COH has a new issue with a fantasy Greek place where you could get Greek style armor.
Then they introduced an evil Paragon city.
Both of which never really saw a lot of traffic.
Maybe as players we can give input to a fantasy place that would really work for the game, a place people would go and have fun in.
I think a medieval fantasy place would work. Ogres would be super strong. Mages would be blasters. Knights would be scrappers with their enchanted armor/swords.
We could fight monsters, real live dragon raids, save fair maidens...you know: Hero stuff.
On the other hand there was never enough fighting environments either.
I want a shopping mall with a destructible environment. a super fight should TRASH the place!
and an abandoned amusement park. at night. Scooby Doo stuff. I want to beat on evil clowns.
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
I'd have nothing against eventually getting specialized zones in CoT that represented "other lands" like your D&D world idea. One of the strengths of the superhero genre is that it's fairly easy to come up with a workable pretense to explore almost any kind of setting for adventures.
But I think you might have to accept the idea that no matter how cool these "side adventure" worlds might be that they are always going to suffer from a bit of "lack of traffic" in the long run. Almost by definition they would be limited in scope and frankly there would always be a subset of players that don't like the setting regardless. For example let's say the CoT Devs decide to give us some kind of "Aztec world" with jungles and temples like from Indiana Jones. Sure that might be cool, but eventually even the people who love it will "finish" it and move on to other things or there would be some who don't care for the whole idea in the first place and would totally avoid it or at least spend minimal amounts of time there.
Basically I don't think you're going to "solve" the problem with specialized zones being relatively empty because they are going to become less traveled by their very nature of being atypical to begin with.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Going to have to agree. Even areas that are alike would likely have one be more empty than the other if the same level range. Talos Island was always more populated than Independence Port.
Since I am a kickstarter contributor, but one who doesn't share the core identity of the audience here, I'm not sure if my comments might hurt or help you op (yeah that still smarts) but here goes: One possibility that I have seen work is specialized environments that are temporary in nature. Keep your chin up. It could happen.
Heck, City of Heroes had a ruined version of Boomtown that was partially flooded that they kept using for a slew of Portal Corp missions. Everyone on Earth is a Ghost. Drek takes over the world and everyone's a Freakshow. There was a whole slew of them. Some of them even got used as Power Leveling Farms.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Personally I think that the main reason some of the exotic environments see little traffic is that they're level bound.
You don't go there till the right level and you leave when you out level them. If you power level, then you never see any of the mid level content.
The Problem of Levels.
Personally I'd like to have the option to go anywhere with my toons and even make toons that are suited to specific zones and do all of their missions from 1st level to max in the zone I made them for. That could easily be done by having missions adjust their level to match you. Then anyone could do any mission at any time and you'd never miss content because you out leveled it before you got around to it.
If we did that, I could see a lot of people making characters for the alternate environments,
and some of these environments turning into games within the game.
You could do something similar with street sweeping and hazard zones.
I'm not sure how it worked but during the Rikti invasions and fights with giant monsters, levels didn't matter as much.
There was some way that everyone could participate and get rewards and the low level toons weren't doomed.
If that mechanic were used everywhere all the time we could adventure anywhere with risks and rewards that fit us.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
I've always been a fan of 'underwater worlds'. So many possibilities on what could happen below the surface (all types of new sea monsters, cave dwellers, cave parties/badge hunts, could even require specific pieces of equipment needed in order to swim under water or a specific archetype/powerset on the team to assist the team in breathing underwater, etc). Just a random thought, but figured I'd put it out there.
I think it would be good other lands were made in the form of expansions with new player paths and stuff. The new lands could span from lvl 1-max and would promote alting with new or unused character concepts. Allow players to enter or leave the zones with ease and don't put a min level or level cap on them. It would be more likely for players to play in those zones and more fun for everyone. Variety is awesome and I would definitely want to see as many starting zones and stories as possible as the game expands.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMcQdRLgVpMwXi_3yTCN5iA/videos
Also don't have a lot of zones that are really similar.
We don't need both
Atlas Park & Galaxy City
Steel Canyon & Skyway City
Brickstown and King's Row
Terra Volta & Boomtown
I like having lots of zones but they should be different from each other.
And by different I don't mean just different levels.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
Stop tying the Level of the content to the location and we'd be getting somewhere ...
But then what do I know of such things ...? ;P
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
If there were a D&D type environment, that would make me happy since I'm going to have to end my subscription to DDO before I can subscribe to this game. I would love to make characters that came from there and maybe even have some that just stay there. It would actually make me take an interest in game lore because It's just different in a setting like that.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
If the CoT Devs actually ended up giving us a literal "D&D zone" I'm quite sure I would NOT stop playing the game. I'm sure it would be handled in an interesting way and be fun for what it was worth.
But the very fact that a huge majority of other MMOs out there already have the "medieval fantasy" setting pretty well covered I would in all honesty hope CoT would choose to come up with just about ANYTHING other than that for any "themed zones" they choose to provide. If I want to play in a typically D&D styled setting I can just play any of maybe even hundreds of other games out there. If you gave me a few minutes I could probably come up with several dozen other ideas for "superheroy" type zones that would be more enjoyable for me in CoT than having a "D&D clone" area.
I have nothing against D&D in general - I've been playing its various forms on and off for well over 30 years now. I would just prefer to not see it tossed into a game like CoT because for some reason they couldn't think of anything better to do here.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
As many times as we've read stories with the Justice League or the Avengers fighting off-planet, I'd think one of these superhero games would have developed a zone representing a planet regularly-visited or even a zone representing a massive starship.
That seems right in line with the genre, and relatively unexplored for whatever reason in the superhero MMOs I have played. It's possible they were there and I missed them. I only remember a bunch of extra-dimensional zones in CoX (not interplanetary), and I don't play a lot of the high level content in Champions Online, so I may have missed some that are there.
I would think that D&D type zone would bring in a lot of players from those other games, some of whom are frustrated with the poor character customization that those sorts of games usually provide.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
Ironically it seems that most people who play "typical fantasy MMOs" usually don't mind what they look like because they'll wear whatever suit of full plate armor gives them the best stats regardless of looks.
Besides even if CoT offered a very good "D&D" type zone it would be along the lines of going to a barbeque restaurant to get some sushi. Sure by some miracle it might be really good sushi, but it's not what the restaurant is technically good at and there are probably dozens of other sushi restaurants out there that do sushi better if that's what you really want.
Again I wouldn't "ragequit" if CoT offered us a D&D zone, but I could think of all sorts of things that would be better for all sorts of reasons.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
No, they still want to look good, they're just more likely to settle for looking bad. This is why games such as FFXIV have a glamour system.
Hell, if WoW had such a system in place to begin with, I may have actually stayed there when everyone I knew went to it, but I was meh on the customization they had, which was none. :p
So it really sounds more like people who want more customization options would be interested in CoT regardless if it had a D&D zone or not. Let's not get confused on which feature is the "uniquely cool" thing that CoT will hopefully do better than most other games. CoT tossing out a "D&D clone zone" is not going to be the factor that'll be drawing in the most players.
One more time I wouldn't hate CoT if it offered a D&D styled zone. It's just quite possibly near the bottom of the list in terms of what I think they ought to worry about. Why try to sell CoT to the world via the one thing that almost every other game in existence will probably handle better than it ever could? One zone can't beat the content of entire games dedicated to it. Besides as long as CoT has its own version of the [url=http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Circle_of_Thorns]Circle of Thorns[/url] it'll pretty much have the D&D angle covered anyway.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Oh, yeah. I wouldn't hate CoT for having a D&D style zone, not that I actually care for it to have one. Though, looking at the OP, CoH's Greek zone that was mentioned was always pretty full of players...ITF was popular. :p
Well, I do think it's something that would add a lot to the game for superhero fans
and attract fans from the other games.
because I think this game will do it better.
You would not believe the number of times I've been playing swords and sorcery games
and said to myself, "damn I wish they did this the way COH did".
And character customization was always at the top of the list of things COH did much better.
Not just appearance, though that is a really big deal, (DDO still doesn't even have capes)
but also the classes and Abilities.
Most of the swords & sorcery games seem to follow a D&D model
which is very limited and restrictive.
I noticed in my brief attempt to play Terra (which sucked)
that their classes were a bit more like COH
making a distinction between a scraper type and a tank type class.
I realize it's just not the same for a lot of reasons, yet,
but looking to the future this has the potential to become several complete and compatible games.
Each with it's own fan base,
and with the possibility for players, who pay for an account in each game,
to move a single character seamlessly from one world to the next.
That's something gamers have dreamed about for years.
I read a Cracked article back around 2007 that predicted it would happen one day.
Most other games really don't have the potential to expand into a universal system
They're designed with one genre in mind and won't work well for anything else.
But a superhero world is the MOST diverse world there is.
If you can make superheroes work, you can do anything
I know, I'm looking way into the future, but that's something I can't help.
This is very exciting to me.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
I'd expect any fantasy zones to be more of an Asgard type thing than D&D. Like still have swords and sorcery and giants and stuff, but be something that can stand up to other superheroes like super strong space vikings or something.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMcQdRLgVpMwXi_3yTCN5iA/videos
Yeah most swords & sorcery characters online have magical abilities that rival superheroes.
Have no fear if an archer, martial artist or marksman can keep up in the superhero world then a white knight from a fantasy world won't be left behind either. My Character Last Crusader was a 50th level Sword & Shield Scrapper who would've fit into D&D with no problem.
Remember one of the main points was that they're all made using the same system.
And Spiderman would make a great dungeon crawler.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
I hope for some Afro-futurism like Wakanda. Very under-represented sci-fi.
Something like a Moon Colony on the dark side of the moon where tribal meets holograms. An isolationist culture that doesn't accept outsiders
Crowd Control Enthusiast
No, as far as I have know Superhero MMO game has done that yet. City of Heroes was pretty close to doing it with the Moon being used for one of the story arcs (which I missed) and the Moonbase being set aside for a later issue...before NCSoft pulled the damn plug of course.
Champions Online did an solely underwater zone which had quite few performance issues, AI pathing problems, and aggro radius issues. Lemuria was beautiful (atleast from what I remember) and the combat wasn't that bad once you got into it (it was better then Guild Wars 2 attempt at making ''good'' water combat which failed horribly) but that zone had a lot of issues unfortunately.
I have never seen a volcanic zone with a heavy amount of scorched earth be done for an Superhero MMO either, nor have I seen an desert zone.
Formerly known as Bleddyn
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCqnt88Umk]Do you want to be a hero?[/url]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/nyktoss-character-cove] My characters [/url]
OK, I got one. EVERQUESTLAND.
Fantasy based, but the missions are all like this: Kill 10 skeletons. Kill 10 wolves. Your players can sit and talk for hours camping a rare spawn.
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
To be fair, that reminds me of the open world City of Heroes quests and waiting for Babbage. It was only when you were in the instances that you generally avoided the Kill X style of quests (although you would have defeat all as a requirement instead)
Also CUBELAND. All avatars are turned into 8-bit, blocky versions, and all terrain is made of equally-sized cubes, most of which can be moved or destroyed or turned into other things.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Cyberspace could be interesting in an superhero MMO I think....
Formerly known as Bleddyn
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCqnt88Umk]Do you want to be a hero?[/url]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/nyktoss-character-cove] My characters [/url]
Cyberspace in Cyberspace
AAAAAAAAA!
It's the thing I hated about AE x[size=30]∞[/size]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
That would have to be almost its own mini-game with very different rules.
Though that made me think of something: delusion instances! By the power of self-delusion, your characters can travel to various exotic instances such as rock quarries and abandoned warehouses! (And their bodies remain wherever they started the whole time.)
[youtube]5b1R837bGkg[/youtube]
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Champions Online has a series of missions that touch on this. The hero is digitized and installed into one of the big networks to take out a malicious super-virus, represented by digitized avatars you have to combat. It is a pretty cool-looking series of missions.
[youtube]VcyCWEsbsPU[/youtube]
OLDE SKOOL virtual reality ...
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
It's amazing to think that was cutting edge "CGI styled animation" at one point. It makes me now want to parphrase the classic Monty Python "Four Yorkshiremen" skit by saying "And you try and tell the Millennials of today that ..... they won't believe you."
Anyway for what it's worth I'd love to have something like Bit as a non-combat pet for my tech-based characters.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Yeah, well, all the "lit circuitry" on the actor costumes in TRON was done ... in INK ... by HAND ... on every single frame of film. Only the Recognizer (and obviously the Bit) were computer generated imagery in that sequence (and even then, I'm don't remember if it was merely computer aided and drawn with drafting tools). But yeah ... a mere decade later, we were watching Babylon 5 CGI every week on TV (and yet, still starring [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Boxleitner]Bruce Boxleitner[/url] for some reason ...)
[youtube]nanfQ0mviaU[/youtube]
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Is it possible that Nruce Boxleitner is himself an animated character?
Pay attention to the character list for [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron:_Uprising]Tron: Uprising[/url].
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
hey everyone... look at me.... time travel..... we could have a zone that's the future of titan city.....
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/24.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
Hmmmm....what if you had a mission in a dimension that defies the laws of physics at every turn?
Formerly known as Bleddyn
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCqnt88Umk]Do you want to be a hero?[/url]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/nyktoss-character-cove] My characters [/url]
Star Trek already does [url=http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Fluidic_space]Fluidic Space[/url] where things get ... weird ...
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Amazing how much things improved only 2 years later:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLNvUsTBGyE
Fun fact ... the actor who played Grig the pilot is the same guy who a couple years later was "The Old Man" at OCP in Robocop. All you have to do is listen to Grig's voice in The Last Starfighter and then listen to "Dick! I'm VERY disappointed!" in Robocop and there will be that flash of recognition that it's the same actor.
"And he's a sweet old man."
- Dick Jones
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]