je_saist

Thank you for answering this.

broadcast chat only works in the zone that you are in. So if you are in Atlas Park, it only reaches... Atlas Park.

City of Heroes is also a game that depends on Instanced Missions to deliver "most" of the game. Even if you are on a populated server and there are lots of players in your level range... that doesn't mean they'll be online in your zone.

That and many players turned broadcast chat off after all of the Atlas AE farming pre-I16...

The only way you can say this with a straight face is that you keep changing your idea and claiming it was something different each time you post.

Get over it. You've been hammered harder than Firi and QuiJon were in that thread about bringing back old-Sk. At this point, I think you've gone beyond simply raising questions to outright flame-baiting and trolling the forums.

Interesting. This is quite literally the first time I've ever heard of this. I've gone ahead and poked Castle to drop by the thread and comment on this. If what you say is true, it's not common knowledge for the game, and it's nigh impossible to track down and verify.

^^^^^^
damage =/= gauntlet

hit = gauntlet.

Damage amounts have no bearing on how much taunt is built. Actually hitting determines gauntlet. Yes, there are cases where a build up power would be nice, but for somebody whose playing a tank to tank, it's the first power to be dropped.
^^^^^^

Aett Thorn has it correct. - Castle

I've seen a soft-capped controller, a soft-capped regen scrapper, and soft capped defenders.

So yes, you can soft defense cap just about every-class. However... there's a telling post by Castle... well, a couple

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...19#post2288719
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...49#post2288749
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...63#post2288863

Castle does make it clear that there are no plans to decrease the amount of defense+ IO set bonus's available... but reading between the lines... there might not be any more +defense IO bonus's coming... This doesn't mean that a defense nerf is coming... but I'd be a little surprised if there are not meetings on how to discuss the handling players that are soft-capping avatars to force those avatars into another archtype's play style.

I was thinking Elec / Willpower actually... too many times testing out cars in German Power Stations.

*****

/signed!

Mewit. TeethWhitened Hamster is too long a name!

... James May plays City of Heroes? COOL.

Seems somebody has a problem with getting told reality. I don't know if whoever posted that rep is aware that mods can see who posts what rep to what account... but they can. And it does go against the TOS of the forums.

Question: Could you ever call PvP a success to begin with?

The obvious answer is no. The PvP aspect of CoH has never been a serious draw. Some say it's because the game didn't launch with PvP... and that might be somewhat true. However, in the intervening time, which was literal years, between Issue 4 and Issue 12, PvP zones were reported to draw less traffic... combined.. .than a PvE zone most players openly hated (Old Hollows).

You are correct in that PvP itself changed. However, what it changed into is not what the previous player base wanted. The previous minority PvP player base wanted an enviroment were they could... what's the term... wtfbbq pwn... other players. In the PvP environment prior to the I13 that was pretty much the only reason many of the PvPer's I came across were in the zones at all. They wanted the Ultima Online style of play where they could gank anybody, at any time. Going back to the start of CoH, it's easy to see where that mentality came from. Many of CoH's earliest aspects were designed to appeal to somebody who played Everyquest for fun. See this post : http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...9&postcount=22

However, the actual amount of players willing to pay for that content... in a different game... well. It's not actually that large. Players who liked that experience will find that UO servers are still active : http://www.uoherald.com/news/

Now, whether or not you like it, and obviously from your posts you don't, the changes made to PvP in I13 better enabled actual player balance. It removed the auto-gank opportunities and put players on a more level playing field.. .which wasn't what the Old pvpers wanted... and... come on. Lets be honest, PvP play isn't Paragon Studio's strong point. Epic Stories, Team Challenges, and PvE content is what Paragon is strongest at... and it's what CoH was built for.

My personal opinion is that the developers would be better off just dropping PvP play entirely. Contract the CoH brand out and have somebody else create a PvP game entirely separate from the RPG. Granted, I'm not sure how that would work in turning a tab-based game into a skill-based game... but it would probably be a better use of NCSoft's money.

somebody else gave a really good example. They were playing a villain, had defeated Lord Recluse in battle... and when they went to go talk to another contact... the contact actually tells you, the player, that the task you are given is beneath her. You're being given a dead-end run.

Now, in the aspect of CoH as a GAME... this actually very understandable. The game engine simply wasn't flexible enough to account for a player's accomplishments. Trying to match text to what players had done, or hadn't done, just wasn't worth the coding trouble.

Now, we do know that some of this is changing in Going Rogue... or shortly afterwards. I can't find the link, but one of the developers mentioned that the game engine now has the capability to determine whether or not a player cuts the red wire, or the blue wire. This is actually the foundation, as I understand it, of the upcoming morality system that will be in Going Rogue. What your player does will determine what they can do. Fall too many hostage rescues... and it's possible that you're avatar won't be given any more hostage missions. Fail to rob a bank... and contacts might find something else for you to do instead.

As I see it, the sentiment that players will never be more than B-list powers is driven more by perception of the game's text and limitations... than rather what actually happens in the game.

On the flip side, it could mean the devs could convert the open PvP zones to co-op and come up with some pretty wicked events. My favorite conceptual idea had the Shivan's taking control of Bloody Bay's Bank Vault... and Heroes would have to help Villain's break INTO a Bank.

Also, there is a slight problem. PvP isn't end-game content. It's just content.

One of the reasons why Guild Wars works is that you can enter PvP play with a well-equipped avatar at any time. Yes, you can get better powers and abilities by playing the PvE content... but for the most part you don't have to do the PvE to do the PvP... or be GOOD at the PvP.

One of the reasons why Tabula Rasa failed is that it tried to make PvP end-game content. So you'd go through 50 levels of PvE and Team based content... then suddenly turn around and have to clone your avatar for a completely different play style. The result was a disaster to NCSoft's quarterly reports. Tabula Rasa's player base evaporated almost as fast as Star Wars Galaxies player base after NGE.

One of the reasons why WarHammer Online works is that it uses PvP as content. You can actually level your character as you play in PvP zones. If you want, you can actually spend most of the game in the PvP zones gaining levels... and because combat is team-based... even if you're a bad player, you can still gain levels and items.

One of the problems City of Heroes has now is that many players try to treat PvP as end-game content. Yes, it is easier to do now since players have dual-builds, and they can have one build that's for the PvE content... and then one build to go and beat each other up. Something I've noticed that PvPer's tend to miss, or ignore, is that they can't actually level up with PvP content. You can't go into the arena, fight all day, and gain a substation number of levels. You can go into an Open-PvP zone and gain experience... but... you get that experience by completing zone missions... which is PvE content.

Now, there are different approach's that the developers could take.

They could take the approach of Guild Wars and allow players to Clone or Copy characters to 50 with a pre-set number of powers and various pre-selected balanced enhancement values. Then, as players level those characters up in the other 99% of the game, they can use IO's gained on their PvE build to slot into their PvP avatar.

I think that's probably the only realistic solution to PvP play. The available financial market simply isn't big enough to support mimicking WarHammer and creating PvP content that allows players to level.

I am a bit interested in where something like this has been said as being in development. As far as I'm aware no specific enhancement or IO information has been mentioned for Going Rogue. The most information I can find is from here : http://www.boomtown.net/en_uk/articl...w.php?id=18195

Where yes, Mr. Miller does specify that and difficult tasks for level 50 characters to do that make them more powerful. .... But all this could mean is a Task Force or event that results in a guaranteed Purple Recipe drop. Remember back before Issue 9? When Hamidon Raid's were the only way to get the most powerful enhancements in the game? What is known about Going Rogue doesn't lean any credence, that I can determine, to an overhaul or addition to the Slotting system.

***
Somebody already beat me to the requisite joke about Champions Online. However, what many people fail to realize is that cannibalizing ideas can be just as unhealthy for a game as it can be healthy. WoW is the odd factor out here. One of the reasons why it is so successful is that is so vague and generic. It's the safe option.

WoW is a bit like like having an Xbox with Halo back in 2002 through... well, now really. Nobody at work would mock you for having an Xbox. Nobody would think you a freak for playing Halo. Gamers wouldn't automatically dismiss you. It was a nice, happy, medium for the non-gamer. And it was utter rubbish.. In the same way, WoW is rubbish to the hardcore gamer. Those who like the Fantasy Genre will probably get more out of focused games like Aion, WarHammer, Everquest, or Final Fantasy XI.

Once you get away from the safe option though, you'll find that cannibalizing ideas is generally bad business. The empirical cases in point here are Auto Assault, Planetside, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, and so on. Each of these games has at some point ripped off another popular game... and promptly found themselves headed to the rubbish bin as the player base evaporated. That 3 of these are SOE published games that still have operational servers should serve as a reminder that Everquest is still an 8,000 lb gorilla as well... since Everquest pretty much is the only thing SOE does that makes money.

It's also important the CoH developers don't lose focus on what they are making. Changing a game too much can also lead to certain death. Case in point here is Tabula Rasa. It started out as an epic Team-Based third-person shooter crossing CoH with Planetside. After launch, the dev leads that took over after Richard Garriot left for his space trip promptly turned the game around and focused on the Player versus Player market... and as NCSoft's financials showed just mere months later... there is not a PvP oriented market large enough to sustain a PvP Oriented MMO... not with the likes of Unreal, Quake, Far Cry, and Half Life that offer modding tools for their games.

This loss of focus is one of the concerns I held about Going Rogue. I wrote about how I felt that allowing players to change sides the game was a bad design choice. Now, I've changed my mind since I can see where Paragon Studios is going with the game. I can see the changing foundations of teaming and the concepts of teaming. What CoH is becoming is a more focused, and better, exploration of the Comic Book Super Hero Genre.

From a financial standpoint it would seem that continuing to be unique is what will set CoH apart from other attempts. Copying ideas, no matter how good they might seem, that don't fit the foundation or goals of the game... well... that will kill the game.

I dunno. Considering that a lot of CO was developed as Marvel Universe Online while CoH was still under Cryptic's control, it's more likely CO is cribbing from photocopies of BaB's post-it notes.

The labeling was in the enhanced detail information shown when right-clicking on the power for information.

Somebody already beat me to a line about Heroes not being the ones to think about Genocide. Heroes also are unlikely to think about breaking regulations and rules. If you're familiar with the story-line of CoH, Heroe's weren't always accepted with open-arms by the communities of the world. In many cases, beings with meta or super-powers are still viewed with suspicion, hatred, disgust, and other negative emotions.

While Supergroups, Anti-Heroes, and Aliens are more accepted in today's Paragon City... the rest of the world treats the quarantined zone with a bit of... distrust?

Statesman alone wasn't responsible for the fight against the Rikti. He worked with a wide range of other organizations and super-powered beings directly. As such, I'm not really sure he can be faulted with not wiping out the Rikti when he was probably physically capable of doing so. As was revealed in the external comments, Statesman's Freedom Phalanx aren't really the optimum group for taking the fight to the Rikti to begin with.

Was it a mistake for the Power's of Paragon City's Dimension to not wage war against the Rikti? Or against the 5th Column? Or against the Praetorians?

In some aspects... yes. In other aspects, a peace treaty with the majority of the Homeworld Rikti Society is within reach... as those who play through the RWZ arcs find out. Perhaps once the Rikti Lord of War is defeated once and for all, a genuine peace can be discussed, and we'll find out what super-powered threats the Rikti face in their world.