f13.net

Just got an email from the kind folks at Cryptic.  They're reactivating old accounts over the long weekend (until Sep 6).  Nice little bonus and a chance to check out the new goodies (bugged as they might be).

shiznit already mentioned it (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=4515.msg113462#msg113462) and I received my email earlier as well.

I've yet to encounter a bug.  The fact that someone in the other thread thought a large green crystal was some sort of rendering error is a sign of people looking for ways for CoH to fail.

Alkiera

I'm glad for these 5 free days because it reminded me why I cancelled my subscription.

I didn't mean to imply that the glowy thing was a bug, I'm not sure what I was thinking.  I've seen that befor too, ever since I first encounted the Tsoo quite a while ago.  I can totally understand why someone would think it's a bug... it's weird looking.  Oh well.  I have, however, seen graphic issues, in the way of missing textures and clipping, especially with clothing.  Some of the other problems, such as the Ghostship being stuck, were on the test server and seem to have made it through.  This lag that people are suffering from, I haven't seen.  I haven't been on very much at all, though, and I'm hoping it'll be cleared up quickly. 

Well I logged on Happy Fun Ball, 24 En/Dev Blaster on Champion, and SJed around for 10 minutes kiling things. I boosted game resolution to 1600x1200 since I have a new system since I played last, too. The sound fx really jumped out at me. I forgot how damn cool they are.

Anyway, I logged after 10 minutes. Maybe I will give it a real try sometime this weekend and visit Striga but I don't know.

I also saw in Statesman's letter that he refered to CoV as a sequel. That doesn't bode well for bundled pricing.

edit: I made an archery blaster just to try it out. Kind of bummed when the MISS! floated over my target before the bow was even drawn. Is that nitpicking? I know why they do it that way, but the attack animation length made it glaring.

I didn't realize the green crystal was a normal thing. I've never done random mob hunting (or even barely been at surface level) in Talos up to this point.


The fact that you're looking for bad intentions in me for saying that is far more lame. I'll be honest with my hate for things, such as CoH's xp progression, but this would be the last tactic I'd use to turn people away from playing a game. Give me a break.

I've only being playing regularly for the last month or so, but before that, I hadn't played much for the past year....And as I pointed out above, I've barely set foot in Talos to begin with......

*shrug* Sorry if that somehow qualifies me in the conspiracy.

Y'know, this isn't the first time that some of you people have read too much into my comments and tried to associate me with some CoH community bullshit. I don't even read those damn boards. The problem is that you do. Tell me I made a personal mistake or something, but don't latch that other crap on to me.

Thanks

When I first saw the glowy packages, I thought they were a bug, too.  They just look wrong, in my opinion.  When I inquired about it on the chat channel, a lot of people laughed at me and said they thought the same thing when they saw them the for first time.  They really are rather stupid looking.

PS  Don't worry, Stray.  I, for one, know you are capable of MUCH better conspiracy theories than that!  Right now I'm into one involving Paelos, Hitler and the Pilsbury Dough Boy. 

I just cancelled mine today.  Let's just say the poor aftertaste of the CoV beta hasn't filled me with hope for the game's future.

I give up.  WoW will stay my new crack for the time being.

I just logged to take some pictures and try some things...

I tried an archery blaster....itmay ave been amusing, if I had tried at launch, before I was sick of the game. The thought of actualliny trying to level up a toon in this game makes me cry.

Then I tried some PvP with my 28 scrapper. I got pitted against a 28 blaster, thinking it would be an even match....

NO.

The blaster just jumped around and gunned me down with energy blaster, and even with my SR on, he hit most of the time, for a lot. And then I couldn't seem to hit him hard enough. And then he would jump up on top of some trees, where I could not physically get to him while he healed up. Not even getting out of his Line of Sight would help.

Can you say, BROKEN?

I will not be logging back in....ever. I dont' see what could possibly make the game worth playing. I would rather play my worthless lvl 40 priest in WoW.

The slow lvling I can understand. No doubt, it sucks.

But you're never playing again because you didn't win in PvP? Haha. C'mon now.

Unless you provide more detail, it sounds like he simply took advantage of everything he had. While you, for some reason, imposed rules on yourself and him that weren't even necessary.

As for SR, I have one too, and even though Defense was nerfed in this patch, you wouldn't see the full effect of it until later in the game anyways. On the plus side of things, you can reach the cap to Defense Buffs much earlier than before.

