Lightfoot

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I just renewed a few days ago after not playing for several months, and then the you(the devs) start releasing all these notes about nerfing AE missions and getting rid of badges, etc. I just ran my first AE mission ever tonight to try it out since getting back. I got a couple of badges for it. The server goes down and I read the forums in the meantime and discover some of the neat new badges I just got are getting removed. This annoyed me and got me thinking about some stuff.

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The badges being removed are the badges that rely on the actions of other players (People were forming rating cartels and purposely griefing others to speed or block progress on the Hall of Fame badge) and the badges that almost required grinding to get. The existence of some of these badges caused people to make missions with 30+ collection objects, etc.

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You seem to be catering this game more towards RPers than anyone else. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with RPers, but they seem to be the vocal ones complaining about farming and whatnot. So you are cracking down on farming now.

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They are cracking down on farming in the AE, not farming in general. Every time I hear somone spout this accusation off, I know that they either did not read or understand Postron's posts.

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Five years into the game and we still don't have end day content.

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Lord Recluse Strike Force? Statesman Task Force? Rikti Mothership Raids? Hamidon Raids? Purple IOs? The new 5th Column SF/TFs coming in Issue 15? You have played the game, right? Because alting is encouraged, the Devs have decided that creating content across all levels is better than concentrating content at the end.

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All the expansion packs are really more geared towards RPers as they are costumes and emotes. They don't add any new playing content.

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The stated goall and promise when they started releasing the booster packs is that they would not have anything necessary to play the game in them. They are intended as fluff, things that you can ignore at your leisure. If you needed one to play a Task Force, for example, wouldn't that hurt your ability to make a team for that Task Force?

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Even your stated goal for MA seems to be more about getting players to write stories. Another aspect of RP.

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You are absolutely correct. The goal of Mission Architect was for players to be able to create their own stories and share them with other players. The secondary goal is to have an alternate leveling path to 50, in roughly the same amount of time with roughly the same amount of rewards.

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Let's focus on the players a bit now. Really who cares about farms? It literally does not impact ANYONE.

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Farming does have an effect on the game. In general, I think most of the effects are good, and a few are bad. I do not do it myself, because I find it boring as all heck. Again, this isn't about farming in general, it is about farming in the Mission Architect.

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Yet you state you got numerous complaints over the farm AE missions. So what?

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Remember the stated purpose of Architect? The whole reason the thing was designed and all those man hours spent (8-10 months of work)? We were told, long before it was released, that the Architect was not to be a farming tool, and that the Devs would not allow it to become one. So, the playerbase took this information, and completely disregarded it. It became difficult to find "real" mission in the Architect. The beginner zones of each server filled with AE farm spam, which led us to our next problem....

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The game is not more fun the slower it is to level. I'm not sure if this is a concept grasped by everyone on your team yet.

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The exploits discovered allowed powerleveling at an unprecedented speed. Because much of this was done without ever leaving the Architect building, often in the beginner zones, a metric tonne of new players were skyrocketed past most of the game, all to reach the endgame. As you have noted previously, the "endgame" is somewhat lacking. These new players will quickly get bored because they completely bypassed everything there is to do in this game in the race to the cap. Even worse, the new players have no idea that this behavior was not normal, as they were spammed into these powerlevel farms from the moment they entered the beginner zones. Veteran players, in their race to get bunches of characters into their 50s, dragged a lot of new players along for the ride.

I honestly have no problem with Vets powerleveling past the parts of the game they have decided they don't like or are too grindy. There used to be places for that, and they were called Peregrine Island and Grandville. If a new player wanted to powerlevel, they needed to go seek it out in order to do so. Not true anymore, now they can do it from almost any zone. We veterans used our newfound powerleveling tools to take new players past the parts we don't like, without giving the new players a chance to form their own opinions about it.

That is how AE farms affected other players.

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Many of the playerbase just want a game they can pick up and play and move up quickly to try out their nifty new powers. They want new content and not the same repetitious floorplans over and over. None of these requests are new. MA offered this and now you want to nerf it.

