City of Heroes Going Rogue - FAQ - Discussion

New gameplay and feautures also won't happen if they are bugged to hell and back. Ergo, nothing is gonna be announced until it is ready.

Off-topic, slightly, I think S.P.E.C.I.A.L. from Fallout is superior

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Block is a power which, as mentioned above, provides additional damage resistance when used. Its exclusive of attacks (you can't attack and block at the same time) and it generally returns endurance to you every time you're hit. It can also be given extra effects that aren't important here.

Because CO doesn't use recharge to balance most attack powers, the limiting factor on offense is essentially cast time: you can only generate so much damage per second by attacking. Block allows you to convert cast time into defense rather than offense (of course, there are some ways around that that I'm not sure the devs fully considered). This creates a "softer" border between what a player can and cannot defeat. Normally, MMO combat is essentially a race between your offense cutting through critter defense and critter offense cutting through your defense. Basically: burn through their green bar before they burn through yours. Fundamentally, this race is governed by the product of your offense and defense vs their product of offense and defense (well, technically the ratio of your offense to their defense vs their offense to your defense, but its ultimately the same thing) which is fairly constant. In CoH, the dominant way to alter this equation is with inspirations. In CO, Block can act as another means of shifting this equation, almost as if everyone in CoH had the ability to shift into (kheldian) Dwarf form.

Block also provides an opportunity for rewarding skill in combat, by allowing players to choose the most optimal moments to use Block, such as immediately prior to attackers using their strongest attacks. CO has a mechanism for signaling this, by placing indicators over the attacker's head (most of the time) that the attacker is readying a high damage or otherwise dangerous attack.


I'm honestly not 100% sure. I'm thinking that something that ties into the defensive and offensive passives would have been a good idea (and provided a potential way to make the offensive passives meaningful). But I'm also thinking that if you want to go 90% of the way and say "we want people to be able to generate as much endurance as they want to" you might want to consider going all the way and eliminating endurance as a balancing metric altogether. I mean, if you think the problem with CoH is that people are waiting around for powers to recharge too often, why not simply balance the game on the assumption that people will be using powers all of the time, right out of the gate. Block suggests that there are other ways to balance offense, such as by making (cast) time the limited resource, and making players choose how to spend it.



Not by itself: that would cause problems with the endurance management system, and run contrary to the "higher activity" design principle of the game. Increase recharge of the endurance builders, and you have a problem with endurance management. Leave them alone and just increase the recharge of everything else, and you could create a situation where players are forced to "plink" at targets more than they want to, making the game boring.

These game design decisions are intertwined in ways difficult to extricate.


Initially there were powers similar to the main defensive passives today: regeneration, invuln, reflexes, etc. The problem fundamentally is that each is worth more if you already have one of the others. Its like that last 5% defense that makes you soft-capped.** So once you take one, the system encourages you to take more by effectively discounting them relative to their value.

CO's defensive powers are not analogous to things like Focused Fighting or Temporary Invulnerability. They are analogous to whole sets like Super Reflexes or Regeneration. So taking a single power is like taking everything in a set. Taking two defensive powers - when that was an option - was like taking toggle instant healing on top of perma unstoppable.

I don't know why they did that, except as an "inspired by Champions" thing. But I wouldn't have. In effect, although CO doesn't have "points" they do have a cost to powers: they cost power choices. Since every power costs one power choice (just like here in CoX) in effect every power costs the same thing. So in CO, the entire Regeneration "set" is worth the same amount as Power Bolt. I think they intended to add diversity and developmental options with ranks and other power options (in CO you don't "slot" powers with enhancements, you buy "advantages" which act to improve the power in various ways, including increasing its strength by increasing its "rank"), but something seems to have radically capitated the number of available ranks and advantages for powers to a minimal level, whether it was time available or the complexity of the task of inventing them or both. Many powers don't even have any advantages at all, and only have ranks (generally three: the base rank, and two higher ranks).


Identical in value, or close enough that players stop caring.


I'll quote from the poster above:


Although its being offered to demonstrate build diversity, its also demonstrating the homogenization I've been concerned with since beta: characters tend to be clustered more or less around the "Ranged Scrapper with some Tools" archetype.

U are unable to attack during that time, but it has no cooldown. So you can pop it on and off in times u need it (incomming stun or knockback, big dmg attack etc). You do still can move, but very slow (both walking, flying or jumping).

They can add tons of new maps or worlds or whatever in GR, eventualy you still will be in your own little dungeon, only see the 'big world' if u visit AH or travel to your next mission. Streethunt is only be seen in Atlas, so u can lvl up fast and start in King's Row on your 'dungeon grindfest'.

But at least we still get nice new spells for our classes to use on the quests.

Not in CoH. No Scrapper really gets a full attack chain of ranged attacks, so they always *must* close into melee to bring anything close to their full offense to bear. No Blaster ever really gains scrapper defenses, inventions notwithstanding. In CO, there's no choice or compromise necessary between these two: nothing really prevents you from having the best ranged offense and the best defenses. And because the advantages to melee are minimal compared to the fact that melee only works in melee, ranged works in melee and at range, the choice is a loaded one.

Imagine if at any time Blasters in CoH could take an entire scrapper secondary with one power choice if they wanted to. The phrase "if they wanted to" is practically ludicrous in this context. But that's the choice CO presents. Only conceptual die-hards would forgo that choice in CoH, and the same is true in CO.

Actually, the way I look at it, in CO everyone starts off as a ranged scrapper. And then CO says "who wants to have a permanent range debuff?" And everyone that steps forward becomes a melee character. It wasn't intended to be, but it ultimately is a silly choice presented to the players.

lol thank you! that has been most of our point for a while now and nothing changes. GR will be fun no doubt but for the most part it will be the same ole powers,missions,and people standing around complaining

WoW might be the same age as COH but WoW has a bigger following,lots more updates,and is probably a little funner than the same old missions that they have had going forever now.

Thats currently all i see about GR, villain AT can play in hero side, hero AT can play in villain AT. What the actualy gamebreaking stuff is? Beats me. All i see is some balance breaking stuff, and finaly the chance to play the more 'happy' side with a MM. (mostly cause i got serious fed up with the avarage mob in villain side and the lack of a 'hub').

New 'universal' enhancements? Great, lets boost up your 'static set of powers' even more, as if it wasnt enough already to softcap even blasters (as long u got the 'dough), so i can 'blast' my way through 16 mobs even faster, solo, so i progress even further into endcont.. wait, do we even have endcontent?

Guildwars had 3 expensions (factions, nightfall, EotN), each giving quite a trashload of new elements (roughly 150 new skills, new class, new heroes, pve skills, new - damn hard - dungeons, outfits, and a while ago even your own pet-farm for the rangers among us, daily 'quests' and about every month a new balance round to make certain powers populair again to be tested for yet another different build)

When creating a character in Preatoria, you will simply create a new character of any of the non-epic Archetypes. Which will have the same powerset access as their non-praetorian counterparts - no respec if your brute chooses hero, blaster villain, etc.

No clue if the "universal enhancements" will be in GR if they ever go in at all - seems more of a "End Game" thing than GR.

Posi has stepped down from head developer to instead head up an internal taskforce with the goal of creating new end-game content and a new "power-up" system for level 50s. No word on whether that's the universal enhancement slots or not... we'll just have to wait and see.

Link.

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Cryptic bought (not licensed: bought) the Champions backstory IP (and then licensed it back to them for use in the PnP game) but not the Champions/HERO combat/powers system. Not only is CO not based on the same combat system as the PnP game, Cryptic has no rights to use it in any form at all.

All the graphics processing is done on your local machine. The server just tells your computer, "Draw A at X,Y,Z location performing action B."

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Free character transfer is always a stick behind the door. One side its to balance the load on servers, otherside just to have it 'possible'. On WoW its done on nearly monthly base, free transfer between high and low populated servers.

Yet, the day there will be EU/US transfers, thats the day to worry about it.

As said, graphics are computer sided, server does little with it. But more powerfull would be prefered, specialy when they have 1000+ people going.

Super enhancements or power-up system, both i really dont see much faith in. The difference between a 'avarage' player and a full IOéd one is already beyond 'repair', pushing it even further imho makes it even worse.

In terms of WoW, kinda the pre 3.3 gap when the game ilvl200 - ilvl245 difference became really noticable, but pushing it back alot due the 'free' ilvl232 gear.

I serious hope this power-up system goes a different road, more towards reincarnated or multi-sets, to create a larger diversity then just keep pimping out your 'static set of clicky powers'.