The Land CoH Forgot
By
Arctic_Princess,
Posted on: 2009-04-16 05:51 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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The Oroborous storyline, such as it is, has been left hanging.
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good thing too given the MA arc I'm doing some finishing tweaks on... lol
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(And, no, player-made content isn't the same. Fan-fic is nice and fun and all that, but it's still just fan-fic.)
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Bah! Epic fail on my previous note :/ lol
In all seriousness though, the plot was forwarded heavily by the Rikti Invasion, and the new features such as Ouroboros and the Midnight club are linked to a degree by their use of the Ice and Flame Crystals ( there is bound to be a connection there in plot to explore ) which hopfully will be looked at in future issue arcs and TF's.
However I can see the decision to put features in first, as they take much more work that adding in missions and contacts ( from my understanding ) most of which feature wise, are suggestions from the fanbase.
Yes you are right, the story does need advancing a bit, but after all thats what Issue 15 is going to be for 
In-game and now on Twitter @Tsumiju Zero "The Nightmare of Dra'Gon"
"The flow of battle can only be influenced, not by realtime tactics, but by strategy."
Proud resident of the Union EU Server.
B.A.F. Trial Guide
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Interesting. I take it there's a Defeat All Corporate Lawyer arc after that one? 
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Actually, considering Lobo's history of crossovers, I wouldn't be too surprised to see him show up in CoH as part of a April 1st event or something of that sort (probably beating Statesman up with Recluse or something.)
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This would seriously rock, but I doubt Marvel would go for it.
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Marvel wouldn't be able to say a thing about it. DC Comics might though
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
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They could start off with the go attack the Rikti thing and when we get up there, we find they've all be slaughtered...
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... by Lobo.
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More likely.....Sephiroth!!
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
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All I know is that I15 is going to be a make or break issue for me. If it doesn't come through with lots of additional content AND modernizing the game to compete with CO & DCUO, then I think I'll be calling it a day, at least for a while.
I'm not really playing at the moment, I'm barely even logging in and my posting in the forums has reduced a LOT in recent weeks. Effectively I'm taking a break as I'm just burned out on CoH and am waiting to see what NC come up with for the 5th anniversary event (if anything) and I15.
If they don't come through, then there's nothing to stay for, really. 
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Da, I agree. ONE of these issues is going to be absolutely hueg.
Not only has new story been thin on the ground, new art assets just haven't been seen. The last chunk of new art we had was with Issue 12, with the Midnighter Club, Cimerora, Centurions, a new kind of cave map tileset, two very large outdoor areas, and a small outdoor area. That sounds like a lot but it's about average for a new issue, nothing special. The Freem Fifteen could have made it by themselves.
But I13 and I14 have had absolutely no new art. Oh sure, day job outfits and the Architect building, but that's slim pickings. That's a small amount of art launched over a whole year.
Content in general has been quite slim since I10. I12 did have some impressive new zones, and I11 has some beefy Task Forces, but nothing on the scale of previous issues.
I remember listing all this off in a much more well-reasoned post a while ago. I'm sticking by my guns. They have something incredible cooking. You don't triple the size of your team with talented people only to reduce the amount of stuff you put out.
As for my CoH playing habits, I purposefully took a break from CoH when I13 launched. I knew that I wanted I14 badly, so I prevented myself from getting to that burnt-out stage. Now all my toons feel fresh again, especially when playing the rare gems on the Architect.
Necrobond - 50 BS/Inv Scrapper made in I1
Rickar - 50 Bots/FF Mastermind
Anti-Muon - 42 Warshade
Ivory Sicarius - 45 Crab Spider
Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.
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Interesting. I take it there's a Defeat All Corporate Lawyer arc after that one?
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Actually, considering Lobo's history of crossovers, I wouldn't be too surprised to see him show up in CoH as part of a April 1st event or something of that sort (probably beating Statesman up with Recluse or something.)
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This would seriously rock, but I doubt Marvel would go for it.
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Me neither, considering Lobo is a DC property 
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Ummm... Oooh look! A dinosaur with frickin' lasers!!
*points and runs the other way*
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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All I know is that I15 is going to be a make or break issue for me. If it doesn't come through with lots of additional content AND modernizing the game to compete with CO & DCUO, then I think I'll be calling it a day, at least for a while.
I'm not really playing at the moment, I'm barely even logging in and my posting in the forums has reduced a LOT in recent weeks. Effectively I'm taking a break as I'm just burned out on CoH and am waiting to see what NC come up with for the 5th anniversary event (if anything) and I15.
If they don't come through, then there's nothing to stay for, really.
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My feelings in a nutshell, (with the addition of a nasty aftertaste from the Austin legal dept) means that for the last couple of months my online activity has dropped right off with regards to CoH. Partly principles, partly boredom, partly a sad sense of resignation that my time is drawing to a close in Paragon and in an MMO I have loved for the last five years.
I'm not even sure story-canon is going to keep me intrigued for long this time around, the game really does need a healthy revitalisation in all the areas we have been asking for in graphics, an audio-revamp, character meshes, and Zonal revamps.
The game is in an awkward position right now, one the Dev-team is perhaps unaware of because they are too-close to the project. You see, Trial-Players coming to this game afresh have years of exciting content and fantastic stories ahead of them, but they have little interest in staying around long enough to experience that, because they are put-off by the ageing graphics, limiting engine, and ageing sound-effects/music. I would love to hear a soundtrack that soared much like the orchestral movements of your favourite superhero film, not the looped titbits of unrelated neighbourhood jingles as you traverse Steel Canyon for example. Compare the music in AoC to CoH and you are talking a quantum-leap in game-immersion.
Paragon will always have a special place in my heart, but I'm no longer convinced about the direction of the game (pvp, seemingly abandoned Hamidon event, static Giant Monster events etc) and the rehashes of content I am picking up on, and that saddens me somewhat.
I'm sure Paragon does have a bright future ahead of it and I'm sure the dev team is working hard on exciting new content, but I fear unless they start addressing what we have been asking them to address...and soon, I'm not sure there will be many veterans around to celebrate the next couple of Anniversarys when there are three other superhero MMOs on the horizon.
I wanted... I want to stay with CoH, I really do... but I'm not going to let that enthusiasm and sense of endearment blind me to the competition if Paragon Studios continues making questionable changes to both the game-content that the community doesn't like and drags its feet on features we've been asking for for years.
Although I agree with the OP, I feel that people dont take into account the fact that Norcal is putting features in the place that serve the core gameplay.
They have given us a lot of things to do, so now they can advance the story again.
Remember that if they only released story missions then people would go trough the new content within a week and they would be screaming for more before the devs even have the issue launch bugs out.
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Although I agree with the OP, I feel that people dont take into account the fact that Norcal is putting features in the place that serve the core gameplay.
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Enough bones, we want some MEAT!
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Problem is that they must decide who to aim for. Existing players who want/need more MEAT or new players who have enough meat but the bones must be up to specs compared to the competition. I doubt they have the staff to do both.
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Problem is that they must decide who to aim for. Existing players who want/need more MEAT or new players who have enough meat but the bones must be up to specs compared to the competition. I doubt they have the staff to do both.
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Well, if I don't get some meat soon, I'm gonna start eating the new players!
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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Problem is that they must decide who to aim for. Existing players who want/need more MEAT or new players who have enough meat but the bones must be up to specs compared to the competition. I doubt they have the staff to do both.
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Well, if I don't get some meat soon, I'm gonna start eating the new players!
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I doubt you'll see that tagline on any of our non-existent advertising anytime soon! 
"Idealism is such a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use." - Kerr Avon
Myopic Aardvark on Twitter
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Problem is that they must decide who to aim for. Existing players who want/need more MEAT or new players who have enough meat but the bones must be up to specs compared to the competition. I doubt they have the staff to do both.
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Well, if I don't get some meat soon, I'm gonna start eating the new players!
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But you will need to find the rare and elusive monster to do that.
They say its name rarely, but legend tells it of sounding like;
Peh-veh-peh...
Mumsie and others have summed it nicely. I've got too much rooted in Paragon to really give out...I think. I hope, even. But I15 better be a stonker, it really had better be...
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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I think we all know that the real issue faced by CoH is funding.
I've not noticed them going out of their way to really pump CoH with a totally new system (I know I know, the old engine is really powerful and all) - Paragon Studios need to hire a tonne of artists and get the existing graphics up to date, fast and they need (as MoLo says) to get the audio up to date, fast. This doesn't happen with small budgets.
Even if these hurdles are cleared, I STILL see CoH having problems when other games are coming out with modern concepts such as players throwing existing map objects down the street.
Hero 1 addresses such concerns himself, here:
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...is there a specific plan to keep a game that's five years old competitive in the market? Is Mission Architect a part of that?
First of all, the game's always been competitive. We've always brought these free updates that a lot of other MMOs don't do -- you have to go out and buy a boxed expansion. We do a mini-expansion three times a year. That's one of the things I think has really kept our subscriber numbers as high as they are.
As far as worrying about other competitors in a similar genre, personally, I kind of welcome them. I've never seen great games come out where there's only one in the genre. You need to have competition in order to make your content that much better. City of Heroes has been doing really great stuff being the only guy on the block. The conversations we're having now about what we want to do... does it play into stuff other people are doing? Because we now kind of have to prove ourselves because there's going to be someone else? Hell yeah it does. But now we're gonna bring it. We want to make it that much better.
Some of this is because when we were with our previous owners, we didn't have the money or the team to pull this stuff off. And now that we do we're like the little kid who's just been put in the candy shop. We're excited. I'm a huge comic book nut and I think every game on the shelf should be a super hero game. So I'm not really worried about what that's going to do to our game because it's a great game.
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http://www.massively.com/2009/04/06/...-depth-part-3/
Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
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All I know is that I15 is going to be a make or break issue for me. If it doesn't come through with lots of additional content AND modernizing the game to compete with CO & DCUO, then I think I'll be calling it a day, at least for a while.
I'm not really playing at the moment, I'm barely even logging in and my posting in the forums has reduced a LOT in recent weeks. Effectively I'm taking a break as I'm just burned out on CoH and am waiting to see what NC come up with for the 5th anniversary event (if anything) and I15.
If they don't come through, then there's nothing to stay for, really.
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I don't usually agree with you, but you've nailed it this time: I think a LOT of people think like this. Unless I15 delivers some serious new content (zones, STRIKE forces, villain content, something new in the "world" poeple will start falling off. Right now most of my globals still pay their subscription, but hardly play the game. They are gone if there's not something new, exciting to do.
Personally I love how a virtual world "progress", how the story of the fictional universe evolves and most of all, I love playing my level 50 buffed up characters I know so well with other people I know equally well. It's still some fun running a RSF with oldies because we hardly think, we just run through it. But most days it's out of the question because: been there, done that.
Sure, even if NC puts in tons of new arcs, maps, trials, SFs etc we'll grow bored pretty fast but I'd rather see that than another batch of "power proliferations" or even a new powerset.
The MA: Yeah, I have to admit I've enjoyed it more than I thought, but I've also found it's already boring, because even with new cossies and combination even the custom critters are just old stuff and even the DEV Choise arcs I've tried was... ...not exciting. Sure, given time there will be some excellent stuff there, but MA 1.0 can't do what the devs can do, or professional folks planning a TF for months, as a part of the actual "universe".
I'm so glad some other people got hooked on this discussion, because even if you're the kind that never ever reads the mish desc's this ("story") is the next "stand or fall" for this game.
The zone remakes been ace and so has some of the other stuff, but I sure hope the "other" dev team hasn't been busy just remaking (hero, sigh) zones and just adding one more small chapter to "the coming storm". I Want, I NEED, Yes... I DEMAND a big hunkah hunka chunk!
Oooh, and devs probably agree:
No point even trying to satisfy the customer base, they'll always want more no matter what NC puts into the game!
Oh, some might be ok with just animated hair though?
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Yeah, it's been left stagnent for a long time now. The Midnighters & Cimorororia was just a weird addition which made no real sense in terms of where the main story was going.
I would consider the Rikti War Zone a major story addition though, possiblely one of the most significant ever to hit CoH.
But then in the next issue rather than giving some sense of closure to it they came up with Wacky Adventures in Time which made little sense, and then Wacky Adventures in Sparta... I mean ancient Rome, which made even less sense to the ongoing story.
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I have not posted for a long time or in fact played for a long time but I have to agree with all of this. This is a game about Super Heroes it's foundation lies in the comic book - I bet a pound to a penny that our developers haven't picked up a comic book in ages, because if they had they would realise that they were adrift in a sea of mediocrity. There is no consistency or coherence, their direction is just so random. Anyway, I say enough with the bells and whistles its now time to polish the symphony !!
