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My GOD I've missed having Fly on a regular toon I play. Slow, but still the best move power ever.
We need some kind of bulletin board to post up rare Invention Salvage we need. :P
We should run Statesman's TF, and the Rikti one, soon, but I'd like to wait on the Rikti one until I've got someone through the zone content.
Tabletop
Played a little Spirit of the Century this last weekend. It wasn't the session I'd dreamed up for the game I had to abort last week, since that would have been totally inappropriate for the group we'd assembled, but it was still fun. We had...
Mongols
Mob Mooks
Mysterious Vanishing Zeppelins
Mushrooms, Giant
Mushrooms, Glowing
A lost civilization of cannibals (sorry, ran out of M's)
... and a whole lot of fire.
Best of all, the most "turtle-up" player got drawn right into the middle of the story, which I think both startled and pleased him. He habitually makes people who are kind of distant from everyone else he's working with, and hard to socket in, and with very little work on my part (and thanks to a great idea from Randy) he was right in the middle of the whole story. It was ABOUT him, really, which was cool.
I think the best part was when he rescued the starlet of his favorite Radio program -- Esperanza Kittredge -- and she threw her arms around his neck and said 'get me out of here!'
And... see... he has this Aspect about how he loves this radio show...
And he has this OTHER aspect of "No one touches the Master of Shinanju!"
So I held up a Fate point and said "She's sobbing into your shoulder, and her voice is even more amazing than it is on the radio, but No One Touches the Master of Shinanju..."
And he could either take the Fate point and shove her rudely away, or
let her cling and instead pay ME a Fate point (and it's not like he had a ton at that point).
Does he comfort his idol, or stick with the hard line, elite attitude?
Bang, baby. :)
And he thought about it a bit, and paid me the point, and let her cling to him as he carried them away from the giant burning mushroom on the rope ladder dangling from the escaping zeppelin.
It was cool.
MMO stuff after the cut.
---------------------------
WoW
So after a month and more off from playing online stuff, I got back on and leveled Grezzk six times in like two weeks.
Y'hear that, CoH? Levels 54 to 60 in two weeks. See, you don't have to gimp leveling if you have something for people to do when they GET there. ((I kid, because I think they're actually heading in a directions with CoH that will provide something almost like end game content.))
Anyway, that was two weeks ago. Since then, Grezzk dinged four more times (Y'hear that, Co--oh, nevermind) to 64. In short, Grezzk and Tusker the Super Boar are tearing through the Outlands like a lawnmower through wet tissue paper. Regular missions? Pshaw. "Take along a friend" missions? We have Tusker! Her's our best friend! Take along two friends? Well, we'll wait till Lee's on for that... but still, Tissue Paper!
We also got our riding skill high enough for an elite ground mount, and picked up the white Frost Wolf from the Alterac Valley PvP battleground, which took a little more PvP action to earn the right to and got us to Revered with that faction to boot, which brought with it other nice benefits. So we're tearing around on a white wolf with a speed just bit faster to fly in CoH. Good stuff.
And lordy, the butt we're kicking. I'm keeping my eyes on some of the best hunters I know, and working on getting my numbers to pull up into somewhere around their neighborhood when I hit 70. I dunno, but I feel like I'm on track.
Now I just need to find that Firefly non-combat pet...
Aside from Grezzk, I've got a PvP-realm paladin I'm playing a little, and Kayti, who's a lot of fun, but right now, we're focusing on the orc and the pig.
-----------------------
CoH
Hang Time (and Hang-time, the tank)
Logged on Hangtime to mess with inventions a bit, but that's it. Did the Positron TF with Hang-time the tank, Hushman the 2nd, and the Deep Freeze Debutante (Lil' Noelle). Dinged 3 levels and got flight, plus I'm very close to 16 and Whirling Fists.
I think the best part of the TF was...
1. Well, playing with Hushman/Lee again. I leveled up the original Hangtime with Hushman, and it was great to put those two characters together again, plus Lee's a hell of a player, natch.
2. After some struggles in the first two missions, we all got on Ventrillo and things got a LOT easier in terms of know what we were doing, and when, and to whom. Dying pretty much stopped (except for one bad mission for HT). Really need to get other folks to download the (free!) vent software for some TF ease and happiness -- MAN it makes things easier, and the Push-to-talk functionality means (a) no lag and (b) no one has to hear me swear at the screen as I play. :)
3. THEY CHANGED THE TF! There's an Elite Boss/AV at the end! Awesome!
4. They updated Defense ages ago, but MAN I can't believe how nice it makes Force Field. Damn that's a useful set. Damage prevention FTW.
5. Holds. Hush has one in his Psionic set, plus a "Time Out Bubble" for the truly pesky, and DFD has a Ice-based hold as well. It really made things easier.
So we had Crowd Control (Holds, tank), Damage, and Damage Mitigation... what else do you really need? Nuthin', that's what. Good run.
Hyperthermian
Got him on for a bit, put some new invention stuff into his armors for the same protection and much better endurance efficiency. dialed his difficulty to 4, which is just about perfect, and tore through a couple missions like tissue paper. I'd been struggling with playing him solo for a bit, and the inventions plus the playstyle shift made him fun fun fun again.
Pummelcite
I play lots of tanks, and they are all fun (not that the first three characters I've talked about are tanks -- there's a reason), but none of them, and I mean NONE of them say "TANK!" like Pummelcite. I've done some tweaking on his powers with the Invention System, gotten Granite armor dressed out, and the long and short version of it is that Lukacs is flat-out unkillable. With the possible (and I mean only possible, he's got good protection even there) exception of having 17 psi-wielding high levels attacking him, I just don't think he can be brought down. Period. The flipside of that is that he can't fight (or do anything else) very fast when wearing that mush solid stone, but... damn. I mean... DAMN.
(I'll stop now, cuz Kate has to be sick of hearing me say that.)
Started up the Rikti War Zone with him and Noelle Frost. Good stuff.
