Has the game changed at all ? Everything was small group raid instances. Everytime i logged in I was killing the Ice guy about 50 times a day to get levels, running the same instances over and ond over again ? Have the made any significant open world changes yet ?

I dunno what you mean exactly.

But there are 2 raiding encounters in the whole games.  (A raiding encounter is a combat which require more than 1 group to complete)

Hamidon: Take about an hour to kill.  Give an Hamidon Enhancement just like a STF/RSF would (also take an hour to complete).  The Hamidon enhancement is the best raw %, but it yield no set bonus, so they are only good in powers you don't slot.  They are good for Brawl...but that is about it.

Rikti Warship: Yield no special rewards.  Tons of badges however, and regular rewards (same as solo/grouping).  Take about 2 hours to complete.

These are near-optimal time, it could take longer...or a little less.

End game resolves around Inventions Origins (IOs), especially the purples for the groovy permanent bonuses.  They can drop of ANY level 51+ lieutnants.  Every path has the same rewards, it work with me even if it was not exactly what I was asking for. :P

XP progression curve has been improved a LOT, much to my dismay, but eh, it is easier for everyone to level up.

So your saying the game is pretty much the same as it was in 2005 ?

It's still instance-based, yes. There are a few more things that aren't but at heart it is and always will be instance-based.

There are considerably more different instances now than there were in 2005. New enemies, new maps to fight them on, and new powers to use against them. But if you chose to farm the same mission repeatedly before, there's nothing preventing you from doing so now. There's more to choose from but it's on you to make the choice.

Ironically, I think you're talking about The Hollows zone, and it's about to receive a makeover (in terms of spawn and mission placement). Which means you'll likely see more players in there again as a resurgeance even though it was pretty new when you left it.

Originally posted by solareus

So your saying the game is pretty much the same as it was in 2005 ?

Depend.  In 2005 there was only the Hamidon.  And back then, it was the phat loot.  Now it is IOs, which can be earned soloing/grouping/raiding, it is a % no matter what you do, as long as you kill a lieutnant 51+.

The IOs give set bonuses.  Explaining that would take about 30 pages just to LIST it with a small summary about where and why to slot it, depending on your goals.

The Warship is new.  The Rikti Warzone is new and you group with Villains in that zone.  Villains are new, so you DOUBLE the amount of "classes".

I am not sure if Epic Heroes (Warshade) where lived in 2005, now they are for a very long time.

New zones:

- Bloody Bay (RvR)

- Siren's Call (RvR)

- Warbug (FFA PvP)

- Recluse's end or whatever the last RvR zone.

- Rikti Warzone (COOP zone, all factions confused, the invaders must be repel)

- Mercy Island, Port Oakes, Cap au Diable, SharkHead Isle, Nerva, St-Martial, Grandville...(villains only)

New factions:

- Arachnos, Snakes, Vanguard and many more.

The game is about 3 times bigger than in 2005...you can visit the official website.

Yet, the game is honest, if you didn't like it back then, you won't like it more now.  If you like it, then it is more of that, just refined and developped further­.  You won't be forced into a magical gameplay out of nowhere suddenly, yet some players focus in the RvR.

Originally posted by solareus

So your saying the game is pretty much the same as it was in 2005 ?

no, the game has vastly improved in the past three years.

in many more ways even than were listed by the folks who replied to you.

the only thing it's missing is a zone populated with dragons.... once they get a dragon zone, THEN my wife will finally play.  she can already make an elf/fairy of whatever type of powers that she wants... now she just needs dragons to hunt.

The hamidon raid has not changed much other than tweaks.  Thankfully they have not added any other raid encounters like that and further they have created small group taks forces that give the eqivalent of HO's.

The Rikti Motherships encounters are the only other raid-like encounter but they are quite different than the typical 2o-40 people fighting one huge mob BS you see in games like WoW or EQ2.  You acutally usually have fairly independent groups taking down pylons then meeting on the mothership to fight many large waves of Rikit with a final large boss fight that is fairly brief by the typical bloated raider standards.

Don't expect another Hamidon traditional raid style encounter in CoX the vast majority of players made it plain to the Devs that they do not like it and won't really tolerate another attempt to give the best loots to raiders only.  And quite clearly the Devs have done the high end content towards this when you consider that CoV did not even have a Hamidon encounter adn only had the LRSF and they added the STF to CoH side.  They have kept Hamidon and transferred it over to CoV side but I doubt they will make anything similar anytime soon if ever.

I'm fond of the game, and have returned quite a few times to see what's changed....

.... but to answer the OP the core game hasn't really changed over the years.

The IO's are kinda nice, and they've made a lot of other nice small improvements.

But if you've played it to max, got bored and left, you'll probably be bored again within a month or so of returning.

Originally posted by solareus

Has the game changed at all ? Everything was small group raid instances. Everytime i logged in I was killing the Ice guy about 50 times a day to get levels, running the same instances over and ond over again ? Have the made any significant open world changes yet ?

there are giant monsters in most zones.  there are TONS of wandering bad guys in most zones to beat on.  there's fires to put out and supa troll ravers on a rampage. 

i'm going out on a limb and guessing you mean frostfire, by the ice guy.  not sure how you'd be killing him 50 times a day, or even 5 times a day and not completely outleveling the dude. 

so, while most missions are instanced, and you can now go back and redo any real content that you outleveled; yes, there's a lot of non-instanced "stuff" you can do.  but, your missions won't be getting kill-stolen and you being all upset because someone ganked your big bad.

i'm not sure what games actually offer more non-instanced "stuff" to do; at least offer it and you don't have to worry with griefers.  if you're wanting to grief folks, i'm sure you could find lots in wow or SOE games, i hear POTBS is a griefers' paradise right now.

the OP was talking about the Snow King.   And nothing like that has been duplicated.  He would appear in alot of different areas and gave massive exp.

Originally posted by Raspaloh

the OP was talking about the Snow King.   And nothing like that has been duplicated.  He would appear in alot of different areas and gave massive exp.

i'm tired of eating pancakes.  why do you keep serving me waffles?  i told you i'm tired of PANCAKES, not waffles.

Oh, the original Winter Lord. That does make more sense. I caught on that he didn't really mean "raid" but hadn't pieced that clue together.

Since the OP hasn't returned anyway since reading his prejudice into Anofalye's reply, I'd like to make a different observation. The Winter Lord wasn't at all a required part of the game. So this shows a lot about player psychology. If you have something with a good reward, people will choose to repeat it, and then complain that the game is repetitive.

Originally posted by solareus

Has the game changed at all ? Everything was small group raid instances. Everytime i logged in I was killing the Ice guy about 50 times a day to get levels, running the same instances over and ond over again ? Have the made any significant open world changes yet ?

The long answer:

First off, you don't have to go into the hollows now at level 5.  In issue 8 or 9 they introduced police scanner missions that you can get beginning at level 5 and going all the way up to 50.  These all culminate in what is called a safeguard mission.  These have a new feel to them.  You need to stop a villain, or archvillain depending on your group size, as he or she and a gang of robbers blow the vault at a bank.  You need to stop them before they blow the vault, or failing that, before they get to the getaway truck with their haul.  It's pretty cool, and you get a temporary power for a success.  At the low levels this consists of a travel power: a jump pack, or a jet pack, which helps on the way to your permanent travel power at level 14.

After you finish stopping the heist though, the real fun starts for me.  There are a number of key mobs throughout the map.  Each of these mobs drop a key to a side mission.  There are a number of sides, including stop the villain you just arrested from making a jail break, to preventing a weapons deal, to stopping a pawn shop heist to stopping two different arsons.  The weapons deal side mission gives you yet another temporary power as reward.  Each completion also gives you more time.  This is all timed by the way.  The timer is doable, but keeps things tense.  You can also add time to the clock by stopping vandals from destroying things all over town.

This was a nice addition to the "see contact, do mission" cycle that existed before.

Also, they've added crafting and selling to them game.  This is a game within the game in my view.  You get recipe's for power ehancements or new costume pieces.  Then you get ingredients for these recipes.  You can get recipes and ingredients as loot drops, or you can buy them at the auction house.  You can also buy and sell crafted finished enhancements.  Another nice part of this new aspect is that the enhancements come in sets.  So I may craft 6 different ranged damage enhancements called "Thunderstrike".  One crafted enhancement will improve the accuracy and damage of the power, another will improve the range etc.  The neat thing here though is that if I have two pieces of the set, all my powers may get a 9 percent accuracy bonus, or my health regeneration rate may go up by 10 percent if I have 4 of a set etc.  So this is fun for those that like looting, and crafting and buying and selling, and character customization and development. 

The Rikti Warzone also adds a new twist, in that you can now team with villains to prevent an alien invasion.  That zone also enables you to earn merits which can be cashed in at the quartermaster for new temporary powers or new permanent costume pieces.  The missions in this zone have a real variety to them, which is also nice.  New maps, new objectives etc.  This zone also enables large groups of villains and heroes to place bombs on the alien mother ship and take it out.

On top of this, issue 11's new zone has 3 mini tf's.  They take one to two hours each.  They consist of a short story arc, with new maps, new villains etc.  The stories are interesting and they include neat movie cut scenes.  I like all of them, but probably the most exciting one has you rescue the signature heroes from the signature villains, and then work with the signature heroes to take down a 40 foot spider.  It's very cool.

The Stateman task force takes about 2 to 3 hours and again has huge maps, very different terrain, new villains, Arch villains galore, movie cut scenes and a very fun climactic battle with Lord Recluse and his super device that makes him more powerful.  You have to beat other archvillains to get to him, and spider troops repel from a flier onto your head while you're at it.

So the variety has really come along nicely.  I also enjoy issue 7's pvp zone a lot where heroes battle villains for control of small bases and their armaments.  Honestly, now I have trouble deciding what I want to do lol.  I feel that I have a lot of choices, and that's a good problem to have.  I haven't done frostfire in about a year ^_^.

Also, the next issue is revamping the hollows to make even that zone in and of itself more diverse.  I hope that answers your question.  It was a good one.