Chaomancer

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It was clear form the closed beta that those poses were going to be shelved forever until peeps made a big fuss about really really wanting them, so as a consolation the emote-fly option was invented (which works really well if you set up a decent keybind).

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Funny, I distinctly remember hearing about the emote-based flight poses before Closed Beta began.

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That's the problem, isn't it? Matt Miller once said (in reference to EAT's for example):

"From a production standpoint, when given the choice between an expensive feature 10% of the players will get to see and enjoy, and one that 90% of the players will get to see and enjoy, it’s almost a no-brainer."

Frankly, I see Vision(tm) getting more in the way of progress than economics and time tables. You'll forgive me if I take exception to what realistically defines an unacceptable compromise in this game? Or are you really willing to put the 10% / 90% ratio to test on a few features this playerbase has long requested and may never see?

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First off, your example doesn't fit your argument, as the 10%/90% issue is one of economics, not Vision (TM); their Vision (TM) includes the EATs, they are just quibbling on economic concerns.

Second, I'm going to have to assume that when you said "you" in your question you were referring to someone else, because I have never said or implied anything of the sort. I'll go ahead and answer anyway, though: I think a balance needs to be struck in those situations. A "10%" feature shouldn't be a constant addition, but on an occasional basis, it seems appropriate to give an incentive to a small portion of the player base.

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I hope so, because it sure does look like our dev team would rather everyone forget the notion of a Crossover feature (even though it was Mr. Emmert himself who I understood promised this would be added to the game. Or am I mistaken about this?)

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I think Statesman stated it as an intended feature, not a promise per se. Developers of any stripe rarely promise anything until they know it can be done.

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Suffice to say, I am of a mind at this point in CoX's life that balance in this game, while laudable, isn't as big a priority or as game-breaking or tedious as many make it out to be. Based on the deafening silence by the devs, I'd surmise they've reached the point (with all the MUO distractions) where they think that if it isn't easy and cheap, they aren't interested in introducing it.

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First, the silence by the Devs is hardly "deafening". They have, in the past, addressed the question of crossovers. That they haven't said anything recently doesn't mean it's abandoned; it just means there is nothing new to report. I suppose they could give us a weekly update saying "Nothing to report", but there wouldn't be a lot of point to it...

Second, MUO is highly unlikely to be a relevant factor. With a few exceptions (Statesman has a managerial position on both teams), they have separate development teams -- and have to be maintained in a way that doesn't interfere with one another. NCSoft is funding City of Heroes. Microsoft is funding MUO. If MUO's development were to interfere with the development of CoH, NCSoft would have grounds for punitive action.

Third, the argument that they are only interested in implementing that which is easy and cheap is disproven by the inventions system in I9, which would be neither easy nor cheap to develop.

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In this particular case, though, compromise itself really isn't a viable option. The desired goal is a single server. There isn't a compromise possible there -- you either have a single server or you have multiple ones. There isn't an in-between state. (And this isn't a case of wanting to consolidate just low-population servers, as DAoC did. The desire he stated was for all servers to be one.

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We disagree. Rather than do nothing and spend nothing – which is what production would rather do, I believe consolidation or clustering is a viable compromise between leaving the servers woefully under-populated and everyone playing on one server.

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Even the lowest population server is not "woefully under-populated". And consolidation of population -- besides the technical questions of what to do with duplicate names, overfilled character slots, etc. -- sends the wrong message, that the game is dying. And even without that, it still would not be a viable compromise in this situation. The goal stated was "single server", with the purpose of solving the problems caused by having multiple servers. Consolidating a few servers doesn't solve any of the problems of having multiple servers, and it only mitigates one -- the problem of finding teams at off-peak hours. The other problems stated -- such as real-life friends starting on a different server -- would remain untouched. A "compromise" that leaves most of the problems untouched, and slightly mitigates one problem, while introducing others, is not a viable compromise.

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The most difficult thing to develop that I would like to add to our game is a completely new database architecture which allows every single player who plays CoH & CoV to be able to play on the same game server. This means no more server selection screens, no more re-rolling because your real life friends are not on the same server as you, and no more trouble finding a group at 3:00 AM because everyone else is sleeping. It’s not an impossible endeavor but my programming team assures me that there is nothing more time consuming and complicated that we could develop for our game at this point.

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Throw in the towel much? You see, the problem I perceive from this programming/production team is that they work in absolutes. It's an anal-retentive flaw I see all the time at work with engineers. Everything must be perfectly prepared, and complete. If a feature they're working on cannot be fully realized, it's shelved (in this game, that means for a long time). I have a problem with this. What is it about engineers and programmers having a very hard time working compromise? Or does the fault lay at production's feet or higher? This mindset has prevented the release of features like flight poses, and any Crossover.

