Prospective Player Questions.

My friends and I were thinking about starting into this game because of the deal on steam, but everyone keeps telling us that no one plays anymore and that the servers are all but dead. Now I don't just believe what 'everyone says' so I thought I'd come here to ask about the general level of activity. Is it still hopping? Is getting the game now a good investment or will we be looking at a waste of money in a few months? What are the best servers to play on? and basically anything that you guys think could help us out.

Thanks in advance,

Dantia

I've found the game to be worthwhile for the money personally speaking.But what you ultimately get out of CoH depends on what you are looking for.

If you enjoy personal advancement of your characters through solo methods as well as group methods, if you enjoy an end game that's easy to jump into without any serious commitments and if you enjoy just flying around and being a super hero you'll probably enjoy coh.

But any response you get here is likely to be biased in CoH's favor. Those of us here are after all paying customers.

Things that could possibly turn you off:

Non-traditional "loot"

Endgame isn't as "serious" or "competitive" like some mmo's (there's no world firsts or "my guild is number 1 on the server" type of environment)

Things you might find appealing:

Ample opportunity for solo advancement

Endgame is easy to advance in even without a dedicated supergroup(guild)


Populations on the servers vary. On my server Guardian I usually see plenty of players during prime time hours and my server isn't one of the highest populated.

Now, the problem is that we get a decent amount of people who come into this game, and don't understand where the population is, especially right now. So first, off, I have to thank you for coming here to ask first. There are a few things to keep in mind:

1) This game is heavily instanced. You won't see many people out on the streets, because missions happen in instances instead of outside, for the most part. Also, missions give end-of-mission XP and influence bonuses, and debt is halved if you die in a mission. So there's a lot more incentive to do missions than just hunt out on the street.

2) Right now, a lot of people are focusing efforts on their high-level characters. So the lower-level zones are a little deader than normal. That's not to say that you won't find people there, it's just a bit quieter.

3) A lot of conversations don't happen in the public channels. A lot of people in this game have set up or joined global channels or super groups, where you can talk with regular friends. As such, I highly recommend that if you do get the game, go down the forums here and find your server's forum. Tell them that you're a new player, and that you're looking for good global channels to join to find people to team with. That should get you a good start.


Also, check out the Mentor project, located at the top of the Player Questions forum. Lots of people willing to help out new players there.

The game is definitely not dead.

There are more active servers (Freedom, Virtue) and
less active (most anything else)

If you have a group of friends who want to join, there's
your team You can also lookup the global channels
for your specific server(s) for ease in finding other people
who want to team. I'd say jump in with a trial account to
see if you like it, but trial accounts can't start teams (though
can join them).

In some amount of time, City of Heroes will be adding a free to play
model, with the free accounts somewhat less restricted than the
current trial accounts (and more restricted in one way - you won't
be able to create as many characters as you can on a current trial
account). Paid subscriptions will still be available (with many benefits)
as well as "premium" accounts (anyone who has bought extras from
the store). Getting the game now wouldn't be wasting money, as I see
it - you'll start accumulating points for the new store while you enjoy
the game.

Aett is correct. The game isn't dead, you just need to know the best way to look for people. No one is going to make you the promise that you will be able to get enough people to do big things at any hour, but most of the time getting a group together or just finding a few people to team with isn't difficult.

Also, I just wanted to point out that you should feel free to come here and ask questions. We have a decent amount of people here that really do like helping out players, new and old alike, to get answers to their questions. Some of us actually have some informal competitions to answer questions (accurately) first.

So please, feel free to give us some fodder.

This post is one of things that concerns me about issue 21. How would this nice prospective player been able to ask his question and get answers from all you great folks without access to the forums as a free player.

[EDIT]

Oh and yes, you should really get this game. The community is *awesome* and the game is a *ton* of fun!

One note about the server list in game.

At the top is last server accessed (which won't apply the first time you log in) and from there least to most load.

I remain concerned about the new player experience. I know they're doing cool stuff with the new tutorial, which is a great start. But because the game is so heavily instanced, it just looks bad when that player exits the tutorial and the zone around them seems dead.

We need a "team looking for more" type of function so that a solo player can enter a queue and have a decent chance of being put on a team.

The typical responses like "join global channels" aren't sufficient. Most players don't frequent the forums and they don't know how to find or participate in global channels.

I think this is a great game but I am convinced many prospective new players will try it for an hour or two and come to the erroneous conclusion that no one is playing it and they'll quit and never look back, which will be a shame.

Definitely not dead!

As mentioned, Freedom and Virtue are the top populations [Actually, not sure where the European Servers fit in the population Ranking below those two] (although, I think plenty of the other servers are fine! I only play on Virtue, the unofficial Role-Play server).

As others have mentioned, it can be misleading when looking around and not seeing others... but that is mainly because there are so many zones and most people are in mission zones fighting things (in teams, big and small and solo).

So, the community uses global channels to arrange and gather teams and events and such.

Not that things are dead outside of that, but the right global channel on a server can make the difference of silence and constant communication.


What is also awesome in this game is that you, alone, ca have a ton of fun... Plus, you said that you and some friends are considering it...And, if you can play at the same times, you can pretty much tackle any and everything with just that group (plus join with others for fun and/or for if you ever want to take on something that needs more!).

Basically, this game is based around a very casual, fun, friendly set of systems. Hop on and play for a bit and enjoy beating up bad guys (or good guys) and send them flying. Enjoy watching your character do a cool variety of attacks, powers, etc.
If you like to take a super hero/villain concept and bring them to life and watch them play out super things on your screen... You'll love it.
Even if you don't, you may just enjoy the game itself.
It has layers of complexity (plenty of number crunching if you want to [it's just not needed at all], enhancement choices -to boost your powers effectiveness-, crafting inventions to give more stable and better enhancements, advanced set bonus invention enhancements, Post-Level 50 Incarnate End Game progression, joining/running Super Groups, Organizing/Running events/raids/trials...).

However, you can also ignore all of that and get a host of entertainment just from playing...
Some even fall in love with the character creator, costume customizations, super group base designing, writing your own missions, creating enemies to fight, creating story arcs, etc.

I see zero reason to not give it a chance. You may just be lucky and fall in love with it like so many of us!

I tried the Free Trial, just for fun, with no plans of staying... and I ended up subscribing and I've been here since.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyriani Things that could possibly turn you off: Non-traditional "loot" Endgame isn't as "serious" or "competitive" like some mmo's (there's no world firsts or "my guild is number 1 on the server" type of environment) ...

Completely valid points, but they could also be things that you love about the game (like me... non-traditional loot was a major plus for me. Give me my costume and never make me have to collect some weapon or armor to be the best I can!).

I know I'm probably coming off more as a fanboy salesman now, but screw it...
Another thing I think is great about this game is the variety...
Not just of what I listed above, but also just in the selection of powers within each Arch Type!

Not only are the animations and effects different, but the powers do a variety of different things that make each and all of them play differently than each other.
My Electric Blast/Electric Manipulation Blaster plays very differently than a Fire Blast/Mental Manipulation Blaster...
Never mind a Dark Melee/Regeneration Scrapper... or a Gravity Control/Empathy Controller!

Someone could probably give you the numbers of different powerset combinations... I'll just say it's a lot and it actually means something and I've never played any of them that weren't powerful enough nor completely fun.

There's no wrong choice with this game... other than not playing it!!

Haha... hope you all enjoy it... and do let us know!!
Best of luck!

Thanks for all the input! =) I've (well we really, 'cause I dl'ed the trial to both my computer and my husbands.) actually been making a character for awhile and played through the tutorial. There does seem to be plenty of people around, but not too many so that the gameplay is clogged. I think we are going to take the special offer on steam. Mostly because of how nice everyone was here. It's not often in an MMO community where you can actually ask questions and get help without being smacked over the head with some sort of "thou-shalt-not-be-a-newb" stick.

So thanks again and I'll definitely be back with more questions after I can stop playing for longer than five minutes.=)

Well, we are the smartest socks that I've ever seen.

*hides*