Solo and Team Play

:: APPLAUSE ::

It's announcements like these that make me proud to be a part of CoH, and ever happier that I left Camelot.

Bravo, Statesman! BRAVO!!

:: MORE APPLAUSE ::

Statesman, Mr. Emmert, thank you. I should read the thread first, but I need to express my gratitude and customer loyalty somewhere. I was very unnerved with the boss changes.

I recently had let CoH lie fallow and endulged in some PS2 goodness. My friends in CoH had slowly stopped playing and I was considering closing my account. After many years of online games, I tire of them quickly.

I gave I3 a shot to see if it could revive my interest. What I saw shook my faith. I could still play, but it was taxing and time consuming and generally not very enjoyable. I checked the boards and was dismayed at what I was reading. So dismayed, I felt the desire to lodge a complaint. So I fired off a polite but unhappy PM to you. I'm not normally one for public stuff, even with the annonymity of message boards.

Now it was a waiting game. I had a month left after all. I also had faith in your game design and management abilities. I hoped that it was not a 'buisness' decision, but an idea that didn't work out the way it was intended.

Thank you. Thank you for making the game enjoyable and keeping it that way for the majority of folks. Thank you for being reasonable in your player bases requests. Thank you for being humble enough to fix the situation.

Cryptic can count on my 15.00 for a long, long time. I know that if I wander and don't play for a while, that CoH is still there for me to enjoy when I get back. I have faith that what ever changes may happen while I"m here, and while I'm not, they will be for the best. At this point, your name alone is enough to get me to purchase a product and know its quality.

This is an excellent step in the right direction.
Do not force ppl to team, encourage them to do so.

Now all im asking for is 2 or 3 more steps on the difficulty Slider...or a bunch more Elite Bosses if you choose highest difficulty. Hmm, you could change Bosses to Elite Bosses for Invincible the same as bosses become Luits for HardBoiled.....just an idea though.

I just wanted to chime in with a thank you.
As a mostly solo player (there really aren't that many people on at 0600 EST, when I get on for an hour for a fix before work) I was finding the new bosses sometimes impossible to beat.

Again, thank you!
TheSchu

Wow! In general this sounds great, and will help weaker solo ATs and casual gamers a ton. Had 2 things to mention though.

Minor issue: I liked the super-nasty bosses for the +25 game. They'll be missed, but I'll be OK with it.

One Large Concern & request for improvement - Contacts should not be filled up (maybe just 1 or 2 missions) before offering story arcs IMO. This is because often players will outlevel contacts before they can complete or possibly even get the storyarc (especially at the sub 30 lvls where there is lots of content and TFs, especially now after Issues 2 and 3). I'd really love to get storyarcs first thing and know I was on one. This is the most fun part of the game for me and my SG.

In order to allow casual play mixed with storyarcs, I'd suggest you offer heros 3 options each time they hit a contact until each option type is depleted. 1) Hunts, 2) Standard missions 3) Storyarcs.

Anyway, don't let my one concern discourage you. In general I'm impressed and, um... Did I say impressed?

This is excellent! Being killed in two hits really had no redeeming qualities. I did fine solo on tenacious with my main (see sig), and frankly enjoyed the challenge some of the time. It was when I was caught of guard or hit while traveling that was not so great. I agree to maybe keep them around at the highest setting on the difficulty slider (not bigger mobs, just tougher bosses) Thanks States! My wife and our friends can safely enter their missions again! Thanks from me and them

Some discussion on why this proposed change may be bad for the game:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...part=1#2076602

I haven't been on the forums for a while. Mostly playing to get my squidy. Just wanted to drop a thanks for this well thought out solution.

Thanks.

[ QUOTE ]
Solo and Team Play
In the long term:

• A system will allow players to drop unwanted missions or do old missions that have been passed over (the infamous “flashback”).


[/ QUOTE ]

Statesman,
When do you expect this to take place?

Hi,

Just wanted to express my thoughts.

I am glad you have decided to roll back the boss changes. Especially considering the large degree of player opposition to the tougher bosses, it seems like the best decision.

My only complaint is that it's overkill to remove bosses from solo missions. I think missions are, for the most part, well balanced for solo play. Removing bosses from them entirely will probably make them too easy.

Yes, I know that bosses will reappear if I turn up the difficulty slider. The problem with that is that it will raise the overall difficulty of the missions in addition to adding bosses, which is not really the desired effect if you're trying to keep missions the way they are right now. There are already a few missions with named lieutenants in plass of named bosses (mostly Council & Lost missions) and they are, quite frankly, a joke.

That's just my opinion, mind you, and I'll be perfectly happy to wait and see on how this particular change works out when it hits test.

Overall, I'm quite happy with this news. Thank you for taking our concerns seriously.

Who says voicing and voting doesn't count?!?!
Thanks to Statesman and all the devs for taking the time and effort to look at the data and sift through all of the posts. Thanks for listening, and acting on what has been said.
Thanks also for a great game.

This is great, being a developer myself I'm impressed with the turn around time we see on these issues!

So far I like the feedback and changes. Was not to overly unhappy with issue 3 because I play mostly support heros's and was in more demand.

I am hoping this does not get missed in all of the posts here but would like to find out one thing. I remember talk of an updated on-line manual that would have all of the updated powers and that thing about going up to lvl 50 now(not like I have anything near that level). If you could please comment on an updated piece I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

WTG! This was the right choice to make. These design decisions are putting CHOICE back in the hands of the players, while still giving grouping purpose (with new xp bonuses to grouping).

I played on test once and I told those devs what I though should be in the game in order to make it enjoyable and they totally ignored me. Where are the palm trees? Where are the naked lady villians? I wanted NO PULP in my orange juice. And most importantly, I told them specifically, step by step, what it would take to make my primary toon Uber and able to fly the bird at other players. Did they listen? No. Still can't fly the bird.
;emote TheFinger
I love this game. I love the devs and designers. I just wish I didn't have a job to keep me away from Paragon city for 8+ hours a day. I think I need a support group.
"Hello. My name is Boy Howdy, and I fight crime."
"Hi, Howdy"
sigh.

Yeah, the implemented changes are great. This is a win-win for team players and solo-ers alike.

My Dark Melee/Regen scrapper is kicking serious boss [censored] now.

I must say I am very happy at the prospects these changes hold for missions, a feature which I never really jived with in this game. I am far too fond of street sweeping and invariably out-level my contacts and miss vast swaths of story content as a result. The "Flashback" improvement is the feature that I am most looking forward to and will be waiting patiently for.

Next to only one other game studio out there Cryptic is the king (prince?) at communicating to and with, it's players and not 'Biting the Hand' that feeds them (hint, hint). Something that I think will become increasingly important in MMO's in the years to come. Kudos, and again, thanks.

Excellent. I think this is very fair. If a hero wants to go for the gusto they can change their difficulty slider to Invisible. If they want to have fun for a 1/2 hour and let out some stress by beating on some baddies, they can do that too. I know you can NEVER please ALL of the crowd ALL of the time, but I think this is the closest you will get to pleasing everyone.

I also really like the addition of being able to drop a mission. I like it for more than the reasons stated in statesman's original post........ for instance...... how many of us have had to 'clear out' a mission off of our mission list becuase we had it too long and just didn't get around to doing it? I know I have. No more waisting time on a bunch of lvl 25s when you are now 27. Great job.

By the way..... good idea changing Hard-Boiled to Hero. I don't think Hard-Boiled ws the right adjective to use! I saw hard-boiled and thought.... "oh great, there are going to be all minons in my missions unless I up my slider." It wasn't quite that bad. Not to mention, Hero sounds better than Hard-Boiled! LOL

[ QUOTE ]
BOTH fixing the solo/low setting missions to having no bosses AND fixing the bosses back to their old more puny selves, isn't this like solving the same problem twice - or have I misunderstood something here?

[/ QUOTE ]
I believe Statesman already answered this, if obliquely: when there is the option to drop/cancel/abort a mission in progress, then they will revisit boss difficulty.

So the first setting is an "Easy" setting, then is the second setting what used to be normal? Are all the settings dropped down one notch?

States,

I haven't read the whole thread, and I'm sure not everyone agrees with your reasoning, but let me say that I do.

Although initially I subscribed to the game because of the genre, I stayed because of the service. After working in technical customer service in various capacities for several years, I know good service when I see it.

I don't agree with everything that is executed, but I do agree with your commitment to service. I truly admire a group that can admit when things need changing (notice: I didn't say "when things are wrong"). I like both the short, intermediate, and long term plans and look forward to all of them.

Specifically, I like the effort your company places in developing a game that tries to be fun for everyone. Thank you.

The only question I have is if you drop a mission, will you be able to pick if up again later, or is it considered a failed mission?

Overall I think this is a great move! Thanks.

I liked the harder bosses, but understand the need to roll them back. Know what I'd like? Elite bosses in missions if you scale that slider up. Keep that extra edge of challenge up.

How the heck did I miss this post??
Well, all I can say is thank you. I am one of the few people that dislike teaming. I have a very short list of people I team with and both of them quit.
So Im a solo only player, for the most part. I do team up for the TF's.
This change will make it so I can enjoy this game again.
Thank you again.

For all the Dad's & Mom's that only get to play on their time (little). Thank you Statsman.
I do a lot of soloing due to the high demand of my kids. Though I do love the difficulty slider, adds character to the game for when I have time for a good challenge and teaming. Love the game…. Thanks again.