While I agree that I don't believe all three (or more) of the successor projects will have viable alphas/betas to look at or test, I can hope that at least one gives me what I am hoping for, a true successor to CoH that makes me FEEL like a hero again. Having said that, the two (so far) that look promising are: Valiance Online and Ship of Heroes. Weird, as I assumed the City of Titans would be the one, but since they have yet to really show me anything I am interested in (powers, travel modes, in depth area design), I'll just have to reserve judgement on them until they do.
As for the other two, I recently stumbled across a few Youtube vids for both Valiance Online and SoH and they BOTH have put in some really nice preliminary work. SoH moreso, but I did like looking at Valiance's version of a MM- It was a main character who had three soldiers that had pretty nice detail in their models. SoH impressed me with their power set videos- I think I saw fire, dark, and electric power sets (10 power picks for each), and a RANGED tank set that used a rifle for some nice animations and sound effects. There was a katana wielder as well but I didn't see a vid showcasing their power picks. That and an already developing city and mission innurds make me happy for the future of at least SoH and what they may have to offer us by the end of 2018; PLUS, SoH seems to be taking updates extremely seriously, constantly showing us what they have been working on.
Let's hope that the other successors come with as much fervor as SoH is providing. I would really like to have at least one subscription by the end of the year. I would happily pay for the "best" two I think deserve my money until one proves to be the clear winner of my money.