Red Warlock wrote:

Lothic wrote:

The things fixed/changed by this latest update are good but I actually wanted to provide a "meta-comment" about the way this update was presented.

I thought the amount of detail was very balanced and provided a great sense that "consistently solid" progress is being made. The outline of A) mentioning parsing feedback from the community B) listing the main points that got changed/fixed and C) providing a few "sneak peaks" of future progress was a good overall roadmap for what your typical futures updates should be looking like. Now if you can manage something like this update maybe say once a month that'd be great. Keep up the good work regardless!

Thanks Lothic - This is our ninth update since we changed our approach a bit and we've tried to do an update every two weeks. So far we've kept pretty close to that schedule and it's good to hear people feeling like the updates are working in terms of the amount and types of content we are sharing. Thanks for the feedback.

Sure. I think the main goal of these updates should be about generating a strong sense that tangible progress is being made. The exact "details" of the progress are almost secondary to that if that makes any sense.

Seschat wrote:

Fast flight is amazingly cool and awesome, but possibly _too_ fast for normal game play? I'd be a pinball in classic Steel Canyon, and would question why I would choose any other power for long distance travel.

I'll comment on this point. A Dev (either here or on Discord) already mentioned that the version of flight we're now seeing is a sort of "test prototype" of something that might be considered a "hyper/afterburner" style. Apparently the "standard flight" is going to be a bit slower and (arguably) more controllable from an inertia point of view.

Seschat wrote:

Brutal honesty: a DCUO/Neverwinter Nights mouse-driven approach to directional control would be a fundamental deal breaker: my play style depends on both hands being on the keyboard.

Yeah I prefer the mouse for directional control but I can understand your desire here. Hopefully they'll make it so that something like flight isn't hardwired to the use of a mouse.

Seschat wrote:

Brutal honesty: a DCUO/Neverwinter Nights mouse-driven approach to directional control would be a fundamental deal breaker: my play style depends on both hands being on the keyboard.

The important point being that different people use different UI control schemes (keyboard, mouse, controller, etc.). So long as everything can be controlled via different keybind combinations that can be defined by the players, this shouldn't be an issue.

Huckleberry wrote:

[Jump] will double as [ascend] while flying.

More broadly speaking, an [Up] / [Down] is the more generic way to describe this.
In most ground bound (and therefore, 2D) contexts, there is no point in creating a "down" movement since that either isn't happening (you're standing on the ground) or it is happening in an uncontrolled way (you're falling). However, once you add Wall Crawling into the mix where you're moving on vertical surfaces, being able to command Up/Down without needing to "reorient" your UI control scheme suddenly becomes quite relevant. When it comes to vertical Wall Crawling, you basically trade Forward/Backward on a horizontal plane for Up/Down on a vertical plane, but without training that can become both disorienting and confusing for Players REALLY FAST ... so it's best to keep Forward/Backward as "horizontal"(-ish) movement controls while simultaneously enabling Up/Down vertical movement controls, even if those vertical movement controls aren't always relevant for every single character.

It's kind of like having a pasta aisle at the supermarket.
Even if I hardly ever buy pasta myself, it's important to have it available for those who buy and use pasta more frequently than I do.
Eliminating the pasta aisle, in this analogy, becomes the gaming equivalent of premature optimization of the UI controls, simply because not everyone "needs" to use every single control option on every single character.

I don't know about anyone else, but when it comes to UI controls and keybinds, I vastly prefer to have a single "standard" keybind layout for a game that I use in common for ALL of my alts ... with additions and modifications to the "basic common core" of those keybinds for specialized classes (such as Kheldians and Masterminds) that get overlaid on top of that core keybind set. That way, when I switch to an alt I don't have to "relearn" everything about controlling my character(s) from scratch. Instead, I can build up a repository of muscle memory and [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception]proprioception[/url] that allows me to play the game with greater confidence, authority and more efficient control(s).

It usually takes a day (or few) to get all the keybinds set "just so" for a game, but after that ... it's all gravy.

Huckleberry wrote:

I'm also assuming that [Sprint] and [Walk] will double as [Fast Travel] and [Slow Travel/Combat Travel] toggles respectively.

Probably best to just broaden this out to all movement types as a common feature.

Slow / Normal / Fast Movement

Being able to dial up or dial down movement speeds like that becomes VERY VALUABLE when trying to make precision controlled movements, regardless of movement type.
I know that in City of Heroes, jumping distance could often times become a challenge, particularly in places like the Shadow Shard with its Geysers where you might need to precisely and accurately control your jumps and landings. Being able to magnify and minimize movement speeds under Player control can have all kinds of knock on effects.

For example ... Stealth.

I would have no problem with a game design element that specifies that Stealth powers work at:
[list][*]Maximal effectiveness (buffed) when stationary (no movement control input from Player and no uncontrolled movement, such as falling)
[*]Normal effectiveness (unmodified) when using Slow Movement and moving under Player control
[*]Partial effectiveness (debuffed) when using Normal Movement and moving under Player control
[*]Special effectiveness (see below) when using Fast Movement and moving under Player control[/list]
The Fast Movement exception would be the "blows past at high speed" exception, where the idea is that you're moving so fast you can't be recognized as you blow right on by (although there might be special effects such as a gust of wind or blowing leaves or whatever). The way the Fast Movement exception would work is essentially via a "mulligan" system on Perception checks.

The basic game design idea is that NPCs have pulsed autonomic Perception checks that happen at regular intervals. Something like every 1.5 seconds, the NPCs make a Perception check for hostiles within their aggro radius (ie. Perception range).
What the "special effectiveness" for Stealth while using Fast Movement does is change the requirement from needing to make 1 successful Perception check to aggro onto a PC to instead needing to make 2 Perception checks to aggro onto a PC (or 3-4 checks if the pulse timing for Perception checks is set at a more rapid tempo) ... while at the same time essentially debuffing the Perception modifier on the dice rolls for those Perception checks to basically nothing.

What you wind up with then is a game system in which if you're Fast Moving with Stealth activated, [i]so long as you keep moving and don't stay within Perception range of hostile NPCs "too long"[/i] they won't be able to Perceive your PC and thus they will not aggro onto you ... but you have to keep moving ... and if you stick around too long, you'll be spotted and they'll aggro onto you anyway.

So compare and contrast how this idea works with how things worked in City of Heroes.

Superspeed had a Stealth buff when toggled on.
Didn't matter if you were moving or not ... if Superspeed was ON then you effectively got a Stealth buff.
Stealth, as a power or as an Enhancement Set IO, could be stacked on top of the Stealth buff from Superspeed, permitting behavior where you could be Superspeed standing stationary next to a hostile NPC and they couldn't aggro onto you unless you attacked them.

Now take the same situation using the game design I'm outlining here for City of Titans.

Superspeed has a (temporary) Perception nullifying effect while Fast Movement is toggled on AND while moving.
So if you [b]stop moving[/b], whether Superspeed is toggled on or not, whether Fast Movement is toggled on or not, the (temporary) Perception nullifying effect "drops" until you start Fast Movement again.
This Perception nullifying effect essentially raises the threshold number of successful Perception checks that NPCs need to make before they will aggro, but if you're Fast Moving past them and leaving them behind in your wake, so long as you don't "hang around" next to them they won't be able to Perceive you and therefore aggro onto you. In other words, if you want to remain "hidden" while Fast Moving with Superspeed the amount of time you can spend within the NPC's pulse checking Perception radius [b][i]is limited[/i][/b] ... while at the same time the duration in which you'll be within their Perception radius ought to be "quick enough" that they shouldn't realize you're even there before you've left the volume of their Perception (see: FAST Movement).

Spice things up with differential timing of the tempo for Perception checks ...
[list][*]0.50 seconds for Archvillain class NPCs
[*]0.75 seconds for Elite Boss NPCs
[*]1.00 second for Boss NPCs
[*]1.25 seconds for Lieutenant NPCs
[*]1.50 seconds for Minion NPCs
[*]1.75 seconds for Underling NPCs
[*]2.00 seconds for Giant Monster NPCs[/list]
... and you'll have a system in which you can "breeze past" NPCs using Fast Stealthy Movement, but you'll still want to be careful in HOW CLOSE you get to higher ranking NPCs ... because if you use up your "free mulligans" on Perception checks before exiting their Perception radius, your Fast Stealthy Movement will have "failed" relative to that NPC, who can then Aggro Shout to other NPCs around them so as to engage your PC in combat (because you were careless and got spotted).

Other potential knock on synergistic effects of having a Slow / Normal / Fast Movement system like this could be as a kind of buff/debuff modifier for powers that affect Movement, such as Slow and Immobilize effects.

One way you could rig this in game design terms is that when a Slow or Immobilize power hits, include a check to see if Slow, Normal or Fast is the current movement state of the affected $Target (so this applies to PCs and NPCs alike).

If the movement state is Slow Movement at the time the attack resolves, reduce the Slow and/or Immobilize effects reduce their duration and/or magnitude. The $Target was [i]already Slowed by choice[/i] prior to the power effect hitting them, reducing the effectiveness of the Slow/Immobilize attack effect(s).

If the movement state is Normal Movement at the time the attack resolves, the Slow effect and/or Immobilize effects resolve normally without modification.

If the movement state is Fast Movement at the time the attack resolves, reduce the Slow and/or Immobilize effects increase their duration and/or magnitude. The $Target suffers a "greater shock" in performance loss due to the Slow/Immobilize attack effects hitting them and "throwing them off their stride" (so to speak).

With such a game design synergy system in place, it starts to become a tactical consideration of when to "switch gears" between Slow, Normal and Fast movement ... rather than just wanting to be "as fast as possible at all times" just because there's no reason NOT to be as fast as possible at all times.
Let's take an easy example ... Caltrops.

If you're already Slow Move by choice and get hit by Caltrops, you can keep moving (slowly, obviously), by carefully picking your way through them, but you'll be net faster doing so using Slow Movement than you would be using Normal Movement.
If you're already Fast Move by choice and get hit by Caltrops, the movement debuff gets multiplied/magnified to the point where you suffer an automatic Knockdown effect, halting your movement entirely.

Note that such a system is checking your Movement toggle state when the attack resolves ... so you have to be in a specific movement state BEFORE you get hit with an attack for that movement state to "count" for how that attack resolves.
This means that if you're in a Normal Movement state, get hit with an Immobilize attack and then switch to Slow Movement mode AFTER the attack resolves ... the movement state switch will have NO EFFECT on the first attack that hit you, but can help you with any subsequent follow on attacks that come in after the first one. So if an Immobilize lasts 20 seconds in Normal Movement mode, but only 10 seconds in Slow Movement mode ... if you're in Normal Movement mode and get hit by that Immobilize, it will last the full 20 seconds of duration even if you switch to Slow Movement mode after being Immobilized by it. Additional follow up Immobilize attacks will only have a 10 second duration when they hit you, after you've already switched to Slow Movement mode, but changing Movement Mode does not retroactively change debuff effects after they have been applied ... it only changes debuff effects from powers that haven't hit you yet.

This kind of synergy is exactly the kind of thing you want to build into games to encourage Player skill and involvement in play strategies that yields expansive, rather than [url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/what-parasitic-design]parasitic design[/url] opportunities and choices.
By adding more dimensions and possibilities to HOW to engage in combat, you open up the space for additional playstyles on both the tactical and strategic levels, creating challenges to be overcome by cleverness, planning and knowledge that rewards SMART gameplay by Players ... which is ultimately what we all want to see happen.

And yes ... all of that came out of thinking about what you can do with Slow/Normal/Fast aside from just merely Walk/Sprint and Fast Flying.

Some people think inside the box.
Some people think outside the box.
Some people reinvent the box.
And some of us use multiple boxes to BUILD THINGS greater than you'd ever have with only a single box ...

Huckleberry wrote:

In fact, in [url=https://cityoftitans.com/comment/178281#comment-178281] this post[/url] you actually concur.

In the explicit context of that post, I concurred that it made sense.
But if you alter the context of how the movement control UI is intended to function (up/down, forward/backward, left/right), there is room left over for menu option checkboxes on whether or not a Player wants "up" to be relative or not. Some will want that functionality, some will not.
It's kind of like move map iconography for fighter pilots. Some pilots prefer North at the top of the screen with the arrow for the plane in the center of the map turning around ... while other pilots prefer for the arrow icon of the plane in the center to remain fixed and have the map rotate, so "up" on the map is always the forward flight direction for the plane. The different schemes of presentation work "better" for different types of people, so it's best to support both UI options when you can at the software level.
Same deal here.
Some people will prefer a more "absolute" vs "relative" orientation for their movement controls, relative to the map vs relative to the PC avatar's orientation. Figuring out how to accommodate a variety of control scheme preferences, rather than prematurely optimizing for a single scheme only, ought to be the goal at this stage.

In other words, when a control scheme is devised, don't lock yourself out of being able to achieve the same results by different means.

[img]https://imhu.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Many-Paths-One-Destination.jpg[/img]

Cinnder wrote:

As far as I'm concerned, the format and content of updates are more important than sticking to any particular schedule. I think a 'late' good update is always better than an 'on-time' update that's just filler cuz there was an imagined deadline.

On the other hand it's probably better to hold MWM to -some- kind of periodic update schedule (even a loose one) just to force them into realizing they will have to be an organized "company" someday. If we let them think they can get away with putting out updates willy-nilly every few months or "whenever they feel like it" it's going to be another 15-20 years before this game is even remotely ready to launch.

Obviously if they need a few extra days here or there from time to time that's fine. But they ought to be striving to set achievable goals and tangible periodic results if they ever actually want to be taken seriously as game company.

warlocc wrote:

Don't forget... It's hard to try to force a schedule on someone that's already following a schedule from their actual, paying job.

Not a good take. It sends a very poor message and I recommend you delete it.

If your organization views a schedule as something that needs to be forced upon your people, then your organization lacks the necessary leadership to achieve its goals.

I won't say any more even though I have a lot more to say. I think this suffices. Delete it.

warlocc wrote:

Don't forget... It's hard to try to force a schedule on someone that's already following a schedule from their actual, paying job.

I absolutely get that Warlocc is a volunteer on this project and that some of the discussion being pressed on MWM is us other community members 'demanding' more/better progress 'immediately'. So that seems like we are trying to force a schedule on the project, which would interfere with work being done to keep food on the table IRL, as it were.

I'm sure that we all have experience with that uncomfortable necessity. However, time is another source of pressure and I'd like to be playing this game before I'm trapped in a home for the 'Old'.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Huckleberry wrote:

warlocc wrote:

Don't forget... It's hard to try to force a schedule on someone that's already following a schedule from their actual, paying job.

Not a good take. It sends a very poor message and I recommend you delete it.

If your organization views a schedule as something that needs to be forced upon your people, then your organization lacks the necessary leadership to achieve its goals.

I won't say any more even though I have a lot more to say. I think this suffices. Delete it.

Huckleberry is correct.

In my opinion a regular updater is a regular update. It "Updates" the stakeholders on the progress made. I think everyone who has donated money to the project deserves such a thing. If there is no progress made in a reporting period, then that is the update. There is not a single effort on the project that can not be expressed in some form of useful metric, so the excuse that "it is too hard to describe what we are doing" is useless. If your program management team can't figure out a metric to measure the progress of each of its volunteers then the program management team is failing.

From the looks of your last "who's who of MWM," it looks like you have broken down into several functional departments with a lead for each. It seems to me that a department level breakdown in progress would suffice.

And when it comes to public updates, those are the ones you can publish when you have something showy or when a department has really been advancing in leaps and strides and you want to give them recognition.

Red Warlock wrote:

Hey everyone- important point, over the last several months we’ve been keeping a regular schedule of updates every two weeks, (even if we are only committing to monthly updates). So we are doing what’s being asked for in terms of keeping a schedule.

This is a good point. Thanks for the reminder. I still recommend deleting post #17 and the related posts that follow it.

warlocc wrote:

Let me clarify my position. I'm coming from this a little defensively.

Aye, you are.
So let me see if I can supply some quantity of signal to noise for you to work with.

Up until now (meaning, as of the timestamp on this post) ... MWM has operated on a volunteer basis with a revenue stream essentially sourced from donations.
At some point in the future (not yet defined, as of the timestamp on this post) ... MWM will need to transition into being an employer of quality staff people, managing the game City of Titans, before, during and after publication release. The revenue generated from the game will need to provide the meal tickets for the employees so that they can quit their former jobs and devote their working hours to City of Titans exclusively [i]and get paid for doing so[/i] in order to make MWM an employer of humans.

How you "get there from here" has been questioned (by Lothic, mainly).
It's something you've had the luxury of not needing to worry about previously, but as publication release draws closer MWM will be compelled (by economic realities, if nothing else!) to take such concerns seriously (because the alternative is failure and bankruptcy, thank you for playing).

The expectation is not one of an instantaneous transition from one operational state to another (all volunteers to all paid professionals), since that would be an unreasonable expectation.
Instead, the expectation is that since the transition is going to be an [i]inevitable one[/i] that needs to happen if the game is to succeed in the larger gaming marketplace ... what, if anything(!), is being done to prepare to get onto the glide path for that transition to eventually occur?

So far, the answer has been ... not particularly helpful, let alone confidence inspiring.
Saying "we'll burn that bridge when we get to it" does not inspire confidence that you know where you are going, let alone how to get From Here To There™.

It's kind of like knowing you need to land an airplane without an autopilot.
It's going to have to happen sometime in the future, if you're not all that keen on crashing (and burning).
[list][*]Do you know what the glide path is to make a safe landing?
[*]Are you doing anything to maneuver towards that glide path now, in preparation for needing to use that glide path later?
[*]Does the airplane need to fly in a particular direction (or flight pattern, if you prefer) so as to get onto that glide path eventually?[/list]
When the answers to those questions amount to "yes, no and no" in that order ... do NOT be surprised when your passengers along for the ride ask a follow up question about the current fuel state of the airplane (for what ought to be obvious reasons) after being airborne for a really long flight already. I mean, even if the airplane is using thermals to raise altitude and realize a longer flight range, the "fuel" that is being consumed by the airplane is neither infinite nor self-regenerating after it has been used.

Now I get that as far as this particular analogy goes, MWM is still in the process of "building the plane in midair" with a crew of volunteers ... but at some point, that crew is going to have to [i]Land The Plane[/i] they've been building somewhere and transition over from a volunteer crew to a paid professional crew.

At which notion I get to point out that even if such a transition is loooooong way off from right now, it might be in everyone's best interests to set a course for getting onto a safe glide path for that eventual outcome so as to gradually (rather than suddenly) maneuver everyone over to being ready for that eventual transition.

Or to get back to the flying analogies ... there are 3 things in aviation that are completely useless to you, no matter what quantities of them you have at your disposal.
[list][*]Altitude above you
[*]Runway behind you
[*]Fuel in the truck[/list]
It also helps to set course for a place where you know you can land (safely).

WE KNOW you aren't getting paid by MWM right now.
What we're unsure of is whether you will have a plan for how things might change once people DO need to start getting paid.

Do you have a "glide path" that you're maneuvering towards, so as to land safely, before you encounter a crisis along the way?
So far, the only answer we've gotten to that question is ... [b]Answer hazy, try again later.[/b]

You'll excuse those of us who have been in team leadership roles who look at that response and find it ... lacking ... :(

The habits and patterns of thought that MWM creates for itself NOW will have reverberations into the future for how MWM operates as an economic entity looooong after the present day.
Best to sculpt the corporate culture while you can before firing it in the kiln, rather than during (or worse, after) a firing that causes it to "set" in a way that will be a lot harder to change later.

Even if you don't have all the puzzle pieces you will need to be working with RIGHT NAO, you can still work in such a way as to integrate those missing elements later in a relatively seamless fashion ... or you could wind up with a disaster.
A transition IS COMING ... whether you want it to or not ... so what groundwork is being done to prepare for that eventual transition NOW when you have the luxury of time to make such adjustments to workflow prior to Crunch Time?
If the answer is ... "nothing" ... then somebody has completely failed to anticipate the future, let alone prepare to move MWM into that future once it arrives.
And if the answer also contains "not now" ... the obvious follow up then becomes "okay, when?"

Inquiring minds want to know ... so as to sustain their faith and belief in the MWM team and the work that you have done (and are still doing, even now).

Hope that helps.

Huckleberry wrote:

Red Warlock wrote:

Hey everyone- important point, over the last several months we’ve been keeping a regular schedule of updates every two weeks, (even if we are only committing to monthly updates). So we are doing what’s being asked for in terms of keeping a schedule.

This is a good point. Thanks for the reminder. I still recommend deleting post #17 and the related posts that follow it.

I personally believe both successes and failures should be on display. Shows that we're still real people.

Red Warlock wrote:

Redlynne wrote:

…A transition IS COMING ... whether you want it to or not ... so what groundwork is being done to prepare for that eventual transition NOW…
And if the answer also contains "not now" ... the obvious follow up then becomes "okay, when?"

We have a business plan and work is being done currently to lay the groundwork for growing our business later. We aren’t talking about growing the business side of our operations yet because we believe we need to reach some milestones first before we can really talk about those things.

The update we did on ‘Next Steps for Building Titan City’ gives a good account of milestones we want to make significant progress on before we begin to talk about business planning for the future: https://cityoftitans.com/content/next-steps-building-city-titans

And Red is definitely more diplomatic than I am on this topic.

warlocc wrote:

Red Warlock wrote:

Redlynne wrote:

…A transition IS COMING ... whether you want it to or not ... so what groundwork is being done to prepare for that eventual transition NOW…
And if the answer also contains "not now" ... the obvious follow up then becomes "okay, when?"

We have a business plan and work is being done currently to lay the groundwork for growing our business later. We aren’t talking about growing the business side of our operations yet because we believe we need to reach some milestones first before we can really talk about those things.

The update we did on ‘Next Steps for Building Titan City’ gives a good account of milestones we want to make significant progress on before we begin to talk about business planning for the future: https://cityoftitans.com/content/next-steps-building-city-titans

And Red is definitely more diplomatic than I am on this topic.

Which "Red" are you referring to?
There are two "Red" quotes there to choose from in close proximity.

Red Warlock wrote:

Dark Cleric wrote:

The only thing I would ask the team is to be very deliberate about what they put in updates with regards to future updates. That is something that I am always very aware of; things that we were told to expect from past updates. For example, in the 'Next Steps' update on 4/15/2021 it said "We plan to have powers updates in the coming months, so keep an eye out for these updates as well." I think it's reasonable, based on your own update, to expect a more-than-trivial update on powers this year. If you know you are not to the point of being able to show something substantial about powers this year, then you need to seriously reconsider what you say in updates and how you say it. Another example from the 2020 Recap and look ahead from 1/5/2021 it says "Our Combat team is beginning the process of connecting our combat system to the basics included in the Unreal engine. Once we have those working at an acceptable level, then we’ll begin to test and make the improvements that will make it unique to City of Titans. [b]We’ll show you more about this later in the year[/b]". I'm not asking for info on these specific things, they are just an example. There have been many times in the past years where I've asked about things mentioned in past updates that were never talked about again. Quick example is the new website, I think it was 2018 when it was mentioned in some update that you guys were excited to roll out the new and improved website, you even gave us screenshots of it...and then crickets. Never another word about it.

So please, keep a checklist of sorts of things that you say you are going to show or give us in updates because we do remember. It really does hurt at least my confidence in this team when they mention things in updates, especially big things like a new, improved website, but then they never speak to it again and hope we just forget. There may be justifiable reasons but we were never told those reasons...so how do you think that comes across to us?...it comes across as empty promises given to keep making us feel like more progress is being made than is actually being made, that exciting things are happening or about to happen when they really aren't, just to give us false hope in order to get more second chance backing. I'm not saying that is what is happening, I'm saying that's what it makes us feel like is happening.

Very fair points. And we are keeping a tracking list of work being done on the projects we discussed in that “Next Steps” update. Here’s a quick rundown:

Titan City Neighborhoods – we’ve been a bit quiet on this front, but very busy behind the scenes. Our milestone we are trying to reach on this front is to make an Alexandria test area available as soon as we have a few technical issues resolved. We’ve made a LOT of progress, but still have some things to work out. Our team believes that we will be able to reach our milestone we are shooting for here in the coming months, barring some unexpected tech catastrophe.

Sounds of Titan City – We’ve shown extensive work on sound in our updates, and the next steps for sound really will involve player review in Alexandria to see if you all think we are on track with how we are applying it.

Travel Powers – we obviously reached a big milestone with flight. More work is happening with flight and other travel powers, but this is another area where we’ve already kept moving on our goals.

Chat and multiplayer - these are two features we haven’t talked about a lot yet this year, but they are definitely on our list of things we are planning to address in the coming months.

Powers – You mention “If you know you are not to the point of being able to show something substantial about powers this year, then you need to seriously reconsider what you say in updates and how you say it….” After lots of combat testing, we are finally to a place where animations can start to be shown. We anticipate that after the Alexandria test moves forward, there will be substantial progress on powers we can share. I’m not at liberty to say more than that, but all of us are looking forward to seeing the progress we anticipate on powers this year. I do not feel like we need to retract anything we said before about powers - in fact, I think we all are more optimistic that things are moving along very well on that front.

You also raised the topic of the improved website. Yes, we got bogged down and had a misfire on this one. We announced plans for a website upgrade back in January that would share expansive content about our Titan City neighborhoods. I drafted the neighborhood pages in Constant Contact format because it’s easy to create pages that way. But I didn’t realize when I made the pages that there was a concern in our leadership with forwarding players from our City of Titans webpage to independent pages on Constant Contact. And while it was easy to make 60-something pages on Constant Contact, making the pages from scrap on our website was going to be a big drag on time. So, instead of sharing the content on our website, we have shared the same information in the monthly emails we have sent out. This one for instance has all of the information we planned to add to the Old Bradford District neighborhood page: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/May-2021-Roundup---City-of-Titans.html?soid=1133313647119&aid=hs6h_2e29kE
We plan to send out a similar update on Downtown this month, as I’ve just finished the last mogul for Downtown and now we can share pics and descriptions of all of Downtown's Landmarks and moguls. As I finish work in the neighborhoods on Victory Beach, NRD, Aurora and others, we will send similar emails so people can check out the content there.

Also we plan to do a bigger upgrade for the website down the line, but I don't know if that's one of the projects that might make it into our projects we finish for the year.

So, there’s lots going on, but point well taken about keeping track of what we say and staying in touch with you about how things are coming along with the things we put out to you all. We are going to continue to do our best to keep you all appraised of the work that’s underway, and we hope to have all of us feeling like the game is in a very different place when we ring the bell in for 2022!

Thank you for the response. Just a clarification...I wasn't asking for any of this specific information but I am glad you shared it. I was only wanting to share examples to convey the point. I've kind of done a 'reset' to forget about pre-2021 things and only brought up the new website, again, as an example. I think you guys have done great so far in 2021 and just wanted to give a reminder of things that we've been told we'd see this year (I'm gonna go out on a limb and say "over the next few months" and "in the coming months" is 2021 and not 2022, since they were said in January and April).

As far as the website, I was talking about a different website. I have no qualms with how you have done and are doing those neighborhood updates. Specifically, on 9/29/2018 on the "What We Do: Project Update" it mentioned a new website coming, "They’ve also been working on an updated website. Along with the Webmaster, they are in the process of designing new mockups and integrating it all together for a more professional look, more intuitive structure, and more informative content." Along with that, if you go look at that update, is a screenshot of the new website, which I though looked great, with the words "NEW WEBSITE" on it. EDIT: I'm not looking for explanations on this. It's old, in the past. I only used it as an example...really, I don't need an explanation or anything so you really don't need to respond on what happened with that website. It was just one of the things I was really looking forward to and the screenshot looked very promising.

Huckleberry wrote:

I think the mouse-only directional control inherent to Fast Flight we are experiencing right now helps us to feel the immersion of the experience of going really really fast.

Just like I used to tell people navigating around Paragon City ... Superspeed may be faster in a straight line than Flight, but Flight moves in straighter lines than Superspeed can.

Kiyori Anoyui wrote:

So I was messing around in the game for the first time in a while to see the new fast flight, and I'm not sure if this has been suggested anywhere but I think when the fast flight is toggled on, it should then allow you to control the flight with the mouse scroll wheel(changeable in key bindings if the player desires or doesn't have a scroll wheel). The speed should go from just faster than the normal flight all the way up to the fast flight. This way you can still go fast but have better control in a cityscape or go full speed out over the trees

So ... basically a throttle up/throttle down kind of thing?
I typically reserve the Q and A keys on my keyboard for that purpose (throttle up/throttle down) with the mouse wheel serving as an alternate 2nd binding for the same function.

Redlynne wrote:

Kiyori Anoyui wrote:

So I was messing around in the game for the first time in a while to see the new fast flight, and I'm not sure if this has been suggested anywhere but I think when the fast flight is toggled on, it should then allow you to control the flight with the mouse scroll wheel(changeable in key bindings if the player desires or doesn't have a scroll wheel). The speed should go from just faster than the normal flight all the way up to the fast flight. This way you can still go fast but have better control in a cityscape or go full speed out over the trees

So ... basically a throttle up/throttle down kind of thing?
I typically reserve the Q and A keys on my keyboard for that purpose (throttle up/throttle down) with the mouse wheel serving as an alternate 2nd binding for the same function.

Well like I said, it can be assigned by the player, but yes throttling is exactly what I was talking about. I think it would add a lot of control and comfortability to the power. I know earlier someone stated it was just a test flight and may or may not be in the final game, but if it is then the ability to throttle the speed would be a great addition.

It would definitely make sense to tie the flight speed to endurance, faster you go the more endurance is used up. I feel like this could work for super speed too, you don’t always want to go full speed. Super jump on the other hand is natively able to throttle, don’t want to go any higher, release the space bar