Discussion: Comic Con Articles

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I think when we say 3 issues per year, what we really mean is 12 months/3...as in an issue every 4 months. We're not really paying much attention to where things fall in the calender year, just how much time passes between issues. That's the goal at least.

Are we hitting that goal? At this particular moment, not really. Chalk that up to forming a new company, moving into a new studio, and hiring/training a lot of new people. When you go from being a very tight-knit team of 15 people rapidly churning out issues and snatching up all of the low hanging fruit we can get our hands on to a much larger studio working on very large systems and the type of content that takes the longest to develop...things tend to slow down a bit.

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That's absolutely fair. Having worked on some far, far, far less complex software projects and gone through staffing up, I've always known that some of the presumptions of "you have more people, that means you're immediately more productive" that have been made were likely to be far from the mark. I remain a mostly satisfied player, even if I don't always sound like it, and while I will try out Games Which Must Not Be Named, they'll have to completely blow me out of my socks to get me away from here. Glad you guys are hitting your stride, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's in I13 and beyond. (And a warning...I will be pleading and begging to get into early testing for the PGC--it's what I've wanted from the start of the game, and in some ways been looking for something like this since the 1980s.)

And thanks for correcting some people's "new math"

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Actually, they don't say issue 13 will be the last issue. They just say it'll be the last issue THIS YEAR, which, with only 5 months left in the year, isn't all that unlikely unless things progress really, really smoothly with i13 and i14...

[/ QUOTE ]This is just an announcement to point out that we have made no official statements regarding the timeline or release of our Free Issues. And that the articles have perhaps misinterpreted what was stated.

[/ QUOTE ]Fair enough. Please be aware that many of us have expectations based on previously made actual official statements. Namely that we should expect 3 issues per year. If that is to change we would appreciate an official annoucment of such, and sooner rather than later would be admirable.

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I think when we say 3 issues per year, what we really mean is 12 months/3...as in an issue every 4 months. We're not really paying much attention to where things fall in the calender year, just how much time passes between issues. That's the goal at least.

Are we hitting that goal? At this particular moment, not really. Chalk that up to forming a new company, moving into a new studio, and hiring/training a lot of new people. When you go from being a very tight-knit team of 15 people rapidly churning out issues and snatching up all of the low hanging fruit we can get our hands on to a much larger studio working on very large systems and the type of content that takes the longest to develop...things tend to slow down a bit.

I don't think we're that far behind though. If you look at the amount of things added to the game since the beginning of the year rather than just counting the issue numbers between January 1st and today, there's actually a good chunk of content that you guys have gotten without any additional costs. Probably close to 1 1/2 to 2 issues of content already. There was the mid-issue update for 11 and Issue 12, while not a great deal of new long-term content, was in reality quite a bit of work. We kind of went into I12 thinking it was going to be a smaller issue, but when everything was said and done and we looked back on everything we'd put in there, we realized how much work had really gone into it.

Having more people on the team is kind of a double-edged sword. We've found ourselves setting out to do things that we would have never considered before because we simply didn't have the people to do it. Now that we do, we're really reaching for some pretty high hanging fruit. Player created missions is only one of the things you guys have heard about...but there are some other big things also being worked on as well. Things that haven't been announced yet.

Chew on that for a while. We've announced player created missions. What do you think we might be working on that we didn't feel comfortable announcing yet?



All in all, I feel like we're starting to hit our stride, and we're still looking to expand the team even more to further increase our capacities...bear with us. I assure you, it's just as frustrating for us to have these long spans without new shiny content to keep you guys happily playing the game, but we really are doing the best we can.

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Sounds like player created NPCs to me...

Trying to beat Champions Online to the punch, huh?

Post Reported as per the new forum commandements-

There shall be NO mention of MMO's before CoX. Forum commandemnt Number.......Uhm.....8(?)ish, I think

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We've announced player created missions. What do you think we might be working on that we didn't feel comfortable announcing yet?

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Holomatter avatars of our characters that run around fetching drinks and snacks for us during double xp weekends? Cool!

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Ahem... while it may not "speak volumes" why are there less subscibers now than a year ago? Especially given we players are getting such a "great deal" now from the new and improved NCNC.

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Because that's how MMO subscriptions work. Outside WoW (which is such a ridiculous outlier it isn't even funny), MMO subscriptions go down over time. There's the occasional upswing (usually at the apperance of a new box on shelves), but those are temporary. People play, and stop when they complete all the content/find a shinier new thing/run out of money/et al. It's just how the genre works.

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If you've really blown through every bit of content this game has to offer, on both sides, in 7 months...I think I can safely say you can forget about us ever being able to keep your appetite for new content sated.

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I sometimes wonder if I'm in the minority of those who read and post on the forums. Since about i11, I've actually felt a bit overwhelmed by the amount of content I still have not seen in game. Between alting and a herky-jerky real life schedule that constantly oscillates between allowing serious to nil gaming time, I'd estimate that I've only seen about 35-50% of the existing content the game has to offer. And I've been playing since the first month of release and have subscribed enough over the years to be coming up on my 39 month badge! Mind you some of the content I've seen many times over, but I still enjoy much of that.

Anyways, I see an intersection between these thoughts and the "You're Wrong" article and thread in the general forum...

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Having more people on the team is kind of a double-edged sword. We've found ourselves setting out to do things that we would have never considered before because we simply didn't have the people to do it. Now that we do, we're really reaching for some pretty high hanging fruit. Player created missions is only one of the things you guys have heard about...but there are some other big things also being worked on as well. Things that haven't been announced yet.

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You heard it here first guys, power customization is in the works!!!

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Chew on that for a while. We've announced player created missions. What do you think we might be working on that we didn't feel comfortable announcing yet?

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Without turning this into a discussion about the competition, but taking some cues from touted features elsewhere:

* Archnemesis and rogues gallery systems.
* Weaponized environments.
* Full power customization.
* Character stance setting. i.e. beastly, heroic, lurking run and attack animations
* A system for vehicles
* War wall removal and graphic revamp of older city zones

additional frequently requested features and systems:
* Animal and beastly animation sets for new enemy types and future MM pets
* A proper revamp of bases so they can live up to the promise of The Sims meets the CoH character creator with fun PvP at the other end
* Underwater and low to zero gravity playspaces
* Global location maps similar to Cimemora that add a truly extended feel to where we can go. Who doesn't want to duke it out amongst the girders of the Eiffel Tower?
* Specific classes of costume items including robes, dresses, high collars, back items and animated hair.
* More Epic Archetypes
* Powersets galore including some really challenges such as Growth as a defensive set. (I'm working from the assumption that shields are a given for i13.)

And one more just from me:
* Audio costuming: footsteps, grunts and falling sound effects can be selected from a list of options to give each of our characters an even more unique sense of being.

Maybe I'm missing a few major systems and asset intensive features, but that seems to be it for BIG items off the top of my head. And frankly, I'd be tickled to get any of the above (except for more epic archetypes to be honest!) in the next three issues.

I want to thank BAB for coming on and clearing some things up for us.
He corrected my thoughts on calendar year versus timeframe between issues.

He also gave us more insight to things behind the curtains so to speak.

It is this kind of communication that is also a two edged sword for us.

We have come to love the information we get from our team and when other information comes around ... and we get silence from our team... we get... irrational

MUCH thanks again to BAB for coming in and giving us his thoughts. It is very much appreciated by myself at least.

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To put this in a a different perspective, we have less subscribers than we did a year ago

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You heard it here first: BaB cries DOOOM

My wife and i have been playin CoX since SEP 07 and havent had time to be bored yet. To me the devs are doin a good job of churnin out content and "free" content at that. Ive played a few MMOs over the past few years since i got outta the army with nothing to do and pretty much the only other one to put out free issues anywhere close to CoX is LotRO. They put a few out a year so far and have new zones and weapons and such. Other than that most have a couple paid expansions a year or two.

This game is so sweet and ill be around for awhile. Got my def to 50 and now playin my peacebringer and prob by the time i hit 50, shields will hopefully be out so ill have another char to work on.

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Guvment wants their cut of everything.
Dam dem guvment peoples

I can assure you there aren't any high dollar sports cars sitting in our parking lot.
That 1985 Rabbit you drive around in is kinda sporty
That said, if you think for one second that any MMO with a subscription fee is any different, you are sadly mistaken. Sadly. Here's a sad face for you.
Made me LOL

Let's be honest here...when the new games come out, you're gonna check them out. You may in fact, even like them more and stop playing our beloved game to go play that game.
NEVER! SACRALIDGE! CoX FOREVER!

Would you really want developers who get all panicky and spastic because there's impending competition? Competion is good. We look forward to having other MMOs in the same genre. It'll most likely be good for us and this game in the long run.

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BABs I've played many MMOs and read many forums... You by FAR are one of the BEST Devs any game has to offer. When it comes to engaging the community, you are top notch!
Keep up the awesome work!

P.S. You are not allowed to ever, ever, EVER quit CoX!

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If you've really blown through every bit of content this game has to offer, on both sides, in 7 months...I think I can safely say you can forget about us ever being able to keep your appetite for new content sated.

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Nicely said, and the only possible response. I agree with BAB 100%

However...
After nearly 4 years of puttering along at turtle speed, I too have started to bump up against the no-new-content barrier. The only things left that I haven't done so far are the high level task forces and high level epic contact arcs. My philosophy has always been "Play slower than the developers develop." And at a rate of 1 Fifty / 21 months, plus a slew of lowbie alts, that's what I've been doing. Quite happily.

But even so... I'm catching up.

If you look back at the history of the game, you see that there is a standard for new issues. Each basically contains a new zone with 4 contacts, a new TF or trial, and some new expansion to game play that isn't content- Epic ATs, PvP, Bases, Inventions, Power Proliferation, etc. (I realize all of the latter *are* content of a sort, but I'm an explorer-type player, so system-expanding doesn't really count in my book.)

When 3-4 issues of this are published a year, I'm safe. I play slower than the devs publish. But only 2? Uhhhh... At that rate the game is losing even casual players. I don't want to think about the attrition that would happen in the hardcore crowd. (The graveyard that is my global friends list is depressing enough as is.)

I realize Steps Are Being Taken. And you're all ramping up, surfing the change waves, teaching the new guys, etc. But devs, please: don't let your ambition outstrip your reach. The home runs look and feel great, but it's the base hits that win the game.

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Keep up the good work on the content development. The news issues are what keep me coming back and I can't believe how much the game has changed for the better in the past few years.

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I was just thinking this to myself the other day. Do you guys remember what Beta and issue 2 were like? This game has evolved into an amazing game and 4 years strong! Just imagine if this game goes 4 more years, old time players like myself will start every conversation with, remember the old days when.....I loved this game when it started and I continue to love it....so the negative nancy's out there, try and just take a moment before you criticize this game and its devs, they do an amazing job and I give them a round of applause!

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but I can assure you there aren't any high dollar sports cars sitting in our parking lot.

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With the gas prices down there, I would also leave my Lamborgini Diablo at home and drive the economic Corolla to work.

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Chew on that for a while. We've announced player created missions. What do you think we might be working on that we didn't feel comfortable announcing yet?


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*gasp* Player-created players! Finally!!! I've been wanting a friend for so long...

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Chew on that for a while. We've announced player created missions. What do you think we might be working on that we didn't feel comfortable announcing yet?


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*gasp* Player-created players! Finally!!! I've been wanting a friend for so long...

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The player I created outlevelled me, refuses to exemplar down so I can play through content at my own pace and just farms Behemoths for the drops.

I created a jerk!

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Having more people on the team is kind of a double-edged sword. We've found ourselves setting out to do things that we would have never considered before because we simply didn't have the people to do it. Now that we do, we're really reaching for some pretty high hanging fruit. Player created missions is only one of the things you guys have heard about...but there are some other big things also being worked on as well. Things that haven't been announced yet.

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You heard it here first guys, power customization is in the works!!!

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I'd go:

Power Customisation
EATs that either side can play
More physics-effected objects
Battalion
SG missions (possibly tied to player created missions)
Raids e.g. the CoP
Revisions to SG base design systems
A ton more IO recipes
More costume pieces

In all reality, I can understand I13 being the last issue for this year. NC^2 have to plan for its competitor launches, which will mean more focus on content for early next year and beyond.

Personally I am holding out for the player created content too. That has the potential to be quite nifty, provided there's enough control on it to keep certain people from screwing things up *coughmissionfullofMasterIllusionistscough*. The CoX community has a LOT of imagination, so I expect to see some seriously nifty PCC out of this.

Heck, I've already got a couple of heroside story arcs and a full-blown Task Force storyboarded out; hubby's got the same for villainside.

I do have one question though, BAB, as long as you're in such a chatty mood... will you allow cutscenes in the PCC?

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Actually, they don't say issue 13 will be the last issue. They just say it'll be the last issue THIS YEAR, which, with only 5 months left in the year, isn't all that unlikely unless things progress really, really smoothly with i13 and i14...

[/ QUOTE ]This is just an announcement to point out that we have made no official statements regarding the timeline or release of our Free Issues. And that the articles have perhaps misinterpreted what was stated.

[/ QUOTE ]Fair enough. Please be aware that many of us have expectations based on previously made actual official statements. Namely that we should expect 3 issues per year. If that is to change we would appreciate an official annoucment of such, and sooner rather than later would be admirable.

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I think when we say 3 issues per year, what we really mean is 12 months/3...as in an issue every 4 months. We're not really paying much attention to where things fall in the calender year, just how much time passes between issues. That's the goal at least.

Are we hitting that goal? At this particular moment, not really. Chalk that up to forming a new company, moving into a new studio, and hiring/training a lot of new people. When you go from being a very tight-knit team of 15 people rapidly churning out issues and snatching up all of the low hanging fruit we can get our hands on to a much larger studio working on very large systems and the type of content that takes the longest to develop...things tend to slow down a bit.

I don't think we're that far behind though. If you look at the amount of things added to the game since the beginning of the year rather than just counting the issue numbers between January 1st and today, there's actually a good chunk of content that you guys have gotten without any additional costs. Probably close to 1 1/2 to 2 issues of content already. There was the mid-issue update for 11 and Issue 12, while not a great deal of new long-term content, was in reality quite a bit of work. We kind of went into I12 thinking it was going to be a smaller issue, but when everything was said and done and we looked back on everything we'd put in there, we realized how much work had really gone into it.

Having more people on the team is kind of a double-edged sword. We've found ourselves setting out to do things that we would have never considered before because we simply didn't have the people to do it. Now that we do, we're really reaching for some pretty high hanging fruit. Player created missions is only one of the things you guys have heard about...but there are some other big things also being worked on as well. Things that haven't been announced yet.

Chew on that for a while. We've announced player created missions. What do you think we might be working on that we didn't feel comfortable announcing yet?



All in all, I feel like we're starting to hit our stride, and we're still looking to expand the team even more to further increase our capacities...bear with us. I assure you, it's just as frustrating for us to have these long spans without new shiny content to keep you guys happily playing the game, but we really are doing the best we can.

[/ QUOTE ]Ok babs, glad you responded, while my freakout was in the other thread, that answered a lot of my questions asked there. And i understand to a degree how hard it is to do this on budget and thank you guys for your commitment, and for the forthcoming anture of the devs who post here, it makes a (no pun intended) massive difference in how players feel to get these kind of breakdowns of whats up. This is my 4th mmo i have played, and if the other devs had been this forthcoming, and had let the players know the reality of the situation like you guys do, i wouldnt have left the other 3. lucky for me i guess that the right game had the right dev team

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

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...but there are some other big things also being worked on as well. Things that haven't been announced yet.

Chew on that for a while. We've announced player created missions. What do you think we might be working on that we didn't feel comfortable announcing yet?

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Power Customization and or a new engine. I'd be the farm on it.


[It's a safe bet... seeing as how I don't have a farm. ]

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More physics-effected objects

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DARNIT YOU NAILED IT!!!

IT'S THE BIG RED BALL!!!!

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Power Customization and or a new engine. I'd bet the farm on it.


[It's a safe bet... seeing as how I don't have a farm. ]

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That's not exactly safe either. Don't bookies break peoples' legs (or some other horrible act) when they don't pay up?

...then again, I don't need my legs to play CoH!!

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Power Customization and or a new engine. I'd bet the farm on it.


[It's a safe bet... seeing as how I don't have a farm. ]

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That's not exactly safe either. Don't bookies break peoples' legs (or some other horrible act) when they don't pay up?

...then again, I don't need my legs to play CoH!!

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LEGO(TM) farm. Not my problem if they don't read the fine print...

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Would you really want developers who get all panicky and spastic because there's impending competition?

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Would you post it on YouTube please? Please?