Nibb_Nibb

Up until six months ago, I hadn't done much red side playing. I was a blue blood and that was that. When I talked a few friends into playing they were far more interested in being evil and since I was the one that brought them on board, well, Midnight Preacher was born. As he climbed the ranks of villainy, I decided Captain Mako was going to be my mentor. It was the power set I saw the least of and pulling out another weapon (the Mace) didn't appeal to me.

Around level 45, I saw my first Mako summons. This massive coral monster with a huge freakin' hammer! I was so sold on the look, I didn't care what he did. I talked to the guy in my group who summoned him at length on his coolness. The next two levels felt like forever. I wanted my own coral beast so bad!

Finally, the day came... I hit my mark, leveled my character and my fingers twitched over the button. I wasn't sure if I wanted to summon him into a mass of low level flunkies or just off by myself to be amused. I decided to get a recharge enhancement in there first... I mean, 15 minutes is a long time and I want this mass of awesome out as much as possible! So as soon as he was slotted, I hit the button and then... and then...

Out popped a guppy...

I was so confused and angry I just sat there looking at my new abomination. Thin as a rail, ugly, no hammer, no weapon at all in fact... Something ran by and he shot a pink mind beam out of his head... I nearly cried.

For those who don't know, and I wouldn't expect you to before hand, Midnight Preacher is a Corruptor. Corruptors get 'Summon Coralax'. While that sounds cooler than the more obtained 'Summon Guardian', I assure you, it doesn't look as impressive. I died a little inside when I summoned that fish-thing.

Awesome idea for a fan video... Take each issue and do 30 second clips of the highlights. Be it new zones, new power sets, new features like getting salvage or combining it into an IO enhancement. It would make coming back so much easier...

Really Paragon Studios, this is something you should consider holding a contest for. Coming back to a MMO always gives you that feeling of, "I'm never going to catch up on the new stuff" and it does keep people from returning.

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Wow. This is one of those threads you print off and take to some college class for study -- and I only read the first few pages. The OP was obviously trolling, but the community kept trying to make a valid point to put his mind at rest. I'm sure at some point it all broke down...

For what it's worth, I follow a simple philosophy in life: "Is it or can it hurt me or others" If yes, attempt to prevent. If no, attempt to persuade.

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Whereas exemplary villains would just get shafted cause we hate them.

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This all FINALLY clicked for me...

Going Rogue is all a ploy by the Devs to get all the Villains to switch from the Red side to the Blue side. Day of release, there will be a "bug" that will allow Villains to become Heroes, but won't allow Heroes to become Villains. Oh sure, the fix will be on the Test server quick enough... but it will be pushed back. All the while, rewards for 'Going Good' will keep looking sweeter and sweeter. Finally, once the population is about 90% / 10% (sure that won't take long), BAM! the Devs cut their losses and turn off all the Red Side content. They totally drop everything to do with CoV and become a Hero only game.

And why you might ask? So they can finally stop saying they work for CoX. Diabolical!

*calls up Photoshop*

What? A 320 pound near sighted man can't be a fighter pilot? I really want to cheat!

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Actually I found out this morning that he's been away for 3 weeks on his honeymoon. So you guys should start a thread for that or something.

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Weeks? Boy must have stamina.

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Well they better be working on something other than just the expansion because while it might spike the population for a month or two it won't last. It's kind of a bad sign when during peak play hours you have only two servers that hit medium load and one would expect that with Champions and DC online coming out down the road, the CoH population is going to shrink even more. Really I think they need to develop a CoH 2 because it's really going to take a new game with new graphics, mechanics, and game play to bring in more people that will stay. Don't get me wrong, CoH is a great game, I came back to it because I wanted a change from WoW, but I will always argue that the lack of what I see to be a true endgame is what causes people to leave the game in the end.

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Also, there is no red load now. It goes from green (light/medium) to yellow (heavy) to grey (closed due to being full). I think the last logical estimates have the sub rate at 125,000 subscriptions (prior to Architect). Considering CoX has passed the five year mark that is unreal.

"World of Heroes" -- good name. Would make a great squeal name. Of course, some might complain it's too close to World Heroes, the fighting game, but I'm on board.

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Heh, someone requesting a Weenie Weenie in a game often referred to as CoX... All we need now is a butt-cape reference and we can get a 11pm time slot on Cinemax.

