Fun Play, Fun Teams

[jubakumbi]

What makes playing CoH Fun for You?

What makes a Fun Team, to You?

 

For me, it is pure chaos.

Having to constantly adjust, assess, and execute to remain standing is the Fun to me, the hectic play, on the edge.

Getting multiple spawns attacking, running back to defensive position, getting behind the enemies to draw them away from squishies, trying to hold down the boss until the teams arrives, all of it.

 

For me, the rewards 'just occur' during playing, when I am done I have more than I did when I started, it is not why I play, to me rewards are just a mechancal function of the game, not the reason to play.

 

How about You, what makes a Fun Team or a Fun Session to You?

[Yoru-hime]

A little banter, a lot of killing, the occasional "hold my <insert beverage of choice>" moment when someone does something absolutely crazy, the quips of the person who ALMOST got away with said craziness as they wait for a chance to rez. I'm here to play and have fun. If every mission is a routine grind, I'm just bored.

 

Sure, I hope I hit a needed level along the way and I'll cheer if I see that blessed purple "Recipe Found" message, but If I'm really watching my rewards and care about maximizing them, I'm no longer playing, I'm doing a chore. I play COH to avoid doing those, not to add to the list. 😄

[MunkiLord]

I generally like chaos too. Was on my Dark/Earth Dom last night doing a BAF with a relatively inexperienced group. People just kinda stood there when it was time to pull AVs(think we only had one tank and no brutes), so I gotta do it! Not ideal and it used up most of inspirations, but was interesting. Faceplanted when pulling Siege.

 

The more I've done something, the more I want to push to see what me/team can handle. I have no interest in taking my time when doing an ITF or Maria Jenkins arc since I've done them over and over and over. I either want to speed through them or pull as many mobs as possible as quickly as possible to see what the limit is.

 

To help with my preferred style I take Combat Jumping on every single character, no exceptions, ever.

Edited September 5, 2019 by MunkiLord

[Lazarillo]

1 minute ago, MunkiLord said:

The more I've done something, the more I want to push to see what me/team can handle.

This tends to be how I've always preferred to play, too.  "Let's see what my limits really are" has gotten me into trouble a few times over the years (especially playing a Regen Scrapper as my first character, during i5) but it makes for some exciting times (although since I realize some teammates don't have fun the same way, I do try to dial it back if I'm making things uncomfortably rough on teammates).

 

It's also why, even on my most badge-crazed characters, there are some I don't bother with.  "Master of Imperious' Task Force?"  How can you call yourself a Master if you didn't try to solo the whole Sibyls map and get Roman-ed to death at least once?

[jubakumbi]

8 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

I generally like chaos too. Was on my Dark/Earth Dom last night doing a BAF with a relatively inexperienced group. People just kinda stood there when it was time to pull AVs(think we only had one tank and no brutes), so I gotta do it! Not ideal and it used up most of inspirations, but was interesting. Faceplanted when pulling Siege.

 

The more I've done something, the more I want to push to see what me/team can handle. I have no interest in taking my time when doing an ITF or Maria Jenkins arc since I've done them over and over and over. I either want to speed through them or pull as many mobs as possible as quickly as possible to see what the limit is.

 

To help with my preferred style I take Combat Jumping on every single character, no exceptions, ever.

I Tank on all characters, all the time, until there are no more insirations...

 

I do enjoy 'going fast' when everyone is onboard, especially if there are hordes like in the ITF, it often makes even more chaos!

Combat Jumping is always a pick for me as well.

[DSorrow]

What makes CoH great in general is the combination of fun mechanics and the lack of many common anti-fun mechanics.

• I get to design and play my own Avengers level hero.
• I can pretty easily have several kitted out alts to embrace different roles.
• Basically anything works, the gameplay doesn't require sweating.
• Every session gives you progress towards something at least in the form of inf / XP.
• It's a very relaxed game so depending on my mood I can play something quite involved like a Warshade or something incredibly simple like a /WP Scrapper.
• Very little time spent acquiring resources. Compared to other games, the ratio of fun gameplay to resource grinding is extremely high.
• The game is essentially teammate agnostic, when in other games 30min content can be stretched to 2 hours or even be literally impossible because your teammates don't know mechanics / lack decent gear / don't know rotations, in CoH you're usually looking at an extra 15mins, or in other words, not meaningfully longer.
• Lack of salt inducing gameplay elements. Most notably, nothing is gated behind an endless RNG grind and it's essentially impossible to fail content because of teammates unless they're actively griefing.
• The community is great. Most of the time any annoyance / conflict can be dealt with in PMs and there's rarely any drama.

Yeah, it's a combination of many elements I find fun and a lack of elements I've grown to dislike. Even things I find annoying require so specific circumstances that it's extremely rare to run into them.

[PaxArcana]

3 hours ago, jubakumbi said:

What makes playing CoH Fun for You?

What makes a Fun Team, to You?

First question: other people (not being jerks).

Second question: a team of players adapting to each other's Powersets, coming up with tactics and combinations on the fly that hopefully are greater than the sum of their parts ...

 

... in a casual-approach, laid-back fashion that is not desperately chasing the ultra-efficient-most, highest DPS and/or XP-per-second extreme.

Edited September 5, 2019 by PaxArcana

[SlimPickens]

I like getting on a team of friends or even new players i havent teamed with before and having a little friendly banter. I generally run the same type of content -speed TFs, iTrials, Hami raids etc, and honestly its just going through the motions to get the tasks done, so its mainly fun to yuk it up and talk trash.

 

I do enjoy exemping down and joining random Tfs alot as well, especially for weekly targets since theres such a wide variety of people who do them- maxxed incarnates, non shifted 50s, characters on the way to 50, and even the occasional noob who doesnt even know what were doing, but saw the LFG invitation and asked to join. sometimes you have to carry the whole team, and other times you get to just see what other people are running.

 

But always the banter is what makes me laugh. Theres some interesting folks in this game.

[Abraxus]

I love playing super heroes.  I have since I was a kid, and got my first taste of comics, live action series like Batman (campy as it was), Super Friends, and the like.  As I got older, I still loved the genre, but since I was never much of a cosplayer, it just kind of took a backseat to everything else in my life for lack of ways to express it which worked for me.  That is, until 2004 when this game first came out.  Finally, a way to live out my super hero fantasies (in a manner of speaking), and share that experience with others who felt much the same way.

 

This game makes it feel like a super hero story that you have the power to craft to your liking.  The moments I enjoy the most are those when a team is quite balanced, and working exactly as intended.  However, I also really love those moments when I realize that the configuration of a team is all wrong for what we are attempting, and yet we find a way to make it work anyway!  I love the ability to make things more difficult when I really want a challenge, or not so much, if time is a factor, and I just need some quick game time to cap off a great day, or sooth a bad one.  I love being able to get by with the minimum of enhancements on some characters, if I so choose; or doing the research into powering them to new heights of invincibility if I wish to go that route.  I very much enjoy the ability to farm a character for resources, or designate one to play only mission content (solo, or team).  I sometimes make it a point to work a zone as much as possible to get ALL of the content exposure, and feel like a part of the lore.  All of these things, and so much more are there, and with so many choices, I absolutely do not tire of playing.

 

This game is a perfect fit for me, which is why my desire to play anything else went right out the window the moment it returned. 

[Justisaur]

I actually prefer when we're barely surving, or sometimes not surviving and trying to figure out a way to get past something that difficult.  Unfortunately most stuff is now so easy it's just boring doing the weekly TF when I'm lucky to get a shot in before everything's dead.  Also unfortunately what little is difficult tends to take far too long for my limited time.  Yes I can solo to make things more difficult, but I don't feel like it's any fun soloing either.

[Abraxus]

51 minutes ago, Justisaur said:

I actually prefer when we're barely surving, or sometimes not surviving and trying to figure out a way to get past something that difficult.  Unfortunately most stuff is now so easy it's just boring doing the weekly TF when I'm lucky to get a shot in before everything's dead.  Also unfortunately what little is difficult tends to take far too long for my limited time.  Yes I can solo to make things more difficult, but I don't feel like it's any fun soloing either.

To be fair, most of the time when I participate in a weekly TF, the difficulty settings are not cranked very high, and everything dies pretty quickly.  If the team leader could be talked into turning them up, it's a little better.  But, most of the time, the interest is in running them quicker, rather than harder.

[Snakebit]

On 9/5/2019 at 1:00 PM, DSorrow said:

it's essentially impossible to fail content because of teammates unless they're actively griefing.

There is some content that can be failed, notably AVs. Was on an 8 person team that failed Market Crash. We tried until the 10th wipe, we just didnt have enough anti giant robot.

[Justisaur]

Market Crash is a good one.  I ran it with only 3 of my VG mates, and it was touch and go on the robot for a little bit, but that's partially because one of them had die, then went to the hospial just as another was coming to rez them, and no one had a tp for them, so it was just me and another for awhile on it.

[nihilii]

4 hours ago, Justisaur said:

it was touch and go on the robot for a little bit, but that's partially because one of them had die, then went to the hospial just as another was coming to rez them, and no one had a tp for them

It can be hard to realise (I know it took me a few runs), but the part where the final fight takes place is just off the cliff from the entrance/hosp. So if you hosp, just retoggle and run to the left, 10 seconds later you'll be back in the fight.

[Spotlore]

I like to look at the characters in my teams.  Themes, outfits, powers, bios.  I like to see them all kicking butts in their own way.  

 

No two characters are the same.  Its so much fun to see what people come up with.

[TheOtherTed]

For me, the best moments have been when a chaotic (or newbie-heavy) team actually comes together as a team.  Usually after a team wipe.  Or two.  Or four.  Sometimes all it takes is someone saying "stick together" or "watch each other's backs," and it just happens.  Seeing my teammates (and myself) become a bit more aware and tactically-minded, a bit more confident, and a bit more willing to take on greater challenges - that's a good session.

 

Naturally, it all falls apart again when people got overconfident (or when someone with Speed Boost joins the team), but, hey, that's part of the fun too.

 

I also like playing with "trouble children," i.e., players who are genuinely trying but are fighting the odds in some way (due to lag, say, or inexperience with their powers, or, occasionally, disability).  It suddenly becomes a sort of one-on-one game of helping them out, and keeping them going, and giving them the space to find their niche.

[Tahliah]

COH is fun to me because we can do anything at any time.  Feel like running missions? Radios? TFs? soloing some ouro stuff? Joining raids, Hami, or hunting GMs?  Go for it.  Feel like badging some exploration or history badges? Or badging some kills?  Cool beans, you're on.  Feel like base-building and chilling with your fabulous base creations?  Homecoming is the place to be (not that I've been on any of the others, but you know what I mean).  I may not always feel like I want to try to fit into a new pug, so I might just decide to solo some Ouro mishes or add another detail to my base or just zoom around on my hover board. Because awesome.  Sometimes, a great name comes to me, so I have to create that alt that minute.  And I do.  I can spend hours just creating a new look for my new toon (who may languish at lvl 2 for days or weeks or months after that initial "alt rush").  There are so many options, so many things to do that COH is never boring to me.  It's one of the things I found hard to get past with all the games I tried after COX shuttered.  I got bored by most within hours, others up to a year, but I always got bored with them eventually.  I never got bored with our City of possibilities. 

 

As to teams, I love teams that engage in banter and that are laid back and having a great time.  I'm not a fan of cranking up the diff unless a team can handle it.  I just find team wipes in every single mish unfun.  There is no challenge in an entire team face-planting every two minutes.  It's easy to do.  Anyone can do it.  Too many teams choose this these days.  I don't get it and bail as soon as possible when I see that's the apparent goal.  Just advertise those as damage badge runs, maybe people would stick around?  Heh.  Otherwise, I'm happy on most teams, but I do enjoy some fun chatter.  I don't discord because it screws up my game on my laptop, but I like the old-fashioned typing chatter in Chat.  Teams that run well but that don't treat it like a serious life or death situation (i.e. no shouting, no whinging, no whining).  It's a game, it's fun, it's not the actual Battle of Thermopylae, so we can chill and enjoy the hunt.  Those are the teams I like best and tend to stick with the longest.