(The words and views expressed here are my own, and are not representative of any member or party representing (currently or formerly) City of Heroes/Villains.)
Hello hello!
It has been a very long time since I've posted anything on CoH related forums, but seeing as how we're in the final hours of the game, I wanted to drop in and say a few words. For those who don't know me, my name is Eric "E.J." Nelson, and I worked on City of Heroes/Villains as a designer from October 2003 through Mid 2007 (from launch to Issue 10). I worked full time on CoX up until around the latter part of 2006/early part of 2007, but still helped out part-time afterward. I was pretty active on the official forums for the first few years, even after a couple poorly written discussions on my part on the boards. To be absolutely clear, I am no longer affiliated with Cryptic Studios, Paragon Studios, or NCSoft (I left back in 2008 to pursue other career goals), and I do not believe anything I say here should or will adversely affect anyone.
I have several very cherished memories of both working on and playing the game, but what made this game special was the community. Whether it was in-game, on the forums, or in person, the players of this game were always a higher class group of people, and I cannot think of one negative incident where I thought to myself "wow... that's not cool". I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the community, and enjoyed engaging with other players in-game more so than in any other game I've played. So that being said, I'd like to share some of my favorite moments.
1) Learning from the master - When I first started, I was a rookie at design, and really didn't know what I was doing. My first zone that I populated was Founders Falls, and while on a gameplay balance side it was alright, it was admittedly a mess... it was generic and redundant, and the mobs in the zone were just not doing anything interesting. It wasn't until Archon Voss (Thomas Foss) was brought on board that I really started to get a better idea for what I was doing. He taught me quite a bit about bringing worlds to life, in ways that I hadn't even thought of. After teaching me, he cut me loose on Croatoa, which to this day is still one of my favorite pieces of content that I've worked on.
2) Implementing the Safeguard/Mayhem missions - When the concept of these missions came about, I was excited. Destructible environments, time-sensitive tasks, exterior/interior environments in a single mission instance, and signature heroes and villains within? Sign me up! It took a lot of time and effort, but with solid guidance from Thomas, great feedback from our QA team, and a huge amount of programming support, we were able to deliver some awesome and engaging gameplay. And having the privilege to write the strategy guide that was posted on the website, AND incorporated into the comic? That was awesome for me.
3) Zone events/giant monsters - I loved adding the giant monsters to zones... and after I became a bit more experienced as a designer, I started to become more creative with their implementation. (Before I go further into this, I should caution that I do not know what of the following has already been revealed or posted on the net, so bear with me
) For example, I overhauled the Adamastor encounter in my off time (well before Dark Astoria was completely re-designed to its current awesome state), changing the spawn from just a random wandering monster in a graveyard to becoming a bit of a theater piece, where a large group of Banished Pantheon were performing a ceremony in a larger open area of the cemetery. The mobs used in that group were always set to be more than a typical group could handle. But when the player got close, Adamastor popped up from the ground in a surprise ambush, leaving the unwary hero to have to either fight a giant monster with adds, or run away. Another example was in Croatoa... have you ever noticed the little hill right behind the monorail station? Have you happened to notice that sometimes it has pumpkins, and sometimes it doesn't? This was actually my attempt at a subtle "tell" that Eochai was somewhere in the zone. If there were pumpkins, Eochai was around; if there weren't, Eochai was not there. I mixed this with the "disguise" posture that would cause the tree monsters (including the Fir Bolg) to take the shape of a tree, making him a very surprise ambush if you weren't paying attention. One final example... the Ballista in St. Martial was quite the entertaining challenge. I wanted to give the players who were willing to take on such an arrogant Elite Boss a surprise (the Elite Boss should have clued solo players to stay away). Making the Longbow Spec-Ops only work when the Ballista went aggro took a lot of effort, but in the end the feedback I received was that it was an entertaining encounter. Oh, and the mini stage concert by the Banished Pantheon in Pocket D VIP lounge? Yep, had fun with that too
(Honorable mention to the Arachnos Flyer in Grandville, which took advantage of a new AI system that I was able to play with.)
I have many other memories that I will carry with me through my life, but I just wanted to share some of my favorites with you all. Again, this community was one of the biggest reasons that this game was great. Thank you all for playing, and I wish you all the best!
