Statesman's and Positron's 2nd Anniversary Address
By
8_Ball,
Posted on: 2006-04-28 08:03 in Developers' Corner
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So, does this mean that Statesman is no longer associated with the game on a major scale? Because those messages sort of read like a baton passing.
And is that the "State of the Game" that I lobbied for, and that we were promised? - I hope not.
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In answer to your first question, I'm still involved with CoH/CoV.
As to your second, I don't remember a promise about a "state of the game", though I do remember saying it was a good idea. But yeah, I think this does classify as a state of the game address - where we're at, what we're doing in the future.
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States...any chance that you can tell me what epic is coming out in I8, and anwser my PM? 
Now this was a great surprise for today!!! Thanks devs! Seeing what lies in store for the future, and knowing that it's in the realm of the next year, is just a really good feeling that "City of..." has got a lot more to show us 
Again, amazing job folks! I cannot wait for the next year now!!!
Hero High: Just Around the Darkness
Arc# 131046
Angel Boy, lvl 50 Def
Alys, lvl 50 MM
Angelium, lvl 50 Troller
Kid-Q, lvl 50 Troller
Psi-kid, lvl 50 Blaster
Ice Blocked, lvl 41 Tanker
Possession, lvl 43 Dom
...and various others
I LOVE THIS GAME! Thank you for 2 years of a job well done! I can't wait for the new stuff and looks like this awesome MMO is gonna take it to the next level. Ding!
Happy Birthday!!! Where can I Preorder the next Box Issue? 
I updated the City of Heroes history in Wikipedia. So far, the future looks like:
Issue #8 (pending, later in 2006) - Veterans' Reward system which will be a thank-you to long time subscribers with gifts not limited to powers, costumes, and base items. The first part of more end-game content for Heroes and Villains (when the rest will be added is unclear at this time).
Issue #9 (pending, 2007) - New content in the form of a story-arc leading up the the retail expansion. Revised content in the form of revamping zones in City of Heroes using the lessons learned in City of Villains (presumably meaning including types of missions such as escort missions or waves of attackers) and adding new content to underutilized zones. New zones, new tile sets. Unspecified new powersets and an unspecified new archetype.
Retail Expansion (pending, 2007) - Not a standalone, but an expansion for both Cities. The type of new zones has been supposedly influenced by a player poll. [2] Info for Issues #8-9 and the Retail Expansion can be found here [3].
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
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So, does this mean that Statesman is no longer associated with the game on a major scale? Because those messages sort of read like a baton passing.
And is that the "State of the Game" that I lobbied for, and that we were promised? - I hope not.
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In answer to your first question, I'm still involved with CoH/CoV.
As to your second, I don't remember a promise about a "state of the game", though I do remember saying it was a good idea. But yeah, I think this does classify as a state of the game address - where we're at, what we're doing in the future.
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You didn't promise it. Positron mentioned it here.
We were hoping for a little more detail, though.
i cant wait any longer for issue 7 to come out,i want it now
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It will NOT be a stand alone.
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So this means we have to paying for the issues? Or am i missing something whats the point to this retail expansion?
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The retail expansion is in addition to the Issue development. Much like CoV was, sort of. It's way for the company to get a box on retail shelves and it may be part of their contract with NCSoft, the publisher.
Why do I get the feeling the new retail box will NOT be a new add-on (in CoV terms) but will instead hold an AT, new powers, a badge, and some other goodies that will only be available to the players who get the add-on code? This would coincide with the fact that they said the new EAT's would not be unlocked by reaching a level goal and it'd be easier to do this than to code a TF or something in the game that could be abused to get this AT.
Well...if my paranoia is right for once, I need to start saving up
I know i already said "grats" for what might possibly be the biggest ding of them all. But grats again Positron!
And boo hiss goodbye Statesman
States isn't leaving.
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Beyond that, we are looking to release another Issue building up the story towards our next retail box, due in 2007. This will include going back and revamping some of the zones from City of Heroes, using everything we've learned from making City of Villains and Issue 7, plus a bunch of other cool stuff including new powersets and an epic archetype. Of course for the retail box we will be creating all-new zones and content based on the results of the forum poll we posted last month. The retail box will be an expansion to both City of Heroes and City of Villains.
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One question, will the next retail box be an Stand-a-lone Expansion or an Expansion pack that one has to have either City of Heroes or City of Villains to use, or has that been determined as of yet?
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It will NOT be a stand alone.
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a boxed expansion?..
for CoX?
joy..
thats sarcasem by the way..
what a sell out, 
one of the MAIN reasons i like NCsoft and CoX is that you DON'T charge for expansions.
you can try and say an issue isnt an expansion and they are different ect, but its not fooling anyone.
with the exception of guildwars, which doesnt have a sub fee, i was under the impression that NCsoft was an either/or stance regarding "pay for" expansions.
either you pay for a sub OR you pay for expansions, not both.
so much for you guys being "better" than SoE.
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So, does this mean that Statesman is no longer associated with the game on a major scale? Because those messages sort of read like a baton passing.
And is that the "State of the Game" that I lobbied for, and that we were promised? - I hope not.
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In answer to your first question, I'm still involved with CoH/CoV.
As to your second, I don't remember a promise about a "state of the game", though I do remember saying it was a good idea. But yeah, I think this does classify as a state of the game address - where we're at, what we're doing in the future.
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Positron did right here.
That said, his address only discusses the future, and nothing about how you (plural, Cryptic) see the game today. Or the problems with it that you'd like to solve in the future.
It's a "State of the Future Game" not a "State of the Game".
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Beyond that, we are looking to release another Issue building up the story towards our next retail box, due in 2007.
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(in south park voice) posi, you killed deathdoom!*
*deathdoom: fear of 'armageddon', felt and/or expressed
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Why do I get the feeling the new retail box will NOT be a new add-on (in CoV terms) but will instead hold an AT, new powers, a badge, and some other goodies that will only be available to the players who get the add-on code?
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Because the red names have already pretty much said that?
It's no Expanshalone! or standalone sequel in 2007. Just a normal, traditional paid expansion in addition to the (now) 2 Issues a year and in-between stuff like seasonal events.
Baka.
This is a disturbing trend to start... if they're going to have additional content that you have to pay for, I will become worried. I can write-off buying CoV since it's essentially a new game, but to pay for a new powerset, or a new AT, just bothers me. I mean, should we expect such "premium" ATs to be better than the regular ones? I'd also be worried if pay-per-content expansions became the norm, and the free content took a backseat...
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Baka.
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You could have just called me a fool instead of using a foreign language.
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This is a disturbing trend to start... if they're going to have additional content that you have to pay for, I will become worried. I can write-off buying CoV since it's essentially a new game, but to pay for a new powerset, or a new AT, just bothers me. I mean, should we expect such "premium" ATs to be better than the regular ones? I'd also be worried if pay-per-content expansions became the norm, and the free content took a backseat...
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I think its inevitable that you're going to see regular paid expansions over the life of the CoX universe. New retail box expansions give the game presence on store-shelves that it would not otherwise get, which brings in more cash for Cryptic, and helps attract new players to the game. I think the game needs semi-regular injections of new and shiny above and beyond the regular Issue Updates to stay healthy, and to grow (and I think we should all want the game to grow, as more growth could mean more staff to work on things)
It would be unfortunate if the paid expansions come at the expense of the regular Issue updates that are partially funded by our monthly fees (as per the Knowledge Base), but in some respects this is a horse that fled the barn six months ago.
I think we should remember that you wouldn't just be paying for one new powerset, or a new EAT. I suspect that a new expansion may very well feature a new group of zones in an area that is neither Pargon or the Rouge Isles. Space and Underwater themes quite handily lead themselves to this sort of thing in my opinion.
I'd pay for a Galaxy of Heroes, or Ocean of Heroes expansion with a new, optional group of zones and a related EAT(Coralax for Ocean obviously) assuming a reasonable price and some other packaged benefits (free month of play, an extra four slots per server like CoV gave us). Also, given that this paid expansion is not going to be a stand-alone game, the cost is going to be lower than a full game I would assume. Well, at least lower than the official Cryptic price. Best Buy has CoV on for $9.99 right now.
Heroes
Dysmal
Lumynous
Sam Steele
Pluck
Wile
Slagheap
Pressure Wave
Rhiannon Bel
Verified
Stellaric
Syd Mallorn
Villains
Jotunheim Skald
Saer Maen
Jen Corbae
Illuminance
Venator Arawn
Taiga Dryad
Tarranos
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Then there is talk of another retail box. Which brings it's own set of questions. Will it feature SG items that members can only access with the new box ala bases? That was the worst idea ever and lead to many players I know quitting because they didn't want to be a villain. And speaking of bases, another poster was correct, they are next to useless. The teleporters are nice, but we STILL haven't got the IoPs and all the other stuff that was promised with them when they first came out.
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Yes, City of is the first MMO ever to release expansions which must be purchased in order to access additional content. Content which other members of your SG/VG (aka "guild") cannot access themselves if they have not purchased said expansion. Even if they didn't want to play any of the new races or classes, but simply wanted access to the new zones. How dare Cryptic do this unheard of thing, which no other game community has ever been forced to endure.
/setmode_sarcasm 0
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So just because one mmorpg does a crappy idea, Cryptic should follow suit? Your powers of common sense are overwhelming. The bases were introduced and have served little purpose. Their main function of base raids has been negated by the fact that they can't even get the trial up to get the IoPs. And the little benefit of places to TP to requires both games to use. Which makes no sense for a hero SG to have to have a villain game to use their hero SG base.
And for those saying wait and see before making comments, you don't need to wait and see what hasn't been done in two years. In two years we have had 3 zones at least that were useless in CoH. And the "possible" redoing of these zones(assuming these are the zones that get redone) doesn't look to be till 2007. So 3 years of zones that serve no purpose. Fantastic.
Right now according to this address we are getting two updates including I-7 this year. With how long I-7 has taken and that statement, it will be closer to the end of the year for I-8. That means it will be OVER a year before any additional content was added to the CoH side short of some costume and PvP options. And we wanna applaud the devs for this?
I look at this address and see it for what it is, fewer updates per year. A long stretch of time for CoH content. And future paid expansions. And people are thanking the devs for offering us less. So I'm getting less for my subsciption fee and will need to pay even more money in the future to unlock costume options and powersets. YAY!!! Like I said before, the devs better wow in the next year or alot of people will be going to the Marvel and DC games. The genre has kept me here, but once we start seeing more of it, I'm going to go to the best one. (which still might be CoX, we'll see)
And the Veteran Rewards is a horrible idea. It won't bring in new players as they won't qualify. It won't bring back previous players who left dissaisfied with the game because their account wouldn't have been active the fulltime to qualify. The purpose of it is to keep any of the rest of us from cancelling our accounts, especially between the long waits for each update. They know many of us practically have OCD over things like costumes and badges and will use those to bribe us to stick around just to get them. It's a ploy nothing more.
Baka means stupied.
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Baka means stupied.
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I see this has really caught as a topic - go figure....
With an 'ied even? Really. Circus had the definition closer than you although it's really a quite flexible word deriving most of it's severity from tone. In my mind part of it's charm is it's range of possible meaning and the other is it just sounds fun really say it, it's fun for the mouth.
Obviously we have no tone on the Interweby-thing so you'll just have to assume one (and no hits for you).
If you'd like to read more before making a defenitive statement on what it means maybe even the short entry on wikipedia would help.
There's another fun happy noise... wiki, wiki, wiki.
And as an aside I'd like to say 'happy second anniversary everyone.'
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So just because one mmorpg does a crappy idea, Cryptic should follow suit? Your powers of common sense are overwhelming.
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Yes, only one MMOG has done or is planning to do this. ONLY one, and Cryptic/NCSoft had to copy them. ONLY ONE.
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That means it will be OVER a year before any additional content was added to the CoH side short of some costume and PvP options. And we wanna applaud the devs for this?
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No, but that's a different issue and it's been covered in other threads.
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Where oh where have two years gone? 
And I'm sorry - but any speach by Posi should inevitably include his now famous tagline "it's all grey to me"!
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My single greatest momen on this board was inspiring that line.
Positron as lead designer, eh? Arch enemies following us through our whole career! Do it RIGHT and do it <ahem> soon! You Have The POWHA!!