I never thought I could be so emotional over a game but even after almost 2 years of it being gone I still cannot stop thinking about it at least once a day. I can still picture in my mind doing missions and just generally hanging around and wondering what I would be doing right now if we still had the game.
I made a screensaver with my screenshots and ones I got from people on here and it really hits home how much I loved this game for the 8 years I played.
I miss so many things its not even funny.
Thanks to Icon I can at least revisit zones and even ones I never really spent time in.
The real sad thing is that unless the actual data files are used by someone to restart the game, its gone forever.
Even if any of these new projects are close enough, it wont be Paragon and wont have all the same groups, buildings, etc.
Me too. It's one of those things I think about and miss every day. I've tried to forget and let it go and "move on" as so many have helpfully suggested. But I can't.
When people say that or "it's just a game" I get a little more angry. Don't you think I would if I could? Does anyone honestly think that I wouldn't like to just snap my fingers and "let it go"?
There are many things in my life that i wish didn't matter so much to me, but they do. Nothing I've tried will change that. I just have to learn to live with the pain and hope that i get so used to it so that it's just another ache that I can deal with and still function until I can play again. There are some losses that are beyond the power of anyone to fix, this isn't one of them.
One day, I'll find my way back there, to my home.
I still day dream about the game too, as I've said before. I can still picture in my mind how some of the powers would inter-play with one another.
I'm a farmer at heart, so I can still see the big purple letters that said RECIPE flash on my screen. :(
I can still see parts of the ITF, still remember the back ground music for the Council farm.
It's all burned into my brain forever and thank God for that. :P
If I could just log on to my brute or fire/kin again, I'd be happy. :(
Quote from: TheDevilYouKnow on March 20, 2014, 05:14:55 AM
When people say that or "it's just a game" I get a little more angry. Don't you think I would if I could? Does anyone honestly think that I wouldn't like to just snap my fingers and "let it go"?
Don't let them get to you. You found something that just "clicked" with you, deep down. The parts of that game lined up in just the right way, and it spoke to something inside of you. You might not have even known it was there until it did click. A lot of us around here share that feeling, you're certainly not alone in that. And you definitely don't have to feel bad that at some point in your life you cared about something.
What might be happening is, the people who say things like "just let it go", have never found
their something. Or the thing that clicked with them isn't in danger of being taken away, so they have literally no idea how to relate to people in a situation like ours. For example, those people who have a deeply rooted love for the game of baseball, or for surfing, or for bird watching. Try and suggest to those people that one day birds could be nothing more than a memory, or that there's a possible future where it's against the law to play baseball. They just can't wrap their heads around it.
The only people who say things like "just let it go", are people who have never had to let go of something they
really care about. Don't mind those people. They don't get it.
COH wasn't like other games. Youngsters might not have been around for "The Curse of the Superhero Game," but for years and years, promised superhero games failed to actually launch, including one that was essentially actually finished except for mission content. We eventually got the Freedom League single-player game and a few text-based stories, but that was it.
Then COH launched and we not only had a modern MMO, it turned out to be vast and innovative. So many people who had waited SO LONG for such a game flocked to COH, and the community that formed wasn't just fans of the game or fans of the genre, but long-denied fans of the genre who finally had a home!
And the Dev team benefited from player feedback (up to a point). We had a hand in making our home bigger and better.
And it didn't fade -- it was still a viable profit-making MMO when it was killed. By surprise.
So it indeed is a different situation from every other "waah, my game shut down" complaint.
Thanks Triplash!
I think you're right that many of those who say those kind of things just don't understand how loss works because they have never really lost something or someone that they care about. Sadly, one day they will. I wish it weren't so, but it is.
This isn't like losing a loved one, where nothing can be done. That's a loss that you just have to take and live with. City of Heroes isn't like that. It can come back and I think, no matter how quixotic it may seem, that it will.
Until then I will just wait and hope.
Sometimes I even feel like I'm playing the game.
After a year and a half, I don't have visions of the game anymore. NCsoft gave us the message load and clear.
I still saved my FRAP files, and the game install...even cloned my drive....
Guess part of me still hopes the data may be useful one day....maybe in obsolescence, it may be released, sold to
a 3rd party or something.
I have played old games still ran on private servers, like Star Fleet Elite Force...Crimson Skies.
...never know.....
Been a while since back on this forum page.
Just wondering, if CoH will be running again on a private server?
Its my most favorite, next down the line is EQ.
EQ - Kunark, before All expanisons hit, The Pre 1999 EQ is on a private server with many many people playing it.
I love CoH tho and would love to play it again, is there an answer to this perhaps?!
Thanks all, i appreciate it.
Z
QuoteBeen a while since back on this forum page.
Just wondering, if CoH will be running again on a private server?
Maybe one day but I'd guess it wont be anytime soonish.
One thing is for sure, I can tell just by hanging out on these forums. No one is giving up hope. :)
My daughter and I went for a walk a couple of days ago, and spent the 30 odd minutes talking about favourite memories of the city and characters.
Quote from: Triplash on March 20, 2014, 11:21:12 AM
Don't let them get to you. You found something that just "clicked" with you, deep down. The parts of that game lined up in just the right way, and it spoke to something inside of you. You might not have even known it was there until it did click. A lot of us around here share that feeling, you're certainly not alone in that. And you definitely don't have to feel bad that at some point in your life you cared about something.
What might be happening is, the people who say things like "just let it go", have never found their something. Or the thing that clicked with them isn't in danger of being taken away, so they have literally no idea how to relate to people in a situation like ours. For example, those people who have a deeply rooted love for the game of baseball, or for surfing, or for bird watching. Try and suggest to those people that one day birds could be nothing more than a memory, or that there's a possible future where it's against the law to play baseball. They just can't wrap their heads around it.
The only people who say things like "just let it go", are people who have never had to let go of something they really care about. Don't mind those people. They don't get it.
Wow.
Yes.
Wow.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
QuoteTriplash: The only people who say things like "just let it go", are people who have never had to let go of something they really care about. Don't mind those people. They don't get it.
Whoop, there it is.
Its like people who have never been through the death [especially an unexpected death] of someone close to them. Yep, no biggie. No problem. Get over it. But when it happens to them, they'll [maybe] finally get a clue.
Quote from: doc7924 on March 17, 2014, 04:22:53 PMThe real sad thing is that unless the actual data files are used by someone to restart the game, its gone forever.
Even if any of these new projects are close enough, it wont be Paragon and wont have all the same groups, buildings, etc.
The game I started playing at launch was mostly gone forever long before shutdown. The bands of street sweepers in Bricks were gone by I3. The quads I used to hunt in PI were eradicated not long after they even arrived. The calls for pickup help for the AV portal missions were a memory by I5. The lunatic gate-swarms of Perez were balanced out of Radiation Emission and only the oldest old timers remember them. Sewer hunting was replaced by the low sewer trial. Inventions replaced saving for SOs. The Big Blue Hand came and went. The game we played was never exactly the game we remembered.
What mattered was the developers, the player community, and the freedom of the game. No successor game will reproduce Atlas Park or the Rikti War Zone. But even Paragon Studios destroyed Galaxy City and replaced the Rikti Crash Site. If the game has the same structure and freedom in equal measure, if it encourages the same kind of player community to accrete around it, if the developers maintain the same open door to its players, it won't be the same game, but it could be what the game might have eventually become.
I never really had a problem with the game changing. Things always change. I got into the game because some friends of mine who had played for years wanted me to. Later they told me that the ITF was nearly impossible. Well, it probably was for a while until people figured it out. Things Change.
One of them, who played for like 8 years asked me how my blaster could wade into mobs. I explained that I had slotted sets that increased his positional defense and popped a small purple to softcap. He had no idea what I was talking about. He still just slotted SO's and had no idea of the benefits of set bonuses. Things change and he just missed it.
It took me about six months before I knew more about the game then they ever did. I explained the lore to them, how sets worked, took them on badge tours, how to use knockback as soft control, and also showed them how to beat the ITF :).
I tried to explain marketing and how to be filthy rich.But they just couldn't get it. It was easier just to give them money when they needed it.
Not because I'm wicked smart like Arcana, but because I loved the game so much that I read everything that I could find. I read the paperbacks, all the comics, most of the wikipedia (except for missions I hadn't done yet because of spoilers), I bought every version of the game I cold find, both of the Prima guides, whatever hero clicks I could find.
