Coded blue.

Wednesday 26 October 2005

Screenshot CoH

Pic of the day: Playing City of Heroes gives you that warm glow inside! Or perhaps not.

CoH Issue 6: Along came a nerf

Actually the title is "Along came a spider", referring to Arachnos, the new super-villain group. This free (and mandatory) expansion introduces the interface to City of Villains, with three PvP zones, the possibility to build and use supergroup bases (if you own CoV too), and four extra character slots (if you own CoV too). The graphics and sound are slightly overhauled, some costume options changed (not always for the better). Oh, and there is another nerf.

In multiplayer game, the expression "nerf" means to reduce the powers of a group of players in the game mechanics, to make them permanently weaker. (I hear this comes from "nerf ball", a game that uses a soft ball that does little or no damage.) It is widely considered a bad thing, and is usually only done when some design change makes one class much stronger than the others. But in City of Heroes, the nerfs have come thick and fast lately. This all started around the time when the developers began to tinker with the second game in the series, City of Villains. This may or may not be a coincidence.

In Issue 4, the "invulnerability" power set became much less invulnerable and much less powerful. Regeneration was toned down. There were also a few other adjustments, most of them downward. But this is already so long ago, I have forgotten the details. Much of it was player vs player specific too, as this was the issue where we got the arena (which is empty most of the time, it was a major flop).

In Issue 5, all defense powers were further reduced, so heroes take more damage. In particular the tankers, the class of heroes who are taking the damage for the whole team (if possible), were much weaker now. Also controllers got their powers reduced, to make sure the villains get a fighting chance. It does make the game harder, but on the other hand the experience points for each victory were increased, and the experience debt with each defeat was halved inside mission areas. Also blasters (ranged damage) now did more damage if they were seriously wounded, and defenders (ranged support) spend less endurance if their teammates are wounded.

In issue 6, we get "enhancement diversification". Each superpower can have up to 6 enhancements, such as higher accuracy, more damage, more frequent use, or draining less energy. In the past you could use the same type of enhancement 6 times on a single power, if you wanted to specialize. Most people wanted to specialize, and in the same things. With the new change, only 3 enhancements of any one kind will give full effect at the higher levels. Adding a fourth will have little effect, and adding the two next will have almost no effect. This should encourage people to use more different effects. But the reason why people did it the old way was that this gave the best results, of course. So in practice this is also a nerf, albeit a lesser one.

To balance the scales somewhat, each power now drains only 7/8 of the power it used to, so you can keep ticking for longer before you get tired. For characters who already used diverse enhancements, the net effect is that they actually become stronger. But these are few and far between. And there are some powers that simply don't take more than one type of enhancement. Interestingly, tanker primary powers (defense and resistance) are among these. It seems that the developers really hates tankers for some reason. One reason may be that before the nerfs, people could make "tankbots" which did nothing but stand there and absorb damage. In fact, Jack "Statesman" Emmert, the lead developer, cited this as a problem, that you could start a fight and go away only to come back and have won. He was clearly upset by this, even though it is not unusual in online games. My paladin in DAoC has a similar function, and in Sierra Online's The Realm automatic was pretty much the standard way of fighting.

The repeated nerfs have worn thin the patience of many players. Some have switched to City of Villains, which has been in beta during the fall. (It is officially released on Monday.) But others have left the game entirely. There are steadily fewer players on the servers, although there may be a new influx with the release of CoV. But that influx will likely be the PvP crowd, with different values than the earlier heroes. CoH has been a rather family-friendly game, with quite a few couples and women playing. With the new focus on player killing,the game becomes more similar to the other MMORPGs out there. I don't think that is a good idea, and I don't even think it is good business. But I may be wrong on the last part. Time will show.


Yesterday <-- This month --> Tomorrow?
One year ago: Silver (stomach) lining
Two years ago: To be needed
Three years ago: Excitement online
Four years ago: Eudaimonology
Five years ago: This time for real (?)
Six years ago: Dust

Visit the archive page for the older diaries I've put out to pasture.


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