Zortel

The actual City of zones could do with these more than Pocket D.

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Well said. This is the only problem in this game i see. Yeah you can make your own heroes in a jar which is waiting on the product line to get filled with the same old beans.

Before my two leaves the feeling you described were unbearable, i was hating everything about the game and all that silly contacts giving me same hunt X missions to lead me same old boring Warehouse/Office/Cave... map. Same style, same spawn points only different mobs.

Honestly i don't think having capes or auras on level 1 will help that either, nor having all your powers available from the start.

This is why nowadays i prefer specific missions, even they are same old missions at least i can enjoy them still (Faultline with AVs, Croatoa with red caps or Midnighters Arc with Rikti/Lost/CoT) and past my many hours on TFs.

Maybe it is not my place to say that but Zortel i think you need a break from this game... after some time you maybe will find that refreshness i found my second comeback.

Highest Regards,

Knightly

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Auras and capes at 1 probably won't help, but it'd give me some kind of straw to grasp at. I had an idea for a character, a former 5th Column member, magically empowered by the Thule Society, who defected to the CIA and joined their Omega Unit. Dark/Dark scrapper, dresses in a military-ish uniform with a trenchcoat, hat, mask and squadron goggles with glowing red eyes. I tried leveling him without the glowing red eyes, and it just felt... wrong.

Costumes are iconic. Flimsy lore justifications are just that, flimsy. They can and have changed the lore when they want because they want to.

I could just do the same old missions (Hollows > Faultline > Midnighter > Croatoa/Stirga > Random missions > RWZ/ROman place > PI), but most of the task forces with the exception of Hess, LG, States and Imperious are just like story arcs. Nothing unique about them.

Heck, the new Midnighter Arcs? Nothing unique about them I've found yet. You: get to go to a radio station to stop a woman from playing a cassette with a chaos inducing sound demon on! Cool! Oh wait, it's just another boring office map with a CoT Spectral Daemon boss using negative energy. /golfclap

CoH is instance based. And 90% of the instances and missions suck. My hopes for MA are that it will let people at least use more inventive mission maps we don't get to see, like the DE ruined office, the Hellion office, the nightclub map, outdoor missions that aren't the Kings Row or skyscraper block, but really? They'll probably release that and concentrate on new story arcs. Which are all well and good till you do them the nth time and they're still boring.

Let's take the Bonefire arc.

Stop the Gang War: Abandoned Office Block. Not really a 'Hellion hideout', is it? Where's the magical, demonic symbols? Where's the fire? Where's any of the touches you'd expect from a Hellion hideout? Where's the groups fighting? It's just another standard map with the pretend fights going on.

Take item to Azuria: Oooh, a talky deliver mission. Might as well just FedEx it.

Follow on mission: Another abandoned office building. No personal touches, no hideout, no barricades, nothing. Just the same old dull grey and brown old office map.

Take message to Athena Currie: Woo, another talkie. Why not just call her up? Or even better, why doesn't your contact if he has an important message for her?

Follow on: Skull Hideout. Which doesn't look anything like the hideout of a group who worship death and peddle Dyne. I think it's Yet Another Office Map, or maybe for variety, an abandoned Warehouse map.

Take Item to Carla Brunelli: Metahuman FedEx.

Follow up: Beat gang members up. 20 of each. Do they squeal? Yes, you get a little clue appear after 20 of each done. Why not beat Hellions up till one talks, then Skulls till one talks? Y'know, investigate. Intimidate. Interrogate.

Follow up: Cave map. Woo. Nothing special. Fake fights that make Wrestling seem credible. Or Power Rangers.

Arc over. Damp squib.

Don't get me started on Positron. Where's that TF update?

And there's tons of arcs like that. I've gone off on a tangent here, but I don't really care. It's always going to be shiney new content rather than polish the game as a whole until it gleams.

Yes, I do need a break from the game. But no other MMO takes my fancy at the moment, and I just keep hoping for something, anything to reignite that fire. We have a double XP weekend coming up and really? I don't give a damn.

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Well I'm guessing you don't find it too difficult to enjoy the game, and are happy levelling slowly.

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Actually I'm finding it increasingly difficult to with boring and samish story arcs and mission maps, flaws in the system and setting and general fatigue with roleplaying. Coming up with concepts that are then difficult or unworkable to realise then doesn't help matters, having to play for 20 levels disatisfied with the look of my character so I can get the right cape for him doesn't help.

