A Question from The Homecoming Team

[CaptainZackII]

Honestly if it would be possible, a more user friendly UI for SG base building.

[Zikar]

Kinda late to the party here, but, like many others have expressed, I'd like more content.
Specifically:

Story Content: It doesn't have to be filled with cutscenes and crazy things like they were doing towards the end of CoH's life, but one of the biggest issues right now is running out of new content to run. I'd like to see places like Perez Park, Boomtown and other forgotten zones get their own story arc contacts.

Raid content: We need more variety.

Other things:

Finishing the Incarnate system: The endgame system is unfinished. In turn that means its really unsatisfying since you know you're playing an unfinished character.

More costume options: More costumes are always great. I wouldn't even mind having to pay for costume packs if it ensured that the quality was high and the flow frequent.

Updating costumes: Some older costumes have rather low quality textures and some don't even mesh properly with other parts of their "set." It'd be nice to see some of the older parts get a lick of paint (provided they still basically look the same)

Edited September 7, 2019 by Zikar

[rocketkat]

I would love to have some more content. More powers and customs. More mishs and complete some of the stories. Upgraded toon models. More maps. Upgraded UI and easier UI for base building. Plus have the option to make your base into a City if you like. 

Edited September 7, 2019 by rocketkat

[Zombie Fryer]

Game wise:

 

New content in all regards - missions, Task Forces, ATs, Power Sets/proliferation, enhancements, inspirations

 

New zone events would be nice.  Possibly events with over-world implications, either positive or negative. 

 

Also my 2 long time requests:  Hats for Monstrous Heads and a proper overalls costume piece!

 

In general:

 

What I would -not- like to see is micro-transactions of any kind.  I have no issue paying a reasonable monthly sub but being nickle and dimed for a fifteen year old game would be a major turn off - especially since a lot of the QoL improvements were done voluntarily after sunset.

 

Overall, transparency and interaction with the player base should be paramount.  You have loyal (waited 7 years to play again!) fans/customers/players and will continue to keep them with honesty and support.

 

 

 

 

 

[drgran]

I like to know what the original Team had going on. Like things they were thinking of doing.

And do that. Cause that is the only thing i can think of that will make the game go forward. 

 

Other then that Architypes and powersets added. as well maybe a new enemy. 

[Muppy]

A lot of the lower level stuff could be given a bit of a dust off. I like what they did with Atlas park and the addition of Matthew Habashy, why not revamp all the other contacts in the city hall too? A lot of the older contacts blue side send you to various different zones, which is pretty annoying. Line them up so they are like the newer ones that keep you within the zone. Red side only occasionally has the zone problem, but overall I think it was done better.

 

Costumes parts. I know everyone has said this, but... yeah.

 

More power sets. (Wind and water control come to mind)

 

Story time! I would love to see the story continue.

 

Brand new animations for older power sets.

 

New mission tile sets.

[Sniktch]

Stability.  Dependability.  Permanence.  All else is bonus.

[PimpstressBambiMM]

Clown MMs 💓

[Oubliette_Red]

3 hours ago, Ventriloquist said:

If and when you open the spigot on art development, an initial focus on improving the existing world and character assets to update the look of the game that is prioritized over bolting new assets on.

 

Bolting on a bunch of new costume options that require we need to dig through the 80% which are older / lower resolution / buggy / etc pieces isn't in our best interests.

 

Likewise, slapping a new coat of paint on players but leaving the zones looking like it's 15 years ago doesn't serve us well in terms of the games sustainability.

^^^

This.

A would love to see the older assets get updated.

 

After that, a revamp of older missions to incorporate the newer mechanics. Like hostages/rescues finding their own way out of maps. Layer Cake/Multi-ramp Arachnos maps anyone?

[FeroshaCouture]

This question is very ambiguous. We want the game to stay on!!!! That is all! Just keep the game on and our characters safe! Hopefully NCSoft starts making city of heroes 2 if they aren’t stupid

[molten_dragon]

The number one thing I want is just assurance that the game's not going to disappear again due to a C&D order.  That would already be provided by default if it became legitimate.

 

The number two thing is being able to keep the progress I've already made on homecoming.  My characters, my costumes, my names, all that good stuff.

 

Anything beyond that is gravy, but if I'm getting greedy there are two major things I'd want to see.  First off, finish the incarnate system, all 10 slots.  And second, content to go with it, everything right up to the looming threat that the Menders keep talking about.

