Now that City of Heroes
/ Villains is fully under the NCsoft banner, the
developers are preparing to go to new heights to impress their fanbase.
After some serious consideration, the developers have decided to
implement what they call "XP Curve Smoothing" and have released a short
Q&A to describe what this means for the game and its players.
Matt "Positron" Miller answers these frequently asked inquiries and the
Ten Ton Hammer staff is proud to post them for the public to see!
What does "XP Curve Smoothing" mean?
"curve" looked like a jagged mountain slope more than a smooth line.
There were some levels in City
of Heroes and City
of Villains that just
took players longer to get through. This was due to a variety of
reasons, mostly in the realm of available mission content. We have
tried to add new content in those areas over the past few updates, but
a stronger hand was needed in some of the real problem areas. We went
in and, through data mining, determined how long characters "lived"
(existed) at any given level. This pointed out exactly where our
problem areas were and exactly how we could address them. In addition
we did a near global increase to the XP earned for defeating enemies.
This will have everyone leveling faster than previous issues.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/12777" title="Take That!">
src="/image/view/12777/preview"
width="200">
style="font-style: italic;">Players should now
level faster in City of Heroes / Villains.
What made you decide to
implement this?
complaints that certain levels acted like brick walls in developing
their characters. We wanted to eliminate those walls wherever possible,
and in the process speed up leveling for everyone.
Does it fundamentally
change anything about the game?
see more progress on their XP bars in the same amount of play time they
are used to. In addition, levels where they felt "stuck" should go by
MUCH more quickly now.
Are you concerned that
this will allow players to level up too quickly now?
but we are always looking to add things for max-level characters to do
to improve themselves. In addition, the Ouroboros (flashback) system
allows players to go back and play content they may have missed, so
even if they have outleveled a story arc or a badge-given mission they
can go back and get it.
When will this go live?
before Valentine's Day.
Is there anything else
that you want to say about this?
being able to bring this improvement to the players. This is nothing
but a hugely positive step for the 'City
Of' games.
XP gain helps older games remain popular? Or does it decrease the
importance of gaining levels? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?p=206286#post206286">Let
us know on the forums!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our City of Villains Game Page.
