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October 30, 2008

City of Macintoshes

CoX is going MacOS!

Today, October 30th, 2008, NCsoft announced a partnership with TransGaming, Inc. to bring the award-winning City of Heroes franchise to the Apple® Macintosh® computer platform for the company’s western territories. The Mac version will be available for public beta testing with the release of the game’s thirteenth free expansion, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility this fall. The official launch of the Macintosh version is planned to follow shortly thereafter via a special digital-only edition.

 

You can sign up for the Beta here.

Mac users will get some interesting bennies (which will eventually be available for purchase by other players):

Yes, just like the Good vs. Evil edition of the game, the Macintosh version will include some special in-game items, including:

• Mission Teleporter Power - Players can save time and get right into the action by teleporting directly to their active mission.
  
  
• Exclusive Valkyrie Costume set - Costume pieces include two varieties of wings, a cape, a skirt/kilt, pants, boots, shoulders, chest, gloves, belts, and helmet with multiple details.

These items will be available separately for purchase in early 2009 for customers who are not playing on a Mac. We’ll have further details of these exciting options, including screenshots, in the near future. 

 

Wow. I'd pay money for a Mission Teleporter. Especially if it bridges zones.

(via Margie)

Posted by Dave at 12:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

October 27, 2008

Dev Tracker RSS feed busted

I've been using convenient RSS feeds at unseen.net for the CoX Dev Digest (RSS) and the Community Digest (RSS) that send items whenever a red name posts. Alas, they seem to have stopped working, so I have to go back to the old-fashioned method of (gasp!)looking at the actual pages. Bleah.

Hopefully the new forums will have some feature like this, or someone will develop it.

Posted by Dave at 7:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

October 23, 2008

Braaaaaiiinnnnsss ...

I've had a couple of commenters drop notes about having fun with the current Halloween event, the Rikti Zombie Invasion. My own play time has been limited, due to business travel and other stuff, but Margie and I have been on a couple of time and enjoyed the madness.

For those who haven't ... Zombies! It's much like Rikti Invasion event, except ...

1. The sky (moon?) turns ruddy, giving everything a pink glow.
2. The events seem more clustered (is it only at night?)
3. No bombs or bombing.
4. Bad guys don't leave the streets.
5. The Zombies climb out of the ground, rather than teleporting in.

Hmmm ... maybe next year we can have Rikti Zombies! 

Posted by Dave at 12:34 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

CoX - Don't quit your Day Job!

Actually, quitting will start your day job. Current news on the Day Job feature coming in I13.

Day Jobs, a new feature for City of Heroes, rewards players even when they aren't playing the game. It's called offline character progression and while other games have done this before, City of Heroes takes it to a whole new level. Simply put, Day Jobs reward players with additional powers and benefits when they log back in. This also gives characters greater depth by allowing them to flesh out their identities and back-stories. Our goal was to create a robust system that benefits players now as much as possible while also allowing the system to grow with future content updates.

While I've seen other games provide slowed XP advancement (or credit toward same) while offline, this is the first game I'm aware of that adds additional powers and goodies through it, let alone based on location. 

The Day Job system allows players to log out from a specific location (like a hospital or vault) and when they return to play, after an extended log out period, they will gain a temporary power or some other benefit. All of the benefits granted from Day Jobs, other than badges and accolades (see below) are temporary or have a certain number of uses before they expire. However, each time a character logs out from the same area, the corresponding benefits are replenished. Most rewards take 10 days of logged out time to reach the maximum benefit.

Most of my characters tend to be logged out for 10 days at a time, at least, except for a few in current rotation. 

When characters are logged out from a designated location (consecutively or non-consecutively) for a total of 30 days they will earn a badge associated with the corresponding Day Job. This will result in additional benefits. Once a badge is earned, the rate at which characters accumulate benefits, and even the potency of them increase!

Again, 30 days doesn't seem to be a problem for me. Though it does make me think I need to get my less active toons on and move them to a location I want.

Below is a list of most, but not all, of the Day Jobs available in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility:

Hero Day Jobs 

Day Job Name	Log Out Location	Benefit
City Official	City Hall (Atlas Park)	Influence Bonus upon mission complete.
Law Enforcer	Police Stations	Experience Bonus upon mission complete
Commuter	Train Stations	Travel speed bonus.
Shop Keeper	Store Lobbies	Enhancement drop on mission complete.
Intern	Portal Corp Lobbies	Large Inspiration upon mission complete.
Caregiver	Hospital Lobbies	Out of combat regeneration bonus.
Professor	Inside Universities	Random tech salvage drop upon mission complete.
Midnighter	Inside the Midnighter's Club	Random arcane salvage drop upon mission complete.
Banker	Inside a Vault	Influence Bonus upon mission complete.
Clubber	Pocket D	Out of combat recovery bonus.
Fashion Designer	Tailor Lobbies	Coupons that will grant a discount at the tailor.
Mortician	Graveyards	XP Debt Protection

