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CoX Issue 11: First Impressions
The newest expansion for City of Heroes and City of Villains, Issue 11 has been in open beta for a couple of weeks, and -- so far, at least -- it's proven to be a hit. As with all other releases, there have been the inevitable tweaks and adjustments to make sure that levels are being balanced and that powers are neither too strong nor too weak. Still, all things considered, it's been a phenomenal step forward in the elegance of the game.It's hard not to squeal with delight when I think of the changes that have been made since I first created my account in June of 2004. Whether we were peering Through the Looking Glass or fending off an Invasion, NCsoft was always pushing to give us new features, and to make sure that the play was as balanced as possible. As far as I can tell, they've done a phenomenal job of continuing that trend. %Gallery-9980%
The Daily Grind: Are death penalties overkill?
This is one topic that never fails to wind up as a huge discussion any time we get together with gamer friends. Some of us who have been around since the early days of MMOs remember the harsh death penalties that many of these games included. If you died in EverQuest, you would lose experience -- lose too much, and you could lose levels. You also had to run back to your corpse either without any gear on unless you could find a friendly player to rez you. Ahh, the memories. Nowadays, death is disposable in games like World of Warcraft. You get killed by another player in front of Karazhan? No big deal. Just rez and head back. In games like WoW, death is less of an impact than it is an annoyance. It represents a whole 30 seconds you're going to have to spend running back from the conveniently-placed graveyard. Of course, you also resurrect with all your gear on you. And then there are they hybrids like City of Heroes; you don't ever lose enhancements or inspirations, but you do lose some experience when you die. Some people feel like this is a good solid trade-off. It teaches you to be less of a loose-cannon since death does have some impact on your character. On the other hand, it's fairly easy to work off debt in CoX, and you never have to chase down your corpse to either resurrect, or to retrieve your items; you just start in the hospital or your SuperGroup's base. So what do you think? Are the newer no-guilt, no-penalty deaths best, or were the older ones the best? Do you think death penalties teach players to think over strategy before rushing in, or do you think they'd do that anyway? What do you think of the hybrid systems that cause you to lose experience, but not gear? Which game has the best system in your opinion?
Weekend reading: flavors of the month, yea or nay?
If you're like us, you can always use some good reading for a lazy weekend, and we here at Massively are always happy to oblige. We stumbled upon an interesting point of contention on the City of Heroes forums this weekend, one that has given us serious pause. The question at hand? Are so-called "flavors of the month," classes or specs that are made popular by patches, gear, or just by chance, bad for MMOs, or are they just a harmless side effect of a ever more alt-happy subscriber base?For my part, I think the flavor of the month classes serve a necessary, if completely unintentional, part in the development and balance process. From what I've experienced, the most prominent reasons underlying most flavors of the month, as in the case of the dual blade scrappers in Issue 11, is that players want to try out new content for themselves. There's no better advertisement for a build than seeing it in the patch notes, and there's no better way to test the new builds for balance than by having thousands of players jump on it on patch day. For all the headaches the FotM crowds cause, I think their contributions are worth more to the greater community.So what do you think, flavors of the month, yea or nay?
Cox rolls out 1GHz across its network
Like every other cable operator, Cox Communications is looking for more bandwidth. Cox has already brought 70% of its customer base up to the 1GHz mark, and is upgrading the rest of its network up to the same bar. It's all part of the company's 2010 plan, which has some 200 SD (meh) and 100 HD (now we're talking!) channels as a goal. Good times ahead for their internet customers as well, with a boost in both the up and down directions to the tune of 25- and 4-Mbps, respectively. Add in a reduction in the number of analog channels clogging up the pipe and Cox is planning on bringing its node size from 650 to 250 homes, putting them within striking distance of the SDV "magic number."[Via Connected Home 2 Go]
One Shots: Question Manticore
Our own Jonathan Northwood offers this shot of high-end City of Heroes content straight from the pages of Issue 11. Jonathan brings us up to speed on the story (yes, these could be spoilers for some of you):The concept is drawn from the Trading Places storyline in Top Cow's City of Heroes comic (Issues 10 – 12), when Manticore is kicked from the Freedom Phalanx, and winds up teaming with the Vindicators for a short while. He apparently defects to Recluse's side; however, in the dénouement, it's seen that he took these actions in order to get more information on what Recluse is doing. The mission this screenshot is from was the fourth in the Mender Silos Task Force: your team and some of the Vindicators (Swan, Ms. Liberty, and Mynx) are sent to Siren's Call to find out what's going on with Manticore, and wind up being tasked with taking him down. For tomorrow's One Shots, we're turning the reins over to all of you -- what game do you want to see featured? Let us know in the comments!Do you have a screenshot that shows off a memorable moment or an amazing view in your favorite MMO? Send them to us at oneshots@massively.com with a description (including game name and location) and you may see it posted here for tomorrow's One Shots. %Gallery-9798%
New City of Heroes Fanzine released
Did you enjoy the stories and artwork that ran in the Top Cow line of the City of Heroes comics? Ever regret not sending in your work? Well, here's your chance, because Issue #0 of the new City of Heroes Fanzine was released today.For those of you who may be concerned that this publication is replacing the City Scoop, fear not: the fanzine was never intended to replace the scoop, but to add to the lore and backstory of the CoX universe. Then, too, the fanzine will only be coming out quarterly, so you'll have to rely on the Scoop ... and Massively, of course ... for timely news about the Rogue Isles and Paragon City.So pull out your pens and digital tablets, and share your stories and visions of the digital world all of our alts inhabit. We're looking forward to seeing what you have to offer. And don't forget, if you have any thoughts about the fanzine, issues you'd like to raise, or concerns you feel need to be addressed, bring them up in the City of Heroes official forum.
Vince D'Amelio has your answers
Have a question you'd like to pose to Vince D'Amelio, City of Heroes Senior Programmer? If so, the WarCry Network wants to hear from you. The concept behind the "Ask a Dev" series is elegant in its simplicity: find a CoX developer who has the time to answer questions, ask the community what questions they most wish answered, then put the two together and have the issues addressed by the minds behind the game.So go ahead, ask your questions, you know you want to. And remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question, only a stupid Rikti.
Meet 'n Greet with the CoX team
Sometimes developers have a way of seeming as ethereal as the games they create. In the case of CoX, most of the developers are actually pivotal actors in the game they've helped create. In an effort to transcend their digital personas, the several members of the CoX crew will be hosting a Meet and Greet event at the Dave 'n Busters in the Great Mall of the Bay in central California. In addition to just being able to talk shop with the developers (which I'm sure they never get enough of), there will be food, drinks, games, and prizes galore.The list of attendees includes such fan favorites as Lead Designer Matt "Positron" Miller and Melissa "War Witch" Bianco as well as special guest David Nakayama, of Top Cow Comics fame. There will also be a raffle for one of ten character sketches by Nakayama. The event takes place on November 30th and is restricted to the first 200 people who sign up via their online form. So sign up, check it out, and send us some pictures! We'd love to know how the event goes.
Slashing up CoX
AmazingMOO (not our amazing Moo, but another one) put up a very cool post on the CoX forums a while back. He listed off a slew of lesser known slash commands he found in the game. I spend at least some of my play time every time I log in reading the newspaper to catch up on the latest infoz. But did you know that these were also in the game? Yeah, I didn't either:/cmdlist: A list of all the /slash commands in the game/whereami: Let's you know what server and map you're currently logged into/copychat [tabname]: Copies the contents of a chat tab to the Windows keyboard/showfps: Lets you see your frame rate/whoall: Displays every player in the zone/cc #: Insert the number of the costume slot you want to switch to, and bam! Costume switched./unloadgfx: Having performance issues in Grandville? Try this command to clear things up.Have you encountered any slash commands you find useful in the game?
