Your Top 5

One day in the near future, War Witch decides she needs to leave the games industry to raise platypi in Idaho.

Paragon Studios is crushed, but it's okay, because you step up to take charge of the game.

(I realize War Witch doesn't make all the decisions, but I wanted to be very slightly more interesting than, "What if you were in charge?")

So what are your top five projects to improve the game?

Mine:
1) Massive balance pass on every archetype and power set. Find a way to make Gravity Control have more control early. Give Kheldians some benefit from their inherents while solo and give Peacebringers some more power synergy and reliable control. Find a way to make Stalkers more desirable in team play. Etc.

I would want to find a way to allow players to choose the "legacy" version of a powerset, so we can make awesome sweeping changes if they're needed without butting up against the cottage rule.

2) Moar proliferation. I wanna play Ice Armor on something other than a tank. Some folks are gonna 'splode if they don't get Illusion Dominators, etc.

3) Costume creation overhaul. I would want to streamline the current options and overhaul the interface for ease of use. I want to add pool, EAT, and Patron/APP customization. I want to see hats with hair options. I want to see parity for the genders, adding the Baron coat for women and high heels, skirts, lots of long hair, etc. for men. I would love to see animated hair, fingers, butt-capes,etc. If necessary for performance, restrict things so some of these things are mutually exclusive. Add a high-performance static setting in the visual options so people can reduce lag in large gatherings if they need to.

4) Add an underwater zone. We could face aquatic enemies, check out more of the lore of the Corolax, and explore sunken ruins. This is the perfect excuse to add aquatic-themed costume parts. I really want tentacles.

5) Create an Incarnate-level task force fighting clones of the players. It would be quite cool, I think, to face a mirror of your own buffed and maxed characters.

Hmmm.

1. Start the PVP overhaul. Instead of a giant I13 "drop the bomb," start rolling back or adjusting a bit at a time. Given 3-5 months between issues, changes would be made either each or every other issue, datamine it and tweak as needed. (Probably with a mid-issue adjustment.)

2. Yes, costume creator overhaul. Some of those lists get long. While overhauling, try to set it up so that nobody has to go and have the tailor say they have to pay for things that aren't changed... Also, non-shiny-metallic options.

3. Base/SG overhaul. This starts from the Registrar's desk on down. Make finding/contacting a SG easier (as well as letting them describe themselves better,) redo the base editor, make the bases more fine-grained, long hallways, raise only part of a floor instead of the large blocks, have a PVP vs non-PVP base "checkmark" that will check for pathing and mark your base as raidable, sort items by scale, put in more items - the list goes on.

4. Expanding the world - and adding more EATs. Spread out to Europe? More Incarnate lore, perhaps. Egypt? Bit of time travel and more reason to focus on lore with the Blood of the Black Stream. And yes, the Coralax as we go underwater... somehow.

5. Polish and add content. Dark Astoria, the Shard, Crey's Folly all need content. Bring all of COH up to the same graphical standard. (This is, of course, a long term project.) Start the rebuilding of Boomtown as a 2-3 year, multi-issue project.

See my Guides and Tutorials

1. Bases. There could be one whole issue of nothing, but base additions. If I start a character on a server without a base, I'm ok with it. Give us a reason to go into one and go from there. For the love of all that's good, offline SG invites.

2. PvP. Even if I don't do it, it's still in desperate need of being looked at.

3. The older TFs. Posi isn't the only one that needed to reworked. They need something that sets them apart from normal teams outside of an AV. Trials to me seem like the best idea since there seems to be a level of tactics used in them compared to simply bashing things. A TF should feel epic on some level. They simply don't.

4. Make all zones worth checking out to where people are actively going in them. Striga and Croatoa are great zones that hardly get used.

5. Let me play for free.

See, you have to make one request that seems crazy so they give you all of them except for the crazy one. Fix PvP. Ha!

1. Do away with Micro Trans in anyform with this game. We don't need the stigma affecting Cryptics 'Otherwordly' game currently.
Yeah it's not a big issue right now. But in 2 years the newcomers are going to start feeling increasingly nickel and dimed for every good costume set. Since all the newer shiny pieces are in boosters.

2. Give Beastyle and Zwill and nice fat raise.

3. Do whatever it takes to re-hire BaBs'

4. Create a new Power pool named Gadgets, with typical useful stuff to help round out character concepts.

5. Wrap up the Praetorian storyline quickly and move onto the Coming Storm.... Finally.

1. Overhaul all old blueside content. Revamp the useless empty zones, and redo the Freedom Phalanx and shadow shard task forces so they don't suck. Shadow shard will become a co-op zone.

2. Power proliferation. All of it. No more of this 2 or 3 sets per issue crap.

3. Finish power customization. Pool powers mainly, but ideally more options for alternate animations too.

4. Go over every power set in the game with a fine tooth comb and fix the problems. Most would be minor tweaks, but overall the effect would be nice. Give regen some recharge and regen debuff resistance. Fix gravity control. Work on martial arts a little. Make peacebringers better. Little stuff like that.

5. Underwater zone.

1. First things first, I have had a nitpick since the game started about the way targeting cycles. There are two obvious and separate ways that the Devs developed their interesting interpretation of the word 'next'. I know there is a target nearest foe/friend, but next is broken. Currently, if you target a foe in the nearest spawn that is physically the farthest from you, clicking target next will jump your target reticle to the nearest foe in the SECOND nearest spawn, potentially hundreds of feet away. If you use a power that was limited to 10, 15, 18, whatever maximum targets affected (targeted area of effect), the concept of 'next' doesn't function (when counting the nearest/next 10, 15, 18) anywhere near the way it does when you click 'target next' -- thankfully. Targeting the next foe also gets dicey when targets are moving.

2. I would also like to revamp some zones. There could be a lot of rich new content in the Shadow Shard. Rebuilding Baumton could provide a lot of story content with level 11-19 foe groups like the Vahz, Council, 5th, clocks, Outcasts, and Trolls. Dark Astoria could use a make-over like Faultline received. Nerva needs a make-over, too That zone has a lot of dead space in it that players jump, swim, or fly through.

3. I like the previous ideas of new zones - European zones for exploration of the Fifth column and Council origins; these could be a historical progression of the Cimeroran arcs not to bash any Earth prime cultures. An Egypt zone would be wonderful, too. To balance this, a new zone with Asian flavors would also garner a lot of interest. Dare I mention the moon zone?

4. I like proliferation, but there could be more powersets, too. I am thinking of something along the attacks of the Snakes, Coralax, maybe some Praetorian epic sets (instead of arachnos think Imperial Defense Force).

5. A whole task force of fighting evil/opposite duplicates of yourself is interesting. This could be an expansion on the Protean story arc. It could fit nicely as an alternative to Citadel, which I find to be dull, and of course it could be ported over to the Red side as well.

1. New Redside Zone for levels 15-25. At the moment there's no overlap in that range and I'd like an alternative to the second half of Cap and first half of Sharkhead that isn't a PVP zone.

2. Speaking of PVP... I do it rarely if ever, but yeah. I'd be tempted to just roll it back to pre-I13 and call it done, at least as a short term 'fix.'

3. Revamp the issue 0 blueside content. It's really showing its age.

4. Rebuild Paragon City. Tear down those War Walls!

5. And implement EvilGeko's solo/small team Incarnate Path - http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=254375 - or something very like it.

Lesse... what would I do:

• Kill off all existing in-game PvP. Convert the existing open PvP zones to co-op. Shop around to see if PvP-focused MMO developers such EA-Mythic or Riot Games would be open to a contract deal to make a completely separate game focused on PvP with the CoH branding. Make completely separate game available with no additional charge and allow players to import existing characters into the Separate game. Produce Player-SDK and allow players to make their own maps and modifications for Separate game.
  
  
• Tell all of the players saying Praetoria has been going on long enough to can it. Cryptic took over 2 years to go from City of Villains launch to Statesman's Task Force. Now, if Paragon Studios takes bleeding two years to go from Going Rogue to Tyrant Beat Down, fine, then, and only then, would the complaints be even remotely valid.
  
  
• Look into getting City of Heroes officially available on as many platforms as possible within the engine restrictions. If the game's engines will run on Android Linux atop Tegra 2, then there needs to be an official Android Linux Tegra 2 client. If the game will run on Desktop GNU/Linux, then there needs to be an official GNU/linux client. If the game will run on Apple IOS Ipad, then there needs to be an official IOS client. Aggressively market and pursue opportunities as a mass-platform MMO.
  
  
• Focus on recruiting existing subscribers as developers. Identify players who can contribute to expanding the game, not necessarily at the code or art level.
  
  
• Get the guts to look NCSoft square in the eye and ask them what was going through their mind when they created that launcher.

1. Expand the scope of the game. Space station and moon zone. Largest expansion yet, complete with Space Nazis and ancient alien moonbase. An underwater zone. Go global. Save the Eiffel Tower! Protect the Pyramids!

2. Total revamp of bases -- make it easier to build, increase the variety of styles with everything from single efficiency apartments to caves to penthouses (with windows!). Include off-line members of the SG as NPCs walking around and doing stuff, so it doesn't feel empty. (An awesome addition for solo SGs.)

3. SG revamp -- offline invites, invite your own characters, etc.

4. Zone revamp, primarily Boomtown and Dark Astoria. Boomtown is the basis for the spaceport, the train depot and a suburb setting. Dark Astoria has more than just ghosts and a hang-out for the Pantheon.

5. New events. The statues of Paragon come to life! Stop them! The civilians have been kidnapped! Find them!

1. Step down from being lead.

2. Work exclusively on remodeling old assets and making new costume pieces. It's what I'm good at. Being in control of the whole game is a bit beyond my comfort zone right now. And I really think it'd be nice if the citizens got to drive cars that look to be made within the last decade. And I've got so many ideas for costumes and weapons and accessories, and there's quite the backlog of great ideas in that costume suggestion thread of sexyJay's to add to the game too...

3.Leave the game-leading to someone who knows better (I don't mean this to be a dig against anyone here for saying what they would do. I just mean that, personally, I wouldn't be comfortable making those kinds of decisions for the franchise.)

4. ?????

5. Profit?

1: Improve costume creator. Add skin textures, Enable materials on "with skin" options. Fix ugly bits (witch boots).

2: Add more costumes.

3: Add more costume slots.

4: More diffrent animations.

5: Portable Icon.

1. Trash the current player character models and start from scratch. Ultra Mode did wonders for some of the game's environments, but did almost nothing for character models. When a reviewer claims CoX looks its age, they're referring to the character models and limitations of the engine. Even a non-avatar-based MMO developer realized they needed more to their creator and revamped the entire thing, even though almost 100% of the game is flying a spaceship and not hunting Rikti on foot. And then there's this game's character creator.... Why are we still dealing with seven-year-old-plus character model engine restrictions in a game touted as the "king" of customization?

2. Will go with je_saist's PvP "revamp" idea. Cut it out of CoX entirely, create a spin off title using a studio that actually has experience with PvP. CoX was first and foremost a PvE game centered on teaming. It's the reason I originally picked it up off the shelf at Wal-Mart. Not every game needs PvP.

3. Investigate different options for Incarnate material/crafting/etc. Praetoria is pretty to look at and some of the stories are decent, but for the most part Ambushville just isn't worthy of the attention it's getting (not "Epic" enough for wannabe godlings, IMO). Some other form of acquisition would be a good start as well; Incarnates as Invention System v2.0 leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

4. Finish everything the Development team has decided to let fall to the wayside. Total power customization; primaries, secondaries, pools, epics, patrons, Incarnates, everything. Add content to "abandoned" zones; revamp content in dire need of it. Finish storylines that are still hanging out there unfinished.

5. Try to wrestle control of the game back from Marketing. Probably impossible at this point, but it would be worth a try.

1) Extended power customization, including EATs, power and ancillary/patron pools, alternate models for some sets (mainly traps).

2) Brand new powerset for each AT (each year or two years at least).

