Ultimus

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

New MMO Concepts Specifically Tailored for CoH players

So even with the efforts of the Titan Network, and the artists formerly known as Paragon Studios, there's still at least a 38% chance City of Heroes will be no more in a few months. And the burning question is: where should we go from here.

Lets face it: there are other MMOs out there, but none really offer enough of the riveting online gaming experience we've come to need, or else I'm pretty certain most of us would be playing it now. Especially after NCSoft released that thing they called a store. But still, we have something unique here: a game that appeals to our sensibilities, our interests, our lack of hand-eye coordination, our need to feel like we've outsmarted an explosive barrel. And you can't get that anywhere else but here.

What we need is for someone to pick up the baton and make a new game that addresses the needs of our community. And unfortunately I don't have a development team handy at the moment, some jerk seems to have fired them all. But what I do have are ideas. I'm not just a player of City of Heroes, I'm not just an egomaniac forum poster for City of Heroes, I'm also a student of City of Heroes. I've spent over eight years pointing out everything the devs have ever done wrong, not just in developing this game but also in terms of haircuts and parallel parking skills, and I believe I'm fully qualified to know just what a game needs to do to pander to the City of Heroes connoisseur.

With that, here are my top MMO ideas certain to be wildly successful with attracting literally tens of hundreds of City of Heroes players:


The game: Cannonball Run Online

• The concept: players race from point A to point B, and then to point C. And occasionally beat up biker gangs.
• What we keep: global chat, fast travel, customization
• What we lose: all other superpowers, except possibly Martial Arts
• What we add: vehicles
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: characters would be scattered all over North America, making the game look empty. Players would spend most of their time on global CB radio chat complaining about how expensive superchargers were in the CRO store.
• The Downside: If Paragon Studios managed to reform to develop this property, Matt Miller would have to advertise the game as Captain Chaos.
• Why I would play this: to see Matt Miller forced to advertise the game as Captain Chaos.

The game: HEROES Online

• The concept: superheroes in a real, if really dumb world.
• What we keep: all our ridiculous powers
• What we lose: all our ridiculous costumes
• What we add: even more ridiculous powers
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: the HEROES IP is the only comic book related property that has a worse sense of powers balance than City of Heroes, so we'd feel right at home.
• The Downside: devs only tool for dealing with exploits would be rebooting the servers and rolling back six months.
• Why I would play this: Everything is ultimately a Nemesis plot

The game: Transmetropolitan Online

• The concept: seriously, read the book
• What we keep: costume creator, insanity
• What we lose: Boring architecture, common sense
• What we add: double the drug budget for the writing staff, triple for the VFX staff
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: force everyone to play on Virtue and make the tutorial dump you into Pocket D, and you'd be halfway there already.
• The Downside: downside?
• Why I would play this: pre-order bonus power: the Chair Leg of Truth

The game: Paragon Studios Online

• The concept: players control game developers working in an MMO studio
• What we keep: sense of superiority
• What we lose: excuses
• What we add: hats, vending machines, cubicles
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: we'd just be cutting to the chase.
• The Downside: cosmic justice dictates the actual devs would control NPC MMO players in the game
• Why I would play this: I'd subscribe just to watch the devs get their revenge. Also, I've been beta testing this for eight and a half years already.

Comments, suggestions, counter-proposals welcome.

Originally Posted by Commander

Twixt.

*shakes fist*

Originally Posted by CybinMonde

Well, Ultimus, i guess the SigPow idea will never see the light of day.
At least not in CoH.
It was a valiant effort though.

(Maybe they'll make CoH 2 and it'll be in there. )


/bow

Originally Posted by Nos482

What are they gonna do? Fire him?

Originally Posted by Rusted_Metal

I'm Tim Willard.

10 year Army veteran during the Cold War. Former NATO observer/NBC expert. I worked on the MAD program, and was an honest to God Cold War Supervillain.

I ran a top secret site full of chemical and nuclear tactical weaponry. It had underground tunnels for us to ride out the nuclear strike that would hit the site in the opening of World War III. I had Rangers to provide emergency security and strikes. I had GSG-9 teams at my command. I had West German Army guards.

It was my job to make sure that nuclear fire and chemical death was brought to Warsaw Pact targets if they every jumped at us. I helped plan MAD protocol. I helped rewrite the NATO doctrine for chemical weapons use in an urban environment.

I was 18 and a supervillain.

Now, I'm old. I'm a published writer, RPG designer who has written a best selling tabletop role playing game. I work for a publishing company with the official job title of "gunslinger".



I'll miss all of you, and miss this game.

Originally Posted by JayboH

Well, it certainly gave him motivation to create the thread...

Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy

Jeezus, OP is jacked. Kinda hard to follow, but I will contribute to the mask takeoffing.


Hey guys, I'm Rob. It's been fun.

Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei

That is a good question. I'd bet dollars to donuts Golden Girl knows.

Originally Posted by houtex

I've heard sounds from various version of Quake and Doom, Dark Forces, movies, tv shows, etc. in here. The generic background ones as well as the specific character based ones. Just stock stuff.

Still waiting for the two screams of win to show up in a cutscene or something:
The Howie (or Youraagh): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4DX2DBWtTk / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_818rcC0DA (one nfwkids slight dialog bit, you're now warned.)
And
The Wilhelm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf8aB...eature=related

And in both... maybe some slightly NSFkids goriness... maybe.

/Perhaps I missed them...?

Originally Posted by DarkSideLeague

No, but it allows your contact to show up in the final ''real'' mission and has additional, different objectives throughout the arc (if you choose Maros you'll have to fight an additional AV/EB, for example).

Originally Posted by Zombie Man

You mean the one that took over three years to get back into the game? Sure... go with that and Praetorian Ouroboros will be here in 2015.

Originally Posted by Agent White

Er, not the same thing >> You contact Scott/Marchand before missions to have objectives altered, like with Vincent Ross. Though it might be strictly flavor, I never tested it to see the differences. But Still something coded in that would have to be dealt with somehow.

Originally Posted by Agent White

What about the interaction with Marchand/Scott? That's coded into several contacts too. Dunno how that's going to interact with the Taskforce setup.