Temporary Travel Powers

Here are some screenshots of the special/temporary travel powers mentioned in this blog. (Note that the Jump Pack from the Good vs Evil edition was a permanent power.)

Bubblegummer using the Jump Pack.





Another view of the Jump Pack. The character is Frog Solid.





Gromar using the Zero-G pack.





Stocker using the Raptor Pack.





Jingle Jet worn by Billy Coffin. This holiday flight pack has cheery music that plays when the power is first activated.

Travel Powers Part 2

Gromar's story:
 
If you want to start an argument among heroes state an opinion on various travel powers. People become comfortable with certain powers - especially ones they rely on like travel powers
.
Some people do combine powers if they complement each other (superspeed and superjump, for example, or superspeed and hover).

Lee has occasionally thought of learning hover to complement his superspeed skill but so far has stuck to flight packs. I have no idea what type of scientific potion or pseudo-cosmic ray would be needed or if it could be done at all.‎

I went to the Hero Resource Center I volunteer at and used a virtual reality simulation of Skyway City I had created. I played around with different types of travel powers.

Superspeed was fast but had a problem with heights. Augmented superspeed had the added problem of being harder to control. It was best for getting a good view of things at street level but flight was usually needed  for streethunting and finding things.

Superjump and Teleport were the fastest but also required the most work. Teleport was more precise than superjump but if you took too much time finding a landing spot you may fall out of the sky.

Streethunting with superjump involved jumping high, looking around, landing, and doing it again. I find it too busy.

Flight is the travel power that works the best for me. It may be the slowest travel power but it is flexible in that you can fly as high or as low as you need. You can hover and search for things and then fly directly to them.

I found it interesting to simulate various travel powers even if I wouldn't want to use them in real life.

Notes:

I had characters who used each of the travel powers. I was most fond of flight but other characters fit other travel powers so I used them. Villain characters in the Rogue Isles really needed flight or at least a flight pack.

I usually took Hover along with flight because certain powers could knock flying characters to the ground while a hovering character would just backflip. Hover was also slower and more manageable when used indoors.

I usually didn't take stealth with melee characters unless they were superjumpers. Superjump could be a bit erratic when landing and you had to land often and then jump again when traveling. Stealth meant you were less likely to be attacked while traveling. (One team mate without stealth was heading to a mission in Founders Falls when he was shot by a sniper and sent to the hospital).

The big issue with superspeed was balancing speed and control. If you had superspeed optimized for speed it was more difficult to use effectively indoors or in certain situations. For this reason I tended to just slot stamina reduction enhancements and knockback and/or slow resist

I didn't often take Teleport as a travel power because it needed too much micromanagement. If I did I took Hover to offer some safety and stability.

I tended to put stealth enhancements into travel powers if possible.

Travel Powers Part 1

Gromar's story:

I had been thinking a lot about travel powers in the days since our neighbours came to visit. Having a travel power makes life much easier as a hero.

Sometimes a power comes naturally but sometimes one has to prepare for a power and then train for it. One can prepare for a power in different ways. For example someone with a mutation background may have the necessary genes spliced into their system. For someone with a magic background, like me, the process may involve anything from a spirit quest to simply learning a new spell.

When I was a new hero in Paragon City travel powers were strictly regulated and you could only be certified at security level 14. You could learn basic powers earlier on though.

I was lucky when I arrived in Paragon City. There were a number of promotions going on for new heroes and I picked up a Pocket D VIP Pass and a Jump Pack. The former allowed me to teleport to Pocket D while the latter allowed me to jump great distances (it did have a cool down period though).

You could get by using flight packs or jump packs lent to you for completing missions for the police. These items were meant to be rewards to help out new heroes - not permanent gifts.

I obtained the Zero-G Pack for stopping a robbery attempt at the Kings Row bank. It was a jump pack that simulated the Super Jump power. There was also the Raptor Pack flight pack but I didn't get that until later.

I found the two jump packs very useful but found them less precise than I liked. It was easy to miss a target and land amongst a group of enemies.

My experience with the jump packs pushed me towards learning to fly. Once I had settled on a path I quickly learned Hover and Fly. I never looked back.

Notes: I was late getting a travel power because in the beginning I wasn't sure what I wanted. Later on I had to prioritize powers - especially the fitness pool
‎

Developing Powers

Gromar's story:

The neighbours were over for dinner. Rob has no super powers but has worked with heroes. At the moment he is a stay at home dad. Carol can fly and has super strength. She is a hero liaison in our city.

Our neighbours have no problems with super powers but are finding it challenging to deal with their children's developing abilities.

Mikey is six and is super fast. When he gets running around in the back yard Lee is the only one that can catch him. The boy was worried for a moment when Lee suggested his parents give him concrete shoes to slow him down. Lee was joking but his comment highlights the fact that the parents have more to deal with than a hyper six year old.

Karly is an adorable three year old girl but she sometimes scares people with her telekinetic powers. Recently she has developed a new power.

