NCSoft Reports Quarterly Results; CoH Subscribers Down

[HRose]

From all NCSoft has said, they peaked at about 160k or so subs.

They sold 190k of boxes at the end of June of the last year. That they are losing subscribers is a fact, that this may be bad we cannot know.

[Murgos]

I played CoH for three months.  Not only that but I played right up until the last day o fmy subscription.  I will resub sometime in the future, definately for CoV if not earlier.

Compared to EQ2, WOW, FFXI, Guild Wars, DAoC, etc... it's the best game I've played because I didn't last out thre free month in most of those games and have no intention of re-upping (or upping in the first place with guild wars) to any of them.

[Mesozoic]

That they are losing subscribers is a fact that this may be bad we cannot know.

I'm sorry, what?

[HRose]

SirBruce charts seem more and more out of contact with the reality.

He gives WoW at 40k more than EQ2. If you check the box sales of both you'll see that EQ2 DISAPPEARS from the top 10 after the last week of November.

WoW remained between the first three (along with HL2 and The Sims 2) till the last week.

EQ2 subscribers are also tricked by the all access pass, while WoW has also had 100k of contemporary log ins in Korea. To be added to the 600k of boxes (and a minimum of 500k of increasing subs) of the NA release.

[Murgos]

I want to live in HRose's world.

[jpark]

They dared to try something different at a time when other houses were sticking with a safe formula...Though I didn't stay with the game myself, I do see this title as a catalyst for getting the genre out of its current rut.

Yes - I think this is a great point.  WoW incrementally improved - but CoH is making qualitative departures.

I would love to be a fly on the wall and hear what product Cryptic might consider next.

So what is break even here - any idea?  Did CoH recover its initial investment on box sales?

[SirBruce]

Just to clarify. NCSoft/Cryptic actually said CoH had 180K subscribers early on.  They probably peaked at that or maybe as high as 200K briefly.

Having said that, I have no idea what Cryptic's financial condition is like, so it's quite possible anything over 100K is good for them.  But I think from NCSoft's perspective, they obviously want games that do much better than that.  So they must be concerned with the falling numbers, even if the game is still profitable.

Bruce

[Big Gulp]

I like finding that sword or staff with the glowing red particles coming out of it. I like items that I can wear in public.

You are the reason MMOG's suck.

Controlling weather, super jumping, and stopping a hoard of anarchist cyborgs from destroying a nuclear reactor are boring, but camping the foozle for a +3 sword of the catass=interactive goodness!

You get the game you deserve, I guess.

[AOFanboi]

What "item-lovers" (who deride CoH for the lack of them) desperately try to ignore is that items only serve as extra leveling treadmills. Not only do you get to level your character, you also get to "level" (by crafting, looting or buying) your equipment.

The complexity brought on by equipment systems add to the complexity of the game, including balancing issues. CoH is shallow, yes, but unlike the games that cover up their shallow treadmills with trinkets (the items, and related crafting subgames), it's up front about it: Plot is more important to it than mechanics.

Comparing CoH to most other stat-heavy, item-oriented games is like comparing Chaosium's Prince Valiant RPG (two stats plus skills, toss coins as randomizer) to, say, AD&D 2nd edition (multiple independent systems, toss a mass of different-numbered dice as randomizer - provided you can deduce that "2-5" means 1d4+1).

Simplicity means stability and gameplay focus. It also means you can add features as you go, instead of trying to launch with a million features, none of which you have managed to playtest or balance properly.

(People still play chess, even though they could try and wrap their brains around full-scale World War 2 strategy boardgames like Europa or World in Flames instead.)

CoH is (almost) alone in providing this simplicity - at least of such a size. It should be interesting to see what the improved visibility of Puzzle Pirates (another simple MMOG) has - that's the real competitor, not WoW or EQ2.

