Coded blue.

Friday 28 September 2007

Screenshot City of Heroes

Pic of the day: From left: Quiet Assistant (@Quiet Assistant), Fyrestal (@Itland), Blue Crybaby (@Swiss Army Wife).

Zutto Yume Mamotteru

The City of Heroes supergroup "Zutto Yume Mamotteru" has moved to the Victory server (US). As you may guess from the name, it is an otaku supergroup, but the naming and dress code are quite relaxed. My tanker (in the picture above) doesn't look or sound particularly Japanese, except perhaps for the wings. The Japanese tend to love wings, but they are hardly the only ones.

The name still means "Always protecting the dream" (or at least that's what it is supposed to mean, and I am positive that Japanese speakers will understand it, although I am unsure about the verb form... does mamotteru mean "to protect", "you must protect", "we will protect" or "we are protecting"? I don't even know if Japanese have that kind of verbal constructs, they think very differently. But it certainly looks like a very otaku thing to call a supergroup.

The gameplay is much the same as in January 05: The tanker is a few level higher than the rest, and the others pick their difficulty so that their enemies are blue and green (one or two levels weaker) to the tanker. This gives me the maximum amount of salvage per level, which I sell or use to make invention enhancements. At the same time, the enemies are typically red or purple to the girls, so they get heaps of experience points. When one of them has leveled up, she logs off after the mission and logs on another character that has not leveled up yet. This way the different characters keep pace with each other. For each level it takes more to level up, so the tanker (typically 4 levels higher) will stay the same level until all the others characters have leveled up, more or less. It takes some planning to keep it synchronized.

If one of the character is lagging behind, she can be sidekicked. This unique feature in CoH lets a character at least 3 levels below you function as if only 1 level below you. They do not gain new powers but their existing powers function at this higher level. This way she can still be useful, while she gradually catches up with the rest.

One thing I have noticed is that playing a group of three characters is a lot more stressing than playing two. I have duoed for so long that it is more or less second nature. Some of my characters have a hard time soloing, because they are built to work together with a certain type of partner. Mostly it is my scrappers (and some tankers) that become dependent on Speed Boost. Likewise Fyrestal here has very weak defenses for a tanker, and could really use the shields provided by the defenders and controllers. (So far there is 1 scrapper too, 2 controllers and 3 defenders.)

***

The purpose of this article (besides squeezing in a blue entry this month too) is to share my inventions strategy. This summer, CoH launched a new feature called Invention. It is basically a simple form of crafting, as found in most other RPGs. Now when you or your team defeat an enemy, you still get the usual rewards. But there is also a chance that you may get salvage or a recipe. Different pieces of salvage are combined according to the recipe, and you get a new type of enhancement. Some of these are just slightly improved versions of the old enhancements, but others have small but nifty side effects that make your character more unique. There are also recipes that unlock costume pieces. I am strongly against this, but it is popular. The best recipes can be sold for enormous amounts of influence, or even a decend sum of real money ... except that's illegal, so don't come running to NCSoft if you are swindled.

There is a chance of recipe or salvage if your opponent is considered "green" (3 levels below you for a minion) or higher. The drop rate does not seem to increase much -- if at all -- with higher difficulty. This means that you get the most goodies per level if you fight easy enemies. This is contrary to common wisdom, which focuses on fast leveling by fighting as hard opponents as you can survive. Frequently people misjudge this, and suffer numerous defeats. I hate defeat. Not just because I hate it in real life, but because it is pointless. True, defeat means you get more influence and drops per level, since you need to work off your XP debt. But you could get more drops per level by fighting easy enemies instead, and spare yourself the hospital trips.

This is where your lower-level team mates come in handy. By setting their difficulty right, you will be facing a sea of green and occasionally blue enemies. (Blue is the level above green.) If your character has area damage, such as a fire tanker or a dark or spine scrapper, you can basically wade into the pack and watch the cool stuff rain down upon you. The tanker will usually be able to do this without taking much damage, but a scrapper can also do it if a defender or controller provides him with shields or healing.

The lower-level characters will obviously level that much faster, but this is not a problem when there are more of them. This lets them rotate characters so they all can level up without ever catching up with the "character of mass destruction".

So far it works nicely. The supergroup has plenty of cash and invention enhancements. As I said, playing larger teams is somewhat more complex and stressing, but three is still manageable. Your tastes may vary... I have noticed that most Americans like to have as large teams as possible. This makes sense, since the people who went over there in the first place were those who wanted challenges. It is probably in their genes. Me, I like easy cash. That's why I am a Norwegian, and a tanker in Zutto Yume Mamotteru. (I also like having a harem, even though it is only virtual. But you probably already guessed that. ^^)


Yesterday <-- This month --> Tomorrow?
One year ago: Education and health
Two years ago: The heart-untying story?
Three years ago: Sim teens
Four years ago: Servant to the lender
Five years ago: Haploid, diploid, triploid
Six years ago: More E-book reviews
Seven years ago: Futures that never were
Eight years ago: Cars of the future (if any)

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


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