Strongly disagree, here. You're welcome to not get excited about such content, but there are some of us who, y'know, actually read the mission text and care about plot and telling a story, even if that story involves foes we've seen before.
If all you care about is numbers and game mechanics, that's fine, it's not a wrong way to play... but it's for sure not the way I play, and you should not be implying that it's the only way to play.
I can write you a quick short story if you like. Then just go to one of the missions we have now, ignore the mission text for it, and read my short story instead.
You know, one thing that might be worth considering? Have a dev sit down and do this sort of content - make new missions that re-use existing models, maps, enemy types, etcetera. Focus especially on the early game, providing alternate options for low level characters. Yeah, it wouldn't have the wow factor of the mechanon missions, but that's okay; not everything needs to be all-new super-awesome shiny stuff.
I'd take this option in a heartbeat as it is inexpensive and all it requires is a passable writer. Alas, Cryptic's actual writers were all promoted to STO long ago.
Also, our two devs and trained seal could always just flick the switch that forbids lvl 40 characters from getting Help A Citizen missions in order to give us more things to do.
P.S: Just like the "design a costume" contest, we should have one for writing a mission arc.
I can write you a quick short story if you like. Then just go to one of the missions we have now, ignore the mission text for it, and read my short story instead.
Viola, new content!
And if you can get that text into the game, and shut off any cutscenes in the mission, and adjust in-mission NPC chatter appropriately... then yeah, I'd count that as new content and worth my time to pay attention to.
And if you can get that text into the game, and shut off any cutscenes in the mission, and adjust in-mission NPC chatter appropriately... then yeah, I'd count that as new content and worth my time to pay attention to.
I thought what was important to you was the story and plot... why does the story have to be on your computer monitor? Hell, print it out and hold it up against your screen... same difference. How does that make it better? Have you ever played tabletop rpgs? With a bit of imagination, you can have all the story and plot based missions you want.... and this is coming from someone who generally says "I don't play video games to have to pretend" (even though I totally do).
Plot is important, but it is not the only important thing; the phrase you are failing to find is "immersion-breaker". If story were the only important thing, well, then I'd be reading a book, not playing CO.
Besides, there is a lot that can be done to mix things up even within the proposed constraints; your suggestion of just changing the text on existing missions is a bit extreme; my proposal was "content that does not require asset creation", which could include, say, a mission where westside gang vandals are trying to destroy Cazulon and you have to shrink yourself down and defend the lizard.
"No new assets" does not need to mean "boring and utterly identical to something already in the game".
And maybe, if they did this and it went well, they could expand on it - after all, the costume creator is quite varied, and the nemesis system shows us that it is at least theoretically possible to give NPCs player powers. How about a faction of cyborg lizards that use a mix of bestial supernatural and power armor attacks? Maybe some new VIPER minions demonstrating the ultimate results of their work with Moreau? And so on, and so forth; these are a bit more complicated to make, I'm sure (See: Master Villain Default for an example of mob creation gone wrong), but they would not require any new art assets, animations, or powers.
Besides, there is a lot that can be done to mix things up even within the proposed constraints; your suggestion of just changing the text on existing missions is a bit extreme; my proposal was "content that does not require asset creation", which could include, say, a mission where westside gang vandals are trying to destroy Cazulon and you have to shrink yourself down and defend the lizard.
That seems like it would require asset creation, due to the fact that you're making NPCs do something they usually wouldn't be doing. Sure, it sounds simple "just make the gang npcs aggro to Cazulon and attack him", but there would be a bit more to creating that encounter than just that. Scripting is an asset too, just as time consuming as model production and level creation.
I like the idea though. I like defense missions where the bad guys come to you instead of you always going and jumping them. Unfortunately, most people around here don't seem to be as jazzed about the concept. That's part of the reason Cryptic seems to focus on drag'n'drop content... because every time they get creative, the player base rages.
You know, one thing that might be worth considering? Have a dev sit down and do this sort of content - make new missions that re-use existing models, maps, enemy types, etcetera. Focus especially on the early game, providing alternate options for low level characters. Yeah, it wouldn't have the wow factor of the mechanon missions, but that's okay; not everything needs to be all-new super-awesome shiny stuff.
I'd be happy with simply reenabling Canada for low-level players. :cool:
I'd be happy with simply reenabling Canada for low-level players. :cool:
^ this. If they're going to throw the same old content at us... maybe they could throw the old content at us in the way we actually liked having it thrown at us?
I have been passing thru here every once in awhile since I stopped playing back when alerts were introduced and PW took over. That's pretty much what did it for me. The conversion to "Zen" as currency and just a bunch of really bad decisions with lockbox junk and turning this game into a mobile game disguised as a PC game. The heck happened to the cool website? It's so boring now.
I am a LT sub and I played this game since back in beta. I've been gone now for about a year and a half or more. Most who knew me knew me by my main Armor-Dillo.
I absolutely loved this game before Atari gave it up. It kind of lost it's "personality" to me for the lack of a better term once that happened and it began its change to what it is today. I actually haven't had the desire to even log in until today and that's just to further express my disappointment in this game as I always saw it having so much potential.
I would come back in a heartbeat if more devs jumped on and things changed for the better, but I don't see that happening. So I will just watch it stagnate as it has been until it gets taken out into the fields.
Shame on Atari, Cryptic, PW, and the other company(I believe) that had it whoever it was for not realizing this games potential. Shame for not pouncing on the opportunity to pull in the CoXers and captitalize off of that shot. This game kept me from getting a job at some points in my life lol. Glad I have one now... maybe it was a good thing that happened.
I just hope PW sells it off to a better company that can present this game better. Idk... I may even consider finally selling my LT, if that's even possible/allowed.
Atari Coins were an inherently better currency than Zen? I don't think I understand what you're saying here.
Although you do seem to feel utter neglect is a better idea than attempts to develop things that you don't always agree with, so there's that.
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
I am, honestly, surprised that the lights are still on here.
After: the incredibly cynical levelling curve nerf from pre-launch ("Hey, I thought people would street sweep on their way to missions to make up for any xp they might miss!"); Lemuria being knocked offline (1/5 of the game's content!) for a week; the ginormous bug introduction of The Kitchen Sink Patch; the "we've gone silent" period that lasted months before STO's launch; the "we're going to charge you (including LTs!) to fix the most glaring error we made at launch: lack of content" introduction of VB; Emmert publicly dissing CO's development while promising to do better with STO and NWO; the OMG lulzy bad optics of letting a forum, ostensibly about monthly development news, sit fallow for years ... I expected Cryptic to call it a day on their enigmatic problem child years ago.
This game doesn't get much press. What press it does get is usually mixed, at best. It exists somewhere between abandonment and active development that, AFAIK, no other MMO has tried for years on end.
Seriously, guys, if you like this game, you should probably be doing a little bit of a happy dance over its continued existence.
Seriously, guys, if you like this game, you should probably be doing a little bit of a happy dance over its continued existence.
While I am no fan of how pwi has handled it, its important to note that had the game not been picked up when atari was tossing it years ago, its likely that co would be gone. and gotta say, not liking the idea of only having dcou for my customizable superhero needs (and saints row 4) they dont exactly have the customizable bit down. I still wish they had tried hardedr when coh went down, i was a gimmie because i was already a lifer since launch, but there were a lot of people who liked the unique thing co is selling and the radio silence squandered the opportunity. but that could have brought a lot more people in, i know there was some initial good will on the coh forums after the situation.
I really don't understand what you're trying to say here myself.
What I'm saying here is that under Atari, CO (and STO) was very nearly killed by neglect. For quite some time, nothing was introduced to the game; the developers managed to get the first Comic Series introduced despite their publishers, not because of them.
Atari selling Cryptic was the best thing they could possibly have done; had they not, Cryptic would have been run completely into the ground, and we wouldn't have these games at all.
And Atari Coins were exactly the same thing as Zen, except that instead of being 100 for $1 US, they were 100 for $1.25 US. Oh, and the old C-Store had less stuff to buy. This was better??
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
Way back when we knew On Alert was coming, but didn't know the details, I was hoping the new Alerts were going to be handled in a similar way to the Bank Robberies in Millennium City. Randomly up at the various banks.
Then we'd have more locations around every map for a RANDOM encounter, not just at the banks. And this would have meant roaming around or PATROLLING, like a good hero should. I was sorely disappointed when you could just sit in one place, ala Ren Center, and just wait for an Alert to pop.
So, yes, I'd like more Bank Robbery style encounters and most definitely have them scale to me or the highest ranking team member.
(Yeah, I know, belongs in Suggestion section, but ... I felt it was relevant here)
.
-=-=-=-=-=-(CO in-game handle: @WarCan )-=-=-=-=-=- "Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
What I'm saying here is that under Atari, CO (and STO) was very nearly killed by neglect. For quite some time, nothing was introduced to the game; the developers managed to get the first Comic Series introduced despite their publishers, not because of them.
What? The game was out a year, it got Vibora Bay, it got the Action Packs and the Comic Book things, it got Free to Play, which required a lot of work to release. When it went free to play it got 12,000 concurrent players from Steam at a time. A bunch of AT's, devices and other gimmicks were added over that period. Then it got sold, and within three months the population imploded.
Atari took a 7 million dollar loss on Champions Online the year they sold it and they sold the whole company for only around $50 million. Compare that to the sale of Mojang who only has one game to their name: 2.5 Billion dollars.
Because Minecraft doesn't lose seven million dollars a year.
What? The game was out a year, it got Vibora Bay, it got the Action Packs and the Comic Book things, it got Free to Play, which required a lot of work to release. When it went free to play it got 12,000 concurrent players from Steam at a time. A bunch of AT's, devices and other gimmicks were added over that period. Then it got sold, and within three months the population imploded.
Atari took a 7 million dollar loss on Champions Online the year they sold it and they sold the whole company for only around $50 million. Compare that to the sale of Mojang who only has one game to their name: 2.5 Billion dollars.
Because Minecraft doesn't lose seven million dollars a year.
Although I have no way of knowing my own theory as to why that population implosion happened was because what happened to my own account was not nearly as isolated an incident as many want to believe it was.