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New farms is not "new content." Due to the total lackof travel time, leveling is faster through Architect, even without the exploits. All they nerfed were the exploits that went far beyond anything that can be found elsewhere in the game, and none of the "nerfs" have any impact on the player's ability to create and play new content.

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Maybe you focus most of your attention to the RP fanbase because their desires are cheaper and easier to implement. But they are also the smaller part of the playerbase. They may very well be sticking this game out until it dies, but is that all you are gunning for?

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The goal is to keep as many people for as long as possible. Leaving the MA as it was created an "easy mode" for the game. Easy mode is fine for a game you play through a few times and put back on the shelf, but it is terrible for game based on long term subscriptions. Easy mode becomes boring very quickly, and bored people leave.

And how do you know how large the portion of the game that RPs is? We have no real idea how many people are "farmers" or "RPers." The reason why it seems like the group we are part of is larger, and beset by the "evil minority" is that we tend to gravitate towards players with similar playstyles. If most of the people you interact with are farmers, then obviously farmers will seem like the majority.

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This isn't a request to keep farming in the game or to nerf RP. I just think you need to focus more on a balance of content for players and RPers. Please stop focusing all your decisions and releases around the RPers of the game. Look at things a bit more from the side of the player. Let's not forget the game in RPG.

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The great things about RPers is that they appreciate any addition you make to the game. Turnng off XP, which was a boon for farmers and powelevelers? RPers love it because they don't outlevel any stories they want to do with that character. New story arcs? RPers are always looking for those.

And in all honesty, can you show me an MMORPG that doesn't try to support its roleplayers? All of the story and background fluff that went into Rise of the Lich King is directly for the benefit of the RPers in WoW. This goes for every single content expansion of every single MMORPG. I fail to see your point.

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PS- I also recommend you all try playing a couple of characters from 1-50 without any dev tricks, just as a normal player, to see how grindy things are. Then go on a couple of farm missions with some friends and see how fun the leveling can be in comparison.

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If your only goal is leveling, then this is true. If your goal is to play the game, you are cheating yourself by repeating the same content over and over again to the exclusion of all other content.

For me, there is a momentary euphoria that comes with each level ding. The few times I powerleveled, I did not feel this euphoria because I wasn't doing anything to get it. Hours of repetition for a minute of endorphin rush every thirty minutes or so does not equal fun for me. In my opinion, the increased leveling rate does not justify the boredom inherent in the activity.

The Devs do play this game. Just like they are not allowed to have non-Dev forum accounts, they are not allowed to reveal themselves as Devs in the game when not playing one of the signature characters. It is entirely possible that a Dev has done exactly what you suggested (joined a farm team), but you will never know.

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Hi There! I have a problem. Ive got the 14 day free trial but im not sure how to actually play the game. If someone could tell me that would be great thanks!

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Start by picking a combination of powers that sounds fun to you, with an AT that sounds fun to you.

Quick reference on the ATs

Heroes:

Blasters - Ranged Damage dealer

Controller - Ranged Controller

Defender - Buffer / Debuffer / Ranged attacker (much lower damage than blaster)

Scrapper - Melee Damage Dealer

Tanker - Melee Damage Taker

Villains:

Brute - Melee Damage Dealer

Corruptor - Ranged Damage Dealer / Debuffer

Dominator - Ranged Controller / Melee and Ranged Damage Dealer

Mastermind - Pet Class, Damage Taker

Stalker - Melee Damage Dealer, less duarble than Brute, but higher spike damage

Definately do the tutorial, and read everything.

I'll be on in about two hours, and would be happy to show you some ropes. Give me a server, character name, and side of the law, and I'll be happy to help you out. Provided somebody else hasn't already beaten me to it.

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Anyway,I agree that I'm not starving for power combos and I don't think anyone else is either.

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While I'm not "starving for power combos," the concept of Proliferation got my creative juices flowing. I have a number of character concepts waiting for their powersets to become available.

Mane Event was a Inv / SS Tanker that I shelved when Proliferation started. She would much rather have either SR / or be an SS / SR Scrapper. I have since leveled another Inv / SS Tanker to the mid 20s.

Psychodomina is a Mind / Psi Dominator that I have shelved thanks to Pain Domination. She will be rerolled as a Psychic Blast / Pain Corruptor as soon as she is able.

Rotten Johnny is a Thugs / Poison Mastermind who is a punk rocker and political agitator. Sonic Resonance is right up his alley.

I have a Thermal / Fire waiting in the wings, along with a Ice / Cold Controller, a Claws / Inv Brute, an Elec / Elec Scrapper, and Elec / Elec Tanker, and many others waiting to be born. The only limits being my considerable imagination and the number of character slots I have available.

More like Banished Pantheon, as this is a necrothread. Check the date on the original post: 4/15/09.

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Sometimes I feel that people should make up brand new characters to put in their story arcs, just so that they aren't burdened with years of backstory.

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I put two allies in the last mission of one of my arcs to give a little extra help to teams that spawned the final boss at Elite Boss level. One is a Spines / Regen Scrapper to help with a little killing. I discovered that she has scrapperlock, so she doesn't last long if she manages to get ahead of the team. She is based off of one of my existing characters, and plays pretty true to form.

The other ally is an Emp / Rad Defender who was created just for the mission. After I finished making the arc, I decided that I liked the character design and capsule description enough that I wanted to flesh her out and create her on Live. This is how Amber Green came into existence on Liberty.

While there aren't a lot of my existing characters who I am planning to put into my story arcs, I see the second scenario playing out quite a bit as I build more story arcs.

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Who else finds the 'better get the badge' logon-race a little, er, tedious?

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Over 140 characters for me, every single one has been active in the last six months (with the exception of a few "nameholders" waiting to be rerolled when the powersets that better fit their concept get proliferated). I tried to keep up during the Winter and Halloween events, and realized that I just couldn't.

So, I've stopped trying. If there is someone for whom the badge fits, I'll make a point to log them in. If it doesn't, and I wind up logging them in anyway, cool beans.

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ok i can't decide on an AT, so can someone recommend me some ATs to try out based on what i like:

2-3 aoes -excluding the lv 32 nuke or aura DoTs
good dps
good for soloing but still useful on teams
non-farm toon
something i that i can make a concept concept for
a hero AT (optional)

also i would want something i can use the mutation origin if possible.

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Sounds like what you want is Blasters.

Usually have one AoE and one Cone.

Great DPS

Good for soloing and teams.

Hero AT.

The "concept" is all on you.

Origin is almost purely an RP / Background choice. The gameplay effect of origin is minimal at best. If you want, even your Assault Rifle / Devices Blaster can be a mutant (Has a "knack" for invention and built the frankengun and devices with stuff found around the house, i.e.; Forge or Madison Jeffries / Box). This goes back to concept. If you can define it as such, then it works.

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some lvl 50 /regen players i know cannot even solo an EB
its that, they use the clickes very often since they cant take a lot of damage, and your resistance and defence relies on set io bonuses and pool powers, which isnt easy

so how can a /regen even solo an av if it cannot solo an eb
the other secondaries are a lot more efficient at it

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Spike damage can be the bane of a Regen, but it really seems to me that the problem is with the players, and not the set (PEBKAC). At lower levels, I can solo EBs with my Regens (I don't have any in the 30's yet). I haven't had a chance to try "new" Moment of Glory to determine if it is best used when you are in trouble, or before charging into battle. Maybe some of the more experienced Regen'ers can shed more light on what the level 50s you know are doing wrong.

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How about a shapeshifting power? We have a lot of wolf, cat and dog types running around, how about an actual shapshifter? With the new costume emotes coming out for everyone in issue#15 you could change into your type of beast and incorperate some melee powers like the claws or something. Maybe a growth power, where you increase your density and strength as you get bigger and gain lvs. Your range attacks for meele could be greatly increased.
or perhaps stretching....I am just trying to get some "new" in game power ideas going here....

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All things that the Devs have tried to figure out before. The Blood of the Black Stream was an AT that was being developed that were supposed to be shapeshifters. I believe that one of the issues involved was realistic animation of animal skeletons. To do it properly, you can't just make a "generic quadruped" and expect it to look right. A wolf and a tiger move very differently. I wrote up an alternate idea for the Blood of the Black Stream in S&I a long time ago, but I think I need to revisit it and trim it down.

If they can nail down power customization, Stretching may be an option. The previous technical hurdle to Stretching was that they could not resolve how the attack looked at the origin point (your costume) and the terminal point (the target). This is why Spines isn't customizable. The Spines you throw via Impale will always look the same when they hit the target, regardless of how they look on you.

Growth was one of the potential powersets from the survey that resulted in us getting Dual Blades, Willpower and Shields. They warned us that there were technical hurdles with Growth that would increase its development time if it had won the poll. I would think the largest hurdle would be how to render the character and attacks while in close quarters, since so much of the game takes place in instances.

Granted, these three lines of inquiry were abandoned while the Dev team was a mere 15 people. Now that the staff has been ramped up again, it is entirely possible that the only oft requested features that are still completely off the table are raising the level cap and an autolevel feature.

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What if those new players... "finally quit when they decide they don't want to grind THRU BORING LVLS X-Y any more."

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Well, I think part of the point being made is that the new players being powerleveled to 50 didn't grind through boring levels x-y, at all.

I have no problem with experienced players PLing past the parts that they have played through before and hated. My objection is to taking a new player along for the ride and not letting them decide for themselves that "levels x-y are boring."

It is entirely possible that the levels that you consider boring could be the kind of content the new player was looking for when they came to the game. This is what makes taking a newbie and inducting them into AE farms from the moment they step into Atlas Park a bad idea.

When an experienced player powerlevels, they usually have a goal in mind. The only goal that exists for the new player doing this is the level cap, expecially if they came from another game where the game really kicks in at the level cap. Can you blame them for getting bored or frustrated when they just spent 4-12 hours doing the same mission over and over again to get to 50, just to be told that the major activities to do at 50 is to either farm moar for phat lewt, do the same 5 raids or TF's over and over again, or go back and do the things they missed in Orobouros?

This is how powerleveling "distorts the game" for new players.

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J.B.: The reason we don't seem like Monolithic giants saving the world is that there is a whole damn city of us.

Sure Superman seem awesome on earth but put a bunch of Kryptonians on planet with a yellow sun and suddenly the bicycle repair man is god.

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For proof, read some of the more recent Superman books. Superman has not been "the Last Kryptonian" for quite some time.

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Additionally, is anyone else creeped out by the concept of Architect? It seems a little scary that so many players have decided as they are logged into a game sitting on their computers to have their make-believe characters log into a virual world and spend all of their time on virtual stories instead of going out and defending the city.


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This is rumoured to be "part of the plan."

Remember that the people behind Architect Entertainment are Dr. Aeon and Countess Crey. I would be very surprised to learn that Aeon and Crey created the Architect simply in the interest of "good, clean, fun."

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regenration should be slightly improved, maybe even change a few of its powers and maybe change one of the actual powers!

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Could you give us a little more detail on what you think is wrong with Regen?

As far as I knew, it was still a top performing set.

Maybe one of us here could help you squeeze some more performance out of Regen.

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Dual pistols is being added because people have wanted it for a long time.

Demon summoning because masterminds need more primaries, and it seems like a good, classic feeling one.

There might be more truly new melee sets at some point, but melee players have received a ton of attention in the last few issues (dual blades, willpower, and shield defense all were added, plus there was proliferation). So the ranged people could use some love. I suspect next will be a new control set after that.

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did i miss somewhere where it was said that these powers are being added?. i haven't seen any posts about it other then the many many dp and mm threads asking for it.

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Positron very strongly hinted that Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning would be the next two sets released at the Anniversary Party in Pocket D.

The teasers for Going Rogue have all but confirmed it, in that they introduce two new iconic characters, Desdemona, a redeemed, Demon Summoning Mastermind, and Maelstrom, a pistol wielding former hero who fell from grace.

The same teasers have indicators that tag Going Rogue as connected to Issue 16. I would be surprised if the two new Powersets were gated to be exclusive to buyers of the expansion.

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5. Nemesis system

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This one confuses me. You build an enemy, know intimately what they are capable of and how to beat them, then "face" them multiple random times in missions. How is this not going to grow boring after the first couple of encounters?

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This is why I feel that the Architect system is far better for this kind of thing, provided that you have a friend that can write.

Give your friend the details (what the nemesis look like, background story, general powers), and let them work up the stories in which you meet your nemesis. This way, you can still be surprised. I'm pretty sure that no computer generated algorithims can capture exactly how you expect your nemesis to speak and act, which is why another human being is almost required in order to do your nemesis justice.

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Besides what Claws said, which is totally true, it makes sense for us to have characters who can change sides.

"[V]illains should stay in the Rogue Isles, and Heroes should stay in Paragon." Why? No heroes should ever be anything but good, and no villain should ever be anything but bad? No villain ever started off as a hero but collapsed into badness? No hero is an ex-villain?

I have characters who fit these molds. One of my MMs used to work for a government organization as an assassin until circumstances forced her to flee to the Isles. She's a hero turned bad. Without the expansion, all I can do is pretend. Further, the "limitations" you're proposing don't actually prevent people from pretending to do it, only the ability to actually do it. It stops me from playing a Controller in the Isles. It doesn't stop me from playing a hero in the Isles.

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This.

If my villains are going to Paragon, it is because they have had a change of heart, and have decided to try to walk the road of angels. If my heroes go to the Rogue Isles, it is because they have decided that high risk for low pay makes for a crummy job. They know how the system works now, and they think they can beat it.

And then there are the ones that are truly in the middle, neither good nor evil. The Houndsman has done terrible things for his beloved U S of A, but when an op went pear shaped, they disavowed knowledge of him and his crew. Now he works for the highest bidder. The Bocor has been corrupted by the power that he wields. He still wants to do good for his community, but his definition of "acceptable losses" has gotten broader over time. 3 Chop Charlie and Lady Warhawk are punisher type vigilantes. They have no respect for the law because the law protects the criminals rather than the victims.

I might make the occasional "double agent," but I see myself doing more with true redemption or fall from grace stories.

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Are you getting tired of the game nerfs? If so, plaese speak your mind here.

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Not at all.

I love this game, and I want to see it survive all of its competition.

That means that outliers that trivialize the game and that are bad for the game's long term health need to be fixed.

It sucks when your pet whatever gets hit by this, but the reason it is the flavor of the month is because it is too good. When you seek out the FOTM, you should understand that you are doing so and enjoy it while it lasts, because it can't last forever (otherwise, it would be the Flavor of Forever, which is extremely bad for any game).

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Suggestions this is not.

Wrong forum you did post in

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Aside from that, Issue 15 will be going into Beta sometime within the next few weeks. If they haven't already announced new powersets, there is no way they will be able to get them in before then.

Proliferation is a possibility, but a very slight one. (very slight, I would expect that they would announce Proliferation, too)

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Besides, there is a buff to CCDB already on test, that will allow the critter AI to chain together the combos better, which means you'll have the debuffs coming at you.

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In other words...


Request granted! Before you even asked! How's that for responsiveness?

<QR>

And this is coming from..... where?

There is nothing in the last two patches that has anything to do with PVP at all. Your rant lacks context.

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Every cry for a nerf should be answered with a buff.

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While I agree that, on principle, every nerf should be answered with a buff, I don't think our understanding of that maxim agrees. Every nerf to an overperforming set should be accompanied by a buff to a similarly underperforming set, therby bringing more balance across the board. I get the feeling that your take on this maxim is closer to "when you take something away from a set, you should compensate the set in some way so that its performance level remains the same."

I vociferously disagree. If a set is overperforming, giving it something of equal power or usefulness to what you take away does nothing to address the fact that it is overperforming, just how it overperforms.

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Give everyone more hitpoints, damage, resistance

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Didn't they effectively do this when they reduced spike damage?

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give widows back their uber defense

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Making Widows better than everything else again improves things how?

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make pvp last longer and more interesting.

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They reduced Spike damage so that it is more difficult for Stalkers and Blasters to two shot people, killed jousting and introduced elusivity because PVP 1.0 was too quick. PVP 2.0 does last longer than PVP 1.0. Request granted?

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Back to the drawing board, issue16?

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And you get this idea from where? Positron stated that he was happy with the general direction of PVP 2.0. Expect to continue to see tweaks as time goes on, but "back to the drawing board?" I hardly think so.

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Nerfing does not solve anything.

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I beg to differ. If one thing is performing wildly over expectations, it should be pruned back. If everything else gets brought up to the level of the overperforming set, then the entire game needs to be rebalanced around the new standard. I'm sorry your flavor of the month keeps getting whacked. You do realize that it is called a "flavor of the month" because it can't be expected to last, resulting in a "new flavor" next month? If it looks too good, chances are that it is too good. Enjoy it while it lasts, and be ready to move on when the powers that be notice how good it is. That is what "flavor of the month" is all about.

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This would be a great tribute to the pvp community and we will see a large number of returning faces.

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The PVP Community that proved intractable, elitist and arrogant? The Devs informed the PVP community that changes needed to be made, and big ones. At every turn, they were met with "this sucks, change it back" when that wasn't an option. Rather than finding a compromise point, many hardcore PVP'ers simply took their ball and went home. That bridge is burned. Even if they roll back to PVP 1.0, which is what it sounds like you are asking for, I wouldn't expect to see many of those faces return.

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Think about it

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Thinking about it.

Done.

See you next rant.

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If I was in charge of anything related to concept, Brutes and Tanks wouldn't have Dual Blades.

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Good thing you aren't in charge then.

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I agree. They should make the powersets available, and let us worry about concept.

I have a Tank and a Brute with Dual Blades that I am very happy with.

Tiny Tom is my DB/DA Brute who was exiled by his fellow Redcaps for being too violent. When the rest of his clan tried to strip him of his power before shunning him, he broke free of his bonds and attacked the leader of the clan, causing a magical backlash. That fallout is the source of his Dark Armor powers.

Ushabti is my FA/DB Tanker. Ushabti is a guardian statue brought to life and empowered by priests of Ra to combat Apep (my DB/DA Stalker), who has been released again onto the mortal plane.

I could easily make villains with an Empathy powerset, or heroes with a Poison powerset, it's all in how you write it. Heck, I have comcepts in my head for heroic Stalkers and villainous Defenders.

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As others have noted, the devs have dropped repeated hints that power customization is on the way. The problem is there's no telling how far away or how deep the customizations will be. Like, would it allow only tinting the colors of f/x? If it allowed things like beams emanating from your chest instead of your hands, that's a *bunch* of new animations. Would it allow things like a trail of ice particles for super speed rather than just a different color glow? I know it's pretty much pointless to speculate but it's comforting knowing (well, okay not knowing but believing) that they're working on it.

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I'm of the opinion that "complete customization" is a pipe dream, simply due to the sheer number of animations that would need to be made for each power. Despite the fact that Champions Online has advertised it, I don't think they are going to pull it off. If they do, then they will have a more limited power selection. Given the choice, I think they will opt for more gameplay options than more aesthetic options. There is also the "bang for the buck" consideration. What if you make origin animations for one hand, two hands, eyes, and chest, and less than 1% of your players decide they like and use the chest animation for any of their powers? Was that development time well spent, or was it wasted? Knowing how popular the chest animation is compared to the others, do you keep developing the animations for new powers, or do you phase it out?

Colours? Not so out of reach. CO should have it easy because they designed with it in mind. CoX requires a bit more work, but they may have the staff necessary to do this work now and still turn out new content.

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Just in case you missed 'em though....

During CoV Beta, they discovered that the slows and -recharge that are the secondary effect of Ice was interfering with Fury generation. For this reason, Ice was pulled as an option for Brutes. Later during the Beta, they tweaked the way that Fury worked. After they did this, they didn't go back to check how Ice would work with New Fury.

It is the belief among quite a few of us here that Ice would not be a such a disadvantage under New Fury as it was under Old Fury.

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You left out how many other primaries and secondaries include powers that mitigate damage by halting/slowing the enemy's ability to attack, thus reducing fury generation.

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IIRC, that was the reason for New Fury in the first place. They never gave Ice a second chance. Given that there are sets with Stuns, Knockdowns and Fears, -recharge shouldn't be that big an issue, thus the "not such a huge disadvantage under New Fury..."

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In before rehashed and tired argument of Ice Armor Brutes and Fury, blahblahblah

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Clouded's right. We tore the argument against ice armor for brutes a new hole a thousand times over.

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Just in case you missed 'em though....

During CoV Beta, they discovered that the slows and -recharge that are the secondary effect of Ice was interfering with Fury generation. For this reason, Ice was pulled as an option for Brutes. Later during the Beta, they tweaked the way that Fury worked. After they did this, they didn't go back to check how Ice would work with New Fury.

It is the belief among quite a few of us here that Ice would not be a such a disadvantage under New Fury as it was under Old Fury.

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A CoX 2 with a ton of extra goodies would be great. Unfortunately we will have to wait 5-10 years before that happens.

Until then just go play CO or DCUO because apparently they will have most of what we are looking for.

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I beg to differ. Those games really aren't offering a lot of what I am looking for.

The biggest draw to DCUO for me would be the possibility of joining the Green Lantern Corps, or being good enough to be invited to the Justice League, or fighting alongside the Titans, or meeting the JSA and thanking them for keeping the torch of heroism alive through the generations. DCUO could have a lot of potential geek out moments for me. I like the "idea of destructible environments," but I think the "reality of destructible environments" will result in most areas looking like a warzone once you pass a certain threshold of heroes in a small area. Provided that my computer can handle it, I will be trying out DCUO for the geek out factor alone.

CO lost a lot of appeal when Cryptic didn't obtain the rights to use the Hero System and translate it into a game engine. I understand why they didn't (all of Hero Games products utilize the Hero System, so there is no way they would sell it outright, and I don't think Cryptic had the funds to buy the IP and enter into a licensing deal), but it is still disappointing. I like the "idea of a classless powers system," but I think the "reality of a classless system" will result in tankmages and gimps, and very little in between. So far, CO has failed to wow me at all.

There are only a few things more I would lie to see in CoH, and I don't think they require a completely new game.

1) Choices: I'd like to be able to choose how to proceed with a story arc. Do I go to the silo and destroy the missle before it can launch, or do I find the villain's lair and stop him before he can launch the missle? The Devs have talked about branching story arcs as something they are trying to do n the future. Branching story arcs could also lead to villains creating their own schemes, possibly through an advanced version of the newspaper system. COH2, not necessary.

2) In the vein of the above; Side switching: There are lots of comics stories about the hero falling from grace, or the villain redeeming themselves (in the eyes of the heroes, if not the law). Magneto was Headmaster for Xavier's school for a while. Emma Frost used to be in the Hellfire Club. Bishop has betrayed the X-men in attempt to avert the future from which he hails. Luke Cage was a convicted felon before he got his powers. Winter Soldier was an assassin for the KGB before he became Captain America. Namor has switched sides so many times I can hardly keep track (he's bad again, right?). I believe some of the tech for this is already in place. Again, COH2, not necessary.

3) Power customization: While I think modifying the origin point of powers is such a huge amount of work that it will probably never happen, regardless of whether we are talking COH or COH2, the Devs have done the research on what it would take to let us change the colors of our powers. In the past, they have gone on record saying that the 15 of them would not be able to get it done and still produce new content while they were working on it. With over 50 Devs now on staff, I expect that the current situation is quite different. Again, COH2, not necessary.

4) Getting (further) beyond the City: It would be nice to explore more of the world in the wake of the Rikti Invasions. How does London look, post Invasion? Moscow? Paris? Rio? the Moon? Atlantis? Of course, this is "easily" addressed with the creation of new "City" Zones. CoH 2, not necessary.