Strategist
Started the Riki War Zone content with Strat. It's like he's come home to the kind of place he was always meant to be: non-powered people in good body armor, taking on alien invaders in a war zone. Strat just creeps around behind the attacks and takes them out while they're talking about taking out a gun nest. Ninja-style FTW.
Epitaph
Did his cape mission (finally, 14 levels after it became available), which... I dunno. You can get capes now at level one, so will this mission be removed from the game now? I'm trying to get through missions with him a little at a time, so that get can get to the Rikti War Zone, because it makes a lot of sense for him, but honestly I'm still having a lot of problems working through his missions quickly. Humanform Kheldians try to do all three jobs (Control, Damage, Healing) at once, and as a result they sort of suck at all of them equally.
Also, if I'm being honest, I just don't enjoy being logged into this guy very much. Too much baggage from the bad ol' days.
Kethos
Got him on, dialed the setting on missions to 4 instead of 5, and had a lot better luck with him, though it's not perfect. Despite having two Area Effect endurance-drains, he continues to have fairly notable endurance problems, which I could probably deal with by dialing down the missions a notch, but I don't want to do that.
Bear Claws
Finished up all the Croatoa content except for the Katie Hannon Task Force.
Markov Chain
Ran an eight-person TF with Slip and got through the last big story arc in the first half of Nerva, which got us both to 30. Still struggling with this character, who tends to run hot and cold -- either I've got a great system for taking guys down with almost no damage to myself, or I can't fight my way out of a paper bag -- and it's anyone's guess which it will be on a given night. Right now, he's all single-target with (to me) frustratingly slow attacks, and while I can switch to mostly AoEs at level 32, I don't know if I WANT to, because teaming up with Shadowslip (who can literally Vanish off the bad guys' aggro meters), the last thing I need is more aggro.
Dolmen
Not that, with HT, Hype, Pummelcite, and Kethos, I need another tank/brute, but I still wouldn't mind getting Dolmen up to where he could team up with Shadowslip instead of Markov. :P
Hmm. Maybe Slip and Kethos need to meet, once the server-transfers are online. They're the same level now...
Aeric
Haven't played him in a bit. Like the character and the powerset a bunch, but we kind of stalled out on the Faultline content.
Mister Brightside
Haven't played him in ages, more's the pity. He's always on the list, but always seems to lose out to someone else. :)
...
In short, I have too many characters.
... is officially out. The more interesting details (of which there are a few) below the cut...
((Also, I totally called the reputation grinding thing this morning. heh.)
The skies over Paragon City are filled with dark, grey thunderheads. It is the same in the Rogue Isles, Europe, and across the globe. Small ships dart through the heavy weather … and there are so very many of them.
The Rikti have returned.
HEADLINES:
Rikti World Invasion: The Rikti have been fought off before. But now, prepare for a desperate battle to save Earth from the new Rikti Invasion Force! Aggressive Rikti forces can attack Paragon City and Rogue Isle areas at any time and with little warning!
Rikti War Zone: Heroes and villains are asked to put aside their differences and co-operate to assist Vanguard, the all volunteer force funded by the United Nations Security Council, to stem the flood of Rikti and their attempts to salvage their downed Mother Ship. Earn Vanguard Merits to obtain new costume items and other cool stuff!
Rikti Co-op Task Force: Lady Grey, leader of Vanguard, has a series of missions for a proven team of superpowered individuals, security clearance 45 to 50, designed to take the fight to heart of the Rikti Invasion!
INVASION!
“The Rikti Return! The Vanguard needs YOU! All super powered beings are encouraged to join the effort! This isn’t about your history, but about OUR future. Join now.”
* The Rikti have somehow found a way to bridge the dimensional gap between their world and ours once again and are staging raids on Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.
* When Zones within the cities are under attack, a world-wide alert will be issued by Vanguard. This alert will show up in your Chat window, warning you in which zone attack is imminent.
* While the invasion is occurring, players do not receive debt while outdoors in an invaded zone.
* Those in that zone that do not wish to be at risk of Rikti attack are asked to take shelter immediately. They can do so by leaving the zone, or moving inside buildings or under cover (overpasses, parking garages, etc.).
* Rikti bombs appear to be unstable and not 100% reliable. Some do not explode on impact and only embed themselves in the ground. These bombs have been noted to detonate after a time, so take caution when you see these. They can be disarmed or delayed by inflicting damage upon them.
Revamped Zone: Rikti Crash Site is now Rikti War Zone
The region previously known as the Crash Site has erupted into a War Zone! All non-combatants are advised to stay well clear of the area!
This zone is now co-operative, Heroes and Villains can both enter into the zone and team together while here. Heroes and Villains cannot fight against each other in this area. They will both arrive into the zone in the Vanguard Base that has been established there.
Entry points can be found in Vanguard Bases in the following zones:
* Paragon City:
o Atlas Park
o Founders Falls
o Peregrine Island
* Rogue Isles:
o Cap au Diable
o St. Martial
o Grandville
The SWAT entrance from Crey’s Folly is sealed.
* The zone is now scaled for levels 35 to 50.
* While in the Rikti War Zone, debt obtained will be 50% of normal.
* When you enter the zone, Levantera, one of the directors of Vanguard, will be auto-issued to you as a contact. Complete her missions to get a feel for the area, as well as be inducted as an honorary member of Vanguard and be able to obtain merits.
* Borea has repeatable missions for you in the Rikti War Zone.
* Other characters that have missions available are Gaussian, Dark Watcher, and Serpent Drummer. They can all be found in the Vanguard Base
* By joining Vanguard you will earn Vanguard Merits for defeating Rikti as well as completing missions for Vanguard. These Merits can be exchanged for Costume Pieces (of the Vanguard Armor), as well as some other cool stuff. The device for purchasing these items are special crafting tables located within the Vanguard base. Vanguard Merits can not be used at other crafting tables.
* You can view Vanguard Merits earned from the Salvage window under the Special Tab.
((Yeah, this is totally the Reputation Grinding and related rewards I was JUST TALKING ABOUT THIS MORNING.))
Rikti Co-op Task Force:
The UNSC backs Vanguard for billions. With the second Rikti invasion bearing down upon us, the United Nations Security Council has essentially given Vanguard a blank check to cover the costs of fighting the Rikti, “We don’t have time to haggle over budgets,” says a senior level official in the UNSC. “Vanguard has always been about defeating the Rikti, no matter what. We fully support Lady Grey and her team.”
* Lady Grey gives out a Strike/Task Force for 8 super powered individuals with security clearance from 45 to 50. The mission attempts to stop the Rikti before they can get a foothold in our dimension. Be wary, the Rikti are single-minded in the pursuit of their objectives!
Take the fight to the crashed Rikti ship!
* The Rikti have erected energy pylons throughout the area surrounding their crashed ship in the Rikti War Zone. Vanguard engineers have discovered a way to detect Rikti Pylons. To view waypoints to these pylons, check the ‘Special’ option in your map display window.
* Destroying all pylons before the Rikti can replace them, will lower the shield on the Rikti Mother Ship in the zone.
* Heroes and Villains are asked to plant explosives inside the ventilation systems of the ship to cripple the Mother Ship repair effort the Rikti have in
* Once enough bombs are planted, the Master at Arms will arrive to clear out non-Rikti interlopers!
* Characters that participate with this will be rewarded with Vanguard Merits.
Rikti Villain Group Revamp
* The Rikti Villain group has undergone an art and powers revamp.
* The new art vastly upgrades the look of the Rikti and now allows us to use more animations with the Rikti soldiers.
* One major change is the Rikti swords now have a ranged energy weapon in them, allowing them to use both melee and ranged attacks without switching weapons.
Powers
* Added support for villain archetypes for Kheldian inherent bonus powers.
* Jack Frost pets and Animated Stone pets should be more willing to engage in melee combat due to a change to their AI values.
* Bitter Ice Freeze Ray’s attack time has been shortened from 3.7 seconds to 2.5 seconds for both Blasters and Corruptors.
Costumes
* New “Stealth” costume set available
* New “Exo Proto” costume set available
* New Vanguard costume set available for purchase with merits
* 39 month Veteran Reward added: Boxing costume items
* Miniskirt 1 tweaked a little
* Reorganized skirts and added new Pencil Skirt and Leather Versions.
Badges:
* There are a number of new badges
* Supergroup Fusion Generator badge is no longer given for time spent in PvP zones; it is now given for 750 PvP kills while in supergroup mode.
Rewards
* Costume Piece Recipes have been moved into their own drop pool and the chance of getting one has been increased. Costume Piece Recipes will ONLY drop off of Minion-level entities. Lieutenants and higher have no chance of giving out a costume recipe.
Tasks
* Founder’s Falls – Angus McQueen no longer gives missions to fight Rikti in the Rikti Crash Site. These missions have been updated and now count Rikti defeated in the Rikti War Zone.
* Major Richard Flagg, a NPC Terra Volta Respecification Trial contact (level 44+) has been moved out of the Rikti Crash Site (now the Rikti War Zone) and has been moved to Peregrine Island near the Portal Corp. building.
One post before I hit the paving stones of the work-street... possibly with my face.
Hmm. I was going to make this a long, drawn out thing, but instead I'm going to boil it down to a few bullet points.
I've played CoH a long time. I like it.
I've played WoW not as long, but also like it a lot. Possibly more than CoH, but that's an apples to oranges thing -- CoH is not WoW, nor vice versa.
One of the things I DO NOT like about CoH is that leveling takes ages. This is a design choice from NCSoft, because there's no end-game content in CoH -- once you hit the top level, there is, in short, f#ck-all to do.
Compounding this is the fact that, between leveling dings, there's nothing HAPPENING to your character. Except for the dings, there's just nothing going on. When you get to a new level, you either get a new power, get a few points to improve a power, and can maybe upgrade the effectiveness of all your powers (with new enhancements for said powers).
But that's it, and it all happens when you ding. Other than that, you just slog slog through the same 50-odd, random mission maps, reading the story-lines in depth because those stories are the only things differentiating the missions.
I think that's why RP is so much bigger on CoH than WoW (in my experience) -- adding your own personal stories to the characters is the only way to have new things happening to your characters with more frequency.
Contrast this with WoW. When you level, you ALWAYS get at least a new Talent point, which at the least is going to improve you character, maybe give you a whole new ability that not everyone has. Plus, you get new skills, et cetera. That's all pretty much like CoH.
However, you level faster, MUCH faster, because there's LOADS of stuff to do at the max level for the game -- many folks actually think of getting to 70 as "the first part" of the game, while the stuff you do once you get there as "the rest of the game."
But then there's all the other things you have going on BETWEEN levels. Skill-ups as you're moving around, doing stuff, be it for defense, weapons, fighting, or a profession. New gear that might possibly be an upgrade to the stuff you've got... maybe an obvious one, or more of a lateral promotion that emphasizes a different strength of the character... either way, something to look at and ponder.
In other words, fiddly bits.
Some folks don't like fiddly bits. For myself, the fiddly bits that fill in the 'in between leveling' is what keeps the game INTERESTING, long-term.
No where near a level? That's fine, I'm working on getting my Alchemy skill up -- I wanna be able to make water-breathing potions! Plus, I'm working with the forces in Thrallmar a lot right now, and they have a lot of cool stuff that they'll give you... IF you reputation is high enough with them, so I'm doing missions specifically for them, to get up to Honored, then Revered, then Exalted with them, cuz look at that fancy bow they ha--
Oh, I dinged? Wow, I didn't even notice I was getting close -- I was busy playing THE REST OF THE GAME.
There's always something to do, and I really, really love that.
CoH folks are starting to get a taste of this with the Inventions system -- now, in between those leveling dings, you can keep an eye out for cool inventions that fall your way -- stuff that, just like cool new gear in WoW, tweaks, changes, and improves your guy without a ding -- stuff that, in some cases, is really worth CELEBRATING.
