CoV Bonus Disc

[eldaec]

So wait, there's items in this one?

There were items in CoH.

Enhancers.

TOs which boost some aspect of a power by 8%, DOs which boost some aspect of a power by 16%, SOs which boost some aspect of a power by 33%, and HOs which boost 2 aspects of a power by 33% (recently nerfed from 50%).

An aspect is something like accuracy, damage, range etc.

You can fit 60-odd of these things on your hero by level 50, up to 8 on any 1 power.

You can usually afford as many SOs as you need at each level with pocket change though.

[Llava]

up to 8 on any 1 power.

Up to 6.

[schild]

Inspirations and whatnot still don't feel like "items" or "Loot" to me. It just feels like at certain levels I'm upping statistic points (as seen in Atelier Iris, Digital Devil Saga, and many other RPGs for the past.....15 years).

Loot is good.
Random loot is good.
Non-random high level loot is bad.
I don't like everyone looking the same.

Ok, I've completely rambled off now. Basically Inspirations and Enchantments just seem like the natural progression of a power or character, not loot and items. Or to put it another way, if you can't base an interesting player economy and market off of the "loot" in a game, it may as well not exist.

Also, they need to cut the exp curve in half - or introduce a massive rested state/vitality thing. And then cut the exp curve by a quarter.

[eldaec]

up to 8 on any 1 power.

Up to 6.

Well, counting is hard.

[Llava]

Basically Inspirations and Enchantments just seem like the natural progression of a power or character, not loot and items.

Agreed.

Aside from Hamidon Enhancements and other special enhancements of that sort (the titan shard, etc) you can buy any of these enhancements from an NPC.  There's really no time when someone will say "Nice! I just got a really good drop!"  99% of the time, the best you'll hear is "Oh neat, I can actually use this Enhance."

I don't include Hamidon or other special enhancements because there are what, 4 places to get those in the entire game?  It's not really enough to start calling it an item-based game.

[Jain Zar]

Also, they need to cut the exp curve in half - or introduce a massive rested state/vitality thing. And then cut the exp curve by a quarter.

Yes.  Yes.  Yes, oh sweet Cthulhu YES.

Too bad it won't ever happen.  Too many people think its perfect for Cryptic to ever touch it, regardless of the lessons WoW has taught us all.

Fuck debt, fuck catass grinds.  If a game like CoH is fun I will make alts.  Don't worry about someone making it to 50 quickly when most people love character creation more than anything else. 

Oh yeah, and give everyone all of the Fitness skills at level 1 please. 

[Velorath]

I won't pay an extra subscription for CoV. That'll be the only thing that will sour my good will with that dev team.

I'll try to find the direct quote later, but basically Statesman said that they need to charge another sub for CoV because it has it's own team working on updates.  The pricing hasn't been worked out yet as far as people who sub to both games.

[HaemishM]

I call bullshit on that. I just don't buy it. CoV has been labeled from the beginning as an expansion. It's not even a new engine, it's an existing engine with tweaks. It's Madden 2006. I swear if they try to charge an extra sub for it, I won't play it.

[Velorath]

I call bullshit on that. I just don't buy it. CoV has been labeled from the beginning as an expansion. It's not even a new engine, it's an existing engine with tweaks. It's Madden 2006. I swear if they try to charge an extra sub for it, I won't play it.

They've been calling it standalone for a while now.  CoV only expands CoH by adding HQ's and the PVP zones.  All the other content added is usable only by villain characters.  Last I heard many months back, what they're talking about is the normal subcription fee if you play either game, or adding 3 - 5 dollars onto your subscription fee if you play both.  CoH will keep getting new "issues" like it is now, and CoV will get it's own issues which is what they say the additional fee is for.  If you play both, you'll be getting twice the content updates that you are now.  If it works out that way, with double the content updates, than I think the added cost is acceptable (not that I played CoH enough to even get through even half of that content).

[stray]

I'm gonna give them a chance. Screw it. If only because Recluse (David Zeb?) will be running that side of things (and yes, I know, the CoH team and Statesman will be handling it in some capacity as well). I'm not all that interested in playing a villian, but one look at that guy's RPG resume, and it's hard to see how he could go wrong.

[Velorath]

I'm gonna give them a chance. Screw it. If only because Recluse (David Zeb?) will be running that side of things (and yes, I know, the CoH team and Statesman will be handling it in some capacity as well). I'm not all that interested in playing a villian, but one look at that guy's RPG resume, and it's hard to see how he could go wrong.

To be honest though, a lot of the stuff David Cook had a hand in ranged from dull to crap.

[MrHat]

But, you can have fancy hats!

[stray]

Oh  

I don't know about tabletop much....But I figured that since he's indirectly responsible for one of the best computer rpg's ever, then CoV would shape up really well..

[Velorath]

Oh  

I don't know about tabletop much....But I figured that since he's indirectly responsible for one of the best computer rpg's ever, then CoV would shape up really well..

Indirectly being the key word.  He was actually indirectly responsible for two of the best crpgs ever.  As one of the creators Planescape, he's indirectly responsible for Torment, and as one of the writers of the module "Ruins of Adventure", he was partly responsible for Pool of Radiance (which is based on Ruins).  Oriental Adventures is also a book I have fond memories of.

Still, looking through that list of stuff he's done, about 90% of it was filler that helped bloat the AD&D line full of useless, overpriced sourcebooks.  Besides that, I'd be happier with someone who understands comics rather than Fantasy RPGs.  That's the kind of mindset I'd like MMO's to move away from.

[stray]

Besides that, I'd be happier with someone who understands comics rather than Fantasy RPGs.  That's the kind of mindset I'd like MMO's to move away from.

Definitely. Though I do believe Emmert is that (I think that some of the team had a hand in Marvel/DC RPG's and the comic book world as well).....And for some reason it isn't helping any longer. There's still a core game there that entices me, but since it launched, CoH has slowly gone down the path of every other MMO. Issue 5 is just another example: While it may be good for my controller's solobility (even though they've been nerfed in other ways), it's probably going to kill the game for some people. It's about to get less "Super".

Back to CoV and RPG's. Another interesting thing that I just read up on is that the lead writer of CoV is Shane Hensley. Wow. Like I said, I don't know much about tabletop, but that's a name that I do recognize. He's the creator of Deadlands (i.e. the coolest RPG idea ever, in my opinion). I think it's almost guaranteed now that the missions/storylines are going to blow away whatever Statesman's team has done thus far (and anyone else, for that matter)....Lack of comic book expertise or not. 

[HaemishM]

I call bullshit on that. I just don't buy it. CoV has been labeled from the beginning as an expansion. It's not even a new engine, it's an existing engine with tweaks. It's Madden 2006. I swear if they try to charge an extra sub for it, I won't play it.

They've been calling it standalone for a while now.  CoV only expands CoH by adding HQ's and the PVP zones.  All the other content added is usable only by villain characters.  Last I heard many months back, what they're talking about is the normal subcription fee if you play either game, or adding 3 - 5 dollars onto your subscription fee if you play both.  CoH will keep getting new "issues" like it is now, and CoV will get it's own issues which is what they say the additional fee is for.  If you play both, you'll be getting twice the content updates that you are now.  If it works out that way, with double the content updates, than I think the added cost is acceptable (not that I played CoH enough to even get through even half of that content).

I'm quickly losing my faith that whatever they come up with will be equitable. They seem to flatly refuse to state exactly what their plans on this extra sub price are, despite the fact that they have to know this already in order to price the thing accordingly. Just let me know so I can vent my hatred and decide now if I should even get excited or not.