Open world for both Factions

Well, I always assumed the reasoning with those zones was something like Vanguard/The Midnight Squad basically telling everyone "Look, the Rikti/Nictus are going to Take Over The World/Destroy the time stream, and if they win we'll all be SCREWED. So Unless you want to be Riktified/Possessed by a Nictus/Killed, then stop fighting for 5 minutes and HELP US!"

So Heroes and Villains help each other because the world is at stake. Heroes out of heroics, villains out of self preservation (Or if you're like me and my fixation with "Good" Redside toons, Also Heroics).

Here's an idea though... What about a PVP Layer?

There could be two layers for every zone. One that's labeled PVE, and can only be accessed by people of an appropriate faction (So, PVE Cap Au Diable could only be accessed by Villains, Vigilantes, and Rogues),
and a PVP version that is open to anyone, but in which PVP Fighting is allowed, normally neutral NPCs would be hostile if you're of the opposing faction.

Therefore, we'd have a cross factional system that not only made sense, but it also doesn't disrupt normal game flow. ((And of course, there could be PVP Scaling in these layers as well.))

Going further on the concept, there could be a post-mission ambush of police that try to 'arrest' you. 'Course, that's a whole new can of worms; even assuming that NPCs are able to distinguish between hero/vigilante/rogue/villain, there would be a chance of innocent vigilantes or rogues being caught in the cross-fire.

Also, there's the issue that only GR subscribers will be able to take advantage of this content, so until GR is old enough that it's merged with CoH/CoV (as CoV was with CoH) I wouldn't count on seeing much of this.

But I want it.

huh?

Warcraft I-III were RTS games. They had an online combat system (free, not subscription), but by no definition were they an MMO.

Yes the fact that they had a loyal following was a good seed, but not a primary reason for WoW's success. I know a lot of RTS players who wouldn't touch an MMO. I also know the resemblance between Warcraft and WoW are fleeting at best.

This game was designed around PvE. It has never had a significant PvP population. Most players avoid PvP with a passion.

Why is this important? Because with the current setup of 4 PvP zones per server the insignificant number of PvPers we currently have, which are scattered across 11 servers, have trouble finding opponents.

And (generic you) you guys think it will be easier to find opponents spread across 45 zones and 11 servers?



The only open world PvP idea I'll support would be a dedicated PvP server. The PvPers could then go there to pound the snot out of each other while the rest of us play the game in peace and quiet.

Not exactly, but close. It wasn't an MMO, it was mainly a single-player Real Time Strategy (RTS) game that supported online multiplayer; the original game I think only supported 1 on 1 matches, the second up to 4 people, and I think the third game supported 16 (I never played that one, so I don't know for sure).

And there was no "subscription" for the original Warcraft games; you just went to the store and bought the game box, then you could play it as much as you want. If you wanted to play online, someone would host a game, using their machine as a sever.

Also, don't forget StarCraft, the space version of Warcraft that was one of the first to hint how popular online gaming would become in the next few years.

Edit: Guess I'm a little late to this party. Plus, as Westley mentioned above, I forgot Diablo, another very popular multiplayer (but non-MMO) game from Blizzard.

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

I fully agree to this. In fact, I propose the following: Merge the US and EU server lists. Then use the least used EU server AS the new PvP server, automatically transferring all characters on the server to the other English server. From what I keep hearing from Euro players whining there is one server that is almost completely dead at all times. I can't remember the name of it, but I know that they keep whining about how dead it is, so I'm sure they won't miss it if it's gone and they have access to all the US servers.

Buffer with pvp flag turned off constantly buffs a player with pvp flag turned on. Instantly unbeatable combo.

Union = 140 online
Defiant = 87 online
Zukunft = 26 online
Vigilance = 73 online

I have just litterally logged on to all our servers to get those actual figures. This is our peak time. Please dont say it again like we are over reacting and a bunch of whiners.

Edit: The above are blue side, so imagine villain side.

But it does make sense...in a game. That's what you're ignoring. We can't divorce the fantasy from the mechanics. Your position is pedantic. Games have rules. Some zones are PvE but shared space for heroes and villains. They are that way because many of us find it fun to share the same space with the other side.

You don't like that? That's cool. But to argue that it doesn't make sense is flatly wrong. It makes plenty of sense in the context of a MMO.

