The News Thread

[shiznitz]

But our highest priority is retaining our existing players. These guys and girls are our bread and butter, so making them happy is critical. Our mantra going forward now is "give the players what they want," within reason of course. In-demand things like trenchcoats and wing costume pieces, readdressing old City of Heroes zones, newspaper-style missions for City of Heroes--all these came directly from the players asking for them.

Makes business sense but sad nonetheless. Still, shortening the exp curve helps current customers level alts faster AND would bring back some who quit.

Less grind, please.

[Nebu]

1. Less grind

2. Personal Housing

3. Itemization

I'd play again.  Especially with 1.  The rest are just gravy. 

[Xanthippe]

1. Less grind

2. Personal Housing

3. Itemization

I'd play again.  Especially with 1.  The rest are just gravy. 

I think a lot of people would play again with 1.

But yeah, I couldn't agree more with these.  Why bother getting to 50 when you know the grind is awful at 30?

And loot.  I love loot.  Even when it's just fluff.

[Llava]

I violently disagree with loot.  I do not want loot in this game.  Please stop trying to make this game into all the others.  One of the reasons I play CoH is because there is no loot.

That said.

Less grind would be nice.  The double experience weekend felt about right.

Personal Housing... I don't particularly care.  It'd be nice, I suppose, but I get my "nesting" urge fulfilled with my supergroup base.

[Cheddar]

And loot.  I love loot.  Even when it's just fluff.

I agree about the fluff.  One of the draws to CoH is the badge thing.  I  CoH badges!

[schild]

Loot or Achievements. Microsoft has raised the bar. Badges are just a weak form of achievements. NCSoft needs it for all of their main games and a way to brag to other people about all their games. Oh, and they need a station pass. K?

[Trippy]

Oh, and they need a station pass. K?

Why? So you can also play Lineage II and Auto Assault?

[schild]

Oh, and they need a station pass. K?

Why? So you can also play Lineage II and Auto Assault?

I meant to say they need a station pass AFTER they add achievements so people will actually play Lineage 2 and Auto Assault.

[Xanthippe]

Loot or Achievements. Microsoft has raised the bar.

Microsoft has raised the bar with what?

[Der Helm]

Microsoft has raised the bar with what?

My thoughts exactly.

[Lantyssa]

I think he means with the 360's achievement thingies.  Those of us without one apparently didn't know our bar had been raised.

[Riggswolfe]

I join the chorus saying no loot please. I love me some loot, but not having it in the game keeps me from having to spend hours upon hours trying to obtain that one uber item that keeps me from competing with everyone else out there. Instead I spend hours upon hours playing with my costume pieces in the tailor.

I do heartily agree with less grind though. Housing wouldn't be bad. (though you can almost have it with the supergroup base.)

also I'd add:

1) More mission variety
2) Vehicles
3) Some kind of non-combat skill for variety. Like the detective skills they talked about at one point.

[Nebu]

1) More mission variety
2) Vehicles
3) Some kind of non-combat skill for variety. Like the detective skills they talked about at one point.

WINNAR!

(I agree completely... the missions get stale pretty fast)

[Xanthippe]

You know, when I said loot, I was thinking shinies like badges - fluff.  Maybe furniture or clothing options.  Not things one simply must have to be competitive - that can make playing as fun as washing the dishes.

Holiday event type loot is fun. 

Fun loot.

Not disguise-a-level-50-to-become-a-level-55 loot.

[Stormwaltz]

1) More mission variety

Honestly, I'd settle for more map variety. More room options, more configurations. I'm level 38, and I know which map I'm on in every mission in a few minutes at most.

[Glazius]

1) More mission variety

Honestly, I'd settle for more map variety. More room options, more configurations. I'm level 38, and I know which map I'm on in every mission in a few minutes at most.

Wow. I'm working on my third 50 and I still haven't picked it up. I've got a pretty good sense of some of the ordinary cave maps, but all I remember of them from character to character is the parts that give me fits - that huge labyrinth of tunnels going east to west, and that end room that's in the center of a circle of passageways. I still couldn't tell you from the first few rooms whether a cave map would end in that (&^@#$ 5 layer room.

I _do_ know that there's only one, maybe two, variations of each map with a locked door in it, and if you need to find keys the possibilities go way down. They need to work on that.

I definitely have all the room layouts down pat, though. Except maybe for one of the office rooms with three floors - the big one which is basically a large multilayered corner turn with a little passage on the first floor cutting through the filled-in corner - I haven't seen that one enough to get a sense for where they hide things in it. This helps a little, but it's no win button - for example, in that end-cave room where you start off trekking some distance under an overhang, I know stuff likes to hang out right on the lip and open up on you as soon as you clear the overhang, but for the life of me I've got no idea how to look up there without actually exposing the character to fire.

--GF

[Llava]

Halloween Event Begins October 18th

[Signe]

ooooh!  I'm dressing up like Spiderman!

[Llava]

Preliminary patch notes for Issue 8 are up:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=2092861

[Raging Turtle]

Doesn't seem like anything major.  Kinda dissappointing.

