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City of Heroes: Overcoming the Impossible
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
NCsoft's Matt "Positron" Miller, the Lead Designer for the five year old City of Heroes MMO, writes this developer journal discussing the Powers Customization system that will be available in Issue 16.
Ok, maybe "impossible" is overstating it, but "Overcoming the Boat Load of Work" just doesn't have the right ring to it. You see, when City of Heroes was made over five years ago, customizing the look of your powers was never considered. When the art for the powers was done, the colors for the powers were "baked in," in such a way that it would be impossible to tint them to a different color later. It wasn't until we had our first feedback from outside the company that we realized the corner we had painted ourselves into.
You see, we had given players the most customizable character creator ever seen in an MMO. In a genre where individuality was sometimes very hard to come by, yet desired by nearly everyone who played, we offered your heart's content of custom options for your look even before you logged into the game. Or so we thought we did. We had not considered the fact that everyone's Power Blast looked like everyone else's. It wasn't just Energy Blast either, it was every single power set in the entire game.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
sweet!
A Rod of Silence means never having to say sorry. -- Dork Tower
So there's life in the old war horse, yet. very cool.
Yuzzum
Quite a bit of life, actually. Looking at what NCSoft has done lately... yes, I'm thinking of hitting their year payment option.
Although I played CoH/CoX for a while, and enjoyed the game for three or four months, their servers are going to be ghost towns once CO goes live. Out with the old, in with the new?
Hedonismbot: Your latest performance was as delectable as dipping my bottom over and over into a bath of the silkiest oils and creams.
I thought that once, now I'm not so sure, honestly.
Hrm; to clarify: I do not think their communities will be mutually exclusive any more than CoH and CoV were.
My "other hobby" (when I have time) is creating 3D art using DAZ Studio (http://www.daz3d.com/). My current project is recreating all my City of characters as 3D models so I can use them to illustrate my fan fiction stories. There are many times I do things in DAZ with a model and think "Oh how I wish I could do this to my characters in CoH!". That wish just got granted, albeit in only one area, but hey! Another wish is the ability to 'make' and save individual clothing items, or at least tweak the ones they have. An example of such a tweak would be the ability to make the wedding TOP and other accessories two-tone color customizable (to match the skirt!) because having the lace colored on the skirt is so perfect but the whole DRESS should match, along with the gloves and trim on the stockings, etc. Maybe I need to hit the suggestion thread in their forums.
The character creator is the one reason I have never played any other game as they all have limited or not as attractive character options. As a writer, each of my characters becomes an individual to me. I don't care about numbers or stats - I just play to have fun and relax and the biggest asset to me is the ability to customize each character. That is what has kept me playing CoH for years. This is icing on the cake. Yay for icing!
Although some of the 'try every new game' types will flock to CO, I believe you underestimate the amount of dedicated fans who will not. Many of these gamehoppers will be the ones who have little time in the game. After spending five years in a game and working my way up to several well developed level 50s, I am definitely not going to drop the time I have invested for the next shiny flash-in-the-pan. Especially when it is pumped out by the studio that throttled the true potential of the Cities of games for so long. It was not until NC Soft took over that they began to listen and respond to players' input and requests on a massive scale.
There is lots of 'new' out there. So far, none of it has impressed me enough to get me to stray.
Champions Online will draw a lot of initial interest from CoH players. What will determine their ultimate loyalty will be the gameplay and community, not the fancy new graphics.
If Champions can deliver the gameplay and the community I will change over for the additional customization. If it cannot, I will stay with CoH.
I have pre-ordered. If I truely enjoy the gameplay I will buy a lifetime Champions subscription. If I do not, I will buy a 1 year CoH subscription.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
We've been waiting for this for a very long time.
I started playing right at launch and one of the first things I thought of was "we should have wings!". That eventually happened, thankfully. Now, this is going to be a great addition. Customization is one of the biggest and best parts of CoX.
Leaving for Champions Online? Meh, the consensus on Freedom server is that most aren't interested in it. I will surely play it, but there's no way I'd leave City of Heroes. It might get rid of some of the flighty kids though. So, that's a plus.
I have pre-orded also and I saw the "lifetime" subscription choice that they were pushing hard.
That set off red lights and whistles in my mind.
I am not committing myself to something that I might hate.
As I understand, CO has powers that the CoX engine can't handle. Web slinging among a few. This might be the defining issue for players of both games. Leaks from the CO beta, however, don't sound promising and CoX has 5 years on them. But Cryptic knows just how to compete against its old product. DCUO might be the real challenge but that remains to see.
The quest and grind of CO is much closer to the quest and grind of WoW then CoX.
To me this says that most people who like the instanced missions of CoX will strongly dislike the almost complete lack of instanced missions in CO.
Besides just how man collect 20 of X or kill 20 of Y missions can you do before you are bored out of your mind?
Add to that a Super Hero game that makes you feel weak. (No the fights are not too hard, they just missed the look and feel of a Super Hero game)
I am betting what we will see is a strong early drop off in CoX, followed by about 80% of the people who left coming back a couple of months later.
To everyone thinking about buying CO, I strongly suggest getting into the Beta before dropping the money on the game. Or in the very least wait a week or two and see what the players are saying about the game.
as a CO Beta player all i have to say is
I plan to keep CoX and CO
As a CO beta tester all I have to say is I have no plans on buying CO.
Weak? I dont think you have being following the released videos from beta. The game sounds and feel heroic from level 1.
But CO is not CoX 2.0 . Its a different game all together.
CO doesnt have classes. No tank, support (buffer, healer), debuffer, dps (melee/range). You choose your role on the fly and can change it at will. Of course you will still be limited by your powers tho (lets say you only takes dps powers, no taunt skills or healing/rezzing/buffing/debuffing). No more: lf healer, pst! Lf tank, pst! and waiting and waiting for one to show up.
--> but but, they dont have healers! CRAZY! They do, but think of comics... cartoons (Justice League, etc), movies. When did you see a hero in the back healing the others? Usually they go all in using the strenght of each hero powers or they split in objetics (I will take the eyes of the monster, you two distract him, you go and protect those civilians....). That is being a hero.
--> think how cool would be to a healer/dps at end game. Today you may want to stay back and support more, tomorrow you just want to kick mobs! All in the same char.
Power selection is flexible. There are no powersets lock in CO. If you want to be a superstrenght, with a few martial moves, a sword attack, a pistol attack, a eye laser attack... you can. Do you want to play superman? Well, fly, superspeed, superstrenght attacks, laser eye attack, freezing breath... check, you can have all that.
The balance of the role system and the powers selection is under NDA tho, so we need to wait a few weeks.
The game is more based on quick actions too (more console ish). As the videos show, we will need to block special attacks (or suffer the consequence), the endurance/mana/energy bar will work on a new way (you will build it with a autoattack). You can pick things like trashcan and throw on enemies.
Less instances, more open world exploration.
Public quests (like WAR).
Only one server (with zones having a instancing system that will limit the max number of players in each), which means that you wont see dead zones. Only 50 people online now? Great, they will be together and can do the open quests and all that. 500 people online on that area? Split that in 3 instances and the game is still fun (no waiting in line for 30min waiting your turn to rescue that npc...). Also, players will probably be able to choose instances of the zone, so if you rather play with less people or more, you will be able to choose it (like we can choose to play on the bigger or smaller servers).
PVP duels and lairs.
Nemesis system (your personal storyarc).
Will all CoX players like CO? Nope. Will be CO a fun game? I think so, and I will be there playing it to find out.
CoX can get pretty grind heavy/repetitave too. I tried going back to Cox with a free 14day trial and it was just not my cup of tea any more. We can all speculate til we are blue in the face but the fact is no one will know til launch and a few months after that.
Weak? I dont think you have being following the released videos from beta. The game sounds and feel heroic from level 1.
But CO is not CoX 2.0 . Its a different game all together.
CO doesnt have classes. No tank, support (buffer, healer), debuffer, dps (melee/range). You choose your role on the fly and can change it at will. Of course you will still be limited by your powers tho (lets say you only takes dps powers, no taunt skills or healing/rezzing/buffing/debuffing). No more: lf healer, pst! Lf tank, pst! and waiting and waiting for one to show up.
--> but but, they dont have healers! CRAZY! They do, but think of comics... cartoons (Justice League, etc), movies. When did you see a hero in the back healing the others? Usually they go all in using the strenght of each hero powers or they split in objetics (I will take the eyes of the monster, you two distract him, you go and protect those civilians....). That is being a hero.
--> think how cool would be to a healer/dps at end game. Today you may want to stay back and support more, tomorrow you just want to kick mobs! All in the same char.
Power selection is flexible. There are no powersets lock in CO. If you want to be a superstrenght, with a few martial moves, a sword attack, a pistol attack, a eye laser attack... you can. Do you want to play superman? Well, fly, superspeed, superstrenght attacks, laser eye attack, freezing breath... check, you can have all that.
The balance of the role system and the powers selection is under NDA tho, so we need to wait a few weeks.
The game is more based on quick actions too (more console ish). As the videos show, we will need to block special attacks (or suffer the consequence), the endurance/mana/energy bar will work on a new way (you will build it with a autoattack). You can pick things like trashcan and throw on enemies.
Less instances, more open world exploration.
Public quests (like WAR).
Only one server (with zones having a instancing system that will limit the max number of players in each), which means that you wont see dead zones. Only 50 people online now? Great, they will be together and can do the open quests and all that. 500 people online on that area? Split that in 3 instances and the game is still fun (no waiting in line for 30min waiting your turn to rescue that npc...). Also, players will probably be able to choose instances of the zone, so if you rather play with less people or more, you will be able to choose it (like we can choose to play on the bigger or smaller servers).
PVP duels and lairs.
Nemesis system (your personal storyarc).
Will all CoX players like CO? Nope. Will be CO a fun game? I think so, and I will be there playing it to find out.
actully we know a bit more then that. if you check out COs home page they have a section of power sets. Also i think "on the fly" isn't the word your looking for. there is nothing to say you can use say "SMASH" one minute then change "SMASH" to "BLAST" on the fly.
but on that note.
GIGAVOLT TO THE FACE.
http://www.champions-online.com/node/105586
I really wish I could comment more, but I am trying to not break my NDA.
I believe CO will have a very strong initial following (Much like most new MMOs), that will fall off rapidly and not be replenished.
I believe that CoXs main concern should not be CO. Sure they probably will lose about 20% - 30% of their play base, but most of them will be the newer players not their core.
I have rewritten this post several times, and I really cant reply... Damn NDA.
I say again, if you are excited about this game then by all means grab a beta key. Heck pre-order the game and get in the beta that way. Most stores will let you cancel a pre-order so it lets you in the beta with zero risk.
All I am saying is, PLAY THE GAME! Then decide if it is worth the money. (Beta = MMO Demo)
I have a friend who was a beta tester and he wasn't impressed. First they taking the IP of Champions and twisting it around until it's almost an insult to the PnP players. Second, the company isn't big into receiving critical feedback. All they want to hear is how great the game is, not what's broken and what needs to be improved. I don't think this game will make the release date and the microtransactions will turn people away.
I've been a Champions PnP player for decades and I will not be buying CO when it's released. At least not until it gets some good reviews from independent reviewers (if that ever happens). CoX is still a good game and I have no plans on jumping ship.
your friend obviously has sour grapes but unfurtunatly the NDA prevents me for correcting him.
Coh/v is still a great game and always improving. CO being open world and not instanced based might attract more solo players. Soloing in instances is like playing a single player game. Either way I will check it out for sure. Hell I already preordered back in April so for 5 bucks deposit at least the Beta is worth it. If good, will do the lifetime. Even though I regreted doing life script for LOTRO, but knowing at anytime I can log in check it out for years is worth it.
This post is intentionally written as to not make any sense what so ever. Thank You Very Much.
This is just more lameness from the Devs at CoX. Just because you can change the color of your powers does not make the overall playability of the game better. What are they gonna do to change the game to be an MMO instead of a game of lets see how many 50s you can get and how fast you can get them to 50. With CO and all its customization optons you get from the beginning is making this little insignifigant update to CoX look like they are just trying to copy CO. CoX is a very stale game and every update and patch just solidify the fact that the only point to playing CoX is Getting to Lvl 50 as many times as you can.
Truely, I don't think they can really say "it wasn't considered" or "convieced of" to have power customizations during development. Perhaps during the initial developmental stages, but durring the early days of closed beta when they were asking for for feedback and suggestions, I recall that there were quite a number of testers that highly recommended them to take this route. Now that there are upcoming super hero MMOs that promise to offer such a feature, they are finally considering it worth their time. Not to discredit their efforts, I know it is appriciated by the fans, but I still wish they would have done so much sooner. Glad to see the change though
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The reason it wasn't done sooner was that the Dev team for several years was only 15 only recently was the team upped to 50ish people there just wasn't enough manpower to get custom powers done and still have updates come out in a timely fashion.
I quit Cox after 4 months of playing I was bored of the grind once I hit level 35 with one toon and between 10-20 levels among 5 other toons. I just couldn't take it anymore, seemed like everything I would start to play they would nerf until all were nerfed. When I returned a year later the only difference was they added capes and wings and alter ego costumes, they didn't have pvp or any of the stuff they have now in the game, and every class was nerfed. Never the less I wouldn't back to it a 3rd time if you paid me, I left due to all the classes getting nerfed and it just didn't feel like what it was initially. I at the time of the nerfs I was in the camp of people that didn't want nerfs but to bring all the other classes up to the power of the classes deemed overpowered. Instead they chose the nerf stick and thats why I left. It didn't feel like a hero game but more like just another MMO.
I feel CO is on the right track for mmo's for one with the ability to change your role. The days of hopingwaiting to find a healer are over in CO and that alone for now is enough for me. Also, from what I have seen at a friends and played I feel powerful versus the mobs. The instance content of CoX I sorta felt was goofy, like going into buildings that are designed like random single passage dungeons and not like real building we have was goofy. It leave you thinking who in the hell would design a building like this, lol. I know CoX isn't for me any more I just hope CO has lots of places to venture wether they are instanced ot not. Every MMO has a grind associated with it. I just hope CO provides more fun in the grind to keep me more than 4 months like their first attempt.