Forging Ahead: An Open Letter To Homecoming Development

[SupaFreak]

Hello Developers!

 

It has indeed been rather exciting playing Homecoming in the recent weeks.

 

As someone who has been here since day one, the influx of new and returning players gives me hope that a number of them will stick around and help Homecoming's popularity grow and be able to maintain its appeal.

 

The population boom has provided me with the opportunity to team with and help both new and returning players to the game and hear what they think about certain aspects of the game.

 

While I'm not sure what the success or failures of Homecoming's appeal means to the longevity of the recent license agreement, I'm sure NCSoft is at least paying some attention in some capacity.

 

Live Server Failures 

My opinion on why (behind closed doors) NCSoft truly decided to shut down the live servers was primarily due to the shortcomings of the Going Rogue expansion and its inability to grow and maintain its subscriber base.

 

While the zones of Praetoria were beautiful to look at and the morality choice arcs were a breath of fresh air, a third starting experience was overall a horrible idea.  The Praetorian zones were desolate and teaming there was minimal at best, making newcomers feel isolated from the vast population of an MMO game.  Not exactly a recipe for success.

 

The Freedom update was beginning to be a step back in the right direction, but it still wasn't enough to overcome the past mistakes.

 

Homecoming Updates

While I and likely others would prefer to see smaller and more frequent updates closer to three or four times a year, I will say this...  I honestly do feel the development team has not made a single misstep yet on content added.

 

From the addition and refining of the Sentinel to making Tankers and Brutes roles more unique to improving the underplayed primaries and secondaries, you show you care about the meat and potatoes of the game - the character. 

 

And Issue 27 (page 7) has a little bit of something for everyone.  From character customization to vanity pets to Co-Op Striga to Advanced Mode Lady Grey... there's a little something for everyone.

 

I may not personally be excited about every aspect of it, but it's not about me.  It's about the community and the success of Homecoming.

 

However, there is one aspect of Page 7 that gives me hope that Homecoming is willing to do something other MMOs do not... give some love to outdated aspects of the game.

 

What do I mean by that?  Why, I'm talkin' 'bout Giant Monsters and them rewarding 1-3 Unstable Aether.  The Reward Merits were a nice carrot-on-a-stick but this is icing on the carrot (that is a thing, right?).  The ability to either trade 10 in for a vanity pet OR trade 3 for a Prismatic Aether?  Now that is a smart move.

 

What makes it a smart move in my opinion is that it takes an older aspect of the game and gives it added meaning and appeal to a larger crowd that is likely to last a long, long time.

 

See, I come from the mindset that every single aspect of an MMO has to have continuing value and/or appeal on some level and not just be "one and done".  Badges may appeal to some, but to players like me... if it doesn't give me some way to monetize or enhance my characters stats or abilities in some way... it's a hard pass.  Shallow as that may be, I'm not here to chew gum - I'm here to...

 

Anyways...

 

Forging Ahead

I do hope the Homecoming team takes note of the comment about existing and less desirable content, because it IS a possible factor to new and returning players.

 

When I'm explaining some aspect of the game to either one of them and the Q&A goes something like this:

Q: "What is X used for?"
A: "Those are pretty useless."

Q: "Why isn't anyone ever doing X?"
A: "Most already have the badge and it doesn't have any rewards."

 

And their response is "Oh", I get the sinking feeling they know subconsciously that there's a bottleneck in the design of the game and they're about to step onto a treadmill of limited content.  NOT a recipe for success, in my opinion.

 

What I hope for the future of Homecoming is for the Q&A to be more like this:

Q: "What do I do with these X things?"
A: "There's really nothing useless in the game and those are good for X, no matter what level you are."

Q: "Why are there level 50s doing X?"
A: "People do that over again because it rewards X buff for the next 4 hours of gameplay (for example) on top of getting a badge the first time, which is really nice".

 

Whether it was the original or Homecoming developers, someone put time and effort into creating some fun content that gets massively overshadowed because it's a "one and done" deal.  I'd personally like to see that change for the betterment of the game.

 

The tendency of MMOs to pump out "one and done content" over "one and done content" is an easy trap to fall into and a major reason why they fail to maintain an audience.

 

Players consume new content faster than it can be pumped out and tend to be left looking for something to hold them over until the next dinner plate of "one and done content" is served.  Sometimes the game provides enough sustenance to keep their gaming bellies happy, but I'd say most times not.

 

In Closing

I'm super proud of Homecoming for achieving the license agreement with NCSoft.  That was both ground-breaking and legendary!

 

I also want to acknowledge and applaud NCSoft for their massive display of humility and generosity for extending the olive branch to us players who gave them hell during the sunset of 2012.  You have my admiration and gratitude for that, NCSoft.

 

I'm very much looking forward to the additions of Victory + Paragon servers(?) and what the additional "hands-on-deck"(?) means for the future of Homecoming's longevity and success.

 

I may not frequent the forums that much, but would love to see what I perceive to be underperforming or under-utilized aspects of the game addressed in the near future:

• Vanguard Merits
• Brainstorm Ideas
• Safeguard & Mayhem Missions
• Tip Missions
• A/E Dev's Choice
• Zone Events
• Praetorian Zones (x5)
• Kallisti Wharf

 

I may have my ideas on what needs done about them, you may have yours - and maybe it's nothing at all.  I suppose the subject of that debate is best suited for elsewhere, such as the Suggestions & Ideas section of the forums.

 

I honestly just wrote this letter as personal "thank you" to you all with some feedback for the Homecoming team to chew on, for this game has brought me so much joy in my life.  From Beta 2004 to Sunset 2012.  From Homecoming Day 1 to License Agreement and beyond...

 

Long Live City of Heroes!

Edited January 24 by SupaFreak
Fixed very small typo: "What isn't anyone ever doing X?"

[Snarky]

I think I can help you guys figure out how to forge ahead.  I found this picture.  With my expertise in criticizing, um, critiquing, you should be able to create it.

[Clave Dark 5]

Sayyyy, they were supposed to be working on Kallisti Wharf, where'd that go?  I'd have thought that'd be done by now.

[Ruin Mage]

41 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I'd have thought that'd be done by now.

They're taking the zone and what's to come with it very seriously I imagine.

No half-assed or unfinished stuff or "here's part 1 of the wharf story stuff." - plus volunteer time + interests.

And all the breadcrumbs being set out for the Wharf in story arcs. I mean suuuurely they'd be doing that.

Plus new devs brought on for, say as an example, the content/narrative side things needs time getting acclimated to the systems before moving onto a big project.

[Clave Dark 5]

They've been saying they're working on it for a looooong time now though IIRC.  They didn't start last week!

[Ruin Mage]

Well, they could be doing a lot of planning and a lot of things for KW. I imagine they want it to be THAT update that blows people up. I mean away.

Speculation all, of course.

But they did lose Piecemeal and bring on a number of new devs since then. Caretaker, Headhunter, Holymittens, Viridian, and Unitas to name the ones I can recall.

[MoonSheep]

three to four updates a year would be way too many in my view. once a year is fine with me, gives people time to adjust to changes

[Water]

[sbloyd]

*I* use Vanguard Merits quite regularly.

 

I turn them into Reward Merits.

[SupaFreak]

22 minutes ago, sbloyd said:

*I* use Vanguard Merits quite regularly.

 

I turn them into Reward Merits.

 

Same here, but the same end result could be achieved through alternate methods such as +1 Reward Merit per Vanguard Story Arcs, allowing Rikti EBs to have a 2% chance of awarding 1 Reward Merit, etc.

Someone in the past suggested something along the lines of adding a the ability to craft a Unique Enhancement set, etc.  Thinking something along those lines in addition to the semi-popular Heavy pet. 

[sbloyd]

1 minute ago, SupaFreak said:

 

Same here, but the same end result could be achieved through alternate methods such as +1 Reward Merit per Vanguard Story Arcs, allowing Rikti EBs to have a 2% chance of awarding 1 Reward Merit, etc.

Someone in the past suggested something along the lines of adding a the ability to craft a Unique Enhancement set, etc.  Thinking something along those lines in addition to the semi-popular Heavy pet. 

 

Oh, I get all mine (V-merits) from the MSR.

 

There are other rewards as well, like the Vanguard Bag, but of course it's once-and-done.  I don't think an Enhancement Set would fly, but maybe being able to buy Temporary Powers that are Vanguard-themed would work (though the Vanguard jetpacks are already on P2W for INF).

[Yomo Kimyata]

6 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

They've been saying they're working on it for a looooong time now though IIRC.  They didn't start last week!

I heard that they started last week and before that they had been eating cheetohs on the couch watching Netflix for MONTHS.

[JasperStone]

7 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

They've been saying they're working on it for a looooong time now though IIRC.  They didn't start last week!

 

It is up and running ... you mean you can't see all the cool stuff?

Do you have one of these?

[Skyhawke]

49 minutes ago, JasperStone said:

 

It is up and running ... you mean you can't see all the cool stuff?

Do you have one of these?

Is that from Wheatfield of Titans?

[JasperStone]

5 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

Is that from Wheatfield of Titans?

Tomorrowland

 

[Ironblade]

On 1/24/2024 at 12:28 AM, SupaFreak said:

My opinion on why (behind closed doors) NCSoft truly decided to shut down the live servers was primarily due to the shortcomings of the Going Rogue expansion and its inability to grow and maintain its subscriber base.

Basically, yes.  I'd heard that they simply didn't see any point in maintaining the game since it took significant resources and only represented 2% of their revenue.  Yes, it was still profitable but 2% of revenue is pretty insignificant.

 

 

On 1/24/2024 at 12:28 AM, SupaFreak said:

What do I mean by that?  Why, I'm talkin' 'bout Giant Monsters and them rewarding 1-3 Unstable Aether.  The Reward Merits were a nice carrot-on-a-stick but this is icing on the carrot (that is a thing, right?).

I think that only applies to carrot cake.

 

 

Anyway, speaking of 'forging ahead', whenever I hear that phrase, this is what I think of:

 

[StarseedWarrior]

A few things I am not liking the game is certainly missing key elements that made live so great because everyone becomes way to op later its a bit absurd it even got this far to be honest. I do know they are finding ways to fix this though so I digress, my other issue is everyone just makes their own sgs now which is fine but now its more populated and many of us prefer having an sg so we can do organize events and do things together, it does not matter if the entire server friends each other it will not be organized. There needs to be incentive for multiple people to be active in an sg, maybe make it where we can create our own sb on the side on top of being in another. And do not want to hear how you can organize on discord barely anyone is scheduling events on the server discord, people do not show from these often.

Edited January 25 by StarseedWarrior

[SupaFreak]

Just stumbled upon this this evening:

Most Popular MMOs Server Population & Player Count - MMO Populations (mmo-population.com)

 

City of Heroes #51?  Beating out the likes of Ultima Online, D&D Online, Champions Online, DCU Online and even Aion (by NCSoft)?

 

Can't be true, can it?  *checks Aion's daily numbers*
Aion Active Player Count & Population (mmostats.com)

 

Avg 1,9k daily?   We're currently at 3.4k as of typing this.

If this is indeed true... NCSoft has got to be paying attention.

Edited January 26 by SupaFreak
Accidental typo of Aion (had Eve typed)

[Doc_Scorpion]

5 hours ago, SupaFreak said:

Just stumbled upon this this evening:

Most Popular MMOs Server Population & Player Count - MMO Populations (mmo-population.com)

 

City of Heroes #51?  Beating out the likes of Ultima Online, D&D Online, Champions Online, DCU Online and even Aion (by NCSoft)?

It lists us as having 1.13 million players...  Which I find suspect.  According to Number Six, we currently have 64,000 active accounts.

But anyway, beating out UO isn't that impressive nowadays.  It's a dead game walking, a literal ghost town.

[SupaFreak]

3 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

It lists us as having 1.13 million players...  Which I find suspect. 

 

On that part, I agree.   Makes me wonder if they're trying to factor in all the private servers... which I still don't think is that number.

But if we're beating and continue to beat the other superhero MMOs & Aion on daily subscribers... it's something to take note of.

 

 

Edited January 26 by SupaFreak

[GM Crumpet]

On 1/24/2024 at 9:56 AM, Clave Dark 5 said:

Sayyyy, they were supposed to be working on Kallisti Wharf, where'd that go?  I'd have thought that'd be done by now.

I'm not privy to anything the devs are working on, but I know they are always doing new things and looking at areas that need some love. It's more a case of "How long" rather than "what" as far as I can tell. 

[Bionic_Flea]

4 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

It's more a case of "How long" rather than "what" as far as I can tell. 

 

[Ironblade]

11 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

It lists us as having 1.13 million players...  Which I find suspect.  According to Number Six, we currently have 64,000 active accounts.

 

That does seem awfully high, but I think this might be a comparison between 'number of accounts created ever' vs '64,000 *ACTIVE* accounts' (emphasis added).

Also, realistically, how can they know how many total accounts a game has?  I think they're probably extrapolating that number from the numbers they actually have.