Hi Girls/Guys,
Any chance you can comment on the state of play regarding the SK/Exemp system? We all played CoX from the beginning to the end (:() and the one thing we all agree on was this was arguably the most important mechanic in the game.
Every mmo played since does not utilise this system and as a result teaming with 7 other friends whilst levelling has not been possible and as a result we all tend to lose interest. Fast (Wildstar lasted 3 days!)
The beauty of the original was the sheer amount of diversity of each character and showing it off to all your friend in a large team (enabled through SK/Exemp)
Thanks for taking the time to read this
Seriphimus
—
UK - Union server. From original game beta to close.
S4 - Union Heavyweight Champion
http://cityoftitans.com/forum/sidekickingteaminggeneral-musings
I don't know if this has been mentioned anywhere else, or if there's a more appropriate thread, but here goes....
Since I've been playing Champions, with their revamped "Alert" system, I find that I miss the plain ol' global chat version of LFT (looking for team). In Champions, you click a couple of boxes, then you wait for a couple minutes. You get a warning, then you're transported to a mission zone along with whoever else clicked the same boxes as you. There's a countdown, then everyone rushes forward and starts attacking whatever's in front of them. *Bash* *Bang* take down the archviallain, get a reward. The other general content stuff doesn't have a really good "active" way to find a team. There's a passive "Sign-up" that doesn't seem to get much action. Global chat requests are mostly ignored or buried amongst the teenage drama bursts. Teaming in general is not a "thing" in CO. Nor in DCUO in my limited experience thus far (Since launch).
In CoH, you'd put out your call and, usually, you'd get an invite in a few minutes. You could ask and answer some questions about what you or the team was doing and join or not, depending. Then, you travel to the meeting point, usually outside the mission "door". Then wait for everybody to gather. This sometimes took a few minutes (and I admit to occasionally being frustrated by people obviously dallying on the way) but while you waited, you could chat up your teammates, maybe engage in a little light RP, and get a general feel for the personalities. There was almost always type chat going on during the mission (thanks to the forgiving pace of the combat) and there was often some chance for RP all the while. In short, you had a chance to actually meet and befriend your fellow players.
I recognize that your "modern gamer" seems to want everything to be a convenient automated checkbox system. But sometimes, having to take your time can have unlooked for benefits. I think that some of the mechanics that CoH had by default contributed a great deal to developing the community we all enjoyed. I would hate to lose that just to placate a few impatient people in the name of mere convenience.
I have to admit I do *kind* of enjoy the ability to be able to check a few boxes and end up in a team ready to go... because sometimes I *don't* have the time to wait hanging around, just asking in a global channel to see if people are present and able and willing to help out.
Of course, this is also dependant on how busy/large that channel is as well, and also the *server* that you are on. There is nothing forcing you to use the LFG interface if you *know* enough of a community to help you out. In Wildstar before I joined a guild I would just use the LFG interface to do some adventures; but now that I am in a guild, we tend to do guild runs now... or if there are not enough people ready, we might just "PUG" it.
But, there is also something for a team to be formed up "properly" (or is that "improperly"?) with a strange composition and just letting it go...
By using an LFG interface, I can see why in the "traditional" MMO's why they tend to do the 1 tank, 1 healer 3DPS setup... particularly for LFG thrown together teams.
But I have also been on a guild team setup, where we had 2 Healers and just 3 DPS characters... or if we really wanted to just get someone through it, sometimes just 1 high level character plowing through it with the lower level character just getting every piece of loot that they might want/need. Obviously, we didn't use the LFG interface for this, because we wanted to keep it down to a minimum.
There are pro's and con's towards each route though...