Blue_Yin_EU

You can play the game lots of different ways. If you like actually reading quests, there are some pretty well-written (so far as MMO storylines go) story arcs, especially villain-side, and if you want to get really immersed in a solo character that's the way to go (always read your "clues" as they come up in-mission).

Alternatively, if you're into PUG-ing (as I think a large percentage of the playerbase is) you can just go for maximal xp gain in 8 man teams blasting through content (with the difficulty cranked up), which will often include newspaper/radio missions, which are short and very samey, have very little in the way of story, but are very convenient for fast xp gain. The Task Forces often have great stories, but teams often move so fast you have little time to read the clues and get into the story the way you would in solo play! You can even street-sweep, which is sometimes fun for a change of pace, either solo or teamed. There are loads of zones to just explore too, if you want.

The game does have tons of content; the one criticism most people have is that a lot of it is samey in terms of visuals. But the sameyness doesn't really become apparent until you've played for a few months; and even then, it hardly matters all that much, since the actual gameplay is so much fun! CoX doesn't have big endgame content (e.g. in the way something like WoW is back-weighted with content - MOST of its humungous content is in the many beautifully designed endgame dungeons), but even that is now starting to be addressed by the devs.

The fact that the game has gone on so long without much endgame shows how heavily CoX is based around alt-ing. Because there are zillions of possible powerset combinations, and because it's quite fast to level up a toon, it's just very tempting to keep dreaming up new characters based on the various possible power combinations - and it's fun to learn to play each combination, with its quirky little ways. So, again, even though there's a certain amount of sameyness, alt-ing does keep it fresh to a certain extent (playing through the game as a Fire/Fire Blaster is a totally different experience to playing it through as a Kinetics Defender, for example - of course most games are like that re. their classes, but it's like each possible combination of powersets is almost a new class in itself, in this game, and there are tons of them).

Typically, your average CoX player will have at least half a dozen toons on the go, and will swap between them according to mood, or sometimes really get into one for a while, then start a new alt, etc., back and forth - until at some point they get a buzz for getting some particular toon to 50, and concentrate on that, for a while, then go back to one of their earlier toons they have fond memories of, etc., etc. Some toons will be more team-based, some more solo-based; some will be for badge hunting, others for completing story arcs, some will be concentrated on to get the builds maximised with IOs, some will be mainly for rp, etc. I myself have a "family" of about 23 toons, of all ATs, with a huge cross-section of powerset combinations, at all levels, with 3 50s (that's from about 3 years of play in total) - an all of them are well-loved, familiar friends

Simply put: this game is PUG Heaven.

The absolutely last thing you need ever worry about is finding people to group up with at all levels. That is this game's speciality, and the secret of its continuing moderate success despite its (relative) lack of endgame (which the devs are now focussing on) and (until relatively recently) loot.

A lot of recruiting is done through the LFT system, which is slick and easy to use, but you can also use the global channels (check the server pages on this forum). You will find yourself getting private tells inviting you to groups from day 1, and after you've played for a few weeks you will get the hang of the system yourself and be inviting people left right and centre - even to do your own mission chains.

Take it from me - I was addicted to CoX for 3 years, then for a year I subbed on and off, then for a year I played other MMOs exclusively. All MMOs have their good points, but I can now safely say that no other game apart from DDO is as friendly to casual grouping as this game.

And that's why I've just recently come back!

Hehe, I just came back to CoX after playing Champs for a month (and before that many other MMOs, it's about a year and half since I played CoX).

There are lots of things I liked about CO, it's not exactly a total disaster (I think anybody could get their money's worth of fun out of the price of the game and a month's sub), and I still think it has potential; but because of the way the devs seem to be handling the game up till now, I'm dubious about it ever getting a chance to fulfil its potential - and, ironically, I think the only way it can fulfil its potential is to be a bit more like CoX, especially in the teaming department.

I've thought about this a lot and I think that one thing that would really freshen up the game would be to have zillions more "lego" pieces to the architecture.

