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HukHukHuk
Jun 27, 2011

I am the sound of cats and hairballs.
If you don't mind managing your debuffs, you could take both Breach and Annihilation, Breach has its own -5% ego resistance that stacks 3 times, and really helps to build stacks. I suppose I only know this because I'm a Disciple but there's a lot of synergy between the powers in the set, but this would only apply if you were really looking to maximize the output of pain that you would be dealing.

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General Maximus
Jul 14, 2006
Standard models come in white labcoats for inexplicable reasons.
That does work, yeah. Personally I'm lazy so I'll stick to the much simpler method of spamming ego weaponry until I have 5 stacks of ego leech, then dropping a 10k crit on something with annihilation and repeat.

Admittedly, the fact that most of my character's survivability comes from siphoning strikes might have something to do with that.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

10k? That's cute.

For real damage you need to BREACH BREACH BREACH.

Cleretic
Feb 3, 2010
Probation
Can't post for 6 days!

Aphrodite posted:

10k? That's cute.

For real damage you need to BREACH BREACH BREACH.

About what percentage of builds turn into 'use one power forever', anyway?

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Cleretic posted:

About what percentage of builds turn into 'use one power forever', anyway?

Electricity does.

For TK Blades it's not exclusively Breach, though. I just meant to add that in.

General Maximus
Jul 14, 2006
Standard models come in white labcoats for inexplicable reasons.

Aphrodite posted:

10k? That's cute.

For real damage you need to BREACH BREACH BREACH.

Meh, it's enough for me.

And which power is it for electricity? Cause I'm probably doing that wrong too, mine uses two powers.

Bluhman
Nov 7, 2009

Low morale causes the golems to dance in panic.

Aphrodite posted:

Electricity does.

Not entirely. Gigabolt might have superior coverage, but Electric Arc becomes downright scary on an enemy with Negative Ions, doing around 6000 damage per second at the end of the maintain at level 40. This is the move that tops leaderboards. On a Ego/Pre/End character mind you, so they're not even built entirely for damage.

prefect
Sep 11, 2001

No one, Woodhouse.
No one.




Dead Man’s Band
I've decided I only like doing alerts when I'm relying primarily on maintained attacks. (Less pushing of buttons, and fewer timing requirements.) For my magician character, that means Skarn's Bane is the way to go. But it doesn't seem to do tons of damage, and there aren't any magic passives that I can use with the "Ranged Damage" role. Should I just give up on this particular dream?

Thanks.

Guy Forget
Dec 25, 2006
It's not pronounced the way you think.
I haven't been paying attention to this whole vehicle thing so far, but this new update seems rather heavily focused on them. I've heard they're powerful, and I haven't stumbled upon any restrictions on where they can be used.

So I have one question stemming entirely from ignorance: Is CO turning into a vehicle combat game?

Jan
Feb 27, 2008

The disruptive powers of excessive national fecundity may have played a greater part in bursting the bonds of convention than either the power of ideas or the errors of autocracy.

Bluhman posted:

Not entirely. Gigabolt might have superior coverage, but Electric Arc becomes downright scary on an enemy with Negative Ions, doing around 6000 damage per second at the end of the maintain at level 40. This is the move that tops leaderboards. On a Ego/Pre/End character mind you, so they're not even built entirely for damage.

Also, you have to be running Sparkstorm (+Electric Personality) all the time.

So, three buttons. :v:

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Jan posted:

Also, you have to be running Sparkstorm (+Electric Personality) all the time.

So, three buttons. :v:

If the targets are in range of Sparkstorm, you made a mistake.

Bluhman posted:

Not entirely. Gigabolt might have superior coverage, but Electric Arc becomes downright scary on an enemy with Negative Ions, doing around 6000 damage per second at the end of the maintain at level 40. This is the move that tops leaderboards. On a Ego/Pre/End character mind you, so they're not even built entirely for damage.

Pfft, nerd stuff. Everyone knows this is a single player game that ends at 40.

Guy Forget posted:

I haven't been paying attention to this whole vehicle thing so far, but this new update seems rather heavily focused on them. I've heard they're powerful, and I haven't stumbled upon any restrictions on where they can be used.

