Countdown

Psi-clone and Amorpha are at 49.32.
Ran a slew of AV missions, though down at Heroic so that they were manageable Elite Bosses. Infernal, Dreck, Battle Maiden, Daibolique. Only the first gave us trouble — and two deaths each of debt (largely the result of my eventually drawing aggro from the room full of demons and Amorpha either dropping after I was down or dropping trying to save me).
Still … slow, steady progress.

Don’t cross the Devs

In CoH, all you have to worry about if you get reported for misbehavior is being banned. In the new historical recreation MMORPG Roma Victor, offending player characters get … crucified.

Roma Victor is an online recreation of Britain in Roman times, where players live virtual lives as slaves and citizens of that all-conquering Empire. The world is currently in the final stages of testing and will officially launch on July 1st 2006, after which thousands of players will be able to live out their own virtual lives within ancient Roman-occupied Britannia.
Cynewulf, who is the first player within Roma Victor to receive this brutal punishment [for “ganking” newly-appeared characters], will be hung on a cross for a full seven days on full public display in the digital reconstruction of the provincial town of Corstopitum (modern day Corbridge in Northumberland, England).
Kerry Fraser-Robinson, RedBedlam’s CEO says: “Roma Victor has been designed from the outset to offer an historically authentic and realistic virtual world. Although crucifixion is nowadays synonymous with persecution and religious symbolism, in 180CE it was just one of many severe punishments used by the Romans to punish criminals and to send a clear message out to other potential wrong-doers. And since our online world is historically authentic, we feel that applying this punishment to cheats, hackers and other virtual wrongdoers is not only appropriate, but also adds to the gaming experience by resonating with classical history.”
Crucifixion is to be used as a form of player ‘ban’ within the virtual world of Roma Victor, with the length of the ban reflecting the severity of the punishment. For cheating by exploiting a bug and advancing his or her character’s skills unfairly, for example, a player might typically receive a seven-day ban; multiple or more serious offences will result in a longer (or even permanent) ban.

Nice. And people get to stand below the character and ridicule him, too.
Maybe banned players in CoH should be thrown in the Zig. Or handed over to Dr. Vahzilok for … experimentation. The possibilities are endless …
(via BoingBoing)

Costume Curiosities, the Sequel

CuppaJo on the resolution to the CoV costume thang:

  1. The /cov command is being removed on Test today, Live tomorrow. More warnings about how it could screw your toon up to use it (though the Dev response was low-key enough that the risk seems small).
  2. Until I7:

    For heroes that have a villain costume part OR villains that have a hero part: Those “rogue” costume parts will remain on your character until you visit the tailor again.
    When you visit the tailor your rogue costume parts will be replaced with “generic” costume items. You can then change them for a fee to normal costume items OR cancel out and leave your rogue costume items in place. Note – this means that if you want to keep your rogue costume items you cannot change anything on your costume. However – you can change other costumes that do not contain rogue items.

    Fair enough.

  3. For I7 and beyond:

    In Issue 7 the costume creator and tailors will work like they do now if you own just CoV or just CoH – however, if you own BOTH you will have access to both sets of costumes for all of your characters. NOTE: You must have upgraded to a combined account to get access to this option.
    If you have a combined account and choose to wait until issue 7 to change your rogue costume – your rogue items will not be made generic.

    So … and I don’t recall this being spelled out before … you’ll have access to CoV costume parts in CoH only if you have accounts in both games. Interesting. Though somewhat controversial, since the CoV players already have access to nearly all CoH costume parts, but not vice-versa.

UPDATE: Patch isn’t going in tonight. Extra costume tokens will also be going out (tacit recognition that folks may have screwed themselves up because of a screw-up by the devs). Nice.
Fazenda still looks good.

A tiny recap

Not a lot of CoH news of late — my travel and other Real Life concerns have been sort of interfering with the Important Stuff.

  1. I actually managed to get to the hotel in time on Sunday night to play a bit with Margie (in and amongst late-night conference calls). We have a mic set up on Margie’s machine now, along with her headphone; with my notebook on the other end, we were able to use GTalk to do voice communication. Fun time running around with Hildy and Torchy. Watching smouldering piles of bodies at Hildy’s feet never gets old.
  2. Margie’s got Blue Point up to 35.4. Nice. She’s actually getting up high enough that her experience is guiding some design changes for Amorpha.
  3. Margie headed off to bed early last night (after Space Night), so I spent a few hours soloing with Lynn on Striga, getting her up to 26.6. Yay. Easy times with Council (including Vampyrii and Warwolves), a bit rougher with Banished Pantheon (like everyone, I fricking hate Storm Shamans).

Need to get some more time in, in particular with Psi-clone and Amorpha. I’ll make a note of that.

I7 Interview

Positron chats on I7 and beyond. Some highlights …

… When we add newspaper-style missions for CoH, they will get their own versions of Mayhem Missions … “Going Rogue” is a huge undertaking on our part. Making sure Masterminds work in CoH, Defenders don’t “break” CoV, etc. We have a few other systems we want to get out of the way first before we tackle this can of worms [after I7], but we have been laying the groundwork for it for a while. … Masterminds are getting a “Thugs” set in Issue 7, as this was one of the most requested type of Henchmen. Thugs get dual weapons, shotguns, and the ability to call out a “Gang War” on your enemies. We did a lot of things with Thugs that set the groundwork for future stuff, like dual sidearms and trench coats. … Future updates will have more Epic Archetypes for both Heroes and Villains. Epic Archetypes add a lot to the game, so we don’t want to just slap some powers together and call it an EAT. We have big, big plans for Epic Archetypes in upcoming issues. … [Regarding Recluse’s Victory] Giant robots with Mastermind-style controls. I will leave you with that.

WARNING! WARNING! DANGER! DANGER!

BD suggested I actually post this as an actual post, rather than buried in a comment. Regarding the “/cov” undocumented command for enabling CoV costume parts in CoH, CuppaJo warns:

We will be fixing this issue very soon with a patch. This command was never meant to be used and thus has never been through the QA process. Using this command could cause your character to become corrupt and thus the devs advise that you do NOT use this command or encourage others to do so.

Fazenda still exists, though it did cause me to crash during parts browing. You’ve been warned (and I’m going to eschew further use of it).
And, further:

This command was created for use by Devs/QA only during CoV beta. It just so happens that this command was set to be available to everyone instead of just Devs/QA on accident at some point. Thus – it was never tested by QA in the same way they test commands intended for players.
The command changes more than just your costume options – as people have noted it also changes your ID screen among other things. Also – there are problems when you access CoV costumes this way – some faces are messed up – some costumes are not there. It was never intended for player use – it’s not a “controlled leak” or anything like that.
At this time we advise changing your costume to a complete hero costume. You can do this by zoning to another zone. When you return to icon your tailor screen should be back to normal and you should be able to change your costume back to what it was. I have no info on whether or not we will offer free tailor sessions to compensate for this. I wouldn’t count on it.
We are working on a fix – but spending extra time testing to make sure it is done right. All I know about the fix for sure is that it will remove this slash command from the game for players. As of yet I do NOT know if the fix will remove any CoV costumes on heroes or anything else. We are still investigating the best solution.

Hmmmmm.

Costume curiosities

Hildy and Torchy were at Icon tonight, getting their capes.
As I was exiting, I noticed someone with a local tell, “Type /cov 1 for cov costume parts.”
And Margie went back in, typed that command (“/cov 1”), clicked on Icon … and had access to villainous costume parts.
Interesting …
(There are, we note, some very cool Villain capes. Including “Feathers,” which Avo should very much look into.)

UPDATE: Why, yes, that is Fazenda with real fishnet stockings. And a top hat. Yay!

Ding-ding!

Psi-clone and Amorpha double-dinged 49 at the same time last night. Can’t imagine we’ll manage to time it that closely for 50, but that would be pretty keen.
Only (now) 9.5 pips to go! Start planning the party!

Sprucing up the joint

Issue 7 will include various and sundry base enhancements.
I’d be much more excited if I were more excited about bases. I mean, it seems to be de rigeur for SGs these days, but I’m not feeling the Huge Need for Base Goodness.
Still, it will be nice to have some storage lockers for Salvage, Enhancements, and Inspriations. And it will be pretty to be able to put super=logos on “banners, tables, holograms, and other items.”
Actually, rewind there a second.

Tired of not being able to store those special Inspirations you’ve been lugging around for months? Do you wish you could leave your Salvage and Enhancements in your cozy citadel for you and your compatriots to use later? With the new Storage Items you will be able to create Inspiration receptacles, Enhancements containers, and bins to keep all your Salvage in a convenient spot for all to share!

Really? Okay, that’s pretty keen. Heck, it would be nice to be able to stash away some Enhancements that I can’t use … yet … for when I can.

Scrapping by the numbers

Dev Castle seems insistent on providing (gasp) actual numbers behind powers. Doesn’t he realize That’s Not Fun?!

base accuracy (for most powers, there is variation within the set)
Broadsword 1.05
Claws 1.00
Dark Melee 1.00
Katana 1.05
Martial Arts 1.05
Spines 1.00

I.e., Katana, Broadsword, and Martial Arts have an intrinsically slightly higher chance to hit. (Balanced, ostensibly, by other things.)
(And, of course, I’m kidding about it Not Being Fun. As long as there’s a measure of balance, seeing numbers doesn’t spoil things, at least for me. If it were just numbers? That would be unfun. But having the numbers available to provide the feedback that RL experience would provide in a way that gameplay experience doesn’t? That’s just fine by me.)

Get in the zone

The devs are soliciting player opinions about upcoming zones.

The City of Heroes and City of Villains universe is expanding and we want to hear from you about it! As we contemplate where your heroes and villains might venture next, we want to know what excites you the most.
Below is a list of 11 themes we are currently looking at! Tell us what you think by selecting your top 2 choices.
Let your imagination run wild and picture how these themes might fit into the existing CoH and CoV world.

Hmmm. The choices are:

  1. The Moon – Blasted landscapes and futuristic moonbases. Sounds like wandering through Boomtown. On the other hand, imagine 1/6 gravity (leaping! knockback!) and vacuum issues.
  2. Mars – Lower gravity and atmo problems, too, but some cool alien landscapes and hidden civilizations could be cool.
  3. Space Station – Sort of like the Moon crossed with the Shadow Shard. Hrm. Never mind.
  4. Rikti Home World – City of Rikti! Has possibilities (especially if we expand the number of types of Rikti we see). I want to see Rikti civilians and cops running around in fear at heroic presences.
  5. Arctic – Not that interesting per se; it would depend on what’s hiding out there in the ice and snow. Though the extreme weather bits could be interesting (slow reduction in endurance, health, speed, except for folks with cold resistance).
  6. Desert – As the Arctic.
  7. Underwater – Slowed movement, breathing issues, and “flight” for all. Could be fun.
  8. Post-apocalyptic – I can visit there via Portal Corp any time.
  9. Jungle – Oh, boy! Perez Park II. Bleah.
  10. Circus/Carnival – City of Carnies. Oooookay. Whatever. I guess it could be pretty.
  11. Gothic Horror – As opposed to Dark Astoria? Again, could be pretty.

So a fair number of interesting possibilities, but aside from the environmental threats and prettiness, the key will be what sort of story, critters, threats, and backstory is going on there.
That said, I think I’ll vote for the Moon and Underwater.

Claw-claw (no longer) bites

As of I7, at least, according to Castle:

Some folks took one of my posts to mean that Claws sets for Heroes and Villains were being reduced in DPS. This is not true! The statement was along the lines of “My changes made it TOO good, so I have to tone them down a bit.”
Here are the major changes coming in I7:
Swipe: Changed animation to a Two Hit swipe. Cast Time reduced to 1.5
Strike: New Animation, basically a stab to the midsection. Cast Time is 1.17 seconds.
Slash: Uses Strike’s old animation. Cast Time 1.33 seconds.

Better times and no more face-scratching animation. Excellent. I would create a new claws scrapper — except that I suspect everyone else will, too.

Monday, Monday

Hostess Heroes time, with both Ho Ho and Princess Peep dinging to 15.
Did a few KR mishes, then a couple of Perez mishes. The latter of which were both very low level, but we did get a chance — my first time — to fight the Kraken.
Which was, frankly, a bit of a disappointment. Nobody really took any damage, and he was not nearly as impressive-looking as I’d expect.
Still, cool times. Alas, next Monday I am out of town (or, rather, traveling back in town), so likely won’t get on. Which makes me sad, because right now Ho Ho’s one of the slightly more experienced in the group, which is helpful for a tank. Oh, well.
Also need to keybind some witty one-liners for her.

Weekend Review

FRIDAY
In the afternoon, Lynn, who I got up to 26 (and the “SOOOOOOOOOOUL DRAIN!”). Need to do some journaling with her
Bopping about with Psi-clone and Amorpha. Ran a couple of AVs (as Elite Bosses) with very little trouble. Then headed over to the Cascade Archepelago for some of A’s missions.
I am hereby announcing plans to respec all my players to Fly, if we plan to spend any time over in that neck of the extradimensional world. Watching Amorpha try to SJ her way between various contacts and the like was frustrating (for her more than for me).
And the kora fruit mission we eventually got? I mean, even if you could still farm them the way you used to, it would still hardly seem worth it for some top-tier Inspirations. Bah.
Back to the AVs (and clearing out all the Infected Scientists and demoic cohorts by Portal Corp).
SATURDAY
Torchielle and Hildegard on Striga. Who can ask for anything more? We both hit 23. Hildy did encounter some debt problems as she gets used to the different level of defenses, but we’re still leaving piles of smoking bodies behind us.
We teamed up late in the evening with Major Rogers, who was a couple of levels above us. Nice to add another person to the mix, even though it made me very aware that we have a pretty fixed MO (no moreso than, I suppose, PC/A) that needs to be flexible for guest stars. And that will need to be flexible in the future for critters we can’t (or don’t want to) just herd-and-fry. Torchy has some alternate flame powers coming up (her snipe and her boom), but when we start facing some of the exotic bad guys, we’re going to need to be more flexible.
Lots of good fun. Think I’m going to add Stealth to her, just to aid in the setup. (I’d add Invis, too, if I could find a power slot. Thinking of Stealth for Lynn, too.)
SUNDAY
In the afternoon, more Torchy/Hildy stuff. No more deaths, two instances of Maestro, and Torchy dinged 24 (and another fire blasty power, yay).
In the evening, we brought on Psi-clone and Amorpha. Did a couple of mundane mishes, then brought in T’lauro and Pizzaz as SKs and took down three AVs (as actual AVs, since that’s what happpens when you have four on a team): Dreck, Bobcat, and Neuron. A few deaths from the melee types, helped by having two Empaths on the team, plus buffs and holds and good stuff like that.
PC/A are about 2.5 pips from 49. Yay!

PUGsly

Been sneaking odd moments to solo with Lynn (she’s just shy of 26 now), and, esp. since hitting Striga, she’s been getting lots of invites for PUGs. And I usually go ahead and take them, as it’s often at hours that there’s not a lot of Alliance folks on.
THE GOOD

  • It’s good eats. Lynn tends to play cautiously on her own, which makes overall XP/min relatively low. On a PUG, willingly or unwilingly, it’s usually faster-moving, and overall XP/min goes up (even with debt).
  • Scrappers are usually in decent demand. And I’m often the solo scrapper on a team (and more often than not, the only melee character, which can be kinda dangerous but fun).
  • Most PUGs are okay. Some seriously suck, but they are balanced by ones that are really cool. And it’s worth noting that PUGs are often only partially that way — a core of players who know each other and who want to flesh out a team.
  • Being a manager at work, I prefer to let someone else make the decisions (assuming they make them competently). For that matter, I never organize a PUG myself. Too many decisions, and not getting paid for ’em.
  • Things are always different. The line between “practiced comfortable playstyle” in an established team (or duo) and the boredom of “lather, rinse, repeat” is a fuzzy one, and subject to being crossed based on mood. Running with different players adds some variety.
  • There’s always the chance of finding someone you’d like to adventure with again. Hasn’t happened to me yet (not helped by cycling through various alts), but you never can tell.

THE BAD

  • No RP to speak of, of course.
  • It’s a pain when you get brought in as the 2nd or 3rd player and the leader won’t go forward until a full team of 8 is recruited. (Yes, that lowers overall XP/min.) I like large teams, mind you — while it increases the chances of someone doing something horribly team-killing stupid, it also adds to the flexibility of the group.
  • Some leaders can’t lead out of a paper bag, which often as not means that decisions of when to go, which passage to take, etc., get made by the least patient or most rash team player.
  • Some players … are just stupid. Or inconsiderate. Or both. They’re the ones that everyone’s waiting for to go off and sell between mishes (every time), the ones who run in before buffs/debuffs/mezzes/planning takes place, etc. (every time), etc. A PUG is something like Russian Roulette in terms of getting these.

THE UGLY

  • Team leaders who stand around excessively trying to find an Empathy Defender usually do so because they know they’re going to need one.
  • I feel an odd commitment to a team, even if it’s strangers. Which makes pulling out of a disastrous one sometimes difficult … though a trip to the hospital is always a good excuse.

The good outweighs the other stuff, for the moment. I’d rather team up with Alliance folks, but depending on the “kindness of strangers” isn’t a bad approach right now.

Gratz, Puck!

Puck Bunny dinged 50 last night in an all-star Psychic Babbage (a fine coincidence of initials there) mission.
(And let me say three things: (1) never seen Babbage drop so fast, (2) it was great that Margie was able to get home just in time for the festivities to start, and(3) it was a fine personal moment having Psi-clone team-Deceive Babbage.)
So, on to the photos:

Puck dings 50. She was about 40K under the level when we started, but we were able to get here there after the third or fourth mob. There should be several shots of this — I noticed more than one hero sitting out the actual melee in order to point their cameras.

Multiple teams here, of course, formed by starting a team then sending folks into the mission and dropping there. I was personally privileged to be on the “main” (PB) team, but everyone had a blast.
L-R: Justice Stryke, Unknown Badge, Seventy-Six, Sword of Asgard, Kessa, Puck Bunny (yay!), Hyperthermian, Psi-clone, Noelle Frost, Malcalpyse, Avocet, ShockTherapy, Stateswoman, Li Nakamura, Amorpha.
All of which reminded me of: And there came a day unlike any other, when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were united against a common threat! On that day The Avengers were born – to fight foes that no single hero could withstand!
I mean, frankly, there’s no threat I wouldn’t stack this 15 up against. Bring on the Rikti Invasion II!

Focus on Puck, looking forward to … the future? A vacation? FP Tribuneship? A tall, frosty Molson?

A bit of post-ding hi-jinx. She deserves it.

Great fun, PB (and BD): thanks for the invite. Hopefully we can get Amorpha and Psi-clone up to there in the not-too-distant future.

No CoV in Tennessee, it seems

Or, for that matter, no CoH in Tennessee, either, if a certain state senator there has his way.

State Sen. Tommy Kilby of Wartburg has proposed a bill making it a misdemeanor for stores to sell or rent violent video games to anyone.
Kilby says he put the bill together after getting feedback from concerned parents and law enforcement officials.
The bill states games depicting violence against anyone including authority figures, such as police, should be outlawed.

So no more taking out RIPs on Mercy Island, I guess. Or seeing villains beating on cops in the Hollows.
Heck, what qualifies as an authority figure? How about the bad guys who “rule” in other Portal Corp-accessed dimension? Can I still actually try to take down Psychic Babbage? How about assaulting Arachnos agents when we’re ostensibly in Rogue Isles territory (as a hero or a villain)?
Are the bosses in the Circle of Thorns religious leaders? Do they qualify? Are we going to run into trouble with anti-hate laws, too?
Or, for that matter — as super-heroes, are we heroes considered authority figures, too? If we’re deputized in some fashion, I’d think so. Does this mean that all the villains will have to be nerfed to scream and run away?
Short of that, will I get in trouble if I take my CoH-loaded notebook to our Oak Ridge or Tullahoma offices?
Goofy.
(via Les)