“It's YOUR capability!” - Agent Earth, star of the EdenTech TV series, Agent Earth and the Enviro-Pals
Thanks, Agent Earth! Hello, and welcome to the Kickstarter Update equivalent of a clip show. We’re going to take you on a quick tour of our previous Updates and then direct you to a feedback thread on our forums, because we definitely want to hear from you.
Previously on Kickstarter Updates: Video of the lovely and mighty Quinn, concept art, Lore galore, PvP, Instances, the open world, peeks at the powers system, and you have listened to us talk about both sound and music (well, more reading than listening, but you get the idea).
Now it's your turn to talk to us. We love the comments here on the Kickstarter page, so please keep those coming. However, we’d love it even more if you took a moment to talk to us on our forums, which you can find here. They're the best way to keep in touch with us, and other members of the community. It amazes us to see how enthusiastic you all can be about this project.
The primary question here is: what was the best Update we have had so far and why (want more Apokalyptykult)? Which Update made you the least happy and why (needs more Doctor Tyche)? Was there anything you found confusing (needs more FAQ)? What do you want our future Updates to be about (needs more x)?
More art? More gameplay? More technology? More enemy group or character information? More about the world of Titan City? More soliloquies from in-setting characters? More Easter Eggs and pop-culture references?
Although ultimately, we are putting together a company, a brand new and minty fresh game studio, we want to be different from the others. We're fans and gamers and we want to remain that way. We want to be the lunatics running the asylum, with our fellow lunatics (that’s you) to tell us what you want out of this game. Help us keep it that way, and more importantly: Please help us keep our perspective.
As the tabletop GMs, the game designers, and the business owners among you know, it is very easy to shift perspective once you are on the other side of the screen. We don't want that to happen here. We are confident you can and will tell us how you feel about things and help us create a wonderful new world that belongs to us all forever. Keep us grounded. Give us feedback. Kick us in the pants if we do something stupid. We're doing this for you, but we can't do it without you.
The best way to do that is in our forums and the best time to do it is now, while we are in a pre-Alpha state and nothing is carved in stone.
Make no mistake: we are not building a game by committee. Don't expect every aspect of our plans to go to a vote. We have a clear vision we are following, and no game can be the best of everything to everyone. But we will listen to you. Because we are you.
See you in Titan City.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Hoi! I might not be representative for a lot of the backers since I have never actually played City of Heroes. What fascinates me about this kickstarter is how a community of gamers that loved a game gets together to create something unique themselves. I would be very interested in reading an update covering ways to get involved, if possible, how to help the game and community to thrive and possibly what working methods you'd like to apply in order for such a heavily volunteer dependant project to succeed - not because I do not have faith in you, but because I am very interested in the subject and I'd like to learn even more about it. If you have any special opinions to share on Open Source and how it might relate to the project, that'd be fantastic too :)
I was (?WTF!?!) a CoH player and had to go away for a while when the games closing was announced.
I don't really like any of the lore updates. I really liked figuring that out on my own in CoH. I would have been bummed to learn that the Clockworks were just junk animated by the King telekinetically before doing the TF the first time.
I'd love to find out more about the plans for powers and other character stuff beyond costumes.
Open source is great, and several of our devs have done considerable work with it - Dr. Tyche was one of the original programmers for Gentoo Linux. It doesn't relate to the project right now, though.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Might be more representative than you think, Sangius. I never played CoX, either. I heard about City of Titans from a player on Champions: Online.
I haven't finished going through the updates, yet, Warcabbit, so I'll be reposting here once I'm done. Thanks for the pointer to the Forums, btw!
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]
Well, if I can't choose update #31, my favorite would certainly have to be #22 about the instances.
I think I'd like to see some more everything.... but I'd love to see some more of the 'How we're doing it' sort of things. While I understand some things are necessarily 'hush-hush', I'd love for some better insight on how we're progressing from Point A (The Idea!) to Point B (The Work!) to Point C (The Product!).
Everything I have seen in the updates I have really loved. Costumes and Concepts was a favorite. Gabby Cabby was really written well. Building a Skyscraper surprised me in that I found it much more interesting than I thought I would when I first started reading. Flash and Substance gave some important clues about how we will be able to play, which was exciting and important. It's all been absolutely wonderful and I'm thrilled to be a part of this community and am excited for the game.
You ask what do we want future updates to be about? What's missing that we would like to see?
For me, since we are not going to have a Mission Architect system anytime soon, and one of the things I loved the most about CoH/V was the ability to create missions, it would be great to be able to help write or tell the story of a single mission related to the NPC character we will be naming and helping to design for those of us who contributed enough to receive the "I Know a Guy" perk. Frankly, if I could know that I could help tell a story of a single mission for the game, I would contribute more to do that.
It would be great to volunteer as a writer for your game, but It seems like you have a huge group of writers and artists, and I'm not sure I'd have the time anyways. But I still would really, really like to be a part of creating a part of the story of Titan City. What I'd like to do is this: for those of us who have contributed enough to be awarded the "I know a guy" perk, it would be great if we could not only help name and design the mission NPC, but work with a writer on the plot for a mission that relates to the NPC. It could even be for a greater contribution of more money (like $1250, so $500 more than just the "I know a guy" perk...). I'd like to share with your artists and writers photos and text I have from my Mission Architect Mission, and they could run with it and create mission content they probably would be creating anyway, but with a single mission that I helped create.
Not sure how difficult that would be, but to have a chance to contribute to the history and lore of the game would be a hugely exciting thing for me. That would be something I'd love to see if it could happen.
[color=#ff0000]Environmental Artist, PR Editor[/color]
I don't know what I want. Just being honest: while character customization intrigued me, I don't know if it's genuine excitement, or simply the last update I've read so far as this isn't the first time I've felt good about a Kickstarter update, let alone able to count the good ideas I've read from the updates on my fingers alone. We are honestly so starved for excitement or constructive progress in the SaveCOH circles that at this point anything is everything to us right now, which is why there's plenty of skepticism as well as praise to go around. (Being a backer, I've reconciled my issues with the money offered up; if I never see it again, I'm fine with that. I have more hope that it won't go down like that I do fear that it will. It's a calculated risk.)
Personally, I'm interested more in what I haven't heard about yet: the combat mechanics, method of buffing, method of fixed stat improvement, game systems, components (such as player-content, mission management, client modding, etc.), community features, and what parts of the CoH experience is absolutely sacrosanct and what's subject to revision (as I heard on Titan Network, if Heroes and Villains is going to be a faithful adaptation, this title would be what CoH 2 might have been; if this is a fair comparison, I'm interested in what choices will be made to this end.)
And I'm sure this is all info and particulars that you're probably not ready to discuss just yet. I'm not a min-maxer (any one who knows me can attest to this), nor am I looking to soak through every detail in every update cherry picking info to overestimate decisions that may have not even been made yet.
So talk about what you can, I'm listening to all of it.
You know, client modding is something we've discussed and come to no real conclusion on, in the metaphorical offices. What would you do with it?
We're really not ready to talk about the mechanics of combat, because it's going to require a lot of testing we're just not ready for.
We know what the end result feel we want is, but the nuts and bolts are... very movable.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Honestly, everything seems great so far. The only thing I'd really suggest in-game wise is a Shield Defense-like power set, but that's probably going to be the least helpful suggestion given.
If there's a way to overlay HTML, for example to call up a reference to Wikis or charts in lightweight HTML fed from exterior data (could be RSS, could be as simple as a Ventrilo status list in JavaScript) that doesn't require leaving the game, map overlays a la Vidiot Maps, I liked using TweakCoH to choose a more readable font for the UI (I squinted on player names a lot from the client included fonts, of course aside from the awesomeness of RedCircle).
Nothing drastic, just light touches here and there to make it more homey. Never anything to automate play, never anything that allows data coming out of the client from other players without their consent. I don't see the need to "skin" the interface back to the City of Heroes UI or anything, I trust your UI staff to do a fair job improving things past what we've had. And if there's too much interactivity (Boss Mob calculators, etc.) it might slow things down as developers maintain an abstraction of the client that takes away from the purpose just to make toys that maybe 15% of the player base uses. Obviously, if none of this makes it as a launch objective, that's fine. This is clearly fodder for later updates. (Not to mention something that a partnership with Titan Network could be more fruitful making a reality out of ideas like these than a wishlist I've got. I mean Sentinel Tracker, for crying out loud. Am I right?!)
As advanced options, I don't expect to see UI supporting any of this; I don't mind messing with INIs or Registry settings, but as a non-programmer, if it means learning Lua, working through an API or reading a manual to carry out any modding, I'm good with the Out of The Box setup. I'll meet halfway on console commands built into the client, of course. Or a terse player guide (Zombie Man, community legend, looking your way... :D)
Best: Robust costume creator seems likely
Worst: PvP anywhere close to launch seems like a bad idea, seeing as how CoX began as pure PvE and only improved in this regard (with some difficult nerfs to be sure, but overall, the PvE game, for me anyway, just kept getting better). I'd much rather see you rope as many of the great CoH community (who fell far more heavily onto the PvE side of things, in my experience) as possible right on launch day, and if you have this massive PvE world that brings back all that CoH nostalgia, I see that having a good chance at being the case. I truly feel that the community was what made CoH great, and aside from being an excellent game, I loved logging in knowing the game would be filled with decent people who loved helping each other out.
Confusion: Still confused at how you are going to manage to pull this off with a comparatively small amount of money compared to what a typical MMO startup would cost. I get that it's a volunteer effort headed by those who are passionate about the game, and with the glowing commendation I've given the community, I have chosen to support this project at a "I believe it's going to happen, and it's going to be fun from Day 1" level, because of all the rumors I've heard about resurrecting CoH, this one was the only one that made me smile and remember all the joy I found in City of Heroes. This is something I don't need explained further, however, as I am confident that reassuring me and others like me would only waste valuable time that could be spent disproving my doubt. ;)
More of X: I'm happy to hear whatever you guys feel like sharing. If you nail a travel power and are cackling with glee at how fun it is, that's a great update! If you figure out a way to easily create amazing instanced maps that are more varied and enjoyable than what we're used to, super! I'm sure I'm like a lot of people in that I'm going to lap up whatever you share with us without much complaint. I'd pretty much given up on there ever being anything remotely as cool as City of Heroes ever again, so every update is basically like finding an oasis in the desert.
Best of luck and keep in touch!
-Hyperbole
I don't usually do a lot in game forums, but this is an opportunity I can't ignore. I do have a few ideas to offer-up on what I'd personally love to see in terms of information.
