Taking Your Questions for Serdar Copur

To help continue the popular series of WarCry's series on City of Heroes, we need your help.

Today, we're gearing up for the third installment of our series on City of Heroes. In the coming weeks, we will get answers from Producer Serdar Copur about his role in the game and more on the game itself.

To make that happen, we need your questions.

Click over to City of Heroes WarCry where we have a brief bio for you. Check that out, then leave us your questions in the comment thread.

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Hello, and thanks for making a superior product!

As a producer of this game, I am sure that you are often faced with a choice of deadline versus original intention. Or, more relevantly, your development team is clearly choosing to perfect Inventions and get them out in the highest quality rather than to release them early in the year and placate those that are impatient for the next expansion. Would you be willing to expound a bit on how to decide when you are going past "deadline" and at what point you decide that the specific product has taken "too long" to produce, and release as is?

(P.S. First post! Whoot!)

Hi Serdar! In getting your team from here to there and setting priorities, how do you typically decide what IS a priority? As players there is nothing more exciting than getting new stuff to play with, but at the same time, it's just as frustrating to have things bugged or broken that don't get fixed for long periods of time (raid issues, pain fields, arena, base kicks, Cathedral of Pain etc). How do you decide which is best to focus on for the game and for those who play it?

What is the hardest 'programming' thing that you want to eventually add to the game?

I know it has been asked, time and time again, about having a Hero switch sides and become a Villain and vice versa. As many would like this ability, what are the actual possibilities of this happening and if so, would switching sides be a one shot deal? If, after switching sides, would a reformed villain not be able to return to the Rogue Isles?

First off Lord Recluse PWNS! Moving along...Will there ever be a chance to make costume pieces from the Freedom Phalanx and Arachnos? Like say statesmans cape, or the purple thing behind recluses legs? I personally would love to have the Mu's aura for my char.

I would like to say that I love the world of CoV and I really like how the story progresses; however, a few of us don't like seeing the same thing over and over again no matter how many AT's we've made and taken through the game. My question is are there any plans for the future to take a completely different route from the CoV story, new villain groups, or the ability to ever "defect" and have contacts on the other side to help you through your new life as a hero/villain?

What tools do you use to build maps and characters do you use a third party product or something in house?

I would like to encourage you that quality is better than meeting deadlines. V8 invisible boxes and a patch that if you DC you're dropped from the task force were most recent problems. These are extremely annoying to the user, but being a software developer I understand the pressures applied on us. If you think sharing this with management will help, please feel free to share this. I'm not as anxious for new content as I will be annoyed by things that don't work in normal play. By the way, two thumbs up on the new Faultline missions!!!!

Thank you for your contribution to a fun (and addictive) game. It's great for the Palendins to devils in each player.

When? When? When?!?! Are you going to raise the level cap to 60 or 70 with new content?? You'd better hurry on this, you are being left behind by games like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars!!

Does the City of team have deadlines? Reading Cryptic's website we see that they are a fairly relaxed organization and that employees work 40 hour weeks and such. In such an environment, can you keep pace with customer demands for new content and keep the game appealing to new players as well?

Hi, Serdar! I spend most of my time in Paragon City, but I have a few characters in the Rogue Isles. A common complaint is that the CoV characters don't feel "evil" enough in their missions. What are your thoughts on that?

I want to know if the B.o.t.B.S. will be out soon, i want me a SHAPESHIFTER!!!

Oh, and what carson said.

Lord Recluse, are we ever going to see the content gap between CoV and CoH decrease? Many CoV players feel like they have less to do since they have less SFs, trials, and ATs then Heroes. Are we going to see updates that come with say 2 Villain SFs and 1 Hero so that gap is taken down a bit. Or more appropriatly, 2 Villain SFs and 2 or 3 Hero Story Arc Contacts.

In the same way Posi was asked, if there were 10 power sets that you could have in the game tomorrow, what would they be.

The only thing that villians needs is for the sexism to end. First off, you can't make a muscular female, only fat ones (increseing what should be muscul (on male) only makes them fat), thus a strong female is out of the releam of possablitly, you can only make slim, or fat girls. Second, the MM has no females peoples. I think ninja should have a kunochi for there third minion(i think i spelled it wrong, but its a girl ninja) with, like poision needels or something (simular to the meat doctors, with cones and what not). Thats about it though... for now.

Posi mentioned back in an interview last year about looking into changing SG membership from 75 characters to 75 accounts. Could we get an update on that? Is it feasible, is it coming, is it backburnered or scrapped, and why? It's a feature I know a lot of SGs, preticularily larger ones are looking forward to.

