Slashman

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See, but you're assuming 'most' people really want graphics improvements. Personally, I could care less about graphics improvements - the game still looks fine to me. Judging by other posts I've seen, there are quite a few players who not only don't care, but fear that further upgrades to the engine would further degrade their play experience, and in some cases make the game unplayable on their machines.

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Sure there are people who don't want(or care about) graphics updates. A lot of them have sub-par gaming systems already and can't turn the graphics up anyway. That's not a reason for the developers to NOT upgrade the game's graphics. Sooner or later it would have to happen. Especially if the devs want to add additional FX and other graphical features that the current engine can't handle.

For an example of this...see EVE Online. They recently had a complete graphics overhaul even though you could argue(and rightly so) that the game still looked pretty darn good with their original engine. There were just some things that they wanted to do that couldn't be done on the old engine.

It doesn't matter to me. I'm a gamer, not just an MMO gamer, and I make sure I build and maintain a system that lets me play most modern games. Heck...my system is 3 years old and I can still run Far Cry 2 with the settings maxed.

However, just as those people with outdated hardware would complain that graphics upgrades are inconvenient to them, people with newer systems who are just joining the game might argue that it doesn't do their systems' capabilities justice with it's current graphics offering. You want to make it attractive to new players after all. These things have 2 sides.

Decent gaming rigs are rather cheap to build these days...even more so than they were just 2 years ago. Done the right way you can incrementally upgrade them for years to come...hence my 3 1/2 year old system that's still going strong albeit with a slight overclock.

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While those things would be cool for like 10 minutes... For me, I must have missed this whole boat. I just don't see how adding hue shifting would be all that epic.

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Yeah...that's just about right for me as well. But like in all things...people tend to want to prioritize what immediately appeals and not think of longterm benefits.

To me a properly functioning secret identity system(NOT day jobs) that ties into contacts and has an effect on your missions would add much more to gameplay than tinting my rad blast pink. Still...what do I know?

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It's not licensed. NCsoft bought it.

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yeah, where does this whole "licensed" thing come from anyway?

Part of the purchase agreement was that the Cryptic logo would always stay attached.

No license, they bought the game lock stock and barrel.

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That's what I always thought as well. Cryptic has no more say in this game period.

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I look at it this way - it's not about which game does what how well. It's about what works, what doesn't and what's good for THIS game. If that means copying other games, I'm fine with that. If that means re-inventing the wheel, then whatever it takes. For what it's worth, I think what we're getting will be uniquely our own if for no reason other than because it has to work with our wonky engine

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That's the gist of my meaning right there.

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none - less u can read my stars?

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I can and have...naughty naughty!

Ah well...thanks for making that clear

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After skimming through this, I really hope you guys are not suggesting this game do anything like CO.
This game has kept my attention for years. This game just needs updating. This game Rox.

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For me it isn't about doing anything like CO in a an attempt to copy it. Although it would be equally silly to NOT do something worthwhile just because CO does it by the same token.

About CO, I'm hearing things like more environmental interactivity, using your sideskills to build things to help you in missions and trying to better immerse the player in the gameworld...whatever other faults it may have(and they may well be many), you don't NOT do that sort of thing just to spitefully claim you're different from the competition.

I don't want COX to copy COs combat system...but if the developers finally decide to improve/upgrade the engine to allow for a wider scope of mission types, better environments and the addition of elements to help make playing the core game more compelling, then I don't really give a flying freem if those are things that CO is doing.

There are people who are happy with COX in its current state and just want more content, costume parts and missions. There are also people who think that the game could use new elements(myself among them) to make it more compelling to play. That the former will get what they want is a given...you've been getting that for the past five years. I'd just like a little more attention paid to the latter.

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CO is aiming in certain directions for their gameplay, like all games do. Their endurance-building mechanic, for example, promotes a certain kind of combat that they are most likely going to build upon, and its unlikely they will attempt to add radically different gameplay to their base combat system.

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No two games will have completely identical combat systems. That's a given...and with their console aims...I can see where CO would try to make their stuff more fast paced. I hear they have blocking etc. I'm not advocating that COX attempt to follow that.

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CoH could develop endurance management in a completely different direction to promote different kinds of gameplay entirely.

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It's already developed in a different direction in COX. One I don't see them radically changing anytime soon without making stamina go away and adding end management to all powersets. Doubly difficult since several powersets already have end management systems in place and some ATs have access to them in both their primary and secondary power choices. So they would, indeed, have to radically alter the gameplay of COX to do something like that...unless they layered it on top of what's already in place.

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Basically, every time you make a gameplay decision, you close off other opportunities. There's no such thing as an MMO that can do everything, even in theory.

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I agree. My main concern is the MMO that doesn't try to do ANYTHING to expand its core game. And for a looong time now that has been COX. Prettier zones, more costume bits, missions maps and gobs of new missions wrapped in the same old repetitive mold isn't broadening your gameplay experience when you get right down to the actual PLAYING part.

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CO isn't a superset of CoH, nor can it ever be. The only question is whether the CoH developers can find the right things to pursue to take advantage of that fact.

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I'm hoping they can...but I hear all this talk of expanding the customization of the characters, and I get a sinking feeling that they're going to be playing it safe and boring again.

I hope to be proven wrong, but I'm pessimistic as heck at this point.

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Regardless, something as silly as changing the color of my eye beam ray sure as hell isn't going to have me coming back to a game that doesn't deliver a substantive experience.

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Nicely put. This post is the gist of a lot of the things I've been saying even in relation to new COX content. Fluff is still fluff. If you want to impress me long-term...make the core game more compelling. Expand gameplay options...not just costume options. No matter how pretty they may be.

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They would either need to have a bunch of animations of certain lengths and then allow you to swop out for animations of the same length, or have some way to speed up/slow down animations so that they fit the activation times of the powers.

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That too. I think it may be slightly easier balance-wise for this game than CO though. Since they claim you can change the way a power works in a drastic way..not too sure if that's really the case or just marketing speak at work.

I can't imagine balancing a game where a single energy blast becomes an AoE and then it does fire damage...and then you may want it to stun etc.

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If the Devs are currently working on Power Customization, then it essentially follows that they cannot say when it will be in game, because they probably don't know: it may not be at a stage of development where they can say "We can do this for sure" let alone "It's this many months away".

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Personally I'd rather they were working on more compelling content than customization. Being able to make your powers prettier is fine...but if I'm still taking my highly customized, dark chocolate energy blasts through the same type of missions time after time...in a while the customization won't mean much.

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I'd rather be pleasantly suprised than have it turn into another City Vault or even Cathedral of Pain.

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I'm still not sure why City Vault was completely shelved. Could they not scale it down enough to make it workable? Aren't there other MMOs that have a website interface for character viewing etc.? I'm not a web programmer, so I have no idea how much it was 'hammering their servers', but I didn't think it was an impossible task.

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I am curious, can anyone name one super hero who has virtually no powers of their own to help themselves but great powers to help others? I mean if a super hero can make other people immune to mind control, shouldn't they also be immune to mind control? The same with fire resistance and cold resistance?
I am just curious where the devs came up with this concept and what super hero/heroine that they based it off of.

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There's that Japanese guy in Heroes - not the time-traveling one, but his friend. In the previous season, he got red electric stuff on his hands that made it so when he touched somebody else it amplified their powers.

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You know, I thought about him, but technically he doesn't fit. He's a hero from a TV series and not a TV show like Batman & Robin that was based on a herp from the comic world.

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Also...as of last season...he can use it to blast with

There is also Chance...the teen girl from Marvel comics who can double-or-nothing other people's powers. She was affiliated with Sunspot from New Mutants once when he ran away and formed a rag-tag group...can't remember their names.

Anyway. I honestly hate sets that have little self-benefit. I'm a practical player...sure I love some of the stuff in thermal radiation...but there will be times I want to play alone...that effectively guts a large number of my powers in a solo situation.

I have always thought that maybe the powers which are only usable on others should trigger some other kind of benefit for the user...of course I just avoid empathy, thermal and cold domination. That solves that right there. If I'm not killing something...there is no point to this game.

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Why do the girls of the Carnival (I don't think the bottles do it though) die holding their heads?

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Because if they died holding their boobs or butt, it might change our ESRB rating. Of course there would STILL be plenty of perfectly grown up kids playing anyway

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Some of us don't like having to role defenders to be dark blasters.

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Then don't roll them.

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If the dev team of CoX is smart, they won't try to outdo either CO or DCUO. They will tack into directions CO and DCUO can't pursue, and develop in those directions.

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Would you care to elaborate on what directions those might possibly be?

I've been a player of COX since Issue 1 and I don't really see anything that's been done here that CO could not. Apart from MA...which is still a rehash of the same mission types we have had all along with player-made stories and custom critters.

Now as I stated above, I'm a loyal player. Still, apart from our amazing character creator and travel powers(which have seen no new additions since launch), we aren't so much different from other MMOs in terms of how this game is played.

The truth is that most people who criticize this game often have the same complaint. Repetitive content. Both the environments(which are static) and the scope of missions. That's not just random forum ragers on the net...its also present in most reviews of this game.

A lot has been added to this game since launch. However, the greater part of it has been cosmetic or related to villains. Other stuff has been things we should have had all along(like real numbers). I'm not saying I'm not grateful for what the devs have done, but in terms of this game going in directions which CO can't...not seeing it happening at present.

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"Make us happy" doesn't work because making everyone happy is impossible.

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Its possible for the person that wants everyone else dead.

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Except that I don't have a means of obtaining that much weapons-grade plutonium. But oh how sweet it would be if I only could...

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HI My name is Wendy and I AM an Altoholic.

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GET SOME HELP!!!!

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Trying to make a majority of you guys happy.

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This makes me even more curious/suspicious about Going Rogue.

If so many of the things you'd like to add to the game are too time-consuming, then what do we get in a paid expansion? Do the same rules apply? Or is GR just the beginning of a series of paid expansions that will begin to address these (time-intensive) objectives?

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The popular theory is that Tyrant found the Well on his own, or Stephan Ricter was killed, lost or betrayed before he could drink from it. Without Lord Recluse to balance him out, Tyrant became... well...

Funny thing is that originally, Statesman and Lord Recluse were not only best friends, but mercenaries out adventuring for their own gain. They started neutral, then one went good and the other evil. I think so anyway.

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I had thought they were treasure hunters...or archaeologists at least. Didn't think they were mercs.

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The things I think about while sitting on the can...

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T M I

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It's also one place where so many Architect authors fail so miserably. I've had my fill of missions that have a short briefing followed by a Large map of NOTHING but grinding enemies and a boss fight, followed by a short debriefing, then rinse, repeat for four more. That's not the way to make an arc. That's not even the way to make a Diablo clone. That sort of thing bores even ME, and I enjoy clearing the Moth Cemetery map of all enemies.

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I've tried my hardest to avoid that in my arc. Actually, you might accuse me of info overload...because I use clues liberally.
Still, there are some older dev created arcs where they make the same mistake and drag you through kill all after kill all just to get to some relevant information on what you're doing.

That aside, more types of objectives and interactions besides just glowies would be a welcome breath of fresh air for the content in this game. And I don't care if they get added to the MA or not...just add them to upcoming dev created content to make it more interesting overall.

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The TFs are unfinished content that's very much a work in progress that you got to see early. After seeing what I've seen so far, I'm willing to wait to see what goes live before lambasting anyone.

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Who are you, and what have you done with Johnny Butane???

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actually. what it supposes is what so many story addicts dont eseem to realize.

Not everyone finds stories fun. Some people love reading the lore or player written stories or roleplaying.. some people love smashing through the hardest mobs they can find or make. some people like to be efficient.

none of them are wrong, no matter what some people may tell you >_>

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Actually, you're supposing that people can't and don't want both of those things. Its a bad idea to favor one over the other in any event.

A good game is driven forward by good storytelling AND good combat. I actually think that storytelling has taken a backseat in this game. Not because the devs don't attmpt to tell stories...but because the game world hasn't been built/redesigned to reflect those stories very well.

If all you REALLY want to do is smash through the toughest mobs with the least effort, why do you care what zone you're in or what setting you do it in. The story isn't what you're after right? I mean...the levels could simply be replaced with blank corridors and just have you steamroll your way through tons of mobs leveling quickly as you go.

You can't/shouldn't build an MMO on nothing but 'efficiency' and power gaming. The thing that I've always thought should happen is that the gameworld should reflect the story being told. It should do that in a way that has some level of interaction besides just smashing mob x or y.

All our missions are the same because they are ALL the same. There aren't any supporting game systems that truly draw you into the tasks that you're supposedly doing that have this great impact on the city you are trying to protect/exploit.

Lack of choices and branching story arcs, lack of any puzzle elements or environmental interaction apart from clicking a glowy. No one, not even the powergamers, should be able to ignore what's going on in the game's story arcs...because it should be so wrapped up in your objectives that just beating up all the enemies on the map isn't your only goal.

You tell the story ALONG with the mission...not before and after. That way, everyone get's something out of the game and feels more a part of the gameworld. It's not about liking storytelling vs. combat vs. RP...its about seamlessly combining compelling elements together to create something greater than just a single aspect of gameplay could provide.

CoX has yet to really do that. I'm not sure if its 2 upcoming competitors have managed to do it, but if they have, then CoX is at a disadvantage going forward. That's IF. I have no idea what Going Rogue will truly bring.

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The only motivation he's qualified to provide is inspiration to not be a lying sack.

Oh, and "how to draw a corporate paycheck for working on your own project", I guess. Which is impressive, on a fairly debased level.

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That pretty much sums it up for me.

We can all agree that this game may not have existed without him...but I can also say that this game would probably be very much farther along if he WASN'T there after it was completed.

He created something, then tried to stifle it, then left it and created another something supposedly doing all those things that he swore before were horrible for the very first thing he created. Only now they are all great and progressive ideas that this genre absolutely needs. Bravo!

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When I can remember, I check the scanner/newspaper just to see if you get one of the rare rob/foil bank robbery missions.

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I like these missions as well. They have a sense of urgency to them that makes them fun to do.

I have always thought that newspaper/scanner missions should be different from regular missions...of course that means some new mission designs.

Again, I'm hoping for good things from Going Rogue.