If there were ever a CoH 2, what would it be? (Not a doom post)

Hi all.

This particular thought's been rattling around in my head for a little while now, in part due to the announcements about Ultra Mode and the various improvements to the game. Whilst I think it's great that investment is being made into CoH and this will improve the game for the long-term, I of course wonder what long-term means and if there's thought made to the future.

Several posters talking about Ultra Mode and the additions such as power customisation, Walking and the like mention how the dev team had to overcome the old Cryptic game engine (often described as a patchwork quilt held together by bandaids; not my words) and were able to do so with the extra resources. So now we're getting a game that meets our expectations.

So what of a 'City of Heroes 2'? What kinds of expectations would we want that aren't being met already in the Going Rogue expansion (War Wall-less zones, for example) or gameplay improvements?

For my own part, it's hard to pin down what I'd want to see other than a little wishlist. This in turn probably means having a game who's minimum system requirements would be higher than what we have now, but I see that as something of an inevitability anyways as when people will go to replace a part in an older system, they'll find they have to buy a whole new computer just to maintain a minimum.

So.

Environmental interactions would be a must for me. Love it or hate it, superhero battles where things are busted up is just a staple of the genre, and we only currently get it in Mayhem/Safeguard missions. I'm an open fan of CO's ability to heft objects around and throw them, and DCUO is going a step forward with powers being able to do the same. Yes, it's physics-intensive, but it's one of those visceral things I'd want to see in a superhero game.

Interaction is a good word to describe some form of PvP between players. I know DCUO is opting for a form of 'open PvP' where if heroes and villains encounter each other in a mission, they can opt to fight each other. I don't mind that in principle, but it should be by the same token entirely optional. You may not want to do a form of PvP at all, and it shouldn't be a mandatory part of the game. CoH/CoV always suffered a bit to me because the only places you could meet and wail on a bad guy were...PvP zones. Give me an system whereby bad guys and good guys can share the same space to some degree, and I'll be very happy.

As much as exploration to different areas of the world or universe are common to superhero comics, I'm not so sure they can be done justice in an MMO. By that I mean to display the exotic and make it seem exotic is a trick for most games, unless they're on a console where the resources can make it plausible. But more important is a consistent game world. If a moon base or another world is mentioned, I think it's incumbent for the game to follow through on that. In the case of CoH, the Rikti homeworld's been mentioned for a while now, and it feels a little like being shortchanged to not see it after all the effort you as the player may have made to at least know it exists.

The last two things are probably the most problematic to see coming about, but here goes:

The first is a 'secret identity' system. Sometimes I think systems like this where it has little do with missions or combat get lost in the shuffle of MMO's, but again, it's a staple of superherodom. You could make an argument for player housing (aka bases with furniture by Ikea), but I think more story-driven contacts could work better. For example, using an editor at a newspaper as well...your newspaper contact for missions (at least some of them). It's thematic, it suggests you as the reporter are investigating the story which only your heroic counterpart could solve. In fact, as I type it, I see existing contacts in this game could be modified for that purpose based on your choice of Day Job.

The last one is partly based on my time in Champions Online, and that would be a more open style of Power Proliferation. I think the powersets here are incredibly well-balanced for the most part and work quite well. Obviously, people want concept builds where you're super-strong and super-fast (a SS/SR tank/scrapper sort of build) or more relevant to the near future, perhaps a martial artist gunslinger. I do have some confidence in this simply because of the huge range of proliferation already done in this game (probably more than most of us who play are remotely aware of) and would love to see that continue to a point where you could (in theory) have any mixture you were after.


So, that's my thoughts on what a City of....2 would or could be like. What's yours?


S.

My list:

* Vehicles
* Destructible environments
* Non-human body forms (think 4 legged beasts, Centaurs, etc.)
* Craftable ammunition, magic artifacts, armor (temp powers that stack with character damage, defenses)
* Changing city environment (e.g., original idea for CoH was to tie statues in the city to actual amount of influence your character had)
* Account wide bank
* Far better PvP (better mechanics, better balance, better RP justifcation, better rewards, less susceptible to griefing)
* Better character customization

They ARE working on a sequel if you were looking at their employment page months ago. Hopefully it will have villains at the start.

One major thing: Get red of the Cryptic Engine so we don't need to use their shameful logo :O

Is that a given though or just speculation based on the hiring that's gone on? I've never read anything suggestive that resources are heading in that direction.

S.

