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December 28, 2006

Comic relief

Bill Amend is going from doing Foxtrot daily to a Sunday-only schedule come the new year. Why? Lots of reasons, I'm sure ...

ft061226

In related news, QForce defeats the Secret Mastermind behind the Fir Bolg!

(the latter via BD)

Posted by Dave at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Humor

December 22, 2006

Hanging out in Father Time's Chalet Faerie

We're off (weather, DIA, and Frontier Airlines allowing) to So. California for the holiday season, which, perforce, will be restricting our CoXplay (and blogging) a bit. Especially since we're bringing Katherine's notebook, which will run CoX in the say way that I could run an Iron Man Triathlon -- very slowly and painfully and with a lot of patience and kind words.

So from all of us, Happy Holidays and New Year and everything, And from all of me ...


Posted by Dave at 12:23 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: True Life

Christmas cheer

With Jackie over, and in-between other tasks, we've been busy doing various Christmas goodies -- gift exchanges at a minimum, and Father Time mishes as possible.

Last night, we ended up hooking up with varoius New York people and ran through the Father Time mish several times. Velvet, got her gloves and boots (to go with the hat -- which one wistful player, not around last Christmas, asked about). (In the picture, Velvet and Merrie Mayhem demonstrate the joy of knockup/down/back.

Also ran things with Mister Ravenous, which was also greatly amusing.

My only critique of the event is that the temp powers (rez and rings) only last for a short period of Real Time, which makes it unlikely the alts I get them on will ever actually use them. Ah, well -- made for a few nice bonus titles and a chance to play some folks (like Velvet and Mr. R) whom I don't get out nearly often enough ...


Posted by Dave at 10:35 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

December 19, 2006

Wallpaper

CoH and CoX wallpaper for your PC, via our European brethren. Cool.

Posted by Dave at 2:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media

December 18, 2006

Stamina

The official Dev stance on Stamina -- "No, it's not necessary for anyone."

Um ... right.

Stamina is a problem power. The game is NOT balanced around a character having Stamina. It is also balanced around characters playing on Heroic. Chances are good that any character of any AT with mediocre or better slotting can solo and team successfully on Heroic without *needing* Stamina.

That doesn't mean they don't want Stamina. Endurance is, essentially, a fixed value. You have 100 End (for most characters) and each power uses some of that each time it is activated or cycled. If you add up all your toggles costs and can figure out the endurance cost of your 'attack chain' you can figure out exactly what your burn rate is.

Recovery offsets the 'burn rate' and, when combined with the size of the Endurance Pool and Burn Rate values, you can determine exactly how long you can stand and fight. Being able to Stand and fight longer is desirable -- not only can you advance faster, but you can potentially take on tougher targets as well.

Stamina is the only Power available to all characters which increases the duration a character can battle (endurance-wise.) It's easy to see why it is such a popular power. It is *not* required though, in the same way that a travel power is not required. The game is definitely easier with it than without, but you can play perfectly well from levels 1 to 50 with or without it. People have done so.

People have also gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel. That doesn't make it pleasant, or even possible, for everyone to do so "perfectly well."

Actually, that's not quite true. If you rest between every encounter and horde blue Inspirations and slot the bejebus out of your powers with EndRed and avoid AVs (on Heroic), yes, you can probably get by okay without Stamina, regardless of your AT and powerset. It just won't be easy, or pleasant, or effective, and folks are unlikely to invite you back onto teams. So, yes, in that "same way" it's like travel powers -- not required, but damned inconvenient to be without them or a substitute.

Frankly, the Endurance thing needs to be reexamined, if the Devs want to really assert that folks don't need to have Stamina in their build. Ninety-five percent of the toons I know spend their 12-20 levels mostly getting their travel powers and Stamina. Arguing that neither is "necessary" seems goofy.


Posted by Dave at 3:28 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

The Secrets of Positron's Task Force -- Revealed!

After a long thread on the boards titled, "Why does Positron's TF suck SO badly?", Positron writes:

Yes, you have entirely -me- to blame for that Task Force.

