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October 2, 2008

PvE power changes in I13

Quoth Castle (plus preface):

Preface: Issue 13: Power and Responsibility includes a whole host of development. Not only are there significant new features, but there is also ongoing development to the existing game. A big part of the game is the balance of all the Archetypes, their respective power sets and how they compare. Maintaining a level of equity between everything is a continual goal.

For what it's worth, equity (or parity) is important, but not paramount. It's a means to an end -- having fun.

In this article, NCsoft NorCal Senior Designer Floyd “Castle” Grubb gives us the scoop on some proposed powers changes that will be in testing with Issue 13. Please keep in mind that there is still the entire testing and revision process to go through with these changes. The team is excited to see how these refinements stand up to player feedback, datamining, and the beta process.

Introduction

For Issue 13, we have a rather wide selection of PvE (Player vs. Environment) related powers changes. These changes focus on either Quality of Life concerns or on powers which were not quite in Balance with others. Below is a breakdown of what we are doing, with the aim to provide insight into the thought process behind it.

I'll note that this seems to be a higher level of explanation than we've seen in the past. Hmmmm ... I'm worried.

Energy Aura

Let's start with Energy Aura for Brutes and Stalkers. Energy Aura has had a poor reputation from the start, and while it is "balanced" with the other protective powersets using the original metrics, it has been shown that those metrics did not take certain key factors into consideration - namely Regeneration and Healing effects. Energy Aura lacked any sort of mechanic which could increase the Health or Regeneration Rate of the character, and did it have any active method of restoring Health to the character using these powers. Additionally, the set had more protection holes than others. To address these issues, the following changes are being made:

- Energy Protection: This power gained a 1.25 scale Toxic damage resist attribute for Brutes and a 1.00 scale Toxic damage resist attribute for Stalkers. Energy Aura, being a typed defense set, had no protection against these types of attacks unless they were 'packaged' with a lethal attack of some sort.

- Energy Drain: Added a 2 scale self heal to each target affected by this power. Un-slotted, the player will recover 2% of their maximum HP per target affected. This can be enhanced to up to about 4% per target. This change was made to offer the power set some minor healing ability to increase their survivability but not offer an overwhelming heal.

I'm not sure that's enough to answer the complaints about the power -- but it can't hurt.

Invulnerability

Invulnerability has a few issues, mainly stemming from lack of special resistances and "weak" power choices. Here are the changes that are being made:

- Unyielding: We removed the Defense Debuff from this power. While we still believe it fit thematically, the impact on low level characters was more severe than desired.

- Invincibility: Reduce per target Defense Buff to from scale 0.15 to scale 0.1. The overall result of this and the Unyielding change is, if you have the maximum number of targets in this powers radius, you have the same protection as from Issue 12, but if you have fewer targets, your net defense is higher.

- Resist Physical Damage: Added 25% Defense Debuff Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.

- Tough Hide: Added 25% Defense Debuff Resistance.

- Resist Energies: Added 25% Endurance Debuff Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.

- Resist Elements: Added 20% Movement Slow Resistance. Increased damage resistance scale from 0.75 to 1.00.

Huh. Those actually sound like nice positive tweaks.

Kheldians

Peacebringers and Warshades, as Archetypes, have an interesting history and reputation among players. It seems as if no one is neutral about them -- they are either loved or hated. This isn't much of a surprise; they were always meant to require more player decision making and compromise than the base Archetypes. However, certain technological restrictions combined with the "facts" of high level play ultimately proved that the Kheldians were even harder than originally expected. With Issue 12's introduction of the Villain Epic Archetypes, we took some time to re-evaluate where the Kheldians were and what we wanted to do with them. Here is what we are planning:

- Cosmic Balance: This power now functions while shapeshifted -- Dwarf and Nova forms gain the same benefits as human form.

- Dark Sustenance: This power now functions while shapeshifted -- Dwarf and Nova forms gain the same benefits as human form.

- Gleaming Bolt, Glinting Eye, Gleaming Blast, Luminous Detonation, Shadow Bolt, Ebon Eye, Gravimetric Snare, Shadow Blast and Dark Matter Detonation: Increased base Range to 80'. This makes Human form Kheldians ranged capabilities more useful overall. The 80' range meshes more evenly with other Ranged AT's capabilities.

- Peacebringer AT Multipliers: increased Human form Melee Damage multiple to 0.85, increased Human form Range Damage multiple to 0.8 and increased Dwarf Form Melee Damage multiple to 1.0.

- Warshade AT Multipliers: increased Human form Melee Damage multiple to 0.85, increased Human form Range Damage multiple to 0.8 and increased Dwarf Form Melee Damage multiple to 1.0.

- Dwarf Form: You may now shift into Dwarf Form even while Held, Slept or Stunned.

I've never successfully done much with Kheldians, but this all sounds pretty helpful.

Toggle Powers

One important additional piece of development to mention, that is especially relevant to Kheldians and their toggle powers is: in Issue 13, Toggles are no longer shut off due to Hold, Sleep or Disorient effects. This is a major gameplay change, and it is not restricted to Kheldians, but instead applies to all non-offensive player toggles. As part of changes in Issue 13, when a player is affected by a hold, sleep or stun, any toggle power they are running will continue and will still draw endurance from the character. However, some or all of its effects may be suppressed until such time as the hold, sleep or stun is removed. For example, if you are held while in Black Dwarf form, all of your Damage Resistance values, your recovery bonus and knockback protection are suppressed, while your hold, stun, sleep, immobilize and confuse protections remain in effect. Monitoring your stats with the "Real Numbers" tool is a good way to check which aspects of a toggle are suppressed and which are not.

Huh. That's net a nice QoL advantage. Sure, endurance loss and some suppression, but no constantly having to re-up your toggles after you're mezzed? Priceless!

Note that Castle also noted that "If the toggle affects anyone but the caster, it does not get the protection. This is one of the key things I'll be watching on the training room -- I know there are rough spots in it, and want to iron those out before Live." But he also notes "Toggles that affect self and allies (ie: Leadership, Dispersion Bubble) gain the same protection."

And also: "If the Hold doesn't overcome the Fly attribute, you will simply take a nap in mid air."

War Mace

An ongoing project over the last several issues has been bringing War Mace up to performance par with other powersets. The last set of changes got us close, but still not to where we want to be. Here are the changes:

- Clobber: Reduced Recharge Time to 16 seconds and alter damage scale and endurance costs to match using the standard formula. This means it it now a pretty hard hitting attack, with a damage scale of 2.29 and a base endurance cost of 15.18. Since this is now classified as a Damage power rather than a control power, the base duration of the Stun effect was reduced from scale 10 to scale 5.

- Shatter: Reduced Max Targets Hit from 10 to 5.

- Crowd Control: Increased Max Targets Hit from 5 to 10.

Margie can speak better to this, having run Hildy up to 50. It sounds good.

Misc

There are numerous smaller changes going into Issue 13. While you all will get to see the final product in what makes it into the patch notes, there are a few other changes I want to let you know about.

- Fiery Aura Temperature Protection: Now provides 20% movement reduction protection.

- Dark Melee Midnight Grasp: This power has been rebalanced to provide the majority of it's damage as a front loaded sum (scale 2.21), followed by a shorter, small damage DOT. Overall damage has increased, as has the amount of damage done on a 'Critical.'

One of Amorpha's favorite powers. Sounds more favorite now.

- Energy Melee Barrage: We increased the effectiveness of this power by increasing Damage per Activation. We increased Recharge time from 2 seconds to 6 seconds and change the damage and endurance costs accordingly. The smashing component of the damage is now 2 hits of scale 0.5 damage, and the energy portion is now 2 hits of scale 0.16 damage for a combined scale 1.32 damage.

I've used this on a couple of characters, like Eliza Dee.  More damage is good, of course. 

These are the highlights, and there are several other changes which are still in a state of flux (stalkers Claws, for instance.) I hope you all like the changes. We are really looking forward for this all to hit the Training Room so you folks can bang on them and tell us how the changes feel! Your feedback is critical for these and other changes that we make to the game.

So ... not much nerfy here in the way of powers changes.


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September 29, 2008

I13 - Epic Power Pools

Another I13 interview, this one at Ten Ton Hammer. Most is stuff recapped before, but a few items stood out.

Ten Ton Hammer: Can you talk about the power rebalancing at all? How are you balancing you PvP and PvE powers? 

Matt: One of the things when we started the studio was to make hires in the "Powers" department. Not only do we have more people to work on the powers, but we can also now take a fine-toothed comb to the power system and get some data mining and cold hard facts on the powers and how they're being used.

To start, we rebalanced the Patron powers and the Epic powers that villains and heroes get so they're more in line with each other. We looked at what players were picking more often and changed some powers completely and pruned some powers.

In addition, we wanted to make sure PvP remained fun. We were getting into a situation with the games because PvP was getting less and less fun because of how some powers interacted with players. Back then, we couldn't adjust the powers without having an adjustment made in PvE as well. Basically, we got more people, had more code time, and created a new technology system so that when you're in a PvP zone some powers act very differently than what they do in PvE. Hopefully this will bring a more balanced PvP game to the CoX franchise and allow new players to find this enjoyable. 

 

Which makes it sound like the Epic Pool Powers are going to get a bit of love. Which is good, because there are a lot of characters I've mapped out where they were pretty much unnecessary, or fairly trivial adds to the build.

In online threads, Castle notes that the precise changes won't be announced until Beta.

 


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September 26, 2008

Still more I13 stuff

The Massively Interview with Posi: Brian Clayton and Matt Miller on Power and Responsibility in City of Heroes - Massively 

(I'm not duplicating stuff I've already covered in detail in the previous couple of posts.)

The Merit System

Massively: The Merit System rewards were previously announced for Issue 13, and you're still going to be pushing forward with that. We wanted to ask you about the Hamidon, and whether that's been given a large merit reward? Also, whether players will be getting merits for doing Ouroboros flashback arc missions?

Matt Miller: Players will be getting merits for doing Ouroboros flashback stuff, as well as for story arcs – any story arc in the game that they complete. As for the Hamidon, yes, they have a choice between getting a Hamidon enhancement or getting the Merit reward. I don't know how many Merits that is, but I will say that all the Merit reward values are based on the datamines we did on basically how quickly players typically did these things. So it really became a 'time versus reward' mechanism. So the really fast stuff gets a small amount of rewards, whereas the really long stuff gets a larger amount of rewards.

Massively: What kind of things are players going to be able to spend their Merits on?

Matt Miller: Basically, the cool stuff that they're striving to attain by repeating these missions over and over again, like Invention recipes, the harder-to-get Enhancements, things like that.

 

My thought? Meh. I mean, actually this is a plus and an encouragement to do arcs (vs police band missions), but anything that adds additional complexity to the marketplace in CoX is not a step in the right directoin.

Day Jobs and Costumes

Massively: For Day Jobs, what kind of costumes are we going to be seeing when that system goes into the game with Issue 13?

