Zwillinger

Take the survey that the attendees took.

At last weekends Freedom Player Summit the attendees were given the opportunity to complete a survey regarding upcoming content and some general feedback about the game. We're opening this survey up to the entire Community now, so please, take about ten minutes to provide some information for us. These surveys are extremely informative to us and serve as a great reference for development and marketing planning.

Take the 2012 Freedom Player Summit survey here!

Join the Community Discussion!

At last weekends Freedom Player Summit the attendees were given the opportunity to complete a survey regarding upcoming content and some general feedback about the game. We're opening this survey up to the entire Community now, so please, take about ten minutes to provide some information for us. These surveys are extremely informative to us and serve as a great reference for development and marketing planning.

Take the 2012 Freedom Player Summit survey here!

FYI, The event doesn't start until next week after Tuesday's maintenance. Just to make sure everyone's not waiting around all weekend on pins and needles . Also, while there will be a live element to it (more to come) the event is also scripted and will run simultaneously on all servers. (We got a weeee bit burned out running live events for a month straight last year .)

April 28th, 2012
Atlantic Ocean
Approx. 39.76 Latitude, -70.70 Longitude, 700 feet below the surface
Aboard the Prussian Prince submarine

The steady ping of the brass plating of the Prussian Prince expanding as it gradually ascended from the depths 5 miles from the brightly glowing lights of Talos Island was like a metronome.

Ping…

Each sound signified another 33 feet…he calculated the depth of the submersible vehicle by marking the passing of the metallic report. Where other’s would have synapses firing, silently relaying commands to his body to properly adjust the dials and valves controlling the ballast levels, there was instead the steady whirring and clicking of gears and the steady hiss of steam powering his every move.

Ping…

660 feet

Small crystals of ice delicately broke away from his body, blanketing his chair with a thin layer of frost. The chill of the air would have made his breath visible…that is, if he still drew breath. It had been many years since Gerhardt Eisenstadt had last drawn air, having made such human concerns unnecessary well over a century ago. Whatever remained of his flesh had long since decayed, replaced by the more reliable and stronger Clockwork bodies of his own design and construction. These bodies were the purest incarnation of his genius…his brilliance…the same genius that struck fear in the hearts of all who heard his name. No longer Gerhardt Eisenstadt; He was now Lord Nemesis, and his infamy spanned generations!

The story of his conquest to bring the whole of the United States of America under heel was still told in hushed tones by those who survived the national nightmare. Washington D.C., and most of the U.S., had been his, held in the palm of his enormous brass hand. The populace had been no match for his clockwork army and with their vaunted superheroes spread across the globe fighting the Second World War in Europe and Asia, they were powerless to stop him.

Until Marcus Cole.

Always Marcus Cole.

Ping

396 feet

Every time Lord Nemesis was on the cusp of global domination, on the verge of his final victory, ready to take his rightful place, Marcus Cole…no…Statesman would foil his grand design. There were others over the years, so many others, but it always came back to Statesman. The man was unkillable, not for a lack of trying. Of course, this made the notion that one as simple as Darrin Wade could succeed where he had failed…inconceivable. The theft of Rularuu’s powers was simply adding insult to injury.

It had been tempting to join the Heroes and “Villains” (there was after all only one true villain) in their fight against Rula-Wade. The very presumption that a fool such as Wade had the right to rob Lord Nemesis of his victory…well…This was his victory. He was to be the one to extract the life essence from the broken and battered body of Statesman. Victory was to be his, the plot was written, it was put in motion, it was all to happen…exactly…as…he…planned.
Wade was lucky. This was the only plausible explanation. He had obviously used his obscurity and lack of being an actual threat to accomplish the improbable.

Of course this occurrence was not entirely unforeseen by Nemesis. Even something as unpredictable as Wade dispatching Statesman could not fully escape his genius plans. His robotic feet clanged across the iron floor of the Prince as he walked over to the antique filing cabinet. He delicately slid the door open, flipping through the manila folders until he came across the one he was looking for: Operation Fallen Thunder

The outer folder was dusty, the paper starting to soften and fray from the passing of time. Hand typed on a Smith-Corona typewriter decades before, the plan was simple when compared to his recent, more elaborate plots. He thumbed through the pages…yes…there it was. He would capitalize on Cole’s death (any fool would), but on a far more massive, and final, scale: He would attack all of Paragon City, spreading their defenses so thin that even the combined might of the city’s Heroes would be unable to stop his automaton army. Finally, he would avenge the humiliation he suffered in Washington D.C. so many years ago. Yes, Fallen Thunder would be the lynchpin, a catalyst for other similar plots in the unlikely event it didn’t succeed.

