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Player spawned missions, henchmen/friends, and enemies that do things.

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ProfDK
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Player spawned missions, henchmen/friends, and enemies that do things.

Enemies: One of the biggest complaints I have about every MMO is the enemies. For the most part, enemies just stand around doing nothing, repeating the same little action over and over, chatting or talking or pacing back and forth, until the player shows up, they then attack until they are defeated. On rare occasion, one might run away. It does not feel at all heroic or cool in any way to dive into a group of enemies that were standing on a street corner talking. In enemy bases, the enemies make no effort to set off an alarm or call friends, they just attack until defeated.
I would love to see enemies with goals other than "defeat the hero". Like enemies that just want to get away with the loot or money or enemies that run for help, run and hide (and maybe call for help on a phone). I would also love to see mission failures that don't end in "death", maybe some end in imprisonment of some kind, where the player is to be tortured or placed in an "easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.", or spawn other missions.
In the case of these failures, it might be cool to have a "call for help button". If the player hits this button, a mission is spawned, players can accept said mission to rescue the captured player. Meanwhile, the player may also try to escape, or maybe they have to escape to call for help on a radio or phone found in the mission/base.
The idea behind this is it would give players and excuse to join forces and meet other players. It would create groups where none might have existed.

Henchmen/fiends: It would be nice if, as the player progresses, they made friends, sidekicks, or got henchmen depending on their alignment. These NPCs could be sent on missions, something like Star Trek Online missions for your crew, or Star Wars: The Old Republic missions for your followers. Perhaps hiring people might be available as well. These missions could spawn PVE missions for other players, for instance, a player-villain may send a henchman to get money or an item through theft, or assassinate someone. This would spawn a PVE mission for other players to stop the robbery or murder. The henchman reports back and the player decides to reward or punish the henchman accordingly. A hero might send a cop to look into a crime that was committed and report back or ask a scientist to research something. If a successful mission might lead to a villain. The villain (PVE or player) may put out a mission to take the scientist captive, or stop the officer, which would be a PVE mission a player might pick up. This then creates a mission to rescue the cop or scientist and so on and so on. In certain cases maybe this could lead to PVP missions between players if the players opt for that feature. So depending on how these spawned missions play out, it would influence or even create a story arch and may lead players to work together if say they picked up the same mission.

Temporary specialty powers: This is something seen in a lot of comics, Spiderman creating water absorbing webs to fight a water villain or creating tracking devices to follow henchmen, or Superman getting a special rubber or lead suit to fight a certain villain. I was thinking that there could be situations where the player is defeated (i.e. a mission fails) and they are given the option to get their followers to build them some special equipment, or get materials to build it themselves, so the player has a better chance of defeating the villain the second time. Again, these could lead to player spawned missions talked about above. Or players could be allowed to think ahead, and get the tracking devices before starting a "stop the robbery/assassination" mission, in case the villains make a break for it and all they can do is toss a tracker at the fleeing villain, which then leads to a second mission. In the case of villains, maybe a mission becomes available for the player to have a henchman steal the tech another player was having a henchman create.

Interdictor
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ENEMIES: Some of this is due

ENEMIES: Some of this is due to the reality of the nature of MMOs and video games in general. That said - there have been games where "runners" bring in reinforcements, and even CoH had missions where a "death" meant you got captured and had to escape a prison. That real time "call for help" you described could be intriguing - though it might not be very reliable depending on the server pops at the time, or the rewards for doing it.

HENCHMEN/FIENDS: Some of this could be handled by the "Mission creator" that will eventually come out. As for the NPC buddies helping you out on missions - besides possible balance issues, I would rather the devs encourage teaming with other people. Plus, it could kind of water down the pet class we are eventually going to get. That said - once we get that pet class, it could be kind of neat to get a henchie via a tertiary power selection.

TEMPORARY SPECIALTY POWERS: There are plans to have temp powers - both crafting and mission-specific temp powers if I recall correctly. Not sure if they will go as far as you would like to see, but they will be a thing.

Huckleberry
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@ProfDK, I am with you

@ProfDK, I am with you totally regarding enemy behaviors. I would really like to see the kinds of things you mention.

Regarding henchmen and fiends, I have also tried to float the idea that the people you help as a lowbie become members of your support group as a higher level character. But it never occurred to me that you could send them out on NPC missions that other players could then react to. That idea kicks buttons!


I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
Cyclops
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Enemies who run away tick me

Enemies who run away tick me off. they scatter in all four directions. They can climb power polls and run along electrical wire at full speed.
Having enemies who run at the sight of a hero is a dissatisfier for the player. I'm here to fight not chase every gang member who knows where.

I really hate enemy cowards.

Fireheart
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I hate runners, too, but they

I hate runners, too, but they do make perfect sense - except when their pathing turns ridiculous. After all, we are dangerous heroes and they are weeping little villains! Of course, if one is patient, the runaway returns to their perch, sauntering casually, and can be given that special attention they so richly deserve. Without Flight, there's little chance of a melee-hero catching one of those gifted vertical runners... unless you have a Nemesis Staff and can knock them down.

Be Well!
Fireheart

ProfDK
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Runners are awful for Melee

I agree, runners are awful for Melee only characters. I believe this is, largely, because they aren't going anywhere. They simply run "Away" via the AI they have no destination or direction, just "away". However wouldn't it be cool if they ran into a nearby building starting a hostage quest, or just went to grab a hostage off the street forcing the hero to enter chat where they could make an alignment choice? Or if they just ran to the nearest group of like-minded enemies for reinforcements? Of course, this would have to be balanced so players aren't constantly overwhelmed. Or perhaps they would run to a hiding place and if you found them they would plead for mercy and give up (maybe even give the player a quest), allowing you to hit a button and tie them up for the cops, or in the case of villains chasing innocents, maybe they run for a public place with lots of people in the hopes the villain won't go on a rampage looking for them (which might be an optional quest type for villains), or maybe the will lead the villain to their home where the villain could take hostages, or they might try to run for the nearest police hangout, making a player's knowledge of the terrain an asset. Also, enemies that surrender in the middle of a fight would be cool too. How one reacts might affect one's alignment.

In short, runner's aren't fun because the have no purpose in running. They have no goal or agenda. If they had someplace to go and something to do, it could make the game awesome.

Izzy
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ProfDK wrote:
ProfDK wrote:

I agree, runners are awful for Melee only characters. I believe this is, largely, because they aren't going anywhere. They simply run "Away" via the AI they have no destination or direction, just "away". However wouldn't it be cool if they ran into a nearby building starting a hostage quest, or just went to grab a hostage off the street forcing the hero to enter chat where they could make an alignment choice? Or if they just ran to the nearest group of like-minded enemies for reinforcements? Of course, this would have to be balanced so players aren't constantly overwhelmed. Or perhaps they would run to a hiding place and if you found them they would plead for mercy and give up (maybe even give the player a quest), allowing you to hit a button and tie them up for the cops, or in the case of villains chasing innocents, maybe they run for a public place with lots of people in the hopes the villain won't go on a rampage looking for them (which might be an optional quest type for villains), or maybe the will lead the villain to their home where the villain could take hostages, or they might try to run for the nearest police hangout, making a player's knowledge of the terrain an asset. Also, enemies that surrender in the middle of a fight would be cool too. How one reacts might affect one's alignment.
In short, runner's aren't fun because the have no purpose in running. They have no goal or agenda. If they had someplace to go and something to do, it could make the game awesome.

I rather like the idea of Runners reacting proportionally.
The harder they get hit, the farther they run.
- and/or -
Melee hits don't make Runners go as far as Ranged attacks might.

So.. Proportionately Reactive Running Distances (PRRD). ;D
Ok.. maybe that's not the coolest sounding acronym. :p

Fireheart
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Perhaps runners could run,

Perhaps runners could run, screaming, "The Supers are Coming! The Supers are Coming!" so the peons all run away? Thus, with a small demonstration, one can walk where they will, without having to step in the lowly scum.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Grimfox
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Quote:
Quote:

So.. Proportionately Reactive Running Distances (PRRD). ;D
Ok.. maybe that's not the coolest sounding acronym. :p

Sounds Purrdy good to me.

My biggest gripe with runners was that they would not aggro other groups. So a runner would go running past another group literally with their hair on fire and they wouldn't budge and inch. Wouldn't even say, "hey dude...Your hair's on fire" So I'd like to see runners become a huge liability and something that we have to deal with unless they end up aggroing the entire building. Which could be fun too.

In a similar vein if you beat up a hellion on the street and there is another group of hellions within sight/earshot that should aggro them or cause them to flee...depending on the same metric that drives PRRD. It's just unnatural and IMO immersion breaking to see a bunch of people standing around like statues as you lay the beat down on their allies.

This might, at first, lead to a much greater difficulty, but I think it could lead to some much more inventive game play encouraging stealth and distraction techniques. IE Batman and Robin enter a warehouse full of thugs. They quietly take out the door guards from the shadows. Inside the warehouse it's mostly open, so if they start busting heads they are going to have everyone inside on top of them in an instant. So Batman starts busting heads and retreats drawing everyone and their uncle from the room giving Robin a chance to dig through their files and recover the next clue they need to figure out the Penguin's next plot. Or if Batman has the full Justice League assembled they might just decide they can bust a bunch of heads and be done with all of them. Or they shut off the lights and start taking out the thugs one by one under the cover of darkness. And eventually the thugs start fleeing the building in terror. Giving Batman and Robin a few minutes to find their next clue before they return, and in greater numbers.

Mostly pipe dreams but we'll see.

Radiac
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I think it's certainly

I think it's certainly possible to allow melee toons to have various ways to make their own lives easier vis a vis the runners. you could take a tertiary power that does knockdown, or slow as AoE, you could have attacks that do stun, knockdown, as added effects, you could have powers that do immobilizartion on the group while you attack them one at a time, etc. I'm not sure how far you want to take it or how effective those powers ought to be, in the final analysis, buy some form of "tanker crowd control" probably isn't out of the question.

R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising

Interdictor
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Radiac wrote:
Radiac wrote:

I think it's certainly possible to allow melee toons to have various ways to make their own lives easier vis a vis the runners. you could take a tertiary power that does knockdown, or slow as AoE, you could have attacks that do stun, knockdown, as added effects, you could have powers that do immobilizartion on the group while you attack them one at a time, etc. I'm not sure how far you want to take it or how effective those powers ought to be, in the final analysis, buy some form of "tanker crowd control" probably isn't out of the question.

Well, unless things have changed, both the "Scrappers" and "Tanks" will eventually have access to "Manipulation" secondaries, which are supposed to be a mix of melee and controls. Plus, as you say, there will probably be powers of interest in the tertiary pools. Not to mention there may be goodies in the masteries to aid with this as well. We will have to see.

Radiac
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Depending on the primary set

Depending on the primary set you choose, you might or might not even need tertiary control effects. Your primary and secondary power sets might have more or less inherent crowd control built into the secondary effects of the powers (by secondary effects I mean the effects the powers have beyond just hit point damage).

R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising