Major Deej

I agree with the OP. Last night was a good example of this issue on the Virtue server.

The event happened in Steel Canyon, and although several people asked for 'LF event team', the responses were nearly all the same, "Why?", 'We're just going to fail anyway', 'Why waste the time on badges we'll get shafted on 'cause we aren't doing enough damage to earn them anyway?'

It was very disheartening to hear this, and at the same time, understandable.

Maybe we need to make some suggestions to the devs about this, such to the fact of:

1. If you do this, ANNOUNCE IT ahead of time, vice having it tied to the percentile chance of it spawning as a result of dumping Halloween Salvage to get a costume slot. We've already had some zone events scheduled at Brickstown Zig, and these zone events are fun to do; why not do this as well? Announe a week prior via the forums or in-game global message window and let everyone know (for RP purposes - CoT have indicated they are to amass in (zone x) on (date y) for a preordained supernatural event that is inline with the phase of the moon/planets/stars etc. We must stop them! (or the such...))

2. Remove the precentile needed to get the badges. If you attack a banner, even once, and the banner goes down, you get the badge, period. This is too painful for those that have low level teams thrown together as they have to try to out-perform damage done by a team of 50s doing damage.

3. The final GM: make it a UNIQUE GM (not a random existing GM). Have a marker AUTOMATICALLY show for the GM's location on the map, not have teams searching for it - it spreads the teams out too much, and lower level toons/teams may not have quality travel powers to get to the GM's location before the Lvl 50 toons/teams take it out.

4. Have the rules apply to earn badge credit for the GM for the same as item 1 above; if anyone on the team gets 1 hit in on the GM, the character/team gets the GM badge (maybe have it reliant on requiring to have ALL the supernatural event banner badges prior to earning the event GM's badge, that way a random passer-by character doesn't 'earn' the bage by taking a pot shot at the end event GM then run away, and get a badge for his meager effort).

I know some of these may open up for 'one-shot Johnny' to just show at the banner sites and do one shot on each banner/GM and leave the rest to others to fell them, but, if the banner/GM doesn't go down, they don't get the badge anyway, ergo, their piddly effort is a waste regardless.

This has been the major issue I've seen at the Sueprnatural Events; people making the effort to take down the monsters around the banners, opening up the banners to be hit, then everyone in the zone jumps on the banner and any low-level characters/teams don't meet the mandatory damage percentile to earn the badge when the banner goes down, even though they've put in the effort.

Some of the players I've seen online who don't get the banner badges usually end the event furious over the whole situation, especially when the GM goes down before the character/team can even GET to the site of the GM before it gets shot down by a band of 50s.

I know the event is made to be difficult, but with it being utilized with random Halloween costume slot eventing, and the time it takes to get VIABLE teams together AND organized, it's too much for the current facilitation of the game's players to conceivably get all their 'stars aligned' to make this event a worthy experience.

So, I've made my suggestions...anyone else care to chime in how to make this work for the players?

P.S. - and yes, I know there's been forum posts on this before; maybe these issues need to be revisited PRIOR to this year's Halloween Event and get the ball rolling on fixes NOW vice last minute.

I have a Soviet Russian Villain Group, The Red Guard, with the leader (Soviet Commisar) and alts. Not the best costumes, but fun to play.



(L to R) Mystyk, Soviet Spider, Soviet Shield, Soviet Sabre, Soviet Commisar, Siberian Deep Freeze, Black Boris, and Soviet Red Guardian.

Also made another one I have posted on the VG's website as Soviet Proletarian.

FPARN!

And major congrats on the B-Day, Posi!

Fantastic news, David!

Quick question: animated AND static, or just animated?

While in Praetoria, The Ocho realized his powerful 'Ban Stick' had no power against his dark Praetorian counterpart, "Resistance 8". In a last ditch effort, The Ocho tried to activate his new 'Cowering in Fear' dimensional teleporter, only to discover it hadn't been made 'available yet' in Praetoria.

The Ocho has not been seen amongst Praetorian forumites since...


If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

Lazarus was the one I was missing.