You see during that time you speak of was the exact same time that we had to convert to a PW account. I dont imagine that I was the only person to of already had a pre existing PW account tied to the same E Mail I was using for my account with atari for CO. And since that seemed to be the main source for why my atari account was lost rather then merged into the PW fold it seems to me that while i am a stubborn SOB who loves to shout at the heavens when things go wrong Im still here doing that, while likely thousands of others who got the same cold shoulder treatment just left in quiet disgust.
I mean lets say people who where already PW game players, as in my case I was through Blacklight for an online pvp shooter fix then hearing that theya re taking over champions, a game they maybe dabbled in during its launch and left seeing the direction Atari was taking, then return with fresh hope since they felt PW was at least a competent company. Then it turns out there is an issue making it so thos old characters they maybe missed and yearned to return to where now lost to them. Do you really think most gamers who have something like that happen will stick with the game or company that drops the ball so hard.
I firmly believe that was exactly what happened and why those sudden increase in numbers then dropped so fast as to seem like they must surely have been false in the first place or where all just curious free to plays who walked away. Honestly either way it speaks volumes as to why would be new comers best just not bother and find a different game to enjoy.
What I'm saying here is that under Atari, CO (and STO) was very nearly killed by neglect. For quite some time, nothing was introduced to the game; the developers managed to get the first Comic Series introduced despite their publishers, not because of them.
Atari selling Cryptic was the best thing they could possibly have done; had they not, Cryptic would have been run completely into the ground, and we wouldn't have these games at all.
And Atari Coins were exactly the same thing as Zen, except that instead of being 100 for $1 US, they were 100 for $1.25 US. Oh, and the old C-Store had less stuff to buy. This was better??
funny since for some of us that hand over lead to the exact same thing through no fault of our own.
For me the game may as well of been shut down, and for the sake of my fellow gamers who I feel nothing but sorrow for when they get taken for hard earned cash and told to keep paying and playing while having to start over from scratch with no recompense for what was lost on the companies side of things I truly wish this game had been closed rather then continued.
This game remains open not as some favor to those who remain but to use those who remain.
You can be a cryptic fanboi all you want, but truly how do you feel i am the one in the wrong and at fault because I will not be silent over having my money spent on this game stolen from me for all intent and purpose.
It would of been less wrong for them to cancel LTS under atari and make people who wanted them repay for them because that would of been legitimate if uncaring of them.
But to just lose someones account and say tough luck no we dont care if you have record of every transaction you ever made with your account with us, suck it up and please keep playing and pay for a new account.
Ofcourse you will just call me a troll and act like I am in the wrong. I paid for this game, I paid into PWE prior to them owning this game, they lost all my custom when they stole from me which is what it is to me, thus theya re thieves pure and simple.
You truly side with thieves? Because that is what you do every time you argue against me or call me a troll or try to convince me to leave the forums for good, or tell others to ignore me.
Tell me if you had a family member who stole from a neighbor, even a neighbor you didnt like or get along with, would you protect that family member rather then turn them in or at least try and convince them to do the right thing and return what was taken?
Understand my hate did not start with COH being shut down. I was hating before that moment because they lost my account data that they where responsible for. They refused to do anything to recompense me. That is wrong. Yet you seem to feel i am far more wrong for trying to warn others away from a company that behaves such.
If this game was growing the way it should, because I dont ever ever ever go for the its on us to pay to make this game grow BS. If PW wants to keep this game open they should be spending into it even if its an initial loss to turn it into something that earns. Instead they spend as little as they can to make things to milk the players for every last cent. This game is not dead, its worse its a stagnant swamp full of toxic decaying fecal matter. And I view every one stuck here as in no different a spot that artax was in in the swamp of sadness.
Im the lucky one because my artax got sucked down fast long ago. I feel for those who have had to watch their own sink slowly away over years.
Ummmmm....oookay. Tell us how you really feel.:eek: You seem way too serious for a 'game'. I do hear all the things that went wrong upset you. Alot of things have happened to me too. But I am still here enjoying the 'game'. You have all the right to feel that way but maybe you should take a step back and look at how you approach entertainment. Sure sometimes it doesn't always live up to expectations. Luckily, its just entertainment and it has no real consequence to real life. You can easily move on.
You knew that there will be an account merge between Cryptic and PWE. They were sending emails to everyone with an active account.
If you did either miss an email in your mailbox or had your game account registered with some obscure and unused email you can't even recall- it's your fault.
If you had your game account unused and were playing other games, or not playing anything at all, and you did ignore the merge - it's your fault.
If you wanted your accounts merged after the final term has passed - it's your fault.
Players were given all instructions needed. If they did not follow them, ot they did ignore terms - it's their user failure.
PWE has no obligation to babysit anyone. Cryptic has no such obligation either.
When people are purchasing a car, it needs a maintenance. When people have a bank account, it also needs an occassional control and maintenance. Same with email accounts.
If they don't check things, it's a user failure.
People need to quit this perma entitlement mindset when they want to have a complete freedom of choice and not being controlled, in everything, but God forbid they have to face consequences of their own doing (or undoing) and then start to whine because they weren't babysit.
Your problem.
Your fault.
Nobody's here is obligated to pay any attention, PWE aren't thieves because you did screw over yourself, nor other players are thief supporters because they aren't paying attention to your drama.
You knew that there will be an account merge between Cryptic and PWE. They were sending emails to everyone with an active account.
