City of Villians: Unsung "Winner" in CoH Freedom Upgrade
By
all_hell,
Posted on: 2011-09-27 07:56 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
You can thank War Witch and her strike team - they're the ones who did the low level revamp on both sides.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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I miss the snakes...|
Originally Posted by Oxmyx
Kudoes to the dev's and all who had a hand in the CoH's Freedom. I know the change in NCsoft's business model and overhaul on the Heroes side of things has gotten all the press, but the biggest winner, IMO, has been the "City of Villians." This most recent and dramatic tuneup has, for the first time, really put it on par with Paragon City and Praetoria. It has gone from coming across as a bit of an afterthought to a robust and dynamic equal-partner. The game play and narrative strikes me as being much more engaging. Great job!
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Now I'm going out of my way to thwack the poor buggers in Port Oakes.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
If you have characters low enough level who have already done missions from Burke and the rest, you can still get those missions.
@Doctor Gemini
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I'm curious how you think villain side needed a tune-up to compare to what was an abysmal low level experience blue side.|
Originally Posted by Oxmyx
This most recent and dramatic tuneup has, for the first time, really put it on par with Paragon City and Praetoria.
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I see it the exact opposite. Whereas villain side always had decent story arcs from level 1 up, blue side had the origin contacts and forgettable one-off missions, usually sending you all over hell's high acre before you had a travel power. With new villains I did contact missions. With new heroes I just did street sweeping, because the contacts were just that much of a waste of time.
Now with I21, hero side finally has some low level contacts worth spending the time on, not the other way around.
Gravvesssss
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One thing I would like to see (other than a way to switch off those accursed coins over people's heads) is an option to do EITHER Kuzmin's missions or the 'classic' Kalinda/ Burke/ Mongoose/ Creed missions.
Other than that, I'm generally comfortable with all the new features.
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.
I'm sorely disappointed with the low-level game villain-side, myself. I never played a villain and thought "This is evil, but it's not gross enough. Let's make it more disgusting." I can tell you this for a fact - I never want to see Arachnos soldiers piling Longbow corpses into a mass grave ever again, and I never will, because I will me getting the **** out of Mercy as soon as I can. I pray to all the gods that what happened to Mercy won't infect the rest of villain-side and that I will always be able to at least run the old missions, because this new view of villainy doesn't work for me as a person, let alone any of my characters.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Leave the snakes alone.
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Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
I miss the snakes...
Now I'm going out of my way to thwack the poor buggers in Port Oakes. |
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What's wrong with making the hiss-tory?
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Originally Posted by Beastyle
Leave the snakes alone.
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Because people get hiss-terical.
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.
Speaking of which, I miss the snakes, too. They were a cool, unique group that used their own special rig and had a very interesting backstory. What's more, I liked the 45-50 story arc that sends you back to Mercy to fight Elder Snakes, in how it resonated with a return to our roots. Now that the snakes are gone, the Elder Snakes arc makes less sense and is considerably less interesting.
What's worse, the Snakes were swapped out with Longbow, and if there's one thing that City of Villains will never, ever, EVER need more of it's more Longbow. I get enough of these guys just going through Nerva and beyond, where Longbow seem to constitute half the enemies we fight. Now they're 3/4 of the enemies we fight in Mercy Island, too.
I liked the Atlas Park rewrite so much more...
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I gotta agree with this. In a world of good and evil, I have felt that we have been missing the "evil" for a good amount of time, especially with all the co-op events/zones we currently have. I have never been able to get into villains and, since the revamp, I have very much gotten behind my Dark/Dark blaster.
Granted, the character is the embodiment of the Netherworld, with an unconscious need for disruption and destruction. So for him, the new more sinister arcs work. I can see where they would not work for some. But I cannot deny that I am pleased with the overall more rough experience.
@Winter. Because I'm Winter. Period.
I am a blaster first, and an alt-oholic second.
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you know, sam, one compromise i think that would work for both of us is for longbow to be more varied.yeah their powers can be tough, but for me, their biggest weakness is they are always the same, gunmen, stealth gunmen, special weapons gunmen, gunmen on jetpacks, ballistas, and super powered wardens. if they were as varied as the ppd, who have regular munitions, power armor, psychic and kheldian varieties, they might be less tiring, but the same boring one color scheme, low detail costumes wearing group with always the same powers, it makes them visually dull to fight. gimmie a martial arts, occult or mutant division(especially on the latter, we need more monstrous heroes) and they will be a lot less dull to engage, and the powers will make fights more varied.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Speaking of which, I miss the snakes, too. They were a cool, unique group that used their own special rig and had a very interesting backstory. What's more, I liked the 45-50 story arc that sends you back to Mercy to fight Elder Snakes, in how it resonated with a return to our roots. Now that the snakes are gone, the Elder Snakes arc makes less sense and is considerably less interesting.
What's worse, the Snakes were swapped out with Longbow, and if there's one thing that City of Villains will never, ever, EVER need more of it's more Longbow. I get enough of these guys just going through Nerva and beyond, where Longbow seem to constitute half the enemies we fight. Now they're 3/4 of the enemies we fight in Mercy Island, too. I liked the Atlas Park rewrite so much more... |
For years people complained about "all snakes all the time" and now that they're gone, people complain about their absence. Just goes to show that you can't please everyone. 
But I have to agree, I kind of liked them... and I'm already really tired of LongBow.
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Honestly, I just wish "good" as a methaphysical concept weren't so inexorably linked to Longbow, so that villains could fight heroes without necessarily fighting Longbow by default. There are more heroes, even just in the Isles, than just Longbow. Why do we almost never see the Legacy Chain except as pets for Longbow and why do we almost never see Wyvern? Why couldn't the Rogue Isles Police been an actual, functioning police force to act as another hero group? Why couldn't we have had a local resistance against Recluse? Why can't the Scrapyarders have been painted in a bit less of a dickish light and had them serve as heroes?|
Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake
you know, sam, one compromise i think that would work for both of us is for longbow to be more varied.yeah their powers can be tough, but for me, their biggest weakness is they are always the same, gunmen, stealth gunmen, special weapons gunmen, gunmen on jetpacks, ballistas, and super powered wardens. if they were as varied as the ppd, who have regular munitions, power armor, psychic and kheldian varieties, they might be less tiring, but the same boring one color scheme, low detail costumes wearing group with always the same powers, it makes them visually dull to fight. gimmie a martial arts, occult or mutant division(especially on the latter, we need more monstrous heroes) and they will be a lot less dull to engage, and the powers will make fights more varied.
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I'm sick of Longbow because the game treats them as the default skin for "heroes" when they're just one organisation with suspect authority. It's never good vs. evil, it's always Longbow vs. Arachnos, and I'm getting more than a little sick of that.
I liked the Snakes because they were unique and interesting enemies. Longbow are the polar opposite of unique and interesting enemies, and nothing will really change that. You can turn them into the Council in terms of variety and they'll still be "good guy stand-ins" because that's what the story treats them as. Until the game's narrative divorces "good" from "Longbow," I'm going to have a problem with fighting Longbow as one-size-fits-all heroes, which they expressly are not.
I'm sorely disappointed in the new Villain content, because it makes our characters obsessed with blowing up Longbow bases and kicking puppies. I much prefer the old CoV Launch content and would very much rather do that, but that's gone, even if the contacts still exist.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Thankfully all the old arcs can be flashback'd. And I'm glad Burke makes a cameo during the new Fire Wire arc. He's still looking out for the Rogues in the Isles. |
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I'm sorely disappointed in the new Villain content, because it makes our characters obsessed with blowing up Longbow bases and kicking puppies. I much prefer the old CoV Launch content and would very much rather do that, but that's gone, even if the contacts still exist.
