Xanatos

In 2001, aged 15, I logged onto the Internet, intending to check out a videogame called Star Wars Galaxies. As I did so, I noticed a web forum for a game called City of Heroes had just been set up. I decided to quickly check that out before looking into Star Wars Galaxies. I never checked out Star Wars Galaxies.

What would make you play old MMORPGs like Eve Online, Everquest II, World of Warcraft, and Matrix Online for the first time? That's the same thing that would make other people play City of Heroes. For my money, I'd say in-game events run by the Homecoming Team that look interesting to non-players/appealing to streamers/something news sites can write about would be the way to go. Give onlookers FOMO. Let them jump in. And a small % of them will remain after they discover they like the way the game plays. Look at all the dope stuff that's happened in Eve Online: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-5-greatest-moments-in-eve-online-history/ https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/eve-online-stories/ Matrix Online had some really cool GM-led ongoing roleplay events: https://www.engadget.com/2009-08-03-what-you-missed-in-the-matrix-online.html?guccounter=1 Catnip.

It's a good idea! The most fun I ever had at PvP was back on live when the roleplayers on virtue would do big events in the PvP zones with stories behind them. Having to hunt down certain player characters as they trash-talked in broadcast. Good times. (I tried 8v8 right before shut down but was terrible at it. Silit /Vinnie/Lib/and some of the more experienced PvPers managed to carry me to a tourney win though. Mostly for the lulz of having an RPer on their team I imagine.) Didn't mean to criticize the discord. These things always happen when a crowd gets small enough. Nature of the beast. Good on you for trying to breath some life into it, though. If I wasn't a filthy euro I'd come try join in the fun. If you want to find out more about those two changes, check out the "Golden Standard Testers" Discord. The chatlogs around the changes should all still be there. This thread should also have more details for you re: the crey pistol nerf.

The blaster buff had nothing to do with the PvP community. The only thing the PvP community has asked the devs for is nerfs and maps. Neither of those things are going to push players away from PvP. I think the decline of PvPers in this game is likely due to a combination of: The novelty of City of Heroes being back wearing off. The Indom server dying. The Homecoming population decreasing in general. A lack of PvP knowledge on the dev team. (There was a crey pistol accolade nerf last year by a PvE dev which caused a bunch of PvPers to quit. Before that there was a blaster /TA nerf by the same dev that had a similar impact.). No Homecoming-run PvP events. The above points making hardcore PvPers apathetic, which caused them to quit. Those that remain end up using the official Homecoming PvP discord as a frat house. (Unwelcoming to newbies.) With less hardcore PvPers around, less chance for casual players to get involved in PvP. More and more people saying "PvP is dead". With a population this small, saying something enough times can make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why bother getting involved with something if everyone says it's dead, ya know? So it's a mixed bag of the nature of time, lack of PvP interest in the dev team, and the PvP community becoming less friendly. I don't think it's fair to blame any one thing. Best way to get more people involved in PvP would be to have an in-game vendor who sells free IOs that only work in PvP zones/on PvP maps. I'm sure a lot more people would test the waters if there was zero-cost.

Two big thumbs up. This and the other P2W power pretty much cover me, now. (Plus Ouroboros and jumping to base portals.) Thanks for sticking with it.

I don't agree with the Zoner/Arena dichotomy. These changes will benefit all PVPers equally. For example: I never 8v8. All I do is zone PVP and 1v1. All of these changes are things I've wanted since forever. (And every other PVPer I know.) Do the people criticizing these changes actually pvp in zones? I don't mean to be rude, but everyone against this change so far seems to be PVEers who love arguing on forums. I've not seen a single critical post start with "So I was on brainstorm testing out these changes and my feedback is...".

I said the harder stuff.

2088 maximum hit points means you're not tanking the hard stuff.

@macskull @Faultline +1 for making Recluse's Victory alpha-only. There's a reason all PVP tournaments do this: it's balanced. Vast majority of PVPers will adore this. A small handful might not. (But they will be the 0 posts, single-run-on-paragraph, never-posts-again types.) You won't get a 500+ page epic with people arguing back and fourth. There simply aren't enough zone PVPers to fuel the flames of such a thread. I'd avoid adding a level 44 zone. You'll just end up splitting an already small sub community (zoners) of a small community (pvpers). You want them all in one place IMO. Removing all incarnates except alpha is a better approach IMO. Also, if you're looking to do more than just this, @Silent Method2 and @M3z's suggestions are on the money.

Ah it was probably running at 60FPS before and you didn't realise. I'm running The same CPU as you but with a GTX1070. The performance I get is pretty much the same as you've described here. CoH is a pretty poorly optimised game by 2020 standards.

Did CoH run at higher FPS for you in the past?

Don't understand the tone thing, but fair enough. I'll duck out of the thread now. Best of luck with it. Appreciate the work you folks do even if I disagree sometimes.

What did you think about the rest of the stuff I wrote in that post?

Appreciate the reply @GM Tahquitz, but I was talking about the P2W powers, not LRT. (It's unfortunate LRT is being tweaked at the same time as everything else. Most of the feedback I've seen in the various discords/in game channels I've seen seem to think LRT is the sole replacement for /enterbasefrompasscode.) Where did I ask to dismiss these changes? Where in this thread have I said "delete the new powers, keep /enterbasefrompasscode as it is"? This is exactly what I'm talking about - you folks are not paying attention to negative feedback, even if it's constructive. My post on page 1 is me trying to work with you folks by suggesting tweaks to the new stuff. (And it's the one suggestion that even the naysayers in this thread seem to agree with.) Actually paying attention to what your testers are saying in a focused feedback thread doesn't stop other feedback channels from happening. It just improves this one. Sorry this has gone a little off topic. This is a big change to player QoL. And I want to do as much as I can to help.

You are wrong. It's not equivalent. If players could kill all the characters on the map with one button, you would patch that out overnight. You left /enterbasefrompasscode in the game for over a year. The development team have this weird, and completely incorrect, idea that being able to instantly access SG bases somehow makes travel powers useless, or makes content skippable. (It does neither of those things, and thinking this shows a fundamental lack of knowledge about how the game plays.) Please listen to feedback. The P2W powers need their recharge lowering. I don't understand why you folks are so against even discussing this. I said in closed beta that they should have lower recharge and was told "we don't want to discuss recharge times until it's in live testing". Now it's in live testing you're...ignoring everyone asking for the recharge times to be lowered? Even people, like myself, who are actively testing these powers? Please listen. By all means disagree and do your own thing. Your house your rules. But please listen. The feedback you're arguing against isn't the feedback you're being given.