City Of Heroes: Ask Statesman - Issue #5 - Current Issue

We know that the Avilians are something to do with wings, the Coralax is something to do with water and the Incarnate is the Archetype of Lord Recluse and Statesman, but can you tell us a little more about the Blood of the Black Stream?
You'll need to wait and see.

What is the design intent of the Hamidon encounter and do you feel that it is now (after recent changes) working as the devs intended, or can we expect more changes to Hamidon such as a reduction in spawn times or further changes to the rewards system for the encounter?
I'm sure we'll always be changing Hamidon! We want it to be a fun challenge for a large group of high level characters. That's the goal.

Once the body slider/face slider changes go live with issue 4, will we be able to change our body/face at Icon or will our current characters be 'locked in' to our existing body?
You'll be able to change your avatars at Icon.

Are there any special plans for the 1st anniversary of CoH going live? A second round of the Rikti Invasion, perhaps? It seems like an awful waste to have the code for massive, floating Rikti motherships going unused, when so many new players have never experienced the glory of the beta invasion...
None planned.

Are there any major storylines upcoming that all the heroes can participate in? I don't just mean like a winter event, I'm thinking more along the lines of a world affecting crisis where the successful completion of missions help to uncover a story that the entire game world can see developing, perhaps maybe a souvenir could be specially written detailing the players who took part and given to all those involved.
This is something that we definitely want to do moving forward. We'd like players to have a real, lasting effect in the game.

Besides the already mentioned arena ones, will there be added more badges to ensure that there'll still be some to gain even after you reach the high levels? I'm thinking along the lines of more 'recieve an insanely high amount of damage'-badges and 'heal a massillion HP' ones.
We'll be adding new badges with every Issue; and high level gameplay is going to be something of a focus moving forward.

Are there any plans to have Arena matches against monsters like the Paladin, Admastor and others? Kind of like gladiator bouts?
Currently, the Arena is all about PvP, but your idea is a good one!

Will we be seeing any more monsters like the Paladin in Kings Row and the Octopus in Independance Port? If so, any hints what they might be?
My goal is to put a special event in nearly every zone. In every issue, we'll try to add to pre-existing zones.

What do you think are the most important lessons you've learned from City of Heroes, and how are you applying them to City of Villains?
First, make every zone dynamic. In other words, make them come alive. We accomplished this quite well with Striga; that zone provides a new standard for us. Secondly, communicate the story better. We'll have some new technology in City of Villains that will allow players to see the plotlines in a cool new way. Thirdly, give players what they want. We have a much better understanding of what makes Archetypes and powers cool. Lastly, make missions feel unique. One of the earliest criticisms was that our missions were repetitive. Now we've got over a year's worth of new tech and art to use as we write the City of Villains missions from scratch.

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