TonyV

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Fan sites actually disapear and their URLs go dead. In fact, the frequency of this occurance is so common that any would-be web manager worth his salt will attempt to get all of those disparate sources and articles copied over and hosted on his site in order to insure that the resources remain available to his patrons.

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First of all, it's really ironic that you would say that. I wasn't the first person to come up with the idea of a City of Heroes wiki. Some guy (I think he called himself "Auz," if I recall correctly) registered the first domain name I wanted, cohwiki.org, and had set up MediaWiki and started running a CoH Wiki a few months before I thought, "Hey, a CoH wiki would be really neat!"

After adding a bunch of articles, though, it dawned on me that he was really just running it as a little side project. Before I started entering articles, no one had edited anything in months. I thought to myself that before I really invested a lot of time and effort into something that might just disappear one day, I should host it myself so that I can make sure it doesn't, so I can't really defend against the argument that the Paragon Wiki might just one day disappear by saying something like, "It won't, I promise!" (But just in case that actually will work, it won't. I promise.)

What I can do is try to mitigate the risk of that happening. Here are some ideas that I'd be willing to run with, if Lighthouse wants to go with it:

<ul type="square">[*]I can give someone at NCsoft access to the filesystem underlying the wiki and to its database. If they really want, I can give them access to my daily backups so that if the site does die some day, they can host it themselves or give it to someone else as appropriate. I can also add someone at NCsoft to have access to the domain name through my registrar, so that if I get hit by a proverbial bus and the wiki is still going strong when the name expires in 2012, NCsoft can renew it.[*]NCsoft can host the site. I'd like to continue having admin access to it so that when I think, "Hey, that would be neat," I can make it happen. But if they're set against it, that's okay, too. I've said all along that the Paragon Wiki is a community resource. My main goal is for it to simply exist and remain as open and accessible as it is. I don't want to be the be-all and end-all of the wiki, though. I've already designated several other admins, including one who I've set up as I've suggested above who has administrative access to the wiki's filesystem.[*]Everything could pretty much stay as it is. If someone is worried that the wiki might disappear tomorrow, they can save a copy of their guides and/or articles and post them somewhere else should their fears come to pass. Not the most elegant solution, but if all else fails, it would do.[/list]Oh, and by the way, cohwiki.org was eventually handed over to Stratics. I don't think it was updated very often, and if you check it now, the wiki's not available. Glad I decided to host it myself!

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I've told Lighthouse that this weekend, I'll work on posting a guide or two that I use here on the forums in the wiki to see what he thinks of how it looks. I'll post a follow-up here and see what you all think, too.

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Okay, I've converted Curveball's bind guide, one that is definitely on the top of my list, to an article in the Paragon Wiki. Now comes the fun part, where you all do the wiki thing and edit it. I've already edited it some, correcting typos, adding a few notes about how command can have underscores, and trying to make them just a bit more article-like. I've removed Curveball's references to "me" and "my" since as a wiki article, it's a community effort, but I have left the references to his characters in out of deference to the fact that he did originally write it. He's also identified as the original author on the article's discussion page. I also added CuppaJo's Working in the Game Industry guide.

If folks want to start adding their guides to the wiki, I highly suggest registering an account so that it's credited correctly, and create your own user page where you can list your guides, characters, and whatnot.

As for a "Guide to guides," I think the best implementation would be to use the wiki's built-in category mechanism. I started a heirarchy, which currently looks like this:

- Player Guides
- - Commands and Binds
- - Game Industry Guides

Obviously, as more guides (and categories for such guides) get added, the hierarchy will grow to mirror that of the Guide to Guides thread. I also added a Guide to Guides article to serve as a master Table of Contents to make navigation of guides easier. If you add a guide to the Paragon Wiki, please make a point of tagging it with the correct [[Category:Player Guides (subheading)]] tag and adding it to the Guide to Guides! (Or, if you don't, don't panic. I'm sure someone else will come along after you and do it for you.) Also, please, please, please make sure that you give the original source of the guide on the article's Talk page! I want credit given where credit is due!

