UltraAlt

AE farming is one of the main reasons that I stopped subscribing to City of Heroes - almost exactly a year before it sunset. I tolerate famers here. I still think Farming is very harmful to a new players' longevity of gameplay. There is no reason to bring in new players and then burn them out with farming in order to to rush them into the end-game instead of actually letting them play the game content which is the first 50 levels which would give them time to love the game because they will have become invested in it. What you are doing is rushing them past all the learning and dumping them in the deep-end with the messed-up incarnate system that they can't power-level though. They have to GRIND. I can't really understand the players that like Grinding. I hate grinding. If you are pro-farming, that's your thing. I think farming is very detrimental to player retention.

Theme From Secret Agent (aka Danger Man in the US)

I'm being lazy and not reading through all the posts. Controller's special power is Containment. When you have Containment on a target, your other primary power do additional damage. I think all ranged characters that are soloing should pull and not rush in. You can also get teleport target so you can pull one at a distance (and at a time) until the mob is a more manageable size. walls have 100% resistance and defense, so you want to immobilize a bunch at once, try to be in a position so only a couple can target you once they are immobilized. fall back/run as necessary. Phantom Army is your damage. Oh, and why aren't you teaming up? Soloing is okay sometimes, but the glory and true power of this game is in teaming.

For most it's a DFB. Show the new guys what it's like to team up with others from the get go.

Honestly, if you are trying to build a community, that's the lowest level thing you can do. Fostering the lowest level characters go a long way ... and most of those players ... if they are new ... are going to be unlikely to recruit. You don't have to spend all your game time building Community, but, if you take some of your time, use search to see where the teams are needed level-wise and recruit for task forces, mission teams, etc. around that level ... you are a much better boon to the game in general. Power-leveling doesn't build community. Speedy task forces don't build community. Playing the game together builds community. Chat it up when you have time to show interest in what other players are doing. Share knowledge - pay attention and respond to the help channel!

Print up your own join Homecoming business cards or fliers and hand them out at Conventions and don't forget to give them to cosplayers and let them know about the depth of the City of Heroes costume creator!

Play a knockback character!

I think this is actually being useful. I have seen change in the population. The post was even an example of it .. be it in off-peak times. I've also seen increases in pop on Everlasting percentage-wise against Excelsior. Torchbearer dies off around midnight EST on the week nights.

This is an off-prime hours screen shot. The increase of population on Indom has happened just lately, and it is still lower than Torchbearer in prime time.

To a large extent the players behave on Homcoming like they did before F2P was released (subscribers) - exception of Excelsior (which is the new Freedom). It is F2P now, but there is are no microtransactions. I do run into new players. And I'm still running into new players that are just logging into Homecoming for the first time ... or at least they are saying it is their first time being back.

That's what killed it for me +the F2P community ("how do I get out of Atlas?" due to ....) +AE farming +incarnate system

I don't know. I don't understand why the incarnate system needed to be about realizing that you are a god. It's about character conception. And, I have to say, most these things that you have mentioned do and have fallen under comic book/superhero genre from the beginning. Vampires have shown up in comics as heroes and villains. Unkillable assassin (you are only immortal until someone kills you) - Blade of the Immortal? or are you talking more like Wolverine or Deadpool? Angel? Sure. All the time in comics. Phantom Stranger? The Specter? tons of others Dragons? Yeah sure. it happens. Reality-bending Aliens? I could probably pull 3 or 4 comics that came out this month off the racks in a comic store any given week. Sidhe? Sihde? You think they aren't in comics?! What? ... wait. Have you ever been to a comic book store? I am not one that feels like my character has to be the Lord God Emperor of City of Heroes throughout Time and all Dimensions. It is too long to pick as a name at any rate. I do believe in character conception, and I do have characters that are vampires, angels, devils, reality-bending aliens, fae creatures (though not cruel or from the dawn of time). I did have an ancient dragon character before the sunset (that started off being a Dhalsim clone) But, yeah, costume slots ... can breath fire, so, yeah, a dragon form. Because being a superhero/superpowered is about being more than a normal human could be. You are already a demigod compared to humans. Samson Hercules Gilgamesh This can be raised to different levels. Batman has the superhuman amount of money to be a superhero because he felt the calling to bring wrongdoers to justice and to stop them from inflicting the kind of pain on others that he felt when he saw his parents killed in front of him. It is about character conception. Why do some people want to take it to the extreme? I think it is because they need to take it to that level to make them feel good about themselves. I mean that is all we are really doing with our characters is a wish-fulfillment thing. I had to break it to a friend of mine, that we could never get to a mission if he kept stopping to fight every purse snatcher we ran into in Atlas Park. I think you need to get some perspective. Are you the only one that doesn't know about doorsitting AE farms and power-leveling? I have to say "keep it in your pants". This kind of comment is kind of uncalled for. This is a comment that you are better than other players because you play differently than they do. Just get over it and enjoy playing the game or move onto a game or whatever bring you bliss. You are getting aggravated for no good reason. You don't have to read their bios and you don't have to game with them if you don't like their bios. You can even put them on ignore in order to avoid them if you are really feeling that badly about running around with any characters that you feel don't fit into your mold of what is "right". You think it's them being about "me". You see, you are about being "me" as well. You don't have to. If you don't want to, then don't interact with them. No one is forcing you to do so. If a player was creating characters that were all apparently about defecation and urine, I wouldn't complain to the player. I would put them on ignore. I don't want to interact with them so I don't. Such crude behavior is beneath the dignity of the City. I think that is much worse than someone putting in their bio that they are the UberL337st SuperGodForm Ultimate Omni-powerful Being of All Space and Time. But to each our own. And I think that is the key.

City of Heroes wasn't making enough money for NCSoft even with all the microtransactions. I was one of the players driven away from City of Heroes because of the microtransactions. They lost my subscription that I bought by the year. City of Heroes was still profitable. It just wasn't as profitable as their other games. City of Heroes also was a total flop in South Korea. They tried to rework it to draw in more Koreans, but it didn't happen. You can even see the trailer for it. It looks like they might have been working on an area with more ancient-Korean-looking buildings in it (which would have been cool),. But NCSoft already had other games they were pushing. * disclaimer. I did not create this. I downloaded this from the old COH forums before they were destroyed. If the Western audience didn't want to support their games that were popular in South Korea, why bother with a bunch of upstarts that want to tell them what will sell to an audience that wants superheroes in a game. I kind of think that NCSoft thought that the Praetorian content was the correct way to go. For a dystopian future where superheroes exist, it was okay in concept, horrible in execution, and no fun to play. Setting up alignment shifting was a way to give the small villain player base others to game with, but it kind of break the genre. Sure the comics explore this kind of behavior, but it is a rare case that anyone is trusted after flip-flopping sides even once. I'm kind of glad that NCSoft sunset City of Heroes. Homecoming is a much better take on the game because the people in control of it love the game. NCSoft did not even like City of Heroes.

I remember specifically one week where my Ice Controller dominated for about a week. I saw the post about the changes to control so I headed in and slowed opponents so they couldn't reach me and slowly ... slowly ... slowly ... ate them down to zero XP. The DEVs removed the change at the end of the week. I don't have documentation, but I know it happened. It must have taken 10 minutes for me to whittle down this one tank. and they was livid that I had defeated them. My character's health was full. The tank didn't land a blow my character. Wasn't the same after the DEVs reverted it back.

Oh, no. There was one week where Controllers were KING in PVP on live. Then they nerfed them again. Tanks have always had the upper hand in PVP.

Like https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Recluse's_Victory Recluse's Victory :: Zone Event The zone of Recluse's Victory presents an alternative dimension in a constant state of flux. It pits the Good against Evil for control of a potential future for Primal Earth. This future is determined by the capture and control of various Temporal Anchors, each defended by a Pillbox. Each Pillbox that is captured will dramatically alter the surounding zone, changing the landscape to reflect the underlying ideals of those in charge - desolate and broken if controlled by Villains, humdrum if neutral and clean and bouyant if controlled by Heroes. This has no effect on spawning enemies (so for example, if the main Hero base portal is in villain territory, the Longbow NPC's will still be there, only the background changes). Pillboxes have 4 turrets located at each of the crosshaped corners that start out as Level 54 Pop Up Anti-Personnel Guns. This is a good place to use Heavies, especially when soloing since you will have a tough time securing the Pillbox. Once all 4 Pop Up Turrets are defeated, the player can head to the center of the Pillbox and activate the control panel. Once the capture process (which can be interrupted) is successfully completed, the four corners of the Pillbox convert to 2 different sets of 2 missile Turrets at level 50. Players can stand in the middle and, just like capturing a pill box, activate the controls. This allows them to focus a pill box's firepower at a particular enemy by commanding with a Mastermind's controls. This is useful, since players (while in the center) get extra protection, and can use their powers to defend the pillbox as well as the turrets. When either side controls their fourth pillbox, reinforcements spawn to support the other faction in the form of two to three Signature Heroes/Villains. At the fifth pillbox another wave of support is spawned if the first set of Signature Heroes/Villains has already been defeated. At the capture of the sixth pillboxes for a side, the zone is "won" by that side, and a five minute counter begins. After the five minutes (or shorter: see below), all characters get the message "Dimensional Reversion" and the pillboxes revert to neutral status. All neutral pop-up turrets then respawn on all pillboxes. During the five minutes, the winning side can continue to defeat enemy heroes/villains for bonus credit towards their side's Heavy. In the five minute timer, the losing side can defeat opposing heroes/villains to cause an early Dimensional Reversion. - or - https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Siren's_Call Siren's Call : Zone Events Bounty! Hunt down player enemies and get spendable points for it. The zone will "paint" your assigned target's rough location on the map every so often with a temporary waypoint. Battle for Siren's Call - Battles between armies of Arachnos and Longbow NPCs at local hotspots determine which faction controls Siren's Call. Control gives a faction access to one or two sets of temporary powers. - or - https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Warburg Warbug : Zone Events https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Missile_Launch_Mission + Lots of badges in every zone. + I think there are PVE missions in all PVP areas, and there are definitely PVE enemies to fight in the open worlds of all PVP areas. And I think the DEV time could be better spent on areas of the game that the DEVs feel good/excited about whatever time they have to put into the game. If that ends up being PVP that's great for the very small number of PVP players. I don't think that will help to rejuvenate the game. Making posts about the game being a retirement home isn't going to help the game either.

There is no reason for anyone to lie to themselves about this. You are not going to get a majority of CoH players to take part in PVP. You might as well try to get a majority of the players to participate in Praetoria. I am not saying this to be mean, but I don't think you should expect something that was never likely to happen. Anything that the PVPers want to accomplish, they need to work on accomplishing with the content and tools that they already have. If you like it, do it. If you want other to participate, let them know that you are looking for more to join you. And keep doing it if you like it, and keep using the tools available to keep telling others that you are looking for more to join you. The reward for wanting to PVP should be being able to PVP. Players can go PVP at any time that the like. There are Zone events in PVP that are PVP player driven. There are badges. I think the XP is a little better in PVP zone than in PVE zones already. If you want to have more players in PVP zones, you have to work to build a community of those that want to PVP. That's not on the DEVs. The DEVs don't go out of their way to form Cat Girl RP groups, but they are out there if you want to be part of one. I don't think I have ever heard a Cat Girl RP group complaining to the DEVs that the DEVs need to provide incentives to get other players to join their Cat Girl RP groups. [DISCLAIMER: I am in no way trying to be disrespectful of Cat Girl RP groups. Go on with your Cat Girl selves!]

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Mission_Architect_Tags [SFMA] - Story Focused Mission Arc You could possibly PM a DEV, and they may be able to help you. The easiest way is to make other accounts - they would have 3 each. [Honestly, I don't know why the DEVs don't give us like 10 or more Architect slots at this point. We have 1000 Character slots per server.] There have been AE Mission contests recently. I would try to contact some of those players through their @[name] https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Mission_Architect_Tags Mission Type Tags [SFMA] - Story Focused Mission Arc [RBMA] - Rewards Based Mission Arc (Use at your own risk. For 'legitimate' arcs only.) Challenge Level Tags [LBMA] - LowBie friendly Mission Arc [MLMA] - Mid-Level Mission Arc (Appropriate for levels 20-40, Post SOs and Pre-Epic Pools) [HLMA] - High Level Mission Arc (Appropriate for levels 40+) [PCMA] - Pro Challenge Mission Arc [SLMA] - Solo Friendly Mission Arc [TFMA] - Team Focused Mission Arc (Put in Both PCMA and TFMA to designate a Team Pro Challenge) Mission Descriptor Tags [NCMA] - Non-Canon Mission Arc (Not grounded in COH canon, an "Elseworlds" arc.) [FHMA] - For-Hire Mission Arc (Your character is brought in to work for the contact as hired help.) [VSMA] - Villainous Self-Motivated Arc (Your character has their own goals, contact helps you instead.) [SGMA] - Super Group specific Mission Arc (Specific for the author's SG. May not work well for others.) Genre Tags [ACMA] - Architect System Mission Arc [AFMA] - Allegory Focused Mission Arc [CCMA] - Classic Comic Mission Arc [CGMA] - Crime and Gangs Mission Arc [CFMA] - Crisis Focused Mission Arc [DFMA] - Drama Focused Mission Arc [GDMA] - Global Domination Mission Arc [HPMA] - Heist Plot Mission Arc [HRMA] - Historical (Real) Mission Arc [HCMA] - Historical (CoH) Mission Arc [HDMA] - Holiday Mission Arc [HGMA] - Horror Genre Mission Arc [HFMA] - Humor Focused Mission Arc [MFMA] - Magic Focused Mission Arc [MWMA] - Military & Warfare Mission Arc [MYMA] - Mystery Mission Arc [MGMA] - Mythology & Gods Mission Arc [NPMA] - Nemesis Plot Mission Arc [OSMA] - Origin Story Mission Arc [PRMA] - Puzzle & Riddles Mission Arc [SCMA] - Science Fiction Mission Arc

Yes. This is the main problem. PVP balance. The CITY was not built for PVP. The DEVs tried to cram PVP into a game based on PVE. In the perfect PVP situation, all ATs and power sets should yield and equal chance of defeating any other ATs or power set. It's no fun to getting ganked. The CITY is a Team Superhero PVE game. The PVP was thrown in after-the-fact. The incentive to PVP is to PVP. Even if there is no one in PVP zones to fight, there is plenty of things to do in PVP zones if you want to go there. The XP is actually pretty good in PVP zones. There a missions in the PVP zone - which are different than the normal PVP missions. My point here, is that all the content is not PVP and I believe the additional incentives that you are suggesting are not PVP related and do not appear to require PVP participation, but simply being in the zones. So maybe more specifics. I think that you have already proven your own point with the above. Why should the DEVs invest time into content that most players won't participate in? **** The similarity between Villain content and PVP content **** I don't think it is being uncivil to say that many of your ideas in regard to more PVP participation are the same discussion that villains have about not having enough villains to game with. That being said, I could just direct you to those posts, but that might seem to be uncivilized or what not. If it is something you want to do, then do it regardless of how many other players are doing it. If you want others to do that thing with you, then use LFG and the forums to recruit for it, and keep recruiting/announcing it. Have a consistent time that you want to PVP, put it on the calendar and post in in the PVP thread. And most important of all, go back to "If it is something you want to do, then do it regardless of how many other players are doing it." It looks like some are already starting to do this. I seriously think that is the pathway to achieving your goal. If you disagree, get with the people that host Tanker Tuesdays or Calendar-listed Hami Events and see what they have to say about it. So yes, talk it up and throw your ideas around. But I wouldn't expect the DEVs to do too much to fix what the DEVs before the sunset didn't think it was worth the time to fix. Now saying that, it makes me think. If you know which AT, build, or load-outs that are good for PVP, list them for players so that they have a chance to enjoy PVP. If you know that an AT or certain powers are bad for PVP, list them for players so that they have a chance to enjoy PVP. And that's pretty much it. If you make PVP fun to play, then people will play. If PVP is no fun, people aren't going to want to PVP. So at this point, I guess I should point out the attitudes of some PVP players before the sunset was bad and drove people from playing PVP. No one enjoys getting ganked. No one enjoys being called a loser. You can always end up defeating a PVE enemy. You can't always win in PVP unless you want to be the one driving other players away from wanting to PVP.

"Everyone" just means I agree or "I think" everyone should agree with that. I don't "want" base raids back. I don't really care about base raids. I loved having my ice controller slow melee characters down so much that they could never get to me and slowly eat away at their HP why they ran at me in slow motion. That lasted all of a week on live before they rolled it back. Really aggravated me. I'm sure the melee players really put up a fuss for how frustrated they were because my control powers were actually affecting them. I'm really glad to see talk about PVP in the forums even though I'm not going out of my way to find people to get into a PVP fight with. When I go to PVP zones, there is no one else there beside my team, and we just work on zone goal stuff.