My City of Heroes Blog Freedom

So, Q4 Earnings Report

2012-02-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

The fourth-quarter financials for City of Heroes Freedom are in. Sales for City of Heroes were up 18% from last quarter, and up 6% from Q4 2010.

We knew sales were going to be up this quarter, the only question was by how much. Now that the game's whales have bought their year-subscriptions and hundreds of dollars worth of Paragon Points each, will we see the numbers continue to rise in Q1 2012, or will they start to decline again?

But for now, Freedom is a success, if a modest one. That's good to see.

Year-on-year the game's sales are down 23% due to "user attrition", but Freedom seems to be reversing that trend, at least for now.

NCSoft earnings releases page.

Rageless Brute 2: Low Fury Boogaloo

2012-02-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

In my last article, I showed how at high Fury a Rageless Brute build, far from being gimp, is actually very viable and enjoys various advantages to make up for damage output that is only very slightly lower. Now in this followup article, I examine what happens at lower Fury values. Does the Rageless Brute fair as well as at high Fury, or does the idea of a Rageless Brute fall apart? Follow me after the break to find out!

Let's examine what happens with a Brute at "average" Fury. The upper limit of Fury is around 80 Fury. So we'll consider "average Fury" to be 40 points of Fury, giving an 80% damage bonus. We'll again use 95% damage from enhancements, and look at Rageless, Rageless Assault IO, Rage and double-Rage Brutes.

Let's look at the standard Rage Brute first:

148 + 95% = 289
80% of 148 = 118
80% of 148 = 118
289 + 118 + 118 = 525

At 40 Fury, the Rage Brute is doing 525 damage with Knockout Blow. Rage's activation/downtime costs us 9% of that, so we get:

525 - 9% = 478

Over time, the Rage Brute is getting the equivalent of 478 damage out of Knockout Blow. Rage's contribution to that is 25%. Now let's compare to the Rageless Brute:

148 + 95% = 289
80% of 148 = 118
289 + 118 = 407

The Rageless Brute is doing 407 damage, just 15% less than the Rage Brute. Time to see what the double-Rage Brute is capable of:

148 + 95% = 289
80% of 148 = 118
160% of 148 = 237
289 + 118 + 237 = 644
644 - 18% = 528

After downtime, the double-Rage Brute is getting 528 damage, of which Rage contributes 45%. The double-Rage Brute is doing 9% more damage than the Rage Brute and 23% more damage than the Rageless Brute. The advantage over the Rage Brute is negligible, but the advantage over the Rageless Brute is significant. But what if our Rageless Brute takes Assault (11%) and IO set bonuses for 20% damage?

148 + 95% = 289
80% of 148 = 118
11% of 148 = 16
20% of 148 = 30
289 + 118 + 16 + 30 = 453

Our Rageless Assault IO Brute is getting 453 damage. This is 5% less than the Rage Brute, 14% less than the double-Rage Brute and 10% more than the Rageless Brute.

A very favorable comparison. One might very easily choose to exchange 5-14% damage for no downtime, no -Defense and no -Endurance. Even at "average Fury" the Rageless Assault IO Brute is doing virtually the same damage as the Rage and double-Rage Brutes, and has none of the aforementioned costs, especially downtime. The non-Assault IO Brute does not compare quite as favorably with the double-Rage Brute, falling behind a rather significant 23%, but this disadvantage does virtually disappear at higher Fury levels.

In conclusion, skipping Rage in a Super Strength Brute is not the major handicap most assume it is. In fact, even at "average Fury" of 40, a Rageless Brute that takes about 30% damage bonuses loses virtually no damage in exchange for some very significant advantages in no downtime, no -Defense and no -Endurance. ToHit is also a factor, but a Rageless build can also compensate for that. The Rageless build will not have the flexibility the Rage build has, however, it remains a viable alternative in PvE.

Going Rageless?

2012-02-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

The one and only thing I don't like about Super Strength as a set is Rage. It's a poorly balanced power and the crash is annoying. So I ask myself: can I go Rageless on a Super Strength Brute? What would I be gaining and what would I lose?

Join me after the break to examine the Rageless possibilities!

Let's use the Brute Super Strength power Knockout Blow. The base damage is 148 (decimals rounded for simplicity). Let's add 95% damage enhancement to that along with 75 (150% damage) Fury and Rage (80%):

148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
80% of 148 = 118
289 + 222 + 118 = 629

So a Brute with 95% damage enhancement, 75 Fury and Rage will do 629 damage with Knockout Blow. Rage accounts for 19% of this figure. But that's not the whole picture. Rage also has an activation time and a down time totaling about 11 seconds out of every 120. That means Knockout Blow's damage over time is reduced by 9%, so:

629 - 9% = 572

The Rage Brute is effectively doing 572 damage with Knockout Blow over time.

Now let's take a look at a Rageless Brute. We'll still have 95% damage enhancement and 75 Fury, but no contribution from Rage:

148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
289 + 222 = 511

A Rageless Brute is doing 511 damage where a Rage Brute is doing what amounts to 572. A difference of just 11%! Now let's mitigate the missing damage by taking Assault on the Rageless Brute. Brute Assault gives a rounded 11% damage bonus, so:

148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
11% of 148 = 16
289 + 222 + 16 = 527

Our Rageless Assault Brute is doing 527 damage. That leaves the Rage Brute doing only 8% more damage.

But that's not the only trick up Rage's sleeve! A common tactic with Rage is to double-stack it. So let's see what a double-stacked Rage Brute can do:

148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
160% of 148 = 237
289 + 222 + 237 = 748

With double-stacked Rage, our Brute is doing a whopping 748 damage with Knockout Blow! But here's the trick: the downtime is even more intense because we now have 22 seconds of downtime out of every 120, which is a 18% damage reduction over time, so:

748 - 18% = 613

That's 7% more damage than the single-Rage Brute, 17% more than the Rageless Brute, and 14% more than the Rageless Assault Brute.

Now let's see if we can push the Rageless Assault Brute a bit further by adding 20% global damage bonus (a very achievable amount of +damage) from the Inventions Origin enhancements available in the game:

148 + 95% = 289
150% of 148 = 222
11% of 148 = 16
20% of 148 = 30
289 + 222 + 16 + 30 = 557

The Rageless Assault IO Brute is doing 3% less damage than the Rage Brute and 9% less than the double-stacked Rage Brute.

As we can see, at high Fury levels, Rage is not quite the damage-contributor you might think it is, and even double-stacked Rage is contributing only 17% more damage than a Rageless Brute, with 22 seconds out of every 2 minutes effectively wasted.

We can conclude from this a Rageless Brute build is surprisingly viable, especially in the presence of alternate sources of +damage. Such a Brute will also have no downtime and no -Defense or -Endurance to contend with. The downside is you are doing significantly less damage at lower Fury values, and don't have the slotting freedom that Rage's +damage and especially +tohit provides. Such a build is most likely best to be kept in PvE, as in PvP Rage's +tohit becomes very important.

In summary:
Rageless Brute advantages:

No downtime.
No -Defense.
No -Endurance.
1 Fewer power pick.
Virtually identical damage output at high Fury levels.

Rageless Brute disadvantages:

No +tohit.
Inferior damage output at low Fury levels.
Probably not competitive in PvP.
More restrictive slotting compared to Rage builds.

Issue 22 Fan Trailer by Sport921

2012-02-02T18:55:00.000-08:00

While I take a break from the game, why don't you check out this great fan-made trailer to get you hyped up for Issue 22? It's looking like an amazing update for the game! And roll a Stalker. You just might be glad you did!

Positron Interview at Massively

2012-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

The death of Statesman: best feature of Issue 22, hur, hur!

Addressing the death of Statesman and its implications for the game, Matt "Positron" Miller sat down with Massively.com for an interview. Among other things, it's revealed he won't be coming back (as already reported on this blog) and won't be removed from marketing materials, though he will be removed from the game.

I think you could remove Statesman from the marketing materials, replace him with just about anyone else, and it wouldn't be a big deal at all. Some potential replacements, such as Back Alley Brawler or Manticore are much cooler looking and might even be an improvement over the Face-Plated-One. But they are under the impression that Statesman is somehow a big draw for people to the game (I know, I find that hard to believe, too) so he'll be staying on marketing materials in all his dated, uninteresting glory.

Read the article at Massively.com
Unofficial discussion thread at the official forums.

Statesman Tribute Video by Samuraiko

2012-01-17T14:33:00.000-08:00

Visit Samuraiko's YouTube channel.
Discussion thread at the official forums.

BeTwixt

2012-01-16T00:08:00.000-08:00

Twixt

Searching the Googles for City of Heroes cosplay (don't ask) I came upon an old, but interesting article. The Twixt debacle is one I watched unfold on the forums. I never PvPed enough to encounter him in game (in part because of the attitudes the article mentions; even a great community like City of Heroes has can have a dark, ugly underbelly, and PvP tends to bring that side into view much more often than PvE).

If you want to know what the big deal about Twixt was, the article lays it all out.

Read the Twixt article at nola.com.

Signature Story Arc ViDoc #2

2012-01-10T14:57:00.000-08:00

New Issue of Justice-Knights!

2012-01-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

Issue 8 is #7. Best not to question that, citizen.

The most smartly-written City of Heroes Freedom digital comic book, Justice-Knights is now available. If you're not reading this one, you're really missing something. The series makes interesting observations about the game's world, including just why the medi-porter is not the 100%-death-avoidance machine most players assume it is.

Visit the official JK Comics site.

Let's Play City of Heroes Freedom Video Series

2012-01-07T01:21:00.000-08:00

Here's an excellent City of Heroes Freedom "Let's play" video series from ThePCGamingVortex channel at YouTube. Forty-six videos, watch them all! Just go to the channel and scroll down to "City of Heroes Freedom Tutorial/Let's Play" for the playlist.

Cauteriza Takes Cap au Diable

2012-01-05T23:37:00.000-08:00

Cauteriza takes Cap!

MMO Grinder Reviews City of Heroes Freedom

2011-12-30T15:18:00.000-08:00

Watch the video at MMOGrinder.net

A New Challenger Appears!

2011-12-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

Cauteriza 16 TW/FA Villain Brute

So I decided to expand my leveling queue a bit to include one of every Archetype. That way, I can play whatever play style I'm in the mood for. It'll be slower to 50 anything this way, but so what? 50 isn't my goal. Just a natural result of playing a character I enjoy enough to get them there.

Taking the Brute leveling slot, we have my latest character Cauteriza (a reroll from FM/FA because I find that combo a bit boring even though I normally enjoy symmetrical sets), a Titan Weapons/Fiery Aura Villain Brute. She's an archaeologist who found a magic ax that transformed her. She's one of those characters who could change alignments, perhaps often, based on the Banneresque tug-of-war between the two personalities. Technically, she's the same person in either form, certain traits are just greatly amplified under the ax's influence.

My preference for simple, but visually iconic and strong costuming really shows on her. I'll probably do the Barbarian metal bikini on her when I have the Points to purchase them (buying Titan Weapons nearly wiped me out-- and was worth every Point) because the Barbarian female top comes with six-pack abs (finally some muscles for females!)

I heard horror stories of Titan Weapons being slow and unwieldy at low levels, but I just don't see it. Oh, it's a bit slower to start than some sets, and the Fury building of the set is pretty far off optimal, but at level 16 the set is feeling fast and fluid. Not at all the clunky set I had imagined. And Titan Weapons has a good mix of AOE and single target options, allowing you to build with a bias towards one of the two, or a balance of both. I had feared the set was AOE only, meaning it would lack the single target punch needed to take out tougher Bosses, Elite Bosses and Archvillains. Not so! Very good single target damage is there if you want it in addition to some of the best AOE available to melees.

In addition to really great, versatile damage, Titan Weapons also brings a surprising amount of damage mitigation. The tier-one attack, Defensive Sweep, gives a stackable 11.25% Melee and Smashing Defense! You know, I thought Powers like Parry were the design mistakes of an inexperienced development team, but here they are putting Parry-like powers into brand new sets (and even an "old" set with Tanker Martial Arts having a non-stackable 10% all-positions, all-types except Toxic and Psi Defense in Storm Kick) so it must not be considered overpowered even if my sense of game balance is telling me that it is.

I chose to pair it with Fiery Aura because the pair seem to prop each other up very nicely. FA gives even more damage of a rarely resisted type and Endurance recovery to TW, and TW gives extra mitigation to FA. It's win-win.

I highly recommend picking Titan Weapons up. It's a much better set than it would seem and is every bit the fun-quotient equal of Street Justice. I did not expect that.

And by the way, there's nothing about the set that feels wrong for Stalkers. The Momentum builders in the set are very much Assassin's Strike animations. Stalker players would feel right at home with the set. Luckily, I hear it will see a port at some time in the future (and arguments about theme are asinine. You can surprise someone with the world's biggest sword if you can turn invisible!)

New City of Heroes Freedom Wallpapers

2011-12-26T11:49:00.000-08:00

Oh, Mommy!

They're a bit too "loud" for my tastes in wallpaper, but Mommy is looking good in hers so I'm tempted to use it lol.

City of Heroes Freedom Wallpapers
Discuss the wallpapers at the official forums.

Miss Star Wars Galaxies?

2011-12-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Remember, nothing is destroyed but only transformed. Currently, 62% feature complete. I'm just sayin'...

Staff Fighting Video via ZombieTubular

2011-12-19T17:15:00.000-08:00

Overall it looks great. I could do without the "breakdancing" moves but this is still an automatic purchase for me when it comes out in 2012.

Visit ZombieTubular's YouTube channel.

Statesman to Die in 2012

2011-12-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

It was the obvious choice, and if it was to be any kind of a story in the general gaming community it was the only choice. Killing off anyone else but Statesman would have been a non-event in all but the current City of Heroes Freedom community.

Also, it was curious that they decided to spoil it ahead of time.

Discuss the upcoming death of Statesman at the official forums.

Mission Architect Player's Choice Awards 2011 Winners

2011-12-07T11:09:00.001-08:00

If you're looking for some good AE missions to play, you're in luck! The 2011 Player's Choice Awards results are in and the winner is...you!

2011 Player's Choice Awards winners thread at the official forums.

MMORPG.com City of Heroes Freedom Review

2011-12-06T16:34:00.001-08:00

Titan Weapons Goes Live!

2011-12-06T10:45:00.001-08:00

Go. Purchase. Kill Skulz with Titan Weapons.

EDIT:
Titan Weapons Pro Tip: The Titan Weapons Weapon Pack #1 is free for a limited time, so even if you don't buy Titan Weapons, make sure to buy the free weapon pack from the store just in case you do pick Titan Weapons up in the future. Too late! The free pack is now gone. /em grief

Rediscovering My Mind/Psi Dominator

2011-12-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

The Sleeping Girl: once Mind/Psi/Soul, now Mind/Psi/Psi.

With all the melees I've been playing lately, I got the itch to play a Dominator again. With no leveling slot currently open on my roster, I took The Sleeping Girl (formerly The Sleeping; I like the new name better) out of retirement. The experience was an interesting but frustrating one.

Funny thing about Doms is they are a skill-dependent Archetype. If you're out of practice with Doms in general or even a particular build, you'll faceplant when you try to pick it back up at first. A lot. You must constantly assess the situation for fights, and decide the best approach for each. Total situational awareness is the difference between victory and defeat. Things get better as you take your lumps and get those Dominating skills sharpened back up. Once mastered, it's the most intense, rewarding play style available in the game.

The Sleeping Girl was Mind/Psi/Soul. Once I sharpened my skills back up, I tried to up the difficulty, but I couldn't crack +0x3 (no set bonuses yet). It became apparent the Soul Mastery APP, taken for story reasons, was holding me back. Luckily, the announcement of Dark Control/Dark Assault Doms gave me a way to advance The Sleeping Girl's story and make her better all at once.

To make a long origin story short, The Sleeping Girl was the result of a young girl named Sally Worth being taken over by an evil netherworld entity. It put her into an apparently-permanent coma during which it would have full control of her. The Soul Mastery APP was a manifestation of this entity along with Sally Worth's inherent but latent Psionic powers providing the primary and secondary. Sally would never have had her latent abilities activated but for Mr. Panda's (Sally's name for the nether-worldly entity) magical influence. This was thought to be the end of the story, and the end of Sally Worth.

But then the impossible happened: Sally Worth started to wake up. Respeced into Psi Mastery, Sally has started to supplant Mr. Panda with her own power. Before long, she'll be doing the Tip Missions to go Rogue, then full Hero. But not before Mr. Panda has the last laugh!

The way Sally finally escapes is by using her Psionic power to cordon off Mr. Panda into his own corner of her mind, and then eject the encapsulated creature out into the world. This results (at first unknown to her) in her arch nemesis being born: the Dark/Dark/Soul Dominator (name not yet decided).

I had thought I was done with this character a long time ago, but part of the beauty of MMOs, and City of Heroes Freedom in particular, is they are ever-evolving things and that can mean new life for characters once thought permanently retired. The now permanently retired Daemodand, I'm looking at you...

1950's Sci-Fi Costume Set Coming & Brian Clayton's Holiday Letter

2011-12-02T10:54:00.001-08:00

David Nakayama concept for '50s sci-fi costumes.

Executive Producer and General Manager Brian Clayton reveals in his Holiday Letter to the City of Heroes Freedom players that revenues and player base are both up for the game (by how much he doesn't say) and a really exciting costume set is coming in 2012: 1950's Retro Sci-Fi! The concepts look amazing. Let's hope girls get fishbowl helmets, too. And that the pre-tinting is optional.

Read the Holiday Letter at the official forums.
Discuss the Holiday Letter at the official forums.

PC Gamer Reviews City of Heroes Freedom

2011-11-29T11:14:00.001-08:00

They misspelled the name of the game (there's no ":" in City of Heroes Freedom) but make up for it by giving it an 86/100.

Read the review at PC Gamer.
Unofficial discussion thread at the official forums.

Black Friday Sale Extended & My Black Friday Purchases

2011-11-28T14:33:00.001-08:00

The Black Friday Sale has been extended to December 1st (December 5th for the VIP Starter Pack special)! Same deal as before, but Numina's Convalescence will go up sometime after the sale (at sale price) when the bug it has is fixed. Until then, get those LoTG +Global Recharge Paragon Store Origins (PSOs)!

And speaking of LoTG globals, I bought ten of them. My reasoning is that not only are they highly useful, they also offer something IO LoTG globals don't: the Defense value scales with your level. Sure, you can get minimum level IO LoTG +Recharges for exemplaring and leveling, but the Defense enhancement will always stay small. With the PSO version of LoTG +Recharge, the value scales to improve as you go up in level. That's a big advantage on one of the most handy enhancements in the game, and that's worth paying for in my opinion.

I'll be recycling them down to leveling alts when a currently-equipped character hits 50 (I don't do much exemplaring). Ten means I can have two leveling alts each outfitted with the maximum of five LoTG +Recharges. At 50 they'll be replaced by IO LoTG +Recharges and handed down.

Quite a few people are buying them. They're worth every one of the 113 points you'll spend.

Discuss the Black Friday Sale extension at the official forums.

The City of Heroes Freedom Black Friday Sale is On Now!

2011-11-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

BLACK FRIDAY SALE! (and a pilgrim hat)

2011-11-22T15:16:00.001-08:00

The City of Heroes Freedom Black Friday Sale will be taking place from November 25-28, with discounts ranging from 50% to 80% off!

The biggest thing to catch my eye from the announcement:

Numina's Convalescence (Lvl 30-50)
Regular Price: 1170 Points
Sale Price: 400 Points
Basilisk's Gaze (10-30)
Regular Price: 1070 Points
Sale Price: 400 Points
Kinetic Combat (20-35)
Regular Price: 775 Points
Sale Price: 400 Points
Luck of the Gambler (25-50)
Regular Price: 1125 Points
Sale Price: 400 Points

Numina's Convalescence? Luck of the Gambler? Kinetic Combat? These are some of the biggest names in Inventions being made available! That's fantastic! But wow, look at those prices! Regular price of 1170 Points for a set of Numina's? That's approximately $14.63! For one set! The sale price of 400 points is $5.00. That's what the every day price of these should be (and even then, is a bit high. Store IOs should cost 25-50 cents each).

Also, the cheaper sets like Kinetic Combat have exactly the same sale price as the more expensive ones. That...makes no sense.

Still, one might consider picking up the Global Uniques from Numina's and LoTG individually. I know I'm considering it.

But don't take my word for it! Click on the announcement link below, scroll past the silly hat at the top and check out the SIO hotness yourself!

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Discuss the Black Friday Sale at the official forums.

Salute to Statesman Loyalty Program

2011-11-22T09:00:00.001-08:00

The 2012 Salute to Statesman Loyalty Program (aka, The 2012 Please Don't Let Your Sub Lapse When Star Wars: The Old Republic Launches Program) is coming soon!

Stay subscribed (even if you're playing SWTOR instead of CoHF) between December 1st 2011 and March 31st 2012 to get goodies such as Lord Recluse and Statesman-inspired helmets, badge, aura, pet, costume change emote and chest emblem. No Lightsaber, though.

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Discuss the 2012 Loyalty Program at the official forums.

Pummit PowerPoint Recap Hits Ustream Wednesday

2011-11-22T08:52:00.001-08:00

The 2011 City of Heroes Freedom Pummit is over, but you can relive the details on Ustream tomorrow, Wednesday, November 23 at 10:30 AM PST with a PowerPoint recap showing all the info from the Pummit.

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Discuss the Ustream Pummit recap at the official forums.

Staff Fighting Confirmed

2011-11-20T22:43:00.001-08:00

We all knew it already, but Staff Fighting has been confirmed at the Pummit. This video, called a fake by some, has always been legitimate.

Free To Play Friday: Issue #2: The Unjusticing

2011-11-18T18:52:00.000-08:00

Ms. Sports peeping while waiting in the queue.

So it turns out rolling on Justice was a mistake. I want to level up going through four Death From Below trials, and out of the three queue attempts on Justice, none resulted in getting into a DFB trial. I spent my second slot on Virtue server, rerolled Ms. Sports and the first queue I went into got me into a trial.

I guess if you want easy, reliable teaming around the clock, Freedom and Virtue are still the only real game in town.

Click past the break to read about the rest of my week!

I noticed a lot of teams are put together by players using "Please Send Tell" and Broadcast requests. As a free player, both avenues are unavailable to me. Luckily, the Team Up Teleporter fills in this gap. I don't know how I'll get onto teams for later levels. I guess I'll see.

So through this week I completed three Death From Below Trials and one complete set of newspaper missions. This got me up to level 13, with my build half-DOs and half-TOs, and got me Damage, Defense and Accuracy boosts in addition to a jet pack from the Mayhem mission. The fourth DFB should allow me to completely DO my build and get the Endurance boost.

Ms. Sports vs The Hydra Head

A good tip is to not slot the SOs you are given on the trial, but instead go to an origin specific store to sell them off for Inf.

So far I'm not feeling very restricted by the free features. It feels like there's a ton of content out there to do (there is!) and I'm getting quite a few free perks. No Recipe or Salvage drops means less income, but so far DFB is paying well enough to not worry about it yet. I don't anticipate being able to fully slot SOs at level 22 (nor was the game designed with people doing that in mind; you are meant to keep using DOs well into your 20s and beyond: DOs drop all the way up to level 40!).

I'm going after the Smuggler Day Job badge to get extra Enhancement drops to help out. I was pleasantly surprised to see my free account character was accumulating day job bonuses like Patrol XP. I previously thought free accounts were denied Day Job perks, but looks like I was wrong. What a fun free bonus! Since I'm Energy Aura, I might go after the Combat Shield Day Job temporary power, too. It fits EA perfectly for a nice on-demand mini-godmode.

War Mace is feeling very, very solid in the damage department. Scrapper damage really makes the set shine, at least at these low levels. Energy Aura is a different story. Up to this point, I've had about five defeats. EA is definitely feeling squishy. But, I recently got Entropic Shield, which gives a very nice Recharge bonus and slows the incoming attacks, so the set should start to feel more solid in the coming days.

That's all for now! Join me again next week for more Free To Play Fridays!

Pummit Is Go!

2011-11-18T10:41:00.001-08:00

The 2011 City of Heroes Freedom Player Summit (Pummit) starts tomorrow, November 19! Ticket sales are closed but $50 at the door gets you in. During this Pummit such game-altering additions to the game as a solo Incarnate path are expected to be announced.

Can't attend? You're in luck! Paragon Studios' Ustream will be broadcasting several of the panels.

It all starts tomorrow at 8:30 AM PT (9:30 AM PT for the Ustream)!

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Discuss the 2011 Pummit at the official forums.

Captain Nighttime Rises!

2011-11-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

Captain Nighttime 21 SJ/NIN Vigilante Stalker

UI Bug Got You Down? Zwillinger To The Resc-- er, Workaround!

2011-11-13T11:52:00.001-08:00

You're minding your own business innocently playing City of Heroes Freedom when it happens; you zone and your windows go all screwy! The UI bug claims another! But fear not, for Zwillinger brings you the following workaround:

Configure your UI.
Type /wdwsave
When it resets type /wdwload
You may have to do this repeatedly, so you may wish to create a macro, as follows:
/macro wdwload
for example
/macro ANNOYINGBUG wdwload

I don't bother with the macro, I just type the command as needed (I type umpteen words per minute!), but use the macro, use a key bind or be a boss and just type it out like I do. You are now partially saved from the UI bug. Thanks Zwilly!

Tuesday's patch should see the UI bug crushed once and for all.

Discuss the live issues at the official forums.

David Nakayama Concept Art Collection

2011-11-12T13:08:00.001-08:00

Noble Savage concept art.

David "Noble Savage" Nakayama has begun an online collection of City of Heroes and City of Heroes Freedom concept art at his pixelsaurus deviantART page. David is an amazing artist so you should check his stuff out!

pixelsaurus at deviantART.
Discussion thread at the official forums.

Free to Play Friday: Issue #1: The Rolling

2011-11-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

A new series of articles is coming to My City of Heroes Blog Freedom, focusing on the entirely free-to-play experience City of Heroes Freedom offers. During the week I'll get whatever play time I can get on a brand new free-to-play account and on Fridays relate any interesting experiences. I may skip a week if I don't have enough play time that week. This should prove very interesting, so let's get started with Issue #1: The Rolling wherein I take on the difficult decision of just what to roll as a free player, and try to assemble as good a look as I can with the available free costume options.

So what to roll? Join me after the break to find out!

Masterminds and Controllers, as well as all EATs are right out as not available to free players. I'd like a good balance of solo-ability and comfortable teaming, even though I plan to team much more than I normally would. I'm going to keep my "Looking for Any" tag up and accept any invites sent my way.

Dominators are, on paper, my favorite Archetype. Luckily for me, they're the one crowd control play style available to free players. I'm concerned about the upward mobility of Doms though as the post-40 game tends to be pretty rough for them (especially on the SOs I'll be limited to!), and any little mistake usually means defeat. But when you're in the zone with Doms they are amazingly fun and capable of doing things they have no business doing.

Tankers bring the ability to take on the biggest challenges of any Archetype, especially when limited to SOs. Slower to take through missions than Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers at all levels, but much safer. This one's a strong contender as I like pushing the spawn sizes, but as a free player acting as main Tank, especially in range of Incarnate abilities (45-50) I'm sure the Tanker would also disappoint in the high levels. Also, I just don't like the defined role a Tanker would have on any given team. Tanking for a team just isn't my thing. Also, I'm already running a Tanker on my main account and I'd prefer something different.

Scrappers, Stalkers and Brutes all occupy the same approximate niche. The Stalker is out since I'm leveling one on my main account already. This leaves Scrappers and Brutes. Brutes have better survivability and I enjoy the Fury mini-game, but Scrapper damage is always great. Both go from solo to team seamlessly, too. Both very strong contenders.

Defenders are right out since Corruptors transition to and from solo play much more comfortably and they share more-or-less the same powerset options. Problem with Corruptors is I've never gotten one past the mid-30s, and their solo play is constrained compared to the Scrapper, Brute and Tanker, even if they are much more welcome on teams.

Blasters just don't sit well with me. I love them in the low levels, then in the mid-20s I lose all interest, so they're an easy skip.

So what to pick? There are two concepts that I want to play soon. A Trick Arrow Corruptor and an Energy Aura Brute or Scrapper. Thinking of the costume for the Corruptor, it actually uses the skull goggles that aren't available to free players so that leaves the Brute/Scrapper. I'm wanting to try out the revamped Energy Aura, and it's a sports-villain theme so Mace as the primary would let her (yep, it's going to be a girl) swing around a baseball bat. Yep, I think I'll go with that!

So Brute or Scrapper? The Brute brings better survivability (I'm not 100% confident in the new Energy Aura) and I like the Fury mini-game quite a bit. Fury and the +Recharge in EA have good synergy, too. But a critting baseball bat, especially on the bigger attacks, would be some amazing fun. I can't think of what the Scrapper brings other than that, though. Of course, War Mace and Energy Aura are both brand new sets for Scrappers, and I don't have any Villain Scrappers yet. Decisions, decisions!

Power ordering on War Mace is identical. There's a curious difference in Energy Aura, however. At level 28 the Brute gets the +END + DEF power (Energy Drain) and the Scrapper gets the Heal +REGEN Endurance discount power (Energize). Hmm. Regeneration works better on Brutes due to more Hit Points, so that's another point to the Brute. The Scrapper getting the Heal seven levels sooner is pretty big though, but is an advantage that is out-leveled, where the Regeneration stays useful for the Brute. Overload with its +HPs is going to work out better for the Brute, too. It boils down to the Brute getting a better deal out of Energy Aura and the Scrapper getting a more satisfying "CRUNCH!" with the baseball bat.

A critting baseball bat and the novelty of a Villain War Mace/Energy Aura Scrapper are going to outweigh the survivability and Fury mini-game of the Brute. I can play the Fury mini-game any time and survival isn't everything. Batter's up! Meet Ms. Sports!

Ms. Sports begins!

Brand new character on a brand new account. I chose Justice server to help limit any queuing and to get away form my usual stomping grounds of Freedom and Virtue. I've not written her bio yet, but she's a Mutant who can infuse objects she comes into contact with with energy, turning them into devastating weapons. She can do the same to the air immediately surrounding her to form a shield to deflect blows. She's in the tutorial as there was no option to skip it. I took Pulverize as her first attack pick as it has the best DPA of the two available options.

What struck me most when creating her was just how many options you have for free character creation in the game. There are tons of play options available to the free player.

The one Reward Token you get as a default was already spent (of course). For it you get a few inspirations, a mission teleporter and an XP booster. Not bad for free!

Tune in next time for an account of her initial playtime!

Sinister Streak PWND by Longbow

2011-11-10T02:27:00.000-08:00

Sinister Streak: 37 SR/KM Tanker (Villain)

So my first and so far only real disappointment with my super-speeder concept level 37 SR/KM Tanker named Sinister Streak came when I met a pair of +1 Longbow Bosses. A Psi/Empathy paired with a MA/SR. The pairing proved deadly as the Psi Boss kept me Terrorized (SR has some of the best mez protection in the game, but no Fear protection) while the MA Boss slowly worked past my 43% Melee Defense to crush me with his very hard hitting attacks.

Being melee, I'm not in the habit of keeping more than one Break Free in my Inspiration tray at a time. This was one of those very rare situations where several were necessary.

The solution was to carry four Break Frees to give me time to kill the Psi Boss and make sure to use Elude to counter the To Hit buff the Psi Boss was providing the MA Boss (Yes, Elude can come in handy even on a softcapped character at times!) I had a couple of frustrating false starts that sent me right back to the hospital because in my increasing frustration I forgot to activate Elude. The pain...the pain!

Remembering to actually use Elude (I had dropped the Defense Inspirations out of my tray to make room for the extra Break Frees) the Break Frees kept the Terrorize off of me and the Psi Boss finally went down. The MA Boss got worked down soon after, but one of Kinetic Melee's shortcomings is that it only provides 7.5% To Hit in Power Psiphon (Build Up provides 20%) so when the MA Boss started to Elude as well, I had to wait it out as my hit chance dropped to 22%, preventing me from doing enough damage to him to kill him.

Finally, the MA Boss went down too when his Elude dropped, but the damage had been done. I'd been completely embarrassed by those Longbow Bosses. It was a Pyrrhic victory.

The Shame of Sinister Streak

I'm going to forget it and move on because Sinister Streak has been a blast so far and these were only three of the maybe six defeats total he's suffered up to level 37.

Intrepid Informer 15 & Fight Crime in Style Contest Winner

2011-11-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

Jeff "Arbiter Hawk" Hamilton discusses the latest in the Incarnate abilities in Intrepid Informer: Issue #15. Meanwhile, the Fight Crime in Style Contest has been won by Taalan (if that is his real name). His prize is 60 months of VIP (lifetime VIP would've been more impressive) and getting his hair cut via Flowbee by Positron live at the 2011 City of Heroes Freedom Player Summit (Pummit).

Read Intrepid Informer: Issue #15 at the official forums.
Discuss II15 at the official fourms.

Contest winner announcement at MMORPG.com
Discuss the contest at the official forums.

Autumnal Path, Pilgrim Hat & Dog Video by ZombieTubular

2011-11-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

Visit ZombieTubular's YouTube channel.

Mr. and Mrs. Paragon Universe 2011 Starts Tomorrow!

2011-11-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Are you beautiful? Or at least are one of your characters beautiful, where "beautiful" is understood to mean "has a great costume"? Then you're in luck as Mr. and Mrs. Paragon Universe 2011 starts tomorrow, November 5 and runs through December 3rd! 2011, obviously.

Read about the contest at the official fourms.

Be a Real World Hero!

2011-11-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

Real World Hero is a City of Heroes Freedom player-organised charity drive. Why not go there and donate to make the real world a better place?

Visit the Real World Hero website.

Holy Shotgun, Generic 8923 8972 1289 7382!

2011-11-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

I don't normally cover weekly Paragon Store updates, but this week we have an interesting specimen: The Undead Survival Kit.

What is The Undead Survival Kit? From the official site:

The Undead Survival Kit comes with three temp powers. 75 charges of the Holy Shotgun Shells, 30 charges of the St. Louis Slammer, the 5 charges of the Warwolf Whistle and it also comes with 5 charges of the Self-Revive Power and 5 Large +Acc/+Dam Dual Inspirations.

All for 400 Paragon Points (PP). Each item is also available separately for between 20 and 80 PP each.

The theme of this kit is very cute and fun. Who wouldn't want an Undead Survival Kit, after all? Especially in Paragon City?

Of course, that leaves the little issue of the price. 400 PP is a bit steep. Okay, it's a lot steep, considering you can assemble most if not all of the kit in-game and it's all just a collection of Temporary Powers. I just think they would make a lot more off this at a much lower price point. Speaking for myself, at 400 PP it's an easy pass. At 200 PP I'd have to think about it and at 100 PP it'd be all but irresistible.

I guess the watch word here is, wait until it's on sale to pick it up, but they certainly did knock the fun factor and theme out of the ballpark on this one. Except for the price, it's very well done.

P.S. My "Batman" in the title got genericed! Grrrr! Where's my Holy Shotgun Shells...

Read the announcement at the official forms.
Discuss the Undead Survival Kit at the official forums.

Sorceress Serene Bio Hints New Dom Sets?

2011-10-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

According to her bio, Sorceress Serene is a Autumnal Control/Autumnal Assault Dominator. Interesting!

Also, I love the word "autumnal". Sounds so classy.

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Discussion thread at the official forums.

Massively.com Reports North American NCSoft Layoffs

2011-10-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

Pulling up stakes and moving some operations (at least temporarily) to the home offices in Seoul earlier this month has cost some billing and quality assurance employees their jobs. Always sad to hear this and I hope those affected find new employment quickly.

~~It's unknown how or if Paragon Studios has been affected. Here's hoping it escapes unscathed.~~

Read the article and comment at Massively.com.
UPDATE: Zwillinger confirms Paragon Studios is unaffected by the reorganization.

Positron On the Proposed Incarnate Trial Changes

2011-10-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

If you were one of those worried about the proposed rewards nerf to the BAF and LAMBDA iTrials, fear not Positron has heard your concerns:

I understand that many of you are upset by this and I agree that we were probably too heavy handed in trying to encourage players to try out the new content and storylines that we created. To that end: this change will not be going live with Issue 21 Special Update: Media Blitz. Have no fear, your Empyreans for completing those trials will not be touched.

The post goes on to express concern about just why only BAF and LAMBDA are being run while newer iTrials are neglected.

My own opinion is that the iTrial system is deeply flawed. One assumption made in iTrial design is that players want a challenge. MMOs are not really based on challenge. They are based on rewarding time invested. Challenge becomes an unwelcome interference in the sought after time = rewards progression.

Another assumption made in iTrial design is that City of Heroes Freedom is a game that can and should have a raiding culture. The FUNdamental Design Problems thread shows just what the player base thinks raiding. Note how few posts defend the system as it currently stands. It goes into great detail about just what is wrong with the iTrail system.

Can the iTrails system be saved from itself? I don't know. I'm not confident that it can. Add as many new iTrails as you like, players will take the path of least resistance, and currently and for the foreseeable future that path is BAF and LAMBDA. That's one of the most critical flaws of the system. Expend resources on making new iTrials, and the player base will simply examine all available iTrials and run the ones with the most efficient path to the rewards continuously.

No one, not even Positron, wants to see a new currency. Could the answer lie in a Weekly Strike Trial, as is done with Task Forces to encourage running a variety of content? Given the nature of iTrials, I doubt it would work as well for them as for Task Forces but it may be worth trying.

All this also makes me wonder, if a viable solo/small team Incarnate path is ever given, would we see the abandonment of the iTrials altogether? We just might, and this might keep a solo/small team path from ever emerging.

Time will tell, but the Incarnate System as it stands isn't really working.

Positron's post at the official forums.
Discuss Positron's post at the official forums.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun Interviews Brian Clayton

2011-10-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

City of Heroes Freedom Executive Producer Brian Clayton was interviewed by Rock, Paper, Shotgun for their "The MMOnitor" article series. Pretty dry and political stuff for the most part, but my favorite bit:

That’s the beauty of City of Heroes, you don’t have to be the sidekick to the heroes you’ve grown up with; you can be that hero.

That's a nice little dig at DC Universe Online, and a very valid one. You are very much the lesser sidekick to the real heroes in that game. In City of Heroes Freedom you are the hero and are second fiddle to no one. Um, especially if you solo. ;)

Read the interview at RockPaperShotgun.com.
Discuss the interview in the unofficial discussion thread at the official forums.

Titan Weapons Video by Blankstate

2011-10-21T23:35:00.000-07:00

Most of the animations look a bit plain Jane, and I'm underwhelmed if those are all the customization options, but the momentum mechanic seems like it would be lots of fun. In another strike against the set, Stalkers are denied Titan Weapons, even though the animations are very Assassin's Strike in their look and feel. Here's hoping Stalkers are given the set before this goes live, or soon thereafter.

Beckett's Massive Online Gamer Awards, Intrepid Informer #14 & Media Blitz VIP Beta

2011-10-21T22:42:00.000-07:00

City of Heroes Freedom is a great game deserving of recognition, so why not head on over to Beckett's Massive Online Gamer Awards and vote for City of Heroes Freedom in all eligible categories? Vote early and often!

Meanwhile, Intrepid Informer: Issue #14 gives us world designer Cord "Think_Tank" Carney's account of making this year's Halloween event environments among other things.

Finally, Issue 21: Media Blitz VIP beta is now active. The Issue brings many bug and quality of life fixes, but also much controversy in the limitation of Empyrean Merits given by BAF and LAMBDA iTrials, and charging 15 Empyrean Merits for the new slot powers.

Beckett's Massive Online Gamer Awards
Discuss the BMOGAs at the official forums.

Intrepid Informer: Issue #14
Discuss II: I14 at the official forums.

Issue 21: Media Blitz VIP beta announcement at the official forums.
Issue 21: Media Blitz Patch notes discussion at the official forums.

Issue 21: Media Blitz Coming & Incarnate Thoughts

2011-10-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

So "Issue 21.5", officially known as Issue 21: Media Blitz is set to add two more Incarnate Trials and expand the options available for the Incarnate Slots.

Here's hoping there's some non-Incarnate things included as well since I'm just not a fan of the Incarnate system. The Alpha Slot got the system off to a good start, but every slot after that does little more than homogenize characters and break standard content. No solo path makes the system even more disappointing.

The biggest problem with the system however, is you end up feeling weaker than you did as a standard level 50.

Ah, well! We all have our favorite and not-so-favorite parts of the game and if you like the Incarnate System as most players do, this update brings you a lot to like.

Discuss Issue 21: Media Blitz at the official forums.

2011 Freedom Player Summit Details

2011-10-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

For your $40 ticket, you'll get a Rulu-Shin costume power. Oh and you can meet the devs, too. Nice.

Announcement on the official fourms.
Discussion on the official forums.

Beardless Positron Gratses Community

2011-10-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

Paragon Studios' Extra Life charity game-a-thon event raised $7,000 for the children's hospital charity, and it's not too late to add more to that figure. Positron shaved his beard as he said he would if at least $5,000 was raised.

Check out the pics of beardless Posi in the discussion thread on the official forums.

MMORPG.com Giving Away 30 Day Jet Packs!

2011-10-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

I got mine! Supplies are limited, so get yours before they run out!

MMORPG.com City of Heroes Freedom 30 Day Jet Pack Giveaway Page

Halloween Event Starts October 20!

2011-10-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

What looks like a very cool and very much needed update of the Halloween Event starts on October 20 and runs until November 2nd. The screen shots of the haunted mansion look amazingly atmospheric! My only complaint is it's a forced teaming situation with the Halloween trial having a minimum team size of four, but the Team-Up Teleporter should minimize the work of getting a team together. This should be fun!

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Discuss the Halloween Event at the official forums.

MMOHut.com First Looks City of Heroes Freedom

2011-10-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

Mount Paragon Studios' Summit

2011-10-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

November 19, 2011 is your chance to reach the summit of Paragon Studios...the City of Heroes Freedom Player Summit! Also, you get to vote either "yes" or "yes" in their attendance poll.

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Discuss the City of Heroes Freedom Player Summit at the official forums.

Signature Story Arc ViDoc #1

2011-10-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

The ViDoc confirms the death of a signature character will be a permanent one and we get a look at David Nakayama's (Noble Savage) work space.

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Join the discussion at the official forums.

Get Your Hair Cut By Positron Via Flowbee (Yes, Really)

2011-10-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

Go to the link below, submit an action screen shot of your best looking character, and wait for your chance at 5 years of VIP subscription to the game. But that's not all! You'll also get flown out to Paragon Studios to get your hair cut with a Flowbee by Positron!

I'm so not entering this contest lol.

Enter the contest at MMORPG.com
Visit Flowbee's revolutionary home hair cutting system's factory direct site and wonder aloud, "why?"

Intrepid Informer #13 & City of Heroes Freedom Gets an Extra Life

2011-10-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

Read about Street Justice's design in Intrepid Informer #13 at the official forums.
Discuss Intrepid Informer #13 at the official forums.

Read about Paragon Studios holding a game-a-thon to benefit the Extra Life charity at the official forums.
Discuss the Extra Life game-a-thon at the official forums.
Visit the Extra Life website.
Visit Paragon Studios' Extra Life page.

Street Justice Released (Finally!)

2011-10-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Street Justice was finally released today. I highly recommend the set if you're a melee fan, as it's worth every one of the 800 Paragon Points it'll cost you.

