Incline The City of Heroes Thread

[Zombra]

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/47223-ncsoft-homecoming-license-announcement/
Private server for a license agreement with NCSoft to continue operating.

It's certainly big news, but then they go and say server will now need more donations due to licensee obligations. Whatever figures are involved have to be chump change for NCSoft to take their toll.

Homecoming only accepts enough donations to cover their costs. Once a month they open donations which automatically close once goal is met. It is literally a race to donate and there are a lot of sad posts from people who "lost" and weren't able to hit the button fast enough. In the past several months the monthly donation goal has always been reached within hours. All the original COH fans are now grown-ups with jobs and a sense of responsibility. Maybe numbers will dwindle someday, but unless an act of God strikes it down, Homecoming is going to be around for a lonnnng time.

 

[Sjukob]

Are you guys still playing this? I've never tried the game before and was surprised to discover that it is basically a build porn combat focused game.

I play on Rebirth and it was pretty enjoyable so far. The issue I have with the game is that some archetypes or even power sets don't really become "playable" until a certain point in the game, which usually comes much later on. They either lack sustain, defense, damage or all of these at once to be able to hold their own. Another thing is that once you hit level 20 you realise that a vast majority of content is not rewarding enough to run it. If it doesn't yield you merits, which you always need more of, or big buck, why bother? The instances are level scaled anyway, so you can start running them as soon as they become available without sacrificing anything and almost all quests in the game are instanced anyway. Some quest lines have pretty entertaining writing, so you can do them out of interest if you'd like to.

Still, the building aspect is fun as you can come up with a lot of creative ideas, and the game is relaxed enough that almost anything can be made to work.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

Are you guys still playing this? I've never tried the game before and was surprised to discover that it is basically a build porn combat focused game.

I play on Rebirth and it was pretty enjoyable so far. The issue I have with the game is that some archetypes or even power sets don't really become "playable" until a certain point in the game, which usually comes much later on. They either lack sustain, defense, damage or all of these at once to be able to hold their own. Another thing is that once you hit level 20 you realise that a vast majority of content is not rewarding enough to run it. If it doesn't yield you merits, which you always need more of, or big buck, why bother? The instances are level scaled anyway, so you can start running them as soon as they become available without sacrificing anything and almost all quests in the game are instanced anyway. Some quest lines have pretty entertaining writing, so you can do them out of interest if you'd like to.

Still, the building aspect is fun as you can come up with a lot of creative ideas, and the game is relaxed enough that almost anything can be made to work.

It's been over a decade, nearly 15 years to be honest, since I played, but my main two characters were a broad sword/fiery armor scrapper and a gravity control/psionic assault dominator. It's definitely build porn. With everything now free, it's more combat porn than before.

 

[Lhynn]

Are you guys still playing this?

Yes

The issue I have with the game is that some archetypes or even power sets don't really become "playable" until a certain point in the game

This isnt really true, though some ATs are very support oriented and will struggle alone. Theres a very skill ceiling when it comes to character building.

Also worth noting that nowadays you get speeded up progression with your secondary powerset, so you get a lot of goodies a lot earlier than you did in the original game, making early levels easier than they were before.
It is still a very challenging game however, or can be depending on the difficulty you choose to play.

Another thing is that once you hit level 20 you realise that a vast majority of content is not rewarding enough to run it.

This is true up to a point, you kind of level too fast and end up missing most of the early content.

If it doesn't yield you merits, which you always need more of, or big buck, why bother?

All arcs reward you with merits at the end, so even if a single mission doesnt give you it, the whole storyarc, when played in full, will.
That said what you really need is influence, merits come and go, and there are weekly objectives that reward you merits x2 that will quickly get you more than you need. But influence is how you buy purple stuff from other players, and its a lot cheaper and easier than spending merits on it.

Some quest lines have pretty entertaining writing, so you can do them out of interest if you'd like to.

You should make a praetorian character, some of the best writing in the game is there. Praetoria is the "shades of gray" "hero deconstruction" type setting, a parallel earth that has been all but conquered by a dimensional being, and that is invading earth.
You have loyalist and resistance factions, and can play on either, or sometimes even betray one to switch. But you can also play a scumbag or a good person in both, and each arc comes with its own morality choice at the end. Its just amazing stuff.
Makes you angry to think if NCsoft hadnt killed it, you could have gotten a lot more of that good stuff.

Still, the building aspect is fun as you can come up with a lot of creative ideas, and the game is relaxed enough that almost anything can be made to work.

Everything can be made to work, you just have to have clear goals to hit.

 

[Zombra]

The issue I have with the game is that some archetypes or even power sets don't really become "playable" until a certain point in the game.

Yeah, some Archetypes (Controllers and Tankers leap to mind, basically anything without a damage primary) excel in groups and not solo, period. If you are a solo only player, you should play strong solo ATs. This is not a failure of the game.

If it doesn't yield you merits, which you always need more of, or big buck, why bother?

I mean, eh. Some people only care about numbers go up, which I guess is fine, but sure. If you find some content isn't worth doing for its own sake, nothing is stopping you from grinding deliberately broken Architect missions and "winning" the game without ever really playing it. WAY TO GO, HERO.

 

[Turn_BASED]

Every so often I’ll hop in and spend an hour or two creating new characters, what a great game

 

[Sjukob]

All arcs reward you with merits at the end, so even if a single mission doesnt give you it, the whole storyarc, when played in full, will.
That said what you really need is influence, merits come and go, and there are weekly objectives that reward you merits x2 that will quickly get you more than you need. But influence is how you buy purple stuff from other players, and its a lot cheaper and easier than spending merits on it.

I mean, eh. Some people only care about numbers go up, which I guess is fine, but sure. If you find some content isn't worth doing for its own sake, nothing is stopping you from grinding deliberately broken Architect missions and "winning" the game without ever really playing it. WAY TO GO, HERO.

What I mean is that at level 20 you unlock alignment and tip missions, which award alignment merits at the end. Due to low population Rebirth basically has no functioning economy, there's just no supply to buy out your way to victory off auction house, so you absolutely need merits above everything. Rare set recipes cost 1-2 alignment merits and you can also buy 8 pieces of rare salvage for 1 merit and since all of this is level scaled, and tips can be repeated infinitely with no cooldown, you can kind of see where this is going.

As for the reward merits, yes I know that you get some at the end of story arcs, which is like 1/5 worth of alignment merit for the same or more amount of time spent. I still do them, because it's fun.

You should make a praetorian character, some of the best writing in the game is there. Praetoria is the "shades of gray" "hero deconstruction" type setting, a parallel earth that has been all but conquered by a dimensional being, and that is invading earth.
You have loyalist and resistance factions, and can play on either, or sometimes even betray one to switch. But you can also play a scumbag or a good person in both, and each arc comes with its own morality choice at the end. Its just amazing stuff.
Makes you angry to think if NCsoft hadnt killed it, you could have gotten a lot more of that good stuff.

Yeah, I wanted to give it a go, because I liked story missions in the first ward. But I heard that it can be pretty obtuse with difficulty at times, since apparently it was designed as an end game content and then just got it's numbers downscaled, but not mechanics redesigned, to be a "tutorial". Do I need to play with a specific AT or no?

 

[Lhynn]

What I mean is that at level 20 you unlock alignment and tip missions, which award alignment merits at the end. Due to low population Rebirth basically has no functioning economy, there's just no supply to buy out your way to victory off auction house, so you absolutely need merits above everything. Rare set recipes cost 1-2 alignment merits and you can also buy 8 pieces of rare salvage for 1 merit and since all of this is level scaled, and tips can be repeated infinitely with no cooldown, you can kind of see where this is going.

Ohh, Rebirth. Yeah, its going to be challenging. Best thing you can do for merits is tinpex every day, and hamidon, though I dont know if the population supports taking hamidon on.

Yeah, I wanted to give it a go, because I liked story missions in the first ward. But I heard that it can be pretty obtuse with difficulty at times, since apparently it was designed as an end game content and then just got it's numbers downscaled, but not mechanics redesigned, to be a "tutorial". Do I need to play with a specific AT or no?

No specific AT, but you cant go with spiders or squids.
Id say you want melee, particularly scrappers or brutes are good to solo anything. They are solid.
Also remember that the best way to exp is to party, soloing is a very slow process, that said praetoria tends to be neglected, so theres few people to ever team with, and that all them aligment choices and writing are hard to read when you are on a team.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

What I mean is that at level 20 you unlock alignment and tip missions, which award alignment merits at the end. Due to low population Rebirth basically has no functioning economy, there's just no supply to buy out your way to victory off auction house, so you absolutely need merits above everything. Rare set recipes cost 1-2 alignment merits and you can also buy 8 pieces of rare salvage for 1 merit and since all of this is level scaled, and tips can be repeated infinitely with no cooldown, you can kind of see where this is going.

Ohh, Rebirth. Yeah, its going to be challenging. Best thing you can do for merits is tinpex every day, and hamidon, though I dont know if the population supports taking hamidon on.

Yeah, I wanted to give it a go, because I liked story missions in the first ward. But I heard that it can be pretty obtuse with difficulty at times, since apparently it was designed as an end game content and then just got it's numbers downscaled, but not mechanics redesigned, to be a "tutorial". Do I need to play with a specific AT or no?

No specific AT, but you cant go with spiders or squids.
Id say you want melee, particularly scrappers or brutes are good to solo anything. They are solid.
Also remember that the best way to exp is to party, soloing is a very slow process, that said praetoria tends to be neglected, so theres few people to ever team with, and that all them aligment choices and writing are hard to read when you are on a team.

Just do a few sewer runs.

 

[Lhynn]

Excuse me?

Goldside has no sewer rats, the nerve of suggesting something like that.

Us praetorians fight obscenely powerful enemies that get increasingly more absurd and we like it.

 

[Dr1f7]

still one of the only mmorpgs where

• you're supposed to group with people
• they make it really easy to group with people

blows my fucking mind

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

still one of the only mmorpgs where

• you're supposed to group with people
• they make it really easy to group with people

blows my fucking mind

This is arguably the biggest strength of the game. It is rather rare to run into someone with the exact same powerset as you, epic archetypes not withstanding.

 

[Zombra]

I think COH was the first MMO anywhere to introduce "sidekicking".

Also notable, the game facilitates soloing equally well if that's what you want to do. You group or solo without giving up anything at all.

 

[Lhynn]

It is a little marvel of a game. It is a mystery how the same people that made it went on to make Champions online, a failed cashgrab that did everything wrong and stole everything that it did right from CoH.

It blows my fucking mind my how player housing is a thing, game gives you incredibly powerful tools to make amazing instances. Theres this one dude that went full autismo on HC everlasting and made a whole fucking island on an italian style, with a church in the middle, around half the buildings have functioning insides. And under the island theres a secret base for villains. Its just exquisitely designed and probably took a good 200 hours to make.

Also notable, the game facilitates soloing equally well if that's what you want to do. You group or solo without giving up anything at all.

It really does, the difficulty options are great to facilitate that.

Another thing I love about it is that every faction has its own identity, even at different levels you will find different enemies. As enemies dont really "scale"
For example the Circle of Thorns starts out with spell casters and ghosts first, the moves on to ghosts and demons, and for the top levels its exclusively demons. So they get a different feel.
A mid level enemy of that faction is the succubus, they confuse you, and make you attack your own allies. The low level enemies target your to-hit for the most part, and increase their own defenses, so they make you fail a lot. While the high level enemies are just more durable and more damaging overall.

Every faction has this, some factions only available at a certain level range, and all of them have their own thing you should be prepared for and can plan around, by giving priority to different targets, or loading out different inspirations.

 

[Zombra]

Jenkem
Busted. Seen on Homecoming/Excelsior. Excellent haircut.

 

[Sjukob]

Every so often I’ll hop in and spend an hour or two creating new characters, what a great game

This isnt really true, though some ATs are very support oriented and will struggle alone. Theres a very skill ceiling when it comes to character building.

Yeah, some Archetypes (Controllers and Tankers leap to mind, basically anything without a damage primary) excel in groups and not solo, period. If you are a solo only player, you should play strong solo ATs. This is not a failure of the game.

My favourite AT so far is mastermind, I made another one yesterday. I wish all other ATs had progression as smooth as masterminds, brutes and scrappers do, they start out strong and become even better further onward.

Personally, I find that the overall experience pre level 30 something is pretty miserable. Your character likely lacks his key abilities and doesn't have enough enhancement slots to support proper accuracy, endurance and defense/resistance. Sure, the higher level enemies fight way harder and have much more dangerous abilities to deal with, but at least it's a proper action where you actually have a complete attack chain and have something to watch out for when it comes to enemy attacks, rather than just throwing out a bunch of low key blows and hope they connect. Pre level 22 game, where you can start slotting level 25 generic IOs, is especially obtuse in this regard, it's a shame because early game has some pretty cool story arcs, for example, the skulls arc in kings row.
Ever since my mastermind hit level 32, the point where you have all your pets and every upgrade power for them, I stopped thinking about exp, because there's no more feeling of pushing it to a certain milestone. I can just do whatever and slowly gear out the character, but may be it's just my perspective.

Best thing you can do for merits is tinpex every day, and hamidon, though I dont know if the population supports taking hamidon on.

Well, at least I got to kill the seed yesterday, although mastermind really doesn't fare well in that fight.

 

[Zombra]

I mean sure, not everyone has to like meaningful progression.

 

[Lhynn]

My favourite AT so far is mastermind

Mastermind is amaaazing. Theres enough to that AT to make a whole game around it. Its a class that can only be played effectively by setting up macros, you can order different minions to do different things or attack different targets. Its the only AT with summons that gives you such an insane degree of control over them. It can drive you insane as it allows for a LOT of micromanagement.

There are very few masterminds because of how complex it is, but the best of them are obscene in every area, great tanking, insane dps, etc. That said, yeah, you will struggle vs things that fly or things that make you eat a lot of AoE.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

My favourite AT so far is mastermind

Mastermind is amaaazing. Theres enough to that AT to make a whole game around it. Its a class that can only be played effectively by setting up macros, you can order different minions to do different things or attack different targets. Its the only AT with summons that gives you such an insane degree of control over them. It can drive you insane as it allows for a LOT of micromanagement.

There are very few masterminds because of how complex it is, but the best of them are obscene in every area, great tanking, insane dps, etc. That said, yeah, you will struggle vs things that fly or things that make you eat a lot of AoE.

This is why you team up with characters that cover your weaknesses. Tankers and blasters come to mind.

 

[Dr1f7]

game has really nice enemy factions too
circle of thorns, council, butcher zombie mofos all come to mind from what i remember
but there's a shitton of enemy variety and they're all cool

 

[Zombra]

game has really nice enemy factions too
circle of thorns, council, butcher zombie mofos all come to mind from what i remember
but there's a shitton of enemy variety and they're all cool

Not only that but none of them exist in a vacuum. The writers asked questions like "What if the demon worshippers stole an artifact from the ancient tiki gods and took it to their mystical underground city, and it set off a rampage of the mutated mushroom people?"

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

If there was one thing I loved doing, it was getting a bunch of enemies to chase me and then summon the singularity, only to watch them get tossed around.

 

[Dr1f7]

If there was one thing I loved doing, it was getting a bunch of enemies to chase me and then summon the singularity, only to watch them get tossed around.

oh yeah that's a cool spec. grav control? tossing filing cabinets at people

 

[Poseidon00]

I think COH was the first MMO anywhere to introduce "sidekicking".

Also notable, the game facilitates soloing equally well if that's what you want to do. You group or solo without giving up anything at all.

There's really no wrong way to play it, and because of that I have created an absurd amount of characters and properly mission-leveled them to respectable degrees

I usually hate MMOs

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

If there was one thing I loved doing, it was getting a bunch of enemies to chase me and then summon the singularity, only to watch them get tossed around.

oh yeah that's a cool spec. grav control? tossing filing cabinets at people

Yes. Dumpsters also got chucked and all I can hear now is the enemy dying sound effect from Metal Slug. I also combined it with psionic assault. I liked the character so much that I used it in a campaign in FATE with Wearing the Cape and I plan on revisiting it in Homecoming.