Nearly 7 Years Later... What Would You Have Done Differently?

Robot Masterminds should have a power that allows them to combine all their pets into a giant Mecha-Suit, Voltron Style.

(Think Granite, but with electronics.)

I would have introduced PvP, via the Arenas, with Issue 1. In fact, I would have had the values of Defense, Resistance, and what-have-you, set with PvP in mind when the game launched.

Also, a diminishing returns for slotting enhancements, such as we have now, should have been in the game from the get-go. I always thought that slotting six of the same enhancement seemed kind of cheap, and hard to balance. <_<;;

I think I wouldn't have spent as much time reading the forums.

I think I wouldn't have spent as much time listening the (now-gone) devs.

I would have held off on PvP until i5. At that point the Arena would have been introduced, to field test PvP for the release of CoV. With the release of CoV, there would have been a variety of PvP missions introduced, giving rewards that could only be earned through completing these missions. They would include NPC critters as well, to make them more difficult to farm.

I would have never created Arachnos. The Rogue Isles would have been truly Rogue, with various villain groups vying for power and territory. Your character would be an independent agent. Your contacts would be representatives from various villain groups seeking favors or allegiance, toadies sucking up to you, or people offering mercenary work. The Blood of the Black Stream would have been the VEAT. The Legacy Chain would exist all the way to 50, and there would be at least two other heroic groups running around so we're not fighting Longbow all the time.

I wouldn't have created such long-winded, repetitive storylines for CoH. I would have instead created shorter, more engaging arcs. I would have written contacts with personality. None of this "five contacts giving out the same arc" nonsense. There would be fewer zones. IP/Terra Volta would have been one zone, Skyway is unneccessary, as is Boomtown. Crey's Folly and Eden would remain as placeholders for future level 30-40 content.

I wouldn't have created Croatoa, instead I would have created new content for Crey's Folly and/or Eden.

Do not get me started on what I would have done differently regarding AE.

I would have let Nemesis die in Maxwell Christopher's arc.

The ability to attack and move at the same time.

I know and understand some of the reasons why it isn't a feature, but that doesn't make me dislike that particular design any less. CoX is the only game I know where you cannot perform those two actions simultaneously, and while I've gotten used to it, it still doesn't feel natural.

Going off of my previous post, let me try and present a more cohesive "What I'd have done differently with hindsight mode active."

CoH was originally concieved with several faulty premises;
- Everyone would team nearly all the time.
- Street-sweeping would be a desired method of advancement.
- Missions needed to have time sink elements to keep the players from chewing through content too quickly.
- Players are bored by hard numbers.

From these poisoned roots and the desire to force players into this line of thinking, most of what was really wrong with the game sprung. These are things that I would have removed if I'd known then what I know today and were in charge with this knowledge.

- ATs should have been designed from the beginning to be soloable.
- The chief method of making them soloable would be a non-binary mez system (as previously outlined) that would keep squishies from being immediately locked down and make non-squishies still feel some of the effect of the mez.
- Futher soloable modifications would include all AT's having at least one ranged attack option and some type of defense (be it actual defenses or the ability to debuff foes).

- Remove all Hazard Zone or replace them with non-hazard zones.
- Remove/Combine many of the existing zones.
- Atlas/Galaxy/Perez as one zone with the Hollows arcs re-worked into Perez Park and a Hellions/Skulls gang war event added (along with the Kraken).
- Kings/Steel/Skyway combined with both fire, SuperTroll, and Clockwork events present.
- Talos/IP/Terra Volta combined with ghost ship and Lusca events intact and merge in streamlined versions of the Striga Isles arcs located now on the docks and islands of the large port zone.
- Bricks reworked as main 30-40 zone (with prison break event and elements of Crey's Folly) and Founders/Peregrine combined into the 40-50 zone and incorporate the Flashback system into PortalCorps (and the monster islands incorporating elements of Eden).
- Keep Faultline, Croatoa, and the RWZ as all have solid story-arcs and environs that don't fit well elsewhere (as opposed to Striga and the Hollows).
-Set the zones side by side running from the Atlas/Galaxy/Perez (downtown governmental and park) to KR/Sky/Steel (the urban blight around the cleaned up core) to IP/Talos/Striga (the docks) to Bricks (heavy industrial and the prison) to Founders/Peregrine (hi-tech and upscale) so that war walls are not needed.

- Contacts would give you their number immediately.
- Missions would be redesigned to be mostly in the same zone and needless fed-ex and hunt missions stripped from the arcs.
- Missions would take place mostly within the contact's zone and each zone would have a whole series of arcs akin to the zone arcs of the Hollows, Faultline, Striga, etc.
- Radio/Tip missions would exist from the start and a lot of the previous street-sweeping crime events and Safeguard side-missions would only spawn in relation to certain tip/radio missions.

I'd do a lot more than that... but that's a solid start.

No I13 PvP Changes.

Since Release, I would have liked to re-emphasize the street sweeping of baddies in zones.

People back then complained they didnt do the story arcs because the rewards were not justifiable for the time, compared to killing mobs 5-6 levels higher than the group with a good team. So then mission rewards were increased, and the streets of Paragon grew quiet other than the occasional "Kill 10 ______" missions.

I think I3 broke ranged, and gave melee too much power. Ice Armor and Invulnerability, remember when you can only have one toggle at a time? No mobile mez protection... Unless you were regen with Integration. Fire tanks mez protection was standing in thier Burn patch... hehehe. Then Blasters got the mez protection from the same Burn patch, and that lasted all of maybe 7 days. Fire Manipulation was good for 7 days...

Blasters were designed initially to put out damage. Range as defense was a good defense, until EVERY mob was given a range attack with default sniper range to attack hovering players out of melee range.

I would have given Villains their own unique APP's alongside PPP's; Metal Mastery (spikes, Impale clones, ranged damage) , Acid Mastery (lots of toxic damage, targeted AoE's), Hatred Mastery (thrashing, psi damage, status effects), Reality Mastery (soft control, confusion, smash/psi damage) etc.