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January 31, 2006

Oh, yes ... I'm the great ... Defender ... (woo-ooo-ooo-oo) ...

A review of the Defender bug list with comments by _Castle_ about how it's being or has been fixed (or else explanations -- in far too many cases -- of why it's not going to get fixed, like Endurance costs for Rez if not accepted). Too long to quote, but required reading for Defenders.


Posted by Dave at 7:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

I7 and Beyond

Quoth Statesman:

As several have noted, I7 features content mostly for City of Villains (levels 41 to 50, in fact). This is exactly what we did for CoH. City of Heroes will receive a cool graphics upgrade, new base items (Empowerment stations!) and access to Recluses’ Victory. It’s true that CoV received more attention, but that’s mainly because we needed to fill out the levels. I had the option of releasing I7 or waiting until we could fill out the City of Heroes content. Obviously, I chose the former. New content should get out there when it’s ready. We'll be focusing equally as much as possible on each product moving into the future...

For those who have speculated that Newspaper missions are coming to City of Heroes, they aren’t…yet. That’s coming a little later in the year. I’d like to add something different to the CoH system…


Posted by Dave at 2:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Subtle

While there are any number of standard hero names ("Captain Megaton") and quite a number of dubious ones ("Rectal Damage"), not to mention funny ones (see Hostess Heroes), occasionally one comes along that's a lot more subtle.

So the other night, we ran across "Proverbs 31 Woman," which had folks scratching their heads.

Proverbs 31:

9 Epilogue: The Wife of Noble Character
10 [c] A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

And there you have it. Don't recall if she was clothed in scarlet, but there are some fun things in there for a hero. Not sure how you'd nickname her. "P31"?

I'd be curious to read her backstory.


Posted by Dave at 7:30 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

2006-01-30_infernalwithzeph.jpgHad the first Official Monday Munchies night. Ho Ho and Princess Peep ding(dong)ed up to 8. I've never done low level missions with a full team of solid players, and that plus the jokes made for a very enjoyable time.

Next week -- the Hollows. I expect we'll have the whole zone cleaned up by the time we finish. Certainly we should plow through to Frostfire.

After that, Psi-clone and Amorpha joined up with an elite band -- including Emerald Shrike, Avocet, and Seventy-Six -- to bring Zephyr-Storm home to 50. Clean and tidy through Dominatrix and Infernal -- indeed, it was the first Infernal mish I'd been on where nobody died. And it wasn't that there was a full-blown Empathy Defender and a Controller with Empathy secondary. I did a fair amount of buffing, but very little healing -- the team was that good.

Well done.

UPDATE: Gah! Forgot Puck Punny, even though she's standing right there in the frelling picture. Sorry, BD.


Posted by Dave at 6:14 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

January 30, 2006

Issue 7 details

Not yet on the boards, but here.

Mostly CoV stuff (new zones, powers, Patron stuff).

For CoH, too:


Posted by Dave at 4:06 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

On a clear day you can see forever

Evidently someone forgot to turn on the fog machines in Dark Astoria on Test. See what the zone really looks like while you can.

What's interesting is how many folks are happy to see the fog gone (even if through a bug). To me, as annoying as DA is, the moodiness is very nice, and otherwise it becomes just another city neighborhood with a big graveyard in the corner.


Posted by Dave at 2:20 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Looking ahead

As we near 50, my own mind is turning ahead to What Next. Or, rather, Who Next.

We'll certainly put together some Kheldians, but assuming we slow down a bit with PC/A, what duo will we start pushing forward next, and what changes will that bring?

Probably not Velvet and P-siren. Fun enough characters, but a very low DPS for them, not to mention ongoing problems with the whole FF primary for Defenders.

More likely Torchielle and Hildegard -- fire blaster and fire tank. I've been pleased with how they've worked together previously, they have a good DPS factor, and, I think, decent survivability.

It's going to be a big change, though. PC/A work with highly planned tactics -- controller lockdown of the worst in any given group, followed by scrapper tearing them apart, with Phred along for added damage if warrented. It's a careful, intricate juggernaut, and the only time we get in trouble is when something interferes with that tactical planning -- ambushes, running into something unexpected, etc. If I'm not on top of Amorpha's buffs and healing, or if I get targetted too massively, it can all fall apart.

Still, alongside the fact that Amorpha is "frighteningly efficient" with the damage dealing, the combo of controls and Empathy and Group Invis that PC provides dictates how we handle nearly every mission.

A more "conventional" tank/blaster pairing will change that. No invis to sneak around with (let along stealth missions). No controls to pre-mitigate the worst of any encounter. No heals aside from what we carry in our pockets. We will almost certainly not run on Invincible. It will be more letting the tank lock down the attackers, then overpowering them with damage.

I suspect we'll end up respeccing to some Medicine Pool bits. And maybe Stealth and/or Recall Friend. Some compromises in design to make the duo more duoable.

I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Of course, there's the little bit about getting up to 50 first ...


Posted by Dave at 6:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Magic Number

Hit 47 with Psi-clone and Amorpha last last week. A magic number, to be sure. Margie's now busy researching the Praetorian arc and AVs to make sure that we know which missions we'll need to either dial back or get help on (after our last AV encounter).

The march to 50 continues ...


Posted by Dave at 6:26 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Monday Munchies

2006-01-29_hostess.jpgI don't know if this will be a flash in the pan or something with a very long shelf life, but we've ended up building a small SG on Freedom called the Hostess Heroes, dedicated to heroes with a snack food theme.

*cough*

On the right are our two entries to this sorded little band, Ho Ho and Princess Peep.

I loved Ho Hos as a kid.

(I revelled in getting two separate "OMG!" messages from Doyce, the first for the character herself ("You're going to get banned like Rushdie!"), then for the weapon ("A BATTLEAXE?!"). On the latter I opined that they didn't have a switchblade option for tanks. On the former -- well, frankly, I've seen a lot more annoying character names, and I actually hope it's such a clever pun that nobody will much mind. I'm certainly not trying to be all that offensive.

(Katherine thought I was naming her "Ho Ho Ho" and was disappointed to see someone who didn't look more like Santa.)

The idea with the Hostess Heroes is to provide a regular Monday "relaxing" team-up with a lot of laughs. With the others in the group (Ring Ding, Ginger Snap, Captain Funyun, Bear Claw, Mmm Pie, Twinkie Kid, etc.), that shouldn't be too hard.


Posted by Dave at 6:12 AM | Comments (16) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Disco is not dead

Got the replacement video card in for Margie last week, so that's all good (aside from the lack of footsie under the breakfast room table while we play), but now her network connection has turned flaky as hell. Adjustments and poking and prodding and the like have failed to resolve the problem, which has made CoHing a bit less than relaxing for her, alas.

Les posts this apropos note.


Posted by Dave at 6:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: True Life

January 28, 2006

Helping hands

Psi-clone and Amorpha wrapped up the Madeleine Curry story arc (which, hands-down, has some of the best contact dialog in the game) with a final assault on the Madame of Mystery, an AV.

Also known as "pound your fists against a brick wall." As an AV, regenned damage at a furious rate, and was highly resistant to everything but psi -- and despite PC having a temp psi power, he and Amorpha hammered at her for a good 20 minutes with the health bar barely nudging down below 100%, and that only for a few moments.

"If anyone can hear me, we can use some powerful help," I /cced.

CC, in this case, stood for chirping crickets.

Fortunately, we got by with a little help from our friends. Specifically, we called in Avo and Puck Bunny, who were off on other characters, but who showed up in our contact list. Avo showed up, helped pound away for a while, then suggested some other folks. Jagoro got called in, and PB was on the way (having disconnection problems), and we'd gotten Synoptic coming in and a couple of other "New Alliance" sorts were in the wings ...

... and we finally started overcoming her resistance/regen, esp. with a couple of high-level wolf whistle summons and steady pounding.

And we won.

Whew.

It was interesting, and a nice demonstration of why burning of bridges is rarely a good idea. Even if I support what happened with the Alliance break-up (which I do, in principle), there are any number of individual players and their characters on the "other" side I'd be happy to go to the assistance of, and, clearly, vice-versa.

We are, after all, supposed to be heroes.

And that may well come in handy, as we start marching into the AV wars in the road up to level 50.


Posted by Dave at 7:57 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Consortium of Justice , Gameplay

Honor the Flag

2006-01-28_honor.jpg
I've been doing more with odd solo characters here and there. Yesterday I rolled up Honor the Flag, and have gotten her up to 9 today. INV/Energy tanker, she's the first real "patriotic" character I've come up with, and I've fielded any number of unsolicited complements on the costume.

By solo character, I mean one who can do PUGs, too, and tankers are, I understand, in high demand. And, to be sure, she's been on teams since 3. More importantly, as a tank, she's pretty survivable. And she's just fun to play.


Posted by Dave at 12:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Now on Test

Latest Test Server notes, at least those I think worth highlighting:

* Updated Kinetics/Increase Density text and buff Icon. The Mez protection of Increase Density will stack, but the damage resistance and the slow debuff will not stack.

Haven't done much with Kinetics, but this sounds fairly significant.

* Targeted AoE powers now properly hit moving primary targets; this includes most Tanker attacks.

Yay. Heard a lot of complaints about this. Though I don't have any AoE powers with Velvet right this second.

* Fixed bug that caused power animations on some teleports to play twice

On behalf of P-siren, thank you.

* Character transfers will now transfer Influence/Infamy to the Training Room.

Yay.

* DJ Zero's transdimensional dance club has been renovated and expanded.

Oh boy. I think I've been in the PDP, oh, twice? As a rendezvous? About as attractive to me as, oh, the Arena. Some folks, though, are excited.