PS - RWZ 10/10 Faultline 9/10 The Hollows 8/10 Cimorororia nil points
@Boy Wonder
Quantum Flash - Ill/Kin Controller
Leader of the Legion of Heroes
Errr...I like Cimerora. Anyhoo, what no one seems to have mentioned is an engine revamp. After looking at the screenshots for CO, I think a cosmetic improvement would make a nice, if a little facile, change. Bring on the moonbases though.
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Oooh, and devs probably agree:
No point even trying to satisfy the customer base, they'll always want more no matter what NC puts into the game!
Oh, some might be ok with just animated hair though?
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It would go a long way, yes
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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Yeah, it's been left stagnent for a long time now. The Midnighters & Cimorororia was just a weird addition which made no real sense in terms of where the main story was going.
I would consider the Rikti War Zone a major story addition though, possiblely one of the most significant ever to hit CoH.
But then in the next issue rather than giving some sense of closure to it they came up with Wacky Adventures in Time which made little sense, and then Wacky Adventures in Sparta... I mean ancient Rome, which made even less sense to the ongoing story.
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I have not posted for a long time or in fact played for a long time but I have to agree with all of this. This is a game about Super Heroes it's foundation lies in the comic book - I bet a pound to a penny that our developers haven't picked up a comic book in ages, because if they had they would realise that they were adrift in a sea of mediocrity. There is no consistency or coherence, their direction is just so random. Anyway, I say enough with the bells and whistles its now time to polish the symphony !!
PS - RWZ 10/10 Faultline 9/10 The Hollows 8/10 Cimorororia nil points
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Cimerora is there for a purpose - a very important one
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
While I do agree the graphics engine badly needs a revamp, that would be a huge commitment for the programming department, but more story content would most likely be in a different department even if programmers are needed in the end to make it work.
The quesion right now is, what have the people behind the faultline remake and "story content" been up to lately? I hope it's... BIG!
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Yeah, it's been left stagnent for a long time now. The Midnighters & Cimorororia was just a weird addition which made no real sense in terms of where the main story was going.
I would consider the Rikti War Zone a major story addition though, possiblely one of the most significant ever to hit CoH.
But then in the next issue rather than giving some sense of closure to it they came up with Wacky Adventures in Time which made little sense, and then Wacky Adventures in Sparta... I mean ancient Rome, which made even less sense to the ongoing story.
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I have not posted for a long time or in fact played for a long time but I have to agree with all of this. This is a game about Super Heroes it's foundation lies in the comic book - I bet a pound to a penny that our developers haven't picked up a comic book in ages, because if they had they would realise that they were adrift in a sea of mediocrity. There is no consistency or coherence, their direction is just so random. Anyway, I say enough with the bells and whistles its now time to polish the symphony !!
PS - RWZ 10/10 Faultline 9/10 The Hollows 8/10 Cimorororia nil points
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Cimerora is there for a purpose - a very important one
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And a very stupid purpose.
Heroes/Villains should be doing more of what they actually do - that's fighting each other (or that's what seems to happen in most comics) instead of teaming up to fight intergalatic aliens or evil Romans. Just a thought y'know. Because it's getting to the point where it's getting pretty stupid.
And that's when the story was thrown out of the window, which leads us right back to the start of this thread...
Fighting aliens? Going back in time to stop an evil force which shall doom the world? Fighting rogue Romans? Sorry, but I think Heroes and Villains should really get back to fighting for justice/world domination.
With interviews like this revealing content which CoH doesn't have a prayer of matching (given the time before release, and the willingness shown by the devs in the past to avoid such issues), I can't help but think there's an exodus on the cards.
http://www.massively.com/2009/04/08/...signer-on-rol/
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Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
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With interviews like this revealing content which CoH doesn't have a prayer of matching
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Daikatana. And that's all I have to say about that.
His examples on roleplaying are rubbish, and there's no basic provision for walking in Champions Online from what I've heard and seen. Walking is something that goes very well with Roleplayers.
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Interesting. I take it there's a Defeat All Corporate Lawyer arc after that one?
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Actually, considering Lobo's history of crossovers, I wouldn't be too surprised to see him show up in CoH as part of a April 1st event or something of that sort (probably beating Statesman up with Recluse or something.)
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This would seriously rock, but I doubt Marvel would go for it.
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Me neither, considering Lobo is a DC property
"Idealism is such a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use." - Kerr Avon
Myopic Aardvark on Twitter