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Engineers and programmers do not necessarily have a hard time working compromise -- it's just that sometimes things really are a case where a compromise isn't adequate or feasible. There's a difference between saying "this isn't good enough" and being a perfectionist. To take your example of flight poses, the original implementation wasn't good enough; it was not an acceptable compromise between their vision and what was implementable. The current version of flight poses which is on test, however, appears to be an acceptable compromise in their eyes. It's not what they originally planned, but it works. (Your other example, hero/villain crossover is a design issue regarding balance more than a case of programmatic difficulty. From what bits and pieces we've heard, it's almost trivial from a programmatic standpoint, but they're still looking into issues of balance and intended design.)

In this particular case, though, compromise itself really isn't a viable option. The desired goal is a single server. There isn't a compromise possible there -- you either have a single server or you have multiple ones. There isn't an in-between state. (And this isn't a case of wanting to consolidate just low-population servers, as DAoC did. The desire he stated was for all servers to be one. The number of changes needed to do that in a healthy game without having an adverse effect on the users would likely be bigger than any issue to date. Now think about how long its taken to do some of those issues...)

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Um, did anyone actually READ the first section instead of skim it?

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Yes, everybody did. And then complained about it. And then it got corrected to what you just saw now.

Before getting sarcastic about peoples' responses, please read the thread.

I ran it on four of my characters, but only on two that didn't already have access to DJ Zero. My suggestions:

1) Remove the team-up requirement, as others have stated. I found that I spent more time trying to find an other-side teammate than I did running all the missions.

2) Have something to reward people for logging in, even if it's just a single badge. I'd like to see this as being standard for all events.

3) If multiple missions have to be run to get multiple rewards, introduce some variety into that mission. Say, have a "Fight Snaptooth" mission, one each of the existing Ganymede/Scratch missions (without the required team-up), and a mission to retrieve some glowy that DJ Zero needs... and at the end of each offer the choice of the rewards. That way, it keeps things interesting while still providing flexibility in the rewards.

I like the idea behind the events. I like the ability to team-up, just not the requirement. And I like the multiple rewards, just not the repetetive nature of the mission.

Another factor in TFs is that there's the time to do it... and there's the time to start it. I've never had a team-assembly period of less than 30 minutes for a pick-up group task force or trial. It gets wearying, and is part of why I just plain gave up on doing them. So a chance, even a moderately small one, to get drops outside of their standard pools would be appreciated from that standpoint.

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I'd still rather have Pools A, C, and D and make Pool B (Story Arcs) contain a nice subset of some of what can be obtained in both Pools C and D. That way the reusable content (A C and D) contains everything one could possibly want, while Story Arcs get you valuable things via soloing that you could otherwise only get via teaming (C and D).

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I like that idea.

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Very, very nice.

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Yes, that idea there looks like a winner to me.

{ Replying to original post }

OK, this does make me feel a bit better. If it's only the rare sets that require doing story arcs, task forces, and trials (and only some of those require doing more than one of those things), I'm not as bothered by the idea. It does, at least, open up a bit more hope that when I am in the situation of wanting a rare thing that's only TF-accessible, I won't be in that situation very often.

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Autobots! ROLL OUT the stolen televisions!!!

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Times have gotten tough for Optimus...new parts don't come cheap .

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Nah... it's not really Optimus. It's a truck that the villains in the black market made look just like Optimus. It's all part of their plan.

See, Longbow would love to hassle the villains who come to the black market. But this way, they get there, see "Optimus", and say to themselves, "Oh, Optimus Prime is here. Well, he can surely handle this better than I can, so I'll go where I'm really needed".

A couple undocumented map QOL bonuses I noticed when I was in Founder's Falls last night:

* The universities are now marked on the maps.
* Field analysts now have a blue "person" icon to distinguish them from the green trainer icons.

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Wow, nice catch! Wish I'd made the connection. It may say something about the mean age of the CoX population since it took this long for someone to finally notice and say something about it. I'll overlook the fact that the OP seemed to actually be remembering The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. *heh*

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Actually there's a bit of that as well.

Look at Arbiter Sands.

Look at the Hooded Claw.

Seperated at birth I tell you.

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I don't think so... the two look pretty different. The Hooded Claw

Arbiter Sands

Wow.... I didn't notice that... I noticed Muxley of course, but didn't cotton on to the rest.

