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What was it that made CoX Special for you?

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Spectral Saviour
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Wanders wrote:
Wanders wrote:

MisterWizard wrote:
Ah. The latter makes some sense given the former, but yeah, those are both dissapointing bits of news.

RP instances have the potential to work like RP servers, depending on how they implement it, so I wouldn't be too disappointed on that score yet. As for the non-unique names, though, I don't think there is much they can do to "ease the blow" for you about that. :(

Add me to the list of people disappointed by what little I currently know about the way RP is planned to be handled. I've made it known a couple times now, but RP instances are no substitute for an open RP server.

I'll honestly enjoy the game half as much if I can't RP in local chat while: Punching street gangs, wandering around town hall, in missions with strangers, and in an environment where I know other people around me are also doing the same. It's one of the big reasons I disapprove of megaservers, despite their apparent benefits - it absolutely kills server-wide RP communities, which is the only thing that brings me back to a game after the gameplay's gone stale.

Don't get me wrong, if the gameplay is fun I'll enjoy the game, but I can't get immersed in the world if I can't feel like part of it, and public RP is the way myself and at least a handful of my friends do that. I hope there is some sort of way to be constantly immersed in roleplay, as opposed to having to hide in various nooks and crannies of the gameworld. I like to play the game while I play my character, and most RPers I know are the same.

I am not a clever man.

doombladez
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Powers. CoV let you build a

Powers. CoV let you build a villain that felt powerful and scary from the get-go, but still with plenty of room to climb the ladder. Everything from the way movement was implemented to the extreme customization was just perfect and so in-depth that I doubt I'll ever see anything like it again in another game, much less something like Champions of all things.
EDIT: Also, DC online was simply not fun for me at all.

Grey Pilgrim
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Customization and the

Customization and the visceral nature of the powers are up there for me. Sure, the easy chat and team functions are nice (and exemplaring... how can most other MMOs not have anything close to the awesomeness of this system?), but the ability to make whatever character you wanted just about and run with it was awesome. And the powers... the powers. There is no other game out there that came close to feeling of being able to fly, super jump, ninja leap, etc., around the game world. And as for actual combat, knockback and so many other abilities made you feel super-powered. I'm still so mad that Martial Arts for Blasters was being developed on canceling, because it had more of the awesome effects that I loved in the game.

I'd say the closest I've gotten to sheer fun from a power is "Dirty Kick" for Smugglers in SWTOR. A stun ability attached to a kick to the groin is too funny... but there aren't many that equal it in SWTOR or other games. City of Heroes had powers like that in almost every powerset.

Grey Pilgrim, Fire/Fire Tanker, Victory Server
With the Old Timer's Guild over on SWTOR (not as Freem! as CoH, but it has its moments)

Killigraphy
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Grey Pilgrim wrote:
Grey Pilgrim wrote:

Customization and the visceral nature of the powers are up there for me. Sure, the easy chat and team functions are nice (and exemplaring... how can most other MMOs not have anything close to the awesomeness of this system?), but the ability to make whatever character you wanted just about and run with it was awesome. And the powers... the powers. There is no other game out there that came close to feeling of being able to fly, super jump, ninja leap, etc., around the game world. And as for actual combat, knockback and so many other abilities made you feel super-powered. I'm still so mad that Martial Arts for Blasters was being developed on canceling, because it had more of the awesome effects that I loved in the game.
I'd say the closest I've gotten to sheer fun from a power is "Dirty Kick" for Smugglers in SWTOR. A stun ability attached to a kick to the groin is too funny... but there aren't many that equal it in SWTOR or other games. City of Heroes had powers like that in almost every powerset.

Pretty much the same for me. Damn near everything in the game customizable, from that chat bubbles (really big thing for me) to the powers. Albeit the power customization came way later, it was still very awe inspiring to see Invul and fire blasting in many colors. Adding unicode to said chat bubble was really cool as well. Till this day, I want MMO's to come with biographies and badges/titles.

The little idea to make it so that you could put the title of any badge collected on your name was also something I thought was genius. Positron went out of his way in many areas to make you feel like that hero you created was just yours in every aspect.

"A true hero, is the sum of his accomplishments, no man won the hearts of the people by assuming he's better than them, he is a citadel for the people, a vessel to which hope and strength is carried on." - Marcus Falcon

Cinnder
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I tried the Final Fantasy XIV

I tried the Final Fantasy XIV free trial several weeks ago, and I was surprised by how quickly I was reminded of all the things that made CoX special for me. In the first day, I lost count of the number of times I said, "Really? They don't have THAT either?" To be fair, FFXIV must have had something, because there aren't many MMOs I try where my interest holds for a full 2 weeks. The music and graphics were good, but in general I found it followed the generic MMO model far too much for my tastes, so I'll use it as a sort of negative example here to highlight things I loved about CoX, because they made CoX both enjoyable and unique. (Pardon the repeats.)

CoX was special to me because:

  • Appearance was not linked to ability/stats. There were several times in FFXIV when I eschewed the best gear available to my character because it looked so bad. (In some cases I was actually embarrassed for my female character to be seen in the standard armour for a level range. I guess it doesn't help that the female characters all seem to be about the age of my daughter.)
  • There were very few non-instanced "go kill x baddies" missions. And those they did have didn't usually fall into the 2 typical MMO traps: (1) there were usually enough of the required mobs in multiple locations so that you didn't have to watch some other group kill them off and then stand around waiting for them to respawn and (2) they didn't tell you they were being overrun by hordes of baddies but somehow killing only 5 saved them -- typically the reason given in CoX was that you had to beat up enough to get one to tell you something important.
  • Very little non-instanced content in general, meaning you didn't have to queue for a mission goal, didn't have to wait for mobs to respawn, didn't have them spawn on top of you when you went afk for a minute.
  • Contacts each had their own mini-story so that you were rarely just hunting a couple spiders or delivering a message cuz the contact couldn't be bothered to do it himself. It wasn't always "save the cheerleader; save the world" but they were at least mini-triumphs in context. It never felt like mere busywork.
  • Auto-attack was an option, not a foundation of the combat system. I find auto-attack combat really boring, so I used it in CoX only for powers like Hasten.
  • Power queuing.
  • Ability to bind Ctrl and Shift keys on their own.
  • So much configurability of the UI.
  • /screenshotui
  • Hold powers that didn't break if you attacked.
  • Having a selection of powers to choose from when levelling, instead of "At 10 you get this and only this power."
  • Inspirations limited by number, not by a universal cooldown.
  • Wakies
  • No forced teaming to proceed. TFs were a choice, not a requirement to reach 50. (As far as I could tell, your contacts dry up at around 20 unless you complete a dungeon quest that requires a team. Hard to be sure since the FFXIV free trial characters get stuck at lvl 20, so I could have just missed the solo option.)

That's not a complete list of everything I loved about CoX, but just the elements that were brought home hard to me during the free trial.

Having said that, I do have to mention one innovation in FFXIV I found interesting, which links back to a suggestion Darth Fez made on a different thread: if you failed an instanced quest that was part of the core plot, the game actually gave your character a small boost to help on the next attempt. I like the idea of rewarding tenacity instead of penalising failure.

Spurn all ye kindle.