I only got to play for five years, but in that five years so much happened. I was bummed when Galaxy City got the Axe, I even missed doing the old Posi. (i would sometimes solo it in Ouroboros). But the point is things always changed.
But it didn't matter. It was still fun and the spirit was there. The players where some of the best people I have ever met online. Most were so helpful and fun to team with. One time I was playing Captain Mar-vell homage on a double XP weekend and got the entire team wiped. I was expecting a flame (and I would have deserved it) and all that was said was "yeah, maybe next time wait for the tank to grab the aggro."
Someone once saw a Frankenstein toon that I was running and sent me 5 million inf. Why? He was looking for a team and the "The Doctor's Monster" came up in the search and he really liked the concept. Where else does that kind of thing happen?
What never changed, what no Dev could nerf, what no troll could destroy was simply the camaraderie of the players and the genuine affection we all shared for the game, warts and all.
I know in my heart that I would still be playing and would probably play until something killed me. I could always count on City of Heroes to make my day better. That's why I want to play again before I die.
Same here, but for me it is more about regretting backing a bad game (champions online) than sticking with city of and taking a break.
During this downtime I've watched and rewatched as many YouTube city of heroes videos. :(
Arcana, I have to ask: What is the Big Blue Hand?
Quote from: TheDevilYouKnow on March 30, 2014, 05:00:49 PM
Arcana, I have to ask: What is the Big Blue Hand?
Some time back around, I think it was I4, the devs decided that the hand icon that your cursor changes into when you are mousing over a hot spot on screen was too small, so they enlarged it. For some reason, the enlarged hand looked goofy to a lot of players, so they shrunk it back down again. While it was enlarged, many players made random jokes related to the big blue hand, often in regard to power nerfs. You know: unyielding was nerfed, but the blue hand was buffed so we're even. That sort of thing.
I think it was around the same time the devs fixed the healing power of mission doors (at launch, exiting a mission or passing through an elevator door would automatically reset your health to full. So if you were low on health, you could theoretically run into an elevator and immediately run back through the elevator to where you started from, but restored to full health, and continue the mission. There was a time when teams would pull AVs to elevators specifically for this reason: elevators were the strongest emps in the game at that time).
Thanks for sharing that! That was from before my time in game. What a great story! That elevator thing sure would have made soloing even easier!
Quote from: Arcana on March 31, 2014, 06:39:04 PM
I think it was around the same time the devs fixed the healing power of mission doors (at launch, exiting a mission or passing through an elevator door would automatically reset your health to full.
That surely must have been fixed before the Council issue and EU launch. I started playing shortly after EU launch, and elevators were for going somewhere safe to pop Rest, not direct sources of healing. I know it's a few years back now, but I'd bet that bug never existed for me...
It crosses my mind now and then. I never was able to play on a consistent basis unfortunately. I first played this game around a year post-launch but then went on a 4 year hiatus. I am far more nostalgic/reminiscent of the game circa 2005 then the AE era.
I started with Issue 15, so while I saw a number of changes (e.g. I remember the separate Yellow and Green Line trains--and where they went), I also missed lots of changes, e.g. the Big Blue Hand. I remember small details, like clicking the Ouroboros symbol on the ground rather than the portal light at the top to gate thru.
For the longest time I had a recurring daydream about a specific character departing Wentworth's in Steel Canyon to fly off to his next mission (also in that zone).
It makes sense to me that we each remember City of Heroes vividly and fondly. I am hoping Ironwolf's current efforts are successful. Keeping hope and /em holdtorch.
I will sometimes see something in real life that immediately makes me think of CoH, and how I could express it in the game. (A name, concept, article of clothing, etc.) My first reaction is that I want to log on. It always leaves me with an ache in my heart that I can't......
I've been watching this forum for a long time but I never post because there's nothing for me to say that hasn't already been said in some form. I only played a few months out of each year because I needed to keep things 'fresh' for myself but I at the same time had as much emotional investment into it as anyone. A need for it to at least be there. I'm probably past the bawling stage but I still feel like I need therapy. It's like someone died. It's like I was an artist and went suddenly and completely blind. I never saw that level of sadness coming. And I might even be happy about that, about knowing I could say I was passionate about something while I could be, if I did have more time invested-- to feel I'd had my 'day'. I never got to see everything. But an artist is never done expressing themselves, so what consolation could be found in blindness? Rhetorical, of course.
I played almost constantly for 5 years. There were things I never saw and never got to do.
But how long we played or made the City our home doesn't matter. If you started playing the day before the shutdown was announced and as long as you loved the game, you are a brother (or sister) in arms. I still feel the loss, we all do. I can certainly understand your post Cryair the Twiceborn, but I'm not sure anybody who wasn't there can.
Words don't completely convey it, even other people who played it don't always get it. For them, it's just a game they really liked but were OK with going to the next thing. I guess we were wounded in way they weren't. It feels like a wound that will not heal, like we should have done something and didn't and so the wound won't close.
It's the ocean knocking down your sandcastle that you swore was unbreakable. Time does it to most everything. It's been said, but worse than taking away what's beloved, they also took away the feeling of security in investment into games. I don't think anyone didn't become leery of their other investments' mortality after that. Only robbery in its many forms can do that so effectively. Once you call it what it is to one of those strangers, they become more likely to 'get it'.
Quote from: healix on April 09, 2014, 04:09:40 PM
I will sometimes see something in real life that immediately makes me think of CoH, and how I could express it in the game. (A name, concept, article of clothing, etc.) My first reaction is that I want to log on. It always leaves me with an ache in my heart that I can't......
This!
Just one example of this, not sure if the other servers had anything similar but on the Defiant server there was a SG called the Taxi Service :) They would position themselves in hazard zones (Hollows mainly) and broadcast to lowbie toons that they were in the zone if anyone needed TP to gates, can't walk down a street now without seeing a taxi and thinking of that SG and how helpful they were.
Note: They didn't even charge for the service ;)
Quote from: Saint Sanguinor on April 20, 2014, 07:51:33 AM
This!
Just one example of this, not sure if the other servers had anything similar but on the Defiant server there was a SG called the Taxi Service :) They would position themselves in hazard zones (Hollows mainly) and broadcast to lowbie toons that they were in the zone if anyone needed TP to gates, can't walk down a street now without seeing a taxi and thinking of that SG and how helpful they were.
Note: They didn't even charge for the service ;)
The Taxi Service was before my time I'm afraid. Although, I do have memories of trying to sprint through the Hollows or :shudder: Hover before prestige travel powers. The Hollows could be...brutal to level 8-14 toons.
Quote from: TheDevilYouKnow on April 21, 2014, 08:48:07 PM
The Taxi Service was before my time I'm afraid. Although, I do have memories of trying to sprint through the Hollows or :shudder: Hover before prestige travel powers. The Hollows could be...brutal to level 8-14 toons.
But the Hollows was so much fun to run through at these lvls, getting to missions on the otherside of the map, an MMO game became a puzzle game due to picking the right route, avoiding the mobs... So much fun, even in a team getting to location and willing the others to make it also without getting killed, then having to respawn in Atlas hospital if they didn't manage to avoid a mob, as there wasn't an aid station in Hollows back then :)
Quote from: Saint Sanguinor on April 22, 2014, 05:46:42 AM
But the Hollows was so much fun to run through at these lvls, getting to missions on the otherside of the map, an MMO game became a puzzle game due to picking the right route, avoiding the mobs... So much fun, even in a team getting to location and willing the others to make it also without getting killed, then having to respawn in Atlas hospital if they didn't manage to avoid a mob, as there wasn't an aid station in Hollows back then :)
Back in the day when Peregrine Island was added to the game in Issue 1, I and other players I knew used to have races where we would make a level 1, and then from Atlas Park we would race to the Portal statue in PI. Picking the fastest route to get there from Atlas and trying to execute it without travel powers or stealth and without dying was a significant challenge.
Quote from: Arcana on April 22, 2014, 09:06:34 AM
Back in the day when Peregrine Island was added to the game in Issue 1, I and other players I knew used to have races where we would make a level 1, and then from Atlas Park we would race to the Portal statue in PI. Picking the fastest route to get there from Atlas and trying to execute it without travel powers or stealth and without dying was a significant challenge.
Indeed. I always thought it was kinda fun - till I got one-shot when I zigged instead of zagged.
The slightly later variant of that was running to FB-Zulu to get a jet pack for your lowbie -
before they gave us the Vet reward.
