My Suggestions for the Game

I have some suggestions for the game that may or may not have been discussed before:


1. Raising the Level Cap above 50: While I like the idea of a terminal end-game, I think level 50 is a smidge too low. 60 - 70 is more reasonable. To expand the powers in that vacuum, I suggest that post-50 characters are given the opportunity to modify their existing powers. For example, let's assume Villain X has reached level 55 and is eligible for a slot. He choose to modify fire blast to have a smaller explosion radius, swap smashing for negative damage, add in knockback. Power modifications could be weight by adding in negative modifiers such as "increased activation time" or "deal damage to the user" in exchange for more positive modifiers. These modifications could also be limited by archetype, secondary powerset, or origin. (e.g. a Cold/Dark defender being able to add negative energy damage to a single cold attack or a Fire/Cold Corrupter being able to slow the movement speed of enemies affected by their fire blast attack)

This'd would allow post-50 characters to concentrate on shaping their character they want to be. Ideally, this customization would correspond to an increase in difficulty of post-50 mobs.



2. I find that many enemies or players on the screen freezes up my computer even at low settings. During the Halloween event, I literally crashed out. I hope you guys will work on making the client able to efficiently handle many characters at the same time. I feel like when there is a event, I miss out because my computer just can't handle the freezing.



3. Have you guys considered adding minor toxic damage to Plant domination?


That is all. Carry on.

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Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!

1. CoX is not WoW. Nor should it be. The Devs have nop intention of raising the level cap, and have said so. Most people like it where it is.

2. That I can empathise with...I'm also biting the bullet and building a new rig before new year. Server stability improvements, especually EU side, could do with some shoring up though.

3. Matter of balance. They obviously think it's WAI.

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1:
I'm in the minority that agrees that an expanded level cap would be nice. But I doubt it will ever happen.
The best we can hope for is that the rumored post-50 powergain will not be a case of "farm money until you can buy ****."

2:
That's more your computer than their fault.
But yeh, servers could use some help >.>

3:
This would of course require adjusting numbers, leading to probably lower damage output, due to a damage type being one of the less resisted ones.

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Hi, H!
Below, I give you Memphis Bill's Cut'n'Paste info sheet about the level cap.

• It is very good, especially in talking about why the 50 cap is the natural design and purpose in CoX.
• I personally would stress more the fact that 'The devs have said "Absolutely No" '.
• I would also have other points I would add. (and will, if it seems that more reasons are needed.)
• But this reply is always a good thing to include early whenever this 'really, really dead horse' issue is dredged up again.

Let us know if you need more. There is more that can be added. . .
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Why raising the level cap is not a good idea for COH

It's me, your friendly (?!?) neighborhood (close the blinds!) cut-and-paste answer. Why a cut and paste answer?

Because this is one of those suggestions that comes up a good bit, and I'm a lazy bum who doesn't want to type this each and every time.

I want more levels!
This game has had two level cap increases. Both times for the exact same levels. Both City of Heroes and City of Villains started out with content for 1-40, putting in the last ten levels the following issue.

So why not another? 50-60?

Well, sit back and let's take a look at it.

But World of Conanhammer has....! We should too!
Many other games have periodic level cap increases. New areas are introduced, new gear and new foes are introduced. CO* has been at level 50 since issue 1. Why is there no cap increase?

If you look at those other games, they have gear. Gear that gets replaced. If you want to get more powerful, you get new gear. They're heavily "loot" based. How many of them can you use your first Small Sword of Bat-killing and Armor of Somewhat Rumpled Paper in past the first few levels?

OK, you CAN use them. How suicidal would it be to do so? Old equipment doesn't scale well. It gets replaced. Old skills ("Nasty carpet shock") get replaced ("Nasty carpet shock +1" to "Ow, that hurts" to "ZOMG! Lightning!")

City of Heroes doesn't use gear. We don't have Swords of Swordly Slaying or Sniper Rifles of Moderately Good Accuracy to replace. They don't wear out. We have powers - powers you can use from 1-50. OK, yes, we have enhancements, and enhancements get replaced and change a power - but they make the powers themselves more powerful. You don't typically replace Tier 1 blast with Tier Eleventy - you use them both to create an attack chain. You don't replace your Healing Aura with Healing Aura Level 30, you add slots into it and make it more powerful. Are you a tank? Your armors overlap and complement each other - one giving Smashing protection, the next Elemental, the next Energy, and don't forget your Mez protection.

