Returning Player Diary

It strikes me it might be useful/interesting (for me, if no one else) to keep an informal log of my return to CoH as a 'free' player, albeit one with 'tier 9' access. I suspect I'll transition to VIP fairly soon as I'm already chafing under certain restrictions placed on free accounts, so best to start this now.

First a little background, for those unfamiliar with my previous forum tenure:

I started playing at release and kept my account up until about a year ago, when IRL decided it was time to feed all my discretionary time to my small son. When he was tiny I was able to log on fairly regularly, if not for any great length of time, but when he hit 2 playing didn't really work any more so I let my account lapse. I was still playing a bit, but not nearly enough to justify a subscription.

Cut to last week, when the advent of preschool caused a shift in his sleep schedule that left me with a little slice of time to myself in the evening. I thought I'd check out 'that other' Superhero game, which had gone 'free to play' almost immediately following its release. I'd tried the previous 'CoH killer' and found it wanting- this experience was similar, although I soured almost instantly on the weird gameplay contortions imposed by console development.

Just before I left the first rumors of CoH adding a 'free to play' option were floating around and I'd seen an article about it when they finally rolled it out, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

There's enough new stuff around that I figured I'd roll an alt to check it out, which brought me up against my second discontent with 'free to play' (after being locked out of most of the forums)- VERY FEW server slots.
Like, nearly none.

As someone with several servers full of beloved, oft played characters this came as an unpleasant, if not unexpected, shock.
Where to put this new alt?

The answer, after checking several servers I was sure would be empty only to find rosters of alts as far as the eye could see, was Infinity.

So LIZARDROID was born- part lizard, part droid, all electric/electric scrapper!

The makeover they gave the character creator is AMAZING.
Vastly improved, esp, compared to my attempt to create a unique hero in 'some other game'. I like that the few costume bits I don't have show up anyway- good salesmanship for the store, sure, but also lets me fiddle around with them- a couple of Imperium pieces would've fit right in with the Liz, I'll probably end up getting the set one way or another.

The tutorial is a bit of a mixed bag. The length is nice, it gets the point across without a lot of pointless running around (hallelujah!), its interactive in the modern style and I liked the look of the new Shivans.

When the great big shivan crawled up out of a pit I was excited- cool, fresh out of costuming and already taking on a gargantuan beast!

But....uh, wait a sec....it seems to me I'm not really doing anything other than marking time between bombing runs. I wonder what will happen if I just run up this hill and hang on on this wrecked car?

Oh, hey, look, Longbow bombers took care of it for me, and I didn't even have to keep dodging meteors.

A bit lackluster. Not that I'd expect to take it down myself at this stage, but it'd be nice to be able to do *something*.

Okay, off to chat with BAB and 'buy' my first item from the PARAGON STORE.

Neat interface, smooth transaction....if it works this nicely for 'real' purchases as for this badge color me impressed. I remember the endless struggles some folks had with paying for booster packs-this seems like a massive upgrade.

And.....off to Atlas!
Redundant as it was, I kinda miss the option to take Galaxy. I'm glad they wrote it off in the storyline instead of just lopping it off.

Woah, WTH! What happened to Atlas!
Really weird, seeing the building I looked at for 4 years get a facelift.
In game for about 60 seconds and I get an invite to a "DFB team"- is DFB the new Sewer team?
I won't be on for long so I politely decline and head for my contact.
The new waypoints are nice.

And my first missions is...bashing hellions. Good to know at least SOME stuff hasn't changed!

A little street sweeping makes me feel right at home, and then it's time to log off and clean the kitchen before bed. I head into City Hall, on the off chance that Day Jobs still exist- yep, there's the recruiter! Whew.


So far, so good.
I'll update as I get the chance to play, watch this space.

Also of note concerning DfB, which is short for Death from Below btw:

3 badges available for defeating the AV's in specific ways.

4 nice buffs available for completion. Buff to damage, accuracy, defense or recovery.
These buffs are global and last until level 22!

Needless to say, since the levels flow like candy inside the mini-trial, and it's dev sponsered PLing (they even dropped trainers at each interval!) a great deal of the player base now use it exclusively to level from 1-20's in 4 or 5 runs. Some even use it to go 1-50, as the xp never diminishes.

Runs take about 20-30 minutes. Less if you've got a good bit of damage/ aren't badging.

Edited: Reversed the names of the mini-trials. Thanks Shaman.

unexpected morning reprieve allowed me to finish a couple more missions.

So now you can call your contacts right from the get go?
NICE.

Rescued some citizens, I like the way they've dressed up a typical street sweep to make it more engaging. It seems like I'm getting way more inspiration drops than before- I'm pretty much burning them as they come in.

Now I get to sneak into a hideout in a hellion costume- nicely done.
I don't mind "walk here, now walk there" missions so much if there's a little twist to them.

Time to level!

more later.

Yeah, welcome back, and stuffs. You sound like you're doing great, but I wanted to point out that if you applied an extra character slot to any server, that slot should still be there. You bought it and it's yours permanently.

But you still have to unlock specific characters.

Check on the upper left of the log-in screen. It'll tell you how many slots you have remaining. I think you click "Next" with a character selected as if you were going to enter the game, and it'll will ask you to unlock that character.

You DON'T have enough slots to unlock everything. You get 12 free slots with a subscription, so there's 12 slots you won't get back, unless you subscribe. But any other slots you bought (or freebies you applied) are still available.

Don't forget to speak with Twinshot in Atlas Park when you hit 5, 10 and 15 - she has some awsome story arcs that also act as tutorials for newer players.

Keep the reports up. While, unfortunately, much of the low-level revamp is limited to Atlas area, the Twinshot-based arcs, DFB, and DiB, it is a good step in the right direction. Still, at the current pace of leveling, that's enough to get you through the teens with only a few visits to older content (I even missed several Faultline arcs I usually take).

When you hit level 20-30, seriously consider paying for access to First Ward when you get the chance. You can explore the zone and street sweep easily enough without paying, but the arcs are worth it.

Since you're enjoying the new Atlas Park so much, when you get around to it, or find another available slot check out the Villain Side, as Mercy Island received a similar revamp though it's not as drastic as the one Atlas got.