scholarman

Mrph.

Well, I'll say this much -- and I think Jim Hague would agree with me. Writing for this game was a great experience, with a very cool group of folks working on it.

Given all of Eden's financial problems, I suspect that a kill fee is prohibitively unlikely at this point. C'est la vie -- such is the life of the professional game developer, sometimes.

(At this stage, essentially everything I wrote not counting some of the backstory of the various store owners would be out of date. Sometimes massively so. There was really no chance what I wrote would actually have appeared in print at this point anyway. So it goes.)

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First the 2 level level restriction makes no sense, I would say just leave it open.

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As I said above, I concur after pondering for a couple months.

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How are invites handled? how would looking for Team members work now? Would we end up getting more blind invites or would there be some other way to handle it?

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I would suggest both the sponsor and the sponsee would have to go to Wyvern/Hero Corps (depending on which side of the purple divide they're on). If a player just wants to 'volunteer' for Probation/Duress, he can log his request into a terminal not unlike the arena, and if someone is Looking for Team Members on the other side, he can choose from the registered people.

It may well be that most Probation/Duress will come from folks who know each other. I don't see this would be a bad thing.

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PVP zones could be an issue if kicked members stayed in the PVP zone. but as long as they teleport away I don't see a major issue with that.

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Agreed. /kicking should lead to immediate teleport, even when in a PvP or even Co-Op zone.

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Also you didn't mention the exemplar distance restrictions if these are not used there is a potential issue with people with 2 accounts could where they could just give someone access to the other faction and just park the toon that extended the invite.

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That much is true, though I'm not sure how to work the restrictions when a failure involves a teleporting. It's one thing to lose sidekick when you're sitting at the trainer, without instant death following. It would be quite another to be training and then suddenly teleporting back to the Rogue Isles.

Maybe some kind of colored icon along with the power indicators. Green means they've been within the sidekick distance within the last five minutes, yellow means it's been 5-9 minutes since being separated from their Sponsor, putting them on warning, and red means it's been 10 minutes, with a two minute warning to get back within sidekick distance or the autokick/teleport takes place. Possibly with the countdown timer a la an Ouroboros timed taskforce appearing at that point.

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Villains wouldn't have an issue going to the Paragon but some COH players with weaker machines may have an issue in Rogue Isles.

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Very sad, but true. Nothing to be done for this.

After ruminating (for some time), I'll concede the two-level thing doesn't need to be in the proposal. The original thought was "who would trust an opposite side person they couldn't outfight," but the genre examples are compelling.

I wish I had something profound to say. As I don't, I will just say "woot."

This is a great add. I can see a day I'll have 36 characters on Pinnacle as a result. I'm vaguely afraid that day will be in July of this year.

This looks extremely cool.

I'm curious which costume elements make up "Viking," I'll admit. And hrm. I wonder if this means Roman really will be unlockable across a player's characters instead of by characters, since there's no way for the set to show up at initial character creation, otherwise.

OTOH, there's no way to get "Greek" at initial character creation right now, so I may just be reading too much into it.

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I thought it was a funny and creative way to shut the whiners up.

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Well, I wasn't whining, but I was excited to get more information on i12. I spent a good chunk of the day refreshing the front page.

Now I just feel dumb for doing that. Just a Pavlovian dog hoping for a treat.

Whatever. None of this will bring i12 any faster. They don't owe us any information. I just wish they hadn't set an expectation up. But hey, they made us feel stupid, so I guess it's a win for the marketing team, right?

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I'd settle with "a reason to BE there" personally, but otherwise QFT.

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Heh. I was doing the "kidnap Akarist from the Shadow Shard" mission just two days ago. My reaction to getting the mission was "wait -- you've got an incredibly rare turncoat from the Circle of Thorns, providing information to all the heroes. It is vital he be kept safe. So... you've elected to hide him out in an incredibly hostile dimension populated by giant eyeballs with thorns and raybeams?

Look, Reed. Just because you like the Negative Zone is not an excuse for going to the negative zone.

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Each of those features has more posts just in the dev corner than the rest of the other features COMBINED. And if we counted all the various threads out in the other forums, it's clear that interest in those two features dwarfs anything else.

