General_CoH

It never felt like a sandbox to me, but I loved it because it was built from stories. Things I did meant something. I don't like the menial tasks in other games, just helping people because they're too lazy to move a single step. I also liked how quick it was. One I got my travel power I didn't have to worry about avoiding mobs, and I could just enter the game, fly to a mission and finish it in 15 minutes or so. Great for casual play. At high levels it even felt epic, though still not insanely difficult.

All in all, it's a game that appealed to me on many levels. The only other game I played for any significant amount of time was Everquest II, and I left it precisely because I ran around doing menial tasks and avoiding mobs while taking half an hour just to walk to a mission. That even though I enjoyed crafting and trading (which weren't in CoH at the time, and even where they arrived weren't as fun as in EQ2). Thankfully by the time EQ2 became F2P the game has introduced decent story based content at the low levels as well as sped travel quite a bit, and I like it more these days. (My self editor wanted to delete this discussion of another game, but it's been set free by the impending death of CoH.)

I don't really play games much these days, so although I'm very saddened by the death of CoH I'm not that affected by it. I played a few hours of DCUO and it was enjoyable enough that I'd like to play it some more. I might play Champions Online a little just because I read on its forum that once you get a character to level 10 a lot more options open up on the character creator. I also have an Everquest II account which I occasionally enter.

That depends. If the 3 month code I have will work, then I plan to go over the characters of my main account, do screenshots and save the ID's of those who have them. If not then I'm just going to screenshots because I won't be able to activate them all.

On the other hand it would probably be best to just spend some time playing the game. I don't have much free time and haven't played much lately, and it would be good to do that before the game ends.

Edit: Turned out that my 3 month code was only valid for new accounts. I don't remember where I got it, and if it should have been this way. Might have or might have changed to such when they replaced the EU one with a US one. So no full data for my main account.

Almost since I started playing CoH I wanted it on my phone. I had an N-Gage at the time, which made me feel that phones could do decent games. I did a lot of design for a Nokia Series 60 version of the game, in particular UI. I felt that the relative simplicity of CoH controls made it a good target for a mobile adaptation.

At one point I even created a dummy S60 application which had a CoH icon and when started showed a scaled down image of my main from the game.

I enjoyed thinking of how to cram the game into the phones of that time, break down the scene, simplify the graphics, do the low level rendering (software rendering), but I realised it was a hard task, so I came up with other applications, like Scrapper's Challenge, a single player game with only indoor scenes and a limited character creator and advancement, and an app to access the consignment house, to trade on the road.

I dreamt of creating mockups of these and submitting them to Paragon Studios, even did some game captures and edited some images for them, but I'm better at dreaming than doing, and since I had less and less free time it really wasn't something I entertained seriously.

When I got my first Android phone I thought again about this, how far phones have come, and how CoH should still be the easiest to convert of the desktop MMO's.

And now I would no longer dream about this. I probably never would have never done anything about it, but it was still a nice dream.

My first as well, and the one I played most, but I'm not going to say I won't play other games. When I have some more free time (2020?) I hope to play some more DCUO.

This sucks. I hope that my hoarded VIP codes work. I'll see when I get home. I agree that it would be great if they just made everyone VIP's until the end.

Thanks a lot. The title of that thread was certainly not an indication of its content, which is why I skipped it. I'd love it if he could manage to get the rights.

Is this viable? Would it be possible to buy CoH (game code, content and IP) from NCsoft? If so, how much would it cost? I won't mind pitching in on that on Kickstarter and I'm sure many others won't. Probably quite a bit of money will be required, so I don't know how well it will work, but I'd love to find out.

I thought it would last forever. I always do.

It's been years since I really played the game. Since my kids were born (the first just turned 4) my PC gaming dropped severely. Even when City of Heroes became free to play I didn't return. I was there at the start of Freedom, I was active on the forums and Facebook and though I wasn't very active in game I tried to keep with it since. I created an occasional character, I even participated in a costume contest (and got to the finals).

But there's so much content I didn't get to play and won't get to, and it makes me sad. I have Going Rogue on two accounts and I never got through the Praetoria story arc. Never went beyond level 3 or so there. I never got beyond the first missions of the Incarnate stuff. I didn't experience most of the stuff that's been added or changed in recent years (except low level Freedom content).

I thought it would last forever. I thought my kids will grow up and I will have more time to play and perhaps get them on the game. I hoarded some cheap account keys when they were $2 or $1 so I could create new accounts. I kept a 3 month sub key for when I have time to play and planned to use it to play the Who Will Die arc, try Incarnate stuff and inch my account towards the coveted 7th reward level, where I'd be able to use IO's again.

Now I won't be able to do all this stuff. I hope I'll be able to do some of it. I hope there are still a few months before the game is gone, and though I won't be able to play it a lot, I will try to play it a little. I might go through more Praetoria missions or play Who Will Die (if the 3 month key still works).

I'm really sorry to see CoH die. It was the MMO I played most and I kept it on my PC's even when I didn't play it much. It's a part of me that's going away, and I really wish it didn't.

Thanks a lot to all you Zwill and all the Paragon Studios people. City of Heroes has always been a great game, and it's better than ever now. You've all done such wonderful work, and it's so sad to see it go away.

I guess I'll find out soon when I try. I hoarded a few City of Heroes game codes to use in case of emergency, and this looks like one. I need VIP status so I could post on all the boards and say how sorry I am to see CoH going away.

I think that Father Xmas hit the nail on the head. The devs made a decision to entice people to spend more money by putting some features behind high pay walls. It's a decision that annoys many players, but could be financially astute. I think it's too early to tell, but since I've seen posts from people saying they plan to spend $90 or whatever to get to tier 7 and unlock IO's apparently it's working for them in some cases.

Whether in the long run this is going to make more or less money is hard to say. It's possible that most people will adapt to these restrictions, annoying as they must feel. I think it's good though to highlight where some decisions interfere with how people play the game, in particular how they affect VIP's. The devs can't think of everything, so such feedback is important, and in the long run they might make changes based on it.

LordLundar, it's based on reward tokens earned, not slots filled. You can leave the slots unfilled if you want.

Can't you convince her to try the game with another AT? She doesn't need to play it for long, just long enough to get a feeling for the game and decide whether it's worth shelling $15 for the MM.

If it's a PS/2 connected mouse, buy a new mouse.

I assume that what you're saying is that the mouse stops moving while you're in the game, but the game continues running, that is, you can see things moving on screen. Does the keyboard continue to work?

Assuming the answer to the above is 'yes' and it really is the mouse, if you disconnect and reconnect it from the PC, does it start working again?

If by "bought VIP" you mean the VIP Starter, then far as I know you won't keep the Going Rogue stuff. You'll only keep that if you bought Going Rogue itself.

My opinion:

The first time I played through I found the setting exciting and having to fight a giant monster even more so. I didn't feel that I was insignificant or anything, I felt I was really helping the effort to fight the shivans. I was then disappointed when I was sent to Atlas Park, because I really wanted to have the chance to continue the fight.

The previous tutorial had always been unexciting, and in that sense it was a good introduction to the low levels. When I originally started playing the game what I felt throughout the low levels was that I wasn't a superhero. I was a squishy running around on foot fighting street punks and often trying to avoid them to survive. The new tutorial is a better fit for new low level content, which makes the hero feel more important and useful, and is more interesting.

For me, an important aspect of a tutorial and beginning area is to get me excited about the game. Learning enough of the basics to get by is typically not that hard for me, but getting excited enough about the game to stay is the problem, especially these days with multiple free MMO's vying for attention. DDO's tutorial really made me want to play it (when it went free; the original turned me off). CO's tutorial and low levels didn't (that was before going free, I don't know how it's now). I think that these days if CoH had the old tutorial and low level content I would have gone elsewhere quite quickly.

By the way, I think the giant monster fight reflects well fighting a giant monster in-game. You are always insignificant, and you can stay out of it and still see the monster beaten, assuming there are enough others fighting, but you still feel your contribution is important. That's what I felt there. It doesn't matter if in reality it's NPC attacks which kill it, the feeling for me was the same.


The main downside for me with this tutorial is that it doesn't fit all characters. It doesn't make sense for all or even most characters, both heroes and in particular villains, to be in Galaxy City at that specific time to experience this. The previous tutorials made more sense in this respect. I could go through them with multiple characters, get some rewards and a level, without feeling that they weren't a fit for the characters.