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At least 16GB of main DRAM.
These stats may change as we continue to test.
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Yeah that was a serious bane for me. I was never the type of player into raiding (unless it was with a group of friends or a nice guild) and PvP stresses me out too much. So Solo Player content was always something I wished for at the very least (Note: I am not one of those type of people that goes on the forums and demands that type of content. I rather not get attacked by smartasses).
SWTOR went overboard with the story aspect though. I liked it but beyond that there was nothing different from various other MMOs....
Formerly known as Bleddyn
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCqnt88Umk]Do you want to be a hero?[/url]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/nyktoss-character-cove] My characters [/url]
*points plasgun at a section of floor that almost certainly doesn't cover any gas lines*
I'll thank you to not be implying that one of my favorite webcomics is that bad.
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^_^
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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I guess SWTOR fell flat in the writing department because it contained the Bioware brand of multi-path conversations, only for the vast majority of those conversations to undoubtedly result in the same thing and seemingly have zero impact on the story at large. This was needed, of course, because by having too large an impact on the story would require far more time and manpower to add to an already big game.
In addition to applying such context in every aspect of one's experience because that dialogue tree feature was nigh imperative to the experience as a whole, and you get tired of the dialogue window after a while. I wouldn't say the writing was particularly bad, it just suffered from over-exposure and having to sway to the needs of an MMO, since the world couldn't be too malleable or nothing would be truly consistent.
It's possible for MMOs to have adequate writing, it just requires a bit of creativity with the medium, I guess. I can't think of examples on the matter, but in relation to the topic at hand, I think that possibly a key thing to remember would be to have mission contacts have their own moral compass by which you measure yours, and maybe to have mechanically reinforced context on why you should care about that.
Let's take Petey Peterson for example. The guy contacts your character in order to ask a series of favours or to provide you with vital information on the new villain group in town.
In City of Heroes, while being among the first of its kind to have such a thing, did this by having you decide, prior to doing the mission, which path you'll be walking down. Petey would tell you a thing was happening, and you would decide your course of action right then and there.
What could be done is that you get a mission from Petey asking you to recover an artefact. As the mission progresses, you learn about your core adversaries and what they stand for, and as time goes on, you unravel a plot that Petey wasn't the rightful owner of the artefact either, but perhaps he too stole it in order to help cure his daughter, because he's out of money and time. You're then presented with a series of branching paths and resolutions:
Arrest the leader of the new villain group, give Petey the artefact (+Lawful, ++Honor, -Violence)
Arrest the leader of the new villain group, arrest Petey, return the artefact (++Lawful, +Honor, -Violence)
Arrest the leader of the new villain group, arrest Petey, keep the artefact (+Lawful, -Violence)
Kill the leader of the new villain group, give Petey the artefact (++Honor, +Violence)
Kill the leader of the new villain group, arrest Petey, return the artefact (+Lawful, +Honor, +Violence)
There's far too many variations here, but you get my point, I think. It'd be impressive if missions such as this appear in CoT.
I do a DnD Podcast, which can be listened to here.
Additionally, I write up my sessions of a Teen Heroes game here.
Some of that complexity can be achieved by breaking it into simpler pieces.
Kill or arrest the leader of the new villain group?
Give Petey the Artifact?
Arrest Petey?
Return or keep artifact?
Chain them, leading down branching paths, rather than trying to make it a singular choice. Choosing not only gives you immediate alignment points, but makes some selection as to what choices will come up later.
This can avoid getting too sketchy by keeping it close together in time.
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
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Well it had other problems for sure. Yeah you had choices, but for the most part all the choices led you to the same place with the same outcome. The outcomes that differed between players were choices that didn't matter.
Ah, yes, that makes a lot of sense, actually. Kinda surprised it didn't occur to me earlier.
I do a DnD Podcast, which can be listened to here.
Additionally, I write up my sessions of a Teen Heroes game here.
Let's continue this line of thought, how would you propose making any of these choices matter to the player's future missions and the rest of the world?
