New efforts!

[P51mus]

There is one change I'd like.  Either get rid of the normal enhancements that go bad and make the generic inventions standard somehow, or just make them stop obsoleting/getting weaker with level.   It always seemed like an unnecessary hassle to me.  After generic inventions came around I could use them to stop dealing with it (with some slight hassle from dealing with the market, either salvage or buying them outright), but anyone new I tried to introduce to the game would have to deal with the old annoying system.

[Phaerius]

I always used the old enhancements until IO's were equal to the power of SO enhancements. Then I would start io slotting the character. And reslot with the max level ios later.

[Ohioknight]

UPDATE

Direct quote: "we're working very hard on something to show someone. things will be quiet for a bit."


Because of this, it delays talks on the sale until this hurdle is achieved. There is news it is just that once they prove what they can do the rest should be easier.

So should all the folks chanting "August Close, August Close, August Close, August Close" switch to chanting "Probably Later, Probably Later, Probably Later, Probably Later"

[Battlechimp]

So there's finally an explanation for Azuria constantly losing all those magical artifacts.  It would be fun if an arc episode ended with Azuria telling the team members "Look what I found!" And behind her is a room crammed to the rafters with multiple copies of the items we've all recovered over and over and over again.  Now the problem is to relocate all this stuff before it reaches Magical Critical Mass.  Sounds like a job for Portal Corps!  Of course, it's a Nemesis plot.  Isn't it always?

I wrote an AE arc about why Azuria kept losing stuff, like a lot of people did. :)  if you looked at the MAGI contacts, the one in Galaxy City, Gregor, had a vault door behind him, not Azuria.  So he was concerned with all the missing things, and there was one mission where he comments about how he's not find of Azuria.  So my arc was him asking the heroes to investigate Azuria for stealing all the "missing" artifacts. Now you have to figure that a group like MAGI wouldn't just use a bank type vault, they'd be more creative, so I had the MAGI vault be a pocket dimension. Which makes the thefts all the more puzzling.

The first mission had you breaking up an auction. Put all the villain groups in a warehouse there to buy the stuff that you recover in other story arcs.  And you find that its the Carnival of Shadows running the auction. You go back to Gregor and tell him this and he decided to let you into the vault to investigate further.  In the vault you find hypnotized MAGI guards and carnies.  And ultimately you encounter and fight Azuria who's letting the Carnies take things. When you defeat her she comes out of her trance and its obvious she being controlled and gets teleported away

Then the last mission Gregor sends you to find and rescue azuria from the carnies.  At the end you find out that Azuria had possession of Devore's mask and it had planted a "seed" in her mind, kind of like a backdoor. The carnies couldn't outright control her, but could for short periods her her to do things, like leave a portal to the vault open and forget that she let the Carnies in.

Got that basic plot idea from the Freedom Phalanx book.  At the end of it Statesman mentions that they need to have that mask locked up securely and that he knew of a powerful magician, Azuria, who could keep it safe. That's when the seed was planted and the Carnies started taking advantage of her

[sindyr]

There is one change I'd like.  Either get rid of the normal enhancements that go bad and make the generic inventions standard somehow, or just make them stop obsoleting/getting weaker with level.   It always seemed like an unnecessary hassle to me.  After generic inventions came around I could use them to stop dealing with it (with some slight hassle from dealing with the market, either salvage or buying them outright), but anyone new I tried to introduce to the game would have to deal with the old annoying system.

Here's what I usually do:

Ignore enhancements completely until level 12.

At level 12 and later at level 17, purchase generic IOs. Use 'em.

At level 22 and later, begin slotting in more generic IOs, but also (around 32+) start using sets.

Obviously IOs like +Stealth, +End, +Rech get slotted as early as possible.

I can't tell you the last time I spent any time or thought on SO's, DO's or generics (non-IOs).

As far as I am concerned, non-IO and basic ordinary enhancements can be removed from the game.

That being said, I wouldn't remove them - because although it is inconceivable to me, someone will probably come along on this thread saying how much they like and find useful these Enh's. Which is why in reality I probably wouldn't change a thing about CoX, because too many people like it just the way it is, and almost any change will probbaly not be an improvement.

[mrultimate]

I'm much more concerned about how CoH2 will play rather than how it will look.  Because if it doesn't play like the old game (or better), I'd seriously prefer playing the original over something that was "New and Improved!" (i.e., dumbed down) for the sake of the casual players.

That having been said, Thank you very much for keeping us generally informed on the Team's progress in bringing my home away from home back to life!

I'm wondering about the (or better) and (i.e., dumbed down) part of your post. Could you expound on what would be "better" and "dumbed down" in your opinion?

[Angel Phoenix77]

NCSoft decided they wanted the team to prove technical competence.

That added time onto what is already a slow process. If you have ever closed on a house and had to work through all the paperwork - then you understand part of what is going on. It is not a simple sale it is potentially a multimillion dollar transaction or at least the potential gain/profit is in the millions of dollars - no one with any sense would rush into that sort of a deal without all things in place.

That is part of why some failed in the past.

I will ask for an update.

Thank you for the update :) I can understand why Ncsoft would want to see if the team can do what I assume they said they could do for the game. I am ok with the news slowing down, while I must admit I love log in to this website and reading the new news :) it is like Christmas, but like I said I am ok with the news slowing down.

[Super Firebug]

I'm much more concerned about how CoH2 will play rather than how it will look.  Because if it doesn't play like the old game (or better), I'd seriously prefer playing the original over something that was "New and Improved!" (i.e., dumbed down) for the sake of the casual players.

That having been said, Thank you very much for keeping us generally informed on the Team's progress in bringing my home away from home back to life!

For a long time, my family used the phrase "new and improved" to refer to something that we used to like, but was altered into something that we no longer like. As in, "They new-and-improved it" for "They ruined it".

[LaughingAlex]

I'm wondering about the (or better) and (i.e., dumbed down) part of your post. Could you expound on what would be "better" and "dumbed down" in your opinion?

I know, not the person your replying to but.....

Dumbed down usually means the game has less depth.  It's simplified, but overly so.  Sometimes you have a game that is streamlined, that can be fine if the core gameplay is intact and the depth isn't cut in any way.  But dumbed down is where you make it so that the lowest denominator can play the game as successfully as higher skilled players, as depth is destroyed.  See, depth is to me, your always learning new things.  A new player shouldn't master a game within ten or twenty minutes.  A dumbed down game typically can be said to be mastered in that short of a time frame, due to sore lack of difficulty or the fact that only one strategy exists at the core of the game.  MMORPGS for example, the holy trinity being the only team tactic, that is an example of only one strategy existing.  Once it's learned how to position in anything, you've mastered it.  Games with very solid depth take a very long time or are even impossible to truly master.

A good example of a game that was dumbed down to much was Deus Ex: Invisible war in comparison to it's predecessor.  You had less augmentations, to small map design, very poor AI, story writing was deliberately made so you could change your mind on who your siding with at all times without any consequences.  It was a pretty big disaster.

Another example is CO.  Again, compared to city of heroes, in this case, the game was again made easy enough so even the worst players could succeed(which should never be a case, as if you set the skill bar so ultra low even casual players get bored and feel the game is lackluster).  Buffs and debuffs are almost non-existent.  Crowd control in CO is also utterly useless, to.  So the only strategy is run around, pound things.  In teams, same thing except fire and ice, in which only the holy trinity works which is again, very boring.  Once you figure that out, you mastered it and that takes little time to do.

If CoX was dumbed down, it'd be such healers were required for everything because all those buffs debuffs and crowd control would be nerfed to the point of uselessness as to "avoid unnecessary complication" or "make the game simpler for casual players to master".  City of heroes depth comes from the fact that all the various buffs, debuffs and crowd control worked differently in some way, so every powerset had it's nuances.  So you couldn't master the game super quickly like any typically dumbed down game can be.  In fact, the opposite was true, CoX was not a game you could truely master ultimately as there were to many powerset combinations you could choose from.

[P51mus]

That being said, I wouldn't remove them - because although it is inconceivable to me, someone will probably come along on this thread saying how much they like and find useful these Enh's. Which is why in reality I probably wouldn't change a thing about CoX, because too many people like it just the way it is, and almost any change will probbaly not be an improvement.

I think anyone that'd complain about this minor annoyance being removed is the same kind of person that'd complain about the train lines being moved together or travel powers being available at level 6 or fitness being made inherent.

They're masochists, and their love of pain shouldn't be inflicted on everyone else.

[Serpine]

I wrote an AE arc about why Azuria kept losing stuff, like a lot of people did. :)  <story cut for brevity>

Still a better love story then Twi... Errr... Sorry.

Your AE description reinforces my thought that what they should have done with the classic 10 contacts, rather then turn them into pure scenery, was hold a contest to replace their missions with some well crafted ones selected from AE. Your mission chain (probably with a little editing to "dev it up") could have easily replaced the generic MAGI missions given by Gregor and people would have been like "That will teach those stupid carnies! I can't wait to try a different origin and see what sort of mission I get from that."

[Wyrm]

UPDATE

Direct quote: "we're working very hard on something to show someone. things will be quiet for a bit."


Because of this, it delays talks on the sale until this hurdle is achieved. There is news it is just that once they prove what they can do the rest should be easier.

Thank you, Ironwolf.

Now, for our obligatory "Airplane" clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmHeP9Sve48

[Cymmetri]

Would a CoH 2 be a remake or entirely new?

I miss what we had, and would like to keep most of it. Particularly the incarnate content.  :'(

[Super Firebug]

Would a CoH 2 be a remake or entirely new?

I miss what we had, and would like to keep most of it. Particularly the incarnate content.  :'(

As I understand it, the plan is to get the original, which we all love and miss, back online as it was when it closed (or, as close to that condition as possible). Then, while we enjoy that, they work on porting it to a new engine, the Unreal 4 engine, which would give better graphics, while allowing for easier updating of the content.

[Aggelakis]

Updated de first post to include new quote! <3

[HEATSTROKE]

 Nc Soft is doing due diligence, which to me verifies to a greater degree that they are willing to talk about selling City of Heroes.

My thought process on this is simple. Nc Soft definitely wants to know if the people attempting to purchase the game have the technical prowess to run it.

I am talking purely from my own conjecture and have no source of info regarding this matter..

Its is VERY possible that Nc Soft will not completely divorce itself from the CoH franchise completely. I believe that there very well might be an agreement in which Nc Soft gets a royalty on CoH and especially CoH2. For that to happen the team has to show the ability to actually run the game. I believe there will also be some type of agreement for Nc Soft to be bought out completely at some point.

I also believe that if this ability is demonstrated to Nc Soft's satisfaction that " miraculously " more things beyond a disc image will be " found ".

I also believe that Nc Soft needs this to be demonstrated to assist the potential sale. They have to be sure that this is not just an attempt to acquire the game and the licensing and then flip it for a greater monetary value to someone else. Not only does that create more legal issues but it also would definitely anger Nc Soft shareholders. Also if they sold it and the new owners didnt have the capability to run it in a manner that benefits the gamer it would definitely hurt Nc Soft's reputation even further.

So I have no issue waiting. In all honesty I didnt expect an August close. I was thinking more along the lines of December.. end of year..  I am working on some personal business dealings myself and have been working on them since September last year.. original date of closure was to be February/March... and now its August..  many twists and turns.. and many things to go over.. so I can understand how this process plays out from both sides..

I can even understand how simply having the RIGHT people in place makes all the difference in the world. I happen to be a person that has certain connections in my industry and those connections give confidence to clientele to do business with a venture that is unproven. Having the right people in place and the right contacts makes a HUGE difference..

I hope that the new purchasers have some technical people familiar with City of Heroes to assist in their demonstration.

[Super Firebug]

A couple of comments on the marvelous "Unity" video:

1. Personally, I'd have set it on the Defiant server - much more fitting name.

2.

Spoiler for Hidden:

All that fuss and bother because Ms. Liberty had a Sheldon Cooper moment, and wanted her spot back. ;)

[Eskreema]

Thank you, Ironwolf.

Now, for our obligatory "Airplane" clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmHeP9Sve48

Hey!  Thats my.... Well not really mine, but I... ummm, like, say it and some junk.

Anyway, i just wanted to say "good luck."  We're all counting on you.

[Golden Girl]

It always seemed like an unnecessary hassle to me.

That's something that's getting quite a bit of attention in Heroes and Villains.

[Angel Phoenix77]

I think anyone that'd complain about this minor annoyance being removed is the same kind of person that'd complain about the train lines being moved together or travel powers being available at level 6 or fitness being made inherent.

They're masochists, and their love of pain shouldn't be inflicted on everyone else.

minor correction travel powers were available at L4 :), I loved that they made fitness inherent, because it caused my characters to feel different and powerful, without worrying about end. cost for awhile.