The_Alt_oholic

The worst part of about the electric set is the near useless End Drain. I have rarely seen any enemy drained of so much End that they can't fight...and that's with a Defender that should have more of an End Drain than a blaster due to archetype! So the End Drain effect is practically useless. I think we can all see the usefulness of the secondary effects of all the other nukes.

So you have pretty much brought up in the inconsistency between electric nukes and fire nukes.

I'm assuming that the numbers that you are quoting for the fire nuke include the on-going DoT damage.

This being said, it looks like electric nukes should be brought up to do as much damage as the other nukes (or, at least, increase the secondary effect) and fire nukes need to be nerf-ed a bit.

However, on fire nukes side, if the DoT was added into that number, then I'm sure that resistance is applied during each tick of the DoT clock, so enemies that have resistance really aren't effected by it like those that are not. So it looks like fire blasters would know that and would want to go after opponents that are susceptible to the fire nukes...oh, wait, that's still a good reason to nerf fire blaster's nukes.

In general, I am greatly pleased with the energy blaster nuke. It does what I need it to do. I did slot it up a couple I think for acc and, since that character is energy/energy, it has both aim and build up fully slotted.
Believe me at level 50 almost the whole grouping of enemy within the blast radius go flying and many do not get up.
..still not enough?
Take a yellow and a red, then fire off the aim and build up, and then nuke!

As for the end crash, It does not stop you from regaining end. You can take blues to get end back.

One of my tricks is to use the nuke, pop a blue, and turn on the epic Personal Force Field. One blue is enough to keep you going until your recharge comes back and you can sit in the bubble until you are fully rested. You might need to pull back from more vicious enemies. Having Aide Self from the Med Power Pool even allows you the ability to heal yourself while in the PFF.

So if you are worried about the end crash, carry some blues, or team up with someone with Speed Boost or Recovery Aura.
I have never heard a team complain when any blaster ran away from the mob after nuking them and waiting until their End had recovered before heading back into battle.
So I don't think that End crash really is an issue when you are on a team.
If you are solo nuking, keep a good stock of blues on hand and be ready to run after each time you nuke.

An account has a posted arc that doesn't have a 3 month vet badge yet?

I haven't read the whole thread yet I don't think, but I read some of it before and I'm reading more of it now....I have to admit glossing over a bit of the stuff that doesn't include a lot of ranting.. but ... there you go...

Let's see. First off, what is considered a "prime toon"? I really don't know what that means. I really don't have a "main". I made 22 characters the first week I had a subscription.

I have a character that is on 7 servers (5 hero/2 villain), but they don't all have the same archetypes.

Another that is on 4 servers (2 hero/2villain) different power sets on her hero side, but same power sets on the villain side.

Another that is on 3 servers (2 hero/1 villain) Different power sets on hero side.

Another that is on 3 servers (3 heroes) different power sets - each sharing one common power set with the first one I made - one having a different primary and the other having a different secondary.

Another this is on 2 servers (2 heroes/1 villain - essentially one on both hero and villain side on the same server) I believe are different archetypes.

Another that is on 2 servers (1 hero/1 villain)

Another that is on 2 servers (2 villain) same archetype and power sets.

The one I did it the most with I just have so much fun playing the character as the character regardless of how I implement the power fx be cause different sets hold different parts of the way the character "operates" in my original concept that was created long before there was a City.

It seems that you are the one starting something.
If you read my post, It clearly points out that I know that some people disagree with me.
Calling my view "tripe" is disrespectful.

I'm not here to argue. I'm stating my point. I'm not getting into any conflict in the forums in regards to this situation. It has been hashed out too many times before. The DEVs never step in to make the situation clear. On many levels, they really can't as it will disenfranchise players on one-or-the-other sides-of-the-fence. They have, however, made changes to the game that clearly express a certain intent to these two mechanisms that you are pointing out...
...one of which I did not bring up at all in this thread.

In many situations criticism isn't a negative thing. Its a way for us to improve ourselves.

In my previous post, I did criticize you as well as give you information that was purely to help you.

Scarlet Shocker, on the other hand, posted a very helpful post. It says nothing critical about your position.

We like to be helpful and friendly here. SS simply pointed out to enjoy the game by enjoying the stories and that seems like friendly, helpful advice to me.

If you didn't want posts about PL'ing being bad, then you shouldn't have posted a pro PL'ing thread.

The DEVs have been going the distance of nixing out ways to PL characters. So unless I'm wrong (and I'm sure plenty of people would say that I am), PL'ing is considered an exploit. If it is an exploit then methods to do it should be reported and this thread should be removed as posting exploits on the forums is against the rules.

As far as faster character progression goes, over the years there has been quite a bit of complaining about the extra tactics, strategies, travel time and recovery time needed at lower levels.
To this end the DEVs set up the SSK system which helps on various levels especially when traveling through higher level zones as "the leash" is gone. XP progress up to level 20 (or is it 25?) has been greatly increased, so characters level faster than they did a while ago and way faster than they did back in I1.
The Hazard Gates are down so characters can travel to most zones regardless of level (the Ouroboros and Cimerora are still technically level restricted). This mean you can go to PI at level one, walk into Firebase Zulu, and buy raptor pack from the friendly Flight Pack dealer for 10k; therefore, flying at level 1 with a fair amount of speed.

If playing the game is a drag, then I suggest finding something else to do. This is a great game and it's fun to play without rushing through it.

There are character building tools out there and players discuss builds on these forums all the time. If you just want to mini-max, there is really no excuse to need to PL as people will help you make your build as intended.

Also there is now a dual build system to allow you to switch over to a second version of your character that you can set-up any way you want with the same power sets from level one the same way a respec works. However, you can switch builds once every 1/2 hour or something. Once the second build is set up, it works like the first build aka it requires a respec to switch up your powers again.

If you want the God-mode buttons, they are in the AE testing system. You can make your character invulnerable, invisible, tp to the next enemy, and kill enemies at the touch of a button. However, you don't get xp.

Have fun, and ..oh yeah... you missed the PL train. That was going on back when the AE first came out.
No need to go into my feelings in regard to that; it is over and done with now.

Oh, is this a thread about 50's or alt-oholism, Tonality?!



Alright, time for a sleepy time story from the crazy old character on the porch rocker wavin' cane and caring more and less about people are listening or not.

So, CoH is going to come out.
Oh, goodie, I says. Long alt-oholic in RPGs including an unmentionable competition. I'm going to be able to make those superheroes/villains in a computer game finally. Great!
I go buy the game knowing full well that my machine isn't powerful enough to run it. But I have the book, so while I'm saving money to buy the parts to build a new computer to play CoH on (my old one had the squirrels in the little tread mill thing and the possum with a piece of stone slab that he would chisel output onto and then push out a slot in the side of the computer.) I can't play, but I have the powers lists and I start designing characters to build in the game.
Finally the new computer is assembled and I install CoH. Oh, wondrous I1 costume designer - how greatly you have been improved! But still even so, I create my first character - a villain from a Champions RPG that I had played ...oh, drats... I forgot I wasn't going to bring that up, you kids, just ignore that...bah! And I leap down the street of the CoH tutorial bounding off the tops of cars and across the top of the bus stop! Oh, yeah, that was a spines/regen scrapper! Yeah, lots of fun.
Well that character is level 41 or something now. Just played it last week.
Then I made another character and two on every other server by the end of the first week.
And pretty soon it was making more characters as I had ideas to make them and duplicating some characters that I thought were cool or permutations there of across the various servers. So many power sets and archetypes to explore! So little character slot space!
I'm pretty sure I had my first 50 before CoV came out, I know I had pretty much all my slots full by the time it was released! Thankfully, there were extra slots on every server! So I had to try to maintain a bit, but you know, it was, at least, two villains per server once CoV was released. Oh, and that first character I had made in CoH was a villain, so I made a villain version of that character on another server...or 2..or was it 4..at any rate...my first hero and first villain were essential the same character portrayed with different power sets.
Oh, that first 50 was a Katana/super-reflexes scrapper. It was one of the first 22 characters I made that first week I played CoH. Just played it last weekend.
My next 50 was an ice/empathy controller - that wasn't made until the 3 or 4th year of the game. Whew, That was a long time ago it seems like sometimes...oh yeah...alt-oholism....
So I jumps around some more and I have a 50 energy/energy blaster. Probably haven't played in about 2 weeks. Probably haven't taken on a real mission for quite a while, but working on another blaster on that server at this point that is in the lower 40's - working on getting the weapons munitions with it.
Oh, and then back to finally dinging up another of those first 22 heroes that I made to level 50 - a empathy/electric defender.
Still working on that first villain - level 46 at this point. Yeah, that was my first character to get stuck with the out-of-sync bug that pretty much kept it out of play for over a year. Kind of took the whole momentum about getting a villain 50 out of the old sails (some people must hate me bringing up the true horror that was the OOS bug).
And I bounce around characters/servers/sides all the time even to this day - I think I only logged into like 6-10 characters today.
If I can't find a team, I'll jump on. If I'm just in to trade and someone wants to team and if I'm not doing something I really think is important or time consuming afk-type stuff at the time, then I'll join up for a bit most of the time - at least to check out what is going on or to help out.
Sometimes it's a matter of what I feel like playing a certain day. Sometimes it is a matter of playing a character that will help out my sg mates. Sometime it is about switching up characters to round out a team one way or another.
It's really about enjoying being a superhero, figuring out how to use different powers, and figuring out how my powers can be used best on a team that is completely different from any other team that I have been on before - even if I have to intentionally invite certain characters to have it occur that way.
I PuG a lot. Even if it is a sg group, most of the party are pick up, so it's a PuG. Tonight was one of the few nights outside of when I used to team up with the RO that one of my characters has been on a team of 3 or more character that were only from the same sg.
Yeah, it's been a wild ride. Vet rewards opened up another slot recently. That was cool. Filled it.
So that's 139 characters with combined total 2697 levels

27 scrappers - 1 fifty
19 controllers - 1 fifty
16 defenders - 1 fifty
14 tanks - highest 31 (I think)
17 blasters - 1 fifty
11 masterminds - highest 23 (I think)
7 dominators - highest 46
7 corruptors - highest 40
5 stalkers - highest 19 (I think)
11 brutes - highest 23 (I think)
3 Pbs - highest 22
2 WS - highest 27

champion - 13 chars, 282 levels
freedom - 14 chars, 381 levels
guardian - 12 chars, 177 levels
infinity - 13 chars, 249 levels
justice - 13 chars, 283 levels
liberty - 12 chars, 155 levels
pinnacle - 12 chars, 161 levels
protector - 12 chars, 166 levels
triumph - 12 chars, 246 levels
victory - 12 chars, 200 levels
virtue - 14 chars, 397 levels

Oh, some how the 4 or 5 slots for $20 is still too much for me to go for, but I should be glad they aren't cheaper. I would have bought some more now for sure.
I guess I'll have to make due with 139 characters.
Whatever am I going to do?

Oh, yeah, I forgot...have to figure out which one to play next!?
Yippee!

90%, it will be just that one person on the team complaining about the knockback.
I'll give some consideration and tactical behavior in using my powers - that is more than can be said about 99% of the people that would have complained about knockback to begin with - those 99% think they are the team and everyone else is just their to support them aka they don't think they are on a team; what they want is the only thing important.
Unfortunately, the kind of people that behave in this manner usually have the star and/or they are treated like they are the "make or break" part of the team by the other team members. (Frankly, that is rarely the case. Virtually, any combination of archetypes on a team can complete most of the games content.)

I may have already posted, but the best solution to the complaints about kb are to run your own team. You can kick people and they can't kick you. (never give up the star)
The first time they say "stop using knockback", you can say "This is your warning. If I hear that again, you won't have to worry about the knockback I'm causing".
The second time or if they complain - just kick them. They should thank you because they won't have to worry about your knockback any more.
Even better, if you are running your own team, just don't invite the archetypes that are prone to complain. I don't think I need to name names - it seems that they are already making posts to make it clear which archetypes to avoid inviting.

Everything is a Nemesis plot, except on weekends due to a union pay agreement regarding overtime hours and family time.

I'd say that's a good guess. I'm going to say $34.99 for just download/box.

But, I think there will be another tier around $80+ that will include a small art book, posters or tee-shirt in addition to the other physical and digital perks.

I wouldn't be shocked to see a $150 dollar version that would include CoH and all the super boosters - as well as the small art book, posters, and/or t-shirt and other physical and digital perks.

Heck why not a $200 version with all that and 6 months of play time?! - especially if all they have to do is mail the physical stuff to your door step or use a code/digital coupon/mailed-coupon-card to pick it up at a retailer.

Welcome to the City.

You fall into my general play style considerations.

I like tactics, caution, and organization.

First thing to do is to run your own teams. There are lots of posts on how to recruit. It is pretty easy, most players don't want to do it. The first thing to remember is - never give away the star. Never; Never ever, if you are running a mission team. (on Event teams, GM teams, it may be in the best interest of the team for the highest leveled character to have the star so that everyone has access to all their powers).

If you don't want to rush in all the time, don't invite tanks, scrappers, or Kheldeans (Peacebringers or Warshades) to the team. Some will have patience, listen, and follow tactics. However, 90% of the time they will not. Luckily, as you hold the star you can kick them if they don't - but why chance it, just don't invite them to begin with. (even if you are a tank, scrapper, or Kheldean.)

It's okay to play in an organized fashion with tactics instead of rushing in. But you are perfectly right in saying that many players in the game primarily "just rush in" and that is the only way that they know how to play. It isn't about grace or style to them, it's about being a bulldozer and plowing through everything at top speed. To this sort of player it is all about DPS (damage per second).

I was on the villain side this evening as a dominator. I was on a team with two brutes that were lower level than me and we were running my mission. After the first team wipe - I said - don't rush in. Let's string them out and we will be able to defeat them. No reply. They rushed in again. Stayed engaged while they were falling again, and almost dragged me down with them again, but I managed to get away and take out all but a minion and an LT before needing to hide and get some hp and end back. The two brutes quit the team - I'm assuming because they were dying to much - because they wouldn't disengage and fall back when they were getting hurt - let alone fall back in order to string out the enemies so that we could them on better odds.
It is frustrating to watch it, but it isn't your fault when it does. If they can't understand that they will fall if the they don't run once they start to get a certain amount of damage and they won't listen to tactics that could make them victorious and, at least, a lot more successful - then who's fault is that?

Sure. Steamrolling teams are good to get xp.
But it sounds to me that you are trying to enjoy the genre of the game. The superhero genre isn't about steamrolling through enemies to get xp or more powers. Those are gaming conventions set up in order to turn the superhero experience into a game with character progression.

Take your time and enjoy playing, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, that's what I like about this game. The journey really is the adventure. Don't race past it. Take time to look around and see what's cool.

Oh, did I forget to say "Welcome to the City"?
I'm glad you're here.

You are correct in your answer to your own question.


Yes.
Yes.
I rarely sell salvage. I just buy it. In fact, I haven't sold salvage since like 3 days after I started my last character, which was about 3 months back.

[/quote]

Yes. It appears many people are giving you useful tips!

As others have said, the Vault in the PD, on the street, and in your base are all the same Vault, so you can put it in one place and use it when you get back to your base when you are at a crafting station. I think many sg's by now are putting the vault right over a crafting station. I like putting an IO salvage table and an enhancement table right near too. If I recall right, you can have your personal salvage window open, the io salvage table window open, the Vault window open, and the active IO recipe table for crafting all up at the same time. Everything has to filter through your personal salvage, so the vault and base storage gives you room to move what you need into your personal salvage to carry around or do whatever with.

Yeah, there are Vault buildings in all non-hazard zones - I'm pretty sure. Logging off in one gives you a Day Job (and others have already brought up the 21 days). You will also want the Day job for logging off in a police station - if you are a hero - or on the [I can't remember where-Grandville maybe?], if you are a villain - to get an accolade. Then spending time off line in either location will build up a temp power.

As far as interpersonal trading, I suggest making a personal base if you aren't in an sg already. Ask someone else to invite all your characters in. Make some characters that you will play later and invite them too. Always play in SG mode. Before too long you will at least have enough loot for a warehouse room, an Io salvage storage and an enhancement table. That's all you really need to trade amongst your characters. It doesn't cost any power/control to run, but you will need to pay a little bit of base rent every month.
You will however need power /control to get a personal vault operational in a base. For a small/solo sg, I suggest the oversight room and the combo generator to start off. I'd also safe up for the square warehouse room instead of the two blocker, because it can hold far more tables.

Good luck.
Have fun.

Yahoo. I was just on Virtue for about 8 hours so I can chime in on this one without any guilt! ha!

So what do I do to help keep the fun factor alive?
I create lots of alts and char/side/server jump all over the multi-verse.
PuG. You never know what you are going to get with a PuG and that is the main beauty of it. The team is always changing. You never know what the other players are going to do for sure, so it's cool watching a team gel as they learn to work with each other. It's a different experience very time.
Don't mini-max; create concept characters and try to stick to the concepts. Yeah, you can just want to "win" but after a while, it should make sense that the fell of the game is often the reward and making a cool character and figuring out how to play the character to make them work smoothly can be very rewarding.

What kind of cool content is being missed?
How many adventures do you think are in the AE? There are thousands of them that are probably great missions that would take on an average at least 1 hr to run, so there is tons there to be had. There are also lots of not so great missions mixed in - and, for some extent, that's just a matter of taste.
I've recently been heading into the Shadow Shard through Firebase Zulu. I never really went out there much, but now that the raptor pack vendor is there, it is a lot easier to get around. I've been out there duo'ing Controller/Controller and Controller/Scrapper and it has been a pretty good time. It is a beautiful zone and it is cool to get to experience it at a good level rage. I suggest going in there at level 41-42.
Run Door missions in PvP zones. Yeah, they are there and they are different from normal missions. They are pretty repetitive quickly, but definitely worth checking out if you haven't done them.
Monster Island and Rikti Monkey Island in PI. There is a whole Island full of DE Monsters and an island rampant with those pesky Ritki Monkeys. They are out there just waiting to be experienced.

Thanks.

I would say the same thing to a blaster in regards to AoE.
If you can't take the agro, don't AoE.
If you are in a position where you can go for it and you have some cover, then AoE away.

The goal, I think, was survival.
I agree with your points on dealing damage.

When I trade inf across servers, I use Wentworths.
I tend to have each of my characters make their own loot and leave some insp, enhances (training, DO, SO, IO, IO set), IO salvage, and event salvage in a base for other less fortunate characters to sell or use.
I give more inf away to sg mates and other players than I think I have ever traded between my characters, but I can understand why someone might like this mechanic especially gold farmers.
That's just an observation as to why it may be unnecessary and might not be a good idea.

The game is built on teaming, so hopefully you have some team mates that you can trust.

From a sg stand point, it could make sense to have a mutual inf depository in their base - even if it was only a pool that inf could be put into, not taken out of, and could only be used to increase sg prestige and/or crafting (and anything else that cost inf in regards to a base <- disclaimer in case I forgot something).
That shouldn't muck with the economy too much, it fosters use of the crafting system.
(HINT :: this is pretty much already in effect as you can craft enhances and put them in base storage for other characters use.)

If you want to set up a sg-group with all your characters on a server (and I strongly suggest doing so) many people in game will probably be more than willing to help if you give out a yell on the /hc channel aka [Help]. Even a one man/woman/robot/plant/alien/etc. sg can generate a enough prestige to get basic storage tables that don't cost power (the storage tables will cost base rent, but they are well worth the cost.) Once you get a one-player sg rolling, you can coalition with another sg that is more fleshed out and have access to tp'rs until you can get your own rolling.

You probably thought of these things before though. If so, I apologize if this came off wrong.

Yeah, I always forget that the slow tends to be for just moment in some sets. Some sets it does affect recharge rate.

It looks like from your character's build that you haven't slotted up your def or res much. So I'd switch around stuff for that. I tend to try to slot up equally between Primary and Secondary so that I have a balance between attack and defense. Watch carefully what powers give you def/res bonuses vs what damage types. You may very well be over looking some defense/res powers + slotting that could keep your character on its feet.

It appears that your character is built for burst damage.

I agree with _Mojo_. I often take it for granted that players eat their candy. I know that I do. I don't tend to use the orange and purples for scrappers, but I can see how they could be very useful on a build that has slotted up def/res more than you have yours set up currently. I'd go with greens and learn to run a lot more.

Learning when to fall back is critical to survival as far as I'm concerned. So maybe a bit more practice on figuring out when to run would help.
Start by running before you think you need to (maybe half health). Enemies are sure to follow. Then you can stop and determine if you can handle the group that is still with you or not - take a shot, and fall back again.
If you are getting too many chasing you then you are in-too deep/agro-ing too many when you engage. So stay back a bit further on the next group and let the others rush in. Attack, fall back, and re-engage the enemies that follow.
Watch out for the agro radius that you are generating when you are moving into combat.

Try it without Quills first. I assumed that was what you were talking about when you said you were pulling too much agro.
If Rise to the Challenge is the only agro field that you are generating, then try skirting the edges instead of diving in and see what kind of result you have with that. Remember the first opponent you engage in melee with with Rise to the Challenge on is the one that gives you the biggest bonuses.

And, um yeah, some scrappers do just dive strait into the pile -> really a job for Tankers - but then many Tankers don't have Taunt, so go figure.

My first 50 was/is a Katana/Regen Scrapper and I was very much a fringe/tactics fighter. That character was a stalker before there were stalkers. I was always intentionally very sneaky. Lured off those that I could and trimmed my way into the masses by "peeling the apple".

I have several spines/x characters. Quills gets me into more trouble than anything else, so if you have that - try turning it off.

Also, looking at your build, Quills only does minor damage. I think you would be better off replacing one if not two of those Dam's with Slow's - aka snares. Also, I would put Slow's in some of your other attack powers. By not slotting up the Slow potential of your powers you are ignoring the SFX of your power set. That is to say, it is the equivalent of not slotting up def-debuffs or to-hit debuffs. Slowing an opponent or opponents down mean that they can attack less often and regen less often. That extra time can give you a chance to heal while also allowing you time take them out before they can recover.

I think you answered your own question.
Turn off the damage aura when you are on a team that doesn't have a Tanker with Taunt.
That damage aura has a good slow in it, so it might be valuable to turn it on once the team whittles down the mob to a solo boss.

If you start getting hurt too much, fall back aka run a bit. This does three things; 1) strings out the enemy, 2) forces the enemy to use ranged attacks which you generally should have a higher def/res against, 3) give you time to heal.

I vary my play style depending on how the other players on the team are operating. If you fall, hang back in the next fight and see what's going on.
I'm not saying not to fight, but hang back with the squishes and protect them and/or don't be the first character rushing in. See what the other players are doing and then operate in a fashion that will help to augment the team as a whole.

Scrappers are fringe fighters, so don't dive into a pile - skirt the edge and pick of stragglers instead.

Mmm yeah. Some can say dated. I like to say aged.
It isn't like CoH has been sitting on a shelf rotting and falling apart. CoH has been nurtured by the NCSoft, Paragon Studios, and the player base.

The graphics have been improved repeatedly. There was another graphics upgrade in i16. I'm not talking just about the power customization, but there were new face options added (they may have been added in i15). Take a look at them. I think that most if not all the original faces have been removed from the character generator. If a character still has an original face, you can tell by looking at it. (If you do a costume change it will automatically take replace the old faces that no longer exist in the editor, so many may not have noticed this change.) Heck, I remember when the the trees were the old x-style two sheets of graphics. So there has most definitely been graphical improvements since the release of the game and with pretty much every issues of the game.

I'm seriously wondering how you know or can tell that the engine is dated by playing the game. If the game plays well, the underlying coding really doesn't make any difference.

I'm not sure what you mean by the combat is dated. Auto targeting is common in MMORPGs. Skills percentages effecting combat is not only an MMORPG standard, but it is a standard in RPG's on general.
CoH isn't an FPS. It isn't meant to be.
On the PvP front, the archetypes were never balanced and PvP was added as an after thought.
The mechanics used - including power cool-down - are all very good ones for a game environment that has people playing on various levels (speeds, storage, graphics cards, connections, etc.) of equipment. These mechanics make the game balanced, so some players don't have an advantage because of their more powerful equipment or faster connection.
(I know some people that still try to play on dial up. At this point, characters switching costumes (power customized) can even cause them to dc sometimes. I pay an amount on my phone bill to have internet service run out into the country. A friend of mine doesn't live that far outside of a big city, and they still haven't run DSL to where they live.)

Server populations greatly changed during the whole AE Farming/PL'ing craze. A certain type of new player flooded into the game and immediately wanted to join the most active servers. Those players joined Virtue and Freedom for the most part.
Players started to get tired of the activities of the new type of player and left Freedom and Virtue to find other servers to play on. So some of the player base was moved around. Some new players were turned off by what was going on.
When the AE Farming/PL'ing was fixed (it was never intended to operate in that manner as far as everything I read tells me), this new type of player quit playing the game. The exploitation that they were looking for in the game was gone.
Several other MMORPGs have come out since then that would have an impact on the CoH community; Champions Online being the major one. The curious thing though is that even though they may be playing other games - many CoH players keep their accounts active even when they aren't playing it regularly. You can go through the forums and see posts all over the place about people being gone for months or years at a time and keeping their accounts active. (Vet rewards may really go a long way for some people in regards to this.)
Add to all this the fact that some players play on multiple servers/sides and the population of any server can change quite a bit depending on the time of day and whims of the player base.

I believe that Dungeon Runner was a free-game with commercials. Not enough commercial support and the game isn't making money.
TR wasn't doing well from the get go as far as I can tell. A friend of mine tried it and said it was pretty much play-by-rail - which means that you are pretty much guided along through everything you do. I don't think it every became vary popular.
CoH has advertisements in game. I really haven't seen many of them lately. They are on the billboards. CoH just released another super-booster. I don't know what they numbers were like, but I'm sure many people bought it. CoH:GR (CoH3) is in production. So I would figure that the game would at least have a year after CoH:GR was released, but I really have the feeling that CoH will last longer than that. CoH2 was CoV so I'm not really going to touch on that one.

CoH is the 1000 lbs gorilla of Super MMORPGs. I can't see it going anywhere in the foreseeable future. The graphics are being improved as the game progresses; they are far different from when the game was originally released. People have been playing cards and chess for centuries so I really don't think the game engine or combat system are going to cause CoH to fold. Server populations change, but CoH players tend to be loyal to the game even if they aren't actively playing it. CoH isn't a failing game; it is alive and vibrant.

I know that you are new .... or at least you appear to be new from your forum date. There have been many posts about this in the past so a little search-fu can help out a lot.
I've been here from almost the beginning. I bought the game when it came out. I saved up money and built a machine to play it on. I'm not bound by characters/sides/servers and I make my characters varied enough so that I always have an option if I'm bored playing any certain archetype or conception. This makes the game very alive and utilitarian to me. I can enjoy playing changing the game as it is refined and part of that is the increased ability to make the game what I want it to be.
CoH is a great game and it is getting better all the time. With free expansions aka issues, the game makes great strides. There are super-boosters to bump revenue numbers without causing a great imbalance in powers. There will be a renewed interest for many when CoH:GR comes out and with it a resurgence of active players.
One of the things that really makes CoH a great game is the core type of player base. These player are not only friendly and helpful to other players, but they also actively work to make the game better than the mechanics themselves. Players host their own contests and events, and, thanks to AE, we all can help make the game better by creating content.

Have no fear, CoH is going to be here for a good while to come.

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I'm not quite sure the purpose of this comment.
Perhaps some elaboration would help.

If I wanted to get them all to 50 as quickly as possible, I'm assuming I could before the game is pulled off-line. I'm sure I could have done it quicker if I was trying to get them all to 50 immediately and if I would have farmed and PL'd while other people were doing so while AE was bonkers.

My goal really isn't to get them all to 50. I don't recall ever saying that I was trying to get them all to 50.

I certainly never thought that I could get all my characters to level 50 instantaneously - aka "right now".

With so little information to go on, I really don't understand whatever point it is you are trying to make.

I will make this one. I make characters that I think that I will like to play. I play those characters as I have time to play the game. If I get tired of playing some kind of character or get an urge to play a certain kind of character ... or a certain server or side ... I have plenty of options to chose from. Though some players have a goal to get to level 50, my goal is to have fun playing the game.
I find the game to be so much fun that I'm still playing it 5 years after it was released. So it seems that I'm doing a pretty good job of "winning" at playing this game.