Seed22

Oh I gave up on suggestions in this community via the forums. You got a guy(or group, idk) with no job, friends or family policing a 20 yr old game's online forum pretending they have any experience in game design despite not playing anything but this one(which I 100% doubt they actually play with how often they're on the forums), GMs who will let these bad actors keep disrupting threads, and a litany of other issues that kinda make me go "Fuck this" to the whole idea of even trying to help this game or community, at least in this capacity. I stick to the discord, most of these problem causers don't know how discord works so are simply incapable of joining in, plus thats where the devs interact mostly with the community anyway so it kinda side steps this fuster cluck.

The archons werent challenging, but this meme, if you replace galaxy archons with HM, would be apt. HM isnt hard, I lead the new ITF HM 4 when it was released completely stoned and didnt even miss a beat. You cant do that in difficult games or content. But the crowd for 4 star for the longest was this meme. I want to make the statement here, there is nothing content wise in this game that is difficult whatsoever from a mechanical standpoint. But the real difficulty? People. Literacy rates amongst those people specifically. And those same people will then do like in the meme "is there nothing to challenge me?" Me? Now? Im more content just vibing and will run arcs at +1×8 most times to just stroll through em if the mood ever strikes me.

This is the pentultimate minmaxer team comp that is used by all minmaxers usually unless special runs are on the table: 5 corrs 2 blasters tank type. 3 cold corrs 1 kin 1 nature 1 Ice/Fire 1 Fire/Fire Bio/Axe tank. If you want the closest to objective best team comp for content, this is it(I would say this is THE objective best tbh but thats no fun and I wanna see what other comps are like)

+4×8. The discord builds can do it easily. Most of my own builds, especially the newer ones I had planned and tested, could do it pretty easily. But yes the average player is not soloing +4×8. Most are probably playing +0×4 at best, which is fine ofc. Just giving an idea of the playerbase, if the people I see in CB are to be believed.

At the risk of looking like an idiot as there may already be this feature on the forums(please point me to it if so!), but I propose the ability to DM GMs. This will allow players the ability to have private conversations and voice concerns without dragging down threads or having an issue become a public scene. Issues I personally can see with this is players abusing this feature and either DMing and trying to “tell on other players” for minor slights, harassing the GMs themselves(my personal biggest concern). To get around this, perhaps there could be a little subject blerb with the DM that explains why the player is asking to speak to a GM and it can be up to a GM’s personal discretion to answer said DM. Typical TOS rules would apply on all interactions of course.

Im a minmaxer, I fully understand the concept of utilizing the optimal chain. If anyone’s playing a different game it’s me as I actually try and minmax which is anathema to this community at times it feels. What I’m scratching my head at is in NO OTHER COMMUNITY have I or will I ever see the players advocate for the smallest amount of spells to be viable. I mean I know CoH is unique but this is a whole ‘nother level of head scratch. In my mind, this concept is basically asking for someone to simplify the building process even more than it already is instead of, again imo, adding more diversity by making powers still niche but competitive picks in their own set. Basically turning duds like Handclap in SS into a “hrm this might be pretty interesting!” power would be my ideal situation. It still would boil down to a optimal rotation of only a handful of 3-4 powers, but that 3-4 optimal rotation won’t objectively blow everything hopelessly out the water as obvious dead picks wouldn’t exist. Someone could make an off meta niche build and it wouldn’t be cringe inducing levels of bad, as there wouldn’t be the grand canyon sized gaps of today. Hell this would also make it so I could play more than a handful of sets in this game finally! (the truly meta sets are pretty much all I can really stomach to play anymore as minmaxing non meta was fine, but uh…Ice/Cold go brrr on fender or corr, so…)

HM to me has potential. I like the idea but think it needs a good deal of tuning to allow more playstyles, notably CC, to be relevant. I also think it needs a lot more mechanical variety, but thats due to playing difficult games and watching turtle WoW and retail WoW raid videos/Mythic+ runs and wanting something similar. Thats a bit unfair of me though and I'm more than willing to work within the confines of what HM is. That all said, it IS pretty much the only content I'm interested in leading again when I get this new upgraded gaming PC before taking my sabbatical to turtle WoW, so I think it definitely did something right.

As RL picks up over where I am, I most certainly wont be paying attention to any threads in CoH/any asinine back n forth that can take place a lot in threads. Thats really about the only advice I'd give. Trying to alter people's behavior online is well...not great.

...You're trying to do the same thing now with this thread to an extent. I mean what do you expect for an answer? Sometimes threads get locked even when discussions are civil. Stuff happens 🤷 Sometimes some people just derive joy from being asses in a thread. Usually arguing against a point isnt a problem, but it's when people argue against each other instead of the main point of whatever thread topic is being discussed.

Do you have any data whatsoever to support this claim. CoH players LOVE to claim a set is overperforming because of reasons I won't list here with no data to back any of this up. Ston has data that proves otherwise though, last I checked. Also what is with this trend of trying to get sets down to only 3-4 powers? There was another thread talking about too many powers and my personal opinion would probably derail the thread but I'm still scratching my head as to this train of thought.

I will say those people are right. Situational IS useless for 99.9% of the time in CoH outside of intang powers for wacky speedrun strats. Since im looking at it from the minmaxers perspective, the answer is always simply more damage, an insp usually a purp or orange or red, and probably barrier/meta set stacking. Thats the current situation of CoH. Those rare niche scenarios don't exist in such a capacity to keep underperformers and dead picks around. I get your premise where a power can try and maintain some usefulness without being super broad in application, but honestly due to what I mentioned above, thats not the reality of CoH. You can either try and force a meta shift away from the above by aggressive nerfs(bad idea) or create more mechanically unique scenarios to promote the more acceptable practice of having niche powers while still making every pick competitive(good idea imo)

When CoH came back and for a few years after, I was in a craze and made 50 after 50, especially after discovering via a forums post, a cheap farming build that I used till recently(still use the build but havent PL'ed any new 50s as of late). I have 103 50s. I only play roughly 3-5 sporadically whenever I log in. Combination of nerfs, and just being too lazy to update and minmax old builds and being burnt out on content leads to me just abandoning a large majority of my 50s, though I still love to sometimes log in and read their bios from time to time. My last ever 50 will be a Sav/Elec/Mu brute probably before the end of this year sometime. Maybe. Depends on when P3 is set to come out. I plan to go all out on this 50, empty my coffers, do the accolade gauntlet to get them HM 4 ready, and to tank all the HMs in order(tanked 4 star ITF on my rad/dark and had a lotta fun) on it. Then I'll enter full retirement and focus on other ventures/games like I did when CoH was shutdown, only periodically logging in to work on AE pilots again if the mood strikes me.

Do I? Huh. Im the most critical of the game and least attached to it being brough back. Enlighten me. Where are these rose tinted glasses? Edit: I forgot to add this but good god arcane you really need a job or hobby outside of CoH forum trolling. And I find it very uh...not mentally healthy of you to be obsessed with my post.

I assume they mean try out the build on the test server to see which is better. I'd argue SR is better tbh because low res caps and the regen in DA isnt useful for low HP toons like stalker.

This is such a fascinating take to me, and I understand your trepidations but this kind of has me sad and worried for your camp. Axe Cyclone is not too powerful or remotely busted. It's strong, and noticeable on a tank, but not busted. It's not like it's wormhole grabbing mobs around corners(also not busted for gravity) but on tanks. My main fear comes from the mindset that CoH players have come to accept and acknowledge a level of painfully mediocre as the "norm" for balance, and look at fun and actually useful for once, as the enemy and unbalanced when it's not. It's actually GOOD. We used to as a community know what this was, then HC for the most part brought the bar significantly down with painfully mediocre release after mediocre release. This is so common place people mistake this drab scenario of forgetful releases as the correct way, which it most assuredly is not. People made the same arguments with Marine being OP. It's not, it's actually the natural evolution of support sets imo and mostly just good and particularly great on MM, which is a fine place to be in the grand scene of sets. You made a fine, articulated argument and im not trying to put words in your mouth, more just springboarding to voice my thoughts on the camp you're kind of in or adjacent to.

No offense to you but this always irks me and I believe it’s a logical fallacy when used, but “X can happen to anything” isn’t a sound argument. Thats kind of a non argument to me, as it’s more of a thin truism that says nothing. Thats often used to try and defend Y but fails miserably. Thats not a diss on you, I just genuinely hate seeing that as it’s really a nothing burger statement anywhere I have ever seen it. But to answer your question: Rich Gameplay: Lean into CoH’s movement more. We have a lot of travel powers here that do a number of cool things, but outside of skips in mishes and zone travel, they dont get much use in combat(outside of SS and TP Pool really) Variety: Take a page from WoW’s book but without the chore aspect. Have auxillary gameplay to compliment missions. Crafting doesnt make much sense if it’s something like tailoring or whatnot, but something in a similar spirit perhaps? Basically something that makes you engage with the world more. Depth: Hard to focus on all at once so I’ll stick to one area I have been harking on for years in; Hard Mode. Depth in this dept that may serve as an example of what I mean in all content is something like more mechanical variety not just included in only secret fights(though those aren’t that involved either but it is an MMO so I understand there are limits). Something like BWI but it’s the entire TF might be interesting, but the hard part, even for me besides the implementation, is how ot make it not feel like a forced slog. This game has sped up, and maybe doing my first suggestion in conjunction with the expansion of mechanical variety could counter this. Not sure, but it could be worth a shot. Yeah I’ve been playing since ‘06 minus the shutdown years, so I’ve seen it all and can look past the tinted glasses(not saying everyone who likes CoH has them on) as far as content goes. I still log in from time to time to just sit in zones and people watch or even look at the virtual sunset as I would do IRL for real sunsets as both are very chill, so it’s not a “CoH is worthless garbage” type of deal.

Honestly? The gameplay is pretty bare bones and lacks any real variety to it and depth. But what has me logging in, even to make what will probably be my last alt(emptying my stash of inf), is the power variety. The missions are not the greatest, with some standouts, the older TFs are very dated in design, but the zones and power variety and no chore like activities keeps me engaged to a degree.

Use Sythlin(butchered the name)'s tool. Its the best/really only good tool we have. Have no idea why it's not pinned.

Love: Customization and AE creation, and the zones! Hate: The leveling experience. Honorable mention of hate: The recent balancing of the game. That last one is an honorable mention because it's so bad im eyeing turtle WoW hard right now as a sabbatical/replacement MMO like how I eyed the relaunch as an escape from CO. Much for the same reasons, ironically(besides at the time nostalgia for CoH) Change: The balancing of powers, and HM. Less stats more mechanics.

Its you non minmaxers who whine and get shit ruined, not us. We’re trying to HELP your asses. There are a lot more of you than us and since most non minmaxers dont know half of what they’re talking about or literally talk too goddamn much things that WOULD be awesome get removed and “fixed” or don’t make it in at all. I’m in CB, a lot of non minmaxers are also in CB, and are a lot more vocal than me, or rather cheerlead and shout louder so my ACTUAL tested feedback gets drowned out, as does the sparse other minmaxers, in a wave of nauseating nonsense and drab memes/“jokes”. So if you’re pointing fingers, get it right at least.

It does the opposite effect. If every power is good then you actually see more build diversity not less. What you're agreeing with is literally cookie cutter building. I think this community hears gaming terms and then tries to use them without understanding what they mean or what it looks like, because that's a pretty clear cut example of what they were arguing against. 5 or 6 core powers means people will only pick those 5 or 6 powers, and will only serve to further stifle diversity, esp if those other 3-4 are simply too niche(which is easy to do in a game like this) to warrant a pick outside of RP builds. I get the idea, I really do, but what that looks like in practice is the opposite effect. Instead by makong every power good but still unique, you end up with less forced picks and more of a "impossible to fail" kinda situation.

4 star isnt any different mechanically from 1-2, just bigger stats is all. Personally I find it artificially difficult since even with those inflated stats 100% of the content can be ignored via barrier cycling. Some 4 stars also have secret fights like the vanguard fight in Aeon and Omega Kong in LGTF. Neither are particularly challenging, but you will have to do a run to learn them first.

I get the idea but I counter the bandwagon fallacy with, well im not a psych person, but perhaps theres a fallacy for envy almost? But thats kinda the best way to describe it. Like the kid who was ostracized lamenting the popular kids or the one person who doesnt enjoy a certain activity in a group who isnt included when said group enjoys doing the activity hating it. I know, not even close to a great example, but it’s the best I have. Yes WoW is more popular and that may not always translate to everything being better than CoH but having played it, it is better at least imo from a gameplay perspective. There are more things to do in WoW, there is more of a puzzle to figuring characters out across specs instead of CoH where you slot the same IOs across the same power types to minmax, and of course the endgame is more pronounced. Some would say better, some find it worse, but objectively there is more to WoW than CoH in content to engage with and content variety. I think WoW is hated in part for the infamous endgame toxicity which I can understand. But ofc thats not all groups, and tbh I’m very skeptical of the stories that have been recited here on the forums in the past. I find some exaggerated, as sometimes to this community telling someone to bring Barrier to 4 star is considered elitist and toxic so I kind of wonder what REALLY happened in that WoW raid group ya know?

Whats funny is most of the forums builds are poorly optimized and not even remotely minmaxed. They all focus entirely too much on personal survival without understanding in a team or even solo you’re holding yourself back by pursuing 45 def on that blaster instead of 20-30 at most. Its why you’ll never see a 45 def person in any meta four star team. I still can understand the OP’s idea though and lamentations. It’s why I don’t think I personally will be making any more 50s and will be taking a content sabbatical until maybe the next HM is released, and even then probably still for awhile after. Minmaxing in this game took any discovery out of it as it’s completely solved. There are objective best ways to build, and minmaxers know what they are in current meta. Nothing really has changed in the last 5 years to shake this up which is totally fine, but rough on a minmax mindset

Try minmaxing. Make proc bomb builds with 20ish def and watch your enjoyment skyrocket.