General Discussion

Last week, we brought you an interview with Matt "Positron" Miller about the upcoming Issue 11 update from City of Heroes / Villains. Today, the folks behind the game have provided us with the story behind the new weapon customization that will make an appearance in Issue 11.

One of the most often requested features for the “City Of” games is power customization. We already offer some of the most extensive costume customization of any MMO on the market, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what our players desire. They want the ability to customize every single bit of their character, including how their powers look.

Unfortunately, the animation and effects system that City of Heroes was built on didn’t lend itself well to customizing power blasts or altering the color of the fire attacks. Numerous powers have baked-in elements that would require a nearly insurmountable effort to get power customization to work at the level our players have come to expect. When faced with this fact, we decided that we would much rather devote the animation and effects time into new powers and new effects than going back over older powers and giving them a purely cosmetic facelift.

When it came to adding new powers to the game, Jack Emmert, the Creative Director at Cryptic Studios, suggested that we poll the players to find out what they wanted in the way of powers. We knew we wanted to do a melee set and a defensive set so that the melee archetypes (Tankers, Scrappers, Brutes, and Stalkers) could get some much needed love. When we reviewed the results of the polls, the defensive set that the players wanted the most was Shields.

Read the whole article here.

Sounds awesome. I'm really looking forward to checking out the new weapon types!

Should be a nice addition, I like that they keep making the game better, as opposed to nerfing, which some game companies are in a habbit of doing...

Originally posted by airborne519

Should be a nice addition, I like that they keep making the game better, as opposed to nerfing, which some game companies are in a habbit of doing...

Now if NCsoft would just stop adding state tax to the monthly subscription charges I'd happily be back.

I can't wait to ditch my Battle Axe for the Rikti Axe on my Tank.

This Weapon Customization is a great addition to the game.

-Taz

Originally posted by sartorius

 

 

Now if NCsoft would just stop adding state tax to the monthly subscription charges I'd happily be back.

 

 

That's your STATE forcing them to charge it. Not NCSoft. Take that up w/ your state rep.

I can't wait to put the Carnival Mallet on my tank... works PERFECTLY with him (he's a freakin' clown!!)... though I'll have to remake him, but it's not that bad, he's still fairly new

Oh yes baby, thank you very much!

  I had no idea the full extent of what was going on with the Weapon Customization. I am totally amazed. I want issue 11 more than ever now !

Yeah taxes are the State's fault, NCSoft has no say in that. 

Some are still upset over the "nerf" to enhancements waaaayyy back when.  No more 6 damage slotting, you actually have to diversify and think about what you do.  Since then, the "nerfs" have been rather light by comparison to other games.  I know some got upset over the changes to Stealth, but overall it really didn't affect my Stalker or Scrapper w/Concealment that much.

Good thing I saved up costume tokens, looks like I'll be burning quite a few tweaking all my weapons.  Plus I need another char slot for my DB <whatever>.