CoH thoughts after a couple weeks

[dvandom]

Okay, I've gotten two characters up to level 15, experienced solo and team play (but not task force or supergroup) and done some thematically linked missions. I've more or less gotten the hang of the interface and dealt with the worst of my technical problems (although I still think I got the R'yleh patch...last night a text box trapped me). I will probably re-up for at least another month at this point, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be playing a lot once spring break is over. Here's some thoughts about the game so far.

1. While I've figured out how to take short breaks pretty easily, the game still demands too much of my attention to multitask. I haven't made a dent in my DVDs-to-watch pile all week, or my novels-to-read. I've started falling behind on other things, and it's kinda hard to hold up my end of any online conversation with friends who aren't on CoH. I'll probably pick some regular night once or twice a week and try to find regular partners to team with. Unfortunately, the group I've mainly been playing with this week wouldn't be a good option, simply due to time zone issues...I can't stay up until 2AM even on the weekend when I know I'm going to have to be up at 5:30 AM on Monday. So I'll need to find people who are available from, say, 8-11 PM Central.

2. I've decided that the "chargen" phase of play extends until level 14. Why 14? Because that's when the real travel powers, the ones any tabletop superhero game would let you have on day one, become available (flight, super jump, superspeed, teleport). Prior to L14, you either get around really slowly or find some variety of jetpack (some for pay, some for play, all of which have some kind of time limit and all of which may go against character concept). At L6 you can get a sort of hobbled travel power that's mainly useful in combat (hover, combat jumping) but won't get you across the map any faster than running. And given how much travel you need to do for missions, this is a serious issue. Besides, if you're playing a superhero, you should be able to move rapidly from the very start if that's your character concept. So, L14 is pretty much where you need to be in order to declare chargen over on most superhero concept. Street-levels can be complete at L1, of course, but if all you want is a guy with a gun or some martial arts skills, there's games that specialize in that kind of character.

3. I suspect a LOT of the game balance nerfery that annoys me (slow advancement, restriction of useful powers to higher levels, inability to freely swap stuff between alts, anti-griefing measures, etc) is there solely because of PvP concerns. In other words, if you're being schooled in the Arena by some L50, you at least want the consolation that he had to work his butt off to get there, and didn't just make an L50 to start with. The rest is likely due to the philosophy (that I vehemently disagree with) that you have to "earn" the right to have fun. That you can't get the nifty toys until you pay your dues in the trenches. It'd be nice if there was a server or ten dedicated to people who want to skip to the fun, and just do PvE, trying out all the various missions and power combinations and stuff. That, right there, is one of the biggest advantages a tabletop game has over most MMOs...if you want to start at PL20 in Mutants and Masterminds, you can. If you want to play a 10th level Prestige class in D&D3.5 without spending weeks playing the character up to that point, you can.

People who run MMOs should recognize that not all gamers want to grind up to the fun stuff every time, and make it an option. Have it on a separate server with no server transfer allowed, to keep the "cheaters" from infecting the serious servers. Because, as varied as plots like Lost and Found may be, I don't want to run through it every time I make a Mystic-origin character, just to get into the Midnighter Club. Sure, this adds some steps to coding (i.e. pick from a list of missions you want to have listed as having completed on the way up, which would start you with a set list of enhancements and salvage and stuff), but it'd still be a lot faster than playing through the first N levels.

4. I really prefer totally open power selection over the class-based trees. Sure, sticking to a tree makes for a more focused, efficient character. But I want the option to be inefficient. Why can't I have a tanker who forgoes a strong melee attack for a medium ranged attack? Or a blaster who grabs some better defensive powers? Sure, such characters will inevitably be less effective, but not every character has to be minmaxed. Just because most Battletech players sneer at the Shadowhawk (to present a parallel situation) doesn't mean it should be removed from the game, after all. Some of us like fielding Shadowhawks and then trying to win despite their inherent inefficiency. :)

Comments

[jkcarrier.livejournal.com]

3. I think the fear is that, if they let you have all the goodies right off, the novelty will wear off, you'll get bored, and stop paying that monthly fee. Whereas if you have a goal to work towards, you're more likely to be motivated and stick around.

4. Even within those defined classes, you have a certain amount of choice as to which powers to take, and when. And believe me, it is definitely possible to gimp yourself. I usually have to "respec" at least once or twice per character, as I find out that powers that sounded good in the description don't necessarily work out well in practice...

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we're pretty hard on early-work people on your side of the country. However, setting up to play earlier does work for weekends and for special days. There is a Livejournal group, city_of_heroes, where a large number of people hang out, and many of them do in fact play regularly at the earlier hours. Not all of them work as well together as "Possum" though.

