Well this is fascinating. I've played CoH/CoV for going on around 3 years now and I've never felt compelled to actually participate on this forum. I've read through it numerous times but for me to actually bother to post? You know somethings wrong. Now generally I wait until after an issue releases before I really look into what's been changed but looking and hearing all the dramatic changes has me very concerned to say the least.
Now my background is a multigame clan leader and I run an online gaming/otaku community which means I specialize in a lot more than just MMOs, but also means most people here probably pay more attention to them than I do including the CoX series. So forgive me if some examples I use will concern other non MMO games or companies.
From what I'm understanding a lot of powers are either being removed, changed, or horribly nerfed. This sounds a lot like how EA has been running their games in the past few years. The recent variations of the C&C series is a good example. EA constructs a game and a system, gives everyone just enough time to figure everything out and formulate strategies, then goes in and nerfs everything to the point of sucking the entire fun out of the game. C&C3 was a game I loved when it released but by the 12th or so patch the game was so nerfed my favorite race was no longer worth playing anymore because someone cried and someone whined because they couldnt figure out how to bypass a certain tactic or a certain unit. This is what I cannot understand. Someone complains about something being too strong or too powerful and its nerfed. The better idea would to be to judge just how difficult it is (or if its even possible) to counter it and if it can, then leave it be and let the person whining figure it out. If it is in fact too powerful to be countered by any reasonable means, by all means nerf it.
Another example although this is going way back and again out of genre but the principles still apply, is StarCraft. StarCraft was one of the first games (at least in the RTS genre) so give all factions/sides completely different units depending on what race you chose. Back then generally no matter what race or side you had picked it was just a mirror version of the enemy with a different look and that was their way of balancing things. But StarCraft chose to be dangerous and bold and try to make all three factions have COMPELTELY different units, powers, abilities and STILL make the game balanced. I dont know how many people have played or still play that game but that game if I remember correctly had only 1 balance patch in its entirety of existence and its still being played today competitively (I witnessed a match at Blizzcon). People whined, complained, and fought just as much as they do with any game out there today CoX included but Blizzard turned a deaf ear because nothing that was being complained or whined about was game breaking, only poor tactics on the players end.
I know MMOs and RTS genres are extremely different from one another but the topic Im discussing here is balance and balance means the same thing in all competitive multiplayer games. CoX is like StarCraft in a way, you have Villians and Heros, and each AT in each category has completely different abilities and powers than other ATs. And keyword STRATEGY plays a big role in PVP in CoX just like it does in StarCraft (deny it and I know you have never PVPed seriously). Things do not need to be removed or nerfed in order to create balance. If the game was that broken it wouldve been fixed in issues far earlier than 13. As it stands currently everyone who hasnt already found counters to certain powers or builds are at least formulating new ones and all that work the people took to learn and develop will be completely undone with a total nerf. The way I see it the game should be played in a Rock Paper Scissors fashion where clearly certain ATs will fare better with some than others and itll be up to the player if they want to spend all that extra time and effort to go against that system to make their character good enough to handle ATs it wouldnt normally be able to handle. Personally thats what I enjoy about CoX, making characters that one wouldnt think would be able to handle most others. Im that crazy [censored] that will make that one build everyone thinks sucks and turn it into something dangerous because I take the time to actually formulate strategies instead of just picking what looks cool and crying later because its too weak.
Ill agree with the rest of the community when it comes to CoX PVP system being broken. Yeah it is broken, when I can stand in RV under the statesman statue looking right at a blaster with a brute, full shields and all and be 1 shotted when I have over 2000 hp I say somethings broken. And to this day I cant explain how I was killed but removing tp self, or mez resist isnt going to fix that. It seems all the things expressed that will be changed, are things people have likely whined about not because its a legitimate break in the game but because theyre too ignorant and/or lazy to formulate a counter. If a stalker wants to hit intangible after every unsuccessful AS so what? Yeah its annoying but what are you going to do? Remove phase shift or phase temp powers? You have any idea how useful that is outside of PVP for other situations? You may as well remove travel powers while youre at it after all its annoying fighting a flyer when you have only super speed right? It boils down to tactics. If a power is never being used, replace it, because no one obviously is going to post 30 paragraphs complaining that you removed that 1 power. Bring in a power that counters or balances with a power you instead are considering removing that way no ones pissed off and no ones considering changing games like a few posts prior that I read.
Personally and I think I speak for a lot of people when I say this, Im used to how the game is now and the one thing that makes this MMO to me so much cooler than other ones is how you guys keep adding content. And Im very used to how everything works and formulates as it is and Im willing to learn new strategies with new powers or sets, NOT relearn old powers or ATs because theyve been mauled by nerfs or changed around. Theres rarely ever damage done in addition but almost always damage done by subtraction I just hope you dont fall down the path of EA games and think that if you just nerf the most commonly used powers/abilities/ATs/builds that youll fix the game. Because you might fix the game, but lost a lot of customers in the process.
And finally, all I said above was opinion, Im not here to argue or debate with anyone else so dont waste a post flaming me or anything I just felt compelled to voice my opinion as a fellow player, Thanks!