3) Solo/casual incarnate content with incarnate drops/rewards (difficult arcs and repeatable missions). Alternatively, offer incarnate variations of some existing arcs, such as Dark Watcher, Mariah Jenkins, etc.

4) More enhancement sets. New 50 rare and very rare sets. Improve some terrible sets (like slow) and replace debt reduction modifiers with something moderately useful (influence gain perhaps).

5) Enhancement and respec simplification (QoL).

a) Allow us to upgrade all training/dual/single enhancements to our level for appropriate influence cost. Genericize names and icons for all origin enhancements. Perhaps also genericize set enhancement icons. (power icons are the perfect in how they convey information in a simple, attractive, and effective way. These should be a model for all MMOs imo)

b) Consumable recipe to un-slot a single power/enhancement without running through a whole respec process. Optional non-linear respec process similar to Mids.

Most of what I'd want is already listed here several times but I'll chime in.

1) Power Customization - this is the major one for me - power pools, patron powers, ancillary powers, Epic archetypes (limited palettes) and Mastermind pets, Lore pets and Illusion pets. I'd really love for us to create pets via the NPC creator in the Mission Architect tool or Costume Editor.

2) New powers for ATs. There are a ton of great player suggestions and existing comic book powers for inspiration. Whip Assault for Dominators please.

3) Bases - make base editing more accessible. Kinda like how UO gave players the tool to raise and lower items. I'd LOVE to be able to make killer looking bases but I don't really want to go through a bunch of tricks and bugs to do so. I'd like to also get personal lairs more easily.

4) Costumes and World Art Revamp - old costume pieces, old world art assets, etc.. Bringing Going Rogue world art assets and textures and city building style to Blue and Red side (in certain zones) would be amazing. Skin textures, masks with textures, textures added to all of the skin overlays (similar to the Wedding pack costume pieces). Leave the legacy pieces but give an updated option for each one as well. Don't take away the old to give us the new.

5) Finish power proliferation. Illusion for Dominators, Broadsword for Brutes, Martial Arts for Brutes, etc., etc.

6) Build Switching - I'd like to be able to switch builds without having to go to a trainer. I'd understand not being able to do it on a mission or in combat but being able to do it anywhere in the world would be so.. nice.

5) PEATs(Preatorian Epic Archetype) - Lore wise, The Well gives power to the Hamidon. With this power the(a) new PEAT(s) come(s) in...

4) Gladiator to temp power - and influence sink, that allows you to purchase a temp pet for any glasiator badge you have earned.

3) Preatorian encounters in a villain arc or mission(s)

2) Contacts and talk missions - Tailor contacts should be like the other unlockable contacts and appear in your contacts list. Contacts like Hollows, Striga, Crotoa, and Seerer Marino, should be level unlockable so we don't have to take a mission to do it. The PvP liasons should also fall in this category. Missions like delivery Puzzle Box to Hardcase, should be removed or have an actual mission tied to it to retrieve the box as xp was removed from these missions.

1) Give swift to all AT pets, escort and combat NPCs, and FFG(Force Field Generator) from traps. MM pets and FFG do little good if I move faster than them in a mission. Using no movement buffs except maybe Combat Jump.

well, i dont know what will make a successful mmo, the more successful ones i have played were utterly bland and boring, so here's my personal "wouldnt make a red cent, but i want it" list.
1. alternate animations -lots of them, give ranged powers the range that soem were expecting for eminators, head, mouth, fist, palm, choice of a few pistols and wands. basically try to implement all the stuff i have posted in various threads about new animations. pool and some degree of epic customization too.

2. repurpose older zones for new content rather than adding new content. yes this will get me hate male, so would mailing out hundred dollar bills to every subscriber, if there isnt a lore reason or unique feature to an area, and a updated idea comes into mind, like the japanese looking areas to indep port or redoing monster island to have dinosur type monsters and a dense jungle, it gets changed.

3. roll pvp back to issue 12, and LEAVE IT. adding new stuff seldom works, and they adapted to it then, so leave it be.

4. shard revamp, complete total redo of the zones, faultline style. and add segregated zones like in oroboros for vills.

5. costumes. lets face it, its coh;s big pull, dig deep into the jays thread/dave's thread and include new art in EVERY ISSUE. free content for costumes have gotten very anemic for a distressing amount of time, and its really coh's big advantage, particularly over the new guy.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

1) AE would receive frequent updates so authors can have as many options as possible. The search engine would be revamped to make it easier for players to find stuff to play. Dev's Choice would be awarded every month at the bare minimum, along with other developer-sponsored contests and incenitves for people to play AE arcs. More slots would be added to some of the more lack-luster vet reward milestones.

2) Bases would get love. Salvage storage would be increased, the editor would be made less clunky, more decorative items would be made available, along with proper wall and floor items and a greater variety of skins. Individual "player housing" would be implemented so everyone could play.

3) More aliens, space Nazis, evil chomping eyeballs and dark gods and fewer evil goatee Freedom Phalanx enemies.

4) Martial Arts secondary for Blasters.

5) More focus on content that adds to the depth of the game world and less focus on flashy gimmicks. I'd start by adding a 30-35 villain SF, then revamp the Freedom Phalanx TFs, then the legacy 1-30 content. After that, it would be more level 30-50 content.

1) Add costume pieces on a regular basis. Make them the types you actually see in comics.

2) Fix the old TFs especially the old Phalanx stuff. Those are just awful.

3) Future content should have all new, superhero type foes. Not Nazis or militia etc. Give me something epic....Galactus, Dr. Doom, Magneto, Darqueside etc. Intro these groups in TFs only. That way the experience is unique from the rest of the game.

4) Maybe 3b here but make future content a bit more exciting. Seriously. We were just shown a new TF where the main focus is a bunch of ships etc? If you're making new maps why not try something like space ships, space stations, underwater zone, exotic alien world etc. Go big or go home

5) Future content should be innovative. Any future TFs could include branching off along the way - so a decision you make alters the course of the TF. Have a few branches so it is a bit different for the first several times. This could be one possible innovation. Right now we get a lot of the same formula. After 7 years make things unique.

6) Give Praetoria a mini-tf or something like that so it isn't as dull/grindy. It would be nice if it involved something other than the current factions in the game. Seriously, how tough is it to re-skin characters and make up some wild, fun new faction for us to look at.

7) Add to toon customization. I thought the Lore slot would have been amazing if we could design the look of our pet. That would have kicked this game up a notch! BAM! But no... Anyway, maybe let us have some more unique rewards. Maybe something like a weapons dealer where we can pick up a variety or weapons that we keep and can slot (maybe make them 3 slots so this doesn't over power or mess with balance).

8) No new zones. Do something with the old ones or use the resources to make completely unique TFs etc. Just say no to more zones.

It'd be nice to see some of this if not all.

1) Add Strike Forces for the following level ranges: 10-15, 30-35 and 40-45. Revamp three Task Forces as selected via in game poll during login.

2) Finish Power Proliferation.

3) Create a Melee/(De)buff archetype. Or some such.

4) Revamp PvP and allow for duels anywhere in any zone (with the default option set to autodecline them so no window pops up). Similar to other games, duels end at 1 HP rather than death.

5) Work on origins so they're more than just flavor.

Some of my characters

Oh, where to begin?

1. One release devoted entirely to nothing but bug fixes. Fix every outstanding defect, no matter how major or minor, or how old. Fix them NAO.
2. Give Paragon zones the Praetorian treatment. This includes reworking missions, eliminating magical-mystery-doors, and adding fixed landmarks. Redo the first 20 levels of content entirely so that there's an actual story to follow (particularly in the first 5 levels). Rebuild Boomtown into something useful.
3. Upgrade all the old costume pieces so that they match the quality of the newer ones. Leave the older ones in place, so that noone's current costume is borked, but make sure that incomplete older sets have new, full sets with all the detail we've grown accustomed to in sets like Alpha: boots, gloves, shoulder pieces, chest, legs, belt, helmet, and goggles (if appropriate). Don't discriminate between males and females. In particular, fix the issue where certain female patterns don't work because they end at mid-calf and there's no matching boot that makes them feasible.
4. Hire someone who can design epic-looking caves to replace every cave map we have in the game. We should never encounter groups of Behemoth Lords in the tight confines of blue caves. Underground caves should allow creatures of their size to move freely, and in large numbers. Need an explanation? Magic, baby. Need inspiration? Look at the caves in Guild Wars, DDO, and other games. They're massive, vault-like caverns, with ledges that follow the wall, and narrow bridges crossing chasms. Certain caves we have now capture that feel, but most now are just pointless mazes (like our nonsensical office buildings, designed by someone who, I'm sure, was on LSD when he designed them).
5. Add more variety to missions, and eliminate the pointless timesinks. Even with the new GR content, everything comes down to either: click a glowie, beat the crap out of all the bad guys, beat down the boss, rescue the hapless citizen, escort the hapless citizen out of the mission, or run an errand for your contact. Fedex missions are a pointless waste of time. They all have cellphones. Is there any reason they can't use them, rather than having me do all the running around?

For variety, consider some sort of puzzle solving. Trap avoidance. Intelligent (and careful) use of proximity triggers.

1. Revamp most blue side TFs.. Synapse, Sister Psyche, Citadel, Numina, Doc Q, and Justine Augustine to start. Add a 30-35 level SF Red side

2. Turn the Shadow Shard into a Co Op zone like the RWZ (prompting people to actually go there and play) This of course would also add 4 more TFs that Red side has access too [see suggestion 1 which MUST be accomplished first so no villain ever has to suffer through the current Doc Q)

3. Add items to SG bases.. A tailor shop, an Ebay version of Wentworths/black market, increased storage capacity and added storage for RECIPES. I'd list the improvements to floors, wall and furniture/equipment options here but this post would go on forever. Add NPC that can make the base look "lived in" Such as Secretaries/security for the entrance, Doctors/Nurses for Med bays, Technicians in jump suits for energy rooms, computer geeks for control centers.. in short an actual staff that maintains the base while we are all out fighting crime. Or do we really think Wicked Wendy returns from a day of robbing, stealing and plundering and then grabs a brush and heads into the bathroom to clean the toliet? LOL

4. More slots per server... We went to 36 a LONG time ago and how many new powers have been introduced since then? Many of us now maintain at least two accounts just so we can play on the server we like and stay with the SG we created. I'd say it was definately time for at least 12 more slots per server.

5. More costume options definately. I won't go into detail but to name a few.. Seperate options for hair and hats ( I absolutely hate that if I want my long haired heroine to have a look involving a hat she gets three choices.. 1) pony tail 2) short or tucked in hair and 3) totally bald (from the witches hat availabe by completing KHTF. Women with ever hair style imaginable wear hats from time to time so seperate the hat from hair and be done with it. Heaven knows a ton of players want things like the PPD hard suit outfit and I know a lot would love access to the Carnie looks for females.

6. Update or eliminate some zones so people actually WANT to go there. Sorry but unless a TF drags me there about the only time I am in Boomtown is to grab the Exploration badges (hey 5 free reward merits are 5 free reward merits) and maybe the history ones if I am on a toon I like to badge with. Zones like Boom, CF, DA, and even Perez and the Hollows have become ghost towns these days.. Get some contacts in there and revamp to make them more interesting or lose them completely and concentrate on zones that people actually enjoy being in. By the way Boomtown is totally depressing.. I know its supposed to look like a war zone but it's a pile of smoking rubble? I actually LIKE going to Perez Park its a very pretty zone in spite of the gangs that hang out there,


7. Create the much longed for Moon Base and Underwater zones and make both Coop. To add some diversity make it possible for some contacts to give missions that hero/villains/et all can join and others that are hero or villain specific. This would also allow for several new TF/SFs that would add more diversity to the game.

8, End world hunger, stop all wars, get everyone a good job and a higher education and boldly go where no one has gone before! LOL Okay so I got carried away with all the power!

Addendum: Make Space Station/Moonbase missions and TFs range from levels 25 to 50.

Addendum addendum: Asymmetrical outfits and patterns. Man, this is the simplest thing in the world and would add so much more flavor to costumes.