Here's some (not so) interesting background tidbits:

* Task Forces were originally supposed to be "supergroup missions" where then entire SG could partake at once. We couldn't get the tech working in time, so we came up with the idea of a "mini-raid", where a couple people could spend an entire day doing missions together for cool rewards. This is why Task Forces allow you to go offline and return and still be in the TF. It allows players to say "let's meet up every night from 8 to 10pm and work on the TF", without having to start over.

* Positron's TF was the very first TF ever made. It was supposed to be the precursor to the (cut) Faultline Trial.

* Positron's TF was originally written as TWO Task Forces, but we didn't have the tech to have a single contact give out Task Force A and B, and only give out B if everyone completed A, so it was merged into a Single Ginormous Task Force.

* Positron's TF never got full benefit from cool stuff like custom mission maps, because it was done so early in development.

* I am still trying to get a rewrite of Positron's TF onto the schedule... but I want to know how you guys would feel about an "easier" or "shorter" TF? It would obviously give out the same badge as previous (or the badge hunters would have my head), but would that cheapen the badge for those that had it already?


Posted by Dave at 1:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

December 15, 2006

"... Three times is enemy action."

Bumming around with Lynn last evening, got invited into a small PUG for the Father Time mish. Got in too late to get any mission credit/goody. So we started it over. Went in, got cocky, got sent to the medbays in Pocket D. Re-entered Pocket D, clicked on the mission door.

CRASH.

Reverify files (ho-hum). Load up Lynn again ...

CRASH.

Hmmm. That's not good.

Let's try another toon for the evening.

 

Ended up running a while as Lady Zebra, duoing with someone I'd been in a PUG earlier in the day. That went pretty well, until we found out how difficult hunting ten igneous in Grendel's Gulch could be. Did get her up about half a level (so ... close ... to ... 14 ...) but a lot of debt, too.

Then I pulled on Honor and got hooked up with a team in Faultline that was one of those that renews your faith in PUGs -- blasting through the opposition, minimal stupidity, maximal XP, to go a full level to 17.5.

Most amusing thing was the "Stop the Steel Canyon Bank Robbery" safeguard mish, waypointed deep in Faultline. We went down there ... to discover that the waypoint was actually outside the War Walls. "Hey! I can see my bank from up here!"

Overall good evening, and perfect timing, as Margie and Jackie were just getting back from their madcap night out ...

 

Lynn signed in jjust fine this morning.


Posted by Dave at 9:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Going to the Maul

I love Shadow Maul in the dark set. I know there are some folks who hate it -- largely because of that prolonged "whiff whiff whiff whiff" when it misses -- but I love it, and hitting that perfect cone and seeing multiple numbers bubble up is the next best thing to -- well, things that you can only effectively do outside of the game.

There's been a lot of talk about SM of late, largely because of its unbuffable cousin, Sands of Mu, becoming a Veteran Reward (I'm kind of surprised that they didn't rename SoM). And here's an interesting note from Castle on the power.

Numbers-wise, Shadowmaul is really a single target attack. In fact, it actually does MORE damage then the formula stipulates for a single target for a variety of reasons. The fact it is a cone and can hit 2, 3 or even 5 opponents is strictly a bonus.

That said my highest level scrapper is DM/Regen, whom I have played since about 3 weeks after launch. I rarely 'try' to get multiple critters in the cone -- the extra damage is probably worth it over time, but it detracts from my fun to focus on it.

I'm a 'recovering power gamer' -- I'm the guy who, in Champions would try to get a multipower with mutually exclusive attacks in them (a 'Killing Attack' which the target has to have resistant defenses to defend against and a 'No Normal Defense' attack which only worked on targets with no Resistant Defense, as an easy example). So, believe me when I say I understand the temptation to focus on maximizing performance. I understand that stepping back and seeing something as a bonus can sometimes be hard. This power, however, is possibly the best example in City Of Heroes/Villain of a power which you have to fight that temptation with.

Margie is a lot better than me in setting up that perfect cone (probably all that Amorpha practice, but she's just better at maneuvering than I am). I've learned to seek small opportunities for it, but not to make it a be-all/end-all of my attack chain. If nothing else, someone like me can really frell up his DoT by taking multiple seconds to try and set up the cone, vs. just going in and beating the snot out of stuff.

