CO possibly going to get some actual real attention?

[JaguarX]

I'm not letting my self be sublimated to serve the greater good of the group, to exaggerate your point. I was just exaggerating with the "kicking and screaming" pat.

Most of my time during the day is spent in front of a computer or at my laptop, so my "down time" tends to be less computer-related. I will give STO a try, maybe even tomorrow. I've run the updater and opened it up to see if I was one of the lucky ones to get four character slots (I wasn't), but I wasn't in a position to play, then. I actually have a light weekend planned, so I may get more gaming time, particularly since my son is asking if there is something "like City of Heroes" that we can play. From his perspective, that really is just an MMO that we can play together, so any of those is a possibility.

cool stuff.

[Empyrean]

You know, I forgot to mention the most important thing in my earlier post. 

Yes, Flying lab is a great studio and they're stoked, and Champs has tons of potential, but the single GREATEST potential (and the one I didn't mention) is all of the content that the Champions PnP IP has. 

I've been getting the sourcebooks, and there is so much great content and potential there for lots of world-enlarging and story driven content.  I mean, they don't even have to write it, just apply it to the online game.

I think the fact that this is a small studio isn't going to be a problem.

[Captain Electric]

So I visited the official Champs forums to gauge their collective reaction. It's brimming with ecstatic anticipation. More than I've seen in years.

Except this. Someone posted this, well not just someone but Biff Smackwell, the community moderator.

I read the article and it sounded a lot like they've been focusing on polishing Champs for half a year now.  What does this say to me?  That these guys are the reason we have an event every three or four months with a new lockbox, and costume pieces that they still can't get right, instead of the alternative - true maintenance mode.

Not only that, they're not focused on Champions.  They say that they've been working on Champs, Star Trek, and Neverwinter.  This piece of a studio is our team, and has been for half a year.

You guys can't possibly think that he's even thinking about Champions here, right?

I honestly hope I'm wrong, because Champs is still my favorite MMO.  But this doesn't sound this new studio is the Superman to our Lois Lane.

The tone of the conversation didn't change much after that. A lot of excited one-hit-wonders are coming in to make posts and I don't think there's a lot of listening going on yet.

But every page has a few posts written by people who saw Smackwell's cautionary wisdom and couldn't argue with it. Smackwell is well-known on those forums, he's a pretty blunt guy, but he's no negative nancy.

And of course, neither am I, but what I absolutely would hate to see is any of us taken for another ride. I don't know most of you on a personal level, but I care about this community. We deserve better than empty hope. I know a lot of you are hoping that maybe Champs could pick up some of the thousands of torches littering Atlas Park. But this isn't just Jack or Cryptic. It's also PWE and profit. Another mega corporation far away, sitting on top of an eastern market that dwarfs the speck referred to as the EU/NA market. This could be the kind of mistake that a lot of people here have said they wouldn't get involved in twice.

The folks at Paragon Studios were big nerdy fans of the game, just like we were. We are all a big happy nerdy family. Studios like that don't grow on trees. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the next big studio that really CARES about its fans is already right under our noses. Maybe even two studios. 

[Tenzhi]

Hrm, if this is truly the team responsible for the last several months of new lockboxes and such, it sounds like my cynicism may not be unfounded.  Still, things *could* be looking up for ChO.  Nothing wrong with a little hope.

[Captain Electric]

Nothing wrong with a little hope.

Clearly you haven't played much Warhammer 40,000!

[Xieveral]

Call me when they let you play the bad guy.

[Noyjitat]

I hope they don't radically change gameplay balance. I'm not a fan of the vehicles and only use a hoverbike for transport on 2 of my tech characters but I like the "balance" if you can call it that, the way it is. I've made some really powerful characters and I've liked how in both CO and COX that we weren't weak little lemmings like you are in other mmos where one or 2 bosses make you retreat.

What CO needs is a Really hard mode setting and omgwtf difficult mode setting (optional ofcourse) with rewards attached for setting your difficulty this high.
More group content,
End game
More solo max level content especially in the form of new zones
More places to level up.
More free stuff for being subscribed - I honestly can't remember the last time we got a new costume set for free. I don't mind buying stuff I rather encourage people to buy stuff but you should see something free every couple months or so.

Revamp of the lockbox system - Cryptics games have by far the most unrewarding lockbox systems I've seen so far. They put way more useless junk in these than useful. CoX and DCUO got lockboxes right.

[General Idiot]

All I hope for is a new low level zone. Not replacing Westside, just an alternative to it. Because as someone who makes a great many alts, having to run through Westside on every single one of them has gotten incredibly boring.

Well.... really I hope for new zones at all levels but they have to start somewhere and I'd really like it to be at the bottom, where anything they add is going to make the greatest impact on new players and altoholics like me. Also, I want to finally be able to go to the other side of that goddamned river. There's a whole other piece of city there, taunting me from across the water.

[dwturducken]

There is a lot of this sentiment, about the lack of (especially low-level) content. Having flipped back and forth from Silver to Gold and back a couple of times, I have to rein in my usual alt-itis (a second or third account helps a little), but I have spent a lot of time running around Westside. Honestly, though it is repetitive, I really haven't gotten irritated or bored by it. It's a little like running around Atlas Park until I was high enough to head over to Kings Row for my radio (now, THERE is a feature this game sorely needs!), only it takes a little longer. Maybe it's because the level transitions were so much lower in CoH, but it does seem much longer before you get to go to a different zone.

In the forums, people say it only takes a couple of hours, but I've only managed it on one character that, unfortunately, is now locked in Gold until I can gather enough Zen to buy his AT.

[Empyrean]

I would also REALLY love full Powerhouse Battle Station settings for all instanced missions.  I want to be able to crank them up to 11!  Like the 4/8 setting in CoH.  Man, I loved that!  And, because you can adjust difficulty of mobs AND numbers, anyone can dial it in to where they have fun--whether it's being a god squishing gnats, or swimming in hoards of tough foes.

This would revitalize all of the stuff like UNITY missions that are just too easy at level 40 with gear to be any fun.  I used to kill HOURS running radio missions and Dark Astoria arcs at 4/8 on my fully incarnate main.  Man, I miss that, and full Battle Station settings for instanced missions would bring that to Champs.

[General Idiot]

It's a little like running around Atlas Park until I was high enough to head over to Kings Row for my radio (now, THERE is a feature this game sorely needs!)

Very much so, yeah. They do have 'random' missions, I'm sure you've had civilians running up to you and giving you missions right? That's meant to be their version of CoH radio missions, but the execution of it is deeply flawed. For one you have to wait for the game to randomly decide to give you one with as far as I know no way to hasten the process, for another you can't pick them up outside of Millennium City and maybe Vibora Bay since there aren't people to give them to you, and to top it off they're not even random. There's three or four distinct missions at each level and that's it.

They really need something that'll procedurally generate a mission at your level and pick a map, an enemy group and an objective from a list on demand like CoH did. And while they're at it they could make those missions scale with team size, very little of the original game content does but I know the engine's capable of it because a lot of the Vibora Bay missions do.

[dwturducken]

I'm sure you've had civilians running up to you and giving you missions right?

I've heard of it.

Maybe it's that the West Side missions are so damned long. I do also play with a bunch of guys who suffer from alt-itis. Once we're all logged on at the beginning of the evening, one of us will invariably ask, "What's the theme for this week?" One week, we did Rule 63 Freedom Phalanx ("Brother Psyche" was particularly disturbing...). Another, it was an all female team whose members had inappropriately punny names that made female anatomy sound super hero-y. We never seem to play the same character two weeks in a row, so we have never reached that point.

I've actually made a second account to attempt to pass level 15.