Current State of CoX

Hello all. What is the current state of CoX as you see it now and do you think double XP weekend will make it better for weeks or months to come? it seems like there is a steep decline of participation these days as far as teams go. The streets of paragon seem alot emptier. Some love the game even more now and some have moved onto different MMO-RPGs.

- Aion and Champions may have thinned our numbers
- difficulty sliders may have contributed to the damage types not teaming as much any more.
They can just terrorize the mobs themselves...push themselves to the limit.
- Super SK has made finding teams in your levels zones more difficult as well dont you think?
- People arent using AE for what it was truly meant for. I think that if it was set up the way
it is now at the beginning of AE then it would have been ok, but people got spoiled with the
farming and now they assume it sucks when it doesn't

Any more contributing factors to the current state of CoX? I've been on and off of CoX like 4 times in the passed few years. Something about this game keeps me coming back, but at the same time stale. I think I'm kinda partial to CoX thus the reason why I haven't event tried CO or Aion. LOL!

Can't say I've noticed any real difficulty finding teams at any time I've logged on lately. Mornings, late night, middle of the afternoon durning a sick day...the only thing I haven't seen are the spamming requests from the AE for boss farms.
For a recent example I'll just take this past wednsday, I logged in around 10am eastern with the intent of checking a couple auctions, so no LFT flag, not sending any global messages to friends, and no attempts to contact anyone...less thatn 5 minutes from logging on I recieve an invitation to a team. Since I had a few hours befpre work i decided to join up for a bit, we had a 7-8 person team running for 2-3 hours, and a good time was had by all. This is obviously just anectdotal data, but it's fairly typical for any time I log on to virtue...no real trouble finding teams and no lack of people to play with.

I can usually find a team, with a little looking. But it has seemed a little quiet lately.

I guess I'm lucky, as the SG I've been with since July 2004 is still very active. So, to me, the state of CoX is like always. Neither Aion of Champions Online have reduced our numbers from here. However, we are not into gear, loot, leveling and farming; the main thing for us has been to "write" the story of our characters and our supergroup with roleplaying (and now heavy usage of the AE to create specialized missions that do this.)

Super SK has been a boon for our group. Anyone can play any of their alts, and we don't have to sit there with a calculator and spreadsheet, trying to figure out who needs to be on which team for a mentor.

So if CoH is stale for you, you need to really find good solid folks to play with, not just hop on and hope for a PuG.

This is the time of the year that things get a little quieter. People are back in school, or some are trying to get that last vacation in before it gets too cold. With that said, I have had more team invites since i16 came out that I haven't noticed. SSK has made it much easier for me to join teams. Gone are the days when I had to switch from a toon I wanted to play just because we didn't have a mentor/exemplar.

I have teamed more since Issue 16 with Pick Ups than I did in the last 15 issues. My experiences are the complete opposite of the OP. I have actually seen alot of faces I have not seen in years return to the game.

Maybe a breath mint would help?

No real change for me, aside from being really busy at work. When I've been able to log in, I've been able to get PuGs just fine.

I've been getting almost bombarded with people I've never met asking me to team with them. They've all been polite too which makes me feel bad when I have to turn down the offer.

Rabble rabble!

The game is getting older, numbers will flux now and then for special events or issues but ever so often boredom hits and you kind of want a breath of fresh air.

My observations:

Numbers have thinned and the new games are why. I seem to get someone on my FB want me to try Aion every day.

I am stunned people find Champions playable, but sometimes anything new is compelling.

I find groups at peak hours, but there is no doubt the numbers are down, Virtue has been at one green dot all week when I've tried, instead of it regularly being at two amber. So proof...meet pudding.

The AE crowd has run away screaming, and are now all building brutes and scrappers with difficulty slider up to 11. Everyone else made a stone controller and made it look like psychadelic lava, and on this front I am most guilty myself. My alien controller now dispenses rock powers that look like lava lamps.

I am still doing my goofy, ridiculous thing though. Aion is too much style, mixed with a lot of repetitive grinding, and the RP community seems to be finding itself. COH has spoiled me with customization, not just with characters but bases and missions. I pretty much expect that in a game now.

So I am here for the forseeable future I think.

I think the SSK system has made it even easier to find and make teams. And with being able to gain XP when exemped it made it even easier for me to form and run a couple TF's (got me the accolade too)

maybe it's because I am ugly (LOL)....I just don't find teams like I used to. And when I form up a team people aren't really into traveling from city to city for arcs ya know. So I have a few that drop. BUT, if anything I think the task force rate is up. I've been into quite a few of those.

PuGs are where people learn to play with others. PuGs are how new players meet established players. PuGs are how good SGs recruit new members.

In short, when too many insular groups strangle the PuG community by refusing to participate in PuGs or writing them off as what noobs do until they find a good SG, the game starts to die.

Wins the thread.

PuGs are the meat and potato of any MMO. They are a joy to revisit from time to time. Even the bad ones, can at times, be entertaining. Sure its a roll of the dice for what you might get, but overall I think PuGs are a great way to experience the game.

My favorite part about it, is every blue moon, you encounter people playing the game for the first time. It's a real thrill to help them out, advise them a little and help them discover and enjoy the game.

I spent most of my time on Justice and it seems like the community is getting LARGER there. We have hami raids a few times a week and the Hive fills up before the start time, oftentimes. I get tons of offers for teams and there is always a TF forming.

I have noticed that Virtue and Freedom are rarely at two dots anymore. I'm not sure what that means, but my gaming experience is as robust as ever.

I personally am enjoying I16 more than "minor content update 15" which did nothing for my teaming endeavors.With the addition of the SSK system I do agree that I can now play my lats without having to worry about switching to one of my numerous lvl 50s just to be able to team with people which means I can now finally lvl my pet projects (some current ones are my chaos control Ill/Kin troller and a dark/stone brute) and as a result i'm happy with that.

It can still be difficult for me to find teams since i'm often on later in the night/morning when most average players are off to bed/out to work although i've never minded soloing if I have something to listen to while playing.After getting several toons to 50 with a combination of the old fashioned way (my MM,troller,WS,brutes and SoAs) and the AE way (pre I16) I have become more interested in doing TFs I haven't done or collecting badges/items that are rare (such as the costume codes and special editions of this game with added extras) which has been lucrative indeed.The only time I stop playing is when i'm burned out which doesn't last very long maybe a month at max.

As my intrest was waning a bit I16 sparked my intrest to get me into the game again.Sure I don't play as much as I did when I first played the game but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the game still.

Last night, I was running a few missions with my Peacebringer and wanted backup, but my usual group wasn't available. So I started sending (IC) invites - maybe a dozen. About half responded affirmatively, and at least half of those were solid teammates. It was a good experience overall.

I took a few months off (moving sucks.) and just came back to this weird sidekicking thing and all the pretty colors.

I'm teaming more now than I was before, finding good, fast teams without having to build them myself or ***** myself out on chat channels. Just log on, receive tells and go. Red side, no less. I approve of the Super Sidekick System, and love the fact that you can still gain xp when playing below your native level. I wish that it tuned to the level of the mission, rather than the holder, so that you wouldn't have to worry about out leveling missions and arcs, but other than that, I'm finding the current state of CoX to be as good as it has been in years (and I've been in and out since I3)

Players are friendly and knowledgeable without being pretentious pricks (or if they are, they are keeping to themselves, which I approve of wholeheartedly.) leaving the game to be bright, beautiful, crime fighting, mayhem causing fun.

If you are worried about out-leveling arcs, you can turn off XP in the options.