Cende

Subjective comment: The popups for "you have received your first X" (in this case, reward ticket) can be extremely distracting when they show up in the middle of a screen during the middle of a fight.

Could they please be moved to the right or left side of the screen, so that we can deal with them when we want to, instead of RIGHT NOW?

Recipes, invention salvage, merits and tickets - so far the item number isn't very large, but if this trend continues, it's going to go beyond distracting and into downright annoying.

Good luck and Godspeed, from both Talek and I.

It was wonderful to meet you at PAX, and I hope you WILL be at HeroCon - I was planning on baking a dozen peanut butter cookies just for you, that you didn't have to share with anyone (that's how I tell people I like them - I bake cookies especially for them).

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rain fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

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I picked up a shelve copy and just got home but now the plaync account site isn't working T3T

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Speaking of this, what's causing the delay in coming back up? Its two hours over the window. Did we break something but good?

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As posted yesterday afternoon, the site's down for maintenance until early mid-morning (edit: idiot time zone conversions).

Probably a lack of appropriate blood sacrifice on the part of one of the techs. Also, its seems like they've been going over maintenance windows the last few large updates - likely explaining to newbies how to handle a few things, as well as the random issue or twenty popping up with legacy code.

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Secondly, what the heck game is Amazon selling? Shouldn't someone do something about that?

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That would be the original trailer for the game, I suspect. If you watch the very beginning, it says "Cryptic Studios" only.

It's up to NCN... Paragon Studios... to get it changed. And I agree, they really should.

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Very frustrating... been trying for at least 2 hours and all I get is ... "The image has expired. Please try again." AAaaarrrrhhhggg!!! Curses, foiled again!

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hope you didn't end up with 3 extras like I did.

Can we get a refund on these? It did say "try again" after all....

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Contact support. They'll work with you.

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It be a good idea to set up a Critic's corner and send some of the Arc critic results to the City Scoop.

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Scoop's had about half dozen people or more volunteer to write reviews (I lost count).

Yeah, that got noticed during test.

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... and I did not see this in any of the commentary:

does offline promotion work yet?

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There is neither offline promotion nor offline demotion installed.

Nor is there any sort of offline SG invite or SG request-to-join.

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I believe that the 'Nazi' issue has something to do with Germany and the rules that Germany has towards the use of the word. Someone from Germany can probably shead some light on this.

-Reddof

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Urban myth. Been debunked on the boards a dozen times or more.

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Yeah, there's nothing illegal about the use of the word in Germany.

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Is it possible to get links referencing this, please? Not that *I* doubt this (and, in fact, have been arguing this), it's that I happen to be having this argument with someone else, and my search fu is very weak.

I found links indicating that it's still illegal to sell paraphernalia with Nazi symbolism on it in Germany, but that's not quite the same thing.

Thank you.

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Assuming you have enough energy and control, it's probably a bug. Contact customer service to have your base jumpstarted.


-np

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To be more specific, just /petition in game with "base no-power bug," give the name of the SG, indicate that you've checked rent, and remember to say please and thank you. They should have it up and running within less than 2 hours (usually within 15 minutes).

They won't give you a response saying it's done, so you'll just have to check back with your base until it's completed.

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*sighs* Sadly, I can't find the webpage that discussed that meme anymore...but suffice it to say that that only works because the majority of English words are 4 and 5 letters long. In that sentence, a good number of the words aren't even altered.

But try deciphering something like this using that "logic".

Sreufuuopls and eiuuoacloqs plieoorshages fulerenqty bcmoee dtambioslcoebud and uinrscbalende wehn desraraingd tulshy.



However, on topic...just use a synonym. It sucks that you can't use it...but come up with something else that works just as well. *shrug*

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It's also been thoroughly denounced by pretty much every major university in England and the US as "not from here."

Nobody is entirely sure where it came from at this point.

I'm still waiting for someone to actually press the awesome button.

Oh, if I'd known you were looking for that.. oh, wait. No, what I have is O Brumbratta.

Nevermind....

But right under it (she notices, as she goes to close the player), I have O Fortuna/28 REMIX, Techno mix from Apotheosis.

Let me know if you're interested in either.

We have a little more art than usual in the Scoop this week, along with a thank you.

The art we're using this week (so far, I think we're going to get another one or two in at the last minute, since we have one more short page) from THIS thread:

Teeth & Ambitions Bared, by Blood-Wolffe

Deuco - Virtue-Defender by SyrusB

Vagrant Lore & the Reciprocators by Undercroft

Hericane by Russ Platt

Kaori's Study Break by Dakota Sunrise

Turbo's Crew, by imagesbyalex

Storm Devil, by Juggertha

(I have another 7 to choose between to put in on the last page. If I go with one of the bigger ones, I can only put in two. If I go for the smaller ones, I might be able to put in three. It's going to depend on what looks the least crowded, really, but it's a short, short page for text. I'll play with it, and indicate what else we've put in.)

The other images we're getting this week are one direct submission and two from the artist interview.

Again, thank you for making it really darn hard to figure out which bits of artwork to stick in the Scoop every week.

EDIT: We're adding in another three. They are:

Freedom Rain, by Mainasha (submitted by Rocketboy)

The Masked Shrike, by Rocketboy

Statesman - Freedom, by 8baller

I know the last one is technically a Lego manipulation, but it's still neat (and if the one Lego critter that was built had better photos, we'd probably be using that, too - we still might).

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While I did like the videos. I gotta ask, did they really have much to do with I14?

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Only obliquely.

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Its difficult for us around here. We're all horribly perverted.

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Well, me too....

