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#1 Sep 01 2009 at 10:53 AM Rating: Decent
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Yay or nay? I figured some of you little CoH junkies would have been all over it, worth checking out?
#2 Sep 01 2009 at 11:10 AM Rating: Excellent
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I haven't played it. A balanced assessment of it (from what I can tell) is that it is quicker paced, more arcade style action. More of a MMO-shoot'em up than an MMORPG. I've heard people say that the Xbox 360 controller is very desirable for it. Folks like being able to mix & match from any power pools ("I shoot ice rays and fireballs and levitate and fire a rifle").

Major criticisms I've heard is that everyone is ultimately a mage-tank with little reason to group. There's few support style powers so, for all the variety in pew-pews, everyone is pretty much the same at the end of the day just with different colors and shapes of pew-pews. I've heard estimates of perhaps 30 hours of content as well but they might have tweaked xp or may add more stuff. Folks complain that too many quest mobs/spawns are non-instanced leading to a crowd of players spam clicking on an escort NPC so they can be the one leading it or whatever but I suppose time will eventually fix that problem.

Graphics are hit or miss depending on the person but you can look those up on your own.

Frankly, I'm surprised at how little notice the game has gotten around here. We spent more time discussing Pirates of the Burning Sea than this game.
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#3 Sep 01 2009 at 12:29 PM Rating: Decent
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I've been playing it. It's a fun alternative to CoH. It's definitely more action oriented. There's basically zero downtime. One of the things I like is that you can take on as many missions as you want (or at least I haven't run into a limit yet), and they are fast paced and a whole bunch of them going on in the same zone (so lots of stuff to do).

There are some display issues that bug me. Waypoints and minimap are less useful than they should be. Basically, if you click on a mission it'll briefly shift your minimap to show where it is, then flip back. Of course, that doesn't necessarily equate to you knowing where it actually is relative to you. Setting a waypoint kinda helps, but instead of putting a marker on your compass (which is right there), it puts an X on the minimap and full map. Of course, if the X is off the minimap, this isn't very helpful. Yes. The waypoint marker often is not visible on the minimap. It's technically on the edge, but it's often hard to figure out where it is. It's just a dumb implementation of something every other game has figured out how to do.

Also missions don't display on your side bar intelligently. There's only room for a handful of missions that kinda float on your screen on the right. You can have more, but the full list will appear in a separate mission screen you can open up. All great, but why not say let me choose which of the missions in the full list will appear on the screen all the time? Or at least put the ones that are in the zone I'm in there? Or something?...

The graphics are more cartoony, but the game is intended to be that way. It's not as crisp as I'm used to from CoH, but the zones are much much bigger with a lot more stuff in them, so that may have been a consideration. I did have an encounter with FoxBat (ok, he taunted me on a radio left behind after his great ping pong ball heist, but close enough). That was pretty darn fun. Oh. And I ran into Grond in the Desert. Ok. I saw him from a distance, saw that his title was "Cosmic" and kinda stayed away. As a long time Champions player it's fun to see those characters in game.


The nice thing is that there are no game servers. Your character can interact with any other character in the game. There are a small number of large zones instead of a large number of small zones. Each zone is instanced and you can select the instance when you change zones (which doesn't happen often cause you'll usually spend a ton of time doing all the missions in the zone you are in). So no worries about whether you have a character on the same server as this friend or that friend. Just get on, find where your friends are and join them.


The tank-mage aspects aren't as bad as all of that IMO. You gain access to the more powerful abilities faster by picking powers within your own framework, but that's the only negative to picking powers outside. Um... You're also a darn superhero! There's definitely different approaches to the game and to combat. Maybe not as complex as many MMOs, but still there. You only get so many selections for defenses in your build, no matter what powers you have access to (can only run X number of powers of different types at a time), so you kinda have to decide if you can just take damage well, or heal it fast, or reflect it back at opponents, or whatever.


There's enough variation in powers and slotted bonuses to keep my interest, at least for awhile. Honestly, in some ways there's more variation than CoH. You find dropped items which fit into slots on your character which can pretty significantly modify the stats and abilities you have. So it's not as simple as picking your powers either.


I don't know if I like it *more* that CoH. But it's certainly easier to just hop on, play for a bit and hop off. Of course, it's pretty addictive once you're playing. The game tends to keep throwing stuff at you making you think. Ok, I'll quit after finishing this mission. Ok, now I'll quit after turning in this thingie I got. Hmmmm... Alright, let me go level up and see what new powers I have. Gee.... I've got to test this mini-gun out!


It's fun and not quite as mindless as I thought it would be.
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#4 Sep 01 2009 at 1:06 PM Rating: Excellent
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Yes, but how's the character creation?

That's pretty much all I did in CoH.

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#5 Sep 01 2009 at 1:29 PM Rating: Excellent
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Samira wrote:
Yes, but how's the character creation?

That's pretty much all I did in CoH.

I'm sure Gbaji will respond but the short answer is (again, hearsay) "Better and worse".

Pros include more sliders allowing for things like hand length, asymmetric costuming (a pattern on one glove, for instance), options for holsters, sheathes, etc and a crapload of robot/bestial options.

Cons include faces that are really hard to make decent looking, a lack of good "human" options for those who don't want to play as a furry or robot, missing pattern options (a "superfire" pattern for legs and gloves but not for boots, chest or arms) and an incredible lack of parts organization.

I realize you're asking tongue-in-cheek but figured I'd answer in case Neph gives a damn.

Edited, Sep 1st 2009 4:29pm by Jophiel
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#6 Sep 01 2009 at 1:39 PM Rating: Excellent
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Actually I wasn't. Smiley: laugh

I'm not gonna spend money on it but if I did, I would pretty much do what I did in CoH: create a character with loving care, play her for 15 or so levels, delete and start over. And over. And over.

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#7 Sep 01 2009 at 2:06 PM Rating: Excellent
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That's what I did. Then I got a character into the 30's and realized there was more to CoH than Hellions and Lost.

Like Malta. Motherfuckin' Malta. Smiley: mad
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#8 Sep 01 2009 at 2:09 PM Rating: Good
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Jophiel wrote:

Like Malta. Motherfuckin' Malta. Smiley: mad


Nothing wrong with Malta! I was born in Malta, I'll have you know.....
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#9 Sep 01 2009 at 2:30 PM Rating: Decent
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I've always given a damn about you Joph. Your responses complete my Zam experience.
#10 Sep 01 2009 at 2:36 PM Rating: Decent
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Oh, and Potbs totally rocks my socks now. You should go buy it. The new spacebar cannon dance is redefining this modern day classic.
#11 Sep 01 2009 at 3:04 PM Rating: Excellent
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You could always read the in depth preview we did for ZAM.com! :P

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=19452
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#12 Sep 01 2009 at 3:24 PM Rating: Excellent
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NephthysWanderer wrote:
Oh, and Potbs totally rocks my socks now. You should go buy it.

Yeah, I'm all over that.

Actually, if someone (who I actually know on here) wants a free month of City of Heroes, I can hook someone up. I once bought a discounted copy of City of Villains but, since I had already used a CoV Collector's Edition key, it wouldn't let me stack the codes for another free month of gameplay. Upshot being that I have an unused City of [Blank] code lying about. I only spent $6.00 on the game so I'm willing to give it away to someone who I figure isn't a total pud.

No obligations... if you hate it, stop playing.
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#13 Sep 01 2009 at 4:10 PM Rating: Decent
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Tamat Damat wrote:
You could always read the in depth preview we did for ZAM.com! :P

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=19452


I come for the pithy humor. The rest of the site is ******


And my dream that a prince of a pickle will return on his pumpkin mount.
#14 Sep 01 2009 at 4:17 PM Rating: Good
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Jophiel wrote:
NephthysWanderer wrote:
Oh, and Potbs totally rocks my socks now. You should go buy it.

Yeah, I'm all over that.

Actually, if someone (who I actually know on here) wants a free month of City of Heroes, I can hook someone up. I once bought a discounted copy of City of Villains but, since I had already used a CoV Collector's Edition key, it wouldn't let me stack the codes for another free month of gameplay. Upshot being that I have an unused City of [Blank] code lying about. I only spent $6.00 on the game so I'm willing to give it away to someone who I figure isn't a total pud.

No obligations... if you hate it, stop playing.


Someone should jump on this. Joph is a great healer.

No. Really.
#15 Sep 01 2009 at 4:37 PM Rating: Decent
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I think it is an appropriate place to say Disney bought out Marvel.

pve is SO last month....
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#16 Sep 01 2009 at 4:44 PM Rating: Good
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Elinda wrote:


pve is SO last month....


I suck at PVP. And I don't care for it.
#17 Sep 01 2009 at 5:35 PM Rating: Excellent
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Only PvP I ever found worth playing was in LoTRO. Then they fucked that up.
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#18 Sep 01 2009 at 5:36 PM Rating: Decent
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Jophiel wrote:
Like Malta. Motherfuckin' Malta.


Haha! What? You don't like Sappers, and stun guns, and freeze guns all at the same time? Sheesh!

One of the great pros of the character creation in Champions is that there are more color selections per location and you can view changes live. Basically, you select one of the 5 colors each location might have and as you mouse over the colors the image of your character reflects the changes. This is a vast improvement over the CoH method of making a change, then looking at the character. Nope, that's not quite right, try again. Opps. On that location, this color affects that bit. Drat! I changed the pattern and I want the colors reversed, etc...

I've typically found that color and pattern selection in CoH was very time consuming, so I usually stuck to simple color schemes, tended to copy them across the entire character, and usually stuck with similar or identical patterns on each location. With Champions, its so much easier to see what your changes will look like right there that I found myself actually taking the time to customize a bit more.

Joph is right that the inconsistency in selections in each location is annoying. I was making an armored guy, but the names for a "tech armor" look on each location varied wildly. I ended up just trying a zillion things to see how they looked. Which is fun, but it would have been more fun if the names allowed me to make a more informed choice about how they'd fit with selections I'd made in other locations. I don't mind trying a bunch of combinations, but the process was a bit more hunt and peck than I wanted.


Oh. And I did try PvP. Basically got my butt spanked pretty thoroughly, but that's to be expected. You can do a lot of customization of characters in Champions, even beyond power selection. My guy's mostly designed with AE damage in mind. There's just nothing wrong with firing off a barrage of mini-missiles (which is kind of like an AE DoT, hitting in four waves), and following it up with a mini-gun spray into the same group. That's great for taking out spawns of NPCs, but not so useful in PvP. I also discovered that they start you in the arena with all your extra clickies set as though they'd just been activated. So my "once every 15 minute forcefield of 20 second invulnerability" which I have slotted was kinda useless. And since it was, I effectively lost a primary utility slot which could have been used to add to my defenses and my stats (And these can be pretty big bonuses).


That's actually one of the neato things about the game. In addition to picking powers, stats, talents, perks, and advantages, throughout the game you'll pick up, be rewarded with, or craft various items. They come in three flavors: Offense, Defense, and Utility. Each of those can be primary or secondary. You have slots on your character for one primary and two secondaries of each of those three areas (so nine slots). These each typically have some defense points (like AC) and some stats. The amounts increase as the level of the item increases (you can only slot items your level or lower, and you tend to get drops and rewards of the same level as the stuff you're fighting). Collectively, this forms most of your normal defenses and a good portion of your total stats.

Based on what you put in those slots you can significantly affect how many hps your character has, your chance to critical, your ability to resist effects, whether or not you can pick up and throw barrel or a tank, etc. Some of them have additional power effects. Sometimes, they modify existing powers (but somehow I've managed to not find a single one which matched any of the powers I have). Some of them have always on defensive effects (like a minor HOT when you take damage, or a minor damage effect which hit anyone who attacks you). Sometimes, they give you an additional power to use. Those usually have a timer on them. So you can use the uber ghost bullet gun once every 5 minutes maybe, or the super forcefield every 15 minutes. The latter two usually come at the expense of significant amounts of defense and stats.


I'm still learning all the ins and outs, but I am having fun. We'll see if I'm still interested in a month or two. I think a lot of the staying power of the game will be based on how the end game content works (and the whole "pick your own arch enemy" thing seems promising) and how much new content they're able to add. Right now, the stories and missions are pretty set (at least up until the mid teens), and each zone will tend to have a set of missions at any given level range which will run out if you just run through them. Presumably, if you come back at a higher level, there may be more missions to run (I'm positive of this in fact). I suppose that's good, since it does force you to move from one area to another every few levels. I'm just not sure how many paths there are to follow. So far it looks like three maximum, and that choice only starts at around 8th or 9th level. It's basically about which order you choose to do the missions in a given zone, and so far, I've only seen three zones.


We'll see...
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King Nobby wrote:
More words please
#19 Sep 01 2009 at 5:38 PM Rating: Good
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paulsol wrote:
Jophiel wrote:

Like Malta. Motherfuckin' Malta. Smiley: mad


Nothing wrong with Malta! I was born in Malta, I'll have you know.....


The girl I'm staying with right now is Maltese.
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Turin wrote:
Seriously, what the f*ck nature?
#20 Sep 01 2009 at 5:59 PM Rating: Decent
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Annabella, Goblin in Disguise wrote:
paulsol wrote:
Jophiel wrote:

Like Malta. Motherfuckin' Malta. Smiley: mad


Nothing wrong with Malta! I was born in Malta, I'll have you know.....


The girl I'm staying with right now is Maltese.


Does she own a falcon?

c'mon, you set that one up...
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King Nobby wrote:
More words please
#21 Sep 01 2009 at 7:24 PM Rating: Good
Gurue
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gbaji wrote:
Annabella, Goblin in Disguise wrote:
paulsol wrote:
Jophiel wrote:

Like Malta. Motherfuckin' Malta. Smiley: mad


Nothing wrong with Malta! I was born in Malta, I'll have you know.....


The girl I'm staying with right now is Maltese.


Does she own a falcon?

c'mon, you set that one up...


Yes, but the falcon's not into threesomes. Sorry.
#22 Sep 01 2009 at 8:25 PM Rating: Excellent
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gbaji wrote:
This is a vast improvement over the CoH method of making a change, then looking at the character. Nope, that's not quite right, try again. Opps. On that location, this color affects that bit. Drat! I changed the pattern and I want the colors reversed, etc...

I have no dog in the CoX/CO thing and figure they're different enough that there's room for both. But I have no idea what your criticism is supposed to be here.
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#23 Sep 01 2009 at 9:13 PM Rating: Decent
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PotBS? I played the beta, but gave up when it went live. Too much contention over the economy system. Always thought about going out to get it.
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we all know liberals are well adjusted american citizens who only want what's best for society. While conservatives are evil money grubbing scum who only want to sh*t on the little man and rob the world of its resources.
#24 Sep 02 2009 at 7:25 AM Rating: Decent
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Debalic wrote:
PotBS? I played the beta, but gave up when it went live. Too much contention over the economy system. Always thought about going out to get it.


Because you are most likely poor, save your money. The game is crap.
#25 Sep 02 2009 at 7:52 AM Rating: Decent
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NephthysWanderer wrote:
Debalic wrote:
PotBS? I played the beta, but gave up when it went live. Too much contention over the economy system. Always thought about going out to get it.


Because you are most likely poor, save your money. The game is crap.

Um, why do you say that? Because I'm a Democrat?

I guess I missed the sarcasm in your earlier post.
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publiusvarus wrote:
we all know liberals are well adjusted american citizens who only want what's best for society. While conservatives are evil money grubbing scum who only want to sh*t on the little man and rob the world of its resources.
#26 Sep 02 2009 at 8:48 AM Rating: Decent
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Debalic wrote:
NephthysWanderer wrote:
Debalic wrote:
PotBS? I played the beta, but gave up when it went live. Too much contention over the economy system. Always thought about going out to get it.


Because you are most likely poor, save your money. The game is crap.

Um, why do you say that? Because I'm a Democrat?

I guess I missed the sarcasm in your earlier post.


More because you are a loser.

The spacebar cannon dance describes the ship battles, which consisted primarily of circling the other ships and pressing spacebar to fire your cannon as fast as possible.
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