UnSub

I congratulate the necro-poster for giving Cuppa fans everywhere a brief flash of false hope. Kudos!

Thanks for that ZombieMan - I was trying to remember Awry's nic. Didn't remember The_EMPaler, who is most likely EMPulse now.

Best wishes Ex and let us know where you end up.

... just not via forum PM, because, y'know ... ;-)

Welcome, but I don't remember an EMPulse as a CS person. It's a different account name for a previous CS person, right?

Also, people should go back into some of those links of EMPulse's posting history for the lulz:

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Personally, I'd rather they pay attention to the GAME, fix some bugs and rethink the travesty that is Issue 5.

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So does this mean another game is in the works?

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Paragon Studios wouldn't be hitching its wagon only to a five year old title. Now, whether this new MMO is a major update to CoH/V to relaunch it as a new game OR something else entirely is something that only those on the inside know.

I figure, "Yes, there is a new MMO announcement coming." A new "City of" would make sense.

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As a point on the "the author has to grab the reader by the throat" school of reviewing, there are a couple of factors at play here.

1) Reading books / watching movies don't drop rewards outside of the overall experience. MMO players often play through something for the experiential element AND the rewards they can receive. When playing through MA arcs, players are likely to take both into account, which means that good narratives might be undermined if they are seen to not be providing the rewards. Conversely, missions that have weak narratives but have good reward rates might be highly rated. The mission rating might actually be a weak judge of story.

2) It's a matter of trust between the creator and the audience about the journey they are going to take, but it isn't cut and dried. For instance: "Apocalypse Now" is an awful war movie because the first 15 minutes has no M60 machine gun fights. "Memento" is an awful film because it runs backwards. Now, both are potential reasons to turn these movies off after 15 minutes, but you shouldn't be able to rate them because you only watched 15 minutes of them.

More applicably to CoH/V: perhaps I create a story arc that relies on twisting a cliche. However, players who don't get past the first mission never see how the cliche was changed. They play the first mission, rate it 2 star for being a cliche, then move on to the AV Farm. As an author, should I have to tip my hand up front just to cater to the ADHD instant gratification reward-monkeys who might have to wait two missions for a narrative payoff? Yes, awful material will get into the MA - I might actually create some of it :-) - but invalidating someone's work without experiencing all of it is a weak form of criticism. It is why I suggested a drop-out rate (or completion rate) statistic.

I expect the mission rating system to be manipulated to hell and back because ultimately 1) all arbitrary rating systems can be (see IMDb whenever especially popular / unpopular movies come out), 2) it's only using a 5-point scale which doesn't allow a lot of variability in ratings (a 0-to-10 point scale would be a lot better) and 3) early on there will be a lot of mission creating so players will be doing whatever they can to get their missions noticed. Until large numbers of players hit the rating system, exactly how it is flawed won't be readily evident.

Hopefully we'll be able to sort MA stories by creator, because then I'll have a better idea of who is producing quality work.

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As for ratings: I don't believe that players should be allowed to rate an arc without playing through all of it. Ordinary-seeming arcs might have a killer ending and the reality is that a player's work should be evaluated on the whole, not on the "I didn't like the uniform of the boss in the first mission so I quit".

However, to avoid players having to play through every mission to rate it - that's unreasonable punishment - at least one more measurement criteria can be added: drop out rate (or completion rate, which is the inverse of drop out rate). After a reasonable number (say: 50) of players have started an MA arc, the proportion of players who have dropped out prior to completing it (or the proportion of players who have successfully completed it) is shown. An arc with a high drop out rate / low completion rate is a big warning sign to players that the content might not be up to scratch.

Now, if an arc has a low completion rate but a high rating, it tells players 1) the arc might not be for everyone, 2) it might have been artificially boosted by friends, and / or 3) it might have a great final mission.

The flaw with weighting the rating of those who quit early is that if there are enough of them then they still will be a problem. It could work both ways - quit the first mission but rate it a 5. If enough people do that, it could make MA mission ratings meaningless.

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And you can't publish a mission that can't be "beaten". It might be hard, but the error checking makes sure that whatever you make is possible to complete.

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Not that I don't believe you, but once this goes to Open Beta, I intend to attack the MA with hammer, drill, and demon posessed rubber duckies until I prove you wrong. It's one of the aspects of MA that I've been planning to go after as soon as I can.

I figure it will take me one day, at most. By then, I'll have either broken it, or been distracted by some shiny new toy in the MA and be trying to break that instead.

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I think it could be very easy to create a mission that players can't succeed in. Three AVs, one item the player has to protect in the middle of them, said item might be able to be set in terms of HP, have the AVs aggro on the item as soon as the player enters the map / gets within 'range' (preferably a long way away). Or a 'Prevent From Escaping' mission where you put the door near the mob that shouldn't be allowed to escape.

Can't be beaten and easy to fail are close equivalents.

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Redname combo breaker!

Can we access existing AVs / EBs from the start, or do we have to unlock them (specifically Blue Steel)?

I remember commentary that MM powersets like Thugs were going to be very hard to do. Can we create Thugs-based (and Ninja- and Zombie-, etc) MM opponent sets in MA?

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Mako's Creek?!



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Pfft. It's no Orion Road.

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I liked "Up Late With Ascendent" myself. Such a pity that the trained pack of Rikti monkeys went wild in the first show and threw ... unpleasantness ... at the audience.

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I wonder what the response would have been if Positron spelled out all of the history behind this decision, but elected NOT to reinstate the Reformed badge for heroes? I can certainly see a good argument for not doing it and saying that heroes need to wait for side-switching to come in.

I certainly respect Positron for laying out the reasons, but that's a separate issue from getting access to the badge or not blueside.

Also: bring on side-switching! :-)

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Right now, the numbers for the five badges are 50, 100, 500, 1000, 10000. Change them to 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000. Yeah, some people who spent the time getting the badges in the hold system will be better off. So? Your future is in the new characters being created now. Don't screw them over out of fear that someone might get a badge they didn't "earn". Even if it might help them avoid a step or two in a future dialog tree.

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I know that their is an idea that some badges should be 'epic' and hard to get. But if you then attach those badges to special dialogue trees, you've just made a lot of people who can't grind out the epic badges - and grinding is what you have to do - very annoyed. Especially since crafting takes up such a large amount of in-game resources that new characters who won't be gifted huge amounts of inf will be left out of any of these changes.

It's great to have a non-combat system in place, but please make sure you consider the way it can be accessed.

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Now put these on TV where they belong!!!!

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To be a killjoy about the TV idea: the ads say nothing about what CoH/V is about. It could be for a new animated sitcom. Coming in cold in watching it, there's no guarantee that someone would pick up that CoH/V is 1) a video game or 2) a MMO. Or even what a skerrick of gamesplay would be like.

Also, both executions were 60+ seconds, which is a very expensive length. Plus it's an ad with a punchline, which can be missed if the audience comes in late / leaves early.

The ads work best online and virally - so send it to your friends! - were people might be able to spend a bit more time watching it and can immediately follow up by going to the official site.

These are great ads from a fan point of view and for online. Great work StoneFalcon.

It's good to see bases being looked at again.

Welcome.

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Thanks for everything and good luck Lighthouse. You were a great CM.

If you ever feel you need for more abuse and name calling, you'll always been welcome back here. :-)

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Given it's an interview about Issue 13 specifically and not for anything beyond that, I'm not surprised. It's mostly public relation stuff, or news for the uninitiated.


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Just to repeat this: all of these kind of articles are for those people who might play other MMOs / PC games and could get interested in CoH/V, or are former players. For those of us that read every post of the dev digest, scan every post about the closed beta and hide outside Positron's bedroom window at night in case he reveals something by talking in his sleep (who the hell is Rosebud?) most of these articles aren't going to provide anything new.

... and then, on the flip side, if completely new info had been released in these articles, people would complain "WHY WEREN'T WE TOLD FIRST? WHY DO THE DEVS HATE US?".

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1. Confirmation that patrol XP is optional

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Yeah, I think I'm within my rights to be very damn worried.

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I'm having a really hard time seeing anything worrying about people being able to choose which of a number of available offline-time bonuses they receive. People who want double xp can get it. Those who don't want it don't have to earn it. I can't see a downside to that.

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It would appear that if you don't want on patrol XP bonuses, you need to log off in a day job area. So you don't get both bonuses.

Seems fair enough to me.

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To throw potential future changes into the mix: if side switching is on the cards, are the job badges interchangeable or unique to each side? If they are interchangeable, then is it just the accolades that would flip? If they are unique, does this mean you'd have to start again from scratch on your new side to earn all the day job badges and accolades?

I really like the idea. Rested XP is a good thing. The Day Jobs are a good thing. But I think the time required offline is too extensive. As someone who plays a limited numbers of characters (and realistically, only has one main they'd focus on getting all the Day Job badges / accolades) this kind of system actually encourages me not to start another alt, but to find another game to play while my characters earn their day job badges.

... which may be the point - my sub fee rolls in and I don't cost anything in bandwidth - but it gets me looking elsewhere by default.

Ultimately I don't think there would be much harm done to the Day Job system if earning requirements were halved to 5 days for maximum benefit and 15 days for badge. Which would then see the optimal Day Job grinder (who paradoxically is grinding by not even playing!) get an accolade every month. That they then wouldn't use, because they'd be grinding the next badge out.

Also, when it says "two hour bonus", does it mean "two hours real time" or "two hours of in-game play"?

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I remember a time not too long ago when even selling costume parts would have been thought way beyond the line. I remember a time when someone would have been called crazy for even suggesting that it could lead to selling powers. Yet here we are.


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I remember when CoH/V was worked on by a staff of about 60, had nearly 200 k subscribed players and the IP was jointly owned by Cryptic and by NCsoft.

Without doubt you have to look at CoH/V in the context of what else is happening within the NCsoft stable. In short: it's downsizing. Lots of people are now on the market from NCsoft titles now looking for new jobs. To date NCsoft NorthCal hasn't seen the impact of this action (that we know of) in part because it is recognised that CoH/V has a loyal player base and because a way has been identified to justify the continued re-investment into the four-year-old CoH/V.

This way is increasing the share of wallet the customers put into the game and generally cosmetic Booster Packs (including the Wedding Pack) is the way forward. How many per year? I don't know. If it was one per quarter, I could accept it (and still buy things on a Pack-by-Pack basis - I'm not shelling out for the Catgirl Booster, but the Alien Timetravelling Ninja Booster is a dead cert buy).

It's nice to say, "I remember when...", but times have changed. CoH/V is facing greater competition moving forward as well as a difficult industry position moving forward (i.e. being an 'old' MMO). I don't think CoH/V will ever sell an 'I Win' button, but selling mostly cosmetic items and powers with questionable (if fun) utility? Yeah, that's fine. You don't have to buy them to still be able to play and enjoy CoH/V.

So, here we are.

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Although... seeing 20 or so folks pop one during a Hami raid might be hella fun to watch...

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Presuming the resultant lag doesn't cause mass mapserver

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The combined self-destruct was so powerful, it broke the interweb!

Bought the Cyborg Booster.

Here's the thing: all that 'free' stuff came when CoH/V had a larger playing audience AND a larger development staff.

In the light of what NCsoft is doing to its other western titles, if my extra $10 goes a little way to keeping the CoH/V dev team expanding and CoH/V healthy, then it is a worthwhile investment.

Will I feel the same way if there are 8 Boosters released every year? Probably not. But the Cyborg Booster looks great and is worth supporting the game over.

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I am at your PAX, stealin' your funz!

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MOAR I13 INFO

UR DOIN IT WRONG

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Right now the NCSoft area (and pretty much everyone else) is being set up...which is surpisingly packed and chaotic.

We've got 8 machines that will be running CoH/CoV on the training room, so feel free to log in over the next few days and say hi to all the PAX people who will be playing from here.

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Is it okay to spam them with "Buy the Booster Pack I! Good value at only $9.99! Visit CoH.com for good service!" tells?

If I could have chosen it, The Return of the Revenge of Dr. M would have got my vote. Samuraiko would have been second place.

Out of the options, I voted for Dark Advice because it got the biggest laugh out of me.