As for jumping, how does that make the difference? It's an RPG, so you can still target him if you jumped yourself and stayed in range. It's not like it's BF2 bunny hopping where that could be a big factor in whether you hit or not.

He was a blaster.

Stun, immobilize, or knock him down.  Every Scrapper set has at least one attack that does one of those.  How come he was able to jump into a tree but you weren't?  Did he use hover?  If so, what was your travel power?  With Super Reflexes, whether he was hitting you or not it would be virtually impossible for him to knock you down/back with his blasts, so he shouldn't have been able to kite you so easily if you were playing well.  How do your enhancements look?

I ask all these because neither of my scrappers (MA/SR and DM/DA) have lost a solo battle against a blaster, ever.  They shred them, horribly.  I can't imagine a scenario where I'd lose, unless they ran straight up, used Nova or Inferno, managed to hit with it, then ran off to blast from a distance before I had a chance to react.  That worked once in a team fight, haven't seen anyone try it solo yet.

What was your attack set?

Also, if you remember, what defenses specifically were you running?  You said "With my SR on" but that doesn't say much- if you were just running Focused Fighting, for instance, you weren't helping yourself much.

My scrapper was DM/SR. I have no attacks that do any of those things.

He was able to jump up on trees because he took SJ (and possibly SS), and I hadn't yet.

Even with my ranged SR toggle on, my ranged passive, and the anti-status effect power, he must have floored me about 5 times.

And my enhancements are pretty much all SO's. And I do fine in missions I guess....I think I had at least 3 slots on all my defensive powers.

And Stray, the unbalenced PvP just makes the game even worse for me; I didn't really want to play again anyway - I just wanted the screenshots. The PvP may have been worth it, if there were plenty of people to fight, and the balence didn't suck.

The worst part is that I could get behind him, and his blasts would Still hit, while I had to be about 2 feet away, which is hard if he's running around wildly.

How can you it's unbalanced if he has SJ and SS? He made a choice to get those powers (non class specific powers at that), while you didn't. I don't understand.

You should try again...Except with a respec (which is free with the new patch). You can already get close to the defensive cap at that lvl with Issue 5, so you should take advantage of that (this goes without mentioning that you're DM as well..Which furthers your abilities here.....If you're so inclined to build that way). Slot those toggles more for one (But drop the passive defenses. They're not as valuable atm). And get something that'll give you more vertical ability -- the game pretty much requires it, be it pve or pvp. You don't necessarily need Flight or Super Jump though. If you like Super Speed, then get Hurdle (which will open up Stamina later. Something an SR should be getting anyways).

I have my share of complaints about CoH, but I disagree that it's as balanced as you think it is. The game's pretty well balanced for something that offers that much flexiblity. Every power set (as well as the power pool) is going to give you the options you need to be a thorn in the side to someone. You just have to pick the things that you want to be a thorn in the side to. And even then, you'll still have temp powers you can purchase and inspirations to fill in the missing gaps for specific situations.

Of course, if you're just disgusted with the game in general, and would rather not bother, I understand.

You're right.  4 more levels and you'll have Midnight Grasp, which immobilizes.

A good alternative, in my opinion, is Air Superiority from the Flight pool.  That'll knock 'em on their asses, plus if they're hovering it'll bring them to the ground.

OK, let me put it like this:

He was jumping on tops of trees which were really meant to act as an arena wall. This is just bad level design.

And I already had hurdle, and it does jack. Stamina is nice though.

Also, I shouldn't have to go to outside powers to compete, as in air superiority.

And even if I had that, it wouldn't have matter with the guy practically flying around the map.

If I was going to play again, it would be to play on a team with someone...but no one else is really playing, so what's the point? Running through missions solo and repeatedly jamming the same few attack buttons is crap.

Wrong.

There's a reason pool powers are available to everyone.  Christ, you think flying isn't going to drastically change the PvP experience?  You SHOULD learn to use pool powers to strategically build your character.  Air Superiority is a great choice for DM users, too.  I've been using it for a while.  Shadow Punch, Smite, Air Superiority and Shadow Maul were my attacks (though I recently respecced to swap Air Superiority for Boxing, because I wanted a bit more speed in my chain)

What difference would it make? He could get a lot higher in the air than I could.

From what I have sen and heard, the PvP is underwhelming anyway.

I'd rather play WoW's, if any at all.

2 things:

1)  All defense-based sets(Super Reflexes, Icey Armor) have issues in PvP because it's insanely easy to boost one's accuracy.  Base hero accuracy is the same as an Arch-Villain in i5.  Some have argued the base should be lower in PvP... they might have a point.  Especially as there are something like 40+ attacks that lower the targets defense, and numerous aim/buildup type powers that provide temporary boosts to accuracy.

2) One of the options on the arena is 'No travel powers'.  If you don't have any, it might be a good idea to make sure your opponent doesn't either, or can't use them.

Er, 3 things.
3) Just like most other games, CoH does require some knowledge/skill... if you've been out of the game for a long time, coming into the arena expecting to Pwn is... well... perhaps overreaching.

Alkiera

I had only Super Speed.

Blaster had SS and SJ. Was also a devices Blaster, with the little aim bot.

I should have quit immediately.

He was basically built perfectly to destroy you.  He had range, you didn't, he had vertical movement, you didn't, he had a way to cut right through your defenses, you didn't.  Your best bet was to try to get out of Line of Sight and make him come to you, but short of that it was a pretty unlikely solo win for you.

Someone is building perfect soldiers to hunt down and kill Strazos?  Wasn't this a movie?

I wish; I could use the money.

Just to say - you _do_ know there are temp powers on sale in the arena lobby that do things like give you a few minutes of flight or superjump, or immoblize/stun distant targets?

While you might not build your toolkit, you can certainly buy a temporary patch or two.

--GF

I saw them, but I didn't ntoice the cheeser left travel powers on.

I logged in just now on the free activation with my 37 katana/regen scrapper.

Turned on all my toggles.
Did a mission.
Died.
Noticed that instant regen is now a clickable power with a long recharge time.
Logged out.

No thanks. I can't tolerate grindy games where the devs nerf like that anymore.

Just how out of touch are these guys? Are they still believing that City of Villains is somehow worth an extra monthly fee?

I doubt that Statesman has really played an MMO (outside of CoH) since EQ (or whatever it was that originally sparked his idea for a game of his own). Even though his ideas for CoH brought a few improvements and innovations to the genre, he seems to be living in the past or something.

Memo to States: The "Grind" is like, so 3 years ago. Learn a damn thing or two from WoW.

And then make it better. WoW's grind is still too much for me, and obviously the less of a grind you have the better if you're going to stick to the dikumud bullshit. But as I said before, even without an economy or item system, I'd play CoH if they cut all the experience needed in half.

Just to mention, I'm definitely not one to heap praise on World of Warcraft (but I'm sure you knew that). I'm just talking about grinds. I don't mind WoW's pace, but I never did get to the endgame (where, supposedly, it gets worse).

You say that you'd play CoH if the grind was cut in half? Well, that's WoW's pace. It takes about 2-3 months (casually) to hit 50 in WoW, and 5-6 months to do it in City of Heroes.

Not really. WoW's combat is assy assy assy compared to CoH's.

 

True. CoH, at it's core, is just superior in so many ways. Itemless and shallow though it may be, 2-3 months in CoH would feel a whole lot better than 2-3 months in WoW. Even if they're both diku derived, I think City of Heroes may be the first mmorpg that was designed in mind as a traditional video game, and not a graphical mud. Not that it's succeeded in that goal in all it's aspects (and I doubt it was even a conscious goal), but still, it's an improvement.

This is where I'm thankful for Cryptic -- Most of them didn't have any excess baggage or perceptions from muds when they designed CoH. Their first experiences in the genre came from graphical mmo's, and in turn, it was easy for them to see the flaws that traditional mmo designers take for granted.

I'd also like to put in my two cents and say that the grind ought to be lessened.  Though I'd like to qualify that by saying that the experience boost on enemies has been AWESOME for the pace of the game.  Post 35 characters actually feel like they're making progress.  Now just do it more and I will be happy.  Make everything after level 7 go faster, please.  I will be a happy camper then.

Yes, I would love to be able to have a choice of 4-6 toons to play at high levels, instead of maybe just 1 (assuming I ever get past 32).

Played a bit in holloween town, it seems they are hitting their stride in level design.  Still not enough to get me back.

My Defender is out of missions to do in Croatoa.  :(  I am sad.

And of course my computer got some nasty spyware just recently, fucking up my connection, so I believe all my temporary powers with time durations have expired.