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November 30, 2005

A palpable hit

Lots of ongoing discussion on the CoH boards about the "streak breaker" system. While a randomize to-hit system could lead to (in a perfectly randomized world) an endless chain of misses in the finite universe of, say, a battle, the streak breaker in the CoH/CoV code forces a hit to happen (for you) after X number of misses, X being determined by the lowest percent to-hit in your attack chain.

Bottom line, if you are going up against an even-level minion opponent, with no enhancements (i.e., 75% TH on each attack)), you cannot miss more than 3 times. On the fourth time you will hit, regardless of what you might have rolled.

Which is still awfully frustrating, but does actually give you an edge over the straight TH percentages.

It's actually kind of fascinating stuff. Look in this thread for a more detailed explanation of how it works, and the different to-hit/max-misses ranks.


Posted by Dave at 6:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

November 29, 2005

Yay Team!

2005-11-29_portal.jpgBD needed help with a PB mission (the Psychic Clockwork King), so Psi-clone and Amorpha joined Puck Bunny, Noelle Frost, Shock.Therapy, and Kinetica (the latter 50s exemplared down to our 41-42 level) at Portal Corp.

A pretty fun mission. There were three controllers, a bushel of pets, one defender, one blaster, one scrapper. That meant Amorpha took point. Invis. from me kept us relatively stealthy going between groups, and we have very little trouble with them (except for Kinetica, who was prone to being killed by anyone she failed to nuke). Between Shock and myself, folks stayed buffed and healed. Pretty straightforward. The PCK went down in just a few minutes.

After we cleared the rest of the map and headed back, Noelle had to leave, so we headed on to a Crey mish that PB had. Things were a bit dicier there -- a massive number of Crey tanks, and a good sprinkling of Paragon Protectors. The groups were large enough, and close enough together, that we ran into problems, including Kin going down a few times, my going down at least once, and a TPK when we inadvertently aggroed a veritable flock of Crey tanks.

I probably shouldn't have brought out Phred, in retrospect -- some good added firepower, but he triggered melees before we were ready more than once. My bad (and probably the most egregious tactical blundering of the evening).

Still, ended the mish out of debt and the evening a couple of pips higher than I'd been, so it was all good. And it was good to team up, too. I love duoing with Margie (she's an excellent player and partner), and soloing can be some fun, but there's enjoyment in team-ups that I've missed of late -- more chaos, more voices, more chances for things to go wrong and for things to go right. And when it's all good players (like the team we were on), it's even more fun.

I'm looking forward to the TF this weekend, and there's another team mission that Araware and Fazenda might be going on shortly, too. Should be fun.


Posted by Dave at 10:21 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

November 28, 2005

Trying to get organized

Finally trying to set up an organized event on the CoI -- the first (Virgil Tarikoss) strikeforce, for this coming Saturday. I've been remiss in planning group stuff for both the CoJ and CoI, and hopefully (just in time for the holidays) this will help.


Posted by Dave at 8:35 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Consortium of Justice

November 27, 2005

Yet another one

Started up a new alt today, Al McGordo, a rad/rad offender. After leaving the mental door open to him running in either CoH or CoV, I decided on the former -- I'm tired, at the moment, of running new characters through CoV.

I may not pick him back up for quite some time, but he looks to be a fun character -- a cowboy who got a mite tangled up with a nuclear test site and some other oddball science stuff, and now is highly radioactive ("Y'might be wantin' t'stand on the other side of the hallway, ma'am"). I decided to make him an offender because, well, the Neutrino Bold and X-Ray Blast animations are damned keen, and I wanted someone who just dished out radiation blasts of various sorts.

Margie immediately enrolled him in the CoJ -- and then chided me later for forgetting to pop into SG mode, thus wasting at least 20-30 pts of Prestige ...


Posted by Dave at 10:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Naming of names

Good name: "Fissure-King" (looks to be a fire tank, all done up in black with red cracks/seams)

Bad name: "Vigilanty King" (which not only is terribly meaningful, but is badly misspelled)


Posted by Dave at 10:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Change of plans

Hitting 41 is a power level for Psi-clone. I'd had Conserve Power (from the Power Mastery EPP) chosen for it ... but ...

Someone had mentioned that I really lacked a good AoE power. I looked back over what was available in Illusion Mastery, and it boils down to essentially two powers (assuming you don't consider PA or Phantasm to be an AoE ...):

  1. Flash: Does an AoE blind. Pros: Blinded opponents, and Controllers get the extra damage for subsequent attacks. Cons: TH penalty. PBAoE, so you have to run into the melee to use it. With I5, duration and max targets both suck.

  2. Spectal Terror: Placed AoE Fear, plus occasional Terror attacks. Essentially a stationary pet casting Fears. Pros: Pretty good TH. Fast recharge. Cool effect. Cons: Terror causes folks to run away. Fear does allow some attacks back. Area of effect is limited.

After some quick reading on the boards, decided to go with ST. Spent the evening playing with Psi-clone and Amorpha, and it's pretty good. It isn't a hard "hold," but it definitely distracts the bad guys, and can be cast from a decent distance. Should be fun.


Posted by Dave at 10:38 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Dinging again

Hit 41 with Amorpha and Psi-clone (and at about 2 a.m.), huzzah. Ran our first PI mission, dealt with Malta ambushers, dealt with Knives of Artemis, etc.

Actually, the Malta bit was amusing (in a "My God, we're all going to die" way). We'd just finished doing some mission that was likely to torque the Malta off. We split up -- I went to Talos to shop, A. went to Skyway.

"Huh. Ambush. Ow!"

So I began slowly flying that direction. She was at a store, and had ducked inside -- but felt honor-bound to do something about it when she was healed because there were others outside dealing with her mess.

So I'm flying back over Skyway, slowly, and I can see her health indicator going up and down, and hear crashes and explosions and such from her monitors --

-- and wham! red numbers roll up on me, too, and I toppled to the ground. Ouch.

Heal. Look. Nobody's around. Fly to Amorpha, get there just as she wraps up the last of them.

Except, clearly, more are coming -- I'd overflown them (nothing native to Skyway would be likely to shoot at me, let alone do that much damage).

So we prepped and waited, and here they came down the way, and before I could do much here comes the first wave of missiles ...

Ouch.

Then the second wave.

Ouch.

And I'm staggering for the door to the store. Get inside. Heal. Rest. Explosions from Margie's monitor. "I have the Titan. I have the Sapper."

Stagger back out. Turn. Blind. Heal.

Whoosh.

Yeah. That was exciting. Now, who was the idiot who suggested that Malta story arcs for the 40-45 range might be fun?

For what it's worth, Margie's already decided she dislikes the Knives more. Yes, they see right through our Invis. (and go Invis. themselves), and they use those frelling caltrops with gay abandon. That said, they blind and turn as easily as anyone else, and I can Fly over the caltrops (though fighting at a ruinous Endurance rate), so I can think of far worse opponents.

That gameplay started later in the evening. During most of the day, we were running Mister Thorne and Undone, either by ourselves or with some of the other CoI, which was fun. Hit 14 with both of them so we have (huzzah!) travel powers (Fly and Tport, respectively, and are being made painfully reaware of just how Endurance-sucking both of them can be at the beginning) ... :-)


Posted by Dave at 8:43 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

November 23, 2005

Terra Infirma

Finally wrapped up the Terra Conspiracy story arc last night, complete with AV, with Psi-clone and Amorpha. That part went swimmingly -- I buffed up A. (who then could concentrate on the AV), then flooded Terra's court with pets (including my Wolf Whistle), while using some of my other temp powers to shrug off the occasoinal nastygram. Once the riff-raff were cleared out, we were all able to concentrate ton Terra -- who packed a big punch, but steadily went down. Boo-yah.

Less pleasant was a bit earlier, when we exited a Rikti mission and got ambushed outside. They weren't anything we couldn't handle, but I'd taken a bunch of damage before I realized what was going on, then started getting mezzed faster than I could break free and pop greens and heal myself and fend of the bad guys and get away and ... with the mess aided and abetted by drones in the distance and a Rikti with a honking big blade in the foreground.

Down I went. Got back from hospital in time to help A. with the mopping up (she did fine, thank you very much). Rrg. That'll teach me to tempt the CoH Gods.

Still, we finished a major arc, killed an AV, and I'm over half-way to 41 (A. is, of course, a bit further). And we're beginning to get contacts in ... (duh-duh-DUUUUUUUUHHHHH ...) Peregrine Island. Eep!


Posted by Dave at 5:35 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

November 22, 2005

Margie wins the brownie

I was in the middle of complaining bitterly that Eliza Dee had just gotten taken down in the middle of a combat with the final two orange bosses at the end of the mission, largely because my cursor click on a heal had (typically) failed ...

When Margie, who was soloing with Hildegard went down in her last encounter in the mission ...

... as the bad guy went down ...

... and she got taken out ...

... by the last

... couple of pips of caltrops damage.

She got the brownie.


Posted by Dave at 10:11 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Grounded

My solo passtime of choice has been Eliza Dee (the one on Virtue (Elitists)). She's doing great, up to 12 already, but ...

... dammit, I've miscalced the power plans. She's an Energy Aura secondary. At 10 I was supposed to take Entropy Shield for status protection, just on principle. But I was beginning to have damage problems, and someone I was playing with pointed out that Dampening Field was, unlike the Kinetic Shield toggle (Defense), an always-on Resist power.

Well, I flipped a coin and made the choice, and it was probably the right one, but, dagnabbit, I've suddenly entered the world of bad status attacks -- whether Aberrent mezzes or varoius gun-toters knocking me on my ass. Since I'm soloing, status attacks are particularly lethal in result.

So at 12, I went ahead and took Entropy Shield. But ... well, now I'm in trouble, because I was supposed to have taken Air Superiority instead as the pre-req for Fly at 14. I knew it was going to be a problem, but didn't have any choice.

In retrospect, I would have taken Air Superiority at 6 rather than Bonesmasher -- which is certainly an effective attack, but A/S would have been sufficient. If only we were getting a freespec in the next week or so ...

Current design plans for Eliza ...

Exported from version 1.5C of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Brute
Primary Powers - Ranged : Energy Melee
Secondary Powers - Support : Energy Aura

01 : Kinetic Shield defbuf(01) defbuf(7) defbuf(7) endred(25) endred(43)
01 : Energy Punch acc(01) dam(3) acc(11) dam(19) acc(37) dam(40)
02 : Barrage acc(02) dam(3) acc(5) dam(34) dam(34) acc(37)
04 : Bone Smasher acc(04) acc(5) dam(13) dam(34) acc(37) dam(40)
06 : Swift runspd(06)
08 : Whirling Hands acc(08) acc(9) endred(9) dam(11) dam(15) endred(19)
10 : Dampening Field damres(10) damres(27) damres(27)
12 : Entropy Shield endred(12) endred(13)
14 : Air Superiority acc(14) acc(15) dam(17) dam(17) dam(42) acc(43)
16 : Fly fltspd(16) fltspd(46)
18 : Health hel(18) hel(29) hel(40)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(21)
22 : Power Shield defbuf(22) defbuf(23) defbuf(23) endred(25) endred(46)
24 : Taunt tntdur(24)
26 : Hurdle jmp(26)
28 : Energy Drain acc(28) acc(29) endrec(31) endrec(33) acc(45) endrec(46)
30 : Energy Protection damres(30) damres(31) damres(31)
32 : Energy Transfer acc(32) acc(33) dam(33) dam(36) acc(42) dam(43)
35 : Conserve Power recred(35) recred(36) recred(36)
38 : Overload hel(38) defbuf(39) hel(39) defbuf(39)
41 : Energy Cloak endred(41) endred(42)
44 : Build Up recred(44) recred(45) recred(45)
47 : Stun acc(47) disdur(48) acc(48) disdur(48) acc(50)
49 : Hasten recred(49) recred(50) recred(50)

The intent is, if I actually run her, to grow Eliza Dee on Champion in the same course. (I decided to go for the Virtue version with the thought she'd be my "main" on that server, with Mister Thorne being the "main" on Champion.)

Brutes are a good solo choice -- in retrospect, they're a lot more like Scrappers than Tanks: heavy hitters but a bit fragile, with Death as a constant friend. The SMASH bar rocks, and, if managed well, they are faster progressing solo than Doms/MMs, and, I suspect, more surivable than Stalkers/Corrs.

At least they're fun to play.


Posted by Dave at 9:12 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

On a roll

Took Psi-clone and Amorpha out last night. We've determined that, no, shared mission completion hasn't rolled out to CoH yet (and won't until Newspaper Technology comes over, too), so we're just proceeding with the story arcs we have, and t'heck with it.

The current arcs we're on are ... even on Invincible ... not horribly challenging. Devouring Earth (with, whichout emitters, are even more pathetic). Council. Crey. Even the Rikti. We're just rolling through them, and are even getting a bit lazy -- not paying close attention to Invis. dropping, having Phred the Phantasm out all the time, etc. XP are decent, but we're plowing through jello here, chewing through a pip or two nightly.

Heck, we had Zazi along with us last night for part of the adventure, and she didn't have problems (SKed) either.

Not that I'm complaining too much about not dying all the time, mind you ...


Posted by Dave at 9:01 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

November 21, 2005

CoI board is down

The SMF bulletin board I have the Consortium of Injustice board running on is down this morning, after my hosting company upgraded PHP to resolve some security issues. I'm trying to work it out with tech support as we speak.


Posted by Dave at 9:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Consortium of Justice

November 20, 2005

But is she a Corrupter? A Dominator? A Stalker ...?

hillary.jpgNever know who you're going to meet in the Rogue Isles ...


Posted by Dave at 10:56 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Humor

The Big Four-Oh

Both Amorpha and Psi-clone dinged 40 this evening. Huzzah!

In completely unrelated news, I set up the CoJ so that anyone could pay rent for the base. Since it has to be paid at City Hall in Atlas, doing it with some lower level characters might make more sense.


Posted by Dave at 10:46 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Character sketches

Best/scariest CoV design I've seen to date: Eggman, who is, esseintially, a giant chicken. Small monster legs in yellow, bright white body (including "wing" shoulders) with red trim, bald with a red crest, a yellow beak/breath mask, smoking a cigar ...

Coolness.

Then, at Le Peep this morning, my eye was caught by a lady with longish blond hair wearling a short black pleated skirt and highish black leather boots, and I'm all, "Hey, I could make her in the character designer."

I was even more amused to find out that Margie had spotted the same lady and had the same reaction. We decided her name would be Le Femme Peep, and our only question is whether she's a hero or a villain ...


Posted by Dave at 12:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , True Life

November 17, 2005

Yes, it's too late ...

... for me to be posting, so I'll sign off in a minute.

Finally managed to get on. Margie was in the midst of taking advantage of the free costume respec being given out overnight to use all her old costume respecs on characters. Lynn and Kazima both grabbed a second costume (Lynn having realized she's getting prominent enough to actually put her aunt in jeopardy if she's recognized), and we fixed the colors on Mrs Azure (a bit off since Margie rerolled the character).

Margie was going to do a little more costume tweaking, so I hopped over to CoV to play with Eliza Dee. Did a bit of soloing, did a duo mission with BD, did a very mediocre PUG with some folks two levels lower level (and two dozen points lower IQ) than me, dropped, got invited to another PUG that turned out to be pretty decent (except for the MM who did a lot of "pulling" with his robots before anyone was prepped).

And stayed up too late. :-)


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Filed under: Gameplay

November 16, 2005

Costumage

A new free costume respec will go live overnight. It will replace any that you presently have, so here's your chance to experiment a bit ...

Though, of course, bugs with the costume system (faces that change, etc.) are the reason for the (now that it's fixed) respec, so ...


Posted by Dave at 9:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

November 15, 2005

Non'Sync

Well, both Psi-clone and Amorpha got the intro mission for the Organ Grinders story arc. Ran one of them --

-- the other didn't get the "shared completion" option. Ran the duplicate mission.

Went to the second (which we both also got). Ran for one of us --

-- the other didn't get the "shared completion" option.

Dunno of something's screwed up with that code, or if there's some other factor we're unaware of, or what, but it's irksome. Margie /bugged and /petitioned it.

Good XP, regardless. We're both 2/3 - 3/4 of the way to 40. Yay.


