Part wishlist, part speculation: my musings on future CoX updates

Hello everyone.

After thinking about and mulling over what I'd write in this thread, I thought it was best to get my thoughts down on the virtual page and invite feedback and discussion about the future of CoX. I'm sure like many people, we're all thrilled to see the second expansion, Going Rogue, being announced, but I got to wondering (especially in the face of the about-to-be launched Champions Online and the upcoming DC Universe Online) what I personally wanted as a player to come out of the future of this game. So here goes!

Firstly, a graphics upgrade. Now, I don't pretend to know what kinds of graphics upgrades can go into this game and what in fact is even possible, but I think it should be close to the top of the list. Having had the opportunity to play the Champions game for a few days during their Open Beta, I found myself impressed at least by the more rounded and natural looking bodies of the characters, the level of detail in some costume parts, and surprisingly, some of the emotes! With a little experimentation, I was able to emote some dance moves (including breakdancing!) which had me feel a little sad about the shuffling two-step stuff we get here. But I'm not sure that's strictly graphics.

Graphics to me means the overall realism and level of detail you can see on-screen, and whilst I need to upgrade my graphics card to get that (which is cheaper than I thought), it's almost an expected given in this day and age of video games which are getting more and more detailed and interesting to look at. I certainly don't expect dedicated console game levels of detail (that's far too much to ask of any MMO), but CoX needs to be '2009'. It's a surprisingly detailed game, but...no hands! No real feet! A still sometimes tricky ability to sit in chairs! Can't we just click a chair and sit? And walking! All of these things may fall under the game engine, but I'm seeing them now and have before in older games and would hope to see them here. Add to this environmental effects. My nVidia 7600GS video card could handle the howling snowstorms and sandstorms in Champions...I think it's asking far too much that people demand that CoX remain rooted in its' pre-2004 graphics outlay. Upgrading your PC is a fact of life...and while I don't demand that anybody should, it's not entirely realistic to ask your MMO of choice to not do the same.

Secondly, gameplay. Now this isn't an endorsement of the more console-based style of play that Champions espouses, nor is it a damnation of turn-based play. I won't deny I'm a fan of weaponisation (the ability to use in-game objects as weapons), as I feel it's a classic staple of the superhero genre and I get painfully close in the Mayhem/Safeguard missions. An environment that reacts to what I do to it immerses me more in a game, and an environment that I have to react to is the same. Certain powers (the shield charge from the Shields set comes to mind) are a gorgeous example of that interaction I'm talking about. Knockback from attacks here is also a great example, and I can't help but think that can be added to. I don't really see us being able to plow through buildings, but maybe a wall? Maybe a heavily armored door or something that isn't a clicky?

Thirdly, I've never had any complaints with CoH's crafting (as it's been made to be optional) but bases are crying out for that expression of personal, intimate, creative crafting. It's a form of recreational gameplay that needs it. That area of recreational gameplay also should have some addressing, like interactive emotes instead of just waving to the air or a marriage proposal pose....that could be done for anyone.

Fourth, flexibility. Now, I come from a tabletop background where my preference is to build my character, my way with freedom to do so. BUT...even that is done in a framework where I spent points from a pool or pools of abilities/powers/advantages/disadvantages to work with. I would want to see CoH fully integrate their powerset proliferation...they must almost be completely there at this rate, or at least seeing a final point. From there, I'd love to see the doors thrown open a bit, able to rummage around through hopefully balanced powersets, mixing and matching. This is NOT an endorsement of the Champions model; I've played the pen and paper version of that game, and it's incredibly open to abuse and powergaming. If anything, I'm in favor of the points-to-build system that the DC game is apparently offering, which to me is more a finite control whilst still being flexible. Having a choice of -everything- isn't that great. Having a lot of choice -within- a big framework is.

And lastly, story. My biggest and most pleasant experience with an ongoing story where you feel like a central character has been the Epic Quest mechanic from Lord of the Rings Online, where a lot of the time, you can be the only character involved with the over-arching important storyline. It can exist independently of the game, can give out some of the best rewards, but has at its heart a great STORY. The Task Force/Strike Force mechanic has that here to a point, but it's like getting the meat of a story without any of the sides. You go straight to Synapse/Positron/Lady Grey/whomever without hardly any preamble. They're just there. I like a flow from NPC to NPC that happens a bit more in regular zones, though at times even they feel a bit disjointed. If CoH could get this refined and build more story around the TF/SF's, I would be greatly happy. You may disagree! Add to that a building of what's there; there's a thread on this forum right now talking about easter eggs found in the Shadow Shard....does this not CRY out for a story to be put out there to answer questions, or pose new ones? I think so.


ANYWAYS. Thank you for listening to my little diatribe and I hope I haven't glossed over or over/understated what this game is providing, as it's still my longest standing game at 34 months and counting. I intend to keep playing!


S.

I like pie

I foresee in the future the eventual ability to make our own zones with contacts, missions, etc. etc. Positron will then tell us we have officially lost the right to complain about lack of content.
People will still complain about lack of content and Positron will facepalm.

On more serious note, it would be kind of interesting to have more interactive environments, I have no coding background or anything, but I'm seeing maybe a special slot on your power tray that you can't put powers into, but when you get into a position to interact with the environment (like pushing over a bookshelf), you would instantly gain that as sort of a "situational temp power."
Yes, in otherwords: it's reaction commands.

No, I don't think we'll ever see it without /way/ more work than necessary when other things could be done.

For another thing I hope we will get in the future: see my signature thread links.

But for predictions on what will actually happen? We will get more for bases, in time, but what, I'm not sure. Could be awesome, could suck, a lot.

Also, more power customization in the future, like the ability to change animations (with some limits, like if you were to give Broadsword Katana animations, you'd have to slow them down to match BS speed) and power emanation points.

Zones in other countries, because if Paragon city keeps expanding, it's going to be bigger than Rhode Island itself, and the Rogue Isles only has so many currently unused islands so time to take the Road to Morocco, folks!

More epic powers/power sets, well, let's face it, like more costume options, this is pretty inevitable.

More added to Mission Architect, it's another inevitable factor, really.

Finally, major things coming to the story: The Storm Breaks, Fifth Column makes a full return, someone dies (likely not permanent or probably not important), someone Goes Rogue, Samuraiko comes out of retirement, Steelclaw makes a list of this thread and reveals his secret identity as Weird Al, and Rikti become overshadowed by an invasion of Martians in tripods!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Thanks for all the responses, folks! Glad to see people have some thoughts along my lines.

In response to the graphics comments, I was wondering just what constituted an upgrade. Does the addition of fingers, toes, a walk animation, a smoother skeleton with more costume anchor points and so on require a better graphics -engine- or a better -quality- of graphics without the need for more intensive graphics processing power?

I don't know the answer to this one, but my observation is that if you have better looking environments, better looking character models and so on, you seem to need a better graphics card to represent it. Is that a better engine or better quality issue? I'm not too sure.


Dark Gob> Afraid to say it's true! I dialled down other options in-game in CO, most notably the shadows and detail of the environment, but the weather effects ran fine even when I didn't. Go figure. I wish I had videos to back that up. As for the upgrades in technology, this obviously mainly affects gamers as most casual users/players don't even think about upgrades. But, the plain and simple truth is that the technology, particularly in the graphics/physics engine department for games have made quantum leaps in the last five years particularly, and games like Crysis (which had ridiculuous requirements for a PC) are a clear indication of where the game industry wants to go, even if the public may disagree.

S.

I will throw an educated guess, that to add any more skeletal or nodes on a character, it does require a different engine.

We could use upgraded hands - but that's purely visual, we don't NEED individual fingers to work like fingers in, say, Half Life 2 or something. It'd be nice to be able to have something other than mittens. (but then, that's why if I want fingers or nails, I use the Zombie Thin hands/feet or Monsterous.)

A walk animation is something that's not currently on the table because it'd require the character to like, turn off powers or *be* a power, or some such. I saw one great workaround where the walk animation is actually just 'extremely slowed movement', but it wouldn't look like "walking".

War Witch is on record saying that this is a custom engine and has yet to be used to full capacity - but that the Devs are (rightly IMHO) very careful not to ramp things up so that more people can enjoy the game rather than less.

That leads me to believe that things like fingers etc are possible but there's a rendering cost to enable that, and also would require new character models - all of which could be very time consuming and difficult.

With CO landing imminently, if there are graphical issues there (I've not played it, so can't say - and I'm running a 9800GT anyhow) then players new to the superhero MMO will turn to CoX if it gives a better graphical performance.

Remember that the most popular games don't tend to be those with the best graphics but the best game play - so a minor tweak is all.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Thanks for these additional comments and that clears some of it up...for the record, I'm also in favor of the older costume parts getting a clean up and maybe rendered a bit more three-dimensionally...there are some potentially gorgeous looking parts in there, I have to say.

Creole, you mentioned new geometry for hands and feet and maybe backs, so this falls into a game engine area? If so, how intensive is such a thing to do? We've seen that the Soldiers of Arachnos models have fingers and are largely cosmetic; they don't seem to have any specific animations attached to them and so on, and I doubt there's many MMO's where there would be. And would lighting be an impact on video cards also?

Scarlet_Shocker, I managed to play a few days on CO and there was a framerate hit indeed on many people's machines, presumably one that the Cryptic people were working on hard, given how some folk had machines that far exceeded the minimum system requirements.

S.