 

Anything else beyond that would fall into the "It would be cool but I'm not that passionate about it" category.  Stuff like a graphics upgrade, new powersets, new ATs, etc.

Edited September 7, 2019 by molten_dragon

[Greystar]

Customizable Minions for MasterMinds.

[Cialsec]

New costume pieces! And not losing all our progress on Homecoming.

Otherwise? Just not losing all of the quality of life stuff Homecoming added would be really nice.

[Doc_Scorpion]

Some meta level stuff that occurred to me after my previous post...

- Availability on a major digital distribution server.  (GoG is acceptable, Steam is vastly preferable.)

- Social media presence by the game/company if not by the Devs themselves.  (By that I don't mean the Reddit ghetto or the Discord slums.  I mean Facebook and Twitter.)

The reasoning behind both is simple:  To survive, let alone grow, Neo-CoX (Homecoming) needs what CoX-Classic never quite managed to maintain...  A steady stream of active new players to keep the numbers up and the servers alive.  Losses are inevitable for any number of reasons, and must be balanced or more-than-balanced to keep the game living and breathing.  Being publicly visible is a major component of that.

In the same vein:  Enough servers to spread the load, not so many that the population gets over diluted.  Login queues are Very, Very Bad.  Ghost towns are Way, Way Worse. 

[Dan Petro]

First and Foremost, no character wipe / starting over. 

 

New Content in the form of TF / Trials / Power sets.

 

New Costume Pieces.

 

If possible, account recovery from live. 

 

If the roll out period on said content is reasonable, I'd be happy pay for them.

 

If payment options exist, some sort of small paid dev staff.  

 

 

[Spiderbit]

I'd like to see the game pick up where it left off, dropping new powersets left and right, releasing new content, raids, story.

 

I want to see Kallisti Wharf come to life & then I want to see the Battalion destroy it. It'd own if you had access to the original design docs to see what they were planned to look like.

 

I think what's missing the most right now are repeatable missions with an enemy type or two that can be a threat to fully incarnated-out supers.

[Remidi]

I'm pretty happy with things as they are.  All I want from NCSoft is for them to leave us alone to play our game in peace.  However, there are a few things that would be nice.

 

1. Continue the lore, like the Coming Storm.

2. Complete the Incarnate System.  I hate to leave things half-finished.

3. Continue having "no thanks" options like Null the Gull.  For instance, there are people who would like base raids to return.  There are others who view base PvP with utter loathing.  So you could have that SGs that wanted PvP could be flagged to earn prestige so they could buy defense/offense items.  Non-PvP bases would be like they are now.

4. Speaking of bases I continually live in hope that we can eventually have more than 18 storage items per base.

 

Like I said, I'm good now.  If the game didn't make a single solitary change from this day forward, I'd still be playing.

[MrAxe]

Greater Windows 7 support. Anything you can do to fix the stuttering vsync and anything else that may be causing stuttering.  I know only some people are experiencing this but it would be heaven. Support for 7 will end next year but there are people that will continue to use it lets face it.

 

A fix for the cutscene bug where you can't see the speech bubbles.

 

A way to backup our characters so that when Homecoming ends one day, we will be able to transfer them to our own private servers should we wish to.

 

The remaining incarnate slots completed using the info released by the original devs as a guide. There's so much content already for leveling I feel focusing on endgame would be best.

 

NPC costume pieces for players (like the Lost head tv).

 

Anything else is a bonus to me.

Edited September 7, 2019 by MrAxe

[Pakkazull]

Really, just continuing as we do now but legitimately is more than I expected. Ideally though, new content would be nice.

[gwalters69]

Reasonable subscription price and knowing CoH will be around for a long time.
More body styles. Like let women and men be super fat. 
More story arcs like mentioned above.

 

[Caddaric]

More endgame content, especially new Incarnate Trials and the expansion of the Incarnate System!  Would also love more costume pieces, specifically more options for arcane/magical looks and different mechanical looks.

[Malick665]

Idk if they are in yet but events like double exp and stuff like that 

[TheGentlemanGhostronaut]

Before anything new is added I'd personally like to see everything that is currently in the game balanced, there are a lot of older powersets that don't hold up to newer ones, or have simply always been had.

[theDarkeOne]

Honestly, there are so many unused locations in game already so how about something that tweaks Red and Gold side groups to encourage playing them:

Red Side: Please be something other than longbow 

Gold Side: revamp most of the groups so lowbies can actually go through and enjoy the arcs

More costume pieces, finish the power pool offerings and remove the 4 pool limit so that could almost be a subset of powers, new ways to earn merits or incarnate threads other than grinding (don't know exactly how but maybe bring back sidekicks and "x" rewards for sidekicks or something that already exists in code that has been removed), and because I am an old timer how about scaling back some of the old "nerfs" just in certain zones - cuz I miss the hilarity of tank herders in Perez Park :-D

[toolbear]

Long time gamer, but new to CoH. I'm grouping with some veterans, though. I bring a different perspective since CoH offers no nostalgia for me and I'm judging it as I would any other game.

 

In no particular order...

 

Modernized Graphics

 

Higher poly count models and the textures to match. Both player/NPC models as well as world. Optimized graphics to take advantage of modern hardware.

 

Improve Existing Map Designs

 

Most map/levels seem to have been built before original CoH team learned how much space/scale is actually required for an MMO. That is they are too cramped and convoluted. The worst of these (all variants of caves, even the new ones) and Oranbega are motion sickness inducing. But even office maps are terribly cramped.

 

The more natural or fantasy themed areas this should be easy; you can imitate WoW design techniques. The more realistic office / city settings this will be more challenging. For instance, Imperial City is what I would call "MMO scale", but it's wide streets and openness feels a little off. The Underground is also MMO-scale interior, but feels monotonous and empty. But I think that's a different level design mistake in CoH that I'll get to later.

 

Eliminate or make no-clip extraneous map geometries. Contributing to the cramped, busy feeling of levels is the immense amount of architecture embellishments intended to make interiors feel more real, but also make the visual field cluttered and are constant sources of players getting "stuck on world geometry". Computer racks, boulders, catwalks, sewer pipes, etc. Many techniques should be used here. Move some geometry out of primary movement paths. Make some no-clip. Remove some. Make dead ends more visually obvious (certain knots of sewer pipes is what I have in mind). Surround some with smooth, invisible barriers so that players kite around them without getting stuck. Etc..

 

Level design should contribute towards telling the narrative of the story mission. CoH levels, by and large, and cookie-cutters maps to spawn mobs in seemingly randomly decided locations. Good level design (again, comparing to WoW) is intentional with each corridor, each turn chosen. Each mob encounter intentional with the map itself naturally guiding players along the narrative. It's possible to avoid linear feeling (e.g. on rails) missions while still preventing teams from inadvertently beating the final boss and completing the mission objective before fighting mini-bosses or encountering most other mobs.

 

Doors should make sense. Offices building doors shouldn't lead to sewers. Ship doors shouldn't lead to caves. Etc..

 

More Inclusive Body Types & Costumes

 

I would like female models and costumes that don't make them look like bimbos. I would like options for stocky or obese female and male player characters that go beyond the "Huge" body type.

 

More Variation in Ability/Power Special Effects

 

Powers across different powersets are often visual clones of other powers in another set. Sometimes the powers are outright clones with a different name. Keep the existing visuals, but add alternatives that are substantially different and unique.

 

Take advantage of modern graphics cards particle and shader effects to improve existing visuals and design new ones. Be wary of the visual noise in a large fight, however.

 

Fix Hitboxes of Large Bosses

 

There are several large bosses (Wade in his final form in signature story arc, giant robots, others), that melee heroes cannot hit despite being as close as possible. If the engine knows I'm close enough that the boss is blocking further movement, then I'm close enough to hit them. This may effect heroes with Hover more than those which fight on the ground.

 

Rewrite Some Existing Dialog

 

The quality of writing is hit and miss across the board. Some of it is insulting tropes: the obviously flamboyant gay, the materialistic and stupid woman. The introductory story arc for heroes in Atlas park has offensive characterization and writing for Flambeaux.

 

Hire women writers. Only let them write female character dialog. Have them write 50% of the male dialog, too, while you're at it.

 

Eliminate Loading Screens

 

Moving across city zones should be seamless. Entering some door missions should be seamless. Door missions should have at most one loading screen

 

Size Matters

 

In any one group of mobs, lieutenants should be bigger than minions, bosses bigger than lieutenants, elite/av biggest of all. There should be an obvious visual hierarchy. TAB-ing through every enemy to find the boss is an anti-pattern. This also ties into level design for mini-bosses; the placement of mobs should also make it immediately clear who the boss is and who the adds are.

 

Miscellaneous

 

* don't pop up dialog boxes while I'm in the middle of combat

 

Edited September 7, 2019 by toolbear