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Developers moving too slow?
jedite2012
Posts: 334 Arc User
Do u think the devs are moving too slow? Content wise
Like it would be good to have more maps, I think vibora is the only new (not anymore) map that have been released, I thought I read before the game launched we will be able to travel to the moon, I think they are concentrating too much on the z store, like new stuff is only available at the z store, ugh cosmic keys and I have over 70 boxes to open and I'm not paying 120 in the ah. My total is only around 70g and I'm only 31...ok I just ranted bit sorry
Back on topic. Have they made a major update before and was it big or too little for a major update, or is it only been little updates
Do you think Co is due for an expansion or they don't need expansions
Like it would be good to have more maps, I think vibora is the only new (not anymore) map that have been released, I thought I read before the game launched we will be able to travel to the moon, I think they are concentrating too much on the z store, like new stuff is only available at the z store, ugh cosmic keys and I have over 70 boxes to open and I'm not paying 120 in the ah. My total is only around 70g and I'm only 31...ok I just ranted bit sorry
Back on topic. Have they made a major update before and was it big or too little for a major update, or is it only been little updates
Do you think Co is due for an expansion or they don't need expansions
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That would be an ideal situation, but the only way to keep more content comign to the game is to let the users, us, to produce our own content.. that is the future for MMO, and Cryptic understand this, see how prominent the Foundry is for NWO... well Champions just like Dungeons and Dragons is based on a pen and paper RPG... it is a perfect setting to have the Foundry, and we would quickly move from "starving amounts of content" to having "too much content" which would be a good thing
When I played cox I made my own mission and I levelled stupidly fast. Faster then leveling in alerts
The content they do come out with tho has to be new... not just visually, but mechanically. Gravitar is a good example of this; the fight gave us something new that the game had been lacking. It wasn't just something that we hadn't seen before... in fact, visually it was barely new, it was just a bunch of rubble and a skimpily dressed woman. Gravitar proves that they don't need to create huge new swaths of real estate filled with missions, but what they do create has to give us something new to do, something that we haven't already been doing for months/years.
The lemurian invasion in large part failed on both these counts; the first two missions neither gave us anything new visually or mechanically, it just gave us more stuff that we had been doing and more stuff we had already seen. The exocet fighters during the Harbinger fight were the exception; this was the first time the game has seen engaging aerial combat with lots of moving around.
The sky carrier mission has aerial combat, but it involves targets that don't move around, so it's essentially an aerial version of the stand'n'spam that we've been doing all along. That was really the only new mechanic that the sky carrier has; it's basically a very familiar encounter, just made airborne. It did have urgency, in that you need to travel large distances quickly, which is something we hadn't really had before then.
Prior to all that, there was On Alert, which added Specializations and Mods. These new mechanics didn't stay new very long, and I'm sure for most people the excitement of playing with the numbers wore off fairly quickly for a variety of reasons.
Then it's back to Vibora Bay. Visually it gave many new enemy types that aren't seen elsewhere in the game, but many of them behave in the same way that anything in the other zones does. Therakiel's Temple had some interesting new mechanics, some of which were more time sinks and less than engaging, and others which were actually fairly engaging. It was a good example of them coming out with a whole bunch of stuff, most of which wasn't really new mechanically.
So the lesson learned here is that they don't need to come out with a lot of stuff really fast. What they need to do is to give us new engaging mechanics in the content they produce. History has shown that just one fun mechanic can make content have a much longer life than any amount of real estate possibly can.
As for user generated content... I'll let Geoff and Ray of Roosterteeth talk on this one.
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Agreed, unless they intentionally make the content cheat-mode mechanic, even a half-decent PuG will finish any lair quickly.
However, a few updates like that and you'll have enough content to make even a hard-core completionist with even a moderate case of altitis go nuts
I was only a slightly completionist person in City...and with only a couple of main characters red and blue...and I don't even know if I even visited every zone.
1) Have devs
2) they are moving at all.
This is a false premise.
Non-bitter answer - no. They are moving at good speed, just in the opposite direction they should be.
I'm going to ignore the obvious stuff, like ignoring the player wishes and all that jazz and stick to what they're attempting to do.
Take a look at the monetization aspect, and particularly those that have been implemented in successful games.
Probably some of the best examples come from the early iphone games. What they sold were repeatable purchases. In CO that gets difficult, but they finally hit gold with the cosmic keys. The problem is the price and gouging that this has caused. The biggest issue, in my opinion, was right from the start - the most coveted aspects of the game were immediately gated off - primarily customization.
Character creation could have been a great revenue generator - alternate costumes and minor changes could be purchased for questionite, which would in turn be purchasable with Zen or much higher cost of Globals. This creates a sink for both at the same time, and is repeatable by character. Gate more items behind the Q cost, but less prohibitively priced, and make them per-character. People won't mind spending a couple bucks to make their character look they way they want - most of us were paying $15 for that alone.
Same thing goes with power hues - low price per power, or medium price for all powers, but again, not prohibitevly so. I would price this higher than costume changes, however, since it's more permanent sort of change and is used less often.
Moving into gameplay stuff, they could double the amount of travel powers for sale by selling enhanced versions that go a % faster than the R3 powers outside of combat, similar to mounts in other games.
A secondary build+gear+spec tree could also be sold. Its a different way to sell power - variety instead of advantage.
Alternate emanations could also be sold for Q.
Next, you award players for getting new players - this is the Xynga/facebook model that worked so well.
Players could unlock special bonuses for other players - maybe a free 10% XP boost for 1 hour they could give away to a friend, maybe a free costume piece like bracers, or a power replacer that's usually locked behind a mission like the Cloak of Infinite Planes, or devices like the pre-orders, but less useless so they're actually wanted. All of these would have to have expirations or use limits.
Players could also be awarded 5% or 10% discount coupons for friends too (non-stackable), and whenever a friend uses such a coupon, you would also get 10% of the amount they buy.
All of this stuff already exists in game, and requires very little work to implement, and none of it has to do with limiting silver's power selection overall.
At this point you can sell powers - Sell AT's as they've been selling, and add the option to buy an alternate power selection per pick. You either take what they give you or buy any power that's been unlocked at that point (grayed out like the "unavailable" powers in the menu). This could and should still be done. Retcons could be bought similar to how they are now, and however many "open" power picks you've selected could be used at any point (tier pre-req's allowing).
Etc, etc, etc.
What does all this have to do with direction?
Well, the main direction of CO is to monetize it. In order to do so, there have been elaborate mechanics created or added to the systems already in place, like vehicles and vehicle-"specific" content to maximize their use of cosmic keys. This is unecessary. In those grab bags they could have had tokens for any of the stuff above - free costume changes, free power pick, free single color pick.
Now you get to convenience items - teleports and such. You can sell location specific teleports like the ren center or map teleports like teleport to waypoint.
You could add daily limitations to alerts and cosmic keys could be used for that too - you can only do 20 alerts per hour or per key. This creates a genuine penalty for failing them without it being too bad, and being able to purchase more alert time gives players incentive to either play the rest of the game to earn G, or spend money. Succesful players are rewarded with G to buy more alert time (i.e. powerleveling time) and unsuccessful players get chances to learn without dragging down entire teams, as long as 12 or so wins yeilds enough, or near enough G/Q to trade for Zen to buy another key.
Q gets you customization, and Zen gets you play time, and you can earn both through either pay or play.
Finally, they need to add the ability to buy $1's worth of points. Seriously. People will do anything if it costs $1 or less. Lotteries, slot machines, potted plants, vampires, stale candy bars, crappy shower liners, whatever. Look at the kid who asked folks to pay $1 per pixel on his website, or the kid who collected pennies to pay for college.
The whooooooooooole point of this is - one time work that opens up more repeatable and enjoyable experiences for players, creates a money sink for G, and a minor fun type of grind for players that constantly injects Z purchases into the economy at a steadier pace due to less prohibitive prices, and all of this requires almost no long term involvement from the devs.
Once the devs have income and time they can dedicate to a larger sized expansion - an alert like Gravitar or Hi-Pan that uses up more chances - 10 per hour or per key rather than 20, or set fail conditions, create survival alerts with scaling rewards, etc to balance the risk vs reward.
Then comic series can come back with increased rewards that are gear and mod based in order to balance the time based play in alerts - play comics to get better gear to use in alerts, play alerts to level to have a better chance in comic series. Then you have APs or lairs which can be used for special devices or higher rank mods. Finally, eventually, maybe have enough repeatable content and income to focus on a new zone with different alert types that are zone specific, and all missions in zones should have a Q reward added on so they don't feel like a waste of time, balanced against the XP reward from alerts - alerts for faster XP, zone missions for faster Q with Globals thrown in for both for in game purchases of supplemental gear, mods and AH items.
Agreed. Well said. I also agree with the point mentioned in this thread that CO needs to better monetize itself. There are things that people would happily pay for if they offered it or things they should offer as a reward for purchasing so much or a certain amount. That said, personally, I could go for a new zone. It doesn't even have to be all brand new. I'd be down for a zone based in the Resistance Universe. They already have a head start on that with Multifaria.
Also try to understand that many things in this world have things about them you like and things about them you don't like.
It's ridiculous when someone invites you to leave something rather than point out its flaws. If you're totally satisfied with every aspect of CO, congratulations. MOST players would like adjustments made to increase enjoyment. Concepts like this are usually understood earlier in life by thinking humans.
I haven't put money into this game since Hideouts and Whiteout first came out.
The stipend I don't use easily pays for costume sets that come out. I liked months where I had to put money into the game to pay for sets because I used my whole stipend on other sets that were recently released.
Now I have enough stipend to buy sets and travel powers that come out for the rest of the game's life, unless PWE decides to take a chance on CO (its not really a chance with the money people throw at this game) comparable to STO.
It will certainly make me put money into the game again.
Many of us have been patient, at some point that patients needs to be rewarded with more then temp content and gamble boxes.
Other than suggestions and "maybe" posts / threads, where is the official confirmation for that?
EDIT: It was a rhetorical question, if it wasn't obvious enough. We both know the answer.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
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