Carol and the kids were shopping when Karly lost sight of her mom for a second. Carol said Karly called for her and she replied. Then her daughter levitated above the clothes racks and said "Now I see you mommy."

After dinner we talked about powers and the kids. Someone asked when was the optimum time for powers to develop but we had no definitive answer. Both Lee and Carol had powers in their teens and their travel powers developed during that period. Most of my powers didn't develop until my mid twenties.

It was an interesting evening and got me thinking about Paragon City again.
‎

My City Of Heroes Timeline: Part 2

Today I will continue looking at my COH history.

On aspect of Issue 11 I forgot to mention was the Ouroboros/Flashback system to play old missions one had missed. This allowed players to collect badges they had missed and added a lot of replay value to the game - especially for top level characters.

I remember Issue 12 for the makeover of The Hollows zone, the Midnight Squad, and Cimerora (a Roman zone).

The Hollows revamp was okay and the new content appreciated but the original missions weren't changed and new enemy groups sometimes made streetcleaning missions harder.

The Midnight Squad and Cimerora stuff was great and got added to later on.

During this time I created several new characters
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Darc D Zire was a Dark Armor/Ice Melee tank. He was tough but his attacks didn't have a lot of ooomph and so the stamina sink of Dark Armor was more of a problem.

Psychodude - Psychic Blast/Mental Manipulation blaster. he was fun to play although some of the sounds associated with his powers could be annoying.

Witan Nurdi - Plant/Storm controller. This fellow was the first controller I really liked and he was one of my favourite characters. He had some awesome powers that made him tough and deadly and he could cause absolute chaos to groups of enemies.

Issue 13 added Day Jobs which gave characters benefits based on where they logged out and the option to turn off experience gain. Turning off experience was a good way to stop out-leveling contacts.

In 2009 (Issue 14) The Mission Architect system was introduced which allowed players to create content that others could play. It was fun and Mickey Fist used it to create some interesting story arcs.
One criticism was the amount of MA buildings they added to the game. Every regular zone got on and the buildings looked out of place in zones like Croatoa and the Rikti War Zone.

Champion Characters 2012

Here is an alphabetized list of some of my characters on Champion server. The text source of this list includes characters from other servers and mentions around 60 "playerslots".

I think that the playerslot file recorded the most recently visited characters on each server and there was a limit to the number recorded.

This would explain why some characters I remember playing near the end of the game - and whom I have screenshots of from that period - don't appear on the list.

Important characters not listed: Bo Torch, Mason Face, Talcum Powda.

Possibly deleted: Corvalis, Darc D Zire

Characters known to have been deleted: Blue Snafu, Ice Volt, Spare Partz.

Here is the list:

Agent Octon
Aurum Shadow
Beam Angel
Beastbot
Beatstreet
Billy Coffin
Bubblegummer
Catman Deux
Cosmic Ninja
Dead Fred
Deathtoad
Dr. Fost
Dr Nox
Drinkmachine
Dude Lee
Fariel
FirstPawn
Flamboy Ant
Frog Solid
Fryer Tuck
Gromar
Hotmist
Kactus Kid
Kid Krowe
LumberYak
Mad Mountie
Mickey Fist
Mocking Byrd
Molokai
Moo Gumbo
Mr Mechanical
Mr. Sizzle
Mr Sting
Ninja Hoopdance
Pookstein
Psychodude
Red Aeon
Rocky Rollem
Shoot2thrill
Stocker
Stonecat
Super Scoop
Teriyaki Kid
Witan Nurdi
Zakker

My City Of Heroes Timeline: Part 1

‎Large game updates to City Of Heroes were called Issues. In this post I will talk a bit how they influenced me.

In June 2007 I received the Good vs. Evil Edition as a birthday present from my friend Tor. I installed the game and created Gromar.

The edition had some cool costumes and two amazing powers: the Pocket D VIP Pass (teleport to Pocket D), and the Jump Pack.These travel powers were a big help to all of my characters.

When I joined the game Issue 9 was active. I remember using the auction house and learning to craft things at the University. I had fun doing things from earlier issues such as police band missions.

Issue 10 brought Rikti Invasion events. These were both fun and and could be annoying if they interfered with regular missions. The invasions were good for experience and for the Watchman Badge.

The Elusive Mind power associated with the badge was a big help for characters (like Gromar) who didn't have protection from psionics.

The badge also unlocked the Rikti Axe which became Gromar's favourite weapon.

One of the most important updates for me was Issue 11. This was because it introduced the Willpower powerset for melee types.

Willpower became my favourite armour type because it was sturdy and adaptable to many different character ideas. It was great for testing out new powersets because I could rely on it while learning the new set.

During this time I created Mickey Fist a Willpower/Fiery melee tank. He became my favourite character to play and my base designer. He was tough and just seemed to fit me. I would have probably written about him if I had kept blogging in 2007.

I will continue this discussion in later posts.