Q&A from Stateman

Da una recente intervista di Stateman....per alcune cose stò già sbavando

Q&A

Q: Why does Star Wars Galaxies seem to have so much more content than CoH?
A: It's been out longer, you're comparing apples and oranges. When CoH has been out a full year, then a comparison can be made. I fully expect CoH and SWG to be very comparable at the one-year mark for each game.

Q: Was anything about the game as it stands now a complete surprise to you?
A: The purple patch reaction was a surprise - a surprise that I made a math mistake. The wrong match came when I was calculating the average group composition, I had the level range too low. Outside of that, the biggest surprise to me is the lengths that people will go to get exp. To me, the means are as important as the end - the way I get the exp is just as important as the fact that I get it.

Q: Why hide the numbers from players?
A: If you put the numbers for every power and effect in the game, then every player feels like they have to know and use those things in order to play well. There's nothing wrong with putting the numbers elsewhere - Cryptic folks have posted many on the forums, for example - but I don't want them in the game so that the casual player doesn't feel he needs to number-crunch to do well. I don't even like the decimals shown in the status window, but that was a necessary evil.
One thing we have planned to help with this is a system of "bars" to show relative strength. You could compare the damage bar of two powers, for example, to see which is higher damage. This is not coming any time soon but we are working on it.

Q: Many feel that defenders don't have a place because controller secondaries so the job just as well. Any plans to address this?
A: I really don't recall hearing much about this, so I haven't given it much thought. We are looking into reduced End costs for defender blasts, and those blasts are a differentiator from a controller. Controller secondaries are definitely less powerful, but right now there isn't a really good way to see this in most cases. The "bars" mentioned above will help with that.

Q: Any word on the CoV release date.
A: 2005. Can't be more specific than that.

Q: Will the game eventually have the ability for players to generate their own story arcs? For example, my character's sister was killed by the Hellions, so I want to create an arc where he hunts down the Hellions and eventually brings her killer to justice.
A: Not exactly. Allowing players to generate content on their own doesn't allow us to gaurantee quality. But we are adding many more branches to story arcs in the future, to allow you to see different results based on choices made in the earlier parts of the arc. We also plan to have the overall game world affected by missions - for example, if not enough people do their Family missions, the mob may take over more areas of the city since no one is keeping them in check. Moooolto interessante questa

Q: Why doesn't my Origin affect my character's stats?
A: Origins don't affect player stats because people don't have preconceived notions that would fit. For example, in a magic world, 99% of the players will assume that elves are better at magic, while drawves are resitant to it. There is no corresponding assumptions about (for example) Science vs. Mutation. If origins were to affect stats, there would always be a good portion of the player base that got confused about it since the effect wouldn't fit their assumptions.

Q: Is there an open-ended development process for adding more character creation choices, or is there a point where you'll say it's finished and no more will be added?
A: Always more. Some ideas we're kicking around now: longer capes, trenchcoats, skirts, pirate and ninja costume components, more shoe options.

Q: What new things are planned to make SuperGroups more interesting?
A: Bases are coming in City of Villans. We would like to have SG-specific missions as soon as we figure out a good way to implement it, but it won't be soon. There may be vehicles that are owned by the supergroup, but again not soon. Temporary powers are something that might be granted at the SG base as well, we're still working on that idea (example: getting a jet pack to have limited flight).

Q: Why the Power 10?
A: The original reason was to allow the majority of powers to have better enhancements at early levels. This did result in some characters have better powers earlier. We're looking at ways to remedy this. One way is to have your contacts give more options for which enhancements you can buy. Another is to remove the power 10 from L30+ stores, so you have to find those enhancements at higher levels. Another is to increase minion HP at L30+, so that those power 10 enhancements have less effect. All these are in the very early stages right now, and we'll do a lot of testing before anything is done.

Q: If you were done with CoH and wanted to create another game, what genre would it be?
A: Horror.

Q: Why can you not buy inspirations while on a Task Force?
A: It's a coding issue. We're going to change it eventually, but it's not the highest priority right now.

Q: When can we change the look of our powers?
A: You'll be able to change the color of the power effects soon. Can't commit to a specific time yet. Eventually you'll also be able to choose from multiple different animations for powers, but that's a LONG way off due to the amount of work involved.

Q: Will there be a way someday to put your own face/voice into the game?
A: "That's kinda spooky." (direct quote) This would be technically very difficult and also would require screening all the submissions to ensure quality. Not any time soon, if ever.

Q: Do you have a "common denominator" player in mind when you designed the game?
A: Not really. The closest would be the guy that comes home from work and wants to play a couple of hours, or maybe do a task force on the weekend. But we considered all types of players. The key thing we focused on was that no matter how much time you were willing to spend, or how much you knew about computer games or superheroes, the game should be fun.

Q: Are there plans to make misisons at higher levels more interesting?
A: We are planning to implement a mission difficulty slider, so you can turn up the difficulty if you find missions too easy. :drool: :drool: :drool:

Q: How often can you respec your character?
A: Three times. It does not matter what level you start at - if you have a L50 character and want to respec three times, that's fine.

Q: What kind of data mining do you do?
A: There's too many different types to remember them all. I look at several key factors, like number of characters at each level, the villan types that people fight most often, number and type of enhancements being purchased. We will sometimes look at EXP/HR, but only to make sure there are no huge anomolies - some variation is to be expected.

Q: What can you tell us about prestige classes and epic power pools?
A: Epic pools are a way to further specialize your high-level characters. Prestige classes are a way to play a completely different character type that has some importance in the CoH world. Example: If CoH was the DC universe, being a Kryptonian would be a prestige class.

Q: Any plans to create a pen-and-paper RPG in the CoH world?
A: "That would be cool, wouldn't it?" (direct quote)

Q: How much importance do you place on forum posts?
A: You have to consider the type of players on the forums when you read what's out there. The typical poster (not all, but most) are more analytical that the average player, more dedicated, and what they post is motivated by a desire to get more for their own characters.

Q: What can you tell us about Martial Arts changes?
A: Storm Kick is safe, no changes planned. Several other powers will be changed to have shorter animations. The change might be as soon as issue 2, but more likely afterward. This may seem like a slow process, but remember that EVERYTHING we do is slow, to avoid breaking the game.

Q: How many people are on the CoH team at Cryptic?
A: Approximately 30

Q: What can you tell us about Lord Recluse?
A: He's the villian you see on the CoV trailer. He's part of an organization called SPIDER. His arms will move kind of like Dr. Octopus, although you can't see that well on the trailer. More info at CityOfVillians.com.

Q: Are the patch notes going to be properly updated from now on?
A: We've hired an assistant producer, who starts Monday, to help with exactly these kind of issues.

Q: Will we see suburban residential zones?
A: Eventually, yes. Also we will have an airport, and some fixes to some of the weirder effects. For example, we hope to prevent cars from weaving all over the street like drunk drivers. This is low on the priority list, though.

Q: Will there be a train station with both tram lines?
A: No plans for this now.

Q: Any plans to implement Secret Identities?
A: We already did - you are your hero's secret ID. In-game, we haven't yet found a convincing way to do secret identities and keep the game fun while you're out of costume. The ability to change your costume into street clothes will have to do for now.

Q: Are there plans for a tutorial to help people understand their character better? For example, teaching an AoE blaster how to avoid drawing all the aggro?
A: That's a good idea, I'd never considered that. We'd certainly make it optional if we do put something like that in. On a related note, Outbreak will become optional in Issue 2. ALLELJUA !!!!!!!

Q: Are there plans for more trials?
A: Absolutely. You'll get an new one in Issue 2, and we'll have more in the future.

Q: Will there be more quality-of-life options to make the game easier in the future?
A: Definitely. Many things are planned. For example, in Issue 2, the chat system is being overhauled. You can create channels to talk across teams/SGs/servers. We'll always be looking for ways to make it less work and more fun to play the game.

Various misc. things that came up during the QA, but were not direct answers:
- The Super Secret Non Combat System will be in Issue 3
- I do not care how fast people level. The key criteria is that it must be FUN, so that you'll want to keep playing even after you've leveled up your character. Amo quest'uomo !!!!
- I consider an exploit to be anything that rewards boring behavior. The Smoke Grenade bug is an example - it's about as fun as "poking yourself in the eye" (direct quote) but people do it since they level faster.
- Eventually instanced missions may have an interactive environment, since griefing won't be as much of a problem