Steady's Gaming Blog

So Going Rogue has been out for awhile. The first few days, I played; I have to admit, I was not very impressed. I guess because I have eight level 50’s that a new zone to level up in, just did not have much appeal to me. I rolled up a few praetorians, and gave the new zones a try. The new content is well done, a nice addition to the game. The zones look nice; the missions are fun,. I am enjoying the critters, I am finding the ghouls fun to do battle with. So I will give the new zones a good A+ rating. The only downfall I see is that you cannot join a supergroup. I would like to have a base to craft in, and because I am not a big PUG er, I prefer to run in teams of people from my SG.
It would be nice to have the support of an SG in these zones.

I know a lot of players are unhappy with the fact that you cannot bring an old character into the new zones; you have to roll a new character. The badge collectors are really throwing a fit, because they cannot collect up all the badges in the game. Personally, it does not bother me, I could care less about badges, I have one character that I do collect up badges on, but really it does not bother me if I do not get all 968(I think there more then that, I have not seen a complete updated list) badges that are now in the game. My philosophy on badges has always been, that if it is an accolade that gives me more stamina, or heath, or something useful, I will chase it down. I am not going to farm, or go outside of normal game play to chase down a badge. I remember some of my SG mates joining a healing farm every night for six months to get a healing badge. This is not something that I am going to do. So what I most likely will do is start a badge character in the gold zone, collect up all the badges I can on the gold, blue and red sides, just so see how many I can get. It will not be every badge in the game, I can promise you that.

The feature I like the most is the new tips missions. I am having a lot of fun with these. Even if you are never going to change sides, run five tips missions a day. I have a level 50 hero that I have been running hero tips missions on. I run five of them a day, at +3 difficulty level. I have picked up a few nice purple recipes. After 10 tips missions, you can run the hero morality mission. The first time you run the morality mission, you get 50 reward merits. The second time, and every time after that you get one hero alignment merit. Twenty alignment merits will get you a purple recipe from the alignment vendor. So if you are not running five tips missions a day, after you reach level 20, you are making a mistake. By the time you are level 50, you should have yourself a few purple recipes.

I have also found the tip missions to be very good content. In fact, they are a bit challenging. One of them I have died in several time (darn sappers), that I am determined to beat. It has been awhile since I have been challenged in City of Heroes, so I am enjoying the challenge.

So I have going to have to give Going Rogue very high marks. The only flaw I can find is that it did not increase the level cap, which is something I would very much like to see. I think issue 19 is going to address that problem. So good work City of Heroes, I have to say this is some of the best content I have seen added to any game in a long time, keep up the good work.

I just got a nice tweet about Issue 18: Shades of Grey Overview for City of Heroes. I have to admit it had three words in it, I thought I would never see again, Cathedral of Pain. This is a sore spot for many players in City of Heroes, Especially the PVP crowd.. It use to be a trail were up to 24 level 50’s had an hour to complete missions in order to obtain an Item of Power. This was put in your base, and guarded by any means necessary during base raids. It was a buggy little piece of work that was only live for about 30 days.

It looks like it is back; it also looks like it might have some changes. Makes no mention of base raids, the rewards not look like merits and badges. Come on, how about a few purples. I have a feeling base raids are a thing of the past. This has raid written all over it, I also like the fact that it has to be done in an hour. I always enjoyed the sewer trial, mainly because it has a time limit, and you have to use teamwork to get it done. This looks like more of the same.

Finally, the merging of the Auction house markets on the red and blue side. All I can say is that it is about time. Also you can trade inspirations’ on co-op zones, with the other side. Good deal that was always a pain, not being able to give some one an inspiration so they could rez.

Finally a new tips system; foes will drop clues that can start missions. That is a great way to add content, and not have to make new zones. Looks like another good free expansion is no the way, I cannot wait.

My Gaming Community the Combat Engineers is looking for more active gamers. So here is what what we are all about, and what we are looking for.

1. Mature, must be over the age of 18..

2. Respect. We do not do DRAMA, (let me repeat, we do not do DRAMA), fight over gear, taunt or harass. Profanity is not allowed. Any type of racial, religious, gender, sexual orientation, or political slurs are not allowed. Stealing from us will get you booted out of the group for sure.

3. Helpful. If you cannot be kind, and helpful to other players, this is not the place for you.

4. We are not in a hurry, if you are looking for farming or power leveling; you are most likely in the wrong place. I am not saying it does not take place in this group, I am just saying it is not the norm.

5. Have fun. We like to have fun. If we fail an instance, or a task force, it is not the end of the world. We will make every effort to complete a task, mission, instance or raid, but we are not going to do it at the expense of not having fun.

6. Able to function on a team. Each event or team will have a clear leader. All we ask is that you follow the direction of the team leader. If you have a suggestion, speaks up, just do it in the right way. The leader may or may not use you suggestion. If you have a better way to do something, sign up to be the leader for the next run.
7. Register for the forums. If you are a leader, list events and other thing there.