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There's also a decision you can make early on that comes back in a good way later on in Mercy. Plus you do get a choice of whether a contact lives or dies (although the message you get when you try to call them is stupidly written).
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Originally Posted by Dispari
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They call it the City of Villains for a reason. Personally, I love to see those vigilantes get their comeuppance. My most recent Villain laughed when they got shot. Welcome to redside. It's evil here. |
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I can tell you this for a fact - I never want to see Arachnos soldiers piling Longbow corpses into a mass grave ever again,
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Originally Posted by Beastyle
Leave the snakes alone.
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
What's wrong with making the hiss-tory?
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@Roderick
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There's something about a PG rating in there, and also something about different kinds of evil, only one of which is "disgusting." And people reading this, please don't bring Rogues up. Those aren't available until level 20.|
Originally Posted by Daemodand
They call it the City of Villains for a reason. Personally, I love to see those vigilantes get their comeuppance. My most recent Villain laughed when they got shot. Welcome to redside. It's evil here.
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Mass graves and piles of corpses may be legitimate villainy in some people's books, but as far as I'm concerned, I prefer to avoid that sort of thing. I prefer to write villains less obsessed with... Being Crosscut and more with achieving grandstanding objectives ruling the world.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Ok, first of all, Mass Graves?! How did I miss that? and second, how is that not villainy? |
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
There's something about a PG rating in there, and also something about different kinds of evil, only one of which is "disgusting." And people reading this, please don't bring Rogues up. Those aren't available until level 20.
Mass graves and piles of corpses may be legitimate villainy in some people's books, but as far as I'm concerned, I prefer to avoid that sort of thing. I prefer to write villains less obsessed with... Being Crosscut and more with achieving grandstanding objectives ruling the world. |
Seriously, I do prefer players being able to select the exact...degree of evil that they are willing to pursue. I was uncomfortable on one level of killing some longbow just because she broke someone's heart...but most of my evil characters would totally do it.
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Originally Posted by Beastyle
Leave the snakes alone.
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Fixed that for you.
And NO!
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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What did they improve redside? All I saw were downgrades.
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Originally Posted by Oxmyx
Kudoes to the dev's and all who had a hand in the CoH's Freedom. I know the change in NCsoft's business model and overhaul on the Heroes side of things has gotten all the press, but the biggest winner, IMO, has been the "City of Villians." This most recent and dramatic tuneup has, for the first time, really put it on par with Paragon City and Praetoria. It has gone from coming across as a bit of an afterthought to a robust and dynamic equal-partner. The game play and narrative strikes me as being much more engaging. Great job!
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I never really complained about the snakes. Honest!|
Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
For years people complained about "all snakes all the time" and now that they're gone, people complain about their absence. Just goes to show that you can't please everyone.
But I have to agree, I kind of liked them... and I'm already really tired of LongBow. |
Now Longbow. Oh dear BOB the Longbow!
I could DEFINITELY do with, while not an elimination, a definite dispersion of them amongst more plentiful non-Longbow content.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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Subjective opinions notwithstanding, they improved server performance by not giving instanced missions to very low level characters.
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Originally Posted by Cake
What did they improve redside? All I saw were downgrades.
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SadysCHICK ALL the Badges! (I can get. 1396)
Full image by David Nakayama
Arc ID 1435: Performing without Annette
Arc ID 7206: Sadystic Tendencies
Arc ID 3864: The Chronicles of (In)FERNIA!
Kudoes to the dev's and all who had a hand in the CoH's Freedom. I know the change in NCsoft's business model and overhaul on the Heroes side of things has gotten all the press, but the biggest winner, IMO, has been the "City of Villians." This most recent and dramatic tuneup has, for the first time, really put it on par with Paragon City and Praetoria. It has gone from coming across as a bit of an afterthought to a robust and dynamic equal-partner. The game play and narrative strikes me as being much more engaging. Great job!