It has been over a month since my post about the upcoming move of Issue 16: Power Spectrum to the live servers. And just short of a month since the actual release. I thought I would talk about how things look at this point, since the Issue was very large and anticipated by so many players.

Very Pretty Colors

A lot of people complain about not being able to get the names they want anymore on City of Heroes, because all the good ones are taken. I have never really had this problem, for a variety of reasons, but partly because I like to use colors in various ways. The problem of course, with naming someone Purple Charge (Elec/Eng blaster) or Lightning Red (El/El scrapper) (I never said they were great names. ) was the inability to make the powers fit the name.

That is no longer a problem. As I have been working my way through my alt list I have been updating their costumes and power sets to better fit the various characters. Purple Charge now has purple lightning bolts and Lightning Red has red effects from her attacks and shields.

But they are not the only beneficiaries of the new customization. My SS tanks and MA scrappers use a variety of the different animations, depending on exactly which costume they are in and how I feel the differences fit the characters. Some of my Dark Armor scrappers still disappear when they turn on Cloak of Darkness, others don’t. For a character like Lady Flames, a Fire/Rad controller, while I could put the powers together in the game and her backstory, they did not look like they went together. Now her flame control powers have the same look as her radiation powers, which doesn’t affect game play in the least, but does affect my enjoyment in playing her.

Not all of my characters need to use power customization by any means. Chilly Death, an Ice/Ice blaster is perfectly fine using regular colors on his powers. The same is true of Fire of Gamab (Fire/Fire tank) and a lot of other characters. But when you come up with a concept for a character, it is really nice to be able to make the powers fit it so well. I was in fact surprised at how much of a difference it made in my enjoyment of a couple of characters. (I wasn’t surprised at how much it improved my enjoyment of my Spines/DA scrapper. The original look didn’t really fit her origin and are ugly besides. The metal spike though, look great and do fit her backstory. What a difference some graphics make.)

Other Changes

What I have done with the Super Side Kicking has been okay. I do not team very often, and it was a surprise the first time I joined and got the pop up asking if I wanted to change my level. Since it was in the middle of fighting a Paladin build in KR, it was almost a fatal surprise. But once I accepted and was level 49, things got much easier. It is possible to remove the popup in the Options window, I just haven’t bothered on any of my characters since I mostly solo.

The ability to change challenge levels is very nice. On my low level defenders, sticking it at -1 to level makes things much easier until I can get a few more levels on them. Of course, when you outlevel a mission and are suddenly fighting greens, it can be kind of strange. And it does lower your XP intake, but I at least have found the speed trade off worth it.

I have not messed with increasing the levels and number of heroes settings yet. One of the unfortunate things that came with I16 was a bug for the Invincibility power. It kept playing the start up sound over and over again whenever there was an enemy NPC in range. For every NPC in range. I didn’t think it would be too bad, until I actually played my main, an Inv/SS tank. It did not take long at all until I had a bad headache, so he has been sidelined until it was fixed. Which was yesterday, but I was busy last night so did not get into the game at all. When I finish the MA arc I was playing with him, I will ramp things up and see how much he can take in some Radio missions.

Not Nice

Besides the already mentioned Invincibility bug, there were a few others added into the game with I16. Unfortunately, this is a fact of life when dealing with large programs with lots of intacting parts. That doesn’t make them less annoying, but unlike some people on the COH forums, it does allow me to give the Devs a break when it happens. They play the game too and I sincerely doubt they enjoy the bugs any more than the regular players do.

The biggest one for me is a spawning issue in the Mission Architect system. When custom critters and standard mobs are in the same group, they do not spawn correctly. The regular spawns do not show up at all most of the time, and when they do, the level ranges will be badly messed up. Having grey mobs 20 levels below the character level show up in a mission takes a lot of enjoyment out of it, and can mess up the story if they contradict something the writer has put in.

There were also some bugs in the way Mastermind pets would follow through doors. It is a great feature, but when you zone and are suddenly surrounded by a bunch of bots that follow you around but don’t obey your instructions, the results can range from annoying to deadly. That has not been fixed yet, although they did get the Protector bots to properly buff again.

Final Words

Issue 16 was almost completely a Quality Of Life issue. They did not add in any new zones, or revamp any existing ones. They did not add in any Task or Strike Forces, new contacts, or new missions. I know that there are people that are upset when an issue comes out without adding in new content. Some have been complaining since Issue 13, because the only official new content has been the Reichmann arcs in I15. I can understand that point of view, although I think many of them are being a bit silly about not caring for the stuff in the MA system. There are some very good stories, both canon and non-canon, in the MA, and it is not that hard to find them.

For those people, Issue 16 was just a waste of time and resources. But personally, I found it has enhanced my enjoyment of the game. I knew I would like power customization, but I did not realize how much it would add to the characters I create and the fun I have playing them. That by itself makes I16 a huge success in my book. Because that is why I play the game, to have fun.

With the pre-release download and the warning on the forums about an upcoming freespec (Free power respecification for all characters, for those who don’t speak the COH dialect of English.) it looks like Issue 16: Power Spectrum is just about ready to hit the live servers.  It hit Open Beta on the Test server on August 26, so this is about right in the usual schedule. Having played with it for a little while in Closed Beta and more so in Open, I can say it is a lot of fun.

I spent most of my time either checking out the new colorization and/or animation choices or a couple of the new powersets that were moved around. I also spent a little bit of time looking at the new difficulty system that was added, but not that much.

Pretty Colors

The color customization system is very nice. There are some limitations to it, especially with Dark Melee or other powers like it, because of the way colors are done in the game engine. And some options were blocked because the Devs did not like the way they looked. But the variety that is available is almost overwhelming.

On most powersets, you have a choice between a dark palette and a light palette of colors. You pick 2 colors for each power and can either have those colors automatically shared by all the powers in the set, all powers in both sets, or set each power individually. And you can change the colors for each costume slot, is you want to have different power colors to match a different costume theme.

The new animations are also pretty nice. Not all the powers in Martial Arts and Super Strength have new choices, but the ones that do look good. I was never that bothered with the continuous kicking in MA, but it is nice to be able to add a few punches in.  I have a few quibbles about a couple of SS animations, the ground punch for Footstomp and the new Knock Out Blow animation. The ground punch feels fast and the KO Blow feels like it is taking too long. But those are both because they have to match the times for the original animations, so there is not really a lot that BAB can do about them. And the new KO Blow really looks great if you have a Shield on your arm.

New Powers

Well, sort of. For I15, there was a lot of complaining on the forum about no new powerset proliferation. Well, this time there is plenty going on. Every AT gets at least one new powerset, with several getting two. (Master Minds just can’t get a break on proliferation. Always stuck at getting a new secondary.)

I was in at the end of the Closed Beta, so I did not get to play any of the new sets at a high level, and I only checked out a couple of them. I don’t enjoy playing on Red side that much (Mostly at low levels because of having to do the mayhem missions over and over again for new contacts.) so I looked at a couple of the new possibilities for heroes. And I played them without using my Veteran award attacks. They make low levels extremely easy and I wanted to see what it was like with just the new stuff.

I found the Electric Melee/Electric Armor on a Scrapper to be a lot of fun. Nice protection with great attacks made for a fun romp through the low levels. I especially like the Jacob’s Ladder cone attack. It was very easy to get 2 or even 3 mobs in the area of effect, which is not always true for the melee cone attacks.

I also started up a Traps/Assault Rifle defender to see how that worked out. I did not enjoy it as much as the scrapper, but it was still a lot of fun. And it is a very versatile combination. A primarily teaming defender can pick up the Traps powersets and do very well at helping the team, while a soloer can pick up the AR attacks and go to town on the mobs. And with the ability to have two builds, you can do both builds and suit your powers to your mood.

I really enjoyed both characters as I was playing them, and have already decided that both powerset combos will make it to live when I16 gets there. And I will start up some new alts for most of the other sets also I am sure. Such is the curse of altitis.

Other good stuff

Some other things are showing up in I16 that have been pretty much overshadowed by the color customization and new powersets. This is a shame because they are pretty major changes that have been wanted for quite a while.

First up, there is the change to the Difficulty setting for mission running. Instead of just having 5 levels of difficulty, you can fine tune your adventures. Running an Inv/SS level 50 tank that likes to take on all comers? You can set your difficulty to think you are on an 8 man team, mobs spawning at 2 levels above you, with bosses showing up. (Yeah, been there done that. It rocks being able to jump into huge spawns without worrying about the squishies on a team.) If you are running an Empath defender with lousy attacks, set it to a 1 man team, with the mobs spawning 1 level below you, and no bosses ever show up. Yes, -1 level. A huge help to characters that have problems soloing.

Aside from those settings, you can also control if AVs show up, so if you are one of the folks that like soloing them, you can make it happen with out needing to pad a mission. And that brings up one of the nicest parts of the new system. It should pretty much stop requests for padding teams so someone can farm them for an 8 man team. Farmers can just set their difficulty to what they can handle and have at it all they want. This is good for everyone involved.

Second big change is one that was not announced prior to beta. There are some major changes in the requirements for various badges. As in, you will be able to get the epic level badges without overnight farming of damage, healing, etc. A lot of the defeat and gladiator badge numbers were also lowered, making those much easier to get.

Some badgers are not happy about this, saying “I got Empath when it was hard! Everyone should have to!” Well, you didn’t get it by playing the game. You got it by setting up a heal farm then walking away from your computer for 8 or 10 hours. I have no problem with someone doing that if they want the badge, but they really don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to the requirements being lowered. It sounds too much like “I got mine! Screw everyone else!”

I already have the Exalted badge (What can I say, I’m a tank, I don’t run when it hits the fan. I stand there so the squishies can run. And ship raids really help for this badge.) but the fact that a lot of others will be able to get it more easily doesn’t bother me. I do admit, it does give me a leg up on reaching Immortal (Wish they would fix it so the Accolade hp counted.) and Jailed (You know how hard it is for an Inv tank to get mezzed without farming? And I will be lucky if I get the Imprisoned badge.) As for Empath? Still a tank. Healing is not my forte.

They are also looking at easing some of the Super Group badge requirements, but I am not certain those will make it to live with the rest of I16. I have not seen anything on the forums about them and my Test SG does not have any.

Not so good stuff

There have also been some changes that are not for the better. Most of these have to do with the Mission Architect system and experience earned. The Devs are really serious about stopping people from exploiting things in the MA and making it a place for people to tell stories. I certainly applaud this, being one of the people that like telling stories there. But while some of the changes make sense, others are not as well thought out.

The change that makes sense deals with custom groups. In order to get xp for mobs in a custom group, the group has to have at least one mob at each level of power, minion, Lt., and Boss. This prevents people from creating boss only groups and farming them. This may cause some problems for MA authors, but overall it is a decent change.

Another change was making the Freakshow villains worth less experience. A lot less. They went from being worth 1.2 times normal xp to being worth .8 normal xp. This raised a huge stir on the forums, for good reason. While the Freaks are not hard enough to merit being worth 20% more than normal mobs, they are also not easy enough that they should be cut down to less xp then normal mobs, especially in the 20s when players first start encountering them. They can be a challenge at that point.

This was obviously done because farmers would create farms with Freaks and mow them down using powers the Freaks are weak against. This can happen with almost any mob, but the Freaks being worth more xp made them a favorite for it. Thus the xp nerf.

Fortunately, the Devs heard the outcry and determined that yes, they had overreacted a tad. They changed it so that early Freaks give .95 normal xp, with the high level ones still at .8 normal. This is a much better solution, and has quieted things down a lot.

The changes for custom critters in the MA have also been eased a bit. The original set up for using the Custom setting for selecting powers was just horrible. This was pointed out repeatedly, and was also open to exploitation (oops!), and was changed so that as long as the Standard powers are used, the mobs will be worth Standard xp.

But that brings up the biggest problem with the current build. Standard/standard settings for powers in the MA will only give 75% of the normal xp for non-custom mobs. This is despite the fact that even on Standard settings, custom mobs are much more difficult than regular mobs. Creating custom critters that do not overwhelm players is one of the hardest things to do in the MA, especially for low level arcs. If anything, Standard mobs should be at 100%, with Hard mobs at 110% and Extreme someplace higher.

The Devs have said they will keep working at getting the settings right, but they need to set something now or delay I16 another month to get it right. Since that would push back Going Rogue, we will have to take what we have and try to make the best of it. And at least they got rid of the really bad system.

Final Words

Looking at this, I see I missed several other changes that are coming in I16, like the new exemplar/sidekick system, removal of most hazard zone limits, and some real improvements and fixes in the MA system. But I am already about twice as long as I like on these posts, so they will have to wait.

