AmazingMOO

Quite some time ago, I posted that I felt like special events had become too common. At the time, I was talking about the Rikti invasion event, but also mentioned the fact that it was quite possible to have 4 Death Surges up, or multiple Luscas.

Some changes have been made to the game since, such as making it impossible for there to be more than one Lusca up at a time, but it's still a bit of a problem.

This Halloween highlights this issue as it applies to the (relatively) newer Halloween events. I've been playing on Victory this year, and despite the fact that the server seems VERY active, in part due to issue 19 and its related expansion, there is almost NO interest in the Zombie Apocalypse or Deadly Apocalypse (Banner) events.

The Banner event is... well... not bad, but it's not the best event in City of Heroes. It's certainly not something you can just hop in and enjoy. It's an impromptu trial, really, that requires coordination, leadership, and a certain critical mass of players to get going. Likewise, too many players can swamp the event, but if you DO have too many players, it's relatively easy to simply do multiple events in order to get the badges associated.

And, like the Rikti and Zombie invasions, it can happen pretty frequently, due to being tied to in-game taskforces. Despite really looking, I've only seen one group get together for it. Everyone else is more interested in the 'hop in and go' Trick-or-Treating and the new tip mission.

The Zombie invasion, while more popular than the Banner event, is still subject to the same disinterest. IT doesn't require a lot in the way of coordination, but players are more likely to simply take off than stay and fight, especially if they perceive that there's no 'critical mass' necessary to allow one or more groups to stand their ground against the invasion. It, too, is tied to taskforces, making it something that's more of an annoyance than a real threat or special treat.

Frankly, these events are so painfully common that the 'critical mass' necessary to enjoy them is uninterested.

They, and the Rikti Invasion, need to be much more rare.

My suggestions are to significantly decrease the number of times the event occurs outside the holiday events-- maybe by as much as 80 percent. The task forces that trigger the event should only do so maybe 1 in 5 times.

Second, the Banner event in particular should be limited to a much lower number of zones, both during and outside of the holiday events. I suggest Atlas, Talos, Peregrine Island, Port Oakes, Cap au Diable, Grandville, and Nova Praetoria. Not only does this concentrate players and make it more likely to have a 'Critical Mass', but it also removes the severe difficulty players have in reaching the more distant objectives in zones like Independence Port.

It's worth noting that the events people are most interested in doing are not necessarily the newest. Along with the new tip missions, groups have been Trick or Treating and dropping the Halloween versions of Jack and Eochai like anything. The real difference is that these activities are NOT available the rest of the year.

I'm probably going to buy the new origins pack. The seller for me was the leaf aura. It'll be used for my character, Iron Rose, a Science-origin MA/Regen scrapper whose induced mutation causes her cells to each generate a tiny, cumulative healing aura.

Accordingly, she's supposed to have achieved something of a fertility spirit vibe from the opposite side of the nature origin that would suggest. She's supposed to have fecund feet-- she is so fertile that grass and flowers grow where she walks.

Most of the auras existing now can be attached to the eyes, head, fists, or the entire body. However, very few of them can be attached ONLY to the feet. I assume that this will be the same for the new auras in the upcoming pack.

I've run into many cases where I'd like to attach one of the auras to my characters' feet or legs rather the top half of their body. This is usually not possible. For the upcoming auras, and even for existing auras, it would be really nice if they could be anchored lower rather than higher.

It's not 'All You Zombies', one of the stories responsible for giving Heinlein his reputation for kinkiness.

The main character, a hermaphrodite, is both his own mother and father, as well as the person who introduced them via the magic of time travel.

In EQ, a lot of the sizes were arbitrary. Wood elves stood about half the height of Vah Shir catmen. Gnomes stood about half as high as wood elves. A lot of the look of the game was just as arbitrary. Players could choose to load high-poly models or stick with lower-poly models that were much more blocky and stick-figure-like.

Accordingly, the idea of summoning a wolf companion or a spectre that was very tiny didn't seem the strangest bit out of place, especially when you were tooling around the tight corners of the Soulesk mines, which had been dug by gnomes. A tiny little dinosaur (chokodai, iirc?) could actually be much more effective than a huge tiger in those pits due to it not getting stuck as easily.

