Cool game, fees to play but not too bad

A friend of mine turned me onto this game. City of Heroes is a MMORP, massive multiplayer online role playing game. I've had the game for a few weeks now, really think its fun. City of Heroes and the companion game City of Villains allows you to build a character with powers based on natural, magic, science or mutation origins. The power sets are different for each origin type.

The selection of powers is pretty good if you ask me, I can only imagine the kind of programming that must go into building and maintaining this beast. There are a number of servers, so far I've never had any problem finding one to play on, two always seem busier than others, perhaps those two are the oldest, I don't know. For the most part game play has been error free except for the ocassional mapserver error and that has only been on one server that I encountered that issue...so if it happens I just log onto another server for awhile; no problems.

Equipment:
Internet connection: While it's supposedly possible to play over dialup, I don't think I'd care to try that--you need a broadband connection.
Operating System: As far as I know this only runs on windows xp. I have 64bit xp and it runs fine but it's really only listed for xp 32 bit on the box.
CPU: This will not run on a hand me down 700 mhz cpu, you need at least a 1.2 ghz or faster cpu for the latest version of the game.
Video card: I don't think I'd try running this on less than a geforce MX and that probably can't handle it well, I had a geforce 6600 OC in there and it did fine but I wouldn't try to run this with an older card with less memory as it probably can't handle it. There are tons of explosions and flying stuff, and all kinds of other effects, you need a pretty new card for this game--the graphics are great.
Memory: The more the better, I wouldn't go less than a megabyte of ram. My machine has two meg.

Installation:
Pop the cd into the computer, there are six if you load both games, it's a pretty substantial load; be sure you've got plenty of hard drive space. After you load the cd's you will probably be faced with a solid one-two hour download (on broadband, if you load just coh, 2 hours, city of villains since it's newer has a good portion of the updates already on the install disk so it's a shorter update if you load both) to get all the updates and changes the company has made since the version of the game discs that come in the box. City of Heros and City of Villains share files (and should be installed in the same directory so they can share files) so when you install City of Villains it ended up being only an additional one hour download for that one.

Fees:
Unfortunately online play isn't free. You get one free month play time with the game and then if you pay monthly it's about 15 dollars a month. If you choose to pay for 6 months or a year at a time the fee goes down enough to make it worth it to pay all at once. I also bought city of villains because one of the super groups I joined required that game before I could access their base (i.e. they used elements from both games when they built their base); I also got a free month play with that game. If you have both games you don't pay twice, you just buy the game and it's fifteen per month to have both games available; not bad really. NC soft makes you setup an account when the game is installed, as far as I know you need either a credit card, a debit card or a game card to play at all, I don't think it will link into a checking account, at least not as of this writing. In all it's fairly cheap entertainment considering that two movies at twilight cheap time might cost you more than fifteen bucks and this is more fun.

Game play:
Characters exist only on the server they are created upon. If you can't get onto the server with your character, you have to make one on another server or wait, so far I've never seen a server so busy you can't get in. I have several different characters on different servers so I always have one to play. There are also differing amounts of traffic so you might have more luck leveling your low lever character on a busy server than on one that isn't so busy.

Starting out:
New characters are of course pretty weak. You generally get one power that is offensive and another that is either support for the team (i.e. healing) or defensive only. Healers are very popular characters and not a lot of folks play them so that is a pretty playable character that should not have problems getting a team. Tanks are also pretty weak when they first start out and are also sought after. Bubblers are those characters that chose force field generation for one of their powers. After about level 10, bubblers get realy popular because the enemies get harder and teams want the extra protection of the force field bubbles generated by this power. The game's strength is that you can play the upfront tank or the support specialist or the ranged attacker, everyone can find something for them.

I prefer to start in Atlas Park because of the sewer access in that area, for a low level the sewers are quick way to level 6 so you can advance to the hollows for more missions and enemies to fight. There are tons of forums where you can find advice on character builds. When the character starts out they have one primary and one secondary power, by level six they are offered a pool power such as teleport or the first power, hover, that is a precursor power to flight. Again there are soooo many different ways you can build your character it's pretty assured that no two characters are going to be exactly alike.

Every other level you are offered "enhancement" slots that allow you to improve a power in various ways. Monsters drop enhancements when they're killed and they are also given as rewards for completed missions and can be purchased in stores. The money in this game is in the form of reputation for killing the bad guys.

Sidekicks and playing with higher levels:
At some point (around level 12 I believe) you can sidekick a lower level character to play with you. They have to be at least three levels below to be sidekicked. The sidekick is effectively raised to one level below you. The disadvantage is that the sidekick gets less experience than normal and they don't get any extra powers, they're just more effective at the higher level. If you get too far from your sidekick or they get too far from you they will loose the benefits of being sidekicked.

When playing in a team it's important that players be of a similar level, if anyone is more than 3 levels above the rest, the higher level character will get most of the experience and the lower levels will get little or none; I suppose they put this inplace to prevent high levels from rushing someone through the game without actually playing.

Areas of the game:
At first you can go to only a few locations around the city, if you're too weak to survive in an area you generally can't get into it. There are portals to other areas generally on each of the four sides of the map, sometimes you go someplace in a helicopter accessed from a pad on a rooftop as well. If you are invited to a super group that is large and well established your base may have teleporters that take you to predefined areas (again if you're too weak it won't let you go there).

Goodies:
The highest level character I have is currently 14 and it took quite awhile to get her there. There are characters much higher and often you have to be quite high to get into certain activities or go certain places. Once you have a single character to level fifty a special character type is unlocked (I imagine you can only have the specials on the server where your level 50 is located, not sure on that). The special character is a peaceful alien that has bonded with a human being and can take either form at will (they're neat looking critters). Recently the company has announced "veterans rewards" there is information about it on the website, apparently once you've been playing long enough you can have access to special character attributes such as wings that not everyone will have access to.

Salvage: As you play you may get "salvage" from things you kill. Salvage allows you to make items at your base, I don't have any of this stuff yet but it sounds like it amplifies your powers in some way. This is another advantage to joining a super group because generally you have storage units at the base where other members have left stuff that is up for grabs for anyone to use.

Enhancements: Every monster kill can drop enhancements or inspirations. As you grow in levels you add slots to you powers on odd levels and these enhancements are dropped into those slots. Enhancements must be replaced when you outgrow them (level wise) so it's something you spend a lot of cash on. There are some especially potent enhancements (also very expensive) that can be bought in stores catering to your origin type, Science, Natural, Magic, etc.

Inspirations:
You only get a few inspiration slots to start, more come at higher levels. Inspirations for extra damage, healing, endurance restoration, wake ups, there are a variety here. Others can give you inspirations if you need a wakie and don't have one but you must free up a slot to receive it.

Pocket D:
Pocket D (pocket dimension, the club is located inside a truck) is a night club where villains and heroes can interact freely, it's neutral territory. Occasionally battles between heroes and villains are setup and this is the meeting spot. Announcements get made on the web site when things like this are going on.

Super Groups:
These have advantages, a well established and rich group will have a nice base with all kinds of goodies inside. They will have inspiration storage, salvage storage, the machines to make stuff from salvage, and teleporters to areas its normally a bit of a hike to get to. A well established base allows your supergroup to participate in base raids (never done one, not high enough). The biggest advantage to belong to a group with a base is that if you die you can choose to go to your base instead of the hospital. When you step back out of your base portal you are in the same zone you died in, makes it a lot quicker to get back instead of being in a hospital in a different city.

Task Force Missions:
I believe the level range for a task force is 15-21. If you're above that you get badges and reputation ($$$) but no experience. I don't really care for the idea of this, the missions are really long (4 hours plus) and you can't add folks to the task force after it has started. You must start with a minimum of four but it doesn't end if you get below four people during the course of the task force but the missions do get progressively tougher.

Death:
Up to level ten you can die freely and go to the hospital or your base, no penalty. After level ten every time you're defeated you earn debt that must be paid off before you can advance to the next level. There is a resurrect power that some characters have (Empaths can get it) or there are "wakeups" or "wakies" that can be purchased from mission contacts that will get you up (dazed and confused for a few minutes) without going to the closest hospital (and some zones don't have a hospital you go to another zone and then have to get back). Dieing in battle can be bad unless your team has a teleporter that can drag your dead body out of the fray and somewhere safe to be revived. Sometimes the baddies ai makes them "camp" on a dead hero's body so you won't be getting up without a teleporter or unless someone draws them off your dead body.

What I think of the game:
It's a blast, this company also does guild wars. Guild wars is fun (currently no charge to play) but this has much more "custom" content that they throw in there occasionaly on holidays and other points throughout the year. The graphics scroll smoothly, there are few glitches. There is some kind of add-on graphics utility that make the explosions more realistic and the flying objects look better, as I have win64 bit I don't have this but it supposed to be coming out this month for my operating system. At least so far I haven't seen any outtages caused by hackers knocking the servers down or any such thing as that.

There are sooo many power sets you can setup just about anything you might want from a character along the lines of the xmen to the flash...it's all there if you know what you're looking at. All parts of character creation allow you to go back and make changes until the end and there are often character costume contests etc. There's lots to do but so far I can't really figure out when the most people are on. Perhaps it's just because it's still summer break for some that there isn't a lot of activity on the servers for now, I've heard there may be some special missions and task force teams for Halloween coming up soon.