Gears whirred and steam hissed as his mind calculated the probabilities of success, taking into account a single possible outlying factor: Tyrant was not a consideration when the plan was originally conceived. While still a threat, calculations showed that he would soon be irrelevant. The erstwhile ruler of Praetorian Earth was quickly losing his grasp on power due to the multiple incursions of immensely powerful Incarnates (Note: Investigate probability of conquering an alternate dimension.) What was not immediately clear was the alternate Cole’s end game. His notes observed a 5.7% chance of complete surrender and a 6.33% chance of simply detonating a weapon of mass destruction over his own city. There was a significantly higher likelihood of him fighting to the death, less so the chance he would abandon his seat of power. No matter. All of these possible outcomes meshed well with his simple, yet masterful plot.

Lord Nemesis reached over to the brass intercom bell.

Ping

132 feet

“Surface” he said. “Operation Fallen Thunder will commence immediately…under my direct supervision.”

Join the Community Discussion!

April 28th, 2012
Atlantic Ocean
Approx. 39.76 Latitude, -70.70 Longitude, 700 feet below the surface
Aboard the Prussian Prince submarine

The steady ping of the brass plating of the Prussian Prince expanding as it gradually ascended from the depths 5 miles from the brightly glowing lights of Talos Island was like a metronome.

Ping…

Each sound signified another 33 feet…he calculated the depth of the submersible vehicle by marking the passing of the metallic report. Where other’s would have synapses firing, silently relaying commands to his body to properly adjust the dials and valves controlling the ballast levels, there was instead the steady whirring and clicking of gears and the steady hiss of steam powering his every move.

Ping…

660 feet

Small crystals of ice delicately broke away from his body, blanketing his chair with a thin layer of frost. The chill of the air would have made his breath visible…that is, if he still drew breath. It had been many years since Gerhardt Eisenstadt had last drawn air, having made such human concerns unnecessary well over a century ago. Whatever remained of his flesh had long since decayed, replaced by the more reliable and stronger Clockwork bodies of his own design and construction. These bodies were the purest incarnation of his genius…his brilliance…the same genius that struck fear in the hearts of all who heard his name. No longer Gerhardt Eisenstadt; He was now Lord Nemesis, and his infamy spanned generations!

The story of his conquest to bring the whole of the United States of America under heel was still told in hushed tones by those who survived the national nightmare. Washington D.C., and most of the U.S., had been his, held in the palm of his enormous brass hand. The populace had been no match for his clockwork army and with their vaunted superheroes spread across the globe fighting the Second World War in Europe and Asia, they were powerless to stop him.

Until Marcus Cole.

Always Marcus Cole.

Ping

396 feet

Every time Lord Nemesis was on the cusp of global domination, on the verge of his final victory, ready to take his rightful place, Marcus Cole…no…Statesman would foil his grand design. There were others over the years, so many others, but it always came back to Statesman. The man was unkillable, not for a lack of trying. Of course, this made the notion that one as simple as Darrin Wade could succeed where he had failed…inconceivable. The theft of Rularuu’s powers was simply adding insult to injury.

It had been tempting to join the Heroes and “Villains” (there was after all only one true villain) in their fight against Rula-Wade. The very presumption that a fool such as Wade had the right to rob Lord Nemesis of his victory…well…This was his victory. He was to be the one to extract the life essence from the broken and battered body of Statesman. Victory was to be his, the plot was written, it was put in motion, it was all to happen…exactly…as…he…planned.
Wade was lucky. This was the only plausible explanation. He had obviously used his obscurity and lack of being an actual threat to accomplish the improbable.

