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City of Heroes takes to the shadows with new Darkness Control info
It's time for yet another issue of The Intrepid Informer, and this time the spotlight is on one of City of Heroes' upcoming new power set, Darkness Control. Darkness Control does exactly what it says on the tin, granting players dominion over the powers of darkness in order to subjugate and control their enemies. With a number of roots, debuffs, and even a couple of pets, the Darkness Control powerset is sure to please Controllers and Dominators of all varieties. But wait, that's not all. In addition to the Darkness Control power set, Paragon Studios is introducing two new secondary power sets: Darkness Affinity for Controllers and Dark Assault for Dominators. All of these new power sets will be free to VIP players, though premium players will have to purchase the Darkness Control set on the Paragon Market. Oh, and before we forget, be sure to drop into City of Heroes March 16th to 19th for a double XP weekend. For the full details on the new power set as well as some handy tips and tricks from the designers, just click on past the link below to the City of Heroes official site.
City of Heroes Intrepid Informer grapples with the Titan Weapons powerset
City of Heroes' Intrepid Informer is on the scene again, and this time it's highlighting a new powerset: Titan Weapons. The powerset is exactly what its name suggests. It focuses on wielding massive tools of destruction and cutting a swath through enemies with brutal swipes. Titan Weapons users will use a new mechanic known as momentum. As you might imagine, momentum starts out building slowly, but once a player has some momentum built, he can unleash a flurry of AoE attacks to finish off his foes. For a complete run-down of the powers available to Titan Weapons characters and the details on what each one does, head on over to the official site.
DC Universe Online's Lightning Strikes DLC pack announced
DC Universe Online has had a lot to say about its recent free-to-play transition, with the game boasting a one million player increase since the change took place. But that's in the past already; what's en route in the near future? Well, today Sony Online Entertainment is announcing the latest round of DLC for the freshly F2P superhero game. The new DLC is entitled Lightning Strikes, and it focuses on everyone's favorite speedster, Flash. The update will bring a variety of new content for veteran and fledgling players alike. So what can players look forward to when Lightning Strikes? We sat down with some of the game's developers to find out, so follow on past the cut and have a gander.
The Digital Continuum: Champions Online needs...
Champions Online is a fun game, but it still needs work like any recently released MMO. Some of these needs are purely subjective on my part, but others are definitely a necessity. The way I see it, if Cryptic can work these changes in before the end of the year they're well on their way to keeping my subscription into the far, far future.
Champions Online devs reveal Mystic power sets: Sorcery and Supernatural
Over the past few weeks, the developers at Cryptic Studios have been walking readers through the various powers that will be available to Champions Online players, from Energy Projectors to Martial Arts, as well as Power Replacers. Now they're giving us a look at the game's Mystic power sets -- Sorcery and Supernatural -- for those players who want to dabble in the dark arts. Do you know your Circles of Power from your Circles of Summoning? When should you use a Sigil instead of an Invocation? The Champions Online devs explain all matters arcane in this latest, and final, "All About Powers", and discuss their intent to create subsets of Mystic powers that better fit a given character's concept. Whether you're looking to create a Primal Shaman, a Necromancer, or a pure Arcane-type, you might enjoy this latest dev blog on the official Champions Online site.
Verbing a noun: introducing new powers
When thinking about game powers, developers have to consider four primary questions: what do the players want, do those desires fit reasonably within the framework of the game, how can the powers be balanced for the game, and how can they be coded? For example, when NCsoft's City of Heroes introduced Flight, it was competing with Super Speed, Teleportation and Leaping. How could they build it out to where it was neither overpowered nor useless? Through a series of trial-and-error efforts -- and thankfully providing an additional 10% bump in hover speed in Issue 8 -- they loaded a power set into the game that gave heroes a new way of seeing the city without unbalancing other transportation powers currently in place.As to verbs that may be more common throughout MMOs, we've all had the opportunity to "run" -- either into battle or away from almost certain peril -- and I doubt there's many here who haven't wished for the ability to "turn invisible" in order to stealth through a difficult mission, but what about some of the more exotic verbs out there? Oh, sure, in most games the alts can backslap one another, gesture angrily, and dance, but these are powerless emotes: they don't actually impact the game play. Take your favorite MMO, though, and think about what game-impacting verb or verbs you'd like to see added. Perhaps it might help to take a look at the thought process currently pushing World of Warcraft's new Death Knight and ask yourself this: if you were a developer, what would you add to the build, and how would you balance it?[Via Elder Game]
Character Creation: "I Have a Great Idea for a ..."
C8H10N402: it's the most widely-used psychoactive drug in the world, blocks adenosine - the chemical which regulates your energy metabolism - exhausts the adrenal glands, and can push your cortisol levels high enough that it runs the risk of shrinking the part of the brain necessary for memory. It's also the call sign for Caffeina, one of my newest characters on City of Heroes. The basics of character creation are pretty similar for everyone: first, I create a character concept, and then I play around with various outfits.Now comes the difficult part: picking a name, and testing out different power sets that seem to fit the concept. Occasionally I'll stumble upon a combination that works swimmingly from the get-go, but it usually takes a few builds to come up with a character that I feel fits the model I've built in my head. Occasionally, however, the concept is not able to be built out in a realistic manner, and I hold the character in abeyance, hoping that a future issue will supply power sets or costume options to make the character work.
