Here's the complete log. Brannoc was the name of the moderator who was asking user submitted questions:


QUOTE
Brannoc - Welcome to another great Stratics house of commons chat with the developers of City of Heroes! Tonight we'll be focusing around expansions 4 and 5, questions about City of Villians will NOT be answered.

Brannoc - Please send those questions to [QT]Phineus OR [QT]Shoes - to do so type /msg [QT]Nick My question here. Please only send questions to our QT's as those sent to myself or the developers will not make it into the lineup.

Brannoc - The full logs will be posted on http://coh.stratics.com after the chat. We'll begin with a quick intro from our guests...now would be a good time to send in those questions!

CuppaJo - I am CuppaJo = a community coordinator for CoH

Statesman - I'm Statesman, Lead designer for City of Heroes

Brannoc - *Tick-Tok* What can you tell us about the new villian groups rumoured to be in Crotoa? (did I get the name right?)

Statesman - Sure, Croatoa is a place of magic and exploration, and as such the villains have that sort of flair

Statesman - You will encounter villains from the Coven, as well as the Red Caps and other groups

Statesman - and the funny part is, that even these groups don't get along with one another, so the zone has lots of infighting witnessed by the Heroes

Statesman - You may even recognize some entities, if you were around last Halloween.

Brannoc - *zzMDude* What are the new zone events coming with Issue 5?

Statesman - It seems that the Trolls have a new supply of Superadine, and they are having HUGE parties to celebrate... parties that have unfortunate consequences for the citizens of Skyway

Statesman - In addition the Hellions have taken up arson as a new past time, and the Paragon Fire Department is looking for a few good Heroes to help out

Brannoc - *ScorchedDaemon* Will bow blasters have a sniper attack, if so, will it have a different animation?

Statesman - Yes, the bow Attack set has a sniper attack, yes. All the bow attacks have slightly different animations. Its not all just pull back and loose an arrow.

Brannoc - Please only send your questions to [QT]phineus OR [QT]Shoes - questions sent to me or the developers will NOT be answered. And remember that no City of Villians questions will be answered today/

Brannoc - *Krankor* will the winged or bow and arrow archetype be in issue 5?

Statesman - The winged AT is still a bit off. The bow and arrow sets are not an Archetype unto themselves, but they are powersets available to new Blasters and Defenders.

Brannoc - *Lady_Sadako* Question for Statesman: What new trials, task forces, giant monsters and (please!!!) raids can we look forward to in I5? and how about that Faultline trial?

Statesman - All the big stuff is around Croatoa. There are new contacts, missions, task forces and the like all taking place in the zone.

Statesman - We used Striga as an example when it came to content, so expect the same level of detail.

Statesman - We are working on more raid-style content, but that is not ready for I5.

CuppaJo - Lvl range is 25 - 35

Brannoc - rainmaker* Hi Statesman, thanks for taking the time out to talk with us. My question is:"what do you personally think is the biggest problem with the Hamidon Enhancements? In what way do you feel they unbalance the game? And can you give us a teaser on you the solution is going to be?

Statesman - I think the biggest problem is the amount that some players have. We never really anticipated a fully slotted with Hamidon Enhancement character, but we have several right now, and that is a problem. We have a lot of solutions we are looking into, but we have not really set our sites on one, so any 'hints' I gave may change before it goes live.

Brannoc - *ScorchedDaemon* Are Time controllers going to be in Issue 5, or is a rumor, and if they are, what kind of powers will they have?

Statesman - Yeah, thats a rumor. There are no Time controllers planned. It sounds cool though. We'd just have to figure out how to make someone be able to manipulate time on his machine while the other players are still able to play the game.

Brannoc - *Anon061* how many new power sets are there gonna be in 5?

Statesman - 4 new sets, 2 for Sonic and 2 for Bows. You can make a Bow/Devices blaster if you want.

Brannoc - *ScorchedDaemon* what kind of animations will sonic blasters have(sounds from hands/mouth)?

Statesman - I believe that the majority of animations come from the mouth (head) of the character.

Brannoc - *viranth* I haven't played COH for a while, but I tried the recent 5 day free period. I found it pretty hard to find the arena and get anyone to fight against, anything planned to make that easier?

Statesman - We are looking into all sorts of things to make the Arenas more appealing to players. We are currently designing some fun mini-games for a wider variety of players to enjoy. More than just straight up PvP.

Brannoc - *Abysmalyxia* What are some of the "quality of life" upgrades statesman forsees in issue 5?

Statesman - We are working very hard on fixing the problems involving Exemplars and Task Forces. We also are giving you half debt if you get defeated on a mission map (indoor or outdoor missions).

Statesman - We're raising the debt-free cap to level 10, so you won't get Debt until then if you are defeated.

Statesman - And we are getting the stores onto the minimaps to make them easier to find.

Brannoc - *tomcincy* O.k can we please get more info on hte "universities being built. like; whats the use of them; what are rewards for using them; etc etc thank you!

Statesman - The Universities are tied into the Skills system, which as you know is currently undergoing a redesign. Once the Skills are ready to go, the Universities will already be in place so players will be familiar with the concept, in world, of having a place to go learn things.