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You're absolutely, 100% right, EvilGeko.

So, those will almost certainly be the last topics to get more detail. Because they want us speculating and discussing and frothing about it, building buzz in the process.

Hm.

Upon further reflection, I'm not sure I'm that happy about the Coralax and Legacy Chain moving into Paragon City. As cool as they are, they're some of the things that give City of Villains a distinctive sense of purpose. By making them cross-factional, you marginally improve City of Heroes while diminishing part of the cool factor of playing Redside. And honestly, diminishing the cool factor's kind of the last thing City of Villains needs.

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Its nice and all but please dont tell me we waited a whole week just to hear something we already knew about? Please tell me there is more to come later today?

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That'll be a "no," most likely. These weekly tidbits are designed to whet the appetite, not satisfy it. We now have significantly more detail about one of the upcoming changes and improvements in i12, and that'll have to do us for this week.

And yeah, like everyone else I'd have rather had Powerset information or more information on VEATS. Or Midnight Club information. Or information on unlocking Roman costumes. Or anything else from i12. I love War Witch, but I was willing to accept "the Hollows will be better" as all the info I needed.

Which is why it's the first tidbit. Especially since we've learned a few things (like City of Heroes side Coralax and Legacy Chain) which are truly new and unexpected -- which makes me wonder if we'll see more cross-pollination in the future.

Thundra stared as Hyperton walked through the door. Behind Hyperton, a man was walking with a slight swagger, a sneer on his face. It was a man the heroine knew well.

"[u]Giganaut[u]," the heroine hissed, blue-white electricity lining her hands. "I've been waiting for a chance--"

"Calm [u]down[u] Thundra," Hyperton shouted, stepping between the two. "I know how you feel, but I'm vouching for him! We need--"

"Vouching for that scum?" Thundra demanded. "Do you have any idea what he's done?"

"Oh, come now, Thundra," Giganaut said, his smile smug. "Just because you weren't able to stop my little raid on Portal Corp doesn't mean we can't be friends, does it?"

"Shut your mouth," Hyperton snapped at the villain. He looked back at Thundra. "I know. I know how you feel. I feel the same way, but right now we need him. If we're going to rescue those researchers from the Circle of Thorns, we need [u]him[u]."

"So that's it? We're just supposed to forgive him and be friends?" Thundra snapped.

"No. He's here on probation, and the second he steps out of line we take him down hard. But until he steps out of line, he's with us. Is that understood?"

Thundra stared. "Fine," she snapped. "For now. Until we rescue those researchers. But the minute this is done--"

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Thunderthighs," Giganaut said with a smile. "Now, what say we discuss this plan. Or do you think the Circle's just gonna wave as we walk in?"

City of Heroes and City of Villains have been moving towards an increasing number of cooperative missions. Holiday missions get assigned in Pocket D, where both heroes and villains must work together to save time and love while they punch out Redcaps. The Rikti War Zone gives heroes and villains a chance to set aside their differences to repel invasion. We have just learned that heroes and villains may be working together under the auspices of the Midnight Club to uncover the very source of power.

This system proposes these alliances-of-convenience be extended. This would allow friends out of the game to play their favorite characters together, even if those characters are of differing factions. A villain who crosses over to work with heroes on a temporary basis would be under Probation. A hero forced by circumstances to help villains does so under Duress.

A Villain under Probation has been recruited for help on a case. In game-terms, the Villain has some expertise, knowledge or connection to the case, which means that as little as the heroes might trust that Villain, he must be included for the greater good. This is an extension of the same conditions that lead to cooperation in the Rikti War Zone.

A Hero under Duress is being forced to help those he might otherwise despise to do their dirty work. Perhaps the villains have blackmail information. Perhaps they've kidnapped a loved one. Perhaps (though it's unlikely) the hero is just afraid he'll be hurt or killed if he doesn't cooperate. Regardless, he's got to help their nefarious work... for now.

Mechanically, both a villain under Probation and a hero under Duress work the same way. They are recruited (more on this below) by the other side, and are transported into the zone when they agree. One team member of the appropriate faction must assume responsibility for the cross-faction member, and that team member must be at least two levels higher than his charge. The act of taking charge acts the same as Sidekicking/Lackeying, and the opposite faction member is immediately considered one combat level below his sponsor.

At this time, the team operates as normal, albeit with a villain (if a hero team) or a hero (if a villain team) along for the ride. As with any Sidekicked/Lackeyed character, the Villain under Probation/Hero under Duress receives experience points, salvage drops, influence/infamy, enhancements and recipes. However, there are differences between a Probationary/Duressed member and a Sidekick.

First off, team members cannot trade with the Probationary/Duressed character, the same as with any other Hero/Villain cross-faction team. Further, Probationary/Duressed members can't use Wentworth's or the Black Market, can't use police band radios or newspapers to get missions, and can't use trainers or contacts for levelling, missions or to buy or sell things. They also do not have access to their Base, even via teleport (though they can pass through their Sponsor's base as needed).

However, they can use new specialized contacts for these purposes -- contacts who have some experience with working on the shady side (for either definition of the term), and who both support these clandestine teamups and give a means by which a hero or villain can travel to the other side of the divide.

In the Rogue Isles, these services are handled by Wyvern. This paramilitary mostly works to fight evil, but their hands are significantly dirtier and their world significantly greyer than Longbow's. In several zones, Wyvern has clandestine drop points set up. Villains looking to team up with heroes can visit these drop points and set up a recruitment in either direction. Heroes trapped in the Rogue Islands under Duress can get supplies from Wyvern agents, and even train to new levels if need be.

In Paragon City, it is well known that Hero Corps has connections that other hero groups can't touch, and they have several offices that can handle somewhat... unorthodox communication. Heroes would use a Hero Corps office to travel to the Rogue Islands if going under Duress, while Villains under Probation in Paragon City would get their gear and even training from these offices.

If a Probationary/Duressed character levels to within two levels of his sponsor, he will lose the sponsorship as detailed below. If the villain or hero gets too powerful to control, after all, something will have to be done about it....

In a practical sense, a player can be contacted by friends and agree to accept Probation/Duress automatically -- this would then mark the nearest Wyvern Drop Point/Hero Corps Office on his map, and give him a door to go through to represent travelling to the faraway land. He would then zone into the Wyvern Drop Point/Hero Corps Office nearest to his Sponsor immediately. Players looking for pickup group opportunities could consult a Wyvern Agent or Hero Corps Operative who would give information on the various opposing faction's members looking for a team or looking for a team member (a second generation version of the current LFT window).

While under Probation or Duress, the character will con in all ways like the faction he's teamed with. A Mastermind under Probation (and all of his henchmen) will Con blue in Paragon City, for example. If the team should enter a PvP zone, he will continue to Con on his team's side.

If a Probationary/Duressed character's Sponsor either unsponsors him or goes offline while the probationary/duressed is in a mission with his team, he will continue to be in the mission and can act normally, though his level will revert to his normal level. Another hero can sponsor him at any time during this mission. If a Probationary/Duressed character loses his sponsor for any reason while the team is not in a mission, a thirty second timer begins to go off on all team members' screens. Someone else on the team will have to sponsor the Probationary/Duressed character during that time, and the character will need to accept, or else the Probationary/Duressed character will be automatically /kicked from the team.

If a Probationary/Duressed member is /Kicked from his team, whether automatically because of the above or by the decision of the Team Leader, he will immediately go into the teleport animation and vanish, rezoning and reappearing in his own land again, in the same Wyvern Drop Point/Hero Corps Office he originally left from. In game terms, the hero under duress has been rescued by long distance teleport, and the villain under probation has had his backup plan -- well paid for -- go into effect when those turncoat heroes have worked against him.

Coding and Art Impact: Moderate. The Wyvern Drop Points/Hero Corps Offices will need to be designed and placed, code for cross-faction teaming, looking for team and inviting across factions will need to be implemented. Systems for changing "alignment" so that villains con as heroes or heroes con as villains would need to be in place. This would not be trivial but it's not likely to be tremendously time consuming either.

Questions That Need Answering: Can a Villain under Probation or a Hero under Duress get Exploration Badges from the other side? What about History Badges?


In conclusion -- this is one of those systems that would help model comic book situations and behavior without greatly unbalancing the game. While I continue to hope for Redemption and Falling, this would be a less code intensive solution which would allow for Masterminds in Kings Row or Scrappers in Port Oakes without disrupting the balance too much. And, it would let me play my villains with my friends, who all love heroes too much, dagnabbit.

Thank you for your consideration. The man at the door will validate your parking.

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I also think they should be opened up for the entire account.

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Actually, I think it's possible they will be. From the announcement (emphasis mine):

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Through their accomplishments, players unlock the new Roman themed armor costume set.

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They're usually pretty good at saying 'heroes,' 'villains' or 'characters' if they mean something character specific. I think it possible that players can go through the arcs and unlock costume options they can use on their characters across the board.

If not... um... I don't think it's much worth mentioning as a big perk. So a L38 character gets a new costume option? I guess I could use that at 40, but by then don't I already have pretty solid costuming. And what, at 42 I can change one of my existing costumes? It's not that that's a bad thing, but I don't much see the point to crowing about it.

And if the system is as hard as the Vanguard one, then thanks but no thanks. I was actually into the vanguard costume thing when I started -- I had a character I'd redefined as having gone solidly into vanguard and the fight. And then, when I got through large amounts of content and had earned a helmet or something, I lost interest. It's not like this gave me in-game buffs or anything, so why grind it?

I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to this.

Time for the Scholar Man to reemerge from the home of discarded Alts!

You know, I'm waiting patiently for the announcement in one of these shared content upgrades -- the announcement of a score so lucrative, a target so ripe for the picking, a chance for mayhem and destruction so seductive that only heroes and villains working together will be able to reap the benefits of such evil!

What's that you say? Heroes would never stoop to such levels?

You don't say.

Seriously, if 9/10ths of the new villain content is going to be "go forth and be a hero with the heroes" type stuff, can we please have redemption so we can just go and be heroes period? I understand that we're not where the money is, and so we're not where the priority is going to be... well, ever. And I'm glad for new content I can play, but now that I have a chance to help the heroes investigate the origins of powers, then step forth into Ouroboros to help defeat the 5th Column, and not long after that we get to jump into the Rikti War Zone and save the world from the alien invasion. At some point I'd like to decide that perhaps the heroes have the right idea.

And someday -- maybe, just maybe someday -- we'll have a new villain zone or an old zone revamped, that's all our very own. And maybe it'll have a chance for us to steal some things, wreak havoc, and maybe even put in a bid to take over this world we keep helping save.

Just a thought.

Am I nuts... or did neither Manticore nor Sister Psyche's sidekicks show up to the wedding?

I mean, I figured Statesman was just being Statesman, plus it's meta and everything, but you'd think Aurora Borealis would have been there.

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That'd be great - I enjoyed working on the CoH RPG with Manticore a *lot*, and I'd like to hear what the status is on it, and my payment for it...Eden, unfortunately, hasn't been forthcoming at all.

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I'm in the same boat. Manticore was a blast to work with, things were going great, and then... silence.

Heck, at this point I'd be glad to get a kill fee. Most of the stuff I wrote's desperately out of date as it is, what with the multiple updates, new regions, changes to storylines and stuff....

Wait.

The Vindicators. Are now the Guardians.

...oh, very, very cute, Devs. Clearly, the new threat is Canadian.

Exactly.

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They didn't get Azuria either.

...not sure how to feel about that.

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They were chasing after her, but she lost them.

The biggest problem with the voice actor was he sounded like he was trying to be Don LaFontaine -- the "In a world where..." voiceover artist who does a lot of the blockbuster movie trailers.

The difference is, that actually is LaFontaine's voice. He's not faking it, and he's not lowering his register to sound... well, like Don LaFontaine. I think this guy would have been perfectly fine if he'd done the lines in his normal register.

And the visuals were indeed sweet.

All right. My impressions.

1. I heartily disagree, re the "no nappy hairstyles" on the tier one thugs. And moderately disagree on the "make them look the same from one summon to the next." My thuglord uses up her low level gang members like candy. If they survive, they might get somewhere. I solved the naming issue by giving them nicknames like "Snake" and "Face," and decided said thuglord treats those like positions. "Hey Manny -- you're Face on this one."

2. Poison works perfectly for my thuglord. She's focusing on guns and pools (Leadership, added into the Leadership buffs, makes me a happy player). It makes sense she's carrying around some scored meth to juice her guys with when they seem almost out of it. I haven't used the other powers in the secondary, but like I said -- focusing on pistols, thugs and Leadership in my conception. Makes for a perfect natural Thug Mastermind, in my opinion.

3. There's major AI issues to be resolved, as others have said. The thugs don't follow well. They get stuck, often. Some other pets have travel powers. They don't. That's bad.

4. I'm perfectly happy with the ranged preference on thugs. These aren't trained soldiers or even full on gang members like the Skulls. Why should they "brawl with the best of them." Giving them powerful handguns makes them able to stand toe to toe with even superheroes -- but that's essentially all that lets them do it. Besides, it's pretty good range on these pistols. I've found that if I target one of the enemy mobs, do a "attack my target," follow my men to the limit of their range, click on one thug to 'support' him, and then help them gun down the mobs as they come at us, we're able to wipe out frightening numbers of minions before they can reach us. That's very thuggish, to me.

5. I agree in regards to the upgrade animation. Lose the clip. Let our MMs toss them their second gun. I'm okay with the beam-in tattooed/tank top, though.

6. I also agree that the thugs should be shooting automatics, not revolvers. Semiautos rule the streets.

7. I disagree, however, with the 'dropping the gangsta-side shooting' animations. If you want to play a Mastermind with a deep level of respect and even understanding for proper firearms handling (and yes, proper aim), there's the Mercenaries door right over there. This is street -- and more to the point, this is comic book/John Woo street. Style over substance makes the most sense, and as [censored] as the sideways shot is in real life, it's seen as pure style over substance in popular culture.

8. Would it kill you to throw in some randomized women as well as men? I mean, is there some guild rule among thugs that they all have to be guys?

9. Empty Clips has moved completely out of my attack sequence until I get stamina and sufficiently End Reduce it down. I understand there needs to be a tradeoff. I say reduce the damage per shot or move it higher in the power tier -- right now, it's essentially a worthless power. I do significantly better damage over time by sticking to the first two pistol powers and not running out of End.

10. Emphatically agree that pistol goodness needs to move over to Blasters and Corruptors at the least. I'm less sanguine about Pistol Scrappers, because I've spent too much time keeping my enemies far out of melee range with them.

Thank you, and enjoy the shrimp platter.

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With Enhancement Diversification comes a benefit for ALL City of Heroes powers.

Every power, across the board, is getting a 13.33% reduction in its Endurance cost.

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O...kay....

So Stamina isn't borked by this. Good.

Um... is there also going to be a corresponding increase in effectiveness on all Resistance and Defense powers?

Don't get me wrong, the idea that I need to respec all my characters again will continue to make me unhappy, but at least I won't get the sense that my SR scrapper can't possibly survive any more.

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I will offer the services of the Taxibots to help out with transport issues. I cannot guarantee how many of us will be there though as we just found out about this.

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I'll send along my non-Taxibot-but-still-teleportation specialist Transit as well.

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Problem is, Positron's a Rad/Rad Defender.

Just be happy he doesn't use all those dropped heroes for Fallout. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

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Maybe it's me, but I'd love to see him have a triggerable X-Ray Vision power. The bad guys run up, Positron shifts into "crouch," the green eyebeams come out, and the bad guy gets hit with a thousand points of energy damage. A couple of seconds later, he hits a second one, and then a third....

Give Spear-girl the same, only make it something appropriate. Say, a lightning strike. And for that matter, give Back Street Brawler an appropriate punch six slotted with increased knockback. Watch the L1 Hellions *fly.*

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KEKEKEKE

Hey, aren't you already level 100? You don't get exp from anything...

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Why do you think he's spending all his time hanging out in Blyde Square? He's giving things to folks with good origins, like all maxed out characters. When they come out with new badges, then he'll start doing stuff again.