Lollerskatez
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The community was something

The community was something special. I've been playing online games for most of my life (I'm 20) and I have never come across a nicer community. The community was so helpful and making a friend took only seconds. .

JPax
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Costume Creator, and Atlas

Costume Creator, and Atlas Park costume contests. Just seeing what everyone came up with in a big group was a good show of creativity.

Plague
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I joined COH the second day

I joined COH the second day it was online & played with only a few gaps in activity until it went offline. I'd have to admit that for me it was the character creation, look & feel of the game above all else that impressed me initially. However, seeing the game progress, the new zones, content, character options, COV, the community, etc. really brought it all together. The game just seemed to have a perfect balance for me. It was graphically realistic looking enough to keep my interest, with the perfect mix of cartoon & real life feel. I never got into WOW because it looked too cartoony to me. I tried many other MMOs after COX, Champions was close, but I didn't like the overall look & feel. I found that COX was the standard by which I rated all other MMOs & all fell a little short. I spent a lot of time designing & getting a character theme when I made one & it was refreshing not to see 100 other characters that looked just like mine running around. It seemed the only time you saw two identical characters was when it was done on purpose by friends. As others have said, my character was MY character. the sheer number of servers & character slots available was amazing. I had some servers full of characters & a few on most others. I have never seen any other game with that kind of freedom, unless they charged you a boat load of money. COX was special.

Others have mentioned the community & willingness of players to help others, I noticed this also. I have both been helped by more experienced players & spent my share of time helping low level players in the Hollows. While they were present, it seemed like COX had a far lower griefer presence than any of the other games I've played. I met lots of great people on the game & still have several on them I keep contact with on Facebook.

I'd also say that one of the big things I liked about COX was the high number of Instance Zones for missions. There is nothing worse than trying to complete an open zone mission, than having someone swoop in & snag your objective while your taking care of the last monster. Champions was terrible for this & it seemed that other players were ar too happy to grief you that way. The overall mood of COX just seemed to be more adult/responsible.

Finally, there may be another forum for this, but I want to mention the two things that were negatives for me. First was Enhancement Diversification, that update accounted for my longest stint of not playing the game. I was completely apposed to that update & it caused the cancelation of my subscription & my boycott of the game for over a year. I know I wasn't alone in this, because all my local friends felt the same way & also stopped playing. Second was the level cap, which all games have but many eventually extend. I believe the original cap had been 40 but was later moved to 50 where it stayed until the game went offline. I had a dozen 50s & they were my favorite characters to play. I can only describe it as a failure of the games designers that they never progressed the cap past 50. They added lots of content for 50s to help offset, but with out progression it just seemed like unnecessary grind to me. I realize that power progression past 50 would have required some close examination, but ultimately that is why I began to lose interest.

All in all, I loved COX & have missed it many times since it went offline. If you can design a game with that same feel & freedom, I know of many players who would flock to it.

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I loved the depth of story

I loved the depth of story lines that mixed in with missions. Having to earn your cape and learn the history of why it was so important always stuck out to me because there was a sadness from the loss but potential to become something greater. The backstories to all the different zones made every section unique and you wanted to find out what happens. Dark Astroia and Croatoa were always my favorite, I miss ya Sally!

ILL/RAD for life!

Killigraphy
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Those moments in time, lost

Those moments in time, lost forever, but I hope that I can once again design a hero that inspires others to try just as hard, or to play just as well.

These dreams gentlemen...they are to be tread carefully, but I expect to once again tread them with you all.

"A true hero, is the sum of his accomplishments, no man won the hearts of the people by assuming he's better than them, he is a citadel for the people, a vessel to which hope and strength is carried on." - Marcus Falcon

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1) Visual character

1) Visual character customisation. CO may have later topped them on this score but CoH still did it well.

2) Powerset customisation. So many to choose from. No-one has beaten them on this score IMO.

3) Power interactions done well, which no other MMO has done. Interactions aren't arbitrary optimal combinations you have to use to play your character well. They're interactions which make perfect sense (eg. immobilization cancelling knockback/knockdown) and which expand your options during combat.

4) 2+3 = best group combat of any MMO I've played. While missions were visually repetitive, gameplay was not because group makeup could be so varied and play so differently.

5) Personal one here. I normally play support type characters and CoH still has the best, most fun and varied options of any MMO I've looked at - which is pretty much all of them. I think they made a mistake giving controllers access to both control and defender powersets - because it doubled up on defense and made controllers better defenders than defenders - and I think we can see they realised this with how they implemented the villain powersets. But even with that mistake they still outclass all the competition.

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Lollerskatez wrote:
Lollerskatez wrote:

The community was something special. I've been playing online games for most of my life (I'm 20) and I have never come across a nicer community. The community was so helpful and making a friend took only seconds. .

I agree - for me, Community was paramount in my enjoyment of the game.

-- Mewkychan =^.^=m mew!

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Mewkychan helped make CoX

Mewkychan helped make CoX special for me!

And the communities. And getting to be a Hero. And the un-complicated-ness of it.

Be Well!
Fireheart

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This is a great thread.

This is a great thread.

I hope the devs are really reading this. I can +1 almost every single post. Reading it as a whole and then distilling out the most commonly cited things gives a truly accurate map of what made CoH the game we all want a successor for.

Pay attention to this thread, MWM! :)

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

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I'm quote to quote a pair of

I'm quote to quote a pair of posts for this thread, this one and this one:

Arcana wrote:

I knew someone that went through a phase where the way he played his energy blaster was to run right into the next spawn and Nova it, then yell "Help!" and die on the spot. Then wait for the team to clean up the spawn and rez him, and then use nothing but his ranged attacks from a distance until Nova was recharged again. And this was pre-Leeroy Jenkins.

That was when I began to realize I was doing it all wrong. Because he only did that on teams he knew he could get away with it. On lesser teams, he played more conservatively. And that's when I realized that all this power the devs were dumb enough to give us was wasted on just killing things faster. What it could do was allow us to play City of Heroes like no other players would ever be allowed to play anything, and get away with it. Leeroy Jenkins wiped his team with him. But before that ever happened, CoH players were pulling stunts far stupider, and often surviving to pull even stupider stunts next (or at least, not killing everyone else around them).

In City of Heroes, power was opportunity. Opportunity to see if a team of scrappers could brawl the Envoy of Shadows to death (if they were high enough level, they could). Opportunity to see how many times you can use Soul Transfer in a single room (my record: fifteen in the LRSF trying to solo an entire room of Longbow). Opportunity to see what would happen if eight blasters set off their nukes simultaneously fighting Nightstar (she'll kill all of you: might want to avoid that one).

If you were a veteran player and you spent all your time and energy trying to do what everyone else was doing, just faster, you were not seeing all the game had to offer. Sometimes you had to stop and nuke the roses.

Arcana wrote:

Put simply, City of Heroes allowed players to have so much more power compared to most MMOs that players could afford to do weird things that were just fun, without having to worry about being killed by the game if they did not play absolutely perfectly. A bad day in City of Heroes was often better than a good day in other MMOs that emphasized much more difficult combat with much more restrictions on the abilities of the players.

You're welcome.

- - - - -
Hail Beard!

Support trap clowns for CoT!

Cinnder
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Thanks, Darth! Arcana is

Thanks, Darth! Arcana is eloquent as usual. I think there was a thread somewhere here on the penalty for defeat that could benefit from a cross-posting of those quotes.

Spurn all ye kindle.

Empyrean
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You know, I logged on DCUO-

You know, I logged on DCUO--and then logged back off not too long after--and was thinking about how it could be that CoH combat was so much more fun than the combat in a game that was designed by SOE specifically to be a hybrid MMORPG/combat game. Then I read the Arcana quote that Darth posted above, and I remembered why.

I used to spend so much time on the game making the craziest ubber build I could within my theme and then just TRYING to get him killed by doing crazy @#%#. And when I actually just barely slogged my way through the ridiculously crazy situation that I'd stupidly gotten myself into, it smelled like... napalm.

Always epic.

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

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City of Heroes/Villian's

City of Heroes/Villian's community hands down was the best thing about the game. I remember the very first day I played the game as if it was yesterday. It was my first MMORPG and out of all MMOs it made the most memories and friends for me, even Vanilla and BC WoW never beat it in that sense.

It was back in 2005, I was a kid in 3rd grade who played all different types of games. Sonic, Mario, Racing games and the like were my main games. My parents took me down to my Grandparent's house to visit which my Uncle currently was temporarily living at the time. I remember after all the pleasantries of the visit to going up and visiting my uncle only to see him playing City of Heroes. I was completely floored by the game and my Uncle being the cool guy he is allowed me to actually make my own character and play it....I don't remember why but I named my first character Belly Dancer, she was a female Fire Blaster with your standard fire themed superhero suit. I was a newbie to well....everything and I was completely lost at first (my uncle was watching me play the whole time) so my uncle used say chat and asked several heroes next to me on how the game works.

They all joined up in a group and taught me how to play the game. I remember a female tanker hero and male illusion controller specifically taking me under there wing while most of the other heroes would come and go. I was also floored that my uncle mentioned how that I was pretty much a kid, his young nephew and these possible teenagers to adults didn't even blink an eye on that statement...nowadays in games if you mention you are kid or a girl you are likely to be scrutinized. I spent most of my time at that visit playing the game. I leveled up to Level 8 and wandered into the next zone before I had to leave. During Chrismas of 2005 my dad bought me City of Villians and payed the subscription fees for many years to come. I remember my first character being a Ninja//Force field Mastermind. I joined a family Supergroup until I had to leave the game due to real life circumstances....I honestly regret not telling them that I was leaving. I would play the game amongst other MMOs on and off (until the Issue that release ME....I was never able to play after that and I really wish I did) but I never could replicate the feeling with the other games. CO while fun had a awful community from the start that really soured my mood, DCUO had barely any content when I played it and I was really disappointed with the lack of powersets.

I really hope this game has the same good community. By the time it comes out I will be in College as an young 18-19 year old whom is poor as hell.... but it would be definitely nice to play a game that gave me a sense of childlike wonder from the start to the end. I am happy that Mastermind will be put back in the game as the Operator...even if it's not in on launch I am just happy knowing it is there

Formerly known as Bleddyn

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kaylern
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I remember way back in the

I remember way back in the days of playing *cough* World of Warcraft *cough* I met a guy who I used to hang around with. He told me he and his son (yes he was around 60 years old) mainly played CoH. I asked what that was as I'd never heard of it before. When I was told I was intrigued. I logged off straight away and went to download it and try it out.

I installed it, ran it and levelled up to level 10 over the following week but soon grew bored as I didn't know anyone else that played it and my friend that told me about it had stopped playing WoW so I couldn't find him in game. I quit not long after and went back to WoW. A few months later when WoW went into its usual weekly downtime I remembered about CoH so I decided to give it another try. Not long after I logged in I was invited into a group, now normally I decline random invitations but I figured I would accept. I was immediately brought in to a group with 3 other players all max level. They took me under their wings and took me on raids and missions and helped me level up my character, and even helped fine tune my characters powers. I stayed with them for a few months until I stopped playing and drifted back to WoW.

A year later I went back and found one of them still playing. I got to talking to her and we teamed up again and it was just like old times again. It stayed like that for a few months until as always I drifted away from CoH and back into WoW.

2 years later I went to go back again only to my heartache that the game had shut down 2 months before. I was devastated. I quickly began pouring through websites trying to find out what happened, reading every article on it and came across this. I've been following this very closely and from what I can see in the forums, videos and pics this should give the old gaming strings a nostalgic pull.

Looking back on it the time I spent on CoH was some of the best gaming times I had. CoH was unique in its genre from the superhero aspect, to the sidekick system, to the architect level creator. Nothing has even come close to it. My only regret about CoH is that I never played it enough and discovered it too late to enjoy it fully. This game has some big shoes to fill but from the looks of it so far it shouldn't be a problem.

Izzy
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Thinking back to the 1st time

Thinking back to the 1st time i was exposed to CoH...
i had moved to Florida and after searching for a developer job I finally found one that paid $8.50 and was 115 miles of a daily drive. I had a Corolla so gas wasnt a big hamper. But after 6 months, I couldnt keep up with the commute anymore, and the pay was... not that great! :P So I left.

I was unemployed for a few months, so each time I went to the store, I wouldnt let myself buy anything I didnt need. But for some reason when I past by the City of Heroes display, it just drew me to it. As I picked up the Display Box, i thought it was a program that was a Viewer of collections of crudely created user contributed Comic Books strips perhaps. And for $30 i was willing to pay for it. So i bought it... on faith alone, not really comprehending the descriptions on the box too much. I though they were exaggerations. So i went home and installed it.

After installing it on my PC, I remember being prompted to signup monthly. This was my VERY 1st MMO, so a monthly subscription was "Out Of The Question". I didnt really get at 1st why they wanted me to pay monthly when i already paid for the game DVDs. It seemed absurd at the time to say the least. They did say there was a 2 week trial period, So i decided i was Definitely going to Un-Install it after the 2 weeks were up. I was going to play for the 2 weeks to at least get my $30 worth! Hmppp! >:(

I started with creating a new Character and really did a messed up job. :/ I Named him NecroManCer and chose Ice Control / Empathy for his powers. I have to say, that wasnt as bad a choice for a Noobie! Keep enemies from approaching and healing myself when taking damage, while i learned the rules of the game. But what got my attention wasnt all the special FX that the attacks had, it was something else we take for granted in todays MMOs. It was Fly, Super Speed and Super Jump, the travel power. The power that REALLY took me by surprise was Super Jump. I though that Fly would be my favorite, then Super Speed, but as it turned out it was Super Jump that made my blood rush to my head. I remember getting Super Jump the very 1st time, and bursting from the ground into the air like a rocket and feeling that Exhilaration when falling as if I was on a roller coaster and I was just about to plunge straight down to the bottom. Oh Man... that felt awesome.

So the 2 weeks were Up! But I wasnt sure what to do now. I was VERY much Against paying for a game, as if it was a cell phone, i think i only had a pre-paid Trac Phone at the time, but I was sooo enjoying the game. NAY! I wouldnt call it just a GAME, it was more. To me it was a different world where people were More that they could ever be in the Real world. (plus i think i saw the MATRIX, so.. there was some of that too, and I started around Issue 3 or so)

To conclude... I didnt Un-Install City of Heroes. Instead I started working from home and looked for a job. I was determined to find some way to pay for a monthly subscription. And from that day since, I kept the monthly subscription active, even though for months at a time Life would drag me away, I didnt mind paying for the time that I wasnt playing. In fact, i felt like my contribution is what kept City of Heroes alive for Sooo many years. After they introduced a Stipend of sorts... If i was away for months i would get a larger Stipend, like having a Checking Account and my money grew, so that made me feel good about those times of Paying But Not Playing, too. ;)

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* The vast number of

* The vast number of different looks, names, back-story, and power combinations available allowed for incredible creativity.
* The way that different powers, even ones not terribly popular, could be enhanced in different ways to make them viable and useful. Allowed making most anything and making it playable.
* The game was mostly easy, I was playing a hero/villain, and virtually every encounter was against a group that could be heroically / villanously dispatched. The times when the game was difficult it was appropriately difficult, large numbers of enemies with mixed capabilities that could take down a super.
* Most powers were immediately available for use, with some effort and enhancing of course, there were not many useful powers that could only be used once in a very long time. The 0-10 second cooldown made for fast and enjoyable game play.
* Most powers had a logical look, feel, effect.
* Community play was welcome but not required
* The game was very accessible, I had friends who had 4-7 year old children that had their own characters on family accounts, they could play with a group of close friends and family and have a ton of fun. One friend had a 4yo who just liked to jump and fly, we would team up and jump/fly all over zones (and secretly collect badges while we traveled about, it was a nice way to do that and have some fun with family friends).

By the end I had about 30 level 50s, all but a few fully enhanced, and about 2/3 with significant incarnate progression. I created heroes and villains, they made sense, played like I envisioned, and became quite powerful at the apex of their careers. I could sign in any one of them and enjoy their specific setup as much as any other.

crowpeople
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after CoX I went to many

after CoX I went to many other mmos. what the other mmos had was "end game content" or dungeons (imo). what Cox did for me was allow me to play in "dungeons" on the fly with any number of people and have a great time doing it. each group had a different approach. each time a friend was made. and when i got bored I made of another idea for a toon and tried that out for a while. the whole game was que-less mechanic-less simple to understand dungeons. I never once had to grind levels. I never once got kicked from a team because I just didn't understand how to "have fun correctly" or how the boss should be taken out.I never once had to google something. I never once had to watch a video. I never once had to learn a build. or figure out what Im doing wrong. what I did though every time I got on was make a new character and played with a bunch of new people that are all having fun. the game had five class that you understood what there role was. and you played that role in 5 man groups without having to google a single thing

Now its a little late for me, so forgive me when i dont reread this for grammar. It saddens me to think that the state of mmos today is set where if you didn't learn the game first you can't play. I am not a well person, but each sign on made me a happy person again. this kinda of friend ship took me out of some very dark places. I went back to those places not to long after the Cox went down, because I couldn't find a mmo that had the same people in it, I couldn't find friends again, I couldn't be happy I couldn't take the stress away. and I have thought of suicide for a long while.I have come close twice
but two years ago. this post stopped me. I will have hope as long as this site stays up.
so what was it that I remember liking so much about Cox ,the /jukebox and the costume contests because it made me feel like I was apart of something important.

I type before i think

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@crowpeople, glad you're

@crowpeople, glad you're still with us. I can't wait to play with you when the game comes out!


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.
Warpdrive
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CoX was my first MMO of all

CoX was my first MMO of all time. It's hard to get past the nostalgia that comes with that kind of thing, you know? I started with the beta because a friend of mine got me into it at the time. I started playing the missions. Running around the city, having a blast. I remembered feeling powerful.

Now, I'd like to give some context here. Back then, I used to suffer from fits of depression. My friend at the time gave me their beta access because I liked superheroes and this was a way for them to be a superhero with me. For the first time in a long time, I felt happy. I could enjoy myself. When the game finally came out and we could play together, I immediately threw what money I could at it. Got the collector's edition, subbed up and played for hours upon hours on end. Running around the Virtue server before I really knew what Roleplaying was, but it sounded fun. One day, I stumbled across a group of people chatting away ICly. So I stopped and watched. Immediately engrossed in their conversation about being superheroes and how they protect people. So I sent them a tell and asked if I could join them. They were the nicest people I had run into beyond my IRL friend. We chatted for hours that day, we added each other to our friends list and chatted some more the days after. We even made a supergroup. We called ourselves The Association.

Building characters, fleshing them out in RP and even running through all kinds of Task Forces was so much fun. Badge hunting as well. The days turned to months. They even soon turned to years. Then City of Villains came out. Bringing a whole other aspect of the game that I hadn't really considered. I could become a supervillain? That was amazing! I could explore a whole new span of zones! Oh my gosh! So many new things to do! Granted, I often felt bad hurting people because of how much I had liked playing a superhero, but the story had just hooked me. Pulling me along. Mission after mission, I just couldn't stop.

By the time the IO system came out, I began to make all my characters extremely awesome in PvE content. So many extra stats! But that never changed why I played the game. For the fun. I always made Roleplaying my priority for playing the game and it constantly kept me engrossed in the city. By the time the end of the game came around, I had obtained every possible Veteran Reward available to us. So many Badges on my Gravity/Kinetics Controller. Including that elusive Bug Hunter badge! So many of my friends were envious of it. But that doesn't matter. The friends I made throughout those years in the game are what made CoX special to me. I will always recall memories from my first MMO and the friends it gave me. Always good memories.

I can't wait for City of Titans to breathe life back into the Superhero genre. My only regret so far with CoT is that I couldn't have donated more during the Kickstarter. I could only give enough to reach the Dynamic Duo marker. The waiting is hard, but I know the people making this game will put their hearts and souls into making it amazing. The players remember what made CoX special. I know they'll make this game just as special by bringing us all back together. Our capes swaying in the wind once again..

Thank you, MWM, for giving me hope again. I look forward to CoT bringing the world of superheroes back to my computer screen. Please, don't rush..

Wormholes are just silly. One moment you're here. The next you're stunned and over there. Ha. Gravity is silly.

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Hearing about how CoT's

Hearing about how CoT's version of Inspirations will work makes me a little sad. They were one of those small things in the game that added to the social experience. Everyone talking about what they had and who needed what. Dropping them on someone when you knew they needed a liiiittle boost before a big fight or even just because they hadn't had the chance (or were just having too much fun to stop) to go update their Enhancements. It was nice when your team knew your strengths and weaknesses and would do what they could to help. EG when I first started playing... being the tank in a low level TF before you've got your mez protection and without even mentioning it you've got people slipping you their break frees. It helped *just* enough to make things a little smoother for a bit, it made you appreciate your teammates and want to be even better for them.

In so many games I've played since there is not much chatter or camaraderie between teammates. The average CoH PUG was more fun and social than many organized groups and teams I've been in in other games. It was a result I think of several things and I think Insps were, however small, a piece of that.

