Over a year ago, you shared that Ron Friedman, the former senior animator for City of Heroes, would be joining your team. Since then I've not heard anything. Is he still working with you even if on occasion? How well did the collaboration turn out? Are we seeing the fruits of the labor or has it yet to enter into a build of the game? Did the team gain some valuable info or experience from Ron? Did someone else pick up the knowledge and is now the lead animator?

On a lesser note and possibly just a rumor, there was also a bit about former CoH devs helping with world/zone building. If true, can you talk about that collaboration? Basically, the same questions as above.

I'm interested in this as well. Just today I was fondly remembering many of the animations.

Yes, Ron Friedman has been directing our animation team and we've also worked with a few other members of the City of Heroes team. We can't go into much detail currently but will be airing a livestream chat with them at some point and will go into more details then.

Greetings everyone. We've received a few messages regarding this post and felt it was important to clarify 100% Ron's involvement with the project.

Ron Friedman has worked with Valiance Online as a "consultant” only. He has met with our project's Lead Animator to assist with the direction, style, and presentation principles of the animations in a professional consulting capacity. He is not an actual member of the Valiance Online development team. We felt it was very important to clarify this as his current position at Disney Interactive does not allow such direct and active employment with third-party companies.

After speaking with Ron, we have concluded that it is best that we clarify this miscommunication. We are going to be following up on other social references to ensure the possible misrepresentation be clarified as it is not our intention mislead or confuse our supporters, nor do we wish for Ron's association or involvement with our company to be compromised due to such business conflicts.

For those who have reached out in regards to why our animations don't appear to have changed since our sessions with Ron, it is due to the fact that we've spent a lot of time incorporated principles that he taught us into various styles of presentation. With his guidance, we’ve experimented with different animations styles from exaggerated realism to over-the-top fantastical animations. Finding our happy balance between the two, we’ve made all new and unique animations for both the Super Strength and Street Brawling power sets which will be present in the upcoming patch. This will usher in a slew of new animations as we move into the alpha phase of product.

In closing, we apologize to anyone who may have misinterpreted the details of our posts and we are sorry for the inaccurate wording on our part. We also want to thank Ron for his valuable help in consulting with our team and apologize for any inconveniences we have caused him with Disney Interactive. We've always prided ourselves on transparency and honesty as the backbone of our company and we will be more precise with our releases to you in the future.

Thank you for the clarification and should you see Ron again, tell him one fan really misses the animations in City of Heroes and has yet to find a replacement where all those animations, sound effects and particle effects meshed so well together to give the visceral feedback of playing a super powered being. I look forward to Valiance Online carrying on that torch with a next generation engine.

Best wishes for him at Disney. They are lucky to have him.

Just to be clear, Ron will continue to be providing consultation and feedback in a mentorship capacity, we were simply clarifying that he isn't a full-time part of the production team.

AEGIS wrote:
I will use that thought as comfort when the bare landscape of superhero MMOs threatens to overwhelm my optimism. Thank you.

Glad to see some clarification here. Friedman's direct involvement lent a lot of credibility to the project, but this new information provides much needed grounding in terms of this project's strengths. Thank you IronSight!