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• • City of Heroes: Issue 13 Changes Interview

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    Originally posted by shohadaban
    

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    Originally posted by xBlackSabbat
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    [Edit]
    And yeah.. People like to play differently. I find the "sidekick leveling" system pretty cool.
    So if your friend would like to play this new character he has made then he wont have to feel bad about leaving you behind.
     
    Great idea! :]
    My friends and I have this problem all the time :P
    

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    The sidekick option already addressed that problem. This offline leveling will just be ripe for exploiting.
    Gold/powerleveling sellers are cheering over this

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    The sidekick option does NOT already address that problem. Yes, you can have your partner sidekick your character if they are outleveling you, but at some point it becomes and exercise in futility. My partner used to play many more hours than I did. His first villain, created over a year after mine, hit 50 long before mine did, simply because I never had the time to play the way he did. Kind of hard to sidekick a, say level 11 with no travel power, to a level 35, doing missions in their level appropriate zones. Ever try to navigate Nerva with no recall friend and no travel powers on the lowbie? Or Grandville? Grandville is sometimes a bit easier because you can 'walk' the lowbie to some missions, but other times it is near impossible to get around, especially if the mentor is fairly low to the zone.

    Exploitable? Sure it is. Who cares? What does that hurt you if someone else levels while offline because someone else is playing for them? Not a thing. The only thing that really begins to affect all of us is the annoying PL spammers (and inf spammers). Then we actually have to deal with it in a personal way. How or when someone dings affects no one but themselves.

    And then of course there is always the complaint that has been common with PL'd toons: They are 50s and don't know how to play. Truly, I have teamed (especially as an empath) with many of these. Incompetence can come in many forms. If you don't like someone's play style, you now have the personal player note which can track them across characters. It's a great feature for keeping track of those people you don't want to team with ever again.

    Me, personally? I'd love to be able to keep up with my partner. We have several pairs of characters and it usually winds up with him NOT playing those characters to try to avoid outleveling mine. This is tougher on him as he only has one account.

    The blaster empath duo is the one we have managed to keep right at the same level the entire time. These two were created at the same time, and have always been played together, with the exception of him exemplaring for some TFs to the get badges. (I no longer actively badge as I just simply cannot afford the time sink). Of course, my blaster (a blapper, really) could not survive effectively without the empath. The build is such that I am depend on him, and he depends on me. By design, story and concept.

    And really, if you think about this logically, I would venture to say the PL sellers are CRYING, not laughing. Why would I pay someone hard-earned cash if I can easily get a 'powerlevel' simply by using the new feature? I think it will ELIMINATE the need for the PL sellers, not enhance them. After all, either way they would need to access your account, and I am fairly certain they log in several mentor/lowbie combos at the same time. You would still have to have the "mentor" logged in, which would mean they would still need to engage the same process, just with less accounts simultaneously logged. Which, if you have a couple of computers with pretty decent hardware, isn't difficult. I have run four accounts on this computer at the same time before (usually for demo recording, item swappage/storage, etc). I regularly play two at once, and have a few times actually tried to play three at once. (Only 2 monitors, swapping between three is a bit tough).

    Denying the legitimate players features because someone *might* exploit it is counter-productive. Really, sidekicking period is exploited every single day. That is the core base of powerleveling. Does that mean it was not a valuable game feature? Nope. Live and let live, I always say. Let them powerlevel. I am not forced to team with them, so what difference does it ultimately make to me? None.

    I have to agree with xBlackSabbat - CoX is amazing. I am really pleased with the new game features and will probably be playing this game as long as it exists.
    

  • Posted: 10/01/08 4:33 PM
    General Discussion
• • City of Heroes: Issue 13 Changes Interview

  • Let's hope this is the truth:

    "Matt Miller:

    Our powers team is only rebalancing the most “over-powered” powers and these balance changes only take effect in PvP enabled zones. These changes will not affect the PvE gameplay experience in any way."

    
    

  • Posted: 9/26/08 12:47 AM
    General Discussion
• • City of Heroes: Musing on Superheroes

  • Very well written article.

    Being female, I never tied a towel around my neck. In fact, having three brothers, I inevitably was cast as the villainess. Much to their misfortune, they were all smaller and weaker than I, so unlike the comics and movies, evil usually triumphed over good, unless they caught me in a rare streak of altruism wherein I feigned ineptness to allow them to best me in the name of justice. I suppose letting them win was only fair vengeance for the "Cowboy and Indians" play when I would plait my honey blonde hair into two braids, and ambush them from the bare back of my paint pony and drag them off to be tied to a tree while I took a break from our imaginary play for an hour or so.

    I think the role-play games that allow us to temporarily immerse ourselves in long-forgotten childhood fantasies are a great escape from the pressures of day to day life. I don't have much free time during the school year. That first week of returning to Paragon City after a brush with death and finals week (yes, all in the same week) was absolutely exhilarating! It felt wonderful just to forget the stress and blow off steam by cracking a few Arachnos heads.