If you did either miss an email in your mailbox or had your game account registered with some obscure and unused email you can't even recall- it's your fault.
If you had your game account unused and were playing other games, or not playing anything at all, and you did ignore the merge - it's your fault.
If you wanted your accounts merged after the final term has passed - it's your fault.
Players were given all instructions needed. If they did not follow them, ot they did ignore terms - it's their user failure.
PWE has no obligation to babysit anyone. Cryptic has no such obligation either.
When people are purchasing a car, it needs a maintenance. When people have a bank account, it also needs an occassional control and maintenance. Same with email accounts.
If they don't check things, it's a user failure.
People need to quit this perma entitlement mindset when thy want to have a complete freedom of choice in everything, but God forbid they have to face cosequences of their own doing (or undoing) and then start to whine because they weren't babysit.
Your problem.
Your fault.
Nobody's here is obligated to pay any attention, PWE aren't thieves because you did screw over yourself, nor other players are thief supporters because they aren't paying attention to your drama.
Get over it finally.
Since I said nothing you are claiming I said Im assuming your either a troll or just took a few too many blows to the head.
Since I dont hate on those who suffered injury Ill try and spell it out to you as slearly as possible.
I was on CO while it was still in beta, still owned by atari, I had bought my account and payed the sub on and off the whole time it was owned by atari.
During that time I was also a PW customer, actively playing games like Blacklight and torchlight etc. Both games where using the same active email. I never missed any emails about the merger.
When the time to merge began i like everyone else began the process. Because my email I was using for CO was already an active email registered with PW for their other game, I kept getting errors and contacted customer service multiple times. All this prior to the final day to get your account converted.
The answer given to me by the customer service department was that due to some internal error on their side, my account info became corrupted and lost for some reason because they could not resolve the issue in time.
After the date of it must be or you lose access, I could no longer access my account for CO, but ofcouse still had access to my other PW games but they could not seem to iron out some issue on their end with someone having already had a PW account prior to PW taking over cryptic.
I jumped through every hoop asked of me during this time to try and get it ironed out, I went through several months of constant email exchanges trying to work it out. After my CO account info became forever lost their response was more or less sorry we lost your account info, yes it is our fault due to not taking into account people might already be PW game players with the same email connected to PW as atari.
They actually then said but please come back and play, and no we wont do anything, not even refund you for zen you had in your co wallet that we lost.
I didnt miss emails, I didnt delay nor hesitate to try and get my co account converted to PW after the merge. I likely spent more time trying to then any dozen people combined.
They where not prepared for the very likely chance that an MMO gamer might be playing MMOs of various companies. They could not resolve the conflict that in no way should be seen as something i had done wrong because I had been playing various games and putting money into them.
This account i am speaking from is my old PW account, the one they could not get my atari account to merge into for some reason on their side. I get to post here not because of any of the hundreds of dollars I spent on CO but because around 40 I spent on blacklight and buying games like torchlight.
Because PW for wahtever reason, or who knows maybe it was some douche bag in atari who wanted to make grief for PW after the merge.
Either way it doesnt remove the fact that after they themselves stated to me it was their fault they could not resolve the issue they refused to make any effort to make it right.
So either you where too stupid to understand my first thousand posts on this or you like certain others are a cryptic/pw fanboi who feels they can do no wrong and are not responsible for their own failings.
Seriously though we both know you must be one ignorant lout if you actually believe a thing you wrote in your direct attack on me.
Keep in mind my post to jon wasnt an attack on him but honest questions.
I never once have stated I just ignored emails about the merger. i was actively playing CO during the time of the change up because like many, I had hope that PW with its track record would at least develop CO into a worthwhile game to pay into and play. I was happily buying zen unlike atari coins. Id already been buying zen for a while for my Blacklight account.
But then came the due date for getting accounts merged, and they had still failed to help me get that done by then because of as Ive said many times, an error on their side with someone having a pre existing PW account with the same email tied to my active cryptic/atari account.
It went something like hey CC Im having an issue getting my account converted to PW It seems to be because the email for both accounts is already the same. They where polite and civil the whole time Ive never claimed otherwise. They did keep looking into it and trying to help, but could not seem to resolve it to the best of their ability. I dont condemn them for that we are all human, and even as a gamer and not a game maker I know coding and bugs can come out of no where.
No the issue is I had the complete collection of every transaction Id made with Atari during their control and the transactions i made with them after PW took over during the merger phase. I had ample proof of what Id spent on my account, how many months of active sub I had for vet status things, how much zen Id bought to buy things like hide outs, costume slots, costume pieces, etc.
All I asked was if they couldnt merge or recover what they had lost, then to recompense me with it in zen on a fresh CO account. They refused but actually still then said but please do keep playing if you enjoy our game and buy a new account they even suggested I buy an LTS.
Yeah like i am going to give the company another dime after they just turned hundreds of dollars and countless hours of play time into nothing and told me to take it on the chin like a man.
This is why i call the company thieves and why not once have i ever suffered any admin punishment, because unlike when I insult a dev or player who has offended me, they do know I am not wrong in my labeling of the company as I do. They do know they are the ones who dropped the ball somewhere on their end, they do understand my bitterness, and while i do get a vacation from here now and then, its never once been for stating the truth about what happened to my account.
Ummmmm....oookay. Tell us how you really feel.:eek: You seem way too serious for a 'game'. I do hear all the things that went wrong upset you. Alot of things have happened to me too. But I am still here enjoying the 'game'. You have all the right to feel that way but maybe you should take a step back and look at how you approach entertainment. Sure sometimes it doesn't always live up to expectations. Luckily, its just entertainment and it has no real consequence to real life. You can easily move on.
I have, my goal here is to always remind mainly would be new comers who are checking the forums that this company can lose all you have paid for, and tell you sorry we cant restore what we lost that you paid for, but please pay us more for a fresh start from scratch.
Because there was a real consequence. I paid real money which they really took, then lost what I had paid for and where unwilling to do anything to recompense and make it right.
Imagine you had paid to rent a car, the car was pulled out in front for you to inspect, you went inside to sign things and paid. you step out and the car has been stolen, and instead of saying let us get you a new car, they say sorry we lost that car you just rented but hey if you need a car please rent another with no intent to refund you for the first rental that was stolen off their lot while you where finishing up the deal.
I have, my goal here is to always remind mainly would be new comers who are checking the forums that this company can lose all you have paid for, and tell you sorry we cant restore what we lost that you paid for, but please pay us more for a fresh start from scratch.
Your assertion is not "It could happen to you, too," but "It will happen to you, too." That is provably false, and will remain so until another ownership change requires a conversion of account and player databases. It's been, what, three or four years since the Atari/PWE conversion? At this point, you're not even holding a grudge. You're just being an unhinged crank, and I'm sure that's how you're perceived when you try to bad-mouth this game and its players in other forums.
There is no excuse for your continued toxic behavior on this forum. None. Now grow up, and stop taking out your personal grievances on other people when they are neither part of the problem nor the solution.
(I saved this off in OneNote, so I can have it ready to paste in whenever you run off the rails again. And you will run off the rails again, until either you or somebody with a banhammer runs out of patience.)
Choose your enemies carefully, because they will define you / Make them interesting, because in some ways they will mind you
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
It amuses me that he's apparently stopped playing a long time ago, yet he still has enough energy and enthusiasm to come here on the forums and rant away like some senile old uncle that collects lint and bottle caps.
Frankly i am glad the game caters to the casual and average. I have no hate for the game for that approach. If I wanted hard core raiding etc many other MMOs exist. But hating on, and trying to tear down players for making actual super heroes in a super hero game are a major reason i have no regrets about leaving all MMOs behind.[/COLOR]
[/COLOR]
so do you still post on all the forums of the other MMOs you were addicted to?
as the old saying goes: There is nothing worse than a reformed person.
reported to mods by me.
Comments
I can write you a quick short story if you like. Then just go to one of the missions we have now, ignore the mission text for it, and read my short story instead.
Viola, new content!
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I'd take this option in a heartbeat as it is inexpensive and all it requires is a passable writer. Alas, Cryptic's actual writers were all promoted to STO long ago.
Also, our two devs and trained seal could always just flick the switch that forbids lvl 40 characters from getting Help A Citizen missions in order to give us more things to do.
P.S: Just like the "design a costume" contest, we should have one for writing a mission arc.
And if you can get that text into the game, and shut off any cutscenes in the mission, and adjust in-mission NPC chatter appropriately... then yeah, I'd count that as new content and worth my time to pay attention to.
I thought what was important to you was the story and plot... why does the story have to be on your computer monitor? Hell, print it out and hold it up against your screen... same difference. How does that make it better? Have you ever played tabletop rpgs? With a bit of imagination, you can have all the story and plot based missions you want.... and this is coming from someone who generally says "I don't play video games to have to pretend" (even though I totally do).
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Besides, there is a lot that can be done to mix things up even within the proposed constraints; your suggestion of just changing the text on existing missions is a bit extreme; my proposal was "content that does not require asset creation", which could include, say, a mission where westside gang vandals are trying to destroy Cazulon and you have to shrink yourself down and defend the lizard.
"No new assets" does not need to mean "boring and utterly identical to something already in the game".
And maybe, if they did this and it went well, they could expand on it - after all, the costume creator is quite varied, and the nemesis system shows us that it is at least theoretically possible to give NPCs player powers. How about a faction of cyborg lizards that use a mix of bestial supernatural and power armor attacks? Maybe some new VIPER minions demonstrating the ultimate results of their work with Moreau? And so on, and so forth; these are a bit more complicated to make, I'm sure (See: Master Villain Default for an example of mob creation gone wrong), but they would not require any new art assets, animations, or powers.
That seems like it would require asset creation, due to the fact that you're making NPCs do something they usually wouldn't be doing. Sure, it sounds simple "just make the gang npcs aggro to Cazulon and attack him", but there would be a bit more to creating that encounter than just that. Scripting is an asset too, just as time consuming as model production and level creation.
I like the idea though. I like defense missions where the bad guys come to you instead of you always going and jumping them. Unfortunately, most people around here don't seem to be as jazzed about the concept. That's part of the reason Cryptic seems to focus on drag'n'drop content... because every time they get creative, the player base rages.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Why would you even contemplate calling a 20 month old article relevant? Esp. when it says the studio size varies "dramatically week to week".
Could be 87, could be 2. I'd bet on 2.
People are broken. - Lum the Mad
I'd be happy with simply reenabling Canada for low-level players. :cool:
People are broken. - Lum the Mad
^ this. If they're going to throw the same old content at us... maybe they could throw the old content at us in the way we actually liked having it thrown at us?
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I am a LT sub and I played this game since back in beta. I've been gone now for about a year and a half or more. Most who knew me knew me by my main Armor-Dillo.
I absolutely loved this game before Atari gave it up. It kind of lost it's "personality" to me for the lack of a better term once that happened and it began its change to what it is today. I actually haven't had the desire to even log in until today and that's just to further express my disappointment in this game as I always saw it having so much potential.
I would come back in a heartbeat if more devs jumped on and things changed for the better, but I don't see that happening. So I will just watch it stagnate as it has been until it gets taken out into the fields.
Shame on Atari, Cryptic, PW, and the other company(I believe) that had it whoever it was for not realizing this games potential. Shame for not pouncing on the opportunity to pull in the CoXers and captitalize off of that shot. This game kept me from getting a job at some points in my life lol. Glad I have one now... maybe it was a good thing that happened.
I just hope PW sells it off to a better company that can present this game better. Idk... I may even consider finally selling my LT, if that's even possible/allowed.
Although you do seem to feel utter neglect is a better idea than attempts to develop things that you don't always agree with, so there's that.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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If you don't, then don't put too much effort in trying to then, kiddo.
I really don't understand what you're trying to say here myself. So I will take my own advice
Try less to be a smartass and if you want to discuss something, discuss it without the dramatic sarcasms and such.
Shev! You're back....
People are broken. - Lum the Mad
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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After: the incredibly cynical levelling curve nerf from pre-launch ("Hey, I thought people would street sweep on their way to missions to make up for any xp they might miss!"); Lemuria being knocked offline (1/5 of the game's content!) for a week; the ginormous bug introduction of The Kitchen Sink Patch; the "we've gone silent" period that lasted months before STO's launch; the "we're going to charge you (including LTs!) to fix the most glaring error we made at launch: lack of content" introduction of VB; Emmert publicly dissing CO's development while promising to do better with STO and NWO; the OMG lulzy bad optics of letting a forum, ostensibly about monthly development news, sit fallow for years ... I expected Cryptic to call it a day on their enigmatic problem child years ago.
This game doesn't get much press. What press it does get is usually mixed, at best. It exists somewhere between abandonment and active development that, AFAIK, no other MMO has tried for years on end.
Seriously, guys, if you like this game, you should probably be doing a little bit of a happy dance over its continued existence.
On occasion, when no one's looking.
Except that they pretty blatantly ignore almost all input.
Case in point; The Automation being released as is.
@Chimerafreek
Oh that's just Jon, he's always like that.
They listened. They just realized that the input they were getting wasn't any good.
Part of being a developer is knowing when not to listen to the players
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Atari selling Cryptic was the best thing they could possibly have done; had they not, Cryptic would have been run completely into the ground, and we wouldn't have these games at all.
And Atari Coins were exactly the same thing as Zen, except that instead of being 100 for $1 US, they were 100 for $1.25 US. Oh, and the old C-Store had less stuff to buy. This was better??
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Way back when we knew On Alert was coming, but didn't know the details, I was hoping the new Alerts were going to be handled in a similar way to the Bank Robberies in Millennium City. Randomly up at the various banks.
Then we'd have more locations around every map for a RANDOM encounter, not just at the banks. And this would have meant roaming around or PATROLLING, like a good hero should. I was sorely disappointed when you could just sit in one place, ala Ren Center, and just wait for an Alert to pop.
So, yes, I'd like more Bank Robbery style encounters and most definitely have them scale to me or the highest ranking team member.
(Yeah, I know, belongs in Suggestion section, but ... I felt it was relevant here)
-=-=-=-=-=-(CO in-game handle: @WarCan )-=-=-=-=-=-
"Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
What? The game was out a year, it got Vibora Bay, it got the Action Packs and the Comic Book things, it got Free to Play, which required a lot of work to release. When it went free to play it got 12,000 concurrent players from Steam at a time. A bunch of AT's, devices and other gimmicks were added over that period. Then it got sold, and within three months the population imploded.
Atari took a 7 million dollar loss on Champions Online the year they sold it and they sold the whole company for only around $50 million. Compare that to the sale of Mojang who only has one game to their name: 2.5 Billion dollars.
Because Minecraft doesn't lose seven million dollars a year.
Although I have no way of knowing my own theory as to why that population implosion happened was because what happened to my own account was not nearly as isolated an incident as many want to believe it was.
You see during that time you speak of was the exact same time that we had to convert to a PW account. I dont imagine that I was the only person to of already had a pre existing PW account tied to the same E Mail I was using for my account with atari for CO. And since that seemed to be the main source for why my atari account was lost rather then merged into the PW fold it seems to me that while i am a stubborn SOB who loves to shout at the heavens when things go wrong Im still here doing that, while likely thousands of others who got the same cold shoulder treatment just left in quiet disgust.
I mean lets say people who where already PW game players, as in my case I was through Blacklight for an online pvp shooter fix then hearing that theya re taking over champions, a game they maybe dabbled in during its launch and left seeing the direction Atari was taking, then return with fresh hope since they felt PW was at least a competent company. Then it turns out there is an issue making it so thos old characters they maybe missed and yearned to return to where now lost to them. Do you really think most gamers who have something like that happen will stick with the game or company that drops the ball so hard.
I firmly believe that was exactly what happened and why those sudden increase in numbers then dropped so fast as to seem like they must surely have been false in the first place or where all just curious free to plays who walked away. Honestly either way it speaks volumes as to why would be new comers best just not bother and find a different game to enjoy.
funny since for some of us that hand over lead to the exact same thing through no fault of our own.
For me the game may as well of been shut down, and for the sake of my fellow gamers who I feel nothing but sorrow for when they get taken for hard earned cash and told to keep paying and playing while having to start over from scratch with no recompense for what was lost on the companies side of things I truly wish this game had been closed rather then continued.
This game remains open not as some favor to those who remain but to use those who remain.
You can be a cryptic fanboi all you want, but truly how do you feel i am the one in the wrong and at fault because I will not be silent over having my money spent on this game stolen from me for all intent and purpose.
It would of been less wrong for them to cancel LTS under atari and make people who wanted them repay for them because that would of been legitimate if uncaring of them.
But to just lose someones account and say tough luck no we dont care if you have record of every transaction you ever made with your account with us, suck it up and please keep playing and pay for a new account.
Ofcourse you will just call me a troll and act like I am in the wrong. I paid for this game, I paid into PWE prior to them owning this game, they lost all my custom when they stole from me which is what it is to me, thus theya re thieves pure and simple.
You truly side with thieves? Because that is what you do every time you argue against me or call me a troll or try to convince me to leave the forums for good, or tell others to ignore me.
Tell me if you had a family member who stole from a neighbor, even a neighbor you didnt like or get along with, would you protect that family member rather then turn them in or at least try and convince them to do the right thing and return what was taken?
Understand my hate did not start with COH being shut down. I was hating before that moment because they lost my account data that they where responsible for. They refused to do anything to recompense me. That is wrong. Yet you seem to feel i am far more wrong for trying to warn others away from a company that behaves such.
If this game was growing the way it should, because I dont ever ever ever go for the its on us to pay to make this game grow BS. If PW wants to keep this game open they should be spending into it even if its an initial loss to turn it into something that earns. Instead they spend as little as they can to make things to milk the players for every last cent. This game is not dead, its worse its a stagnant swamp full of toxic decaying fecal matter. And I view every one stuck here as in no different a spot that artax was in in the swamp of sadness.
Im the lucky one because my artax got sucked down fast long ago. I feel for those who have had to watch their own sink slowly away over years.
Nobody stole your game account.
It was lost because of your own negligence.
You knew that there will be an account merge between Cryptic and PWE. They were sending emails to everyone with an active account.
If you did either miss an email in your mailbox or had your game account registered with some obscure and unused email you can't even recall- it's your fault.
If you had your game account unused and were playing other games, or not playing anything at all, and you did ignore the merge - it's your fault.
If you wanted your accounts merged after the final term has passed - it's your fault.
Players were given all instructions needed. If they did not follow them, ot they did ignore terms - it's their user failure.
PWE has no obligation to babysit anyone. Cryptic has no such obligation either.
When people are purchasing a car, it needs a maintenance. When people have a bank account, it also needs an occassional control and maintenance. Same with email accounts.
If they don't check things, it's a user failure.
People need to quit this perma entitlement mindset when they want to have a complete freedom of choice and not being controlled, in everything, but God forbid they have to face consequences of their own doing (or undoing) and then start to whine because they weren't babysit.
Your problem.
Your fault.
Nobody's here is obligated to pay any attention, PWE aren't thieves because you did screw over yourself, nor other players are thief supporters because they aren't paying attention to your drama.
Get over it finally.
Since I said nothing you are claiming I said Im assuming your either a troll or just took a few too many blows to the head.
Since I dont hate on those who suffered injury Ill try and spell it out to you as slearly as possible.
I was on CO while it was still in beta, still owned by atari, I had bought my account and payed the sub on and off the whole time it was owned by atari.
During that time I was also a PW customer, actively playing games like Blacklight and torchlight etc. Both games where using the same active email. I never missed any emails about the merger.
When the time to merge began i like everyone else began the process. Because my email I was using for CO was already an active email registered with PW for their other game, I kept getting errors and contacted customer service multiple times. All this prior to the final day to get your account converted.
The answer given to me by the customer service department was that due to some internal error on their side, my account info became corrupted and lost for some reason because they could not resolve the issue in time.
After the date of it must be or you lose access, I could no longer access my account for CO, but ofcouse still had access to my other PW games but they could not seem to iron out some issue on their end with someone having already had a PW account prior to PW taking over cryptic.
I jumped through every hoop asked of me during this time to try and get it ironed out, I went through several months of constant email exchanges trying to work it out. After my CO account info became forever lost their response was more or less sorry we lost your account info, yes it is our fault due to not taking into account people might already be PW game players with the same email connected to PW as atari.
They actually then said but please come back and play, and no we wont do anything, not even refund you for zen you had in your co wallet that we lost.
I didnt miss emails, I didnt delay nor hesitate to try and get my co account converted to PW after the merge. I likely spent more time trying to then any dozen people combined.
They where not prepared for the very likely chance that an MMO gamer might be playing MMOs of various companies. They could not resolve the conflict that in no way should be seen as something i had done wrong because I had been playing various games and putting money into them.
This account i am speaking from is my old PW account, the one they could not get my atari account to merge into for some reason on their side. I get to post here not because of any of the hundreds of dollars I spent on CO but because around 40 I spent on blacklight and buying games like torchlight.
Because PW for wahtever reason, or who knows maybe it was some douche bag in atari who wanted to make grief for PW after the merge.
Either way it doesnt remove the fact that after they themselves stated to me it was their fault they could not resolve the issue they refused to make any effort to make it right.
So either you where too stupid to understand my first thousand posts on this or you like certain others are a cryptic/pw fanboi who feels they can do no wrong and are not responsible for their own failings.
Seriously though we both know you must be one ignorant lout if you actually believe a thing you wrote in your direct attack on me.
Keep in mind my post to jon wasnt an attack on him but honest questions.
I never once have stated I just ignored emails about the merger. i was actively playing CO during the time of the change up because like many, I had hope that PW with its track record would at least develop CO into a worthwhile game to pay into and play. I was happily buying zen unlike atari coins. Id already been buying zen for a while for my Blacklight account.
But then came the due date for getting accounts merged, and they had still failed to help me get that done by then because of as Ive said many times, an error on their side with someone having a pre existing PW account with the same email tied to my active cryptic/atari account.
It went something like hey CC Im having an issue getting my account converted to PW It seems to be because the email for both accounts is already the same. They where polite and civil the whole time Ive never claimed otherwise. They did keep looking into it and trying to help, but could not seem to resolve it to the best of their ability. I dont condemn them for that we are all human, and even as a gamer and not a game maker I know coding and bugs can come out of no where.
No the issue is I had the complete collection of every transaction Id made with Atari during their control and the transactions i made with them after PW took over during the merger phase. I had ample proof of what Id spent on my account, how many months of active sub I had for vet status things, how much zen Id bought to buy things like hide outs, costume slots, costume pieces, etc.
All I asked was if they couldnt merge or recover what they had lost, then to recompense me with it in zen on a fresh CO account. They refused but actually still then said but please do keep playing if you enjoy our game and buy a new account they even suggested I buy an LTS.
Yeah like i am going to give the company another dime after they just turned hundreds of dollars and countless hours of play time into nothing and told me to take it on the chin like a man.
This is why i call the company thieves and why not once have i ever suffered any admin punishment, because unlike when I insult a dev or player who has offended me, they do know I am not wrong in my labeling of the company as I do. They do know they are the ones who dropped the ball somewhere on their end, they do understand my bitterness, and while i do get a vacation from here now and then, its never once been for stating the truth about what happened to my account.
I have, my goal here is to always remind mainly would be new comers who are checking the forums that this company can lose all you have paid for, and tell you sorry we cant restore what we lost that you paid for, but please pay us more for a fresh start from scratch.
Because there was a real consequence. I paid real money which they really took, then lost what I had paid for and where unwilling to do anything to recompense and make it right.
Imagine you had paid to rent a car, the car was pulled out in front for you to inspect, you went inside to sign things and paid. you step out and the car has been stolen, and instead of saying let us get you a new car, they say sorry we lost that car you just rented but hey if you need a car please rent another with no intent to refund you for the first rental that was stolen off their lot while you where finishing up the deal.
Your assertion is not "It could happen to you, too," but "It will happen to you, too." That is provably false, and will remain so until another ownership change requires a conversion of account and player databases. It's been, what, three or four years since the Atari/PWE conversion? At this point, you're not even holding a grudge. You're just being an unhinged crank, and I'm sure that's how you're perceived when you try to bad-mouth this game and its players in other forums.
There is no excuse for your continued toxic behavior on this forum. None. Now grow up, and stop taking out your personal grievances on other people when they are neither part of the problem nor the solution.
(I saved this off in OneNote, so I can have it ready to paste in whenever you run off the rails again. And you will run off the rails again, until either you or somebody with a banhammer runs out of patience.)
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
what was it, oh yes, something like ,so you can control any changes to the games.
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=292821&page=2
post 15
I dont care about city of titans, nor would I even return to city of heroes if it sprang back tomorrow, with its death i found the will to forever break free of my MMO addiction.
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=293411&page=21
post 206
Frankly i am glad the game caters to the casual and average. I have no hate for the game for that approach. If I wanted hard core raiding etc many other MMOs exist. But hating on, and trying to tear down players for making actual super heroes in a super hero game are a major reason i have no regrets about leaving all MMOs behind.[/COLOR]
[/COLOR]
so do you still post on all the forums of the other MMOs you were addicted to?
as the old saying goes: There is nothing worse than a reformed person.
reported to mods by me.
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skylyger...I'm sorry you feel you got wronged (and maybe did). It's a shame someone as passionate as you couldn't still be with us.