If the City Came Back...

I guess it's going to be one of those posts. You know, the wishful thinking kind of posts. Sort of like when you buy a lottery ticket and then fantasize a bit about winning a bunch of money... what would you do with all that money? (Buy the COH/CPV IP!) In this case, what would I do if the game came back?

This post will probably be used to reference when the game comes back to serve as a game plan of sorts (pun intended!).

Money, Accounts, Servers, and Names

Whatever the payment model is: pay once to play (like Diablo 3), monthly subscription, free to play/micro-transactions, a mix of all of the above, I am so ready to give them my money. If there is a subscription model, I will buy a year right off the bat. Hell, if there is a lifetime subscription that doesn't cost more than $300, I would go ahead and pay for that too! (I would even consider it up to $500 for the lifetime sub, but ONLY if there are guarantees that the game will stay around longer than 5 years.)

In fact, I think it is likely that I may have 2 accounts. One will serve as a main account which belongs to me with the proper long term subscription. Another to have subbed on a monthly or quarterly basis in case family members or friends want to play as well.. and also, so I can have some separate-account alts to invite myself to my private SG. I would also level pact the more painful-to-level-up ATs (for me at least) so I can have them get past the low level hump and enjoy playing them at a higher level. Something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself with 3 accounts at the start (which I've had going all at one time before sunset), though it would likely taper down to 2 at most during normal play.

Once the accounts are established, the first thing I would do is squat a certain name in all the servers, starting with what would presumably be the VIP "subscribers" server. Before you complain, I do intend on leveling them all up to 50 and slotting them out, as I was in the process of doing so when the game was live. At the very least, I just want to have my special name in my main server!

And you can bet your buttons that I will be dragging my boyfriend and family back to the game as well. So that's at least 6 accounts right there.

Ahh, the market. 

Where to Begin with the Characters

What would I first roll when the game comes back? Well, in all likelihood, I will be rolling my "New Main" (name currently unknown), who at the time of this writing will likely be a SD/FM Tanker. Her power set selection is based on my desire for a character that will be useful in teaming situations, as well as a powerhouse in farming. Yes, I know, Ms Ann will no longer be the main. She will be rerolled, actually. Maybe to Invulnerability & Titan Weapons.

A new character development courtesy of Titan Icon

So once the primary server is determined and the main is settled in, I would then go about re-creating most of my characters. As mentioned, some of the more annoying ones will be level-pact over time or recreated entirely, but most, I think would be back and be replayed.

Aside from the main, the first few characters would be the solo-farm types. You know, like Zazza (though she was mostly content and teaming until 50 and then got slotted out to farming duty).. or some others that I was experimenting with and/or have heard was very good for these types of situations. They would kind of hang out strictly in AE to fund my mains/alts and/or to PL myself and some level-pacted alt to get through the low level hump.

I would be re-rolling my favorite alts as they were before sunset and playing them through again, like Zetsumei (technically my villain/solo main), Sixty, Combustidoll, Zazza, and Thermonuclea. The non-tanker alts will be re-created, for the most part, but modified a bit (for example, Theophelia will be a Mind or Fire/Kin Controller instead.. and might even be renamed!).

The Tanker Project

And then there's the Tanker Project. Well, I most certainly am going to have to re-roll all of them and level them all up again. It wouldn't feel right if I just level-pact the ones I already played up. Some will be modified. For example, Anwyn will not be an Energy Melee (I seriously hate EM). I would probably start with the Tanker sets that I haven't played to 50 yet. The ones I have already played, like Ice Minx, Tropica, and Paradoxic will be lower on the play list since I've played them before and it was not terribly fun on the way up (they did mature very nicely once they got their IOs in). It's probably going to look something like this:

1. TBD Main new (Shield Defense/Fiery Melee)
2. TBD new (Bio Armor/?) *only if it is the i24 image upon release
3. NeoGeode, reroll (Super Reflexes/Stone Melee) may also rename/reconceptualize
4. TBD new (Electric Armor/?)
5. Annzilla (Stone Armor/Fiery Melee)
6. Anwyn, reroll (Willpower/Dual Blades)
7. Paradoxic (Dark Armor/Dark Melee)
8. Ms Ann, reroll (Invulnerability/Titan Weapons)
9. Ice Minx (Ice Armor/Ice Melee)
10. Tropica (Fiery Aura/Fiery Melee)

I guess I will fiddle around on builds for the new ones as well as all the rerolls. Fun! Damn, I really want to play them already.

The Melee Project & the Mastermind Project

Zet, my darling MM. 

You know what? While the Tanker project is going on, I will likely be starting a Brute/Scrapper project as well for a little variety. It's going to be a much slower project than the Tanker project. This is the project to level up all the melee powers. I know, the powers are different between ATs, but that would just give me a bit of leeway to pick the more fun stuff as opposed to feeling as I have to do it out of obligation, right? *wink*wink* Most of them will likely be Brutes. I was actually starting to get into Brutes as an AT before the end. I would like to pick up where I left off.

The other project will be the Mastermind project: leveling up all the primaries for the Mastermind AT. I was sort of doing that in various other servers than Virtue before the sunset. But will likely just stick to one server as the MM server for me on the main account. Something like that. This is just a project for when I feel like soloing. You know how it is.

Zetsumei, however, will be on the main server.

Community & Super Groups

Once the game goes live, I will be active-ish in the various forums. Maybe I will actually post things instead of lurking. It's just so much easier to lurk, really. I would be active as much as possible in my SG though, given that life, work, and school obligations are attended to first.

As for super groups. I know right off the bat, I will be creating my own personal SG and SVG. This will be the place to park all of the alts and such. The more active characters or the in-progress characters will be in actual SGs.

Without the game now, there are no SGs so it's not like I can research or apply to them. As for the Paragonian Knights, who knows? Maybe? Maybe not? If I establish myself in a different server than where they are, its a definite no. If we're in the same server, who knows? I was honestly never really fond of that SG name in particular. I always wished it had less of a medieval slant to it. I'd probably join whatever active community spawns from the Penny Arcade forums. Or I will try to wrangle IRL friends and family together to set up our own. We'll see how it is at the time when it relaunches.

Taking Some Vacation Time

Assuming that there would be advanced warning about the re-release of the game, I am SO going to take some vacation time to get some play in. Omg. I would take that whole damn week off. If the game comes back soon, I hope that it would be in between semesters so I don't have to worry about classes and homework. If it comes back later (like in a year or two), hopefully I would be done with my graduate degree by then (this depends on how many classes I want to cram in each semester while working a full time job).

Other Musings

There's some discussion on the Titan Forum, which asks the question of what would stop me from coming back to the city?

Some people's reasons for not coming back include: losing all their account information and associated bonuses and things purchased, which includes having to re-roll and re-level all the characters, having to repay for all of the items, losing all those veteran rewards. Other reasons include having a forced PVP, the gaming forcing a "holy trinity" style of ATs, the game being altered in a fundamental way as to be unrecognizable to what we know as COH, having a pay-to-win scenario, having NCSuck's involvement, etc.

If you can't already tell, I am totally ready to start all over again,  from the bottom up. I think it would fun to have everyone start all over again together, actually. I was there since the first week of release and was able to see everyone leveling up together. Many of us didn't know how to play, so we were all learning together. Of course, if the game came back, many vets will come back, so it will be interesting to see how the leveling and such goes with many experienced people starting at the bottom.

The other main reason why I am OK with everyone starting over is because I can get the chance to snag the name that I want in the main server (at least). I had tried sending messages to the person who had the name I wanted, but I am assuming that their account was inactive and that they never got my messages... or they just ignored me.

I am OK with having to re-purchase the games and items again, though it won't happen right away with all of the accounts. I'd just buy the bare minimum, that's all. How much I buy right away depends on the item below...

If NCSoft itself is the entity that brings back the game, I will be VERY leery of the amount of money I give them (most likely will just stick to 1 monthly paid account with the bare essentials, and a 1 free account), but if they have very minimal involvement, say, they're only leasing the license of the IP but an entirely different entity runs the company and everything else, I will go all in with my wallet. So either way, if NCSuck is involved, I will still be back. How wide my wallet opens depends on how much they are involved.

If the game forces PVP, I'm fine with it. I've played those types of games before. I also imagine if they force it on us, many players will band together to create an unofficial "non-pvp" server where everyone plays nice.. and that we'd set up a group of vigilantes for those that do not play nicely.

If the game changes to a "holy trinity" style or fundamentally changes the game, then I will not be ok with it, but then I wouldn't know until I played. I also don't see these 3 items above happening because it involves considerable development time before the re-release of the game. I would imagine that whoever takes it over would rather just get it set up and running right away so they can get some return on investment as oppose to investing more development time to change the game before seeing a dime. It's still about money after all. Which brings me to the last point...

If they created a pay-to-win scenario.. I guess it depends on what they want us to pay for and how much they want us to pay for it. I would not come back if it was like a Clash of Clans type scenario... slowing things down, putting up pay walls everywhere, or just paying to advance at all. But then again, those type of games were designed from the ground up to be pay-to-win and CoH was not, so I don't see that being implemented without fundamentally changing the game itself. And you already know how likely I think that will happen based on the development costs, at least right off the bat.

It'll take a lot more than that to get rid of us!

In Conclusion

I am so ready to come back. I miss this game dearly.

I know many of the terms are spoken in absolutes in my blog (like "when the game comes back.."), but the truth is that I do not know when the game will be back or if this current deal will work. And if this deal does not go through, I do know that one day, the game will be back eventually. Like I said, the CoH community is that persistent. I know the sun will rise again.