Ultra_Violence

Objective: The 24 hour timer does suck. Unless you base it on the time you last STARTED a TF/SF it makes life too hard to keep track of what you are doing when you have to remember what you did last night and what time you finished. Make it 18 hours, same base effect but unlikely to have many people who ran a TF for over 6 hours last night wanting to do it again tonight lol.

Subjective: I like the idea of being able to get what you want OR get something that sells for piles of cash (if you prefer to outfit with cheaper IOs). Also like not having to do TF/SFs to get the best IOs. You can do lots of things and get merits. I closed out an old grey arc and got no experience and 5 merits for it. That was a nice surprise.

One think I would like would be floor/ceiling tiles without the seams between them. Not everyone has tile floors in their Sewer you know.

A nice combination with that would be a texture that is just randome dots. This would enable you with the right colors to either make those cheap white cielings with the black dots all the schools and Dennys used to have or by reversing the color scheme make it look like stars.

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I won't post angry comments about any walk button we get "some day", but I can see prioritizing other stuff above it...like a 'scamper on all fours' run animation...

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Oh, of course, I've never seen this as an especially high priority. Other things being more important is a good reason. I'm just worried increasingly simple things have been getting the "not everyone will like it" treatment, to the point where I'm starting to worry if it really is priorities deciding or if it's that reluctance to not please everybody.

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There's a difference between 'not everyone will like it, but it'll only take a couple of hours' and 'not everyone will like it, and it'll take more time to do than pretty much anything else'

Really, the 'not everyone will like it part' is a very, very minor concern.

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Not everyone will like it describes every single change. There hasn't been one improvement to the system without detractors complaining they wanted something else done instead.

This was obviously added because the game is too easy to maintain now and the Devs want more of a challenge.

Say how about making my 5200 graphics card work right again? Ever since NVidia patched it last December the buildings are all striped.

I must admit this feature sounds a lot more fun than it did initially.

For alt-a-holics like me this will lead to switching characters a LOT. Like I needed a reason to contantly switch characters....

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Ooo, I hadn't thought of that. So a power like Short Circuit isn't going to drain endurance very well against NPC enemies in Siren's Call. That will hurt a bit. (Though I'll also have a second build to use specifically in those zones, so it won't hurt as much as it might have.)

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The main time this would effect me is that I love to use the PvP zones for Halloween and Christmas events. Everyone else is busy elsewhere complaining about how crowded the other zones are or deathly afraid another player might kill them. I can hunt these zones all night without interruption normally.

But the mobs there tend to be a bit on the tough side (lots of bosses), so it Short Circut isn't doing it's full drain my Blaster will be in trouble.

Ya'll got nothing on my Pirate Santa. (the kind of Santa you'd get off the internet) but I can't remember by site for posting images.

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Well I have to say that I am disppointed with the pricing structure they chose. I believe for this type service, $5.00 is much more in line.

But it is not my business and I personally doubt I would ever use this type of service.

Grats to more options (I guess).

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I would have to agree with you on this one. $15 for items is hard to pin down, but 10 for a respec? They could very well send players to Farmer sites to buy Inf for respec recipies.

It is nice that they are selling them though. It isn't "sleazy" or greedy or anything. CoH is going with a new MMO model where beyond the monthly fee you can purchase a variety of items and services. None of the optional packs/services are required to play the game by any stretch.

The models for MMO's I've seen are:

Monthly Fee plus $50 expansion that you may as well delete your account if you don't have because everyone else will be spending all their time in the new area. (WoW)

Monthly Fee plus free updates and optional add on packs (CoH) that looked at individually probably are worth the cost (add 5 wedding packs together and you get the cost of a full expansion pack but no where near the content). On plus side this makes the packs more flexible as to content because there is nothing that HAS to be in one (expansions pretty much have to have at least 1 new zone).

Optional monthly charge but the game is very annoying to play without the services you get for signing up (no bank etc). If you don't pay the charge you also have to dig through more ads than a WTBS movie.

No monthly service but you constantly are offered the chance to purchase items in game.

Monthly charge and occasional free updates with nothing else. Fact is that this is most commonly seen on games struggling to get an audience. Often they will even give you get game itself free just to get your monthly fees.

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To all those complaining about the slots becoming unavailable, just remember one thing. If you don't use them now, I don't see why you would ever use them. Think of it this way: You have 12 character slots. If you aren't close to filling them up, you have...what, 5 used? That means you're most likely one of those people that only make a few characters (non-altaholic types), so why would you need them in the first place? Just add 2 slots to your favorite server, or 1 to each of your 2 favorite servers, and then you don't have to complain anymore.

Character slot issues really showed me how much this community likes to complain for no reason. It was stated in the i12 patch notes that they are temporary, and I believe GF said it would be announced before the slots are taken off. I'm not seeing the issue here.

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You are very mistaken. I have 4 servers filled with characters and characters on most other servers. When issue 12 came out I used 2 slots for a Widow and a SoA, but until I am done playing the characters I have (or feel the need to create a character on a full server) I don't want to use up my slots because I don't know what server to use them on yet.

Yes we need this "Lose free slots" thing defined. I could understand not giving out 2 free slots anymore but why in the world remove them after they have been given out?

Hopefully the free slots are like free Respecs and are used up first. I don't really want to use up all my free slots until I have a reason to but I did use up 2 of them.

Personally I think taking them away if unused is a mistake, unless they are going to be giving out slots on a regular basis (like free respecs) and need to "make room" in a special free slots, slot type.

Nice info but it is important to remember that most people with a 50 villain probably have been around long enough to have Veteran powers. These are free do a LOT of damage and are hugely useful in 1-20 game especially if you have + ToHit/Acc powers.

They do cause redraws however so you have to learn to use your 2 Vet powers together then your AT attacks together. Vet powers do a lot of damage (more than most any AT power prior to 20) and the wand/staff has a fair range for pulling.

Only real complaint I have is that the information provided in detail is only going to really help the Devs and those massively into numbers.

A 2 To Hit bonus means what exactly? That is a bit esoteric for most players. It is OK for damage because you can just compare the numbers, but for something like Accuracy/To Hit if you are deciding to get the power or not, it is useless because you have nothing to compare it against. Other than taking the power and checking how much your attributes change.

Percentages would be much better even if they aren't quite accurate. Tell most players 10% increase and they have an idea what that means and whether it is worth slotting.

It is still a big improvement over what we had before.

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Moreover, the new "hump" in XP progression after the recent XP "smoothing" feels like it's right around level 20. Now, I'm not complaining. I didn't check the numbers but I'm guessing we're still leveling faster than we did before. However, everything of course becomes relative, and the gains felt noticably slower than at earlier levels right around 20.

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I like the rest but this I would have to disagree with. Once you get to 20 you are (or should be) much more survivable and should be bumping up the difficulty of the mobs you are facing. 20+ on Heroic starts to slow. 20+ on Sturdy (that is the 3rd level right?) and you go up quite fast. 20+ on Invincible and you shoot straight through the levels incredibly fast.

You do need defenses (Widows) on a melee to do this however unless you are planning to Foe TP everyone lol.


BTW I didn't get on test so I have to say the Crab-Spider uniform is CRAZY good.

I may never design a second costume for him.

On other note on Safes is that temp powers seem unusually accurate on them. Lower damage types will appreciate the extra damage.

And 20+ leading the villain you released from jail to the bank/other side missions can be huge. They are VERY powerful and will take out the hero and any bosses by themselves even on Relentless. Some are absolutely ugly. You just have to clear the way for them.

Grrr. How do these people always know my schedule? 3 or 4 weekends a year I am busy and every single Double Experience to date (and now through January) has fallen on them.

I think NCSOFT is the devil and either wants to keep me from donating my time or drive me crazy.

Holy Cow this is big. Tons of new content, the real problem will be deciding which to try as I expect a lot of it.

One really nice thing is that players can create some missions that let them get annoyingly hard to get badges (Villain mission with lots of Troll bosses for example). Of course I don't think I want to see a mission full of Illusionists lol.

These people are crazy good.

I can't find anything to cry DOOM about from that interview!

Additional money = additional development. Fine by me.

Branching dialog trees. This could be huge. Imagine story arcs that change depending on your choices or whether you succeed in a mission.

Example of cool things branching can do: You have a story arc to stop a Giant Robot from being built. In the final mission you have 20 minutes to destory the operation.

If you shut it down you get reward and story arc reward.

If you fail a GM Robot comes steaming down the halls after you. No way most teams/soloers could handle a GM by themselves so the only option is to run for it. Once out of the mission the GM Robot spawns in the zone (just what you were trying to avoid).

Or perhaps you have a 3rd option where the GM Spawns in an enemy zone (villains point it at Paragon City, heros to Rogue Isles).

All this and lots more powersets, slots and an improved interface.

Fun stuff.

An excellent job. Nice feature that will make money but you can hardly accuse them of being greedy. I don't think anyone expected it to be part of the vet system.

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Ironically part of the reason why CoV has so few zones (compared to CoH) is that one of the major "lessons learned" from CoH was that many people didn't like just how 'big' CoH was. People complained about long travel times and multi-zone missions. Supposedly CoV benefited from and corrected that mistake by having a more linear, compact zone structure.

I guess the Devs are damned if they do and damned if they don't over this.

With that said I wouldn't be against the idea of giving CoV more zones. There's really no argument that the redside needs them at this point. I personally call CoV "Village of Villains" because right now it seems so tiny to me compared to CoH.

The real trick to this is seeing whether or not the Devs ever make this a priority or not...

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That simply isn't true. CoV was a rush job, they had to get it out in a set amount of time. They did NOT learn from CoH that people didn't like having so many mission choices or the ability to get hunting badges reasonably easily, which is what we have in CoV.

The real issue isn't # of zones specifically it is lack of choice in missions and certain villain types who just don't appear in any quantity (except possibly in PvP zones).

I'd settle for 25% more missions whether they are in an existing zone or not. Badge hunting is a harder thing to fix because it spans all levels.

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BAB was leading probably only one or two people in looking after animations (he'd need someone else to hold the camera while he swung his sword around - bow wow chicka chicka bow wow! ;-), SexyJay probably had costume design all to himself or as part of a small art team (two or three people).

