General Discussion

News Editor Garrett Fuller sits down with Matt "Positron" Miller, the Lead Designer for Cryptic Studios' City of Heroes / Villains about Issue 9, the game's next free expansion.

MMORPG.com:

Give us an introduction into what Issue 9 will offer players for both City of Heroes and City of Villains.

Matt Miller:

Well, first off we have the Invention system, which adds a whole new dynamic to the game. Heroes and Villains will collect salvage and recipes by defeating enemies. In keeping with City of Heroes "casual friendly" game design, the collecting of these items adds extra spice to the gameplay of defeating foes, rather than becoming a hardcore task of "grinding," "camping" or hours of "raiding." With this salvage, players can use the recipes to assemble an all new class of Power Enhancements or costume pieces (depending on the recipe), which they can then use. Unused recipes and salvage can be sold at the new Consignment Houses (for Heroes) or the new Black Market (for Villains).

You can read the whole article here.

i can only read: (except in the actuall post, by that i mean this one)

"News Editor Garrett Fuller sits down with Matt "Positron" Miller, the Lead Designer for Cryptic Studios' City of Heroes / Villains about Issue 9, the game's next free expansion."

then its nothing more, anyone else experienced that?

Originally posted by sacreddaykil

i can only read: (except in the actuall post, by that i mean this one)

"News Editor Garrett Fuller sits down with Matt "Positron" Miller, the Lead Designer for Cryptic Studios' City of Heroes / Villains about Issue 9, the game's next free expansion."

then its nothing more, anyone else experienced that?

Not much we didn't know, and of course the devil's in the details - deciding if the inventions are a "must-have", a waste of time, or something in between will depend entirely on what numbers they choose to assign. And by that I mean not just the value of the boost, but how rare is "rare"?

Based just on the numbers that leaked out so far, I already figure I'd have to be tripping over salvage and drained of inf to make any of the built-in IO recipes of a level other than 45 or 50.

I do foresee however, a nice use of the consignment shops. I'm really curious to see what kind of economy develops in this influence-rich world. I also hope I can deconstruct Centrioles into some useful salvage, as their value is low and set for dropping. I mean dmg/range is already the red-headed stepchild of the Hami-Os, and I only see it getting less desireable with new IO options.

Also it seems like all of this invention salvage falls into the category of "stuff that drops while you're doing what you're doing." Which is fine but still, still not giving 50s anything to do. Sure, now there's both the revamped (nice!) Hami raid and the Statesman TF, but you still have the big grind/raid question - what the heck am I getting better for?? How many of us have 50s that do nothing but get a new HO, technically becoming better, then go back to the bench? I have several.

That said, to end on a high note, sounds good with the Hami raid revamp. I especially like the "rare recipe" option, which sounds fair, and flexible, and I'm very glad you thought of it because had players suggested that it would surely have been met with the same warmth as the "select a Hami-O" idea.

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Originally posted by Windlion

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Originally posted by sacreddaykil

i can only read: (except in the actuall post, by that i mean this one)
"News Editor Garrett Fuller sits down with Matt "Positron" Miller, the Lead Designer for Cryptic Studios' City of Heroes / Villains about Issue 9, the game's next free expansion."
then its nothing more, anyone else experienced that?

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Yep cant read the rest must be in error. :( nevermind it helps if you scroll down ! lol

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lol, just eralised that too :) but im pretty sure it actually was away for a second, cause otherwise im really stupid. i guess.

Bah, I was hoping this was going to be the issue with villain epic archtypes, guess I'm going to have to wait another 6 or so months.

I'm thinking this invention system is set up as a distraction so players don't level up as fast and complain about the grind.

Originally posted by Amarsir

Not much we didn't know, and of course the devil's in the details - deciding if the inventions are a "must-have", a waste of time, or something in between will depend entirely on what numbers they choose to assign. And by that I mean not just the value of the boost, but how rare is "rare"?

Based just on the numbers that leaked out so far, I already figure I'd have to be tripping over salvage and drained of inf to make any of the built-in IO recipes of a level other than 45 or 50. <snip>

I

After reading on the official forums that Posi doesn't want the new system to overshadow those that choose not to use it, I am wondering how much it will be worth the time investment.

Posi's words:

We tried to make it so that if you had a full set of Set-based IOs, then your overall bonuses were similar in power to straight up SO slotting.

So that said, my initial thoughts are if Invention salvage drops at anywhere near the rate of Base Salvage, I don't see getting 2 or 3 powers slotted out worth the time investment/effort.  It was nice he did say they will NOT make mobs tougher with the new system.   Yes, I can still play the game without this addition but I'm pretty bored with the game as is so I really don't want a huge grind with this system just to gain an extra 2-5% performance boost(but I guess that is par for MMOs and unfortunately Cryptic has been moving closer and closer to the standard formula).

As far as the cost, I'm not so worried about influence IF(and that's a big if) the leaked info I've seen stays close.  Such as a level 50 IO for defense buff only costs 64,000 influence.  I can't see a dual IO costing 10 times as much but we will see.  The biggest factor for that single effect enhancement was it used 3 pieces of salvage.

They really need to get this system on test soon(as in the next couple weeks not Cryptic's Soon^TM)