CoH, on the other hand is defined by appearance. The costume creator is one of, if not the most, important aspects of the game. The visual appearance of players and enemies is vastly more important to the feel of the game. It'd be hard, in some cases, to justify having comedicially small pets when the look and feel of the game is at stake.

That's not true in all cases. Imagine a Bots mastermind who's anchored his forcefield casting tools to small 'scooter'-type machines to wheel in and around of his more combat-oriented mecha. While the effectiveness would likely not change from the standard leiutenant-grade protector bots, the aesthetic 'feel' of such a character would be more like a 'point defense' system rather than a 'overlapping bubbles' system.

Animation would be a problem, as would AI, if the robots were to move in a dramatically different pattern. The aesthetic would not necessarily be bad, however.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to play an EQ necromancer. I was a rare breed of raid-necro who, unlike many, used my abilities to support groups and raid parties rather than exclusively solo, as many necros did.

One of the utilities that made EQ pet classes easier to play on raids and in groups was the ability to shrink-- first confined to Shamans' spells, but then spread throughout the game to other classes and via potions and crafted items. Necromancers like myself, among the other pet classes, greeted the 'Minimize Pet' spells with great happiness. They virtually eliminated calls to 'Get your pet out of the way!' in groups and raids.

Chatting with a good friend tonight, he admitted to me that this was one of his big complaints when grouping with masterminds-- getting stuck behind or not being able to reach the enemies for having lots of pets in the way. I admitted that this was a big concern to me as well, especially when I played my Robot/Force-field mastermind. It's easy for a group of bots to block off a room. I've seen demon summoners run into much the same problem.

There are some problems with shrinking your pets. First off, a good mastermind can use the bulk of his pets to shield him and his squishier teammates from melee attacks. When the enemies can't get around your bots, they can't hit you. Shrinking the pets to allow players to get around them more easily would have the negative effect of allowing enemies to get around them more easily as well.

Second, there are game engine limitations that would need to be taken into account before shrinking any NPC beyond the current limits. In the case of pets, the AI scripts might require lots of work.

Finally, there's a lot of aesthetic appeal to having huge pets. There's not a lot more intimidating than having a large robot or demon loom over you. By comparison, a waist high robot isn't terribly threatening. It's comedic.

All that said, if you could shrink your pets for use on teams, would you?

The i19 info indicates that some serious changes are coming to the way characters are slotted. There has already been and will continue to be lots of discussion on how these mechanics affect characters.

One of the more interesting aspects of having swift and hurdle inherent is that it will become very slightly easier to reach the various speed caps for travel powers.

This raises the question on why we have those speed caps in the first place.

The first reason is that it's difficult for the map server to deal with characters zooming around at an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound. Players with Super Speed or even Super Leaping can attest first hand that it sometimes takes a second or two for the game to spawn enemies for them as they're crossing a zone. When many players are moving through a zone very rapidly, the map server often lags a bit. For example, during the Pylon phase of Rikti Mothership raids, you can watch the game slow down and speed up somewhat as players travel between Pylons. It's easier to see if you have your netgraph up, especially if you have framerate issues when 40-50 players are attacking a Pylon around you.

The definitive place one can watch this is the third mission of the Imperious task force. Send a single player with Super Speed or Super Jump up the hill while everyone else waits at the hill area and watch your netgraph. So much happens in response to players moving through the zone that the mapserver can barely keep up.

The second reason for the speed caps is that it becomes rather difficult for some video and CPU setups to keep up with the rapidly changing terrain. Some players refuse Super Speed simply because it gives them severe framerate issues as they zip through a zone. This is more of an issue in newer zones due to the higher polycount and weighter texture filesizes. It takes more floating point muscle to move those guys around than it does in the 'simpler' older zones.

However, it's been more than half a decade since the game was first released. Both game and server hardware have become more powerful. The Imperious taskforce is an edge case, simply due to its map design.

Assuming the game servers could handle it in most cases, if NCSoft devs were to move the speed caps so that you could fully enhance your travel powers to the Enhancement Diversification limits, would YOU be able to take advantage of it? Or are you limited by your current computer setup?

I have an nVidia 9400. Without any of the Ultra-mode goodies turned on, I start running into FPS issues with Superspeed capped, or when I am rapidly falling.

