Statesman_NA

On vacation - first in Indianapolis with my in laws for Christmas, then off to the Fiesta Bowl with my wife to see the Buckeyes. I was back at work last Wednesday, but there was a lot to catch up on.

First...I confirm that we're working on right now (as in pohsyb in the next room) to add CoV costume parts into CoH if you own both games....

Then we repeal the hated stealth nerf. The reason why: many well reasoned posts. It's that simple. You guys pointed out the problems.

AND now...we're changing the way Archvillains spawn. A ton of forum goers disliked adding so many AV's into missions a while back...so we've come up with a solution. If the team size and mission difficulty are ABOVE a certain level, an Archvillain spawns. Below that, players will face only an Elite Boss. If the mission is set on the first two levels of difficulty, it takes 4 heroes or more to spawn an Arch Villain. On the third level, 3 heroes or more. On the fourth level, 2 heroes. On the highest (Invincible), a solo hero will spawn an AV. Note this works in BOTH City of Heroes and Villains.

In order to incentivize larger teams, Positron is going to add a bonus to AV rewards!

I'll take a look at those badges for the contacts mentioned.

Noted.

We also need to add more Contacts from levels 35-40.

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His one posted test involved using the broken version of Invincibility. He also completely glosses over the fact that when buffed, any AT can Tank, so what then is so special about Tanks?


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The goal of the game is to make sure there isn't an ideal team composition. So, yes, a Scrapper, with buffs, can tank, but not as well as a Tanker. Why? Because 1) a Tanker starts with higher resistances/defenses and 2) he has Punchvoke and thus can manage the aggro better.

Right now a lot of posts have talked about the high Prestige cost of Base items - and that they're bringing in a ton of Salvage but can't really do anything about it.

Bases, as they currently stand, really focus on mid and large sized groups earning Prestige - so the complaints have a good point. We're trying to work something out so that a smaller group can get something useful quickly - and also put Salvage to use! Can't promise a timeline, but we are working on it.

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Statesman seems to think that there is no satisfaction in crafting where you just put some items together into a menu and hit build.

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Actually, I was talking about Skills, not crafting.

What's the difference? In the end, crafting yields a usable commodity. In Skills, you might have unlocked a door or opened a safe or whatever....if I could guarantee that clicking on a computer could yield as cool a reward as an Enhancement, well, that'd be something. But the problem is that there are only a few computers in the world (and missions), whereas crafting is rather unlimited. One needs to undergo risk to gather resources (let's use Salvage as an example), but there isn't much risk in clicking on a computer.

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I would much rather hear Cryptics explanation of our intended role and how they see us accomplishing it. Since we have obviously been wrong by their direction, I would really like for States and company to tell us what we are supposed to contribute to a team, and how that contribution stands out beyond all other AT's.

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Tankers manage aggro better than any other Archetype. They also have the highest combination of hit points and defenses in the game. Their role is to take the brunt of a spawn's aggro just long enough in order for the rest of the team to be able to eliminate the mobs.

Should a skilled Tanker be able to corral EVERY mob? With a lot of skill, it should be possible - but it's certainly not required to be a good Tank. As long as the Tanker can hold onto aggro so that his teammates are facing less than they'd normally face (i.e. 3 minions), then the team has an advantage. Namely, each teammate can quickly eliminate his opposition...and then come to the Tanker's aid at the end.

I just played a Tanker with the following group (actually, at the request of a PM)...

Inv/Fire tanker (32, SKed to 49)
Level 50 Elec/Elec Blaster (it was his mission, set on Rugged)
Level 32 Peacebringer (SKed to 48 or so).
Level 48 MA/Inv scrapper
Level 50 Fire/Kin controller
Level 35 Earth/empathy controller (SKed up to 48)
Level 49 Energy/energy blaster

We faced the Carnival of Shadows. Typically, I'd start combat by Taunting any Strongmen in the spawn. I knew that I could handle their damage best. I'd usually catch some other minions and lts. I'd end up with a good 1/3 of the spawn focused on me, while the rest of my group disposed of the others. Whenever I saw a teammate enter the red, I'd either Taunt the mobs off them or hit the mobs to get their aggro.

End result? Well, no one was that familiar with their builds. The Controller was defeated by getting too close to another spawn. The Peacebringer carelessly tossed off attacks and ended up aggroing too much. After those two defeats, we settled down and functioned fine.

Admittedly, my own health dropped down to a 1/3 several times. I'd get a little concerned, but usually I had Dull Pain ready.

*sigh*

Let's see if I can lay this thing to rest.

At I5 - and now again with ED - some claim that the game is "dying" and that thousands of players are leaving. This isn't true. We're actually gaining customers. Not hundreds of thousands, but we're gaining nevertheless.

Then all of a sudden I read Armsman's post where he talks about our original launch subscription numbers - which isn't really the point. My entire response on this thread has been focused to I5 and ED reaction - so the more pertinent number to look at would be what our numbers were just previous to I5...not our numbers just after launch. Never did I make a claim that we have more subscribers now than we did last year. My point continues to be: ED and I5 haven't created a ghost town out of City of Heroes.

Unfortunately, I pointed to SirBruce's outdated chart instead of NCSoft's numbers. Frankly, SirBruce's is the one I go to - it lists the competition, so to speak. Or at least to a degree. As SirBruce will tell you, it's really difficult to get numbers out of publishers. NCSoft posts ours.

Why is WoW or Lineage doing so much better? Heck - they're great games. But they're also successful in the Asian market. Will we ever catch up to them. Dunno. The WoW guys have a bit of a track record on us...years of producing amazing games. Who ever heard of Cryptic before City of Heroes? There are LEGIONS of Blizzard fans - of course they'd play WoW! And it's a phenomenal game!

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Yep, here we are...sitting a blip above Toontown Online and lightyears away from WoW or Lineage. It's

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Just to compare: we haven't launched in Asia.

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I DO find it Interesting that Statesman always refers to MMORPGchart.com's numbers, but never the actual numbers posted by NCSoft itself where you CAN see subscrber actual hard subscription and usage number (just look at the MX-Excel spreadsheet they have - on opening it, while the tabs are in Korean; the info is tabulated and in English). My point is: The numbers ARE EASILY available to Jack and Co; yet he likes to refer to Sir Bruce's numbers, which even Sir Bruce himself admits are often speculation on his part because many games DO NOT publically publish numbers.

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Where do you think SirBruce gets his numbers?

Yeesh.

What's great is that people have been saying we're ddddoooommmeeedd since launch, and yet surprisingly, here we are.

Working on it...

Personally, I'm a fan of shadows.

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Well, as I recall, the I5 release coincided with a 'free trial' promotion too; and because of that, for a week, I was seeing 1800+ on line right after I5 on Guardian. BUT, even then the numbers soon dropped back to 'normal' meaning (I assume) plenty of people tried the game but not a lot stayed.

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I guess I'm feeling masochistic today.

SirBruce's numbers are PAYING customers. NOT FREE TRIALS. You can e-mail him about how he gets his numbers and what not, but as far as I know, his source records ONLY paying accounts.

So, sorry, the free trial routine doesn't really hold water (not the first time I've read that either).

Also - another comment on discounted games - currently, City of Heroes is $29.99. Certain stores can run sales - like Lineage 2 is free with a Guild Wars purchase at a local chain.

After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.

And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?

;-)

Me? What do I think is next?

Hmmm. It isn't Spies quite yet...

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The servers aren't yellow because they had their capacity increased before CoV was added to the existing servers, unlike companies like SOE they don't like to see the servers buckle under the pressure of players before they decide to fork out the cash to upgrade them.

If there was actually a number counter for the active population you'd find that the number of players has actually risen quite sharply.

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Ding! We've got a winner!

We substantively increased the number of CPU's in our servers to account for new players....We've hit new highs in active concurrent in the past 24 hours.

I'll happily sign your nerf bat!

We'll have giveaways - I can answer questions - David will be doing sketches (I think). I can't wait.

Neither Cryptic nor NCSoft have any control precisely when stores put CoV on shelves. Stores understand that the CoV servers officially go up on Oct. 31st...but they can decide to put the game on shelves before then.

Yep - this is the AI change to "fix" herding...

To be clear: the code for sharing costume pieces between City of Heroes and City of Villains is NOT yet in...heck, it isn't even written yet. BUT we'll do it after release - hopefully very soon after release. Then heroes can have access to the new options.

To be honest, this idea came specifically from this thread. Since people wanted the new costume options, I checked with Software - who said it could be done. Just wanted to let you know that yes, we do take suggestions!

FYI - for those who don't like the idea because villains should look different than heroes - remember that villains already have hero options. They can create a character identical to one that exists in City of Heroes.

OK - here's the most likely outcome...

If you own both games, you get all options - the new CoV sets will be accessible for your heroes.

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I wonder if ol' Emmert will actually be in front of the computer or if Statesman will just be an NPC. WOW that would be cool to open unlimited bottles of kick butt on the lead designer of CoH.


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You'll have your chance - I'll be playing the one and only Statesman!

In development.

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And, while Jack says now that PvP will always be optional, a little over a year ago he was saying no PvP.

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FYI - I never, never, never said that there would be "no PvP." Never.