As long as people have been around, we've realized that transportation was possible by our own two feet, but it would be vastly improved if we were standing on a moving board. This has led directly to the creation of boards to move across the sea, the land, and large snow-covered mountains. Sadly, the rocket board designed to let us fly through the air has remained firmly in the realm of fiction... but for City of Heroes, this hypothetical board of the future is right there to ensure that you can look totally cool while taking to the sky.
So how did rocket boards come about, and why did they take so long to get in the game? The latest installment of the Intrepid Informer features Colin Brown discussing what it took to put the idea into practice. As he puts it, the major issue from the art side was a simple technical limitation, since it required a theoretical new set of animations for seven years worth of powers. But the hurdles were overcome, and now players can move through the air in the way humans move through things best -- standing on a board.
Reader Comments (10)
Posted: Sep 13th 2011 8:56PM drunkingamebar said
Think, McFly. Think!
Posted: Sep 13th 2011 9:38PM Rammstein said
Bring on the Green Goblin clones!
Posted: Sep 13th 2011 9:41PM The Ogre said
"Finally we decided that we could give the Rocket Board to players as a travel power but, again, because putting in a new travel power would mean re-animating every single animation in the game to blend into it properly, we decided to make it similar to "Walk" in that it turned off all powers but let the player fly around the world at Level 2 if they chose to and would be faster than running or flight."
In other words, "Since we were too lazy to suppress animations that only required foot movement, we decided to make the power useless by keeping the player from using any other power."
In other words, "Since we were too lazy to suppress animations that only required foot movement, we decided to make the power useless by keeping the player from using any other power."
Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:06PM Teh Jer said
The fact that it turns off all powers is a major downside. Major. They should figure out a better way to handle the animations, like maybe a high mag hold in the surfer pose. I almost want, but no.
Posted: Sep 14th 2011 3:11AM Ogged said
The only hard question about the rocket board is : how did they manage to botch the Freedom launch so badly ?
For us Euros, the servers came back up at around 2am and for today they will make us enjoy another 5+ hours downtime.
The known issue list (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=271452 ) is particularly funny - you need to repeatedly login until you find your server ?
Somehow, I'm happy that I don't have time to play until saturday this week :)
For us Euros, the servers came back up at around 2am and for today they will make us enjoy another 5+ hours downtime.
The known issue list (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=271452 ) is particularly funny - you need to repeatedly login until you find your server ?
Somehow, I'm happy that I don't have time to play until saturday this week :)
Posted: Sep 14th 2011 8:35AM Cyclone Jack said
@Ogged
Not launch, VIP pre-launch. ;) I'm sure someone at NC would be quick to point that out. *Actual* launch is next week. :p
But yeah, I feel ya. I made a new Blaster and couldn't continue past the tutorial due to the bugs.
Reply
Not launch, VIP pre-launch. ;) I'm sure someone at NC would be quick to point that out. *Actual* launch is next week. :p
But yeah, I feel ya. I made a new Blaster and couldn't continue past the tutorial due to the bugs.
Posted: Sep 14th 2011 12:32PM Daemodand said
Pro-tip for those doing the tutorial with the store down: the contact telling you to buy the Knowledgeable badge has a second option that lets you skip that.
Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:40PM Space Cobra said
And after all these years...
...still NO Motorcycles for my Motorcycle-using characters! >:(
And yes, they can add it in simply or as a sub-set to super-speed. And I've typed long walls of text (on mostly CO and DCUO Beta forums) as to how.
Grr...
...still NO Motorcycles for my Motorcycle-using characters! >:(
And yes, they can add it in simply or as a sub-set to super-speed. And I've typed long walls of text (on mostly CO and DCUO Beta forums) as to how.
Grr...
Posted: Sep 14th 2011 3:38PM DeepSleeper said
@Space Cobra
All these years and your sense of entitlement goes unfulfilled. Aw.
Reply
All these years and your sense of entitlement goes unfulfilled. Aw.
Featured Stories
The Daily Grind: Are you still excited to try RIFT's free-to-play option?
Posted on May 18th 2013 8:00AM