When I got bored with CoX a few years ago, a big part of it was because I sort of knew all the map layouts by heart, I knew where the mobs would be in all the missions, there were no surprises. It wasn't so much the fact that it was the umpteenth office mission. The fact that missions are in bunch of archetypal "city real estate" or in typical caves and mines, isn't so much of a problem for me (although of course some creeping variation there would be nice too - a cinema perhaps, or a school now and then), it's more the sameyness of the "pieces" that make up the map layouts (abstracting away from tilesets). I didn't know what the technical term is so I've called them "lego pieces".

I have it in my mind that this must be a bit easier than making up new tilesets and new types of indoor mission space - just extend what's there by having more randomness in the missions that exist, with more different-shaped offices, warehouses, etc - they can have the same "clutter", but just have more different shapes.

I thought about this: how about consulting a professional architect to look at the problem of designing building spaces that can "click together" in lots of different ways? (Lol, maybe you guys already did that, but I'm just freewheelin' here )

I've always thought the two biggest design problems a superhero MMO faces are the psychological shrinkage of the game world due to on-demand travel powers, and the necessity to have absolutely tons of content to offset the fact that superheros, to be played well, as the dream of power that they are, of necessity must blast through content pretty quickly. This suggestion is meant to alleviate the latter problem a bit, with something that might be relatively easy to do and retrofit.

Another way of looking at it - when soloing or teaming, the thing of it is you get into a "flow" state, so a rhythm of familiarity plus occasional challenge is the best. Throwing in a shape of room or corridor that the player has never seen before occasionally, would be good for this.

Well, here I find myself again, after an absence of a year and a bit. Before that I'd played sporadically, but before that I was addicted to CoX for 3 years. Since getting bored with CoX I played lots of the main MMOs, and enjoyed much of what's on offer, including CO recently. CO has many plus points, but you know what? - teaming in this game just has that something special

In fact I find that's where they all go wrong. For me, as a casual player, no other MMO has offered the same amount of social gameplay. Even if it is just on a fairly shallow level, that's what's nice about it. You can jump in and within a few minutes be chatting away merrily with a bunch of strangers, and get into a nice trance state blasting away. Just perfect for unwinding at the end of the day!

Most other MMOs are mostly-solo-some teaming for me as a casual player, in CoX it's the other way round, it's mostly-teaming-some-solo - well it has been for me always, and I venture to say the "PUG heaven" quality of this game has always been its secret power. Not that I have anything against soloing, but why would I when there are so many great teams going round?

It's been long enough of a break that everything's a bit fresh again, and there's loads of new content to explore, so after playing a few nights I've realised my nostalgic decision to re-sub was a good 'un. Also looking forward to graphics update and expansion.

Anyway *wipes small spot of moistness from eye*, just thought I'd say hi!

I've had so many "good synergy" PUGs I can't really pick out any one as ultra-special.

I really think it's mostly to do with good/experienced players - any combination of ATs can steamroller, if everyone plays in a way that meshes together and all play to each others' strengths. But that takes a bit of experience in having played most ATs and powersets, and knowing what they need out of you to work at their best, and if everyone's thinking like that - STEAMROLLER.

But if the experience level is mixed, then until the late game when they're not so needed, a Tank in the team is a reasonably good guarantee of synergy, simply because, since they take the aggro, everyone else can do their thing hassle-free.

For me, the "classic" team (that I usually aim for when forming a team, unless I get some whim to try some other kind of combination) is to have at least the standard 5 ATs, then fill with damage to taste. Tank, Controller, Defender, 2 Scrappers and 3 Blasters will do the trick any day of the week.

For my first few toons, I didn't do it because the game was fresh and I wanted to explore it "raw" so to speak. But after a year I started transferring inf, and now I do it all the time. No reason not to now, as I've seen and done most of the game.

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tonight I was on a team. Anyway, someone had to drop which meant his sidekick had to go to because there was no-one else to replace his mentor.

It got me thinking (although this has occurred to me before) why have side kicking at all?

After all, if you want to team and there are two players but you cant SK them both, then they lose out.
if, as happened tonight and does so frequently, the mentor drops, the SK loses out.

Not to mention it is still the best way to power level, which is hardly what the game needs, seeing as you can go through to 50 so fast these days anyway.

Why not just make it that if you join a team and the mission level is higher than you, then you are auto "mentored" by the mission itself? To maybe 1 level below the mission level.
Or Maybe to one level below the threat inside the mission.

