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

[Lost Ninja]

I doubt there would be many takers (outside of people who already know/love CoX) for a fantasy MMO using a very dated game engine, even if the IP used was something that is both very popular and not already available somewhere else.

 

Because face it while we do have a great game it wouldn't work well in a fantasy setting without a massive overhaul. Yes we have a great costume creator, but when you're equiping armour/weapons/etc, enhancements won't really cut it.

 

Personally I enjoy this game because it isn't fantasy, there are plenty of options for fantasy even avoiding WoW. Non-Fantasy seems much harder to find.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Lost Ninja

[EmmySky]

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!

I have a couple western themed toons...can they have ponies too!??!!  

[DougGraves]

I hadn't thought of the alternate Earth idea with dopplegangers.  That would be a good way of tying it into CoX while having a fantasy world

[Tahliah]

On 11/12/2019 at 5:50 PM, WanderingAries said:

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.

I think this is where I am coming from, too.  I'm not really a superhero fan, per se.  Don't get me wrong, I know some of the lore, have watched some of the movies, and played the other superhero games after CoX shutdown.  I'm just not "into" supes or comics all that much, so what I love about CoH is not so much the hero concept as it is the hero heart of it--the game itself and the community.  Even our villain players have hero hearts from what I can see; oh, they gripe about us do-gooders, but they are eager to help their fellow redside players (and even us bluesiders) and will do so at the drop of a tell.

 

I also love the UI and the gameplay.  Simple things like not having to click on "loot" bags or worry about how it all shares out over a team and even being able to simply run in a straight line or just stand still if I want.  I'm not the most coordinated person on the planet, so those games where i have to learn to strafe and leap and roll around just aren't for me.  Not only is moving my toon one of the absolutely least interesting things in the game to me (except flying, I love flying), but having my entire experience based on my ability to do so in just the right way is a deal breaker for me (and one reason I stopped playing some games like Secret World; I'd get hung up on some of the "jump up this complex series of boxes and around forcefields/trip wires/etc. in just this exact way within this time frame" quests and get frustrated enough to have my sgmate log into my toon and do it for me).  This isn't to say I haven't figured out how to kite my own toons in COH for max survival, but that feels organic and natural to the toon's (and my own) progress in the game, not a requirement for enjoyment and progression. 

 

I also like that we have so many options for our UI compared to other games.  I like having ALL my powers visible on the screen if that's what I want, and I like that I don't have to "swap" them out or figure out which power is available for which enemies (except at incarnates, which again feels organic and natural in CoH).  I like targeting and combat in CoH much more than in any other game I've played (and I tried--and quit--MANY after shutdown), and I like that we have so many options for controls and keystrokes and the UI.  It's not designed to force players into a box, and those who want that box can easily replicate it via options if they wish.

 

I like that we have door/instanced missions, and I didn't really appreciate how much until I played other games after shutdown and found open world "quests" horribly tedious and annoying.  Likewise, costume creation is huge.  Sure, I'm not a big super hero fan, but playing something like Marvel, where everyone is one of six (or whatever, who cares?) set characters of someone else's creation .  .  . yawn.  I can get invested in Ice Ice Baby and Power Plant. and Trapper Jayne and an escaped wolf-human hybrid who rescued research animals who became her pack (my beast MM), but I am not and can never get invested in controlling the eleventy-hundreth Black Widow or Hulk I see running around in a game.

 

So yeah, I guess all things being equal, I could play CoH if it were fantasy or sci-fi or whatever.  But there are so many of those games already, so why go there?  Our City is, for so many of us, our home, and while it could still retain that if it suddenly had fantasy zones/storylines, it would be an odd mix and feel kind of forced and unnatural.  (But then I still feel kind of that way about the Wards, so what do I know? Heh.)

 

 

[Seroster01]

I'm pretty ambivalent to the setting of CoH, as the reason it was and will likely always be my favorite MMO is the game mechanics + the IO system. I'd play a game with those 2 systems in just about any imaginable setting. Honestly I think I might prefer COH in a (mostly) pure space scifi setting. That being said, I think there would need to be a moderate level of changes to parts of the game to make it fit a fantasy setting, primarily aesthetic changes to power sets in terms of animations & effects. A lot of the powersets can easily be claimed to be "magic" but I can't really think of any that look very much like magic is being cast. Then you've got sets that use very modern looking guns/robots/etc. Course the game is already getting a reskin, I'd imagine they could skin that stuff too in such a situation...

[DougGraves]

6 hours ago, RialVestro said:

Golems are usually made from rocks and stuff but literally anything can be made into a golem so if your golem is made of metal it would probably look a lot like a robot... but if you examine the thing then you realize that there's no actual electronics inside and really should not be functional.

 

That gives me a great idea for a character.  Imagine if it seems like they control an army of robots, perhaps electric or maybe controlled by clock gears.  But really you are an immensely powerful psychic and you are animating all of the robots with your brain.

[Coyote]

5 hours ago, DougGraves said:

 

That gives me a great idea for a character.  Imagine if it seems like they control an army of robots, perhaps electric or maybe controlled by clock gears.  But really you are an immensely powerful psychic and you are animating all of the robots with your brain.

 

Not sure if serious... 😜
But if you are, then naming the character after some Clockwork could be cool. Maybe Clockwork Prince, or Steampunk Clockwork.
 

Edited November 14, 2019 by Coyote
add more stuff that amuses me :p

[boggo2300]

no

[Charistoph]

As others have subtly pointed out, we already have some content like that in the game.   While I am all for more content, I think zones centered on other genres of content than Fantasy might have more appeal, over all, and so should have a higher priority.

[DougGraves]

52 minutes ago, Charistoph said:

 I think zones centered on other genres of content than Fantasy might have more appeal, over all, and so should have a higher priority.

 

Like what type of content?  General superhero or more themed?

[jubakumbi]

Comics cover every timeframe, genre, power level, and type of character.

There will be players that love every genre one could to the game as a zone.

There will be players that will hate anything added.

The CoH 'system' allows for the creation of characters in all of these worlds, I see no reason to restrict this system.

 

So I think if anyone adds anything fun to play, it won't matter what genre it is based upon, it will get played if it's fun.

 

Just not interested in putting things in boxes, I prefer to cut all the boxes into tiny pieces and toss them in the recycle bin.

[Charistoph]

43 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

Like what type of content?  General superhero or more themed?

The entire concept of "this is super hero themed" is rather off.  If you look at either of the big super hero universes, they run from Fantasy to noir, to modern, to science fiction.   So, it is more of a fact of where not to go rather than where to go.

The moon was often mentioned as a goal for the original developers, yet we have no missions there.  There are more things in the sea than can be dreamt of in our nightmares.  The possibility of other worlds has barely been scratched when we went Rogue, so why not on other stars rather than paths of our star?

[DougGraves]

41 minutes ago, Charistoph said:

The moon was often mentioned as a goal for the original developers, yet we have no missions there. 

 

The moon is a location not a genre or theme.  You could have a moon base with nazis, a moon with aliens ala Barsoom, a moon with steampunk astronauts, a moon with modern realistic astronauts, etc.

[Charistoph]

26 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

The moon is a location not a genre or theme.  You could have a moon base with nazis, a moon with aliens ala Barsoom, a moon with steampunk astronauts, a moon with modern realistic astronauts, etc.

While not a genre, if you don't think the moon is a theme, then you wouldn't think the Black Forest is a theme or the Himalayas.  A lot is in the approach.

[DougGraves]

2 minutes ago, Charistoph said:

While not a genre, if you don't think the moon is a theme, then you wouldn't think the Black Forest is a theme or the Himalayas.  A lot is in the approach.

I definitely do not think the Black Forest is a theme.  It could be the setting of Roman legions attacking the Visigoths, or hansel and gretel lost in the woods, or a WWII battle between nazis and russians, or an invasion by Martian tripods, or a cyberpunk corporate retreat.

[Dugunthi]

11 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

I definitely do not think the Black Forest is a theme.  It could be the setting of Roman legions attacking the Visigoths, or hansel and gretel lost in the woods, or a WWII battle between nazis and russians, or an invasion by Martian tripods, or a cyberpunk corporate retreat.

It could also be a cheesy hospital soap opera, a suicidal bicycle trip, or visiting a cafe to have great cake with a great view.

[Charistoph]

52 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

I definitely do not think the Black Forest is a theme.  It could be the setting of Roman legions attacking the Visigoths, or hansel and gretel lost in the woods, or a WWII battle between nazis and russians, or an invasion by Martian tripods, or a cyberpunk corporate retreat.

 

That's why I added, "A lot is in the approach."  It is a theme of setting, but certain places also carry with them a character all their own.  Talking about the Black Forest carries different meanings and connotations than the Amazon, the Congo, or the Tonto National Forest in Arizona (yes, it is a thing, and no, it doesn't have a lot of trees, mostly a lot of very large bushes).  For example, the first things you went to addressed historical and mythological connections of the Black Forest.  Those are part of the character of the setting which influences the theme.

 

If I said, let's place it in Egypt, your mind immediately starts thinking of a big river surrounded by sand and ancient stone structures.  From there you can dive in to the mythologies that surround Egypt, explore the current politics of the region, or it could be the setting for the next Rikti Invasion.  But those last parts could be considered the events that surround the setting, and some of it can be the themes tied to it, but also carry new thematic elements in to it.

 

The Secret World does this excellently, connecting it's areas with the mythologies attendant to its areas.  You fight werewolves and vampires in Transylvania, or facing wickermen and harbor monsters in Rhode Island.

 

Each zone of Paragon City also carries a theme depending on the purpose of the neighborhood in Paragon City itself.  That's only considering what was out before the Rogue Isles and the capital of Praetoria came out.  And each of those started with the setting in mind which, in turn, sets up the themes.

 

So, yeah, the Moon can be a theme because of all the baggage that becomes associated with it.

[TyrantMikey]

God no. Not *yet another* fantasy MMO. You can't take a deep breath without crashing into one. 

 

COH is awesome because there's nothing like it. Porting it to a different genre would be like trying to teach a cat to sniff out drug dealers in an airport. No. Just, no.

[roleki]

As someone else said, the mechanics are what keep me glued to the executable.  While I happen to prefer THIS game setting/universe, I would probably play any game that was built on this framework, provided it was done with the same level of commitment to the bit. 

[boggo2300]

7 hours ago, DougGraves said:

 

The moon is a location not a genre or theme.  You could have a moon base with nazis, a moon with aliens ala Barsoom, a moon with steampunk astronauts, a moon with modern realistic astronauts, etc.

I WANT A NAZI MOONBASE SOOOOO MUCH!!   thats the true headquarters of the 5th Column, it's where they gathered their strength to break free of the council once more!!!!

[Chris24601]

The main thing I’d want to see as a spin-off that hasn’t really been done would be a futuristic science fantasy setting akin to a mix of Farscape, the Legion of Superheroes and the “Cosmic” MCU we see in the two Guardians of the Galaxy films and Thor Ragnorok.

 

That’s the sort of crazy that the CoX powers/enhancements and even the incarnate system would be perfect for and that more traditional gear-based MMOs would fall flat on.

[Charistoph]

47 minutes ago, Chris24601 said:

The main thing I’d want to see as a spin-off that hasn’t really been done would be a futuristic science fantasy setting akin to a mix of Farscape, the Legion of Superheroes and the “Cosmic” MCU we see in the two Guardians of the Galaxy films and Thor Ragnorok.

 

That’s the sort of crazy that the CoX powers/enhancements and even the incarnate system would be perfect for and that more traditional gear-based MMOs would fall flat on.

Technically that setting already exists.  Only the "super heroes" are psykers swinging swords with micro-organisms giving them powers, and I'm not talking about Secret World.

[DougGraves]

39 minutes ago, Charistoph said:

Technically that setting already exists.  Only the "super heroes" are psykers swinging swords with micro-organisms giving them powers, and I'm not talking about Secret World.

 

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell

[jubakumbi]

6 hours ago, RialVestro said:

What do you mean restrict? I was under the impression we were talking about EXPANDING this system not restricting it.

 

They're not talking about removing anything from the game and making it strictly fantasy... at least I don't think they are and if that was the intention then I agree that should never happen.

Exactly, I see no reason to restrict comics, they can cover any and all genres.

Some people in the thread think that the game would in fact not be worth playing if the system were used to create more fantasy based gaming experiences.

I think the underlying and system and the bent toward comics means CoH can contain any and all genres.

[gamingglen]

I like the mechanics of CoX and its casual play style. I'd play it with other genres. Whether a new game or separate zones* from the main game that are not linked to the main game (you cannot take someone from blue/red/gold to purple (magic/fantasy world) or green (cowboys-in-dinosaur world**).

 

 

* less zones, wider level ranges in each zone, and max level could be less than 50; example: 2 zones, levels 1-20 & 21-40.

 

** although supers in really-tough-dinosaur/smart dinosaurs world might work as a new regular zone. I'd like that better than those Ward zones (this won't make me popular)