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May 25, 2006

Hiatus

We're off to Walt Disney World for the next week, so no CoX, and no Blog of Heroes, until next weekend at the soonest.

If you're just dying for content, my regular blog will have both remotely-posted photos and pre-set posts going up on it all week, so you can get your ***Dave fix.

Until then -- be safe, Alliance heroes! And don't start I7 without us!


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You can have it fast, or you can have it right ...

... because, damn, you're already getting it cheap.

I7 will not roll before the end of the month.

And that's the right answer, folks, because I'd rather it go live with the bugs shaken out, rather than deal with problems, frustrations, gnashing of teeth, and emergency patches.

And I'm not saying that just because I'm going to be on vacation. Really.


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Filed under: Resources & Rules

May 23, 2006

Chatting with Positron

Mark Miller has been announced as the new lead developer for CoX. Here's a nice interview with him. A few excerpts:

In the next update, Issue 8, we will have a new system that gives us the ability to make your level 50 characters better. That means we’ve abandoned the idea of raising the level cap to 60 for now and instead will give you the option to make your level 50s better, then better again and then even better. That process will last a lot longer than additional 10 levels, which just create a new problem: What to do after hitting level 60?

Nice. It keeps the "Hero of the City" title from being devalued, but actually gives you some non-exemplar, non-cleanup stuff to do with your 50s.

Why are you raising the difficulty of archvillains and monsters? Well, monsters were supposed to get an entire zone buzzing. Instead they are currently treated like secrets. If a group spots a monster, they take it down themselves before someone else notices it. Archvillains were not enough of a challenge, but we are still looking very closely at them on our test server to make sure they don’t get too tough.

Hmmm. So what they really want is "Oh my God, Lusca!" and get everyone in the zone coming that direction. It might be interesting if they could sort of dynamically scale it (above a certain level) based on the availability of heroes in zone. I know they're spreading the wealth re monster rewards, but it needs to be spread even further -- if you participate (and run a risk), you should get something for it.

We’ll have veteran rewards, which you’ll get every three months of payment and I’d like to stress here that the three months don’t have to be continuous. There’ll be lots of fan requested items and I can tell you that a trench coats costume option will be the first reward that we’ll hand out. The rewards are account based, thus players won’t have to decide which character they want to use them on. Some of the other ideas we’re toying with are base items, free respecs and temporal powers. There’s even a chance we’ll see the beloved Christmas jet pack again. An expanded version of the Halloween event will also open this year giving newer players are chance of getting those cool badges.

Again, nice. You want something that people will value, and that can be achieved, but not something that dramatically affects gameplay.

Trench coats ...

The [planned retail] expansion will let heroes and villains team up against a common foe. It can be run from any of the games and there will be no extra subscription fee. It’s also build into the system of making better level 50 characters, however there is going to be content for all level ranges. There will also be a new power set for each of the existing archetypes including tanks and scrappers.

Again, thsi sounds good.

Issue 9 will include a rebuild of a couple of City of Heroes zones of which one is getting a major face lift. I can give you a hint though – it’s the one “we never play” (Faultline, -ed). We’ll also open a City of Heroes zone for villains.

Excellent.

What is the status of the option of transferring characters between servers? That’s a thing we plan for Issue 8 or around that time. There will be a charge for the service, though – some kind of micro transaction. I don’t know the details but it’s because such a transfer is very taxing on the database servers, there’s certainly much more to a server transfer than you’d think.

Hu-freakin-zzah! Dearly love to be able to do that. And the micro-payment system makes sense -- not so much because of the database transfer, I suspect, but because otherwise folks would do it a lot.

A few things confirmed not happening (or not happening soon): the archenemy system, and switching betwen hero-villain, and personal apartments. Which, frankly, is mostly okay (though the archenemy system, conceptually, is cool). I8 is scheduled for 3-4 months after I7 (since it's not a technology change), so we're talking September -- I7 being predicted "before the end of May."

(Hrm. Bad timing for us, vacation-wise.)

Lots more in the interview (as much as I quote). Good stuff.

(via Doyce)


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May 22, 2006

Make book on it

The next CoH novel -- The Freedom Phalanx, by Robin Laws -- is out at Barnes & Noble -- though evidently not yet at Amazon.

I've picked it up ... and will report back when done with it.


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May 19, 2006

Squiddy Macros

For future reference a fine Kheldian FAQ, notable for its macro/keybind info.


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For people who are really into their Stone Tank

Like, actually getting into their Stone Tank -- someone's built this lovely Stone Golem LARP costume out of foam mattresses. And, yes, they move nice and ponderously when the armor is on ...

(via BoingBoing)


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Filed under: True Life

May 18, 2006

If only I wanted to create a new SG

The origin story aside (and I find this 1888 encyclopedia entry about it very droll), I think it would rock to have a group named, "The Thundering Legion." I mean, is that a name or is that a name?

Heck, now that I think of it, that whole Victorian Era sensibiliity about the name (rubbed off from the encyclopedia itself) might be the best thing about it. A displaced band of late 19th Century science heroes, sort of a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen bit (Lady Photon, bless'er, writ large) ...

Hmmmm ....


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Filed under: Consortium of Justice , True Life

Feeling mainstreamish

Demographics on computer gaming from the Entertainment Software Association:

It turns out the age of the average gamer is 33 years old. 31 percent of gamers are under 18, 44 percent are between the ages of 18 and 49, and a surprising 25 percent are over 50! The average adult gamer has been playing computer or video games for 12 years, meaning that they got their start with Super Metroid and Final Fantasy VI on the SNES, and DOOM II and the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans on the PC. Those of us who remember playing PONG are rarer, but we’re still out there!

Wow. Part of the plurality. Cool. I'd be curious to see the stats more specifically for CoX, but it's nice to know that I'm not a completely aberrant freak or something.

As far as families go, 35 percent of American parents say they play computer and video games, and 80 percent of these play games with their children. 66 percent of gamer parents feel that playing games has brought their families closer together. The typical gamer parent is 37 years old. The study also indicates that parents are present 89 percent of the time when a game is rented or purchased for their children.

I will say that CoH has brought Margie and me closer. And if Katherine could play better, she'd be playing more with us (rather than just dabbling with it).

(via Les)


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All across the map

Got a late start last night, since Margie and Katherine had to do some evening-time shopping for the latter related to our upcoming trip.

  1. Soloed a bit with Lynn. She was still on Heroic, and I was getting some pretty blue-white missions, so I bumped up to Rugged -- and started a new arc of missions (Croatoan witches) that took me down twice in ten minutes.

    Hrm. Rejiggered back to Heroic until I catch up a bit. Half-way to 31.

  2. Post-Kitten-bedtime, we hopped on with Hildy and Torchy, also in Croatoa. More, analogous Witch trouble, as those crazy broads refuse to herd well. Still, few worries.

    Midway through that mish, got a @tell, so hopped over to ...

  3. CoV and Mister Ravenous and Charity. Kinda crazy fun -- three brutes on a team of six or seven tends to guarantee things will be a bit chaotic (I didn't envy Margie in her buffy/healy role, let alone our being kinda rusty with these character, which meant hitting the right powers was more conscious than it should have been).

    Played a while (too long a while), then hit the sack. Charity dinged to 16. Should (may) do more with those two. In our copious free time ...


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May 17, 2006

Hami notes

Long LJ entry on how they do the Hamidon Raid on Virtue.

I don't expect to do another Hami Raid any time soon, but it was sort of interesting to read, and I'll be sure to review if I ever have a few hours to kill.


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Squiddies!

Managed, with all the foofoorah last evening, to get Cetus and Lunulata up to 6th level, which means Squid Nova form.

Spent the next couple of adventures running around doing double-Squid action. No real threats (yet) to our relative squishihood, and it was fascinating to actually see them in action.


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May 16, 2006

Re-zoning

War Witch (the Dev) was notably absent for a while from the boards. She explains where she's been:

Yes, I was busy adding flavor spawns to Atlas Park, Kings Row, and Galaxy City.

I've seen some posts on the changes and additions and dialogue so thanks for the great feedback.

It was kind of interesting going back with the new animations and having some fun. Kings Row wasn't my zone, but Atlas Park and Galaxy City were so it was pretty weird going back to them again after a long absence. But a good weird.

I did not have the opportunity to go into The Hollows and Perez Park like I would have liked, but I did manage to get some time in to at least pull spawns out front of mission doors and remove some of the nastier mission doors in the HEART of the Perez Park maze. (not sure if anyone noticed that change)

The Hollows, just a few spawns removed around contacts or mission doors and extra mission doors added for variety, if applicable.

That was all I had time for, unfortunately, but I'm glad you guys like what you see.

There'd been talk about rejiggering some of the earlier zones, but I hadn't realized it was coming out soon (presumably with I7). Yay!


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And, having writ, moves on

Sean and Ana are (not, as far as I know, for any related reason) departing CoH and the Alliance.

Like Sam, I don't want to get whiny and feel like I'm pressuring them to stay. We do what we need to do, and whether it's ennui, RL crises, other interests, or abduction by aliens, folks do leave, just as other folks come. It's part of the life cycle of social groups.

But ... they will each be missed in their own way. No man is an island, and part of the CoX experience is the company you keep. And they've each been good company.


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Filed under: True Life

NPC Zen

Overheard running through Perez last night:

Guardian: This ceremony cannot be stopped!
Embalmed Abomination: Grr!
Thorn Wielder: This ceremony cannot be stopped!
Guardian: This ceremony cannot be stopped!
Guard: This ceremony cannot be stopped!
Guardian: We are beyond you.
Guard: We are beyond you.
Guard: We are beyond you.
Guardian: We are beyond you.
Thorn Wielder: This shell is needed.

You could write poetry (modern poetry, at least) out of this stuff.

And, for the record, as much as the Hollows is an annoying place, Perez Park has it beat all (ahem) hollow for annoyance. Even with the map zoomed in all the way and the vidiotmaps background, it's still a PitA to get to places inside the trees, even if you have a travel power.

(And, as Margie points out, why is it that only high level missions in the Hollows have entrances in the buildings right by Wincott, as opposed to the still-low-level, still-sometimes-pre-travel-power mishes that get thrown up in the far eastern edge of the zone, or down in the Mountains of Madness kind of thing?)

That said, I will still take a generic mission in the Hollows vs. Perez, any day of the week.


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Filed under: Gameplay , Humor

Munchies

It's amazing to think that the majority of the Hostess Heroes are up in the low 20s now -- Ho Ho just dinged 22 last night. I'm getting contacts in IP and Talos and the Striga arc just opened up to me (probably would have been available sooner, but I've been lax in keeping up with my contacts).

I remember when we were all 1st level noobs, barely able to lift our weapons without collapsing in a wheeze. And, to that end, let me once again say that I have never had a character so transformed by Stamina as Ho Ho. Endurance drain is the least of her worries, even with all her toggles on and chopping for all she's worth.

Indeed, I'm really pleased by how she's doing, tank-wise. Lacking Taunt (which I just picked up, thank God), she was basically jumping into the biggest mob and letting her Invincible bite-me aura keep them locked down. Then she'd whale on the nastiest boss/lieut around, keeping him seriously locked down until the others could clean out the rest of the crew. Between Dull Pain and a few green chicklets, she could stay on her feet against a flock of orange and reds, no problem.

It actually worked great -- on a full team of 8 last night we had a couple of deaths, but nothing systemic. I'm sure we're cruising for serious trouble, but last night demonstrated how formidable a bunch of snacks we truly are.


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May 15, 2006

I second that emote, son!

All emotes. Including those coming in I7. Animated. Oh, my.

(via Doyce)


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Weekend review

Didn't actually play all that much, but some at least.

  1. A bit of hopping around/soloing/PUGging with Lynn.

  2. Created new Kheldian pair, Cetus and Lunulata (me/PB and Margie/WS, respectively). The intent is to get them up to 8-9, then pair them off with Al McGordo and Christmas Present. The character stories have not quite gelled in my head yet, but should be fun to play with.

  3. Did the first Shadow Shard TF, starting ... what, Thursday? ... and ending last evening. Like most of the SSTFs, this one was kind of annoying. I mean, some eerieness with the Rularuu, but also a lot of seemingly pointless running around between the Shard and Founders and Bricks, a lot of repetitive missions, and a climax that was sort of anti-climactic.

    Solid team of 50s, though -- Psi-clone, Amorpha, Hang Time, Noelle Frost, Sword of Asgard, Leroy Jones -- along with a 44 -- War Bones. The most interesting thing about it all was artificial: the team composition kept changing over time, which meant tactics and strengths and weaknesses kept changing, too.

    That we were mostly 50s, and thus didn't have to worry (annoyance factor aside) about death/debt or missing out on XP meant that our tactics shifted subtly (or not-so-), too.

After all that time playing PC, it will be odd shifting back to Ho Ho tonight.


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May 14, 2006

I think we've had an effect on the child

Specifically, from her Kindergarten Mother's Day card:
“Plays with me.”

“Plays City of Heroes.”

Need to do more playing with her. Or encourage her into gaming of some other sort that we can ooh and aah over.


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Filed under: True Life

May 12, 2006

Back in the groove

Knights Night last night. Margie and I got on a bit late, and between east coasters dropping off and serious performance problems for some people (blamed on the I7 pre-downloads), didn't go very long en masse. Still ended up with Fazenda and Araware running something late with (at the end) Noelle, which was fun, given both her devil-may-care attitude and the always-welcome contributions of a Controller.

Both F and A are halfway to level, which is nice. We should give them more playtime. Though I need to rebuild some of her macros, since at least one of them went away when I respecced her for Fly.

(Note to self: really need to do something like this for the Consortium. Really do.)

After that, Psi-clone briefly helped start up the Shadow Shard TF (#1) that Doyce is organizing. Ran around with the crew for a while, and was shocked to discover that I was the Team Healer; there's usually one or another full Empathy Defender running around in this group, but last night they had to make do with just me -- which led to a sort of Zen "Stand in the middle of battle, watch the team health bars, spam heals and buffs at anyone having trouble, toss in an occasional Blind as opportunity presents."

Nice to pull Psi-clone out to do something, though. After having been running Fazenda, I was astonished by how fast he flew. And, really, even taken down to 41 or whatever the TF auto-exemps to, not much in the way of powers were grayed out -- Regen Aura, Psionic Tornado (bleah), an Accolade or so. Not bad.


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May 10, 2006

Vend-o-Vend

Screw epic powers. To hell with new content. I would gladly pay for an expansion pack that simply fixed the whole trading/vending interface.

  1. Why, in God's name, is there a limit (an expanded limit!) on Influence traded? Why? Why?

  2. Praseodymium Infusion? Nektonebo's Left Collarbone? Enhancements can have all the color text they want, but they damned oughta also have the actual functionality clearly spelled out in the purchase screen. It's enough to frelling influence what Origin I pick, which is a sign that it's a bad thing.

  3. Why would you offer me Red enhancements at the store? Especially red-below-me? To buy for someone else? The interface can be so cleaned up by just eliminating the stuff that's not needed (with an option to pull it up).

  4. Ditto for origin compatability. Why would I be interested in seeing any Enhancements that I cannot use? Yes, on the off chance I'm buying for someone else, maybe that's an option, but normally I should just see the things that apply to me.

  5. Explain to me again why contact stores don't show on the map what their specialty is? Yeah, they'll buy anything, but if it's not in their normal line, the prices are craptastic. Been doing a lot of running around between store contacts in Croatoa of late.

Talk about a Quality of Life thing. There have been some small improvements, but the system is still a lot more irritating than it needs to be.


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Never trust anyone under 30 ...

Between a sinus infection and Mr. Momness, I decided to take the day off (which still meant getting up early enough to get Kitten to the bus). So I took the opportunity to finish getting Lynn up to 30, which was a lot of PUGgy fun.

And what faboo power did I get at this juncture? Oooooh ... gotta be ... Hurdle! Woot! A life-changing power!

(Actually, needed it -- it will synergize with Super-Jump, and will give me a vertical movement if I'm running low on Endurance and needing to leave Combat Jump off.)

And, by the bye, she seems to have the most Prestige contribution of anyone in the Boomtown Saints at the moment ...


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Greater love hath no man ...

... than that he remember to download the I7 upgrade files for his wife's machine while she's off on a business trip. (Note to self: do same on the spare notebook tonight.)

So, yes, 350Mb of I7 goodness, just waiting to be patched and activated. Glee ...


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The Personal Factor

One of the incredibly keen things about MMORPGs is that people from across the country, across the world, can play them together.

I mean, really. I knew Avo in high school, and we shared cuneiform clay tablets and everything. How cool is it that we can actually now, separated by half a continent, play CoH together?

Or there are the folks I've never, or would have never, met -- Mal, Noelle, Ulric, many more -- Sean, Ted, etc. -- people with whom I can interact In Character and Out of Character, roleplay and chit-chat and discuss any number of surprisingly intense subjects (especially if they have to do with super-group and coalition politics). How neat is it that there are these keen people out there that I'm pleased as punch that I've met online, let alone the folks I've met in person -- and how incredibly spiffy is it that I can just sign in any evening and interact with them virtually.

And, all that said and done, there is something even more rewarding about having the opportunity -- solicited/intended or not -- to actually sit in a room with some of these folks and game with them live. Engage in witty banter, hear the LOLs and LMAOs and ROTFLs from one's bon mots, coordinate tactics (or take a break) with an unambigious tightness that only physical presence can allow.

It's something I get to do with Margie, and it's something I've been privileged to do with both some of the local Denver crew and with a couple of visitors over the past months. And it's been really neat, and I count myself blessed for having had that opportunity.

Y'know, I;d pay $20/month just for the solo or PUG availability. To actually meet up with and interact with these folks, virtualy, and even moreso live, is worth a hell of a lot more than that.


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Filed under: True Life

May 9, 2006

Solo fun

As I pined away this evening, with pangs of separation from Margie (on a business trip) wracking my decrepit frame ...

I managed to get Honor up to 15, and Lynn up to 29. Ironically, both ended up on PUGs that ended up unable to finish a Mission from Hell (which garnered both massive XP and a single death each). Synchronicity.

Re Honor: Being able to fly over the Hollows is a thing of joy.

Re Lynn: I find it more than a little disturbing that she's almost at 30.


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On Test ...

The latest bits ... or those that caught my eye ...

* Increased level of Neutral turrets in Recluse's Victory * Strengthened Signature Heroes/Villains in Recluse's Victory.

Interesting. Sounds like RV was too easy ...

* Modified sprint fx to only play while running. Not Flying. Not swimming. Not jumping. Just running on the ground

Yay! That little Pig Pen-style cloud of dust was annoying.

* Fixed delay when you click on helicopter pilot to zone from Kings Row to Warburg and back or Bloody Bay to Skyway and back

Yes! 'Twas quite annoying.


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May 8, 2006

The allure of Bosses

An interesting battle on why Boss Battles in a video game are the make-or-break of the game itself.

It's partly because a boss battle is the most mythopoeic part of gaming. An adventure game, after all, typically puts you on some dread quest in which the foes get bigger and nastier until you face one final, hellish climactic baddie. This is a pure apocalyptic narrative -- the same story line that has obsessed the West for millennia, from the Bible to Das Kapital to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Boss battles make games seem cosmic.

But personally, I think the allure is much more straightforward than that, and also, in its own way, more complex. We love boss battles because they represent game design at its purest and trickiest.

Thinking of the CoX, the bosses/monsters/AVs are the classic finales of adventures -- TFs, arcs, the final big Praetorian missions. Where they work is when there's something to make them interesting. A single AV alone in a room provides one of three choices: you can grind them down, you can be ground down, or you get into a stand-off. All three are not all that interesting in and of themselves, because CoX tactics are, in most cases, a matter of what powers the participants have and how they slot them (and, with less impact, how they employ them). So you go in with a plan and it either works or it doesn't.

The "good" AVs are the ones where it's not that simple. Infernal is the classic example -- how do you balance the gate, the demons in the room already, and Infernal himself? Who keeps the AV busy while other folks shut things down while other folks keep the team alive? It's a skin-of-the-teeth battle, much of the time, with enough variables that tactics spell the difference between disaster and success.

The end of the first CoV Strike Force has some variability, too -- two AVs, with a variety of interesting tactics that can be employed (many of which have to do with getting them to fight each other) to maximize advantages or minimize weaknesses.

The "bad" AV battles, though, are the villain who stands there and either dukes it out with you or goes down hard. There might be a surprise (a massive attack last ditch nuke by the AV that knocks some of the party out, suddenly changing the balance), but too many of the AV battles are grinds, settled before the first punch is thrown.

The "bad" AV missions can be a useful climax to a long story, but too often they're disappointing. That's because, really, there aren't a lot of strong active tactics that take place in most battles -- the decisions have already been made, the powers chosen, and the only question is whether variables of luck, or a sudden mapserv, will take the decision out of the players' hands. The player mix can spell a huge difference -- but that's already decided by the time the battle rolls around.

Interesting.


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May 7, 2006

Devil's Food

Played some Devil's Food characters on Sunday afternoon, in honor of Lorne visiting. L-R Chicken Bone (Lorne), Tofutti (Jackie), Maitre D'mon (Necro MM, me), Brussels Sprout (Margie). Much fun. I particularly enjoyed Maitre D'mon, "The Headwaiter from Hell," whose zombies (Late Party and Bad Tipper) are, complete with vomit, past customers he just couldn't let go of ...

Avo also ran with us for a bit as Swedish Meatball Meat Ball. Well-balanced team, and we basically cleared out Mercy Island and got up to 8.

SMB and I, in turn, had played some on Friday when I was running Fugu Fish (Spines Stalker, of course). Again, good team, and it was fun doing CoV that way. Glad we've finally got some Devil's Food (CoV equivalent to Hostess Heroes) action put together. Bon apetit!


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Filed under: Character Design , Gameplay

May 6, 2006

I7 video

Don't recall if I've posted about this before, but here's a trailer for I7 from the E3 convention. Cool stuff, including the new patron powers, mayhem missions, and Recluse's Victory.


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Filed under: Media

Gothy

A guide. A primer. A Wikipedia entry.

Lynn isn't really Goth -- she's just rebellious and anti-social and philosphically troubled and kinda likes being by herself and folks being a bit scared of her. Most "movement" Goths are, to her mind, kinda goofy and pretentious.

She is never, under any circumstances she can control, perky.


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Filed under: Character Design

May 5, 2006

We have Issues

A nicely crafted history of CoH, issue by issue -- what went right, and what didn't.

Part of what seems clear is that the intro of PvP had significantly negative consequences -- that were inevitable, because PvP (be it the Arena duds or the power nerfs) was critical to City of Villains being launched. Indeed, if you see Issues 4 and 5 (and ED) as laying the groundwork for supporting CoV PvP (EIEIO), it all begins to make sense.

The question then becomes -- how do Cryptic/NCSoft manage to move forward? The answer, from what we've heard tell for I8, is more content and some added power sets (and EPPs), even if some of that is pay-for-it rather than free. That's the right answer, I supsect. The question will be how soon they can bring it on. I7 will keep people in CoV, and provide some bones for the CoH players, but it may be a long wait until it all pays off. And, in the meantime, there are plenty of other games out there ...

(Though not for me, he said confidently.)

(via Doyce)


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Filed under: Resources & Rules

I7 UI changes

You'll now be able to control display of buff icons for yourself, team members, and/or pets. It looks as though you'll be able to show all of them, show just applied one (vs. auto-powers) or show none of them. That's a nice, if not earth-shattering, quality of life thang.

Actually, it goes further than that:

- You can now hide all inherent/accolade buff icons via right-click. - Click buffs now flash/fade on and off a few seconds before they expire. - Stackable buffs (e.g. Siphon Speed) can now be displayed differently - as normal, slightly overlayed (as in the above image), or a single buff icon with a number in the middle. No change for powers such as Soul Drain. - Enemy debuffs are also slightly duller that your own buff icons.

and

- There's a global channel search function - It's now possible to set your team seek options to automatically reject all team invites. - Dodging an attack from defense buffs (?) now puts Avoided! or Deflected! over your head. - Powers that put you into a self-contained state (tested Rest and Phase Shift, presumably PFF, Invisibility, etc) now display Only Affecting Self in the mez state text below the buff bar.

The third bullet there is kind of interesting -- assuming the screen doesn't get inutterably cluttered (esp. during a major lagfest melee), it will be good to know when defensive powers are doing their thing. As a Dev describes it in a bit more detail:

Any time we determine the miss was due to a defensive power, it gets a new message. What message it gets is based on the power, so as people have said, if your target is a Stone tank you may see "Deflected!" messages, but a SR in Elude might result in "Eluded!".

There's also mention in the thread that timed temp powers now have an actual timer on them. Nice, esp. now that PvP zones have brought so many temp powers into the game (I'm assuming that on/off temp powers, like the Wedding Ring, have similar timers?). Usage "timers" are also displayed ("x users remaining").

Coolness. Sometimes I think UI changes can be the most profoundly satisfying ones of all, even if they are all in the "background."



And an odd policy change on character renaming:

Previously, names for characters under level 35 on game accounts that were inactive for over 90 days were changed to unreserved status. Data mining has determined that this policy is not needed on an ongoing basis and the program has been suspended. If we need to reenact this policy in the future to free up names then we will give all players 30 days notice before enacting the policy again. We thank all players for their continued support.

Which makes me think that (a) it was a PitA to run the report and/or make the name changes, and/or (b) after the first sweep on this (some months back) they've gotten very few names back out of it.


Posted by Dave at 6:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
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Lynn activities

Last night was going to sort of be the kickoff to the Boomtown Saints team activities (I do not envy Doyce trying to figure out how to get a 41, a 33, two 28s, a 14 and a 13 all doing something productive, until we get a few more at each of those levels), so I signed on with Lynn, who's joined the group.

(While Lynn is definitely not saintly, she does find the whole thing very gothic, what with the titles and all that, plus she actually digs the street-level bits, so there's potentially a good fit there.)

Official proceedings were delayed, so I ran her through some more Croatoa missions, until she got an invite for a PUG in Croatoa. She was the lowest of the team, which ran from 27 to 32, but, hey, good XP, right?

Hrm.

It was the "save the 4 hostages from a huge outdoors hillside platforms Faerie map full of Redcaps" missoin, and we suffered both attrition in deaths (largely avoidable -- lots of "I'll go scout over here, hey, aggro, oh, Quantum, crap .." kinds of things) and, ultimate, players, which then led back to the first kind of death.

Throw in a bubbler who wouldn't advanced with the big combat bubble, a blaster who kept knocking away all my opponents, and folks who ... well, let's just say it's a whole sainthood-earning string of miracles that we managed to both complete the mission and I only died once.

After that, Epitaph was on, so I ran with him a bit, kind of getting some beginning RP into the relationship (Lynn is both fascinated and freaked out by the Kheldians, and is freaked out by her being freaked out by it). Wrapped up a Council mission, then off to fight Crey -- which, unexpectedly, led to Paragon Protectors, which Lynn, amazingly, did not die in front of (and, hopefully, contriibuted toward the defeat of).

It was fun doing more actual RP with her, as well as doing the very scrappery duo. I look forward to the next (coughGAMECALENDARcough) time.


Posted by Dave at 6:29 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
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May 3, 2006

Proto-squids

Rolled up two Kheldians last night. I built Nova Testament, a Peacebringer, and Margie built Cetus, a Warshade. Ran around Galaxy and Atlas, interrupted by FedEx sagas and Internet outages.

Initial impressions are favorable -- we were able to carve up pretty much everything we saw, and got to 5 pretty quickly. Interestingly, as squids you have both the convenience of flying/teleporting and the tacit penalty of not getting XP to/from missions the way other 2nd level heroes do.

I don't want to do too much more in "test," if only because I expect that these characters (on Infinity) will, in fact, be going away, and there's no real point in spending too much time on them. Maybe just enough to get the Nova form and see how that whole dynamic works.

Main question will be whether we are a squid-squid team, or whether we pair these guys up with another lowbie pair we have in our stables (thus getting the Kheldian+Hero bonuses, not to mention someone who doesn't get vapors at the sight of a Quantum). That will also help determine some sort of storyline behind them, about which I am feeling fairly vague.


Posted by Dave at 6:59 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

May 2, 2006

Toggle Drops

This subject came up in conversation the other day, discussing PvP. Here, via Castle, are the official numbers on Toggle Drop powers under I7 (which reduces them some):

Inherent: Brawl: 5% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Devices: Trip Mine: 5% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Devices: Time Bomb: 19% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Electrical Manipulation: Charged Brawl: 5% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Electrical Manipulation: Havok Punch: 22% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Energy Manipulation: Bone Smasher: 22% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Energy Manipulation: Energy Punch: 5% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Fire Manipulation: Fire Sword: 5% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Fire Manipulation: Fire Sword Circle: 22% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Ice Manipulation: Frozen Fists: 5% for 1 Toggle Blaster: Ice Manipulation: Ice Sword: 22% for 1 Toggle Defender Force Field: Force Bolt: 8% and 2% for 1 Toggle; 0.16% chance of 2 Toggles Controller Force Field: Force Bolt: 5% for 1 Toggle Mastermind Force Field: Force Bolt: 5% for 1 Toggle Defender Force Field: Repulsion Bomb: 27% and 5% for 1 Toggle; 1.35% chance of 2 Toggles Controller Force Field: Repulsion Bomb: 19% for 1 Toggle Mastermind Force Field: Repulsion Bomb:19% for 1 Toggle Defender Force Field: Repulsion Field: 5% and 2% chance for 1 Toggle per 1/2 second; 0.1% chance for 2 Toggles per 1/2 second Controller Force Field: Repulsion Field: 3% for 1 Toggle per 1/2 second Mastermind Force Field: Repulsion Field: 3% for 1 Toggle per 1/2 second Defender: Kinetics: Repel: 5% and 2% chance for 1 Toggle per 1/2 second; 0.1% chance for 2 Toggles per 1/2 second Controller: Kinetics: Repel: 3% for 1 Toggle per 1/2 second Corruptor: Kinetics: Repel: 3% for 1 Toggle per 1/2 second Peacebringer: White Dwarf Strike: 5% for 1 Toggle Defender Storm Summoning: Lightning Storm: 20% and 4% for 1 Toggle; 0.8% chance of 2 Toggles Controller Storm Summoning: Lightning Storm: 17% for 1 Toggle Defender Storm Summoning: Thunder Clap: 12% and 2% for 1 Toggle; 0.4% chance of 2 Toggles Controller Storm Summoning: Thunder Clap: 8% for 1 Toggle Warshade: Black Dwarf Strike: 5% for 1 Toggle Stalker: Assassin's Claw: 22% and 4% for 1 Toggle; 0.88% chance for 2 Toggles Stalker: Assassin's Strike: 22% and 4% for 1 Toggle; 0.88% chance for 2 Toggles Stalker: Assassin's Blow: 22% and 4% for 1 Toggle; 0.88% chance for 2 Toggles Stalker: Assassin's Blade: 22% and 4% for 1 Toggle; 0.88% chance for 2 Toggles Stalker: Assassin's Impaler: 22% and 4% for 1 Toggle; 0.88% chance for 2 Toggles Stalker: Assassin's Eclipse: 22% and 4% for 1 Toggle; 0.88% chance for 2 Toggles Dominator: Bone Smasher: 5% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Total Focus: 64% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Incinerate: 5% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Blaze: 64% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Ice Sword: 5% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Greater Ice Sword: 64% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Mind Probe: 5% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Psychic Shockwave: 64% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Skewer: 5% for 1 Toggle Dominator: Ripper: 64% for 1 Toggle Mastermind: Assault Bot Smash: 5% for 1 Toggle Corruptor: Traps: Time Bomb: 19% for 1 Toggle Corruptor: Traps: Trip Mine: 75% and 37% for 1 Toggle; 27.75% chance for 2 Toggles Mastermind: Traps: Trip Mine: 75% and 37% for 1 Toggle; 27.75% chance for 2 Toggles

And now you know.


Posted by Dave at 3:36 PM | TrackBack | Edit
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Mayhem for Heroes

Mayhem missions are a new I7 bit that lets villains run around destroying the scenery (with possible side missions). But for heroes?

Quoth Statesman in the "Devs! Please Confirm Hero Mayhem Coming!" thread:

Yes. It's coming. Safeguard missions. Being worked on right now (outside my office, in fact).

Cool. Though "Safeguard" sounds way to much like "Protect the Artifact" kind of stuff. Would be nice to have a "Your mission is to destroy as many of these evil CoT talismens / Crey computers / Council war machines as you can ..." kind of thing, so that we can pound on crap.


Posted by Dave at 3:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
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More I7 bits - TF Accolade and Invite Control

From the CoH LJ:

I got the Task Force Commander accolade presumably for having been on the default 6 TFs. It gives +5% to HP and access to Shoulder Epaulets, which I couldn't find at Icon. I couldn't really find much else new (I was really looking forward to some of the futuristic stuff I saw in screenshots) aside from some Plant and Robot stuff.

Not so much into the Epaulets, but, damn, nice to get another accodade (and another 5% HP boost).

There's a "not accepting invites" option under the team-seeking window.

Praise Allah.

Actually, that needs a bit of refinement. Like, "Not accepting invites outside of SG" or "Not accepting invites outside of Coaltion" or "Not accepting invites outside of Friends" or something. That's assuming that this is an actual control (blocking invites) vs. just another flag (that people ignore).

No, really -- I was in the rare position the other day of running a PUG. I looked in the Hollows for potential members (since that's where I was) and every single person except one was running with "Not seeking a Team" -- even though there was one person, right there, broadcasting "Lvl 9 Tanker LFT!" It's no wonder people ignore those little flags. (And, let's face it -- do even users of those flags make use of the fine tuning, i.e., "Seeking Patrol" vs "Seeking Task Force" etc.?).

I'd love to be able to easily limit the folks who could send me invites. If nothing else though, if this is an actual control not just a flag, it will encourage pre-invite tells.


Posted by Dave at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
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Toons on Parade!

So, now that I have Psi-clone at 50 ... what now?

So, beyond the above status, what's next? Kheldians, of course. I need to do some reading/ research, and there's still the question of whether we want to run a two-squid team or not; yes, because that would make it easier for us both to start from scratch; no, because we could then hook them up with one of our at-loose-ends tunes (e.g., Al McGordo). Also need to ponder doing "experimental" squids first, to get the hang of the AT. To be pondered.


Posted by Dave at 7:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Gameplay

Just in time with the AV stuff last night

I7 stuff is now in Test, and among the changes:

Arch Villains/Heroes and Giant Monsters have been significantly boosted. They should now require more people in order for them to be defeated, especially at higher levels.

Given how quickly most AVs go down against a decent-sized team, that's probably not too bad a thing -- though it makes taking on some of the tougher ones (Infernal, Lusca) ... daunting.

At least some testers say that the boost is in damage done (+10%)

Despite some initial notes on the subject, Elite Bosses (the "Two-person-team-capable" AVs) are not being changed.

Aside from that, the I7 Test Release notes are here. Specific items of note:

4. Issue 7 is not fully optimized yet. Players with low end systems may have serious performance issues.

One of my biggest worries is that bringing CoV graphics to CoH is going to cause major graphics issues. Glad they're watching this.

7. Although characters now keep their Origin-based attack power past level 10, characters who have already lost the power by leveling up are not being given the power back. This is a bug and will be addressed in a later patch.

Shrug. This sounds nice, but the Origin powers are so trivial in damage (Brawl or below), and not enhanceable, it's not something I would imagine keeping in my tray anyway.

BASE ITEMS

• Inspiration Receptacle: This item allows all members of the Supergroup to store Inspirations that they may not be using, but other members can use to greater benefit. A permission set in the SG Permissions allows a character to withdraw Inspirations from the Receptacle.

• Enhancement Container: This item allows all members of the Supergroup to store Enhancements in the Supergroup’s base. Members with the proper SG Permission will be able to withdraw Enhancements from the Container.

• Salvage Bin: This item allows all members of the Supergroup to store salvage in the Supergroup’s base. Members with the proper SG Permission will be able to withdraw Salvage (and just “see it” from the base’s worktables as well).

Yay. Oh, yay. Nice to be able to save stuff, both usable by others and salvage cluttering up one's pockets.

• Modified PvE critter accuracy. Defense powers will now work equally well against critters, regardless if they have higher accuracy. For instance, your defense powers will work equally well against a Boss or any critter up to 5 levels higher than you, as it does for an equal level minion. Previously, a more accurate critter could circumvent much of your defense, but this will no longer happen. This change is designed to alleviate the disparity between Defense and Damage resistance powers (for instance, a player with super reflexes will now be more effective against a high level critter, boss or Arch villain). This change has no effect on a player who does not have any Defense. This change does not affect PvP.

Thus abruptly increasing the utility of both Super Reflexes and Force Fields. Huzzah. And, with that:

• Reduced the effectiveness of Super Reflexes defense to AoE attacks (stalker and scrapper). With I6, Super Reflexes was given a very high bonus to AoE attacks in order to make it more effective against bosses and Arch Villains, since they typically use AoE powers, but with the new To Hit calculations, this is no longer necessary.

• Super Reflexes Passive Defense abilities have been increased in effectiveness by 1/3rd.

Devs giveth, devs taketh away, devs shuffle the deck chairs ...

• Reduced End costs on Claws high end powers.

• The Claws Power sets for both Scrappers and Stalkers have new animations for the powers Swipe and Strike. The animation for Slash has been replaced with the old Strike animation in order to better match the cast, recharge and damage values.

If I weren't going to be busy with a new squid, I might roll up another claws character.

• All powers which have an Endurance Drain component will now drain a percentage of a PvE target’s Endurance, rather than a set number of Endurance Points. This fixes the issues created when enemies’ Endurance Pools were increased.

Interesting. This is mostly electrical, though I think there's a Dark Melee power that does this, too.

• Defeat Badges now require that you or your team do 10% or more damage to the entity to receive credit for the badge. (The former system required that you deal 25% or more damage to get credit).

Balances the Giant Monster issue above, mostly.

• Troll Task Force badge is now given out for spending time in The Hollows.

Fun. And, I suspect, something most of my toons will auto-get.

City Zones

• Spawns updated and adjusted in several city zones. Street encounters in lower level zones have more variety.

Cool. I'll be interested to see what that variety works out to be. In numbers? Levels? Mob types?

[Heroes] • For players with both City of Heroes and City of Villains access, Hero characters have access to all formerly Villain-only costume pieces.

[Villains] • Many new costume pieces are available.

YEAH, BABY! YEAH! There's a reason I went through all that effort with costume tokens last weekend.

Though the question is, are the new pieces on the CoV side also available on the CoH side? (I presume so, or there will be hell to pay.)

Lots of other stuff. Lots of fixes to archery. Lots of bits on the new Patron powers, the new CoV powers, etc. RTWT.


Posted by Dave at 6:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

May 1, 2006

Fifty

After all the setup, it was almost anticlimactic, save for ...

Well, we started gathering up around 6:15p, trying to figure out a nice AV mish. Ended up with Neuron, which was okay, but, given the preponderence of robots, not terribly psi-power friendly (which made debuting the Flash+Psychic Tornado respec combo less than impressive).

Still, everyone was ... really supportive. Wanting to be there. Wanting to see it. It felt ... well, heartwarning, in as gooey a fashion as you want to make it out to be.

When the double-ding actually happend for Psi-clone and Amorpha, I almost missed it. I had a fair amount of lag, so the animation almost slipped past, though the "EPIC ARCHETYPE UNLOCKED" message didn't.

Too. Cool. And it wouldn't have been nearly as cool without so many of our friends and comrades-in-arms being there.

Hyperthermian, Sword of Asgard, Avocet, Noelle Frost, Kessa, Puck Bunny Shock.Therapy, MacroLass ...

And pre/post-ding congrats from Lady Photon, Captain Atomyc and Mia, Pearl Thunder, and Malcalypse.

It seems weird getting all virtually chocked-up over a bunch of super-hero avatars, but it was really nice, and affirming of the community we've been in and contributed to that so many folks (players) were either there, or were interested in being there, or wished they'd been there, or just said "grats."

What next? Well, editing some photos and a movie that Avo shot and all that, and getting pics posted up here. And then ...

... well, we certainly aren't short of alts to play, and, of course, we can now roll up some Squiddies.

Looking forward to the next 50 ding.

Thanks, people. I mean it.

See you in the comics ...



And, beyond all that ...

Thanks to Doyce for getting me hooked on this crazy thing.

And thanks to Margie for making it all possible.


Posted by Dave at 9:29 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
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R-E-S-P-E-C, see?

With the Psi-clone Dings 50 party hurtling towards us (i.e., tonight), I've been thinking about his build, and actually went so far on Friday as to respec him with my last respec (no freespecs left -- had to travel to Galaxy to make it happen, how quaint). I've been seriously unhappy with Mental Blast at 50 (slow, low damage), so I took that out. I was toying whether to go with Flash (which is, what, a 3rd Level Illusionist Power?) or Regeneration Aura (favorite of teams, which PC does less of than most).

In the end, I decided to go with the supportive RA rather than the aggro-drawing Flash, esp. with recollections of the Group Hold nerfs an issue or two back.

During Saturday's Firefly game, though, Doyce critiqued my not having taken Psionic Tornado. I'd felt that was far too aggressive/TK a power for Psi-clone's character concept (essentially a really powerful Empath), and he noted, quite rightly, that the man's name is Psi-clone ("cyclone") and to not have the power was (not his words) goofy.

Whcih had a certain merit to it, especially since if PT is unleashed after Flash has held most of the group, I get "sick" containment bonus damage, too.

So, what the heck, fine, I'll give it a try. Except, of course, no respecs, having just burned my last. But it would be great to debut as part of the Ding Party.

*sigh*

So, with Margie's help, we cobbled together a Respec mish, pulling in some 20s-level characters and doing the Sky Raiders respec (for "free" for most of us). It was ... just burning time, really -- I can remember being so worried about the mission the first time I ran it, but this time it was mostly grays-blues, with an occasional white or even yellow sky skiff, and a bunch of Really Good People, so it just went by with no problems.

Of course, now I have to decide what to give up for (1) Flash and (2) Psionic Tornado. Actually thinking of not only dropping Regen Aura but Recovery Aura as well -- get out of the "gather up" business except for Invis and leave it at that. Esp. to the extent that I run PC mainly with Amorpha (will that still be the case?) neither power is critical.

Other issue is still the pragmatic one -- will this gather more aggro (after it wears off) than Amorpha can handle (or, more directly, than I can handle beyond what Amorpha grabs?). We shall see. At any rate, if all goes well, it should be ready for its debut tonight.


Posted by Dave at 6:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
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