Thirty-Seven

I like that one.

I don't understand the plant references.

Hmmm, that's not bad. Maybe I was overthinking things.

Also, there is a chance I will change his real name to Derek Staal (making him of Dutch decent) and having him go by that.

Yeah, he is definitely not an angel. I see him as a bit closer to vigilante... in fact, if he clicks, that is very likely the direction he will go.

Thanks!

That would be no coincidence. I picked the name "Ferris" for just the reason you mentioned. Also, the original name I went with was Ferrix... but it is taken, not to mention its appeal wore off on me pretty quickly.

No, not an agent at all. I do like the word "argent" though. I also thought about something like "Silverfist"... but I don't really like it.

SOOOOO, what's a good super-heroey name for him? (If you want to actually check for available names, he will be created on Infinity, most likely... or possibly Justice.)

Hmmm... With as much as this poster seems to complain and whine about things on this forum... I would not be surprised if they made an exception and DIDN'T invite him. Just a thought.

I am usually quite opposed to gold as a color choice... but it looks really good here! I think the shininess really does it.

If it makes you feel better, I liked your costume a lot better.

*hugs Alex Mercer*
I would love something like those claws to be available. However, I was thinking of something more like a single blade made to appear as if it is growing out of the "gauntlet" part of the Organic Armor.

Firstly, the Devs DO listen to the player base and have included a ton of player ideas into the game. Among them are things that players LOVE like an improved e-mail system and the ability to send yourself money in-game as well as features like Enhancement Diversification that players generally hated at the time it was announced.

Secondly, this is not a democracy as you are implying. It is a "benevolent dictatorship."

Thirdly, I look at this game in a similar way as I look at a piece of art. The Devs have a vision for what they want this game to be and what they want it to NOT be. They literally craft everything with which we, as players, have the ability to interact. Because we give them our money, we are afforded the PRIVILEGE to play the game that we play. It is not really our game, in my opinion, it is theirs, and they "rent" it to us via monthly fees. I consider your position of revolvt and an attempt to control what is implemented as pure entitlemtent and audacity. Offering suggestions for the Dev team to consider is one thing, but making demands? No, that is a bridge too far.

Fourth, you ask us to ignore authority... and do what you want us to do instead. I don't think I need to further extrapolate there to show the error of such an opinion.

Lastly, you have stated that this is something "all of the players" want to have. It is not. How do I know this? Because I don't want it, and last I checked, I am one of those "all."

Per request:
E3 2010 Interview: We chat with the lead designer of City of Heroes: Going Rogue

First there was the City of Heroes. Then came the City of Villains. There wasn't much confusion about this set up. One was all good and the other was all evil. Yet the super hero MMO titles from developer Paragon Studios (taking over from the game's original creators Cryptic Studios) have continued to expand, thanks to free content updates and more recently the launch of the player-based Mission Architect.

Now the studio and publisher NCsoft are close to releasing City of Heroes: Going Rogue. This new commercial expansion puts in some shades of gray in our heroes and villains as we explore a new parallel universe. Big Download got the game's lead designer Melissa Bianco to answer our questions about Going Rogue which is due out this July.

First, how has City of Heroes held up in terms of player subscriptions in the light of the release last year of Champions Online?

I'm excited about how successful we are today. Even with new MMO's on the market, our players still choose us for their online adventures. There's a reason we're still the world's most popular super powered hero MMO and it essentially boils down to commitment to the franchise, respect and interaction with a loyal and dedicated player base, and a pledge to keep a game that we love fresh, innovative, and fun.

Competition is a good thing because it forces us to continually be on our toes and reinvent the game both for veteran players and new ones. We have more than six years worth of game content, lessons learned, and ideas. We've had the time to iterate, expand, and realize many of those cool features that you see in-game today, everything from Super-Sidekicking to Mission Architect to our next expansion, City of Heroes Going Rogue. There are things we've done in Going Rogue that people never thought we could ever do and that is very satisfying.

The release of the Mission Architect editor has made the game one of the very few that allows players to craft their own missions. How has this changed how the developers make their own new content for the game?

We are constantly giving our players an amazing amount of materials to fuel their imagination as they create and publish their own stories with the Mission Architect system. In fact, seeing this kind of creativity and fantastic story-telling has given us a shot in the arm to raise the bar on our missions even more with Going Rogue and beyond.

As developers, we have access to some pretty sweet and powerful tools, a lore bible and we have an entire Design, Art, and Code team to create and implement these stories. That said, our players still manage to impress us by creating truly innovative story arcs with only a fraction of the tools that we have. In fact, we were so impressed by one of our player's creativity and skill that we hired him to work on the Mission Architect system and he's working alongside a very talented Mission Writing team, creating and implementing many of the storyarcs you'll see in Going Rogue.