[trias_e]

The fact of the matter is, CoH is far too shallow, and only those who like the shiny and are obsessed with z-axis will find it interesting.  It is the ultimate 'shiny new' game:  It presents even less than most earlier games, but instead lets you imagine you are a superhero.  For me, I can't get into that:  I realize I'm just killing foozles to level at about level 8, and the game just becomes a crappier version of every other MMORPG.

[Mesozoic]

The fact of the matter is, CoH is far too shallow, and only those who like the shiny and are obsessed with z-axis will find it interesting.  It is the ultimate 'shiny new' game:  It presents even less than most earlier games, but instead lets you imagine you are a superhero.  For me, I can't get into that:  I realize I'm just killing foozles to level at about level 8, and the game just becomes a crappier version of every other MMORPG.

Wow, how condescending.  Thanks for sticking to the facts.  

Meanwhile the deep, intelligent players continue to run into caves to rob swords from orcs in exchange for gold, so they can buy some metal pants.

[trias_e]

Not much of a rebuttal. Tell me how this game is better than any other MMORPG other than what I stated.   It's just a MMORPG with less.  I can't understand how this possibly could be a good thing in the long term.

It is a fact that CoH is an MMORPG stripped down to the bare minimum with more shiny stuff than usual.  This shallowness will account for much of the player loss, not just WoW and EQ2.  CoH was losing players before those games came out due to this.

[jpark]

The fact of the matter is, CoH is far too shallow, and only those who like the shiny and are obsessed with z-axis will find it interesting.  It is the ultimate 'shiny new' game:  It presents even less than most earlier games, but instead lets you imagine you are a superhero.  For me, I can't get into that:  I realize I'm just killing foozles to level at about level 8, and the game just becomes a crappier version of every other MMORPG.

That's right - anyone who has posted an interest in this game does so based on entirely on z-axis movement.

When you get a chance - read some posts.

[Mesozoic]

Not much of a rebuttal. Tell me how this game is better than any other MMORPG other than what I stated.   It's just a MMORPG with less.  I can't understand how this possibly could be a good thing in the long term.

It is a fact that CoH is an MMORPG stripped down to the bare minimum with more shiny stuff than usual.  This shallowness will account for much of the player loss, not just WoW and EQ2.  CoH was losing players before those games came out due to this.

No particular order:

CoH has the best combat system of any MMOG I've played.

CoH does the best job of allowing characters of different levels to play together.

CoH doesn't make you kill rats at level 1.

CoH has the best implementation of instancing I've seen.

CoH is solo-friendly.

CoH has the flatest "fun-curve" from level 1 to 50, while still motivating players to level up.

CoH relegates loot to the proper level of semi-importance.

CoH is virtually bug-free, and patches work when they come out.

CoH patches add new zones, missions, and  the last one added new archetypes.

CoH character building (not the looks, but the powers building) is incredibly deep.

CoH has great events (Halloween, Winter Lords, Ghost Ship, Giant Squid, etc.)


What doesn't it have?  Crafting and elves.  I guess we're all just shallow.

So there.  Did you spontaneously convert to a CoH subscriber?  Yeah I didn't think so.  What was the point of this again?

[trias_e]

(My post is only referring to the under level 20 game, as I could never stand to level higher to get to the 'good stuff'.  However, if CoH as you said has "the flatest 'fun-curve' from level 1 to 50", there was no 'good stuff'.)

Your style of post lends itself well to a subsequent Sirbrucing, but I'll refrain and make my reply a bit more concise than that sort of thing:  The combat is tedious and boring, offering nothing new whatsoever, and actually taking some steps backwards as far as concise stategy goes, becoming more of an action game.  This could have been ok, if it were deep and took some skill (which it didn't in my experience).  All the game has is combat, and yet it isn't really better than most other MMORPGS out there.  As far as not killing rats?  Hah.  You might as well be.  How many uninispired bland instances do you have to run through killing boring NPCs before you get sick of it?  The early-game instancing is pathetic.

The character building may be deep, but takes hideously long to get to that point.  I got three characters up to level 15, and none of them were interesting at all.  They might have been interesting at level 40, but the game was just a damn grind, on the same scale as EQ without an interesting world to back it up, so why should I go through x amount of crap to get to the so-called fun part of the game where I actually have some interesting abilities?

Of course I'm not arguing that people can't have fun with this game.  But I am arguing that most MMORPG veterans will see through much of it and find it shallow.  The declining subs reflect that.  The only thing really brilliant CoH did was Sidekicking, which really should be implemented in some form in most of the EQ-clone games.

[trias_e]

Oh, and I'm really just cranky because you brilliant people praised the game so much before it came out that I actually bought it at release.

What a fucking waste of 50 dollars.  My bad though, I won't trust the hype ever again, even on these jaded sites ;)

[Llava]

What doesn't it have?  Crafting and elves.  I guess we're all just shallow.

I beg to differ.  You can make a pretty good elf with the pointed ears they offer.

[Llava]

Question:

What makes a zone interesting?

What makes a power interesting?

You say that none of these were "interesting" to you.  I certainly never had that problem.  What didn't they do that they should have done?  I mean, every single attack power in the game has some sort of secondary effect, and most of these can be coordinated and stacked to be quite effective.  So it's not like the power progression is just "same thing, more damage, same thing, more damage, same thing, more damage" like other MMOGs.  Then there are powers that are pure utility, even betting on intangibilities like enemy location, such as Tar Patch or Hurricane.  These are powers that you get below level 20.  So what missing strategy are you talking about?  Strategy is a huge part of CoH gameplay, and a smart team can face pretty huge odds and come out sparkling.

So why wasn't it interesting?  What was your perception of the game world that made it seem bland to you?  Was it just because it was in a city?

[trias_e]

Instancing:  Bland, repititive.  No puzzles to solve, nothing beyond the most simple of EQ style killing.  Plus, you have to go through them basically multiple times, as different missions are all practically the same 4-6 instances, just with a different boss or objective.

The graphics were good usually.  Perez Park was an example graphically of an interesting zone, and probably the zone I enjoyed the most. But the city zones were all boring as hell.  I don't really know how to make a large urban city interesting in an MMORPG.  They definitely didn't do it.  Steel Canyon, Skyway City, Atlas Park, all city zones just blend together.  A bunch of mobs stand around and wait to die on the streets.  Next level, a bunch of mobs stand around and wait to die on the streets.  And they are the same mobs, just a little higher level.  

Powers:  Not enough of them in the early game.  Came at such a slow rate I got bored with my characters.  None of the cool ones are in the early game.  The coolest power I ever got was Gust (I think it was called).  And that wasn't all that fun by any means, just a way to knock some mobs back from my frail  defender for 3 or 4 seconds.

[Mesozoic]

What doesn't it have?  Crafting and elves.  I guess we're all just shallow.

I beg to differ.  You can make a pretty good elf with the pointed ears they offer.

I guess.  Maybe if they get that archer powerset in for blasters, we could start a SG of Night Elf hunters ftw.

[Llava]

Instancing:  Bland, repititive.  No puzzles to solve, nothing beyond the most simple of EQ style killing.  Plus, you have to go through them basically multiple times, as different missions are all practically the same 4-6 instances, just with a different boss or objective.

I can think of a low level trial off the top of my head that disproves that.  It's called the Cavern of Trascendence, and I think you have to be level 12 to do it.  You need a group of 8 people, and it's in the tunnels in the Hollows.  After you've managed to clear the front rooms, you can explore each of the 9 passageways.  One ends with a stone door that seals the path, the others each end with an altar.  Each of the 8 team members goes to an altar and all touch it within the same 5-10 second window.  The door opens and leads the way to the Monster within.  Players receive the Transcendent badge for finishing this mission.