So I have one question stemming entirely from ignorance: Is CO turning into a vehicle combat game?

You can only use them in vehicle missions (of which there's only one) and outside.

Archonex
May 2, 2012

MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS

Aphrodite posted:

You can only use them in vehicle missions (of which there's only one) and outside.

That being said, if earlier posts regarding the prototype vehicles that were sale before the current ones came out weren't an indication, they are hilariously overpowered. Or, at least the prototype vehicles are. The current batch might be a bit toned down, I don't know.

In the case of the prototypes, you are literally playing with a jet that can use VTOL, fire lasers, and send out Macross style missile swarms at large swathes of terrain. The speed of the vehicle alone means that most enemies can't even hit you. Add in the insane number of offensive options an interceptor gets, and i've managed to solo a few of the world bosses.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Nov 9, 2012

Jan
Feb 27, 2008

The disruptive powers of excessive national fecundity may have played a greater part in bursting the bonds of convention than either the power of ideas or the errors of autocracy.

Aphrodite posted:

If the targets are in range of Sparkstorm, you made a mistake.

If by "mistake" you mean "teleport into a pack of minions", sure. :colbert:

Sea Lily
Aug 5, 2007

Everything changes, Pit.
Even gods.

The only problem with the vehicles is you're basically restricted to street sweeping missions or the special vehicle-only ones. They only work "outdoors", and this definition of "outdoors" also does not include instanced missions that take place outdoors at all. So like, comic series, adventure packs, any any other missions you have to go into a place to do they don't work in. With one or two exceptions, which might have been 'fixed' by now.

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug

Archonex posted:

That being said, if earlier posts regarding the prototype vehicles that were sale before the current ones came out weren't an indication, they are hilariously overpowered. Or, at least the prototype vehicles are. The current batch might be a bit toned down, I don't know.

In the case of the prototypes, you are literally playing with a jet that can use VTOL, fire lasers, and send out Macross style missile swarms at large swathes of terrain. The speed of the vehicle alone means that most enemies can't even hit you. Add in the insane number of offensive options an interceptor gets, and i've managed to solo a few of the world bosses.
Even thought I'll probably not have a vehicle for like forever... I really really hope this starts a wave of Duel challenges fought out in jet fighters...

You... You can use the vehicles in a duel, right?

Cleretic
Feb 3, 2010
Probation
Can't post for 6 days!
I heard tell of being able to color-customize the vehicles, including the Hawkwing ones. Is that true? If so, it's locked to non-subscribers, isn't it?

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Cleretic posted:

I heard tell of being able to color-customize the vehicles, including the Hawkwing ones. Is that true? If so, it's locked to non-subscribers, isn't it?

Gold can customize the powers. The color scheme of the vehicle is locked.

Yin
Jul 3, 2012

Waah, please don't
suck me up!
I love the Munitions buffs and the Defensive Combo buff. It's a shame to hear all the content this patch has to offer is not very good.

Allatum
Feb 20, 2008

Pillbug
Two Gun Mojo is actually a somewhat decent power now. The range isn't superb but you still keep a lot of mobility compared to some of the other range maintains. Excluding TK assault I guess.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Yeah, Munitons in general has definitely gotten some rather nice buffs there. Time to take an old alt off the shelf, probably.

Allatum
Feb 20, 2008

Pillbug
So I'm missing something or are the hover bikes just not something you can buy? I'd rather pretend I have a swoop bike than be in a tank.

General Maximus
Jul 14, 2006
Standard models come in white labcoats for inexplicable reasons.
The hover bikes are coming later, apparently.

Also, I'm mildly irritated that not one of the vehicles is obtainable at all without someone paying zen for it at some point. I mean sure I can buy one off the auction house or get zen on the exchange, but someone had to pay for it originally. There's not even an option for subscribers, lifetime or otherwise, to get one.

Not that I wasn't expecting that to be the case but still, kind of a dick move.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Yin posted:

I love the Munitions buffs and the Defensive Combo buff. It's a shame to hear all the content this patch has to offer is not very good.

They didn't add any content.

