I think our game miracle just happened

dantheiceman1 · June 2013

well folks

that miracle i was talking about i think just basically happened, i am quite excited now if this pans out.

so be your own judge...

http://www.tentonhammer.com/news/perfect-world-opens-new-cryptic-north-studio

biffsmackwell · June 2013

It's already being discussed in a few other threads.

implin · June 2013

dantheiceman1 wrote: »

well folks

that miracle i was talking about i think just basically happened, i am quite excited now if this pans out.

so be your own judge...

http://www.tentonhammer.com/news/perfect-world-opens-new-cryptic-north-studio

Oh my god thats amazing!

I loved pirates of the burning sea, it's style of trading was really cool and the fact that this means they are continuing work on champions. This is great news, thanks for the post. Hopefully they'll bring some of the creativity from PotBS to fix up champions.

Meanwhile smackwell ruins the fact I just only found out about this. haha

impervium · June 2013

http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=226241
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=226171

jonsills · June 2013

And it is undeniably a good thing - but whether it becomes our miracle depends on what happens over the next few months.

(And on whether I ever get this flipping resume updated, I suppose...

)

draogn · June 2013

Given CO's track record when switching to a different company/studio, I think it is a little soon to be praising this.

I do hope it is a good thing, and hopefully we see more from this studio then poorly tuned and rushed temporary events like FM.

battybattybats · June 2013

I've noticed that a lot of what people ask for here turns up some months later.

So hopefully we'll get a big Nemesis fix and expansion late this year.

cellarrat33 · June 2013

Are there any plans to put the various Nemesis Villains(Black Scorpion, Crucible, Greyskull, Gargoyle, Morticus, and so on) into the Nemesis Missions to replace the Generic Nemesis(Lilith, Deathmetal) for people who are under LvL 25 since Generic Nemesis are ALL Infernal and ugly? If no, then are there plans to LvL Restrict Nemesis Alerts so 25+? If not, why?

We don't currently have any plans to change the Nemesis Alerts.

This is from the 'Ask Cryptic' Answers from March 13th, three months after bringing Cryptic North fully on board.

I don't expect any work done on the Nemesis system this year.

zahinder · June 2013

It gives me a tiny spark of almost hope.

There are so many ways this could go wrong or nowhere, so I'll reserve any positivity for actual results.

biffsmackwell · June 2013

cellarrat33 wrote: »

This is from the 'Ask Cryptic' Answers from March 13th, three months after bringing Cryptic North fully on board.

I don't expect any work done on the Nemesis system this year.

Most people are going under the assumption that the studio that answered that question is a studio separate from Cryptic North.

I'm not saying they're wrong or anything, because I'm running off of assumptions as well; but I'm with you on this.

vikaernes · June 2013

I don't think this is a game miracle by a long shot...

But, for me, I do think the time for "doom and gloom." Is over. This is a wait and see period, I think. While this studio may have been working on CO for the last 6 months now, there must be significance to them announcing it *now* as opposed to then. I would be on the lookout for more information to come in the near future, and I am cautiously optimistic about it.

narf · June 2013

The way I read it, they've been working with Cryptic for six months, not focused on Champions Online. They've already done work on the other two games, according to the interview.

I'm guessing that they were brought in to help with Neverwinter and/or the STO expansion, and that this is the point where either they decided to keep them around or they are ready to settle in and focus on Champions Online, thus the timing of the announcement.

I'm cautiously optimistic. Even if all they do initially is fill out some areas where the game is lacking, but the systems are in place (costumes, hideouts, nemesis system, vehicles, content, etc.) to get used to working with the game, that'll be a welcome boost. If they take on more ambitious projects like a foundry, zones and PVP down the road, that'd be great.

narf · June 2013

cellarrat33 wrote: »

This is from the 'Ask Cryptic' Answers from March 13th, three months after bringing Cryptic North fully on board.

I don't expect any work done on the Nemesis system this year.

That answer says they don't plan any changes to nemesis alerts. Not the system as a whole.

Personally, I don't care if nemesis alerts have ugly villains or not. A little variety there would be nice, sure, but there are plenty of other things that could be done with the system that aren't.

It could also be that they plan on doing a larger overhaul on the system, and it will be behind higher priority projects, like new zones ore working on the Foundry. Only time will tell.

cybersoldier1981 · June 2013

belwen wrote: »

That answer says they don't plan any changes to nemesis alerts. Not the system as a whole.

Which is silly, considering that 50% of the time when I'm in a nemesis alert, I'm fighting a robot ninja named Lilith that uses Infernal powers.

wraithshadow13 · June 2013

Basically anyone who has been here long enough can tell you this is no miracle, at least not until it his live and gets a nerf or two. Until then, its just another empty promise. More than likely for the time being they'll be picking up the slack on STO and NW to help fix those games first before devoting the team mostly to CO. Legacy of Romulus, as fun as it was for the few hours of content, broke a lot of things in the game as well as had a lot of stuff that never really worked as intended. From what i hear NW might be having a lot of issues once it hits live as well, so until i'm able to buy new costumes or getting new powersets, i'll just take it as it comes, which right now still strikes me as a support team for the other two cryptic games.

kaosarcanna · June 2013

cybersoldier1981 wrote: »

Which is silly, considering that 50% of the time when I'm in a nemesis alert, I'm fighting a robot ninja named Lilith that uses Infernal powers.

What? That's a NPC Nemesis? Was wondering why it kept showing up so often.

frankendreadz · June 2013

it seems to me that certain heads of development have been sidestepped or even retired due to the poor development and support model that has plagued cryptic before it was bought by PW
lets hope this new group will be able to deliver and support effectively what the clientbase and their publisher needs

slumpywpg · June 2013

I am cautiously optimistic, cautious because as some have mentioned, they have been working on CO for 6+ months and we've yet to see anything significant. Still, I'm hoping for the best. I do find it strange there's been no word of this on the site, or any official announcement on the forum, just to alleviate the fears people have. That sort of communication would go a long way, I think.

romeowood · June 2013

It's a great sign that these games are getting the support they deserve. I have seen STO grow tremendously over the last year, and look forward to updates here.

cellarrat33 · June 2013

belwen wrote: »

That answer says they don't plan any changes to nemesis alerts. Not the system as a whole.

Personally, I don't care if nemesis alerts have ugly villains or not. A little variety there would be nice, sure, but there are plenty of other things that could be done with the system that aren't.

It could also be that they plan on doing a larger overhaul on the system, and it will be behind higher priority projects, like new zones ore working on the Foundry. Only time will tell.

You are quite correct, the 'Ask Cryptic' Answers only addressed Nemesis Alerts.

'Ask Cryptic' Answers made no mention of updating the Nemesis system even though many players submitted questions concerning it.

The article did give a thumbnail of what to expect for this year. More event alerts, lock boxes, possible updates to Telepathy and maybe Auras.

So my take is that unless they do a re-evaluation, we will not see a Nemesis system update this year.

Maybe next year.

Which could be a good thing. More time for Cryptic Studio North to become familiar with the peculiarities of the game engine code.

smoochan · June 2013

Don't worry everyone, I have the situation well in hand. See here as I make sure that everything is running smoothly at the new office:

narf · June 2013

cellarrat33 wrote: »

Maybe next year.

Which could be a good thing. More time for Cryptic Studio North to become familiar with the peculiarities of the game engine code.

I suspect this may be the case. If we're go get anything large, it will be after they've had a chance to settle in and learn the systems.

narf · June 2013

romeowood wrote: »

It's a great sign that these games are getting the support they deserve. I have seen STO grow tremendously over the last year, and look forward to updates here.

Once again, they have NOT been working on CO for six months. Re-read the article. They've been working with Cryptic for six months. They mentioned having worked with NW and STO in the article.

Edit: It's actually unclear what, exactly they've been working on from the Gamasutra interview.

From the interview:

Why did Perfect World feel the need to add another Cryptic Studio?

[snipped first two parts of answer]

JE: There're also other benefits to having Cryptic North in Seattle. We just launched the Legacy of Romulus expansion to Star Trek Online and our Neverwinter Open Beta. Huge efforts for us. It's easy, as a studio, to get focused on a task to the exclusion of all else. Russell and his team give us perspective and allow us to better diversify. That's important for any developer.

Also from the article:

What's Cryptic North going to be working on, exactly?

RW: Right now we are working hand-in-hand with the Cryptic Studios team on Champions Online, though we contribute to Star Trek Online and Neverwinter.

"Right now" was the interview date. The interview was posted on June 6th.

No mention of exactly how they've been spending their time, though it doesn't look like it was solely focused on CO, if any time was spent on CO at all.

Link to Gamasutra article: http://gamasutra.com/view/news/193707/QA_With_Neverwinter_inbound_Cryptic_founds_Seattle_studio.php

crypticbuxom · June 2013

smoochan wrote: »

Don't worry everyone, I have the situation well in hand. See here as I make sure that everything is running smoothly at the new office:

Good job. Those writers need to stop sleeping and actually make sure content makes sense.

bwdares · June 2013

i do like the fact that they have owned up to the fact that CO has been handled badyly. Props to Cryptic for that. The fac they still help with NWO and STO is a let down, their teams are large enough.

I will see this as a great thing when they start releasing new content that is more than an alert an 5 minutes missions. I will be happy with real things to spend y money on too, like costume packs. When they start bringing things to the game then I will buy into North being a blessing.

Which I DO hope it is.I am hesitant to put out too much hope though.

gavinruneblade · June 2013

From today's patch notes:

Infrastructure

We've done some tuning to the settings behind chat banning. This should better allow people to rehabilitate after being reported.

Powers

Gas Pellets: Damage reduced by 25% and power can no longer critical hit.
Revitalize: This Specialization can now only occur once every 6 seconds (Up from once every 2 seconds).
Shadow Strike: This power now correctly benefits from bonus damage while either Stealthed or using Smoke Bomb and no longer gets bonuses from both at the same time.
Ego Sprites: Can no longer critical hit.
Massacre: Power refreshes bleeds on target.
Fire Strike: Fiery Escalation: Now properly stacks to 4 stacks.
Ice Cage: Ranks 2 and 3 should now properly scale with your stats and bonuses.
Stone Shroud: Imposing Strength: Should now correctly slow enemies.

So, looks like we've gotten a long-standing complaint acknowledged even if not properly addressed (chat ban), and some bug fixes/power rebalancing.

I'm going to let myself be an optimist if this happens again next week.

atring · June 2013

bwdares wrote: »

The fac they still help with NWO and STO is a let down, their teams are large enough.
.

Granted, I'm not a game developer or otherwise associated with the industry, but, given the problems that Cryptic in general and NWO specifically have had since the "open beta," I can't fault them for not paying so much attention to CO for the past couple of weeks.

The six months (or more) before that? Not sure they could come up with a valid, professional response that didn't sound disingenuous, if not outright dishonest.

I think our game miracle just happened

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