And the mask comes off.

[Groundbreaker]

Wow 206 pages takes a long time to read.

There are a ton of things I wanted to chime in on as I read through this but those conversations have long since finished. I think I'll add my voice to the people saying: Thanks to everyone involved with bringing the game back. Thanks to the City of Titans team for giving us the hope that there will be another game like CoH. Thanks to the APR team for giving us the hope that our beloved game might continue past I23  :)

I started this game playing a blaster called Viso who was Eng/Eng back in Issue 3. My inexperience coupled with the hollows quickly saw me rolling a Claws/Regen Scrapper called Reva that I took all the way to incarnate. On the way I suffered from making a ton of Alts. I was a Taxibot - called Taxi appropriately that was Grav/Emp controller. He used to stand on the police car at the entrance to the hollows and offered "TP to Atlas gate" for wayward travellers, I never asked for fares but generous donators earned me my first million Inf that way. He eventually got retired though when the Hollows got revamped and he wasn't really necessary anymore, also I wasn't doing enough playing for myself.

I must have had about 30 characters in total which seemed like a lot to me until I read this thread lol. I only got 3 of them to 50 but I had a lot of fun with this game. I gave everything a try, and while I certainly preferred some aspects to others, the beauty of CoH was the absolute abundance of choice. 

I want my Paragon city back, I don't care if we have to start from scratch with no vet rewards, $15 isn't too much for me, actually £15 would be fine with me because I'm British and I love CoH on almost the same level I love my kids. :)

[Power Gamer]

Welcome onboard Groundbreaker!

[Groundbreaker]

Welcome onboard Groundbreaker!

Thanks Power_Gamer :)

[Twisted Toon]

Also, thanks for the Taxibot services, Groundbreaker. :-)

Taxibot Belle was the Taxibot that I saw the most during my tenure with CoH. I never failed to stop and say "Hi, and thanks for your selfless service." when I saw her online. Not that ever used the Taxibot services. Most of the issues I had getting around in various zones was because of ambush spawns for level 40+ guys in Steel Canyon. Usually Devouring Earth slogging down the street just as I round the corner, all while I'm still in my lower teens...

[Illusionss]

What she said.....

I have to agree with Illusionss completely. I want the game back and I'm willing to pay a decent price every month for it.  At the sametime I want a f2p model because there was times (not long stretches). That I couldn't afford the 15 a month and would rather be f2p than go without.

If I were the one making the decisions - which, natcherlly, I'm not - after I had recouped my initial investment in CoX Resurrected, and after CoT had launched, THEN I might introduce f2p, and only then. I don't mind people who need the game to be free, playing. But it only makes economic sense to NOT put these people making this effort for us, into a financial hole.

I don't want to be all "Hey, people who negotiated with a [at best!] touchy and difficult foreign company for months on end, to get our game back! Hey, superheroes who labored for months to dismantle that doomsday device!! Good work! Good job! I'm glad you got us our game back! Hahaha, I'm not going to give you any financial 'thanks' for that though.... you should do all the work, now give the fruit of your labors to me FOR FREE!"

I'm not at all saying that YOU are saying that. But there will be plenty who will. General observation here.

[Illusionss]

Also, thanks for the Taxibot services, Groundbreaker. :-)

Taxibot Belle was the Taxibot that I saw the most during my tenure with CoH. I never failed to stop and say "Hi, and thanks for your selfless service." when I saw her online. Not that ever used the Taxibot services. Most of the issues I had getting around in various zones was because of ambush spawns for level 40+ guys in Steel Canyon. Usually Devouring Earth slogging down the street just as I round the corner, all while I'm still in my lower teens...

I well remember the day my level 15? Dom rounded a corner and ran full tilt into a spawn of about twenty level 40 Malta Titans and their handlers, somewhere in the Fort in Mercy. That was.... an interesting day.

*INSTANT AND HORRIBLE DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*  *hosp*

[Groundbreaker]

Also, thanks for the Taxibot services, Groundbreaker. :-)

Taxibot Belle was the Taxibot that I saw the most during my tenure with CoH. I never failed to stop and say "Hi, and thanks for your selfless service." when I saw her online. Not that ever used the Taxibot services. Most of the issues I had getting around in various zones was because of ambush spawns for level 40+ guys in Steel Canyon. Usually Devouring Earth slogging down the street just as I round the corner, all while I'm still in my lower teens...

We were playing on Defiant so originally we were just a homage to the Taxibots on the American server. I used to get loads of questions from new players about the game, which I did my best to answer but I was fairly new myself at the time. It took me a long time to realise a lot of people thought we were Admin because they couldn't conceive of a player taking time out to help people so much. I will say you're welcome for what we did, but I think the times I accidentally led Paladins into populated areas probably balances out my karma lol

[Ironwolf]

Reading through the replies on here - I have changed my tune a bit.

I think I would offer a 3 tier structure:

1. $15 a month and you get it all - all veteran powers, the same amount of points you used to get a month and all special badges past, present and future to all characters.

2. $5 a month you get to start new and have to build up to the veteran powers (or buy them as an add on for a nominal fee). You get nothing but a shiney new account and a small monthly point allowance.

3. F2P - all the earlier restrictions of a F2P account as of i23.

[Angel Phoenix77]

Reading through the replies on here - I have changed my tune a bit.

I think I would offer a 3 tier structure:

1. $15 a month and you get it all - all veteran powers, the same amount of points you used to get a month and all special badges past, present and future to all characters.

2. $5 a month you get to start new and have to build up to the veteran powers (or buy them as an add on for a nominal fee). You get nothing but a shiney new account and a small monthly point allowance.

3. F2P - all the earlier restrictions of a F2P account as of i23.

this makes perfect sense, the reason being those who will pay full price should get everything and those who cannot pay can still get on and still play.
Those who want a pay only option needs to understand that this in my opinion will never happen, and the reason for the game to become free to play when it was open was to bring in new players and old.

[Optimus Dex]

Reading through the replies on here - I have changed my tune a bit.

I think I would offer a 3 tier structure:

1. $15 a month and you get it all - all veteran powers, the same amount of points you used to get a month and all special badges past, present and future to all characters.

2. $5 a month you get to start new and have to build up to the veteran powers (or buy them as an add on for a nominal fee). You get nothing but a shiney new account and a small monthly point allowance.

3. F2P - all the earlier restrictions of a F2P account as of i23.

Sounds prefect. I am ready to pay 15.00 dollars to play COH again. I am willing to pay some to download the game. I just wish we had a date. Ah well.

[Ironwolf]

My reasoning is this lets people have multiple accounts without penalty.

It lets new players try it, free.

It lets poorer players have everything except vet rewards for $5 a month.

It lets those who can afford it - to have everything.

[MM3squints]

Reading through the replies on here - I have changed my tune a bit.

I think I would offer a 3 tier structure:

1. $15 a month and you get it all - all veteran powers, the same amount of points you used to get a month and all special badges past, present and future to all characters.

2. $5 a month you get to start new and have to build up to the veteran powers (or buy them as an add on for a nominal fee). You get nothing but a shiney new account and a small monthly point allowance.

3. F2P - all the earlier restrictions of a F2P account as of i23.

The only restriction I would do away with (think it's been talked about couple times here) for f2p/freemium players is the problems with IO. Just disable the bonus and procs of the IOs but leave the buffs. Another one was about the chat system being so restrictive for f2p/freemium. Allow full access to the chat that way you encourage people to interact with the community potentially invest into the system.

[Felderburg]

Reading through the replies on here - I have changed my tune a bit.

I think I would offer a 3 tier structure:

1. $15 a month and you get it all - all veteran powers, the same amount of points you used to get a month and all special badges past, present and future to all characters.

2. $5 a month you get to start new and have to build up to the veteran powers (or buy them as an add on for a nominal fee). You get nothing but a shiney new account and a small monthly point allowance.

