City of Heroes Q&A

[Akeldama]

The first expansion after City of Villains, the seventh for City of Heroes (named Issue 7) has been underway for nearly half a year and is eagerly awaited. We had the chance to sit down with Matt Miller (better known under his hero name Positron) - Senior Designer at Cryptic Studios and talk about Issue 7 and the state of the "City of" games in general.

Obviously the most important feature is the level 40 to 50 content for Villains. This brings their level cap to be on par with Heroes. Not only that, it’s some of the best work we have done in terms of content. We have so many tools available to us now, that these missions each seem to take on a life of its own, and many have unique bosses and objectives attached.

As a gamer I love Recluse’s Victory. It’s a PvP zone which may not fit everyone’s tastes, but the mini-game contained within it is amazingly fun. Competing for control over a zone against your enemy is far more exciting than I originally thought it would be. It’s my favorite feature of I7.

You can read the full interview (http://rpg.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=10730) over at Boomtown.

[Wolfgang]

I am really looking forward to the new PvP zone. I would like more information on how exactly the zone changes depending on which side is accomplishing what.

He skirted around the end-game content question -- but it seems to me after Issue 7, Issue 8 will introduce some end-game.

[gawaintheblind]

they've used that same line "we have to get Cov players equal to Coh players in terms of lvl" several times now when asked about it. So I would say once 7 goes live, it'll be a lot of end game stuff after that. Or balance issues, if there is any really worth adressing.

[bean19]

What is up with the CoH devs and interviews?

Can you guys recall a single interview in which they released information not already available on their site or where they tackled a difficult question without first attempting to disarm it's premise?

Also, they just aren't ever very exciting. . . I feel like they must be told to manage expectations before they enter an interview.

[Heretic Machine]

Personally, I'm hoping they'll introduce at least one more "epic" archtype in issue 8... I mean, it's been over a year and they still haven't done anything more with that concept. I'm hoping that with issue 7, CoH/CoV players will have the ability to use some of CoV's costumes in CoH, like lab coats. They said they'd be patching this in, but I'm not sure if it's coming in issue 7.

[Wolfgang]

Personally, I'm hoping they'll introduce at least one more "epic" archtype in issue 8... I mean, it's been over a year and they still haven't done anything more with that concept. I'm hoping that with issue 7, CoH/CoV players will have the ability to use some of CoV's costumes in CoH, like lab coats. They said they'd be patching this in, but I'm not sure if it's coming in issue 7.

I think new costume parts are coming in with Issue 7 -- not sure who gets them. I was surprised that CoH didn't get all the costume parts available to them once you activated your CoV Key.

I would for me like to see more world events, end game that is cool (not like WoW's where it is cool once, then you do the same thing each time -- I am working on some ideas with friends that would address this), and overall more content :)

[Doctor Setebos]

I'm waiting for some of the cool missions and dynamic environment changes they've implemented in CoV to come over to CoH, along with more costume options. And the costume options had BETTER NOT only be available to CoV/CoH combined subscribers. I mean, come on, CoH has only TWO capes! (three if you have the DVD edition). CoV has about TWENTY! It just isn't right.

[xanthome]

Did any of those universities ever get finished? I remember they talked about skills that were useful on missions. Detective etc. so you didn't have to spend forever looking for bombs and other boring stuff.

[Steve_Erhardt]

Did any of those universities ever get finished? I remember they talked about skills that were useful on missions. Detective etc. so you didn't have to spend forever looking for bombs and other boring stuff.
Oh man, that'd be GREAT... there is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, that works my hole in a more aggravating manner than being in one of those nausea-inducing "blue" caves looking for that fucking villian or crate or whatever, or one of those Oranbenga (or however the hell it's spelled) maps doing the same thing and just being stuck there for so long because you can't find it that you say "fuck it" and just quit out and start the whole damn mission over in the hopes you run across everything more easily the next time around.