City of Heros Gold

[Tristinn]

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/505/505924p1.html

Didnt see this mentioned..

I wasnt even aware it was close to finished much less going Gold Already.

Is this game ready to come out?

[Samus Aran]

Yes

[Mkopec1]

I was quite surprised how smooth and stable that game ran for me.

As for the game? After NDA is lifted I will tell.

[Samus Aran]

NDA was just lifted. Who wants to know what? Post a string of questions and I can give you the skinny.

[Tuco]

What is the endgame like?

What are the roles in a group exp-getting setting?

If you are playing CoH for the next year, what will you be doing in one year in CoH?

[Ham n Cheese]

Same questions as Tuco. I'm also curious what the equipment/upgrading scene is like. Mostly vendor or drops or what? What are the advantage to killing hard bosses? Are there super-duper bad guys? What do you normally kill for exp? Is the game a large exp grind or do you level fast? If it's an exp grind are there camps like in eq of killing the same thing over and over? How large is the world? How is transportation around the world done?


etc etc, stuff like that

[Jait]

It's an okay diversion. But fuck, at least Crush, Stomp, Whatever back in the early 80s let you play a Villian.

I get a little tired though of hearing everyone say how much fun it is, then you ask them how far along they are, and they're just starting. It's like people are so insecure with their mmorpgs nowadays they'll praise it just so someone else will play and hopefully praise it too.

The biggest concern for me is lack of content in terms of being a "Superhero" game.

They pussed out. The only "Villians" in the game are the rumors you heard all throughout beta that there will be villians. Then it was "There will be villians after release" Now the fanboys all say: "There will be villians in the expansion, oh yeah and pvp too!".


The truth is they didn't want to deal with the 'uberlosers' who have 20 hours a day, but rather than use that 20 hours in a constructive manner (As constructive as far as 'games' go) they would rather harass, abuse, and downright be asshats, all in the name of "Roleplaying Villians".

So instead you'll find youself still doing X, Y, Z 6 months from now. The same X, Y, Z you'll be doing in your first month.


Great premise for a game, and it will do well in the short-term, but nothing but rumors seem to be on the burner for the *future*.

The way mmorpgs are now, you better damn well have an expansion ready for Alpha (I'm talking 20th century Alpha, not this new definition) a month after your game goes gold and have it ready for release a year in. Otherwise people will move on.

Though companies are getting wise to this, and plan accordingly by making their break-even point be met in the first week though unit sales. (Cough SWG) After that, good luck on getting new things put in...

[Kolle]

i have a sinking feeling that many vet gamers, myself included, are jaded to the point that no matter what a game company does, they will not please us.

i haven't played CoH tho so i'm interested in hearing the answers to questions already asked.

[Blazemore]

NDA is lifted... Blab all you want.
Linkage...
http://www.coh.com/news/item211.html

[Stroker Ace]

Look for me in the comic that comes with the game! My name is Damage, and I'm the grey skinned, bearded demon with the pimped out chrome suit.

I was the 4th top player during beta (when I played) so they picked me for the comic book!

Be a pimp = they put you in there comic.

[Stroker Ace]

Should I post some pictures here, or in screenshots?

[Samus Aran]

Originally posted by Tuco
What is the endgame like?

What are the roles in a group exp-getting setting?

If you are playing CoH for the next year, what will you be doing in one year in CoH?

1) Unknown.. To like everyone. There are massive amounts of hints strewn throughout the game that lead me to believe that there is an endgame and it's ready to go. The team, imo, does not strike me as one that would launch with shit unfinished. Plus, they're going to be big on live updates

2) Damage, Crowd Control, Healer.
Sounds rudimentary, but... Damage is only a single part of the puzzle. There's mobs. Lots of 'em. Lots and lots. You need CC and you need knockback and stun and all sorts of good shit. A high damage group might do ok, but the most efficient groups are diverse.

3) Probably experiencing the endgame.. Elder zones, and what have you.

Originally posted by Ham n Cheese
Same questions as Tuco. I'm also curious what the equipment/upgrading scene is like. Mostly vendor or drops or what? What are the advantage to killing hard bosses? Are there super-duper bad guys? What do you normally kill for exp? Is the game a large exp grind or do you level fast? If it's an exp grind are there camps like in eq of killing the same thing over and over? How large is the world? How is transportation around the world done?


etc etc, stuff like that

Equipment is a hybrid of vendor and looted. You'll use both equally. Hard bosses give more experience and generally drop enhancements.. Good ones. There's rumour that big encounters(endgame shit) will drop unique enhancements, which would be leet.

Levelling is ok for the first few levels but it slows down tremendously. It's not too bad though as you've really gotta be at the keyboard and active. Not just "nuke, afk till spawn, repeat". No camps, although certain mobs do spawn in certain areas.. Missions play a very large role, you end up going into an instance and fulfilling an objective(sometimes rescuing hostages, generally just killing a boss and the minions)

World is pretty large.. There's at least a dozen zones on the map and some of them are gargantuan. Travel is slow(but the zones are small) up until about level 14.. You can take a tram between the basic zones you'll need to access... At level 14 you'll be able to get your travel power(flight, teleportation, superspeed, or superjump) and you're able to cover a helluva lot more ground. I can climb skyscrapers in a few seconds flat with my superjump

One thing I want to mention is that the world feels much more 3d then EQ. Because you can fly and there's the movement powers, plus the urban setting, you really end up with ups and downs and lefts and rights. EQ feels very flat.. Rollign hills and shit. CoH is very much moving around and what have you.

[Cybsled]

Anyways my take:

1) Grouping is fun. Even with very different powers, everyone can serve some purpose. Being a a healer/asskicker works, surprisingly. The battles are fast paced, and the higher end shit DOES require strategy. People who say the game has no strat havent played the game to the mid-teens.

2) All the different badguy groups have different nuances. The Nazis excel at longrange combat (I've been gunned down in seconds by a line of chaingunners/riflemen all opening fire at the sametime). The undead guys require you to be constantly on your guard, lest a suicide bomber zombie run into your group or a mortificator starts resing the hordes of zombies you just owned. The ninjas require you to position yourself far enough apart so a ninja spirit cant keep mudstomping your ass to the floor en masse while the bigtrouble in little china sorcerer teleports around the battle and heals shit. The clockworks drain your endurance, and the bosses split open into tiny robots like a queen kilnak.

3) Combat owns in this game. It's not an autoattack type deal. Basically you have all your different powers. All of them have different recycle times and endurance costs. These are your attacks in the game. It's not like you just autoattack punch shit, then you mix up your powers. You need to put a thought into every attack.

4) The world is very interactive. It feels like a living city. People roam the streets, cars drive by playing music. Attack some people doing a drug deal, the dealer usually runs. I laughed when I saw one yell "You guys wearing a wire??" as he fled down an alley. You can also BATPHONE contacts when they like you enough. "*Ring* Hello? You finished the quest? Here's some XP and another mission". You can fly around...jump on buildings...leap over fences. Plus some of the zones own. Boomtown ROCKS. It looks like a nuclear bomb went off and you're in the Mad Max universe. Toppled skyscrappers and smoldering dead trees.

For downsides....the missions need some more variety. They usually fall into a few main categories: Timed (Usually a rescue or bomb), kill X mob, defeat all mob, find X item/clue, rescue X. Some of the missions flow into eachother, making an extended storyline...which is nice. But I'd like to see some mixups like maybe a mission where there are 5 hostages in a building and you have to rescue them before the bomb goes off...then the followthrough mission would change depending on the result. For instance, if you rescue the hostages but dont difuse the bomb, you lose evidence that leads to a nice mission that leads you to the badguy's lair. Or maybe make it so the hostages are really badguys in disguise, and once you rescue them they trap you in a room and you have to find a way out before the bomb goes off and kills you. Or maybe make some stealth type missions.

They also need to tweak the xp debt. At higher levels, it becomes INSANE. It also, in essense, halves the amount of XP you earn because 1/2 pays your lvl, and 1/2 pays your debt.

Some of the missions need tweaking also. I've been on a few missions where the entrance stuff cons high, then by the time we get to the end of the mission, shit is grey (aka doesnt give xp). A large part of the missions is xp...to get crap like that makes it boring.

[Drednots]

All I got to say is its different. It is fast paced and can be great fun with good groups. You can also solo fine but exp much faster grouping doing missions. I had another good one tonight and did alot of missions. Grouping is somewhat similar to EQ with mezzing, healing, nuking, tanking etc.

The only concern I have way down the road is once you reach lvl 50 and see all your powers, etc. What is there is to keep you playing if you can't improve your charactor anymore? At this point there is no loot altho I heard somewhere they may add epic type quests such as great hammers or blades for melee types that use em. Btw guys slamming shit with big ass hammers, knocking a guy back 20 feet looks and sounds pretty decent.

Time will tell but right now its a breath of fresh air. Its at least a very good game for you people itching to do something until WoW. You will have to get over the newbie zones at first with all the leaching of exp but once you get to 12+ it gets better. City is pretty damn big, quite few big zones with alot of instanced areas in buildings, sewers etc.. <3 the different powers.

[DJk_zero]

My only question is: Has NCSoft been as inept in their handling of issues in this game as they have been with L2?

(and yes i realize they're not the dev mearly a publisher, but the shit still stands)