02.12.07
Posted in General at 12:36 pm by hot
Wondering where all of your guild leaders have wandered off to? We have been running the gamut of currently available games looking for some alternative fun to CoH. Don’t get me wrong, we still love The Cheese but needed a break to keep it fresh.
We have wandered through several games, trying different things including Titan Quest (Diablo III), Final Fantasy XI (Don’t ask about this one, it was sad!) and have finally found a new home in World of Warcraft. Whodathunk? We are really enjoying the game, it is a big world with lots to do and see. The most unfortunate part is that the team cap is 5!! We have been joined by a good friend of Soa and 8th’s which put us, with all leaders accounted for to a total of 6. This has been an issue that we have not been able to overcome yet. We have essentially had to split into 2 groups. . .Soa, 8th and “Intendant” (We have not yet discovered a pattern, or a true name for this one yet. . .ha ha ha) forming one. Vi, Slave and Hot in another and joined occasionally by Hot’s family members. . .
Another definite disadvantage is a definitive lack of travel power until level 40 (!?!?!?). And the worst part is that they don’t minimize travel to offset this. There is a lot of running around, and around and around and then back again (Remember whining about having to run across a zone before level 20? Yeah, that’s cake compared to some of the running we have done in the past coupla weeks). Still hoping that this will be resolved at some point but I’m kinda thinking that since the game has been around for several years and is at 8 million+ subscribers it’s not very likely to be changed soon. Now, I do have to admit that they have provided some travel in the form of public transportation. That is primarily from major city to major city. There is also transport from the smaller cities although that does cost to use. Even with that travel help, it takes a long time to get from place to place. And since all off the different races start in different areas there are times when one of us must literally run across the world at an early level to meet up with others so we can group.
Now that I have talked about all of the things wrong with the game let me talk about what they have done right. All of the classes and races are designed so that they can all be solo toons. Even the healers have enough attack power that they can level on their own if necessary, not that you general solo for long as a healer. However, I have a healer in CoH parked at level 6 since all of the guildies around that level have bypassed me. There is no way with that toon that I can really solo and none of us are really great at PuG’s since we aren’t usually really social people (Vi and 8th are the exceptions to this particular rule. Mostly Vi. . .Have no idea where she finds all those people!). The quests are fairly simple and you can kill of several at a time if you do it right. Levelling is fairly straightforward, so far have not had issues with feeling like “Can I just please level already dammit!”. Overall it is working out to be a good fit for us.
Anyway, no real point to this post especially since the posts have been dead for 8 months and the only people that usually read them are currently running WoW with us but since I am at work and bored outta my mind it’s given me something to do for the last half hour. Now I only have to kill off another 6 hours and I’m set!
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07.18.06
Posted in General at 12:50 pm by soabirw
8th and I are going to try and play this weekend for the nice Double Exp Weekend event. I hop on all the time, but nobody else is ever one so I end up logging right back off. Let me know if anybody else is planning to be on during the weekend.
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06.27.06
Posted in General at 9:22 am by hot
Finally, a new patch arrived this morning. . . .”Giant Monster, Arch Villain and Hero class entities’ regeneration levels reduced considerably”
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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06.11.06
Posted in Perma-Post at 2:37 pm by soabirw
In response to Soa posting his toons, I decided to do the same. . .So take that! (Ha Ha Ha) Same thing here, only posting the ones that are near and dear to me. . .the occasional alt passes through my life but sadly disappears almost as fast 
Triumph:
Hot N Iced - Lvl 50 Fire/Ice Tank, the baddest ass on the block
Bringer of Death - Lvl 30 Martial Arts/Super Reflexes, I love this girl, she will go SO far
Justice:
Darkest Evil - Lvl 18 Dark/Dark Blaster, I wish I could get more into the Blaster thing. . .Just not enough in your face for me
Speek No Evil - Lvl 18 Energy/Invincibility Brute, This toon is a Kick to play. . .I love the fury bar they have given me, I can take a licking and keep on ticking!
Hear No Evil - Lvl 13 Thugs/Dark Mastermind, I LOVE the new thugs there are a kick to play with and the pistols are lots of fun. I’ve been waiting for this one FOREVER
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Posted in Perma-Post at 2:21 pm by soabirw
Here’s a list of significant toons by server. Wont add all my alts since they are often deleted before they get to 20. I probably roll an alt a week.
Truimph:
- Soamend - 50 Empathy / Dark Defender. So very close to 50, yet so very boring to play now. Damn all you tanks getting too tough to need me.
- Soa Frost - 33 Ice / Radiation Controller. By far the favorite. Delicous combination.
- Soanetics - 18 Energy / Energy Blaster. Prettiest attacks.
- Soa Jolt - 13 Kenetics / Electricity. Total 797 ripoff.
- Prick Soa - 12 Spines / Invulnerability. Herding is fun.
- Soas Stones - 9 Earth / Empathy Controller.
- Dark Soa - 8 Dark / Dark Defender.
- Soagnite - 8 Fire / Devices. Favorite Blaster combo so far.
Justice:
- Soasama - 17 Robots / Dark Master Mind. Minions + Mechs = Hot Flashes.
- Soatreat - 9 Fire / Thermal healing. Less boring of a healer.
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Posted in Perma-Post at 2:02 pm by soabirw
Everybody who’s name starts with a certain letters says something different and often very useful. I am often mind numbingly bored, so I spend a lot of time talking to random pedistrians. I’m sure this list is elsewhere, but here are my findings anyway. I’ll update it as I find the more unique names.
- A - Random game facts.
- B - Doesn’t like to be “poked”.
- C - Random game facts.
- D - Random game facts.
- E - Official Real Time.
- F - Official Game Time.
- G - Mouthy bitches that need to be slapped. “There you are! There is never a hero around when you need one”
- H - Says I’m great. I believe them.
- I - Random game facts.
- J - Random game facts.
- K - Random game facts.
- L - Random game facts.
- M - Total played time.
- N - How many times you’ve been on patrol.
- O - Today played time.
- P - Random game facts.
- Q -
- R - Random game facts.
- S - Always trying to sell me shit.
- T - Random game facts.
- U -
- V - Walking in-game advertisment.
- W - Smart ass comments like “You look bigger on TV.”
- X - Sympony lovers.
- Y - Random game facts.
- Z - Random game facts.
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Posted in Perma-Post at 1:47 pm by soabirw
Normally I never participate in forums threads or make much noise in any other way when it comes to MMOs. I think the community is loud enough. But this Arch-Villian change wasn’t just a disapointing nerf, like the Leadership. Those make me breifly sad and then I move on. This Arch-Villian problem is an actual wall that prevents the entire SG from making any progress at all. Here is a record of my petition to CoH support. I doubt it will be very long and will be full of canned responses, but I wanted to let the SG see the progress, or lack thereof.
Original Petition, short and to the point. Not a lot of room in that box:
“Just spent the entire day trying to kill AVs. With a full group of 8 on Herioc difficulty we couldn’t even get the HP bar to move. Even with radiation and holds the regen was faster then we could do damage.”
Support Reply:
Hello Eric,
Thank you for contacting PlayNC Support.
With the release of Issue 7, Arch Villains/Heroes and Giant Monsters have been adjusted and now ignore threat level damage multipliers for different Archetypes. They have also had their health and regeneration rates increased, as well as the damage they deal.
For more information regarding the changes made in Issue 7, please visit the Patch Notes section listed below:
http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/patch_notes.html
Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Regards,
GM Marc
Soa’s Reply:
Well aware of the changes, that was the point of the petition. Here is more details on our experience. First AV we fought we fought was “Neuron” or “Neutron”, not too great with that name. Anyway, we had a full group of 8. 50 Fire / Ice Tanker, 50 Broadsword / Regen Scrapper, 50 Gravity / Bubble Controller, 49 Fire / Ice Tanker, 49 Empathy / Dark Defender, 48 Spines / Regen Scrapper, 48 Illusion / Bubble Controller, 47 Blaster (not sure exactly the type). We beat on him for 30 minutes without moving his bar, well it did move down a sliver, but then right back up to full again. We realized the reputation was on Invincible and changed it to Heroic. Same results. Lots of time and debt later and he was sitting pretty at full health. We were able to finally defeat him after playing musical characters. Had to sacrifice our only healer for a Radiation / Ice Controller. With the Radiation and occasional holds we were able to slowly beat him down, but not after he fully regenerated a few times.
Next AV was Infernal. We were not so lucky to have that full group of 8. We lost the 47 Blaster and 49 Fire / Ice Tank. Nothing else in the group changed. We kept the mission at Heroic and on top of that the AV was only level 48. After over 30 minutes of hammering on him he wasn’t even scratched.
Many of the players in the group mentioned that had at one time soloed this AV, which I’m guessing is one of the reasons you increased their difficulty. I don’t think somebody should be able to solo an AV, but I think what you have done is balanced with a sledge hammer and taken it to the other extreme. I don’t think it is horribly wrong for a small group of even two or three to be able to take an AV on Heroic. Especially since a good number of missions in the upper 40s have Avs. But now only a full, perfect group can even stand a chance at killing an AV. That goes against what CoH is about.
CoH has never been a game that only appealed to the “hardcore”. It was the only MMO that I have been able to hit the level cap by just playing with a few friends. It didn’t require, until now that is, that you were always in a full, perfect group. Seemed it was the only MMO that realized games were about just having a good time.
06/ 12/06 Reply:
Hello,
Thank you for writing back with your concerns over the recent changes with Issue 7. There will be some more upcoming changes made to the Archvillains and Giant Monsters difficulty, mostly thanks to the player feedback that has been posted on the forums.
Here is what Positron and _Castle_, two of the Cryptic Development Teams top designers, had to say on the forums in response to player feedback:
From Positron: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Dev&Number=5734316&Forum=All_Forums&Words=Positron&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=5418209&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=&daterange=1&newerval=1&newertype=w&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post5734316
From _Castle_: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Dev&Number=5734355&Forum=All_Forums&Words=&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=5418209&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=134522&daterange=1&newerval=1&newertype=w&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post5734355
Please keep an eye on the forums and patch notes for further updates on this issue.
Thank you and Best Regards,
GM Kagasumi
PlayNC Support
Snippet from Positron thread:
Upon further review of the change, and your empassioned pleas, we are going to scale back the regen rate buff of the Archvillains and Giant Monsters by 80%.
Basically they will be tougher than they were before, but in comparison to how tough we made them in Issue 7, they will be only 20% tougher. (Example: if prior to I7, an AV had a regen rate of “100 points per second”, and afterwards it was “1100 points per second” we are making it “300 points per second”.)
I want to thank you all for your constructive posts. We used many as examples and tested those exact scenarios here in the office. Giving us solid data to compare against like “we went up against Positron who was Level 41, and we were a Fire/Energy Dom, Energy/Energy Brute, etc.” goes a long way.
Thanks again.
Sounds like they are going to fix it. That is fan-fucking-tastic. Hopefully it by next weekend. Would be nice to play our high level toons again. Running out of non-AV missions.
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Posted in General at 1:32 pm by soabirw
You are supposed to be able to do comments on pages, but I haven’t seen a way to. Eventually I will write my own blog software, but for now we have to use what we have. I would like people to be able to leave feedback on anything we would normally put as a “page”. So the new work around will be to great a post, then add the perma-link to that post to the new Perma-Posts link category. My next post will be an example of how this works and will eventually move my other “Pages” to that system.
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Posted in General at 12:44 pm by soabirw
Despite the cock knockery I mentioned earlier, I did manage to hit 50 after a very long day. It really would have gone a lot smoother. But at least it is done. I can now shelf that character! That was my first thoughts, to be honest. Being a healer at 50 can be very boring since all the tanks are so damn tough. I think I7 helped with that a bit though. Also, she is becoming a lot more fun with Hami raids, PvP, and other high end content. Have to give Eden another go for example.
I respeced as well to get rid of the now worthless tactics and gave myself some attacks. So not nearly as boring or useless in trivial fights.
Anyhoo, it sure feels damn good to actually hit the level cap in a MMO. This will be the first time, which really tells me CoH is the one for me. Which also adds to my frustrations over the AV “fix”.
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Posted in Rant at 12:37 pm by soabirw
I can’t remember if we fought two or three Arch-Villians last night. It’s hard to remember because we fought each one a dozen or so times. With a full, well balanced, group of 8 we couldn’t even put a dent in the first one. Thirty minutes and a lot of debt later he was still at full health. We normally play on Invulnerable, so we set the mission to Heroic and tried again. Still no good. We had to resort to musical toons with a web of side kicking. Eventually we managed to find a group that eventually managed to kill him. Not really a realistic solution for most groups and since I had to log my 33 instead of focusing on getting my 49.8 to 50, I wasn’t too happy about it.
Next Arch-Villian was Inferno. We only has a group of 6 this time, but it was still on Herioc and the mission was old, so the Arch-Villian was only level 48. Once again, after over 30 minutes of beating on him, he wasn’t even sweating. We just had to give this one up while my toon was a RCH (red cunt hair) from leveling.
I guess the only way to make progress now is to just farm existing missions? I sent a petition about it and the response was:
“With the release of Issue 7, Arch Villains/Heroes and Giant Monsters have been adjusted and now ignore threat level damage multipliers for different Archetypes. They have also had their health and regeneration rates increased, as well as the damage they deal.”
Which is kind of a “no shit”. We were already well aware of the changes, point of the petition was to point out they merely went to the other extreme. I can see that they didn’t want people to be able to solo an AV, sure. But this is balancing with a sledge hammer. And frankly, I don’t see the harm in even a two or three man group taking one out. One of the best things about City of Heroes is that it is actually possible to get to 50 with just a buddy. Not required a perfect full group at all times like other MMOs.
If that’s the direction the game is going to go it will make me very sad. Once again the games have to appeal to the “hardcore” crowd. The game isn’t hard enough for those who dedicate 40+ hours a week to it, so the casual players now must suffer. I would really rather not have to quit CoH or MMOs in general, so I sure hope they realize this is a mistake.
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