Random Dialogue

– City of Heroes Trick or Treating Guide –

Trick or Treating -
To participate in the weekend event, simply click on a door. Where normally you get the message “The Door is Locked” if you don’t have a mission behind the door, this weekend you get either a Trick or a Treat. You can click the same door as many times as you want. You will get either a Trick or a Treat every real time minute. You can only participate in a zone that is tuned for your level. IE, if you are Level 20ish, you can Trick or Treat in Talos Island or Independence Port.

Treats -
Treats are generally inspirations. They range in power from intro level to highest, cover all the types (attack, accuracy, healing, armor, endurance regeneration, rez, and effect nullification), and the type of inspiration you get has nothing to do with your level. Besides inspirations you will occasionally get enhancements (random also) or occasionally the temporary power of “Rock”. This is the power the punks in the tutorial have. It’s a low powered ranged attack. Mostly funny.

Tricks -
When you get a trick, the door will open and monsters will jump out. The monsters are tuned to the level of the person who opens the door. Monsters generally jump out in one of the following combinations:

3 Witches
1 Witch, 1 Crone
3 Zombies
1 Vampire, 1 Spirit
1 Vampire Lord
1 Werewolf, 1 Zombie
1 Werewolf, 1 Spirit
1 Vampire, 1 Spirit
3 Streng (Pumpkin Fir Bolgs)

By defeating holiday themed monsters, you can earn special holiday badges. Given that many of these creatures haven’t been seen until this point, some of these badges may not be earnable after this weekend.

Halloween Badges -

The Fir Bolg King (Eochai) doesn’t jump out of a door. He spawns randomly in zones. His level is almost always very high, corresponding to the level of the zone he’s in. To earn the Hallow Spirit badge you have to be on the team that kills the monster, doing the most amount of damage. He also spawns Strengs at his feet to assist him in his nefarious plans.

My head is fully of angry goo and it’s trying very hard to get out.

This makes me sad, and more than a little frustrated at my co-worker, who decided to come in all this week with his infectious carcass breathing death-fumes everywhere.

Additionally, supposed to game tonight, work on the party tomorrow, and attend the party on Saturday.

At the moment I am at work, but am seriously considering cutting out early.

Argh! The gooooo!

Day in pictures
Some of the most striking images from around the world on 27 October 2004.

Divisions over Gaza
Images of the Israeli settlers protesting against the Gaza withdrawal plan while peace activists rally in support of it.

Yay!

In-game events are the best things in teh entire virtual world!

Tricks and Treats!

In my gallery are pictures of a preview of the first City of Heroes Holiday Event. A few hundred first to fourth level heroes clicking like mad on doors to earn tricks and treats.

The premise was thus: Normally, if you click on a door that doesn’t correspond to your mission you get a little popup that says “Door is locked”. During the event, you could click on a doors and every minute you would get a Trick or a Treat. Treats were temporary powers, inspirations, and I bet during the actual event they’ll have other stuff too. If we don’t end up getting some new badges this weekend, I’ll be mighty surprised. Tricks were just as cool. The door would open and out would pop several Halloween themed creatures. Witches, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and vampires all came out to play. They were tuned to the level of the player that opened the door, so you were highly likely to be able to take on the results of the Trick.

Several other games do seasonal events in-game, but this was (like everything so far with City of Heroes) a cut above. As an unfocused event, it would probably have only been entertaining for a short while, but with the story, plotting, and panache that Cryptic brings to everything in City of Heroes I expect this weekend to be lots of fun. My hope is that they do provide badges or other permanent reminders of this event, ala FFXI. Being able to whip out your pumpkin mask during the middle of the summer was part of the excellence of Square’s design. Badge titles will remind players for the rest of the year of the good time they had this weekend, and mark veteran players as such. (I was there when, and such.)

Hats off to Cryptic and the CoH designers for what looks to a top-notch event. I’ll definitely be there in Paragon this weekend.

Update: A thread over on the boards describes the experience pretty well, and confirms that we’ll be getting new badges. Statesman also put up a thread thanking folks for participating, and saying that Trick or Treating will be available in all zones and at all levels this weekend. This plus the 3vil invasion should keep us heroes busy till the wee hours.

Jazz club’s 45th birthday
Rare photographs of jazz musicians who have performed at Ronnie Scott’s form a new London exhibition.

Day in pictures
Some of the most striking images from around the world on 25 October 2004.

I’ve pushed through the last few days into the sweet spot of Level 20.

City of Heroes has really grown on me in the past two months. Where the original game seemed like a long grind, the addition of the badges, perks like the capes, and intersting plot elements have given me mental relief. The key, though, is the people. Playing with people I actually know has made all the difference. Crisia and Mr. Fief and Candi Striper, P.A.N.T.S. members all, I salute you!

Day in pictures
Some of the most striking images from around the world on 21 October 2004.

Typhoon Tokage
Photos of the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Tokage which has torn through Japan.