Devs Top Ten

The devs get bashed a lot here (travel suppression, ED, etc etc), but I have been noticing that they have really renewed my interest lately. So here is my top ten list of things that the devs have gotten right (this is in no particular order). I am sure that I am forgetting some of the “oldies” changes, but still like my list:

1) SSK—it’s hard to remember what life was like before the super sidekick. The thought of exemping only for influence (which, by the way, couldn’t buy you much) seems barbaric now. This system changed the game in many ways and probably extended the life of the game by a number of months, at least, by making it easier to find teams.
2) City of Villains—I am still more of a blueside guy, but this novel idea added a huge layer of complexity and thinking about your character’s bio that didn’t exist before it came online. Not to mention new ATs. I know corruptors and dominators were kind of just a switching of the primaries and secondaries of trollers, blasters and defenders, but they worked out amazing well. Brutes are pretty close to Tanks, too, but don’t you need a meatshield? The stalker and mastermind as a concept are pretty cool.
3) Weekly Task Force—I know that this is new, but I love it. It is amazingly easy to find a TF/SF now. I hope that doesn’t change. I love that other TFs/SFs will get some love eventually, too.
4) Posi TF—Do I need to explain? Although the nostalgia of doing the marathon-no stamina Posi is interesting, I actually ENJOY the new one and it is not just something I want to accomplish for the accolade.
5) Going Rogue—How great that you can play an AT from the “opposite” side and make the content feel new because you have to play in a new way?
6) Praetoria—I am actually one who hasn’t found my love for Praetoria itself, but kudos to the devs for brand new low level content and a way to start your AT in a new way.
7) Faultline Revamp—anyone else remember doing that ONE vahz hunt mish in Faultline then never entering again? The 4 arcs are worth doing and the zone itself is interesting.
8) Wentworths and University—Another thing that is hard to remember being without. I remember the end of TFs just getting an SO and loving that. Now we craft all sorts of enhancements that do not expire and can include special bonuses, as well.
9) Mission Architect—Before you slam me for the way people exploit, think about it. A whole system where you can create pretty much any content that you want? Really? I haven’t done an AE mish in months, but I still love that I COULD do one!
10) Ouroboros—Just the ease of travel alone is awesome, but being able to do one-person TFs and content that you have (maybe accidently) passed up, that is pretty awesome!

Typing this list made me think of many other cool things the devs have done (inherent fitness is one). Any thoughts?

How about encouraging and/or not interfering with many of the 3rd party apps that help all of us play (ie, Mids, Map Pack, Splasher, Herostats, etc.) ... and Real Numbers. These make a fun game even more fun for me!

Making sure demoediting worked with Ultra Mode. I could have kissed Ken Morse at HeroCon 2009 when he told me that.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

For me the number one thing on the list is Inventions. Without those, I would have quit playing years ago.

Here's mine, in no particular order:

1) Mission Architect. Exploits aside, creating and playing other people's content kept me entertained for months. It's also what got me to really start participating on the forums.

2) Inventions. So many ways to build our characters now. And I can play Dark Armor without wondering where all my end went.

3) The expanded difficulty slider. Pretty much necessary with Inventions.

4) Ouroboros. I never have to worry about outlevelling Spelunker again. And if I'm bored, I can always go whack some AVs for Maria.

5) Sideswitching. So many more concepts are possible now that AT and alignment aren't locked together. Plus, I can play support characters blueside now.

6) Power proliferation. I love my Storm Corruptor, yes I do. My Rad/MM Blaster is pretty fun too, but mostly I love having Storm Summoning for Corruptors. I guess I'd add APP proliferation to this as well.

7) Power customization: No longer must Dark Armor make you into an amorphous ball of fluff. No longer must Invul make you glow like a lightbulb. No longer must I match my costume to my powers. Now if only we could have it for APPs....

8) The return of the 5th. I started playing in i3, so I never got to see them before they were replaced by the Council. They're just...more fun to fight. Bonus points for the way they were brought back, with the Ouroboros mission with the room full of them.

9) All those little QoL additions over the years. Trains to everywhere, auto-exemping for TFs, jetpacks, email with attachments, SSK....all the things that let me spend more time playing and less time preparing to play.

10) Endgame. I may not like the current multi-team raid/Praetoria focus, but I like that after all this time I have a reason to dust off the characters I've come to love to do more than just run paper missions.

Inventions
A merits
Patrol XP
Side Switching
Vanguard Belt
Valkeryie Belt
Magic Pack Shoulder Fur
Dual Pistols
EATs
O portal

Preatoria comes off my List.
1. More unobtainable Badges
2. People start in Preatoria, then whine because they cannot leave until 20, out level contacts via Holiday Missions and whine because they cannot find a contact.
3. Power Suppression in Auction House. Great idea, except that you don't even have swift, I feel I am using the [Walk] power.

Inventions should be up there before AH/Universities, because without Inventions there is no need for University and Auction House.

I love AE/MA just they don't keep it up to date. We got the Werewolves and Zombies from Halloween, but no Witches. Since Tips "Rogues Gallery" has not been added, or atleast expand the levels of their counterparts to 1-54. But still AE/MA should be higher on the list.

I am glad they Revamped Posi, but the Hero TFs still don't have the Epic feel of the Villain SFs. Cap - The Cave witht he Flaming Chickens, Infernal, the AV; Silver Mantis fighting on the Skyraiders Platform; Renault Fighting Catlyst and the Eye; Silver Mantis and the Crystal CAve Room. All of thes have an Epic feel to the finish. The Hero TF's need a little bit of that.

I don't mean to sound too pestimestic, because I really love the game as a whole. But there are a few old things that should be addressed while also adding new content.

No particular order:

1) Power proliferation - we need more of it but I love what we have too.
2) Side switching
3) APPs added to Villains (now one day let's get Patrons for Heroes!)
4) Inventions
5) Incarnate and End Game - finally a reason to focus on my 50s again! Can't wait to see more and more of the Incarnate abilities
6) Just a general nod that the Devs keep trying to outdo themselves with new mission technology that allows for more immersive story telling like Doppelgangers, branching story lines, etc. This also includes redoing old TFs like Posi. Keep it up, I love revamp'd content.
7) Praetoria - just a beautiful zone. So much to do and I've only scratched at the surface still (got too busy with my 50s and Incarnate system!).
8) New powers such as Demon Summoning, Dual Pistols, Shields, etc. - new powers (and proliferation) is what gives us more reasons to create even more alts. Gimme!
9) Epic Archetypes - more please! Really enjoy these, even if I don't play them all I like having the options they provide.
10) Mission Architect - very awesome system. Let's us create and experience just about anything.

Global Chat goes on the list for me.

Pocket D: In one package provides a transportation hub, a place for occasional holiday events, a designated zone for people to actually talk in character (even if they get sort of creepy at times), and a solid place for multiple npc groups to have members show up and just dance.

Top Ten Acts of Dev-iousness.

In no particular disorder:

1) Freem.

2) Ouroboros: A time travelling system that now allows your character, who began their career as a villain but is now a hero, to somehow travel back in time to enjoy those golden days of early herodom they never had.

3) Power Proliferaaaaasshhhuuuuuuunn..nnn...nn....<sputter. .. die> Off to a great start, faltered in turn three.

4) Loot Proliferation: Merits and Tickets and Drops, oh my!

5) Badges: Batches? We don' need no steenking batches! Wait... what am I saying?! More badges! Give me badges for going AFK! Give me badges for playing in a battle with one hand while using the other to separate my fighting cats! Anything! Just give me more badges!

6) Invention System: For the great Invention and Set Enhancements, yes... but also for the great fun of getting a Human Blood Sample drop from a Clockwork and a Chemical Formula from a Troll. (It was probably an ingredient list copied off a soda can.)

7) The Level Cap: Or, more specifically, sticking to their guns about not raising the level cap past 50. I will assume they do this because of a deep sense of integrity and belief in a decision correctly made. As opposed to a deep sense of laziness about not wanting to write all new content, powers, animations, zones, etc that a higher cap would entail.

8) Side Switching: Because some days even Spiderman looks at that empty wall in his living room and thinks "ya know... I want a big screen plasma and JJ doesn't pay ****"

9) The Issues: Well, that one Dev has a serious issue about bathing regularly... no wait.. not those kind of issues. I greatly appreciate all the regular free content we get from the Developers. While some might say it doesn't happen often enough and others may claim it ain't free if we're paying a monthly fee... my response is and always will be "They really didn't HAVE to do it this way in the first place."

10) The Forums: This kudo goes out to the Moderators as well. The CoH Forums are clean, fun and more of a community than the "vent-your-spleen" cesspool of other forum sites I've perused. In addition to this, the Devs actually READ them! Highest commendations all around for this.

No mention of inspiration combining? For shame! For shaaaame!

An open letter to NCsoft

Here's a few of mine, in no particular order, that haven't been mentioned or that I had additional comments for. I am trying to pick ones that haven't been mentioned.

~ Respecs. Early on I deleted and rerolled my Claws/Invuln scrapper from scratch four times because of messed up builds.

~ Auras. The initial game didn't have them. They are awesome and still a better customization than any other game I have played.

~ Ninja Run. I can't begin to explain the amount of joy this one power has given me. Since I run a lot of natural, gritty characters it really fits. It's also just fun to navigate using it. Best of all as someone who doesn't like the default run and jump animations on regular body types, having an alternative like this is really awesome. I can't wait for Beast Run and hope for other alternatives in the future.

~ Inherent Fitness. I found myself playing the 1-20 game. *Playing* Not leveling up to 20 like I did previously, but actually playing the game and enjoying the missions.

~ Katana animations rework. To this day they really are awesome and stand up to the newer work.

~ Alternate animations for Martial Arts and Super Strength. Let's hope some are coming for Dual Pistols.

~ Praetorian Police boots, Resistance boots, and Sports boots. Before Going Rogue the game seriously lacked good boot options so adding three in the same update was awesome. More boots please.

~ Rikti War Zone. This is really the only solid high level zone they put out that gave my high level characters lots of new things to do. This is still, IMO, the best update for high level characters. I still play the arcs of this zone, and I still have to reduce the difficulty on my IO'd out powerhouses. Although the incarnate stuff is cool, it doesn't really add an entire zone like the RWZ did.

~ Magic Booster Pack. The "Baron" coat is my favorite general costume option added to the game and the collared cape with the shoulder overlay my favorite cape option. I wish they had the mantled cloak from that pack without the tall collar.

1: issue 19
2: issue 18
3: issue 17
4: issue 16
5: issue 15
6: issue 14
7: issue 13
8: issue 12
9: issue 11
10: issue 10

The game just keeps getting better with every issue.

1. Power Customization
2. Cimerora
3. Ouroboros / Flashback
4. Merged Transport
5. Zone Revamps
6. New Powersets
7. Powerset Proliferation
8. A-Merits
9. Super Side Kicking
10. Zone Level Restriction Removal

power custom is awesome as i finally got my elec tank!inventions made my nerfed to hell fire tank almost back to its old self!

but the best stuff is finally the newest high lvl content.thats what this game has lacked for 7 years and we finally getting it!

Can't believe I forgot one of my most important things:

- Power Customization - I freaking LOVE it. I really wish PPP/APP and Power Pools get this attention soon in addition to the Epic ATs (granted - in a limited spectrum most likely)

Also:

- Global Names and Channels
- Inspiration Combining
- Attaching INF and items to emails (tho let's get it so we can attach several items please!)
- Holiday/Seasonal events