This is bit more of a RP/Lore Suggestion!
I figure CoT will have it's equivalent, but how about we give it better lore than CoH/CO has managed to do. Doing so is really just a matter for RPers and doesn't really do anything to the non-RPers.
What do I mean by this?
As a RPer I always found it annoying to see people think a Nightclub with strippers (Pocket D) was a place to take kids for ice cream. :p Yes, it was a place for heroes and villains to relax that was outside of any law enforcement, but it wasn't family entertainment. :p And I just don't think DJ Zero would have been keen on the Power Pack in the club :p
Same goes with CO's Club Caprice. Only the matter is worse, when players RP villains and don't expect to get brought in.
At least if there is some RP lore to point to would be nice, even if we know some RPers will ignore it anyways, but I like the idea of having some common sense put in :)
This also means, maybe make TWO clubs. One for heroes and one for villains (that should be secret).
An alternative, Brand X, would involve something akin to Phasing Tech ... although it might be better to think of it as sort of an Inverse Phasing.
Essentially, the communal club space would have a defined set of geometry in it, which can take on different appearances based on which Entrance you come into the club through. The PCs would occupy all "versions" of the club simultaneously and would be "common" elements no matter which "version" of the club you were in.
So Heroes would enter the club and see Blue Styling.
Villains would enter the exact same club and see Red Styling.
Heroes and Villains would be able to see (and interact with) each other, but the club that they are "viewing" around them is The Same Yet Different.
Do it right and you'd be able to do a range of different club styles, and conceivably keep releasing additional "skins" for the Club that can be selected upon entry (I'm thinking elevator push button floors panel). Point being that you don't divvy up the PCs who are coming to the club so as to keep them all in the same space together.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Phasing tech for one club might be workable but it just might be easier to have more than one club. It always struck me a little weird that Pocket D was technically the only designated "social zone" in CoH but maybe it had something to do with the relatively limited ways they initially allowed heroes and villains to interact together in a non-combat zone.
With CoT's non-binary alignment system it should be more reasonable for "heroes" and "villains" (or anything in-between) to interact with each other all over town. This may allow for several social areas to exist. Perhaps one could be a big coffee shop (like CoT's version of a Starbucks) that might be in a "nice" part of town while there could always be a seedier casino/strip club type place in one of the more villainous areas.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Imagine if we could have gone into that donut shop. It could have been another cool place for players to meet/RP in. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Actually, I'd like to just have more than one Club spread around the city. Different atmospheres, different clientele, different reasons for patronizing. I think the engine and the size of the map could easily support a more divers geography. An off the cuff list that occurs to me immediately: (Generic Names not-withstanding)
A Hero Club that caters to the upholders of Titan City justice, located in a respectable part of town, where they can rub elbows with other do-gooders and swap tips and info about the various criminal activity around the city.
A VIllain Club frequented by the cities Criminal Element located in a seedier part of town, where less savory characters can meet to hire henchmen and plan heists, etc.
A Neutral Club that is precariously maintained by both factions for the occasional interaction of both of the above groups, where deals can be struck or information can be exchanged that helps "keep the peace."
A "Family Friendly" club that is specifically designed for heroes to interact with "The Public" where everyone is expected to be on best behavior, with more NPC's around occasionally taking pics, etc.
The above would be kind of the "Official Clubs" with bigger spaces and higher visibility. Plus, I wouldn't mind there being a few extra "neutral" clubs with their own specific themes that the player-base would naturally and organically designate for certain types of activity. Like, "Club Zero is where to go if you really want to chat about the Lore/History of the City." Or "Stay away from the Krakatoa Room unless you want to get hit up for ERP." and so on.
Of course, any player can enter any of these places, with some in-game lore describing their "intended function." I absolutely expect these to shift somewhat organically based on the player base, but they might at least provide a basic idea of the general reception a player can expect. For instance, I can see a villain entering into the Hero Club (or vice versa) and immediately being challenged to a PVP arena match. (The instance for which coincidentally looks just like the inside of the club) This might happen often until the villain (in this case) earns his "stripes" or another player pipes up with "It's okay, they're with me."
Maybe I'm optimistic, but I think with the primary base of players being ex-pat CoH, the RP of these places would settle out fairly quickly and the community would be able to direct new players where they want to go for the right experience. Of course, I played almost exclusively on Virtue, where this kind of RP was Standard Operating Procedure.
Stay tuned, true believers. ;)
[color=#ff0000]Sound Lead, Bullpen Writer[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
So it's now been confirmed there will be 37 different social clubs in CoT...
See what I did there? Players will always take any vague statement from a Dev and blow it completely out of proportion. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Multiple clubs sounds excellent. Have one restricted to villains, one to heroes and one that serve both types so that inter-faction mingling happens.
Puny Heroes.
Ooooh, I hate it when they do that! :p
The only thing I would quibble about is the use of the word "restriction" when it comes to heroes and villains going to various clubs. Remember the alignment system of CoT is going to allow for a large range of "grey" in-between characters who won't strictly be 100% heroic or villainous.
Perhaps the clubs that are strongly aligned towards being heroic or villanous could have NPC bouncers that would be prone to keep someone who's strongly oppositely aligned out of their establishments. Maybe as long as a character just "sneaks in" and doesn't interact with any NPCs they can stay but if they are dumb enough to "create a scene" they would be thrown out.
There's a huge opportunity for both game-based missions and player-driven RP if people are not strictly prevented from going to any club they want to try to get into.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I think whatever else they do the social hub(s) should have a physical layout that lends itself to costume contests, forming teams, player-to-player trading, dance emote contests of some kind, etc.
It would be cool if different clubs could have different lighting effects like black lights, or even other visual effects made possible by the computers and the graphics cards and whatnot. Maybe even different gravity effects, like having gravity that pulls you up to the ceiling or something (the interior could be built "upside down" on purpose, etc). It would be neat if there were a choice of different ambient music options that we could either vote on or else pay fake money to get played (like a jukebox). It would be REALLY cool if you could get a dance club DJ with any sort of fame to do some of those music options. It would be even more awesome if more than one such person made music for the dance clubs and we could check out different in-game clubs to listen to different DJs.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
Yes I had thought about that as well.... Not quite sure how they would handle that what with the more complex alignment system they are whipping up. Perhaps they could do something along the lines of having multiple "equivalents" to rogue and vigilante alignments? Depending on what you technically are equivalent to, villain bouncers would throw out heroes/vigis and hero bouncers could throw out villains/rogues?
Puny Heroes.
A jukebox like in SWTOR sounds great. Just with even more options. And yes a CC room would be excellent.
Puny Heroes.
I'd suggest every club have three possible threshold-based reactions to the alignments of people entering their establishments:
1) Welcomed - In this case your character's alignment matches close enough to the club's "favored" alignment that you get to stay as long as you want and use any facilities the club provides.
2) Tolerated - In this case your character's alignment doesn't match the club's "favored" alignment but it's not diametrically opposed to it either. You can stay but you can't use any of the club's features unless you're proven trustworthy (that proof could involve doing in-game missions for the club owner or some-such).
3) Unwelcome - In this case your character's alignment is diametrically opposed to the club's "favored" alignment. You can "sneak in" if you want but if you are caught by any NPC bouncer you are automatically expelled from the club.
Keep in mind this is all high-level spitballing here. The exact details about how the different alignment thresholds would work or exactly what kinds of things you can or can't do in these various situations would obviously need to be established by the Devs.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I'm not so sure multiple clubs are needed. They're good to have if they want to do it for sure, but in my experience, the community over all comes to decide where the best place to meet and RP is.
CoH had multiple places, with Pocket D being the general hub and thusly RPers ignoring everything about it's lore. Like lets do public fight scenes so we have an audience even though Zero would have us ported out :p But still, I know I'd like the lore to point to :)
I have no doubt if given multiple options the playerbase will eventually choose one as the "best" or at least most popular. But just because lots of people met up in Pocket D doesn't mean that 100% of all RP in the game happened there.
I'm not seriously suggesting they give us like 20 different Pocket D sized areas. But I think if we had say 4 or 5 clubs (some naturally larger than others) it would be a little more organic/realistic for a large city setting - especially if different alignment ranges could be catered to in these diferernt places.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Stay tuned, true believers.
BWT, several of us are Virtuites, so...