TINK SMASH

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Even after all this time, I

Even after all this time, I still haven't found a replacement for CoX. What I liked most about it was that there was always something I could do, whether I wanted to play casually or have a long, intense session. Sometimes I'd log on and do radio missions, go badge hunting, try to get accolades, or peruse the market for rare or purple recipes to complete my sets. I'd spend time balancing the IOs I had slotted so that I'd have nice combinations of extra stats (like extra health regen and resistances on my blaster), or get the accolades and badges for the extra powers. Sometimes I'd just fly around and chat with people. Other times I'd join a nice task force to spend the whole evening blasting things.

It was bright and colorful. It was an MMO that played like a FPS. It had nice combinations of primary and secondary power sets. It had all kinds of repeating events. It had bases! Even though there wasn't a lot to do in a base, I had fun building my base up and making the different rooms filled with vaults for drops/salvage/recipes, teleporters, temp buffs, etc.

There was always something I could do, I was never bored, and I didn't have to spend a lot of time traveling all over the place. I felt like a superhero in the game. It was the best MMO ever.

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I love these recent posts. I

I love these recent posts. I think this thread has the information that the CoT Devs need to heed the most.

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

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The map in CoH was so simple

The map in CoH was so simple yet elegant. It allowed you to easily find where you need to go in most instances (Perez Park) and I loved how it filled in for you as you explored the zones.

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(With regard to the fun

With regard to the fun possible with the passerby references, someone named a character "I Myself" just so that passerby would say things like, "Did you hear, I Myself just defeated Lord Recluse!"

For me, the game was much greater than the sum of its parts. Things like the ease of travel, the truly super power levels easily attainable for players, the sidekick/exemplar system, the "everybody gets one" approach to loot, the massive customization at all levels, and the highly active RP community all played their part.

However, on a deeply personal level, the effectiveness of crowd control really stood out for me. As something of a specialist in controllers and corrupters, I felt hugely powerful confusing, knocking down, bouncing up, entangling, and debuffing the poop out of entire armies! In other MMOs, "strong" crowd control typically lasts less than 5 seconds, and often breaks on damage too...

Individual "YES" moments included tanking Recluse with my illusion/storm controller for the first time; and tanking and flying massive airstrikes on the ITF with my fire/dark corrupter EVERY time. Tar Patch > Fire Storm!

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

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Oh yeah. I'll ahve to +1 CC

Oh yeah. I'll ahve to +1 CC too. CC is pretty boring in other games i've tried and ammoounts to little more than a nuisance towards the enemy, but in CoX it was just a joy.

Also the high customisability in character creation obviously. I had anything between a Daimyo possessed by an Oni, a former Chinese prostitute turned revengeful murderer, a mad quantum scientist obliterating everyone with science, and a mischievous harlequin that drove people mad. You don't get something like this anywhere else. The skills might be more customisable in Path of Exile by orders of magnitude, but the character customisation was unlike anything I've ever seen.

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Col. Kernel wrote:
Col. Kernel wrote:

To sum up what made CoX special for me, in a word... flexibility.
No other game could allow me anywhere near the flexibility in appearance.
No other game allowed me anywhere near the flexibility in concept and power choices
No other game allowed me anywhere near the flexibility in choosing my team mates. (i.e. no Trinity)
I think you folks are well on your way to producing the game i want to play.
I tried several others after CoX went under, LoTRO, NW, Firefall, SWTOR, and a few more I don't recall right off. I've effectively quit gaming, but TPP may lure me back.

I haven't effectively quit gaming, but I'm not very into it since CoX closed. I totally agree! So much flexibility! There is no other...

Grimfox
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I'm just gonna slide this in

I'm just gonna slide this in here...

http://massivelyop.com/2016/09/22/perfect-ten-my-favorite-memories-from-city-of-heroes/

Don't read the comments though. Started getting teary eyed.

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Costumes and capes aside,

Costumes and capes aside, when it is all said and done...one thing rings true..I don't care who you are....what build you had...hero or villain...all of it...it all comes down to a single word that continues to echo throughout Paragon City and the Rouge Isles and beyond...."Family". Friends come and go....Super groups get formed and fall away....but there are those select few that not only become a part of your team, but they become part of your life. I met my sons' mother in CoH...think on that for a moment. My son is here today because I met her on CoH. I never imagined CoH(X) packing it in...I was so sure I was going to one day sit down with my son and help him through his first mission..."Go ...kill skulls".
If you guys at CoT, are going to do this.....it has to be more than "some hero game". What you do has to honor the heart and soul and love we players poured into CoH....do that...or let my memory of it rest in peace....and dignity.
I hope you can pull this off....make us proud CoT.......make Statesman proud.

Azreil. (sole survivor of the SG "PeaceKeepers".) aka: Rubixx , FireFlight, FreedomAnswers , and TheRealWillyWonka(Villain)

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I never found an MMO after

I never found an MMO after CoX that provided me with what I wanted from a massively multiplayer setting. This thread is reminding me why I'm holding out hope that maybe this one can recapture those things.

1) An actually powerful character. I played other games, and at level one I could take out one or two even-level creatures. At level 30 I could take out... one or two even-level creatures. Maybe three if I was lucky. CoH started me off beating up gangs and it only improved from there. Decimating hordes of enemies in groups was terrific, but taking my Ice tank and sucking so much aggro that no one ever had to die in the impromptu groupings that formed was cathartic. Having 30 enemies attack you ineffectually - enemies that had been destroying heroes before you got there - was part of the joy of being a HERO and not just a killer of one level 30 wolf instead of one level 2 wolf. The moments I remember in other MMOs are the rage-quit moments or the disappointments of, "this is all there is?" I never really had that with CoX and I played on and off since beta for something like 7 years.

2) Easy grouping and player-started world flavor. I'm a solo player usually. I hate grouping in most MMOs because there is a VERY specific set of parameters you have to meet or you're not worth it. In the City games I could team with all healing-types or none. There were controller-only guilds for cryin' out loud. I loved that there were healers "on call" for groups if you needed them, and taxi services of teleporters to get you to and from the hospital or other zones - all manner of player-created entities interacting with the game environment to make the situations both more achievable and more fun. And then if you stopped feeling like grouping you'd drop out, someone else could join up (or the team could carry on without the most-optimal number of players) and everyone went on their merry way.

3) Sidekicking. Getting a glimpse of further stages of the game or a boost to my leveling was terrific. Playing with people who played every day when I did not was great. I still can't believe no other MMO figured out the power of allowing players of different paces to play together. It was another way to get to play with people instead of just near them.

4) The damn costume creator of never-ending wonder and mix-n-match power. I like to make characters. It's why I rarely max characters out. End-game content isn't everything that I want from a game, and I take my time going through all sorts of adventures with a dozen different characters. Most games do not let you have varied costumes and playstyles. I enjoyed playing an ice blaster who punched things to death with some energy fists. It was risky, and again non-optimal, but the game didn't decide FOR you which two powers you MUST pair together to stand a chance. Instead of options A or B, all powersets could be used in a variety of ways and combinations with other sets. Versatility of costumes met up with versatility in powers and playstyle, and made for a lot of replay value.

There are so many things. For me it was the best MMO for someone who often likes to solo (or dislikes other players messing up "his" game, take your pick). It allowed me to create infinite variations on characters and themes, to have a blast (literally and figuratively) every time I played, and to interact with other players more than I have in any game since. The comraderie amongst players was tremendous. People liked helping one another. It was the best sort of cooperative game, where you could ditch the annoying people and re-group with friends you made in random teamups with just a few button clicks. You could stay for a couple of hours or all day, every day.

