So it seems I picked the right week to head back into City of Heroes’ Homecoming rogue servers, as the patch that’s been in beta since October has moseyed over to the live servers as of today. Issue 27: Second Chances, Page 1 is massive and offers a little bit for everyone. For narrative fans, there’s a pair of new story arcs: The Graveyard Shift (heroside 20-29) and The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok (villainside 30-39). “These arcs are the first two instalments of the Freaklok storyline, introducing new contacts, enemy groups, mission maps and several unique mission mechanics,” the player team says.
For roleplayers and fashion warriors, there are even more asymmetrical costume bits, default stances, and customization options for new powers (even for things like Sprint and Day Job powers). (The very best note, according to a unanimous vote of the MOP newsroom, is the note that “shoulder kittens are now available for Male and Huge characters… and you can have two of them at the same time!” Yes. Thank you.)
For min-maxers who really need to roll at least 50 more toons, there’s the Sonic Manipulation secondary for Blasters; revamps for Energy Melee, Titan Weapons, Trick Arrow, and Teleportation; base teleport tweaks; and easier access to Ouroboros.
But the biggest change of all is the massive overhaul to the game’s enhancement system. Howsoever you play CoH, you should get familiar with the way it’s going to work going forward, at least on the Homecoming servers, as the goal here is clearly to make basic SOs easier to get for newbies and less of a chore to combine.
“First of all, we’ve significantly increased the availability of Single Origin Enhancements in the early game: Vendors will sell them from level 5 and story arcs now award SOs instead of TOs or DOs. The low-level SOs sold at Yin’s market can now be used by characters of any origin, and are cheaper than SOs from other stores. Secondly, combining enhancements is now a simpler process: Combining two enhancements will now simply increase the level of the enhancement, rather than creating a X+1 enhancement. This means you can now combine Hamidon, Titan and Hydra enhancements all the way up to level 53. And thirdly, a feature we initially tested many months ago: the enhancement upgrade button. You can now easily upgrade all of your equipped enhancements directly in your enhancement management screen. This has the same effect as purchasing enhancements 3 above your current level and slotting them over all of your existing enhancements.”
Oh, and don’t forget, every toon is getting a free respec when logging in today. Have fun!
