Ask a Dev: Matt Stults (The Television)
By
Aloenia,
Posted on: 2010-07-14 11:02 in Developers' Corner
What is The Television's favourite television program??
Member of GGRRR, a SG on Defiant - check out our website - GGRRR
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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Nobel Savage recently stated
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Originally Posted by Noble Savage
Next new redside zone will certainly offer something fresh and new.
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Originally Posted by Noble Savage
Don't get TOO excited. We're still hard at work on Praetoria, but yeah, of course we'd like to make new villain content.
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I'm not really bothered about what it is, and i gather you probably don't have all your concepts on paper but an issue time zone would be nice... say between issue 20-22??
Out of pure curiosity, why "The Television" as a nick name? Is there a contact in game that has this name that I may have missed? Anyway, back to my real question...
Is there ever going to be a time in the future that allows a Blaster the choice of where the "Blast" power comes from? Using Cyclops from the X-Men as an example, all of his blast powers come from his eyes alone. Iron Man can blast from hands, chest and in some instances his boots. Many other heroes need an object such as a ray gun, hammer (Thor), or staff to be able to use their blaster powers. As of now, there are few choices but they come with specific blaster types (Rad for eyes) or (psi for head) otherwise, it is all hands/arms as the powers origin. I would love to see this power as being our choice.
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Villain contact in Grandville. (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Television) Has two of the best written arcs in the game.
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Originally Posted by Brain_Mite
Out of pure curiosity, why "The Television" as a nick name? Is there a contact in game that has this name that I may have missed?
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Leader of the Insanity Guns
"We rush in where fools fear to tread!"
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Joe Insanity 50 AR/Dev Blaster - Infinity
CykaTek 50 Bots/FF Mastermind - Infinity
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Originally Posted by Windwalker
Hello Matt,
My question is this: Are you all planning to increase the level cap? If not why not? Thanks, Windwalker |
No, no plans are in the works to raise the level cap ever. It would break several things that are coded around being level 50. Hence why the Incarnate system exist to begin with.
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I know about the Ctrl-Tab for targeting nearest. I only use Tab and Ctrl-Tab and leftclick-to-target. I don't use any custom binds for regular targeting.|
Originally Posted by je_saist
I can answer this.
It doesn't. Check your keybinding options. The tab button is defaulted to next-target option, but there are other settings such as to automatically target the enemy closest to you. |
My question concerns the frequent occasions where, even after starting with targeting nearest, the Tab insists on cycling its targeting on everything else that's as far away from me as possible before coming back to my immediate area. Does each foe on a map get assigned a number and the Tab targeting cycles through them in ascending sequence? In addition, there is also the situation where, for example, there are 5 foes in my view with no objects that might block line of sight, yet Tab will only cycle targeting between 3 of them. Why is that?
Teams are the number one killer of soloists.
Hi Matt! I have a couple of questions for you that hopefully you'll be able to answer..
Do you have plans in the pipeline for new systems in supergroups and bases? like the ability to promote/demote offline members, SG invites via email or any other means to invite an offline character... maybe a command like "/sginvite playername" where it will show up to that character the next time they log in? the latter would be similar to how the /gfriend command works now, I'm thinking.
Also, anything that may come along in the near future (read: within the next 6mo.-1yr) to help improve base systems, like a new/improved editor for example... or some enhancement to how we can place items, i.e. the ability to place a floating lamp in the middle of a room without "stacking", for example.
I'd also like to have the ability to seperate rooms in the base and have them linked with a sort of inner-base "portal" to transport between rooms, rather than running through a long hallway... and maybe have the ability to set rank permissions for said portal to specific areas, which could allow for things like setting up personal quarters for different ranks, and many other things. would something like this be possible in the current game engine?
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Originally Posted by Brain_Mite
Out of pure curiosity, why "The Television" as a nick name? Is there a contact in game that has this name that I may have missed?
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Originally Posted by Joe_Insanity
Villain contact in Grandville. (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Television) Has two of the best written arcs in the game.
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This is really one of the reasons that people should play redside more... of course, there are many other reasons
Hi there!
Is it a goal to allow heroes,villains, vigilantes and rogues to, at some point, co-exist in Ouroborous or another non-pvp zone ? Not counting RWZ.
Pinnacle & Virtue:
A bunch of Heroes - Alpha Team, Legion of Order.
A bunch of Villains -Black Citadel , Pinnache.
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Hi Matt. |
Originally Posted by fatalnova
if the EU numbers contiunue to decline after the launch of GR will there be anything in place to stop the end of our servers that will let us keep our toons and or jump over to the american servers?
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Further to the above, I'd love to know whether any technology is being worked on that would allow all of the servers onto one server list. A server list merge is something a lot of the EU players would love to see but we've never been told whether it's even feasable.
Thanks!
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Guys, please keep in mind that he's the Tech lead.
Not the Lead Designer. Not the Powers Guy. Not the Animation Guy or the Art Guy. Not the Missions Guy.
This is the guy in charge of making sure the ideas that the Dev team comes up with actually get implemented in the program. This is the guy who is in charge of the actual programmers, and getting them to fix bugs and implement new systems. He does have an idea of what's coming down the pipe, sure, but he's primarily a day to day or Issue to Issue guy.
A number of the questions I've seen in this thread are better addressed to other people. Like Chris "Back Alley Brawler" Bruce for the question on changing Blast-type animations to use different points on the character model. That's an animation issue.
Target_Next works like this in a very general way: Within 120 feet of the character, create a list of all visible enemies sorted by distance and target the closest enemy. On each subsequent tab, target the next enemy on the list that was created. On reaching the end of the list, go back to the first remaining on the list. When a target dies, remove it from the list. On clearing the current target by using the esc key, delete the list.
What progress have you made on optimizing the game engine to handle animated hair for players?
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
What progress have you made on optimizing the game engine to handle animated hair for players?
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No Tele! Don't answer! You'll activate the Curse of the Golden Girl! http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...5&postcount=90
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Originally Posted by kidengineer
3. What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow? |
European or African swallow?
sorry couldn't resist
Allodoxaphobia is the fear of opinions.
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. MARCUS AURELIUS (121-180 AD)
Hi Matt
Hope this is a question you havn't encountered before.... so here goes.
Is there a chance at any point that all zones could be made into pvp zones, there are many games out there that allow characters to roam all available maps and encounter player enemies as they level.
My brother used to play a game were if you attacked another player, your name went red for "x" period of time. You could only attack players within certain level ranges of yourself, and attacking other players and getting defeated means that you dropped items and influence to the person that killed you.
While your name was red the players that attacked you had no penalty or chance of loosing anything.
I dunno what the game was called and he only explained it to me once, but it sounded fun.
Is there any chance that CoX could incorperate a similair system??
Thanks.
Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.
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Don't want to be too trite here, but... That would be the worst idea ever for the game. There is a huge percentage of players that are in the game for PvE and could care less about PvP. As someone who's played since almost the beginning, I can tell you that the introduction of PvP (and the rampant associated nerfs to level the character balance) almost killed the game for many, and I know several players personally who walked away and never looked back. If you start forcing PvP on all players, you'll lose a ton of loyal paying customers who just don't want the constant griefing.|
Originally Posted by Donna_
Hi Matt
Hope this is a question you havn't encountered before.... so here goes. Is there a chance at any point that all zones could be made into pvp zones, there are many games out there that allow characters to roam all available maps and encounter player enemies as they level. |
Now, on the other hand, if you could somehow make a system where you had to purposely opt in to PvP mode to even be capable of being attacked, I can see the appeal to that. But it would have to be something you can easily avoid, if you choose.
There would, of course, be huge issues with stories and immersion too, if a villain could just wander around Paragon City unmolested, or a hero could take a leisurely stroll through the Rogue Isles - they'd be meat in a nanosecond if reality was introduced
I'm also interested in what sort of things you'd like to add but with the current system can't because of technical issues.
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There are many posts in the brainstorm forum which explain why this is a bad idea.
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Originally Posted by Donna_
Hi Matt
Hope this is a question you havn't encountered before.... so here goes. Is there a chance at any point that all zones could be made into pvp zones, there are many games out there that allow characters to roam all available maps and encounter player enemies as they level. My brother used to play a game were if you attacked another player, your name went red for "x" period of time. You could only attack players within certain level ranges of yourself, and attacking other players and getting defeated means that you dropped items and influence to the person that killed you. While your name was red the players that attacked you had no penalty or chance of loosing anything. I dunno what the game was called and he only explained it to me once, but it sounded fun. Is there any chance that CoX could incorperate a similair system?? Thanks. |
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This is really a design question for Posi or War Witch, rather than the tech lead. The tech is already in the game to flag players for Enemy Target in any zone. E.G., if Tele wanted to, he could flag me as an enemy target on the steps of City Hall, and then beat the stuffings out of my avatar.|
Originally Posted by Donna_
Hi Matt
Hope this is a question you haven't encountered before.... so here goes. Is there a chance at any point that all zones could be made into pvp zones, there are many games out there that allow characters to roam all available maps and encounter player enemies as they level. |
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My brother used to play a game were if you attacked another player, your name went red for "x" period of time. You could only attack players within certain level ranges of yourself, and attacking other players and getting defeated means that you dropped items and influence to the person that killed you. While your name was red the players that attacked you had no penalty or chance of loosing anything. |
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I dunno what the game was called and he only explained it to me once, but it sounded fun. Is there any chance that CoX could incorporate a similar system?? Thanks. |
I'm also going to torpedo the idea that you could sell Posi and War Witch on the idea to begin with, with just two words: Tabula Rasa.
If you didn't hear about, or play, Tabula Rasa, it was a big budget game from Richard Garriot, funded by NCSoft. You might also know them as the owners of Paragon Studios. Throughout it's extensive beta process Tabula Rasa was a strict PvE game, much like City of Heroes. The focus of the game was on an inherently imbalanced team, a game where classes complemented each other, and challenges were built to be taken as a team. PvP didn't exist in the Tabula Rasa lore. Towards the launch date, Richard Garriot and the developers finally caved to a very vocal base and implemented a minor dueling system.
After the game launched, Richard Garriot left for his trip into space. The developers he left in charge did not have a firm grasp on the game lore, or the design of the game. The new lead developers promptly listened to a very vocal population of the game, and quickly tried to implement a PvP system on-top of a system that was not designed for PvP. The new lead developers also listened to the vocal population that was saying that the end-game had to be PvP, couldn't be anything else.
What this meant was that you basically spent 50 levels learning one way to play the game... hit max... then promptly had to clone yourself, spec into a completely different build, for a completely different game.
The result was a complete and total disaster. NCSoft and Destination Games found out the hardway that the vocal PvP population, the guys calling for PvP-end-game content, and PvP in general, were a drastically small minority. Tabula Rasa bled subscribers after the changes, with near immediate losses being tracked in 1 month and 3 month increments after the changes went live. In early 2008 it was claimed that Tabula Rasa had cost NCSoft over $100 million dollars. The same year Tabula Rasa was shut down.
The fact is, there isn't that large of a financial base willing to pay for a PvP-Experience, especially in a game that isn't designed for PvP. NCSoft has been down that road before.
There's also the huge design questions with implementing an open-world PvP system. Most games that work a PvP system, such as WarHammer or World of Warcraft, and so on, have dedicated zones players have to go to. You can't be auto-ganked in a town. There's a very good reason Open-World PvP games have largely fallen off the map. The number of players who will willingly pay for them is simply too low to actively court.
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I agree and have been wanting the same thing for a long time. Especially with the pirate haat that includes long hair, if you give the character a different hat it feels like it totally changes it, and also is not nearly as cool.
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Originally Posted by Blood_Ransuer
Will we ever get a "hats with hair" option? the default hair that is chosen for us ruins the theme, therefore keeping me away from the hat option in general
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HUMAN EAT
Is any progress being made on the tech to allow for Backpacks and more back items for players?
Given that, accordding to some accounts, this was actually already working well with the VG back items in I9, before they got redacted.
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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.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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seconded on the backpacks
any info?
Thirded. Backpacks ?
Pinnacle & Virtue:
A bunch of Heroes - Alpha Team, Legion of Order.
A bunch of Villains -Black Citadel , Pinnache.
Almost forgot. No idea if this falls to you, but, possibility of getting more than 5 costume slots?
Pinnacle & Virtue:
A bunch of Heroes - Alpha Team, Legion of Order.
A bunch of Villains -Black Citadel , Pinnache.
Hi Television!
Here are my questions:
Are Power Pools and Ancillary/Patron Power pools going to get some degree of customization/upgrade anytime soon? I think this is very needed for us. After Power spectrum, I cant wait to customice the color for Superspeed, turn Mu Bolts into green, or allow Hasten to work with no FX.
Any chance our avatars get some upgrades soon? The new looks for the Praetorian NPC, like Marauder or Mother Mayhem are AWESOME, but is not fair to us not getting some love too. Enviroments have Ultra mode, but what get our characters to keep updated and fresh, like the rest of the game after GR?
I also want animated hair!!
Thank you 
I've got 3 quick ones.
1: Will we ever get more Ancillary or patron power pools? I'm in favor of a few new patron power pools to cover other player origens besides Arachnos based ones. They also make less sense for a "Rogue" aligned player in general.
2: Will Pulse Rifle ever be made into a blaster power set? I would love it if it was, the pulse rifle is the best part of the robotics set.
3: This is a general question of policy more then anything else, will the servers ever be given "Official" designations for their type? Like Virtue becoming an official roleplaying server?
What new Tech, if any, proved difficult in programming to get any new features of Electric Control working as designed?
(yeah i'm fishing for more Electric Control hints)