Let me know what you think, good or bad. Derekl is right, not every problem is a hammer. But in this case, I honestly believe that a wiki is exactly the right tool for this job.

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I dropped Tony at the ParagonWiki forums a line. If anyone knows the gents who run that site, please forward my email Lighthouse@ncsoft.com Thanks!

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Wow, I had a bunch of messages when I got home today. That's cool, though, it's why I post my e-mail address freely (tonyv@pcfreepress.com), and it makes me feel loved when people use it.

Obviously, I think the wiki idea is a humdinger, and I'm not going to even pretend like the comments below are unbiased.

I think it would be a fantastic place to store guides. There are already several guide-like articles in the Paragon Wiki. For example, there's an article on the Warburg Missile Launch Mission that I think is really thorough. The Tree of Thorns Respecification Trial article is also a good example of a very guide-like article. The coverage of the events (e.g. Winter Event 2006) is usually top-notch, too.

Here are some advantages I see of posting guides in a wiki, whether or not it's the Paragon Wiki:
<ul type="square">[*]It's editable by the community, so typos and mistakes get corrected relatively quickly.[*]For the same reason, changes are reflected very quickly, because the guides wouldn't have to be maintained by a single person.[*]Most wiki software offers great formatting capability, but in a manner that is standardized enough so that everyone doesn't just go nuts.[*]Basic wiki markup, the kind used to write a relatively simple article or guide, is really easy to learn. Even if your guide comes out ugly, it will likely be "prettified" by someone else soon after you post it.[*]Guides posted in a wiki can link to other articles. For example, a guide that talks about Stalkers can directly link to topics such as Assassin's Striking, Placating, and so on. Or a guide about Mastermind pets can link directly to the petsay slash command. (Yes, I know, you can link like that in forum posts too, but it's easier in the wiki, and really, that's kind of what the wiki is designed for!)[*]Most wiki software allows you to have user pages (such as mine) where users can post their own personal information, which gives them a feeling of personalization. Also, users' contributions are easily accessible for recognition of their efforts. That's a great incentive to contribute![/list]Whether or not the Paragon Wiki gets any kind of official nod, I do hope that folks will stop by and check out what we have to offer. The site's writers and editors have worked tirelessly for months and months for nothing but an occasional "Wow, you people are amazing" from me, and I use it myself extensively as a resource while I'm playing. It's also 100% ad-free and will always remain so.

I've told Lighthouse that this weekend, I'll work on posting a guide or two that I use here on the forums in the wiki to see what he thinks of how it looks. I'll post a follow-up here and see what you all think, too.

Wow, Taxibot Sara!

She's made a fantastic impression on the Taxibots, myself included, and it's great to see that she's made an impression here, too. She's one of our newest members, but she's doing a fantastic job, and I think she's going to be one of our best members ever.

Keep up the great work, Sara, and thanks a ton, Foo, for doing this!

Oh, and if anyone wants to know what Sara looks like in person, her picture was featured in a recent Infinity badge tour article on our site. In case it rolls off the home page, here's a link to a post of the article in our Infinity forum.

And just because it has to be said again, wow! Great job, it's awesome!

P.S. Happy birthday, DarkLilac!

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I love playing this game, but I often get strange reactions from people when I tell them I play MMO's. How do you guys justify/explain playing the game/use of the game?

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I tell them I'm a stereotypical geek, and this is what we like to do for fun.

The people who know me say, "Oh, yeah, that makes sense..." and I go back to working on the wiki I've specifically set up for this game.

Thanks for everything you've done for the community, CuppaJo. You did a great job, and while I think people changing their forum names in honor of you is neat, I'm not changing my forum name to Cuppa_TonyV. It's just... wrong.

I hate to rain on everyones parade...

So I won't. I'm up for this, count me in.

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I didn't like asparagus and my grandmother assured me that I'd like it if I just tried it.

...

Its 25 years later and I still don't like asparagus yanno.

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I know it's asking waaaaay late in the thread, but I've still gotta ask...

Did you ever get around to actually trying it?

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At one time, when going through the caves searching for Atta and his Bodyguards, the troll minnions and bodyguards would dissappear, only to reappear in the center of the map, waiting for you to come back through.

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I don't remember this, but I do remember an annoying bug that I haven't noticed lately. (Fixed?) I or someone on my team would come to one of those big open caverns with lots of enemy groups in them, but it would be completely empty. When you got into the middle, all of a sudden, like five groups would spawn around you and start attacking.

I distinctly remember always running through those caverns with super speed on to get the enemies spawned before going back in to fight for real. Also, I had a few teams wiped because in spite of me hollering, "Wait before going in there," some idio^H^H^H^Hintrepid hero would immediately take off running for the glowie on the other side of the "empty" cave.

*Footnote: Sorry for all the consecutive posts, but I'm catching up on the thread as I read, and all of this stuff is bringing back floods of memories!

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Did you know...The Universities in Steel Canyon and Founder's Falls...

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Here's one for old farts like me...

Remember when the universities didn't exist? I remember how irritated I was that they chose to put the university in Steel Canyon where they did. It used to be a tall building under which one could consistently find lower-level Clockworks to beat up to get past really tough "Defeat 15 Clockworks in Steel Canyon" missions that the contacts assigned.

And does anyone remember that short period of time (actually months, I think) when they tore down the buildings and had construction sites where the universities are now? And they had NPC construction workers digging with shovels who would say stuff like, "Gosh, Dave, we're way behind schedule," and another NPC would respond with something like, "We've got to work faster if we're going to get done!" (Those aren't exact quotes, but I distinctly remember NPCs talking to each other about building the buildings.)

I was so excited, I couldn't wait for the universities to arrive! Then they did, and not a durn thing has been done with them yet. I was so excited, in fact, that when they finally hit the test server, I wrote an article about them in the PC Free Press in eager anticipation of the coolness that was about to come.

/e still hopes that someday they will be used...

Miscellaneous note: For a while before the Arenas were deployed, they tore down the existing buildings and had construction sites, too. And there's still a construction site in Skyway City south of the monorail station. I wonder if they're ever planning on putting something there...

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There was once a time when Break Free inspirations didn't exist. All you could get to protect you from holds, sleeps and stuns were 'Discipline' inspirations, which you had to take before a fight. They wouldn't break a mez effect once it had already taken hold.

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I'll see your Disciplines and raise you a Resolve! It was like a break free inspiration, but you couldn't buy them in stores (only obtainable from drops), and they only freed you from "some" status effects. I have documented all three levels of these obsolete inspirations, including their icons and along with current inspirations, in the Paragon Wiki.

Also maybe worth noting, remember when there were no Sturdy inspirations? I remember the first time I saw one and was like, "Orange!!? What in the world is an orange inspiration?"

Also, if you're curious, I've documented some of the major changes in each release and the exact dates they hit the live servers in the Paragon Wiki:

Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7

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There was a time when the glowie objects didn't make any kind of noise. You had to physically see the objects. There was alos a time when there were problems with the glowies being invisable. You could hear them but not see them. You would have to "feel" around with your cursor to see when it changed into a hand to click them.

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Way back when, the glowies also made a different noise, a high-pitched fast warbling noise, not the low-pitched undulating noise it does now. (Imagine the current noise on a 33-1/3 vinyl being played on a 45 RPM record player...)

I can't remember in which issue exactly it was changed (Issue 3? Issue 4?), but for a week or two after that issue was released, the glowies made no noise! You had to just roam around looking behind every desk, crate, or other object to find them! The outrage reached a furor for a while until they added the low-pitched noise in.

I actually thought it was pretty cool, like a glowie scavenger hunt.

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The exit mission button was added as a quality of life feature. It used to be that once you completed a mission, you had to run all the way back to the entrance to leave.

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Remember when there was no Exit button? To exit a mission immediately, you had to click on the "i" icon in the navbar. This was mentioned in the tutorial, but wasn't intuitively obvious. I remember going like 15 levels before figuring out that I didn't have to run all the way back to the door. I also remember dog-cussing the game once because I desperately wanted to read a mission description and clicked the "i" icon after the mission was completed and was promptly dumped outside.

Speaking of doing stupid things related to exiting missions, once I was on a team trying to mop up all of the mobs inside a mission. I lost track of my cursor and clicked frantically to try to select a villain that was attacking me--and my cursor, as it turns out, happened to be over that Exit button. Doh! I've also fired off one or two inspirations I was trying to keep that way, too. (Whoops...)

*Edit: IanTheM1 is right, I wasn't misremembering incorrectly.

Hey all, I just finished writing up the articles for the Tree of Thorns Respecification Trial and for Sparcetriel in the Paragon Wiki. I know there are at least a few guides to the CoV respecs here, but I am hoping that the respec trial article provides a copmlete, yet succinct, strategy guide, and the Sparcetriel article provides all of the gory details of the missions that anyone may want. I still have a few miscellaneous things to shore up (like adding information for the later trials), but it's pretty much complete as-is and should serve as a very useful reference.

Obviously, if I've made errors, feel free to let me know or correct them yourself. (The wiki is community-editable.)

Wow, sorry in advance for resurrecting a really old thread, but I just saw this message while ego-surfing for my site.

Anyway, I'm TonyV, the site admin for the Paragon Wiki, and I wanted to say thanks for this shoutout several months ago, and I also wanted to point out that the site address has changed. The new address is:

http://paragonwiki.com

Hopefully, that's a lot easier to remember than the old site link. I've set up a redirect so that all the old links and bookmarks still work, but I am trying to get everyone switched over to the new one if possible.

Sorry in advance for cross-posting (I also put this in the General Discussion forum, but thought that it might be more appropriate here.)

Okay, first, a few disclaimers:

1. I'm very geeky. I know and accept this. It works for me.
2. I've never tried any kind of foray into the art of audio.

Because of 1 and in spite of 2, I have made a "concept podcast," a recording that I humbly submit for your listening enjoyment. I've been thinking that something like this would be really cool for some time, and I finally just decided to make one and see what happens. At the risk of totally screwing my bandwidth allotment, here's the link:

http://pcfreepress.com/podcasts/PCFP.Episode00.mp3

It's a (mostly) in-game in-character(s) podcast, with a few different formats thrown against the wall to see what sticks. I've also got some other ideas, but time constraints demand that I stop to actually finish the thing at some point.

My original idea was to put one of these out a week, but honestly, there's no way in hell that will happen. This was just a one-day one-person affair, and it was a long day. However, if I had a few more victi^H^H^H^Holunteers to help out, who knows? If you'd like to see something like this put out on a regular basis and you're actually willing to help see that come to fruition, please let me know. Otherwise, the idea will likely die at the concept stage.

Anyway, I must emphasize again, this is a concept podcast. Had it been a real podcast, it might actually be quite good. If you hate it, that just means there's a lot of room for improvement. If you love it, I'll take full credit, of course.

So what do you think? Good? Bad? Don't quit your day job? I'm going to write a web bot to use up your bandwidth to make sure nothing this hideous ever happens again? Drop me a reply here or e-mail me at tonyv@pcfreepress.com with your reaction.

Hey now, about the Spice Girls...

'What do you call a Spice Girl with two brain cells? Pregnant!'

That's a joke I heard one of them tell on Jay Leno's show while they were still popular.

I never really cared for their music, but I really appreciated that in the height of their 15 minutes of fame, they always seemed to be aware of what it was--15 minutes of fame. They milked it for what it was worth, and moved on.

I wish more bands (and even solo artists) were like that and didn't take themselves so seriously. After all, when it all is boiled down, with only some very rare exceptions, they're merely entertainers to make my morning drive to work a little less tedious. Nothing more, nothing less.

Personally, I wish everyone would just drop it. I get irritated because nowadays, I see more people using leetspeak to make fun of people using leetspeak than people actually using leetspeak.

Hey all, I have just finished up a pretty intensive effort over the past couple of days to document and audit all of the City of Villains Exploration Badge articles in the Paragon Wiki.

Now I can't read minds, but I do play a Mind Controller in the game, so I'm guessing that you're probably thinking, "CoV exploration badges? Just go to VidiotMaps!" And yes, that is a great site where one can get the coordinates and some nice icons on the game maps.

The wiki, however, is different, and I highly encourage you to drop by and see how. It focuses more on information about the badges. For example, it's got the badge descriptions, notes about the badges (e.g. some trigger Gladiator Badges, some have hero badge equivalents, etc.), a detailed description of how to find each one, and so on. Also included in every badge article is an in-game picture showing you exactly where every badge is, and as a lot of wiki articles do, most have reference links to other articles related to the badge.

Like I said, hopefully, you'll drop by and take it for a spin. If you do, let me know what you think. If all goes well, I'll have all of the City of Heroes badge articles complete in a couple of weeks or so.

The Paragon Wiki is strictly a volunteer effort, and is completely ad-free, well-maintained, and community editable.

Just to clarify, the /em stop command doesn't actually do anything, it's just a cosmetic action, as all emotes are. In other words, all it does is make your character raise his or her hand in the air. It doesn't actually make anyone or anything stop.

There's a complete list of emotes in the Paragon Wiki, but like the stop emote, remember, they don't actually do anything except make your character act out some action.

This may have been written about already here, but just for the sake of reference (and because it's a heckova lot easier to search for there), I have written a basic step-by-step guide to how to complete the Missile Launch! mission in Warburg in the Paragon Wiki.

If you've never run this mission before, this guide should be helpful in explaining what it is and all the little steps involved in launching that rocket. It's not an in-depth strategy guide; as the post subject says, it's just a how-to.

Now get out there and do some damage!

If you're motivated enough, you can also surf the Firebase Zulu bubble.

You should post this in the Player Questions forum instead of the guides forum. You'll probably get a better response there.

If you put any information about keybind file generators/editors, I would suggest not explaining anything about them except maybe a sentence about what they are and possibly where one can find each one. You don't want to take on supporting other people's programming.

And philosophically, I think your guide to binds should stick to the game itself, not third-party applications, as much as possible.

If you want some help in making a really pretty version with nice formatting, like something in a PDF file that people wouldn't mind printing out and reading, let me know. And at some point, I'd also like to add (or even better, get someone else to volunteer to add... ) this valuable information to the Paragon Wiki. You okay with that, as long as I make sure your name is on there for credit?

(My 2¢'s worth...) I can't decide whether this is supposed to be just funny or a sarcastic jab at the devs or players, but in either case, you really should have posted it somewhere other than where folks look for helpful information. As it is, it just clutters up a forum where the signal-to-noise ratio is already pretty low.

As some of you know, I run an RP newspaper site called the Paragon City Free Press and a CoH/CoV Wiki called Paragon Wiki. Up until now, the wiki has been a sub-site of the PC Free Press site. Well, no more. As of this past Sunday, I have (finally!) successfully split the wiki's site off as its own standalone site. It can be found at the following url:

http://paragonwiki.com

If you're not familiar with the wiki, it's a very handy resource for all kinds of information about badges, contacts, powersets, archetypes, emotes, enemy groups, special events (including a nice writeup of the Valentine's Day Event 2006, if I do say so myself ) and more.

Use it, spread the word, and if you really want to get on my good side, write some articles! The site is completely ad-free and publically editable.

If you have links or bookmarks to the old site at http://www.pcfreepress.com/wiki (sorry, that is UBB creating that link, not me), they'll still work because I've set up a redirect that rewrites your URL. However, I highly encourage you to change them to the new url as much as possible, because eventually, I'll probably put up one of those annoying five-second delays to encourage the new URL's use.

Thanks, and I hope everyone finds it useful!