Hell, Pummelcite make 2 million influence yesterday, just selling off stuff he had no use for -- that damn near made back all the money I spent on upgrading him this weekend. That right there is a cool thing -- between missions and leveling, I've got something to DO.
It made me really enjoy CoH more. It improved my experience, so kudos, design team.
Now let's take it to the next level.
How about a series of missions you can do (like the police-band missions, yeah... tie it into that) that raise your rep with certain groups in the city, allowing you to get your hands on inventions, recipes, and enhancements that you can only get if you're on their good side?
I'm not talking about a single mission to get you a Nemesis staff for three days, I'm talking about working SERIOUSLY with the Kings Row Police until they give you access to their "Riot Gear" inventions and craftable temp powers.
How about the idea that if you work your rep up really high with certain groups (Brickstown Police), it drops ESPECIALLY low with other groups (Crey Corp), who then randomly ambush you, because you're on their most-hated list? Boom, you have a NEMESIS!
Repeat throughout the city. Repeat for the 35+ factions and groups around town. Wanna bet i wouldn't dust off my level 50's to 'grind reputation' with some of those groups? HELL yes.
Fiddly bits.
I think there's an appeal here that goes beyond MMOs as well. Some games really attract their following through all the little fiddly bits that you get to tweak and play with on you character. DnD is definitely this way (and, to a comment De made, maybe so complicated it's better handled by a computer), but also Champs, Tombstone, even Heroquest (little constant improvements), and maybe even Dogs (again, little constant improvements and character changes). Compare to other RPGs with few changes and 'dings' that are few and far between (AmberDRPG, even PTA).
Very interesting way to examine and evaluate some of the games on my shelf, and understand why I like some of them more than others.
Chore Wars, the most productive MMO ever.
The invention system on CoH gives me:
a) A way to improve my non-50 characters beyond the glacially slow leveling process.
b) A way to improve my 50s, at all, and in very neat and interesting ways (5% chance to heal 15% of my health every time I fire an energy blast? Psychic damage added to my holds? Yes please!)
c) Something useful and cool for my level 50's to work on -- dangerously like actual end-game content.
d) The ability to save and maybe even make money on these improvements through a little research, diligence, and personal effort, by making the stuff myself and selling off the good stuff I don't need. (CoH develops its own Loot and Crafting system which, like the rest of the game, is a comic-book-simplified/streamlined version of that found on other MMOs -- unfortunately with a much crappier interface.)
e) A slight headache.
f) All of the above.
Prompted by a few good drops Slip and Markov got last weekend during our TF run, I hopped onto CoH yesterday and poked around the Auction House for the first time. Got some new inventions. Picked up the ingredients for same. Made them. Slotted them. Found myself poorer, but quite pleased.
Logged in Hyperthermian. Repeat (though foolishly buying stuff made by other folks instead of stuff I made myself).
Logged in Hangtime... repeat... Bear Claws... Strategist... Pummelcite...
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Wiped out the bank accounts on a couple of them, but generally improved most of them and spotted a few REALLY WANT TO HAVES for each one. Good stuff. Actually made the utterly static level 50's interesting to me again, and opened a world of fun for the mid-20 to mid-30 toons. Still need to check out Kethos, I think, though he's not quite in the sweet-spot range (32 and up) where inventions are better than the stuff you can just buy from the store.
Anyway. Was finishing up Pummelcite (which involved a quick respec to move his slots around juuust a touch to really max the HELL out of Granite armor and take full advantage of his main attack powers) when I got a tell inviting him to a level 35 group-up.
Pumm's level 34, and I really wanted to get him to 35 in time for Issue 10, so that he can run that new content and spend some quality time with the other folks who'll be logging back in to run the TF -- dude doesn't even have the ATLAS MEDALLION, for pete's sake.
Anyway. Joined the group. I wasn't too optimistic of my leveling chances -- he was BARELY 34, and solo leveling takes an age in CoH -- more than any other MMO, they really reward you for group, and grouping BIG.
Lordy, does it ever. The group ran between 6 to 8 players for 2.5 hours. Pumm was the only tank, there were three defenders, and everything still dropped so fast I could barely establish aggro before everything dropped. Yowsa.
More importantly, I dinged level 35 and THEN some in the short time playing, picking up a new Area Effect attack (Tremor) and a couple fun inventions enhancements I could actually use.
Most importantly, it was fun. I miss playing the big guy -- the amount of punishment he can absorb while in Granite Armor is positively unbelievable. I wanted a guy who could tank anything for a group of eight, at the cost of some soloability, and by god I've got it -- he's incredible.
Anyway. I also spotted Statesman standing around in Independence Port. Something about a Task Force? We should do that.
"City of Heroes" champions virtual queer prom
Hundreds of super-powered lesbians and gays let their magical hair down at a new LGBT prom recently. They danced, flirted, elected a prom king and (drag) queen, played outdoors in their underwear at a mountain ski resort, and levitated with robotic boots and angels' wings until they crashed the server. Yes, they were in a virtual online world called "City of Heroes."
I Am Murloc, one of the best machinima I've seen so far. Great stuff. I believe the band itself is playing at Blizzcon next week.
Starting on Tuesday, July 17th, the Training Room Test Server will have two new game features enabled for testing: Character Transfer and Character Rename.* Character Transfer will allow customers to move characters from one server to another.
* Character Rename will allow customers to rename a selected character.
Both of these features are not part of Issue 10: Invasion. Although we are beginning to test them now, we anticipate that they will not be enabled on the live service until after the launch of Issue 10.We estimate that both features, Character Transfer and Character Rename, will carry a transaction fee of $9.99 each per use (there will be no fee for transfers to or renames on the Training Room). Should a Character Transfer have a name conflict on the destination server, a free Character Rename will be made available to resolve the conflict and rename the moving character.
These new features exemplify our commitment to improve the quality of the City of Heroes experience. We feel the price of these features is enough to prevent potential abuse, but also reasonable enough to not be prohibitive for those who want to improve their gaming experience by moving servers or changing a character name.
IMPORTANT! Customers who are interested in taking advantage of the Character Transfer service should know that it is possible in the future that we may make changes to the game that would remove the need to Transfer servers. One example of such a change would be a “server-less” game configuration where all players can group with anyone, without the restriction of which server they play on. We are not committing to this “server-less” configuration, and in fact there are no plans to implement a “server-less” environment this calendar year, but because we are charging a fee for these services, it is important that our players understand that the possibility exists. We want to be very clear in this regard so that those who do decide to make use of a Server Transfer, when it becomes available, understand that they may not need it in the future.
For those interested in assisting with the testing efforts of Character Transfer and Character Rename, keep your eye on the Official City of Heroes Announcement Forum for further details. Thank you for your continued support!
Although it's ostensibly about WoW, this post from Terra Nova: "Our avatars, ourselves", makes some great observations how we relate to (and interact with) stimuli in virtual worlds in general, specifically our and others' avatars.
In brief, research to this point indicates we react to virtual stimuli exactly the same way as if it were real -- for example, we don't want our characters standing too close to other characters, because it's a social convention in the real world that we all have our own individual space. ((This is particularly notable in WoW, where there is no "body buffer" as there is in CoH, and it's possible to actually stand 'inside' or walk through people, but people go to GREAT (if unconscious) effort to prevent that from happening if at all possible.))
Also (and obviously) we react positively to attractive avatars, more 'upbeat' locales, environment conditions, and surroundings. Again, I've seen this. The avatar example is easy to see -- there are toons whose abilities I really like, but whom I don't play simply because I don't like looking at them much (Zero at the Bone, or any undead WoW character) -- but I know there are areas in both CoH and WoW I just won't want to linger for long (they're DEPRESSING), while others I enjoy (Talos waterfalls are neat, and there's something very relaxing about doing some deep sea hunting with a potion of water breathing for a few hours.
As they say in the post, "You can take the person out of the real, but not the real out of the person."
When shall we get our reality-bending Amber Pulp on, chilluns?
Quick gaming rundown, before I get all productive:
What happened?
A grand melee on the airfield between Our Heroes some Bolshevik-lead locals who wanted to steal our (three) aircraft, with some Brits (who'd in turn been trying to commandeer our aircraft) huddling behind crates for cover.
A "lost world" plateau in the middle of the jungle.
Semi-sentient, battle-harness-clad, gorilla soldiers, riding (a) aircars and (b) DINOSAURS.
DINOSAURS!
A glowing gate of Atlantean-age manufacture, through which the gorilla forces were apparently importing dinosaurs from 'somewhere else.' (Somewhere else turning out to be VENUS!)
The gate feed on the psychic energy of its victims, which it slowly killed even as it fed them dreams of DOMINATING THE WORLD. (Said victim-pool held prisoner by the Gorillas.)
GORILLAS EATING THE GATE'S VICTIMS!
So... lemme sum up:
* Gorillas
* Warrior Gorillas in battle harnesses
* "Psychic" Gorillas in battle harnesses with gems stuck in their foreheads.
* Gorillas riding dinosaurs.
* DINOSAURS
* Ancient Gates that WARP TIME AND SPACE, using TECHNOLOGY BEYOND MANKIND'S KEN
* Cannibals! (sort of)
* Other habitable planets in our Solar System.
My hat is off, and eaten, to Randy -- the only way we could have crammed more Pulp Goodness into a single session would have been if there was a burning zeppelin filled with screaming New York socialites about to slowly crash into the Gate.
... which would have been silly, really. Hydrogen burns too fast.
As I've run a few SotC games already, I took on the (I think, welcome, and at any rate, planned) role of rules coaching and tutorial-giving during the conflict scenes -- the first fight went pretty cleanly, and by the second everyone pretty much had all the rules locked in and understood.
Thoughts:
* I really like this game. It's not the only system I want to run, but it's got a nice blend of "hippie" and "traditional" gaming that lets me (for instance) do all that story-stuff I like, while easing more traditional players into the skeery realm of more self-authored play.
* Six players is too many. It's not UNMANAGEABLY too many, but it's too many for a session where everyone gets to do their thing equally. Five, I think, is the top end, and four would be great. Honestly, though, with the power level of the characters involved, you could GM a game with two players -- even one. :)
* We plan too bloody much. It's a pulp game. In the same way that Primetime Adventures encourages us to say "Wait, would they show this in a TV show? No? Then skip it!", we need to do the same thing with Spirit of the Century -- if it wouldn't show up on the screen during a showing of The Mummy or Indiana Jones or Sahara or Tomb Raider, then hand wave it and MOVE ON! You'll have the 50' of rope in your pack when you need it, and if you don't, you'll get a Fate Point and we'll have a really fun scene where you have to improvise! Go! Go! Go!
But that's it. Randy and I talked a bit afterwards about the game, and while there's always some stuff that could go better, especially with a new game, I thought it was a great beginning.
And damned few digressions (to which I attribute at least in part to a mix of people who didn't all know each other -- there's less inclination to digress with stories about one's kids) very interesting and heartening!
The weekend before that I ran the pulped-up Amber game, Nine Princes in Pulp. Of the five players, two couldn't make it, so we ran about a half session, after which Joe (a new player) showed up and we all sort of joined in to help him make up a new character.
All around good stuff.
We learned that, given a choice between looking good and finding out a little more information about something he's supposed to be investigating, Lee's character will choose to look good -- I loved that scene.
Everyone got to the city of Argent in the middle of the night, were met by Martin and some functionaries from Corwin's estate, and opted to send the luggage on to Casa Corwin (sic) while they themselves rounded off a long day of travel, excitement, and combat with some drinking and music at a jazz club in the city. Nice.
De's "Xia" and Martin hooked up.
Lee's Miriam made off with two or three women from the club (Lee notes: at least).
Randy's "Nicholai" left with someone who actually (and apologetically) led him into an ambush, which he handily trounced while she ran off.
