I still have daydreams about playing the game.

[Triplash]

The irony is Praetoria was partially intended to attract newer players, and yet it threw a level of difficulty at newer players they would not see again in any part of the game outside of the most difficult trials and task forces.

Yes, and that difficulty was keenly felt by those new players since they were forced into starting their first character in Praetoria. They could have immediately logged out, rolled a second character and then started in the much more forgiving Paragon City or Rogue Isles, but of course as new players they did not know that. They dipped their toe in, found out they were facing a shark instead of a piranha, and probably got a pretty sour taste of the game because of it. Not the best first impression to make on the rookies.

Praetoria would likely have been much more warmly embraced had they addressed that before launching it. ...Or, y'know, at any point after launching it.

[MWRuger]

Pretoria definitely had flaws, but not fatal ones. It could have been fixed. Even towards end I still started toons in Pretoria, when they reached that last mission that would have sent them to Primal, I would leave them in hopes that one day they could be a Pretorian only toon that made it to 50 on content in that alternate earth. I know many did not like it, but I have always loved SF and that was the closest to straight up SF that COH offered.

My hope is that if ever we get the game back, either through a buyer or a through SCORE, someone will finish that world's story.

[Tribunus]

, when they reached that last mission that would have sent them to Primal, I would leave them in hopes that one day they could be a Pretorian only toon that made it to 50 on content in that alternate earth.

I did as well.

I miss the feel of being a hero. Being the tank (WP/SS) when some AoE DPS aggroed another mob and eeh whole party drops...except for me who went to slugging it out and pulling it off.

[MWRuger]

If by some miracle we do get the game back, I would hope that some modders who love the game and would like to see Pretoria finished would have the chance to create content in partnership with the Devs. You need a fair amount of content to get from 35 to 50, but their are plenty of stories to tell that could be used.

Imagine an arc where you discover a group of strangely clad men looting technology from a first ward tech company that had to run when the city fell. They call themselves "Sky Raiders" and they have Pretorian allies helping them find the choicest bits of tech.

Or...What better place to set up an illegal drug manufacturing facility than in a world that has no pesky heroes in it. As a villian it's much easier to operate here where there is no law. Or is there? Pretoria seems to be generating it's own crop of interfering hero wannabes. It's up to to stop them.

Or...The Banished Pantheon has been stymied by the heroes of primal earth in their attempts to return. But what if they came in through the back door?

Or...Far above the ravaged cities of Pretoria the orbital space platform watches the savage struggle below. How safe are they really? In the near deserted part of the Pretoria, far away from the watchful eye of the emperor a small band of desperate technologists have cobbled together a orbital entry vehicle and they are begging for asylum. What terrors and opportunities do they bring with them?

Or...In the First Ward there are survivors and rebels who live in the ruins. Lately, there have been reports of bestial attackers, half man and half beast who attack anything and take what they will. Where do these weird chimera come from and what is the point of their ruinous savagery? They talk about humans as "animals" and treat the captured as either pets or useful beasts of burden.

That took about ten minutes and I know that there are writers who could do much better but I would absolutely play through those arcs with my Praetorian toons. Most of these arcs could be written as neutral to heroic.

[thunderforce]

Or...What better place to set up an illegal drug manufacturing facility than in a world that has no pesky heroes in it. As a villian it's much easier to operate here where there is no law. Or is there? Pretoria seems to be generating it's own crop of interfering hero wannabes. It's up to to stop them.

Wait, Praetoria's got a massive number of pesky heroes in the service of Powers Division, _and_ the Resistance won't be too keen on the idea, _and_ the existing all-consuming crime syndicate will take a very dim view of you muscling in on their turf.

The place to set that would be on some of the ruined worlds from the original Portal Corps arcs, and not worry too much about how that goateed-evil-twin Praetoria is not really very like the more recent Praetoria.

[MWRuger]

I was think mainly of First Ward rather than the city itself.

While those worlds that Portal Corp opened would be ideal I reject them for 2 reasons:

1. There is a lot more traffic between Pretoria and any of those worlds, much of it not in a high security zone like Portal Corp.

2. I want to pump up gold side content, not just Red/Blue so I was really thinking of just those kind of arcs.

I even thought of a way to radio missions there. - There would be many citizen rescues of course, but recovering tech, stopping/helping raids that kind of thing. I would use the tech that they used for zone events so it could be red/blue based on what the team/player does.

If we get really ambitious we could even add new higher level zones. Imagine a city like Washington DC or London, lost to Hamidon. Full of 40-50 level baddies, a small advance base of resistance hiding there and also Loyalists making a foothold to retake the area. I think it would be Sa-weet!

[LaughingAlex]

Hehe, I think it'd have become impossible to settle in praetoria anyways after the events of issue 23.  But I still imagine going into a post issue 24 praetoria once in a while, and seeing a lot of devouring earth everywhere spreading poisons and transforming the world.  Turning it into an alien paradise.  If only they weren't so intolerable towards humans and actually used their earthly talents to improve the environment without endangering human beings.

[MWRuger]

Yes, that's true but after the 1-20 run you leave for the Isles, Paragon City or First Ward. The rest of your run could take place after i23 in First Ward, Second Ward, The ruins of Pretoria (lots of stories about surviving in the post apocalyptic wasteland that you could do (That was one of the costume sets they were working on after all).

Understand, I know all this is extremely remote, just it would be cool if it could be done.

I suggested modders mainly because they work mainly for love of the game, not money and so many games have hugely extended lives because of them. Just look at Morrowind and Oblivion, both still have active players years after development ceased. Modders keep finding new ways to interest the players.  Of course Devs would have to vet anything that would even be considered being added outside of an AE environment, but it's not impossible.

This thread is about daydreaming after all! 

[BadWolf]

The players that thought they were substantially harder were quantitatively correct: on average Praetorian non-bosses were between 60% and 150% stronger than the average Primal minions and Lts.  The developers did not quantitatively balance those well.  They tested difficulty through playtesting, but playtesting is tricky when it comes to low level critters, particularly with playtesters that are themselves either devs or veteran players/testers.  It also tends not to clearly highlight the frustration that comes from sustaining that high level of difficulty: testing a single spawn, or even a single mission, doesn't always illustrate the negative impact on play that level of difficulty has on lower level characters and less tactically experienced players.

The irony is Praetoria was partially intended to attract newer players, and yet it threw a level of difficulty at newer players they would not see again in any part of the game outside of the most difficult trials and task forces.

As an experienced player, I kinda liked that. It was tough, but you felt pretty pumped when you survived an ambush of Ghouls. I understand that as a newbie zone, that was probably bad design, but it was fun at times.

Although my favorite thing to do was run the Power Loyalist arc at base difficulty with a controller. Mission after mission with just one lieutenant, and me with a single-target hold.

[MaidMercury]

O.K.....finally happened....I ALSO had a dream about CoH.

I was in some comic book, Sci Fi convention or something, minding my own business when
their announcer was reading out awards....surprisingly MY name was called for having
the most logged in Hours for the game.

I was stunned ,started to walk to the podium....then realized it was a dream.

it's YOUR fault this dream happened doc7924...power of suggestion.

[Todogut]

Recently, I was laying in bed, dreaming about a really cool adventure. I must have been waking up because rational thought began to intrude: I thought, this dream would make for a great Mission Architect story arc! So, I began to plan how to tell the story in a five-mission story arc... and that's when I woke up enough to remember, "Oh, yeah... I can't make a story arc... because City of Heroes is gone." 

[kiario]

Still day dreaming of this game too 

Today there still is not a game nowwhere near the game that CoH was.
No game has the atmosphere, sound/music, skill and power setup that CoH had.

I miss standing in Kings Row and Skyway city listening to the ambient sounds of the city. 

[doc7924]

Still day dreaming of this game too 

Today there still is not a game nowwhere near the game that CoH was.
No game has the atmosphere, sound/music, skill and power setup that CoH had.

I miss standing in Kings Row and Skyway city listening to the ambient sounds of the city. 

There were many days I would just log in to hang out - no missions, no hunting. Just walk (or fly) around, chatting with other players, if I had a support toon maybe go to the low zones and help out some lowbies.

It was a game where you didn't always have to be doing something to level up or improve - you could just hang. And that is what  miss the most.

I dabble in DCU and Champions but its jut not the same as COH was.

[kiario]

City of Heroes had soul, have not found that in any other MMO yet.

[Cinnder]

A car has recently moved into my neighbourhood with a license plate that bears the letters "COH".   I have to see this every day when I come home from work now.

I prefer the other car on my street with the letters "AFK".  No one ever seems to be in that car...

[MWRuger]

A car has recently moved into my neighbourhood with a license plate that bears the letters "COH".   I have to see this every day when I come home from work now.

I prefer the other car on my street with the letters "AFK".  No one ever seems to be in that car...

I should hope not! They would be Lying Liars who Lie if they were!

[Arcana]

A car has recently moved into my neighbourhood with a license plate that bears the letters "COH".   I have to see this every day when I come home from work now.

I prefer the other car on my street with the letters "AFK".  No one ever seems to be in that car...

I thought I saw a car with a license plate that started "TLD" but I didn't catch the rest.

[Cinnder]

I thought I saw a car with a license plate that started "TLD" but I didn't catch the rest.

Ha ha, very good!

[healix]

I sometimes go deeply in thought about certain times I experienced in the game like running across the treetops in Perez park for the first time, or meeting up with a friend I haven't seen for a while...just flying over the places I came to be so familiar with.