What would you change for CoH2?

The three big things I would do are:

1. Actually give a damn about PvP and listen to the PvP community when they say the global changes you are pushing through are a terrible idea.

2. Make CoV more faction based where you character basically chooses a villain faction and goes through content based on the faction they chose. Also have costume bits tied to each faction such as Freakshow claws and armor being tired to Freakshow aligned characters while still allowing a character to switch between factions so that completionist can get all the pieces. Have each faction have its own contacts while still having mercenary based contacts that will higher any faction. I think this would give villains a more interesting play style and a bit more interest.

3. Rework all ATs so that the powersets they use are unique to them. I mean this in a way that a Stalker wont get a shoehorned version of a Scrapper powerset. They may both have say, Electric Melee, but the sets are designed independently with the AT in mind. They can share powers but it wont be a carbon copy so that Stalkers, who have a completely different play style get the short end of the stick.

* Individual fingers, toes, and good looking faces. I know they are adding normal mapping to faces soon, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a single unchanging texture. I very much liked the faces in STO.

* Dynamic lights for powers. I can set an entire room on fire right now, but if the room is dark, it stays dark. That just looks bad.

* Mission Architect with a map editor and no XP from mob defeats. On arc completion, reward the players with a big chunk of XP based on how long they took to finish the mission and the time they were actually active within it.

* Mission replay system with every mission out there, including those that aren't part of an arc, and Praetorian missions.

* Focus on a consistent and evolving storyline rather than the current mess where elements are introduced and then forgotten, or new things directly contradict older content without taking the time to make a rewrite to account for the discrepancy.

I want to add puzzles to the game. Not everywhere, but like, introduce a recurring Riddler-esque character to create them. If certain parts of the puzzle can be randomized, then even better because you can't just consult a guide to find the solution.

It doesn't need to be super complicated, either. For example, I really like the puzzle lock mechanic in Arkham Horror: Mansions of Madness, and those puzzles are simple color matching or image unscrambling

Jewelery! That is all.

A big red ball.

- Secret Identities!

- More variety in what powers can do, rather than just nine fixed abilities per power.

- A greater variety of pool powers, even pool powers based upon other AT powers (ex: Kinetics pool power: with siphon power, siphon speed, repel, speed boost. Martial Arts: Thunder Kick, Storm Kick, Shuriken, Cobra Strike)

- More movement powers, Tunneling would be awesome.

Actually, I have one better. Or rather, one more:

I'd fix the binary nature of control effects and put more of an emphasis on stacking the things, as well as allow players to defeat enemies via control effects alone. I'd also probably reduce the number of different control effects significantly, just so it's easier to stack them.

What I want to see is the ability to stack control effects to overcome an enemy's status resistance in the same way as one would "stack" attack damage to overcome an enemy's health. Get an enemy down to 75% status and he's debuffed. Get an enemy to 50% status and he's held/slept/stunned for a short duration. Get an enemy down to 25% status and your control effects begin to stack for much greater duration. Get his status down to 0% and that enemy is permanently defeated - frozen in ice for the cops to pick up and thaw, turned to stone forever, slowed down to the point it would take him 100 years to blink, that sort of thing. Think of the Gorgon Medusa - she never "killed" anyone, in that she never stuck a knife inside an adventurer, but she turned thousands to stone.

This, to my eyes, solves the problem of control powers' binary nature - either you're held or you're not, and these effects are rarely long enough to stack them much more beyond twice. This means strong enemies are often simply immune to such effects, because they time out so fast. It also allows for control-heavy ATs to be offensive without requiring direct attacks or kludge mechanics to grant them conventional damage.

I always refer back to Earth 2160 when I talk about this. In that strategy game, each unit had four different "health" bars. It had one bar for the physical hull integrity of the vehicle, which could be damaged with conventional ordinance and energy weapons. It had one bar for shield levels, which didn't stop conventional weapons but stopped energy weapons. It had one bar for the biological integrity of the crew inside, which could be damaged by microwaves, diseases or chemicals. It had one bar for the mental health of the crew inside, which could be damaged by psionics. In essence, you had give or take four different ways to kill a unit, not all of which involved "a gun that makes holes."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I would rename it "City of Heroes" and drop the 2, and then put all the code into the first game. And then add some new costumes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

Every power would have a no graphics option.

I would like some added pop with a skill system similar to DDO 'cept all super hero-eee

Eliminate the single worst addition to the game: Suppression.

Raise the flight ceiling. (And speed.)

Ignore PvP and PvPers. We've seen their kind and they're not needed in this game. Let them stay with Call of Duty.

More than one right solution. Right now we only have "Kick in the door, beat up the bad guy." I'd also like to see "Pick the lock, trick the bad guy." Beating up everyone is fine, but a stealth option for every mission would be good, too.

Different factions have different reactions. Seems to me Malta and The Council would be a lot more disciplined and employ military strategies than would street punks like the Hellions and Skulls.

While I think the game could do with a graphical upgrade, I actually don't find it all that unattractive, apart from from some older costume bits and things like trees. But an overhaul with things like facial expressions, fingers, toes, flowing hair and moving fur would all be nice.

