SingStar

Ok, I'm bored so I'm gonna give this a go even if I expect being slaughtered!

As it is, this game has the same basic AI's for all enemies. It doesn't really matter if you're fighting a minion or an AV/GM. The only real major difference is in HP, damage potential, shields etc, but their actual fight styles are basically just based on #1 melee or #2 ranged behaviour. They either stand and fight, run to you and fight, or run away from you just to calm down and/or run back to you.

What I would like to see is some new behaviour among our enemies. Let me give you some examples. (As in, I'm not suggesting these examples to go live, I'm just giving examples to show there most definitely could be different behaviour.)

First off some examples that are sort-of almost in the game:
Of course we all remember the first low level mission where the enemies followed us through the elevators. Rather scary...

Enemies running from you typically run through other mobs without notifying them of your existance. What if they did? Or called in backup. (Sure, there's triggered ambushes, but...)

What about those enemies that just let's you run through them, they DO notice you but can't be asked to follow you or sound the alarm. Hmm, what could they do if they had a few more brain cells?

We have traps sets but what if there actually was traps on the maps. Big worms coming out of the floor to shew on you etc.

Now to something completely different:
How about a Council dude with a stationary rocket launcher? Someone throwing grenades that you physically have to duck away from. (Think Quake rockets). You could also have all sorts of fun behaviour around other stationary "objects". Imagine kicking that council off the weapon and being able to take it over to fight an overwhealming but easily killed swarm of enemies (see next)

How about you being overwhealmed with something similar to clockwork gears/Stargate replicators/Killer ants/You name it. Creating an actual stress factor. (Oh, wait, It's called ITF lag hill and doesn't really work)

How about hit'n'run tactics. Alien like enemies jumping up from the floor, out of air ducts, whatever, hitting you, running around the corner and they're gone until they attack again. Crawling on the walls, ceiling etc. It's just there's 10-15 of'em so you have to be quick on the toggle/attack. (I know, melee alts would hate it, but combine it with other stuff and you'll have a balanced challenge for a balanced team)

You could have real ninja-style dudes doing something similar, running up to you, slashing you, jumping off, annoyingly fast, acutally using the enviroment. You could do a lot of stuff if enemies where really aware of the enviroment.

Ranged dudes actually having a gunfight with you, taking cover, covering each other, advancing/retreating. In general more dudes actually fighting you as a well-oiled team (instead of mud-fighting, screaming girls) would be... interesting! What about Robin Hood's merry modern stylish men actually hunting you, going down on their knees around corners firing at you.

Zombies coming up through manholes, don't let them touch/bite you. Old-style zombie action. I like the zombie invasions, but they don't feel very zombie'ish.

Of course the general idea of non-bipeds (we already know they wanted to hire someone with non-biped experience a while back) could provide some fun moments. While I do love Lusca those fights could be so much cooler if she(?) actually picked you up, squeesed ya, a little bit of shaking and then threw you away. (Oh, god, Changing the physics engine, that's not gonna happen.) Don't we all sort of expect a big spider sooner or later? A Mini-hami actually moving in a slimy way, wriggle madly to get out of the grip. don't slip on his trail. A looong, big worm moving around a city zone, growing while consuming heroes/villains, pulling you in with long tentacles through it's mouth.

Just a few ideas off the top of my head. A couple of brain storm meetings among the devs should provide some seriously fun ideas, but I find it more fun asking you:

What sort of *new* enemy behaviour would you like to see in future issues to bring this ancient game-style AI into the modern world?

It's a weee difference between the examples you give and the "No, I don't like you're idea and I'm gonna tell you why *I* hate it and hate *you* for suggesting it".

Actually you've all given me an idea for a forum change (that's likely not gonna happen, huh). On these threads we should have a vote button and a red/green bar showing of how many /signed and /ohgodihateyouandyourideas. That way you wouldn't have to clog up the thread with No's and those that think the idea have (some minor raw, unharnessed, need-work) potential could discuss it. Hmm, yes, that would be cool!

Well, you could reward badges with something very small. Let's say heal badges reward a +0,1% regen bonus, defeating magic creatures badges could give a +0,1% resist to their damage etc. That would make badges meaningful again. (Although I personally think most of them should be account wide instead). Sure it's grinds, but it's different grinds!

With the imvention sets, especially purples, I think there's enough to buff you up though, but a lot of us have done most of the content repeatedly in this five year old game. More high end content for our souped up characters would be nice, and some sort of reward for it would be even nicer.

I actually have characters that have no use for more slots (MMs mostly) and really, few 50s need to get stronger although making them stronger is what drives many of us. (I still have no perma-dom, or really speedy stone tanker/brute, or super-regen'ing regen or...)

