General Discussion

Managing Editor Jon Wood recently had the chance to speak to Matt “Positron” Miller, the Lead Designer on City of Heroes and City of Villains, to get the latest details on their upcoming content expansion, Issue 11: A Stitch in Time.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Matt "Positron" Miller, the Lead Designer on Cryptic Studios' City of Heroes and City of Villains to talk about the upcoming Issue 11: A Stitch in Time as well as some of the other things going on lately.

Obviously, the biggest feature of this new issue (for those who don't know, CoX releases free major updates called Issues... like comic books. It's clever) is the ability to travel through time. It isn't terribly surprising that CoX is going this route, after all time travel is a staple of comic books and sci-fi.

Oroboros Missions

Missions that allow characters to travel through time are called Oroboros Missions. Naturally, the first question I was what Oroboros meant. To be honest, it sounded to me like one of these silly fantasy-style names that really don't have any meaning. Matt set me straight, informing me that it is actually the proper name for that classic image of a serpent eating its own tail. He told me that the symbol represents infinity. There's more info available on this symbol on Wikipedia. Matt told me that this was the perfect name for the Menders of Oroboros, as it represents the classic time paradox of the end creating the beginning. "Like if someone went back in time and became his own father."

Read the full interview here.

The statement....

And any claim that we're getting content sooner, would have to come from comparisons made to issue 7's and 8's extremely long development timeframes due almost exclusively to the introductions and re-introductions of so many bugs that quite a few players just un-subscribed entirely.

Wow, there is no bitterness like a bitter gamer :) Somehow I doubt he was being intentionally misleading, anyway you'd have to be a mind reader to know that for sure ;).  I'm just so excited about this bad ass free game update that  I refuse to be critical about it.  City of Awesome rules.

Yes the post by Iller seems to be misleading not the comments by Posi. 

The thing was Issue  6 coincided with the release of CoV, so it kinda went overlooked.  Due to CoV itself, issues were less frequent since CoV itself added a lot of content.  When Issue 7 came out it was pretty much a villain patch.  So this "dry spell" was resolved by speeding up the pace of further issues.  Before CoV we had 5 issues in about a year and a half, which averaged to about every 4 months.  CoV threw us off track, but 2007 we're back on track as Posi said.

Plus players haven't been unsubscribing, NCSoft has reported an increase in subscriptions. 

Plus players haven't been unsubscribing, NCSoft has reported an increase in subscriptions.

They're not mutually exclusive conditions.  Many players have cancelled accounts (I closed 2 more than 2 years ago).  Subs may be up, but not by veterans who left the game in disgust over the direction the idiot devs were (and are) taking it.

I am looking most forward to having the different weapon options so not everyone has the same broadsword, etc.

Oddly enough, the only aspect of the issue that wasn't mentioned here, I believe.

What direction are the idiot devs taking it? Just to re-count some of the things introduced in the last year...

Safeguard missions idiotic? No, villains had it all for a while and finally heroes got a crack at this really fun mission style. Maybe not AS fun as robing the bank and blowing up cars. But still very fun.

Faultline Re-design idiotic? No. Faultline was dead, nobody went there. Now it's got some fantastic story-arcs and is one of the better low-mid level zones in the game now.

Pocket D idiotic? No. The events that take place there are a blast. Monkey fighting and things like that are a crack and offer variety to a game that really needed it.

Veteran Rewards idiotic? No. While they are not all arguably that fantastic. They give long time players graphical and fun-factor advantages. Wings, trench-coats, base items, extra powers, all add variety to the game.

Inventions idiotic? NO. They added an out-of-combat activity, tremendous depth to perhaps the deepest character advancement system in an MMOG since Anarchy Online. Tuns of fun and actual loot that doesn't completely unbalance the game. Gave the game an actual market, and gave vets a reason to spend those millions they never used besides doing costume contests.

Hammy re-design idiotic? No. It is WAY more fun then it ever was. Before it was 'ah hope I don't get a crappy HO, ugh this raid is boring. Now it takes whit and tactic and is really enjoyable.

Rikti Invasion idiotic? No. It was an absolute blast. Sure laggy if you were on a high pop server during peak time, but fun as hell.

New Ritki Warzone idiotic? No. It again is great fun. The rewards for completing story-arcs are very nice. The hero/villain taskforce is a freaking blast. The new Rikti design is great. The tileset is really enjoyable.

and upcoming things...

Flashback system idiotic? No. It's been asked for by vets and other players for ever. It's about time really. I can finally go back and get that Pwnz badge. YAY! Not only that, but there will be 'flashback' content that is new. Experience the FIRST rikti invasion. Theres even flashback content taken directly from the games comic book releases. Fantastic!

New Powersets idiotic? Two new this, typically one or more in almost every issue going back more then a year now, hell yea I'll take it. :) Bout time melee got some attention.

New 'very rare' inventions idiotic? No, they give you even more customization power, and give vets something to spend them time on again. Yay for high end content.

Weapon Custumization idiotic? HELL NO. Give me the ability to choose my own weapon 'style' for each power set with a weapon? Better yet, new customizations you have to earn? That's all the better!

Maybe your someone who quit after a year or so when Statesman was really getting into his 'nerf' mood and the game had gone from really fun and unique and good customization, but hardly deep at all and the base system not at all what it was cracked up to be (even he has said they spent a TUN of time on that, and it's basically never used by the community.) But man since Posi took over as lead dev after CoX came out, the game has done NOTHING but get better. New content, MUCH more depth, broader scope, and even more character advancement customization and the ability to truly set yourself apart from the hordes of fellow heroes and villains.

POSITRON!

Yes weapon customization is probably the coolest part of the new issue although I'm also very much looking forward to the two new power sets. Guess that makes me an idiot for playing an idiotic game made for and by idiotic people having fun and/or getting rich.

Originally posted by Bahman

 

 

 

Yes weapon customization is probably the coolest part of the new issue although I'm also very much looking forward to the two new power sets. Guess that makes me an idiot for playing an idiotic game made for and by idiotic people having fun and/or getting rich.

Tho I really look forward to time travel as well. I'm absolutely in love with the first Ghost Widow story line (where you have to warn her and help Wretch) and can't wait to enjoy it again :)