 

 

Villain Day Jobs 

Day Job Name	Log Out Location	Benefit
Demagogue	Arachnos Building (Marconeville, Port Oakes)	Influence Bonus upon mission complete.
Arachnos Agent	Arachnos Bases and Arachnos Controlled areas.	Experience Bonus upon mission complete
Pilot	Near Black Helicopters	Travel speed bonus.
Smuggler	Ferry Docks	Enhancement drop on mission complete.
Crey Employee	Crey Industries Building in Nerva Archipelago	Large Inspiration upon mission complete.
Pain Specialist	Hospital Lobbies	Out of combat regeneration bonus.
Professor	Inside Universities	Random tech salvage drop upon mission complete.
Midnighter	Inside the Midnighter's Club	Random arcane salvage drop upon mission complete.
Thief	Inside a Vault	Influence Bonus upon mission complete.
Clubber	Pocket D	Out of combat recovery bonus.
Fashion Designer	Tailor Lobbies	Coupons that will grant a discount at the tailor.
Mortician	Graveyards	XP Debt Protection

 

Those all look fun. I note it doesn't say what you get for hanging out at Wentworths ...

An Accolade is obtained by earning two Day Job badges that work in conjunction with one another. In other words, earning multiple badges unlock Accolades. These Accolades will grant an even more enhanced set of powers and benefits. Additional ‘charges’ can also be earned for your Day Job Accolade powers by logging off from either of the areas associated with the two badges that unlocked the Accolade.

Okay, this is starting to sound like work (pun not intended).

Below is a list of some, but not all, of the Day Job Accolades available in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility:

 

Hero Day Job Accolades 

Day Job Accolade	Day Job #1	Day Job #2	Benefit
Police Chief	Law Enforcer	City Official	Baton Power: Melee Minor DMG (Smashing) For Stun.
Security Chief	Law Enforcer	Banker	Tear Gas: Ranged AoE Hold.
Scientist	Professor	Intern	Sleep Gas: Ranged AoE Sleep.
Physician	Professor	Caregiver	Ally Resurrect
Alchemist	Caregiver	Midnighter	Ally Heal

 

 

Villain Day Job Accolades 

Day Job Accolade	Day Job #1	Day Job #2	Benefit
Web Weaver	Arachnos Agent	Demagogue	Web Grenade: Ranged Foe Immobilize, \-Rech, \-Fly, \-Speed
Black Ops	Arachnos Agent	Thief	Smoke Grenade: Ranged AOE Foe \-Perception, \-To Hit
Crey Scientist	Pain Specialist	Crey Employee	Sleep Gas: Ranged AoE Sleep.
Physician	Professor	Pain Specialist	Ally Resurrect
Alchemist	Pain Specialist	Midnighter	Ally Heal

 

Note: These are only some of the available Accolades. When players obtain Day Job badges, they unlock information about which Day Jobs to collect next in order to earn the associated Accolade(s).

Okay, nothing terribly special there. Well, maybe an Ally Rez would be handy.

In addition to all of the Day Jobs, every character is "On Patrol" after they log out of the game. When players log back into Paragon City or the Rogue Isles they will gain 1 bar of double experience (when defeating enemies) for every 24 hours they are logged out. A player can earn up to 10 bars of double experience this way. Double experience is shown as a blue portion of your experience bar. One thing to note is that if a player has any experience debt, the debt will be removed first before any double experience is applied.

If your character has a number of bars of double experience that exceeds the number of experience bars you need to level up, then this double experience will carry over to the next security/threat level.

It wasn't originally clear when first announced that this would be automatic for everyone. This is how a number of other MMOs do it, and it's a nice feature.

 

When exploring both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles you will encounter several Day Job locations. You'll know you're in one when you see a power icon under your health bar that explains what Day Job you will work towards by logging off in that location.

Try visiting a hospital, where you will earn the Caregiver (Pain Specialist if you're a villain) Day Job. You'll notice a power icon that when moused over will state "Day Job: Caregiver." Logging out from this location will earn you credit toward the Caregiver Day Job badge. When you log back in you'll gain an out of combat regeneration bonus. Once you've logged out in the Hospital for a total of 30 days (consecutively or non-consecutively) or more you'll earn the Caregiver badge and will receive an even more powerful regeneration bonus when you log out at this location from here on out.

Once you have earned the Caregiver badge you will find a hint for how to earn the Physician accolade by first earning the Professor badge. To earn the Professor Day Job badge, you will need to log out from the University for 30 (consecutive or non-consecutive) days. After an extended log out period, the Professor Day Job will grant you a random piece of tech salvage upon mission completion. This bonus will take 10 days of log out time to earn 2 hours worth of this bonus. However, once you earn the Professor badge you only need to be logged out 8 days to earn the 2 hour benefit instead of 10. 

Once you own both the Professor and Caregiver badges you will unlock the Physician Accolade. With this Accolade you will be able to earn ‘charges’ for a power that revives defeated allies by logging out from (and back in to) either a University or a Hospital. You will gain the Day Job benefits for both this Accolade and the Day Job benefit associated with the area. Nice benefits! 

The badges and even bonus powers aren't all that special (not enough to always run back to the hospital to sign off, though that would be a fun IC/RP touch). But it's still a fun new feature.

All in all, we're really excited about this new feature for our game. By balancing your time in and out of the game, you’ll get unique rewards that you wouldn’t otherwise attain. When you are ready to log back in and kick some villain or hero butt… we’ll be there waiting for you, and you’ll still be powerful enough to do just that. And with the addition of our Day Job themed costume pieces you can even dress appropriately!

 

At one point, it sounded like the costume pieces only became unlocked once you had gotten the badges. Honestly, those might be of more interest than some of the powers, since you can never have enough non-spandex costume bits.

Posted by Dave at 10:47 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

October 2, 2008

PvE power changes in I13

Quoth Castle (plus preface):

Preface: Issue 13: Power and Responsibility includes a whole host of development. Not only are there significant new features, but there is also ongoing development to the existing game. A big part of the game is the balance of all the Archetypes, their respective power sets and how they compare. Maintaining a level of equity between everything is a continual goal.

For what it's worth, equity (or parity) is important, but not paramount. It's a means to an end -- having fun.

In this article, NCsoft NorCal Senior Designer Floyd “Castle” Grubb gives us the scoop on some proposed powers changes that will be in testing with Issue 13. Please keep in mind that there is still the entire testing and revision process to go through with these changes. The team is excited to see how these refinements stand up to player feedback, datamining, and the beta process.

Introduction

For Issue 13, we have a rather wide selection of PvE (Player vs. Environment) related powers changes. These changes focus on either Quality of Life concerns or on powers which were not quite in Balance with others. Below is a breakdown of what we are doing, with the aim to provide insight into the thought process behind it.

I'll note that this seems to be a higher level of explanation than we've seen in the past. Hmmmm ... I'm worried.

Energy Aura

Let's start with Energy Aura for Brutes and Stalkers. Energy Aura has had a poor reputation from the start, and while it is "balanced" with the other protective powersets using the original metrics, it has been shown that those metrics did not take certain key factors into consideration - namely Regeneration and Healing effects. Energy Aura lacked any sort of mechanic which could increase the Health or Regeneration Rate of the character, and did it have any active method of restoring Health to the character using these powers. Additionally, the set had more protection holes than others. To address these issues, the following changes are being made:

- Energy Protection: This power gained a 1.25 scale Toxic damage resist attribute for Brutes and a 1.00 scale Toxic damage resist attribute for Stalkers. Energy Aura, being a typed defense set, had no protection against these types of attacks unless they were 'packaged' with a lethal attack of some sort.

- Energy Drain: Added a 2 scale self heal to each target affected by this power. Un-slotted, the player will recover 2% of their maximum HP per target affected. This can be enhanced to up to about 4% per target. This change was made to offer the power set some minor healing ability to increase their survivability but not offer an overwhelming heal.

I'm not sure that's enough to answer the complaints about the power -- but it can't hurt.

Invulnerability

Invulnerability has a few issues, mainly stemming from lack of special resistances and "weak" power choices. Here are the changes that are being made:

- Unyielding: We removed the Defense Debuff from this power. While we still believe it fit thematically, the impact on low level characters was more severe than desired.

- Invincibility: Reduce per target Defense Buff to from scale 0.15 to scale 0.1. The overall result of this and the Unyielding change is, if you have the maximum number of targets in this powers radius, you have the same protection as from Issue 12, but if you have fewer targets, your net defense is higher.

- Resist Physical Damage: Added 25% Defense Debuff Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.

- Tough Hide: Added 25% Defense Debuff Resistance.

- Resist Energies: Added 25% Endurance Debuff Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.

- Resist Elements: Added 20% Movement Slow Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.

Huh. Those actually sound like nice positive tweaks.

Kheldians

Peacebringers and Warshades, as Archetypes, have an interesting history and reputation among players. It seems as if no one is neutral about them -- they are either loved or hated. This isn't much of a surprise; they were always meant to require more player decision making and compromise than the base Archetypes. However, certain technological restrictions combined with the "facts" of high level play ultimately proved that the Kheldians were even harder than originally expected. With Issue 12's introduction of the Villain Epic Archetypes, we took some time to re-evaluate where the Kheldians were and what we wanted to do with them. Here is what we are planning:

- Cosmic Balance: This power now functions while shapeshifted -- Dwarf and Nova forms gain the same benefits as human form.

