Capes / Auras

[andys71]

Does anyone else feel that capes and Auras were better when earnt rather than given on creation screen. Just feel that capes when earnt was an achievement as such. i feel that cause they are now part of the character creation, someone has been lost. any thoughts ?

[Supranova]

I feel that way towards auras, not so much towards capes. I mean capes are just part of the costume, but auras give out the idea of power. Seeing a lvl 1 go around glowing like he has enough juice to blow up the whole city feels weird. Earning auras at a later level would give me that feeling that my character's powers have matured and that he's the real deal now.

[n00baka]

My personal opinion has always been that Auras could stand to be level locked, though to what point is open to negotiation with me.  Capes have felt like something that should be open at level 1 for basic capes / patterns, but have the more advanced or desirable patterns and capes level locked, again open to negotiation on what level to unlock.

 

This isn’t born from any logic, or based on any lore (though the old in game lore was nice, having to earn the right to wear a cape in honor of the sacrifice of Hero 1). So honestly I would never call for a change to the current system. But I wouldn’t object either. I just insert my own personal level lock for capes and auras.

 

I’ll always save capes for the second or third costume, and auras for when I’ve gotten a good feel of how the powers look and play. I don’t think anything has really been lost, but I don’t think anything has been gained. Other then the ability to complete a look sooner.

[jkwak]

i think to that auras and capes should be earned.

auras (at least most auras) should be a sign that your Character grew so much in Power that some of his energy leaks out and creates an aura.

Capes should be earned like the way it was in Honor of Hero one

[andys71]

yeah, auras were unlocked at 30 originally iirc, with a challenging mission to do it. when you unlocked it you felt a sense of accomplishment and pride (for me anyway)

[Impish Kat]

It seems to me that if you really want to stick to the aura represents power for your own characters, you could easily do so with the many costume change/save options we have. 

 

However, there is no need to press your way of playing a character on everyone else.  Why restrict everyone else's choices?  Maybe someone wants to play an alien that glows, or a young hero who doesn't realize they glow... or any other number of justifications for an aura or cape.

 

Level locking something as minor as costume pieces and effects has always been nothing more than a silly metric to keep players coming back to a commercial game.  It is completely unnecessary here in a volunteer, non-profit environment.

[_NOPE_]

Story-wise, there was a reason for capes to not unlock until level 20:

 

https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Hero_1

 

Realistically, I don't think it makes any sense anymore. Auras I can see level locking, due to them being seen as an eminatiom of your pure power, but capes? Anyone can go into a store and buy one, why would our characters have any lesser ability beyond a regular citizen to buy fabric?

 

Just thinking RP reasons here.

[Lunchmoney]

[Lunchmoney]

This opens the question on all the unlocks being open from the start. Should they be locked up again? I say yes.

[_NOPE_]

 

LOL, +1 Inf

[cmhDK]

I would also like stuff like capes and auras to be lvl/mission locked, having everything unlocked from the start leaves you with nothing to work for, it also leaves us with less content, the missions might still be there (I don't know) but why would you do them? you already have the reward, even costume-slots, I don't know how easy it would be, but if tailor missions were repeatable, people who want more then 4 costume-slots could still get that

 

anyway, that's just my opinion

[Healix]

You can still do the cape mission (the rep in City Hall is the contact, still) and you can also runt the Icon missions.

[Shinobu]

To me all of these arguments basically come down to the old MMO newbie look vs. being able to look cool right from the start.  There's this idea that you shouldn't look very cool if you're a  level 1 character, that you have to "earn" the right to look cool.  CoH was always different from most MMOs in that how you looked was not tied to level nor gear nor anything "earned".  City of Heroes always felt unique in that aspect -- characters could be colorful and have a unique look from the very start.  It certainly makes standing around in a starter zone like Atlas Park a great deal more interesting than standing around in any starter zone from a typical fantasy MMO.  It always was a little weird, then, that the philosophy of the game was, "You can look like who you're meant to be right away", EXCEPT if you wanted to wear Roman armor, or have glowing eyes, or wear a cape, or have wings.