Improve graphics, update graphics engine in general. Skeleton needs to be updated anyway, so might as well.

Besides that, I dunno. The fact that it's a "2" is awkward, especially for MMOs, since it doesn't really require that it replace the earlier game. It would be a nice avenue to explore some other approaches to the game setting/genre.

I'd probably change some of the fundamentals of game design to be honest.

I think one of the things that would make the game more "super" feeling, would be to change encounters so that more difficulty came from fighting higher numbers, and the strategies involved. IE balancing the game around 6 or 8 to a solo hero rather than 3.

I'd also change how AVs work and implement an Arch Villain system. Allowing players to design their own AVs that they will fight against in certain stories, or at the very least, making AVs that sort of change their spec to the hero running the arc, so that when a player solos an AV it's a unique experience to an extent.

I'd also want more travel powers, more variations on travel powers, faster travel powers.

More destructable areas, at least on the level of mayhem missions if not more, breakable walls etc.

Also I'd want to allow grappling, throws, holds, grabbing an enemy etc.

Lastly I'd want better villain content, content designed around the villain becoming a super villain, becoming more feared and getting bigger jobs with higher rewards towards the end of the career. Much less people talking to you like a lackey, furthering other peoples schemes and no more robbing a bank to get only a small amount of loot.

My personal top 10, in no particular order:

1) Travel powers would not consume a power choice. Players would just choose the power they wanted at an appropriate level.
2) Crafting in the game at day 1. I'd also like to see expanded temp powers (maybe even a list of common temps available on the crafting table?)
3) Heroes and Villains existing in the same zones. Hero missions would take place in the nicer areas with occasional forays into the "bad part of town". Vice versa for villain missions.
4) Respeccing would be easier. As in, go to the Trainer and say "I wanna respec," probably for a reasonable, non-prohibitive fee that would scale with level.
5) Dual builds from the start, with no cooldown period on switching back and forth, other than to not be in combat to make the switch.
6) Non-symmetric costume options. Also holsters, backpacks, high collar capes.
7) Upgraded character models (articulated fingers, animated hair, facial expressions).
8) Shapeshifting powerset.
9) Expanded powerset customization (color tinting, pet customization, alternate animations, customizable emanation points).
10) Ditch the current spawn system as it applies to mob levels. Just have mobs of a particular level spawn in a particular area of a zone, period. This is the single biggest reason why I hate street hunts so much. It's often an incredible chore to even find mobs of an appropriate level. You either wind up killing grays or running from purples.

Power trees.

The power choices available to you are dictated by what powers you've already taken. I've taken Leap and Foot Stomp, so that opens up a power "Ground Smash" in which I jump up and then smash into the ground.

This is an entirely new game, so I'd divorce entirely animations from the powers. When you take an attack, you should be able to choose what type of damage it does and assign an animation of the appropriate length. I do think that damage type should have an influence on available animations.

Oh, and yes, you'd pick a travel power at level 1.

Better network stability, especially regarding high-latency connections.

COH is the only online game I play that crashes when it loses too many packets or they arrive out of order. It wasn't so bad when I started playing in Issue 4, but over time it got worse and worse. The worst case scenario I got in another game was a dialog that said "Network error. Reload map?" and I just "entered the mission" again. No game other than COH gives me a hard crash to the desktop because it can't make sense of the data it's receiving.

1. Update the costume creator to include:


Both customizable tattoos/symbols/emblems as well as premade ones placeable anywhere (chest, arms, back, legs, face)

Customizable face/body scars

Customization of the different areas of the face
(Example: Clicking on eyes brings up a color palette for each eye & a list of available accessories for that section (glasses, goggles, eye patch, eye spikes, etc…)

Neck Options separate from Shoulder Options

New Sections: Forearm, Upper Arm & Thigh options (with a variety of Bandoliers/Tactical Pockets (bullets, throwing knives, or Tech gadgets sticking out of them))

Jewelry Pieces for Female body types (for Hands, Neck, Face (Ears), Forearm)

Hats & Helmets to include a with or without hair option

Costume pieces with built in auras (gloves/boots/helmets/capes with fire, ice, etc…auras (like the auras on the elemental shields from Shield Defense))

Huge Female body option





2. Customizable pets & MM henchmen





3. New AT “Power Armor” with swappable gear.

Different powers are available by changing out different parts of the armor.

(Example: wrist lasers/chain guns, tasers, glue grenades, shoulder cannons, projectile buzz saws, force fields, energy whips, projectile cargo nets, jump boots, jet pack or strength enhancing gloves)





4: Separate Sg membership & Sg bases to be independent from any one server & to be accessible to all.

I.e. Heroes from Guardian, Protector, & Infinity could all join the same Sg & access the same Sg base.





5: Also for Sg bases, being able to set a basic “theme” (Medieval, Egyptian, Cave, Futuristic Sci-Fi, etc...) along with basic decorations & some functional items (non-crafted items) with just one click. (The base editor can still make changes to individual rooms if they wish).





6: Update the animation rig to add a variety of quadruped & tetrapod creatures & beasts for NPC enemies.
Hell Hounds, Mutated Crocodiles, Dinosaurs, Giant Scorpions, etc…