Discussion: Razer City of Heroes Questions & Answers

WW = War Witch
BS = Black Scorpion
C! = Castle
DN = David Nakayama
GF = Ghost Falcon

Super Booster V: Mutant

Q1 “What is your favorite feature in the Mutant Pack?”

WW: The glow on the Bioluminescent costume set. I like sparkly things. Especially sparkly things that glow at night.
BS: I'm not sure how I got through the day before I had the rapid boil costume change.
DN: The new glowy tech's a lot of fun, but I'm really partial to the emotes our Animation Department cooked up for this set--definitely some of the coolest we've ever done.
GF: I love the costume change emotes because they allow my character to switch costumes thematically with my character's "concept".

Q2 “What was your inspiration for the Mutant Pack?”

DN: For the Bioluminescent costume set, it was a mix of actual self-lighting creatures from nature and two James Cameron movies: The Abyss (organic shapes) and Avatar (war paint/tribal markings). Organic Armor is primarily an homage to the work of Japanese illustrator Yasushi Nirasawa, but it reflects some of his disciples' creations as well.

Q3 “Now, we know what the effects of the power are and believe it or not I'm kinda stoked about the random chance to turn into a monkey. All I can say is emmm vengeance bait . My question is with this ability, on average how likely are you to get the Rikti Monkey ability?”

C!: Except for the Devolution Effect (which is what turns you into a Monkey), all the effects have an equal chance. Devolution is extremely rare, however -- one of our players posted they had cast it 70 times without the effect happening. And, if it DOES happen, don't worry, it only lasts a minute and instantly recharges Secondary Mutation so you can try again.

Alignments

Q4 How many times can we change alignments? How long does it take?”

GF: There are no limits to the amount of times that a player's character switches alignments. Regarding how long it takes to change an alignment, we are currently monitoring feedback and alignment switching progression in our Going Rogue Closed Beta. Our current goal is that a "casual" gamer should be able to switch their alignment in a week or so. A "hardcore" gamer should be able to switch their alignment significantly faster.

Q5 “What exactly is the reward for Heroes not switching to the Rogue Isles and Villains not switching to Paragon City?”

GF: We will be providing Heroes and Villains benefits for reinforcing their respective alignments. Those benefits will not be available to Vigilantes and Rogues. As we get closer to launch, more details about these rewards will be revealed.

Q6 “How will SG’s function when you switch to a Vigilante or Rogue?”

GF: Characters who are Vigilantes or Rogues will continue to enjoy the same access as their previous alignment (i.e. Vigilantes/Heroes and Rogues/Villains). Once a character moves from Hero to Vigilante to Villain (and Villain to Rogue to Hero), the character will not be able to enter their base.

Q7 “When a character changes his alignment, will he/she be able to use that alignments epic pool powers? such as a Stalker that goes Rogue/Hero can use Scrapper’s Ancillary power sets or a Defender that goes Vigilante/Villain and can earn the Patron power sets?”

WW: All characters will have access to the ancillary power pools for their AT. For ATs without ancillary power pools before I18 the powers are not exactly the same as the existing AT pools, but are very similar. Patron pools require running a patron arc to gain access to them, but once that’s been done once you always have access to the patron pools, even if you go to hero.

Q8 “What is your favorite feature of the Alignment System?”

BS: All of the alignment missions are structured based upon a single event, but the missions you can take go in completely different directions based upon which path you decide. The aspect of choice is something really new to the game, and I'm excited for where we can take it.

Praetoria and New Content

Q9 “What is the most exciting thing you never expected to be able to get into the Going Rogue expansion pack that you were able to include and what excites you about it?”

WW: The degree to which the world of Praetoria came together. Months and months ago, when Hero 1 and I were talking about what Praetoria would be like at the most highest of levels, I sketched out this (admittedly amateurish) drawing on paper. I had a rough idea of how it would all fit together. Joe came up with the “utopia at a cost” line and we went from there, building depth from existing lore and introducing new lore. It was fun standing in front of the whiteboard scoping it all out. And it evolved.

The Art Department was already hard at work creating concept art for the landscape, the characters, and the villain groups and had already started on the essential building blocks of the landscape elements. Chris Hockabout, one of my World Designers, fleshed out my sketch in a more detailed way with more specifics and added flavor and scope. John Hegner (Protean), took Joe’s idea and began the long process of coming up with the stories of Praetoria and further defined the shades of grey of that universe. Even Code, under Matt Stults (Television), was hard at work with Art to incorporate the Ultra Mode technology that would eventually make Praetoria dazzling.

Fast-forward to now, and you have Praetoria with its rich story, lush landscape, and fascinating characters. I’ve populated zones before, I’ve even remade a few existing ones, but this is my first time building something from the ground up and, I have to admit, Praetoria is something special. The Art Team, Code, and Design teams came together to build something amazing. It went above and beyond what I had imagined Praetoria would be in my head and it blows my mind, every time I load the game.

DN: At one point, it was decided to cut a few characters out of the game, and some of them were personal favorites of mine not just because I'd worked on the concept art, but also because I'd become pretty invested in the characters' stories. The Design team had written some really compelling material around these guys, and that made it particularly hard to scrap them. In the end though, we managed to pull two of them back from the brink, and they're now officially awaiting players in GOING ROGUE. Really glad to have them back.

C!: Wow, so many things. Getting Kinetic Melee and Electrical Control in, however makes me the happiest. For a long time, it looked like we weren't going to get them due to time constraints, but we managed to get them in. I think both sets are great.

GF: One of the things that I didn't expect to come around was the Market Merge. It's been a topic that has been discussed many times at Paragon Studios, and I'm very excited that we're rolling this out at a time when it makes sense.

Q10 "If you(the real you) had a Praetorian double, what do you imagine they would be like?"

WW: Sly, smart, gorgeous, and probably working as an independent agent somewhere in Imperial City because that’s where the action is. It’s debatable as to whose side I’d be on, but only because my Praetorian double would like to keep her options open.

BS: Probably a legislator. Someone who spends all their time trying to come up with the best laws to help make Praetoria better, safer, more prosperous.

DN: If I already have facial hair…does that mean my double is clean-shaven?

C!: Praetorian Me likely got blown up or something during the Hamidon Wars.

Q11 “What Costume Sets will we get in Going Rogue?”

DN: Quite a few: Resistance, Antimatter Clockwork, Praetoria Police and Sport for starters.

Q12 “Since the world outside of Praetoria is decimated, what does that world look like and will we ever visit that area?”

WW: There has been fighting, yes, but the Devouring Earth has also played a large hand in taking over. If there is one thing the Devouring Earth does well (and this seems to transcend universes), it’s to return Earth (Primal or Praetorian) to its natural state. So even though Emperor Cole has created a pristine safe zone, there are still parts of Praetoria that are war-torn, but also parts that have been reclaimed by the Devouring Earth (and everything in between). Praetoria is vast and the desire to rebuild is innate. There is no limit to where we can take it.

Q13 “Can you give us any comparison as to how big Praetoria is compared to what we already have with City of Heroes/Villains?”

WW: Nova Praetoria is about one and a half times larger than Atlas Park. I think Praetoria appears larger because there are no war walls to "close it in". The way we've seamlessly tied the visuals from one zone to another also gives Praetoria a really large scope. And that’s just the zones you’ve seen so far.

Q14 “About how many missions or arcs are there in GR (not counting auto-generated "tips" type missions)? On one hand it's been said there will be content for levels 1-20, which points to very few missions, and then in a recent interview War Witch said there were "hundreds" of new missions. Can you please reconcile these statements?”

WW: I think you're thinking of traditional CoH content where you take a few missions in a zone and then you're moved off to the next. Praetoria is very heavy with mission content so when we say hundreds of missions, we're being accurate. The 1 - 20 content is more thick with mission content than anything we've ever done before in City of Heroes or City of Villains and that's not including the alignment missions in Primal earth. So hundreds is still accurate.

