Author Topic: I just can't do it.  (Read 13874 times)

SeaLily

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #40 on: December 17, 2012, 03:46:38 AM »
The only incorrect thing there is the gear forcing your appearance to change.  It does that by default, but you can just lock your costume so it never changes unless you decide to do so.  They got that much right, at least.

Other than that I agree with basically everything there.

I'd like to add it's a very fun game if you're a PvPer though.  Particularly the Legends mode, where you play as Batman/Superman/Luthor/etc etc etc so it's pre-balanced pretty well.  But if you're looking for a CoH-style PvE experience with lots of customization, that's not here.
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healix

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #41 on: December 17, 2012, 04:19:02 AM »
I have been playing Brickshooter (a puzzle-block game), Cradle of Persia and Freecell. I popped in my Oblivion disk and went exploring again. CoH is warm cookies and cream....the other games are melba toast and skim milk. (for me, anyway)
Listen to the 'mustn'ts'. Listen to the 'don'ts'. Listen to the 'shouldn'ts', the 'impossibles', the 'won'ts'. Listen to the 'you'll never haves', then listen close to me... Anything can happen . Anything can be.

Jonfan

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #42 on: December 17, 2012, 04:41:54 AM »
Well after 3 weeks I finally went back to my computer to try and find a game. The search for one was almost as dismal as the games I tried out.

I played Champions back in the 80's as a tabletop game. I like it back then. Steve Jackson came up with a good system. Believe me when I say that that CO has nothing in common with the tabletop game. The graphics are just plain lousy.

It's like they whitewashed everything and muted all the colors to give it the feel of reading an old comic book. The thing is, with CoH, I wasn't reading a comic book, I was IN the story. I felt a part of it all. You won't experience that at all with CO. The game has done so many thing wrong it's hard to know where to begin.

I have just finished downloading DC Universe and while the graphics look much better and more like the game we all truly love, I'm not holding my breath.

Tenzhi

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #43 on: December 17, 2012, 07:13:53 AM »
Even when you do get you character to look a way you like, all the lewt and gear forces you to change you appearance to boost stats. 

This is patently untrue.  There is a "Style" menu where you can selectively "lock" your character's appearance and switch between styles you've acquired with that character on the fly.
When you insult someone by calling them a "pig" or a "dog" you aren't maligning pigs and dogs everywhere.  The same is true of any term used as an insult.

Phaetan

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #44 on: December 17, 2012, 10:20:54 AM »
Steve Jackson came up with a good system.
Shouldn't that be Peterson and/or Long?

redgiant

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #45 on: December 17, 2012, 10:52:42 AM »
I think I am going to try something a lot of people have talked about.  Everquest.  Never tried it...but  a lot of people hold it up as an example of what could and should have happened to COH.

I've played EQ from its launch in '99 through today's expansions.

I tend to classify MMOs more from player attitudes and maturity than just what genre or year they originated. This is mainly for my own compatibility assessment, since the most important factor to me is that the population lives in the world and doesn't constantly pull me out of it (which unfortunately is also why most of you will have a hard time finding a suitable replacement MMO; the playerbase is just all wrong in almost every other MMO out there now).

EQ, DAoC, CoH, LOTRO and some other older games, in their prime were like that. A lot. CoH held onto that aesthetic better than all of them as they aged.

WoW was never really mature, it was too big. But it did have a ton more cooperation out of necessity early on than it does today.

Games today, even the old guard ones I mentioned, are solo-fests. They made grouping a dirty word, because not grouping pulls in more numbers (quantity not quality). And once a game lets soloers run amok, in no time you have way more mouth breathers and immature jerks than regular folks just wanting a MMO to commune with.

If you are going to try EQ, you have a choice between the live servers (I suggest Luclin/Stromm) or an EQEmu-based server (I suggest Project 99). P99 is the most faithful to how the first 3 expansions of EQ worked, which is its whole point of existence. The nice thing is that everyone on it realizes that.

You are forwarned: classic EQ like P99 is hard. Harder than any modern MMO would even try to be now. Which is actually its charm for those who love world simulation and challenges. You earn everything you get, every level, every item. But I guarantee you that you will actually REMEMBER getting those things down the road, since your adventures are imprinted on you due to their effort. Most people who played old EQ can still recall in detail their characters, zones, who did what, raids, and definitely dungeon crawls. In fact, CoH shares this aspect of memory to it also.

And the nice thing about classic EQ (and P99 in particular) is that everyone groups because you have to. It is a social and role-interdependence game, and you will meet people you don't know in real life who you will know throughout your character's life. You can get bufs, travel and services like corpse location/recovery from different classes, there's even a live market for that sort of thing. Sure you can do simple things solo early, and even some classes can get away with soloing for special reasons and places (I'm looking at you kiting bards). But by and large it is a role-based grouping game, with mobs and environments that would rip you in two in a second if you tried to step into them alone. Actually some will rip you up even with a full group at times. Even a severely twinked alt isn't a God and everyone dies from time to time.

No auction house, its all trade channel hawking and certain places known to be centers for trade (the East Commonlands tunnel mainly). No instances anywhere for anything, its all one big open world and the dungeons and raid content are also not instanced.

Everything from travel to dungeons to dying and recovering your gear puts the fear of bejesus into you, just like a really dangerous world should do. Mobs don't leash, they chase you until you die or cross a zoneline. If you die, you run back naked to get your gear wherever your body lies (yes, that includes deep in a dungeon; and yes, there are a couple options for locating or summoning your corpse to a safe spot in the zone but only with a necromancer to do it or bard to point it out). Death is something to avoid (xp loss and corpse recovery), unlike almost every other game that just puts a slight inconvenience on you for it.

There are always folks leveling new characters in P99, so finding groups early on isn't a problem. You may want to move to a starting city area that has more folks depending on what you roll (oh, and all races have their own home cities - complete ones - and local hunting areas). Even that is daunting and dangerous depending on how you need to get there (no flight paths; just boats, wizard/druids can portal you, or run).

Try it, if you like a dangerous challenge with no free lunch, you will love it.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2012, 11:06:24 AM by redgian »

MaHaBone

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #46 on: December 17, 2012, 02:57:30 PM »
The only incorrect thing there is the gear forcing your appearance to change.  It does that by default, but you can just lock your costume so it never changes unless you decide to do so.  They got that much right, at least.

This is patently untrue.  There is a "Style" menu where you can selectively "lock" your character's appearance and switch between styles you've acquired with that character on the fly.

Ah, I was wondering about that.  I'll go back and check that out... or I won't.  Dunno.  The spirit isn't exactly moved, if you know what I mean.  But thanks for the info!

Jonfan

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #47 on: December 18, 2012, 02:03:02 AM »
Shouldn't that be Peterson and/or Long?

No Steve Jackson was the creator of the character system behind Champions (pen & paper game.

Tenzhi

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #48 on: December 18, 2012, 05:46:48 AM »
No Steve Jackson was the creator of the character system behind Champions (pen & paper game.

Steve Jackson was behind GURPS.  I don't believe he worked on Champions, though I believe GURPS may have been inspired by the HERO System that Champions used (and which preceded GURPS by a few years).
When you insult someone by calling them a "pig" or a "dog" you aren't maligning pigs and dogs everywhere.  The same is true of any term used as an insult.

Phaetan

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #49 on: December 18, 2012, 10:15:33 AM »
Steve Jackson was behind GURPS.  I don't believe he worked on Champions, though I believe GURPS may have been inspired by the HERO System that Champions used (and which preceded GURPS by a few years).
This was my understanding as well.  I may be mistaken, but I'd never encountered a mention of him having a hand in the HERO system.

indiramourning

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #50 on: December 18, 2012, 04:48:42 PM »
Hi Steve.   Games I've enjoyed lately are: WAR, The Secret World, and as a more long term new home, Lord of the Rings online.  I'm not looking for another super hero game.  Heck, I never played CoH because it was a super hero game.  I just loved it for the endless variety of power combinations, awesome combat, easy teaming, and the fantastic community.  The community in LoTRO is very nice.

Dr. Gemini

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #51 on: December 19, 2012, 03:28:27 PM »
Steve Jackson was behind GURPS.  I don't believe he worked on Champions, though I believe GURPS may have been inspired by the HERO System that Champions used (and which preceded GURPS by a few years).

Actually GURPs evolved from Steve Jackson's "The Fantasy Trip" rules that came out in the late '70's. Champions was '80 or '81 I believe. so they may have been inspired by TFT.


Kaiser Tarantula

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #52 on: December 19, 2012, 04:16:21 PM »
Dungeon Fighter Online  A side scrolling 80's style Beat 'em Up style game as an MMO?  Should be a recipe for instawin.  ...it's okay.  But a far cry from a win.
I really wanted to love this game.  But eventually some really crappy enemy designs (enemies that can attack you from offscreen with attacks you can't see coming suck), coupled with the wonky quest ranking system (with a score for "technique" that makes absolutely no freakin' sense for any sort of rational beat-em-up gameplay) and a gear durability system that discourages farming coupled with an economy that pretty much requires it put me off.

Arachnion

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #53 on: December 19, 2012, 05:58:19 PM »
I really wanted to love this game.  But eventually some really crappy enemy designs (enemies that can attack you from offscreen with attacks you can't see coming suck), coupled with the wonky quest ranking system (with a score for "technique" that makes absolutely no freakin' sense for any sort of rational beat-em-up gameplay) and a gear durability system that discourages farming coupled with an economy that pretty much requires it put me off.

I played a summoner in DFO up to like level 30, then quit.

It was kinda fun, but not really.

 :-\
I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go
Walkin' with a dead man over my shoulder

Waiting for an invitation to arrive
Goin' to a party where no one's still alive

dwturducken

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #54 on: December 19, 2012, 08:15:55 PM »
The biggest problem I recall with the game was the linear feeling:  a few missions in this neighborhood, go 2 blocks over for a few missions, then go to canada for a few, then run to the desert for a few, then back to downtown.  Roll a new toon & repeat.   Looks like some new content is there now to ameliorate that some, but There's no Dev team pushing out new stuff all the time, so its just not gonna be good for a stable of alts like it was in CoH.

This is how I think of the beginning of CoH:Freedom. The higher levels retained the diversity, with some minor adjustments and additions, but, until level 5, when you could run over to KR and get the radio or the Hollows and start the missions, there (which, while linear, never got old for me), you had to either run the Habashy missions and then have a choice of two contacts. I realize that wasn't a drastic change from the pre-Freedom missions, but I missed that origin-specific aspect. It actually made the origin choice mean something, even if it wasn't much. After Freedom, every character was Natural.
I wouldn't use the word "replace," but there's no word for "take over for you and make everything better almost immediately," so we just say "replace."

JaguarX

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #55 on: December 19, 2012, 08:26:06 PM »
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Minotaurus

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Re: I just can't do it.
« Reply #56 on: December 19, 2012, 11:48:36 PM »
I'm feeling the same right now.  I just feel so empty.

Worse for me is that.. I can't even make my namesake character in any other MMO (except maybe WoW but that boat long ago sailed in the fun department for me..)

I played CO a bit off and on but it just doesn't have the same effect on me. I beta tested it and played it to death back in the day but it just can't hold my interest any more.  Its just so.. solo.  And sadly I can't make my character there either.

I just don't know.  I'm currently tinkering about in Everquest but only a little every now and again.  Nobody groups at anything but max level any more it seems.  And they introduced that horrid 'defiant' gear and mercs.  Mercs seem fine in concept but in practice nobody groups since they have a merc.