{"id":927,"date":"2007-10-02T21:40:38","date_gmt":"2007-10-03T03:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp\/2007\/10\/i11-omgasm\/"},"modified":"2007-10-02T21:40:38","modified_gmt":"2007-10-03T03:40:38","slug":"i11-omgasm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/2007\/10\/i11-omgasm.html","title":{"rendered":"I11 – OMGASM!"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least that’s how Margie characterized 99% of the forum response to the announcement of I11 coming out Real Soon Now and what it will have<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Issue 11: A Stitch in Time<\/strong> reveals that all that is and was is not as it should be! The mysterious Ouroboros organization, a group of beings from the ends of time, enlists the aid of Heroes and Villains to rewrite the past. Heroes and Villains are able to travel through time using the new Ouroboros System<\/strong>, which opens the gates to both new and existing content for players. Issue 11 also unleashes two brand new power sets: Dual Blades <\/strong>and Willpower<\/strong>, giving Heroes and Villains a slew of new power options. Additionally, Dual Blades offers Weapon Customization <\/strong>\u2013 taking the \u201cCity of\u201d Character Creator to the next level! And the Inventions system is enhanced with new \u201cVery Rare\u201d Purple invention sets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Okay, sounds interesting.<\/p>\n

\n

Ouroboros System<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through the mysterious Menders of Ouroboros, players gain the ability to \u201cFlashback\u201d, that is to travel through time and relive major events from the history of Paragon City\u2122 and the Rogue Isles\u2122. Heroes who travel back in time will embark on missions such as preventing the Circle of Thorns from unleashing a devastating demon on a defenseless world, a story originally presented in the City of Heroes comic book. Villains who journey through time will get the chance to assist Lord Recluse\u2122 in his initial campaign to conquer the Rogue Isles, and much more.<\/p>\n

Heroes and Villains also use the Ouroboros System to return to story arcs that they may have missed and replay hundreds of missions from earlier in the game. Players will even get to set mission parameters for these missions to earn special badges. Heroes and Villains will be auto-exemplared to the appropriate level for each story arc to ensure the challenge level remains constant.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Interesting. “Flashback” is the feature that was being talked about earlier as a long-term request<\/a> that the devs wanted to do — for those completists who wanted to go back and run arcs (and get badges)<\/a> that they’d bypassed on the way up.<\/p>\n

The addition of doing it as a time travel device for added content, though, is a very cool bit.<\/p>\n

The “mission parameters<\/a>” include “Time Limits, Lives, No Inspirations, No Temp Powers, self-nerf, (as well as others).”<\/p>\n

\n

Weapon Customization<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes an assault rifle just isn\u2019t the right tool for the job, or character, especially when he or she should be using a sniper rifle instead. Players can now change their weapons in the same way that they change their costume parts! From within the costume creator and tailor screen players select the new \u201cWeapons\u201d region. A number of new options are now available for appropriate power sets. Current power sets that benefit from this upgrade include Assault Rifle, Mercenaries\/Assault Rifle, Bow, Broadsword, Claws, Villain Claws, Dual Blades (see below), Katana, Ninja Blade, Mace, Robotics\/Pulse Rifle, and Thugs\/Dual Pistols.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Okay, this is definitely worth of an OMGASM.  First off, though AR is an annoying set to begin with, it’s a *really* annoying look.  But the idea that we can now tailor the various swords, axes (not mentioned here, but included elsewhere), and other such discrete weapons is extremely cool.  Granted, folks will now want tailored\/customized power effects, but that’s a different technical battle (which includes spines<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Well done.<\/p>\n

That customization, btw, seems to include (based on the pics) colors <\/em>for weapons.  Hmmmm … Jack could use a bloody sword …<\/p>\n

And though it’s not mentioned above, axe<\/a> is part of the customizable set.<\/p>\n

It’s also mentioned elsewhere<\/a> that mace <\/strong>includes as variants, war hammer, pipe wrench, and sledge hammer.  And dual blades <\/strong>includes sais and<\/a> faerie daggers and red cap daggers.  Oh, and tommy guns for AR.  And, somewhere, shovels. And<\/a> compound bows.  And<\/a>, for the dual pistols (me wants for non-MM character!) “Revolvers, semi-autos, flintlocks” — and “color-tinable laser sights.”<\/p>\n

Another note<\/a> that customization refers “for Masterminds it’s the bow, pistols, assault rifle, and pulse rifle for Ninja, Thugs, Mercenaries, and Robotics powersets.”<\/p>\n

There are hints, btw, that some weapon options (at least) will be unlockable<\/a> or based on combat defeats<\/a> of enemies that wield them.  That feels appropriate on the one hand (a combat trophy) and annoying on the other (no “I start off as a rebel Family guy with the tommy gun”).  That includes<\/a> at least a couple of Rikti weapons, as well as the aforementioned tommy gun. Or, as another example<\/a>, “Vanguard Talsorian blades (claws) and the Redding Rail Rifle (Assault Rifle) are purchased with Vanguard Merits, if you are of the correct AT and powerset.”<\/p>\n

And because it’s costume system<\/a> based, it means (a) you can have different variations in different costume slots (“Today I feel like wielding a pipe wrench”), and (b) it doesn’t open up for you until you start using the costume system (Icon).  Though that will, I suspect, start folks using all those unused veteran costume tokens they’ve (well, I’ve) not seen much use from.<\/p>\n

\n

Two New Power Sets<\/strong><\/p>\n

The City of\u2026 universe expands with two new amazing power sets: Dual Blades and Willpower.<\/p>\n

    Dual Blades<\/strong><\/p>\n

    With a flashing blade in each hand, the Stalker made quick work of the Coralax hybrids guarding the shipwreck.<\/p>\n

    Now Heroes and Villains can wield paired weapons to devastating effect! Use the new Weapon Customization interface to choose from several types of weapons. Dual Blades also uses a brutal new Combo system, where the order of your strikes can create new advantages for you to take down your foes! Dual Blades is available to Brutes, Scrappers, Stalkers and Tankers!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Okay, I will be curious to see how this “Combo” system works — and when\/if it gets retrofitted to other power sets.  More variations in the Attack Chain is a good thing.<\/p>\n

\n

    Willpower<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Available to Tankers, Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers, the Willpower set offers a strong mix of resistance, defense and regeneration powers. This is the perfect power set for those characters who have the mental will and determination \u2013 the  willpower \u2013 to ignore pain and press on through insurmountable odds!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And (as I understand it from previous posts) who want minimum fx around their defensive set.  Though the picture used is anything but.<\/p>\n

More images via here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

New Inventions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Issue 11 brings with it new invention sets including \u201cVery Rare\u201d Purple sets, as well as brand new invention sets for Taunt, Buff and Debuff powers, among others.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\/em shrug<\/p>\n

It also looks like (from the illustration) that we’re going to see more cut scenes, as in CoV.  I have mixed feelings about those.  On the one hand, they provide some nice flavor.  On the other hand, they are always startling out-of-the-moment intrusions, and (when repeating a mission for the Nth time) annoying.<\/p>\n

Whew.  Good stuff.  And, interestingly, what’s drawing the most commentary (or the most red-name reaction) is the customization bits, which ties into the general acknowledged strength of CoX in toon design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least that’s how Margie characterized 99% of the forum response to the announcement of I11 coming out Real Soon Now and what it will have. Issue 11: A Stitch in Time reveals that all that is and was is not as it should be! The mysterious Ouroboros organization, a group of beings from the … Continue reading “I11 – OMGASM!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-rules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}