I'm really enjoying this game, each time I try something new I like it even more. Most of my characters are in super groups already, if it's a really large group, that has some great advantages such as being given a load of cash to spend on enhancements, the ability to teleport to places it's normally hard to get to and help with leveling (which I haven't gotten so far, LOL). The ability of a higher level to sidekick a lower level is also a great feature of the game. So far I think they did a great job with this game and I'll keep playing it. It's kind of an advanced game for a ten year old, this tends to appeal more to the 20-40 crowd and older too.

update:
After several weeks of playing still love this game, I've only run into one real "bug" involving the resurrection power on my healer. They provide an easy way to submit tech support complaints inside the game. Found a few more friends that play and that's a blast. The healer continues to be very sought after, I get the same thing in gulf wars, no one wants to play a monk there either, don't know why you just sit back and heal and get a share of the kills; what could be easier?

More on the healer question: Well my experiences yesterday in a task force now has shown me why no one wants to play a healer in this game--people that don't know how to play or don't play well use you for a scapegoat because they decide they're dieing too much (sometimes due to their own rampant stupidity). (It's just a stupid game people for heaven's sakes and debt is not permanent, you just work it off, so get a life why don't you.) Before whining when you die, you'd better consider whose responsibility it is to get out when you see your health bar dropping like a stone and the healer is busy with someone else or just plain waiting for their powers to recharge--most don't recharge instantly and the stronger heals have a fair recharge lag. I had some fifteen year old punk giving me stupidity (she/he apparently was convinced she always does a better job of healing when she plays her healer) while I'm there busting my bottom to keep a pack of ungrateful jerks alive? After this I guess I'm heading back to guild wars for awhile, most people I play with there are far less infantile. From now on I think the healer only comes out with friends; I've had quite enough of that kind of thinking for a long time. Let someone else be aggravated, I'm there to have fun and that experience yesterday was far from fun. It's people like that who ruin it for the rest of us.

update: NCsoft has continued to add content to the game, so far they have not charged for any extra content just the monthly fee. There is now an invention system, a rather well designed auction house, and the veteran's reward system continues to get expanded. The new auction house allows low level characters a method of getting cash for invention salvage and recipes they may find but may not be high enough to use themselves. There is also a "vault" tied to individual characters where you can stash items for later use (so they don't take up salvage slots). My relatively low level has found enough goodies to get a good amount of cash, money is one of the more annoying things in this game at low levels. People pay well for unusual recipes for wings etc. and the salvage to build them (and recipes drop randomly so any level character can get them). Respec has been added to the game so that if you find you're not happy with your level 50 character's build you can completely rechoose and reslot all your powers a limited number of times. Those that play for long periods and keep their accounts current sometimes get a "free" respec that you don't have to do a mission to earn. Task forces have been added for many levels not just lowbies anymore and there are badges to earn that will give extra abilities such as increased health etc. Occasionally the company puts on a "double xp weekend" when they do this the servers are loaded, sometimes overloaded (but there's generally only a couple that get that busy). On major holidays there is extra content with the chance to go for unusual badges, costume pieces, etc. There's so much to do here you really need a guide to know what there is! This is just a great game, I tried lord of the rings for awhile but didn't like it nearly as well as I like this. It seems to me that there are more people on the west Coast USA playing this game than east coast, most folks I meet are from california and I've only met a very few folks in europe playing. Only thing I wish the company would do is offer an up to date installation DVD for the game, the install discs I have are several releaseas old so whenever I do a new reinstall on another machine it's a several hour download to get the game fully up to date before I can play on that computer. I finally did get my healer up to level 50 and have started a couple of alien characters, once you have one up to 50 you can create a peacbringer or warshade on any server (not just the one your 50 is on). My SG also plays a good bit of City of Villains, you can see that they learned a lot with the heros side when they designed villains but I still prefer to play the good guy, there are also no aliens to play on the villains side but that may come with a future update.

update 10-2007: The company continues to add content to the game for only the monthly fee, unlike world of warcraft where you have to shell out 40 bucks plus for the new addition plus your monthly fees. I've been playing a little wow, not satisfied with their service (get kicked out of the game way too much). City of Heros is terrifically stable and the graphics a hundred times better than wow in its current incarnation. Recent updates to the COH universe include random rikti invasions, new badges that earn additional powers, a warzone where villains and heros can team up and play together as allies and a few other goodies that I probably haven't played with yet. Only thing I'd sort of like to see implemented on coh is voice chat, it's a pain to type all the time but it does have some advantages in server power if they implemented voice chat along with all the fancy graphics in this game I'm sure they'd be dealing with a lot of upgrades to handle it properly. WOW recently introduced voice chat and has introduced all kinds of stability problems because of that so while I'd like voice chat in the game I don't want them to do it if it's going to kill stability. COH has also introduced the ability to pay to rename your character and even pay for a server transfer so if you get sick of playing on one server or find a new guild on another server you can have your favorite characters moved to that server (I don't know what the fee is but it's like 10 bucks on other games I've seen that allow that).