Nah, really. You'd think that in a game that allows itty-bitty string bikinis on triple-E chested women, we could get away with more. It's not so much a matter of perversion, however, it's a matter of - honestly - what Grandma would accept. For some reason, in-game can get away with a little more than we can get away with in-print; probably because it's theoretically possible to more thoroughly limit who can see what's in the game (there's a monetary and EULA gateway) than we can limit who is able to just randomly trip over the Scoop.

Truth is, pretty much everyone who's posted stuff here directly has stayed with the PG-13 / T-for-teen guidelines, with a couple of teasing exceptions. I've had one or two direct submissions or queries that didn't come from here that I've had to pass along this information to, so it honestly was in line of being a reminder, rather than a note that y'all are being pervs.

OK, I'm compiling a list of what we've actually used vs. what's been offered since June 24th, 2008. Once I've gotten it together (which could take me a week or two), I'll try and get a list together someplace where people can see it and let me know if corrections need to be made.

With any luck, we won't repeat much and we'll not only get all your names right, but attached to the right bits of art.

I'm going to have to take a moment and remind folks that we're stuck with PG13 / T-for-Teen in what we can put in the Scoop . We've been getting a few submissions recently that have been either good or fun (or both), but certainly not publishable! If your Grandma wouldn't want your little sister (or cousin, or nephew, whomever is under 15 years old) to see it, chances are pretty good we can't print it.

For this coming issue, we've used:

Flame Enchantress, by PANGular (submitted by Flame Enchantress)

Gale Storms by Dakota Sunrise (submitted by Dakota Sunrise)

and

Court of the Cards by Aprion (submitted by Aprion)

We actually had prolific writers this time, and not as much space for art. These three show different styles, but darn, I wanted to use more of it all! I especially wanted to use Thornster's submission in our PvP section, because it's a lovely piece that contrasts well with the subject matter.

You guys make it terribly hard to pick out just a few. Thanks for making it that way.

(and I'm picking, 'cause I'm helping with final layout)

ETA: I was just informed that I needed a small (170 pixel wide) picture to go into the side column of the first page. There.. er. Weren't any. At least, not that I saw. So Toxic_Shea's animated Blue Steel Avatar is going in there. It's cute, but we're a little uncertain about an animated picture on the front page.

Anyone who wants to toss in a handful of 170-wide, yet also short pictures would have our gratitude. We don't need many, but the occasional ones are nice. And most of them would wind up on the front page!

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Now if you are simply asking that Merits be a tradable resource, or even trade-within-account, I am sorry, but that's not going to happen. Characters of different levels earn Merits at different rates. Merits are supposed to streamline the reward process for that character, and that's not going to be changing any time soon.

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So instead of having 15 of one resource that I can use, I'll have 5 each of three resources that I can't.

That's brilliant.

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So, let's see.

There's "Merits" - wait, was that "Vanguard" or "Reward" ?

There's "inf" - was that influence or infamy?

Is prestige a group metric or a personal metric or both? That's never actually been clarified, and the badgers have quarterly arguments.

Then there's the whole "which pool is it, anyway?" question from recipe drops, which makes "reward merits" even more irritating, especially now that there's random rolls - which you can specify level on, but you can't necessarily get at that level, because it you might be higher than that level and it'll come out at your level, or it might not go that high.

And now we have "tickets," but some "tickets" are global and some "tickets" are per-character, and it all depends on how you get them, but they all go to the same things, and there's no other fundamental difference between them.

Right.

So, Posi. If I come down there, and stood in front of your desk, could you seriously look me in the eye and explain to me with a straight face how Base Salvage was confusing?

So in order to get away from competing with Dark_Respite, they switched to a completely different form of video - live action. And it was still worse.

Just to drop in a quick note: The Scoop has a new Art Correspondent*. She should be introducing herself soon.

* Not me. I loves me my artists, I really do, but three years of wrangling a herd of them was enough for a while. It's much like herding cats - an ultimately rewarding but immediately confusing endeavor.

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I love that fireplace, Psi. The entire room screams "Ski Chalet" to me. Then again, I'm weird.

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Well, if you're hearing rooms scream at you, I'd have to agree.

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However, by and large, except for a "no stealth" TF marathon I joined or TFs I have personally run, nearly every TF I've joined since I-13 has been "speed" and it sucks. Merits have turned this into "City of Farming" and it was alarmingly predictable.

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No TF I run will ever be a "speed" TF.

It might require a break in the middle, so I can rest my eyes, however.

I don't mind working for merits, but I hate, hate, HATE this whole merit grind attitude. I've been in one "speed ITF" now (and I was assured by the principal that it was a badly run one, the rest are much better... I don't think he quite understood my objection), and would rather not ever repeat the experience.

This isn't to say I don't have certain recipes I'm want - but instead of working for all of my characters, I'm only doing two with complex builds, and the rest are going for simple builds (only things I can get easily). Merits are optional, and I opt *OUT.*

Well, I can say it didn't apply automatically. My account renewed in the middle of the promotion for 6 months, and I didn't get the +1. I suppose it's my own fault for not checking on that, but it's a pain in the butt that I'd have to drop the subscription and then renew it for the same length of time to get the special.

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Master Craftsman isn't impossible for a character to get sub-40, especially if they are crafting for most of their levelling. That series of badges counts ANY use of a crafting table (converting base salvage as well), and the other badges needed for the Accolade get you almost halfway to Master Craftsman on their own.

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I would put this in my signature, but it makes the signature too long with what I have to have in there now.

Consider it quoted for good measure.

What does Positron have to say about this?

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I don't think it matters, because I don't think Positron's in charge anymore.