Read the announcement at the official forums.
Discuss Street Justice at the official forums.

City of Heroes Freedom Facepalms Thrice

2011-10-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

The City of Heroes Freedom Facebook Facepalm promotion is back for the third time. Like the game on Facebook, go to the "Free Giveaways" tab and follow the instructions to get the /facepalm emote.

Read the announcement on the official forums.
Discuss the facepalm promotion on the official forums.

Forum Changes and Costume Powers Removed From Store

2011-09-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

The selection of forum topics is being streamlined to make the forums more newbie friendly. Personally, I think it's a good change overall, but we'll see if the combined Archetype forums cause any problems.

Forum change announcement at the official forums.
Forum change discussion at the official forums.

Was it poor sales? Was it the upcoming Halloween event? It's anyone's guess, but if and when the costume powers come back, let's hope they're at a more sensible price point and have had their text cleared up.

Costume Power removal announcement at the official forums.
Costume Power removal discussion at the official forums.

PLAY FOR FREE. FOREVER.

2011-09-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

City of Heroes Freedom Issue 21 Officially Launches!

2011-09-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

City of Heroes Freedom game client download page at the official site.

Read about it on the official forums.
Discuss it on the official forums.
Official City of Heroes Freedom launch video at YouTube.
City of Heroes Freedom mini-site.

Mr. Wrecking Ball Takes Grandville

2011-09-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

Mr. Wrecking Ball in Grandville. One of my favorite screenshots.

City of Heroes Freedom Official Launch September 27 & New Referral Program

2011-09-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

It looks like City of Heroes Freedom officially launches on September 27! Also, the referral program is starting up again. I thought we'd seen the last of that program, but it's coming back!

Also, the rolling reactivation has been officially announced (see first link below) so download the launcher and client and try to log in every day (even before the 27th!) until you get in!

City of Heroes Freedom launch announcement at the official forums.
Launch discussion thread at the official forums.
Refer a Friend announcement at the official forums.
Refer a Friend discussion thread at the official forums.

New City of Heroes Freedom Story: Shivans

2011-09-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

Read the story "Shivans".
Announcement on the official forums.
Discussion thread on the official forums.
Unofficial discussion thread on the official forums.

Rolling Reactivation for Inactive Accounts

2011-09-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

If you used to subscribe to the game but currently don't, dig up your credentials, download the client and try to log in because Paragon Studios is doing a rolling reactivation of inactive accounts, making them Premium. No guarantees, but your account may have already been activated.

Read about it on the official forums.

Latest Ustream Covers Signature Story Arcs

2011-09-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

The Signature Story Arcs are now available for play and the latest Paragon Studios Ustream Coffee Talk gives more info on them. Be warned, it is quite spoiler-laden so if you don't like being spoiled on new story content, give this one a pass.

Positron popped up briefly in the stream to clarify how SSA rewards will work. Apparently, you only get the once-a-week reward for doing any one of the SSAs on one character. Doing additional SSAs in the same week on the same character will yield lesser rewards. So if you were counting on getting more than one Alignment Merit on one character per week by doing more than one SSA, you're out of luck.

Check it out at Ustream.
The Intrepid Informer: Issue #12 covering the SSAs.
Read the unofficial Ustream summary thread at the official forums.

My Freedom Roster Issue #2: Magnaniman

2011-09-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

Magnaniman INV/SS/NRG Tanker

Here in Issue #2 we have my Hero Exemplar Magnaniman.

His costume is one of the most complimented ones I've ever created. This caught me by surprise since the look is exceedingly simple, but people love a classic! He was also the first Tanker I ever got to 50. He's the Tank that taught me to appreciate Tanks.

My Freedom Roster Issue #1: Mr. Wrecking Ball

2011-09-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

Mr. Wrecking Ball SS/INV/NRG Brute

The first character I'm going to show you from my City of Heroes Freedom roster is my Villain Malefactor Mr. Wrecking Ball.

He's gone through a name change, many costume revisions and a complete concept overhaul. I think I finally have him where I want him. The crowning piece on his costume is the Barbarian ring strap.

Mr. Wrecking Ball Trivia: His costume looks simple enough, but it took four "booster" costume sets to get this exact look. Can you name which ones?

Forum Log In Bug Workaround

2011-09-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Can't log into the official forums? Change your game account password (you can even use the same password in the "change").

Read about it on the official forums.

My Freedom Play Style

2011-09-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

Oh, hello! I didn't see you standing there!

You know, under the last version of City of Heroes, I took a "Justice League Unlimited" approach to the game. I rolled as many alts as I could burn Patrol XP on in a 10 day span. Each character would get enough play to burn the PXP, then lay fallow for 10 days to recoup the PXP. It was fun for a while, but it was a pretty intense way to play. In the long run, it killed some of the fun. Especially seeing the same content almost constantly as various alts leveled through it. So when City of Heroes Freedom was announced, I knew it was time for a change.

I deleted all my leveling alts to provide myself with a fresh start. Fresh start for the game, fresh start for me, what could be more...refreshing? I've kept all my 50s but I've retired all but two: one Hero and one Villain to serve as representatives of the old guard. Time has passed in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles (about 10 years) so this was a great opportunity to move on to the next generation of Heroes and Villains.

And those new Heroes and Villains will be played as "serial mains". That is, one leveling Hero and one leveling Villain at a time. Nothing new will be rolled until the respective faction's leveling alt reaches 50 (or proves unsatisfactory and is deleted). This approach should keep content fresher as I will be seeing it far less often. I'll try to take different contacts on each level up, as well.

Over the next several days I'll be posting my Freedom roster, discussing each character in turn.

One additional change I'm trying to make is limiting market access (for the purposes of this blog, I'll be referring to the Black Market/Wentworth's as the "market" and the Paragon Market as the "store" or "Paragon Store"). Leveling alts will sell everything to vendors. If I want IOs on them during leveling, I'll use Reward Merits and Alignment Merits to get them (or the Paragon Store depending upon pricing and availability). If I need specific salvage to craft the recipes, I'll run AE arcs (not farms but legit arcs; see the "Excellent AE Arcs" listing on the sidebar under "Sites of Interest" for what I'll be running) to get the Tickets to get the salvage I need.

My 50s are going to have at least some market access. It's just quicker to finish a build that way.

Why limit my access to the market? I don't find it fun and I'm going to stop doing things in the game I don't find fun. Here's hoping the Paragon Store has a full selection of Paragon Store Origin Enhancements (PSOs) at reasonable prices sometime in the near future.

City of Heroes Freedom Issue 21 Headstart Goes Live!

2011-09-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

*Due to technical difficulties, the Paragon Store and Paragon Points earned from July to today will not be available until tomorrow, but the game is playable otherwise. Free server transfers will be delayed until next week.

Patch notes.
Known issues.
Discussion thread.

Forums Down, UStream Up, Intrepid Informer 11 and...MARTy?!?!

2011-09-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning the CoH official forums will be down (along with City of Heroes itself) while they are enabled as a VIP only feature. During the downtime, Paragon Studios' UStream event will begin at 6 a.m. PDT and run until the game is back up.

Meanwhile Intrepid Informer: Issue #11 takes a look at how Rocket Boards came to be.

Finally, look out farmers and power levelers! There's a new Hero in town and its name is MARTy! Earning XP or Inf faster than Paragon Studios likes will have MARTy arresting your rewards. Oh, you think I'm kidding? Click the link and find out how MARTy will mete out justice!

City of Heroes Freedom Head Start On September 13!

2011-09-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Four days to Freedom! Read about it on the official forums.

EDIT: The maintenance window has now been announced. It starts at 3 a.m. PDT and will run until about 1 p.m. PDT. Discuss it on the official forums.

Off The Cape

2011-09-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

City of Heroes Podcast may be gone, but its big shoes have been filled by Off The Cape. The podcast has released its latest episode, Issue 20 - Rainbow Flavored Seeds of Chaos! If you like it, why not subscribe in iTunes?

PC Gamer Covers First Ward Mobs

2011-09-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

Check it out at PC Gamer.

New Official CoH Fiction: Divided We Fall

2011-09-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

Read it at the official forums and prepare to be WTFed.

My City of Heroes Blog is Now My City of Heroes Blog Freedom

2011-09-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

My City of Heroes Blog is now My City of Heroes Blog Freedom!

Yes, City of Heroes is going free to play, and the open beta is underway. If you have a current subscription, check out the beta forums and how to get onto the beta server.

Freedom is looking very good! They need to look at the returning player experience a bit (granting one free 30 day IO license to returning players would help with that) but that's my only real criticism of the game's single most epic update of all time.

My favorite parts are the now-retired Booster Packs being sold a la carte, Super Reflexes for Tankers (softcap on SOs!) and Street Justice (very well balanced, well executed set!)

No release date announced yet, but if the latest patch passes muster, we should be seeing the head start very soon.

CoH Podcast Speical Episode 10

2009-09-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

CoH Podcast has released a new special episode and it's a very different and very good one featuring player interviews.

Check it out at the CoH Podcast website.

Issue 16 Live

2009-09-15T14:52:00.001-07:00

Read about it at the official website.

Happy Birthday to Blog

2009-09-04T10:48:00.001-07:00

This blog turned 1 year old on September 3rd. And no, I couldn't be bothered to post yesterday so I'm doing it now. :p

Meanwhile, City of Heroes announces the official beginning of the guest author program. They even have LOLBAT onboard. And yeah, Troy "I'm not Tracy" Hickman. Man's a damn good writer, too. I wonder what kind of farms these guys will make? :p

Of course, I won't be happy until the thawing of Jack Schiff is complete. His farms would be the best farms of all. ;)

Read about the guest farm author program at the official site.

New Assassin's Strikes Video by adrius

2009-08-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Issue 16 Video By onimonkii

2009-08-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

Issue 16 Enters Open Beta

2009-08-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

That was a quick closed beta. I'm sitting out until I16 goes live myself, but if you're in the mood by all means load up the Test Server client and check it out. In other words, you open beta, I'm CoX fatigued. Issue 16 will probably be live in 2-3 weeks at this rate.

Chat about it in the official Issue 16 forum.

Metaplace

2009-08-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

So I checked out Raph Koster's Metaplace. It feels distinctly low-tech, both in graphics and sound. The worlds I visited were ok I guess, but I wasn't impressed. Some of them were even frustrating.

They're working on improving avatar customization, which is good because right now it's nowhere near good enough (CoX has me spoiled).

Imbedding videos is interesting. Reminds me of Second Life.

I haven't been back since my initial login. Not a good sign, but I need to get back and give it more of a chance. I can see the promise in it.

Watch The Guild

2009-08-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

Positron on Issue 16 at MMORPG.com

2009-08-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Chris "Back Alley Brawler" Bruce just might be the coolest dev of all time.

Issue 16 Closed Beta Underway

2009-08-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.

Whine and moan that you didn't get in yet on the official forums.

Positron: Pets Zone With Owner in Issue 16

2009-08-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

According to Positron's Twitter, pets will be zoning with their owners in I16. Masterminds just got even faster to play.

Discuss the good news at the official forums.

Double XP Log

2009-08-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Magnaniman, INV/SS Tanker, from level 35 to 37.

Caterbrawler, WP/EN Tanker, from level 18 to 20.

Quinine, SS/SR Brute, from level 12 to 14.

This represents about 3 hours of play time over the 3 days of double XP. I was suffering from CoX fatigue so I didn't get the 6 hours over 3 days I was planning on.

Yes, I'm playing Tankers now. What changed? Patrol XP and dual builds helps tremendously with the lackluster early game Tankers have (lackluster is being kind; it outright stinks and is really unfun. Tankers do mature very nicely though. They're very playable in the mid-to-late game). I build my Tankers as Scrankers, of course. Solo all the way. I can't wait until you can set missions up with full team spawns (Issue 16). That will make Tankers very, very fun! Even solo.

Champions Forumites: 8 is Enough

2009-08-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

The very idea that 8 slots is enough in a customizable superhero game would be laughed at by most City of Heroes players. Guess what? Champions Online forumites love the idea of limiting it to 8. Why, I have no idea. What is gained by limiting the available slots? Precisely nothing.

Here's hoping Champions gets a clue and ups the slot count. By a lot.

Read and laugh at the cluelessness at the CO official forums.

[For comparison, City of Heroes launched with approximately 88 slots, and that was increased 50% when City of Villains (RIP) launched.]

City of Heroes Podcast Releases Episode 48

2009-08-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Episode "48" of the podfading CoH Podcast is out. Where episodes 42-46 went is anyone's guess.

Check it out at the official CoH Podcast site.

Hype Won by ratspaw

2009-08-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

Trouble Logging Into the New Forums?

2009-07-31T16:43:00.000-07:00

If you're having trouble logging into the new forums, try using your game account password (the password you use to log into the game).

I preferred having separate passwords for the two for better security, but it is what it is.

Forums Up!

2009-07-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

Check out the new City of Heroes forums.

I seem to have forgotten my password lol. :p

Double XP Up; Forums Still Down

2009-07-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

Forums are still down, but double XP is on through midnight Sunday. And no, Patrol XP isn't used with double XP (it'll still be used to pay debt, however).

Mabinogi is Looking Good

2009-07-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

I played it for a few hours about a year ago, and it charmed the pants off me. Just a cute, charming, fanciful game. With the latest expansion, I'm tempted to pick it back up. Free to play with microtransactions. The game looks very good, but the system requirements are very low (smart move on the developers' part).

Shot Across Champion's Bow: Loyalty Program

2009-07-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

If you keep your City of Heroes subscription active during August 15 to November 15 (just so happening to coincide with Champion's Online launch window) you get access to the Going Rogue closed beta.

It works in three tiers:

1. 60+ month vets

2. Loyalty Program (those who keep their account active Aug 15 to November 15)

3. Those who pre-order Going Rogue

I presume tier 1 gets in first, then 2 later on and finally 3.

Well played devs. Well played.

September is going to be a very interesting time to see what happens in the very first superhero MMO competition. My prediction? A year from September both City of Heroes and Champions Online will have a player base of about 150,000 players each. After DC? It's anyone's guess. Whoever comes up with the WoW of superhero MMOs will be the winner in the long run, though. With their recent announcement that they are making another go at the MMO superhero market, Marvel just might be the one to do it, if they can learn from the strength's and weaknesses of CoH, CO and DCUO.

You heard it here first. Marvel's MMO will rule the roost (in 2014 lol).

Zakrian_Immortal's Issue 16 Videos at YouTube

2009-07-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHd7oA5HSLo&feature=channel

Forums Down; VBulletin Soon

2009-07-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

Follow the progress on Twitter.