f13.net

The closed beta has started for I11. The default weapon customisation options aren't under :nda: because anyone can see them when they log into the test server.

This link (http://bass-ackwards.net/ftp/issue11/) shows a list of all the default weapon options. Some are better than others, but it's a positive step forward for CoH/V.

Also: Dual Blades has 4 combos available to it if powers are activated in a certain order.

That baseball bat is hilarious. But I don't see glowing blades. If they want a license to print money they need to put glowing blades in the game.

Edit: Same pics with better organization and descriptions:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=9359332&an=0&page=0#Post9359332

Pink Rifle FTW. Can I put a Hello Kitty decal on that?  :hello_kitty:

http://bass-ackwards.net/ftp/issue11/PinkRifle.jpg (http://bass-ackwards.net/ftp/issue11/PinkRifle.jpg)

Heh, it's been done.

(http://dslinux.dyndns.org/~raptor/pics/pinkrifles0511.jpg)

Also:

(http://dslinux.dyndns.org/~raptor/pics/Kalashnikitty.jpg)

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Alkiera

I11 has glowing blades - you have to buy them from Vangard bases and they are available only lvl 35+. Pics of them on player characters are NDA violations, but apparently they are colour changeable and will look like the version the Vangard mobs get:

(http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/images/c/c8/VanguardRanger2.jpg)

By "glowing blades" I mean "laser swords" i.e. lightsabers.

Ahh.

There are some unlockable swords (probably) including the Rikti blade, but probably not any lightsabers laser swords - or at least I haven't heard of any. However, given the huge number of suggestions I've seen the forums generate about this topic, the devs are likely to add in more options later on. Dual laser swords are a likely option.

I was able to make a passable clone of Mileena from MK2 last night using the test server client, with dual sai.  There are a few menu options in the weapon customization for both dual blades and broadsword that aren't yet visable; I'm guessing this is why they're still in closed beta.

Also, Willpower, based on the descriptions in char. creation, looks pretty cool.  good smash/lethal/psi resists, minor resist all, a good 'effects' resist power, hp and end regen, a heal, a regen aura that improves based on the number of surrounding enemies, and a copy of Unstoppable to cap it off.  The description of the final power actually called itself Unstoppable in the description.  8)

Again, it's in beta still, so those effects may change... but hey, I'd give it a shot.  Resists vs smash/lethal and some regen to cover the other stuff.  Might be a bit painful, depending on enemies, but not too bad, once you's slotted it up.

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Alkiera

This is awesome.  It makes it so much easier to get your character "right".

And the pickaxe, shovel, bone club, and wooden club are pretty funny.

While the look of my character is important to my fun, running through the same instanced buildings/caves ruins teh shiny pretty quickly.  This is a start along the right path, but what the game really suffers most from is enemy/instance diversity, not player diversity.

Is THAT ever right.  The interface seems to be designed to make people not want to read mission text.  Secondly the types of missions are so limited.  Contrast the missions in CoH to Quests in WoW and you can CLEARLY see how in WoW many quests are part of the world, where in CoH they're just excuses to do what you'd be doing anyway.

The scripted events like the fires in Steel Canyon are a GREAT idea, now if only they'd increase that by about %1000.

I can make Construction Man...almost  :-D  Would be like The Shoveler and just as comical.

I need a hard hat...hopefully the classic full brim and the regular hard hats become available.

I was really hoping we would get electric armor added to tankers.  Of course I would have made a electric/mace tanker just not called him Thor...

Haven't been able to get my firefighter badge yet, but more things like that would help.  I'm not sure, but I have outleveled some things, like Dark Astonia while I was bouncing around fighting in Boomtown.  And I was telling one group how we used to street sweep in Perez Park and fight the hydras down there, they were amazed.  It has gotten way better, but the problem is that if you don't get a great group you might end up going up leveling too slow (especially if you are group dependent...blaster/defender/controller).  On the other hand, you might hear of a story arc and out level it and not be able to get the reward of doing it (like me not having ever captured/killed Dr Valz).

I'm also hoping they put in that you can switch sides, villians can be reformed and heroes can go bad.  It is hinted at in the story arcs with Longbow and Freedom Corps stating they are forgiving to past enemies if they show trust...  Not sure if they changed there mind on that idea.

But it does look fun what they have in testing.

It seems to be getting better.  Every new area added has more interesting quests than the past, and when they redo areas, like they did Faultline, it gets the more updated quest types.  Radio missions, though, are intended to be generic and cheesy.  Yesterday I had a mission to recover the P.L.O.T. Device from some Arachnos agents.  The text indicated that letting the PLOT Device fall into the wrong hands could be devastating.  Lols.

In other news, my scrapper (started just after release) is 49.4 now, and I can make about 1/10 of a level per 2/3 hours of radio/safeguard missions.  Hope to be able to make a peacebringer or warshade by sometime next week... though HL2/TF2/Portal may eat into my CoH time.  HL2 is very pretty.

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Alkiera

Well, yes and no.  I can see they're making SOME effort, but the quests in Faultline, while more interesting in a story sense, don't really differ from the quests in the beginning of the game.  Compare with quests in WoW, where you OFTEN get NPC's that interact with each other, Items that actually perform actions when you click on them (instead of just stop glowing!) or summon creatures/give items when you do the same, Named characters that differ visually and behaviourally from regular NPCs..

I'm wondering if the engine in CoH is just too limited to do interesting missions.

I made it to about 45.8 on my DM/SR scrapper and burned out again.  I was hoping to make it to 50 and make a WS or PB, but the thought of grinding it out to 50 just made me cry.  I'm guessing I might get the motivation to grind a couple more levels out in a month or two.  For now, I'm playing WoW... again... for like a 5th time.

This was not my experience leveling a druid up to the low 40's.

There were more frequently little animated story bits at the end of quests, like the gnome invention that turned a sick gnome into a chicken, etc.  As far as items that did things, there were objects that gave you items, like chests, or items for quests.  In CoH, rather than give you items, they just flag the quest as you having gained that 'item'.  I would think they could be able to summon entities based on clicking objects, or the like, but they haven't.  Plenty of the AVs are named and actually do have powers/abilities that are different from lesser villains of that type.  The levels where you have named Bosses, the bosses are typical bosses of the type, generally.

I think part of the issue is that CoX is TOO free with having mobs of different ability levels.  WoW you have critters, which are helpless; Normal mobs, which are like minions in CoX, which are very limited in what they can do.  Elite mobs are just Minions with more hp that do more damage, they aren't inherently different.  Named in WoW are more like Bosses in CoH, more abilities, relatively unique things, in comparison to the average mob.  The real issue is that there's typically just one boss of a given type in all of WoW, whereas if you're in a large group, you'll see dozens of, say, Outcast Bosses in CoH.  Named bosses in WoW are special because they are rare.  In CoX, they are a dime a dozen.  Also, power levels.  An equal-level minion in CoX takes much less effort for a Hero or Villain to defeat than for a WoW PC to defeat a equal-level random mob.

Any argument about mob variety is lost on me, as it's just a matter of flavor.  WoW has boars and goblins and harpies, it's a fantasy world.  Heroes don't hunt boars, or turtles, or alligators, or animals in general.  The closest they get is werewolves.  Instead, there is a greater variety of humanoid mobs.  Both games have a decent collection of undead and mechanical enemies.

WoW does have a greater variety of environments, I will agree.  Nearly every area has a unique look and atmosphere, including dungeons.  CoH's biggest weakness is the lack of tilesets.  You've got the generic office set, the warehouse set, the stone cave set, and the crey lab set; you see those over and over and over, with occasional peeks at, say, that custom Magical stone one they use for CoT missions, and the odd outdoor mission, which are also limited in variety.  This weakness is the one that dragged at me last time, when I quit mostly because of three Issues of scrapper nerfs followed by the Ehancile Dysfunction Issue nerfing my guy even further.

IOs and sets have fixed some of the ED-related problems, and the game is more interesting now with getting salvage and recipes for loot.  "The Grind" that appeared to exist post-35, seems to have faded some.  Or at least, it matters less to me.  Combat is so much more engaging to me in CoH than in WoW.  Since nearly every fight involves more than one enemy, you can't use exactly the same tactics to succeed in every case so much as in WoW, even if fighting the same enemies.

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Alkiera

Well, you're right about one thing. They don't change much from the beginning of the game.

Because when they did the jump to CoV they retooled the old missions. There's a Hellion lair raid where you have to save artifacts from the Skulls so you can get them back for analysis, a Lost sewer rescue where new groups of Lost spawn to keep you from making it to the exit with the people the Lost have kidnapped, a Clockwork mission where dropping the boss summons waves of Clockwork to repair him, and a few early missions with NPC friends you can spring for some extra firepower. All of this before level 15, in some cases before level 10.

Aside from some doors opening, though, they've never really animated the surroundings in a mission. But most of my play variety comes from the powersets of people I'm grouped with - all they need to do for that is create some maps with a few pressure situations, which certainly show up.

I11 closed beta has ended. Open beta starts today.

Of note from closed beta:

 - A recipe drop now allows you to respec your character. Can only have one respec at a time, but you can have as many respec recipes as you like up to your recipe limit.

The other stuff sounds good, but it's more par for the course within CoH/V.