my eye (there are a number I do not quote below — read the whole thing, if you’ve an interest):

[18:40] <@cryptic_chronomancer> The goal is to have you feel challenged enough that being a hero means something without being frustrated or feeling overwhelmed. As you can expect, it isn’t easy, and no MMO comes out perfectly balanced. But we’re dedicated to getting there. PVE is the main focus of the game, but we’ve found that our PVP system is fun and popular.
[18:40] <@cryptic_chronomancer> As for a focus on balance, the game should be fun for both styles of play. We’ll continue to create new content for both PVE and PVP. As for support, there are powersets already that are more geared towards this. Sorcery is a good example. The upcoming Celestial set is going to be great for players that want to focus on support powers, as well.
[18:41] <@cryptic_chronomancer> As for balancing, our goal is to only decrease the effectiveness of powers if they are honestly broken (doing multiples of expected damage, for example). It’s better for us focus on fixing broken powers that aren’t effective enough before we lower the effectiveness of powers.
[18:41] <@cryptic_chronomancer> Basically, we’re thinking more surgically moving forward in regards to how we address balance as opposed to dropping huge bombs.

Which all sounds good (esp. the focus on PVE and the ability for “support” characters to shine).

[18:43] <@Cryptic_AntiProton> Two villains is meant to be a challenging normal pull. You’ll definitely want to be blocking, or using LOS, or using a hold power, or all of those tricks at once. Using a consumable device, either one of the healing things crafters make, the ones the stores sell, or one of the rare critter drops would also help.

I’m always forgetting to use heal devices. Or else I feel I need to horde them, since they’re a pain to build or acquire.

[18:50] <@Cryptic_Ignoble> We are still working on the pricing of the retcon system and will make changes as needed. We are actively working on additional functionality for the retcon system, as well. Some of the changes that have been requested are more complicated than others and so they’ll require time from the technology team.
[18:51] <@Cryptic_Ignoble> Our goal with the retcon system is to provide targeted retcons for characters that are specifically affected by changes. For example, if we made a significant change to a powerset – or even a single power – we could issue a retcon to just the heroes affected by that change.

Targeted respecs is an interesting idea. But, honestly, it’s not that big a deal for folks to have respecs, whether or not a power that’s changed is one that they currently have. I think they’re over-thinking this.

[18:52] <~COquestionbot> <Revik> Q: Why do meleer’s get the weakest roots when we need it the most due to Charge skills being rendered useless if they just back away.
[18:52] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> Roots and melee: yes, if your target backs away from your charge, well, there will be a bit of distance between you. However, the root that’s built into Mighty Leap should affect them regardless. If it isn’t, that’s a bug, and we’ll fix it. In practical terms, I melee roots should fee powerful, because they can be applied very quickly. That being said
[18:52] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> if you really want to be a melee character that can take on ranged people, you need to either have a charge or a “yoink” (our name for Shuriken advantage “Chained Kunai” or Iron Lariat)

I’ve avoided Shuriken on all the characters that could use it … so far. Knowing that I can use an advantage on it to pull people to me may change my mind.

[18:53] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> Melee powers, based on how you’re stated, do between 30% more damage than ranged powers over the same period of time, for the same cost. Some players have the impression that melee attacks are weaker than some ranged powers, because some fully charged melee attacks don’t do as much damage as some fully charged ranged attacks. Well, that’s true, until you look
[18:53] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> at the time it took to make the attack. Most melee attacks get fully charged in just 1 second or less, compared to a 2.5 to 3 seconds for some ranged attacks.
[18:54] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> Melee attacks can get up to an additional 20% bonus to their damage from your strength score. This bonus is completely separate and distinct from you Characteristic Focus bonus; it’s in addition to that. We just put a change in where you need much less strength to get to that 20% bonus. The intent of this change was to allow melee builds that didn’t focus on
[18:54] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> strength to be more viable. You still need to pay attention to it with your gear, but its no longer required that it be your Characteristic Focus (i.e. Super Strength) to get the full benefit.

This is a shining example of information that’s really important for players to know, but which is not at all explained by the game. It’s good to know — but it shouldn’t require following the forums or a particular DevChat to know it.

[18:54] <~COquestionbot> <NeoWolf> Question: will we EVER be able to see weapons in the costume creator/tailor screen before we have to pay to add or recolor them?
[18:55] <@Cryptic_AntiProton> We totally want to get that working eventually, yes. What just got in with being able to select them in character creator (though not see them) was ahead of schedule, which is awesome. The artist that did the setup work for the weapon geos to even be able to be swapable and I both really want to see it fully working in both the tailor and the character creator
[18:56] <@Cryptic_AntiProton> like a lot of features we had to put it on hold for launch, but now that we are released it is on the list of things to get done.

Yeah, this is something that needs work.

[18:57] <~Cryptic_Daeke> <Antis3al> What are your plans to fix the leveling gaps? A player can still level if they dig for every single quest out there, but currently they don’t connect in any logical way; and the content is still spread thin, sometimes requiring a player to do quests several levels above their own. Is there a coming solution or even awareness of the problem?
[18:57] <@Cryptic_Ignoble> We are currently working to add a number of additional missions and instanced content to help fill several content gaps we have identified. These will begin making their way out to the server over the next few weeks and will hopefully integrate seamlessly with the content that already exists.

I hope one of the areas is early Millennium City content, around Lvl 12-13. Right now it’s all pretty much 14+, but it’s easy to wrap up some major threads in Canada/Desert and figure it’s time to hit the city. Frustration ensues.

19:00] <~COquestionbot> <ian33w> Is it possible to increase the range of Sorcery’s Auras as most powers are 50 to 100 feet?
[19:00] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> Sorcery: Sorcery is, right now, getting a major “quality of life” overhaul. some bits (like the sigils) are being made stronger. Other parts are just being made less difficult to use. One big thing, Circles of Summoning are now being flagged as “Rituals of Summoning”. They look exactly the same, and work exactly the same, but now are cumulative (stack with) C
[19:01] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> Circles of Power. Additionally, we’re elminating the property where they eat ALL your energy, so you can get back into the fight more quickly with them. And, yes, we’ll be increasing the range of the auras. =)

Good to know.

[19:02] <~COquestionbot> <Vahn> Q: in single blade powerset, why theres no love for two handed weapons?
[19:02] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> Single Blade: We’re going to give BIG GIANT two handed weapons so much love, they’re going to get their own set. Eventually. =)

That will make many people happy.

[19:10] <~COquestionbot> <WebGuest69> What are the end game plans for champions online? What reasons are there to continue to keep playing a character after you hit the level cap?
[19:10] <@cryptic_chronomancer> We have end game content in several areas of the game: PVP, Crafting, Missions, Perks, and Nemesis. All of these systems have content that you can only accomplish after reaching level 40.
[19:10] <@cryptic_chronomancer> The Stronghold Apocalypse opens in PVP. There are crafting components that can only be gained in level 40+ maps and the blueprints to use those are going in soon.
[19:10] <@cryptic_chronomancer> The daily UNITY hot-spots and repeatable high-end lairs are in for mission-fiends There are very long-term perks that will require lots of play to accomplish.
[19:10] <@cryptic_chronomancer> And you can build and defeat up to 18 different Nemesis. The best part is we’re going to build on all of these systems moving forward as well as creating new end-game things for heroes to do.

Which will be interesting. It seems to me, though, from my (limited) experience is that the big problem with Level Cap toons is that, except for incremental wealth improvements, they don’t really advance after they cap out. Regardless of content, that isn’t going to change.

[19:18] <~Cryptic_Daeke> <Kahleek> Will we ever be able to cherry pick which powers to retcon?
[19:18] <@cryptic_chronomancer> While this seems like it would be simple, it actually isn’t. With all of the associated characteristics, talents, advantages, tier requirements and so on, it is difficult to just pull out a power in the middle of the stack, as it were.
[19:18] <@cryptic_chronomancer> Making a change like this will require a lot of work on the technology side, so unfortunately while we’re looking into it, it won’t be any time soon.

I take their word for it, but it’s unfortunate. It would be great to be able to simply say, “Y’know, that power 8 lvls down was a mistake …”

[19:19] <~COquestionbot> <Per_Ignim> Question: Is it intended that a full retcon cost more than 50 times as much as it is reasonable to expect a character to have at any given level?
[19:19] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> Retconning and the Economy: First, there isn’t enough money flowing into the game right now. This is a completely known issue, and we have several different options that we’re testing. Basically, yes, we knowingly erred on the side of a too restrictive money supply to see what trends happened, and be able to catch issues (like dupe bugs) very quickly. Now
[19:19] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> we’re getting ready to make some significant changes to drop rates of items and resources from critters… and all of them are basically going to be “more”. =) The question, of course, is how much more; since neither we nor you wants the economy to be something that changes several times. For retcons in specific, I think that the cost scaling when you go deep
[19:20] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> might be found to be too high even after we’ve inflated the economy to where we want it to be. If so, well, we’ll change it. Easy. The current balance goal is that all of the money you earn in a SINGLE level should allow you to retcon back FIVE steps.

Drops are definitely broken — but, really, that still seems like too expensive a proposition. Maybe I’m spoiled by the steady stream of freespecs on CoX.

[19:24] <~COquestionbot> <draulfox> Question: How often do you guys visit the suggestion forums ? When you do, do you go back many pages and read every thread? How do you select what you read?
[19:25] <~Cryptic_Daeke> Every day. A ton of the higher-ups here are always asking us what players want to see most in the game (aside from the constant balancing and fixes that may be needed). I go through and collect a bunch of the most popular ideas and pass them on.
[19:25] <~Cryptic_Daeke> We also grab ones that we happen to think are really cool ideas as well.
[19:25] <~Cryptic_Daeke> In fact, earlier in the chat we took a question about adding a “Danger Room” to the Power House, and I definitely remember seeing that in the Suggestions forum.
[19:26] <~Cryptic_Daeke> So, even though we don’t respond to the Suggestions forum very often, we’re definitely following it very closely.

Also good to hear.

[19:30] <~COquestionbot> <Shiroi98> question: when will claw powers be revisited? right now its damage is really horrible compared to the other martial arts
[19:31] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> Claws powers: Claws powers are intended to inflict excellent damage over time for their energy cost. If it isn’t, we’ll look at it. Additionally, the “Shredded” debuff that they can inflict raises not only your own dps, but that of every team mate with you. That being said, Claws is a crit – happy set, and you should really spec for a high crit rate to get th
[19:31] <@Cryptic_Balseraph> to get the most out of it.

Margie’s very much enjoying a claws solo toon right now (even as I type).

[19:31] <~COquestionbot> <Feigr> Question: Are there any plans to add a gray scale the palette for powers?
[19:32] <@cryptic_chronomancer> We’re looking into the potential technical issue behind this (hues vs tints) but we have heard your desires and are working to make it happen! I know I’d use it to make a noir munitions character.

Huzzah!

Heroic Tweets for 2009-09-09

  • Launch Devchat Thursday – put your questions on the forum, follow the answers on IRC. http://bit.ly/aX22A #champs #
  • Built a Power Armor toon. Still loathe the power builder animation; kills the character for me. #
  • Twitter stuff is not working in #champs. Devs blame Twitter and an undocumented error code 408. #
  • Meet the #champs GM Leads http://bit.ly/EYPe3 – I do like the "I have this problem, too" model for bug reports. Clever way to prioritize. #
  • "My Characters" on #champs website finally seems to be working, though the picture editor is wonky. But how do we share? http://bit.ly/t98Tc #

Big CO patch

This has been on Test a few days, and it goes live tonight. There’s a lot there, but here are a few highlights that caught my eye.

  • A full Retcon is available for any character created before 2009-09-10 08:30 UTC. To use it, visit the Powers Trainer, choose “Retcon,” and click on “Use Free Reset.” 
  • This patch provides a number of changes to various power sets. Please check the detailed patch notes before making any decisions regarding power purchasing (or before redeeming your free Retcon).

Both very important notes. First off, they’ve decided not to finesse the respec to just characters that were created during the Early Start. Either that was more difficult than believed, or they figured they’d just do the right thing and give everyone a respec (which, given it’s a new game, and they’re doing some further power changes this time, makes sense).

So RTFM!

General

  • […] Changed the way Strength adds to physical melee damage powers. Damage bonus is still capped at 20%, but this cap is now much easier to reach, and can be reached just through some modest effort at collecting gear, without a Characteristic Focus in Strength. This change has NO EFFECT on damage added from taking Strength as a Characteristic Focus. This is a distinct and separate bonus.

I don’t particularly understand this one, but I don’t understand the normal Strength bonus for melee vs. what it sounds like comes when you take Strength as a Characteristic Focus.

  • The help UI now includes an internal game manual.

The more in-game help, the better.

  • Reduced quantity of posts to Twitter and Facebook.

Well, that doesn’t explain much, does it? I’ll have to look and see. I wonder if that will address the 408 error that was being generated by Twitter.

User Interface and Chat

  • The in-game mouse cursor has all-new appearances based on whether you’re pointing at a friend, an enemy, etc.

Good.

  • The minimap now has a settings button on the right side (indicated by a gear). Under settings you can toggle what kind of icons you want the minimap to display.

Useful.

  • Added a new social button to the minimap which will open the social window.

Better than using the menu system,

  • There is now a sell confirmation for double-clicking an item in the store, and by right-clicking an item in your inventory while the store is open. There will not be any confirmation if you click the sell button at the bottom of the store window.

Yes! I’ve sold several things inadvertently that way. “Hmmm, do I want to sell this? No, let’s put it in my … wait, where did it go?

  • Added /itunes and /winamp to set the active music player and open it.

Um … okay.

  • Added search button to social UI.

That sounds helpful.

  • Large windows no longer auto-close fixed-position windows when opened (they still close other large windows, though).

Powers

Margie observes that “now functions properly” usually means a nerf (if not further explained).

Many Power tweaks. Worth reading in detail.

Crafting

  • Added Competent, Skilled, Very Skilled, Highly Skilled to all component descriptions to clarify what band of skill levels they are used in Blueprints.
  • If you have no crafting blueprints, you now get basic instructions in the crafting UI when you open it.

Anything they can do to make this more transparent and easier to understand is well worth it.

By the way, is there a way to tell what school and subspecialty in crafting you’ve taken with a character?

Anyway, as noted, there’s a ton more. Not surprising at this stage of the game, and good that they’re responding as quickly as they are to problems.

Heroic Tweets for 2009-09-08

  • A WoW players guide to Champions Online – Massively http://bit.ly/fBEhr – Not a WoW player myself, but an interesting intro. #
  • Reminder: Pre-Order Grace Period Ending | Champions Online Official Site http://bit.ly/2dDLp5 – Get that box key in! #
  • "My Characters" hasn't vanished from the #champs website; it's now in the drop-down in the upper right. But it still doesn't work. #

Cheating vs. Optimizing and the Battle of the Great Nerf Bat

Massively has a great article on folks learning how best to work MMOs and what the Devs end up doing to deal with those occasions (if they choose to deal with them).

Cheating, exploits, and the game-mechanics behind the nerf – Massively 

All manner of such exploitation of the intricate game-mechanics of MMOGs have become institutionalized, leading to the general stratification of roles within the game, from Tank to Crowd-Control. Much of that is what is expected of us, even hoped for.

At the same time, you have 250,000+ players examining every possible combination of races, classes, powers, abilities, gears and buffs, looking for an edge. Looking for that combination that makes your Elven Rogue stand out from all the other Elven Rogues. The one that gets you picked for the A-team and not left behind when the guild goes raiding.

Eventually someone finds it. Usually a whole bunch of someones. Some combination of race, class, gear and skills transforms you from Neeshka to Prince Nuada, head and shoulders among the other characters of your type. That combination of Elf, Rogue, Flurry-of-Blades, and twin Spark Daggers seals the deal, and makes you awesome.

And you feel good. You’re playing by the game’s rules, and you’ve found an edge. You know a trick that nobody else knows, and that’s a great feeling. But someone else is going to figure it out, if they haven’t already.

Inside of a month, the developers/operators notice that half the server population are Elven Rogues with twin Spark Daggers, and pumping their Flurry-of-Blades skills. Most of the rest are healers, just so they get to go along on raids.

It’s not that the combo is overpowered, necessarily, but it makes everyone not playing that particular combo feel underpowered.

The devs are faced with a choice now. Either rename the game to World of Elven Roguecraft: The DaggerSpark Flurry, or change things up so that this particular combo doesn’t make every other combination seem pathetic.

Whether other things get boosted, or your things get nerfed, you’re not happy. All that special magic has gone, and your Elven Rogue is just another undistinguished character again.

The question is, were you cheating?

Generally, there’s stuff we know is cheating, stuff we’re sure is not cheating, and a whole lot of stuff in the middle that’s individually decided by millions of players per day, who each generally don’t think they’re actually cheating. They’re maximizing the benefits that they get from the game mechanics.

Hey, if I asked you to kill ten powerfully dangerous wolves with a bow and arrows, are you going to stand down there where they can maul you to kibble, or are you going to stand on something to prevent them getting to you while you pull off this undeniably dangerous chore?

Right. Because you’re not stupid.

The question is, most “fair” players understand the difference between cheating (if I do A and B in an unnatural fashion then I can get lots of XP for minimal effort — see Meow Missions in the early days of CoX AE — where “unnatural” means “not in keeping with the conventions of the genre), and simply optimizing play (“Hey, build X gives me a huge advantage over build Y, so I’m going to be an X”). Devs, though, see that on a continuum, and have to decide in every case hwne they are going to intervene with the nerf bat to “balance” things properly.

It’s always interesting — and rarely uncontroversial. Since even the most obvious “cheats” have their defenders (“Hey, I pay my $15/month, I’m entitled to get to the level cap in 12 hours”).

The problem being, of course, that we are incented to find ideals, and can think of ways that they are represented in-genre (both Blue Beetle and Superman are cool — but there’s no question that any Dev would consider the two unbalanced as character classes, and few players would choose the former vs. the latter). If the Devs spend too much time whacking on optimizations, then there’s no real incentive to excel.

What it comes down to is a every real-life conflict. We believe in equality of opportunity, but all the Devs (like the courts) can actually judge on is equality of outcome. If the latter is out of whack, then they assume (possibly rightly) that the former is messed up.

So it goes.

Two gripes on CO – Travel Powers and Talking

I love the Acrobatics travel power. It’s coolness in the extreme — the leaping, the tumbling, all that. It’s even better in a bestial stance, but even for normals it’s extremely keen.

I’ll never take it agan. Nor Super-Speed. Possibly not Super-Jump (on the principle that what goes up must come down), though I remain open on that; Teleport might be similarly of concern.

Here’s my problem. Aggro. As in, “there are angry mobs everywhere, you can’t avoid them, and as soon as they aggro you as you run / caper past, you slow down, and they shoot you from afar and follow you to the ends of the Earth.”

I was running Kitsune in Canada (Phase II) yesterday. We had fishy business up by the river, and it was a freaking epic quest for me to get from Steelhead to mission sites, time and again. I felt like I was infiltrating behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, Margie’s Surprise waggled her little fairy wings and flitted above the fray. “Do you need me to watch over for you?”

Feh.

If Travel Powers didn’t suddenly slow down when you aggro or when you’re aggroed, but only when you actually attack someone, it wouldn’t be a problem. As it stands, though, it’s a serious pain, and one that I can easily avoid by simply not taking some delightful powers.

Related to that — is it too much to ask for radio messaging with contacts? Even CoX realized a long time back that having to trot back to the contact every time is a real Quality of LIfe annoyance, and given the above concerns, it can be hazardous to one’s health, too.

Sure, the desert is subject to radiation interference, and the auroras in the tundra are something fierce … but surely we can get a secure radio contact with Dr. Fred or Lt. Joe-Bob after we run a mish or two for them. Not to mention Justiciar …

Heroic Tweets for 2009-09-04

  • Today's Outage: September 3, 2009 http://bit.ly/2XIzY9 The Official Explanation (and +1 day game time for all). #champs #
  • Garnet has completed Black Box Down #
  • Garnet has completed Admired #
  • Garnet has reached level 10! #
  • GameSpy: The Future of #CityOfHeroes: Going Rogue – http://bit.ly/FBZTM – Good GR summary. Latter will appropriately be non-trivial process. #
  • Star Trek Online Accepting Closed Beta Applications | Ten Ton Hammer http://bit.ly/24lPep – Since a lot of you seem interested in this. #
  • Kitsune has completed Black Box Down #
  • Kitsune has reached level 10! #
  • Kitsune has completed Admired #
  • Kitsune has completed Secure the Perimeter #
  • Kitsune has completed Do-Gooder #

CoX: I16 Overview

Now at the CoX site:

New Character Creator 

Not only does the newly updated Character Creator allow players to jump directly between Archetype, Powersets, Costumes and Character ID in any order without losing progress, but it also allows you to select your colors and theme for each individual power or apply it to the entire powerset. These themes will allow for color tinting of geometry and particle effects such as energy blast colors and force field colors. The primary and secondary colors of any power effect can be changed individually for each power in the set.

Being able to jump between customization areas is a great boon, and being able to test a name right as you start designing a character is way, way, way overdue. The color spectrum choices are well-integrated and versatile; within this area, at least, CoX has leapfrogged past CO.

Customizable Powers 

Customizable powersets include Cold Domination, Dark Armor, Dark Blast, Dark Melee, Dark Miasma, Earth Control, Electric Armor, Electric Assault, Electric Blast, Electric Melee, Electricity Manipulation, Empathy, Energy Assault, Energy Aura, Energy Blast, Energy Manipulation, Energy Melee, Fiery Aura, Fire Assault, Fire Blast, Fire Control, Fire Manipulation, Fire Melee, Force Field, Gravity Control, Ice Armor, Ice Assault, Ice Blast, Ice Control, Ice Manipulation, Ice Melee, Illusion, Invulnerability, Kinetics, Mental Manipulation, Mind Control, Necromancy, Ninjitsu, Pain Domination, Plant Control, Poison, Psionic Assault, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Radiation Emission, Regeneration, Sonic Resonance, Sonic Attack, Spines, Stone Armor, Stone Melee, Storm Summoning, Super Reflexes, Thermal Radiation, Thorny Assault and Willpower.

Super Strength and Martial Arts will each receive an alternate animation for their powers, and Stone Armor and Necromancy will include limited customization.

Customizable for most of these means, aside from color, you can choose the animation to use (i.e., don’t like the way Ice Assault looks? Use a different animation choice to cast it). Changes to MA basically let you do fisticuffs rather than kung fu kicks — excellent idea to get around that without having to design a separate power set.

Powerset Proliferation – More powersets are now in the hands of Archetypes who couldn’t use them previously! Blasters will have access to Radiation Blast, Brutes will get their Claws on, Controllers can now freeze it up with Cold Domination, and Corruptors get to feel the “twang” of Archery and Trick Arrow. Defenders can go high-tech with Assault Rifle and Traps, and Dominators can pulverize their enemies with Earth Assault. Masterminds heat things up with Thermal Radiation, Scrappers and Tankers get ready to fry their foes with Electric Melee and Electric Armor, and finally Stalkers get to swing their own mighty Broadsword.

I can understand why there was a desire, initially, to keep CoV and CoH as having separate power features — but that’s pretty much long gone now, and integrating the powers fully between the two is utterly sensible (and makes the Going Rogue work that much more straightforward).

Enhanced Difficulty Options – Players can now fine-tune their difficulty levels by telling the game exactly how they want to be treated. They can choose to be regarded as a specific size team (even if they are soloing), and even have control over the level they are detected to be when it comes to the dynamic spawn system. So if you ever wanted to see if your Scrapper could take on a map that is populated for an 8 person team, four levels higher than your own, now you can! The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled, just as before, and you can change your difficulty settings at any Hero Corp.’s Representative in Paragon City or Fateweaver in the Rogue Isles.

This is the one I’m least sure about, if only because I’m not certain the finer granularity will be useful for most people (me). I also think it’s a goofy conceit that you have to go to someone to change your rep/fate.

It’s not world-changing, but the I16 stuff sounds like some good, solid QoL possibiltiies for CoX.