It would mean you cant farm with a sidekick outside missions but that's against the spirit of the game anyway.

And look at how much easier it would be to get teams, fill teams etc. and how it would prevent the frustration of young players who are suddenly dumped, (or fall out of SK range while in mish. Remember why that range wqas put there in the first place. It wouldnt apply here.)

And the younger player still benefits abiet not as much as earlier.

It makes sense to me... Opinions?

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Definite no. As I mentioned recently, I've occasionally taken breaks from CoX and flirted with other MMOs, and I found myself soloing far more than teaming in them, wherease with CoX it's the other way around, and part of the reason why PUGing is so easy and so ubiquitous in CoX is the sk system - as a leader, you can be pretty much guaranteed to make up a full team by judicious use of sk-ing and mentoring. Juggling sks is part of the leader's job - to keep an eye on peoples' levels, make sure the mentor who's about to leave has a replacement so the sk isn't left dangling, etc., etc.

The NPC comments is one of the things I take a delight in reading as I pass through Paragon City, every now and then somebody says something that just makes me laugh out loud.

War Witch forever!

This is pretty much the same as my Thugs/FF except I've gone flight instead of SS (although I also have hasten).

This is definitely the most fun MM I've played. It's really low maintenance, except for having to keep the Thugs and team bubbled - other than that, you can just fire your guns and enjoy the mayhem, the Thugs are incredibly tough with bubbles and you hardly ever have to re-setup in the middle of a mission. If some attacks get through to the thugs you can usually chuck the affected thug a green, orange or purple to keep them going.

Oh I forgot, I play as a Tankermind most of the time, so I've got Provoke too, which means that I can be in BG mode most of the time and taunt groups of mobs to attack me, which automatically makes my Thugs respond.

The other cool advantage is that the "must have" powers in the Secondary are so few you can actually afford to have a couple of your own attacks from the main, which with dual-weilding pistols just looks soooo cool.

Love this set.

Yup I just recently resubbed after a break and come back with a renewed appreciation of just how good a game this is. It has its flaws, and it is old for me now in the sense that I've seen and done most of it, but the total package is just right for me as a casual player, and the devs do keep adding things to keep it fresh.

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There are posts every day that talk about what's wrong with CoX and what could be improved, but... as someone who has recently defected from The Dark Side (i.e. another, massively heavily-subscribed, fantasy-laden MMORPG that a few people may have heard of ) I thought I would start a thread for all the things that are right with it. For a change!



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Hehe, as someone who's just returned after a month and half break, what made me return after another vain attempt to get into some other MMO, is the realisation that in every other MMO I've been trying, I've found myself soloing far more than teaming. I'm not a great Guild-oriented person, yet I like playing in teams with people, but most MMOs the teaming seems to be oriented around Guilds, and forming PUGs always seems to be harder and rarer than in CoX.

So that's the main thing for me - it's a really social game where I can have fun chatting with people while I'm playing.

I'm kind of past the stage where the gameplay itself is a wonder to me, but it has to be said that the combat in CoX still rocks compared to most other games, and it's the second thing I love most about the game. For one thing, combat is really fast, which I like. And something about the combination of animations, graphics fx and sound fx somehow makes it feel really "solid" to me, whereas in most other MMOs the combat feels somehow "floaty", and the sounds and graphics have less oomph, and seem to "mean" the powers less.

I don't mean to downgrade other MMOs, I've tried a lot of them and they all have their good points, with their own forms of good gampeplay, but at the end of the day, for me as a casual MMO player, CoX has everything I need the most - and the good thing is, although I've gotten a bit bored with it at times, it's always the one I come back to again and again, and every time I come back, the devs have put in some nice new things to spruce the game up a bit.

Oh, and of course, the character/cozzie creation - simply the best in any game. Ever.

I've been really enjoying the new improved Photon Seekers, they follow me around reasonably intelligently now, and are pretty nippy.

