Archetype Popularity Analysis (repost)

[ QUOTE ]

-Heroes get more attention because it is the original game, the game opens up to the City of Heroes screen, rather than the City of Villains screen, and as said before, everyone loves a hero.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's entirely dependent on what set of CDs or which installer you used to install the game. I rebuilt my PC some time ago and installed using the CoV CDs (since I didn't want to use the updater you can download). I get the CoV splash screen when I start up the game. I actually think you can swap them out by just pointing to a different executable regardless of what you used to install the game.

Players that started with City of Villains may be used to seeing a CoV splash screen. No idea what kind of splash screen the Mission Architect version uses, but I think it's different than the one used by CoH.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Redside needs more love. That's not exactly a mystery.

[/ QUOTE ]

IMO it's fundamentally flawed. It's supposed "virtues" make your efforts seem small and unimportant. I shall rejoice when GR allows me to redeem my villains and hopefully start the ATs in Paragon.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I completely agree with that general sentiment, but I do think that the red side is a little too much "Lawful Evil." And when it isn't Lawful Evil, it usually jumps to Chaotic A**hole.

I think the better target for City of Villains should have been "Neutral Selfish." Although after The Dark Knight came out, Bat-sh*t Crazy would have been popular as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Arc branching, or at least some sort of dialog branching, would have been fantastic for CoV. It would have significantly increased the work to create a quality arc, but it could have offered at least two of the common RP options we seem to see players mention they prefer often here on the boards: "I'm a hard-edged but honorable criminal" and "I eat babies three meals day". We seem to get a lot of polar arguments against CoV's representation of the the villainous acts, where some people don't find them villainous at all, and others think they are too much (usually in reference to Phipps, Themari or giving civilians to the Vahzilok).

The other main complaint though is the "you're a meta-lackey" syndrome so many arcs have. That's been a drum beat loud since CoV came along, and which we've only recently actively seen them give some attention to. (The text changes for the BSF were good.) IMO, they just needed to think about that harder. I don't know why they would think it would be widely considered fun to be thugs constantly doing other people's dirty work in an environment where a lot of NPCs are portrayed as being fairly idiotic and underacheiving. Requirement for metahuman survival and destructive capabilities aside, it doesn't feel all that "super".

[ QUOTE ]
Bat-sh*t Crazy

[/ QUOTE ]
The title for Issue 17 perhaps?

I always thought that villains needed to have weaker powers than heroes in tiers 1-6 and much much nastier/unpredictable powers in tiers 7-9. Long recharge, huge endurance cost, insane damage, horrible side effects.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

-Heroes get more attention because it is the original game, the game opens up to the City of Heroes screen, rather than the City of Villains screen, and as said before, everyone loves a hero.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's entirely dependent on what set of CDs or which installer you used to install the game. I rebuilt my PC some time ago and installed using the CoV CDs (since I didn't want to use the updater you can download). I get the CoV splash screen when I start up the game. I actually think you can swap them out by just pointing to a different executable regardless of what you used to install the game.

Players that started with City of Villains may be used to seeing a CoV splash screen. No idea what kind of splash screen the Mission Architect version uses, but I think it's different than the one used by CoH.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually the splash screen is determined by what you logged onto last. If you were last playing a villain, then the next time you log in, you will see the villain background, if you last logged into a hero, the next time you log in you will see the hero background.

And as for villain-side downsizing, I'm sure the disparity in zone/content red-side vs blue-side has something to do with it.

Edited for spelling.

[ QUOTE ]
Actually the splash screen is determined by what you logged onto last. If you were last playing a villain, then the next time you log in, you will see the villain background, if you last logged into a hero, the next time you log in you will see the hero background.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not correct. I will get the CoV splash screen every time I logon to CoH/CoV the very first time. I will get the CoH splash screen if I log out after initially logging on and switch to a hero.

From my end:

Namesake is the first hero I created, Mind/Bubbles. Gave me a soft spot for Controllers.

My first villain was a Stalker...at CoV live launch. Did the "Sneak to end, AS Boss and guards" so much I missed most of the content. Rushed to 50 to realize there were no VEATs and then played CoH most of the rest of the time.
I recently rolled another Stalker and am enjoying her more than the first one.

Blasters...I have a 35 Ice/EM and a 25 AR/MM. I doubt I will ever level a Blaster to 50. It's not so bad till the 30s, when you fight Freakshow, Devouring Earth, Crey, then Malta Ops and others. Stuns, Sleeps, Holds, all sorts of stuff. Sure I carry Break Frees but I'm also dead a lot, even with the new Defiance. I usually pop 2-3 reds, Aim+Build Up then tear into some mobs and a patrol gets me or I overcommit and die. Just not fun.

I guess Blasters just aren't for 'me'. When I want to Blast I log in my Rad/Therm Corruptor, my Storm/Sonic Defender, my whichever...I like shooting stuff but I also like buffing, debuffing, toggling defenses, choosing which defenses to use, timing my click heals instead of going 'attack attack attack attack attack' all the time.

My favorites:

Corruptor - Damage PLUS debuffs/heals/buffs
Controller - Damage PLUS debuffs/heals/buffs
Defender - Damage PLUS debuffs/heals/buffs
Scrapper - Damage PLUS toggles/heals/aggro management
Peacebringer - Damage PLUS toggles/heals/aggro management/versatility
VEAT - Damage PLUS teamwork toggles/versatility

I also like Dominators a lot. I've always thought of Dominators and Corruptors as 'fixed' Blasters. They can hold and damage, damage and debuff, damage and do other stuff...I get bored only attacking, I like to 'meta' my mobs between heals, debuffs, toggles, attacks...maybe I'm just weird.

