City of Heroes

[javapadawan]

Sorry to hear that Hatchling.

Don't know if it matters, but the first big update is supposed to go live soon, adding new types of instanced indoor missions, plus instanced outdoor missions and a couple new areas and villain groups. Still, if its the gameplay that bores you, I doubt these will do much to bring you back.

Guess I'll see you in WoW!

 

[Felon]

Man, I keep reading good stuff about City of Heroes. It's tempting me into foregoing my "wait 6 months" rule for new MMORPG's.

So let me ask you guys about some stuff I'm not clear on after doing all that reading. First off, is it correct that there's no real type of stealthy character to build? Or are there powers like invisibility or intangibilty? If I show up at an instanced mission, do I just plow into bad guys immediately, regardless or whether I'm Batman or The Hulk, or do I get to do any sneaking around corners or creeping along catwalks?

I heard that characters do things in missions like find clues, download files from computers, and disarm bombs. Does this really add any dimension to doing missions? It seems like those elements would affect your tactics and perhaps encourage a degree of subtlety, but if they're just things you do to complete a mission after beating the snot out of the bad guys, then that's not really the case.

Do origins really mean anything for your character? So far, it sounds like the devs copped-out on doing anything with them. I know that there are different types of enhancements for different origins, but if one origin can all get the same enhancements that every other origin can get (just with different names), then that's not a meaningful distinction.

 

[Enforcer]

So let me ask you guys about some stuff I'm not clear on after doing all that reading. First off, is it correct that there's no real type of stealthy character to build? Or are there powers like invisibility or intangibilty? If I show up at an instanced mission, do I just plow into bad guys immediately, regardless or whether I'm Batman or The Hulk, or do I get to do any sneaking around corners or creeping along catwalks?

There are stealth powers. My character, The Water Dragon, has a power called Stealth, actually. It makes him shadowy looking, makes him move slower (but attack speed isn't affected), and gives him a healthy AC bonus. It's also a prereq for Invisibility. The Stealth set is a Power Pool. These are powers that any character may get, if they want. Other Power Pools include: Leaping, Flying, and Leadership. There are lots of others too.

I heard that characters do things in missions like find clues, download files from computers, and disarm bombs. Does this really add any dimension to doing missions? It seems like those elements would affect your tactics and perhaps encourage a degree of subtlety, but if they're just things you do to complete a mission after beating the snot out of the bad guys, then that's not really the case.

As far as changing strategies, no, they don't really affect anything. Though, I suppose you could run around with Invisibility active and just defuse bombs... Most people still kill all the mooks for the XP. But, there are cool missions where you get to try out special R&D tech--basically new, temporary powers. Stuff like Flashbangs and Electric Gloves that are especially fun for Scrappers and Tankers, because they're ranged attacks.

Do origins really mean anything for your character? So far, it sounds like the devs copped-out on doing anything with them. I know that there are different types of enhancements for different origins, but if one origin can all get the same enhancements that every other origin can get (just with different names), then that's not a meaningful distinction.

Not for enhancements, though I think the names on the enhancements do add some flavor. But, your contacts, especially your starting contacts, have a lot to do with your origin. The storylines that unfold have so far been pretty cool.

 

[DMScott]

As far as changing strategies, no, they don't really affect anything. Though, I suppose you could run around with Invisibility active and just defuse bombs...

Actually, that can have an effect on strategy. Many missions don't require you to take out all the bad guys to complete, so if you're short on time sneaking around and just doing what you need to do is a viable tactic. As well, there's a line of sight component to the aggro code - if you attack a bad guy out of sight of his friends (including behind their backs), they're less likely to wake up and come after you. So if you go straight at a group, you probably end up fighting all of them at once; if you sneak around and find the best angle, you can often pick them off piecemeal.

 

[javapadawan]

Another note about the invisibility stuff... I did read somewhere that the CoH team plans on adding some mission types in which stealth will play a more prominent role. I'm not sure if they were referring to the upcoming patch or a more distant future goal, though.

On an unrelated note, Super Leaping is the best power EVAR.

 

[Felon]

Thanks for the info, guys. You've given me the little push I needed to go buy the game yesterday. Even called in sick to start playing today--so of course, the servers are down. Is this a common occurence?