Basically I'm in a sore, grouchy mood and fed up with the game.

Did you know that you could remove Paragon City and the Rogue Isles all together pretty much and just have the map screen with clickable contacts and mission buttons, and it wouldn't really change the gaming experience that much? It's the City of Heroes, but nothing really happens in the City areas. Just same old missions in the same old mission maps. Different text and dialogue doesn't really change defeat all in a Warehouse and defeat all in a warehouse.

So people can only glow or have flies buzzing around them or leave smoke trails if they have some cybernetic pacemaker fitted?

I'd rather have no justification than a feeble justification.

It was an amalgamation of various characters and concepts, you're not being stalked whatsoever, Eleven. :>

In 30 levels. It took me over 2 years to get to 50, leveling isn't something I do quickly. Playing with friends and roleplaying and taking my time is what I do with the game. It's not quite as bad as WoW where my character couldn't even wear a hat until his mid twenties unless I got extremely lucky with a rare drop, but still...

All I want is to be able to create a character that I like the visuals of and it fits the concept from the get go. That's all. Access to capes and auras are part of this.

Because auras as a badge of honour are just silly? The way it's presented in the mission doesn't mesh well with various types of character? Because one of the more striking things about heroes is their very look, and one of the things the game has been praised for most is the degree of character customization and variety?

Let's say I envision a character that walks around covered in perpetual fog. Steamy Mist is a bit annoying for people out of combat, so I want to walk about in a cloud of fog. But in order to do that, I have to get to level 30 to do so.

I've had friensd who's characters just needed the cape to offset their look and make them complete, making them a joy to look at in action. But you have to get up to 20 first, meaning you can't really just throw them into action straight away if you want them to look right, you have to get up to that level first.

Everyone knows it's your mom that's the cause of my current writers block.

It goes like this though, name an item of clothing that a superhero normally wears, and the answer will either be a cape, spandex or your pants on over your tights. Log into City of Heroes, where you can design your own hero with the vast and wide costume creator and... you can't actually get a cape yet. You could have a really good costume that would be great with a cape but lacklustre without, but until you hit 20 no dice.

Having Capes at level 1 means you can bring more hero ideas and costumes out from the get go, and I for one find that if I love a heroes costume, I enjoy playing them more.

Same deal with Auras.

"Sorry Human Torch, you can't actually burn yet till you prove yourself."

"I don't know who you are Caped Crusader, but you better get rid of that cape, you haven't earned the right to wear it."

"You! Stop those eyes glowing, you're not allowed to!"

The Aura and Cape level restrictions just stifle creativity when creating concepts.

You could just get the Mac Pack now and use the code. £9.99 for a Month of game time (IE, 8.99) and the Valkyrie Costume and Mission Teleporter instead of 2.99... I think for the latter. Something like a 2 or os month exclusivity period on the pack.

Bloody Bay: Access at 15, SK/Exemp to 25
Sirens Call: Access at 25, SK/Exemp to 30
Warburg: Access at 30, SK/Exemp to 38
Recluse's Victory: Access at 40, SK to 50.

Everyone knows Scotland is protected by an immortal swordsman. Some call him the Highlander. Others call him William Wallace. All you know is, you can't take his life or his freedom.

Pro points for allowing auras and capes at level 1:

More variety, freedom of choice and access to concepts. I know someone who had to wait 20 levels for his Caped Crusader homage to actually get a cape. Want to make a Fire Blaster who comes from the sun and burns with flaming energy? Going to have to level up to 30 before you can burn like that! A dark whisping shadow /DA scrapper/brute/stalker with glowing red eyes? 30 again.

Give us auras and capes out of the box, give us a level 10 and 50 costume mission instead. Having to level up to 30 to give my big robot hero glowing eyes? Or sparking electric round my mutant blaster?

Doesn't make much sense.

I'm not against it, but fitting something in as an automatic system would require delaying the costume change to a certain point in the animation. Each animation would have a different change point. Currently costume switching is 0/1/2/3/4 (if you have a salvage slot), that happens instantly. With an inbuilt system you then need to add the code to go change animation begin wait change costume animation ends.

It'd be cool, but I don't see it getting added just yet, and those who want to in the meantime, say an Elec/Elec blaster could fire off Short Circuit/Thunder Clap/Power Sink/Lightning Field and change costume manually.

Running on Ubuntu 8.10, using Wine. nVidia 8600GT, no anti alaising and shadows, aand a slightly fuzzy mouse cursor, but it works and is pretty zippy. Heck, I can run it in Windows mode with Desktop cube going and rotating with no issues.

Doesn't recognise Water effects, DoF, Bloom and Desaturation sadly, but ah well. Thing is, it works. And it works well. You can use the shortcut on your desktop to edit in Compatbile Cursors (note, you'll need to change it to CityofHeroes.eu.exe, otherwise it won't run, and link in the -compatiblecursors after the last ") to clear up some of the fuzziness. It's not perfect, but it's more tangible in appearance.

It's not as pretty as on Windows, but it looks good, it runs well and crisp, and there's nothing to stop you from freeing yourself of the yolk of Bill Gates.

Note that this is running on WINE, no need to fork out money to Transgaming.

You might want to check your PC for maliciousness, seeing as usually that's how they jack your MSN account.

3 Tailor Missions for Heroes Side that are more fun:

Tailor Mission 1 (level 20): Rescue Serge's models from Freaks. Simple door mission at back of Icon, Dressing room and make up area. Basic level 20 freaks harassing models dressed in various costumes (perhaps a contest before introduction to get your character's costume as one of the ones a model has on), rescue the hostages and beat up the Freak Tank leading the raid. Humerous dialogue, fun map, yay.

Tailor Mission 2: Crey are trying to steal a new material from the Icon labs, go there, beat down Crey Agents, protect several new costumes from being destroyed and stop someone escaping with a sample. New map type, mix of lab, studio and Icon.

Tailor Mission 3: Nemesis is trying to impose public decency on the Atlas Park Fashion Show! Beat down the Prussian Prude's forces and rescue the women and men he was trying to cram into more suitable clothing! Uses the fashion show map from the Mender TF.

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As for the humping thing at Bridger's leaving do, only two words spring into my mind, and they're as true today as when they were first spoken.

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...donkey punch?

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Not quite the same as a matey punch.

Ah, Forumites channel. Good times.

... Unpublished mission, select map, no enemies, simple glowie objective, use map as RP instance for Portal Corps/Uni room/Crey/et cetera?

Grandfathering is rather common in MMO's, in WoW for instance with now unobtainable titles, items, old PVP system ranks, certain mounts and pets. As things change, people who already achieved or owned it get to keep it, to show the effort they put into getting it.

Hell, it's common in US law as well.

Removing it I disagree with, but removing it for players who already got it? Vehemently opposed to that.

The problem with cutscenes is, if I recall what was said during Omega Sektor and on the boards correctly, it takes a lot of effort for the devs, y'know, the people who make the game, to make cutscenes. Even demo-editing requires going through the files and basically typing in code the positions of characters, emotes, actions and so forth, as well as power effects and dialogue.

I sometimes enjoy listening to the X-Men: The Animated Series theme, or the Batman Beyond/of the Future Soundtrack.

Just not the Japanese Animated X-Men themes done for the Japanese audience, which are just... well.

Original Opening: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VxOQTaLTFrU
Japanese Opening 1: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WWTad9...eature=related
Japanese Opening 2: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hfCb0X...eature=related

For those other tunes:

Batman Beyond: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DVdTbi...eature=related
Batman Beyond - Joker Chase: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xPhUl8EGVsw

Even WoW has 'The game is dying' threads. Or 'The devs don't know what they're doing'.

Nice to see you, to see you, nice, Syn. :>

Also, while I may have an active WoW account, haven't played since November time :/ Just fell out of the mood for it, got in a CoH mood, now not leveling in CoH and not sure what mood I'm in.

Here's a 1280x1024 collection of images of Zortel, leader of the Unity Vigil, in her powered armour and with the helmet off too.

Zortel, the woman behind the machine.

What I did was get one of my parents credit cards, with their permission of course, and added that to my file on the billing page. As my account still had paid time, nothing was charged. Then you log in game and buy your character slots, apply them to your account, log out and remove the credit card from the file by deactivating billing, then just pay the cardholder the ammount.