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Please use this thread to discuss the following announcement:

The City of Heroes Team will be out and about at the following trade show events this summer:

Comic Con, San Diego, CA
July 23rd to July 27th

Penny Arcade Expo, Seattle, WA
August 29th to August 31st

We'll have more details as to who will be there and what we will be showing as we get closer to these dates, but we want to give those who may be interested in attending advance notice.

Also, we want to mention that we will be doing a player Meet ‘n Greet in the San Francisco Bay Area in mid to late October this year. We had a great time and received a lot of positive feedback from last year's Meet 'n Greet event and we’re excited to be planning for another one this year. We're still working out the details of the event and we will let you know more about it as we get closer.

We look forward to seeing you at the shows!

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Still no Australian convention visits

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And to deny us on ANZAC Day! The nerve...

;-)

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Although I think branching dialogue trees are a good idea, I also think people need to think how they'll really work. A lot of games that use such mechanisms include them to actually disguise the lack of choice you really have - you end up on Mission X regardless of what you say. Also, I can already see complaints that "My character would never say THAT!" or "All these options suck!".

It'll be interesting to see the final implementation, but I encourage everyone to take a step back and not hold their breath.

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Personally, I just take issue with your use of the phrase "Correcting misconceptions" You're in no position to do so, not being an employee of Cryptic or NCSoft, and if you were, you'd be bound by an NDA anyways.

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Fair enough - I was 'challenging opinions I saw as incorrect'.

I've taken Emmert's comments from his GDC 2008 speech that says "[a] new lead designer, Matt "Positron" Miller was appointed, and the newly-small dev team had to trend away from content-heavy features" that would seem to indicate Positron got the lead dev job just as the team was downsizing. Of course, the article could be wrong, or that could be the condensed version of what happened.

At this point, however, we've gone where I didn't really want to go (and yes, I take some of the responsibility for leading it there) - the fact that 15 people punched above their weight to give us the MMO we have today. I'm very interested to see where CoH/V ends up in 12 months time as NC^2 increases staff numbers but also competition from other MMOs increases.

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Put it this way: If NCSoft is the real villain of the 'paring down,' and starved the development of CoH, then why did the whole Dev team (plus some others!) jump ship from Cryptic so readily to work for their cruel taskmasters?

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I've decided against using an emotive and descriptive counter to the above (although a cackling Emmert pointing at various CoH/V staff, screaming, "YOU'RE OFF THE GAME!" while lightning crackles overhead has its merits ;-) because I don't see it as productive. GadgetDon has already covered some of the main reasons as I see it, but in the end it comes down to generally cold business decisions.

In short, the budget got slashed before (2006), but things are still very profitable so it becomes a potential opportunity to expand (2007/08). The dev team, starved of resources for so long, is thrilled to get a new lease of life and to finally, finally do some of the things they've been talking about for so long. Plus they love the game.

The facts are that CoV failed to meet expectations in new subs. I don't know how much it cost to develop, but odds are that it was partly funded by Cryptic and partly funded by NCsoft. My understanding is that NCsoft funded a lot of the further development of CoH/V (or alternatively: takes a substantial proportion of the revenue and can select how much it reinvests) while Cryptic still held the reins. If they went, "we are reducing the development budget of CoH/V", then Cryptic weren't left with as much to work with.

I'm happy to be proven wrong if new information comes to light - I'll wipe the egg off my face and move forward. It could have very well been a mixed decision - NCsoft reduced their development payments after CoV while Cryptic had to cut back dev costs in order to repay development loans. But I get my back up when I see claims that MUO was the reason for the cut to staff, or that Emmert was malicious in his intent. I don't see it that way and want to put forward another theory that makes sense to me.

Of course, all this theorising is no doubt vastly amusing to the people who actually know what happened. :-)

Also, I don't see CoH 2 being a motivator to cut NCsoft out. After all, NCsoft would have to publish CoH 2 due to current IP contracts or Cryptic would have had to buy out NCsoft's rights to the CoH IP to independently launch it. Cryptic hasn't made a big secret that they are working on other projects - they've had development art up on their website for their other undisclosed projects for quite a while now.

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Now, I believe we have been told that these cuts to the developer team were after Issue Eight came out right?

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I actually believe that the cuts to the dev team happened much earlier in 2006. It was announced that Positron became lead dev on April 28 2006, which puts the change between Issue 6 and Issue 7, not Issue 8. I'm sure there was a phased reduction in the team, but it is likely Issue 7 (launch: June 6, 2006) was the last time the larger team pulled something together. I'm pretty sure that Zeb Cook also left in April 2006 (or at least stopped posting).

As for when MUO came into the picture, I can't say. But it seems possible that a fantastic CoV launch would have seen Cryptic fully committed to their own projects, not looking to outside offers.

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I'm ecstatic that so many people read this thread and got an idea about some of the barriers faced by CoH/V's devs over the past 2 years-ish. It's important that people know this. But I think it's important to correct a misconception or two.

I don't want to go into it much on the board, but I've written up a piece that summarises how I see things going down. The short of it is that I don't see Cryptic being the ones who cut the dev team (although they may have decided who moved to where). You can read my thoughts in the link:

Sometimes Divorce is Best for the Kids: Cryptic, NCsoft and City of Heroes / Villains

The other area I though should be addressed is the idea that MUO was responsible for any change to CoH/V. My perception of what happened is the other way around: CoH / V was 'pared' (to use Positron's phrasing) and suddenly Cryptic had 45 staff to find projects for. Then along came MUO, with it's long stride and cocksure grin...

I could be completely wrong - only the people who were there know for sure. But I think it's stupidly simplistic (although probably fun) to think that MUO / Emmert were responsible for everything that happened.

Overshadowed by Villain-player 'outrage' about Rockjaw's comments was a very important piece of info that came out of the Omega Sektor event. As previously stated by Jack Emmert and commented on recently by War Witch, 2006 saw the CoH/V team cut by 75% / from a team of about 60 to a team of about 15. It provides some insight into why David 'Zeb' Cook left, why Emmert stepped off the project and why content releases slowed in 2006.

More interesting was the fact that War Witch was the only person who did zone creation during that time. It seems increasingly likely that Castle was the only person working on power systems, 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).

We're aware of Ghost Widow as a programmer and there are probably a few more, but not a huge number (so perhaps 5). Positron would have needed to be a man of many skills (deck of many things?) to help guide things forward and to pick up the slack where it appeared.

(I'm sure I'm forgetting some people, but I think pohsyb came back to CoH/V when it was bought by NCsoft, so he wasn't on that list.)

So: 15 people. Enough to keep the game going but certainly not sizeable to enough to release huge content releases for free every 4 months. The fact that they recovered to release 3 very good issues in 2007 is testament to the work ethic of the team.

Having seen a number of "WY ISN"T THIS BUGZ FIXXED???" threads appear recently, here's your answer: 15 people.

My thanks to those 15, both known and unknown to the forum community. It was appreciated.

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If Positron was really into the Theatre of the Mind, he'd have the graphics turned off too and the devs / CMs / CS would need to describe to us in text what is happening. It would be a gaming revolution! :-0

I almost bought this, until I read all sounds were being taken out of the game. It was at this point the gag became clear.

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It's very likely that the Midnight Squad - being 'clandestine' and magic orientated - can easily straddle the line between good and evil. I'd expect that all the Midnight Squad content in I12 is available through both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles (even though the missions might be different, the content will still be there).

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This is a better change... but it still opens the door for abuse by not letting the team leader kick players who log off for extended periods.

However, well done on listening to the feedback and coming up with a solution that acts as a compromise.

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What a great thread.

... and I've got a new sig from it :-)

Great work Chase. I'm especially sure about how tight the deadline would have been.

So, can we expect comics out from you each month now? :-)

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I actually thought the news that CoH/V is going to get some completely new titles added to the franchise as well as continued content expansion was good news.

Having read this thread, obviously I was wrong.

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My first thought on reading this change was: who decided this was a good idea? I'm fully aware that Positron doesn't like the idea of everyone rushing through missions just to get to the end, but this change for SFs / TFs seems extremely short-sighted. Hell, the fact it missed patch notes would indicate that this change hadn't been widely discussed or even could be an old solution that someone fixed in without consulting others first.

First off, TFs have worked this previous way for 4 years. As a casual player, I've enjoyed the fact that I can possibly solo some TFs if my team drops out, or if a few members exit then the overall team still has a chance to complete the TF. This won't happen under this new system.

Secondly, as noted by others, this doesn't stop RMTers from earning inf. If anything, it's started a bonanza for RMT farmers who get a TF going and 'underman' the TF in order to increase XP and loot rewards. (I don't for a minute think Shard TFs are going to be the favoured targets - more likely any TF with 4 - 6 player requirements.) Seriously, you aren't going to reduce demand for external RMT services by reducing the supply of TF / SF recipes while at the same time giving farmers increased inf earning options. That's just going to send CH prices through the roof and send players who want the recipes but can't meet market prices through gameplay off to RMT sites to buy inf.

Thirdly, if you are going to stick with this change, all TFs / SFs need to be reconsidered. This change is truly the simple option that ends up requiring more work to get right (unless there is another change coming down the pipe that will make this more palatable).

Finally, this change discourages players from even starting a TF / SF at minimum team sizes. I've seen teams implode during normal TF runs due to a team wipe and people leave, but all it requires is a mission reset and the rest of the TF team can continue. Not anymore. If anything I could see the potential to grief a TF / SF in joining one, leading the team into a wipe and then complaining loudly about it and quitting. If 2 people leave a TF that requires 8 people, that's probably enough for most players to quit the TF themselves.

All in all, roll this change back. It's a stupid, short-sighted change that hurts casual play, benefits external RMTers and dedicated farmers and actively discourages players from attempting content that last week they would have at least given a try.

Oh LiquidX, you loveable scamp!

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This is ridiculous.

When CoH stops charging a monthly subscription then they can add their paid items, like a lot of free to play Asian MMOs do.

Which is exactly what this sort of business model is based on.

Charging a subscription fee and for in game items, especially when the amount is 2/3 of the monthly subscription price is extortion.

It's tacky and greedy, and it definitely shuffles CoX down on the list of things I'll keep if I ever start canceling various MMO subscriptions.

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First off, $10 to go to a Wedding (even one that is dry and offers no food) is cheap. You don't even need to buy the pack if you don't want to. If you don't see value in it, don't buy it. It's an optional extra. It isn't an expansion piece you have to buy if you want to keep playing the game.

Secondly, the $10 goes towards covering the cost of developing content for a live lore event. Now, some people might like to think that live events in MMOs should be free, but they are very expensive things to run which is why few MMOs run them. If Manticore and Sister Psyche were going to tie the knot in the Pocket D, I'd be less interested, but it sounds like they've got a unique map for it. I won't be able to attend, but I sure hope their will be some official wedding videos made available.

Finally, this is a bit of a Catch-22. Paying for the Wedding Pack may see NCsoft try to charge for more items / packs, but not paying for it may see CoH/V get less 'extra' content in future as it is perceived that it's not worth developing. As such, I'm going to be buying the Wedding Pack. I want CoH/V to have more 'extra' content and evolve further. Besides which, paying $25 for this game this month will still see me get better value than paying $80 for a single player game in most cases.

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It was the Heroes Gear Kit. It included all the extras from the City of Heroes DVD Edition (Statesman Heroclix, VIP Badge, Cape of the Four Winds, PVP mini-comic, and all that), and ran about $20 bucks I believe.

And for the comment in a previous post:

Everyone already had a fair shot at it. If they didn't get it then, then too bad.

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Wrong. Despite my best efforts and explanation that I only wanted the in-game items, they wouldn't ship the pack out of the US.

I'm aware that some non-US, non-Canadians got this pack sent to them, but it seems that it depended on who they managed to get in Support.

Also, given player churn, there are a whole new set of players who never had the chance to get these items. If NC^2 put up the VIP badge and Cape of the Four Winds up at the NCstore for $3.99, they'd get my money and likely the money of a number of other people.

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Extra Female Costume Items
"Excess Plus" for Chest and Hips


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There is 100% no doubt a man named a piece of female clothing the "Excess Plus". They should have just gone the whole hog and named it the "Super Fatty Fat Fat". ;-)

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If anyone needs a loan, hit me up.

Ex

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Don't do it! First off she'll be all nice and sweet about giving you that loan, but soon she'll start hitting you up for balloon payments, telling you if you can't pay she'll break your IOs (true story: one player who took loans from Ex had a lot of Endurance Modification IOs - we all know what happened there) and if you try to go the the PPD, you'll wake up with a Hydra head in your bed (which stains the sheets terribly)!

Don't take loans from CMs! They'll own you for evermore!

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It seems the hardware upgrades have been modest at best. A cetain other top MMO could gobble up the entire CoH/V population on a single one of their servers and still have room for dessert.

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Which one?

My understanding is that WoW caps out at 3000 (1500 per side) which is less than Freedom experienced over the weekened. Players outside of that figure go into queues, which would hardly see them gobbled up.

EVE could possibly take more players than CoH/V concurrently, but it's designed to be a single server operation (i.e. one game world, no shards) that does have issues when large groups of players congregate in one area.

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Mr_No_Pants wrote:
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Yeah..how dare the Devs grant us movement between servers after we asked so long for it.


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Wow. They gave us movement between servers? I thought we had to pay $10 per character for this?


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You would have a stronger point if the OP had used 'given' at any point during his statement.

He didn't. Players asked for server transfers and, as is pretty standard in MMOs, it was implemented with a charge for the service (and a lower charge compared a lot of other MMOs).

Seriously, lern2flame.

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We've been monitoring the performance of all servers throughout the day and early evening, and based upon recent data from Freedom, we're going to throttle down the maximum number of players that will be able to access the Freedom and Virtue servers for the remainder of the weekend.

Players will not get kicked off the server while we make this adjustment. However, if you log off, you may not be able to log back into the server (i.e. it will appear grayed out on the Server Selection screen).

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Just out of curiosity, can you tell us what that maximum number is?

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Sorry, but we do not make specific numbers publicly available outside of shareholder's information.

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So if we buy 2 shares of stock we can know?

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Shareholder information (including CoH/V subscription figures and maximum concurrent player numbers) is released publicly sometime after the end of each quarter. I don't think we've yet seen Q4 2007 figures, so we probably won't see Q1 2008 figures until early May or so.

On the other hand... given that such figures will be released publicly, it would be nice if Lighthouse could fast-track it and let the playerbase know what the maximum concurrent player figures were from across the past weekend. If the concurrent player numbers have gone up, the server load wasn't being driven by server transfers.

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they'd never make transfers free. too many people believe that it costs them money to do (because they made it out to be that way,) when they've been doing free transfers to test for years.

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The Test server is a 'use at your own risk' environment that allows you to create multiple copies of a character. Server transfers require things to work correctly and ties back to a player's account.

And regardless, a $10 fee is a good gate to stop people transferring with abandon.

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Please. Server transfers are there for you to make an extra buck. It was seen that transferring to freedom and virtue was profitable, so it wasn't halted for sake of the server populations. Now it lands us here.

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All of which assumes that server transfers are the only reason that Freedom is currently greyed out. There are also new players and people playing alts to consider.

Freedom going grey ISN'T just because everyone transferred to it, but because it's already a well populated server that has just set some unprecedented records. Unless everyone is fine with Freedom being locked down permanently - no transfers, no new characters able to be created on it - just so that for maybe 4 days a year 'native' Freedomites can play, then this isn't something that NC^2 can just fix or worth getting angry at them for.

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PS3? meh.

360 is where it's at NC^2.

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I'm yet to hear any developer speak in glowing terms of the Xbox Live architecture. I subscribe to ChaseArcarnum's idea that it doesn't scale well to MMO lvls (until I hear differently, of course).

Don't know about the PS3 online architecture, but it may have been designed with more than FPS deathmatches in mind.