Then we all paused the game itself to help Joe out with his character. Joe is completely unfamiliar with both the system and the Amber setting, so there was a LOT of preliminary work there. He came up with what I sort of think as one of the 'typical first-time-player characters' for an Amber game -- a warlord-leader type who ruled all he surveyed until he found out there was SO MUCH MORE out there.
In short, his character had started out as a conqueror, but shifted to a real leader of his people during the Black Road war, when he managed to successfully fight off and defeat the Black Road denizens who, Lorraine-like, were invading his world. The fact that THIS shadow did not succumb to Chaos caught Gerard and Julian's attention as they were investigating the black road, and after watching the guy, they recruited him and brought him 'into the family.'
He's a fun character -- equal parts Noblesse Oblige and Conniving Power Behind the Throne -- Al Swearingen as a military presidente for life. One of the two novels he costarred in actually cast him as the secret ANTAGONIST, which was fun, and in the end of a series of really sneaky and dark Aspects, he took as his final one: "Gerard trusts me," and "Power Behind the Throne."
Oh yeah. Fun stuff. Looking forward to the next game.
Primetime Adventures: Dave is running the second part of the Ill Met by Gaslight series premiere this coming Friday, since Kate will be in town. I'm excited about this, since we had a nice 'breakthrough' on making scenes really work, the last time we played. Jazzed to do this, but really need to get some rest beforehand, or I'll be useless at the table.
World of Warcraft: I've finally given up on Leatherworking on Grezzk. Althrough he's level sixty and had got his LW up to 275 out of 300, I just couldn't see any point in taking it any further. In short, it's a money sink. My other 'profession' skill is Skinning, so in theory I should be getting enough materials for my leatherworking to keep that skill caught up with Skinning. In practice, that is NOT the case (which is annoying, because there are combinations (Herbalism/Alchemy) that DO advance beautifully, hand in hand), and instead of making me money, all Leatherworking does is cost me money as I buy more of the materials I need to level up the skill, by making stuff that sells for less than what I paid for the raw materials. (That's a function of the 'RL' auction house market, not prices the developers set on the stuff -- people just pay more for the materials than the finished products :P.)
So I dumped that profession and took up another "collection" profession (Herbalism) to go along with Skinning. Now both my professions are designed to collect stuff for sale, with no manufacturing middle-step -- in theory, this means they're purely money-making ventures. We'll see.
Herbalism started out at 1 for me, and I need to get it to 300 (at one point 'ding' per plant collected), so I had the rather funny and surreal experience of going back to the starting zones with my level sixty main character and collecting the 'easy' plants to level up my skill, then progressing zone by zone for an hour or so as the skill rose. By the end of the evening, I was dropping clumps of fairly valuable herbs onto the Auction House for a pretty penny, and still underselling the competition a bit...
As a side benefit, the map add on I use 'maps' all the places where I find plants, so when I bring another lower-level character through these zones, I'll already know where to go to find exactly what I need without wasting time -- my warrior (who also has Alchemy to brew his own healing potions :) will be very grateful for Grezzk's scouting.
I'm still only halfway to the level I need the skill to be at to be useful in the zones I run 'for real', so for at least one more night my warlike, tricked-out, orc hunter will be picking flowers in lowbie zones while Tusker the Super Pig amuses himself by attacking any aggressive animals that look sideways at his botanist master. Funny. :)
Kayti the dwarf paladin is going along well -- she doesn't level anywhere near as fast as Grezzk, but unlike any other toon I've played on WoW, she can solo groups of mobs with no real problems at all -- that's actually really fun, and feels very 'knight like' if you see what I mean. My only regret with her is that I really, truly, don't have anyone to play with on the server she's on -- a transfer might be in her future, if I catch wind of a good group on another server. For now, I amuse myself on the public channels and run Instances with PuGs.
City of Heroes A veritable glut of play on CoH in the last week: we logged on twice! The first time was last Thursday with Dave and Margie to play with the Hostess Heroes. Princess Peep's speed boosts, combined with the simple fact that CoH toons move faster than WoW character left me feeling hyper and wiped out after gameplay, but the missions went well... though I suspect that I drove poor Dave a bit nuts, acting like a typical Scrapper. :)
((It's funny, but I really do play differently on different toons.))
During the weekend, Kate and I got on Markov Chain and Shadowslip and PuGged it up to run a seven six-person Strike Force: The Temple of Water. Neither of use had done this Strike Force before on any character, so that was nice, and we both dinged once, which was also good. It's a big of a grind for an SF: 11 or 12 missions, and really none (or maybe one) of them that can be stealthed or done quickly -- we got started late and finished even later.
This group was CRAZY MAD the whole run -- CoV toons naturally want to keep moving as fast as possible (we had two or three brutes, and a dominator, and those guys always want to keep moving so their Rage and Domination don't drop), and the two Corruptors we had were both Kinetics based, which meant DOUBLE SPEED BOOST WOOOOOO. Everyone was moving like they has Super Speed, and no one ever ran out of Endurance. We saw nothing but huge groups of orange-conning enemies and chewed through them like a weedwacker through a quart of Ben and Jerry's.
Oh, and the lead brute for the missions? Pikachupacabra. :)
We died a couple times (one mission was particularly bad, leading to a couple team wipes), but the debt was gone within the same mission every time, and ironically, dying bothers me a lot less on CoH than WoW, even though CoH has xp debt and WoW doesn't. (1) Debt goes away, but damage to my gear pisses me off. (2) What difference does debt make when you only play once a month? None, that's what.
Playing one session of CoH right now costs me about as much as going to the movies once, sans drinks or popcorn, and the chances of leveling during that time are so incredibly low that the XP gain or leveling becomes a non-issue: I am, truly, just playing for the sake of playing, the same way I would be with Half-Life or Prince of Persia -- it's all trip, and no destination.
Whew. Okay, that was longer than I'd anticipated. Off to the real work!
Although they are just as flammable and thus, just as fun, the zeppelins of World of Warcraft are quite a bit smaller than the Big Uns folks then to think of when they think of Zeppelins for pulp games. The 'passenger' section (which is basically water-going ship design, handing from the hydrogen balloon on ropes) is only about 20 or 30 feet from stem to stern, with a top deck and an enclosed lower deck -- in the Amber game or the regular SotC game, it'd be a 'personal zeppelin', which right there is a concept I hadn't even thought of, and kind of love -- an aerial houseboat. :)
Also, this shot of a downed 'mini-zeppelin' caught in a tree in WoW's Stranglethorn Vale gives me ideas. :)
Jvstin of long-time Amber DRPG fame just finished up a pulp-Amber game using Spirit of the Century at "The Black Road" Amber-con. Details at The Children of Amber in... the Machinations of Duke Icarium.
I like the implementation -- unlike the very detailed complete rewrite of the rules I've seen elsewhere, his implementation changes relatively little in the core rules themselves: renaming a couple skills, dropping Science and just leaving the Medicine aspect of it, and breaking Riding out from Survival (which I didn't do simply because Riding just seemed too narrow a skill to me, in comparison to the rest of the list.
All in all, it totally works: I think TCoA is more of a traditional Amber setting, so dropping stuff like Science makes sense, as does lumping all Vehicles into one gestalt skill (though again that makes Riding seem kind of narrow) -- for NPiP, I'm injecting a lot of non-canon technology, weird science and pulp trappings, as WELL as the pulp 'feel,' so those differences are understandable.
Either way, it demonstrates that Amber/SotC is an easy-peasey hack.
I like his take on Art as both the core skill behind a "Trump Artist" stunt (which I'm doing in my NPiP game) and the idea that the art skill also equates to a USER'S level of skill with interacting with Trumps (which didn't occur to me); that's kinda hot. Daddy like.
All in all, great stuff -- I'm looking forward to finding out how the session itself ran.
"Story Game" (400 page, hard-bound, beautiful, hard-crunch, sci-fi blaster, smacking) Burning Empires won Origins' RPG of the year award, beating out Exalted, 2nd Edition and the new RuneQuest.
There is a vanishingly small difference between a mainstream RPGs and indie productions in terms of print quality (since most use Indie Press, Lulu, or another POD), and has been evident in the last couple years, no difference at all in quality of design.
Okay, so a few days ago, just for my own lazy-bookmarking, I linked to a guide on making a "AoE"-specced Paladin. The reason for this was because the instructions on that post (and here )revitalized my enjoyment of playing my sub-main, a dwarf paladin who's been gathering dust for awhile now.
I'm going to talk about that in more detail in this post, because I keep thinking about it.
It was a great, fun day of playing with her, and since she was unceremoniously booted from her guild a month or so back for not being logged in enough (writing a book, helloooooo), those moments of enjoyment with this character have been few and far between.
So anyway, it's Tuesday. I've hit level 59 with Grezz'k and I'm 1001 points from 60 (in one-third the play time it took me to hit 50 with Hangtime, and half the time it took me with Hype. *coff*), and I don't want to level any further with him just yet -- there were some lower-level quests I wanted to finish with him before dinging, so I left him sitting.
I'd been reading the paladin thing, so I logged on Kayti and followed Ze Instructions.
1. Go to the trainer and respec. Put at least 31 points into the Protection Tree. Make sure to get Blessing of Sanctuary, Holy Shield, Redoubt and Reckoning. Imp Holy Shield is also great if you can get it (if you're putting more than 31 points in prot.)
First, for MMO-but-not-WoW players, each character class has three 'trees' they can put their Talent points into, which give you special abilities not typical available. In CoH, you have a Primary power and a Secondary. In WoW, you have three Primaries, but only enough "slots" to really max out one and half-max another for supplemental stuff... or half-max all three, or something.
Anyway, Kayti had been all spread out between the Holy (I R HLR), Protection (Tank), and Retribution (Melee damage) trees, because I was playing around.
I bitched a bit about these instructions, because this spec is supposed to be viable at right around her level, and I don't have 31 points to put in there, I have 25. Still, I loaded up as much as I could.
2. Put on a sword/mace/axe and shield. The weapon should be fast -- around 1 hit/2 seconds speed is nice -- and if it sometimes gives you an extra attacks, so much the better. The shield should have a high block value and a shield spike attached (any blacksmith can attach these if you buy them off the AH.) The rest of your gear ... eh.
Eh. I've been using a really REALLY nice two-handed axe, with a shield and one-handed axe in my backpack for tougher fights... but I'd also been DYING alot, so I switched to the shield/weapon mix without too much pain. I couldn't find a shield spike of any kind of the Auction House, and still can't, but whatever. I'll be charming and play "the funny gal on the public channels" until someone takes pity and sells me one.
Anyway, I'm set up as well as I can be right now.
3. Find a nice-looking group of mobs. Preferably, they'll be melee fighters and clustered closely together. Bonus points if they don't run away at low health and if they have fast attack speeds.
I look over my quests and I notice I have one for taking out a bunch of Syndicate thieves and cutpurses. Sounds good.
Now, the trick with this build is this:
- You activate the power on yourself that damages anyone who hits you. This is called Aura of Retribution, appropriately. To do this, I have to forgo other auras, like the one that buffs my armor a lot. :(
- You bless yourself with another thing that will sometimes hit your attacker with yet more damage whenever you block an attack with your shield. IE: useless with a two-hander. Check.
- You hit the "Tank Aura" that makes you generate a ton more aggro with your attacks. Useless by itself, but I have a talent that makes it reduce incoming damage, which helps alot.
At this point. I'm a City of Heroes fire tank. :) Two last thing to do:
- Bless yourself with the power that HEALS YOU (sometimes) WHEN SOMEONE HITS YOU.
- Lay a Judgement on your opponent so that when you hit them (sometimes) it ALSO heals you.
So I try one person. Wow. I don't die. This is a marked improvement.
