i think there are a few probs that cause this:
1) Some people think City of Villains gives them the right to march around acting like a [censored], a know-it-all, a.. well fill it in yourself. This kinda puts people off teaming.
2) On some pcs (like mine) CoV lags alot more than CoH. GFX are managable on smaller teams, yet my FPS goes almost subzero on big teams. Add to that higher lvl teams with 2/3+ MMs on the team, and your FPS plummets. This puts people off teaming because they rather solo and be able to play, than team and not being able to get out of slideshow mode.
3) CoV ATs are a bit more "offensive" compared to the CoH ATs. Every AT except dom on CoV got attacks as their primary, dom as secondary, hence they are all able to do at least some decent damage on their own. This makes them bit less relying on teams. I dont mean that CoV ATs never need a team, cause some sets do complement each other. However, if you for instance take a low lvl controller, he is almost impossible to solo hence you NEED teams. Once teams are formed, they most of times keep goin for a while (some leave, some join etc). On CoV, people might look for a team, then after 15 mins or so spamming broadcast to no avail they decide its not worth waiting and go solo, after all, most builds permit this.
I think nr 3 is the most important reason why there arent as much teams as on CoH. Course a good VG can do miracles as well. To me personally, on my MM I tend to solo as well. I know some if not most teams dread MMs as they tend to "live in their own world" (or comments like that). To me, its the other way around, I hate most teams imposing their will on MMs on how THEY think it should be played, so to save the trouble I solo. On top of that, I got quite a nice xprate solo and thusfar I have even been able to solo every AV I met (including before the AV/EB change).
So my reason basically is somewhat like reason #1. For a good while I've evaded PuGs on CoV and only team when friends or SG mates ask me to, otherwise I'll just solo. Sure I'd like to team, after all, its a multiplayer game after all. But if these PuGs keep disappointing me, I have no choice. Hence I also only play my MM if I cant find teams on other chars, hes kinda my solo-char.
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
I dont see any real probs with it. I guess I have been really lucky if alot of people feel this way. Most of the teams I have been in have been good (you occaisionly get your bad one).
I rarely ever solo so will join pick up teams if get a tell (and sometimes if its blind although last few blind invites have been people well below my level).
Often the people I team with I team up with them again. Normally if they have been fun/good they get added to my buddy list and you start to get a mini network of team buddies. Thus when come online normally get an invite to a team fairly quickly. I think having belonging to a good sg also influences that due to being able to join your sg mates or your coalition buddies.
Heros
Max Powerz: Lv 50 Tanker
Villains
Max Khaos: Lv 50
Overlord of E.V.I.L.
My Brute - http://maxy-khaos.mybrute.com/
LF SG! Arc ID# 193083
I soloed a lot of the game with my Mastermind, I enjoyed learning the controls and playing through the story arcs. I was a member of a supergroup and would happily participate or help out if others got in trouble and had somewhere to turn if I got in trouble myself.
Having created other characters I have found myself teaming a lot more, soling as a MM was moderately easy and fun, soling with the other AT's sees me overwhelmed pretty quickly, in fact I created a rad/kin on tuesday and apart from the zig haven't soloed anything since (15 levels in a day and a half of play). I have become very familiar with the find team mate system and will either ask to join any similar level teams I see around or form my own if any similar level characters are unteamed.
For the most part this has been very successful, im not sure if there is a particular level range where numbers start to thin out though but imagine by that point I will expand my search to higher level members and try to convince them I am just looking for a team and not looking for powerlevelling.
If you have a number of friends on CoH that won't come onto villains can you not encourage them to team with you? Your problem with the game seems to stem from the people you are teaming with or maybe the life span of teams, some people have real life commitments and I haven't seen people saying they had to leave and then hang around.
What exactly are you looking for in a great group and what sort of things would relegate a great group to only decent level?
From what little I have seen of CoH the Villain AT's are a little more blurred are you just too used to the CoH a tanker tanks a defender defends style of play? (not meaning to be accusatory just curious, I love villains and just can't get into Heroes)
Well, I know DrRock has been tracking the numbers of people on Union each night, and CoV always has significantly fewer people on than CoH, so it's no surprise that teammates are a little harder to find. Personally, I suspect that of the people on, a lot of the more experienced players are probably off teaming with their SGs, which leaves an even smaller base of people - often quite inexperienced people - to create teams from.
I have exactly the same problem if I try to play CoH on pickup teams late at night when not so many people are on. With a small base of people to pick from, you often end up with the people no one else wanted to team with, or a team with a level spread that either means it's poor xp for some members, or too high for others.
I'd imagine it may seem worse if most of your usual teammates aren't playing CoV much, and you're used to a higher standard of teaming on CoH. Frankly, it seems a little silly to me if your friends don't want to make a CoV character over teaming issues... surely you could then just all team together, and maybe recruit outside people onto your own teams so you could decide who stays and who goes? That's what my SG's done since launch, and we get some great teams going.
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That's what my SG's done since launch, and we get some great teams going.
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Yep, we've had our fair share of amazing teams and amazing (but for the wrong reasons) teams - still great fun, that said. 
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
Yea, most explainations posted are correct.. as a really experienced player i can agree with some flaws of the teaming part. i never played CoH-EU, but was playing on US servers, and there u could get a team 24/7 lvl 1-15 and the 2 main reasons is:
- ATs more depending on teams (júst as siad perv. in other posts here)
- US servers has as many ppl online during low-time as CoV has during High-time. usually i dont make teams, coz of:
- I hate incompetent team-mates, that are unwilling to learn the game
- there not enough players to select from. most often there is only 4 brutes in lvl range and none is interested in a team.
my suggestion to help players that really like to team with good, experienced player, is to seek out established VGs and join them. most VGs i know (including my own) puts alot of energy and effort in trying to include SG-members in teams. My reason for coalitions (not every1s tho) is to increase the team-poss.. we include our coalition members to our teams, just as we do our own SG members, and this way usually end up with teams at any lvl.
I thnk one issue is that a lot of the more experienced players have got to level 40 and are marking time until issue 7. Sill, there are good teams around.
I really should do something about this signature.
i cant be bothered with pugs alot of the time, if i was in a hurry to 50 i might consider it, but alot of the time its just slow levelling because of someone who wont listen and continuously likes to play in a way that suits them but makes things harder than they need to be. Is it me or has the standard of players dropped? I think with the debt being lowered to what it is means people see no reason to be proper teamplayers. When so and so has died its "who cares just mash". Perhaps so and so wont keep dying with players of better quality.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Ill agree that CoV seems to have issues with the quality of play. I think there are a number of reasons.
1 Every AT can do damage so every1 wants to fight. In CoH you have the healer/buffer hanging back watching peeps and the tank in the middle keeping an eye on the mobs plus the trollers doing all manner of crazy things while the scrappies and blasters just pick off the mobs. In CoV pugs it tends to be more like a grrrrr charge.. ... dead... oh half the team are dead already, when did that happen?
Every1 is tending toward watching the mobs hp bars rather then their teams.
2 Level of experience. Most CoH players have been around the game a few times (I know there are still new players always comeing in but most are fairly experienced). This means CoH players normaly have a good group of friends to team with in CoV while the much bigger quantity of new players dont have any1 to learn from. We need to get out there and start taking noobie villains into good teams and giving them advice on how different types work, nasty mobs to watch, order of killing mobs.
3 The lvl40 cap. A lot of peeps have hit 40 a while back and are just waiting for I7. The numbers will shoot up but it wont help the low lvls as the lvl40 players will all be off teaming together or soloing to do the new missions and hit 50.
The main issue I have with CoV apart from my system performance being subpar with it is that playing a villain is not half as appealling ( espeically long term ) as playing a hero.
That in itself is probably why despite CoV having a better designed set of zones and missions CoH is more popular.
I only play CoV because I want to play a certain archetype/powerset combo.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
I love CoH and my scrapper is almost 50 now. I bought CoV on an i pulse cause it was kibda cheap and thought it would be cool. Unfortunatly i do suffer from the bad-team-experience. I like teams because like was said before, i dont need a MMO if i solo. But alot of teams just suck. They do. I blame the free trials (i only have low lvl chars) which brings all kinds of n00bs not bothering to learn to play and the fact that its quite more difficult for AT's to actually complement each other. In CoH you can rely on teammates because you know they will add something to your power, be it buffs or enemy debuffs for example. In CoV its quite different. Hopefully things will pick up and to be on the plus side of things: I have had some pretty good teams on villains sofar! And to be honest: I still need alot of 'training' with my villains to get the game and the AT's i play under control...
Heroes will always talk about the time they saved someone from under a bus.
Villains will always bore their friends about pushing someone under a bus.
Heroes react, Villains act; but in CoV, the Villain is constantly trying to react, which is why it feels off. Maybe the Mayhem missions will help satisfy that urge to do rather than clear up.
Disagree here with you saying COV is better designed, its badly put togther with no thought to the ppl that dont have a endless supply of cash to upgrade their pc..
ppl like myself have played it seen that the general performance is poor, so they give up, causing numbers to be small. This takes the fun out of the game, prehaps the Dev's should take a look at the game and think about improving the way is plays before adding to the misery of COH players by updating the graphics.. Ive seen better looking games that run alot better and are far better quality. I do truely feel sorry for the ppl that are struggling because of the way the game has been made and i think something should be done to help them enjoy the game experience
Have to admit that COV is alot less flowing than COH and it gets very repetitve after only about 10 minutes of playing. Some of the new mission ideas sound great but on the whole its just too little too late
lol the thought of cov being MORE repetitive than coh really makes me laugh. What the hell are you smoking?
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it gets very repetitve after only about 10 minutes of playing.
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Both are repetitive as hell 10 mins into COV and you can see it, and i didnt say that it was more repetitive than coh :P
I'm feeling really bad for all the COH players who say that performance in COV is bad...
