Ask A Dev Question Thread #1 Featuring Manticore
By
13th_Stranger,
Posted on: 2005-08-05 08:35 in Developers' Corner
As others have posted, I'd like to see more evolution in the storylines.
There are thousands of heroes, primed and ready, to rid the Rikti from the Crash site. Give us something to do there besides prep for the 3rd respec and street sweeping.
The Rularuu have been around for over half a year now, and it looks like with Bases, things will pick up, but can we get something else in there besides cyclical stories and half a day TF's?
Some 50+content would be great. Some 35-45 content would be even better, as more people stumble at SL39 then any other level. I'm hoping based on the increases in levels of the new zones (20-30, 25-35) the next will be 30-40, which could help with that.
I'd like to see some zone reconstruction from the devistation. Maybe one issue where Boomtown is getting pacified so that the zone can be habitable for people again. Maybe fixing Faultline. Better yet, make it hero driven, a special TF that if completed enough times by the players on all servers, the zones will change. Reward us for working to a goal of saving the city. Let us have an impact on the overall story of the world. Maybe 4 TF's, Crey's Folly, Boomtown, the Hollows, and Faultline, where whichever zone's TF is completed the most, in 2 issues the zone will get redone, with new content as a result of the changes.
I'd also like to see arc customization. If X hostage isn't saved, the arc takes a different turn.
Thank you for listening.
I thought of a better question for Manticore.
Years ago, there were more super hero NPC groups than the Freedom Phalanx, and Freedom Corp running around Paragon. If you could revive some of those old groups, who would you bring back and why?
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I also locate continuity errors in the game (often with the help of players) and make sure they get fixed. I want the players to feel immersed in the game and its storyline.
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I don't know if it is a continuity error, yet, but... Any plans to flesh out the story of Sally, the erstwhile mascot of the university and reclusive dino of the deep? The badge seems to be given for believers who have seen her, but it is possible to defeat the creature too(and you actually have to for the badge, strange). Seems like you wouldn't want superheroes trouncing there own university mascot. She seems like a great figure to place a storyline around....any hints of things to come?
Secondly, I truly do enjoy the vast majority of story arcs and wish there was some way to better 'interact' with them. Any plans or would it be possible to use more character specific info like origin/AT in how the stories progress? Any plans to help roleplayers create and share the stories they make? There's a wealth of storytelling that happens in addition to yours (and your team), it'd be great if we could somehow feel more in tune with the world. Things like Fractured Dawn winning the movie title contest are great, and random npc mobs giving feedback about your previous missions is nice too, but I'm thinking why can't there be a list of who has done what recently? "Hero XYZ stopped the freakalympics, fought Hamidon, thwarted a family arson job and mentored other heroes for 18 hours this month" or "Supergroup XYZ fought back 3 base invasions and completed the sewer trials."
Too often it feels like our adventures happen in a vacuum, never to be seen again or appreciated by our fellow heroes....can't we find ways to get into the stories and reality more? Any plans to move in this direction?
Manticore,
I'm glad, you are the person I most want to talk to. Issue 5 debate aside. When will the Ziggaraut be used in regular missions or TF missions. I've been playing over a year, and never once gone in. Is it a particular contact, i'm not using, or as I suspect, being paranoid and all, an untapped story line gold mine ur keeping under your cowl. Any information will be most appreciate. I'll continue to tank in I5.
saban/Rocklord/lantanya/lady panzer/ etc
global id @Panzer
When is the Paragon Dance Party TF being implemented?
No, really.
Manticore:
Has the Teen rating of the game ever made it more difficult to write a story?
and to repeat many others: Why remove the name of the 5th column from everything? It makes it seem like the monster in the basement everyone ignores.
Guardian Server
Fury 50 NRG/ELC Blaster
Alecto 23 MA/Reg Scrapper
Megarea 22 Ill/Storm Controller
Gloomwave 23 Warshade
Among many others...Part of Guardian's Evolution
G Handle: @Fury. with the period sigh
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Some 50+content would be great. Some 35-45 content would be even better, as more people stumble at SL39 then any other level. I'm hoping based on the increases in levels of the new zones (20-30, 25-35) the next will be 30-40, which could help with that.
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Some new 35+ content is really needed. My scapper is currently level 36 almost 37 and pretty much all my contacts are telling me to come back at lvl 39. And since I severely dislike street-sweeping (I just find it boring), that means I have to resort to TFs. And I don't always have 5+ hours of free time to spare...
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Manticore,
I'm glad, you are the person I most want to talk to. Issue 5 debate aside. When will the Ziggaraut be used in regular missions or TF missions. I've been playing over a year, and never once gone in. Is it a particular contact, i'm not using, or as I suspect, being paranoid and all, an untapped story line gold mine ur keeping under your cowl. Any information will be most appreciate. I'll continue to tank in I5.
saban/Rocklord/lantanya/lady panzer/ etc
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You'll get your wish in CoV, saban. IGN did a hands-on preview of CoV and apparently the tutorial is set inside the Ziggurat, where you are busted out of prison by Arachnos.
Congratulations on some great story work. You have played a major part in CoHs success for sure. Thats a lot of missions. Also congrats on making some HeroClix. They looked real true to the characters. I am a WK envoy (not employeed by them).
Four (and a half) quick questions:
1) Was it easy to work with WizKids?
2) When designing villains have you ever had to hold back because a certain villain power you wanted to do was not available in game mechanics? Is there one power you really wish you could do for a mission?
3) Did you help create some of the temp powers like Sands of Mu and the Werewolf (which rocks by the way)? and which was your favorite?
(I got to say the Striga Coffin mission was a blast, loved the Ernesto Hess TF, I still laugh when the Kerner talks about the Graphic Designer, just too much content to love)
4) When designing missions and Villains do you plan for epic battles at all? In my first days of CoH some epic battles between my Hero and the Villain Boss came down to who would recover there endurance first. These days its more rare to have a battle with such excitement and tension. Some AVs provide this game tension, how much of it do you plan?
Guess my stuff's going to echo the rest of the story-lovers.
1. Any way of, say, an in-game "dictionary" or "journal?" IE once you fight, say, Hellions, you get info on each. Something else (besides a badge) to work on - seeing how full your "villain guide" gets. Mid-battle is a bad place to click and pick "Info."
2. Any *more* game-wide groups like the Council or CoT planned? They seem perfectly suited to tying in with origins (and having a few others could, after, say, lvl 15, allow you to pick a "favored enemy.") Some of the "dropoff" groups (like the Tsoo) look like good places to fill out too (say, Tsoo for natural, more Crey - who should show *some* reaction you've taken out the Countess - for Tech, etc.)
3. Adding my voice here to those saying I'd *love* to be able to (a) go back and read History plaques I've found (which would also indicate what's missing) (b) re-read the full text ("Akarist's notes on the summoning of demons" for instance) in arcs and (c) get the story for TFs added to my souveniers - or journal, if they could be added to (1) above.
Yeah, I'd sit there in game and go through them.... I'm a storyhound.
(4) Any plans on tweaking the "Yes, they got your DNA!" Crey mission so you actually... oh... fight a clone of yourself? I took my (female) elec/elec blaster through that mish, and fought... a burly male spines scrapper that was my "clone."
Eh?
(5) Suggestion for the next "event." Give all the heroes a special power (Chainsaw) and let them loose in Perez....
I wanted to ask if maybe we could have a Library in the Universities where we can look up info on Arch-Villains, villain groups, Signature Hero info and the stories of the trainers. You can only guess so much from the info on their Praetorian counterparts like Bobcat/Mynx. Also there could be a larger version of the terminal where you can look up everything you do on the others but can choose which zone you want to view or overall and you can read the Task Force story lines or your story arcs in full detail. I always ahte how at the end of a task force when im not the leader and i miss the opening and closing message. And since there are some groups your suppose to have "just found out about" you could make some of the information unlockable. And leave certain details of the Countess out (you know the one 
)
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
I have a question for you:
How long will it take for you to respond to 9 pages of questions?
Well after reading all 9 pages of each and single one and giving them all some thought.........I'd say bout 9 months?
1.) Is there any way to use our "Retired" Contacts for future story Arcs? It's such a shame to have all of those Contacts doing nothing . . . . ever . . . . . . . .
2.) Could each Contact concentrate upon the "type" of mission's that they are SUPPOSED to be giving you in the first place? When given a New Contact, a little blurb about what villain types that Contact works with/on is given, then is ignored, as the Contact commences giving you a hodgepodge of various missions involving other villain types!!
3.) Have ALL Contact missions be Story Arc related! Too many Contacts give generic missions that don't benefit the "plot"! I want PLOT! I NEED STORY ARCS!!!!
Not to be a nudge or anything, but it has been a week.....any word on whether we'll get the questions/answers today or Mon.?
It would help me curb my compulsive checking of the boards every ten minutes 
What can you tell us about the Blood of the Black Stream EAT?
Why do the missions given by contacts seemingly make no sense or lack in continuity? Contact Tom Bowden in Steel Canyon offers 2 Lost hunts in Skyway, 15 apiece. Doing them both, he then offers a Clockwork hunt or door mission. What happened to the Lost? Why did I just rough up 30 Lost in Skyway? Do a little more work in giving us incentive to do missions other than the xp grab.
- Captain Amazing
Dear Manticore-
I am very impressed with the game and your philosophy for workmanship and quality of gaming. I enjoy getting lost in the story line and playing it up. I have one request of the character creation. <ul type="square">[*]The mutant race is one that I think could be expanded in the creation process. All other races are somewhat more human in nature. I feel the term mutant should deserve more body adjustments than the typical. If your program and graphics team could come up with a way to morph the human body with animal bodies it would create a more mutant feel. It would be really cool to see character hands with 3 fingers or more claw like at the end, and see leg features that are more mammal, bird, lizard, or fish shaped. If the user could choose one or up to three animal types to merge with it would be way cool. The transform/morph rate could be integrated with a dragging scale and watch heroes morph from one side of the spectrum to the other to make the final look of the body. I am a big fan of the mutant class and would like to see some more attention paid to that physical development more than just horn features in the head and tail features for the butt.[/list]
I am enjoying the expanding physical features you have done so far, now its time to take it to the next level. Thanks to all of you who have made this game great and continue to amaze me.
<ul type="square">[*]Star Rion / Level 18/ Virtue Server[*]Mardoge / Level 8 / Justice Server[*]Cricket Warrior / Level 12 / Virtue Server[/list]
Having not used my question yet , I ask the mother of all questions!
When are you going to start answering!?(You should of started earlier, now you have 17 pages of questions to answer. No wonder plot advancement takes so long Kidding of course, keep up the good work and answer some questions...please.)
First, I would just like to say that the "bad boy" of the Freedom Phalanx, the non-powered guy with the chip on his shoulder, is my favorite in-game character. I just ran the Manticore TF for the first time, and his dialog is a real hoot.
Here's my question to Manticore, and forgive me if this seems a bit long.
I've submitted a story I've written to Fan Fiction Sumissions. I received the usual reply, "we received....because of volume....cannot respond unless your submission is selected...." All of which makes perfect sense.
However, it leaves me with a bit of a quandry.
It's stated that submissions become the property of CoH. Again, to be expected, that is standard in cases like this.
But I have no way of knowing if, or even when, my submission is accepted....or rejected.
It happens to be the origin story of one of my characters, the only one with a really well-thought-out origin.
If it is NOT accepted, I really would like to be able to share it with my friends. It is also important that anyone read the origin story first, before later stories that I have written and will write (including ones not intended to be submitted to CoH).
So my question is this: Is there a reasonable amount of time I should wait before I just assume that my submission has been rejected?
If I assume it has been rejected, and post it, for example to a web page, will that be in conflict with CoH "owning rights" to it?
If I post it somewhere, I assume that would make it difficult or impossible for CoH to copyright it....if it is still under consideration, won't that mean that CoH will *have* to reject it?
Thank you in advance if my question is selected to be answered.
I'll [i]almost certainly[/i] be happy with I7....."SOON(tm)"
Too bad "Maturity" isn't an Enhanceable power.
Anybody with a bow is okay in my book. ;-)
@Linuial
Starfire/Hellfire
Liberty, Infinity & Protector
Hey Manticore - love what you've done with the place.
Question's this - I don't think I've seen it, but has there been a case of an active superhero trying the elected position thing without it being an evil masterminded plan?
How's THAT for getting rid of Statesman? Bury him in paperwork. Sure, it lacks a certain flair...
Thanks for all the great questions - We should have answers later this week as well as Issue 2 of Ask a Dev - Geko!
Will we see more female villains in the future?
I'm not sure we need female Trolls (yikes!), but the lack of female Hellions, Skulls, Outcasts, Tsoo, CoT, etc. seems a little odd.