CoH: Trying to Pull Me Back in....

[NoMeansNo]

It's been about 5 months since I last played CoH, thought I'd beat the addiction......

And then I got an email today stating that I could play for free for 5 days with my existing characters......

I"m tempted.  Anyone else?  I seem to remember a good GG team in the CoH world.

NMN
aka Sacastica, Iris Pumpkin

[JuniorDan]

I am uploading the updates now
the fact I could use my old characters made it easy for me to blow the dust of the disk and load it up again.

[Misguided]

I"m tempted.  Anyone else?  I seem to remember a good GG team in the CoH world.

NMN
aka Sacastica, Iris Pumpkin

That was the Wanderers. We're still here. Send a tell to Inspectre, Senior Oscuro, or Ice Princess

[Destructor]

I have to admit, my friends and I took a 5 month break from this game as well. But now we've hit the end point of World of Warcraft, and for the heck of it we fired up the game again.

I really don't know why we left. Very fast paced combat, lots of pretty colors all the time (some of the new mission areas are a blast visually), missions that on the surface aren't as insane as the 'collect 4 boar tusks for some dumb reason', and the overall feeling that starting over with new characters aren't an utter bore as in WoW (and MMOs in general).

City of Heroes (especially with a friend or two) is a blast to play. And just about all missions are automatically adjusted based on your level and group number, so it's always a challenge. None of this 'you need a full group of 4-8 just to progress' stuff that's in other MMOs. Two or three is a perfect number (as is 1 in many places too) for a group.

[hentzau]

If you are coming back and have a character in the 20's, run, fly, leap or teleport over to Striga Isle and start doing missions over there.  Really well done new area zone of Paragon City.

[Haavok1]

Also got the e-mail and I am in the process of downloading the files now.  I haven't played since September when I got in the WOW beta, kinda looking forward to see what has changed.

[NoMeansNo]

That was the Wanderers. We're still here. Send a tell to Inspectre, Senior Oscuro, or Ice Princess

You guys on tonight (5.29.05)?  I've reinstalled the game, and am starting from scratch.......have about another 40 minutes of downloading, than I'm back in Paragon.  Will see if you folks are on.
NMN aka Sacastica

[lokiju]

That was the Wanderers. We're still here. Send a tell to Inspectre, Senior Oscuro, or Ice Princess

You guys on tonight (5.29.05)?  I've reinstalled the game, and am starting from scratch.......have about another 40 minutes of downloading, than I'm back in Paragon.  Will see if you folks are on.
NMN aka Sacastica

My wife and I will be on tonight (as well as 5 seconds after I post this!).  Look for me (powerstrip), my wife (ice princess), misguided (inspectre), senior oscuro, or fool's mate...on Virtue

[Lockdown]

Well, the weekend is over.  How did the returning people like the changes they saw?  How was the arena?  General thoughts from the returnees please...

LD

[Gedd]

The free time is actually still going until midnight tonight.  Chiy and I jumped in last night, but we really haven't seen any of the changes (we were getting adjusted to the controls and such again) with the exception that my fire/em tanker's taunt is now a targeted AoE instead of a single mob (which I would've killed for back when we were playing).

I'm going to look through the updates and see what all is new that we can check out tonight.

[Destructor]

Well, the weekend is over.  How did the returning people like the changes they saw?  How was the arena?  General thoughts from the returnees please...

Well, I just returned (oddly enough, before we saw this '5 free day' stuff), and it's the same game I remember.

The arena is dead though. Nobody is ever in them. And maybe I play at oddball times (but I doubt it), but the general server population has dropped quite a bit as well. I saw quite a few more people during the free weekend, but nowhere near as close to the weekday population.

[lokiju]

Well, the weekend is over.  How did the returning people like the changes they saw?  How was the arena?  General thoughts from the returnees please...

Well, I just returned (oddly enough, before we saw this '5 free day' stuff), and it's the same game I remember.

The arena is dead though. Nobody is ever in them. And maybe I play at oddball times (but I doubt it), but the general server population has dropped quite a bit as well. I saw quite a few more people during the free weekend, but nowhere near as close to the weekday population.

Yeah, the arena is kind of a dud.  There is absolutely no balance for those 47-50 with Hammi-O enhancers.  

As far as the player population...last I checked they were at an all-time high as of last month (was it +30k from previous high?)?  I think less and less people are playing 24/7, which is to be expected for any MMORPG after a year.  Now you see more players coming on for less of a time span.

[NoMeansNo]

Whelp, I played my 26/27 Spines/DA Scrapper for about 6 hours, and enjoyed myself.....somewhat.
Initially, good fun, good to be back, lot's of folks in-game giving me updates on all that's changed since I stopped back in November.  
After about an hour, was invited to join Sister P's Task Force, had a great time with that, got it done in about 2 1/2 hours so was the fastest TF so far.  Was introduced to some new enemies (dark things, forgot the names).  
Noticed at Login that I had the option of respec'ing.   I think everyone get's at least one respec due to all the changes made in the last 10 months.  I didn't do it, partly out of ignorance on how to initiate the process, and partly because I didn't think I wanted to screw with my build until I understood what had changed.  If I go back, I'm doing it immediately, and getting Sacastica the 'Ripper'.  

Biggest item I was stoked about was the stacking available with DA now.  Could have really used that last year!

Also went through character creation, as it had been over a year since I had done that.  Still fun, made a Controller Illusion/Kinetics.  just going through this process made me want to sign up again, and try out a new class.

If I do, I'm going to drop Inspectre a line and get back with the GG folks.

I ran by Arena, but did not have a chance to go in.  PvP doesn't hold a lot of interest for me, so it would be no big loss if I didn't make it in.

I said I 'somewhat' had a good time, as toward the end of the TF, folks were bickering, the clicking was getting a bit old, and I think my patience was wearing a bit.  If I play in small doses, it'd be a blast; the long-game, however, appears to have the potential of getting boring, fast.

NMN

[Misguided]

The TF's are one of the absolute worst ways to experience CoH, IMO.
The Striga Hess TF is a notable exception, as are several of the trials (which I don't really think of as task forces i the same sense anyway).

[NoMeansNo]

Hey Misguided, I'm on a business trip currently, but if I can swing it past the wife, will be signing back on for a 3 month tour of duty.  Still got a few spots open in GG for Sacastica (lvl 27 Scrapper Spines/DA) and Black Frances (lvl 2 'Troller Ill/Kin)?

NMN

[Misguided]

Hey Misguided, I'm on a business trip currently, but if I can swing it past the wife, will be signing back on for a 3 month tour of duty.  Still got a few spots open in GG for Sacastica (lvl 27 Scrapper Spines/DA) and Black Frances (lvl 2 'Troller Ill/Kin)?

NMN

You bet.