Regards,
4
Hollow Fire Tank farms ;D Nothing like seeing a horde of Skulls & Trolls, was fun then the taunt nerf came in to affect... Ahhh the memories :'(
Quote from: Saint Sanguinor on April 22, 2014, 08:48:30 PM
Hollow Fire Tank farms ;D Nothing like seeing a horde of Skulls & Trolls, was fun then the taunt nerf came in to affect... Ahhh the memories :'(
The original crazy zone farming was the rad farms in perez. Unfortunately I do not have a lot of video from that era, but I did find a small snippet a few years back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbn18On-7A (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbn18On-7A)
Back in the day with no target cap and no aggro cap, rad defenders could just lock their two rad toggles on a target, lead them around perez, aggro literally everything, and then herd them to a gate. It was like the spirit of Christmas vomited up a hundred skulls. And since those rad toggles debuffed those skulls trolls and thorns to the tohit floor and the damage floor, low levels could go crazy pummeling them.
As long as they didn't kill the anchors. If you didn't know that and killed the anchors, well...
I followed that link (The Immortal Game: the Last City of Heroes story) at the bottom of your post and I really enjoyed it, well done. Not sure I would like the direction the end game appeared to be going in. Let me explain.
Like everyone else who ever played this game I had my vision of what was fun what my game was. I loved the long arcs and the leveling from around 12 to 50. I know many people viewed all that as a necessary evil, but for me, that was the game. I think this was mainly because in my mind, even though I had done the missions often, this character was the hero of the story he was playing. All the leveling stuff was pretty easy to work into his bio as something he would be doing. The contacts always addressed you by name and made it clear that you saved the day.
The incarnate stuff and the upcoming battalion stuff was much harder to personalize. Probably because you had to be part of a big team to take part. That made it "our" story rather than "my" story. All the cut scenes were necessarily impersonal.
So I would probably play all that stuff with my main DP/Mental at least once and just unlock the Alpha on all my other toons and just create a new story and a new toon.
Quote from: Arcana on April 22, 2014, 10:07:32 PM
The original crazy zone farming was the rad farms in perez. Unfortunately I do not have a lot of video from that era, but I did find a small snippet a few years back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbn18On-7A (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbn18On-7A)
Back in the day with no target cap and no aggro cap, rad defenders could just lock their two rad toggles on a target, lead them around perez, aggro literally everything, and then herd them to a gate. It was like the spirit of Christmas vomited up a hundred skulls. And since those rad toggles debuffed those skulls trolls and thorns to the tohit floor and the damage floor, low levels could go crazy pummeling them.
As long as they didn't kill the anchors. If you didn't know that and killed the anchors, well...
Thanks for the youtube link Arcana, memories on each video you have up :'(
Quote from: TheDevilYouKnow on April 23, 2014, 05:25:41 PM
I followed that link (The Immortal Game: the Last City of Heroes story) at the bottom of your post and I really enjoyed it, well done.
Thanks. If you're unaware, that was something I whipped up in the last month of the game to go with an end of game event I and a few other players managed to cook up that we ran on the beta server. Somehow I found myself with admin access to the beta server a few weeks before shutdown: what are the odds.
More than one person has suggested I rewrite it as a longer story when there's no gun pointing at my head to blitz it out, and at some point when I have more free time I might attempt that.
QuoteNot sure I would like the direction the end game appeared to be going in. Let me explain.
Like everyone else who ever played this game I had my vision of what was fun what my game was. I loved the long arcs and the leveling from around 12 to 50. I know many people viewed all that as a necessary evil, but for me, that was the game. I think this was mainly because in my mind, even though I had done the missions often, this character was the hero of the story he was playing. All the leveling stuff was pretty easy to work into his bio as something he would be doing. The contacts always addressed you by name and made it clear that you saved the day.
The incarnate stuff and the upcoming battalion stuff was much harder to personalize. Probably because you had to be part of a big team to take part. That made it "our" story rather than "my" story. All the cut scenes were necessarily impersonal.
So I would probably play all that stuff with my main DP/Mental at least once and just unlock the Alpha on all my other toons and just create a new story and a new toon.
Although the Incarnate trials were the initial priority, the devs were planning more small team and solo-friendly incarnate content. The leading edge of that was only just starting to come out in I23 and (the unreleased anywhere but the beta server) I24. Given enough time, I think there would have eventually been a rich incarnate-level game outside of the raid content.
Where *I* might have had a problem is that I believe the devs appeared to be on-track to make the same mistake many other people have made when it comes to overtopping themselves. When Incarnates get trumped by the Battalion, and the Battalion get trumped by the true Rikti, and the true Rikti get trumped by the Dimensionless and the Ascended, you are in danger of dulling people's sense of scale. Its the same mistake The Empire Strikes Back makes when they introduce the Super Star Destroyer. Once you destroy the illusion that Star Destroyers are enormous machines by dwarfing them with something else, you risk making people not just think the Star Destroyer is just a toy, but the Super Star Destroyer is just a bigger toy. I recall reading once long ago that even Lucas admitted it was a mistake to take that symbol of Imperial might and make it just a match stick compared to something else. Once you break that feeling of impressive scale, you can't easily get it back.
THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND IS BACK!!!! SOUND THE TRUMPETS!! BLOW THE HORNS!!! LIFT OF YOU HEADS AND HAVE HOPE!!! NEVER FEAR BLACKMELEE IS HERE!! AND GUESS WHAT!!
I BROUGHT MY DADDYS GUN!!!
I totally agree with your comments about scale and power creep.
There needs to be a way to increase difficulty and challenge without making bigger and bigger foozles. It also sorta cheapens the accomplishment of becoming incarnate when you are ultimately just a different scale of minion.
Possibly something along the lines of TSW investigations or maybe (even though some people hated it) something like Numina TF where you needed better team communication and coordination to be successful. I don't know. I'm not a dev. (Thank god) I know the risk/reward metric is pretty darn tricky.
While I know that many players were tired of Pretoria, but I loved the idea of alternate route to 50 that it would have provided. I had some awesome toon ideas that I was waiting for the content to appear to finish it.
Part of the problem with Praetoria was that the enemies at low levels were tougher than the ones normally found on Primal Earth, and then there were all those ambushes. That made some of the fights problematic or outright frustrating for low damage builds.
Quote from: Kaos Arcanna on April 24, 2014, 01:38:20 AM
Part of the problem with Praetoria was that the enemies at low levels were tougher than the ones normally found on Primal Earth, and then there were all those ambushes. That made some of the fights problematic or outright frustrating for low damage builds.
The players that thought they were substantially harder were quantitatively correct: on average Praetorian non-bosses were between 60% and 150% stronger than the average Primal minions and Lts. The developers did not quantitatively balance those well. They tested difficulty through playtesting, but playtesting is tricky when it comes to low level critters, particularly with playtesters that are themselves either devs or veteran players/testers. It also tends not to clearly highlight the frustration that comes from sustaining that high level of difficulty: testing a single spawn, or even a single mission, doesn't always illustrate the negative impact on play that level of difficulty has on lower level characters and less tactically experienced players.
The irony is Praetoria was partially intended to attract newer players, and yet it threw a level of difficulty at newer players they would not see again in any part of the game outside of the most difficult trials and task forces.
Quote from: Arcana on April 24, 2014, 03:31:17 AM
The irony is Praetoria was partially intended to attract newer players, and yet it threw a level of difficulty at newer players they would not see again in any part of the game outside of the most difficult trials and task forces.
Yes, and that difficulty was keenly felt by those new players since they were forced into starting their first character in Praetoria. They could have immediately logged out, rolled a second character and then started in the much more forgiving Paragon City or Rogue Isles, but of course as new players they did not know that. They dipped their toe in, found out they were facing a shark instead of a piranha, and probably got a pretty sour taste of the game because of it. Not the best first impression to make on the rookies.
Praetoria would likely have been much more warmly embraced had they addressed that before launching it. ...Or, y'know, at any point
after launching it. :P
Pretoria definitely had flaws, but not fatal ones. It could have been fixed. Even towards end I still started toons in Pretoria, when they reached that last mission that would have sent them to Primal, I would leave them in hopes that one day they could be a Pretorian only toon that made it to 50 on content in that alternate earth. I know many did not like it, but I have always loved SF and that was the closest to straight up SF that COH offered.
My hope is that if ever we get the game back, either through a buyer or a through SCORE, someone will finish that world's story.