The graphics were good usually.  Perez Park was an example graphically of an interesting zone, and probably the zone I enjoyed the most. But the city zones were all boring as hell.  I don't really know how to make a large urban city interesting in an MMORPG.  They definitely didn't do it.  Steel Canyon, Skyway City, Atlas Park, all city zones just blend together.  A bunch of mobs stand around and wait to die on the streets.  Next level, a bunch of mobs stand around and wait to die on the streets.  And they are the same mobs, just a little higher level.

I don't know how to respond to that last sentence.  Maybe you played before they changed how trolls and outcasts work.  But I can assure you, fighting Trolls or Outcasts at levels 5-15 is nothing like fighting Skulls or Hellions at levels 1-10.  Similarly, fighting the Tsoo is quite a bit trickier than fighting the Outcasts.  When you get all the way up to the higher levels with groups like the Carnival of Shadows, it's pretty ridiculous to say that all the villains are alike.

I guess you can argue that the zones look alike.  I really don't think they do, what with the huge highways all over Skyway City and its claustrophobic feel compared to the wide open spaces and largely flat, newbie friendly Atlas Park.  Giant status like Atlas don't do it for you, I guess.  I don't know what to say to that.  You want visually impressive stuff, but not what they have.

Powers:  Not enough of them in the early game.  Came at such a slow rate I got bored with my characters.  None of the cool ones are in the early game.  The coolest power I ever got was Gust (I think it was called).  And that wasn't all that fun by any means, just a way to knock some mobs back from my frail  defender for 3 or 4 seconds.

Cool is just another word for interesting.  You still didn't really explain why some powers are cool and some aren't.  Personally, I like that the bread and butter powers are available at low levels.  I think Energy Torrent is a very cool power, and I think that's available at 4 or 6.  I think Air Superiority is a great power, and anyone can get that at level 6.  Same with Hover.  Hell, Hover is something most other MMOGs wouldn't ever offer, or if they did they'd demand that you be some ridiculously high level.  You get it at level 6 in CoH.

What about Impale for the Spines set at level 8?  Lets you hurl a bunch of spines at an enemy, dealing a lot of damage, and immobilizing them so you can catch up and shred them before they get away.  What about Shadow Maul or Slice, also scrapper attacks, that are cone-based and deal pretty respectable damage to multiple foes in close range once you get the hang of it?  What about Psionic Lance, an extremely long range snipe attack that becomes available at, I think, level 4?  What about Flash, an AE Hold, at level 6 or 8?  Hell, the new ATs get to shapeshift into a flying space-squid thing at level 6, giving them 4 attack powers for that form.

So I'm really not sure what you're looking for.  Cool zones?  I certainly think they're cool.  Cool powers at low levels?  Hell yeah.  Cool missions?  Not as many as there could be, but they're certainly there even at low levels.  Hell, they even added a lot of unique tilesets to low level missions.  If you're a magic based character, your first mission will include a burning building.

[schmoo]

The biggest problem I have with CoH is that is takes too fucking long to level at higher levels. I want new powers, dammit, and they don't come fast enough after level 15 or so.  Between 25-30 I hit the wall and I just don't want to play any more, so I have a huge bunch of low and mid level characters that I play when I resub every few months to see what's new.

If Cryptic isn't going to make new and different things for me to do while I'm crawling up the experience ladder, the least they could do is allow me to get to max level fairly quickly, because I would just have started a new character and leveled up again.  As it is I will not resubscribe until the PvP stuff comes out, or the grind gets removed one way or another.

Maybe Cryptic made it all too easy in the beginning and I'm spoiled now.

[jpark]

 I don't really know how to make a large urban city interesting in an MMORPG.  They definitely didn't do it.  Steel Canyon, Skyway City, Atlas Park, all city zones just blend together.  

Powers:  Not enough of them in the early game.  Came at such a slow rate I got bored with my characters.

While I was satisfied I can see that for many your first point has merit:  there could be more zone variety.

Not enough powers early in the game?  What is the benchmark?

Let's keep in mind not only do we choose new powers often in the game (every other level - how often do you want it?) they do not operate on the "Firebolt +1" formula.  Each new power is qualitatively different - not a rehash of a lower level power with just more punch (vs. EQ or EQ2 or WoW).

