Exclusive City of Heroes Issue 13 Interview with Matt Miller and Brian Clayton

[Cody Bye]

The phrase “user generated content” is one that gets tossed around a lot these days and for good reason. Massively multiplayer online game developers love the idea of creating a feature in a game that is relatively organic and can grow through the users rather than through the developers. With that in mind, the City of Heroes team set to work on the Mission Architect and have received plenty of praise for the decision. However, the team recently announced that the Architect was being pushed back until Issue 14 rather than its projected Issue 13 release. Ten Ton Hammer’s Cody “Micajah” Bye got on the phone with NC NorCal’s Matt Miller and Brian Clayton to learn the details of this decision and what players can expect from the newly dubbed Issue 13.

Ten Ton Hammer: Can you explain to our readers and City of Heroes fans why it was so difficult to add customizable characters into the Mission Architect? Why did it force you to move the Mission Architect to Issue 14?

Matt Miller: We wanted to insure that the customizable characters that we were putting in were as customizable as possible. We had a pencil sketch plan of how you'd be able to do this, but when we looked at it in more detail, there were just a lot of the little things that were breaking in the missions and it was not going to be as easy as we thought it was.

To read the rest of the City of Heroes exclusive interview, click here!

[Stark1]

• Leveling Pact
All my regular friends left this game lonnng ago and I'm not interested in purchasing a second account. Definite meh for me. Not to mention your XP is split between the two of you whether you are logged in or not so if your friend is lazy, your reward is slower leveling. Boring feature as well as it adds nothing while you are in the game.

• Multi-Builds
Not an exciting feature for me and unlikely to make me play longer due to the ability to tweak my character further. I'd rather have an extra 10 levels(i.e. level cap 60) to do that. Just a ploy to get you to play your character longer. Ok so I get to mess with enhancements even more. To me it is no different than tweaking enhancements on one character, logging off, logging onto a new character and tweaking their enhancements. No real value from this since enhancements already existed and this is only adding a slight twist how we interface with them. We already have multi-builds in the overabundance of slots provided us. Go play an alt if you want a different build. This should have been introduced in a patch in-between Issues as a QoL enhancement not toted as a feature for I13.

• PvE & PvP Powers rebalancing
THIS is a feature? So nerfs are a feature now. Interesting spin NCSoft.

I'm getting flashbacks of another time we did rebalancing. Yeah, I don't want to be paying for this game until I know what they have done. I'm getting tired of the nerfs and I'm getting tired of the official boards where the forum elite get their way with the game. I hope I'm right and the game sees a decline in subscribers despite the two new Issues so they decide on a new direction.

• Villain Patron Power Respec
Extra choices are always good. Although, it could be argued it should have been included when VPPs were first introduced. But why do that when you can put it in later and call it content? Fluff away NCSoft.

• Supergroup Base Repricing
If it reduces prices good. Anything else seems pointless due to the info lacking on a total base revamp. Can't stress how disappointed I am that this is turning out not to be THE base issue. Bases have kept me playing longer but without new gadgets and new systems for them, it may be time for a break. They can't even add PvE base raids?


• Shield and Pain Domination powersets
Interested if Shield can do combos like DB. I can't see Pain Domination doing combos but if it does, I will be interested. Overall, just not too excited about any powers anymore because so many animations, sound effects and overall effectiveness overlap so many of the other powers. Please keep in mind this is an opinion and I do realize why they need to reuse code from previous efforts but it does nothing to lessen my disappointment in new powers. I'm more impressed when powers use never before seen animations, power and sound effects.

• Merit Reward system
I like this feature because I do not make tons of influence(no matter how many forum posters like to insult you for not "getting how easy it is") and it will hopefully give me more of a sense of progression again.

• Day Jobs (that include a suite of new costume pieces)
I'm more interested in this than anything else mentioned for I13 or I14. I don't play much anymore because I feel CoX has not upped the ante as I interpreted they would from the announcements after the acquisition so this feature can keep me invested in the game to some extent.

• Additional Cimerora and Midnight Squad mission arcs
Could be interesting and I welcome more story arcs for Merit rewards.

Overall NCSoft, I have to say sorry, but I am not really impressed this time around and the features I do like are unlikely to keep me subscribed. This does not appear to be a big issue and I believe it is time for an extended break until I can see what you have to offer with Issue 15. I was never really interested in the Mission Architect and as someone previously mentioned, until we see more varied mechanics on how instanced missions are played and completed, I have no desire to play more of the same with the only difference being it was created by a player or has different dialogue. Until I see CoX come up with a truly new game mechanic and not just some tweak on an existing one(again, my opinion that is all these Issues are doing), my interest in playing long term has waned greatly.

[TealMercury]

The mission architect got me slightly excited. I'm glad to see MMO's getting on this bandwagon. The only other MMO I recall that has something similar to this is Saga of Ryzom. I wonder how much scripting would be allowed? This could possibly be a solution for the Master Mind A.I. problem Matt mentioned, let us script it ourselves. This is just a shot in the dark though as I have no idea of what their plans are for the Mission creator. Will these created missions be fire and forget or will we be able to run the missions hands-on and 'tell' the story to our audience (read victims mua ha ha ha) as we lead them in a traditional table-top RPG like fashion?

Leveling Pacts: My wife and daughter sounded happy about this one. I know Vanguard has something similar with its brotherhood system. With their system you can at least level some of your alts. In Vanguard this system is also used to slow down your xp gain so you don't out-level content. This is no longer a problem in CoX since we can travel back in time.

Multi-builds: I must admit I rather like this one. This one will definitely save me a few Character slots! I can see more 'set slots' being made available for purchase later on like the extra character slots. I think this is a great way to generate some extra cash. I wonder if NCSoft is considering a Sony Station Players like subscription service. I can see something like this working for CoX and Guild Wars for example and we all know how Social Networking is the new pink.

Day Jobs: This is going to be neat! Now I can't help but wonder how long we have to wait for player housing? How can you have a day job without a Pad?