What am I Striving For?

Hi! A little background on my question first. I led a guild in EQ, which I played for five years. Aside from small stints with other games, I was away from MMO's for a few years after that. Since 2005, to be exact.

Coming back, I chose CoH because it seemed to compensate for things other games got wrong. I can jump right into the action. I move fast, so there's no long wait while traveling to content. There are stories in place and things to achieve from level one. I don't have to wait for the "real game" to start. But instant gratification only goes so far.

The exact same things being achieved from level one are being experienced at level 30, which is where my highest character is now. Granted, there are a few variations on the missions, but the same things remain: Read a bit of text, go into a mission map, defeat a few enemies. Even in the more challenging missions such as TF's really are a rehash of the same experience over and over.

That could be overlooked, except for one thing: What would a SG leader lead his people to? In EQ, there were zones to work toward, big enemies to defeat, big loot to get. In CoH, there's no ultimate goal for people to work together toward... or is there?

I know this is a long post. Please excuse that. Bottom line, what keeps you hooked in the long term? What are you working toward or striving to achieve? What do people work on together? What's the point in the long run? Is it the same rehash of the same experience with a slightly different skin all the way through?

Welcome to the forums.
Go to the Rickti War Zone and take a look at the big round thing at the top of the map.

There's also our friendly neighborhood blob. (although he's not as popular as he once was). And a few Master-of (zero defeats, no temp powers) badge challenges for our higher-level task/strike forces.

And... there's also pretty much the entire shadow shard and its 4 task forces..... just, ah, make sure everyone has several hours free for a few of those. Although; not sure if you'd enjoy them that much if you're already starting to get burned out on the enter mission, kill stuff, click glowie routine.

Or, you could always try getting into what little PVP the game has to offer... But I wouldn't blame you if the idea wasn't entirely palatable.

Is there a SG on Victory (or, I'd consider paying for a transfer) that is regularly active, large size, and welcomes new members? Raid content would be wonderful. Building a SG from scratch seems unlikely though because I can wander one side of the world to the other and see two to three players.

The challenges of a, mostly, instanced game environment.

First of - let me introduce you to your new best COH-friend
http://paragonwiki.com/

* Badging. Different activities earn you badges, which you can then select and get a cool little title under your character's name. But, earning sets of badges can earn you Accolades. Accolades actually buff your character or give you powers. You can even get an Inventing/crafting accolade, memorizing Common IO recipes along the way - so you can indeed have a SG crafter if you like, or if you want to get rich on the market, slowly but surely, that's a good way too.
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Badges
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Accolades
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Field_Crafter

* High to Max level characters have almost all their faction's content in the game available to them via Ouroboros/Flashback system. But just as important, they can lead lower level players through higher-level content. The Super Sidekick System is pure awesome for getting together and playing. On top of that? You still have all the Task Forces available to you, and will be auto-exemplared for those. So you can help your SG mates through if you want.
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Flashback
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Sidekick

* Maximizing or tricking out your character is another past-time thanks to the Invention System. Now, its not as simple as "get the highest possible bonus" - when you build, you really do want to have a goal, and you've got a LOT of options available to you to reach that goal. For instance, I do a lot of exemplaring. A LOT. So my main character's IO sets are almost all at level 25. Insane? Not really. I had an Ah-Ha! moment when Catwhoorg pointed something out to me. As such my build is made so my character is pretty freakin' awesome levels 22-50 (a nice global recharge bonus, +regen and +recovery), and merely awesome below that

You might well have different goals, and different goals per character no less. Common IO's, Set IO's, Hamidon/Synthetic Hamidons and Accolades all positively benefit your character. Since the baseline for performance is set by TO's, DO's and SO's, you can, if nothing else, simply use Common IO's to effectively take yourself off the upgrade treadmill, too

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancements
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Invention_Sets
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inventio...n_Enhancements

* Chase Purples. Purples are the uber-loot of COH. If you want them, they're there, but be prepared to spend a lot of time and/or Inf to get them. Of course, if you're not interested in them (I'm not, personally), getting one dropped on you means you just got a massive boon for other projects once you sell it

* Social events. COH is a great social game. My friends and I have been in (and hosted a few) costume contests, biography contests, role-played, subverted the PVP arena to play Tag (only "It" may use sprint, tagging is done by hitting someone with Brawl, etc), gotten together to just shoot the breeze, etc. Remember too - your custom chat channels are cross-server and cross-faction.

* Go after tough stuff. Hamidon. The Rikti Mothership Raid. Getting Shivans from Bloody Bay or Nukes from Warburg. Beating Giant Monsters. Rikti Invasion, Zombie Apocolypse, Paladin Constructions, Troll Raves and holiday events. I think Giant Monsters are supposed to be getting looked at for the future to make them more interesting.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Hero_Zone_Event_Message
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Winter_Event_2009
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Valentin...Day_Event_2010
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Halloween_Event_2009
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Giant_Monsters

And let me tell you - if nothing else the Halloween Salvage is HIGHLY appreciated. Nothing like getting another costume slot, and getting it ASAP

* Go after milestone stuff. My SG has never failed the call of one of our members or coalition-mates wanting help with Cape, Aura or Costume missions. Honestly, I find this to be one of the best "binding" activities out there, even though we've all done them dozens of times.

* Base Building. That's what Prestige and even some badges are for! I've seen some amazing bases that have been built, not only functionally but cosmetically. Setting a goal - "We need X-much prestige plus Y and Z badges so then we can get A, B, C added to our base!" A well made base can be a source of pride (I love showing ours off), and provides very useful services to your SG members through providing teleporters, mediporters, Invention crafting tables, Ouroboros pillars, and storage for Invention Salvage, Enhancements, and Inspirations.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Bases

* Provision. Be it for high or low level characters, you can make sure everyone has what they need (at the least) or help towards what they want. Having a base and storage helps a lot. Get a good drop you can't use? Store it in the base. If its a recipe you can send it to other players, or make the Enhancement and store it. You can set permissions on storage, I might add, so if you're worried about someone stealing stuff, make on SG rank the official treasurer and limit access to that rank only.

What's nice is that providing can overlap with other things. If you want to stockpile specific types of Salvage, medium to large Inspirations, or even try getting recipes the Architect Entertainment buildings can provide those through earning Tickets and redeeming them. And if your SG mates like making missions (and make fun ones!) you can certainly play their missions with them earning Tickets too (win/win in my book). Going for Field Crafter or want to be the Donal Trump of COH? Help out your SG mates by providing them with Common IO's they need/want. Or send your salvage and recipes to anyone trying for Field Crafter. Like running through content? Earn merits and buy recipes you want for yourself or others may want/need. Stuff like that.

The better off your SG mates are, the better off the SG is.

This is just off the top of my head. I'm sure others can come up with more

Oh - when Going Rogue comes out we'll get more options for gameplay. Side-switching, new starting area, and the beginning of the Incarnate System.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Incarnate_System

By the way - welcome to the game! I hope you enjoy your time here

And to answer this a bit more directly...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atemis That could be overlooked, except for one thing: What would a SG leader lead his people to? In EQ, there were zones to work toward, big enemies to defeat, big loot to get. In CoH, there's no ultimate goal for people to work together toward... or is there?

There is no ultimate goal, so to speak, and that's considered a perk of sorts for many players.

Task Forces are COH's dungeon raids, so to speak. They usually end with an Archvillain (ie, a big baddy). They get harder, more challenging. The newer ones are better than the older ones, I find, leaning more on "challenging but short" which is great for most of my SG mates.

You're getting near eligability for the Imperious Task Force. I like that one, even with its warts

Oh, some story arcs can end with big baddies too, although you might want to check your difficulty settings to see if you'll end up with an AV or an Elite Boss instead. And finishing off an arc is another good time to call folks together if there's a biggie at the end.

Wow, thank you for all your help! I'll be checking out the server forums right now!