I still miss it. I will probably have to buy a different computer to play CoT when it comes out, but if it can give that feeling back it will be worth it.

Flim-flam artist, occasional author and reknowned altoholic.

Baalumbral
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I've probably already replied

I've probably already replied to this thread but heck I'm waiting on teammates to decide on lunch location so...

For me what made CoH special was it allowed me to make *my* characters. I'm not playing generic elf archer #8712, I'm not playing a character with a zillion facial customization options that all wear the exact same costume and possess the exact same abilities. My en/en blaster likely had a different powerset selection than anyone else on the server, and even if someone had the exact same powers they almost assuredly didn't have the same IO layout. Nevermind the sheer depth of the costume creator, I sure as heck didn't look like anyone else. It made the characters hugely personable, I'd play awful powerset builds because awful or no it was *my* awful character. No other game have I felt the same or even near the same level of connection to my avatars, I just don't care for them in any real way so I end up no caring for the gameplay.

That sounds very "special snowflake" to me and its normally not something I give a crap about, someone else wears the same shirt to work, no cares are given. It was the *possibilities* of uniqueness, I was right there during City of Archers week and had a great time running an 8-man team of trick/arch defenders, my archer was inspired by the old Marvel Contest of Champions character "Shamrock" I named "Luck of the Draw", other players had robots, demons, silver-age heroes... as its been said, "there are many like it but this one is mine".

As many thousands of hours I put into playing my CoH characters, I guarantee I spent at least equal time just mucking around in the costume creator. That thing was like opening up a TV Tropes tab, you might've had a specific goal in mind but you end up exploring so many additional labyrinthine paths.

Jordan_yen
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Baalumbral wrote:
Baalumbral wrote:

I've probably already replied to this thread but heck I'm waiting on teammates to decide on lunch location so...
For me what made CoH special was it allowed me to make *my* characters. I'm not playing generic elf archer #8712, I'm not playing a character with a zillion facial customization options that all wear the exact same costume and possess the exact same abilities. My en/en blaster likely had a different powerset selection than anyone else on the server, and even if someone had the exact same powers they almost assuredly didn't have the same IO layout. Nevermind the sheer depth of the costume creator, I sure as heck didn't look like anyone else. It made the characters hugely personable, I'd play awful powerset builds because awful or no it was *my* awful character. No other game have I felt the same or even near the same level of connection to my avatars, I just don't care for them in any real way so I end up no caring for the gameplay.
That sounds very "special snowflake" to me and its normally not something I give a crap about, someone else wears the same shirt to work, no cares are given. It was the *possibilities* of uniqueness, I was right there during City of Archers week and had a great time running an 8-man team of trick/arch defenders, my archer was inspired by the old Marvel Contest of Champions character "Shamrock" I named "Luck of the Draw", other players had robots, demons, silver-age heroes... as its been said, "there are many like it but this one is mine".
As many thousands of hours I put into playing my CoH characters, I guarantee I spent at least equal time just mucking around in the costume creator. That thing was like opening up a TV Tropes tab, you might've had a specific goal in mind but you end up exploring so many additional labyrinthine paths.

This thread is critically old, but I'd like to pitch in and agree with you and others who said the same. I once made a character named "it's Pink" who was a huge body type guy who's costume was violently pink all over. I color tinted his powers pink too under the idea that he was a cursed/(blessed?) with amazing powers that turned him and everything else pink. Because CoH had the flexibility, I could have used literally ANY powercombination to make that character becuase, as others have said, powers, defenses, upgrades are ALL disconnected from the costuming. I didn't even realize that was a problem because CoH is the only MMO I have ever played, but I wouldn't consider another MMO that didn't have these basic elements.

It's a hero. I should be able to choose everything about how my hero works. If I want them to be a natural born robot who has the powers of animal affinity, I should be able to. Create the framework then let us play.

//////************************************************************************\\\\\\

This summarizes my hopes and dreams for CoT. Check it out if you'd like.

Interdictor
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Baalumbral wrote:
Baalumbral wrote:

It made the characters hugely personable, I'd play awful powerset builds because awful or no it was *my* awful character.

Hells yeah - loved my Ice/Ice Tank - even when it was considered to be the "subpar" option.

Lin Chiao Feng
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Interdictor wrote:
Interdictor wrote:

Baalumbral wrote:
It made the characters hugely personable, I'd play awful powerset builds because awful or no it was *my* awful character.
Hells yeah - loved my Ice/Ice Tank - even when it was considered to be the "subpar" option.

There was nothing subpar about Redlynne's Ice/Ice tank, Shirayukihime. She'd go out on Tanker Tuesdays and pull all the aggro off the other tanks. They were disturbed when they taunted something and it would run past them to Shirayukihime.

Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...

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/em flex

/em flex

When the team lead is crying during and after the run that, "I can't get no aggro!" ... because they couldn't ... I'd just tell them the same thing I did before the run started ... "Warning. I inhale aggro like a wind tunnel."

8 Tankers, and I'm the only one with the aggro. Boo yah. Ice/Ice Tankers were awesome flypaper builds.

/em drinkenriche


Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
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Redlynne wrote:
Redlynne wrote:

/em flex
When the team lead is crying during and after the run that, "I can't get no aggro!" ... because they couldn't ... I'd just tell them the same thing I did before the run started ... "Warning. I inhale aggro like a wind tunnel."
8 Tankers, and I'm the only one with the aggro. Boo yah. Ice/Ice Tankers were awesome flypaper builds.
/em drinkenriche

I had ice/fire and ice/stone tanks like that, sounds like you were the tank I needed on my rad/fire blaster. Irradiate and hot feet was too much aggro for a lot of tanks.

Tech Team and Forum Moderator

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There are so many lists that

There are so many lists that I agree with and that are missing in current games but one I did not think of stood out. In Cinnder's list I saw "power queueing". I had completely forgot about that but yes that appears to be missing in games I play. I definitely miss that feature too. I hope CoT will have it, among the many others listed here.

Reward tactics as well as damage dealing.

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SavageFist wrote:
SavageFist wrote:

There are so many lists that I agree with and that are missing in current games but one I did not think of stood out. In Cinnder's list I saw "power queueing". I had completely forgot about that but yes that appears to be missing in games I play. I definitely miss that feature too. I hope CoT will have it, among the many others listed here.

+1!

I loved "pre-loading" my combinations by queuing them up and then and watching them rip. Really miss it and haven't had that feeling in any other game.

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

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The power option

The power option customization was the best and I have missed it in every other mmo since. Also something that I haven't seen done well since COX is teleporting, I loved teleporting myself or teamates across Dark Astoria! Also the background story missions, like the getting your cape for the first time mission, made you feel like you were bigger and more involved in the world around you. Jeezer I miss it.

ILL/RAD for life!

