Would you like to play CoX as a different genre - some type of fantasy setting

[DougGraves]

We have axes, swords, shields, bows.  And an amazing costume creator.  We have Cim as a Roman setting and we have Praetoria as an alternate starting and storyline setting.

 

Would you like CoX to put those together and have an alternate start and storyline setting in a fantasy world?  Maybe each zone is a different historic theme - asia, mesoamerica, vikings, knights, etc.

 

Literally the same game.  Presumably the ability to move characters between the regular city and the fantasy setting (maybe at 20+ like Praetoria).  Just a setting so that you can play a fantasy character and participate in fantasy stories.

[MTeague]

I would skip it.  There's a bazillion fantasy games and MMO's out there.  And I don't think you could really DO same game, same powersets, and have it FEEL like a traditional fantasy setting.  You'd still invariably be "Comic Book Superheroes in Fantasy Land".  

 

Now, yes, many good things taste great together....  Chocolate and Peanut Butter not least. 

But I prefer my comic book heroes separate from tolkien / wheel of time / other high fantasy settings.

[Xeres]

Yeah I wouldn't play if it were a fantasy themed game.  Like was said there's plenty of them out there and TBH if I fight another damned dragon it'll be too soon.

[Shred Monkey]

This occurred to me when I first heard they released the code.   I thought to myself, I wonder if people would use this game engine to build an essentially all new game using all new content but with same combat system and mission system.  It seems feasible, but it would have to be done well before I would consider playing it. 

 

But I wouldn't just drop superheroes in a fantasy world zone.  I mean, Thor coming to earth works (does it really?).  But Ironman and Spiderman in Asgard?  No ... I don't think so.

Edited November 11, 2019 by Shred Monkey

[jubakumbi]

I play in and build worlds that crash together things like SUpers and Fantasy and Tech, I love the idea.

One mans tech is another mans magic, etc.

Limiting creativity by placing these things in little boxes is not my cup of tea, would love to battle dragons, we already have wizards and demons.

Big fan of Stargate and the like, I love having all the worlds/settings crashing togather, makes for great stories, IMO.

[Coyotedancer]

*chuckles* I play Oranbegan magi... So, I kind-of already have my "fantasy genre" characters... in the form of my ancient, body-snatching ghost-wizards... all up in this super-hero game-world's business. XD 

[VileTerror]

Noooooope.

 

"Straight" Fantasy just isn't my bag, and mixed-genre Fantasy (looking at /you/ Wizards of the Coast and Blizzard) is an especially big "no thank you."

Which will probably make me sound like a complete hypocrite when I also say that I absolutely adore Shadowrun.

Thing is, and people will probably call this splitting hairs, Shadowrun uses Fantasy tropes as a lense to examine real world subjects like racism, tribalism, and the inherent flaws which lead to such bigotry becoming systemically institutionalized.  And then continues with how those -isms are leveraged by corporations which effectively dominate the world in a post-capitalist derptopia.  And THAT really appeals to me.  Not to mention that Shadowrun v4 attempted to tackle a lot of the broader questions raised in a narrative conceit such as "what if Cyberpunk, but also magic?"  Of course, v5 turned around and ignored a lot of that when it was initially released . . . sooooo that's part of why I continue to run my weekly sessions with v4's ruleset, but in the v5 timeline.

 

But bringing all that back to City of Heroes; we've got fantasy elements in this game already, and they're appropriate in somuch as one of the core conceits of City of Heroes is "what if subverted cyberpunk, but with Superheroes AND Dimension hopping?"  And while the sociopolitical elements of the setting are not examined as deeply in this game as they were in Shadowrun v4, it's still got a lot to say on a lot of subjects.  I like the "messiness" of City's evolving canon, even if there are parts of it which are just baaad.  But if tomorrow the Homecoming Team added dragons to the game, I wouldn't immediately be worried.  I think there's a place for dragons here; but I think it's important that we /own/ the dragons as something uniquely City of Heroes'esque.  Less traditional fantasy tropes, and more using all existing dragon tropes as a bit of leverage to explore "what if City of Heroes, but now dragons too?"

[Graviton]

Plenty of other fantasy-themed games out there.  Not so many superhero-oriented, and most if not all of those (except this one) aren't good.  So, no thanks.

[ed fray]

Probably give it a pass.  Not adverse to fantasy at all ( ESO, NWN, others & over 5000 hrs into GW1 (I keep Bouncing off of GW2) but prefer SF--probably have double that into Anarchy Online.) 

 

Now if someone did a Shadowrun MMO right I'd be all in.  I never played the tabletop but own the books and read about 28 of the novels.  I did get all of the Harebrained Schemes ones-- good but not MMO.

[Oubliette_Red]

I already play in different genres, when I log onto SWToR, Neverwinter, The Secret World, etc.

 

CoH is the only superhero MMO I play, the others are pale comparisons.

[Broken_Prey]

I love fantasy, use to read a lot of fantasy book. However, I never got into fantasy games.

 

I might play it but it couldn't be a super Heros in a fantasy world seem a little bit out of place. Also would need more fantasy type costumes 

[Riverdusk]

Was funny just the other day I was in a trio that made me feel like I was playing a fantasy MMO.  We had the classic fighter (broadsword/Shield brute), Cleric (empathy defender), and Rogue (Dual Blades scrapper).  Was just missing the right blaster to be mage for us.  

 

At the same time that is exactly why I like CoH, it has such diversity of possibilities.  

[Tahliah]

OP asks: 

 

"Would you like to play CoX as a different genre - some type of fantasy setting"

 

Answer:  No.

[Shockacon]

Hmmm, yeah, it wouldn't be the same.. The only other MMO I ever played longer than a week before deciding to take a pass on it was Dark Age of Camelot. I do miss my little reaver sometimes, though.  Kinda feel like if this game were transplanted into a fantasy setting it would lose a good bit of the charm and appeal it had originally and even now. Do kinda wish I had a reaver in this game sometimes, though.  Then again, maybe I could make an equivalent here... hmm...

[WanderingAries]

TBH, I played some GW/WoW before CoX, but realized quickly that something felt right, but mostly off. I'm not ubber into supes (beyond the long running movies since), but CoX just seemed to fit all around when I found it. After sunset I tried some of those again and even looked forward to Rift (?), but after a couple hours of each I made it a hard no. Part of the reason was the damned squares all over the screen! The UI, as simple as it is, in CoX seems to work best for me.

 

Would I like to play a CoX skinned/adjusted to be like my Other/console games? Probably not as they are really best enjoyed (by me that is) as a single player experience. While we might be able to improve say Fallout 76. It'd be too noisy of an environment for things like TLoU, Uncharted, or TR.

[RikOz]

13 hours ago, ed fray said:

Now if someone did a Shadowrun MMO right I'd be all in.  I never played the tabletop but own the books and read about 28 of the novels.  I did get all of the Harebrained Schemes ones-- good but not MMO.

Same here - owned multiple rulebooks and read a crapton of the novels (some really good ones in there), but never got to play it because none of the tabletop gamers I knew were playing it, or were interested. Loved the setting. I recall there was an utterly terrible SNES Shadowrun game ...

 

If somebody was able to make a good MMO based on Tad Williams' "Otherland" series, I'd be all over that. I guess there was something in the works a few years ago, but nothing ever came of it.

 

As far as a game that lets you move back and forth between fantasy and sci-fi realms ... Piers Anthony had a series of books based around that idea (The Apprentice Adept series, I think it was).

Edited November 13, 2019 by RikOz

[MetaVileTerror]

Hey now!  The SNES game wasn't /that/ bad, RikOz!   . . . the XBox game, on the other hand . . . well, it was Shadowrun in name only.

 

But this prompts me to do something potentially dumb . . . make a Shadowrun Thread!

[MetaVileTerror]

I did the thing:  https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/12545-shadowrun/

What say you, RikOz and ed fray?

 

Also, there's a Shadowrun Vigilante/Rogue Group on the Everlasting Shard, apparently.  Give @Ignis Volant a Tell if you're interested.

[Replacement]

I'm always up for an alternate starting zone. Heck, copy/paste of Cim with all the arcs scaled down, make a single new one that ties you back to the city.

 

I'm not a fan of medieval/back in time shenanigans for my Supers, but I've long held that if I were making a super MMO, I would sink a lot of resources into diverse character starts.

 

Basically, the first chapter of your characters' story should still be part of character creation.

 

On 11/11/2019 at 5:02 PM, VileTerror said:

Which will probably make me sound like a complete hypocrite when I also say that I absolutely adore Shadowrun.

Thing is, and people will probably call this splitting hairs, Shadowrun uses Fantasy tropes as a lense to examine real world subjects like racism, tribalism, and the inherent flaws which lead to such bigotry becoming systemically institutionalized.  And then continues with how those -isms are leveraged by corporations which effectively dominate the world in a post-capitalist derptopia.  And THAT really appeals to me.  Not to mention that Shadowrun v4 attempted to tackle a lot of the broader questions raised in a narrative conceit such as "what if Cyberpunk, but also magic?"  Of course, v5 turned around and ignored a lot of that when it was initially released . . . sooooo that's part of why I continue to run my weekly sessions with v4's ruleset, but in the v5 timeline.

SR 4e predicted Citizens United.

[Sir Myshkin]

Croatoa happens to be my favorite zone in the game. I love the use of that lore and how it was woven in to CoH's history. The zone isn't necessarily "magic/fantasy" but it does tend to give that theme-style home for characters of that nature. I don't know that I'd want to see a core game fleshed out to that purpose using all of City's attributes, but I do think some kind of more adaptive power-selection style game might be interesting, at least, but it might start to become more like Elder Scrolls Online at that point, which is somewhat a wasted effort.

 

This thread did bring up an interesting thought for me, however, and is the primary reason I ended up replying:

 

What if we had a "random start" point in the game. You don't select anything anything, not class, not hero or villain, not a single power or costume piece! Just one simple thing: Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme. You are thrown into the game to a random location with a specific contact in that random zone based on your "difficulty" setting (0-10, 11-25, 26-38, 39-50). Your character will be rolled a random class, a random primary, and a random secondary. Your initial contact will be styled like the Praetorian arcs where you have to choose a path, one that leads to becoming either a Hero/Vigilante, or a Rogue/Villain. Your first outfit will be a basic getup (t-shirt and jeans kinda thing) and each contact will have a relatively unique story to follow based on rediscovery of who you are, discovery of your new abilities, preparing for a confrontation, running from a conflict, or the classic 'throwing in the towel' redefining arc. After the arc is completed the character will be granted a name-change token so they can take on their super-name (as a character toon), or be left with the randomly selected name based off a pool that chooses a corresponding male/female first name and a random last name from another pool that serves as their real identity.

 

The 'throw in the towel' arc would be locked to the Extreme setting, and if you choose a path that ultimately leaves you deciding to give up your super-powered life, a permanent auto-power will be granted onto the character that locks them out of their abilities, and cannot be removed. Only temp/prestige powers will be accessible, and they will be granted a badge (to be able to set as a title like any other badge) that says "Surrendered the Life". They will effectively be an RP-only toon at that point.

 

For me personally I think this would be a fun new twist to playing the game that (beyond the creation of new story content) shouldn't be outside the realm of the game's ability and draw a new line for the whole "what alt to roll next" idea while keeping it fresh, and delivering new content.

[Wintercat]

No. 

As others have said, there's a ton of fantasy games out there.

[nihilii]

I would definitely play CoH in a fantasy setting.

Couldn't care less if there's a million fantasy games out there... Couldn't care less about the super-hero theme, for that matter. I mean, I'm fine with it, but it's hardly relevant to me. I'm here for the game system. You could put whatever coat of paint on the CoH game system, and I would enjoy the results.

 

MyLittlePony CoH? Sign me up!

[Sailboat]

Back on live, my group of friends did a Diablo2-themed superteam.  I was the Druid (Beast/Storm Mastermind).  We had others, I forget exactly -- something like a Fire/Lightning Blaster Sorceress, an Axe/Shield Brute Barbarian, Undead/Dark Mastermind Necromancer, and so on.  It was amusing.

[merrypessimist]

I'd probably play a Fantasy of Heroes game (City of Fantasy?).  That said, I'm not particularly interested in such a project.  

[DougGraves]

5 hours ago, nihilii said:

I would definitely play CoH in a fantasy setting.

Couldn't care less if there's a million fantasy games out there... Couldn't care less about the super-hero theme, for that matter. I mean, I'm fine with it, but it's hardly relevant to me. I'm here for the game system. You could put whatever coat of paint on the CoH game system, and I would enjoy the results.

 

MyLittlePony CoH? Sign me up!

 

While I am a huge superhero fan, I love the system the most.  Combat in this game is much more fun than in other games.  I would rather play CoX skinned as fantasy or shadowrun than WoW or any of the other games out there.