Matt Miller: So we've had Jay working on a lot of civilian clothing for this feature. He's done a myriad of different suits, from single-breasted, double-breasted, two, three and four-button, bolo ties, normal ties, bow ties, pinstripe – you know, striped suits, like many different varieties of that... sweaters, sweater vests, and then the police uniforms. We've got a ton of different police uniforms. We're even including a really cool police belt, with all the accoutrements on that. I can see a lot of players just grabbing that and putting it on their tech characters and gadget characters, just because it looks so cool.

 

Actually, the best thing about this is that it opens up more civilian costumes -- something that CoX has lagged at. A surprising number of my alts aren't elaborately dressed power armor sorts, but just like t hang out in normal clothing. And, heck, Psi-clone could use a few new suits in his closet ...

The Leveling Pact

[...]
Matt Miller: It's definitely one of those features that came to us based on a lot of feedback we had from our players, and especially our friends who are playing the game. They came to us and said 'You know, I like playing the game, and I like the sidekicking system, but I'm getting to a point where my friends are so far outleveling me that they don't want to exemplar down and do my stuff because they've already done it before. Is there any way that we can stay more in synch?'

So we had this idea for the Leveling Pact: essentially splitting each character's XP gain directly in half and just distributing it across two characters whether they're offline or online. And we said: 'You know what? There's a system here. This is a workable system. This is really innovative, and this is taking a new step in sidekicking, making sure that you and your friend are always able to play the game together, and will always be the same level.'

Massively: So basically the main character's XP gain is halved, and the other part is given to the buddy?

Matt Miller: Yeah, basically both characters when they earn XP, they go through all the calculations for earning XP – how much they're supposed to get, based on their team size, what they defeated – every calculation possible in the game, and at the very end it's divided in two and each person in the pact gets their share.

Massively: So the obvious question there, and Brian, this might be more to you, is from a business standpoint, this seems like it might be a dangerous ground to walk for powerleveling services. Because there's some obvious ways that this could be taken advantage of by those kinds of guys. Is that a concern for the company?

Brian Clayton: Sure. I mean, it's absolutely a concern. It's a concern that we deal with today, without the system. Really, what we're trying to do is build opportunities for our players to play the games in the way they want to. We'll continue to enforce our policies, and do everything we can to mitigate powerleveling services and things like that. But more importantly, this is a feature that our customers have been asking for, and it's a feature that we want to provide them with. Arguably, you could say we're making it easier for some of these powerleveling services, but at the same time we're probably improving the grouping experience for a substantial amount of our customers.

Matt Miller: There's actually less incentive now to use a powerleveling service, because now instead of paying someone to powerlevel my guy, I can actually have my friend play... and I'm not giving up my play time to some other service. I actually get to play whenever I want to on my character. And my friend gets to play whenever he wants to on his character, and we're both leveling at the same rate.

 

I continue to think this is awesome. And the PLing service? Yeah, I suppose -- though it's going to take a PLing service twice as long to LP me up to whatever than it would for them to simply take over my character for the week.

Alternate Builds

Massively:There's a ton of new features that you guys are putting in here to go along with the leveling pact and to make up for Architect being moved over a little bit. Can you talk about multi-builds a little bit? Is there going to be a minimum level after which the feature's going to become available?

Matt Miller: Yeah, I believe it's level 10. We're going to be experimenting with it in Closed Beta and seeing where's a good point to introduce this concept. Because it is a fairly complex concept and we don't want the new players to have to deal with it right away, at level 1! It's around 10 or 15, when you pretty much know how your character's playing, and an alternate build would probably be of actual benefit to you.

Basically, what it is is you get to create a new character, the same level and archetype and powersets as your other character, and you can switch between them. You get a respec that doesn't actually change your main set of powers, but you level up that character, you pick where the slots go, you pick what powers you want, you slot those with Enhancements, and that's your alternate build.

Massively: So basically you create the character, and he has the archetype and he has the power selections that he has when you make the character, but then you can switch what powers you have selected over the course of your career at a specific NPC, right?

Matt Miller: Yep!

 

I don't see using this much, but I think the implications for PvP/PvE builds is massive.

Base Changes

[...]
Matt Miller: One of the first things coming for base changes is going to be in Issue 13, and that is a repricing for a lot of things that supergroups can purchase for their bases. We're lowering a lot of the Prestige costs on not only rooms and base plot sizes, but for items as well, to make them more affordable. We have a lot of datamining now. We know exactly what plot sizes and rooms supergroups can afford. And so we're going through and we're making sure that more supergroups can afford those cooler rooms and those cooler base items, and things like that.

And in addition, one of the things we're doing is we're getting rid of the Base Salvage out of the game, because a lot of the players were getting confused with the Invention Salvage, since they both get the same kind of message. Players get excited when they get Invention Salvage, and then they get disappointed when they find out it was only Base Salvage, especially if they don't have a supergroup or their supergroup doesn't really need the Base Salvage any more. So what we're going to do is we're going to get rid of the Base Salvage, and just make everything that's currently craftable in the bases from salvage, craftable through that Invention Salvage as well.

 

I would also expect this would raise the price of Invention Salvage, since it's now used for both. But, ultimately, it simplifies the marketplace, which is a good thing.

In other info in the article: more Midnight Club / Cimaroa content in I13, big story arc bits in I15, and more research ongoing into "switching sides" but no announced issue. 
 