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I might have posted before

I might have posted before but I don't care the CoX love will never die. Besides the customization (I think I had about 20 alts that never got past lvl 10) and the flexibility of group composition I think it was the community itself. The best way to show this was grouping. Other games you will spend playing most of it solo except if there is a instance or you have a grinding buddy.I remember back in WoW:BK I spent days looking for people to do end game group quests. Not even my guild would help me most of the time. CoX on the other hand you didn't even need a quest to get a group together. I remember teaming up with some guys and then just try to clear the skulls out of Perez Park. If someone had to do something the rest of us would just circle up but the elevators and just do small talk. When was the last time you talked about regular stuff with a random guy in guiuldwars? It was the game where you found teams because you wanted to not because you needed to.

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If I had to pick one thing it

If I had to pick one thing it would be the community.

Senior Gameplay Engineer.

Axe
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Great customization and

Great customization and community.

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I think Jerry Seinfeld summed

I think Jerry Seinfeld summed it up best:

R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising

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amievil wrote:
amievil wrote:

If I had to pick one thing it would be the community.

I probably couldn't nail one particular thing down as I think it was a perfect storm of things, big and small, that made CoH/V great for me, but this would certainly be near the top.

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For me, it was the scalable

For me, it was the scalable content. I'm typically a solo player in MMOs, grouping when I have to, but preferring my own pace otherwise. In CoX content wasn't necessarily easier when you were with a group. No. When you were with a group, content was more epic. The hordes of enemies, the visuals of all the powers and the sounds of the chaos. That was so intense, I ended up wanting to play with other people. And that led to a greater feeling of community.

A close second to this were the mission arcs. Some of them were very well written and made me laugh or made me angry or made me cry. There are some missions I still remember to this day. And I bet other CoX veterans can all say the same. How many other MMO RPGs out there are the story arcs so memorable? I can only think of one other.


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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Huckleberry wrote:
Huckleberry wrote:

When you were with a group, content was more epic.

^This. Well said.

Empyrean
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Huckleberry wrote:
Huckleberry wrote:

For me, it was the scalable content. I'm typically a solo player in MMOs, grouping when I have to, but preferring my own pace otherwise. In CoX content wasn't necessarily easier when you were with a group. No. When you were with a group, content was more epic. The hordes of enemies, the visuals of all the powers and the sounds of the chaos. That was so intense, I ended up wanting to play with other people. And that led to a greater feeling of community.
A close second to this were the mission arcs. Some of them were very well written and made me laugh or made me angry or made me cry. There are some missions I still remember to this day. And I bet other CoX veterans can all say the same. How many other MMO RPGs out there are the story arcs so memorable? I can only think of one other.

The Dev's need to pay attention to this post. Even though I think they do already get it :).

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

Kime
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There were many aspects of

There were many aspects of City of Heroes that made it special to me. One of the biggest though was that while playing I actually felt like a superhero, flying around the city, saving innocents and beating down bad guys and gals and foiling EVIL! The other superhero games I have played like DCUOnline and Champions Online are fun but I never feel like a real superhero. You are just kind of there. Everything is as tough as you, you are not any more super or special. Another big reason it was special to me was that I could go it alone, running solo missions for hours then hook up with some friends or just a random bunch of heroes and keep on rolling. It was easy to join groups if you wanted. And the chat system was THE BEST! So customizable and so easy to use. *sighs* I miss the good old days...

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Radio and newspaper missions.

Radio and newspaper missions... quick and easy fun, with the occasional bank-job to mix things up a bit.
The subtle and at points not so subtle humor. "However, he's really just a gifted surgeon, and nothing more."
The sidekick/mentor system, even more so later on.
Believable and sometimes tragical villains and heroes. I know CoH was kinda sorta modeled after Champions, but in comparison CO feels... bland.

Plus, it got me into reading PvP-Online and webcomics in general.

Wolfgang8565
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The ease of use. Everything

The ease of use. Everything was so simple nothing ever got in my way of enjoying the game. If I wanted to join a team I could call it out, or setup my stat to look for a group until I got a random invite. The UI was easy to read, not too cluttered, and everything made sense. The effects were simple enough but the effects were unique. The world was simple and instanced missions were also not too cluttered with textures and flashy enemies. I miss everything sooo much waaaaaaaaaa

-----------

Graphic Designer

RolandGrey
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Let's see... I was able to

Let's see... I was able to make characters almost exactly the way I wanted them, I could make them look almost exactly the way I wanted them to look and the game just kept getting better at it.

On a personal level, I made a lot of friends through City of Heroes that persisted for a very long time, some of whom with which I'm still in contact. I never met anybody with which I had so much in common before, much less so many of them.

Finally, City of Heroes was the game that made me want to be a writer. With the ability to make characters how I wanted, it gave me the inspiration to start writing their stories and share them. The first efforts were crude, but over time I get better incrementally. I like to think I'm doing okay now.

Also, thanks to a reply from Nate Downes on a comment I made on a Positive Gamer video about City of Heroes, I was able to recently find those stories on the Internet Archive and share them once again... Which has gotten me more interested in checking out the community here more. I think that's the best thing about City of Heroes. It inspires me to take a chance with people, to open myself up to opportunities.

It's my sincere hope that we catch that lightning in a bottle with this game, too. It should be possible. City of Heroes wasn't the first game to help lots of people make strong connections, so I have a good feeling about this one.

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Going to Independence Bay,

Going to Independence Bay, jumping into the water near where a group was trying to bring down the giant octopus, and emoting:

Amerikatt wrote:

"Amerikatt heals Lusca for 236 points!"

I cannot tell you how many angry Tells I got!

*impish smirk*

[What?! Lusca and AK were BFFs!]

Lin Chiao Feng
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You never got a taste for

You never got a taste for octopus?

Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...

Amerikatt
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Lin Chiao Feng wrote:
Lin Chiao Feng wrote:

You never got a taste for octopus?

Lusca was like a big kid. Sure, she liked to play, and it sometimes got a bit rough, but she never meant any harm! She and I got along really well. BFFs!

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For COH there are 3 main

For COH there are 3 main features that made the game good and 2 features that made the game bad.

Good.
1. Sound design. The sound design is one of the best things in this game. Every power had a generating sound and an impact sound. Each power set had a sound theme.
The NPCs also had great sounds you knew you had been stabbed or hit with a bat. The sounds were distinct and audible. The music added to the tension. There was an additional sound when an NPC was knocked down or knocked back. So the sound told a story.

2. Combat was interactive. Powers had definite effects on the enemy. An enemy who was hit by a fire ball not only took damage but was set alight. He may also be knocked down. Sparks and flames would spread. There were no auto attacks. Every skill took energy, had a cool down, and had a purpose. Some were CC Some were high damage. Others were more efficient damage. Some were debuffs. Each power required a click and you saw and heard the results on screen.

3. Character and power customization. The ability to combine different layers of a costume The shape pattern and color created a wide variety of characters. Add to this the 100 or more role and power set combinations and you never felt like a clone of someone else. It was your character. This also worked to defend Cryptic studios in court. I have never seen another game that would regularly have player initiated costume contests. And best of all most of the content was included in the game. No nickel and dimeing you. The variation of play styles was also great I could make a buffing controller or a melee scrapper with good tanking abilities. It was all up to me.

The bad.

