Residentx10

Originally Posted by Ironblade

You seem confused. They are moving the physical location of the existing servers. They are not setting up any new servers, nor are they merging servers.

Originally Posted by Avatea

Greetings all,

We have an important announcement for our EU players.

On 11th November 2010 we will be moving our four European servers to a new data centre in the United States. As part of this migration, we will be taking the servers down starting at 5:00 a.m. Pacific Time (1:00 p.m. British Time / 14:00 Central European Time).This migration is expected to take approximately 6 hours, but it could end sooner or later. Check back for updates on the downtime.

This migration will help to centralize the City of Heroes servers allowing for higher quality and more efficient systems management. One location for all of the City of Heroes game servers will make it easier to support and upgrade the hardware. For example, as part of the migration, all of the EU game servers will be upgraded to brand new hardware. Also, it will improve our ability to respond to performance issues and streamline processes for keeping all servers up to date and online.

With the new data centre being located in the United States, it is possible that some of our European customers could experience additional lag when connecting to the game servers. However, the hardware is much newer, more efficient and our testing in most cases has shown no impact on performance. Additionally, customers in Europe will now consistently connect to the game servers through a more robust Internet pipeline. This means that our European players may actually notice improvements to their overall game experience.

This move does not impact your account, characters or game client. You existing account and user information will all be preserved. There is no work necessary on your part to prepare for this migration.

Please note that City of Heroes European game servers can only be accessed by European accounts, and City of Heroes North American game servers can only be accessed by North American accounts. There will be no server list merge or server merge as part of this migration.

Thank you very much for your patience with this matter; we appreciate your continued support of City of Heroes!

Originally Posted by BigFish

Look, this is the game development industry. Employees have always come and gone like the tides and that's seen as normal. Absent friends may be gone, but they're still friends. No need for panic. Just like there wasn't any reason to delete a certain post *grumbles*

This MMO is a hidden gem. If it had been properly marketed 6 -7 years ago it might have been able to rise above being just a niche filler. And, in my opinion, no game ongoing or on the horizon is going to be able to knock CoH/V out of this niche. Not the Content Light and Bad Looking MMO out now nor the City of Side-kicks MMO to come.

Let's hope that the complaints keep coming while reading these forums in 2020

Originally Posted by Bubbawheat

I forgot to mention, comedy arcs are the other style of arcs that are generally given a "pass" on adhering strictly to lore as long as it's funny.

Originally Posted by Bad_Dog

What's your reasoning, Resident? Your opinion isn't necessarily wrong, there's no idea in that post to explain why you think it shouldn't merge.

I'm on Protector and I'd like to have a regular group to do AE Missions, but there really isn't any reason I can think of why other people on other servers couldn't follow the same guidelines. (play arcs, post reviews in the forums, etc.) If that's the case, why not have everyone under the same umbrella and share knowledge, tips, etc? Just because others on other servers are interested, I won't feel a need to go over to Pinnacle or Infinity to run missions.

Originally Posted by Bubbawheat

I'm all for discussions and honest feedback - as well as discussions that can spin off from the current arc. Though I would like to keep this a place for friendly discussion and helpful suggestions and avoid feedback that could be viewed as sarcastic and condescending. I would like to thank those who have already played the arc, I plan on trying it sometime this weekend.

All levels of authors are welcome in this group, from beginners to veteran authors. If an arc doesn't seem like it fits your playstyle, that's why I only ask you play at least 2 arcs a month.

As far as Ramification's comment on how much lore plays a factor in MA arcs. I've run into it myself before. A lot of people couldn't get over the fact that I had Council enemies in an Arachnos map - I liked the map, but didn't like fighting Arachnos. I also really like it when someone fits lore details that I recognize into their arc. It all comes down to a case-by-case basis, some things are ingrained into the game that seeing something different, yet still somehow relating to lore, is jarring to a lot of players. When you're dealing with custom characters and known maps to simulate new settings, just about anything goes, but when you use CoX characters and villains, you have to either get them right, or explain why they're not right. It just goes with the territory.

Originally Posted by Wrong_Number

Since no one has mentioned it, if you have not already you should join the MA Arc Finder Channel. It's where most if not all of the MA authors and many of the MA regular players hang. Also, check out the thread here on the MA Super Team. It's something that might interest you and it's a lot of fun.

WN

Originally Posted by Coulomb2

1A: Fred answered this one as well as I can: just play with giving and removing powers, and you'll pretty quickly get a feel for how the XP system works - The percentage displayed is the percentage of the 'standard' XP award that character will grant when defeated. For the record, most authors aim for at least 90%, but that's a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. There's no guide for the XP system yet. I wrote one this summer, but it is sitting on my flash drive as a word doc; I haven't been happy enough with it to post it to the guides section.

1B: A word of warning: you *will* run across authors here that fervently believe you should give an arc whatever rating you think it deserves. Many of us will only award 4 or 5 stars, or won't rate it at all (and many will *only* give it 5 stars), but there are authors who disagree with this. For what it's worth, that *vast* majority of tickets you get in MA is from playing arcs, NOT from other people rating yours, so don't feel like you're making a huge dent in somebody's 'proceeds' by not rating an arc (or giving it 'only' 3 or 4 stars, or whatever). That said, Fred is dead on: anything other than 5 hurts an arc. And anything under 4 hurts an arc even more drastically than giving it a 4.

2: There's one exception to what Fred was talking about: if you play an arc that is Developer's Choice, you'll have the option of having normal drops instead of tickets. You won't get any MA tickets for playing the arc, but you'll get normal enhancement drops and recipes. But beyond that, no need to add to Fred's answer here, unless you're still confused about something.

Originally Posted by Bubbawheat

You probably don't need to bother with buying the maps, unless there's one that you'd really like for your mission, or you just want to spend the tickets on anything.

Originally Posted by Coulomb2

1. In short: yes. For a true 'custom' you can design the exact appearance of your character (using the costume editor, with (nearly) all of the options available to PCs), and then give them a primary and secondary power set, either with 'standardized' power options from each set, or custom picks (but you've got to give them what the system considers appropriate numbers of attacks - ranged, and melee - or you'll face serious XP reductions on what they are worth when defeated). You can also mix and match 'standard' mobs, putting them in custom groups (so if you want a group of mixed Vahzilok, Clockwork, and Outcasts, you can have it) - and even recoloring them and rewriting their descriptions to suit the story. Although not all mobs can be recolored (but a LOT can).

2. Yes, they do - buying an 'unlockable' asset in MA applies to your account, not individual characters. But only the ones unlocking 'assets' for use in MA - you can't buy, say, an enhancement, and except it to show up on all your characters (you almost certainly knew that, but I figure I'd be clear, just in case). So once you've bought a particular 'map set' on one character, all your character will be able to use those maps when writing MA missions (for example).

3. Yes, they are in-game drops. You've got that down, so no need to elaborate.

Welcome to MA!

Originally Posted by Bubbawheat

I know I tend to be one of the bigger supporters of the Mission Architect even though many of us authors feel like support is falling by the wayside as well as interest, and it feels like many authors aren't getting the plays they would like to see out there.

So, I thought about those book of the month clubs, and I thought I could use a similar idea for the Mission Architect. This club is for authors and players alike, to get more plays on the arcs that the authors would like to see.

To be a member of the club, then you should be willing to play at least 2 arcs a month and give feedback. It doesn't have to be a full fledged review, just put at least one thing you liked most about the arc, and one thing you liked least about the arc, and be specific. Also, please rate at least 4 stars, or not at all, unless the authors would prefer a 5 star rate, or none at all.

If you are an author, then post the arc you would most like to see played and have feedback given. Each week, I will pick a new arc for the club as a whole to play through and give feedback, both in-game and in this thread. The arc will be chosen from a member of the club, and preference will be given to those who have given feedback.

The goal of this club is to build a stronger community of MA authors and players, to allow new authors and new arcs to get rates and feedback to improve the overall quality of the MA arcs. If this idea takes off, I may add rewards to those who participate the most.

Once we get our first 5 members, I'll post the arc of the week, randomly chosen from those members.