Category: Other Games

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From Zero to Hero!

I made a new City of Heroes character last night (so what else is new?) called RadStorm, a Mutant Wind/Radiation Controller and teamed up with Doug's Violet Anger and a friend of his playing a Magic Fire/Ice Blaster and by the end of the evening we were all 6th level. Boy that was a lot of fun.

Then I went and tried to bring Mighty Midge up from 5th level to 6th solo, on a mission in a cave full of zombies, and didn't make it. After almost dying twice, I was out of Inspirations with plenty of zombies to go, and had to flee the cave. Freaking radioactive goo that the zombies regurgitate seems to go right through Temporary Invulnerability. Does anybody know whether if I go back in the cave all the zombies will have respawned? That would mean I could maybe whittle them down, running out to get more Inspirations (basically CoH's version of potions), which is a little cheap (not that I wouldn't take it to clear the mission so I could get a new one). If they do respawn then missions like this would basically become an EP farm: as long as you didn't complete the mission you could run through it again….

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Ding! Ding! Ding!

Brawnwen is now 5th level, and Thudmilla 4th. Magma Maid and Dark Betty are still 3rd, so I'll probably take one for a spin tonight, while Thunderella languishes in 2nd. I actually started Thunderella over again to change her costume a bit–I'm still not completely satisfied, but I didn't realize the first time around how much the bottom looked like a thong…hey, most of the time you're looking at your character from the rear, you know, so it makes a difference…It was also an experiment to see if you could re-use a name of a discarded character. The answer is yes, so I'm probably going to experiment a bit more with costume design on any new characters. Before I was afraid I would be using up decent names just to get a look at the character in the game (where most of the time you're looking at a much smaller, less detailed view than in the character creation screens.)

Jeff and Andy were over last night, and I helped Andy make up a character on a different server (all mine so far are on Pinnacle). Andy created a Mutant Blaster with Energy Blast/Energy Control, and a pretty eye-catching red and yellow costume with a hood and facemask so all you can see are the yellow goggles. His name is “Star-Blaze” Note the hyphen, since “Starblaze” and “Starblazer” were already taken. After I set him up, he played through the tutorial and got to second level. Of course, with all the video games he plays, it's not too surprising he's good at it.

“Ding” by the way, is what those who sling the lingo call going up a level. It's both a transitive and instransitive verb: “Crimson Cuckoo just dinged!” or “I dinged 5!”

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City of Heroes, Again

Since it's my current obsession, and nothing else is happening on this blog (or at least nothing until after next week's session), I thought I would ask Doug and Paul to step up and tell us a little about their characters. I'll kick it off by telling you what little I know

Update: I've copied the information from Doug and Paul's comments into the main entry…

Doug:

  • Relaxer: Lvl 14 Controller Mind/Empathy Teleport
  • Dr. Henry: Lvl 6 Defender Empathy/Radiation Teleport
  • King of Diamonds: Lvl 5 Tanker Invulnerability/Axe (Leaping)
  • Violet Anger: Lvl 4 Scrapper Martial Arts/Agility (Super Speed)
  • Force Bolt Lvl 5 Blaster Energy/Energy (RIP)

Paul:

  • Malabranca: Scrapper Broadsword/Reflexes/Superspeed
  • The Law Man: Blaster Assault Rifle/Electric
  • John Henry: Tanker Strength/Stone
  • BTU: Tanker Fire/Fire
  • Jackson Volt: Blaster Electric/Electric
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Introducing… Dark Betty

I scrapped my Purple Rose MindControl/Empathy character, after Doug's comments made me realize that it didn't really fit my style of play/level of skill (I am not up to keeping track of everybody's current status to see who needs healing–I can barely keep track of which way I'm facing!).

So instead I created a Defender with Darkness Powers…ooooh, scary! So far her powers are a Darkness zap that damages the enemy and lowers their defenses, a Dark mist that drains the enemy's health into her (shades of the Necromancer in Baldur's Gate 2!), and a create Tar Pit power that roots the enemies to the spot so they can't come pummel her. Pretty fun stuff, although she does spend a lot more time running away than my Tankers do.

I'm proud of my character design for her–I really was able to get a pretty good likeness of Betty Cooper, with the blond hair in a ponytail. The first time any other player has actually commented on my any of character's names or appearances came when somebody asked “Do you have a friend named Dark Veronica?” I don't know if they thought they were being funny or not, but I was satisfied.

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City of Heroes Rocks!

Thanks to Doug's and Paul's mad mentoring skillz, my initial character, Magma Maid, has “dinged” third level! Woohoo! Actually, I probably could have advanced faster than that, but making new characters is too much fun. I now have five characters, all on the Pinnacle server:

  • Magma Maid: Fire Tanker
  • Thunderella: Electro Blaster
  • Purple Rose: Mind Controller — I need some more advice from Doug on this one, I think, 'cause I really don't see how I'm going to survive the training mission
  • Brawnwen: Super-Strength Tanker
  • Thudmilla: War Mace Tanker

I played around a bit with making some male characters (in particular the character that became Thudmilla was originally going to be male, as a change of pace), but somehow I just didn't think they looked as cool. Something about the male body template just looks a little goofy to me; it's not the exaggeration–that's the way superhero comics are, and the female template is no less exaggerated. I think it's I'm looking for a Gil Kane, Curt Swan, or Alex Ross anatomy, and the game designers have more of a Rob Liefeld/Todd McFarlane thing in mind. Maybe a Huge would work better. Or maybe I should just not be as picky. But designing the character's look is mega-fun, and I think all of mine turned out pretty cool. I do wish I could tweak the looks a little now that I've seen them in action. Oh, well.

I also briefly tried a Claws Scrapper, but I found it difficult to play and the claws looked stupid (I thought)– I'd really like it if you could adjust the type of claw, so you weren't stuck with metallic back-of-the-hand Wolverine claws. I was looking for something more like, you know, claws. Oh, yeah, I saw my first real “lamer”: somebody actually made a Claws Scrapper and called it Wolverene.

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BooYA!

A couple of levels later and some judicious upgrading of equipment, and I was able to down OrcBoy on the first try! Not with a single blow, mind you, although at over 400 points (thanks to improved Slashing Weapons and Slam technique and getting a much-deserved critical) the first blow was a doozy. Guggle to zatch, baby, guggle to zatch! Too bad he was able to get up and walk away afterwards, but that’s cut scenes for you.

So of course, now I wonder if I would have been able to do it on the first go round if I had spent more time on improving Slash and Slam instead of Bind Wounds–I still don’t think I had a good enough weapon for it. There’s a big difference between a weapon with max damage 30 and max damage of 51. I’m sure that it’s possible in theory–or even in practice if you’re Doug–but whether I would have been capable of it, I don’t know.

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Argh!

I can’t beat the Orc Boss in the ruins beneath the forest with my Barbarian! After about a dozen frustrating attempts, I gave up and went back in time to try and level up some more. My Shadow Knight character managed it after about four tries–I don’t know whether it’s because the disease spell is just that effective, or whether I had lucked out in the armor and weapons the monsters dropped up to that point. Is there some trick that I’m missing? Because that stupid glowing blade of his that knocks you down, back ten feet, and whacks about 3/4 of your hp–even when you’re blocking–is ridiculous.

And up ’til that point, I thought that the Barbarian was just going to cleave the boss from his guggle to his zatch, since the the giant spiders that had been such a pain for the Shadow Knight were pretty easy for the Barbarian to wade through….stupid orc. I cleave him from his guggle to his zatch yet, just you wait!

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Champions of Norrath

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Snowblind Studios, who brought us the magnificent Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance never did manage to bring out the sequel, and eventually split with Bioware (and in the process, the D&D license). So instead they hooked up with Sony and the Everquest license, and this is the result. Essentially an enhancement of Dark Alliance, with a different dress. Cooperative play now allows for up to four players, and may be played over the net. More customizable, with five classes (Barbarian, Ranger, Cleric, Wizard, and Dark Knight) which can be either sex and adjustable skin and hair color and hair style, plus somewhat adjustable stats (four stat which have starting values in the 20’s-40’s and another 20 points to divide between them), plus a skill-tree-ish method of levelling up. Possibly this derives from Everquest, but I wouldn’t know.
The controls are essentially the same as in DA, even down to which shoulder-button controls drinking the healing potion and which the mana rejuv potion (same color potions on screen, conveniently enough). This makes it easy to jump into for DA fans, which is good, because the game is considerably harder at low levels than DA was–or at least than I remember it being. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve died; essentially any time I get swarmed by monsters, it’s over for me. And the monsters are objectively tougher than the early ones in DA; after clearing the initial training passel of goblins you immediately run into monsters that have ranged and magic attacks, and the pests have AI: they know how to block, and if you just stand there blocking they will (if they have room) sidle around you to get a clear shot. The AI isn’t brilliant; I lucked out at one point and just as I was about to be rended by giant badger-thingies stumbled into an alcove that they couldn’t fit in. They just kept running around, trying to attack. What’s more, they kept stumbling into a nearby open fire, and eventually killed themselves in it (I helped by shooting a spell every time I’d regenned enough mana, but I really think the fire did most of the work).

Now I have to split my time between this and Dark Alliance 2, which so far is much easier for solo play. Low level characters in DA2 seem unbelievably tough after having played a bit of Champions of Norath.

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Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II

I’m having a groovy time with Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2, the sequel that I’ve been eagerly anticipating since 2001! It’s over a year late, I believe, but it rocks. All new classes (you can import your old characters, but they get captured in a cut-scene at the start and you have to unlock them later in the game): male human Barbarian, female half-elf Monk, male dwarven Rogue, female human Cleric, male elven Necromancer. Like BG:DA, while it’s a lot of fun solo, the real attraction is two-player cooperative mode.
I’ve played the first couple of levels as a duo, first with Jeff (he was Barbarian, I was Cleric) and then with Paul (he took the Monk and I was Cleric once again–just like real D&D, having a Cleric in the party is literally a life-saver). I also have played about six levels as the Monk, which I suspect is the toughest to play solo. I actually had to cheat a bit, by restarting the game at an earlier point and importing my later character in order to gather some more healing potions. Unlike the first game, there doesn’t seem to be any shop that you can visit in the first six levels, not even once you get to the city of Baldur’s Gate! Maybe it’s hidden, or you have to unlock it somehow, but being stuck with only the healing potions that you can scrounge off of fallen foes is too much of a limitation for my meager skills to overcome, at least as the Monk, since she has no healing magic and limited area-effect abilities (sweeping blow hits every enemy around you, but it takes a bunch of magic points and for maximum effect you have to let yourself be surrounded by enemies, which tends to mean taking a bunch of hits). Even so, I wasn’t able to clear the spider-breeding pits, which had presented no real obstacle to the Barbarian/Cleric team.