Right now, that system is designed around 1-50. The first 40 levels deal with getting YOUR powers selected and strengthened, as well as a few anciliary powers (travel powers, end management and utilities.) Level 41-50 has a few, select powers as you work through the high level content, powers that are meant to look at your archetype and cover a few of their "holes." Tanks, for instance, get a ranged attack to pick off runners, or start grabbing aggro with a bang (or a whoosh.) Defenders, after spending 41 levels buffing everyone else, get to self buff. And in public, too. Controllers get some damage, and so forth. Even the Patron powers do this, yes, adding shields, ranged attacks, immobilizes and the like.

All this, and the slots you're given, are designed around levels 1-50.

The top end "Gear" (top set Enhancements, including Purples, and Hamidon enhancements) are designed around level 50. So are rewards - such as unlocking Epic Archetypes. If you want to look at what another few levels would do to this stuff, I suggest looking for a Titan Calcite Shard.

What's that?

That's similar to a Hamidon origin enhancement, but dropped by the Crystal Titan. People don't use them - and didn't, before IOs - because they *wear out* in the early 40s. Why? Because the cap was raised from 40-50, so what, for one issue, was top end... no longer is. You'll notice there's no similar item villainside.

Other games have forced obsolecense of gear - and, the flipside of it, a minimum level of "acceptable" gear to do top end content (raids, PVP and the like.) This is part of what's meant by "The game begins at X level" in those games. COH... the game begins at level 1. Getting the "gear" is part of the whole grind built into those games, something that is decidedly missing in COH. Yes, you have to work at getting XP. But you'll get that regardless (unless you enable "no XP.") Even the "Purple recipes" don't need to be farmed for - they have a chance to drop from every mob. Not just a special raid, and even a sidekicked level 1 could have them drop.

Sidekicking!
Yeah, let's look at that. It reinforces the point I made about gear. What happens if you take a level, say, five in another game and bring them to the level 40 zone? They're useless, and quickly dead, generally. At least, if they can get IN those levels.

In COH, you can take that level five to the level 50 area, sidekick them, and - while they generally won't be able to do *much,* their attacks, debuffs and the like will scale. A sidekicked Level 5 Controller's hold will still stack. It won't last as long and they won't have accuracy as good as a level 50, but it will still hold its target or stack with other holds on tougher ones to get something held. Heals scale - an aura that heals 50 damage natively is now doing 400 while sidekicked. (making up numbers, but the concept is the same.)

There's no "useless gear." Powers scale as you get a full set.

I want to progress!
One of the (valid) complaints about CO* is that there's not much to do when you get to the end. Part of this is the design of the game, the "Journey vs Destination" mindset. And part of this is due to alts - you have a bunch of slots, and between debt reduction, patrol XP, double XP weekends and the like, you can miss a chunk of it by blinking.

What you want, in that case, is not "More levels." It's "More content." The reason people think "More levels" when they bring this up is what's already been pointed at several times - *other games.* You want more to do, and - there, at least - better gear to do it with.

Well... again, we don't have "gear." More content, though, is perfectly doable within the 1-50 framework, *without* an artificial level bump that breaks nearly (at time of writing) five years of foundation. We can have tougher foes - in fact, the same group (say, Circle of Thorns) will have different abilities as you go up in level, if they're a level 1-50 group. They get tougher. They're designed to be more of a challenge.

But I want a bigger number!
Here's the thing. COH is really built around being able to reach 50. It's an attainable goal, you end up with a varied suite of powers that really let you tackle almost anything. City of Heroes is far more favourable to growth *outward* (more content in the existing ranges, more zones, etc.) than *upward* (level 60, 70, 80, 9000.) Again, this is most strongly indicated by the lack of "planned obsolecense" of powers, and that you don't use "Gear." If you're a Broadsword scrapper, to use the most obvious example, you don't need to get the Uber Broadsword of Slicey-Slice at level 20, the SuperSlicer 9000 at 30, etc. to progress. You can change the look without changing effectiveness. And you can change your effectiveness by changing your slotting and/or IO sets - or build, given dual builds.

Without "Gear" to force into upgrades, moving upward (bigger numbers) is really more of a detriment.

Not only do you now have to figure out what will happen with powers and slots (especially with the large number of 50s out there - do you change the 41-45-47-49 to 45-48-51? What do you do with the 50s who have them already?) but you have to change epics (awarded at 50,) rebalance around a whole new set of powers, deal with PVP, and come up with a whole new set of rewards - like Hamidon origin enhancements, which would then be pointless, and purple recipes, which would no longer be "top gear" - to work towards at 60.

The population gets spread out more, and the 50-60 content gets burned through rapidly... and then we hear the call for another level bump, to 70. Which starts the whole thing over again. 50 is an attainable goal, you know you'll get there and be at your pinnacle, even if you don't drink. You'll be able to "catch up." Your character won't be obsolete.

In short... we can expand the game, add more to it, and give you far more to do without the artificial chase of "the next highest level after 50."

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Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus

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Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!

Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon

"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."