TonyV

[ QUOTE ]
that was a masterpiece until the diamonds were "fix't". now these diamonds all over that base and it completely ruins the space station theme.

that probably doesnt mean anything to anyone, however, It means more than mere words can express to the owners and friends of Q patrol.

Astro left the game because of that.

[/ QUOTE ]
To be fair, if you create something cool by using a bug, you should do so only with the expectation that at some point, whatever it is you created might be hosed up when the bug is fixed. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, especially when whatever it is you're creating isn't some kind of game-affecting exploit, but you should definitely weigh, "If this changes and my creation suffers for it, is it worth the time I'm putting into it now?"

I mean, what about those people who do want the panes of glass with the diamond on them? Should they be forever denied access to something like that just because the devs don't want to mess up a very small contingent of people's bases who used the bug to their advantage?

I don't disagree with you that they should have a plain glass object, but I do disagree if you're saying they shouldn't have fixed a known issue.

Sonova... I was typing my message when you posted this.

You're not the only one. A workaround is to use the following keybind:

/bind ; "show chat$$beginchat ;"

You're right, though, it was broken with the patch yesterday morning. I suspect it was to fix the bug where all keybinds that interacted with the chat command line would echo their bound key to the command line. Hopefully they'll update the defaults if they want to keep that patch in place.

As of yesterday, the default semicolon keybind hasn't been working right.

When you hit semicolon, it has always before started a chat command line with a semicolon. (For those who don't know, semicolon is a shortcut for /e, so ;salute, for example, is exactly the same as /e salute.)

Anyway, as of yesterday morning's patch, when I hit the semicolon key now, I get a command line that starts with a forward slash.

I'm used to quickly typing, for example, ";yes" to do the thumbs-up emote. Now, though, when I type that, I end up with "/yes" on the command line, followed of course by an error that yes isn't a valid command.

They're both mapped to the same keybind, which is "show chat$$slashchat". I'm guess that before, there was some mechanism to detect that the semi-colon key versus the slash key was being pressed, but maybe it was broken to correct the issue with all chat binds echoing the keystroke on the chat command line?

At any rate, it's not a big deal for me, I'll probably just change the keybind to "show chat$$beginchat ;", but I thought I'd post it here because you might want to consider changing the default keybind for it.

Maybe you were just mostly dead?

Whoa, CuppaJo is back? Wow, neat! Does this mean that EMPulse is gone now?

(Sits back and watches amusedly as things stir up...)

Feature Name or Description: Collection item placement in a Mission Architect map

Zone: Map named WitchLair according to /whereami
Character name: Taxi V
Time: 0953 EDT
Location: (-240.5, -12.203125, 714.5), according to demorecord file
Mission: Steal ingredients from the Red Caps (First mission of arc)
Mission ID #: 68171
Bug Description:

One of the four barrels that are collection items in the mission is placed within the geometry of the map. I took a demorecord file, and the barrel's spawn location is at (-240.5, -12.203125, 714.5) on the map listed as WitchLair as given by the /whereami command.

Here is a screenshot for reference.

[ QUOTE ]
My time working as the operator for City of Heroes and City of Villains has come to its conclusion...

[/ QUOTE ]
I rate this news ONE STAR!!!

Can we do commentary and talk radio?

Woohoo!

Seriously, guys, you have outdone yourself on this update. I really think this is going to have ramifications not only in the City of Heroes community, but in the MMORPG industry as a whole, setting the bar higher for all games. In the business world, a goal of every company out there is to set yourself apart from your competition by offering something unique and valuable that lots of people want. I really think you've hit the nail on the head here, and I'm more excited about this game than I've been in a long time.

All I ask is to not stop here. You'll need to keep improving the Mission Architect, adding more features, continually expanding our ability to tweak and customize.

Mark my words, because I've been saying it for a long time. This is going to be a lot bigger than I think even folks here are giving it credit for. I really believe that the release of Issue 14 will be the most important date in City of Heroes history since its original launch, maybe even bigger. It's going to affect all facets of the game, whether or not you're a content creator or even set foot in the Mission Architect building.

