Thunder Knight

I've been reading her novels for about ten years now. (I have two of her Valdemar trilogies, Arrows of the Queen and the Mage Storms)

She also has her name on several of the "Developer's Choice" AE arcs. She is definitely a long-time player, and even has a series of stories based on her CoH characters (the Secret World Chronicles, not to be confused with the unrelated MMO The Secret World).

"Being accurate about its chances" doesn't mean resorting to namecalling, but that's what certain people are doing. There's no need to call anyone "delusional" or "mental midgets" or "whiny losers" or "mentally ill" because you don't think its going to work.

They don't necessarily think it's going to work, either, but they're giving it a try anyway, because what do they have to lose? The game's closing, there's nothing to replace it, so what else do they have to do?

They're focusing their energy into being creative and productive, whether or not it pans out in the long run. You're focusing your energy into namecalling and making insinuations about their mental health.

And you're the "reasonable" one? I think not.

There's no Mac version. I'm going to attempt to get it running with Crossover or Wineskin, but I need to free up enough disc space to install it (which will occur on December 1st). However, even if I can manage to get it running, there's no way to make Masterminds or Dominators.

Crowd control is very very limited (there's maybe one hold per power "Framework", if even that), and buffing and debuffing almost as bad (like most MMO's, "Support" on Champions means "Healer", and what few buffs and debuffs there are tend to have durations of 10-15 seconds), so I could possibly make a CO character with something resembling Earth Assault or Robotics (well, the T1 and T2 pets, not anything like the Assault Bot), there's no way to do Earth Control (or any control sets, for that matter) or Storm Summoning.

There isn't even a way to recreate my Electric Melee/Invulnerability Brute. There's no Electric Melee, and CO's Invulnerability is just a "Slotted Passive" power that provides, when completely maxed out, about 28% damage resistance to all elements and provides no mez protection whatsoever. So it provides neither the playstyle nor anything close to the durability of my Brute.

When I say "I've been looking for two months and haven't found anything that lets me play these types of characters" that doesn't mean I skipped over the most obvious alternative. I've investigated Champions very thoroughly, and the only thing it does better than CoH is the ability to make mix-and-match characters (which it also does badly, because their stat system will not support mix-and-match characters).

But that's more fodder for the "Champions Online: Just Doesn't Cut It" topic, not here.

MMOs where I can support my own army of controllable minions or where I can completely shut down multiple opponents for longer than 2 seconds at a time don't exist. Or if they do, nobody's telling me what they are, just insisting that other games do things I want them to do "better than CoH" without any sort of specifics.

If the Plan Z crew are even going to attempt to do that, then they're already doing more for my gaming wants than all the people offering me "advice" on other games.

Hm...

"Browser-based steampunk"
"Is That an Elf in My Steampunk?"
"...as the steampunk MMO heads into its final alpha test weekend."
"Mechanist Games' steampunk MMO is nearing its closed beta phase..."
"The browser based, slightly Diablo esque Steampunk MMO..."

So when all the preview sites are calling it steampunk, I continue to be disappointed that the game is just the same old generic fantasy races and classes with "steampunk elements" rather than a full-on steampunk game.

The devs sound enthusiastic, and the game has potential, but it's being advertised as something it's not. And I want to play what it's advertised as, not what it actually is.

There's a big difference between "talking about things you don't like" and outright disrespecting people.

I honestly don't think "Plan Z" will succeed. Even if it does succeed, there's little chance my old Mac will be able play it, so it's not really a replacement for CoH.

But that doesn't mean I don't wish them the best of luck and hope they do succeed.

I don't understand why people would outright not want them to succeed, or mock them for daring to try to make a game that captures some of the spirit of CoH.

(Of course, all of those same people are the ones that keep telling me I can play a Bots/Storm Mastermind or an Earth/Earth Dominator on all sorts of games, and those other games are even better than CoH, so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised)

Here's what I want:

• Full character customization, with looks not tied to powers. (Granted, I can think of a few other games off the top of my head that do this, but only a very few)
• The ability to play villains
• A lot of different character abilities, and a lot of different variations of those abilities. (i.e., if I want to have lightning powers, then I should be able to shoot lightning, or use it as armor, or use it to lock down enemies, or use it in melee, with a full powerset for each of those options. If my only choice is "shoot lightning with maybe one hold thrown in", then that doesn't satisfy the requirement)
• Little to no grinding. I expect some, sure (even CoH wasn't without its grindy bits), but it should be short-term grinding. I should be able to grind out short-term goals (a badge, for example) in an hour or two. In one game I've literally been trying to get one piece of equipment for months, and I still don't have all the ingredients to craft it, and there's still seven other pieces in the set with just as many ingredients each. I'm looking at years of grinding for one equipment set, which will be too low level for me by the time I get the whole thing. I don't want to grind that long, sorry.
• A feasible solo path. I should be able to get to the level cap in a reasonable amount of time (a couple of months, at most) without ever teaming if I don't want to. I should also be able to get most equipment (or the equivalent) solo fairly quickly (i.e., not the year-long grind mentioned above) and easily.
• Dozens of character slots to satisfy my altitis. I like to make at least one of each character class, and often multiples of each class if they have different build possibilities. I rarely have just one "main character".
• A game that doesn't abruptly stop at the level cap (and, for that matter, a game that doesn't abruptly start at the level cap). I want to be regularly gaining new powers and new ways to play from the moment I create a new character until way past the level cap. Endgame rewards should give me new powers, not just tiny stat boosts.
• Primarily an older and more mature community, not kids screaming "LTPUNOOB" every five seconds.
• No reliance on the "Holy Trinity"; no class should ever be required.
• As a follow-up to that, a game where "support class" means a class with heavy emphasis on buffs, debuffs, and mezzes, not where it's nothing but healing.
• Difficulty selection that goes down, not just up. The "default" game should be average, and I should be able to turn it down if I'm using a character that doesn't solo well.
• A story on an epic scale. I want to be facing world-shattering and even universe-shattering threats, and I want the various NPCs to acknowledge that. I've played games where the only "reward" for completing a dungeon and beating a difficult boss is to be insulted by the NPC at the end, and I'm not interested.
• Frequent updates from an excited and communicative development team, with that communication being a two-way street. The team will listen to and implement ideas from the community (or at least explain why they can't or won't).
• Oh, and lets not forget: a game that will actually run at full speed on my old low-end Mac laptop, the way CoH did. This one is not optional. If it won't run on my computer, it doesn't matter what features it has.

Those are just some of the things that attracted me to CoH and kept me playing (not even a full list; I removed items to keep this post from getting even longer), and those are the things I've been specifically looking for in a "replacement".

So what miracle game am I missing that does all of those, or even a majority of thsoe, "but better"? Because I sure haven't found it yet.

I know nothing will ever be exactly like CoH, but all these cookie-cutter medieval fantasy need-or-greed grindfests aren't even trying.

This. Exactly this.

Also, don't forget:

5. Just move on and find another game. Just because you've been playing video games all your life and CoH is the only MMO you've ever played that does just about everything in a way you enjoy doesn't mean you can't just instantly replace it with another game.

My main form of relaxation is being taken away, but it's okay, because I can console myself knowing that NCSoft is doing whatever they like with their own property without any regard to its customers' wishes!

I should be happy, knowing that I am a powerless gnat who can lose things he enjoys at on the whims of faceless corporations thousands of miles away!

I should be thrilled as I watch as one of the few development studios to actually talk to and care about their players is gutted and scattered to the four winds!

... seriously, what the hell is wrong with some of you people?

Four of the nine races are explicitly just humans of different nationalities, and elves compose two of the other nine, with the other three being goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins (all of which are far more human-looking than those races are usually depicted, especially the females). A pretty standard selection. (The tenth race in development doesn't help with that impression, since it's dwarves)

That said, I'm more put off by the lack of classes and, worse, how the classes are just the usual generic fantasy classes with a very thin steampunk veneer, rather than being actual steampunk.

I expected absent-minded inventors wielding wacky makeshift weapons and/or wearing steam-spewing mechanical armor, not the usual fantasy MMO assortment of medieval-armored Tanks, staff-wielding DPS mages, faith-based Healers, and magic gunners (possibly more DPS, possibly ranged thieves - their main stats are Reflex, Luck, and Speed).

So, combining the bog-standard races with the bog-standard classes, I wouldn't call it steampunk so much as "Tolkeinpunk" or perhaps "WoW-punk". (Except that's not really fair to WoW, which at least has some interesting hybrid classes and more monstrous-looking races)

It's browser-based, so I could probably get it running, but it's not really impressing me or drawing me in at first glance.

Whatever game it is. Unless it runs on a three-year-old low end Macintosh laptop and lets me play as a robot-controlling supervillain, I don't really care.

No, companies should not be allowed to lie about why they are stopping the service and spit in the face of all attempts to allow other people to continue the service in their stead.

Nice job making up some completely irrelevant argument and then pretending I'm the one that said it, though.

As for Windows 95, that's not a similar case at all. Windows 95 still works, even after all these years. Microsoft didn't push a button and cause all copies of Windows 95 to stop booting. You can't buy new copies, and they won't give you tech support, but if you want to use Windows 95, and you have the software and a compatible computer, you can still install it and run it the same as ever.

As of December 1st, however, City of Heroes won't work. NCSoft will push a button and suddenly our clients won't connect anymore. I have the software, I have a compatible computer, but it just won't connect anymore. City of Heroes will be gone from the face of the earth, despite tens (and possibly hundreds) of thousands of people who want it to continue.

There's a big difference between "not actively supporting something" and "destroying it". If you can't tell the difference, I don't know how to explain it to you.

Yeah. Some part of me still can't believe that the game is going down and I only have a limited time to play. I mean, it's still right there, where it has been for the two years I've been here. I have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that one day it'll be there, and the next it'll be gone - not due to a natural disaster or an unexpected accident, but becuase a bunch of guys in suits couldn't even leave it running for the sake of posterity.

... I wonder if we can get CoH declared a national monument?

I'm hoping that's how I'll feel, but I fear I'll get sick of the community and lack of updates long before too long. I'll just have to see.

... are you seriously asking if players would be happier if the game weren't closing? Are you suggesting that there is some version of reality where closing the game makes the playerbase happier than keeping it open in any form?

As E-K said (... note that we are not the same person, by the way ), at the time of the closure announcement, the game was making money (not as much as NC Soft would have liked, maybe, but it was not in the red), new things were being added to the game regularly, the devs and players were all excited for I24 and beyond, and NC Soft crushed all that in a single day.

So how can you even ask whether keeping the game open under whatever publisher would be better than closing it?

But if you need an answer: yes. Of course yes. Of course that would be handling it better than simply deleting one of the oldest MMOs from the face of the Internet, never to be seen again.

I'm starting to wonder at this point if you're deliberately trying to misunderstand what people say to you, or whether you're some sort of alien that doesn't understand human emotions.

Read what I wrote again. All of it, not just some of it. The Paragon Market would still be open, and the development costs would be nil, so the game would still be making some money (less than it was at the end, but some number greater than zero), more than enough to cover what pittance that one machine out of however many they have cost them.

Edited to respond:

... I'll have to look up that $2 million number again, then. I'm sure I saw it. In any case, it didn't change the main point: keeping CoH open in maintenance mode would have required one machine, *maybe* two, so the overall cost of that would be negligible compared to their overall server costs.

The three-months-to-closing was part of the whole "Bad handling", so I took that date out as well. Good handling would have required easing into the closure more gently, giving devs enough time to "finish" the game.

They didn't try to sell the studio. After the studio was gone, they tried to sell just the IP and game code for $80 million (so reports several people), an outrageous price. At least two companies were waving more reasonable sums of money right in their faces (Valve's offer reportedly even included giving NC Soft a share of any future profits, so even if the game became more successful, NC Soft would still win), but they refused to budge on the price. Two other investors were completely ignored and never got a response at all. So NC Soft's statement that they "exhausted all options" was a flat-out lie.

For maintenance mode, the game would stay exactly where it is. NC Soft's own financials show that their entire worldwide server structure - not just for their games, but for all their offices as well - was only $2 million a year. The cost of keeping CoH online themselves (particularly since all the CoH servers were virtual, and could all be run on one physical machine in their server farm) would have been a pittance in their overall costs.

(And since the Paragon Market would still be open under my proposed plan, that means the game would still be providing income - not as much as it had before, because there's no subscriptions anymore and not as many players would stick with a game that was no longer being updated, but it would also have no development costs, so any revenue from the game would be pure profit for NC Soft)

And, yes, I sent that exact suggestion to NC Soft themselves, when they gave out their "CoHSunset" email address back in September. They never responded, and clearly never acted on it. But they can't pretend they never thought of it.

So, yeah, they could have handled it much, much better. Even if they didn't let the devs "finish" the game's story for fear of sabotage, they still could have handled it much better.