- Not restricted to Paragon City specifically. More environments would be nice.
- More personalized enemies with better AI. May as well reappropriate the nemesis system here.
- A move away from "heroes" and "villains" as seperate entities at character creation to a more morality based system. Basically - have what I'm guess will be the GR set up from the beginning. You'll still be able to be a hero or villain - but it will be based on a result of the choices you make while you play.
- Missions where you have the ability to make decisions that will cause different results.
- More joinable factions - and factions meaning more than they do in this game.
- System(s) in place to advance your character that don't involve combat.

2013

- Better graphics and models.
- Way way way way more character customization. Both in powers and costumes.

Thats all i want really. Screw pvp.
Keep gameplay roughly the same, don't do anything CO did. Stay the f away from celshaded graphics. Possibly more end game stuff.

If they're doing a major overhaul anyway, all the little things we can't have now for gameplay or engine reasons, like...

• Powers that do knockback toward the user
• Cottage Rule breaking overhauls of existing sets.
• Weapon customization that extends to the actual type of weapon (like allowing a crossbow to be used for Archery)
• Toxic defense.
• Powers that reflect damage or cause damage to enemies who hit the user.
• Asymmetrical costume pieces and more attachment points for costume pieces altogether.
• More spots for costume pieces to hook on.
• Animated costume pieces. (But not animated hair, just to annoy GG.)
• Major overhaul of enemy damage types and resistance to spread some of the focus away from Smashing/Lethal on both ends.
• Non-total respecs.

The main thing I would want is to be able to pick where any and all powers come from like a blaster should be ablt to pick if his blast come from a rocket launcher attached to his shoulder, or and arm cannon, or even straight from the stomach care bear style.

Here's my idle wishlist.

EDIT: Oops, I ended up typing way more than I originally intended. Basically I would like to see something that feels and plays like CoX, but is still an evolutionary step upwards in terms of features and graphics.


Things I would definitely like to stay the same:

The particle and ragdoll physics. They still look great after all this time and add so much to the combat.

Paragon City. I don't want to see a completely different setting and new lore, but one that keeps the lore, even if they 'pull a Guild Wars' and set it in the distant future. I would like to see how the city and its enemeies have evolved.

Keep the instanced missions and keep Task Forces.

All the powersets return.


Things I hope Paragon Studios would add:

More proactive villainous content for villains, with less focus on meeting the demands of contacts- though without removing contacts entirely. Perhaps a PvEvP mission structure where villains set up (by a crafting system and materials gained through PvE) a crime event (scaling up with level, from simple crimes to world-destroying stuff) that provides them with one or several PvE missions. Success generates new PvE content for Heroes as they try to stop the villain's plans.

In some areas the above system could be implemented in PvP zones to create a PvP Mayhem/Safeguard feel.

Generally more interaction between Heroes and Villains - particularly in regard to the consequences of their actions. Keep the game PvE focused, but make the PvE have an effect on the other side.

An opt-in nemesis system that ties real Hero and Villain characters together, especially for your own alts. Nemesissing with other real characters, coupled with cross-side generated content, would bring the competitive and social aspects of PvP without forcing people to PvP.

A secret identity system, but not for combat or stealth. Instead, implement secret identity as a socialising tool. Trust another player with your secret identity and they can see your global handle (among other perks tbc).

You could also use Secret ID to gate mission content. Trust a contact with your secret identity and they'll entrust you with better missions and rewards. However fight an enemy group often enough and they find out your secret ID, then they'll begin to randomly ambush you when you least expect it. And if your secret ID gets exposed to a player from the other side, then expect them to become your nemesis in short order.

Alternative Villain motivations to be played out using a system like the above, plus the contacts available to a Villain character could depend on which motivation(s) they explore - greed, power, destruction, etc. Motivations could work for Villain contacts like Origins work for Hero contacts.

Arachnos demoted to one villainous organisation of many. Villain characters should no longer tied to the fate of Arachnos. Plus, learning about the downfall of Arachnos would be interesting. Who set it in motion? Aeon? Ghost Widow? Or a hero?

This next thought is a bit ambitious, balance-wise, but I'd like to see more flexibility in choosing powersets. I can imagine it working out something like this:

Quote:

Instead of strictly limiting powersets to AT choices, allow for a selection from almost all powersets across all ATs. Whichever two powersets a player picks for their primary and secondary determines the damage values, etc for each set and stats for the player overall, like HP. For example, taking a mastermind set would result in your other set being automatically weakened and you would have less HP. Certain combinations would be further rebalanced to prevent overpowered synergies. Based on the player's chosen sets, an AT is then assigned to them (or a choice of AT if they're similar, eg. Scrapper vs Tanker) and the AT will determine their inherent and finalise their stat line. Some powerset combinations would have to be restricted to prevent self-gimping, and some ATs would have to be invented to cover unusual powerset combinations, but the customisation options would be massive.

While we're at it, a wider choice of inherents would be cool.

Finally, graphics-wise: Animated hair, faces and fingers. Fully scaling body types, multiple stances ad glowie costume pieces like in CO. Maybe employ the Crysis engine that was used in the super pretty Aion. Aw hell, add jiggle physics in there too.

Dynamic Content (tm)...that is all.

First and foremost... character porting. I think if we go into CoH2 without being able to bring in our achievements from CoH1 in some fashion, then it would divide the player base and really hurt the game. Not trying to be DOOMy, but I think that would be a REALLY bad thing. Even if the mechanics weren't quite the same and our characters got changed due to it, or if we had to restart from level 1 and all our Legacy Enhancements were gray and stuck in limbo until we could use them... just being able to save all that hard work would be a major bonus.

So that's #1. Similar enough that they can port characters from 1 to 2, in one way or another.


After that, I don't really care too much about the game stuff (I do have a wishlist, but almost all of it has been handled already, and I think the rest is still possible in the game we have now, so no need to limit it to a sequel thread)... so I'm thinking more back end stuff.

Power Customization, even though we already have it, would probably be a lot better (and much easier for the devs to add on to) if it were programmed into the base of the engine rather than added on top. I'm thinking things like different menus for color, animations, and effects customization. Rather than having to have them all in the same menu pulldown (that could get REALLY long if they keep adding stuff on...)

Mission Creation is another thing I think would be nice to address. Of course, I know nothing about how it's really done, but from what I've heard it's kind of a pain. Remaking it in a way closer to Mission Architect (which is easy and fairly powerful), albeit with the limits removed and a lot more stuff added (that we couldn't be trusted with ). It could result in making missions easier and faster for the devs to make... which is only good for us. As an added bonus, if the devs could directly port MA missions into the game... well, that opens up possibilities too.

There's other stuff too, but my brain is too scattered at the moment to think of it all.

Better AI.

Moving hair.

And lots more polygons for our avatars, so we lose the sharp edges

so this coh2 would it be able to interact with coh or not?

if not then im not even going to think about what i want in it tbh.

if they are going to copy everything over to it and bin coh..thus making coh2 ...coh then maybe again ill think about it.

and lets not forget people this is a super hero and villain game. cant make too much fantasy based things...

ok tht wasnt a doom or moan just my continue questions and thoughts over a coh2. im more intertested about this movie tht someone is meant to be making.

Personal vehicles

Global naming

Personal apartments

Expanded crafting (but I love the current system revolving around enhancement sets - just more!)

The ability to pick powers across sets (while retaining ATs/classes)

Custom emission points for powers

More dissimilar zones

A more dynamic mission delivery system - and a working mission computer in your SG base (beyond the one SF)

Custom missions NOT tied to the AE fiction - i.e., they don't start in the AE building

I think it's possible to look at GR as a sort of CoH 2.0 - possibly even a sa teast run for something else, especially with the look of the zones - it has more detailed and individual looking buildings, with a backstory for each one, and what they're used for and so on, and the missions are directly connected to them - so you wouldn't get a lab map in a normal skyscraper, for example.

If there is a CoH 2, the thing that I want most of all is the ability to transfer some of my favourite characters. I know that's not likely, since they won't have us play level 50s on day 1... but I would really miss playing some of my guys...

Assuming that CoH 2 would feature a new engine, I have some ideas that are not possible right now:

Vehicles (Of course)

New attacks for certain GM's. Lusca for example can smack heroes with its tentacles OR it can grab a hero and either choke him/her or pull him/her underwater and try to drown him/her. Attacking a tentacle holding a hero will set said hero free.

Another idea regarding GM's. Have them attack the city and destroy buildings!

Incorporate grabbing and throwing enemies as a combat strategy.

Just some ideas.

I want to be able to go in any random buildings and see if that empty warehouse really is empty or have a platoon of Council Soliders.

No missions, no hints, just randomly spawn whenever I enter.