City of Heroes

[bipolarbear]

OOh, we coulkd mesh this with those hero creator threads that pop up in th OT forum!

[Footie Mad]

Did you ever know, that you're my heeero?
If this idea is working out it seems a bit like being a kid again, playing with your action figures and battling it out. Good fun.

[bipolarbear]

What are the baddies like?

[DinoDoc]

Be more specific.

[joncha]

Originally posted by ADG
Could those who's got the game please post a screenshot of their hero?

[Adagio]

/me points at the above post

[Space05us]

I third that proposition.

[bipolarbear]

Be more specific.

What do they look like, how do they fight?
Group tactics or solo?
weakest strongest
any really cheap guys?
all that etc.

[Grumbold]

Sorry, been playing too much at home and actually having to work at work

I'll try to grab some screenies tonight but there's a whole bunch on the review sites. I've made at least 15 heroes and scrapped half but I can take pics of the ones that made the cull

The street gangs have a range of thugs that use pistols, shotguns, smgs, rifles, fists, baseball bats etc to hit you with. The difference between Hellions, Skulls, Lost, Tsoo, Outcasts and more is in the plots they are involved in and the type of powers they use. In the teen levels the lieutenants start displaying superpowers - shockers fly and have electro attacks. "Bricks" can hurl boulders and smash you about. All the bosses have superpowers. Hellions tend to be fire based, Skulls have dark/death attacks etc. Tsoo Sorcerors appear around level 15 and have group healing and group defence powers that they use very effectively if you're not keeping them running in fear of their life.

The vahzilok (undead) have zombies that can spew acid, zombies rigged to explode, reapers that shoot you with sedative darts to slow you and mortificators that use dart guns and can reanimate fallen zombies, about their only group skill. Dr Vahz himself is the first arch-villain you can encounter if you persue the right mission chains.

The 5th Column (nazi) have gunners, grenadiers, flamethrowers, riflemen, miniguns, close combatants and at higher level get all sorts of high tech stuff like robots.

The Circle of Thorns is a bunch of insane magicians. They are usually found performing rituals in secluded spots at night. The early mages have limited powers to attack, drain life and explode themselves. Their guards attack physically and you have to be careful to take down the mages before their guards or they go into suicide bomber mode. The more powerful mages get very nasty paralysis attacks.

The clockwork are mechanoids that have electrical attacks and the only group so far to have flying minions.

A typical group suitable for one hero is three minions of your level or one minion and one lieutenant (who will 'con' one level up to represent his increased powers and health.) A boss your level will con at +2 levels and is unlikely to be killable without the use of one-shot inspirations and hit and run tactics. If you take a group into a mission it will scale up the number and level of opponents appropriately.

The main difference from games I have played in the past is the mob instinct for self preservation. Pile into a bunch of thugs on the street and you often see one of them start running immediately. Cast an area spell like Rain of Fire and all but the berserk will sensibly flee out of its effect before deciding whether to keep fighting. Chasing down runners is a little frustrating if you are a melee fighter because you need to edge ahead of them to get an attack off, but it works pretty well nevertheless. Hit the minions before the boss and you will see the boss use healing or defensive powers if they have them. Best of all, you can if you wish spend most of your life on missions, not just beating up random mobs for XP. Leave that to those who insist on powerlevelling past the fun storylines....

Combat is more interactive than other games because there is no default attack. Every move has to be activated. Okay you can select one of your attacks to 'auto' but I don't find it helpful. Most fights are still a case of pressing 1,2,3,1,1,2,1,3,4 but it feels better because you're often running around thumping villains on the move and managing your stamina bar, not just standing glued toe to toe with something too stupid to do more than chew on your leg until it expires.

[Grumbold]

Phoenix Flames, Fire/Energy blaster

[Grumbold]

Paladin Prime, a melee scrapper using claws

[Grumbold]

The Masticator, a stone/stone tanker

[Grumbold]

Deadly Dark, a dark magic defender

[Adagio]

Nice

[joncha]

sweet