White Hot Flash

Because the Devs want us to have a life and step away from the computer on Monday, maybe?

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Here's something I experienced while doing Montague's arc...specifically, Curing the Lost. I was teamed with three others, all calling in our mish completes as we went, except I forget to call in after people craft their wands. I crafted my wand, but before I could call for the Cure the Lost mish, the others had already started curing Lost in Perez, so I went to join them. I had my wand in my tray, and used it once before the team had cured 20 people. I received the badge, and then used my wand one more time before it disappeared from my tray. I called Montague to get the Cure mish for myself, but having no more salvage to craft another wand, I had to skip the mish. I am able to get into the Club, like I'm supposed to.

Now, the end result didn't affect me in anyway, except I had to burn a Mission Skip. Is it intended for the wands for the whole team to disappear in this manner? It says you get 20 shots, and if team curing counts, than everyone had shots left in their wands. This might be an issue if someone used their Mission Skip recently, and has to wait 3 days to complete the last mission in the arc keeping them from getting in the Club. Again...not gamebreaking, but it can be an annoyance, and if it could be dummy-proofed (I take full responsibility for not keeping up with my contact calls. Was doing that all day today) a little further, it couldn't hurt.

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I experienced another version of this same problem with a different hero, and had slightly different issues, but still an annoying bug. I (lvl 35) was teamed with just one person (lvl 50), and we were doing the 50's mishes so I could get xp. I was calling my contact after every mish, like a good boy this time. We got to where we had to go to Atlas to talk to the two people and get the last two parts of the cure salvage. My partner isn't in the same SG, nor coalitioned with mine, so I didn't bother setting the mish, knowing it was just a talk-to mish, and then crafting the wand. I finished with Azuria, but waited till my partner did the same. Partner's wand was crafted first, which gave me a wand to use as well, like the first bugged time. But now, here comes the difference. When I talk to Montague, he still says I have all 5 pieces of salvage, but when I go to craft the wand myself, now I only have three pieces. I was missing the Hero 1 blood and the CoT incantation. So I couldn't craft the wand and complete my own mish. I had to use a Skip Mission. Went on to cure the lost, but this time I kept my partner from calling in their mish after getting their 20 until I could get mine. My wand lasted until my 20 were cured, which meant I got about 30 shots off, counting some for my partner's mish.

The process of getting the salvage, crafting the wand, and then using it is a nice, unique feature, but man is it wonky. Still got my badges, but now that's twice out of three times I've run the arc so far that I had to burn a Skip Mish.


One aside: I was SK'd during the arc, and when I tried skipping the mish, I got a message saying I had to either quit my team or unsidekick to be able to use the feature (think it said because it was a badge mish) Has this always been this way?

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I find the lack of a map to the Midnight Squads club to be annoying. Please give some indication as to which zone you are about to enter when leaving.


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The Club isn't really big enough to need a map, but exit doors with some kind of sign on them, ala Pocket D, would be nice. I spent 5 min guessing which door went where.

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...why would GLOBAL hide be stored per-character?

So every time I log onto a new character if I want to hide I have to ASAP hit /ghide before someone notices me? :/

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Because:

- someone might not want every character they have to be hidden

- you might be sharing an account with someone else, and their characters might not want to be hidden, but yours do

- if you don't want to talk to your friends, just ignore their tells and hide. They'll think you logged off again, unless they see you physically.

- because the /hide feature should be defaulted to unhidden. It's not a feature a lot of folks would use regularly, so why have it default to hidden with one command?

Here's something I experienced while doing Montague's arc...specifically, Curing the Lost. I was teamed with three others, all calling in our mish completes as we went, except I forget to call in after people craft their wands. I crafted my wand, but before I could call for the Cure the Lost mish, the others had already started curing Lost in Perez, so I went to join them. I had my wand in my tray, and used it once before the team had cured 20 people. I received the badge, and then used my wand one more time before it disappeared from my tray. I called Montague to get the Cure mish for myself, but having no more salvage to craft another wand, I had to skip the mish. I am able to get into the Club, like I'm supposed to.

Now, the end result didn't affect me in anyway, except I had to burn a Mission Skip. Is it intended for the wands for the whole team to disappear in this manner? It says you get 20 shots, and if team curing counts, than everyone had shots left in their wands. This might be an issue if someone used their Mission Skip recently, and has to wait 3 days to complete the last mission in the arc keeping them from getting in the Club. Again...not gamebreaking, but it can be an annoyance, and if it could be dummy-proofed (I take full responsibility for not keeping up with my contact calls. Was doing that all day today) a little further, it couldn't hurt.