Ah the old chestnut. For me, having just recently gotten back into my PB after being in love with my WS for a long time, I'd say that so far as triform builds go, the PB is definitely more melee oriented, what with its scrappery attacks and its slight edge in tanking ability, whereas the WS is notoriously, a "puprple flying fortress of doom" as someone once said - it's a bit more like a super blaster when fully buffed. That's probably about as general a picture as you can get, because actually both ATs are hugely versatile, with the PB being a bit more Defender flavoured and the WS being a bit more Controller flavoured. Both ATs can tank and blast, and both ATs have lots of other options wrt utility powers in human form, as well as the option of going all human, with various sub-flavours there too.

For some reason they seem to be a love/hate thing. Me, I absolutely adore my Kheldians - I love being able to maximise the team by filling in any "holes" it might have - e.g. if there's no tank I can tank, if there's no controller I can control as a WS, if there's no Defender I can heal as a PB; if there's not much damage I can fill in as a blaster with either, or a scrapper with PB. Really, the options for builds and playstyles is wide open.

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Its just a question

How many of you own a US copy of the game and play on the US side? And of those who don't own a US copy of the game, would you play on the US side rather than the EU side if you could transfer your main Hero and main Villain?

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I play on the US side as well as EU. The Yanks are good fun to play with

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Given that PvP was a late addition to the CoH format and
1/The need for somewhat esoteric builds
2/The demented 'space hopper jousting' style of PvP
3/The exclusion of all but about 20% (random estimate) of powersets for viable PvP toons
Are NC flogging a dead horse here or do people disagree?
And if you disagree what would you suggestetions to improve the interest in PvP beyond those 'hardcore' fans.

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I agree with TG. The PvP in CoX is actually great fun, perfectly fine gameplay-wise, and well balanced team v team, there just needs to be some more love from the devs for PvP in terms of integrating it more with the game and making it more attractive to those who'd maybe like to give it a go but find no incentives to participate especially.

As people have been saying, the paucity of Dominators is probably to do with how weak they are in lower levels.

The thing is this: it's so addictive that you want to see those big orange "Domination" letters all the time, but in order to see as much of them as possible, it leads you into a risky playstyle, and because you are so squishy, you die a lot until you learn the parameters of that playstyle - i.e. how to get as much DOMINATION! as possible without dying too much. That takes a while to learn, and it can be discouraging in the early levels.

But once you get one to the 30s, the Dominator really is atrociously powerful, and teams will always be happy to have one on the team. I'd recommend anyone out there who's having trouble (e.g. faceplanting in embarrassing ways a lot) to just grit their teeth and persevere, the reward really is worth it.

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Lady_DarkForce – good news about the control of Earth/Trick Arrow, should be great fun, and the news about Earth/ joining CoV, I should read more forums lol.

Mega_Jamie – another altaholic? *faints at the mentioning of deleting an Earth/ *

Miss_Chief – omg, how can this get any better, so can’t wait to level more. *Mental note – must take stalagmites and earthquake *. Despite having fly, I’m a well grounded player and with Siphon Speed I’ll stay grounded during missions. Nice to know that the build doesn’t have to have Stamina, but just for the quick recovery whilst resting I’ll get it though. Keep us informed of what your toon is like when you get your tank pet 

Blue_Note – we all make mistakes, god knows I still make plenty with 2 years experience of playing CoX. Mind you with altaholism it’s not easy to manage your toons lol. Sounds like Mega_Jamie made the right choice as (s)he enjoyed the new toon more.

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Earth is my favourite controller power, mainly because I'm such an egotist and like people to know THERE'S AN EARTH CONTROLLER ON THE TEAM The powers are all so visible and noisy and such spectacle hogs. (Be aware though that some other ATs who aren't quite used to tabbing for targets don't like Earth because it tends to make mobs difficult to see.)

Get Air Supp as prereq for Fly and then you have good extra attack as a controller and basically just use fly for travel or for getting to tricky spots quick in missions. Hover would be a bit of a waste for an Earth troller - if you were annoyed by knockback a lot, it would be more worth going down Super Leap route and get some minor hold protection as well as kb protection from Acrobatics.

Hover 3 slotted with SOs or IOs is THE combat maneouverability power for blasters or defenders with cones to line up super quick from any angle, but it's not really much use to anyone else.

Haven't seen any guides on this combo. I've tried Mercs, Ninjas and latterly Necro (which I like, Necro/Poison is a great combo I think, and the only one I've taken to lvl 20). Then I bethought me to try out Thugs.

For some reason the way I designed my character at creation, she looked amazingly cool with dual weapons, so I decided to take at least some of the solo MM powers this time round (had religiously avoided them on my previous MM forays).

I've played a fair bit with FF hero-side, and the reason I picked it was because I know that with FF there are only basically 4 or 5 "must have" powers in FF, the rest being situational enough so that you can pick more from other powersets, so I thought this would allow me to justify some MM primary attacks.

And I have to say - OMG this is the MM for me! (Well, at least up to lvl 4 so far ) But I've totally fallen in love with it. The great synergy so far is this: Force Bolt is a great power in FF, it's a very fast recharging, almost guaranteed (good acc) knockback. When combined with my own primary Dual Wield that I've taken, which has moderately reliable knockback, I've found that basically I can keep enemies off their feet enough to do some serious damage mitigation through knock back. The feel for this style of gameplay, as an MM, just feels totally right to me. (I should say another factor in this love is I've got a good bio that justifies the FF and thugs combo, so that also makes me happy with the char.)

My plan is to take the two single target bubbles, of course, and Dispersion Field. Those are the definite FF powers that will be useful for my pets and teams. I'll fill in maybe one or two other FF powers if I can afford it, but from now on I'm going to concentrate on 1. Pets, 2. my own primary attacks, 3. Leadership pool and 4. Medicine pool.

So that's the rough plan. Any comments, tips or suggestions from anybody who's got one or both these pools as MM powers? Does this rough plan sound about right?

(Ooh, ooh, just remembered I can play around with Mids, w00t!!!)

Sorry for the bit of necro, but I just couldn't resist: I'm not a great Villain-side player but I've got a Necro/Poison at 20, Evil McEvil, who has 3 zombies called Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and a Lich called Mahomet.

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ach, energy punch is great give up on air super!

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AS is only a tiny bit less powerful than EP when slotted up with SOs, according to Hero Builder, so it's a viable replacement if you want to squeeze another primary power in, but personally I love the animation on energy punch (makes a great boxing 1-2 with Brawl - hey, so sue me! ), I wouldn't want to have another power with the same animation as Bone Smasher, and I love having my red buttons in a row.

Inv/Eng is the first tank I've really enjoyed and taken up to lvl 30. For some reason the SS attacks didn't do it for me feel-wise (mainly I prefer the "ka-thud" of EM sounds), and Stone/Fire while very solid was just annoying because of the -run (it requires a different style of tanking, I prefer jumping about).

Looking forward to the "big hitter" attacks at 35 and 38.

Thanks guys.

Just wondering, you can put acc in Taunt, but somewhere I seem to remember reading it's autohit. What's the situation with this?

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I have set up my own SG (for my alts) and have currently maximised both my control and power levels.

I have the smallest plot available, to avoid paying rent.
I currently have a workshop (2x2), a main room (3x3) and a teleport chamber (3x3), excluding the portal room.

I would like to have 3 perhaps 4 teleport pads (will be changing the teleport room from 3x3 to (2x)2x2 shortly), a workbench, a salvage rack, an inspiration collector and an invention workbench for starters....[u]Is this possible on the standard power+control supply?[u] If not what do I need to do, to achieve this?

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You will need a standard power unit, a mainframe and a few databases, which will take some time to get. But you can build up to it with the standard power unit (which has loads of power, so once you get one you don't need to worry about power for ages), a mainframe (which is pretty weak) and juggling with a few of the less powerful add-on control units as you go (you can sell them and you get the prestige back, so you don't lose anything by gradually upgrading). It took my startup SG (which eventually built up to about 40 odd people, only around 10 or so of whom are actually active a lot) about 3 months to built up to a medbay, 6 teleporters (in 3 square teleport rooms), 2 workshops (with lots of storage for insps and enhs and salvage, plus 2 empowerment stations, all based on the standard power (plus a bit) and a supercomputer, all on the starting plot (and starting the way you've done), 9 rooms in all. So it's definitely doable if you keep plugging away. I reckon it would probably take about twice that time if you were just playing your alts and didn't invite anybody else to the SG.