I stand corrected.
My real point was the 10 year head start they had over CoH. Those players who were in Warcraft would naturally try and most would sub to WoW.

I'd personally enjoy a system like the one they had on my WoW server- PvE unless you were flagged, which required some sort of action on your part.

But I don't mind the current state of affairs, and I doubt the playerbase would get on board with any sort of open flagged PvP, given the general antipathy to head-to-head competition.

How? Last I knew there was still no way for a player to get a definitive count of everyone logged into a server. There were too many holes in the output of the search tool.

This is going by the /search command. Obviously doesnt take into account hidden players, but the numbers of hidden players would never be THAT high.

I wouldn't be so sure...

No. Here's why...

First off, PvP isn't balanced. Duels are won by specific builds. Yes, part of it, is who is behind the controls. But when I can take my GEN IOed Scrapper, and win against a IOed out DOM, with a PvPer who knows more than I do about PvP...admittedly, they beat me hard the last time...but then I wasn't paying attention half the time, as my build wasn't set up for PvP to begin with...(lacking height power for one thing...so staying up high, and SJing around put me at a disadvantage right there).

Second off, it's immersion breaking. My hero see's a villain, and I go to stop them, but I can't! Why? Because they're not flagged to PvP.

Third off, continuing on with immersion breaking, some concept should win based on that alone. I'll say it again, Superman will always beat Batman in a fist fight.

But let's not go with Superman, cause someone will probably say "But Batman has a kryptonite glove!" Thor will always beat Batman. Hulk will beat Batman. Flash will just run at max speed before Batman knew what hit him. ect...ect...

Peak human will lose to super human.

That's not how CoH is setup. CoH is setup by a numbers game.

Fourth, I don't want to hear the inane dribble of a PvPer, who calls losers names because they don't know how to win gracefully, and I don't want to hear the sad pathetic whining of someone who loses (and yes, it happens in PvP zones).

WoW has it's numbers because of alot of factors, one being it's a known property. Warcraft. Made by a known company. Blizzard. While it's game play isn't to my liking, I won't go and say it's 100% terrible.

The fact that it doesn't require a massive new computer helps it as well. Not to mention while people here might not like it, it has a generally appealing art style to it's game.

My personal guess on any MMO competeing with WoW for numbers, won't be untill they make a Pokemon MMO, where you can actually catch every pokemon every made!

So, making CoH open world would really just be annoying, more than helping it gain more subcribers. IMO anyways.

Which was my #2 point in my list of reasons WoW is popular. Warcraft was Blizzard's most popular series. Of course the Warcraft fans were going to try another Warcraft game, even if it wasn't an RTS.

This is the same train of thought that caused people to purchase Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

Unfortunately EU_Damz, the search tool provided in the game is unreliable. You may notice that with every search there is a little blurb in the tool that reads. "This list has been truncated." I discovered this a couple of years ago when a friend of mine complained that she found it hard to get on teams and seemed to never get invites. She claimed she does not show up in the search tool.

I tried the search tool and discovered that indeed, her name didn't show up in it. If I specified her toon name or the first 3 letters of her toon names she would show up. I also noticed that some other friends would never show up in the search tool, even though I new they were on. However, there would be some days when the missing names would show up in search and other days when they wouldn't

We reported this as a bug, but aside from the form e-mail that they have sent our bug in to QA we never heard anything more on it.

To this day, the Search tool remains truncated, and incomplete, as far as I can tell.

Maybe not. But even if we assume there's a further 50% hidden and otherwise not visible, those are pretty low numbers.

On Virtue right now at 8:00 PM CST, redside, I have 310 people. That's at night, on a weekend night. It's usually quiet on Saturdays because people are out and about.

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

Oh I know exactly how to use the search tool.
My point is in regards to UE_Damz retrieving number of players logged into the servers. (Post number 109 in this thread)

A blanket search with no qualifiers does not list everyone who is not hidden that is currently logged in.

By the way, I consider this broken, because I don't build PUGs by what ATs I think I need. I'm willing to offer invites to anyone regardless of their ATs. So I prefer to use blanket searches rather then put in qualifiers.

Besides, team members get irritated enough waiting for teams to get filled out. Taking extra time to put qualifiers into the search tool only sucks out more fun.

167 blueside Triumph at 9.23 Eastern