 

I mean, if I want to create a ghostly warrior with glowing hands, then there's no earthly reason that makes sense to me that his hands should NOT glow until he's level 30.  That's MMO logic, that doesn't make sense for designing a comic book hero or villain.

[Fista]

What that guy said. All costume parts sould be available at level 1. I wanna look like I wanna look. The Winged Avenger shouldn't have to wait 20 levels to have wings.

[Radionuclide]

I don't. Level locks and such only make sense in a for profit game as an incentive to time sink to obtain that thing. We're not doing the commercial thing here. It does not matter how much or how little you play from a bottom line perspective. Might as well, let the look players want from the beginning. There are plenty of other gates in the game without these.

[_NOPE_]

To me all of these arguments basically come down to the old MMO newbie look vs. being able to look cool right from the start.  There's this idea that you shouldn't look very cool if you're a  level 1 character, that you have to "earn" the right to look cool.  CoH was always different from most MMOs in that how you looked was not tied to level nor gear nor anything "earned".  City of Heroes always felt unique in that aspect -- characters could be colorful and have a unique look from the very start.  It certainly makes standing around in a starter zone like Atlas Park a great deal more interesting than standing around in any starter zone from a typical fantasy MMO.  It always was a little weird, then, that the philosophy of the game was, "You can look like who you're meant to be right away", EXCEPT if you wanted to wear Roman armor, or have glowing eyes, or wear a cape, or have wings.

 

I mean, if I want to create a ghostly warrior with glowing hands, then there's no earthly reason that makes sense to me that his hands should NOT glow until he's level 30.  That's MMO logic, that doesn't make sense for designing a comic book hero or villain.

 

I can't argue with this logic.

[Erydanus]

I disagree that capes or auras need to be gated.

 

They were gated in the past to artificially create content and give players the feeling of scarcity and achievement. It's kind of the same with the costume slots. It's just an arbitrary hurdle that you know people can and will jump over. The only things I think could maybe be gated would be costume parts achieved from play and even then I'm only in favor of certain things. When they put in the Family style gun but tied it to the defeat family badge - that's fine if your character is a generic army dude and you just want him to pick up a family Tommy gun as a trophy. But what if you want your character to be an ex-family member from the very start? Then that gating is a pain in the ass. I don't agree with that kind of restriction for costume pieces. Something like Task Force Commander shoulder pads? That you can make someone earn, I think. Doing Katie Hannon task force to unlock witch hats? No I'd rather let someone be a hat-wearing witch from level 1 if that's their desired look.

 

I LOVE being able to arrive out of the tutorial and immediately create a secret identity costume, as well as a slight variant of the main costume where I take of my helmet/shoulderpads/etc just basically tweak it to be an out of combat relaxed look. I like being able to start with wings or a cape if that's my concept. Honestly I usually don't. I generally think of auras as too much visual clutter but if people like them then I say let them have what makes them have fun from day 1.

 

If you really want to get a sense of accomplishment, get some badges and accolades and set your title. That will really show everyone how hard you worked. Limiting people's clothing and accessory options is not good.

[jubakumbi]

Does anyone else feel that capes and Auras were better when earnt rather than given on creation screen. Just feel that capes when earnt was an achievement as such. i feel that cause they are now part of the character creation, someone has been lost. any thoughts ?

 

Nope.

 

This was all done in the retail version to get players to play longer and to, supposedly, lower graphic impact.

 

All these years later, no retail, not nearly as many toasters.

 

Why restrict your creativity in some quest to 'go home' and make things 'like they always were'?

 

Makes no sense to me.

 

Progeression is powers and enhancements, etc., not style, unless you choose to do that for your character, IMO.

[Kelador]

Does anyone else feel that capes and Auras were better when earnt rather than given on creation screen. Just feel that capes when earnt was an achievement as such. i feel that cause they are now part of the character creation, someone has been lost. any thoughts ?

 

Nope.

 

This was all done in the retail version to get players to play longer and to, supposedly, lower graphic impact.

 

All these years later, no retail, not nearly as many toasters.

 

Why restrict your creativity in some quest to 'go home' and make things 'like they always were'?

