I-16 (impression)

As much as I have wanted to fix Regen, I have never liked the all green from the day I first played back in 2004. However, I am not as impressed as I thought I would be with the way the color change works. For me I think it is good that we can now change the basic colors of powers.

However, the color changes are not for all powers. The powers that have color effects, such as katana build up have no option for color change. In addition, I found that Kelds have no options either. as for the powers that can change it seems to me that the only colors that really are noticeably changing are the bright colors, the dark colors don’t change the look at all on powers that are already dark.
I am however pleased that my Corruptor can be all bright and shiny while healing which works with my RP plans.

Nevertheless, the other changes are impressive and I hope this will bring life back in this game. I can see groups farming regular missions now, and that is good it will be easier to team normal missions again and for support characters they will no longer have to go to AE. Which is a issue for me because my corruptor cannot solo very well but can heal any party.

I'm a little more understanding of the limits in the power customization. As it is, the UI is at the character creation, before the game knows anything about your intended pool picks, and the filing system only has a static number of powers, so they stuck with the 18 that you have to choose from at the start.

Adding pools into the mix adds at least 16 slots to the file and at most 40 slots... So nearly doubling or over tripling the load time added for each costume. Of course, the APPs and PPPs add between 4 and 16 slots in the file on top of that... and then the UI additions to accommodate the picks.

Epics wouldn't have the same UI issues, but they have substansially more than 18 powers to choose from (can't remember the number off the top of my head), and can take most of the power pools... Once it's all done, the files will get huge, with most of the file space filled with placeholders on most characters.

Don't get me wrong, I want it. Just letting you know the hurdles involved.

I like what I see so far.

I thought some of the color customization really added dazzle to certain powersets, others it did very little for me.

I've always loved how Dark Melee worked, I always hated how it looked. i16 makes Dark Melee really sizzle.

I love what it does for Super Strength as well, smashing the ground with your fist seems so much better than stomping like a spoiled child.

I thought Ice powers were better left alone, I saw nothing that looked as good as the default setting.

I couldn't get the Stone power set, to match my body colors, which saddened me - but I thought radiation looked great in different colors. So for me, it really depended on what you customized.

It's very expensive for high-level characters I noticed, so use your one free tailor session wisely.

So far I'm loving what I've seen.
I've done some colourisation to get psi-shields, dark fiery melee, blue super reflexes and fresh-from-the-core earth assault and earth control.

I've also spent some time with earth assault and stalker broadsword.

I'm going to be making two characters of archtypes that I've spent (relatively) little time with and, thanks to I16, sticking with them.

Oh yeah, and I can make my villainous archer; Bow Remorse.

I agree that regular missions will likely be making a comeback. I'm particularly looking forward to how much easier it will be, now that we have super-sidekicking, to get things organized for some good old-fashioned mission-based roleplay. It will help with AE content too, because even though during i14 and i15, one could force everyone into a certain level range, there are lots of nice-looking story-based AE arcs out there who didn't take advantage of that.

Being able to set regular missions to be +4 will also help move folks away from feeling like their only choices for fighting 54s are mothership raids or AE. AE giving reduced rewards if custom villain groups don't have minions and lts and bosses should also put regular content on a more equal footing when it comes to advancement.

But mostly I'm looking forward to SSKing for my RP groups. AE helped a lot. SSK just takes it further!

I like the changes to sidekicks, but in general, I've always liked how COH made it convenient for characters at different levels to play together. We forget, that so many games out there, make no accomodation for this at all. Indeed, one of the things that makes COH pleasant, is that it isn't really a power-game. It has elements of it, but really COH is more about recreation than accumulation of wealth and status. It's welcome fresh air, and it makes travel back to other games often very difficult to adapt to.

I find WOW culture, less and less easier to bear all the time, as a result. Even on my old RP server, which is, I believe one of WOW's best server just seems to get less and less comfortable for me all the time, because it is so tiered and so focused on the power-pyramid.

Because there hasn't been much negative feedback, one thing I will throw out there is that i16 is largely cosmetic. Sure it repairs some holes in the classes and yes it provides a means to cross from red to blue - but there's not a great deal that feels vitally new.

City of Heroes could use something genuinely fresh. AE was the promise for new content, and while I love the tool, it used the same maps and same hooks. Sadly, AE became a tool for power-gamers to delude themselves even more, that this game was about power, which really at its heart, it isn't. There is no easier game I know of, to min/max than COH, and for all the love of "challenge" power-gamers profess, what they really love most is safe, repetitive patterns. This is why they can't stop boss farming. I find, I can only boss farm for an hour, before my eyes bleed with boredom. Then again, they can point to my RP and critisize it, with the exact same criticism I am sure.

So yes, some new content in this thing, but is it really a bold issue? Not really. A good issue to be sure, but it won't make much of a splash beyond the already established community that it has.

I like it though, truly, I just thought some negative comments, might spark more of a discussion.

I'll give you negative feedback. The customization for bots/traps is repsectively non-existant and lame. I want custom bots badly.

I consider that positive, too many damn robot masterminds out there anyway. I mean how many does SS have in total? 19? 24? I lost count.

*colors powers*

Ok, now what?

I do, I do indeed.

I officially withdraw all criticism of the Count, I praise his line of work and support any endeavor he has initiated, both now and in the past. I view his government as righteous and just, and I consider myself nothing but a miserable knave in his presence.