Where will you find us.

www.combatengineers.net is our main webpage

http://www.xfire.com/communities/moonb on xfire.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Combat-Engineers-Gaming-Community/248825615272 on Facebook

http://twitter.com/Steadycombateng to follow us on Twitter.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/combatengineers on Steam

Feel free to join any and all of these groups. I encourage all of our current active members to join these groups if they can.

What are we playing; more like what are we not playing.

City of Heroes- We have established SGs on the Freedom, Liberty, Justice, and Virtue Server. Freedom is the most popular. Liberty is dead, Justice and Virtue are very small.

City of Villains- Established VG on Freedom. It is dead, needs active members, willing to run teams and recruit.

Aion- Have a legion on the Kaisinel Server, Elyos. Have a some Asmodians on the Meslamtada Server. Needs leadership and active members.

World of Warcraft, we have a pretty active group, Alliance, Elune server. Running instances and leveling right now. Some day we would like to start running some 10 mans. Gear hounds, thief’s, immature people, need not apply.

Champions Online – semi established SG. Lacks leadership, nice for active players that would like to run an established SG.

Dungeons and Dragons Online – Old dead Guild on the Sarlona server. Needs active members, leadership.

Everquest II, on the Bazaar server, have a few active players. Do not have a guild yet, like to find more to start a guild.

Global Agenda- One man agency. Looking for leadership, and active members.

Star Trek Online- Yet another dead, one man fleet. Needs active members, and leadership.

Lord of the Rings- Two man kinship, is at the maxed out level. Needs active members and leadership.

Warhammer Online- No guilds, but we play Destruction on Badlands, and Order on Iron Rock. Looking for more to start a guild

All Points Bulletin – Have a group, just started playing, get in on the ground floor.

Games that we sometimes play and have teamed in are Team Fortress 2, Planetside, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and Battlefield Heroes.

So if you are interested in joining the Combat Engineers, contact me at steady@combatengineers.net.

This is my Hall of Fame. These are my characters that have reached the level cap in that particular game. I am attempting to get as many characters on this list as I can. I am not a power leveler. In fact, I am never in a hurry to get to the max level. I like to play the games, not rush to the end. I have also included the date the max level was achieved.

City of Heroes

Steady Ice Smash
Level 50 Fire melee/Ice Armor Tank – Liberty Server
2/20/2008

Steady Rifle
Level 50 Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster – Freedom Server
3/19/2008

Steady Claudio
Level 50 Dark Melee/Regeneration Scrapper – Virtue Server
5/22/08

Steady Double
Level 50 Dual Blades/Willpower Scrapper – Freedom Server
4/24/2009

Steady Icemaker
Level 50 Ice Blast/Mental Manipulation Blaster
8/4/2009

Steady Rock
Level 50 Ice Melee/Stone Armor Tank – Freedom Server
9/10/2009

Steady General
Level 50 Energy Melee/Ice Armor Tank – Freedom Server
3/7/2010

City of Villains

Steady Chain Smash
Level 50 Super Strength/ Fire Armor Brute
10/08/2008

Champions Online

Steady Enforcer
Level 40 Melee Tank
6/17/2010

World of Warcraft

SteadyC
Level 80 Rogue
7/21/2010

Warhammer Online

Steadydark
Level 40 Discpline of Khaine, Badlands
7/3/2010

I do not spend a lot of time on You Tube, but when I do, it is usually something that samuraiko has done. These videos are just awesome. This is the City of Heroes 6th Anniversary Commemorative. It brings back so many memories, some of the old costume design screens look really funny now. 579 power combinations, LOL, I bet I have tried all of those. It also shows how much City of Heroes has grown over the past six years.

Happy 6th Anniversary City of Heroes, tip of the hat, has been a great six years, looks like lots of good things on the way. Looking forward to playing the upcoming issues.

Issue 17 hit the live servers yesterday, and I have to admit that I am really impressed. Here is a nice link to the Paragon Wiki with all the details.

Issue 17 information on Paragon Wiki

I can play the game in ultra mode. I am not one of those people that play a game for the graphics. I don’t need shadows, or graphic details to enjoy a game. If you do, then ultra mode is a good thing.

Two things really stick out for me in this Issue. Finally after six years you can send money, and items to other characters. Even better, you can send these items globally, across different servers. All I can say is that it is about time.

The second thing is the change to the Vigilance Buff for Defenders. You now get a buff to you damage when the defender is on a team of three or less. Defenders were always a pain to level because they could not kill anything. This should be a solution to the problem. It is a nice fix for a class that is needed in the game, but hard to level. I know it is an MMO, and people should team together. Honestly, I do not PUG much anymore in City of Heroes because of the AE baby effect; it makes for a lot of useless players. I am not an elitist but you can no longer run a mission on a difficultly of +1 or +2, and survive. Tanking, sniping, and pulling are a thing of the past in City of Heroes. People do not have a good understanding anymore of the basic skills needed to survive. So my level 40ish defender, who has been that level forever, has a chance to make it to level 50 finally.

Badges were added to the game as well, 72 for heroes, and 36 for villains. I am not a fan of badges, but you now give five merits for each zone you collect up all the explorations badges in. That is a total 60 merits on the blue side. I do like merits, so I will be hopping around to get those.

I have to say, this looks to me like one of the best issues for City of Heroes in a long time. With Going Rogue just around the corner, and some type of end game content coming soon as well, City of Heroes is looking pretty good right now.

Here is a cool video of the new power set Kinetic Melee. Not very often that I get very excited about a new power set, but this one has me very excited. Is it just me, or is straight out of a Jackie Chan movie. This set looks awesome; I cannot wait to try it out.

Happy April fools day! I really enjoy April Fools, lets face it, the world needs to laugh a bit more then it does. We need a break from healthcare reform, terrorism and who Jesse James is sleeping this week (dude are you stupid, lets see Sandra Bullock, or something in the freak show from the carnival down the street, Helllllllooooooo). To make it even better, all these gaming sites will now even send you their April Fools jokes on Twitter. Good deal.

I have to point out the best one of the day for me. World of Warcrafts, Equipment Potency EquivalencE Number, or EPEEN, for short. EPEEN is short for an internet slang term for ego, pride, or attitude in the virtual world. Basically it is short for the mine is bigger then yours argument. ROFL, this is just killing me. I hate the elitist that populate WOW, so Blizzard poking fun at them is just classic. They are making fun of Gearscore, and I hate Gearscore, so this is by far the funniest one of the day.

EPEEN System

City of Heroes has the city of Sidekicks which is fairly funny, but they will never be able to do better then they did a few years ago with the now legendary “freem” joke. Where they introduced a new system that when you punched a bad guy the word “Freem” would pop up on the screen, like in the old Batman shows of the 60’s. I remember reading the forums and people complaining about this new system for a few hours before figuring out it was an April Fools joke. Serves you right you forum trolls.

City of Sidekicks

So try to find something to chuckle about today, smile a little, I promise you it will not hurt.

Just a few interesting tweets today, that I wanted to share with others..

First, the good folks at wow.com have created an impressive list of resources for World of Warcraft. You have been warned, be prepared to spend a few hours looking at websites. Lots of good World of Warcraft information here. Nice to have all this info in one place, a must have bookmark for anyone that plays World of Warcraft.

Wow.com, Guide to Wow resources

Second, City of Heroes updated the Going Rogue website today. Calvin Scott and Ghouls are introduced, are they friend or foe? Nobody knows. Just more fluff, still no hard facts. Come on Paragon, I need some facts here, enough fluff.

Going Rogue

So that is my Twitter Roll for today, everyone have a great gaming day.

Becketts massive online gamer released its reader choice awards for the best MMO’s of 2009.

Here are the results.

Best MMO of 2009
World of Warcraft, but not by much. It defeated Dungeons and Dragons online by a mere 68 votes. That is a shocking development. I remember when D & D was a ghost town before Turbine changed the pricing model. Some of these gaming developers need to pay attention to what Turbine has done, and how they have done it. I mean really, they brought D & D back from the dead. Wizards 101, Aion and City of Heroes were also in the top five. Looks like NCsoft has two of the top five games.

Best New Release of 2009

Aion, no big surprise here. This game is Ok; it looks nice, but lacks content. It is a grind fest after level 25. Aion winning is more about all of the bad games released this year, not the fact that it is a good game. The little engine that could took second place, Fallen Earth. I like this game, it has some bugs, but is one of the few games I have played this year where I felt the developers actually gave a damn about the product they were producing. Champions Online was third, which is a total embarrassment for Cryptic. Champions has been out for six months, and still lacks content in the mid 20’s and 30’s. It is painful to level in this game. They have ignored this fact, and done nothing to improve their game. In fact, the world famous kitchen sink patch was an epic fail, causing more problems then it fixed.

Best Fantasy MMO of 2009

D & D slays the dragon and beats out World of Warcraft. Who says a free to play game cannot be successful. I need to spend a bit more time playing D&D.

Best Sci-fi/Superhero MMO of 2009

City of Heroes followed by Star Wars: Galaxies. Anyone who reads this blog knows I am a big City of Heroes fan. I have not played Star Wars Galaxies in a bit, but might have to go back. Fallen Earth was third. This has to be a total embarrassment for Cryptic. It was beat out by two older then dirt games (in MMO years, like dog years), and an independent developer with about half the budget that Champions had.

Best MMO expansion.

Turbine takes the top two with D & D, Eberron Unlimited, and Lord of the Rings, Siege of Mirkwood. Both good expansions that were well planned, and well done. Turbine had a really good year.

Best Kid Friendly/All Ages MMO of 2009
Wizard 101 wins by a large margin. Steady jr., is allowed to play Wizards for a few hours each week. It is a very entertaining game. Pirates of the Caribbean comes in second. Not sure about this one, last time I was in there, the chat was full of profanity.

Best Free MMO of 2009

Runes of Magic, followed by D&D, and Maplestory. I avoid free to play games other then D & D, too many trolls for me.

Most Anticipated MMO of 2009

Star Wars: The Old Republic, followed by Star Trek. Score one for the old gamers like me, two games with themes from the past. You know we do have more money to spend then those youngsters.

So just my thoughts on Becketts games of the year for 2009. Everyone have a great gaming day.