Coffee Talk Highlights, Nov 23: Missed Panels with Zwill, Puppy, and a Cast of Thousands

Things may be a bit weird. I have absolutely wretched upload speeds. As I have a streaming radio show going on right now, I can't upload. Screenshots will be added in after I'm slept. So likely something in the night US Central time.

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Posi and Zwill, plus DOGGIE! start things off, her name is Mia.

Black Scorpion is also around.



The puppy belongs to Theresa, the office manager, and Posi takes her over to her mommy.



BS gets uncomfortably close to Zwill.

TANGENT: Zwill misses theater.

Zwill is washing one of his hats for the Real World Hero charity, since he's had it for three years.

BS: "And it's the first time you've washed it."

Posi returns and talks about the keyboard he's donated.

TANGENT: Keyboards.



Posi fixed his Flowbeed hair after the summit.

Arbiter Hawk arrives.



Titan Weapons: Dec 6.

Posi: "The look on Black Pebble's face when we revealed that was worth the price of admission alone."



Gunslinger costume: Soon(tm)



They started designing the TPN trial long before they started Ustreaming.



Also coming soon.







Either BS or Hawk goes: "Krieger, press print screen."





OW OW OW purposeful table slamming.





Looks like we also have Synapse





Zwill: "In this trial the thing I noticed was the ground. It's disgusting, in a good way."





"We've been playtesting that internally for a long time."

"Black Pebble is in the shot, it wasn't that difficult to act."

Z: "They're all attacking Black Pebble. I wonder why."

Zwill photoshopped out bits of the whiteboard.

They replay the Staff Fighting Video.



The glow moves and pulsates.

"The cape is amazing."

They have a waterfall cape, weapons, and non-animated phoenix wings.

"I can demo ice for you in a sec, this room is freezing."

"Get him a snuggie!"

"Get him the puppy!"



"The lantern does not act as a turn signal."

The lotus pose was the first one they tried, looks awesome, unless you have a cape or tail.







COHSkywriter: Males get jackets. Females get glowing corsets.

Everyone else but the people involved in the Ustream got to go home.

"Just keep asking questions and we'll be here til Thanksgiving."

Posi: "Come a certain time, there will be a Matt-shaped hole in the wall."



Some wrestling with the camera and mic.

We have a visual and auditory blackout.

perceptorii: I hope that's an extreme close up shot of the puppy.
Aracknight: pop yellows
psychoti: Dang Night Mistresses.
milkweasel: it's a ploy for them to leave early!
ineffablebob: Quick, sacrifice a minion to Mot
Samuraiko: this, by the way, is the new fog in Dark Astoria...
ParagonKid: This is a Dark Control demonstration.
milkweasel: net or beast, go tell them they're offline
TheNetPQA: Not it.







The paragon team makes hand signs to get people to reload if there is no audio.



Tangent: Sign Language







"Really big weapons, great weapons, Cloud fighting, poke with big stick melee."



psychoti: I want a new archetype so I can make a Hammer/Time controller.

Dark Control is all new effects and animations, nothing recycled.

Most have a -Tohit.

Living Shadows is "a pretty broad cone."

Reminder to not hit the table.

Haunt summons two shades that harass the target until it dies. The WIP version of the shades are in the screenshot about.

"What did the table ever do to you?"



The Tier 9 "deserves its own release."

They talk about how awesome it is.

Sound is down again.

Zwill is going to go wrangle up a better networking cable.



Zwill has to adjust the camera and orders them to tangent.

TANGENT: Posi has just introduced his son to Robotech/Macross.

There's a robotics school nearby using LEGO Mindstorms, Posi is taking his son there for his birthday.

TANGENT: Digital/tech toys.

Posi talks about like the whole office having Digimon, and they fought a lot until one guy's Digimon got killed off forevers.

"Matt's signature power is saying "That's what she said!""



COHSailorET: i22: Everyone gets Dark!

Switching the slides seems to break sound on some people's systems.



Gather Shadows is a combination of Build Up and Power Boost.

They were more work than the average proliferation.

Zwill: "It should be Dark Incarante. Dark Astoria and three Dark power sets."



Zwill: "I know that Scirocco is NOT a Stalker. But he looks kind of stalker-y."

The revamp of Assassin Strike is using mechanics from Titan Weapons to access an alternate power under certain circumstances.

Assassin's Focus is +33.3% chance to crit with Assassin's Strike outside of Hide, it stacks up to 3 times and is added with each attack you make.

The changes will hit next year some time.

Dark Assault has Life Drain.

Synapse was testing a StJ stalker yesterday, three hits to build combo and focus, firing off Crushing Uppercut, then the Assassin's Strike, essentially guaranteeing a crit.

Staff Melee's draw is an over the shoulder draw.

Talk about how hard hitting Assassin's Strike is in comparison to KO Blow. Synapse gives the exact scale (3.56) off the top of his head. I mentioned it in chat off the top of my head as well, what with poking it for my Hellfire EAT.

Arbiter Hawk cut off his muttonchops so Andy couldn't make Wolverine jokes.

Posi: "You cut them off with your adamantium claws."

If there are alternate effects or weapon models, they will not change damage type. Like a flaming, or bladed staff. It will still do the same damage type.

They say it would be a powers nightmare to make and balance up stats for each individual staff or titan weapon. So they decided that cosmetics will not affect stats.

Things are looking better for Ice Armor for Brutes, as the changes to Fury generation/retention make it easier to get and maintain a middling level of Fury without having to radically alter the set.

They've talked about IO's, and the IO metagame seems to be all about defense. They would like to go back at some point and make it more of a viable choice between defense and resistance.

Whip Assault: everyone wants to do it, but it would have to be a non-physical whip, as they cannot make it re-coil.

If they could revamp one powerset:
Synapse: Energy Melee if it's minor, totally tearing apart and starting over, he has to pass.
Posi: Energy Blast, as it was one of the first sets they did. They have a lot more tools in the toolbox now to make a cooler set.
BS: Power pools "I'd revamp presence, medicine, possibly even fighting."

They will talk about staff options later, once they're cleared to release the information. IF they do there would be actual Staff Fighting.

Apparently the gravitational constant for CoH was not the gravitational constant of the universe, and someone thought it was a bug and fixed it. They changed comic book gravity to real life gravity. "Just chalk it up to that realistic, gritty, 1980's feel."

Talk about Fighting pool becoming almost mandatory since Fitness became inherent. They're aware of the issue and they've tried to make other power pools more tempting.

Posi goes to get the panel food.

We're having choppy stream issues, so Zwill is going to stop the recording as the Powers guys leave and the Lore guys arrive.



Arbiter Hawk is offscreen.





Cymmetri: 24 TB!? yikes! that's a lot of gettlemen special interest literature.

Continued audio and video troubles.



Arbiter Hawk beatboxes for us.

coh_beastyle: Arbiter Hawk should just do this until 2pm.
psychoti: 5 minutes in on this one.... video of the beatboxing.
reiella: I do like the look of abject "why am I here" on Positron's face in reference to the beatboxing









Some talking about possibly adding more incarnate solo stuff, possibly another zone, or part of a zone.



Contacts will talk to you differently depending on alignment.



Diabolique leaves Praetoria after the First Ward , she is attempting to become Death Incarnate by tapping into Mot's power.

They make an inside joke that involves "Ding" regarding the trial.

The trial and large parts of the story arcs take place in entirely new locations, some in DA, some not. There are new creatures and entities, and Diabolique gets an upgrade to her costume.

They were not allowed to take a screenshot of her.





Hybrid and Genesis will come out together,

Some philosophy behind the designs can be given, but not power specifics.

They don't want to just make big numbers even bigger.

The Incarnate system is very level 50 focused, at some point in the future they might be looking at some of the powers having an effect on the game outside of level 50, as it seems to be a natural progression.