Quote from: TheDevilYouKnow on April 24, 2014, 03:41:30 PM
, when they reached that last mission that would have sent them to Primal, I would leave them in hopes that one day they could be a Pretorian only toon that made it to 50 on content in that alternate earth.
I did as well.
I miss the feel of being a hero. Being the tank (WP/SS) when some AoE DPS aggroed another mob and eeh whole party drops...except for me who went to slugging it out and pulling it off. :)
If by some miracle we do get the game back, I would hope that some modders who love the game and would like to see Pretoria finished would have the chance to create content in partnership with the Devs. You need a fair amount of content to get from 35 to 50, but their are plenty of stories to tell that could be used.
Imagine an arc where you discover a group of strangely clad men looting technology from a first ward tech company that had to run when the city fell. They call themselves "Sky Raiders" and they have Pretorian allies helping them find the choicest bits of tech.
Or...What better place to set up an illegal drug manufacturing facility than in a world that has no pesky heroes in it. As a villian it's much easier to operate here where there is no law. Or is there? Pretoria seems to be generating it's own crop of interfering hero wannabes. It's up to to stop them.
Or...The Banished Pantheon has been stymied by the heroes of primal earth in their attempts to return. But what if they came in through the back door?
Or...Far above the ravaged cities of Pretoria the orbital space platform watches the savage struggle below. How safe are they really? In the near deserted part of the Pretoria, far away from the watchful eye of the emperor a small band of desperate technologists have cobbled together a orbital entry vehicle and they are begging for asylum. What terrors and opportunities do they bring with them?
Or...In the First Ward there are survivors and rebels who live in the ruins. Lately, there have been reports of bestial attackers, half man and half beast who attack anything and take what they will. Where do these weird chimera come from and what is the point of their ruinous savagery? They talk about humans as "animals" and treat the captured as either pets or useful beasts of burden.
That took about ten minutes and I know that there are writers who could do much better but I would absolutely play through those arcs with my Praetorian toons. Most of these arcs could be written as neutral to heroic.
Quote from: TheDevilYouKnow on April 30, 2014, 08:09:41 PM
Or...What better place to set up an illegal drug manufacturing facility than in a world that has no pesky heroes in it. As a villian it's much easier to operate here where there is no law. Or is there? Pretoria seems to be generating it's own crop of interfering hero wannabes. It's up to to stop them.
Wait, Praetoria's got a massive number of pesky heroes in the service of Powers Division, _and_ the Resistance won't be too keen on the idea, _and_ the existing all-consuming crime syndicate will take a very dim view of you muscling in on their turf.
The place to set that would be on some of the ruined worlds from the original Portal Corps arcs, and not worry too much about how that goateed-evil-twin Praetoria is not really very like the more recent Praetoria.
I was think mainly of First Ward rather than the city itself.
While those worlds that Portal Corp opened would be ideal I reject them for 2 reasons:
1. There is a lot more traffic between Pretoria and any of those worlds, much of it not in a high security zone like Portal Corp.
2. I want to pump up gold side content, not just Red/Blue so I was really thinking of just those kind of arcs.
I even thought of a way to radio missions there. - There would be many citizen rescues of course, but recovering tech, stopping/helping raids that kind of thing. I would use the tech that they used for zone events so it could be red/blue based on what the team/player does.
If we get really ambitious we could even add new higher level zones. Imagine a city like Washington DC or London, lost to Hamidon. Full of 40-50 level baddies, a small advance base of resistance hiding there and also Loyalists making a foothold to retake the area. I think it would be Sa-weet!
Hehe, I think it'd have become impossible to settle in praetoria anyways after the events of issue 23. But I still imagine going into a post issue 24 praetoria once in a while, and seeing a lot of devouring earth everywhere spreading poisons and transforming the world. Turning it into an alien paradise. If only they weren't so intolerable towards humans and actually used their earthly talents to improve the environment without endangering human beings.
Yes, that's true but after the 1-20 run you leave for the Isles, Paragon City or First Ward. The rest of your run could take place after i23 in First Ward, Second Ward, The ruins of Pretoria (lots of stories about surviving in the post apocalyptic wasteland that you could do (That was one of the costume sets they were working on after all).
Understand, I know all this is extremely remote, just it would be cool if it could be done.
