Nibb_Nibb

Random CoH factoids about me:

I missed being apart of the first beta by eight spots (they took the first 100 people and I was 108)

When the first beta group shot was taken in front of the Giant Penny (Kings Row), I got yelled at because I wouldn't kneel -- truth is, I didn't know there was a /kneel emote and was just waiting for my Rest power to recharge. If you look at the picture, I'm the orange cat-looking woman.

My beta character was named Tomorrow (Illusion / Kinetics). My first character ever made live was named Emerald Fury (Illusion / Kinetics) on Virtue.

I was an "every day" player for the first four years or so. Then I decided to 'pull away' and killed my account. I deleted all my characters except one. No matter how many other games I tried, I always came home to City of Heroes and thought I always could... When the time comes, I'll log in Emerald Fury one last time.

While I didn't come up with one of the first Hamidon strategies, I did name the team for it: Illusionary Suicide Squad (ISS for short).

Jack Emmert and I got into a spat once about the direction the game was going (near when CoV was released). Years later, I met him face to face at GenCon when he was promoting Champions Online. He misspoke and called it City of Heroes during his pitch. I just smiled and let him ramble on.

When Cryptic left and NCsoft NorCal took over, I thought for sure the game was doomed. Thankfully, I was so very wrong. You guys really got the game going on the right track. Much like some people follow great actors or directors, I will follow you to your next game Mr. Miller. You've earned my respect in the video game world.

Yay! I can enjoy CoX again!

Well done!

Also, how do you get that little window with your defensive, recharge, etc stats?

Oh! Well... I just gotta... I'll be ah...

{slumps head and shuffles away}

One simple change for this power would make it at least an option on people's radar... Larger Cone Width!

Hey, I even say don't give it to us for free. Give us +5 degrees per tier.

As it is now, hitting the MOB cap, even at 16, is near impossible.

The first time I saw this cut scene I told the league,

"Granny Goodness has some massive!... wait, why are we here again?"

It's become a Christmas day miracle to load the main site for me now-a-days. Forums are basically just as bad.

I'm no network wizkid, but with this many of us having problems regardless of browser or geographic location, there has to be either a common router we're all going through that sucks or something on the CoH server side.

It's really quite annoying is all I know for sure.

Regardless of browser, system, or physical location, the City of Heroes website and forum hate me. It seems to take several minutes to load them, if they load at all. I'll often click links that endlessly spin and never connect. Then, there are times when I can click through links and the forum without any issue at all; until BAM! it all just ups and dies again.

Do other people have this sort of issue? While I'd love to not be alone in this, I'd feel even worse if this was a known issue of suck that hasn't been fixed.

"I think there's a few nerfs we should roll back... No, not travel suppression... No, not ED... Do you remember what you did to poor Swan?"

"I really think you're missing a whole demographic out there; all I'm saying is Statesman / Lord Recluse love affair."

"What do you mean 'No stripper pole' emote? It works on so many levels!"

On Virtue...

Critical Spark and Paragon's Finest are the only two I was really surprised I was able to get. Paragon's Finest was a couple years ago, but Critical Spark was just last year. I figured with all the electric based heroes, all "Spark" related names would be gone.

What I always find far more annoying is names that are taken. Names of stars that are twenty pages into a Google search or genus/species names of insects you've never heard of before. When trying to find a spider-like name, I learned more spider facts, breeds, and types than I ever wanted to know...

I know the double merits and Well parts are a one time thing, but what about the bonus XP? Anyone know if that's something you get each time or not?

The Incarnate system did exactly what the Devs wanted it to do... Play on teams more.

Typically when a new TF comes out, there's a big swarm to see what it's all about, then if you can't catch that initial wave, you're out of luck. Outside of "profitable" TF prior to the Alpha slots, they were difficult to find. At least now, you can feel pretty confident if you want to run the TF of the week, you can.

The talk about speed runs vs normal play is kinda moot. It's easy to find a team doing one or the other. With shards still being in somewhat rare supply to the common player base, there are always those willing to just go with the flow in hopes of getting shards. In the same regard, you almost always have some team doing the TF for the fifth time that day who just wants to get it done. All it takes is asking the leader (or being the leader) what pace the TF is going to go at.

