I still have daydreams about playing the game.

[Mythic13]

It crosses my mind now and then. I never was able to play on a consistent basis unfortunately. I first played this game around a year post-launch but then went on a 4 year hiatus. I am far more nostalgic/reminiscent of the game circa 2005 then the AE era.

[johnrobey]

I started with Issue 15, so while I saw a number of changes (e.g. I remember the separate Yellow and Green Line trains--and where they went), I also missed lots of changes, e.g. the Big Blue Hand.  I remember small details, like clicking the Ouroboros symbol on the ground rather than the portal light at the top to gate thru.

For the longest time I had a recurring daydream about a specific character departing Wentworth's in Steel Canyon to fly off to his next mission (also in that zone).

It makes sense to me that we each remember City of Heroes vividly and fondly.  I am hoping Ironwolf's current efforts are successful.  Keeping hope and /em holdtorch.

[healix]

I will sometimes see something in real life that immediately makes me think of CoH, and how I could express it in the game. (A name, concept, article of clothing, etc.) My first reaction is that I want to log on. It always leaves me with an ache in my heart that I can't......

[Cryair the Twiceborn]

I've been watching this forum for a long time but I never post because there's nothing for me to say that hasn't already been said in some form. I only played a few months out of each year because I needed to keep things 'fresh' for myself but I at the same time had as much emotional investment into it as anyone. A need for it to at least be there. I'm probably past the bawling stage but I still feel like I need therapy. It's like someone died. It's like I was an artist and went suddenly and completely blind. I never saw that level of sadness coming. And I might even be happy about that, about knowing I could say I was passionate about something while I could be, if I did have more time invested-- to feel I'd had my 'day'. I never got to see everything. But an artist is never done expressing themselves, so what consolation could be found in blindness? Rhetorical, of course.

[MWRuger]

I played almost constantly for 5 years. There were things I never saw and never got to do.

But how long we played or made the City our home doesn't matter. If you started playing the day before the shutdown was announced and as long as you loved the game, you are a brother (or sister) in arms. I still feel the loss, we all do. I can certainly understand your post Cryair the Twiceborn, but I'm not sure anybody who wasn't there can.

Words don't completely convey it, even other people who played it don't always get it. For them, it's just a game they really liked but were OK with going to the next thing. I guess we were wounded in way they weren't. It feels like a wound that will not heal, like we should have done something and didn't and so the wound won't close.

[Cryair the Twiceborn]

It's the ocean knocking down your sandcastle that you swore was unbreakable. Time does it to most everything. It's been said, but worse than taking away what's beloved, they also took away the feeling of security in investment into games. I don't think anyone didn't become leery of their other investments' mortality after that. Only robbery in its many forms can do that so effectively. Once you call it what it is to one of those strangers, they become more likely to 'get it'.

[Solitaire]

I will sometimes see something in real life that immediately makes me think of CoH, and how I could express it in the game. (A name, concept, article of clothing, etc.) My first reaction is that I want to log on. It always leaves me with an ache in my heart that I can't......

This!

Just one example of this, not sure if the other servers had anything similar but on the Defiant server there was a SG called the Taxi Service They would position themselves in hazard zones (Hollows mainly) and broadcast to lowbie toons that they were in the zone if anyone needed TP to gates, can't walk down a street now without seeing a taxi and thinking of that SG and how helpful they were.

Note: They didn't even charge for the service

[MWRuger]

This!

Just one example of this, not sure if the other servers had anything similar but on the Defiant server there was a SG called the Taxi Service They would position themselves in hazard zones (Hollows mainly) and broadcast to lowbie toons that they were in the zone if anyone needed TP to gates, can't walk down a street now without seeing a taxi and thinking of that SG and how helpful they were.

Note: They didn't even charge for the service

The Taxi Service was before my time I'm afraid. Although, I do have memories of trying to sprint through the Hollows or :shudder: Hover before prestige travel powers. The Hollows could be...brutal to level 8-14 toons.

[Solitaire]

The Taxi Service was before my time I'm afraid. Although, I do have memories of trying to sprint through the Hollows or :shudder: Hover before prestige travel powers. The Hollows could be...brutal to level 8-14 toons.

But the Hollows was so much fun to run through at these lvls, getting to missions on the otherside of the map, an MMO game became a puzzle game due to picking the right route, avoiding the mobs... So much fun, even in a team getting to location and willing the others to make it also without getting killed, then having to respawn in Atlas hospital if they didn't manage to avoid a mob, as there wasn't an aid station in Hollows back then

[Arcana]

But the Hollows was so much fun to run through at these lvls, getting to missions on the otherside of the map, an MMO game became a puzzle game due to picking the right route, avoiding the mobs... So much fun, even in a team getting to location and willing the others to make it also without getting killed, then having to respawn in Atlas hospital if they didn't manage to avoid a mob, as there wasn't an aid station in Hollows back then

Back in the day when Peregrine Island was added to the game in Issue 1, I and other players I knew used to have races where we would make a level 1, and then from Atlas Park we would race to the Portal statue in PI.  Picking the fastest route to get there from Atlas and trying to execute it without travel powers or stealth and without dying was a significant challenge.

[FourSpeed]

Back in the day when Peregrine Island was added to the game in Issue 1, I and other players I knew used to have races where we would make a level 1, and then from Atlas Park we would race to the Portal statue in PI.  Picking the fastest route to get there from Atlas and trying to execute it without travel powers or stealth and without dying was a significant challenge.

Indeed. I always thought it was kinda fun - till I got one-shot when I zigged instead of zagged.

The slightly later variant of that was running to FB-Zulu to get a jet pack for your lowbie -
before they gave us the Vet reward.


Regards,
4

[Solitaire]

Hollow Fire Tank farms  Nothing like seeing a horde of Skulls & Trolls, was fun then the taunt nerf came in to affect... Ahhh the memories

[Arcana]

Hollow Fire Tank farms  Nothing like seeing a horde of Skulls & Trolls, was fun then the taunt nerf came in to affect... Ahhh the memories

The original crazy zone farming was the rad farms in perez.  Unfortunately I do not have a lot of video from that era, but I did find a small snippet a few years back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbn18On-7A

Back in the day with no target cap and no aggro cap, rad defenders could just lock their two rad toggles on a target, lead them around perez, aggro literally everything, and then herd them to a gate.  It was like the spirit of Christmas vomited up a hundred skulls.  And since those rad toggles debuffed those skulls trolls and thorns to the tohit floor and the damage floor, low levels could go crazy pummeling them.

As long as they didn't kill the anchors.  If you didn't know that and killed the anchors, well...

[MWRuger]

I followed that link (The Immortal Game: the Last City of Heroes story) at the bottom of your post and I really enjoyed it, well done. Not sure I would like the direction the end game appeared to be going in. Let me explain.

Like everyone else who ever played this game I had my vision of what was fun what my game was. I loved the long arcs and the leveling from around 12 to 50. I know many people viewed all that as a necessary evil, but for me, that was the game. I think this was mainly because in my mind, even though I had done the missions often, this character was the hero of the story he was playing. All the leveling stuff was pretty easy to work into his bio as something he would be doing. The contacts always addressed you by name and made it clear that you saved the day.

The incarnate stuff and the upcoming battalion stuff was much harder to personalize. Probably because you had to be part of a big team to take part. That made it "our" story rather than "my" story. All the cut scenes were necessarily impersonal.

So I would probably play all that stuff with my main DP/Mental at least once and just unlock the Alpha on all my other toons and just create a new story and a new toon.

[Solitaire]

The original crazy zone farming was the rad farms in perez.  Unfortunately I do not have a lot of video from that era, but I did find a small snippet a few years back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbn18On-7A

Back in the day with no target cap and no aggro cap, rad defenders could just lock their two rad toggles on a target, lead them around perez, aggro literally everything, and then herd them to a gate.  It was like the spirit of Christmas vomited up a hundred skulls.  And since those rad toggles debuffed those skulls trolls and thorns to the tohit floor and the damage floor, low levels could go crazy pummeling them.

As long as they didn't kill the anchors.  If you didn't know that and killed the anchors, well...

Thanks for the youtube link Arcana, memories on each video you have up 

[Arcana]

I followed that link (The Immortal Game: the Last City of Heroes story) at the bottom of your post and I really enjoyed it, well done.

Thanks.  If you're unaware, that was something I whipped up in the last month of the game to go with an end of game event I and a few other players managed to cook up that we ran on the beta server.  Somehow I found myself with admin access to the beta server a few weeks before shutdown: what are the odds.

More than one person has suggested I rewrite it as a longer story when there's no gun pointing at my head to blitz it out, and at some point when I have more free time I might attempt that.

Not sure I would like the direction the end game appeared to be going in. Let me explain.

Like everyone else who ever played this game I had my vision of what was fun what my game was. I loved the long arcs and the leveling from around 12 to 50. I know many people viewed all that as a necessary evil, but for me, that was the game. I think this was mainly because in my mind, even though I had done the missions often, this character was the hero of the story he was playing. All the leveling stuff was pretty easy to work into his bio as something he would be doing. The contacts always addressed you by name and made it clear that you saved the day.

The incarnate stuff and the upcoming battalion stuff was much harder to personalize. Probably because you had to be part of a big team to take part. That made it "our" story rather than "my" story. All the cut scenes were necessarily impersonal.

So I would probably play all that stuff with my main DP/Mental at least once and just unlock the Alpha on all my other toons and just create a new story and a new toon.

Although the Incarnate trials were the initial priority, the devs were planning more small team and solo-friendly incarnate content.  The leading edge of that was only just starting to come out in I23 and (the unreleased anywhere but the beta server) I24.  Given enough time, I think there would have eventually been a rich incarnate-level game outside of the raid content.

Where *I* might have had a problem is that I believe the devs appeared to be on-track to make the same mistake many other people have made when it comes to overtopping themselves.  When Incarnates get trumped by the Battalion, and the Battalion get trumped by the true Rikti, and the true Rikti get trumped by the Dimensionless and the Ascended, you are in danger of dulling people's sense of scale.  Its the same mistake The Empire Strikes Back makes when they introduce the Super Star Destroyer.  Once you destroy the illusion that Star Destroyers are enormous machines by dwarfing them with something else, you risk making people not just think the Star Destroyer is just a toy, but the Super Star Destroyer is just a bigger toy.  I recall reading once long ago that even Lucas admitted it was a mistake to take that symbol of Imperial might and make it just a match stick compared to something else.  Once you break that feeling of impressive scale, you can't easily get it back.

[enoch7fa]

THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND IS BACK!!!!  SOUND THE TRUMPETS!! BLOW THE HORNS!!! LIFT OF YOU HEADS AND HAVE HOPE!!! NEVER FEAR BLACKMELEE IS HERE!! AND GUESS WHAT!!
I BROUGHT MY DADDYS GUN!!!

[MWRuger]

I totally agree with your comments about scale and power creep.

There needs to be a way to increase difficulty and challenge without making bigger and bigger foozles. It also sorta cheapens the accomplishment of becoming incarnate when you are ultimately just a different scale of minion.

Possibly something along the lines of TSW investigations or maybe (even though some people hated it) something like Numina TF where you needed better team communication and coordination to be successful. I don't know. I'm not a dev. (Thank god) I know the risk/reward metric is pretty darn tricky.

While I know that many players were tired of Pretoria, but I loved the idea of alternate route to 50 that it would have provided. I had some awesome toon ideas that I was waiting for the content to appear to finish it.

[Kaos Arcanna]

Part of the problem with Praetoria was that the enemies at low levels were tougher than the ones normally found on Primal Earth, and then there were all those ambushes. That made some of the fights problematic or outright frustrating for low damage builds.

[Arcana]

Part of the problem with Praetoria was that the enemies at low levels were tougher than the ones normally found on Primal Earth, and then there were all those ambushes. That made some of the fights problematic or outright frustrating for low damage builds.

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.