I suggested modders mainly because they work mainly for love of the game, not money and so many games have hugely extended lives because of them. Just look at Morrowind and Oblivion, both still have active players years after development ceased. Modders keep finding new ways to interest the players. Of course Devs would have to vet anything that would even be considered being added outside of an AE environment, but it's not impossible.
This thread is about daydreaming after all! :D
Quote from: Arcana on April 24, 2014, 03:31:17 AM
The players that thought they were substantially harder were quantitatively correct: on average Praetorian non-bosses were between 60% and 150% stronger than the average Primal minions and Lts. The developers did not quantitatively balance those well. They tested difficulty through playtesting, but playtesting is tricky when it comes to low level critters, particularly with playtesters that are themselves either devs or veteran players/testers. It also tends not to clearly highlight the frustration that comes from sustaining that high level of difficulty: testing a single spawn, or even a single mission, doesn't always illustrate the negative impact on play that level of difficulty has on lower level characters and less tactically experienced players.
The irony is Praetoria was partially intended to attract newer players, and yet it threw a level of difficulty at newer players they would not see again in any part of the game outside of the most difficult trials and task forces.
As an experienced player, I kinda liked that. It was tough, but you felt pretty pumped when you survived an ambush of Ghouls. I understand that as a newbie zone, that was probably bad design, but it was fun at times.
Although my favorite thing to do was run the Power Loyalist arc at base difficulty with a controller. Mission after mission with just one lieutenant, and me with a single-target hold. :)
O.K.....finally happened....I ALSO had a dream about CoH. :o
I was in some comic book, Sci Fi convention or something, minding my own business when
their announcer was reading out awards....surprisingly MY name was called for having
the most logged in Hours for the game.
I was stunned ,started to walk to the podium....then realized it was a dream. :P
it's YOUR fault this dream happened doc7924...power of suggestion.
Recently, I was laying in bed, dreaming about a really cool adventure. I must have been waking up because rational thought began to intrude: I thought, this dream would make for a great Mission Architect story arc! So, I began to plan how to tell the story in a five-mission story arc... and that's when I woke up enough to remember, "Oh, yeah... I can't make a story arc... because City of Heroes is gone." :(
Still day dreaming of this game too :(
Today there still is not a game nowwhere near the game that CoH was.
No game has the atmosphere, sound/music, skill and power setup that CoH had.
I miss standing in Kings Row and Skyway city listening to the ambient sounds of the city. :'(
Quote from: kiario on May 12, 2014, 07:07:46 AM
Still day dreaming of this game too :(
Today there still is not a game nowwhere near the game that CoH was.
No game has the atmosphere, sound/music, skill and power setup that CoH had.
I miss standing in Kings Row and Skyway city listening to the ambient sounds of the city. :'(
There were many days I would just log in to hang out - no missions, no hunting. Just walk (or fly) around, chatting with other players, if I had a support toon maybe go to the low zones and help out some lowbies.
It was a game where you didn't always have to be doing something to level up or improve - you could just hang. And that is what miss the most.
I dabble in DCU and Champions but its jut not the same as COH was.
City of Heroes had soul, have not found that in any other MMO yet.
A car has recently moved into my neighbourhood with a license plate that bears the letters "COH". I have to see this every day when I come home from work now.
I prefer the other car on my street with the letters "AFK". No one ever seems to be in that car...
Quote from: Cinnder on May 15, 2014, 06:46:08 AM
A car has recently moved into my neighbourhood with a license plate that bears the letters "COH". I have to see this every day when I come home from work now.
I prefer the other car on my street with the letters "AFK". No one ever seems to be in that car...
I should hope not! They would be Lying Liars who Lie if they were! :)
Quote from: Cinnder on May 15, 2014, 06:46:08 AM
A car has recently moved into my neighbourhood with a license plate that bears the letters "COH". I have to see this every day when I come home from work now.
I prefer the other car on my street with the letters "AFK". No one ever seems to be in that car...
I thought I saw a car with a license plate that started "TLD" but I didn't catch the rest.
Quote from: Arcana on May 15, 2014, 06:43:34 PM
I thought I saw a car with a license plate that started "TLD" but I didn't catch the rest.
Ha ha, very good!
I sometimes go deeply in thought about certain times I experienced in the game like running across the treetops in Perez park for the first time, or meeting up with a friend I haven't seen for a while...just flying over the places I came to be so familiar with.