City of Heroes - Re-Skinned

[Troo]

Here's the thing, City of Heroes is old.

That said, there is a little something special here that companies spend ridonkulous amounts of money every year trying to find.

 

• The character creator is a superstar.
• Gaining abilities and tweaking those abilities is an interesting time sink.
• Campaign variety (single mission, minor arc, major arc, trials, task forces, etc.).
• Being able to assist another player.
• Customizable bases.
• The variety of archetypes and number of powerset combinations.
• etc. (if you like, reply with what works great or even list terrible aspects)

 

Portions of CoH probably could be parsed and stand as a game all on their own.

 

Spoiler

 

• Witches: A Reckoning
  • Witches, warlocks, holy persons, hunters and so on.
• Dystopia: The Future Everyone Saw Coming
  • Cybernetics, mutations, power armor & mystery
• Squad: Exponential force
  • MMs & other pet themed classes
• Samuri
• Gods Among Us
• Space Future
• Medieval Times
• Ancient Heroes
• Gangster

 

 

 

 

Any themes out there that could be imagined as a reskinned game. What would you keep and leave out. Imma curious.

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Troo

[DrBasics]

I think one of the strongest things for me is that this game has an extremely strong RP community. I have tried almost all of the other MMORPGs out there, including really new ones like "New World" and I always select the unofficial RP server. Some of those other MMOs may have pretty good RP communities, but none like CoH, because you can create literally any kind of character you can dream up. From horror, romance, action, even comedy!

 

That being said, I have yet to find any MMORPG (this includes CoH) that is able to somehow, some way, encourage RP outside of bars/taverns. The closest I have ever seen was games that allow you to create player housing or bases, and ironically, people just create bars and taverns if they want anyone to use their space as an RP hub. I would imagine that it would take a pretty wild idea to come up with a way to discourage Tavern RP and encourage RP while playing the actual game (missions/quests/dungeons), and I myself don't have any solid ideas about how to code such a thing. However, as a consumer it is only my job to play and give feedback.

 

So to recap, the things I would keep would be the open ended character creator that allows you to make RP characters that can be literally anything.

 

The things I would leave out would be how strongly everyone only wishes to RP in a bar setting. I know it is not literally everyone, but you all get what I mean.

[DougGraves]

I asked a year or so ago about making a fantasy starting area for CoX.  It would support it pretty well.

 

I think that it would be cool to take the mechanics and re-skin them.  It's the best mechanics of any MMO.  While superheroes are my favorite genre, I get that they are not the most popular.  

[Spaghetti Betty]

I really could care less about the superhero skin this game has. I'm sure I'm in the minority here. I stay for the gameplay loop. If you slapped this expansive of a character creator in any MMO it would probably see a huge boost in sales based on that alone.

 

However, I'd reckon it would be really hard to get the perfect storm of dungeon crawling, freedom within classes, and viability of soloing and team building in a package different from CoH. They clearly tried that with Guild Wars 2, and, IMO, that game was boring.

 

It's also this reason why I don't think a hypothetical CoH 2 would ever catch fire like this does. If you change or remove any of those elements, it's just not the same.

 

Also, if I could take all that makes CoH and just slap a different aesthetic on it, it would totally be an occult fantasy game dealing with european mythos, much like The Secret World. That game's environments and lore were actually pretty dope.

[Troo]

@Spaghetti Betty

So take the character creator, kept a good number of the relevant power sets (renaming appropriately) and lay that on top a different environment and lore, could that have potential?

 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.

[Bill Z Bubba]

I'd rather see the whole thing ported into UE5 and rebalanced.

[PeregrineFalcon]

20 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

I'd rather see the whole thing ported into UE5 and rebalanced.

It's interesting that you say that. Did you know that you can sign up for the Ship of Heroes player housing beta? It's going to happen from May 5th to May 8th. You'll be able to log in and try it out, but only if you sign up for it.

 

Maybe this will be the game you're looking for.

[Bill Z Bubba]

19 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Maybe this will be the game you're looking for.

 

Edit: Overly mean. I love CoH's animations. I wouldn't play SoH based on the video below.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Bill Z Bubba

[Bill Z Bubba]

Just looked at gameplay footage for City of Titans and Valiance... they also suffer from the same complete clunky ugliness on the animation front.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Since I'm on the topic... it's something that's gnawed at me here in HC. Take Shadow Maul from Dark Melee. Since its last change, the hit effects on the enemy are no longer in sync with the punches and it's jarring every time I see it. I'm not gonna pretend I know anything about animation or character models or any of it because I don't but I do see what appears to be a lessened level of care in changes made on this front when compared to the OG animation team. And it's not something I'm looking forward to seeing more of.

 

Edit: damn apostrophes

Edited April 23, 2022 by Bill Z Bubba

[Yomo Kimyata]

8 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Since I'm on the topic... it's something that's gnawed at me here in HC. Take Shadow Maul from Dark Melee. Since it's last change, the hit effects on the enemy are no longer in sync with the punches and it's jarring every time I see it. I'm not gonna pretend I know anything about animation or character models or any of it because I don't but I do see what appears to be a lessened level of care in changes made on this front when compared to the OG animation team. And it's not something I'm looking forward to seeing more of.

 

Anyone who thinks that Shadow Maul from Dark Melee has been improved by Homecoming is either a liar or a buffoon or both.

 

In my humble opinion.  

 

[Spaghetti Betty]

2 hours ago, Troo said:

@Spaghetti Betty

So take the character creator, kept a good number of the relevant power sets (renaming appropriately) and lay that on top a different environment and lore, could that have potential?

 

 

And keep the structure of classes mostly intact, yeah, I could see that having potential.

[Techwright]

9 hours ago, Troo said:

Any themes out there that could be imagined as a reskinned game. What would you keep and leave out. Imma curious.

I'd be all for a 1920s/30s/40s Dieselpunk/Pulp reskinning, possibly done as an added "zone" using time travel.  Imagine a 1930-ish Steel Canyon with a strong Art Deco reskinning,  maybe a zeppelin floating overhead, and period cars driving around. Neon lights illuminate the night, highlighting theaters, diners, and noir-fueling dives.  Maybe add to the already present, if somewhat limited, costume elements related to that genre.  Reskin zone borders to remove the war walls.  Sure, you'll still need to move from zone to zone with a loading pause, but it would be more like crossing zones in Praetoria. 

 

7 hours ago, DrBasics said:

So to recap, the things I would keep would be the open ended character creator that allows you to make RP characters that can be literally anything.

 

The things I would leave out would be how strongly everyone only wishes to RP in a bar setting. I know it is not literally everyone, but you all get what I mean.

So re-skin to a miniature golf course? duck pin alley? Axe throwing hall? laundromat with a Starbucks?

 

7 hours ago, DougGraves said:

I think that it would be cool to take the mechanics and re-skin them.  It's the best mechanics of any MMO.  While superheroes are my favorite genre, I get that they are not the most popular.  

Which is weird considering entertainment-wise, superhero movies represent 10 of the top 25 highest grossing movie slots (and #26 is a superhero movie, too).  You'd think there'd be a strong interest in them in MMOs.

[DougGraves]

5 minutes ago, Techwright said:

Which is weird considering entertainment-wise, superhero movies represent 10 of the top 25 highest grossing movie slots (and #26 is a superhero movie, too).  You'd think there'd be a strong interest in them in MMOs.

 

sci-fi is a much stronger genre than fantasy in movies, but fantasy dominates MMOs and sci-fi barely survives.

 

and fantasy totally dominates pnp rpgs

[gamingglen]

10 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

sci-fi is a much stronger genre than fantasy in movies, but fantasy dominates MMOs and sci-fi barely survives.

 

and fantasy totally dominates pnp rpgs

 

*sigh*

[DrBasics]

8 hours ago, Techwright said:

So re-skin to a miniature golf course? duck pin alley? Axe throwing hall? laundromat with a Starbucks?

Trolling or no?

[The_Warpact]

14 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.

I was waiting to see if this was a Buffalo Bill thread and someone didn't disappoint!

[Techwright]

1 hour ago, DrBasics said:

Trolling or no?

Having fun with it but, no, no trolling.  Genuinely curious what the alternative might be.   Is a coffee shop, for example, really better than a bar, if they all just stand around and talk?  I don't RP myself, though I've watched it happening for years.  Maybe I've just been standing in the wrong spots, but it really seems like some activity should be in order.  Hence my half-jesting mini golf, duck pin bowling, and axe-throwing halls.

[Without_Pause]

13 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Edit: Overly mean. I love CoH's animations. I wouldn't play SoH based on the video below.

 

I looked at the site again last night, and it is a ball of "Hell no." The graphics look dated. I wish them luck in trying to make it succeed, but I won't get my hopes up.

[Yomo Kimyata]

32 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

I was waiting to see if this was a Buffalo Bill thread and someone didn't disappoint!

 

We begin by coveting what we see every day.

[AmpDx72]

19 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

I'd rather see the whole thing ported into UE5 and rebalanced.

YES. Absolutely yes. I was discussing this very thing with a friend of mine that also used to play on live back in the day,  and with the popularity of superhero movies, Unreal Engine 5 would be perfect.

[DrBasics]

6 hours ago, Techwright said:

Having fun with it but, no, no trolling.  Genuinely curious what the alternative might be.   Is a coffee shop, for example, really better than a bar, if they all just stand around and talk?  I don't RP myself, though I've watched it happening for years.  Maybe I've just been standing in the wrong spots, but it really seems like some activity should be in order.  Hence my half-jesting mini golf, duck pin bowling, and axe-throwing halls.

---

On 4/22/2022 at 1:39 PM, DrBasics said:

I would imagine that it would take a pretty wild idea to come up with a way to discourage Tavern RP and encourage RP while playing the actual game (missions/quests/dungeons), and I myself don't have any solid ideas about how to code such a thing. However, as a consumer it is only my job to play and give feedback.

I quoted myself in the same post. Take RP out of the tavern or whatever (night club in CoH) and into the actual game. Less standing around and typing, more playing the actual game and typing or some other intuitive way to RP.

[PeregrineFalcon]

On 4/22/2022 at 3:04 PM, Bill Z Bubba said:

Just looked at gameplay footage for City of Titans and Valiance... they also suffer from the same complete clunky ugliness on the animation front.

That's too bad. Well, maybe they'll upgrade to Unreal Engine 5:

 

 

[Without_Pause]

9 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

That's too bad. Well, maybe they'll upgrade to Unreal Engine 5:

 

 

My guess is by the time either did UE 7 would be out.