I try another person. He runs off a low hit points and brings back two friends. I scramble a bit, but I'm okay.
I try another. HE runs off and brings back four friends, one of whom is a caster. I have pretty much zero defense against casters. I die.
I mutter. I go back. I rez, circle their camp, and try another angle.
1 guy.
2 guys.
1 guy, who adds two more later.
1 guy, who adds two more later, who then both add another... scramble... put up shield-of-no-touchy-for-six-seconds and heal... heal again... scramble... reapply auras... WIN.
2 guys, one of whom goes and gets the same caster who burned me down before. I see her coming, charge her, pulling in two MORE guys, stun her and burn her down as fast as I can, while hitting my own lowly area attack to hurt the others...
Win. WIN!
My god, on the old build I wouldn't have made it TO the caster. WOW.
Oh, look, I finished that quest and got my guys. Right.
What's next?
Oh, I need to go fight ogres? Okay.
Ogres stand far apart from each other and attack really slow. This build likes several fast-attacking guys on you at once, so ...
Well, I didn't die, and I was never close to dying. it wasn't AWESOME, but it was a DAMN sight better than I'd have done the day before. I finish that one up with no problems.
What's next? Oh, stop the depredations of the Mountain Lions on the villagers livestock? Okay.
Sweet. Holy. Mother.
Mountain lions attack FAST. Fast, relatively low-damage attacks. And they don't run away when they get low on health.
Three of them? Sometimes four? The attacks are coming in so fast it sounds like raindrops hitting the roof, as Starbuck would say.
My health bar never dropped. The heals from the Blessings of Light proc'd so fast that the healing messages covered up the damage messages on the screen. It was EXACTLY what this build was built to do, and it was AWESOME. I finished up the quest in record time and DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE. So much fun!
So I turn in those quests and ding 35. Put another point into Protection on the way to the really GOOD power that comes up at 40.
I look at my woeful gear and look at the recommended cool stuff to get to help my in my new line of work.
"Hmm... that shield drops in Gnomeregan, of the boss. I've RUN that instance before. I know it. I just need a group."
I find a group. They want to know if I'll heal.
Umm. Sure. I am a paladin, after all. I'm prot-specced (he said proudly) but if that's what you need... Sure. (I just want the damn shield.)
I look at the people in the group and there's no tank but me. I ask who's going to tank.
"My pet," says the leader.
Okay, I'm a hunter on my main. I get that the pet can totally tank, if you have the right spec. I ask if he's a Beastmaster.
He isn't. He laughs and assures me it will all be fine.
The group is completely ass. I'll talk about the hunter later -- the one with the pet that didn't have Growl (the taunt power) who he thought was going to tank the instance. The guy specialized in ranged attacks who fought in melee all the time. The idiot.
However, I DID get a very fast sword that has a 5% chance of hitting your target with an electrical attack whenever you hit (those wacky gnomes). Upgrade! Woo. Then everyone died and I left.
Later the same day, I get into another Gnomeregan group.
I join, and everyone's dead. Oooookay.
I look over the group. They have a pally -- another female dwarf pally -- which is WEIRD and RARE, but okay. A couple shamans, who can both heal and fight. A hunter leading them. Ooookay.
I ask who's going to tank. They hunter says "You are!"
I breath a little sigh of relief. Doyce speek tank gud.
We go in. We fight. They LISTEN. They let me go in, drop my little AoE, get aggro, and don't hit em until I say hit em.
I'm running a little mod that tracks everyone's total damage and healing and stuff, and I have it set to track healing for Kayti, cuz paladins aren't that great for damage.
I'm SECOND in healing dished out, SOLELY because everyone's hitting the mob I've put that heal-the-hitter blessing on. That's cool.
No one dies. NO ONE. Not the whole run. The lost city of Gnomeregan is peopled with crowds of one or two elite bosses surrounded by a half-dozen non-elite guys who run in and attack you with fast, low-damage attacks.
Can you see my smile from here? I thought you could. The healer didn't even have to heal me most of the time. :)
We get to the boss. I'm not as good against one big slow opponent, but we still burn him down.
The shield I wanted drops. I get it. I am happy. :) ((5% chance to hit the attacker with an electrical attack on each successful block. Woot.))
Everyone compliments my "awesome" tanking. I've upgraded the two main pieces of gear I needed for my new build. I leveled for the first time in maybe two or three months on this character, and I'm halfway to the next level.
Afterwards, I flipped that stat tracker around to see the damage-leaders from the run.
Me.
Little ol' Kayti, with her reflective damage 'o retribution and shield-block damage and one piddly Area Attack? 35% of the total damage done. Roughly the same damage percentage that Grezz'k gets on the Horde-side runs.
#1 on the charts, #1 in our hearts.
Good day to be a paladin. :)
Last weekend, the WoW Insider guild on Zangarmarsh "It Came from the Blog" (200+ low-level alts and going strong) ran a scavenger hunt. The idea was to get screenshots of the following items:
1. A parrot
2. A Wanted Poster
3. An Ogre
4. A Yeti
5. A Well (water-type)
6. A Waterfall
7. A Kodo
8. A chemistry set
9. Lava
10. Dragonkin
11. An Outhouse
12. An Armor stand
13. A Tapestry
14. A Tiki mask
15. A zombie
16. A Boat
17. A gate
18. Hanging boxes
19. A Coffin
20. A fountain
21. A siege engine
22. Intestines
23. A Dead tree
24. A crashed flying machine
25. The rez angel
You don't have to know WoW to (a) see how that could be pretty fun and (b) how such an idea could be ported easily to other games.
The results? I did horribly -- and after looking at the collections from the two guys who tied for first with 24 of 25 -- realized I should LOOK at the landscape more.
Cool idea. I think I might rip it off later. :)
YouTube - CoV E3 2005 LEET PuG Trailer: Funny. :)
The Light and How to Swing It: The sadist's guide to PalAOEadins : Or, "How to play your paladin like a CoH Fire Tank.
So. Much. Fun.
