Some of these would reduce the cooldown, lower the stamina cost, or increase the damage and intensity (among other things). Instead of sporting different armor pieces with stats attached, superheroes equipped “enhancements” to modify specific powers. To understand what ED was, you have to have a passing familiarity with how City of Heroes’ gear worked. It was called “Enhancement Diversification.” Coming alongside the launch of City of Villains (see below), Issue 6 introduced a major balance feature that instantly became one of the most despised the game ever saw. This led to a lot of nerfs until 2006, when the team downsized by 75% and was forced to focus on improving its current content and pleasing its existing playerbase.īefore City of Heroes came to that, however, it had to go through its darkest hour ever with October 2005’s Issue 6. This wasn’t just in their minds Cryptic (read: Jack Emmert) was fanatical about character balance and making sure that everyone was progressing more or less the same through the game. One point of contention between the players and the developers in those early years is that the community felt that Cryptic continued to nerf things that everyone loved or wanted to get better, such as Issue 5’s Global Defense Reduction. A little over a year after the game launched, a decision was made to course-correct what the devs saw as a problem and the players saw as an essential part of their happy fun time. So naturally City of Heroes was due for at least one of these bad calls to come along, and that it surely did. It’s your New Game Enhancements, your Trammels, your Monoclegates, and your Real IDs. Like most MMOs, City of Heroes exuded a mixed bag of quality - and its passionate fans certainly did not hold back on letting Cryptic know what they felt about the current state of the game and the choices that the studio made.Įvery MMO, as part of its rite of passage, seems like it has to trigger at least one major controversy that sparks major nerdrage and gives fans a reason to grouse about it years later. City of Heroes is easily my favorite MMO of all time, but I’m not sure that trying to recreate that magic is the correct thing to do.It’s always easy to look back at the making of City of Heroes and its first year with a memory tinted toward the good and away from the bad. The game itself is still in its early stages and I’m continuing to remain cautiously optimistic. According to the Kickstarter, there will be a traditional subscription model, or you can “ play as a free player and purchase from the cash shop a la carte.” Naturally, there will be bonuses to subscribing, but those details aren’t solidified quite yet. Buying the game for $50 will award three months of play time, and from there it gets a bit fuzzy. The City of Heroes community was the best of any game I’ve ever played, so it’s not terribly surprising.īut I’m sure most people are concerned with one big thing: what business model it will use. It’s pretty heartwarming to see a development team that consists of fans, creating an MMO that fans can fund and then play. City of Titans, or “The Phoenix Project,” has just launched its Kickstarter campaign to make that dream a reality.Ĭreated entirely by fans (though some do have a decent pedigree), the Kickstarter has already raised $118,000 of its $320,000 goal in under 12 hours. Some of those people were evidently so bummed that they began a long journey towards resurrecting the game. The financially successful superhero MMO closed down last year making a whole lot of people totally bummed. I’m eager to talk about City of Heroes at any opportunity I get.
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