A Question from The Homecoming Team

[Doc_Scorpion]

1 hour ago, wcubero383 said:

Why don't we have access to all the costume pieces used for villain NPCs?

Generally because they're custom art, not costume pieces.  That is, they're not designed to work with character customization system.

[CabooseCC]

I think it might be cool if there was a chance that crafted enhancements could be drops from some enemies.  I'm not sure what drop rate you'd want here, but it would be nice to have a fully crafted set enhancement to actually drop from an enemy.  Perhaps the chance could be lower vs a recipe, but it would still be nice.

[MetaVileTerror]

Page 26, Post 3.
When I first read https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/10784-another-update-from-the-homecoming-team/ , my apparently dyslexic self thought "Issue 26, Page 3" was a reference to the post in this very slot.  But since this thread was only on page 21 at the time, I reread that other post and realized my error.

 

I am very glad to hear of the commitment to the express goal of Homecoming remaining 100% free, not-for-profit, and donation-driven.  At the end of the day, this is the best news, frankly . . . but I know that my deep-seated passion for this game, and game development in general, leads me to want more.  I'm not demanding it as a need, and as privileged as I am, it's not entitlement which compels me to say:  I want Homecoming to be the best it can!

 

I've said it before in various places, but from my own personal experiences in the games industry, and life in general, I think that Homecoming offers all of us a nearly unique opportunity for positive, progressive change.  We can be the example which leads others to strive for a healthier development cycle.  We can be the community that works cooperatively to make our game something others look to as an exemplar.  We can be the gold-standard of the best player-driven MMORPG experience that others seek to emulate.
And we can do that by leaning in to City of Heroes' greatest strengths:  Player Agency and Choice.

 

We offer players the opportunity to make their characters uniquely their own.  We offer the community tools to shape their interactions.  These are what make City of Heroes the compelling and personal experience which so many are invested in.  What so many people furiously defended and cried out for during the Sunset Years.  What so many flocked to when the Whistle was Blown, and who keep coming back home as more people discover Homecoming.  We can read about their personal stories of how this game changed their lives in these forums and in so many other places online.  We can plainly see the sense of dedication and determination which so many people have for City of Heroes.

Maybe I'm seeing things that aren't really there; the community as a whole will need to verify or deny my claims, but I genuinely believe this game's greatest strengths are all the things which set it apart from "traditional" or "marketable" MMOs.  The paradigms of the corporate publisher system do not have our best interests at heart.  We can not afford to assume any of their "best practices" or "mandatory requirements" are legitimate.  We must re-evaluate those assumptions; determine their legitimacy as each individually applies to us.  We need to blaze our own path.  The opportunity has presented itself:  We now have the power to lead our own City of Heroes direction.

 

Since we're all human, and as humans we make mistakes, I strongly encourage the development of multiple subcommunities.  Multiple servers.  Connected by the greater community's passion for this game.  The best way to insulate City of Heroes from any future failures is to diversify and disseminate.  While there is a limited number of players, with a limited amount of time that they can dedicate to their chosen Shards or Servers, we can improve the longevity of all of them by keeping the flow of information free and open.  Let everyone share in the new developments, even if they don't intend to implement them on their personal servers.

Let's go Open Source.  Let's keep City of Heroes alive, for as long as there is even one person out there who wants to keep it alive.

[Panthonca7034]

In another thread somewhere else, someone mentioned NPC Archetype sets, but they were Primal Earth Focused. I have therefore come up with some Praetorian-based Archetype sets, like these:

 

LEAT: Loyalist Epic Archetype which can choose to turn Resistance, Hero, Vigilante, Villain or Rogue later if they so wish after level 20

PPD Officer/TEST Troop/Interrogator/Investigator
Imperial Defense Soldier/DUST Troop/Heavy Artillery Troop
Imperial Seer/Augur/Diviner

 

REAT: Resistance Epic Archetype which can choose to turn Loyalist, Hero, Vigilante, Villain or Rogue later if they so wish after level 20

Resistance Rifleman/Resistance Heavy Barrel/Commando
Resistance Pistol Gunner/Resistance Runesoldier/Infiltrator
Carnival of Light Attendant/Shining Mistress
Carnival of Light Acolyte/Eremite/Anchorite

 

This is just a rough concept which can be expanded, but either new Epic Pools could be made available, or these could just get access to either Epic or Patron pools.