Issue 7 will bring COH graphics to the same standard of COV, whatcha gonna do then? :O
i have perfectly fine framerates and performance, and my computer is 3 years old, and wasnt state of the art when i bought it (2,9 ghz, 6600 3d card, 1gb ram)
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lol the thought of cov being MORE repetitive than coh really makes me laugh. What the hell are you smoking?
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CoV feels sooo much more repetitive than CoH because of the lack of content.
But aside from the whole "which game is better" discussions, I do agree that teaming is a lot harder in CoV. There seem to be a lot of Cliques, people who will only team with their SG for fear of bad PuGs, and a lot of Brutes and MMs who like to solo.
I've tried making many an alt in CoV and give up by the time I get to lvl 10 because I hate soloing.
CoV is a harder game even though there are some ATs that can
be easily played but not easily played well.
Because I just play with Guild mates and we invite pick ups
now and then, I really can only imagine how hard it is to
get a good team going in CoV.
There are alot of new people to the game and alot of old
people there also.
Unlike CoH, CoV isnt as basic of an AT concept where by one
AT does the damage, another tanks, another buffs and another
controlls and buffs.
The damage dealer just blasts away. Ive a 38 Fire/Energy
blapper that just gets sooo boring after playing a corrupter.
I could set up a macro to play him its that bad.
My lvl 39 Stone/Fire tank kicks serveral kind of butt. He is
far too easy to play and boring. ALl he does is sit there
and taunt and then AOE attack now and then. I much prefere
my lvl 33 Brute. Energy Aura (Gimp, waiting on I7)
My lvl 37 empathy defender is only fun in PvP. He gets boring
on teams just healing people and applying the same buffs
over and over. I much prefere my lvl 40 thermal.
I have an illusion/kinetics lvl 44 controller. I like her
alot. I dont have the AOE hold so im not much of a "holder"
I controll in a different way. I controll the mobs and my
team.Controllers are unique and IMO, entirely negate the
Defender set. Especially FF. So many dam Illusion/empathys
running around my server getting ready for PVP and Base
Raids. From looking at Dominators Id have to say they seem
to me more influential then controllers. A few guild mates
ive noticed help me out as a brute more than I can thank
them. Sappers, bosses , Psi spiders that arachnos have often
get taken out of the game by Doms. Then when the big fight
comes domination kicks in. Controllers can be played like
Doms, but they aint because of the secondary. CoH teams
lack any real controller and TBH , they dont need one.
The tank sits there and takes agro.. snooze
Blasters just stands away and blasts.. snooze
Defenders support the team.. eventaully snooze
Controllers support team and controll mobs.. interesting most
of the time. Really there is not much need for a controller
because the tank can do this job.
My lvl 40 Ice/Dark corrupter often finds himself just using
only 70% of his powers on a good team. Controllers are the
same.
This makes for a more fun and hard PVE MMO game. But oh gawd
it makes for hard PVP teams. Villains cant just buff up their
blaster and give him a dedicated empathy and let him destroy
the other team. Thats CoH team pvp.
Villains cant do this. They need to stay close and work
together to recieve the same amount of power that the Heros
can get easily.
I like to belive , that a good Villain team is better than
a good Hero team. I dont know if this is true though.
But this game is constantly changing and today isnt
tomorrow. Toggle dropping blappers might not be around in
a month. They might go back to using their range attacks
more, thus changing major PvP fights. My blapper will
certainly not try take out Scrappers solo if I dont toggle
drop. If I am to ill have to use my range attacks and use
my powerful melee ones smartly.
One thing I miss about CoH , and this might seem a bit odd,
is the bright bold colours. The simple RGB concept. CoV is
always so dark and gloomy. I think bright colours used
correctly can look evil too.
Pick up groups mostly always suck. I usually only last a
mission before quitting. But high lvl PUGs are mostly decent.
But definately PUGs on Villains are alot worse than Hero
PUGs.
Does anyone else feel same way like me? Is there something wrong with CoV?
I am tired of trying to make a decent team, Im tired of trying to make things right, teaming is horrible in this game. In all the time spent in CoV maybe 5% of the time I am in a decent team, not great, only decent. Is there something wrong here? Where is the problem?
I feel very sorry for the new players of coX who witness the horror happening in Mercy, PO and even Cap. Till now, the love of the game was much more powerful than this feeling, but now what? Is it worth, grinding like animal, strugling for bars of exp in teams that last up to 15 minutes max.
And worse of all, people are not willing nor to cooperate nor to learn how to play. I was a noob in this game like everyone else. I spent weeks of listening to experienced players and asking 10000 questions about everything, couze its only fair and the right thing to do. I felt guilty when someone else suffered from my inexperience and my mistakes.
At times I was forced to solo, which i never did in CoH and I kept asking myself why am I paying a mmo game when i solo it. This mood didnt just appear this morning, it bothers me from the begining of CoV.
Does anyone else feel this way about CoV? a lot of Coh friends are aware of these issues and dont even want to start a CoV character. I myself am on a very thin line here, waiting for i7 to continue a fire/fire dominator and finaly quit this game where the fun factor is an even 0.
Please comment,
Manf, a very dissapointed PUG player.