QR

Why are people assuming that our (City of..) sub fees and extra-goodie purchases are the only ones funding the voice chat that NCSoft wants to get into? Are we the only profitable game NCSoft has currently? If that thought irks you, just pretend that your particular dollars are going to game content, and think of the ones that want to use the chat feature as the ones funding it with their extra dollars.


And our devs may or may not be on board with voice chat, but it's not their decision to make. They work for NCSoft, and if the big company says they want it, NCNC has to make sure it works for their game.

not if he used them one at a time, letting each one wear off before popping the next one.

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I have to weigh in here on this point. I totally agree with Ice that red side needs a dedicated dev to be their voice. While I think everyone should WAIT for I12 Beta before they begin their croakings of doom. I have TONS of friends who are telling me that if I12 goes through as it is scheduled now they will quit the game.

All of them are players of red side and they are sick and tired of being trodden over every issue with almost no substantial content or love given to their villains. This is NOT my personal opinion on the matter. I"m merely mirroring their discontent they have expressed to me.

NCsoft is infusing more cash and employees into CoX to breath life into the game and make it a serious force to rival the new MMO's coming out on the market. But I think they really need to get their butts in gear and give the players what they want like they did in I9-11. Because at this point a good portion of their playerbase has just about had it and are going to jump ship if something isn't done soon.


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So, when an Issue that contains something they've been wanting since CoV launched comes, they'll quit because they finally got what they wanted? That makes a lot of sense...especially when they haven't actually played anything yet.

If they leave, that's too bad for them. Less DOOOM-criers is good for the game. And maybe CoV players start getting more of their concerns listened to and addressed because the collective voice of the Villain has more common sense and less distracting voices.

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Back to thematics – Empathy isn’t really a villainous trait. From a fiction standpoint, it wasn’t our first choice to port over and the reason corruptors didn’t receive it in the first place as part of the release of City of Villains. If we were to add an “Empathy Like” set, it would need to be all new and not a port of it, to make it fit into the Villainous theme. As such, that fell out of the scope of Issue 12’s powerset proliferation and is why it wasn’t included.

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Whatever "thematic" reasons they come up with to justify their decisions is pure bullcrap as it just doesnt wash. I mentioned earlier that the heroic standpoint from my recollection is for good to triumph over evil against all the odds, not for good to be in the dominant position and for villains to have to do all the work. This is a fundamentally flawed standpoint from my point of view.


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I'm not pointing at the person's response in particular, it just happened to be the latest of a slew of similar quotes. What I'm gonna say applies equally.


Do you people even bother to read? Or do you stop after the first sentence in a blind fit of rage and instantly hit reply? The bolded part of Doc Brainstorm's comment is the only reason there's no Emp set being ported to villains at this time. Does it say they'll never do it? Does it say anything about any other sets? Does it say that a healing set doesn't belong in villains? What they did say, is that the Empathy set, the way it is now, isn't going to redside without some major tweaking, depending on who gets it.

Power proliferation is going away from "themed powers." There will be some form of every set (excluding MM's primaries) crossing over to the other side eventually. What comes down the pipe next, however, will look more like the original set's cousin, rather than its twin. They're related, but they have their unique traits, too. It's time to divorce yourselves from seeing Empathy as it is in any villain AT, because it's just not gonna happen.

(qr)

The only question I have about in-game advertising is this: Is it going to the test server before it goes live? Give it a couple weeks in there, so we can see how much of an effect it has, and how it's going to be implemented. All these questions and concerns would be answered one way or the other, and if there were issues, such as spyware or pop-up ads resulting from normal gameplay, the problem would be much smaller than if it were simply thrown into the live environment and multiplied by a thousand.

This is just a thought I had, so I'll throw it out there. Not saying what's being done isn't cool (It's very convenient, both the streamlined costume selection and showing stats during character creation), but here it is: Is there a point where the information we're getting is too much? I kind of feel like we're venturing into finding out who the "man behnd the curtain" is, so to speak. Does knowing every little piddling detail about everything really make such a big difference in the average player's enjoyment of the game? I know there's number crunchers, and they're gonna love it (probably...some might not like having their stat-geek status lowered when anyone can get their own info), but doesn't making this game more mechanical or mathematical by showing numbers all the time kind of demystify things too much?

I know, I might be overreacting a bit. But think of it this way: People love hotdogs. If you kept reminding them exactly what ingredients are in it, and how its made, would there still be as many who love them? Would they love them as much? Too much information can ruin a good thing.

Anyway, the interfaces look cool. Can't wait to give them a test drive. Thanks for the info.

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<QR>

They made a huge mistake talking about this before announcing the list.

It gave people all kinds of time to get worked up both for disappointment and envy.

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I think the bigger mistake was telling us the official list weeks before anyone can beta test it. The less time you give someone to make a biased opinion about something before they get their hands on it, the purer the results from testing will be. A big chunk of players who make it into closed beta will already have a negative opinion of certain sets being on certain ATs, and what they test and report will reflect that. I hope they wait till the last minute to fill us in on the VEAT powers, so those get some unbiased attention.

Please keep in mind that this list is just the beginning. There will be more sets ported/morphed in the coming issues. If you don't see what you want, don't despair. (Unless it's Ice Melee for Brutes...then you'll be waiting for a loooong time).

Also keep in mind that we haven't seen exactly what powers are in each of the "new" sets, or in what order they appear, or numbers...etc. Don't let yourselves be underwhelmed until you test it.

Lighthouse said:

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Just to keep you up on the schedule, our next batch 'o Issue 12 details has slid out a little to be later next week (more likely Thursday the 27th).



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More likely /= will be. For those who are getting their knickers in a twist over waiting till Friday for real info, this is the only "promise" that was made about when you'd get info this week, and it's hardly binding. Sorry you have no sense of humor.

(From Dr. Brainstorm, for those being naughty at work)

"Ehhem, fellow super beings of the Rogue Isles, Dr. Brainstorm here. I’m broadcasting from an undisclosed location to announce my latest breakthrough!

"Many of you have inquired as to my whereabouts since I brought you the wonders of the invention system. I have good news for you all! Upon completion of the Hypothetical Framework the universe revealed to me a profound secret.

"Late one night in my lab, as I placed the final piece of Rikti technology into the Hypothetical Framework, a glorious vision appeared before me. The Framework revealed to me a mystical subterranean web, invisible to the naked eye. This network represents the sacred geometry of the earth, threads of energy that converge to create vortices of power over particularly special places and even people.

"Somehow my Hypothetical Framework opened an access portal onto this mystical network, an energy based control panel for super power distribution. Knowing we must harness this newfound information, I built a monitoring system into every invention workbench. Every time an invention is made, I am able to tap into the power network, gathering information about this mystical nexus.

"Based on the information gathered through your workbenches, I have determined that every super powered being taps into these energy threads at their own resonance. This individual frequency determines what powers each hero or villain can gain mastery over. No matter our origin, each of us accesses our available powers in a unique way.

"Since that day, I have diligently worked to alter these restrictions placed so unfairly upon us.

"Using my newly built kinetic capacitor I discovered a way to alter the resonance of these energy strands. After the er…massive release of energy generated in my lab with the kinetic capacitor, I appear to have sufficiently altered the resonance of these energy lines. Despite the minor….mishap in the lab, I am proud to announce that I, Dr. Brainstorm, have opened the door to new powers here on the Rogue Isles, allowing new super powered citizens of the Rogue Isles to access an additional primary and secondary power to choose from!"

...


LONGBOW Report

RE: Peregrine Island Explosion
From: Agent Crimson, Alpha-Black Unit

During a recent mission to prevent Malta raids on Crey science facilities, a hero I work with was alerted to the existence of a secret Crey lab. I was unable to locate the lab until last week when I intercepted reports of an explosion under the streets of Peregrine. Upon locating the entrance to a subterranean facility, I discovered the remains of what appears to have been a well-equipped laboratory. Inside I found the badly charred remnants of a large mechanical device.

I also located a security system and was able to extract surveillance video. This video was passed onto Dr. Advance in the science and technology division and I have included his interpretation of the video below.

Shortly after the explosion, I began to receive reports of new heroes able to use previously inaccessible powers. I am convinced that these are connected and will investigate further.

RE: Security Video Report
From: Dr. Advance, Longbow Science and Technology Division

This video, although highly degraded, appears to show Dr. Brainstorm activating a massive Resonance Manipulator, also known as a kinetic capacitor. Many scientists have proposed that it might be possible to create an oscillating energy field able to reach a strength of over 10,000 megateslas - roughly equivalent to a neutron star.

While this device is clearly not of that magnitude, the size and blast radius of the ensuing explosion suggests that Dr. Brainstorm managed to generate close to 2,000 megateslas.

It has long been understood that even heroes who gain their abilities through technology, nature, or science are somehow special, the pinnacle of human achievement. Many theorize that these super-powered beings are connected into some sort of power nexus beyond our comprehension. Although the exact nature of this energy grid is unknown, I believe that it acts as a control network for super power distribution.