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September 25, 2008

More I13 stuff

Another official page:

 

Day Jobs (Offline Character Progression)

Scholar? Caregiver? City Official? Now when players log out of City of Heroes / Villains they’re just getting started! A character’s day job is determined by the actual in-game location from which he or she logs out. If players log out from a University their day job is considered to be a Scholar. If they log out from City Hall they're a City Official. The benefits are thematically appropriate to the location. For example, a City Official earns extra Influence, a Scholar is granted Salvage, a Caregiver is granted Health Regeneration Buffs, etc.

Once characters have accumulated the required amount of time for each Day Job, they are rewarded with the appropriate Day Job Badge and Title, increasing their “earnings” for that job. Multiple Badges can be combined to unlock Accolades and the ability to accumulate additional new rewards. Almost every location within Paragon City and the Rogue Isles has an associated Day Job, resulting in a wide selection of jobs and rewards!

Dave says: Cool. Yeah, I can imagine folks being unhappy over the non-RP nature of it. Whatever. I think it's good. 

Multiple Builds

Another character customization option and City of Heroes innovation, Issue 13 delivers the ability to have two different build-outs for each character, including which powers are selected and which Enhancements are slotted. With this feature it will now be possible for all characters to diversify their game experience by visiting any Trainer and switching the entire build of their character to an alternate one. You can use this separate build for whatever you like. If you wish to use different power selections for soloing and groups, you can do that. This even makes it possible to have different IO sets slotted for PVP and PVE. This new system gives characters the added depth and flexibility to tackle any challenge!

Dave says: Excellent idea.  

New Powersets

Dave says: Pain isn't someting I'm likely to do; Shields is okay, and I'll probably try something with it, but it's not something I'm wildly excited about. 

Leveling Pact

A new innovation to MMOs, this system allows you and a friend to create new characters and have your XP be permanently in sync, whether both characters are online or not. You will always be the same level, even if your friend plays ten times more often than you do! It's sort of like "Extreme Sidekicking."

Dave says: Excellent idea. 

The Merit Rewards System

A new game system that allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Raids, etc. The most challenging and time consuming tasks grant the most reward tokens, which can be redeemed throughout Hero and Villain zones for recipes, enhancements, salvage, costume pieces, badges, inspirations and other game items.

Dave says: Not sure we need another currency / thing to collect. Whatever. 

Villain Patron Power Respec

Villains level 40 and above can respec (re-select) their Patron Powers, offering the same flexibility that heroes are afforded with Ancillary Powers.

Dave says: N/A. 

Supergroup Base Repricing

Base Salvage is being replaced with Invention Salvage and all Base room and item prices are being adjusted to more accessible levels. Remaining base salvage can be traded in for invention salvage, or can continue to be stored in base and personal storage.

Dave says: Simplifying the salvage system can only be a good thing. Making base costs more "accessible" is also a good thing. 

PvE and PvP Powers Rebalancing

More details to come shortly, directly from Powers Designer Floyd "Castle" Grubb.

Dave says: Yay. 

New Cimerora Missions

New Hero and Villain story arcs expand upon the history and lore, and delve into the players and politics of Cimerora.

Dave says: I'll confess that the Cimerora stuff doesn't wow me.  

Other features

New Invention Origin Sets, new Costume Sets, Zone Refinements, and more!

Dave says: I have new and other feelings about this, too. 


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CoX - I13 and I14 announced

Official NCSoft news from Positron. It seems that too many folks complained (unjustly, IMO, but ...) about not being able to create custom villains/allies in the announced Mission Architect system. So they're going to add that in -- but push back the whole system to I14, in 2009Q1. In the meantime, we get I13 going into beta Real Soon Now with all sorts of keenness:

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility
Issue 13: Power and Responsibility will contain the bulk of features we've announced previously, including:
 

  • Shield and Pain Domination powersets
  • Merit Reward system
  • Day Jobs (that include a suite of new costume pieces)
  • Additional Cimerora and Midnight Squad mission arcs

In addition, we have some other new exciting features to reveal that will be included in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility. These include:

  • Leveling Pact
  • Multi-Builds
  • PvE & PvP Powers rebalancing
  • Villain Patron Power Respec
  • Supergroup Base Repricing

Which looks like a fine set of stuff for a new Issue. But its some of the prevoiusly-unannounced bits that have me seriously jonesing:

The Leveling Pact: A new innovation to MMOs, this groundbreaking system allows you and a buddy to create new characters and have your XP be permanently in sync, whether both characters are online or not. You will always be the same level, even if your buddy plays ten times more often than you do! It's sort of like "Extreme Sidekicking."

This makes me very excited. As a committed duo-er, there are a lot of ways this could be incredibly fun. Heck, depending on how it's implemented, I could see being in a "committed duo" with some of my solo characters, without having to worry about leaving my partner behind.

Multi-Builds: Another innovation to City of Heroes, we are delivering the ability to have two different build-outs of each character, including which powers are selected and which Enhancements are slotted. This will now be possible for characters who want to take advantage of it. By visiting any Trainer you can switch the entire build of your character to an alternate one. You can use this separate build for whatever you like. If you wish to use different power selections for soloing and groups, you can do that. This even makes it possible to have different IO sets slotted for PVP and PVE. It's up to you.

This is another amazingly powerful ability. It flattens the whole "PvE vs PvP" build gap (not something I've ever worried about, but something I've found annoying to read of). It also has some interesting RP capabilities. And, better yet, it lets you test a character build without having to spend time on the Test server. Excellent!

PvE and PvP Powers Rebalancing: Floyd "Castle" Grubb and the powers designers have been hard at work in finding ways to strike a better balance between the many powers in the game. The scope of what they are doing is too broad to go into details here, but we're very excited and we'll share more information soon. Suffice it to say that we know that you don't want your PvE powers adjusted because of how they play in PvP, so we're taking a new tact in power balancing with Issue 13.

Welcome news, since the consensus is that most PvE nerfs are due to PvP abuses (and some in the other direction, too). Clearly this is a result of the Multi-Builds thing.

(Note to Posi -- it's "taking a new tack," not "new tact.")

Summary
Issue 13 was so big we had to turn it into two releases, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility and Issue 14: Architect. Issue 13 will be going into beta soon and launching this Fall. It will include most of the previously announced features of Issue 13, and then some. Issue 14: Architect will include the full-featured Mission Architect and is scheduled to launch to the live servers in Q1, 2009. I am really looking forward to getting Issue 13 into your hands as soon as possible, and starting off a kick-ass 2009 with the release of Mission Architect.

Very cool. I look forward to hearing more details.


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September 15, 2008

LotRO - Damage Types

Doyce shares a fine article on "Damage Types and Great Protection." On the one hand, it feels like, "oh, one more thing to have to keep track of," but I think it's an important aspect of Middle Earth -- just think of those trusty blades of Westernesse and the enchantments woven about them from the books, etc.


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September 2, 2008

CoX - More Mission Architect Stiff

This time it's Hero 1's turn:

An Arc being placed in Dev Choice is not how additional content is unlocked for Architects. That's handled through straight peer review. The better your Arcs, the more stuff you get to put in missions. The amount of stuff we lock on unlock is something we're going to tweak as time goes on.

So your access to the editor, to make new mssions, becomes more robust and rich as you get whuffie from other players? Hmmm. On the one hand, cool. On the other hand, subject (it would seem) to a lot of abuse.

Dev Choice missions unlock full XP and Influence for an Arc.

Good.

Zombie Man pointed this out, but I feel it needs to be mentioned again. Voting is per account, not character. So, even if everyone in your SG group gives you five stars on an Arc, you still have the other hundred thousand plus players to balance it out.

True enough -- but how many votes will it take for a mission to get whatever it is that you get? 

And, to be honest, I'd just as soon not start a new industry in people saying, "Hey, can you vote for my Story Arc?" on Broadcast, or in missions, or whatever.

Players are rewarded for playing, creating and rating Arcs.

Okay, that's interesting -- rewards for playing (beyond XP and inf?), creating (beyond better editing tools?), and rating Arcs? So there's an incentive to play a lot of player-generated content and rate it (can you only rate it at mission completion?).

Players will be able to publish somewhere around half a dozen or so Arcs up to our Arc server. An Arc is anywhere from one to five missions.

Okay, useful numbers.

There are a number of different categories that created content will fall into.

  • Quickplay, displays the highest rated content you haven't played.
  • Dev Choice, displays content that the devs feel best reflects what the Mission Architect can be.
  • Hall of Fame, the best of the best voted entirely by the players.

Content that reaches the Hall of Fame level, and potentially even the Dev Choice section, will unlock additional Arc slots for those creators. This is an incentive to create content that the players and the devs enjoy.

Though that does raise the issue of how people find new content in the first place, as visibility of content rises as visibility of content rises.

At any point you can "unpublish" your Arc to free up an additional slot. Arcs that have reached the Hall of Fame or Dev Choice level will be locked, but you'll have a new slot to create another super cool Arc.

Cut scenes will not be open at launch. As Positron says, "I wouldn't wish that system on anyone."

Fair enough.

Stories picked as Dev Choice, will not become canon in our game. If and I mean IF that ever were to happen, it would have to be a pretty big deal.

 I will be interested to see the disclaimers around this system (presumably all content created belongs to the Company).

Players will be able to place multiple objectives within a single mission (boss, defeat, rescue, pet, ambush, etc.). They'll also be able to weave characters and story through out multiple missions in a single arc. They can even create multiple arcs that build upon each other. Hopefully, for most this is seen as something more than just the simple police/radio missions.

It sounds like it will, indeed, be more -- or can be.

And now for the big one. Allowing players to add in their own characters is an obvious direction to take this feature. We'd be stupid not to give it to you guys. It is however non trivial to do so, especially when we start allowing those characters to use player picked powers. So, know that you will be able to do this. It just might not be at the launch of the feature.

Good enough. From what's already described, there seem to be plenty of possibilities.

In the end, please know that the Mission Architect is designed to allow creative people to tell their stories, while also rewarding those who play these stories. This is the goal we push towards. In the end, it will never be everything to everyone, but it will hopefully be more than enough to more than a few.

Sounds pretty good to me!


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September 1, 2008

CoX - Mission Architect info

Positron on the Mission Architect system (info as revealed at PAX):

Mission Architect is whatever text you enter, on the specific map you call (and we have over 1000 different maps in the game), with AT LEAST one objective, but more likely more, with the ability to have allied NPCs (you want to rescue Statesman in the beginning of the map and have him fight WITH you the rest of the way? Done). There are even some objective types going into mission maker that we didn't even have access to AS DEVELOPERS until Issue 12. There are over 100 different things you can customize in the story arc, and most of those have multiple choices to pick from.

 

Well, it sounds somewhat multiple-choice, but with lots of areas to work with.

Yes, you will not be able to custom build a character and have them appear. Primarily this is because of the way the AI handles powers. Some powers simply don't work when in the hands of the AI (Mastermind summoning is one example). One of our goals is to put the ability to take an existing Enemy Boss, and change their costume to one you design. Since those powers and AI have all been pre-programmed this can be done without involving ringing Castle up at 2am to debug the AI on the guy in your custom mission. While this is a stretch goal for launch, we want to get this ability into your hands as soon as possible.

 

Somewhat unfortunate, since one of the questions everyone was asking was whether they could put their own characters into adventures as NPCs. You will also be able to (per this) rename those Enemy Bosses.

You WILL get XP and Inf. during Mission Architect missions. I don't believe we ever said you wouldn't. We only said that you won't get it at the same rate as normal-developer-designed content. Why? Well we have all sorts of COOL stuff coming for you in upcoming issues that doesn't involve Mission Architect and we'd like you to try that out too (rewarding you for doing so).

 

So XP and Inf, but at a lower rate. That's a shame, though understandable to avoid farming missions.

You get to choose what contact gives out your Story Arc, picking from a list of all the available contacts in the game. Eventually you'll have the same "customization" options as the custom bosses.

 

Ah. So I infer that when you go to a contact, s/he will have an option for user-designed content.

As for your limited number of Story Arcs. You will have a limited number of PUBLISHED Arcs, you can have TONS of unpublished arcs you are working on, that are not ready for prime-time. If one of your arcs gets enough positive feedback to get into the Hall of Fame, it "graduates" from being one of your published arcs, freeing up that slot for you to put something else in.

 

So you can create missions as part of a "Story Arc" -- with a limit on how many of these arcs you can be building -- but if it gets into the "Hall of Fame," that frees up that slot. Interesting. And per this, one-off missions count as a (one mission) arc.

I'll confess that one of my concerns over the Hall of Fame is that it's as likely to be a popularity contest (SG members get an advantage) as anything else.

We are WELL AWARE of the customer service issues involved in the content of the missions. We have all seen the Spore Creature Creator, and we know the TTD ratio on player created content in measured in nanoseconds. We have thought of a LOT of the angles already. Publishing a mission, getting a high rating, then pulling it down and changing the text to something inappropriate is something we take VERY seriously.

 

The question is, how strongly will they monitor it?

Good stuff, though. I think everyone will be playing with this.

 


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August 30, 2008

LotRO - Two Slots!

Even though I'm not playing, Avo posted (in a previous comment) this post of his wherein he learns some stuff that's coming up in LotRO, based on his visit to PAX: Carpe Jugulum • View topic - TWO SLOTS! 

Sounds like a fun time!


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August 29, 2008

CoX - Margie reads the boards

Commentary / items related:

1. How about a Zookeeper Mastermind ... including Rikti Monkey pets!

2. Some hardcore RPers are upset over the "Day Job" I13 feature. "How dare you force my character to be an X when I sign off at Y That's completely out of character!" Um ... okay, so ignore it. Or sign off at a "I'm on Patrol" place.

3. People are speculating about the home-grown Mission stuff for I13, too. How will the Mission Builder be accessed? More importantly, how will the missions themselves be accessed. (My guess for the latter -- all those near-useless kiosks out there. At least on the Hero side.)


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August 26, 2008

CoX - I13 News

Via Greppo, it's the I13 sneak peak! Hightlights:

Mission Architect: design your own missions and story arcs. Very spiffy (and, I suspect, a lot harder to make something interesting than it will seem). On the other hand, on a low level, this now means an unlimited pool of new (user-rated) content.

Day Jobs: While you're offline, depending on where you park, you go to your "day job" -- e.g., if you park in City Hall, you work as a City Official, which earns you extra influence; if you log out in a University, you're working as a Scholar, which earns you salvage. Keep doing it, and Day Job Badges and Titles result in a higher "salary," etc. 

This is CoX's version of other games which give you "stuff" even while you're not on with your toon, which is kind of nice.

Power Sets: Shields! Pain Domination! The former is open to both sides; the latter is only for Villains (the opposite of Empathy).

More Cimerora Missions. That reminds me -- we need to run some.

Merit Rewards: Okay, this sounds interesting:

A new game system that allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Raids, etc. The most challenging and time consuming tasks grant the most reward tokens, which can be redeemed throughout Hero and Villain zones for recipes, enhancements, salvage, costume pieces, badges, inspirations and other game items.

 

Hmmm. And how is that going to differ from Influence? And if there is a distinct difference, is that fair to folks who solo/duo and never run in Trials/TFs/SFs/,etc?

Etc.: New IO sets, Costume sets, Patron Power respec, Zone Refinements, and more.

Nothing earth-shattering, but a nice release. The boards have it that it may not go live until after the Winter Event kicks in, but they are trying to make it still happen in 2008.


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Phasing

Doyce points to a cool article on "phasing" content in MMOs. The idea is to strike a balance between a static world and a heavily instanced one.

Brack gives the example of a quest where a player needs to rescue villagers from a Scourge-infested town. Players who complete the quest will see the villagers they've rescued back at the quest hub whereas players who haven't done the quest will not. WoW Insider's Alex Ziebart experienced the same after doing a series of quests involving the Wind Serpent Goddess, who appeared for him in town after completing her quests. She was there only for him and wasn't visible to other players (who presumably haven't done the quest series). It's a new way to bring a new experience to players without having to load anything (such as in instances).

 

It's an interesting idea to fight an age-old problem in MMOs -- how do players know that they are having an impact? Taking CoX as an example, no matter what I do as a hero (or villain), the only thing that really changes is myself. Yes, I get passers-by discussing my virtues/vices, and, yes, the contacts may mention something based on the last mission I fought. But, really, the world around me and the NPCs I interact with don't really change one whit no matter what I do.

The previous alternative to this was to deal with instances. This could be small-scale -- in CoX, something that happens at the end of a mission -- or it could be large-scale -- the wholesale change in the world in LotRO when you complete initial half-dozen levels (the best example of which is the one for humans/hobbits, where the town is now recovering from the fires and bloodshed of the brigand raid).

Phasing, instead, "simply" tailors what characters see and hear based on stuff they've done. A simple example in CoX (were this implemented there) would be if, after the Ernesto Hess TF, the big central "mountain" on Striga was a broken-topped smoking ruin ... for you. For someone who hadn't done the TF, it would still look intact.

That points out the key problem with phasing, which is that two players, side by side, might experience very different things.  If I'm teaming with some folks who haven't done the Hess TF, and make reference to that cool smoking ruin, they'd think I was nuts. It would (further) strain the suspension of belief for doing the TF a second time (either while at level, or mentored down).

I can imagine it being used in more subtle ways, though, that would be less jarring. Perhaps a "Thank You, Captain Ultra" banner over a building (that each person might see with their own name). Maybe if you've gotten certain hunt badges, the text that those hunted groups use in dialog with you changes. Or perhaps a mission that changes how you (graphically) see certain bad guys (or good guys) -- as more or less menacing -- in future encounters.

Anything that helps tailor the MMO experience more to the individual, while still maintaining that "mass" community, is a good thing.

 

 


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July 6, 2008

LotRO - Online vs Desktop gaming

Doyce shows how you can really do a good job of simulating LotRO using out-of-the-box D&D 4th Edition rules. Geeky goodness! random average: The One Where He Totally Geeked Out Like a Mid-1980s Gamer Nerd ((Hacking DnD 4 into Lord of the Rings)) 


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June 24, 2008

CoX - Roots

Current rules on what sort of powers will root (keep you from doing other things during activation) and which ones won't:

Toggle Powers:

Toggle powers that root should all only root for 45 frames (1.5 seconds), after which the animation should be interruptible by movement or other power animations.

Click Powers:

There can be exceptions to any of the above rules as deemed necessary.


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May 23, 2008

CoX: I12 as a Comic Book

This PDF download explains all about I12 -- and quite amusingly.


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May 20, 2008

CoX: I12 Patch Notes

Patch notes! Comments in italics.

 

The Midnight Squad story arcs (Hero and Villain)
For generations, the Midnight Squad has dedicated their lives to protect the world from worldly and dimensional threats. Now, they need the help of the Heroes of Paragon City and the Villains of the Rogue Isles to finally rid the world of Rikti. Heroes and Villains must cross through time and journey to an ancient land to find knowledge long forgotten and battle ancient foes. -- New content is always nice, though I'm not wildly ravenous to get to it. Margie's played a bit of it, considers it a "fun little set of stuff."

New Zone : Cimerora
Cimerora is a hub zone (like Ouroboros) with features such as:

New Task Force : “Time’s Arrow”  

Character Origin Missions (Hero and Villain)
Where did Origins come from? How are they connected? How long have they existed? -- Glad to hear we're getting something with Origins other than just different stores and trainee powers. 

Villain Epic Archetypes: -- more below on this. 

Hollows Revamp
The Hollows has received a game-play upgrade including: -- Yay! Hooray! 

Loading Screen Tips 

Powerset Proliferation  

While researching the energy strands that all super powered beings tap into, Dr. Brainstorm caused a massive release of energy that imbalanced the energy grid surrounding the powers nexus.

As a result, it appears that heroes and villains now have access to powers that previously were unavailable to them.

Blaster 

  • New Primary - Psychic Blast -- Probably what I'll be playing with. Nice damage enhancement. Definitely not overpowered. Not a lot of AoE.
  • New Secondary - Mental Manipulation -- PBAoE Confuse! Yay! But not as control-heavy as other blaster secondaries.

Brute 

  • New Primary - Battle Axe
  • New Primary - War Mace
  • New Secondary - Super Reflexes

Controller 

  • New Primary - Plant Control -- Margie really wanted to like this, but found it frustrating in a lot of ways (Mass Sleep + AoE Attacks = Huh?)
  • New Secondary - Thermal Radiation -- Margie says a nice utility set.

Corruptor 

  • New Primary - Electrical Blast
  • New Secondary - Storm Summoning

Defender 

  • New Primary - Cold Domination
  • New Secondary - Ice Blast

Dominator 

  • New Primary - Earth Control
  • New Secondary - Electricity Assault

Mastermind 

  • New Secondary - Storm Summoning -- Margie had a blast ... worked really well with Mercs. Great for soloing. Tank for your pets!

Scrapper 

  • New Primary - Fiery Melee -- Margie opines this is *very* fun. Kind of blappy. A bit endurance-heavy.
  • New Secondary - Fiery Aura

Stalker 

  • New Primary - Electric Melee
  • New Secondary - Electric Armor

Tanker 

  • New Primary - Dark Armor -- Annoying. Better, maybe, with a team. Endurance pig. Very expensive self-heal.
  • New Secondary - Dark Melee

Optional Character Slots Purchases -- This is nice. 

User Interface: 

Email 

Power Trays 

Player Notes: 

In-Depth Power Information 

Detailed Power Information is now available at Power Selection, Level up, Respec, and Enhancement placing screen as well as a new tab in the info window. This information shows the powers basic data along with every effect the power has. -- Folks who like numbers will love all this. 

Improved Character Creator 

Players may now select a costume set theme from the new “Costume Sets” drop down menu in the Character creation process and the Tailor (for Heroes) or Facemaker (for Villains). -- Very convenient to start with a "baseline" costume set. 

The Costume Sets revolve around existing and new Costume sets. Some Costume Sets are unlocked through gameplay achievements, Veteran Rewards (i.e. the Boxer set) or by Costume Pack purchase (i.e. the “Good Versus Evil” Justice and Sinister costumes or the Wedding Pack).

Local Settings 

Most user options can now be saved to file and loaded from file. If a default setting file is saved, all newly created characters will use the default file to set initial options. The options window has buttons added to save and load default files. Non-default files can be saved and loaded via slash commands. -- Yay! 

General Options 

Window Configuration 

Chat Tab Configuration 

Chat System Revamp 

Player Names are now clickable in the chat window, brings up a menu you can use to: -- This is *very* nice. A lot easier to do this stuff via the chat window than retyping names -- especially when there's a stray hyphen or period or apostrophe in them. 

Clicking the channel name of a global chat channel will give these options:

Right-Clicking a players name in a global chat channel that you are a moderator of will give additional options:

Powers, Enhancements, Recipes, Inspirations, and Salvage are now linkable in chat

Under the chat options section, there is new item "Individual Name Colors" which will display each name in the chat window its own color.

Pet combat messages are now sent to the pet owner. Added channels Pet Damage Inflicted, Pet Combat, Pet Damage Received, Pet Healing Received, Pet Healing Delivered, and Pet Hit Rolls. Newly created Masterminds will have a "Pet Combat" tab added.

 

Global Chat Changes

Global Names and Local Server names are now transparent. The invisible wall between global and local identities has been removed, so that if you know another player’s Local Server Name, then you will be able to find out their Global name by using the following commands : -- These changes are all very interesting -- and the subject of much angst and worry from some parties on the board. Not something I worry about all that much. 

/hide and /ghide will now bring up an option dialog where you can separately choose to hide from Global Chat Channels, Global Friends, Server Friends, Supergroup, and Searches.
In addition there are commands to individually set each of these options:

Changed /ignore and /gignore functionality. Using either command will ignore that user on all global channels as well as all local characters and any new characters they create.


Increased Max Friends to 200


Ignore list size had been increased to 200.


Players are now allowed to have 10 Global channels.

 

Zone Event System Message Channels 

Inspiration Improvements 

You can now combine 3 inspirations of the same type and strength into a different inspiration of the same strength, this is accessible via the context menu for qualified inspirations. -- Not sure I'm inclined to do this, or to remember to do it, but a nice feature.
Also added slash commands for inspirations:

Leveling Up Bonus 

Leveling up will refill health and endurance!

In addition to restoring the player to full health and endurance, leveling up will now greatly inspire the player. -- I.e., level up makes someone uber for a brief time ... which is kind of nice. 

 

Combat Attribute Window Improvements 

Added commands to add or remove attributes form the Attribute Monitor:

Per player request, added new fields to the Combat Attribute Window.

Power Trays 

Trial Account Limitations 


Trial Accounts now have the following restrictions. Characters on Trial Accounts may not:

Combined Notes 


User Interface 

Powers
Accolades 

Attack Powers 

Defense Powers 

Buff / Debuff / Status Effect Powers 

Travel Powers 

Veteran Reward Powers 

Values Changes 

Status Effect Changes 

AI 

Arena 

Bases 

Emotes 

Game 

Graphical Effects and Animations 

Inventions 

Rewards 

Sound 

Store 

Tailor  

Tasks 

CITY of HEROES 


Powers 


Accolades 

Blaster 

Controllers  

Defender 

Peacebringers 

Scrappers 

Tankers 

Warshade 

Powers Text Changes  


Note: All Heroes’ Powers text underwent scrutiny and many changed to correct typos, and to reflect consistency and accuracy. The power effects, duration and recharge have not changed, only the description and combat log messaging has been updated. All secondary Knockback, Stun, or other status affects will now be noted in combat logs when the effect occurs for all powers.


NPCs 

Tasks 

Trial 

Zone Events 

CITY of VILLAINS 


Giant Monsters 

Zones
Grandville 

Powers
Brutes 

Corruptor: 

Dominator 

Masterminds 

Stalkers 

Patron Powers.

Accolades 

Graphical Effects 

Powers Text Changes  


Note: All Villains Powers text underwent scrutiny and many changed to correct typos, and to reflect consistency and accuracy. The power effects, duration and recharge have not changed, only the description and combat log messaging has been updated. All secondary Knockback, Stun, or other status affects will now be noted in combat logs when the effect occurs for all powers.


Posted by Dave at 6:02 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
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CoX: I12 is Alive

That seems like a really short open beta. 

Big announcement post with lots of links.

I'd post more (and may later), but I have an internet filter blocking my going to the CoX site (though not to the boards, oddly enough).


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May 19, 2008

CoX - Merging servers?

There's a vocal set of CoX community members that continue to push for consolidation of some of the CoX servers. Enrollment has been in slow decline, and on some servers there's a sense that tumbleweeds tumbling down the roads of Paragon and the Mercy Islands might be a believable graphic to see,

Unfortunately, the threads -- even where they get Dev response -- seem to disappear from the servers. I get an RSS feed, so I get those Dev comments, but more than once when I've clicked through the thread has been deleted.

So, for example, last week there was this thread about the CoX subscription numbers. The block in italics are from Back Alley Brawler (who's in charge of Animation and Visual Effects, so it's not precisely his cuppa):

So, it's the lowest we've been since '04's 4Q. Disappointing.

 

It's the same pattern every MMO follows. Rapid ascent, peak, steady decline. There are of course exceptions, like WoW.

We're actually a lot steadier than most MMOs would be at this point in their life cycle. So this is actually better than normal.

 

Actually, there are a number of MMOs that don't follow that 'typical' patter