Author Topic: I need... SOMETHING.  (Read 12678 times)

dwturducken

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,152
  • Now available in stereo
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #20 on: December 28, 2012, 04:51:39 PM »
Anyone else see the new WoW trailer and think "They totally just copied Kung-Fu Panda!" That's what I initially thought the trailer was for, in fact.

Having played (I don't actually have the expansion, so I have access to pandas but not monks), I'm left with that impression in-game, as well.

After watching the trailer, I had this scenario play out in my head where one of the leads comes into the office after seeing the first KFP movie. He's all excited about it and has this whole background worked out in his head. It all seemed very George Broussard. And, of course, it was animated, a la South Park. :)

Given the potential development cycle for an expansion, the timing works out.
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."

antarcticaa

  • Lieutenant
  • ***
  • Posts: 52
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #21 on: December 28, 2012, 04:52:13 PM »
I'm like so many of us- restless, game-homeless and looking for a place to roost where I could find a community that was somewhat like what we had.  My problem is also compounded by the fact that I'm using an older computer and unfortunately there's no way I could run something like Secret World.  I might give CO a whirl but it would always be colored with my perceptions from CoH.  "Well, this is good, but we used to do it this way in CoH."  No one in any community likes a gamer that whines like that.  It would be similar to having someone from another part of the states move to your home state and then complain incessantly about how they did things differently in their former area, to the extent that down South you occasionally see the bumper sticker "I don't CARE how you did it up North." 

Is there a cozy little spot where we can find a home?  Is there somewhere with the community and ease of play that would work well on an older computer?  I'll never support another NCSoft product again, that's for sure. 

NecrotechMaster

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 388
  • is there a badge for that?
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #22 on: December 28, 2012, 04:58:30 PM »
if you want something with low graphics requirements, theres always everquest lol (which is f2p on steam and has very low min spec requirements)

ive actually contemplated giving that a shot

JaguarX

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,393
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #23 on: December 28, 2012, 05:44:47 PM »
My boss gave me the day off due to slow business. Normally I'd be playing CoV for hours today but...

I need something. I've tried a few other games and none of them are even close to CoV. I don't really need the lore and genre is becoming less and less relevant for me. Until we get our game back (in whatever form we get it back) I need something to pass the time. An MMO with even marginally similar playstyles as CoX. I just need something similar. I know nothing will ever be like CoV was for me, but at this point I'm really chomping at the bit for anything.

Any recommendations?

As far as super hero MMOs, you have CO and DCUO. CO have somewhat similar mechanics but still it's own animacl compared to COX, DCUO is even more  less like COX in playstyle but similar concept.

Typos happen to the best of us, even the most fluent, intelligent, stickler for proper English makes mistakes from time to time believe it or not contrary to their air of total perfection never made mistake in their entire existance that some display.  Nothing to be embarrassed about. It happens.

Kitsudragon

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #24 on: December 28, 2012, 10:57:35 PM »
I've been experimenting with CO for the last few months. My evaluation?

Not bad.

It's not CoX. That's a given. There's so much about CoX that it simply did better, but then, we all know that. But I also remind myself that CO is only 3 years old. It hasn't had the kind of development time. It's unknown how much development it'll actually get, mind you, with the company having been absorbed by PWE. But it's not a foregone conclusion, either. It just "remains to be seen."

I can't afford a lifetime sub, at the moment. Heck, I can't even afford a subscription model. I plan to eventually get a life sub, if I can. Because the game offers what might be the closest I can get, under the circumstances. And I was a lifer with CoX, having been a paying subscriber without fail since Issue 2. So I kinda  want to enjoy the same freedom with CO that I had with CoX. And after doing the math, a lifer sub just makes sense with that game, if one intends to play it in any depth. At $300, when you factor in that you get the equivalent of $60/year in free stuff, after the second year, they're paying you to play their game. When looked at in any meaningful way, that's just gotta be the most cost-effective solution.

I don't MMO to speak of. I dabbled with SWTOR, but was gone shortly after it came out. I don't do WoW, I can't stand the game and its ludicrous Nerf armor and rubber weapons. I love the graphical style, ironically enough, of the Lineage games, but they're really just SoK bot heaven these days, and no sane person would play there. Plus the game is more grind-heavy than WoW, which would have put me off the game, anyway.

I have to admit, I'm curious about Mechwarrior Online, which went live just this last October. I'm a fan of the Mechwarrior series, and was part of the original Multiplayer Battletech game back when it first came out on the GEnie system, using the original 16 colour Mechwarrior 2 game engine. I'd love it if that kind of mech combat game existed again. So I might try that.

Other than that? I play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer every now and then. Which surprises the hell out of me, since I usually can't stand multiplayer in most video games. ME3 handles it well, however, pitting the human players against the PC, and eliminating the tired old trope of being blown apart over and over by twitch-happy 12 years olds who memorized where all the best stuff was.

Planetside 2? See above. :) There's a lot of twitch-happy 12 year olds in that game, judging by some of the texted comments I see flying around the broadcast channel. I played it maybe two hours about half a month ago, and spent the entire time wandering around clueless because I didn't know what the heck was going on, or what I could do. That game really lacks for a decent tutorial.

So that's my two cents' worth, for what it matters. :)

Thunder Glove

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 992
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #25 on: December 29, 2012, 12:01:39 AM »
To be fair, Pandaren long predate Kung-Fu Panda.  They were first announced as a joke class for Warcraft III in April 2001, and then when the joke got positive reaction, they were put in as creeps in vanilla WC3 later that year and as playable Heroes in WC3: Reign of Chaos in 2002.  There were even a few of them in vanilla WoW as NPCs, like Chen Stormstout and his Empty Keg quest.

Six years later, Kung-Fu Panda hit theaters.

So, no, Warcraft didn't copy Kung-Fu Panda, especially not its lore.  Blizzard's Pandaren lore was in place long before KFP ever existed.

As for CO, I'm already starting to get bored with it, after less than a month.  Unlike CoH, where I could break up the contact-mission-contact-mission-contact-mission monotony with things like tips or Mayhem missions or playing the market or something, the only variety here is running Alerts, and I'm not finding alerts all that interesting or even very profitable XP-wise (except for Smash alerts, which are too hectic for my playstyle and tend to fail about half the time anyway).

On top of that, I have crippling lag with my favorite character, my pseudo-Mastermind Dr. Bodog.  I like having a lot of pets, but my old computer can't seem to keep up with six pets (and I was planning on getting more) at anywhere near full framerate even with the graphic settings turned down to rock-bottom.  That just makes Smash Alerts even worse, because I'm only seeing my screen update once every second or two rather than 60 times a second.

And on top of that, the general (lack of) excitement for (nonexistent) upcoming content on the forums is contagious.  Unlike the CoH, where there was always a lively discussion about the Next Big Thing that was going on (and there was always something - dozens of powersets, if nothing else), in CO there's no Next Big Thing at all.  There's no hints of even a Next Little Thing.  The main forum discussion involves continually asking why there's no Next Thing, and receiving no answers from any devs.

It's really depressing, because it is the closest to CoH right now.  But even Jack doesn't care about it anymore.

Noyjitat

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 717
  • Guess who cares?
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #26 on: December 29, 2012, 02:45:23 AM »
CO on the other hand....ick.  Terribly stereotypical MMO with a lot of microtransactions.  The character creation was completely gimped by the "pay to win" mantra.
SWTOR is good, and has the amazing storytelling power of Bioware.  But it does suffer from "WoW-cloneism."

I think I'd have to disagree with all of the above statements for both games other than swtors good storytelling power.

The microtransactions are no different than what we had in CoX when it comes to buying powersets, account services and costume sets. The only difference here is the lockboxes (super packs) are a big gamble with mostly junk as rewards. The character creation system here offers more costumes options from the start but less power options. Obviously here if you don't sub then how else would they make money? They don't have a true endgame system or special mods that are only available to subscribers. So they instead charge for the powers and the freeform spec. The smart choice here being to subscribe rather than spend 100s of dollars on archetypes and freeform slots.

Swtor is often referred to as a wow clone and I find most of the people that say this never past the first few planets or even the starting world. WoW has so much stuff in it and has all areas of gameplay monopolized that is pretty hard to make an mmo without it looking too much like it. swtor just has some traditional mmo gameplay in it and some similarities. But it's not at all a wow clone.
« Last Edit: December 29, 2012, 02:55:53 AM by Noyjitat »

Lily Barclay

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 407
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #27 on: December 29, 2012, 02:10:25 PM »
Been subbed to SWtOR since launch. It is indeed a wow clone. One of the many reasons this game was not as successful as it could/should have been.

Technerdoc

  • Lieutenant
  • ***
  • Posts: 86
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #28 on: December 29, 2012, 02:26:16 PM »
For me I have to say that I'm finnished with MMOs right now. There is nothing out there like City of Heroes that's a matter of fact. I really want to like Champions Online or DC Universe and they are not bad games, but then I see so many things I miss like the easy teaming or the costume options. I try so many other MMOs, but I don't have to play anything I don't like, just because I just have to play an MMO right now.

Right now I'm back on my Wii... playing Super Mario and Dokey Kong...  :-\

Mister Bison

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 686
  • *psychotic grin*
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #29 on: December 30, 2012, 01:29:20 PM »
Swtor is often referred to as a wow clone and I find most of the people that say this never past the first few planets or even the starting world. WoW has so much stuff in it and has all areas of gameplay monopolized that is pretty hard to make an mmo without it looking too much like it. swtor just has some traditional mmo gameplay in it and some similarities. But it's not at all a wow clone.
Star Wars TOR's gameplay is cloned from WoW. Except it's Star Wars so every power has unique flavor of flashiness. But it has rage, mana (somewhat minute, unexpandable amount of it), skill trees, power trainers to sink money into, mounts, channeling abilities, the stupidly difficult dungeons and the Holy Trinity.

Been enjoying it so far for the "It's KOTOR 3!!" aspect, nothing more. Been doing Story Mode (read: Easy Mode) dungeons for the story only (and some money). I'm totally not in the "Go join our guild, 3/4 *stupid dungeon* *stupid difficulty*, already stuffed, 3 raids a week minimum".

For all the story (there are still "Go fetch me X pig skins", but it's very minute. The Class quests are very entertaining), and the universe (FORCE LIGHTNING, nuff' said), it is far better than a WoW clone. But for people that only see the mechanics of the gameplay, I can very well understand why they call it a "WoW clone".
Yeeessss....

Copper Cockroach

  • Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 149
  • Phoenix Project: 2D Art Lead
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #30 on: December 30, 2012, 03:18:05 PM »
And on top of that, the general (lack of) excitement for (nonexistent) upcoming content on the forums is contagious.  Unlike the CoH, where there was always a lively discussion about the Next Big Thing that was going on (and there was always something - dozens of powersets, if nothing else), in CO there's no Next Big Thing at all.  There's no hints of even a Next Little Thing.  The main forum discussion involves continually asking why there's no Next Thing, and receiving no answers from any devs.

It's really depressing, because it is the closest to CoH right now.  But even Jack doesn't care about it anymore.

I was convinced not to try CO by the general tone of despair on their boards. No new powers on the way, no new zones, no new content.

They had three months'... THREE MONTHS!... lead time to decide how to appeal to the CoH refugees who would (potentially) be coming over after Nov. 30. Nothing. They (Cryptic/PW) couldn't care less and couldn't be bothered. Instead they ran a Double XP Weekend... a nice gesture, but far too little, far too late.

They hired a couple of our best and brightest, Sean McCann & Jeff Hamilton... a writer who could've provided them with reams of story content, and a powers guy who could've patched up one of the weakest points of CO, their limited power sets... and promptly assigned them to Star Trek.

It couldn't really be much clearer that Cryptic/PW would like to be rid of Champions Online. I wouldn't be surprised if they were planning on flat-out canceling it prior to Aug. 31, but the overwhelmingly negative reaction to CoH's shutdown gave it a reprieve. At this point it sure looks like they're hoping to kill it through playerbase attrition.

Lily Barclay

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 407
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #31 on: December 30, 2012, 03:50:28 PM »
I was convinced not to try CO by the general tone of despair on their boards. No new powers on the way, no new zones, no new content.

They had three months'... THREE MONTHS!... lead time to decide how to appeal to the CoH refugees who would (potentially) be coming over after Nov. 30. Nothing. They (Cryptic/PW) couldn't care less and couldn't be bothered. Instead they ran a Double XP Weekend... a nice gesture, but far too little, far too late.

They hired a couple of our best and brightest, Sean McCann & Jeff Hamilton... a writer who could've provided them with reams of story content, and a powers guy who could've patched up one of the weakest points of CO, their limited power sets... and promptly assigned them to Star Trek.

It couldn't really be much clearer that Cryptic/PW would like to be rid of Champions Online. I wouldn't be surprised if they were planning on flat-out canceling it prior to Aug. 31, but the overwhelmingly negative reaction to CoH's shutdown gave it a reprieve. At this point it sure looks like they're hoping to kill it through playerbase attrition.

I'm enjoying CO quite a bit. But with the knowledge that the game has not been doing well and may be the next to go. Trying not to get too attached just in case. I'm hoping the influx of CoHers will give it more of a chance to stay afloat, and it seems to me that pw doesn't close a lot of games, but I do see it for what it is, and know there's a chance it could be shutdown next.

Hyperstrike

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 477
  • SaveCoH!
    • So Super It Hurts
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #32 on: December 30, 2012, 07:24:40 PM »
Quote from: Copper Cockroach link=topic=7511.msg97463#msg97463 date=1356880685
I was convinced not to try CO by the general tone of despair on their boards. No new powers on the way, no new zones, no new content.

They had three months'... THREE MONTHS!... lead time to decide how to appeal to the CoH refugees who would (potentially) be coming over after Nov. 30. Nothing. They (Cryptic/PW) couldn't care less and couldn't be bothered. Instead they ran a Double XP Weekend... a nice gesture, but far too little, far too late.

They hired a couple of our best and brightest, Sean McCann & Jeff Hamilton... a writer who could've provided them with reams of story content, and a powers guy who could've patched up one of the weakest points of CO, their limited power sets... and promptly assigned them to Star Trek.

It couldn't really be much clearer that Cryptic/PW would like to be rid of Champions Online. I wouldn't be surprised if they were planning on flat-out canceling it prior to Aug. 31, but the overwhelmingly negative reaction to CoH's shutdown gave it a reprieve. At this point it sure looks like they're hoping to kill it through playerbase attrition.

No.  They basically are like Paragon, they have limited resources.

And right now, most of those are being retasked to work on Neverwinter.

Sure, they could have seen a bump from a CoH promo.

But Neverwinter is their next cash cow.

I'm not any happier about it than you.  But, if it came down to it, I'd rather have just had CoH never shut down in the first place.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2013, 10:28:05 AM by Hyperstrike »

NecrotechMaster

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 388
  • is there a badge for that?
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #33 on: December 30, 2012, 07:28:54 PM »
[quote author=Copper Cockroach link=topic=7511.msg97463#msg97463 date=1356880685
I was convinced not to try CO by the general tone of despair on their boards. No new powers on the way, no new zones, no new content.

They had three months'... THREE MONTHS!... lead time to decide how to appeal to the CoH refugees who would (potentially) be coming over after Nov. 30. Nothing. They (Cryptic/PW) couldn't care less and couldn't be bothered. Instead they ran a Double XP Weekend... a nice gesture, but far too little, far too late.

They hired a couple of our best and brightest, Sean McCann & Jeff Hamilton... a writer who could've provided them with reams of story content, and a powers guy who could've patched up one of the weakest points of CO, their limited power sets... and promptly assigned them to Star Trek.

It couldn't really be much clearer that Cryptic/PW would like to be rid of Champions Online. I wouldn't be surprised if they were planning on flat-out canceling it prior to Aug. 31, but the overwhelmingly negative reaction to CoH's shutdown gave it a reprieve. At this point it sure looks like they're hoping to kill it through playerbase attrition.


No.  They basically are like Paragon, they have limited resources.

And right now, most of those are being retasked to work on Neverwinter.

Sure, they could have seen a bump from a CoH promo.

But Neverwinter is their next cash cow.

I'm not any happier about it than you.  But, if it came down to it, I'd rather have just had CoH never shut down in the first place.

i think the bolded part is how we all feel

Thunder Glove

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 992
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #34 on: December 30, 2012, 08:54:14 PM »
No.  They basically are like Paragon, they have limited resources.

And right now, most of those are being retasked to work on Neverwinter.

Sure, they could have seen a bump from a CoH promo.

But Neverwinter is their next cash cow.

I'm not any happier about it than you.  But, if it came down to it, I'd rather have just had CoH never shut down in the first place.

Except Paragon was working on developing not one, but two other games at the same time they were working on I24 and loads of new costumes and about a dozen new powersets for CoH.

So they're not "like Paragon", because even with limited resources and their staff spread thin, Paragon still put time and effort into their existing product while they worked on new things. Sure, Cryptic has two "existing products", but even if Cryptic split their attention 50/50 between CO and STO, that still means a half-dozen new powersets and additions to existing sets, and another half-dozen for STO. (Where are the staff weapons?  Where are the plant powers?  Where are the water powers?  Where are the control sets?  Where are the elemental melee sets? Where is the native Mac client for all the Mac CoH players who now have nothing at all? Why aren't they at least thinking about working on those - or, if they are, why aren't they letting people know that they're thinking about working on those?)

This would have been the time for them to try to catch up to CoH to attract the tens of thousands of players that would have revitalized their game.  Instead, they just shrugged and went back to making Yet Another Generic Fantasy MMO and ignored the players beating down their door.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 09:09:35 PM by Thunder Glove »

CraZboy

  • Minion
  • **
  • Posts: 42
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #35 on: December 30, 2012, 09:21:11 PM »
For me personally, I'm playing a few games .. WoW to begin with, only reason is that there is no way that Blizz will ever shut down such a money making machine.  I also play SW:TOR, just cause its Star Wars, and also Star Trek Online, just cause its Star Trek.

But, lately, I have gone to the past.  Back in 2004, EA shut down the servers for Earth and Beyond, a space MMO.  That community, even though a fraction of the size of the CoX community, reversed engineered the game, and has brought it back.  Sure, its old, but its still fun!  Today, 8 years after shutdown, Earth and Beyond is fully playable.  That community is still going strong.  Also, its free to play.

So, if you want to see whats its about, go to http://www.earthandbeyond.ca for a replica of the original EA web site, and you can get the game for free at http://www.enb-emulator.com.

Its quite spectacular what the EnB community has done.  Not only have they recreated the game, but they have made it better.

C

Xieveral

  • Chaotic Neutral
  • Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 197
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #36 on: December 30, 2012, 09:37:36 PM »
On dual pistols and sexy moves...

I found out Phantasy Star Online 2 has them now with the gunner masterclass, and they're very reminiscent of the ones we had in CoH. Might be something to look into when the NA/EU release comes out in spring. The update introducing master classes might not come until 5 months after release though (and that's if Sega US can deliver timely content updates to a PS game this time around)
?RSN = CKN(CRS.ROD)

RSN = GLR(EMP.MCL)

Nyx Nought Nothing

  • New Efforts # 11,000!
  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 796
  • Ha!
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #37 on: December 30, 2012, 10:13:53 PM »
On dual pistols and sexy moves...

I found out Phantasy Star Online 2 has them now with the gunner masterclass, and they're very reminiscent of the ones we had in CoH. Might be something to look into when the NA/EU release comes out in spring. The update introducing master classes might not come until 5 months after release though (and that's if Sega US can deliver timely content updates to a PS game this time around)
That could be tempting. i used to play PSO on my Dreamcast and enjoyed it quite a bit despite being fairly grindy. i mostly played a... (been a while, um...) Android? Hunter? who generally used either dual energy daggers or an energy halberd IIRC. (Loved the animation for the dual daggers.) Plus my pew-pew character with the big rifle. Will have to look into PSO2.

Sadly i found CO pretty unrewarding, especially since they recently did something to my account that made it so i can no longer log in using my original Cryptic account, and the PW account alternates between giving me errors and telling me it doesn't exist at all when i tried to log in.
So far so good. Onward and upward!

Blue Pulsar

  • Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 213
  • Epic Mediocrity
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #38 on: December 30, 2012, 10:23:51 PM »
So, I decided to try The Secret World. The trailers suggested a very interesting style and I watched a bit of gameplay that looked very interesting. However, I'm thinking my machine is not quite what it needs to be for the game. I am able to log in but when I get to the character creation screen, only the UI shows. Where my character and the background is completely black. I figured "screw it" and decided to just log in with default appearance. Well, every time I try to log in to the actual game with my character, it crashes. My rig ran CoX great. I actually could run two of my accounts at a time with no problem. Every other game I've tried ran just fine.

Now, my rig is like 6 years old, so don't laugh when you read the specs.

CPU: 3.2Mghz Pentium 4 (yeah, single core... :P)
RAM: 2 gigs
Vid Card: GEForce 7600gs (it was bad-ass when it came out, haha.)

The motherboard is a Tyan server board that could support a lot more than what I have in it.

All things considered, I am thinking that it might be my OS. To be honest, I've never had a reason to upgrade from Window XP pro. Any ideas on what the issue could be? (I'm computer literate, I just have absolutely no drive to stay up to date on technologies.)
« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 11:06:21 PM by Blue Pulsar »
Blue Pulsar - 50 nrg/kin def - first toon - Liberty
Bane of Lanur - 52 nec/dark MM - Main vill - Liberty
Destan H. - 53 SS/FA brute - Farm/PvP hybrid - Freedom
Destan's Fury - 53 StJ/Regen brute - PvPer - Freedom
Destan's Shadow Gang - 53 Thug/Dark MM - PvPer - Freedom

The Fifth Horseman

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 961
  • Outside known realities.
Re: I need... SOMETHING.
« Reply #39 on: December 30, 2012, 11:15:27 PM »
Try updating your graphics card's drivers first. Had a similar problem with CoH once on my desktop PC (which is even more ancient than yours).
We were heroes. We were villains. At the end of the world we all fought as one. It's what we did that defines us.
The end occurred pretty much as we predicted: all servers redlining until midnight... and then no servers to go around.

Somewhere beyond time and space, if you look hard you might find a flash of silver trailing crimson: a lone lost Spartan on his way home.