If you killed the leader of the new villain group, how would that differ from arresting him after this point?
If you give Petey the Artifact, how would that differ from arresting him after that point?
If you keep the Artifact, how would that differ from returning the Artifact after that point?
"I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero..."
Killing the leader could have a greater impact on the character's Reputation than arresting. And it would certainly impact Law and Violence of the character's alignment.
Arresting may raise Reputation with TCPD or other groups. It would probably increase Law and decrease Violence on the Alignment.
Killing off an NPC may result in a fork in the story where the NPC shows up again in some manner or not at all since its dead.
Giving the Artifact to the gang leader would increase Reputation with his Faction.
If a deal was struck and your end of the bargain was to give the artifact the Jomor would increase.
If a deal was proprosed and you went back on your end to keep the artifact themHonor would decrease and there would likely be a hit on the Rep with the faction as well.
Though not as bad as arresting Petey or even worse, killing him.
And each of thise choices - giving or keeping the artifact can result in different forks in the story as well.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
And that would push replayability to the MAX every choice means new possible story branches. So one play through your a dishonorable dirt bag, the next you play a Death before Dishonor type.
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Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
While great in theory. Think about that later. Player A killed the NPC. Player B didn't. New mission created with NPC, Player B can play it, Player A can not. Player A has not had any new missions to play for months, while Player B has gotten new ones constantly!
Depends on how the NPC was killed and how they came back. Maybe you find out there was a cloning vat (if you killed them) a twist that you can only find out if you actually killed them. It is a comic book made MMO after all. How many times has resurrection man died? Alternate reality much, how many earths are there? So yeah killing someone is just slightly more effective then throwing them in jail.
The line between knowing and understanding is often blurred.
Cute Kitsune the Anti Villain of Phoenix Rising.
I have more fervor then empathy, I still like you.~Me to a friend
It applies here too, I'm passionate not hostile.
Your intention was to kill them. The story of what actually happened is not based on your attempted action but is based on the story being told.
This is where a lot of people find themselves at odds.. no one is God-Modding their actions here. You simply tell what you character/team would attempt and follow what happens next
Crowd Control Enthusiast
I think it would be best if something similar to how Mass Effect did those kind of choices. For there to be the same missions for everybody for the most part, but Player A only runs into an NPC from a previous mission if they didn't kill them, while Player B doesn't if they did for instance. Something like that. Either way returning NPCs shouldn't have a significant role, unless they were intended to survive and be free for a later mission in the first place, just one noticeable enough to make those choices mean something.
"I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero..."
The other side of this is player A gets a mission based off of the death of the NPC.
Also reference Praetoria expansion and the use of phases. One player's choices need not impact anothers.
And the cool thing is each choicecan eventually lead to the same 'place' (read same set of mission content) but the path taken to get there was different.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
Yeah, they can do the other missions, but this leads to more and more branching story lines, some of which will get ignored/forgotten. That's why I'm a little worried about it in CoT. I've run some of the SWTOR stories twice with some different choices and I've run everyone for every class at least once, they all get you to the same point with very little difference in the story.
For one of the class story lines you can take out or spare an important figure. Either way, he's removed from office and it's never said how for the other classes and just said "Oh hey, I'm the new important figure, replacing the last one!"
That makes ones choices mean very little. Why I never thought SWTOR story lines where really that much better than other MMOs. Running it twice got the same story line. Though having alts for other classes did give you a slight difference in running it again (though they REALLY needed to add more side quests like CoH had to change it up for everyone for the additional plays).
I get where Brand X is coming from. A grand story that spans say an area. Rikti War Zone comes to mind. Massive story arc where the idea of being able to have branching off effects would not have much impact on the story. Did you kill The Honoree? Well guess what you are now out of seeing him gain his memory and remember he Hero 1. (insert curses to NCsoft here).
If you don't have the option of killing Honoree then what the point of having the choice.
Now what I think is there would be two types of stories (or more) in the game. Scripted stories and Adaptive stories. The Adaptive ones have your branching off effects, where the scripted ones have a clear path.
How to tell them apart or make it work? We want replayability and having out choices have effects on the stories we play leads to this. At the same time like I said story arcs like the Warzone have to have set pieces and set outcomes. maybe an Icon marking a story as a Branching story or a Set Story Arc is needed.
Like how CoH had the Story Arcs and random Missions.
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Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
I had a transsexual thief villain based partly on Catwoman, partly on Lord Fanny from The Invisibles (I would give the name here but I don't want anyone to steal it on launch day). In CoT she will be a sheroine.
"TRUST ME."
I'm not. While this would be an interesting feature for use in missions, raids and open-world aspart of gameplay, the idea of it being across the open-world as a standard architectural feature would dimish the purpose of the statue/plaque/etc. If I knew there was a commemerative statue of my toon awarded for enough endgame content but I was the only one who could see it, then... what's the point?
"TRUST ME."
Will there ever be minigame type content in CoT akin to Legends PVP in DCUO, where you get to play as established NPC heroes and villains from CoT background, with unique powers and abilities?
"TRUST ME."
If there is a desired outcome for a particular story the writers need to write it in a way that the choices made may make the path different but the result still the same. These types of stories may not have larger world changing outcomes due to the known outcome at the end.
But to me that is starting off small. The bigger picture is what happens if you did kill The Honoree. The mission holder's story has changed.
This doesn't mean that the NPC is gone from someone else's story. Nor does it mean that the player of the first play through who killed honoree can't play through the second player's story where he didn't.
And when the world requires consistency for larger over-arching story lines of the game is where we come back to the first part where writers need to set up the stories appropriately.
Again I restate, it has been said that players will be able to save or take over the world - it's not an exaggeration that is the goal of how far stories for character's can go. We have a large team of writers and they are being put to good use. I don't envy at all our Comp Lead who has to manage all of this.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
The actual difficulty is that too "big" a difference in the outcomes requires increasingly more branches of story which must be written and built into the game. It will take delicacy to make that work properly without exploding the workload of the writing and mission-building staff just for one single line of linked quests. Let alone if a later line relies on a decision in an earlier one having gone a particular way.
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Please, please, please! Do not make me get into a "vehicle" with low health, no defense, new abilities, oh and ... now I'm under attack while still getting oriented. I HATE HATE HATE that BS in WoW!
The line between knowing and understanding is often blurred.
Cute Kitsune the Anti Villain of Phoenix Rising.
I have more fervor then empathy, I still like you.~Me to a friend
It applies here too, I'm passionate not hostile.
That is the main difficulty (and probably one of the main reasons that the class stories in SWTOR haven't been developed (much?) beyond what they were at launch).
Even if they conceive of a means to collapse all those branching paths back down to a binary choice, that could still turn out to be quite the house of cards they need to juggle in the mean time. And if one or two stories are that complex any others will pale in comparison, so they almost need to be suitably epic to stand out as "not an average mission arc". Which, in turn, is likely to require that they be even longer and more complex.
While I would like choices I make to have a real impact, I recognize that it's a reality that this can't always be the case. Good writing can, however, paper over such difficulties quite nicely.
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[font=Pristina][size=18][b]Hail Beard![/b][/size][/font]
Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
If I understand what I've read correctly, CoT vehicles will be strictly for travel and not affect the character's powers at all. After all, this is a Superpowers game, not GTA.
And I hated that 'feature' of WoW too.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Now I feel the need for a Cyclone (from Robotech) power set!
Robotic powersets should be interesting......
Formerly known as Bleddyn
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCqnt88Umk]Do you want to be a hero?[/url]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/nyktoss-character-cove] My characters [/url]
There's the rub isn't it? The developers must allow for choices to have both immediate and potential consequences down the line that are significant enough that the player feels that their choices matter, but not so significant that the developers have to make more and more complicated branches until it gets unreasonable, which is especially problematic in an MMO where the players are going to want to eventually be able to do everything.
An idea just popped into my head. How about the missions for the most part either be singular, or a self contained chain. i.e. you'd only run into members of the Infamous Doers of Incredibly UnspOrting TacticsS and NPCs involved in the line of missions that are connected to them, and consequences of however you chose to deal with those people would only be shown during the missions of that chain. Maybe they could have cameo appearances and provide the occasional resource later in the main mission line if the player does the side stuff first.
Aside from that, maybe the city itself could be changed in subtle ways based on the actions of the players on that city's server as a whole. i.e. a server where most of the players take mostly heroic actions would look cleaner, safer, and brighter, while a server where most of the players take villainous actions would look darker, more dangerous, and dirtier.
I know I would use them, depending on what roles would be available for them of course. I wonder if we'll be able to make Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot heroes.
"I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero..."
Here's another one of those "Build It Right In The First Place" deals.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that EVERY MISSION in the game not only recorded the outcome of your LAST trip through it (ie. accounting for Flashback possibilities of repeating content) in terms of Success or Failure ... but also the results of the CHOICES the Team Leader made during your LAST TRIP through.
In other words ... [b]build in the potential for continuity from the ground up as a foundational feature of content creation[/b].
Yes, this would generate a database of variables about a PC's past actions, and yes, MOST of that data would remain irrelevant and never used ever again by anything else in the game. BUT ... simply HAVING that resource lying around would make its USE in other content a lot easier to manage, so as to link events together in ways that "make sense" to the Player because the game keeps a record of their historic actions and choices.
So you'd have this long searchable list of boolean Mission Success? (Y/N) variables for each Mission, but if the Mission involves any Choices (such as, say, Alignment choices?) that the PC has to pick from a menu of options, that information gets recorded (until overwritten by doing a Flashback to that Mission) and becomes available for use in Other Content. This way, rather than having a MANDATE of continuity between Missions, instead the Content Team gets to have an OPTION of continuity between Missions. It becomes a TOOL that empowers the Content Team to develop better continuity between storylines and yields a more cohesive world.
Are there any Devs (besides the database people) who have a problem with implementing such an idea?
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Not a new suggestion as our Comp alead has brought up the very thing. Including the player being able to go through their character's journal to read through mission texts, see what choices where made and when. Its also part of a requirement for at least the story paths we will have for the game.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
Hmm, it does seem like a lot of storage committed to tracking the character, but this sort of thing would allow the player to use a Flashback system to... tweak the outcome of their adventures and shape the story to their liking. That would be kinda cool.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Now that something I didn't think about. Using Flashback to adjust the system. Now here the problem as well. Choice if I do the Flashback I would like to explore the other path without it affecting my character. That way I can just play and enjoy the content I haven't explored.
Maybe a way to turn Off/On the Alignment system when Flashbacking. So I choose when to have the choices affect my character.
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Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
Wait ... the Choices I Make shouldn't matter? Now there's bogus argument in favor of "I should be able to have my cake and eat it too!"
Look, such a position (as a matter of argument) only makes sense if the granularity of the choices is so ... coarse ... that a single decision can have radical effects on your PC. However, if it takes more ... effort ... than just a single choice to have a [i]noticeable[/i] effect on your PC, what are you so worried about?
In other words, you shouldn't be able to say "I want to play both paths, but only one path should matter to me!"
If that's what you really think, just play the Flashback more than once ... the first time to take the alternate path and then a second time to return to the original path (thereby "canceling" the deviation from the original path).
"Oh noes! That's too much WORK!" I hear the petulant (and obviously LAZY) masses cry!
To which I have a very simple and succinct answer.
[b]TOUGH.[/b] {bop on head}
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Just playing devil's advocate. Being a major Altaholic that wouldn't be a problem for me. But someone should voice the idea.
I can see a kid say my 5 year old nephew playing. He wouldn't be thinking of long terms affects of those choices. He just wants to beat up bad guys.
And when does having options a bad thing. Sometimes I just want to hunt, kill, skulls, sometimes i don't.
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Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls.
/emote BWAAAaaaaainzzzz ...
For what it's worth, Luck, I know exactly where you're coming from with that. The trouble is that your example winds up refuting itself. For someone who doesn't care about the long term effects of their choices, they aren't being prevented from beating up lots of bad guys.
This is one of those things where it's only going to "matter" to people who ARE thinking long term ... while for those who AREN'T thinking long term they aren't going to be going to the effort of looking at their choices strategically, they'll just go with whatever they feel like at the moment and keep on carrying on.
It's sort of a Mind Over Matter deal ... where [i]if you don't mind, it really doesn't matter[/i].
/em [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwWJDk1aayA]rimshot[/url]
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
This would be good for determining what type of time-travel your character is using.
If you don't like paradoxes, your trip to the past is the past of a different timeline, and when you get back to your own present, you know what you did, but no one else does.
If you like the typical cinematic (and comic-book) time travel, you change the past and wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, [i]stuff[/i] is used to plaster over the crack in the universe.
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Hence why it's best to have the "memory" of what you do simply do an overwrite, so that you can use the Flashback system as an "editor" of sorts. All that matters was the LAST TIME you did something, such that any previous runs simply become "an alternate timeline" (in effect) that the Current You is not participating in.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
I like how you think, Redlynne.
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While I hope for no 5 year olds (or older but not teen) kids play, because that just leads to stupid parents saying stupid things about content that fits within the rating of the game...if all they want to do is smash things, they probably won't care what their actions lead to and will just continue to smash things. :)
Funny story. I started playing on Villain side of City of Heroes when I was wee lad (I was 9) as an necromancer/dark mastermind. I always thought I was just knocking other criminal gangs and heroes out, not killing them.
And then I played a Devouring Earth mission
In all serious though that stuff did not bother me that much at that age. My parents always allowed me to play somewhat violent games provided I understood that it was fiction. Over time I ended up becoming an horror enthusiast and I guess what people considered goth
Formerly known as Bleddyn
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCqnt88Umk]Do you want to be a hero?[/url]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/nyktoss-character-cove] My characters [/url]
To be fair, even now that would still be a reasonable assumption to make on a game like this. I mean, when's the last time anyone of significance especially heroes truly permanently died in comics, even in the most "they are dead this time, really" moments?
As an aside, my parents hammered the difference between fiction and reality into me at a very young age too, so that kind of stuff never bothered me either. I do like horror also, but I prefer the more subtle stuff.
Continuing on, with choices the most important thing is to do one's best to make sure the player cares about making those choices. Choices that lack impact make the player not care about what choices they are making which defeats the entire purpose of having those choices in the first place, and sticking to one's morals when making choices in games is easy when the choices don't seem important. I think the way to ensure this happens lies with the characters above all. If the choices lead a vague effect on characters the player will never meet, the choices are no less meaningless than if they didn't effect anyone at all, so seeing those choices effect characters the player knows is most important, and by how the player knows them. If the characters involved in that choice are endearing screwing them over is going to be a lot harder to do, and characters that are real dicks make it that much harder to do the "right" thing and arrest or spare them instead of making them suffer. Inversely, characters that the player is supposed to sympathize with being annoying little twats if not outright repulsive makes making their lives hell easy, and characters whose actions the player is supposed to find repulsive instead being something that most players would find reasonable and/or understandable makes doing the "right" thing with them easy. Real noticeable consequences afterward are important as well because even if one can make sure choices have impact in the moment if they don't have consequences afterward those choices will quickly seem unimportant anyway.
Most kids aren't stupid, I think they are going to be able to understand these choices and their consequences on some level provided they aren't too complex, if not entirely, but it really depends what they are looking for in the first place. If they want a good story, they'll consider the consequences of their actions, if they just want to beat people up they will at most try to take the choices they think will result in them beating more people up but otherwise won't care much about the story, and this is true of people at any age really.
"I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero..."
We make every pretense of competency around here. ^_~
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
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