Some of these powers change gameplay dramatically.  I never create a build with the teleport ability "Teleport Friend".

Let's go back to Schild's earliest comments - if I recall correctly - about CoH on these boards:  CoH may not offer the scope of other games, but what it promised it could do it does extremely well.

That is a great foundation for future expansions.

[Glazius]

Back off a second, Llava; you're not going to convince him.

That's because of... heh. Well, I hesitate to call it a strength because it's led in large part to the decline of the subscriber base.

But the big defining feature of CoH from my viewpoint is that there's no there there. It's, like you said, a flat fun curve. So somebody who buys the game and finds out it isn't fun doesn't have anything to keep him subscribed for three weeks/months/years until his character reaches the point that opens the door to a new game mechanic that could, possibly, be fun.

What you find fun is a part of who you are. I'm sorry you didn't like CoH, trias, and I hope you didn't shell out for a year in advance or something crazy-expensive like that.

--GF

[Glazius]

The biggest problem I have with CoH is that is takes too fucking long to level at higher levels. I want new powers, dammit, and they don't come fast enough after level 15 or so.  Between 25-30 I hit the wall and I just don't want to play any more, so I have a huge bunch of low and mid level characters that I play when I resub every few months to see what's new.

Well, if you're between 25-30 you could schlep on over to Striga Isle, snag a wedding ring that jacks up your resistance to damage, mow down zombies with holy shotgun shells, and get your very own pet warwolf.

From what I've seen of the place it's Temp Power City. Er, Island.

--GF

[Llava]

Back off a second, Llava; you're not going to convince him.

Oh I'm not trying to convince him that he likes the game after all.  I'm just trying to illustrate that his feelings of "shallowness" about CoH are ultimately flawed, and he just plain doesn't like the game as a matter of personal taste.  Same reason I don't like WoW.  It's nothing tangible, really.  I think it's a good game.  It's just not for me.

But here he's trying to say that it's just flat out a bad game, and that's just plain wrong.  So I'm trying to give him a little perspective.

[Sobelius]

The biggest problem I have with CoH is that is takes too fucking long to level at higher levels. I want new powers, dammit, and they don't come fast enough after level 15 or so.

Hear hear.

This is what made the Winter Lord event fun, to me. I was able to take a number of characters and level them up past 10 quickly. I got to try out a number of new power sets I'd never tried before.

No MMORPG has really found a way to make ongoing content that is unique enough to be the equivalent of a weekly serialized story or TV show -- the kind of thing that keeps you coming back to find out "what happens next". And none have really found a way to make the combat system , in and of itself, fun enough to keep most people coming back week after week.

- shooters tend to draw repeat visits due to the mod community (i.e. lots of different people making lots of new content -- usually in the form of levels and graphics) -- if you couldn't get mods for such a game, how many times would you really want to play?

- pvp extends the life of a game -- take any combat/action game, such as Halo. How many times would you really want to play the first few chapters?
Fighting other players in the same arena maps, though, draws repeat visits due to the unpredictability of other players.

In retrospect, the storylines of early CoH are just not different enough from one another to make them really interesting. Why did every story arc have to involve the SAME locations and basic gameplay elements over and over? Even the first Task Force mission -- which I thought would have really been an unique experience -- was just MORE OF THE SAME!!!

I love a lot of things about CoH. But I do not love the amount of time it takes to move through the game.

I love a lot of the visuals in CoH. But they skimped on a few elements when it came to making each city zone (not hazard zone) truly unique. The same buildings in different places, the same signs and billboards and the same NPCs wandering in the same way passing the same cars and the same contruction workers carrying the same wooden beams. At least some attempt was made in Striga -- I caught some warriors actually unloading cannisters and boxes on a dock.

Outdoor instanced zones should be liberally mixed in with indoor zones and base maps -- and couldn't they have even come up with some variations on the circle of thorn caves and the vazhilok sewers? They had so many good elements yet the level design was ultra-repetitive.

After nearly a year in the game (beta'd from Feb of last year and am still subbed), I recently got to see for the first time an outdoor map that used multi-storey power plant. I loved it. We knocked guys off the upper level gantries and had a blast running around that place -- I just bemoan that it will probably soon become one of the all-too-common maps, much as the cool laboratory map has now become just another ho-hum monster mowing fest.

Despite all my griping, I still log into CoH and I still play it because flying around or superjumping around and killing stuff for an hour often beats the pants off the kind of stuff I could do in an hour in most other MMORPGs.

[schmoo]

In retrospect, the storylines of early CoH are just not different enough from one another to make them really interesting. Why did every story arc have to involve the SAME locations and basic gameplay elements over and over? Even the first Task Force mission -- which I thought would have really been an unique experience -- was just MORE OF THE SAME!!!

Exactly, and it sure seems to me that some variety could have been added as one progresses in the game.  Instead of making the game more fun the farther you get into it, Cryptic has done the opposite.

People in the game just today were complaining that since the Winter Lord event ended their friends had stopped playing, because of the level grind. I'm not surprised.

[Glazius]

In retrospect, the storylines of early CoH are just not different enough from one another to make them really interesting. Why did every story arc have to involve the SAME locations and basic gameplay elements over and over? Even the first Task Force mission -- which I thought would have really been an unique experience -- was just MORE OF THE SAME!!!

Exactly, and it sure seems to me that some variety could have been added as one progresses in the game.  Instead of making the game more fun the farther you get into it, Cryptic has done the opposite.

People in the game just today were complaining that since the Winter Lord event ended their friends had stopped playing, because of the level grind. I'm not surprised.

God.

Cryptic's _adding_ variety.

Right now, and with every succeeding patch.

Dr. Vazhilok now lives inside of a sewer kitted out with mad science gear, enough Tesla coils and Jacob's Ladders to bring a tear to Dr. Frankenstein's eye. The Clockwork King (which is the _second_ task force, Positron's needs some serious work) sits atop a giant metal throne with whirring gears and clockfaces all over the place, and suspended throughout his lair are hollow gears with half-built Clockwork inside. Lou's Garage is an actual garage, with cars up on hydraulic lifts and racks of tires on the shop floor. The Banished Pantheon kit out abandoned mines with tiki masks and the whole place is covered in Obligatory Horror Game Fog. Moving up a couple dozen levels, the Carnies hold glowstick raves, with colored spotlights and dark corners that light up when their energy rings/swords come out to play, and Tyrant has gotten a sprawling evil palace with statues of fallen heroes.

The giant octopus, the ghost ship, the striking dockworkers in Independence Port. The patrols around the Council base on Striga Island, and the Banished Pantheon digging up new recruits in the graveyard.

The new mission maps don't make the patch notes. The events occurring in the various city zones might or might not - hearing the workers chatter about the arenas being built or the portal on Peregrine Island was a total surprise.

Cryptic's added stuff already to make city zones and mission instances more unique, and by all accounts they're planning to do so in future patches as well.

I don't know where anybody's getting this concept of "level grind" from. There's too much to do for any of my toons. I keep having to die deliberately and avoid taking out any unnecessary hostiles, just to finish off my existing mission chains before I outlevel my contacts.

--GF

[SirBruce]

They never fixed outlevelling contacts?

This is why I stopped playing the game.

Bruce

[Big Gulp]

I think most of the gripes about how long it takes to level have one common thread; they all come from people who've rarely gotten past 20.

In a nutshell, you are doing something wrong.  A decent task force group will likely nab you damn near 2 levels.  About 3 weeks of casual play and I've already got an alien up to level 30, just by running my solo missions, grouping frequently, and doing task forces.

It's as shallow a grind as World of Warcraft's is, and that's about as shallow a grind as you're going to get in one of these games.  If you can't seem to progress out of lowbieland you're doing something wrong, folks.

[Glazius]

They never fixed outlevelling contacts?

This is why I stopped playing the game.

Bruce

To a degree they have. If a former contact has offered you a storyarc (since you're limited to two at a time) you'll be able to complete that storyarc and get it off your docket, no matter what level you actually are. The mobs will spawn at contact-appropriate levels, though, which can lead to some amusing scenes - like a massive ambush cresting the rise, taking a pot shot at you, realizing you're ten levels up on them, and then running like hell.

Fortunately there are no giant storyarcs with La Familia, because unless they've fixed it there can be a rather nasty bug - see, they normally spawn up to 29. But there's an alternate dimension where everybody in Paragon City is high on Dyne-laced spaghetti and the Family are in control - and since this is part of a storyarc for 45+ level characters, there are Family there at level 45. The engine tries to spawn Family for your level, finds it can't, and then spawns them at the minimum level higher than yours. I got smacked upside the head by this running a Numina task force, but fortunately it was my tanker, who took the beating long enough to get to the police drones and send the interdimensional mafiosi to the Big Zig.

Backtracking for ordinary missions you may have missed, even if they would cough up a badge when they were done, is not currently possible. A system to set yourself at any level you had been in the past is currently in the works, and will fix other nasty issues like exemplar/task force instability.

I was certainly able to get the storyarcs done - that's not why I was rushing. I wanted to completely clear out all my contacts before I moved on, and I wasn't quite able to do that - thus my question about this whole 'level grind' thing I keep hearing about.

--GF

[schmoo]

It's as shallow a grind as World of Warcraft's is, and that's about as shallow a grind as you're going to get in one of these games.  If you can't seem to progress out of lowbieland you're doing something wrong, folks.

It's not that I can't progress, it's that at some point I don't want to continue doing basically the same thing over and over while the experience bar moves slower and slower.  There's no variety, in the sense that for example, the original EQ has variety, e.g. when I got tired of grinding experience I could craft, or buy and sell in the Bazaar, or challenge someone to duel.  In CoH there is only the one action, beating the crap out of bad guys for the reward of making the next level and getting a new power now and then.  Sure, there's some small variety in missions and bad guys, but there's really nothing else to do in the game except make a few little decisions about where to put your new enhancement slots,  or choose what color and style your cape will be today.
And as far as the lovely cosmetic changes to missions, that's all they are for the most part.  All form and no substance.  No fun puzzles to solve in missions, no unexpected plot twists and turns, no super-villians with exciting AI, nothing but bland, easy, boring baby food.  

Bleh.

[SirBruce]

Backtracking for ordinary missions you may have missed, even if they would cough up a badge when they were done, is not currently possible. A system to set yourself at any level you had been in the past is currently in the works, and will fix other nasty issues like exemplar/task force instability.

Too late for me.  They had their chance and pretty much ignored my complaints, so they can't get me back now by making changes a year after the fact.

Bruce

[Sobelius]

Cryptic's _adding_ variety.

I love the fact that Cryptic is adding visual variety -- serious cheers. But whacking the mole is not more interesting the 500th time I do it just because they changed the wallpaper.

My group did a mission the other day in a Council base. Our healer dropped and no one had an awaken, not even he. He said he'd simply pop out to the hospital and be back in a minute. We had all forgotten about prisons -- that's where he wound up. It was truly a cool surprise to run across this twist, which we'd all known about for a long time but just never had to worry about. Breaking him out of the dungeon was fun, even though he had no guards and no teleportation powers worked.

I know Cryptic adds content -- for me, this game is about creating and building cool characters and the current rate of XP gain is just too slow to sustain my desire to level more than 1 or 2 characters.

I don't know where anybody's getting this concept of "level grind" from. There's too much to do for any of my toons. I keep having to die deliberately and avoid taking out any unnecessary hostiles, just to finish off my existing mission chains before I outlevel my contacts.

I get my concept of level grind from my experience of following story arc after story arc and seeing very little advancement.