Post originally by Stephen Mortimer at 2005-03-03 02:02:50
Converted from Phorums BB System

So I've been playing CoH for quite a while now, I imported the game and play it on the US Servers, and there are a couple of extra things you should be aware of...

1. As you said you can get your cape at lvl 20, you can also do a mission for Serge at the Icon tailors store in the north west of steel canyon to unlock a second costume slot.

2. At lvl 30 you can do another mission to unlock a third costume slot at Icon, you can also do a mission for the city hall rep to get your Aura.

3. The documentation, the reason you don't get the book with the UK release is that the book bears little or no resemblence to the game anymore. Many powers have been changed since release and many extra features have been added to the classes, like the scrapper criticals and the Tanker punchvoke.

4. The zones, you can kind of figure out the challenge level ahead of time by clicking on the bad guys nearest the station, if the overall colour is red or purple then consider going somewhere else. In addition http://www.vidiotmaps.com/coh/index.php?nav=maps has an excellent compilation of maps for the zones, which in addition to many other very useful things lists the level range for that zone.

5. Enhancements. Ok these are useful up to level 12, then they become important up to level 22, then they become essential. The reason for this is type, the weakest kind of enhancement is a Training enhancement. Trainings can be used by any origin and give about 8% bonus. Next up are dual origins that you buy from specific stores in Steel Canyon and from contacts, you can start taking them at level 12, these give about a 16% bonus. Finally there are Single Origins, these are specific to one type of origin and are purchased from stores in Independence Port and Talos Island, from contacts and eventaully from NPC Stores in Founders Falls, these give a whopping 30% boost.

6. Task Forces. You can team up with other heroes to make a task force, you do a specific linked story arc of missions which are usually quite challenging. In return for which you will be awarded mondo xp. You can usually get 1 or 2 levels out a a TF. Be aware though that they can last up to 7 hours.

Finally, and for me this is the deal maker, the monthly subscription to CoH is inclusive of all updates. Let me say that one more time INCLUSIVE OF ALL UPDATES. WOW! There is an issue update about every 4-6 months and they are always great. The last big one was Issue 3, that added updated powers, new villans and a whole new zone. Basically all the stuff you would have to pay £17 for in an Everquest Expansion pack, these issue updates come out regularly and are included in your subscription. The next planned update is issue 4 which will add PvP Arena matches, body part scaling and Anime type costume options. After that there will be more goodies comming, like the Out of Combat Skills System and new powersets like the pistol scrapper (think Equilibrum).

Basically I love this game and will be playing it for a ling time yet. Drop me a line on steve@kiasyd.dircon.co.uk if you want to chat about it or have any questions.