Yeah it's pretty obvious the author was going by old information on I16. It's good to see CoX is still going strong after 5 years, my global friends and SG's are filled with more people playing now, then they were this time last year and the year before that. With the coming expansion pack in the next 2-3 months, I expect CoX will probably finish with one of their stronger years since the release of CoV.

That sidekicking change is huge! I can't count the number of times while playing AE missions I wished they'd allow the same auto-leveling mechanic in the rest of the game. It just makes things so much easier.

So so wrong.

They did NOT say that it was impossible. they said that it would be Too hard for them to do. because of all of the back end work that had to be done. BaB's has ALWAYS said that it WAS possible, just because of the work involved, they wouldn't be able to do it. That was back after dear old Jack pretty much abandoned the game and it was in the hands of just 15 developers.

They have been working on this feature for over a year. They did NOT just see CO do this and then do it themselves. Once Jack(ass) left it become possible for them to actually work on some of the things that His Lordship deigned weren't able to be done because it would block His Holiness's Vision (TM)

I don't recall them saying impossible. A lot of work? Would've taken away from other things they were doing? Yep. Remember - they are a LOT better funded and staffed since the NCSoft buyout (which was likely caused by the incoming competition, maybe worries that Cryptic would neglect COH as well).

Enjoy CO! Its not my cup of tea but I think there's a lot to like, its going to get better, and the competition is highly beneficial to everyone.

I'm looking forward to COH:GR coming out soon so the creative team can back to work on the core game (COH/V). As much as I love these system upgrades, I'd like to see more content, too.

And no mention of the AE XP changes? Some of my friends and I joked that might be the antibiotics needed for the powerleveling infection festering in Atlas. Some of the AE-baby horror stories are mind-boggling @_@

Actually, it was Cryptic that claimed it was impossible for years. When NCSoft took over the game, all sorts of things that were previously "impossible" suddenly started to happen.

So essentially you're punishing the people that made it happen, and rewarding the ones (Cryptic) who denied it could be done.

That said, CO is a fun game too.

I have to agree. When a company says we can't do it for so long, then another game comes out and suddenly they can...

What does Paragon take us consumers for, idiots? What I hear is that they didn't have the motivation to spend the money on it. Well, now they have to worry about Champions, which is shaping up to be a good game. Cryptic is going to fight hard (making mistakes, but trying to fix them) and now Paragon has an old engine too.

I have been a subscriber of CoX from the start. I wish that, like EVE, they would have replaced their engine a year or two ago and added in the customization features that the players had been asking for. If they would have done that, Champions would have been a hard sell. As it is, the Champions world feels smaller, but more fresh. I love the level of customization in Champions (although some of my toons from CoX still look better there) and I LOVE the power selections.

The thing about Champions is that they have something seriously to prove. So I expect to see new powers coming out on a regular basis for a while, and new costume sets coming out as well. Along with the general first 6 months of interface and gameplay improvements that MMOs can't seem to accomplish in regular development unlike games from other generas. CoX is going to have to work much harder to get me to come back. Wayyyyy harder.

Before the NCSoft buyout they didn't have the money or staffing. Since then they've upgraded the servers, rolled COH and COV together, hired a TON of new people and have been working not only on a lot of system upgrades but also a whole new expansion (which is likely why the past few issues have been so content light). NCSoft has really re-invested in the game.

Before then? When COH was owned by NCSoft and Cryptic? Nope, they didn't have the resources to do it without sacrificing severely elsewhere.

Worth noting I've got a LOT of COH playing friends who would have to stop playing COH if they did an EVE style revamp of the graphics engine. A lot of my gaming friends in general cannot run CO because the requirements are too high. With bills and family to consider, they don't have the disposable money to buy new computers. Having a less demanding engine has its advantages! Playing COH and CO at the same resolutions on my machine? COH looks a LOT better (details jacked way up) and gets more than double the framerate (CO is usually 15-20 fps on my machine).

Hey Brian,

They actually started work on this early last year. The people that were doing it were wanting to talk about it for a very long time, but were told no because NCSoft wasn't sure when it would actually be done.

Virtually every single art asset for power effects had to be completely redone in order to fit the new system. That was a huge number of files. And that only had to do with places where colors were created by art. In other cases, power colors were coded into the game and there weren't any handlers for changing it on the fly.

Put another way, there were two incompatible systems involved in creating the colors that you see on the powers. They had to merge the two systems while also changing it to allow for variable color values. And create a UI to make the system easy for users.

In short, the most reaction they could have had in response to CO would have been, "CO is coming out in six months and they will have power customization. We need to put a few more people on it." There is no way that this could have been a last-minute response to CO. It is what it is: a project that has been in the works for a long time now.

Put another way, your argument is a little like claiming that the producers of "Armageddon" thought "Deep Impact" was a big success and wanted to capitalize on it real quick. Sure, the movies are very similar in theme and came out within a couple months of each other. But both were in production for years before release.

All of that said, I don't play CoX anymore and really have no desire to go back. Eye candy doesn't fix the gameplay problems (like the mind-numbningly repetitive mission maps) that drove me away from the game in the first place. I've come back several times since then, but have always been too bored within a few days to keep on. It's still nice that NCSoft did this for their players, though. I think it shows promise for how they might handle Aion. :)

You're just saying that because you were suckered into the Lifetime Sub before you realized how bad the game was.

I've been in CoH for 5 years and CO since launch. I'm ditching CO as soon as my sub ends. It's just a worse game, period.

Atari got you to whitewash it's fence*. Congrats, not.

*see Tom Sawyer

@dudemanjac

You're just saying that because you were suckered into the Lifetime Sub before you realized how bad the game was.

I've been in CoH for 5 years and CO since launch. I'm ditching CO as soon as my sub ends. It's just a worse game, period.

Atari got you to whitewash it's fence*. Congrats, not.

*see Tom Sawyer

I wish you knew me better. You wouldn't make such silly comments. Even when I found things looking a little bleak two days ago after that patch, I had faith that things would be straightened out. And they were, and I'm happy. I'm sorry you don't like the game, but don't project that on me.

Apparently the game isn't for everyone. It will be a while before I feel like I've been suckered. I have funn everytime I log on. I suppose if 6 months go by and I finally decide that the game is as crappy as you think it is they will have gotten me. I don't see that happening, but I'll be the first to admit it when it comes. That's a promise.

I have no shame about such things. I said from the beginning that this was just a little overtime money that I was throwing out there with the chance that it will pay off in the end. With as much time as i spent on WoW and CoH, why not give it a go.

It's only money.

And it's only a game.

Actually, AE farming was another thing I16 has attempted to address. Boss farms are no longer viable, for one. Too early to see the full result, but it already seems a LOT less pronounced.

And?

Champions looks like ASS to a lot of people. The only thing that would get me to play that game and make a Vinyl Blowupdoll (what they like to refer to as 'characters') would be a 9mm handgun pressed firmly to the back of my skull.

Characters and the environment look like a comic book and that looks great.

lol It looks closer to Gumby, then it does a comic book.