Combat

I like the idea of comic book hometowns. This makes thematic sense to me. In reality, I would think of it more like a character's personal comic book, with the ability to invite other players over for crossovers. In this line of thought, the Big City area would be the Justice League, composed of the stories of many heroes, while the smaller areas would be more like Superboy.

I don't like the way you've proposed stats and loot, because to me that game already exists in many forms. Champions Online has basically every you've suggested, for instance, regarding stats. I don't think stats are thematic to superheroes, at least not in the way proposed. How much Strength does Superman have? What about the Hulk? Spiderman? A more structured game without those stats is both simpler and far more balanced (see early CO). I'm not going to argue about the specific examples, though I do feel that the proposed (1.1% MaxHealth) are basicaly insignificant.

I also don't really like forcing origin-specific loot on players. Why can't a magical enchantment help Spiderman? Why would the Green Lantern be unable to use a technological device? I also would rather have loot work similar to most enhancements in CoH. However, instead of requiring salvage, I would make them just cost in-game money, because I don't feel that crafting usually makes sense. Why does a level 15 Pulverizing Fisticuffs require a Boresight, a Spiritual Essence, an Unearthed Relic, and a Psionically Charged Brass? Leave the creation to the imagination of the player. Maybe they make it through the accumulated magical knowledge they've collected, or maybe they use their amazing tech skills from the future, or maybe they just naturally have a knack for it. One thing though: Simple items would not require recipes. You shouldn't need a guide to build a level 35 Damage IO, but it makes more sense to need one for a level 50 Armageddon Dam/Acc piece, for example.

I do like increased usage of temporary powers. I think temp powers are perhaps one of the most thematic parts of a superhero game. How many comics have a story like: Person X gets Power Y? I would emphasize them more than CoH did.

In some ways, I think it is easier to create a similar system, with possibly changed under-the-hood mechanics, than it would be to reverse engineer the CoH engine. I think part of the problem Arcanaville is stating is that the game engine is inherently complex to decode.

However, a coder doesn't have to worry necessarily about the complexity of the system. For instance it may be almost impossible to determine what the net effect of a power is, but that doesn't mean it is impossible to code. If we simply add parts to the machine, and those parts interact, then the machine grows exponentially more complex but did not necessarily take exponentially more work to create.

For instance, take a function y = x. Simple and easy to calculate. Now say we wanted it to be slightly more complex, and made it y = e^(x).

Continuing to increase the complexity:

y = e^(sin(x)
y = e^(sin(x^2)))
y = e^(sin(x^2))/hyptan(x))

etc. Already we have a very difficult function to predict. And this is just a simple function of x and y. If I gave someone a graph of the function the function, it would hard for them to deduce the formula I used to create it.

However, if I told someone the function, they could easily tell me what it would do by plotting it out. Alternatively, if I told someone I wanted a graph that alternated between 2.6 and .42, with increasingly fast periods and a vertical asymptote at 0, they could create something that would resemble the function I described. It might have small differences (such as those produced in the games timing systems), but ultimately the functions will have a rough similarity that may be enough to fool a person into thinking they are the same graph.

Basically, what I'm saying is that completely recreating CoH's engine with perfect accuracy is a project that could easily take 5000+ hours. However, creating a engine that produces similar results might not take the same amount of time. For instance, such an engine might not have the desynchronization that this engine's clocks have.

I'm not saying that the work required to create such an engine would be unsubstantial, but it is entirely possible that it could be easier to code than the alternative. I'm not a programmer, but my limited understanding tells me that the simplest of the game's mechanics (Damage, resists, defense, healing) could be simply reproduced.

What I would worry about would be AI, the enhancement system, and oddities of the current system. I'm not talking about instantly recharging powers or chaining, but instead things like the fact that resists and damage are tied together. Of course, a new game engine could possibly change that, and allow damage enhancements to be slotted into Assault and other sort of things that aren't allowable with the current system.

Essentially, I'm saying that coding the simple parts of the system would not necessarily be hard to do. However, trying to make sure that the same oddities are present, such as the desynchronized clock and the various oddities tied with the way the game considers several differing things to be the same effect.

Yep, it seems to be Thai (according to Google translate, anyway). Surprisingly, it didn't come out of that translator incredibly mangled:

I remember some of my favorite memories came from the STF (I will never it call the Ms. Liberty TF). It was never as difficult as the RSF, but it had its moments, especially in the last mission. Often times teams feel that double or triple-pulling AVs is a sure-fire teamwipe on the last mission, but that doesn't have to be the case.

I remember a specific TF particularly well. The team first tried to pull Scirocco, but ended up getting Ghost Widow as well. After they killed the squishies, I managed to get the aggro of Ghost Widow, and led her away from the team. For a while, I was damaging her more than the team was damaging their AV (though of course, they had to respawn several times due to dying). Eventually, I used my Lore pets to try and beat her before the team could take out Scirocco, and I almost succeeded. She was at 25% when she killed off my Lore pets, and I only managed to take off another 5-10% before the team finished.

And then they proceeded to do the same thing with Mako and Black Scorpion. This time I took Scorpion, and did the same thing to him that I did to Ghost Widow. And I always have had fun on fighting the Arachnos Flier with a Dark Melee character, because the tentacles are enormous!

Finally, we fought Lord Recluse. After dealing with the red pylon (I think), LR managed to kill the tank. Before he could do his super-fast teamwipe, I jumped in front of him and started wailing away. I didn't do much damage to him, but I did manage to distract him for two or three minutes while the team defeated another pylon and the Tank respawned.

Anyway, that is my crowning moment of awesome that actually had a story. Most of the AVs and GMs were just long, annoying fights that I did mainly for the achievement aspect of it (I may be the only person to complete Portal Jockey solo, against +4 AVs). Of course, I'm far less likely to tell people about the embarrassing things that have happened to me in the game.

Solo, sub-1:00:00, MoITF on two characters.

Soloed the following on my DM/SD:

Adamastor
Babbage
Kraken
Kronos Class Titan
Eochai
Jack in Irons
Paladin
Winter Lord

Missing only Lusca and Jurassik, mainly because it is a pain to fight Lusca and a pain to find Jurassik. Lusca takes FOREVER! I started once and got fed up after taking down 3 or 4 tentacles. Additionally, I've faced the following AVs, though not all were +4:

Anti-Matter, Arbiter Sands, Barracuda, Battle Maiden, Bile, Black Scorpion, Black Swan, Bobcat, Captain Mako, Chimera, Countess Crey, Diabolique, Dra'gon, Dreck, Ghost Widow (hard), Gyrfalcon, Ice Mistral, Infernal, Jade Spider, Lord Recluse, Magus Mu'Drakhan, Malaise, Marauder, Nemesis, Neuron, Nightstar, Requiem, Romulus Augustus, Schadenfreude, Scirocco, Shadow Spider, Shadowhunter, Siege, Silver Mantis, Psychic Clockwork King, The Honoree, Tyrant, Vanessa DeVore, and Wretch.

I've tried to solo most of the major level 50 TFs with him. I've had the most success with the ITF and the Reichsman TF. Before the HO nerf, I was working on a solo +4 MoITF.


On villain-side, my other character (TW/Elec) has beaten Caleb, Deathsurge, and the Ghost of Scrapyard. I haven't switched either character over to the other side, so they haven't got the chance to fight other GMs. With careful inspiration usage, he probably could do the LRSF (I've been the last one remaining on a team wipe, and managed to kill two Heroes before the team respawned), though I never tried to solo it with him.

That isn't the best case scenario. The best case scenario is that we get the game back, play through I24, 25, 26, etc. until we've beaten the last of the Battalion, unlocked the Omega slot, etc., and then we get the announcement that CoH2 is ready, and don't worry, it lets people export their characters. And it looks amazing. And it has everything we want. It has ponies. And Carp Melee.

That's my best case scenario.

I admit, I really want to play a Radiation/Radiation/Experimentation Brute. Capped resists, check. High AoE, check. High single target (4.272 DS on Devastating Blow!), check. Self heal, double check (radioactive Siphon Life and a PBAoE heal). Tons and tons of -resist procs. Various ways to get +Recharge. And would all be thematic.

Man, those new sets ALL have me salivating. Wind Control makes me want to finally get a controller to 50. Savage Melee looks crazy. Psionic Melee looks great. And all the theme power pools look amazing (I would spend money on each even knowing I could only use one per character).

Can't believe we'll never get to see these powers come to life. They make me want to open up Mids so much.

One more confession from me:

I have NEVER completed a Master Of badge on a team. Literally every one I've ever gotten has been solo (starting with two MoITFs, both completed in under an hour by different characters).

Oh, and if I really tried, I probably could try a Master Of badge on the final TFs. I've never managed to do them without a death though.

So yeah, my favorite thing to do in the game is to plan out a build, and solo stuff made for groups and leagues. Especially on characters without buffs and debuffs (yes, I know a Robots/Traps MM can do everything my TW/Elec can do, and more, but it feels like more of an achievement if I do it without the games most abusable system).

I play without sound off, with exactly one exception. When I create a new character, the sound is on. And I sing to the Atlas Park theme...

Dun-DUN-Dun-dun-Du-Du-Du-DUN!

That is all. One of the most nostalgic themes I've heard in a video game (seriously, I think that theme is partially responsible for altoholism).

From this thread, I will not be going to GW. It apparently completely lacks something that I have been lucky to have from CoH, and I don't think that I'll be able to make that transition.

1. As a playerbase, we are older and more mature than the players of most MMOs. The common image of a twelve year old at a computer actually has some truth, whereas it wouldn't surprise me if the average age of those playing CoH was closer to 30.

2. We come from common backgrounds. The niche of this game tended to attract certain groups of people that already have strong communities, such as comic book fans. This gave the playerbase a connection that most MMOs lack.

3. Very little in the game forces players to compete, so we don't have any reason to hate our fellow player. In another MMO, players are trained to constantly compete, whether it is over enemies needed for a quest, for loot, or for access to the game's raiding community. And that isn't even talking about PvP. Because most interactions were cooperative, rather than competitive, the games community was generally more friendly.

4. The developers encouraged a positive environment by constantly interacting with the players in a positive manner. In the other MMOs I've played, it basically felt like that players were abandoned to their own devices and that the developers honestly didn't care what they thought.

5. We had WAY more tools to socialize with. In other MMOs, it often much harder to even communicate with other players, let alone form a community. You can't team up with lower levels, so the playerbase was naturally more divided by character progress, and many of the chat options we have simply didn't exist. If a person was playing on a different server they basically didn't exist, and oftentimes the teaming functions were harder to use. Even playing a certain game with ~10 million players, I often felt lonely because of how limited the chat features were (and how horrible the community was on the forums).

So basically, we are a group of more mature gamers that generally are cooperative, already have common connections, and are constantly able to talk with each other and the development team. How couldn't we be different?

Back to the wall, surrounded by enemies, in the middle of my final attack. Live like a scrapper, die like a scrapper.

It would not affect me. In fact, it might be rather fun to start the game fresh. Kind of like starting over with game at I23 or I24. I might be persuaded to play one of the ATs I typically have avoided if more of the playerbase were present in the lower levels.

Right now, I think ~7. But if they enable 2XP, I'm going to try and get one of every AT. Missing Tankers, Controllers, Blasters, Kheldians, VEATs, Dominators, Corrupters, and Stalkers.

Okay, maybe not one of each. But at least a couple more.

Clearly, the community wants to save the game. I'd just like to get some sense of what we think are the real difficulties. On a scale of one to ten, where would you rank the following, in terms of difficulty?

• A. Getting Valve to buy the IP, rehire the studio, and proceed as normal
• b. The same as the above, but with some other major publishing company
• C. Buying the IP though crowd-sourcing, running the game with a community effort
• D. Getting Paragon Studios to independently publish the game (and acquire the IP)
• E. Convincing some large company to create a similar game
• F. Convincing some large company to produce a direct spiritual descendant with the help of our devs
• G. Same as E, but with an independent Paragon publishing agency instead
• H. Same as F, but with an independent Paragon publishing agency instead
• I. Continuing the game through private servers and emulators
• J. Other (please explain)

For example:

A. 9
B. 8
C. 6
D. 10
E. 4
F. 7
G. 5
H. 6
I. 10+ (legal reasons)
J. - (No speculation on other ideas for now)

I just want to get a sense of the community's feelings. Ultimately, I believe that one of those will happen, but I want to be realistic about our odds.