I think a game has to captivate your imagination. Mystery and gorgeous graphics need to entice the player. After that game play must be easy and fun. Classes need to be distinctive and necessary in order to do dungeons, and get gear. Remember when you were excited to log in and just be in that world. You couldn't wait to log in and play. For most of us that feeling is gone. Were like strung out junkies waiting for that magical fix. We want to play and enjoy mmorpg's, but most of us can't find a good home (game). Searching for that perfect game religion is hard and frustrating.
I miss the Matrix so much. I know the two sequels get a bad rep but I love Reloaded almost as much as the first. Revolutions is pretty bad except for the final fight.
City of Heroes, oh yes, so many wonderful things. MadFrenchie already said all the travel powers. I loved just flying through the city, or t'porting and hovering and looking at the moon or the sunrise or sunset. I don't ask great graphics from a game, but it's great when they're good enough that you don't have to strain your imagination to feel like you're in another world.
Perhaps if I had to pick just one power it would be Snipe and the related long-range blast powers.
But I think it was the Controller sets that I enjoyed as such. So much fun seeing whole groups of villains going to sleep, locked in place with rings of electricity, fire, or mini-volcanoes (that took a earth & fire combo as I recall). I had a bound emote so I could shout "BOOOO!" and watch a bunch of villains cower in terror! The Stagger powers were great, too -- so amusing to toss a fire bomb or flashbang grenade (Defender Devices power?) and watch 'em stagger around.
But there were so many other fun powers because CoH was set up as Ceratop said, " Classes need to be distinctive" -- and the Archetypes (especially early on) were exactly that.
So many games these days have spectacular (anime-style?) power effects, but its all just in the graphics. They may do a lot of damage but they just don't give you the same feeling of being connected with the battle. In a group, it's just a mess of splashy colors, and you don't get so much (if any) of that feeling of "Ah HAH! there's MY contribution!" We want games where teaming-up is easy and desirable, and what your character does is unique to the team, or maybe similar to one or two others.
Tank pulls, and takes the aggro, maybe with the help of a Healer. Or maybe the Blaster snipes the boss and the Tank intercepts. (wow, strategy!) The Scrapper wades in and jumps out, the Controller pins down any extra aggro that tries to come in... Ah, I'm dreaming through my keyboard again...
This one time in FFXIV a non Dragoon DPS didn't like orbs in Lakshima for some reason resulting in getting knocked off the edge. His excuse was he mained Dragoon. Did a search to check his levels. It was a lvl 5 Lancer. It was funny. Everything maxed except DRG.
Recently these past couple months I been liking any self heal abilities kind of like WoW Affliction locks or Blood DKs (DS) or even something like an EQ2 monks "Mend" ability.
Lots and lots of combat skills mentioned, I guess just that's how the genre is nowadays... to counterbalance that trend somehow, here's a few of mine
LotRO, the cappy skill Command respect. All it does is to make the whole party kneel, great to use for roleplay reasons in instances with a notable NPC, you know, just to show some respect. (But all the musical skills could be mentioned as well, playing the lute or the horn is a really useful skill for all characters, to pass the time when there's nothing left to kill. And most classes have a similar roleplay skill like the cappy's respect, minstrels can make everyone dance for example.)
CO, (since Mike mentioned CoH) my favourite was hands down the swinging. Clearly not the best travel power, hard to control precisely and compared to the others it is almost useless in combat, which is why it is perfect for this non-combat themed list and it's easily the most fun travel power. https://youtu.be/5J-UEB4PLsE
AoC, Nebless said the fatalities, some of them are truly amazing, but those are not skills just random triggers. Spellweaving might be a better example for combat-themed abilities. However, I'd say our trusty mount, the mammoth. Looks amazing just like fatalities, perfect for cimmerian characters, it is huge and slow, but had a charge - back in the days, mounted combat in MMOs was not common at all. Darn, seems I slipped off from the theme and added something combat-related... to the chasm with me: https://youtu.be/5kvytSbjhuI
Asheron's Call 2 - The Lugian Tactician's Turrets and Walls.
Back in the day when it was fun to camp a spot and have a puller bring in a horde of baddies to test your group's might. Or in this case keeping your walls and turrets going while bouncing the more dangerous foes off the walls. I absolutely loved the mechanics of that class, and nothing has come close since except maybe games like Fortnite (PvE version).
Of course now games are all about rush rush rush to the next destination. Completely the opposite of the old camping style of gameplay.
Curse of doom. Vanilla WoW warlock.....a debuff that did nothing for 59 seconds and massive damage on 60th second. If the target died you would spawn a Doomguard that you had to enslave.
Aw, rats -- the comments about Cabal got me interested, but I went to the site and judging from the class (http://cabal.playthisgame.com/en/Classes) videos, it's more of what I was saying I didn't like. Over-the-top big and flashy weapons and graphics, but most of the time the enemies are just standing there or maybe shaking some, certainly nothing in proportion to all that razzle-dazzle.
And they're mostly variations of blade melee, plus a shield melee and a couple ranged fighters (who in the videos seem to never fight from very far away, mostly in melee range). No healer or controller class, no device/traps users, no martial arts melee even.
Oh well, it's F2P and if you like that style it looks like a good game.
To go off Davod, I had a Robotic Mastermind in CoV and I loved it when my main robot minion fired his missiles at a target. It just looked like overkill. Same with those repeating lasers of the minor minions.
I also loved the haymaker punch of the Super Strength powerset. I could hear the Popeye theme music when my brick wound up for the punch.
To me the preferred skill in a MMORPG is the FFXI skillchains or magic burst.
That of combining attacks between different members of the team at the right time to create a super-attack....and that the magicians can enhance their magic after taking that Skillchain to do a lot more damage seems to me an EXAMPLE TO BE FOLLOWED in any MMORPG.
And here highlighting individual abilities....we remember that we are talking about MMORPG? How is it possible that the combination of skills in MMOs has not been exploited by now?
It's true that the PVE is so ridiculous and the games are so focused on playing alone that it doesn't matter.....
Eq2 attenpted combos too. It just never really worked because the idea drowned in button mashing, and the need to do other things outweighed the damage increase comboscould give. There were also extremely powerful raid combos (at launch), but the same problem applied there.. It was just too hard to time and other things were more important (like surviving)..whether raid combos continued I have no idea, I only played eq2 hardcore for the first 8 months. But nice to hear that combos has worked in ffxi, and I agree it is a shame combo mechanics are not used more.. But that is probably because it is hard to make work in todays mmos that are leaning hard towards action combat and rapid decision making and lesser co-op roles with deeper tactical play
Asheron's Call 2 Lugian engineers had a knock back melee. During the Beta that knock back could have hilarious results. I was near death fighting a mini-boss. I knock backed the mini-boss and he skipped across the land for about 170 yards. It took me completely by surprise. I barely stopped laughing and recovered my senses to drink a heal potion before the boss waddled it's way back.
It's too bad they fixed that knock back before the game released. It was fun.
And then there's the Just Cause 2 mini gun. Release it from it's stationary point and walk around shooting baddies until they pinwheel off into the sunset.
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone." Robin Williams
Mesmerizing, Eq, Eq2. Saving a group from a bad pull, priceless.
Wow just 5 secs ago i mentioned mez ,it exploits a game down to the point of almost EASY mode,dumb simple game play.
I don't have any specific abilities that i fall in love with and have to repeat over and over,i prefer abilities that bring team work and the feeling of being in a group. So an example of this,SATA from FFXI,utilizes 3 players,does any other game do that utilize 3 players,i doubt it,most games are like soloing within a group.
MOST dungeons were sloppy designs within the EQ games,aggro/links through walls was just bad.So in that regard mezzes were more like saving the group from bad design.
I don't mind any type of mezz or sleep but it has to have random fails and draws high hate.I don't simply want it to become a staple because every fight is 6 or more mobs at once,i prefer controlled less sloppy type of game play.
Like why design a game to have 6 mobs or more fights then you have Rogue's with single target backstab,it is a non thought out design. Give me team work abilities,that is what i want.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Comments
Honestly, almost all of the powers in CoX.
I would love a new MMO set in that universe.
Perhaps if I had to pick just one power it would be Snipe and the related long-range blast powers.
But I think it was the Controller sets that I enjoyed as such. So much fun seeing whole groups of villains going to sleep, locked in place with rings of electricity, fire, or mini-volcanoes (that took a earth & fire combo as I recall). I had a bound emote so I could shout "BOOOO!" and watch a bunch of villains cower in terror! The Stagger powers were great, too -- so amusing to toss a fire bomb or flashbang grenade (Defender Devices power?) and watch 'em stagger around.
But there were so many other fun powers because CoH was set up as Ceratop said, " Classes need to be distinctive" -- and the Archetypes (especially early on) were exactly that.
So many games these days have spectacular (anime-style?) power effects, but its all just in the graphics. They may do a lot of damage but they just don't give you the same feeling of being connected with the battle. In a group, it's just a mess of splashy colors, and you don't get so much (if any) of that feeling of "Ah HAH! there's MY contribution!" We want games where teaming-up is easy and desirable, and what your character does is unique to the team, or maybe similar to one or two others.
Tank pulls, and takes the aggro, maybe with the help of a Healer. Or maybe the Blaster snipes the boss and the Tank intercepts. (wow, strategy!) The Scrapper wades in and jumps out, the Controller pins down any extra aggro that tries to come in... Ah, I'm dreaming through my keyboard again...
- Charm
Guess what I liked to play
- Lures, more specifically, direct damage nukes with extremely low resist; thus allowing you to hit highly resistant mobs a lot easier.
- Rogue toolkit things, like Disarm Trap or Pick Locks. Very few games utilize these. DDO did it the best.
Raquelis in various games
Played: Everything
Playing: Nioh 2, Civ6
Wants: The World
Anticipating: Everquest Next Crowfall, Pantheon, Elden Ring
Recently these past couple months I been liking any self heal abilities kind of like WoW Affliction locks or Blood DKs (DS) or even something like an EQ2 monks "Mend" ability.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
LotRO, the cappy skill Command respect. All it does is to make the whole party kneel, great to use for roleplay reasons in instances with a notable NPC, you know, just to show some respect.
(But all the musical skills could be mentioned as well, playing the lute or the horn is a really useful skill for all characters, to pass the time when there's nothing left to kill.
And most classes have a similar roleplay skill like the cappy's respect, minstrels can make everyone dance for example.)
CO, (since Mike mentioned CoH) my favourite was hands down the swinging. Clearly not the best travel power, hard to control precisely and compared to the others it is almost useless in combat, which is why it is perfect for this non-combat themed list
https://youtu.be/5J-UEB4PLsE
AoC, Nebless said the fatalities, some of them are truly amazing, but those are not skills just random triggers. Spellweaving might be a better example for combat-themed abilities.
However, I'd say our trusty mount, the mammoth. Looks amazing just like fatalities, perfect for cimmerian characters, it is huge and slow, but had a charge - back in the days, mounted combat in MMOs was not common at all.
Darn, seems I slipped off from the theme and added something combat-related... to the chasm with me:
https://youtu.be/5kvytSbjhuI
Fading Memories - EQ
Death Grip - WoW
Disciple combat heals - Vanguard
Back in the day when it was fun to camp a spot and have a puller bring in a horde of baddies to test your group's might. Or in this case keeping your walls and turrets going while bouncing the more dangerous foes off the walls. I absolutely loved the mechanics of that class, and nothing has come close since except maybe games like Fortnite (PvE version).
Of course now games are all about rush rush rush to the next destination. Completely the opposite of the old camping style of gameplay.
Seeing it bounce off enemies (plus that clanging sound effect!) and return... Captain America bliss.
Youtube: http://youtube.com/c/gameoliodan
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/gameoliodan
Empathy, Backfire, Panic, Spiteful Spirit, Wastrel's Worry.
Yes, I know. I'm a douchebag. But what can I say - I enjoy skills that pretty much punish foes for choosing to exist.
So effing cool.
And they're mostly variations of blade melee, plus a shield melee and a couple ranged fighters (who in the videos seem to never fight from very far away, mostly in melee range). No healer or controller class, no device/traps users, no martial arts melee even.
Oh well, it's F2P and if you like that style it looks like a good game.
I also loved the haymaker punch of the Super Strength powerset. I could hear the Popeye theme music when my brick wound up for the punch.
But nice to hear that combos has worked in ffxi, and I agree it is a shame combo mechanics are not used more.. But that is probably because it is hard to make work in todays mmos that are leaning hard towards action combat and rapid decision making and lesser co-op roles with deeper tactical play
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
It's too bad they fixed that knock back before the game released. It was fun.
And then there's the Just Cause 2 mini gun. Release it from it's stationary point and walk around shooting baddies until they pinwheel off into the sunset.
40 classes and you could mix and match 2 and 1/2 of any of them the most versatile changing game ever, How my wife and I miss it.
Saving a group from a bad pull, priceless.
Back when it was OP at the start of Legion.
I don't have any specific abilities that i fall in love with and have to repeat over and over,i prefer abilities that bring team work and the feeling of being in a group.
So an example of this,SATA from FFXI,utilizes 3 players,does any other game do that utilize 3 players,i doubt it,most games are like soloing within a group.
MOST dungeons were sloppy designs within the EQ games,aggro/links through walls was just bad.So in that regard mezzes were more like saving the group from bad design.
I don't mind any type of mezz or sleep but it has to have random fails and draws high hate.I don't simply want it to become a staple because every fight is 6 or more mobs at once,i prefer controlled less sloppy type of game play.
Like why design a game to have 6 mobs or more fights then you have Rogue's with single target backstab,it is a non thought out design.
Give me team work abilities,that is what i want.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.