City of Heroes Meta’s Verse: Issue 19 Alpha Strike


City of Heroes Meta’s Verse: Issue 19 Alpha Strike


Hello and welcome to OnRPG’s new weekly column Meta’s Verse all about City of Heroes. I will be covering topics ranging from the latest game related news to player run events. Anything and everything related to the City of franchise that catches my eye will be talked about. Christmas may be on its way but only one thing is on the mind of the player base, Issue 19: Alpha Strike.

 

City of Heroes

 

With the next game update, Issue 19 due pretty much any day now, its on everyone’s mind. Maybe you’re excited about the Fitness pool becoming inherent, or maybe it’s the alpha slot you’re most eager to see. Personally I can’t wait for those smaller, quality of life things. The little things no ones going to notice for a week or two while they’re busy squeeing over the new task forces and completely redoing their build to accommodate the three powers you’ll be free to take once you respec into inherent fitness.

Difficulty Change in Praetoria

Don’t panic! They aren’t making Praetoria harder or easier. It will be completely left up to you. Just like the Hero Corp officers in Paragon and the Fateweavers in the Rogue Isles there will be a contact in Praetoria you will be able to talk to change the difficulty of missions in Praetoria. This is a feature many players were screaming for almost the moment Praetoria was released. To this day playing in Praetoria has meant finding a fragile balance between getting on a team big enough to survive and not outleveling the content. More often than not if you wanted to see all the content you would have to turn off XP from time to time. Now smaller teams won’t struggle, unless they want to. Seeing the content will be easier, debt badges will be harder to get and the people will rejoice.

 

Extending train lines, new flight paths and extended ferry routes

Getting across the city of heroes and city of villains gets even easier. In Paragon city the train lines will be extended, connecting all stations to each other. No more crossing Steel Canyon or Skyway City to get from the lowbie zones to the higher content zones. The black helicopters in the Isles are also seeing a merge. Maybe its an effort by Lord Recluse to save money by using fewer helicopters which make more stops, maybe Recluse has realized travel in the isles is difficult at best. Who really can get in the mind of an evil genius? Either way we win. Travel by helicopter will become easier, and who knows maybe it will be more popular than the ferries? Well actually, I really doubt it will because even the ferries are getting extended. No more going to the wrong ferry in Cap Au Diable when you want to get to Port Oakes. I do this more than I care to admit. But now travel in our two cities will be easier. Add this in with the mission teleporter, the base teleporter and the consignment house teleporters and you have to start asking yourself if taking a travel power is even worth it.

 

Zone level range displayed

This really is one of those small things that I love about Issue 19. Anyone in any global channel has seen this scenario at least once. A player, new or old asks what zone they should go to for teams in a certain level range. I’ve played long enough to get Addicted, the thirty-six month veteran badge (that’s 3 years for anyone who doesn’t want to do the math) and I still have to ask from time to time. Now anytime you use the trains, helicopters, ferries or leave Ouroboros when the list of zones comes up for you to select from, you’ll get the level range right next to the zone name.. Now I won’t have to look silly asking people who have been in the game half the time I have which zone to go to for a level 35 team.

 

City of Heroes

 

More Hospitals and Nursing Staff

Every zone gets a hospital. It started with The Hollows just off Atlas Park. Now every zone is getting a hospital. Maybe this will mean the hazard and trial zones will get more love? Instead of having to travel from another zone when you die you’ll stay in the zone you died in. Might this make Dark Astoria a more popular destination? One thing is for sure it will help with Hamidon raids. With a cap of 50 players in the zone at once if you die you either wait for someone to help you up or you take the risk of going to the hospital and most likely not being able to get back in. Hopefully this will encourage even more Hamidon raids. In addition to every zone getting a hospital they’ll be getting a new nurse as well. This nurse will sell tier one inspirations to you for 50 inf and Awakens for 150 inf. This is of course the standard price they currently are sold for from contacts and in the arenas. So no discount, but you also won’t have to travel who knows how far to pick them up.

Log Out Changes

A complaint I have always had about switching characters is having to log out, type your password in again, select the server you want and finally get to your character selection page. Well, with Issue 19 you’ll have a few less steps. Finally, the option to skip a couple of steps and go straight to your character selection page! Sure, you can still log out all the way if you want to. You can still shut the game down straight from there. But now comes a third option, log out to character selection. This I think will be the biggest little detail in Issue 19. Everyone who plays will notice the change and fully embrace it. Ask anyone, they will tell you this has been needed and wanted for a long, long time.

 

So there you have it. My run down of the little things to come in Issue 19. This won’t be the last you hear about Issue 19: Alpha Strike, really it is only the beginning.

 

Meta

Meta’s Verse is written by Meticulous Meta who lives in Atlas Park with her dog Snuflé.

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