    The City of games offer so much in the way of individual expression. The writer within me loves the ability to design such intricate and unique characters, and build their strengths and personalities as they advance through the levels of the game.

    I thank NC Soft for the great venue to relieve stress and enjoy my (very sparse these days) free time!

  • Posted: 8/11/08 5:02 PM
    General Discussion
• • City of Heroes: Character Respecs Available

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    Originally posted by ebonfire
    I agree that NCSoft has done a much better job managing then game then Cryptic ever did, but this still makes me a bit uneasy.
    Yeah on the villain side it is a pain to find Respec Taskforce because everyone that has a veteran account is stilling on more respecs than they'll ever need. I had a friend that I brought into the game try to find a respec taskforce.. lol good luck. Then I explained all the freebies that come with account age, and the freebies with new issues. He was not amused and felt like it was a aspect of the game that had been mismanaged... I'm sure $10 would have sat well with him at that point, pppfffftt well not really.
    I doubt this is going to make a dent in the RMT market, and heck if they would rebalance the pool drops in a way that made sense.. the RMT would have much less of an impact on the game.
    Oh yeah.. lol free expansions. I love that every time I see it because its such a spin on the truth. I mean as if its the only game that takes subscriber money and puts it towards new content.. other games call it game updates, publishes, chapters, or patches btw. Now it is turning into the only subscriber based game that I can thinking of which is slowly integrating a cash shop. Look for double xp potions next!

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    I bet there are a lot of people who would gladly pay for Double XP tokens. I would, on some of my characters. Good suggestion. They often schedule double XP weekends when I have other committments. I don't mind a cash shop at all. It's nice being able to purchase things I want for my characters without resorting to dealing with the scum-of-the-earth influence spammers.

    Perhaps you should suggest to your friend that he join a good, active supergroup. I've never had problems running any TF, SF or Trial. I just let the guys know I need something and tell them when I'd like to do it and often have to turn people away. There are also badge global channels that are great places to pick up folks to do a respec or task force. Badgers will do them solely for the badge, even if they don't need the respec. (The only reason I have ever done them). Often you can find people who will help just for the sake of helping out.

    I don't know much about SOE. I do know I don't trust Sony as far as I can throw them since they began installing rootkits on their customers' machines, so I tend to avoid anything made by/created by/run by them.

  • Posted: 8/05/08 1:14 PM
    General Discussion
• • City of Heroes: Character Respecs Available

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    Originally posted by TwwIX
    This game is slowly turning into a joke. First they started charging for emotes then renames and now respecs!? Don't like your toons name? Reroll! Picked the wrong powers? Run a respec trial! Want to pay 10 bucks for emotes? You are a fucking idiot!
    NCsoft is going to run this game into the ground with these microtransactions and their constant nerfs.
    I Am just glad that Cryptic Studios got rid of them.

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    Why is giving players what they have been ASKING for is a joke? I have seen many other games that were far less responsive to their player base.

    And FYI, no one paid ten bucks for emotes. The ten bucks was for the costume set, which included some emotes. Go to any 3D modeling program and see what two separate outfits (tux and bridal dress) would cost. In addition to those outfits, you also got special textures for other costumes they gave EVERYONE for free (Hearts, Angelic). I would have gladly paid the ten bucks even if the emotes weren't included. It's less than I spent on one gown for my 3D characters. And I had to PAY for my wings at the DAZ store. CoH gave them to me for free, just for being a loyal customer.

    Getting rid of Cryptic was the best thing NC Soft could have done for the game. It has improved 200% since then. Look at all they've GIVEN to the players, FOR FREE. The debt wipe and prestige grant. Upping the number of members for Supergroups. Upping the number of global channels you can belong to. Tons more costumes. Lots of touch-ups to the scenery. A complete remodel of the Hollows. Access to both games for those who owned only one side or the other FOR FREE. More content. And even more content. Many of these are things that players suggested or asked for. It seems NC Soft is willing to listen to its players, and that can't be a bad thing.

    Every issue is free. No one asks you to spend one dime more than the regular subscription to play this game if you don't want *the extras*. Why whine about things that others WANT to buy? It is merely giving others who are WILLING to spend the money the option to do so. Your character isn't going to change one bit if you don't buy the emotes, costumes, renames, or respecs.

    Players, LONG TIME players, have asked for the ability to rename characters, and to move them across servers. They've asked for special costumes. They've asked for purchasable respecs. NC Soft is just giving them what they want. Just because YOU don't want it, does not mean there has not been a great demand. Why should WE all do without because you can't or won't buy these things?

    Some people just want everything for nothing. If there is greed being displayed here, I am not seeing it on NC Soft's part. It appears to me to be coming from those who expect to be given and given and given, and don't want to give anything back in return.
    

  • Posted: 8/04/08 1:01 AM
    General Discussion