Hardcore mode

[FFFF]

Would love to an option for a hardcore mode. Basically, a bright red title or similar above your character that signifies you haven’t died yet. You lose your special title if you happen to face plant and the character just becomes a standard character. Perhaps a tiny star or similar symbol by the title for every souvenir you’ve collected. Might deter the PL folks a bit but I’m well aware you can get around a lot of that via multi-boxing. 
 

Would love to see someone solo a fire/fire blaster this way. And it would add a bit of fear / challenge into this game. Maybe a way to get true bragging rights. 

Edited May 14, 2023 by FFFF

[Luminara]

32 minutes ago, FFFF said:

it would add a bit of fear / challenge into this game. Maybe a way to get true bragging rights.

 

Set difficulty to -1/x1.  Log into level 50+ character, buy Ultimate inspirations, mail to self.  "Earn" title with no risk, pound chest.

 

Also, there's a forum for suggestions.  It's named, conveniently, Suggestions & Feedback.

[Lazarillo]

52 minutes ago, FFFF said:

Would love to see someone solo a fire/fire blaster this way. And it would add a bit of fear / challenge into this game. Maybe a way to get true bragging rights. 

Other way around.  It would be very easy, just would mean a player never pushed themselves while playing the character.

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, FFFF said:

Would love to an option for a hardcore mode.

Already exists. Create a new character, give it no help at all from your alts, no games with the AH for extra info, just what you get from drops, and delete the character on defeat.

 

@BEGIN(rant)

But this isn't what you want, is it? That's just a competition with yourself, for your own satisfaction; nobody knows that you're playing hardcore. You want something to shove in other people's faces to say "Look at me! I'm playing this character hardcore!", because it's not enough for you to be 'special', everyone else has to acknowledge it.

@END(rant)

 

Now that I've got that out of my system... I believe that there have been other requests for a 'hard mode' added to the game, with features like automatically deleting your character on defeat, and it was all things that you can already choose to do while playing your character, and they all had some sort of visual indicator to tell other players that you were hardcore with that character, even though the only real effect it would have on play is that they'd quit out of a team if defeated and not rezzed by a teammate. It wasn't enough to play hardcore; they wanted to be seen to be playing hardcore.

[lemming]

Nothing really needed in game

[Kaika]

CoH can be a extremely easy game once you know what you are doing, I know people who have done "hardcore" characters like this, and they had to set all sorts of limitations on themselves to make it even a little challenging. Solo it would be trivial to dodge anything that could pose a threat, and teams would just be a wonderful way to make people angry at each other, as death could often not be your fault, or at least not be perceived as such. If you want to do it, go ahead, it can be fun if it's tailored how you want it, but attaching rewards to it is likely just asking for trouble, and that's ignoring the fact that someone has to program it.

[Snarky]

1st.  nothing, NOTHING will deter the PL folks

 

2nd  It is a nice idea.  There are indications you have never died (no debt badges)  Not perfect.

 

3Rd  I knew a group of maniacs doing various "hardmode" stuff last year for months.  No deaths, survive on only drops, no AH, on and on.  All sorts of madness.  It is done for personal enjoyment.  Honor system

[huang3721]

Defeat builds character. Often, it's the easiest way for people to know if a toon is good enough.

 

2 hours ago, FFFF said:

Basically, a bright red title or similar above your character that signifies you haven’t died yet. You lose your special title if you happen to face plant and the character just becomes a standard character.

Your idea would deter people from playing outside their safe zone, or they might lose their title.
IMO it would encourage door sitting/playing on low difficulty mode.

 

 

2 hours ago, FFFF said:

Perhaps a tiny star or similar symbol by the title for every souvenir you’ve collected.

If I see someone with dozens of toons, each toon has those stars, I would worry about their well-being. Honest.

 

 

[kelika2]

-no level restrictions for said character?

you know some level 50+4 spamming council ip missions will get in here

-no mail/ah/trade restriction?

you know someone will just have a level 49>44>39>stop making me do math trade chain>even if you did

-no ae exp for said character?

c'mon

-no limits for inspirations?

storebought and cheap

-no exp limitations on paper/radios?

back to the council thing

 

gatta hammer this stuff out bro, either spend time coding trendy things or spend time making new power sets

[VashNKnives]

I think it would be fun to see players risk their stars on PUGS/raids. Yeah, ultimate insps and uber rich builds...  blah blah. It shouldn't bother other players if someone gets an ego boost and their adrenaline pumping from something like this. 

 

The dev time may be better spent elsewhere, but it would  be an interesting add imo. I would go further and give some sort of bonus to these defeatless players that join risky TFs and Trials - maybe in combination with the difficulty slider. Something little like maybe extra merits or higher rare drop rates.

 

Now... a big watch-out to me would be the stuffy, overly competitive types that will pitch tantrums if the game isn't played by others for their sake. There are some personalities that just can't stop themselves from trying to micromanage others. We may have to witness more drama from folks who suddenly care if they are defeated and there may be folks that get snobbish about who they allow in  their teams.... It just means all the more respect to the player that doesn't act that way and still keeps their title. 

 

Again, dev time is precious and this isn't my personal pick for next issue but still not a bad idea imo.

Edited May 14, 2023 by VashNKnives

[Zect]

I don't want any sort of hardcore, challenge, or progression raiding content in coh. And I say this as someone who is generally in favor of challenge in games, and who has completed some of the hardest pve content in the entire history of the MMO genre.

 

1) The game engine is not robust enough to handle it. You can kill the last nictus and have Rom rez off it 5 seconds later. The maps are filled with OOB holes. You can bump people out of hiding places so they get vaped by brickernaut self-destructs. This kind of jank is unacceptable in any serious challenge mode.

 

2) Balance is a hot mess, and will probably always be. Just as a small example, homecoming team still thinks it is OK not to balance powersets based on procs even though they are a major contributor to damage (just as Cryptic devs thought it was okay to balance attacks based only on their rech and not their animation time). This precludes the existence of any serious dps check.

 

3) There are no rewards that Homecoming team is willing to offer. Reward is an essential part of what makes games fun. No reward, no dice.

 

4) Challenge inevitably brings homogenization. In order to properly balance content so that it can challenge the players who are strong enough to desire challenge, some degree of homogenization is necessary so that developers have a benchmark for what players can accomplish. This would mean standardized team comps, standardized powerset layouts, etc. Are you willing to put up with that?

 

5) No offense, but the community is unfit for it. Challenge requires teamwork, mental toughness, tenacity and adaptibility. Most coh players are heavily focused on idle play such as sitting, AFK farming and marketing. They are not capable of overcoming challenge. If you want to have challenging content, it needs to be there at day 1 so that a raiding culture and community can be nurtured. The time for that passed long, long ago in coh.

 

Say no to challenge content in coh. Leave that to the pros and focus on what you do well, which is character customization (whether mechanically or aesthetically).

 

"But what about hard mode?" you ask. Hardmode is okay; there should be more of that. "Hard" mode is not hard and not comparable to challenge content of other MMO's in its difficulty. The extra mechanics/fights are incredibly simple and casual (Vengeful Rom's void bombs would be a story dungeon mechanic in wow or ffxiv, for example, albeit a bit more punishing) and the mode is more accurately described as stat gated. 4* is designed for an entire team of tier 4 incarnates. If you team doesn't have that, don't whine that it was hard.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Zect

[InvaderStych]

10 hours ago, huang3721 said:

Defeat builds character.

 

"If you've never took an 'L' then you'll never be a boss."

 

 

 

 

... this post is apropos of nothing relevant to the thread topic, just love that line, and more people should have known about Evan "e-dubble" Wallace before his passing in 2017.

[Seed22]

19 hours ago, FFFF said:

Maybe a way to get true bragging rights. 

There are none that will ever exist in CoH, including this idea.

 

HM would not work here. Too much time in costumes and hurt feelings involved, plus the games that DO have HM, CoH players asking for this won't touch due to skill issues lack of interest in one or more aesthetics of the games.

[Spaghetti Betty]

Unless you're playing the game on one of these bad boys, I don't wanna hear about "challenge"!

 

[FFFF]

17 hours ago, srmalloy said:

@BEGIN(rant)

But this isn't what you want, is it? That's just a competition with yourself, for your own satisfaction; nobody knows that you're playing hardcore. You want something to shove in other people's faces to say "Look at me! I'm playing this character hardcore!", because it's not enough for you to be 'special', everyone else has to acknowledge it.

@END(rant)

 

Lol. You don't know me. I think projecting someone's motivations for an idea is silliness at best and somewhat ignorant at worst. My current play consists of leveling a staff/sr scrapper. She's badly built, and the animations are pretty but slow. I still enjoy it. I don't power game not because I don't know how but because I feel I've been there, done that. With that said, having modes where milestones for reaching difficult to achieve tasks and being acknowledged for that in game would not be bad for the game. I say that even though I may never partake in them myself.

 

I forgot how fussy these forums can be. I should know given I was somewhat prominent on the old ones back in the day (no desire to repeat that here). For those of you who were constructive, I appreciate it.

[Luminara]

6 minutes ago, FFFF said:

having modes where milestones for reaching difficult to achieve tasks and being acknowledged for that in game would not be bad for the game.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Ouroboros_Badges

[MoonSheep]

18 hours ago, srmalloy said:

Already exists. Create a new character, give it no help at all from your alts, no games with the AH for extra info, just what you get from drops, and delete the character on defeat.

 

@BEGIN(rant)

But this isn't what you want, is it? That's just a competition with yourself, for your own satisfaction; nobody knows that you're playing hardcore. You want something to shove in other people's faces to say "Look at me! I'm playing this character hardcore!", because it's not enough for you to be 'special', everyone else has to acknowledge it.

@END(rant)

 

Now that I've got that out of my system... I believe that there have been other requests for a 'hard mode' added to the game, with features like automatically deleting your character on defeat, and it was all things that you can already choose to do while playing your character, and they all had some sort of visual indicator to tell other players that you were hardcore with that character, even though the only real effect it would have on play is that they'd quit out of a team if defeated and not rezzed by a teammate. It wasn't enough to play hardcore; they wanted to be seen to be playing hardcore.

 

oh boy, wait until this guy finds out about the CoX badge system

[SomeGuy]

16 hours ago, VashNKnives said:

pitch tantrums if the game isn't played by others for their sake. There are some personalities that just can't stop themselves from trying to micromanage others

 

 

This is exactly why I left...everlasting? Also, I've noticed that tankers are more prone to be this type. There was some jackass type like this with a few thousand vet levels on the server I was on.

 

This game ain't hard. I build min/max. I don't expect the people on my team to be the same way. I only care if people have fun. IDGAF how they play as long as they don't yuck in my yum.

 

But I gotta say, there are already a bunch of things in the game to indicate what the OP is wanting. They've been there before shutdown. Hell, the oroboros badges stand out as a much bigger PITA then the Mo*insert tf/trial here* badges.

[nihilii]

A hardcore mode would be great fun. I like your idea for implementation, too. A purely cosmetic thing that nonetheless encourages us to do our best.

[Seed22]

On 5/14/2023 at 3:02 PM, Spaghetti Betty said:

Unless you're playing the game on one of these bad boys, I don't wanna hear about "challenge"!

 

That looks confusing, fun AND challenging.

[Spaghetti Betty]

6 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

That looks confusing, fun AND challenging.

It's basically a ball with a platform on top with a tilt switch inside. You have to rock it with your feet to move your character while using a controller for inputs.

 

New 4* challenge!