I would love to see some stats on how many teams and TF have been formed in the last month as compared to the last, oh, three years. I bet it's up 500% at least.

For the record, I greatly enjoy the Incarnate system so far. It has people in my Super Group excited to do and experience new things. Everyone has chosen a character or two they want to make more powerful and we make time to run the TF of the week together.

I think you guys have Free2Play really wrong. They wouldn't sell enhancements or inspirations... Influence is so abundant there wouldn't be any profit.

They would probably do a two-prong attack. Allow people to continue paying a monthly fee and play the game like it it now; still getting extra money from things like Boosters. The "Free" version would make you pay to unlock different power choices. So when you pick Tanker, instead of 8 Primary / 11 Secondary, you'd have 3 Primary / 3 Secondary. Once you pay to unlock something, it stays unlocked. Same thing with the "Epic" powers at 41+. I would also expect that you would have to pay to unlock special missions like capes, auras, ect.

We're a long way from Free2Play though. Most MMOs are profitable at or above 40k subs, which I feel fairly sure we're at or above. As long as the content keeps flowing, I'm sure the subs will be there.

Seems a lot of you guys are forgetting something... The release of a major Super Hero MMO that was targeted to kill CoH. It didn't.

Missing estimates is bad. Typically when that happens, people lose jobs to make up the difference. City of Heroes is in a unique spot for NC Soft. They like it because it gives them a US foothold (just like Guild Wars) and is a stable money maker (just like Guild Wars). The numbers you see for games like Linage aren't expected for CoH. Different market.

Subscriptions, I estimate, are around 45k. Again, stable for the past several years and impressive considering new competition. People are playing and they're playing a lot. You have to remember we're divided up between a lot of servers, zones, play times, and instances. Server loads are reflecting players, even if you feel like you can't get a team.

There's no doom for the game in these figures. We might lose some more staff, which is never good.

How To Avoid Wife Aggro...
Placate, Assassin's Strike

I took advantage of their "Cyber Monday" deal and picked up everything on sale that I didn't have, including the Mac Edition (I'd only ever bough the Magic booster before).

The reason? While I like extra goodies and I do like supporting the devs, I don't feel $10 is a fair price for what is added to the game while I pay a monthly fee. That being said, I don't have a problem with boosters either. I'd guess when Martial Arts and Mutants go on sale, I'll pick them up as well.

So, more to the point of the thread... Yes, I was more inclined to buy boosters when they were cheaper. I also feel that CoH, when the time comes as it seems to do in all MMO lifespans, goes to free to play with mini-transactions, it will live a long full life. If people are willing to pay $10 for what amounts to be very little in the aspect of gameplay, figure what people would pay for new power sets?

The issue here, ABC123, is you want everything, right now. Chances are you can play the game like you would always play the game (maybe you have to crank the difficulty up a little) and you'll get an Alpha slotted in, oh, a weeks time. It only takes twelve shards to get one.

Here, I'll give you a huge hint. Do +1 Vanguard missions versus the Rikti. You'll be earning Vanguard merits to buy Incarnate components (only need 150) while also earning shards. You can do this solo, enjoy the Vanguard content, and with a little bit of time get an Alpha enhancement.

Personally, I think this content is just what the game needed. People are actually doing the missions instead of trying to short cut to the end. Finally people want to fight instead of skipping. Also, it is time consuming enough that you won't fully deck out all your 50s, but not so much so that you feel you aren't making progress. Perfect combination!

Worked like a charm on my Win7 box. Thanks for the update and looking forward to the future!

Which one gets killed just days before retirement?

Very neat concept, but I figure the demo is about as close as we'll ever get to seeing it used in-game. You could do some awesome things with that in the realm of gaming though.

Love some of the tags for this thread...

Also, fighting over something objective like what a "good" name is makes you all silly. If the only "good" name you want is Billy Bob and it's taken, you're gonna be ticked. If you consider a "good" name something that fits your character, you'll always have options. Easy as that in my eyes.