Poll: Issue 9 Breakthrough!
By
4_Thirty_5,
Posted on: 2007-05-30 18:24 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
WARNING: I'm a giant, idealistic cranky-pants who wants a superhero game that also happens to be an MMO.
I loved that this game didn't really have loot. I've gone over that before, so I won't rehash it beyond saying that I don't like seeing all my teammates paying more attention to the junk they are finding than the truth and justice they are supposedly upholding. That being said, the me of 2003-- before I felt freed by the relatively lootless game that was CoH-- would have loved the loot system you've provided (minus drop balance issues like the five level 53 Sniper sets as compared to two level 53 melee and ranged sets).
I wasn't excited about any of the shineys but the costume pieces (which you have already said are too rare).
Wentworth's should be a research lab, or something else that superheroes might actually spend a lot of time at in their quest to keep the world safe. The "fine consignments" thing is horrible. It feels like you didn't even try to come up with something that fit the superhero genre. I'd think that people like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would be offended at the idea of superheroes buying and selling stuff on some kind of warehouse floor like this. If you're reading this, Statesman, did you ask Stan or Bendis about what they thought of their world having such a thing? If so, I'd like to hear what their response was, positive or negative.
The Black Market is great in concept for villains.
The Statesman TF is a blast. However, I have two minor complaints:
1) it felt like a slap in the face to have our final showdown with Recluse begin with him yakking about the mighty Statesman, who is idly standing on some boat back in Independence Port, while we are standing right there, ready to give him a run for his money. Please remember that we might like to be considered real heroes, and not bit players. He should be worried about stopping us.
2) I thought we'd be getting to wreck doomsday devices, turrets and cannons, and Arachnos assault vehicles. We did get to fight the Arachnos Flier, which is neat, but as for the rest... we got to wreck giant cables. That was a little disappointing after reading the preview, which compared it to Mayhem missions. I was expecting more interesting destructable targets.
Again, despite these two disappointments, the TF is a blast.
I haven't tried the new Hamidon, but I really, really appreciate the attempt to make it more interesting, and less laggy.
I agree that the tutorial needed to cover sets and set bonuses.
Overall, I9 has given me more headaches than renewed interest, though I know I'm in the minority. My SG's activity shot way up as a result of I9, though a couple of the people who were already active have complained about feeling like merchants instead of superheroes.
I look forward to Issue 10, and the new content that has been hinted at.
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
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Only grief I have:
There is still no system to e-mail drops, salvages, recipes, influence... to another character on the same or another server.
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That is number one on my wish list - it could even work only for characters on the same server, that'd be fine with me.
I admit that I haven't seen as much of Issue 9 as I should have, mainly because I've been spending so much time getting money for my lowbie alts by fishing for high-level enhancements at the consignment house with ridiculously low bids. Anything to speed up their progress* and secure their retirement fund - although my morale is suffering from the cheesy nonheroic loopholeishness of the process.
*that is, whatever progress they might make when (or if) I actually get back to playing with them
[edit:]And what I've found with my level 50 is that I hate the lack of storage. I can't store enough to really begin to get into crafting, so I just focus on trying to make a few things at a time and throw all the rest at the consignment house, where 95% of the stuff sells for next to nothing... largely because I have no room to wait for things to sell, especially if I want to make any bids at the same time.
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A question that's NOT in the poll that I think would be useful for the devs (even if the results are made hidden from us) would be "what is your least favorite feature of Issue 9?". There's kinda an option for that for the economy, but not the rest.
Also I have mixed feelings about the "New Costumes" option in the second question - I like that they exist, but dislike that they're random drops. Some feel the same as me, others disagree, and both sides feel strongly about their opinion - see the 1800+ post thread in the General forum for reference (also see that thread if you want to continue that discussion, we don't need to bring that whole topic over to this thread too 
).
Tech support IRL, CLR/DRU/MED/WHM/PRI/DEF. Hmm, I sense a pattern...
S 80% E 80% A 40% K 0%
A few of my alts
I9 was OK, IO are nice but, you kind of level too fast to invest in anything less than lv 40 IO's. The new costumes pieces are nice too.
