The short, short version: Proper implementation of true vehicles could be problematic for a variety of reasons. Some types of vehicles could be re-skinned travel powers, but I wouldn't expect there to be proper vehicles in the game at launch.

Interdictor wrote:

The short, short version: Proper implementation of true vehicles could be problematic for a variety of reasons. Some types of vehicles could be re-skinned travel powers, but I wouldn't expect there to be proper vehicles in the game at launch.

We know from CoH that they were able to "reskin" several basic travel powers. Things like the Rocket Board, Flying Carpet and Coyote powers were all just [url=http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Purchasable_Travel_Powers]variations of standard Fly/Run poses[/url].

So while we might not get for instance a physical motorcycle that would exist as a separate standalone object in the game world we may still get a version of Super Speed that has you "emoting" the motions of getting on a motorcycle and riding around. The downside is that this type of motorcycle would just "magically" appear and disappear from thin air but that would be better than nothing. A magical Harley might be hard to accept that way (suspension of disbelief wise) but that kind of thing might actually look cool in some situations like with the Tron-style lightbikes...

[youtube]kn4SUk6p1fg[/youtube]

Grimfox wrote:

Magical Harleys that appear from nothing came from Pocket Space. It's a non-dimensional storage space that allows a vast array of things to be stored and retrieved at will, by will. Quite handy really.

Sure I'm not saying you couldn't rationalize a concept reason why you might own a "Magical Harley" that could appear out of thin air. I was just implying that some players might be able to "accept" that presentation better than others given their character concepts or inclination to roleplay. Either way having something like a Pocket Space Harley would be better than no motorcycles at all.

Grimfox wrote:

I think it would be nice if they did include some mass transit options that were a little more involved than click the tram and teleport to the new zone. When Huxley was in beta 2 they had a world zone where you could hop a tram and then look out the window and at the other passengers while it shuffled you across the zone. It was really neat, the first few times, but I could see that getting old after awhile. It'd be nice if you could get a temp power that would spawn a taxi, you'd e-mote getting inside and then port to your destination where things would play in reverse. This would be especially interesting to spawn a taxi at the top of a tall tower and then arrive in that same taxi at a little island off the coast. Sure it might break immersion, but seeing a group of pandas pile out of a armored car in Kingsrow wasn't exactly immersive but was quite entertaining.

Yeah I think there are a number of emote/pose "tricks" that could be done to simulate having access to vehicles even if we can't own a permanent physical object shaped like a vehicle in the game.

blacke4dawn wrote:

Even though it would be cool to have an actual object as a vehicle the main problem I see is parking space.

Do you despawn them when the character logs out?
How do you handle it when a player changes instance in the open world?
Would you allow several vehicles to be "parked" in the same space?

Another point to consider is getting back to it. Street sweeping might not be a big problem but what do one do when a mission exits you in completely different area than where you entered.

I have to agree that pocket-space-vehicles are better than nothing, especially when you consider that they can be implemented as just an animation choice for some travel powers.

The "parking space" dilemma would merely be the tip of the iceberg of the nightmare related to implementing "real" vehicles in a game like this.

If vehicles were going to be allowed to be physical objects that characters could own/use in CoT you'd have to start by considering whether they could be used in combat or not. Would they have hit points? Could they have extra weapons/defenses mounted on them? Would they have to be factored in when considering overall combat balancing? Also what technically happens to your character when in/on a vehicle? Would the character be able to use their powers independently while in/on the vehicle or would the character sort of "become" the vehicle in terms of how the thing is controlled? Then you'd have to figure out if multiple people could ride with the driver and if they could do things independently. Then you could get into the whole can of worms concerning vehicle customization - would the Devs have to create thousands of "costume item" like parts for all sorts of cars, planes, boats, etc.? The list of complications seem endless...

So while having physical object vehicles might be a gaming Holy Grail someday I really think it would open up a Pandora's box of epic chaos software development wise. The only real downside with "pocket space" vehicles is that you have to either rationalize or ignore the fact that the vehicles aren't technically "real". But if you can get past and/or over that issue then having them work that way might be a million times easier than trying to have them be permanent real objects in the game world.

City of Heroes/Titans is not the place to play Car Wars. For that, you need another NCSoft victim, Auto Assault.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Grimfox wrote:

They use 'real' cars in APB:reloaded. But the game was built around the idea of vehicle combat and everything that entails. It can be done. But if it's being done it's something that has to be a core component and not just an added feature. Further more their system has some important caveats. The driving controls are a little rough because the server couldn't handle the fine precision required to make the controls smoother and none of the vehicles fly (by design). Most of the maps are also relatively small, with a usable area equivalent to the primary island of Peregrine Island in COH. It would be really neat to mod the APB engine to have super powers, that could make for a very interesting and distinctive game.

I never meant to imply that having "real" vehicles in a computer game was impossible - clearly other games have already tackled that challenge fairly well. But as you point out in order for the whole vehicle thing to be done effectively it really needs to be a core priority for a given game. That's especially true for a "superhero" game where you could realistically justify having nearly any kind of land, air, sea, space, inter-dimensional, etc. type of vehicle you could imagine.

My take on it for CoT is that it would be a virtual "[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bridge_Too_Far_%28book%29]bridge too far[/url]" in terms of representing too much time/effort to get it working properly, especially for launch day. It's frankly going to be hard enough for MWM to get a functional baseline game going WITHOUT the extra complication of adding an entire vehicle sub-system to the mix. The compromise of having "pocket space" vehicles would be (as I stated before) many, many times easier to accomplish and provide nearly all the "bang for the buck" that would make having vehicles in this game cool to begin with.

Foradain wrote:

Lothic wrote:
My take on it for CoT is that it would be a virtual bridge too far in terms of representing too much time/effort to get it working properly, especially for launch day. It's frankly going to be hard enough for MWM to get a functional baseline game going WITHOUT the extra complication of adding an entire vehicle sub-system to the mix. The compromise of having "pocket space" vehicles would be (as I stated before) many, many times easier to accomplish and provide nearly all the "bang for the buck" that would make having vehicles in this game cool to begin with.
Agreed. But I think an Autoduel Champions MMORPG should go on our "wish list of future MWM projects".

Agreed on both counts.

I need a transformable motorcycle! Transforms from a motorcycle to battle armor!