Congrats, Skullgrind!

Same. I'm on 8 too...

Sam, once again, superawesomeness exudes from the video!

I've only been around since Issue 7, however, seeing how you rolled all the scenes (moving camera scenes too, which I like) and synched it up with the BADADAM music (which is incredible; already downloaded some of their other tracks), it took on a truly epic feel.

The breadth and length made it all the more prominent in that when the video ends, aside from the awesome rush you already have, you realize, 'damn, that is a LOT of stuff that's been brought into this game!'.

Wonderfully mixed, incredibly dynamic, and a definate motivator of a video!!

Regardless of the little things you mentioned in your original post that shouldn't have been in the video, I enjoyed the video enough to watch and listen to it several times out of sheer entertainment and happiness!

The video gets 5 stars out of 5 in my book!

I've even linked out the youtube version in my universal website listed below!

Sam, keep up the phenomenal work, and keep your spirits up! We're all there with you!

Once again, the editors of the Issue 17 Map Pack have outdone themselves!

It was fun trying to help out getting the badge locations and info out during closed beta with you guys via in-game and the closed beta forums (which nearly all the time, just as I found a location, you'd have it posted in the forums :-P).

Regardless, thanks so much for your efforts and the fantiastic work you continue to do! THIS is what I love about our community; helping each other in things like this!

The Giant Monster Invasion last night was indeed epic in nature. I did enjoy myself, rolling to 5 different servers to cover my mains on those servers to get in on the fights being done there. Pros and Cons of the event:

PROs-
1. Great opportunity to team with folks I haven't seen in years, fighting side by side against Giant Monsters, Arachnos and Devouring Earth creatures. Epic battling!

2. Obtained many badges I haven't had the chance to get for one reason or the other; earned fantastic merits for my characters too!

3. Event lasted for the full three hours on each of the servers I was on (from what I gather), where last year we waited around for a dev/GameMaster to show up and drop the Giant Monster mob in a spot in a zone for about 1/2 hour or so and then bail to another hero/villain zone without us knowing where to go or even what server to try and jump to. The solid 3-hours effort on each listed server was VERY appreciated!! :-)

4. Villains and heroes both fought for the duration of the event; not one mob of GMs at a time for only a short time heroside, then sequentially to dropping GMs villainside, and then leaving.

5. Was able to log into any of the servers on the event day's list during the designated times and be able to jump right into a fight.

6. Opportunity to et some awesome screenshots.

7. Team captains did a fantastic job of keeping the team size to a full 8 people as a rolling PUG as people jumped off/got tired of the lagfest. Team size maintenance and team member effort was fantastic; I didn't see any of my teamates on any of the servers I gamed on last night 'sitting on the sidelines'; they all participated.

CONs -

1. Lag, as usual, was immense. Took me several minutes to die (courtesy on a one-shot blast from Lord Recluse), transport to the hospital, and get out of the lobby of the hospital.

2. Lag, massive attack overload, and inability to toggle/fire off powers led to inability to obtain some RV badges against the Arachnos mob. On some of the servers, I was able to get the defeat badges, but on the high volume ones, none, even though I was fighting them from the second they popped up :-(

3. The foums post mentioned to be in Atlas or Talos for heroes, Cap for villains; GM battles were dropped all over the zones: KR, Galaxy City, Steel, Mercy, Port Oakes, etc. The initial message should have said "we'll START in zones x, y and z, but will branch out from there as we deem necessary after the first 1/2 hr/hour/2 hours"

4. Gold titles were very difficult to obtain. If you weren't there in the zone for that 1 or 2 minutes at the start of a GM mob drop, you didn't get a title. Many did, most didn't. To me, I don't personally care; my teamates, on the other hand, were sad pandas.

5. Only Virtue server (to my knowledge) has red text alerts telling the players on the server where the next GM mob attack was occuring; other servers, you had to hunt, or there wasn't any red text info on the attacks.

