Slashman

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Actually, Slashman, customizing the appearance of the Boss IS one of the planned features for the Mission Architect, but they've said it's a stretch goal to get it into initial release. Since they've talked about the architect "taking on a life of its own" I'm guessing that the stretch goals won't happen in the initial release. But it is going to happen.

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Ok...I give on that point! My mistake...its a planned feature for down the line. Oh joy...

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I think the mission creator will be great and add way more variety to the game.

Some posts have expressed concerns over not wanting to missions created by other players. I believe they are concerned these missions may just suck maximum back side. I think concerns will be alleviated by peer reviews and DEV'S choice/picks. I am sure there will be a TON of lame missions but; hopefully people will learn from what they're doing wrong and correct the shortcomings of the mission.

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Oddly enough, bad player created missions aren't my fear at all. Its the limitation of the mission editor. We still don't know exactly what we'll be able to do with it or not, apart from a few facts posted by Posi in a follow-up to the initial release.

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Anyway, I can see where this tool will give us missions better than what the DEVS could offer.

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Where do you see that exactly? From what I understand we can't customize bosses and/or their powers because the Devs can't really do this either due to AI limitations. Also I don't see it mentioned where we can import our own characters.

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I CANNOT stand seeing the same looking mission over and over and over and over and over ..... I know we'll have the same tile sets but I am hoping we can customize the boss, mobs etc.

[/ QUOTE ] Yeah...gonna have to bust your bubble on that. I don't think that's in the cards from what Positron has said.

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Just having the boss LOOK like a boss would be great - I think it's lame when the target of the mission looks just like the rest of the spawn group (maybe once in a while this is ok but it happens far too often).

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It's gonna keep happening.

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Anyway, there is great potential here.

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Ok look. I'm not sure what people are expecting with this mission editor thing. But what I strongly suspect we are getting is a way to GENERATE missions that are very similar in scope to what we get in-game now. Yes we can edit the text, yes we can probably import major NPCs and determine what type of mission objectives there are. Unfortunately, from the last things we've heard about the editor, major customization is going to be impossible. Has that changed since the last info we got? Who knows...but I'm thinking not.

The other thing I want to say about this missions editor feature is that I'm finding it hard to get excited over players creating the same kinds of missions that the devs have been creating for over 4 years. I don't have any doubts that our community can produce some great story ideas and fiction for their missions. My problem is that those missions will still boil down to: Enter through front door, defeat a truckload of improbably placed enemies, click on glowy(s)/and or escort NPC to door.

If the Devs had first brought out an issue that added new types of things to do in missions like avoid or disable traps, investigative puzzles, security espionage and alternate missions paths and arcs to name a few, and THEN had announced this mission editor with more customizable options along with everything else I mentioned above, I'd be doing backflips.

As it stands now, if I'm going to be doing the same types of things I do in regular missions now but with a lesser reward, what exactly am I getting out of them aside from a potentially well written piece of player fiction?

What I'm trying to get at is that the basic mission system in the game needs to be evolved first before player created missions using that same structure become exciting.

This is an MMO. Its not a game like Neverwinter Nights, for example. You won't be able to import your own art assets, create new tilesets from scratch or change the way powers work even.

I usually try to look at things from all sides, but I'm having a hard time seeing how this feature is the only major thing coming with Issue 13. That's not me crying DOOM! I'm gonna keep on playing because I love this game, I just hope something else big is on the issue 13 list that has yet to be made public.

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So,

Did anyone comment yet about how they're sorely disappointed in the scaled-down implementation of the City Vault? No?

Well, it's a step up from the MySpace page.

But honestly, it'll be nice when that new NCSoft cash finally funnels down into a real marketing budget. I mean, I know LARP designers with better marketing strategies. Ferchrissakes, my friendly neighborhood comic book store can afford to advertise on local cable.

Seriously. Showing up at cons and relying on social networking pages are the marketing techniques of 2 guys working out of Mom's basement as they try to sell their independent comic. You folks can do better than that.

