Is CoH gonna be okay?

I'm all in favor of seeing some of the older zones get revamped and fleshed out, but I recall something Positron said during the 5th anniversary event. He said it takes the same amount of time to redo an existing zone as it does to make a new zone so they are focusing on just making new zones. Now that can be disapointing to vet players but to new players dozens of zones can seem like it will take forever to explore. We have 40+ zones to CO's 5 zones. Which one will get boring first.

Apparently you don't care too much for cityscapes, because CoH provides a large amount of them that are quite good looking. Kings Row does have a certain gritty feel that can be appealing to run through, and feels quite similar to a lot of comic book landscapes you'll run into. Founder's Falls is completely different, and absolutely gorgeous, I would say. Architecture on par with any major world city, and it's fun just to look around. Talos Island takes a spin on the cityscape thing, adding in more natural areas, etc. Croatoa and Faultline are quite different from other zones, besides matching up with the storylines for those areas. Striga also has some nice ambience... I particularly like the volcano, myself. Even the War Walls glow provides a certain ambience.

And I would say there is a huge difference between night and day... glowing streetlights and stars look significantly different than the daytime sun. Sunrise and sunset are quite stunning to look at as well.

It is fair to say that these things will look even better with the Ultra Graphics mode Going Rogue is going to offer, but they are quite good now (upgrading my computer about a year ago revealed a whole new layer to how good CoX can look).

Also keep in mind that there are those that think WoW's art approach is "ugly and sucktastic." I don't particularly agree, and enjoy it as well. For the genre and the look the games are going for, both do pretty well. It's no reason to sit on laurels, however. The devs really do have to make the new zones in Praetoria look great. And they are also hopefully creating more map layouts and tilesets, as the game really does need more of those.

Apparently you don't care too much for cityscapes, because CoH provides a large amount of them that are quite good looking. Kings Row does have a certain gritty feel that can be appealing to run through, and feels quite similar to a lot of comic book landscapes you'll run into. Founder's Falls is completely different, and absolutely gorgeous, I would say. Architecture on par with any major world city, and it's fun just to look around. Talos Island takes a spin on the cityscape thing, adding in more natural areas, etc. Croatoa and Faultline are quite different from other zones, besides matching up with the storylines for those areas. Striga also has some nice ambience... I particularly like the volcano, myself. Even the War Walls glow provides a certain ambience.

And I would say there is a huge difference between night and day... glowing streetlights and stars look significantly different than the daytime sun. Sunrise and sunset are quite stunning to look at as well.

It is fair to say that these things will look even better with the Ultra Graphics mode Going Rogue is going to offer, but they are quite good now (upgrading my computer about a year ago revealed a whole new layer to how good CoX can look).

Also keep in mind that there are those that think WoW's art approach is "ugly and sucktastic." I don't particularly agree, and enjoy it as well. For the genre and the look the games are going for, both do pretty well. It's no reason to sit on laurels, however. The devs really do have to make the new zones in Praetoria look great. And they are also hopefully creating more map layouts and tilesets, as the game really does need more of those.

I'm fine with cityscapes. I'm just pointing out a whole world provides more visual variety than a city. The designers have done a great job with the variety of city zones, but you can only do so much with skyscrapers.

The only thing I've ever objected to about the cityscape was when they built the same AE building in every zone. It fits fine with some zones, but looks terrible in places like Brickstown or Kings Row. It looks extremely stupid in the Rikti War Zone. I would be highly amused if they would build one in Pocket D, and set it floating outside where it can't be reached most of the year.

I played WoW for about 3 months this Summer. Once I leveled a Hunter up high enough to purchase a mount, I spent the majority of my time exploring the world. It was a very interesting place. Then I suspended my account and played Champions Online for a week, then I came back to CoH.

This was pretty much what was said at Hero Con also...

I'm STILL not convinced that Chris Crocker is male.

Fixed that for ya.

Bill, GET DRAGON AGE AND BORDERLANDS.

DO IT, DO IT NAOW. LOTS of fun.

Declare victory and retreat. Check.

Some hawt Tyrant slashfic?

Self-Righteous Trolling. Check.

So you replied to self-rightous trolling with Self-Righteous Trolling?

I'll admit that my excitement for GR has to be contained by playing other games. I've been playing Champions on and off, preparing for The Old Republic and playingDragon Age just to contain my excitement. If I play too much CoH I'll get let down when GR launches, or will be bored of the game by the time. Better save my hype for when it launches so I can go crazy about how amazing it is then. :P

Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler you *******!!!!

It's also somewhat off base if he actually bothered to read the thread. Not that the OP didn't have any points, but the way he reacted to any response in the discussion that wasn't total agreement with his assertions made Zub's reply actually rather accurate.

Yup, the facts as you see them LOL. Again, disagree with your opinion

It would be nice if some of your replies were actually useful or added to the discussion.

1) Hate to break it to you but CoX is noted as one of the more repetitive MMOs out there. Many reviewers and comments also support this on various sites (namely massively. com and mmorpg.com plus others). Not a big deal...I'm still here and hope to see these concerns addressed. So, when you state the obvious (impossible for DEVS to keep up etc., I think we are all aware of this fact) it doesn't really help. We have a lot of stuff to do so they don't need to add anything that is so repetitive. All of the new stuff could be a bit more unique. This game does not lack content.

2) You comment here about how no MMO can have infinite numbers of maps etc. I think this is more than obvious and I am so glad you used it as your retort. Speaks volumes. Again, I wonder what sane person would expect it all to be unique. All I ask is for a bit more unique looks (maps as an example). Honestly.

When I note architecture, I don't recall asking for scaling 40 stories etc. Do you even play this game? Are you telling me the interior designs of the buildings would exist in an actual building ...really? I thought people would figure out my comment but you obviously did not. The offices are pretty odd...walls in odd spots, odd staircases, buildings at angles etc. Not a big deal, really. So, yeah, let's have floor plans that are a bit more realistic. If you think I am suggesting we do 40 story kill alls well...I won't say it

There is no reason why they have to stick with the city for missions. They went outside of the city many times so that's not an issue. They have zones that don't involve Paragon or the Rogues Isles. There is enough city and it would be cool to see a new look

Anyway, I enjoy reading your replies and how you make assumptions so you can make even more outlandish replies. It seems to me you are one that is looking to argue without the ability to debate or make rational arguments. Kinda makes me scratch my head but it's also pretty funny

I am a new player and I love the game. Been on for just over a month and have no trouble finding teams when I need them, I find the interface and graphics to be great, there is plenty to do and I find the variety of character options to be really interesting (not cookie cutter with new colors, actual differences that change game play style).

Good for you and welcome aboard!

It's nice to see someone appreciate all the good stuff this game has to offer.The doomsayers and whiners get alittle tiring after awhile.

Mmm yeah. Some can say dated. I like to say aged.
It isn't like CoH has been sitting on a shelf rotting and falling apart. CoH has been nurtured by the NCSoft, Paragon Studios, and the player base.

The graphics have been improved repeatedly. There was another graphics upgrade in i16. I'm not talking just about the power customization, but there were new face options added (they may have been added in i15). Take a look at them. I think that most if not all the original faces have been removed from the character generator. If a character still has an original face, you can tell by looking at it. (If you do a costume change it will automatically take replace the old faces that no longer exist in the editor, so many may not have noticed this change.) Heck, I remember when the the trees were the old x-style two sheets of graphics. So there has most definitely been graphical improvements since the release of the game and with pretty much every issues of the game.

I'm seriously wondering how you know or can tell that the engine is dated by playing the game. If the game plays well, the underlying coding really doesn't make any difference.

I'm not sure what you mean by the combat is dated. Auto targeting is common in MMORPGs. Skills percentages effecting combat is not only an MMORPG standard, but it is a standard in RPG's on general.
CoH isn't an FPS. It isn't meant to be.
On the PvP front, the archetypes were never balanced and PvP was added as an after thought.
The mechanics used - including power cool-down - are all very good ones for a game environment that has people playing on various levels (speeds, storage, graphics cards, connections, etc.) of equipment. These mechanics make the game balanced, so some players don't have an advantage because of their more powerful equipment or faster connection.
(I know some people that still try to play on dial up. At this point, characters switching costumes (power customized) can even cause them to dc sometimes. I pay an amount on my phone bill to have internet service run out into the country. A friend of mine doesn't live that far outside of a big city, and they still haven't run DSL to where they live.)

Server populations greatly changed during the whole AE Farming/PL'ing craze. A certain type of new player flooded into the game and immediately wanted to join the most active servers. Those players joined Virtue and Freedom for the most part.
Players started to get tired of the activities of the new type of player and left Freedom and Virtue to find other servers to play on. So some of the player base was moved around. Some new players were turned off by what was going on.
When the AE Farming/PL'ing was fixed (it was never intended to operate in that manner as far as everything I read tells me), this new type of player quit playing the game. The exploitation that they were looking for in the game was gone.
Several other MMORPGs have come out since then that would have an impact on the CoH community; Champions Online being the major one. The curious thing though is that even though they may be playing other games - many CoH players keep their accounts active even when they aren't playing it regularly. You can go through the forums and see posts all over the place about people being gone for months or years at a time and keeping their accounts active. (Vet rewards may really go a long way for some people in regards to this.)
Add to all this the fact that some players play on multiple servers/sides and the population of any server can change quite a bit depending on the time of day and whims of the player base.

I believe that Dungeon Runner was a free-game with commercials. Not enough commercial support and the game isn't making money.
TR wasn't doing well from the get go as far as I can tell. A friend of mine tried it and said it was pretty much play-by-rail - which means that you are pretty much guided along through everything you do. I don't think it every became vary popular.
CoH has advertisements in game. I really haven't seen many of them lately. They are on the billboards. CoH just released another super-booster. I don't know what they numbers were like, but I'm sure many people bought it. CoH:GR (CoH3) is in production. So I would figure that the game would at least have a year after CoH:GR was released, but I really have the feeling that CoH will last longer than that. CoH2 was CoV so I'm not really going to touch on that one.

CoH is the 1000 lbs gorilla of Super MMORPGs. I can't see it going anywhere in the foreseeable future. The graphics are being improved as the game progresses; they are far different from when the game was originally released. People have been playing cards and chess for centuries so I really don't think the game engine or combat system are going to cause CoH to fold. Server populations change, but CoH players tend to be loyal to the game even if they aren't actively playing it. CoH isn't a failing game; it is alive and vibrant.

I know that you are new .... or at least you appear to be new from your forum date. There have been many posts about this in the past so a little search-fu can help out a lot.
I've been here from almost the beginning. I bought the game when it came out. I saved up money and built a machine to play it on. I'm not bound by characters/sides/servers and I make my characters varied enough so that I always have an option if I'm bored playing any certain archetype or conception. This makes the game very alive and utilitarian to me. I can enjoy playing changing the game as it is refined and part of that is the increased ability to make the game what I want it to be.
CoH is a great game and it is getting better all the time. With free expansions aka issues, the game makes great strides. There are super-boosters to bump revenue numbers without causing a great imbalance in powers. There will be a renewed interest for many when CoH:GR comes out and with it a resurgence of active players.
One of the things that really makes CoH a great game is the core type of player base. These player are not only friendly and helpful to other players, but they also actively work to make the game better than the mechanics themselves. Players host their own contests and events, and, thanks to AE, we all can help make the game better by creating content.

Have no fear, CoH is going to be here for a good while to come.

Great post, but I wanted to comment on this claim about future content (GR, I17, etc.). I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm mistaken (), but I don't believe there are plans to do this. In fact, I think this was asked in one of the sessions I attended at Hero Con, and the answer was that "zones" are something that will continue and that there are no plans to alter this approach.

Well, if you're careful, you can use the market to do this and pay a 10% fee. A lot of people have asked for some kind of account wide bank or vault, though.