1. The costume ideas and concepts that have been posted in the updates are top-notch, so seeing more of that stuff would be awesome. In addition to clothing and costumes, I'd love to see plenty of depth when it comes to body shapes and styles, too. Can we be anthropomorphic animals, robots, aliens, undead or spooky creatures, or out-and-out monsters? Can we obviously look good or evil, be beautiful or ugly, stylish or freaky? Can we be creatures of coherent evolutionary design, or a mishmash of parts built by an insane hand?
2. We may be something of a minority in MMO's, but with all the lore and attention to aesthetic details you've put up, I'd like to know if and how you plan to cater to roleplayers. Social instances? Emotes? Poses and animations? Powers that can be used outside of combat and without a target? Weapons we can show at any time? Auras and glows? Transformations or suit-changes? Will we be able to sit in dang chairs??
3. More about how our character choices will affect the story! That stuff is drool-worthy. How will our choices change our progression, or how NPC's respond and react to us? Will our Paths change our paths, so to speak? Will we get personality options, or origins?
All-in-all, though, what you guys have put up so far as been very entertaining, and fills one with hope for this project. So above all else, just keep up the good work!
I think you have done an exemplary job of providing us with a wide array of update topics. Everything about this KS has simply inspired more confidence in the CoT project.
My favourite updates were 17 and 18, re: "alignment" and paths. Those mechanics alone could keep me subscribed for years and years. I haven't disliked any updates, but I want to echo what KenS said above about being careful not to give away too much lore, because I agree it's fun to learn it piece by piece in-game.
The only big gap for me is details on combat, though I see you have already replied above that you are not ready to cover this yet. It's my biggest -- no, actually my *only* worry about this game, because combat mechanics that don't measure up to what CoX gave us have been the number one reason I couldn't stand most other MMOs. I sent a pm on KickStarter to which you folks were kind enough to reply, saying that you had no plans to change the combat flow other than adding extra options for gamepad support. This set my mind at ease. But then in the FAQ it says combat will not "be a culture shock for experienced superhero game players" and I get worried again, because that could include games like CO, where spamming powers is de rigeur, and combat therefore bored the spandex off me. So while I understand you don't have all the details worked out yet, the more you can tell us, the more confident I can be.
Aside from that, I'd also like to know what practical effects alignment and/or path will have in-game. Will various factions react differently to your character based on where he or she stands on the spectrum(s)?
Spurn all ye kindle.
Dude! Spoilers!
I kind of feel the same way: I'd rather learn the Lore as I play through the game, though I'm sure there's a segment of the audience that has a vested interest in that piece of the puzzle. There's a balance to be struck. But yeah, the long monologue from the cabbie (#19) was pretty boring IMO (good writing, I'm just not interested) and I'd say the same about the flyovers of the boroughs (#27). I did like hearing basic information about villain groups, like #21.
I LOVED hearing your ideas about alignments and paths, and missions without minions, and alternate entrances and exits, and meaningful choices, and PvP options, a decoupling powers from animations and appearance... The kind of stuff that is going to make this more than "just another MMO."
Being more literary minded (and loving nothing more than a good read that has the ability to draw me in until the very end), I loved the Gabby Cabby, flyovers, those beautifully written things that let me -see- what's going on. Like playing a movie in my head... instead of reading, I'm watching it unfold. as an RPer, these help me get deeper into the feel of what you're trying to create for us. If these 'flights of fancy' type writings are indicative of the care that's being put into the game itself, then it builds just that little bit more trust, definitely needed for a venture such as this.
What I'd like to see more of: Server status-UP!
Heh. But seriously. It feels as if you're updating the parts of the barrel of ideas that you have as you are firming them up. We have another 2 years (if not more) to wait, so I've settled myself in for a patient mosey along with you.
[color=blue]You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"
[i]George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)[/i][/color]
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I still remember how shocked I felt when I discovered that the Rikti were actually modified humans from an alternate universe! I had to rewrite at least one character backstory, and I loved it. There had been no spoilers in any forums or official websites that I'd seen.
I'd like to have lore secrets of this calibre in CoT, only revealed in endgame.
Firefly of Phoenix Rising
I liked the Cabbie story, It remined me of the Fuzion Champions RPG Comic, where the new Hero needs to use the Cabbie to go to the fight Scene, because he had no Travel Power. :-)
The updates I liked the most was the ones where you revealed the new travel powers and the music. Personally I am a music fanatic, and what you guys have made is fantastic, it helps me get into the game before it even comes out! As for the travel powers, I want to know what will be similar and what will be different to city of heroes/villains. That especially means powers and the class system you have, I am quite interested in learning more about how that classification/specification setup will work. Another I absolutely loved was the concept art update #10. It really reminded me of a great Superhero RTS game I used to play called Freedom Force. It all looks so spectacular so far. The only updates I haven't liked are the ones about the districts, while I love the description you guys have put into it, I would rather feel and experience it in other ways, like perhaps add some concept art or some designs that show what the districts may look like in comparison to one another. Show how they contrast more.
Back in CoV, I was mainly a PvE player so my hope is that when the game comes out, you guys will have figured out a way to make both heroes and villains interesting, seeing as at the end of CoH, hardly ANYBODY was on the darkside on Champion so far as I could tell. The Rogue Isles were so barren. Maybe show us a bit more of the villains and their world as apposed to the heroes? The villains, I think are the most interesting part of a Supers game, and sadly so few show it. That is number 1, what I want to see.
Aside from that, I loved the talk about what enemies we shall face and look forward to more about the character customization
Sounds! If we can't see more, let's hear more.
More lore would be nice, too. Not only information about Titan City but also about the world it's in. Titan City can't be home to the majority of the world's heroes and doers-of-no-gooders (and perhaps not even the majority of North American heroes and villains). What's the rest of the world like?
Do most countries have an iconic hero or supergroup, whether official or by popular acclaim?
How has technology changed for the common person or do governments hide all the good stuff in secret bunkers so villains and groups like the Sky Raiders can steal them at their leisure?
Is Titan City the pinnacle of development, the non plus ultra, or are there other places in the world which it aspires to emulate (in whole or in part)?
Do other continents have an equivalent to Titan City or do their heroes prefer a less centralized approach?
Did aliens, creatures of myth and legend, superhumans, and super technology fall from the bean stalk one fine, spring morning or have they openly existed for years/decades/centuries?
Has the presence of tens or hundreds of thousands of variously gifted and powerful individuals had a marked impact on the world or is it a case of plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose? (Do help organizations still need to run advertisements for food for children in Africa?)
Are dangerous people and groups like the Aether Pirates in Titan City because of the weather and free parking, or are there other folks out there who're so nasty that they decided Titan City was a safer place to be?
It would be nice to know that there is more to the world than Titan City, a storm over the Atlantic, and a cold front moving in from Canada.
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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!
I can't speak for anyone else, just myself.
So I'd like to say this: asking a generic "what do YOU want", is not going to provoke as much of a response to me as more pointed questions, such as "Would you rather have A, or B"?
Specifically if you're talking game mechanics, you might want to provide more parameters for the discussion. If you're talking lore/story and other "squishy" stuff, then sure a broad and open perspective is a good idea. But if you're talking about how the game functions, or should function, you're not going to get a whole lot of useful information from me unless you tell me what you've got to work with.
I liked all of the updates, but I love update #29
1) In CoX I made a controller with illusion powers, decoys was fine, but I always wanted to make my own decoys ( This would also work on Masterminds as well ). Maybe load up a costume from the icon save or "titan sentinel", hint hint.
2) I LOVED frankenslotting my characters, I took it to the next level, if I was side-kicked down from 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 25, 20, or 15, I was ready for any task-force or missions. I was hoping y'all have something like that one day and I was hoping that y'all take it to the next level by adding slots to weapons and items ( Why level up, when you can power up ).
3) I love the Freakshow, Carnies, Spiders, Maltas, and don't for get the Cots from CoX, most people hated them but I love a challenge, I hope y'all have a group or two like that, and if y'all don't, I have a group in mind.
4) Have y'all ever noticed the rikti dummies in the "Vanguard" base? Wouldn't it be great to have something like a danger room in your "Base Builder", a place where you can test your powers and spawn any foes you like in that danger room? This is how I see it, you have a danger room but you have no program to test with, you go into a zone and fight enough of a certain foe to get a data disc drop, you then take that disc to your "Danger Room" to have that enemy in your system.
5) Advertisements: Your character needs a temp power, he/she grabs a "Red Bull",..we all know the slogan "RED BULL GIVES YOU WINGS!" You go to a "Nike" store within the game to pick out the latest outfit for your character, or maybe you need a temp power for running and or jumping after all "Nike" is known for its shoes.
I will say this though, I hope the forum gets fixed soon, because all of the little bugs, and the
[code]The Twitter REST API v1 is no longer active. Please migrate to API v1.1.
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messages and the "server is busy" errors are really starting to make me not want to view this forum. And that's not good when you want communication.
I can't give you my opinion, if the medium by which my opinion is supposed to be expressed - doesn't work.
My suggestion for world building:
My biggest gripe with CoH as a world/realm was that it included many of the negative spiritual aspects (Demons, Dark Energy, etc) but none of the positive aspects. There was no divine powers represented. Hell there was not even any church/temple/synagogue there. Now I am not a religious man however I am a spiritual one. It bothered me that most of the negative parts of religion or western beliefs were represented. None of the positive ones were. I may not be a "church goer" however they do most times represent a positive influence on their community. I know that these days it's much easier to get a group of people to believe in aliens than angels. I'd just like the powers that be in this game to consider adding some generic positive parts of religion into the game.
As much as I wish I could come up with something cool to add, I have no clue how to verbalize what I'll want from this game, other than the experience of a unique and exciting world to play in and powers that feel as real, as intuitive and as tactile as they did in CoX. Each update I read makes me more excited about what is coming ... and while I don't mind the "scenario" updates, I have to agree with KenS a teeny-tiny bit. I don't want to know TOO much about the world before I get in there. Teasers are fine, as long as spoilers are avoided (To be fair, I haven't read anything I would consider a spoiler)
If I had room in my signature, I'd add this, because every update makes me feel this way: [b]It's going to be a [i]LONG[/i] two years![/b]
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(also, while I'd like someone to work out the bugs on this forum, I'd prefer people focus on making the game the best it can be. If you don't fix the forum problems until AFTER the game launches, I won't be one complaining ...)
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I love the art updates so far, and the music and sound. Art was so important to me, just as important as game play in COH. I'd love to continue seeing alternating posts about game play (powers, instances, etc), and art.
I will say, too, that the information on some of the NPC groups was a bit gasp-inducing. I know there's still going to be a lot of groups we haven't heard of yet, so introduce us if you want, but leave us some mystery too~ n___n
What depressed me ENORMOUSLY was the stretch goals. **Wings**... I cannot reincarnate the character that my husband and I met and fell in love on, without them. It just killed me to have to pray and put my hopes in others for that-- to hope that now in 8 days We can make it to 550k or else I have to wait some unknown amount of time beyond even the ~years~ til launch to let Grace rise again. I've waited this long-- I guess I can wait longer!