Personal request for next Issue: make at least 2 new primary and 2ndary power sets for each AT in the game and a few more power pools.
Thanks
Trading more than 99999 inf finally, and being able to transfer it accross servers.
...that's about it...
Y'know maybe if i9 had let us craft Temp powers with real utility and if more than 1% of the stuff we find ourselves was actually useful for anything but obscure-slottings or selling right back to some stores... this issue wouldn't be so "Hit or Miss". Right now it's just really, Tedious.
While I like I9 overall. It is interesting to see that the new salvage-based economy pretty quickly made the old enhancement-based economy obsolete. But I have one big issue with it: solo grinding.
I sort of like that it now pays significantly better to fight magic opponents (mainly Circle of Thorns) than other opponents, but I dislike that it pays so well to do it solo or in a duo. Drops have been explained to be strictly per mob, with a slight increase based on mob rank. You defeat many more mobs/hour/player solo, and to a lesser extent in a duo. On a large team, you get mobs of a higher rank, but not more of them per player. This means fewer drops per player.
Soloing, while worthwhile, is not the most fun part of the game for most of us. In other words, this makes us do boring stuff in order to get phat lewt. And a game in which you do boring stuff quickly comes to seem boring itself.
What is needed is either that higher-ranked mobs drop A LOT more loot, or that the group xp compensation be somehow applied to loot.
The trainer in PI, the new Train stops, the store in KR and the fix to base kick = better than all the loot/bidding crap.
Costumes would have been exciting had I manage to find one, which I still haven't.
STF is ok, we still have AVs that break the game's own rules in the name of "challenge". At least the Flyer isn't bugged.
The Hami raid is finally designed so it is not worth the time, effort and debt to get yet another high probability of more Centrioles.
Personal Storage, looking at the poll, is obviously a failure. Wonderful concept of course, borked implementation. Where is the personal storage for enhancements, for inspirations, or recipes? Of all things in i9, this gets a F grade.
Funny the poll didn't ask how people like :
1. The personal invention salvage storage limit.
2. The personal recipe salvage storage limit.
3. The reliability and responsiveness of Wentworth.
4. The reliability and stability of the game as a whole in i9
5. Drop rate for rares and costumes.
6. The various measures the devs have used to "encourage" people to use the auction.
The only thing worse than devs making bad decisions is the hoard of fanboys and bootlickers that keep cheering them on.
Hi,
Overall I like the number of possibilities that inventions open up.
I would say this though. You have given us percentages on how much enhancements affect powers, told us the exact amount set bonuses will give to our characters, but I still cant make an informed choice from in game about which power I should choose.
At this point any concept of hiding numbers from the players is pretty much gone given the amount of information available, but with the aditional numbers in I9 it seems pretty weak to have to go to an external website to get the numbers I need to make fairly basic choices about my character.
More work on documenting the new invention system would also have been good. For instance, what does +10% regen for 120 seconds mean in a passive?
Overall I'm very pleased with the invention system, it is a good balance, providing opportunities without requiring people to pay it much attention. It also gives people much more flexibility in how they go about building their character. I look forward to greater diversity in the builds.
Cheers,
Conker
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Soloing, while worthwhile, is not the most fun part of the game for most of us. In other words, this makes us do boring stuff in order to get phat lewt. And a game in which you do boring stuff quickly comes to seem boring itself.
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Seconded!
Solo-grinding your level 50 through the same farming mission again and again gives you so much more in influence and dropped loot that it really skews the game.
The best way to equip a character (or get that really nifty pair of wings you want for it) is to play your 50 for a few hours and get some cash to twink the lowbie character you really want to play, and then in turn take the latter out for some real teaming play, not expecting to earn much.
With the current prices of orange-grade set recipes, ditto salvage, and costume parts, you really need those twinks. Remember, you compete for the same pieces of salvage at the market whether you are 50 or 35, and the 50 has a lot easier earning the cash.
I gave it a 3 and half. IO's are ok , the tutorial gets boring quick if you have a lot of alts. Lag around Wentworths is no fun. New costume or Power sets would have been better or a new Zone than the Ebay system we got.
I had no favorite feature of Issue 9. I don't like the invention system and even though I was excited about the new costume pieces, I can't get them because the recipes for them are not dropping and the level 50 characters have forced the prices to be unaffordable because I do not have a level 50 character.
I'd have to say that this is my favorite issue since Issue 3.
I LOVE the Statesman Task Force. The difficulty is satisfying, the reward (when it works *HINT*) makes it worth while, and I have something to do with my level 50s rather than have them simply use up a slot because I can't bare to delete them.
I like the whole IO/CH aspect. I finally have a non-combat thing I can do in game.
Furthermore, I have real "goals" for my characters. This really makes it 'addictive'.
I *WAS* disappointed that there were not more temp powers that could be crafted. BUT I do see that there is a method to add that. I have this idea that I have a Superhero who has a utility belt with things like "Stun Grenades", "Flash Grenades", "Caltrops", "Smoke Grenades" - nothing uber - just things along the lines of temp powers you can in your normal missions. By making them as rare as the current powers you further keep them from ruling the game.
Voted as the majority, four stars for I9 due to stability issues that have since arisen.
I love the whole implementation of a "Loot" system into CoH.
I've been playing for 3 years now...I'm starting to need a new carrot 
.
But seriously...it seems to be a basic, well implemented crafting system that is wide open to additions with future issues and a lot friendlier to "casual" gamers than other systems I've seen, what's stopping them from adding a few new costume pieces/IO sets with every update?
COH/CoV - Virtue
8 Ball - Lev 50 Kin/Energy Defender
The Canadian Fist - Lev 50 Ice/EM Blaster
Omega Ghost - Lev 50 Robo/Dark MM
Ghostfall - Lev 50 Arachnos Crab Soldier
Like some of the posters here, I am liking Issue 9. The IO sets have given me some openness and mor eoptions to my tight hero build. I also enjoyed the Statesman's Taskforce. Nothing like going after the big baddies of the game.
But like Rachael_Storm has mentioned, I was also a bit disappointed with the number of temp powers available. I too am looking for things of the "utility belt" nature, like shurikens, caltrops, various grenades, etc.
But I'm guessing, now that this system is here, it's only a matter of time before the devs add a lot more items into the game. I'm hoping the first four temp powers are just an introduction. Here's hoping for more temp power recipes in future patches and/or issues.
Over the past month, I noticed a lot of old acquaintances returning to try out the new features. Sadly, a lot of them were underwhelmed. I don't think people want to pay 10-20 million for a costume piece, farm millions of infamy for hours on end so they can buy rare recipes/salvage, and juggle limited inventories between different alts, using friends as intermediaries.
I feel the same way, but my ties to my SG and pride in my characters drives me to muscle past the drawbacks and continue on despite of them. I think other dedicated, veteran players feel the same way.
I don't see how I9 encourages new players to subscribe. If I arrived today, surrounded by all these experienced tech-winged and IO-filled players that I had no hope of competing with unless I invested a seriously scary amount of time into the game, I think I would look elsewhere for my fun.
As a quick rundown:
- I like the Inventions system, but I don't like how hard it is to locate the things I need.
- I love the costume pieces, but in a full month of playing I have never received one from a defeated enemy. Half my wings were bought, and the other half were gifts/trades.
- I don't like the Consignment Houses at all.
- I hate the lack of communal salvage storage, and total lack of recipe storage.
- I refuse to attempt the STF until the Flier is fixed villainside.
- I feel really sorry for BackAlleyBrawler, regarding the Hami. It was a good idea on paper, but essentially it seems to have ruined the nightly public raids across all servers, which were the most powerful reaons for older players to log in and play for a coupel of hours per night and collect their HO. Either improve the reward, or make it easier. Maybe get rid of the Mito reblooming altogether, and see how much more popular the Abyss gets.
I want more fun from the game. More missions, new factions, new powersets, zones, and for the love of God - villain Epic Archetypes.
I really feel that development of the game came off the rails somewhere just after Issue 8. All the natural, logical next steps (fixing and reintroducing the CoP, adding villain Epics, fixing the Flier, adding 1/2 new powersets for each AT) of expansion suddenly ground to a halt, and the "tide" of the game turned from positive player wish-fulfillment to apologies about what could not be done due to budget or manpower.
It's sad, but you really are going to lose me to Tabula Rasa when it arrives unless you at least fix the Flier and add new villain Epics. The soon-to-arrive MMOs will be competing directly with you for the first time (since they are also non-fantasy genre games) and if you want to retain players then you need to implement what they expected from you months ago.
The Widow's Dark Hand - leader of Faux Pas
Champion Server
Tee Hee!
Im not awake yet(yawn) so this will be short.
Some things are just WAY TOO DARN EXPENSIVE!
Some salvage going for millions, thats just nuts. The price of costume pieces, thats nuts too!
Most everything else it fine I guess 
I'll explain my rating here.
It's 3 and half thumb, not three and a half stars. There's a difference in that the half thumb is there because I came back due to I9 hitting.
The little changes (KR stores/extended train lines/etc) are really the thing I've been happiest with since i9 was released. Inventions are by no means a poor addition, but too much of the time, there just feels like far too much work involved.
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1) it felt like a slap in the face to have our final showdown with Recluse begin with him yakking about the mighty Statesman, who is idly standing on some boat back in Independence Port, while we are standing right there, ready to give him a run for his money. Please remember that we might like to be considered real heroes, and not bit players. He should be worried about stopping us.
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They did explain this part. The "Web" device came pre-calibrated to the Freedom Phalanx and The Vindicators. If Statesman had stepped onto Grandville, Lord Recluse would have won by default because he would have drained Statesman's strength to feed into himself at once.
Basically, Arachnos had already planned for *and* defeated, the Freedom Phalanx. You were just the ones to be called in to do the job they couldn't.
Still here, even after all this time!
I9, the invention system, and the new economy are great for palyers who a) get much of their gaming pleasure from figuring out the optimal way to slot their characters, b) are collectors by nature, and/or c) find dealing with a changing economy on a personal level to be enjoyable. Unfortunately, I don't fall into any of those categories. I've been playing since CoH first came out (though I wasn't in CoH Beta- I was in CoV Beta, though), and this is the first time I'm seriously considering dropping the game (I have taken breaks from it before- periods of time when I played less often, I mean). I had already been losing interest in the game before I9 went live- I was hoping I9 would spark my renewed intered in the game, as other issues in the past have done (I couldn't help test I9, since I haven't been able to get onto Test since CoV went live). Instead, it's actually made the game LESS fun for me.
Much as I like the idea of some of the advantages gained from certain inventions, and much as I'd like to be able to get some advantage out of interesting drops I get, there's really nothing I find fun about the invention system itself. I'm not a colelctor by nature, so I don't find anything fun about trying to get the right salvage, etc. The inventing process itself consists of going to a university, clicking on something, and briefly assuming a pose- nothing particularly fun about that, either (for some reason, I do enjoy running characters through the tutorial, though- although, for some reason, my system sometimes crashes right after I've returned to the contact after making the character's first invention). I don't find anything about dealing with my personal economy in real life to be fun- so why would I enjoy an exanded role for personal economy in a game I play for escapist purposes? I've never been interested in building optimal builds- my characters are always concept-driven. Many of them don't even have Stamina, and I avoid respeccing, since it feels like destroying my character and creating a new one. To me, ideally, in a superhero game, you should be able to create the character you want, then use strategy to figure out how to use that character optimally in combat, rahter than figuring out the optimal way to build the character in the first place. Using the advantages given by inventions effectively requires a lot of planning, and a lot of out-of-game research- even people who enjoy the invention system not infrequently complain about having made mistakes. The new costume pieces are nice, but I have no interest in aquiring them for any of my characters- they're pieces I'd like to be able to design a character around, rather than just adding them to an existing character, and I'm not going to go to the trouble of aquiring them for that purpose (now, if there were some way I could earn the piece with one character, then use it on anotehr, possibly new character, even on another server, that would be at least a little better...). Many of the people I usually team with are currently mostly interested in getting in playing just for invention stuff, which severely impacts my enjoyment of the game. In short, I9 simply isn't for me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm genuinely happy for those of you who are enjoying the changes to the game, and I'm well aware that I'm in the minority. I can even see a certain amount of poetic justice- in the past, I've often enjoyed changes to the game that everyone else was complaining about. Still, I find it extremely irritating for me personally to have a game I've enjoyed for so long suddenly become much, much less fun for me...
my votes, fav feature, the markets, they give me access to IO's that are better and cheaper in the long run than TO's.
new shiney, i went with personal storage, but in truth there isnt anything that stands out for me.
addtion of a dynamic economic system, in truth, im indifferent to it really, even though i use the markets, im not out to make inf from them.
invention tutorial, yes it was easy...to easy really, i got a badge but didnt really feel like i had achived anything by doing it, but hey, its there to teach about inventions so it does its job.
How would you rate Issue 9 overall, i gave it 3 and a half stars, it was nice to get but i could have been just as happy without it.
Now i look forward to i10, may it be as great as i hope it will be *grin*
Unit 609-1231 mk VII lvl 50 Stalker claws/EA
BlazingWing lvl 50 Blaster Fire/Fire/Fire
I like the invention/salvage system in general. It does add a little something extra to look for during missions. However, like most loot systems, there is a lot of junk I don't need that tends to fill up the storage space too quickly. Personally, I think there is way too many different pieces of salavage for storage space we have been given. I understand the need to limit personal storage to encourage people to sell. The problem I have is that it is too difficult to try and save salavage for all of the different sets that a character might need/want to use.
I like that the common IOs don't expire. That's a nice little perk for low level characters. However, the recipe and construction prices seem to be really high at higher levels. A level 50 common IO shouldn't cost half a million to construct if you need to buy the recipe in addition to paying to build it.
The set IOs are overly complex and difficult to plan for. Yes, there are some nifty things you can do if you sit down with some spreadsheets to plan out stuff. However, a new or casual player is quite literally overwhelmed by the amount of undocumented information in this game. With IOs we desperately need a true character sheet that shows us actual game values like how much smashing resistance my tanker has, the maximum range of my blaster's snipe attack, the buff/debuff values for my defenders, the actual damage values for my scrapper's slotted attacks, the actual hold durations of my controller's hold, etc. We need this to make "informed decisions" about slotting with IO sets. Otherwise, we don't have anyway of knowing or even planning, in game, what our characters have or would have with a slotting change. Heck, we needed this with ED due to it's, undocumented, diminishing returns.
IO set bonuses can drastically change slotting priorties. We need a way to rearrange slots without rearranging powers. If we happen to get enough IO set bonuses where we can free up slots, the only thing we can do right now is a full power respec. Why go through that process if you need to shift just one or two slots around? Give Hero Corps/the Arbitors another service where we can spend influence/infamy to move slots around.
Random drop loot systems have pluses and minuses. I think you've probably already seen enough comments both ways in this tread. I'm just glad that none of my character concepts "need" any of the IO costume pieces as I've never seen one drop and couldn't afford to buy one if they did.
The best thing about I9 for me has been the QoL improvements. The worst thing has been no new story content for my level 50 besides the Statesman TF. I really wouldn't miss it if it wasn't in the game. The same goes for the Hamidon. I just don't do TFs and Trials. Don't have the time for them. I want new story arcs for my level 50 dagnabit!
I voted 3 1/2 stars only because of the lag and DCs that Wentworths brought us. Thankfully the DCs seem to be under control, I haven't DC'd from WW in the last 2 weeks, but the intermittent mapserves and the framerate drops near WW still plague us.
If not for those problems I'ld have given I9 4 stars (even considered giving it 5 stars but the piston boots didn't look good on my toon 
)
"I used to make diddly squat, but I've been with the company for 16 years and have had plenty of great raises. Now I just make squat" -- Me
Pediatric brain tumors are the #1 cause of cancer related deaths in children.
Only grief I have:
There is still no system to e-mail drops, salvages, recipes, influence... to another character on the same or another server.