konshu

I'd like to acknowledge that other players enjoy the higher level game and might prefer to skip the lower level game. I know there are a lot of players with that view. Possibly most of the players who have stayed with the game have this view.

It's just that I tend to like the opposite. For me, the higher level game just never rouses my interest. It would be great if it did, but it doesn't.

I suspect a big part of it is the storytelling. I can't think of a single storyline in the upper level of the game that I think is compelling. The lower level stuff isn't great either, but at least there's enough details that my brain is able to plug in the gaps with ideas that interest me, while the upper level content is so incredibly thin I can't work with it at all.

My preference is to have a discussion instead of a debate.

In a debate, typically one side is trying to win and have its view dominate the others. That format often leads to obfuscation of truth, because debaters tend to harden themselves into their position rather than accept valid points made by the opposition.

In a discussion, however, the goal is for individuals to reach a greater state of clarity.

Tony Kord is actually standing out by the street in Atlas Park. The person standing on a building that you might be thinking of is probably Juan Jimenez.

Tony Kord's office is in KR, which I suppose is due to lower rent and favorable zoning. However, despite his rep as an inventive genius, his office looks like a rundown apartment building. I suppose that's just a clever exterior to hide the high-tech interior.

Also ... for some strange reason Kord always has Circle conducting rites on his helicopter pad. Surely there is some explanation ...

One of the buildings in KR I've always wanted to have worked into an instance is the Guns & Ammo store between the trainer and the train.

I agree. I'd like to see better utilization of the zones that already exist. Surely working with a zone that already exists reduces the art requirements for new development by at least half?

I also agree that I don't want art resources used as they were with Cimerora / Midnight Squad, where these resources aren't used very much due to their specialized nature. I like the notion of having a good 5-6 arcs take place using the same basic set of assets.

As for GR ... I'm not looking forward to it. I doubt it will encourage me to continue playing. While it will be nice for players to get a couple new power sets and new foe groups - even if they are all goatee variations - GR sounds to me like a VERY SMALL expansion. More like a double-sized issue, really.

It probably would have been more exciting if GR had been released back in 2008.

If GR happens to contain certain improvements in regard to storytelling, then I would be much encouraged. But having been disappointed on this front for so many years now, I have to believe it simply isn't in the plans, period.

In general, I agree ... but in specific ...

I'd rather have at least one special instance or map of an HQ flavor for each foe group. You may be able to access the instances from those zones without unlocking, but there wouldn't be a visible territory on the map.

Mainly, that's because if there WERE visible strongholds on the zone map, why wouldn't heroes take them out? They would be obvious targets, and after they were cleared there would be the awkward situation of still having them on the map. I think it's better to just have areas of concentration, like finding a lot of Lost in "The Land of the Lost" in Skyway.

An example of a special instance would be to create an Oranbega-themed tunnel network for the Circle in The Hollows that is similar in concept to the sewer network. The Trolls might have tunnels too (in addition to the Cavern ones) that lead into Boomtown and Skyway.

Along similar lines (re: use of instances), but quite different (way different application), a revamp of Croatoa might try to implement a scenario where the zone changes according to developments in the arcs as they are played. So there might in actuality be half a dozen different maps of Croatoa, with the standard Green Line destination referred to as "Salamanca" or "New Connaught." The standard Salamanca would have no warring tribes, just a contact that hands out a camera temp power to "capture" Sally and, I suppose, a way of summoning Jack and Eochai to battle (perhaps using the throne and pumpkin patches). And Gordon Bower, who starts the chain of arcs.

LOL ... And in this vein, I'd like to have the ramp go straight from the ground to the train lobby, instead of branching to left and right, as I keep trying to jump from midlevel to the top and then fall down that hole in the middle.

I know everybody gets good reviews from people, but I thought I'd post this here since so far nobody who has commented in this thread has said much that is supportive of the idea of getting away from clues as a storytelling aid.

Actually, that would be bad ... for me at least.

This last patch made a change to MA scripts that, so far as I can tell, lengthened each one of my arcs by roughly a percentage point. Which, since I'd filled my arcs to the brim, means they are now uneditable, unrepublishable ... unless I start removing custom NPCs. Which, as you probably know, is often not easily done, in that it requires changing all kinds of things here and there, and maybe a significant re-write of the story.

I'd rather see the AE have a filter that automatically excludes arcs that have not been played or edited in the last 3 months. I'm not sure to what degree that would cut the cruft in AE, but it might help focus AE on what players are actually using and supporting.

Some relatively significant mid-level enemy groups that don't currently appear in task forces include: Warriors, Tsoo, Family, and Banished Pantheon. It seems to me any of these could be included in a WW TF.

Oh, and the AV should be Snaptooth. (Jus' kiddin'!)

It's probably impossible without a more fully fledged custom map editor.

I was just trying to clarify the desire, that's all.

Not necessarily. I was actually thinking it would help with 3 things: 1) making it possible to move the items together as a group, 2) possibly increasing the number of items you can place on a map (by compressing some of them into one object), and 3) possibly making it easier for pathfinding algorithms by reducing the number of objects.

Perhaps a feature you'd like is to be able to take a number of items, arrange them together, and then "bake" them, turning them into a single object?

While I agree with you, let me try to put a dev hat on and answer you as I think they would.

Basic game design dictates that new content preferably contains new art. When you plan for any new project, one of the boxes you check is the one for art; it's seen as an essential, integral feature that you must begin working on at the start. There should also preferably be some sort of boss / mechanic that is special, like the hydra head, generators, and guns you use in the sewer trial, and perhaps special rewards (which may require a little badge art).

Now, you and I know that this type of thinking isn't strictly required in CoH / CoV. Yet, as I understand it, this is generally the way game designers approach their work. In this sort of scenario, new zone / map art, new mechanics, new boss art and powers ... these are all planned out largely in advance of the story, so they can be distributed out to the various departments and completed on schedule. Pretty much the LAST thing anyone ever works on or pays attention to, I believe, is the actual story. The story may be outlined, but they wait till the end, to see what has actually been accomplished in terms of art, code, etc., and then the story is quickly slapped together around that.

Let me add that when I work in MA/AE, I have to go through something of the same procedure. I may have a story idea in mind, but then I have to rummage through the maps and other assets, create my custom NPCs, and see what I can actually accomplish within my limitations. While I may have had an original idea for my story, the final version of the story may differ considerably in the details as a consequence of what I was able to do and not do in Mission Architect.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is ... while I agree it would be good to have new content in DA that makes use of existing art, there is going to be a tendency for the devs to want just a little bit more to set the DA content apart from the rest of the game. Nobody wants to just, say, fight CoT ghosts in DA on the old familiar maps.

Also, as for dev-written content that doesn't use new art, the devs did a bit of that with the Mercedes Sheldon contact. Was that successful? I'm not saying it was or it wasn't, but I suspect any movement by the devs to create new content without new art will fare about the same as the Sheldon arcs. Imagine the Sheldon missions attached to doors in DA, featuring Banished Pantheon instead of Warriors, Carnies, or whatever. Does that work for you?

(Here's a related content question: would people play the Montague arc if it didn't give the Midnighter badge?)

Taking off my borrowed dev hat, I would like to see the devs make some sort of commitment to a steady stream of new content, and assign someone to revamp the empty zones (Perez Park, Boomtown, Skyway, Independence Port, Dark Astoria, Terra Volta). I would also like to see someone assigned to revamping content in general.

In addition, I think the devs need to develop a new map making tool, preferably one that facilitates incorporation of indoor and outdoor instances (like what we see in the mayhem / safeguard maps). They need to update their transitions as well; in CoH, in particular, I'd like to see greater use of vans, helicopters, and specific building doors.