Even more, if NCsoft continues opening up the game to user-generated content (i.e. improving the Mission Architect system post-I14, giving us more tools, staying on top of promoting arcs to official content), I think this might be a significant milestone in the history of the MMORPG genre. That's what I'm really excited about, that this is going to have ramifications far beyond our little gaming silo.

[ QUOTE ]
Ms. Pacman wasn't made to get the guys playing you know lol...it was a marketing tool to get more girls playing and it worked Personally, my favorite ole video game was Galactic (I think that was the name of it)

[/ QUOTE ]
True story: Shortly after I got my Atari 2600 and was engrossed in Combat, Defender, Asteroids, and the rest, my mom came home one day with Ms. Pacman. My assumption was, of course, that she had bought it for me, but she quickly informed me that that was her game. Keep in mind that this was still during a time when videogames were still considered pretty much toys for young males, much like Tonka trucks and GI Joe dolls.

So anyway, when I wasn't playing on the Atari, my mom threw down on Ms. Pacman. She could totally kick my [censored] at the game, even after I had gotten somewhat practiced on it. It was a little odd when friends came over, she could kick their [censored]s also. She never got into any video game after that, except maybe that cheesy Taipei game that came with the little Windows Entertainment Pack way back in Windows 3.1 days.

She passed away in 2001, and I sometimes wonder if she still had her mad Ms. Pacman skillz towards the end. I also sometimes wonder if she would have been a gamer if she had been born 30 or 40 years later than she was. (Well, except for the whole creepy "I wouldn't exist" aspect of thinking about it too long...)

Oh, and back on topic, the Paragon Wiki has profiles of most of the devs who don't mind info being public. Melissa "War Witch" Bianco is definitely female and an integral part of the development team. There's also Carotello, Mynx, and possibly (?) Ghost Widow, who hasn't release any public info. Here's the current development team, as it's been made public. And of course, the community reps Ex Libris and Niviene are both female.

Just in case, you know, anyone is still wondering...

Ah, no can do, but thanks for the kind words. Love the avatar, by the way! If you ever want to steal anything from me, mercilessly swipe away, though, with my blessing. Aside from the fact that I can't stop you, I consider pretty much everything I do public domain and wouldn't want to.

First, that base is wicked awesome. If it's all right, I'm going to drop by Pinnacle and I'd like to see it in person.

Second, nice work on the Griefers article, Kyo-Chan. I have some food for thought for Part II if you're still working on it.

As someone who has run a lot of events, I know firsthand how disappointing it can be to do a lot of planning, build up excitement, just to have some [censored] come along and try to muck up the works simply because they think it's funny and because they can.

I wanted to add that if you're an event organizer, it's always worth taking at least a few minutes to think like a griefer during your planning. Put on your evil [censored] hat and assume that you are hell-bent on destroying this event. What possible ways would you go about doing so? Now put on your organizer hat again and try to think of some contingency plans in case someone comes along and does those things to you. Just as one example, regarding the costume contest, if it's a small one, you might want to consider taking the participants somewhere else besides under the Atlas statue. If it's a larger one involving multiple judges, break participants into groups and have the actual judging occur somewhere else. If it's a major one such as the recent PERC contests, publicize it in an alternate location first and see if you can get dev/rep involvement. Ex Libris and Niviene were at those contests and brought their ban sticks, so go figure, griefers were a non-issue.

If you organize an event that is plagued by a griefer, as trite as it might sound, try not to let it get you down. Yes, it's disappointing, but be assured that for every [censored] out there, there are a ton more people who appreciate what you're doing, and take comfort in that you are making the game better in spite of their efforts. Don't let the [censored] win by convincing you not to try to hold events again. The best revenge is to have fun in spite of their stupid efforts.

Event organizers should also realize that even if a thousand people /petition a griefer, it's been my experience that GMs hardly ever show up, especially in time to do anything about the griefing. I like to think that at some point, they review the petitions and ban the person (thus the reason they should still be /petitioned), but of course, that's little help during the event. If they're doing something repeatedly such as spamming powers to disrupt an event, you might also want to consider the /ignorespammer command, which we've been told by the reps does not only apply to RMT spammers. I think that has a better chance of getting more immediate attention, but the reps or GMs would have to say for sure.

Sometimes the participants start getting into it with the griefers. Try to avoid this. As Kyo-Chan said, griefers are pathetic little twits who are so starved for attention that they will take any kind they can get, and since they're too dumb to know how to get positive attention, they have to settle for the negative kind. If your participants start digging in and fighting with the griefers, point that out and ask people to stop feeding the trolls. If necessary, drop some /tells to people asking them to stop, they're only encouraging the griefer. Keep in mind that the griefer's motivation is to disrupt the event. If they have the participants more focused on them than the event, that's a win for them.

[ QUOTE ]
Stay calm at all times - you only make yourself and your event look bad by losing your temper.

[/ QUOTE ]
I cannot emphasize how important this is. Keep in mind that when you are /petitioning, the GMs will look at your actions as well. If they see two people griefing each other, it's very likely that they won't take action. (Or worse, take action against both of you.) DO NOT sink to the griefer's level and try to grief them in turn. As much as it might pain you because someone is being a [censored], be nice to them. Send polite requests for them to stop. Do not call them names, cuss them out, or anything else of the sort.

Aside from the fact that this will irritate the griefer (score!--you're letting them know that they're not getting to you), put yourself in the place of the GM and imagine how it would look for a griefer to continue with his or her griefing activities while someone is sending polite requests to stop, as opposed to someone cussing another person out and then bugging you to make the other person stop bothering them. World of difference, and I know I'd be much more likely to take much more severe action against someone disrupting an event in the first situation.

Also, a last note of caution. I have seen people accused of griefing events who weren't actually griefing. Keep in mind that just because you are having an event does not mean that other players can't or shouldn't be able to go about their normal business. As a simple example, you can ask nicely for people not to use the broadcast channel in Atlas Park so that you can run your event over it. A lot of people would probably respect your request. But people who continue to use it for normal chatter such as recruiting sewer teams and such are not griefing your event. In short, when you're planning your event, don't be unreasonable in expecting other people to stop what they're doing just for you.

This is why you don't get articles submitted, why you have such high attrition, why you miss issues or push them out late, why issues are getting smaller and smaller, why columns are disappearing. You have someone in charge who thinks that news is merely "fine when we can get it" in a newsletter (his word, my emphasis), staff that won't bother to take a few minutes to report on major events, a community who is oblivious to your publication (except for the comic) to the point of not bothering to report on major events, multiple Editors who take every criticism as a personal attack, no one willing to step forward and try to make the Scoop better (and those who do being driven off), and this weird blindness to the quality of the Scoop getting worse.

I mean, seriously, compare the Scoop from a year ago to the Scoop published Friday. Can anyone here honestly argue that issues coming out now are better or even of equal quality? And the scary part? I was hoping to actually make improvements to the Scoop a year ago. Now, I wish it was as good as it was a year ago. Yikes! Do you really think that at the rate you're going, it will be better or equal to what it is today?

But you know what? Never mind. I don't have time for this. I'm beyond criticism, you don't want suggestions, and I just don't care any more.

Okay, here are some suggestions.

First, you guys need to document some kind of submission procedures and/or guidelines and publish them somewhere. This "send us stuff" policy is way too vague.

Second, you or someone else at the Scoop needs to be aware of stuff that's coming up. The Rikti invasion wasn't a secret, it has been announced for months. Also, the calendar is your friend. Browse the Player Events forum once a week. And, of course, read the Announcements, News, and Community and Developer digests. You probably do already, but start doing so with your Editor's hat on, thinking, "Hey, that's something that might be interesting to have a story about," or, "You know, I'll bet we can dig into this a little deeper."

