Matt Miller on Inventing in City of Heroes/Villains

Item customization’s the “in” thing in MMORPGs these days, and in their next free expansion, City of Heroes (and City of Villains, of course) will also be implementing their own crafting system. Matt “Positron” Miller, the Lead Designer for Cryptic Studios‘ City of Heroes/Villains, recently revealed a few details regarding the new Invention system to MMORPG.com. Here’s Miller on how the whole thing works:

Heroes and Villains will collect salvage and recipes by defeating enemies. In keeping with City of Heroes‘ “casual friendly” game design, the collecting of these items adds extra spice to the gameplay of defeating foes, rather than becoming a hardcore task of “grinding,” “camping” or hours of “raiding.”

With this salvage, players can use the recipes to assemble an all new class of Power Enhancements or costume pieces (depending on the recipe), which they can then use. Unused recipes and salvage can be sold at the new Consignment Houses (for Heroes) or the new Black Market (for Villains).

More on making stuff after the jump!

Item customization’s the “in” thing in MMORPGs these days, and in their next free expansion, City of Heroes (and City of Villains, of course) will also be implementing their own crafting system. Matt “Positron” Miller, the Lead Designer for Cryptic Studios‘ City of Heroes/Villains, recently revealed a few details regarding the new Invention system to MMORPG.com. Here’s Miller on how the whole thing works:

Heroes and Villains will collect salvage and recipes by defeating enemies. In keeping with City of Heroes‘ “casual friendly” game design, the collecting of these items adds extra spice to the gameplay of defeating foes, rather than becoming a hardcore task of “grinding,” “camping” or hours of “raiding.”

With this salvage, players can use the recipes to assemble an all new class of Power Enhancements or costume pieces (depending on the recipe), which they can then use. Unused recipes and salvage can be sold at the new Consignment Houses (for Heroes) or the new Black Market (for Villains).

To begin inventing, players will need access to Invention Worktables. These can be found inside the Universities in Paragon City and Rogue Isles. Those who have Supergroup bases can choose to add an Invention Worktable to their base. Miller says that Invention Origin recipes of the 28 standard enhancements are built into the table.

These IOÂ’s act just like normal Enhancements except they do not expire, and their bonus stays static no matter what level you are. Lower level IO’s are strengthened around that of Training Enhancements, mid level IO’s are about the power of Dual Origin Enhancements, and IO’s level 25 and above have about the same punch as current Single Origin Enhancements.

When you find a Worktable to work with, opening the Invention interface will show you what Enhancements you can make depending on the salvage that you currently have in your possession. f course, higher-level Enhancements will require salvage from higher-level enemies. Miller says that while the built-in recipes also have an Influence/Infamy cost to build, “they only take common-level salvage. Uncommon and rare salvage is reserved for use by the one-use recipes you find in the world.”

So just what kind of items can be Invented using the system? New costume pieces, for one. There are a lot more wings this time, and since recipes are tradeable, Miller says that “you can give the wing recipe and the salvage needed to make it to a 1st level character so they can have their super-special wings at the start of their careers.”

One of the enhancements that Miller gives as an example is the Sting of the Manticore (a set of 6), which slots into any Sniper power. This thing has a Toxic DoT Proc, which means it has the chance to cause Toxic damage over time on top of the normal damage. If you’re old school, think of it as a sword with +1d6 poison damage, or something to that effect.

To read more about the new Invention system, click to the “read” link below.