City of Heroes Lead Designer Matt Miller wrote a letter to the game's player base today detailing a change in the planned update, Issue 13: Architect that will see the Mission Architect feature removed (to be published in Issue 14) and the name of the update changed to Issue 13: Power and Responsibility.

Good morning! When we announced Issue 13: Architect a couple weeks back, we were overwhelmed by the positive response. Much of the feedback was centered around the Mission Architect system which allows players to create their own missions and story arcs. We have been actively following forum threads and private messages about the feature, and have even discussed it with players in person at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.

It became apparent that you guys really want this feature, but in order to fully realize your dreams of writing your own missions you need creative control in one more key area: The ability to create “customized” characters to fight with or against in your missions. Adding custom characters has always been on our Mission Architect feature list, but we had considered it a “stretch goal.” That is, we could launch the system without this feature because our confidence was high that the rest of the system was incredibly robust.

Read the letter here.

I'll admit that I'm slightly disappointed that we won't see the Mission Architect feature for a few more months, I'm happy about a few things:

• There's plenty of cool & innovative ideas that are going to be released soon.
• We really won't have to wait all that much longer for the Mission Architect (MA).
• The devs saw that the MA needed more time to cook and is not only allowing for that, but are also releasing what can be released.

The future is bright, my friends.  CoH/V continues to be an innovative leader in MMOs.

THis gives me time to play WAR!  The mission building was something I really wanted to play around with.

Originally posted by Stradden

City of Heroes Lead Designer Matt Miller wrote a letter to the game's player base today detailing a change in the planned update, Issue 13: Architect that will see the Mission Architect feature removed (to be published in Issue 14) and the name of the update changed to Issue 13: Power and Responsibility.

Good morning! When we announced Issue 13: Architect a couple weeks back, we were overwhelmed by the positive response. Much of the feedback was centered around the Mission Architect system which allows players to create their own missions and story arcs. We have been actively following forum threads and private messages about the feature, and have even discussed it with players in person at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.

It became apparent that you guys really want this feature, but in order to fully realize your dreams of writing your own missions you need creative control in one more key area: The ability to create “customized” characters to fight with or against in your missions. Adding custom characters has always been on our Mission Architect feature list, but we had considered it a “stretch goal.” That is, we could launch the system without this feature because our confidence was high that the rest of the system was incredibly robust.

Read the letter here.

I hope when they get the mission system up and running it alleviates some of the mind numbing grind of this game.

I just wish someone would tell him that we don't "take a new tact," we "take a  new tack."  "Tact" is politeness and diplomacy; "tack" is a direction that a ship takes against the wind.  Thus, when a ship had to change direction in order to counter a contrary wind, it was "taking a new tack."

Do I have to know everything around here?

Hmm the "job" system to me is flawed, at least from a toons biography and a RP point of view.

The day jobs as they call them are just too limited.

How many people created there bio or RP as a corporate big wig or playboy that likes to give a little back as a super powered hero...just like batman and ironman.

What if your RP toon was always a law enforcer and his RP day job was a cop, cant you log out in a police station?

What about working for the enemy in the day....a crey lab tech in the day and super powered do gooder at night risking his neck to bring out creys' dirty goings on

Then there a newspaper man in the day and a protector of innocents at night...just like superman and spiderman.

How about in the entertainment biz in the day like a DJ , dancer or even  just a bar tender/waitress in pocket D.

I could go on and on but I think I've made my point.

So yea...I'm a little disappointed about the delay on Architect too.  I was REALLY looking forward to getting deep into this and seeing what others brought to the table as well.  Plus the competitions and perks that will go along with making some of the best missions (it almost seems like a mini-superhero SPORE). 

BUT hopefully, the delay simply really does mean that it is going to be even more....AWESOMMMME! when it releases at the top of the year.  Until then, the pairing up permanently with a friend is on point and being able to carry two power sets...nice...wow, I think that CoH is like a 50 year old beating the $h!t out of all of these 20 year old MMO's in the triathalon of bringing us new and fresh content to keep us entertained. 

But hold on!!!

...actively checking our private messages?  Man, I better stop "RP-ing" in the D! 

These changes are awesome.

I think that CoH may now be one of the most feature complete MMORPGs on the market now (after issue 13) in terms of options it offers to the player.

Balancing PvE and PvP seperately? Fantastic! Other MMORPGs say that this would take too much developer time and resources to accomplish.

Day Jobs? Sometimes I go off to play other games, and it would be great to have my subscription running and when I get back to the game I have One MILLION dollars!! Muuhahha! Okies. maybe not so much. But..hey witht he cost of IOs  now why not!

Synchronised leveling? Geez...that's so fantastic. Totally gets rid of the issue of needinga  seperate character to play with if you are in a Duo team. What I wonder, is whether you can sync to another character on your own account? THis would mean that when I want to start a new character I can get to where I want to be powers wise quickly :-)

These changes are excellent, kudos to the team!

Originally posted by Gel214th

Synchronised leveling? Geez...that's so fantastic. Totally gets rid of the issue of needinga  seperate character to play with if you are in a Duo team. What I wonder, is whether you can sync to another character on your own account? THis would mean that when I want to start a new character I can get to where I want to be powers wise quickly :-)

This would be great for an acute altitis sufferer (enjoyer?) like me. No matter which toon I was on - they'd all be leveling! But here I go getting my hopes up... 

Originally posted by themilton

Originally posted by Gel214th

Synchronised leveling? Geez...that's so fantastic. Totally gets rid of the issue of needinga  seperate character to play with if you are in a Duo team. What I wonder, is whether you can sync to another character on your own account? THis would mean that when I want to start a new character I can get to where I want to be powers wise quickly :-)

 

This would be great for an acute altitis sufferer (enjoyer?) like me. No matter which toon I was on - they'd all be leveling! But here I go getting my hopes up... 

I think it will be just like the current grouping and SK system....if the toon you want to sync with is not online to start the process then it just isn't going to happen.

Still a pretty good update, just might resuscribe

Originally posted by Fa+e

But hold on!!!

...actively checking our private messages?  Man, I better stop "RP-ing" in the D! 

I think they meant PMs sent to the devs on the forums.

The Day Job feature should really take off on Virtue or for anyone really into roleplaying.  It fits with the theme of the game, so it's a nice addition.  I'll have to see the details to figure out what my MM does when he's not creating chaos.

A tad disappointed that the mission creator was delayed, but if the delay is to add customization for mobs that's ok.   I'd rather they take their time and release it when it's ready than just throw it out "as is" and patch it later on.

Originally posted by jinxit

Hmm the "job" system to me is flawed, at least from a toons biography and a RP point of view.

The day jobs as they call them are just too limited.

How many people created there bio or RP as a corporate big wig or playboy that likes to give a little back as a super powered hero...just like batman and ironman.  log out at wentworth's, or portal corp?  not sure what all buildings there are blueside...  maybe a vanguard base?

What if your RP toon was always a law enforcer and his RP day job was a cop, cant you log out in a police station?  you could log out inside the cop shop?  like in KR where you go inside the cop shop... or again a vanguard base?

What about working for the enemy in the day....a crey lab tech in the day and super powered do gooder at night risking his neck to bring out creys' dirty goings on  not sure about this one, where a crey crib would be blue side... you could work for portal corp...

Then there a newspaper man in the day and a protector of innocents at night...just like superman and spiderman.   again, not real familiar with blue side buildings... i think red side has a wspd building, you might not be able to be in it, but you could be on top of it.

 

How about in the entertainment biz in the day like a DJ , dancer or even  just a bar tender/waitress in pocket D.   pocket d? or that easter egg club in faultline?

I could go on and on but I think I've made my point.   not really.  i like to complain as much as the next guy, but um, you're reaching here.

wonder what you are if you log out at the pyramid casino building?

too bad they don't put out a list of what to expect...

what gets me is that they're cutting out a HUGE chunk of i13, which was supposed to be a HUGE issue to make up for i12 being so small.... but they're still going to end up taking 6-9 months to put out i13 and it's not having the base upgrades OR the mission builder? 

again, don't get me wrong, i'm glad they are adding new functionality; honestly though, if they were going to release two small issues... couldn't they have done it sooner rather than later?

do they not have an "in the works" section where they could put projects they're working on and the anticipated issue or something?

i honestly don't know if i'm happy, sad, or just bleh with 'city of'.   guess i'm still waiting for the underwater adventures/cities, space stations and moonbases...  

Well with Day Jobs I'm sure when I13 hits, we will see a more detailed list of logging out where does what.  Of course, they may not list a few as surprises or "hidden" day jobs too.

The reason they cut out the Mission Creator in I13 was due to player feedback.  The players loved the idea, but wanted the ability to customized their own villain mobs.  This is a significant addition to the Creator, doubtful something they can just tack on.  Instead of us just picking, say Freaks, and the game uses existing animations and AI, custom mobs have a whole slew of possible coding issues.  So they said Q1 2009 for the Creator with a new addition of customized mobs.  I can wait for that.

So I think this is more of a reaction to player wants rather than any issues on their end.  If only more companies were more "in tune" with their playerbase.

Originally posted by DrowNoble

Well with Day Jobs I'm sure when I13 hits, we will see a more detailed list of logging out where does what.  Of course, they may not list a few as surprises or "hidden" day jobs too.

The reason they cut out the Mission Creator in I13 was due to player feedback.  The players loved the idea, but wanted the ability to customized their own villain mobs.  This is a significant addition to the Creator, doubtful something they can just tack on.  Instead of us just picking, say Freaks, and the game uses existing animations and AI, custom mobs have a whole slew of possible coding issues.  So they said Q1 2009 for the Creator with a new addition of customized mobs.  I can wait for that.

So I think this is more of a reaction to player wants rather than any issues on their end.  If only more companies were more "in tune" with their playerbase.

This custom Villian aspect gets to the Arch enemy issue that Champions Online will have built in from the start. I think this is better, cause we will have creative control over the majority of content. The only thing we can't do is make unique maps, and unique general mobs.  

Although custom maps sounds good, that is a little TOO much detail for my tastes.  I'm already going to be designing new villain mobs, setting up the mission layout, npc dialogue, etc.   Last thing I want is to have to place every single chair, box and rock.

Though this should be really good when it comes out, NCSoft hasn't disappointed when it comes to Issues.

I'm looking forward to the Multi-Builds most myself. I've wanted a wider range of powers for a long time. What would be really great is if you could have five builds per toon so you could play your toon as each of the archetypes.

So now that Open Beta is in progress, how do you all feel about the changes?

There are a couple minor things that caused me to raise an eyebrow, but for the most part I am pleased!