The good the bad and the ugly.

I have been playing this game nearly on a daily basis now for over 6 years. In that time I have seen many things come and go with this game, this new installment is a very welcome addition to the game.

Let's address the Ugly first:

1. The Market - yes, we know it is unavoidable but to go from a thriving if odd market to not having any of the common items available is a tough one. The fix - is on all of us to fix it post everything you have out for sale if you don't need it - that will cause it to recover more quickly.

2. Lag - can't be helped with the numbers of people on so - I am not complaining - in fact much of the lag I was getting with Issue 17 appears to be improved.

That's about all I have for Ugly!


The Bad:

1. Very linear - I get why it's linear as you are being funnelled to a goal. I do find it so different from the rest of the game in being so directed. It's a well directed script but it does feel like a script - that said - Viva la Resistance!

2. Difficulty balance - the game plays VERY different on a Dom or blaster than on a Brute, Tank or Scrapper. My poor Dom got smoked so very many times by the ambushes that I started carrying 2 greens and 8 blues so I could try and survive. The required solo mission ambushes are brutal to squishies. I ran a Brute thru the same arcs and she hasn't even gotten into the yellow yet. The balance is painful but unless you somehow buff the squishies I don't see how you can change it.

3. No Market in Neutropolis - really need one there at this level or you are running from the serwers back to the train selling/buying and back into the sewers.

4. No University or labs in Neutropolis either.


The Good:

1. So much good with new enemies, new powers, new zones and changes in the balance with all powersets up for grabs now.

2. Morality missions - where do you stand - free will or common good. Thoughts many people may never have entertained. So pull up a long cold drink of self awareness and see how your choices help/hurt or change people. I would highly recommend some arcs on drug abuse being built - with how its starts small and in the end eats a persons life. A great tool that really could be a boon to mankind in teaching self awareness and free will's cost.

3. A great mix of I, Robot and the Demolition man.

My biggest complaint with the whole game has always been that it costs way too much to "fund" a character.

I beta tested the original City of Heroes and enhancements have always been more expensive then they should be.

I haven't played the game in a couple of years and I came back for Going Rogue. It sucks to find out that this still has not only not been addressed but made even worse with the prices of IOs.

Farming is not fun. It's not a substitution for content. It's not some challenge or gauntlet to run to get rewarded for doing. It's mindless grinding and I think the genre is slowly, but surely weeding out tired old mechanics like mindless grinding and timesinks just for the sake of progression.

Will this ever be addressed?

Im sure it's all part of the strategy, but this game gives you just enough of everything to make you want to hang around for more.

I used to sympathise to some extent with those who complained about prices on the market, though I always felt it was being blown out of proportion, as the stuff you "need" - SOs or common IOs - were easy to get just from sellling the drops you get in normal play. Then, as a sort of experiment, I decided to read through some guides on the market forum, and see how much inf a new character I was starting (F/F tank) could make. Starting from scratch, and spending at most 10 minutes at the beginning and end of my play sessions doing a bit of buying/crafting/selling, after ~3 weeks and 30 levels, I have around 500m in cash/bids and another 400m or so worth of stuff up for sale. Making money is laughably easy.

It's worth noting that actually getting a specific set IO at a specific level (other than 50) is pretty hard. In many cases one appears on the market only every few days or even weeks. And most of the more desirable ones can be pretty pricey.

It usually takes me a few months (say, 2-6 months) to IO-out a level 50, but in part that's because I'm not willing to pay BUY IT NAO prices. Part of the issue is definitely waiting to see if another level xx Obliteration quad ever comes up for sale, for example.

As far as the game is concerned, generally it's easier to make ends meet now than it has been before Inventions and Recipes, as you can sell those at any vendor, as well as some other general changes to the way enhancements drop. So even if you deliberatly steered away from buying or selling anything on the market, or using the invention system to create custom enhancements, you are making more money now than before.

However, there are two specific problems that is unique to Praetoria.

PROBLEMS
1) The only Training vendor is in Nova Praetoria.
2) There are no Origin-based vendors in any of the three zones.

What does that mean? I'll tell you. It means that, although you won't have problems in Nova Praetoria in terms of buying and selling TO's at the best available price. Once you move to Imperial City or Neutropolis, a) you cannot buy or sell TO's at full value without making a trip to Nova Praetoria. And b) you cannot buy or sell DO's at full value anywhere in Praetoria at all.

Note: in Paragon City you can buy and sell TO's at full value in AP/GC/KR/Steel/Skyway at any vendor, at full price. You can sell them at full price at the TO store in Talos. This is the level range at which TO's still drop, and in all these cases there is no need to travel to a different zone in order to get full price for enhancements of all origins. Similar conditions exist in the Rogue Isles for MI/PO/Cap/Sharkhead.

What are the easy solutions to this?

SOLUTIONS
1) Allow all vendors in NP/IC/Neutro to buy and sell TO's at full market value.
2) Allow Origin-based vendors in IC and Neutro.

(in lieu of creating Origin-specific vendors in IC or Neutro, allow all vendors to buy and sell DO's at full market value)