This game has lived a long time on the fact it's replayable. You really want to make more alts, and nowadays you can buy more character slots, but we deffo need the devs to think about the future, and that's why I like you're proposal anyway. I'm rather fed up making new alts that really isn't new at all playing the same-old, same-old even if I still really like the game. I wanna play those 50s I've invested so much time, effort etc on. ...and I'm fed up with ITF.

Well, that's something I can relate to! People tend to be all negative all the time. Constructive critisism seems to be perma-absent on sections like these.

If you don't like the idea, come with a better one, suggest changes or stick to the one post saying "Soz, I personally imho think this is a bad idea".

My reason for ever posting an idea is because I want ppl to help me fine-tune it, not to take credit for a fully tought out perfect idea. E.g. Here's something I thought of that could be really cool, HOW can we make it work. An idea might hit a dead end, but instead of pointing ot the problems with it, it's way more fun to work around the problems and see how far you can take the idea.

Sure, most ideas will fail miserably, but no ieas will be realized when ppl immediately bully any and all suggestions. I personally have a bunch of ideas I think would be really cool, but since the forum merger and the effects of it, I would never ever concider suggesting them on the forum. (Ok, short tip: Enemy AI & New enemies among others. Think Aliens parasites, 1.000's of clockwork gears style foes/stargate replicators, guerilla hit'n'run tactics and some other nifty features and high stress factors). Oh, well, guess noone will miss'em anyway.

To me it also seems people like the old-style game so much they're terrifyed it would change although people admittedly think it's too easy. Imho making it harder is not the same as making baddies with more hitpoints or more devastating attacks, or better regen or... Remember how you jumped the first time in frostfire when they actually followed you through the elevators? Maybe I should just get the latest Resident Evil, because I'm getting a bit off-topic now aren't I?

Quick note: I'll most likely not be here this evening, but will return tomorrow.

...then again, this is sort of just similar, like, you know, like... Base raids and SG bases!

Oh, go on, slap me! I'm teh ebil Mustard!

For once I guess I agree with ST! ...and then disagree a bit!
Changing the game totally would also break what I like about CoX: The simplicity. I hated ED/IOs because it made the game more "complicated".

I could see something like this being done as an epic reward or veteran reward on a new, neutral AT without modifiers. I for one DO like my (admittedly non-50 human) PB and the mix of melee and ranged attacks. Anything that keeps the basic game intact but gives you some new choises to make it feel "fresh" again is welcome.

Problem is it would have to be very carefully considered and beta-tested, balanced etc, and so far we've seen a very clear dev choise: lvl 50+ content isn't a concern of theirs, they care more about bringing new choises early in the game. Getting new customers is still more important than keeping old players since we still tend to hang on, or even keep paying the subs while we're taking a break. It's just too much work to happen.

At least we get flight without hover etc if we wait long enough. They could build on that a bit. Yeah, a hasten & stamina-like veteran power, auto-3-slotted as 10 year veteran power. /signed!

It does surprise me there's Cryptic Code in GR. Sure there's code in CoX, but the actual code limited to GR only?

Also, they could do something way cooler than just a static loading screen. They could stick your character on the screen doing all sorts of emotes/powers while loading, or some information screen displaying information about a zone, a villain/hero group, AV or something. Sure it would increase the cpu load I guess, but hey, other MMOs pull of "seamless" zones with just a few seconds pause for loading.

Considering how small the game is and how little is really loaded I'm surprised how long it takes to load, unpack, initialize, whatever...

so.... /signed

ANYTHING that would make our quest feel epic is welcome. While there are some "chosen one" stylish arcs we do suffer on the red side. Helping to safe the world in co-op sure doesn't make things better. Are we just misunderstood good guys with a bad childhood or something?

Yeah, sure, there's an age rating on the game, it can't be too bad without loosing it, but omg I'd love a real, good mature MMO that don't give a rat's behind about what the "general public" would think!

Great idea imho, but...
...we know the devs have some "+10 level sort-of" plan which gives us the opportunity to "unlock" 10 more power slots or something and it's likely it's in the GR expansion not available to non-expanders just like most other (well, THAT other one we don't talk about) MMOs.

I'd honestly rather see it being unlockable by doing something than by tedious grinding although it might mean some of my alts won't ever feel that love. Also, it might mean people need to team up and I'd love for thoose "I don't wanna team, I prefer solo" dudes to feel the.... not-love! This IS an MMO so tedious solo grinders deserve to be left out!

I remember being rather trashed for suggesting this. Nice to see some more positive people this time around!

It's really just a question of how you design the missions. I think there was several examples in CO that showed off how it CAN be done and the same goes for a lot of other MMOs. Entering an instance when you're "supposedly" in Steel canyon or whatever feels VERY outdated and breaks the rather weak illusion and immersion of the game. You might even go as far as saying this isn't really an MMO, it's an 8 player game where you choose "servers" (e.g. missions) to play on in a game-like world.

