Please forgive me yet another massive necro post!
By dumb luck I happened back across this thread today and I figured I should shoot an update over here, considering I teased a few things over in the CoH thread on SomethingAwful over the last few months. And otherwise forgot this thread exist. Sorry about that.
Part of the reason for the communications blackout is that we went through a lot of big changes within the last year. The short version is that we're no longer GreatForge Studios, we've lost half the development team, and most importantly, we really weren't pleased with the final Beta we released. That's all the bad news.
The good news is that me and NeverDark/LawrenceFriday put our heads together and started formulating a brand new system. We're taking the few concepts that stood out from the Beta and mixing it into a game that should ultimately be closer to the spirit of City of Heroes, while simultaneously moving towards a much more legally distinct product.
The downside is that all development on the version of the game we previously showed off has ceased utterly. The upside is that we're now another step closer to realizing our vision. Simply speaking, we had to learn what worked and what didn't. We had the opportunity to refocus our efforts, so we took it. Though this new iteration of the system is still in an incredibly rough state and not even remotely playable. Development has also slowed down a bit for various reasons.
What I teased in the SA thread I'll tease here: A combat system that integrates superpowers, skills, and diplomacy into the same gamespace. Instead of having entirely separate combat and non-combat systems, this new system takes the potential for crazy character concepts farther by putting everything into the same framework. You'll be able to defeat foes not just by punching them with super-powered fists, but also by overcoming them with SCIENCE! as well as doing things like laying down sick burns and watching them burst into flames.
This system is also much, much easier to transform into a villain-flavored version compared to its predecessor. The one caveat is that in order to create a system that would stand fully on its own and free us from a lot of baggage, we had to give up on the goal of allowing anyone to convert their City of Heroes character straight into our game. (Not that I'd be worried if your character happened to use a lot of common types of superpowers.
) It's also a bit more restricted in regards to customization - the ultimate goal is to deliver a more streamlined tabletop game where five fun and unique superheroes can come together and best the forces of evil, rather than a pen and paper MMO that buckles under the weight of its own rigid ruleset.
Once we get closer to a presentable system (and get a new name), we'll dust off the old devblog and fully re-energize our communication channels.
