Statesman says ...

[Taallyn]

Statesmans posted about some things on the CoH/V plate.

First...I confirm that we're working on right now (as in pohsyb in the next room) to add CoV costume parts into CoH if you own both games....

Then we repeal the hated stealth nerf. The reason why: many well reasoned posts. It's that simple. You guys pointed out the problems.

AND now...we're changing the way Archvillains spawn. A ton of forum goers disliked adding so many AV's into missions a while back...so we've come up with a solution. If the team size and mission difficulty are ABOVE a certain level, an Archvillain spawns. Below that, players will face only an Elite Boss. If the mission is set on the first two levels of difficulty, it takes 4 heroes or more to spawn an Arch Villain. On the third level, 3 heroes or more. On the fourth level, 2 heroes. On the highest (Invincible), a solo hero will spawn an AV. Note this works in BOTH City of Heroes and Villains.

In order to incentivize larger teams, Positron is going to add a bonus to AV rewards!


Frankly, I'm looking forward to the AV spawn changes. I'm in a small SG, 4-6 members logged in at a time, and this change will be great for me and my SG-mates. We can do AVs if all of us are online, but have to put them off if even one person can't make it on. Plus, some of them only play twice a weeks. So, this change means we can still get through the level 40+ story arcs without having to delay them.

[Dalantia]

I can see Touch soloing former-AVs now.

[Brinian]

Well, that's one way to stop people from soloing AV's, assuming the AV's on invincible difficulty will still be L+2 mobs.

[Taallyn]

More from Statesman ...

About Defense scaling:

Some more good news...

Ice Tankers and SR Scrappers have long lamented that Defense doesn't scale with level. Because mobs higher level than a player possess an inherent to hit bonus, Defense isn't as effective over levels as Resistance.

A while ago, peoople have requested something be done. Well, we've done a bunch of work and done this. Defense powers will now work equally well against critters, regardless of their rank or level. For instance, your defense powers will work equally well against a Boss or any critter up to 5 levels higher than you, as it does for an equal level minion. This change has no effect on a player who does not have any Defense.

This change is coming in I7

And about some more Quality of Life changes ...

We're tweaking with toggle dropping...mostly decreasing its overall effect.

We just received tech that will allow players to pass buffs onto certain powers (such as Blizzard).

Ice/Kinetic Corruptors will be able to Fulcrum Shift Blizzard now? Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

If these are the good things in I7, what are the nerfs going to look like? :wink:

[ArmsmanCoH]

Man, the Devs seems to actually be trying to improve/fix some things. Too little to late for me, and I'd guess the Co(X) server populations must be at an all time low for Jack to actually start fixing some of these long broken aspects of the game, instead of continuing with his balance/homogenization nerf polices in his effort to attain 'perfect' balance (at the expense of bug fixes and actual new content).

Of course, Jack's always been good on promising stuff, it's the execution and delivery on promises where he usually falls flat. I am kind of surprised that I7 isn't on Test yet, since I6 was back on 11/1/06; but I haven't really bothered to keep up with the happening of Co(X) since I quit and moved over to WoW with the rest of my friends.

[Sontor]

Yea, Jack always seemed to be on the up and up. I actually felt a little guilty canceling CoH because I think the desire to make a good game is genuine. As mentioned, it's the execution that fell flat.. repeatedly.

[Kaane Feiwong]

the AV blocks were really my biggest complaint. I got stuck street sweeping for several levels becuase I couldn't defeat the 3 AV missions that were up. When the AV changes go into effect, it should renew some playability in the game for me. I have a SG of just friends and we are seldom on together, so I pretty much only solo in CoH.

There are tons of folk playing during US prime time.

[Aarthebs]

The CoV servers generally fill up. There's quite a bit less on CoH, but still more than enough to get along. Still a great game.

[Taallyn]

NCSoft/Cryptic increased their server capacities for the CoV release. Since then, the servers have been showing mostly yellow (moderate) load during primetime hours. Actually, I logged on yesterday morning (Sunday) and nearly all of them were showing moderate load. They seem to have gained quite a bit in new subscriptions with CoV since the servers are more populated now even after their capacity was increased.

As for getting pick up groups, well I was constantly declining invites this weekend while playing even when I was already in a group and in the middle of a mission :roll: I've definately seen a lot more invites and people playing CoH since CoV released.

NCSoft also doesn't hide their subscription numbers. They publish them on their website regularly for all of their games. I don't remember where exactly they are, but I have seem them somewhere on their website.

CoH/CoV doesn't have WoW's numbers, but it does still seem to have a very healthy subscription rate and retention.

[Wubao]

Like others have said, the changes seem interesting but are way too little too late for me. Besides as long as the naming policy still exists, I can't come back. All but 2 of my characters' names are most likely gone right now. So why bother to return to a series of genericHero01 characters?

In reference to the population ... there just aren't that many servers. CoV spiked the population up a bit, overall. But the game is still a really small, cozy gaming population.

I wouldn't use the server load or the presence of pickup grouping options that are tossed your way as any indication of whether or not the population is healthy. Server dots are not all specific. And PuGs are evil and should be avoided at all costs in any game.

:P

[jago668]

Especially pick up groups that send random invites to people that aren't looking for a group without even sending you a message first.

[Dalantia]

They do give you the chance to rename your hero when you return if your name is taken.

The Phase Shift nerf still went through, though. No more grabbing glowies while intangible.

Villain side is more populous, but the game is inherently still new over there. Issue 7 is coming next month, with 41-50... meh.

And the PvP bickering annoys me.

[Wubao]

"They do give you the chance to rename your hero when you return if your name is taken. "

Obviously that isn't good enough for me. It's not the same character. CoH isn't like EQ. There's no gear. All that defines the character is it's look and its name. Take the name away and it all falls apart like a house of cards.

They put that policy change in RIGHT befroe CoV launched. The reason was obvious. But the risk they took was losing return customer business. Like me. There's no motivation to return to a game where the characters I built are gone and replaced with whatever I can toss at the wall. Why bother? None of the other games put you through that. And those games have much bigger player bases.

[Kaane Feiwong]

My wife moved one of her characters from one server to another in EQ2 and was forced to change the name because it was already taken. She hates it now for the same reason Wubao. IT's just not the same character as was conceived and a misspelling of the name only becomes a warped version of your original intention.

[ryum]

that sucks about the name policy... I wasn't aware of that and almost picked up cov at a gamestop the other day.
I'd have been pissed hehe

2 questions
what was the stealth nerf?
and
how is the pvp combat? is it fast paced with the use of travel powers or what?
using super speed with my blaster is one of the few things that makes me want to re try this game... That kind of high speed slaughter could be very fun.

[ArmsmanCoH]

that sucks about the name policy... I wasn't aware of that and almost picked up cov at a gamestop the other day.
I'd have been pissed hehe

2 questions
what was the stealth nerf?
and
how is the pvp combat? is it fast paced with the use of travel powers or what?
using super speed with my blaster is one of the few things that makes me want to re try this game... That kind of high speed slaughter could be very fun.

Well, while I no longer play Co(X) (too much nerfing, too little focus on REAL new content or actual gmeplay improvements); I can tell you that with 'Travel Power Supression'; your high speed slaughter tatic won't work.

As soon as you attack a PC (or MOB in PvE); your travel power is automatically suppressed (ie turned off) for 4 seconds. the was done to coombat the Superspeed and SuperJump sniping that was occuring. They used to just impose a -50% accuracy penalty, but since with Enhancements and Inperartions, PCs could easily overcome that; they changed it to this Supression rule, both in PvE and PvP.

[Taallyn]

Only Fly had the accuracy penalty. Suppression is the reason that it was removed.

[ryum]

damn....

I wouldn't never play this game now.. no offense to anyone playing but one of the few really original and fun things I can remember about this game is high speed run and gunning with other blasters pve...

Thank for the info armsman.. I definitely won't be giving this game another try

[ryum]

damn....

I wouldn't never play this game now.. no offense to anyone playing but one of the few really original and fun things I can remember about this game is high speed run and gunning with other blasters pve...

Thank for the info armsman.. I definitely won't be giving this game another try

[Tamsin Dyresoul]

Sad, yet another example of PvE getting hosed by PvP problems.