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City of Heroes/City of Villains - Who's still playing?
- Thread starter Ghostwind
- Start date
WizarDru
Adventurer
I avoided playing while some of my group got into it from launch. I only tried it back in February and was, as I feared, instantly addicted. I have both CoH and CoV now, and each has it's strengths and weaknesses, IMHO. CoH hasn't seen as much love since CoV went live, but it already had a year's worth of loving to go on, so it's hardly starved.
I missed a lot of the ups-and-downs of previous patches (and thus avoided the rage-inducing Issue 5 update, which drove some to unhappiness). Many improvements have been made since launch, as I find out whenever I ask my friends about how things USED to work.
I like CoV for it's better engine; it isn't sloppy coding that makes it require more hardware...it simply is a much more complicated set of zones. CoH's starting zones are a nice clean expanse of city blocks...CoV's starting zone is a virtual warzone. It is much more object-dense, with lots of improvised fences, piled crates and uneven terrain. The zones in CoV are generally just more diverse, even if somewhat less expansive.
CoH, however, is just generally more appealing to me in some ways, as I just enjoy being the hero more....even though I think the CoV archetypes (character classes, essentially) are slightly better designed.
Both games suitably support solo, duo and group play with equal finesse. One thing that Marius didn't mention was Badges, I think. Badges are both titles and sometimes they are actually benefits. You get them for completing certain missions, visiting certain locations or accomplishing some goal. For example, you earn one badge for climbing on top of City Hall and standing by the flag (I think that's the Patriot Badge). Another badge comes from defeating 100 members of the Skulls gang. Another badge is awarded for rescuing a mystic from the clutches of the Circle of Thorns. And one badge requires you to earn several other badges to earn it; when you do, you get a permanent reduction in your Endurance use for that character. And so on.
What I truly love about CoH/CoV is the unpredictability about it. There is a grind at points during some later levels, but nothing like I've experienced elsewhere. One of my favorite moments was after my wife and I had been playing for a few weeks, when I was running down a street in King's Row...and came face to face with a giant robot marching down the street, followed by an army of clockwork robots. It was a Paladin, and bore the classification of Giant Monster. And oh, how it kicked our butts. But it was super-fun. CoH/CoV has lots of moments like that.
A special set of missions is the Task Force (or in CoV, I believe it's a Strik Force): basically a set of linked missions with a central story that often gives a nice reward at the end...and usually features a battle with an arch-villian like the Clockwork King. They're extremely fun, as they require a minimum amount of characters to even attempt, provide lots of experience (in general, I've usually gotten two levels, per TF).
Death carries a minor sting; when you die, starting at 10th level, you get Debt. Debt is basically an XP penalty for coming back to life that you pay as you go. Until you're clear of it, half of you xp goes towards your debt. It's a very light penalty and I like the system.
I'm normally on Justice. My main characters are:
Bizarregoyle: Level 27 Stone/Stone Tanker
Professor Mesmerize: Level 22 Illusion/Storm Controller
Captain Intrepid: Level 12 Energy/Energy Defender
Vox Avenger: Level 8 Sonic/Energy Blaster
Nova Sword: Level 12 Broadsword/Invulnerabilty Scrapper
I missed a lot of the ups-and-downs of previous patches (and thus avoided the rage-inducing Issue 5 update, which drove some to unhappiness). Many improvements have been made since launch, as I find out whenever I ask my friends about how things USED to work.
I like CoV for it's better engine; it isn't sloppy coding that makes it require more hardware...it simply is a much more complicated set of zones. CoH's starting zones are a nice clean expanse of city blocks...CoV's starting zone is a virtual warzone. It is much more object-dense, with lots of improvised fences, piled crates and uneven terrain. The zones in CoV are generally just more diverse, even if somewhat less expansive.
CoH, however, is just generally more appealing to me in some ways, as I just enjoy being the hero more....even though I think the CoV archetypes (character classes, essentially) are slightly better designed.
Both games suitably support solo, duo and group play with equal finesse. One thing that Marius didn't mention was Badges, I think. Badges are both titles and sometimes they are actually benefits. You get them for completing certain missions, visiting certain locations or accomplishing some goal. For example, you earn one badge for climbing on top of City Hall and standing by the flag (I think that's the Patriot Badge). Another badge comes from defeating 100 members of the Skulls gang. Another badge is awarded for rescuing a mystic from the clutches of the Circle of Thorns. And one badge requires you to earn several other badges to earn it; when you do, you get a permanent reduction in your Endurance use for that character. And so on.
What I truly love about CoH/CoV is the unpredictability about it. There is a grind at points during some later levels, but nothing like I've experienced elsewhere. One of my favorite moments was after my wife and I had been playing for a few weeks, when I was running down a street in King's Row...and came face to face with a giant robot marching down the street, followed by an army of clockwork robots. It was a Paladin, and bore the classification of Giant Monster. And oh, how it kicked our butts. But it was super-fun. CoH/CoV has lots of moments like that.
A special set of missions is the Task Force (or in CoV, I believe it's a Strik Force): basically a set of linked missions with a central story that often gives a nice reward at the end...and usually features a battle with an arch-villian like the Clockwork King. They're extremely fun, as they require a minimum amount of characters to even attempt, provide lots of experience (in general, I've usually gotten two levels, per TF).
Death carries a minor sting; when you die, starting at 10th level, you get Debt. Debt is basically an XP penalty for coming back to life that you pay as you go. Until you're clear of it, half of you xp goes towards your debt. It's a very light penalty and I like the system.
I'm normally on Justice. My main characters are:
Bizarregoyle: Level 27 Stone/Stone Tanker
Professor Mesmerize: Level 22 Illusion/Storm Controller
Captain Intrepid: Level 12 Energy/Energy Defender
Vox Avenger: Level 8 Sonic/Energy Blaster
Nova Sword: Level 12 Broadsword/Invulnerabilty Scrapper
mrtauntaun
First Post
Paladin was cool. I came out of the train station in KR, took a left and almost got stepped on. Holy cow. I was a healer, so I started healing the one's doing the damage. It took 25 heroes to take this thing down! Very cool.
thatdarncat
Overlord of Chat
Yeah Giant Monsters and Archvillans were given some love this last patch - Most giant monsters are now supposed to take larger teams to kill.
Paladin is one of the really fun GMs. You don't get a badge for defeating him (just lots of xp and influence), the whole point is to stop him from being built in the first place. Every few hours clockwork will start building the Paladin somewhere in Kings Row. Heros gather to stop the construction. If enough clockwork are defeated, paladin will not spawn and you get a badge, Knight Errant. It's been my title for a while now
Croatoa has some great GMs as well:
Nessie is a lockness monster type GM. You don't get points for beating her, instead you have to "spot" her 3 times (target her and attack once, she spawns once every 20-60 minutes in various spots around the lake
Two giant monsters spawn at the north end of Croatoa. They spawn in a valley and fight back and forth until defeated. If you follow a fairly difficult process it's actually possible to cause them to spawn.... or so we've heard. We haven't done it yet, haven't had a big enough party to complete all the tasks within the required time.
Paladin is one of the really fun GMs. You don't get a badge for defeating him (just lots of xp and influence), the whole point is to stop him from being built in the first place. Every few hours clockwork will start building the Paladin somewhere in Kings Row. Heros gather to stop the construction. If enough clockwork are defeated, paladin will not spawn and you get a badge, Knight Errant. It's been my title for a while now
Croatoa has some great GMs as well:
Nessie is a lockness monster type GM. You don't get points for beating her, instead you have to "spot" her 3 times (target her and attack once, she spawns once every 20-60 minutes in various spots around the lake
Two giant monsters spawn at the north end of Croatoa. They spawn in a valley and fight back and forth until defeated. If you follow a fairly difficult process it's actually possible to cause them to spawn.... or so we've heard. We haven't done it yet, haven't had a big enough party to complete all the tasks within the required time.
Flexor the Mighty!
18/100 Strength!
I just got an email saying that my account was being reactivated for a week with the new Issue 7 coming out. Have the gameplay options expanded a lot with this new issue? If I got bored before is there anything to hook me on this with the new expansion?
WizarDru
Adventurer
Flexor the Mighty! said:
I don't think there's enough there for you to be re-interested. The new mayhem missions are lots of fun, but if you'd played as heavily as you had and got bored of it, I don't think you're going to suddenly find the I6 and I7's new content compelling enough.
The biggest additions are in CoV's Mayhem missions, the new PVP zone, the patron villian powersets and lots of new missions. CoH got less this time out, mostly lots of tweaks and a few other minor things. Both got a minor graphical upgrade.
PVP holds no interest for me, but the mayhem missions are extremely fun. Being able to actually damage the environment (like destroying cars, SWAT team trucks, bus stops and dumpsters) is quite fun, as are the various side-missions.
But if you were totally bored of CoX by that point, I don't think these will do much more than occupy you for a few days.
Flexor the Mighty!
18/100 Strength!
Thanks for the reply.
Respec = Respecification. Basically if you screwed up your character you can redo him. That mean choosing all powers and slots all over again. They usually give out 1 free respec per update. Free respec also do not stack(so you can never have more than one). Copy your character to test before doing a respec also. To access the free respec just type in /respec and it will take you to the respec screen. You can also do respec missions if you want and get more respecs. Hope thats helps
Hey I have some toons on liberty. If you need help send a tell to global id @viking698
Hey I have some toons on liberty. If you need help send a tell to global id @viking698
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