Funny thing is, some people that don't like this idea are the same that claim they actually like hunt and patrol missions (and apparently THAT crap is ok to force upon the rest of us).

Also, it would definitely force the devs to come up with some new game/mission mechanics instead of the oooold defeat boss OR click glowie OR lead hossie out OR combined. We definitely need more mission variety even if I admittedly hate talk-to's and other none-action missions.

Just FYI! A few weeks back I finished of every bit of content there is on one of my villains, of course not counting the MA (although that villain HAS done a lot of that as well). Yup, every single arc, SF, TF, Treespec, GM etc including but not really counting MoRSF. It's not really that much compared to most modern (last 5 years) MMOs I've tried. CoX is a very small game still, after 5 years. It's a good game, but it's very, very small.

Ok, so I might've missed a few paper kidnap missions, but I hardly count that as content. Agreed, heroes have more contacts and arcs, but missions are even more repetitive and mundane on that side since it's older. New stuff definitely scores way higher, like the faultline arcs, but I'm just not a hero player (yet I've still ploughed through most of the content there as well).

Imho the story content pretty much need to be at least doubled, especially villain side. You may consider that whining, I call it love. I want more! Still! After 5 years!

I miss carrot cake!
...Oh, wait... I don't like carrots!

Bring some pie when you come back! Cheese and ham!

Um, so it was moved because people didn't behave...
Um... Perhaps we should close down the forum completely then? ..or stop pretending it's moderated?

I fail to see what good it did to move it to this section, except telling us we can write whatever the (younameit) we want and be totally ignored meaning any suggestion is pointless. Well, after the last debacle when I made a follow-up suggestion I won't ever make a suggestion again anyway.

To sum it all up: We all hate each other and we're not prepared to listen to anyone because we're right and everyone else is wrong even if they actually agree with us because.. (endless rant)

...oh, well! Whatever...

Don't think anyone said CoX is dead. Actually I'd say it's sort of nice to not feel the need to play anymore, but for the publisher that's a problem: I/we might realise we don't really need the game anymore.

I still log on pretty much every (or every 2nd) day, but with no new content until GR I feel little urge to actually play at the moment. Any shiny I16 gadgets will be nice, the updates are definitely needed, but it's just a quick stop to the tailor and I'm done again.

I am a bit worried about GR, because while it hopefully brings more engine updates, unless it does deliver on the "story content" part I see yet another mass exodus, even if there's some really shiny new game mechanic. I think we all still love the game, it's our ol' pal now, but sometimes you outgrow ol' pals. You know the ones that still talk about high school after 20 years, that seem stuck in the past even if they drive a new, cool car (like Koenigsegg) (Yeah, swedish quality)

Is it just me that reacts to the fact that this section is located under the "For Fun!" part of the forum?

Makes me wonder if this whole section is a big joke for the company we preferably do not talk about. (Not to mention how people see to respond to suggestions and ideas)...

...oh, well...

Well, to be fair, there's a LOT more than changing colours in I16. It IS a massive issue for the poor programmers and we should acknowledge that. I think the other changes are the ones we'll notice most in a few months, but for now, work will keep me occupied (although I really, really don't like that)...

...I just really miss any progress. Those poor S.C. and P.O worker's been at it for ages!

Don't get me wrong.
I like that they're fixing the engine, slowly but steadily. I understand this is a massive effort, considering they said it would never be done since powers where "hard-coded" etc. I thrilled about some of the new animations, very happy I can now turn off some stupid stuff (white/black inv circles etc) and the continuation of "power proliferation" is nice as well...

...but for me as player, there's some shine, there's some nerfs (kins, don't care about the MA being deleted, erhm, deserted) and some 5th's running around. I don't mind the things they put in, it's just not something that adds to my game experience. It's the same old maps, missions, powers (although looking different) etc. Been there, done that!

Sure, a new SF would be old after one run.. too... but like the 5SF I'd at least get a few runs out of it, a few hours of untried and untested strategies. We don't even get new purple sets, do we? ..and the timing couldn't be much worse. Understand me, I want to continue to like the game, but another no-content issue right in the nose of CO launch seems like giving away customers to me. I was surprised when I realized how right I was:

Yesterday I realized pretty much everyone I play CoX with have in fact invested in "that other" game and seriously suggested I should do the same (which I flat out refused btw) since they think the same "there's nothing in I16, we need something to do at least until GR goes live (or we find something better rant rant rant)". I'm talking about people that made fun of the competition, yet they still invested in it. I'd never ever believe - especially after the open beta - they'd ever go for it, yet they did.

Me, I guess I'm "lucky", my work's taking pretty much all my time and I can hardly be bothered with the game. Posting this seems like more fun at the moment too. At least it's likely it will annoy someone that can't be bothered to actually read what I wrote!