Samuel_Tow

See, this is kind of what I mean. I find werewolves and witches running at high speed to be nothing short of cat-in-pants annoying. It's not about strategy, it's not about tactics, it's not about intelligence. It's just annoying. It's like having a midget next to my chair, kicking me in the shins every few minutes. Yes, I can avoid it by killing them quickly or abusing holds, but I can also avoid having my cat knock the glasses off my dining table by simply not leaving them there when I leave the room, but I'm certainly not going to teach my cat to knock over glasses just the same.

As far as I'm concerned, the single overriding most important question one must address with a change to AI is "Will this become infuriatingly annoying in actual practice?" Running enemies very much is. No matter what it may add to the tactical side of the game, it is ANNOYING, and as such not a change I would want to see made. And since this is a "what would you like to see" and, by extension, a "what would you like to NOT see" thread, it is the right place to talk about this.

Improve AI to your heart's content, guys, but always make sure that this doesn't leave ME ripping my hair out and punching inanimate objects as a result.

I'm in the same boat. I never got why people cling to that so much.

Well, true, there is that. But reporting spammers has an inexplicable charm all its own, too

The global ignore list is all but useless to me, and that's all down to RMT spammers. I have the habit of not playing my characters for months, so oftentimes I'll come back to 150 spam e-mails all in my inbox. Hitting "Spam" on each of them fills up my ignore list several times over. Luckily, as soon as it gets full, the system will automatically remove someone from it to make room for the person I'm currently ignoring. I don't bother cleaning it up these days, not when it auto-cleans on new entries anyway.

That said, I don't put people on ignore by hand. I wouldn't put spammers on ignore, either, but the system does it automatically.

In theory, perhaps, but we'd be deluding ourselves if we thought that better AI would see Sappers removed from the game. It won't. All it will do is leave them with Sappers, massive control, hideous damage AND better AI. There are far too many factions that are patently annoying even right now to consider making them smart enough to avoid the few weaknesses the AI has in overcoming their cheats.

Take a look at the concept of running enemies, for instance. I'm sure SOMEBODY likes the idea, but the vast majority of people just HATE enemies who run and scatter. Now imagine if all or even just most enemies ran away from you and tried to keep you at range, as well as scattering as soon as they saw you. Yes, they'd be smarter and yes, it would be more realistic, but does anyone REALLY want to see that? Just imagine all the various complaints of Energy Blaster and Peacebringer knockback scatter and apply that to every single spawn in every single mission.

Smart, yes. Fun... Not so much.

As far as hitting the nail on the head goes, this scores a direct hit, because it puts the entirety of the problem down to a very simple statement better than I could have explained it and it aptly describes the problem I've had with GG's view of it.

Villainy in City of Villains feels like it was written by someone who disliked villains, disliked writing for villains, disliked depicting villainous things... And it shows in every detail of the game. Because the writers apparently felt bad about writing for villains, the experience for the players ends up making THEM feel bad in return. After all, villains are evil, slimy, miserable creatures. Surely that sort of world would fit them the best!

I sincerely hope whoever wrote the Going Rogue content actually enjoyed writing for villains, so that we may get a few missions that are less focused on making us feel crap for having made a villain and more on making us feel vindicated in having chosen to play one. I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that the more a writer enjoys writing for a (decent) villain, the less vile and repugnant that villain will become and the more AWESOME he will be. Still evil, that's always doable, but evil and AWESOME, not evil and CRAP like we currently are in City of Villains.

In short, the CoV content is miserable through and through, and it doesn't have to be. It SHOULDN'T be.

*edit*
To add: Yes, being a villain in real life SHOULD be a miserable experience and SHOULD be horrible, unpleasant and unrewarding. That's because we don't want real-life villains to exist. But any game we play should be fun, engaging and rewarding, and if that game involves being a villain, then that villainy should be fun, engaging and rewarding, too. Currently, it mostly isn't.

The Abyss has an astounding lack of contacts and other content in it, but I concede to your point

Which is precisely the problem. A number of people keep going in and out of the game, always hoping that it would change SOMEHOW and become much more like what they actually want. A number of other people, and I count myself among these, like the game pretty much exactly as it is, and massive changes, revisions and innovations only serve to detract and degrade what made the game good.

This is subjective, obviously, but you're never going to be able to sell a brand new experience to the exact same players. That's why Blizzard have been remaking Warcraft for, what? 20 years now? That's why they remade every MMO ever made, too. And they were smart to. It's made them more money than most countries' annual budgets.

I guess. One of the problems a City of Heroes 2 would need to solve, however, are the various holes in the many combat mechanics we employ here, so I have a sneaking suspicion that, even IF a sequel used similar powers, it wouldn't use the same, or indeed even a similar character build system. Of course, it might, but I don't count on it.

Of course, IF IT DID, then yeah, I'd play it. I'd buy it, I'd play it and probably move over to it full time sooner or later. I'm not sure how feasible that would be, however.

Totems aren't, and their description clearly states they should be. Additionally, most robots and AI enemies should be immune, or at least resistant to taunt, as well. How do you taunt a computer?

-You suck!
-Does not compute.
-You're a bucket of bolts!
-Bad command or file name.
-Your mother was a toaster!
-This is illogical.
-I use Linux!
-Oh no you did not just go there!

That's a problem. I can't afford two MMOs, and if a new one offers me a "similar amount" of content for a version of "similar" that I foresee as not being satisfactory, I will be unmotivated to drop this one and pick up that one. And herein lies the financial problem - this puts Paragon Studios in competition WITH THEMSELVES. They'll need people to support their new game, and a LOT of those people are going to have to come from their old game, which isn't going to happen unless their new game supports most everything the old one does. And even then, how many are going to abandon their characters and start over?

The only other option is to just stop development for City of Heroes and "nudge" current players to move onto City of Heroes 2. And that's just such a dick move that I don't foresee ANY gaming studio pulling, let alone one as cool as Paragon Studios.

Uh-huh. The future I saw had the world destroyed ten times over, infested with Shivans, demons, the ghosts of the dead and STILL locked in a war of destruction, all thanks to Recluse's plans. Now THAT would take some organisation to achieve. You don't destroy the whole world with just wishful thinking, after all.

Recluse strikes me as someone who's just waiting to jump ship to the next winning side. Seriously, he lets his organisation stagnate and focuses on his own pet projects, obsessed with the Statesman and whatnot. As far as heroes go, it's kind of their duty to stop evil from going about unchallenged, and while I don't foresee Arachnos having a future (mainly because I'm the one who ensures they don't), they seem to have some time left on their half-life. Time enough to make a serious mess of the world.

The reason I keep saying you're missing the point is because you insist on arguing about Arachnos, when many of us DON'T WANT IT. It doesn't matter how you spin it, I just don't want to take over Arachnos. It doesn't matter how "common sense" you try to present it (note: it isn't), I don't want to take over Arachnos. No matter how many times you infer that if villains WERE strong enough, they'd take over Arachnos. We still DO NOT WANT. Honestly.

Remember that argument? You can't be allowed to be stronger than Recluse or you'd overthrow him? Ignoring for a fact that I AM AND I DO in the future of the timeline, no, I actually don't want to. It's not a safe bet to assume everyone would. In fact, ASSUMING we do is one of the major flaws in City of Villains. The game assumes everyone wants to either get a cosy job in Arachnos or take it over, when many of us want to get AWAY from Arachnos, narratively, physically and conceptually.

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You know what? I still say Arachnos shouldn't have been given such an omnipresence. Give them a couple of islands if you must. Give them Mercy Island and Grandville Island. Leave Port Oaks to Emil Marcone. Turn it into CrimeCraft. Have me train at his underboss, have me purchase from store under his "protection." Give Sharkhead Island to Kirk Cage. Boot Arachnos off the premises and have me level up at Vince an purchase off official Cage Consortium quartermasters. Nerva Archipelago already belongs to Longbow and Crey, so kick Arachnos off Mainland Nerva, fill that with Crey, instead, and leave them alone just off in the jungles of Primeva. St. Martial already belongs to Johnny Sonata, so boot that Arachnos fort at the docks into the sea and have me train at someone at the Golden Giza, and purchase from their souvenir shops.

Seriously, CoV feels like the whole game was devised as being a series of unrelated islands, each with its own ruler and factions, and Arachnos was grafted onto the story at post-production because the system for picking your own faction was called off. There's no need for Arachnos to own all of the islands. Leave them the islands that HAVE to be their own and just leave the other islands to free agents. That would certainly help distance us from Arachnos a great deal.

That's kind of why I keep asking for new zones to City of Villains. I want to see new islands that AREN'T part of Arachnos territory. Give me a Nemesis Island, give me a Devouring Earth island, give me a Banished Pantheon island, give me a Coralax island, just something that ISN'T Arachnos!

See, GG, the reason I don't want to take over Arachnos is because I'm sick to death of 'em.

That was kind of the point

It's not just costumes, really. It's a matter of general content. Missions, arcs, zones, contacts, powersets, effects, badges, weapons, costumes... Everything a game is. It took City of Heroes developers six... Scratch that, more like TEN years to figure out and make the game into what it is today. And even if you cut out all the wrong steps, all the fiddling about, all the learning experiences, you're not going to cut that development time down to less than 4-5 years. If we DO see City of Heroes 2, I guarantee you that it won't see more than a year of development, two at most. And it WILL launch with many things missing.

Look at, for instance, UT2004 vs UT3. UT3 has a MUCH stronger engine that produces far superior graphics at a cost not too much higher than the old game, and it has more game mode support, too. At the same time, it misses a few weapons, it skimps on a few vehicles, it has like five maps, it lacks Assault altogether and it has almost NONE of the mods that came with the old games, including the Developer's Choice pack. It's like UT2004 Lite. I love the engine, I really do, but when UT3 Launched, UT2004 was still a FAR superior game, and not just because I've written a guide for it.

Do you honestly feel that a City of Heroes 2 will have every zone, every location, every contact, every power, every AT, every mission, every arc, every souvenir, badge, achievement and so forth? Because if it does AND has more stuff, then obviously I'm going to swap over to it in a heartbeat. But do you seriously believe that's even possible?

That's really what gets under my skin. I can deal with the engine, and for what it is, it looks like it's capable of some pretty amazing graphics. But as I've said many times, the world's best graphics don't mean crap unless you have a talented artist to make use of them, and I don't know who they hired to do the Champions artwork, but he doesn't seem to have had a soul. Or talent. Skill, maybe, but not talent. The game is just... Lifeless. There's lots of garish, loud colour everywhere, but nothing that inspires me to say "Wow! I want to be like that!"

I wonder if I should make some kind of HTML macro that appends "You are missing the point" every time I quote you.

Again, Arachnos' "base" is a run-down rotten slum that's on the edge of caving in on itself. Whether or not the Recluse's Victory shenanigans are the last thing Recluse does with Arachnos, it's the last thing he'll do with it, because from how things are looking, it ain't lasting much longer. It's like a pirate fighting to take over a sinking ship as the crew is bailing out. What are you going to DO with it?

As for the organisation, there's AMPLE evidence throughout the entire game that the organisation is utter crap. Rife with corruption, replete with traitors and spies and staffed with belligerent jackasses who would much rather spend their days hassling people as they come off the ferry than do their actual job. Everyone's taking on the side, everyone's sinking someone else, everyone's working against the greater good of the whole... It's a miracle the whole thing is still standing up.

Again, outside of unconvincing explanations, you have no good REASON for anyone to want to take over Arachnos after seeing what the organisation is on the inside. Base? Barely any. Organisation? Barely there. Resources? Embezzled away. Servants? Yeah, right!

Nemesis has the right idea. Unfortunately, Nemesis smart enough to not flood his facilities with psychotic ******** fresh out of jail with free reign to run around and cause havoc. HIS organisation I would actually like to shoot for. Arachnos? No, thanks. Somebody stepped on that before I got there.

Yeah, they very much do. I HATE the characters in Champions Online. Any pic that has characters in it bugs me. A lot. Their settings aren't too bad, but then again, nothing too good. It's the characters themselves that really, really bug me. I hate how they cartoony art style they've chosen. I hate the horribly overbright primary colours. I hate THAT FACE! I've been over their character creator dozens upon dozens of times and I can count the pieces I liked on the fingers of one hand. I HATE HATE HATE their chosen art style.

It's not even down to the graphics or the engine, really, so that reflective ball in the display case does little for me. It's the STYLE they've chosen which kills me. Like I said, for the same reason I hate World of Warcraft's graphics while plenty of people keep insisting they're great. I just can't stand that style.

As far as Champions running better, it simply doesn't. Not on any machine I've tried. I've not been able to run it without stuttering me to hell and back, and I can't play like that. I can run City of Heroes just fine and maintain 60 FPS in almost all places, the few FPS holes notwithstanding. Champions Online I can't get more than 30 ANYWHERE. None of the times I've tried.

And then there are the animations. GOD I hate those animations. On almost every single power, every single effect. I don't know if they've changed Martial Arts since I tried it, but the auto-attack I saw simply offended my intelligence. I hate how you carry things over your head like they're made of hollow plastic. I hate all the AWFUL animations while running, I hate the way you travel, I hate the stupid, unresponsive, laggy controls that make me feel like I'm swinging my fists at the air and my enemies get hurt whenever they get around to it.

Up until I get out of character creation, I can stand Champions Online. I don't LIKE it, as I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for items to make a costume anything less than silly, but I've managed to do that a few times without giving up TOO much concept. But as soon as I set foot into the actual game, it just hurts. Seriously. Last time I tried the game as a favour on a free trial a friend of mine gave me, and the whole time I was fighting an overbearing feeling of "I don't want to do this! I don't want to do this!" There is NOTHING in this game that I like, with the possible exception of eye customization.

Seriously, the Champions Online engine may or may not be good, but I want to hang their artists.

Again, you're thinking up elaborate, unbelievable excuses to explain a design choice that we understand quite well. We just don't like it. Explanations are not going to cut it. Change and options are what's needed.

The RP debate is unwinnable, because I can simply counter with "Why bother when there are plenty of other Islands out there to take over that haven't been crapped on by an evil overlord yet." Arachnos tech has so far failed to impress me, as well, considering it can't seem to stop me from breaking into their bases each time I take a wrong turn, and their lieutenants don't inspire me, considering I've slapped them all around like errant stepchildren.

The point you keep trying to evade is "Why would I want to?" What is there in the Rogue Isles that's worth taking over? I can kind of see Recluse ruling the place with an eye on moving on before it falls apart completely, but for a villain looking for a less transient accomplishment, Arachnos and the Isles offer nothing. It's like fighting over a hole in the ground. Great! You won! Now what are you going to do with it?

Err... Naming? I swapped the guy's name in the chat log. What, exactly, do you have a problem with? Was that not clear enough?

It's always amazing to me how people always assume that, just because THEY used an exploit, then therefore EVERYONE must have used an exploit. This is provably wrong, because I know I never have. I value the satisfaction of punching things in the face far more than the level I do it at.

Of course, I'm a noob because I don't want mega xp, so what do I know?

That's probably the worst thing that can happen to the game at this point, as it will raise difficulty SIGNIFICANTLY, and a number of people, myself among them, do not want a harder game. Speaking for myself, I'm perfectly willing to trade a bit of unbelievability if it means getting less frustrating enemies. Nothing worse than accidentally pulling three spawns on yourself when you can barely handle one.

As for what I WOULD do to AI, I'd diversify enemy reactions. The Vahzilok are a pretty good idea in this regard. Zombies have VERY short sight radiuses, lose aggro VERY fast and are generally only dangerous if you stand and fight. However, they are made dangerous by the Mortificators and Reapers, who have regular sight ranges and aggro retention.

I'd like to make Banished Pantheon masks live up to their description of not being able to be pulled away from their target. Make them untauntable and very unlikely to switch targets. That way, it'll seem that once they focus on you, they will NOT give up. Also make Pantheon zombies dumb like Vahzilok zombies.

I'd actually make factions like the Council and the Nemesis army prefer to stay together and fire shoulder-to-shoulder. Nemesis soldiers, especially, would look really cool firing shoulder-to-shoulder. Make a good phalanx, too. By contrast, I'd make groups like the Freakshow or the Luddites fight in a disorganised, "bull rush" fashion where they'd attempt to swamp the player in melee all the time. And I mean ALL of them, including the ones with shotguns and uzis. They're mad freaks. Why would they NOT want to run in and club you with their guns?

And I would DEFINITELY never make anything run away for whatever reason. This adds nothing to the experience and only serves to frustrate.

Generally, I want the different factions to "feel" different when you fight them.

Oh, I see. I shall do a hundred pushups as penance!

This comes up a lot, but "a new game" is not going to have even half the stuff the old game had, for the simple fact that the old game had six years to amass all that stuff. If you went out now and out and out REMOVED all old, outdated costume pieces until you could peace-meal better ones in, people would riot. I guarantee it.

Hell, look at something as simple as the fix for the old skirts, or the fix for the thigh-high boots. Or even now, the improvement to some metallic textures. They were all better in an objective sense, but people still requested that they be allowed to use the old pieces. You'd think people would be ecstatic over having something new, but many are often most concerned with losing access to what they already had. This is the reasons they've been trying to leave old pieces in as much as they could.

Basically, people put too much faith in what is going to end up being a brand new game. There is simply no way to make one that has EVERYTHING City of Heroes currently has and more. Champions Online fell FAR short of that, and it's been doing mostly just catching up ever since it launched. Sure, it has a number of new, often-requested features, but its stock of practically everything is tiny. It's getting bigger, obviously, but it has more time yet to catch up. I don't know about you, but I'd be very hesitant to jump into a City of Heroes 2 that lacked half the costume sets and a third of the zones and missions.

Well, I'm willing to learn. Tell me, sensei. What did I do wrong, that I may correct it.

The reason old costume pieces are still in the game and still as they are is because players have expressly and unambiguously demanded that they stay in the game. Check out the "all things art" thread and you'll notice that there's no consensus on updating and/or removing old bits. In fact, plenty of people (myself among them) are even now requesting non-reflective versions of the new reflective costume pieces, not because reflections look bad, but because non-reflective items sometimes mesh better with older designs.

City of Heroes is what it is. To expect a brand new game is unreasonable not just because of the technical difficulties involved and the cost of it all, but because a lot of people who play right now want THIS game, not a brand new one.