I've found a few people who agree with me that the writing in Praetoria, especially around the ethical choices the game 'allows' you to make, is pretty weak. I've also found a current of feelings that most of the morality missions are pretty weak, with the villainous mission being outright stupid.

Frostfire as the god of all that's good and right with the world? Seriously?

Unless you're playing pure 'Chaotic Evil' or 'Lawful Stupid', MOST of the morality choices introduced with Issue 18 put you on a narrow set of rails with so little room for personal character development that it's frustrating. Especially in Praetoria, the 'Shades of Grey' offered are 'Black', 'Off-Black', 'Mostly Black', 'Really ******* death black slaughter tango', '#000000', and 'Fuschia'.

But I've tread here before. Rather than more criticism of the writing, I'll offer situations where the ethical choice I *wanted* to make was simply unavailable:

In 'Acts of Desperation', the first arc that has you fighting Resistance on a suicide mission, I wanted the option to explicitly knock out Resistance Leader Ford before he tried to kill himself.

In 'My Choice', given by Ricochet, you're given the choice to help or not help Rothstein, who's suicidal and doesn't want help, escape the gas bombs. You're not allowed however, to knock out or drag out the PPD before gassing the facility, which is what I'd have chosen to do.

There are several places in Hatchet's arc that ask you go in to the 'Super-black-slaughter-fest-Kill-o-Rama-3000' territory. Feeding live humans to the ghouls is a good example. Yet, despite the horror of the arc, there's NO PLACE AT ALL to turn around and bust Hatchet, Vagabond, or Wardog for what they're doing. This would make an ideal place to drop out of the Resistance and join the Loyalists, but there's no choice given.

In the finale of Cleopatra's arc, you're given the choice to kill either Cleopatra or Washington. There's no option to knock both of them out, which is what I'd have liked.

In Interrogator Kang's arc, you're sent to arrest Cutter Cain, only to find out his true identity and motives. This would make an ideal time for players to defect from the Loyalists to the Resistance, but the choice to let Cutter Cain go free to continue his work is never given.

What ethical choices would you have made in the game if it let you?

For a lot of people, the costume creator isn't the most important part of the game. It IS the game. The costume makes the character, period.

That said, it always seems to this kind of player that costumes get short shift when compared to other aspects of the game. I could go into some recent discussions based on what kind of goodies were offered with the 'Party Pack', but instead, I'll discuss what kind of goodies were offered with the 'Going Rogue' expansion. We got a half dozen 'suits' of futuristic armor. These are great pieces, but don't really change the way that people can wear costumes. Frankly the more generic pieces offered with the Magic, Science, and Ninja super-boosters seem to find their way into more costumes.

I have a suggestion for NCSoft to both expand the amount of generic costume pieces available while, at the same time, making it profitable and drawing more people to the game world.

"City of Civilians"

Now wait. I know what it sounds like. Hear me out.

What's the most popular use of the internet these days besides gaming?

Okay, yes, the 'P-word', but aside from that?

Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are currently the 'Killer App'. People seem to crave online social interaction and go to great lengths to explore what's new. They share info, personal news, and play social games.

There's a LOT of that built into any given MMO. On top of that, 'City of' layers on top of that the most creative character creation system ever built.

So build a few new areas that are primarily targeted at 'civilian' players. Shopping areas where you can put your credit-card in to get real goodies. Include some basic games, like card games, collection games, or the like. Court sellers and advertisers. Make a 'Free to download/Free to play' type 'City of' account where prospective players can make a few characters-- 4 to 6, maybe, use a limited selection of 'civilian appropriate' costume options, and set them loose.

Add a calendaring system and basic 'Latest Info' posting system, and sell it as a social media system. Heck. You could even include a rotating banner ad into the client, since it's 'Free'.

Now, if any of these civilians wander into the 'combat' areas of Paragon City, the Rogue Isles, or Praetoria, they're warned ahead of time that dangerous super-powered criminals might attack them. They also get a button to instantly teleport them back to 'safe' areas if they feel too put upon. Heroes get 'real' civilians to save. Villains get 'real' civilians to accost. NCSoft gets to show off all the super-powered goodness of 'City of' for free, to customers who are already paid for by advertisers and can allow them to upgrade to 'City of Heroes/Villains' for a fee. They also get a new, entirely voluntary way of showing advertising and online sales venues to existing customers by allowing paid heroes and villains to wander into the 'free' areas.

The extra money can be funneled into providing more costume options for both the civilians and supers.

Now the BIG PROBLEM with this scenario is that NCSoft has already dropped the ball in a HUGE way with their optional in-game advertising system. NO Ads show up after the initial run of sports drinks and shoes. If they were going to make such an advertiser supported system work, they'd have to get back on top of that ball and not drop it again. I'm not sure that's entirely doable.

Tip-name: "A Familiar-sounding APB"

You turn on the police scanner to hear an All Points Bulletin containing the description of a young man wanted for stealing an artifact from the MAGI Vault using credentials belonging to Azuria. From the description of the item stolen, you know at once that it's likely part of the fabled Wheel of Destruction. No doubt heroes and villains alike are scrambling to recover the artifact.


Vigilante: Your eye twitches at the mention of Azuria's name. The woman's ineptitude is infamous. She wouldn't know magical potential if it punched her in the face. Powerful magic items have been stolen from the MAGI Vault repeatedly on her watch. She is truly a menace and must be stopped.

You know that the perp who stole from the Magi vault is liable to get exactly what's coming to him. However, you also happen to know that the Wheel's full potential can't be unleashed without its hub, which is reportedly in the hands of a responsible hero. It's an ideal time to gather evidence of Azuria's incompetence and permanently discredit her.

Head to the last known location of the thief and look for evidence to discredit Azuria.


Hero: Your eye twitches at the mention of Azuria's name. The woman's ineptitude is infamous. She wouldn't know magical potential if it punched her in the face. Powerful magic items have been stolen from the MAGI Vault repeatedly on her watch. She is truly a menace and must be stopped.

However, you know that the perp who stole from the Magi vault is liable to be torn apart by at least two different villain groups, if not more, intent on seizing the artifact. He's richly earned his fate, but you should save him anyway. You should also recover the stolen piece of the Wheel of Destruction before it falls into malicious hands.

Head to the last known location of the thief and recover the stolen artifact.


Rogue: Your nose twitches at the mention of Azuria's name. The woman's ineptitude is infamous. She wouldn't know magical potential if it punched her in the face. Powerful magic items have been stolen from the MAGI Vault repeatedly on her watch. She is truly a menace to the heroic magical community.

You happen to know that the Wheel's full potential can't be unleashed without its hub, which is reportedly in the hands of a responsible hero. It's probably more trouble than it's worth. However, those who would usually be guarding the MAGI vaults are probably tied up covering for Azuria's incompetence, leaving only a token security force in place. It's an ideal time to test the vault's security for yourself, perhaps picking up any valuable, powerful, or even fun items you happen across.

Head to the MAGI Vault and steal everything that isn't bolted down.


Villain: Your lips form into a smile at the mention of Azuria's name. The woman's ineptitude is infamous. She wouldn't know magical potential if it punched her in the face. Powerful magic items have been stolen from the MAGI Vault repeatedly on her watch. She is truly the best thing that ever happened to magical villains.

You happen to know that the Wheel's full potential can't be unleashed without its hub, which is reportedly in the hands of a responsible hero. It's probably more trouble than it's worth. Your time would be better spent on other endeavors-- such as taking advantage of the chaos caused by the theft to lay waste to any rivals or enemies in pursuit of the thief!

Head to the last known location of the thief and set up an ambush.

Thank you kindly!

I've seen a few players sporting the new bushy tail, but I'm not entirely certain where to get it. I missed the mutant pack and GR complete pack, so I'm guessing it's one of those. However, neither of the product pages mention it, and a forum search doesn't immediately turn anything up, at least with the keywords I'm using.

Is it in either one of those? Is it in another pack altogether that I have somehow missed?

Option 2.

I'd love to have the new stuff, but please DO NOT remove the old stuff.

One of the things I've seen in the various less vitriolic, accusatory comments here is a basic disagreement on what it means to 'walk the line'.

When I think of 'walking the line' between good and evil, I often think of the literary works of a certain Mister Pratchett. He presents an array of characters that consider themselves villains, heroes, or neutrals that are often butted up so firmly against 'the line' that they flinch away from it to keep from going over. When they do go over, it's usually to repair a more serious break caused by another party.

