Tattered Page

Zubon’s got a good writeup on the Carnival of Shadows- a Villain group in the City of Heroes universe. I agree with much, but wanted to challenge enough of it that I killed the reply-box before I remembered that longer replies could go to my oft-neglected blog here.

Go ahead and read it, then this will make a bit more sense. You can also read the history of the Carnival at the official site, but warning- much of this is “spoiler” information that you discover in the story arcs.

My comments after the break.

The Proud Nail

Zubon calls the Carnival a “Proud Nail” and while I agree with the principle, I don’t know if it applies to these guys. The late game has two villain factions that all players love to hate- the Malta and the Carnival of Shadows, but I think this has less to do with their design flaws than the design flaws of the preceding enemies and players’ natural love for the routine.

See, before the carnies come along, most villain groups can be addressed with largely the same old tactics. Run in, hit a few combos, wash, rinse, repeat. Not much adaptation needed. While things may be easier if you focus on enemy X first, things are very survivable if you don’t. Besides, it’s so much easier- comforting, even- to stay with the same well-executed strategy over and over and over… or so I’m told. Heck, by the time the carnies have shown up, many players have optimized their whole BUILD to fit that standardized battle strategy.

The carnies break that pattern.

Who to strike and how to strike them is different. What you thought was the “optimal” build for endurance management is different. When and how to finish a foe is different. To confront them effectively, you’ve got to break that template battle strategy- something many players are reluctant to do, leading them to spending 20% of the high-level game trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and cursing over the challenge they’re experiencing.

The blame isn’t entirely on the players. The game designers made many foes with unique powers, but few of them required adaptation to defeat. Freakshow have a tendency of recovering once you think they’re defeated, but they go back down so easily that the shock-factor is barely relevant. It might change an already-terrible situation worse, but if things are going smoothly, it’s barely a blip on the radar. Circle of Thorns’ spectral Demon Lords have the dreaded accuracy debuff, but counter that one foe then go ‘business as usual” with the rest.

Part of that problem is a natural effect of having to insure that everything’s soloable with every powerset- you don’t want to “require teaming” or make content inaccessible to everyone playing, but it can lead to encounters that require very little adaptation to get through. When something different DOES appear, the players aren’t conditioned to expect it.

The solution here, for me, is the game needs MORE villain groups like Carnival of Shadows earlier in the game: foes that balance “encouraging adaptation” with “survivable by any powerset” in a way that keeps us thinking- and prepared- for the likes of the carnies.

“Silly Missions”

Ok, evil carnies sounds a bit funny. So does a guy wearing his underwear on the outside of his tights (like a circus strongman) as he leaps over buildings… or a guy dressing as a bat (with the aforementioned underwear setup again).

Before anyone sends hate mail about the rich history of Superman of Batman, let me say “I know.” And if you take the time to read the content of the Carnival, you’d find it’s much the same. There’s very little “silly” about this villain group.

The Carnival represents decadence. Their provocative dress and hedonistic “parties” attracts those bored with life and wealthy enough to afford such forbidden pleasures. Once drawn in, they’re psychically controlled to give more than they planned- money, servitude to Vanessa DeVore (until their souls are entirely consumed) or both.

The story arcs that focus on the Carnival continue this trend.

In the first, you help actress Madeline Casey (who’s not a hero, but plays one on TV) through her own investigation of the Carnival. She’s in the same social circles the Carnival target, but she’s not really experienced in superhero stuff except for what she reads in her scripts. Will her investigation jeopardize her own soul? Can you save her?

In the second, you investigate the history of Vanessa DeVore herself, her possession by the entity in the mask, her escape, and her use of the mask to help defend the world from the first Rikti invasion before creating the Carnival. If you could somehow break that evil possession- save Vanessa from the dark influence within the mask- could you break the carnival or even turn them to good?

These aren’t goofy stories like the Bat-Imp or Squirrel Girl. Illusionists

The Carnie Illusionists are a major pain in the rear- the endurance drain at each minion’s defeat (drawing away a piece of your soul with their own) is a challenge, but the Carnie illusionsts (and master illusionists) are some of the more challenging foes in the game.

I’m not sure why.

The much-feared “phase out” is perhaps the most misunderstood power in the game. The phase-in, phase-out is on a cyclical timer. Once you know that they’re phased, you can practically time when they’ll be phased back. Contrary to popular belief, they suffer the same rules as other “phased out” foes- their attacks can’t affect you. This myth has been tough to kill because 1- any attack animation that STARTED before the phase-out still works and 2- the AI often continues some attacks while phased (particularly the PBAOE hold).

Put those together and you have the key to taking out all illusionists. Watch the cyclical phasing pattern. Draw aggro just when phasing out should start and she’ll waste the PBAOE hold while in that state. If you can’t tell when she’s back in-target, use your low-damage attacks or PBAOE toggles untill you see numbers trail off, then hammer her. Once you know the cycle pattern, the rest is easy.

Master Illusionists can be more challenging, but not by much. Illusion remains the best counter to master illusionists- most of their hold attacks will be targeted at a Phantom Army and not at you, but even without that, much of what I mention with regular illusionists works here too. Accept that the phase cycle, pace yourself accordingly, and focus on the master illusionist above all else. She’s a challenge, but no more so than other bosses.

Illusionist Badge

I won’t pretend to like earning that badge. I won’t. One helpful point-you don’t really have to “defeat” these illusionary illusionists, just damage them. If they unsummon with even one point of damage (and they disappear quickly) then you get credit for the kill. Crowd Control

This is the real “Proud Nail” in the City of… titles. Sure, other MMO’s use similar mezz effects (fear, sleep, slow, hold, immobilize, charm, etc) but few to the extent that City of Heroes does.

The gameplay mechanic gives some variety to the game- it can be fun planning how to attack an enemy group to minimize the risks these bring into play, but it’s pretty damn boring to be standing there, doing nothing, with NO RECOURSE aside from hoping death comes quickly so you can rez and re-enter the fray. In a console game, if you’re held (or knocked down in a fighting match), you often enter into a button-mashing bonanza to “break the hold” and return to the fight. It’s not everything, but it’s SOMETHING TO DO.

I haven’t seen this on the PC- maybe the devs don’t want us buying new keyboards every time we wear out the “break hold” button from frantic mashing. Maybe it’s got something to do with the ability to track these things and “trusting the client.” At the very least, though, the developers could implement something akin to the “god of war” match-the-icon clicking that, when done successfully, reduces our hold time by X%.

It isn’t much, but it gives us the feeling of struggling against our bonds rather than bashing our heads on our desks in frustration. Changing Hunt Missions

This is the final point where Zubon and I agree with the problem but disagree on the solution. I don’t mind hunt missions that may take some time to complete, but they shouldn’t be so rare that the hunt becomes a camping routine.

At the same time, I’d rather see MORE street hunts rather than less. The City of… universe can seem rather empty thanks to all the time spent on instanced missions, and once travel powers come into play, few ever bother with the street-level view of many of the zones more than they have to.

That’s a shame because they’re damn nice zones.

Take a page from the “Safeguard Missions and add personalized “hotspot” alerts to the zones. Think of the “vandals are attacking” alerts. This would be something similar.

If you enter a zone with a “hunt X” mission as the active mission, the zone will periodically create something very similar to the “vandal spawn” and alert you (the mission-holder) to its location. (Alternatively, anyone in the zone hunting the same villain group gets the message.) Beat that group, and another may appear in time. In the meantime, you might do a little street hunting like before.

That would give us more activity out on the main city streets, more frequent spawns of whatever villain type you’re hunting for, and perhaps make street hunt missions a little more engaging.

Now that my response to Zubon’s post is longer than the original, my work here is done.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 5:48 pm and is filed under City of Heroes / Villains, Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.