Statesman Interview Transcript!
By
2Negative,
Posted on: 2006-08-18 10:31 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Well, this was after the Posi inteview which answered most quetions regarding I8. The purpose of the interview was just to give a more general direction of how things are going and the insight of Statesman himself regarding those directions. You can only ask the same questions regarding the next patch so many times.
As far as where it's coming from Roach, thanks for making my job that much easier.
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I won't take issue with that, but I also didn't see tough questions being asked. All this interview did was further confirm that Statesman isn't the least bit technically inclined like Castle, Positron, or Geko are ... and so he was "bumped upstairs" where he "doesn't have time" to Micro-Manage and studiously datamine the Game & forums like he used to. Thus the biggest arguments over balance details and bugs that still persist among the community are getting ignored b/c the Technocrats in charge are working for the bottom line.... He confirms this with the very ominous " i9, i10, i11, there are a lot of cool things we are adding in the future, that i5 allowed us to do." which shows that yes we may have been over-gimped and no they don't wanna haggle over base numbers.
They'd rather screw us now, and buy us back later with little candies here and there... also b/c these little trinkits aren't as complex and don't really effect anything else in the game so Statesman can oversee their additions like a true Bafoon director/CEO "on cruisecontrol" would. And there's so many Badge-wh#&%$ (who love other meaningless crap too such as worthless temps and insignificant buffs with eye-candy) that *almost* half of the community will love him even more for it. And Considering Positrons roles in this, it just Screams negligence over the basic to advanced mechanics of the game which are still unbalancing for several AT's, and even more so for the Villain faction in General.
But no... Posi's the Rewards/Badge guy and they're just "done" with base stats now? Wheres their numbers to support that claim? Simple search of the servers shows major imbalances. While game-killing Bugs/Crashes are a daily event for many long-time players. I myself still can't do the Thorn Respec b/c a bug they intro'd in I-7 now causes my entire computer to freeze if I so much as rotate my screen towards the Thorn-Tree's room.
Tough questions and "The Direction of the Game" should focus on these issues that are making the game Un-Fun right now... not the crap we might be getting in the future or patting Posi on the back for his few rare appearances regarding actual game balance compared to dozens more that are clearly obsessed with Gladiators and Base widgets (which States himself admitted got a poor response in-game).
Playing the "We'll give the players what they want" card just means you can filter out the tough ideas and pick out softball feature-creep and *look* like you're busy.
My villain found some restoration going on in Boomtown. Looked interesting. For the first few minutes. She got bored with it and sabotaged the whole thing.
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I have to wonder if it would be better to have prestige deducted from a group when a player quit the group.
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This would be one of those "fixes" that actually creates a bigger problem than it solves.
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I'm assuming you are referring to the common practice of large SG's jockeying members around to alt SG's to make room for new recruits. Obviously the member limit on SG's would have to be removed for something like this to take place. Other than that caveat, I see no downside to placing a drawback on members "leaving" the group. Base mongers are far less likely to exploit players if you have to retain members rather than use them and discard them like tissues. And if SG's focus more on retaining members, those SG's are likely to be more rewarding for the people involved. And if the groups are more closely knit, perhaps more members can take part in experiencing base building. And as I mentioned, having another avenue of prestige loss in the game might make it easier to conceive of eliminating base rent all-together.
Like I said, a guy can dream. 
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Just thought i'd make a comment on why I think bases arn't as popular as States might have wanted it...
It's not as...personal, as your costume. You don't own your base. Your SG leader/s do/es. Theres a kind of dissconnect between you and it. When I walk into my SG's base, it doesin't feel like it's mine. It's this extra thing.
Now, I do have a suggestion for trying to change that.
Give players there own rooms in an SG base. One they can ajust to their hearts content, ala aparments. Theres a good chance that such a thing would mess up the SG's intended design, dissrupting Raid flow, just being to large, ect. To deal with that I would make it only avalable to Members who earn enough Pre/Salvage to buy a 'Portal' type item.
Like elevators in normal missions, clicking on one sends you to a new area off the normal map. The room would only be able to house non-functioning items. Room size/number of items you could have would be based on Pre earned for the SG.
And of course only the person who MADE the room would have the ablity to edit it and enter it, with some sort of command to alow others to get in. Also the option to restrict who can make these rooms based on Rank would be a good idea.
Summary: Not enough personal investment in SG-bases. Answer? Give players their own personal rooms.
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That sounds like an elegant solution to some different player goals. Why NOT combine apartment requests with group bases to give 'em a little more personal connection? I LOVE our SuperGroup on Infinity and CONSTANTLY play my alts in SG Mode to support the group and our base, but given a choice of a room to design, it'd truly feel like HOME.
And let's face it, this is NOT without precident. Most famous super teams like the Justice League and Avengers regularly build some sort of living quarters for their members.
- Green Lantern
"Say, Jim...woo! That's a bad out-FIT!" - Superman: The Movie
Me 'n my posse: http://www.citygametracker.com/site/....php?user=5608
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All this interview did was further confirm that Statesman isn't the least bit technically inclined like Castle, Positron, or Geko are ... and so he was "bumped upstairs" where he "doesn't have time" to Micro-Manage and studiously datamine the Game & forums like he used to.
...
But no... Posi's the Rewards/Badge guy and they're just "done" with base stats now? Wheres their numbers to support that claim?
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Ok, at risk of the pot calling the kettle black, you're accusing Statesman of micromanaging on the inside, but then you're micromanaging from the outside...?
Wait: did I just defend Statesman? Nurse, a glass of water please! I feel faint!
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Just thought i'd make a comment on why I think bases arn't as popular as States might have wanted it...
It's not as...personal, as your costume. You don't own your base. Your SG leader/s do/es. Theres a kind of dissconnect between you and it. When I walk into my SG's base, it doesin't feel like it's mine. It's this extra thing.
Now, I do have a suggestion for trying to change that.
Give players there own rooms in an SG base. One they can ajust to their hearts content, ala aparments. Theres a good chance that such a thing would mess up the SG's intended design, dissrupting Raid flow, just being to large, ect. To deal with that I would make it only avalable to Members who earn enough Pre/Salvage to buy a 'Portal' type item.
Like elevators in normal missions, clicking on one sends you to a new area off the normal map. The room would only be able to house non-functioning items. Room size/number of items you could have would be based on Pre earned for the SG.
And of course only the person who MADE the room would have the ablity to edit it and enter it, with some sort of command to alow others to get in. Also the option to restrict who can make these rooms based on Rank would be a good idea.
Summary: Not enough personal investment in SG-bases. Answer? Give players their own personal rooms.
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That sounds like an elegant solution to some different player goals. Why NOT combine apartment requests with group bases to give 'em a little more personal connection? I LOVE our SuperGroup on Infinity and CONSTANTLY play my alts in SG Mode to support the group and our base, but given a choice of a room to design, it'd truly feel like HOME.
And let's face it, this is NOT without precident. Most famous super teams like the Justice League and Avengers regularly build some sort of living quarters for their members.
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I agree with this idea also. It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped. I have to wonder however if such a purely decorational room would satisfy those who don't feel they get to "experience" bases enough as-is. If these player quarters also housed a bank terminal that was tied into your global handle or something, people would jump all over them for sure. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud here...
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It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped.
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They've been scrapped?
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It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped.
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They've been scrapped?
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From what I've read over the past few months, yes. I seem to remember the smaller starter rooms and items for bases that were recently added were a consolation for the scrapping of the player apartment feature. They are a means for smaller groups to get a functional base much sooner. Of course if I'm way off here, someone feel free to chime in.
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Just thought i'd make a comment on why I think bases arn't as popular as States might have wanted it...
It's not as...personal, as your costume. You don't own your base. Your SG leader/s do/es. Theres a kind of dissconnect between you and it. When I walk into my SG's base, it doesin't feel like it's mine. It's this extra thing.
Now, I do have a suggestion for trying to change that.
Give players there own rooms in an SG base. One they can ajust to their hearts content, ala aparments. Theres a good chance that such a thing would mess up the SG's intended design, dissrupting Raid flow, just being to large, ect. To deal with that I would make it only avalable to Members who earn enough Pre/Salvage to buy a 'Portal' type item.
Like elevators in normal missions, clicking on one sends you to a new area off the normal map. The room would only be able to house non-functioning items. Room size/number of items you could have would be based on Pre earned for the SG.
And of course only the person who MADE the room would have the ablity to edit it and enter it, with some sort of command to alow others to get in. Also the option to restrict who can make these rooms based on Rank would be a good idea.
Summary: Not enough personal investment in SG-bases. Answer? Give players their own personal rooms.
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That sounds like an elegant solution to some different player goals. Why NOT combine apartment requests with group bases to give 'em a little more personal connection? I LOVE our SuperGroup on Infinity and CONSTANTLY play my alts in SG Mode to support the group and our base, but given a choice of a room to design, it'd truly feel like HOME.
And let's face it, this is NOT without precident. Most famous super teams like the Justice League and Avengers regularly build some sort of living quarters for their members.
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I agree with this idea also. It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped. I have to wonder however if such a purely decorational room would satisfy those who don't feel they get to "experience" bases enough as-is. If these player quarters also housed a bank terminal that was tied into your global handle or something, people would jump all over them for sure. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud here...
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We can already add purely decorative rooms. But adding one per SG member would surely bankrupt any SG of moderate size or higher due to rent and plot size.
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It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped.
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They've been scrapped?
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Yes, the dev's replaced the player apartment idea with the new low cost base items. I think the reason was that player apartments would be mostly eye candy with little substance, and the dev's did want to waste resources on something that had no useful game function.
I would have loved a personal apartment for my mains.
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It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped.
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They've been scrapped?
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Yes, Positron mentioned it in a previous interview. He wanted to put the time/energy/resources into other aspects for improving the game.
And in a lot of ways, he's right. This is what I meant by the game losing itself to aspects of The Sims. At some point it stops becoming a community environment and starts becoming a solo game. To reserve a personal room inside the base is still very much asking for a "player's apartment."
At the end of the day, why would the Devs want players to spend all their time in their personal apartments when they should be motivated to head outside and explore the zones?
If a request for player apartments outweighs the priority of new zone material, then there's a problem with players feeling *motivated* to go explore the outside world.
Again, just my two cents, and I'm sure I'm totally wrong. 
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For example, one thing I'd really love to see is base invasions by NPCs. You get some item in your base (maybe it's loot, maybe it's a person), and you have to protect them in your base. Not only would that give you a reason to be in your base, but it'd also give you a reason to utilize some aspects of the bases (ie defense) that are largely ignored by the non-PvP SGs.
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That would be brilliant. That way, a base would have a reason to be carefulyl built if you were in a non PVP group.
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Anyway, in regards to Safeguard missions, I always thought that it would be kind of like cleaning up after a mayhem mission, with civilians trapped under rubble you'd have to destroy, putting out burning buildings, stopping villains who've taken advantage of the chaos to run wild in the streets.
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Ooooo!
That sounds downright nifty!
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yes it does!!! Read this states and Posi!!! Give the players what they want!
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Someone grab this idea and PM to Posi! That would be so freaking cool. Double so if the safeguard mission ended with you entering the bank to thump the villan(s) trying to steal the money.
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I like that idea. I don't want heroes to basically have the same thing as villains, I WANT something different.
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It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped.
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They've been scrapped?
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Yes, the dev's replaced the player apartment idea with the new low cost base items. I think the reason was that player apartments would be mostly eye candy with little substance, and the dev's did want to waste resources on something that had no useful game function.
I would have loved a personal apartment for my mains.
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Same.
Like said above, I think the big problem with bases is that it isn't neccesarily done by me. I spend ages on a costume, and everyone around sees my costume. I join a SG, and I can go in a base someone else made. Even if I edit it (I think I have the privilages), someone else will just remove it the next time we have an overhaul. The base basically becomes a place I can go to teleport to zones quickly.
I understand the point that the devs probably don't want us in some little contained area, but that's what bases basically end up as. People don't PVP because they can't afford it or don't want the griefing, so it becomes something only they use. So it basically becomes a self contained little area they didn't create.
One little idea for how to make personal homes more than just a personal thing. Have it where you can put anyone onto your homes "allowed" list (With obviously, a way to not let anyone in). Maybe even a way of joining a group of houses. When in your house, you can TP to any home that has you on the access list and is allowing visitors (Complete with an indicator of how many people are inside). Thus, your home is now also a meeting place, AND something to show off.
Ok, so player apartments are supposed to serve what need exactly: having an in-game "MySpace" 3D account?
I see player apartments as a space players can shape and call their own, an anchor that helps bond them to the game world in a way that isn't possible now. It's also, by extension, a way to customize the character, particularly in a game that is fairly light in the loot department.
Would I like to see them? Yes. At the expense of something "better"? No.
But they could be given greater purpose if the devs were inclined to do so. Would it be a wise investment of their time? Hard to say.
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Ok, so player apartments are supposed to serve what need exactly: having an in-game "MySpace" 3D account?
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Filling the need for loot you can show off, mostly. Call it a trophy room if you prefer, but it'd engage people for similar reasons that badges engage people, except that you could interact with the badges in different ways. You could add furniture as an influence sink; you could add decorative items as "loot." I'd start with converting the existing souveneirs into actual objects then add more.
I know that I spent many enjoyable hours futzing with my house and furniture in SWG. (It helped that my character built much of it, and there was arguably little fun to be had elsewhere, but anyhow.) I'd love to put an end table in a room somewhere then set some flowers on it, neatly potted in the Psychic Clockwork King's head-jar. "Earned by Defeating the Psychic Clockwork King 20 times" or the like.
There are plenty of things I think are more important, certainly, but I'd still like to see this. Right now I go to the base just to say, "Hey, here's a base." Something to give me a sense of ownership and control about it would be nice.
EDIT: And, as people are noting in the Suggestion Forum the problem with the personal base solution is that you either get your own space to putter with or you are part of a larger SG: very rarely both.
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I agree with this idea also. It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped.
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I think the solution, which has probably been mooted already, is this:
Allow personal player 'space', about the size of a single 2x2 base room. Make this accessible by clicking a door.
That door can then be linked to a real door in the game world (say, one in King's Row) or linked to a door that can be put into the base as a wall detail.
Let's say I make 'Sadako's Room' complete with mini-fridge, posters and so on. I then connect that to my SG base by adding a Personal Room Door somewhere inside the base itself. You can already add those three bathroom doors. It would be like that, except clickable. You could set your personal room door location from the 'place personal item' menu, so nobody else could place the door to your room in the Vault or something equally silly.
The clever part is that the personal room doesn't actually occupy real space in the base (so it's not on the base map) and clicking on personal doors would be disabled during base raids.
So, you could have a personal space either as part of your SGs larger base, or somewhere in the city.
There's already a precedent for clicking on a base object and being transported somewhere else (teleporters, of course) so I don't see why this couldn't be done.
But what about the implied difference in scale, and the reality breaking step of having many personal 2x2 rooms with no 'real' existence in the base? Two words - Terra Volta!
Put me down for not wanting to see loot, crafting and skills.
We already have enhancements, salvage, and inspirations.
When someone says they speak for the majority, my eyebrows immediately raise. Usually in suspicion.
www.paragonwiki.com is a great source of information for this game.
New or returning to the game? Want advice from experienced players who want to help YOU?
The Mentor Project: Part of the New Player Council.
I would love to see a 'come (back) for the loot, stay for the game'... loot that helps define a character or allows for a fun activity but doesn't make you a better fighter. Or perhaps loot acquired abilities turn off for PvP. Loot that is attractive and attract loot lovers. It is bait for that set of players. They'll stay for the game.
I can say I would like to see some non-game breaking loot. Flavor.. costumes, bobbles... nothing that effects DPS but enriches the experience.. perhaps loot like keys that break open missions... rewards that are very temporary...
We talk about bases. I use it to temporarily hold enhancements that are earned beyond my level to use, and I stock about 3 storage containers full of inspirations so I can med bay back there and re-fill on inspirations for difficult missions... Sounds like I'm creating my own loot system. It is loot that doesn't break the game. Give us more of that, but with a bit more fun or decor to it.
I have never been in or ever plan to play WoW or Diablo. I did play Neverwinter and I loved the loot. I have put a lot of time in CoX and like it a lot without loot. I don't think that means I'm entitled to loot, but I think it is ok to ask for and I'm not ashamed too. Especially the kind of loot I'm asking for.
Nicely done.
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I agree with this idea also. It would be a nice compromise since player apartments were scrapped.
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I think the solution, which has probably been mooted already, is this:
Allow personal player 'space', about the size of a single 2x2 base room. Make this accessible by clicking a door.
That door can then be linked to a real door in the game world (say, one in King's Row) or linked to a door that can be put into the base as a wall detail.
Let's say I make 'Sadako's Room' complete with mini-fridge, posters and so on. I then connect that to my SG base by adding a Personal Room Door somewhere inside the base itself. You can already add those three bathroom doors. It would be like that, except clickable. You could set your personal room door location from the 'place personal item' menu, so nobody else could place the door to your room in the Vault or something equally silly.
The clever part is that the personal room doesn't actually occupy real space in the base (so it's not on the base map) and clicking on personal doors would be disabled during base raids.
So, you could have a personal space either as part of your SGs larger base, or somewhere in the city.
There's already a precedent for clicking on a base object and being transported somewhere else (teleporters, of course) so I don't see why this couldn't be done.
But what about the implied difference in scale, and the reality breaking step of having many personal 2x2 rooms with no 'real' existence in the base? Two words - Terra Volta!
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I like it! And to address Torak's concern about affording player appartment space, you can simply use influence/infamy to fund the personal rooms. This would be doubly important since many people might opt to just have their personal space and not join an SG. It wouldn't hurt to have a checkbox in the Options menu to allow fellow SG members to enter your appartment from the clickable door in the base. The idea certainly has potential...
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... At some point it stops becoming a community environment and starts becoming a solo game.
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It already is ... and always has been for many people. The allure of this game over others is the ability to solo or duo quite effectively while having fun at the same time. Teaming is fine ... and fun also, but CoX used to be CASUAL friendly until they pretended there was an economy in this game with the Base and Prestige tax system.
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To reserve a personal room inside the base is still very much asking for a "player's apartment."
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Yes, it is. There should be a portion of that make-believe instance under the base-entry-swirls where you can display your souvenirs and spend a little influence on non-game-breaking fluff.
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...At the end of the day, why would the Devs want players to spend all their time in their personal apartments when they should be motivated to head outside and explore the zones?
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Not all their time ... but there comes a point in time in an MMO where enough of the playerbase is tired of re-rolling alts and experiencing the same content over and over and over again. Kudos for you if you aren't among this portion of the community, but it exists and is quite large ... for now. In my view, there is insufficient incentive to keep these folks from jumping ship to other games where fluff like personal housing can be fun and a diversion to the same ole same ole.
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...If a request for player apartments outweighs the priority of new zone material, then there's a problem with players feeling *motivated* to go explore the outside world.
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The absence of any "new zone material" and a flashback system in this game demonstrates the fallacy in your argument.
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Again, just my two cents, and I'm sure I'm totally wrong.
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No ... you've just got an opinion with which I happen to disagree.
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Ok, so player apartments are supposed to serve what need exactly: having an in-game "MySpace" 3D account?
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There have been several examples in this thread of potential functional uses for player apartments. Scaled down, personal versions of enhancement and inspiration storage, etc.
However, aside from all those potential uses, I'd say the big reason for some sort of individual player housing, whether linked from SG bases or not, is to democratize access to the base builder. The developers spent all this time and effort creating this new system in the game, and only a teeny, tiny, minority of people have access to it due to restrictions on editing in SGs.
Note that I'm not complaining because I don't have access to it. I'm in one of the larger SGs on Virtue (our villan group has been in the top ten in Prestige on our server pretty contstantly since CoV launched) , and have base editing privleges as an officer.
However, it just strikes me as rather inefficient use of time and resources to have created this huge, complex, new system when many players have little access to it either through editing restrictions or the rather crazy prestige costs of base plots and items which are prohibitevely expensive for smaller SGs.
Also, I'd like to see player apartments be bought with influence, not prestige. If nothing else, it would be a smart way for the devs to try to sop up some of the vast pool of extra influence in the game.
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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I have to wonder if it would be better to have prestige deducted from a group when a player quit the group.
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This would be one of those "fixes" that actually creates a bigger problem than it solves.
@Mindshadow