Liquid

I'm glad we're getting back items.

I hope we get some jetpack costume parts soon, because that was the #1 request for back items (after capes and wings). I remember how excited some of us got back in 2006 when Jay mentioned Positron asking him for tons of jetpack designs, only to learn that it was for purchasable temp powers, not costume parts.

Five years later, we're told we're finally getting back slot costume items. And, hey, backpacks. That's cool, I guess. But you know, a jetpack would be really, really exciting.

So, I think some of us (me included) may be guilty of still thinking of what they could do in terms of the Freem 15 days. "They could just add arcs to the zone without updating it" or "they could cobble together a new powerset set from existing animations" is something you do when you're horribly short on resources and trying to keep the game alive, not when you've got 50 people and are trying to appeal to a new market.

I think the devs may feel that if they're going to do anything, they're going to dive into it whole-heartedly, and devote everyone they can to it. That means that if they decide they're going to update Dark Astoria, they aren't just going to ask the mission designers to make a bunch of missions-- they're going to ask the art team to update the zone, and likely the enemies in the zone, visually. We may feel that's not necessary (or perhaps even undesirable!) but I think that's what they will want to do. I think that's why they are saying it takes the same amount of work to update a zone as create a new one.

My personal opinion is that, before we see brand new zones added to the game, I'd rather see current unused/empty zones with established lore brought up to the level of the used/popular zones. I don't need to see an update to Striga or Croatoa or most city zones, but Dark Astoria and the Shadow Shard have enormous unused potential in terms of the game lore. Faultline and the RWZ were fantastic projects, and while we technically "lost" the old versions of the zones, we kept the spirit of the zones, which was what was important about them, and most importantly, we now have a reason to be there besides street sweeping and the occasional door mission from other zones' contacts.

On the topic of the ITF as proof that people run the easiest things possible, there are two reasons above all others that I believe makes the ITF popular, and they almost never get mentioned:

It is a co-op, level 35-50 TF. It is the most accessible TF in the game. Nobody loses any powers, both sides can participate at the same time (increasing the total pool of players), and everyone 35+ (a massive level range when considering time, and the fact that most people feel leveling slows down around 35) can run it. When the LGTF was 35-50, it was far more popular than it is now.

This level of accessibility also creates a snowball effect-- people are more willing to run ITFs because people are more willing to run ITFs. People hate standing around waiting to form TFs and trials. There is very little stand-around-and-wait time when forming an ITF because so many people want to do it, and people want to do it because they know there's so little standing around time!

As far as end-game TFs and ease, Kahn is hands down the easiest and fastest end-game TF. Why don't people run it non-stop? Besides being hero-only and 45-50, it's boring.

Did you know?

Jack Emmert was actually the second Lead Designer for City of Heroes, not the first. Rick Dakan was the first. Rick approached his friend Michael Lewis with the idea for the game, and they formed Cryptic Studios in June of 2000. Jack, one of Rick's friends from Grad School, was brought on as a Game Designer. Rick remained the Lead Designer until a shakeup at the end of 2002/beginning of 2003 where he was fired and rehired as a contract writer for the game, and Jack Emmert took his place as lead designer. It was also around this point that the game changed from a free-form power system to the AT system we have now. Rick wrote the bulk of the Story Bible, created many of the games original groups (including Nemesis, the Rikti, and the 5th Column), and also wrote the Blue King comic books. He ceased all connection with the game as of the final Blue King Comic book.

From release until Issue 2, most melee attacks that currently cause Knockdown used to cause Knockback. From release until Issue 3, all Tanker defensive powersets had incomplete status protection (Ice, Fire), or status protection that immobilized them (Stone and Invulnerability, including Scrapper Invulnerability), with their only means of movement while protected being Teleport, or perma-Unstoppable (yes, Unstoppable used to overlap with enough recharge prior to Issue 3).

Dual and Single Origin Enhancements used to have a sub-group called the "Power 10" that included commonly desired enhancements like Accuracy, Damage, Recharge, and Endurance reduction. Any enhancements outside of this group were unavailable for sale until higher levels-- for example, you could not buy level 25 Endurance Modification SOs.

One more thing contributing to the lower rate at which post-I9 Hamidon was run: Issue 9 also introduced the Statesman TF, which allowed us to get HOs with only 8 people.

First, I absolutely love the final Keyes fight. I've said it several times, and I'll say it again-- I think it's the best AV fight in the game, and it makes me feel like I'm actually facing an evil mastermind (the character type not the AT). I do not want them to reduce the number of abilities that he has in that final fight. It's what makes the fight so awesome.

These are the things I don't like about the Keyes Trial as a whole:

1) The 50% HP unresistable, undefensible damage aspect of the pulse: The concept of the pulse is great. The "bring healers" aspect of it is not. As was suggested many times in beta, a random interesting debuff of some kind (and by random I mean everyone gets hit with the same one, but a different one per pulse) that needs to be overcome in a different way for each type would be more interesting and fun. That second or two of "which one were we hit with, and how do we deal with it?" instead of just staying in a healing bubble would greatly increase the dynamic feel of the Trial. The damage that's added due to Anti-Matter's health status is fine as it is (and could be increased, if necessary, if the base pulse damage was removed).

2) The repetition/length in the three Reactor phases: Having to stabilize the three reactors in basically the same way 3 times is really dull. Having 3 different ways to get the cells is good, but the powering-up of the terminals is so similar it feels like doing the same thing for 40 minutes (or however long you take). If they can't change up the actual method of stabilizing each reactor, I'd cut the number of terminals per reactor in half instead of doubling the end reward.

3) Excessive reliance on healing: Too many of the gimmicks are undefensible and unresistable damage. It devalues other methods of support, especially in the final fight. Disintegration should have more of its damage be affected by resistance and defense, so that non-healing type buffers can help against it as well.

4) Excessive anti-melee measures: While I love this trial's final fight, if I'm playing Melee I feel like I'm not contributing very much, as I can probably only spend 1/2 of my time attacking Anti-Matter due to the various position-based attacks/effects, while ranged characters can just move a little and keep on firing. I don't really know what to do to fix this one aside from adding more objectives to fight during the phase that aren't right next to Anti-Matter, which I'm sure a lot of people would be against.

I also agree with Arcanaville that Time Stop should stop time, and not allow timers to continue to count down and the Obliteration Beam to hit us while frozen.

Lame.

Based on what we've all come up with, it looks to me that at some point early on, the players and the writers confused the Surviving Eight with the Freedom Phalanx, and it stuck. Positron appears to have confused it as well in Issue 2 when designing the Freedom Phalanx Reserve accolade. That being said, I had this impression that the members of the surviving eight that weren't already in the Phalanx, were invited to it. I'm not the only one, and it makes me wonder if there was some reference to it back near release that none of us can find.

Anyway, I don't think Numina is supposed to be in the FP either. Her original bio as created by the character who won the contest says nothing about it, just about the Midnight Squad, and that she remains an honorary member of Vanguard: