Feedback from a returning vetern:

I didn't know where else to put feedback, I guess this the place.

Anyhow.. I started CoH in January 2005. Played off and on until issue 12 or 13, can't actually remember. My memory is fuzzy, but I believe I quit just before Cimerora, and mostly because CoH was getting stale. So with background out of the way, on to the feedback.

Why I quit to begin with:
The first time I quit was because of ED. I came back because PvP had taken off. Siren's on Infinity was seeing plenty of players at peak times, I wanted in on the fun.

Then I quit "for good" after the purple IO sets came out. To me, they didn't make any of my weaker characters stronger, as I'd hoped they would, instead they made the already powerful powersets(combinations) even stronger, as I feared would happen. This was a total disappointment to me. To add to that, I saw the PvP changes coming down the line, didn't like a word of it I read (and still don't).

Why I didn't come back for so long:
AE was nothing spectacular for me, since by the time I had heard of it's existence, it had already been nerfed and the hype was over. PvP is dead. Power customization was something that I thought was cool, but it wasn't something that made me want to actually play the game.

My Opinion on Going Rogue- I didn't buy GR, but I wasn't impressed with the trial weekend's offering. 4? new powersets and a lvl 1-20 zone.. Wasn't there already enough lvl 1-20 content? The new powersets are nifty, but not 30USD nifty. Alignment changing is something I was never really interested in, and still could barely care less about. Waiting for 2 issues to be released to actually get the interesting content from GR isn't something I want to do.

The market- It's hard to use, tedious to make money with, and an overall pain in my *** to use. The interface is a nightmare, and honestly the old one was easier to deal with. I feel like, as a person who plays primarily endgame, making inf should be my primary focus. Well, it's hard to do, and not hard in the "This is really challenging my skills!" but hard in the "This is really challenging my patience." kinda way. Storage is too low (for characters and the market storage), reward rolls are too random (like they've always been), and earning merits is a pain when it should be fun. For the economy portion of the game to be enjoyable for me, /something/ has to be streamlined, preferably _all_ of it.

This is probably my biggest frustration. I've never had alot of inf, only ever IO'd out two characters, and have had horrible luck with rewards (like getting 8 centrioles in a row from hami). Over all my toons I have about 500mil, which isn't even enough to deck out one toon with purps and the works, which is what I really want to do at this point.

Too many activities- Out of thousands of badges, hundreds of story arcs, numerous Task Forces and plenty of other things to do, I am left confused at what I ought to be doing, and even more aloof as to what I actually want to do. It seemed like back when there was less to do, there was alot more going on.. which is what I like to see in an MMO: things happening. Remember when Hami was actually fun?

Seriously though... adding more content in the existing level ranges is redundant. In my opinion (and experience), MMOs should build up before they build out. What I mean is: City of Heroes has way too much content for all level ranges... while the endgame has been continually neglected. When this happens players become decentralized, making it difficult to actually find something to do.

Difficulty finding the community- Does one even exist on CoH anymore, other than the forums? I remember Atlas having loads of people, Portal Corp was bumping with action, Siren's being a good place to hang out, Arena chat was lively... it was an overall high sense of community. These days people seem to be niching themselves into private chats, colossal Super groups, or what have you. I cannot find common ground anywhere, which makes the game feel like a ghost town (or Dark Astoria).

So now that I've whined, here's some cheese. What I want to see in CoH:

-Cross Shard activities. When PvP zones were dieing, I said we needed cross shard PvP zones. This is still true. One of the best implementations I've seen in any MMO was a PuG dungeon finder system that randomly assigned people looking for a team to a team. CoH could greatly benefit from such a tool. (And no, WoW did not give me the idea for this,)

-Level cap raised. CoH desperately needs a higher "tier" of content. Somewhere for the "end gamers" to congregate. Sure, it's still a niche, but at least it's a public one.

-Market Streamline. As if I didn't say enough above, this portion of the game is very tedious, and frankly quite annoying.

-More Archetypes. I know this is alot of work, but there are many more possibilities to be had. We saw alot of creativity in the CoV ATs, I know more progress could be made in this realm. How about a Buff/Assault class, like a defender with a melee twist? Plenty of potential here...