General Discussion

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!