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Good on MMORPG.com for asking about Spacetime Studios and for getting an answer. I'm surprised that NCsoft has 8 unannounced projects and only plan to release 2 or so a year - it seems like a pretty big portfolio for an industry where even getting one game out takes a long, long time.

As for CoH/V on the console: go for it NCsoft. It'd have to be streamlined - I'd go so far as to say no toggles and no endurance, with power recharge time being your barrier to overpowered - but it would work well. Of course, for CoH/V to work on the PS3, it'd have to beat the DC Online MMO to market. It could be done. However, I'd see it more likely that NCsoft would see Guild Wars, Exteel and Dungeon Runners go to the PS3 first before trying to put CoH/V on it.

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Smoothing the level curve would mean finding a way that by simply completing most of the contacts' missions in a 5 level tier, that there is more than enough xp produced to get to the next tier of contacts.


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I've fixed the above to reflect my opinion on this - it's better that players could outlvl content than the 'just enough' xp via contacts because it will mean that a portion of the content will remain fresh to players since they won't be doing it alt after alt. Also, given that Ouroboros exists, outlvling content isn't the issue it once was if you are really desparate to do a certain arc.

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To play devil's advocate here: Real Numbers are meh. It'll help settle some arguments that are based around assuming certain values, as well as start new ones when people are able to compare exact values, but it is really only going to be the min/maxers or number freaks who care. I also hope the devs are ready for an onslaught of posts about how power X is so much better than power Y because the Real Numbers say so (and by devs, I mean Castle). Two weeks after Real Numbers come out and all the FOTM builds have been min/maxed to within an inch of their lives, no-one will care apart from numeriphiliacs.

The two changes that will actually resonate long, long after Real Numbers have been forgotten are the Server Hardware Upgrade and the XP Smoothing. First off, it's my understanding that the servers currenlty max out at about 3500 concurrent users each - I'd be interested to know if the server upgrades are going to increase that number.

Secondly I'd love to know if the server upgrades are going to see a change in the reliability of the Consignment Houses and reduce their lag. It would also be good if the new server hardware would be able to reduce lag redside in some of the more lag-ridden zones (although this may just be wishful thinking).

Thirdly, this is actually the first sign of re-investment into CoH/V that we players will be able to see at work - new servers mean hopefully a better play experience.

Finally, the smoothing of the XP curve is actually the greatest announced change to the game for a long, long time - if done right, it could see a lot of players return to at least check it out and see if the 'lvl hump' still exists. Changes to XP rates will have the greatest lasting impact in-game out of the announcements made.

Real numbers mean very little long-term. The fact that NC^2 is willing to spend the money on new server hardware and tinker with the xp curve (via providing more per 'drop') shows that it is believed that CoH/V has a greater potential to attract and keep players than it has currently achieved.

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And, as I said, if trial accounts can't send /t or emails, the next cheapest option is to appear in AP and spam Broadcast.

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Which at that point is easier to ignore and report because it's on broadcast. For the reason a lot of players will complain with in minutes of said spammer trying to do it.

Thank you for the time...

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I report every spam email I get. I'm sure other players do as well. Players could complain all they wanted about a spam sent through Broadcast - it doesn't make CS respond any quicker. If it takes CS an hour (or more) to get back to the issue, that's time the spambot has to advertise its wares. It doesn't matter if 1 person or 100 people complain if CS doesn't get there to deal with it.

Or, if I were a spammer, I'd stand in a Consignment House group and switch between Broadcast and Local (because the CH crowd is arguably a target audience in need of my services). A number of people don't listen to the Broadcast channel, but the Local channel is usually left active.

Seriously, all of the "block trials from this channel" or "don't let them have this functionality" won't work because they are simple and quick to get around. Unless every trial account is cut off from other players (say, locked in Outbreak / Breakout with no access to /t or email) then RMT spamming will continue quickly. SWG tried locking their trial accounts in the tutorial to deal with RMT spam - funnily enough, few new players elected to play past the trial period.

The only way to fix this issue is to Follow The Money. If the devs can't follow the money in-game (and I would have to think they can't, so they can't identify the paid accounts that provide the inf for the RMT transactions) then they have to follow the money out-of-game and make players come to them and their non-spamming RMT services.

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You can't build in enough barriers to stop RMT spam that won't end up impacting on legitimate users. The only way to stop RMT spam is to make it uneconomical to offer such services in the first place.

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And yet these are the very suggestions you’re trying to shoot down.

Requiring a paid account in order to send an in-game e-mail means they have to pony up $15 American in order to send out spam. If they do not get at least $15 in business from all the spam e-mails before the account is banned, this makes their “service” uneconomical.

If they have to be a specific level in order to send out tells and/or e-mails, this means that new spam-bots have to actually be played for a period of time. If the cost of playing the character up to the required level (time = cost) is greater than what they make from the “customers” created by the spam, this makes their “service” uneconomical.



And as far as impacting legitimate users is concerned, the spam tells and e-mails are already impacting legitimate customers. So the trick is to make the impact of stopping it less than the impact of having it continue.

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The other side of that is whether or not being restricted in communication options sees legitimate new players stop themselves from subscribing. It may not in most cases, but having a newbie friend send you a /t with their character name so you can communicate with them is a big help in joining friends together. So another side to the equation is whether of not CoH/V is willing to see some new players walk away by restricting how they can communicate in the game.

And, as I said, if trial accounts can't send /t or emails, the next cheapest option is to appear in AP and spam Broadcast.

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CoV needs about 8 new zones covering all levels from probably 10 onwards. The new zones should have no links to the Destined One storyline and be more focussed on some of the other mysteries around the Rogue Isles or some alternate storylines.

At the same time, heroes will get some new stuff too. It's just how these things work and neither side should be jealous of what the other side gets.

In order for me to spam without using /t or email, the most effective way for me to reach my target audience would be to RMT spam in broadcast in any starting zone or any zone with a consignment house in it.

As for not being able to send email or /tells, yes, that can impact on a trial. Want to be able to tell your friend (the one who sent you the trial code) that you are in-game? With no access to email or to /t, you would have to go out-of-game (external email, phone) to tell them. Some players will find that an inconvenience that doesn't show CoH/V off in its best light. Some won't bother to differentiate between what they can do in a trial and what they can do in the full game.

You can't build in enough barriers to stop RMT spam that won't end up impacting on legitimate users. The only way to stop RMT spam is to make it uneconomical to offer such services in the first place.

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I'd find them denying people to send /tells a very bad idea.

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Agreed. And if they can't send tells or can't send email, the next simple step is to go into a well populated zone and spam in Broadcast. Once every sixty seconds would do.

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I started a thread in suggestions about how to dramatically reduce RMT spam from CoH/V. It's my opinion that you can't build enough barriers to stop RMT spam within CoH/V (or MMOs in general) that won't end up also alienating a portion of your new users. Blocking Trial Accounts from the email system will simply see RMT spam moved to /tells. Blocking Trial Accounts from sending /tells just leads to new legitimate players being unable to communicate with friends and then RMT will move to Broadcast spam in the most populous zones.

If you want to reduce RMT spamming, you have to make the external RMT process no longer cost effective for the companies. Given that you can't really raise the cost of RMT services for RMT players only, the best way would be to lower the price players would be willing to pay RMT organisations for their services. A (comparatively) very simple way of doing this is that NCsoft starts up its own RMT services within CoH/V, where you can buy inf (and maybe - MAYBE - autolvled characters) through purchasing NCcoins (which already exist for NCsoft's Exteel).

I know that some people are against RMT altogether so won't like the idea, and I recognise that it will have some impact on the in-game economy should such a system be implemented, but it's the only feasible way I can see that would drive external RMTers out - if it's not financially viable, they won't be in-game, spamming you.

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This is hardly the first time someone came up with the "two separate but merged" games concept. They are STILL two SEPARATE but merged games.

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You cannot have two things be both "separate" and "merged." This is like saying something can be black and white, at the same time. These are mutually exclusive concepts.

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Zebras

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Shut the thread down, it's over, Leech wins.

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Why do the devs hate COV?

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Just to see how many people they can piss off. Pissing people off is awfully good money and it warms their cold, black little hearts thinking of the hate and discontent they generate on a continuous basis.

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Also it's because all parents secretly hate one of their children. Bad luck to you if you were an only child.

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I'm not sure you read those two posts.

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I read one that extolled the virtues of non-instanced content and a reply that complained about waiting in line for l337 gear drops, and then noted that isn't how this game works.

Is that what happened, or did I miss something.

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I was saying that non-instanced content is often very casual player unfriendly. CoH/V uses a lot of instanced content which helps make it very friendly for players who don't have time for Shadowhunter to respawn again so that they can kill him and take his helmet back to the contact so they can complete their quest.

And from an earlier post: kill-stealing. In CoH/V, is someone steals your kill when out street sweeping, you'll probably just look at them and wonder what their problem is. In other MMOs, when someone kills your obvious target and gets all the xp and the loot drops, you want them dead.

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Actually I say too much instancing is City of Heroes/Villains weakness.

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On behalf of all players who don't have the time to line up and wait to fight the big bad that might drop the item you need to complete a quest or might drop a powerful item you need to enhance your character: no.

It's been my experience that those players who dislike instances and want non-instanced content have a lot of time to play the game and wait for said non-instanced content to be reset for them. I really don't have that kind of time.

As an old-school EQ and UO player, you certainly have to remember those queues, as well as ninja looting and other non-fun things that exist when players have to wait for the content to be available for them, rather than the player being able to access the content whenever is convenient.

Just to build on Arcanaville's comments about attribute points, I've managed to pull up the Jack Emmert diaries where he goes through how the Archetype system was eventually decided upon:

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/434/434111p1.html

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/438/438130p1.html

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/454/454417p1.html

It's after reading things like this that I see how much thought went into breaking the mold and taking the risk to not do things in the traditional way. In many respects, I think CoH/V appealed the most to first-time MMO players rather than those raised on EQ, UO et al. To established MMO players, CoH was a simple MMO that was fun but also 'easy-mode'; to first time MMO players, CoH was a very easy step between single player games and MMO games that was also very fun.

As with the rest of you, I see that CoH/V has it's flaws - for a game that has developed alts into an end-game, it is still particularly unfriendly in a number of areas for players who repeat content, for instance - but it is still the only MMO I've felt is worth paying the sub fee.

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As a final point - that list is great, but for every positive, I'm sure I could find a season MMO player who saw it as a negative.

Custom outfits? But how will I know what that character can do?

Instanced content? But that breaks immersion!

No loot? Why would I play?

And so on. It's an interesting thing in MMOs that a number of players out there do actually want every design cliche that the MMO genre throws at them.

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this thread has some serious walls of text son

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They're called paragraphs dad and they are used to separate out various ideas so they are easier to read. Not every thought can be explained in one single uncapitalised line.

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I'm actually being slightly sarcastic as a true wall of text doesn't have paragraph breaks, therefore the walls of text present in this thread are extremely unsound and I would never use them for support. Just a fair warning.

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Ahh, I apologise then - I'm currently tired and surly!

Good post Brad. CoH/V brought a lot to the MMO table and it's a pity that a lot of MMO devs seem to have pushed those innovations to one side and stuck with the tried-and-true diku formula.

CoH's key difference was that it was designed for casual players and for the most part it succeeds. A lot of MMOs were (and still are) designed around the so-called 'hardcore' player who apparently has the desire to turn their game playing into a second job. Fortunately CoH and WoW did a great job in proving that you can design for casual players (with some nods towards those players with more time) and be successful.

(And yeah, CoH doesn't have WoW's numbers, but it didn't have any of WoW's advantages either - judged on its own merits, CoH had one of the best launches in the MMO industry, a pretty stable player population base and has been profitable for a long time now. It also came from a group of novice MMO developers who could have easily gone the way of Wish or Dawn in terms of project success.)

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this thread has some serious walls of text son

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They're called paragraphs dad and they are used to separate out various ideas so they are easier to read. Not every thought can be explained in one single uncapitalised line.

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Finding out my gamertag is not impossible without me posting in the Gamertag Exchange. I know one CoH player who already found it and added me to his friends list.

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. o O (Perhaps... Positron? Naaah, too easy...)

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Positron's gamertag is easily visible on his blog.

(To all those who go, "WAAAA??? Positron has a blog!", it's a very occasionally updated blog. No, I won't tell you how to find it. Finding the blog can be the millstone around your neck if you really have to know.)

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Yeah, I need to post something... maybe you guys can give me ideas for topics of discussion.

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You can always comment on whatever Scott Jennings is saying over at http://www.brokentoys.org. His recent comments on PvP were really interesting (as always) and I think he linked back to an old column on UO on why UO will never happen again, even if a game was released with exactly the same rulesets.

Another interesting commentator I read is Steven Grant's Permanent Damage column over at Comic Book Resources. He has an interesting mix of comics, politics and whatever else takes his fancy.

If you'd like to stay away from commenting on MMOs, there's obviously the world of pop culture to comment on (incl. movies, other video games, PnP RPGs, whatever else takes your fancy). I will say that you've been pretty hard to get a 'read' on since you answer questions directly and with little side tracking, so maybe you could do something about day-to-day decision-making at NC^2 and how everyone brings what they need to to the table in order to make things work.

Or give us insight into things you, as lead dev, have said 'no' to, and why. Jack provided long articles on how a decision for ATs were reached, including the options that were discarded. It'd interesting to know how you come to some similar decisions within CoH/V.

Or you can burden Ex / LH with another job and get them to pick a question of the week which you will answer on your blog. Said question doesn't have to be CoH/V related.

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Are you sure you didn't misplace Positron with someone's crazy uncle?


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A little known key ability in becoming lead dev is having crazy eyes that you can pull out when relevant. It saves a lot of arguing time.

Other dev: You know what I was thinking? It'd be great to make Clown Masterminds our next releasable powerset!

Positron: *CRAAAA-ZZZZYYY EYES FLASH*

Other dev: ... forget I said anything. I'm going to hide in my cubicle now.

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Finding out my gamertag is not impossible without me posting in the Gamertag Exchange. I know one CoH player who already found it and added me to his friends list.

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. o O (Perhaps... Positron? Naaah, too easy...)

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Positron's gamertag is easily visible on his blog.

(To all those who go, "WAAAA??? Positron has a blog!", it's a very occasionally updated blog. No, I won't tell you how to find it. Finding the blog can be the millstone around your neck if you really have to know.)

Remember: programmers work best when deprived of sunlight, so none of them should be allowed offices with windows. Or even above ground.

Thus far I've certainly found doing the runs in the original specified order work pretty well:

Run 1 – Challenges Set: No Travel, Foes Buffed.

Run 2 – Challenges Set: No Temp, Player Debuffed.

Run 3 – Challenges Set: AT Only, No Inspirations.

Run 4 – Challenges Set: No Enhancements.

If you want to, you can also always run one mission first that doesn't have any challenges to get an idea of layout and mission objectives you'll face. Plus the extra run-through contributes to the Ouro badge counter for those badges.

A great guide - thank you High Beam.

It won't be I13, but probably I14 is when some of the bigger changes might first be available. This gives Cryptic^H^H^H^H^H NC^2 at least six months to start pulling things together.