Tidbits from Gencon

[Llava]

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=3533461&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1

If you're into CCGs or plan to get into the tabletop RPG, go ahead and read that post.  If not, here are the other bits:

CoV will come out this Halloween, barring any major bugs that delay release.

The tutorial in City of Villains is called Breakout (get it?  Instead of Outbreak like the CoH tutorial) and has the players bust out of the Ziggurat with a little help.  Apparently this was said at GenCon by Statesman so it's now public info and not protected by the NDA, nyah.  I'll tack on my own opinion to that and say that it's a fun little tutorial.

Also:

Other news from GenCon...

SG bases will not be purchased with Influence, they'll be purchased with something called 'Prestige', and you'll earn Prestige for the SG while you are in SuperGroup Mode.

Zeb said they'd be datamining for this so that once Prestige is implemented, already active SGs will have lots of it.

So, if we want to have a rockin' SG base as soon as we can, we should all start playing our X characters in SuperGroup Mode, pretty much all the time.

So sayeth the devs.

[HaemishM]

That explains what the point of Supergroup mode was.

But still no word on pricing issues for CoV?

[Xanthippe]

Can someone please explain SG bases and SG mode to me?  When I last played, there was no such thing.

TIA.

[shiznitz]

SG Mode is a just color scheme your SG leader chooses. If your character is yellow/black and your SG colors are red/blue, you can switch between the two color schemes at will without needing a costume slot.

[ClydeJr]

Zeb said they'd be datamining for this so that once Prestige is implemented, already active SGs will have lots of it.

Well, that sucks. Usually I'll have one costume that I play in SG colors and the rest I play in the original colors. I probably spend 80% of my time out of SG mode.

[Llava]

Can someone please explain SG bases and SG mode to me?  When I last played, there was no such thing.

TIA.

SG mode has been in since release, like shiznitz says you just click a button on the supergroup menu that says "Enter Supergroup Mode" and it changes the color scheme of your costume.  Go to Supergroup>Settings and press "Accept" on the first screen that pops up and it'll take you to the screen that allows you to set what colors go where.

SG bases aren't in yet and will be part of City of Villains.  Basically, housing.  Part of the PvP of City of Villains will include base raids, and supergroups will keep "objects of power" in their bases to be stolen.

[CmdrSlack]

The basic idea for bases (from what Zeb told me at Gen Con) is that furniture is "unlockable" via prestige.  You must be in SG mode to do the tasks to get the prestige to get the stuff for bases.  Some are soloable, some are group tasks. 

Pretty much, it sounds like badges, but prestige and shiny objects as opposed to text titles.

[Xanthippe]

Hmm.

So an SG base is like a guildhouse, possibly furnished with trophies or souvenirs?

Someone invited me to his SG after I complained about not being able to buy inspirations from my contacts while on a TF.  He said I could get inspirations from his SG.  I neglected to pursue it.  Does anyone know what this is about?

[Llava]

No idea.  Maybe he was saying his SG members would come and give you some inspirations if you joined.  But there are no mechanisms currently in place for SGs that have anything to do with inspirations.

[Trippy]

No idea.  Maybe he was saying his SG members would come and give you some inspirations if you joined.  But there are no mechanisms currently in place for SGs that have anything to do with inspirations.

I thought Supergroups had a vault they could store stuff in. Did that feature not make it into the game?

[Llava]

Nope... never saw that in beta either.  Supergroups are really nothing more than the tag, the alternate costume, and the extra channel to talk in.  Aside from that, they don't do anything.  Yet.  The vault might appear once housing is in, who can say?

[Xanthippe]

That's what I thought.  Weird.  Well, the guy had said he had just had 24 jello shots.

[Llava]

Answers from a recent Q&A with Manticore (story developer).  Next Q&A is with Geko, should have those answers within the next couple weeks.

1) When you're deciding on a story line, for a certain aspect of the game, exactly how do you go about it e.g. Do you sit and write down what comes to you and start to refine from there, or do a group of you throw ideas at each other in a board room?

I usually start with a brief synopsis of the idea. Often that is less than a page. Then I get feedback from other folks here at Cryptic. We discuss things amongst the design team as well as getting feedback from the artists and engineers. After brainstorming I write a more extensive document detailing the background and flavor of the character, group or zone in question. Once that is done I hand zone documents over to Archon Voss and his talented zone team. They add to the design and bring it all to life.
For villain groups and characters I work with our art department to get solid concepts for the models and then pass the document to Geko and his powers team. They give the enemies or pets powers and work with our fabulous artists to make sure all their awesome animations and effects match the original vision.

2) Given that CoH/CoV has a sweet and extensive background and meta plot (the Paragon City timeline easily being among the best examples of this), will we see major events involving some of these unused plot hooks? The return and revenge of the Reichsman? The return of the hated/beloved 5th Column? Hero 1 and the Omega Team returning to Earth from the Rikti homeworld, grizzled, mutated, and ticked off that nobody ever came to rescue them? Anything at all involving the Regulators?

I think it is safe to say you haven’t heard the last from the 5th Column. Keeping a villain as powerful as the Reichsman down seems unlikely. Look for him to make an appearance next year.

I can confirm that Hero 1 is alive. He will be back, but probably not the way you are imagining. If nothing else, he needs to retrieve his sword from Ms. Liberty. Before departing for the Rikti world Hero 1 entrusted Miss Liberty with Excalibur for safe keeping. When she retired, Miss Liberty passed the blade on to her daughter. Although she cannot wield the sword, Ms. Liberty carries it at her side waiting for the day when Hero 1 returns.

Back Alley Brawler will be prominently featured in issues 7-9 of the comic book. More information about the Regulators will appear in the CoH RPG—and look for an appearance by one of them in Issue 7 of the game.

3) I would like you to comment on the upcoming "tabletop" RPG that is scheduled for rollout. What system will it use and what is the probability that the game will "keep pace" with the frequent changes to powers and archetypes that each update rolls out!

I am working with Eden Studios on the RPG. It uses their superb Unisystem rules. We are working hard to make certain that the RPG captures the feel of our game. We want players familiar with Paragon City to feel at home. The RPG will also provide the opportunity to put together a great deal of our back story in one place. Having an RPG line also allows us to add powers, villain groups and zones in supplemental books as we release them in the online game.
I am approaching the development of our Collectible Card Game from Alderac Entertainment in much the same manner. Check out these excellent websites from the companies for more info.

RPG
http://edenstudios.net/coh/products.html
CCG
http://www.cohccg.com/archives/category/introduction/


4) How does the team decide on names for characters/races/items/groups/zones in the game? Where do names like Kheldians and Coralax come from?

Names are something that I take a great deal of interest in. I think a great deal of power comes from names. For a long time on City of Heroes almost all the names in the game ran through me. Many of the names like Kheldians and Coralax that you see come from my fevered imagination. I still try to keep my eye on all the names in both games, but as they grow I rely more and more on the rest of the talented people here at Cryptic to help come up with cool names.

5) Will we see one day some missions given by the Signature Heroes like Statesman or Ms. Liberty?

I think the players really want to see the signature characters in action. Fighting alongside or against these characters is much more interesting than simply receiving direction from them. There are enough powerful new heroes in Paragon City these days to allow our signature characters to start getting back in the action.
We plan to include missions for all the signature characters in both City of Heroes and City of Villains. We have content planned for City of Villains in which players will be able to fight against the Freedom Phalanx and the Vindicators; we also plan to bring the signature Arachnos characters into City of Heroes as enemies. Eventually our players will be able to interact with all our signature characters either as enemies or allies.

6) Is there a long time plan for CoH? How many issues are planned and is their content already known, or does the story evolves along the way?

We think far in advance when planning features or story content for the game. We have content planned for several years. We always want to have a wealth of good ideas to rely on, but we have to be flexible enough to respond to feedback from you as well. The story in particular needs to be flexible enough to allow for evolution.
One of the first jobs I had here at Cryptic was organizing the backstory of our game. That is the foundation of the stories we tell today. I am constantly trying to make sure that our game has solid continuity. These days that not only involves our online games but our comic, RPG, CCG, and novels. Whenever we implement content in the game or one of our properties, we are telling part of the story. As we add content more of the story is revealed. The analogy I often use is that our games are a huge tapestry. Each villain group or zone is one thread in that tapestry. They are all slowly woven together to form the whole of the story.
I have also designed a number of villain groups, zones and other kinds of content that we have not yet implemented. City of Villains will have a taste of the Coralax, in the form of the Coralax Hybrids, but that is only the tip of that iceberg. I am sure many of you have heard Statesman mention the Avilans. Both of these groups and many others are designed and ready and waiting for the right time to be implemented.
One of the things I am strongly committed to is continuing to add threads to the story of City of Heroes and City of Villains. I want our world to continue to evolve and change in significant ways far into the future.

Special thanks to Manticore for taking the time to answer some questions from the US and the European community!

The answers to #2 particularly piqued my interest, but I'm a story kinda guy.  #5 sounds good as well.

[Signe]

Thanks for all the info, Llava!  You're doing a bang up job of it.  They should give you a baby blue name!

[Llava]

I'm just a troll who knows how to watch the dev digest  :-D

[Shockeye]

I'm just a troll who knows how to watch the dev digest  :-D

That you are.

[Llava]

Hooray.

[Signe]

Your trollishness is good for my laziness.

[Llava]

http://www.cityofheroes.com/media//film_festival_winners_2005.html

For your convenience, I have watched most of the contest winners from the recently completed Video Contest.

Ones I'd recommend you watch:
Freak And Ye Shall Find- pretty damn funny, some subtle humor there at the beginning that really cracked me up
Omu's Revenge- started off slow, won me over later with some clever lines and a good reference
Cease And Desist- Rhyming story about all the good names being taken.  Funny resolution.
Your Superpowers And You- Health video style, hilarious, the best voice acting of the bunch, and they "borrowed" a few models for effect, very well done.


Ones that are okay, but you don't need to run out and see them:
The Powers Within- I think this one suffered from the 3 minute limit.  Had an interesting premise, but no chance to develop it.
Evangel- Just some good action shots from the game.  Nice editing.
A New Threat- not as funny, but some extremely clever animation.  You can tell this took tons of effort.
Astoria Edit- I liked this one better than the one that won Best Action, actually, though it could have used better sound.  Still, nicely put together.
Missy K- Some bad acting, not particularly funny but... uh.. well, good effort.  Actually I do have to give them credit, there was one joke that had me laugh out loud.  The rest was pretty cheesy though.

[Trippy]

http://www.cityofheroes.com/media//film_festival_winners_2005.html

For your convenience, I have watched most of the contest winners from the recently completed Video Contest.

Thanks Llava. I thought all the animated ones were really good (Freak and Ye Shall Find, A New Threat, Omu’s Revenge) but I especially liked Your Superpowers and You!. It had that Red v. Blue feel with snappy dialog, excellent editing, and the best use of in-game emotes.

[Llava]

I didn't find myself laughing at anything in A New Threat, or thinking that the writing or voice acting was particularly good.  But I will definitely agree that the animation was very impressive and clearly took a great deal of effort.  That's just not enough for me to recommend it, because that doesn't much matter to people who don't care about animation.

[stray]

Ughh...I hated them all.

*Sorry*

Your Superpowers and You was probably the best of the bunch though.

[Llava]

You didn't laugh at the beginning of Freak and Ye Shall Find when the Statesman lego is walking towards the mission but bumps into a citizen lego and gets pushed back a few inches?

[stray]

You didn't laugh at the beginning of Freak and Ye Shall Find when the Statesman lego is walking towards the mission but bumps into a citizen lego and gets pushed back a few inches?

Just watched it again. I didn't notice it at first. Nice touch, I suppose. Kind of like that video with the Koreans imitating WoW loot lag.

I hate it the minute the voiceovers come in however. Fucking intolerable. I know that he's not an actor and all that, but that's what pisses me off even more -- That he thought he could do it.

And maybe he could have, if he didn't take it so lightly. Hell, if a person can put all the work in animating legos and accompany it with in game CoH sound effects, then they can at the very least put more effort into the voiceovers.

I'm not trying to be shitty or anything, but I take it just as seriously as he takes animating. At the very least, get a girl with a Russian accent. Something.

Oh wait.

[Llava]

Oh I totally agree about the voice acting.  The only one with any decent voice acting was Your Superpowers And You.