Of course this occurrence was not entirely unforeseen by Nemesis. Even something as unpredictable as Wade dispatching Statesman could not fully escape his genius plans. His robotic feet clanged across the iron floor of the Prince as he walked over to the antique filing cabinet. He delicately slid the door open, flipping through the manila folders until he came across the one he was looking for: Operation Fallen Thunder

The outer folder was dusty, the paper starting to soften and fray from the passing of time. Hand typed on a Smith-Corona typewriter decades before, the plan was simple when compared to his recent, more elaborate plots. He thumbed through the pages…yes…there it was. He would capitalize on Cole’s death (any fool would), but on a far more massive, and final, scale: He would attack all of Paragon City, spreading their defenses so thin that even the combined might of the city’s Heroes would be unable to stop his automaton army. Finally, he would avenge the humiliation he suffered in Washington D.C. so many years ago. Yes, Fallen Thunder would be the lynchpin, a catalyst for other similar plots in the unlikely event it didn’t succeed.

Gears whirred and steam hissed as his mind calculated the probabilities of success, taking into account a single possible outlying factor: Tyrant was not a consideration when the plan was originally conceived. While still a threat, calculations showed that he would soon be irrelevant. The erstwhile ruler of Praetorian Earth was quickly losing his grasp on power due to the multiple incursions of immensely powerful Incarnates (Note: Investigate probability of conquering an alternate dimension.) What was not immediately clear was the alternate Cole’s end game. His notes observed a 5.7% chance of complete surrender and a 6.33% chance of simply detonating a weapon of mass destruction over his own city. There was a significantly higher likelihood of him fighting to the death, less so the chance he would abandon his seat of power. No matter. All of these possible outcomes meshed well with his simple, yet masterful plot.

Lord Nemesis reached over to the brass intercom bell.

Ping

132 feet

“Surface” he said. “Operation Fallen Thunder will commence immediately…under my direct supervision.”

More to the point:

Social Media is a *constantly* evolving thing. We will perpetually be testing new ideas, new approaches and emerging technology and trends via all of our Social Media Platforms. This could mean new platforms, such as Pinterest or Ustream, or new technology that makes sharing more interactive.

It's a brave new world, and the City of Heroes Community team will *always* be adapting and working to be on the cutting edge.

Our approach to Twitter is not to use it as a means of notifying of emergency or immediate issues, but rather as another way to engage our Community. This means we'll be having conversations with people who reply to our Tweets, finding people talking about City of Heroes on Twitter and talking with them and otherwise finding fun ways to utilize it to make COH a fun experience even when you're not in game.

I'm sincerely hopeful you, and many others, will choose to join us in this conversation, however if this isn't what you're looking for, I understand.

A reminder:

This thread is for discussion regarding the mechanical changes proposed by Synapse. All other discussion will be strictly moderated.

Thanks

-Z

I completely understand being frustrated about change.

Optimization of a character is encouraged within the structure of the systems we provide. It's always important to remember that part of MMO game development predicates the need for change, which means that these systems will always be changing. I do get that it's annoying to rethink builds, especially for those who have used the same build for months, even years. At the same time, this can't stop us from making design decisions that are for the overall health of the game.

These changes are not slated until Issue 24. Because we know that this is an important matter for many of you, we wanted to open up the dialog now and include the Community in the feedback process from an early standpoint. For now, if you're VIP, please feel free to engage Synapse in conversation regarding these changes and provide feedback once it hits Beta.

There's plenty of time to work on this, so let's approach it as a marathon, not a sprint.

As Synapse stated, this is a change in game design with the intent of bringing parity to both SBE's and Crafted IO's. The intent of the change addresses a very real concern and complaint that has been voiced.

If you have concerns regarding your purchase, those should be addressed with customer service. In this thread, I would ask that you please discuss the mechanic changes specifically as it effects *all* enhancements, and not the nature of your purchase. Should you have additional thoughts, you are encouraged to PM myself (don't PM Synapse as he has nothing to do with Store policies) and I will be more than happy to pass along your concerns to the appropriate parties.

Thanks.

-Z

Why would we limit ourselves to only one day of plotting?

There's a whole month of Anniversary to celebrate .

I'm not by any means a roleplayer when it comes to MMO's, however I'm a bit curious as to how the random roleplayer using the local chat (never personally seen them use broadcast on Virtue) is any more disturbing than the countless "LFG DFB"s would be to them.

In other words; we choose not to segregate our Community based on play style and I (personally) feel we're the better for it. Understanding, and being exposed to, different ways of enjoying the game should be considered an opportunity, not a hinderance. And if something is really annoying you, ignore is just a right click away.

P.S. I am not encouraging you to participate in any...inappropriate...behavior around others.