Just glancing over those sources, if I were an Editor, I would see that there's a PvP event coming up that we might be able to squeeze into next issue if someone writes up the results. I can also see a couple of other events (1 2) that might make for interesting articles. Plus the Mr./Mrs. Paragon City/Rogue Isles contests on Protector, Triumph, Justice, and Guardian need coverage. There's also a villain-side Hami raid that might make for an interesting article. Also, I can see that Ex Libris has been hammering away at working with PvPers, and I'd consider dropping her a line for an interview or some quotes about what's been going on. Also, Virtue dropped 41 drop ships. That's huge. I'd try to write something up about it, maybe even tap Ara for a few quotes. It would be nice to have something said about Synapse and Sunstorm coming on board. Oh, and there's also the launch of the Mac client beta, it would be great to get some folks who are testing it to give their impressions. Looking at the wallpaper calendar I see that November 27 is the end of the First Rikti War. That would be interesting to write something about. Oh, and there's a little holiday this week that's rife with opportunity for a fluff article. (What are YOU thankful for, Paragon City?) Oh, and yesterday (Saturday) was Voltaic Shock's birthday, one of the founders of CoH Titan. Today is DumpleBerry's, long time forum poster. Tomorrow is Lighthouse's. Tuesday is DJ_Dazzler, of the PvPEC. Friday is Sleepy_Kitty's, long-time poster and Paragon Wiki administrator. Any of these might make great interview subjects. Ooh, I just noticed, a couple of PvP events worth mentioning happening this coming Friday, too!

All of that stuff took me around an hour to look up and write in one big paragraph. To actually post messages and send some e-mails might take another hour or so, and if even half of the stuff came through, it would be one kick-[censored] issue of the City Scoop next week that would get some folks who are undoubtedly a bit jaded more involved, and that's not even taking into account stuff that will undoubtedly come up Monday through Thursday this week.

Third, do some proactive recruiting. Post a message in upcoming event announcement threads saying that you would like an article about the event in the City Scoop and asking someone to volunteer to write it up. Trust me on this, if someone hears, "Please send articles to the City Scoop," you're not going to get anything. On the other hand, if someone sees a post saying, "We need someone to write up a short (200-500 word) article on taking down the drop ships on Virtue, and a picture or two would be nice," you're much more likely to get someone to spend a few minutes to write something up. Hell, I've read the thread, and there are some posts in there you could almost drop in unmodified. People love bragging about their endeavors. Use that!

Fourth, take some time to do some actual coverage. Drop PMs to Synapse and Sunstorm asking if you can ask them some questions about background, experience, and so on. (Or at least ask Ex Libris to relay the requests.) Don't sit around waiting for them to come to you. Ask Agent Ruby some questions over in her thread, or if you don't have the time, cull some of the answers she's already given and report on them. One thing I've considered that might be kind of cool, and I think was actually tossed around at one point, is a series of interviews with fan site owners, such as the Titan Network guys, the Badge-Hunter.com/VidiotMaps guys, the CoH Podcast people, some of the radio DJs from The Cape, Split Infinity, etc. Get out of the forum silo! As you probably know, it was announced that Tabula Rasa is shutting down, and being the same company and all, some people are concerned how or if it will affect City of Heroes. There was an interesting thread about this in the Player's Questions forum. Tap this curiosity and write up an editorial to calm folks down and mention that City of Heroes might be getting a few more players soon.

You can't just sit around and wait for the stories to come to you, you have to go to the stories. Drop some PMs. Ask some questions. Do some reading. Visit some other servers. Delegate stories out to other people. You don't have to take hours to do it, just a few minutes here and there.

Fifth, you guys really need to lose the "we need a week's lead time to cover stuff" line. Most events are announced, happen, and are over with within a week. You're busy. I get that. We're all busy. I spend at least a few hours a week working on the Paragon Wiki, Forums, and Taxibots sites, plus I have a pretty time-intensive job, plus (as hard as it is to believe) a life outside of CoH. I'm not asking that you write War and Peace every week, and I'm sure as heck not saying that one person should be doing it all. But I guess I really just don't see the big deal in spending an hour or two among the entire Scoop staff in culling a few current events for timely coverage. Of all the stuff I referenced in my previous post, the latest among them happened Thursday afternoon. (The earliest, a week ago Friday.) I'm not criticizing that all of them weren't covered, I'm criticizing that none of them were.

I'm not saying that you have to change the world tomorrow. I'm not even saying that you ought to do every one of the items listed above, some of them might not work for you, and they're really mostly meant to illustrate my suggestions. But still, I can't help but think that the City Scoop ought to be thriving like crazy. There needs to be progress, it is supposed to be better than it was on day one, and it's not. I'm sorry if I'm coming off like an armchair quarterback. I wish I could help out, but I already run two fan sites and I've got too many irons in the fire as it is. I can't run the thing for you, I'm not an Editor. Besides, for several months, I did try to help out, offering my services and delivering articles, and felt quite unwelcome for my efforts. I guess I'm just frustrated still at how potential and expectations are so far beyond the current state of affairs, and I wish that someone would step up and deliver. I'm not asking for your head on a stick, or anyone else's for that matter. I know you can do better, but you've got to want to.