It is kind of hard to multitask when actively teaming. It can be done but it isn't the best way to enjoy either activity.

The "chargen" phase ... the "heroic intro" ... actually does extend until perhaps level 20. The "travel powers" decision was one of the things that worked well in design and sucked in practice.
The intention was that new players would learn the ropes (and learn the difference between the smaller, but more dangerous maps in City vs. the huge, but arguably safer maps in EQ and WoW.) Not so much thought into how that would play out over time.

The addition of the atlas and king's row bank mission rewards being a temp-power jetpack and temp-power superjump pack, basically were provided to offset the profound pain of having no travel powers when the City of Villains was introduced. Let me digress a moment and tell you about Taxibots.

Back in the first year, I don't remember if it was the second or third "issue", they introduced ... The Hollows. It was huge. It was deadly. It caused vertigo on a small screen. And because there were large numbers of enemies, and because the missions were randomly distributed to FAR FAR AWAY DISTANT parts of the map, and because it was just generally a pain in the ass, the Taxibots came into being. They started on Freedom server. (I was Taxibot 54, one of the earliest Taxibots on Freedom.) The rules for being a taxibot were simple: You got yourself to one of several "stations" and broadcast that you were a taxibot, that you were offering free teleport to your location, and that individuals or teams should send a private message THEN invite to team, and you would teleport them to your location.

There was no hospital in the Hollows, no trainer. The only enemies were Trolls, Outcasts, the VERY rare Family (providing drugs) and of course the endless Circle of Thorns. That was until we discovered the horrible lava people, who would shred through anyone they hated. So the Taxibots thrived, and spread out to other zones where the need for speed combined with the lack of travel powers.

Sadly, the Taxibots were relegated to simply providing badge tours when the City of Villains came on the scene. The villain maps are even more extreme than the Hero maps, in terms of risk of dying. They provided Mayhem missions in the second (or third?) issue after Villains were introduced, and at the same time or very soon after, the same concept for heroes: Villains got to attack and destroy stuff, heroes got to defend stuff, both sides got a temp power reward for pulling off/preventing the heist. As an in-game reward, they are by definition "thematic" but they aren't necessarily in good keeping with a character's concept or look - but they're a reward you earned. And yes, you should be able to have the travel power and combat mode tied together but they didn't have time to implement that properly because the game was already late getting off the beta.

(more to come)

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

Are the Taxibots still around?

[foomf.livejournal.com]

In a few places, yes. Many of them on Infinity.

They mostly do Badge Tours, nowadays, but you can still find a taxi or two doing the Hollows and some of the other nasty zones.

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

I was Taxibot 30 on Guardian and Taxibot 69 on Virtue. Those were some good times.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

I actually had people recognize where "Taxibot 54" got his name.
Surprised me greatly :)

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

The police show?

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the one from the sixties.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

The "Must work up from the beginning" requirement is annoying - but it's the same as the crappy GM who insists that you restart all characters at L1. In fact, since the game engine is a heavily modified D&D MMO engine, it's pretty obvious why that's the case.
But they have made an effort to put lots of different content to make it fast to get there, and I can take a character from 1 to 14 within two days, now, even soloing. And that's about 10 hours of game time. There are shortcuts that people take. Nevertheless it would be nice to be able to just start out at a higher level.
Incidentally, except for the neat rp environment, there's not a whole lot about the Midnighter club that you really NEED until you hit 20 anyway, and 35 is the minimum for using that crystal thingy. So you could skip it until then. I have skipped it completely with some alts. And there really is a LOT of lower level content.

I agree about the open power selection, but they tried that in the alpha and it failed profoundly, which is why the people of Cryptic are doing it through a collection of more open and flexible trees in Champions Online. With this game, though, I just look at it as being similar to Marvel Supers or DC Heroes rather than Hero System. Hero System had a balancing element that they weren't able to figure out for this game, and the multiple attack modes and looks for the powers were a direct result of them having to go to trees. Before that, "claws" was the wolverine snikt followed by the claw flurry (which is no longer used.)

But your objections to the way powers are organized and crammed down into the Everquest in Tights format? That's pretty much being addressed (as much as they can) in the Champions Online game, but I would bet they're also looking at the same issue in City. If you look at recent new powersets (Dual Blades) they've been adding layers of complexity.

[viscous.livejournal.com]

You might like Champions Online when that comes out. I'm not sure if they set a date yet. I haven't kept up with its development like I did CoH in uh... 2001-2004 I guess? It sounds more twitchy, like something you'd play on an Xbox, but I am willing to try it before I judge (and hopefully they'll let me in the beta).