One of the areas that the NorCal team could definitely improve style="font-style: italic;">City of Heroes is
in the area of graphics. While the game isn't horrible to look at,
there are definitely areas where things are looking a bit long in the
tooth. Thankfully, Matt confirmed that they are going to be looking at
doing an upgrade to their graphics.

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The City of Heroes devlopers will have tough challenges in the form of DC Universe and Champions Online.

"We’ve hired some new programmers to look into sprucing up
our graphics," Matt answered. "The engine we use is actually very
powerful, but we have been conscious of people’s machines and
minimum specs on the game for a while now, so we haven’t
really seen the true glory of what it is capable of. But I think
it’s safe to say yes, players can expect to see graphical
improvements."



Although it's a question that doesn't come up very often, the Ten Ton
Hammer team thought it'd be interesting to explore the idea of adding a
third group to the City
of Heroes factions. Heroes and villains are a great staple
for any game, but what about those characters that exist between the
realm of good and evil? What about characters like bounty hunters or
mercenaries?



"I’ve always been a fan of villain redemption stories as well
as when a good hero goes bad," Matt said. "I think there is room in the
middle of those kinds of stories to tell some tales of 'riding the line
between good and evil', but that is a topic for a future conversation."

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Miller suggested that we might eventually see some stories that "ride the line between good and evil."

Judging from this interview and the general state of NC West, the style="font-style: italic;"> City of Heroes
franchise looks to be in pretty solid shape. However, every team faces
its own trials and tribulations; its own archnemesis if you will. So
what does the CoH team need to work through in the coming months?



"How we get all these great ideas we keep coming up with into your
hands and still not overwork our employees to the point of negative
productivity," Miller responded. "That’s our number one
concern. We’re addressing this challenge by hiring more
really good people so we can get the good stuff to you sooner."



As our final question, the Ten Ton Hammer team asked Matt what they
should be looking for over the next year. According to Miller, 2009
will feature a whole treasure trove of cool new stuff. "Beyond Mission
Architect, which is a huge initiative coming in Q1, we have content
that I can’t talk about yet," he stated. "But I will say that
there are things coming, some of which we have been hinting at, or
maybe even flat out denying was even possible, for a long time."



And - as always - you can count on Ten Ton Hammer to keep you abreast
of any new announcements that focus on style="font-style: italic;">City of Heroes.
We'd like to thank Matt Miller for taking the time to talk with us, and
we definitely look forward to the future plans of the style="font-style: italic;">City of Heroes
development team!