Liquid

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Issue 9 got a lot of attention from Jack, Poz, and Mike Lewis simply because the Invention System and Auction House was SO huge, and unlike anything we had done before. It took a village to raise that child.

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Thanks for answering that.

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As for the comment about the two teams not stealing resources from one another. It is true. Anyone who left the project (Serdar, Constellation, Nick, Brett) was replaced by a new hire.

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So are we misunderstanding, then? Based on the information that has come out, it sounded like the post-CoV draw-down was because people were moved to MUO. That's what I thought was meant by the reduction in size of the team post CoV. What was the reason for the reduction if that wasn't it? (Or has this been answered and was I under a rock?

Or were you just agreeing with BAB's statement that, post reduction, CoX devs never had to spend time on any other project?

Hurrah, Castle sounds happy!

Let's try not to change that.

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Ian and Ravenstorm were moved to MUO. The last bit of work Ian did for CoH was the Justice armor pieces for the GvE edition. Ravenstorm's last major contribution were Safeguard missions, but he came back on every once in a while to help out. He was responsible for setting up Hamidon(s) and GM spawn placements in the Hive and Abyss, as well as pathing for the Rikti Invasion ships.


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Of course i dont have a link or quote but... wasnt it Mr. Statesman that said resources were not being pulled for MUO, or Co* wasnt going to be affected by MUO, yet they actually were? Not that I believed it because well im kinda in the development business and thats the nature of the beast is one thing, but wow, to flat out lie to the community is another thing.

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He actually never said that. In classic Jack fashion, his words were both technically correct, and totally misleading. What he said was, "they are separate teams" and "they are the same size as <insert one specific point in CoH development time where it also was incredibly small>".

It was very similar to "no more large-scale changes to powersets" and other such weasels.

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Should also point out that while the official CoH/CoV team was 100% devoted to working on CoH/CoV, Cryptic did occasionally send help down from people who had moved off of the project. Jack and Micheal Lewis were involved quite a lot in Issue 9, particularly the design of the auction houses/market. Shannon (Poz) also pitched in during Issue 9. I'm pretty sure there were other instances where this happened as well.

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You mentioned this back in October or November on the Test server, but either didn't know more, or didn't feel you could elaborate on it when people asked more questions about it.

I've been kicking myself for not asking this (and a few other questions) earlier: can you tell us now why you think it was that they got involved so much during Issue 9? I thought it was because the consignment house in CoX was going to be their test bed for one in MUO/CO, but I think you said it wasn't that.

While I don't particularly have any interest in playing a Stalker with a shield, I find it really bizarre for anyone to say "Yay! One less set for Stalkers!"

If you don't think it fits your view of the AT, I don't understand why you wouldn't just choose not to play it instead of fighting to prevent people from having it (I do understand Castle not wanting to try to balance it if the design is weird).

I'm sure there are people against the idea of Super Strength Stalkers, but I am all over the idea of someone like Sunspot or She-Hulk being trained as an assassin-- sneak in, punch some important guy in the back of the head, and then bring the house down on whoever is left. Awesome.

Damn, I'm excited about that idea.

Edit: Too bad they'd probably lose Foot Stomp given the design pattern of the sets, because I'm imagining an extended Knockout Blow being the Assassin Strike animation, and then following up with the stomp.

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Both are correct. The decision to keep Ice/Ice as a tanker only set was something I came to when we first started talking Powerset Proliferation, long after the COV beta. Ultimately, the concept was not adopted anyway, so the point is extremely moot.

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Though I'm sure you aren't happy that it wasn't adopted, thank you for not fighting it harder than you did!

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Psychic Shockwave for Dominators is an AOE power which does damage as it if it a single target power. For Blasters, this will not be the case -- the AOE divisor will be in place. In other words, divide damage by 4.75.

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That sounds more reasonable.

Oops, I may have misread a quote:

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At the time, he wanted each AT to keep certain sets so they were only found on that AT-- Ninjitsu for Stalkers, Elec/Elec for Brutes, Ice/Ice for Tankers, etc. Ultimately, that concept was set aside later in the process, but some aspects of it remained in the initial pass of Proliferation.

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I thought it said it was set aside for later. If you've already set it aside completely, I apologize for my assumption that it was still under consideration.

Thanks for answering these questions!

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"So, Lighthouse, any chance of us finding out what-all powers are in Mental Manipulation?” – Bitt Player



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I'm, uh, interested to see how all those powers might be toned down, because if they haven't been, that sounds like the best Blaster secondary ever created, by a factor of 5.



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“WHY NO EMP FOR CORR?” – ELF_STALKER



Empathy isn’t a villainous trait, generally speaking.

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I'd like to introduce you to a Marvel villain named Empath.

Sure, his powers don't work the same as Empathy in City of Heroes, so perhaps Linderman is a better example.

You may argue "oh, but those are only two villains among many". My response would be, "and how many 'healer' heroes are there in superhero fiction?" I don't think there are all that many more than there are villains.

I love you guys, but powers do not a villain make. Villainy is about how you use your powers (if you have any), not about what powers you have. Healing other villains specifically so that they can continue committing crimes and atrocities is evil.

It's great that you plan to give a similar set to villains with a different theme, so I'm not exactly complaining, here. I'm just not buying the "Empathy isn't for villains" line, and I think it's really weird for a group of people that I know are superhero fans and read comics to be saying something like this. Empathy, as the human trait, may not be a villainous trait, but I don't think that's what the powerset represents unless I missed that somewhere in the set's description.

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Castle said, “No, never!” and Positron said, “Yes, do it!” In the end, the decision of which sets to give everyone bounced back and forth multiple times. The next question is, “Why did Castle say no?!” At the time, he wanted each AT to keep certain sets so they were only found on that AT – Ninjitsu for Stalkers, Elec/Elec for Brutes, Ice/Ice for Tankers, etc. Ultimately, that concept was set aside later in the process, but some aspects of it remained in the initial pass of Proliferation.

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I hope that concept is abandoned completely. I will never understand why you'd want to restrict character concepts like that. What's so wrong about allowing someone to play a hero (Tanker or Scrapper) with melee electric powers?

EDIT: I misread that as "that concept was set aside for later". If you have already set it aside, please ignore my comment, and replace it with "hurrah!"

Sorry that I'm only elaborating in the negative, the rest of the answers were great!

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Pleeeeeeeeease let us change body type at the tailor, pleasssssse.

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I'd settle for a height slider.

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What does the Real Numbers windoid show for minions and pets, out of curiousity?

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It shows what powers they have. If you click one of the powers in their list, it expands to show all of its detailed information too.

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Holy crap. Nice job.

I have to wonder how different things would have been if these features had been in from the start.

That is flat out awesome.

Matching up the pre-made costume sets will be a great help for new players, and I'm really happy to see the detailed power information on character creation.

Great work, guys!

I don't really have any plans to play any of these particular combinations, but it's great to see you guys getting the most out of your work by providing us with as many options as possible for each AT.

Thanks!

This sounds great, I'm excited to visit the Hollows now!

Welcome to the forums, Blue Steel, and thanks for all your work on the game!

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Okay, speculation:

It will not be co-op.

It will be smaller than you're thinking, on the order of the existing Ouroboros story arcs.

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It is rather odd that the thread title mentions Roman 'maps' rather than a Roman zone.

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Yeah, I'm thinking the Midnight Squad will have bases in existing zones like the Vanguard, and you will use their Ouroboros crystal to go on missions in ancient Rome.

Question: Considering the backstory of CoH, and Statesman's origin, why was Rome chosen instead of Greece?

Edit:

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Rome? Ancient Rome?

The Coming Storm? The villain of Time?

Path of the Dark, anyone?

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Yes, exactly!

'There is a familiar threat in an ancient land and the Midnighters need the help of both Heroes and Villains to stop it.'

You don't suppose....?

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Oh, right.

This is great news. I avoid the Hollows on most of my new characters, and it will be nice to experience it again with the new zone design style.

I'm absolutely thrilled about the new trays and contact list adjustments. Most of my characters have had to make some compromise on what powers or accolades they can have in the main 3 trays, and the contact list has needed organization for a long time.

Thanks!

I think this all looks great, and I can't wait to try it!

Thanks for that post, BAB, very enlightening.

This is a much better solution, thank you.

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I know it was all CG, but the piece has a very... Alex Ross feel to it.

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Wired thinks so too.

Awesome work, DJ!

Hurrah for real numbers!

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I think the thing is that, homage or not, a character that is recognizably a modified clone of an established character

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Yeah, I understand this about clones, but not all homages are clones, and that's why I asked the question. It sounded to me like she might be saying that any homage of any kind was not allowed.

Regardless, I think I have the answer to my question in a second reading of her statement (though I'd still appreciate confirmation or clarification from her):

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Sorry but no likeness or homage characters are allowed that are the intellectual property of someone else by name or physical likeness.

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I read an extra "of" in there, like so:

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Sorry but no likeness or homage characters are allowed that are of the intellectual property of someone else by name or physical likeness.

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The difference is that the first one specifically states that the character is someone else's IP. The second one says that even being based on someone else's IP is an issue, effectively (for example) putting anyone on a fan site like virtueverse.com at risk for openly admitting that the character is an homage to someone, even if they wouldn't have been genericed otherwise.