[color=#ff0000]Sound Lead, Bullpen Writer[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Yeah I had only meant for there to be a few of them so they remain special. Maybe even one per alignment and have them spread out I don't know. I figure most would end up at the pure inter-faction one. Also by having more there would hopefully be some clubs that are less populated or even empty at times. To be frank I think its convenient to have a optional club area where you can RP with friends without a hoard of other people talking/listening in you don't know most likely. Though you could just say that is what bases are for. But I digress. The reaction system you mention Lothic sounds interesting but I am just unsure of how effective the bouncers could really end up being. Seems like people would just learn to avoid them to me. Would they be like patrol units that instantly throw you out if they see you or...?
Puny Heroes.
Personally, I didn't much like the whole muitiple entrances thing of the Pocket D. It made it too much of a convenient quick travel power. If it is absolutely necessary, then at least move the entrance around. A lot.
Rather than having a single club for everybody or many different clubs for different alignments I would think that a single club with a hero and villain wing to it would make more sense. The central club is a grey area, where everybody is welcome as long as they don't make waves. Hero and Villain specific areas, with hero and villain specific amenities are only accessible if you have the right reputation to be admitted (that also gives a tiny reason to aim for the extremes of alignment rather than hanging out in the middle and dabble at both heroism and villainy).
And one thing any social area simply must have is a 'just big enough' geometry. The biggest problem with the Pocket D, and social spaces in other games is that they are either too small, or (far more commonly) they are way oversized. The Pocket D was sized for several hundreds of players, which resulted in a dozen characters rattling around in all that empty space, making it feel sterile.
Much better would be if the central room would be sized for perhaps a dozen characters, and as the place fills up walls and ceilings fade out of existence, opening up more and more additional room. And if the crowd starts to leave again gradually the room shrinks (and characters are pushed back into the smaller space as well).
The standard near empty club would be a small bar, a table or two and perhaps a tiny stage. At the other extreme of the scale you would have something like a stadium prepared for a show by a mega star, with room for thousands and enough space to have a monster truck derby somewhere in the room as well as a football match in another corner. (well, maybe not quite that extreme, but just have a series of typical entertainment spaces for variously sized crowds).
The idea is to make the place always feel somewhere between full and crowded, and thus always more social.
(p.s. SW:G designers had the brilliant idea to give players both something to do in their equivalent of the Pocket D club, the cantinas, namely the entertainer class (musicians and dancers) and other players a gentle nudge to visit and hang out for a while (combat fatigue). For a short time it made for a wonderful experience for those who were primarily roleplayers because they could actually play the game without having to wade through mass genocide. Of course soon as the publisher managed to push out the original developers the replacement developers ruined the experience by forcing all players to master entertainer classes even though they had zero desire and no social skill worth mentioning to play the game that way. It drove out the actual social players who created to cohesion in the player base and turned the cantinas in sterile places the 'preferred demographic' had to visit for as short a time as possible).
It's likely that the inter-faction "neutral" club would be the big Pocket D equivalent for CoT. As you say it would probably become the most popular one and there'd be nothing wrong with that.
Again that "NPC bouncer" idea for CoT was something I just thought of for this thread. I mainly got the idea from the new Justice system that was just introduced in Elder Scrolls Online. In that game you can now steal/pickpocket things but if you're spotted by the town guard you have to deal with them. I was just thinking that the concept could be borrowed by CoT and adapted to serve the social club system in some form or fashion. Perhaps some clubs would use bouncers in different ways and maybe some clubs wouldn't have bouncers at all. Again it's just a high-level idea to consider.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Yes, No, Sort Of, and Yes.
There should definitely be a centralized location for costume contests, but it should not be restricted by alignment in the least, it should just be in the middle of a non-combat designated area of some kind.
Unless players sign up for groups on some form of bulletin board system, chances are higher that players will be using chat or a LFG system to find groups than going to a specific location. They can agree to meet at any location (usually the mission entrance), but they may just as well meet at SpeedyMart. I would much prefer that players choose where to meet there group, first, because it encourages exploring more of the city. Maybe your group wants to have waffles before beating down Dr. Machinix Giant Robot #6. Secondly, because 40 people milling about trying to get groups for various missions gets kind of crowded.
Player to player trading has a few issues, from an RP standpoint, that may prove immersion breaking. It just doesn't make sense for a Hero and a Villain to meet on the street and casually trade each other items. A neutral AH of some kind, however, does make sense. Note that this is conjecture based on the alignment system, which we know very little of at this time, and some RP concerns thrown on top of it.
I'm taking your fourth suggestion -- dance emote contest -- to be more like an actual club. A stage for performers, a large area for dancing, a bar, tables, and separate rooms for clandestine meetings, so yes. Several of them with various genres in various locations would be nice.
Overall, I wouldn't mind having a centralized area for costume contests, and a neutral trading post, but I would like the option to go to different areas of the city for social / RP meetings rather than everything thrown into one giant glump.
I like everything about this except for the idea that all of this would be located under one roof. I just don't think the "hero wing" and "villain wing" would want to be located anywhere near each other. The pretense used by Pocket D in CoH to get heroes and villains together in one place was that it was literally in its own neutral plane of existence controlled by a god-like being to keep the peace. Unless the folks making CoT come up with an equally fantastical reason for having heroes and villains stuck together I just don't see it happening.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
See, there you go again! Now don't take this the wrong way, I love knowing that you're paying attention and are interested in the conversation. But when you throw out something as cryptic as that I've seen it shut down the discourse. It's easy to get the impression "We're already working on this, hang tight and we'll get back to you with what we've decided. Further speculation is pointless."
C'mooonnnnn! :D
I like the idea of multiple clubs with different atmospheres. I often found Pocket D to be too flashy and loud. Plus the music was boring (to me).
Perhaps if there was a club 'complex', with several connected places, each with a different theme?
Be Well!
Fireheart
Honestly I almost hope for some big, super fancy club in the worst part of town for the villains and perhaps a somewhat futuristic, techy club for the heroes in a heavily hero controlled place. With a pocket D like place maybe also with its own dimension somewhere in the middle of these two in the map. Two wings in it with restricted access based on alignment sounds nice for the inter-faction one. Maybe even with portals to their respected alignments club.... Also on a side note I'd like to see something equivalent to the Rikti Monkey cage haha. With or without the PvP area.
Puny Heroes.
Agreed there. If my hero knew where the villains where, why wouldn't she go there? What's to keep law enforcement from not raiding it?
Pocket D worked because it was a dimension controlled by Zero. My only thought on it for CoT was give the clubs a little more obviously common sense rules that players will obviously ignore! Like...it's a night club, not a place to take kids for ice cream. It's a night club with villains and strippers/pole dancing (dance cages and the comic has me saying this), not a place for The Power Pack. :p
I'd keep the inter-faction "neutral" club open to everyone. Again the whole idea of "wings" based on alignment living together in one place only really made sense for Pocket D because it was in an extra-planar location controlled by a minor diety (as Brand X just mentioned). I really don't think that diametrically opposite groups of people would willingly want to be in the same place like that unless CoT comes up with an equally semi-silly pretense. *shrugs*
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I may be confused but I'm pretty sure that is about the same thing I was trying to say. Nobody of opposite factions allowed in the opposing factions clubs except for the inter-faction one. And maybe have the only restricted part of the inter-faction club be the actual ability to use the portal to a respected wings club. Kind of like how the exit to the rogue isles only worked if you were a villain/rogue and vice versa.
Puny Heroes.
Do we really need all the portals? I'd say have them have to get out and make the city look a bit populated by players as they travel from one club to the next. :)
There is a point to that.
Puny Heroes.
Assuming the inter-faction club ends up having portals to the strict-hero and strict-villain clubs (which I agree is questionable) then sure maybe those portals would restrict people who don't have the right alignments.
Beyond that the inter-faction club should be totally UN-restricted to anyone. There shouldn't really be parts (wings?) of the neutral club that are restricted to one alignement or another. The whole point is that it would be treated entirely as neutral ground. Having wings like that would make it far too similar to Pocket D and just from the standpoint of not giving NCsoft anything they could use to sue MWM for I see no reason to copy Pocket D too closely anyway.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Hmm, true. I suppose I rather liked the idea of one side being styled towards heroes and one towards villains with a gray center but that would be quite similar to pocket D. I don't know off the top of my head what else would look nice for a neutral club though.
Puny Heroes.
There's nothing wrong with your idea about the heroic club style or the villanous club style. The only thing that would make them problematic is if those things existed side-by-side in the same place. Make those things two separate clubs on opposite sides of town it'd be totally fine. ;)
The neutral one could be hidden in an old warehouse or industrial area. A place that's on neutral ground where neither the hero or villanous factions have complete control. It could be a bit on the run-down side and be more geared towards rogue/vigilante type activities.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Wait, there were strippers in Pocket D??
Spurn all ye kindle.
Well I was more speaking of the neutral club by itself in that last post and the style it has. The two faction clubs though I had already assumed would be spaced on the far opposites of each other and have nothing to do with the other. Other than hating each other of course. Also a dimensional door or cabinet for the neutral entrance would be cool as well haha.
Puny Heroes.
The neutral club would be in a third location which (depending on how the Devs have laid out the city) could be in a somewhat central downtown location. The exactness of that isn't too critical.
As far as entrances go I would think the hero and villain clubs would be fairly well-known and obvious but the neutral club would actually be somewhat secretive and hidden with more or less hidden entrance(s) like you suggested.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Well, their were dance cages and one of the comics had them pole dancing. Then there were RPers who were RPing stripping, drug dealing, other crimes in the club. Do you take kids to a place populated by super powered villains?
I might have actually gone there on occasion if that was the case. ...
my wooden nickel says that there really should only be one club. why waste resources on generating multiple clubs for social interaction when I would bet that they remain mostly empty most of the time. Pocket D was, in my experience, a ghost town the times I wandered through it and the only time it was packed was if a dev was there. otherwise, players tended to gather under Atlas, for the most part, for social interaction.
also, give the players a reason to want to hang out in these places...place all available vendors there, make it have access to the blackmarket (AKA market). something...otherwise, the players will find somewhere else a lil more convenient to gather for social interaction and the only people using it to any real degree will be the RP folks. in addition, the entrance should also be somewhere quick an easy to get to and not hidden away in some seldom used zone/area. keep the entrance in a highly travelled area to maximize the potential of use.
don't get me wrong, I think it would be cool to have multiple clubs for hanging out in but they are a drain on resources that could be used elsewhere to get the game off the ground. I would even argue against having a club at all at the start. once the game is up an runnin...then drop in a club or two.
[img]http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/whiteperegrine/84183/69278/69278_original.gif[/img]
Wait, there were kids in Paragon City?? :-)
Spurn all ye kindle.
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGF0MYORADE]Watch carefully[/url] ...
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
There were dance cages in Pocket D, but I never really considered it a strip club. Still, it IS a bar, filled with super powered beings, half of which were individuals with questionable morals. A place for children it was not.
I would say that a variety of spots to hang out would be an interesting idea, and I do agree with Brand X in that Club Caprice, while run by a Super Villain, at least had to look like a legitimate business, especially for being in the heart of the city which is also meant to be the super powered capital of earth. Publicly declaring your villainy in that place felt profoundly stupid, especially when a lot of said bad guys seemed to have the same theme and inspiration as most Shonen Anime.
I think that something of a neutral spot for both sides would be a good idea, if not for the nostalgia. There was something a little comedic about the hero/villain gig really just being a job, which you would vent about to your otherwise bitter enemy over a cold drink.
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Run by an ex supervillain, and in the PnP it may have allowed a couple of unsavory sorts in, but yeah...:p
Like I said, it was in the comics they had a scene that dealt with pole dancing http://dna-1.deviantart.com/art/City-of-Heroes-No-18-Cover-45125456 That was just the cover and in the comic a quick scene of one using the pole...so if not stripping, still. :p
I find it kind of funny how I was pretty young when I was playing CoH all those years ago and I never once picked up on the dance cages or poles in Pocket D. Hell the only reason I went to Pocket D was for events or to check out everyone's badges.....
Formerly known as Bleddyn
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCqnt88Umk]Do you want to be a hero?[/url]
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Outside of Virtue, I found Pocket D to remain pretty empty.
Actually it was sort if a double post on my phone...:\
Anywho...one thing other than actual hangouts that we have talked about is the simple fact that you guys (I.e. The players) will most likely pick spots to congregate as well. It's kind of a given in MMOs that the community will find it's own"resting spots". We will be looking to make those spots enjoyable for RPers as much as the "club" or "hangout", whether it be the plaza or around the hot dog stand on the corner. Places like AP and Galaxy were corner stones to the game and we intend to have the same solid foundation in CoT, but in the end it's the players that will dictate how the world takes shape.
[color=#ff0000]Sound Lead, Bullpen Writer[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Also...I always considered them to be go-go dancers in the cages....
[color=#ff0000]Sound Lead, Bullpen Writer[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Either way, I wouldn't consider it the place for the Power Pack. Some place that's akin to a under 18 club would be it, not the club that caters to alcohol, cage dancers, and basically adults meeting up :p
Speaking of Atlas Park I honestly want to know if villains will be able to congregate under the equivalent of the Atlas statue or not more than I care to know about the club(s). I honestly think it would be dumb to have all the villains standing around in the center of the city with all the heroes. Feels like it should be restricted or something.
Puny Heroes.
honestly, whether under atlas, or in a club, it is kinda silly to have villains and heroes all in the same place socializing on a large scale. it is a shared world though so be prepared...just in case.
[img]http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/whiteperegrine/84183/69278/69278_original.gif[/img]
True, though at least the pocket D dimension made some sense. I'd just like some police drones or something around it I guess. Maybe villains could sneak on top of the statue but that would be it haha. If not thats fine though. Just means I'm gonna end up breathing down tiny hero necks all the time.
Puny Heroes.
Congregating....
Brrrr.....
I got a Pocket D V.I.P. pass with the COH disc I bought
(Also a permanent jump pack for all of my toons but that's not what we're talking about.)
I never liked Pocket D. I only went there to use the portals as a short cut,
until they put a costume shop in there.
then I never used the other costume shops because my V.I.P. pass let me teleport to Pocket D from anywhere.
I honestly don't know what the attraction to the place was even supposed to be
it was big and confusing and usually empty.
once in a while they'ed have some event where heroes and villains were supposed to team up
The place would be super crowded for a weekend then nothing again.
and if I don't want to team up with fellow heroes you can guess how I felt about teaming up with villains.
Anyway I'm not opposed to such places existing.
I just think you should make sure they have a purpose.
We can't taste the drinks, or pick the music
And we can chat with anyone globally, as long as our character is in a safe place,
so hang out spots don't make any sense, unless there's something to draw us there
Something that we can't do anywhere else.
We congregated by the trainers because we went there to level up.
We congregated in AE and Wentworths because there were things to do there.
Give us a reason and we'll congregate in a club also.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
Agreed on it not making sense to congregate in the same spot and agreed that Pocket D was barely tolerable of an idea, but one you just let kinda slide. Can you really imagine Batman and Joker getting along in the same club? Or hell Joker and we'll say superman as he might be more willing to club it up :p
That's all well and good
but my main point point is that the place needs a reason for us to go there
something we can't do anywhere else
without that, we'll just go somewhere else
and the place will be empty most of the time just like Pocket D
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I'm guessing that there will be several social areas in Titan City, some of them player created.
In fact, I can absolutely guarantee that there will be at least one, and my hope is that people will want to hang out there between missions.
Phoenix Rising's Model Citizen
My short time on Union told me that RPers would congregate beneath the Galaxy Girl statue. In fact, it was likely the only way in which that part of the city was populated, as everyone in the game would immediately head to Atlas upon creation. Villains would meet below the clock tower on Mercy Island, but that wasn't as successful at the time.
On Virtue, I guess the higher population lead to a larger place to go, and I guess Pocket D just had appropriate features that would make it similar to a supergroup base for everyone. I will agree, from a certain stand point, one would be curious as to how the two sides would be so peaceful, though there were some excuses, I guess. For some, villainy was merely a Chaotic Evil/Neutral option that they did to pass the time, and having no ill-will towards their usual enemy, they would have little trouble chatting with them over a drink.
On the other hand, there were villains who would go there to gather info from loose lipped heroes, but were usually still in their Arachnos uniform, so it wasn't particularly successful.
Revolution is correct in that the game's community typically picks a place to put up camp, and I hope there's a variety of spots that this can happen (I'm thinking Club, Park, Phoenix Plaza, University/High school and shopping centres would be a good set of examples)
Still, I think the game needs its own Ski Lodge. Not gonna lie, it was a pretty awesome spot for what it was, and it was another reason to be excited for the holidays. The atmosphere was great, the ski slopes were awesome and it felt like it did so much more compared to other MMOs; they put up a Christmas tree and a Santa NPC, we got an entire map on top of seasonal missions and the like.
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There's always going to be Casablanca.
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ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You folks are killing me! I'm going to have a stroke from high blood pressure driven by obsessive craving to play a game that won't be out for at least another year!
Seriously. Every time you folks post I'm like, "Yessssssss! Can I play now? Can we have an Alpha peek? Where the heck is that Avatar builder?"
I'm dying here. I hope you folks can follow through on everything you've hinted at. I knew Unreal Engine 4 was good, but some of the stuff you're coming out with was flat out impossible as recently as a year or two ago. At least in a MMORPG.
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I don't know. Some of this stuff may be engine driven, but I would argue that a lot of it has been possible. The engine just facilitates it. Anything is possible, it just sometimes takes more work than the feature's worth. I really think we are pushing the envelope (at least for MMOs), but I expect to see more innovation in games with powerful tools like UE4 becoming more prevalent. We may just start a ...*ahem*... revolution with our little game (which is just a continuation of what CoH did). That would be a good thing for all of us.
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I can see people going to one club or another and maybe have announcements on broadcast or on the "local broadcast" chat channel for the club whereby individuals could instruct people to tune their external browser or whatever to such and such internet radio website, or whatever. If nothing else, people could then say "Hey I like this song" and everyone else who cared would be able to understand what song it was and what the heck that person was talking about.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
For what it's worth I somehow liked the Pocket D. Sure the music was repetitive and the floating grinning man a littl creepy, but the concept in itself I loved. If something like it could be done and done better, with more songs and a DJ capable of changing expression, that woul make me very happy.
Should not be floating in interdimensional space though, not only to not violate copyright law, but to have something new and unique to City of Titans.
There's always room for [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_%28film%29]Rick's Bar[/url] ... even you have to [b][i]round up the Usual Suspects[/i][/b] every so often.
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One point you guys might want to consider: Since CoT will be using the single mega-server model the one single server we'll ALL be playing on will be the de facto "RP server". Sure Pocket D might have been fairly empty on the non-Virtue servers of CoH but that's not going to be the case in CoT.
Since all the returning RPers from all the former CoH servers will be concentrated together it seems that much more reasonable to think that the huge city we'll be playing in would have more that one single club. Just saying...
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
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I think we can only go so far with that analogy and keep our "T" rating, Redlynne. We may have to stop before we get to:
But I am in favor of rounding up twice the usual number of suspects. ^_^
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
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I loved going to Pocket D/Virtue. I spent most of my time just hanging out and right-clicking for people's back-story. Lots of folks spent lots of time and thought on those stories and having a place specifically designed (sort of) to go and play that role, and delve a bit deeper into your characters psyche, outside of a frantic mission environment was terrific.
I also suspect that there will be player-created spots and that will be great, too. But I really believe there needs to exist a few spaces that are at least semi-official to get us started. Landmark places that are easy to find for new players and are designed to be conducive to interaction. Scale is important, as has been mentioned, and having something to do there might add an attraction. However, I'd rather see someplace that is just comfortable for interacting, rather than a loosely grouped bunch of stores and mini-game access points. Those don't encourage sociability, just creates an "alone in a crowd" situation.
And I hope we get some appropriate emotes to go with it. Drinking from a glass/coffee mug/teacup, sitting on chairs/stools, eating various foods, etc.
I'm also hoping for a variety in both enclosed and open-air venues, especially for costume contests. The nice thing about CCs under Atlas was that you could just stumble upon one happening and watch for a few minutes without having to enter or feel like you were intruding. Of course, the down side was that any griefer could come along with the typical annoying antics (But that was remarkably rare)
So again, variety and diversity will be good. More choices is going to be one of the main strengths of this game, right?