Captain Electric

They had to push the release date to the 25th because there's a process of 3-5 day Steam review and approval that devs just have to work with (particularly for smaller devs, there's a lot of hurry up and wait; and yes, if Steam requests more changes, that's another 3-5 days of review and approval). You can read about the granular details on their main forum, but that's the TL;DR. They are also locked out of directly editing their launch window on the store page this close to launch. They can only edit things like the game description. (They would edit the launch window to say the 25th if they could; just having it say "August 2025" hurts them in the Steam algorithm compared to having a specific date listed). All they can do is plead with Steam to do it, and Steam may or may not get around to it. Steam appears to not be getting around to it lol. Btw I think that's the Prometheans you're talking about @Techwright, a magic-wielding cult that heavily engages in cybernetics. They're just one of the villain groups. But I'll report back after checking the game out because I agree that a superhero game on a spaceship 500 years in the future should not be dominated by magic themes. I was reading about another villain group you go on missions against in the beginning that's straight up just sci-fi aliens. Some magic is fine, maybe even new kinds of magic have been discovered out there (it's still a superhero universe).

Maybe, but I don't know, going by comments, it seems like most of the worst poop is being flung by CoH fans and fans of other superhero MMOs on the market. And to an extent, I understand (even if I don't condone). The average indie game consumer on Steam already knows what indie games look like, there are no surprises here for them. But the average superhero MMO fan is probably just thinking they want a new superhero MMO that looks like the next step. And they're not going to stop to ask themselves how many millions of dollars that would take, or if these developers have millions of dollars. They're just mad and confused by what they see, and ready to fling poo.

Also, I just think of it like, not all of the comic books I've read were (or could have been) drawn and inked by my favorite comic book artists. Didn't stop me from enjoying them.

There's a lot of people looking forward to it on the game's main forum, but the game's Steam forum is a bigger cesspool than Mercy Island (although it looks like that's finally started to change over the past couple days). It's no City of Heroes, but a long time ago I realized I like dragging my characters to other superhero universes sometimes, it was way back in 2012 when Champions Online welcomed Primal Earth's refugees; I just thought that was so cool that they didn't only just reach out to us as potential subscribers, they welcomed our characters from this world into theirs. Portal Corp was busy that month. DCUO probably wouldn't have approved of such behavior, but I did it there, too, although it was an alternate version that fit their world. If a game world allows customizable heroes, I've probably already been there. And I've got at least five characters who stand a good chance to still be around in 500 years, when SoH takes place. To date, none of these games have surpassed City of Heroes IMO. But I'm still batting for them, warts and all, because it's just more story arcs for my heroes and villains.

Hey fair enough, that's as worthy as getting new people to try it out. And yeah I know some people that I wouldn't have bothered with too haha. I don't think it's blind luck that I've had so much success getting positive results from fresh newbie eyes, most of these people are either older gamers who appreciate the slower gameplay and focus on stories, or younger peeps in a community I'm in where crapping all over other people's favorite things is highly discouraged (thus it's become sort of a haven for more open-minded types who like checking out each other's games; terminally unimpressed folks kinda weed themselves out over there lol).

On the other side of the coin, I've dragged probably two dozen new people (willingly and unwillingly-at-first lol) young and old into City of Heroes since it became officially licensed again, and to my pleasant surprise (shock almost) absolutely every single one of them loved it, and many of them have continued to include it in their MMO haunts. We talk a lot about rose-colored glasses, but the inverse exists as well. How surprised I was by fresh eyes seeing this old game. Turns out, it's a really good game. And it probably doesn't deserve my tired and old, backhanded compliments on a day like today, with the arrival of this huge Kallisti Wharf update. Our own OG opinions are probably the least valuable here, deal with it. That goes for me, too. If you really want to know how good the game still is, bully and cajole some fresh meat to try it out.

This honestly looks huge (and a huge amount of work) and reminds me of the old Paragon Studios updates back in the day, good excuse to drag some friends with me back into City of Heroes 😎

I'm not gonna throw any shade at the OP, nor do I see any insult in his words, which are eloquently written. And to the person who called four paragraphs and probably 800 words "another 50k word essay", welcome to a forum discussion lol, TikTok is thataway. I've experienced this death of immersion in other games, including my very first MMO (not City of Heroes). I just can't see in that game what I used to, and it sucks, and I know it would just injure me more for one of its present fans to mistake that fact for some kind of shit talk, so I sympathize with the OP. The magic of City of Heroes, for me, now that I think about it, is actually that I always had to meet it halfway. Considering how neck-deep I've been in this game in the past, some of my old friends would be surprised to hear this, but there was never a point when the game delivered complete immersion without any effort on my part, especially considering the original dev team's abundance of campiness (no shade here either, just pointing out the obvious). City of Heroes still works for me because my imagination really likes the work, the magic is still there because I'm still able (and willing) to meet this alternate reality three quarters of the way; and I'm still invested in my roster of characters, enough that I'm probably still more fond of them than any other roster of comic book characters out there (I know some of you can relate!). I grew up playing pen-and-paper games, text adventures, sandboxes and CRPGs with truly shitty graphics, so it's just another Tuesday for me. But this isn't gloating, it's gratitude. One day I might feel exactly like the OP and not be able to help it. I'm not better than them, just luckier.

Salutes! Over the past several weeks, I've introduced probably a dozen friends to City of Heroes. I've seen the proof that all these years later, the costume creator, the world design, writing, level-scaling, trials, all of it still impresses even the pickiest gamers. (And they finally understand why I never shut up about this game.) Saving, or conquering, Primal Earth and beyond deserves to be experienced. Here's to twenty more years of experiences!