If You Had War Witch's Job and Unlimited Resources ..

Something that came up for me today.

Let's say that you had War Witch's job, but were actually lucky enough that you had enough money and staff to run the game exactly as you wanted ... and that you could completely redesign the game engine if necessary to accomplish your goals.

What sort of things would you want to do?

Here are a few of mine.

Use "actors" to play some of the NPCs that we meet elsewhere in the game. Unlike our regular Devs, these people would NEVER break character and could only respond as the character they were RPing ...

So one day you're heading into Faultline and you see Fusionette saying, "Level 16 Blaster looking for a team to help her with some Lost!"

Or maybe Doc Quantum is looking for some heroes to help him run a Posi TF ...

These characters wouldn't have any more powers than regular toons, but still they'd be the "official" NPCs.

To try to spice up Giant Monsters and zone events, I would have Recluse's lieutenants and the Freedom Phalanx respond and actually show up to do battle-- but only after a preset time limit to give people who wanted to fight and win the badge for themselves the chance to do so.

So, let's say that no one shows up to fight the Kraken or Paladin a half hour after they spawn, then we get a zone message saying, "Freedom Phalanx is dealing with Monster X in Zone Z. Civilians should seek immediate cover ..."

And for completing a TF offered by a member of the Freedom Phalanx (or villainous equivalent) you get a one time only temp power that lets you call on them for assistance. This power could NOT be regained through repeating the TF, so you'd have to make sure you really wanted their help the time you called them.

I would also make subtle changes on each server, so they were not identical to each other-- not enough changes to require extra content, but I'd do some work to suggest they were actually alternate realities.

For example, some of the contacts in Triumph (especially lower level) would look different than than they do on Freedom or Virtue. Maybe General Hammond is a black man on Freedom and a woman on Liberty.

Related to that, I would create some "Crisis on Infinite Servers" that would allow cross serving teaming ... it would work by having the heroes and villains from one server being able to meet heroes in villains from another server on a THIRD Server created especially for this purpose.

I would also the the Signature Characters appear in Pocket D From time to time ... so in addition to War Witch you can see Synapse feeding lines to Desperate Guy while Dominatrix is dancing on the bar at one table while Recluse and Statesman are having an arm wrestling contest at a third ...

I think that's about all on my "impossible" list. What about you?

Improved player avatars - more polygons to make us more rounded looking, moving waists, more relaistic hands, more relaistic bust shapes, aninated faces and moving hair - that sort of thing

This is kind of a tricky question, isn't it? I mean, what *exactly* falls under "War Witch's job?"

Is it just content? Does it exclude artwork, or is it inclusive of artwork required for new content? Is it new QOL systems? Is it new game systems (a la WW, AE, etc.)? Is it zone revamps? Is it new zones? Is it story arcs and task forces? Is it animations? Is it estalishing new canon? Is it all of the above and more?

Without a definitive notion of what her job is and is not, it's easy to create a list of things I'd love to see done, which don't fall under her purview.

I'd roll back the PvP changes and add in self-flagging for PvP in any zone you like, including bases.

I'd remove the "No Teleporting in the D" code, as it's unfair to one travel power.

I'd probably hire composers to create music for the game itself, rather than just the opening chords when you zone.

Dozens of new powersets, at least 3 new ATs.

The Moon Zone.

"World of Heroes" opening up dozens of zones in countries all over the world and different parts of the US, as well.

Patron power pools and Ancillary power pools opened to both sides. New patrons would include the Freedom Phalanx, the Vindicators, Longbow, The Midnighters, Vanguard, The Council, and The Circle of Thorns in the first wave. notice the heroes get 3 Patrons, villains get 2 new ones, and both sides can access the Midnighters or Vanguard.

And soooooooo much more. >.>

-Rachel-

I'd roll back issues 13, 14, and parts of 16.

Easy. I'd fire the entire Marketing Department and staff it with people who would promote the hell out of the game on websites, print, video ads, etc.

I'd have a 'concept' album made for CoH, a la "Songs of the Witchblade", as a 2cd set of instrumental music spanning from heroic to horror, valiant to villainous.

I'd restart the comic line, doing storylines from in-game, but running a constant set of contests for players to be featured doing the various storylines. Each month would be a double issue - one heroic, one villainous, and the content would be ranging from lvls 1-50. So one month, you'd have eight featured heroes in the comics going through the Revenant Hero arc, while you'd have eight featured villains going through, say, Westin Phipps' storyline.

I'd get an actual STOREFRONT for the game - players have been clamouring for t-shirts, posters, mouse pads, coffee mugs, etc... I'd make sure they could get them.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I'm not going to pretend that I could do better with unlimited resources than War Witch does with her limited ones.

Create a regular program to transition the best arcs the AE has to offer into real ingame canon content. With particular emphasis on Villain Zones and TFs for the first 6months.

Revamp Bases and Base Raiding. A robust system that works for everything from Player Apartments up to multi floor bases fully equippable for PvP.

Turn the Arena and PvP zones into a Cross-Server system. Revamp PvP zones to run in fixed cycles to allow for a queuing system like WoW's battlegrounds.

Revamp the Ingame manual and create a system where player contributions in the forums are vetted and implemented in the Live manual.

Revamp the Shadow Shards and add a 5th zone. 1 Heroic PvE, 1 Villain PvE, and 3 mixed PvE Competition zones (not Cooperative, competitive).

Revamp Hero side contacts to provide a "zone story" feel. Add arcs particular to each neighborhood, and re-code all the door missions to work in a sensible in-zone fashion 95% of the time for the first 25 levels. After that zone to zone travel will increase, but it will make sense.

Tweak The Black Helicopter system so to provide coverage to Northern Nerva, Northeast St Martial, and interlink the entire system to cover all villain zones.

Unify and simplify the interface for every commerce system in the game. Vendors of all types, and the auction system will all operate on a similar and user friendly interface.

Completely re-code every interface in the game that blocks you from being able to chat while you use it. Costume Editor, Respec System, etc.

Add some more fun and cute to the game. More noncombat pets, a system that allows players to buy powers and special effects that would effectively create "Party areas" for special events. (think of how Atlas Park is normally and how it is on the Fashion Show Map- being able to buy things that create those kinds of modification at several locations in each zone).

Last and most important- Fix the Moon in the Rogue Isles so it travels from East to West, not North South.

Aside from adding more costumes, more story arcs, TFs, zones, base building tools and items, AE items and tools, revamping zones and Tfs, etc. etc., I'd want to merge the server lists, and one thing that occurred to me today was that I wish I could view all of my character's costumes from the character selection screen somehow. Probably too much trouble to do that for very little benefit, but still, I wish I could manage it.

I'd really like to add several more "time travel" zones for the Midnighter's Club to visit. There are so many possibilities -- a Victorian/Steampunk/Age of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper setting would be splendid.

Especially with more Steampunk costume pieces and full skirts for women.

Oh yeah. Merge the markets.

I would revert I13 PvP changes.

I would add a whole lot more powers and some new AT's.

Expand the costume creator engine in oh-so-many ways.

(Did I mention I would change PvP?)

I would bring down the war walls.

I'd go back and "fix" all the old errors in grammar, spelling, etc in the old content that's been around for over five years.

Then I'd fix the Cathedral of Pain.

Then I'd add MORE STUFF TO DO in the Shadow Shard and make it co-op. That zone is so underused and so awesome.

Then I'd have a margarita.

If I had War Witch's job and unlimited resources, I would probably end up breaking this game beyond any reasonable hope of repair.

I would revamp:

- Pocket D so that it has much better flow to it, and looks a lot more like a dance club than some random warehouse floating in space. I would also change the Tiki Lounge into a Tiki Lagoon (including the ability to swim underwater in the lagoon), open up the Chalet Year round (but have the important NPC's only available during holidays), expand the Monkey Fight Club to have a larger arena, and add a fourth 'themed' lounge.

- The following Hazard Zones, making them more attractive to players by having actual story lines ending in mini-trials like the Cavern of Transcendence:

• Perez Park
• Boomtown
• Dark Astoria
• Terra Volta
• Crey's Folly
• Eden

"It's hard for you to be yourself, if you don't know who you really are."

I'd give the job to War Witch. Cos that would mean War Witch with unlimited resources.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

If I had War Witch's job and the resources it would take, I would do for their map editing tools what they just did for their mission-editing tools, even if it took an engine overhaul to do it. And I would make it a priority, from now on, that every issue comes with at least one new instance tileset.

Oh, and I'd make all cut-scenes voiced, and add vocal "reaction" noises (like a grunt of pain when being hit) to all NPCs.

I would add a giant red ball that spawned randomly in zones accompanied with a PPD alert along the lines of "HOLY **** A GIANT RED BALL HAS APPEARED IN [...]"

The Giant Red Ball would take advantage of the physics engine, and can be effected by running into it, or by targeting it and shooting it. Different attacks would result in different trajectory, of course.

After about 2 hours the ball would pop, and drift off into the wind. Only to return again the next day in another zone.

After about a year of this, I would release a Task Force centered around the Giant Red Ball, and you and a team of Heroes/Villains must join forces to take down the mastermind who is supplying the Giant Red Ball with power. The ending of course, will shock everyone...

I'd revamp the cutscene engine to be more dynamic and user friendly rather than just a guy standing in front of the camera doing emotes.

Then I'd integrate it into the AE, with certain limitations such as the ability to skip cutscenes if you so choose.


And then I'd translate the entire works of Shakespeare into Rikti using nothing but and infinite number of Rikti Monkeys and typewriters.