A Question from The Homecoming Team

[DoctorProteus]

A lot. Not so much what I would expect, but what I would hope for. Whichever of the following the server programmers/admins are willing and able to create and implement.

 

New Story Content

New "Raid" Content (Rikti Mothership, Hamidon, etc...)

New Power Sets

New Power Pools
New Incarnate Powers

New Archtypes

New Epic Archtypes (Always thought Werewolf and Vampire as part of a Council/5th Column/Nictus expansion would be cool)

New Costume Pieces (especially back ornamentation which is severely lacking)

New Models

New Animations

Balancing

Zone Reworks (Boom Town, Creys Folly, Eden, The Hive, The Abyss, Monster Island)

Enemy Group Reworks (The Tsoo, Family, Council, 5th Column,Freakshow, Sky Raiders, Banished Pantheon(mortal servants) )

 

Facing the same few enemy groups at end-game for Paper/Radio missions kinda sucks, mix it up a bit by adding new enemy groups to them, including revamps and upgrades to lower level ones.

[Auroxis]

I think we'd need two things:

 

1. A revamped donation system that recognizes donors in some way in the forums (optional forum titles, special font/color/style on forum names depending on donation tiers, limited-time rewards) and in-game(no p2w or content gating though).

 

2. Staff getting paid if possible, to help keep some of the amazing members of the team.

[TCUFROGS]

Keeping of our characters on the server. I am so scared of losing my characters.

[ladypseudo]

1:  Leaving it free would be great. As I know a lot of my friends wouldn't be able to play anymore if it became P2P.  If not, If we move to a sub fee, the game is pretty old, maybe 10 dollars maximum as most people are on a tight budget.

 

2: A finished and functional Kalisti Wharf.

 

3: New powersets, please!

 

4: Improvements to base editing, ((I.E. more items to use. Maybe real kitchen items like stoves, ovens, microwaves, plates and glasses etc.... And more stereos and TV options without the weird pictures flashing across the screen.))

 

5: Maybe more hair and costume options, we do need better long hair options for women, the only good looking one IMO is Glam but it does get boring to use only that.

 

But thank you SO much for bringing our beloved COH back, I've missed it so much. Nothing else has compared to it.

 

[vtshadow314]

How about keep it the hell out of the hands of the IDIOTS who destroyed it the first time? Is that possible? Because if they get their greedy money grubbing fingers in it we may as well say goodbye, Again. Keep it away from NCSoft.

You have been warned.

Edited September 7, 2019 by vtshadow314

[Rimy]

Longevity.

[Rowdy]

No character wipes.  Or transfer characters to the official

[bros]

Unlikely: I would like more content, new powersets if possible, but just new story & bug fixes/balancing would be nice
 

Likely: Transparency is important, along with a fun dev team.

CoH is about the community moreso than the game.

If money had to be charged, I would prefer for it not to be a monthly subscription, but if it had to be, i'd prefer $5 a month to $15 a month.

I would also be willing to chip in some money to a fund if NCSoft needed some money before agreeing to make Homecoming an official licensed server.

Edited September 7, 2019 by bros

[TBK50]

Now that we have 64 bit, would love to see continual engine updates for performance (you guys have done awesome with that so far!), upgraded models/textures/animations cause it sure doesn't look like anyone else will be doing a superhero mmo in the near future. New challenging group and raid content with new mechanics. And speaking of new mechanics, would love to see more mission variety, the procedurally generated missions expanding for more variety, which could in turn lead to things like full control of placement and such in Architect.

[Eiko-chan]

First and foremost, I would like to see the fundamentals that have been running for months remain. Same database, same code base, etc. I'm pretty sure I couldn't take starting over yet again; three times would be too many times. 

 

After that, new content would be nice. Having the incarnate system finished and the storylines that were going to go with them could be fun, so long as it wasn't all locked behind Raids (the PS team saw the wisdom in doing otherwise eventually). New costumes and powersets also count as content. 😄 

 

If the servers could continue to be funded by community donations, rather than subscriptions and microtransactions, that would also be nice. The community seems to have been able to provide more than enough without having to cut off people who can't afford anything. 

[Burning_Brawler]

I’m sure no one is surprised that new content is high on people’s lists. I’d especially love to see The Coming Storm and Incarnate lines finished in some form.

 

On the probably more realistic side— I’d appreciate feeling more secure in the continuing existence of the server. Access to the old character database would be nice. The visual passes of late have been welcome updates to the art assets, and I’d love to see that continue. 

 

If the game does move forward into new content or even just sticking some lipstick on it here and there, I’d love a monthly or quarterly Road Ahead/State of the Game.

 

More community events— Set a story theme for an AE arc of the month and have players submit creations for a community vote. Invasion events akin to the end of CoV beta (when the devs turned on their I Win powers as the signature characters and went toe to toe with dozens+ of players). Something to help re-introduce players to the PVP zones and give them meaningful reasons to go there beyond a few badges (better rewards can be exploited, but a semi-regular event would boost awareness and use of some pretty well designed spaces that are currently ghost towns.  I also wouldn’t say no to a daily or weekly reward merit cap for PvP kills. 5 per kill, 50 merits per day allowed or perhaps 300-500 per week @ 10 per kill).

 

 

[candidate]

Would love to be able to import all my chars from live ( from my .xml files)

 

Also more content ( Dark Astoria)  new powersets maybe

[RicoZaid]

New story content and missions.

[Extor Prime]

- Assurance that the server will neither be wiped nor taken down by NCSoft.

- Assurance of absolutely no influence or involvement by NCSoft in the server's existence.

- Support for continued bugfixes.

- Support for development of new content.

[Zenlikemike]

It depends if we have a subscription based model or not. If there is a sub model then what I would want is updated graphics first and then of course more costumes pieces. Story arcs and new end game content is really important. I would also have to say what really hurt the original game was when PvP was introduced and nerfs started hitting everyone making us feel less super. Don't get me wrong I have had some fun in PvP but this game really needs to build on that power fantasy otherwise what is the point. I miss my infinite illusion army and perma instant healing. Yeah they kinda broke the game a bit but the power fantasy you got from it was awesome. I wouldn't ask for that to be returned but more PvE focused content is the best option. The game also didn't have much of an endgame for quite a few years. To keep this short if there is a possibility of a sequel game with most of what I mentioned in the game then as the great Philip J. Fry would say "TAKE MY MONEY!".  

[Sonicheart]

For me, I'd love to see the early waves of the post-license work put heavily into art upgrading, especially around the hero models and older costume textures. The visual divide between costume pieces in 2005 and 2012 was almost painfully massive, so doing more to at least bring the 2005-era content in-line with 2012 for a more consistent look would be great.

 

While it may be a bit much to ask for, more detailed face manipulation would be an amazing upward step in hero crafting.

 

Cost-wise, I would be willing to actively pay to support the game but would appreciate that payment being optional and free of randomized-result mechanics like the cards that were added in, IIRC, i22. I'd prefer to see the game's formal reintroduction to the world not get an annoyed Jimquisition about it.

[EggKookoo]

Assuming you mean game content and development, and not the forums or how HC is run. With the caveat that I'm sure I'm repeating what others may have said.

 

• Revisiting Existing Content: A number of early-era missions are pretty stale.. Many late-level blue-side missions are repetitive. It would be nice to see those buffed up a bit. Other missions and arc feel incomplete. I think it wouldn't hurt to go over all mission/contact text/copy with a strict editorial eye. I bet that stuff could be condensed to half the amount of words without losing any content, and would gain impact as a result. Plus it might make it worth spending the time reading.
• Consolidating of some Power Sets: I'm mainly thinking of equipment-based sets like Assault Rifle, Broad Sword, and so forth. I bet most of these could get recategorized as something like Ranged/Melee and Light/Medium/Heavy, or something along those lines. Then we could use custom weapons and animations to differentiate them. I mean is there there really a significant difference between Battle Axe and War Mace aside from the damage types? Rethinking select power sets this way might open the path to broader customization and expansion of those sets.
• Use Origins for Content or Don't: By which I mean, origins shouldn't be a game mechanic unless they're a game mechanic. If there's no interest in Making Origins Great Again, remove them from the game and let them live in RP-land.
• Introduce some form of Legacy System: I'm talking about taking a character to 50 and somehow "retiring" them in a way that they serve as (at least) a starting point for your alts. Imagine making a creature-of-the-night street vigilante, getting him to 50, retiring him, and then making an alt that takes up his mantle. Dark Knight Returns or Batman Beyond. You know you want that.
• Integrate the Invention System into the game: Primarily, IOs have booted SOs pretty much out of the game, and for good reason. So at least the whole TO/DO/SO/IO progression needs to be looked at. But also, we should be getting salvage-based missions and other content. I know, I know, shades of WoW's "get my 12 boar spleens" but it doesn't have to be that simplistic.
• Upgrade the Visuals: By which I emphatically do not mean upgrade the aesthetic. CoH is a beautifully-designed game in terms of its visuals. Very iconic and "correct" for what it's trying to do. I just mean pull a WoW and upgrade the model and texture details. Add some facial animations, separate fingers, animated hair, and so on.
• Add an Auto-Team Feature: This might be controversial but of course it would be optional. I would love to have a setting where, when I enter a door mission, it puts me into queue where it will auto-team me with anyone else starting the same door mission. That other person would have to have enabled that feature as well, and if the game can't find a match pretty quickly it just pops me into my own instance. Maybe this would require an additional interface to browse pending missions or something. Once the mission is over, the ad hoc team is split up again.

 

[jrg1199]

More early to mid level content, especially red-side. I have alt-itis, but I don't like farming. I like playing story arcs over radio/newspaper missions and Death From Below over and over again.

[Abraxus]

I agree with most of what's already been written here, with some exceptions that were a little "out there".  However, there is one thing I think could add a different twist to future development in a "post-deal" era.

 

The SEGs team has been working for years on a totally revamped version of the game.  They are still FAR from a complete working client, but through their efforts, they have insights into the existing code, and their vision of what the new one could look like, that some collaboration might be beneficial.  They have shunned any implication of involvement with any of the new communities that sprang into existence following the leak of the code, mainly due to potential legal issues which they have worked hard to avoid since their inception.  However, in a "post-deal" world, that would no longer be an issue, and their insights on the game code could be mutually beneficial to both teams, and by extension, beneficial to the players.  

 

I'm not a coder.  But, they are, and their experience with that code could avoid future "reinventing the wheel" situations for problems that they already had to solve, or at least found methods to improve.  In actuality, I'd like to see all of the teams coalesce into a single entity, working with, and for the community at large.  But, I know that's probably not realistic.  Too much water under the bridge for a lot of them, which is regrettable.  So, we will hopefully attract a lot of them back with features, and improvements that no other server has.

My hope is that, with a deal in place, that active advertisement will occur to pump up the numbers of players significantly.  The larger the population, the more opportunities to fill teams, and fill otherwise low populated zones, like Pretoria, and the entire Red side.  But, to do that, and have any hope of keeping folks for the long term, they will have to have compelling reasons to stay, which is where a lot of the suggested improvements will come into play.

Edited September 7, 2019 by Abraxus

[vtshadow314]

10 minutes ago, Extor Prime said:

- Assurance that the server will neither be wiped nor taken down by NCSoft.          <------ THIS

- Assurance of absolutely no influence or involvement by NCSoft in the server's existence. <------And THIS

- Support for continued bugfixes.

- Support for development of new content.

The above two targets are all i care about. Just keep NCSoft OUT of it.

[Zo]

7 minutes ago, Extor Prime said:

- Assurance that the server will neither be wiped nor taken down by NCSoft.

- Assurance of absolutely no influence or involvement by NCSoft in the server's existence.

- Support for continued bugfixes.

- Support for development of new content.

This.

 

Also, while I think existing/older content should mostly be left structurally intact and not altered for "modern" standards, it would be nice if the older costume pieces and faces were given texture/resolution upgrades. Many of them also just don't function properly, stick out from the character body in unintended ways, etc.

[davpa]

evolution of the game (new stuff) obviously.  But the IMMEDIATE need is the creation of enemies that are 50+6 so that Incarnate powered characters now are not just wading through enemies.  We need a bit more current balance with the powers we have available.  And we should do that now in the "illegitimate" state of the game.

 

After that:  Content, content, content.

[autographedcat]

Echoing what others have said:  my biggest desire is just not having to start over.  

New content would be fab, new powers.  Maybe addressing some of the powersets that maybe need a little love.  

Honestly, though -- you guys haven't done me wrong so far, and I trust you.  Just keep up the good work!

[Godlike]

if homecoming were legitimate and not under threat of being shutdown, i would love to see a team built around it (possibly even some of the former paragon studios devs?) that could fulfill the roadmap that had been in place for bringing what had been planned to life (the battalion, moonbase, etc). after that i would like to see the backend engine updated to something more modern that would allow for easier content generation and graphics updates (imo unity, with it's massive asset store, would probably be the ideal) to keep the game moving forward for years and years.

[Dropout]

More costumes, balanced powers.