Jack "Statesman" Emmert Interview

[Signe]

http://vault.ign.com/articles/514/514854p1.html

[schild]

Update in 2 weeks.

-Drakes: I want to fight these aliens from the CoH storyline. When can I do that?

-Mr. Emmert: After the update in two weeks, you'll be able to visit an alien crash site and fight masses of them. In the future, you'll even be able to travel to their home world!

THOU SHALT BE JUDGED.

EDIT: Excitement is hard [to contain].

- Level cap being increased with update.

In other news, it's neat and all that we finally get to see him just sorta talk. But erhm, the interview is like food for fanbois.

[Furiously]

No mention of respecs....

[schild]

Goddamn. I think I'm the only one who just doesn't care about respecs. If I pick something shitty I just don't use it. It doesn't cripple my character.

[HaemishM]

The sidekick system was a pretty natural addition as well - it's just not feasible to expect every player to spend 20 to 40 hours per week in the game. It's a mechanism we created to solve the problem that casual gamers have with finding MMO's fun without having to change their playing styles.

I <3 that.

-Drakes: Will players ever be able to have non-standard options for power-related affects such as customizable broad swords, katanas, assault rifles, etc? What about powers being able to have alterable origins like eyes, hands, or even foci?

-Mr. Emmert: This is one of our first-year goals. Signature weapons for sure, alterable powers are possible but they're definitely later on the list. There's a special surprise you'll see in an archetype related to this within the year. Sooner than later.

Oh yeah. Alien ships, customizable powers, and tailoring. Mmmmm, MMOG goodness.

[cevik]

Yeah, but you guys keep skipping the part where he said eBaying is a-okay:

-Drakes: How do you feel about account/item selling and auctioning for personal profit? Where does NCsoft officially stand on this subject?

-Mr. Emmert: I've never really asked NCsoft actually - so I can't speak for them. For my own point of view - I used to think I'd be a teacher all my life. Now that I have more money, I can buy things that I want more. People who have the cash will always buy what they want.

[Riggswolfe]

I've never really seen the problem with E-baying. I don't do it, but if you're such a loser you wanna pay a few hundred dollars for an online character how does it affect me?

[cevik]

I've never really seen the problem with E-baying. I don't do it, but if you're such a loser you wanna pay a few hundred dollars for an online character how does it affect me?

I've never really cared either way myself, but jesus it makes for some vehement fights around here.  :)

[schild]

I've never really seen the problem with E-baying. I don't do it, but if you're such a loser you wanna pay a few hundred dollars for an online character how does it affect me?

I've never really cared either way myself, but jesus it makes for some vehement fights around here.  :)

Which won't be re-enacted on this forum incarnation.

[Riggswolfe]

Which won't be re-enacted on this forum incarnation.

Gotya. Not like it's something I care about one way or the other.

[Tebonas]

Well, usually I have issues with people ebaying for numerous reasons. None of them applies to CoH, I guess. No rare spawns to hog for money and/or unique items. No game balance between players to uphold. And for roleplaying reason, well I can live with sudden behaviour shifts of superheroes, because they are usually pretty messed up to begin with and it happened in the past as well (as shown in the past in Superhero comics).

All in all I think somebody would have to be tremendously stupid to buy something via Ebay in a game where the gameplay is basically the same throughout all levels and money is something which comes naturally during gameplay, no matter what you do. But then I thought nobody would be stupid enough to camp something in CoH and heard differently. So what do I know.

[HaemishM]

How fucking stupid and clueless about the game would you be to buy a 40th level character in CoH? I'd love to see the first words out of that person's mouth when they got the character.

"What do you mean there's nothing left to do?"

[Anonymous]

The topic at hand is an interview about the future of CoH.

Not ebay.

I repeat:  Not.  Ebay.

[cevik]

Alrighty then, is this part of the interview offlimits as well?

-Drakes: Are any other expansions currently being conceived/planned?

-Mr. Emmert: They're only conceptions for now, but I'd really like to see things like giant mechanical suits you can jump into and run around in, spy organizations, time travel to different zones, etc. We've got a lot of other things to handle before then.

Time travelling mech warrior expansion.. sounds fun!

[schild]

What it sounds like is a fetuspault. Time travel in an MMO. WTF MATE^^

[cevik]

What it sounds like is a fetuspault. Time travel in an MMO. WTF MATE^^

Nah, it'll be instanced missions that have a gothic noir feel to them or maybe a zone where you "go back in time" and run around with dinosaurs.  He's not talking about travelling to last week and replaying level 12.  He's talking about a way to escape from all the missions and zones being set in modern times.  At least that's my guess.. :)

[daveNYC]

This guy reads and collects comic books.  I bet he has so many ideas of stuff to put in the game it isn't even funny.

Now give me a Sentinel to fight!

[WayAbvPar]

While some of the quotes from Statesman seem a bit on the 'pie in the sky' side of things, I am reasonably excited about it. After all, that is how he sounded when talking about CoH pre-release/beta =)

If they go with crafting, I like the idea of player made enhancements and inspirations. It would be really cool if the player made enhancements were unique to the creator (if only by name or maker's mark or something). Also like to see something like dual use inspirations- something that would give a boost to health AND endurance together, or accuracy AND defense, etc. Unless these already exist, and my n00b ass just hasn't found any yet =P

[SurfD]

Give me different coloured power blasts, thats all I ask.  It kind of sucks that every single energy blaster shoots in blue, or every psychic blast is purple.  It can't be that hard to throw in a colour toggle to go with the particle effect, can it?