I propose that this video shows Dr. Brainstorm attempting to open a conduit onto this energy grid. By generating this massive energy field, it appears that Dr. Brainstorm is attempting to pull the earth’s cosmic balance off kilter. Clearly he did not anticipate the ensuing explosion as he barely escaped the destruction.

The explosion suggests that this energy grid relies on a delicate balance that must be maintained. In upsetting the balance of the earth’s geodesy Dr. Brainstorm may have caused a rift. Although I do not yet fully understand the implications, I remind you that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Crimson tells me there are reports of heroes able to access new powers. If heroes are able to access new powers it seems likely that the same may also be true for the villains of the Rogue Isles.

...

Be sure to come back tomorrow when Dr. Brainstorm will reveal the complete list of Proliferated Powersets that each Archetype will be receiving in Issue 12: Midnight Hour! of City of Heroes/City of Villains.



Called it.....won't hear the details till tomorrow.

(qr)

Sounds like a lot of good changes. Thanks War Witch.



For those who wished for other information, I give you this plausible explanation:

The Hollows, in its Issue 12 form, is pretty much done. They felt like they could give all the details for it now, because testing won't change a lot of what they've done.

On the other hand, lets look at power proliferation. Would you say that its anywhere near being done, knowing how beta and open testing is going to go? Perhaps Castle, and others, have been reading the latest threads and taking a second and third look at the powers they've ported to new ATs. Maybe they're still working on some last minute details, such as hammering down some animations, or numbers, and are loathe to give up such information in such an unfinished form. Maybe they are working on trailer videos that showcase the new set choices, as well as the VEATS, as they did with vet rewards, the second Rikti invasion, and the Ouro zone, just to name a few things. I'd rather see with my own two eyes what things will look like, rather than just read a list of activation times, etc.

There's no argument that other features are further up the list of most players wish lists, but lets not pretend that no one cares about the Hollows. There's already been plenty of comments in this thread, and its not very old.

Personally, I'd much rather get the info piecemeal than getting everything a month (or more, if you don't get into closed beta) before you can do anything with it.

@White Hot Flash

Champion:

White Hot Flash : eng/elec blaster
Kid WhiteFlash : elec/eng blaster
White Hot Knight : PB
Ghost of BlueBeard : dark/dark scrapper
Mini Fridge 3000 : ice/ice blaster
Siege Tank : stone/stone tank

Unspoken Threat : ninja/DM MM
Mr. Havock : dark/rad corr

Protector:

Daemon-Seed : plant/thorn dom
Bossman Bot : thugs/FF MM

Triumph:

Schwarzen Knight : BS/regen scrapper

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Pretty sure it was already confirmed the buffs affected only the owner. So the page the Devs wrote up is either wrong or they made them team buffs just in the last few days since they were discovered. Frankly I think the Dev write-up about that is wrong.

Then again if it is right this is a HUGE new advantage.
Almost too good to be true if you know what I mean...

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It must be hard, not believing a word anyone says, no matter how much proof is in front of you.

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You're kidding right?

Not only was I a person who never doubted that this Vet Award was a new set of pets when people were talking about this last week but I also didn't doubt when people were actually testing these pets last week and telling us that the buffs only affect the owner of the pets.

Now certainly the Devs could have made these team buffs in just the last few days. But until more people test these pets and tell us they are "actually" team buffs I'll believe what has already been tested.

You do realize how potentially overpowered these buffs would be if they -are- team buffs right?
Certainly possible of course, but to think that all Dev documentation is error free is naive at best.

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Where did I say that you didn't believe that the pets existed? I would assume that you can read, like the rest of us. Unlike the rest of us, however, you tend to assume the worst in the devs with just about everything they tell us. You jump to the conclusion that the devs must be wrong in their announcement because you assume things that were discussed between players themselves, with no dev response, are correct.

Test is subject to change. Devs are allowed to change their minds. Neither one makes them wrong.

I agree with you, however, that until the rewards are live, its useless to argue either way. And even if they are live as a personal buff, there's nothing in the rules that says the devs can't change them to a team buff.

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Pretty sure it was already confirmed the buffs affected only the owner. So the page the Devs wrote up is either wrong or they made them team buffs just in the last few days since they were discovered. Frankly I think the Dev write-up about that is wrong.

Then again if it is right this is a HUGE new advantage.
Almost too good to be true if you know what I mean...

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It must be hard, not believing a word anyone says, no matter how much proof is in front of you.

So should we blame the way schools teach students how to write? They're always giving out assignments with word count minimums, or page lengths on them. All that ever taught me was how to pad a 5 page, well written thesis with 5 more pages of garbage.

It would be nice if they focused on content, not length. Sometimes, there just isn't much to say about something you don't care about.

A very nice, concise list. I wish the champions of other causes would take the same road. Maybe more of the good, informed suggestions would get listened to if they were presented in such a way, without the infighting dilluting it.

As a seldom PvP'er, I hope your efforts get rewarded with many of the suggestions being implemented. It would make more folks like me more interested in joining you.

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Don't buy anything on eBay?

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fixed. Buyers Beware.

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When someone acts like a child, that's the response they get.


To those who are doing the most griping, bellyaching, and finger-pointing at devs, in this thread, I ask this:

Are you having fun playing the game anymore? From what you guys and gals are saying, or inferring, it sounds to me like fun has left the building a long time ago. Why are you still here if you think that the devs are doing nothing but your gaming life more difficult? What keeps you in Paragon City/Rogue Isles?


Take a step back...enjoy life for a minute. Deep breaths, focus on something that actually means something, and then come back and try to enjoy what's here. If there truly isn't anything worth coming back for, it might be time to try something else.

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I'm saying this change will reduce the fun of one of the parts of the game I really like doing. With nothing to compensate, and even now an indication that any fixes to the problems to TFs aren't even on the back burner.

If their partial fix had been "OK, what we'll do is reduce the minimums for TFs except for LRSF and STF so that you need to lose more people to make it hurt, we'll be looking at further tweaks to this and other fixes to problems with task and strike forces after I12 goes live", I'd have met that with cheering.

Hell, even though I consider this worse than what's on live, if this had been introduced with the assurance of dealing with the other issues post I12, I'd have been reasonably mollified. But as it is, yes, I'm annoyed.

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Are you assuming that just because they don't come out and spell every plan they have out for you in great detail, that means they aren't considering it at all? Have you stopped to think that maybe some of the bigger fixes or changes to TF's might come with the next issue, and right now they can't discuss anything about it because it would be giving something away which would make marketting mad?

They tell us that X, Y, and Z are coming. We get all excited because we've been looking forward to it, or we get pissed because we see the doom on the horizon. When X, Y, and Z get changed to A, B, and C because of unforseen problems, or new bugs that came about because of new features, the previously excited people get mad because what they wanted got changed, and wasn't what they were told it was gonna be. The previously pissed people are still pissed because its another way the devs lied, or misled, or whatever BS excuse they could come up with. Can't win that way, so they try not spilling the beans on everything, which makes everyone antsy and upset when they aren't being informed. Which way would you like it?


TF's are part of your fun. That's great, and I'm sorry you feel that your fun is diminished by the changes. I really don't see much of a threat to the fun myself. The minimum required to start a TF/SF is not the minimum needed to complete it. If there are plenty of folks that are willing to pad someone's mish, there will be plenty to help you start a TF. This new change will make the mishes spawn to whatever number appropriate for those who wish to continue...That's it. Those with cronic disconnect problems don't do TF's anyway, so don't worry about them. If you've got a griefer on your team that won't quit the TF and just logs out, more than likely they were gonna be dead weight anyway. If they're logged, they won't get the xp and drops for standing at the door, and the rest of the team gets to fight mobs that spawn for one more than they have in the fight anyway.

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I somewhat agree with you on this (except I think PUGs should be able to do them as well without having to worry about griefing) but want to point out that the last sentence of your response really came across like someone talking down to a child.


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When someone acts like a child, that's the response they get.


To those who are doing the most griping, bellyaching, and finger-pointing at devs, in this thread, I ask this:

Are you having fun playing the game anymore? From what you guys and gals are saying, or inferring, it sounds to me like fun has left the building a long time ago. Why are you still here if you think that the devs are doing nothing but your gaming life more difficult? What keeps you in Paragon City/Rogue Isles?


Take a step back...enjoy life for a minute. Deep breaths, focus on something that actually means something, and then come back and try to enjoy what's here. If there truly isn't anything worth coming back for, it might be time to try something else.

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# Combat Channel (found on the Chat tabs)

* Hit rolls have been added to the text in the combat channel.


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This helps A LOT! I would like to also ask that the hit rolls be placed in their own "channel" -- general combat channel is full of a lot of spam (like when my power recharges).

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If you remember from the discussions about the Rikti Invasion Alert spams, there are no more channels available to use for new messages. They have to use what's already there to communicate any new info they allow us to see. Putting it in the combat channel is as good as they can do without rewriting a huge amount of code.