A few questions from someone interested.

I just got done playing Runes of Magic for a few months and I'm looking for something different. CoH looks great and something I might really enjoy. I just have a few questions about this game.

First off, if I buy Going Rogue, will I need to buy CoH and CoV to get the complete game experience? Can I just play Going Rogue and have a great time.

Secondly...if there is no loot in this game, what keeps you going later on? Most of the fun I had in RoM was doing instances to get gear to make myself more powerful or to sell to others. I really like the whole economy in games and I'm afraid that there's not one in this game and I"ll eventually get bored.

I just don't want to get invested in a game that will soon become stale to me.

Also, does anyone know exactly what comes with Going Rogue? I couldn't find a package list or anything. Is it just the expansion? Is it the expansion and the previous City of Titles? Is there a subscription card with the game or will I have to buy one separately to even start playing?

Thanks in advance for the answers and hopefully I'll see you guys in game.

Hey there, welcome to City of Heroes, both the game and the forums.

1} Going Rogue is an expansion for CoX {CoH and CoV have officially merged into one game a while back}; while it does add several new zones with a lot of new content, the majority of content overall is in Paragon City or Rogue Isles. So, yes.

2} There is loot, specifically in the form of Invention Origin enhancements {"IOs"} and the recipes and salvage needed to make them, but the game is not loot-oriented. While you can use IOs to minimax or even just stuff a few more percent benefit in any given power, you can also cheerfully play with store-bought enhancements. But, since you're interested in the economy aspect, there's plenty of ebil marketeering you can get interested in.

3} The full list can be found on ParagonWiki, but a quick overview would be three new zones with a bunch of story arcs, a morality system that lets you switch from hero to villain and vice versa, and four powersets not otherwise accessible.

4} The expansion is a one-time purchase - while there is the running cost of game subscription, you don't pay more or less for having bought Going Rogue.

An open letter to NCsoft

Hi! Welcome to the game!

You get heroes and villains with going rogue, because the "going rogue" zone is only lvl 1-20. After that you become a hero or villain, and off to the respective land you go.

Oh there's an economy in this game all right! Heroes have Wentworth's consignments, and villains have the Black Market. they used to be seperate, but got merged recently.

IF you buy the boxed expansion you get more costume parts, a couple of stances for your characters, temporary power, a couple of cool auras, and a month of free game time.

Hope it helps

One other point: as a new player, you will only be able to make your first character in Praetoria (the new expansion). After that, you can make them there, Paragon City (the Hero side) or the Rogue Isles (the villain side).

Ok, so just to make sure before I go pick it up tomorrow. If I buy Going Rogue, I'll have the entire game Coh/CoV/GR and will have a free month subscription? If so, I'm definitely going to get it.

Thanks for the answers guys and I'm glad to hear there's an economy in the game , I'm sure it will keep me plenty busy.

One more thing...I love archers in most games and saw in a CoH photo that there's someone with a bow. So I take it you can be an archer in this game? If so, I'm gonna have to make me a Hawkeye.

Yes, there are several archetypes that use bows - blasters, defenders and corruptors can use the Archery powerset, while controllers, defenders and dominators(?) can use the Trick Arrow powerset.
{I think, I can't reach ParagonWiki to double-check}

An open letter to NCsoft

Thanks again guys. I know I can't make hawkeye, I just want a sweet superhero archer :P. Anyways, I just finished downloading the trial and I can't stop the screen from flickering. I did the ATI hotfix and put dx9 on hoping it would fix. I'm on win 7 64bit. Doesn't look like I"ll be getting this game. Thanks for all the answers though

Before you give up, post in the technical help section. There's a program or two you can run that will generate a list of your machine's settings, and volunteers reading the forums will advise you on what to tweak to fix this. They've helped a lot of people.

Notes:

* The content in this game, aside from the ever popular shooting people, consists mostly of reading the flavor text. There are reasons WHY you're shooting people in the face, other than "Blue Steel needs ten Clockwork Ears. Why doesn't this Clockwork have two ears?"

* The game doesn't start at max level; it's all game. Things to do after you reach max level include "do all the content you missed", "obsess about making money", "obsess about collecting badges", "obsess about Super Group base design", "build your character into a cutting-edge death machine", "start another character", "build missions in Architect Entertainment", etc. I mostly build other characters, juggle pickup groups, and attempt to single-handedly rebalance the entire market.

I've seen some truly amazing supergroup bases, but I don't have anywhere near the patience to do that.

Hope you can fix the flickering. I'm not good at this stuff, but have you tried running in windowed mode?