[ QUOTE ]
From my end:

Namesake is the first hero I created, Mind/Bubbles. Gave me a soft spot for Controllers.

My first villain was a Stalker...at CoV live launch. Did the "Sneak to end, AS Boss and guards" so much I missed most of the content. Rushed to 50 to realize there were no VEATs and then played CoH most of the rest of the time.
I recently rolled another Stalker and am enjoying her more than the first one.

Blasters...I have a 35 Ice/EM and a 25 AR/MM. I doubt I will ever level a Blaster to 50. It's not so bad till the 30s, when you fight Freakshow, Devouring Earth, Crey, then Malta Ops and others. Stuns, Sleeps, Holds, all sorts of stuff. Sure I carry Break Frees but I'm also dead a lot, even with the new Defiance. I usually pop 2-3 reds, Aim+Build Up then tear into some mobs and a patrol gets me or I overcommit and die. Just not fun.

I guess Blasters just aren't for 'me'. When I want to Blast I log in my Rad/Therm Corruptor, my Storm/Sonic Defender, my whichever...I like shooting stuff but I also like buffing, debuffing, toggling defenses, choosing which defenses to use, timing my click heals instead of going 'attack attack attack attack attack' all the time.

My favorites:

Corruptor - Damage PLUS debuffs/heals/buffs
Controller - Damage PLUS debuffs/heals/buffs
Defender - Damage PLUS debuffs/heals/buffs
Scrapper - Damage PLUS toggles/heals/aggro management
Peacebringer - Damage PLUS toggles/heals/aggro management/versatility
VEAT - Damage PLUS teamwork toggles/versatility

I also like Dominators a lot. I've always thought of Dominators and Corruptors as 'fixed' Blasters. They can hold and damage, damage and debuff, damage and do other stuff...I get bored only attacking, I like to 'meta' my mobs between heals, debuffs, toggles, attacks...maybe I'm just weird.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are not wierd as blastroller playstyle has always been popular.

[ QUOTE ]
Redside needs more love. That's not exactly a mystery.

[/ QUOTE ]

No I think people should team more on redside, but people will always head to blue side because they can team. If folks did the same on redside then people would not be crying foul.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Redside needs more love. That's not exactly a mystery.

[/ QUOTE ]

IMO it's fundamentally flawed. It's supposed "virtues" make your efforts seem small and unimportant. I shall rejoice when GR allows me to redeem my villains and hopefully start the ATs in Paragon.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I completely agree with that general sentiment, but I do think that the red side is a little too much "Lawful Evil." And when it isn't Lawful Evil, it usually jumps to Chaotic A**hole.

I think the better target for City of Villains should have been "Neutral Selfish." Although after The Dark Knight came out, Bat-sh*t Crazy would have been popular as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's part of my problem with Redside, but mostly my problem with Redside is that it doesn't make a lick of sense. No society could run like that, there would be open warfare at all times. The game jumps between a totalitarian state and buffoonish evil.

For example,
[*] Who cares whether LR doesn't want you to kill Arbiters. His troops will attack you anyway.
[*]Why are they so nasty at the university? There's no reason for it. I'll bet in Cuba under Fidel, the instructors at the universities liked some students, hated others, just like in any U.S. college.
[*]I can rob, cheat, murder and steal....but I can't wear a cape because LR says so. K'.
[*]I'm such a badazz villain at level 50 that, of course, I don't have anything better to do than to break into City Hall for some joker I don't know.


Redside is filled with this nonsense. I like the ATs, I don't like them any better than blue ATs, but they're cool. But they're stuck in a place where doing newspapers tends to make more sense than doing the content. I rejoice when my villains hit 35 because then I can mostly ignore villain content from then on.

Sorry if this is an obvious observation, but whats really goign to kill redside in going rogue is the AE clustering.

I came back from a hiatus, to find the vast majority of the population in Atlas Park. It's natural for people to centralize out of one AE hub, and you bet your butt, day one of going rogue, people are going to start to head to AP from both sides and get on the xp train.

I know I would love to start a MM, go blue, and mix it up asap.

Not to turn this into a stalkers thread... but I've been struggling through a Stalker (I've made and deleted probably 15 over the years, but I'm determined to see this one through) and for me, at least, even with the changes what Stalkers contribute to the team always feels like "....And?"

They take care of difficult targets first and fast. So does a blaster. At range. In the same amount of time as Assassin's Strike animates. Actually, some Blasters can drop a spawn in that time. It's a bad example because it mixes Blue and Red, but there's been a bit of co-op endgame stuff lately. Sticking to Redside only... the Dominator also took care of that difficult target. They may have even locked down the entire spawn. Most Brutes also took care of that difficult target, and took alpha for the team doing it. A mastermind who sets all his pets to attack that target ALSO took out that problem target. All the red-side ATs are capable of neutering or flat out destroying a problem minion or lieutenant, and any red-side team is capable of dropping a problem boss in 10 seconds or so.

So that leaves stealth. Traditionally, the stealth classes scouting ahead pinpointing threats is quite useful. In City of X, redside in particular, it is not. Two of the five core ATs have a mechanic that rewards them for moving swiftly, and watching that reward evaporate swiftly (fury) or slowly (domination) *can* alienate the players of those ATs. Plus, stealth really isn't *needed* for anything in the game. A good team will steamroll Hero adds on the LRSF. A bad team will faceplant to Freakshow. Either would have done the same whether they knew what was coming or not.

I love 'stealth' classes. A Stalker was the first thing I rolled as a result. It was also the first character I ever deleted. He only made it to level 17 before I said "The pony, it has one trick." As a brand new player to the game - with no expectations of any AT.