[Llava]

It's mostly a hero issue, as they've said a bunch.

Plus, Veteran Rewards are not included in the early stages of test.  Will be in a bit later.

It's on test now, btw.

(Also, there was a post saying "Yes, this issue is a bit smaller than the previous ones, but we're planning on releasing them more frequently now.")

But yes, it is a little small.  I was hoping there'd be a "Global Damage Adjustment" change. 

[Llava]

Looks like something accidentally snuck its way into this patch.

http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b27/Madashes2ashes/COH/college/

[Sky]

Bumping up hover is long overdue. Nice to know the changes to teleport before I took it as a power. Still need easier respec :P

[Glazius]

First videos from I8 testing.

NDA? What NDA?

Police-band radio and the new flight poses, transitioning into the brand new Faultline, and also a Safeguard mission, which is run on double speed and kinda blurry so there's not much interesting to see.

--GF

[Trippy]

Bumping up hover is long overdue.

Still doesn't make up for the major nerfage it got thanks to ED.

[UnSub]

Bumping up hover is long overdue.

Still doesn't make up for the major nerfage it got thanks to ED.

As at October 31, ED will be 12 months old.

Just making an observation.

[geldonyetich]

Although we've been cautioned not to take the current invention implementation seriously, it looks like a major function of the invention system is processing Salvage into Enhancements.  I imagine that these enhancements will be of superior potency to Single Origin enhancements.  This may neccessitate loosening the Enhancement Diversification limitations, which currently maxxes out at three single origins.

[Lantyssa]

This may neccessitate loosening the Enhancement Diversification limitations, which currently maxxes out at three single origins.

Quite the opposite.  One of the reasons for ED was so they could make enhancements at were stronger than an SO and not allow someone with lots of them to be significantly better than anyone else.  (See also Hamidon Enhancements.)

The problem is for powers that can only slot limited types.  Defensive sets more specifically.  That blaster could max out damage, accuracy, range and recharge.  Controllers and Defenders usually have multiple options.  Primary or Secondary in most cases.  But several tanker primaries and scrapper secondaries get to max out defense or resistance, which they have likely already done.  They need more options.

[geldonyetich]

A good counterargument.

Well, whatever it turns out to be, I can say this much with some level of certainty: Supergroups are going to have a hard time milking salvage out of their members.  Right now the only thing Salvage is good for is building base components, but once they become a necessary part to producing more effective enhancements I expect they'll become in demand pretty quickly.  To the point where there may need to be measures to prevent broadcast spam of salvage trade.

[Glazius]

So, further news from Issue 8 on test:

You now get little icons by your contact's names when you have an open story arc or mini-arc from them. It's this kinda open book thing with a yellow cover for story and a red cover for mini.

Also, heroes now get the same shared mission complete technology villains have always had. Maybe now there won't be 5,000 people all trying to do their own Frostfire.

Also, there are some new tiles showing up in the office and warehouse missions. Most of them are geomorphically identical to old tiles (same room connections), but with different geometry. They aren't just for custom missions, either, I've seen them in the normal rank and file. (Maybe there are new cave/sewer/tech lab/Oranbega tiles too, but I haven't been in enough of those to tell.)

Also, Cat Ears For Men.


Also, Dr. Delilah Stein. She can catalog my ancient treasures _anytime_.


Further bulletins as events warrant.

--GF

[geldonyetich]

Thanks for the info.

Hmm, lets see here:

1) Heroic Mayhem Missions (Police Scanner).
2) Better mission management.
3) Shared mission completion for heroes.

...

Exactly why is my plan to get a Hero to 50 before this issue is released?
Ah yes, because I'm prone to self-delusion.

Dammit, I've got two 30ish heroes that are climbing to 50 the hard way right now and probably have outleveled much of the cool new features of this issue.  I should put some serious consideration towards playing a Villain for awhile, or taking a break until this issue is out.

[Signe]

Trick or Treat!  Starts today. 

[Sky]

Heroes are teh sucks! Eat lead, suckas!

Love,
The Conniving Cpt Croaker

[geldonyetich]

Actually, I'm thinking I'lll stick with my original plan which goes something like: "Take a hero to 50, play a Villain until next issue is released, then play Kheldian to check out new CoH content."   The only question is if I'll actually get a hero from 27/32 (depending on which I stick with) to 50 before the next issue comes out.  I wish Cryptic had made Kheldians a veteran reward for, say 3-6 months of play.

The Halloween event I want to check out, but work has me away from home all day today.

In other news, I had thought CoH immune to Guild Politics, but I had an interesting demonstration that was not the case yesterday.  Last night, my Supergroup leader went into a major hissy-fit because people in a splinter Supergroup wouldn't come assist him with getting a mission done.  So, that splinter Supergroup went poof, and a lot of players whose alts that Supergroup went their seperate ways.

And to think that I don't really consider myself a Hardcore player.  I can fairly feel the hook embedded in my cheek where Cryptic has me fished in right now.

[Llava]

If you take someone from the low 30s to 50 in the month or so until Issue 8 is live... well, for one, you're not going to want to play any CoH for a while.