[Signe]

Reading this thread makes me glad I was never a comic book enthusiast.  What probably sounds reasonable to surmise for you guys, sounds totally bizzaro and too much fun for words to me!

[Sky]

Mmm....time travel mmog...I'm so distracted I won't go into the finer points of how ebay on one hand is harmless and on the other can destroy virtual economies...for the children!

:P

[eldaec]

-Drakes: Will players be able to have villains and heroes on the same servers?

-Mr. Emmert: I can't imagine why not for now.

This surprised me a little.

[Murgos]

-Drakes: Will players be able to have villains and heroes on the same servers?

-Mr. Emmert: I can't imagine why not for now.

This surprised me a little.

Yes, because its reasonable to believe that the enemy will learn the sekret plan with thier alt that was let into the guild under false pretenses.

"What those doo-gooders are going to make a 4 to 6 person group and do instanced missions?  We must stop them!!!  To the tram!!!!!!!"!

[Miscreant]

Give me different coloured power blasts, thats all I ask.  

Are custom colored powers a big plus? It sounds great, but I wonder if it would be ugly or confusing.  "To my left is a villain frozen in cherry kool-aid, and to my right I have no idea what Captain Amazing is doing."

Then again, everyone likes the fact that the 4' Sister Waifish can be your tanker.  So maybe power consistency isn't important, either.

[HaemishM]

People like to be unique, even in a crowd of many. Custom-colored (or anchored) power effects is one "easy" way to do that. I mean, let's face it, Cyclops is a mutation energy blasters, and so is Iron Man, in some ways (repulsor blasts). But the way they use those powers is vastly different.

[eldaec]

-Drakes: Will players be able to have villains and heroes on the same servers?

-Mr. Emmert: I can't imagine why not for now.

This surprised me a little.

Yes, because its reasonable to believe that the enemy will learn the sekret plan with thier alt that was let into the guild under false pretenses.

"What those doo-gooders are going to make a 4 to 6 person group and do instanced missions?  We must stop them!!!  To the tram!!!!!!!"!

When the CoV site specifically mentions relics and so on to fight over - this continues to surprise me a little.

Entire super groups of good and evil will battle it out for possession of devices and relics that could detrmine the fate of the city

Sounds to me a lot like 'realm level objectives'.

Which in turn sounds like 'whining about spybots'.

/shrug

[Murgos]

Just anecdotally but my experience has been that there is nothing in any of these games worth the effort of spying on the other side.  Sure occaisionally you get some exciteable 14 year old runing around shouting "XXX is attacking, XXX is attacking".  Usually that type of behavior is absolutely meaningless in the overall scheme of the game though and has little or no effect on the outcome of any particular battle.  Unless of course you were bored and looking for something to do.

For example in Everquest on the pvp teams server it was a very poorly held secret that most of the players who had been around long enough had toons in the main guilds on each side of the battle.  One day you would feel like kicking some darky ass and the next you might want to go fuck with lightie.  Because of the cross guilding there was a good chance you would be fighting the same person each time :)

Practically though, it made no difference.  There is only so many people a guild can muster and you usually already have all your peeps invested at any given moment in any particular endeavor.  The kind of regulation that some 'hard guilds' think they need to be successfull is an anathema to me, and usually completely unrelated to being a success.

People have a bad habit of confusing real world tactics and objectives with those of a game.  Reminder, the game is there to be fun, quit worrying about what someone else is doing and enjoy YOUR game.

[schild]

I'd buy a 40th level character for a couple hundred bucks, just to play around with the powers I'll never see. I'm never going to approach level 40 from playing as I don't have time.

--matt

I'll be sure to sell you mine once I am in a group that kills the Hamidon, kk?

[eldaec]

Just anecdotally but my experience has been that there is nothing in any of these games worth the effort of spying on the other side.  Sure occaisionally you get some exciteable 14 year old runing around shouting "XXX is attacking, XXX is attacking".  Usually that type of behavior is absolutely meaningless in the overall scheme of the game though and has little or no effect on the outcome of any particular battle.  Unless of course you were bored and looking for something to do.

I'm thinking mostly of DAoC. Where relic defence mostly consists of detecting the incoming attack early enough to get people to the keep before it is overwhelmed.

If, for example, raiding HQs for relics is much like raiding keeps for relics (and I accept it might well be completely different); I imagine there will be a fair amount of whining about spies.

[Alrindel]

Just anecdotally but my experience has been that there is nothing in any of these games worth the effort of spying on the other side.

To second eldaec's comments, I saw more than one DAOC relic raid ruined by cross-realm spying (and every other unsuccessful relic raid surrounded by days of forum flaming and accusations of spying).  When I was playing it was basically impossible to bust open a defended relic keep, so surprise was everything.  On one occasion the albs had organized a very impressive raiding party who had rendezvoused at a preset meeting point in Mount Collory and were getting ready to attack... except a hib who was playing his buddy's alb character had seen the preparations at the alb portal keep.  He joined a group, ported along with them, and then told his hib guildmates on IRC exactly where the albs were grouped and waiting.  They made a beeline for that location with a mere two groups and decimated over a hundred albs by spamming PBAOE attacks - with the lag and low framerate caused by having so many players in one spot, there was nothing they could do to defend themselves.

Hopefully Cryptic will design the system such that surprise won't be important, since there is no way to prevent the spying from happening.

[jpark]

I look forward to crafting in CoH but this may change the game for some.

Will start to create the milieu for an economy?  I would think so.  But if what is altered is non-transferable - e.g. customized powers - maybe not.