3. F2P - all the earlier restrictions of a F2P account as of i23.

This is a good system generally, but what happens when you stop paying $15 a month? Are the badges (that I'm using in my example because you used them in yours) suddenly revoked from all your characters? For items like that, there's nothing preventing people from paying $15 once, and then not paying ever again. You can certainly limit things like IOs or the Incarnate system - limiting actual content to $15 / month would be more of an incentive to buy continuously.

[pinballdave]

The only restriction I would do away with (think it's been talked about couple times here) for f2p/freemium players is the problems with IO. Just disable the bonus and procs of the IOs but leave the buffs. Another one was about the chat system being so restrictive for f2p/freemium. Allow full access to the chat that way you encourage people to interact with the community potentially invest into the system.

It's a proposition with merit MM3, but toggling off IO rewards is something that might require additional coding to a binary copy - something for  CoX 1.5 but I don't think it's possible with zombie binary copy of Legacy CoX

[Takinalis]

I would pay $30 a month, just for the old F2P access. Hell I'd even take a level cap.

[Mistress Urd]

The biggest problem I had with F2P with CoH when we had it was that IMHO it gave away too much. I could play characters 1-50 and had only minor reasons to even pay. (yes I considered going F2P because I gave up very little) You don't need to have good math skills to figure out that you are begging from the players who already pay to pay even more to keep the folks who had no interest in ever paying anyways.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

This jist of the argument is that it is improbable to get new players into the game before the graphics retrofit, so it is pointless to try? I suppose that's fair enough. My worry is that if the only people who play are on this forum with a handful of others, it will be very difficult to do much of the group oriented content. It was suggested to move on from this topic, so that'll be the last I say on the matter. It is my persistent and genuine desire to see you all in the game again, and, I hope, sooner rather than later.

Well, besides these forums i know of several CoH Facebook groups that have relatively little overlap with these forums that are active and encounter people referencing CoH as a game they enjoyed fairly regularly on other gaming sites. At a minimum i would say there's enough people out there who would play in a minute given the opportunity that we could keep several servers pretty busy on fan power alone. Honestly CoH's graphics still compare pretty favorably to some AAA MMOs that are less than three years old.

[LaughingAlex]

Alot of gamers can look past graphics if the gameplay is really good and the game has it's layers of depth.  They like learning things at times and they look at how things tend to move and flow.  An example is quake, lets face it, quake is a very, very old game.  But if you watch someone play on a speed run, even, it's actually very entertaining to see them just move through the levels like a ninja.  City of heroes had solid gameplay, just needed the graphics but when you look at all the powers it had...

Just look at us, many of us here have been unwilling to touch CO or even DCUO, which has the mighty Unreal engine 3, because the gameplay isn't something we liked.  While I may like DCUO, can't say the same for everyone.  But I also still play deus ex, and thats UE1, and barely looks better than quake.

And the artstyle matters, to me, far more than the technology behind it.

[darkgob]

The biggest problem I had with F2P with CoH when we had it was that IMHO it gave away too much. I could play characters 1-50 and had only minor reasons to even pay. (yes I considered going F2P because I gave up very little) You don't need to have good math skills to figure out that you are begging from the players who already pay to pay even more to keep the folks who had no interest in ever paying anyways.

Losing IOs on your existing characters made them literally unplayable.  Maybe not a problem if you didn't use them, but a lot of people did.

If you want to look at a game that gives away too much in F2P, take a look at Star Trek Online.  Your character slots are limited and you don't get the Zen stipend that subscribers do but that's about it.

[AnElfCalledMack]

The only restriction I would do away with (think it's been talked about couple times here) for f2p/freemium players is the problems with IO. Just disable the bonus and procs of the IOs but leave the buffs. Another one was about the chat system being so restrictive for f2p/freemium. Allow full access to the chat that way you encourage people to interact with the community potentially invest into the system.

Only problem with giving free accounts full chat is the spam from for-profit farmers, trying to sell powerlevelling or rare drops for real cash. You can ban the spammer, but they just make a new free acc and do it again. I agree it's less than ideal, but it might be necessary