Base Committee Forming???

So, any update on the progress of the committee's formation, possibly even progress on talks with the developers?

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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.

Congrats on the position Kat. But I guess what some of us would like to know is what is on the front burner and what is on the back burner for the committee

Time to beat the dead horse and ask on how the base committee's doing?

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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.

I hope something bears fruit here. I keep playong and seeing random objects all throught CoX and think to myself: this would be sweet in my base... many of hte gaming tables in PocketD for example.

I hope bases get addressed again some time, because i love my base, but I have been one of hte few that went for function of form... Ive got all the stuff that makes a base a base excepot it doesnt look particularly amazing. i mean... 5 years into it and i just started fooling around extensivly with stacking items...

Being a one man SG thats doesnt pile up tons of prestige doesnt help either, but I for one was sad to see the monkeys go... i built up quite a bit in thsoe days.

So any headway we see on the base editor being worked on, stuff for bases being added, and the prestige system being addressed or ability to earn prestige made a little easier, I would love it. anything really, SG/base specific coming from devs and mods and rednames and such is good.

But please, please dont make me buy it on top of what i already paid for three games, COH, COV, and GR.... plus my monthly fee. that isnt just mean and wrong.. its straight up villany

OK... sorry for the long wait. I have been getting a spoonful of real life lately and it wasnt heading for my mouth.



But as far as the committee is concerned the idea is not dead. Maybe punched and dragged into the street for a minute but we have recovered and are now finishing the ground work which is just structure of the committee and the charter. Once that is done the contests will begin and the discussions on what should be done in bases will as well. We will have our first meeting soon so that we can all say our piece and get a chance to open a dialog that will benefit most.


Just have to give us a little more time, think through the holidays we will be able to finish this up and it wont be so "cloak and dagger" anymore.

As always if I have confused you, angered you, or just gave you more question, just send me a PM and we can talk on Vent. Seemed to help others lol

As a random question, without managing to join the committee (mainly because i'm honestly unsure WHAT I could contribute), what can I do to support it as well as improve support?

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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.

Cende, did you steal my thoughts when I wasn't looking?

I would love to see more general chatter in the BBInc. channel. The trick seems to be "timing". Channel conversations are ... limited, in that they can only be seen for a small amount of time. If someone has an interesting conversation in the BBInc channel or even just in the game, I would love to see it brought up here, if just for the sake of "longevity".

Also, creating a little "base chatter" in the other sub-forums is another way of keeping the subject warm.

Links in your sigs... such a simple thing. Link your favorite base thread.

The idea of holding "base events" has merit for keeping people interested and active in this game feature. What kind of events would you like to see?

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Just want to put my 2 INF in here. Sorry if it's been said before - it's waaaay too late to read over every single post here - but I wanted to get this out there.

I would like the idea of seeing 'building blocks' for walls and floors. Maybe at different cost levels for different sizes - from a 1x2 up to a 16x16 floor unit for doing multiple floors in one of those large base rooms. (If you look at it, you can have up to 3 'floors' with maximum space settings.)

I'd also like to ask for some simple items, like a fridge and stovetop for a base kitchenette. I never warmed to the idea of having to use up to 5-6 items to put something like that together - or using one of the metalic counters and claim it's an industrial sized griddle - and then if I wanted to move it I'd have to move each of those pieces seperately.

And specificly for one of my SGs, I wanted to build a private movie theater, but I ended up having to use 33 thousand of the frameless canveses on one wall. Again, yet another example of where 'building blocks' would be useful.

I remember when I first came onto these forums, and heard about other people wanting stuff like this, and thought "Oh gawds no, it'd just be 'The Sims COH'!" But now, in a way, I'm thinking that that is what I and many others actually want - at least for the bases and simple apartments.

Oh, and one last thing, could we have more coices in beds? At least beyond the simple either/or choice between an army cot and something that looks like it was designed by the Marquie de Sade?

This has been a long time coming but we are well on our way to having proper representation thanks to several key members.

SO who do we have to thanks and where do we grease the wheels to keep this thing rolling?

Is there anything new with the base committee?

I've posted this before but for bases to see any real attention in the future they need to be a part of a new issue in some way. I touched on this in a post I made awhile back (for the curious http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=251896).

Basically if you're going to try to get to the devs to work on bases then you need to show them how bases can be a feature in some way of a new issue or have an issue completely revolving around them. At its core there needs to be a broad use and selling point to making a new base building tech. This tech needs to be able to dynamically create maps in game. For a reference consider the old Neverwinter Nights toolset which had various tilesets with static features part of the tileset and placeable objects you could detail the created area with further. One feature the nwn tilesets didnt have that a coh one might benefit from is the ability to swap textures (consider the tech lab map thats retextured to be a longbow base for that one tip mission. same old tech map but looks vastly different by a simple texture swap). Ditching the current "buy a room" model and replacing it with a "this specifc tile is this type and texture" model is the way to go IMO.

Selling points to point out to the devs include:

* New tech gives devs a more streamlined tool to create mission areas and tailor them more to taste instead of using warehouse # 3 for the billionth time. They could simply paint down some prefabbed tiles, possibly even combine tiles for different area types to create some transitioning (much like the maps that go from office to sewers to caves) and dress them up with placeables to create much more varied and interesting maps of all types. This new tech could allow the developers to design more unique mission maps than the standard stock ones we've been using for years without having to spend labor/resources on modeling an entirely new map for a mission in house. If an algorithm could be developed to randomize key elements of a map using the new tech while still keeping the pathing and mob placement viable this could revolutionize all current and future missions making their maps more interesting and dynamic.

* New base builder tech could be included into AE allowing for player made maps on their AE missions.

* New tip missions could be made that create randomly generated maps

* New tech could allow for environments we currently don't have like outer space,underwater, deserts or even alien worlds.

The idea to convince the devs shouldn't be to try for an issue devoted to base building. But base building can be overhauled if a new issue justifies the time and expense. The goal imo should be to show the devs how new tech that happens to benefit base building could be the main feature of a whole issue of content that pretty much everyone can engage in at some level.

Features that could go hand in hand with this tech and be featured as part of an issue include:

* Personal bases. These bases would be small and unique to each individual hero/villain and obtained after doing a mission at level 10 for the city official in atlas park's city hall or Kalinda much like capes at 20 and auras at 30. Such personal bases could have a feature to transit into the owner's SG base where applicable. Personal bases could use simple influence to build with and could possibly be another type of inf sink to get inf out of the system. If using inf isn't desirable the personal base could instead use a new currency called personal prestige for building. Since a personal base is of limited scope and likely easy to cap out, personal prestige would only be purchased with influence from the sg registrar much like you purchase sg prestige. The idea of personal bases opens the tech up to EVERY player's use so they can all get a taste of it.

* The mission computer could have a wider variety of missions to offer that use the tech to create unique maps. These missions could also be accessed by those not in a supergroup via the community information terminals around the city so everyone has access to the content.

* There could be new types of tip missions that only drop when you are in a supergroup and if your sg plot is of an appropriate size and you have the feature enabled. These tip missions would use your SG basemap and have a level appropriate villain group invade the base. This type of mission wouldn't have any affect on your actual base as the mission map is merely a replica. There could also be new tip missions that draw on other sg bases for their maps allowing for a variety of tip mission locations and allowing sg bases be showcased to all players. There could possibly be a badge for completing a certain number of base invasion tip missions and mission computer missions.

* Task force badges could unlock certain new decorative base objects and themes related to the TF such as certain cimeroran themed objects/textures for completing the ITF. These features could be unlocked for both personal and SG bases so everyone can enjoy them.