How would you introduce CoX to players of other MMOs?


Adeon Hawkwood

 

Posted

I have some co-workers who play other MMOs (mainly WoW and DCUO) and know that I've played CoX for a while. I found portions of this list elsewhere on the forums (apologies to the original poster, I couldn't find the link again) and thought it would be interesting to find a way to sell someone on CoX by listing features that are better-designed than or non-existant in other MMOs. The catch was to not reveal the genre of the game or give any other hints as to what it is. The people I showed the list to were impressed and amazed that one game could have all of this stuff, and none figured out what it was until I told them.

So here's the list. What things have I missed that you can think of?

-------------------------


I know an MMO that:

  1. Has seven years of content and updates
  2. Is the first, and still the most popular, MMO of its genre
  3. Doesn't limit you to only playing one realm per server
  4. Gives you access to 132 character slots out of the box, with the option to triple that amount
  5. Has over 750 different ability combinations for each of those 132 character slots
  6. Lets you customize the visual effects of your abilities
  7. Doesn't boost your character's abilities with ugly clothes that don't match
  8. Has literally millions of costume combinations available right out of the box, with hundreds more options you can earn, unlock, craft, or purchase
  9. Doesn't base your character's advancement on gear that can break, get lost, need repairing, or be stolen
  10. Doesn't involve politics for loot distribution -- all drops are 100% random for every member in your group
  11. Allows you to obtain any drop you want or need through the market or through regular play within a reasonable amount of time
  12. Doesn't require membership in a guild to participate in content
  13. Allows you to build massive guildhouses with medical, crafting, storage, and transportation facilities
  14. Doesn't have XP loss or make you run back to your body when you die
  15. Leaves your character with all their stuff when you log back in -- nothing decays
  16. Doesn't require spawn camping for specific kills/objectives -- quests are your own private instances for you and your team
  17. Has a crafting system that anyone can use without grinding raids
  18. Doesn't penalize your character's advancement or participitation in content for not using that crafting system
  19. Doesn't require your character's build to be min/maxed to be effective, though you can do it to your heart's content
  20. Has complete transparency of your abilities' stats and costs so you can see exactly what they do and what you want to enhance
  21. Has over 120 levels of content across three different realms that can be soloed at will by anyone willing to do so
  22. Gives players the option to travel to other realms to experience content on a non-PvP basis
  23. Has compelling stories and quests to encourage players to enjoy the journey to the level cap -- the game doesn't "Start at Level X"
  24. Allows you to go back and play lower-level content you might have missed
  25. Doesn't have an ever-increasing level cap that invalidates or makes obsolete lower level characters, content, and equipment
  26. Has quests that can be customized to be easier for the solo player, or as difficult as being on a full team
  27. Lets you call fighting 10-on-1 a fair fight, where you are the 1
  28. Has a quest creator that allows any player to make their own quests of whatever difficulty they want
  29. Already has thousands of solo-friendly quests made by other players up and available to play right now
  30. Allows you to team with anyone for most content, regardless of their level, and still earn XP credit
  31. Doesn't require the Holy Trinity (Tank/Healer/DPS) for group composition -- any combination of characters is viable for virtually all content
  32. Has PvP but doesn't require you to participate in it to advance your character
  33. Has an end-game system that can be used by solo players
  34. Gives you your own travel abilities instead of using super-expensive mounts -- or one cheaply at level 1 if you don't want to take an ability
  35. Has global chat abilities that allow you to talk to players on other servers, regardless of the character names or realms they're on
  36. Has a development team who will occasionally log into critical lore-based NPCs and roleplay them on the live servers
  37. Lets you fight time-travelling alien Nazis with giant robots in Ancient Rome (yes, really)
  38. Has one of the friendliest and most helpful communities of any MMO on the market
Sound too good to be true?

It's not.

Want to play?


Blondeshell (1381 badges) - My other badge hunters
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Posted

And "There's no spawn camping, no line of people to get the one spawn you need to kill 100000 of for 10 something to drop."


 

Posted

The biggie: No geek politics. Loot appears in your inventory completely at random. True equalitarian loot distribution, and everything you could want is either available on the market or (incarnate stuff) attainable yourself without a supergroup in a reasonable period of play.


 

Posted

Has pvp [on the right servers], but its in no way forced in order to optimize your character.


Topher Wade lvl 50 Claws/Regen
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Posted

-Team composition does not require the holy trinity (tank/healer/dps). Teams can work just as well with all tank, all dps, all mez, all buff/debuff. Some combinations are certainly more effective than others - but all combinations are viable for 99.9% of the content (and the remaining .1% is up for debate)

-Your character does not have to be shoehorned into one or two min/max builds to be effective, but at the same time you can min/max your build to squeeze out some extra performance, if you enjoy that sort of thing.


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Posted

All good points, guys. I've updated the list and added a few more things I thought of:

  • Doesn't penalize your character's advancement or participitation in content for not using the crafting system
  • Has complete transparency of your abilities' stats and costs so you can see exactly what they do and what you want to enhance
  • Gives players the option to travel to other realms to experience content on a non-PvP basis
  • Has compelling stories and quests to encourage players to enjoy the journey to the level cap -- the game doesn't "Start at Level X"
  • Doesn't have an ever-increasing level cap that invalidates or makes obsolete lower level characters, content, and equipment
  • Has an end-game system that can be used by solo players
Keep 'em coming!


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Posted

I got a few:

  • Allows characters of any level to group together and still both be useful and get full rewards
  • Allows you to fly anywhere - at level 14
  • Where 10 on 1 is a fair fight, with you being the 1
  • Where what you have is all still there when you log back in, nothing decays
  • Where raids can be done by a pickup group, usually in less than an hour
  • Lets you fight time traveling alien Nazis with giant robots in Ancient Rome (Yes, really!)
That is a pretty impressive list, though.


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Posted

No super-expensive 'mounts', you have your own travel powers... and if you don't want to take a travel power you can purchase some cheaply at level 1.

Your friends, no matter what their level, can join you and be automatically level-shifted to match the story arc or missions that you are playing (with few exceptions).


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blondeshell View Post
I know an MMO that:
3. Gives you access to 132 character slots out of the box, with the option to triple that amount
Sound too good to be true?

It's not.

Want to play?
Erm, sadly for your European counterparts this is still untrue!

Gives you access to 48 character slots out of the box, 24 of those on English speaking servers and 12 each for the French and German servers, with the option to triple that amount.

And we still pay more than you...

EU @Coolio


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Posted

* An average of three free content-expansions per year
* Development team logs into critical lore-based NPCs and roleplay them on the live servers
* Essentially, all loot drops equally from all enemies, instead of spawn camping or farming a specific mission, you can run whatever content you enjoy most and still get the most valuable loot


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Posted

Quote:
Has a crafting system that doesn't require grinding raids to use
the endgame does though


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by McNum View Post
Allows you to fly anywhere - at level 14
Actually, you can do that at level 1 by buying a jetpack, either from the consignment house or in Firebase Zulu. If you want a free one, you can get it by doing missions after you hit level 5.


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Posted

Lets you design your own guildhouse.

{also, I thought a realm was a server. What's the difference between the two?}


 

Posted

A fairly good list of what is different between CoH and other MMOs, but I wouldn't want to drop down all that at once on someone, especially all the specifics. Too much information can make the really important information harder to find, and on a more personal level making a huge list of pros can make it look like you're a fanboy to some (which would cast doubt on the value of your advice).

Personally I'd go with : you can fly or move really fast, your character will have unique looks, combat is fast and flashy, you can fight groups of enemies by yourself and come out on top, and while you can solo or team your way through the whole game just fine with any build, the game mechanics are relatively deep if that's your thing ; on the other hand, missions can get repetitive and PVP is pretty much a joke.

Edit: and I now realise that the actual topic is completely different from the topic title. Sneaky OP.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Quinch View Post
Lets you design your own guildhouse.

{also, I thought a realm was a server. What's the difference between the two?}
A "realm" is traditionally meant to indicate the "side" you're playing. So for CoX, we would have Hero, Villain, and Praetorian realms.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Coolio View Post
Erm, sadly for your European counterparts this is still untrue!

Gives you access to 48 character slots out of the box, 24 of those on English speaking servers and 12 each for the French and German servers, with the option to triple that amount.

And we still pay more than you...

