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Day 3: Impressions and a couple of concerns
bstripp
Member Posts: 241
So I've been posting my impressions on a day by day basis. As I mentioned, I had not played in the Beta prior to the open Beta. So I have no impressions either way until I started playing a couple of days ago. Up until now, I have had little to complain about. While there are few actions to do in combat that doesn't really differ from many of the other games I have played (CoH I am looking at you). Sure there I had a couple more attack powers, but I used them each less and they really didn't do a whole lot more than just having a primanry and secondary attack power. Heck most fights boiled down to the same pattern of key presses since your timers dictated when you used an ability.
Customization?
So far I have had little doubts about the customization available in this game. The costume creator is second to none and given a few content updates will easily exceed its predecessor in nearly every conceivable manner. The stat system allows you to fine tune your character... provided you have any idea what those stats are doing. At the moment I don't and the system isn't that great on explaining what each stat is going to give me.
However, I started an alt since that was a great passtime in CoH. My first character was a straight Ice Framework. So far so good. I chose Sorcery for my second character and I am having a hard time trying to find the differences between the characters and how they play. That could be a problem... I really expected my Ice character to be slowing people down and things like that. Perhaps they are, although I couldn't really tell. So far, they play identical... although I haven't gotten my sorcery up enough to get anything more than the first couple of powers.
Since making alts was the end game in CoH (and a very good end game) I am assuming that CO will have a similar mechanic. If the characters all seem to play the same, then this could indeed be a real issue down the road for the titles longevity. Of course, they can also tweak things along the way, so I really can't say this is a problem yet. Just something I noted when playing.
Zones
I have been stuck in Canada for some time. There are some mobs that crush me every time I get near to them. I am not sure if it's me or my build. I'll have to find some teammates and work on taking them out. Even though it was a frustrating experience, I was happy it happened as too many people were complaining about things being overly easy. Perhaps I don't have the knowledge to make it really easy yet, but it's a good sign that they are closer on the Risk/Reward balance than many give them credit for.
Kill Stealing
I also have gotten back to the fun of kill stealing and general manners. Granted it's an open Beta and everyone is in a hurry to see as much as they can before having to make a purchase decision. However, I can not even count how many times I have taken out guardian mobs only to have someone swoop in and take the glowie/contact. It's really kind of annoying. That is something really nice about instanced questing... no one pulls stuff like that.
Day 3 Overall
I didn't get as much chance as I would have liked to play, however, I am still having fun. There are some concerns about longevity, but even if my fear on alts comes true, I still would want to play a character all the way up and see everything the game has to offer. I am also on the way to joining a Super Group. So hopefully in the next couple of days I can speak on that.
Comments
Yeah, all characters start out similar. This is one big difference from CoX or any other class based game. Its not until the mid teens that your character design starts to make a big difference. After you've done it a few times you can get to that point in a few hours of play. Its not like CoX was all that stellar before you get your travel power and fill out your attack chains anyway, so I wouldn't say that either way it better, just different.
Also, get out of Canada. Its all borked up right now and has never been that great to start with. The desert has always been a better zone. Canada has a few nice points, but its probably better to put it off for a bit. Cryptic has always been struggling with Canada trying to make it into a fun zone. Its improved a lot since the early beta days, but it still has major problems.
There is only one action any player has in CO, and thats hack away, being classless the levelling route is a generic one suits all........or in this case one suits one as the game only treats you as 'super agent thug'. As people will tell you - You can force yourself to play differently when you have enough powers but this actually revolves around you deliberately making yourself less effective, variety is possible but demands a fair amount of effort in CO.
2,1,1,3,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,3 ... ... with the odd block thrown in pretty much is all you need.
I find this incorrect on a number of levels. Eventhough the difficulty has been increased slightly from CB, (increased a LOT, and then decreased again) there is quite a lot of content that forces you to group, especially in the later levels.
I've started a brand new character unlike any I've created in CB (if thats possible -- and yes, it was) Some might tell me my character is less effective because others can kill twice as fast as I can. I can also tell you that my character can kill 4 times more then any other character. I've been soloing mobs levels 6 higher then my character. The build revolves solely around the block skill (in defensive stance). I've seen high damage players aggro more then a couple groups and go down... and they were many levels higher then me.
Now I do have an advantage because I know how the game plays. This just shows you what can be accomplished. I've seen many players teaming up lately, which is good.
@Aganazer : Blasphemy to you sir. I always choose canada over the desert. Grondlings take infinitely more time to kill then most mobs in canada, and the radiation pools area is way too crowded, not to mention I hate waiting for the spawns in the ghost town... especially with all these players...
@ OP : I don't think Alts will be the entire scope of end game. The nemesis missions, and UNITY missions and so on, as well as character changes and progression (however that will work) is what was "planned" as end game. You never really can tell how end game will work until you have a large number of players to experience it with.
As for kill stealing. I'm with you... this game has an avid bunch of clicky and kill stealers. I guess its just the name of the game, but so many times someone will steal the clicky I've been fighting for and I really just feel like following them around and aggroing mobs into them while they go about their day. (but I would never do that...... )
Well that's certainly what I am hoping. It would have been nice if those basic attacks had more of a distinguishing feel to them, but it's not a game breaker at this point for me. It did make me question whether or not I am going to play alts or not...
However, while I imagine that the 1121113 gameplay is probably accurate, it's not that far off most games where I use only about 5-6 skills on a regular basis and then a few others which are usually on some kind of long term timer. I can point to threads where people go into great detail to talk about their attack chain optimization in CoH and have their four main attack skills plotted out to continually.
So I don't really see the critique in that regard. If there are four skills that I'll spend most of my time using, that's ok. Even when you have other skills to choose from, in most games some are so clearly better that you only use the bad ones when the good ones are cooling down. Get rid of the middle man, give me useful skills and I'll be much happier. Which is probably why this model hasn't bugged my much yet. However, that still doesn't mean that I would not like to see more diversification in what they do... or at least in their visual effects.
Grondlings rawk! I'd play one if I could. Where is the four arm option in the CC?
This is simply not true. I've been testing out a wide variety of characters all of which aver extremely different from one another and all of which are effective so far--in PvE at least.
My three "mains" are all under lv 15.
Lilith Eve: Force (Personal Force Field as her passive), Two-Gun Mojo, Electric Shield, Acrobatics. High mobility, hard to kill, Goes into groups of enemies, blows them appaert and guns them down.
Sunspot: Fire, Might, Force, Flight. Easy to get around the map but a lot less combat mobility. No passive yet (will take both fire form and Invul, switching between builds to make use of both). Hits one target harder but less effective against groups but rocks when facing a couple of guys. Roomsweaper knocks people up and back so far they take falling damage when they land!
Thorn: After reading a lot of complaint threads I made her to test out how bad a pure melee character with no passives in offensive stance would be and much to my surprise she kicks ass (although does not fit my playstyle all that well.) Arcrobatics gives her high combat mobility and she is an absolute glass cannon. Kills much, much, much faster then my other charcters but is also a lot easier to take down. Her powers are a mix of Duel Blade and Unarmed Martial Arts.
I've discovered that there are a lot of effective and fun builds out there, but the system does not force any of them on you. So you can trap yourself into making the same character over and over again but you do not have to.
No one is questioning that the avatar customisation is anything other than truely awesome in variety but EVERY other aspect ie gameworld and the mission mechanics are the polar opposite. There is no variance in path available regardless of build, no variance in the responce to your character from any npc, no stylistic content that responds to your build, no dynamic influences to alter the journey a second time through, no attempt to involve you in descsison or choices, no respond to your actions, no attemtp to immerse the player. The content reponse and levelling experinece is identical no matter what the make up of your avatar, Its about as sterile and simplistic an experience as it is possible to imagine.
The one thing Canada does better than desert is fps if you are on a low end computer.
Mine chugs in the desert and gets acceptable fps in Canada. Canada is a bit easier on the graphics card.
I agree on the "not knowing what stats do what". They are very vague and some seem to do the same things? I don't like doing the cookie cutter, but right now, I would kill for some sort of guide on what to choose and what is worthless. I feel like I have unintentionally gimped my char. Hopefully I can figure it out before release.