Archonex
May 2, 2012

MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS
So I just did the new mission they added in with the Reloaded update. It's actually pretty loving awesome and restored my faith in the devs to put out good content on par with CoH now that it's closing.

It's a bit long to explain, but to explain why and go through the content of the main bit of PVE content in the new update:


The mission takes place on an aerial carrier owned by S.H.I.E.L.D in the Marvel universe aerial command carrier owned by U.N.T.I.L, a sort of global police and military force in the Champions-verse. The narrative of the mission seems to be that you're on "escort duty" (because you're badass enough to warrant the SHIELD expy to hire you on. Also, because apparently the Champions-verse heroes were competent enough to pass decent registration without a loving civil war happening.) while the carrier is regrouping with the main battlegroup. Obviously, poo poo happens.

So the mission gets started with a brief cinematic of Maria Hill some bigshot captain with a gun telling you that you had better not of hoped for an easy time, since it turns out Dr. Doom Dr. Destroyer used the opportunity to ambush the command carrier and try to take it out.

You have a bit of time to prep and talk strategy before the hangar bay doors open, at which point hundreds of Destroids attack the ship. And this isn't just a cosmetic thing. Humongous waves of trooper bots constantly swarm the ship (They fly in on rocket boots.). They're supported by a constant spawn of Black Talon (Taking him out removes him from the field for awhile, which is good, since he also spawns more destroids.) and a number of elites. Also, apparently Dr. Doom Dr. Destroyer invested in life sized remote controlled helicopters, since they also strafe it and can do massive damage.


Which brings me to the next big thing about the mission. It's a raid. They just don't call it that. It's a ten person mission that pits you against a tier of difficulty you'd normally see in other game's raids. So by any definition when paired against other offerings, it definitely qualifies.

Except it's not a raid in the usual rote manner of "20-40 people attack a single overpowered mob for ___ minutes". Instead, ten players group up to take on an army of killbots lead by a guy in a giant suit of power armor. All which are dead set on destroying this thing, and have infinite reinforcements. This is done by them attacking the eight engines and ventilation control system. If six engines are destroyed, or the ventilation control system goes down, you lose the ship.

So most of the time you're screaming through the skies, chasing down a squadron of killbots, precariously perched on an engine or overhand exchanging fire with dozens of enemies, or on the deck waist deep in angry destroids.

The whole "you and nine other people against an army" thing is actually pretty loving awesome, fits the heroic theme of the game, and a take on "large scale" teaming that i've been waiting for a long time to see out of a developer. Most other games would tone down the numbers you're up against and boost mob HP to compensate for it. Not so here.

You aren't alone in it either. If you pay attention (And a lot of players aren't.), you'll notice that UNTIL periodically scrambles a ton of generic soldiers to help hold the deck. And they can hold their own with a bit of help. You can also activate turrets to help with the defense of the deck. The engines, being that they don't have any reasonable means to reach on foot (Unless you have acrobatics or can fly/teleport) get no such defenses, and need player attention.


On that note, if you can't tell, this mission takes place high the sky. So if you fall off of the carrier, you are hosed. Also, with the exception of the ventilation system, many of the objectives you need to defend are placed precariously for people who can't fly. Despite the devs suggestions as to otherwise though, the level appears to have been designed to support acrobatic and non flight travel powers as well.

I had a pretty fun time mixing teleport and acrobatics to teleport down to the engines, then flipping and leaping from bits of the architecture to other bits and pieces while chasing down killbots. Took some getting used too, but with my controller and a bit of practice it was a piece of cake and I was doing a pretty good impression of an acrobatics themed hero like Daredevil before I knew it. Looking at the methods I used, i'd also say you could do it with a few other powers as well.


On the gameplay end of things, once the first timer runs down, a loving mega destroid lands on the deck. Not-Maria-Hill panics, says to get to the deck (The engines can still die to enemy fire.), and you start throwing down against it and the continued hordes of enemies that rush the ship. This isn't a toned down Mega Destroid, too. It's the same loving cosmic tier enemy that spawns periodically in Millennium City. And as mentioned, the game doesn't stop sending in hordes of enemies either. :stare:

Difficulty wise, the mission is pretty well balanced. It's not a fuckfest of STO style arbitrary/constant deaths. In fact, if you're dying constantly, you're probably going to lose. It also rewards people who play something that isn't just optimized DPS. Unless you've got a team optimized and maxed out in levels and gear, you're not going to cover all of the areas of the ship at once. Or even be able too, since the hordes of enemies will overrun people who aren't prepped to take on fights of that size.

