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We have another City of Heroes/Villians dev diary for you to enjoy.

So without further ado here it is.

Respecs – Past and Present

By Lead Designer Matt “Positron” Miller

One of the things that players have constantly been asking for has always been a way to earn unlimited Respecs for their characters. When we first introduced the concept of Respecs (Respecializing your character), it was in the form of a not-too-easy Trial that forced you and your team to use some pretty sound tactics to beat a difficult Task Force. This Trial could be repeated two more times by the time you reached level 50, so your character could Respec three times in the course of their career.

Unfortunately at times we made some significant adjustments to a variety of powers, forcing us to give players a free “respec” for their character when those adjustments made it to live. For many players, their characters simply didn’t play the same way as they did before the adjustment came, so we needed to give them a way to change their character without having to run the Trial. We also decided that at most, a character could hold one of these “Freespecs” at a time. When we gave out more, they would not stack. It was a use-it-or-lose it proposition.

With the game nearing it’s fourth year of live operations, many high level characters have wanted to respec their characters to take advantage of new systems that we have added, and they have long since used their three Trial-earned Respecs, and any Freespecs they may have had. We knew that we always wanted a “repeatable” Respec, but were stuck going over exactly how to implement it.

Our first idea was to simply allow you to pay Influence or Infamy for your Respec, with an increasing scale in price. The first one costs X, the second one 2 x X, the third 4 x X, the fourth 8 x X, etc. However, even if we put in decay (the price goes down if you don’t buy one in a while) the prices would still gate some users from accessing the content, while not being any sort of hindrance at all to very rich characters.

The next thought was to “tax the rich”. Respecs could cost 10% of your “total worth”. This would mean that no matter how rich the character was, they would each pay 10% of their total unspent Inf. to get a Respec. Of course, this was immediately exploitable as players could just temporarily hand all of their Influence off to another character, pay for the Respec, and then get all their Influence back. Tada! Cheap Respecs for those players with more than one account, or trusted friends!

With Issue 9 and the Invention system, we really struck gold. We finally had a real economy in the game, with proven commodities and supply and demand. We also had a system that could be used to hold onto Respecs that are unused (much like the three Trial respecs) with Recipes.

In Issue 11, we created the Respec Recipe. This recipe, which is a rare drop off of defeating enemies at any level, allows players to grant themselves a Freespec. This Freespec is used immediately upon crafting the recipe. Now this is an item that any character in the game would be happy to have. The ability to change their power selections and slotting at any time in their career is powerful. We expect these to be highly sought after items. Even though they are not as rare as the new Very Rare Enhancements put into Issue 11, they may very well demand a higher price.

I will have update soon it’s just that i’ve been really busy sorting things out and concerntrating on projects but i do promise there will be a post of some sort in the next few days.

I’m also thinking about starting something special but i’ll not say anything at the moment just incase i decide not to do it.

Yes you have read correctly Keith Chegwin has now got his own game in the form of Cheggers Party Quiz which has come from Oxygen interactive and is avaliable now on the Playstation 2 and PC but will also be gracing the Wii soon.

Players have the chance to try out 8 rounds that include Opening Night, Big Break, Picture Show, Star Turn, Prime Time, Typecast, Channel Hopping and Final Cut.
The games can be played all on your own (if you have no friends) or with up to 7 of your mates on the Playstation 2 version (Perfect for a party).

In a statement Cheggers said “I’ve been a gamer since the days of the Atari, so being a star in my very own title is fantastic. I had a right laugh being the host in Cheggers Party Quiz and made sure that it’s a fun game for all the family to enjoy.”

The game is out now on the PS2 and PC and will soon be out on the Wii

We have a little treat for you here with lead designer of City of Heroes/Villians Matt Miller taking you through a Dev Digest titled standing apart in a crowd: Weapon customization, so enjoy.

Standing Apart in a Crowd: Weapon Customization

One of the most often requested features for the “City Of” games is power customization. We already offer some of the most extensive costume customization of any MMO on the market, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what our players desire. They want the ability to customize every single bit of their character, including how their powers look.

Unfortunately, the animation and effects system that City of Heroes was built on didn’t lend itself well to customizing power blasts or
altering the colour of the fire attacks. Numerous powers have baked-in elements that would require a nearly insurmountable effort to get power customization to work at the level our players have come to expect. When faced with this fact, we decided that we would much rather devote the animation and effects time into new powers and new effects than going back over older powers and giving them a purely cosmetic facelift.

When it came to adding new powers to the game, Jack Emmert, the
Creative Director at Cryptic Studios, suggested that we poll the players to find out what they wanted in the way of powers. We knew we wanted to do a melee set and a defensive set so that the melee archetypes (Tankers, Scrappers, Brutes, and Stalkers) could get some much needed love. When we reviewed the results of the polls, the defensive set that the players wanted the most was Shields.

The players wanted it, but we were pretty sure that the players all had different ideas of how it would be implemented. We did a straw poll within the dev team, and everyone had a different idea of what the “shield” should look like. It was so varied in responses that we didn’t think we could make a shield that would satisfy even a quarter of the people who wanted the set. That’s when the animation team did some investigation on the way our weapon powersets were rigged up.

The team came back with very promising results: they were able to swap weapon geometry fairly easily and still keep the animations intact. With this hurdle cleared we just needed the UI time to get the costume creator working with the new weapon altering abilities and we would be able to let players choose their own shield graphic when they were working on the costume for their character!

Alas, the actual animation time involved in getting the Shield set done was too much for Issue 11’s schedule, so the powerset itself was shelved for a later issue. However, we decided to use this functionality with any and all
weapons that were currently available in powers, and with Dual Blades as the new melee powerset in Issue 11, it was only logical that players could alter the left and right weapons for powersets that used both hands.

The initial tests were very promising; using models ripped from the
game, our development team was rediscovering existing powersets with new graphics. Although it was strictly a cosmetic change, no alteration of damage type or the like, new weapon models really made some of the older
sets feel different and breathed new life into them! Choosing a Warhammer for the War Mace powerset doesn’t alter any of the powers, but does give
your character a lot more distinction. And since these are chosen on a per-costume basis, characters can have different weapons for their different outfits, if they so desire!

The goal was that every weapon power would get their default weapon, an archaic or mystical version of the weapon, and a high-tech or more modern
take on the weapon. We succeeded in this area with many powersets, and even
were able to add a bunch of weapons that we had in the game already so the players could further customize their characters.

We then decided that certain weapons should be “unlocked” as rewards for
achieving milestones. These would be the weapons that were closely
identified with enemies in the game; the Thorn sword from the Circle of Thorns, the Red Cap’s daggers, Rikti swords, etc. These “prestige” weapons
are earned through normal play so that archetypes that use them could further customize their character. Additionally, players who obtain these
exclusive weapons could be seen, at a glance, as having overcome these opponents.

All in all we are very pleased with the implementation of Weapon
Customization. We are always happy when we can give players something they
have been asking for. Players can expect to see more and more weapons added
to the costume creator as the game moves forward!

Following is a list of powersets and their respective weapons that are currently planned for testing in Issue 11. This list may well change during the testing process.

Assault Rifle
Assault Rifle
Merc. Assault Weapon
M-14/M-380
Tactical Assault Weapon
Tommy Gun
Council Assault Weapon
Council Sub-Machine Gun
Nemesis Rifle
Vanguard ‘Redding’ Rifle

Axes
Battle Axe
Pickaxe
Hatchet
Shovel
Rikti Axe

Dual Blades
Scimitar
Longsword
Falcata
Khopesh
Gladius
Redcap Dagger
Faer Dagger
Dragon Dagger
Katana
Wakazashi
Ninja Blade
Tanto
Sai
Rapier (Right Hand Only)
Main Gauche (Left Hand Only)

Bows
Recurved Bow
Arcane Bow
Compound Bow

Claws
Hero Claws
Villain Claws
Fury Claws
Talsorian Blades
Shadow Blades

Katanas
Katana
Ninja Blade
Fantasy Blade

Maces
War Mace
War Mace 2
Flanged Mace
Studded Mace
Warhammer
Sledge Hammer
Baseball Bat
Club
Shillelagh
Skull Club
Bone
Carnival Mallet
Shovel
Tech Mace
Fantasy Mace

Pistols
Semi-Auto
Revolver
Magnum Revolver
Revolver w/Laser Sight
Match Compensator
Tactical Sidearm
Flintlock
Mini-Uzi

Pulse Rifles
Pulse Rifle
Crey Pulse Blaster
Rikti Blaster
Rikti Rifle
Retro Rifle

Broadswords
Broadsword
Flamberge
Shadow Bane
Cutlass
Thorn Blade
Tsoo ‘Katana’
Rikti Sword

As you can see there has’nt been much in the way of activity on here over the last few weeks well i hope to change this soons as i’ve not long finsihed the forum and i have been very busy but i am hoping to get back to posting at least one news story on here everyday very soon.

Just a quick but important news story if you check to the right you will see a link to the new Vagusnet forums.
At the moment it’s a bit basic but in the long run it should get back to the old ways.

Just one thing of note if you have registered with this site then you will still need to registers with the forums as they are not fully linked.

So get over to the forum and register but don’t forget to leave all of your comments etc.

It’s time for a bit of DS action from Tokyo and kick things off we have the DS sequel to Cooking Mama.
So get ready to go back in the kitchen with Mama and your DS.

We also have a quick look at another murder mystery game for the DS called Kyotaro Nishimura Mystery but this time it’s from those nice people at Tecmo and again it is unknown if this game will see the light of day over here but you can still watch the trailer and decide for yourself if you think that we should get it.

In my last atempt to try and get some help on here i’m asking if there is anybody who is reading this wants to help me out then post a comment below to tell me that you are interest and i will be greatful.

You see in the next month there is alot happening with the Tokyo Game show ebing next week and a small game by the name of Halo 3 released in only 2 weeks there is alot to do and i’m only one person and can’t cover everything myself.

So if you are interested let me as soon as possible.

For those of you who have an Xbox 360 and you want to try out the new Tony Hawks game well you are in luck as the demo for the game was released on Xbox Live this morning.

The demo comes at a nice 1.3gb and will give you 10 minutes to go around a small portion of the game trying out three of the challenges which includes a taste of what nail the grab is like along side nail the trick that was introduced in the last Tony Hawks game.

So if you have an Xbox 360 and a yearning to try out the news Tony Hawks game get downloading the demo now and see what you think.

Dean D. Cho, Development Manager of MapleStory Europe at NEXON recently discussed the deep yet easy to use skill system in MapleStory and for your eyes only we have exactly what he said, so enjoy…

If you want to get anywhere in the world of MapleStory Europe, you’re going to need show off your skills. It’s not enough for a ‘Mapler’ – that’s somebody who regularly plays MapleStory
– to simply tool themselves up with decent weapons and armour in their quest for fame and fortune.
To beat the toughest challenges that regularly face every Mapler you’re going to need a broad range of skills and abilities too, and
that’s where MapleStory’s impressive skill system comes into practice.

As with everything else in MapleStory, the emphasis has been to create something simple and user-friendly, so those not familiar with the MMORPG genre can pick things up straight away, yet at the same time, still maintain enough depth so that more experienced gamers are keptentertained throughout. The result is a truly amazing skill system that stands out from every other free-to-play MMORPG currently available.

Learning new skills

MapleStory Europe currently boasts over 80 individual skills to choose from, divided into separate categories by character profession. This ensures new Maplers are never overwhelmed by too much choice to begin with, while still allowing plenty of scope for variety. For instance,Beginners – the profession that all new characters start as – have access to just three basic skills to help introduce the concept; one offensive (Three Snails), one defensive (Recovery) and one passive (Nimble Feet). This then increases
to a much larger range of skills once players gain some experience and specialise as either Warrior, Bowman, Thief or Magician, and even larger still once they progress to the next level of job specialisation.
Some of the skills are passive and designed to improve your offensive
or defensive capabilities, such as the Thief’s ‘Keen Eyes’ ability. Others are more proactive and must be physically ‘activated’ to be used. The Magician’s ‘Energy Bolt’ skill for instance, unleashes powerful magic bolts every time you tap the keyboard (and conveniently, MapleStory lets you map skills to any key of your choosing).
In every case, the effectiveness of your skills is based on how well
trained you are in that particular ability. Every time you gain a level
in MapleStory you’ll be awarded a handful of Skill Points to spend on your growing range of skills and abilities. The more points you spend on a skill, the more powerful it becomes; simple. There’s even a basic
‘skill-tree’ system, with certain more powerful skills only becoming
available once a particular level has been reached in a previous skill.
For example, Bowmen can only start learning the useful range-increasing‘Eye of Amazon’ skill once they’ve reached level 3 in the previous skill, ‘Blessing of Amazon’.

Mastering skills

As players only receive a few Skill Points to distribute every time
they level up, you’ll need to think carefully about how to spend them when it comes to developing your character. Do you aim to specialise in aggressive, offensive skills – or do you opt to concentrate on more passive, ability buffing skills? Alternatively, you can always try spreading your skill points evenly across a number of different skills. Each method has its own pros and cons, although we find most Maplers tend to concentrate on Mastering each skill in turn – in other words, building each skill up to its maximum possible level before moving on to the next.
While many players have commented to us how much they enjoy
MapleStory’s easy and approachable skill system, one of the biggest points of feedback we’ve received is from people who put their experience into one particular skill, only to decide they’d rather be accomplished in a different area instead. That’s why you’ll soon be able to buy Skill Point Reset tokens from the game’s Cash Shop. These let you transfer points that have already been allocated from one skill to another, giving you even more flexibility over how your character develops.

Staying skilled

However you want to play MapleStory – whether it’s fast and aggressive, or laid back and friendly – we’ve ensured a range of skills that matches each and every player’s requirement of an entertaining and playable MMORPG.
More importantly, we’re constantly adding new skills to the game as we increase the number of jobs available – players can expect another 60 or so skills when the third level of job progression is unveiled in the coming months.
And as is always the case with MapleStory, every update, along with the entire game itself is completely free, forever! So why not visit
www.mapleeurope.com and start showing off your skills today.