Mirai

I could never get in to CO. The graphics and character models are a big turn-off for me. I also couldn't get used to the combat differences, trying to fit in the shift and z keys. I still haven't managed to get a character beyond level 11.

On the other hand, I've been playing Cryptic's sister game Star Trek Online since beta, and I have ten level 50 characters there. Interestingly, the CoX chat channel is shared between CO and STO, so CoX players can stay in touch between the two games. Fun to see Silverspar and other CO players in chat while I'm playing STO.

My first character, Birdy (Inv/SS Tanker) in her original costume:

I kind of miss all the draft games we used to have here.

Just for old time's sake, I'll draft Thanos, Troy Hickman, Homura Akemi, and the Lovely Angel. That should cover most bases.

I'm not going to boycott NCSoft games. But I won't spend any more money on NCSoft games. I'll just take advantage of free-to-play and ignore the cash shops.

They can't just buy the IP and engine, because Cryptic isn't going to sell the engine to another company. It's not even going to lease the engine for CoH. It would be unnecessary competition for Champions Online.

Ha. I'm going to do worse than boycott them. I'll be playing Aion.

...And I'll never buy anything from the Aion store. Which is Aion's sole source of income.

It's been a great run. Thanks to Statesman, Positron, War Witch, Geko (not Evilgeko, the real Geko) and all the rest of the devs, old and new.

Personally, I just look at the Night Ward as challenge content. Soloable, but not solo friendly. Unless you're someone like EvilGeko. Since I'm not hardcore like EvilGeko, and my reaction times aren't that great, I stick to soloing the Wards with characters who are specifically designed to handle that kind of thing. Plus I'm not hesitant to use the autocomplete option if things get too frustrating. My other characters have plenty of other content to do.

Would I prefer it if certain missions in the game were more solo friendly? Sure, but it's not like I'm hurting for solo friendly content.

I teamed a little in the first few years of the game, but then I got tired of that, and I've been playing completely solo ever since. Most of my 14 level 50 characters never teamed. I've completed two TFs and zero trials.

The missions could actually be pretty tough to solo early on. The bosses didn't downgrade to lieutenants (not a big deal, but still), missions were often front-loaded (with the nastiest enemies staring in your face as you entered), and AVs didn't downgrade to elite bosses. You had level gaps if you were playing entirely solo, where missions would run out, especially in the upper 30s. You couldn't drop or autocomplete missions, so your three mission slots could fill up with unsoloable missions, especially once you reached the 40s. Things have improved immensely since then.

The lower levels fly by these days, there's a glut of soloable content in the 20-30 range, and a good variety after that.

There are MMOs that let me get to the end solo easier and faster, but that's not really a good thing. CoH keeps me entertained playing a character much longer.

I mostly stick to story arcs. I'll also do the occasional Mayhem/Safeguard missions (with the Newspaper/Radio prerequisites) and alignment missions, along with some other solo friendly stuff.

I don't do the TFs or trials. In fact, I've never done a trial. Trials. Brrr. No thanks.

Do those EBs have the purple triangles of doom? If they don't, then please don't do anything to give them the PToD as EBs. That's my only concern on the topic.

My favorite is an Ice/Ice blaster, so... game launch.

I've been playing that character quite a bit lately, although I've retired my other level 50 characters. I've been doing Ouroboros missions to get all the hero story arcs completed for her. I actually finally managed to make something to put in her Alpha slot (Nerve Boost), so I decided to go in the new Dark Astoria today and look around. I'll probably try out some of these new soloable Incarnate missions before long, although she still has some Ouroboros stuff to do.

Originally, there was no option to turn bosses into lieutenants, so I made sure my characters were all well capable of handling bosses from level 5 on. I've gotten a bit lax on that since the boss -> lt feature came along. Certainly most of my characters could deal with the bosses, but there are so many bosses in missions that I decided to leave the feature on. It just makes the game flow better for me with the bosses turned off. I considered turning them back on for a few of my characters, especially my Mind/Energy Dominator (who makes that lieutenant version trivial in nearly all cases), but I just never got around to it.

AV -> EB feature - ZOMG, now I can get to maximum level with certain heroes and villains, while still doing my story arcs!

Mission auto-complete feature - ZOMG, now I can get to 50 with any character, while still doing the story arcs! The gates have been fully opened!

Those two were easily the most important changes for me. There were many other cool changes, but they tend to pale in comparison.

I occasionally get a tell from someone asking to join "my team". I don't bother replying, since I'm not on a team. I haven't received a "ur selfish" comment in years, although I do remember more than one. If I received a comment like that now, I'd probably respond that I don't want to burden them with my poor teaming skills.

I'm an altaholic. I have more than 50 characters in this game spread over seven servers. I jump from character to character. I like variety, and I tend to get a bit bored if I keep playing one character for a long time. I retire characters when they hit level 50. I have no interest in the Incarnate system, and I don't really have any other reasons to keep playing at 50.

I play all archetypes, but I play them with DPS in mind. I play solo, and I want to be able to progress at a good pace. My characters all need some for of damage protection and mez avoidance, wich can include having control powers to mez enemies before they get mezzed.

I'm fond of Blasters, although they can be a bit squishy. My Ice/Ice/Cold Blaster in particular fits my play style perfectly. Defenders and Corruptors are a bit trickier for me to work with. I haven't created any new Defenders in years, although I did get one of my old ones to 50.

Scrappers work great for me, and Brutes are better for me these days thanks to power set proliferation. I tend to prefer range, but the good combination of offense and defense is nice for soloing. My Tankers are well built for damage output, but it took a long time for them to get there, and I haven't created any new Tankers in years. It just takes too long to get Tankers where I want them.

Stalkers. I'd love to love Stalkers. I like being sneaky in the game. My Energy/Regen Stalker is one of my favorite characters. For some reason, though, I can't get any other Stalker powerset combination to work well for me. It doesn't help that the game keeps getting more ambushes targeted on the character, which is a big problem for Stalkers.

I love Dominators. They work perfectly for my playstyle, unless I'm facing elite bosses with those Purple Triangles of DOOM. I just try to avoid the PToD EBs by auto-completing missions and such. I can only work with very specific Controller builds, but my Ill/Rad has been one of my most powerful characters. Most Controller builds are just too slow for me.

I enjoy my Masterminds. They can plow through just about anything, although I'm generally not good with pets. The trend in the game to more and more ambushes targeted on characters makes me appreciate my Masterminds more and more.

My Arachnos Widow is a death machine, my Arachnos Soldier not so much. The Soldier just don't seem to have the solo firepower and damage/mez protection that my Widow has.

Kheldians don't work well for me at all, especially Warshades. I may never get my Kheldians to 50, although my Peacebringer has improved in soloability quite a bit (which isn't saying much).

Overall, I enjoy the variety that different archetypes and power sets offer, but I do tend to aim them all for damage output, with some decent damage/mez mitigation. I don't design them for different team roles, such as healing or tanking. Even my Tankers are designed to be scrappers.

Testing, testing. Hmm, new forum setup.

Oh, hello Marcian. Welcome back.

I expect any solo Incarnate content to be:
- Grindy
- Frustrating
- Highly repetitive
- Very time consuming to make any noticeable progress

If it doesn't live up to these standards, it can't be considered true end game content!

(But I would be very happy if the solo Incarnate content somehow turned out to be enjoyable.)

It does seem to me that the trend toward soloability has been completely reversed, and the devs have been focusing on team-only content. I didn't even bother with the Halloween event this year, and what little interest I initially had in the Incarnate system is long gone. It's a disappointing trend.

But I still have the old stuff, and once in a while the devs add in something I like.