* XP earned for defeating Archvillains/Heroes has been doubled. * Defeating an Archvillain/Hero will result in a random SO Enhancement 3 levels higher than the level of the AV being awarded to everyone who recieved XP (if you have inventory space). * Defeating an Archvillain/Hero will result in a random Large Inspiration being awarded to everyone who received XP (if you have inventory space). * Defeating an Archvillain/Hero while in Supergroup mode will award you a piece of Salvage 100% of the time.

Yay! Just in time for PC/A to hit their Praetorian arc.

*Fixed issue where the DE Eminator would sometimes not spawn.

"Sometimes" as in "always." Sounds like it's time to get those last "easy" Eden trials in.

* Modified Blaster/Energy Manipulation/Bone Smasher. Increased its energy Damage, decreased its smashing damage (no net change). Increased its unresistable damage in PvP to its proper 30% .

I respecced out of this with Torchielle, just because I needed the slot. Never thought it was it was all that bad, or good, as was.

* Independence Port and Talos Island: fixed bug that where the Ghost ship would sometimes get stuck in one location.

Quick! Get that ghosthunter badge while you can!

I've omitted several CoV thangs, since I haven't been doing much of that.

Overall, fixes some longstanding (Ghost Ship, DE Eminators) glitches. Nothing ED-class in scope, fortunately, but I'm sure folks will find somethign to kvetch about.


Posted by Dave at 8:05 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

January 26, 2006

Palely loitering

I have a weird bug going on (and, yes, I've /bugged it) with Velvet, where costume parts show up as white. That is, I buy them in color, and they show up in the Costume command as being in color, but when she actually wears them, they show up as white.

So, for example, her "classic" costume (actually in slot #2 right now) is all white when she wears it. Ditto her new (third) outfit, short shorts and tube top and heels and short gloves -- only the shorts are in color.

Mildly irritating. I mean, it's not like Velvet's pure as driven snow or anything ...

(Noticing her Creation Date, I see I'm a month short of my CoH anniversary, by the way.)


Posted by Dave at 5:16 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Gratz to Avocet!

Huzzah!


Posted by Dave at 11:52 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

"I can see clearly now .."

After many dangers, toils and snares, Margie's video card warranty replacement is back, installed, and working.

She seemed very happy by this, although I will miss her being on the opposite side of the breakfast table from me while we play.


Posted by Dave at 8:33 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: True Life

January 24, 2006

Dork Tower on CoH

Heh.


Posted by Dave at 9:07 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media

"I haven't got time for Dull Pain ..."

Interesting guide, by the numbers, on Dull Pain under I6 and ED and how to slot it and when it makes sense to be running it all the time and when it makes sense to use it as an emergency. Interesting stuff, esp. since I have a number of heroes that use it.

One fun bit:

The way that you use DP now depends on how you want to deal with the alpha strike. It's really a simple question. Are you gonna die in the first 5 seconds? If the answer is no, it's actually more beneficial to take the full brunt of the alpha, and then use DP to recover from it. Now, if you think you will die to the alpha, you should use DP before you rush in to keep you from falling.

With supporting numbers, and drug interactions from slotting, other powers, Accolades, and the like.


Posted by Dave at 9:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Titan Up!

Ended up playing the Woodsman/Eden/Crystal Titan Trial (also here) last night. Loads of fun, helped tremendously by the facts that:

  1. Many of the folks playing had already done it, and so had some idea of the pitfalls (I can't imagine tackling this thing otherwise).

  2. Solid team of characters. No weak links. Pesides Psi-clone and Amorpha, we had Hyperthermian, Shock.Therapy (Mal version), Kinetica, Hekuba, Puck Bunny, and Noelle Frost. Not much room for improvement there.

  3. DE still aren't dropping emitters, which made the whole thing a hell of a lot simpler.

he final battle against the Crystal Titan is amazingly short for an AV battle (a good thing, too, since we had only two Ambrosia chits each, and I was busy watching my second one count down to about 5 before CT went down).

2006-01-23_eden.jpg

The Trial itself is a mixed bag. On the plus side, it's short -- 2-3 hours, I'd guess (the timer on the main mission is 4 hours). The set pieces are damned spooky. The story line is pretty cool. The villain is scary.

On the minus side -- only a Devouring Earth fanatic (e.g., Amorpha) would not get tired of the critters after taking out the fortieth or fiftieth group of them. There are a few variation -- the Lichen, the two Walls -- but mostly it's all DE, and, in point of fact, all rock/crystal DE.

Net? Absolutely worth doing once. Future repeats are dependent on the quality of the team. And it's worth noting that varying teams might have varying results -- we'd have been in more trouble, for example, without a very solid tank, or without a couple of empathy sorts, or without controllers to lock down the Walls and their spawn -- and it would have taken even longer without Heroes That Go Boom, let alone, again, everyone being a solid quality player. Indeed, I'll be interested in seeing how it plays with the next character I bring in, whoever that turns out to be.

It's a Level 39-41 soiree, so PC/A had to autoexemp down. No XP, thusly, but good evening entertainment, nonetheless. The only hitch all evening was the "at least one person has to be the right level for the TF to start" maybe-bug, which meant digging up a 39-41 -- hence Hekuba, vs Li Nakamura.


Posted by Dave at 6:36 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

January 23, 2006

I think they've been reading the CoH boards ...

The NY Times on How To Be A Troll. Though, as I've pointed out elsewhere, there's a distinction between being a curmudgeon/pill (being contrary because of general anger at the universe or because of ignorance) and being a troll (being contrary to get a rise out of folks).

Still, these sorts of things see to take up about 85% of the bandwidth on the boards, which is one reason I don't read much except for the Dev repsonses and occasional explicit research into player guides.

1. Use the strongest language possible. Calling names is always effective, and four-letter words show that you mean business.

2. Having a violent opinion of something doesn't require you to actually try it yourself. After all, plenty of people heatedly object to books they haven't read or movies they haven't seen. Heck, you can imagine perfectly well if something is any good.

3. If it's a positive review that you didn't like, call the reviewer a "fanboy." Do not entertain the notion that the product, service, show, movie, book or restaurant might, in fact, be good. Instead, assume that the reviewer has received payment from the reviewee. Work in the word "shill" if possible.

Etc.


Posted by Dave at 8:59 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media

January 22, 2006

And be a villain?

I've been mostly off of CoV for a month-plus now, due to Margie's graphic card going kerflooey (to get all technical with you folks). I logged in briefly to get jingle jets, but that was about it, aside from a couple very short solo dabbles.

And y'know what? Not missing it all that much. I guess I'm just a sappy guy who likes to be a hero, rather than a villain.

Granted, CoV the game has some bits that make it superior to CoH -- incrementally, at least. But I'm really not pining away for the sense oppressive gloom and doom and blood and pain and general nastiness.

I'm sure that, once we get back into it, we'll enjoy it more, esp. if we can do more teaming up with people. But, really, at this point it remains a sideline to me, not the main event.

Call me a sucker for blue skies. I never knew you could get S.A.D. from a computer game ...


Posted by Dave at 10:33 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Weekend review

Friday

Mostly badge and accolade hunting for Psi-clone and Amorpha.

Saturday

Did some PUG work with Big Lungs. I'm not at all happy with the Sonic/Sonic combo -- it's okay, but boring -- but I really like the way she looks (more than just the, um, obvious), so I'm loathe to get rid of her without something to replace her powers with instead (Storm Controller?). PC/A bits in the afternoon. Nada in the evening, due ot other commitments.

Sunday:

Morning: Recreated Fr. Frank on Virtue. I'd have done it on Champions, but I really didn't want to let go of anyone there -- neither my sadly-neglected CoV toons, nor my lesser-used CoH alts (incl. Big Lungs, who is surprisingly popular in PUGs).

Ended up with Fr. Frank in a PUG sewer crawl, and levelled to 6 by Noon. Nice to be appreciated. :-)

Afternoon: Phalanx Prestige Day started off slowly, but ended up with a group of 8 (incl. a couple of Allies) doing the Croatoa TF -- which took us 3 hours, rather than the 90 minutes forecast, but was still short. Velvet and P-siren dinged to 31. Velvet had the only death in the TF, I believe, a catastropic endurancde failure leading to complete toggle drop and many, many, many lightning strikes.

Evening: Malta-stomping with PC/A and Hype and Noelle. Ended the evening at 46.4, which is none too shabby.

It was interesting -- PC/A have a very careful, refined, controlled set of Malta tactics, which were utterly useless with the rambunctious quartet we ended up in. Lots of thrills, chills, and a few face-plants (and exercise of my Rez) for everyone but me. I need to seriously consider respeccing into Clear Mind -- this is the first time I really regretted not having it. That, and carrying a lot of Break Frees.

Fun times.


Posted by Dave at 9:59 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Stats, stat!

HeroStats 3.4.0 is out, which fixes the problems introduced in last week's CoH patch (which changed the memory location of several key statistics and activities). I look forward to once more getting a warning about when my Group Invis. is going down ...


Posted by Dave at 9:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

January 20, 2006

Accoladia

For whatever reason, Psi-clone and Amorpha did hunting tonight, to support going after two likely Accolades -- Freedom Phalanx Reservist (+10% HP) and Vanguard (1/25min secondary effect boost).

Ended up with the FP Reservist for each of us, after some badge hunting and lots of crisscrossing PI searching for Fake Nemesis. Yay.

Vanguard's basically waiting for a stint in the sewer network for us, hunting down 100 Lost bosses.


Posted by Dave at 11:22 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Tempting

Character designs seem to hit me out of the blue. So it is with Father Frank, who I haven't built on Champion yet (would need to drop someone), but on Triumph (my "pilot" server).

A priest, of course. "Old" face, grizzled hair. Used one of the martial arts robes (black) with the dress shirt (black, with a white tie) under it, almost looking like a collar. The effect works pretty well.

I'd be doing it up as a "tough but nice" priest sort of thing, so he's a Defender with Empathy primary, natch. Secondary -- Margie's immediately thought of Mind Control (Psychic Blast, actually), but to me the answer for any good preacher would be Sonic.

I might actually roll him up on Champion as another soloist. I figure there's always PUG space for an Empath, right? Though Margie notes the controversy on the Defender boards about how Controller secondaries are actually as strong as Defender primaries, which just doesn't seem proper to me (and I say that as someone with a Controller with Empathy secondary).


Posted by Dave at 2:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

A million influence doesn't buy what it used to ...

After I hit 45, I went broke getting my powers all up to green and white. So I ran the past few days with Psi-clone outside of SG mode, so I was actually getting influence instead of prestige (plus whatever I sold).

So after I dinged 46 last night, I went and sold off my stuff and checked it out ...

Wow! 3.7 mil. No problem.

*cough*

Level 45 SOs (which are now yellow to me)? The cheapest (e.g., Fear) are 46K. Accuracy is 108K. Recharge Redux is "only" 100K.

Of course, to get to white, I needed to buy 19 Recharge Redux. Half the account, right there. Throw in some more-expensive Heals and Accuracies, and ...

Well, time to try that old /em panhandle command again.


Posted by Dave at 2:20 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Ding-ding-ding

Helped Hyperthermian get up to 50 last night. In the process, Psi-clone and Amorpha hit 46. (Which is a lot easier to do when you're fighting purples most of the evening). Puck Bunny, Li, Lil Tessa, Shock, and Mal were along for most of the ride, and Sword of Asgard hopped in on the last mish.

No big problems, as far as that goes, except for when we went up against Psychic Babbage. Hype went down three or four times, which usually triggered a few other deaths in the crowd as the critter turned its attention to us. I managed to avoid more than one death -- I think A went down twice.

With the volume of XP being generated, though, it was hardly a disaster.


Posted by Dave at 6:14 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

January 19, 2006

Tracking the changes

Note to self: The "review posts since your last visit" function on the AoC boards is moderately flaky, especially when there's amount of activity. I've spotted (fortunately, by cross-reference) several notes that never showed up in the display only by going out and actually spotting them there. Rrg.


Posted by Dave at 2:55 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media

Best CoH Boards Quote of the Day

I swear Paragon City is perfect setting for a new weatherperson fresh out of weatherperson school...

"Today, it'll be sunny, followed by more sun tomorrow, with a 100% chance of sun through the weekend. Except for Dark Astoria. You guys are screwed.'

From Heart_Breaker in this post.


Posted by Dave at 2:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Humor

Chit-chat

More PC/A goodness last night, hunting Carnies in PI, clearing Rikti on alternate Earths, and facing down scary-looking-but-pretty-flimsy Praetorian clockwork.

The latter mish was with Puck Bunny, who's also at 45. PB's play was erratic as Player-of-PB was being inundated with tells viz The Great Schism. Then, mid-mission, I started getting tells from a fellow leader on the "Champions" global channel, which nearly floored me -- haven't conversed in that channel since, well, it was set up, esp. when Coalition Chat started up.

Anyway, long discussions ensued about what had happened, how things were going, how they could have/should have happened differently, how the future might look, etc. (and in so doing received confirmation of another Lurker here :-) ).

(Bottom line, to my mind, is that the principals involved (any or all, but in particular Stateswoman and the FP Leadership) need to make a public statement about the matter -- not necessarily an open debate, but a straightforward "Here's what happened, here's why, here's what we intended, here's what went wrong, here's where we'd like things to go." Not defensive, I hope, but straightforward and honest. In absence of that, the only folks talking are either (a) ignorant, or (b) biased, which means that the majority of folks out there who are still rocked back on their heels by all this have only unreliable sources regarding what actually happened and why.)

(Yes, by the bye, I could also make a formal statement viz my own role in this as an SG leader. But I'm not going to put words into others mouths or second-guess motivations without statements to work from -- and, honestly, my role here was secondary in key ways. Once the Official Word is given, I'm prepared to chime in as appropriate. If it never is ... we'll see.)

At any rate, after Margie headed to bed, I did a bit more chatting with a couple of leader types, and a player or two, then called it a night (so far as CoH stuff was concerned -- I ended up staying up too late getting some other things cleaned up, but that's a different matter).


Posted by Dave at 8:44 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Consortium of Justice , Gameplay

January 18, 2006

Patch update

Well, amidst the other brouhaha, a patch got downloaded last night, bringing over stuff that's been on Test a while. The full notes are here (no, really, though you might need to F5 to dump the cache if you can't see them). To my mind, the biggies:


Posted by Dave at 11:31 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Suggested strategies

Lessons learned:

  1. Anyone may ambush. Even, say, Carnies. And unlike usual encounters, where you can set up and be ready and have some "frighteningly effective" scrapper to draw enemy fire, in an ambush they come right after your sorry squishy ass, Healing Aura and Green Chiclets notwithstanding.

