DeathstrikeII

Any MM theme could easily be good or bad, especially since the idea of being good or bad is relative.

Some examples
Undead heroes - The Crow
Demon heroes - Ghost Rider
Thug heroes - Sons of Anarchy
Robot heroes - The Vision
Merc heroes - The A Team
Ninja heroes - The American Ninja

I can't think of any theme really that couldn't be made into a hero or a villian with a little imagination.

If nothing else comes out of this deal, I hope that we can finally call CoH and CoV the same game, instead of referring to them as separate titles. They have the same dev team, the same update schedule, cross game events, etc, etc, etc.

With that in mind, I hope they do more to bring the two together as one -- i.e., non-instanced travel to Paragon and the Isles by both sides, switching from hero to villain or vice versa, open concentual PvP wherever and whenever the players want, etc.

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Considering the whole team signed on, that only helps the sooner than later because we don't have to find replacements for any of the core members.

We will be in transition while we settle in the new offices, so I'm not sure when we will be seeing the noticeable difference but I imagine within 6 months you will be seeing some great results.

Ex

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Thank you for the quick response! Much appreciated!

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The players should be seeing more resources and development for the title they love and support.

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When should we start seeing this? Is this something we'll notice right away or is this a soon(tm) kind of deal? Thanks!

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WP was most requested -and- possible. It's my understanding that shields as a powerset just isn't possible right now. Granted, the game could change and it could be possible later, but who wants to wait a couple of years for a new powerset?

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Actually, I don't remember ever reading that they were not possible right now...just that they would have taken too much time to do. It's hard to say if "too much time" equals six months or two years.

Anywho, I like the dual blades and the weapon customization. The WP is still pretty glowy, and not the toned down set that I was envisioning. Overall, looks like I11 will be a good issue. It's great that the video confirmed that I11 is coming out in Fall of 2007.

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too easy to get prizes, in my opinion

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When has trick or treating ever been hard? You dress up, you go door to door, and you get stuff. That's the way trick or treating works....

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The problem is, this isn't a democracy. How do-able a set is, is a huge factor in deciding what new sets will be added. No matter how many people want it, we just aren't going to see stretching due to the technical limitations of the engine. Similarly, we will not see growth as a powerset because the game is built around characters of a certain size range.

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It may not be a democracy, but I do seem to remember the devs stating that their priority was to give the players what they wanted if it were possible. Is a poll possible? No one is saying to make it a fill in the blank pole, but if the devs would throw out 20 ideas that they believe are doable, and then let us narrow that down to 6 or so for the official poll, it would be a step in the right direction.

Also, be careful about saying what we will and won't see. What's impossible (most likely improbable) today is often very possible tomorrow. We've seen this many times in the last 3 years as new tech becomes available.

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The poll wasn't the only deciding factor for doing Dual Blades as the next powerset.

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Translated: We wanted to do Dual Blades. They'll grow on you. Get used to the idea, because it's happening.

Seriously though, will there be another poll anytime soon? If so, might I suggest a poll to determine what sets make it onto the poll?

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I don't get why CoH keeps being compared to Fantasy games all the time. There's nothing fantasy about it beyond what players bring with them.

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There's nothing fantasy about CoH? That just seems like a funny thing to say.

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I think the point of this post is enough with the weapons already. I hope that after DB, new powersets will be more mainstream heroish.

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The point of this post is that Super Heroes DON'T kill people, and that it's pretty much impossible to arrest someone using a pair of knives and NOT kill them.

I have no problem with CoV and dual blades, it fits the bad guy motif quite well, but CoH? Gimmie a break.

It's funny, I looked over my 2 servers full of heroes, and out of the "killer" weapons (katana, axe, broad sword, claws, mace, assault rifle) I have a grand total of 1 character. That being a lvl 1 katana using joke toon named "Wild Bill Kelso". So from my point of view, we already have 6 worthless, unusable powersets in CoH, why bother adding more?

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Technically, a superhero is just as likely to kill someone by using fire, energy bolts, electricity, or super strength. Look at Spiderman for instance. He could easily kill a normal thug with one punch. He doesn't, because he controls himself and his powers. Same thing would apply with someone who was a master with a weapon (someone on a super hero level would undoubtably be a master). You can roleplay any of this off as non-lethal if you really want to.

Besides, you could also go the other way with this. 007 was a hero of sorts, and he was licensed to kill. Who says all heroes are goodie two shoes? Some give as good as they get

I think the point of this post is enough with the weapons already. I hope that after DB, new powersets will be more mainstream heroish.

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Shields though is a VERY specific power that only one character I know of uses: Captain America. So I can see why that wouldn't be included when its a pretty obvious infringment/ripoff.

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Um...no. Captain America does not corner the market on shields. There are a ton of concept characters that could be made using shields. There's a ton that will be made using DB too. The point was that DB did not win the poll. It was just the easier one to implement. Personally, I'm glad they're adding any new set at this point. The devs have really been too slow at getting new sets in the game. They need to add these two, and then a lot more.

To all the people spouting off about the majority have voted for dual blades....I have only one word for you. Shields.

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Whining is not worth the time it takes to read - constructive criticism can influence the game immensely and in the right ways. EB change for AVs for instance, auto-Exemping, RSF changes, various AT buffs (Claws, Defense sets, *maybe* blaster secondaries - wait and see on that one)

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Of course, there have been numerous posts relating to all of these valid critisims in which the authors were called whiners or something similar, regardless of how well they worded their posts. There is a trend on these boards to call anyone who says anything negative about the game and/or the devs a whiner. It's like some sort of strange forum defense mechanism.

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But is what you want feasible?

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Well, I guess that's up to the Devs to decide. They control the money and the staffing. I'm just a player.

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people seem to be overlooking the fact that right now we're playing a 3-4 gig beast when the original CoH was a little gig baby. We're dealing with a LOT of code that takes a LOT of testing to get new content added. And we're also dealing with a far more critical playerbase right now than we were at launch. If something goes on test that isn't 100% perfect (Flight poses, looking at you), you can be sure there'll be protests.

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Don't take this the wrong way, but to me, this just sounds like an excuse. I played Asheron's Call for 4 years, and they had an update out every month with very few exceptions. Some of them were freaking huge updates too. From what I hear, after seven years, they're still cranking them out over there on a shoestring budget. I'm in no way saying that AC is better than CoH, but I am saying that there's no reason why a game that is maybe three years old should be unable to keep updates on a schedule. This is a business after all.

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While the general idea of "Give us more more more NOW NOW NOW" is okay if you want to be disappointed every issue, the big picture cannot be ignored. We're dealing with a game that literally has hundreds of thousands of missions for their hundreds of thousands of players. And we've already been shown in the past with new content that the playerbase is not above writing it all off as "just more fighting in a different map."

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It may be that it is just more fighting on a different map. There are very VERY few missions in this game that can be completed without direct combat.

As far as the I want it now now now stuff...I think it comes down to this. The Devs mention the stuff and then use words like "soon". A year later, it's still coming "soon". Personally, I've quit listening to the devs when they talk about what's coming out in future issues. I've taken the "I'll believe it when I can play it" attitude. It's saved me a lot of aggravation.

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So tell me, Deathstrike, what does the playerbase want right now?

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I'm hardly a spokesperson for the playerbase, but if I had to guess, I'd say they want:

1. An update schedule that they can count on. If it's going to be quarterly, it should be quarterly. If it's every six months, that's fine, but make darn sure it's ready to go at six months. A week late is fine. 2-3 months late? Not so fine.

2. Better quality control. Major bugs seem to follow each update lately. Massive lag, random disconnects, etc. seem to hit a lot of people with each release.

If they can just get these two things right, it'd be a huge step in the right direction.

As far as people complaining about all the other stuff, welcome to the boards. Newsflash -- it's what we do here. We argue every little point, and when we run out of stuff to argue about, we make stuff up.

With 100,000 + people playing the game, you won't please everyone on every little thing, but that's not a reason to release late and/or buggy updates. Our devs can do better than that.

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After digesting this thread for a little while and thinking about it fully, I've come to a conclusion.

The Playerbase really doesn't know what it wants.

Reason: Look around this thread. Then look around the training room forum. How many posts do you see where someone says "Put I8 on live now!" versus how many you see that say "Wait and fix all the bugs first!" How many times over the past year have we heard the "I'd take a whole issue of just bug fixes" hogwash versus how many people claiming there's not enough in an issue to warrant its development? Or the people claiming they want smaller updates faster versus those who say there isn't enough in each update?

So, going by what the forums have stated they want, we can make this list of demands:

* More stuff in each update
* Less stuff in each update
* Wait until all bugs are fixed
* Push it live now and worry about bugs later
* Give us more missions and content for level 50s
* Give us more missions and content for every other level for my alts
* Give us more costume pieces
* Stop wasting time developing costume pieces
* Just give us an entire issue of bug fixes
* Bug fixes are not content and shouldn't be wasted on an issue
* Give us faster updates with new content
* Take your time and finalize content, don't just give us halfbaked new stuff

See where the problem comes here?

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I think you're missing the bigger message. These things don't necessarily have to be either/or type choices. How about a good sized update in 3 months or less with no bugs? If you really listen, we are generally in agreement on a lot of things. No one is really asking for:

Longer times between updates
Updates with bugs
Fewer missions for any level
Fewer costume options

We want bug free updates with lots of new stuff to do, and new costumes options added every now and then, and we don't want to have to wait six or seven months at a time to get it. And you know what? Part of the reason we're like this is because of the Devs. They spoiled us in the beginning. Now, they want to back off a bit on the size and freqency, and much of the player base is having a problem with it.

This game is big enough to run with the big boys, but it's moving at a snails pace in terms of story progression and updates. It's like we're hovering when we should be flying!

Serious question here. Is the company making roughly the same amount of money each month as it has in the past? If so, why do we have fewer devs? I've heard that our subscription numbers are not down, so what's the deal? Does all the money spent on CoH/V go back into CoH/V (and of course the expenses associated with the game) or do they get diverted into other projects like MUO or Auto Assault? Could poorly performing side projects be draining money from our game?

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The delays are mainly because there is alot more being jammed into each issue, not because of anything you have listed.

Looking at the number of issues isn't really fair especially when you consider that issues like 'Colosseum' had almost nothing in the way of content added and 'A Council of War' simply added the Kheldians and their story arcs. Issue 8 is adding safeguard missions, veteran rewards, the new costume options, new powers, a whole new zone and its giving powers an overhaul.

In terms of raw bulletpoint features the issues might have more of a gap between them but they contain a great deal more additions.

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And this is the annoying thing for me. By jamming all this stuff in each issue, they're holding up stuff that's ready to go. Wouldn't it be much better to release the stuff as it's ready? For example, if Faultline is ready to go, but Vet Rewards isn't, release Faultline now, and then take the time to fix Vet Rewards. Every issue, they jam stuff in that holds up the stuff that's ready to go.

Smaller updates more often please.

There's a fine line between reasonable and unreasonable. Six months is a long time and probably pushing it. Anything more than that is simply too long, and can't possibly be good for a subscription based business. Just my opinion there.

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I am inclined to agreew ith your assesment James. Bases just dn't give me capacbilities I didn;t already have. If they get this whole CoP thing going and it's now important to ahve a functional base in order to ahve Items of Power (which are actually uesful, unlike tekleporter and resurection circles and such) then that will be a big step. If they get raids working then (for groups taht care about PvP) that will be quite helpful also.

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You don't think teleporters are important? O.o

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Nope, not at all.

Didn't I read something recently about the Devs having a new policy of giving the players what they want within reason? Is tp'ing a turret unreasonable? If so, why? What am I missing? It seems pretty obvious that this change is not what the players wanted (at least the players in this thread).

Playing WoW right now and having a blast doing it :P

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I for one admire the devs' resolve in maintaining the comic-book purity of this game and keeping aerial dogfights well out of it.

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Are you serious?

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Tentative plan for releasing the "Feature Update" to the website is mid February

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Mid February for the Website Update? So March to see it on Test and April before it hits live then.

I heard DDO is scheduled for a Mid Feb release.

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WOOT! I can hardly wait

Just curious, but what are the dev's priorities? Obviously game breaking bugs would come first, but then what? Post 50 content? New zones or ATs? Game balancing? It seems pretty obvious that it's not stuff to do outside of combat.