6. I hadn't realized (or quite possibly understood) that the server attacks were NOT going to be random sequentials like last year, instead, this year it was simulteaneous on all servers, (red and blue sides simultaneously as well) list for that day. After fighting for over an hour on one toon, I was told there were simulteanous battles on other servers. If I'd known that in advance, I would've budgeted my time on each server to get my mains of those servers a little face time with the GMs/RV characaters/Devouring Earth. This isn't a big issue per se; lessons learned I guess; I'll be ready for today's event now, and budget my times across my mains on the servers.

Overall, I enjoyed the event. I'm looking forward to today's blast of lagfest and fighting!

Are there any new missions beyond lvl 20 to be included in Going Rogue? by jbadd007

[Ghost Falcon] Yes.


YES!!!!! *Does happy dance*

The basic build strategy I have for each of my bases for my SGs/VGs has always been "keep the med, auto doc, teleporters, inspiration storage, and portal close to each other".

When you're dead in a mish, and the team is in imminent wipe, wasting time to find these three things after you rez in the base is counter-productive to your SG/VG mates. With what is currently available for base use, you need to maximize and simplify your SG/VG utilization for your SG/VG mates.

When base raiding becomes an issue again, I'll place multiple locations for med/auto doc/teleporters as required, but for now, I make them as simpistically functional for the group. And yes, I do decorate the bases, stack many things, and create themed rooms and styles, but again, not at the expense of my SG/VG mates needs.

Some base builders go hog wild with 'drop any room here and decorate with fluff and stacking' mentality, and to each their own; standard members who have need of a functional base won't stick around long though with that type of base build unless they don't care about base functionality. I don't dislike bases like this, since I'm usually impressed with the creativity of many of our builders, but, to put it simply, you don't build an aircraft carrier to be a fashion runway.

One of the best comments I continually get in all my SG/VG bases is, "Damn! Everything is so easy to find and access" (or along those lines). The base should be an asset for the GROUP not YOU (as the base builder). If you feel like going into 'awesome stacking and decorating' mode, again, go to town, but have the base designed to be 'useful' first.

Personally, I like the idea of a little 'detective' work as a hero/villain in the game.

It seems the main concern is that some players may not want to engage in this, seeing as it'll break their flow of the game, while others are looking for a little 'spice' in the game that'll make them think or interact just a bit more than what is currently available.

In Issue 12, with the Hollows revamp we got Meg Mason, where you can do repeatable missions in the Hollows. The player doesn't HAVE to go to her; she's in the contact list, however, there is no mandate for her to have to be seen.

Along that same line, since we have a police station/Arachnos base in many of the major zones, how hard would it be to include a new contact in the police stations/Arachnos bases that would provide a 'detective'-like set of missions/arc? Again, like Meg Mason, you'd see the contact on your list the first time you enter a level-appropriate zone, however, it doesn't have to be a mandate to use that contact; no other zone contacts should point to that contact in the police station/Arachnos Base (of which could be a Detective/Marshall, for example).

In so doing, the first line of the text for the first mission/meeting can state at the top "THIS IS A DETECTIVE/HUNTING MISSION ARC" in orange or green or something of the sort.

As mentioned, word puzzles don't have to be part of it. Instead, maybe the player can find not only clues upon mission completion, but maybe salvage (be a great way to recycle some of that old base salvage), or a recipe crafted for creating a one-time use temp power of a NPC hologram message distress/final location message. Another idea is to get salvage/return to a contact with a series of clues received and get a 'key' to get to a door/location to solve the mysetery (much like Halloween salvage is used to get a costume slot). It was kinda done with the Midnighter's "Cure the Lost" Arc with the wand, but instead of crafting a wand, you can get a key to a final mish location or the such.

Anyway, I'm just spouting ideas now, but I agree with the premise of having some type of solving/detective mishes/arcs that are seperate from the mainstream contacts so you can exercise your mind a tad, or RP a bit.

A hearty 'welcome back Cel' to you!

An incredible set of events in your life, yet, as mentioned, you're a fighter! Good for you in beating the odds. You obviously were missed!

Glad to have you back with your CoH family!

Suggestion time.