I've known about the Wiki, though badge hunting doesn't appeal to me as much as grouping up with folks to take on tough challenges. It's what MMO's are all about! (to me anyway lol)

Hopefully there's an active SG on my server

Another thing: People aren't quite as SG-centric in this game as they are in others. The current trendy way to find people to do things is global channels- if you pop on to RF2009, for instance (Radio Freedom, originally) there's a couple dozen to a couple hundred people on, generally on Freedom, and you can probably find 4 people interested in any given activity. Obviously noon on a Wednesday the numbers are lower than 8 PM Friday. If you find people you like and work well with, /gfriend them (they may refuse, for any reason or none; I assume people reject the invite for some reason that has more to do with them than it does me) and you will eventually have a fairly reliable group of people to work with.

Tough challenges: Statesman's TF, the Imperious TF, and Recluse's Strike Force (Villainside) all have medium chance of completion. Many people talk about them like there's no challenge- but there's a lot of play and learning (and teambuilding experience) that goes into doing them regularly, fast, and with a high degree of success. The Sewer Trial is, or used to be, infamous for turning disciplined, efficient teams into chaotic turkey shoots. I'm 1 for 2 on Sewer Trials, with 4 years between tries; about 4 for 6 on STF's, maybe 8 for 10 on ITFs, and 1 for 1 on RSF's, but I was with a VERY experienced and skilled team leader.

Edited to add:
"Is it the same rehash of the same experience with a slightly different skin all the way through? "
There are badguys with distressing new powersets and tricks, especially in the 40+ game. So it's still "beat the badguys, complete the mission, next" but there's a distinct chance of getting ground up and spat out. (Malta, I'm lookin' at you.)

I was going to say things along the lines of what's already been said - Rikti Warzone, Hamidon raids and high-level TFs are the real end-game meat. As for what keeps it fun for me - it's the other people, really. I can happily do any content I've done even a hundred times before if I'm having a laugh while I'm at it, but I guess that goes for any MMO.

Something noone else mentioned just yet... the missions from levels 35-50 tend to feel MUCH more epic. I hear ya when you say the missions are getting repetitive, sadly that's a byproduct of the old days, but the more recently created arcs are fresher, have more variety and are more entertaining. In particular, I'd check out the following contacts -

Keith Nance (Talos Island, 20-24)
Jenny Adair (Talos Island, 25-29)
All the Rikti War Zone contacts (35+, these go Levantera, Serpent Drummer, Gaussian, Dark Watcher - Borea is last but gets repetitive)
Maria Jenkins (Peregrine Island, 45+)

And later on, if you haven't done them whilst levelling already, the Faultline arcs are good too (Jim Temblor, Doc Delilah then Agent G).

Victory does have a smaller population, but that said, it's not like you can have more than 8 in your party anyway.

The advice on the channels is good, but on the smaller servers you will have long patches of time where there is no one on the channel also.

As for things to shoot for, badges, particularly ones that lead to accolades. And money, learn to market so you can get the IOs into your toons powers. Anyone that says the game can be played on only SOs is like when game developers list the minimum requirements to run a game. Sure, you could, but it's not the full game.

I started on Liberty and never soloed, but did pug exclusively. It's quite easy to get on teams on small servers as teams are actively looking for members rather than the other way around. The supply is low for the teams, rather than the players, like it is on Freedom, my home.

My personal goals, make really good costumes, buy all the booster packs, Get all the TFs on my favorite toon(s), keep my marketing toons at least active enough to support all my alts, explore new areas, like the Shard and RWZ, which also means getting weapon customizations and costume pieces, earn merits to buy stuff that way, and, if I really wanted to, make missions with the AE.

I don't really do AE for levels, but some people have made some fun stuff. One test of your toon that was made recently by a person I know, but can't remember his exact spelling of his name [Cyvert?] has three simultaneous ambushes spawned each time you kill a boss. Bad craziness.

But, hey, welcome to CoH(V). Katana ftw.