I recently discovered this project, and have been lurking for a little while now . . . Help me out fellas, get me up to speed. I’d like to know what City of Titans is all about. While there are many brilliant ideas floating around, it’s difficult to decipher between the suggestions and implementations.

About Myself:
Greetings,

The first MMO I stumbled across and played was Dark Age of Camelot. Widely known for fantastic PvP gameplay, it’s been running (and still running), for a little over ten years! While it still remains my all-time favorite game, it’s time to find something new. I’m aware that Camelot Unchained is in the making by one of the original creators from Dark Age of Camelot. Although that is very exciting new, I would like to see a larger selection of games available that are not necessarily in the medieval setting.

For years, I have been searching for another MMO. City of Heroes managed to capture my attention a few times. The character creation process especially intrigued me; an infinite amount of powers and costume combinations available. Seeing the powers in action was phenomenal, even the graphics were amazing. My typical experience when seeing other players using their abilities: “I must have that. . . (A few moments later) That was totally wicked! . . . Now I have to level one of those too. . . (A few hours later, winds up at the character creation screen).” I must add, when they added that color-customization to powers it totally blew me away. Overall, the community was the best feature. People were so into roleplaying their characters! Unfortunately, the Player vs Player experience usually turned me away after a while. . . which usually chased me back to playing Dark Age of Camelot or another disappointing search of a game.

I’ve tried many other MMOs, but nothing else captures my attention. Most games nowadays feel the same, the only significant differences being different textures. Worst of all, games are becoming way too easy to play. Heavy emphasis on button-mashing, less on skillful gameplay, wits, puzzle-solving, and ultimately how you can progress through the game. Of course not everyone can dedicate the same amount of time to play a game, so many of them are toned down in terms of difficulty (especially when a Free-to-Play system is implemented), which later comes at the cost of how fun the game is. It’s not possible to please all crowds.

A few sleepless nights have passed, developing thoughts of what I’d want (and don’t want) to see in an MMORPG, specifically in terms of Player vs Player. Even had quite a few ideas arise, however I would like to know more about the foundations of the game to determine whether or not this would be a game I would be interested to pursue and provide aid in the development process and later to play.

These are a few things I would like to see, if anyone could respond to them with confirmed answers as to what will be expected as far are that field goes it would be much appreciated.

So tell me, what exactly is City of Titans all about? How open is the project to new ideas and concepts that are not branched from City of Heroes? Or will the game be essentially, a remake of City of Heroes with little room for new implementations?

- [b]Open-World PvE[/b] – Instancing kept to a minimum. Too much instancing in some games left me wondering why the developers even bothered making it an MMO instead of a single-player game. (Dragon's Nest and Champion's Online comes to mind)

- [b]Open-World PvP[/b] – Arena systems are popular these days, but those are designed to make everything “equal”. I don’t mind if they exist, however I think Open-World should be encouraged and the main focus. I'm not looking for a fair fight. Maybe I want to attempt taking on three enemy players while solo, or maybe I want to make a group composed entirely of Support characters and attempt to take on a more balanced force, or maybe I want to assist my fellow heroes that are not in my team against the villains (as in add the fight), or maybe I just want to zerg everything and scour the lands for strategical bonuses. It’s the unknown factor that makes Open-World PvP thrilling. You never know who you will encounter, how many you will encounter, what their group composition is, what they will do, and the challenges you can overcome.

- [b]PvP Gameplay [/b]– Contains objectives, PvP should not be exclusively about brawls. PvP should be available to all levels, not just the end-game. Everyone should have a weakness as far as enemy-class match-ups can be (As in, no class should be able to effectively silence all others. Everyone and everything should have a counter). An immunity system (Nobody wants to be permanently CrowdControlled during a fight). A horizontal reward system to rank up, reaching the maximum cap rank should not be acquirable in a short amount of time. Goods acquired from PvP should only be useful in PvP, goods acquired from PvE should only be useful in PvE. You should not be required to do one in order to do the other (As in, endure years of raids to obtain a suit in order to stand a chance at PvP). If I wanted to level exclusively through PvP, could I? Will there be a server dedicated to PvP?

- [b]Endless[/b] Power, Costume, Equipment, and Group-composition [b]possibilities[/b]

- [b]Limitations (Balancing) [/b] – Everyone and everything should have weaknesses. No combination should have every possible form of Crowd-Control, or excellent Defensive and Offensive capabilities or mastery of both Ranged and Melee, or Immunities to everything, or a combination of the above. The more varying abilities that are introduced, the less effective they should be compared to one who specializes in a particular role.

- [b]Templating (Balancing) [/b] – It should also not be possible to fully maximize every attribute. Everyone should have a weakness, or find a medium. Items should also have a form of decay for the in-game economy and to encourage people to revisit and help others over time obtain similar items.

- [b]Grouping/Teaming[/b] – There should be limitations as to what Soloing can accomplish. Not necessarily saying it should be impossible to solo, but grouping should be encouraged as much as possible.

- [b]General Gameplay [/b]– Less button-mashing oriented, rather require more skillful execution of abilities and challenging content. Subtlety is important as well. There is a huge difference between giving hints of a location and giving exact coordinates. Things shouldn't be too revealing. "Oh, this monster has a gauge floating above his head, indicating he's about to perform a move I should avoid." vs. "The monster says what appears to be some evil incantation, and his body-language suggests he's power-ing up for a devastating blow." ('Waiting for signals to appear on the screen that tell you what to do' versus 'Reading the responses of content.')

- [b]User-Interface[/b] – SIMPLE! Many new games dedicate way to much attention to the UI, and some give way too much information in the UI! Essentially do what City of Heroes and Dark Age of Camelot did. Example: In Ice-Control icons backgrounds are all a light-blue, a simple damage spell looks like this “|||>”, use small symbols to indicate what kind of effect the spell does. Such as a self-buff having a circle around the boarder of the icon, or a cone-effect has only the arc marked at the top of the icon. It’s quite burdensome when you’re playing a game dealing with 30+ abilities all having a unique picture for every single spell. Subtlety is also important here. "Here is a pin-point location of where each monster you need to slay on your map" versus "They can be found somewhere within the 1st District" (Go to point versus explore a certain area)

- [b]Progression[/b]- How are we to reach the end-game? I’d rather it not be the typical Quest-And-Grind climb.

- [b]Dying[/b]- How much of an impact will it be? Some games leave death so meaningless, it makes some content too easy or nullifies the role of a support-class.

Although I do also enjoy Player vs Environment content, and feel many games have already mastered this field, my aspirations heavily stand in Player vs Player. I would like to see at least 30-40% dedication to the Player vs Player aspect of the game development . . . otherwise; I suppose I should continue my search.

Apologies for the massive wall of text.