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Discuss: What We Can Do: Augments and Refinements

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octavios
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Being a long time fan of City

Being a long time fan of City of Heroes, I would like to say that one of the things missing from the game was end content. It was fun leveling, but, for games to last time, like WOW or EQ2, there must be endgame content. This keeps players involved and in the game for the progression.

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It got that with Incarnate

It got that with Incarnate content

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I would argue that a game

I would argue that a game that encourages alting keeps players involved for longer than any endgame content. And we've been told that CoT will have both, plus another third option that has been teased, so we should be good here.

Spurn all ye kindle.

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Cinnder wrote:
Cinnder wrote:

I would argue that a game that encourages alting keeps players involved for longer than any endgame content. And we've been told that CoT will have both, plus another third option that has been teased, so we should be good here.

Both is good. While I'm sure I mocked up over 100 ideas over 8 years, personally I usually had a main max-level that I was playing the crap out of and intermittantly tweaking. Alting is absolutely critical for this.kind if game, but endgame and lateral progression matter too.

BUT, you can't launch with everything, and alting is the correct initial focus because it is critical, it is where you have to start anyway (charachter creation), and it gives a fun time sink right off the bat at the same time. More endgame and lateral progression can come a the game developes.

FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)

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Empyrean wrote:
Empyrean wrote:
Cinnder wrote:

I would argue that a game that encourages alting keeps players involved for longer than any endgame content. And we've been told that CoT will have both, plus another third option that has been teased, so we should be good here.

Both is good. While I'm sure I mocked up over 100 ideas over 8 years, personally I usually had a main max-level that I was playing the crap out of and intermittantly tweaking. Alting is absolutely critical for this.kind if game, but endgame and lateral progression matter too.

BUT, you can't launch with everything, and alting is the correct initial focus because it is critical, it is where you have to start anyway (charachter creation), and it gives a fun time sink right off the bat at the same time. More endgame and lateral progression can come a the game developes.

Agree 100%. Of course, just because you've played end game, doesn't mean there's no further use for that character, especially if you're RPing.

Shocking Blu

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Empyrean wrote:
Empyrean wrote:

Both is good. While I'm sure I mocked up over 100 ideas over 8 years, personally I usually had a main max-level that I was playing the crap out of and intermittantly tweaking. Alting is absolutely critical for this.kind if game, but endgame and lateral progression matter too.

Same here - I had LOTS of alts at different levels, but out of my 50's I really only "maxed out" two or three with Incarnate goodies, and only had one "main" that I would constantly tinker with, badge hunt with, etc. That said I enjoyed the Incarnate trials/system and liked being able to take some of my max level characters out for a spin to try something new.

Basically having a variety of things to do at all levels in any MMO is vitally important - it might just take a while for things to develop and "fill out."

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Most games seem to only have,

Most games seem to only have, at most, a dozen different classes to play.
I don't know if anyone has worked out all the permutations for building a character in CoT and the fraction of those that actually feel like they play differently, but alting should keep most folks pretty busy.

It certainly did for me in CoH. I haven't made that many different characters in any other game. They played so differently that the regular leveling missions never felt as stale as in other games.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."

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End game content doesn't have

End game content doesn't have to mean oldschool style raiding. Anything that keeps the player engaged is good.

I personally hate it when games feel grindy or stuffed with filler. Many mmos have "endgame content" that easily fits this description. I would much prefer interesting gameplay that respects my time. I am in the minority when it comes to mmo players though, at least in the mainstream, since such games have become refined ways to tap into psychological traits linked to addiction for profit.

There are "endgame" options that aren't just about doing the same 6 hour raids for that 0.000001% chance of the item you want, so that you can do the next fights, to get the next increase in power. As a bonus, avoiding this style of endgame means making additional content down the road doesn't have to be balanced around that and suffer from the insane power spikes and number bloat that games like wow have gone through.

PvP is one option. Climbing leaderboards and getting aesthetics, titles, costume pieces, base decorations, etc for your ranking each season gives people an exciting reason to play without directly gaining character power.

You can do similar things with PvE content. Path of exile is an excellent example here. Instead of getting recognition and fancy hats based on punching other players it is based on PvE accomplishments each season. It also doesn't just have to be "punch all the bad guys" since you can tie such a system to exploration, community voting for costume and base decoration, and participation in special events to name a few ideas.

You could even have different seasonal content for each of those so they aren't all linked to one reward, since then people would do the one activity that was the fastest way to achieve that reward and ignore the rest of the gameplay, undercutting the whole point of keeping players engaged. At the end of each season, add the seasonal fancy hats to the regularly available cash shop and/or sprinkle them into the game in other ways. Titles, badges, trophies for your base, etc could remain obtainable only through seasonal participation as a way to make it feel more prestigious. The key here is that the items people will most desire and be willing to spend currency on (that also take more development time, new costumes take more effort vs a title that is just a few words) would be made available, but only later and for a fee. This gives players a big reason to go for those fancy hats since they can get them now and for free.

The real trick is making such a system that doesn't feel like a sisyphean treadmill. The content itself needs to be fun, the rewards obtainable for someone that works for a living, and still keep the diehard frothing at the mouth consumers engaged that will poopsock their way through it. That balancing act is extremely difficult and something even fairly successful game studios struggle with. Too grindy and expensive and you lose players, too easy and the addicts that only play for that reward lose interest. There are a few games that have done a decent job at it. Few of them are mmos, but the same ideas apply.

The architect system in CoH tried to be an answer to this question as well but most players are not willing or able to produce high quality content. While it did not fully realize this potential in CoH, tying this in to some kind of community sourced content creation that encourages skilled creators to produce quality content similar to what valve has long done with TF2 could be another way to keep players engaged. That high quality content would need to be highlighted for players for it to be meaningful. One way to do that is to add newer content to each season's accomplishments so players are encouraged to check out the new best stuff that has been created.

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Alts before endgame is

Alts before endgame is definitely the correct focus at launch. Alts will help gather play test data on potential balance issues with powers, quest fine tuning, etc. Also, we'll be level capped so we won't see any "endgame" content for some time.

Heroes get remembered, but Legends never die.

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If you have a character you

If you have a character you love, alt-ing for endgame is less of an attraction. However, I proffer that a talented composition team can make end-game content engaging so I can take my beloved character through interesting plotline after interesting plotline after interesting plotline ad infinitum. That is the way of the superhero as established by the ruling bound paper medium we know as comic books.


I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
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Empyrean wrote:
Empyrean wrote:

...alting is the correct initial focus because it is critical, it is where you have to start anyway (charachter creation), and it gives a fun time sink right off the bat at the same time. More endgame and lateral progression can come a the game developes.

That's an excellent point.

Spurn all ye kindle.

Mordheim13
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Myri wrote:
Myri wrote:

Alts before endgame is definitely the correct focus at launch. Alts will help gather play test data on potential balance issues with powers, quest fine tuning, etc. Also, we'll be level capped so we won't see any "endgame" content for some time.

I agree with this, both for its own merits, AND the fact that I have Altitis. :)

Shocking Blu

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I would like endgame content

I would like endgame content but I definitely do not want Raid content that takes 2 or more hours on average to finish.

I find long drawn out battles tedious unless there is some interesting mechanic involved.

I remember the devs speaking about a 'leads' system that allows you to craft missions/capers so instead of devoting dev attention to making a raid that gets repeated until the end of time why not put more into this system.
Have normal leads and epic leads. This way a team or individual can craft their own endgame content.

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Good point about the "takes 2

Good point about the "takes 2-3 hours to complete." I don't very often have that much time to play in one sitting.

Shocking Blu

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Mordheim13 wrote:
Mordheim13 wrote:

Good point about the "takes 2-3 hours to complete." I don't very often have that much time to play in one sitting.

Same, I got kids and a career. I don’t have time for anything like that.

An hour, tops, maybe. For super-special end game content.

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Looking back at my last post

Looking back at my last post I realized I should have worded it differently.

Instead of saying I don't want raids that take 2 or more hours, I should have said I am not interested in raids that take 2 or more hours.

