Category: City of Heroes/Villains

[City of Villains] I am finding City of Villains to be quite a bit more fun than City of Heroes and I wanted to get a grasp on some of the possible reasons why. So I listed out some things I liked to see where it leads me.

1. New game: This one is simple; it is a new game and that brings all that is associated with it. Most every MMO seems fun during the learning phase. New shiny and all that.

2. Interesting settings: By this I mean the look and feel of the surroundings. While much of them are destroyed, the cities are filled with variety. Slums, docks, rubble, grafitti, etc. Haven’t really seen anything like it before.

Continue reading Villains Have More Fun?

[City of Villains] Since I was complaining about City of Villains problems last week, I thought I should mention that I am having fun. Ultimately, that is the standard by which I will judge the game, so the verdict remains positive.

I have mostly been playing my Dark Blast/Thermal Radiation Corruptor. Welcome to the life of a class other than the Mastermind and Stalker.

Continue reading Corrupt Bargain

[City of Villains] I know that City of Villains had a beta test. I was in the tail end of it. So why am I filing a bug report at least once an hour?

A quick tour through bugs and oddities in the course of one level:

Continue reading City of Annoying Bugs

[City of Villains] Good lord, my teams have been getting rocked this week. Not that everyone is hitting the hospital, but we have been a lot less successful than during that pre-release weekend. I think that Lackeys are the main reason.

“Lackey” is the CoV word for a CoH “sidekick.” If you don’t know the system, it means that a lower level character can tag along with you, with their numbers ratcheted up to about your level. They do not get new powers or enhancements, but they are otherwise treated as a higher level character. Obviously, a sidekick or lackey is not as good as someone of the appropriate level. Having more or better powers is good. If you want to play with your friends, however, it is the next best thing.

Continue reading Lower Level Lackeys

[City of Villains] The biggest problem I had settling in to City of Heroes (and now City of Villains) is that I have a hard time settling on a concept for a player I can really get wrapped up in. This has lead to many characters, but none I really play often.

This morning I came up with a concept for a villain and it really took hold. I already had made a character with the name I wanted so I knew that I would be able to use that name by deleting the character first.

I had some time before work so I logged in and deleted the name holder. Then I started creating my new character. It spent a little extra time getting the costume just right. And finally I was ready.

Continue reading Frustration

[City of Heroes] Time to poke fun at the developers. Geko has had this signature on the forums for the past year or so:

This is Rumor Control – Accuracy has not been nerfed! It is still 75% to hit target unless the power says otherwise, there are buff/debuffs used, or the target is not your level.

Today, new board friend Castle posted this:

Accuracy: Base accuracy for Hero v. Hero in Warburg seems to be floating around 50%. Due to the nature of the equation, this is a serious defense against anyone who does not have +to-hit buffs, and a minimal defense against those who do have such buffs. This does not trouble me, as the resist based sets offer little-to-no mitigation in many cases now, so balance is not implicated. But is that 50% number an ‘intended condition’, that we can expect to see propigating throughout PvP? Or is it a bug?

We’ve reduced base To Hit from 75% to 50% for PvP purposes. This change was made to give Defense sets more effectiveness. With the ED changes, coupled with the prevalence of +To Hit buffs it was necessary.

Woo, stealth nerf on Accuracy! *poke poke* *Tee hee hee*

: Zubon

[City of Villains] I felt like going on a walkabout over lunch time so I decided to check out the brand new music/software/appliance store right by my work. It was big, make no doubt about it. Too big.

I wandered down the CD aisles and then the DVD aisles, nothing meeting my fancy.

Talked to some people called “Assistant Shoppers”, who it seems will hang out with you while you shop, imparting great wisdom at will. I told them I can handle shopping all by my self, thank you.

Continue reading What Just Happened?

[City of Heroes] I got an email from yet another old high school friend that is playing City of Heroes. That, combined with *another* day of queues and lag inspired me to quit World of Warcraft (again!). Not that cancelling my account was easy, the WoW website was not responding for most of the evening.

So I patched up CoH, which took two hours while I watched some Monday Night Football. I will reactivate my account the next time I have time to play. No real interest in City of Villains at this time. (Spoke too soon.)

EVE Online will continue, as I have such gloriously evil plans in store there. Well, maybe not *evil* really, I just want to fly around in an invisible ship (ala WonderWoman) and spy on stuff.

– Ethic

[City of Villains] The NDA for City of Villains is gone, so anyone who was looking for info about it may now be successful. The most amusing comment I’ve seen to date is, “You know everything you wanted them to do with COH? They did that with COV.” The most interesting info I’ve seen to date is this, which is Hero Planner with the COV powers instead of COH powers – not pretty, but it works. I have no idea if that thing is up to date, though.

So if anyone who has been testing it wants to say something, consider it an open comments thread. Oh, and I hear good things about COV inherent powers, so feel free to mention those if you know them. :)

: Zubon

[City of Heroes] Buckle in, this is going to be a long one. Let us start with the digression immediately so it does not distract us later.

Many have observed that World of Warcraft is a different game at high and low levels. At low levels, things move quickly, you can solo easily, you gain new abilities all the time, and there are more quests than you can complete. It is a lot like City of Heroes. At high levels, it is Everquest. You spend a lot of time waiting/organizing large groups for instanced raids, during which several people will get to roll for a chance at a piece of improved loot.

City of Heroes faces a rather different dichotomy between high and low levels.

Continue reading A Tale of Two Games