Mac Alternatives Now That CoH is Gone?

[Wammo]

I am desperate for a game to replace CoH. I am a Mac user and CoH provided the very best gaming experience for guys like me...anyone have a recommended alternative? At least until CoH is resurrected :-)

[Nafaustu]

We should start a letter writing campaign to Bethesda to make sure Elder Scrolls Online gets one.   Any other MMOs in development right now?

[dwturducken]

One of the guys in my group has just given up after a long, frustrating bout of problems with things like Parallels and dual boots, so this is a concern for us, as well. I believe TSW has a Mac version forthcoming, but I haven't looked at that in a while. WoW is the only one I know of, and theirs is pretty solid, for whatever reason.

Even on the night of the 30th, Pat had to fail and retry loading CoH close to a dozen times before he got to the login screen, and that was pretty typical for him.

[Starsman]

Parallels is no way to play games in a mac.

So far the only MMOs I know for mac are World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2.

CoH was not an actual port, it was sort of running in an emulated thing of sorts, not too unlike Crossover. I may test to run some other MMOs with it later on my mac, but it will always add a bit of overhead.

Also, there was a thread a few months back in the CoH boards that said this:

Champions Online can be run on a Mac using the Star Trek Online wrapper. That's how my wife installed it on her Mac.

I have no intention of trying GW2 for the Mac, but that's not out of any anti-NCSoft sentiment, it's that the system specs for my computer are approximately half of what the bare minimum requirements for it are. (My computer's only three years old, but it's apparently not new enough)

Unfortunately no much detail was given. Link to google cache (for as long as it survives) is here

I'll be googling more on that later (didn't even know STO had a wraper to run on mac)

[chaparralshrub]

Well, if you run a sufficiently recent Mac, you can download a PC emulator. I run VirtualBox on mine. It needs some driver help in order to run some games, which is painful. If it's a really recent Mac and you have access to Windows, you can also install Bootcamp, which doesn't have driver issues. You just need a compatible version of Windows which, sadly, I don't.

That opens up STO and CO to you.

[Starsman]

OK I just found this link in the STO forums:


http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=381881

Still not sure how to adapt this for Champions but hey, whoever is doing this is maintaining it (check the last update to the OP, it was Oct, 2012.)

Also there is always bootcamp. I know I hate to reboot into windows myself but, always an option.

[Starsman]

Sorry modified the link with a more recent thread. From what I gather the steps provided in the documentation are exactly the same to get either CO or STO running on a mac.

[Thunder Glove]

I got Champions running on a Mac (a three-year-old Mac, wink wink), using that Star Trek Online wrapper.  I had to find and download a full version of the Champions client, though (not the installer from the CO website).  That took me nearly all day Saturday (both the search and the actual 3-ish GB download - my Internet isn't slow, but the download seemed to be throttled).

This is not the link I used, but it should work just as well: http://www.joystiq.com/game/champions-online/download/champions-online-free-to-play-client/

The modification basically jsut involves changing the file name the wrapper is looking for from "Star Trek Online" to "Champions Online".

[Starsman]

Curious: how does the wrapper thing behaves when CO gets updated?

[SuckerPunch]

Elder Scrolls Online will be a native Mac game, so there's that to look forward to at least.

[Wammo]

I am not a tech savy person. What is this wrapper you guys are talking about and how do you use it? Can you use the bootcamp program without installing windows in order to run windows based software?

[Starsman]

I am not a tech savy person. What is this wrapper you guys are talking about and how do you use it? Can you use the bootcamp program without installing windows in order to run windows based software?

I am not sure how the wrapper works, but I think it  uses Wine, a "middle guy" software that somehow translates instructions to the current OS OR may just provide the app with the necessary APIs or something... it tends to work is the important bit, but can be tricky to configure for each app. The links I provide give instructions on how to make it work with STO and Champions.

As for Bootcamp: the "program" is just a set of drivers for windows, this allows Windows to work properly on a mac. You still will need to install Windows from a disk. Bootcamp will ask for the disk. The goal of bootcamp is that you can shut down out of MacOSX and boot into Windows as needed. I rarely use it because I hate booting out of OSX and sometimes it's a bit annoying to get the thing to reboot into OSX. :P

[Starsman]

Elder Scrolls Online will be a native Mac game, so there's that to look forward to at least.

That's amazing then!!! I saw the 9 minute preview and was blown away (may have to do with me playing Oblivion right now) Sure, its' fantasy and I'm honestly sick of fantasy, BUT there may be a perk to playing a game who's studio is local to me: if i get into it I may actually be able to go to player meetups!  8)

[SuckerPunch]

That's amazing then!!! I saw the 9 minute preview and was blown away (may have to do with me playing Oblivion right now) Sure, its' fantasy and I'm honestly sick of fantasy, BUT there may be a perk to playing a game who's studio is local to me: if i get into it I may actually be able to go to player meetups!  8)

Haha, another Baltimoron?  (Full disclosure: I work for ZOS).

[Wammo]

Thanks a bunch Stars...Once I get the "middleman" working for me and get in game I hope we can hook up and enjoy some CO together.

[Starsman]

Haha, another Baltimoron?  (Full disclosure: I work for ZOS).

Not by birth :p

And what is ZOS? ZeniMax Online Studios? If so... want to hang out so I can get you drunk and sneak my name in the alpha testing list?  8)

[RubiconX]

I too am looking for a mac alternative, I checked out CO when it first came out and quickly dumped it but since there aren't many options for super hero mmo's right now I figured I'd give it another try.

I did the whole STO wrapper trick and that worked, however it seems to play pretty crappy but that could just be my impression of the game. Are you guys seeing it play very well and responsive using the wrapper?

[Starsman]

I have not tried the wrapper yet. I do have a PC next to my mac so I have not feel extremely compeled to try it. May take the time to do a test this weekend. Did you try lowering your graphics settings? There is a chance there will be overhead with the wrapper, but the game may auto-set you at higher settings because it can "see" better hardware installed.

[RubiconX]

Figured it out, my macbook pro has 2 nvidia cards in it and until I switch it to "performance" mode it won't use the more powerful of the two. Before doing that, no matter what settings I changed, it was still running poorly.

CoH ran on the less powerful card with no issues btw  ;)

So now I can play CO....yay? lol

[therain93]

I am desperate for a game to replace CoH. I am a Mac user and CoH provided the very best gaming experience for guys like me...anyone have a recommended alternative? At least until CoH is resurrected :-)

Not sure if  you're married to mmos, but, if you haven't played it, Freedom Force is a fun superhero game with a lot of customization.