Edited October 14, 2019 by Panthonca7034
grammar correction

[Wild Claw]

Just adding another thing, while it occurs to me:

 

Rectify the costume system. I know this isn't a little thing, I fully admit it's pretty big. But after years of additions and proliferation, of epics and npc pieces, of power customization and the like, the entire costume system is bit of a hash at this point, making it difficult to expand it any further. And given that it is one of the big attraction points of this game, it's fairly important. 

 

Attachment points, pet customization,  gendered hugeness, glossy vs matte texture map selectors, expanded color palettes for main, secondary, and especially skin, are all things that are annoyingly difficult to change right now to one degree or another. So it might be worth taking a good, hard look at the whole appearance system, and rework it from base principles.

[MunkiLord]

Super Strength, Energy Melee, and especially Stone Melee for Scrappers.

[Caulderone]

Alternate animations for more things.  In particular, things that have some weapon and some non-weapon attacks having all-weapon and all-no-weapon options.  Most of the examples are elemental based (fire melee, ice melee, etc.), but some Psi sets have this, too.

[Tailcoat]

These are my ideas

• Make all escort mission characters sprint when they follow you. When they only walk and you must constantly stop and watch them amble over to you, it's excruciating!!!
• I'd like to see some low-res textures improved (folded over boots w/ textures added look extremely blurred and sloppy).
• A fix for those speech bubbles when an NPC talks to you during a mission so they aren't super tiny on 4K monitors
• Pet customization.
• A way of having more than one Arachnos costume on one character.
• Accessories/hats for animal/other heads.
• Bird tails (that aren't the transparent phoenix one) 
• More hair and face options (like curly hair, or a chubby old man face like some NPCs have-- chiseled doesn't work for all concepts)
• a way to color eyes separately.
• maybe a female Huge

[wynne0226]

1) Content across the board all the levels not just lvl 50. 

2) decent subscription price .

3)loyalty/veteran vewards. Every year you play (and pay if thats whats happening) there is a special something you get only for vets(i.e. Everquest).

4) server wide events.

 I dont mind microtransactions, like NCsoft had, but nothing game breaking. No pay to win!  I hate wallet warriors.

[AWOL]

I'd like to see :

 

1. More end game content that scales well to give Incarnate players challenges that make them feel more god like

2.  The ability to run lower level TFs but have them scale up to higher level teams (level 50 and beyond).  In fact ideally this would extend to all content.

 

This second item doesn't require the content creation skills of the first and may be more attainable but would allow people to use their high level skills in old challenges but against credible competition.

[EmeraldFox]

Like most people here content.  And some new powersets to play around with.  That and if homecomeing ever goes fully lagit not to have our current data reset and have to reset and start all over again

[grbrandjr]

Powersets for Melee/Armor such as Elasticity and Size Change.  Elasticity for having a body that bounces attacks off and stretch attacks to wrap up villains or punch with an inflated fist.  Size change to make harder to hit at smaller size and better armor at larger size.  I understand these would require new graphics so I won't expect them.  I just imagine them incorporated someday in the distant future.

 

Just throwing them out there.

[FDR's Think Tank]

Private servers and decentralized game management. NCSofts biggest problem was always that Marvel and D.C. have Mickey moused their I.P. and basically ignore fair use and parody laws to sue anyone who tries to make a superhero. How can Marvel own Thor? They can't, it's absurd. Even if they could, City of Heroes should not be legally liable for what it's player base does with a costume creator or naming convention. If it's decentralized, lawsuits would be as pointless as suing Tumblr.

 

Sure, it's nice to have official servers and I think we can all agree not to step on big IPs toes over products they want to run into the ground themselves... But I don't want to see support for private servers evaporate or be eliminated if the game goes legit again.

 

There are opportunities as well, in Private servers testing out unbalanced new content and hammering out the kinks on a scale a centralized City of Heroes could never afford to playtest. If someone cracks Giant Size Archetype or creates a custom vehicle creator the official servers might eventually benefit and add in their own more balanced version.

