Issue 11: A Stitch in Time

[MJB]

Found this link in the Blaster forums on the official boards...

http://uk.cityofheroes.com/game-guide/feature-updates/issue_11_a_stitch_in_time/

-MJB

[captainspud]

Better than we'd expected, but still not enough to keep me.

[MJB]

I11 is bringing the flashback system, weapon customization, 2 new power sets, new IO's and time travel.  :shock2:

There is a lot of new content, new time travel stuff + flashback = lots.

LOL! What more do you want?

-MJB

[captainspud]

New archetype, new powersets that are fundamentally different than what we have, or even just expanding current powersets to allow better combos (Ice and Fire blast for Defenders, Dark Miasma for trollers, Illusion for Doms, what have you). Something to really make running through the same damn content feel different.

[Adamence]

The flashback system sounds like it might be cool to do some of that new content.  Helping LR out seems like it should be rather fun. 

The dual blades should be much better with weapon customization, so maybe we'll get those cool energy blades afterall. 

There's just one thing I don't think I'll like...

Issue 11 brings with it new invention sets including "Very Rare" Purple sets, as well as brand new invention sets for Taunt, Buff and Debuff powers, among others.

While new sets for Taunts, Buffs and Debuffs should be pretty good, I don't like the extra layer of rarity they're adding to the set.  It just means in a future issue they'll probably end up including "Super Ultra Mega Rare" Diamond sets.  But I guess it'll depend on how it's implemented.  If it's just another row on the probability table, that would suck, but if it's "very rare" in that the only way to do it is to pull it out of a pool for completing something like time travel missions, it might not suck so much. 

[Marmeille]

That's some cool stuff, the Flashback System and Weapon Customization specifically (please let there be some nice "normal" animal looking claws in there).

:marm: *meow!*

I don't like the new IO stuff, but then I never liked the whole IO idea at all.

I don't like the new powersets much either, Willpower is cool I guess, Scrapper getting another secondary option is really nice. I really don't see the point of Dual Blades though we have enough lethal dmg set already, although if they are really available to tanks and brutes too that's nice.

But, like Spud said, I would rather see the devs give all the available logical sets to all the ATs it fit, give all (or most) melee sets to scrapper, tankers, stalkers and brutes, give all (or most) range attack sets to blasters, defenders and corruptors, give the freaking Plant Control to controllers already and stuff...

[Midnight]

Neato.

My rocket launcher won't look like a supersoaker anymore.

[GhostMachine]

If Munitions Mastery doesn't get the weapons customization, I'm gonna be severely ticked, considering it uses the Assault Rifle. I hate busting out that ugly as sin supersoaker on an Electric\Devices Blaster, and it wouldn't be as bad if I could at least recolor the rifle black.

I'm surprised that Mace is listed, but Axe isn't......not that I'd want to change the color of Blazing D's axe, but I'd like to change the design of the axe head if possible.

[MJB]

Axe customization isn't mentioned on the UK website but the devs have confirmed it on the boards.

-MJB

[Tortuga]

I'd kill for a hatchet-type axe.  Or a sledgehammer instead of mace...or something.

[Marmeille]

I read sledgehammer, warhammer and pipe wrench would be in War Mace and sais in Dual Blades, tommy gun for AR.

MM Thugs pistol are getting a color-tinteable laser sights.

Rikti sword is gonna be in Battle Axe and Broadsword, that's kinda cool and other faction type weapon should be available.

There's gonna be Vanguard weapon option to unlock with Merits too.
 
The bad thing is no crossbows for bows... oh well... (different animation would be needed)

...but, we also get the Red Cap dagger and a shovel  :blink: if I read a dev post correctly (hehe).

[edit] I wish they would just go ahead and give us a complete list of them weapons  :P [/edit]

[MJB]

The way I understand it some of the alternate weapons may have to be earned.

-MJB

[RTTingle]

Better than we'd expected, but still not enough to keep me.

I'd be eager to try the free weekend.

I wouldn't cringe at the thought of playing a month to see how things are.

But keep me longer than that?  Not likely.

The power customization is a lovely surprise indeed though... and with the options were rumored to be getting with the powersets.  Wow.  I may not stay more than month... but what a fun month it will be indeed.

A little concerned with the rare purple invention sets, but... it depends on what they are... and just what makes them super rare, etc.

RTT

[RTTingle]

Courtesy of Zombie Man's hard work on the CoX forums... as much as is known about power customization so far.

What we know about Weapons Customization so far:


MELEE

Sword Melee Sets
Broadsword (Scrapper)
Katana (Scrapper)
Ninja Blade (Stalker)
Dual Blade (All) {each hand can have it's own type of sword, they don't have to match}


Sword/Blade options
Dragon Dagger (pictured, same as Positron's "sais"?)

Broadsword

Katana

Ninja Blade

Faer Dagger

Red Cap Dagger

Rikti type of broadsword (as per BaB)

Carnie Rapier

Question to the Devs: Will all the blades be available to all the bladed powersets?


Bludgeoning Melee Sets
War Mace (Tanker)
War Mace

Shovel

warhammer

pipe wrench

sledge hammer





Chopping Melee Sets
Battle Axe (Tanker)
Battle Axe

Rikti type of axe (as per BaB)




Slashing Melee Sets
Claws (Scrapper/Stalker)
Hero Claws

Villain Claws

Vanguard Talsorian blades




FYI: Melee Sets Not in the Mix
Spines (Scrapper/Stalker) {A definite "no"}
Stone [Mallet] (Tanker/Brute)
Ice [Sword] (Tanker)
Dark (Scrapper/Brute/Stalker)
Fiery Melee [Sword] (Tanker/Brute)
Energy Melee (Tanker/Stalker/Brute)
Electric Melee (Brute)

"Sorry, we tried, but we really can't have those [Spines] be customizable." -_Castle_



RANGED

Assault Rifle (Blaster/Corrupter)
Assault Rifle

Sniper Rifle

Tommy Gun

Redding Rail Rifle (Assault Rifle, Vanguard)

Pulse Rifle


Question to the Devs: Will we be able to customize the rifle from the epic powerset?



Bow: Archery (Defender/Blaster)
Bow

Compound Bow





BUFF

Bow: Trick Arrow (Controller/Defender/Mastermind)
Bow

Compound Bow







SUMMON

Robotics/Pulse Rifle
Mercenary/Assault Rifle

Assault Rifle

Sniper Rifle

Tommy Gun

Pulse Rifle

Redding Rail Rifle (Assault Rifle, Vanguard)



Thugs/Dual Pistols
Pistols

Revolvers

Semi-autos

Flintlocks



Ninja/Bow
Bow

Compound Bow



"Should point out that a Trick Arrow/Archery Defender or Ninja/Trick Arrow Mastermind will have one bow to customize, and that bow will be for both sets. A Thugs/Mercenaries/Robotics Mastermind paired with Trick Arrow will have both the primary weapon customizable and the bow." -BaB in PM

"I like the Faer Dagger primary, and the Red Cap dagger in offhand myself. And, of course, using a Tommy Gun for my AR Blaster is going to be too dang cool. Oh, and I know at least one player who is going to kill me for saying this, but...uh...well, Shovel's are available." -_Castle_





RUMOR SQUASHERS:


Does this mean dual shovels or dual axes?

No. Only the 'blade' weapons (slash-stab) will be available for the dual blade powerset. Conversely, the Axe and Mace sets will not get blades, but only Axe-y (chop chop) and Mace-y (smash smash) weapon choices. "The dual BLADES set is just that, blades. There are no smash-style weapons for choice in that set. However, War Mace has a bunch of options. Personally I like the warhammer, the pipe wrench, and the sledge hammer options that War Mace got." -Positron




So I can costumize Archery with Shovels?

NO! Each powerset with customizable weapons will have a short list of selectable weapons. Not all selectable weapons will be available to each and every powerset that can have selectable weapons. Shovels will only be available to the Mace Melee Powerset.




Does color customization on weapons mean I can have a purple sai?

"A lot of the weapons cannot be color tinted, they're pulled straight from existing weapon FX geos. However, some of them have been retrofitted so that they can be tinted. Most of the time this means Blade color and Guard/Hilt color as primary/secondary colors. Sais are one of the ones that can be color tinted, and the blade color is the primary tint color." -BaB in PM



What about auras for weapons?

"However, there's no reason why we couldn't do weapons and FX, we just don't have a lot of them in atm. But flaming swords, glowing axes, electric hammers...that's all in the realm of possibilities for future weapons." -BaB

"FX on weapons is definitely something I want to do. We'll have it on a few weapons at launch. but unfortunately we have to make a duplicate of any weapon for every effect. So if we wanted to do flaming swords, we'd have to duplicate all of the swords, slap a flaming effect on them...so it's unlikely we'll ever do a global option for every single weapon. More likely we'd pick a couple of representatives to make firey, icey, sparkly, glowy, electricy, darky type, or whatever kinds of FX for. On the plus side, those effects could be color tintable just like auras are." -BaB in PM



Does this mean color customization for all powers?

No. Not for all *powers* but for certain *weapons*. Colorizing the texture on the hilt of a sword is very different from colorizing the thousands of particles in a power. When Back Alley Brawler described how difficult it would be to code customization into powers, his examples revolved around the powers with particle effects, not weapons with polygons. If customization is coming for powers (if!), it's still a ways off.



How do you select these options, are they all available immediately?

Go to Icon and choose your weapon from among those currently available. Some (maybe all?) of the extra options will come as inventable drops (like wing recipes). When you first 'roll' your character, the initial set of weapon choices will be available (excluding the ones not unlocked for your character or account).

"The thing about those [Red Cap daggers]...Red Caps don't just give those things away. You might have to take 'em away from the Red Caps to use them." -_Castle_


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We have a lot of faction weapons in as un-lockable options. -BaB


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Unlockable? by story arc, badge or are they recipes?


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I'm gonna go with badges. IE, kill 50 Family Lt's and get their Tommys.


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"Good guess.

Vanguard Talsorian blades (claws) and the Redding Rail Rifle (Assault Rifle) are purchased with Vanguard Merits, if you are of the correct AT and powerset." -Positron


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So can you choose a different weapon for different costume slots and change weapons by changing costumes?

"Yes" -BaB



Will MM minions have customizable weapons?

No. Just the player's weapons (if the MM even takes any of the weapon attack powers in the first place!). "Mastermind weapon customization is only for the player weapon, not minion weapons. We have as much ability to allow players to customize their minion weapons as we do to allow players to customize their minion's costumes...zero." -BaB in PM



Was weapon customization the thing Positron was talking about when he said we're getting something in I11 that we've been asking for for a long time?

Nope, he was referring to Flashback. "Actually Weapon Customization made the feature list AFTER I made the original "something you've been asking for" post, where I was referring to Flashback. (We had players in the CoH beta test asking for a way to go back and do the story arcs of the Contacts they skipped). " -Positron

RTT

[Midnight]

What we know about Weapons Customization so far:

Shovel

I'm there.

[BlueBard]

Okay, based on the sketchy detail I think I can buy what they're trying to do with Issue 11, especially if Ouroboros will be available to characters of all levels.  The time travel factor makes it not suck from a storytelling viewpoint. 

One question would concern the autoexemp for the Flashback... if it works like a normal exemplar where you can't really gain xp, just retire debt or gain influence, it may not be all that useful.  But if you could use it to gain xp... it might help overcome some of the upper-level grind people were complaining about in another thread.  You might not get a lot of xp, but every little bit helps.  Even if it just retires debt in the normal way I imagine that would help as you'd potentially have access to a LOT more missions to help you do that.

The weapons customization is a surprise and a welcome one.  Has anyone else considered that it helps pave the way to customizable shields down the road???

I'm still pretty meh on Dual Blades, but the combo moves statement has me intrigued.  Even if it means nothing more than varying the animations for a given attack, that still doesn't suck.  Visually, at least, it would help.  If combo moves also had secondary effects, then that raises the bar quite a lot.

And I'm hoping Willpower is an antidote to the high End drain of Super Reflexes.  I've got at least one Martial Artist I'd be interested in rerolling.

[Uncle Yuan]

The weapons customization is a surprise and a welcome one.  Has anyone else considered that it helps pave the way to customizable shields down the road???

I also wonder if customizable effects (or at least colors) will be available for blaster and other powers soon.  Green Streak really needs to have green lightning . . .

Although it sounds like the options available for War Mace might just spark som interest in that over looked set.

[Verfall]

The weapons customization is a surprise and a welcome one.  Has anyone else considered that it helps pave the way to customizable shields down the road???

I also wonder if customizable effects (or at least colors) will be available for blaster and other powers soon.  Green Streak really needs to have green lightning . . .

Although it sounds like the options available for War Mace might just spark som interest in that over looked set.

This thread basically explains why we'll probably never see actual power customization: http://boards.cityofvillains.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=9090159&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

[El Condor]

I like the idea that we'll see lots of toons running around with weapons that look different from each others, as opposed to every BS scrapper wielding the same sword and every AR blaster with the same super-soaker.  Just the thought of the collective variety makes me all happy inside. (yeah, I know - it doesn't take much  :lol:)

EC

[ThePrelate]

I got caught up, or I would have posted this sooner

http://www.mmolecule.com/news/news.mmo?id=94b8625c-9565-41e1-a952-f329802f5c36

but it looks like it's not news to you guys ;)

[Tortuga]

Weapon Customization alone makes this issue worthwhile.  Especially when you think that they will most likely add more and more as time goes on.

Plus, it's something I posted on the CoH boards two years ago...so I like to think about it as my idea :)

Now I really want to make a new tank...shovel/willpower?  sledgehammer/willpower?!  warhammer/willpower?!  too many choices!!

[Viking]

Don't forget the possibility of pipe wrench/willpower - nobody escapes the wrath of Super Mario!

[Uncle Yuan]

Actually, that wrench has me really wishing there was a plumber's crack costume option - prehaps something under belts?

[Tortuga]

Or below the belt.

[Ephemeris]

I think the problem is no belt.

[RTTingle]

Interesting yet... the options are tied with costume selection... and most likely costume slots.

Which means, for each costume... I can have a different style weapon.

Of course, this is another argument for more costume slots.

RTT

[Durothill]

Wow gotta hand it to the Devs on this one, weapon customization, flashback and at least some new content missions, 2 new power sets one of which is trying out something a bit different. that's pretty good going, i'd just deactivated my account but based on this i suppose i could spring for another month or so.
If i had one suggestion for the dev's though it'd be to spend the next issue working on either reworking or adding new missions to all levels, some new maps and possibly some new victory conditions. But hey i'll take whatever they throw out :P

[BlueBard]

Weapon Customization alone makes this issue worthwhile.  Especially when you think that they will most likely add more and more as time goes on.

Plus, it's something I posted on the CoH boards two years ago...so I like to think about it as my idea :)

Now I really want to make a new tank...shovel/willpower?  sledgehammer/willpower?!  warhammer/willpower?!  too many choices!!

It's too bad Scrappers don't have a bludgeoning set.  I'd love shovel/dark just for the novelty factor.

But I'll settle for stone/shovel, I guess...  I got dibs on the name Underminer.  ;)

[RTTingle]

Not sure you guys noticed this specifically...

Through the mysterious Menders of Ouroboros, players gain the ability to "Flashback", that is to travel through time and relive major events from the history of Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™. Heroes who travel back in time will embark on missions such as preventing the Circle of Thorns from unleashing a devastating demon on a defenseless world, a story originally presented in the City of Heroes comic book. Villains who journey through time will get the chance to assist Lord Recluse™ in his initial campaign to conquer the Rogue Isles, and much more.

It seems as if the Flashback is not just for doing old missions over again and that they are going to toss in some fresh new missions as well based on events in CoX lore.

As if that isn't really cool enough, the devs have finally decided to take the best story from the last comics run and actually put it in game. 

Troy Hicman sez...

Yes, I know everything about it, for reasons that will eventually become clear, but for now, mum's the word. I think folks will be happy with it, though. And some of the character designs rule with an iron fist in a velvet glove.

BAB had something to say about it too, but the boards are down for maintenance.

RTT

[Flying_Infant]

"Players will even get to set mission parameters for these missions to earn special badges."

Like...for "kill # of enemy" badges??