Looking for suggestions to make the game interesting again.

Saw this little gem on the zone broadcast channel..."Does anyone else feel like this game has gravitated towards suck?"

I've sensed I've lost some interest in the game over the past 9 months myself, so I thought I'd hit the forums for a little inspiration.

Anywho, the reason for this post is that I'm looking for some suggestions on how to make this game enjoyable again.

I like running with teams, but they seem to dissolve faster than they form, so I've been running solo a lot lately..especially when almost every zone seems to be empty.

I've leveled every AT to lvl 50, but let's be honest, if you don't invest at Wentworths or the Black Market, you're toon is going to be sub par at best.

So...... I'm looking for ideas here.

I still like this game, I'm just looking for suggestions to make it enjoyable again.

Thanks.

There are a lot of variances for each AT out there.

This is a pretty obvious suggestion, but pick a new combo that seems to be entertaining, even though it may not be a superstar.

I've made some pretty goofy combos and had a lot of fun just dorking around.

I can always fall back to my favorites; you know..the one's I've invested in and enjoyed the most.

Just my 2 cents.

Cya around.

Well... I grew up an only child and so became very used to playing games by myself... Monopoly, Life, etc... I played every piece on the board and got used to making a game more interesting for myself. I even created a version of Monopoly where you could "buy" the chance and community chest spaces.

Yes, yes... if you're going to psycho-analyze me and come up with a number of (hopefully non-Freudian) reasons why I'm the way I am do it on your own time.

Anyway, the habits I developed as a child carried over into my adult life. I play City of Heroes in a tournament style... against myself. Each server is a "Team" and share resources (enhancements, influence, salvage, inspirations) via their supergroup base and a second account I have for trading purposes.

Each character's progress is tracked via several ... okay MORE than several.. spreadsheets that track such things as Undefeated Streaks from 1st level, total number of defeats, Power(calculated via a rather complex formula), reputation(calculated via a slightly less complex formula), badges acquired and several other criteria.

The characters are compared against one another on a semi-regular basis and I record their progress both as individuals and against all my other characters. I currently have 58 in the tournament divided among 10 teams. I don't have characters on Pinnacle.. not because I dislike Pinnacle but because there are 11 servers and I needed 5 villain teams and 5 hero teams.

Anyway.. you don't have to be as complicated as I've been, but a little self-competition may be just the thing. Start two characters and give them equal play times. See which one performs better.

Or... run a Hardcore Tournament. Create a list of 10 or so characters and play them until they die. See which one goes the furthest.

If you've "done it all" then the one thing left to do is set up your own game-within-the-game.

Yes... I know I'm obsessive-compulsive... the 88 City of Heroes/Villains spreadsheets I have pretty much made that clear.

I PvP, that is the answer for me, but I realize that, this is not the answer for everyone.

I suggest that the Devs add more Quest like arcs.


For instance, there should be an arc that guarantees a purple recipe. Difficulty adjusted accordingly. This should also be timed.

2 Merits for defeating every 100 enemies.

Survival type mission where a team of 8 is placed in a large room and wave after wave of enemies attack the group and get tougher and tougher and tougher. From a group of minions, even up until a group of AVs. Of course different mixes along the way. As you defeat the waves influence is increased by a given amount. If a group is able to defeat the group of AVs and ultimately the challenge, they are awarded a random recipe roll. There should be 3 levels, the first lvl you get a bronze roll, if you pass the second level a silver, and if you pass the final, the rare.


Just some ideas...

Roleplay.


Roleplaying's not for everyone, but there are things that everyone can do to 'immerse' themselves in character:

Write fiction for your characters. Write dialogue for them as if they'd meet different NPCs in game. Sketch them. Spend time thinking about their motivations and how they'd act in different situations.

When creating new characters, create the character first on paper without regards to CoH's power system. Spend time on their origin and the mechanism by which their powers work. Then make the powers you select fit the character without worrying about min-maxing your build. Get GOOD at playing them, and then amaze everyone with your odd, but highly effective powers.

AE. Not the farms, not the random arcs, but the good arcs. And some of the best, picked by the players, are in the link in my sig.

Take a break. You can't play the same game forever, and it's not the game's fault you get bored. Most people will eventually get bored of even the best and most wonderful things.

Do something else for awhile and come back when it feels right.

Then there is:
Badge Collecting. Some are easy, some are harder to get. But there are hundreds of them, get in the 600+ club.

L33t IO mastery. Get fully IO'ed up. Amaze your peers by soloing that GM.

If you have not done so. Start playing real content (non newspaper/radio)

I want to mention base building, but admittedly it's not something you can just pick up and get into, because prestige is hard to come by. Having a place to call your own that you designed and built yourself is really, really neat, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nem74 I've leveled every AT to lvl 50, but let's be honest, if you don't invest at Wentworths or the Black Market, you're toon is going to be sub par at best.

WW is half the point of the game for me, but then I was always one of the trade/economics/crafting-minded players. I would play the market even if there was no money to be made.

To keep the game interesting, I tend to take two or three weeks breaks. I sub month per month and immediately cancel, this way each month I have to gauge my interest to see if I renew my sub or not.

As for IOs, if you feel your character is subpar without them, I'd say you can at least try to frankenslot cheap sets. Going from level 1 to 50 without taking shortcuts should net you a good 100 million influence at least, without playing the market, which is quite enough to get started.

There's not really much I can add to the list, but what I've found to be quite fun is creating random characters in AE. They don't have to be used for an arc, just a random character, story and all.
Writing AE arcs is quite rewarding as well.

Another thing which I do is try collect all the Temp Powers via Ouro. Then try solo a GM with the temp powers and whatever else you may have at your disposal.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I appreciate everything that has been said here.

Good luck out there gang.

I got back into the game by playing Aion. Aion is a fun game, because it's new and shiny, but truly it made me appreciate it here more.

The general chat in Aion is a few step below neanderthal, which makes me appreciate most of the people here. CoX seems to attract a more laid back, less selfish crowd.

In the actual game, I got tired of dying when a second mob would aggro and kill me. Takes alot more than 2 even cons to kill me here!

It's also great that it doesn't take a long time to get from A to B here. It's also doesn't cost alot of ingame currency to do anything. There's no bots here, and very little inf selling.

In short, check out some other games. the grass isn't always greener over there.

I found an interesting distraction when I was growing weary of soloing was to get a second account on a second computer and try and play them both at the same time. The increase in concentration it takes (for some pairings of characters) has seen me through a couple of times when I lacked my usual enthusiasm for the game.

Oh, one other thought that occurred to me...

I used to do this with games like Diablo and Diablo 2... but I figure the same thing could work for CoH...

Play a "live off the land" style game. You are allowed to ONLY use the inspirations, enhancements, etc that are dropped to you. NO BUYING anything. See how long you can survive and whether or not luck is your Mistress or you her B**ch...