City of Heroes

[Dr Archeville]

Where the frack are the capes?

EDIT: found 'em, ParagonWiki tells me you need to be level 20 to unlock capes. (but you can only get up to level 14 on the free trial )

[Geez3r]

Wait? You need to unlock capes in a superhero game? :facepalm:

[Gizmo]

Yeah, Geez, that's the point. The big guns wear capes: Batman, Superman, or in-universe Statesman and Hero-1. This way if you see a character running around with a cape, it means something. Not only do you have to play and stick with a character long enough, you have to go through a series of missions that introduce you to more of the setting's history. It's like the way the Centurion's colours and cape mean something in the Freedom City universe.

[N/A]

Pretty much any particle effect costume piece requires you to jump through some kind of hoop, because (out of character) they're a bigger drain on the servers, and the machines of everyone around you. In some cases, you have to hit a certain level with the character. In others, you have to reach a certain tier of veteran rewards. And there are capes, auras, etc., that you can get from level 1 if you buy the right booster pack.

[Gizmo]

Oh sure, take all the poetry out of it with your 'particle effects' and 'practical reasons'. :mrgreen:

[N/A]

That having been said, I don't agree with that cold, unfeeling logic. There are too many powers you can snap up in levels 1-10 that light your character up like a frakking X-Mas tree. In reality, I think it's just a cynical carrot on a stick hanging in front of the players to give them one more reason to keep logging on.

See, Giz, you call me out, and I'll just sink lower. 8-)

(BTW, History Lesson: the reason CoH didn't have capes, or a lot of other things, at launch, was that their investors rushed them out the door too quickly and they hadn't gotten them to work right or look right yet.)

[N/A]

Installed new (er, older) drivers for my NVIDIA card, and I was able to play for two and a half hours last night!

So how many folks are in Praetoria, and how many just started as a Hero in regular/Primal Earth?

Congratz.

Since I generally prefer the blueside experience but the redside archetypes, I've already experienced all the Praetorian content (which, BTW, while awesome, is not conducive to fast leveling), I went ahead and started "The Skharab" (a Natural-origin Psi/Psi Dominator) and "Thrude" (a Magic-origin Electric/Electric Brute with the Ghost-Slaying Axe veteran power) in the Rogue Isles. I'll switch them over to Paragon City at the first opportunity, once they hit 20 and the bad guys start dropping tips. After that, they'll just pretend those first 20 levels didn't happen.

[Dr Archeville]

Pretty much any particle effect costume piece requires you to jump through some kind of hoop, because (out of character) they're a bigger drain on the servers, and the machines of everyone around you. In some cases, you have to hit a certain level with the character. In others, you have to reach a certain tier of veteran rewards. And there are capes, auras, etc., that you can get from level 1 if you buy the right booster pack.

Speaking of, are there any Booster Packs you -- or any other long-time COHer -- would recommend (or warn against)?

[Supercape]

The most useful one is the Martial Arts pack: It gives the power "Ninja Run" which looks a bit manga, but functions as a free semi super speed and semi supe jump combined together. As an aside, it gives you some reasonable costume pieces (martial arty type robes and oriental swords mainly) and a few emotes.

"Animal Pack" gives you beast run which is functionally the same as "Ninja Run" but involves running on all fours. It looks great, but of course only suits a minority of characters.

My personal fave is "Steam punk" - partially because I like steam punk of course, but it gives you some great costume pieces, including funky pistols and assault rifles, "clunker" aura (springs and cog wheels fly off you and/or you drip oil), and a steam powered backpack costume piece. It also gives you a steam jump power, which allows you to jump great heights for about 30 seconds - very handy for super speeding characters.

The "Mutation" booster pack has some so so costume pieces etc, but gives you the "secondary mutation" power which is quite popular, a random buff (and occassionally it devolves you into a helpless monkey).

"Magic" booster has the "Mystic Fortune" power, which is so-so, a random buff on an ally (its like reading a tarot deck and they get a random buff depending on the card). Some quite nice costume pieces.

Those are the ones I would recommend. Of those, Martial Arts is probably the one with most utility: Ninja Run really is handy. Steampunk has the best costume pieces (And a nice power thrown in).

The others are completists only, with costume pieces only - generally not particularly good ones. The Super Science pack has some quite nifty costume peices and emotes (and would be my pick of the rest). Cyborg aint bad (and has the occassionally useful "self destruct" power). Wedding, Origin and Party boosters are very much the weakest of the lot.

[N/A]

Are there any Booster Packs you -- or any other long-time COHer -- would recommend (or warn against)?

You can read a list of all the costumes, emotes, and powers each Super Booster pack gives here. For the most part, whether or not any particular booster pack is "worth it" for you depends on whether or not you want the extra costume options and emotes it contains.

My personal favorite is the Martial Arts booster, followed closely by the Magic booster.

The former gives every character on your account the Ninja Run power from Level 4 onward. Ninja Run is like half of Superleap welded to half of Super-Speed, and it stacks with Sprint. 90% of the time, it's all the travel power you'll ever need. For the other 10%, you can get a jetpack temporary power in like half a dozen different ways. And it looks hella cool.

The latter gives every character on your account access to some awesome costume options (including a full cape you can have from Level 1) and costume-change emotes (like Captain Marvel lightning), as well as the Mystic Fortune power, which lets you "tell a character's fortune," randomly giving them one of several awesome and long-lasting buffs.

[N/A]

Progress Report 07/15/11:

I've got 2 PCs on the Virtue server, both based on my FCPBP PCs.

"Thrude" is a Magic-origin Brute, Electric Melee / Electric Armor, who makes liberal use of the Ghost-Slaying Axe veteran power. She's currently Level 20. I started her as a Villain, because I prefer the redside archetypes and it was either that or Praetoria. Now that she's high enough level, she's grinding alignment missions as fast as she can. She's currently halfway to being a Rogue.

"The Skharab" is a Natural-origin Dominator, Mind Control / Psionic Assault. She's currently Level 10. I also started her redside, for the same reasons as Thrude.

Gizmo and I are talking about starting up an FCPBP-specific supergroup once our redside PCs have transitioned to blueside. I welcome any suggestions for names.

[Cyroa]

got 2 there: Blue Torque (is about 31st Defender as of this date) and Dark`Starr (only lvl 2 as haven't played him yet)

I'm up for the group...but have no clue on names.

[Gizmo]

Jacque of all Blades is a Level 30 Fiery/SR Scrapper right now, while Black Wail is a Level 13 Sonic/Sonic Corruptor over on redside hanging with Skharab sometimes. Haven't been able to get on in a couple days, so I'm getting surpassed! Still, putting in some time when I can. And yeah! Super Team! Let's do that thing!

[Gizmo]

If we're doing this, it should be soon, 'cause there's a double XP weekend coming up, which includes double prestige. We'd need to choose colours and an emblem, of course.

[Quinn]

My hero on Virtue (Iron-Z, Technology Electric Melee/Shield Defense Scrapper) is only Level 10, but I'm cranking levels with him like crazy; count me in!

Also, if Wail or Scarab need some leveling help, White Jacket (27 Traps/Thugs Mastermind)'s up for it.

As for names and a color scheme...well, the forum colors (blue/gold) would probably be most apropos. How about Freedom City Irregulars?

[Supercape]

Is Virtue the server of FCPBM now?

I may have to transfer a dusty alt there!

[Gizmo]

Yeah, we've ended up using Virtue for all the characters transported from Freedom City. I think it'll work out well; it's a well populated server with lots of events and roleplay, and if part of the idea is going a little subtle advertising for the site, that's the place to do it.

Blue and gold is hard to argue with. I don't mind 'Freedom City Irregulars' either, if nobody else has any ideas.

[Supercape]

Well, I may do a Virtue transfer then! Ill see how things play out, but I have a variety of rarely used Alts on defiant (I mainly play on Union) and I may as well port one over for the japes. I don't know what would be most useful, probably a corruptor or controller or something similar.

[Gizmo]

Okay, so: emblems! The various star patterns are a good, generic option, but I personally think these three have some potential:

What do you guys think? In terms of colours, I'm thinking D8 and L6?

[Quinn]

I'd go for the second one; reminiscent of a city superimposed on a shield. Or I might be just reading way too much into it. :P

[Gizmo]

Heh, I actually saw the same thing there, so it's not just you.

[N/A]

In practice, L6 tends to be eye-searingly bright. I'd go with L5, or even L4, for the blue, with D7 as the "gold."

I like the middle symbol too. The pentagon with the buildings. (I'm pretty sure the one on the right is supposed to be wings.)

[Gizmo]

Gotcha, I bow to the greater experience. D7 and L5 it shall be!

For those who haven't been in a supergroup before, the way it works is that in 'Supergroup Mode' you earn prestige for the group which can be spent on various cool stuff for the base. You can also have a group-specific version of your costume, replacing any on your normal colours with the two group colours and having the emblem on your chest. Or not! You can basically switch around as much or as little as you like.

So, last big thing is the name. Quinn suggested 'Freedom City Irregulars'. Any other ideas?

[N/A]

Since we're on the roleplay-heavy server, and the game is set in Paragon City, not Freedom City, maybe we should ditch the "City" part and focus on the "Freedom" part. "City" isn't even in this site's URL.

Freedom League?

Freedom Knights?

Freedom League Task Force?

Freedom Task Force?

Freedom Force?

Freedomites?

Freedom Titans?

F-Men?

New Freedom?

Freedom Allies?

[Dr Archeville]

League of Extraordinary Freedonians?