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Making a City of Heroes "II" is a bad idea. Instead, place the next CoX game(s) in a different city. Let the games run side by side. Heck, CoX could be one of the few games where pulling characters from one game to another would not only make complete sense (traveling to another city), but might actually work.

When you think of a new CoX game, you think new play styles, new locations, new graphics, different power sets, etc. but nothing that would make me think you couldn't bring a character over. Sure, you might lose your enhancements, but the general power structures are still going to be around.

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A good discussion is like a miniskirt. Short enough to retain interest, and long enough to cover the subject.

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TAKE IT OFF!

As long as that list is not in any sort of order, I've got no problem with it.

Mr. Emmert deserves to be on the list. First of all, that's far to large a list for such a small topic, but besides that, Jack did help mold the genre. As for why he catches a lot of hate -- some of it is abandonment issues for a group of people. Statesman was this key figure that was never going to let us down, then he left the project. While I understand it's all a business; others do not share my understanding.

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Take a screenshot and print it out so you can keep it next to your computer and gaze at it wistfully while you play. Put it in one of those plastic sleeves so your tears don't smear it.

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My laughing, it was indeed audible.

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Just remember kids, the grass is always greener on the other side. Honest!

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This reminds me of a "Far Side" comic.

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How can cows snap in approval?

But where do you draw the line? Is 50 high? 25? 10? If there was a badge for collecting ten clickables in MA missions, the very same day, someone would make a mission with the smallest map possible (casino style) with ten 1 second clickable items labeled "Get Your Clickable Badge Here Quick!".

Granted, as the number goes down in value, so does the need to "farm" them. I don't think anyone will dispute that. Is there a happy medium? Perhaps. There's no magic number that will stop everyone from farming a badge and just earn them naturally except one: one. Of course, even that has issues. There's nothing to "collect" when you just need one of something. Nothing to strive for. You get badges by accident. As a reward you weren't even trying for. That is why I suggested what I did. Collect several "ones" to form a badge.

So really, what are badges? Rewards for accomplishments? Or goals to strive for? If all future badges have a value of one with no collectible conglomerate, than they are clearly rewards for doing a task. A nod by the Devs for trying new things in a way. If they are goals to strive for, then doing something once and getting a badge clearly will not work. You should never need to look outside of the game (websites, guides, etc) to find what you can do to get badges. So a new "something" would need to be added to the game to tell you what you can do to earn a certain badge... which kinda defeats the purpose of the badge system in the first place. It truly is a messy situation.

I'm right there with you Wen_Ho. I want things to get better, not just change; that was why I made a suggestion. I want to open up dialog that might spark an idea that brings us the next great thing.

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Players feeling like they have to farm for badges has always been an issue with me.

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Admittedly "count" badges are the easiest to design. You figure out what you want to count, then design a series of badges around progressively higher numbers of those counts. This is why we never abandoned them in the past, when we probably should have.

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Positron's post. (for those who may not have seen it)

I didn't mean to give the impression that they were removing high kill count badges; but if they had it to do over again, they wouldn't be in there to begin with. Also, I doubt we'll see any new ones from here on out.

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Counting clickables is trouble in its own right. Do we really need teams fighting over who's going to click on the pulsating objects on their race to one hundred pulsating objects? The Devs have discovered that some gamers, instead of earning a one hundred clickable object badge through twenty levels of play or thirty days of play, will instead find the highest clickable count mission and run it over and over until they get the badge.

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So players went and did everything they could to get the "long period of time" badges as quickly as possible. So we upped the numbers. THIS was a mistake as it only exasperated the problem instead of fixing it. Now players just farmed longer, and more specifically.

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This is exactly the behavior they are trying to curb to prevent burnout. While you or I might be content on naturally earning such a badge, another player is going into the same mission for the sixth time wondering why he's playing this gawd forsaken game -- missing the point of the badge completely. You can't explain to people that they'll earn that badge over time, no need to rush it, so the Devs are corking the forks, so to say, in an attempt to preventing us from hurting ourselves.

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Anyone notice our forums are a parody of themselves? Continuously?

If I hadn't been here since the beginning (although, it hadn't always been this way), I would constantly wonder how the crazies overpowered the head of the asylum.

I'm obviously not a Dev, and talking for them is kinda dangerous, but let me explain what I think they are thinking with the desire to remove high "kill count" badges.

The Devs are looking for everything in the game, be it badges, leveling, missions, etc to follow a natural progression. This means the player is never left doing one repetitive task for the sake of meeting a goal. For Farming missions, the Devs don't want to see you stuck inside one mission, defeating the same MOB over and over just for the sake of experience or other rewards. For badges, the Devs don't want to see you stuck gathering thousands of monkeys together for days on end just for the sake of a badge.

So why? If the player is enjoying themselves, regardless of the task, why would the Devs care what they do? Well, because they feel they know best in this regard (I agree, by the way) and are attempting to prevent burnout of the game. If every time you pass through a zone you feel 'required' to perform a task for a reward, the Devs have failed. The instant you "grind" a level or "grind" a badge, the Devs have failed. The challenge of the game should be the tasks within the game, not the rewards they give. To clarify that: It's better to make doing something once harder than to make it harder by doing it multiple times.

Also, and I'm sure this is true to some Devs more than others, they want you to experience all of the game they've created -- not just 2% of it in the doorway of a Freakshow mission or spending all your time beating on Illusionist. I'm sure they're proud of their creation, they think of all the amazing stories they've told and visuals they've produced, then look in game to see herding; it must be maddening.

Well, there you go. My take on what a Dev might say if they wandered into this thread and answered why they are going away from farms and kill count badges. It could be completely wrong or completely right. Outside of a red name coming in, we'll never know.

Virtue has a healthy Villain population. Nothing like our Blue side, mind you, but still decent. Granted, you have to deal with a lot of people talking in (( bubbles )) to show out of character or the, "I've traveled here from beyond your stars" -- but I dig it; that's why I've always called Virtue home!

I will personally hack his computer if he DOESN'T play!!!

(does that help? I'm trying to be helpful... yeah, best to ignore me)

Ahh, the bane of badge developers; a long term badge that can be earned through natural play, isn't considered a "grind", and is still exciting to earn. A pipe dream? I don't think so. Here are my suggestions:

Zone Based Badges
My first suggestion breaks down badges by zones and focus on both the natural progression of the zone and allow Devs to "highlight" areas they feel make the zone important. Let's take Steel Canyon for example. What makes this zone special? Well, there's two tram stations, the University, Tailor, the "Arson" zone event, Outcast MOBs, Pos's horrible Task Force... I know there is a plethora of others, but let's just go with these. So, ok, a few exploration badges for the highlights of the zone -- that gets your 'Steel Canyon Hero' badge started. Next, require the pain of Pos's TF and stopping the arsonist. Round it up by defeating one of each boss that is the trademark of the zone (one of each Outcast boss types). Wrap it all up and you've got a nice fancy badge that shows you've completed all the major events of that zone.

Now, could someone grind this? Yes, but as they did, they would at least learn about the zone, the history of what makes the Steel Canyon zone important as part of the game AND in the CoX universe.


Group Based Badges
This works like Zone Based Badges and could actually be used side-by-side, but instead of focusing on city zones, it would focus on each MOB group in the game. Using two groups as examples: Hellions and Circle of Thorns. The basis of these badges is to defeat one of each type of MOB in that group. Small groups, like Hellions could be completed in a single mission -- as they should! Every minion type, lieutenant type, and boss type would be required, so groups like Circle of Thorns would last the entire life of your Hero/Villain. It help shows what groups hold importance in the CoX universe.

Grinding these badges would be a pain, but possible for the determined. What's important is, normal play would push these badges out at a nice pace. Some groups are compact, maybe even mission based. Those would be great to keep people's interest. Also, the huge groups give people something to work for. Now, that said, the very large groups (like CoT) would need more than one badge. Otherwise, figuring out you missed a Madness Mage somewhere down the line would be annoying.

I have more ideas, but these are the two I wanted to see some feedback on. Would these be badges that would interest you? Do you see any glaring flaws in these ideas? Would love to hear what everyone thinks!

Ah, now I think I understand... Doom is a Nemesis plot!

The lack of doom all at once is too much to handle... Perhaps you can point me towards some doom related artwork?

/vote cast!

Incredible entries... I think Projectionist edges out the rest, but by the tiniest of margins.

I heard the new forums were getting farmed out for post counts, they got nerfed, and now no one wants to use them.

If they would lower the Forum Cartel reward post count, drop the thread ratings to either one, two, or three stars, and allow us to post how we wanted to post, we could be enjoying the new forums Right Now!

/silly cannon off