I've been seeing LOTS of odd-colored powers lately - some can be very striking, others make character into living neon signs.  Good or bad, it is eye-catching more often than not. If you haven't journeyed into Paragon City lately, your next visit will be at least a bit interesting.

The Double XP weekend was this weekend.  I had some conflicting obligations, but did get a few hours in.  I was able to work up a few new character combinations on Virtue -- an electric/electric scrapper called Veridian Volt and  a Trap/Rad Defender called Nukatron.  I also got several levels on Septema Burgess, and got Wild Deal up to 20.  Not bad for the time I put in.

I'm seeing a few complainers on City of Heroes more and more .  Most of them are either individuals with copy-cat characters, breaking the EULA by duplicating an existing copyright.  Many have such LAME excuses, when the subject comes up and their violation is pointed out.  Some think the character or punctuation added to a name like "xx Superman xx", or "Godzilla.", makes them different enough. USUALLY these are the same people making JLA , Avenger, or X-Men supergroups as well.     There are a few supergroups that are broadcasting recruitment promos a tad TOO often.  It may be good for their membership drive, but it does annoy many a Atlas Park roamer when they see the 10th 2-part promo in an hour, sometimes done to broadcast AND Request channels back to back.  I've seen more than a few arguments started due to such over-zealous promotional activity.

I'm wondering whether we'll see Going Rouge this year or not -- It'd have to be sandwiched between the Halloween and winter event.  It will be a tight fit.  But the alternative is Going Rogue not being out till February.  TOO long and it will bump into the Valentine's day event  I'm still hoping/guessing at mid to late November.

Finally, COH Podcast has posted a special episode now -- which includes yours truly as a Dragon*Con Panelist.  Check it out HERE  

Sure you can do some things that never happen in City -- Like lifting and throwing objects, including vehicles.   There are a handful of powers that I like the effects on like the Sorcery set.   But there are things that just don't make sense yet.  Being able to have capes from the get-go is good.   But is it enough?

City of Heroes has a LARGE world. Even at the beginning we had Atlas Park, King's Row, Skyway City, Steel Canyon , etc. all available to the low-level hero, with other zones available in a few levels.    CO - has only a few HUGE Zones.  Granted that focuses the beginning player, but it doesn't divide the world up as effectively by level as COH does.  CO funnels you through the same intro zone (no choice), and into one of two secondary intro zones.  Both of these are subsets of the same three end-zones. You have to get 8 or 9 levels in before your character can join the population at large - zone wise.

I think CO will need a LOT of fixing.  Power balancing is still going on -- You can try one power set and have little problem; another will be HARDER to get anywhere.  

Quests seem to have no limit in CO -- you can have as many active as you want.  However there does seem to be a limit to how STALE they can get.  Compare this with City's 3 mission max.   However there is no remote-contact so far that I've seen for CO - meaning you spend a lot of time running back to the mission-giver to collect your reward.  While I like the no-limit to missions, there seems to be a lot of time wasted in going back to the mission giver.

Personally I think the City approach of enhancements on powers is a little bit more friendly to the new player.  HOW to enhance a CO character to get a particular effect like more damage or faster movement speed is NOT as easy to establish.  I suspect that some players may be turned off by this.  Since this is driven by Attributes which can be adjusted by primary characteristics, talent/perks, AND Offensive, Defensive and Utility gear that is found and equipped.  All these factors come into play -- A much more complicated mechanic than City's enhancements.

The CO community is still evolving; I find City of Heroes FAR better, both as helpful online players, and Supergroups that actually are trying to get something done.  CO doesn't have the prestige or last logged in date either -- but then I haven't seen a limit to SG membership either.  CO has the same problem with copyright infringing characters - only MORE so.  I've yet to see the equivalent to a City's "Generic" characters.  I have to admit that most Supergroups, being small and new, don't have ANYTHING like the feel of City SGs.

I realize that the games are different, despite being designed at least initially by the same company, covering the same genre.  However they are night and day by comparison.  I see these attracting completely different audiences.  Some CO players I've talked with complained about one thing or another on City - controls, leveling, etc.   Most of these things I found similar problems with CO.

With Going Rouge on the horizon, and a third competitor in DC Universe coming down the road after that, I can't help but wonder how they will all balance out.   With each game having its own distinct world, history, and NPC character set, the end difference will be in mechanics -- Whether it is user interface, game mechanics, or simply the world in general.

In my opinion I find myself wanting to like Champions, because it is new and different and allows me to do things impossible in City.   But I find myself liking City better.  The end result is -- will I stay with it?  I'm already debating that.