That said, ~~~PLEASE~~~ do something about making roleplay friendly atmospheres for us!!! I'll find places to roleplay without help from the Dev Team, but seriously... Virtue Server was my lifeblood and enabled me to make incredible connections (and start a family, apparently!)
My favorite part about tall this so far is the MWM team. Your enthusiasm makes my heart swell. I ~believe~ you. And will continue to believe, until the end!
*Brevity of Grace* - 50 Emp/Archery Defender
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/grace-just-grace]Backstory - Just Grace[/url]
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Hmm. I'm going to divide my answers into two groups. Group 1 will be answers aimed at means of keeping the game's supporters informed regarding the developer's vision. Group 2 will be my own personal preferences. So here goes!
GROUP 1: Keeping the Supporters Informed
What was the best Update we have had so far and why? The strongest contender I saw for showcasing what the developers want to do to make City of Titans stand above and beyond its competition was Update 30: the simple act of moving the Star across the body-frame. This might seem simple to an outside viewer, but it speaks volumes of the amount of pre-planning and imagination that's going into City of Titans. Everyone expects updates that say "we're including X". Seeing updates that "everyone knows we're including X, but here's how we're going to improve on that" is much more interesting and exciting.
Which Update made you the least happy and why? I have to go with Update 14. While I was pleased to see an explanation of the expanded stretch goals, looking at it through the eyes of someone who hadn't spend time in the forums some of the terminology used in the stretch goals wasn't explained very well. As an example, the term "Specialization" hadn't come up and there was no indication of what it meant or why it was a stretch goal.
Was there anything you found confusing? Again, looking through the eyes of someone not well-versed in the forums, see my previous answer.
What do you want our future Updates to be about? We've seen a great deal about the lore and concepts for the costumes, sound and music. What we're lacking is actual details about powers. While its true we've seen an update about how powers can be customized, we've seen very little about the powers themsevles. I suspect this will be addressed in later updates, but its still a curious oversight.
GROUP 2: My Personal Preference
What was the best Update we have had so far and why? Anything lore-related. I love lore. From the history of the city to the history of its districts to the history of its antagonists and supporters: I love it all. To me, a character isn't complete until I find a way to fit him or her in some way into the lore, even if its only peripherally.
Which Update made you the least happy and why? Update 28. PvP is meh and I get nothing out of it.
Was there anything you found confusing? Because I spent time poking around in the forums (first with Missing Worlds Media and then City of Titans), anything that might seem confounding to a layman was pretty clear to me.
What do you want our future Updates to be about? Honestly, I'm reluctant to ask for you guys to focus on any one thing. There's a lot of the game to cover that haven't made it into updates yet. If I have to pick a subject, I'd like to see the focus of updates move onto areas of the game we haven't seen much information on yet. Things like the actual game-play, the powers, the player-created mission system, communication methods between players, the in-game store, account security, and so on.
Them's my to cents! Don't spend 'em all in one place, now.
Flafty of the Guardian Server
My current suggestions:
An update showing a breakdown of team numbers. Right now we have a theoretical bubble of volunteers... split up working on stuff... How many are working on what?
Not home addresses or names, or even experience ... but maybe raw #'s of people on each step of the project *currently* With some cred scores on people who lead the teams.
A list of areas you ARE recruiting for.
An update about the body shapes/sliders you are planning to give us. Alt'ing was amazing in CoX... we planned alts around what we knew we could do with the character models. So what are the planned models?
Supporting how I can, Starting up a DA group for art, stories, and concepts to be collected
http://city-of-titans.deviantart.com/
Please join up if you plan to make or collect CoT related art.
The concept art was, so far, the only update that I've gone back over and read/looked at several times. But there's only so much concept art to show.
Personally some of the things I want to see are ideas on customization for non-traditional body types. Like something beyond the bane of my tabletop existence: FLH's. That being races that are essentially humans with some slightly different features. Elves, orcs, halflings, gnomes, dwarves, all pretty much alterations of the basic human chasis.
I think in one of the two recent interviews Warcabbit mentioned something about trying to size a skirt costume piece for a dog or something of the like. I also recall mentioning of something along the lines of "If we use it in an enemy group, then we'll have a PC version" with regards to snake tails, centaurs, and Amerikatt's much wanted quadrupedal animation rig.
As someone who plays very weird characters, I would rather like to know about plans towards making the "freaks" of the CoT world, as it were. The cyborgs and robots, the demons, the centaurs, the animal-people with digitigrade legs, slithery snake-people without legs, harpies with wings that lack arms, robots and ghosts that are flying/floating torsos, dullahans, brains in jars, empty suits of armor, floating appendages around a torso, and so on and so forth. Stuff above and beyond "You are a two armed, two legged human or humanoid."
I'd also be interested in hearing more about how the villainous side of things is going to work. Because I am one of the few folks who preferred redside. Then again my fondness for redside might have been because it was developed later, and thus was much improved over the Issue 0 layout of the early blueside game. I did play more redside once the Atlas revamp came around.
[color=green]BIZZARO MEDIA FOLLOWER[/color]
[img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42230002/Memes/favicon.ico[/img]
I like the lore, but i definitly want to be surprised in the game. so dont spoiler anything here.
I Liked the system aspects and the charbuilder updates too. especially the long hair. if this moves independently or in a later Update could be the source of some Powers. that would be awesome.
The PvP, while not my Preference at all, sparked the idea on the old subway Zone, that was flooded by the Typhoon, and never went dry again. so its now a giant network of half flooded Tunnels, comlete with secret passages, a haven for Home/lawless, scavenging in the remains and making trheir living there. An old Station could house secret laboratorys, that make live experimens with the people. A good starting point for a street level hero, to help the people.
Also the cabbie update made me think back, to the trains in CoX. I always imagined my Hero in costume sitting/standing pressed in the crowd of commuters, to get to Crime scene. It would make a nice parcour for a PvP race, a speeding train, the hero enters, stands up to give his seat to some elder person. then he sees through the window to the next wagon, a bunch of henchman and their mastermind, taking all the seats for themselfes, scaring the passengers, painting graffity evrywhere and getting from annoying to dangerous when they start to collect extra driving money for security reasons, like getting thrown out of the window. ;)
The zonesof redside were mostly empty in CoX, thats right. but I think the late villain stories were far more intresting then the Hero ones- You practically had to go rogue to get teams wich happened on blueside. and go back to the stories of red.
Lydia Frost MM
Seeing as they have some web guys apparently now volunteering for them, If they are *not* fixed within until after the game launches, expect a LOT of angry forum users...
I am getting 30+ "Server too busy" errors a day from these forums, and I know of a few other users who have stopped even trying to *read* these forums due to the problem that they having just trying to load up a single page.
"Server too busy" gets annoying after a while...
Player build custimation is king in my book. From everything I've seen so far, I think you all are on the right track. COH Stone tanks are the best example I could give you of this. You could make a fast and versitile tank, take epic defenses at the cost some of the most restricting debuffs in the game, or build to suit whatever strategy you want. All the possible mixes of secondary powers, epic powers, and enhancement options to each of those is mind boggling, and what I loved about the game.
Ok, 2 questions: 1) my main concern: http://is.gd/eWXdBz Is this true? Will all the $ be spent before the game's launch? I most certainly hope this is NOT true since I invested!
2) If the games DOES succeed, which I hope it does, will there be a way for players to power level one another?
The world shall bow down to me because I am SOOOOOO cute!
I posted my immediate thoughts on the KS itself but here are a few others:
I'm sure you understand that core design is everything. No point building a sexy-looking new car with and old Chevy under the hood. I don't know about others but I'm here for the long haul so if the core game is solid, I'll be happy with whatever you can launch with as long as its fun. We likely won't get Masters right away...ok I can live with that (barely...LOVED my MMs...). We won't get all the levels and the bling and so forth either but I'm good with that. As long as the story line is good, the game is solid and everything else can be plugged in later without kludging up the game I'm good.
Keep us informed! You've been great with that but keep it up! If you have a vision for something, throw it at us to see if it sticks! As you well know, we'll tell you if we feel otherwise!
Take EVERYTHING in context! Sure, we players groused about a LOT of things in CoH...but why did we grouse is also important. The whole 'Why are we limited to three missions at a time?' argument. 'We want to be able to do more missions at a time. Why? Because we can't finish some of these! Why not? Because they're broken and if we drop them we can't get them back!' and so on. The problem was not really the number of missions at a time, it was limited, gated or otherwise broken missions cluttering up the list. If the missions had worked right the first time, the number of missions on the list would have been less of an issue. Tackle the root cause of the problem, don't just treat the symptoms.
Otherwise...keep right on doing what you're doing. Everything I've seen so far looks great!
I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...
What is the alternative you're suggesting? That they hoard the money and spend only the absolutely minimum necessary to squeeze out some kind of game in a couple of years?
Of course all the money will be spent on the game. I'm certainly not contributing to the effort so that my money can go sit in some bank account. If that were all it was going to do then I could as well leave it in my own account.
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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!
Hey, PhiloticKnight, I remember you from the old forum! Welcome home.
As for those of you concerned about Spoilers, let's just say that from the perspective of a writer, nothing has been spoiled, only teased. From the perspective of an administrator, I can say we are striving to be very careful about that sort of thing.
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IANAL, IMHO, WYSIWYG, YMMV, IIRC, AFAIK, ETC
[color=#ff0000]Composition Assistant Director, Composition Team[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Well, there's only one real thing I want to know about: Hurricane Atlas. You've hinted a bit at it, but I'd like to know a few more specifics, mostly because I'm writing a story about how my character came through it :) (hey, I need something to do for the next two weeks. Sure, that will leave me about 102 to go, but it's something)
That being said, would love as much information as you could give us. This feels, at least to me, more like a singular event of back story that we're supposed to know, and less something that would lore out in game. Like the Rikti invasion in old CoH. You know, the reason the War Walls existed?
Please, tell us more about this force of nature that built our city into what it is today :)
Flash and Substance and I would love to see more about what you have intended for the powers selection.
Well, PvP is going to be the first thing that functions in the game. Before we get a working enemy, we're going to have two players trying to punch each other. (How do you think we pulled off those attack shots?) Making it work at all isn't that hard. Making it work fairly and in a balanced way, that's going to be effort. We want to have PvP. We find PvP to be an additional way to socialize, it's a way to get players together. It can be a lot of fun, especially if you don't take it too seriously.
But it's not going to be the focus of the game in any way, shape, or form.
The thing is, PvP was an add-on to CoH. If we do it as an integrated system in CoT, we will not have the patch job it was in CoH, which means we'll be able to tweak things more gracefully, without affecting the PvE experience. It also means we'll be able to do some weird stuff. It's possible that the 'rules' for an arena fight will be very different from the 'rules' for a PvP phase fight. Arena combat could, say, be speed PVP. Everyone gets their HP reduced to 1/4th! Die fast, and get back in the fight faster! (Your toggles, in that case, would not pop off when you died.), while PvP phase combat might let you ignore the first four shots to protect against gank teams. We'll have to see where the fun lies.
#1: No physical plant, no salaries, no overhead.
#2: We will have enough to make the game. We won't have enough to launch. But we can make money off various sub-releases as we build the game, and we will be able to show, thanks to the number of backers we have, that there's a market for the product. Worst case, we get a small business loan. Best case, we get an angel investor. We're going to show up, some time from now, going 'here's a functioning game. It needs more content, but we can make that with more money. Here's the market, here's number of people specifically dedicated to us. Look what we did already to show there's a market for our product. Give us a loan for a few million for the launch servers and bandwidth and we'll give you a 20% return in two months.' We just make it an investment with as close to no risk as possible, and we'll get the money.
This is a very long and complicated project, but any individual part of it isn't that hard when you look at it. The hardest part is keeping the fun in it.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Sitting in chairs. Oh, yes, we have ideas on how you're going to sit in chairs. Hard part is the knees. Well, technically, the thighs. Mr. 8 foot tall and Mr. 2 foot tall are going to have different clipping issues. But generally, as part of our Socket System, we're working on it. We even have an idea on how you can share a pizza with friends while you're sitting in chairs. Even if we don't put a /pizza emote in the game directly. We are you guys, and, in this case specifically, I'm from Virtue, and I'm part of the old Gemini Park group, the roleplayers and dreamers. Social locations. Poses. Brandishes. Transformations. A small flock of robots performing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Logging. Demorecording. We do have some very solid plans, but they're going to take a while to work out.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Not only that, but also on things you did to them. If you break into the Walruscave, and steal all the clams, the Carpenter will be pretty ticked at you when you run into him later.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Just going to throw this out there. Please don't load in on popular culture references. It doesn't add anything of value and just stands as a reminder of just how dated your work is if it persists for a time.
And that's why we said, 'Pick an update number that resonated with you, and tell us what you thought about it, good or bad.' A more detailed survey will probably be done with a control group, but this is a chance for everyone to talk to us about what we've shown you so far.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
I have loved the updates! Every one of them! More! More! But if I put on my picky-hat...
Number 27: Launch Day - Districts (Part Two) felt underwhelming. It's been a lot of updates so far, and every day is different, so it's hard really compare directly. I'll still pick this one anyway. I want to hear about more districts. I'm still waiting on the perfect turf for my hero.
So. Ironport. Two gangs with horribly generic names have a very interesting car crash - interesting because it hints at the unbelievably committed firefighters. Highpoint. Not really a highpoint, some neon and clockwork, then we're on to Clarkestown. Charleston and Clarkestown, hmm. Clarkestown has an interesting drug problem. Then a mall. With another statue of a phoenix.
If I want a generic district then I've found it. Where is the wall of names (with names of kickstarters)? Where is the park of memorial statues? Is there nothing left of note to put in these districts? Rivers? Hills? Special buildings like schools, libraries, museums, interstate rail hubs, FBI/interpol HQ, blimp dock, stadiums, flea markets, embassies, ley-line nexus, sink-hole, crater, fly-overs, flooding, base/turf of a unique villain or hero group? Of course not all of them. But something more than a hint at architectural style and GDP per capita. Why would my hero or villain ever go there? So much more happens in other districts.
Of course I don't mind if district speculations change later. I just love a good story. I liked the suggestion above to touch on the wider picture, the hurricane, whether other countries even exist, but whatever it is can be distilled into the kind of grabby blurb you got at Mission Architect mission selection - no spoilers, just some really tempting message that makes you want to be there.
[size=14]"The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths." - Pushkin[/size]
[size=14] "One piece of flair is all I need." - Sister Silicon[/size]
My least favourite update was the PvP one,zero interest in this tbh,shouldnt be anywhere near first 3 yrs of the game!!! PvP always wrecks any MMO for the PvE crowd.
PvP players constantly whine about balance or find a "flav of the month" build which then gets nuked with a nerfbomb and the PvE crowd take the big hit.
Seriously...NO PVP!!!! not sure if I made myself clear but I hope you got the jist of it.
Now onto things I loved...the artwork was amazing,top drawer stuff and I would love to see more.
The little thing that piqued my interest though was seeing a plant set amongst the gfx :)
Hence things I want to see = more info on powersets,powers,crowd control,holds or not,slows,def or res or something else.It can all be subject to change...I dont care..I just need some info about the powersets and the planned powers themselves.
You showed in the plant pic something resembling creepers...now if you could just come out and say "we expect to have this power called Deadly Nightshade in the plant set,and then the info on the power tells us about how vines leech down from the ceiling throwing the baddies around and choking them" then you will have one happy bunny on your hands (probbly more than one actually).
To recap..............mwoar power info/no pvp.........you are amazing for even trying something like this and I take my hat off to you all,if I win the lottery tonight then I shall bump the total up to 2 mill ;) -runs off to buy a ticket-
We're getting a lot of feedback on lore, and we're happy to see everyone's reaction to it!
As for content, we still have tons of material that needs to be checked, not to mention we don't want to give away *too* many details at this point ;)
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[color=#00FFBF][i][b]You wear a mask to hide who you are, I wear a mask to show who I am.[/b][/i][/color]
[color=#ff0000]Staff Writer, Composition Team[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
I modified my last paragraph slightly to better indicate what I'm looking for.
If zones can't be made interesting I'd rather you find another topic for the update. Just my opinion of course.
[size=14]"The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths." - Pushkin[/size]
[size=14] "One piece of flair is all I need." - Sister Silicon[/size]
Several things:
1. All of the updates to date have been bang on the money. Look at the positive reactions to all topics; be they in game geography, character alignment, lore, costumes...everyone has gone wild for the info...so basically...keep doing what you're doing. People wants the info and you're providing it. Kudos.
2. Costumes - I think character creator updates get the biggest reaction as after all CC was the big wow factor of CoH; even after 8 years it was still epic. My advice is to keep a healthy number of costume/character creation updates coming our way and we'll be like pigs in poo. :D
3. Powers - As above, we all love to hear about power development. Once we start getting more solid ideas about costumes we start thinking about "can I get the powers I want?" My main character for over 20 years (started in the pre MMORPG PnP era) has been a mutant who uses tech to augment/control his mutation; he's very much an amalgam of Havok and Ironman's abilities. I'd personally like to know if I can have my energy/energy blaster back when CoT goes live. :D A curious thing happened when I got my CoH main up to the lofty heights and chose some of the tech epic powers; I chose the rocket launcher ability and because my main costume was perfect I didn't tweak it; the result was when I fired said rocket my 'gun' which came with the power was invisible and therefore I looked like I fired the rocket from my power armour...kind of. I always wished I could formalise the decision for the rocket to come out of my gauntlet or from a shoulder pod or something. Any chance we could have that? Also, a friend of mine has a tech mage character and was wondering if he could possibly create a mix mash of magic and tech powers? It's early doors but I thought I'd ask these questions as there's a saying where I come from; "shy bairns get nay cake"...I'll leave you guys to try and work that out...hint; look for a Geordie to English translator. ;)
This is a technical issue. Game characters live on a skeleton. Think of it as a stick figure. You can add bulk to the figure, or take it away (Make one of the legs invisible. Boom, one legged man.), but changing the stick figure creates a new skeleton. (Things like wings socket into and attach to the skeleton, but do not change it.) With every new skeleton we make, we have to retest each and every animation we use with it, as well as redesign all of the costume pieces in appropriate ways.
We're currently looking at something that claims to allow quick and easy re-rigging of skeletons, but it's a five grand per seat piece of software, and it's actually for movies - it's what they used to make Life of Pi with. Theoretically, it could work with UDK, but it delivers enough information to melt graphics cards, we need to see how well we can limit it, and how well it integrates.
We want a lot of skeletons, but they have to work perfectly. So we're not making promises until we're sure. Otherwise...
Minecraft. The Creeper exists because it was one of the first attempts to import a human skeleton into Minecraft, and something glitched. It looked interesting enough to keep. If you play Saint's Row 4, you'll run into glitch events, and you'll see people distorted like they were punched through a funhouse mirror. That's what happens when a more complicated skeleton goes wrong.
Here, look at the right side of this picture.
http://i.imgur.com/8TKGq4P.jpg (Actually, I think it's a Black Hole gun, but it looks similar.)
Still, there's some things we'll be able to fake, and other things we'll be able to do. But we don't want to commit till we've got the tools and some testing time. We know what you want, and we want to give it to you, but we're going to make sure it's a quality product before it goes out. We're doing the game right.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Favorite Post: # 5. It shows that when you make mistakes, you do your best to fix them. I notice that the $75 Key to the City is no longer in the list; I presume that it was left clear long enough for you to get it removed finally ^_^
I liked the posts where you describe the City: The Districts, the Cabbie, etc. The article on alignments was nice, also, as were all the costume concept art that was the first Update I got after pledging^_^
What do I want to see? First on the list is more background lore. Not the spoilers KenS complained of, but what everybody knows (or thinks they know ^_^) or can find out with little effort. When did supers first become public? Is there evidence that there may have been supers before that? Are there formerly secret civilizations under the waves of the [insert ocean name] or under the ice of Antarctica? What extraterrestrials are known to have visited, and where did they say they came from? What pagan demigod(s) became a superhero, and do they now have new cults because of this?
Second would be what powers are planned to be available at launch in each classification/specialization. How much mixing of powers will be possible (an Enforcer/Gladiator, for example, with a single ranged attack to use on those cowards who keep running away from him)? What travel powers are planned for launch? etc.
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]
Well, we actually did an interview with the gentleman.
http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/119590/interview-city-of-titans-developer-address-concerns-over-controversial-kickstarter/
But yes, much of the money will be spent before the game launches. It's all right there in the Business section of the Kickstarter front page. Your money is something you're giving to us to develop the game. We should, therefore, spend it in an appropriate manner to develop the game.
We're not going to spend it foolishly, and we're not going to throw it away, but we do intend to make this game.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Of course there's going to be roleplay friendly atmospheres. I'm from Virtue too, remember?
Wings. We want wings. We know how we want to do them, and we know some of the things we'd like to do with them. But they take insane amounts of animation work and effort to do right, and we're going to do them right. Just making sure they don't interfere with any other player animation at all is going to be a real tricky thing, because we really want to avoid clipping issues.
Basically, to get them working early, we need to hire a guy full time for a year. And so, the stretch goal. If I could do them faster or cheaper, I would, but I won't make a lower quality game.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
I'm loving the Avatar Builder updates. I figured it was high time that we had a better Costume Creator that is more flexible than CoH's.
I do have one question about the Builder. While the creation of the costumes will be more flexible, will facial features be just as flexible, or will we get "set" faces?
I'm referring to something like the Sims 2 or 3 flexibility in this aspect.
[img]http://imgur.com/KyvkBai[/img]
I personally am fine with a lot of things.
I just want a finished game. I'm really excited about this. So many people have doubt----that you all are underestimating the scope and scale of the project; that this is a project of "amateurs" and not gaming professionals, and whatever other bull is being said out there. Prove them wrong. Please don't try to cram every single thing into this game at launch. If one person is upset that X isn't making it in, don't spend resources on it trying to please them. We didn't get everything we wanted when CoH launched. It took years. So long as the game is fun, repeatable, diverse, and provides a platform for community and roleplay I would count that as a success. Just make sure the framework is in place to build the more advance features you may think of later. That was one of CoH's biggest hurdles.
I wish you all the best of luck.
W: http://www.behance.net/EdWilliams | T: https://twitter.com/EdwardWilliams_ | F: facebook.com/ArclightComics
I enjoyed pretty much all of the updates. Even the PvP one, something I am not overly interested in was still a good read and gives insight on how you guys are approaching the beast as it were.
What I liked most: Updates #6 #20 #23 #27. I like the bit of city lore we are getting, as well as a general feel of the different parts of Titian City.
What I liked least: Update #21. Though I do want to hear more about the factions in the game (in a non spoiler way), I really felt you guys missed the ball by not knowing about GW2's Aetherblade Pirates. Although I don't think there are any IP issues between you and ArenaNet with the names being different enough and vastly different lore, it has the appearance of it to the general MMO player as you probably saw in the KS comments. GW2 is not some obscure browser-base F2P MMO, it's one of the big ones and somebody should have caught that before it was posted.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
First, it's embarrassing, but I'll still put it on the table: I got pretty emotional when I discovered the City of Titans Project. CoX's absence in my life has been a real void - one only other CoX'ers could really "get" -- so thank you in advance for the passion, vision and just plain hard work you've already done -- and have still in front of you.
There are some really dynamite things detailed above, so I'm just throwing a few more into the mix:
1. I'm relieved to hear you state plainly that not all decisions are going to be "committee" based. Someone needs to steer the ship. We'll all have our personal passions -- and may get a little tunnel vision about them (mine was "unique names" but I get it and I've let that go mostly) -- but ultimately the game can be a lot, a whole lot, but it can't be EVERYTHING we each want. We'll all need to compromise on a point or two. So ringing that bell occasionally and reminding an enthusiastic proletariat that we all want the same thing, but not every single detail will go the way ever single person wants it to, seems wise on a regular basis.
2.The ENHANCEMENT DIVERSITY ROLLOUT FIASCO.
I grew to love Enhancement Diversity. Once we lived with in CoX for only a short while it became plain that it freed us from the tyranny of certain "required" slotting (six slot Stamina, I'm looking at you.) It gave us all much, much more flexibility in developing different aspects of our powers. But even as I played, before ED's rollout happened, I kept thinking to myself, "Wow, this is the most ham-handed, clumsy customer service communication I have ever experienced." Before ED hit, but once we got wind of it, players were seriously anxious and angry. A lot of threatening to quit the game (don't know how many did, actually). The larger strategy behind ED wasn't well explained at all, beyond a muddled "you'll like it" sort of message. Rumors were flying. You all so far have done an outstanding job communicating. For in-game changes once we're up and running please focus as much on the "why" as the what, and I think, given the nature of who's here and what we all hope for in CoT, changes (which will be inevitable) will go pretty smoothly, people-wise. (Tech wise? Whole other animal.)
3. City of Nerfs
That was the running joke, for a couple of years. On the way to trying to "equalize" things it felt like a lot of the abilities which were the most fun got nerfed down to a lot LESS fun. Now, I imagine the reality is that the sweet spot of challenging-but-doable-and-fun vs. not-challenging-enough-and-thus-boring-to-some is a hard spot to hit (though Mission Difficulty Sliders will self-correct some of that, no doubt, in whatever fashion you make 'em.) But please I would rather a power start on the low end and then get a little beefed up than start "too strong" and get scaled back. No matter how much it makes sense when it's done, it just feels like a take-away.
4. I may be alone in this (he said, passively/aggressively inviting others to say "no, me too!") but I would rather play 12 awesome levels several times over, making alts to grow and enjoy rather than have 40 levels which don't perform as well. I don't know exactly what the CoX Devs expected when it came to people being willing to play the same material repeatedly, but myself and many of my friends had a TON of alts, and the fun was as much (more, sometimes?) in the origin, design, naming, development of a toon rather than having to always have a new zone. Sure, eventually we'll need new zones and all (they had a moon base planned at the end of CoX, sob!) but a little of great quality will probably shine and be more enjoyable to most than a lot of lesser quality. Don't be afraid to take the time to grow.
5. All the updates are awesome, and pretty much please just keep 'em coming. The fact that there is genuine passion for what/who/how CoX was in this project makes CoT one of the most exciting game developments EVER, as it is more than just a profit motive driving this thing. It's love. (I know, I know. A little hokey. But I don't care, 'cause it's true.)
Doctor October
I guess I'm more of a "glass half full" guy than I realized.
For now, I find it encouraging that that the interest in this project is outstripping the forum's ability to keep up, from time to time.
As we get closer to launch, though, I too hope things will get smoother.
"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."
A bunch of supers sitting round a table eating pizza together?
Surely that should be shawarma.
Spurn all ye kindle.
While the project updates are interesting, I would like to know more about the time line. In fact trading getting the game out earlier vs with more stuff seems preferable to me. Extremely hard launch dates announced SOON regardless of faults is preferred. That you know of problems is OK rather than months of tuning. Having only one instance to play in and try out the controls etc would be good for you and the backers. This would also minimize mission creep and no reason for wandering off and getting lost in expanding before launch. In other words, I want to play the game not read how great it is going to be….”Any time soon when we release it”.
Lets be unique. Let the contributors have access to anything that is playable long before the whole game is ready. Wire frames to try out movement would be a good teaser. Costume creator sounds like fun. This also wrings out you signup engine. Something the government seems to have screwed up with a lot more money on hand. Is there a good reason to keep those who have already contributed away?
Problem is my imagination of your descriptions of game play and the actual consume set etc will be different than the game. This will be experience by almost everyone except the Devs. Commenting on the real thing seems 7000% better than the speculations I see on the forum.
A series of improvements and bug fixes, especially early on is expected. Just do not destroy characters that people have put time on when release is close. Early adopters/ test people deserve to keep what they have worked on.
Wow, a difficult choice on what updates I enjoyed most, because I found so many of them informative, enjoyable, and thought-provoking. I would have to say that all those Lore, Cityscape, and Powers - related ranked highest on the scale. Even with 2+ years to go before game launch, I'm already imagining concepts for heroes and villains in the game.
But, I'm one of those that doesn't just build a flashy costume and jump into the action. I have to (most of the time) know the character in the costume first: Why are they a hero or villain? What's their story, their motivation? How does it relate to the powers they have or the way they use them? Did their life and background influence them to reach for the powers they wield now? Or were those forced upon them, and changed their lives as a result?
You can't build that sort of thing in a vacuum! So the potential power sets, the lore, the city, all that environment these characters live within sets up the framework for my imagination to build upon. Within that area, I want to see more district info, more lore. I'd also love to see more of the "personalities" and groups info, like the Aether Pirates. Who might I work against/work for as a new Hero or Villain? is there some villainous organization that might have "flushed" a failed super-soldier experiment, who has come back to haunt them? Or some heroic benefactor that tried to save the victim of some street violence, with unanticipated results? Without the framework, who/what do I slot into those positions?
The Update I found least helpful was probably #28 (PVP). It wasn't that I'm not a strong participant of PVP. But overall, I got the impression it was more a Chinese Menu of ideas, but not a whole lot of substance on any one of them. It wasn't a bad update - it certainly provided a lot of fodder for discussion and thoughts about what could come. But it just felt a bit "light" in detail compared with some of the other updates. As I said, I've really enjoyed all the updates so far, so this one was still enjoyed, but less so than others.
As for future updates; I would STRONGLY encourage one Soon(tm) providing more information on the "Leave your mark in the game" type of tiers/perks and Add-ins!
The KS comments thread has been full of questions regarding these since pretty much the beginning. Basically, these involve the "Geocacher" level on up (with special questions for "Dynamic Duo") and for the "It must be a sign" and higher-value Add-Ins. Thing like;
- What is the difference between Mogul, Big Dog, and All Your Base? Big Dog puts you in a social hub with a base door - All Your Base gets you a base door; is the door for "All your base" additional to one in the social hub? Can you influence the design of the "social hub" or do you just get assigned one? Since "Dynamic Duo" is part of the higher tiers, does each account get their own "door" or do they both get to share that of the higher tiers? Etc.
- If I buy a "mogul" add-in and a "Dog", "Keys" "All base" etc. that have ties to structures, do I get to design a separate structure for the Mogal add-in and the Tier/Perk-related stuff?
- What are the limits of Mogu structures? Blimps, Submarines, markets, restaurants, etc? Can I do "Tardis-esque" things (bigger inside than outside: with my concept? For instance, if I want to create a "Street Urchin" character (no relation to "Sewer Urchin", well, maybe a little) who lives in a dumpster behind the fish market. But I don't want my "penthouse" base to actually be restricted to a 5X8 box, what options have I?
- If the "It must be a sign" add-in comes in at $50, but the "iconic" add-in comes in at $150, what exactly is being projected across the city as "my emblem" for the former? And how does that work, exactly? Are we going to be blinded by dozens of "bat signals" like the sky advertisement around around a rock concert? Will everyone see everyone else's signals, or just our own? Can we influence how those signals work (like the Laser version of "the Riddler's question mark in that (horrible) batman movie, vs. the "traditional" shadow-in-a-searchlight version)?
- Once we've chosen one of those pledges or Add-in's, how do we work with the Dev's to bring our ideas to life? Forums, emails, wait til KS and we'll get back with you? Etc? How much flexibility for costume, weapons, etc., might we have? If our concept goes beyond what you figured was reasonable for the funding point, can we chunk a bit more money your way to make it work? Etc.
You can see where I'm going here. As I said before, there are a lot of comments in the chat stream about folks considering "up-ing" pledges or adding in items for these. More info on what you could get/do with them, and how you get it could lead to more pledges and such in these final days. But need to get the answers out ASAP, as our funding period is winding down.
Vrghr
~~~~~
We grow not old so long as we continue to chase our dreams.
Chef of Phoenix Rising
At the "Mogul" level, are skyscrapers the only option?
As an idea... I ran a set of forums off a *cheap* host quite a while back... it rarely if ever had this problems with over 400 users on it at the same time.
What is the problem? Who knows... but this is *not* a new problem... I was having it pre kickstarter, when there were fewer people posting/reading the forums.
I know a few people (EU side that is) that have just given up on checking the forums due to the time out problems. Hell, I am now checking the forums once every few days due to this problem, and posting less than normal. That is how annoying it is for me.
+1.
As I said above, if the dev team desires communication with us, then the number one thing you DON'T want is the medium of the communication to be broken.
We just got some Web staff, and one of our priorities is revamping the forums. It's coming.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
My favorite update was either #29 or #26. I was wondering if the reward "I know a guy" will be updated in the FAQ before the close, because I may want to get it but I only would want to get it if you were able to create the missions, if not the missions themselves, at least what the general strory was. Any info on this would greatly help in the decision. Thank you
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
I really liked # 22 Location, Location since my biggest challenge with CoX was the sameness of the missions maps. I also liked # 13 Serve up the Servers since I like the concept of one Game World so I have the opportunity to interact with anyone playing the game.
But what got me to invest was Quinn's videos # 1 and # 9 someone speaking passionately about this project and the desire for it to be a game for the gamers won me over.
Why not just go to phpbb like everyone else on the web. Rolling your own custom BB is a PITA.
Also when you say you want to avoid wings clipping and allow toons to sit in chairs, do you mean your plan is to do dynamicly rendered toons? I'm no expert but do even modern graphics cards have that sort of processing power?
No, just a little planning. Well. A lot of planning.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
It would be Cool to see actual percentages of things asked in a Survey format.
Take a look at a few free Surver Web Apps, like this one for instance:
http://www.limesurvey.org/en/
It seems to have a few good features.
I just spent 2 minutes in the Survey Demo and got this to show up:
link: http://demo.limesurvey.org/index.php/494451/lang-en
[img]http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9265/p2iu.png[/img]
Seems that it has Percentages as well:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/feVuyeM.png[/img]
Hi Everyone,
I am so pleased with all of the updates on the kickstarter. I do like some more than others. I am a visual person and have loved all of the art sketches of the people and places we're going to inhabit. I also LOVED the flyovers in depth descriptions, great birds eye view detail without giving away any real spoilers. My favorite update so far was #15 Lets Talk Music. The samples gave me chills. I'd love to hear more about the sounds of the game. I think that its the sounds of game that help attach emotional responses as much as the writing does. If the sounds are bad or annoying they'll get turned off and the player will lose a piece of the total immersion pie. I'd be interested in hearing how the sounds and music are created. When a hero or villain stands on the street of City of Titans what will they hear? I recently saw the making of a video for one of my favorite bands and they literally used an electric toothbrush as part of their percussion section because its tone was a perfect buzzing A note. It really combined well with the rest of the sounds they used to make an amazing song. Will you be doing things like that in CoT? (meaning sound effects) I also read that you won't be doing voice overs, which I have to admit disappointed me a bit. I completely understand that from a game building perspective it allows you to be much more flexible but I hope the game isn't going to be all dialogue bubbles? Don't get me wrong I love reading but it slows the momentum of gameplay for me and having a cool voice attached to a favorite signature hero can help build the loyalty of the fanbase love machine. I'm not saying every mission needs voice overs but maybe a sprinkling of the major characters? Voice can reveal a lot about a character. A big huge hulking villain with bright eyes, who giggles like a little girl, reeks of crazy to me. So please add as much sound as you can. It helps to enrich the gameplay environment and strengthen the bond between the real life person and their avatar...cha-ching... in my humble opinion.
Thank you for your time and efforts so far. I am thoroughly impressed with what I've seen up to this point! Keep it coming :)
~Princess Warrior
*hugs
survey monkey is always a quick way to get survey results. I know a lot of people who use it for quick number generation on thesis projects etc.
The updates are being rolled out quickly so Instead of just liking 1 update I get to look forward to the whole week.
Supporting how I can, Starting up a DA group for art, stories, and concepts to be collected
http://city-of-titans.deviantart.com/
Please join up if you plan to make or collect CoT related art.
If they get the chance, can they add a link to the search page http://cityoftitans.com/search to the top of the forums pages?
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]
Best update so far: #17 (Beyond Good and Evil) b/c not only did it tell about a sub-system that I interpret as an upgrade from CoX, it also described yet left to the imagination as well, how it would/could be integrated across the game as well.
Update that made me least happy: None of them. I'm appreciative of any and all information about the game.
What would I like to see more of? Anything relating to game play/sub-systems and NPC factions would make for great updates.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/26pBVBG.png[/img]
([i]Currently developing the Sapphire 7 Initiative[/i])
hm, what stuff I would like to hear more about, and what I liked/disliked in updates. I guess I will frame it in terms of what is important to me and what of that I am worried or not worried about, since that seems like a good way of reaching the answers you seek.
1) Wants of mine that are deal-breakers if missing
Superhero theme... not worried that you will fail there :3
Fun superheroey powers... not worried
Friendly to both casual teaming and soloing... pretty hopeful. Since I didn't go for "not worried", I'll further define what I am talking about here:
A set of incentives (through rewards and mission structure and lfg tools) that make teaming easy and rewarding enough that folks who are not adverse to it will engage in it during leveling, but which don't keep people who -are- adverse to it from levelling (at a rate presumably impacted by how soloing-friendly their build and playstyle is), as well. Basically, if you are "doin' it right", people who even just might want to team will be teaming, and people who don't want to, won't. IOW, make teaming positive to might-wants-to's in ways that don't make soloing negative to don't-want-to's. CoH did that pretty well at that (lfg tools aside), imo... I levelled characters solo or on teams (based on the server or my mood at the time or the nature of the character I was playing) there. It was definitely much better at it than any other MMO I've -personally- tried or tested (the caveat there is that I don't claim extensive MMO experience... I've alpha- and beta-tested a bunch, but only actually played a few)
Since the FAQ had mentioned that you'd be using instanced missions along with some openworld stuff, that leaves me hopeful that you understand (as the Cryptic that worked on Champions Online [which used openworld missions with some instanced stuff] did not) that the CoH approach to that was an overall plus. Its an approach that makes scaling for one-to-something team size (and other parameters, like difficulty sliders) much easier, and it groups the standard ten-or-so MMO quest activities together in a way that gives you more opportunities to manage and share rewards.
I would like updates that can give me a better feel for how you look at missions and instances, from both the context of someone trying to keep a PuG together and happily engaged, and someone happily soloing. When you are designing these things, will you be think about whether something you are contemplating might disrupt the flow enough to break up a PuG? The origin contacts in CoH were a good example of how that could be badly done. Not only did the missions send you across a bunch of zones (if Phillippa loved Kings Row so much, why didn't she move there? :3), but they would have strings of goseeums that weren't even tied to the story arc (go to the corner of Skyway to ask Kong Bao something, go to KR to see the rep contact to find out about that, then back to Skyway to see the Bloody Bay rep) that were fatal to a team's flow, and annoyingly tedious when I was solo. Having the occassional story-related goseeum is fine, especially if they are spaced (and located) so that they are convenient for folks who'd also like to level or buy/sell. Just keep the impact on the flow of the game in mind when making the choice.
On a similar note, I assume there will be ways for the team leader to adjust parameters that will affect the team (difficulty, effective spawn size, etc.). Will they need to go to some hub contact (possibly in another zone ;_;) for that, or can they do it on the fly? That is another one that often impacted my patience when I was solo, and the team's patience, when teamed. I'd prefer no trekking to the reputation/fateweaver. If they are in a mission already, show a note that it would only apply to unspawned parts of the mission unless they reset it. That would avoid that feeling of mission interruptus you get when you travel to some out-of-the-way mish and enter, only to realize you forgot to adjust your settings after some other thing you were doing yesterday. >_>
Anyway, it is -so- easy and -so- tempting for most MMO designers to do a horrible job at these incentives. The fact that y'all were fans of CoH, and the bits of the FAQ and Updates that touched on it, leave me hopeful. I'll be glad to see more updates on that (and the approaches you are considering to the lfg tools).
2) Critical to me, personally, but to no one else
Being able to create a scrawny character with green hair and a large sword (and, if possible, a shield). On the sword, I am not asking for something crazy-large (though I will certainly consider swords up to crazy-large if the range goes up that high :) )... the original scrapper broadsword was fine. I'm not worried that the hair color will be available (how could -not- have green hair. Madness), but could stand to hear more about what already-unlocked weapons would be available at launch.
3) Things I think are important
Power FX customization beyond what CoH eventually offered... very not worried, based on updates (especially the one on Aesthetic Decoupling). That is like crack for us, though, so I expect it to fuel further updates as the game shapes up
Non-symmetrical costume options... ditto
Powersets... not especially worried, since I expect I can work with whatever approach you end up with, provided there is a reasonable degree of balance such that you don't end up with one or two "obviously the best" approaches, and provided there are options that will promote interesting team combinations. CoH did a good job at that for PvE, so I trust vets of that game will appreciate that. Updates will let me verify. :) CoH PvP was mostly a series of "obviously the best" approaches, but that is harder to avoid if your PvP is mostly deathmatch/duels (as opposed to goal-based scenarios), so it may not be fair to judge it in that regard.
The update on power selection looked interesting. Given the sort of make-choices-to-build-it-out approach you are taking in general, seems odd to preserve the notion of distinct defense-based vs damage-based melee characters, but I guess that should be looked at as your way of specifying a primary powerset, so maybe that is inevitable. I hope you will have a melee damage specification for Guardian (I liked playing defenders, like rad and kin, where staying in melee range was a thing). Such a spec might also work for Ranger, if it included some mitigation (like KD or stuns)... if you are going for a gun kata thing, having a mix range and melee martial moves would rock.
BUT ANYWAY... as much as I can blather on about options as much as the next guy, like I said, I expect I can work with whatever you settle on.
I will want to see updates on how respecs (or retcons, or whatever you end up calling them) will work, since it sounds like the ability to do those will be even more important in this game, given the model you are suggesting in the updates, than in CoH. I like to make a new character when I alt, not to replay the same character to make some change in a choice I made along the last journey.
Also, I'd like to know what plans you have to expose info for third-party character planners to use. Some will advocate that you provide a planner, but providing out-of-game web-based or desktop-gui planner software sounds like a pretty divergent skillset than what you will be otherwise doing. I think it makes more sense to provide city-of-data-style info in some standard format (like XML, or some well-defined binary format, whatever) that third-parties can import and use to in their planner software, since making it available in an easily-loadable format like that will encourage innovation. If you want to have a you-provided planner, as well, knock yourself out... just make sure that you make the same info easily available to third-parties as you do to your thing.
Setting... the updates on that leave me hopeful (especially the ones on regional architecture, since I see a lot of that as I wander through Bahston on my way to and from work... different parts of the town certainly have different character). I rolled my eyes at Ironport's "smog-filled skies" (is that a feature of the American Northeast? :/), but having some zones with eternally-gray skies is not a setting deal-killer for me. I would be curious to hear more about your intentions concerning weather but, once again, that is not a setting deal-killer for me.
I would like more updates on how you will use the buildings. There is a lot lof potential there for creating the illusion of change over time. For instance, if there is a company at the "EdenTech BioCampus" that we will eventually discover is a threat, work that journey of discovery using building instances. They would have distinct buildings in the campus, that have various entrances. Prior to going through their revelation arc, we can go into the building instance through the front door and have access to some parts of the building. The building will have art resources in keeping with what you'd expect for a building in that part of town. Maybe we'll have missions there or contacts to see about something. If we engage in the story arc, the effect of entering the building instance will change... we can get access to additional parts and have different missions. There may come a point where we are attacked on sight if we enter. As we learn more about them, it may make more sense to enter the building in other ways, which would give us easier access to other parts of the building where some nefarious activity is afoot. If we bust something up, it should be busted (or in the process of cleanup or replacement) if a subsequent instanced mission takes us back to that part of the building. After the end of the arc, if we entered the building we'd see forensic teams going through whatever we'd left in place. That state may unlock additional missions and contacts. Anyway, the idea is to have a building we can get to know and with which we can become familiar, and to use instances to foster the illusion that we are changing the gameworld with our character's actions.
I liked the implications of the update that talked about mulitple ways you might be able to enter and proceed through even a procedural instance. Good stuff.
Story arcs... the update on Paths left me trying not to squee... it would 100% positively had made me squee if this wasn't pre-pre-Alpha. It's an approach that I have been fruitlessly advocating during game testing, for years, so to see that it is already part of your intention makes me want to hug this nonexistant game. If you pull this off, we are besties forevah.
It is also useful for zones that have an overarching storyline of their own. Different alts will be able to take different Paths through the zone's overall story, with the different paths intersecting at points, or being referred to by contacts for other paths. The coolest thing, from a resources point, is that you can launch the zone with a set of Paths, and then add others over time, all while making fresh use of the zone and its already-developed art resources. It would have been a lot harder to get tired of zones like Striga, Croatoa, or the Hollows if you weren't just taking one path through the zone story every time.
A multiaxis alignment system that flows from choices you are already making in the game sounds good. I'd like to hear more on that as it develops, and more about the nature of the consequences of proceeding down various paths. Will there be other kinds of reputation you might develop, maybe tied to individual groups or contacts (such as a way to develop your connection to the contacts over the course of the entire leveling process, such that it could open up opportunities for additional missions from them, etc. Those are things I'd be interested in hearing more about.
Bases... I had a lot of fun working on these in CoH, so further updates on that will be of interest to me. I hope there will a finer granularity in the room tilesets than what CoH had, since things got kind of big-blocky at times. I also hope there will be platforms people can suspend so we don't have to spend crazy amounts of time suspending desks again. :3 I liked what I saw in the update so far, so I probably will like what you end up with.
Supergroups... more updates on the nature of these would be cool. The notion of someone's custom base items going if they left the SG was interesting (and the ghostly placeholders seemed like a way that might make correcting a temporary leave could be made easier). If you end up having something like the CoH "reputation" pool, that SG members contributed to, I think you should do something similar. IOW, rep earned while in an SG would have some split (70/30, 60/40, whatever) where some would follow the character if they left, and the other would stick with the SG.
In CoH I had a mix of personal bases and membership in larger SGs. The personal bases gave me more storage and a place where I could be free to design spaces that were interesting to me. It was both useful and fun to have those bases, but it was inconvenient having to keep those characters separate from those larger SGs (especially since I often ran them with the folks in the larger SG, anyway). It seems like there should be a better way to meet those desires (maybe the ability to be in more than one SG, or changing how coalitions work, or having access to more extensive personal storage options that you could access from the larger SG), so I'll be curious to hear what you guys have in mind.
Server architecture... single server, with multiple openworld instances (some with themes, like PvP or RP), is probably the best approach. It adds complexity to keeping a team together and in the same instance, though. That seems like a solvable problem, so I'd like to hear more about how you will manage that (and broadcast and such) as your plans firm up. Also, more updates on the architecture itself would be interesting, but that may just be because of that sort of thing being in line with what I do for a living. One thing I would love to see would be support for rolling maintenance rather than taking everything down, but whatevs. It didn't bother me too much in CoH... but it sometimes did. >_>
Tutorial and help... you mentioned the [probably skippable] tutorial. Tutorials are ubiquitous, but they have always struck me as kind of a poor model. Usually people are raring to get out of them nd into the game proper, so their value as a teaching tool is limited for those folks. There always ends up being a weird compromise between providing info without providing so much that it is overload, and providing info that people don't know that they care about yet (they won't know they care until they get more context and experience in the game).
For the rerord [that no one is maintaining :)], I think having a [probably skippable] tutorial is a good idea, especially if it gives an introduction to the setting, how powers are used and how they are develoiped over time, and if it helps people who are nervous about the game get comfortable in there before having to join the rest. I just don't think that is the be-all and end-off of teaching about the game.
Another aspect is tutorial-oriented resources on the web. There will be fan-produced wikis with awesome detail about the game, but I am talking more about an official tutorial on the web, that introduces the game and covers the same topics that an ingame tutorial would usually cover. That is a pretty low-cost item that could help not only the folks who are more comfortable learning the info in that way, but also as a resource that might lead to someone signing up for the game in the first place.
Also, I think it would be worth considering how people could get information in-game, about some aspect of the game that they glossed over when they were rushing through the tut. Like maybe having a key they could hold down that would let them mouse over stuff on the screen that would have info popups describing it.
Global: @Second Chances
SG: Fusion Force
"And it's not what I wanted
Oh no, it's not what I planned
See it's not where I thought I'd be
It's just where I am"
For reference: CoH (day after... damn you EB Games) launch player, who played for something like 7 years continuously. Leader of a medium-sized, dedicated, but not fanatical SG/VG (Earthbound Souls/ORACLE: The People Company), whose core group is still in touch and playing games together to this day. And yes, I'm a KS backer.
Flash & Substance was probably my favorite update.
Generally I prefer updates that explain systems you plan on including in the game. Lore updates I can do without, at least until we get within a few months of launch.
What I want to see (more of): Updates concerning teaming mechanics. The two main reasons why we all stuck with CoH so long was 1) The character creator and myriad powerset combos and 2) The sidekick teaming mechanic. As we had some players whose schedules allowed for much more frequent play than others, it was nice to never have to worry about some outleveling others and not being able to play together. Ease of travel (esp Teleport Teammate/Assemble the Team & base teleporters) made it easy to get groups together quickly and maximise playing time.
Quite frankly, if there is no sidekick (or super-sidekick) mechanic, I can say without a double that the game will not hold the attenting of my group for very long (as seen in other MMOs).
Ditto. So far this has me more interested in the game than the other updates. Not that I'm not excited by them, it's just that I'm all about the story of my character and how his story affects everyone else. PC and NPC alike. How much influence will PC stories actually have on the game? Will we see the City and NPCs evolve because of our actions?
Lore is fascinating, but i would prefer it in a wiki-like format to be consulted when and if the information is desired.
On a more technical note, one thing i didn"t like in CoH was its silence. Besides very few instances, the game was voiceless. That could have been good back when the game was originally designed, but today the lack of voices would sorely be missed.
I also think that it would be nice to allow players to record one or more battle cries/signature quotes to be played back during game play (ex when attacking a large mob or when defeating a boss).
I enjoy all the updates.
Lore wise I don't want to know to much. Just a general idea of Zones and what types of foes are there. Basic idea of what the foes and heroes are. Keep the gems for the game itself. A general idea of the scene what I enjoy. Enough for the RPers to RP on the forums!
-------------------------------------------
Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
I would like to know which of the things that COH did right you plan to keep: exemplaring, a largely level-independent reward system, that sort of thing.
I would also like to know what you plan to do in the way of equipment. Will you take an enhancement-type approach, or something different?
I would like to have lots and lots of civilian clothes options. One of the things that made me sad in CoH was there were NPCs with loud Hawaiian shirts and I never had access to them! :'-(
Other than that? Heck, there's going to be so much packed in the game, I'm sure I'm going to love it! :-)
With every update, more and more proud to be a Backer. Been following this since before you moved to these forums and look forward to active, specific forums about the game.
I would like to echo Garos' comments, I'm curious about what game mechanics (the larger, encompassing mechanics) would be carried forward. Would like to see continued discussions on things like side-kicking/exemplaring, LFG mechanics (have yet to see a better system than CoX), market and crafting, making SGs more effective in supporting a community feel, and end-game. I think these sorts of directions say a lot about a game and what kind of player(s) it will attract. I'm ready for another superhero MMO (a real MMO).
"it's a long road to wisdom, but it's a short one to being ignored." The Lumineers
Me too!
As I recall, Statesman said that they were shocked and flabbergasted that alting was so incredibly popular. I know I had a few dozen alts across multiple servers.
WRT forums...
A very major update is coming. Major. So major you'll have to salute it.
Former Online Community Manager & Forum Moderator
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
My least favorite update had to be # 10. When I saw "The Victor" the first thought that crossed my mind was: oh, God.
I was looking for characters in the vein of Young Justice, Justice League Unlimited, even the last Avengers animated series. To me the Victor seemed more like a character who would be on the Superhero Squad Show. I did like the other character designs in the update, and I think the city designs are awesome. I look forward to seeing the Phoenix statue rendered in-game.
What I'd like to see: I like the idea of personal bases. I belonged to several supergroups, and I also created my own personal supergroup -- after the leader of an SG I belonged got rid of the enhancement tables, then upped the base permissions to SG Leader only, essentially locking everyone out of salvage storage and inspiration collectors.
I enjoyed seeing how my personal sg base slowly grew from one room to twelve rooms before CoH shutdown, but I always wished that my alts that belonged to other SGs could also access my personal base. It was a hassle to have to email salvage, insps or IOs to the different alts that needed them. Once, I mistakenly emailed a purple IO to someone else. It would be nice to have a personal base that was linked to the account that all alts on the account could access. Besides, Batman and Superman belong to the Justice League (and access to the Watchtower), but Batman still has the Batcave and Superman the Fortress of Solitude.
I would also like to see epic archetypes; maybe they could be angels who inhabit the bodies of willing humans. They could be the Ascendant, the bearers of light, and the Fallen, who are trying to redeem themselves.
But, above everything else, what I absolutely want to see is a game that is truly the spiritual successor to CoH. For me, the game doesn't have to have all the bells and whistles in place at the outset. I loved playing City of Heroes. On one level it was a game that was very easy to jump into and play casually. And on another level it could be deeply engrossing: using Mids to make that perfect build; base building, et al. And before the shutdown the content for level 50 alts was really amazing.
Almost a year after the shutdown, I have not yet deleted City of Heroes from my computer. Whenever an idea for a new alt pops into my head, I use Icon to visualize this new character and Mids to build it. I really liked playing City of Heroes.
But, as amazing and fun as City of Heroes was, it was not this on the first day that I played it. For me, it grew into greatness. And I am willing to invest time and money for City of Titans to start small and then to grow into greatness.
[img]http://www.philotix.net/forum/images/smilies/unleashed-smilies/024-yaaah.gif[/img]
As requested on the Kickstarter update, I've registered an account to provide feedback here.
The majority of my feelings on what we've seen so far are overwhelmingly positive. The class design, story design, lore snippets, villains, locales, and doubly, triply so, the art direction, are incredible. Seriously, I'm not just blowing hot air, almost everything about this game's foundations is fantastic.
There is one cripplingly major drawback to all of that, in my eyes, however. Masterminds, or, "Masters," now.
Yes, I know it's a lot of work. Yes, I know they're complex mechanics. Yes, I know you say you plan to get to it, "eventually," but that's not good enough for me. I'm sorry for being blunt, but that's the honest truth, and this early in the project's development, honest truth is what you need. City of Titans is supposed to be a home for the homeless, a refuge for people who lost Paragon City and need a new world to spread their wings and fly in again. This is a beautiful idea, but your current design is throwing out a huge chunk of the playerbase.
[url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-28-three-ncsoft-mmo-anniversaries-today]Masterminds were the 4th most popular Archetype in City of Heroes[/url], and by far the most unique. Fictionally, they are a core staple of the Supervillain character type, and due to their completely individual identity mechanically, they are the CoH Archetype most impossible to recreate in other games, yours included from what we've seen so far, in even a semi-faithful way. Sure, if we don't get wings at launch, some people's flying characters may suffer for a while until they get in, but a costume change will fix that right up, and if we don't get the second set of secondaries, sure, some Fire throwing characters may not be just perfectly cut out for a Support secondary, but cheer up, you can still throw fire. That's sad, but hey, at least you've got your character. There's no 'second choice' for me and my main, though. There's no Robot Army Lite. I can't have my character [b]at all[/b] without this Archetype, and that, frankly, sucks.
So, what am I supposed to do? Cross my fingers and hope it doesn't take [i]too many years[/i] into the shelf life of the game? I think you can do better than that, and I'm sure there are more Mastermind mains out there who feel the same way. I doubt I'll be popular for criticizing your priorities, and I'm sure I'm going to be even less popular for saying this, but the lack of Masters in the launch plan and placement of their stretch goal unreachably deep in the funding plan was the difference between me pledging $1,000 for All Your Base + Mogul to give my CoH main a legendary new home and waiting with baited breath for any scrap of information you release, and my current pledge of $125 for Dynamic Duo so that my wife and I can take a peak at the game as it comes along and see if it holds enough merit to wait for the long haul.
You said before that you want City of Titans to be that home away from home, that refuge. You said you didn't want to leave anyone behind when you made the Mac OS stretch goal one of the first. So, Missing Worlds Media, I say this to you: [i]put [b]my[/b] money where [b]your[/b] mouth is.[/i] Give me my home away from home. Give me my Masterminds... no, give me my [i]characters[/i], my pride and joy, my love and blood and sweat and tears, back, and I'll be your loyal customer until you close the doors. Or don't, and I'll watch what happens and we'll see if you can hold my attention for long enough to get there before EverQuest Next, or Pathfinder Online, or the dozen other shiny new AAA titles in the MMO space that are slated for the next two years. I hope you can, I sincerely do, but I won't hold my breath.
I am a Mastermind player. I don't say 'was' because to this day, nearly anything else I play ends up having flavors of that, in so far as a given game supports it. None of them come close, yet I still find myself doing it. My second character ever, somewhere between a couple of days and a week after the first, was a Brauts/Tarps, and once I hit level ten or so it was clear to me that I was going to be using it as my main. I played her up to 50, then kept playing her when all I had to do was dork around and run old time-travel missions. For a couple of years. I got all of my AE badges on her, all of my *anything* badges on her for that matter. When GR hit, she shifted one step toward blue, entirely because she found true villainy pretty much stupid and pointless -- and I saw more of blue side with her than I ever did with any of my heroes.
Damn do I miss the pyrotechnic light show that was a 32 B/* running solo, much less the sheer ridiculousness of the times when we got mayhem missions and ran them with 5+ MMs (not 8 mostly because none of us would have been able to move with all the pets in the way, 5 was hard enough). We walked down the street and things just... blew up. Opponents showed up, and promptly fell down, sometimes before we had really noticed they were there. It was absolutely silly, and absolutely one of the most entertaining missions I ever got to run.
I'm also one of the people responsible, in part, for figuring out how to implement Masters, and one of the people who had a voice in the decision on where to put them in the stretch goals list.
So to be equally blunt, if I thought there was even a slim chance in hell that we would be able to make a game where Masters were playable at anything less, I would have fought -- would *be* fighting -- tooth and nail and hoof and horn to get them out there on launch day.
I don't.
In fact, the original stretch goal for them was significantly *higher*, before we figured out a couple of tricks just before the KS that let us feel comfortable moving them down the ladder.
Masters are, in several different ways, more or less a super-set of nearly everything else in the game. If any 'normal' class can do it, it is nearly guaranteed to show up in *some* subset of Master pets. Ranged DPS? Check. In fact, pretty much every single *type* of it, from single target to mass AoE. Melee DPS? Check. Support? Check. Defense? Check, though somewhat less focal for the most part. Control? For several forms, actually, yes: check. So every single balancing issue shows up, plus a whole *host* of ones that don't do so in most other forms, because most teams don't have the ability to stack up to *48* of an ability going off at the same time -- and the right Master mix certainly could, if the system allowed for it. 56 if the players themselves also have it. Yet by the same token, if you take a simplistic approach to preventing that, you're almost guaranteed to end up making a solo Master unplayable, especially in the lower levels.
And that's before even opening the can of worms that is "pet AI". Civilian NPC AI is relatively straightforward, and as a rule, even if it is a bit screwy folks will generally just write it off as "wacky NPCs doing silly things" and be amused by it, or roll their eyes. Combat NPC AI is significantly harder, for both the obvious reasons and some not-so-obvious ones, but if they act dumb the players generally accept it as an advantage -- or you hear about it *real* fast, if it is dumb in a way that is bad for the PCs facing them.
But pet AI not only has to *not* be dumb about combat, or it will just cheese off the players -- it *also* has to be able to interact intelligently with arbitrary commands from a player in real time. Commands that are generally much more flexible (and often hard to obey) that anything the NPC logic is normally subjected to. It has to be capable of path-finding through arbitrary maps in the game *without* any path 'hinting', able to follow a target that it cannot even see around corners (because it may be on follow mode with a teleporting player), able to utilize travel powers that few if any other NPCs would have in order to keep up or able to self-reposition in ways that don't leave the player vulnerable if they outrun it (since no other class can 'outrun' most of their abilities), to at least semi-intelligently manage its own health and energy pools, and dance a jig. And the server has to be able to deal with almost 50 of those without melting down -- assuming that we only had instanced maps. A four-team map like the later maps in CoX? That's up to 200 of them. Yeah, it wouldn't happen very often, but the systems needs to at least not just fall over and flat-out die if it does happen. Because someday it will.
One other thing I'll point out, in closing: after the very low-end platform stuff (which the engine already supports and does not require a tremendous amount of new development resources, needing more in the way of QA and possibly small tweaks), most of the other stretch goals are things like costume pieces, travel powers, or zones open at launch. Things that are handled by not-primarily-technical teams and which can, for the most part, be scaled up (at least within the range involved) by simply throwing more resources at them, either for tools to improve speed or to buy pre-made assets or a handful of other approaches.
This isn't accidental. Software development is fairly notorious for *not* scaling well by simply throwing more money at it in a lot of cases. Most of the stuff involved isn't something you can hire out to the shallow end of the pool, because a lot of that work has already been done by Epic (over a number of years) -- which is why we're licensing the engine. A large number of places have claimed that we don't understand what we're getting into or are simply amateurs. Whether you think they're right or not, consider that the place this is all coming from, which *did* have a full development budget and hired folks who already had exactly that sort of experience... did not launch with an equivalent.
I would love to be able to say that we could do it. Among other things, it would resolve a handful of thorny issues that arise out of the fact of *not* being able to offer a significant group of folks their preferred type at launch. And I'd get to play my favorite style on launch day. And if by some miracle it becomes possible even if the stretch goal isn't hit... then it will be there on launch day, and the world will be a better place, for I will have my woolly minions once more.
But plain and simple: where it is is where we believe we can, with honesty, make a commitment to actually being able to have it in place by that point. We could push them to the front of the line, but all that would happen would be that we *still* wouldn't have them ready to go at launch, and we'd also *not* have any of the rest ready to go either.
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[color=#ff0000]Developer Emeritus[/color]
and multipurpose sheep
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Most interesting have been the way you plan to get the super into your game: powers design, costume design, alignment and branching stories. Super MMOs to date don't FEEL like the comics (or cartoons or movies or your radioactive poison of choice). I have high hopes for City of Titans capturing the SUPER element.
Do you think MM players are the only one? As it stands now I can't re-create my main at launch, and he's a blaster, you know the number 1 archetype? Yeah, I could roll him as a Partisan, but that wouldn't fit him at all having a support secondary. I would consider a gunner, but that's not scheduled for launch either. So you know what I'm going to do? Roll some alts until I can make my mains.
Oh, and by the way, my main villain was a MM too.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
I agree with KenS. The lore updates I dont' really care for. I enjoyed figuring those out during the story arcs in game. I do enjoy some of the idea updates. My main fear is that the gameplay will be too improved, and won't resemble the old CoX. I played it because of some of it's simplistic features, especially the part where I could superspeed through missions and go straight to the boss/objective, giving me 20 valuable minutes of playtime in between being a husband and father of 3. I hope that type of gameplay doesn't go away.
He be like "shut the $%^& up." I be quiet. But when he leave, I be talking again.
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