    (Yes, that means Psi-clone is that much slowed on his march to 50, dagnabbit.)

  2. If you're going to join a PUG, it's better to be the highest level person rather than the lowest level person. Especially if it means most of the bad guys are blues and whites, with an occasional yellow. Good eats, heroic stances, and not much chance of face planting even when everyone else is trending orange and running away (or just out of a bad melee and charging forward to the next rather than resting first).

    (Yes, late night -- later than I really wanted, but couldn't quit the team in mid-Frostfire -- fun with Amethyst Crown, who dinged 14 -- in time to get a travel power to replace the soon-to-be-out-of-gas jingle jet.)


Posted by Dave at 7:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
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January 16, 2006

Vicious

"University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small." -- Henry Kissinger

I don't know what it is that makes political infighting so nasty in social groups, except for how Dr. Kissinger puts it.
Regardless, nasty and vicious is what we ended up with in the big Alliance Schism of 2006.

I'm certainly pleased to see some folks out on their asses, don't get me wrong. Other folks I'm sorry to see go, and some of the groups that were booted could have remained so far as I was concerned.

The whole thing was executed horribly (though, to be fair, I'm unsure what triggered the actual timing, unless it was Bill spilling the beans), and it could have been framed and spun a lot better (and, evidently, was intended to be). But, bottom line, "freedom of association" (as well as "he who pays the piper calls the tunes") meant that if the Phalanx leadership wanted to get rid of some groups, that was their prerogative. And, on balance, I'd rather be with the ones left than the ones kicked out. There are exceptions, on both sides, but if the line is drawn, I know which side I want to be on..

Evil clique? Whatever. I'd expect a truly evil clique to be better organized. And spend less time agonizing over this stuff. And have cool t-shirts.

I'm not a confrontational kind of guy. I would likely never have taken a step like this, and would never, ever have done it as it was done. There are people I'll miss, people I'm sorry have left, and others who, if I won't exactly miss, I wouldn't have minded if they were still around.

On the other hand, there are some folks whose nattering in CC will not be missed by me at all.

And all that said -- I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep over it tonight.


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Filed under: Consortium of Justice

January 13, 2006

Ding!

Dinged 45 with Psi-clone and Amorpha (despite one irksome disco-induced face-plant). Yay!

Hard to believe we're on the Final Five ...


Posted by Dave at 11:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
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You were always on my mind ...

Margie called from the office. "I need to ask you some questions. I have the blaster menu here."

Cool! I was thinking about throwing together an electrical blaster (Cracklepop? Prairie Storm? Sturmy Drang?), and was thinking about what powers they have. Never run one before, at least not for a long time, so I had a few questions if she could look them up for me ...

At least, those were my thoughts, but ... wait ... could she access CoH from work? "What?"

"I have the last year menu here."

Oh. She was talking about food planning for the party Saturday.

*sigh*

I think she was laughing at me, not with me, when I told her.


Posted by Dave at 2:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: True Life

And an hour later you want to play again

I'd not been aware that CoH was expanding to Asian markets (though it makes tremendous sense). Here's an update on the new "big" heroes being rolled out with it -- including a nice video.

Though ... "City of Hero"? That sounds a bit ... Engrish. (Note that the site renders pretty poorly in Firefox.)


Posted by Dave at 6:59 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
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Live and direct!

2006-01-12_aaronkate-mauler.jpgWith Kate and Aaron, two of our regular CoX co-players, visiting, it was no doubt inevitable that we would end up in some sort of mass CoX play session. And so we did, running around and bopping AVs after hours. We were over at the Testerfolks, and we had Kate, Jackie, Margie and myself out at the breakfast table, while Doyce, Stan and Aaron were in the office.

It was kind of interesting being able to just chit-chat en masse during play, to give verbal "Gather for Invis" commands to the team, and, of course, to see how folks play "in person." Not much RP, but ...

Gameplay-wise, it was not all that much of a challenge, a couple of rote face plants aside. With the players spread from 44 to 50, we could SK/RSK as fit the person whose mish it was, and we basically rolled through the missions -- Hype doing his juggernaut imitation, Amorpha and Kin doing massive damage, Puck and Noelle and PC locking them down, and Shock keeping us alive. Good times.

Of the not-yet-50 crowd, Amorpha's about half a pip from 45, and Psi-clone's around 2 pips, with similar proximity for Puck Bunny to 46 and slightly more for Hyperthermian to 50. And, since I expect we'll see at least one more repeat over the weekend, I suspect we'll get a good chance to all ding by then.


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Filed under: Gameplay , True Life

January 12, 2006

Potpourri for 2000 Prestige, Alex ...

I7 will have some sort of magical fix for SR and Ice Tanks that lets Defense scale appropriately against higher level mobs. Yay.

I don't actually have anyone that fits that at the moment, mind you, but ...

Actually, it goes further than that, affecting all Defensive powers (inspirations, buffs), and ToHit Debuffs. Interesting.

Basically, Level advantage in PvE, Lts, Bosses, AV's, and Monsters had To Hit bonuses. This made Defense not scale properly. We changed them so that instead of To Hit bonuses, they have Accuracy bonuses. What that means is, Defense is applied before their bonus, rather than after. Since Accuracy is a multiplier, it is multiplying a small base value than before.

For instance, an AV had a base To Hit of 75%. If a player had 25% Defense, the AV would have had a 50% chance to hit. Under the new system, the AV's has a base 50% chance to hit. The Defense is applied, reducing his To Hit to 25%. The Accuracy is then applied, giving a final To Hit of 37.5% -- a 12.5% improvement over the old system.

And, interestingly, it seems some powers are actually, behind the scenes, pets. E.g., Caltrops or Blizzards. New tech will let the devs pass on buffs that are on the caster to those kind of powers, too, if it seems appropriate (e.g., doing a Build-Up and having it affect the damage of Blizzard). More info here.

And server transfer is still coming ... slowly ...


Posted by Dave at 3:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

January 10, 2006

More changes (good ones, on balance)

Quoth Statesman:

First...I confirm that we're working on right now (as in pohsyb in the next room) to add CoV costume parts into CoH if you own both games....

Huzzah! And ... nice touch (a la bases) to encourage both games. (There's a further thought there I need to write more about soon.)

I've been holding off doing more costume stuff with some characters (PC, VJ) who are eligible, just waiting for this. (Yes, wait until you see Psi-clone in his new barbed-wire-encrusted skull armor!)

Then we repeal the hated stealth nerf. The reason why: many well reasoned posts. It's that simple. You guys pointed out the problems.

Though the basic motivation behind it still seems to be something that sticks in States' craw.

AND now...we're changing the way Archvillains spawn. A ton of forum goers disliked adding so many AV's into missions a while back...so we've come up with a solution. If the team size and mission difficulty are ABOVE a certain level, an Archvillain spawns. Below that, players will face only an Elite Boss. If the mission is set on the first two levels of difficulty, it takes 4 heroes or more to spawn an Arch Villain. On the third level, 3 heroes or more. On the fourth level, 2 heroes. On the highest (Invincible), a solo hero will spawn an AV. Note this works in BOTH City of Heroes and Villains.

In order to incentivize larger teams, Positron is going to add a bonus to AV rewards!

Interesting. And, on first glance, a fine idea. Won't change life for PC/A (since we're on Invincible), but it will make life easier for some of our other folks.


Posted by Dave at 11:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Throughput

It's always interesting when I play CoH with Margie while on a business trip. We lose the "bandwidth" of immediate verbal communication, but we've done this stuff with these character for so long, we know the drill, and a few quick keybinds ("Gather for Invis ..." + "Ready!" + "Hey, look at that &target!") fill in a lot of the gaps. We know our tactics, we know each other's powers and so forth, so easy-peasy. Sure, it's more difficult to type "HELP!" than to shout it across the room when something goes south, but the team status bar shows that, too.

Nevertheless, it's still a lot more fun with Margie in the same room.


Posted by Dave at 11:14 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

January 9, 2006

I7 plans

CuppaJo on I7:

Issue 7 - Tentative plan for releasing the "Feature Update" to the website is mid February - so you might as well settle in for about a month of waiting unless a dev decides to drop some hints.

Of course you already know I7 includes 40-50 content for CoV, and as with every update more art updates, missions, and quality of life features. The other items in I7 will be revealed when we get the Feature Update.

Posted by Dave at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

January 8, 2006

Not quite a task force

2006-01-08_crey.jpgFor "Phalanx Prestige Day," Velvet and P-Siren joined a half-dozen others to do the final story arc for Croatoa. Which was a lot of fun -- no horrific risk/danger (vs, say, fighting a god), but still a goodly chunck of XP and influence and prestige.

(Velvet really needs to do her level -- she's halfway through 30 and hasn't done the formal level-up from 29. Since it's just Resist Elements on the docket, it's not critical, but it's getting personally irksome.)

In the evening, Psi-clone and Amorpha wrapped the Countess Crey story arc (quote of the evening, "Oh! She's an AV"), which was quite satisfying.

Off on business again for three nights, so CoH-play may be a bit limited, damn the luck.


Posted by Dave at 8:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
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Rula - Rullero - Rullad - er, Sara Moore Task Force

Nice get-together -- 5:30p to 1:00a or so -- for the Sara Moore TF. It was my introduction to the Shadow Shards and all the wackiness there.

Solid group -- Psi-clone, Amorpha, Hyperthermian, Kinetica, Zepher-Storm, Puck Bunny, Shock.Therapy, and Li Nakamura. Had run with all of them previously except Li, and everyone was on their game. It was a Controller/Defender-heavy group (and a couple of the Controllers were Empathy secondary), so lots of buffs and heals, which worked out well. Indeed, only one Scrapper and one Tank.