EU @Coolio
Yeah, I did think about that when I first assembled the list, but I decided to keep it American-centric since that's my point of reference.

Here's to hoping that the NA and EU servers get merged into one client at some point!


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Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkGob View Post
the endgame does though
True, the endgame stuff can be grindy if you let it, but I was referring to the standard Invention system.

And even though it goes against my desire not to hint at the genre of the game, the point about time-travelling Nazis was just too good to pass up.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkGob View Post
the endgame does though
No, the endgame requires running raids, and may require grinding some level 50 content (which doesn't have to be raids). One ITF is always one Ancient Nictus Fragment, and it's not like you need twenty of them to forge into the Ancient Nictus Hammer. You really only need two or three for a Very Rare alpha boost.

Now, grinding up the shards for a Favor of the Well, that takes some doing. But that can be any level 50 content, so it's not like you're forced to run STFs in the hope that one of your pieces will drop and none of the other players will need it - and that Kahn that's forming is useless to you, because you already have as good or better stuff than what it drops.

We have it good here.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by AnElfCalledMack View Post
No, the endgame requires running raids, and may require grinding some level 50 content (which doesn't have to be raids). One ITF is always one Ancient Nictus Fragment, and it's not like you need twenty of them to forge into the Ancient Nictus Hammer. You really only need two or three for a Very Rare alpha boost.

Now, grinding up the shards for a Favor of the Well, that takes some doing. But that can be any level 50 content, so it's not like you're forced to run STFs in the hope that one of your pieces will drop and none of the other players will need it - and that Kahn that's forming is useless to you, because you already have as good or better stuff than what it drops.

We have it good here.
Even without needing them for favor of the well, you need 12 shards (or equivalent) for a tier-1 alpha, an ADDITIONAL 20 or equivalent (8 of them cannot be "equivalent and must be actual shards) for a tier-2, an ADDITIONAL Notice of the Well and I am not sure but more than 20 to for the tier-3, Then do it all over again from scratch for a second Tier-3 before combining both PLUS many more shards to make the tier-4.

It is well over 100 shards to get a tier-4 even using taskforces and picking the component options.

That is grinding. It is not bad as far as grinding goes in MMOs, but it is still grinding.


"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blondeshell View Post
And even though it goes against my desire not to hint at the genre of the game, the point about time-travelling Nazis was just too good to pass up.
Time-travelling ALIEN Nazis, even!


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade View Post
It is well over 100 shards to get a tier-4 even using taskforces and picking the component options.

That is grinding. It is not bad as far as grinding goes in MMOs, but it is still grinding.
Grinding, in the sense I've usually seen it used, means doing the same content a lot of times. Hero side there are 9 task forces that cap at level 50 and thus can drop shards. You could finish a Very Rare from scratch without having to do any of those task forces more than a handful of times each. You can also mix it up a little with tip missions and the occasional story arc. (I've heard that in I20 everything will drop shards, is that true? If so, you could probably get a Very Rare without ever doing the same TF twice.)

My point is, it can take a long time, but it isn't grinding if you're doing something new every time.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade View Post
It is well over 100 shards to get a tier-4 even using taskforces and picking the component options.

That is grinding. It is not bad as far as grinding goes in MMOs, but it is still grinding.
Sure, but you don't really need the 4th tier. The big benefit is the level shift and you get that with the 3rd tier. If you really must have the 4th tier, then expect to pay some dues for it. I have the 4th tier on one toon - mainly because it has a badge that comes with it.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blondeshell View Post
....
  1. Gives you access to 132 character slots out of the box, with the option to triple that amount...

I, too, will just say that is a bit mis-leading (to me at least). Sure 132 chars. (or more) if you want to play on all servers....but on one server you can only have 36 (?).


Great list though!


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Posted

You already get shards from ANY level 50 content as it is, so no grinding required there either. Even the NoTW comes from different tf ever week, so no grinding there either, at least not once everyone catches up with all their old 50's. So nope, no grinding required for crafting at all. I've gotten a toon recently the Alpha slot, then gotten on new boost every time he's played. That one common, one uncommon, and one rare from running a grand total of 3 tfs, using only the shards from those tfs and the salvage at the end of it, and no Grai matter.

That's not grinding.