1. COH had a lack of end game content. For a long time it only had 1 raid. Additional content was difficult to complete due to 1 hit mechanics or no good way of gathering a group. This lead to a lot of grinding for levels because leveling a new hero was more fun than the small selection of end game content. A good MMO needs at least five end game dungeons and 3 end game raids. That way a good guild can do a different raid 3 times a week. This content has to all have equal loot value. If one dungeon is more valuable than another then only that one will get played. Same for the raids. Understandably raid loot should be better than dungeon loot. If the loot becomes obsolete then the dungeon does too and you have just zeroed out all of the time and effort that went into making that content. Dungeons should be kept relevant by having some rare drops that have no raid equivalent. Also there was no gathering area for end game content. The portal zones were marred by a giant buzzing sound that could wake the dead.

2. COH had bad itemization crafting and loot handling. At least it was auto looted. I never left loot on the ground like some games. This allowed players to focus on the combat. The power enhancements were a novel idea but were difficult to get excited about. Especially when half the stuff you looted were for a different origin. There were also too many different crafting components to manage. The system in which crafting worked was brilliant but complicated. The whole system could have been done with a more traditional loot and socket system. Having to replicate the same thing for each origin was silly. Because loot was not focused on bosses this lead to a lot of grinding and player fatigue.

What made CoX special was a combination of a great combat system good community and a unique and vibrant world. The game improved over it's lifetime but took a noticeable hit when the game was sold. I hope that COT will imitate its high points like the combat and sound design and improve on it's weaknesses like lack of content and confusing itemization.

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I would move number 1 from

I would move number 1 from the bad list to the good list, personally. Especially "leveling a new hero was more fun than the small selection of end game content." I consider that one of the most brilliant bits of the design of the old game.

Spurn all ye kindle.

Greyhawk
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Foxbat40 wrote:
Foxbat40 wrote:

...because leveling a new hero was more fun than the small selection of end game content.

I dunno. Call me crazy, but I always thought that was core paradigm of CoH game design: Max out a character, go make another one!

Personally, in the entire time the game was online I only maxed out two characters, one villain and one hero. I had so much fun creating alternates there didn't seem much point in grinding to the ceiling. And then once the Mission Architect came online, I spent most of my game time making new missions and running through them.

If there is one thing I would really like to change about the CoH "endgame", it would be the data limits on story arcs created in the Mission Architect! Also, the silly 3 story publishing limit! It's not like 10,000 players were making epic stories, after all. Why not have a limit of 10 stories, or even 20? Five missions per story arc seems like a good limit, but limiting the total number of published story arcs to 3 made it feel like the game was punishing storytellers. Five missions per story arc, ten times the data limit per story arc, a maximum of ten published story arcs and unlimited local story arcs (missions should be stored on the player's hard drive until they are "published").

To each their own, I suppose.

Edit:

As long as I'm at it, I thought the Enhancement system was a brilliant design paradigm and I wish more games incorporated it. Item-based character progression annoys me. It always has. It always will. I don't want to be depending on the +150 Ultimate Sword of Doom and Destruction just to take down a minion. Power Enhancement puts the focus where it belongs, on improving the qualities of the character itself. Granted, constantly selling off Enhancements that could not be used because they were targeted at a different origin was often a problem, especially since a character could only carry 8 (?) enhancements. Constantly running back and forth to sell off Enhancements took time away from running missions.

I very much enjoyed the IO crafting system once it went live. It was simple, yet involved. I would have preferred a bit more thought going into the relationship between scarcity and IO power (why, oh why, did a level 50 IO require a Common Basic salvage item?). Also, recipes for Set-based IOs were really wonky, with tech-sounding IO sets making use of magical salvage and magic-sounding IO sets using tech salvage. Very weird.

But the design of the system itself, derived as it was from the idea of enhancing a power rather than equipping a new bit or armor or weaponry, was pure genius.

And again, to each their own.

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Empyrean
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I'm on the fence about this

I'm on the fence about this one.

Though I made up tens of characters, I spent more than half my time playing any one of three of my totally maxed out characters in CoH and loved it till they pulled the plug. I didn't feel that there was a dearth of "endgame" because I could always run, say, missions maxed out at 4x8 in Cimerora or head to the Shadow Shard or play the new Dark Astoria/Mot content, etc.

I guess what I mean is, there weren't a lot of classic MMORPG "endgame" raids to grind (thank goodness), but there was plenty of max-level content to play. I'd personally have to say alting AND max-level content are important, but not too much "endgame" in the sense of raid/grinding.

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

Lin Chiao Feng
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I don't think I'll ever be a

I don't think I'll ever be a big fan of loot-based game systems. Not just the "you have to pick up loot off the ground" crap, but the "your gear defines your capabilities" crap, too. CoH's enhancement system gave you all kinds of flexibility so long as you could get your head out of the "only slot damage" rut.

Tabula Rasa was loot-based, and that was one of the parts I hated. I played a sniper; Redlynne played a spy. I used a maximum-range (draw distance) rifle (class weapon); Redlynne used a sword (light saber for all practical purposes). Practically speaking, that meant Red was hauling home twice the loot that I was from an extended fight. Why? Because my class depended on staying at range and could only collect loot after the fighting was over, and a lot of the battles could last the good part of a half hour, by which time the loot from the early kills expired. (Why did it expire? Draw object count limits, among other things. You could easily get hundreds of piles of loot on the ground at once in that game.) Meanwhile, Red was literally standing in the loot when it dropped (melee range and all) and just scooped it up. So right there you had a huge player income imbalance. (That the sniper rifle consumed the most expensive and bulkiest ammo in the game, and the sword used *no* ammo or energy only made the imbalance worse.)

Tera was loot-based, and while it offered the ability to customize your weapons, it cost you an insane amount of time and money. You had to get these rare scrolls, with the drop rate around "one scroll per two raids" (not per player), and the scroll gave you about a 2-3% chance of upgrading your item. You had to erase all the slots on the item to get this attempt, unless you paid a lot more for scrolls to "freeze" slots. Very much for the Korean grindhouse market.

So yeah, I know it sucked to get enhancements that weren't your origin, but at least you could sell them and buy what you wanted, and you didn't have to erase all your slots to replace any of them.

Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...

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With the introduction of IOs,

With the introduction of IOs, part of my end game was making a good IO build to solo AVs and TFs.

However, I liked the Incarnate Raids. Hamidon wasn't bad, tho the reward started to be.

Wolfgang8565
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I got addicted to PVP towards

I got addicted to PVP towards the end. To the point where I would just hang out there, never kept leveling my characters, or doing missions, just logged into SC, pwned and got pwned.

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Graphic Designer

Alexia19
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Masterminds......I had all of

Masterminds......I had all of them and on multiple servers. I miss having super group and villain group raids, the battles between them. I do not believe any other MMO has set up a system where you could have a guild battle another guild in your base, although I have not played every online game, but I had never seen this aspect in 17 years now of online play. I also miss having hami raids and RWZ raids on the mothership every Wednesday night on Protector. Too many things to miss and CoT needs to hurry up.
Fav brute ---- Dark Melee, Invul
Every MM class
Empath for Defender
Granite Tank and I loved going boss hunting and getting blasters to group with me, just turn world boss away from them and let them have at it
Illusion control was unparalleled
SB pls, how many times did we see that typed in chat?
What other game has fulcrum shift?

I think that the question on this thread should have been how many things are we going to keep that we love from CoV/CoH?

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