Ask a Dev: Matt Stults (The Television)

Hello Telly a few things I would like to know...

1. SLI/Crossfire any update on how the tech for them is going? Any chance it will be ready by GR?
2. Back options as Techbot Alpha said it looks like they can work the real issue is most likely huge models at max sliders. Anyway how long do you think it will be before they are in game?
3. Some one else asked about how the servers are setup and what servers you are useing for COH/V. I would like to know that as well.
4. Do you feel limited by COH/V's comparatively (to newer MMO's) low minim requirements when making new Tech and updating the old stuff?
5. Any chance of Monstrous legs option to include things like the image below? From my perspective it seams like you could mash the Vangurad Tanks that run around the RWZ and the Tarantulas and get something like this but I suspect the real problem with making this work would be that it will take up too much resources for one player. I any case is this kind of thing possible with the current game engen?
   

When are we going to get rain and snow, windy leaves blowing in every town? changing constanly? {pardon the spelling} a Water power set? New Missions without that cheating AE building.
The AE building should only be accessable to level 20 and up. Please take that building out of Atlas. It creates too much lag in a town where everyone hangs out. People cant find regular missions any more and the best part of the game is egnored like the skipping of The sewers, The Hollows, Atlas missions and Skyway missions/tfs.
This game needs missions revamped (boards look the same). A parade on holidays where you paint the town red or have Ski Ballons dropping confetti with decorations on city hall ect. Need more bad guys on the streets, causing more real damage and distructioin to cars buildings ect. Bad guys breaking into stores. Running out stealing T.V. and radios. speeding around town crashing cars and we can interact with them by catching them and blowing up their get away vehicals.
More Dance steps. Break Dancing, spinning on ya back, a little foot work and the 6 step. So we can combine them for a dance battle in Atlas. I can do cheering now which goes into 4 changable cheers. The dance is also 4 changable dances but we need another set of 4 changable moves like a break dance set standing foot work {taunting}and another bboy set on the floor foot work. Then another set spinning on ya back, the worm/cenniped, spinning on ya head and hand, then a final set of poses for the finish~!
Weapons. We need more Temp Powers to be found. More Dual Enhancements to be found. Power ups should fall out the bad guys pockets like hot cakes. This game can be borring. Please step it up. Alot of people fall asleep with a joystick in their hand. I"m a 5 year vet with a 5 year badge. i love this game but, please help!
Saving and loading Powers and Emotes dont work and powers are buggy when going from one mission to another. we Have to keep resetting our powers for the keyboard and joystick over and over after moving from one misson to another town.

Please get back to me about my comments. i've had friends join the game and quit for most of the reasons listed here in this letter. My email is Removed and me personally, i stopped playing as much since the AE building.

When are we going to get Weather, rain and snow, windy leaves blowing in every town? changing constanly? Going from rain to snow in the same hour. At least in certian major towns. {pardon the spelling} a Water power set? New Missions without that cheating AE building.

The AE building should only be accessable to level 20 and up. Just in level 20 and up towns. Please take that building out of Atlas. It creates too much lag in a town where everyone hangs out. People cant find regular missions any more and the best part of the game is egnored and empty due to skipping of The sewers, The Hollows, Atlas missions and Skyway missions and Task Forces.

This game needs mission revamped (Boards look the same). A parade on holidays where you paint the town red or have Ski Ballons dropping confetti with decorations on city hall, An Eclipes, ect. Need more bad guys on the streets, causing more real damage and distructioin to cars buildings ect. Bad guys breaking into stores. Running out stealing T.V. and radios. speeding around town crashing cars and we can interact with them by catching them and blowing up their get away vehicals. Buses, amublances, Fire Trucks ect.

More Dance steps. Break Dancing, spinning on ya back, a little foot work and the 6 step. So we can combine them for a dance battle in Atlas. I can do cheering now which goes into 4 changable cheers. The dance is also 4 changable dances but, we need another set of 4 changable moves like a break dance set, standing foot work {taunting}. And another bboy set for, on the floor foot work. Then another set for, spinning on ya back, the worm/cenniped, spinning on ya head and hand. Then a final set of poses for the finisher!

Weapons. We need more Temp Powers to be found. More Dual Enhancements to be found. Power ups should fall out the bad guys pockets like hot cakes. This game can get borring. Please step it up. I"m a 5 year vet with a 5 year badge.

Saving and loading Powers and Emotes dont work and powers are buggy when going from one mission to another. We Have to keep resetting our powers for the keyboard and joystick over and over after moving from one misson to another town.

Please get back to me about my comments. i've had friends join the game and quit for most of the reasons listed here in this letter. My email is redacted and me personally, i stopped playing as much since the AE building.

There are a few shirt and short combinations needed.
1. Jeans need variaty. Loose fit, torn, holes ect.
2. Spandix shorts mid thigh lenth, missing.
3. Wristbands, bi-cep bands, thighbands with hanging strap options.
4. Leather coats, hats and canes.
5. Hooded cape options. Excsive capes that come all the way around to the front or, capes to the floor that drag behind you like Spawn then or just a regular hooded cape!

1. Cane powerset. like a Wizards powerset.
2. Water powerset.
3. Cape Powerset.
4. Elastic powerset.
5. Stone powerset for controllers and def, more like The Last Air Bender.
6. Light powerset a Righteous

Dear Matt,

Can you please not answer any of the questions about things we already know about, are unrelated/have nothing to do with the game/yourself, and/or make absolutely no sense? Awesome, thanks! As for me, if I get a "second" question--what's your proudest accomplishment being part of the Paragon Studios team?

D

I already posed a few questions regarding supergroup and base funcionality, but something else came to mind that I'm curious about and I *think* it falls into your area of expertise, so here goes...

Is there or will there be any amount of chance that we'll be able to have destructible enviroments out in the open zones (i.e. non-instanced areas)?

I'm not talking about using a KB power to knock an enemy into a car and have it receive damage from the enemy hitting it, the physics and coding for that would probably require a completely new engine... although that would be pretty awesome... but maybe something like whats in the redside Mayhem missions?

Hi Matt!
There is any chance more metallic costume pats get the UM enviroment reflection effect soon? That way will be better to match and mix.
Thank you!

Just a quick reminder, you only have till July 24th to get your questions in!

Regarding the City Vault - the last thing I heard was that there was a major tech hurdle in that the system as designed impacted performance dramatically and a workable solution had not been found. What is the current status of this project (e.g. actively being worked on, on a whiteboard somewhere, in the circular file)?

will we ever see revamped travel powers/ new travel powers???? say a perma jet pack for toons with a tech concept that dont want tech wings???? or super speed animations like synapse has in the LRSF?

Dear Matt aka Television,

I have a few questions...

What kind of database does CoH use? (aka, relational, custom, open source like postgres etc, object oriented, flat files, some mix?) Is there a dev in charge of the data access layer of the code and if so, who is it? (I am particularly interested because in the early months of CoH, they did several data mining tasks that took ... exceedingly long times to run, and it made me curious to a degree that still has not much abated) When you joined the team and saw how they managed the data, what was your reaction?

What techniques do you use to make meetings shorter?

What internal bug tracking system do you use? (like Jira or bugzilla or mantis type of things)

Does any of the CoH code use multiple inheritance?

Can we get a Big Red Ball bouncing around the zones? Please?

More seriously...

The engine for the game has been called antiquated, esoteric and just a maze of epic proportions. How easy/hard is it to obtain qualified help for the team using the coding structure and how does the 'Legacy' aspect help/hinder game updates and patching?

So you know when you go to jump over a fence and you don't quite make it and you end up sliding along the top of the fence with your arms sticking out? Think that will ever get looked at or is it too minor to bother with?

Don't know where to ask this but I've always wondered why we're only allowed to have 4 power pools at a time. There are some toons of mine I'd use 5 or even 6.

Listen please and listen carefully. Tanks should by ALL RIGHTS be the hardest dudes to kill in PvP. It should be so intense that it takes at least 3 non brute like vill to bring him down. Now of course this better be a bad *** Tank and yes same for Butes. A Brute fighting a tank should actually DRAW a crowd. As it stands now Tanks and brutes are made fun of and mostly ignored. And I am SURE u have seen that NO ONE playes Tanks in PvP. Guess what? Theres a damn good reason. Thnk long and hard on this and tell me what you think you guys can do to improve on what roles Tanks and Brutes play in this game thank you.