From:http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?
Cat=0&Number=9989835&an=0&page=0#Post9989835
The 2008 State of the Game
#9989835 - 01/10/08 02:08 PM Edit Reply Quote
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The New Year is always a time for reflecting upon the year past, as
well as setting goals and outlining plans for the year to come. In
looking back, we feel that 2007 was a banner year for City of Heroes.
Three major free expansions, among the 21 total game updates over 12
months, made for exciting times! We added a completely new game system
with Inventions, bringing "loot" and strengthening our economy,
invited players to fight off an alien invasion and travel through
time, among other things! Click the links below for highlights:
* Issue 9: Breakthrough!
* Issue 10: Invasion!
* Issue 11: A Stitch In Time
Additionally, in 2007 we expanded our services by offering Character
Renames and Transfers. We are looking to add more such conveniences to
facilitate a great gaming experience.
Then, in November of '07 we announced the exciting news of the
consolidation of the City of Heroes franchise under the NCsoft banner
and formation of the NCsoft NorCal studio to sup****t it: A New Age
Dawns. As Brian Clayton, Executive Producer and NCsoft NorCal Studio
Manager, alluded to in his Dev Blog, there are some big plans in the
works for the game and the franchise. While we're not quite ready to
reveal the details of those plans, we do have several other short term
initiatives to share:
The City Vault
We gave a sneak peak of the new "City Vault" feature at the recent San
Jose Meet 'n Greet. The City Vault is coming soon to the City of
Heroes website and will showcase the millions of interesting Heroes
and Villains found in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. It will allow
you to search for characters by a number of different criteria, and
then view those characters, including images of different costumes,
powers, badges, friends, stats by zone and other fun information! As
we have previously announced, you can manage what information will be
displayed through the City Vault for your characters via several in
game options.
We will have more details about the City Vault Beta soon.
Double XP Weekend and Server Hardware Improvements
We have another Double XP Weekend coming! Currently we are targeting
February for this event. It will be the same format as we have run
previously: a weekend long fest of double rewards of experience gain,
influence or infamy, and prestige! Double XP is always popular and
usually drives our online numbers to record heights.
To better address performance issues that tend to arise under such
conditions, we are investing in server hardware upgrades. Technology
is always marching forward and we are making this investment back into
the game to take advantage of the latest tech and help create the best
gaming experience possible for our players.
Our plans are to have all of the new hardware online before the coming
Double XP Weekend. We will post more details of the server upgrade
schedule, along with the dates of the actual Double XP weekend soon,
so keep your eye on the City of Heroes website!
Valentine's Day Event
Also coming in February, we have an expanded Valentine's Day Event!
We're adding a few new twists to the previous event and also have a
very special surprise to go along with this romantic holiday. More
details will be coming soon!
Smoothing the XP Curve
One thing that we constantly examine is the rate of advancement in the
game. In a future version, we intend to smooth out the leveling curve
by changing how much experience is given out for defeating opponents.
The intent is to smooth out the "bumps" where players typically get
stuck leveling up their characters. Keep an eye on coming patch notes
for specifics.
Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new
functionality in a coming version of the game to display the "real"
numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user
configurable display of im****tant characteristics such as movement
rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you
will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by
buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.
Fanzine
We have a great vehicle in the City of Heroes Fanzine to showcase art
and fiction from the many talented members of our game's community. We
are gearing up to work on the next issue and if you want to submit
something for consideration, visit the fan submission page. Act now,
as Feb. 11th is the deadline for submissions to the next issue.
Issue #12
While we're not announcing the specifics of what will be included in
the next free expansion, Issue #12, we do want to reiterate that we
will continue to add great new free additions to the game in 2008. The
team is working hard to ensure our next free expansion will be an
exciting, feature-filled addition to the game.
Overall, it is exciting time for the City of Heroes franchise. We are
looking forward to bringing the above items to you in the short term,
and much more in the medium and long term! As always, thanks for your
continued patronage and sup****t.
The City of Heroes Development Team
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