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I've actually been the sole animator and FX artist since Issue 8. So glad to say that's no longer the case XD

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If that was the case, then you, sir, rock even more.

To quote pohsyb, (^_^)b


So let's see:
1. Positron
2. BAB
3. Castle
4. Ghost Widow
5. War Witch
6. SexyJay
7. (Silent) Ian
8. Ravenstorm(?)
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

Who's who at Pre-NCNC CoX?

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Ian and Ravenstorm were moved to MUO. The last bit of work Ian did for CoH was the Justice armor pieces for the GvE edition. Ravenstorm's last major contribution were Safeguard missions, but he came back on every once in a while to help out. He was responsible for setting up Hamidon(s) and GM spawn placements in the Hive and Abyss, as well as pathing for the Rikti Invasion ships.

Added to that list would be Ken, our art lead. Nick, an environment artist replaced with Don shortly after Issue 9. Nick moved to one of Cryptic's other projects while Don is now with us at NCNC.

On the programming side, there's Aaron, the lead programmer and Garth, replaced at some point with Graham. Garth was shunted over to Cryptic's core team when Graham came on board, but eventually ended up joining us as well. Pohsyb had also been moved off of CoH/CoV but we managed to sneak him out and take him with us.

I believe that's it. The rest of the team were production. Brian Clayton (now the head cheese), Mynx (producer), Ghost Falcon (producer) Lighthouse, Ex Libris, Blue Steel (design support), Richard (AP/Build Engineer), and Ross (marketing)

That 15? I lost count...

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Thats a lot of producers in relation to the total head count. I take it your saw The Amateurs?

My only real objection is Electricity primary/secondary without a matching Elec set, so you can make an Elec/Elec character. IMO that is where Elec shines because you can keep bosses drained of END indefinitely. With just one set it isn't near as powerful.

Would have also been nice to give an AT besides Corr/MMs (probably Doms) a set with a heal in it.

Can't help having a good/bad feeling about this. The zone WILL be a lot friendlier, but I liked having 1 zone where you had to make crazy runs across the zone past dozens of purples to get to your mission.

To me, Hollows was fun because it was so dangerous (and because as a < 10 zone there was no debt so death didn't matter much). I could reach any mission in the zone without using travel powers, but boy if you messed up you were dead fast.

I guess I won't be suiciding anymore since they said they are adding Field Hospital now too. That was how I used to get back to Atlas to sell or get back accross the zone from a remote mission. Obviously this isn't how they wanted us using death in the game anyway - as free instant transport.

Then there is the problem or once this is all working, the unintended side effects like multiple stacked effects.

Consider if multiple FF bubblers with different color bubbles. If they stacked their bubbles on you, you might not be able to see out or at least not very well.

A Red, Green, and Blue Bubble would either block your vision (a black bubble), give you a dirty brown bubble or strobe colors until people are having epileptic fits. (Actually I kind of like the combining colors idea certainly unique but I can hear the crys already)

This isn't just for bubbles. All continueing effects have to stack their colors so it just makes things even more complicated no matter how you look at it.

Buy more memory.

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Sorry but that is unacceptable to just tell people to suck it up.

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Well, "suck it up" is rather harsh-sounding, but the thought is valid.

Long-term customers are rewarded for their patronage. Common COMMON practice. Widely accepted and generally very popular with the customers. Does it make everyone happy? No, of course not. Nothing makes everyone happy.

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Why do people keep saying this? Rewarding long time customers is a "Common practice?" since when?

Common practice is exactly the opposite. NEW customers get special prices and rewards and long time customers get nothing.

Talk to your phone or cable company about getting that special new subscriber rate for a service you already have and watch them laugh at you. It is much more common to give stuff away to new customers as that is how your business grows.

Antagonizing new customers, even some of them, is a bad business decision. I have talked to a number of new players who feel left out by the Vet Rewards system.

Personally I'd like to see it ended but not removed. Put a 4 or 5 year cap on the program and move on. Anyone who has been around for 4 years at this point isn't going anywhere, giving them rewards serves no purpose. By leaving the system in place with a cap, it encourages newer players to stick around for a while and gives them the ability to eventually get everything. Currently new players will never get everything.

Welcome aboard.

Yes CoH, and really most MMOs worth playing, are very complicated and the people who have been playing them a while don't even realize it anymore.

Your best bets are:

1) Ask for help in broadcast. My experience has been that new players in CoH usua get buried in people trying to help them. When you get stuck ask for help or join someone who knows what they are doing. Without a mentor to get you going this game can be daunting.

2) Limit what you are doing. Avoiding Safeguards was a good move. There is always time to learn more.

3) Read everything. For example, The Hollows is a hazard zone, you aren't meant to fight there by yourself. The Frostfire mission tells you to bring help to fight him and it means it.

In some ways CoH is much simpler than other MMOs in that you don't have to find your mission on your own, which is a big help. A lot of your problems you would have with any MMO, everyone has to learn how to deal with them somewhere.

At least the players here are friendlier than games like WoW where asking newb questions is like giving people rocks to throw at you.