City of Heroes: Ask a Dev

City of Heroes "Ask a Dev": Melissa Bianco Answers Your Questions

Wrigleys: Have you ever pitched a concept for a new zone that WASN'T pursued past the initial idea? If so, can you tell us about your proposed zone? (Or, what would be a "dream zone" for you, if you could personally pitch a new zone concept today?)

War Witch: Ah, my own crazy idea-land. I wrote up a list of ideas when I first came on board, having little experience in level design. I feel so confident that ONE DAY someone will realize my brilliance, that I am going to paste a snippet of suggestions for your enjoyment. (That is, when you stop laughing.)

So welcome to November 14th, 2002:

Ex-Superhero Zone

Ex-superheroes retired/injured community. Almost everyone you talk to has seen "some" kind of action and has a story to tell -- maybe could even help players with their more lengthy quests. Plus you could do kind of an "irony" twist on some well-known superheroes -- but not, of course.

[This is more of a 'theme' than a zone. A whole zone dedicated to old geezers sitting on their front porches talking about the glory days? What do I fight?! Boredom?]

Hollywood Zone

Everyone's got a cell phone, every car is a BMW, every street has a tourist taking pictures of particular spots that look eerily familiar (but not, of course, exact). Maybe a few NPCs walking down Rondeno Drive (as opposed to Rodeo Drive) look or dress suspiciously familiar. Plus shopkeepers could be especially rude as they look the superhero up and down (kind of like the Pretty Woman thing with Julia Roberts). Villains? Everyone could be an Agent, Lawyer, or Publicist.

[Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! *cough* I stand by this one.]

So there you have it. Notice I never thought a moment of how we'd populate these zones with some sort of reasonable 'villain' group, what - design-wise - it would be to implement, how it was just an idea that would be better suited to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GAME?

Wrigleys: Looking beyond Issue 10: Invasion, do you think the emphasis will continue to be revamped zones versus "new" zones, a la Issues 8 and 9? Do you foresee any "new" zones being introduced to City of Villains, a la Issue 7? Do you see foresee "co-op" zones being the new model of bringing increased parity between CoH and CoV? Or do you foresee the PvP game being allowed to evolve with a FIFTH PvP zone eventually being introduced into the game?

War Witch: With Faultline, we took one of the LEAST played zones, which had kind of a cool idea behind it, and breathed new life into it, trying to fix things that made it un-fun. Rikti War Zone was updated because we wanted to expand on a storyline (the Second Invasion), missions, the World Event, the zone event, etc. As much as I like revamping zones, yes, I - too - would like work on NEW ones. I'd also like to put a new zone or twelve in CoV. What that will be or how it will take shape, well, time will tell.

I quite like the idea of Co-Op zones. Finally, you can play with your friends, who are Villains, against a greater enemy. Then again, how many 'greater threats' could there be? But I never say never when it comes to building new zones.

The end.