[Menelruin]

7 hours ago, grbrandjr said:

Powersets for Melee/Armor such as Elasticity and Size Change.  Elasticity for having a body that bounces attacks off and stretch attacks to wrap up villains or punch with an inflated fist.  Size change to make harder to hit at smaller size and better armor at larger size.  I understand these would require new graphics so I won't expect them.  I just imagine them incorporated someday in the distant future.

 

Just throwing them out there.

An idea I had was for shapeshifting melee, which might be easier to implement; just copy various weapon images from other sets, as if your char is turning his hands into claws, hammers, whips, etc.

[Menelruin]

On 10/21/2019 at 4:32 PM, Tailcoat said:

These are my ideas

• Make all escort mission characters sprint when they follow you. When they only walk and you must constantly stop and watch them amble over to you, it's excruciating!!!
• I'd like to see some low-res textures improved (folded over boots w/ textures added look extremely blurred and sloppy).
• A fix for those speech bubbles when an NPC talks to you during a mission so they aren't super tiny on 4K monitors
• Pet customization.
• A way of having more than one Arachnos costume on one character.
• Accessories/hats for animal/other heads.
• Bird tails (that aren't the transparent phoenix one) 
• More hair and face options (like curly hair, or a chubby old man face like some NPCs have-- chiseled doesn't work for all concepts)
• a way to color eyes separately.
• maybe a female Huge

More body SHAPES!  What if I want my character to be rotund?

[ZacKing]

2 hours ago, FDR's Think Tank said:

Private servers and decentralized game management. NCSofts biggest problem was always that Marvel and D.C. have Mickey moused their I.P. and basically ignore fair use and parody laws to sue anyone who tries to make a superhero. How can Marvel own Thor? They can't, it's absurd.

Marvel doesn't own Thor.  they can't.  you're more than able to make a character named Thor in game and there isn't a damned thing Disney or Marvel can do about it.  just don't make it look exactly like the Marvel version and you're good to go. 

[atletikus]

1. Re-balanced power sets (before introducing new): Particularly for Blasters where there is a huge power disparity between top and bottom performers when the AT pretty much is only focused on damage. Update second/third-rate mez-attacks to new  meta. Give Blaster immobilization attacks the same treatment as Controllers that turns knockback into knockdown (this way the various powers will play more nice together). Trim the activation timers on the slower attacks; particularly important for Blasters with much less survivability than any AT not to get rooted by super slow attacks.
2. More interesting missions: Option for more bosses + generic elite boss as end-mission opponent. More wandering patrols, special mobs that can call in almost immediate reinforcements (ie. new spawn or nearby spawn being alerted). Larger chance of nearby spawns being alerted in general. Improve "defeat all" and "click all" functionality so that it shows on mini-map sooner and more consistently. New types of missions, ie. assist police, Longbow, against a larger amount of enemies. Save NPCs in buildings on fire with timers etc.
3. Sound effect re-haul: Reduce volume on the audio effects on many of the more obnoxious SG-base items (some are way to loud!). Introduce alternative power-set sounds accessible at tailors to some of the more contentious ones (ie. sonic + beam rifle).

Edited October 24, 2019 by atletikus

[Herotu]

Just some ideas;

• More asymmetrical costume parts - I know spandex heroes of old didn't use them much but these days we're all about spec ops heroes with accessories!;
  • Single shoulder pieces (this MUST be easy, it means deleting one existing shoulderpad, right?)
  • Some single gloves - especially wristbands (same, just delete one)
  • Any new asymmetrical chest details would be appreciated
• Boss variation - the big-bag-of-hitpoints thing is a bit drab. For example; a random one of several versions of the boss? You probably already have some better ideas of your own.
• Mob variation - the bag-of-hitpoints thing is a bit drab, and I agree that Malta Sappers are annoying, but they do something different and I appreciate that!
• Mission variety. IMO too many missions are defeat some enemies/a boss - with lots of groups just standing around.  When you get to the Portal Corps missions - it feels as if the original devs ran out of the juju juice! I'd love to see more "disarm bombs in a time-limit" missions - I think they got added with the bank side-missions - things like this just to vary the game a bit more. I recognise that it would require rewording some mission text, so it's unlikely to happen. A shame, but something worth considering, I think. Examples of varied missions are the later ones: Ray Cooling, Faultline and Fusionette, Shining Stars (especially part 3, it's got everything you want in a story!).
  • Maybe I'm not giving the right impression. Maybe what I'm saying is that TFs aren't providing the team-oriented missions that I'd expected... maybe I should change my expectations.
• The ability to set your default idle animation to one of the pre-existing looping or static emotes. This would mean some variation when you are just standing around. Maybe my guy stands like a gunfighter when he's not shooting things, for example.
• Quieter portals in the Portal Corpse (there, I said it) building. I couldn't find the file to turn it down via a data overwrite file.

Edited October 25, 2019 by Herotu

[BurtHutt]

I am not sure if this is possible with the current CoX system but I'd love to see something like the Nemesis system (yes, like the one in Champions Online). Creating your own arch-rival would be cool and then having him/her/it pop up from time to time would be a nice added wrinkle to the game.

 

The key would be to have the ability to actually make the rival and the powerset etc. Again, no idea if this is even possible in CoX.

 

Another related idea would be to have your own sidekick. So, create a character then have the ability to spawn him like the Masterminds spawn pets. I know the MMs have this market covered but having, maybe, a powerpool option to allow players to add a 'sidekick' would be fun. That way every player has the option to take that pool power and create their own sidekick. The key here would be to be given the ability to completely design the look of the sidekick and maybe even the powers.

Edited October 28, 2019 by BurtHutt

[wcubero383]

So this is just a thought I had, I know it's kind of crazy but its just something I thought of and thought I would share. 

 

I think it would be really cool if you could cross archetypes kind of like DnD, meaning when you level up you have the option to add a level of another class. It would be really cool to be able to take some more blaster abilities as a Mastermind or some more defensive abilities as a Blaster. Then, you could scale the damage, resistances and what not depending on how many levels of an archetype you take. 

 

I realize this would open up a whole can of worms, there would be a million of things that would need to be clarified and math to be done. 

 

Less of an idea, more of something I just thought I would share

[MageAgainstTheRegime]

I think that the drop rate on purples and amount of influence earned needs to improve across the board. I say that only because of AE farms. It really depends on what has greater priority - farming or exploring content? Luckily, either one you choose has great benefits, but I have to be honest, everytime I run missions outside of AE I'm always thinking, "yeah that was great, but I could have gotten more had I spent that time in the farm." It shouldn't be that way, but that's the truth: the rewards in terms of item drops and influence is vastly superior with farming versus anything outside of farming. I think this needs to change somehow.

Edited November 4, 2019 by MageAgainstTheRegime

[CabooseCC]

2 hours ago, wcubero383 said:

So this is just a thought I had, I know it's kind of crazy but its just something I thought of and thought I would share. 

 

I think it would be really cool if you could cross archetypes kind of like DnD, meaning when you level up you have the option to add a level of another class. It would be really cool to be able to take some more blaster abilities as a Mastermind or some more defensive abilities as a Blaster. Then, you could scale the damage, resistances and what not depending on how many levels of an archetype you take. 

 

I realize this would open up a whole can of worms, there would be a million of things that would need to be clarified and math to be done. 

 

Less of an idea, more of something I just thought I would share

Cool thought, but I think it would probably break the balance of the game since it was not set up for multiclassing from the start.  You can do that in DND without too much fuss because the game was built from the ground up to support that functionality.  Your idea would be cool but I imagine it would be a task that would require a dedicated and paid dev team.

[CabooseCC]

On 10/25/2019 at 1:23 PM, BurtHutt said:

I am not sure if this is possible with the current CoX system but I'd love to see something like the Nemesis system (yes, like the one in Champions Online). Creating your own arch-rival would be cool and then having him/her/it pop up from time to time would be a nice added wrinkle to the game.

 

The key would be to have the ability to actually make the rival and the powerset etc. Again, no idea if this is even possible in CoX.

 

Another related idea would be to have your own sidekick. So, create a character then have the ability to spawn him like the Masterminds spawn pets. I know the MMs have this market covered but having, maybe, a powerpool option to allow players to add a 'sidekick' would be fun. That way every player has the option to take that pool power and create their own sidekick. The key here would be to be given the ability to completely design the look of the sidekick and maybe even the powers.

That's a pretty badass idea.  I'd spec into that pool for sure.

[IGallowglass1]

New content focused around character customization and aesthetics. Potentially as rewards from new gameplay.

[Vyx]

I would kill for a new big scary boss raid!