Obsidius

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"Exclusive first look"? You mean aside from the open beta that anyone can freely check out, and the pictures and discussions of it that are posted all over the official forum and various fansites?

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The first exclusive look they've linked to the launcher for those who don't read the forums, go to fansites, and/ or are lazy

... smartarse!

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I can never get videos on that damn website to work. Oh well someone let me know when it hits youtube

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Don't worry - Lighthouse was SCOOPED!

Edit: when they release the downloadable version I'll post it on my CoH / CoV YouTube page

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thats going to be the rub...unless there is a master recording of all channels....how do you prove the 12 year old with the microphone is dropping every F-bomb word combo he can think of over voice chat?

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Why would someone want to "police" voice chat? Treat it the same way you do text - if you don't like what someone's saying, slap them on Ignore.

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Because at some point one of the game companies will get sued over not policing the voice chat channels. You can bet on that law suite happening and when it does it will likely kill supported voice.

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Because it happens on Xbox Live every day? Because the same thing happens to telcos all the time?

So if I get a bomb threat call, I can sue the telco for allowing it to happen?

Really, if I get an unwarranted call, or something lewd, I'll disconnect. If it keeps happening, then I'll get the law involved.

Likewise, if a player were to continually harass me on a voice chat, I would get an admin involved or send a petition to a GM.

It's being reactive instead of proactive. I'm sure there will be a reactive Reporting mechanism. As for a proactive solution, no one wants Big Brother "wiretapping" every conversation they're having.

Plus, it all depends highly on the writing of the EULA. "You consent that this service is as-is", "You may report violations of the EULA using this feature", "You consent that your conversations can be monitored at any time", etc. EULAs help protect a company from frivolous lawsuits.

But really, all of this is just speculation based off of a fuzzy press announcement. No one will know for sure until we can see the system.

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thats going to be the rub...unless there is a master recording of all channels....how do you prove the 12 year old with the microphone is dropping every F-bomb word combo he can think of over voice chat?

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Why would someone want to "police" voice chat? Treat it the same way you do text - if you don't like what someone's saying, slap them on Ignore.

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Concurred. This will be a great tool for my SG and coalition/ friends/ allies... but on PUGs, I'll be a bit more reluctant to use it, for the sake of sanity and/ or matureness.

But granted, if I'm the team leader of a PUG and someone starts thinking that "spamming the chat with f-bombs" is cute, I'll give him a boot to the head.

Like others, I'm also wondering what "voice font" is. Does that mean we can add distortion to make ourselves sound more like our characters? This would be interesting...

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-r0y

(seriously, who isn't on vent, TS, skype, etc. by now?)

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I'm not, and I don't want to be.

I know millions will raise their hands in praise and glory, but I'm just hoping it'll be easy to opt out of.

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Voice chat is a big step backwards. This announcement is a sad one.

I've already experienced CoH SG chat on Ventrilo, and the steadily ramping annoyance factor of being forced to listen to an endless stream of inane chatter in the background just to pick out one or two instructions that had anything to do with the mission that could just as easily have been typed...well, before long the Ventrilo program suffered an "accident" and peace and quiet was restored.

It's very true that most people hate "dead air" and must fill the void if the voicechat silence stretches beyond a few seconds, even if their comments are of limited merit.

This new service will be popular with the people who superglue their cellphones to the sides of their heads and walk down the street chattering away...

And keep off my lawn, dagnabbit!

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Translation: only otiose players with ADD will ever use voice chat. Therefor, the tool is worthless to the rest of the playerbase.

Definition: false dilemma.

I'm sorry about your personal experience with voice chat; mine's been a bit better. I'm sure there are others out there like you who will not require teammates to use it, or who won't use it themselves. But those who want it will at least have another option, possibly better integrated than a stand-alone voice server.

Either way, IMHO, more options > less options.

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Do we really need voice chat in the game? I disable all sounds anyway, and while I won't say that I'm discriminated in my favourite SG for not being in a position to use TeamSpeak already - its pretty obvious I'm unintentionally left out of some fun stuff sometimes because of it.

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That's unfortunate to hear... In my SG and Coalition, we try to keep text chat players on as even of a keel as we are. We get them in on our joking around, give out team instructions and use private tells just like anywhere else. We like Ventrilo, we have a lot of OOC chat on it, but we don't require it, and we try not to make chat-only players feel unwelcome because we're on it.

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QFT!

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One question.

Will we be able to disable this completely?

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It won't be enabled at all be default. Seems like you'll opt in instead.

AS an aside, I wonder how Tabula Rasa will work this, since the game has built-in voice chat confused:

Well, my SG occasionally uses Vent anyhow, so I support this, and will be happy to test it out

OTOH, if it will be an additional cost, we already have a free Vent server that one of our coallie SGs lets us use

I always thought the name of the paper ironic given this game

I good read in any case

Nice! Now I don't have to ask around

Time for an Issue 12 update?

First reference I thought of when I had to rebuild my wife's computer (to shinier hardware). Thanks again Bill

Server's up; saving to disk as I type

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Not bad for someone "playing" with poser. I liked it.

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Agreed. A little rough around the edges, but not too bad for his initial foray.

Downloading the big version

More and more this Contextual Dialog sounds more and more like an excellent new tool that will greatly benefit the depth of the game - can't wait to see its full results in I12 and thereafter!

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So is Cimerora going to be in this issue? I'm assuming this zone(?) is part of the Midnight Squad story.

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Yessir, it's the Roman-themed zone. Link!

Something I just noticed...

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• 1 Optional Character Slot for a one-time fee of $5.99
• 2 Optional Character Slots for a one-time fee of $9.99
• 5 Optional Character Slots for a one-time fee of $19.99

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1, 2... 5?

<Consults the Book of Armaments>

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Sorry guys, but except double xp week-end and the usual seasonal events, no further issues are scheduled for 2008?

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Of course there are going to be other Issues released in '08. Can they tell you the dates with certainty? Nope. They are not going to put those dates in stone, since they can change entirely based on the development schedule and testing.

Time to post this puppy to the SG web site

Glad to be a part since (almost) day one

I am cautiously optimistic about the new player-created content. As long as it isn't ripe for abuse (Drek farms? HA! Check out this map!), I'm all for it. I'm sure there will be some balancing to the system (closed betas, etc.) before it gets launched, so I have faith everything will work out. Sounds like another server will be added to store all this stuff too

You know I have to jab you about the City Vault (), but I'm still happy to be a part of this game. And you're right Posi - a lot of us forget how much has been added to the game since launch, much of which didn't involve buying a ton of new boxes (although I wouldn't mind one new box soon ).

As others have said and I will echo: FOUR MORE YEARS!!!

Here's his accredited work

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QR

Major points for those of us behind blockers please anyone?

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"Ultimately, Miller and Grubb wanted to see a parity between the Villains and Heroes in the end-game and this expansion provides both sides with an even playing field as far as epic archetypes of their high level characters are concerned."

"The Crab Spiders have some pet and stealth tools to go with their melee arsenal, while the Bane Spider takes the warrior thing to an even further degree."

Looks like Crabs still get the Disrupters.

*wonders if "some" means other pets too*

Poison Pill

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Given that none of the Crabs in game have "stealth tools" that we've seen, but Banes do (at least in Placate), I'm guessing they switched the words around on accident. Which would imply that Banes still have the pets and Crabs don't.

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Wouldn't be the first time one of the Warcry writers demonstrated a staggering Lack of knowledge about whatever the hell they're asking for....

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Heh, it's like the pot and the kettle

City of Heroes: Exclusive Interview With Matt Miller & Floyd Grubb
by Dana Massey, 21 Apr 2008 3:26 pm

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Now fully settled into their NorCal office, NCsoft is hard at work on the expansion of both the City of Heroes/Villains game and the team that supports it. The publisher turned developer of the original super-hero MMO has taken to the ground fast and we spoke to Lead Designer Matt Miller and Senior Designer Floyd Grubb about the transition, Issue 12 and more.
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"We thought it was going to be a tougher transition than it was," said Miller of the switch from Cryptic's leadership to NCsoft's. "We kind of hit the ground running once we got into the new studio"
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As NCsoft NorCal is exclusively focused on all things City of, they had promised to dedicate more resources to it. For example, when they release new elements of micro-content, such as a recent wedding pack, the money they make off it is put right back into the game's expansion and development.
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This tighter focus and increased budget has allowed them to do some of the things they always wanted to do, but never could quite fit into a past issue. The main one for Issue 12 is Epic Villain Archetypes.
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"It's something we've always wanted to do ever since we released City of Villains," explained Miller, who served in a similar capacity at Cryptic. "They would usually be the first thing on the cutting room floor because they're not accessible to all the players."
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And it's true. This is largely content for level characters in the Villains half of the game only, but it balances things out between the Heroes - who've had their own Epic Archetypes for quite some time - and the Villains. Miller directly credited the proceeds from that wedding pack they released for making Epic Villain Archetypes possible.
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The expansion unlocks the Blood Widow and Wolf Spider archetypes for all villains. They first specialize at mid-career, with the Blood Widows being a lighter, martial arts driven choice and the Wolf Spiders being the heavier, shock-trooper types.
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For those who go down the Wolf Spider route, they have the choice between Crab Spider and Bane Spider at level 24.
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"This is the first archetype that we've designed that halfway through their career they get to choose what path they're going to go down," Grubb told us.
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The Crab Spiders have some pet and stealth tools to go with their melee arsenal, while the Bane Spider takes the warrior thing to an even further degree.
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On the other side of the career tree, those who go down the Blood Widow path get to choose between Night Widow and Fortunata.
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Night Widows use stealth ability and mental blasts to go with their inanate martial arts skills to destroy their enemies.
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The Fortunata combine their offense with control abilities, to create a mind-powerful hybrid.
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Ultimately, Miller and Grubb wanted to see a parity between the Villains and Heroes in the end-game and this expansion provides both sides with an even playing field as far as epic archetypes of their high level characters are concerned.
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Aside from the other major features of Issue 12, Miller pointed out that the team has spent a fair amount of time on basic and long requested quality of life improvements, particularly in the user interface.
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With a game that has been around for over three years, things begin to crop up and one of their programmers had a laundry list of things he'd always wanted to fix or add, but never had a chance. They set him loose and in Issue 12, the players will get to see what he's done.
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"[We're] making the game a lot easier for players to manipulate on their end," Miller explained. He also talked about little tweaks, like for example a temporary boost when a player levels up. Now, they get a bonus and truly get to feel the surge of power that rushes through everyone after they hear that level up tune.
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He's also excited about the addition of traditional RPG branching tree dialogue, something they didn't have in City of Heroes until this Issue and will now begin to use quite a bit.
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"In this issue it's just the test bed for it, we got the tech late into the development process so we were not able to use it everywhere we wanted to," said Miller.
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This allows them to put options into conversations or theoretically do things like present players with situations like which wire to cut when diffusing a bomb. It sounds simple, but it makes their options as mission designers much greater.
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Miller could not - however - comment on whether they plan to go back over old content and backwards integrate this technology.
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Along with the renewed focus on City of, NCsoft has also undertaken a number of new initiatives within the game. Traditionally, they have always released small bites of content for players to buy and enjoy if they so choose and that has continued after the transition.
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They also recently announced a decision to add optional advertising to the game. This worries some fans, but seems to make sense in a more contemporary/Sci-Fi setting that City of offers.
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"It's actually been received very well," said Miller of their announcement. "We wanted to make sure that we affected our user experience as little as possible."
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As such, they first plan to integrate it only on logical places, such as the billboards that decorate the cities of City of Heroes and Villains. They also have their art director hard at work with potential advertisers to ensure that every advertisement that enters the game fits with the setting and style.
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If that's not enough, players can simply go into their interface and turn off all advertisements. No penalties, no questions asked. Obviously, Miller hopes they leave them on - it helps fund the game's continued expansion and development - but he doesn't have an interest in forcing players to be subjected to something they didn't sign up for.
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Issue 12 is currently in Beta, in advance of its roll-out on the live City of Villains and Heroes servers.

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