 

Makes no sense to me.

 

Progeression is powers and enhancements, etc., not style, unless you choose to do that for your character, IMO.

 

Were did you get that information from? when COH launched we was a paying a monthly subscription fee if we played for 1 or 100 hours it did not matter to NCSoft they had our money... the cape was a reward for completing a quest chain and aura quests too this was also fun... Handing you everything when you login is boring you get people moaning that there is not things to collect in game...COH was released in a time when people were happy to play a game and unlock things as they went... these days people expect everything to be handed to them and its boring... it had nothing to do with stretching out play time...

[jubakumbi]

 

Were did you get that information from? when COH launched we was a paying a monthly subscription fee if we played for 1 or 100 hours it did not matter to NCSoft they had our money... the cape was a reward for completing a quest chain and aura quests too this was also fun... Handing you everything when you login is boring you get people moaning that there is not things to collect in game...COH was released in a time when people were happy to play a game and unlock things as they went... these days people expect everything to be handed to them and its boring... it had nothing to do with stretching out play time...

 

At the time, Paragon said the capes caused a lot of drag on GPUs.

 

All subscription games have the sole intent of making you play longer.

Period.

That is the business model.

 

You sound like a grognard.

If you want to grouse about the good old days, go right ahead.

I choose to look forward, not backward, and accept that things change.

 

This is a game, not a job, not something that has to be earned or that has to contain 'work', especially for vanity items with no retail store.

It is a video game for prentendy fun time, not a place I have to prove my Protestant Work Ethic to people like you.

[blayzemaster]

I second the not locking things. This is a game about trying to meet a concept. The auras aren't just part of your power leaking out because you are so good, they could be showing how uncontrolled and new your character is to their abilities, or a host of other things like something they have had since birth. Locking them makes no sense.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

I'm happy that cape, auras and the various gated costume parts are all available from the get go. It lets me make my characters look the way I want them to right from the get go rather than having the make the look "good enough" until I get the level requirements to unlock my final costume.

[Coyotedancer]

What that guy said. All costume parts sould be available at level 1. I wanna look like I wanna look. The Winged Avenger shouldn't have to wait 20 levels to have wings.

 

This.

 

If anyone is dead-set on having the old-school "unlock experience", they can chose not to equip those items on their own new characters. Wait until they're the proper level and have run the missions before using them. Yes, that takes some self-control. But it also doesn't muck things up for those of us who want, say, an Oranbegan character to start out with the glowing eye aura they ought to have.

 

Personally, I always thought that costume/aura locks were pants-on-head STUPID in a game where character customization was such a huge draw... but if you really want to limit yourselves, there are ways you can do it without screwing things up for other players.

[Dr. Gemini]

I want to choose my look from the start. If my character has an aura about him, it is not a visual representation of his increased power, it is from whatever I (not you, I) say it is. My character, my look, my reasons. If I want an aura to be a representation of power then I will not have one until I break a level that I (again, me, not you) decide is the point in which his power begins leaking out.

 

Further, I have no interest whatsoever in doing the same damn cape/aura mission for every single character I want such a thing on. That was my biggest peeve with the unlock before. No level lock, emphatically no. You may feel its an accomplishment, I feel it is tedious and repetitive.

 

My way, you want it locked, great, you can play the game as if it is and not allow yourself a cape/aura until you've run the mission to get them. No one forces you to take it sooner. Your way, I'm forced to play your way. I really, REALLY wish people would stop trying to shove their vision of how the game should be played off on everyone. It's seriously getting annoying.

 

FREEDOM!!!

[jubakumbi]

I really, REALLY wish people would stop trying to shove their vision of how the game should be played off on everyone. It's seriously getting annoying.

 

IME, this has been the case from Day 4 of retail when I started playing...

This game, more than any other I have played, has had busy-bodies and hall monitors trying to tell others how to be Heroes.

 

I find it a fascinating thing to watch, while being irritated at nostalgia loving, change-averse players trying to drag us down and turn the game into a job where I have to 'prove' something to them to allowed to play it.

 

So many years, so many conatant circular arguments.

This was an ongoing topic even when the game was live.