Nethergoat

If I had a badge for every borked mission I've run where a GM had to come hold my hand to get the completion.....I'd have enough to make a really kickass suit of ren faire scale mail!

reading through this thread again, what strikes me is the wasted effort invested in a potentially interesting reward system very few players seem to bother with.

If the idea was to give a bump to 'power gamers' I guess it works okay- the savvy players know what the "good" recipes are and keep a couple on hand. But those are players that don't really need a leg up.

If the idea was to help out our ever-needy friend the 'casual gamer', I don't think they bother with crafting, let alone crafting something situational with limited uses.

If the idea was to make an inf sink, the powers should be better so more people would bother with them.

If the idea was to make an interesting reward pool, it needs more stuff and it needs some better stuff.

Right now it's just sort of half-baked. Even the players who use it don't seem that enthusiastic, which is a missed opportunity.

As the only 'prestige' sprint worth a darn, it would fill me with rage to see the hoi polloi enjoy its attractions!

>:{



Okay, not really- if they can make a few bucks off it, I say fire away.
It helps make all that running around at the low levels more bearable- jogging around Atlas is way less stylish than POWER SLIDING around Atlas.

unexpected morning reprieve allowed me to finish a couple more missions.

So now you can call your contacts right from the get go?
NICE.

Rescued some citizens, I like the way they've dressed up a typical street sweep to make it more engaging. It seems like I'm getting way more inspiration drops than before- I'm pretty much burning them as they come in.

Now I get to sneak into a hideout in a hellion costume- nicely done.
I don't mind "walk here, now walk there" missions so much if there's a little twist to them.

Time to level!

more later.

It strikes me it might be useful/interesting (for me, if no one else) to keep an informal log of my return to CoH as a 'free' player, albeit one with 'tier 9' access. I suspect I'll transition to VIP fairly soon as I'm already chafing under certain restrictions placed on free accounts, so best to start this now.

First a little background, for those unfamiliar with my previous forum tenure:

I started playing at release and kept my account up until about a year ago, when IRL decided it was time to feed all my discretionary time to my small son. When he was tiny I was able to log on fairly regularly, if not for any great length of time, but when he hit 2 playing didn't really work any more so I let my account lapse. I was still playing a bit, but not nearly enough to justify a subscription.

Cut to last week, when the advent of preschool caused a shift in his sleep schedule that left me with a little slice of time to myself in the evening. I thought I'd check out 'that other' Superhero game, which had gone 'free to play' almost immediately following its release. I'd tried the previous 'CoH killer' and found it wanting- this experience was similar, although I soured almost instantly on the weird gameplay contortions imposed by console development.

Just before I left the first rumors of CoH adding a 'free to play' option were floating around and I'd seen an article about it when they finally rolled it out, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

There's enough new stuff around that I figured I'd roll an alt to check it out, which brought me up against my second discontent with 'free to play' (after being locked out of most of the forums)- VERY FEW server slots.
Like, nearly none.

As someone with several servers full of beloved, oft played characters this came as an unpleasant, if not unexpected, shock.
Where to put this new alt?

The answer, after checking several servers I was sure would be empty only to find rosters of alts as far as the eye could see, was Infinity.

So LIZARDROID was born- part lizard, part droid, all electric/electric scrapper!

The makeover they gave the character creator is AMAZING.
Vastly improved, esp, compared to my attempt to create a unique hero in 'some other game'. I like that the few costume bits I don't have show up anyway- good salesmanship for the store, sure, but also lets me fiddle around with them- a couple of Imperium pieces would've fit right in with the Liz, I'll probably end up getting the set one way or another.

The tutorial is a bit of a mixed bag. The length is nice, it gets the point across without a lot of pointless running around (hallelujah!), its interactive in the modern style and I liked the look of the new Shivans.

When the great big shivan crawled up out of a pit I was excited- cool, fresh out of costuming and already taking on a gargantuan beast!

But....uh, wait a sec....it seems to me I'm not really doing anything other than marking time between bombing runs. I wonder what will happen if I just run up this hill and hang on on this wrecked car?

Oh, hey, look, Longbow bombers took care of it for me, and I didn't even have to keep dodging meteors.

A bit lackluster. Not that I'd expect to take it down myself at this stage, but it'd be nice to be able to do *something*.

Okay, off to chat with BAB and 'buy' my first item from the PARAGON STORE.

Neat interface, smooth transaction....if it works this nicely for 'real' purchases as for this badge color me impressed. I remember the endless struggles some folks had with paying for booster packs-this seems like a massive upgrade.

And.....off to Atlas!
Redundant as it was, I kinda miss the option to take Galaxy. I'm glad they wrote it off in the storyline instead of just lopping it off.

Woah, WTH! What happened to Atlas!
Really weird, seeing the building I looked at for 4 years get a facelift.
In game for about 60 seconds and I get an invite to a "DFB team"- is DFB the new Sewer team?
I won't be on for long so I politely decline and head for my contact.
The new waypoints are nice.

And my first missions is...bashing hellions. Good to know at least SOME stuff hasn't changed!

A little street sweeping makes me feel right at home, and then it's time to log off and clean the kitchen before bed. I head into City Hall, on the off chance that Day Jobs still exist- yep, there's the recruiter! Whew.


So far, so good.
I'll update as I get the chance to play, watch this space.

thanks everybody!

It appears I'm 'tier 9', which I guess is a good thing.

=D

good to see Steelclaw still bringing the funny!

*hooves up*

this talk of "tiers" is confusing me- what's the deal, and how do I find out what "teir" I am? I used to be able to figure out my active sub time by checking my vet badges on my PlayNC account, but that page has vanished....

as a longtime subscriber who's checking back in with a leech account my two main motivations to re-subscribe are character slots & forum access.

I haven't really looked at the store stuff but given the alt-tastic way most people who really get into the game tend to play server slots would seem to be the big incentive.

The idea is fun, the execution is, ah, less so.

First, drop rates are waaaay to high- who's ever been excited to get a temp power drop? It's always "Ohboy, wonder what that.....UGH, another lame temp power!"

Second, the annoyance factor is higher than it should be given the weak/situational utility of the powers. The payoff for gathering ingredients and crafting the recipe is minimal.

I'd like to see them balanced either by making the powers better & thus worth the annoyance, or made much rarer. I hate 'rare' drops that are nothing but inventory cloggers, and the concept of temp power drops is so cool the lame reality annoys me all the more.

It's kinda like wing drops back in the day- when they were super rare everyone wanted them and they were exciting, after the rates were supercharged they were junk and may as well have just been available at the tailor.

what the heck, a new tutorial?!

and here I was going to try not making any new alt this time around....grr!

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Statesman's crotch in forgetful snow, feeding
the login screen with dried tubers.

(with apologies to ts eliot)