Judgement_Dave

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I wondered why the devs did the changes to the Xmas event this year.

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I expect it was used as a proving ground for new ideas. the valantine event was used to prove co-op missions, Winters Gift was used to prove alternative methods for gaining recipes. The new ski slope was probably done by one of the new staff as an apprentice piece.

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Probably right. I'd forgotten about Winters Gift.

Of course, practically no-one complained about Xmas being a cheap rehash partly due to the new recipes and the new badges.

I'd guess that a lot of the older players who feel that the game is stagnating are possibly involved in badging to some degree or another (if nothing else in the hope that it spices up the game). Adding a few new badges can be just enough to persuade some of them that there's something new and shiny for them - not all of them, mind, but some.

Maybe the devs should have added a new cupid-style bow and badges for defeating Snaptooth 100 times and doing the Ganymede/Scratch missions 5 times each.




Think the contact's Scratch...

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Think it was mentioned a while back that TR had moved to free to play (iirc it was late November or early December it made the move).

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it's actually better than I thought it would be, i think the critics gave it too hard a time, it's sad, I would've bought it if there had been a free trial


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It became a great game to play, but, as is the practice these days, it:
* Had everyman and his dog involved in the beta test (which probably managed to lose many people when perceived beta-nerfs were made)
* Launched without several features that had been promised (and obviously picked up by some reviews)

Admittedly the dev team moved pretty quickly and within 2 or 3 months a lot of the launch problems/omissions had been sorted out, but the damage was already done.

Actually, the devs struck me as pretty good with TR. There were pretty regular updates/expansions, which weren't neccesarily big but it felt good to have an expansion each month or so.

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the EU server at least also has a LOT of people it actually seems more active than Cityof (serious!) which is weird because the reason given by NCsoft on their site for shutting it down is low player populations


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If the server traffic lighting system is correct, the EU seems to be at least as busy as any of the servers at pretty much any time of day... Which may be part of the problem: it surprises me that not one of the US servers ever sticks out as having a far bigger population.

TR was an expensive monster to create, and NC wanted to see a good return on it. I think that they've been seeing an operating profit, but one that's several magnitudes lower than planned and would take something just shy of eternity to repay the development investment.

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plus the "We're working very hard on spring event", and then see that it's the same as... always

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As I noted earlier they said Spring/Anniversary event - this may be advertised as the Spring Fling, but the anniversary is timed such that it could easily be the Spring/Anniversary event.

If the anniversary is what was meant then the devs can't be fully blamed for people assuming it was the Valentines event - although they maybe should have written copy that would be less ambiguous in the fans eyes.

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For some people, that juste may be the straw that broke the camel's back.
And yeah, if those people hadn't quit because of the new event, they may have quit for another reason in the next few days/weeks/months/years... and that's always that much money for NC...

But that's my POV, I don't have any numbers, and since nobody can say "what would have happened if...", this is a dead and.

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No-one will have solid, reliable numbers.

Some people will always be moving on from hobbies and games. For some it's just because they've been so into the hobby/game that they feel that they've done everything and need a complete change of scenery.

Some of these people would have moaned at virtually anything new that the devs did for Valentines day and then stated that the half-hearted (in their eyes) additions were a sign that the devs are short changing us, and then proceeded to shout about how they are leaving as this game is doomed.

At the same time, without any additions to the event there are going to be players who have never seen the event before who have a great time and think the devs did well...

Reception of the event is a matter of subjective perception.

Personally I actually couldn't give much about a 2 week event that is more of a non-event - heck it's a RL 1-day event to boost greetings cards profits. Valentines is more of a cynical excuse for commercialism than Christmas is becoming.

But then... I wondered why the devs did the changes to the Xmas event this year. I'd rather have them work on continuing, all-year round content.

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I wonder when i14 will come out. Apparently i15 is due late in April (on the 5th anniversary) so that leaves very little time to knock out i14.

Maybe 15 will be postponed from the anniversary date itself?

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that would be a major embarrassment for NC

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Not really, since there's never been a release date of any sort officially announced for Issue 15. It's an assumption that's been made by extrapolating a long, long way from a teaser Positron made in an interview.

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If NCSoft failed to produce something special to mark the 5th anniversary, it would be very... strange to say the least. It would send all the wrong signals to the industry and fan base about the state of one of their flagship products.

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Stating that there's never been an official announcement of an I15 release date doesn't mean anything other than there's never been an official announcement of an I15 release date.

It doesn't mean that I15 will be released at the anniversary nor that it won't be released then.

I'd be very surprised if there isn't something special to mark the 5 year anniversary, but it doesn't need to be I15.

IMO it may be more special if it was either a prelude to I15 (which then releases at the end of the anniversary event) or, if it is I15, that I15 starts with an intense event. This is on the basis that the anniversary really ought to have something special at/around the anniversary, not just a new issue which people can enjoy in it's full glory until the eventual death of the game.

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Nobody has said the Dev team will fall in the face of the upcoming competition, what I personally am concerned about is player veterans slowly bleeding away from the game after seeing content re-hashed and presented as new.

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Realistically, how many subscribers will we really lose due to not updating the Valentines event who would have stayed if the event had been given a couple of new bits?

I'd gather that just now putting dev time into serious updates (of engine and story/environment) that will last more than 2 weeks a year is probably the higher priority.

Given that we still have no real idea what to expect past I14 (and even there we're still very hazy) it's possible that getting upset over the lack of improvement to Valentines may end up making a lot of people feel a little silly.

Of course, I'm not privy to any extra info other than my own assumptions and extrapolations, so I may end up feeling stupid for the above... I doubt it, but it's possible.

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NCSoft CEO Geoff Heath has been quoted as saying the average lifespan of a CoX subscriber is 17 months and that they were pleasently surprised by that figure. Pleasently surprised with 17 months?, I don't get it?, should the bar not be set higher?, I'm not sure what the average subscription time of other well-known MMOs are but I suspect they are longer than 17 months. It would be a shame if two years from now a high percentage of the playerbase was at this average of a 17 month veteran or less and even more of a shame if NCSoft was happy with that figure.


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Wasn't that 17 month lifespan quite some time ago (around about the IP purchase of 6/11/2007 iirc)?

If so CoX had only been going for approximately 3.5 years/42 months. It had had non-US servers for about a year less than that.

In a pretty fickle market where the customers are often at the younger end of the scale (and maybe more prone to changes of circumstance, fads and peer pressure) I'd say that a mean average subscription life of 17 months in a 42 month old game was pretty darn good.

And what's wrong with a low mean average subscription life? If it's measured from the current and past subscriptions then the mean average could easily come crashing down by an influx of new subscribers (having a starting subscription life of only 1 month).

BTW I'm pretty sure that at the time an industry average of something like 6 months was mentioned. IIRC the devs and NC were all pleasently surprised that CoX had such good retention.

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City of Heroes is going nowhere in the short to mid-term, it has years left to it and a well established Universe that it has worked hard to build up from scratch. Both Champions-Online and DCUO are going to be different playstyles altogether to CoX, and as such there is going to be plenty of room for all three. What our market share is going to be is a different matter.


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Spill the beans Mumsy... You obviously know more about CoX in the short to mid-term than I do. Or maybe you just have different scales - I'd say short term is anything up to the next 6 to 9 months and mid-term is probably more like 9 to 18 months.

On the plus side, in the US boards a subscriber to imdb has posted some notes about the City of Heroes film listing being refreshed and notes that:
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I know this might/might not be hopeful for some, but the producer (Tom DeSanto) that purchased the rights only has two upcoming listings for projects: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and City of Heroes. Transformers in in Post Production and there are no other "coming soon" films for DeSanto. My guess is because he's going to focus on making the Co* movie a reality.


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And (with my highlighting):
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It's also insteresting to note that along with the Dreamworks update and a 2010 (we knew that already) production date, it also says that Dreamworks will be distributing "All Media" surrounding the Co* project. Which means... CoH/CoV Merchandise!


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We have to trust that:
* the devs have the best interests of the game at heart (i.e. they want to make it a continuing/growing success even if we don't always agree with their methods)
* NC have the best interests of the game at heart
* the devs have been working on a 5 year anniversary event and I14/I15/I16+ which will help CoX be a continuing success

So with a little imagination...

What if the devs have planned out an anniversary event leading to I15 launch bringing the coming storm closer (if it hasn't arrived yet). Anniversary announcements of the film plans (which will bring associated merchandise) allows a good year or so of ingame development to improve the engine/client and have story tie-in with the film. All culminating in a (relative) media feeding frenzy when the film hits and the game has been sufficiently updated to keep hold of all the fresh meat that the film hooks.

Damn though... new meat would mean the average subscriber lifetime dropping. Can't win.

So this last bit is just wishful fancy just now.. but it's possibly just as based in reality as those predictions that seem to say everything is going stale/the devs hate us and they're letting the game die.

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pass it would be nice if they had something happen of course with some members of omega making it back maybe that changes things.

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Be better if we get the chance to go and take them back.

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BaB said

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To answer that, we're (those of us not working directly on the MA) working a lot of things for Issues 15 & 16, upcoming booster packs, Spring/Anniversary events, Veteran rewards, etc.

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Ok, he didn't mention the year... but if it's for the year 2048, then they could just wait 3 decade to announce that the had, in fact, worked a lot on Spring Event, and then show us what wonderfull job they did.

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Note that it says Spring/Anniversary as one item in the comma seperated list. It could easily be the 5th anniversary event which (I think) is still in Spring.

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Worst thing is the people that don't like the original post or a good discussion, quickly ruining it with "humourous" posts and oneliners so noone can be bothered to plough through the thread. Old, very efficient technique and I truly hate it.

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Oy - I object as I'll try (and fail at) humor even if I agree/like the OP and I love a good discussion.

Luckily I'll also often insert a second or third line to avoid it being a mere oneliner.


See.

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I want to see Mako's Creek.

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Unless we want an 18 rating on the game Mako should keep his creek to himself.

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Remember where I put:
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Fits perfectly as a (possibly fixed sets) blaster as far as I can see.

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I briefly considered explaining that I meant fixed sets to keep ensure that the 2 are used together (similar to how shields can only be used with some other sets) would remove the need for near constant weapon redraw...

Briefly considered then dismissed thinking it was obvious that that was why I mentioned fixed sets.

Obviously it wasn't obvious to all.

Note that I said 'possibly fixed sets' as I can't see any great problems with having either part by itself and requiring redraws in those circumstances. Not sure if this sort of conditional redraw can be supported by the engine as is though.

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US Announcements has this post:
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This message is to notify the community that tomorrow morning Friday, February 6, 2009 our Official Message Boards will be brought down for a period of 30 minutes for system maintenance.

The scheduled downtime is from 10:00 AM CST - 10:30 AM CST.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your ongoing support.

Regards,

Ex Libris


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CST is GMT -6 hours - so maybe the maintenance scheduled for 16:00-16:30 GMT (UK) has knocked out the blueside boards.

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EDIT:
In the US thread you linked Castle said:
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Kheldians and Arachnos Soldier powers likely won't be available at launch. Possibly never.

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Just following up a little since the kheld/VEATs were mentioned. Castle has since posted that it's only these player powers that won't appear - there are, of course, similar or partial sets available in existing mobs.

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Well, the news that I may never be able to create the Kheldian story arcs I had in mind is a bit depressing. Coming up with new Nictus specific (vs. Council specific) content for Kheldians was one of the biggest draws to me for the MA.

Really I don't even need whole new powersets. Just the ability to reskin the Galaxy Archon and PPD Peacebringers so they look different would be MORE than enough to cover my needs.

I hope the lack of a Kheld powerset doesn't extend to the ability to reskin the existing Khleds... pretty much my whole 15 mission arc concept depended on at least being able to have my custom NPC's use the Galaxy Archon or PPD Peacebringer suite of powers.

I don't need a whole set... just the ability to use the PPD Kheld and Galaxy Archon sets with different skins attached to them.


[/ QUOTE ]I didn't say that; just that the specific player Kheldian powers probably will not be made. Equivalents exist in several sets: PPD, Nictus and Council as examples.


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i speek of corse of the sword gun combo i dont fit with scrappers cos a gun aint a shield of any kind and it wont work as a blaster because a sword has no controlling ability


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Fits perfectly as a (possibly fixed sets) blaster as far as I can see.

Sword for melee secondary. Handgun for ranged primary.

Don't think I've ever seen it written anywhere that blaster powers need any aspect of control in them, but it can easily be added to anything - it's not as if the existing powers have their side-effects determined by anything other than the developers whimsy!

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Personally I can't understand why a super hero or a super villian would be slumming it in a train or dirty old ferry anyway...

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Villains are probably engaging in a little recreational robbery and assault (to relax between their missions of masterplan robbery, assault & kidnap).

Heroes are doing their guardian angel bit to make the transport systems safe and stop any villains who are engaged in a little recreational robbery and assault.

Can't remember if we'd said Friday 6th or not. If we did then I'm afraid that I won't be able to make it - forgot I'm off to a gig about 2hrs away...

Should be there on Sunday (assuming it is Sunday again).

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When powers change big time they tend to hand out freespecs.


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Wonder if they're upping the freespec limit to 2 in hand, as dual builds means that any big power changes could mean respeccing each build.

Judgement Dave has now joined the ranks of the obsessives.

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Mission Maker Primary sets

Mission Maker secondary sets

*Edit 2 : And a list of Available missions pets is on Red Tomax too, although since it doesn't have the Clockwork King I'd assume this list (and probably the others too) isn't complete yet. In fact reading further this seems to be an (incomplete?) list of Pets that can currently be found ingame.

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Not followed your links yet as I saw similar several days ago. It was pointed out that what appears to be the MA stuff does have names starting "Mission_Maker" and that the Mission_Pets does not - which may be a sign that the pet list is unrelated to anything being put in specifically for MA.

Regarding HEAT/VEAT powers missing: A little voice at the back of my mind seems to think that one of the devs (probably Castle as it 's powers based) commented on the missing powers not being available in MAs 1st version. I'll see if I can find a linky...

EDIT:
In the US thread you linked Castle said:
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Kheldians and Arachnos Soldier powers likely won't be available at launch. Possibly never.

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As the boost is only applied when solo it would also stop all Defender teams self stacking for even more uberness than they currently do.


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My experience of all (and virtually all) defender teams suggests that vigilance is even less use there than it is in PuGs/mixed teams. It certainly doesn't seem to be their inherent that grants them 'uberness'.

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As far as I know the only inherent to have been changed is Defiance because that was a bit poo really. But (and I'm very happy to be corrected here) the other inherents are "as is" - the same from day one.

So that means that they've been going for almost 5 years.


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IIRC Not quite from day one of the game, so not five years.

The hero inherents only came in after CoV came with its inherents - before that CoH didn't have inherents iirc. So you could look at it as any inherent, no matter how poor, is a bonus...

Note: I wasn't playing befoe CoV nor before CoH inherents and I'm going off memory, so I may have it off a bit!

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This is low level, before taunt.

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Isn't taunt available at level 10? I know I usually grab it at about 12 or 14 (as 10 is often another defensive power to help me last the aggro for more than 5 seconds..)

Is anyone particularly worried about how the inherents play up to level 10?? Considering that up to level 10 may take something like 10 - 20 hours at a casual, soloing saunter but post level 10 may take over a couple of hundred hours play even if you never play again once you hit 50.

i.e. <10 is a blink in the eye of a characters life...

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Currently, it heavily favors healzors.

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Surely it could only favour healzors who can't heal - as if they could heal then the team health wouldn't be low so vigilance wouldn't make a difference.

Vigilance is possibly the poorest inherent, and was even before defiance was revamped. It has no use solo and is hardly noticeable in teams, and then only if the team has bitten off far more than it can chew. So be a poor defender (and let your team get hurt too much and healed too little) or at least a defender in a poor team (who don't know their own limits) and the inherent may kick in for the last few seconds before the team wipes...

Changing the other CoH inherents to be as useful as vigilance would mean giving altering scrappers critical hits so they only get them on missed attacks.

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Hi Calamity, I'm another person who gets bored with whiney posts, but to me a whiney post is one that states exactly the same thing in a badly constructed way ad infinitum.

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Surely ad nauseum - I've not spotted any posts on these boards that whine ad infinitum!

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Auction house badges gets you cheaper paid back %s in the auction house?

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That was supposed to be in I13 with Day Jobs.

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Q: How exactly will this work and what will it mean in the overall concept of the game? As in, what impact will day job badges and accolades have on the gameplay, if any?

Matt: Your character will definitely get bonuses for logging out in specific locations; these range from bonuses on mission completions, to extra Experience Points, to discounts at the Tailor or Wentworths.

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Link

So you know, Positron.... he speaks much... acts less...

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So it did happen, didn't it? I thought the tailor day job does give a discount at the tailors, and that would make it true and implemented.

They're devs - and as such it's reasonable to assume that when they say 'or' it's a logical or. The possibilities of 'a discount at the tailors' or 'a discount at wentworths' was met when either of those was implemented.

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Yes, I think the main thing delaying the start of issue 14 beta is the need to clear some of the issue 13 bugs first.

But it will, no doubt, be in testing internally, which should, as you suggest, shorten the process a little.

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A lot of the MA 'stuff' should hopefully be quite quick in Beta as it's no doubt based upon pre-existing dev tools, or has been used/tested by devs - possibly with an eye to using it for future storyline work.

I've had a sneaking suspicion for a while that MA is actually going to be better featured than was announced/discussed by devs - and that (to a fair extent) that's what has been holding up the move to beta testing. I suspect that they've acted wisely and announced something that they knew they could deliver but have been working like mad to deliver a system that's what we'd have expected MA v 2.0 to look like.

The odd leak or MA-hinting bug has done nothing to dissuade me from this - though I'm still somewhat restrained in what I allow myself to believe is definitely coming.