Game's Development

[Ironblade]

8 hours ago, Weegyboard said:

just wondering if the games still having content added onto it/a roadmap is around to see whats in stock for us. cheers!

They just added an entire task force (okay, technically a 'strike force') which, in my opinion, is far better than most of the existing task forces.  One of the developers commented that this was his primary task for most of this year.  So, yes, content is being developed and some of it is shockingly good.

 

As for a road map, a lot of games just don't do this because if they miss a deadline they get yelled at.  Or if something is deemed impractical (or impossible) they get yelled at.

[Greycat]

2 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

As for a road map, a lot of games just don't do this because if they miss a deadline they get yelled at.  Or if something is deemed impractical (or impossible) they get yelled at.

 

I'm pretty sure the team's mentioned "We wanted to do this, started looking into / doing it, then found it wouldn't work" a few times (on unannounced things.) So this isn't theoretical.

[Albion]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

 

I'm pretty sure the team's mentioned "We wanted to do this, started looking into / doing it, then found it wouldn't work" a few times (on unannounced things.) So this isn't theoretical.

They also get yelled at, whatever they do or not do, so probably immune to it by now.

[SaintD]

For whatever sins you might want to level at the Homecoming development branch (there are other City of Heroes servers out there), it certainly can't be said that development isn't active.

 

Another aspect of current development is the lack of 'profeshunal garms develoopmnt!' handwringing about various quality of life changes and fixes players always wanted but Live development never even took a first look at.

 

CoH is less roadblocky and more "Meh, I guess if that's how you like it" than the For-Profit Live version EVER was.

 

EDIT: Also, these guys seem to easily be 'professional standard' in their understanding and use of the game engine/programming. They seem to be habitually doing stuff the Live team couldn't or wouldn't, and pulling their hair out trying to untangle clumps of insane, kludged together code made by the 'professionals' to fix obscure and weird bugs buried in there like ticks.

Edited November 30, 2021 by SaintD

[BurtHutt]

The game is being handled like a paid Dev team is at the helm. The product has regular updates, fixes and QoL improvements. Honestly, it's quite impressive for a free game. I'm not liking all of the material being added but that's my opinion - I'm still impressed with how professional the Dev team is and how well this is running. 

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, Albion said:

They also get yelled at, whatever they do or not do, so probably immune to it by now.

 

I hope they are, because I think the Homecoming DEVs and team has and is doing a great job.

They are providing a game that I loved that was ruined by P2W and made it even better by many of their changes.

I am very glad to be able to play CoH gain.

 

Thank you, Homecoming DEVs and team.

[UltraAlt]

8 hours ago, Weegyboard said:

get invested in a storylines thats been started then never finished.

 

The game has never released unfinished story arcs - that I know of.

There are continuations of storylines at some points, but all storyline arcs are released as a whole and have a completion.

 

[Greycat]

7 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

The game has never released unfinished story arcs - that I know of.

There are continuations of storylines at some points, but all storyline arcs are released as a whole and have a completion.

 

 

Yeah. Story arcs and story *lines* are two different things, definitely, and there are hooks and mentions and such that were around for years and never touched again on live - because "we brought in new devs and wanted them to do their own thing, not continue someone else's" (not the exact quote, but close enough - fairly sure it was from Posi.)

 

The mentions of Gadzul Oil - and the eye of Horus in the oil spill in Oakes - stick in mind to me. They were there to lead into the Blood of the Black Stream, they've been there since COV went live (Mr. Bocor makes mention of Gadzul Oil, for instance) - and they never went anywhere. (Honestly, the BotBS reference goes back even *further,* as they had an early contest for a CCG card made of a player, and when they picked a winner, they tweaked the reference to refer to it as well - and that, as I recall, was done by the time I joined in i3.)

 

Now, granted, BotBS was supposed to be another Epic AT, so there's a lot more involved than just a storyline (and I seem to recall another dev - maybe Castle, for some reason I have manti come to mind - say they tried to bring them up to be worked on a few times,) but still... dropped and ignored. (Supposed to be tech/magic, shapeshifters, going back to ancient Egypt, turning the earth into or using it as a sort of giant supercomputer via nodes like the one in Oakes - think ley lines, as I recall.)

 

Delving into "really obscure you wouldn't know they were clues to content," the last Hollows mission from WIncott, when you're retrieving artifacts - some of them point to dropped items, like the surprisingly light skull ("like it's hollow") was supposed to be an Avilian (the AT that was dropped when they figured out how to just give wings to players as a costume part,) and in Striga, one of the missions has you rescue some oceanographers and a "something" they brought up - which was an early reference to the Virtea, supposed to be an undersea race enslaved by and serving the Coralax, but that reference (and EAT) was dropped as well, though we did get them as NPCs in COV (including Barracuda.)

 

There are a *lot* of hooks in the game that never got paid off, even in live. But if an arc gets in, it didn't even get through beta without being a complete arc.

[UltraAlt]

8 hours ago, Greycat said:

Yeah. Story arcs and story *lines* are two different things

 

I beg to differ.

A Story Arc contains a complete story. The story line for the arc is completed at the end of the arc.

 

A Story Line is "the plot of a novel, play, movie, or other narrative form." Note that this is linked to one set project and not trilogy or series.

 

So, by your definition, no storyline can ever be completed. I would argue based on your definition that the storyline could not even end with the entire destruction of the universe that the storyline is set in as there is always plot lines and characters that can be extrapolated from the story that can have their own stories and prehistory that could be explored.

 

I stick with my standing that complete "stories" are released as story arcs.

A good AE story arc should as well have a final mission that wraps up the story for that story arc even if there is a continuation with another story arc.

 

We have "short stories", and we have series. Often they build upon one another, but the individual "stories" have their conclusions even if there is an additional "cliff hanger" tacked onto the end to tease the reader/viewer/listen to eagerly await the next project's arrival. You can have stand-alone short stories that are simply part of the same character or the same universe and how the characters interact in that universe, but they otherwise can or don't necessarily have any impact upon one other even in a chronological sense. Simply because they have the same characters or the same universe doesn't really mean that they are part of the same story line even if there is some thread of familiarity.

Like a story arc, a story had a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

 

Story lines by your definition never have an end and, really, they have no beginning either. They is simply a starting point and everything branches out forward, backwards, and sideways from there is the story line.

 

It's a matter of point of view.

I'm saying to the OP that story arcs are complete stories.

You are telling me that story lines are never-ending plot threads.

 

9 hours ago, Greycat said:

(Honestly, the BotBS reference goes back even *further,* as they had an early contest for a CCG card made of a player, and when they picked a winner, they tweaked the reference to refer to it as well - and that, as I recall, was done by the time I joined in i3.)

 

Issue 6 -  "Along Came a Spider" - October 27, 2005

City of Heroes CCG - January 2006 - (discontinued)  February 2007

Issue 7 - "Destiny Manifest" - June 6, 2006

 

9 hours ago, Greycat said:

There are a *lot* of hooks in the game that never got paid off, even in live. But if an arc gets in, it didn't even get through beta without being a complete arc.

 

Yes. Exactly my point. A story arc is a complete story/arc.

 

There can be more added to anything, but the story arc itself is a complete storyline. Beginning, middle, and end - unto itself.

[RogerWilco]

On 11/29/2021 at 5:54 PM, Weegyboard said:

and how much story content i should expect to find ingame! forgot to mention that. 

 

I have played this game for two years on live, and 2 years since it is back and there are still many, many missions I have never seen. The content is HUGE, although not all of it is good, there are plenty of gems if you look past the dated graphics and lack of voice overs. I can highly recommend Going Rogue (Praetoria, First Ward, Night Ward), it has a lot of well written stories and interesting moral choices.

 

I have already put certainly over a thousand hours into this game, and there are more things I have not seen than that I have. This game easily has thousands of hours of content, and every few months this still gets actively expanded. And most of the things added in the last 2 years are very good content, the quality level of the current developers is very high, maybe because it is a labour of love and nobody is getting paid.

 

And next to that there is Architect Entertainment, where players can make their own stories. Some are the best I've played yet.

Edited December 1, 2021 by RogerWilco

[Ironblade]

2 hours ago, RogerWilco said:

I have played this game for two years on live, and 2 years since it is back and there are still many, many missions I have never seen.

I played for 7 years on live and since HC brought it back and I still run into missions I have never seen before.

Every so often, I encounter an entire MAP that I'm not familiar with.

[Albion]

Talking of content and AE missions, if you never played this one, you have not lived (inside the game)

[biostem]

On 11/29/2021 at 11:51 AM, Weegyboard said:

Is the game still in active dev by the players? i've been searching through the patchnotes and such and it seems like a yes, but i want to ask the more veteran members of the community. the game's really catching my interest but i don't want to get invested in a revival thats not going to be updated in a few months. so yeah. just wondering if the games still having content added onto it/a roadmap is around to see whats in stock for us. cheers!

I'm somewhat confused by your post - play the game if you find it fun, and stop whenever it ceases to be so.  A large portion of the story arcs are self-contained, and indeed do conclude.  There are some over-arching stories that were never concluded, (I think there was going to be more Incarnate content, Primordials, etc, that wasn't completed), but that doesn't mean what we do have cannot be thoroughly enjoyed...

[wjrasmussen]

1 hour ago, Ironblade said:

I played for 7 years on live and since HC brought it back and I still run into missions I have never seen before.

Every so often, I encounter an entire MAP that I'm not familiar with.

I too am getting older and forgetting a lot.

[gamingglen]

On 11/29/2021 at 11:51 AM, Weegyboard said:

Is the game still in active dev by the players? i've been searching through the patchnotes and such and it seems like a yes, but i want to ask the more veteran members of the community. the game's really catching my interest but i don't want to get invested in a revival thats not going to be updated in a few months. so yeah. just wondering if the games still having content added onto it/a roadmap is around to see whats in stock for us. cheers!

 

this is one of those buttons for me...  invest?  just playing a game?   gimme a break

 

I invested real money into a game store. It's been a struggle to keep going for 20 years and Covid still may be the final nail.  THAT'S INVESTING.

 

Playing a game is not investing. Yes, you spend your time, but not blood (when you move and some shelving falls and rips your hand open), sweat, money and tears.  

 

Even if there weren't any updates I'd be playing this game. The updates are just adding more whip cream to the dessert. *yum*  

[Ironblade]

10 hours ago, wjrasmussen said:

I too am getting older and forgetting a lot.

Don't make me come over there!

Because, by the time I get there, I'll forget why I was going there.

And get off my lawn!

[Greycat]

16 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I beg to differ.

A Story Arc contains a complete story. The story line for the arc is completed at the end of the arc.

 

 I'm going to point you at the HC wiki, with *the game's definition of a story arc.*

 

 

Quote

 

Overview

Story Arcs are special setups in the game that reveal a piece of the story content over a series of missions from a contact. The number of missions can be small or large, but all story arcs function as their own story within the story of the game, or expand on the story of the game.

 

 

Since I'm talking about the game. I'm obviously using the game's definition.

 

So. For instance. Praetoria has an overarching storyline the player goes through. That story *line* is made up of several story *arcs.*

 

Does that clarify things?

 

[UltraAlt]

So I will do likewise.

 

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

The number of missions can be small or large, but all story arcs function as their own story

 

I don't see "storyline" in the statement you posted.

 

Thanks for clearing it up.

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by UltraAlt