Hmmm. Lots more Enemy status stuff, it seemed, as we ran into our first big Tsoo group tonight under Ish 4. Yellow Ink Men, Sorcerers, even toggle knock-down by Ancestor Spirits — it was a pretty brutal combat that took out (or drove off) Amorpha, Zazi, and Psi-clone twice, before we called in Avocet for help (thanks, Avo).
It might have been just the concentration — a good dozen or more of those guys, two, three, four sorcerers (more than PC could control), etc. But I got knocked down a lot more, our toggles got knocked down a lot more, and it was all in all a nasty brawl.
Of course, PC also dinged to 21, so that was good. Fully slotted the rest of Group Invis, so the 20 second delay between it going down and my being able to throw it again should be a lot shorter.
When first I practice to Deceive
Okay, I’ll admit that Psi-clone is a Deceive junky. It’s never-ending fun for him to tweak with the baddies’ brains, especially when it means that they’re busy attacking their friends, or (with Tsoo Sorcerers) actually healing people on your side.
But best thing going yet … started fighting with Sky Raiders tonight. Discovered that when a group is attacked, an Engineer in the group immediately sets up a Force Field generator for a Dispersion bubble.
Except, if Psi-clone turns him first, not only does the guy still do it, but the bubble works on behalf of the heroes — as long as the Engineer stays Deceived. Yeah!
Hey, look, Ma! I’m a Bubbler! By proxy!
(Actually, it’s also kind of funny to see the guy build an FF generator, and then immediately attack it.)
Issue 4 is live!
Per Doyce, LJ CoH, and just about everyone else who wasn’t stuck on a phonecon whilst repairing their Firefox installation …
Funny stuff is going on … and me stuck at the office, dammit. 🙂
Although — Margie tells me that most of the servers are showing as “Down” or “Unknown” — except the Test Server, which shows as doing just fine. Heh.
As for actual rules changes, I’ve mentioned some here previously, but a few other items gleaned here and about:
- Costume/appearance sliders are available to all characters via Icon. Just send money …
- Knockback! For (well, against) heroes!
- Lots of new status effects for villains. Various new power protections from same. Lots of power changes, enemy power changes, enough other crap to apparently render every guide up on the boards obsolete …
- Coalition Chat! That should help the Alliance of Champions quite a bit.
- PvP Arena yadda-yadda-yadda.
- Experience distance/map/mission limits yadda-yadda-yadda.
- Construction on University Campuses has begun in Steel Canyon and Founder
City of Statistics
Some CoH stats:
More than 10 million characters were created in City of Heroes, of those 10 million:
o 27 percent were of mutant origin
o 24 percent were of magic origin
o 18 percent were of natural origin
o 16 percent were of science origin
o 15 percent were of technology origins
The 10 million characters created in City of Heroes is equivalent to the combined populations of Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia.
And that’s not counting all the citizenry wandering around the Manhattan-sized burg. As one commenter put it, “I think that explains why every good name I think up is taken.”
And there’s more …
The Old Order Changeth
When I got home last night, Margie was busy running Toxic Sister, trying to get her to level to Sister Chinook so we could try that combo.
I’d reached one of those decisions I never realize I’ve reached until the cusp comes and went ahead and (sniff) deleted Selene (after passing on her worldly possessions ot Toxic Sister. She was the second character I did, but she just wasn’t working for me.
Then I rebuilt onto Champion Suzy Atom, the Inv/Energy tanker I’d played with on Infinity, and went around trying her out. I’d done some research and come up with most of the build I wanted for her, at least in the first dozen levels or so. And I had a lot of fun up through Kitten’s dinner time.
Well, Margie swung by and saw what I was doing. And when I said that Suzy would be good to duo with a squishie, if she had a character in mind, she built on to Champion Star Protector, a Dark/Storm defender. And while I was up seeing Kitten to bed, got him levelled up to Suzy. Then we spent the evening carving through Hellions like butter.
I think the team-up is going to work.
The second half of the evening was getting into some Consortium play. Suzy and Star were out levelling in front of Galaxy City HQ, when I spotted someone whose name was familiar …
Ah. That someone, Synoptic, had applied to join Consortium, with a fun backstory, and with Hyperthermian (whose player I know) vouching for her. Now I’ve been assuming that most of the applicants I get are alts, so I was kind of thinking Synoptic was an alt of Hyperthermian’s character — but, it turned out, not, as Hype’s player not only chatted with Margie while I was chatting with Synoptic, he later joined us (as did Avocet, making it quite a party).
Suzy said a few things, went inside, and Psi-clone made a hurried appearance. We RPed the interview more than I was expecting, and, in the end, enlisted Synoptic as a new member. Woo-hoo.
Still have no idea who she is, though I now know more of who she isn’t. The “faces behind the masks” aspect of CoH is always kind of interesting to me.
Eight is not enough
Rrg.
Somehwere, somehow, I got the impression that server transfer might be on the table for Issue 4 — shifting heroes between servers. But it now doesn’t look like that’s the case (or, at least, I can’t find any reference to it).
I’m sure there’s some very good reason for that, but it’s irksome. Because it means that if I want to (a) play some of the alts I’ve rolled up lately and am intrigued by, and (b) play with the friends and groups on Champion that I’m used to, I need to (c) free up some slots on Champion.
Who’s staying …
- Velvet Jones – No chance. She’s a fixture. And fun. And she just picked up a new casual outfit from Icon.
- Psi-clone – Again, definitely staying. Way too much of an investment. And I like the powers. And he’s making a name for himself.
- Torchielle – I like her. I like the power set, the look, the character. She’s staying.
Who’s (probably) staying …
- Truly Unstable – Fun. Crazy. Rad/Rad. Short and frenetic and oversexed and going insane. What’s not to enjoy?
- O F F I C E R – Also fun, and doing pretty well, even if I’m just not Scrapper material as a player.
- Sister Chinook – I got inspired as to Ice as Margie was looking at some guides, so I’m going to give SC (who I like, visually) another chance.
Who’s (probably) going …
- Honeygun – If I want a blaster, I’ll go with Torchielle. I’ve decided that AR/Dev is just too annoying as a power set.
- Selene – Trying a respec on her, but it might be easier just to do something different altogether. If I want a scrapper, I have OFFICER.
Who’s (probably) coming …
- Molly Magpie – Grav/Bubble. She’s fun, she’s sweet, she’s enjoyable to play, I like her visually ..
- Taste of Honey – Honeygun’s “replacement.” She went down into the caverns … and came back … changed …
- Suzy Atom – The power-packed mighty maid of, um, mighty power. Perky. Inv/Energy Tank.
Those are the three alts I generated that I’ve been thinking of the most, which makes them most likely to come on board. Though, as you can see, I have three of them, and only two “sure” slots to replace. Yes, that is a problem.
And this doesn’t even count the “Mr. & Mrs. Thunderclap” pair that Margie and I want to play, or the Princess Kittenyboo I have in mind.
And that doesn’t mention the question of how to find time to do all of these concepts justice …
I’m sure I’ll think of something.
Tempting fate
While Margie was pushing a new scrapper through her paces yesterday afternoon (possibly as a partner for Sister Chinook), I was busy letting Velvet stretch her legs.
Ended up in a pick-up team, which gets a definite C+ — nobody on the team was stupid, but nobody was very disciplined (no “Ready,” no planning/coord). The roster kept changing, too — I was on for about 4 hours with them, I think, and only two others were constants; the rest came and went. The Team Leader didn’t have any hesitation about simply inviting more folks in, and we were running at 8 members (with all the villain pop implications of that) most of the time.
Funniest moment was our second door mish, which turned out to be Lost in Steel Canyon. First hallway, blue-white. Piece of cake, and someone complained as to whether we could do a real mission next time, in a difficult zone, for decent XP.
Shortly after that, we had our hats handed to us. Pull too many high-level orange-red Lost, and the team is goin’ down, clown.
I’m rather proud that Velvet managed, despite a mediocre Healer, to avoid dying, despite, oh, three or four near-total-party-kills in that particular “low-XP” mission. I kept a good eye on my HP, as well as that of others, and didn’t hesitate to pound F6 and advance to the rear.
Discovered the fun of range-taunting. Get a controller that has an area slow/knockdown sort of power. He sets that up. Velvet stands at the edge and just taunts, drawing all fire from those who are in it or are still on the far side. This lets the blasters (of which we had several) to their thing without taking big hits from the nasty ranged weapons.
It works great — if you have a decent healer.
Eventually we cleared that mish, and moved back to IP, a Sky Raiders mish. Started out yellow-white, progressed to yellow-orange (and another NTPK, as we all managed to attack a big cluster of them in an open office atrium from multiple sides — which meant they had us surrounded, not the other way around), and eventually ran into a room that was full of red-purples for me — and I was the highest in the group.
It was getting to be Kitten dinner time by then, a couple of others had left, and I didn’t see how we were getting any further. So I departed as well.
Managed, mostly through that “low” Steel mission, to rack up about 6 pips for Velvet’s march to 23.
I considered, afterwards, if I should have called on some friends pr SG companions (incl. higher level ones) to lend a hand. Honestly, though, I didn’t feel good enough about the team to put other folks in that kind of danger. But something to consider next time.
ALT-MANIA! ALT-MANIA! ALT-MANIA!
With word that all characters would be getting First Anniversary Free Respecs today, Margie and I spent last evening cranking out a truck-load of alts (which seems a bit ironic to do — creating new characters with an eye toward respecs — but, what the heck).
Lots of fun, and I didn’t take nearly the number of pictures I should have. Such may-someday-be-greats like Yore (the Lost Viking), Captain Antares (“To the future!”), Warbolt (“Zap evil!”), Stormdark (“Using the Dark Arts in the service of the Light since 1873”), Suzy Atom (all primary colors, all the time), and, last but not least, Scritchy-scratch (the inevitable cat girl).
That’s not all of them. And that’s not counting the alts that Margie was working on, many of which are fun, too.
I ended up filling up my remaining slots on Triumph (where other characters are already waiting in the wings) and spilling over onto Infinity. And, just to be fair, I ran all of them through Outbreak (and, in a couple of cases, beyond).
The problem is, of course, I want to play with them all. Most of them have some fun backstories. And I still have a number of vibrant and enjoyable alts already as my mains.
Ah, well. Someday …
No free respec with Issue 4 …
… but, if I read this correctly … a free respec for the First Anniversary of CoH (going into place tomorrow, though the anniversary is today).
In preparation for tomorrows Anniversary Respec being released on the live servers, we will be testing this feature today on the Test Server. We will be testing this feature in a few minutes. The Test Server will be brought down to enable this functionality.
NOTE: If you still have your free holiday respect, the anniversary respect WILL replace it. If you have respecs banked from running Task Forces or Trials, they will not be affected.
Thanks once again for a year of heroic testing!
Shiny!
This ought to seriously reduce a lot of the griping re “My power got nerfed with Issue 4!” once that goes into place (which looks to be fairly imminent). Especially if that means a respec using the new character design stuff, too. And for those who don’t think Ish 4 will “ruin” their character, it’s a nice gift (as well as the new Badge to be given to everyone who signs in during the month of May).
Group fun
Tackled Dr. Vahzilok last night with a large group. Much fun. Different play for Psi-clone, who got to be more of a supportive controller than team leader (which was kind of nice, even if the sewers are absolutely ruining his good clothes).
That, in turn, was an extension of the next chapter of the Skyway Rec Center thread, which involved a very fun “discover the body” bit, in which I enjoyed playing Velvet.
Big groups in both cases, which was a refreshing change, if a bit difficult to manage. Since they were all good players, though, it worked out nicely. P-Siren dinged up during the adventure, and PC went up multiple bubbles.
Golder archers
Based on this forum post from a dev about the “Surviving Eight,” we learn more about archery:
Due to the upcoming Power Sets Manticore is actually a Trick Arrow, Archery Defender.
Hmmmm. Given that most Blaster primaries are available as Blaster secondaries, that implies that Archery will be a Blaster primary. That lets us have both “I pierce/punch/explode/attack you” arrows and “I use my net/screamer/glue arrow” types of powers, which is a nice way of splitting it up in classic comic terms.
I like. Not planning on getting one, but I like.
Heh
Our level best
Last night was All Cape Mish, All the Time!
Well, twice — once for Psi-clone, once for Amoprha. Puck Bunny accompanied us on both versions, one of which was in the northern islands of Talos, the other of which was in Perez.
The odd thing is, the first version of the mish was the hardest we’ve done — much more powerful Aberrants, more bosses, etc. Well, it was harder from that aspect — it was actually easier doing it with Psi-clone than with Velvet, since I just Deceived the key baddies, and Invised the group, and all went relatively smoothly. When things got hairy, my Phantom Army helped, too. Even the final battle never got desperate.
But, still, the difference in level between the two missions — with no difference in personnel — was odd. Welcome, but odd. (Same mission XP for each — 1000 — though.)
Mission leader? I think PB (at 19) led the first (harder) one, and I (at 20) led the second. And I can’t imagine the site zone in question made any difference.
A puzzlement.
Costumes
Got home last evening to discover Margie was already playing with one of her new replacement characters, Amazonite, an ice/ice blaster. Seemed to be having fun, and it’s a nice costume (pics to eventually follow, no doubt).
While she was doing that, I went onto Triumph and built Molly Magpie, a grav/FF controller — which, yes, is the same build as Puck Bunny, which I said I wasn’t going to do, but I did it anyway. The name and costume are something I’ve been thinking of for a while, and I enjoyed the build a lot.
My understanding is that server transfer will be available under Ish 4, so I expect we’ll be seeing MM come over to Champion at that time (and that might be a good opportunity to “archive” off Honeygun to someplace where I can get to her if I change my mind).
Spent the evening clearing a couple of needed mishes with Psi-clone and Amorpha (with Puck Bunny along for the very helpful if occasionally-running-into-a-room-full-of-Abominations ride). Need to clear some stuff so we can do our costume/cape series together.
Been thinking about a revised costume for Psi-clone. Tempted to wait for Ish 4 to provide some better casual jacket choices, just to give him a relaxed look. On the other hand, what with the Consortium getting more public attention, it may be that he’ll feel the need for an honest-to-God Real Hero Outfit — which may be … amusing.
The next wave
Okay, so this will be old hat to the CoH veterans, but …
I love how , over the course of the game, you have breakthrough moments, tied to real estate (and to missions you are sent on).
You start out as a noobie, wandering around Galaxy and Atlas, with occasional harrying forays into Kings Row and the Hollows.
Then you start finding yourself in Steel Canyon — bustling with activities, stores, and a wide array of foes — and Skyway — drear and difficult to navigate but not to find trolls and clockwork in. Perez Park and Boomtown and Faultline become the hazard zones.
And, as that begins to pale (or grey out), abruptly — and this is where our higher characters are now just getting in — Independence Port and Talos Island and Striga start being the focus. New foes, new geography.
At each stage you start off by running down the middle of the street, then hopping into back yards, then hunting down the red zones and street sweeping. And by that time, you’re ready for the next set of zones.
Fun stuff. Nicely done. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Sunday update
Got a fair amount of time in yesterday with our top-level alts. Velvet assisted P-Siren on her cape mission, along with Puck Bunny. Interestingly, the final battle in that door mish seems to be at a variable location (rather than in the far south of Talos Island, like it was for Velvet, this one was by the Green Line station in Steel, which was a lot more convenient).
Velvet managed to ding 22 on that outing.
After, we brought in (again to run with Puck Bunny) Psi-clone and Amorpha. Jackie’s Shock.Therapy ran with us for most of the time, though it was all taking place right about when we had to deal with various Kitten meal and bed time issues. Eventually Agent Seven showed up, which made for some nice RP fodder.
Ended up doing two duplicate Tsoo missions (and PC ended up pulling it again for himself as he checked in with contacts after it was all over). The building missions went fairly well, despite a couple of rushing-in-oops-there-goes-the-invis face plants. (Well, the Tsoo in the Cave mish was pretty nasty, but that was largely because we didn’t play it well, and it’s a nasty map, and there were some system problems in the middle that broke up the team, but not completely). PC dinged during the evening as well, but he (like Velvet) is in the late teens/early twenties doldrums, where the Stamina and Haste tracks are chewing up slots from more interesting powers.
Actually, by hitting 20, Psi-clone now qualifies for a new outfit. Should he go for a more formal black business suit to replace his sports coat? Or will the PR department decides that he needs a more “heroic” (Spandex) image? Time will tell.
One interesting development was Margie beginning to consider some new alts to play, and prepping to drop a couple of her old ones to free up slots. As I have business travel coming up next week, I think she’s targeting that period for some quick levelling to come up with new partners for OFFICER and Truly Unstable. I have some thoughts in that direction as well (including dropping one character who’s seen some heavy rotation of late, and possibly rehabilitating another one who’s stagnated). Again, we’ll see …
New places, new faces
Champion was seriously laggy again last night, so Margie and I (after dinging up with Truly Unstable and Carilian) went over to Triumph to develop a few alts.
First off, Mr. Thebes (“They call me Mister Thebes!”), my stone/stone tanker, alongside Fallen Twice, Margie’s spine/dark scrapper. (Margie’s decided that spine powers are really cool — except for the visual.)
Then, for something completely different, my Flamelle, a fire/fire tanker, and Margie’s Cat Toy, a kinetic/dark blaster.
Feelin’ elemental last night …
And then Margie wandered off, saying something about wanting to bring in a character she’d done up on Triumph earlier, so Flamelle stood there for a bit, watching the traffic, taking some pics, and then this really annoying blue and grey troll came over and started ogling her and hitting on her, and jumping up and down to get her attention, and Flamelle started getting all snarky (because, well, she may be a demon, but she’s got standards, dammit), and …
“Hey! Is that your character?”
Margie’s still giggling about that one.
The Forum is Live
The CoJ forums are live and active. Many thanks to Margie for reviewing stuff before I put it up (and for come up with some marvelously droll folder names).
For those already part of the Consortium, at your convenience (and to set a good example) check out the stuff in the Portfolio folder, and create a profile/dossier for your character (even if it’s just your ID card biography). I ‘preciate it. I’ll be slowly filtering my own alts in there over the next week or so.
Y’all who are currently in the Consortium, thanks for all you’ve done, participationwise, and for helping take this to the next level. Should be fun.
“It’s wafer-thin!”
We had a good gameplay evening last night, running Psi-clone and Amorpha. Got started pretty early, and, around 10:30 or so, finished our last door mission, both of us dinged to 19, both of us ready for bed.
“Wait,” Margie says, as Amorpha phones in to her contact. “Get 15 Outcasts. We can do that right now.”
Well, yeah, it’s only a few minutes, and we’re in the NE corner of Steel Canyon, so there are some nice good-eating Outcasts around us.
About five minutes or so later, we have it all done, and I’m ready to head off to Blyde Square, level up (prolly two slots of recharge into Grant Invis., though, damn, Phantom Armies is fun), when I notice …
“… Hey, what the — timed mission!”
That’s right, finishing a hunt had triggered a timed mish.
Now, we could have just said screw it and gone to bed. But timed missions are usually good eats. Sooooo …
… around 12:30a or so (the frickin’ place was crawling with yellow Outcasts, not to mention a variety of Tsoo and CoT, so even though we passed up a lot of tasty XP, it still took us a while, especially since the “Auctioneer” was kind of well hidden), we wrapped up (and I decided to save the levelling for next outing).
The annoying thing is, for some reason, Amorpha didn’t get the mission complete XP — and it was her mish.
On the other hand, she’d gotten out of debt (after two deaths that evening), and I’d gone up net 6 pips, so …
So …
Soooo … tired …
Glad it’s Friday. Even more glad that Margie has Kitten duty tomorrow morning, and I can sleep in …
“He doth bestride this narrow world as a Colossus!”
Hey, look! OFFICER got the new Issue 4 Enlarge power already!
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