Wonder what the devs regret?

Every MMO's dev team has something they regret implementing.

In Everquest, Verant actually said that they wish they could take back "Complete Heal" from Clerics. That if they could have done it a second time, they would have never put it in game to begin with. This was back sometime in 2000-2004.

In World of Warcraft, Blizzard admitted to adding arenas having been a mistake that they wish they hadn't committed. Don't quite remember when this was mentioned.

In EVE, CCP has pushed back their human player models and placed that part of the game in the backburner leaving it in the incomplete state it currently is in. Although this isn't an outright admission like the other two, it is the most recent.

I ask myself that if they could, would they have done buffing/debuffing differently? There are already some hints that they would have, with that plan way back when to give them diminishing returns. Or if they would have made Defense harder to stack for non-defense sets? I recently thought of that as I was *walking* in RWZ with my /Elec Armor brute and with just one bubble that accidentally hit me, I was at 51% Lethal/Smashing defense.

Some of my characters

They probably regret 'baking in' the visual aspects of powers. With customization such a big part of the superhero genre, that has been a stop sign to so much.

They probably wish bunching up for AoE wasn't such an overwhelming successful strategy.

I think they probably regret some aspects of the IO system - the ability cap out defense and uber high recharge.

I doubt they regret most of these things (or if they do, I doubt they lose very much sleep). Overpowered systems aren't the worst thing that can happen.

It's presumptuous for me to say this, but I can see them regretting insular systems, like Gladiators, and to a lesser degree, the whole arena system. And maybe even PvP. Someone poured blood, sweat and tears into those systems, which in turn have probably not generated the kind of player interest and investment they hoped for. If I were a developer, I know I'd want to be able to point to a piece of work and go, "See, this is why we have high retention rates, this is why people keep coming back." THAT is something I'd lose sleep over.

I wonder if the Mission Architect was seen as a potential risk, going into it. If so, then I'm glad they took it, and anyone should be--take a look at this year's Players Choice Awards in the Mission Architect forum.

Hmm one I KNOW is a dev regret, confirmed to people at a Q&A on the EU training server by Positron (back when EU and US were still seperate, infact it was back when the EU still had their own forums).

Positron said they regretted the way they had done the heroic Epic ATs, not in the sense of regretting ever having made Peacebringers and Warshades but regretted the way they were implemented and would have gone for something closer to the Soldiers/Widows of Arachnos given the chance (a force multiplyer kind of character, 1 of them is good, 3 of them is great, a full team is nigh unstoppable).

Now opinions on what they do regret.

1) Bothering with PvP at all, it was a pointless waste of time for the game, it started without PvP and the audience was never really there for it, it was always a very minor part of the game. The Gladiator system is basically pointless and hideously broken, it was the red headed step child to the already ignored subset of PvP.

2) The Mission Architect system, despite what Captain-Electric says, I reckon they do regret having wasted so much time, money and effort into a system which eventually required major nerfing in almost every patch since it was launched. The AE buildings have gone from thriving farm central to ghost towns over the course of that program. Despite a rare few like Captain-Electric, most players who aren't farming don't bother with the AE due to the lack of rewards compared to regular content.

It was a massive waste of dev time and effort IMO and I wouldn't be surprised if the devs now see it that way too.

3) Praetoria 1-20, who the hells bothers with it anymore now that you can select your starting point as hero or villain for any class without needed to go through Praetoria. Now it set up a lot of stuff later on so...I doubt this is a regret from the devs really.

I don't think they'd ever admit it, but I think that the I13 PvP changes must cause them a few moments of regret

Also, launching AE without stricter controls to stop exploits, the public announcement of the City Vault, not introducing the Inventions sytem at the same time as ED, and having to pull the Alpha slot from GR - although that one was partly our fault

I don't like to admit it (to myself or you), but I suspect you might be right about the Mission Architect. If Mission Architect was a mistake, then I'm glad they made it. I can't help but feel that way, but I know it's a selfish thing to say (if it was bad for them as a studio), like saying you're glad someone shot himself in the foot. But Issue 14 (the MA issue) is what brought me to City of Heroes. I remember the day my brother told me an online superhero game had come out with a modern day "Adventure Construction Set", a game that had captured my imagination when I was a kid.

I was playing on a trial account that evening. Since then, the MA has fulfilled most of my hopes and expectations, and continues to do so.

I can't help but think in the powers development team they sometimes regret the cottage rule with older sets. I mean it's a good policy to stick to, but I can imagine each time a new set comes out and they see how well it does they bite thing nails and swear up and down at the older powerset that they might think could use having a power or two thrown out in exchange for something better.

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.

Didn't one of the devs mention something about the Gladiator system? Like how they didn't want to touch it...or what not?


I think, also, they mention that the whole hero->villain and vice versa is an issue that they wish they could easily fix. Meaning that's why there's no combined "hero/villain" Ouroboros because Ouroboros itself is a "hack" on how they did things or something to that extent...and why we probably will never see a combined Ouroboros (because the "system (engine?)" doesn't fundamentally know if you're a "hero" or a "Villain", it just assumes you're a "hero" from the beginning or something like that).


But I'd toss in, like others, the AE system as a whole as well as the i13 PvP changes possibly.

The AE. Undoubtedly.

The amount of people Virtue lost after the AE babies swarmed in like a cloud of brain-damaged locust is staggering. Half of my global list back then sent emails saying "The game is a joke now, peace" and I never heard from them again.

I would think some regret the way they've underestimated their players so often.

PvP originally, PvP changes in i13, and AE.

Original PvP was fun. I used to spend hours and hours on my stalker in Warburg and RV.

I've asked the devs this question before at HeroCon and the Plummit.

Yes, the Arena/Gladiator concept was one of them. Several, however, said that what they regretted, they couldn't actually discuss (Hegner even says he's sworn to silence about SOMETHING or another).

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite