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City of Villains: Interview with Serdar Copur
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
In this fourth installment in WarCry's "Ask a Dev" interview series; Cryptic Studios Producer Serdar Copur answers questions from the community on City of Heroes and City of Villains.
arthurh3535: What is the hardest 'programming' thing that you want to eventually add to the game?
Serdar Copur: Blue-sky questions are so much fun. The most difficult thing to develop that I would like to add to our game is a completely new database architecture which allows every single player who plays CoH & CoV to be able to play on the same game server. This means no more server selection screens, no more re-rolling because your real life friends are not on the same server as you, and no more trouble finding a group at 3:00 AM because everyone else is sleeping. It's not an impossible endeavor but my programming team assures me that there is nothing more time consuming and complicated that we could develop for our game at this point. I guess we can always dream.
Read the entire interview here.
Comments
Thanks for the good link.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
Very disappointing. No new power sets or epic ATs in Issue 10 either. With new issues coming out only a couple of times a year or so, this just isn't looking good to me. I doubt I'll be returning to the Co* universe.
The game has been slowing degrading with the Devs lack of desire to provide the game with anything of lasting quality. Issue 9 looks to re-invent CoX for all intensive purposes but I strongly have doubts about adding an economy to a game 3 years old where so many "old timers" have more cash than what can be earned today.
The one point that scares me out of the Warcry interview though is the fact that the first statement mentioned server consolidation. It was followed up by saying it looked to be very hard to do but it wasn't impossible. I am wondering if word from NCSoft has been given to reduce the number of servers in the next few months which would signal the end of major support for this game.
Oh well...there is still issue 9.
The new Hamidon raid seems to be an attempt to fix the griefing problems of that encounter and to streamline it against farming for the precious enhancements. The Statesman TF sounds good but in the end...it will become as stale as the LRSF in a month or so after daily runs.
Issue 10 - meh...I belive issues 10 is actually going to be smaller than what people are expecting with the bulk of that issue getting pushed into issue 11.
Shame...it was and still is a very cool game. All good things but end.
yeah thats the rut these current gen MMO games are in people get bored after they hit the level cap would be nice if they get rid of all this class based nonsense and let us pick the skills we really want. would be fun to build an energy melee/regen villain/hero
Back on topic there is no new powersets on the horizon dont they care they've lost 20,000 subscriptions since Q2 report? I wish they would merge these servers are do something cause all these little updates aren't anything major
I don't think skills systems are much better. But that is just an opinion based on 31+ years of playing RPGs. You spend X time advancing the character either way. Worse, skills system juggle the skills (ie you are free to respec anyway at any time) or they make the skill points signifcantly harder to get the higher you go or you cap the skills. again, boils down to boring in the end.
But some people want it really because they want to be the UBER character. You know, the guy who is a better tank than a class based tank and who cast spells better than a class based mage and a healer better than a class based healer. Pretty much a 13 year olds wet dream character or for those who can't/won't accomplish anything IRL. You end up with even more FTOM and even worse gimping. And to that, the uber character is extra boring.
In CoX beta you could pick all your skills but before release they got greedy and went with classes. This way people will keep rerolling and making new toons. A top of that respecs are limited.
Guild Wars outsells CoX bigtime and its skill based. You can create a max level toon and just earn skills and build your own class. I think thats a lot more flexible and a strong reason why GW is #1 ranked on this site and its not even an MMO (its CORPG)
Server consolidation? Where the hell did you get that from? One dev's desire to see all players playing on a single server (like EVE, for instance)? Wow, talk about DOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!1!1!!11one! Nowhere in the article do they talk about a server consolidation; likewise, your comment of NCSoft reducing support for CoX is baseless. The interviewee specifically mentions his gratitude for NCSoft being so generous and supportive. Read the article again.
Issue 10 sounds like they're finally going to be giving some love to some particular level range (25-35? not sure) that has long been ignored. And yes, the Statesman TF will become "stale" if you do it every freakin' day. For crissakes, get out there and PLAY the game! If all you do is grind, then yes, you're going to get bored. Find another way to play, or go play a game that encourages grinding. (And no, I'm not saying CoX doesn't have a grind. It does. But hey, I'm 4 days away from my 33-month vet reward and my highest level character is only lvl 43. There's far more to CoX than the grind.)
And by the way, it's "all good things MUST end". Just sayin'.
Spell check isn't my forte but oh well here goes.
1. When you take 15 servers and you have a Dev say that they would like everyone to play on 1 server...that is a net loss of 14 servers. Math isn't my strong suit first thing in the morning but hey...last I knew that was substraction. Some would even call that...consolidation.
2. Issue 10 is going to cater to what level? 35-45? Why? Ok...you are on the eve of having 33 months. Grats on that. I had mine a few months back so I can tell you about all there is to know about that game. Having played since Issue 1, I can recall on many occasions that the bulk of the players asked, pleaded, and begged Jack Emerett who was lead designer at the time to raise the level cap in Issue 3....issue 4....issue 5. Still 50 last time I logged in.
3. Issue 10 is still at least 4 months away...let us focus on Issue 9 shall we? First off, I know on my main I had in the rough neighborhood of 80-85 million influence just collecting. For some odd reason I was making some attempt to the last 2 influence badges. I am one player with that kind of fat cash. Imagine what the market is going to be like when Issue 9 goes live and people can exploit the market by sheer means of 3 years worth of influence gain. For that matter, look at the stark contrast of CoV by itself having only been going for a strong year and a half...the infamy gain was never great there simply due to the borked prestige system. So essentially, we have 3 different economy systems...Prestige, Influence, and Infamy that must all now be catered to. But the need to grind is going to be firmly in place and an unstable economy is going to dictate a game where it was never needed.
4. Loss of sub numbers. Haven't seen Q1 2007 numbers yet...but I am sure they don't show a growth. I hope I am wrong on that assumption but the trend over the last 9 months would support my theory that CoX has probably lost more subs.
5. I commend you for enjoying the game. Honestly, I did enjoy it. I spent close to 3 years dedicating myself to it and doing everything there was to do. I can honestly say that I have done everything currently in CoX that there was to do without question including leading hami raids.
6. As far as NCSoft supporting CoX. I am sure they are. Technically speaking of course cause I am sure that you can atest to the lack of customer support in recent months. File an in-game petition because something is missing or spawned in a wall. That supportive NCSoft really gets back to you fast...usually with a nice email saying that the game is working as intended. But, yes they are still supporting the game...for now. Look back at what issue 8 was. It was more of a patch than a true issue. Matt Miller even said they would have done more had they had time / money / resources. I don't think by a lack of recent improvements...inventions excluded, that there has been a great deal of financial support on the level as what has been done in the past.
My opinions are my own. I am sorry to see the game in it's current state and I grieve for what the game is about to become. This isn't the CoX I started playing 3 years ago.
The most recent figures show it is now down to 125,000 after 3 quite rapid drops. The maximium number of users online was also fairly static staying within the 20,000 to 23,500 range from March 05 through to September 06. Last figures I have available from that are January 06 and are down to 17,000.
Both those sets of figures show a fairly stable income that has seen almost no fluctuation over almost the entire life cycle of the game(the first few months of it's release are a bit sporadic), suddenly taking a huge downturn.
Losing almost 25% of your income over the space of one quarter is going to see support for CoH reduced and Tower quite publicly stated over a year ago on the US forums that CoH was nowhere near it's cut off point which was somewhere just below 100,000 subs.
Going from 175,000 to 125,000 in three months doesn't make that figure look quite as impossible to hit as it was when he said it!
CoH was the first MMO that really sucked me in but the sad fact is that it is a dying game now. Lack of end game content is seeing the long timers leaving having exhausted all there is in the game while the more casual players who don't stick with one game don't even look at the dated and simple CoH compared to some of the more sophisticated MMO's around nowadays. Saying people are crying DDDDDOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM on the basis of no evidence is just burying your head in the sand unfortunately as there is plenty to suggest the doom mongers are 100% correct
All of these figures are public knowledge and are published in the NCSoft financial report PDF available somewhere on their web site.
CoH/CoV - D-Zol/Kinslayer
Auto Assault - Slayer
WoW, LOTRO, DDO - Kinsul
Matrix Online - Tempest
If you look at the data, it's not nearly as bleak as you suggest. First, the most recent figures show subs at 150k which is a drop, but not of the level that you are suggesting. Second, Dec 2005 is when CoV came out, of course that's going to be a high point, that's when the new product became available. The concurrent subs is pretty normal for a Q1 in anything other than a launch year. Yes, it's a little lower, but not that much.
CoH is doing fine, and will for the foreseeable future. Think of it this way, if Auto Assault is still there, this game is not going any place any time soon. Sure the Marvel MMO might spell the end for CoH, but we'll have to see when that happens. Until then, this is one of the few fairly unique MMOs on the market and I expect that it will continue to attract a very stable income and crowd. People will leave, features will be added, people will come back and the cycle begins again.
Cry Doom if it makes you feel better. There are always doom sayers for every product on the market. The same people claimed the UO was going to die years and years ago. Sure, some products will disappear, but this is not one that I see unless they decide to cut it off when Marvel comes on line.
Some of my Supergroup pals were just talking about our hope that the max number of people in the SG could increase. We just recently talked about posting this as a suggestion on the CoX boards. I was glad to hear mention of this in the article. We've also talked and posted about griefing in the hami, and about a desire to have some crafting type stuff especially related to costume pieces. I like pounding on supervillains, but sometimes feel a need for a "hobby" lol. Crafting new tights would be a good one -_^. It's neat to have some of your wish list attended to.
I continue to appreciate that the people working on these games take the time to read and understand player feedback, that they attempt to respond to it in helpful albeit realistic ways, that the publisher does not rush them to pump out bug ridden updates (ala SOE), and that the people creating the game really seem to like the product, enjoy their work, and want to produce a fun experience for the players. I've been playing Cryptic/NCsoft stuff now for just over a year, and it is a real breath of fresh air compared to a previous gaming experience. I'm thankful for that.
Arc
Also, your most recent figures of 150K are incorrect, the most recent available figures from NCSoft's own site show CoH subscriptions at 125,000.
The fact it has always had subs between 170,00 and 190,000 during it's entire publication yet has dropped to 125,000 in just three months is cause for concern as far as i'm bothered, especially taking the 100,000 break even limit stated by Castle himself.
CoH/CoV - D-Zol/Kinslayer
Auto Assault - Slayer
WoW, LOTRO, DDO - Kinsul
Matrix Online - Tempest
You do need to check the figures again. In December 2004, the sub numbers were right at 124K. They spkied during 2005 especially in Q4 simply due to the CoV launch. The numbers dropped of in Q1 of 2006 to 170K and remained stable until Q3. Q4 2006 showed the loss of sub numbers by about 17,000.
Q4 2006 was the first quarter where a noticeable sub drop happened. The interesting part was that there was some interesting developements for the game in that quarter the most significant being Issue 8 (which I still believe was a waste - felt more like a patch instead of an issue.)
I am more interested in seeing the new numbers for Q1 which we should be hearing about shortly. I am very curious to see what the damage was to the sub numbers if any. Issue 9 will bring some back, but depending on the combined loss of subs between Q4 2006 and Q1 2007, I highly doubt that issue 9 is going to peak the game back into the December 2005 levels.