Overall, this is a really great update coming from the Devs at City of Heroes. They have put a lot of work into it and it really shows. When compared with the really good stuff coming in it, the problems I listed are really not that important. Because when I think about all the stuff I have tried and liked, and think about the stuff I haven’t tried yet, my reaction is  still “Oooo, shiny!”

This has been a pretty busy time on City of Heroes. Issue 14: Architect just came out a few weeks ago, the 5th Anniversary celebration is starting today and running through May, and also today, they put up the first announcement about Issue 15: Anniversary.

The next issue looks nice, especially for those of us that have been missing beating up the 5th Column. They are back in a big way, with a separate Strike Force and Task Force for the Villains and Heroes in the game. New costumes, new faces, new emotes, and some needed updates to the Mission Architect UI. And the best news is, it should be coming fairly quickly. With a name like Anniversary, unless they want to push it back to November, they will want it out as soon as possible so it is at least close to the 5th Anniversary.

Mission Architect Stories

The Mission Architect is surprisingly addictive. At least for me. I was not expecting to do much with it, maybe mess with it to do an origin arc for a character or 2, but that was all. Instead, while testing it during the beta, I was looking at the maps and the villain groups and got inspired. That resulted in the Future Skulls arc, ID 4727, which eventually lost the map that inspired me, but otherwise came out pretty good. Probably not Hall of Fame or Dev’s Choice, but a fairly solid story.

But that story seemed to need a followup, and I came up with a slightly different explanation for running from mission to mission. It was different enough that the first person to run it had a problem following it, and gave me some very good feedback. That resulted in Simple Times, ID 70801, being 5 missions, with more writing, but again, what seems to be a solid story from the feedback and ratings it has received.

The problem was, the ending of Simple Times finished that story, but was an obvious set up for another. This was deliberate, because I have an end for the whole thing, but I ran into a problem coming up with the start of the arc. Then I got some detailed feedback on Simple Times, which caused me to add some information to that arc, and gave me the hook to start up the next arc. So I once again find myself spending hours at the Mission Architect, putting together missions, testing maps, and trying to make sure everything makes sense when it is done.

Mission Architect Resources

One thing I hear a lot, especially in the game from people that do not spend time on the forums, is how hard it is to find good missions to run. Well there are many places to do just that, this is the Internet after all.

• COH Forums: Mission Architect: Stories & Lore – The section of the official game forums that is devoted to promoting and reviewing arcs created on the Mission Architect. Many threads where people share reviews and advice about what they think is good and bad.
• City of Heroes Mission Review – A fan run site, with a nice setup for players to review and rate arcs submitted by the arc writers. If you are a writer, put yours up and review one. This isn’t required, but more reviews make the site more useful, so more people are likely to show up and use it.
• Mission Search – Another mission review site, ran by fans. It has a very nice Advanced Search set up for finding missions. I recommend putting your arc up on both of these sites for people to find and review. Assuming of course you think it will get a good score.
• City of Heroes Architecture – Another fan run site, this one is set up for posting articles about the MA and player written reviews of arcs. Not very busy so far, but if you are a writer, it is a place to submit articles or reviews.
• CustomCoH.com – This is a place to share your custom creations, whether from single mobs to groups to entire arcs. It is not very busy, which is too bad. It has some real potential, since there is so much creative energy making new enemies and allies in the Mission Architect. Unless I get a Dev’s Choice or Hall of Fame award, my Future Skulls group can only appear in 3 missions. Sharing them with the community would mean they could be used many times.
• City of Heroes Mission Planner – If you want to work on your arc while offline, Leandro is making that possible. The Planner is not finished, but already has some nice functionality.
• Paragon Wiki>Mission Architect Tags – For arc writers and players, these tags are a very nice way to search. They are player created, so there is no real standard, but they cover most things that can be done by the MA.

So there is a quick look at the resources available if you are interested in the Mission Architect, whether as an arc writer or player. There is already more content available in the MA than the developers were able to creat in 5 years, with more coming all the time, so there should be enough to keep even the most hardcore player busy for a while.

As a wise man once said,

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.*

So the last couple of weeks have been busy. Far too busy to keep up with posting here obviously. Part of the time was spent trying to earn some money, part with family, and part with playing games. The family had games parts were much more successful than the money part so far.

Especially with the last couple of days, dealing with taxes. That has been especially depressing, but at least it is past now. Just the regular bills draining my resources at this point.

To combat the various depressing parts of the last couple of weeks, I have been spending too much time buried in City of Heroes. Issue 14 is live now, and I had to bring over and update an arc from the Test server. Feedback immediately got me started re-writing parts and searching for typos. The re-writing is done, but I do not believe it is possible to get rid of all the typos. They hide from me, just to jump out and bug the players.

Frankly, between the time spent working on a website for someone else, and writing I have been doing on my arcs for the Mission Architect, I have not had the time, nor really the inclination, to  get much written here. But I am currently between arcs on City of Heroes, and before I start on the website, I thought I would drop a quick update here.

I am also considering how, or even if, to proceed with the plugin reviews. I enjoy looking at the various offerings the plugin developers  give us, but I really need to spend more time making money, which my writing reviews will not do. Will have to wait and see how life happens I guess.

Oh yeah, if anyone that reads this is a COH player, try out Future Skulls, ID 4727, and Simple Times, ID 70801, and let me know what you think. Both are low level arcs, with related stories.

*John Lennon of course.

I have not done nearly enough testing of Issue 14 on the test server since open beta started. Real life has been…intruding a lot. I did avoid a couple of large problems by missing one of the new builds, so that was good, and I did find a few things that I bugged when I was on.

The interface and general bugginess of the Mission Architect have both improved a great deal, although not always smoothly. Anyone that has done any software testing can certainly understand that. And if you have not experienced it yourself, just understand that it is very much of the “2 steps forward, 1 step back” type of progress. Except for when it is 3 steps back. The law of unintended consequences is rampant in software testing.

The last I looked there have been 0ver 18,000 arcs published so far on the Test server. That does not mean there are that many available. If an arc is unpublished for any reason, then re-published, the number of the arc changes. (Not when a published arc is edited without being unpublished. That does not change ratings, ID number, or anything else about the arc except what the writer edits.) So the 18,000+ is how many times arcs have been published. Still a huge number, especially since most of them are still around.

I have really enjoyed the arcs I have created, including the test arc that had Duper-Man, FastMan, and NiteVVing invading from New Earth. That was created only for testing the mission reporting feature, so it is long gone now. But it was fun to create. And I got some nice feedback from one guy that loved getting one-shotted by Duper-Man.

Creating custom critters and groups is fun. Figuring out their looks and powers, and how all of the ranks will fit together, is an excuse to play with the character creator for hours. As someone with a bad case of altitis, this is almost Nirvana. Then comes of the fun of figuring out the story and fitting them into a mission or arc.

I have had the most fun combining things so far. Taking a standard group from the game, then creating a few extra custom mobs to add to them, and using them to tell a story. This can get tricky, since custom critters are all level 1-54, but the regular mobs in the game are level limited. If you create a custom group of say, Hellions 2, and add in all the Hellions plus your custom critters (You can’t add a custom critter to a regular ingame group.) then the mission will be available for all levels rather than automatically lowering the level of the players to the right one to fight Hellions.

So a level 30 scrapper runs in, and the only spawns in the mission will be the custom critters, because the regular mobs will not spawn out of their level range. The way I have worked around it, until they get around to letting use set the level for an arc (Note: They have not said this will happen. This is just wishful thinking on my part, along with a lot of others.) is to add in a patrol for the mission from the regular ingame group. This forces the mission to cover the correct level range and players are raised or lowered in level to fit.

If you are really interested in the Mission Architect, and how to get started using it to create your Hall of Fame/Developer’s Choice arcs, Memphis_Bill has been working on a series of tutorials on the forums. They can be hard to find there, because of the very fast pace of new topics in the testing forum right now. But ParagonWiki has been collecting them and doing a good job keeping the information up to date. The tutorials do a very good job walking you through the options and getting you up to speed. I would recommend reading through them at the very least if you want to create your own stories.

I have really enjoyed the Mission Architect. I have seen people complain about the lack of new content in this Issue, including one that said he was canceling his subscription. This was pretty stupid in my opinion. Once the MA hits the live servers, the amount of content available, for all levels, for all playing styles, will skyrocket. Some of it will suck, no doubt about it. But there are already arcs on the Test server that are better than most of the stuff already in the game. And that collection of material will just continue to grow as the MA gets improved and the players get better at using it.