There are also a couple of comments in the thread from others on how to get mobs to line up more effectively. For what it's worth. :-)


Posted by Dave at 6:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
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December 14, 2006

Winter is i-cummin in!

The Winter Event has started.

More official details here. I mentioned some (the automatic bennies) a couple of days ago, but here's the rest:

 

Sounds of holiday cheer not only lighten the hearts of heroes and deepen Recluse’s frown – they also seem to lure old foes back from distant defeats to the present time …

And time is what it’s all about! Also beginning on the 14th (through January 2nd), a new contact will be found in Pocket D – Old Father Time. The keeper of the new year has a crisis on his hands, one that can prevent time from moving forward, and thus bringing an end to the universe. Heroes and Villains can band together to tackle this task, a task that sees an old foe Snaptooth make a vengeful return.

Snaptooth is back for the renewal of the year, and with a cunning plot to grind time to a halt. Snaptooth has kidnapped Baby New Year in order to keep Old Father Time from passing on the chronological mantle. If he keeps Baby New Year locked away forever, guarded by the Red Caps and allies among the Tuatha, winter will never give way to spring, and the universe as we know it may come to an end.

Old Father Time can be found through a doorway in Pocket D that leads to a ski chalet built on a piece of the Shadow Shard. If you help him out, he’ll give out a choice of one of several fabulous holiday presents.

On top of everything else, the Gamester is loading the streets and rooftops with gifts once more. His presents might hold an Inspiration or Temporary Power, or they might reveal less favorable items like a Lump of Coal (though some find this a good thing), a Snowbeast, or maybe even the Winter Lord!

The Gamester’s presents will be found throughout the Cities from December 18th until January 2nd.

Let the holiday fun begin!


Posted by Dave at 1:46 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Knights Night

Managed to make it to our first Knights Night in a while. Not a wildly attended affair, but quite enjoyable -- Mal as Horehound, BD as Cate Winters, Kessa (while maintaining a connection) as Id-Energy -- and guest starring Margie and me as the Azures ... who aren't Storm Knights, though they fit right in nicely. A bit of egg nog and holiday cheer, and we were good to go.

It was actually a very "balanced" AT set -- tank, scrapper, blaster, controller, (occasional) defender. We ran the first story arc in Faultline -- which is just gorgeous, both in terrain and in missions -- and had a great time, except for one room where we were (a) a man down, and (b) a bit cocky about drawing aggro from everywhere.

Playing the Azures was a kick, as usual (no pun intended). We may have to pull them out more often. Margie was rediscovering the joy of Deceive/Confuse (which Mal and I could have reminded her of any time), and I've been doing a lot with MA scrappers of late, and it was interesting to see how Mr. A's build resembled/differed from ones I've been looking at (Jump Kick is a key part of his attack chain, which just seems odd). We both dinged 17 (only slots, alas), and are ready for more.

At any rate, a great time. We won't likely be able to make it to the other two penciled in on the board (an announcement in the SG message might help pull more attendance from others), but we'll definitely be watching for next month's installments.


Posted by Dave at 6:41 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

December 13, 2006

Tips and Tricks

They're starting to put some Tips and Tricks on the Updater splash screen, and Lighthouse is soliciting suggestions. Fact is, the list being generated is just a fine list of things that any new CoX player (and a few vets) should know, though a couple of the items are more personal/stylistic suggestions. Worth reading.


Posted by Dave at 7:55 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

December 12, 2006

Winter Wonderland

The Winter Event is here! (Or it will be shortly.) Yay!

All the cool bennies aside, Margie's been lurking around Father Time's chalet on Test, and it's gorgeous to behold (and fun to play in).

As for those cool bennies, any toon who logs in between 12/14 and 1/2 will get:

  1. A badge (Cold Front)
  2. Fuzzy Earmuffs
  3. The Holiday Spirit temp power (24 hours of debt protection once it's invoked).
  4. The Holiday Cheer temp power (give it to one other player and they'll get a random gift).


Posted by Dave at 2:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

December 11, 2006

Character Quiz

A character quiz, via BD:

  1. Pick one of my characters, any one.
  2. I will tell you the origin of his/her/it's name.
  3. I will tell you five random facts surrounding his/her/its creation.
  4. I will give you one random fact of his/her/its backstory.
  5. I will give you one random fact of his/her/its forestory.
  6. You may ask me up to ten questions about the character (but if a question is too spoiler-y I'll respond with gibberish or a dirty limerick or something)
  7. If you place this in your journal/blog, I will return the favor.

An interesting idea. Any takers?


Posted by Dave at 3:39 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Lowbies on Parade

Had a fair amount of solo time on this weekend, so played with some of my low-level solo characters (I did make one attempt to bring on Lynn, but nobody was around and I just wasn't feeling in the mood for her solo).

Actually, most of these I don't really care to run solo -- I like getting onto PUGs (for better and for worse) with them. Indeed, of them, only LZ is really solo-friendly.

Honor the Flag - Managed, by hook or by crook, to solo a pip-and-a-half to get her to level in Skyway, including a brief stint assisting some folks in pounding on Babbage. She still runs into Endurance problems, and will until, of course, 20. Sigh. Got invited to and accepted membership on an SG -- "The Good Guys," I think it is. Did some SKing into the New Faultline (I think the real estate interests really need to encourage them to rename that neighborhood -- maybe back to its original pre-invasion name), and earned an SG promotion due to presige gathered. Had fun playing a tank.

Lady Zebra - Trying so hard to get her to 14 and travel powers (SS planned). Ended up invited onto a Frostfire team, which was a hoot -- lots of fun, two near-TPKs, and, at one point, the original mission owner, who discoed, came back on with another team and into the same mission instance. Yikes. As usual, the final battle was anticlimactic. Other fun running around Steel, and burned a costume token at Icon to give her actual hooves (which, alas, I can't stripe). Most fun solo character, at the moment. Also invited onto a team, "The Freedom Phalanx: Black Ops Division" (I noted to the SG leader it was odd that a black ops group would be advertising via Broadcast). Built customized tell files for her, too.

Fr. Frank - And sometimes an Empathy Defender is a "Healer." Played in a couple of Hollows PUGs which did not turn out well, though I was able to use my jet pack to bypass Grendal Gulch. In one case, the team leader was a lunatic blaster who liked to charge first into melee range to let fly (hint: don't torque off the healer in the group too often); in the other, we ended up forging across the Hollows only to have our team leader -- and damage-dealer -- drop off for "SG needs," leaving us pretty much without anything to do. Still having fun, though Built customized tell files for him.

Molly Magpie - Still at only 6. Joined up with a higher level Controller quartet in the Hollows and learned (a) imps are nasty, (b) kill me twice, shame on me, (c) Personal Force Field is very helpful sometimes. I do like her power set (Grav/FF controller), and she's fun to play and watch.


Posted by Dave at 10:14 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

December 9, 2006

Now I shall taunt you a zeroeth time!

Tanker and Brute auto-taunts aren't working -- both auras and Gauntlet. Swell. Maybe we'll hold off on playing Torchy/Hildy awhile until it's fixed.

Or maybe it's only working on minions, Which is still not all that good.

As a silver lining, they spotted that "Gauntlet from pool powers like Boxing or Air Superiority have, apparently, never worked." Eek. That's going to be fixed with the other problem.


Posted by Dave at 10:36 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

December 8, 2006

It's about damn time

I've been egregiously neglectful of the AoC Lite forum I host, but I finally went in and granted some moderator rights, updated some files, answered some questions, stuff like that. Yeesh. Apologies to those involved.

Posted by Dave at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Consortium of Justice

Freespecs out the wazoo

The freespec on Virtue got messed up, so another one should be distributed as of this morning.

The devs also failed to let people know sufficiently (apparently -- I assume there were complaints) about the I8.1 freespec that was just given out. Since freespecs don't stack, some folks felt like they'd "lost" something ("I could have made change X on Monday and been able to do something else today"), so ... yet another freespec will be coming out next week.

