A thread to discuss the journal

[falling_star]

Just read the entries in the developer journal so far, and I have to say I'm very excited for this one.

[Cold Cobra]

Today's entry certainly sounds complex, though I'm sure you'll get used to it after a few goes. Sounds extremely deep as well, and really customisable so I'm really looking forward to diving into the editor! I'm also looking forward to seeing how combat works.

[LostInWeb]

The possibilities in combat sound much more interesting than in CBH, where it was more or less attack after attack until an opponent went down. More health levels sounds good for making weak and strong characters. I like a few weak villains in my world, so I have something, I can beat to level up more easily.

 

What I don`t get is the schemes and quest section. The schemes were in CBH, so that will be the crimes the villains will perform, I guess. But what is a quest for the heroes in that instance? To prevent the scheme from happening by defeating the villain? Or is it just a way, to prevent some heroes from reacting to specific schemes? Like, Supersonicgirl won`t help, when a villain is trying to take over a dimension, because that is not in her job-description?

 

And since Puzzles are mentioned here, but not in much detail: will they be like in CBH or will there be some sort of minigames or anything to get some variety into them. I think, in CBH the puzzles were pretty repetitive, because it was always the same.

[Adam Ryland]

What I don`t get is the schemes and quest section. The schemes were in CBH, so that will be the crimes the villains will perform, I guess. But what is a quest for the heroes in that instance? To prevent the scheme from happening by defeating the villain? Or is it just a way, to prevent some heroes from reacting to specific schemes? Like, Supersonicgirl won`t help, when a villain is trying to take over a dimension, because that is not in her job-description?

 

Quests were covered in entry #2. They're a separate piece of content, not something that happens during a scheme. They are things like liberating cities that have fallen to villains, protecting key citizens, launching pre-emptive strikes.

 

And since Puzzles are mentioned here, but not in much detail: will they be like in CBH or will there be some sort of minigames or anything to get some variety into them. I think, in CBH the puzzles were pretty repetitive, because it was always the same.

 

They will be covered when we get to that part of the journal.

[shamelessposer]

I'm really excited by what you've shown off so far, but one thing I'm not entirely clear on is the precise role of the player. You've said that players represent "the forces of good," but in exactly what context? When I play the game, am I putting together the Avengers or do I start each arc picking and choosing from the whole Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe? Or does the game pick for me based on the story arcs set in the database?

 

Alternatively, is this whole post one big "I'll answer that in a later update"?

[Adam Ryland]

I'm really excited by what you've shown off so far, but one thing I'm not entirely clear on is the precise role of the player. You've said that players represent "the forces of good," but in exactly what context? When I play the game, am I putting together the Avengers or do I start each arc picking and choosing from the whole Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe? Or does the game pick for me based on the story arcs set in the database?

 

Alternatively, is this whole post one big "I'll answer that in a later update"?

 

You'd be choosing the heroes who are taking part in the encounter from those who are available and either in that location or, in some cases, able to travel there to take part. You get a pre-made selection via the AI, but it's always up to the player as to whether they want to alter it. You're representing the forces of good in that you're controlling those heroes during the combat or puzzles that follow.

[xul0999]

Yeah, I'm probably skipping ahead, but any chance for a quick fight option like in WMMA, would be handy for mod testing purposes

[Adam Ryland]

It hasn't been coded yet so I can't 100% confirm that it'll be in, but it's part of the game design so the intention is that it will be added.

[fusionfreak]

Will we be able to create separate comic universes? For example, Marvel and DC, and have them running side by side even though no one would be able to cross over since they are two different companies (without using the editor of course)?

[Adam Ryland]

Yes.

[fusionfreak]

Yes.

 

Cool.

 

Very excited to hear about you're new game. Congratulations, I'm sure it will be great as always.

[Thane of Fife]

A few questions I had from the journal and thinking about CBH:

 

First, there were some kinds of moves that I felt couldn't really be made in CBH, so I'm curious if they'll be more doable here:

 

1. Finishers. Buffy usually opens with martial arts and then closes with a stake. The megazord opens with punches and kicks and then ends fights with the power sword. Cyclops might open with regular eye beams, then end the fight by taking his visor off. In CBH, they always start with their best moves, so this usually happens backwards. Could a power be limited by, say, the health of the target instead of the user?

 

2. Team moves. For example, Colossus throws Wovlverine as the fastball special, or the Charmed Ones work together with the Power of Three. Can you set up a power so it can only be used if other characters are present?

 

3. Improvisation. It's pretty common in comic books for a character to improvise an attack or lure someone into danger. For example, Spider-Man doesn't have any sonic powers, but he still uses noise against Venom. Is there any way to handle something like that? (This is a bigger stretch, I think, but I thought I'd ask).

 

Second, as a bigger picture question, what do you imagine as being the main "game?" I ask because I felt like one of the biggest flaws in CBH was that it seemed kind of aimless. Combat was okay, but out of combat, there were many actions that mostly felt kind of pointless. From a game perspective, probably the optimal way to play was to spam civic work until you had enough hero points to buy whatever you wanted (though I can't imagine anyone did that, because it would be really boring). Much of the gameplay was not terribly interesting (and often ran counter to feeling like a superhero).

 

So do you imagine CBU as mostly about playing through fights? About putting together teams that can handle disparate situations despite the semi-random dispersion of heroes? Can the player influence where heroes move to influence what teams they can put together? Is it mostly a sandbox that generates stuff happening to heroes and villains with occasional fights to play through?

[Adam Ryland]

1. Finishers. Buffy usually opens with martial arts and then closes with a stake. The megazord opens with punches and kicks and then ends fights with the power sword. Cyclops might open with regular eye beams, then end the fight by taking his visor off. In CBH, they always start with their best moves, so this usually happens backwards. Could a power be limited by, say, the health of the target instead of the user?

 

No, that will not be something that is covered, it is always done by the power level of the power-user, not the target.

 

2. Team moves. For example, Colossus throws Wovlverine as the fastball special, or the Charmed Ones work together with the Power of Three. Can you set up a power so it can only be used if other characters are present?

 

There will likely be 'duo attacks' to replicate the fastball special but there won't be multi-character attacks. Note that I specifically say they're 'likely' because it's not coded yet and there's an issue in how to handle it if there's multiple versions of the required teammate (i.e. if there are several Colossus variations you'd potentially need a different fastball special power for each version, which I'm trying to avoid), so there's a chance that this feature may not make the final game.

 

3. Improvisation. It's pretty common in comic books for a character to improvise an attack or lure someone into danger. For example, Spider-Man doesn't have any sonic powers, but he still uses noise against Venom. Is there any way to handle something like that? (This is a bigger stretch, I think, but I thought I'd ask).

 

Not in the sense that you mean it. The closest would be to give Spider-Man the ability to outsmart Venom's defensive powers; as outsmarting is intentionally a generic way of stating it, it'd be up to your imagination what he did, whether that's improvising weaponry, tricking Venom into going into a bell tower, etc.

 

Second, as a bigger picture question, what do you imagine as being the main "game?"

 

As with CBH, it's primarily a turn-based tactical combat simulator. That's what you'll spend almost all of your active gameplay doing. As I think the journal has covered, this is not a 'career sim' and has nothing to do with feeling like you're doing the day-to-day life of a character. It's much closer to a tabletop game like Marvel Crisis Protocol or HeroClix but with a non-static game world and knock-on effects / consequences added to take advantage of the fact that it's a computer game and not cards and figures.

 

I think it's got more replayability than CBH because the combat system is deeper and the characters are richer, but if you don't like the combat system then it's definitely not worth you playing (from how you phrased your post, I'm already pretty sure this product is not for you); it's not like a TEW or WMMA where there's entertainment value in watching the game world play out as a 'watcher', the changes that you'll see are entirely about keeping the world fresh so that there are new combinations and strategies to encounter. It's certainly designed to be more about 'spend an hour blasting through a handful of fights' than 'spend 12 hours at your computer getting hooked on the game world evolution'.

[danyp92]

I like today's entry, artifacts are a very logic thing to add to a superhero game. I have some questions:

 

Is there a limit on how many artifacts a character can have?

 

Is it possible to prevent an artifact to be lost after defeat?

 

Can an artifact be linked to an identidy switch (example: power up given by an artifact)?

[Jaysin]

Would Green Lantern's power ring be considered an artifact?

[Adam Ryland]

Is there a limit on how many artifacts a character can have?

 

No.

 

Is it possible to prevent an artifact to be lost after defeat?

 

No. If someone needs to permanently have an artifact then it shouldn't be one in the first place, it should be part of their regular power set. The Infinity Gems are artifacts. Wonder Woman's lasso of truth isn't, because it's clearly 'attached' to her character.

 

Can an artifact be linked to an identidy switch (example: power up given by an artifact)?

 

Yes.

 

Would Green Lantern's power ring be considered an artifact?

 

A green lantern power ring could be. The Green Lantern's power ring wouldn't be as it's clearly intrinsic to the character; otherwise he'd effectively be depowered every time he lost.

[Cold Cobra]

Artefacts sound great, once again it should add some nice variety to the combat and schemes and keep things fresh.

[LostInWeb]

Would Kryptonite work as an artifact? As far as I know, it doesn't give powers to an individual who possesses it, rather than strip a specific group of people (in this case Kryptonians) of their powers. Would that work that way in the game?

[Adam Ryland]

No, that would not work.

[Cold Cobra]

LOVE today's entry. The addition of Sites in particular because I always wanted to go into a bit more detail with locations but didn't see the point in creating somewhere where only two people were located, so this solves that issue nicely. I like the environment effecting dice rolls as well.

 

Plus the addition of pictures for each location is something I assumed would be added (especially after pictures for items) but still really happy to see confirmed.

[djthefunkchris]

One of the things I felt would have enhance my experience in CBH, was if there was a way to emulate a power/disease that could emulate something like Kryptonite, where it effects only a specific people (Kryptonians), if Clark was Bruce Willis or Samual Jackson, I could have done it with the "Water" but...

 

Anyways, will there be a way to showcase a characters weakness that's more unique (like Kryptonite)?

[Adam Ryland]

No, as with the above answer about Kryptonite as an artifact, you cannot do that.

[danyp92]

Today's entry is so amazing to me becuase it show how much potential this game has. It seems to me that you can do both a more "sandbox" mod where anything can happen and a more guided stories, with different possible outcomes or not. I just can't wait to try this game.

[LostInWeb]

Adding Storylines to the game may be the best new thing in this series and sounds like a lot of fun.

 

As usual I don't get everything: how do storylines start exactly? Is it completely random or can there be a event as a trigger. Like, I don't know, have Bane beat Batman in a fight to start the Knightfall-Storyline or something like that.

[Mattyc]

While I've liked what I've read from every journal entry thus far, today's storyline entry has taken my already strong interest in the game to an even higher level. These features are going to offer so many possibilities to mod makers.