[ QUOTE ]
Lead stories are meant to get attention, but just reading the first line dispels the notion he died.

[/ QUOTE ]
I didn't mean to imply that you said he was dead, I only meant to say that the article is written as if he had died. I think a sidebar somewhere saying something like, "The staff of the City Scoop wishes to thank Alex von Minden and wish him well, blah blah blah" would have been altogether appropriate.

But the full front-page article, complete with Editor-in-Cheif weigh-in and sepia-tone photograph? Was that what he looked like in 1897 or something?

News would have been that he left. A scoop would have been that you found out where he was going. Full front-page news would have been that you found evidence that the PvP conspiracy theorists were right.

As it is, though, in my opinion, it comes off as extremely maudlin, borderline melodramatic. Plus, it's not exactly like there weren't plenty of other big news stories going on. Some off the top of my head probably worth covering were the Rikti invasion and its associated stories going on all week long without a single mention from the Scoop, mysterious Star Strider posts, and calls on various servers to destroy Rikti Drop Ships (!).

I would have also thought that Swiftwing winning a custom PC and other cool loot from the Create a Character contest would have made the radar. NCsoft and ATI give away $4,980.78 in prizes to City of Heroes players and there's nothing but deafening silence from a publication that calls itself the "City Scoop?" Maybe even a mention of a new developer taking on the mantle of Synapse would have been nice, or Ex Libris trying to smooth things over in a highly charged PvP community, or an ATI community rep making her presence known to field questions on our forums, or a chance for players to score costume codes in an upcoming contest (more than just a logo, like some actual story to go with it).

Not saying Alex shouldn't have been mentioned. Some folks probably missed his post and didn't know he had left. I liked the guy too, and I wished him well along with a few hundred other people in an altogether appropriate place. But come on, it was a job. One he was pretty good at, but did we really need a full front-page Lighthouse commemorative issue for something that you admit openly "isn't news to most of you?" As it is, I really think you guys dropped the ball on covering big news in this issue in favor of self-indulgent fluff.

I know firsthand how much you guys hate criticism, but I hope you will take something constructive from this and try to do better in the future. For what it's worth, though, I agree with the others that "Slow Loader" was the funniest yet. Kudos to Lattice for hitting a nice stride in the past few issues.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the Lighthouse article should have started out "In Memoriam..." The guy's not dead, folks, he just moved on.

Ask Agent Ruby: Hey Ruby, although Linux is not an officially supported platform for City of Heroes, with the recent announcement of the partnership between NCsoft and Transgaming for City of Heroes on the Mac, and Transgaming's diligent work on getting City of Heroes to work on Linux via Cedega, I am hopeful that some sort of official support for a Linux client is coming.

What kind of official support does ATI provide for their video cards on Linux? How has ATI worked with the open source community and organizations such as Canonical to ensure that desktop Linux works as well as possible with their cards? Has ATI worked with Transgaming (and if not, are any plans in the works) for assisting their developers in ensuring that games that work under Transgaming works as well as possible on ATI's products?

Also, what are some of the advantages of ATI video cards versus ATI's competitors on a desktop Linux platform?

<offtopic>
Your interesting statistics for the day, a breakdown of browsers used to access the Paragon Wiki:

Firefox: 47.8%
IE: 44%
Safari: 4.3%
Opera: 2.3%
Mozilla: 1%
Everything else: 0.6% (Netscape, Multizilla, Konquerer, Unknown)

I just take exception to the notion that suggesting that folks use Firefox is strange in any way. I'm pretty sure the Paragon Wiki works great in pretty much any browser, but if I ever have to choose one to target, it won't be IE, and that won't be because of politics or because I'm some sort of zealot. (Not that I ever expect to have to.)
</offtopic>

[ QUOTE ]
There are people out there with jobs that let them surf the net, but not install whatever latest and greatest browser with the three hundred plugins required for an "ideal" browsing experience.

[/ QUOTE ]
In defense of Snow_Globe (wow, that feels weird to type), it's not like every browser is vastly different, and he's saying that you should install one specific version of one specific browser. Being a developer o' web sites, I feel his pain. We either choose to have our stuff work with various versions of Internet Explorer, or we choose to have it work with Firefox, Safari, Opera, Konquerer, Chrome, and every other browser out there. Given that the latter is typically easier and much more standardized, it's kind of a no-brainer.

I'm sorry that your company has decided to use a broken, bug-ridden browser as its standard. My company has done the same. As a result, many of our Intranet pages are broken in various ways, and now, we can't even upgrade to IE 7 because of all of the dependencies on the manners in which they're broken. Fortunately, my company does allow us to install Firefox, thanks to some of our third-party apps depending on browsers that actually adhere to standards. If yours doesn't, that really sucks, but seriously man, it's not the City Scoop's fault that something doesn't work right, and if you're going to be mad, at least be mad at the right people.

And P.S., pretty much any version of Firefox will work, since it has at least tried to adhere to web standards (unlike IE) since before version 1.0, and you don't even need a single plug-in installed.

Thanks for your support of the City of Heroes community, and I wish you well. We've had disagreements now and then, but nothing too serious I hope (certainly nothing less than civil), and on the whole, I think you did a good job. Hopefully you'll look back on your days at NCsoft with good memories and a sense of pride. If I have one regret, it is that we never did get to meet in person.

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, this may be quite shameful of me, so I'll be hiding in my shame closet for the rest of the day!

But - here goes - One of our PR guys said, "Why isn't the CoH on Mac story on the front page of Macworld?" Someone else replied with "Well, it's probably because only 7 people have recommended the story."

So, if you like the story at Macworld ( http://www.macworld.com/article/1364...coh.html?t=109 is the URL) click the little recommend button at the bottom of the article.

< hides >

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh, and it's on the front page now. But it's not at the top. C'mon! If you're reading this, pop over and recommend this article to bump it up! (If you're not, what is wrong with you! Get your butt over here!)

First of all, a huge CONGRATULATIONS to NCsoft and TransGaming for this news! It's one of the most genuinely exciting things that I've seen in the pipeline since the game's creation way back in 2004! I've been wanting this to happen for a long, long time, and I really think that it will open up City of Heroes to a significant new market. Along with the mission designer for Issue 14, I really think that these are the days when City of Heroes will start getting its second wind and bump up significantly in the MMO market above what are currently its peers.

Second of all, this:
[ QUOTE ]
Now that you guys are working with Transgaming is there a Linux version in the future? I'd really love to stop dual booting my computer just to play CoX.

[/ QUOTE ]
This point is 100% on the money. It's the exact same company. City of Heroes already works really well on Cedega, and there are just a few minor little tweaks left to get it humming at 100%. Please, please, please keep talking to them and push into the Linux market as well. I promise, you won't regret it.

Third of all, I've busted NCsoft's chops a lot over the nickle-and-diming of selling add-on packs, promising that it's to hire more developers and make a better game faster, and not really delivering anything faster or better that we didn't have before.

Well, if this is the direction you guys are going in, and we can expect more game-changing (no pun intended) announcements like this, then you really are doing a good job convincing me that I was wrong, something I'd be more than happy to admit. I'm not quite there yet, but keep it up. With results like this, it probably won't be long.

Oh, and P.S., I've posted it as a news item on the front page of the Paragon Wiki, complete with shiny Apple logo and everything.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
anyone know what the 4 costume pieces are that you can get from the zombies? pics would be nice too.

[/ QUOTE ]

This might be up to date, not sure.

Paragon Wiki

[/ QUOTE ]
Fixed your link. This section is specifically about the Zombie Invasion. The Wikia site isn't being updated; we moved over to the Titan Network a couple of weeks ago. The new URL for the main page of the site is:
wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki

[ QUOTE ]
Well considering there are some people I've dealt with on many message boards over the years that have the attitude;

"I have a bigger post count then you, therefore your opinion doesn't mean a thing", I'd prefer no post counts and no stupid stars or any other rating system at all.

[/ QUOTE ]
Holy cow, sign me up for that. No more post counts! Shoot, I'd cheer for doing away with registration date, too! (Stars, meh, I can take 'em or leave 'em.)