Building a better MMOusetrap: Buildings, barrens and beyond (Part 1)
I spent the last two years living in the UK with an architecture enthusiast, and we often got into debates about the functionality and aesthetics about architecture and design. As such I began doing a bit of personal research on the topic, but filtered it down into a view on my own extra-curricular exploits. It was through this that I found a number of papers related to architectural choices in video games and virtual worlds, some are now a little outdated as they were written in the early days of true 3D gaming, but some hold true even to today. The main point, being that the decisions being made by developers are not simply held to aesthetics, but often have classical themes of architecture and planning intertwined into the building of our online cities. MMO architecture is something I think can define, both the enjoyment, and popularity of the game in the same way that the ease of use of its interface can cause people to love it or leave it. And I think designers and developers are starting to believe this as well, looking at the cities, towns, hamlets and mega-cities of games are starting to feel more like real places instead of just something that serves in game function. This isn't something that is only tied into a single MMO genre either, games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest and Final Fantasy XI all draw on well-known fantasy architectural schemes, City of Heroes/Villains uses a lot of real world and comic influences, and games such as Eve Online tie into popular sci-fi conventions. That being said, these games are not simply drawing from norms, but also are utilizing individual ideas and designs, there are influences of lore and unique design in all of the above mentioned games.
The Digital Continuum: Sci-Fi, Looking Back
Where are my friggin' virtual hover craft? Where are the energy swords and teleportation devices? I'm not talking about botched attempts and broken promises. I know that redemption is a possibility and that my childhood dreams could come to fruition. I'm also very sure that anyone who gives two tugs of a dead dog's -- well, anyone who cares about the sci-fi genre of MMOs knows a bit about most of the past attempts. If you're going to make an MMO that focuses on the freedom of combat, trade and exploration in space well that's just peachy! However what you still have to remember is that a lot of us sci-fi nuts (and there are a lot of us) want more than just warp, mine, trade, dog-fight and repeat. Now I'm not knocking the types of players in EVE Online or the stick-jockeys playing Jumpgate and looking forward to its upcoming sequel. You see it's also not enough for many of us (or perhaps this is just me) to just focus on a sci-fi version of what we basically have with any standard fantasy MMO game. You have to include both space and land at launch to entice and possibly please me. Am I asking a lot of developers? I don't think I'm asking very much by current industry standards. So where do we start to get to this nirvana of sci-fi MMOs? Well, there are some good lessons to learn from the past and one game comes to mind specifically.Earth and Beyond launched on September 24, 2002 to average reviews. One of Earth and Beyond's largest issues became content and its eventual updates. This was likely due to Westwood Studios being half the studio it was before the (first of many) Electronic Arts acquisition. Unfortunately for the die hard fans of E&B, the game servers were shutdown due to an ever-declining subscriber base. This was far before the time when WoW roamed the land and MMOs were major-ultra cash cows in the eyes of industry moguls. This was the time of EverQuest and industry moguls who only desired to create a standard cash cow.
The Daily Grind: Good tutorial zones
One of the things we've noticed in jumping from game to game lately is how common tutorial zones have become. From EQ to Tabula Rasa, it seems common to have a tutorial now. As such, we thought it would be nice to touch on a few of the better tutorials for people new to MMOs.Probably one of my personal favorite tutorial zones is the one in EverQuest II -- now. The tutorial zones in EQ2 can get you into the swing of things fairly easily if you're not familiar with the game. Not only are there myriad quests designed to teach you what you need to know, but there are also tons of NPCs whose sole purpose is to give you tips and tricks about how things work in game. While the tutorial in other games such as EVE and CoX could be said to be roughly as good about telling you how things are, I simply don't think they're quite as much fun, or as chock full of quests to keep you engaged. (Although I will give props to CoH for having the Isolator badge in the tutorial.) A close runner up is the tutorial in LotRO, which drops you smack into the middle of the lore and story that people play that game for while doing a good job of explaining the game. On the other hand, there's the problem of believability when it occurs to you that any low-level character wouldn't likely come out of a brush with a Ringwraith alive. While WoW may be the 800-pound-gorilla of MMOs right now, I do honestly think their newbie zones could stand to be instanced like many other games are. Why? Because if you're new, there's nothing that will turn you off quite a quickly as being ganked and corpse-camped in a noob area when you're level 3 and you're dealing with players who are easily ten times your level. (Yes, I've been corpse camped in WoW's new-player areas by opposite-faction griefers.) Games with distinct, separate tutorial areas save new players from this hassle while they're getting used to just what those shiny new buttons do. There are many other things that we love and hate about tutorials in MMOs, but we'll skip off those for now or this will quickly become a novel. Instead we're curious what you think. What do you love about the tutorial zones in the games you play? What do you absolutely hate? Is there something an older game did better than the newer games you've experienced? Which is your favorite? Let us know!
Yesterday on Massively: November 13, 2007
It's been a busy day on Massively, with the latest EverQuest and EverQuest II expansions, a new patch for World of Warcraft, and a new release candidate for Second Life. Oh, and don't forget our continuing run of exciting contests! For those of you unable to keep up with the days' news around here, we've compiled them into this handy collection of links. Contests WoW giveaway winners Massively's Massive Giveaways: EVE Online Massively's Massive Giveaways: EVE Online, part 2 Massively's Massive Giveaways: EVE Online, part 3 Massively's Massive Giveaways: EVE Online, part 4 Features Cinemassively: Mask One Shots: We miss Halloween Discussion Vanity, thy name is Pet It's as if millions of MMO gamers cried out... Slave to the 'ding' Making fun be worth it
One Shots: We miss Halloween
Oh, how we miss Halloween. There were cool events going on in every MMO and the worlds seem so drab without their holiday splendor. However, at least we can relive the fun in screenshots like this one, taken by our own Krystalle Voecks in City of Heroes, where a group of adventurers are taking down Eochai for a Hallow's Eve event. And it's more than fun and games here: Krystalle tells us that this is how she spends time with her brother (the black cyborg) despite living far away. Do you have a screenshot of your own that you think expresses a unique or memorable moment in your favorite MMO? Send them to us with a description (including game name and location) and you may see it posted here for tomorrow's One Shots. %Gallery-9798%
CoX fan service goodies go live Dec. 10th
As part of the announcement that NCsoft was purchasing the rights to the City of Heroes franchise from Cryptic Studios, the development team revealed that they were going to roll out some fun stuff for players to thank them for their continued support and patience in the coming time of transition. The first perk came the day the of the announcement, when players who only owned City of Heroes or City of Villains were granted access to both games.Well the team has lifted the veil on the second phase of gaming goodies, revealing that the prestige grant and debt wipe will be taking place a little less than a month from now, on December 10th. As part of the announcement, Supergroups will be receiving 20,000 prestige for each member they have on the day of the grant. They're also encouraging players to be as spectacularly reckless as possible, since all debt will be forgiven on the 10th. Don't you wish real life were like games sometimes -- who couldn't use an arbitrary debt wipe?
70 new badges in Issue 11
A full listing of the new 70 new badges available in City of Heroes and City of Villains is available on Badge-Hunter.com's site. While Issue 11's new badges are split into Exploration and Achievement areas, the vast majority seem to be focused on the new Ouroboros-based missions. I'll even give you a hint on where to find the Chrononaut badge: it's placed in a similar location to two of the badges found in Atlas Park. And don't forget that you can change or clear your badge title at any time. After all, why be known as a Keeper of Secrets when you can be perceived as Justice Incarnate?[Via Kill Ten Rats]
Is single-player content hurting MMORPGs?
The term "solo friendly" is commonly cited as a virtue of newer MMO titles. Many MMO related forums have threads such as this one over at MMORPG.com which discuss the "soloability" of player classes within an MMORPG. In fact many of the elements of games such as Everquest which players have complained about over the years such as "forced grouping," "camping spawns," or "racing for non-instanced content" have all but been removed from the most recent MMORPG releases.When was the last time you saw two guilds racing to kill the same mob in World of Warcraft? How many of you have spent more than 30 minutes on a corpse recovery in City of Heroes? (That is a trick question, since there is no need to recover your corpse in that game.)
Issue 11 adventures in beta
Omnitron of the Central Nexus spent some time the other day to give us his thoughts and experiences in the Issue 11 beta for CoX. He gives us some great insights into what we can expect when the update hits. First of all, he lets us know that Willpower is awesome. Every brawler and scrapper out there is going to want to pick up that power set. A note of interest I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is the 42-month veteran reward he found on the test server. Rather than simply getting the Fervent badge, players now receive the Assemble the Team power, which summons your entire team to you once every 30-minutes. If that isn't an incentive to keep your account active, I don't know what is. He lets us know that there's some potential weirdness down the line with the time travel Ouroboros missions. It seems that since you are deleveling down to say level 9 and are running around Paragon City weak as can be, turning in the mission could be challenging, since you have to get to a special island to do so. You might need to be sidekicked or something in order to complete your task. It sounds a little weird, and hopefully it will get ironed out before the Issue pushes through to the live servers. As Issue 11 nears, we'll keep an eye out on any further information and let you know.
The Daily Grind: Best character creation
In all the games we've played, that's one thing we've often heard about. Many people from the earliest days, wanted ways of making themselves stand apart from the others. EverQuest introduced dyes to allow you to change your armor color, but many felt that wasn't enough. The community called for more and more ways to set themselves apart from the others in their MMO of choice. Some MMO makers have done a good job. Others, not so much. That said, this morning we wanted to ask what your favorite character creation in an MMO is? For me, personally, I'd have to say my top 2 would be: Second Life - You can control every single aspect of your avatar. This is, of course, why mine looks like Picasso's cubist rendition of someones really ugly little sister. (I can't figure that system out to save my life.) It is, unfortunately, the downside of having a system that customizable for people who aren't good at that kind of thing. Unless you get an artist or friend to hook you up, you'll always remain the ugly duckling in a land full of swans. City of Heroes (and more recently, City of Villains) which just seems so packed full of costume changes that it can take you an hour or more to even make a character the first time you sit down with that character generator. I still say it's the best mini-game ever. Add in veteran rewards like trench coats and capes at level 20, and it just gets better as you go along. Now I know I haven't touched on many other games, and I'm sure some people are sharpening their pitchforks now so they can tell me SL isn't a game. (Okay, it's a virtual world -- but it does have a character creator) So I leave it up to you. What are some of your favorites for character creation? Have you seen any that gave you highly powerful creation up front? Which ones have you spent hours in?
CoX's Sean "Manticore" Fish returns from hiatus
As an unexpected benefit of NCsoft's recent acquisition of City of Heroes, old friend and story designer Sean "Manticore" Fish has returned to the public light, retaking his position as a contributor to the lore and overall story for City of Heroes. About a year ago, Manticore took a position working on an unnamed MMO project within NCsoft. By virtue of the relationship between Cryptic and NCsoft at the time, this meant that his contributions to the CoX franchise were indirect, if there indeed were any at all. Now that the franchise is secure in NCsoft's loving embrace, the erstwhile developer can finally be an open part of the community again, though curiously we've learned little about what he's being doing in the interim.The general consensus on the official forum is a resounding "HUZZAH!" If you feel like giving Manticore some welcome back love, head over to the official forum thread and say hello. It's sure been a great week for the CoX community, hasn't it?