Powers

Q15 “What sort of damage types will Kinetic Melee provide? Can we look forward to a Smashing/Energy mix or will it be another all Smashing set?”

C!: It's a mixed damage set -- The powers are all Smashing/Energy.

Q16 “In the teaser video it showed Kinetic Melee having a siphon power of some sort. Can you elaborate on the function of that siphon and what effects it'll have on the performance of the set as a whole?”

C!: Siphon Power for Kinetic Melee is an "enabler" power. What this means is that, while active, your powers have an additional effect. Say you use Quick Strike on a target, it does damage, reduces their damage strength and might knock them down. If Power Siphon were active, it would also increase your attack strength for the next several seconds. The attack strength effect can stack up to 5 times, so it can get to be pretty strong.

Q17 “Could you tell us a little more about Electric Control? I'm especially curious about the top tier power, is it another petless set? If not, could you tell us what the pet is? How is it different from the other control power sets?”

C!: Electric Control has a few very interesting power. Jolting Chains, is a Knockdown power that can go through a spawn and knock them all down, one after another. It's pretty amazing to watch. Static Field is a placeable Sleep power. Now, I know what most players think of Sleep effects, but our closed Beta testers really seem to like it, with comments like "This is the first Sleep power I consider worth it." The Tier 9 is Gremlins -- little electrical guys who toss out bolts of lightning.

Q18 “How much work does it go into developing a new power set?”

WW: The power set has to be something that can "fit" all of our environments and animations. We take many suggestions from players and always factor those suggestions into our "inspiration sessions", so a bit of time goes into inspiration and reality check. From there, the power set needs to be designed, from the ground up. Progression, function, descriptions, benefits, which archetype(s) it applies to, etc. The Powers Designer frameworks it and tests it internally. From there, Art and Design work together to flesh out the icons, animations, UI, and FX, and then the Sound team jumps in with SFX work. Then the real testing begins to ensure that the power set functions appropriately, is fun and balanced.

Incarnate System

Q19 “What is the lore of the Incarnate System, meaning is it tied to the Well of the Furies like Statesman and Lord Recluse being Incarnates?

BS: The source of Incarnate power goes by the name "The Well of the Furies," but that is not its only name, and the Fountain of Zeus is not the only way to gain its attention. The truth fits within existing lore, but the concept actually goes a little deeper than previous speculation might imply. As a possible example, what if I told you that Hamidon was one of those who found another way to tap into the Well of the Furies, thus making it an Incarnate as well?

Q20 “What bonuses does the Incarnate System grant characters? Extra Powers? New Enhancements? New Origins?”

BS: You can start off as any origin and become an Incarnate. It's not something that you will choose at character creation, but an epic path that opens up once you've reached the limits of where your origin can take you.

Q21 “With the upcoming Incarnate System that will be introduced with Going Rogue, will we notice a reduced effect/value of the current invention system in comparison with the new Incarnate abilities?”

BS: The Invention system bonuses are not going to change because of the Incarnate system. As for their value, each has their part to play in the scheme of the game. Most importantly, Inventions are a part of characters throughout all levels - the Incarnate Abilities are exclusive to characters who have "peaked" from a powers perspective at level 50. There will be characters who maximize their effectiveness via Inventions and characters who maximize via Incarnate Abilities, but there will still be benefits gained by doing both.

More Questions

Q22 “What will you guys and gals do to get players who've let their account expire back INTO the game? What will some of the rewards, if any, or other enticements to get us back to play for another 6 years? “

WW: Well, I think the biggest thing is the look of Praetoria and the missions in our new starting player content. City of Heroes was cutting edge when it first came out back in 2004, but we've done some pretty incredible things since then, creatively, visually, and with our systems and mission content. We're also adding new and cool power sets, villain groups to fight, new ways to run missions, and you can change alignments so now you can either create new characters or take your existing ones to places you've never been to before. There are plenty of things to do to entice you and, if you're in any way a badge collector, well, we have tons of those, too.

Q23 “Throughout paragon city there are dozens, if not hundreds of bus stops. To us players these are mostly annoying because of how easy it is to get stuck on them while running around the city at 93 mph, but it seems like they must be just as annoying to the citizens due to the apparent lack of any actual buses that might stop at them. So my question is if there are any plans for buses to ever start running in either universe, and if not why are you putting bus stops in praetoria as well?”

WW: Bus stops are a natural prop for any urban landscape, like fire hydrants or mail boxes (which can be run into at 93 mph, too). In Praetoria, they are great for Cole-approved advertisements like Enriche or to set up an atmospheric encounter to give a zone some depth or a bit of flavor.
We have had trolley cars run through Paragon City AND Praetoria, but that was by accident and the bug was fixed.

Q24 “Previously the development team had all but stated that merging the markets was not feasible. What changed? Or rather what decision making process went into making this change, and for that matter what is the normal decision making process for a big change like this?”

WW: When Praetoria first came into discussion as a new world, I wrote a document called "What it Means to be a Praetorian" and came up with scenarios of how things would work from this perspective. Immediately, there were some problems that were tougher than others to solve. Praetoria would need one of two things: its own market or no market at all. Neither was a very palatable option. Since a market merge has been one of the most heavily requested features of our players and I had a problem to solve, we decided to take another look at it. We realized that if the market merge didn't happen now, with Going Rogue, when it was most needed, it was never going to happen. So we found the time and resources, and did it. At the end of the day, if all of your attempts to circumvent "players who try to do this" or "players who try to do that" makes the system unfun, maybe the system needs to change.

GF: Merging the markets was not a trivial decision. We made the decision early on in Beta to commit the resources to get the markets merged, and had to wait until the back-end tech was confirmed working before we could make an announcement.

It's hard waiting.

So far, so good.

Time to start piecing together more teaser footage guys and gals.

Nice.

I like the bit about Praetoria having lots of potential to be expanded in the future.

"WW: All characters will have access to the ancillary power pools for their AT. For ATs without ancillary power pools before I18 the powers are not exactly the same as the existing AT pools, but are very similar. Patron pools require running a patron arc to gain access to them, but once that’s been done once you always have access to the patron pools, even if you go to hero."

Could a dev clarify this remark? It seems to contradict an answer given during the last Q&A that stated switching sides would allow a villain AT that swithced to hero, to gain access to hero epic pools if that character respec'd.

This seems to imply that epic/ancillary power pools are locked to AT regardless of side, and for those toons created post I18, there are new pools created? Is this correct, and did you guys change the plan since the last Q&A?

What I took away from it is that each AT has its own unique epic pools stalkers and brutes don't get scrapper epic pools, they get stalker and brute epic pools.

Q12 and 17 are my questions! I am thinking that the world outside of Praetoria looks like the hive. Ideally I would want to know if outside Praetoria is there a Luddite/DE alliance?!


...I really want a toxic blast powerset...

Eep! My question got answered! And it got a GINORMOUS wall-o-text from War Witch! *has a minor fanboy moment*

Okay I'm done.

I like the answers in this one. I like seeing behind the scenes into the process and what the Devs were thinking about certain things.

aww my question wasnt answered
lol oh well , I asked if there would be more varity to where the missons would take us ,
I said will it be like it is now it seems every 5 missions is the same map for a mission or will it be more of a mix up for each mission.

I really can not wait till this is out. I want the new costume sets so damn bad lol
and all the other stuff 8)

I'm wondering what epic power pool a fortunata will have access to if he/she goes hero before ever doing a patron arc.

Wewt! My question was answered.

Way to turn what we know of Incarnation on its head. Hamidon is an Incarnate?!

But most important to me..."WW: Patron pools require running a patron arc to gain access to them, but once that’s been done once you always have access to the patron pools, even if you go to hero."

So Oceanidas can spend a week or two getting Mako's shark power without having to convert to villany full time.

If anyone comes in here saying that there's no new info, they need to be pummeled about the head, neck, and shoulders.


I second the need for more videos. Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions, Dev Team.

Tha Hamidon as an Incarnate might explain why Tyrant was unable to defeat it.