Your favorite thing about City of Heroes

[emu265]

Aside from the incredible community, that is.  I mean mechanically, something about the game's layout, systems or otherwise.  Something drew each one of us into Cities, and something kept us playing.  Not just hanging out and talking, but playing.  What kept you playing?

I personally liked the invention system.  The unlimited potential of any given character, the way even the worst of powerset combinations could reach a god-like level.  I also have a soft spot for the Incarnate system, especially the lore, but the trials were awfully repetitive.

[pyber]

Besides the community?  A hard question to answer.  I think my favorite thing would have to be the powersets, particularly Kinetics.  I <3 my family of Kins, and I miss them.   

[Arachnion]

THE COSTUMES! 

Costume creator for CoH was *the* best thing ever.

Speaking as a fan of character customization in general, it was always a dream come true for me.

It's what kept me in the game, coming back, even when I didn't feel like playing.

I could just spend a few hours making a single outfit, alone. It was brilliant.

Using the korean creator just isn't the same... 

[emu265]

THE COSTUMES! 

Costume creator for CoH was *the* best thing ever.

Speaking as a fan of character customization in general, it was always a dream come true for me.

It's what kept me in the game, coming back, even when I didn't feel like playing.

I could just spend a few hours making a single outfit, alone. It was brilliant.

Using the korean creator just isn't the same... 

I know... but it's something.  I wish it had the power customization UI, so that we could still see the powers... but oh well.

[The Fifth Horseman]

The costumes, most definitely. 

[Arachnion]

I know... but it's something.  I wish it had the power customization UI, so that we could still see the powers... but oh well.

I'm just spoiled on all the fancy stuff we had right up to the end.

I'm vain like that 

Particularly the high tech armor sets, Vanguard, Mecha, etc. Magic super booster stuff too. Love them capes.

[LadyImmolatasia]

The costume creator, the teamplay dynamic which was so inherently strong, the community (of course), as well as the zones and atmosphere. The game could be light, dark, gray and everything in between.

[corvus1970]

I too offer up another echo into the chamber and say "Costumes", as possibly my favorite thing about CoX. Dear Zod, the sheer number and types of options were staggering overall.

Sure, there were obvious things that should have been in there (Like sweatshirts, hooded and otherwise), but I have no doubt we would have seen a lot of our wish-fulfillment in the area of costumes granted, because over the years we saw a lot of requests realized. One of my big wishes would have been more Egyptian-styled pieces, and at the rate we were getting new sets added I'm sure it would have happened eventually.

As it is, what WAS there was just gorgeous. Some of the new stuff (Like the phoenix wings, the ascension set, bio-armor, Imperial Defense, etc)  just blew me away with its creativity and execution.

Also, I have to give a special shout-out to my favorite travel-power, Super-Jump. It was fun and thrilling and fast, and I adored it.

[eabrace]

Costumes were awesome.  No doubt about that.

I miss my Tanking too.

But you know what I really miss in every other game I've played?  Two things:

1) Solo playability - just fire the game up and go, no need to worry about grinding out gear or upgrading equipment to be sure I could still fight at my own level.  Worst case scenario, buy a tray full of inspirations and go to town.

2) Sidekicking.

[Glass Goblin]

My favorite aspect to City of Heroes, which I doubt I'll find again any time soon, is the variable pace. I am not even remotely a twitch gamer, nor am I even remotely a competitive gamer. I play to relax, to have fun batting pixels around, to feel like I'm able to affect the world in a way that's hard to do with my aging body. Sure, I ran into occasional teams who'd be annoyed that I wasn't keeping up, that I didn't have the right build, and was even kicked on occasion (although that happened a lot more five years ago than at the end). But most of the other players were around to kick back, drink a couple of adult beverages, and laugh a little. I have found precious little of that in the general MMO world.

Oh, and yeah, costumes.

[corvus1970]

I agree that the ability to play at your own pace was superb. It was great for gamers who tended towards the casual much of the time, such as myself.

[faith.grins]

Travel in CoH was head-and-shoulders better than travel in any other video game I've played.  Particularly after they re-vamped power pools.  Afterburner is twice as good as Epic Flying Mounts in WoW, and you can get it way earlier.

I also really like the way they balanced things.  In most MMOs, one PC is intended to be slightly more powerful than the average NPC of equal level, and you're not really supposed to be able to tackle two at once unless you're built to be a Tank.  In CoH, you're expected to take three or four things on at once by yourself.  And the way they let you ramp up the difficulty in various ways, especially once they changed the notoriety to 4XP.  If you're better at tackling three hard targets, you get to do that.  If you're better at mowing down huge masses of things about your level, you can do that, too.  No other game does that.

Most of all, though, what I'm going to miss besides the community is the way the game handled the Support team role.  The magic formula in CoH isn't Tank+Heals+DPS, it's Buff/Debuff+Damage+Whatever.  In fact, you've only got about 50/50 odds that any given support character even has a healing power.  And they may not even use it much.  It's part of what made teaming so fun; it didn't matter what class you were playing and who was already in the team, you always had something to bring to the table.

[Vasarto]

Being able to have something to do with my In real life friends! I work during the times we do roleplaying games now and I cannot see them most of the time on the weedays or weekends.

So it gave me something special to do with them so I can have the ability to still have friends in this world.

Now that is taken away from me.

[dpawtows]

Ability to play equally well teamed or solo. 
Hard-core gamers who played daily could team up quite well with folks who played twice a year.
Few twitch skills required.

[Xieveral]

You know what I'm not seeing mentioned enough in this thread?

Costumes.

I've made many friends thanks to costumes.

"Neat costume!"

"I know, right? You're looking pretty sweet yourself!"

"Let us frolic and cause mayhem together while being the fashionable beasts we are!"

[emu265]

Most of all, though, what I'm going to miss besides the community is the way the game handled the Support team role.  The magic formula in CoH isn't Tank+Heals+DPS, it's Buff/Debuff+Damage+Whatever.  In fact, you've only got about 50/50 odds that any given support character even has a healing power.  And they may not even use it much.  It's part of what made teaming so fun; it didn't matter what class you were playing and who was already in the team, you always had something to bring to the table.

YES.  I still dislike the Tank/Heal/Damage formula of other MMOs.  Cities is the only game I can think of where you can literally choose any combination of powers and use them successfully in almost any role.  There are exceptions, like a Fire/Fire blaster probably couldn't be relied on for control or support... but even then, dead enemies pose no threat!

[JWBullfrog]

The million and one details that were put into the game.
Did you know, for example:
 
There were pictures of the Dev team on the desks in Praetoria and that the same picture could be found behind the hospital counters?
 
If you clicked on the jukebox in club 55 it had a text box asking why it was filled with old songs?
 
If you stood close to bathroom doors you cold ocasionally hear flushing sounds?
 
The text on the history plaques in Praetoria was actually in Estonian?
 
The sound of footsteps changed depending on the surface you were on and even those were upgraded somewhere around issue 20?
 
The wisps in Croatoa would follow you around and act like endurance buffs?
 
You could knock books off of the tables in libraries?
 
There were hundreds more of these but somebody had to code them into the game. None of these were necessary for game play but somebody cared enough to include them.
 
 

[DJMoose]

Aside from the community?  Character creation: The sheer possiblities available hooked me immediately.  And not just the visual aspects, but the synergy between primary and secondary powers as well.  All of those options combined were astounding.  I found myself creating characters for the sole purpose of trying a certain combination of powers or a certain look that I thought of.

I have yet to find an MMO that even comes close to the sheer possibilites of the CoH character creator.

You know what I'm not seeing mentioned enough in this thread?
Costumes.
I've made many friends thanks to costumes.
"Neat costume!"
"I know, right? You're looking pretty sweet yourself!"
"Let us frolic and cause mayhem together while being the fashionable beasts we are!"

Exactly.  Also, other players were living advertisements for items in the Paragon Market.  If someone had something cool on their character, I would ask them where it was from and would most likely go buy it then and there.

[MaidMercury]

1. The community kept me there, most of all. I felt I had friends.

2. Costumes were great  for giving you a sense of identity instead of being a number and same uniform like on a Football team.

3. CoH became my 2nd stomping ground, the multitude of maps were important.

4. SG's were great when they were active. It was a fall back playing resource.
If one became a Ghost town, you could always find another SG to join.

5. Events- It was great to look forward to Halloween, Christmas or Rikti Invasions.

[dwturducken]

I can't really articulate it but...

In this game, if someone sent me an unsolicited tell asking to team, or an unsolicited team invite, I always felt like I needed to not online decline politely but give a reason why I couldn't team right then. Other games, particularly WoW, I just ignore the request (though I would make a rude gesture if someone of significantly higher level than I was made a duel request) and never hear another thing about it.