City of Heroes

[SilverElf4]

Anyone here play City of Heroes or City of Villains? How is it: good, bad, ugly? Is there anyone that could use their refer a friend option to give me a trial period? (Preferably for Villains, but beggers can't be choosers...)

[stupidmonkey]

I own both, although I haven't had an active account in sometime... I enjoyed it, particularly villians... though if you're looking fro a WOW clone with superpowers it isn't what you want...

There are a lot of mundane quests, your usual kill x bad guys and whatnot... Villians has a nice option where if you help a friend complete a mission and you have the same one, you havve the option to "finish" yours instantly without having to do the same dungeon over again.

However, I didn't overly enjoy soloing the game - it was much more fun with a regular friend to play with...

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask and I'll try to help you out - I have to say though, I was never a hardcore player - I didn't get any characters to max level or anything so some things might be better off looking up or asking someone else

[Cpt. Sqweky]

I have both. I love the game, personally. I like it's style of gameplay more than WoW or any of it's clones, and the setting is just a lot cooler. Now, even I admit, it ain't perfect, but it's definately worth trying.

And, yes, there is a way to refer people. If you want, PM me your e-mail and I'll refer you. I believe that the referral gives you both games. (One of the coolest things about CoH/CoV is that you can have both games in the same account and it's the same monthly fee for both. So you can enjoy both games at the same time. Granted, they're not all that different from each other, but...)

[Setra]

Villians has a nice option where if you help a friend complete a mission and you have the same one, you havve the option to "finish" yours instantly without having to do the same dungeon over again.
Heroes has the exact same options.

In any case, I've played Heroes, I loved it, though I can't really make payments on it right now, if I could I would be playing it at this moment.

They're fun games, and you can put Heroes and Villians on the same account(ie. One fee for both games). My friends who play both says Villians is laggier, but as I said before, I myself have not played it, so I can't confirm.

[Rob Knotts]

I've been playing since it first came online. I also have City of Villains, but all my local friends prefer CoH, so that's where I spend most of my time.

Personally I think CoV is more interesting than CoH. First there's the world design, where the cities actually look like crowded, dirty cities rather than the clean, empty streets usually seen in CoH. CoV also seems more compelling because while the archetypes work best in a group, most of them are almost as viable as solo characters.

While I've spent a lot of time playing both, I still have two major problems with both games. First, especially for CoH, the weapons made available don't seem nearly as appropriate as the alternatives that come to mind: swords, maces, axes, rifles, wolverine claws as opposed to staves, clubs, shields, or even pistols. I've always felt that the developers took a lazy shortcut when it comes to weapons by relying on weapons for which they could animation developed by other games.

I've also become frustrated by how narrowly-defined the archetypes can be. If you want to run a Batman-style "scrapper", for example, you'll have to do without throwing darts, flash grenades, or anothing else usable at range. It would take a long time to explain how this works for every standard archetype*, but they all have this problem to some degree, even in CoV.

*The two "epic" Kheldian (alien) archetypes don't suffer this problem, but you can't play one until you've advanced a regular character to level 50, and human-form Kheldians are very limited unless teamed with non-Kheldian characters.

The only other real problem I have with the game is that, of the three types of character appearances you can get, compared to the standard "male" character the "female" and "huge" versions have very awkward proportion sliders, and both suffer from very poor running animation. And until at least level 14, you'll end up spending A LOT of time running. Combined with the fact that there's no way for player characters to use the walking animation seen in most NPCs, creating a character without the "male" body type can be very frustrating, especially at lower levels.

[SilverElf4]

Thanks for the input all. I'm actually looking for something that will be a changeup from my usual WoW evenings, and so if this is different, that's a good thing.

The main reason I was more curious in villians is because the characters did seem to be a bit more well rounded, and I like having the option of soloing as well as grouping. Though I thought the reason they kept the origin dependent powers around was so that people would have at least a minimal ranged attack. They probably aren't all that great though eh?

Capt. Sqweky I'm PMing you my email. Which server should I choose so that I can pepper people with nooby questions? :smallcool:

[akumadaimyo]

I like the game alright but it does get repetative. However I like that I don't need to buy gear or find gear like in wow. You don't lose your powers or your sword or whatever. It is far more fun with a regular group of people.

[SilverElf4]

Yes, that was one of my attractions as well.

I've been looking at the power sets over at City of Heroes WarCry, and I think that if I were building a Batman clone, I'd go with Technological origin, Spines Primary and Invulnerability secondary. Spines reflecting bat shuriken and the edges of his suit, etc.

But that's just a guess since, a) I haven't played the game yet and b) I'm not a huge Batman fan (more of a Moonknight guy myself :smallwink: )

[Cpt. Sqweky]

As for which server is the best... I dunno. I mostly play on Justice myself, people on there are pretty cool. There's also an unofficial Roleplaying server, but I can never remember which one it is.

The official forums (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/ubbthreads.php) are a pretty good resource as well.

[Jerthanis]

Virtue is the unofficial roleplay server, and I play on it and it's fun, but there really isn't THAT much roleplay going on. A slightly higher percentage of people come up with backstories for their characters, and sometime they're fun to read. I roleplay passively with some of my regular partners and RL friends in the game, but no one really stays in character much.

I've played both Heroes and Villains for some time, and enjoyed Heroes much more. The thing about the villain archetypes being "more well rounded" helps soloing tremendously... but if you don't intend to spend a goodly portion of the game soloing, that's wasted. For anyone who's played on All Scrappers and Blasters teams on CoH, you know how dangerous that can be, since it's less like teamwork and more like soloing en masse. The numbers of spawned enemies in instances (the vast majority of places you will fight) scale to the number of players who enter, so as the group size goes up, the necessity for a strong team dynamic becomes increasingly essential. The problem is, is that villains strongly trade off their ability to work in a team for their ability to solo so effectively. So in 8 person groups in CoV, you've got aggro flying everywhere because there's no one to manage it, and practically the extent of the teamwork is that everyone's trying to kill the enemies at the same time.

So anyway, I really enjoy CoH, and CoV is also a blast, don't get me wrong... I just think it's a far less enjoyable game to team up in, and I just don't see the appeal in not teaming in an MMO.

[akumadaimyo]

If anyone gets a decent group together that plays regularly give me a pm or something. I kinda want to play again and check things out but not if I'm going ot be running solo all the time.

I like Villians and Stalkers, Brutes, Corruptors and Masterminds. I perfer to make original characters. Basing a character off something else and then making it your own is fine but I HATE clones. With a game like CoV/CoH its shame to see people not use their imaginations more and come up with their own hero/villians. Not to mention clones will evetually be erased by the staff. They might not get to it right away or even ever if they don't know about you but if they do, they will delete it. So it's better to be original, if just to be safe.

[Wojiz]

I made an armored orange and black thin guy loaded with bandoleers. He was Guns and either Reflexes or Regeneration, can't remember which.

Kind of makes me want to pick it up again.

[Xuincherguixe]

I enjoyed that game for awhile. Played before Villains was out.

Made a character Workatron, who was a communist robot. Hilarity ensued.

I even joined a Communist Super Hero Group. Alas, it died out.

[akumadaimyo]

I enjoyed that game for awhile. Played before Villains was out.

Made a character Workatron, who was a communist robot. Hilarity ensued.

I even joined a Communist Super Hero Group. Alas, it died out.

As did most Communism too.

I saw a UN group of all Gun Blasters. They were interesting. They RPed all the time, even "oocly". Major Maple was awesome. :-)

[Josol_ka_Sileria]

I've been playing off and on for a couple years, got both games,
Heroes does have the hard to solo aspect, and the annoying tendency to make you load three or more maps per mission. On dial up, it's a serious pain. A lot of whiners and "noobs". A lot of the city zones come from the same mold. The good news: more people play it than villains so it's easier to team up. The graphics are cleaner, and it only really lags with alot of people in one place.

Villains is graphic intensive, causing lag on some decent computers and connections. The archetypes are built for pvp. Teamwork? Not really. The good news: you can solo your butt off. The city zones are unique, you just have to look around to know where you are. Less beggers, as far as I've seen.

Those are just my opinions.

[SilverElf4]

We'll I've gone through half of my free trial time from Catp. Sweky, and my overall impression has been great.

In specific, I have very much enjoyed the character building process, both creation and in leveling. The Enhancement system is so much more flexible than Talents in WoW or EQ, and I'm surprised it hasn't caught on in other games.

I have a 6 Scrapper and 5 Mastermind, and at first I enjoyed Villains more, but now I'm having much more fun as a Hero. I love the powers for both.

People on Virtue and Justice that I've encountered have been good natured for the most part, with a few spammers that are mostly harmless in between.

All that being said, the load times are *killing* me. I have a decently specced computer and it still takes me and upward of five minutes just to start CoH up. And then another 2-4 minutes switching zones. And the lag around Atlas Park is insane at all hours. Three different times in the last five days I've lagged out of the game, once leaving the team I was with stranded as we entered an instance, which is doubly not good. And thats with all the graphics options toggled to lower settings. When I had them running higher settings, the game was unplayable. Any tips on this? Am I missing something?

Also, I've intrigued my brother with the game now. Is there anyone else here who would be willing to toss out a trial for him? His email is [email protected].

[akumadaimyo]

If you play permanently let me know. I could use a group of nice people to play with who roleplay or are at least open to it. I don't know if I have a char on virtue BUT I'm open to it. Though I'm more of a Villians man but I do love Scrappers. I guess it's just more of who I have to play with.

[slipper]

Yes, that was one of my attractions as well.

I've been looking at the power sets over at City of Heroes WarCry, and I think that if I were building a Batman clone, I'd go with Technological origin, Spines Primary and Invulnerability secondary. Spines reflecting bat shuriken and the edges of his suit, etc.

But that's just a guess since, a) I haven't played the game yet and b) I'm not a huge Batman fan (more of a Moonknight guy myself :smallwink: )

NO NO NO


Spines powerset makes your entire body sprout giant protruding white spiney horn things all over your body.
Not batman at all.

I kind of feel like a dark melee/dark armor(or invul) scrapper/brute/stalker would work best.

[SilverElf4]

Heh, yeah I tried it last night and was like, wow, that's not really how I pictured a character with barbs and spines. (-:

So yeah, probably Dark Melee or Martial Arts with a Tech or Natural background.

One other question if anyone's up for it: I don't seem to be able to put wings or capes on any of my characters - is that because this is only the trial? Does that mean there are even more costume options in the full game?

[mudbunny]

Capes you can't get until L20 (I think).

According to the backstory, after Hero-1 (and the omega team) sacrificed themselves to close the Rikti Portal, the heroes declared that there would, from that time forward be no capes to honor their memory. Several years later (after many, many customers complained) it was determined that a better way to honor their sacrifice was to prove yourself before you were allowed to get a cape.

In City of Villains, they just say that Lord Recluse says that no-one under 20 can wear a cape.

As for wings, I think (but am not sure) that they come as part of veteran's rewards.

checks

Yup, at 15 months (http://www.cityofheroes.com/community/veteranrewards_15months.html) you get the option for Devils or Angel's wings.

There might be the option for wings in the character creator, I am not sure, it has been about 7 months since I played last.

[SilverElf4]

I wonder if the capes are an unlockable thing then, or if they do not apply to the prestige archetypes - I saw a 7 Warshade with a cape on last night.

[mudbunny]

As far as I know, capes being only unlocked at 20 applies to all classes. That being said, I haven't played any of Issue 9 at all, so it might have changed.

Another possibility is that the Warshade was exemplared down to level 7 from a higher (+20) level.

[Jerthanis]

I wonder if the capes are an unlockable thing then, or if they do not apply to the prestige archetypes - I saw a 7 Warshade with a cape on last night.

I think the 28 month vet reward is that you can have capes at character creation.

The rule for City of Heroes is, most of the time, if you see something on someone else that you can't have yourself, it's probably a veteran reward (Samurai armor, belly shirts, kilts, wings... plenty of others)

Although if you're dying for wings you can always spend ludicrous amounts of influence in the consignment house to buy some.

The capes at only level 20+ can sometimes be a huge pain if you make a character who's obviously designed to have a cape, but after you get a couple of character up that high and you sort of understand how to efficiently do things, you'll find yourself getting up to 10 or 15 after only a few sessions, and you'll start thinking of 20+ as when you've finally started to put serious time into the character.

I think my first character took almost 40 hours or so to get to level 20, and now I've got about 4 or 5 alts who are level 14ish with less than ten hours each. Don't worry, it gets faster.

[Katonta]

I just got this yesterday and I must say it is very good. Money well spent in my opinion. I also second Akuma's idea, if you do play permanently, drop me a line, I'm on Virtue.

[Kaelaroth]

Well, I have played both WoW and CoH/CoV. Personally, I much prefer WoW, I find it easier to control, and it seems much larger and more exciting. On the other hand, I was very lucky to make great friends online, which make it a lot easier. If you do play WoW rather than CoH/CoV, drop me a line! I'm on Venture Co.

[SilverElf4]

I've been playing WoW for the past year (Anvilmar) and was looking for a change up. Don't get me wrong, I really like WoW. My only real issues with it are the idio...uh, people, who I run into 24/7 on the game. That and the fact that I loved playing my class (Paladin) up until I hit level 40, and for some reason I can't stand it now, so my incentive to play and level has chilled somewhat.

So long as I can get the graphical issues resolved, my brother and I will start next week. Akuma and I have been talking offlist, and we'll probably start out on Virtue, so we already have a nice core of a supergroup then. Send one of us an email so we can get the ball rolling.

[slipper]

Okay here is the answer to the cape/wings question... (correct answer)

You can not get a cape until lvl 20
However, there is a vet reward to have a SHOULDER cape at lvl 1 (not a full cape)

You can get some wings at lvl 1 as a 15 month vet reward
But you can also MAKE wings if you find an extremely rare recipe (they go for 10-100 million $$$)

A lvl 1 has the same chance to find recipes as a lvl 50, so it is possible to find wings (I found insect wing recipe at lvl 21)

Now, a 3 month reward is a trenchcoat, which sort of looks like a cape.


As for other costume options, at lvl 30, you can add a "aura"

An aura can range from a halo-ish thing over your head, glowy eyes, or green goo oozing from your body.

[SilverElf4]

Just wanted to let you all know: while I enjoyed the game immensely, it will not run consistently on my computer.

With the game running at the lowest graphical settings, I had numerous glitches, lag outs, boots, and three different times crashes that required a hard reboot of my computer.

Even with all that though, I had a great time playing, and when I get a new desktop next month, I'll probably be joining up them. Email Akuma or I if you would like to join our burgeoning GiTP SG/VG.

[Dr. Bath]

At the moment they seem to be having bad server problems, so lag and glitches. They seem to be worse on slower computers (like mine).

I'm on the Defiant server with a defender. I've only had the game a week, but it's fun and the lag wasn't too bad until a couple of days ago.