Abraxus

The donation window will open in the morning hours of November 30 (relative to your timezone). During that window, you can contribute, and it stays open until they hit their goal for the month, which varies in size from month to month. Once the goal is hit, the window closes, and the next opportunity will be the last Saturday of the next month. 🙂

I'd be fine if the presents, and the Winter Lord started appearing the day after Thanksgiving, much like my Christmas spirit. But, that's just me. 😉

I hope they are able to find a way to ensure anyone who wants to, can play for as long as they want going forward. But, like you said, I'm just not sure how feasible that hope would be, especially since I don't know what changes would need to be made to implement the features that they hope to bring to the game.

Change is inevitable. Legacy support always complicates real change to the point where, in order to accommodate what has been, some of the changes that everyone is clamoring for, are difficult, or impossible to implement. Just with anything in the tech industry, at some point, a line will have to be drawn, and support for something holding up progress will have to be dropped, in order to move forward. There are always repercussions with change. The hope always is that they are minimal, and fixable. In some rare cases, that will mean someone might be left behind, which is regrettable. But, that should never stop innovation, or the push to make things better.

Typically, by the time you hit 50, you are pretty flush with cash anyway. You can burn a bunch on a spiffy I/O build, but even then, it builds back up again fast between regular accumulation, and the sale of drops that you don't really need. So, I typically leave XP on, and use the Vet levels to accomplish a lot of my Incarnate builds. 20 Empyrian merits every three Vet levels (for the first couple of dozen) is pretty handy. They drop off slowly, but surely after that, but you still get them until Vet Level 99. You can pretty much slot out all of your Incarnate slots multiple times with that stuff.

It's not perfect, but there are things that, fortunately, are available to mitigate things a little. Difficulty settings set sufficiently high enough to present more of a challenge. Teaming with folks that wish to play with the same preferences as oneself, just to name a couple. It may not be perfect, but it's still more fun for me than anything else I've played in the years since it was gone.

Perhaps, but the system is at the same stage, with much less development resources to throw at it in the reincarnated version of the game, in order to balance it out. Especially, when considering how many other aspects of the game need/want attention as well, with the limited resources available.

I feel that the Incarnate system was intended for much more development, that could have addressed a lot of the concerns you mentioned. Unfortunately, most of that never left the development stage, due to the original shut-down. Now, in the resurrected game, we are dealing with the Incarnates as they were, and the same issues (for some) surrounding them. If any of the ideas for the development in this area are known, perhaps it will be pursued to the extent possible once the Homecoming team is free to do whatever they wish with the game, with the closure of the NCSoft talks. Also, to have sufficient manpower to deal with the huge amount of things across the board that folks would like to see improved, augmented, fixed, expanded, or addressed. I hope someday, all of these things get their moment in the development process to contribute to this game being even better than it is. But, we have to keep a perspective for the moment, that it is still currently operating is something of a gray area legally, with an all volunteer (and small) team of folks who all have day jobs to support themselves, and do this for nothing more than the love of the game.

Well, the SCORE server was low population due to the fact that it was a fairly well kept secret, with invites going only to the folks who knew someone already a member, and promised not to advertise the fact that there was a live CoH server still out there. They crafted a few changes to allow the smaller population to thrive, despite that low population. I'd imagine some of those things are being re-evaluated due to the increased population after Homecoming sprang into existence. You are correct when you note that the daily player numbers have fallen since April/May when all of this happened. Some of that was expected, just due to the nostalgia factor wearing off for returning players, and the realization for new players that the game wasn't really their thing. However, bear in mind that if the NCSoft deal actually happens, open/widespread advertisement would become possible (as in shouting from the rooftops of social media, etc.), which would likely bump up the numbers a bit. Especially considering the number of folks coming our way (and to the other CoH servers as well) who say they only JUST found out that this was actually a thing, and loaded it up as soon as they could. There are likely a lot more of them out there, along with a potential glut of folks who have played the other Super Hero games currently available, and found them...wanting.

I think you'll be hearing something soon about it. It's that time of year!

Obviously, I'm no insider. But, if I had to speculate, working on the underpinnings of the game, in preparation for their future vision for this game would seem like the wise path, especially with a small, all volunteer organization. Dedicate your limited resources to things which will contribute to the long play, rather than the short term. However, some of it might be influenced by their legal limbo, where approval of their deal with NCSoft could mean freedom to do things that might be even a little more "gray area" than where things already find themselves. Once done, in theory, they would have practically unlimited freedom to do what the wish to further the game in every way. Until then, it's not unrealistic to think that they might not want to proceed too quickly, lest they have to step back to keep from crossing a line. This is all speculation, based on the little information we have, but it makes a certain amount of sense, to me at least. 😎

I just played an Emp Defender to 50, and have 4 out of 6 Incarnate slots at T3. While I agree that there is perhaps less NEED for heals/buffs etc. in the late game, they are still needed. I find myself still throwing a heal on someone who is getting pounded on, throwing adrenaline boost on someone who hasn't quite solved their endurance issues yet, and no damage dealer would ever say "Nah! I don't need your damage buff!". There is also the three AOE toggles that run constantly giving damage/defense/to-hit bonuses to anyone in the vicinity (you're welcome). So, while I might not always be furiously working to keep folks alive, I find there is still enough to do to feel relevant. Besides...if one is playing a Defender, you have pretty much taken on the mantle of making others more powerful than they typically are anyway. So, being the hero themselves is typically not what they are about. I have always been ok with that on my Defender. If I want to be the hero, I'll get out a Blaster, a Scrapper, a Brute, or a Tank. Perhaps even a Dominator. In the roles of all my alts, those are the guys who do things that actively draw aggro, and take the risks. I know there are other ATs that do, I just don't typically play them, so I can't speak to their proper use. But, I have had, and continue to have fun with my EMP Defender.

I have a freshly minted Level 50 Empathy Defender. I have found that even playing with mainly L50 members, not everybody has solved their END problems by that point, so I hit them with Adrenaline Boost. People still die, despite my best efforts to the contrary, on occasion. I hit them with Vengeance, then Rez them. I try to spread Fortitude to all the damage dealers on the team. I use the small single target heal when I see a squishie loosing health, and I use the BIG heal when I see a Brute, or Tank losing steam. I keep my Defense, Damage, and To-Hit buff toggles running all the time. For some, they help. For others, they are already soft-capped, and don't need it. But, it's there regardless. If things are running smooth, I attack more. If things are hairy, I heal/buff more. I think Healers still have a roll in the later game. But, like all Archetypes, that role does evolve a bit towards the later levels, but as long as you can role with those changes, playing one is still fun.

For item number 1, there is a quick answer. Just go to Night Ward. Take your character up the path to the house on the hill, which is very close to the portal exit. Go in the door, and you are immediately awarded the Midnighter badge.

So glad there are SO many folks who feel the same as I do about this game.

In a team situation, I always have the most fun when the difficulty is dialed up just high enough to ensure that without some kind of tactical, and cohesive approach, the team will get it's ass handed to it! The mix of AT, and powersets doesn't seem to matter as much as how they are used, especially against the more challenging opponents. But, I agree that when fighting large mobs of white/yellow/orange con'd mobs with a group containing at least half Incarnate equipped folks, is a little monotonous. My vision of this game is a super hero, or villain, who starts off with some special abilities, and grows more powerful as they progress. By the time they reach L50+3, they have achieved that ultimate power, and in order to continue to be relevant/useful, must seek out quarry worthy of their status. That (again, to me) does not include mowing down L1 NPCs in Atlas Park, or the equivalent. It means putting those powers to use in a way that benefits the citizens of Paragon City, against foes that require that level of power in order to triumph. I am grateful that the game is flexible enough to allow for my preferred style, as well as anyone else's, so they can play it according to their vision too.

We might have run into each other, and just not known it.

We agree to disagree on that one. But, that's cool too.

I could go on, but it would be a lot less fun for me. For me it plays out this way. For years, at least for most of us, there was nothing but the fond remembrance of a game we loved, and wished was still here. Then came Icon. Finally! Some small wisp of my heart's desire to play CoH again. I recreated all of my mains, and saved their files. Took "selfies" with them as a group. Then flew around the zones for the nostalgia, and to hear the theme music for each. It was fantastic, until the loneliness of Paragon City finally overwhelmed me. I would still occasionally log in, just for a quick CoH fix. But, it was nothing I could spend hours doing. Then came Paragon Chat! Finally! Other people to interact with, badges to hunt. Heck, even a Halloween Event of sorts! For a time, it felt almost like the old days. But, then folks kind of dropped away, and unless you were hanging around the Atlas statue, or some other popular gathering spot, you seldom ran into anyone else, and the loneliness returned. Still no NPCs around, and without other participants (as opposed to actual players, because there was not much to play), I found myself logging in only during special events where there would be crowds. Then...the miracle! CoH was reborn in a cataclysm of frenetic activity on social media, and various chat rooms, which all finally coalesced into the various servers we have today. I couldn't believe it, but I was actually playing again, and not only was the city brimming with life, but there were lots of folks around doing any number of things that I had my choice to join, or not. After experiencing that, it would be very difficult to go back to a world where I have to fend completely for myself. It would limit the types of characters I could play (and still have fun anyway), and dictate the content I'd be interested in playing solo. No more ITFs, no more Incarnate Trials, no Hami Raids, no mothership raids, and no Giant Monster take downs. Since I have little interest in other games, I'd stay, and find my way through. But, as I said...it would be a lot less fun. The teaming, and the interaction are a big part of my enjoyment of the game.

Watching this thread with interest....

Also, I believe you are granted free tailor tokens as your character progresses through levels. So, you'll have a few saved up by the later levels, when it would become that expensive.

Should be Port Oaks, Sharkhead, and St. Martial.

Well, the moment I give into the desire to play, is the moment after work ends. But, that doesn't mean that I don't think about it well before then! Especially since I work at home!

There are a lot of things in the game I used to dread, or get annoyed with, and think to myself "Why do I put up with that?". Then the game disappeared for 7 years, and I didn't have those things to be annoyed with, or dread anymore, and I found that to be exponentially worse. Now, I have it back, and I look forward to the opportunity to be annoyed by an enemy, or a mission.

As soon as I get off work, my brain automatically goes to "Time to play CoH!"