So now's the time to try out that freespec you just got to see if that power you think will be the cat's pajamas is really what you want to saddle yourself with.


Posted by Dave at 8:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

December 7, 2006

Patch + Respec

New patch (what I called "8.1" the other day) is up on Live. Comments (mostly additional or different ones from when it went to Test).

 

Powers


Tasks

Bases

PvP

Chat

Veteran Rewards

Game

Badges


Tailor

CITY OF HEROES

Powers

Blaster Improvements:

These changes are all aimed towards addressing sets based on feedback from players. These changes also affect Defender and Corruptor versions of these powers where applicable.

Gauntlet and Aura Inherent Taunt Changes:

Controller Containment bonus is now identical when used on critters or players. When a damaging power is used on a character under the effects of a detrimental status effect, the damage caused will be twice the base damage. (Exception: Spectral wounds damage bonus remains lower, due to the nature of the power.)

Controller Ancilliary Powers:

The damage of these powers was made artificially high originally, to make them desirable. In general, the damage was set to be roughly equivalanet to that of a Blaster. When Containment was added later, this was not taken into account. As such, these powers all do roughly twice the desired damage under Containment conditions. This series of changes is aimed at bringing these powers closer to balance. [Hard to be too upset by this, except I thought their power levels were pretty sucky as-was.]

Powers – PvP specific:

Emotes

Tasks

Critters

City Zones


CITY OF VILLAINS

Powers


Badges

 

And this patch is bringing a freespec with it. Yay! Though some folks are reporting problems ...


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

Fired up

Logged in Torchy and Hildy for the first evening in a while. After a few weeks of mostly in-your-face gameplay (Rita, obviously, as a scrapper, but Unchained Path as a controller also tends to be right in the thick of things), being the blaster who stands back,waits for the tank to gather folks, then burns them to cinders felt kind of ... odd.

On the other hand, seeing all those orange numbers float up was pretty grand.

That was following a quick run with Lady Zebra and a couple of PUGs in the Hollows. The only reason I can give for my survival without any debt was that everyone else was doing a far better job of drawing aggro than I was -- which, as LZ's a scrapper, tells you something about their, um, tactical playstyle.


Posted by Dave at 12:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

December 6, 2006

No Numina for You!

The Numina task force is currently bugged and uncompletable.

The Numina Task Force can not currently be completed. New sensors must be calibrated to properly gather information from the group of Vahzilok that now infest Frontline.

In case you habitually skip over the CoX splash screen ...


Posted by Dave at 6:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Wheeeeee!

Went ahead and respecced Unchained Path last night -- dropped Leadership from her later powers and rejigged her to have Hasten and Super Speed.

Oh my God. Wheeeeee!

Got a bit of a feel for it with Siphon Speed previously, but, damn, SS is fun. Hell, even when we had to the north end of Boomtown it was a blast. All I can think of, when I'm zipping down the streets, was the Flash TV music.

Too much fun. I've always enjoyed using Fly at ground level, but this is at least as good.

Of course, when it came to Perez Park, I let Idzuna TP me over. I'm not stupid.

Much happier now.


Posted by Dave at 10:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

December 5, 2006

That's the cry of the auctioneer!

The guy who Looks Like He Knows Something (on Test) gives the lowdown on the upcoming Auction stuff in CoX. Basically, you'll be able to hold a secret auction (minimum hidden, bids hidden, but last 10 sold prices shown) for Salvage, Enhancements, Recipes, and Inspirations. There's also a Listing Fee (10%) and a Transaction Fee (5%).

Oh, and there are badges for it, too.

As Lincoln put it, those who really like that sort of thing will probably find that the sort of thing they like.


Posted by Dave at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Cats and Dogs

Did a brief stint of Hostess Heroes last night (some nice new costumy bits included), then Margie and I hopped over onto Rita & Runt.

Which was all good fun, though we learned Damage Mitigation Through Taking Them Down Fast wasn't always a guaranteed win, and early /Regen may stand up to an orange Damned, but not so much to several yellow Cadavers.

Still, we took full advantage of no-debt 9 and dinged up to 10. Dull Pain will help dull the pain.

