Clintonian

And post-I2, Gaffer commented not on the likelihood, but the rationale for slightly raising the monthly fee, while he quashed the rumor that keeping both CoH and CoV active at the same time would double the fee. This post is quoted and linked in a follow-up post I put in the '2005 Primer on CoV' thread. I believe Lord Recluse also commented along the same lines in an interview a couple of months ago.

The crux of the decision seems to hinge on what will happen to the scope of future content updates after CoV's release. Will the CoH and CoV updates be seperate? Combined? And how big will they be? What will the output schedule for the this update scenario, or that one? These questions would be easier if CoV were merely a paid expansion for CoH. However, because of the standalone nature of CoV, Cryptic/NCSoft potentially have 2 seperate playerbases to satisfy. Reading the forum, you can already see indications of how a cultural divide would develop.

I'm sure the companies will be looking hard at the pre-order and initial launch numbers for CoV to get some indication of what kind of content update structure they can sustain.

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Issue 5, in my opinion..is a long way off, somewhere around next January.

So Issue 4 is technically the last free update we'll see til after CoV is live.

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I'm not known for clear answers, but I'll break with tradition and just say...

Nope. Issue 5 WILL come out earlier than next January.

And there are TWO development teams within Cryptic - one on City of Heroes and one on City of Villains.

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FADE IN:
EXT. SPACE
As the words "There are TWO" are intoned, Planet Backagain is cleaved in two, resulting in a cataclysmic explosion.

CLOSEUP
Tha body of Backagain spinning in the void, clawing at his eyes.

FADE OUT.

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And thats sad. A whole year of people clamoring for more costumes...and what we're seeing isn't what we wanted.


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BTW, could you wait until April 28th - y'know the launch date of CoH - to continue talking about CoH being out a whole year. Every time you state that CoH has been out a whole year, it makes it difficult to consider anything you write after that, because it's not truth, it's exaggeration. Par for the course for you, but I really do try to take you seriously. You don't come off ignorant, just willfully negative in the face of anything positive. OH! Maybe you're a school teacher and you only work nine months a year. So a nine months really is a fiscal year for you. Is that it? Cuz a lot of us don't get the summer off. Your confusion of what is reality makes for entertaining but head-scratching posts.

Also, I realize some people have been asking about new costume options for some time, but "clamoring" for a whole year? Can we get some made up statistics at least? Y'know, for giggles. I know you haven't because you took several months off to have fun with the new fantasy MMO's out there.

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But if what we've seen is the weathervane of what is in total...then this costume update isn't about rewarding us at all...its about exploiting a new market and thats it.

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Hahahaha... Only on Planet Backagain. You're doing this because you're bored, right? Playing a little 'pull my finger' in the forums to break the monotony?

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I'm just trying to point out that new costumes have been pretty high on the wish list for a long time and they've mostly been ignored, and for all intents and purposes..they're still being ignored.

[/ QUOTE ] They have been high on Planet Backagain's wishlist. I live on a different planet and seen different wishlists, so your assertion seems a wee bit self-absorbed. 'Wee bit', as in the Pacific Ocean is a wee bit of a pond.

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Its been a year since we had new costumes. If in a year, we only get a bunch of stuff I won't use...I have effectively not gotten anything I'd use after waiting a year.

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Yes, technically this statement has truth. And a meteor strike could kill you before I4, compounding your frustration in your final moments because not only will you have not gotten any new costume options to play with, you won't have a chance to see your prejudicial criticism of something sight-unseen vindicated.

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And do you really think theres going to be a serious content update after Issue 4 before CoV releases? I doubt it seriously. Cryptic is a small house. They'll need the spring and summer to do some serious crunch time to make sure they meet their projected CoV release date.

Issue 5, in my opinion..is a long way off, somewhere around next January.

So Issue 4 is technically the last free update we'll see til after CoV is live.

[/ QUOTE ] That might come to to pass, yes. I would be confused if it did, since Cryptic went on a hiring spree last fall, more than doubling their staff, to have a mostly separate dev team work on CoV.

As long as were touting hypotheticals as likely outcomes, I'd like to register my disgust at the fact that Cryptic will likely go bankrupt and not provide any new content after CoV's release! I am so furious at all the hypothetical future-time I will waste while the devs twiddled their fingers in a timeframe that has not occurred yet! I am going to redouble my efforts to consume comfort food now, so I can have more time to blast those pissants at Cryptic night and day, point by point, in the future! I AM REALLY FREAKING OUT ABOUT THINGS THAT WILL, BUT JUST AS LIKELY WON'T, HAPPEN!!!

I'm not going to ask you to reconsider your penchant for arguing hypotheticals, Backagain. The unintentional entertainment I get from it is much better than your average Real Hero of Genius. Thanks.

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I present to you my wallpaper

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Quite simply, AutoRPD, you were robbed.

CGW jumped the gun. The Skills system was first mentioned as being in development around the release of I2. The first possible release window for it was I3. Considering past promotion of major features in the forum, it was only a mild surprise that Skills isn't in I4. There's been bupkus on it since late Summer.

Also, jeaf7, you are discounting the things that ended up in Issues that were never promoted before their Test Server release.

I'm glad my punchline didn't go over your head.

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You miss the point here Statesman, most don't complain the game is to easy, they complain because they are level 50 with nothing to do

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I sympathize with your frustration with either the lack of activities at 50 or the lack of closure at 50. However, you are the one swinging and missing in this thread. One, the Boss changes have little to do with the end game or the progress to the endgame. Two, level 50's are still a statistical minority in-game and in the forum, therefore your valid concerns about the endgame do not represent the current and pressing concerns of the "most". Don't let your passion push you to write things that undermine your point.

It'd be like me writing that Statesman is missing the point because I feel the real problem is handing out Respec's like candy which only fosters an unfounded sense of player entitlement, or that a way to deal with content problems is not just add more zones but also to make something of the several hazard zones that have become ghost towns since mission xp bonuses have (quite rightly) killed street sweeping. See? Valid points, but awkward placement in a thread about the recent Boss difficulty changes.

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... it could also lead to outleveling contacts/content...

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heh. We've gone from forced teaming to forced alt creation.

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States' solution looks at first glance to be a withdraw of the whole boss thing. That doesn't change my opinion of whether it was better for the game, and I'm disappointed to hear there'll be a rollback.

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Statesman did state that once players are able to drop missions, the question of Boss difficulty will be considered again.

New post from Statesman about tweaking the Boss changes in the Developer's section.
Statesman: Solo and Team Play

He laid out a short, medium, and long term plan for the renovation of the mission system. In the short term:

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• We will roll back the Boss changes.
• Team up XP bonuses will be increased.

Let’s not start pointing fingers – “the whiners had their way” or “the game’s too easy, make it harder” – because I think the Boss changes violated a basic principle. Namely: never let a person make an uninformed decision. And right now, people aren’t clear when a mission requires a team up and when it doesn’t. Plus, they have no ability to drop a mission if they don’t feel like doing it. Besides, we’ve introduced our Mission Difficulty Slider to satisfy the demands of those who want something more challenging in the future.

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Check out the link for further details.

I think you're going to win a lot of people's hearts with your plan for missions. I think you've thrown a bone to about everybody you can with this. Thanks.

They release Issues on a roughly quarterly schedule. This is one's cooking a little longer, but the next one is supposed to come earlier - getting us back on a regular schedule.

Levelling is an illusion. I hope that, by Issue 4, people realize it.

Shout-out to Superchum! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!! OMG AM I LIVE ON THE RADIO FOR REEEEAL!?!?! [censored] A! [censored]! BALLS! ANAL WARTS! [censored]! [censored]!

Listen, Gilfred, I don't usually care for Nagical's posts usually, but I think the level of casual dimissiveness in your response to his list of suggestions was a bit heavy-handed. The guy made a good effort to make a thoughtful post. You disregarded everything with impunity. Several of his suggestions are actually in the design pipeline as it is.

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5) How about missions/research to get unique costume parts, where one could quest to get an entire set.

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This is under consideration, but not in the pipeline.

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9) Alternate character abilities. Something to allow anyone, no matter what their level, to continue to develop their characters.


11) Raise the roof. Let heroes adventure and fly/travel out into space. Missions to/on the moon or involving space/space ships.


19) Additional body types. I want a Blob type character.

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SSOCS addresses #9 to an extent. More will come after CoV's release.
Undersea locales seems to be next in the pipeline, but Statesman said last summer that space locales and missions are something he wants to implement.
I believe more body types are coming in Issue 4 or 5. The dev's have responded in the affirmative to player requests for non-bodybuilder body types.

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13) More interaction with the world. I want to interact with my world, not just have it push me around.

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My impression from the dev postings from the past few months is that they are working on that. From the CoV snippets, I believe the game will incorporate several new game mechanics with CoV's release beyond the flashier selling points that are being promoted. I've seen hints of a mission system overhaul in the works. We'll get a better idea when CoV goes into beta this Spring/Summer - AFTER the NDA is lifted, of course.

The rest of Nagical's points I disagree with or think they're not worth the effort to work on. However, I think this post of his is worthy of more consideration than it got from you.

Maybe you just had a bad day and Nagical wore down that last nerve. He's done it to me, but occasionally I find his posts interesting. This was one of them and you missed it.

That's because in the two months since the original post, the target page has been updated. Even August 15 is still a retailer guess at a release date.

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Sorry to spoil the fun, guys, but that date is certainly not THE day. It all depends upon the bugs we squash and so forth. He asked "When's Issue 3 coming out?" and I said "Heck, a week? It all depends on the bugs." There's no set schedule, though next Tuesday would be nice.

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In that case can't you just put it out tomorrow and fix the bugs along the way?

(Its not as if there isn't bugs already

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They tried that once. I didn't work out so well.

Your forum reg date is the date that Issue 2 came out. Hmm, wonder if the buggy Issue that certain players begged to be released bugs and all inspired you to come to the forum to vent? If not, it's quite the coincidence.

Hey, that was funny, Unikorn. Are you get soft on us?

Great thread. Didn't want this to get lost in the upcoming inactive thread purge. (It's been a couple of weeks - we're due for another on Friday!)

Guess the expiration date on this thread has passed since it is now un-stickied.

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Im remembering hords of lvl 1-15 Heros swarming lvl 30 and 33 Rikti Mentalists and there minions.
To do that again would be a blast.
They would have to rull back the purple patch for the event tho.

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There's no way that autologout could have cured that lagtastic epic battle. I look at that fantastic amateur long-form music video of the beta Rikti Invasion every couple of months wistfully.

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"O2 Boost."
..."Increase Density."
..."Accelerate Metabolism"
..."Dispersion Bubble."
..."Shadow Fall."

I thought most of those only offered resistance to status effects, not the ability to break the effect.

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They break status effects as well. Some powers that have nothing to do with status effect attacks can break them too, like Speed Boost.

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It seems to me that the introduction of this inspiration only *encourages* blasters and scrappers (and, to some extent, many characters) to solo instead of grouping, as reliance upon teammates for any kind of backup is lessened even further.

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It depends on the drop rate of Mez Break Inspirations. If it's like Mez Resist Inspirations, I'm not too worried.

The increase in mission xp bonus all but killed street sweeping which, in turn, killed these zones which right now are only good for street sweeping.

I've got some great memories sweeping with pick-up teams in both zones the first few months after launch. After the Purple Patch and the mission xp boost, there's just no incentive unless they shift some storyarc missions there.

Ya hear that, dev's? Storyarc missions in Boomtown/Faultline for teh win!

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have you even played with Kinetics, what defensive powers do we benefit from?

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Ha - Siphon Speed and run like mad!