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MUA2 FAQs Part 1— Asked by You, Answered by News Lad (FINAL UPDATE 9/12)
Posted: 01 May 2009 08:31 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 16 ]
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Backup thread

Update 5/1

Q. The fusions look really cool, but what about the powers? Do they look spectacular?
A. Yes! We’ve basically taken the approach of making Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 play like a blockbuster movie—when characters use their powers, lots of stuff happens.

Powers & Fusions are visually constructed with the same tools; we have a really sophisticated system for layering together a number of “special effects” that make them up.  Fusions have some extras above and beyond Powers to make them even more “cinematic,” but everything has a little something to make it stand out.  We’ll be talking more about how we everything up in a dev blog that’s dropping pretty soon.

Q. When will the box art be revealed?
A. I’m not sure when we’re revealing the box art for the game.  I’ll keep you guys in the loop!

Update 5/4
Q. Is there free-roaming?
A. Our game isn’t completely “free-roaming,” as we didn’t have time to model the interior of every building you pass by.  That being said, we have a lot more variety in our environments than you may be used to, and the environments are extremely interactive.  Windows break, fire hydrants launch up on a jet of water, tires come off of exploding cars… you get the idea.

Q. Did you use motion capture?
A. I can tell you that we did use MoCap.  Not for everything, though - our animators also hand-keyed a lot.  There’s also a good deal of stuff which is a “mix,” as in, elements from a mocap recording layered and altered by hand.  We have a MoCap dev diary which will be going up at some point, although I don’t know when.  I’ll also see if I can get some comments from our lead animator about the difference between working with MoCap data and hand-keying.

Q. I thought of some cool powers for my favorite character.  Can you put them into MUA2?
A. We’re pretty late in development, so it’s unlikely that ideas from these forums will make it into Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, but if we get the opportunity to do another game, we’ll definitely be trying to put in features that fans have been asking for.

Update 5/5
Q. Will there be sub-titles?
A. We will be providing subtitles.  We actually use subtitles on our kits (helps us to keep track of where we already have audio and where we need to still put it in), although it will be turned off by default when we ship.  It shouldn’t be hard to turn them on, though, I think it’s just a switch in the “Options” menu.

Q. Do the enemies “level up” as you level up?
A. We do have some leveling up of enemies, but it’s important to note that enemies level in a “static” fashion.  Since you’re able to customize your heroes, their leveling isn’t symmetrical to the guys they’re fighting.  So if you customize your team with a bias towards heavy damage, you’ll tear through enemies much faster than you did before, or if you customize with a bias towards power use, you’ll be able to blast away for longer without taking a break.

Q. What percentage of the game has been completed?
A. EDIT: Right now we’re basically done, just fixing bugs. Old answer kept for posterity. Stating what percentage of the game is “done” is really hard to pin down, because we’re working on everything in parallel.  So the sound is at a different place than the combat, which is at a different place than the graphics, etc.  Speaking generally, you could probably play the game for a while before realizing that it’s not “done;” - maybe the sound drops out in one place, or if you use a particular move on a particular level things crash.

Also, there’s a lot of subtle tuning and polish that’s going to take place. Sorry to be vague, but it’s just a tough question at this point in development.

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Posted: 05 May 2009 08:43 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 17 ]
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Update 5/5
Q. Will there be sub-titles?
A. We will be providing subtitles.  We actually use subtitles on our kits (helps us to keep track of where we already have audio and where we need to still put it in), although it will be turned off by default when we ship.  It shouldn’t be hard to turn them on, though, I think it’s just a switch in the “Options” menu.

Q. Do the enemies “level up” as you level up?
A. We do have some leveling up of enemies, but it’s important to note that enemies level in a “static” fashion.  Since you’re able to customize your heroes, their leveling isn’t symmetrical to the guys they’re fighting.  So if you customize your team with a bias towards heavy damage, you’ll tear through enemies much faster than you did before, or if you customize with a bias towards power use, you’ll be able to blast away for longer without taking a break.

Q. What percentage of the game has been completed?
A. Stating what percentage of the game is “done” is really hard to pin down, because we’re working on everything in parallel.  So the sound is at a different place than the combat, which is at a different place than the graphics, etc.  Speaking generally, you could probably play the game for a while before realizing that it’s not “done;” - maybe the sound drops out in one place, or if you use a particular move on a particular level things crash.

Also, there’s a lot of subtle tuning and polish that’s going to take place. Sorry to be vague, but it’s just a tough question at this point in development.

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Posted: 13 May 2009 05:11 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 18 ]
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I ban you, you filthy, evil double poster! smile

 
 
Posted: 13 May 2009 05:15 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 19 ]
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Heh, it’s more than that LOL And News Lad deleted his post to make me look bad raspberry

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Posted: 13 May 2009 11:02 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 20 ]
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*bops BFTE on the head*

 
 
Posted: 14 May 2009 06:42 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 21 ]
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beastfromtheeast - 13 May 2009 05:15 PM

Heh, it’s more than that LOL And News Lad deleted his post to make me look bad raspberry

Ha, wasn’t to make you look bad, it was just because my info was out of date.  All that post said was “made some changes, I’ll delete this later.” smile

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Posted: 14 May 2009 07:19 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 22 ]
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LOL I know LOL

Update 5/15
Q. How has the Heads-Up Display (HUD) changed?
A. This falls under the catagory of “UI.” We’ve done a lot of work with the HUD, and menus in general, in order to clarify gameplay.  For the HUD elements, aesthetically we haven’t strayed too far from Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 1.  Since we’re doing a sequel, it should have a similar “look and feel,” but you should find the actual functionality to be much improved.
Our menus are waaaay different, however.  If there’s a lot of interest in UI, I’ll ask one of the members of that team to make a dev diary.  It’s one of those interesting fields where they’re not necessarily going for the “big visuals,” like powers or damage—the ideal UI situation is for you to say “I know exactly how to do everything I want to do!” without having to think about it.

Q. Will there be a schedule for the developer blogs?
A. I’m not sure about whether we’ll post a precise schedule, but I’ll see about whether I can give more advance notice on which dev blogs are coming out, and when.

Part of the reason they’re erratic right now is that we’re all working on the game, and I have to wait until a particular Dev has time to answer a bunch of questions.  Until they have time to do that, there’s no dev blog.

Also, be sure to let me know if there are any topics you folks really want to know about.  We have most of the bases covered, but there may be something we missed (for instance, there have been so many Macro questions that we’re doing a follow-up Dev Blog on that).

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Posted: 16 May 2009 09:27 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 23 ]
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Minor edits for clarity and to reflect new information, shuffled around some of the related questions so they’re closer to each other.

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Posted: 16 May 2009 01:30 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 24 ]
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Cool, thanks! :D

Update 5/16
Q. How long is the game going to be?
A. I can’t talk hard numbers at the moment, but Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 has a sizeable narrative and will have an insane amount of replay value. At the moment I can’t talk about everything that’s in the works, but I can say that we’ve tried to put in rewards for a large variety of player types. Our first job was making sure we stayed true to the core Marvel: Ultimate Alliance play experience (our playtests seem to confirm that we’ve got this nailed), but we’ve also added a lot of extra treats for those who care to find them.

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Posted: 16 May 2009 01:46 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 25 ]
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beastfromtheeast - 16 May 2009 01:30 PM

Cool, thanks! :D

Update 5/16
Q. How long is the game going to be?
A. I can’t talk hard numbers at the moment, but Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 has a sizeable narrative and will have an insane amount of replay value. At the moment I can’t talk about everything that’s in the works, but I can say that we’ve tried to put in rewards for a large variety of player types. Our first job was making sure we stayed true to the core Marvel: Ultimate Alliance play experience (our playtests seem to confirm that we’ve got this nailed), but we’ve also added a lot of extra treats for those who care to find them.

I particularly like the sound of that last bit. Makes it seem like there’ll be plenty of exploration involved in unlocking every last one of the game’s secrets, which is something I love doing and/or figuring out how to do. Two of my favorite games for the PlayStation 1 are Rugrats: Search for Reptar (that encouraged players to literally look behind every nook and crannie in the maps) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (that… well, yeah) for precisely that reason.

 
 
Posted: 16 May 2009 01:49 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 26 ]
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Same, I like running around and looking for secrets. God of War is a great game that rewards exploration and the devs did a great job of exploiting the camera to hide stuff

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Posted: 17 May 2009 03:54 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 27 ]
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wat up beast its been a while and i couldnt agree more. i nver had a prob with the camera in GoW and yet i would hear ppl complainin bout it. i rly jus laughed cuz for a game dat didnt give u the ability to control the camera it was always in the rite place and turned properly when it needed to..well at least imho anyway smile

heh im actually playin the one for psp even dat one has a rly gud camera maybe not as gud as its console sounterpart but still gud nonetheless

neway i c u still workin hard beast great stuff man much respect wink

 
 
Posted: 17 May 2009 06:16 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 28 ]
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Hey News Lad, could you start a thread with a poll for “which dev blog are you most interested in” with suggested categories?  I think that could help us, help you.  Since most of us have no idea the scope and magnitude of development, it would be useful to have some options thrown out there.

I would still love to hear about “injecting realism into a comic book-based game” like here: http://www.herohq.com/forums/viewthread/1674/

I’ll take any diary you throw at us, and they’ve all been fascinating and exciting so far, but if you want to know what it is we want to know, I think a poll may be in order.

 
 
Posted: 17 May 2009 08:11 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 29 ]
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Hey X_Man glad to see you stop by for a split second LOL

Yeah, I actually liked the camera in it just fine, having the right analog just for dodging was a great idea imo and like you, I can’t remember having any problems with it (Onimusha and RE are different stories raspberry)

And awesome idea juicebeast!

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Posted: 18 May 2009 01:59 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 30 ]
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Thanks, BFTE!  Let’s hope News Lad thinks so, as well…

 
 
   
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