The 2008 State of the Game
By
Achilles_Rex,
Posted on: 2008-01-10 24:06 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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Well, I was hoping the contents of the announcement would match the title.
Market hype and shinies != State of the Game.
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Because, you know... adding things to the game that the players have been wanting for years has nothing to do with the state of the game. 
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No, it doesn't, that's marketing hype and shinies.
The "state of the game" is "where the game has been and where is the game going" at the meta level. Questions like "will there finally be a new box or downloadable version in '08". Statements like "our plan is to release x new issues in '08". Etc... etc...
Not "Here's the cool stuff we have done, and a few shinies to keep your attention".
http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/
Things I would love to see: (and have asked for, for 3 years now)
1. Teams LFM as an option in team building with an ability to name your team, so that if you were on this great team you could look for it daily.
2. Pets for Mind trollers.
3. An option to NOT have breasts at all on female characters.
4. A true "urban" area. Not everyone lives in a "city".
Nal
(Donut Girl on Infinity)
HOME SERVER - INFINITY
Donut Girl 50 Mind Emp
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3. An option to NOT have breasts at all on female characters.
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the true flat chest option eh?
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Yeah I missed the 'in real time', I think ym briain is addled today.
EG:
Sorry the win goes on. Did you not get the memo that suckage is no longer part of CoX ?
(aside from MOG) *ducks and runs*
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MoG continuing to suck is the only thing that grounds me in reality. 
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You might want to avoid the Training Room in the near future, then.
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Moment of Geko?
Lots of 50's yada yada. still finding fun things to do.
Cthulhu loves you, better start running
I�! I�! Gg�gorsch�a�bha egurtsa�ar�ug d� Dalhor! Cthluhu fthagn! Cthluhu fthagn!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages
Yes and for some types of concepts, not being able to completely flatten the breasts on a female is a pain. I would love to have Baby Bumpkins (my child character) be younger than 12, more like 9. And for some of the "furry" types, flat chests would be a nice thing to have.
And Urban areas would be so cool. I can see it kind of like the Urban area in "Edward Scissorhands"---very retro looking and cartoony.
Nal
HOME SERVER - INFINITY
Donut Girl 50 Mind Emp
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where the game has been and where is the game going
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Where it has been ?
Review of 2007 issues- check.
Summary of major changes in ownership etc - check
Where its going ?
Financial investment in new servers, high level view of whats happening over the next 2-3 months. - check
Pretty much covers what you asked for, maybe not in depth and deail, but forward looking statements are never that detailed until the nitty gritty has really been pinned down.
Want the I12-14 Story arc spoilered this far in advance ? I'd suggest you would be in a minority for that.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
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Double XP Weekend and Server Hardware Improvements
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Cool - on both counts! ^_^
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Valentines Day Event
Also coming in February, we have an expanded Valentines Day Event! Were adding a few new twists to the previous event and also have a very special surprise to go along with this romantic holiday. More details will be coming soon!
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Hmmm ... I wonder ... might it be the option to split an account off from the main account? I.e., I could let my g/f take her one character off to a new account? Or might it be a subscription option to have the same account logged in more than once??
Doubtful, both of them ... but it's fun to think, and wonder ...
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Smoothing the XP Curve
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EXCELLENT idea.
As a suggestion towards this: decide how many even-level Minions one is expected to defeat in order to level up, divide the XP needed for the change of level by this number, and make that the new XP value of each Minion. This can even be expressed as a function of level ("Level times two hundred", or "level squared, times one hundred" ... or whatever), so that levelling does slowly decrease in frequency as you go up, but does so in a predictable, regular, and even fashion.
Then, set Mission-Complete Awards, as well as the XP for even-level LTs and Bosses, as "X Minions". For example, maybe a mission complete is worth fifty Minions' worth of XP; a LT is worth 3, a Boss worth 5. This standardisation of basic awards will smooth out the number of missions needed to level accordingly.
Of course, especially-easy missions ("run over here and tell X about Y") could be scaled back to 5 or 10 Minions' worth of XP ... while especially-hard missions (the LRSF's finale; the end of any Respec Trial; very short-timer missions; missions where you must prevent someone from fleeing; etc) could be scaled up to 75, 100, or even 200 minions' worth of XP.
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Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new functionality in a coming version of the game to display the real numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user configurable display of important characteristics such as movement rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.
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O_o Three cheers for Real Numbers:
Hip, hip, [u]HUZZAH!![u]
Hip, hip, [u]HUZZAH!!!![u]
Hip, hip, [u]HUZZAH!!!!!![u]
Double XP Weekend and Server Hardware Improvements
We have another Double XP Weekend coming! Currently we are targeting February for this event. It will be the same format as we have run previously: a weekend long fest of double rewards of experience gain, influence or infamy, and prestige! Double XP is always popular and usually drives our online numbers to record heights.
To better address performance issues that tend to arise under such conditions, we are investing in server hardware upgrades. Technology is always marching forward and we are making this investment back into the game to take advantage of the latest tech and help create the best gaming experience possible for our players.
Our plans are to have all of the new hardware online before the coming Double XP Weekend. We will post more details of the server upgrade schedule, along with the dates of the actual Double XP weekend soon, so keep your eye on the City of Heroes website!
>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;<<<<<<<<<<<< <<<<<<<<<
So my question is does the NCNC team all ready know when the double XP weekend is and isn't willing to release the dates (yet) or is the exact date in a state of flux due to the server upgrade(s)?
Kudos for all of the great information. Is it just me or does it seem like since NC stepped in we are getting more communication from devs on what's going on?
I am hopeful more content will be added for some of the level problems. My highest villain is only 20th and haven't had any problems on that side, although I have heard people complain about the lack of content at some levels, and I am a bit surprised an unlockable archetype still hasn't been put in for that side. My highest hero is 36th (almost 37th), and there are definitely some spots so far that I think need improving. 28/29 seemed slow, although I never ran out of content. 34 was horrible! I can imagine 33 may be bad if you don't do the trial/tf as well. By 34, my contacts recycled the same missions; at one point I think I had 3 telling me to kill Devouring Earth in the same office! Also at those levels, there was a Complete lack of villains that dropped mutant singles, and it was hard to get magic salvage (unfortunately I was past the Croatoa levels when the issue was introduced).
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I am hopeful more content will be added for some of the level problems. My highest villain is only 20th and haven't had any problems on that side, although I have heard people complain about the lack of content at some levels, and I am a bit surprised an unlockable archetype still hasn't been put in for that side. My highest hero is 36th (almost 37th), and there are definitely some spots so far that I think need improving. 28/29 seemed slow, although I never ran out of content. 34 was horrible! I can imagine 33 may be bad if you don't do the trial/tf as well. By 34, my contacts recycled the same missions; at one point I think I had 3 telling me to kill Devouring Earth in the same office! Also at those levels, there was a Complete lack of villains that dropped mutant singles, and it was hard to get magic salvage (unfortunately I was past the Croatoa levels when the issue was introduced).
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Villains is so easy.. All you have to do is go badge contact to badge contact..
Heroes is just yucky because they send you to 90 million zones all the time.
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Yeah I missed the 'in real time', I think ym briain is addled today.
EG:
Sorry the win goes on. Did you not get the memo that suckage is no longer part of CoX ?
(aside from MOG) *ducks and runs*
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MoG continuing to suck is the only thing that grounds me in reality.
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You might want to avoid the Training Room in the near future, then.
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Goody...I needed this fix, as my Spines/Regen was really quite lacking and teh suxxorz without having MoG. All those IO's don't help too much, even with a wallpaper list of bonuses
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This does not resolve the inbalance of PVP, or should I say; The "Dominance" of the villains over the heroes.
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You need to go talk to the people who are constantly complaining about how over powered heroes are in PvP.
But it's MY sadistic mechanical monster and I'm here to make sure it knows it. - Girl Genius
List of Invention Guides
Are they actualy going to make the villian epic archtypes or are we villians going to be stuck on the back burner still. Because the heros have had thier epics since issue 4 i do believe and we are coming up on issue 12 and still have yet to see any real changes to the villian side.
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i guess this is just a personal peeve, but i wish youd stop calling game updates 'free expansions'.
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But they are.
Sure, every MMO puts some new things, and some tweaks and fixes, into their game for no more than "the cost of subscribing" ... but they also put the BIG stuff (like the level-cap increase from 40-50) into an expansion you need to pay for separately from the core game.
Everything in Co* is there for the price of one GVE box, and not one penny more. There's no zones that can only be entered if you have, say, "the Rekti War expansion", or "Arachnos Revealed: Grandville", or "Adventures on Monster Island", or whatnot.
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i guess its just semantics, but calling them 'free expansions' makes me feel like you think you are talking to idiots who dont realize every single paid mmo has the exact same thing, but they just call them patches.
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Others games' free expansions have tended to be smaller and of less importance / impact than the ones Co* gives away for free. That's the difference.
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Speaking of numbers... just out of curiosity, is anyone as NCSoft (or perhaps one of you player-programmers) thinking about adding something that will allow us to see what salvage each character has? I'm tired of running back and forth from the vault to WW to see it, writing it down in my little notebook and then trying to plan what I need. I'd use Excel to track it, but it's too cumbersome for when I'm actually in game.
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One thing I would like to see is a single screen viewable by the account holder only, that lists all characters in the account on all servers, with the date and time of last login (among other info). So I can see at a glance if any alt is about to slip into 60 day consignment house limbo.
Seeing what each individual character is holding in their various inventories would be a nice perk. However, I think, if it hasn't been mentioned or added yet, that with such a feature has to come a mode in the vault that shows certain information only to the character owner, while other information is made public to all viewers of the vault. Inventory would definitely be one of those.
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Definitely.
I am wondering if the little check boxes in the in-game Options screen will mean that only we will be able to see our characters' info or if it means it won't show up on the Vault at all.
Personally, I don't care if people see my characters' stats and powersets, but I would like to keep things like inventory and Influence/Infamy assests private. I don't need me no mo' spammers looking for handouts!
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
Villians is not as easy as you say. Heros get infamy and prestige just by defeating the enemies around a civilian but villians dont. Heros complain about everything. When they die in PVP the have to complain when they actually have the upper hand. Heros get everthing if you look at it. Villians have the same 13 zones and after awhile you memorize every part of each zone. Where as you look at heros the get alot more zones they can go through and it is also easier to collect all of the badge because they have zones they can go to to defeat certain enemies in villians we have to try and get certain missions and farm them if we want a badge. For instance you have the Hallows for trolls and outcasts. We have to farm lower level missions to get trolls and spend hours upon hours farming the lvl 20 cape mission to get the outcast boss badge. So really villians is alot harder then you think but i guess some people just go through to get to level 50 and dont enjoy all the available content that you can do while rying to get all the badges while you are grunging to get to lvl 50
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Yeah I missed the 'in real time', I think ym briain is addled today.
EG:
Sorry the win goes on. Did you not get the memo that suckage is no longer part of CoX ?
(aside from MOG) *ducks and runs*
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MoG continuing to suck is the only thing that grounds me in reality.
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You might want to avoid the Training Room in the near future, then.
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Hell hath frozen over. @.@
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C'mon, kids! LETS GO ICE-SCATING WITH SATAN!
<-- has a level 32-ish /Regen scrapper. MoG might just be back on the menu!
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Yeah I missed the 'in real time', I think ym briain is addled today.
EG:
Sorry the win goes on. Did you not get the memo that suckage is no longer part of CoX ?
(aside from MOG) *ducks and runs*
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MoG continuing to suck is the only thing that grounds me in reality.
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You might want to avoid the Training Room in the near future, then.
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Aw, man!!! 
Someone got a tissue, or something, so I can clean off my monitor?
THAT is the BEST thing a wife or husband can do..play with each other on each other's online games! My wife always has my back and she 'flames' any gal toon that is a little too 'friendly' in tells to me...soo congratz..and btw..USE WINxp..not VISTA! LOL 
"We need Cadaver cleanup in back alley 4..."
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Yeah I missed the 'in real time', I think ym briain is addled today.
EG:
Sorry the win goes on. Did you not get the memo that suckage is no longer part of CoX ?
(aside from MOG) *ducks and runs*
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MoG continuing to suck is the only thing that grounds me in reality.
[/ QUOTE ]
You might want to avoid the Training Room in the near future, then.
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Hell hath frozen over. @.@
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C'mon, kids! LETS GO ICE-SCATING WITH SATAN!
<-- has a level 32-ish /Regen scrapper. MoG might just be back on the menu!
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It's in the 70's/80's today.
I don't ice skate.
No skating with Satan when it's too warm and she's not in the mood.
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I have a question for you Reds...
Why now?(referring to the numbers being given to us)
Why, after all this time of people clawing and screaming for something like this, why now give it to us?
Did it have to do with split from Cryptic?
Just curious..
Thanks!
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Hummmmnnnn, I wonder 
I agree with the comments about little amount of zones for villains. I would like to see 4 or 5 more zones for villains in the venues of like waste lands where these non-arachnos factions thrive. Would be nice to see this added to the game for those of us who are badge- and alt-aholics.
Gee it's fun to be middle aged and completely uncaring about stats..I just love the capes and flying and the punching...lol..great work and kudos to all those that crunch all those numbers for the rest of us...
"We need Cadaver cleanup in back alley 4..."
RE: "Dorky husband" question: If he still cares that you A.) interact with him on a game and B.) really wants to re-ignite that special feeling with a moc wedding in the game...you my dear lady should be estatic! lol..Remember to hold hands while super jumping together!
"We need Cadaver cleanup in back alley 4..."
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Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new functionality in a coming version of the game to display the real numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user configurable display of important characteristics such as movement rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.
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Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
The old team is dead! All hail the new team!
-This from a bitter, nasty, caustic cynic.
Life - a sexually transmitted terminal condition.