Author: Zubon

City of Heroes is great as ever, and for those of you who like advancing one character rather than pursuing CoX’s altoholism, they have started adding alternative advancement. There is lots to do, and if you are an Achiever, the sky is the limit.

My problem is that I am an Explorer, and City of Heroes pre-dates World of Warcraft. “Been there, done that.” There are some things I have not tried, but the gameplay rarely differs all that much. It was good to come back after about a year off, but I do not have that drive to play. If my old group of friends were still there, I would enjoy the companionship amidst a familiar environment, but random people are insufficiently exciting even if I do remember some of them from back in the day. Maybe if the server were really hopping, and I could instantly get a group for anything, but that would likely mean lots of interest while I am in-game without the drive to log in.

But seriously, if you have not played, it is always a good time. Or to visit again. If you want one of those “15 days free with subscription/re-subscription” codes, I can have them send you one (or any current player can).

: Zubon

City of Heroes has made it this far with very few raids (Hamidon, Cathedral of Pain, Rikti mothership). They are adding another, the Behavioral Modification Facility, as part of the Incarnate alternate advancement system. This is currently under testing along with actual raid groups (“leagues”). Really old school raiders might be familiar with games where raids are just fights in which multiple groups are participating, with any link between the groups, raid UI, etc. City of Heroes has been run that way; everyone in the zone goes after the Hamidon. The next big update will have official raid mechanics as well as an event queuing system.

Of course, normal City of Heroes groups are eight characters, while other games have ten-character raids, so we are talking about really big fights here.

: Zubon

As in many digital places, in Paragon City, you click on doors to go through them. City of Heroes has an unusual mechanic in that it is [click to open the door and walk through it] rather than [click to open the door] and [walk through the open door]. Okay, quarter-second saved per door by combining the two, yay? Well, no: you cannot do just the second half, so if the door is open, you usually must wait for it to close so you can [click to open the door and walk through it] rather than just [walk through the open door].

This becomes notable in task forces and other full-team affairs when everyone needs to go through the same door, particularly if the door open/close animation is long. With the addition of the Weekly Strike Target, this compounds as multiple groups might be using that door. The Statesman Task Force has three missions using the same submarine door. There is a constant traffic jam around that little circle.

: Zubon

If you do not play City of Heroes, you may have found Wednesday‘s note odd: “you do not even need to tell your teammates when you [loot] one.” Why would you need to tell them? We are all familiar with loot spam in the chat window: you get a message for every piece of vendor loot and every roll from everyone in the raid on every item. Well, no, City of Heroes does not have that at all. No rolls, and you see only your own loot.

This was a conscious decision, a result of the test server. When meaningful loot was added, so were drop messages for your whole group. This would facilitate trading because you could see what others in your group are getting. This was also, by consensus, really annoying in a game with 8-character teams and enemies falling by the dozen. Other games’ implementations would let you click bodies to have all the loot spam happen at the end of combat, but City of Heroes gives you your drops instantly, no clicking, so everyone becomes that guy who is looting while you do not want pop-ups in your fight. Annoying, nigh-impossible to read/keep up with, and there might have been a faction arguing about social pressure to trade desirable drops.

You must work for drama when the game hides that kind of thing.

Personally, I rarely pay attention to even my own drops. Unless I am almost full, it does not matter until the end of the task force, when I would have time to shop, sell, craft, etc. The only drops you would want to slot immediately come at the end anyway. If I notice a good recipe set as it drops, great, but I forgot most of the names. I cheer at the pop-ups for Vanguard merits and “Incarnate Shard Bonded.” Ignorance makes downtime between events potentially exciting; I logged on for my third day back to find a purple recipe I had not noticed the night before. 60 seconds in, and it is already a great night!

: Zubon

That night went on to feature a frightfully poor PUG task force, so perhaps the purple recipe was cursed.

The Alpha Slot is effectively an enhancement that applies to all powers. The baseline enhancement (“common”) is one of four types (accuracy, damage, endurance, recharge), and improvements add other enhancements like healing, stun, defense buff, etc. Depending on your character, these higher-tier improvements may be more important than the baseline choice.

The first good design decision is the ease of creating a common Alpha enhancement. Complete a short story arc with one difficult mission to unlock the slot. Run a level 50 task force, and you will be at least 2/3 of the way to filling it. Everything level 50+ can drop Incarnate Shards, so even a solo player running missions has a chance to participate (slowly). This is the first step, everyone gets to play, and rewards encourage grouping.

By the City of Heroes drop system, every enemy makes the loot roll for every character. It is theoretically possible for one minion to drop an Incarnate Shard for everyone on a team. The odds of that on a full team are estimated at 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, so probably not, but it will happen with elite bosses or archvillains occasionally. No competition for loot rolls, and you do not even need to tell your teammates when you get one.

Another aspect I like is that, as City of Heroes typically does, these are character unlocks not inventory items. You currently have four common and eight uncommon Alpha Slot options, soon to expand with sixteen rare and eight very rare. [Update: 19.5 is live.] When you build one, your character has it, done. If you decide to switch from yellow to blue, your character can switch back to yellow later with a few clicks. It is like swapping talent trees with pre-built options. If you want to build all eight very rare options, go for it you insane completist. (There is the wrinkle that building an uncommon consumes the common you made along the way, but the only reason you would want that common back is because you are building the other uncommon. If you are a truly insane completist, you can build all eight very rares, then backfill the sixteen rares, then…)

The design problem is the clunky City of Heroes inventory system, most of which was jury-rigged after launch. Incarnate Shards are yet another variety of salvage, so it uses that window, but filling your Alpha Slot is a separate window accessed through the power window, not the crafting or enhancement window. The Incarnate power window itself has elegant tabs, but it is hidden behind that power window. If that is documented in-game, I missed it, spotting the right button while doing something else. It could also be more visible in-game how to get the Incarnate components other than combining shards.

: Zubon

Update note: we have in-game reports that using one of the new rare Alpha Slot options will cause random crashes (pets’ powers not updating to the level shift?). Updates may appear in the comments.

I re-activated City of Heroes this weekend. Issue 19 started their alternate advancement system, along with some new task forces and quality of life improvements, so I wanted to check it out. Also, they are having an Issue 19.5 with the rest of part 1 (of 10) of that alternate advancement system, so if I want to check that out, I will need to be through the first half (or else miss the wave of players going through it). It was also a double-xp weekend, but with 11 capped characters and alternate advancement available, I had limited urge to indulge in further altoholism. Okay, I took a Controller from 34 to 37, but that was easy with double-xp and rested xp.

After the stately pace of Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢, the frantic action of City of Heroes can be daunting. Continue reading Back in the City