- Dark Sustenance: This power now functions while shapeshifted -- Dwarf and Nova forms gain the same benefits as human form.

- Gleaming Bolt, Glinting Eye, Gleaming Blast, Luminous Detonation, Shadow Bolt, Ebon Eye, Gravimetric Snare, Shadow Blast and Dark Matter Detonation: Increased base Range to 80'. This makes Human form Kheldians ranged capabilities more useful overall. The 80' range meshes more evenly with other Ranged AT's capabilities.

- Peacebringer AT Multipliers: increased Human form Melee Damage multiple to 0.85, increased Human form Range Damage multiple to 0.8 and increased Dwarf Form Melee Damage multiple to 1.0.

- Warshade AT Multipliers: increased Human form Melee Damage multiple to 0.85, increased Human form Range Damage multiple to 0.8 and increased Dwarf Form Melee Damage multiple to 1.0.

- Dwarf Form: You may now shift into Dwarf Form even while Held, Slept or Stunned.

I've never successfully done much with Kheldians, but this all sounds pretty helpful.

Toggle Powers

One important additional piece of development to mention, that is especially relevant to Kheldians and their toggle powers is: in Issue 13, Toggles are no longer shut off due to Hold, Sleep or Disorient effects. This is a major gameplay change, and it is not restricted to Kheldians, but instead applies to all non-offensive player toggles. As part of changes in Issue 13, when a player is affected by a hold, sleep or stun, any toggle power they are running will continue and will still draw endurance from the character. However, some or all of its effects may be suppressed until such time as the hold, sleep or stun is removed. For example, if you are held while in Black Dwarf form, all of your Damage Resistance values, your recovery bonus and knockback protection are suppressed, while your hold, stun, sleep, immobilize and confuse protections remain in effect. Monitoring your stats with the "Real Numbers" tool is a good way to check which aspects of a toggle are suppressed and which are not.

Huh. That's net a nice QoL advantage. Sure, endurance loss and some suppression, but no constantly having to re-up your toggles after you're mezzed? Priceless!

Note that Castle also noted that "If the toggle affects anyone but the caster, it does not get the protection. This is one of the key things I'll be watching on the training room -- I know there are rough spots in it, and want to iron those out before Live." But he also notes "Toggles that affect self and allies (ie: Leadership, Dispersion Bubble) gain the same protection."

And also: "If the Hold doesn't overcome the Fly attribute, you will simply take a nap in mid air."

War Mace

An ongoing project over the last several issues has been bringing War Mace up to performance par with other powersets. The last set of changes got us close, but still not to where we want to be. Here are the changes:

- Clobber: Reduced Recharge Time to 16 seconds and alter damage scale and endurance costs to match using the standard formula. This means it it now a pretty hard hitting attack, with a damage scale of 2.29 and a base endurance cost of 15.18. Since this is now classified as a Damage power rather than a control power, the base duration of the Stun effect was reduced from scale 10 to scale 5.

- Shatter: Reduced Max Targets Hit from 10 to 5.

- Crowd Control: Increased Max Targets Hit from 5 to 10.

Margie can speak better to this, having run Hildy up to 50. It sounds good.

Misc

There are numerous smaller changes going into Issue 13. While you all will get to see the final product in what makes it into the patch notes, there are a few other changes I want to let you know about.

- Fiery Aura Temperature Protection: Now provides 20% movement reduction protection.

- Dark Melee Midnight Grasp: This power has been rebalanced to provide the majority of it's damage as a front loaded sum (scale 2.21), followed by a shorter, small damage DOT. Overall damage has increased, as has the amount of damage done on a 'Critical.'

One of Amorpha's favorite powers. Sounds more favorite now.

- Energy Melee Barrage: We increased the effectiveness of this power by increasing Damage per Activation. We increased Recharge time from 2 seconds to 6 seconds and change the damage and endurance costs accordingly. The smashing component of the damage is now 2 hits of scale 0.5 damage, and the energy portion is now 2 hits of scale 0.16 damage for a combined scale 1.32 damage.

I've used this on a couple of characters, like Eliza Dee.  More damage is good, of course. 

These are the highlights, and there are several other changes which are still in a state of flux (stalkers Claws, for instance.) I hope you all like the changes. We are really looking forward for this all to hit the Training Room so you folks can bang on them and tell us how the changes feel! Your feedback is critical for these and other changes that we make to the game.

So ... not much nerfy here in the way of powers changes.

Posted by Dave at 2:16 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules