New efforts!

[Arcana]

I personally would like to see MMOs gravitate to an online/offline model. That way if they do shut your favorite MMO down. Then you could still play it offline. Like Diablo 3 ect..

I know that in-order to do that they'd have to make it solo friendly and not MMOs are like that. I guess that's why I'm so attached, to the play with your friends. Even if their offline feature in Fantasy Star Universe 2. Imagine if every MMO had that feature plus an offline mod. Say you could save your friends characters to a folder in your games files. Then when your offline and your playing you can just invite your friends characters to your game while playing offline. The AI would control their characters of course but if done right or in the case of City of Heroes and they was decked out in the best IOs. It could really work.

I started a thread on the official forums with this as the premise and laid out my ideas for how this would work conceptually.  Having had a few more years to think about it, I think its more difficult than I first suggested, but on the other hand I also think that the barriers I first thought could make this unworkable are actually not insurmountable.  So I simultaneously think its more possible and more difficult than I first assumed.

The most complex part of this is how gated progressable gear would work.  Meaning, stuff that makes you more powerful that has prerequisites and significant effort to obtain and have developmental paths to increasing their ability, like enhanceable weapons, craftable gear sets, and powers and items that improve under gameplay conditions.  A system to develop those in single player play but be normalizeable in multiplayer play would be non-trivial, in my sense of the word.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

...a statistical tendency towards professional fascidiousness...

*fastidiousness
(Sorry, it was the perfect setup in context and i couldn't resist.)

Back to our regular discussion of slightly more relevant and important matters at least as they relate to CoH...

[MWRuger]

I started a thread on the official forums with this as the premise and laid out my ideas for how this would work conceptually.  Having had a few more years to think about it, I think its more difficult than I first suggested, but on the other hand I also think that the barriers I first thought could make this unworkable are actually not insurmountable.  So I simultaneously think its more possible and more difficult than I first assumed.

The most complex part of this is how gated progressable gear would work.  Meaning, stuff that makes you more powerful that has prerequisites and significant effort to obtain and have developmental paths to increasing their ability, like enhanceable weapons, craftable gear sets, and powers and items that improve under gameplay conditions.  A system to develop those in single player play but be normalizeable in multiplayer play would be non-trivial, in my sense of the word.

The Borderlands franchise handles this pretty well, with the caveat that the classes/characters are limited and it's limited to 4 player co-op. I realize that it isn't just matter of scaling from 4 to 100, but it allows for different builds and roles depending on how you want to play, essentially the action skills for each class are fairly adaptable. It deals with progressable equipment by having huge amount of gear that is level linked so while you can use lower level gear it is not effective.

One of the reasons I like it so much is that it reminds me a little of CoH

[Arcana]

*fastidiousness

Fastinating.

[Drauger9]

I started a thread on the official forums with this as the premise and laid out my ideas for how this would work conceptually.  Having had a few more years to think about it, I think its more difficult than I first suggested, but on the other hand I also think that the barriers I first thought could make this unworkable are actually not insurmountable.  So I simultaneously think its more possible and more difficult than I first assumed.

The most complex part of this is how gated progressable gear would work.  Meaning, stuff that makes you more powerful that has prerequisites and significant effort to obtain and have developmental paths to increasing their ability, like enhanceable weapons, craftable gear sets, and powers and items that improve under gameplay conditions.  A system to develop those in single player play but be normalizeable in multiplayer play would be non-trivial, in my sense of the word.

I honestly think it's something developers have being toying with for awhile. Look at Heirlooms in WOW, Followers in Diablo 3 (you can equip them to a degree), Aggressive companion pets (Torchlight2, Runes of Magic) I think Developers are looking to make MMOs into a kinda hybrid solo/group thing because they know that they have a hybrid audience now. They have adults who work long hours and probably play when their kids are in bed. Then they have kids who play until their bedtime. People who play mostly during non peak hours (like me) where on some servers teaming is difficult. Or simply situations where a player just wants to make some progression solo and in many MMOs when you reach end game. Unless your crafting, solo progression is rough.

I think developers are realizing this and are adapting behind the scenes. Which if I'm right, I wish they wouldn't so they could ask us what we'd like and we could tell them. LOL!

[blacksly]

Fastinating.

You should eat something.

[Rejolt]

You should eat something.

Your interpretation is ludicrisp

[Ankhammon]

Your interpretation is ludicrisp

Ludicrisp? Isn't that the new rapper breakfast cereal?

[MM3squints]

Ludicrisp? Isn't that the new rapper breakfast cereal?

[Twisted Toon]

That's why, in the old days in The Realm, you had packs of Jumpers, who would wander around, ganking low level people over and over.  They thought it was fun to delevel players.  Then you had the "vigilante" groups that sprang up and did nothing but gank the gankers.

The funny thing about you bringing up The Realm is, this past weekend, I was cleaning out some stuff in my garage, and found the old CD, with the old dot matrix printed code on the case.    I remember thinking it was SO cool that they had the game on CD instead of floppies. 

I was actually a member of an Anti-newbie jumping guild on the Realm. The Tiny terminators. My TT was This Toon (all the members had to have a Elf character with a name that had at least two parts that started with T). After some of us gravitated to CoH, we made some TTs there. Hence, Twisted Toon. Funny thing is, we didn't PvP on CoH. But we were ready willing and able to to PvP the newbie jumpers on the Realm. We also helped to outfit new players as well. We had made a newbie package with enchanted armor and weapons, and a few potions to get them started. What else were we going to do with our level 1000s? 

Unfortunately, when they had their...10 year(I think) anniversary celebration and gave all past accounts a free month, I tried it out again. I just couldn't get back into the swing of things. I don't think I'll have that problem with CoH though.

[Ankhammon]

I started a thread on the official forums with this as the premise and laid out my ideas for how this would work conceptually.  Having had a few more years to think about it, I think its more difficult than I first suggested, but on the other hand I also think that the barriers I first thought could make this unworkable are actually not insurmountable.  So I simultaneously think its more possible and more difficult than I first assumed.

The most complex part of this is how gated progressable gear would work.  Meaning, stuff that makes you more powerful that has prerequisites and significant effort to obtain and have developmental paths to increasing their ability, like enhanceable weapons, craftable gear sets, and powers and items that improve under gameplay conditions.  A system to develop those in single player play but be normalizeable in multiplayer play would be non-trivial, in my sense of the word.

That kind of setup reminds me of the first 20 levels of Age of Conan. They basically split those levels into two sections you could play basically whenever you wanted. A "Day" segment where you played in groups, did instances and the like and then a "Night" segment when you had a solo storyline to follow.
If the solo storyline was sufficiently sized then it could easily be adapted as offline single player mode. From there you just adjust the game accordingly with difficulty levels (or character benefits) that gently force the player to move from one to the other every few levels. This would allow the developers to determine what kind of and when your gated progressable gear was introduced. 

Seems to me the hardest part of this would be that in single player mode the game would need to function completely meaning that you would be embedding a single player game into a MMO or rather the other way around due to log in issues and the like. I'm thinking the solo storyline would have to be high caliber (which it was in the AOC first 20 level) and probably pretty huge if you wanted it incorporated throughout the game.
   

[Ankhammon]

That is just hilarious.

[Sullster]

I booted up Icon earlier to make a character and fly around, when I heard some of the music it bought a tear to my eye. I have been struggling to find a replacement for COH after it shut down. Recently started playing Secret World as always a game I said I would get round too. I don't know what it is about it but it gives me a feeling of COH especially as has a modern day vibe with superpowers. I would suggest people give it a shot if they haven't already. Might just tide you over until we can return Home!

[FloatingFatMan]

I booted up Icon earlier to make a character and fly around, when I heard some of the music it bought a tear to my eye. I have been struggling to find a replacement for COH after it shut down. Recently started playing Secret World as always a game I said I would get round too. I don't know what it is about it but it gives me a feeling of COH especially as has a modern day vibe with superpowers. I would suggest people give it a shot if they haven't already. Might just tide you over until we can return Home!

Just wait till you get bogged down on the puzzles.. There's a damned good reason there's a browser built into that game.. You're gonna need it for researching clues!

[Rejolt]

Just wait till you get bogged down on the puzzles.. There's a damned good reason there's a browser built into that game.. You're gonna need it for researching clues!

This... Which also gives you something COH didn't have. The game has great immersion for an mmo. I stopped once I felt the grind for gear coming on though. I haven't been to Tokyo yet, but I'm also not a subscriber.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

Just wait till you get bogged down on the puzzles.. There's a damned good reason there's a browser built into that game.. You're gonna need it for researching clues!

i actually found this both useful and amusing. So far i've had difficulty really getting into the game, probably due to lack of friends in the game to team up with and that i find the combat a little clunky and tedious at times. Serviceable, but not exactly elegant.
i just wish CoH's in-game browser/storefront had been half as gracefully implemented.

[LaughingAlex]

I personally stopped playing Secret World as it was a little slow paced for me.  The puzzles requiring you to browse the actual internet struck me the wrong way as I hate anything that is a guide dang it.  Cause dangit, I should be able to solve puzzles with in-game clues.

[EmmaStyles]

I am sure this has been discussed before and I apologize if it has but I am one of those that use to come here about every two weeks just to see if there was news about the talks, then it moved to about once a week and now I find myself coming here about twice a day but back to my question. The talk of the other games has me curious. How many are hopeful that the successor games will have a system like CoH had? with the enhancements instead of gear. I hate the gear grind in WoW and other MMOs and I always liked the sense of freedom the ehancements gave. The same with power choices I never felt like I had broken my character because I had chosen a certain power or because I had the idea of leveling a character with no travel power because it was part of that character's story.

[Harpospoke]

I personally would like to see MMOs gravitate to an online/offline model. That way if they do shut your favorite MMO down. Then you could still play it offline. Like Diablo 3 ect..

Reminds me of this NASCAR game from years ago.   You could get several friends together and race.   The one with the fastest computer would be the host.   You could even hook computers up on the same room for a really fast connection.

Something like that with other games would help them "last forever".   You could either play alone or get 7 friends together.   Things like Incarnate trials and Hami raids in CoH would be a problem though.

And the market would have to generate things to buy as well I suppose so you could make the builds you wanted.  Maybe some kind of AI for the market?

I know that in-order to do that they'd have to make it solo friendly and not MMOs are like that. I guess that's why I'm so attached, to the play with your friends. Even if their offline feature in Fantasy Star Universe 2. Imagine if every MMO had that feature plus an offline mod. Say you could save your friends characters to a folder in your games files. Then when your offline and your playing you can just invite your friends characters to your game while playing offline. The AI would control their characters of course but if done right or in the case of City of Heroes and they was decked out in the best IOs. It could really work.

Or let's take Television for example. There's a station on cable called TVland where they play classic TV shows like "The Any Griffith Show", "Gun Smoke" "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" ect.. Think if there was a company that did that with classic MMOs. Say they had an agreement with all the big publishers. That when their ready to sun set an MMO they sale it to these people at whole sale prices. With servers, software, IP ect... Build in a F2P/Sub model with a cash shop. Put it maintance mode, maybe to the Gold Sub like Sony Online.

There's always away, it's just weither the people involved are willing to put in the time, effort and resources.

I always told my nieces and nephews, "You can do anything you want. You just have to figure out how."

Agreed.   All this is possible...and there is a need for it to exist, so methinks it will come to be at some point.

[Azrael]