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March 31, 2006

Patch notes

Now Testing in the Training Room - 3/31/06 - 11am CST. Not all that faboo, but a couple of interesting things.



Powers

• Leadership/Vengeance will no longer stack from multiple casters. In other words, only one application of Vengeance buffs can enhance a group at a time. [Pity, that, but not a huge issue to me.]
• Fixed combat Spam for IR Goggles. They no longer report that they increase your resistances.
• Changed To Hit Debuffs to use the 5/10/20 Enhancement progression. These were causing problems with Dual Enhancements (such as Hamidon Enzyme Exposure) [there's more on this here and here.]
• Hurricane's Repel effect is now slightly less abusive in PvP situations. It will still Interrupt Assassin Strikes, unless the Stalker has Repel Resistance, but it should no longer be possible to pin a player in a corner during Base Raids.
• PvPTaunt changes: When a player is being taunted, the effect can now be broken by running a good distance away. Additionally, hiding out of LOS of the taunter will cause the effect to expire sooner.
• You can now string multiple teleports in a row w/out delay of actual teleport function (does not wait for animation to finish). This fixes a bug that would sometimes cause skips in animation when stringing together multiple teleports. [Um ... okay, I have to actually try that to see what they're talking about.]

Badges

• Spider Smasher badge is now granted properly.
• Fortunata Seer badge is now granted properly
• Not all Ancestor Spirits were counting toeards the Swift Steel badge. This has been fixed.
• Longbow Tanker gladiator is now properly unlocked when the Politician badge is granted.
• Female Paragon Protectors defeated now count towards the 7th Generation Paragon Protector gladiator badge.
• All Madness Mages now count towards the Soul Binder badge.

Bases

• Characters in base raids are now set to an effective level of 50 rather than 40. (Preparation for 41-50 villain content)
• All Base Items are now level 50. This should make them more sturdy, and in the case of Base Defenses, more effective.

Tailor

• Fixed bug with sleeveless jackets that caused sleeves to be changed by default when players begin a Tailor session.

Chat

• Help Channel: New players will receive a new tab called "help" which defaults to a new server-wide help channel. We encourage experienced players to share their wisdom.
Existing players will not get this chat tab, and will have to add this channel to existing or new tabs. [Ooooh. I like. Now, if people will just use it as directed ...]

• Chat spam limiter: You are now allowed one message per second, You are allowed to break the rule 5 times. Every second you don't chat one rule break is forgotten. If you break the rule more than 5 times you will be banned from chat for 2 minutes. If you continue to try to spam while chat banned, you will continually reset your 2 minute timer. [Oh, yeah, baby! The Dash likes!]

CITY OF HEROES

City Zones

• Shadow Shard: Rebalanced the Kora Fruit award. Harvested fruit are now medium-sized inspirations rather than large-sized. [Not all that iimpressed with Kora Fruit anyway. Ho-hum.]

Badges

• Heroes can earn a badge by defeating Mu Guardians.

CITY OF VILLAINS

Powers

• Fixed a bug that was causing Longbow Wardens with the Gravity Distortion power to do too much damage.
• Void Hunter Rifle no longer does extra damage to Kheldians. The Stun and Knockback effect against Kheldians has also been removed.
• The Longbow Boss, Romulus, has had his resistances increased.
• Stalkers' Placate ability no longer grants the same strength Stealth in PvP as Hide. It is now roughly 75\p of that value. This should reduce the ability of Stalkers to fade out of view of an entire group of players after attacking.
• Fixed Lethal portion of Dominator Plant Control Roots -- it was doing unresistable damage and should not have been. Also, the lethal damage will no longer report as smashing in the combat log.
• Corruptor Heat Loss power was not modified for PvP, allowing it to drain 4 times as much endurance from players as intended. This has been corrected.

Missions

• Changed Psimon Omega missions to span 30-35 (to match contact level range).
• Changed re-spec trials so that they go 24-33 and 34-40 (Preparation for 41-50 villain content)
• Now Arbiter Leery will always be willing to talk to you after you've done the respec trial.
• Completing Mongoose's mission arc once again grants a souvenir.
• Completing Billy Heck's mission arc grants a souvenir.

City Zones

• Bloody Bay: Patrol missions now correctly award experience upon completion.

Installation

• Fixed issue when launching City of Villains for the first time (from a fresh install) in 98/ME. An error message appeared stating that 1024x768 is not supported in fullscreen mode and that the resolution is being switched to 800x600. 1024x768 resolution was and is supported.


Posted by Dave at 3:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Patron Powers

Mechanics and specifics of the new CoV high-level "Patron Powers" -- the equivalent (with various game material overlaid) of the Epic Power Pools in CoH. Cool. I doubt I'll get a character that high -- but stranger things have happened.

The info will also be available in game before you choose.


Posted by Dave at 3:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

March 30, 2006

Report to me in the transporter room

Thanks to a big wave of salvage downloads (it took about 45 minutes for Zazi to accept all the crap Psi-clone had in his pockets), the CoJ now has a couple of teleport pads.

One pad goes to Perez Park and the Hollows.

The other pad goes to Dark Astoria and Boomtown. (I'm somewhat certain of the latter -- I was relying on Margie's recollection when she came upstairs.)

As part of the Alliance, our pads are open to any other coalition group (only fair, since we use the Phalanx pads to Crey and Striga on occasoin.)

Once I confirm the second pad locations, I'll post something up on the boards.


Posted by Dave at 6:15 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Consortium of Justice

Countdown - 0.47 ...

Despite only running one mish last night, Psi-clone got up to 49.53, largely because of going back to Maria Jenkins and getting his arc conclusion credit for the Praetorians.

Started late, ran the mish, the spent the rest of the evening with Zazi emptying his pockets of about 400 lbs. of salvage. Yeesh.


Posted by Dave at 6:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

March 29, 2006

I smell respec!

Okay, so Mental Blast from the Psionic Mastery epic pool is a real bust - lowish damage, very slow (3 sec) activation.

So I'm looking for a replacement power. I noticed this evening that I have a respec, so ...

Top choices:

  1. Flash: I don't have any AoE spell (beyond pets), so this might be handy, just as another tool on the belt. It's a low-level Illusion Control power, an PAoE blind.

  2. Superior Invisibility: On the one hand, not really necessary given that I have Group Invis. On the other hand, being a toggle instead of a click, it would allow me to do the Invis thing indefinitely. That might be nice.

  3. Regenerative Aura: Nobody turns down Regen Aura on the team. I'd rather do something more aggressive than add another Empathy power, but, it's a very nice Empathy power, doing an AoE health recovery boost for 60 seconds. Wouldn't be able to fully slot it, though, so 8 minute recharge or 37.5 Endurance cost would stay highish.

  4. Vengeance: I had this planned at one point, then dropped it. Add DMG, ACC, DEF to a team (AoE) if someone on it dies. Might be cool to have, though only as a team player, less useful as a duo ...

Other powers in the pools I don't have are Absorb Pain (I'm usually the one low on HP, thanksverymuch) and Clear Mind (definitely not something I need with Amorpha). Also Health (I'm an Empath), Hover/Group Fly (yawn), Flurry (I have Air Superiority), Super Speed (hmmmm), and Maneuvers (which is so tiny an increment these days, from my understanding, that it's not really worth it). Oh, and Psionic Tornado (definitely not in keeping with the character).

Thoughts? I'm leaning still toward Flash, but I can see how Vengeance might be situationally handy.


Posted by Dave at 9:57 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

AV vs. Elite Boss

Okay, went back and actually read the only thing I could find on the subject, back here. Statesman said:

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.

So, for PC/A, we should be able to still get Elite Bosses at the 3rd level of Reputation -- which should get us better (tougher) spawns, but still keep it in the duoable Elite Boss range.

We'll have to give that a try.



Good guide to reputation here.

The third level is:

Rugged/Vicious - Mission spawns at +1 level to your level (i.e. +0 to +2 mobs, but usually mostly +1 with some +2). Spawn sizes are normal. AVs become Elite Bosses when team-size is two or less.

And this worked great -- we did a (non-AV/EB) mish and, carving through orange and reds, the XP was faboo -- about 14-15K/minute. Keep that up, and we could be at 50 in 3 hours or less.

As Margie noted, we need to consider what we want our Big Mish to be.


Posted by Dave at 8:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

CoH Trivia

According to Statesman, did you know ...

-that Dr. Vahzilok is named after George Vasilakos, owner of Eden Studios (for whom I co-wrote several RPG books).

-that the name Rikti came from a conversation where I said "Rikki Tikki Tavi is a cool name. How can we get that into the game?"

-that the name "Cryptic Studios" was inspired in part by the first RPG book I co-authored, "Cryptozoology."

-that Shane Hensely, a current designer, created Deadlands.

-that Thomas Foss created a minis game Pirates!

-that Statesman was a character created in several pen and paper super hero RPG's over a decade ago. Many former character names have found their way into the game.

The overall thread is full of all sorts of intersting CoH trivia. Some of which ("do you remember when?") I actually, appallingly, remember.


Posted by Dave at 7:52 PM | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

More I7 stuff

Big article on I7. Coolest bit is the picture at the right, showing how Recluse's Victory (Atlas Park, other-dimensioned) changes dynamically as the balance between Hero and Villain victories changes. Fun.

Recluse's Victory, or what the Heroes know as Atlas Park, is the first PvP zone for the series. Heroes and Villains will vie for 7 strongpoints, called "pillboxes" places around the map. Waypoints to these pillboxes are always one click away (no fullscreen map fiddle-faddling needed) and have 4 heavy turrets a piece, which must be destroyed before the pillbox can be captured (and don't forget that you'll have to deal with PvP aggression in the meantime!). And when the pillbox is captured... I hope you're sitting down for this.... a "temporal anchor" is placed, and the buildings around you dynamically re-skin to fit the faction's vision- reskin not just for you, but for everyone in the zone! In Villain areas, drabness, dead trees, proganda posters, and other signs of Recluse's influence is everywhere to be seen. Even the large Atlas statue turns to, you guessed it, Lord Recluse with arachnid legs wrapped tightly around the world. In Hero areas, it's goody two-shoes cheerful cleanliness, flora and fauna, and Justice League banners. When one side captures all the pillboxes, they get five minutes of victory time to try to gain 1,000 PvP points as everyone jockeys for postion. Doing so yields you temporal enhancements that you can take out of the instance, such as a robotic tank. But the real show stopped is this zone-wide dynamic reskinning. It's never been done before in any MMO, and it's at least as cool as it sounds.

And also:

Finally, one of my original, comparatively meager complaints against City of Villains was the lack of truly villainous content. All that changes with Mayhem Missions. Whereas you used to get a bank or casino heist mission after completing five newspaper (randomly generated) missions. These special missions will go into the regular rotation, and Mayhem Missions will take their place. Basically, you grab a team of villains, enter a special instance, and wreak as much havoc as you can within a given timeframe. Commit federal no-nos like destroying mailboxes, municipal no-nos like fire hydrant destruction, and those innocent civilians wandering around... heh. It ain't GTA, and you can't defeat them, but you can sure make them run scared. Discrete thresholds based on how much damage you do award bonus time. Just about everything is destructible, including buildings! Set them on fire through setting bombs in side missions, or (in another side mission) raid a local shop for the phat loot. Sneak past roving cameras (which, when activated, spawn waves of the newly formed local police force) and break into vaults and secure areas. The rewards and loot you earn are considerable for the minimal time investment (20-30 min, though features like this are still being fine-tunes), and you'll want friends to gang up for your raids so you'll be invited to their Mayhem Missions.

Aside from Recluse's Victory, there's still (as earlier noted) no glitzy joy for CoH.

Quality of Life Features: (Hereos and Villains)

New Global Chat and UI features improve the overall ‘City of’ experience.

CoH Art Upgrades (Heroes)

City of Heroes gains reflective windows, added bump and specular mapping, a variety of higher resolution textures, and full screen depth of field effects.

New Costume Items

I just hope the Global Chat/UI features (of which I've heard zilcho details) make up for what will no doubt be further lagging graphic "enhancements."


Posted by Dave at 3:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Countdown

Finished up the Praetorian arc last nightj with Psi-clone and Amorpha -- Dominatrix and Marauder, followed by Tyrant. Took many fun pictures standing next to Statesman, who looked quite rugged.

I'm of mixed feelings regarding the whole AV/Elite Boss thing. On the one hand, it let us duo the whole grand story line, which was convenient and fun. On the other hand, they were almost too squishy -- Tyrant was red, and, frankly, no real match for Amorpha even without much help from me.

If we redo the arc via Amorpha, I'd like to play with the settings a bit, to see if we can make them nastier without bumping them to AV level. AVs I'm pretty sure (given past experience, and their recovery rate) we can't duo, but we should be able to find a way to make the EBs more of a challenge.

Now at 49.45.


Posted by Dave at 6:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

March 28, 2006

Timing is everything

Freedom Phalanx Day -- which I look forward to as a great reason to play Velvet -- is Sunday afternoon ...

... just when I'm leaving on a business trip for the week.

Knights Night -- which I very much look forward to as a great reason to play Fazenda (in her new costume, no less) -- is Thursday night ...

... just when I'm flying back from my business trip.

*sigh*


Posted by Dave at 10:21 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Keyboard thing

I've had an issue over the past few weeks of odd keyboard buffering -- most often manifesting with "Hey, I let go of the [w] key but I'm still running forward toward that very unfriendly group of purple mobs!" Well, I thought I was actually wearing out my keyboard, but now I'm thinking that's not the case.

Last night, the same thing happened a couple of times dodging to the side (and running uncontrollably against the wall for a few moments).

And I've realized I've had a coincident problem with typing, where suddenly my typing in the chat window will queue up for multiple moments, with nothing coming out for a second or two, then the keyboard buffer slowly emptying. Which is, I'm thinking, the same problem (e.g., the [w] gets queued up while pressed and continues to then execute even after I let off the key).

Question is -- WTF? And how to do I fix it?

Need to go to the boards, when I get a chance ...


Posted by Dave at 8:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Bit and pieces

Ran with Ho Ho and Princess Peep last night, getting both to 16 and beyond.

I've decided, in retrospect, that I really ought to have gone for Taunt -- the "Bite Me" aura is good with Invuln, but Axe is way too slow for punchvoke. Since my job is, often as not, trying to hold/control aggro for the biggest nasties (followed by standing up to same), not having Taunt is a problem.

Alas, I'm in the High Teens Rut (appropriate for Ho Ho), so this time I got Health (leading to the desperately needed Stamina at 20), and next time I have to get Invincible. Then Stamina. At 22, I start backfilling some of the Resists, but I'll reevaluate at that time to see if I need to get Taunt (since the best Taunt is, of course, staying on your feet).

Until then, guess I just have to keep wiggling the butt and asking to be bitten.

Gameplay went pretty well -- were in some nasty Lost mishes, but I (barely!) managed to stay on my feet. Unyielding rocks vs. Aberrents -- never got mezzed once, and that was a good thing.



Afterwards, we pulled out PC/A to finish our (4th) costume mission slot. That should get us an added free costume token today, when the /cov fix goes in. Margie went on to do something similar for P-Siren and Araware.


Posted by Dave at 6:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Gameplay

March 27, 2006

Costume Curiosities - taking the Cost out of Costuming

The /cov patch will be going live with "tomorrow morning's update," so ...

... since they'll be giving out free costume tokens for each costume slot ...

... if you have a toon that could open up a new slot, tonight would be the time to open it (even if you don't actually fill it with anything).

So PC/A, who took their Founders Falls Icon mission last night, will be finishing their Nemmie hunt tonight so they can get the extra slot (and, thus, an extra free costume build). Give the cost of costuming, that's a pretty nice deal.


Posted by Dave at 3:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Roleplay

So as I was going through my Character Update, I realized there was something missing, largely, in what I was writing.

Roleplay.

I mean, this is a MMORPG, right? And the Alliance is an RP group, right?

Well, frankly -- my RP is just plain old turning to be largely situational. Posts when I think of it (I have a couple lined up for Torchielle and Lynn, and another one or two nebulously out there for PC), and always in RP character voice online, and open for RP chats if they come up. But I really don't have strong, compelling stories to tell with these folks. Or, rather, I have too many other things going on to carve out time for strong compelling stories with them -- especially since there's the distraction of, well, gameplay. PC has a big story. Torchy does (or could). Most of my characters have strong backstories that could lead to something interesting.

But ... that "could" will probably largely remain shallow, not going much beyond hints and motivations behind chit-chat and related activities.

I know there are folks who spend hours just standing around with their toons RPing. And I accept, respect, and, in fact, admire that. But I also look to CoX a lot for the opportunity to just bash on bad guys/opponents. I'm happy (in fact, more than happy) to do that IC, but I really ... sadly .. am not going to be acting out the Great American Novel as part of the game. It doesn't fit with what I want from the game, nor the circumstances in which I usually play it.

Hrm.


Posted by Dave at 2:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Character update

Current status of my various toons:


Posted by Dave at 2:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Gameplay

Jump!

I'm pretty certain I have this already on an alt (Velvet?), but just a note for future playing with: auto-Jump bind:

/bing J "powexec_toggleon Super Jump$$++autorun$$++up"

Actually, from what I recall, the main problem with this is that Paragon is full of annoying things to jump into and under, and Murphy's Law of Super Jump states that given a choice, a toon will always be a few inches short of the rooftop, or will land in a fire-escape-thicketed alley, or just under a dockside.

Still, even though you have to watch and steer, it means less holding down of keys.


Posted by Dave at 1:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

March 26, 2006

Countdown

Psi-clone and Amorpha are at 49.42.

Tonight we took down (as Elite Bosses, to be sure) Black Swan, Siege, Nightstar, Malaise & Mother Mayhem, and Diabolique and Infernal. (For those wondering, those guys as Elite Bosses generally are netting around 4K, with the missions earning around 30K.)

The Malaise/Mother Mayhem mish not only got the award for the Creepiest Set Dressing in CoH (the Asylum), but netted us the Portal Jockey Accolades.

Slow but sure ...



Else-alt ...

Hildy & Torchy dinged 26. Snipe!

Lynn dinged 27.

Blue Point dinged 37.


Posted by Dave at 10:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

March 24, 2006

Here Be Monsters

Click on the "thumbnail" for a full-sized photo of some unpleasant customers:

From left to right, front row: - Mantid (player character, just under six feet) [and the person who put this together]

- Adamastor (found in Dark Astoria. Keeper Of Secrets badge.)

- Kraken (found in Perez Park. Unleasher badge.)

- Clockwork Paladin (found in Kings Row. Knight Errant badge obtained for preventing him from being built)

- Babbage (found wild in Boomtown and as an ambush in the Synapse TF. Clockstopper badge, awarded always for the wild version and only sometimes for the Synapse version.)

- Jack-in-Irons (found in Croatoa with hordes of redcaps. Giant Killer badge.)

- Jurassik (found wild in Crey's Folly, and as the final boss in the Numina TF. The Solution badge, awarded always for the wild version and very rarely for the Numina version.)

- Head of the Hydra (found at the end of the Sewer Trial. Head of the Hydra exploration badge sitting underneath it.)

- Winter Lord (2005 Winter Holiday event only thus far. Frozen Fury badge.)

- Lanaru (found at the end of the last Shadow Shard TF. All three Aspects of Rularuu (Ruladak, Faathim, Lanaru) are the same size. No badge per se.)

- Eochai (found in Croatoa with hordes of Fir Bolg. Pumpkin King badge.)

- Kronos Titan (ambush in a 45-50 Malta story arc. Master of Olympus badge.)

- Lusca (found in Independence Port, along with eight tentacles. Devilfish badge.)

- Crystal Titan (found at the end of the Eden Trial. No badge per se.)

Back row:
- Hamidon (found in the middle of The Hive. Hamidon himself is the big round thing in the middle, while lots of other smaller round things surround him in the goo. Heart of the Hamidon exploration badge almost directly underneath it.)

- Rularuu the Ravager (not in game yet.)



Posted by Dave at 6:57 AM | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

March 23, 2006

Countdown

Psi-clone and Amorpha are at 49.32.

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

Still ... slow, steady progress.


Posted by Dave at 10:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Don't cross the Devs

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

Roma Victor is an online recreation of Britain in Roman times, where players live virtual lives as slaves and citizens of that all-conquering Empire. The world is currently in the final stages of testing and will officially launch on July 1st 2006, after which thousands of players will be able to live out their own virtual lives within ancient Roman-occupied Britannia.

Cynewulf, who is the first player within Roma Victor to receive this brutal punishment [for "ganking" newly-appeared characters], will be hung on a cross for a full seven days on full public display in the digital reconstruction of the provincial town of Corstopitum (modern day Corbridge in Northumberland, England).

Kerry Fraser-Robinson, RedBedlam’s CEO says: "Roma Victor has been designed from the outset to offer an historically authentic and realistic virtual world. Although crucifixion is nowadays synonymous with persecution and religious symbolism, in 180CE it was just one of many severe punishments used by the Romans to punish criminals and to send a clear message out to other potential wrong-doers. And since our online world is historically authentic, we feel that applying this punishment to cheats, hackers and other virtual wrongdoers is not only appropriate, but also adds to the gaming experience by resonating with classical history."

Crucifixion is to be used as a form of player 'ban' within the virtual world of Roma Victor, with the length of the ban reflecting the severity of the punishment. For cheating by exploiting a bug and advancing his or her character's skills unfairly, for example, a player might typically receive a seven-day ban; multiple or more serious offences will result in a longer (or even permanent) ban.

Nice. And people get to stand below the character and ridicule him, too.

Maybe banned players in CoH should be thrown in the Zig. Or handed over to Dr. Vahzilok for ... experimentation. The possibilities are endless ...

(via BoingBoing)


Posted by Dave at 3:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media

More I7 reviews

Article from GameSpot, which gives more detail on (among other things) how the Recluse's Victory PvP zone will work.

Sounds like it will be fun to watch.

(via CoH LJ)


Posted by Dave at 2:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Creeping upwards

Psi-clone and Amorpha got to 49.2 last night.


Posted by Dave at 6:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

March 22, 2006

Costume Curiosities, the Sequel

CuppaJo on the resolution to the CoV costume thang:

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

  2. Until I7:

    For heroes that have a villain costume part OR villains that have a hero part: Those “rogue” costume parts will remain on your character until you visit the tailor again.

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

    Fair enough.

  3. For I7 and beyond:

    In Issue 7 the costume creator and tailors will work like they do now if you own just CoV or just CoH – however, if you own BOTH you will have access to both sets of costumes for all of your characters. NOTE: You must have upgraded to a combined account to get access to this option.

    If you have a combined account and choose to wait until issue 7 to change your rogue costume – your rogue items will not be made generic.

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



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

Fazenda still looks good.


Posted by Dave at 1:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

A tiny recap

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

  1. I actually managed to get to the hotel in time on Sunday night to play a bit with Margie (in and amongst late-night conference calls). We have a mic set up on Margie's machine now, along with her headphone; with my notebook on the other end, we were able to use GTalk to do voice communication. Fun time running around with Hildy and Torchy. Watching smouldering piles of bodies at Hildy's feet never gets old.

  2. Margie's got Blue Point up to 35.4. Nice. She's actually getting up high enough that her experience is guiding some design changes for Amorpha.

  3. Margie headed off to bed early last night (after Space Night), so I spent a few hours soloing with Lynn on Striga, getting her up to 26.6. Yay. Easy times with Council (including Vampyrii and Warwolves), a bit rougher with Banished Pantheon (like everyone, I fricking hate Storm Shamans).

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


Posted by Dave at 12:30 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

March 21, 2006

I7 Interview

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

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March 20, 2006

WARNING! WARNING! DANGER! DANGER!

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

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

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

And, further:

This command was created for use by Devs/QA only during CoV beta. It just so happens that this command was set to be available to everyone instead of just Devs/QA on accident at some point. Thus - it was never tested by QA in the same way they test commands intended for players.

The command changes more than just your costume options - as people have noted it also changes your ID screen among other things. Also - there are problems when you access CoV costumes this way - some faces are messed up - some costumes are not there. It was never intended for player use - it's not a "controlled leak" or anything like that.

At this time we advise changing your costume to a complete hero costume. You can do this by zoning to another zone. When you return to icon your tailor screen should be back to normal and you should be able to change your costume back to what it was. I have no info on whether or not we will offer free tailor sessions to compensate for this. I wouldn't count on it.

We are working on a fix - but spending extra time testing to make sure it is done right. All I know about the fix for sure is that it will remove this slash command from the game for players. As of yet I do NOT know if the fix will remove any CoV costumes on heroes or anything else. We are still investigating the best solution.

Hmmmmm.


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March 19, 2006

Costume curiosities

Hildy and Torchy were at Icon tonight, getting their capes.

As I was exiting, I noticed someone with a local tell, "Type /cov 1 for cov costume parts."

And Margie went back in, typed that command ("/cov 1"), clicked on Icon ... and had access to villainous costume parts.

Interesting ...

(There are, we note, some very cool Villain capes. Including "Feathers," which Avo should very much look into.)



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


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March 15, 2006

Ding-ding!

Psi-clone and Amorpha double-dinged 49 at the same time last night. Can't imagine we'll manage to time it that closely for 50, but that would be pretty keen.

Only (now) 9.5 pips to go! Start planning the party!


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Sprucing up the joint

Issue 7 will include various and sundry base enhancements.

I'd be much more excited if I were more excited about bases. I mean, it seems to be de rigeur for SGs these days, but I'm not feeling the Huge Need for Base Goodness.

Still, it will be nice to have some storage lockers for Salvage, Enhancements, and Inspriations. And it will be pretty to be able to put super=logos on "banners, tables, holograms, and other items."

Actually, rewind there a second.

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

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


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Scrapping by the numbers

Dev Castle seems insistent on providing (gasp) actual numbers behind powers. Doesn't he realize That's Not Fun?!
base accuracy (for most powers, there is variation within the set)
Broadsword 1.05
Claws 1.00
Dark Melee 1.00
Katana 1.05
Martial Arts 1.05
Spines 1.00
I.e., Katana, Broadsword, and Martial Arts have an intrinsically slightly higher chance to hit. (Balanced, ostensibly, by other things.) (And, of course, I'm kidding about it Not Being Fun. As long as there's a measure of balance, seeing numbers doesn't spoil things, at least for me. If it were just numbers? That would be unfun. But having the numbers available to provide the feedback that RL experience would provide in a way that gameplay experience doesn't? That's just fine by me.)

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March 14, 2006

Get in the zone

The devs are soliciting player opinions about upcoming zones.
The City of Heroes and City of Villains universe is expanding and we want to hear from you about it! As we contemplate where your heroes and villains might venture next, we want to know what excites you the most. Below is a list of 11 themes we are currently looking at! Tell us what you think by selecting your top 2 choices. Let your imagination run wild and picture how these themes might fit into the existing CoH and CoV world.
Hmmm. The choices are:
  1. The Moon - Blasted landscapes and futuristic moonbases. Sounds like wandering through Boomtown. On the other hand, imagine 1/6 gravity (leaping! knockback!) and vacuum issues.
  2. Mars - Lower gravity and atmo problems, too, but some cool alien landscapes and hidden civilizations could be cool.
  3. Space Station - Sort of like the Moon crossed with the Shadow Shard. Hrm. Never mind.
  4. Rikti Home World - City of Rikti! Has possibilities (especially if we expand the number of types of Rikti we see). I want to see Rikti civilians and cops running around in fear at heroic presences.
  5. Arctic - Not that interesting per se; it would depend on what's hiding out there in the ice and snow. Though the extreme weather bits could be interesting (slow reduction in endurance, health, speed, except for folks with cold resistance).
  6. Desert - As the Arctic.
  7. Underwater - Slowed movement, breathing issues, and "flight" for all. Could be fun.
  8. Post-apocalyptic - I can visit there via Portal Corp any time.
  9. Jungle - Oh, boy! Perez Park II. Bleah.
  10. Circus/Carnival - City of Carnies. Oooookay. Whatever. I guess it could be pretty.
  11. Gothic Horror - As opposed to Dark Astoria? Again, could be pretty.
So a fair number of interesting possibilities, but aside from the environmental threats and prettiness, the key will be what sort of story, critters, threats, and backstory is going on there. That said, I think I'll vote for the Moon and Underwater.

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Claw-claw (no longer) bites

As of I7, at least, according to Castle:

Some folks took one of my posts to mean that Claws sets for Heroes and Villains were being reduced in DPS. This is not true! The statement was along the lines of "My changes made it TOO good, so I have to tone them down a bit."

Here are the major changes coming in I7:
Swipe: Changed animation to a Two Hit swipe. Cast Time reduced to 1.5
Strike: New Animation, basically a stab to the midsection. Cast Time is 1.17 seconds.
Slash: Uses Strike's old animation. Cast Time 1.33 seconds.

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


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Iconic

Some nice AT icons (just for heroes) here.


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Monday, Monday

Hostess Heroes time, with both Ho Ho and Princess Peep dinging to 15.

Did a few KR mishes, then a couple of Perez mishes. The latter of which were both very low level, but we did get a chance -- my first time -- to fight the Kraken.

Which was, frankly, a bit of a disappointment. Nobody really took any damage, and he was not nearly as impressive-looking as I'd expect.

Still, cool times. Alas, next Monday I am out of town (or, rather, traveling back in town), so likely won't get on. Which makes me sad, because right now Ho Ho's one of the slightly more experienced in the group, which is helpful for a tank. Oh, well.

Also need to keybind some witty one-liners for her.


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March 13, 2006

Weekend Review

FRIDAY

In the afternoon, Lynn, who I got up to 26 (and the "SOOOOOOOOOOUL DRAIN!"). Need to do some journaling with her

Bopping about with Psi-clone and Amorpha. Ran a couple of AVs (as Elite Bosses) with very little trouble. Then headed over to the Cascade Archepelago for some of A's missions.

I am hereby announcing plans to respec all my players to Fly, if we plan to spend any time over in that neck of the extradimensional world. Watching Amorpha try to SJ her way between various contacts and the like was frustrating (for her more than for me).

And the kora fruit mission we eventually got? I mean, even if you could still farm them the way you used to, it would still hardly seem worth it for some top-tier Inspirations. Bah.

Back to the AVs (and clearing out all the Infected Scientists and demoic cohorts by Portal Corp).

SATURDAY

Torchielle and Hildegard on Striga. Who can ask for anything more? We both hit 23. Hildy did encounter some debt problems as she gets used to the different level of defenses, but we're still leaving piles of smoking bodies behind us.

We teamed up late in the evening with Major Rogers, who was a couple of levels above us. Nice to add another person to the mix, even though it made me very aware that we have a pretty fixed MO (no moreso than, I suppose, PC/A) that needs to be flexible for guest stars. And that will need to be flexible in the future for critters we can't (or don't want to) just herd-and-fry. Torchy has some alternate flame powers coming up (her snipe and her boom), but when we start facing some of the exotic bad guys, we're going to need to be more flexible.

Lots of good fun. Think I'm going to add Stealth to her, just to aid in the setup. (I'd add Invis, too, if I could find a power slot. Thinking of Stealth for Lynn, too.)

SUNDAY

In the afternoon, more Torchy/Hildy stuff. No more deaths, two instances of Maestro, and Torchy dinged 24 (and another fire blasty power, yay).

In the evening, we brought on Psi-clone and Amorpha. Did a couple of mundane mishes, then brought in T'lauro and Pizzaz as SKs and took down three AVs (as actual AVs, since that's what happpens when you have four on a team): Dreck, Bobcat, and Neuron. A few deaths from the melee types, helped by having two Empaths on the team, plus buffs and holds and good stuff like that.

PC/A are about 2.5 pips from 49. Yay!


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March 10, 2006

PUGsly

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

THE GOOD


THE BAD

THE UGLY

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


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Gratz, Puck!

Puck Bunny dinged 50 last night in an all-star Psychic Babbage (a fine coincidence of initials there) mission.

(And let me say three things: (1) never seen Babbage drop so fast, (2) it was great that Margie was able to get home just in time for the festivities to start, and(3) it was a fine personal moment having Psi-clone team-Deceive Babbage.)

So, on to the photos:


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


Multiple teams here, of course, formed by starting a team then sending folks into the mission and dropping there. I was personally privileged to be on the "main" (PB) team, but everyone had a blast.

L-R: Justice Stryke, Unknown Badge, Seventy-Six, Sword of Asgard, Kessa, Puck Bunny (yay!), Hyperthermian, Psi-clone, Noelle Frost, Malcalpyse, Avocet, ShockTherapy, Stateswoman, Li Nakamura, Amorpha.

All of which reminded me of: And there came a day unlike any other, when Earth's Mightiest Heroes were united against a common threat! On that day The Avengers were born – to fight foes that no single hero could withstand!

I mean, frankly, there's no threat I wouldn't stack this 15 up against. Bring on the Rikti Invasion II!


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


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


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


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March 9, 2006

No CoV in Tennessee, it seems

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

State Sen. Tommy Kilby of Wartburg has proposed a bill making it a misdemeanor for stores to sell or rent violent video games to anyone.

Kilby says he put the bill together after getting feedback from concerned parents and law enforcement officials.

The bill states games depicting violence against anyone including authority figures, such as police, should be outlawed.

So no more taking out RIPs on Mercy Island, I guess. Or seeing villains beating on cops in the Hollows.

Heck, what qualifies as an authority figure? How about the bad guys who "rule" in other Portal Corp-accessed dimension? Can I still actually try to take down Psychic Babbage? How about assaulting Arachnos agents when we're ostensibly in Rogue Isles territory (as a hero or a villain)?

Are the bosses in the Circle of Thorns religious leaders? Do they qualify? Are we going to run into trouble with anti-hate laws, too?

Or, for that matter -- as super-heroes, are we heroes considered authority figures, too? If we're deputized in some fashion, I'd think so. Does this mean that all the villains will have to be nerfed to scream and run away?

Short of that, will I get in trouble if I take my CoH-loaded notebook to our Oak Ridge or Tullahoma offices?

Goofy.

(via Les)



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March 7, 2006

Music! Hark!

Interested in CoV music? Here are some of the tracks at Kevin Riepl's site (Kevin, evidently, being the composer of same).

Somewhere, on some site, I found the MP3s for CoH (illegally posted, I'm sure). It's nice to see a source for some legitimate CoX music.

(via CoH LJ)


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Leaping tall buildings

The Hostess Heroes Frostfireapalooza last night (we ran through Frosty at least four times) left Princess Peep and Ho Ho less than a pip from 14. So, much contact running and ka-thunking later, we went to be way too late but travel powers (flight and super-jump, respectively). Glee!

Managed to have a pretty solid group last night of 7 or 8 most of the time, even with a few people off and away. Beginning to face some stresses of level differences -- at the top, we're now 14 (going on 15), whereas at the bottom we're just about 10. That can be gotten somewhat around with SKing (though the travel power thing is going to be a bitch), but it also means that, short of RSKing, the lower-level characters don't really have missions to offer up (we ended up running some gray/green stuff more than once), and the higher-level ones aren't always running their arcs through, further limiting mission choice (as I discovered when someone stuck me with the star toward the end of the evening).

It also means new characters are going to need to be run in parallel or in replacement.

And, at the upper levels, we've finally come close to running out of Hollows mishes, unless we want to drive toward the Cavern Trial -- not something I'd recommend with this particular group.

At any rate, lots of fun. Glad my meeting didn't run too late.


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March 6, 2006

Halfway there

Margie went to bed early last night, so I focused on Lynn, finally dinging her her to 25 -- which, I'm startled to find, is halfway to 50. Huh.

She's doing quite effectively solo, hip-deep in Striga content (she just graduated to the dude who hangs in the graveyard). I've gotten pretty good at hit-and-run tactics for the various hunt missions that come up -- get in, take down a few, SJ out before the rest of the eight or nine take me down. It feels kind of slow, but it's also better than racing back from the hospital.

Siphon Life is my friend.



After snarking about the lack of notification about Phalanx Prestige Days, the next one came up yesterday, nicely publicized by Sword and all, and I ...

... missed it.

First off, I'd forgotten it was, effectively, a mid-afternoon exercise in this time zone (it's scheduled starting at 4 p.m. EST). Secondly, I spent from about 2 to 6:30p doing "homework" -- a job assignment due Friday that Just Didn't Happen. That was on top of the five status phone calls over the course of the day (starting at 6 a.m.). Rrg.

Oh, well. There's always next time. Esp. now that I'm paying attention.

Really need to schedule a CoJ get-together.



Speaking of soloing, Margie's got Blue Point up to 34. Yikes. She's going to ding 50 before any of our other toons, if we don't get our act together.


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March 5, 2006

Knights Night Day

Ended up, with various schedules up in the air, running a trio of Storm Knights for the day -- Fazenda, Araware, and Doyce on Pummelcite, looking for a TF to do.

Started with Synapse -- but quickly learned that Pummy was actually a level two high. "No way I like this TF enough to spend 4 hours not getting XP," he opined. We stuck with it long enough to get F/A levelled to 20, then ...

... hopped over to Sister Psyche. Found a couple of starters (it takes 5), but either the level of one of them, ro the inherent nature of the TF, meant that everything in the mish was +3, +4, or higher. When Pummy had died four times or so, Araware a couple, and Fazenda once -- and the bad guys very little at all -- we decided to bag it.

Ended up doing various missios in Striga. The "shared mission credit" fix not being in CoH yet (feh!), we did a lot of the same thing, including something like four or boat missions in a row. Which made finally getting a warehouse or two a great relief.

Lots of fun, at any rate, and F/A are well over halfway through 21.

I like Striga. It's a great zone with some fun story. I just wish there was a store and/or a trainer there.


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March 4, 2006

Together again for the first time

As we've been discussing for eons, trying to shuffle together some of our alts, we've had a Long Term Plan to get Torchielle and Hildegard running together. After I noticed the other day that Hildegard was actually within a level of Torchielle -- 21 and 22 respectively -- so we gave it a whirl last night.

Worked like a freaking champ. Fire tanker locked 'em down, fire blaster burned 'em up. She'd gather up a couple of mobs of white all around her. I'd pop Build Up, then Fire Breath, and ...

... she'd pout I hadn't left anyone for her to hit.

Only off onte to the evening was discovering that I've had so little gameplay on Torchy that I'd never imploemented my I6 respec on her (still has Haste 6-slotted). I did so late in the game, a