Missing SBOs; New Charater; Issue 24; Financials Due Soon

Comet Master, Grav/NRG Dominator Villain

So if you store your Store Bought Origin (SBO) Enhancements in emails, and forget about them for 60 days, those emails and enhancements will get deleted. I found out the hard way. I didn't think they'd delete pay Enhancements like that. Considering petitioning to get them back, but I don't know, I kind of just shoulder-shrug about it.

I rolled up a new character, a Grav/NRG Dom. Energy Assault is amazing these days, but what people don't realize is that Gravity, once it gets its pet Singularity (Singy) is one of the best control sets around. A good half of the set's control potential is in that pet. Oftentimes, Singy allows you to just blast and not worry too much about even controlling anything. That's the beauty of Gravity Control, and nobody sees that. And yes, I haven't written a bio as you can see. Sometimes I have to experience a character in-game for a good while before I know who they are.

Issue 24 has some stuff. Leveling content! Sweet, sweet, much needed leveling content! But tier-9 VIP exclusive costume set. Boo. And Blasters getting another buff, this time quick snipes (Doms benefit, yay!) but also getting regeneration in some of their secondary powers. Regeneration is not going to save a Blaster. A Blaster's still gonna die. I don't see the point. But okay, I guess. Oh, and power pools just got awesome. Customization, and a new pool power that turns your character into an "unrelenting berserker".

The latest financials for NCsoft are due out this week. Following hot on the heels of a very weak Issue 23 numbers will probably be down again (I'd love to be wrong about that). The good news is NCsoft either has forgotten the game is still running, or they like it, they really, really like it. What could possibly go wrong?

Follow Me On Twitter!

@DarylShort

Precise Pangolin Patrols Paragon!

Captain Nighttime exacts dark justice once again, thanks to Ubuntu 12.04!

The game runs like a champ (40 fps open world; 85 fps instances) on the "Recommended" graphics setting with vertical sync off on my low-power-consumption Ubuntu box (uses only 246 watts, monitor included).

Ubuntu's screen capture app makes getting shots of ID badges and the costume creator child's play (something I struggled with in Windows).

The only tricky part of installing was figuring out how to get XML::Simple installed (Perl, Wine, Wget and Xdelta all either came with Precise or were available in the Software Center). Turns out one command line did it:


sudo apt-get install libxml-simple-perl


Oh, and as you can see, I'm finally playing in High Definition. Nice.


Windows? Where we're going we don't need Windows!

Taking a Break From All Your Cities Sure Would Help Alot

Magnaniman poses with flag made from Statesman's cape.

So I'm going on an uninstall break from the game. There are just too many games that need playing right now, and City has gotten more than its fair share recently. But fear not! I shall return as I always do because City of Heroes Freedom is my home MMO.

Some final (for now) admonitions:

If you've never played City of Heroes Freedom, try it, you have nothing to lose and I promise you you will love it!

Prices in the Paragon Store could and should be lower. A lot lower. The $10 Leprechaun really drives this home.

Beast Mastery is something I'll have to try when I come back because it looks great and my Anne of the Jungle character must be rerolled to it.

Drop rates in Dark Astoria need to be higher. They are much too conservative right now.

The new Dark Astoria's missions, though a bit wordy, are fantastically done and the zone looks and sounds better than ever! I don't miss the fog at all.

Oh, and I want to get Staff Fighting, too. Uh, I better get out of here before I start playing again lol.

TTFN!

Mr. Wrecking Ball does Dark Astoria.

Kicking the Min-Max Habit

A whole new world opens up once you get your head out of the spreadsheets, out of Wentworth's and into game immersion and just having fun. You don't have to play on +4x8, you don't have to marketeer, you don't have to Incarnate or iTral, you don't have to put the same travel power on every character. You don't have to do anything that's not fun.

Just grab some SOs and go punch face. Be the superhero/supervillain the game, and you, want you to be.

Above all, ignore the min-maxers.

Issue 22 & Hiatus Over???...

So Issue 22 is out. Stalkers have been turned up to 11. If you slot the Stalker ATO, they're turned up to 12. CRIT, CRIT, placate, CRIT is a hell of a way to open a fight. I'm gonna have a hard time rolling a Scrapper from now on. Stalkers are where the crits live.

Mr. Wrecking Ball's new look thanks to the Olympian Guard  costume set.

Yes, I came out of my hiatus from the game to try some stuff out. I also tried the Brute ATO. Old Fury is back.  I can now get Mr. Wrecking Ball's Fury up to 85ish and hold it there pretty steadily. Just like with old Fury. I hear reports on the forums of getting to 100 Fury with it, but I don't see how that's possible. 85 is solid enough for me.

More to come???...

So, Q4 Earnings Report (Now Including Q1 2012)

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? [Q1 2012 financials are in, and unfortunately the game's revenue has continued its overall downward trend: down 16% from Q4 2010. Revenues are now lower than they were the quarter before Freedom's launch. Looks like Freedom has failed to turn the game's sales around. The only question left is: how low can the revenues get before the game closes? - ED]

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

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!

Going Rageless?

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!

Issue 22 Fan Trailer by Sport921

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!