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Any chance of you guys bringing in some Winter Lords (minus the mega experience) so we can get the badge on new alts?

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It's coming. Phase 2 of the event has presents all over the city. When opened, sometimes they say "Nice" and give a present, other times, they say "Naughty" and spawn Snowbeasts. If you are on a team of 5 or more, this sometimes includes the Winter Lord Giant Monster. Defeating him grants the Frozen Fury badge.

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Wait... is it supposed to be that each subsequent day the receiver gets everything they got before and the stuff for the new day? Or do they just repeat it to make the song longer?

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It's up in the air... I suspect originally it was just to make the song longer, but people have generally taken it as cumulative (in part due to the humor of it, I suspect.)

This works out to the following amounts of the days' gifts:

12 of Day 1's gift
22 of Day 2's gift
30 of Day 3's gift
36 of Day 4's gift
40 of Day 5's gift
42 of Day 6's gift
42 of Day 7's gift
40 of Day 8's gift
36 of Day 9's gift
30 of Day 10's gift
22 of Day 11's gift
12 of Day 12's gift

As Natalie Cole says, "Where the heck am I going to put all this stuff?"

Yes, they changed it. Lusca can only spawn one-at-a-time now.

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The veteran sprints? do we have to reslot whichever one/ones we decides to use with enhancments???

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Yes; they're separate powers, so they take separate enhancements.

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Hey, did we properly complain about Melissa & Jake (?) being removed from the Easter Egg site?

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Mike.

I thought that was just a bug, anyhow?

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A bug? Heck no, they said cool stuff along the lines of 'how the hell did you get in here' when you clicked them.

Me, I think Sexy Jay saw the Melissa & Mike were sexier than he is and turned them invisible.

Zloth's costume suddenly turns to pink with red poka-dots and some lavender horizontal stripes

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He meant their absence was a bug, I think. And it's one that's fixed, as I saw them last night on Guardian.

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Did the new Flight animations get scrubbed?

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For now. They're working on dealing with some camera bugs related to the poses, as well as making the poses selectable. They'll be back at an unknown date in the future.

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My only question is...what makes this worth $29.99 for the CD or $9.99 for the in-game? Is it all about costume pieces?

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What you get for in-game items are the following:
A complete set of "Justice" costume pieces.
A complete set of "Sinister" costume pieces.
A Pocket D VIP teleport power
A Jump Jet power

Now, if the costumes aren't that appealing to you, that leaves the two powers. The teleport has a long interrupt time, and takes a while to recharge, but it can take you from any zone to Pocket D, which can save you a bit of travel time here and there.

What made it worth it to me was the Jump Jet. This only stays on for a short period of time, but it's pretty handy. It's almost strictly vertical, but it does allow you to keep momentum from any movement you were making before you jump. This can get you up and over many otherwise tricky spots in the game, even if your character only has Sprint. No more begging for teleports to the top of Atlas, for example.

Are those four items worth $9.99 for the in-game item pack? Up to you. The CD also contains an up-to-date (pre-I8) version of the software, which will save you time should you ever need to reinstall, and an up-to-date (post-I8) map.

You need to set the pattern. In the pattern field (where you'll find the usual Fade Line, Circles, Stripes, etc.) there is, at the very end, an entry for Justice on the Justice costume. This will allow you to set both colors.

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After all, it's not really heroic to commit suicide just to avoid the drudgery of a 5 minute run to a gate and then a few more minutes to get to the trainer in Atlas just to face the same amount of time running back to a mission.

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Time is money, right? Everything in this game is geared to keeping people playing longer and thus on-line longer. And the longer it takes you to do everything from run to a trainer to slot enhancements, the longer your account will be open.

Good for business. Bad for gamers.

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Let's see... assuming an average of 3 hours a day playtime... (some will have more, some less, but this is around what I and my friends are usually at, so it'll do for an ad-hoc calculation.) One month's playing would, on (30-day) average work out to 90 hours of playtime.

And we'll be cynical and treat that "five minute run" estimate as accurate as well. So it would take 1,080 of those runs to add up to just one more month of playtime.

Now, even when I can't call a contact yet, there aren't that many of these runs I need to make. One from contact to mission. One from hospital to mission if I die (admittedly I can die multiple times,. One from mission to trainer/enhancement dealer after mission if I need to. One back to the contact. Four runs per mission, roughly. That's 20 minutes "run time" per mission if one has no travel powers. Which means I'll need to run 270 missions for this "run time" to add up to a month of playtime.

I can usually finish a mission in an average of 15 minutes within the mission map. Sometimes it's faster, sometimes it's longer, obviously -- but 15 minutes for the usual. So a total of 35 minutes per mission once the "run time" is thrown in.

Which means that in the 3 hours of gameplay a night, I can play 5.14 missions. It will take me 52.5 nights to run 270 missions.

So... after playing for two months, if I don't take any travel powers, I'll have travelled enough to account for an extra month. You know... chances are if I'm playing for two months I'm already enjoying the game enough that I don't really care about playing an extra month. Chances are also that I have some form of travel power, which renders the argument moot. (And if I choose to build a character without ever taking a travel power, well, I know what I'm getting into.)

I can see both sides of the debate here. Yes, "multiplayer" implies there will be a certain amount of team-based content. But the area covered by content that's only available to teams should not overlap the area covered by content that feels essential.

I have a modest cadre of friends who play the game, and when they're online I will often team up with them, whether it's necessary or not (there is, after all, a big difference between team play and "team only"). When they're not around though, I will almost always solo.

For an analogy, take a look at going to the movies. It can definitely be a group experience. I've gone to more than a few movies with friends and enjoyed it. But when I'm in the mood for a movie and my friends aren't available, I go alone. And I will usually pick a seat that's fairly isolated. If I absolutely had to in order to watch a movie, I'd settle for a seat with other people around... but I'd be irritated if they turned out to be loud obnoxious bozos.

Similarly with CoH. I enjoy playing with my friends. When not playing them, I enjoy soloing. If I have to form a team to do something, I'll do so, but I'll get irritated if the only team I can scrap together turns out to be a bunch of obnoxious bozos. This has happened a couple times, because of course, there's no "bozo detector" in the game ( ) and it's generally rendered things fruitless. A team of intelligent, cooperative players is fun. But if you find yourself saying "Morons. I've got morons on my team", it can be aggravating to the point of driving one away from even the solo aspects of the game, simply because acquiring mountains of debt can get frustrating.

But for the most part I'm all right with that. These are the risks you take, and the team-only content is generally something that can be ignored if it comes to that. I'm a badge addict, but if push comes to shove, I can skip the Sister Psyche Task Force badge if I somehow could never find a good team (which, fortunately, is not a likely occurrence.)

AVs? Could conceivably be solo'd... if nothing else, you could wait a while to do the mission after accepting, and level enough so they aren't a problem. And I have no problem with the notion of an AV at the default level being something that you need help on. It is, again, skippable as a rule, if it comes to that.

What bothers me is the Terra Volta Respec Trial. It's a team-only item, and I think even if you follow the "have them join and quit" technique, the difficulty factor in the reactor itself would make it unwinnable by a soloist. (Well, I suppose you could try the "level past it" technique... but considering you can't take missions, that'd be an unholy amount of hunting.) And yet, respeccing is almost a perfect example of something that should be available to everybody, regardless of teaming. It's a reward which is tailor-made for the individual. And it's also one that is almost a necessity after a certain point. Hardly anybody manages to make an optimal build right off the bat.

I could almost forgive the team-based nature of it though, if it weren't so difficult to arrange a team for it. Four people minimum, and the enemies spawn, it would appear, at 2 levels above the level of the highest member. Which means that unless you manage to make everybody the same level, whoever is on the short end of the stick is going to have a tremendously difficult time. (At least the first trial group; perhaps a level 34 can handle large groups of enemies that are 3+ levels above, I don't know. I do know that a typical level 24 or 25 cannot.)

I have tried roughly a half-dozen times in the past week to get a respec team together. Twice I could not get a team together at all. The other times, I was invited into a team, and the level range was enough to render it unwinnable. When Flashback gets here, it'll undoubtedly be much easier to form a workable team; get whoever you want, and have everybody Flashback to an appropriate level. But Flashback isn't here yet, and right now we're stuck trying to cope with disparate levels or trying to get a group of people of balanced archtypes of all the same level who all want to do the respec together at the same time. This is not a positive example of team-based content, and that's a very bad thing when the reward is something that most everybody will want, and which isn't available any other way.

Maybe my experience with Terra Volta is unique, but I can't help but wish that I could solo that at least. It doesn't bother me that I can't solo the Sister Psyche TF. It bothers me that I have to team for a respec, and team to such difficult restrictions.

(As for the Caverns of Trascendance... I do think it's overkill to require 8 people for a mission. But not having done that one yet [accidentally levelled past it with my main; haven't gotten there with my alts], I'll reserve judgment. And at least it isn't a "needful thing".)