Statesman, hints at Issue 10. He said that this next issue is more story driven. I'm wondering if something will be done with actual gameplay. Something akin to Giant monster/Villian group invasions. Or even instead of just defeating the boss and his crew, or finding Object X. Will there be any kind of puzzle solving. I mean, brawn is nothing without brain. On the villians side. Devising evil schemes would be fun. Evading a Freedom Corp sting operation aimed at your villian. Is anything like that in the works? Or am I just daydreaming? Thanks for a great game, I hope to see it become even better in the future!

Well, I was wondering when you think there might be new power sets for scrappers and tankers, but I was also wondering the same thing as Arachnos Commander: will there be a way for a hero to turn into a villian in the middle of the game, or visa versa? That would be really cool! Thanks for the great game, and keep it up!

There ends up being quite a bit of spirited discussion (ok, arguments) among players about bugs in the game and why they don't seem to be fixed in a more timely fashion. Do you think you could give us a rundown on what the procedure is for bug fixing? Particularly, what happens once a bug has been identified, and why it's not always a simple matter of "telling more people to fix bugs" Some bugs are fixed really fast (the recent TF bug- kudos on a fast job) and others sit for months or years (the base kick bug). Any insight on why some have been with us so long?

Additionally, is there anything we as a community could be doing better to get more bugs fixed? This really tends to get under people's skin, and if there was something we could do better, I'm sure a lot of people would make the effort.

We already know about some of the epic archetypes for villains -- Nictus, an evil Khledian (Nictus slaves?) and Coralax hybrids. Can you give us some idea of what those archetypes will be like?

LadyMage:
Posi mentioned back in an interview last year about looking into changing SG membership from 75 characters to 75 accounts. Could we get an update on that? Is it feasible, is it coming, is it backburnered or scrapped, and why? It's a feature I know a lot of SGs, preticularily larger ones are looking forward to.

Yea I know quite a few people that would like the SG max to be changed from 75 characters to 75 accounts very soon. Or at least raise the cap to over 150 or so. Also what about more customization? Will we be able to change the colors of powers? or held weapon designs? Maybe trench coats and wings at the same time? OR belts and tails at the same time? (tails that actually wag ;p ) Ty for your time.

Hello! My question(s) is just if bases are going to get more objects? Will we ba able to stack more objects? Is the Fusion Generator EVER going to be fixed? Are the SG memberships ever going to change from 75 spots to 75 global accounts? Is the Cathedral of Pain ever going to return?

I mainly askt about bases because I have heard from many of the bigger SG's that they are at a stand still for improving their base because the most power they can have is 2 2nd tier generators. Also alot of people are feeling that one of the biggest features of having both games is being neglected.

g'day from down under

my question in volves a problem i have had reciently in regards to windows vista
my intire network recently updated to this os only to find we could not run cox with out major problems and errors as the development of vista was not a secret i find it hard to understand why there has not been a patch or update to make the game compatiable with vista ncsoft are saying they currently do not suport this os and that cox is not on there list to make compatiable
if i know microsofts procedures (having worked in there sales and marketing departments )they will soon stop suporting windows xp and force more people on to vista also with all new pc now comming out with vista it seams silly to me to not be working at making this a piority

as for the game i would love to se a crossover of some kind ie have a villian help a hero and get to change sides

I have a simple question , when will you guys be adding a toggle walk power, I believe a fair
number of us would like to walk from time to time, plus walking looked really neat in that
little movie you lot made for the vet awards 8)

Greetings. I would like to take a quick moment to says thanks to the developers for taking this extra step to connect with their games players. I truely feel it helps to create a superior product as an end result.

Now, onto my question. I initally started playing with the release of City of Villains and got really interested in the comics that accompanied the game. While many of the comics are excellently done, I was wondering what are the possibilites and options of incorporating the storylines of the game and the Comics into each other? You know perhaps even to the point of Player Characters show up in the Comic. Thanks for the info.

I also have a simple question. As far as moving characters to different servers, will it cost money, and how far on the bubble is it from happening? Thanks for a very enjoyable game.

two questions.

1: When are you gonna make AT's equivelant to Peacebringers and Warshades available to villians?

2: Will pole arms ever be added to the power list?

Also I think it would be a cool idea if people got to choose what their weapons looked like. Maybe make that a customizable thing?

We know the Praetorians are a major threat from another dimension, we know of Mother Mayhem, Anti-Matter, Battle Maiden, Black Swan, Bobcat, Chimera, Diabolique, Dominatrix, Infernal, Malaise, Marauder, Neuron, Nightstar, Shadowhunter, Siege, Tyrant. What I would like to know is will we be able to meet the Praetorian versions of Arachnos and others in COV? Any information, any clues?

(a) Months ago it was stated that the Level Cap would never be raised. PLEASE KEEP IT THAT WAY. More levels is a dead end proposition. Expand the content at the higher levels. Create methods of individualizing high-level characters through the use of Trials and Hamidon level encounters. Please do not "create" more content that is nothing more than a series of endless grinding to yet another pointless level.

(b) Is there any progress on the "crossing over" idea? Allowing villains and heroes to swap sides is something that I would be very interested in seeing accomplished.

(c) What (if any) plans are there for some sort of interaction with the Signature Heroes or Villains? Something beyond just meeting them as Trainers or as a "pet" that follows you after rescuing.

(d) Are their any plans for expanding on missions where Villains and Heroes cooperate? Banding together against a danger so terrible that it threatens both Heroes and Villains equally.

(e) On similar lines, Origin specific plotlines. The Kheldian Arc is interesting, perhaps some sort of Mutant story arc with a cooperative type Task Force at the end that required Mutant Heroes and Villains together to complete. Perhaps expanding so that the DO pairings would be able to dictate which Origins could participate. Along the lines of the Mutant plotline could be accepted by Mutant, Magic or Science Heroes because Mutant DOs are useable by both other types.

Hi,
This is my first post and wanted to say big props to you and to hell with you from my wife for producing such an incredible and addictive game while at the same time the stepping stone for my divorce...lol.

I overheard a fellow hero in Atlas say "I wish villians could attack Atlas...". Is it possible to create a system to do this? Here's a thought. Incorporate a mechanism where, say, a villain could temporarily take on the guise of a NPC (able to walk around, waive or run with arms flailing about). This disguise would operate on a timed basis. If time expires or the villain takes aggressive action, his/her true identity would be revealed. He would be subject to "arrest", some great penalty and maybe extradition. This disguise would be imperceptible except to all but the most "gifted" of heroes. This might mean enabling heroes to target actual NPCs, but at great reward or grave consequences. If a hero "spots" what he thinks is a NPCed villain, here's what might happen. If the hero targets and attacks a NPC and it really is a villain, the disguise is removed and the villain is open for arrest. If defeated, the villain is held for a determined amount of time in PPD jail before being returned to COV. The hero is awarded something VERY special. If the hero targets and attacks a true NPC, the hero himself is subject to arrest, time in a PPD jail or permanant lose of enhancements or temp. lose of several powers or some other substantial lose to prevent heroes for acting inappropriately. Villains could enter and exit Atlas thru portals, various city building doors that shift locations to pervent camping. Hope this idea is something that adds another exciting twist to the ever-evolving worlds of COH/COV.

I have a few suggestions and ill try to form one of them into a question ;)

1) In CoH 1 of the main things that keeps me playin my 50s is the ability to respec and try out different epics and shape my build to compliment them. Thus giving new life into your favorite toons. In CoV you are married to your patron. I made a bad decision and picked Black Scorpion and i hate the mace animations and i dont play that toon anymore, I have him respecd with 0 patron powers and its kinda boring. I due understand the Patron runs parralel to your missions. My suggestion is once 50 is reached and story arc completed you have the option to respec into other patrons for purpses of power availablity. My queastion is would you consider this?

2) If you pvp in coh, save a few builds, you are married to Super Jump because of the need of acrobatics. All of my toons always get health and stamina is there any chance you could put acrobatics in Fitness and Hurdle in Leaping?? I know all the pvpers will find this a great idea. It sucks to have your travel power dictated by the need to have statues protection. Please consider this.

3) Here is an idea for a very exiting new travel power set. Basically a 1 man vehicle with four powers that open in progression to make it better. I would design 1 for each origin type. Natural-Motorcycle , Magic-Horse, Science-Hoverbike/hoverboard!, Mutation-monsterous steed and Tech-jet pack power armor for example. Having a motorcycle makes alot of sense since it is a CITY(of heroes) Ill layout a mock power set as example.

Motorcycle Set -
1) Cruise - your first power allows you to summon your bike and ride it - faster than sprint and not as fast as SS.

2) Turbo - basically a 1 shot super jump that recharges a little slow so you can cruise and jump over obsticles

3) Overdrive - a dramatic speed shot like a self SB for vehicle

4) Last power has to be good :P So i was thinking maybe LRM rockets that shoot out of the vehicles sides but with restrictions to it so you can use it in combat unless your rolling. Heat seeking single target missle would be cool too.

The aspect of City of Heroes to me that makes it very desirable to play is the ability to put your own flavor into your toon from the look to the build. That is your greatest strength and if you embrace that and keep approaching new develpoments with player freedom in mind you will continue to produce and expand a loyal following. Sorry for long Post (my first) and ty for reading :)

Nilbog - Champion (ftw)

PVP...Ok now some of the best pvp super groups are leaving going to other games such World of warcraft,some are just playing until Fury or Conan comes out.what are you guys going to do for the pvp system and player so other super groups like JAL (justice for all league) does not follow ? please help use with these issues (1) please fix arena bugs. there are tons of them.(2) please give us a pvp server like WOW and other MMORPGs. (3)please notice the post from "your" customers under pvp threads on the official forum.I really like this game but if these issues are not fix the pvp player will be gone when Fury and Conan drops.

Greetings! Thanks for this chance to converse. I'm a big fan of CoH/CoV, and been playing for almost 30 months now. Usually I just play and don't comment, but given this chance, I'd like to pose a few questions (keeping the details brief):

1) Adding body-type (body composition) to character creation. Since not ever hero/villian is human, you could add a interesting yet simple addition of body-type that could be essentially an inherent power that gives very slight bonuses or negatives (1-5% max) to different damage resistances & movement (but not damage, since this is dependant on your powers). For instance: Undead, Flora (plant-like), Fauna, Undead, Ether (gaseous), Rock, Ice, Metallic, Fiery, etc. You could also just remain Human, with no +'s or -'s. An example of this is say, Undead (slightly lower resistance to negative energy & fire damage, slight increase to cold and fear), or Flora (slight increase to toxic, slight decrease to fire/ice...), Ether (+all movement, -aoe resistance...), Metallic (-movement, -res. to energy, fire, +smash/lethal, cold, toxic...). You could imagine the rest and other additions, but I think it would be a very simple addition when forming a new toon that players would love to toy with. It would also be respecable along with the other powers.

2) What about the special archtype available to lvl 50 CoV being "power mastery", and let this archtype be able to pick all the powers from certain types regardless of the archtype. For instance, picking "Ice Mastery" allows the new toon to pick powers from all the ice primary/secondaries from all the Dominator & Corruptor Ice power sets (still based on 9 tiers)

3) New archtype who's only powers are being able to copy the powers of its targets? Each copied power who only be availble for certain amount of time before they fade.

4) Why on earth did the energy stalker set get an aoe-repulse power? How counter intuitive is that? I've found that that energy secondary was poorly thought out for other reasons, sorry (You'd think it be more like the stamina version of regeneration is for healing. More instant-endurance and endurance-recovery powers, but no... )

5) Add more than 4 powers in the pool powers? Make the 5th available only if you have 3 others. For instance, add adrenaline to fitness. It'd give +damage +stamina recovery - accuracy with moderate endurance crash at end. Add toxic to medicine, since in fact most herbal remedies are a moderation of the same herb taken in excess (making them toxic).

Thanks for your time!

Oh, another thought.

People play your fun CoH and CoV games for various reasons, but I'm pretty safe to generalize that we all do it because we like to advance and experiement with different powers. Between that and the near-infinite costume selections, players will never get bored of trying out new things. I think you're safe not having to worry about losing players because of this regard, so what about thinking of not forcing/trapping players to repeatedly grind their way through level advancement for every toon? Especially if they've proven they've done it several times and seen all the plot material before? You're more liable to lose players if you continue to do so from the headache of it.

On that note, players play for different reason despite why the creators intended. I thrived on large scale carnage of huge herds, and was about to quit after you stunted that little joy. When PvP came out, that's the only reason why still play, to make toons to PvP. I don't play for the badges or story arcs. I bet I'm not alone in this regard. What about either:

a) let those with lvl 50 toons be able to make toons starting at lvl 10 or 20? Maybe even make this a Vetern Award?

b) let toons be maybe with a "PvP character only" option, in which the toon starts at lvl 20 or 30, but can only play in PvP zones. This would mean they'd only be allowed to use the pvp zone missions to get xp. You'd have to add a trainer I guess and a portal between the different zones, and maybe a store (or just make players earn there SO's with bounty).

I'm honestly telling you, I'll keep on paying to play if I could do either of the above, but I don't have the time to keep on grinding through levels. I'll stop being a customer before altogether. I'm going on 3 years of this game and the grind is just plain annoying.

Oh, and can you build a special pre-I5 server for all of us that enjoyed the days of insane herding?

Thanks again!

Ok ok, last thought I'm serious :-P

What makes Siren's Call really fun is the bounty and bounty-target tracking approach. Can you just add that to all the pvp zones? Can you make Sirens or other pvp zones bigger? and why is BB lvl 25, SC lvl 30, WB 38 and RV 50? Thats a 5, 8, 12 lvl desparatity between the zones; odd. I'd vote to axe a zone or combine the BB uniqueness with WB and only have 3 zones, thus conentrating more folks in each zone. Depending on the server, from what I can tell, BB and WB are pretty much ghost towns, and with SC and RV getting all the buisness...

Did I say Sirens needs to be bigger?