How small could CoX be and have you still play?

[DougGraves]

• Would you play it solo?  If there were only 100 other players?
• Could they cut out redside, goldside, or blue side?
• Could it be cut down to AE, or a few zones?
• Could they cut it down to one or two ATs?

 

There is a lot to CoX - but how much of it matters to you?

 

I team almost exclusively so player numbers count to me.  But that also means I skip red and gold and they could disappear without me noticing. 

 

I could live with dropping down to 3 ATs - tanker, controller, blaster but would notice.  On the other hand you could cut out brute, MM, stalker, dominator, corruptor, EATs, and VEATs and I would not notice.   I bet you could cut at least half of the powersets and I would not notice.

 

I rarely play above about level 32, so you could cut out all of the zones and content above it and I would not care.  And while I like Hollows and Faultline, I would probably be happy just running radio missions with teams in Atlast, Kings, Steel, and Talos.  So you could cut the game down to 4 zones without really affecting me.

 

I don't use AE, so you could cut that.

[Fan Mail]

In the case things go south here (certainly not saying I want them to), I have taken it upon myself to download the binaries to run out of my home on my own hardware if need be.  Nothing is going to steal my precious again.  

 

I see this as related to your topic.  In a way...

Edited November 13, 2019 by tafilr

[jubakumbi]

The way I play, the other players are for the most part just there to fill up the market so I can more easily make builds.

It's fun sometimes to jump on a team, but I find little ROI in random teams in online games unless I want to test my healing/support skills or my general patience.

I play purely to relax and generally playing with anyone I do not already know well in RL in MMOs is simply too much of a chore.

It's a little different here right now simply because there are not very many drama llamas in game and IME lot's of good players that don't need herding.

 

I have been checking out the other servers for a number of reasons and I find that my playtime is served just fine on servers with far less than 100 people.

 

 

I lead a quiet life, with very few friends or even other humans interacting directly with me, all on purpose.

I am a loner that plays a lot of MMOs, much to the chagrin of more extroverted outlooks, who think players like me ruin thier games.

[Lost Ninja]

If/when the "real" servers go down I might run my own personal one just for fun. Only reason I'm not doing it now is because I'd just cheat my way to infamy... which is fun for testing but devalues my experience. Much prefer to play with other people around.

 

55 minutes ago, jubakumbi said:

I am a loner that plays a lot of MMOs, much to the chagrin of more extroverted outlooks, who think players like me ruin thier games.

I'm not so much a loner, just want to play at my speed without the drama of teaming... so I not only play solo, I bring the rest of the team (well two more). 😄

[EmmySky]

57 minutes ago, jubakumbi said:

The way I play, the other players are for the most part just there to fill up the market so I can more easily make builds.

It's fun sometimes to jump on a team, but I find little ROI in random teams in online games unless I want to test my healing/support skills or my general patience.

I play purely to relax and generally playing with anyone I do not already know well in RL in MMOs is simply too much of a chore.

It's a little different here right now simply because there are not very many drama llamas in game and IME lot's of good players that don't need herding.

 

I have been checking out the other servers for a number of reasons and I find that my playtime is served just fine on servers with far less than 100 people.

 

 

I lead a quiet life, with very few friends or even other humans interacting directly with me, all on purpose.

I am a loner that plays a lot of MMOs, much to the chagrin of more extroverted outlooks, who think players like me ruin thier games.

This is almost exactly what I was going to respond ( minis the bit about checking out other servers cuz I dont know how).  I havent come across any nightmare PuGs on HC but I still solo mostly because of my time constraints.  I intend to do what @tafilr did so it wont disappear on me again!

 

PS regarding players to team with....most everyone is an experienced player and if anything I am the weak link because I dont load/zone fast enough to keep up with people.  

[Abraxus]

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.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by Abraxus

[MTeague]

I will be here until (god forbid) a day ever comes when they turn off the lights.

I enjoy teaming. But I solo probably over 50% of the time and I have no problem with it, since I really crave well written stories, and teams NEVER allow time enough to read anything.

 

I still team, I just.... might then solo the same missions on a different character not long after so I can read everything.

[Queen Nefertiti]

I frequently play solo, but do occasionally team. I've never had a truly bad pug, except for one hami raid, but I have had a few where the team leader has had different goals or ideas on how they want the missions to run. I ad one the other day where the team leader only wanted to do the AV's on Maria Jenkins arc. There isn't anything wrong with that in itself, but I wanted to level my alt to 50 and racing through groups of XP just to get to the AV wasn't fun for me. Nor was the constant shouting to leave the mobs and head straight to whoever. After the second mission I made my excuses and left.

 

I would miss the chat more than anything I think. I know some people complain about misuse of channels, but I've either been in or been reading some very entertaining stuff on help. It usually starts off answering a question, then diverts off into totally unrelated areas.  For me that's always a highlight.

[EmmySky]

13 minutes ago, RialVestro said:

Every time I make a new character I probably spend the first 5-10 minutes just editing my chat tabs so I can read them before I actually play the game. 

Get on a toon you have them set up how you like and type /chatsave

 

Now load up a new toon and type /chatload

 

Also useful:

/wdwsave and /wdwload

 

/optionsave and /optionload

 

In my bindfile I have pageup bound to /bindfileload and /optionload and /wdwload and /chatload so new toons only need to type /bindfileload then hit pageup button and done.  Any edits to bindfile I just hit pageup on every toon I log in, whenever that may be, and they get the latest settings lickety split!

[DougGraves]

yeah, /chatsave and /chatload I found out about this past week and it saves me about an hour a week setting up alts

[Bopper]

They can remove incarnates and I would still play with no loss of enjoyment

[Abraxus]

37 minutes ago, Bopper said:

They can remove incarnates and I would still play with no loss of enjoyment

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

[Nafsmar]

 I could definitely play this game solo as  I solo all my missions anyway and really just team up on task forces. However that being said I do enjoy reading the chat as other people talk. So I probably would miss that but it wouldn’t stop me from playing. In addition I could also do without the incarnate system, PVP as well as all the villain stuff including the ATs. I only make heroes anyhow. 

[Bopper]

1 hour ago, Abraxus said:

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

We certainly can. But for what it's worth, I meant I could do without the incarnate system. I perfectly like the incarnate content.

[Marine X]

I came here the same route as Abraxus, so it actually surprises me we have never ran into each other, or have we?

Played on Live from end of May 2004 till Sunset ( Subscriber ), then Titan Icon which was cool but a bit sad and empty, and finally Paragon Chat. Codewalker just kept little updates coming that kept me coming back. The best of course was badge hunting. Much like on Homecoming, a lot of people are of the mind that faster is better. But when Everyone ran out and loaded Vidiots Maps and had all the badges in a week or so, I was doing it using only Map Coordinates or Paragon Wiki Descriptions. It gave me three and a half months of nice mellow entertainment. I even found my way to the secret torture room Redside. I guess I just am not someone who needs a lot to keep myself happy. I appreciate anything I get and that includes having The City back much as it was. I will probably download and archive the server files so if something happens I have options. Could I play as the only, or as one of a handful of heroes in the city?, sure, would it be as much fun, probably not, but I'd just have to make it work.

 

Titan Icon, Monster Hero Mash-up I created in Atlas Plaza.

[Abraxus]

14 minutes ago, Marine X said:

I came here the same route as Abraxus, so it actually surprises me we have never ran into each other, or have we?

Played on Live from end of May 2004 till Sunset ( Subscriber ), then Titan Icon which was cool but a bit sad and empty, and finally Paragon Chat. Codewalker just kept little updates coming that kept me coming back. The best of course was badge hunting. Much like on Homecoming, a lot of people are of the mind that faster is better. But when Everyone ran out and loaded Vidiots Maps and had all the badges in a week or so, I was doing it using only Map Coordinates or Paragon Wiki Descriptions. It gave me three and a half months of nice mellow entertainment. I even found my way to the secret torture room Redside. I guess I just am not someone who needs a lot to keep myself happy. I appreciate anything I get and that includes having The City back much as it was. I will probably download and archive the server files so if something happens I have options. Could I play as the only, or as one of a handful of heroes in the city?, sure, would it be as much fun, probably not, but I'd just have to make it work.

 

Titan Icon, Monster Hero Mash-up I created in Atlas Plaza.

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

[Snarky]

I would play solo. Even if limited to just red or just blue.  Gold is too small.  But one of the things that truly makes CoX fantastic is that if there were only 6 players who played we would figure out how to schedule TFs SFs Hami etc.  would need some beefy toons but we would grind/share/plan and complete.  With a few hundred it would just organically happen.  We have more than that now.  Most teams I see now have 2-3 monster toons on. A couple oddball toons run by vets (toon suspect but player is good. And yes I am very guilty of having a non optimized alt). And then we have 1-2 tourists.  I say welcome to all. Let’s do a Posi or Synapse or your first BAF or LRSF. Grind it

 

 

 

 

 

[MTeague]

6 hours ago, Snarky said:

 guilty of having a non optimized alt

There's nothing to feel guilty FOR, in my book.   Choose to skip a certain power because you just can't tolerate it's animation but like the rest of the set?  I got no beef with that.   Don't want to deal with Inventions?  I might think you're missing out, but I'm not going to diss a player who's just not ready to dip their feet into that pool yet.  Or just chose a powerset combination that has no synergy, but you were re-creating a toon from LIVE, or just wanted to try out some combo for shiggles?  Why not?

 

This isn't mythic progression raiding in WoW.  Optimization is nice.  But if my group takes 30 minutes longer than some other group to finish a TF, I probably don't notice or even CARE, because I'm having fun.

[molten_dragon]

The thing that would most quickly ruin my enjoyment of the game would be not having other players.  I like soloing sometimes, but 80% of my play is on teams, and without that I'd lose a lot of my enjoyment of the game.

 

Content wise, there's a lot of stuff I don't play very often, and wouldn't miss if it was gone.  Several of the zones (Hollows, boomtown, Crey's Folly, Perez Park, etc.), most of redside and goldside, and a few ATs (Tanker, Defender, Mastermind, Kheldians)  could all disappear and I wouldn't miss them.

[Wompy]

I solo with my fire/fire tank most of the time, so the population could be just me and I would still play.

[TyrantMikey]

PVP can go. Everything else stays.

[roleki]

When I first heard about CoH's return, I made the (innocent) mistake of navigating to a deserted server.  I played on a completely empty server for 6 hours, and that was all I could take, even while drowning in nostalgia and running amok seeing the sights.  

 

If HC etc went away, I would roll my own to tide me over while (hopefully) another team got a 'live' public server going.  

[Jeneki]

It depends how long I've been without the game.

 

Before the return I would have been happy just soloing one zone, and would still enjoy it for a while as a nostalgia trip.  Now that I've been in the game again for a while, honestly I'd want more than that.  Currently I value the ability to form some sort of team.  Not necessarily a full team, or a team picky about ATs, but just some kind of team in general.  Perhaps after a few years away from the game (if it came to that) and I'd be back at my position a year ago.

 

 

[Bopper]

It's been over 48 hours and still nobody has made a dick joke out of the Title. I'm disappointed in you internet.

[Troo]

Many have likely been considering the size of the game, the current player base size and the vast swaths of relatively empty zones. (I think there are 60ish zones)

 

Potentially we could cycle whats available. If there was no red or blue option, folks would play yellow content and exploring it's 9 zones. We sorta do this already for event based activities.

 

Would I still play if it was a private server. Yes.

If it was a private server that had an underground way to share player created content, Oh Yes!

 

Minimum playable game? Redside, costume generator, solo with 3 ATs. Brutes & blasters or corruptors & controllers (I don't use controllers).

Minimum long term re-playable game? Above plus create-able content via AE in Pocket D.

 

Ouro = luxury, AE = luxury, multiple city zones = luxury, server events = luxury, so many ATs = luxury, etc