Died twice, I think, and narrowly dodged the bullet (so to speak) several other times. Most folks took at least one face plant -- Amorpha had three or four, I think -- just due to the heavy firepower of Nemesis and Rularuishy things. But no chronic problems or intrinsic flaws in the group. Like I said, solid.

For myself, I thought I was able to serve quite well as a healer (including a number of Rezzes), while also getting my holds and pets into play. Plenty of excitement for everyone; we were all contributing members of the team.

And, for the record, the final mish was a lot spookier than I would have thought, and actually ended a lot more quickly than I'd expected once the AV was engaged.


Posted by Dave at 1:24 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
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January 7, 2006

Now on Test Server ...

Wow. Just in time for my birthday ...

  1. Added new temporary attack powers to all low level characters. Which attack a character receives varies according to the Origin of the character. Once a character reaches level 10, the power is used up. An interesting thought (esp. for the origin side of things), but ... hrm, I'd rather have travel powers appear at 10 rather than 14. I've gotten used to the whole back pack thing.

    Also, while it's a nice gimme, fact is that most folks don't have a lot of problems getting up through level 10 right now.

    Now, a string of temp powers tied to origin that evolves over each decade of SLs ... that would be interesting.

  2. "Glowies" that gave XP and Inf. in missions no longer give XP. The amount of Inf. they give has been doubled. Odd. Especially given the stealth nerf (below). It does mean no more arguing over who gets to click on the glowie, though.

  3. You are no longer allowed to interact with mission objectives while you are stealthed or untouchable. Hmmm. Disliked it that Invis didn't work alongside hostages one was rescuing (makes no sense, folks -- team members can see each other in Invis, why not a hostage also in Invis? Why don't hostages go Invis, anyway?). Adding it to glowies? Hrm.

  4. Added new Contact for new villains. When talking to the Arachnos Pilot in Breakout, villains may choose to be sent to talk to Kalinda or a mercenary contact. Well, it adds a bit of variety to the CoV beginning game. Aside from that, shrug.

And so it goes.


Posted by Dave at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Stealth nerf?

Word has it that the next patch set will include a nerf such that glowies cannot be clicked on while stealthed or phased.

Hrm.

From a gameplay standpoint, that really screws up a lot of strategies (which seems to be the point, of course, making unfair to (everyone say it together) "get XP without risk." (Never mind the number of higher level villains that see right through stealth.)

From a "reality" standpoint, it makes limited sense. The "I'm going to stand in the middle of all these guys and rifle this file cabinet and they don't bat an eyelash" sort of scenario never made sense ...

Though it also can depend on how one envisions the power sets as working. Is Stealth actually some sort of visual obscuring power (e.g., Steaming Cloud -- though why at least the bad guys wouldn't say, "Hey, what's that cloud doing in the middle of the hallway?" is beyond me), or is it an abstraction of "I'm really sneaky/ninja-like"? Or, heck, "I'm actually a master of disguise and have made myself up to look like these bad guys so that they don't notice me unless I get too close"? Something to make up for the fact that there's no game mechanism to throw a rock over to the other side of the room and get everyone's attention focused over there.

E.g. Honeygun didn't really have a stealth cloak. She was just really good at sneaking around, like a trained sniper. Her ability to sneak up should be a bit different and have different parameters than other interpretations of the power.

From a "reality" standpoint, each of those different interpretatoins of Stealth should play differently.

On the other hand, since we can't actually play those differences, the abstraction seems to work. And, really, the ability to Stealth through a mission only helps so much. It's often more of a convenience (turning a given TF from 8 hours to 6 hours or something like that) than a must-have.

As for Phasing -- well, that makes a measure of sense (though often there's a sort of "I make my hands solid enough to be able to pick the safe" out in the comics).

I also haven't heard how this is going to impact Invis. Given that, unlike Stealth, Group Invis is not a toggle, if I'm using GI does that means I have to wait until it wears off to click the glowie?

As with most nerfs, it's workable around, with a bit of effort and a bit of (yes) extra risk. People get through missions without stealth powers all the time. But it's another case of fixing a "problem" that I don't agree exists. Unless the only way one can have a legitimate super-hero adventure is to duke things out all the time, being part of the (e.g.) Legion Espionage Squad should be as good a way to adventure in Paragon as any other. And I say that as someone whose Main uses Group Invis extensively, but who has a whole series of other heroes who wouldn't dream of it.


Posted by Dave at 11:09 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

January 6, 2006

Asked Statesman!

Answers to the Ask Statesman! thread. Many follow-ups. Excellent.


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Filed under: Resources & Rules

January 4, 2006

Signs of a good PUG

  1. When inviting, the leader does a tell first, and describes the situation when asked, before sending the invite.

  2. The group hangs together, both in exploration and melee.

  3. When Psi-clone says, "Gather for Invisibility," they do.

  4. Nobody has an egregious misspellings of their names, or l33tspeak, or CoV-refugee monikers.

  5. People talk, strategize, consider, before they charge into certain doom ...

And, as an early birthday gift, PC hit 43. Yay!


Posted by Dave at 11:56 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay