City of Heroes Issue 16: Hands-on Preview

Well, nothing "matters" in the game- it's a game.
I realize I probably care less about the "official" storyline than many people, but I don't draw any distinction between a fun, well written mission delivered by a dev or one delivered by a player.
They both achieve exactly the same ends for me- a fun diversion that advances my character's goals.

Like what you like.
I mentioned Dev's Choice as a handy grouping of missions above a certain baseline of craftsmanship. It was shorthand for "AE delivered a lot of really good content".
I've played many other missions I enjoyed more and thought were 'better' than ones that were tabbed by the devs. Anybody who looks around will find arcs to suit their taste.

I14 delivered a tremendous amount of content.
Player stories set in this imaginary world aren't inherently less involving and compelling than official ones.

At the same time, between super-sidekicking and being able to treat yourself as an 8-man team, the farmers now have zero reason to bother everyone else.

Which is great for the non-farmers AND the farmers.

"The One"

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..

The features we've been getting lately have been tremendously resource intensive.

It seems churlish to gripe about missing story when they're delivering something as revolutionary as MA & one of the most requested features ever in Power Customization, and with an expansion on the horizon that I expect to deliver CoV levels of new storyline to the game.

It'd be fab if we could have EVERYTHING, but dev resources are finite & there are only so many writers to go around. We can either complain about that, or be happy that the rest of the team picked up their slack & delivered some pretty impressive technical advancements while the story crew were chewing on Going Rogue.

My Arcs
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Mission Architect Handyman

My Arcs
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Mission Architect Handyman

Why? You don't have to use them, and you don't have to be on teams that use them. You can keep it just as it is currently and be on your happy way.

Why care how other people are playing the game? I say let them farm.

The short answer is no there was not a reduction in content. However with that said, CoV had a additional staff that was hired for its development cycle particularly in the realm of story (two notable names were Zeb Cook and Shane Hensley). So, really there was parallel development on CoH and CoV. When the game was finished most of that additional staff moved on to other companies.

The same is not being done this time. While you might see this as being at the expense of free issues, I personally see it as shifting resources. This allows them to deliver requested features while GR is in development. There will be a large amount of content in GR simply by the nature of the expansion. That focus is rightfully there, not because it will be a paid for expansion but, because it will be a third leveling path within the game using content written by the developers.

--Rad

Because I feel it at the market.

And because I find it contradictory for farming to be declared a problem in I14 and then mechanics developed to make farming easier in I16.

When was farming declared a problem?
Powerleveling is only one form of farming.

I also have a very hard time understanding how drop-farming will have a negative impact on the market.

You mean the official: we're against farming in AE, but here have the most powerful farming tool you've probably ever seen in any game: statement?

Followed up by: It is apparent that AE has been primarily used in a farming manner, this was never intended, so we have decided to make all of pve even easier to farm and hopefully the farming of AE will subside: statement?

edit: as for the market i16 should make purples a lot more available and common salvage will probably plummet, whether you view that as good or not is up to the individual. Drops in general should be a lot higher, but inf will probably become even more devalued.

The article explicitly indicates otherwise:
"Just as before, players will be able to choose the level difference of critters they face (up to +4 character level), but with this issue they can choose whether or not to fight bosses in missions. Furthermore, they can choose whether the server assigns missions to the character as if they a single character or more, up to treating the character as a team of eight. All of these sliders are independent of each other."

How so?

This change will just shift around where the money goes.
More purples, so cheaper purples.
More salvage, so cheaper salvage.
Fewer set IO recipes, so more expensive set IO recipes.

It isn't worse or better, it's just different.

I agree, as I want such options as all lts, all bosses, lt heavy spawns, boss heavy spawns, etc.

I was gonna say "That's too specific for difficulty options", but looking at what's coming up in I16 that sounded kinda silly.

But if everyone's happy, where will the RAGE come from?

Maybe not villains then, but since scrappers are getting a fire epic to match the fire/fire powers they got in the first round of proliferation, it makes sense for other ATs to get epics to match the sets they got then as well. Back then, defenders got cold/ice, tankers got dark/dark and blasters got psychic/mental so it makes sense for those to get a matching epic as well. Not sure what controllers might get since they got plant/thermal back then and already had a fire epic.

That said, with Going Rogue still in the works, they have to sort something out for the villains that crosses over and wont have access to the patrons. Guess we'll see how it turns out when I16 goes into Open Beta.

First off, farming generates influence regardless of drops. This is always going to see prices at the overall level go up as only a small proportion (5%, I think) exits due to market fees. Other inf sinks - prestige conversion, contacts, etc - probably don't significantly eat up enough inf to ever meet the ever flowing ocean of inf into CoH/V. An improved ability to farm is only going to see inflation rates go up.

More purples would be cheaper purples, if they all actually made it to market. Some do. Some end up slotted on the many alts people play with. Some go to guild mates. Demand is pretty much always going to strip supply with regards to purples, so prices will continue to rise overall (as they have been doing since they were introduced).

More salvage doesn't equal cheaper salvage when the dedicated farmer knows what to keep and what to trash. As return rates change for certain salvage, so will farmers change what they farm. A lot of salvage / recipes earned by farmers are trashed so have no impact on the market.

Some IO sets might see costs deflated as supply increases, but these are ones with low levels of demand. IO sets that are seen as desirable (or particular recipes for popular frankenslotting) will - as you stated - get more expensive. Farming probably isn't going to change this, except perhaps for what is to be increasing in value with powerset proliferation changes.

I'm also assuming that there are more characters involved in CoH/V than there were 6 months ago or so - more characters means higher levels of demand which in turn drives prices up. When Going Rogue hits and brings with it a heap of new players and characters prices will go up then too. Marketeers will benefit from such changes, but for casual players it puts an increasing number of IOs out of reach.

Since the reporter was given a tour of 'new features' by the devs I'm wondering what new bits are actually coming that have been misreported (maybe even just a new batch of dev choices?) or whether the reporter just got hideously confused.

I still can't help but wonder if the reason we're getting so much in the way of QoL and mechanics changes is that they're gearing us up for Going Rogue. That is, what we're seeing is part of the game enhancements that are coming, with major resources going to developing new story content and enhanced gameplay systems for GR.

As one who has not seen anywhere near all of the content currently available (even after three years), I can say that the changes we've seen from AE to power spectrum to ssk and so forth is phenomenal to me. These are some of my favorite issues overall.

But I can see where players who have "seen it all" would be seeking new storylines. I also like new storylines (story is one of the most important parts to me, although AE helps there since I enjoy developing my own). I'd like to see more content like the Faultline revamp for lower levels, as well as new stuff for players with high level characters.

You can't have too much content; having multiple story paths for leveling different characters enhances replayability overall.

Would be very, very, very nice. Anything to keep my dom from having to face Fortunata Mistresses ever again.

Farmign AE generates a lot of INF, but the ticket cap ensures that the goods produced- salvage and recipes- are rewarded at a lower rate than INF. Once you hit the ticket cap, you aren't generating any more tickets, but you ARE generating more INF. Playing regular content doesn't have this limitation. The amount of salvage and recipes relative to INF produced will actually increase for farmers, increasing overall supply.

More supply is more supply. Demand isn't likely to spike, especially with the super-sidekick system making PLing a bit harder. When you increase supply overall, and don't increase demand, the net effect should be cheaper prices. I do agree, however, that unless purple recipes really DO rain down from the sky, demand will always outstrip supply, and prices will remain high on them. Expect them to come down a bit, but don't expect to pick them up for I9 prices ever again.

And was it different on an AE map? If the dedicated farmers trash stuff from AE, or trash stuff from regular content, it's a wash: no net effect on the market. Here's the fun part, though. By keeping only the stuff "worth selling" they increase supply of those fvery things. It's kinda how a market works: the participants adjust their production based on their profit margins. If common salvage became worthless again, you'd see a lot less of it on the market as people trash it, which makes it rarer and more valuable.

Supply will be increasing on the very recipes that are the most expensive. Goat mentioned that supply would be DECREASING overall on set IOs, though, because more people will be farming regular content, which doesn't allow you to select all your rewards the way tickets do. Thus, expect a small increase for some of the more in-demand sets, especially at low levels (Regen tissue, Miracle, Steadfast- stuff that doesn't drop at 50).
If the price goes high enough, some farmers will return to AE and farm tickets because it's steady income as opposed to the lottery rolls of purple farming.

More characters actively playing regular content means higher production of rewards, including IO recipes and salvage. More players playing AE means a lot LESS recipe and salvage drops. If these changes really do move farmers out of AE and back into regular content, then supply of everything should increase. if the changes don't work, then supply will remain constant while these new players you expect pour into the game. If demand goes that high, prices spike, and regular content farming becomes even more lucrative than it is currently. The smart farmers leave AE and farm regular content for increased earning potential. Self-interest makes the market go 'round.

That's fan-friggin'-tastic!!! I just might have to change up! Hells has always needed some fireballs for his theme!!!


Just noticed this, but what is "Physical Perfection?" Is that a new power altogether or is it from another set?