1. Mass transit media. In cities, advertise in subways, buses, cabs, ferrys, etc. This is where you get the largest amount of people in one place, nearly every single day, and they have to stay in that one place for the duration of the trip. Your target audience will vary, however, unless you have your own limo or your a sadist for driving into the city everyday, a high majority of folks will see those rectangular advertisement ads for CoH/Going Rogue/etc for a higher duration of time in their transit than someone thumbing through a magazine once for a few seconds.

2. TV show interaction. As mentioned by some earlier, "Big Bang Theory" shows CoH/V merchandise via the comic store, thus engendering a "hey look, City of Heroes stuff is in maintstream TV shows" thinking among those in the gaming world/geek world. That alone has caught dozens of my friends who DIDN'T play the game before to say, 'hey, I saw CoH stuff on that show last night; so what's that game really like?".

In conjuction with that, as mentioned about the fashion show interaction, you can spot ads on websites of shows that have streaming downloads for folks to watch online. Having that one ad for CoH coupled with, say, the streaming episode of "Heroes", or "Chuck", or the such, would be a good visual that sticks with them WHILE they are watching the show.

3. In-Game Ads. This is a tricky monster to manuever, understood. A fair portion of the game's clients may opt out of real adverstising in-game, however, with Going Rogue about to potentially increase our player base, even for a short period of time, this is as good an opportunity to give it another run or try. You can datamine from this new data, and you'll get a good 'surge' demographic for advertising vs client interaction. From there, you can assess its potency.

4. G4TV. Get our devs on that show. NOW. Presnence! We need prescence! I mean, come on! Mellisa "War Witch" is one of the few if not only female Leaders in the field! Get her out there for others to see! That unto itself is newsworthy! With that, each new issue that crops up, get a dev out there to show it off on the show.

5. Community Interaction. Do you know how easy it would be to get a mayor, say of Providence, Rhode Island, to have a day assigned as "City of Heroes Day" on a CoH anniversary? It IS easy! The papers and newscrews would GIVE you free coverage of that just for having the ceremony on the capital's steps! It would definately get more camera time if you get a couple models dressed up as Desmonda and/or Miss Liberty to show up for the proclamation day! I can just hear the shutter clicking noises of the cameras now!

6. Advertise the "Good" we've done as "heroes" as an online community. This CoH community went to bat with a successful donations campagin for "Real World Hero" late this last year; get that info out to the media! Plan MORE such campaigns! As such, we should couple with authorized/approved by NC Soft/Paragon Studios other great campaigns, such as breast cancer awareness (i.e., "City of Heroes supports the Breast Cancer Foundation", etc.). We can be heroic AND supportive, and at their events, we'd be great for handing out free trial game disks, flyers with our game info and logos on it,etc. HIT THE HEROIC THEME and ADVERTISE WITH IT!
7. Survey time. These forums allow to do visual/text polls. Use it! Get some datamining ideas of what stuff you'd think are good marketing ideas and POLL the forums; we're not the ENTIRE CoH community, but we're a great cross section!

And that's all I have for now. I must now get back to work before my boss starts to believe I'm plotting his takeover....MUWHAHAHA...erm..*cough* er...never mind.

Black Pebble, I'll give you credit; this is a brave move you've made this day, and as such, you shall both be rewarded and beaten...just like the rest of us!

Good luck!

Edit: forgot one..

8. New CoH Paperback/Online Comic. NOW! These are GREAT for any and all superhero-loving collector! It not only gets people into the mythos of the game (again) but can regenerate interest in existing/recently lost players. Hand them out at Comic Cons for free with a Trial game Disk! The possibilities are endless once the game is in print like this!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled discussion and brainstorming session already in progress...

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.




The Ocho begins to think twice about his received invitation to the 'Ebil' Marketing Headquarters of the new forum red-named Marketing Brand Manager, "Black Pebble".

The one soundrack that really gets me 'into the game' on some missions and heavy duty difficult missions is the "Dark Knight" soundtrack music. If you haven't tried it, give it a go; to me and a few online friends, it's a perfect fit for the game.

I'm not a big soundtrack guru, but I have to admit, the Dark Knight Soundtrack has the right motivating and epic sound you'd hope to hear in place of the current tracks for in-game mishes.

I also use Windows Media Player with a playlist of heavy metal, rock, rock accoustic, or some alternative music to listen to depending on mood.

The Cape Radio is also a great source, pending the style/selection at the time.

Ya'll are slacking!!! It's been several pages and no one has mentioned.....


DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Had a great time at the M & G!

Wife (Clipp) and I enjoyed the atmosphere, conversing with fellow players, losing at pool to Clipp and a few others, and getting to meet most all the devs/community relations team at one point or another.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to chat/congratulate War Witch on her new position as Dev Overlord; she had quite the crowd around her most of the evening, and trying to find a break in between the "fix nao's" and "here's what you all need to do at Paragon Studios" folks that took up most of her time, I was lucky enough to at least get a photo of her. By the time things were closing up, you could tell she was on her last erg of energy.

Posi was awesome as usual; great sense of humor and you can tell how much he loves this community and the game in all he said and did that night.

Community Team did an outstanding job, and Ocho was fantastic to chat with, as was EM Pulse!

It was a shame the evening ended so early (ok, early for me), but with most of the team on morning flights out of Logan, I fully understood.

I truly hope this can be an annual event for NCSoft/Paragon Studios.

Having them here on the east coast was indeed a rare treasure, espcially for us New Englanders. My thanks to the devs and community relations team for a solid "10" out of 10 on performance and interaction!

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.



In today’s news, two drunk ‘looting’ pirates were arrested at the Museum of Modern Paragonian Art by Paragon Police after security guards found the pirates "on the floor, sickened and delirious".

Initial reports state the pirates were attempting to make off with the famous War Witch “Magic Eye” painting, when the pirates felt compelled to stop in the middle of the theft to focus on ‘finding’ War Witch’s hidden image in the painting itself.

Both pirates are said to be hospitalized with ‘crossed eyes’ and severe bouts of nausea.

VG name: United Canadian Empire
Website: http://covuce.webs.com
Global: @Major Deej
Type: Casual VG
Method of Contact: On Forums or send in-game tell to @Major Deej



Fellow Canadians and those who wish to be or act Canadian!

The "United Canadian Empire" Villain Group (VG) is looking for new members to join our villainous band of Canadians bent on taking over the North American continent as part of the 'Canadian Empire' (yes, that includes our take over of the United States! MUWHAHAHA! er...ahem.).

The theme of the SG is roughly based on Canadian lore with a twist of evil, using related Canadian names, locations, and lore as the basis for your character - again, with an evil twist. Some examples are like, the mean Inuit goddess, Isiaq, an ice-powered villain named "Yukon", Masterminds with troops named after Canadian places/rivers/people, evil Mounites, etc. Although our theme is based on an evil twist of Canada, any and all character ATs and styles are more than welcome to join!

The United Canadian Empire is a casual VG on Liberty Server, with no mandates to join or play other than to be in SG mode up to level 25. Promotions within the SG are relatively easy and allows you access to the multiple storage bins for salvage, inspirations and enhancements.

Our website has pages and links to SG Events, SG history, a 'who's who' page of members, a calendar of events and a fantastic rogue's photo gallery!

Our base is small, but has salvage and inspriation storage, a vault, invention table, a medical bay and much more in the works!

Most of the VG's members comprise of east and west coast players, all of which play weekday evenings and most of the weekend time.

We'd love to have you be a fellow "Canadian Empire" member, plotting the takeover of the North American continent with us from our current 'kicked to the curb' base in the Rogue Isles (that's right, even the friendly Canadians kicked us out of Canada!).

To join, or get additional information, reply to this thread, visit our website or send an ingame email or tell to (global) @Major Deej.

See you in game, fellow evildoers!

SG name: Peacekeepers of Paragon
Website: http://cohpop.webs.com
Global: @Major Deej
Type: Casual SG
Method of Contact: On Forums or send in-game tell to @Major Deej