How did the idea of the Going Rogue expansion come about?

One of the discussions that the leads and directors had when NCsoft purchased the IP for City of Heroes back in 2007, was their desire to put out an expansion now that NCsoft had 100% control over the franchise. We wanted introduce ourselves as Paragon Studios, with a goal of excellence and innovation and we finally had the full support and resources from NCsoft to create an expansion that could exceed veteran player expectations in terms of graphics and game-play. Suddenly we had the freedom to truly push the boundaries of what we knew we wanted to provide our players. That's why we've been introducing technological innovations like Ultra Mode, Powers Customization, and of course Mission Architect. Going Rogue is simply the latest product of our newfound drive.

We wanted to create an expansion on our own merits as a studio and I believe that we have succeeded. Going Rogue is, both visually and in terms of game-play, above and beyond anything that City of Heroes has ever done.

How does the mirror universe of Praetoria differ from the lands in City of Heroes?

Well, you would think that since Tyrant (aka Praetorian version of Marcus Cole) is a "bad guy," that he'd play the part of tyrant with a dark world and a depressing landscape. But here's the thing: Emperor Cole doesn't see himself as a tyrant, he's the man who saved the world. He didn't ask for his situation, but he made sure he used it to his advantage and Emperor Cole is nothing if not smart and resourceful with a taste for aesthetics. Everything you see in Praetoria is homage to him, from the Cole-approved advertisements to the tiles of gold on the sidewalks in the Magisterium.

Do we have a mirror version of Atlas Park? I'd probably suggest that Nova Praetoria is it, but only in the sense that it is the heartbeat of Praetoria as Atlas Park is the pulse of Paragon City. Both cities are where the decisions are made and the important players gather, but that is where the similarities end. One thing that you will not see in Praetoria is a war wall, but sonic fencing to keep the citizens safe from all harm, perceived or otherwise.

We essentially built Praetoria from the ground up, using as many new assets and technology as possible and with the Ultra Mode (live in Issue 17) upgrade in mind. Stylistically, everything from the skyline to the buildings to newspaper boxes on the city streets are as different as they could be, and this is by design. Praetoria is its own universe, it deserves that kind of treatment.



Can you describe how the new alignments will affect characters and character creation in the game?

We have had two alignments in the past: Hero and Villain. Now we have Hero, Vigilante, Villain, and Rogue. The fall from grace takes you from Hero, to Vigilante, to Villain. The road to redemption transitions you from Villain, to Rogue, to Hero. The circular path provides a few perks for the morally gray areas such as Vigilante and Rogue because they are now allowed to meander over to the other side and get a taste of how the other half lives. As for characters and character creation, you can still create your favorite Hero or Villain with all of the power sets that apply to that alignment, but the benefit is that you can take your Mastermind (previously relegated to Rogue Isles only) to Paragon City and typically Hero-aligned characters such as Defenders and Blasters can now morally 'unencumber' themselves and see what's what in the Rogue Isles. Some players may decide to create a brand new character, expressly to role-play the experience of falling from grace or path to redemption just so that they can enjoy the entire progression the moment they reach level 20.

What sorts of new missions can we expect to see in Going Rogue?

There are plenty of missions centering on Praetoria as a new land to explore and all of its citizens and figures, some new and others that players will recognize, as well as missions that support the new Going Rogue system in the form of tip missions and morality missions. We're also introducing dialogue trees in missions as a form of information distribution, in-zone objectives, and moral choices that affect a player's moral character progression. We've included hundreds of new missions for this expansion so there will be plenty of things for players to experience both in Praetoria and Paragon City or the Rogue Isles. And, of course, we have the odd trick up our sleeves when it comes to bells and whistles, too.

What new enemies and enemy groups will be put into the expansion?

We have introduced several new villain groups in Going Rogue, such as: The Destroyers, a disgruntled band of ruthless soldiers abandoned after the Hamidon Wars; the Praetoria Police Department, a peacekeeping force utterly loyal to Emperor Cole who enforce the peace using any means necessary; The Resistance, a rag-tag group of misfits whose only common objective is taking down Cole any way they can; The Syndicate, a group of highly modern mobs who have taken organized crime to the next level; Ghouls, a group of zombie-like creatures with high-tech arm and leg bands that indicate that they are no accident; and The Seers, a division of the PPD whose psychic abilities have been finely honed to ensure that the people of Praetoria are thinking appropriate thoughts.

A familiar villain group, the Clockwork has received a make-over as Praetorian Clockwork and their presence in Praetoria is signified by a sleek and futuristic appearance as "helper" droids built for menial tasks, programmed to be 100% loyal to Emperor Cole, and outfitted with attack powers to help "keep the peace" as necessary.


What other new features will be put into Going Rogue?

Under the guidance of Matt "Positron" Miller, we're adding a teaser of the Incarnate System which is an end game content system for level 50s so that they can experience a whole new level of challenging game-play. We have four new zones that take place in Praetoria and with this new universe we're introducing some new mission map sets as well. We added four new power sets (Electric Control, Kinetic Melee, Demon Summoning, and Dual Pistols) which adds a new power set for each of the basic archetypes and we've done some serious upgrades to the Mission Architect system in the form of new maps, new mobs and a special new feature we introduced in Issue 17 in the form of doppelganger technology. The new alignment system and all the creativity and access that will provide is pretty exciting. Did I mention we are throwing in new costume sets, auras, and plenty of emotes? There is an even longer list of game-play features that will make the new missions more advanced and fun than you've ever seen in City of Heroes. That's just a taste of it, there's plenty more I'm probably forgetting.

After the expansion is released what plans are there for further free content updates?

We have big plans for our free updates, actually. We intend to expand on the Going Rogue system in the form of additional missions (tip and morality), add more End Game zones and events, unlock more Incarnate Slots (though you will need to have the Expansion to play them), and continue to add content, costumes, power sets, and a few little things I have up my sleeve, which I will not tell you, even on pain of dismemberment.


Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Going Rogue and the future of City of Heroes?

I've been working on City of Heroes since before it launched (I started way back in 2002) and I have been around for every issue, the CoV expansion, and every little booster pack we've ever done, but I have to say that I couldn't be more proud of the work that we have done on the Going Rogue expansion. Visually speaking, the alternate world of Praetoria will impress existing players and absolutely stun new or returning players with the graphical update and all of the features and systems we've added since we launched in 2004. I do want to thank all of our incredible players who've been enjoying our game for the past six years. Thank you for helping us to make the world's best super powered MMO. The next few months are going to blow your mind away.

[Edit: Seriously? Someone red repped me for posting this as a service to those who were not able to read the original article? Pardon me for empathizing a bit, I have had that same problem on a few seperate occassions and appreciate the gesture when others do it; I returned the favor.]

I think this is going overboard, and obviously does not speak for all of the playerbase. I, for one, LOVE the look of the new pieces. Would I complain if there was some more stuff in it? Very much not.... but I tend not to get this worked up over the stuff your wonderful art team churns out. My only gripe was with those on the Dev team who seemed to imply that the mutant pack would be the place for animal parts... but that was not the fault of these pieces or the Devs who made them.

Also, Mr. Visions, I would not presume to know how much time it took the artists to create these pieces and neither should you. It is the equivalent of telling someone that something is "easy to code" when you haven't a flippin' clue what is entailed. Get over yourself and complain (if you must) in a way that doesn't imply you know things you can't possibly know.

Dang marketing is even censoring his birthday activities. LOL

Point by point:

• I can see that I guess. However, keep in mind the number of players who don't like Stone Armor and playing Kheldians for EXACTLY that reason. It is a valid criticism nonetheless. Also, it wouldn't make a lick of sense to transform into a character wearing ripped jeans unless the original costume has jeans too. So... in effect, you are also dictating that, or forcing a character to be more illogical than necessary.
• Well... You didn't, but when you were describing the hair, I had a clear picture of Goku. It had nothing to do with your use of "super."
• Yes, Doc Manhattan was an energy being, I suppose. But if I wanted to describe his physical appearance to someone who knew nothing about him, I wouldn't even think to call him a "muscular Spectrum of energy." That makes no sense. Likewise, using that to describe your idea doesn't actually translate into anything but a question mark.
• Thanks for the definition. It was precisely because I KNEW the definition that I was confused. I think I am capable of using Wikipedia. Are you saying that the character would look like a muscular rainbow? I hope not... and that doesn't make a heckuva lotta sense either.
• That would be one power that "forces" a certain reasoning. Most other powers do not tell your character what it is thinking and/or feeling.

AKA, as described, it will do NOTHING if solo. Another important aspect, how this could possibly fit a villain character. Why would a villain become that enraged over it's "allies"? (Yes, I know some villains are loyal, but ALL of them, are not.)

Uh huh. Good luck with that.

• Don't tell me what I am wearing
• Don't turn me into a Dragon Ball character
• How can energy be "muscular"?
• What is a "spectrum of energy"?

That was just one paragraph.

To put it simply: This seems like an idea that has merit, with an implementation that I would fight against tooth-and-nail so that it never sees life in-game. Also, I don't see this game ever having player controlled robotic power suits. Especially if they are larger than a Huge character.

P.S. Take a moment to read what you have written a second time. Grammar and syntax are pretty atrocious, and I found myself being so bewildered by what you were trying to get across that I skipped entire paragraphs. Obviously, that doesn't help you express your idea properly.

Ummm... what was wrong with i17? I must have a short memory.