Brannoc - *Shadowpraxis* We've heard that Controllers will be getting help pre-32 to make their lives a bit easier. Can you give us some more info on exactly what that's going to entail (hopefully to quash some of the DOOM rumors that it's all going to culminate in an ultimate nerf on post-32 controllers)?

Statesman - We are still in the process of testing things right now, but you should expect that ALL controllers, regardless of level, will gain more non-pet offense.

Brannoc - *Baz00ka_J0e|Guardian* Statesman, is it true that there will be new melee/ranged weapons in Issue 5 such as bow & arrow, shield, quarterstaff, etc.?

Statesman - We have bows for Blasters and Defenders... shields is still a ways off though, its a LOT of specialized animations. I'd love to see more weapons like quarterstaffs and lances become powersets of their own as well someday.

Brannoc - *Darcent* several months ago states said they were aware of the dependency most people had on stamina, and some powersets practically required it to be effective at all, one of the suggestions was to make the current fitness powers inherit, is anything like that still on the possible list or any sort of fix for the endurance problems many power sets are plagued with?

Statesman - We expected Fitness to be a popular power in a popular power-pool, but the amount of builds that require it in order to function is more than we anticipated. We are looking into all solutions for Fitness and Endurance as a whole that won't dramatically alter the gameplay of most of our players.

Brannoc - *Destroid* The largest challenge the Haimdon offers is coordinating enough heroes to bring it down. The actual encounter itself is rather easy. What are your plans for creating high-end content that actually feels heroic?

Statesman - You hit the nail on the head. High end encounters should not be about coordination, but more about cooperation and more than a little bit of luck. We want to design high end encounters that make the players pump their fist in the air when they finally emerge victorious.

Brannoc - *Synchrotron* To Statesman, what's your favorite feature coming in issue 5?

Statesman - There are a lot to choose from. The new powersets rank pretty high. I've always wanted new powersets for players to choose from, and now we finally get to present some of the more popular ones from comics.

Brannoc - *TheDarkLord* to try and increase enthusiasm in the arena have you thought about putting more prize backing into some kind of team tournement format such as the pentad? (which in my opinion is the best team format for balanced play)

Statesman - Yes, with the arrival of the Tournaments (and subsequent Tournament badges) we hope that generates more interest. If that doesn't do the trick then we have still more options available (like rewarding temp powers that are usable outside the arena for a day or the like).

Brannoc - *Baz00ka_J0e|Guardian* Statesman, can we still expect to see the character copy tool in time for I5?

Statesman - It won't be in issue 5, but it is something we'd like to get going before City of Villains comes out (the ability to transfer your character from one server to another).

Brannoc - *Culex* How often will we have seasonal events like the Halloween and Winter events?

Statesman - As often as time allows! They're always popular and we enjoy them (PL'ing aside)

Brannoc - *Noomb* Have both the Job Skills and Flashback features been pushed to a later update?

Statesman - Yes. Both have been pushed out - Skills until we can do them right (i.e. fun) and Flashback is still being debated.

Brannoc - *ArmageddonX* What new powersets besides Archery, Sonic, and Trick arrow will be added in Update 5. Will every AT get a new powerset? Are blaster finally going to get their long needed AT fix. Blaster are grossly underpowered in the 30+ game. FInally what other features can you tell us about in Update 5?

Statesman - Those power sets are it. Yes, Blasters will get looked at in I5. As for other features - stay tuned!

Brannoc - *disco_* please explain the rational behind suppression and if perma-toggle-suppression is intended

Statesman - Suppresion - needed to prevent travel powers from rendering combat risk free

Statesman - I.E. Run in, attack, run away before mobs respond.

Statesman - Travel powers are just that - travel powers.

Statesman - We had done this with Flight by giving it an Accuracy debuff

Statesman - And we wanted to make Super Speed and Super Leap balanced to Flight.

Statesman - If you get hit enough, then yes, you can be suppressed mightily!

Brannoc - *Baz00ka_J0e|Guardian* Statesman, any chance of there being more additions to costume creation? New helmets & hats would be awesome!

Statesman - We'll be adding more options later - CoV, of course, has lots of new pieces for the bad guys.

Brannoc - *Teux* Is there any plan to add combo attacks, either by use of a combination of specific powers from the same hero or powers from different heros? I.E. the "Cannonball Special"

Statesman - We've given it some thought, but there's no plans

Brannoc - *Korialstrazs* Is power customization be going into this issue and if not when can we expect it?

Statesman - No. Power Customization is still a ways away.

Brannoc - *Destroid* Will heroes ever use their contacts instead of being used by them? Say I find a clue on a bad guy, why should I not be able to pick from my list of contacts the one who I want to work with? I don't like feeling as if I am a super-powered errand boy.

Statesman - Skills, I think, are the perfect way to do this. Yes, we're thinking about it.

Brannoc - *Astartus* May we expect more good costume and chest symbol options with issue #5?

Statesman - No.

Brannoc - *Destroid* The big item in Issue #4 was the Arena, what item in Issue #5 should players look forward to most? What is the biggest addition and what do you like most about it

Statesman - You'll need to wait and see. I'll let you guys decide that.

Brannoc - *gadgetdon* will there be something done to allow players to see the stories in task forces they've been part of?

Statesman - Yes - I'd love to get some sort of "Journal" in City of Heroes (similar to those of traditional RPG's).

Brannoc - *Darkhearts* Whats your plans for illusion controllers? They seem to have to many "good" powers (Decoys,invis,ect)

Statesman - Controllers - ALL of them - are being evaluated for I5.

Current Mood: excited

Yay for controllers and blasters getting some love. Especially controllers - Blind and Phantom Wounds need some oomph to them to make soloing a *tad* easier. Sometimes you just don't have time to group, but a fight can be so agonizingly slow.

And I hope they stretch out Croatoa over the 30s some more - I've not experienced this yet, but I keep hearing the late 30s is a problem hump in terms of leveling. If that's the case I hope they get more to do in that range.

Tell me aboutn it. A door mission for my pet Controller goes likr this: "Confuse the lower powered goon, do damage to the uppers via Dominate and Mesmerize, and then hit my 2,3, and 4 over and over till my End runs out, wait for it to recharge then hit them again, repeat as needed. 10 minutes listening to the 'Wah wah wah wah' sound till the goon drops like an exhausted bag of potatoes.. can nake people want to give in to Vhazilok if he agrees to pierce your ear drums. :)

Sounds like all of the door missions for my mind/FF.

Actually, the magic words in that, to my ears, were "25-35". One of the biggest problems I always have is that the zones are set up as 1-5, 5-10, 10-20, 30-40, 40+. There need to be zones where the even tens are the middle of the range, so there's always a good place to hunt.

Amen to that. An additional 35-45 zone would be nice too. It would make those LOOOOOOOONG levels maybe go by a little faster. Or at least seem a little faster.

And a big shout out for giving blasters some love. We need it.

It's nice to have a zone that has levels overlapping other zones. I outleveled Striga/IP/Talos, but wasn't quite tough enough for Brickstown/Founders Falls/Crey's Folly.

When I hit Level 30 with my scrapper and got handed my first Brickstown and Founder's Falls contacts, I of course wanted to go see them immediately, just as I'd been doing ever since stumbling out of Outbreak as Level 2. As I recall, my first thought upon entering both zones was "Holy crap for crap, everything here cons purple."

So a big "yes" vote from me for overlapping zones. If they're going to be patterning it after Striga, that's a very good sign.

You've got a point there. The transition from Kings to Steel has always been a headache for most of my non-scrapper character, as they don't *quite* do enough damage, or have enough defense for what's there. And leveling to get to a point where they *are* able to face it is a pain.

I'm really eager to start petitioning for the ability to not have power sounds on, seperate from sound effects, the constant droning and humming can make a Super Hero crazy.

I wear a headset when I play for optimal sound, and the humming just gets to me sometimes, it's why I'm glad winamp exists...

yeah i purposely deleted my dark armor toon cause the defense sounds were seriously giving me a migraine.

Hah! I lost interest in mine for that very reason.

CANNOT agree with you more.

I actually ended up respec-ing out of Super Speed because the constant hum it makes while on drove me insane. Surprisingly though, the noise that Targeting Drone makes doesn't bother me .. go figure.

Somewhere on the boards there was a patch that let you substitute your own sound file for the sound that any given power gives off.

Croatoa? I wonder where he got all this info, but it's enough to satisfy a small part of my curiosity about it...

Screenshots and demo of it here, possibly from the test server i guess.

I like the fifth-grade crayon drawing quality of the first picture.

Croatoa reminds me of fall in New England. Halloween, pumpkins, corn, magic, ghosts, witches...I am just so excited about it! (yeah that is my favorite time of the year, if you haven't figured that out yet) =)

archery AND sleepy hollow, yay!

Return of the Coven! Yay!

The rest, meh.

LAME!! here i was all excited over new powersets so i could play a different scrapper and it sounds like we are being screwed again.

The Coven are coming back, HUZZAH!!!

And it looks like my main will finally find a real "home" in Croatoa (this means she can move out of the basement of Pandora's Box. While my Ice/Ice blaster has lowered their air conditioning bills, they're complaining that the cold snaps are putting cracks in the walls--and some of the more valuable artifacts.

EEE! There's no describing how giddy I am. XD

Whatchu talkin' bout, Yina? I thought the Wicked Women were going to set up residence in Oranbega. ;)

Have we taken it over, yet? Are we moved in? Have the floors been swept before we bring in my Persian carpets?

HELL NO!

Until we get rid of all those damn ghosts and pesky Thorn casters, I'd like to move out of Pandora's Basement, thankyouverymuch!

Yay blasters get some lovin! =D I can't wait for I5. I just wish they could have drawn the green line to go through FF. Not that I should complain or anything, but I might as well get frequent flyer miles as I fly to Founder's Falls to Peregine Island and back.

The biggest yay is the character transfer between servers that will happen BEFORE CoV. =)

Hangon. New zone is lvl 25-35?

Isn't Striga the newest zone, and isn't it already 25-30? Did they really need to be that redundant? *sigh* Guess I shouldn't complain.. too much..
-_-