Slugbug

Aw, why'd you have to go and ruin such a nice happy feeling TrueMetal...

I'll agree with previous votes for Foot Stomp, Fly, Rise of the Phoenix, Jolting Chain. A few others for your consideration.

Soul Drain - especially on a Rikti mission. Room full of monkeys with a LT or boss in the middle. Herd em up, Soul Drain, all monkeys are dead, you're super-charged, and boss soils himself.

Jawbreaker - usually my wrench wielding tanker makes contact somewhat lower than the jaw. Spanner to the groin? That's just gotta hurt.

Best use of a mediocre power: Air Superiority
Ran the villain cape mission with a teammate and Doc Quantum shows up with a gang of PPD. I start in on the police, teammate taunts Doc Quantum and flies for the height cap. A few seconds later, named boss crashes to the ground in front of me with one HP. Strategy has been reproduced a few times on outdoor maps against flying bosses/EBs. At higher levels it seldom reduces them to one HP, but it does make the fights much easier.

@Yosomono:

The drop rate for threads/new components for new Incarnate powers within the new trials does seem to be faster than the drop rate for shards was in level 50 TFs when Alpha was introduced. In that regard, yes you're right.

I did emphasize some qualifying items in that sentence because there are a few gameplay differences to bear in mind, depending on your style of play.

At this moment, threads only drop during the new trials, of which there are two. You need to run these repeatedly to open access to the new Incarnate slots. Having run enough to open your new slot, you will probably have accumulated enough threads/components to slot a tier 1 or probably a tier 2.

When I19 was released, you needed to do one arc, once to open your alpha slot. There were 4 already existing level 50 TF's which dropped shards. Additionally, any other level 50 content could drop shards (even soloing radio missions) and there were two new level 50 TF's added (recommended that you have at least your tier 1 alpha slotted).

With I20, shards could potentially drop any time you play your 50 (assuming your alpha slot has been unlocked). Even exemping down to run level 2 missions with your friend's new alt, to say nothing of all of the existing TF's or running Oroborus missions.

With this in mind, I would strongly recommend only using threads on the new Incarnate slots, as shards can appear anywhere. Use shards to build up your alpha, and when you're done with your Very Rare alpha, convert any extra shards to threads.

I'm not a fan of running the same content repeatedly on the same alt (though I have no problem running the same content on a different alt). Having said that, I do quite enjoy the BAF (haven't tried Lambda yet) so I'm not going to complain about the new content. I just think it's going to be a long, long stretch accumulating all the threads I will need despite the higher drop rate in the trials, given that they can only drop in the trials.

Here's hoping for more Incarnate content soon that will also drop threads.

You seem to have overlooked the first line where Texarkana wrote:

Before going to Australia, I was given a word of caution by a girl who had traveled there previously. While discussing sports she had said she roots for a particular team. Apparently they thought she was quite a devoted fan.

Didn't see this start,
Was out of town til last night.
Here is my entry:

Tired of doing right?
Do you hear redemption's call?
Now switch back and forth!

As someone who formerly owned a very low-end system, I would disagree with adding weather effects with just a cosmetic portion if there's even a very small hit to performance. I've played games with weather effects on just-barely-minimum-requirements machines which worked fine with all of the settings turned as low as possible... until it starts raining and the system crashes. While this would not happen on my current machine, I've got a good deal of sympathy for those with lesser boxes.

Ultra-mode is an optional system, rendered client side, that can be completely ignored if you don't like it or don't have the wherewithal to run it. Also, it gave a much needed shot in the arm to an older game with looming competition. Considering as well, within a year of CoH launch I heard the graphics here described as dated. Ultra-mode didn't suddenly turn a 6 year old game into a brand new, cutting edge marvel. It did, however, make the graphics compare well with games made 2-3 years ago as opposed to not comparing well with games made 6-7 years ago.

From an immersion standpoint, the "right" way to do it would be to have winds that effect aim, range, and travel, precipitation and temperature that effect perception, resistances, fire and cold powers, etc. I've seen this done well in a few single-player games, and done badly in several games that attempt it. In a multiplayer game, I can see teams not wanting to take a Fire Scrapper because it's raining, for example. I also have alts already who struggle against enemies with high resistance to my only damage type, if suddenly cold damage is reduced and cold resistance is buffed because of the weather, it could make an already difficult fight even worse. And I'm usually fairly accepting of such changes (compared to many on the forums). The outcry would be deafening.

If it were implemented like Ultra-mode (purely cosmetic and can be turned off) it wouldn't do a lot for immersion for most people. I doubt that the majority of players would enable it to begin with.

I admit it might be nice to have something simple like changing leaves in autumn, bare branches in winter, budding trees in spring, and full trees in summer. I could really get behind some variety in the skies (even just clear/partly cloudy/dark clouds). I could even see snow on the ground in some areas for about three weeks during the winter event, but not for several months on end (there's a reason I moved to Arizona). But if getting even some of these more basic effects takes more than about 40 dev-hours, I think there are better things they could be working on.

On the other hand, under the previous management there was no notice that David Cook had left the company until several weeks after the fact.

I've wanted to make an Illusion/Fire Dom since CoV beta. Had a concept all ready. Alas, they didn't make Illusion available for Dominators. And Slug was a sad bug.

When they started doing proliferation I was hopeful for Illusion/* Doms to make the cut. Thus far that hasn't happened. They gave */Thermal to Controllers and I was able to make an almost-good-enough substitute for my original concept, but would still prefer to make it as originally intended.

A few others that I wouldn't mind seeing ports for:
*/Broadsword Tanker
Broadsword/* Brute (I like the idea but would need to play with the mechanics/numbers to see if the reality matches the picture in my head)
*/Ninjitsu Scrapper
*/Sonic Mastermind

Dark/* Blaster or */Ice Stalker might even get me interested in those ATs again.

Actually, it's exactly 4 days. And 4 is "almost 5."

Still, oddly worded unless it unlocks like EOB 10/6 and goes until morning of 10/11.

Sam,

I do see your point and certainly something could be done to make running less of an issue or at least have more of a point. I've often thought that it would be a nice feature if some maps would occasionally have one minion who would try to run to activate an alarm or auto defense system or something. If an occasional runner would make things more challenging, it would have more of a point than one guy running halfway across the map and then turning around and walking back.

As I said, I seldom have an issue with runners and I do tend to favor melee classes like Scrappers or Brutes so I don't usually have a hold or immobilize. I notice you said you tend to play at -1x3, while I usually play at +0/x2 or +1/x2. I occasionally have one runner, but seldom more than 2 or 3 per mission and they are usually dealt with easily. I never encountered a situation where half of the mobs run in every fight. I believe that lower conning enemies are more likely to run. Maybe this is why you see more mobs running from you. I don't know. If half a group will consistently run at -1/x3, that is certainly something that should be addressed.

My point was, when this reviewer ran into something he liked, he would devote one sentence to it, maybe. When he finds something he doesn't like, he goes on and on about it and ignores the fact that he has a tool to mitigate the exact issue he's complaining about but refuses to use it. He was playing a DP/Devices Blaster and I never saw him use a Devices power. When a player completely ignores their secondary and makes a point of complaining about a problem that their secondary can solve or at least reduce, I find it difficult to take that person's criticisms about any other aspect of the game seriously.

Reminds me of a pick up group a friend and I joined at one point early in the history of the game. The Tank (a brand new player to the game) was complaining about how ineffective his defenses were. About halfway through the mission, we realized that this player was not actually turning on any of his toggles. And yes, we did point out to the new Tanker how to better use his powers and he stopped complaining. If you refuse to use the hammer in your toolbox, don't whine about how difficult it is to drive the nail into the wall.

Maybe, like the new tanker, this reviewer just doesn't understand how to use his powers or what benefits might be derived from a power named Web Grenade. If this is the case, he should seriously reconsider his career choice as I don't think he's cut out for game reviewing.

Slug.

TL/DR version:
The guy makes some valid points pro and con. He also has some criticisms that are completely invalid or can easily be worked around with a little common sense. And he's irritating to listen to.

Novel length:
OK, I get that this guy is presenting a new player perspective on the game. No, I don't know how his reaction to this game compares to his other reviews because I didn't care for his presentation style and didn't want to subject myself to more of it. There are some great aspects of the game that he completely missed, but a new player may miss those at first as well. There are a few things that he mentions that I agree with and a few where I don't think he really had a clue.

Right at the beginning, he mentions that starting in the new area is neither hero nor villain but a neutral area. Later he seems to get confused that the "good guys" are asking him to do something that is "bad" and he has a choice to make. Really? And this is a confusing point for you, so must therefore be a flaw in the mission design...

He talks in character creation of spending "several hours" working on his character design but seems to have spent the majority of it clicking the random button and for all of that settles on a knock off of a trademarked character.

As to his making no mention of power customization, admittedly his primary was pistols, so not much to be done there. On the other hand, he did choose a devices secondary (which does have some customization) although I only know this from the slotting screen. I never actually saw him use a secondary power.

Getting into actual gameplay, he begins by saying "The city is massive with three separate parts, and an underground area" and then uses the mission teleporter to go 700 yards. Correctly observing that the power takes such a long time to activate that he could have walked there by then, he seems oblivious to the fact that it wasn't intended to get you to missions that are across the street.

With regard to instanced missions, he says that the problem isn't so much with the fact that almost all missions are instanced as much as the fact that all instances look the same. I will go beyond agreement on saying that instanced missions aren't a problem and say that I actually prefer that. In other games I've played, it's not uncommon (especially shortly after a new content publish with an influx of new/returning players) to find a line formed to wait for your turn at rescuing the hostage or fighting the named boss. Not a problem with instances. I (and many others) would love for there to be more variety in the appearance of instances, but as he also correctly points out most other games have the same problem. A valid complaint but it is a problem with the industry, not just this game.

Potentially very fast, very fun combat, even at low levels. Point in our favor. And that's about as much time as he gives to this aspect.

Every so often you are given a new contact, and you can even call them up instead of having to run across the zone to talk to them after every mission. And that's actually more time than he gives to that point, but I think it deserves more. Being able to call your contact instead of making the trek across the length of the zone to them every 15-20 minutes is one of the major selling points of this game compared with most of the competition as far as I'm concerned.

Couple of valid points: the fact that captives that you observe fighting an opponent stop fighting and become cheerleaders when you come to help them. Either they should help you fight or they should not be shown fighting to begin with. I can buy that as a valid criticism. Also, NPC's get lost easily. Some other games get around this by putting NPC's on rails, so if you come to a fork in the map, the NPC will always go the way they want, and probably die in the next fight if you don't stick with them. I'm not sure which I prefer, but NPC pathing is something that could certainly stand improvement.

Next comes his criticism of fleeing mobs. Personally, I never saw this as the horrible bane of game design that many other players do. It makes sense to me, for example, that a 6' tall minion who is hanging out with three friends would run when an 8' tall hulking, fire covered hero beats the three friends into pulp in under ten seconds and seems to shrug off being shot. I also take issue with his statement "Now, you've seen mobs get low on health and run in other games, but you've never quite seen it like this!" Actually, I've seen it in other games almost exactly like that. Depending on the AI in other games, sometimes he will agro other mobs and come back with reinforcements, other times he just wants to get away from the guy who was beating the crap out of him. What really irritates me about this complaint from this guy is that he has a devices secondary, which means even at level one he has a ranged immobilization power! If runners are so much of a pain, use the power that will stop them from running! There are means to handle runners and it doesn't honestly take a whole lot of thought or skill to use them. Like I said, I never seemed to have too much difficulty with runners and don't see it as a crippling flaw in the game. Mother always said to bear in mind that not everyone is as smart as me, but I really don't think it takes that much to come up with ways to compensate for fleeing mobs. Especially if your tier 1 secondary is a power designed to do exactly that.

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Old King Cold was a merry old soul, a merry old soul was he!
He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl
and he called for a doughnut and tea.