If by some miracle someone were to buy the COH rights and relaunch the game ..

[Turjan]

It would be a bittersweet thing indeed, getting our beloved game back, but having to start over.

In emotional terms it's like building a new house on the same site a tornado destroyed the last one - the memories would always be there, and while the new house would be...well, new of course, it would forever exist in the unseen shadow of the the original house.

Imagine:

Old-timer : "Well, here we are at last, sitting on the porch, just like old times eh?"
Crusty fellow : "So many memories. The new place looks just like the old one though. They did a fine job rebuilding it. A fine job."
Old-timer : "That they did. Looks just like new, like when we first came here, d'you remember?"
Crusty Fellow : "Yes...and no. Remember how there used to be names carved in the post here?"
Old-timer : "Haha! Yeah, I should remember - I carved them!" *runs hand over smooth, freshly painted wooden post* "I was so young then. I'd just got my first knife and I wanted to see how sharp the blade was..."
Crusty Fellow : "It's strange, isn't it? Everything's so new now, it's almost like we were never here at all, like nothing changed."
Old-timer : "That's the ironic thing - this place has been rebuilt, but it hasn't changed. Whereas we...we remember everything. Every scratch, every scuff, every creaking wooden stair, just as it was before. It's us that have really changed, old friend. Us."

[Sajaana]

I've started over many times in this game.  I must have independently leveled Sajaana about three or four times on various servers, La Dame Terrible twice, DX-109 about three times, Femme Fencer twice, etc.

Even when "slow playing" it, like I usually do, it takes me about one month to level up a character, and I could probably cut it to half of that or even a third of that if I try.

Now I know others may disagree.  But I look at leveling up again as an opportunity, not a burden.

[dwturducken]

I don't see it as a burden, but I'm with Tenzhi. I bought a lot of the Booster Packs, and there were a few of the Vet Rewards I would miss, as well. Those last could be re-earned, but it would still be clumsy getting used to not having them.

[Dollhouse]

For the last three years or so of my 8+, I wasn't really playing CoH for the game itself, to be frank. The gameplay had gotten very rote for me,  reticule-targeting MMOs had come along (I've always hated tab-to-target combat systems), and I didn't like the shift to a raid-focused endame (if I'm going to grind in a game, I want better combat...). I stuck around for a combination of good friends and beloved characters.

I've never had much luck recreating characters...they never seem to quite "feel" the same. If CoH was reborn, but w/o player/character data, I'd have to think long and hard about whether I'd play at all.  :-\

[Kyriani]

For the last three years or so of my 8+, I wasn't really playing CoH for the game itself, to be frank. The gameplay had gotten very rote for me,  reticule-targeting MMOs had come along (I've always hated tab-to-target combat systems), and I didn't like the shift to a raid-focused endame (if I'm going to grind in a game, I want better combat...). I stuck around for a combination of good friends and beloved characters.

I've never had much luck recreating characters...they never seem to quite "feel" the same. If CoH was reborn, but w/o player/character data, I'd have to think long and hard about whether I'd play at all.  :-\

See I prefer tab targeting vs reticule-targeting MMOs. Nothing infuriates me more than my mouse moving the camera when I don't want it to. I still dont get why people think reticule-targeting is superior. MMO's aren't supposed to be FPS games.

Selecting your target and then using skills works in City of Heroes. It works in EQ1 and 2. It works in DAoC, Lineage 2, WoW, Aion and so on and so forth. I understand the need, after years of nearly identical systems, to mix things up a bit. But let's not forget how we got this genre to where it is today: solid mechanics, and ease of use.

I don't want to worry about "skill." I want to worry about FUN. And not everyone's idea of fun involves twitch combat that requires good reflexes and reaction time as well as a reliable ping.

[Dollhouse]

See I prefer tab targeting vs reticule-targeting MMOs.

Which is your perfect right. To each their own. It's kinda cool that as MMO gamers, we have the choice these days.  :)

MMO's aren't supposed to be FPS games.

Agreed. But there's no reason whatsoever than an MMORPG can't have reticule targeting instead of tab-to-target and be any less of an MMO (Fallen Earth, for example...). At present, technological limitations would seem to make full-on realtime, collision detection aim-to-hit combat unworkable in an MMO environment (Fallen earth's fantastic system is not realtime like a shooter game). Defiance comes close, and it's definitely an MMO...but an MMOTPS. It lacks the social tools to really be an MMORPG, sadly. But there are several reticule-aiming MMORPGs now, and I find I greatly prefer their combat. Again to each their own...

I don't want to worry about "skill." I want to worry about FUN.

We're no different in that respect. I find reticule aiming to be more fun (by a lot) than tab targeting. Sometimes I like a twitch aspect (Defiance...), but not always, and it's not always the case that reticule = twitch (again, Fallen Earth: the pace of combat is actually fairly deliberate, unless you don't mind dying really a lot...).

[dwturducken]

I think Neverwinter did a good job of balancing the tab- and reticle-targeting feel. You still are basically using a reticle, but it makes a certain sense without relying on a deeper "aiming" skill than most gamers have. It annoyed the hell out of me in CoH to tab for the next target, only to have it pick a baddy on the far side of the mob. Not a big deal, if I was playing a ranged character, but annoying on a melee character.

However, unless you're playing some kind of sharpshooter concept, having a reticle in CoH wouldn't have made sense.

[Kyriani]

I'll be thrilled just to have my good old fashioned COH back again... I keep hoping every day to see word of it throughout these forums so I can get to work rebuilding what was taken from us. I hope those "smarter than me" coder peoples don't ever stop working towards bringing our game back...

[r00tb0ySlim]

I would be more than happy to start all over again.  The shutdown period makes you realize just how much of the game you miss. The next time around I will take time to smell the flowers, if you will, by listening to the great music in each zone, watching trash blow down the road, reading funny crap in chat, badging, etc...

[Super Firebug]

I'll be thrilled just to have my good old fashioned COH back again...

Ditto. I still have the records (build sheets) that I kept of most of my toons' development as they leveled up, and I still have most of the costumes, so it wouldn't be too hard for me to reconstruct them (I hope I can get their original names). But, even if that weren't the case, I'd just build new versions of them. I have to admit, I'd be kind of ticked off at no longer having my SG base, the vet rewards, and the other stuff that I'd bought, or worked so long to earn. But you play the hand you're dealt. Or, in this case, you play the game you're dealt. And I, for one, would relish it.

[Super Firebug]

I'm so eager to have it back, that I find myself re-checking this forum often, hoping for encouraging news on the successors' development, and/or on the efforts to get someone to buy the IP. On occasion, I've caught myself checking again only an hour after the last time I'd looked! If we do get CoH back, or something like it, the first toon I make will be this account's namesake - the first toon I made in CoH. I can think of no better way to start.

[General Idiot]

We're no different in that respect. I find reticule aiming to be more fun (by a lot) than tab targeting. Sometimes I like a twitch aspect (Defiance...), but not always, and it's not always the case that reticule = twitch (again, Fallen Earth: the pace of combat is actually fairly deliberate, unless you don't mind dying really a lot...).

Personally, of all the various games I've played I think Star Trek Online of all things got this the best. They have both tab targeting traditional MMO style combat, and reticule targeting more twitchy combat as well. On the ground that is, space combat is a different thing. But my point is, they have both modes available for you to use if you wish and as far as I can tell there's nothing you outright can't do in either mode, it's really just a choice of which is more fun for you since they're both viable.

And that I think is the ideal way to do it. Make the game playable both ways, and the various concessions to one or the other that have to be made in the process balance out to get combat more or less just right.

Their space combat on the other hand is a pretty good system as well. It's tab targeting but your positioning matters far more than in any other game I've played because every weapon and enemy affecting power has a firing arc, and you get a defense bonus for being above a certain speed so you have to keep moving. So you need to be conscious of where you are, where your target is and which way each of you is moving at all times, which results in a far more active experience than the standard 'stand in one place, mash buttons' gameplay that most people likely think of when they think tab targeting.