Comparison to tech development during war, like after the war trying to turn those to civilian uses. A lot of the powers Synapse made are based off of things that the enemy groups in First Ward and Dark Astoria used, as well as work done in the trials.

The player's interaction with the Well is more like Lord Recluse than Statesman. States was all "This is magic water!" Recluse was all "There is a scientific explanation for this."





"Table is lava!"

All new exploration badges for new DA. There will be a connection to DA through two zones.

Adamastor is no longer in new DA.

There will be base teleporter access, trainer, medic, tailor, hospital, etc.

Old DA will be accessible via Ouro or base teleporter.

Adamastor will be accessible to both heroes and villains in Talos Island in the BP areas, or Sharkhead in the BP areas there.

He will be stronger and he will have additional powers, but will still be the same level.

"He has more than footstomp."

Entire panel: "What's the deal with the fog and the ghosts?"

The fog is going away, they put a lot of work into an amazing looking zone. The old fog was kind of a smokescreen to hide the "meh" looks of the zone.



The revamped zone has its own creepy atmosphere.

"There is not another zone that looks like Dark Astoria."

They had the sound guys go over it, as well as interesting new spawns.

"It was like they were lining up for school picture day."

He mimes standing up straight and then "Oh crap, someone is looking!" and then makes zombie motions.

Older BP spawns will remain.

The new DA will have new BP priests and priestesses.

It is not more masks and more totems.

The letter writer is involved in Dark Astoria.

Aeon: "You may or may not leave the identity of the letter writer in DA."

DA will imvolve all the Incarnate shifts. So if you're +3 you keep that level. Same goes for MM pets. They will also apply in the missions.

The Well of the Furies is not really involved in the DA story.

"Ultimately Diabolique is a tangent in the storyline. DA and Mot are the centerpiece."

When DA went dark is covered in the storyline.

Circle of Thorns will have a presence in the new DA.

TANGENT: Memes.

They considered making the red-hued war walls visible on the Talos Island side, but decided against it.

DA mobs will give both types of IXP.

It will not give as much IXP as the trials.

TANGENT: Thanksgiving plans.

They're still tuning the rate for players to be able to earn things in the solo path.

The character copy tool will be fixed for the I22 beta. But Zwill can't reveal how or why it broke.

TANGENT: Explaining Thanksgiving to foreigners.

DA will not be level gated or VIP only, though you can't do the content.

It will be available to buy like First Ward.

TANGENT: Posi shows Zwill the buffet he's taking his family to for Thanksgiving.







Talk about enhancement converters. I think this was covered by my notes on the panel itself.

There are three categories:
Convert to random IO from the same set
Convert to random IO of same rarity
Convert to random IO of the same category

The prices are 1, 2, and 3 tokens. I'm not sure which was going by which.



Super Packs - Base of 80 points each, discounts for buying in bulk.

They're thinking abotu a 10 pack and a CCG-like box of 36.



Once you get an account item, like the Elemental Order pack belt there, you will never get it again.

"For example if you have all the costume pieces from the Rare table, then things like ATIO's are going to have a higher chance to drop."

You will never get something you won't be able to use.









The costume pieces have a high chance to drop amidst their rarity levels.





The Shard Cannon is for Beam Weapon and it was accidently on Beta early on.



Posi: "When it says Paragon Market, it means Auction House."

ATIO's can be slotted at level 7 and their benefit scale all the way up to 50.

ATIO's cannot be boosted.

You cannot have more than one set slotted at a time on a character.



Using an Enhancement Catalyst will turn an ATIO into a more powerful Purple-like version.

You can only slot one of each ATIO, boosted or not.













Tunnel Rat pops in.

New BP and Tsoo outfits available in the store?

Posi: "If it's on the player rig and works. There are some BP things that would not work."

BS states that the BP masks are actually attached to an invisible character's HAND and not the face.

The Super Pack cards are not tradeable, only the ATIO's, for this series at least.

The Signature Summon power is not on the Paragon Market because they wanted it to be Paragon Rewards only.

Enhancement converters will work on ATIO's. ATIO's are their own rarity. ATIO in, ATIO out.

If you up one ATIO to the higher set, you do lose one on the set. You can double up on the 2 and 3 set bonuses, as they have identical set bonuses, the Catalyzed ones have a bigger bonus.

"Consumables like inspirations that last for a set time instead of wearing off with death?"

They've actually been looking into purchasable longer duration buffs, as well as persistent ones.

TANGENT: Pumple cake. Apple pie and pumpkin pie baked into a cake. Like a desert turducken.

Field Crafter table for offer in market? They've been thinking about it and it's pretty likely they will.

"In game card game like other MMO's?"

Posi: "We considered it for about half a second until we realized that we can either make the card game, or work on City of Heroes. We chose to work on CoH."

BS: "If someone put a gun to my head and told me to put on in, I'd revamp the Gladiator system."

They are open to the idea of making ATIO's and costumes available through other means. It's being considered at the moment.

Posi: "The random nature is a part of the pack mentality."

Chat groans.

TANGENT: Sequel names

TANGENT: Gravestones and burial preperations

The various levels of the MoM trial were NOT inspired by Inception, though the debug dialog had a shout out.

"Enter Penelope's room as the description, and the reply text is "Go deeper.""

Regarding being able to respec your primary and secondary:

Posi: "It just breaks my brain to think of, say, all the enhancements that you can no longer slot and just gimped yourself."

Synapse: "We'd have to have it like the respec, or the character transfer, but even more expensive."

BS: "And it would be so easy to break something. Like when we were trying out the 3 extra slots. That broke so many things. We're still finding things it broke 6 months later."

The zones themselves will never be purchase.VIP locked, they will be visit able, but you will need to purchase or subscribe to do the mission content.

" Will there be any chance to get some of the more expensive stuff in the packs, albeit with low chances? (i.e. the enhancement storage or other costumes)?"

Posi: "We didn't consider that. I don't know what the possibility would be. It's technically possible."

Synapse: "The Super Packs have a potentially high value than 80 points. Like 6 times 80."

Synapse thinks that the Kheldian ATIO is a bonus to whatever it is while in the forms. +Res for Dwarf, +Damage for Nova.

Quote:

Originally Posted by reiella Until I see something that states to the contrary, going to assume VK is right .

Quick work V K! Cheers

Thanks VK. Anyone remember what time the dinosaur joke was? I'm going to have to download all of them to get the gif material for everything... but don't want to have to actually listen to that joke again :P

Edit: Crud, looks like only an hour or so of the whole broadcasts were saved/recorded.

thank you, as always.

Quote:

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 wanna say about 45 minutes in? I THINK?!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

This slide from the presentation was very interesting:

Thank you VK!

Thanks again VK!

I've got the joke, but my converter is not working right. Curses!

Clever girl.



It's cute. It deserves a random gif.

Get out.



GET OUT!






I have no caption for this, aside from sorry for the picture quality.



Yes. He's beatboxing.

Ok did I hear this right...they want to sell Titan Weapons and then sell a pack that has additional skins to the Titan Weapons??? Really?? Tell me I'm wrong. This would make me wretch if it is true.

It should also be noted the 'premium' flavor the Titan Weapons will have. They said that the meat axe is apparently oozing ichor. The demon blade has glowing (flowing?) runes on it. It sounds like they put some serious work into them to make them worth an extra couple bucks.

Nothing on PVP?

...I kid I kid! Put down the blunt instuments!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Von Krieger Diabolique leaves Praetoria after the First Ward , she is attempting to become Death Incarnate by tapping into Mot's power. The Well of the Furies is not really involved in the DA story. "Ultimately Diabolique is a tangent in the storyline. DA and Mot are the centerpiece."

Why bother including them in the first place?

Meh.

Thanks for the write up VK.