Everyone, or at least most people, are thrilled at the prospect of Issue 8, due to come out soon. What is expected? Will it be a big hit, or another issue that prompts an extended period of complaints?
One of the most talked about features with Issue 8 is the Veteran Rewards with regularity scheduled gifts to the players. Every three months, to be precise. There are a number of items people want, and some people don’t seem to care very much for. There’s a temporary attack power that you get to pick for each toon, either a dark melee attack or an axe. There’s veteran respecs, and costume tokens almost every single milestone. There are a few items, however, that are going to be popular.
The first is the much wanted trenchcoats. Apparently a lot of people want these, probably for their dark and grim modern heroes, and likely a lot of the villains. Personally, I have no opinion. It’s cool to get, but I don’t actually know if there’s a character I would stuff into one. From looking at the screen shots, cryptic artists did a pretty good job on this, over all. Actually, if they’d let me have Ghost Widows hair, I’d be happier!
The next big one is the wings. Everyone wants wings. Maybe not the wings that are currently there (I have a SG mate that wanted bug wings. Go figure.) but they all want wings. Apparently there are randomly generated flying poses, which change when one starts and stops. And the wings move if you are flying, or falling. So yes, you can give them to the non-flying character and still have fun with the animation, although possibly not as much. Apparently Cryptic was hoping to have selectable flying poses or some such, but, time wise, this was not an option. I have to agree when Positron commented that it’s better now then one or two issues from now.
Oddly, the other very cool item I saw, but haven’t seen much mention of, is the Samurai armor. I skimmed through the screen shots and, I have to say, Cryptic did a top notch job on those! No doubt this item got rather lost in the noise of wings flapping, but I for one was wishing I had someone I could stick into the Samurai armor! Okay, so I might stick some wings on them, but come on people! That is some wicked work they did on that armor, why is it drowning under a flood of feathers?
They also came out with kilts for the male body shapes, ‘complete with sporran’! If I had been drinking something at the time, I probably would have spit it out my nose, but only because it makes me think of a really dumb commercial that used to play a lot. Honestly, I’m rather looking forward to seeing be-kilted heroes running about. Why should it be just the women showing off those calves! All humor aside, they did a really excellent job on this too, and when you combine it with the next item, well, you will probably see the odd Scotsman running about and saving people now.
And the next item was ‘shoulder capes’. At first I was thrilled, then not so much. Sure, it’ll go great with the kilt if you do it right, but honestly, it’s just a cape off centre. Might look a bit odd with some of the capes. Now, if it draped down the shoulder and somewhat over the front, then I would be doing a jig. Maybe not a jig, but I’d probably be more likely to make use of it. Oh well, like I said, in some cases it might not look so bad, so over all, it’s a fairly nice gizmo.
Some of the other items I don’t really care one way or the other about. Roman alphabet for chest symbols and belly shirts for women are an example. Some of the base items are really cool, not to sure how much will get used, nor really the mechanic behind this. I mean, do we have to make it out of salvage and then put it in the base? That would make the most sense to me. Since I’m only vaguely interested, I haven’t checked yet.. really should do that.
I do like the base teleporter. That idea is very cool, especially for me, since my SG is reasonably organized, despite it’s small size, and we have teleporters going to a number of locations which we can then quickly and easily transport to yet more locations. Mostly means I use the base a lot, so the teleporter will be a time saver yet again. Besides, you can teleport your itty bitty characters and maybe save yourself some runtime if you’re lucky!
Over all, the veteran rewards are promising to be one of the bigger aspects of Issue 8, but there is actually other stuff that is slated to happen with this issue, and has simply been lost in the noise over the veteran rewards.
First is the Safeguard missions. People have wanted these since the Mayhem missions appeared in Villains, so I’m a bit surprised there isn’t more noise about them. Personally I’m looking forward to them, at least to give them a shot once or twice. I am really interested in seeing how Cryptic pulls this off. What makes the Mayhem missions so fun is, well, the Mayhem! How can they live up to that with the heroes, who aren’t supposed to run around causing havoc?
Then there’s the Police Band radio. Newspaper missions for heroes. Again, I’m surprised this has been lost in the noise, or maybe I’m not reading the boards in the right places. Even I am looking forward to this, when I can give these to my solo-sucky characters when they are the highest level in teams. And really, when you only have an hour or so to play, what rocks more then picking up a quickly mission rather then spending an hour in Orenbega for the fifth time in one day?
Oh, and the Pocket D arenas. People have been clamoring for more stuff to do with Pocket D for an age, and they tossed arenas in there for the PvP fond heroes and villains to frolic in. Again, haven’t heard much, but then, PvP tends to erupt into flames when mentioned on the boards, no matter where its mentioned.
And the last, but certainly not the least, is that Faultline will be rebuilt. This is increadably cool, and I have heard some mention of it on the boards. Personally, I’m very much looking forward to it. I have no idea if I will be spending time there, but I will at least be checking it out, and maybe they’ll extend the tram up into there, then it can be a stop like any other. Who knows? I’m just glad they are starting to rework some of the less used zones. I really thought those zones where cool when I went into them, but honest, the only time I went there was when I had to! I’m guessing that a number of people are the same in that regard.
So, over all, I’m looking forward to this Issue, though I do have to admit, I’m almost always looking forward to a new Issue. Starting on the 18th is the Halloween Event, so you can expect to hear my opinion on that once it gets going as well. In the mean time, go, play, have fun, and Happy Thanksgiving from up here. -@Mialiah ([email protected])
