New efforts!

[blacksly]

The horse is not only dead and buried, it's been fossilized and dug up again by a paleontologist.

Actually, I think it has to be defeated again, because at this point it's even been re-animated. So it may actually make sense to beat it back to death yet again ;)

[MWRuger]

Putting on my Mod hat here, which I very rarely do to agree with this.

Seriously, you all need to stop.

Seriously, we already did.

That was 20 pages ago. Almost necro in this thread. Plus, if you read what we wrote to Harpo it was mostly trying to get him/her to stop reading so much agenda into other people's posts.

[Von Krieger]

If I recall Black Pebble correctly, the CoH ad budget was precisely zero.

[Battlechimp]

I'm going to put on my...Not-a-mod hat? Er...Well...Anyways, I agree with Samuraiko as well.

Please, and Thank You.

I put on my robe and wizard hat... no .. wait....

[Serpine]

If I recall Black Pebble correctly, the CoH ad budget was precisely zero.

I think in that case they should have pushed community efforts more. Doing shoutouts in the daily news of awesome SG events, the best AE arcs to try, and the coolest videos on YouTube would have at least shown anybody stopping in that the community was alive and active, which is a big attraction on an MMO.

I put on my robe and wizard hat... no .. wait....

Well in a lot of ways it sounds less creepy then saying you are pulling on your tights, stylish cape, and external underwear.

[Whyaylooh]

I am really not so sure about that.

One of the main gripes about CoH was how little it was advertised and supported with regards to trying to gain new subscriptions. If it is run by a company that is actively spending money to draw attention, and given the increased current popularity of superhero movies, it is quite possible that a lot of new faces will at least try it.

As a side note, did NCSoft even notice that The Big Bang Theory mentioned CoH, and were they wise enough to talk to the producers/actors about a cross-platform advertising? Putting up TBBT posters in Paragon City in return for another mention or two on the show? Of course not. Or buy advertising around the release of The Avengers? Iron Man? Captain America? Etc?

I think that there are a lot of potential CoH customers out there that were just not exposed properly, or at all, to the game. And that means that it's quite possible to bring in a lot of new faces.

Or, for that matter, watch "Chuck".  A rack of City of Heroes or -- more often -- City of Villains boxes is prominently displayed in the background ridiculously often when they're in the Buy More.  Yet another big  missed opportunity, especially given how open the show was to blatant product placement in exchange for a little positive publicity (such as what Subway brilliantly pulled off with them).

That said, though, I don't see this as an either/or thing.  Advertising DOES need to be done, and done intelligently.  But having as many of the old-school die-hards out there as you can win back over talking things up doesn't hurt, either.  After all, that word-of-mouth help keep the game afloat for years.  (It sure wasn't the advertising budget. :p )  The two together would be all the more effective.

[Cryono]

what about captain dynamic? i may be out of the loop though

[Talner]

Oh man. Gimps and mod hats. What I miss by skimming? O.O

[kierthos]

The mod hat should be an unlockable costume piece. It should look like a top hat with a padlock symbol on the front.

It should be attained by defeating 500 of the new street gang "The unicorns".

[Luna Eclypse]

One thing I was really sad about was not getting more time to play nature affinity.

I never got to give it an honest go. The powers sounded interesting but I couldn't think of a character concept to base around it that I could be happy with.

[Super Firebug]

I never got to give it an honest go. The powers sounded interesting but I couldn't think of a character concept to base around it that I could be happy with.

A Plant/Nature controller could be someone like DC Comics' Poison Ivy, but turned hero.

[ukaserex]

Hmm...my post isn't here.... :-\

[Battlechimp]

I think in that case they should have pushed community efforts more. Doing shoutouts in the daily news of awesome SG events, the best AE arcs to try, and the coolest videos on YouTube would have at least shown anybody stopping in that the community was alive and active, which is a big attraction on an MMO.
Well in a lot of ways it sounds less creepy then saying you are pulling on your tights, stylish cape, and external underwear.

Reminds me of "ways not to recruit a teen sidekick"
Do NOT sneak into an orphanage at night and ask the youngsters "would you like to come to my house to be ward? I can teach you how to wrasse and at night we will put on tights and a mask and go cruising for some hot action"

[DocHornet]

The mod hat should be an unlockable costume piece. It should look like a top hat with a padlock symbol on the front.

I was thinking more along the lines of a police drone worn on the head, complete with flashing lights. :)

[blacksly]

Why yes, that's sounds nice! I suspect if I could solo AV's, soloing regular content should be possible. Traps/Sonic? OK, I'll re-roll Mr. Blue Suede Shoes (decked out in sparkling gold lame and rebuild my Graceland SG. That was on a server that was pretty dead whenever I was logged (Triumph).

I'll look at mids and see what slotting looks like and what to build for. Thanks for the tip!

You can also do it very well with Dark/Sonic if you prefer a heavy debuffing playstyle more than the Traps style. My DPS calculations against AVs (using -Regen as damage) have them pretty comparable... the Dark is statistically better than the Traps, but having status protection is not something factored into damage mitigated & DPS. So they're pretty even, just depends on whether you like better numbers or status protection, and/or a debuffing/controlling style vs a trap-dropping style.

[blacksly]

I actually doubt I would do it, but always nice to have options. The level of survivability to consider soloing an AV makes regular content solo totally doable.

Be warned that for some builds, it's not the same thing... an Earth/Thermal Controller can solo almost any AV, because properly built your Animate Stone has 80-85% resist to everything, backed by a -50% damage debuff on the AV, and your heals. No AV that you normally meet in any story arc will take it down through that, and Animate Stone will hold aggro. BUT... it's a single-target tank. If you try to use it to survive a large spawn, Stoney will happily tank a couple of mobs while the others beat on you. Same idea with an Illusion/Rad or Illusion/Time... they can tank a single tough mob using PA, but can't tank multiple weaker mobs.

[MWRuger]

You can also do it very well with Dark/Sonic if you prefer a heavy debuffing playstyle more than the Traps style. My DPS calculations against AVs (using -Regen as damage) have them pretty comparable... the Dark is statistically better than the Traps, but having status protection is not something factored into damage mitigated & DPS. So they're pretty even, just depends on whether you like better numbers or status protection, and/or a debuffing/controlling style vs a trap-dropping style.

Dark/Sonic would work with Fool on the Hill (John Lennon definitely had a dark side!)

[MWRuger]

Be warned that for some builds, it's not the same thing... an Earth/Thermal Controller can solo almost any AV, because properly built your Animate Stone has 80-85% resist to everything, backed by a -50% damage debuff on the AV, and your heals. No AV that you normally meet in any story arc will take it down through that, and Animate Stone will hold aggro. BUT... it's a single-target tank. If you try to use it to survive a large spawn, Stoney will happily tank a couple of mobs while the others beat on you. Same idea with an Illusion/Rad or Illusion/Time... they can tank a single tough mob using PA, but can't tank multiple weaker mobs.

I have an illusion/Time controller named Madame Mardi Gras who made it to 28. I didn't notice her being particularly squishy. I had to play smart and deliberate to avoid calling down too much heat, but she was fun to play and she was solo for 95% of her career (so far anyway).

[Serpine]

I was thinking more along the lines of a police drone worn on the head, complete with flashing lights. :)

I used to have a proposal floating around for having a playable archetype of a sentient PPD hover drone: Basically a floating blaster with decent armor and some holds (net guns and such). Customization would only amount to different textures / accessories (and maybe options to look other flying drones like the like the Zenith Hoverbot, Arachnos Drone, and Rikti Drone). And emote options were of course non-existant (you could bob around convincingly I guess) but the notion of playing such a thing amused me.

[Thirty-Seven]

Seriously, we already did.

That was 20 pages ago. Almost necro in this thread. Plus, if you read what we wrote to Harpo it was mostly trying to get him/her to stop reading so much agenda into other people's posts.

I realize that, but no one official said anything about it so I wanted something to point to when I have to nuke posts later.

Also, I am quite aware of who the rabblerouser was but didn't want to have to call them out specifically.  I felt Ko's post was respectful and addressed all the folks who were involved, to one extent or another.