If the devs want to make long involved raid then I have no problem with that. I just want them to also create endgame type content that can be completed quicker.
Just wanted to clarify in case it got misunderstood.

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Nothing like agreing with

Nothing like agreing with someone to get them to reassess their opinion. LOL But yes, it should be clear that just because someone, or several does not enjoy a particular format, does not mean that it shouldn't be done. Just that more formats should be explored, and none of them made mandatory to play the game. That is, you should be able to eschew PvP and still play the game without detriment, etc.

Shocking Blu

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For that matter, I'd like

For that matter, I'd like endgame content that doesn't require a big team, or any team at all. I don't mind if it takes longer than the team content (like revamped Dark Astoria), as long as teaming isn't the only option.

Spurn all ye kindle.

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Cinnder wrote:
Cinnder wrote:

For that matter, I'd like endgame content that doesn't require a big team, or any team at all. I don't mind if it takes longer than the team content (like revamped Dark Astoria), as long as teaming isn't the only option.

My biggest complaint with World of Warcrack is the storylines that require a dungeon (designed for a group of five) or raid (designed for a group of ten or more) in order to progress. My second biggest complaint is the quests that don't work right if you are in a group, though I'd have less of a problem with that if they warned us before we found out the hard way.

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Yeah when you make endgame

Yeah when you make endgame content, Make it a zone rather than a gauntlet of task forces. One thing I hated about DCUO is that it become so much harder to solo in the endgame. You're best options if you wanted to solo where mission you already did and whenever they did have a zone you could do your own thing in, you either had to have a crap ton of CR or you had to a task force just to get to it and sometimes it was both!! If I had a preference for end game content, I'd rather have it be like WoW where instead of having to learn a new leveling process, I'd rather you guy just added another 10 levels and made a new zone then tell me "Okay now you gotta get 10 more star points to get to this new fancy zone!!" Don't change how I play the game just let me access more content.

not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM

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I quit playing EverQuest when

I quit playing EverQuest when it seemed like ALL of the content was nothing but Raids. In my experience, Raids consisted of going someplace dangerous, begging for an invite, then standing around for a couple of hours until the magical moment. Finally, the Boss pops and there's a mad scramble, where you try to contribute as much as possible, but you're really just a confused minion, you get screamed at for not knowing the special 'dance' needed to 'win' the scenario, the 'lead team' of special snowflakes get to have all the fun and loot, while you die six times in a row, for no reason you can point to. And then it's all over, but you got no credit.

Raids are not the answer to 'endgame content'.

Be Well!
Fireheart

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Foradain wrote:
Foradain wrote:
Cinnder wrote:

For that matter, I'd like endgame content that doesn't require a big team, or any team at all. I don't mind if it takes longer than the team content (like revamped Dark Astoria), as long as teaming isn't the only option.

My biggest complaint with World of Warcrack is the storylines that require a dungeon (designed for a group of five) or raid (designed for a group of ten or more) in order to progress. My second biggest complaint is the quests that don't work right if you are in a group, though I'd have less of a problem with that if they warned us before we found out the hard way.

FFXIV has that (dungeon required to continue story) and it works perfectly. What's the difference with WoW, or do they just not have a good system setup to help with it?

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Honestly, you kinda need

Honestly, you kinda need League-level endgame contend and solo endgame.

For a superhero experience you gotta have both Infinity War- level stuff, and Daredevil S1 finale-level stuff for both types of hero/villain.


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desviper wrote:
desviper wrote:

Honestly, you kinda need League-level endgame contend and solo endgame.

For a superhero experience you gotta have both Infinity War- level stuff, and Daredevil S1 finale-level stuff for both types of hero/villain.

Which, with the Incarnate content raids (or whatever they called them) and taskforces, CoH did great!

Not to hard, that only the best of the best could do, but it wasn't going to be soloed. If memory serves, the best that was done was a duo on an Incarnate TF, which took more time and two really decked out characters to do, with optimal builds.

So that covered high end play some wanted with other things for those who couldn't handle large group play could do other stuff.

I believe they even had a solo option to get to the top point, but it took WAY WAY WAAAAY LONGER!

The only real problem I see with any of this, is some players can't stand to wait for any sort of update.

"I beat it! Where's the update?!"

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desviper wrote:
desviper wrote:

Honestly, you kinda need League-level endgame contend and solo endgame.

For a superhero experience you gotta have both Infinity War- level stuff, and Daredevil S1 finale-level stuff for both types of hero/villain.

Oh yes, I didn't mean to imply that there should be no giant team content; just that there be a solo/small-team path to get to the same rewards.

Brand X wrote:

Which, with the Incarnate content raids (or whatever they called them) and taskforces, CoH did great!
...
The only real problem I see with any of this, is some players can't stand to wait for any sort of update.

"I beat it! Where's the update?!"

Yep, I enjoyed the earlier iTrials. (The later ones imo became more of that 'you have to do all this exactly in this way' type content, which I don't enjoy as much)

But that 'can't wait for the update' behaviour kinda made a solo Incarnate option essential, because as new iTrials came out, it became increasingly difficult to find enough people to do the older ones.

Spurn all ye kindle.

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I don't recall that being to

I don't recall that being to difficult on Virtue, but it has been forever.

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Every MMO suffers the content

Every MMO suffers the content hunger.

But yeah CoH was pretty bad for solo play, esp for support toons. A Defender or Controller had a really hard time getting 1-50 alone.


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Brand X
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desviper wrote:
desviper wrote:

Every MMO suffers the content hunger.

But yeah CoH was pretty bad for solo play, esp for support toons. A Defender or Controller had a really hard time getting 1-50 alone.

I'd say this was only true if the player picked certain combos.

I didn't have that problem at all with my RADS/TIME MANIP/DARK types. ILL/RAD was soloing early. My Dark/Pistols, Time/Pistols and Rad/Pistols all soloed right off the bat. They weren't as fast as the scrappers/stalkers, but I didn't have a hard time of it either.

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Brand X wrote:
Brand X wrote:
Foradain wrote:
Cinnder wrote:

For that matter, I'd like endgame content that doesn't require a big team, or any team at all. I don't mind if it takes longer than the team content (like revamped Dark Astoria), as long as teaming isn't the only option.

My biggest complaint with World of Warcrack is the storylines that require a dungeon (designed for a group of five) or raid (designed for a group of ten or more) in order to progress. My second biggest complaint is the quests that don't work right if you are in a group, though I'd have less of a problem with that if they warned us before we found out the hard way.

FFXIV has that (dungeon required to continue story) and it works perfectly. What's the difference with WoW, or do they just not have a good system setup to help with it?

It might be the playerbase, but most of the time when using the groupfinder, I get a party that expects advance knowledge of the dungeon and won't take time to let a first-timer know what needs to be done.

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Cinnder
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desviper wrote:
desviper wrote:

But yeah CoH was pretty bad for solo play, esp for support toons. A Defender or Controller had a really hard time getting 1-50 alone.

YMMV of course, but I found the old game to be really supportive of solo play compared to most MMOs, while still making teaming fun and easy -- both parts of which I hope CoT will replicate.

Spurn all ye kindle.

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Cinnder wrote:
Cinnder wrote:
desviper wrote:

But yeah CoH was pretty bad for solo play, esp for support toons. A Defender or Controller had a really hard time getting 1-50 alone.

YMMV of course, but I found the old game to be really supportive of solo play compared to most MMOs, while still making teaming fun and easy -- both parts of which I hope CoT will replicate.

I did a great deal of soloing in CoT (often due to my schedule), and while it did take longer, it was very possible. Then there were the Task Forces. Except for when my SG got together, the experience was as described... a huge Charlie Foxtrot. I got to where I winced at the mention of a PUG (Pick Up Group)-- and yet, I would still do them occasionally, because of those rare, precious times when the PUG meshed, interacted well, and just WORKED. But for every one of those, there were ten nightmares. :D

Shocking Blu

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notears wrote:
notears wrote:

Yeah when you make endgame content, Make it a zone rather than a gauntlet of task forces. One thing I hated about DCUO is that it become so much harder to solo in the endgame. You're best options if you wanted to solo where mission you already did and whenever they did have a zone you could do your own thing in, you either had to have a crap ton of CR or you had to a task force just to get to it and sometimes it was both!! If I had a preference for end game content, I'd rather have it be like WoW where instead of having to learn a new leveling process, I'd rather you guy just added another 10 levels and made a new zone then tell me "Okay now you gotta get 10 more star points to get to this new fancy zone!!" Don't change how I play the game just let me access more content.

The big problem with adding 10 more levels and a new zone is handling power/ability progression since getting nothing for each level up is not really an option. And just adding in more and more power and augment slots will at some point reach its end since you will sooner or later have every possible power from primary, secondary, and 5(?) tertiary sets and 4 augments in each one. Expanding the number of augment slots per power and/or the number of tertiary sets one can have would most likely require major rebalancing. Besides at some point it become a situation of "too many abilities".
Also some things to consider, level extensions have a much higher segregation between the haves and have-nots since everyday tasks will be done in different zones. Vertical progression also has a higher chance of making old content stale since they will most likely not expend as much resources to update or add more content to the "lower levels" (which increases with each expansion), and since part of end-game is alting then that can be a big point against the game as a whole.

To me just adding on more levels with each expansion feels kinda cheap since I would feel like the devs couldn't or wouldn't build an interesting end-game system and just gives us more levels instead. It feels cheap because it interrupts the refinement process many undertake (at least for ones main) in building a toon to "perfection". A good end-game should extend and build upon that refinement process rather than effectively have you start over at (semi-)regular intervals.
Though I must admit that that is highly dependent on how the game itself is built.

Alternative leveling systems don't necessarily have to be only done at end-game level. EQ2's system can be used from a very low level (might be even level 1) and as long as you aren't at max normal you can decide how much of your XP goes into normal and alternative respectively (think non-subbers are forced to plit 50/50).

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Well said, blacke4dawn!

Well said, blacke4dawn!

Spurn all ye kindle.

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Blacked4dawn speaks truth.

Blacked4dawn speaks truth.

Never increasing levels past a certain mark isn't a bad thing. As long as players have something interesting to work towards the most grind addicted players will happily grind away. It doesn't have to be a direct power increase.

Having seasonal seasonal events with new content, leaderboards, and the like with interesting cosmetic rewards solves this problem well for many games. It also allows devs to keep reusing and improving existing assets.

Even adding additional content becomes more effective use of development time if players stay at a certain level. Everyone will always have a potential reason to check out the content since they won't outlevel it.

You could take this to the logical conclusion and say a game without levels would be even better at this, and I would tend to agree with you and say that would even work great for a superhero game, but that isn't going to be the focus of CoT.

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Playing Overwatch now, they

Playing Overwatch now, they have this "Arcade" feature where you can do some goofy fun things, like play in lower gravity, or you have to play randomized characters (i.e. you can't pick the one you want) etc. Some of these Arcade play modes are closer to a PvE thing where you and like 3 other people play through a mission you have to do against game AI stuff. In several of them, its your team against a bunch of robots, which keep spawning and you have to keep shooting them. I wish that game had more of that stuff.

Even if a new game zone comes out and there are no new levels to be gotten, there are stiull costume pieces to unlock, badges to get, etc. I like that idea better. New fun stuff to do, no new levels to have to gain.

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Cinnder wrote:
Cinnder wrote:

I would argue that a game that encourages alting keeps players involved for longer than any endgame content. And we've been told that CoT will have both, plus another third option that has been teased, so we should be good here.

Both "alting" and "endgame content" are fine for keeping people interested in a game, but let's not forget there are a number of other things that keep some people playing. For instance there's badging. Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges. Obviously that kind of obsessive badging might have only interested me and the few dozen other people who were at the tops of the third-party badging lists but that level of dedication did take many hundreds (probably more like thousands) of hours of play that kept us all in the game far, far longer than any endgame content or alting could have. To stress that point I probably played every "endgame raid" CoH had dozens of times each just to earn a handful of the top badges.

So when it comes to keeping people playing the game there can be many ways to encourage that.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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If there are personal lairs

If there are personal lairs and or SG bases there's that to do too. And I still contend that getting all the best Augments and Refinements on your toon's powers should take a long time, based on rarity etc. I took my sweet time getting purples on my toons in CoX, I know a lot of people stampede toward that, but to me, I knew that getting my toons to "compleat" was an end point, so I was willing to take it slow and enjoy the view.

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Lothic wrote:
Lothic wrote:

Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Heh, Lothic is a badger.

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Atama wrote:
Atama wrote:
Lothic wrote:

Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Heh, Lothic is a badger.

Eh, English is funny like that but at least I could think of a bunch of animals I'd less like to be associated with. ;)

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Lothic wrote:
Lothic wrote:
Atama wrote:
Lothic wrote:

Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Heh, Lothic is a badger.

Eh, English is funny like that but at least I could think of a bunch of animals I'd less like to be associated with. ;)

I think he might have been referring to "Badger" in th sense of the slang term for a government agent in the Praetorian world. Of course, the animal works too. Their pretty darn cool. :)

Shocking Blu

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Lothic wrote:
Lothic wrote:

For instance there's badging. Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Call me a Ditto-head in that respect. I started doing it again after getting logged into COH server again as I revisited all the locations.

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Mordheim13 wrote:
Mordheim13 wrote:
Lothic wrote:
Atama wrote:
Lothic wrote:

Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Heh, Lothic is a badger.

Eh, English is funny like that but at least I could think of a bunch of animals I'd less like to be associated with. ;)

I think he might have been referring to "Badger" in th sense of the slang term for a government agent in the Praetorian world. Of course, the animal works too. Their pretty darn cool. :)

Again "English is officially funny" in that one word like that can have so many unrelated alternate meanings. Considering that I had every badge the "Praetorian world" offered I suppose that version of the word would have fit as well as any other. :)

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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Ghost-Spectre wrote:
Ghost-Spectre wrote:
Lothic wrote:

For instance there's badging. Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Call me a Ditto-head in that respect. I started doing it again after getting logged into COH server again as I revisited all the locations.

Are you talking about that recent Paragon Chat thing that let's people jump back into CoH? Yeah collecting all of the Exploration badges in the game was an achievement but considering there were only around 350 of those (give or take) there were plenty of others to be had. :)

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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Lothic wrote:
Lothic wrote:
Ghost-Spectre wrote:
Lothic wrote:

For instance there's badging. Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Call me a Ditto-head in that respect. I started doing it again after getting logged into COH server again as I revisited all the locations.

Are you talking about that recent Paragon Chat thing that let's people jump back into CoH? Yeah collecting all of the Exploration badges in the game was an achievement but considering there were only around 350 of those (give or take) there were plenty of others to be had. :)

The fact that I could explore the zones, listen to the music, create my old toons, use travel powers, AND collect badges drew me into Paragon Chat so hard. I spent many hours wandering my old stopping grounds.

It’s telling that I would rather while away hours in an empty shell of CoH, with no bad guys, no combat, no enhancements or inspirations, or just no powers outside of travel, over playing any of the numerous games out there now. Whether it says something about my love of CoH or about the quality of what’s currently out there I don’t know. But it’s telling me something.

CoT can’t come soon enough ????

Name: Safehouse
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Primary: Force Blast
Secondary: Atrophic Aura
Tertiary: Kinetic Melee
Travel Power: Parkour
Status: Traveling. Following rumors of a huge city in Massachusetts that is teeming with supers.

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Lothic wrote:
Lothic wrote:
Mordheim13 wrote:
Lothic wrote:
Atama wrote:
Lothic wrote:

Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Heh, Lothic is a badger.

Eh, English is funny like that but at least I could think of a bunch of animals I'd less like to be associated with. ;)

I think he might have been referring to "Badger" in th sense of the slang term for a government agent in the Praetorian world. Of course, the animal works too. Their pretty darn cool. :)

Again "English is officially funny" in that one word like that can have so many unrelated alternate meanings. Considering that I had every badge the "Praetorian world" offered I suppose that version of the word would have fit as well as any other. :)

True, English is one of the more adaptable languages out there.

Shocking Blu

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Safehouse wrote:
Safehouse wrote:
Lothic wrote:
Ghost-Spectre wrote:
Lothic wrote:

For instance there's badging. Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Call me a Ditto-head in that respect. I started doing it again after getting logged into COH server again as I revisited all the locations.

Are you talking about that recent Paragon Chat thing that let's people jump back into CoH? Yeah collecting all of the Exploration badges in the game was an achievement but considering there were only around 350 of those (give or take) there were plenty of others to be had. :)

The fact that I could explore the zones, listen to the music, create my old toons, use travel powers, AND collect badges drew me into Paragon Chat so hard. I spent many hours wandering my old stopping grounds.

It’s telling that I would rather while away hours in an empty shell of CoH, with no bad guys, no combat, no enhancements or inspirations, or just no powers outside of travel, over playing any of the numerous games out there now. Whether it says something about my love of CoH or about the quality of what’s currently out there I don’t know. But it’s telling me something.

CoT can’t come soon enough ????

Yeah TBH I haven't given the Paragon Chat thing a spin yet but I can totally understand the appeal.

Just about the only games I've played more than a few hours since the CoH shutdown was ESO and Fallout 4 and I think part of the reason for that was that I've really just been unconsciously waiting for CoT to be finished before I seriously let myself jump back into a game as completely as I was into CoH. ;)

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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Same. I played SWTOR, and

Same. I played SWTOR, and still do, but it's really just marking time until CoT arrives.

Shocking Blu

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Safehouse wrote:
Safehouse wrote:

The fact that I could explore the zones, listen to the music, create my old toons, use travel powers, AND collect badges drew me into Paragon Chat so hard. I spent many hours wandering my old stopping grounds.

It’s telling that I would rather while away hours in an empty shell of CoH, with no bad guys, no combat, no enhancements or inspirations, or just no powers outside of travel, over playing any of the numerous games out there now. Whether it says something about my love of CoH or about the quality of what’s currently out there I don’t know. But it’s telling me something.

CoT can’t come soon enough ????

Same here!

"A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space." ~ Thomas Carlyle

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Lothic wrote:
Lothic wrote:
Safehouse wrote:
Lothic wrote:
Ghost-Spectre wrote:
Lothic wrote:

For instance there's badging. Case in point I managed to finish CoH with two characters who had each earned 1390+ badges.

Call me a Ditto-head in that respect. I started doing it again after getting logged into COH server again as I revisited all the locations.

Are you talking about that recent Paragon Chat thing that let's people jump back into CoH? Yeah collecting all of the Exploration badges in the game was an achievement but considering there were only around 350 of those (give or take) there were plenty of others to be had. :)

The fact that I could explore the zones, listen to the music, create my old toons, use travel powers, AND collect badges drew me into Paragon Chat so hard. I spent many hours wandering my old stopping grounds.

It’s telling that I would rather while away hours in an empty shell of CoH, with no bad guys, no combat, no enhancements or inspirations, or just no powers outside of travel, over playing any of the numerous games out there now. Whether it says something about my love of CoH or about the quality of what’s currently out there I don’t know. But it’s telling me something.

CoT can’t come soon enough ????

Yeah TBH I haven't given the Paragon Chat thing a spin yet but I can totally understand the appeal.

Just about the only games I've played more than a few hours since the CoH shutdown was ESO and Fallout 4 and I think part of the reason for that was that I've really just been unconsciously waiting for CoT to be finished before I seriously let myself jump back into a game as completely as I was into CoH. ;)

Funny you mention ESO. That one has been my most recent big game. I enjoy the gameplay (love the Templar magic), effects, and the OST immensely. Before that it was FFXIV for a looong time.

But, as has been said above, it really is all “marking time” as I (sometimes im)patiently wait for CoT. In the meantime i just continue planning characters and writing my stories!

Name: Safehouse
Ranger: Gunner
Primary: Force Blast
Secondary: Atrophic Aura
Tertiary: Kinetic Melee
Travel Power: Parkour
Status: Traveling. Following rumors of a huge city in Massachusetts that is teeming with supers.

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