How far City of Heroes has come
By
Adelie,
Posted on: 2009-07-17 21:57 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
It has come about 4.639 miles.
My Going Rogue Trailer
Virtue (blue) - Wes The Mess
Virtue (red) - Jess The Best
@Razoras
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I was fairly sure, according to what I've read in the forums, everything was a step backwards.
Which means if CoH started in Rhode Island, it is somewhere close to Japan by now.
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I was fairly sure, according to what I've read in the forums, everything was a step backwards.
Which means if CoH started in Rhode Island, it is somewhere close to Japan by now.
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You've been reading too many DOOOOOOOOOM! posts
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I was fairly sure, according to what I've read in the forums, everything was a step backwards.
Which means if CoH started in Rhode Island, it is somewhere close to Japan by now.
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Which way is forward, then? Towards America? Or away from it?
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Trust the computer. The computer knows all.
Some of that stuff is pretty cool. I'm glad we don't take inf losses for hitting the hospital anymore though! I guess the targeting system proved to be sort of silly eventually. And I could see the groups changing behavior based on the events on a server being problematic.
I still love the old-style female stance and the flip-jump for flying. They should bring those back as options.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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They probably never actually put that flip into the game. That advertising trailer is less actual gameplay and more manipulation of models and animations in the game engine. Just look at how he does his quick turn before making the jump/fly. It's fully animated.
God, I've avoided actual interviews and discussions given by Emmert... does he still give presentations like that or has he improved?
My Going Rogue Trailer
Virtue (blue) - Wes The Mess
Virtue (red) - Jess The Best
@Razoras
all the way to Issue 15 and we know Issue 16 is on the Horizon.
I do believe that this is how far we've come.
I'm only laughing on the outside
My smile is just skin deep
If you could see inside, I'm really crying
You might join me for a weep
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Listening to the audio of that first link, it does seem they scrapped a hit location system and a fame system. So, there have been some losses. Interesting. 
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
Wow. Watching the second vid, I notice there were some cool power sets such as:
Super Intelligence
Super Willpower
Super Personality
DARKNESS CONTROL
DENSITY CONTROL
ELECTRICITY CONTROL
AIR CONTROL
LIGHT CONTROL
Paralysis
Shape Shifting
Kinetic Control (prob just /Kin)
Sonic Control (prob just /Sonic)
Super Vision
Radiation Control (prob just /Rad)
The CONTROLLER in me is crying, and wants the other control sets ASAP. Let's get cracking, Devs.
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
Density control probably mutated into Gravity, and Light Control into Illusion. Air Control may have become Storm.
The others would be awesome, though!
Water assault made it into the game.
As energy blast. 
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Wow. Watching the second vid, I notice there were some cool power sets such as:
Super Intelligence
Super Willpower
Super Personality
DARKNESS CONTROL
DENSITY CONTROL
ELECTRICITY CONTROL
AIR CONTROL
LIGHT CONTROL
Paralysis
Shape Shifting
Kinetic Control (prob just /Kin)
Sonic Control (prob just /Sonic)
Super Vision
Radiation Control (prob just /Rad)
The CONTROLLER in me is crying, and wants the other control sets ASAP. Let's get cracking, Devs.
Lewis
[/ QUOTE ]It's worth noting that, as far as I can remember, those weren't power SETS. They were powers. Or maybe just a small group of powers, a couple at most. I can't recall exactly. Still, it wasn't anything like the system we have today, where you pick a powerset and have a bunch of themed powers in it. You picked a bunch of different powers, and you could pick from anything (Origins determined how many you could pick, and how powerful you were).
So, we lost "Darkness Control"... but it was probably just a single dark power, and was later expanded into Dark Melee. Remember, control in this sense didn't mean Controller powers. It just meant you had control over darkness... As I recall, the fire sword they showed in the demo was "Fire Control".
Or I could be remembering it all wrong. Regardless, none of those things were fully fleshed out sets, and most of them weren't even designed when the videos were made. They were just cool sounding names they threw in, since they were planning to make them eventually.
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DARKNESS CONTROL
DENSITY CONTROL
ELECTRICITY CONTROL
AIR CONTROL
LIGHT CONTROL
[/ QUOTE ]Whic became Dark Miasma, Gravity Control, Electricity Manipulation, Storm Summoning, and Illusion Control
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
I started almost 2 years ago, i bet some of you vets have great stories about the early days, dont be afraid to share, us noobs are listening
What was Hami like when it first came out? Abandoned Sewer Network? Rikti Warzone? Hollows? Items Of Power Trial? I bet we missed alot that we take for granted. It could not have been easy having to run to all the zones! What was the game really like when it first came out?
actually fel, one thing i was thinking of last night was how much of a pain in the butt high level content used to be. it was peregrine, and that was it. no rikti war zone as you know it, no papers/police band, no cimorea, no oroboros, just running carnies, malta, and the praetorians, who, before the eb-av change were always av's, so you pretty much had to get a team or have an optimized build.
i was thinking of this because of the farming talks, and i did farm one level back then 47 with a fire tank and a drek map, because of how bad the old content was, it was garbage that i didnt even want to play through, and the shard was worse as well back then, the geyser paths werent marked, and there was no jet-pack vendor. so yeah, looking at how now im pretty much drowning in content that i havent finished from several issues ago. I want more, of course, but you guys are so very very lucky for the current stuff.
Well, Gravity control was already in there, so density control didnt become gravity control, as far as I can tell.
Still, seeing the names makes me wish we had more.
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
Density Control was morphed into Kinetics.
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I started almost 2 years ago, i bet some of you vets have great stories about the early days, dont be afraid to share, us noobs are listening
What was Hami like when it first came out? Abandoned Sewer Network? Rikti Warzone? Hollows? Items Of Power Trial? I bet we missed alot that we take for granted. It could not have been easy having to run to all the zones! What was the game really like when it first came out?
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Actually, you know, I would love to see a thread like this, with thoughts and comments from those who were there at the start or at last jumped in just after the gun. Not just the ED stuff, but all the changes, for good or ill...
Old Gray Soldier-Level 50 MA/SR Scrapper-Virtue
Hunter Omega Prime-Level 50 WS
Dead Lord-Level 50 Necro/FF MM-Liberty
Grand Glory-Level 39 Arachnos Bane-Freedom
Well i joined the game just before issue 6 came out so dont have as much experience of the early days as some people here but i got a few stories!
Influence wasnt even a factor back in the day. SO's are so cheap you'ld need a few million and you'ld have a decked out character. Nowadays for the same price you'ld be lucky to be able to afford a single level 50 IO.
A trap that i personally have fallen into is that i now care about the stats/figures of my characters and not the "sod tactics! Lets roll in!". I remember one of my first characters was a FF defender and i used to think with PFF up NOTHING could hit me . . . . . . i was proved wrong very quickly!
The amount of powers you all get to chose from now is immense! With issue 16 that list will increase again [with at least another 2 in GR], a whole variety of options.
The mid level grind. A lot of people will remember the 30 - 40 grind that was brickstown. You ran out of content so quick then that you was forced to street hunt just to reach a new contact. No radio missions, no MA missions, no RWZ, no cimerora, no ouroboros . . . . . . back then you actually ran OUT of content. These days you have to pick which content/arcs you want to leave out 
Invention system + the market: Has kept the game interesting and added a mini sidegame of sorts to it. Best feature added so far.
The hollows gulch run . . . . . . . remember those missions that appeared at the VERY BOTTOM of the hollows and the only way there was to run through the gulch? Yeah we had to do this before the temp travel powers . . . and before we even knew what those flaming rocks were! Oh they look harmless . . . RUN OMG RUN!!! JIMMMYYY NOOOOOO!!!! That truely defined the noobs from the umm lucky ones. Could easily spend an entire hour waiting for the team to make it across.
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I started almost 2 years ago, i bet some of you vets have great stories about the early days, dont be afraid to share, us noobs are listening
What was Hami like when it first came out? Abandoned Sewer Network? Rikti Warzone? Hollows? Items Of Power Trial? I bet we missed alot that we take for granted. It could not have been easy having to run to all the zones! What was the game really like when it first came out?
[/ QUOTE ]
Actually, you know, I would love to see a thread like this, with thoughts and comments from those who were there at the start or at last jumped in just after the gun. Not just the ED stuff, but all the changes, for good or ill...
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This is all off the top of my head so if my memory is faulty it's because I'm so old :
When the game first came out the max level was 40 and Peregrine Island didn't exist yet. They added PI with issue 1 I think, just a couple of months later, and I wasn't nearly level 40 yet so it didn't mean that much to me, but it's kind of strange to think about. (They did the same thing with CoV too.)
I participated in two Hami raids back in the early days. Back then Hami spawned on its own so you could only raid when Hami was up. There was no limit on the number of players in the zone, and raids were, I don't know, 100 to 200 players or something. Lag was immense, and there were player-made rules about having a costume with no cape or aura to prevent lag (which I suppose is still a good idea for some things).
Also since there was very little else to do at level 50 and no other way to get high-end enhancements, people fought over Hami raids a lot. Super groups would not always cooperate, and some people felt left out because of their AT or the fact that they weren't in a big SG.
I remember that controllers were able to hold Hami, so controllers were the biggest part of the raid. I had a fire/axe tanker who didn't fly, so I was not very useful. I remember super jumping to try and hit the mitos.
When it was all over, hami-O's would drop to players randomly. Some players would get 1, others would get several. Players would try to share or trade to get the ones they wanted, but of course some were greedy because they were the best enhancements in the game.
Anyway...
You could six-slot powers for damage or heal (for example) so in some ways figuring out how to slot your character was easier than it is now.
The Hollows didn't exist for a while. Neither did Croatoa or Striga Isle, and I think Firebase Zulu was added after PI?
In the early days you could successfully fight things much higher level than you, so one of the first big nerfs was the great purple nerf, where something more than 4-5 levels above you becomes very difficult to take down.
As many people will tell you, farming was there from the very beginning. In the early days it was common for a tanker to herd an entire mission or an entire outdoor map to a small space to be nuked all at once. Maybe you'd heard them to where a controller could lock them down and blasters let fly, or you herded them to a box where mines had been laid. If you were a fire tanker, burn did not cause enemies to run away so you could do all of the herding and killing by yourself. I did that.
Anyway I could go on about how powerful smoke grenade was... how powerful regen scrappers were... how a fire controller could have as many as 15 imps out at the same time... how an invulnerability tanker could herd so many enemies at once that they'd start to disappear because the game engine couldn't render them all... here's one thing that's probably hard to believe: in the early days, people derisively called the game "City of Blasters" because that's what everybody played, and scrappers would post long threads on the message boards about how useless their class was and how they weren't needed on teams. Kind of hard to imagine these days.
I had a regen scrapper that I played into the 30's before regen really got nerfed. I was katana/regen, and initially katana was the exact same animations as broadsword. But Instant Healing was a toggle that gave you massive regeneration, to the point that you were nearly unkillable (a huge alpha strike could kill you, I found that one out the hard way).
I never actually did the Abandoned Sewer Trial, but for a few months it was the most popular thing in the game because of the massive experience that was being rewarded. Also two different maps full of warwolves were popular because initially he doggies had no ranged attacks, they were all smashing/lethal damage (good for a fire tank -- well any tank really) and with their speed they herded very easily. When you run into Shadow Hunter in the... Maria Jenkins mission, I think? It's timed 30 minutes, and that's because they wanted to prevent people from keeping it and farming it.
One thing that I remember very clearly from the early days of the game was that high level ambushes used to spawn in low level zones quite a lot. I kind of liked it because it gave high level players the opportunity to play hero to lower level players, but it's true that often the lower levels just got run over by spawns twice their level.
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
Oh yeah, one more thing: There was no Icon and no extra costume slots. Once you mad your costume, that was it. You could change the colors via the Super Group window, but that was another thing -- your super group colors and logo were fixed when the group was created and could never be changed. The SG I was first in picked black and hot pink for our colors, which made people laugh at first but later on the leader really regretted having done that.
Playing in Super Group mode meant you could change your costume colors. That was it. There were no bases and no prestige, no other reason to be in SG mode.
I still have some pictures of our SG all in black and pink.
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
I was browsing around Youtube for City of Heroes related things, and stumbled upon these two videos of alpha builds of CoH. I got a serious kick out of these.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3kW2Le9TJk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n76fw...eature=related
Very entertaining and very different
Karonax - Level 50 Stone/Stone Brute
Zasz - level 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
Melkazar - Level 50 Illusion/Radiation Controller
Rodasha - Level 22 Peacebringer
Mayra - Level 32 Energy/Electric Brute
Dr. Alexander - Level 50 Empathy/Psionic Defender
Akrinos - Level 50 Bane Spider