Esmerelda Weatherwax is a good example. (Yes, i could examine Sam Vimes, but I'd prefer not to draw policework into the comparison.) She considers herself to be a step or less away from going 'Black'. She resents her older sister for being the 'wicked' witch because it meant that she had to be the good witch. Yet when it comes time to really let out the badness for the cause of good, she *REALLY* enjoys it. There's a certain scene in 'Masquerade' where a group of thugs are trailing a somewhat senile old woman. Greebo, magicked to appear as a human, has sliced them to ribbons. Granny finds them after taking the old woman home, approaches them with a needle and thread and smiling, says, "Let's do some good!"

The implication is pretty clear. She sutured the critically wounded thugs with no anesthetic in a filthy back alley of one of the nastiest cities in modern literature. She saved their lives, certainly, but she also taught them in very direct terms what the pay for preying on old ladies is and ENJOYED it immensely.

THIS is a character who 'walks the line' and is defined by *her own* ethical choices rather than by reacting to someone else's.

I *wish* we could make the same kind of definition for our characters, but even with the new systems in place, the writers do not allow us to.

The first Praetorian story arc I went through was the 'Warden' arc. I decided for my second Praetorian character that I would follow the 'Responsibility' story arc, yet act as a double agent for the resistance, calling in tips to Calvin Scott as I progressed.

I progressed through Washington's arc and went on to Cleopatra's. I was....




-- SPOILERS AHEAD. TURN BACK NOW --


-- SPOILERS AHEAD. TURN BACK NOW --


-- SPOILERS AHEAD. TURN BACK NOW --






... Ahem. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she was a member of the resistance at the end of her arc. However, I was less than pleased with the moral choices presented at the end of the arc.

Calvin Scott tells you to go ahead and help Washington kill Cleopatra and then to assume her place as a deeply nested double agent. She's gotten sloppy and weak and deserves to die rather than hinder the resistance.

Washington tells you that he intends to kill Cleopatra since Marauder will simply let her out of the pokey if he arrests her.

The choices given to you at the turning point are 'Kill Washington' and 'Help Washington Carry out his Sentence', which he's already told you involves killing Miss Cleo.


Kill Cleo or Kill Washington.

For some, I'm certain, this is an acceptable choice.

The souvenir is nice enough to phrase it as a question rather than a restatement of the options provided at the end of the cutscene:

I can't find any announcements about problems with the customer service system. Does anyone know if the automatic response system or GMs abilities to receive petitions is having an issue?

Someone mentioned this last night in a global channel and I've spent some time tonight looking around on Victory...

All the civilian citizens have disappeared from Paragon City! It's a plot! Maybe by Nemesis?

Or perhaps its just a bug... Does anyone know of a known issue causing civilians to disappear?

I ran into an interesting RP issue last night.

Jaguar Strike is my i18 Stalker. He's the son of a European fertility spirit and a South American terror god. I've been working on him and his backstory since before the i17 launch. While he is a troubled young man, the trouble is due to his vast powers and the feelings of despair and isolation they cause him. The majority of those powers have been sealed by a heavenly therapist in order to help him heal from depression and detachment.

His sojourn in Praetoria to aid the resistance was also suggested by his therapist (an Archangel, no less!) as an exercise to reintegrate himself with humanity.

He was always intended to be very firmly in the 'Neutral Good' range, despite shadowy powers. His ability to kill so very easily and the fact that ability has been sealed are referenced in his bio.

A scrapper in a pickup group tried to roleplay with me last night, but just wasn't getting it. I insisted that I wasn't evil and that I'd never been a villain when he expressed reservations about grouping with one. I even tried complaining that his expectations were like those that had caused me such grief in the past.

About the only thing I didn't do was say 'Hey, look at my character info and the number of times I've switched-- See that? That's the resistance-to-Hero switch. I've never even BEEN to the Rogue Isles, thank you very much.'

Eventually, I gave up trying to RP with him, thanked the team, and called it a night.

How would you have dealt with this situation?

I took Zombie Man and Aurealis' advice and went back to find Jessica physically. She did indeed go into my contact list then and I was able to start her arc.

Some feedback for the devs:

It'd be nice to have the contacts tell you they're GOING to leave in a non-roundabout way to avoid confusion like this. Dr. Arvin hints that he's going to go with his Louis, but doesn't say 'Now we have to leave before the PPD catch up with us.'