[silvers1]

I think Neverwinter did a good job of balancing the tab- and reticle-targeting feel. You still are basically using a reticle, but it makes a certain sense without relying on a deeper "aiming" skill than most gamers have. It annoyed the hell out of me in CoH to tab for the next target, only to have it pick a baddy on the far side of the mob. Not a big deal, if I was playing a ranged character, but annoying on a melee character.

However, unless you're playing some kind of sharpshooter concept, having a reticle in CoH wouldn't have made sense.

I didnt really care about the targeting system in Neverwinter.   IMO, a mouse is to be used for clicking things like buttons, menu items, etc.
Any other design is a poor interface.   But to each his own, I guess.

I rarely used tab in CoH - instead I mapped "C" to "target nearest".  Worked fine most of the time.

[Dollhouse]

Personally, of all the various games I've played I think Star Trek Online of all things got this the best. They have both tab targeting traditional MMO style combat, and reticule targeting more twitchy combat as well. On the ground that is, space combat is a different thing. But my point is, they have both modes available for you to use if you wish and as far as I can tell there's nothing you outright can't do in either mode, it's really just a choice of which is more fun for you since they're both viable.

That sounds like a very good approach (at least for a game w/o collision detection in realtime...but most MMO's don't work that way). I played through the beta cycle in STO, and the ground combat was pretty awful, but it sounds like they got it squared away nicely. Probably not coincidentally, given it's the same studio, you can set up your UI in Champions to target the enemy nearest the center of screen, and it gives you a red aiming dot. When I played CO, I set things up this way and thought it worked pretty well (my objections to CO have nothing to do with the combat, which I think is quite enjoyable).

You can choose either targeting method in TSW, too, although their reticule system's not very well implemented. I need to keep at it, but I learned the game before they implemented the reticule option. TSW's combat is quite a bit more challenging than most MMOs, so I'm reluctant to go through the "I'm getting faceplanted all the time" stage while I adjust!  :P

[dwturducken]

I rarely used tab in CoH - instead I mapped "C" to "target nearest".  Worked fine most of the time.

I think we each had our own sort of "comfort" when it came to the controls. I had to remap the "down" key from X to the left Shift, key, for instance. I don't know why, but, when my brain was in "WASD" mode, hit that X was the keyboard equivalent of trying to lick my own elbow. :)

[Cinnder]

It would be a bittersweet thing indeed, getting our beloved game back, but having to start over.

In emotional terms it's like building a new house on the same site a tornado destroyed the last one - the memories would always be there, and while the new house would be...well, new of course, it would forever exist in the unseen shadow of the the original house.

Imagine:

Old-timer : "Well, here we are at last, sitting on the porch, just like old times eh?"
Crusty fellow : "So many memories. The new place looks just like the old one though. They did a fine job rebuilding it. A fine job."
Old-timer : "That they did. Looks just like new, like when we first came here, d'you remember?"
Crusty Fellow : "Yes...and no. Remember how there used to be names carved in the post here?"
Old-timer : "Haha! Yeah, I should remember - I carved them!" *runs hand over smooth, freshly painted wooden post* "I was so young then. I'd just got my first knife and I wanted to see how sharp the blade was..."
Crusty Fellow : "It's strange, isn't it? Everything's so new now, it's almost like we were never here at all, like nothing changed."
Old-timer : "That's the ironic thing - this place has been rebuilt, but it hasn't changed. Whereas we...we remember everything. Every scratch, every scuff, every creaking wooden stair, just as it was before. It's us that have really changed, old friend. Us."

Ha -- nicely written, my friend!

For my own part, I would prefer to get my old characters back, but if it's restart all my characters or never play again, I will be happy to recreate every 50 from scratch.

[dwturducken]

There is a guy who lives in a town not far from me who lost his wife and daughter in a fire a couple of months ago. He and his sons are rebuilding on the same spot. I think I can see my way clear to start over in a game.