I didn't appreciate CoX's innovations until ...
By
AlexEss,
Posted on: 2007-12-26 09:19 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Okay. Since I'm about to return to campus (where they have blocked CoH, and I have found no workaround), and won't have CoH for a while, let me get some of the things that I like best about the game here.
As a note: I previously was a MapleStory addict. I've played about a dozen other MMOs, rarely for more than three months, including Anarchy Online, Shattered Galaxy, Flyff, World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, Everquest, and Trickster.
Accolade Power: Do something epically awesome in another game, adn you get a piece of equipment. Do something epically awesome in CoH, and you get a special buff that will make you last for the whole game.
Altitis: The easy ability to make multiple characters, the few but distinct communities (don't call them "servers" or "shards"), and the ability to make really descriptive characters with powers and costume that match cause one of the most awesome effects unique to this game, altitis. (In FFXI, you have pay another $1 per month to even have another character; and that cost is per-character, not per-server.) Many people have dozens of characters, but only one or two 50s (if any). Just imagine: instead of having to spend too much time grinding to have fun, people in CoH are having too much fun to grind!
Auction House: Who needs to go hunting umpteen million times? Just about everything you could want is for sale. And if you need influence -- all the "junk" that you've been given often will sell for much more than you think it will. (And you're given it when you defeat the beastie -- you don't need to chase down bodies you knocked halfway to the Shadow Shard to click the corpse to drag items into your inventory.)
Badges: THere are hundreds of badges (my main just got her 320th), and more are always on the way. They reward you for doing new and different things.
Characters And Foes I Care About: The first day I played, I actually got to tag along with one of my relative's L50 characters to see Infernal. Do you know what seeing something like that on your first day of playing does to a newbie? It gets them hooked. I'm actually interested in the stories behind the characters. I tuned in every week to watch JLA and Teen Titans, and I wondered how they'd do each week. Now, those shows are off the air, and I worry about the continuing adventures Faultline and Fusionette, the loose grip on sanity of Malaise and Statesman, the story of the Clockwork King (which starts at level 10 and runs all the way up to level 50 -- maybe more in the future, with Ouroboros now). Heck, a good day's run with a few story missions will inspire me to write, draw, and have crazy dreams when I'm done playing -- no other MMO can be said to inspire me as much as this game does.
I wonder what motivates villains and villain groups. I think Back Alley Brawler and Manticore are cooler than Batman. (They're cooler than double Batman.) I'd watch the movie, and eat the breakfast cereal.
City of Villains: Don't get me wrong, I like the spandex tights as much as anyone (maybe even more, but that's for another thread and another forum). But when I feel like a little black humor or like a dystopia, I've got an entire other world to play in -- and the awesome comic-book style cutscenes are there all over, to great effect. Grand Theft Auto? Heh, sure Tony Whatsyourface, you enjoy your guns, I'm going to go take over the world.
Controllable By Default: There are only two MMOs which I've found "controllable by default:" this game and WoW. Other games, I have to waste time working with the customization commands. Heck, in FFXI, I had to either use a complex heirarchal menu system for every single command, or -- worse -- use a poorly documented (undocumented?) slash-command system to get the game to work.
Costume Contests: While sometimes annoying when organized in, say, Atlas Park or other major throughfare, just think about it. People will give you rare stuff and millions of influence just for looking stylish. (This just doesn't work in most other games.)
Delivering The Undeliverables: Every so often, they add soemthing major to change how the game works -- something that they said would be "too complex," "too expensive," or "too out there" for a currently existing game. Weapon Customization -- and it was retroactive to everyone with the right powerset! Ouroboros -- going "back in time" to see previous missions? Inventions -- creating gear out of salvage where previously neither existed? PvP, both in the blah "punch each other until someone dies" variation, and the intriguing "wargame with NPCs from all over the world" version? Global chat? Many times, the devs have delivered major features as part of an issue that, in other companies, would be the driving force behind an entire (stand-alone and seperate subscription fee) game.
Descriptions: You can describe your character. You're not just a paper-doll with bonuses, class, and level; when people look up info on you, you get to say what you want to them. Serious description? Silly one-liner? Parody of or homage to other characters of your archetype? OOC notes about your play style? Often times, they can tell you mountains about what that character (and importantly, that player) will be like -- a well-thought out description shows someone who's putting a lot of time and effort into playing their character and archetype right. Heck, while we wait for people to get to missions, those descriptions are awfully fun to read.
The Devs Are People Too: Statesman. Back Alley Brawler. Castle. Ghost Widow. Positron. War Witch. They're not just NPCs, they're developer handles, and you can identify their roles in the company, may know their real life names, and know what they've worked on to make your game more fun. Heck, as a RPG gamer, I own their books in a few cases. Unless you're playing a game in which the head developer is credited in the packaging (Tabula Rusa), what other game lets you know the artists behind the madness?
And back when I was part of the Steel 70 -- the experimental raid to see if a group of PCs could take down the undestroyable drop ships -- we succeeded. (It turned out to be a bug because the ships weren't sufficiently resistant to slow powers, but still -- we took down what was essentially a flying Hamidon with laser beams!) And when we succeeded, Back Alley Brawler himself logged on and congradulated us. That was not only inspiring, but that was the sign of a great man, who made us feel like, yes, they too were in awe of those who rose to the challenge -- what other game can you say the devs do that for their players
Enhancements: In other games, a skill once learned is largely set in stone -- some of WoW's "best" skills increase the recharge speed of another skill by 0.1 seconds per point spent in them, and you get one of these skills every level. In City of Heroes, we get to choose how we set our enhancements; up to 6 slots per power, 1 slot free per power, and most powers have at least two ways to be improved. Schedule A enhancements (the vast majority of enhancements) let you double any one aspect of a power with three slots. Do you want damage? No, now you're having trouble hitting; slot in an accuracy enhancement for now. Reduce the endurance cost, improve the accuracy, increase the debuffs or mezzes. Do what you like, when you want it. For all other games, you have to schedule out the builds starting before character generation. To add to the awesome, Inventions let us build our own side-effects to add into our own main powers! Even your pea shooter power becomes pretty nifty when it now has a 5% chance to power you up for 2 minutes or a 10% chance to drain endurance.
Eye Candy: Now, I'm not one impressed by "realistic" game graphics. I mean, I played Maple Story for over months because the graphics, as simple as they were, were innovative, consistent, and beautiful, and not hampered by the need to have "realism" (read: jiggle physics and bloom). But, even with my bias against such games, I have to admit -- City of Heroes is the most beautiful game I own (maybe second to Exteel, but I don't play that near as much). The humans look like humans, and they look good in whatever costume they use. And the world is beautiful. And -- perhaps this is too much -- but a battle where people are using Propel and Whirlwind makes for infinite fun times.
Faultline and Talos Island: Believe it or not, these two zones are the most "Paragonish" for me. Faultline is struggling to recover from a disaster, with zombies and clockwork and alien psychic hobos and sky pirates and Arachnos trying to take the zone over; Talos is a classic culture clash, with ninjas, badass warrior guys, the horrible creations of a false nature god in the northwest, the dark manifestations of tainted ancient horrors in the southeast, cyberpunks, and freaking ghost pirates. Even if the rest of the game were lost, these two zones would be City of Heroes to me.
Giant Monsters: Raids are cool. You're not fighting Nameless Dragon #666 to get Foobar Of +0.1% Awesomeness -- you get to fight giant scrapyard dinosaurs, demonic snowmen, giant squid, pumpkin-headed beasts and giant freaking amoeba about the size of the starting zone. Raids are limited, and what raids and monster fights you get are iconically awesome.
GMs: No, not giant monsters, gamemasters. There are GMs in the game, trying to keep the game running right and resolving player disputes and simple map issues whenever they can. Just let that sink in. The sheer awesomeness of what this means for the game is a big part of why I stay here, and not anywhere else.
Inspirations: In most other games, temporary buffs are rare, must be purchased appropriate to your level (or be wasted/ineffectual), and very rarely drop. In this game, the bonuses are always scaled to you (+25%/+33%/+50%), drop all the time (4-8 on one radio mission), and don't "go bad" as you level up.
Leadership: Just imagine the subtle effect this power set has on the game. Yes, you can power yourself up. But you can also make others stronger; your power gets more and more effective with every other person you team with. Stick with the rest of your party, and both you and your party benefits. The more of those purple dots line up in a party, the broader my smile -- not just because I've been effectively handed dozens of IOs in accuracy, damage, perception, and defense, but because I know my teammates will be able to stick together and fight together more effectively than most random PUGs.
No Fog Of War Outside: When I enter a new (non-instanced) zone, I have the map tell me where all the major points are. (Which only makes sense. It's a city in the modern world. "Lonely Planet: Paragon City" is probably handed out to all new heroes upon entering outbreak, if not just telling them to go to Google Maps.) Compare games like MapleStory, where there are entire CITIES where you are not allowed to view the map (in many cases, you're not even allowed to view the world map in those locations).
Player Recognition: I was in one of the first issues of the City Scoop -- in my first month of playing the game. Beef Cake got turned into a comic book character. Even though that 'ownership rights' thing in the EULA is a bit of a pain (I want to make fanart of people I see without worry!), it makes something else much more exciting possible -- you, and your exploits, can become canon. Even if I quit playing now (and I'll have to unless I find a workaround), I am now a small but happy part of the ongoing story of Paragon City. Try THAT in Generic Fantasy World #9.
Pool Powers: The idea of powers that everyone gets a chance to do is awesome. Everyone can buff (Leadership), fight, fly, go fast, heal (Medicine), be tough (Fitness), taunt (Presence). No, you don't have to be a "heal0r" -- Everyone can be a healer.
Radio: Don't feel like doing a contact mission? Don't have a contact mission you can do alone? No worries -- your friendly Radio will give you a mission appropriate to your zone's level, complete with a randomly-generated instance, randomly generated objective, randomly generated enemy groups, and randomly generated NPCs, just for you. Imagine -- being able to have an instance just whipped up for you right then and there, whenever you feel like it.
Respecs. Did you know in Maple Story, you have to pay something like $1.30 to reassign ONE attribute point? If you accidentally do something really silly and come to regret it later, you can easily earn or buy a respec -- heck, I have four I haven't used on virtually all my characters, and I haven't been consciously gathering them.
Quick Startup: If you really want to burn through with a new character, you can have said character to level 10 in 3 hours -- sewers and any level 5-10 story arc will get you 20% of the way to 50.
Travel Powers: There are four of them, each with their own benefits and limitations (max vertical control but slowest movement, second fastest movement but limited duration air time, second slowest but with PvE stealth, or pure speed but weak control and high enduranc ecosts). Oh, and you get Sprint for free at level 1, a power that moves you faster than WoW's epic mounts do at level 40. Now only if I could do a loop-de-loop in mid-air so me and a few friends of mine could form a Blue Angels powerarmor supergroup, it'd be perfect. =D
Proud member of the Steel 70! | Global @Radmofet ; usually on Pinnacle, sometimes on Virtue.
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Heck, I remember some mech game in which failure to press the eject button before you get defeated means your game save is erased.
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Ah, the Nethack model.
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I think it is called Steel Battalion. You get a massive controller with it that lloks like a mech dashboard with all the approrpiate buttons (except the combined Megas XLR "Missiles!", "More Missiles!" and "Didn't you just press this button 10 seconds ago?" button). When the Eject button lights up, hit it. NOW! Or you're dead, save erased, welcome to level 1.
There's hardcore games, and there's Steel Battalion. It's not even a contest.
Aegis Rose, Forcefield/Energy Defender - Freedom
"Bubble up for safety!"
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Quick Startup: If you really want to burn through with a new character, you can have said character to level 10 in 3 hours -- sewers and any level 5-10 story arc will get you 20% of the way to 50.
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Well, not quite as I see, the way I see it is more like: you're a Hero/Villain from the get-go!
Your powers look good (ok, the high level powers are cooler, but the low level ones don't look bad in any way!).
In most (if not all) other games, you start as some sort of wandering peasant with no past or objective in life besides getting stronger to raid and killing everything in sight. Even NPCs if possible.
You start your career harassing the local natural life instead of fighting actual threats (about the same as going in Real Life Online and killing your neighbor's poodle to level up....and it drops some sort of gear/weapon!).
Not only that, but almost always, the low level weapons/armors suck so bad you wanna puke......wait, it gets WORSE! The gear looks are totally arbitrary and usually lack alot of sense, which means that perhaps on the high end of your career, you might end up with a sucky looking gear just 'cus the devs thought it would look cool (I believe that many WoW Paladins didn't feel exactly cool when they discovered that they would turn into some kind of fantasy-world pink power ranger with the Tier4 and the classical "look, me has golden wingz in me sucky blue/goodish armor Paladin dude who doesn't look half interesting" with the Tier5).
Not to mention nonsensical quests that, while make sense in the instanced-world, is usually in the open field; like when I was using a WoW trial with an Orc Hunter, I had this quest to get some Troll guy's head from some other Troll people who were bad or whatever; while doing it, a Troll Priest joined me, we proceed to the Troll guy's grave and I grab his head, then the Priest goes and grab his head.....when it struck me like a Blaster in PvP from very far away using a snipe with BU+Aim+a bunch of reds: just HOW MANY heads does the Troll guy have????
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In most (if not all) other games, you ... start your career harassing the local natural life instead of fighting actual threats (about the same as going in Real Life Online and killing your neighbor's poodle to level up....and it drops some sort of gear/weapon!).
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I didn't include it in the original post because there are a few other exceptions; Puzzle Pirates comes readily to mind, and I'm sure there are others. But yeah. I can go the entire rest of my gaming life without ever again being told that at level 1, I have to hunt cockroaches, rats, spiders, and dogs. In City of Heroes/Villains, even at level 1 you're fighting other people, the only worthy opponents.
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Heck, I remember some mech game in which failure to press the eject button before you get defeated means your game save is erased.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, the Nethack model.
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I think it is called Steel Battalion. You get a massive controller with it that lloks like a mech dashboard with all the approrpiate buttons (except the combined Megas XLR "Missiles!", "More Missiles!" and "Didn't you just press this button 10 seconds ago?" button). When the Eject button lights up, hit it. NOW! Or you're dead, save erased, welcome to level 1.
There's hardcore games, and there's Steel Battalion. It's not even a contest.
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My favorite Megas XLR button was "You heard the man, kids! SUPER-DESTRUCTO-MODE!"
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
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Not to mention nonsensical quests that, while make sense in the instanced-world, is usually in the open field; like when I was using a WoW trial with an Orc Hunter, I had this quest to get some Troll guy's head from some other Troll people who were bad or whatever; while doing it, a Troll Priest joined me, we proceed to the Troll guy's grave and I grab his head, then the Priest goes and grab his head.....when it struck me like a Blaster in PvP from very far away using a snipe with BU+Aim+a bunch of reds: just HOW MANY heads does the Troll guy have????
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Don't Trolls get Regenerate as a special ability? The answer must then be any slain troll will have infinite haeds for you to loot. Handy.
Aegis Rose, Forcefield/Energy Defender - Freedom
"Bubble up for safety!"
Thanks for your post and, man, this was a long thread to get through, even if it was worth the read. 
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Then I went and played Tabula Rasa. And when I started complaining bitterly about it, specifically about features that it shares with another (deceased) MMO called Auto Assault, only then did my friends get it through to me that nobody understood what I was complaining about, because everything I was complaining about was how MMOs just naturally are.
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Yeah, participating in the TR beta really made me love the job the CoH/V devs are doing. It was weird to me how many of the "insoluble" problems the testers would argue about had already been addressed, often very elegantly, in this game. I ended up repeatedly explaining how such-and-such had been handled in CoH/V, a lot of the time.
I don't think this is the game for everyone... a lot of folks love some of those othergamely features I have seen criticized in this thread (or, at least, they will grumble incessantly if they aren't included in a game). CoH/V is obviously working for me, though, and a bunch of other folks, so yay! 
@Second Chances
"And it's not what I wanted
Oh no, it's not what I planned
See it's not where I thought I'd be
It's just where I am"
May I say once more how much I love that the way my characters look is not affected by their enhancements? I know some people want to be able to *see* how someone is equipped, but, that is what clicking on the person and looking at the info is for.
I like that I can design my character from her hair to her boots, and all that work isn't covered up the instant that I find a bit of gear that is better than what she has. Yes, there are other games with pretty graphics...but, when I see someone I know in CoH or CoV I can recognise them in game! Sometimes from a fair distance and from behind, as well.
In other games, all the paladins of a certain level of gear look exactly the same, with a few variations of face and hair. If you like your look, it is pretty much guaranteed that the next upgrade of gear will change it.
Shae Firewarder
While I'm sure its been mentioned somewhere in this instant mega thread,I'll mention it anyways just in case: The other feature I love about this game opposed to other MMO's is the simple cellphone feature! Being able to call your contact instead of travelling all the way back to them is HUGE for me,coupled with travel powers and all the other stuff Brad has mentioned,I too am so so spoiled!
Again,I too like Brad have alot of things I hate in this game,mostly pvp balance and lack of cool cov content on heroes side,but I've dipped my toes in other MMO waters,and I find them bitter cold.
I believe the expression is 'Signed, and bumped for truth'?
Anyways, net lingo aside, this is the first MMO I've played, but not the first I've tried.
That is to say, I've tried a bunch, but they all bored me to tears - if I wanted to grind, I'd play the .hack series for the PS2, and get done with it.
CoH/CoX is the first one that hasn't bored me. So I can't really say I'm spoiled, just picky - and this game satisfies all the values of 'entertaining' I need to stay interested in it.
One specific I'll point out, from when I was trying WoW.
I wanted to stay in touch with other friends who I knew played it.
So I asked them, is there an easy way to get a hold of you in-game?
I promptly get list of a large amount of alts across different servers that's ungodly annoying to remember, and type up.
Here?
"Can I gfriend ya? By the way, I also run a global channel."
Also, being able to just fly around wherever the hell you want is COOL.
In fact, it's COOLER THAN NEO.
I do have a wish that there could be more great, mid-air battles.
Say, a force-fielded map where you're fighting off waves of Goldbrickers flying in, defending a blimp - 2 miles above the surface.
Or a race for the SSrs; a run-n-gun with swords and power bolts flying, as you race down the Skyway Highway.
Granted there's issues with making that accessible to non-flyers, or non SS'rs, but one can always dream.
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Not only that, but almost always, the low level weapons/armors suck so bad you wanna puke...
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Mmm, yes... I remember a quest my Priest was once given in WoW... I dreaded doing it because I hated how sinfully ugly the new robe I was going to be given as a reward looked, despite its stats being far and away better than the robe he was wearing. I was quite happy to finally be rid of it upon picking up another robe as a loot drop.
That being said, I'd like to add another thing to the thread.
I haven't played WoW since last July. My account was recently hacked. The issue has since been resolved, but I had to reinstall the game and pay for one more month of access just to make sure the perps didn't do anything with my character. Amazingly, he was untouched. He was still 44, had all of his gear and quests, and the 104g I had earned before quitting last year.
I found myself considering going ahead and playing for the month I paid for until I started looking through his packs. I had items I'd forgotten I'd collected, and quest items still waiting for their mates before I could turn the quests in. It occurred to me, then, how much I've grown to love CoH for not having mission loot to dump into my inventory, forcing me to try to find ways to keep my inventory space balanced between mission loot and my own items.
Also, I've said it numerous times before, but I'm going to say it again - a huge kudos for the badge system. The first night I logged back in to WoW after my account issue was resolved, I traveled down to Uldaman (one of the dungeons) and flagged myself as LFG to try and finish out a quest I needed one more item for. I sat there for about 15 minutes when I started thinking, "These quests have been sitting in your log for the last six months... you haven't felt a pressing need to finish them in that time, so why should you now? Besides, you could be working on badges right now". I immediately ported back to my bind point and promptly logged out of the game. Within minutes of logging into CoH, I got invited to a Lady Grey TF. Three hours later, upon completing the TF, I discovered I already had the badge. Apparently, I'd forgotten I'd done it shortly after I10 went live. Nevertheless, I had hella fun.
hehehe
I've already since canceled my WoW account again and removed the game from my computer. I've tried playing both at the same time before... it didn't work out well... hence why I left WoW last July...
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Heck, I remember some mech game in which failure to press the eject button before you get defeated means your game save is erased.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, the Nethack model.
Proud member of the Steel 70! | Global @Radmofet ; usually on Pinnacle, sometimes on Virtue.