Ryandor.com

Ok, my wife has gotten me into City of Villians. So far its a lot of fun, even though there isn't a whole lot of depth to it. It's a level grind, but its an entertaining level grind (since you level up mostly by doing quests) and the carrots for grinding (earning new powers, abilities, costumes) are pretty cool. The user base is pretty friendly too.

I'll probably tire of it at some point, but so far it's pretty fun. There is a lot of divirsity to the types and appearances of characters you create. Creating characters and earning new powers and seeing how they work is half the fun.

The MMO and RP aspects of it are kind of limited right now, but might expand in future updates/publishes.

I play on the Virtue server if anyone else out there is playing it.

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-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

I played it for the trial... that was enough time for me.

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Blog: http://www.sydius.org
Web: http://www.sydius.net

i just let my coh/cov subscription...run out.

-likes eve much more-

Well I've played "Hero's" and "Super Hero's" about 25 years ago on pen and paper. While I like watching the X-men movies and all the other super hero movies, I must say that playing the game is not my thing.

Guess I'm not a run around in my skimpies kinda guy!

Dev

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"So...if crazy people don't know their crazy...does that mean your only sane if your know your crazy?"

I'm really liking it so far. My wife and I are hooked.

From what I hear, City of Villians is more fun than its predecessor, City of Heroes. I've heard there are more options and more things to do.

Positive points:

- Excellent character creation, there is a TON of diversity to creating your character and his costume. HIGHLY customizable, probably the best I have seen.

- The system is designed to encourage players to team up. You get extra experience points (called notoriety in CoV), more stuff to fight, etc. Plus the diversity of classes allows players to capitalize on each other's strengths.

- A wide variety of quests - seemingly endless. There can be some repition if you team up and do the same ones again. The quests are run through "contacts" and are branched out though, so that you have to choose between two or more "contacts".

- Great carrots and incentives for leveling. Leveling up either gives you new powers or new "slots" to beef up existing powers. Later on you get additional incentives at certain levels (for instance, eventually you can earn a cape, or you may get additional "followers" or enhancements to existing powers.

- Huge cityscapes and game world. Very immersive. Its really cool to view the city and watch players flying around, jumping, battling NPCs, etc.

Negative points:

- Either no (or very limited) GM-run events. Its all scripted quests.

- Interiors of quest buildings are noticeably repetitive.

- Players RP, but there is actually very little reason for them to since you can't really effect the game world in any meaningful way as in other online games.

- The quests are more limited at the lower levels, resulting in you having to go through them every time you create a new character.

Basically CoV is a fun-to-play co-op 3D shooter. There is a lot of different character types and abilities to explore. My favorite character right now can summon 3 little cool looking battle-bots to help me fight, plus a protector-bot which fights but also heals and buffs the other robots. Next level I get to try getting little nanobots who run around the battlefield and keep my main bots fixed. Cool stuff.

I can't comment on the PvP aspects yet as I haven't tried them.

Anyway, I can recommend this game for just about anyone to at least try out. Your long-term mileage may vary but its definately work checking out.

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

-Either no or limited GM-run events. ITs all scripted quests.

Yep, only time things get unusual in coh/cov is during holidays. Halloween for example has huge pumpkin headed things stomping around and every door you click on in the city either gives you a trick or a treat.

- Interior quest buildings are noticeable repetitive.

Yep, from time to time as you progress in level and move throughout the city you will see some new type of "dungeon" to run around in. But after 5-6 of missions dungeon type in a row your read for a change heh. I really do love the external dungeons, sections of city to fly around in, takes hours on average to complete.

- Players RP

In supergroup you see rp'ing, and thats about the extent of it. The local channels are xtinct. This game is a downer for me in that no one socializes. All you mostly see in local channels are requests for groups or groups looking for more members. This is caused by type aspects of coh that are rather unique to it. 1, no crafting. In other mmo's players become quite chatty while watching their characters craft away at this and that. A lack of crafting means everyone is off fighting things which brings up the second aspect. 2, no default attack. What I mean by this is if you just sit there and don't press your attack buttons your hero/villian will just sit there and get hit. Most other mmo's you double click your target and smack smack smack until one of you is dead with you occasionally clicking a button to do a special attack. This game forces you to pay attention which is good, but your to busy paying attention to socialize which in my opinion is abit of a downer.

- Quests are limited at lower levels...

Yep, character creation is fun, but then when you find yourself standing out side city hall knowning exactly every single quest your about to do...well thats irritating heehee. I really wish they would implement cov's newspaper system. And a patrol system. There is one mission you go on early on in coh that has you just running around the city clicking on phones. I love that mission, I fight everything along the way, I'm actually patrolling the city! But then you really never do see that mission again unless you go pvp. There really needs to be a default "patrol" system where you can do it as often as you like. I imagine someone asking "Hey hero, lets go patrol skyway!" would be quite entertaining

Your making me want to reinstall cov/coh...heehee. Darn it. -wishes eve's patch would go faster-

They just patched in Issue 7 which adds a ton of new content. New costumes, a new city area, new quests (and even new TYPES of quests), new powers, etc.

One of the additions is a motorcycle which apparently certain classes can obtain and ride! It looks pretty neat. I'm sure I'll see tons of them around the city in the near future.

A new quest type they have added is called a "Mayhem" quest. Basically these are timed requests, but you get bonus time for blowing stuff up. Cars, mailboxes, bus stops, dumpsters, crates, etc. But they are tough as hell, me and my friends got owned the first time we tried it. If you die, instead of going to the hopsital you go to a jail cell that you can try to break out of! Neat stuff.

I forgot to comment on another good feature, which is the way the game handles experience points when you die. There is no XP penalty when you die; instead you incur an "XP debt" and until the debt is paid off, half the XP you earn goes towards the debt. So you can still level up, etc. A good, fair way to incur a penalty for dying without making it too painful.

Socializing - Yeah, most people are out stomping people, but the system does make it relatively easy to meet people to group with. And the system encourages grouping, so people WANT to group to earn better XP. Once you have some friends to play with, the quests become even more challenging and more fun. I'd have to say I prefer playing with friends as opposed to doing missions solo, its a lot more fun.

My character reached level 19 yesterday, 1 more and I get my "cape quest".

Also, as a result of the new costume options in Issue 7, everyone is getting a free "tailor" token and power change token so they can re-do their costumes and powers if they want. They aren't stingy with stuff like this when the situation warrants, which is nice.

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

didnt mean to sound like i was complaining.

i like coh/cov quite abit, but...damn when i look at the coh icon and the eve icon every time i open two copes of eve and vanish heehee

I tried to play but my tights kept riding up in the crotch...

Dev

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"So...if crazy people don't know their crazy...does that mean your only sane if your know your crazy?"

I'm still absorbed in this game (at the expense of my UO emulation related activities as it turns out). I can sense that there will probably be a point in time where it all gets old, but I haven't hit it yet. So far I'm still having fun, even though some of the "wow" factor has worn off. There is still a lot to see and do and the missions are fun.

Mayhem missions and team play have turned out to be a real blast. When you are in a well balanced team of players who can work together its really cool since the difficulty and number of enemies goes way up the more people you have. The various powers compliment each other, so if you work together its a real fun time.

The Mayhem Missions are awesome. Basically these are timed missions where you have a goal, such as to rob the bank and escape, within 15 minutes. You get bonus time for blowing things up (cars, signs, crates, etc.) and evading arrest. Super hero reinforcements often arrive unexpectedly. If you die, you go to the jail, and you can break out! Its funny when a large group ends up in jail and you all bust out together. There are also side missions you can do to get additional time and experience points. At the end you have to break into the vault, steal the money, and defeat the super hero and his men before the timer expires to win. GREAT FUN. It can be challenging (in a good team) or very difficult or impossible (with a bad team).

I'm estimating I'll probably be into this for a few months and then on to something else.

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com