I made up blaster called Dr. Dynamo on the Infinity server. Looks like each of the different blaster powers has a different effect in addition to damage. Energy and rifle cause knockback, ice slows, fire has a DOT effect, and electricity drains END. I chose electricity as my primary and secondary power, but draining END sounds like the weakest of all the blaster effects--I mean, if the END drain is minimal compared to your damage, I'm gonna knock the guy out before he gets exhausted anyway, right? I mean, the bad guys are designed to go the distance in terms of endurance, aren't they? I can easily rebuild, but I kinda like electrically-powered heroes--they're not terribly overdone in comics, relatively speaking.

 

[Simplicity]

Thanks for the info, guys. You've given me the little push I needed to go buy the game yesterday. Even called in sick to start playing today--so of course, the servers are down. Is this a common occurence?

I made up blaster called Dr. Dynamo on the Infinity server. Looks like each of the different blaster powers has a different effect in addition to damage. Energy and rifle cause knockback, ice slows, fire has a DOT effect, and electricity drains END. I chose electricity as my primary and secondary power, but draining END sounds like the weakest of all the blaster effects--I mean, if the END drain is minimal compared to your damage, I'm gonna knock the guy out before he gets exhausted anyway, right? I mean, the bad guys are designed to go the distance in terms of endurance, aren't they? I can easily rebuild, but I kinda like electrically-powered heroes--they're not terribly overdone in comics, relatively speaking.

Endurance drain actually does seem to be relatively weak against normal schmoe minions. Against BOSSES, however, endurance drain wins the day
for me all the time. Minions don't actually seem to use all that much of their
endurance... But bosses go through endurance like crazy. One shockwave, and they're sitting there staring stupidly at you as you wail on them. The endurance drain of the actual attacks seems pretty minimal as far as I can tell though, but then, I don't have any enhancements on end drain yet.

Brine Justice is an Electricity Blast/Electricity Manipulation character.
He's certainly not underpowered... Buildup + Zapp = virtually free xp.

 

[Enforcer]

Thanks for the info, guys. You've given me the little push I needed to go buy the game yesterday. Even called in sick to start playing today--so of course, the servers are down. Is this a common occurence?

Yes. Every morning starting at 8am Central, the servers go down for maintenance. The maintenance is scheduled for 8am-10am, but sometimes will be completed before 10am. The City of Heroes Website has a Server Status link that you can use to see if your server is down or not.

Outside of the daily maintenance, I've only ever lost a connection twice (in my many hours of play...though I'm an amateur compared to javapadawan and Greywarden).

 

[Greywarden]

Outside of the daily maintenance, I've only ever lost a connection twice (in my many hours of play...though I'm an amateur compared to javapadawan and Greywarden).

Ah yes... the infamous Greywarden. By day (4pm-midnight) a mild-mannered security supervisor by night (midnight-loss of conciousness) a proector of the streets of Paragon City.

Most of my connection losses have been due to local DSL service interuptions, or ISP related difficulties (Despite much mockery from my friends I still use AOL) and the game runs surprisingly well on dial-up as I discovered during one of the above mentioned DSL service interuptions... this is not however a recomendation for playing on dial-up connections. As a whole the game has been far less buggy than most of the non-online games I've played lately... which says quite a bit when you stop and think about the increased complexity of a game like CoH as compared to say ToEE (Buggy but fun).

 

[Felon]

Endurance drain actually does seem to be relatively weak against normal schmoe minions. Against BOSSES, however, endurance drain wins the day for me all the time. Minions don't actually seem to use all that much of their endurance... But bosses go through endurance like crazy. One shockwave, and they're sitting there staring stupidly at you as you wail on them. The endurance drain of the actual attacks seems pretty minimal as far as I can tell though, but then, I don't have any enhancements on end drain yet.

OK, I'm only 6th-level so I haven't soloed any bosses yet. I'll have to see how that goes. It does sound like knocking foes around would be much more effective for a blaster though.

Fun game, but I think there needs to be a CoH version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Too many garish costumes out there....guys with pirate eye patches and King Tut beards...man, just 'cause you CAN add a belt and an insignia and shoulder pads and some other design elements to your hero, doesn't mean you mean you HAVE to.