New efforts!

[General Sherman]

I'm sure, but it's not like I'm saying "Would it be ok if you asked every 5 minutes." I'm simply suggesting in the course of conversation one could ask how it's been going, seeing as how long he's gone without asking at all, asking ONCE at this point wouldn't be harassment. I know how important it is to be patient, but any thing new to know would go a long way towards knowing it's still going on or that since the last news it's remained positive.

No news IS good news. We would know if the deal caved.

[MWRuger]

Personally if we get the game back, something I'd do is limit the maximum amount of influence and bars of experience you can get from AE per day.  I'd even make AE give patrol experience instead of actual experience, so people didn't just power level on it, after say a level in a day(with patrol experience at the max being the limit).  I'd even suggest a guild wars 1 style drop penalty for clearing the same area over and over without finishing the mission as to encourage people to actually finish content instead of farming it, but thats me.  (Though that second one here wouldn't be as important, as peregrine island farms did in fact get purple drops and salvage, which helped the prices a bunch).

Way I see it, influence inflation was CoH's biggest problem, as people weren't getting enough drops(purple recipies especially, but I also saw common drops being way to expensive), since they were doing AE all the time.  AE didn't get you drops it got you tickets, but the influence you got per ticket was still insanity.  With the huge influx of influence into the market and the reduction of supply, things like even common salvage and purple recipies ended up over priced.  So you had a pretty annoying problem.

Limiting the influence gains from AE would mean yeah you could get drops via but you'd not be able to pay excessively high prices on a whim, so prices would have to go down, especially since, another idea i'd say should be implemented was maybe the 26-39ish salvage drops should drop sometimes at higher levels to.  More drops overall due to people playing content besides just AE + less influence from excessive AE farming would inevitably lower the prices to something more reasonable.  I only suggest it for AE and repeat clearings and even then I'd prefer it such as to not drive people away.  I'd also if implementing something like that, explain WHY it's being implemented.

No, that won't fix it. I never played AE regularly. I maybe played a handful of times. I probably made around 40 billion over all. I hit two billion and got field crafter in Pretoria at level 19. The problem wasn't really too much money, but nothing to spend money on. The influence sinks the game had were pretty small and they basically let vets get out of almost all of them.

With prestige travel powers, tailor tickets and free respecs, there wasn't much left besides I/O's to spend money on. You end up with too much money chasing too few goods. The only thing (and I prolly spent 10 billion all told) left was the ruinous Inf to Prestige transaction. It was so bad most would never do it and once they made it so easy to get around and all the personal storage each character had, there was little need for an SG.

Plus, there were plenty of ways to save money on I/O's. I crafted invention I/O's at 15 and 25. They never stop working like the others so you could use them until 35 (which is when I slotted my final I/O's).

You could power level in there, but that's a different issue.

[Eskreema]

dickering and manuevering

I thought "victory rush" was was to be the new leadership pool power

[LaughingAlex]

No, that won't fix it. I never played AE regularly. I maybe played a handful of times. I probably made around 40 billion over all. I hit two billion and got field crafter in Pretoria at level 19. The problem wasn't really too much money, but nothing to spend money on. The influence sinks the game had were pretty small and they basically let vets get out of almost all of them.

With prestige travel powers, tailor tickets and free respecs, there wasn't much left besides I/O's to spend money on. You end up with too much money chasing too few goods. The only thing (and I prolly spent 10 billion all told) left was the ruinous Inf to Prestige transaction. It was so bad most would never do it and once they made it so easy to get around and all the personal storage each character had, there was little need for an SG.

Plus, there were plenty of ways to save money on I/O's. I crafted invention I/O's at 15 and 25. They never stop working like the others so you could use them until 35 (which is when I slotted my final I/O's).

You could power level in there, but that's a different issue.

Go figure I'd at least change the power leveling though, I mean the entire reason I say put an exp cap on AE is cause people would use it exclusively for power leveling.  And making it so they'd only get patrol exp was so to encourage them to go out and actually play the games content.  I mean some people STILL blame AE for city of heroes shutting down, and I'm excessively bothered by that because MMORPGs for the longest time didn't have any kind of modding community.  And mods are GOOD for game replayability and even help developers come up with good ideas/avoid bad ones.

[HEATSTROKE]

 Who cares if people Power Level.. People power leveling never bothers me.. People with a gajillion influence never bothered me.. If thats how they enjoy playing.. then let them enjoy it the way they want.. if you want to take the slowest possible route to level 50 and play every single mission and examine every story arc to the greatest detail.. then have fun doing it..

Power Leveling didnt kill CoH.. NC Soft killed it..

[blacksly]

Who cares if people Power Level.. People power leveling never bothers me.. People with a gajillion influence never bothered me.. If thats how they enjoy playing.. then let them enjoy it the way they want.. if you want to take the slowest possible route to level 50 and play every single mission and examine every story arc to the greatest detail.. then have fun doing it..

Power Leveling didnt kill CoH.. NC Soft killed it..

+1

I'll be over here, running story arcs from the game, doing Task Forces, etc. If you're over there in the AE, power leveling.... the worst that you do for me, is nothing. The best, is that you pay money for a subscription, or pay via micro transactions, and help the game survive financially.

[HEATSTROKE]

+1

I'll be over here, running story arcs from the game, doing Task Forces, etc. If you're over there in the AE, power leveling.... the worst that you do for me, is nothing. The best, is that you pay money for a subscription, or pay via micro transactions, and help the game survive financially.

Bingo

[LaughingAlex]

Who cares if people Power Level.. People power leveling never bothers me.. People with a gajillion influence never bothered me.. If thats how they enjoy playing.. then let them enjoy it the way they want.. if you want to take the slowest possible route to level 50 and play every single mission and examine every story arc to the greatest detail.. then have fun doing it..

Power Leveling didnt kill CoH.. NC Soft killed it..

Fully agree with you on the NcSoft thing, I wasn't blaming that or even the inflation, but was just saying the inflation of influence was an annoying problem for some.  I made most of my money soloing for purples anyhow :).

[HEATSTROKE]

Fully agree with you on the NcSoft thing, I wasn't blaming that or even the inflation, but was just saying the inflation of influence was an annoying problem for some.  I made most of my money soloing for purples anyhow :).

this to me always stunk of...


waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

I want to buy it for cheap and I want it NOW !!!!!!

I always found a way to get what I wanted cheaper... wait the market out.. normally didnt take very long for the market to reset itself..

Purples were always going to be expensive.. and they should have been..

Things like the salvage.. there was always a way to get it cheaper.. you just had to play the market.. or wait it out.. Never had a proble, building some pretty darn good IO's out builds.. and never had more than 25 billion influence across 38-43 toons that I played over a period of 8 years..

[Stratoburst]

I thought "victory rush" was was to be the new leadership pool power

Leeeeroooooy Jenkiiiins....  :P

[LaughingAlex]

this to me always stunk of...


waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

I want to buy it for cheap and I want it NOW !!!!!!

I always found a way to get what I wanted cheaper... wait the market out.. normally didnt take very long for the market to reset itself..

Purples were always going to be expensive.. and they should have been..

Things like the salvage.. there was always a way to get it cheaper.. you just had to play the market.. or wait it out.. Never had a proble, building some pretty darn good IO's out builds.. and never had more than 25 billion influence across 38-43 toons that I played over a period of 8 years..

Kinda immature of ya there on the first comments.  Had you perhaps put yourselves in the shoes of the newcomer?  Don't get me wrong here I had, if you considered the cost of IO's multiple billions of influence in value myself.  Not saying I "Want it nao", just saying there were issues.  For one the only way to make a sizable amount of influence was, in the perspectives of many, AE farming or soloing on 8x, particularly the same instance over and over again.  You needed drops, namely.  Influence drops themselves were pretty worthless anymore.

[HEATSTROKE]

Kinda immature of ya there on the first comments.  Had you perhaps put yourselves in the shoes of the newcomer?  Don't get me wrong here I had, if you considered the cost of IO's multiple billions of influence in value myself.  Not saying I "Want it nao", just saying there were issues.  For one the only way to make a sizable amount of influence was, in the perspectives of many, AE farming or soloing on 8x, particularly the same instance over and over again.  You needed drops, namely.  Influence drops themselves were pretty worthless anymore.

well being that this is the internet and people cannot hear your voice, inflection, tone or see your facial expressions or body language im going to simply pass on the comments regarding my comments as immature. If you see them as such then there is little that I can do to alter your perception..

The thought process held by many that the only way to make a sizeable amount of influence  is by AE farming or soloing on 8x is siimply erroneous

One of the ways to actually make a lot of influence is to actually utilize the market to your advantage. Use your advantage... sell your salvage.. sell your rewards.. sell your recipes.. make enhancements and sell them... use your merit rolls.. find the items that yield good influence and are in high demand and sell them...

again.. I never did AE farming for influence.. and neither did most of my SG mates.. and I was able to build out 38-40 toons fully IO'd out with Good results.. Not everyone of them had purples.. in fact most of them didnt.. and Purples were normally the most expensive items in the market..

I also never understood why anyone cared what anyone else did with their toon.. how they got their level.. and how much influence they had..

I have friend who played and completely ignored the market.. and IOs sets completely.. played almost completely with SO or with Generic IO's and enjoyed themselves just as much as the next man..

So to me if they ever got the game back.. leave it alone

[LaughingAlex]

well being that this is the internet and people cannot hear your voice, inflection, tone or see your facial expressions or body language im going to simply pass on the comments regarding my comments as immature. If you see them as such then there is little that I can do to alter your perception..

The thought process held by many that the only way to make a sizeable amount of influence  is by AE farming or soloing on 8x is siimply erroneous

One of the ways to actually make a lot of influence is to actually utilize the market to your advantage. Use your advantage... sell your salvage.. sell your rewards.. sell your recipes.. make enhancements and sell them... use your merit rolls.. find the items that yield good influence and are in high demand and sell them...

again.. I never did AE farming for influence.. and neither did most of my SG mates.. and I was able to build out 38-40 toons fully IO'd out with Good results.. Not everyone of them had purples.. in fact most of them didnt.. and Purples were normally the most expensive items in the market..

I also never understood why anyone cared what anyone else did with their toon.. how they got their level.. and how much influence they had..

I have friend who played and completely ignored the market.. and IOs sets completely.. played almost completely with SO or with Generic IO's and enjoyed themselves just as much as the next man..

So to me if they ever got the game back.. leave it alone

Thats pretty much what I did, was sell things constantly.  I generally played on 8x in allignment missions, and I'd get purples to drop on a very regular basis and then sell them.  About 99% of my influence came from my auction sales, in fact.  The allignment merits were used to by the highest priced orange recipes and I sold those as well when I didn't need them.  I also didn't have an extreme altitus, in fact I only played on Virtue, so I couldn't have more then about 20 characters at a time in practicality.  This resulted in more time spent tweaking characters then building whole new ones.  I did delete "obsolete" characters over time though(mostly chars I didn't care to play anymore or were redundant thematically).

[MWRuger]

Yeah, all I ever did to raise funds was market. Buy recipes as cheap as possible, same with salvage and then craft. Then put them up for sell over the low bids and well under the high bids. (there were ways to figure this out)

Then go do missions, play alts, design bases or even hit AE. The next time you log in check and see if they sold. No, maybe you priced too high or there is a glut. Relist or be patient.

Then go do missions, play alts, design bases or even hit AE. The next time you log in check and see if they sold. All gone? Maybe you priced them too low or they were really in demand/ Make some more or make something else or if you have enough funds don't do any thing.

Then go do missions, play alts, design bases or even hit AE.

There were other ways to make money, but this was the best return for time invested and actually provided a service. Some people really hated crafting and were happy to just buy it. I even had a few who would send me lists of IO's and pay me to craft, usually double teh going rate to have someone else do it. I enjoyed crafting and it took very little time. Heck, i even made money doing field crafting

Tell you what though, if/when we get the game back anyone who wants to learn how to market, just send me a tell. There were so many great tutorials in the forums on using the market. It's pretty easy

Or if you only need 30 or 40 million, I'll just send you some! (I say that because despite trying to teach my best friend how he refused to get it. It was easier just to give him money)/ There were rich players who donated a quarter billion to match my donation to help build my first base. I like to pay it forward.

[MWRuger]

The AE baby thing never bothered me, but I know it upset some people, a lot. But in my experiences I never knew why someone played poorly unless they told me. They could be someone who power leveled and didn't know how to play, but they could be a griefer, trying a new role, having a bad day, a new player or even just not very good.

I knew someone who had been playing for years. He lead the worst statesman TF ever. Just wasn't his thing. Actually, he just wasn't great on teams. He usually did PvP and only did PvE to level for PvP or to play with RL friends. He never really got the idea of supporting the overall team. For example, he love KB powers and when you are playing a scrapper you need the tank to KB as a soft control and knock them into a nearby wall or the like. Never could get him to understand that. So i just switched to blasters whenever he played those guys. His defenders? I just never counted on them doing anything helpful. When they did, awesome! But he's my friend and I love playing with him even though he makes it harder.

So I understand why some people hate Power leveling, just like I understand why people don't like Ebill Marketeers or TF speed runners or ghosters or kill alls or farmers or alt-ers or whatever. I liked to make homage toons and I understand why one of them got generic-ed. (I didn't like it but I understood it.) We each have our own vision of how the game should be played. The strength of CoH was that it could accommodate us all.

It's like a big party. You don't have to be in every conversation to have a good time. Find someone you like to talk to and do that and don't worry about the loudmouth hipster dressed in plaid. 

[CreVo]

The power leveling argument is terribly flawed. Just because a player played the content 100 times for each one of his characters doesn't mean he knows how to play properly.  More so than not, people on my team who would do stupid stuff or had bad builds weren't power leveled. I PL'd frequently because I've played enough characters through the content and didn't want to do it for the 100th time just to try a new power set at higher tiers. Its a bad misconception to have, if anything should be "stopped" Its market abuse. Even when i wanted to play content, I'd still PL to 20 for stamina [Pre change of course]. Its pretty childish to force your ideals on people about how they want to go about their MMO experience. A bad player is a bad player, Power leveling or not. Especially when your idea is to screw over people who don't power level -just- to try and force those ideals on people.


Ontop of that, have you ever played during Double XP weekend, or used a XP Booster? Thats basically self-power leveling. Power leveling is more than just a high level running a low level through stuff. Its a pretty slippery slope to complain about people leveling fast.

[TonyV]

If City of Heroes comes back not only we'll make history but, do you think it's possible to make a movie about how the CoH community brought back City of Heroes? I'm pretty sure the title of the movie would obviously be called #SaveCoH. That would be AWESOME!!!  :P

True story: I actually kept notes, especially between September 1 to December 1 in 2012, with the hope that if we were able to save the game, I might either write a book or a documentary about our story, with heavy emphasis on the community aspect of the story.  I still haven't ruled it out completely, but at this point, the story would probably be a lot less exciting.  "And then two years passed..."

[MWRuger]

The only marketing that I really hated was when people jacked with the supply and demand just because they could, for "funs-ies". No other reason than they thought it was hilarious when something like Unmelting Ice was up to a billion. My objection to it was that it undermines players confidence in the market and gives them the impression that since that wasn't a fair deal, no fair deals existed. Basically, it made the market look bad.

The easiest and only way to fix the market? Get people to stop spending so much money on overpriced items. Just don't buy them and the prices will fall. I promise. When demand drops, supply rises and prices drop. That's not debatable. (they aren't called the "suggestions of economics" after all)  :D

This, of course, won't work because just like in real life people spend money how they please and don't want anyone telling them what to do.

Seriously, we had very long discussions on this very topic on the old forums. We discussed lots of ways to reform the markets. Short of the Devs seriously monkeying with the drop rates, there isn't any way to do this. Just too much inf chasing too few goods. Monkeying too much with drop rates sounds fine, but when things are so common it reduces overall play satisfaction as a reward.

They did a little of this when they introduced the tokens that let you reroll purples. That actually did work for a little while, until the supply of junk purples was used up and then prices climbed back up. We had a straw estimate of the inf in the game, since only the devs knew for sure, that there was like a trillion in inf floating around in a game that was designed to soak millions. You could raise the prices of everything else, but that really hurts new players a lot.

You could set price caps, but that leads to off market selling (you saw this when some PvP I/O's sold off market for a billion over the cap.) This is undesirable because the market fees are one of the only mechanisms to control inflation and permanently remove inf from the system.

The real underlying cause isn't market abuse but a violation of economic law. There is no cost of production in the creation of Inf. You get it for bopping bad guys in the nose. You don't have to pay for housing, food, medicine, taxes, fees or anything else. 

[MWRuger]

True story: I actually kept notes, especially between September 1 to December 1 in 2012, with the hope that if we were able to save the game, I might either write a book or a documentary about our story, with heavy emphasis on the community aspect of the story.  I still haven't ruled it out completely, but at this point, the story would probably be a lot less exciting.  "And then two years passed..."

Brother, not to us it wouldn't be!

[LaughingAlex]

The power leveling argument is terribly flawed. Just because a player played the content 100 times for each one of his characters doesn't mean he knows how to play properly.  More so than not, people on my team who would do stupid stuff or had bad builds weren't power leveled. I PL'd frequently because I've played enough characters through the content and didn't want to do it for the 100th time just to try a new power set at higher tiers. Its a bad misconception to have, if anything should be "stopped" Its market abuse. Even when i wanted to play content, I'd still PL to 20 for stamina [Pre change of course]. Its pretty childish to force your ideals on people about how they want to go about their MMO experience. A bad player is a bad player, Power leveling or not. Especially when your idea is to screw over people who don't power level -just- to try and force those ideals on people.


Ontop of that, have you ever played during Double XP weekend, or used a XP Booster? Thats basically self-power leveling. Power leveling is more than just a high level running a low level through stuff. Its a pretty slippery slope to complain about people leveling fast.

Well a person who plays any game for a long time without learning anything, usually they are to narrow minded no matter how much you try to deal with them.  I met people who had four years of vet badges who still thought defenders were only healers and should only heal, and any other defender with sets other then empathy were useless.  OR they rolled defender but ignored everything but the heals and even assumed they were keeping everyone alive when in fact everyone was wiping in the team.  See those kinds of players exist in other games to, who make the same mistakes over and over again(and always very big, glaring, game-costing mistakes).  They are called noobs :).

Thing was more so then not, wasn't the skill of people who got power leveled to much or to early, at times it was when they claimed the game was boring/easy when they never....

....fought malta operatives.

....fought carnival of shadows...

....fight anything other then council/freaks and only concerned themselves with exp gained per second.

...never tolerated anyone with knockback.

I could go on but, won't.  Thing is I posted what I posted earlier as I felt power leveling should be discouraged, especially for first time players(who really shouldn't as they'd miss most the game and the kind of enemies they could fight.)

My earlier suggestions were more for those who just got into the game, though, rather then those who'd been around a while.  When someone power levels like mad it's one thing but when they spoil it for other players it tends to go to far.  There needs to be a clear message about CoX is that this isn't just a game thats all end game end game end game.  Even with the incarnate trials introduced it wasn't all that.  There is tons of stuff to do in the game and it's missed by many who get in to many radio missions or just get power leveled fighting nothing but pure-damage mobs of some kind.

The game can be boring if all you fight are council/freaks or some farm mob in an AE arch.  Just a thought.

Edit: Perhaps things should be done to encourage people to fight more then one group of enemies in the game.