Category: City of Heroes/Villains

[City of Villains] My SG discovered the three key elements:

• Play on a team with competent, complementary players
• Use AE debuffs and damage
• Have a reckless disregard for your own survival

Continue reading How to Level Quickly in City of Villains

[City of Heroes] The Platonic ideal of the grind has nearly been perfected: once a minute, you click on a door; enemies run out; you beat them up; repeat until you get a badge.

Trick or treating is cute, with some nice little rewards, and it is fun … for a while. I respect the direct implementation of “push the button to get a pellet.”

Continue reading CoX Holiday Event: Trick or Treat

[City of Heroes] I promised I would have a few words after the CoX free reactivation weekend. I played less than I might have hoped, due to travel and a LAN party, but here are ruminations as they strike me at 3:00am.

Quick version before the break: it’s a fun game when you can play it.

Continue reading A Few More Days in the City

[City of Heroes] Their poor, hammered update servers. I will be able to connect someday. With any luck, this will be the party that the last free weekend should have been, relatively bug-free. I was just thinking of re-subscribing anyway! Good timing, except for that LAN party this weekend.

Since I am getting a little free playtime, I will give them a little free press. The first thing is that CoX will soon be introducing Veteran Rewards, stuff you get for having subscribed for a while. This includes wings, trenchcoats, and other mostly decorative touches. My special pre-order glowie-Sprint will no longer be quite as special. The other is that they are pimping the new combined CoH/CoV game, available only at Wal-Mart.

If you have an old account, see if you can log on. If you have never tried it, the “Good Versus Evil Edition” is a cheap way to try both. I will have nice things to say about it all next week, most likely.

: Zubon

[City of Heroes] This weekend, City of Heroes/Villains is doubling experience gains for 60 hours (also prestige and influence/infamy). [discussion thread, I have not read it all] As a player, I do not need a reason for free candy, but having an interest in development and economics, I wonder why this is happening. The official “why” of “This is a special thank you, because we really do appreciate you all-through the thick and thin” is meaningless (sorry).

Would it be good for the game to have twice-as-fast leveling, but for some reason this is only good for the game for one weekend? The most likely reason is to recruit some re-subscriptions, since an e-mail went out to all current and former subscribers; this could work better than that free weekend. Is there a reason to want to get a great many players logged on at once, beyond the usual? It could be hard to set any records on a big convention weekend. Any relation to recent NCSoft financial issues?

Feel free to comment on the subject, or how subscribers’ incentives would differ under constant double-xp, periodic (power hour/day), or occasionally-by-random-announcement. I think that predictable incentives lose much of the impact here.

: Zubon

[City of Heroes] All changes to the game are done for a reason. Changes cannot happen on their own, so someone must consciously implement them. Today’s puzzle for you: why was the following change made?

All Confusion effects are now stripped from a character when they zone.

Answer after the break.

Continue reading Now Testing in the Training Room

[City of Villains] Many former City of Heroes/Villains players were invited back for a free weekend of play, not that Issue 7 is out. My verdict from the test server: “Once all the major bugs are worked out, this will be exciting.”

Having had several days to play with it, my new verdict: “Once all the major bugs are worked out, this will be exciting.”

Continue reading CoX Free Weekend

[City of Villains] Issue 7 seems to have some of the best CoX content to date, judging by comments from the test server. All the comments I have made about Striga Isle and thematically flavorful contacts are borne out in spades.

The new contacts include your signature archvillains with their brands of infamy, a mad scientist to improve on Doc Buzzsaw, a personal sort of evil in the mold of Peter Themari, a strike force against the Freedom Phalanx and Vindicators, and a mission with a hand-designed team of hero bosses. (Sorry if those names are unfamiliar to folks who have not played CoV.)

Continue reading Upcoming in Issue 7

[City of Villains] We conclude Shiny Happy Week with the follow-up to yesterday’s post, the other side of our superhero game. Does it merit it’s own write-up? It is a standalone game, and I have more hours playing it than whatever the next MMO down the list would have been, so yes. We can talk about the things that City of Villains does uniquely that City of Heroes does not (or does not yet, or did not at CoV release, etc.). Also, I have remembered a couple of other things I wanted to note about City of Heroes, so flip over there to see my love for the sidekick/exemplar system.

I have, of course, written quite a lot about City of Villains, since I have been KTR’s lone representative there. New game, exciting things, so I have had various things to say here, here, here, here, and here, and those are the varieties of “CoV is pretty cool” posts. So you can look at those to see some things I have enjoyed.

Continue reading Some Things City of Villains Did/Does Right

[City of Heroes] Cast your eyes upon Paragon City, a place devastated by interdimensional war but filled with the hope of a thousand heroes. The strange magic and science of the place have birthed a collection of heroes and villains, and others from around the world flock there to conquer or protect this seat of superheroic power.

I started blogging at Kill Ten Rats with City of Heroes, and you may have noticed it as my most frequent topic. It has been my usual game these past two years, although my account lapses today so I will be on break. What is it about City of Heroes that has brought me so much entertainment?

[edit: added comments on the sidekick/exemplar system below the break]

Continue reading Some Things City of Heroes Did/Does Right