Right now, superheroes are shining brighter in the public eye then they have for decades. Dark Knight is about to become the second highest grossing money machine of all time. People are being arrested in villain makeup. The Dark Knight phenomenon is a tide that should be lifting every super boat in the ocean. And if NCSoft can't find some better way to surf that wave than this, then that's just sad.

I dunno. I guess every little step helps. Congrats to the community rep team for making something out of nothing. But what's next? Homemade fliers posted on telephone poles? Bulletins sent home in the PTA folder?

Step it up a notch, guys. Opportunity is pounding on your door and you're just peeping through the mail slot.

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And that right there sums up my general sentiment. People want City Vault...this feels like some kind of 'we're sorry you didn't win but here's a nice parting gift' thing.

Whats the point? If City Vault can't be done...just say so...but I don't know what the point of Facebook and Myspace pages are for a major MMO. Perhaps I've missed something. This just seems pointless.

Right...swell...

So... City Vault now??? Is it dead???

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I must say, it is just as frustrating to us PVPers (and I lead a HUGE group or PVE and PVP players, so I understand both sides here) to listen you the non-PVP players insist it isn't as bad as we thought and to calm down. For all the immature whining and complaining done in these forums, over the past couple years, it has been significantly balanced between PVE and PVP players alike, so I would first suggest to hold those stones, not throw them.

Second, it IS as bad as we are making it out on the PVP side of the fence, especially for villains. And let me see if I can explain it so you don't jump all over me for just making an opinion and not-backing it up. Corruptors are not easy to take down, but manageable. MMs on the other hand, are almost impossible to kill in the hand of a good player and in a great player...forget about it. Adding /Storm in the MM sets completely kills VvV action, period. Three /Storm MMs on a vill team = 0 kills for either side in an entire match. Stalkers are not viable anymore for burst damage and vills can't spike other vills without stalker damage due to the heavy buffs we have. So, this will result in nothing but storm teams running against storm teams and zero kills. Sounds like fun huh? This is the end of the villain ladder on test and massive amounts of farming live, which in turn gives us the next problem.

As you all know, the villain market is VERY tight and VERY expensive comparatively. It is already almost impossible to get the sets you need, especially purple sets. Herein lies the major problem for villain PVErs...and yes, this does affect you more than you think. Get ready for the market to get even MORE constrictive when all these recipes being dumped on the market from endless amounts of farming goes away on all servers. Now, of course you will still have your day by day farmers, PVErs grinding for prestige, etc dumping stuff on the market, but it's not gonna be even close to what you see now. So, this means, goodbye ultra rares in numbers, goodbye rares, increase those LotG prices, those Miracle prices, etc.

For PVE, I find the villain powers to be just fine, lots of good choices there. But giving blue side access to our two BEST powersets and putting them in the hands of players with access to the APPs and unresistable debuffs, etc. is overkill and 100% puts an end to any thought of villains being able to match heroes in zones, raids, or arena. The zones will be dead and many groups will leave the game. Whether you like them or not, PVPers do contribute to your PVE success and enjoyment subtly and somewhat behind the scenes. I think you would at least be compassionate enough about how we feel that the piece of the game a lot of us enjoy the most is getting shafted and even more imbalanced.

gg PVP, PVE here we come, it's all we got left...

-Neo

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While I find your post interesting, I'm not sure I can agree that this will kill the entire market villainside. Of course I'm one of those people that will gladly grab a good set if I can get it and make do if I can't have it. I dunno...maybe this makes me an adult or something...probably not though, since I play computer games so much.

In any case, I'm awash with ideas for both new villain and hero toons. I just hope those extra server slots are forthcoming. REALLY need those...

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How does empathy not work as a concept for a villain. If you want to get techincal empath, the hellion in the Marvel comics was a villian...The conceptual abilities do not drive good an evil. AB turns doms into perma dom killing machines. How is absorb pain not a villain concept. Perhaps an evil empath would love to absorb the pain of others...Empath buffs are hands down the best buffs in the game - change the color, change the name but give them to the red side.

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The Empath in the Hellions was in fact NOT a healer OR buffer. He just manipulated the emotions of others. He was, in fact, a controller. He has no real relation to anything in the COX empathy sets. He's more a mind controller.

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So is that where the big complaint lies?

[/ QUOTE ]yes

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*SNICKER*

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I respectfully disagree. There is this other part of the game called PVP.

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*SNICKER*

Oh man...

I don't share a lot of praise out often but this time I HAVE to say:

WELL DONE DEVS...WELL DONE, INDEED!

I need...to go change my shorts now...

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Um yes. There are NOT a ton of concept chars who use shields at all who wouldn't just be copying what captain america does with a shield. Please do tell me, if you can who else goes around throwing their shield around like he does? He is SO the basis for this Shield Power. Cause otherwise it's just "Oh I blocked your power. I'm not hurt." Which isn't terribly exciting.

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I voted for shields hoping that it would be a power pool options or something that would allow a mace/axe/broadsword duo ability.

But I agree, I cant count too many shield heroes, so I am interested in seeing how they implement it that would not be a direct mimic of Capt America.

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Hey...my Psi weapon concept had blades, hammers, chains and REALLY large blades :-P(posted on previous pages...)

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It's because dual-wielding weapons is inherently cool.

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Quoted for Emphasis.

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So what you guys are saying is... if I get Dual Blades on my Scrapper I'll be Critically Cool?

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No...you'd Coolly Critical!!!

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Awesome ideas for Psi weaponry. I'd love to see something like that implemented! Then when power customization comes around I can discretely color the powers all green and uh... oh nevermind.

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Curious minds want to see the end of this unfinished train of thought!!!

Oh and for the other powers in the set I was thinking maybe Psionic chains: Short ranged hold with minor psi damage over time. This would have an animation where the character materialize the chain in his hand then whirls it over his head and throws it at the enemy.

Mind Focus: Psi version of build-up

Obviously there would be a taunt power in there somewhere.

And the final attack power could be something like Psionic Greatsword. The character materializes a huge two-handed psionic blade, leaps into the air and delivers a colossal downward hack. This would do extreme psi and lethal damage as well as have a decent chance to render the opponent unconscious(sleep) due to mind overload.

Well those are just my thoughts...but I think that something like that could work with not too much trouble and development time. Any Devs around can feel free to jump in and correct me.

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I seriously doubt they would do anything like that. As cool as forming different psychic weapons would be, it would essentially cause you to redraw you weapon for nearly every attack.

[/ QUOTE ] Not necessarily. What they could do is have the attack animation itself be the formation of the weapon and the attack with the weapon dissipating at the end of the animation. You could have the animations be however long you wanted in that scenario really.

It somewhat reminds me of a character from the game Xenogears, Emeralda Kasim. She'd morph her limbs/body into weapons with every attack. Her roundhouse kick would turn her foot into a sickle shaped blade, a palm strike would turn her forearm into a drill, a headbut would grow spikes out of her forehead, and you know, things like that.

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Exactly. I was thinking along the lines of having the first attack be a simple forward stab with a psi dagger then the second one is a quick spinning slash with a sword length blade. The dagger simply morphs its length and(and girth slightly) to become a sword. There is no draw. The weapons are created with your mind after all. It follows the scrapper flavor of two quick attacks followed by a more powerful one that takes some additional animation time...in this case it would be forming the psi hammer for a two-handed downward swing a la Stone Melee.

The fourth attack could be a spin with the hammer thats a PBAOE knockback type(would require a new animation here I believe).

I actually think that a psi weapon set could be as cool as, if not cooler, than dual blades if done correctly.

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Psionic weaponry wouldn't have to be a ripoff of Psylocke. Just don't make it a purple katana. Learnt that lesson after ripping off Wolvy's claws. Maybe a nice energy spear you jab into your enemies, invading their mind and inflicting Fear as you punch through.

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My suggestion for Psionic Weaponry(please be listening BAB and Castle) is that the character creates different weapons out of psi energy for different attacks. So that if his first 2 attack powers create psionic blades(daggers or swords), then his third and fourth attack powers may be a psionic hammer or mace and the next is a different weapon like a spear(I like the idea of throwing a psi spear).

Damage would be something like a 2/3 psi and then 1/3 the appropriate damage type based on the weapon created(smashing for blunts and lethal for blades).

Well thats just my suggestion. The set wouldn't need to have ALL new animations either...just one or 2 to define its higher level signature attacks.

What do you guys think?

I just wanna say:

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!

For addressing the lag.

I may now be able to finish my collection of epic battle screenshots with all my heroes and villains(3 servers worth) fighting these upstart invaders!!!

Thanks again.

P.S. I take back almost all the bad stuff I said about you guys in the past :-P

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Certainly MMOs which can be "the next WoW" will be few and far between.

Still, there are companies with the pedigree and the funds to do it, and at the top of the A list is Bioware. They are "the" RPG company, and the only company with comparable name and goodwill to Blizzard. Afterall, Blizzard had a legion of fanboys. Bioware, similarly, has millions of registered users and has produced a nonstop string of megahits for both PC and console, since Baldur's Gate put them on the A list and BG2 made them into a legend.

WoW is a phenomenon, but they have more subscribers than their game deserves, frankly. It's a great game, and Blizzard did a lot of things well. For example, if you have lower end hardware, WoW is a lot more friendly to you than CoH. But Blizzard also had millions of fans, was very accessible as a fresh MMO, but this doesn't account for it. Instead, I think WoW hit a critical mass of fanboys, accessibility, ease of use for a newb, and widespread appeal (PvP, PvE, crafting, raiding, solo and team, widespread classes) that people signed up just to try it out and stayed often for social reasons. In other words, if you had them try all MMOs in a vacuum, knowing no one, WoW would not achieve nearly the success it has.

I still remember popping into Target to grab some game, and some little kid grabbed the last WoW box. "Wow, the last one!" he said. "Have you played this yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's okay. I like City of Heroes a lot better. Have you tried it?"

"What's City of Heroes?"

And while everyone has heard of WoW, CoH remains relatively niche. On the other hand, a LOT of people have played both and prefer WoW, but the margin is most assuredly not 80:1.

In any event, I hope Cryptic stays focused on fun and players. People trying desperately to mass-market everything is a recipe for disaster; DDO probably being the best example, mangling D&D rules to appeal more to traditional MMO themes and players, while offending the tabletop vets, and pleasing neither. (Although the problems run much deeper than that)

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Thats pretty close to how I feel about the whole WoW vs. COH debate(when it IS debated). I've tried WoW...and really...its not a better game where it counts the most for me.

I've had quite a few gaming buddies get hooked...but those were mostly folks who never got into MMOs at all before they dipped into the WoW-Crack.

Blizzard had a huge reputation as a quality maker of RTSs. This very much catapulted WoW to huge subscription numbers even before it went beta. Blizzard also has a habit of doing incredible marketing. They hype their games in such as way as to have the average guy drooling for them to come out even though it could be years before a hint of actual gameplay is seen by the public.

WoW was part accident...and no, that doesn't mean I'm taking away from its success. However, the fact that a goodly number of top end Blizzard devs left to form a company that would try to stick closer to the Blizzard tradition means that something of the flavor of the company was lost with WoWs success. I can tell you that I'm looking forward to Hellgate: London a WHOLE lot more than I ever got excited about WoW.

One more thing, I'll add. WoW is a relatively simple game. COX has more depth of gameplay when it comes to combat...not to mention that the combat FEELs more solid and meaningful.

Basically, I want COX to continue to improve and grow...but I DON'T want that growth to be copy-catting of every 'major' MMO on the market. The things I keep campaigning for are improved missions, both in terms of variety of mission types and a more interactive mission environment that lets us use our powers to do new and interesting things. Also AVs that have unique environments to fight in where heroes can create alternate paths to victory apart from just pounding attack after attack after attack.

Inventions is starting to get my nod of approval( I wasn't so sure at first). I'd also like more power and animation customization as well as MORE POWERSETS!!!!

In any case...make mine Cryptic!!!

Hmmm...the new trenchcoats have one glaring problem for me. They look a BIT too much like a jacket with a waist-cape attached to the bottom. What I mean is...the tail of the coat doesn't come around the sides of the character quite enough.

I guess I may be a bit picky...however...after looking through countless webpages at various trenchcoats and their styles throughout the years....none of them are a waist-cape. They are always wide enough to comfortably wrap around the person wearing them.

A good example of this is The Question in the JLU animated series. Also note how his coat breaks not from the waist(as its not cinched there) it breaks from further up almost under his arms as he runs so it looks semi cape-like.

Having said that...I do like the concept and look of them otherwise...and my character does look nice when viewed from the rear...especially when flying. However...when I pan the camera around...not QUITE so nice.

Thats my main complaint so far. To summarize: Please make the 'split' where the coat tails begin a bit further up on the character's back and in addition to that, have the tails come further around the sides of the character. So it actually LOOKS more like a coat that could wrap around your toon's legs all the way.

Yep...that about covers my beef.

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If anyone else knows how to get from lvl 16 to lvl 32 in four days using any other strategy besides PLing, please turn us all on to it. We'll all do that instead, and gone forever will be the days of the dreaded PL. Until then though, I'll be leveling however I can.

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Yeah because like...heaven forbid that you actually play the game. That would just be plain wrong...

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Analogy: I work at a job. I enjoy it for the most part and for my work I get paid.

If the guy in the next cubicle can sit there and do nothing and get paid even more than me because a higher up in the company is looking out for him, damn straight I'm going to be upset about it.

No, I don't want what he has - that would be jealousy. I want him to work for his pay like everyone else.

Why is this concept so hard to understand?


-np

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Egads!!! There it is!!!!

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So with this knowledge the "Is PLing a Form of Cheating" really isn't an issue. Instead the issue is " Are Non contributing members of a team standing in relatively safe (trams are not always safe) area and receiving xp is a Form of Cheating?"

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THANK YOU!!!

Finally someone states the true question. Its not 'powerleveling' thats the problem. People can form whatever groups they want. The issue is people not contributing in ANY form or fashion to combat within a group for extended periods of time while standing in 'safe' areas of a zone getting full xp for kills.

Thats what I was trying to state in my previous post. If issue 2 DOES indeed require the sk'er to be in the same group then this is a good thing. Even better would be some form of distance requirement from the mobs.

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Using an exploit or a bug to advance your character at an accelerated rate is against the rules.
Maximising your character advancement using established game mechanics is not.


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Ummm ok. But before any cheat or bug is fixed...is it not considered an 'established game mechanic'?

I don't get it. Why hide behind something so silly. As stated previously, the Devs have given no yes or no on the train station exploit. Notice I don't call this powerleveling. Gaining advancement while taking NO action from a safe haven in the train station is not powerleveling. It's simply an exploit of game mechanics that the devs have not addressed. I do not know if they WILL address it. They may have a heap of other things to fix or the code may be tricky to manipulate without putting other game mechanics at risk. No one here really knows.

Stop mixing up powerleveling with an obvious exploit. The game is there to be played. Not to be breezed through. Regardless of if you have 3 or 4 high level toons. This does not give you the right to slipstream through all the lower level content to get up to 40 or 50.

What can be said is that perhaps due to lack of a larger mission variety at lower levels, its not as fun to repeat the process. Thats a content issue that the devs should take care of. It would be great if no 2 heroes had the exact same experience but I imagine that takes a lot of doing from a game design point of view.

And another thing, just because something takes a hell of a long time to fix, doesnt meant that the devs don't care about it, arent aware of it, or consider it acceptable gameplay. When I first started EQ, they had just fixed a well-known bug that had been there for two and a half years.

Something for nothing is against MMORPG game design and no devs WANT or DESIRE players to play the game as such. You're kidding yourself if you think so. They nerfed(errr...fixed) one of the coolest mage abilities in EQ(Call of the Hero) just so players couldn't skip content in certain areas.

And if its true that all of you never 'powerlevel' but think its ok, why even bother to post here? I would expect the powerlevelers to be the loud ones along with those opposed to that particular gameplay action. Maybe some of you are being a little less than honest about your gameplay practices...which you have stated are totally ok by the way