So tanks play a great role (And basically get to slowly wade through armies of mobs if they're able to go after fliers.) in holding one side alone while another side gets cleared, and healers are vital to keeping the engines alive. Surprisingly, i've also seen pubbies get this too. I've noticed a few people in support tanks hovering around the bottom of the ship, healing the engines while I blasted away with a rifle or pistols to draw fire onto me.

Obviously, they also designed it to encourage the use of vehicles. But it's easily doable without it for high levels, people with flight, or people who aren't very low leveled. You just need to be intelligent, and learn how to use your travel powers. Which is good, since I don't see a mission like this lasting if they made it vehicle only in terms of usage.


Compare all that with content with the limited past deliveries of content under Atari. Add onto that the alert system they released when they got out from under them, and it's actually looking like this could be my CoH replacement. I was worried they were just going to continue floating along on generic "adventure pack" style content for awhile, but this thing displayed some serious originality to it in terms of gameplay and design.



Section Z posted:

Even thought I'll probably not have a vehicle for like forever... I really really hope this starts a wave of Duel challenges fought out in jet fighters...

You... You can use the vehicles in a duel, right?

I saw people in tanks shooting at each other in MC yesterday, so I assume so. Maybe they were just dicking around, though.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Nov 10, 2012

Bluhman
Nov 7, 2009

Low morale causes the golems to dance in panic.
Yes, it's possible to duel in vehicles.

If you don't mind the content coming in at an extremely slow rate and also enjoyed the single mission they brought in, then yeah, this could be a good game to watch.

Anyways, a few strategies on the carrier mission (spoilered just in case you want to try your own tactics:


  • Bring a support or ranged character. Characters who can use AoE attacks with extreme coverage are going to be at the greatest boon for pulling aggro off of the engines, as well as keeping the humongous swarms of drones and henchmen at bay. On the other end, the carrier mission absolutely requires a support type. The engines are inevitably going to take a beating, and being able to repair the parts back up from critical state is a huge benefit.

  • Right as the mission starts, fly up to the top deck and use the control panels nearby the ventilation shaft. This will turn on defensive turrets that will fire at incoming waves of enemies. The turrets can get disabled by damage, but their survival isn't key to the victory of the mission. They act just like the defense turrets in Aftershock 1; can be manually aimed just like them. I don't know why you'd do this, given that the huge volume of enemies means that focusing fire on one target is probably going to screw everything up.

  • You might get more rewards if less components of the ship are destroyed. I can't confirm this, though, given that I've only run the mission once.

  • Specifically guard engines on only one side of the ship. Later on, when its coming down to the wire, this is going to save your rear end, because if you're the only support person on your team and you're busy watching over the engines and vent, it's much easier to only have to look after 2 spots instead of 3.

Archonex
May 2, 2012

MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS

Bluhman posted:

Yes, it's possible to duel in vehicles.

If you don't mind the content coming in at an extremely slow rate and also enjoyed the single mission they brought in, then yeah, this could be a good game to watch.

My hope is that the staff coming in from CoH will help pick things up a bit. They've been slowly getting back to a decent rate of development ever since they ditched Atari.

Though obviously STO has gotten a lot more love there. Outside of a period of time right before the transition they never really slowed down much in the first place, however, so I give them a pass on that.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Nov 10, 2012

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

No, they work on STO not CO.

Yin
Jul 3, 2012

Waah, please don't
suck me up!

Aphrodite posted:

They didn't add any content.

I was referring to the vehicles and the new vehicle mission.

I'm surprised to hear some positive feedback concerning it in the thread when all I've been hearing about is how poorly it's designed.

Archonex
May 2, 2012

MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS

Yin posted:

I was referring to the vehicles and the new vehicle mission.

I'm surprised to hear some positive feedback concerning it in the thread when all I've been hearing about is how poorly it's designed.

The official forums are filled with negativity. But then, the developers could be giving people free blowjobs, and people would still bitch.

To give some perspective on how bad the forums are, imagine CoH's forums. Only now you have the negativity of a bunch of people with martyr complexes who stuck with the game through the Atari days, added onto the mix of hysterical panic that came any time new content was added in the CoH community. Add in a touch of resentment about having to play that other game from the CoH refugees, and you've got a hilarious mix of angry negativity that never stops and keeps on giving laughs.

I haven't heard any bitching about the update in game. The only legitimate complaint i've heard is that they nerfed the prototype vehicles. Apparently, they were so freakishly fast that they were causing severe lag and server issues. And to be fair, they've had a PR guy basically bombing every thread that bitches about it, saying they're looking at a way to give that back as a unique prototype bonus. Doesn't stop the people raging, though.

In game, i've yet to hear anyone bitch about the content given. At most, it sounds like people want more, which is nothing new. The game was pretty much forced into a corner by Atari for a very long time. So there's a backlog of stuff older players expect to have.

Most of the bitching in game is from people who think vehicles are going to usurp characters, turning it into a lovely version of Auto Assault or something. And that's mostly just the usual "change is bad" hysterics coming into play. You get that in any game, though. CoH had it pretty bad though, so I imagine it's playing into things a bit.


Edit: There's also some people expecting chassis and color customization to be in now. But that's more people being impatient than anything else. Also, some people are pissed that they can't have the best vehicle right out the gate.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Nov 11, 2012

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

The official forums are who begged for vehicles and caused all this time wasting.

They didn't make flaming motorcycles (With tail protection so it doesn't flap into the flames) and horses who could also serve as your significant other though, so they're not happy.

Archonex
May 2, 2012

MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS

Aphrodite posted:

The official forums are who begged for vehicles and caused all this time wasting.

They didn't make flaming motorcycles (With tail protection so it doesn't flap into the flames) and horses who could also serve as your significant other though, so they're not happy.
To expand on this:

Keep in mind that both the community in CoH and CO have begged for vehicles for years. It was literally one of the first things that players wanted out of the devs back in the early years of CoH.

People wanted to roll around in their own personal batmobile. Only, the devs in CoH said it wasn't doable due to issues with the underlying mechanics of the game. That's why heroes in that game had to take a public train to every location, apparently. So when CO came out, and people asked for it, it was doable due to the lack of technology restrictions. And it's been on the table for awhile.

The vehicles are them keeping their word after the CO forums asked them for it in CO. Doubly so, since CO has CoH staffers and the company is lead up by one of the guys originally involved in CoH. And yet after the vehicles get put in, the forum community crucifies them for it. The irony is amazing.

I bet the devs involved in CO from the earlier days are pretty confused or pissed, provided they're reading the forums at the moment.


Edit: Personally, i'm of the opinion that the shutdown of CoH has pretty much soured any hope of this getting a positive response.

The content, while only one mission in terms of actual PVE content, is good. The vehicles are interesting and have a fairly large number of supporting equippables that expand the depth of their usability. But you've got people raging at their loss of super speed from the prototypes, and people from CoH coming in and making some amazingly resentful posts, comparing the two games. Which is overshadowing the actual content of what's there.

So the odds of it getting remembered as a good update are probably going to be slim to none.

On the plus side, though, teabagging someone who takes the game too seriously with a flying tank will never get old. There are plenty of people who are pissed that they aren't the proverbial king of poo poo mountain anymore. Or just don't like vehicles because of "MY IMMERSION". Throwing it in their face is a great way to evoke some STO/Drozana style rage.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Nov 11, 2012

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

I don't know how many of those guys still work on CO right now. The experienced guys always get shuffled off to STO.

Archonex
May 2, 2012

MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS

Aphrodite posted:

I don't know how many of those guys still work on CO right now. The experienced guys always get shuffled off to STO.

That hasn't happened since the Atari/PW switchover though, has it? I haven't heard of any major change-overs since then. The last visible transfer I recall was TumorBoy, or whatever his name was. And that was a long time ago.

I can see why they did it back then, too. They were pretty obviously putting all their hopes on the Star Trek license to keep them afloat, while Atari was vigorously trying to shut them down. Atari pretty much blind-sided Cryptic with some of their (ridiculous) original demands. And unfortunately, CO was the game of choice for them to do that in at the time that originally happened.

I haven't heard of any major transfers since then, though. The worst i've heard is that "They didn't hire ____ dev from Paragon Studio's on to CO! ____ was hired for STO instead!". Though from what I understand they did grab at least some people for CO. So that's more people bitching for the sake of bitching, really.

On a side-note, god help you if you explain all that to someone in CO. They'll go for your throat.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Nov 11, 2012

randombattle
Oct 16, 2008

This hand of mine shines and roars! It's bright cry tells me to grasp victory!

That's one thing I will never understand. Why did Atari buy Cryptic if all they wanted to do was destroy them? I just don't understand why they wanted to kill Cryptic so bad.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Archonex posted:

On a side-note, god help you if you explain all that to someone in CO. They'll go for your throat.
One thing I've learned over my life is that nerds people are utterly incapable of taking a step back and looking at a situation objectively and rationally, and will take even the most minor of inconveniences to their personal habits to be an unforgivable affront, however well justified it may be.

randombattle posted:

That's one thing I will never understand. Why did Atari buy Cryptic if all they wanted to do was destroy them? I just don't understand why they wanted to kill Cryptic so bad.
Archonex will explain it better, but the short version is "Atari's management has no loving idea what it takes to run and maintain an MMO, and literally expected the impossible. Oh, and then tried to sabotage Cryptic out of spite when they went looking for better pastures."

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Sony then went and did almost exactly what Atari had intended to with CO with DCUO, showing it can work if you're not terrible.

Cleretic
Feb 3, 2010
Probation
Can't post for 6 days!
The big problem in this game with me is the complete and utter lack of actual poo poo to do. This update marks a monumental occasion in CO's recent history, in fact; It's the first presumably non-limited-time content we've gotten for almost a year, the last one being Whiteout.

I don't count Alerts as 'content', largely because when I look at 'content' I expect some semblance of a story and perhaps a reward. Getting all this cool stuff like vehicles and new powers are great, but they're inherently worthless unless I have stuff to use them in.

Before this mission (which I'm only assuming is a permanent fixture, for all I know it's another limited-time mission) all we ever got was Nighthawk's reintroduction. I don't know how long that mission was there, but it was gone by the time I got back, leaving me completely baffled as to what Nighthawk's deal was.

Really, the only way they could sway me here is by saying that their next content update has actual content. Give me a mission chain, or something! Do they have writers anymore? Can they pretend they do for like, two days and get at least a plot skeleton drawn up?

Cleretic fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Nov 11, 2012

Archonex
May 2, 2012

MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS

Aphrodite posted:

Sony then went and did almost exactly what Atari had intended to with CO with DCUO, showing it can work if you're not terrible.

DCUO is a pretty different case, though. It has more in common with AoC and SW:TOR than anything else, really.

Their lead dev was by all accounts an idiot more obsessed with keeping his job. I recall the forums getting pissed shortly before he "retired", when he responded to the many complaints of the broken and incomplete end game by saying that the game was only meant to be played an hour or so a week.

It was actually one of the few times i've seen an official forum up in arms over something legitimate, since the end game was an utter poo poo show for what was promised. And Sony, apparently having learned from mistakes like SWG, seemed to agree.

Not long after that, he was "moving on to better things". Sony then brought in lead devs who had a vested interest in the setting and knew what they were doing. The game floundered due to the abortive launch until it went F2P, either way, though. They lost way too much interest, and the competition was too high for a game that had no staying power in its gameplay at the time of release.

The fact that those devs turned F2P into probably the crowning gem of how to do F2P right is a testament to what happens when the management of the larger company has their interests in turning a game around. It's also probably a big part of why the game is so popular/well earning now.

Hell, they're the only MMO from their generation that made opening lockboxes free. All you have to do is subscribe, and you never need to buy a key again so long as you have a subscription. Even the official forums, which are normally vitriolic at best on any game, practically fellated the devs when they heard that they wouldn't need to deal with the bullshit of lockboxes.

Asimo posted:

Archonex will explain it better, but the short version is "Atari's management has no loving idea what it takes to run and maintain an MMO, and literally expected the impossible. Oh, and then tried to sabotage Cryptic out of spite when they went looking for better pastures."

I'm not going to list out all of the issues with Atari and how they treated Cryptic again since it was posted in the CoH topic recently, and in this thread (and probably the STO one) as well.

But for a shorter version off all the poo poo that Cryptic and CO went through; CO's problem could probably be summed up as being that that Cryptic found itself under a company that wanted them to be the equivalent to a major publisher's primary developing studio (For MMO's, in this case.). However, they didn't want to give them the resources, and Atari had a very sleazy set of expectations for how to handle the MMO's that they did release.

In fact, to make things worse, Atari essentially did the same thing EA did to Mythic with Warhammer Online and TOR. Instead of giving the company the proper support when they didn't meet a demand or expectation of theirs, they punished them by withdrawing support.

Which, setting aside when a company is trying to recoup costs it can't afford, is about the stupidest business move you could do when trying to develop a MMO post release. Atari definitely wasn't in a "lose it or sink" sort of situation, though, so it's pretty inexcusable. MMO's, barring you getting some sort of savant that puts his life into it, aren't just going to magically turn around because you withdraw funding and forced the company to fire employees.


Cryptic was supposed to publish an MMO a year. This is in a genre with increased costs and employment requirements to develop games, and a poo poo-ton of post release work that's a requirement to make the costs back.

They definitely did not have the staff or resources to do that. Which is evidenced by the launch of both CO and STO. It was only later on that STO (Which got the lions share of love compared to CO during the latter half of the Atari days.) became the game with the traction it has now, in fact. It was very much a "sweatshop" style MMO past the first dozen or so levels originally.

Atari's exploitative policies regarding post release content didn't jive with the genre at all, either. They only helped to make things worse once Atari tried to sabotage the studio. Doubly so once they realized that they couldn't turn Cryptic into some sort of MMO sweatshop that somehow defied all logical rules of marketing games, and that the bubble had burst (Or never even really existed for those kind of MMO's) for lovely low complexity MMO's in the western world.

If the extremely reduced rates of development are any indication from that period of time time, that's also when poo poo got really bad for the company (and especially CO). But that's been mentioned already.


Either way, that's in the past now. From what i've seen Cryptic's backed up its claims of being competent when not hamstrung by lovely owners pretty well so far.

There's the expected lockbox stuff that comes from a PWE owned company/game. But now that they aren't being actively suffocated they're developing fairly innovative content that sets them apart from the legions of WoW and hotbar style MMO's.

I just hope the hiring of some of the CoH devs actually increases the rate and scope of the content they hand out in CO. Playing the new update reminded me of how good it could be if it got enough love.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Nov 11, 2012

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

I only need costumes and powers. I don't read the missions anyway, I don't care.

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Sea Lily
Aug 5, 2007

Everything changes, Pit.
Even gods.

All the costumes and powers in the world aren't worth dropping any money on unless there's lots of fun stuff to do involving them. The Comic Series/Adventure Packs were good additions and the newer ones like Resistance and Whiteout(when they work) are a lot of fun. Reading dialogue or lore or whatever doesn't enter into it, they have some fun combat encounters, some challenging ones, and some great gimmicks like piloting giant robots or shapeshifting enemies hiding in the environment.

The problem is there's just not enough of it, and what there is, you can crank through in about a month tops. The zones are largely a waste of time outside of a few key missions here and there that do something interesting(mostly the Crisis/Apocalypse stuff) and when you hit lv40 you can do like 3 things or make someone new again.

And I hope you like being a tanky DPS character because that's all you'll ever be. I really wish CO had some stronger crowd control stuff, it'd be nice to be able to focus on a support role that's not healing.

I like CO, but it's got problems. Problems they can hopefully fix, given another year or so under PWE's loose control instead of while strangled by Atari.

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