One interesting twist to what we've been doing is trying to coordinate missions between our pairs, so that we maximize mission/arc credit and move through storylines faster. That's easier said than done, since the contacts don't always give the same missions, or the same contacts (and sometimes what looks like the same mission isn't -- we basically had to run the Patchwork Vahz mish twice, even though it was the same mish). Need to learn a bit more, or the tech needs to be a bit more refined.


Posted by Dave at 7:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

December 4, 2006

Balancing act

I find it amazing that a game that has:

  1. 12 different archetypes
  2. 5,160 archetype combos in a given team (7! + 5!).
  3. At least 16 primary/secondary combos for each of those ATs,
  4. You do the rest of that math

Plus, of course, the variations of powers, taken at different levels, plus all the power pools that are available (four extra plus an epic) over the 20-odd slots that each person gets. Plus enhancement choices. Plus play style and experience and tactics and native intelligence. Plus type of missions preferred and/or pursued. Plus luck. Plus variations between PvP and PvE. Plus ...

I find it more than amazing, I find it nigh miraculous that the damned game has any semblance of balance, let alone such that people can bitch all day on the boards over how their one favorite power remains / has been / will be nerfed (or just be underpowered compared to someone else's).

I mean, really, people. We're talking variations in possibilities along the lines of "Which wavelength of blue do you think looks better on me, 4700 or 4012 Angstroms?"


Posted by Dave at 3:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Going nuclear

Interesting notes from Castle on how the nuke powers work for blasters.

One thing to note about the 'nuke' powers is that they have multiple stages of damage. A bad series of die rolls could have a nuke doing only slightly more than a Snipe attack, albeit in an area of effect.

Nova is pretty typical for this. It has 4 damage components (in PvE):
- Smashing scale 1, 100% chance of activating
- Energy scale 2, 100% chance of activating
- Energy scale 1.75, 75% chance of activating
- Energy scale 1.75, 50% chance of activating.

Cool. I also believe this gets rolled separately for each mob in the target area, which helps explain the variation in results.


Posted by Dave at 1:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Safeguard!

So I've run in the Atlas Safeguard mission with a variety of toons and players in the last week. I'm pleasantly ... well, pleased by how they turned out.

The earlier "Protect the Widget from the Bad Guys" missions in CoX were, generally, annoying -- an unknown number of enemies, too many targets or too fragile a target or whatever. My fear about stopping the robbers from escaping the bank can be summed up in three words "Fir Bolg" and "Dolmen."

Instead, the crooks here act pretty much like bad guys. I'm sure that, given the chance, they'll really try to get away (though the truck is stashed across the zone), but faced with heroes blocking the way, the bad guys, naturally, choose to fight their way through.

Similarly, the vandalism events in the city come in series over time, and so are somewhat manageable, and also are trigged by villains seeing heroes, which makes life a bit dicier. Again, it makes the game experience more enjoyable, even if it's not 100% realistic.

The related side missions -- foiling other robberies, plantings of bombs, etc. -- are also well structured (and pretty to behold), and provide a decent challenge.

By "decent challenge," I mean, "Capable of being won, but not without a few tense moments or even deaths."

Indeed, I'll go a step further -- I think the Safeguard missions are as good as, if not better, than the Mayhem missions. Ideally, I'd love to see a combination of both -- I can imagine a "Mayhem" mission for heroes (a smash-and-run raid on an Arachnos base, for example), as well as a "Safeguard" mission on the Villain side ("Longbow is raiding the Arachnos archives!" or even "Other bandits are robbing the bank -- the one you've got your money laundered into!").

It's early in the day, and I haven't tried any of the Safeguards at higher levels (need to try something with Hildy/Torchy sometime), but I'm pretty pleased by this addition, as well as the Police Band stuff, to the CoH world.


Posted by Dave at 1:11 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Minor re-org

I've reorganized the sidebar listing of toons (which is both incomplete and full of folks we never play any more) to be grouped by (where appropriate) duos. May make certain scheduling and coordination tasks a lot easier.

I'm pretty sure a lot of Margie's soloist info is out of date.


Posted by Dave at 7:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: This Blog

"I'm too young to repsec!"

Rrg. Just going through 12-13, I could tell that going the No Real Travel Powers for /Kin Controller route with Unchained Path was going to drive me batty. The Superspeed route is going to be tough enough -- faux Superspeed coupled with having to find someone to Siphon Speed from every 60 seconds? Bah.

"But, honey, I just got Recall Friend with Idzuna -- I can bring you to the mission."

Yes, because I want to annoy you, too, while twiddling my thumbs. You can bring me to the mission. The gates. The stores. You can wipe my chin, too. Bah.

"Well, you get Inertial Reduction soon, don't you? That's supposed to be like Super Jump."

Yes, at level 28. Shoot me now.

I know that some folks have done this, very proud of managing it and saving two power slots. And heaven knows that Ice/Kin needs all the slots it can get. But ... no. Not for me.

Good thing I have all these respecs lying around ...


Posted by Dave at 6:22 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

December 3, 2006

"Like Fontaine and Lunt"

So this morning, all the West Cost servers were down. Or, rather, the connections between the login servers and them were down. So ... no Champion ... no Virtue ...

Screwed around a little while with Molly Magpie (a test Grav/FF controller), then when Margie came down she decided we'd follow up with a pet idea of hers -- Duo Scrappers.

Enter Rita the Cat and Runt the Dog. Rita and Runt are escaped mutates from Crey (those wacky Crey scientists are good for blaming everything on), making their way in a world they've never seen. Both Scrappers, both /Regen ("No Waiting!"). Rita is Claws and Runt is Dark. Together, They Fight Crime!

Well, that was just too much fun. Over the course of the day (minus a quick Safeguard mish with Mal and Co. playing Cetus and Lunulata), we plowed through pretty much everything. For the first time ... ever, I think, we duoed through the Hollows, tearing up the missions, up to and including Frostfire (we won, natch), ending in time for dinner at SL 9.

(FF was particularly exciting since the ice was invisible.)

What a hoot. Sort of like being brutes -- you just launch into the orange mobs and love it. (Katherine amused herself, meanwhile, with a new Pink Winged Demon on Test, playing at Father Time's chalet. Didn't realize you could log an account into both Test and Live at the same time ...).

An unproductive weekend, objectively, but a lot of fun, and very relaxing.


Posted by Dave at 6:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Gameplay

Worst ... power set ... evah

Okay, that's probably not fair. Make it, "Worst ... power set visuals ... evah."

I really hate Earth Control. I mean, yeah, let's make the entire combat area into a completely visually blocked area! Woot!

This is not a criticism of anyone who's taken the power -- from what it sounds like, it's pretty spiffy. But it's always bothered me, and it was even worse tonight when I did an unexpected run with Lynn SKing Mal's Night Lizard, since, as a Scrapper, I was the one up-close-and-personal with the Bulbs of Rock Gone Mad.

And what's worse and more vision-blocking than the Earth Control graphics? The Earth Control graphics when you're up against Devouring Earth. As they scale to the opponents, and make the entire map ... well ... like a Metastasized Termite Mound.

I mean, I know Lynn was in there somewhere -- she was reticling stuff, even if I couldn't see it. Or her. And as long as she was, I could keep hitting. I just didn't know what I was hitting, or which direction it was, or if there was a better target next to it, or ...

Now, that having been said, running with Mal was, as always (and I hasten to point out) a delight -- if for no other reason than he laughs at my bad puns (and, not incidentally, plays quite well). And I would be willing to do so again, even with an Earth Controller (as NL is the same level as Idzuna and Unchained Path, that's quite likely). Good teaming always trumps bad power sets.

But ... damn ... really wish the Devs would do something with the graphics on that power set. Because *I'll* never run one of the critters, even if it's as powerful as it sounds. Just ... too ... annoying ...


Posted by Dave at 12:04 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

December 1, 2006

"We shall overcome some day ..."

I guess I've been playing CoH too long, because it took me a minute to figure out that the spam e-mail I received with a subject line ...

They overcame ED!

... I really thought it was about folks figuring out how to get around Enhancement Diversification ...


Posted by Dave at 10:33 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: True Life