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Filed under: Gameplay

November 13, 2005

Villainy

Spent Saturday running Mister Ravenous and Charity at Home (or, as Margie puts it, "I understood there was to be Punch and Fry") together through the wilds of Port Oakes. Lots of fun, and we got up to 11 by the time the day was done.

A few deaths along the way, mostly due to a rather, um, goofy PUG that we ended up volunteering to join Atom Smasher on. There were a couple of good players, a couple of okay players, and two extremely goofy and counterproductive Masterminds. And when a third one got recruited, A.S. opined that every one he meets lowers his opinion of the AT.

Which makes me think I need to do some running with Mister Thorne so I can be considered the best-played MM on the Rogue Isles ... (certainly I'm already in the upper quartile).

I think, by the bye, that MM's, as the "new, exciting" AT, acculuate lots of bad players. Especially ones who get the giggles watching their zombies dance to boom boxes.

The mission was interrupted just before the end by all the East Coast servers crashing. Yikes. Though it let us duck out of the team in a graceful fashion.

Charity does the typical "Defender" thing of casting buffs on random characters she meets. Though she does it by casting fire shields on them.

"You just like setting folks on fire, don't you," Mister Ravenous opined.

"Well, duh," Charity retorted.

So it goes.


Posted by Dave at 2:03 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Toggle drops

Are damnably annoying. Since I6, various toggles drop at random when zoning between neighborhoods or into/out of missions. The latter is particularly annoying/dangerous, as if there are bad'uns just inside the door (or just outside of it), you may find yourself defenseless. Yikes.

I do hope this gets solved Really Soon Now.


Posted by Dave at 1:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

The Plant

It's now blindingly clear to me that "Operative Burch" is actually a plant, a test for new villains to the Rogue Islands, an update of the classic, "Well, you've shown us you have the stuff, now take this [unloaded] gun and put a ["click"] bullet in the head of this cop we just captured snooping around, so we know you're on the up-and-up."

I mean, the guy is the first person every new character is sent after.

The so-called "Longbow Agents" there are almost certainly turned or guys in captured costumes, too.

I'm just sayin'.


Posted by Dave at 8:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Humor

November 11, 2005

Two by two into the Arc

We're trying our darnedest to get Psi-clone and Amorpha into the Omega Level Clearance (the Body Snatchers, I think is the formal title) story arc. I've finally gotten the initial mish on it from the contact; Margie keeps trying added missions from him, as well as clearing other missions and stuff, to (as yet) no avail.

Still, plenty of Rikti goodness last night. Died, both of us, twice, on the same mission (each of ours -- unsynced, so we didn't get to both take mission credit on one). Mistakes on our part -- rushing in and not having the sense to rush back out.

PC is being hampered a bit by

Hrm. Maybe a good thing I still have a trial respec.


Posted by Dave at 7:09 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Gameplay

November 10, 2005

Video issues

I've managed to bypass the I6/CoV-era ATIOGLGL.DLL lock/crash problems on my notebook (ATI Mobility Fire GL T2 card) by adding the switch -useTexEnvCombine to the shortcut that invokes COHUPDATER.EXE. That makes for less complex graphics (I now watch Margie's screen with envy), but it works, and it doesn't look all that bad.

The cost is worth not having the machine crash three or four times on load ...

CuppaJo comments on graphics.


Posted by Dave at 5:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Level best

2005-11-09_lynn.jpgQuick entry, just for the record. At home sick Mon-Wed, but managed to do a fair amount of relatively mindless Scrapper play (whether that means I was well enough to be at work I leave as an exercise for the reader).

In so doing, managed to get Amethyst Crown up to 13, and dinged Lynn Calodo up to 20 (at which point Valkyrie snarkily pointed out that Lynn could use a new outfit, and Lynn replied with an impolite gesture).

Scrapper solitaire is fun. I'm pretty sure I'm behind on whatever level Margie's gotten Blue Point up to ...

Meanwhile, we created another set of alts on CoV -- Eliza Dee and Mistress Bacchante. Lots of fun.

2005-11-07_eliza-bacchante.jpgEliza is modelled after the JLU "Galatea" (who was the statue brought to life by Pygmalion, the title of Shaw's updated play where Henry Higgins, reprising the title role, recreates Eliza Doolittle, hence her name). Funny thing is, Galatea is modelled somewhat after the DCU's Power Girl, an Earth 2 Supergirl version (origin rebooted multiple times). So, after creating her -- visually inspired by Galatea to the extent I could get the costume creator to do so -- not 30 seconds had passed before someone ran by and said, "Evil PG, I like."

*sigh*

Of course, then someone ran by saying, "nais ondies" (which, after a minute of puzzling, I translated to "nice undies," but by then he was too far gone for Eliza to pummel him).

Eliza herself may, or may not, be based on another Paragon hero. She's a Crey escapee, regardless, so ...

Anyhoo, fun. Works well with Bacchante's plant mastery.

Last, but not least, got both Psi-clone and Amorpha up to 39 last night, after an overly-long marathon session beating back the Rikti again (a/k/a Rikti farming off in some emergency-force-fielded neighborhood). Good, clean fun. Now, if we can just get to some of the 35-39 story arcs before we level out ...


Posted by Dave at 8:15 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Gameplay

November 4, 2005

Timing is everything

Alongside the new Vidiotmaps, I'm pleased to note the new version of HeroStats is out. Features support for I6 and CoV. Yay!


Posted by Dave at 12:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

"I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map!"

Upgraded VidiotMaps material, including CoV zones! Huzzah!

Now if only CoH would make the little store icons transparent so that I could click on them (for guidance) but still see the underlying store type.

(via Doyce)


Posted by Dave at 12:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

The Silent Streets of Paragon

Tales from the past couple of nights ...

  1. Wednesday night, it was all chirping crickets and tumbling tumbleweeds in Paragon. Took out Psi-clone/Amorpha for spins, blasting through some older content.

  2. Did my PC respec for I6. Ended up dropping 2MM influence to restock on Enh and bring them all to green. Also ended up dropping four or five Damages and picking up several more RecRed and EndRecs. The ED nerf to Stamina sucks.

    Had considered (and written up a respec) dropping Hasten. Eventually, after playing a few days before I did the respec, I discovered that while it was annoying that Hasten wasn't perma, it wasn't so critical that going up and down with it was lethal, only a noticeable annoyance.

    So the rebuild looks pretty much the same as the previous one; any slots saved by eschewing >3 of any given type are generally eaten up adding EndRec and RecRed. Such diversity ...

  3. Zazi (BD) built the initial CoJ base. W007, and well-done. Now if we can start affording some real hardware, it will be keen. Margie's researching "recipes."

  4. Thursday night, the streets of Paragon (and the ranks of the Alliance) remained pretty deserted. Cleaned out some more old Crey missions with PC/A, trying to get some story arcs kickstarted. Well over half-way to 39.


Posted by Dave at 6:36 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Gameplay

November 2, 2005

CoV Planner

Joe Chott has released a new version of his CoH Planner software that includes info on CoV ATs and power. Yay!

He's moved the program to the Coldfront site, because the hosting charges on his regular page were getting out of control. Drop him a donation at the Coldfront site while you're there downloading the latest version.

(I haven't checked to see if ED percentages are supported by it or not. I'm not really as interested in that aspect of the program than being able to lay out my characters before I actually get to a level.)

(Note that the changelog and data logs don't reflect the upgraded version, 1.5C, or its CoV data.)


Posted by Dave at 5:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

City of Villainous Guides

Brutes
Corruptors
Dominators
Masterminds
Stalkers

Some good stuff out there already.


Posted by Dave at 5:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Coming soon to the streets of the Rogue Isles ...

Lord Recluse's Personal Vehicle.


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Filed under: Humor

November 1, 2005

Tech issues

Since the arrival of I6 graphics (first detected during the CoV Beta period), I'm having a problem where the game hangs for the first 2-4 times I try to load it, or when I first zone in from selecting a character. After that I'm fine, but it's sort of frustrating.

Reading the boards for advice. The error points to a DLL associated with my ATI Mobility Fire GL T2 card on the notebook, though I can't find that DLL mentioned on the boards. I've updated to the latest version of the driver that IBM/Lenovo admits to knowing about, but CoH continues to chide me for having an "old" driver. I'm reluctant to download the latest-greatest beyond what my manufacturer is supporting, but may give it a try nonetheless at some point.


Posted by Dave at 11:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Dark deeds

This was our Villains Night.

Pre-dinner, ran Mister Ravenous and Charity at Home (Elitists) up to level 4. Post-dinner, ran Mister Thorne and Undone to 7 (and pretty much out of Mercy Isles missions).

Both pairs are fun. For myself, I'm jazzing on the whole Brute thing -- the adrenaline rush of charging forward, Light Brigade style, as fast as you can, ignorning wounds, trying to keep the SMASH bar as high as possible. It's giddy. Charity's healing and sonic debuffs are pretty handy, too.

For the other pair, the whole Mastermind Merc thing is a kick. I get to be both hands-on and have ranged blasting powers. As the healer, I get to try to keep the soldiers and Undone both alive (which, given the vagueries of Twilight Grasp, is an intersting challenge, helped by everyone else drawing a lot more aggro than me).

Good stuff.

Kudos to BD for building the CoI base, such as it so far is. I may subcontract out the CoJ base, too.


Posted by Dave at 11:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Don't change your clothes

Lots of problems reported with the costuming system, esp. on the CoH side. Advise you stay away from Icon for a while until they get sorted out.


Posted by Dave at 3:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Potpourri for 1000 Prestige, Alex ...

Various bits from the boards that I've missed over the past days:

  1. A mini-FAQ on Prestige and Bases. The various Alliance groups were quite busy building and chatting about them yesterday, so I suppose the CoJ needs to gets its act online. That said -- paying monthly rent? In person? Yeesh. The more I look at this, the more annoying bases (even if you don't make them raidable) become.

    Various red-name responses follow further down. Individual/personal bases (apartments) are coming, evidently. And the claim from poz is that Infamy (Influence) tapers down in favor of Prestige when in SG mode until you hit 35 or so when it goes to 0 -- but that doesn't fit what I saw with Psi-clone last night. Hrm.

  2. Statesman on ED and how it tested out. Yes, things are supposed to be more difficult and require more teaming (for AVs, at least) and active participation, at least in the (affected) 25+ world (States says it only really affects SOs), and to ensure that Controller/Defender buffs are always valuable. Numerous follow-on messages. "There's a problem if folks are making large teams and then abandoning them after entering missions just to increase spawn size." Also coming up -- a way to abandon missions (once "newspaper" technology gets introduced to CoH).

  3. AI limits on herding. The magic number is 17, period.

  4. You can cash in Influence for Prestige, at a rate of 500:1.

  5. Suggestions on soloing with Brutes. Scroll to the top. Accuracy and Rest are your friends, evidently -- though Rest and Smash seem incompatible.

  6. A new Brute power, as previewed in the "trailer" movie for CoV ...


Posted by Dave at 6:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Heading off to Warburg

Since yesterday was the Halloween debut of CoV, we chose to run on CoH instead. Psi-clone and Amorpha scurried about amidst relatively deserted city streets, cleaning up some old missions, earning prestige, picking up salvage from Freaks and Council, cleaning some old story arcs, and ...

... getting contact assignments in Warburg.

Of course, the biggest trick to Warburg is knowing just where the heck to go. For the record, you reach there via helicopter, taking off from a rooftop near Kings Row's police headquarters.

We headed over there on as much of a whim as anything else -- PvP remains something I'm not entirely sanguine about. We ran through a couple of missions there, using invis. to avoid the crowds of (hero) PvP.

(There appear to be a couple of different story threads you can follow in Warburg. One involves taking control of a rocket seized by Arachnos. This is competitive between heroes, at least, hence the PvP stuff, and it was interesting seeing groups of heroes suddenly com orange as they turned into opponents. The other thread is just general heroics, though the missions can affect the abilities of other heroes in the zone, e.g., you seize a bit of tech that adds 1% to the damage done by all heroes, etc. Still not clear on all the details, obviously).

Ended up with a bugged mission -- you can lead the Com Officer to the door, but you can't make her exit -- after having successfully taken apart various Arachnos nasties. Some good stuff there, though I suspect the generic Arachnos set pieces will get as tiresome as the generic Crey/Rikti/high-tech set pieces.


Posted by Dave at 6:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay